/cog/ - Traditional & Video Gaming

I'm currently unemployed, so I've been playing a bunch of stuff, because I've got nothing else going on in my life and still have a decent amount of money in the bank. Divinity OS, Hearthstone, Baldur's Gate 2 and a bunch of stuff on my Vita. Actually looking forward to revisiting Dark Souls 2 once all DLC is out and I'm gonna play through it all at once.

Final Fantasy Tactics never stops.

Lit Crit students should be forbidden from using the internet for the entirety of their college education.

http://feministgamereviews.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/women-unfriendly-thomas-was-alone/comment-page-1/#comment-122

Mike mentioned this thing on twitter awhile ago saying it talked about how TWA had deep seated anti-woman sentiment and that it was a "Great Privilege Checking moment," but didn't link it at the time because, well, you know. My thought at the time was "well that sure sounds like you're thanking someone for horribly insulting you but whatever Mike." And hey, turns out, that's exactly what it is!

I swear to god online LitCrit is just "making shit up" most of the time.

Team Fortress 2.

It's always Team Fortress 2.
It will always be Team Fortress 2.

>>189978
>>189978
>>189979
>>189980
>>189981
Official or not, could you save this shit for the fanart thread at >>187306
instead? It's not like it's on the last page or anyhing.

I actually have a bunch of games on steam I wish play, but sadly I seriously need to update my PC if I want to play with some of them.

>>189976
I wish I could play TF2 more often, since I want to get better at it.
But I'm either distracted or busy over the last few weeks.

Pat and Woolie's LP inspired me to reinstall Dark Souls 2 to play the two DLCs that are out and screw around with a bunch of strength weapons. Forgoing ranged weapons unless absolutely necessary really has made it a lot more fun, and having a dozen fully upgrades weapons to switch between really helps shake things up now that I'm past the point where level ups are much use.

So, who got their Mighty Gunvolt from either PAX or the Mighty nº9 kickstarter?

>>190002
I need a proper Megaman charge shot.
Beck does a useless dash with no iframes that gets me killed because I can't not always be charging if not shooting.

>>189984
I play on buying it next sale, in part because Dark Souls 1 has become such a bitch to get running, but I really like the game type.

>>190006
>in part because Dark Souls 1 has become such a bitch to get running
Did it? It was always kinda shitty. I didn't notice any changes when I replayed it a month or so ago.

>>190007
there were some tweaks that got it running well but whatever they did to GFWL fucked it all up again

>>190191
I like how even the guy who made Minecraft doesn't understand how it's exploded like this.
I wonder if I'll see any minecraft trick or treats this year.

https://twitter.com/notch/status/281139739304800256
>Anyway, my price is two billion dollars. Give me two billion dollars, and I'll endorse your crap.
>12:51 PM - 18 Dec 2012

>>190192
Funny enough, Mojang seems in the same situation Rare was in (but that was probably the point of the tweet.) Rare's quality/output had dropped significantly, which is why Nintendo was okay with letting them go (and either Microsoft horribly mismanaged the studio, or Nintendo was right to do so). Mojang barely brought out a second game, which has mild interest at best, and is putting most of their work towards porting Minecraft to anything with electricity. While Minecraft is still wildly popular, I can't see how Microsoft will gain any significant traction by this $2.5 Billion purchase.

>>190196
MS expects to break even on the deal by next June. Minecraft merchandise and licensing sales will drive up the bulk of that.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/225611/Minecraft_studio_Mojang_has_been_bought_by_Microsoft_for_25B.php

>>190199
Oh yeah, I forgot about merchandising. That makes more sense, then, especially if Microsoft doesn't try to can the game on other platforms.

>>190199
This is a misreporting. What Microsoft believe is that it will be done by the end of FISCAL YEAR 2015, which ends in June 2016.

>Ubisoft: The French don't have accents in Unity because the Animus is translating for you
Okay, that makes sense
>to make the game more serious
>and we gave everyone British accents
Why.

>EA no longer wants to win the golden poo.
Yea okay what are they going to do to change that
>Release Sims 4 that has less content than Vanilla Sims 3.

Yea swing and a miss there. Since everyone knows damn well where that content will reappear.

Final Fantasy XIII coming to PC on October 9 for about $13. Might actually get it for that price. Played it for a bit when it first came out and didn't care much for it. Maybe someone will do an undub so that it's a little more bearable.

http://mashable.com/2014/09/18/microsoft-layoffs/

Despite the Minecraft buy I'd be getting a little sweaty if I was in the games end of things.

>>190355

It wouldn't bother me so much if it weren't blatant Sonic Fanboyism

>Main character is a dragon
>Looks like OC DONUT STEEL

>Edgy scenes

>Unoriginality at its finest

I'm not even going to go further....

>>190356
So, play without the cutscenes.

>>190356
God you sound like you came from /v/.

>blatant Sonic fanboyism
It began development as a ROM hack of a Sonic game. Then it became a Sonic fangame, and now it's this.

