What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

FYI, I chose the slowest shipping option for Mario Maker on Amazon (Prime) and got $10 off.

I have some hesitation with Mario Maker. Or rather, maybe I don't think it's the right game for us at this time. Make no mistake, my son wants it badly, but I just don't see him putting in the time to create these gonzo, yet solvable stages that would be a lot of fun to work through. I'm imagining more xtreme stage building that'll get old fast. Such as filling up a screen with giant piranha plants riding on koopas or something for a quick laugh. Maybe the game has some built in constraints or guidance? I dunno. We played it at Nintendo World in NYC a few weeks ago and you could pretty much do anything.

Again, maybe when he's a few years older...

i think I found a new favourite game reviewer

So right about at the 60 hour mark, I finish up the last story mission in MGSV. Drive a tank through an enemy base, big traditional battle with a mech, the Diamond Dogs get their revenge, etc. Credits roll. Deep sense of satisfaction except that I'm thinking there are some story threads left undone. That's cool, I heard the ending was sort of disappointing.

End of credits scrolls by, we get a bunch of rewards, I'm thinking "cool, time for new game plus or free-roaming on the side missions plus mulitplayer- still plenty of game left here.

And then "Coming up in Chapter 2..."

Black Barney wrote: i think I found a new favourite game reviewer

Nice find! Looks like he's busy with MGSV as well.

I have an MGSV question. In Ground Zeroes, I can't manage to extract Paz. I've tried countless times, with varying strategies. Either her or I always end up dead, and I get frustrated and turn it off.

Considering that, would Phantom Pain just piss me off to the point of rage quitting, or is it something different altogether?

Phantom Pain is much more forgiving than Ground Zeroes was...Paz has to live, which makes it hard. Plus- if I'm remembering this correctly- all hell breaks lose as soon as that chopper comes down. I think what I did was to hide Paz and then systematically take out just about everybody at the base.

But yeah, there aren't really any mission critical kinds of pass/fail situations. More than any other stealth game I've ever played, it encourages you to NOT reload from checkpoint when you get spotted. It encourages you to improvise, and you actually DO have a chance blowing the whole sneaking thing and going all-in. And you aren't even really penalized for it in terms of score. There are bonuses for stealth/no kill/etc but no penalties either. Well, except for one that I'm not sure really exists.

Extractions are also way easier anyway thanks to the Fulton balloons. There's just a couple where you have to do anything like in Ground Zeroes.

Witness that video above...that's the kind of leeway this game gives you to fuck around. Thats how all of that hilarious shit gets discovered.

BTW, all of the somber, very serious end game sequences in my game played out with me wearing the chicken hat. It was hysterical.

I have spent the evening playing several rounds of the beta of Rainbow Six: Siege and can give some thoughts on it. But first I'll start with some background. I've played almost every R6 game since the first one. I skipped 3 and 4. I have loved every one I have played, including the Vegas titles. GASP! I'm not a purist and don't think the series has sucked since the rise of Call of Duty. I'm also 43 and no longer have the eye sight or reflexes required to be good at competitive multiplayer anymore.

That said... how does it play? First, watch the 3 tutorials so you can unlock a character. You have to play as a "recruit" unless you have one of the named Operators unlocked. Anyway, jump into match making. Wait FOREVER. If you are lucky, you'll get matched up with 9 other people. In my experience this is currently very hit or miss, but it's a beta and just rolled out today, so who knows.

Once you are in, everything works great. At least it did for me. I was pinging about 60. You take turns attacking and defending, 5 person teams. Attackers send in little RC drones to try to locate the objective(s). Defenders can shoot them or jam their signal. Defenders are placing barricades and generally getting ready to be assaulted. I found defending to be extremely tense, as you are holed up in a small area and you hear these distant BOOMS as attackers blow the hell out of walls and doors.

You no longer snap to cover like you could in Vegas. And as for realism, a lot of it is out the window, but I'd say on average, if 2 bullets hit you, you are dead.

As of now I think the game is cool, I'm happy I pre-ordered it, and I hope I get good at it. Tomorrow the terrorist hunt mode unlocks, which is my main jam.

