Jolt Country

Bioshock: COMPLETE. Finally. Christ.

I guess I got the "bad" ending. Am I gonna play that whole goddamn thing again to get the "good" ending? Never in a million years, so I just watched it on Youtube.

There are many things I like/enjoyed about the game, but I am so terribly glad to be done with it. Wow.

NEXT?!??!

The funny part is, whenever I was playing Bioshock, I just wanted it to be over.

And then... when it was... I just wanted more.

So now I'm playing Bioshock 2. It's not on the "list to complete", I'm just playing it because it's fun. Because, like the first one, it creates the most amazing world. Rapture, the city under the ocean, is sure full of assholes, but in between them, it's just an amazing place to be.

I would indeed prefer that these Bioshock games were more like Dear Esther in that I just wanna walk around, just wanna look around. But I will set guys on fire and electrocute them and throw bees at them until they die, if I must.

If I must.

NEXT UP: CRYPTOZOOKEEPER & ENDLESS SPACE. I'm told by 4xgamer that Endless Space has a significant free upgrade coming this week, so I'll probably wait until that comes out to start that one, but seeing as how I'm the administrator of the world's most powerful 4x gaming website, I should probably play one of them at some point.

Would you kindly...

If you aren't burnt out on Bioshock after beating Bioshock 2, I'd recommend playing the Minerva's Den add-on, too. I've already forgotten a lot about it, but I vaguely remember it as having a better story.

Just finished a full, long game of Endless Space. I won't call it COMPLETE, because I quite like it and do plan to go back. However, it's COMPLETE enough where, god, let's move onto something else.

Every time I fire up Sword of the Stars 2, I marvel at the galactic map and WISH I UNDERSTOOD IT.

So that's next.

Oh also Robb's game SORRY ROBB fuck.

Let's play some Crypto, Ben.

Is this the trip this happens?

Just on the subject of completing things... (and hopefully not to screw up your thread, Pinback) I think that I completed CZK in like four days, not long after it was released.

That includes time stuck on a select few puzzles (Jackalope, justifying existence to God, etc...). Also, I played it non-continuously... so that's four days of non-continuous play.

I beat Zork: Grand Inquisitor after three straight days of continuous play. During this time, I had to resort to using UHS-Hints like 3 times, but I kept going, and did beat it.

In the case of Robb's game, I had to read one online forum, and then email him directly once, because I had downloaded version 1.02 only a few days after it was released which did not include the Loch Ness bug fix in v1.03.

Also, I can honestly say that Cryptozookeeper did not take so long because of the puzzles itself, but because I made certain that I made (and trained) absolutely every creature possible within the game, excluding those made with the two DNA types that I unfortunately did not find. I know enough about mathematics to be able to certify the truth of this statement. Robb can attest to the size of my bestiary, as well, as I ended up emailing him my save files.

I was in the same frame of mind as Pinback, regarding old games somewhere circa 2003.

I was under the impression that once I actually finished "Tomb of the Taskmaker" somehow that would turn my life around, and I would begin to complete things.

The downside is that finishing the game actually had no effect on my real life... college, work, girls, etc... nada.

Good luck, Pinback.

Shit.

THREAD CANCELLED.

Let's go. I want you in Vest's house by this time tomorrow.

I completed a full game of Sins of the Solar Empire today! Granted, it was on "small", and with a single enemy faction, and on easy, but wow, that was enough! It took two hours! I think I just barely won?

It's supposed to be a more "relaxed" RTS, with the intellectual feel of a turn-based space 4x, but fuck if I wasn't clicking madly around the entire time trying to keep up. Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

Or maybe I'm doing it so right that I just blew your mind!

Anyway, turns out it's a very good game, and not as complicated/confusing as it seems at first. There needs to be a BIG discussion about this:

I have SOTS2, I want to play SOTS2, but I fear I never will play SOTS2 because they make it IMPOSSIBLE to "get into" the game and understand what's going on.

I am not convinced that SOTS2, Sins, and Endless Space are that much different in terms of complexity. However, Sins it turns out you can pretty much pick up after playing through the tutorials and maybe a quick glance at the manual. Endless Space you can probably play completely manual-free if you've ever played a space 4x game in your life.

SOTS2 makes learning how to play IMPOSSIBLE. Combine zero tutorials with a still-awful interface and 200 pages worth of manuals that do everything EXCEPT tell you "hey, here's a good way to start", and, christ, there's just no way in.

