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Also on FF13, it sucked so bad. It's just a corridor of fast encounters that you barely have any control over. some have said game gets good after 30 hours or so but I couldn't get past 15, and never touched it since.

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FF9 was weird, seemed totally different to everything I loved about 8. Then the series totally redeemed itself with FF10.

I think. I read it was all to do with different teams working on 8/10 and 9.

I couldn't get into the cartoony graphics of IX and Zidane was a smartarsed little git. It also came out near the end of the PS1's life and I wasn't paying too much attention to releases at that point as mine barely worked - You needed to stand it on its side for the discs to read. I bought it again when it got released on PSN but don't think I've been past the initial save point.

XIII looked beautiful and has a really interesting combat system but you're right, it's just a series of journeys down exceptionally pretty corridors. Around 30 hours in you get to the open world section and things improve dramatically but that only lasts as for as long as you're prepared to waste time on that world - The story gets put on hold until you've had enough and it's back to the linear corridors.

I got close to the final boss but it was only through sheer bloodymindedness, then I decided to quit. Don't think I've ever got as far in a game without finishing it.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I've actually been playing a bit of FF7 lately. Can't tell if it holds up really well or if it's just a decent game that I have a ton of nostalgia for... either way, I'm enjoying it. I liked the 4 I played (6 through 9) all about the same and imagine I still would; got 10 for the ps2 but haven't tried it yet.

I've been feeling like playing some horror-themed games. 'tis the season and all. I'll see how many I can get through before Halloween.

So far I've just played Sweet Home (NES), a pretty awesome j-rpg/survival horror hybrid. Turn based battles, praying to defeat monsters, limited inventory slots, permadeath, some tricky puzzles, and 8-bit gore:

First impressions of Wasteland 2:

It's Fallout 3 if Fallout 3 had been made by the guys who made Fallout 1 & 2, which isn't surprising considering who's worked on it. The only real negative I have is that after the sumptuous Divinity Original Sin showed how a modern CRPG can look and perform, Wasteland 2 looks a bit rough around the edges. The interface is a bit unwieldy, as is the camera but combat is excellent and it's as visceral as you'd expect from a game with Brian Fargo's name attached.

Incidentally, Brian Fargo is a descendant of William G Fargo of Wells Fargo fame. He really should be making Red Dead Redemption 2 with lineage like that but post apocalyptic RPGs have the same sort of Western vibe.

So it doesn't require much puter power? May have to try it.

Was playing a bit of Papers, Please yesterday and I found it clunky and tedious. I'll have to get back to it, but I suspect I'm just going to admit everyone and see what happens. I suppose people may find the verification mechanic fun in a puzzle sort of way but I don't and its clunkiness just increases the tedium. Maybe someone can explain to me the fun to be had in this game. I do have to say that I was rather amused when I saw Tacitus' avatar come up to the window to get his passport stamped though.

I guess the clunkiness is kinda the point - It's a Cold War Eastern European bureaucracy simulator after all.

System requirements for Wasteland 2 from the Steam store page:

Minimum:
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 (32 or 64 bit)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or Radeon HD 4850 (512 MB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

Recommended:
OS: Windows 7/8/8.1 (64 bit)
Processor: Intel i5 series or AMD equivalent
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or Radeon HD 5770 (1 GB VRAM)
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Hard Drive: 30 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card

It doesn't look particularly special but there's 20GB worth of data there.

It's clunkiness and tedium. What's next, a clean up your room game, floss your teeth game, pick the slaveholder's cotton game? I can appreciate that some people enjoy the "what's different here" mechanic but I find it tedious and I don't need a game to impress on me the tedium that work can often be. As I said, I'm going to let everyone in and see what happens.

Thanks for the specs? I wonder about them and for Divinity considering these games look pretty simple graphically.

And Schindler's List is just a stone cold bummer. I mean, what's next, a movie that's just scenes of people being miserable?

Of course, that work of art, like this one, is attempting something more deeper and meaningful than just trying to entertain in the transient sense. Most of us are used to making this kind of short-term sacrifice with film for the emotional payoff later, though for whatever reason lots of people still expect games to always cater to the moment. But the first prerequisite for appreciating what an accomplishment Papers, Please is is recognizing that it has aspirations beyond that.

