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Computer/Video Games & Gaming

One of my best ever jobs was condition reporting (playing) a bunch of vintage gaming machines for a forthcoming exhibition at the Barbican.
 
Aethelist said:
Must say I'm loving the absolute sheet storm regarding Red Dead Redemption finally hitting the PC fraternity.

Chuckling in my slippers actually.

100Gb download , £60 , and it it's really not all that much different to the Xbox One X visually.

To run it at the same 4k resolution on a PC you need a graphics card that costs - over £1000?

Madness.
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Aethelist said:
Roll on next year. The Xbox 2 / Project Scarlet will kill PC gaming.

Forever.
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You sound like one of my nephews.
 
Aethelist said:
Must say I'm loving the absolute sheet storm regarding Red Dead Redemption finally hitting the PC fraternity.

Chuckling in my slippers actually.

100Gb download , £60 , and it it's really not all that much different to the Xbox One X visually.

To run it at the same 4k resolution on a PC you need a graphics card that costs - over £1000?

Madness.
Click to expand...

It seems like you are having a pop at gamers that prefer pc, I was looking forward to red dead?
 
Ah, the Format Wars. A heart warming sight to see them hove into view. Always so edifying, always so productive.
 
Dave***t said:
Ah, the Format Wars. A heart warming sight to see them hove into view. Always so edifying, always so productive.
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Yeah, it feels like a conversation from another age and the problems that gamers talk about now are things like:

-- £60 box prices.
-- Loot boxes and unethical microtransactions
-- The constant disappointment of AAA releases, broken promises massive day one patches, etc. anymore (honourable exception for Witcher games).
-- Endless problems in the development industry (low wages, 80 hour weeks, everyone gets sacked on release, etc.)
-- Toxic game environments in both the fanbase and between developers and players.

This is why I love Path of Exile so much:

-- truly free to play game.
-- small indie dev. team that is completely open with it's players.
-- new free content every three months.
-- an old school game that lasts because it's complex and has depth.
 
Different strokes.

Hey, I was a died in the wool PC gamer, until last year. Mostly FPS, RPG's etc. I put 500 hours plus into Skyrim at 2560 x 1440. Was a wonderful experience.

Then things started to go a bit pear shaped. Every game I bought seemed like it was designed to be played on a console. The controls felt weird on PC. So, If you can't beat 'em?

Anyways. I bought an Xbox One X purely to play Red Dead Redemption 2 on release last year. Had full intention of selling it on after it was done. But, the thing is , the graphics quality was so good I decided to keep it. Fallout 4 GOTY 150 hours - The Witcher 3 - 200 hours. All at 4k resolution (don't get me started on the 30fps thing - I can't tell the difference - Can it run Crisis at 30fps? Remember that? That's still my benchmark. I can't tell the difference between 60 and 30 anyway)

Bought a new 32" 4k monitor and my old gaming PC hasn't been fired up since.

Do I miss the fan noise? NO I bloody well do not. Quiet is the new loud.
 
matthewr said:
Yeah, it feels like a conversation from another age and the problems that gamers talk about now are things like:

-- £60 box prices.
-- Loot boxes and unethical microtransactions
-- The constant disappointment of AAA releases, broken promises massive day one patches, etc. anymore (honourable exception for Witcher games).
-- Endless problems in the development industry (low wages, 80 hour weeks, everyone gets sacked on release, etc.)
-- Toxic game environments in both the fanbase and between developers and players.

This is why I love Path of Exile so much:

-- truly free to play game.
-- small indie dev. team that is completely open with it's players.
-- new free content every three months.
-- an old school game that lasts because it's complex and has depth.
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Sounds like PoE is good stuff. Is it multiplayer PvE? PvP? Solo?

I’ve sunk countless hours into BioWare’s multiplayer games and Destiny 2 (and Quake back in the day) but I always tend to need story for single player games. The Skinner box repetition of long-lived games only tends to work in multiplayer for me.
 
Aethelist said:
Can it run Crisis at 30fps? Remember that? That's still my benchmark. I can't tell the difference between 60 and 30 anyway)
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I recently completed Crysis on a 2k 144hz monitor and I can easily tell the difference when the frame rates go up to near 100fps or more. I used to get motion sickness floating around in the alien spaceship but it's fine now the frame & refresh rates are much higher.

EDIT: Forgot to say that I was half way through playing Crysis when I upgraded my 60hz monitor for the 144hz and I noticed gameplay was quite a bit smoother.
 
Glad to hear it. Thankfully I don't have that issue. I was always rubbish at fast paced twitch reaction games anyway.

I prefer wandering around. Slowly. These days.

And not being hunched over a desk with a keyboard and mouse for hours on end is a godsend.

Quite liberating, actually.
 
Dave***t said:
Sounds like PoE is good stuff. Is it multiplayer PvE? PvP? Solo?
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It's a solo, PvE hardcore Action RPG -- basically a modern successor to Diablo II and if you played a lot of that you would be right at home.

But, it's a *very* hard game to get into and not for the feint of heart. Also helps if you like the sort of games where designing your character build requires spreadsheets :)
 
Interesting. So how does a solo game preserve interest over years? Is it procedurally generated or something?
 
Dave***t said:
Interesting. So how does a solo game preserve interest over years? Is it procedurally generated or something?
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"solo" is slightly misleading and, as with everything in PoE, it's complicated! It's an always online game with large amounts of players, but mostly you only see them in town and the actual gameplay is mostly solo. I say "mostly solo" because you can adventure in small groups, and some people play entirely in fixed duos or groups but for a number of reasons most people play solo.

