A few of us stopped played DayZ because of the previous alpha patch as it had some game breaking graphical bugs. Plus the fact that after playing anything for over 300 hours in a few months you might burn out on it. That gave me the opportunity to learn the base game and I'm finding I like it just as much, if not more.

It's not for everyone, if you just want an arcade shoot-em up then this isn't for you but if you have patience, can handle a steep learning curve and enjoy military sims, it's a blast.

Honestly, Arma and DayZ is the most fun I've had with a video game in over six years. Maybe longer. Wish I'd found it sooner.

I can hardly wait until they implode. They have no idea what gamers want. I wish they didn't publish the Anno series because I actually wanted to give the developers my money for their last game.

Here's a cool link. He spreads the knowledge and fun, it's not for everyone but hey, get in a squad and have a good time if you're into it:

http://ttp2.dslyecxi.com/

No, I wasn't thinking of of shacknews or any other sites. This was one of the last bastions of video gaming a few years ago. I think some held on and others just like casual gaming. Nice to see that the Console section hasn't grown even if the posters have.

Nice to see people interested in games with challenge instead of 'awesome buttons' on Blues News. I was surprised because I thought this had slowly degraded into a console site over the last few years.

I decided to try the demo because my little cousin might like it (or me too, who knows?) but it doesn't recognize my TM 430 Wheel. I just have the option for 'Keyboard' under controls.

I reinstalled Dirt 2 and went through all the unskippable menus (I forgot how tedious that was) and the Options->Controls worked just fine, was driving right away.

Not sure why the 'Codemasters' can't get into 'coding' one of the more popular low-budget wheel setups. I remember this being an issue in Dirt 3 except I did get it working but it would ignore wheel input once in awhile for a few seconds. Not sure if they ever resolved that but I never bothered buying it. Dirt 2 is fun though, played it for a few hours.

I agree, RBR is great, I wish Dirt 2 had evelved into that. One game I never see mentioned which I love is TOCA3. It tries to be a jack of all trades yet is successful at most of them, except the rally part.

Yes, kind of a bummer. I was hoping with Dirt 3 they'd go more towards longer, more realistic rallies, instead they shortened them and added too much casual stuff. My mom (who is 65) likes playing Dirt 2 with the wheel. I never bought Dirt 3 but they did and don't play it. I doubt I'll even bother with this demo.

Excellent. I suppose we all agree on the massive amount of disappointment. It is a real bummer.

Edit: Do you think Zenimax will let Tim Willits or The Carmak speak in this quakecon? Or is it too risky for the faggoting people?

This comment was edited on Apr 26, 2012, 05:11.

Mad Max RW wrote on Apr 25, 2012, 08:39:
id software gets into the console business right when the sales are in a massive slide. You're all idiots and Rage ruined them.

"We're all idiots"? And Rage ruined id Software?

They created, marketed and released a 23GB game with shit textures in the year 2011, with the quality of 2004. I would say that id ruined themselves (or cashed in and retired comfortably and happily) by releasing a mediocre console shooter and selling themselves out to hack RPG developer owned by Zenimax.

A sad end to an illustrious career, but the kids don't care these days so it doesn't matter in the grande scheme of things.

I've been a fan of FPS's and RPG's since they existed. I've always been a fan of id Software, kind of why I came to this site so many years ago. Or Fallout, one of my top RPG's of all time. Now look who owns them. Bethseda, a company that strips the RPG from RPG's and can't get the action into FPS. 2012 and that is the state of gaming.

Several years ago I would've given my left nut to fly down to Texas to play ET with a bunch of other wacko's in one big nerd party, now, I couldn't give a shit.

As to apologizing for companies that are trying to make money, millions of small businesses around the world value their customers and make money without fucking their clients over. I swear the latest 'consumers' have been trained to accept that they're just 'units being shifted' and don't seem to care about how they're treated, or even understand that their being manipulated. Obviously, spending millions on advertising works.

Jerykk wrote on Dec 28, 2011, 05:34:

To make a long story short, I'd go: Risen, Dark Messiah then possibly a tie between New Vegas and DX3. Obviously none of those are actually RPG's but they all tried to do what they set out to do, or are at lease *able* to .

Out of curiosity, what do you consider to be a good RPG? To me, a game that lets me play it the way I want to play it and have the world react in a meaningful fashion. New Vegas accomplished this. You could fight, sneak or talk your way through most of the game. You don't even have to fire a gun if you don't want to. Many of the quests had branching paths and ambiguous moral choices as well and the locales and characters were very well developed.

What IS an RPG, loaded question and different for everyone. For me I like exploration, choices and consequenses, character stats and inventory management with half decent combat and challenge. Other people prefer story. Pick any three of those and I'll probably like it.

