<![CDATA[Cheap Ass Gamer - Blogs - A Bastard's Journey by The Crotch]]> http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php A current listing of cheap video games, video game sales and video game deals: CAG en Fri, 24 May 2013 05:15:48 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/images/misc/rss.jpg <![CDATA[Cheap Ass Gamer - Blogs - A Bastard's Journey by The Crotch]]> http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php Conservative Gamers 2: Electric Boogaloo http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=22613 Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:03:46 GMT For the earlier part of the circle jerk 'twixt myself, kona, and panzerfaust, go here. It's an unusually good blog post, and I've decided to respond to it here, 'cause trying to put a long response via a "blog comment" is like passing an overused metaphor through a vagina.


Pictured: Metaphor!

Quote:
Originally Posted by kona
RE: Hard games

I don't even think it's the hardness for hardness' sake that really gets me riled up. I guess getting to the heart of the matter (geez this feels like a gaming therapy session: tell me about your first console) , I think that what people are missing today is good old fashioned gamer's grit. (bear with me now, I know these are the rose colored glasses talking and I don't really care) Gamers today have it SO easy now, when guys like us had to walk uphill both ways in a blizzard, barefoot, with a two button controller, no save system at all, and what the fuck is a gamefaqs? To put it simply, all gamers used to be TOUGH. Being such a fledgling phenomenon, I think that the first 20 years or so of gaming was like beta testing. We put up with fan made videocard drivers, patches coming every two or 3 months...or never, online play over dailup, and needing various forms of ritual voodoo sacrifice just to get some games to run. And god dammit, I think we're better off for it.

Now that the industry has finally figured some stuff out, here come the next generation of gamers getting off easy with their photo realistic graphics, auto-saves in every room, and regenerating health. Does this sound a little bitter to you? Yeah, I guess it is. fuck it I'm a bitter then. When I hear about someone quitting a game because a boss killed them 5 or 6 times, I die a little inside. I think that theres no way the average gamer 10 years ago would have done that, and it's just going to get worse and worse(see: my previous Gears 3 blog)

I suppose difficulty did have a factor in gaming being such a niche hobby for so many years, with only the dedicated cracking its thick shell to get to tasty insides. How crazy do I sound? I want decisions made for purities sake, and they want to make decisions to sell more games to more people to more money. Who's going to win? The fact is, most people want to do not want be challenged in their free time, they just want to have fun. Doesn't mean I'm not gonna stop telling kids to get off my lawn though.
Short answer: ain't your lawn.

Long answer: Let 'em be. The higher difficulties still exist in the vast majority of games. Lesser challenges in no way invalidate 'em, and if Pussy Mode means that I can faff on about videogames with more people at a party instead of sitting around awkwardly waiting for someone to call the next round of flip cup, then that's a good thing, god dammit.

Give some special reward for completing things on a higher difficulty? Sure. Throw in some extra bullshit achievement, or Max Payne 2's final ending, or whatever. Nobody who can't afford to go fuck themselves would complain about that.

Also, regular auto-saves and quick-saves can and will save your ass from bugs. Happens to me plenty.


I am a battered wife.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kona
On death:

You won't find a guy in the world who's a bigger fan of typewriter ribbons than me. It's is an excellent observation that the option to save anywhere instead of dedicated save places has made games infinitely easier and less frustrating. It even works on the oldest games. Ever play an old NES game on an emulator? Save states removes the almost all of the back breaking punishment we had to put up with. I just contest that the safety net that are auto/quicksaves greatly diminishes any sense of danger or suspense from a difficult situation.
Yeah, there's no real winning this one. Saves everywhere take the teeth out of anything that's not X-Com-level hard, but now that we've got jobs and kids and lives and all that shit, limitations on saves just... don't work. We ain't totally shit outta luck, though. There are a few ways you can go with this.

Games like Fire Emblem and Advance Wars have "suspend" options that allow you to save the game whenever you want - but saving also forces you to quit the game, and resuming destroys the save. Majora's Mask played with the idea a bit, too, but in too limited a manner, I thought. This would give convenience, but not too much safety.

There's also what you got in the higher difficulties of Max Payne 2 (mighta been in the first one, too), where you could save wherever and whenever you want, but you had a limited pool of saves per area, making the quick-save a manageable resource.

Then you've got the Planescape Torment model. Save anywhere with no restrictions, and death has no real punishment, what with your being immortal (a rather nice change of pace compared to the rest of the Infinity Engine games).

There should be a picture here of that first wizard that hangs outside that one inn in Baldur's Gate, but fuck that guy.

