OT: NHL 15 & General Video Game Discussion Part Six

[gphr513]

Bought Fifa and it is the best sports game I've ever played. The sheer production value and the customization possibilities are incredible.

Everything down to the slight camera shake when the home team scores a big goal, with the crowd erupting. Little things like that are what make it for me.

 

[Puhis]

Be prepared for lots of dumb racers in GT3.

Fast-tracked my way to A in GT3 by having quite a few 0 inc races and still finishing well into the top 10. I found that it's better to be slow near the start, bunch the pack behind you and then let them by on about 0.5-1sec intervals. Then the already pissed off drivers (thanks to being held up by me going .5-1sec off my pace intentionally) will catch each other, will bunch up and there will be a wreck 75% of the time. Meanwhile, I try and stay around the back of that pack, if I have the pace. Once it looks like there will be carnage, I simply take evasive action.

Another plan: 0x contacts on straight line, also known as bump drafting. Works in GT, and works well. I do it to make the driver in front of me think I'm working together with him. Usually I'm not, unless we have a chance to catch up. I chat with him if he seems nice enough, generally make myself seem like a good guy who has no intention to be aggressive. I bump him on maybe two or three laps. He won't even try to block or change lanes after second time, knowing we're better off if he keeps his line & doesn't want to risk me bumping and spinning him as he turns suddenly.

Then, when moment comes, but not on the last lap (because it would be too predictable), I stab the mother****er in the back. Approach him, take the draft and at the last moment I pull alongside. Now I have the inside to the last chicane, knowing I can brake later because the guy in front has spent last x laps driving as fast as he can to catch someone up, while I simply coast around in the draft. Boom, free position, and usually the guy isn't even mad because I was being so nice previously.

In other words, I can be your best friend on the track or I can be a total and utter ******* doing horrible things while staying completely within the rules. It really depends on my first impression. If someone tries to out-brake me into every corner and is aggressive in general, I'll make his life a living hell because I know how to defend a position, even without resorting to blocking or other unnecessary rule-breaking.

-----

...Either way, I drove my first race as an A-class driver today. Not that the license really matters unless I want to drive F1, and I really don't. I was aware of the fact that A is much harsher on SR than B, but I also knew that I didn't really have to grind SR either. So I went with a more relaxed attitude and was planning to race instead of resorting to tactics and mind games. It was getting boring, and I really wanted to race.

I didn't cause any crashes and I got ****ing disqualified on the last lap after spending 2 minutes on pits for mandatory repairs. Some Italian guy went from one side to another in T2, causing the first 4x. I gave him 3 car widths of room because my spotter said 3-wide before the corner, and it wasn't enough. Then some idiot decided to start a mayhem on T5, involving some lapped cars, the lead pack of 4 cars and the guy in front of me. I saw the yellows, slowed down but didn't expect to see literally the whole track blocked with GT cars. I got a 4x from running into the side of a McLaren, after some guy decided to reverse from the grass into the guy who drove in front of me, making him spin and forcing me to take evasive action. At this point I should mention that there was not even a car width of space, and the only options were to cut through the grass (which was now blocked) or take my chances with the stationary car not moving. He did.

Either way, after that I found myself leading the race briefly, with a pack of 3 very angry ex-leaders behind me. My front was caved in, but it didn't affect my driving (or so I thought at that point). One guy in particular wanted to pass me AS SOON AS POSSIBLE BECAUSE OH GOD HE WILL DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH IF HE DOESN'T GET THROUGH IMMEDIATELY. Idiot. Either way, after I led rest of the lap, he pulled that classic move of "put my nose on the apex just when he turns in". I'm not that stupid, so I left a car width between myself and the apex on T1.

We went two-wide from T3 all the way to T5, where I kept it flat on the outside and gained my lead back. Being completely ahead of him, T6 was my corner. He pulled alongside on the brakes, but as I had the inside, I was once again 90% ahead of him entering the second part of the chicane, which turned right. I saw him briefly running wide on the exit, knowing the next one would be my corner. I still left him just under a car width of room on the inside, and it was not enough. Instead of lifting, he chose to simply run right into my right QP. With his front bumper. I saved myself from spinning, but got ANOTHER 4x and lost 3 places.

