Chic, IL What Video Game are you playing?

That was my favorite and the most innovative thing about SWG and ultimately, I believe, it's downfall and the thing I hated the most.








Yes, I know what I said. Think about it.

 

After 16 levels of sailing the burning seas, I really really love the ship-to-ship combat. It's intense and requires foresight instead of button-mashing. Kinda like baseball, it's a slow-paced style that requires planning that's punctuated by moments of blinding speed. Put it this way: if you thought the battle at the end of Wrath of Khan was a good action sequence, you'll love the ship combat in this game.

Melee combat (or avatar combat, or swashbuckling) is a whole other story. I can see where they're headed with it: relatively low hit points on players and high damage attacks put the emphasis on learning proper swordplay and defensive actions as much as offensive ones. That said, the execution is a mess. You can queue up the next attack during the global cooldown, which is nice, but far too often everything you do is countered or blocked or parried. That's all well and good when you're fighting one-on-one or two-on-one, but such emphasis on active defensive moves means that any more than two mobs will have a very good chance of rocking you like a hurricane. I took on three level 7 npcs when I was lvl12 or so, and got stomped by the time I had the second mob down to about 75%. I suppose that's realistic - imagine engaging in elaborate swordplay with some nemesis while two of his pals hacked away at you from the side - but it's hardly fun. To make matters worse, targeting mobs/avatars is very difficult. When one is targeted, there's nothing distinguishing it from other mobs except their name and a health bar above their head. However, anywhere up to eight or more mobs may be piled up in close quarters (especially during a boarding raid) and it's difficult to tell who you're fighting and who's fighting you.

The economy is something I barely touched, so I can't say much about it except that it's pretty daunting. Nearly everything is player-crafted: ships are made with nails, which are made from iron, which are made from ore. Ships also need planks, which are made from wood, which come from trees, etc etc etc. As Haz said, it sounds like a wonderful, horrible system.

I also don't think I'll be leveled up enough to participate in any serious PVP, though their goals in that regard seem both ambitious and fairly well-planned. Entire ports can be thrown into unrest and eventually taken over by opposing factions, and they've worked out a system in which a faction can ultimately declare victory over the entire realm. At that point, the territories/ports are reset back to default and the losing faction(s) are given slight advantages to (hopefully) avoid having one faction rolling over the others non-stop.

At the end of the day, I highly doubt I'll spend money on the game's official release. Part of it is that I just won't have the time/money once school starts again, and partly because the stuff that I like about the game isn't enough to outweigh its drawbacks, at least not enough to justify spending that kind of time/money (even if I had both to spare.) Bosh has said that a non-MMO game called "Pirates!" from about five years ago has similar seafaring battles, so I may look that up instead.

As an aside, the open beta was extended last week from the 23rd to the 31st. Flying Lab Software, the developers, figured they'd give the players/testers something to do with their time off around Christmas. Unfortunately, no one at SOE bothered to extend the beta keys the extra week so we could log into the the SOE game server. How does this company keep getting prestigious titles under its umbrella? They're like the Brett Ratner of gaming...

-Le Penguin
"Tis no man, tis a remorseless eating machine!"

 

none........home computers (both of them) are currently in-op

 

Mario and Sonic at the Olpymic Games....all I can say, I woke up at 2 PM...didn't shut my Wii off until 8 PM...my damn forearms are hating me right now! Although the game is fun...I have a feeling that alot of drinking games can occur cuz of this game...just like any Mario Party!

 

BIOSHOCK

God damn....

 

My in-laws bought a "family Wii" for Xmas and I finally got my paws on trying this bad boy out.

It is so so very good. I don't think you can ever overstate the innovation here.

I never thought I'd be sore from fake bowling.

I am dying to play Super Mario Galaxy now.

 

As much as I love my good old well-used n52 Speedpad (possibly more than life itself)...I'm pretty stoked about: this. They've apparently fixed the flaws of the original.

Played SMG on our friend's Wii on NYE. After a little while we retired to MAME and played "Pigskin 621AD" certainly the best football video game ever made (with Blitz being a close second I suppose).
D'

 

Think they make a version for lefties?

Doubt it.

Drunk on New Year's, I played some weird-ass game on the Wii in which I was tasked with fighting ninja bunnies with a gun that fired toilet plungers. It was every bit as odd and fun as it sounds.

 

That's Raymans Raving Rabbids or something like that.

 

You'd probably fare better using your dominant hand to control the n52....the big trick would be for you to master a gaming mouse with your off-hand.

The only real alternative for you would be the FANG or a FLEX

Or if you wanted to drop another hundy on it you would have on the reader...you could get a DXI which would probably be mo' fun than the game you'd use it for.

However, when it comes to standard keyboards, I went with something simple that suits my personal needs. Then of course there's the model Hazmatt uses.


D'

 

I gotta give props to one of my best friends, Barbara, who was a runner-up in Penny Arcade's Dickerdoodle Cookie contest: She's here on the front-page...in the "Communist Party" T-shirt.

D'

 

Dickerdoodles are awesome.

 

I just wanting to pitch this idea to everyone. Since it seems many of us have the Orange Box. I was wondering if we like to try to have a night were we play online against each other, in TF2 or if you have it HL2 Deathmatch. Just an idea I had.

 

Contra 4 on hard = insta-balls You gotta be a real man to play it on hard. Even on easy it is hard as nuts.

TF2 I'm in. Wheneva.

 

Count me in, too. I have to warn you up front, I'm absolutely lousy at FPS's, so try NOT to be on my team.

As for the rest of Orange Box, I never played HL2, but it is turning out to be chock-full of awesomey-goodness. And my main regret about Portal is that it will be over too soon...

 

Well for TF2 if people have a time pref let me know. Maybe could we use a vent server also? And as for being good or bad haz TF2 is just crazyness to a degree so who knows.

 

Im currently play NHL2008, Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (again), and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy

 

SoulCalibur IV for PS3 will have some new additions. Darth Vader and Yoda.

 

I just got Rock Band the other day. So if you need me, I'll be belting out the tunes.

 

Playing Zelda, Phatom Hourglass.

 

I saw that obvious cash grab move yesterday. Vader will ONLY be in the PS3 version and Yoda will ONLY be in the 360.

 

Obliviion is sucking my life away......and I see that there are two expansions.....uh-oh........

 

I just managed to put Oblivion down. Now you make me want to load it back up.

Anyhoo, I saw this indie game called Aquaria mentioned on Destructiod last night. It seemed a little Ecco: The Dolphin mixed with Super Metroid like so I thought I'd give it a go. What a gem this little game is! The interface is brilliant and the story is surprisingly engaging. I'm pretty sure I'll drop the 30 bills on the full version. The sys reqs are pretty low so anyone's rig on here should easily handle it. Highly recommended!

 

I've been dipping into the buttery goodness that is "Orange Box" quite a bit lately, but apparently more than I realized. As I was tucking my girlfriend's 10-year daughter into bed last night, she gave me a hug and asked if for her birthday I would get her a Weighted Companion Cube of her own.

/sniff

They make me so proud.

 

She only wants to euthanise it.