Games you just finished - 2012

Quote from Skjalg

First of all, I'm not misunderstanding the word challenge. You're just making up shit to fit your argument.I do agree that good game design is making it easy in the start. Which is why the first ~two chapters are easy. Especially for experience Diablo players such as ourselves. But I had friends at that lan party who started out playing games with WoW (and they were really good at that, and now dota/hon/lol) and they died so many times during the first chapter it was ridiculous. Maybe you just felt like you hit a wall because you got so used to owning everything because you were already experienced with the diablo games, and then later on when it didnt and you hadnt stacked enough hp or resistances then you suddenly died. You probably went all out damage and no survivability until it didn't work anymore and then you start dying. A lot.

I'm not going back to Diablo 3, same reason as I'm not going back to Diablo 2. Once I hit max level I'm out. I've never liked grinding even a little bit.

Also, you are comparing Diablo 3 to Diablo 2 LOD, which isn't fair. You should try to install vanilla Diablo 2 and see how full of depth that game is. It was fucking brutal I tell you. And yeah I love blizzard games, and sure this one wasn't what everyone wanted it to be. But that doesn't change the fact that people had really high expectations of a game that is built on farming, then when it came out a vocal minority started hating on the farming and the RMAH. I am not saying D3 is the best diablo game ever, all I'm saying is that it is not deserving of the hate train that it is receiving.

And since you're starting to hand out life advice now, I guess you can handle something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time. My humble suggestion to you is to start liking things a bit more instead of being such cynical hater. You're always quick to jump on the hate train no matter what it is about. If you start to recognize that you are doing this and try to change you eventually will. I was just like you all through high school; hating on everything. "New movie comes out? Yeah its gonna suck." "New game coming out? Yeah I read a review and they said its gonna be shit so its definitively gonna be worst game of the century." I know how it is to be in that mindset and I recognize that so easily with almost every post you write here. But, eventually, if you manage to really understand that you are a hater and that you need to change, and then you do. Then you'll find that you'll be happier a more relaxed person. You'll suddenly be open to all kinds of new shit that will please the fuck out of you. And you'll get more work done in the end and not feel like shit all the time.

But best of all; people will start to like you. And they will want to be with you non stop. You'll have people calling to wake you up almost every day because they want to spend time with you.

After that you can still participate in these humorous debates on the internets as an anti-hater

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But Diablo 3 still sucks.

yeah your assumption is right, i clearly hate everything all the time and i'm using a lot of energy on hating all these things that's why i'm so negative towards everything etc.

...no dude. first off, i was not handing out life advice, it was a question because i am genuinely curious on how you rationalize your own statements. i'm sure blizzard is a big boy by now, and don't need people to defend them (they could probably find professionals even if that was the case).

secondly, it's obvious we come from different worlds in terms of culture and upbringing. i was raised with the belief that you should say the truth about things, because if you don't then nobody else will (case in point). it's become ever prevalent on the internet not to say anything bad, and if you do, you're a troll or naysayer or whatever. people don't want to challenge others, or the product of others for most anything. if it's good, then it's praised, if it's bad then it's at worst ignored. constructive criticism, as much as it hurts, gives a lead to create better things or become a better person. i say these things not because i have spiteful feelings towards diablo 3 or any game for that matter, i say these things because if nothing else, they serve as points to take into consideration for future or present day game developers (read: you) and myself. as with most things, writing them down here also helps to understand why i don't like a game myself, for some reason or other. you can look at this as a troll post/idiot opinion/internet curse or you can look at as something positive that should be shared. plus, it's not like i was being nonconstructive, i'd like to think that the rationales i have for my arguments are fair. maybe i'm just not phrasing myself correctly, maybe i am being arrogant for criticizing an industry giant whose every employee could probably stomp me with their game design knowledge, but blizzard games have just not worked for me in the same way they have for many others. does that invalidate any opinion i may have about their games?

i do want to thank you for your message, because if nothing else it's honest and that deserves some respect in its own right. no hard feelings

also, lol erratic

I just finished Cryostasis. Really good. Smart shit going on in this game. It's a really positive story too when it's all over. There's also a part where you play as a

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polar bear

so that's pretty awesome.

what the fuck happened to first person horror games. Best genre.

