SomTervo

Yep. I agree with you. 100%. I literally played Dead Island for 45 minutes before being overwhelmed with nausea and turning it off. When it was free on GWG I sunk about 6-7 hours into it, but even then it was mediocre as a free game. I wasn't convinced by Dying Light at all until I watched tens of streams, looking for one to show what night time is like, and yes, night time sold me. Then I got it and the game was incredible. It's not all zombies FYI. Quests and the game world itself feature a lot of non-zombie challenges, puzzles and combat. For example, there are a lot of nasty criminal goons hanging about, and combat with them is a lot like Condemned: Criminal Origins. Another example, a lot of the quests demand you to get places which are not immediately or obviously accessible. It takes some genuine puzzle solving to work these out – I had some quality 'aha!' moments with the game puzzle-wise. It was also super immersive, the puzzles all felt totally at home and believable in the amazing game world. It's a borderline masterpiece of level design that the place feels real as well as being engaging. It's what Arkham City should have been like in that regard. I had many moments in Dying Light, between hours 4 and 15, where I genuinely thought 'This is what we would get if Valve committed themselves to an open world Half-Life game. It literally feels like I'm playing an open world Half-Life 2.' The story's not that bad! I mean, it's not a game with a great story, and never will be. Some of the dialogue is genuinely entertaining because it's so horribly bad. "I don't negotiate with assholes, Rais!" made me laugh out loud. But it has enough interesting plot developments with the characters and enough conflicting factions to make it a trillion times better than CoD's 'murca vs the world' or AC's 'durr never-ending sci-fi conspiracies' imo. Plus it has one of the best female characters I've ever seen in a game – until the very end of her story arc where it falls into cliche.

I definitely feel that sentiment. Doesn't stop it being an excellent game, though, zombies aside. This is the first zombie game to get me genuinely excited since I first played Resident Evil 2. Did you see any night time gameplay? It's night time which really makes it worth owning. You basically get two games in one with Dying Light (more if you consider all the mechanics and freedoms at your fingertips): By day: the best shuffling zombie simulator to-date, and the only one to really 'get' shuffling zombie horror. See one zombie? Cool. See two? Okay. See three? Sweat a little. See four? Shit, careful. See five, six, seven? Fucking run. Or distract them. Make some noise during your escape? Shit, you'll attract recently infected runners or other dangerous types, as well as every shuffler for half a mile around. You might turn your back for an instant, and when you look again there'll be a huge horde plodding towards you, new figures emerging from around every corner and doorway you eye up as an escape route. Scavenge for medkits, collect and trash weapons, do quests for survivors... By night: an MGS-level stealth game. The Volatile zombies are out – with HP in the thousands, vision cones, a scream which brings more of them to you, the ability to free run just as well as you, over rooftops and through buildings and up walls. It becomes a full blown, tense survival horror experience in one fell swoop. But your Power (ie fighting) and agility points are doubled at night – what are you gonna do? Risk staying out at night and being chased to death for the opportunity to power-level? Or sleep till morning and return to your survival journey, doing (quite excellent) quests for other survivors? You decide... It's a really, really good singleplayer game which I'm enjoying more than Far Cry 4 or Mordor – and it's also an amazing, deep co-op experience. We're lucky folk, these days.

5 replies? The GAF thread is in the hundreds. Of pages. Full (about 90%) with people lauding this game as one of the best zombie titles ever made. It's fucking glorious. A wonderful, wonderful experience. Nobody here playing it? gob-COME_ON.gif

I see through your facade, E Persona, yay!

Shit, is it totally worth following through with S02? Also, I only know people who like Happy Endings and I personally love New Girl. It has some genuinely classic episodes in seasons 2-3, almost up there with best-grade Arrested Development and Community

The tiredness thing is such a ballache, I envy you with P4G MEth

Yeah quality advice all round, thanks chaps I've read elsewhere to push as far as possible in one night as a rule of thumb, so will do. My main concern now is SP. I can push all night, sure, but I don't have very many/any SP-replenishing items. Is there any sure-fire way to get these?

