What games are you playing right now?

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Kaharz
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Kaharz »

I'm usually a completionist with the exception of ridiculously difficult and pointless achievements like carrying the garden gnome through half life. But I like replaying the elder scrolls games, so I don't mind not finishing every little side quest. I get what your saying though because that is how I felt about Morrowind.
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Lethal Interjection »

It feels weird to be recommending a mobile app game, but here it is.

I'm addicted to and loving Fallout Shelter. See the following review, copied and pasted from some FB comments I made (slightly adapted for this medium).

They somehow took the idea of a build/develop-type app, and made it much better than anything comparable.
I kind of see it as half-way between Sim City and the SIMS.
Sim City because you are developing a city, balancing types of rooms, and stopping/fixing incidents which threaten the city.
SIMS because you have a visible population which you assign tasks, try to keep happy, breed, and make them wear stuff. Unlike the SIMS, though, all of that is has actual utility to it, not just a vague sense of capitalist ends (bigger house, better job, etc).
Also, it is really pleasingly designed. The graphics are relatively simple, but exquisitely done. Especially the 3D aspect, which I imagine is fairly simple, but is so well done it seems like a real leap-forward in graphics.
And it's kinda funny.
Plus (and with all that I said above, wonderfully surprising) it is free. Well, I guess it is sort of 'freemium', in that you can purchase stuff to beef up your colony. But you definitely don't need to as you can get the randomized kits by finishing tasks.
That said, the kits aren't even exorbitant, by the standards of most games. There isn't an in-game currency (which are typically stupidly expensive), and probably more importantly the game isn't linked to social media, so there isn't the competitive "my shelter needs to be better than yours!" pressure. The latter is probably the main reason the costs are comparatively low.

There is the gender-equality issue.
In the broader sense (I read somewhere that the percentage of collectible female characters is very low), but also in the game-play sense. In that quality weapons in the hands of the female population are about half as useful as they are in male hands. Since, when in danger, the pregnant women (understandably, doubly so in a survivalist colony) flee the scene. So, essentially, any room requires a well-armed male 'supervisor' to at least quell the danger until you can assign more help.
It is also the case in breeding, though more understandably. Because if you want to perpetuate a particular stat it makes sense to 'stud' a male with that stat, hoping for children from various mates to pass that on. Or at least I assume that is how that game-mechanic works. Though I'm doing that more through training now, as I unlock various training rooms.

I'm not sure I've ever been as impressed and engrossed in an app as I am with this one.
The only one that would come close is the Agricola app, based on the board game. Where they somehow managed to take that game (long, huge set-up, complicated) but change the visuals/set-up to make the game-play better, plus allow you to put a game on pause.
And I actually paid something like $7 for that one.

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Apocalyptus
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Apocalyptus »

Lethal Interjection wrote:quality weapons in the hands of the female population are about half as useful as they are in male hands.
Wow. So that stat holds true for every male and female individual in the game? That is pretty shitty.
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Lethal Interjection »

Apocalyptus wrote:
Lethal Interjection wrote:quality weapons in the hands of the female population are about half as useful as they are in male hands.
Wow. So that stat holds true for every male and female individual in the game? That is pretty shitty.
Well, not technically, but practically.
Basically a pregnant woman runs from danger (raiders, fires, and radioactive-cockroach infestation being the current dangerous situations). Meaning that, while pregnant, the woman will not use the weapon in defense, instead running for cover. So a weapon in the hands of a pregnant female is essentially void.
Now I should say that this sexism is diminished (in gameplay, anyways) as of this afternoon, only because they fixed a recurring bug where some women were not delivering their children, and so were left as pregnant indefinitely. Pregnancy lasts 3hrs in the game (I'm unsure whether this is playing-time or real-time at this point), but there was a bug where for some reason the mothers weren't delivering. 3hrs is pretty negligible in the game, but when you are stuck with 5 indefinitely pregnant women (as I was) plus however many 3hr-pregnant women, it became a little difficult to manage dangerous situations. I'd say that the need for an armed male 'supervisor' is greatly reduced with the current patch.
And, let's be fair. It is shitty, but in a survivalist context where re-population would be key, pregnant women fleeing the scene isn't all that sexist. It's a reasonably rational response.
That said it does still feel sexist. Breeding in a survivalist structure will do so. To grow my population, I have mostly been studding out my 2 'rare' males. The results weren't there. My third 'rare' was actually a female, and breeding two 'rares' doesn't really result in a better child. So apparently the breeding is less eugenics and more semi-random in the children's stats. A discovery which also makes it a tad less sexist as randomly breeding, as opposed to studding, nets basically the same result.
You could play the game without relying on breeding much. It would be pretty slow-going at the start, but as you were able to focus on your radio station (which draws people in from the wasteland) you would slowly gain population (varying depending on the size and number of stations, and the level of those manning it). And there isn't an aging process as it stands (aside from the 3-stage pregnancy/childhood/adult, which takes 6hrs total), so you wouldn't have population aging and dying out without reproduction.