Quote from Sentura

yeah your assumption is right, i clearly hate everything all the time and i'm using a lot of energy on hating all these things that's why i'm so negative towards everything etc....no dude. first off, i was not handing out life advice, it was a question because i am genuinely curious on how you rationalize your own statements. i'm sure blizzard is a big boy by now, and don't need people to defend them (they could probably find professionals even if that was the case).

secondly, it's obvious we come from different worlds in terms of culture and upbringing. i was raised with the belief that you should say the truth about things, because if you don't then nobody else will (case in point). it's become ever prevalent on the internet not to say anything bad, and if you do, you're a troll or naysayer or whatever. people don't want to challenge others, or the product of others for most anything. if it's good, then it's praised, if it's bad then it's at worst ignored. constructive criticism, as much as it hurts, gives a lead to create better things or become a better person. i say these things not because i have spiteful feelings towards diablo 3 or any game for that matter, i say these things because if nothing else, they serve as points to take into consideration for future or present day game developers (read: you) and myself. as with most things, writing them down here also helps to understand why i don't like a game myself, for some reason or other. you can look at this as a troll post/idiot opinion/internet curse or you can look at as something positive that should be shared. plus, it's not like i was being nonconstructive, i'd like to think that the rationales i have for my arguments are fair. maybe i'm just not phrasing myself correctly, maybe i am being arrogant for criticizing an industry giant whose every employee could probably stomp me with their game design knowledge, but blizzard games have just not worked for me in the same way they have for many others. does that invalidate any opinion i may have about their games?

i do want to thank you for your message, because if nothing else it's honest and that deserves some respect in its own right. no hard feelings

also, lol erratic

Nah dude, I'm usually the first one to speak up about things. But the problem here is that you call them truths while I have a more humble opinion on what my thoughts are. And I think this is the key difference between you and me. Time and time again I've seen you speak out on a subject and be completely wrong, and be called out for your bullshit and then you just reply by changing what you meant in the previous post to align with what is actually the truth. You are never humble about being wrong and you always enter a discussion assuming that you have nothing to gain except stomp the opponent and you will use every cheap trick in the book to accomplish that.

I have said, a lot of times, that Diablo 3 is not the super awesome game as you think I do. But this is something you bring up. I cant possibly be right or have any valid points because I'm just a fan boy. (ridiculous statement btw, me loving blizzard doesn't make me less right it only makes my opinion biased.) The point I am trying to make in this discussion is that Diablo 3 is a lot of things but it is not the utter fail train that a lot of people seem to believe. Sure the story is shit and the game is a little repetitive. But the core mechanics are fucking tight, and to me that is what is most important in a game. Hacking and slashing at creatures in a dungeon full of gore. Cool skills (leap etc). This combined with awesome sound and particle effects that are really super tight made this a game that was worth playing an entire weekend for me. Those kinds of games are still rare. Only games that last longer are games that are made to be competitive multi player like Dota 2. You also compare it to Diablo 2 and say that it did stuff so much better, but that is just pure bullshit when you actually combine features and how they work. And before you go blind with rage at that statement then try to remove nostalgia and Lord of Destruction from your thoughts and compare vanilla D2 with vanilla D3. Because you seem to forget that when Diablo 2 first came out it had a serious bunch of problems as well. Problems that got addressed with the expansion pack.

fucking hell, chill out guys. :cop:

Also the core mechanics are not "tight". The core mechanic in any RPG is a sense of progression and creating a unique character, of which D3 has neither.

