General Games Chat Room

[Kossokei]

Double post, puck the folice

I recently (read: 4 days ago) found a game called Darkwind: War on Wheels. It is an MMO, but a small one. One server (I think?) and usually like 30 people online at once. Absolutely /none/ of that matters though.

Darkwind: War on Wheels is, brace yourself, I'm serious, it's a turn-based vehicular combat racer with RPG and MMO elements.

Oh yes. That's the genre. Nevermind the fact that it is the video game version of a text-roleplay-combat idea I had some 5-6 years ago (made 5-6 years ago, illuminati confirmed), it is more of a mixed bag in genre than I am in ethnicity. If you're having trouble wrapping your head around that, think Twisted Metal. Now think Chess. Now think Oregan Trail. Now think FTL: Faster Than Light. It's all of that, rolled into one, and multiplayer.

The story, heavily paraphrased, goes as such: The world used to be okay in 2009. Then the sun got pretty pissed, things got hotter. Then, the sun got really pissed, and everything at and south of the equator got baconized, everything else got turned into wasteland. Whatever and whoever wasn't concealed within a protective bunker literally got cancer, and technology beyond internal combustion got nope'd. That was something like 2020. After that wrath, the sun turned down enough for people to go outside without being murderized, and civilization started back up- but after attempting to grow crops they soon realized that blood sports would have to be invented to keep the population down enough to be able to feed everyone. Thus, TM-esque tournaments. People grabbed cars and guns, put 2 and 2 together and fought for stuff. Small towns were built, tracks were built, everything else was 'wilderness' and was subject to pirates and other gangs. Now you start up a gang and try to survive in this world. tl;dr mad max but the sun was mad instead of gas prices.

One of the first things that caught my eye- being a car guy- was the amount of vehicles. There is something like 40 different vehicles in all different shapes and flavors, from subcompact to muscle car to truck to wtf-is-that-a-tractor, and every single one of them (once you acquire them, anyway) can be customized. Weapons, armor, engine, tires, livery, decals (we'll get to those later), suspension, rollcage, fuel tank, all can be changed. You are able to rent cars, you are able to buy cars from whatever town your gang resides in, you can win cars from events, and you can loot cars from hunting down players or NPC's in the wilderness. All of those components cost 'bulk' to add to a car, and bulk is basically a car's limit to how much crap you can bolt on it before there's no space for any passengers. Once a car is destroyed or stolen by NPC's, it is gone, so entering your precious first love that cost you 19k into a deathrace and having it get blown to smithereens is unwise, and entirely your fault if you do so.

Did I mention FTL? Yes, yes I did. Your 'gang' consists of whatever cars you own and whatever 'gangers' (gang members) you have recruited. Each of these gangers are different- they have their own names, their own skills, ages, drug addictions, morals, whatever. Later on, if they survive long enough, they will have sustained injuries unique to each person (anywhere between a little scrape to multiple limbs being asploded off). It is permadeath, and because of the way the world is, they die a lot younger. Having a ganger in his/her 40's is like being 100 in today's world, and that's only if they sustain few injuries and don't do drugs. Every (15?) weeks, your gangers will have aged by a year, so getting attached to one ganger for too long will end up in tears as they either die of drug addiction, old age or they get ripped to pieces by a heavy machine gun. So, stuffing your best and greatest characters in your 19k darling machine and having it and its occupants get ripped to shreds is also unwise, and entirely your fault if you do so.

There are 7 or 8 towns, not counting player camps. Not all of them can be accessed immediately, we'll get to that later. Each town has its own affiliation with a specific NPC faction, with most towns being either civ or merchant controlled, the rest controlled by mutants or specific entities. You can only enter events (races, deathraces, combat or pedestrian combat) if you have gangers in the town that the event is being held in, and some events will restrict your offensive capabilities, engines or your car entirely and supply you with a car custom built for that event. The last restriction is actually a pretty good way to get used to cars that you're wondering about buying for yourself. Most towns have a hospital, a public garage, a marketplace and a tavern what for recruiting gangers.

The NPC's of the game, whether they are playing the bad guy in the wilderness or entering events, are pretty intelligent. They'll even interact with other players and NPC's in the chat when something notable happens- usually in the form of smack talking. They do keep a grudge so if you find yourself giving them unwanted lead supplements during a deathrace, they will likely return the favor, with minimum mercy. Resigning your entry during an event is an option and will lead to NPC's and players alike avoiding firing upon you- this is a good way to keep your vehicles and gangers alive.

