NeoStarr

I started playing Hearthstone since it went into open beta and put some money into that so I could jumpstart a more viable deck. I guess it was worth it; I'm like 8-0 in ranked so far and quickly catching up to my friends who were in closed beta. As an on and off Magic addict since I was a young teenager; Hearthstone is actually pretty good competition for it. It's a slightly faster, bare bones version of the same game that's much easier to learn and play. Simplifying it to this extent also takes away some of the 1%-chance-complete-bullshit-losses you'd take in Magic thanks to bad hands (no mana/too much mana), or for you MTGO players, a very shitty card shuffler. I don't know that I'd prefer it to Magic myself. Magic has more win conditions that allow for greater variety of viable and interesting decks. Problem is though, drafting is the real attraction for me lately, and Hearthstone is soooooo much cheaper to draft that even if the rewards aren't as good it'll probably be my go to card game for the price alone.

I honestly didn't know there was anything past Ys 2. I thought they just kept remaking those games. :x

Damn, most of my favourite games this year are still in early access. Do they qualify or do I have to wait for a proper release? 7 Days to Die is basically IRL Minecraft, and even with limited functionality I'm pretty hooked. You can get to a point of sort of infinite survivabilty with the limited number of blocks currently released which slows the game down somewhat; but playing self-enforced hardcore is pretty mental. Wasteland 2 plays more like an alpha then a beta but it's still insanely fun. Captures the vibe of old school Brian Fargo/Chris Avellone games perfectly, and I've really been dying for that format to come back in a more modern way. As for games that were actually released this year; Grand Champion: Payday 2 Have over a hundred hours played on this already and plan on playing hundreds more as content is released so consistently. Being a huge Payday 1 fan (always preferred it to Left 4 Dead), this game took the series in the direction I think everybody wanted it to go; with a greater focus on the actual robbery elements than just being a Left 4 Dead style wave shooter. Always feel like such a badass when I've got a pile of hostages tied up at my feet and I'm drilling into a vault without a siren in earshot. Alternatively, the tense situations when a minor slip up causes shit to hit the fan are insane fun as well and often take the missions in a whole new direction. I'm lucky enough to have a full crew who is usually down to play, and that's practically essential, and really the games only downfall is when you don't have friends. Runners up: Shadow Warrior Simply divine first person shooting with all the humor and a fraction of the racist sexism of the original; it really takes me back to the build engine days with added awesome sword combat to boot. A masterpiece that may even be the first old-school style shooter to give Painkiller a run for its money. Monacco It's like if Payday 2 were made for the Atari, and I love it for largely the same reasons. That and the hilariously slapstick "stealth" leads to some pretty interesting situations. The Stanley Parable I never play video games for the story; but this is probably the most well written thing... maybe ever. I know it's always super annoying to hear this, but this is one of those games that you must play and I can't tell you why without spoiling it. I'm usually pretty critical of self-reflexive stuff because it always struck me as an overdone, simple, lowbrow way to get the 'artist' title slapped on your name, but this one stands out among the rest. Democracy 3 I might be a bit biased towards this one since it's fairly new and I've been playing it quite a bit lately, but it stands out as the best educational game I've played since The Oregon Trail. I don't even follow politics, but I feel like I've been inadvertently been learning a lot more about them since getting into this and it's really interesting how it can make you question or go against a lot of political views you would otherwise hold in real life. For instance; I've played quite a few games where doing things like banning gay marriage or allowing the production of GM crops definitely felt like they were the right choices, and I actually felt I could argue for why those were the right choices, even though I'd never approve of such things normally. And GTA5 of course, but everybody already said that so I don't think I have to sing too many praises.

Ys with an attack button? Doesn't that basically make it Zelda?

I got this game for Christmas cause I was really excited about it. All I can say is don't pay sixty dollars for early access; it's broken as fuck. I'll let you know when it's fixed. It shows a lot of potential during the short time it does work though. Very much like the original Fallouts in how the outcome of any given situation is often heavily dependent on your base stats and character creation. Wasteland, however, spreads fewer stat points over a much larger set of options. You usually end up with much more specialized characters and teams because of this, and I assume that's gonna make it much more replayable.

Is it still full of weird animation glitches and stuff? Like people standing upright on death and whatnot? I haven't played in ages; this may have been fixed in the mod already.

http://www.polarisgo.com/video/rYPZk2b5g8Or/category/all/tag/all/section/latest/page/0?awesm=awe.sm_r4TAA Sega's bringing a tank to the console war.

I found out there was a game called Drunken Robot Pornography. I immediately bought Drunken Robot Pornography. If you're going to buy a game based on its title, you pretty much have to start with Drunken Robot Pornography. Doesn't hurt that, even in its early access alpha stage, Drunken Robot Pornography is an awesome game. Drunken Robot Pornography's editor is also the best since Spore; and I have a lot of fun making my own levels and robots for Drunken Robot Pornography. Look forward to them in the steam workshop for Drunken Robot Pornography.

Don't forget Monster Hunter. You won't pour as many hours or deaths into any of the PS4 or XBox1 exclusives combined.

He's like, 8 or 9 years old now. If I'm not mistaken; Midnight Club has a colourful cast of characters; doesn't it? I haven't played in forever but I'll have to double check that it's age appropriate.

My nephew asked for a 'Car sim' for Christmas. I assume he played Forza or Gran Turismo at a friends place; but I got this information from my mom who got it from my sister and there's too many degrees of separation between us to find out exactly what he wants. I grabbed him a racing wheel and I was gonna pick him up a racing game on steam when the winter sale starts. Problem is, my sisters computer is pretty shitty. I don't have exact specs, but I need an idea for a decent racing game that will run on pretty much anything.

I'm a big Ellison fan. I've always wanted to try this and GoG had it half off.

My most favourite game ever. If you haven't already, opt into the beta version. It's smoother, has more options, an extra level, and leaderboards. Right click on it in steam > properties > betas > and enter the code "hlm" (that's HLM, not HIM).

Anybody returning to the better half of the series after it went free on GoG?

It seems to include the unofficial patch too. At least, I got it running right away, whereas I had to jump through some hoops for the Steam version.