OT: General Video Game Discussion VII

[elnewby]

Battlefield Hardline is still the best game released this year. Truly fantastic shooter.

+1.

Also, Farming Simulator comes out on console Tuesday. I'm not a farmer, and I will never be one. But, I really enjoy this game.

 

[BurnsyMN]

I'm a big Halo fan, but my excitement level for the series really dropped after Halo 4. I thought the campaign was really solid but multiplayer was just not the same. Then with all the problems with MCC, I know a lot of people aren't thrilled with 343 right now. Even if they didn't do all of MCC.

The Halo 5 beta was solid. It felt very polished and I'd say felt better than 4 in my limited time playing.

Anyway about working for a game developer, it sounds like many people work long, long hours, and it seems like the job security is well below average. That's why I would never want to work for one. But since you're in HR, it's a different story. In that case, I think it'd be pretty cool. I'm sure the culture is pretty much the opposite of a corporate office, so that would be interesting.

I popped in Halo MCC last night to see if it was at all functional. Seems to be working great but hardly anyone is playing anymore. It's a shame it took them 5 months to get the multiplayer playable. I won't be picking up Halo 5 until I see the reviews. I'm usually all over pre orders for AAA games like that but nah...after the disaster that was Halo MCC, i'll wait.

 

[Avder]

Megaman 7's final boss can go straight to hell.

 

[Wild11MN]

Been playing a bunch of Forza Horizon 2 recently and beat that. Very solid game. Now trying to get back into State of Decay. Started the first few hours a while back, and forgot things happen while you're away. My camp's morale is way down and several people died in the meantime.

Also just ordered Fire Emblem: Awakening, so excited to play that when it gets here in a few days. Never played a FE game, just the demo of this one, but the game has insanely good reviews so figured I had to give it a shot.

 

[Vashanesh]

Been playing a bunch of Forza Horizon 2 recently and beat that. Very solid game. Now trying to get back into State of Decay. Started the first few hours a while back, and forgot things happen while you're away. My camp's morale is way down and several people died in the meantime.

Also just ordered Fire Emblem: Awakening, so excited to play that when it gets here in a few days. Never played a FE game, just the demo of this one, but the game has insanely good reviews so figured I had to give it a shot.

For me, FE:A was a game that I desperately wanted to like, but the systems in place made that impossible.

They very actively discourage grinding early on, and yet the early missions are brutally difficult. And this is coming from a guy who loves Final Fantasy Tactics -- I've replayed the game at least 5 or 6 times start to finish. It's a game that I constantly felt I was missing some very major details, and I've yet to find out what it was I was missing.

That said, it's hard to ignore aaaaaaaallllllllll those reviews. Hopefully you have more luck with it than I did!

 

[Avder]

Welp Wily got his machines blowned up by me for the 7th time this week.

On to Megaman 8. One thing that's neat about this game is you have a dedicated megabuster button so you can fire the regular gun while having a special weapon selected.

Some pretty neat chiptunes too. And yes, they were chiptunes.

 

[SupremeNachos]

I'm a big Halo fan, but my excitement level for the series really dropped after Halo 4. I thought the campaign was really solid but multiplayer was just not the same. Then with all the problems with MCC, I know a lot of people aren't thrilled with 343 right now. Even if they didn't do all of MCC.

The Halo 5 beta was solid. It felt very polished and I'd say felt better than 4 in my limited time playing.

Anyway about working for a game developer, it sounds like many people work long, long hours, and it seems like the job security is well below average. That's why I would never want to work for one. But since you're in HR, it's a different story. In that case, I think it'd be pretty cool. I'm sure the culture is pretty much the opposite of a corporate office, so that would be interesting.

The Halo games have become one of my favorites of all time. The campaign has an excellent story and now they are finally phasing in material from the books.

 

[Wild11MN]

For me, FE:A was a game that I desperately wanted to like, but the systems in place made that impossible.

They very actively discourage grinding early on, and yet the early missions are brutally difficult. And this is coming from a guy who loves Final Fantasy Tactics -- I've replayed the game at least 5 or 6 times start to finish. It's a game that I constantly felt I was missing some very major details, and I've yet to find out what it was I was missing.

That said, it's hard to ignore aaaaaaaallllllllll those reviews. Hopefully you have more luck with it than I did!

Interesting. I'm actually not an RPG guy at all. I just played the demo and got sort of an Advance Wars vibe, which is a game that I love. Hope I end up liking it, because yeah, the reviews are insane.

The Halo games have become one of my favorites of all time. The campaign has an excellent story and now they are finally phasing in material from the books.

To be honest, I'm not huge into the story, so I've never read any of the books. The gameplay hits all the right spots for me though.

 

[Dee Oh Cee]

I'm hearing great things about Witcher 3...might be my next purchase.

Also, talking about some 3DS and DS games...one of my favorites that I found was Radiant Historia. Really cool concept/story.

 

[llamapalooza]

Some pretty neat chiptunes too. And yes, they were chiptunes.

Just wait until 9 if you like chiptunes. That soundtrack is absolutely stellar.

Anyway about working for a game developer, it sounds like many people work long, long hours, and it seems like the job security is well below average. That's why I would never want to work for one. But since you're in HR, it's a different story. In that case, I think it'd be pretty cool. I'm sure the culture is pretty much the opposite of a corporate office, so that would be interesting.

