Octopus Overlords

Yeah, we needed one of these threads here too, dammit.

I just discovered the coolest new game. My 6 year old heard about it from his friends and begged me to get it. It's pretty amazing, you can build pretty much anything you can imagine in this humongous sandbox. The graphics aren't great but they are very stylized and functional.

Yeah, it's 2013 and I just looked at Minecraft for the first time.

coopasonic wrote:Yeah, we needed one of these threads here too, dammit.

coopasonic wrote:Yeah, it's 2013 and I just looked at Minecraft for the first time.

From today's Popehat post (warning: Ultima III spoiler screenshot!), I was happy to learn about The CRPG Addict, a very cool and detailed blog about games that were released when the term "PC" was usually preceded by "IBM" and followed by "or 100% compatibles."

That 43 year old gamer sounds a lot like me cept for the kids. Im a 43 year old gamer too.

I too remember those boxes for IBM-PC or 100% Compatible. With Sound Blaster 16 support and at least 640k ram.

I remember being a little sad when I was younger thinking at some point I would "outgrow" video games and lose my primary hobby. At that time, I didn't know any adults who played games and figured it was just biological fate.

Once I got in my 20s and still enjoyed them, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I got married.

Once I got married, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I had kids.

Once I had one kid, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I had two kids.

Now I have two kids and I'm as much a gamer as I ever was. While I don't have as much time to devote to the hobby as I used to, I'd say it just makes my passion for the hobby that much more intense because I cherish my game time more.

I feel the same way as YellowKing. Each major change in my life (going to grad school, getting married, having a kid, getting a real job, having a second kid) seemed like it was going to end my gaming but in the end they haven't. I've changed the amount of time I've game (especially how long at a time) but if anything I've become more of a gamer not less.

The one thing that did really change my gaming for a while was when my first son became old enough to independently know the games I was playing. Somehow that was a big deal because I didn't want to be part of conversations between middle schoolers concerning games. But that went away; I've never really hidden the fact that I play some games from my high school students (thus I get their references and they get some of mine) so as he got older it become less weird. Plus, while we share some tastes we mostly play different games with the exception of EU3 and Civilization.

This is the first MMO I played.

Madmarcus wrote:I feel the same way as YellowKing. Each major change in my life (going to grad school, getting married, having a kid, getting a real job, having a second kid) seemed like it was going to end my gaming but in the end they haven't. I've changed the amount of time I've game (especially how long at a time) but if anything I've become more of a gamer not less.

Same here...I actually get pretty antsy when I don't have a game to focus on that is really engaging me. Although I have significantly more disposable income, I've gotten far more choosy about my games. There's lots of genres and/or developers that I used to dip my toes into on occasion that I avoid completely at this point.

I'll be adding newborn twins to this mix in about a month. We'll see if the desire to game can ultimately overcome the need for sleep.

One person's view of the EverQuest beta from 1998.

My favorite quote from one of the readers is

It'll be interesting to see if this (or any!) online roll playing game can dethrone Ultima Online. I also hear that Blizzard's working on something but I can't see that doing any better for them then Diablo has.

YellowKing wrote:I remember being a little sad when I was younger thinking at some point I would "outgrow" video games and lose my primary hobby. At that time, I didn't know any adults who played games and figured it was just biological fate.

Once I got in my 20s and still enjoyed them, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I got married.

Once I got married, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I had kids.

Once I had one kid, I figured I'd have to cut them out when I had two kids.

Now I have two kids and I'm as much a gamer as I ever was. While I don't have as much time to devote to the hobby as I used to, I'd say it just makes my passion for the hobby that much more intense because I cherish my game time more.

I'm essentially married, but my gaming time has gone from, let's say.... a 7 when I was a single to a 2 now. I can't imagine what will happen once we have a kid. Is it possible to have negative gaming time?

I'm essentially married, but my gaming time has gone from, let's say.... a 7 when I was a single to a 2 now. I can't imagine what will happen once we have a kid. Is it possible to have negative gaming time?

It's all about getting creative. I tend to stay up late on the weekends to play, and during the week I can usually sneak an hour or two in each night after the kids are in bed. Sometimes I'll even come home at lunch and get a few minutes in (of course it helps if you live 5 minutes from work!)

My wife is pretty understanding - the key is compromise. If she wants to watch a movie or some shows together I'll drop what I'm doing and spend time with her. In return, she's really easy-going about letting me game while she does her own thing.

Daehawk wrote:One person's view of the EverQuest beta from 1998.

My favorite quote from one of the readers is

It'll be interesting to see if this (or any!) online roll playing game can dethrone Ultima Online. I also hear that Blizzard's working on something but I can't see that doing any better for them then Diablo has.

OMG that thread is priceless. An my quote is better then yours.

Yeah, those big multiplayer games are a fad.

I played Ultima Online for a day and quit. I doubt they will recoup their initial investment. The games are too big and aimed at a niche of hardcore players.

The only thing that I would see succeeding in that genre is something based on Star Wars or Star Trek. Imagine being a jedi! Speaking of which, I can't wait for Episode 1! That's coming out in a few months now. It'll be awesome!