Jumped in with Destiny: The Taken King. So far it's blandly generic but honestly that's fine by me, as I prefer a blandly generic plot that stays mostly out of the way to a blandly generic plot that keeps interrupting gameplay to throw blandly generic bullshit at me (looking at you, Mass Effect). I have a bunch of pals in an easygoing clan I joined. I don't really like doing online play, even with people I know and like, but we'll see if this will help me get over it.

One thing I really admire about it (and I liked this with Diablo 3 as well) is how, despite having no manual and very little tutorial, the game has subtly taught me what's going on in it. This is an aspect of modern vg development that gets overlooked because when it's done right it's nearly invisible, but is super important.

Speaking of D3: I came late to the 2.3 patch, since I was doing hardcore Heroes for a while, but now I'm on. I have six level-capped toons, one of each class, but I haven't played any of them enough to really take advantage of particular sets or specs. However, I have been having a ton of fun with Kenai's Cube:

So you can have 3 different powers from legendaries: one weapon, one armor, one jewelry. I've scrapped a fair number of all three, but mostly armor, as you might expect, since there's more of that than anything else. We're talking "unique" legendaries here; not set items. You don't get anything out of the Cube from the latter.

One interesting thing on the weapons is that you're still restricted by what your class can actually use. If you can't wield 2-handed weapons (Demon Hunter), then you can't use the powers associated with them. That's unfortunate for my DH, since almost all of the one-handed weapons or bows that I've found over the years are the remaining legendaries that don't have any special abilities (despite Blizzard's assertion that they're trying to make all legendaries do something.) I still think back to the early days of D2,when my Necromancer was low level and found Raven Claw , the bow that automatically shot explosive arrows. The coolest thing wasn't just the small explosions so you could hit more than one opponent. It was that the bow generated its own arrows so you didn't have to haul any around in your pack...

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/2105207

That's Touissant, named after the Haitian liberator. He's on Torment VII now and should probably be higher. He just chews through stuff. The Necrosis abilities from the Helltooth set makes him ridiculous. I'm fortunate that they retrofitted that power because all but one of those pieces was stuff I was wearing before the latest patch. I have an actual Skullsmasher on my Crusader and Barb, but I've found two more and transmuted one for the weapon power, which is on all of my toons but the DH. Interestingly, I transmuted one with a higher damage percentage from the explosions (as with most attributes, it's variable) but then discovered that the Cube power doesn't vary: it's always 600%, which is good because I think the weapon itself tops out at 500%. I was using Sacrifice instead of Wall of Death (I get enough Necrosis from the endless stream of Acid and toads) but I transmuted the Tall Man's Finger and figured I'd try out the giant dog. It's insane. INSANE. The amount of damage the giant dog does is outrageous. I'm cutting through stuff faster than ever before. I finished a level 25 GRift in six minutes yesterday, which is OK. The mobs were so thick that I got a massacre XP bonus for killing 282 monsters, because it was basically one long fight right up to the Rift boss.

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/1428972

That's Nichiren, named after one of the first Buddhist monks of Japan. He's on Torment V and it's a bit of a struggle. I'm still using Mantra of Healing for the 20% life boost because the healing and shield that it provides at that level is complete bullshit. I'm still hoping to find another piece of Inna's to see if the doubling of the base effect is worth it. I kinda doubt it. I end up doing most of my damage with the effect from the Storms set bonus because Cyclone Strike seems to drain so much Spirit (although it certainly could be my heavy mouse finger.) At lower Torment, I could keep things frozen until dead quite easily. Now, it's tougher and he dies more than any other toon. The fact that I still have the Zakaras to ignore the repair costs is almost irrelevant, since I have 79 million gold at last count (one side effect of Kenai's: you can transmute a Puzzle Ring to open a portal to the Vault; I had a spare one so I did. Went from 40M to 60M in a few minutes.) However, the Warzechians are great, since Sweeping Wind destroys everything around me, giving me a constant burst of speed, which is essential for melee. I'm thinking of switching out from Cold to Lightning so I can see how the Haunt of Vaxo works, since i put it on solely for stats. I'd like to switch weapon powers to Madawc's, like the Barb, but it's a Mighty weapon and, thus, not usable by Monks.