Gameplay during an event is... weird to get used to, at first. I am a racing kind of guy, so I gravitated to the race events, and it took me a while to get used to the way that the turn-based system works. For one thing, it is physics based, so handling is more realistic than your average arcade racer, and damage to your vehicle can be done in collisions based on momentum. If you have ever played toribash, the system works sort of like that. You are given control of your vehicle in the driving aspect, and can change the speed and steering at will. The game gives you a ghost car that predicts where you will end up based on the changes you make to steering and speed and yanking the handbrake or not, but the accuracy of the ghost car relies on your driver's Driving skill. You can change the speed of your car, but acceleration cannot be changed and is affected by your cars' stats and your driver's Driving skill. Weapon fire does have recoil, and getting hit by strong enough weapons can affect your movement and even flip you over if aimed correctly. It took me a very long time to sort of choreograph a handling line the way I would do it in a real racing game, but once you get the hang of it you can have all kinds of tokyo drift fun.

A big characteristic of the game is that it is controlled by the website and by the actual game. From the website, you can enter in events way ahead of time and you can manage your vehicles and inventory and gangers and check out the towns. From the game, you can enter in events still, but usually only ahead of time by 2 hours. You can plot out a traveling route in game to get your gangers to different towns, and only in game can you go hunting for NPC's or players in the wilderness. When you are in game, though, it will give you a sort of 4 minute warning whenever there's an event you're entered into, and a minute later you are able to join the event and from 3 minutes the game waits for anyone else who is supposed to join or you can start early if everyone is already there and starts their turn.

Slight downside is that though this game is f2p, it is pay-to-access. Of the 7-8 towns you can visit, only 3 of them can be visited on a free account. You gotta have a premium account to go to the other ones, but by the time that you've experienced all 3 towns, you will know whether or not you want to subscribe with cash. Seriously. It is possible to build up a big, proper gang with a fleet of vehicles and 50 gangers without ever leaving the first town, and going to the next town early on in your career is a dumb decision and will get your cars and your gangers destroyed in transit. When you do subscribe, however, the game gives you 50k and some slots for custom decals and some slots for custom paintjobs and some premium currency and some other stuff. It is a f2p game, but they do gotta make money to keep it going. The prices for the subscriptions aren't bad at all for what the game gives you, and you can pick between 1 month, 3 months, 6 months or a year subscription ($7, $18, $31 and $51 respectively). If you have income, then it's not a bad investment, and you can totally play it on and off to save yourself money without missing out on much of the game. As I said, you will have played much of the game before the limitations really start to hit you, enough so to decide whether or not you want to do it.

I say 'mostly' because I haven't even left the first town yet and I have played this game nonstop. I am, however, very very impressed with this game. If you're a guy who likes turn-based strategy-them-up and cars, you will get a real kick out of this game. It isn't perfection, but it is a nice cold sprite in a pile of dirt- refreshing, different and fantastic if not a little rough, but it still runs better than arkham knight.

[Chaosmancer]

Finally managed to download all 20-odd gb of Valkyria Chronicles. Only played a little bit of it, and it's rather good, although it has quite blatantly spoiled a little bit of endgame stuff (both in the pre-title cinematic, and in the between chapter voiceover). If it does this right, it could be my go to example of things where knowing the ending doesn't take away from how the story gets to that point.

Finished I am Bread. Has amusing physics glitchy moments, but can be kind of annoying when you actually try to achieve the goal.

I have played a lot of Cook, Serve, Delicious! as well which is a fantastic game... although, soup is the work of the devil... and people who want everything on their nachos are jerks.

And how could I forget about The Consuming Shadow which is a fantastic roguelike where you have to banish a God, so you have to go around various towns to find out the four runes that make up the banishing ritual, and also who the invading God is within 60 hours (in-game time, obviously). I have completed it several times and still want to play more.

As a side note, I am really hyped for Dark Souls 3. Just need to wait for them to announce the S*** and Tat Special Edition for however much money so I can throw my money at them.

[RpJk]

Might as well put on what I've been playing recently:

Smash Bros 4 3DS: It's Smash Bros, one of my favourite fighting games ever made. Just passed 250 hour mark.

Nights into Dreams: Used this game to test PlayStation Now. Made by Sonic Team and it's quite a good flying/platformer hybrid.