Quote from Skjalg

Nah dude, I'm usually the first one to speak up about things. But the problem here is that you call them truths while I have a more humble opinion on what my thoughts are. And I think this is the key difference between you and me. Time and time again I've seen you speak out on a subject and be completely wrong, and be called out for your bullshit and then you just reply by changing what you meant in the previous post to align with what is actually the truth. You are never humble about being wrong and you always enter a discussion assuming that you have nothing to gain except stomp the opponent and you will use every cheap trick in the book to accomplish that.

i think it's mostly because of bad phrasing, which i am diligently working on. but then here you call me out for saying that games should be challenging, but not frustrating and should have a learning curve that is easy to learn, but hard to master, which in my head (and by logic) is a sound argument. i didn't change anything, at worst i rephrased so you could understand what i originally meant. i'm not changing my argument and i'm not changing definitions of anything; i'm not even arguing semantics - just trying to put it in a way so that people can understand what i'm saying. i'm not saying i've never been wrong, or that i've never said some things in a wrong way, and i've definitely thought of how i could improve on situations like that - but at this point it seems you want to call me out for almost whatever i say (which is pretty much the type of person you described in the above quote).

you can PM me if you want to argue more about this.

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I have said, a lot of times, that Diablo 3 is not the super awesome game as you think I do. But this is something you bring up. I cant possibly be right or have any valid points because I'm just a fan boy. (ridiculous statement btw, me loving blizzard doesn't make me less right it only makes my opinion biased.) The point I am trying to make in this discussion is that Diablo 3 is a lot of things but it is not the utter fail train that a lot of people seem to believe. Sure the story is shit and the game is a little repetitive. But the core mechanics are fucking tight, and to me that is what is most important in a game. Hacking and slashing at creatures in a dungeon full of gore. Cool skills (leap etc). This combined with awesome sound and particle effects that are really super tight made this a game that was worth playing an entire weekend for me. Those kinds of games are still rare. Only games that last longer are games that are made to be competitive multi player like Dota 2. You also compare it to Diablo 2 and say that it did stuff so much better, but that is just pure bullshit when you actually combine features and how they work. And before you go blind with rage at that statement then try to remove nostalgia and Lord of Destruction from your thoughts and compare vanilla D2 with vanilla D3. Because you seem to forget that when Diablo 2 first came out it had a serious bunch of problems as well. Problems that got addressed with the expansion pack.

good for you, i guess? i don't see why you have a problem with people having the opinion that d3 is not as good as you think it is. you said yourself you have a biased opinion of blizzard, so i'm not even sure if i should respond to this. if people didn't have a good time with the game, and even go as far as listing proper reasoning for this (something i have done twice now), then who are you to argue that they did in fact have a good time with the game? that isn't having a humble opinion, that is just being arrogant towards people and belittling their opinion.

and you keep referring to the comparison that i should compare d2 vanilla with d3 vanilla, otherwise "it's not fair". d3 was made years after d2lod, so wouldn't it be natural that the lessons those developers learned from having that expansion would seep into their third game, so that the d3 expansion(s) could focus on something else and potentially make the game even better? even so, there are vast differences between vanilla versions of both games, and i would still prefer playing d2 vanilla than i would go back to d3.

another thing you keep claiming is the nostalgia argument, which is just as flawed. sure, games never live up to nostalgia, but the last time i played d2 wasn't 10 years ago, it was at most 2 years ago. i kept leaving it, then coming back, then leaving etc. why? because it was fun and interesting for a while, with the ladder resets. the reason i stopped playing the game all those times was that i would challenge myself to acquire some insane runeword or combination of runewords and then just work towards that goal. once i had acquired them, the endgame of d2 was kind of boring (something they should have thought of for d3, honestly). but, the trading and general item hunting to get to that point was absolutely exhilarating, a word i can't use for anything i've experienced in d3. i don't know when you last played this game, but try to go back and see if it's really as bad as you think it is.

EDIT: sorry, i didn't see vivi's post (check the time), if necessary ill delete this.

Boring boring boring....

I started playing the Dota2 beta which I've had access to for several months . It's pretty good, remind me of Dota somehow, although I'm not sure if I'd rather go player Heroes of Newerth... HMMM.

I also finally got to playing Battle Field 3 multiplayer on xbox live. Is nice.

Progear (Arcade / 360)

I've also finished this before but the fact I'm still playing it has to count for something.

