scampie don't hurt me

(no more) 

I played Dead Space 2 this week, great game 9/10 I think. A bit linear but it seems most people overlook this since the rest is so good. Only negative is I found most of the more powerful weapons to be a bit shit. Definitely fixed the fucked controls of ds1.

Also played Batman 2 (Arkham City), pretty cool, 8.5/10. But really no different to the first game, just more of the same. Having to remember all the combo's and pissing around with all the gadgets gets a bit old after a while. I played the main game which was about 10 hrs, add Catwomen's DLC but by the Robin DLC I was over it and quit 30mins in. I'd had enough of those zapper cunts. Not the kind of game I could keep playing for 100 hours. Awesome design though, looks great in dx11.

I'm on to Portal 2 now, only up to chapter 3 but I see this is an 8hr game... boy this might be a drag if it doesn't change up fast. It's just the same old puzzles from Portal1. 

there are some new mechanics, but it's still a very short game. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abrKxAHJ7qU
Just a old game review - Quarantine. The guy is hilarious though :D 

huhhh.. that game looks cool, but i can see why i didn't do better judging by the problems the dude mentions.

also, he is hilarious. i usually hate weirdo youtube people, but his anger is awesome. 

I only got to the end of chapter 7 in Portal 2, I couldn't take it any more, it's a bit too long. I see on youtube the rest of the puzzles looked annoying as fuck. I don't get the response this game got, it's not THAT great. Kind of boring, dating engine, puzzles just for the sake of puzzles unlike proper adventure/puzzle games that have a purpose. Oh and the loadtimes! Load times out of the 90s!

Also I couldn't take the crashing anymore, not sure if it's something wrong with my computer but the further I got the more it crashed, to the point it was crashing every 30sec. Probably not normal for Portal 2 to crash so much, but everything hardware-wise seems to be okay, temps all good, memory fine. No other games are crashing.

Was I did like - the characters were great, though the story itself doesn't really have a satisfying summary. I did like the huge scale minimalist design, very moody and atmospheric. It suits this game, but you can tell the engine isn't really good enough for modern levels of detail. I wonder if this why Valve has been so quiet in recent years?

L4D1/2 looked dated, but that wasn't really their game anyway, they just created a bunch of new levels for Turtle Rock's HL2 mod, and called it L4D2.

Portal was the same, it's just Nuclear Monkey's game Narbacular Drop, but Valve hired them and recreated it as Portal. Portal 2 is just a bigger version of Portal 1.

Dota 2 wasn't their IP either. All their multiplayer things like CS and TF are based on user-made mods.

Has Valve itself done anything original since 1998's Half-Life? I don't think they really have.

I wonder how much the fact that they know their engine is out-of-date and has been for about a decade now, plays into that? Too busy with Steam perhaps. 

Every game steals the ideas of previous games - at least Valve actually hires the makers of the game they rip off! 

If it's crashing every 30 seconds, no, that's not normal. I don't think it ever crashed for me. 

they've done something to the hl2 engine. i get crashes in all hl2 engine games a lot. that or 20 second freezes. 

I hate Hotline Miami 2. 

 

http://kotaku.com/if-you-die-in-this-game-you-can-never-play-again-ever-1690928265 

Stupid idea for a game. One of the key elements to making something enjoyable is the idea that "Play is safe" (stealing this idea from Chris Crawford). If you can't experiment, try things out, learn from mistakes without irreversibly losing opportunity to continue doing so... you won't be having much fun playing, because you've driven out the essence of what 'play' is.

Games with permadeath can be punishing, but that's still fine because they are often made so that you will see what mistakes you made, learn new things about the game, and slowly progress as a player in conquering the challenge. It's still 'safe' when you die because all you've lost is time, but have gained knowledge about the game for next time (and modern games have unlockable things you might collect each play). You still get to try things out and attempt to create a mental model of how to better play the game in your head.

Just imagine how fun mapping would be if you could only compile a .map once. Get a leak (or worse!)? Sucks to be you. Misplace an entity? -1/5 stars on Quaddicted. How many of use would continue mapping for any amount of time if that were the case? Not very long I would imagine, we wouldn't find it any fun. That's likely going to be this game's fate. A curiosity for a couple days, and then a complete waste of the dev's time after that when everyone realizes that "neat ideas" doesn't mean "fun ideas". 

If you die do you have to buy the game again? Re-register an account?

I'm sure there's something worth taking the piss out of here, but I don't really know what... 

Just reading that article, there's two facets to the game really - the "players" - one of which you can only get to be once, ever - and the "audience" - which I assume you can participate in as often as you like.

Being in the "audience" seems to be an interactive experience, and the audience appears to have some control over the fate of the "players", so really, for the majority of the people, being in the audience, is "the game".

It actually sounds like there's probably some pretty good ideas there. 

It's not a videogame in the traditional sense, more of a spectator sport.

Clever idea, but not something I'd be interested in. But the internet tells me I'm a minority. 

One of the key elements to making something enjoyable is the idea that "Play is safe" (stealing this idea from Chris Crawford). If you can't experiment, try things out, learn from mistakes without irreversibly losing opportunity to continue doing so...

this is silly bro

there's quite a lot of value in intentionally seeing what an experience is like if you violate The Rules with an open mind. If developers can't experiment, try things out ...

Permadeath is a much more tense experience, with a much higher degree of player investment, because loss is so great. But, you can still always start over. Why shouldn't one game exist for the express purpose of taking that a step further?

The point of this game is that it isn't safe. If you want to experiment and learn this game, you do it really really carefully. You really feel the stress of threats, the total exhilaration of escaping something by the skin of your teeth, and the gutting loss when it's all over. It's not flawed because you only play it once, because that's what makes the experience.

Any player who goes into this particular game wanting to rely on multiple playthroughs for their experimentation, then gets mad when they lose access to the game, didn't play it right. You get more out of a game if you're willing to play it on the game's terms. 

The game design would have to be impeccable for this to work. The player needs to be shown the rules, explicitly, the visual language needs to be crisp and precise an unerring, the AI needs to be flawless, etc.

If you're going to give me one life, forever, you as the designer are taking on a lot of responsibility.

Seems dubious. 

For example, see DaZ's video where Barney gets rekt by the strider corpse simply becase DaZ bumped into it. Game over. Sorry you wasted your money, lol! 

If you're going to give me one life, forever, you as the designer are taking on a lot of responsibility.  

Seems about as related to a game as CZG does to a boring hetero. 

Instead. 

Adr1ft does look very cool. Sort of like a zero-g version of Routine.

Fuck I can't wait for Routine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaZqV0o7EW4 

it's basically a game show, it seems like the main entertainment is for the audience, which is large and can repeatedly watch it, rather than the player base, which is small and only plays it once.

How many times do you get to play on Jeopardy after losing the first time? 

I can see the appeal and potential for players getting very intense highs from the danger presented. I just think it sounds like a gimmick that will quickly lose appeal when the only way to play to win is to slowly and carefully take no chances. Of course, there will be plenty of YOLO players, and I guess that has a certain appeal too, if for only the briefest moment.

I suppose the real game is in being the 'audience' who gets sadistic thrills toying with the live players. They actually will feed off the careful players by throwing curveballs at them... it's the YOLOs that will become boring quite quickly for the audience, they don't live long enough to really turn the screws on them.

Maybe I was a bit too hasty judging with "DA RULES", still unsure the game will have longevity, but I guess there is some enjoyment to be had there, and we'll see how it pans out.