As to my favourite RPG, I'll have to go with Fallout 1 or Gothic 2 NoTR. I played 'Dungeon Master' when it first came out on the Atari ST and loved it but am not sure if I could slog through it again. Both have choices and consequesces, okay/mediocre combat (although both very different), great exploration and differing character systems. I think of G2 as more of an action/adventure with half decent, but light character stats. F1 really has most of what I like. To me story isn't a big deal as neither are that great but I'm playing a game, not reading a book.

I'm assuming you never play as a stealthy or diplomatic character? That may be why our opinions vary. I generally try to avoid combat whenever possible. I played through DX3 as a stealth game. I played through FO:NV as a diplomat. Hell, I didn't even wear any armor and I was playing on the highest difficulty in hardcore mode. What about SS2 did you like so much? I'm pretty certain it wasn't the combat, as that was downright terrible. Bioshock's combat was definitely an improvement. For me, SS2 was great when played as survival horror game. The RPG elements were pretty trivial in that respect.

I purposedly played DX HR department as a shooter because I assumed it was going to be a dumbed down console game. I never bound a key to the third person cover thing, purposefully nerfed my character not to take radar or health enhancements and only took shooter stuff (like balanced weapon or whatever). I also got rid of the quest compass and arrows pointing out everything on the screen. I still had a gazillion points at the end. I liked the story, the exploration was so-sol. I think that's because of the small levels, they were designed weird but good enough. I liked the main and side quests.

Even though I built my char as a shooter guy, I still 'stealthed' through it without having those augs. Generally most encounters were 3-6 guys and on 'Dues Ex' mode they were all tough throuhout the whole game, for me. After many hours, I figured out how to do 'take-downs' which made it a bit easier so my MO became sneaking up behind one or two of the guys, dragging their bodies away, possibly sniping one of the others and going head on for the rest. I can't remember a game in recent memory when I had to reload so often.

Honestly, I think because of the options to turn off the console stuff, the story (I read every email I can find) and the super challenging combat, I think it's the best modern game of the last five years. But I still don't think of it as an RPG. The augs became pointless after awhile, (for my build) and it was more of an adventure with story and mostly an FPS.

As to Bioshock, I don't really want to talk about it, I thought it was fun for quite a few hours, loved the atmosphere and the story (did Doom3 start this business of background through emails?) but is ultimately a piece of shit. It failed as an FPS and an RPG. I never finished it, the story petered out and the combat became a chore and the 'augs' became pointless. Opinions differ.

As to SS2, I think as you said, I liked the survival/horror thing. And I love hard science fiction, and it was difficult for me at the time. Plus the inventory management was there with lots of stats even if some of them were useless, I didn't know it at the time. I'm not really sure why I like it better than DX1, I just do. I think it started the trend of mixing an FPS with RPG elements that instead of becoming popular has become worse.

I guess I'll just add that Dark Messiah tacked on the RPG elements but left it at that, it was a hacknslash FPS. And that's why it worked. It was a fun game with good level design, combat encounters and challenge. Bioshock wasn't. Their RPG elements ended up becoming boring and trivial without having the combat or even encounter design to make up for it.

And to finally shut-up, I'll say that DXHR is probably my favourite modern game made in the last five years or so. It's not 'fucking awesome' but I played all the way through and really liked it, mostly because it was challenging and to me simply 'fun'. Still not an RPG though.

PS Forgot about NV but I haven't finished it so I'll let you know what I think about that later if you want.

This comment was edited on Dec 29, 2011, 04:44.

I've never understood the idea that by placing earphones over your TWO ears you're going to get 'Surround Sound'. Yes, it has a micro-woofer and displaced a centimeter back and a tweeter a few millimeters ahead. They're still covering your ears.

The game audio gives you clues, not the location of the speakers in your ear cannal.

Does anyone remember the Zalman Doom 3 uber headphones?

Just get a set of good headphones for your ears and don't forget about the cable. Most headphones come with the weakest wires possible and will break just by hanging off your input jack. If you think that surround sound headphones work then, whatever....

Cutter wrote on Dec 27, 2011, 23:37:

CreamyBlood wrote on Dec 27, 2011, 19:57:
Has anyone here tried Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)?

Yep, DDO rocks! So does LOTR. I'm back to EQ2 atm - the world, plethora of classes/races and crafting are still far superior to ever other MMO out there IMO. As for DDO it takes a while to get into it and get it, so to speak, but when you do and meet some people to run dungeons with it's hella fun. The dynamic style combat is so much more better than any other MMO. Monks and bards are particular fun - for me at any rate. I haven't been back to DDO in year - as I wanted to let some new content get in - but will definitely be heading back soon, same with LOTR.

