playdishonored.gif

to be clear, that is being shot at by a guard, using dark magic to stop time, possessing his body, and moving him in front of his own bullet that then blows his head off.

Curse you X-Com and your insatiable hunger for rookie meat. I give them red shirts so I know who is expendable.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009PNLAAW

This is a pretty incredible deal. Deus Ex +DLC, Hitman, both Just Cause games and some other goodies for only 10 bucks.

It was great seeing such a wonderfully polished and well produced X-Com/UFO game. Combat was the best ever.

It will be great for new players of the genre. But I was really let down. The non-existent research tree was the biggest disappointment. This was the heart of strategy and the only way to survive in the old games. A bad choice would cripple you. The choices were endless and on repeated playthroughs you could rock amazing builds to tear through opponents.

There was no choosing provinces or territories to invade. Only three types of weapons. When leveling up you only had two choices of abilities and the classes were chosen for you with no chance to adjust stats. There is no inventory, storage or ammo. It's a strategy game with all the choices already outright or subtly made for you.

So other than some great combat and graphical beauty the game has been lobotomized. The Jessica Simpson of the X-Com series. I bought a chess set and got checkers.

Greatly enjoying Dishonored here - very much worth the admission fee, especially if you like stealth gameplay. And the world is one of the most fascinating ones in video games ever.

Also, if you're in any way into zombies, adventure games and/or storytelling in games, check out The Walking Dead. Less overtly gruesome than the comics but no less riveting for it. Not a pleasant gaming experience but one of the most compelling and heartbreaking ones.

A few weeks before Christmas, I got a great deal at the pawn shop on a Gameboy Color and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Fun, fun, fun and a totally selfish, cheap purchase. I tried to justify it because I already had a Tetris cartridge and no system to play it on It worked.

If it's fun, it'll make you happier, which in turn is great for the people around you, so it's far from totally selfish.

Great point Thirith! I like that.

Bane plays Slender.

Stupid. Which is why I like it.

Not sure whether anyone's mentioned it so far - but if any of you are masochists and hankering for a moody, hard-as-nails game, do check out Dark Souls, the spiritual sequel to Demon's Souls. It's tough - boy, is it tough - but one of the most atmospheric, compelling games I've played, well, since Demon's Souls. It's a commitment, though, and anyone starting out should read some tips for new players, because quadruple amputees provide more hand-holding...

any FPS for PC suggestions? The kidlet is getting into the genre at his friend's houses.

What kind of FPSes? Corridor shooters or more free-roaming ones? Multiplayer or singleplayer? Conventional or is he open to weirder fare?

If he's into MP, Battlefield 3 is a good bet, provided you've got a machine that runs it well.

If he's into corridor shooters, the Call of Duty games are fun - but shallow and "rah, rah, militarism!" as hell.

If he likes free-roaming shooters, Far Cry 3 got great reviews. (It might require a good machine as well.) Personally I love the Stalker games, but they require the latest patches and play much better with the Complete fan mods.

If he doesn't mind playing something less conventional, Dishonoured is a great, very imaginative game that can be played as a shooter, a sneaker and anything in between.

There are also some retro and old-school shooters that are pretty good (depending on his tolerance for games that look a bit dated), e.g. Crysis, Half-Life 2, Serious Sam, the least ancient Jedi Knight games.

Serious Sam!

The game that turns you into a twitch-finger psycho!

aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BOOM!

Rig is limited issue, his pc is running a phenom 2 tri, 4gb ram, with crossfire 5770s all of which can be overclocked a bit depending on need (stressed some of those components when they were in my pc.)

Main limiting objective is human vs undead or zombie or alien or other. D- is not hip on human sniping human graphically for him.

Whatever you do, stay away from Aliens: Colonial Marines, which has just come out, because apparently it's absolutely dire. Even review mags and sites that usually give bad games a 7 out of 10 are panning it.

Thinking about it, most of the current(ish) FPSes on PC have human enemies; human vs. aliens is more common on consoles for some reason. Even the games that feature non-human enemies often have a fair number of human bad guys.

As far as zombie shooters are concerned, though, Left 4 Dead and its sequel are both good. They're also co-op shooters, which is quite rare. And then there's the recent Doom 3 re-release - I never liked that game, but there are many who did.

quote:

Originally posted by wanderinginmn:
Rig is limited issue, his pc is running a phenom 2 tri, 4gb ram, with crossfire 5770s all of which can be overclocked a bit depending on need (stressed some of those components when they were in my pc.)

Main limiting objective is human vs undead or zombie or alien or other. D- is not hip on human sniping human graphically for him.

Hrm. Since that's a circa 2008 CPU, I'd say stick with games up to 2007 (Bioshock, COD4:Modern Warfare, Crysis, Orange Box, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.)

System Shock 2 is being released on GOG.com tomorrow.

Every kid should have nightmares about SHODAN like 12 year old me did.

Because seriously, SHODAN is/was fucking terrifying in all of the right ways.

The left 4 dead series might be a good start. A bit older, but for $20 I can get two copies for co-op when friends are over (and he already has a steam account due to me roping him in for civ 5.)

And Furious, Heka was 2009 :P

quote:

Originally posted by wanderinginmn:
And Furious, Heka was 2009 :P

Anyway, that's less of an issue now than it was 5-10 years ago. Seeing how there are few games that are PC exclusive these days, gaming demands on hardware have risen less steeply during the reign of Xbox 360 and PS3. Usually these days video cards are much more important to games running smoothly than CPUs, and even then you can easily get away without upgrading every 1-2 years.

quote:

Originally posted by wanderinginmn:
The left 4 dead series might be a good start. A bit older, but for $20 I can get two copies for co-op when friends are over (and he already has a steam account due to me roping him in for civ 5.)

And Furious, Heka was 2009 :P

LOL! Okay in that case, go crazy and

 go to gog.com and buy SS2 dammit you need nothing else 

.

:P