What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

jeb wrote: In their defense, the PS2 Lego Star Wars games were fucking great. Sorry you all are having such a rough time. I'd no idea they'd gotten so buggy! They were really solid titles back in the day (Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones).

My son's got his TRAP TEAM SKYLANDERS going and it's sick as hell. The little trapped guys talking in the portal? Ugh, it's magic, MAGIC I TELL YOU.

The early ones, including the Star Wars ones, were definitely the worst. Believe it or not, they've actually gotten better designed. The newer ones are also maybe a little less buggy than they were. But the original trilogy ones were great because of the pantomime cutscenes. I loved the bit at the end of Empire where Vader used an old family photo to mime the "I am your father" bit.

This video explains why MGS 5 is one of the best games this year,

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/07/meta...phantom-pain-review/

You sure you didn't write this, Barnes?

My 10 yo had his Video Game Birthday Party today, and we killed it. Had seven extra kids here (we have four), and we set things up like a con. Everyone got a lanyard with their name and a cool Game On logo. On the back was a little tracking sheet for their levels, which they could earn by doing various achievements like playing a new game or losing gracefully or whatever. Here were the games for phase 1:

• The iCade was set up with my old iPad 2 playing SUPER CRATE BOX, METAL SLUG 3, and Midway Classics, which really should just be ROOTBEER TAPPER because that game was a huge hit!
• The iPods (four all together) could be used for SPACETEAM (hilarious) or two could play HEARTHSTONE.
• The Mac was running MINECRAFT.
• The PS4 was on the big screen for SKYLANDERS TRAP TEAM.
• The DSs were set up for POKEMON battles.
• At some point I switched the TV over to the WiiU playing NINTENDOLAND's Mario Chase. (We had three chasers, plus Mario).

We broke for pizza, cake, and video game trivia to help some kids catch up on their levels. ("Which is older: Pac-Man, or Shai's Dad?")

We swapped the TV over to 8-man SMASH BROS (we had enough controllers for six). Big incentive here was taking a stock from Uncle Roy, who dropped maybe three stocks across at least seven 6-person games. It was hilarious. One moment I recall in partcular came down to this yomi rich mano-a-mano matchup between Palutena and Dark Kid Icarus on the Donkey Kong level. Lots of tense moments back and forth, some nice dodges, and then Donkey Kong threw a trampoline that bounced Palutena across the screen onto a Fireball that sent her off. They were shrieking with laughter.

The kids all got a TERRARIA figurine and some candy in the goodie Game Over bag. Totally fun times.

Everyone had a good time, and Roy and I got to play some ROCKET LEAGUE at the end. Damn that game is good.

That's the shit Jeb.

Yeah, between you (Gary) with the Dreadball stuff and Jeb with him just being an awesome person, and awesome dad, it's clear that I need to step my shit up.

Ah, forgot: Fuck Wasteland 2. I love it, it's a great little game, but for fuck's sake it's punitive.

I want more than anything to kill the cuntwagon running the prison, but I can't because there's invisible mines o' death at the front gate. All my side missions and shrines are found, and my main characters perception is 5, so my only choice is to grind away until I level him up.

Fuck that.

SuperflyTNT wrote: Yeah, between you (Gary) with the Dreadball stuff and Jeb with him just being an awesome person, and awesome dad, it's clear that I need to step my shit up.

I didn't do the dreadball stuff, that was jeff white. I wish I had that kind of energy.

this store.steampowered.com/app/359050/
all steam friends get to see what you are playing

A friend introduced me to the Jackbox Party Pack last night which was a great couch co-op experience. From the main menu there are a selection of games which seem to be mostly riffs on popular party games like Balderdash. The best part of the experience is that everyone connects to the main screen with their smartphone and uses that as their controller. Thus the games are able to take advantage of all players having hidden information on their private screen. Our favourite game was Fibbage, the balderdash clone. There's something to be said for a program taking on all the administrative details, which meant that we got to focus on the core of the experience. Highly recommended.

We were doing the same thing last night. Our fave of the night was the Pictionary type game. Drawing the clue "Really good art" generated the terrible title of Groana Lisa.

Gary Sax wrote: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/07/meta...phantom-pain-review/

You sure you didn't write this, Barnes?