Yeah, I'll have to check out those two. I'm a big Conan fan but have avoided all of this thinking they were stupid. In the case of DDO, your stats and party matters. You can breeze through the first couple of levels and then it takes the pussy gloves off and you start seeing some real depth to the game. I was pleasantly surprised and pummeled at the same time.

The sad thing is that we have to resort to MMO's (often in single player mode, for me) in the Year 2011 to get any kind of complexity or challenge.

They have drag and drop inventories in DDO. I wouldn't normally think of that as a feature, just something to take for granted. Sad, sad days.

Jerykk wrote on Dec 27, 2011, 23:07:

I'd have to say it's one of the few games released in the last *many* years that actually feels like, get this, an RPG.

Did you not play Fallout: New Vegas? That's the best RPG since Arcanum. Possibly one of the best RPGs ever. You can actually talk, sneak or fight your way through most of the quests, something most RPGs don't let you do.

Yes, I played it quite a bit until just after getting to NV. Then I kind of burnt out, heard they were going add some content then thought I'd wait for the 'finished game'. Apparently it's coming out early next year. I'm not sure why they do that, but anyways, I'll revisit it.

I don't think it's that hot though, they did the best they could with a what their working with. That said, I guess I'll go out on a limb in say that it was fun but bogged down because it didn't know what what it was. It failed as a shooter yet the almost made it as an RPG. Of course, I agree, it's probably the only thing I've seen in years that is close to an RPG.

I'm a big fan of PnP RPGs, cRPGS and FPS's. I love them all. I also like many other genres, but really, I have yet to see a great one in the last half decade or so. Many people think DX is the pinnacle, I actually preffered System Shock 2. So why can't anything come close to those games?

Look at Bioshock, a disaster. Beautiful atmosphere and setting, I was absorbed by the story, for awhile. Mediocre 'shooter' gameplay and eventually patheting 'RPG' elements. I was really pissed off at how they fucked that up.

Now look at Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, same thing, but it 'knew what it was'. The RPG elements were just as superficial as Bioshock, but they built a damn good slasher around it. They concentrated on the game. The 'RPG' elements were just as useless and meaningless but What a blast. It's a much, much better game. Because it knew it was a linear FPS.

How about DX3? I just finished it. I think it had mostly the same problems as Bioshock, the RPG elements were ultimately pointless (I played on no cover button, compass, console shit options off, yaddadaydada) but it still turned out to be a good game. It was a tough shooter. Not an RPG. Nice story and exploration, or good enough for todays standards anyways.

Or look at Risen, my favourate. Yes it's an action RPG/Adventure. Great stuff. The RPG (stats) elements are fairly light and possibly on par with Bioshock/DX3 in simplicity, but they somehow managed to make a challenging fun RPG game out of it.

To make a long story short, I'd go: Risen, Dark Messiah then possibly a tie between New Vegas and DX3. Obviously none of those are actually RPG's but they all tried to do what they set out to do, or are at lease *able* to . All are good games. I'm still torn between NV and DX3 but they both did things differently. DX had a half decent engine okay AI combat, whereas NV was stuck between a shitty engine and a hard rock. Yes, NV is the closest to an RPG, but look at the game! Not sure how they fucked up exploration, interface, 'shooter/action' and 'fun factor'. When you've played FPS's all your life and RPG's all your life and go through that it just becomes tedious.

I realize that NV is the most RPG'ish out of them all and would win any competition in a second, if it was in any of the other engines. Truly, PB and Obsidian could make a great game. But, this is just my opinion. New Vegas was a valiant attempt, but when an FPS beats you out just because of simple mechanics and gameplay, what can you do?

Either make yourself a kick-ass FPS or a kick-ass RPG. Not a half-assed attempt at both. It's irriating. Do what you do well, not compromise. Look at Rage. What a dissapointment. Nice experiment but WTF???

Tonight I'll go watch a Michael Bay, blow-em up, romantic love story set in a dystopian post apocolyptic future with violence, sex and endearing lol cats to tug my heart. Should appeal to everyone, right?

Some Blue Guy wrote:
"Happy third day of Christmas. If your true love has been keeping up with obligations, by now you should have three French Hens, four Turtle Doves, and three Partridges in Pear trees."

Well, we still have our nins, Batmans, cutters, space captains, shanes, crestons, SMA's and even Verno's and Jerryks, so to hell with the birds in the trees. Merry Christmas.

I'll take the beer though.

Has anyone here tried Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO)?

I'm not a fan of MMO's but it lets you play for free and has a suprising amount of depth, much more than an Oblivion or or KoTOR (not that that's hard to do). I was surprised at how simple it seems at first then slowly drags you into the game. I mean, Grey Oozes wreck your weapons and if you're using swords instead of bashing they'll split up into more oozes.