So your classic RPG (Although action RPG so think Diablo not Skyrim) loop of: town for quests > go off adventuring solo for loot and XP > return to town to sell / ugrade / reconfigure > grow in power > kill series of "dark threats that have come to threaten the land". You rinse and repeat this to the end of the story.

Once the story is done you then have an endgame which is based on randomly generated areas (called maps) using the tilesets from the story and through these you unlock further levels of maps and a bunch of end game bosses. You then play *lots* of maps to gather loot and/or crafting materials in order to become powerful enough to kill these super hard bosses.

The other way to acquire loot is to trade with other players, although that is also more complicated than you would think so many people avoid it entirely and play in a mode called Solo Self Found (ie. no grouping, no trading).

On top of all that, it gets it's longevity for two main reasons:

1) Everything is random and the odds are massively stacked against you. There is a lot of randomised loot but most of it is junk and it takes a long time to acquire high end gear via trading or crafting. If you've played Borderlands it's similar to that but orders of magnitude more punishing.

2) Every three months everything (all characters and loot) is reset and a new league starts with everyone back at level 1 again. Because the economy always resets like this new players can come in and compete because the world is not already full of the in-game equivalents of billionaires. Each league will also add a major new mechanic (the current one is a tower defence style game), a bunch of new loot, updates to various game systems, etc.

Finally, if you are still with me, I would add two more thoughts.

Firstly, I love this game because it came from literally three blokes in a garage in New Zealand deciding to make a game because they loved Diablo II and ending up taking on, and beating, evil corporate gaming overlords Activision Blizzard who just after they started decided to make Diablo III. They were also the first people to replace £60 box prices with a free to play game funded by ethical microtransations (basically fancy armour and weapon effects but no zero gameplay advantage).

Secondly, it's a *hard* game. It's full of arcane systems that are not well explained and the loot system is brutal. It also starts slow and many people quit early on from a combination of the underwhelming start and the obscure, old school way it presents itself. Overall it's a game where the reward comes from overcoming the difficult and adversity of progress rather than dramatic story arcs, fancy reward cinematics, etc. It is a brilliant game, but definitely not for everyone.

https://www.pathofexile.com/game
 
matthewr said:
"solo" is slightly misleading and, as with everything in PoE, it's complicated! It's an always online game with large amounts of players, but mostly you only see them in town and the actual gameplay is mostly solo. I say "mostly solo" because you can adventure in small groups, and some people play entirely in fixed duos or groups but for a number of reasons most people play solo.

So your classic RPG (Although action RPG so think Diablo not Skyrim) loop of: town for quests > go off adventuring solo for loot and XP > return to town to sell / ugrade / reconfigure > grow in power > kill series of "dark threats that have come to threaten the land". You rinse and repeat this to the end of the story.

Once the story is done you then have an endgame which is based on randomly generated areas (called maps) using the tilesets from the story and through these you unlock further levels of maps and a bunch of end game bosses. You then play *lots* of maps to gather loot and/or crafting materials in order to become powerful enough to kill these super hard bosses.

The other way to acquire loot is to trade with other players, although that is also more complicated than you would think so many people avoid it entirely and play in a mode called Solo Self Found (ie. no grouping, no trading).

On top of all that, it gets it's longevity for two main reasons:

1) Everything is random and the odds are massively stacked against you. There is a lot of randomised loot but most of it is junk and it takes a long time to acquire high end gear via trading or crafting. If you've played Borderlands it's similar to that but orders of magnitude more punishing.

2) Every three months everything (all characters and loot) is reset and a new league starts with everyone back at level 1 again. Because the economy always resets like this new players can come in and compete because the world is not already full of the in-game equivalents of billionaires. Each league will also add a major new mechanic (the current one is a tower defence style game), a bunch of new loot, updates to various game systems, etc.

Finally, if you are still with me, I would add two more thoughts.

Firstly, I love this game because it came from literally three blokes in a garage in New Zealand deciding to make a game because they loved Diablo II and ending up taking on, and beating, evil corporate gaming overlords Activision Blizzard who just after they started decided to make Diablo III. They were also the first people to replace £60 box prices with a free to play game funded by ethical microtransations (basically fancy armour and weapon effects but no zero gameplay advantage).

Secondly, it's a *hard* game. It's full of arcane systems that are not well explained and the loot system is brutal. It also starts slow and many people quit early on from a combination of the underwhelming start and the obscure, old school way it presents itself. Overall it's a game where the reward comes from overcoming the difficult and adversity of progress rather than dramatic story arcs, fancy reward cinematics, etc. It is a brilliant game, but definitely not for everyone.

https://www.pathofexile.com/game
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Excellent, thanks for that.
 
Alex S said:
One of my best ever jobs was condition reporting (playing) a bunch of vintage gaming machines for a forthcoming exhibition at the Barbican.
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Was that the Game On exhibition, around 2002 or something like that? I worked on the audio for a re-interpretation of pong for that event.
 
Cesare said:
Was that the Game On exhibition, around 2002 or something like that? I worked on the audio for a re-interpretation of pong for that event.
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"Ok team, we need to bring the humble beep into the 21st century!?" :)
 
matthewr said:
"Ok team, we need to bring the humble beep into the 21st century!?" :)
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Actually, the audio was the main part of the game. It was a trio of games cabinets back to back, with apparently three independent games playing, but actually the angles the balls were coming off the bats (across the three machines) was coordinated so that the balls hit the walls and bats at musically important moments, so that a musical composition emerged from the random 'pings' of the balls off the targets. Getting that to work right was, well, hard, and of course it was an art project thing, so there was no budget, not enough time etc etc. Happy days :)
 
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