I have a PS4. It is cray. It seems like all games are part MMO now and it is a little nerve racking to have other people see me sucking at video games. The small company titles on PS4 are great though.
I'm still mostly just addicted to that motocross iPhone game I mentioned in the other games thread. I made a little progress on the Zelda-y one Judah recommended.
Did you read about the latest episode of the Phil Fish (Fez creator) ongoing drama?
Love that guy! Anyone who tweets about how his fans don't deserve a Fez sequel is the type of maverick I can get on board with!
Back to business: Civ 5 Beyond Earth is what I'm currently waiting for. Antici. Pation.
Favorite PC games: FTL, Civ 5 Gods and Kings, Fez, Brothers, Rome II:Total War, alpha of Jon Shafer's At The Gates, beta of Endless Legend. Braid is also amazing but haven't had a chance to go deep yet.
(About console gaming: It's weird I don't hardly ever power my Xbox up since I got a full-on gaming PC as my living room computer, but used to be very into FIFA soccer, Civ Revolution and Tropico. If I don't end up skipping this gen of consoles altogether I will probably go PS4. But once you have a Steam-enabled PC the game consoles just seem like money pits.)
For mobile I love Uniwar, Summoner Wars, World of Goo, and Andor's Trail (free old-school RPG available on Android Play).
Honorable mentions: Scribblenauts for PC, Super Meat Boy and the OUYA console for letting you try every game available on the system for free.
@faceTweetPlus what kind of gaming PC are you rocking? I have an old dell slim studio computer that I use to watch movies via XBMC and some gaming, but its a bit long in the tooth and I need to build/buy a new one.
This deserves its own thread! A buddy and me are about to re-build our HTPCs and I think Mikey was going to join us... maybe I can host a build party if others want to sponge of our (mostly his) knowledge. For a few hunnie (about the same as a current gen console) you can have a high-end HTPC that will support modern gaming, and Steam will sell you $60 games for $10-15 if you wait for sales.
My current box is a AMD proc + mobo that includes on-board graphics acceleration running Win7 but was mid-line when built and is def showing its age now. I have a big platter drive for media/games and a flash drive for OS, TV card for picking up OTA signals and a Windows Media Remote which Microsoft is doing its best to make slowly useless so I recommend a nice Harmony remote if you can swing it. I also run a w/x logitech k400 keyboard and a w/x logitech gamepad, wonderful products esp the gamepad.
Future build will be Intel-based (i5 or i7 if cheap enuf) with a dedicated graphics card. And quieter fans. I have a nice Silverstone case that fits in with the A/V equipment, if you are going to splurge on anything make it a nice case and extra RAM.
Ok, tracking back to those Phil Fish links you posted, this bit from the comments of one really sums up my distaste for people who hate on creators:
"FrozenForests I hate to burst your bubble, but Steve Jobs was an overblown hack. He was nothing more than a salesman." blah blah blah, it goes on.
When I see stuff like this, I have a twinge of Ayn Rand run through me, because it's just so annoying to see some anonymous nobody talk trash about someone who worked incredibly hard and brought a lot of innovations into our lives.
I agree with the sentiment. The default dismissive attitude of the professional internet commentator is emotionally grating. However in their defense it is hard to pin down the genius of Steve Jobs, like a 3d print you have to blur your vision a little to see it.
"Nothing more than a salesman" is way too far to one side of the spectrum for me, but if you look at the dude's patents he was not an engineer or (much of) a designer. More of an iterator in an industry using the USPO to build a moat around its profit margins.
His management skills are a mixed bag according to his own hand-picked biographer.
So where does that leave us? Either pure salesman or some sort of "technology integrator slash product visionary". I lean toward the latter, but if you do some reading about his roles at Pixar and NeXT there's an argument to be made for salesman. I prefer to call him an entrepreneur. Or what do the startup kids call themselves nowadays? "Makers?" Like they are in a Orson Scott Card fantasy novel, or a clan of friendly wizards from Harry Potter.
