1 Servers are still not fixed for D3.  I am getting latency up to 4300msec and they are getting flamed on the forums by many others

2 Is this where we come to discuss Atari Pong?

3 I'm waiting for Blizzard to fix Diablo3 so it doesn't melt my video card...

4 Prior to the next TF2 please post login instructions here or on Steam. I have tried and failed two weeks now, and I'm (usually) not an idiot.

5 I picked up Max Payne 3 for PS3 this week. It's pretty tough so far, much harder than the 2nd game. Still a lot of fun going into bullet time though!

6 Grant S go to aoxbox.net and click the top left. Book mark the server.

7 Four Gaming Clichés That Absolutely Need To Die

http://tinyurl.com/74e6rjp

8 Call of Duty needs to die.  Each new game is worse than the one before it.  I wish they'd do something different, like a sandbox FPS.  Maybe a D-Day game where you can play any of the beaches or the airborne troops.  Maybe in the next gen of consoles.

Tabletop wargames are where I'm at now.  There's actual strategy involved instead of just running in arcade style and shooting everything.

Just bought The Killing Ground, a massive Normandy game, and will be buying the Overlord expansion for it.  Also have Flying Colors, an age of sail naval wargame, and Ran, a game set in the Japanese feudal period.

Liberty Roads is on my list to buy in the future.  Being able to start the invasion of France from anywhere looks fun, as does the large scale of the game.

BoardGameGeek has pages for all of the games if anyone wants to look them up.  Apparently this site hates lots of links.

9

After 4 playthroughs and four different achievement breaking quests I finally got that damned Oblivion Walker achievement on Skyrim.

Over 200 hundred hours of wasted time.

10 FPW: Isn't the next COD supposed to be less linear and more sandbox? I thought I read that on some game site.

11 Currently enjoying Banjo-Kazooie for N64.

12 10- Huh, hadn't read anything about it.  From what I've just read, it sounds like they're on the right track.  Hope it lives up to their promises.

13 Probably a stupid question, but I can't find an answer.  Can anyone who plays WoW tell me how much the monthly fee is?  Apparently the site won't tell me until I've already entered my payment info and I'm not into that idea *at all*.

14 No Diablo III for me. Intel graphics chispsets are not supported so therefore I can't play. Thanks Blizzard. I bought a year of World of Warcraft to get the free Diablo game so I guess I am getting what I paid for huh? My wife on the other hand with her HP computer and the AMD graphics card continues to give me updates on her progress.

Since my computer is a fairly new Dell All N One type I can't even change the graphics card, they don't make them yet.

15 13 Probably a stupid question, but I can't find an answer. Can anyone who plays WoW tell me how much the monthly fee is?

-------------

$15ish. They give you a break if you pay a big chunk at a time.

And if you pony up dough for Kerbal Space Program, you can download a newer version with moar features. Like landing legs for your Munar lander. And persistence, so you can leave a ship orbiting Kerbin and try (futilely, in my case) to rendezvous with it. The most recent version has a second, smaller moon in a higher, more inclined orbit (I've not landed there yet) and the ability to build airplanes.

16 2 Is this where we come to discuss Atari Pong?

-------

Yes.

One Apple ][ game I miss is Dung Beetles.

17 I ponied up the dough for KSP, but I haven't gone back and updated. Will check it out Ana

18 if you're playing D3, check out DarkD3. It darkens and sharpens the game up

http://darkd3.com/

19

Attention any moron (or moronette) who is fan of Dungeons and Dragons or is interested in learning to play! This week marks the start of a new Encounters season!

Last week was character creation, but don't worry - every place running D&D Encounters will have pre-generated characters if you just want to show up and start playing.

This week marks the start of the Web of the Spider Queen. If that means nothing at all to you, the focus is going to be on the Drow and the Underdark. The Underdark is, in D&D 4E, as massive underground system of tunnels and dungeons. You dig deep enough, and things get really dangerous.

If you're interested in D&D, check out http://tinyurl.com/c5h5yu the Wizards Store & Event Locator. They're a lot of fun, and a great way to safely check out this whole "table top roeplaying thing" if you've ever been interested.

If anyone is specifically on the Eastside of King County, Washington, check out Crossroads Bellevue, as I run a game there. I'm BoB. I'll be the one with the laptop.

20 For those of you old enough to remember the old Avalon Hill WWII board games, try Hearts of Iron 3. It is the most amazing strategic simulation of WWII. There are no words for the detail. You can play as any nation on the planet, build every division down to the brigade, and the AI is frightening in how it manages to recreate historical, and sometimes ahistorical, outcomes.