They should just replace those missions with the pages from From Hell that are police crime procedurals

I'm utterly loving Persona 3 FES and you know what? It's heralding a return to the JRPG genre for me. I have literally never finished a JRPG and haven't even tried getting into one since I was about 12 or 13. I think I just didn't have the patience. But I feel like I'me getting it now. The whole thing. Nailing the mix between engaging with the mechanics and gradually pushing forward into tougher territory. Thanks for the tips in my status update the other week, Tenshi & FLD. There are only a couple of minor things I don't really get yet. I think I'm in the swing of it for the most part. Fantastic craic. Tiredness is something which causes me a lot of bother. When a character gets tired, is it generally safe to keep on trucking through Tartarus? (Basically I'm asking if there are any longer-term/wider detrimental effects to being tired. Obviously it makes your character perform worse so I know to bow out whenever the stakes are getting too high.) Is there any way to find out good Fusion Skills? I'm comfortable with fusing Personas at this stage, and it's totally worthwhile – but it doesn't tell you if you'll have a Fusion Skill available with them? Is this just trial/error? Also, dat music. Dat music.

Yes I just discovered this! Real interesting. "Season 2" seems pretty great too. The multiverse episode was seminal. Yes... Emo Dandy. OMFG. Also the VA was done simultaneously in English and Japanese, and conceptualized from the start to have good English VA. Shouldn't be no VA pretention about this series.

Not sure peeps know this – but there's a second season? It just got added to UK Netflix. I had no idea one was even in post-production. Double the show, WOOOO Most surreal moments ever : watching the episode where they get stuck on that one day, living in a space-time loop. Then a friend texts me and reminds me it's groundhog day... That was fucking bizarre

I think I agree with that - comedy needs pacing and verbacity (made that word up), whereas in dramas you can easily read away without losing any of the pace. Yeah, Tenshi, the animation is fucking brilliant, great shout on that front. That bit when they go through the wormhole and see the ramen chef. The wormhole animation was... mindblowing. The silliness is also really endearing on the whole. Plus that ending theme. Holy fuck it's amazing

Just started watching Space Dandy myself. Highly, highly entertaining stuff. Though I think in most cases it's like a poor man's Rick and Morty. R&M covers the same wacky aliens and sci-fi territory, but has a far more unique core concept, far more surreal and twisty episode plots, and I find it broadly funnier every moment. Dandy is great though. Excellent adventure. it's also a little derivative of FEAR Agent, Desparate Dan, and a couple of other western sci-fi comics, but that's fine. It's a tradition. Seriously the English dub is fine. There's no way I'm watching it in Japanese and reading the sub titles. Unless it's somehow significantly, significantly better. Which is almost never the case. And a lot of the puns work really well in English. The narrator's voice is flawless, too. PS also a lot of Cowboy Bebop in there. It's like a silly comedy cowboy bebop PPS THAT'S IT! SPACE DANDY IS JOHNNY BRAVO IN SPACE!

The only aspect of the whole situation which deflates the argument a little for me is that, if you broke Left 4 Dead down in a similar fashion, it doesn't seem worthwhile at all. Four characters? 4-5 'maps'? Two more as paid DLC? (On console at least). Evolve is a game which is designed similarly to Left 4 Dead - it's made to have smaller amounts of content which you will be able to play repeatedly, with a rich experience each time. I don't see one locked off monster as a big hindrance to that. I may still buy the game day one if the reviews are good enough. TL;DR: I think if the base game is good enough, who cares about the DLC bullshit. Just don't buy it. That sends the message that it's a bad practice more than anything else.

Wow, people sure go to a lot of effort for some really mediocre entertainment Edit: small update, Psycho-Pass is getting better with each episode. An anime with an actual story? With actual progression episode to episode? Wow! Really, really recommend it. PS I don't think there's a single romance subplot.