>OC DONUT STEEL
She looks nothing like any Sonic character and is completely original, so this argument is invalid. "OC DONUT STEEL" is meant to be used on recolors passed off as OCs, not actual OCs. By that logic, any OCs designed by the Archie Sonic team fall under the same banner.

>unoriginal
Oh please. This is what Sonic 4 should've been. I haven't seen a "Sonic ripoff" game that was anywhere near this good come out in...ever.

>I'm not even going to go further....
Because you can't think of any actual criticism.

>>190370

Except you just proved my point that it's pretty much based on the Sonic franchise.

And one has to be dense to not get what I meant by "OC DONUT STEEL", as this phrase has essentially evolved to refer to a character made from a "template", most likely taken from another concept, and just give it small or super kawaii changes; it happens that the characters resemble a lot with the characters of the Sonic universe. If you have a different grasp of this phrase, I'm now making it clear of what I meant originally.

AND not because a game should have been something that another game should have been, means it's original; same game mechanic (Fast-phased platform) =/= same artstyle, same or similar moves , same freaking functions-- who can guess from where the name "Freedom planet" comes from?

I'm pretty sure what I said here and before is criticism, someone not being able to take it is another thing.

Also, I was just talking about its originality, I was NOT implying someone shouldn't enjoy things. If you actually like this game, go on, be my guest, and have fun.
This is not /v/.

>>190376
>most likely taken from another concept, and just give it small or super kawaii changes

You think the characters in Freedom Planet are just "small changes"? Really? Yeah, they are based on a template. But how exactly is this a problem?

Your argument is essentially "it's bad because it's based on Sonic but passes itself as an original product." My argument is "who fucking cares?" How is it any different from, say, Mighty No 9? A game based on Megaman but passing itself as an original product? It's created by Sonic fans for Sonic fans, especially those aching for a good 2D one that isn't hold-right-to-win. There's nothing wrong with that.

//youtube.com/watch?v=Wt__XNxcc8I
We're gonna get a wolf cub!

>>190377
It goes beyond that, too. While they outright admit that it started as a fan game project, there's more than just Sanic to it. There's influence from Ristar and Gunstar Heroes prevalent in the gameplay.

>>190356
The story and characters are straight out of bad fanfic, but the gameplay makes up for it quite well. I guess it depends what your priorities are for the game to be enjoyable.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/09/22/final-fantasy-15-demo-to-be-at-least-3-hours-long
>FFXV demo will be longer than the entirety of Ground Zeroes

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-09-22-meet-hajime-tabata-final-fantasys-latest-saviour?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialoomph
>Tabata's also in pursuit of a Final Fantasy that's not as overwhelming as its predecessors, and one that can be enjoyed by a broader audience. "With Final Fantasy 15, I do want to make it more casual," he says. "Of course the depth of the game is going to be there, but I want to make it so players can easily experience the satisfaction of the depth of the game." There's an option to set that car to drive itself, allowing players to sit back and take in the sights - although there is also an option to drive it manually, should they want to engage more fully with the world.

>"Another example is in the combat," explains Tabata. "With the hardware specifications of the newer consoles, it's possible to set it up so you have different enemies and different choices of attacks you can enter in, but I want to simplify that. It'll basically be a one-button action, and the AI intuitively outputs an action that kind of satisfies, gives you that instant gratification, and it connects with the simple touch of a button. I myself am not getting any younger. I don't want to be frantically pushing buttons. I also want to utilise the intelligence of the hardware spec, and not have to go through too much hassle or trouble in order to execute moves."

Is it possible for him to say anything worse at this point?

>>190416

Yes: ‘We’re also remaking Final Fantasy VII to play just like this.’

Man just fuck the Final Fantasy franchise

>>190416
This is utterly indecipherable marketingspeak.

Sounds to me like it's just gambits from FFXII, except you can map them to a button. I don't see the problem.

>>190422
After 8 years people just want it to be bad to continue the SE Is Dead narrative.

>>190421
>>190420
>>190417
>>190416
See, if Nomura was still directing, we wouldn't be in this situation right now. I told you Tabata was bad news.

>>190424
Yes, terrible Tabata, maker of those famous bad games "Crisis Core" and "Type-0."

>>190416
Well, Xenoblade managed to have a pretty nice combat system despite being mechanically simple controller-wise, but that's not what I'm getting out of this guy's comments.

>>190421
>battle is going to be a boring and unengaging distraction
Of course you don't want it to distract you, you have important cut scenes and chocobo breeding to get to.

Now, re-reading what he said, it could be that he doesn't mean only one button (which is what I thought on first reading), but that buttons are mapped to either specific attacks (>>190422) or perhaps even something from fighting games where you have a heavy attack button a light attack button, etc. Even so, the whole "AI chooses for you" does sound there's just an "attack" button and you press that and only that to attack.

>>190426
Crisis Core was good, not great. And besides, there comes a time when you realize not everything a director makes is going to be gold, despite whatever they'd made in the past.