21 I won't buy Diablo 3 because it requires a constant network connection to play single player.

22 Go play the Torchlight 2 beta. Better game, cheaper, don't need to be online(except for beta), was made by the guys actually behind Diablo 2, and most importantly the loot drops on the top 2 difficulty levels aren't going to be constantly adjusted to maximize Blizzard's revenue on the RMAH.

 Also, moddable, and you get a pet which can both sell and buy stuff while you continue killing shit.

23

Posted by: BoB at May 20, 2012 02:39 PM (bw34S)

 

Interesting that the Encounters theme is the Underdark since that's the new DDO update as well.

24

>> try Hearts of Iron 3

 

Thanks for mentioning it.  I know somebody who'd probably enjoy that.

25

Posted by: Anachronda at May 20, 2012 02:22 PM (c16IJ)

 

Thanks, about like the DDo subscrition I just canceled then (except for the actication fee, which seems odd).

26

F, I just wrote a few paragraphs on D3, forgot to put a name and email, and it got lost. Sigh.

TLDR: I'm a Diablo fan.  I played the open beta for 2+ hours.  Like the graphics/gameplay well enough, don't really like the RPG stat/skill leveling design they chose.  Less RPG than even D2 was; skills are more like an item loadout then real spec'ing.  1000+ reviews on Amazon, 2.5 average.

27

>>Posted by: Polliwog, Teahada hobbit at May 20, 2012 02:52 PM (CQ1cz)

Not a coincidence haha. The new books released are Underdark based, DDO is releasing an Underdark expansion, and the new (non-random, FINALLY) miniatures being released are Heroes of Cormyr vs the Drow.

Wizards is finally starting to actually run their business like it's an actual business haha.

Now if only we could get their software tools to not suck.

28

I've been playing Torchligh.  Right now, if you prebuy Torchlight 2 on Steam for $20 you get Torchlight for free.

Mechanically it's a decent game.  The stat/skill leveling system is a lot like Diablo 2 and it's ilk, though I wish you could respec (at a suitably high cost of course).  The item system is a _lot_ like Diablo 2, including transmutable gens. The graphic quality is good and easy on my rig, though a bit cartoony for my tastes.  The main problem is that there's really no story and the dungeons and monsters aren't varied enough.  It's fun for an hour or two of bashing/loot collecting (and you have a shared chest that all of your characters can access which is nice).

Torchlight 2 is supposed to add a lot more variety in story/locale/monsters, so I think if you're a fan of the genre and have the money, $20 for a simple but fun monster basher now and a hopefully better game in the summer is a good buy.

29

27
Not a coincidence haha. The new books released are Underdark based, DDO is releasing an Underdark expansion, and the new (non-random, FINALLY) miniatures being released are Heroes of Cormyr vs the Drow.

I started reading R.A. Salvatore's Drizzt series (he's a Drow for those that don't know).  I'm through the first 2 books and they're pretty decent.  Iirc Salvatore actually created much/all of the Underdark within TSR prior to writing the novels.

30

Posted by: BoB at May 20, 2012 04:21 PM (eEaHR)

 

Yeah, figured that they were trying to get cross-over business.  Be interesting to see if it works.

31 One more D3-related post (hey let's make it to 50 posts!   The makers of Titan Quest (a fantastic game imo) are currently working on a new game called Grim Dawn.  It probably won't be done until 2013 as they all have day jobs; they had a kickstart pledge drive that just ended for which they exceeded their goal.  It looks like it will build on what they did with Titan Quest.  Anyway I'm all for supporting them, and the original Titan Quest (and its expansion) is worth getting if you're passing on D3.

32 And I bought a cartridge for my TI-99 today off of ebay: Star Trek Combat Simulator.

33 Titan's Quest (there are two so far) is not bad, it's not any *better* than D2, just a different story and different details. I enjoyed it a lot at the beginning but it sits idle now. A leetle repetetive, I would not say insanely difficult but character progression is not that fast or impressive. I am not enthused about D3. Everyone is going to "always online / depends on servers / etc." now, I am worried about mods in single-player vs. server control, and Blizzard's, I guess, "attitude/mood" has always grated on me a little. Also between Skyrim and ME3, I don't think I'll ever preorder or buy a game shortly after release again.

34

33Titan's Quest (there are two so far) is not bad, it's not any *better* than D2, just a different story and different details.

I enjoyed it a lot at the beginning but it sits idle now. A leetle repetetive, I would not say insanely difficult but character progression is not that fast or impressive.

