Video Games

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:40 am

You know, the fucked-up thing about that game is that I can hardly remember anything of what I played.

I have this problem with FPS. I have played Doom so many damn times that it's not even funny, though I can barely even remember how the first level goes.

Meanwhile, it only takes me a couple of days to get back to my full Ninja Gaiden (NES) strength and I can probably play Super Mario 64 in my head.

What's up with that?

Heath Robinson · Post by **Heath Robinson** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 4:58 pm

FPSes are far more twitch-reaction than other kinds of game. In Doom you get the automap that you learn to use instinctively to determine where to head next, and that trains you to react to the map data and visual data. Doom, and games like it, are heavily "boxes and corridors" so you never get a good look at the layout of the level in an intuitive manner. People only remember choices, so when your movement is constrained you only remember which turnings to make and nothing else (highway hypnosis works along similar lines).

Mario takes place outside in almost every level and you get a nice long look at the layouts and there's a lot more freedom of choice involved. Mario also includes slower gameplay and more planning which forces you to cement the level structure in your head to succeed. Can you remember the twisty passages under the castle at all well?

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 4:01 am

I'm better with memorizing twisty passages that look all alike than patterns of clicks and button presses to complete a non-randomized level.

So I could probably draw you out several levels of Doom from memory. And I've only played it once since 1995, and that was on a telephone. In 2004.

-Crissa

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:37 am

Crissa wrote:And I've only played it once since 1995, and that was on a telephone. In 2004.

Is anyone else impressed that games that were out on PC only a decade ago now work on something the size of a phone? Science!

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 7:53 am

I'll be more impressed when I can play said games while riding in my flying car my meeting on the moon.

Doom on a cellphone is not cutting the mustard.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 8:02 am

A flying space car driven by a fucking robot butler. Fueled by free and clean cold fusion.

I'm not impressed with society's inability to invest in exciting science and infrastructure over the last 30 years. They promised us flying solar powered cars and space travel and an end to world hunger by the year 2000.

The bit where they spent a whole $2 on realizing those goals while spending $Infinity on DRM, PR, "Clean Coal" and dead end military projects like missile defense is probably where they fell down.

My current robot butler runs on food and insists it is a person. It's very disappointing.

Count Arioch the 28th · Tue Jul 07, 2009 6:48 pm

SNES+ games for sales!

Sorry for the blatant plugging. I'm spreading the word to try to get people to buy this.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:40 pm

Yeah, I was kinda unimpressed myself.

Being as while the computer I had was pretty huge, very little of it was required to actually play the game of DOOM.

Now it just pisses me off that we have all this technology and I can't use it to do what I want. What's the point of a super-powerful hand computer that costs $3 a month (plus the $100 a month) per program I'd like to run on it? I'm paying a hundred dollars a month for this fancy device, and while they'll give me a free phone every year, they'll charge me $5 a month plus more than the cost of a new phone without the discount if I break it. What kind of insurance is that? It can play mp3s, stream audio to wireless headphones - but I can't tell it which button to use to lock the damn keyboard.

AUGH.

Also, I lost my spouse's DS on an airplane, and it's yet to be found.

-Crissa

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:39 am

What hand computer/phone is that? Because that's a really shitty deal.

Me? I just stick with the ~$150-200 (AUD) phone I bought* in '06, and go pre-paid. Because I rarely use it, I spend $20 every few months, and although the resolution/lighting isn't good enough to take pictures of my minis, I can take pictures of my dog looking cute and could take pictures up a friend's skirt**. And I have "Zydrate Anatomy" as a ring tone and can, if I'm really desperate, access the Internet (though that gobbles up credit like nothing).

*Back when I had money. I just said "I want a good phone that can also take pictures and transfer mp3s to use as the ringtone. I don't care what it costs, I want to buy it up-front without a plan." and they showed me a few and that one was ideal.

**She knew about it. It was pretty much just for the lulz.

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 7:36 am

Koumei wrote:Me? I just stick with the ~$150-200 (AUD) phone I bought* in '06, and go pre-paid.

Yuppie, mine cost $83 AU in 2006. I'm actually planning on swapping prepaid for a $0 plan. I don't even use it enough to justify the prepaid costs.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 8:03 am

I was earning more than I could spend and was in a really bad mood (having just lost my old phone). I wanted to spend a lot of money on a new phone - but wanted that to be "money I spend now, not later on or every week for eternity".

