Single-player Video Games Thread

No problem. I played The Witcher 2 without playing the first one and I thought it was great. The sequel is fairly self-contained and I didn’t really feel like I was missing any context.

I’m excited about W3 coming out in April. The question is do I want the ultimate PC gaming experience bad enough to buy a newer top-tier video card?

The single gtx 660ti I have has lasted me a solid 2+ years – it even let me play Dragon Age: Inquisition on near max settings with smooth frames – but as anticipated The Witcher 3’s sys reqs are intense.

I’m sort of a perfectionist, so to play the 2nd part before the 1st would be like blasphemy :smiley:

I think it’s worth it, if you have the money. I consider my rig to be mediocre, with 4 gig RAM, Radeon 6670 and 3.6 GHz processor. I guess it was mediocre like 2 years ago, cause now it can’t even run some of the newer games. I’m annoyed by how I’m supposed to buy an above-average PC every 2 years just to be able to even run newer games, it’s BS. I bet they can, right now, make 16 core processors with 8gb graphic cards, they just don’t do it for the same reason diamond mongrels withheld large amounts of diamonds and pretended its quantity is low - to keep the prices high.

Are you playing any games at the moment?

This is my list of games to play when I have enough time, in that order: [tab]South Park The Stick of Truth
Gothic 1, 2 NotR and 3 (re-play)
The Witcher 1 and 2
State of Decay
Bioshock Infinite[/tab]

LOTR was there somewhere too but I ruled it out due to sick requirements. I don’t mind playing games on second best resolution (1600x900) and low settings, but one thing I can’t stand is inconsistent frame rate (lagging).

Not playing anything right now. I really want to start a new minecraft server and play with some people, build a town, explore, fight stuff, each other, etc. Good times. I’m not really looking to get into any more serious games for a few months. Bloodborne and Witcher 3 are on my radar, but I’ll be short on time and money for a little while.

My PC specs are good enough to last another 2 years (so that’ll be at least a 4+ yr lifespan), it’s just that my graphics card won’t be able to breeze through all the newest games. I should be able to play 'em, but I’ll have to start tuning things down a lot. That and a larger SSD are the only things I would really want for awhile. I’ll just wait and nab them after prices come down and during some fire sale.

Try building your next PC. Best purchase I ever made. You’ll easily save hundreds of dollars and appreciate it a lot more. All these fancy gaming laptops and ultrabooks going for ~$2000 dollars look cool, but anyone can build a desktop for $1000 that has better specs. Just takes a little bit of research on the market and timing (sales, price cuts).

Oh yeah, and play Bioshock Infinite. It’s good.

Most newer games look beautiful on low-mid detail configurations too.

I did build my PC, it cost $700 about a year ago. It’s just that I live in a poor country where that is a lot of money to most people. TBH though, if I get 4 more gigs of RAM and a new video card, I should be fine too, but decent video cards are the most expensive. I’m just waiting for a really good one to get a little older and drop in price.

Haha, $700 IS a lot of money, and $1000 even moreso (I ain’t rich), I was just making the point that you don’t have to buy a new computer every couple of years if you plan your desktop build well. The graphics card is the part that is becoming obsolete the quickest right now if you’re into graphically intense gaming, but even a GPU can last you a good number of years if you get a good one and take care of your PC. It’s basically just a heavy initial investment.

Right now, I personally would aim for the ~$1000 price point for a new gaming etc. PC, even if I had to save for longer. It’s a price point where you can keep up with all the new high spec games on their highest settings. And you’ll have a productive PC for pretty much anything else you want to do on it professionally for a long time. Of course more expensive builds will be able to run games on quad monitor setups at 4K res with ubersampling and additional post proc, but that’s overkill if you just like to play games at ultra quality.

What country are you from?
I live in the U.S. (surprise!).

I agree with you, except that I don’t really think it’s worth spending so much money on new graphic cards, they drastically drop in price soon after an even newer one is released. I’m usually always at least 2 years behind in terms of gaming and PC configs because it just doesn’t pay off to keep up, since if I spent 2k on the best configuration possible, it would become obsolete in a year or so. It does require me to be patient, but money-wise it pays off greatly. For example, I’ll probably play Witcher 3 in 2016 or 17, when a configuration needed to play them is in the range of average-slightly above average ones.

I think that if one plans on making a heavy initial investment, it’s best done on CPUs and motherboards, since those thing can last for years without needing to be upgraded if you buy a decent one. Graphics card will need upgrading anyways if you’re a hardcore gamer, and RAM is usually the least problem. Personally, I’m not even obsessed about detail quality, a decent resolution and low detail is fine for me as long as there’s no lag.

I’ve started playing South Park The Stick of Truth, and I’m starting to see why it received praise by critics. It’s excellent and plays like an interactive episode/movie of South Park, the artwork is exactly the same and you can see that Trey Parker and Matt Stone worked on the game as well to ensure it’s a quality product unlike previous attempts at South Park games. What can I say, the graphics, sound, animation, story, funny jokes and even gameplay - they truly nailed it. South Park fans, if you’ve been waiting for a decent South Park game, look no further.