I admire the shit outta Jobs, but I don't put him in the same category as Einstein, or even Elon Musk.
Edit: To put in perspective can you IMAGINE what Steve Jobs' rep would be like if he reinvented the electronic payment and auto industries and THEN single-handedly kept the US in manned space flight? He would be bigger than Jesus, The Beatles AND Oasis put together.
@FaceTweetPlus I am SOOOOO interested in a build party. I build modular analog synths, so I'm pretty confident I can hack it and I have all the tools, but I've never done it before and a build party would be supes fun. A slim case to fit in with the AV gear would be perfect!
Okay I will start the ball rolling with a new thread ASAP. We will have to plan our builds and get the parts ordered before we can schedule the build party. All of us should have similar builds with little differences for cases, gfx cards, etc. so it shouldn't take too long.
If you build synths you will probably be teaching us by the end of the afternoon. None of us are hardware types -- I'm honestly nervous when I try to seat a CPU.
@Alex The original Tony Hawk was actually the reason I gave up video games for a long time. Games that pretty much have no ceiling for improving at playing them are bad news for me.
PS4 is nice for all the indie games. PS+ gives you a free game once a month. That's how I got into FEZ. I like playing games with people in a living room on a big TV otherwise I would think about getting in on your build party. Also, there is a level of gamer that I don't think I am ready to cross into and I think it is computer gaming. I definitely am sorta a self-hating gamer.
Anyone ever try You Don't Know Jack video game? I love the idea of quiz night at home with friends but haven't tried it. Any other party games you've enjoyed with non-gamer types?
@Marc_Zuckerburg what about Jobs v Musk? Still dinner with Jobs? (You have to pretend for the purposes of this question they are both alive. Otherwise I'd rather have dinner with Jobs and leak the video to Adrian Chen for exclusive scoop. JOBS ALIVE AND LIVING IN PASADENA WITH TWO DOGS AND A REALLY EXPENSIVE LAMP)
I once asked my FB friends to tell me GameCube games that were similar to the Zelda games and I got all these great suggestions but then I never wrote them down and now they're lost to the sands of facebook and I think about it regularly with so much regret
Omigawd you guys, I'm so sick of CEOs being judged on their looks! CEOs have the right to be judged by their lack of empathy and indifference to others. (jk)
Gah! @FaceTweetPlus the machine is dead. Looks like I'll be taking this on sooner rather than later. I have to practice for a show though, so maybe it is a blessing in disguise.
I am confused about the weird dangerous sexism and threats around #gamergate. I am not involved, but some of the screen caps of blog posts and emails I have seen are really disturbing.
I've been thinking that there should be a web-based PG-13 "dating sim" from a lady friendly perspective that young boys can learn on. Kind of like Sgt Star. It would show how catcalls are dumb and that listening is good, etc...
Maybe these jerk guys in those fields are the male version of women who are treated unfairly because of unfair body ideals, but instead of lashing out in humble and appropriate ways against their real problems they lash out in these horrible and borderline violent ways towards any woman no matter how innocent. I don't know. None of it really makes any sense. You would think, if these guys were so lonely, they would want to encourage women to get into the same things as them so they could maybe connect as human beings and stuff.
It's the rough waters where entitlement meets rejection. We need real "sex ed" in the schools to teach men things like what rape is (LOTS OF MEN DON'T ACTUALLY KNOW SOMEHOW!) and that they're not owed women's time or bodies.
That article seems to think it is because these guys think misogyny is limited to just jock-ish dudes and because they hate jocks they can't possibly be misogynistic.
On a side note, why does it always have to be bald white guys who make these offensive videos? Godammit.
An amazing synopsis of the Phil Fish saga, an exploration of the phenomenon of internet celebrity, and a thesis on the cause of the decline of the 4th estate. All in 20 mins.