Nomura wanted XV to play like Kingdom Hearts. Probably with a generic attack button, a "reaction command" like button for specific things, and more buttons to do during a combo to spice things up. That's not counting magic, which is a whole other thing altogether.

Tabata wants to combine ALL of that into one button.

>>190430
What Tabata wants is buried under a bunch of generic Japanese marketing gibberish. Let's wait for that demo, it's only til March.

>>190422
If that's what it turns out to be, I might warm up to it.

I don't want it to be bad. In spite of my issues with the character hair I think it looks great.

http://www.overkillsoftware.com/hotlinemiami/
//youtube.com/watch?v=4uaPImEg13s

>>190676
Would be better without that extra frame.

So, any reviews on Alien: Isolation yet?

>>190716
Shit.

>>190716
http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/alien-isolation
General consensus seems to be that it's OK.

Oh Joy another Remastered Edition, this is going to be a thing for games now isn't it.

>>190734
Dunno what game you're talking about, but Remastered/Director's Edition have been a thing for almost as long as there have been games. We're just seeing a lot of them now as it's easy money to take a game made for last gen, up the poly count, toss in any DLC and one or two other extras, and release it on next gen.

Same thing happened during the transition for last gen. Hell, Nintendo had a whole (short-lived) "New Play Control!" line for Gamecube remasters on the Wii.

Just seems to have really picked up recently. Was fine with Witcher games when they did it (they didn't charge for it)

>>190738
>Just seems to have really picked up recently.
Expect more until late next year.

I also wonder if these are useful for studios to get used to working on a new system. They don't have to spend the time and money on general production, just porting the code over and fixing bugs. It can help them ramp up for new projects while making money doing so.

Man, Sunset Overdrive looks like shit.

Fuck you, Square.

If Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD had a skip cutscene feature, there was literally no reason for you not to add one for FFX HD.

Instead I'm having to watch your shitty fucking 10-minute cutscene every time I fail your bullshit, impossible, rigged Blitzball game.

>>190787
I'm pretty sure you could lose that one and all you get is a bonus item for winning.

Playing through the PC version of FFXIII. It's not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be after trying it on 360 when it first came out. Being able to play with the (in my opinion) better Japanese voices helps, since I couldn't stand Vanille and Hope's English voices.
The battle system is actually pretty fun, and fights have so far been more challenging than in all the other numbered FF games I've played.
The story isn't bad (even without once checking the datalog so far), but I've spent 17 hours so far going down corridors escaping from the same pursuers from the very start of the game. Also, haven't once been able to actually pick my party members yet. Took I think more than two hours to even be able to earn experience.
I'm hoping that 20 hour mark everyone talked about does open things up, because the game is passable as is, but could definitely be better.

I don't like the battle system. I feel like I'm just sort of directing battles. Like I'm just sort of coaxing the game along.
Almost done with the big airship level and I assume the game opens up after that?

It feels like people who self-identify as "gamers" spend more time arguing on the internet than actually playing games.

>>190803

Well yeah, it's an oppositionally-constructed identity. The whole point of it is to argue with the mainstream. That's why it's completely obsolete now that gaming IS the mainstream, but some people just can'[t let go.

>>190803
I can do both at the same time now.

>watching a playthrough of The Evil Within
>phone's text sound, set as the Zelda item obtain jingle, goes off right as Joseph falls out of the tub
Had a pretty good laugh.

For all intents and purposes Hatred looks like a terrible game. But Jesus Christ, /v/ is eating that shit up like the stupid brainless muppets they are. The devs definitely knew who they were targeting.

>>190857
Just watched the trailer. It looks like an angsty emo teenager made a black and white isometric dual stick shooter.

>>190858
Eh, atlest its more artsy and less vulgar then Postal.
May even be more fun to play too as long as animal crualty dont come and ruin my buzz again...
And maybe if the babies gets there bottle they will calm down.

But the player avatar look way to much like Jacky from the Darkness games and that makes me miss the super powers and eating the hearts of my enemies.
And the first one also had cop killing in it.
(and cops kissing~ no really, if you watch them at the start of the bathhouse level you can totally see a male and female cop make out)
So guess we can add rip off to the list of bad things.

>>190857
I was expecting a /v/ thread full of eye-rolling pshaws over Hatred's patronising tryhard edginess and came away VERY disappointed.
I know /v/ is terrible and everything, but I anticipated at least a bare minimum possession of irony. Jesus wept.

Fun note about Hatred: the people making it are actual, literal Polish neo-nazis.

>>190861
One more reason for /v/ to suck their dicks, then.

>>190861
Nah, Islamophobes more like the Polish equivalent of the BNP but close enough.

>>190865

In addition to the anti-immigrant group thing, one of the devs is wearing Polish neo-nazi iconography in a group photo.

Sigh.

I knew the Baltic nations and surrounding areas had white supremacist problems but them not even hiding is fucking ridiculous.

>>190867
Dude, you been looking at Europe lately?

//youtube.com/watch?v=NFEeS2OXpoI

After playing the HD Collection, I guess FFX isn't as great as I remember it being.

