What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

I know most people write this off immediately, but local co-op on the PC is doing pretty well. I just have a laptop that I can take to a friend's house, hook it up to the TV, and go. I have 8 controllers (4 wired and 4 wireless) to play Gang Beasts, but mostly it's 4 player stuff.

I have a pretty large selection of games:

Samurai Gunn
Mount Your Friends
Gang Beasts
Sportsfriends
Lethal League
Nidhogg
Foiled
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
Videoball

I even have Ubuntu on a bootable USB stick so we can play JS Joust with my 7 PS Move controllers.

I know I'm in the severe minority, but I have a lot of fun with it.

You're missing Ultimate Chicken Horse.

I think that might be too slow moving for my group of friends.

I also want to try Lovers In A Dangerous Spacetime, but I imagine it wouldn't fly. I'll have to rope my wife into playing it with me.

NIDHOGG in tournament mode is amazing. I set that up at the kids' parties and it's a grand old time.

My pc is super old and I'll not get another til it's fried or I can't shop, bank, or surf anymore. The Switch promo didn't impress me but I've not really followed it. Probably not for me though...

I pre-ordered Sniper Elite 4, which comes out Feb. 14. Normally I wouldn't pre-order a game, or even buy a game for full-price at release. There are rare exceptions, such as a Borderlands game.

I pre-ordered in this case because you get a bonus mission, and last year, playing co-op missions in Sniper Elite 3 with a friend of mine online was the most fun I had gaming in all of 2016. That game is phenomenal, and 4 looks to be at least that good.

If you've got an okay gaming PC, there's a bunch of couch co-op games available. The list above is missing Overcooked. If you want to get things up on your TV, grab a Steam Link, and that's solved. You can either hook up wired controllers, connect PS4 (and maybe Xbox Ones?) via bluetooth, or get the 360 wireless PC receiver and use all your wireless 360 controllers. Since Sony and MS seem to be going to online MP-only, it's basically either that or Nintendo for couch co-op, but it's definitely still an option.

I'm in the Ghost Recon Wildlands beta this weekend on Xbox One. I played through all 6 main story missions yesterday with various people online. That in itself didn't take very long. The world is huge, and the beta is only 1 out of 21 areas. Luckily there is fast travel because you could easily spend the majority of your time traveling. There seems to be a pretty long upgrade path, and it was fun finding new equipment in the world.

The game looks great, and playing with other people was easy, and everyone cooperated. Voice chat didn't seem to work for me for some reason.

Based on my short time with it, I'd call it a 3rd person Joint Ops, or a less-crazy multiplayer Just Cause. Both of those are compliments. At this point I expect I'll get it in the future, but I'm not sure about platform yet. I am a much better shot on PC, but I'm sure the community will be better on Xbox.

I tried the demo for Watch Dogs 2, got instantly hooked and bought the whole thing. I really like this game, because:

- It's a very competent GTA-like that's not a mass murderer simulator. Been playing for about 6 hrs and haven't killed anybody yet. Nor used a gun. I realized that I can order cars with an app, so stopped hijacking vehicles, too.
- Hacking is very cool. So far, I have only once or twice physically stepped INSIDE the facility I was infiltrating, and very briefly. You can do most of the stuff by sending in your drones and hacking cameras.
- The writing is not bad so far. Screw it, it is actually pretty damn good, in particular for video-games. The hackers, including the main character, are a likable bunch, not your typical video-game ass-holes, the banter between them has a natural flow to it, and it is all pretty energetic, aiming more for buddy comedy than the usual nihilist drama of the open world. So far, it doesn't take itself too seriously, but it is not slapstick either. And you immediately notice that this is not Rockstar because there're no racist, chauvinistic or homophobic slurs and stereotypes disguised as "satire". That doesn't mean that all the jokes or lines work, either... but so far, nothing that made me want to throw up.
- you get to hack Scientology. And rescue a Tom Cruise look-alike from it (I hoped for Travolta, though). Again, so far, I didn't have any ethical issues with missions themselves or character's motivation to do them (my chief problem with GTA)
- San Francisco is portrayed in a very cool, friendly way. I caught myself thinking - I wouldn't mind living in a city like this for awhile, which I never think about GTA-likes.

I really wish they had scrapped the firearms altogether. It just doesn't fit the characters and the tone of the game. Even the scene where these guys 3D-print a gun is kind of uncomfortable and out of place. But I understand, since physical violence has been a staple of open world games for so many years, you can't expect an AAA title to just say: this is not a game where you shoot people. Anyway, I think those times are not too far away.

Thanks for this Vlad. I was thinking about WD2 this weekend as I want a GTA game, but I don't want GTA. This confirms my suspicions that WD2 can deliver that experience.

how's the music tho?

it can't deliver that experience.

Were you the one talking about GTA V before? I can't remember who that was.

Watch Dogs 2 will clearly be better than the first one, but what is that saying exactly? Not much.

However, because you and Vlad share a unique set of metrics as to what you want out of a sandbox game, it could very well be for you.

The driving is better, the character and personality of the setting is amazing (as Vlad mentioned), the sandbox itself is fantastic. What Vlad doesn't mention is that the game forces you to commit a bunch of federal crimes that makes Trevor Philips look pretty tame.

Listen carefully, the game is fun... but it's totally restrained fun because of the core decisions of the game. You're doing fun stuff to combar social unrest and manipulation of the media, until the stupid stealth systems FORCE you to pull out gatling guns to have some fun.