Yeah...being a bald white guy is difficult when so many bald white guys have been jerks or racists and are constantly cast as villains and losers in everything and hours of informercial programming have been devoted to making them feel like shit about themselves and it is one of the most acceptable forms of prejudice because of all the jerks and shitty casting and because a lot of powerful assholes are bald white guys so people assume being one has all these great privileges but really it just means everyone assumes you are an asshole or a loser or unhealthy or insecure or some sort of lesser person as soon as they see you and if you grow a beard no matter what you do everyone thinks you are pissed all the time until you are actually sorta pissed because you can't just be yourself and be understood. I feel like I am fighting a losing battle everyday when I see another asshole dude like that guy in the Sarkeesian Effect video. At least we have Picard and Bruce Willis I guess.
Everyone has to deal with a prejudice though I guess except plain ol full head of hair, well off white dudes.
Not saying being a young bald guy is anywhere near as difficult as being a minority or a woman btw, but the prejudice is maybe more insidious. Being a bald lady has got to be crazy difficult.
I can't even begin to tell you how many people have said I look like Mr. Clean or Moby and thought that was totally ok. Do those people go up to every black person and tell them they look like Denzel Washington?
Also the saying "At least I have my hair." Fuck you. So what.
I'm watching that Indie Game movie on Netflix right now. It is fascinating in the context of all this stuff. I think maybe some of these jerk programmer/hacker guys just drive themselves insane working so hard on these games. The games become so personal that they become the programmers whole identity and any criticism levied against them be it the art style or gameplay or, in this case, objectified women characters becomes a deeply personal attack on them in their heads and they lash out in these ultra violent ways because they like haven't slept in a month and have diabetes from sitting in front of their computers all day everyday and don't even really talk to other people ever because they are working on these games. Just a hypothesis. I think that level of hard work focused all on one thing just turns some people into total monsters.
Phil Fish is a big focus of this movie and although his personal brand of crazy is more normal you definitely can see how nuts it is making him to be working that hard under that much stress all the time. In fact I am kinda stressed out for everyone in this movie. They are all sorta going insane. I appreciate Fez a lot more. This is a good movie.
Comments
Love that guy! Anyone who tweets about how his fans don't deserve a Fez sequel is the type of maverick I can get on board with!
Back to business: Civ 5 Beyond Earth is what I'm currently waiting for. Antici. Pation.
Favorite PC games: FTL, Civ 5 Gods and Kings, Fez, Brothers, Rome II:Total War, alpha of Jon Shafer's At The Gates, beta of Endless Legend. Braid is also amazing but haven't had a chance to go deep yet.
(About console gaming: It's weird I don't hardly ever power my Xbox up since I got a full-on gaming PC as my living room computer, but used to be very into FIFA soccer, Civ Revolution and Tropico. If I don't end up skipping this gen of consoles altogether I will probably go PS4. But once you have a Steam-enabled PC the game consoles just seem like money pits.)
For mobile I love Uniwar, Summoner Wars, World of Goo, and Andor's Trail (free old-school RPG available on Android Play).
Honorable mentions: Scribblenauts for PC, Super Meat Boy and the OUYA console for letting you try every game available on the system for free.
I feel that. You can't bring anything into this world without a bunch of randoms bashing it.
This deserves its own thread! A buddy and me are about to re-build our HTPCs and I think Mikey was going to join us... maybe I can host a build party if others want to sponge of our (mostly his) knowledge. For a few hunnie (about the same as a current gen console) you can have a high-end HTPC that will support modern gaming, and Steam will sell you $60 games for $10-15 if you wait for sales.
My current box is a AMD proc + mobo that includes on-board graphics acceleration running Win7 but was mid-line when built and is def showing its age now. I have a big platter drive for media/games and a flash drive for OS, TV card for picking up OTA signals and a Windows Media Remote which Microsoft is doing its best to make slowly useless so I recommend a nice Harmony remote if you can swing it. I also run a w/x logitech k400 keyboard and a w/x logitech gamepad, wonderful products esp the gamepad.