Ha! No, I didn't...but he got to a lot of the things I would have. I really like how he describes some of what goes on as being these kind of evolving "micro interactions" that stitch together to tell a story and how the game rarely tells you "no".

A good example of this is a mission I had which warned "missiles recommended". I thought screw that, I'll see what happens. Mainly because I was a ways away from developing missiles (this was last week, before I figured out how to "cram" to speed-develop things by moving staff around). But also because I wanted to see what would happen. So in this mission, I had to take out a convoy of three armored vehicles, one heavy tank. With my tranquilizer gun, a sniper rifle and some C4. I tried a couple of approaches- ALL of which were viable, but it was a matter of getting it down right. I could have rigged the C4 on the road like an IED. I could steal this mobile missile launcher and try to run them down with it. I could get a supply drop to bring the grenade launcher and try to shell it from the cover of hills. I could take out an outpost and use the mortar and LMG there to stop it and hopefully eliminate it. Or I could call in the helicopter to bombard the convoy, which probably would have been sloppy and would likely have cost me a chopper. There are likely other options that I didn't think of...but everything was _possible_ and the game has the grace to give me the freedom to do it however I wanted.

But what I wound up doing was really kind of a disaster, but god damn it, it was fun. I rode up behind the convoy on the horse, pretty much dismounting right into the bed of the truck. I was actually undetected at this point. I put down some C4 in the bed and jumped out. I should have waited, but I went ahead and blew it from the side of the road. Alerts went off. So I ran back and go the missile truck back down the road, but this took up time and the convoy was almost at its destination. Drove that bastard right into the other vehicle, leaving the tank. I called in an emergency supply drop, but the whole time I was under heavy fire and that turret was searching for me. So I ran around until I could restock the C4 with the drop, and then I flanked it and put all four charges on it. Ran away, boom.

Something else interesting is starting to happen in the game. I've mostly run my ops at night...so the enemy soldiers are starting to be supplied with night vision goggles and flashlights. After they caught wind of me shooting dudes in the head with darts, they started equipping their guys with steel helmets. I didn't realize the game was actually responding to what I was doing in this way. And then I discovered that I could send Diamond Dogs combat teams out on missions that could disrupt their supply of goggles, helmets and flashlights.

This morning I captured Quiet. I'm not proud of how I did it. But it worked. No spoilers. The dog is ready to go on missions now, and the Mother Base zoo is now open. I've changed the Helicopter approach music to Hall and Oates' "Maneater".

30 hours on, it is by far the Game of the Year- besting even Bloodborne. I would easily slate it among my favorite games of all time, it just does so much so well. It's almost secondary that it's a Metal Gear game.

the_jake_1973 wrote: We were doing the same thing last night. Our fave of the night was the Pictionary type game. Drawing the clue "Really good art" generated the terrible title of Groana Lisa.

Yeah that game is great! What made it silly was that the limited size of the drawing area on your phone makes it incredibly difficult to draw legibly, resulting in hilariously bad pictures. It reminds me of Telestrations, where the people who stink at drawing make the game what it is. My first drawing was "A cold front coming from the west", which did not go well... my favourite picture of the night was "ugly toaster", featuring a scowling one-eyed toaster creature.

Michael Barnes wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/09/07/meta...phantom-pain-review/

You sure you didn't write this, Barnes?

This morning I captured Quiet. I'm not proud of how I did it. But it worked. No spoilers. The dog is ready to go on missions now, and the Mother Base zoo is now open. I've changed the Helicopter approach music to Hall and Oates' "Maneater".

30 hours on, it is by far the Game of the Year- besting even Bloodborne. I would easily slate it among my favorite games of all time, it just does so much so well. It's almost secondary that it's a Metal Gear game.

Watch out for Quiet--there's a save eating bug out there if she escorts you on a couple of missions (29 or 42).

Michael Barnes wrote: Something else interesting is starting to happen in the game. I've mostly run my ops at night...so the enemy soldiers are starting to be supplied with night vision goggles and flashlights. After they caught wind of me shooting dudes in the head with darts, they started equipping their guys with steel helmets. I didn't realize the game was actually responding to what I was doing in this way. And then I discovered that I could send Diamond Dogs combat teams out on missions that could disrupt their supply of goggles, helmets and flashlights.

Yes, I read about this and thought it was very cool. Like, if you use the air stuff a lot they start using missiles.