It's just TQ and an expansion, right?  Although the expansion added a lot.  I liked the skill synergies across classes, I thought that was very cool and with the ability to respec made for some fun character planning (the skill calculator that someone came up with was very useful).  I agree it got repetitive after a while, if there were more people playing online it would have been better. I really liked the design though and will keep an eye on Grim Dawn.

35 "Middle-old" games can be fun, and cheap. Though remember to look for mods. I bought some racing games that I didn't like very much a while back. I later found out there are some mods/patches available... which *greatly* improved the games (like Fuel and Grid). The games have no story to speak of, the game mechanic is okay, but driving games on a PC w/o a steering wheel kind of suck because they almost never let you use the mouse to steer. Steering is analog. Keyboards are digital. It sucks. That's one advantage that (sort of) goes to consoles, analog controls on the controller (but no pointing, which sucks in RPG/adventure games). Anyway, the thing about Fuel is that it has a gigantic open world - like hundreds of miles across, which you can drive through. All kinds of terrain, roads, mountains, fields, etc. Hey, that's fun to me. The unofficial patch makes everything a little better. I love the idea of racing games, but I don't have a gaming wheel anymore, so ehhh. I did find some patches for Need for Speed Undercover (worst acting/story, *beautiful* car models) that opens up the world a little (disabled some involuntary missions) so you can just drive around the world, it's awesome. The thing that bugs me about NFS games is randomness - a lit of events / races involve things like random commuter traffic, which can do things like block 100% of the road, stopping you. Might as well roll dice. I hate doing missions over and over because the game screwed you and you could do nothing about it.

36

>>Posted by: Polliwog, Teahada hobbit at May 20, 2012 04:27 PM (CQ1cz)

It would work better if they did things like, provide D&D Insider access free to those who subscribe to DDO (or at least at a discount)

Or gave you an DDO item (mount or something) when you bought a book.

Or did any one of a thousand things one can do to cross pollinate sales and generate leads from one line of business to the next.

They're learning, slowly but surely, they're learning.

37 It's just TQ and an expansion, right? Although the expansion added a lot. I liked the skill synergies across classes, I thought that was very cool and with the ability to respec made for some fun character planning (the skill calculator that someone came up with was very useful). I agree it got repetitive after a while, if there were more people playing online it would have been better. I really liked the design though and will keep an eye on Grim Dawn. Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 04:48 PM (YxaXw) Well, I think Immortal Throne was kind of like "a whole new game that required the original," or a new game on the same engine. I forget which. I may have to check out the calculator, I was not too fond of the skill tree (I also tended to run simplified builds in D2 because I didn't want to end up with 47 key-combos to use - it felt too much like running office software). I played a lot of bowazons, assassins and paladins in D2. I barely started Immortal Throne.

38 "No Diablo III for me. Intel graphics chispsets are not supporte"

I did the same deal with WOW and D3.  Said my graphics card was not supported (too old and slow), but I just set the game settings to "fair" and can play just fine.  Detail isn't crystal clear but not too bad.

39 We all have "gaming arcs," sort of a trend on what kind of games you enjoy playing. My arc seems to be the opposite of the industry, which is splitting into Angry Birds (yawn) vs. COD/Battlefield (yawn). These are, however, the easiest things to build/support per dollar income. So there you are. Also why I'm not in on the TF2 thing (yawn). I used to play things like UT2003/2004 with friends, like when we'd get together physically as a group, but I find the online version tedious and the newer games (U3, TF2, BF, COD) less fun viscerally. At least in the outdated UT2003 there was a lot of mobility, with low grav and triple jump we had some awesome aerial battles.

40 Am I the only one left who likes adventure games? I cut my teeth on SQ and KQ, though LucasArts was better when it was still around. Telltale I hear has gone downhill since the Monkey Island revisits and Sam and Max (obviously they liked Sam and Max better, they made three times as many episodes).

41

In my experience/opinion, the original UT had hands down the best "feel" wrt keyboard/mouse to in-game movement interaction of any FPS ever.  I played the h*ll out of that game and was pretty good vs. other people online.  I also really enjoyed the first Half Life TF2 mod, especially the "Hunted" maps.

 

I too haven't enjoyed any of the last 6 years of online FPS games as much as the previous crops.  I'm not really sure why.  I really want to try the Friday night TF2 but I can't get on until later at night.

42

Am I the only one left who likes adventure games? I cut my teeth on SQ and KQ, though LucasArts was better when it was still around. Telltale I hear has gone downhill since the Monkey Island revisits and Sam and Max (obviously they liked Sam and Max better, they made three times as many episodes).