This is right. I can only give you the engineering perspective, not the HR perspective, but the games industry's reputation amongst engineers is pretty awful. Outside of games, software engineers are generally treated really, really well because there are like two open positions per engineer or something insane like that. That's why I didn't even think about going into games. But the games industry is the reciprocal. Loads of people want to get in, and there aren't very many (permanent) positions. They know they can get away with underpaying and pushing super tight deadlines, and ultimately because game development is so cyclical (little to do in the early stages, loads to do in the last 6 months to a year) and they know they can always find replacements, they lean heavily on contractors, or worse, treat their full-time employees like contractors and lay them off as projects wind down.

Here is a rather famous piece by the spouse of an EA employee. It's from 2004 but I honestly don't think a single thing has changed.

FYI, AFAIK the Activision office in EP is a 100% business (i.e., no engineering) office. I have no idea what that changes from an HR perspective, nor from a culture perspective, but it's probably worth pointing out.

 

[BigT2002]

https://www.easports.com/nhl/features/nhl-16

They have my attention now....

 

[Randy BoBandy]

If GM mode is revamped I'm in. That is by far my favorite thing to do on NHL but it has been the same thing for years now.

I had noticed quick plays seemed so slow and catching a giving passes accurately and quickly was nearly impossible in the recent games.

Playoff beards

 

[BurnsyMN]

If GM mode is revamped I'm in. That is by far my favorite thing to do on NHL but it has been the same thing for years now.

I had noticed quick plays seemed so slow and catching a giving passes accurately and quickly was nearly impossible in the recent games.

Playoff beards

I'm a GM player as well. I hope it's a lot deeper this year but i'll believe it when I see it. They hyped last years game so much and it was a disaster.The only thing that got support was HUT. It wouldn't surprise me if EA eventually added in game purchases to single player modes "Player A is out for 2 weeks with a lower body injury, purchase a healing pack for $4.99"

 

[123TripleDoge]

The speed of the passing relative to skater speed has never been correct, nor has the skating speed/acceleration relative to rink size. No matter what sliders, it was impossible to get correct.

Also with manual passing on in NHL15, I still wasn't able to hold the trigger and get a fast pass, it was just simply broken.

I have no interest in those online modes at all, and those GM additions sound pretty silly. Just give me good gameplay against the AI and a decent GM.

Biggest pet peeve is when the AI doesn't forecheck. Like, the second I lose puck control behind the opposing goalie or along the boards, my d-men back up to basically the redline, regardless of if I'm gonna win it back/pressure more.

Rant over

 

[BigT2002]

If GM mode is revamped I'm in. That is by far my favorite thing to do on NHL but it has been the same thing for years now.

I had noticed quick plays seemed so slow and catching a giving passes accurately and quickly was nearly impossible in the recent games.

Playoff beards

Same I'm a big fan of GM mode over everything else. Single Player mode with HUT is intriguing too. I hate playing online against people I don't know. Too much cheesing goes on.

 

[Granlund 64]

NHL 16...

"Giving you back what we took from you last year... With a little garnish on the side."

 

[BigT2002]

NHL 16...

"Giving you back what we took from you last year... With a little garnish on the side."

Playoff beards though!! And the Lighthouse!

 

[gphr513]

I love the playoff beards

NHL used to be an instant buy, but after skipping 15, I'll be waiting until 16 gets released to see what the community has to say.

And GM mode will have to be totally revamped. I couldn't care less about HUT, EASHL, etc.

 

[BurnsyMN]

I love the playoff beards

NHL used to be an instant buy, but after skipping 15, I'll be waiting until 16 gets released to see what the community has to say.

And GM mode will have to be totally revamped. I couldn't care less about HUT, EASHL, etc.

If an NHL game came out with great gameplay combined with the depth of EHM. RIP my social life.

 

[gphr513]

If an NHL game came out with great gameplay combined with the depth of EHM. RIP my social life.

Yep.

Like if FIFA ever teamed up with Football Manager. I would play it until my retinas burned out

 

[Granlund 64]

I'd settle for a game that includes all the team's prospects. There is probably something that prevents them from using the college guys (like NCAA football). Add in a prospect creator or something like that. Olofsson, Tuch, Lucia, Gilmour and the rest make up a large chunk of our prospect pool and they aren't in the game.

Id also like to be able to adjust line strategies in the main menu and not have to reset them every game. Maybe I'm just missing the spot to do that.

 

[Sharppi]

Damn trolls and their mad regen. Had to do some grease+web+stinking cloud+cloudkill cheese with fireball spam.

 

[Vashanesh]

Damn trolls and their mad regen. Had to do some grease+web+stinking cloud+cloudkill cheese with fireball spam.

The Witcher 3? I'm probably starting that tonight, but I'm not sure if that's what you're referencing.

Side note: Opeth is ****ing amazing.

 

[Wild11MN]

I plan on buying NHL 16, because I'd really like a current gen NHL game that I don't have to boycott. But I too will be waiting for reviews before buying it. If it sucks, well it's back to another year of NHL 12 for me.

 

[Puhis]

I just hope the EASHL is good. If the play progression is anything like in FIFA - count me in.

Also, Sharppi, Lapa... Are your bodies ready?