>>190883
Now play X-2 and begrudgingly admit that it's actually not bad and the better game of the two.

>>190884
X-2's battle system was definitely incredible but I don't know if all the other gameplay-related bullshit was worth it. Also the music ranged from mediocre to outright bad with the exception of a few tracks.

Playing XCOM: Enemy Within on Classic Ironman made me realize two things:
1. I'm amazing at getting my teams through missions alive
2. I'm FUCKING TERRIBLE at the base building bit

>>190884
I am absolutely convinced that if they had given it a cheesy 70's soundtrack, it would still be remembered as one of the best games in the series.

http://www.clickhole.com/article/summary-gamergate-movement-we-will-immediately-cha-1241

Clickhole continues to be the greatest site of all time.

Playing Symphony of the Night for the first time. Dark Souls really is the spiritual successor like some people keep saying. Complete with losing half an hour of progress, because you can't find the fucking savepoint. Fuck me.

You know what bothers me? Developers in interviews always refer to games in a series by "version". Like, when talking about Paper Mario games, they always say "the Gamecube version" when referring to TTYD, and "the Wii version" when referring to Super Paper Mario. Or when talking about Zelda games, "the Wii version" means Skyward Sword, and "the N64 version" means OoT.

When I think of "different versions", I think of the same game, but on a different system with minor differences. Or major differences, but it's clearly meant to be the same game. There's a version of Sonic 2 on Genesis, and a version on the Master System. With the above examples though, they're not the same game. At all. So if referring to them, why not use their individual titles?

I think I posted about this before, but I can't remember

>>190964
Because all games undergo several name changes during development, so to be safe they just say what system it's for instead of accidentally calling the game by its working title and nobody knowing what they're talking about.

>>190965
But I'm talking about when they talk about games that have already been released.

>>190966
So do I?

>>190968
Why would they be afraid of calling the game by its working title if the game is already out?

>>190971
Habit? Clarity? You could try asking the more open devs.

>>190901
I dunno, I'm getting more a EVERYONE WHO CRITICISES QUINN IS A DIRTY OL' TROLL vibe, just phrased in a snarkier way than usual.

Not saying there haven't been trolls on the anti-Quinn side, but conflating all criticism of Quinn as trolling is the most obnoxious tactic for pro-Quinn articles.

>>190981
That usually relates to the fact that anti-Quinn criticism usually refers to her personal life as opposed to any actual professional critique.

>>190997
They are static spawns that will always appear at the same spots on the map. It honestly makes the endgame really tedious, because you'll need to travel a lot. Otherwise great game, though. Have fun!

>>190982
The whole debacle began when it was revealed that her private life consisted of manipulating people around her to promote her game, which only got greenlit on Steam after she told everyone she was doxxed by Wizardchan. It's the lack of transparency that pisses me off, especially after Quinn made sure nobody could discuss her actions on so many sites, then went to every mainstream news site she could find to talk about how mean everyone was being to her.

>>190982
Not that it justifies the disproportionately insane mistreatment from the usual Internet suspects, but most of the criticism I'm seeing from the antis that I've been paying attention to come from stuff like fake DMCA claims and the huge scale of the takedowns of posts relating to her (aka Internet censorship). Even if she was just trying to do damage control over false libel, that's not the most rational thing to do at all and basically the Barbara Streisand Effect in action.

>>191004
I thought we were pissed off about Kotaku articles.

People have had it out illogically for Zoe Quinn for a long long time now. I'm not surprised people are finally feeling justified about a chance for ragging on her.

Keyword being feeling.

>>191004

You mean when her bitter ex wrote a big long rant designed to discredit her personally, the only verifiable claim contained within it turned out to be hilariously false?

http://www.totalxbox.com/82240/resolution-doesnt-sell-games-says-far-cry-4-dev-1080p-debate-is-a-weird-echo-chamber/

Oh, that crazy Ubisoft.

>>191009
Jesus christ between all their shit with FPS and now this they're at hilarious levels of damage control.

>>191009
I think companies spent years hyping up 1080p/60fps for consoles when graphics were "stuck" and it was easier to go for that then up the poly count and improve animation, but now that they can up the graphical power they find themselves being held to their previous claims and are now backpedaling so fast they'll win the Tour de France.

>>191019

What exactly am I supposed to be getting from this interview? Beyond the fact that this guy is a delusional piece of shit with a grudge the size of montana?

>>191009
You know, it wouldn't be so bad to have 30 FPS and lower resolutions in games. Game companies spend too much money on AAA titles, and cutting back a bit is fine. But goddamn, don't try to be a martyr about it.
>>191019
He quit his job to be a GamerGater, and the reporter is clearly trying to get some juicy bites for an article they'd already written in their head. A dumbass and an asshole, as personifies most of the movement and some of its biggest detractors.

>>191022
>Game companies spend too much money on AAA titles, and cutting back a bit is fine.
I agree, but many of them spent years saying they were pushing for 1080p/60fps, so the turn around is funny. Plus, it's Ubisoft, who told us that women are too hard to program, so coming from them it adds another layer of humor.