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 3:50 pm

Odin Sphere:

Yep, I'm overleveled. I just beat the final boss of Book 1 in about 2.5 attack routines. She summoned a handful of baddies and then sent that scythe-wheel thing at me, and that was it. The game didn't even have time to start lagging full-blast.

Edit: In view of Odin Sphere's tendency to lag (in the early versions, anyway), I believe that being overleveled for that particular fight is not all that bad.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Wed Jul 08, 2009 6:07 pm

I like Odin Sphere, but Jesus Christ does it lag at the worst times.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 8:51 am

Okay, so I'm a little nervous tonight.

I have a good reason.

Found out that someone was apprehended at the courthouse (next door to where I work. Like, really, there's practically a shared wall). This person may or may not have been scouting out the security, with an eye to how feasible it would be to sneak a bomb into the building. Details are unclear as of yet. I'll share more when I find out more.

My blood went cold thinking about it, though.

Not much of a sleep for me.

So I played a bit of Shadow of the Colossus.

Then another bit.

...Aaaaand Now I've killed four of them.

This game is epic. The Zelda series *wishes* it could be this immense, and I say that as a lifelong Zelda fan. I plinked the first Colossus with an arrow once I'd found that weakpoint on the leg. Imagine my amazement as it stopped...turned...and started in my direction.

And the best part was, I felt a slight bit of panic because OMG IT'S COMING TOWARDS MEEEEE!

It's been a while since I've had an instinct-level response like that to a game.

Oh, and the landscape and scenery definitely makes up for the travel times. They make you ride across heaven and earth, but they're decent enough to give you pretty stuff to look at along the way.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 11:16 am

You will suffer cardiac arrest when you see the final boss. I guarantee it!

In a good way, though.

And I hope your workplace doesn't get bombed or anything similar. It'd be nice if I could word that in a way that doesn't sound stupid, but you get the idea.

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:00 pm

Screw the final boss. Try the flyer or the one that spits fireballs at you. Or having to kill a bloody leviathan and you're scared to get in the water with it.

cthulhu · Post by **cthulhu** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 12:02 pm

look on the brigtside - they got the guy.

Koumei · Post by **Koumei** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 4:08 pm

TOZ wrote:Screw the final boss. Try the flyer or the one that spits fireballs at you. Or having to kill a bloody leviathan and you're scared to get in the water with it.

Which flyer? The one in the water place with the towers or the one in the desert? (Trying not to spoil it here) Both were pretty cool, though I found the former to be easier, whereas the latter took several attempts (no deaths, just constantly failing to kill it and needing to start the series of actions over again).

Fireball spitting... do you mean the giant Axolotl that scales the walls and spits "poisonous lightning gas"? That one was a bastard - the health meter actually means something!

TOZ · Post by **TOZ** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:13 pm

No, the one in the cave. My first reaction was "OH SHI- IT FIGHTS BACK!"

I was talking about the flyer in the water area. Something about zooming along clinging to its back trying not to fall off.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:15 pm

I'm on that one now. Trying to find a spot with sunshine so I can get those spots to show up.

mean_liar · Post by **mean_liar** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 5:40 pm

I never could beat the 2nd? 3rd? Colossus in the Replay/Hard mode in the alloted shortest time. It was the one on the plateau with the club-like sword it would smack against the plate. I usually am pretty capable with games, to the tune of not being able to ever recall being stuck in another action game, but trying to beat that guy in like 2:30 or whatever just wasn't happening for me.

Crissa · Post by **Crissa** » Thu Jul 09, 2009 7:42 pm

Well, I must admit my phone was free (and I could've gotten their last-years smartphone this spring, they do this every year) with an unlimited data plan, plus another phone.

-Crissa

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 7:56 am

Why did they get rid of the Koopa Kids in favor of Bowser Jr.? Nobody likes him.

Draco_Argentum · Post by **Draco_Argentum** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:28 am

New Mechwarrior game in the works. Oh yeah.

zeruslord · Post by **zeruslord** » Fri Jul 10, 2009 2:58 pm

Yay! now I can have a Mechwarrior game!