The soundtrack is killer tho, Jeb.

You are going to be forced to be the judge, jury and, yes, executioner. I would LOVE to hear what Barnes thinks of this game because it's quite obvious that the inclusion of guns in this game has really brought this game down. Having guns doesn't fit the theme at all. The guns don't work with the basic theme of the game either, they don't add anything at all. The guns highlight the problems with the hacking mechism (which is the alternative to guns) and the mission design.

When i'm talking about the crappy stealth design, i'll try to give an example. You LOOK at a laptop and the AI becomes instantly aggro with you, which will force you to pull out a weapon and kill every last soul in the room. .... or you can crawl out of sight, which is SUPER frustrating to do. All of this will make existing in this world feel really uncomfortable which is a huge problem when the world is cool to live in. It basically will break suspension of disbelief several times and that's jarring for me.

To Vlad's point, the game is desperately trying to be different and would have come closer to succeeding without guns (which make ZERO sense with this particular protagonist btw).

Anyway, i just wanted to give you proper warning. If you want to get it, do me a favour and post back here after 30 hours in the game or so and let me know how you find it.

You guys are right that theft, destruction and murder are the main elements of GTA V. That's the nature of those games. The problem with this game is that it isn't those things but the mechanics will force you to do those things. Which is awful and out of place here.

GTA V really is one of the best video games I've ever played. I love just doing what I want, flying different planes and helicopters.... even touring the entire outside of the island in a submarine to map the floor was incredibly zen and relaxing. I don't need to be shooting people up.


I really wish L.A. Noire was better with the sandbox elements because I LOVED driving around that city.

I think the most peaceful sandbox experience i've ever had in any game was surprisingly Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. i can't explain how peaceful it was sailing around the carribean, occassionally doing some diving, reacting to this huge waves that would come out of nowhere, all the while your crew singing all these sea shanties. And you don't have to shoot or kill anybody if you don't want to. LOVE IT

Yeah, I was bitching about GTAV before, which got me in the mood of GTA without the assholery, I guess, and that, in turn, lead me into getting Watch Dogs

I'm satisfied so far (which I used almost in every sentence) and about 6 hrs. in. It could go all wrong this very evening, in which case I'll post so immediately.

For me, the big question is whether it is feasible to complete the game without becoming a mass murderer.

Barney, any other federal offenses (of which you commit one every ten second or so) are tame by video game (or TV show and film) standards. Duh!

I like the music, but there're not enough songs imho. Unless you can unlock more or something.

ah i didn't know you were only six hours in. Yeah, give it a few more days and you might start to see cracks in the armor. It's not a bad game, not at all, but it has some major problems that keep it from being what it wanted to be.

The situation in Watch Dogs 2 of not wanting to become a mass murderer when playing is similar to how I was in Oblivion. A game where you didn't have to be a mass murderer if you didn't want to be. BUT the game mechanics kind of forced you to, sometimes. Case in point: I'm shopping in the city capital, in one of the big districts. I am looking at items for sale and I accidentally clicked on an apple which wasn't for sale, so i was stealing it. The shopkeep saw me do it and yelled at me. A member of the city watch was outside within range so he could hear the plea for help, he comes crashing in ordering me to surrender. I pull out my sword and start mashing the 'subdue' button which is what you're supposed to do in order to get arrested (if you just stand there, he will try to kill you eventually). So i'm trying to surrender but this guard is having none of it. I happened to be an orc so I'm positive he was profiling me. Anyway, he starts trying to kill me eventually so I have no choice but to defend myself...

...he falls after a few swings and now everyone in the shop is freaking out. Ken and Boothwah might remember me talking about this character. I designed a huge orc that was SUPER good in Archery. Lord of the Rings was all the rage so I wanted him to be just like Lurtz, who i love. The thing is, i had all these extra attribute points to place and I didn't want to specialize in several weapons, so i poured them all into Mercantile. Imagining Lurtz screaming out, "FIND THE BARGAINS!!!"

Anyway, back to the story. Everyone in the shop runs for help and half of the city watch shows up. I killed pretty much all of them and had to escape the city. Lots of kids didn't have their fathers to tuck them in that night. And all because of one stupid apple.

This situation PRECISELY speaks to the problems with Watch Dogs 2. That apple will be a laptop at some point for you. And all you did was LOOK AT IT. That's a big problem with the game and will result in you being forced to being what you shouldn't ever be.

The thing is in Oblivion, it fits the game to become a mass murderer. it won't fit at all within Watch Dogs 2 because they clearly designed the game to not be about guns, and obviously some jerk in some meeting insisted on adding it late in development.

This same jerk is in lots of these meetings apparently because Amanda Ripley has a gun and kills PEOPLE in Alien: Isolation which makes ZERO sense. Her mom couldn't even kill Burke. That asian chick from Mirror's Edge also has a gun which makes ZERO sense, she's a stupid mail courrier and her first instinct in getting yelled at isn't supposed to be to put a bullet in the security guy's brain. STOP PUTTING GUNS IN EVERYTHING.

Black Barney wrote: STOP PUTTING GUNS IN EVERYTHING.

Amen. They totally ruined the last Ponies game with that crap.



I must say though, I did have a 4.3 K/D ratio before the Pinky Pie Nerf. Now the meta is all Hand Cannons and Apple Jack.

That ponie is so hot right now

ApplejackOP