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Kimra
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Kimra »

Oh man, clearly the game runners have never met the kind of pregnant women I have. Because yes some would probably run away, but you bet your ass some of them would still be fighting. Depending on how pregnant they are but I'd say only the last three months of pregnancy really put some people out of commission so they should still be fighting for 2/3's of that 3hrs.

Basically if population size is what matters the more people fighting the more chance of maintaining a long term large population. So they should be fighting while they can. I'm annoyed at this and I'm not even playing the game.
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Kaharz
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Kaharz »

That is assuming people act rationally, which they usually don't.* Especially when they are overcome by intoxicants of some sort, whether external or internal. Hormones are a hell of a drug. Whether in a pregnant woman or a teenage boy.

But everyone knows women can't fight cause of boobs or whatever.**

Passive sexism in video games doesn't really bother me all much on a gameplay level because I expect it. I'm not defending it in any way and I think it is pretty ridiculous, but since video games are often developed by men who stereotypically lack social skills and romantic experience with women, I'm not surprised. Things are improving on the video game equality front. But it is far from equal. I only find it annoying as far as gameplay goes because it makes the narrative less realistic. But I usually avoid games where that is an issue, although mostly because I suck at them.

Having hung out at the bar with people nearly twenty years younger than me, I'm very hopeful for the future of gender equality.

**which is why free market capitalism / randism is shit. Enlightened self interest is rare.
*sarcasm
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

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I particularly like the way the asterisks have been switched.
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by IntlSpaceStation »

I will replay Portal, Portal 2, Antichamber, and The Stanley Parable until the end of time. Yes I have access to my friend's Steam library, but I mean, apart from Kerbal Space Program...
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by mountainmage »

I'm currently obsessed with The Binding of Isaac, and when Afterbirth comes out, you may never see me again. :D
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Lethal Interjection »

On a friends recommendation, I've been playing XCOM for the last week.
I really like it. It has a sort of chess-like feel to it, I like that.

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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by NeoTechni »

MGS: V

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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Felstaff »

Oh man, I love Mega Games Selection: Valuepack, too! They have SkiFree and TriPeaks, Chip's Challenge, and even the little-known Hover!
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Lethal Interjection »

Felstaff wrote:Oh man, I love Mega Games Selection: Valuepack, too! They have SkiFree and TriPeaks, Chip's Challenge, and even the little-known Hover!
Nice. The first three represent a lot of time spent in the 90s. Throw in Supaplex and Commander Keen, and that represents my childhood gaming.

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Kaharz
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Kaharz »

I got Final Fantasy 13 on the steam winter sale. It is pretty good so far. It is a dramatic departure from the series as far as gameplay goes. No world map, very linear. It makes grinding a bit before boss fights difficult. There is an easy mode you can switch back and forth from at any time, but that would make the fights too boring. It usually isn't a problem because the game is well paced, but it makes it more like an FPS, which I'm usually not a big fan of. I'm thinking it will also decrease the replayability of it.

The graphics are beautiful, especially considering it is 5 or so years old, although it has only been in PC for a bit over a year. It has some typical whiny, dramatic characters which has always annoyed me about the FF games since there was enough dialog and cut scenes to highlight the personalities of the character starting in FF7 or 8.
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Re: What games are you playing right now?

Post by Lethal Interjection »

Any recommendations for an older sandbox-type game for PS3?
Looking to pick up something for the console to play over my upcoming 5-day weekend.
Currently I'm looking toward Fallout 3 or maybe Dead Island.

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