>>191029
Or everything with Watch_Dogs. Damn that company is so fucking shit when it comes to resource management.

Playing Final Fantasy X-2 fresh after X.

Writing is just as cringe-worthy as I remember it. Imagine the laughing scene, for the whole game.

Gameplay so far is better than X. Faster paced, more variety, job system continues to be awesome.

But the music? Oh god, the music. This has to be one of the worst, most generic, repetitive, and boring soundtracks for any game I've ever played. It seriously is one of the worst soundtracks I've ever heard. I can accept Uematsu not being involved, but they seriously dropped the ball here. None of the themes are anything I would ever listen to by themselves, and they don't fit the areas they play in at the slightest. Yoko Shimomura would've been a perfect fit for this game. I like the vocal themes though...they're a guilty pleasure.

>>191031
>Imagine the laughing scene, for the whole game.
Aside from the fact that "everyone" agrees with the fact that the laughing scene was bad, can you tell me what it is that you found disagreeable about the laughing scene?

>>191021
You seem to be confusing the actual transcript of the interview with the interview Buzzfeed put out.
>>191022
Yeah, that part about quitting his job was weird. To be honest though, most of the pro-GamerGate people I've seen are just pissed off at being labelled ultra-misogynists.

>>191031
I thought Besaid and Yuna's theme were pretty good. Not particularly memorable but decent enough. A lot of it was indeed terrible though. I remember Rikku's theme being particularly bad.

>>191031
I agree that most of the X-2 soundtrack is painfully generic and even the better pieces are marred by the fucking terrible battle music, but X-2's theme for the Macalania Forest remains one of my overall favorite pieces of videogame music. It's legitimately beautiful.
//youtube.com/watch?v=nypiWFPYGws

>>191033

Nope, I never read that interview. That is exactly what I get from the transcript.

>>191032
Thing is, the laughing scene isn't badly acted or anything. It's supposed to be awkward, and sound as fake as possible. But taken out of context, it makes no sense and went on for way too long with no way of explaining it to anyone who walked in the room, IE their parents. The crappy facial animations just make it worse.

The point is, the laughing scene was meant to convey a message or emotion because of Tidus being told to laugh and cheer up after so much shit's happened in his life, and producing the most fake, awkward laugh ever because of it. This was conveyed poorly and so it's cringe-worthy.

Similarly, in X-2 there are so many moments that are supposed to make the player laugh or smile, but only make me groan and roll my eyes.

Another thing that pisses me off about this game is that X didn't have skippable cutscenes, ever. X-2 does, but you still have to watch them, otherwise you won't get 100% completion.

//youtube.com/watch?v=btNg-kJMPTw

Happy to see Insomniac land back on its feet, after the disaster that was Fuse.

>>191043
Anyone who played it know how it is? Probably one of the few games for the Xbone at E3 I was remotely interested in, but even then it doesn't look like it has much meat in it beyond the first few hours, not helped by all the lulzmemeshit.

>>191046
According to Brad over at GB and several other places the first few hours are actually the weakest part, partly because you don't have all your mobility options yet. I was pretty down on the game for awhile because all the gameplay they showed didn't look like it felt fast enough and had a lot of forced ATTITUDE bullshit going on, but apparently that's mostly proven to not be the case. There is some internet meme garbage in there but it apparently never gets any worse than Guacamelee did (as opposed to say, Watchdogs).

Brad also mentions that there's a mission later in the game which is almost certainly a riff on the whole Overdose/Fuse thing, and claims it's even more vicious than Jeff's idea of a mission where you focus test the energy drink.

>>191046
Its full of MEEMS.

>>191047
>never gets any worse than Guacamelee
Shit, Guacamelee had that?

>>191057
Did you somehow miss all the signs in the background? Unless you didn't play it, in which case yeah, background stuff plus maybe a couple lines. I haven't played SUPER TURBO ULTRA CHAMPIONSHIP ARCADE THIS IS THE LAST ONE FOR REAL edition though.

>>191059
Aheh. No. But that sorta decisions kinda forms my thoughts on potential purchases.

>>191054
ohgod somebody put up the video.

>>191060
http://www.themarysue.com/watch-anita-sarkeesian-colbert-segment/

>>191054
Ugh. While some of the stuff she discusses in her videos is good (and that's usually the extremely obvious, low-hanging fruit like "damsels in distress are a tired cliche"), quite a few of her other ideas and bizarro beliefs about gender roles really rub me the wrong way as a fellow feminist and a woman lots of people would consider "masculine". If it's true she said that shootings are the fault of excess masculinity and not the failure of our country to address problems with mental health and gun laws that it is, then yeah, that's fucking bullshit. I wish someone with a less skewed and potentially harmful set of views ended up being the big "spokeswoman" for feminism in video games, if that makes sense.

At least this will piss off the right-wing trolls like InternetAristocrat who went out of his way to stick up for Colbert because he was under attack by an honest-to-god SJW.

>>191062
>I wish someone with a less skewed and potentially harmful set of views ended up being the big "spokeswoman" for feminism in video games, if that makes sense.

