The Bill's Now Playing Video Game Thread (Now with Bames)

[riley-o]

played a katamari game (katamari forever) for the first time. had no idea such a game even existed let alone a franchise let alone that i would think it was super fun and adorable ^_^

[riley-o]

and completely fucking mushroom psych-out insanity

[Cryptoplasty]

Has anyone here NOT played Skyrim? I have 150 hours now and I still haven't touched the main quest. By the time I'm done with all the DLC I can see putting 300-400 hours in. It's now in my top 5 games of all time.

That Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning game looks like it might be interesting. The head of the company that made the game is Curt Schilling (yes, the baseball player) which is sort of scary.

[Cryptoplasty]

IT TOOK ME A MINUTE TO SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

[riley-o]

that says skyriim originally.

[Necrometer]

played a katamari game (katamari forever) for the first time. had no idea such a game even existed let alone a franchise let alone that i would think it was super fun and adorable ^_^

I brought a Katamari game to your house in 2006, we fired it up, you said "this looks like a game for girls" and we turned it off

but you were absolutely right, and I'm sure having a girl around helped you see things in a different light

[a world of no]

riley is such a girl.

[riley-o]

i wouldn't even attempt to deny that at this point

ross i didn't realize that was a katamari game. AND that was when you also brought shadow of the colossus which i was much more interested in and what you'd been pimping for months. "we'll just take a look at this other one real quick and if it looks even remotely shitty we'll go right to SotC." were guaranteed your exact words.

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

my exact words to kelly when she suggested we get it were "that looks like a game for girls."

[Necrometer]

hahahaha

obviously SotC is the better bro-baming choice when no-one's trying to get into anybody's pants

[a world of no]

katamari >> sotc

[spacehamster]

I'm gonna catch ten pages of shit for this, but I d/led SotC the other day, and I can't get into it. I spent like half an hour staring at a horse's ass wondering where the fuck I was supposed to go, and then I just gave up. Maybe I'll try again when my SFIV addiction wears off, I've played Arkham City, Uncharted 3 and ME3, and I've platinumed Dark Souls.

[riley-o]

well let's not all grow vaginae here

[james]

man that katamari is for girls story is fucking awesome

I lent a copy of the og Katamari to a black guy at work in 2007. He kept saying no, no. But I lent it to him anyway. And then he kept it and never gave it back.

[Necrometer]

orienteering: Mikehamster's only weakness

katamari >> sotc

whoa

I lent a copy of the og Katamari to a black guy at work in 2007. He kept saying no, no. But I lent it to him anyway. And then he kept it and never gave it back.

[james]

Wait.

Black people like this game?

I'm out.

Hahahah I dunno man most black people I've ever known have been insane powernerds for anything Asian pop culture. They call it 'chinese' though.

[spacehamster]

orienteering: Mikehamster's only weakness

Hahaha. For the record, this is totally true in real life.

[The Bill]

Anyone remember this game? I loved it/hated it when I was younger (it got me frustrated at times).



I'm so glad youtube is around to preserve these games I'd never be able to see again.

Nope, never saw that game before in my life.

>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TmCRiEE ... re=related<

I used to play this one all the time, but was absolutely horrible at it. Always wonder if I'd be much better as an adult, but judging by the footage, I doubt I really want to play it again.

[Wang Mandu]

Hahaha, Burn Cycle! It had such a cool setup but controlled and played like total shit.

What do you know about Bioforge?

[Wang Mandu]

Early and mid 90s PC gaming had some really great and creative games that were only held back by the tech. A lot of those games, especially Bioforge where they don't tell you anything when the game begins, would never ever get made today. Such a shame.

A game where you can fight a cyborg raptor while holding a severed arm? My little mind was blown away and it looked incredible back in 1995.



From the wiki:

SPOILERSPOILER_SHOW

In the far future, the known universe is ruled by an organization known as 'the Reticulum'. There is also an opposite fanatical group of religious extremists known as the Mondites, who believe in the evolution of man through machine by cybernetic implants, aspire to galactic conquest under the direction of their insane leader, the Prime Paragon.

Years ago, a Reticulum ship called Ambassadoria made contact with an ancient spaceship containing alien remains in stasis. One alien was transferred to the ship for examination. However it returned to life and destroyed everything until the ship self-destructs, after her captain recorded a log. The Mondites however received the distress call before the Reticulum could be notified; through studying the black box and the remains, they finally discover the aliens' homeworld, a moon which they name Daedalus (named after the Greek myth) in a remote sector of the galaxy and establish a base while investigating the ruins the aliens left behind; a sentient race known as the Phyxx who were long thought to be extinct.

To their end, the Mondites abduct people and subject them on Daedalus for their experiments. A mad scientist called Dr. Mastaba who is the base commander and head of the "ABA Project" (Assassin Biologically Augmented) conducts these experiments under the guise of scientific research, mutilating the bodies of his victims in an attempt to turn them into the ultimate killing machine. However, everyone so far has ended up either dead or insane.

Using technology borrowed from the Phyxx, the Mondites have finally succeeded in their experiments. But when one of the aliens is accidentally revived from suspended animation in its tomb, it goes on a rampage through the complex, damaging the reactor and killing half of the base personnel in the process.