 

I had my on the "Runaway" series when it went on sale on Steam, but realizing I wouldn't have time to play it passed it up.  It looked decent.

 

Yeah, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island were pretty fantastic.  Have you played the updated MI?  If so, does it hold up?

43 If Barack had a son it would look like the Witch Doctor in Diablo3.

44 38 "No Diablo III for me. Intel graphics chispsets are not supporte"

I did the same deal with WOW and D3. Said my graphics card was not supported (too old and slow), but I just set the game settings to "fair" and can play just fine.

-------

The D3 beta didn't run here on my trusty netbook. It failed to allocate something it needed.

Mists of Pandaria gives me blinding white ground.

Earlier versions of WoW run just fine, albeit not at the best framerates (it *is* just a netbook, after all).

45

I'm not trying to pimp Torchlight/2 but it does have a "Netbook" checkbox in the graphics settings.  I don't know what it does though.

46 Yeah, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island were pretty fantastic. Have you played the updated MI? If so, does it hold up? Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 05:19 PM (YxaXw) Yes, it does. If you mean the updated original MI, it's just better sound / graphics on the same story. Tales of Monkey Island is definitely worth it. I would not say exactly the feel of earlier games, but they did a good job. More like Escape from Monkey Island. It's basically 5 short games that form one big one. You can buy them as a pack from Steam. Also mostly the same voice actors. They don't have much time to make a new series, I don;t know how that one sold but I hope they do. Or even a new original series that's along the same lines, humor/gameplay-wise. Hell, even remake some other classics if they're supremely lazy. There were a ton of Infocom/independent games in the 80s and early 90s dying for a remake. Because game developers and Hollywood are *terrified* of original stories. Apparently.

47 I'm not trying to pimp Torchlight/2 but it does have a "Netbook" checkbox in the graphics settings. I don't know what it does though. Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 05:40 PM (YxaXw) Cuts back on graphics settings and resolution so you can play it on a netbook. Like with the simpy processors and integrated graphics.

48

Yes, it does. If you mean the updated original MI, it's just better sound / graphics on the same story.

Yeah, that's what I meant.  The new graphics actually threw me off a bit, though I like how you can switch back and forth.  I'm just wondering if the dialog and choices hold up.  I still have the original disks and code wheels somewhere but I'll keep an eye on a Steam sale (love those).  I'll look out for Tales of MI too, thanks.

 

Because game developers and Hollywood are *terrified* of original stories. Apparently.

 

Why would you make an "original" story when you can make historic amounts of money on a comic book sequel (Avengers)?  Speaking of which, I'm praying that XCOM Enemy Unknown is good.  The original XCOM is probably in my list of top 10 games of all time.

 

49

47I'm not trying to pimp Torchlight/2 but it does have a "Netbook" checkbox in the graphics settings. I don't know what it does though.
Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 05:40 PM (YxaXw)

Cuts back on graphics settings and resolution so you can play it on a netbook. Like with the simpy processors and integrated graphics.

 

Yeah I figured that.  I should have said "exactly what it does".  I just didn't know if it more than just automatically set the various options to some defaults.

 

Are we the only ones here?  And I'm only half here, sneaking in when my wife won't notice (I'm busy doing house stuff

 

I'll be we'd get a better showing if this was an evening thread, although I guess the ONT would bust it up.

50

I check in ocaissionally, but don't have much to add to the conversation. 

 

Based on what Mero and others have said, I don't think I'm going to bother with Skyrim.  I don't do mods and patches, 'cuz I'm lame that way, so if something's not immediately playable it's not much use to me.

51 Based on what Mero and others have said, I don't think I'm going to bother with Skyrim. I don't do mods and patches, 'cuz I'm lame that way, so if something's not immediately playable it's not much use to me. Posted by: Polliwog, Teahada hobbit at May 20, 2012 06:12 PM (CQ1cz) The big thing is the Unofficial Patch, which fixes 200+ bugs. I don't play that much, despite having *lived* in Oblivion for years. I think it was 4-5 months fighting with the ******* thing embittered me. It's mostly playable now, but still with some physics and display problems. Crashes are much more rare after several patches.

52 Yeah I figured that. I should have said "exactly what it does". I just didn't know if it more than just automatically set the various options to some defaults. Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 05:59 PM (YxaXw) I'm sure someone has written an article on it, I think it changes settings you don't have access to through the menus. Which is why it's a separate option.

53 Haven't been on Xbox 360 for years?  Then you missed out on Gears of War?!?  Best trilogy I've ever played (and replayed and replayed, etc.)