Then do it. That's the thing about all the Sarkeesian hate, even the "I like her, but..." stuff--the answer to this is not "Sarkeesian needs to X..." it's that "More people ASIDE FROM Sarkeesian should be talking about this."

Sarkeesian is not the "spokeswoman" for feminism in video games because she's been elected to the position or because she's 100% right about everything or because she has claimed the role. She is the "spokeswoman" because she is one of the people who is having the most success at getting her voice out there. And the first step to getting your voice heard is to start speaking up. She doesn't own the format of Feminist Criticism (Virginia Woolf was doing this sort of thing in the 1920's, and Rebecca West predated her by about twenty years) If you are indeed a feminist who has a different take on things, then start making your own essays and videos.

I firmly believe that more voices would be the best possible thing right now.

What exactly HAPPENED in that episode?

>>191061
Thank you.

>>191062
She's obviously not representative of all schools of thought of feminism. And while I do disagree with some of her opinions (particularly on Bayonetta - while obviously handled as well as any other female character by the dev team, the designer[s] put quite a lot of care, respect and personality into her design and character) I do think she's become an important figure in the discourse of feminism in videogames recently.

Maybe not as a point-maker, but as someone to arrange and create conversation.

>>191064
Heh, it's not as easy as it sounds you know, especially if you're as introverted as me. I do respect Sarkeesian for having the courage to present in front of so many people constantly, especially when dealing with so much bullshit. And she does at least increase visibility for a lot of commonsense ideas about women's representation that have yet to take hold in the general public, even if they get canceled out by a lot of other really Bad Ideas (a lot of stuff in Mrs Male and her views on True Grit in particular really leave a bad taste in my mouth).

But you're absolutely right about the need for more feminist voices. I guess I don't really resent Sarkeesian the person (she's entitled to her personal opinions) so much as I'm just frustrated by the lack of other feminists in the world of gaming who are prominent enough yet to make the dialogue more diverse so I have someone I feel comfortable rallying around. I agree that Sarkeesian getting all the spotlight and media fellation isn't all the fault of her being an "attention whore" (it's a dumb insult, if anything being able to use negative publicity to market yourself is a really useful skill for a professional IMO) so much as because there's nobody else to give it to.

>>191062
>If it's true she said that shootings are the fault of excess masculinity and not the failure of our country to address problems with mental health and gun laws

Those two things are not exactly contradictory statements, you know. Why do you think we have so many young men with untreated mental health issues, or such insane gun laws?

>>191069
Because of a history of anti-socialistic sentiment and frontier mentality.

>>191069
If being male really was as major of a cause as was suggested, then you'd think such shooting sprees would be far more common in other Western countries than they are.

>>191054
Quite an accomplishment for the "feminist" equivalent of a Club 700 preacher.

>>191074
Other western countries don't give the same ease.
That said, its not like bad mental health care and social stigmas regarding it are exclusive to the US, either.

Again, goes back to the ease of hand.

>>191076
You can thank the 'Gators.
She was literally just a random youtuber before she adressed vidya.

>>191074

Not being male itself, but the toxic cult of masculinity and machismo that is incredibly pervasive throughout our culture. It's almost as harmful for men as it is for women.

>>191079
>>191079
Yes, the West has a problem with valuing aggression and stoicism more highly in men, but fighting it tit-for-tat with reactionary "femininity is superior" glorification I see all over Tumblr isn't the most productive response. Masculinity isn't anymore inherently toxic than excessive femininity, especially considering what counts as "masculine" or "feminine" is often so vague and different between cultures. I really hate how that term is catching like wildfire among some feminist circles.

Likewise I'm sick of the implication that women viewed as having "machismo" are all self-loathing, internal misogynists, or wannabe men with tits. Maybe it's just how they are to begin with. One of the goals of feminism is the idea that such women deserve as much respect as a more traditional "girly girl". Therein lies my biggest problem with Sarkeesian. A lot her most toxic and counterproductive ideas boil down to gender essentialism and threaten to set back women's rights 25 years.

>>191081
>"femininity is superior"
How bout I explain this then.

That whole mantra was ... built up as a response to that subtle idea that feminine is weak feeble and undesireable if you want to be considered an actual person.
And not even 'superior'.
But 'its valid if you want it to be a part of your personality.' Its the same as "fat people are cute" "black is beautiful" "you rock, girl" its a response to a harmfully oft heard message.

The whole idea is to disregard the role Gender Roles plays on our society. Sarkeesian is right in bringing attention to it. Thats valid. Feminine people are right in celebrating their own desires. Thats valid. Who the hell considers women with machismo as misogynists for chosing to act how they like. Thats not fucking... what?!

Why is this on the video games board.

>>191079
Can we just agree that gender roles in general are really shitty? Some parts of masculinity are bad, others are good. Same goes with stereotypical femininity are good (sensitivity, empathy, strong communication skills), but others aren't (passivity, vanity). Instead of attacking masculinity wholesale maybe people could work on promoting the good aspects of stereotypical masculinity (assertiveness, directness, independence) while avoiding transmission of the more harmful ones (violence, thuggishness, coldness). Or by promoting other non-traditional masculine role models like Atticus Finch instead. Or by decoupling these character traits from gender in general.