The interesting bit came at the very end, where the enemies in the final dungeon differed based on how well you survived up to that point.

Then there's whatever the fuck Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter did.

Point is, options.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kona
And dont even get me started on regenerating health...
My favourite FPS ever is Half-Life 2.

Regenerating health is fucking awesome.

It's a lot like quicksaves, really. Improves a lot, but not without a few losses. The big advantage is that it lets developers know what state you're going to be in when they're creating encounters. Valve doesn't really know if you'll get through a fight with 98 health and 50 energy or twenty health and no energy, which presents a lot of problems. The next encounter might be too easy for people who got through the last one well, or too hard for people who barely scraped by, or maybe they just start shitting out health packs all over the place at which point you might as well just have regenerating health.

But of course, regenerating health takes away one of the rewards of exploration and it encourages the "hide behind cover, take potshots, be fucking invincible" thing that's in so many games. Which isn't inherently bad, but holy fuck is there ever a lot of that.

One alternative there is to make it so that health only regenerates partially, or only have health regenerate quickly when not in a fight (DA2 and KotOR 2 both did that).

Quote:
Originally Posted by kona
On catering to core gamers:

Man...don't get me started on RPG's. There's a reason I didn't mention them in the blog, because It would have been 3 times longer and then you would have probably been the only person crazy enough to read it all. I've been hearing about the problems in Dragon Age 2 for the longest, and its partially why I haven't bothered in picking it up yet, although I eventually will. It just sounded to me like Bioware did the exact same thing they did with Mass Effect 2 in “streamlining” the rpg experience...more like making it Gears of War: In Space! If I hear anyone call ME2 an RPG again, they're getting beaten with a sack of doorknobs.
It's kinda funny. ME2 was a fucking glorious game with a few $$$$ling flaws. DAO clearly went through the same transmogrifier on the way to getting that "2" that Mass Effect did, yet the result was so comically inferior. I blame a combination of the games just being inherently different (real-time-pausable third person shooter with some character customization vs "Baldur's Gate without the license"), and part because DA2 had a fucking bullshittingly short amount of time in the oven. They got KotOR 2'd hard on that shit.


Also, nobody on the team was talking to each-other. This fight wasn't even supposed to be in the game.

Now I've gotta go clear some brush. Summary: all these things we bitch about have their place. They might be a bit too common sometimes, but if you're really a conservative, you'll put your faith in the invisible hand of the market to correct things, won't you?
]]> The Crotch http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=22613 Goodbye, World... http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21615 Tue, 31 May 2011 04:12:59 GMT ... hope you get your shit together by the time I get back. I'm giving you 'til about mid August to buckle down and make some much-needed improvements. And when was the last time you cleaned? This place is a fucking mess.

See all y'all some time in August, yeah? ]]> The Crotch http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=21615 <![CDATA[Banshees may be manageable, but they're still OP]]> http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=18772 Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:06:40 GMT Also, Image:... Also,

]]> The Crotch http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=18772 Want to see a really bigger ass chair? Here you go! http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=11161 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:31:15 GMT

Ball's in your court, Guile. ]]> The Crotch http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=11161 The Quest for a Signature: An Open Call http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=7908 Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:38:20 GMT First blog ever. Eh, whatever. Not a blogging person. But I figure that it's useful for bringing up topics that don't deserve real forum threads. Like the state of my signature.

So!

I'm asking someone to help me with a new signature.

I have traditionally used this:


Now, I still like that picture. But hey, a real change couldn't hurt. Too bad I ain't that good with anything other than, apparently, Starcraft mapping tools (and even then, some of the Lings on the left got turned around - stupid Lings).

So, this is an open call to all y'all to become my new best friend and make me somethin' new. I was thinking a while back of a sort of a side-view of the above picture, with a plain silhouette of the Zealot getting surrounded by the Zerg. But since I can't draw Zealots or Zerg, even (or maybe particularly) in silhouette form, I never really went anywhere with that.

Now, I dunno how many of you guys are up for the whole, y'know, "creating an image for some random motherfucker on the internet" thing, so I dunno how many takers I'm gonna get here. I'd run some sort of contest, but I'm a cheap cunt with, like, $2.00 in his PayPal account, so fuck all that noise.

Anyway, if you're in... I dunno, talk to me. Doesn't have to be Starcraft themed. Could be Fire Emblem. Or Killer7. Or Therefore, Repent! Or... I dunno, Bad Religion, or something. Maybe Charles Darwin themed. Whatever. ]]> The Crotch http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/blog.php?b=7908