The player takes on the role of a randomly identified cyborg based on how the player responds to various events in the game. [5] (Experimental Unit AP-127) who awakens in a cell on Daedelus with no prior memories. After escaping the cell, the player seems to be one of the scant survivors of the incident that has devastated the station. He must unravel the truth about himself, the research station, the bizarre Mondite cult that controls it, and the mysterious ancient alien race that once inhabited the moon.

The game ends rather abruptly after the player escapes Daedalus in an experimental spacecraft in the wake of the moon's destruction, escorted by several Phyxx Blockships. A sequel (BioForge II) was designed and the team were working on the art when the project was halted and changed to an extension of the original game.[6] The extension, however, was also cancelled and subsequently never published.

An in-game quote showing the dark nature of the game when the player chooses to kill a guard whose life can be spared.
BioForge centers mainly on exploration and puzzle solving using items, and also on fighting and interaction with NPCs. The ultimate goal of the game is not obvious at the beginning, since the player is unaware of his identity, which depends on his actions during the game. The player has full control over the main character's actions. This was a deliberate idea of Ken Demarest and Jack Herman. Richard Garriott helped kick off the Interactive Movie theme. In a 1994 magazine article he said that "Interactive Movies have become a buzzword, so it's being applied to games which really aren't. Just because a game has FMV that doesn't automatically make it an interactive movie, because you have very little control over the actor. Neither is a game in which you click on an icon, then sit back and watch a scene take place." [7]

The player character can rotate left and right, walk and run forwards and backwards, and sidestep. The player can also enter a combat stance that makes several punch and kick movements and hand-to-hand weapons (if carried) available. Combat can be awkward and has somewhat of a learning curve since enemies must be faced at the correct rotation angle for attacks to connect. Also, since camera angles are fixed, the view can change in an unpredictable manner if the player crosses scene-thresholds during the fight, a gameplay problem first seen in Alone in the Dark.

The body of the player character houses an exchangeable (and depletable) battery that powers various body functions put there by the experimenters. Functions include a regeneration system that heals all damage when activated, as well as a powerful projectile weapon (known as the PFD Prototype). Upgrading and swapping the battery is key to the player's progress at certain points in the game. The player can also don a protective armoured suit that enables him to survive the harsh atmosphere outside the facility and explore the archaeological dig.

Various objects, such as data-logs or healing packs, can be picked up and stored in an inventory. Selected objects are shown as if carried in the left hand of the player character. Several hand-to-hand and ranged weapons, as well as batteries and other large or one-use objects, can also be picked up during the course of the game, but only one can be carried, using the right hand, and they can not be stored in the inventory.

Much of the game's backplot is revealed by finding and reading logs on PDAs and notes left behind by characters, including accounts of experimental subjects losing their memories and lapsing into insanity. As the plot progresses, the main character automatically updates his own diary/log summarizing what he has discovered and what has happened for the player to review, an event marked by a sound cue.



Lex entering the time-critical reactor chamber puzzle in the protective armoured suit.
A large portion of the puzzle element relies on accessing control and computer terminals in order to remotely control robots, open doors and bypass security systems. The puzzles are realistic and well integrated with the plot, so several have a time limit.

[Chigurh]

You have two arms.. one must be removed..

And then you read the guy's journal and see how he just gradually went insane until his writing became total gibberish

[guardianoftheblind]

are you playing the HD collection now too?

[guardianoftheblind]

great so far. the controls are a bit iffy on a 360 controller, but nothing you can't get used to. get it on the PS3 if you have the option.

and it also reminded me that, depending on how i feel when i get up in the morning, that MGS3:S is probably the best game ever

[guardianoftheblind]

AND SPEAKING OF MGS4.....playing a bit of Peacewalker for the first time reminded me how TERRIBLE that whole 'hit triangle to hug a wall' mechanic that MGS4 decided to go with. why can't i just LEAN AGAINST IT with the stick like in 3? it is so fluid and nice, why the hell would they ever change it?

3 is seriously the pinnacle of the series control layout. still a bit convoluted at times, but you get used to it and it becomes second nature.

fucking 4 and PW are a giant step backwards

[spacehamster]

despite how much fun I'm making of it... 4 is a really fucking good game. I'm enjoying the shit out of it.

It's a funny game that way, isn't it... like I said before, I've played through the whole game at least three times that I remember, so obviously I really, really like it, but it's just too easy to make fun of its shortcomings.

Ssssssssnaaaaaaaaaaaaaake! Show me your rraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaage!

[spacehamster]

And despite the fact that it tries to be serious, it's also really self-awarely goofy?

Now that I think about it, some of the goofier parts are actually where it hits the mark, strangely enough. It has its fair share of that incredibly obnoxious Japanese humor that makes me want to tear my face off (every second Akiba's on screen, for one thing), but for some reason the humor does balance out the melodrama to the point where it becomes bearable.

I think a lot of it for me is the atmosphere of the locations. Going back to Shadow Moses and everything leading up and including the Crying Wolf bossfight being the most obvious example, but it really applies to every single other level in the game too - they're all awesome.

Jesus, now I've talked myself into wanting to play MGS4 again.