>>191081
>Masculinity isn't anymore inherently toxic than excessive femininity
But it is more prominent and present. Nobody thinks excessive femininity can't be a problem, but it's not the gender role that has ended up dominating the culture. Masculinity gets shit the most because it's the one that's everywhere and affects damn near everything.

>>191078
//youtube.com/watch?v=yIpw3wHn9Sk

>>191082
The way you describe it is reasonable enough, but going by the examples you mentioned, the way I've usually seen it presented is more analogous to "thin people are disgusting" or "only black is beautiful". It's not necessarily a bad idea, it's just that it's not often utilized in a way that's constructive or beneficial to feminism. Also I need to spend less time on Tumblr and Twitter.

>>191086
>that one guy even other GGers consider a raving loony in a tinfoil hat
top lel

>>191084
Yes, totally. Feminine is just always associated with being a porcalain doll with a personality malleable to whomever possesses said doll - while Masculinity somehow became possessing the doll.

Sure.
Sometimes people don't WANT the doll. And sometimes people don't want to BE the doll.
But man, at that point you really take a step back and say "Man. I understand how women can be getting the short end here."

Gender roles as a whole suck? Yeah. Totally agreed.

>>191086
Youtube shows! 99% don't get you talking in Universities!*

Not an official statistic.

D-did you guys see the new 3ds th-thing?

>>191090
It recently release in Australia, right?
Is that one compatible with western games?

>>191091
Just European ones!
Australia counts as PAL.

>>191093
Awwww, damn.
But anyways, what does Australia says about it?
Can you play Smash in a better way with it?

>>191098
Well, dunno about that but looks like we finally figured out why we're not getting the nu3DS until later...

http://tinycartridge.com/post/101375107202/heres-why-we-have-to-wait-until-next-year-for-the

>>191111
>We can't give you guys the New 3DS because you don't buy enough Old 3DS
That's stupid. Why would the sales here increase when all gamers are well aware of the New 3DS coming at some point? 3DS sales will just flatten out until the N3DS comes out.

>>191112
The New 3DS is coming out in Japan because they're running out of people to sell 3DS to. In America or Europe, that's not the case. It's not a matter of "not enough sales", it's "the 3DS still has new customers it can attract".

>>191082
Yeah a disheartening number of Tumblrinas despise characters like Ripley or even Mulan for stupid reasons like "trying to hard to fit in with the boys" or repudiating their femininity or being bad role-models because they encourage women to be more masculine and masculine bad, feminine good. Even I've been called an antifeminist or secretly a dudebro inside a few times by morons because I love stuff like FC3 Blood Dragon and Killing Floor and made jokes about the Dear Esther remake for being a boring walking simulator (believe it or not, women exist who genuinely like FPSes and consider gameplay mechanics higher priority than story and characters!). It reminds me of similar vocal minorities of gays who call the str8-acting ones or bears Uncle Toms to the LGBT community because they're not over-the-top flaming queens. These people are fucking dumb and the best thing after ignoring them is to get as many other impressionable people to also ignore them and not get suckered in by their stupidity.

>>191115
How is the port quality? It's Sega isn't it.

>>191116
I could see that... if those who had been considering a 3DS purchase weren't now waiting for the N3DS. I'm sure they'll still sell a lot of 3DS this Christmas in the states, mainly to little kids and those who need to play Smash now, but I will be surprised if it's more than they sold last year in the same period.

'Course, maybe they're realizing that the moment the N3DS comes out the Old model will have its sales go to 0, and they can either take loses on those by cutting the price significantly or get rid of them some other way. So by holding out during Christmas they can get rid of a lot of existing stock before the N3DS comes out.

>>191119
Well, it unlocks on the 11th. 10 days to go. Though, previews claim it'll be at 1080p and 60FPS.

I've been eager to play this since I first saw the game on the pstripple. I'll post when I get it.

Playing Final Fantasy X-2 still. Am at the tower calibration minigame.

I have come to the conclusion that tower no. 7 is literally impossible.

The human brain cannot process given symbols fast enough to input them in a single second.

>>191142
Press X to break out a wicked drum theme on that casket

>>191142
I can't help but feel this is related: //youtube.com/watch?v=YwOys7qEhGU

//youtube.com/watch?v=b82idSYHSu8

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/9865-Gaming-Needs-To-Get-Over-Jack-Thompson?utm_source=latest&utm_medium=index_carousel&utm_campaign=all

Most sense he's made in a while.

>>191172
>using Anita Sarkeesian, of all people, as a critical thinker

>>191172
I can't watch the video right now, but I haven't hearn anyone mention the guy in years. I think we got over him when he was kicked out of court, or whatever discredited him.