In London there is an arcade called Casino just outside Goodge Street station. Casino is basically a small building stuffed with fruit machines but the owner, unable to get a gambling licence for downstairs, has turned its basement into a very small arcade. In here the cabinets are ugly, monitors roll, joysticks jam, and the buttons don't work. Progear is one of the few shmup boards owned by the Casino, rather than on loan, and the first arcade game where I got a genuine one credit clear. I don't think I would have done it without the friendly competition from other arcade goers. This kind of social gaming is pretty much gone these days and I think it's a real shame.

The game itself is a hard one to explain because, like many arcade games, it's intrinsically designed to look really simple at first until you start trying to play it "properly". Fundamentally it plays how you would expect a horizontal bullet hell shmup would, however the gem systems let you destroy enemies to cancel nearby bullets, which is good for score in the first two stages but vital for survival in everything past that. You could compare it to the Ikaruga polarity system except with some flexibility. It's a very marmite game in my experience, but it will always be one of my favourites if only through cloying nostalgia.

I was extremely rusty so my run is all over the place. I still hit the loop, so I went to 2-1 instead of the end sequence, but I'm out of practice.

what's wrong with Doom 3

hehe yeah I agree 100%. Dota 2 community right now is really awesome. I bet it will change once they go all out f2p though

As for the speed, for me it was just very weird going from hon to dota 2 in the first 10+ matches. Especially since I went back to hon for a couple of games. But now that I'm sticking solely to Dota 2 I cant say I dislike the speed. I feel like things move fast enough after the 40 minute mark anyways when the carries have farmed up their items

I just had two 80 minute games in a row. If anything is gonna convince me the game needs a speed up it's that.

Quote from Erratic

I just had two 80 minute games in a row. If anything is gonna convince me the game needs a speed up it's that.

gotta agree. in comparison to hon it's like everything moves in slow motion (which, obviously makes it easier and maybe that's a good thing), but dang dem matches take long.

Uh, game length wise the two games are pretty even. I think you were just unlucky (unless you won;D) We're talking missile and hero speed here not xp and gold/min right?

I think movement + dmg increases would be enough. Or something. I don't actually mind dota 2's pacing it's just that it leads to 50+ min games which can be a drain. And it's always been like that. I haven't played much hon because it's a mess but there's something to shorter rounds, or at least the potential for shorter rounds. Dota 2, without leavers or afks is at least a guaranteed 25-30min match and that's if you roll the other team. If they could somehow maintain the core pacing but allow for games to end quicker would be nice.

i was in particular referring to the movespeed, it really feels like every character is taking their time with each step. i might be wrong, it might just be the animations... but it doesn't seem that way.

They do feel slow. There isn't much progression in the game speed either. End game doesn't feel that much faster really.

Quote from Sentura

i was in particular referring to the movespeed, it really feels like every character is taking their time with each step. i might be wrong, it might just be the animations... but it doesn't seem that way.

Yea, by speed I also mean the hero move speed, missile attack speed, animations and all that. I do not find this greatly affects the length of the average game though. In HoN I actually got quite used to having matches that are anywhere from 15 minutes (conceded or completely rolled) to 1hour 45 minutes (yes I have done this, perhaps longer). I think the length of matches is primarily decided by the quality of the players and how difficult it is for one team to break down the other. So far my Dota2 matches have been short 25 minutes to 45 minutes, but I think this is because I'm playing with a variety of generally unskilled players and some rather good. HoN matches tend to run longer these days I think because most people who continue to play HoN are reasonably competent players - albeit jerks, but competent jerks - who have been playing for quite some time. Meanwhile, Dota 2 is gaining new/ newer players who are not necessarily going to be even competition when mixed with the more experienced players. When you have an imbalance between the two teams games tend to be quite short. But I do still wish I could run faster in Dota 2

i think a major problem that is overlooked in both dota and hon is how stalemates are created and drag out the game. i think TF2 did something great by trying to adjust the game to balance towards the winning side, which also means that the games end faster. i'm wondering why especially valve haven't considered putting this in, even in a separate mode, given that it's from the same company... i guess nostalgic people would be furious