Mortal Kombat X: On the other side of the fighting spectrum: It's bloody and violent. Some of those fatalities are messed up.

Haven't been playing much due to work and other interests. It'll get better once it's September as MGSV and Mad Max are released, better yet on the same day.

[rnifnuf]

I just finished Portal for the first time, and I am prepared to finish it again, and again, and again, and again. Did I mention again?

[The Red Blur]

I recently finished the world ends with you, which is also a pretty different title in itself. It's main attraction is that you fight on... Brace for it... TWO SCREENS AT ONCE (this is a ds game, so it works better than you think), obviously, the fighting on the top screen is a lot more button mashy than the more tactical approach you have on the bottom screen, using different "pins" (stylus movements) to defeat your enemies. The story within the game is very good, albeit the dialogue can be somewhat cheesy. And there is plenty of post-game stuff to get your teeth into. Also, for a relatively niche game, it has some REALLY deep lore. It has recently been rereleased on the app stores for ios and android as "solo remix", although the combat is much simpler, due to the inability to access two screens at once, so if you don't own a ds and fancy picking it up, do so that way.

Now, currently, I'm playing through Bravely Default on the 3ds, and while the story is cliché, it is being told VERY WELL, not to mention the turn-based combat system, that you can tone down to your liking. Definitely worth a buy if you fancy it.

[RpJk]

Ba-Dump.

Really surprised there has not been more posts on this topic but here I am with showing what games I have been playing recently:

Chrono Trigger (DS) - Currently playing through it and been spending a-lot of time travelling through the game. Has a great battle system, great story (In short time-travellers fighting an alien parasite that lives under the earth) and great music. If your a fan of Final Fantasy then you should really play this game. Speaking of which....

Platinum Demo: Final Fantasy XV (PS4) - Now I will say this: I am really, really anticipated for FFXV to the point in which I bought a full priced game just to play the first XV demo. However the demo I am talking about is the second one. It's battle system is like a more realistic Kingdom Hearts and the demo is mostly about the younger version of the main character until the boss fight. With the music and gameplay it makes all the more excited.

Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (PS Vita) - Been needing a reason to play the Vita and apart from MGSV I have played another game in the series about a year. Story and Music still holds up quite well although gameplay has lost most of it's touch.

Persona 4: Dancing All Night (PS Vita) - Also been playing this game which is Persona story and aesthetics meets Hatsune Miku gameplay. Soundtrack is one of my personal favourites and the game itself is extremely stylish.

The World Ends With You (DS) - I play this game once a year and I've already talked about this game to death here. Moving on....

Hitman (PS4) - This is the first time I've played a Hitman game and really enjoy it. There is a lot and I mean a lot of ways to kill your targets. It's quite satisfying to wait for the perfect moment or the perfect way to kill them. My favourite way to kill them is by poisoning them and watch as they walk into a booby-trapped bathroom. Good clean fun.

[Avalanche]

just bought fallout 4 and the season pass. any tips?

[Badger]

just bought fallout 4 and the season pass. any tips?

Get a refund

[The Red Blur]

I recently got final fantasy explorers, which was extremely difficult to find. No idea why, because people have found it quite "meh", so Id guess there was a surplus. The gameplay is less like monster hunter, and more like a mmorpg, as you usually have a short pause between enemy attacks to allow thinking time. This is, ultimately, it's downfall. The game is rather easy, until you reach finish the "story" (I use that term loosely). The story is a bit meh. It's nothing I haven't seen before. It's told... Competently. The music is slightly repetetive, as there are few tracks in the game. Overall, fun for final fantasy fans, and a nice break from the more difficult games, but there are many refinements square could have made.

My score- 7.5/10

[RpJk]

Gonna make a quick update on games I've been playing:

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma (PS Vita) - Just completed it today and oh my god does it have one of the best stories I played in a while with a number of great plot twists. A Personal Game of the Year contender.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst (PS4) - Great Gameplay and atmosphere. Shame about everything else.

Star Ocean 5: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) - Good JRPG but very short clocking around the 20 hour mark. Great rocks, paper, scissors-like battle system and great soundtrack. Also contains good premise but cliched story.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (3DS) - Bought the game a few days ago and been playing off and on. Haven't made it far into the game.