54

Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 05:19 PM (YxaXw)

Pendulo makes fun games but fuck do they seriously need new translators, shit is so bad that it ruins the games

55

Posted by: Polliwog, Teahada hobbit at May 20, 2012 06:12 PM (CQ1cz)

mods are about half of the show (though you need to work at getting them running with Wine and bash files), still a good game though with what is there

56

Pendulo makes fun games but fuck do they seriously need new translators, shit is so bad that it ruins the games
Posted by: The Dude at May 20, 2012 06:31 PM (tw6Ar)

 

That's unfortunate, so they're not just funny-bad?  That's where fan patches are great, something like i18n is easily fixed if there's an available api for it.

57

The nice thing about Skyrim is that it's on Steam, which means that by the end of this year (and probably by Halloween) it'll probably show up 50%, 66% or possibly even 75% off on a one-day sale.  I've seen it once at either 25% or 33% off.

58 I saw the trailers for Runaway, I was unimpressed.

59 That's unfortunate, sothey're not just funny-bad? That's where fan patches are great, something like i18n is easily fixed if there's an available api for it.

Posted by: Where're my ping pong balls at May 20, 2012 06:36 PM (YxaXw)

nope, not good but bad just bad which is a shame as the games really are a lot of fun and the Spaniards rave about the stories. Haven't seen any fan translations

60 I think the reason why the gaming thread is so dead is it's an early-morning thread. The ONT has lots of gamers.

61 You should start next Sunday with a Console vs. PC war. That should liven things up.

62 Dunno if anyone is still reading this, but you Eve people, how casual are your corps? I wouldn't mind getting in with some of yas, but I am gonna be pretty casual and I know especially null corps tend to have strict attendance rules. Ah well, do we have a channel on there at least?

63 60 I think the reason why the gaming thread is so dead is it's an early-morning thread.

The ONT has lots of gamers.

Posted by: Merovign, Dark Lord of the Sith at May 20, 2012 06:54 PM (bxiXv)

 

The other thing is that typically Sundays have been dead where they are struggling to get up 2 posts beyond the book thread before the ONT comes around.  Start putting up a gaming thread and suddenly every coblogger has a post for sunday they want to post.

64 @62 - KG It would depend on if you're a pvp'er or not. I'm a member of Rote Kapelle, and pvp is pretty much all we do*. As far as I know there aren't any mandatory attendance rules, but then we live in Syndicate, which is non-sov 0.0 space. You can email me in game if you like to ask more. "Claire XXX" is my main character. *Caveat: of course everyone has out of alliance ways to make Isk, but no major care-bearing in corp.

65 Obama is a stuttering clusterf*ck of a miserable failure.

66 All corps/alliances have different rules and ways of doing things. I have never been on a CTA or any such thing.

I do miss you Rote Guys just a little. Hopefully ExE will treat you just as nicely as we did

67 Zakn, what is your ingame name?

68 That's - THAT'S the most violent video game he's ever seen? Yeah, the CSI effect is kind of cool, but seriously - he's never seen The Darkness 2 or Warhammer 40k: Space Marine? Not only are those games more directly violent, but both reward and even glorify the bizarre and grotesque ways in which you can kill someone. That's not to say I don't enjoy such games - I am 41, after all, and rated M for Mature - but I know a trend when I see it. All the more reason for parents to read the actual backs of the games they buy.

69 If you are having a horrible time getting error 3007 booted in Diablo III log into "GENERAL CHAT" and you should find it has stabilized.

70 Oh God. You're a Goon? This explains everything. You should be out protesting religious groups or occupying something or other instead of posting here. However, your reportage is correct: half of EVE is playing D3.

71 Merovign and other that mentioned Titan Quest might be interested in the Lilith mod for the game, it's huge and reworks the whole game.
http://tinyurl.com/3cs9cap

72 Getting a jump start on the next thread: I hate GRFS. As someone who played countless hours of GRAW 1 and 2, I'm heartbroken that they've put together yet another MW clone (oh, but this one has GIMMICKS!).

What did I love about GRAW? Well, the >4 coop campaign to begin with. Gamewise, the wide open maps that promoted strategy and stealth. The sandbox approach to war gaming that allowed for infinite possibility. The dependance of the team on each class for the various confrontations.

What did I get in GRFS? Riding rails. When I actually had control of my character, it was a single path, close combat bullet fest. Kinda reminded me of...hmmm...oh yeah: every single other goddam war game made in the last 5 years.

I never thought I'd say this: OFRR is a far, far better game than GRFS.