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/2109738

This is the Barb. My mind blanked when I was making all my toons at the game's release. I wanted to name him Arminius, after the Roman betrayer. As it is, he's probably my least able character, so maybe I should play a seasonal Barb and replace him. You'll notice that the bulk of my toons are using Cord of Sherma and Moonlight Ward for powers. The latter is nothing special, but the field generated by the Cord is ridiculous. It goes off constantly, is huge, and blinds things for 4(!) seconds. It's crazy good. Like Nichiren, the Barb's gear is kind of subpar and disjointed. I'm still using the very subpar Rend because of the belt's ability but I really need to change up his build. He's only on Torment IV and it's risky. He dies the second-most often (you'll see a semi-recurrent theme here: melee guys die (except the Crusader), range guys don't. Hmmmm....)

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/2107899

Bloodraven is the Wizard and, yes, this is my other name mistake, since I should have named the DH Bloodraven, after the Act 1 enemy from D2. The multiplicative effect of this Fire build is pretty (ahem) cool: Magic Missile DoT stacks up to 390%, all your other attacks renew it; Conflagration ensures that you'll have a higher crit chance on everything because of the DoT (and other damage), Twister raises the damage of all Fire, Apocalypse has a wider area, and the Hydra sets up another DoT in multiple directions over the course of a fight. Plus, the helm constantly blinds stuff on DoT ticks. The one recent change was getting rid of Wave of Force in favor of Archon, since I now have two pieces of the Vyr's set, which makes Archon ridiculous. She is wearing WD bracers for the stats, since he old ones weren't really viable. She's on Torment V.

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/2103655

I had a lot of fun with Desiddra the other night. Her cold build is mostly centered around Cull the Weak. With three Sentries constantly radiating a chill aura, pretty much everything is taking 20% more damage all the time. It's for that reason that I switched out Sherma's and went with the Blessed Gauntlets, just to test them out. Oh, man, are they awesome. 10 minutes! I had Enlightened (bonus XP), Empowered (faster resource regen and reduced CDs), and Protection (obvs) all running together for several minutes. It's hilarious. Her gear is still pretty janky. I still have the Rare gauntlets because I haven't found anything that can beat the Dex+crit bonuses on them. I have a pair of Marauders boots in the stash. 2-piece on that set is that you get all 4 Companions to accompany you. She also has a Puzzle Ring for lack of something better, but as soon as that something better comes along, I'm going back to the Vault.

us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/Jackwraith-1816/hero/44828490

And finally Belisarius, named after the famous Byzantine general, whom I was just playing yesterday. I added the Mad Monarch's Scepter (huge poison nova of crazy power when you kill 10 mobs) and changed Sherma's for the Plague Pauldrons, which gives you a pretty powerful aura of poison if you're near 3 or more enemies. The Crusader is one I've been having trouble with because of his DPS. I just can't ramp it up enough to get through things quickly before taking serious damage (even for a Crusader.) Not anymore. Adding those two things turned me into a killing machine on Torment IV. I was routinely getting bonuses for killing 20+ mobs at a time. When that nova goes off, the screen disappears. I'm still using Arkhan's for when I'm tangling with single targets (like act bosses on bounties or Rift bosses) but elite packs and trash just disappear now. I think his single-target damage still holds him back from going higher than Torment V, though.

Anyway, tons o' fun.

hotseatgames wrote: I've played almost every R6 game since the first one. I skipped 3 and 4. I have loved every one I have played, including the Vegas titles. GASP! I'm not a purist and don't think the series has sucked since the rise of Call of Duty. I'm also 43 and no longer have the eye sight or reflexes required to be good at competitive multiplayer anymore.

So...which one do you recommend?

For me, it would be Vegas. It's not even close, actually. It's super difficult and challenging, visually stunning. I really loved it. It has all the amazing gun physics of the Ghost Recon games too, hyper realisitic.

Black Barney wrote: For me, it would be Vegas. It's not even close, actually. It's super difficult and challenging, visually stunning. I really loved it. It has all the amazing gun physics of the Ghost Recon games too, hyper realisitic.

Doesn't it have regenerating health, though?I hate that mechanic

yeah the famous CoD regen health. Yeah, I think it has that. I prefer that, myself, to trying to find Doom-like medkits just lying around everywhere

however in Vegas, the enemies don't always let you recover. When you reload or snap back to cover, they sometimes flank or use explosives

Vegas 2 is the best one out now. Whether Siege will turn out better than that, hard to say at this point. If you play Vegas 2 on the hardest difficulty, you don't regen health.