[WeN]

My TOP 5 Favorite Game

1.
Midnight Club: Los Angeles, this game is my most Top 10 favorite game ever,
Like I can customize a car and bike.
Rating:95/100

2.
Need For Speed Underground 2
It has very good graphic and best car customization
Rating:96/100

3.
Pokémon Sapphire
This game I owned for 5 years ago (or 6 years ago)
And enjoying catching Pokémon
Rating:89/100

4.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5
My favorite Racing Arcade Game,
I played it and it's very best arcade game.
Rating:100/100

5.
Daytona USA
That my favorite arcade game
Rating:68/100

[Joelu Of Eagleland]

4.
Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5

Yay, someone else who plays WMMT!

Interesting to see someone who plays WMMT5. Then again, you're Malaysian, right? Over in the UK, we don't have anything better than WMMT3... I've played WMMT3DX+ at an arcade in London though. Didn't get to mess around with many of the new cars because I didn't want to buy a card for a machine I'd only use whenever I traveled to London. I still play WMMT3 so much (I'm one of the best HIACE drivers at my local Arcade) despite it being so outdated compared to other countries. America recently got WMMT5 and Japan recently got WMMT5DX, so we're still quite a bit behind. Who knows, maybe we'll catch up to the other countries someday?

To round off, I'll post the cards I have for WMMT. I have a Nissan Fairlady Z S30 and a Toyota HIACE Wagon for WMMT3, and a Mazda RX-7 FC3S for WMMT3DX+ (originally WMMT3 but I upgraded it to 3DX+)

I also have a card for Initial D Arcade Stage 8. The only one we have is in London and it doesn't have any online functions due to the UK not being a registered country for the SEGA.net servers. That game's the latest in the Initial D Arcade Stage series, which isn't as good as WMMT, but it's still a hell lot of fun. I suppose I'll post my card for that too.

[RpJk]

Bump. Currently Playing:

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth1 (PS Vita) - Lighthearted JRPG about anime girls who are the personification of game consoles. A little perverted but funny. Just completed the game but going to start another playthrough soon.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - A walking simulator but probably has one of the best stories I've seen outside of an RPG. Slow paced but interesting.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita) - Thinking of it as a cross between Valkyria Chronicles and Persona. This is quickly becoming one of the best games I've played all year with a freaking awesome soundtrack, battle system and a good story so far.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) - Really good action game. Never watched LotR but I love this game especially the gameplay which if I had to rank my favourite games just by it alone this would be close to the top.

Been waiting for a few more games to come out like Dishonored 2, Super Mario Maker 3DS, The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV the last of which I'm planning to take a few days off to play provided I'm caught up with my studies.

So what has everyone else been playing these days?

[Badger]

Bump. Currently Playing:

Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth1 (PS Vita) - Lighthearted JRPG about anime girls who are the personification of game consoles. A little perverted but funny. Just completed the game but going to start another playthrough soon.

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (PS4) - A walking simulator but probably has one of the best stories I've seen outside of an RPG. Slow paced but interesting.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel (PS Vita) - Thinking of it as a cross between Valkyria Chronicles and Persona. This is quickly becoming one of the best games I've played all year with a freaking awesome soundtrack, battle system and a good story so far.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (PS4) - Really good action game. Never watched LotR but I love this game especially the gameplay which if I had to rank my favourite games just by it alone this would be close to the top.

Been waiting for a few more games to come out like Dishonored 2, Super Mario Maker 3DS, The Last Guardian and Final Fantasy XV the last of which I'm planning to take a few days off to play provided I'm caught up with my studies.

So what has everyone else been playing these days?

lul all of those game are terrible

bf1 is looking pretty good but not good enough to warrant dropping £50, so i'm stuck with RA2 and CSGO

[cephalopod]

overwatch
rocksmith

[Bobyasianboy]

overwatch
rocksmith
gang beasts

[Nohpp]

anyone play any new games recently

[Gulden]

anyone play any new games recently

I've recently finished the DS line of Ace attorney games, Edgeworth ones included. 
Striving for more mystery games, I tried out Professor Layton, but I couldn't get into it.
Otherwise, I'm replaying Xenoblade Chronicles X on my spare time and trying to go through the first game as well when I'm desperate for entertainment.

[Badger]

Just picked up Cod MW2 on PC. Went 34-6 in my first match. It's a good game.

[KidDelta]

Waiting for my Luigi's Mansion to deliver. In the meantime recommend SCP Secret Laboratory or Containemnt breach if your wifi is crap