I realize that it doesn't have full voice acting or advertisments like I just watched but there's a lot of complexity in the mechanics. Perhaps it gets boring after awhile, I don't know but I've been mostly just playing it as a single player game and am having fun. I'd have to say it's one of the few games released in the last *many* years that actually feels like, get this, an RPG.

Yes, it has text, and isn't great writing although sometimes I get a chuckle. I'm finding some of the dungeons are kicking my ass now that I'm up a few levels. From a purely FPS persepective, they are kind of devious. Throw in the Dungeon Master voice overs, the D&D rules and it gives a bit of flavour.

I guess I'm just saying that I'm pleasantly surprised with it and think it might actually be a good game. At least, so far, a not too shabby RPG.

As to Bioware, I've had trouble thinking of them as game developers for several years now. I suppose if watching a bunch of people in New York take iPhone pictures of your fake flash mob of Star Wars geeks is the way to sell a game, then go for it. I thought it was kind of creepy and almost desperate. But who knows, maybe there's a video game under the massive facade somewhere. From experience though I think they should just make Halo XXX with romance and get rid of any pretext of having any gameplay or RPG elements.

But seriously, how does DDO stack up against WoW (never played it) or this new game? I'm having a good time when I'm in the dungeons.

bhcompy wrote on Dec 14, 2011, 17:48:

CreamyBlood wrote on Dec 14, 2011, 16:05:

I'm looking for a game that's on par with something that set it's own standard almost a decade ago.

Which is why one day I'm going to remake Rogue Spear with modern graphics

Well that's a great game but unfortunately you'll need a cast of thousands to make it look like 2005 on the xbox.

Well, there you go. I actually liked Crysis and bought Warhead as well. Crysis 2 I played for a couple of hours. It looks pretty but it just seemed, linear and consolised and predictable. I couldn't come close to finishing it, as it was almost insulting. My brother was watching me and has been a Mac evangelist for many years(meaning he doesn't play games anymore) and thought it was bad. When Mac users say your game sucks and you agree with them then I don't know what to say.

Since you mentioned Bulletstorm I realized that you're trolling me. Yeah, a CliffyB production complete with E grade dialogue, cutscenes, QTE's, linear corridors and wow, the occasional idiotic shooting gallery.

I meant *good* FPS's that require a modicum of skill. Not console shite. I have a backlog of crappy TV shows to watch while I'm eating dinner, I'm talking about *PC First Person Shooters*, not *while you eat dinner and change the diapers movies*.

Is 'Darkest of Days' a great idea? I liked the concept but the demo is even worse than Necrovision. Yes, it's pretty for an ancient console piece of garbage with horrible textures, but the FPS mechanics are pure shit. I'm not sure how you can consider any of this crap FPS. It's not. It's 'retards sitting on the couch hitting the A button'. They are not games.

Singularity is almost fun because it reminds me of any number of Wolfenstien mods that have been done to death. Yes, we're small in our teenage bedroom.

Anyways, I was hoping for some good PC FPS (First Person Shooters), not console cutscene movies with elements of pressing A or X key or whatever they are. Thanks for your effort. But maybe I was trolling you, I already knew that they stopped making FPS's several years ago.

And I'm not understanding what your exchange with Eldaron was all about. Are you saying that because the game mechanics are broken, that you have to 'pretend' just to get a game out of it? Make your own dungeon? I could be reading it wrong but why not buy the latest Dungeon Masters Guide and Players Handbook and sit on your couch and make it all up? Maybe call up a few friends?

Or better yet, just learn how to use Unity, generate a fantasy world and walk around in it and pretend you're battling dragons. You can even import premade dragons easy enough. I might be missing something here and if so, I don't understand what it is.

Verno wrote on Dec 14, 2011, 12:51:
Ok that's all cool and stuff, I don't know what you're really looking for here though.

I'm looking for a game that's on par with something that set it's own standard almost a decade ago. Perhaps you think lowering the bar is a better way to 'immerse' yourself. I'm all for better graphics but when it's at the expense of gameplay I don't see that as an improvement.

Maybe you like simplified infrantry based combat instead of modern submarines. Perhaps you think more specialized snipers are more interesting than huge war ships, larger islands, expanded maps. Maybe unlocks and achievements float your boat.

I think it's a regreggsion and it's obvious, not sure what YOU want from a game in 2011.

Dirt 2 got me into racing and I bought a wheel. I thought it was a fun game. Then I got into Toca 3 and rFactor. I think this is sliding the other way. Why not turn it back into Calin MaCrae and hit the roots intead of, what this sounds like, becoming yet another arcade game. We actually have enough of them.

As to Flatout, yeah that's when my neighbor can't drive anymore, I give him that to play. It's good for drunk drivers without an attention span.