>>191175
>using
citing*
>as a critcal
as an example of*

i hate myself

>>191176
It isn't so much about him as much as it isn't about bringing up his ghost whenever someone criticizes the game community.

>>191143
Turns out it actually IS impossible due to input lag. Through lowering the resolution among other things, I beat it. And I am realizing the true reason why Final Fantasy X-2 is a shitty game.

No, it's not the story, in fact I kinda like the story and how it doesn't feel like a forced sequel, it's more lighthearted and energetic, and YRP are honestly strong, interesting female protagonists. It continues the story in a way that feels natural and necessary, and it doesn't make any more or less sense than X. It's just that a few moments are, well, cringe-worthy.

And no, it's not the music, because even though I said it was fucking horrible earlier, it's only a few themes that actually hurt my ears. The Miihen Highroad theme (which also plays in Moonflow and a few other places as well) and the Chocobo theme are obnoxious and make me mute the game. But as a whole, it's a mixed bag. Some shitty tracks, a lot of generic and boring tracks, and some honestly pretty good tracks.

No. The reason this game sucks is that 90% of it is awful, shitty, scum of the earth, not fun at all MINIGAMES. FETCH QUESTS. PADDING OUT THE ASS. Make me do dungeons. Fight bosses. Do things that actually are relevant to the plot. ANYTHING other than your shitty fucking minigames. PLEASE.

And sure, I don't HAVE to do those. I COULD just skip them and play the actual game. But then I'd be missing out on a lot of the story, and most importantly, not get 100% completion, and therefore not get the best ending. There could not be a more passive-aggressive way to pad out your game, and disguise it under nonlinearity. Fucking disgrace.

And the director of X-2 went on to direct XIII. Why is this man still employed?

Shadow of Mordor is being what I kinda wish Tomb Raider had more of, that being artifact hunting. how come a game that is primarily about slaughtering masses of Orc has better and more rewarding Treasure Hunting then the game that is supposed to be primarily about that.

Little Big Adventure is free on gog.
Just so you do.

>>191258

And the Internet mocked it quite thoroughly earlier this week, as well it should have.

I’m almost surprised there weren’t any Mountain Dew cans or Doritos bags sitting on the casket.

>>191258
>>191259
I don't see anything right or wrong with this, I just don't get it. Can someone explain?

>>191260
Maybe it has to do with the fact that this is a mission objective and you can't progress unless you do it, unlike the optional "Pay your respects" moment from Arkham City.

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AndrewVestal/20141105/229523/All_Due_Respect_Press_F_for_Farce.php

>>191262
The deceased is the main character's best friend.

>>191263
Isn't he also the son of Kevin Spacey's character?

>>191260
I think it's kind of funny. You take a moment which is meant to be solemn and respectful and you boil it down to PRESS THE ACTION BUTTON BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL PLAYING A GAME WE SWEAR.

>>191262
Its interesting, in that its a moment like that can cause a game to be less immersive. Because its just such an odd thing to do that it can just take a person right out of the game.

>>191266

It's one of the big issues facing videogames these days: where to draw the line between interactivity and passivity. (See also: any goddamn QTE in the Resident Evil games past 4.)

>>191265
>>191266
>>191269
Companies want to take gaming into a richer narrative, but realize that doing so will wrest control from the player. A lot of companies still haven't done the Half Life model, where you can at least do stuff while other characters talk out whatever, though you don't have the option to skip the "cutscene". This is probably some attempt at that, but falls on its face and shows the limitations of our regular controller-based input. The Kinect would have actually been useful here, as the player could have stood and saluted or reached out for the casket or whatever it is that happens after you press X. More immersive and keeps them within the scene.

>>191275
Indeed, this and that D4 could have shown how fun the system could have been with Kinect, shame they are dumping it from bundles.

Hitman: Bloody Money perfected funeral tech years ago, I don't understand how people don't just copy that.

>>191276
D4 works because the inputs remain extremely simple, also I don't know who to credit for this but most importantly they actually fucking work and the Kinect can recognize those motions as inputs.

>>191280
//youtube.com/watch?v=r5ssg9VV8XU

>>191280
>>191281
Oh no

Oh nooooooo

>>191280
>>191281
Is it better or worse than '06?

>>191278
Which is weird, is it the programming for the motions on the game side? I mean hearing Best Friend LP its the only time I've ever heard someone lament not playing with the Kinect. But yea the way they talk about it the way its programmed should be how people use that device, not try to do some realistic movement.

>>191284
Sega sent review copies of 06; there's no review copies for Sonic Boom.

>>191284
Sonic 06 is like The Room. It transcends "so bad it's good" and "so bad it's bad" to the level of "so bad it's hilarious". Plus, if I play Sonic's segment, I can squint my eyes and convince myself I'm playing Sonic Adventure 3. There are moments in that game where I could genuinely have fun with it.

Sonic Boom on the other hand looks to be so awful, so utterly putrid that it makes me, as a Sonic fan, hang my head in shame.

>>191293
>>191296
Obvious graphical glitch aside, what's up with the weirdly inappropriate music as a bad guy ship attacks?