Few laps later, I found myself running 4th, behind some guy who had caught me, trying to catch the leaders. Looked at the timer, 4 minutes remaining on the 30 minute race. Yay, at least it's over soon.

Entered T3, a right-left chicane. Cut the kerb, like I usually do. Car jolted a bit, like it usually does, only a bit different. Turned left, like I usually do. Car didn't. Car, meet concrete. 2x contact penalty. Amazingly, it still felt quite fine and I only lost around 1.5-2 seconds, but I was forced to pit due to "too much damage". So I did.

Later, I found out by watching the replay that the front end damage was much more significant than I initially thought, so that must've absolutely cooked the front tyres or screwed up the suspension.

Two minute repairs, went back out for one final lap. Still not sure why I did that, but I wanted to. Cold tyres. Wrecked car. One last hurrah. Everything went fine until I exited T3 and pulled aside to let a pack of cars (now a lap ahead of me) go by. Suddenly, the car just lost all grip and I hit the concrete wall, got an off-track and some guy behind me, although not too badly. Still enough to warrant an 4x, and a disqualification, amazingly with 19 incs out of possible 17.

So, yeah. Montreal is fun. A3.46 -> A2.47 in a single race. A SINGLE RACE. And I only arguably caused one of them, which was a direct result of an earlier accident not caused by me. But the most irritating fact is that I was screwed from a possible podium finish on a good split and got a massive SR hit and a lower iR hit instead.

Yeah, it's racing and yeah, accidents happen but I'm starting to understand why you quit.

 

[StealthClobber]

...I read the whole story...

Yeah, it's racing and yeah, accidents happen but I'm starting to understand why you quit.

Yup. Sounds like iR GT3 to me. Where half of the drivers aren't even good enough to drive the MX-5 Cup series, let alone 12C's, Z4's and RUF's around F1 tracks.

 

[Avder]

Puhis I can't follow that worth a damn but it sounds really ****ing fun.

 

[BurnsyMN]

Everything down to the slight camera shake when the home team scores a big goal, with the crowd erupting. Little things like that are what make it for me.

The authentic chants in the premier league stadiums are amazing too. From Liverpool singing "You'll never walk alone" and the Spurs "When the Spurs go marching in"

 

[Vashanesh]

I've killed Uggu the Pain Lover ~10 times, he just keeps coming back.

The best and worst part about the nemesis system.

Try to do a brutal takedown, if he's not immune to stealth attacks. Alternatively, blow him the **** up.

The system is designed in such a way that if you don't behead them, or some other extreme (extreme by the game's standards, not logic), then there's a good chance they'll come back. And they usually come back with new scars and a snappy comeback about how you didn't get them the first time.

I'm loving the game, but if I had a beef... Once you start taking on tough enemies, you either set yourself up to make it easy, or you lose. The level 12+ captains are immune to so many things, you usually only have one option to come at them with or you're wasting time and likely making them stronger.

This just means that what should be an extremely tough fight is either easy or impossible.

 

[Victorious Secret]

The best and worst part about the nemesis system.

Try to do a brutal takedown, if he's not immune to stealth attacks. Alternatively, blow him the **** up.

The system is designed in such a way that if you don't behead them, or some other extreme (extreme by the game's standards, not logic), then there's a good chance they'll come back. And they usually come back with new scars and a snappy comeback about how you didn't get them the first time.

I'm loving the game, but if I had a beef... Once you start taking on tough enemies, you either set yourself up to make it easy, or you lose. The level 12+ captains are immune to so many things, you usually only have one option to come at them with or you're wasting time and likely making them stronger.

This just means that what should be an extremely tough fight is either easy or impossible.

I try to research them before I go in for the kill. And I've tried to go through and see how many captains I can have dead at once and its not far, maybe half. Once you get the Triangle+Circle move(if on PS4) it helps A LOT. But I try to isolate the captain and pull out the stun and slash attack to get the Triangle and Circle charged up. Two of those moves and they're usually gone.

 

[gphr513]

The authentic chants in the premier league stadiums are amazing too. From Liverpool singing "You'll never walk alone" and the Spurs "When the Spurs go marching in"

It is cool in my Spurs CM to hear my fans chanting COYS or "When the Spurs go marching in" after I score at away games!