Sins, if you turn to the last page of the manual, it just fucking TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO. 1. Build extractors on your asteroids. 2. Send a scout out to the nearest whatever. 3. Colonize shit. 4. Build a fleet so you don't get crushed. 5. Etc, etc. They should be praised for this. Amplitude Studios in kind should be praised for making a game that's so obvious to play that you barely even need that nudging.

Some idiot on some forum was defending SOTS saying "well, if it only takes me a couple hours to figure out, it's probably not going to hold my attention very long." YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM, JACKASS. SOTS takes 40 hours to get the basics down, from what I've heard, and it ain't because it's such a deep, complex game, it's because you need that much time to FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

I am angry at these people, because I want to play SOTS2, I want to love SOTS2, but it's like they're ACTIVELY trying to keep me, and others like me, from doing it.

Sins doesn't get a full pass, as it DID take me four years from the day I bought the original version before I actually completed a full, small game, but in retrospect, and in comparison, it deserves heaps of praise.

What the fuck did I want to say here, I forget. But I'm pissed off and fired up, so this is what you get.

With SotS I, I learned the basics of the game in maybe three medium rounds (likely less, the game itself felt intuitive and I was quickly on my way to creating ships and plundering the space lanes) and then I discovered that the variety and complexity of its components were shallow.

This feeling also summarizes my thoughts on Endless Space: its a distinctly casual level of 4x game that hints at complexity but doesn't deliver. Planets are a good example of this, as they are merely vessels for resources as opposed to more functionality (compared to bases in Alpha Centauri that allowed players to have as little or as much control as they desired).

Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.

RetroRomper wrote:Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.

So basically you're calling me a retard.

Didn't he just call me a retard? You guys?

That depends on what resolution he is running. But yes, most likely.

pinback wrote:

RetroRomper wrote:Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.

So basically you're calling me a retard.

Maybe the qualifier fits, Ben, you're a strong follower of the "Hear hoofbeats, suspect zebras" method of analysis.

Which of us is going to be able to finish my game Tripkey faster, you or me? Which of the two people are going to finish CryptoZookeeper faster, you or Jonsey?

Just because someone might be faster in playing a game or able to finish faster, does not imply that your mental facilities are impaired.

Tdarcos wrote:

pinback wrote:

RetroRomper wrote:Anyway... I learned the basics and many of the ins and outs of SotS II because 1) I was playing with a developer and 2) the game seemed to be blunt, obvious. Straight forward with a learning curve tossed at the player like a jumping is in a Legend of Zelda game.

So basically you're calling me a retard.

Maybe the qualifier fits, Ben, you're a strong follower of the "Hear hoofbeats, suspect zebras" method of analysis.

Which of us is going to be able to finish my game Tripkey faster, you or me? Which of the two people are going to finish CryptoZookeeper faster, you or Jonsey?

Just because someone might be faster in playing a game or able to finish faster, does not imply that your mental facilities are impaired.

I am currently on chapter 14 of 19 in Hotline Miami. I will complete one chapter a day until it is done.

And then I will be much happier, because I won't have to play fucking Hotline Miami anymore. God.

"Let's come up with a fun, disgustingly violent game!" - Hotline Miami creator #1.

"Yeah, then let's make it go way too long and throw a bunch of stupid shit everyone will hate in there!" - Hotline Miami creator #2.

Yeah, I got to the end of chapter 14. There is a shotgun before you enter the last area. I pick it up. The guy goes up stairs and before going through the double doors, throws the shotgun away.

Noooooooooooooope!

I'm out. They did the "lose your weapons" thing twice? I'm out! These guys know nothing of game design. I wish they didn't try to show us how clever they think they are and just focused on making a good game.

Well, I finished the game, except for the bonus level which I spent over an hour on yesterday and still couldn't do it, so fuck that.

Yes, any goodwill the game spent generating on its first 10 levels (except for the first boss fight) is SHAT AWAY by the "end" of the game (including the last boss fight), and now I want that thing REMOVED FROM MY HARD DRIVE like Geena Davis' abortion in The Fly.

And... what the hell was the story, anyway?

I beat the bonus level after watching someone else do it on Youtube. I was trying a completely different method, and in doing so ended up beating the panthers with a glitch. Also, I LOVE (sarcasm) when a game throws in a random cliche, like how you toss your weapon aside to meet the final boss. In every other level you are standing knee deep in shotguns, machetes, and corpses.