I’m playing G2 NotR ATM. Probably my favorite game of all time. Everything about it is just incredible. Gameplay, story, interaction with characters, interesting quests, the main character (who actually TALKS), atmosphere, soundtrack, combat system, animations… there are a few flaws, but they aren’t really worth mentioning. I might make a review if I feel like it when I finish the game.

picking up Bloodborne later today and I’m feeling pretty hyped. dear ancient ones above, below, wherever thou might rest, my soul is ready for the blood.

Bloodborne looks beautiful… and brutal.

I finished NoTR, twice.

Not gonna play any games anymore until the end of the semester.

WITCHER 3 - epic world, nice score. at first Geralt’s movement is a little awkward, but the combat mechanics are quite well done so you get used to it. the world is so large and the side quests have so much depth to them that the main adventure often loses its momentum and doesn’t stand out all that much, aside from featuring a few interesting lead female characters. I guess you could say the world is so vast and interesting that the story fails to keep up - it’s not quite the intriguing central focus that one would expect from such an amazing world, but it’s not bad either.

  1. This is the area where I am now. @4:23 might be my favorite ambient track

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25h1bjZwPgs[/youtube]

  1. The city in the distance, Novigrad, is the largest and most detailed I’ve ever seen in a video game.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-1xO-R_JpA[/youtube]

Metroid prime is the best single player FPS. It is for science oriented minds.

COD is gay and its graphics make me nauseous.

I am posting this here for people who enjoy reading Satyr and playing video games (i.e. Arbiter, Trixie, etc.)

On the Genealogy of “Art Games”
by Alex Kierkegaard (a.k.a. icycalm)
culture.vg/features/art-theory/o … games.html

Here is an excerpt:

On Why Scoring Sucks and Those Who Defend It Are Aspies
imgur.com/a/q6BUr#0

This is one of his best essays.

I think Satyr is against video gaming, and I understand why, there are some good reasons to be against it that I know of from personal experience (namely, addiction and excessive gaming).

But, like Arc says, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

No seriously… I do think some games are like an amalgamation of different types of art put together into an interactive whole. They’re worth playing purely because of the depth of the story, characters, the world, amazing display of graphics, sounds, animations etc.
Then there are others that exist mainly to serve as sort of a temporary escape, a way to satiate some needs that cannot be satiated in real life. For example, lately I’ve been feeling this need to fuck shit up medieval style. So I play Dynasty Warriors 8, which allows me to do exactly that with its excellent and fluid combat system, and a vast array of different weapons, each with different combat animations. Not much depth to it story and character-wise, but it serves its purpose.

I can’t really say I’ve played much in the last couple of months. I only played Gothic 3, nothing else until I began DW8 some few days ago. I mostly have my mind set on other things now, it’s probably for the best too. Gothic 3 btw is amazing and I recommend it to all. It’s worth exploring just for its beautiful world and music, if nothing else. Just make sure to patch it up with latest community patches, and add the quest and content mods.

Addiction isn’t an argument against anything. You can be addicted to sex, does that mean you should be against sex? You can be addicted to pretty much anything, including philosophy, does that mean you should be against all activities, including philosophy?

That some people, perhaps even majority of them, should not play video games is not an argument against video games either.

One has to learn how to separate distinct threads, how to avoid mixing them. Blame what has to be blamed, be precise in your blame.

However, those with no interest in video games, who cannot enjoy them, will nonetheless continue to be imprecise in their blame. Nothing can be done about that other than to point out the apparent conflict of interests brought on by their lack of interest in video games.

All art is simulation, a replacement for life that is missing, and in this sense, escapism. Paintings, sculptures, music, novels, movies and video games all serve to satisfy the needs that cannot be satisfied in real life. There is nothing wrong about that per se.

The problem occurs when one consumes more than one really needs. This has nothing to do with art per se, but with the individual’s inability to control himself.

COD is garbage. Modern degradation in aesthetics.

Degraded from what?

Dungeon Keeper…so fun to be bad!

Back when FPS games were pleasing to the eye.

WCR4 was pretty great: getting it for the Vita impelled me to get it for the 360, too. I never thought I could be into rally games–i.e., no real-time opponents–, but actually this is better in many ways. In the meantime, however, I got a PS4. The PS4 still won’t have a Gran Turismo for quite some time, and I always liked the Forza series better, anyway; it even tempted me to get an Xbone instead and, later, as well as a PS4… I didn’t give in to the temptation, though.

Project CARS is great in many ways, but still not good enough for me. WRC5 was pretty bad (different developer than 4). DIRT Rally is now the best racing sim in my opinion. And, despite its flaws, I like Assetto Corsa better than Project CARS. Maybe I should do a short review on these games. Anyway, in most genres I mentioned in my previous post, there have not been any great new additions I have played yet–though Fallout 4 and the new Deus Ex are really great (Far Cry Primal seriously lacks guns).

Oops, almost forgot A Link Between Worlds! That may actually be the best top-down Zelda yet in my opinion. I also still want to get Rise of the Tomb Raider (on PS4 or 360) and Arkham Knight, and have preordered The Last Guardian. Far Cry 4 was only slightly less great than 3. Dishonored was great, too. Magrunner is a nice Portal-esque game, but Portal Stories: Mel is much better. Finally, Inside is a worthy sequel to Limbo–which means awesome.