 

[Vashanesh]

I try to research them before I go in for the kill. And I've tried to go through and see how many captains I can have dead at once and its not far, maybe half. Once you get the Triangle+Circle move(if on PS4) it helps A LOT. But I try to isolate the captain and pull out the stun and slash attack to get the Triangle and Circle charged up. Two of those moves and they're usually gone.

That's a good tactic until later on. Most of the high ranked captains are immune to ground finishers.

Just wait until you get the archers that are immune to melee, run fast, immune to ranged, etc... Then you've got a group of random guys with a gnarly archer running around taking major chunks of your health off per shot... And you can't do much to slow them down.

It's a crazy game, a lot of fun, though.

 

[Victorious Secret]

Its a nice game, but the scenery gets redundant. Or maybe I haven't progressed enough.

 

[Vashanesh]

Its a nice game, but the scenery gets redundant. Or maybe I haven't progressed enough.

Yeah, I'll agree with that. I'm not THAT far into the story (~20%), so maybe it changes later on.

I've just been punishing the nemesis system and eating it up.

 

[Puhis]

Yup. Sounds like iR GT3 to me. Where half of the drivers aren't even good enough to drive the MX-5 Cup series, let alone 12C's, Z4's and RUF's around F1 tracks.

Puhis I can't follow that worth a damn but it sounds really ****ing fun.

Guess what? Someone posted a video of it. I'm in the black & blue BMW that you'll see on the exterior views.

 

[Avder]

I know a couple people that go nuts building their gaming PCs into simulation stations for like flght sims or racing games. What kinda setup do you have?

 

[Puhis]

I know a couple people that go nuts building their gaming PCs into simulation stations for like flght sims or racing games. What kinda setup do you have?

Pretty standard, since money is an issue.

Not pictured: Standard faux-leather chair with tubular frame (the kind you can find at waiting rooms everywhere), pedals and headphones.

I'm planning to build a proper sim rig at some point, but that requires (you guessed it) money. Which I don't have right now, and the current setup is pretty painful on my knees, because Logitech DFGT pedals are flappy as a loose you-know-what.

 

[Vashanesh]

Pretty standard, since money is an issue.

Not pictured: Standard faux-leather chair with tubular frame (the kind you can find at waiting rooms everywhere), pedals and headphones.

I'm planning to build a proper sim rig at some point, but that requires (you guessed it) money. Which I don't have right now, and the current setup is pretty painful on my knees, because Logitech DFGT pedals are flappy as a loose you-know-what.

I have that same keyboard, I love it.

Are those monitors different resolution? Or is it just my eyes?

 

[Puhis]

I have that same keyboard, I love it.

Are those monitors different resolution? Or is it just my eyes?

The other one has a higher stand. They're both 1920x1080 AFAIK, although the left one COULD be 16:10, not quite sure.

Both are actually TVs, I just use them as monitors. Only reason I have two is because the right one doesn't have a working HDMI port.

Planning to get a triple monitor setup, a sim rig and at least better pedals. That also requires me to update my PC, which I will do at some point. I also need a lot of money first, but I hope I'll turn one of my two current internships to a regular one by December. Well, the first one is an internship but a rather interesting one, and the second is more of a try-out until December. Good chance I'll turn it into a proper job though.

 

[StealthClobber]

Guess what? Someone posted a video of it. I'm in the black & blue BMW that you'll see on the exterior views.

I'm assuming the Red Bull McLaren was one of the blue flaggers? If so, that was a very dumb time and place to brake to let the leader by (assuming the leader was the Black and Yellow McLaren). If that was the situation, that's what I'm talking about, just dumb drivers in GT3.

Nice livery btw. You didn't deserve any contact penalties for that though.

 

[Puhis]

I'm assuming the Red Bull McLaren was one of the blue flaggers? If so, that was a very dumb time and place to brake to let the leader by (assuming the leader was the Black and Yellow McLaren). If that was the situation, that's what I'm talking about, just dumb drivers in GT3.

Nice livery btw. You didn't deserve any contact penalties for that though.

Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Well, it's GT3. When there's a field of nearly 30 cars, and I'm #8, there's bound to be some truly awful drivers near the bottom.

Thank you. Spent some time making that.

 

[tyratoku]

So TitanFall had its most recent map expansion pack this week, which is the final one counted in the season pass. Very solid trio of maps to go along with the other six already released. All nine were in the upper tier of maps created by Respawn and it really makes me hopeful toward where they will steer the series going forward.