Future build will be Intel-based (i5 or i7 if cheap enuf) with a dedicated graphics card. And quieter fans. I have a nice Silverstone case that fits in with the A/V equipment, if you are going to splurge on anything make it a nice case and extra RAM.
"FrozenForests
I hate to burst your bubble, but Steve Jobs was an overblown hack. He was nothing more than a salesman." blah blah blah, it goes on.
When I see stuff like this, I have a twinge of Ayn Rand run through me, because it's just so annoying to see some anonymous nobody talk trash about someone who worked incredibly hard and brought a lot of innovations into our lives.
"Nothing more than a salesman" is way too far to one side of the spectrum for me, but if you look at the dude's patents he was not an engineer or (much of) a designer. More of an iterator in an industry using the USPO to build a moat around its profit margins.
His management skills are a mixed bag according to his own hand-picked biographer.
So where does that leave us? Either pure salesman or some sort of "technology integrator slash product visionary". I lean toward the latter, but if you do some reading about his roles at Pixar and NeXT there's an argument to be made for salesman. I prefer to call him an entrepreneur. Or what do the startup kids call themselves nowadays? "Makers?" Like they are in a Orson Scott Card fantasy novel, or a clan of friendly wizards from Harry Potter.
I admire the shit outta Jobs, but I don't put him in the same category as Einstein, or even Elon Musk.
Edit: To put in perspective can you IMAGINE what Steve Jobs' rep would be like if he reinvented the electronic payment and auto industries and THEN single-handedly kept the US in manned space flight? He would be bigger than Jesus, The Beatles AND Oasis put together.
If you build synths you will probably be teaching us by the end of the afternoon. None of us are hardware types -- I'm honestly nervous when I try to seat a CPU.
PS4 is nice for all the indie games. PS+ gives you a free game once a month. That's how I got into FEZ. I like playing games with people in a living room on a big TV otherwise I would think about getting in on your build party. Also, there is a level of gamer that I don't think I am ready to cross into and I think it is computer gaming. I definitely am sorta a self-hating gamer.
@Marc_Zuckerburg what about Jobs v Musk? Still dinner with Jobs? (You have to pretend for the purposes of this question they are both alive. Otherwise I'd rather have dinner with Jobs and leak the video to Adrian Chen for exclusive scoop. JOBS ALIVE AND LIVING IN PASADENA WITH TWO DOGS AND A REALLY EXPENSIVE LAMP)
I played some version of You Don't Know Jack a long time ago. It was fun.
just wanted to share, re: video games and sorrow
http://www.theonion.com/articles/voters-clamoring-to-know-if-female-political-candi,36479/
I like silk dyeing and piano playing and logic puzzles and houseplant care and dogs. Are there games for those things?
you're in the gaming industry.
Say stuff about #gamergate
Seems pretty depressing.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-04/sparrow-gamergate-when-outsiders-become-the-oppressors/5719584
On a side note, why does it always have to be bald white guys who make these offensive videos? Godammit.
An amazing synopsis of the Phil Fish saga, an exploration of the phenomenon of internet celebrity, and a thesis on the cause of the decline of the 4th estate. All in 20 mins.
Everyone has to deal with a prejudice though I guess except plain ol full head of hair, well off white dudes.
Not saying being a young bald guy is anywhere near as difficult as being a minority or a woman btw, but the prejudice is maybe more insidious. Being a bald lady has got to be crazy difficult.
I can't even begin to tell you how many people have said I look like Mr. Clean or Moby and thought that was totally ok. Do those people go up to every black person and tell them they look like Denzel Washington?
Also the saying "At least I have my hair."
Fuck you. So what.
Phil Fish is a big focus of this movie and although his personal brand of crazy is more normal you definitely can see how nuts it is making him to be working that hard under that much stress all the time. In fact I am kinda stressed out for everyone in this movie. They are all sorta going insane. I appreciate Fez a lot more. This is a good movie.