Random gaming thoughts and questions.

Totally agree with you, but for some reason*, I still am willing to drop even more money on KickStarter projects.

*current front-runner: insanity

Kickstarter is different for various reasons - in those cases it's not so much that I'm buying a product I haven't seen, but supporting an endeavor that I believe in. It's weird.

Well, for kickstarters, its more like, if you don't pre-order, the game doesn't get made. Though then, logic dictates you shouldn't throw in for kickstarters that have already hit their goals, are very likely to hit their goals, as the game will probably be released to the public anyway. (And if they don't, their idiots, and it's best not to back an idiot) Though only difference might be the game is more expensive at release...but then as all games, it will probably get discounted or bundled at some point down the line.

I finally just started playing Just Cause 2. Is this the largest non-random continuous world map or what? So huge.

So far so fun, but I die a lot and fail missions over and over because their checkpoint system sucks and I also suck. This is annoying.

If that's the case, do you choose to reject the backer rewards for the money you are putting in?

That's not meant to be snark. I see the "pre-purchasing a publisher title is bad, but Kickstarting a video game is good" pop up a lot using that exact excuse. Sometimes it means you are paying less to pre-purchase a title, but in a large number of cases both pre-ordering / pre-purchasing and Kickstarting follow very, very similar-looking approaches. The major difference appears to be the recipient of the funding and how you behave towards them (e.g. if a Kickstarter falls over after you spent $20, that might be money you'll write-off; if a publisher cancelled a game you pre-ordered for $20, you'll want that money back).

It's not an excuse, it's how it works. 99.999% of the time, a pre-order is for a game that's already happening. Unless there are supply vs, demand concerns or you really want the bonus, pre-ordering is stupid because you are giving money away early for nothing. You kickstart a game that you don't think will get made without your help, and you don't pull your money out after it succeeds because of the combination of an assumption of good will for indies that more funds will mean more time spent on the game, additional content unlocked at higher funding tiers, and the possibility of rare rewards that won't be available after the kickstarter if you are a high level supporter.

Peter Molyneux probably shouldn't have used the same hashtag for his game as the Mars rover uses. Maybe he came up with his first, but too bad.

#Firstworldproblems

I'm looking at a veritable list of games in front of me that I am thinking of playing, yet struggle to decide which game I want to play. Do I want to play a shooter? Should I keep going with a campaign of world domination? My mouse pauses over a myriad of titles, yet I feel no compulsion to play. What have I become? I am drowning in choice.

I know that feeling. In my Steam list there are about 8 games I have bought but not played and 4 games I started but haven't played a lot. Yet with all that backlog, what do I actually end up playing? MOHAA and Weird Worlds.

Yeah, sadly that's damned common.

"Do I play Drox Operative...or maybe some Freespace 2...or how about Orcs Must Die 2...or maybe...ah fuck it, I'll just watch How to Train Your Dragon again..."

How about this! I fucking loath the term Western Role Playing Game: WRPG. Get the fuck out of here with that shit. It reeks of people who played JRPGs first coming up with naming conventions. The RPG started out in the west hence it shouldn't be shackled with the regional designation. The terms origin is so circa 2003. Meanwhile CRPG dated back to the 80's...

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy came out in the 80s as well.

Ultima 1 came out in 1981, so I'm not saying that JRPGs came first. But differentiating between the two genres is pretty important, since they're drastically different. JRPG and WRPG feel like as good a system as any.

That's your first mistake: Ignore the missions (except for the stronghold takeovers), get out there and cause mayhem!

It's a petty thing I admit, and I fully understand how it came about. I just don't have to like it!

For differentiating, I simply use JRPG and RPG or CRPG when appropriated. I'm funny like that.

I only play NRPGs.

N = Neckbeard

Fallout? Maybe that only feels bigger because you have to walk across it.

Here's how it stacks up against other games.

Aahhh Daggerfall, one one of my faves. Shame it's so empty much of the time. Just Cause 2, on the other hand, is juuuuust right.

I swear I'm not trying to be pedantic but those laurels almost certainly belong to the MS Flight Sim series.

If you're gonna go that route, then those laurels most certainly belong to Frontier: Elite II which had whole planets and the entire freaking Milky Way.

Oh, and roguefrog, stop with the silly missions in JC2, just run around and blow shit up already.

Whoa, I had no idea Burnout Paradise was considered to be so big. It doesn't seem like it.

Well, you're generally driving pretty fast.

For a moment there I thought that meant "Northern RPGs" which would include such titles as Phantasy Scouse III: Wot's All 'is 'en? and Wha's Me Sheep?

Don't worry, probably none of it will make any sense to you on casual readings on your first play through. If you post your questions they'll be answered in however much detail you request, just make sure to ask that your post get quoted (or that they tag you in replies) when replied to so you'll get notifications when to revisit the thread and read your reply (without being forced to manually monitor the thread, increasing your chances of encountering spoilers etc).

Not quite sure where to post this, since it's more of a general games-industry sort of thing, but recently there's been a lot of coverage of #1reasonwhy, which is a twitter hashtag that people in the industry have been using to talk about the horrible amounts of sexism that they've experienced.

http://www.motherjones.com/mixed-media/2012/11/women-video-game-industry-twitter-1reasonwhy

I love video games. I love playing them, reading about them, and discussing them with others. I realize it's not exactly the most inclusive hobby I could've chosen, but I love it anyway. Seeing this like this is heartbreaking.

For a story about gaming and sexism, your best bet would be the Brad Wardell thread. There's a bit of discussion about it there mixed in with a horribly inane Gordon Ramsey conversation. I can see why that wouldn't be your first place to think to look, though.

I just saw that. Sorta tuned out of the Wardell thread when no new craziness was forthcoming. That'll teach me.

Nah, it gets really boring in there during the lulls. I don't blame you.

Eh, it could have probably used it's own thread. The brad one is still brad centered.

It's a good thing there are only 7 missions (in practice it's 5 since two are back to back).

Has a thread been made for this yet?

I think that Need For Speed: Most Wanted (don't call it Burnout!) is an unfortunate mistake. Burnout fans won't care for all the NFS spilled over it and Most Wanted fans won't care for all the Burnout in it. In the end it'll piss off both sets of fans and win relatively few in the process. Couple that with some annoying design choices and it's already my most disappointing release of 2012.

Not yet. Feel free to do so. :)

But you found the article, so shouldn't you?

And done. Would've done it earlier but I was late to an appointment.

Walk in like you own the place and say "you 100+ hour fuckers shut up with the spoilers and just answer my questions!" ... and we will. Because the amazing joy of that game is how much fun it is to see new people discover these awesome places for the first time.

Sorry if this isn't the right place to ask this, but can somebody recommend me some good rhythm/dance/exercise games? My parents want to get my little sister to exercise more often, and apparently the best way they can think of is to buy her some videogames. Platform doesn't matter; they're apparently willing to shell out for a console if it's going to get her off the computer and away from her anime drawings.

Yup, she's quite into pop. Specifically, J-pop, One Directions, Owl City, stuff like that. But she also likes classical music!

EDIT: Sorry, scratch that. I got it all mixed up; apparently she HATES One Directions and Justin Bieber with a burning passion, and she doesn't really have a strong music preference either way. (I've heard her listen to Maroon 5 and Adele though, so there's that.)