Whoa late to this thread I liked the new Thief, Ethan! Hottie: I'm not sure exactly why I find Driver: SF so compelling. The multiplayer is fucking incredible, at least, and not sure if you tried it. That gave me a lot more playtime. Also it has the best FPS driving in any game, and I love me some FPS driving. It even beats out GTAVR's and Far Cry 4's. OT: Dead Island. Was enjoying it as a singleplayer action RPG. Got to the City. Didn't fucking have patience for it anymore. Was clearly not going to change at all before the end. That said, I'll be picking up Dying Light simply for the prospect of open-world FPS parkour. I've kinda petered out on The Witcher 2. It's really good but, frankly, a lot of hard work for a slow moving story/missions. At times I love micromanaging every aspect of Geralt's inventory, but most of the time I really don't and it's a bother. Really well written though, which is great. I hope CDPR smooths some of the mechanics for Wild Hunt. Judging by what they've said about it so far, they have. Minecraft: I adore the first 6-7 hours while you survive and get yourself established with a house/fortress. Then... There's nothing to do. PC gaming, everyone!

That's actually what I was referring to, minor spoiler

That aspect gets more even-handed in season 2. The end of season 1 is pretty rough from that angle, though. I never thought I'd do this, but I'm watching an anime which I think is probably good enough to recommend here. Here's my post from the anime thread:

Started watching PsychoPass as a 'passive' watch (stuff I'll watch while wolfing dinner or somesuch, mainly to fill background in my empty flat while girlfriend is away) It's actually really good. Not the most entertaining, but probably the most intelligent anime I've ever watched. Unusual characters (for anime). Very little female objectification/typecasting. A very long form story, with 'monster of the week' aspects which are tied together into an intelligent whole. It's a big mystery sci-fi plot in an Orwellian future. The bad guys remind me very much of Ledger's Joker - which is a massive, massive compliment.

I need to read this – colleague offered a lend, too. Also I went in for the Humble Image Bundle two cents above average price. Ohyes.

Wise words! I took the plunge because I played a demo at Eurogamer and knew how special the Alien's AI was. I'm a real AI nut so it was a no brainer for me, regardless of what the rest of the game was like. Some of the emergent moments I've had with the alien are literally next-level shit, like what would actually happen in real life. For me they were never once a drag. Not a single one. Very much like in real life, you can sit in a cupboard for hours if you want. But unlike real-life, it pays to take chances - I probably waited, max, 30 seconds before watching the alien's checking pattern and slipping out of my hiding place when he was slightly further away in his pattern. It's thrilling and nerve wracking. 'Pattern' doesn't do it justice, because he might break it at any moment. Taking an actual risk in a game for once feels amazing. You're crawling out from under a table into an environment which is literally an unknown quantity. The alien might come stomping back and you'll have to scramble back under there or push forward to the next bit of cover. It's so amazing. You learn to get really ballsy after a while. (And I found it genuinely fun getting caught - you rethink and try again with a new strategy.) Some people seemed to play it way too safe. You definitely have to 'learn' to play the Alien encounters - because it's 'learning' all the time back at you. Play the game, dude. I don't want to spoil things for you, but there are something like 15 equippable items you get throughout the game, give or take 2. I think 5-6 of them are weapons, the rest are gadgets. I hate saying this – it's a minor but unpleasant spoiler and you're best going in blind – but Seriously, it's a long game with lots and lots of encounters (I'd ballpark count upwards of 40) which are all - every single one - excellently designed and enjoyable and dynamic. I'd say it's a deep first person adventure with horror elements - not strictly a horror game. But by jove, it does have some scary bits man. Remember there's 10 times more content here than in a movie. Some bits are scary, some arent, some are just interesting or entertaining. And regarding androids not being scary/not filling in the gaps... Just play the game. Yeah - say the game has 8 chapters (each about 3-4 hours) – the opening chapter fucks the pacing, and the last chapter fucks the pacing. Chapters 3-7 are fucking excellent, bar a slight dip in chapter 5 or so. (My use of 'chapter' does not in any way correlate with the game's actual chapters.)

Legends is great, me and my gf love it co-op. And Kung-Foot is the best thing ever with 4 people Hmm I'm a little worried about this. Replaying a few missions is probably a good shout - you have to unlock all the skill sets to get that final 'Predator' set right? That one might be a bit of a gamechanger. Also maybe go back to the hideout and you can restock on amber vials?