And I have a feeling it's all BS. The quotes are too perfect.

Good Old Games has a weird "Luck of the Irish" sale going on in which you pick 5 games from a given list. You have to choose 5, no fewer, in order to get the pretty substantial savings. But if you don't see 5 games on the list that appeal to you, you can fill in the remaining slots with "Pot of Gold" and let GOG pick random games for you that are not on the list. Each Pot of Gold option is $2 and you won't know what it is until you make the purchase.

I took a chance. I selected Avadon 2, both Book of Unwritten Tales games, Spelunky, and one Pot of Gold. Hoping for a nice surprise, I said "Erin go Bragh!" as I clicked on the purchase button.

My Pot of Gold turned out to be ... Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. Bleeuughh. I had zero interest in that game. Oh well, at least blobs are green.

Hipolito wrote:Good Old Games has a weird "Luck of the Irish" sale going on in which you pick 5 games from a given list. You have to choose 5, no fewer, in order to get the pretty substantial savings. But if you don't see 5 games on the list that appeal to you, you can fill in the remaining slots with "Pot of Gold" and let GOG pick random games for you that are not on the list. Each Pot of Gold option is $2 and you won't know what it is until you make the purchase.

I took a chance. I selected Avadon 2, both Book of Unwritten Tales games, Spelunky, and one Pot of Gold. Hoping for a nice surprise, I said "Erin go Bragh!" as I clicked on the purchase button.

My Pot of Gold turned out to be ... Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. Bleeuughh. I had zero interest in that game. Oh well, at least blobs are green.

If you look at the HTML source on the checkout page, you can see what game you will get before you check out.

Jag wrote:

Hipolito wrote:Good Old Games has a weird "Luck of the Irish" sale going on in which you pick 5 games from a given list. You have to choose 5, no fewer, in order to get the pretty substantial savings. But if you don't see 5 games on the list that appeal to you, you can fill in the remaining slots with "Pot of Gold" and let GOG pick random games for you that are not on the list. Each Pot of Gold option is $2 and you won't know what it is until you make the purchase.

I took a chance. I selected Avadon 2, both Book of Unwritten Tales games, Spelunky, and one Pot of Gold. Hoping for a nice surprise, I said "Erin go Bragh!" as I clicked on the purchase button.

My Pot of Gold turned out to be ... Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. Bleeuughh. I had zero interest in that game. Oh well, at least blobs are green.

If you look at the HTML source on the checkout page, you can see what game you will get before you check out.

Shoot, you're right. I'm playing around with this, and I would have gotten a better game had I known!

Octavious wrote:

Daehawk wrote:One person's view of the EverQuest beta from 1998.

My favorite quote from one of the readers is

It'll be interesting to see if this (or any!) online roll playing game can dethrone Ultima Online. I also hear that Blizzard's working on something but I can't see that doing any better for them then Diablo has.

OMG that thread is priceless. An my quote is better then yours.

Yeah, those big multiplayer games are a fad.

I played Ultima Online for a day and quit. I doubt they will recoup their initial investment. The games are too big and aimed at a niche of hardcore players.

The only thing that I would see succeeding in that genre is something based on Star Wars or Star Trek. Imagine being a jedi! Speaking of which, I can't wait for Episode 1! That's coming out in a few months now. It'll be awesome!

And I have a feeling it's all BS. The quotes are too perfect.

They had some kind of flashback to 1998 week on the site. I can't figure out exactly when, but there are more references to "1998 week" around. I clicked on one of the commenters in that thread and he's been a member for 5 years. I don't think GWJ existed in 1998 but I can't find their history anywhere. Archive.org has stuff from 2003 but the copyright on those pages says 2002. That I'm replying to a year old post about flashbacks is not lost on me .

Also Blizzard WASN'T working on anything of the sort in 1998 . The earliest work on WoW began in 2000. (I was hired in 2001) Some of the team was together before that working on Nomad, but not an MMO.

Also I didn't know anyone had ever mentioned Nomad publicly until I googled it just now. I never saw it and really only remembered the name. I don't think it was ever much more than a concept. But there's at least one programmer on the WoW team today who was there for Nomad too.

There, randomness.

I am having a hard time getting into Tropico 3. With slight variations you just keep building the same city over and over on different terrains. The music and voice tracks are very limited. It's not a BAD game but I think it's the weakest of the Tropicos. I doubt that I'll ever play sandbox after I finish the "campaign" (which is really just a collection of unrelated scenarios with no continuity).

I hope that #4 was better, although I gather that it's just MOTS.

Kraken wrote:I hope that #4 was better, although I gather that it's just MOTS.

Definitely MOTS, but they do a better job of mixing things up a little. There's a lot more interaction with the various factions, rebels are balanced better, more random events, more buildings, etc.

The addictive part of Tropico for me is the freighters coming in though. I love seeing all those lovely exports building up on the docks and getting that occasional, huge influx of money. In general I find that one one of the best things about the Tropico games... the balance between the slow trickle of tourism income versus the spikes of money from exports.

I'm excited by all the changes they have in store for Tropico 5, but they are such large changes I hope they aren't biting off too much.