On one hand I'm bummed that TitanFall 2 won't be an Xbox exclusive anymore, but on the other if they expand to Playstation it will likely mean a larger team, possibly ending up with a revamped campaign with a coherent story that is engaging to play.

The multiplayer has been great. I have played several days total with the game over the last few months and wholeheartedly enjoy it. They really do not need to work on much there aside from offering more gametypes and customization options for pilots and titans. They said they were looking into both but all we really got were patches for the pilots and emblems for the titans. Being able to put decals, or change colors, or swap out pieces of equipment on the titans would go a long way.

The campaign, like I already said, was a mess. It was all online - which is fine, and was executed well - but it was just normal gametypes you could otherwise play. One campaign mission is just deathmatch, with a cutscene-esque thing saying that we need to eliminate terrorist support in this sector or something. It was cobbled together and was pretty lame. On the bright side, however, there was a solid background and universe being built with plenty of room for elaboration and expansion in the future.

Overall I'm happy with the product several months out and I recommend those here who have Xbox Ones to pick it up. I'm sure it's cheaper now and you will be more than happy with your purchase.

 

[Minnesota]

Why are you bummed it's no longer an Xbox exclusive?

 

[tyratoku]

Why are you bummed it's no longer an Xbox exclusive?

Just kind of a talking point I really shouldn't care about. Thought it would be the perfect thing to complement Gears of War and Halo as part of an Xbox trifecta of shooters.

Microsoft had a lot of input with Titanfall, from what I have read at least, and I doubt they will do much going forward because then Sony would probably have an issue with it. I was kind of hoping to see more Kinect implementation of some sort but that probably won't happen either.

 

[Hall of Faber]

Whatever they did too NHL 15 on next gen fixed the problems I was having with it. Playing online feels smooth now not sluggish like before. Went 9-1 online today.

 

[this providence]

I know the bleep storms these things can turn into but, in terms of consoles what seems to be the better buy at this point? The Xbox or PS4?

Brief summary:
1. Played a lot of shooters/sports games in the past. Life has changed with a gal/kid(s) so won't have the time I did before.
2. Playing with friends online is a nonfactor at this stage of my life.
3. Spent the majority of my previous playing days on an Xbox.
4. Favorite games all-time are likely Skyrim, Just Cause 2, NHL (Be a GM), Saints Row, CoD WaW, CoD4. Pretty much anything that is highly customizable and free to do your own thing.

 

[Foxlockbox]

I know the bleep storms these things can turn into but, in terms of consoles what seems to be the better buy at this point? The Xbox or PS4?

Brief summary:
1. Played a lot of shooters/sports games in the past. Life has changed with a gal/kid(s) so won't have the time I did before.
2. Playing with friends online is a nonfactor at this stage of my life.
3. Spent the majority of my previous playing days on an Xbox.
4. Favorite games all-time are likely Skyrim, Just Cause 2, NHL (Be a GM), Saints Row, CoD WaW, CoD4. Pretty much anything that is highly customizable and free to do your own thing.

As far as I know PS4 has done alot more right this time around compared to its competitor. None of the games you mentioned are exclusives so it shouldn't be a factor when deciding I guess.

 

[tyratoku]

I know the bleep storms these things can turn into but, in terms of consoles what seems to be the better buy at this point? The Xbox or PS4?

Brief summary:
1. Played a lot of shooters/sports games in the past. Life has changed with a gal/kid(s) so won't have the time I did before.
2. Playing with friends online is a nonfactor at this stage of my life.
3. Spent the majority of my previous playing days on an Xbox.
4. Favorite games all-time are likely Skyrim, Just Cause 2, NHL (Be a GM), Saints Row, CoD WaW, CoD4. Pretty much anything that is highly customizable and free to do your own thing.

Unless Xbox exclusives are a big thing to you, Playstation is the way to go. It has better specs and allows developers to do more graphics wise. Games consistently run at a better resolution on PS4 vs Xbox One.

I say that as a guy who only owns an X1. I love Halo far too much to ever miss the opportunity to miss a game. Add in Gears of War and I couldn't say no. Now they have upcoming exclusives like Sunset Overdrive and Quantam Break that look awesome, and I don't regret my purchase at all.