I'm pretty sure I bought Crysis 3 on sale somewhere, but I can't find it. Any ideas?

Try Origin.

Isgrimnur wrote:Try Origin.

Found it. Amazon.

After playing Battlefield 4 for a couple months straight, going back to Borderlands 2 is a bit of an adjustment.

Played Heroes of the Storm this weekend. Got in the alpha this week. Only intended to play an hour to see what it was like and it turned into the entire weekend. I've only played this type of game once (DOTA2), but it was difficult to learn and I stopped after a couple of hours. Heroes is much much easier to jump right in and the game speed feels right. Graphics remind me of an updated Warcraft 3. Enjoying it for now.

I have never not finished a game I have started, that may be about to change. Dark Souls may just prove to be too bleeping much for me.

After getting to level 20 three times in The Pit and failing miserably to sheer circumstance, I'm thinking about moving on. I enjoy the game and mechanics, but am a tad tired of failing.

So I open my Steam list, 130+ games, and am not sure. I open my CD cases, 120+ games, and am not sure. I don't have a mood guiding me to the next game.

Will it be giant robots, zombies, cyborgs, space, fantasy, castles, economic, simulation ... ???

I've had great success running various games on my Asus EP121 tablet pc. So over the weekend I broke down and picked up the bundle containing Etherlords, Etherlords II, and Expedition Conquistador. I figured turn based games and card based games (especially older ones) should be a problem. I was wrong! Expeditions barely runs on that computer (i5 first gen chip but built in graphics - it can run W:ALB, CK2, Bionic Dues, Fallen Enchantress, Easdor, Civ4, and Warlock without real issues) and the two Etherlords games don't handle the widescreen + digitizer well.

So I spend my gaming time on Marvel Heroes.

I started a new playthrough of Grim Fandango.

Easily my favourite game of all time .

It's been years and years since I last played it.

Enjoyment \o/

I'm in the midst of a Tropico 2 replay. Forgot how much I enjoyed this game.

Kelric wrote:I'm in the midst of a Tropico 2 replay. Forgot how much I enjoyed this game.

I'm still slogging through T3. Strategically, it's a big step backwards.

EzeKieL wrote:I started a new playthrough of Grim Fandango.

Easily my favourite game of all time .

It's been years and years since I last played it.

Enjoyment \o/

Full Throttle Ftw. "Pet the monkey, you know you want to" Best line evah

Never played it . I'll have to try and find a downloadable copy somewhere. I'm guessing you can't buy it anywhere?

Kraken wrote:

Kelric wrote:I'm in the midst of a Tropico 2 replay. Forgot how much I enjoyed this game.

I'm still slogging through T3. Strategically, it's a big step backwards.

I love the pirate aspect. Brings some ridiculousness to the genre.

Kelric wrote:

Kraken wrote:

Kelric wrote:I'm in the midst of a Tropico 2 replay. Forgot how much I enjoyed this game.

I'm still slogging through T3. Strategically, it's a big step backwards.

I love the pirate aspect. Brings some ridiculousness to the genre.

The economic dynamic between ships and cities was brilliant. T3 is comparatively boring. I'm only finishing it because I'm compulsive.

Kraken wrote:

Kelric wrote:

Kraken wrote:

Kelric wrote:I'm in the midst of a Tropico 2 replay. Forgot how much I enjoyed this game.

I'm still slogging through T3. Strategically, it's a big step backwards.

I love the pirate aspect. Brings some ridiculousness to the genre.

The economic dynamic between ships and cities was brilliant. T3 is comparatively boring. I'm only finishing it because I'm compulsive.

I got T3 during a Steam sale and spent about two hours with it a year or two ago. I've since installed T1 and T2 and given both many more hours (especially T2). T3 was just.... blah.

I want a new open world rpg. I want to fiddle with character growth, fiddle with gear, and explore. Basically I want a Bethesda rpg but I'm not sure I can stand starting Fallout 3, Fallout NV or Skyrim again.

There's a demo for Kingdoms of Amalur. In January, the base game was on sale for $6, the collection for $12.

Isgrimnur wrote:There's a demo for Kingdoms of Amalur. In January, the base game was on sale for $6, the collection for $12.

Finished it already.

I want to know how I managed to buy KoTOR II and never played it - it was installed and everything. I'm only a few hours in and I'm having about as much fun with this one as I did the first - though I miss my HK droid. I hope the one on my ship is as amusing as the original was.

How many games do I have that I look at and say "I've had that for so long that I must have played it by now" ... ?

Alright, what in the holy hell is up with Centration? It popped up out of nowhere last week from a developer I've never even heard of before and it seems impossible to find any information whatsoever on it, the page on Metacritic has a 404 error and the sole listing on Gamerankings leads to a review for a completely different 3DS game. Is this some kind of April Fools thing I missed out on?

Chraolic wrote:Alright, what in the holy hell is up with Centration? It popped up out of nowhere last week from a developer I've never even heard of before and it seems impossible to find any information whatsoever on it, the page on Metacritic has a 404 error and the sole listing on Gamerankings leads to a review for a completely different 3DS game. Is this some kind of April Fools thing I missed out on?

This?