I think the mechanics are pretty much perfect--fun doesn't just mean pleasant, after all; it can come from being challenged--but even if I hated the mechanics, the larger message of the game, the carefully crafted aesthetics, and (above all) the way it marries narrative to gameplay, would still make it one of the best things I've ever played. It's already one of the first pieces of evidence to be presented in the "Can video games be art?" debate.

You're comparing this game to Schindler's List? I suspect your love for this game has made you quite mad!

It's not just about the mechanics, it's the tedium. You and others apparently enjoy playing "does this picture fit"; I find it excruciatingly tiresome. I also haven't seen much of a narrative and any other aspects haven't drawn enough of my interest to make the dull and monotonous gameplay worth enduring. Do I have enough money for my rent and family? Who cares. I'd happily become homeless and sell my entire family into bondage if that would make the gameplay engaging.

Thing is, I find the gameplay engaging. Hugely so.

How far have you made it into the game? Every day brings a more complex set of rules and the story continues to evolve. I'm never one to say "Oh, but you must play this" especially if you're patently not enjoying it but if you've survived the map in Deadly Premonition (which I've started once again in the hope of doing all the side quests - this could be a long one ) you're clearly not beyond looking past a mechanic in search of the greater enjoyment that the game as a whole brings.

Anyway. I bought a new graphics card when people in the know told me I should wait a few months. The 900 series Nvidia cards are out now and by all accounts the 970 (they've skipped calling it '800 series' because they'd been using that for laptop cards) carries much the same oomph as my 780 but consumes a lot less power. It's also a fair bit cheaper.

Sure, because comparing isn't equating. The point is that something doesn't have to be pleasant to be good, and it's only within the context of games that people seem to forget this.

Then I'm guessing you haven't played very long. I recall you ditched Dishonored after a single mission, as well. Certainly your prerogative to bail on games whenever you like, but the natural consequence of this is that you're not going to really know what kind of narrative it has, or get to enjoy games with a delayed payoff. Patience, please.

I've been following the development of Roundabout for a while and when the game got released yesterday I was all over it. The hour or so that I've played so far has been joyous.



Pretty darned sure that it'll end up as one of my games of the year, probably in the top three.

Yeah, I saw Jon Blow playing it on stream and it looks fun. I guess the controls are deliberately wonky?

Incidentally, the lady who plays the driver is a huge SpyParty fan who helps out at the PAX booth each year.

Soon I'd like to make a top 50 videogames thread, probably SC style with no order.

Actually, the controls are really tight and precise. The fiendishly placed obstacles are what makes it tricky.

Nice one! Apparently a lot of the people in the videos are regulars on the Something Awful forums, a place I used to frequent many moons ago.

Many people enjoy the mechanic; many people enjoy many types of simulators. I don't like them. I played four or five game days and couldn't have been happier that things ended. That probably isn't enough to see all the game has to offer, but I have trouble thinking I'd like things much better considering I've found the game pure tedium. Maybe I'll look at it again.

I think you're missing the point. If something recreational isn't enjoyable on some level people are going to dismiss it. Schindler's List depicted unpleasant things, but if it wasn't pleasureful on some level it would've failed just like all unenjoyable movies.

I think I agree with some of those outraged people now that I've finished GONE HOME. But at least I didn't pay much of anything for it. Ten bucks for ten games is about a buck for this game. That's about right, I'd say.

As others have said, this isn't really a game at all, but boy, does it feel like one in the beginning. It has all the makings of a good, eerie, atmospheric mystery game: What happened to this family? Where is everyone? It has a Ouija board. It has pentagrams. It has a very spooky basement and a spooky attic. It has a house labeled the "psycho house." It has TVs left on with no signal due to a horrible storm, which we can hear throughout the game. It has flickering lights.

But it makes good on absolutely NONE of these elements. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. The story you're unfolding is just a basic story of a family in trouble -- and not even very *much* trouble.

And, by the end I was thinking that if I had to open one more console cabinet or armoire, I was going to scream bloody murder. (sigh) If only there WERE a little bloody murder in this "game," it might have been worth the time I spent on it.

I've never had a game promise so much and deliver so little.

I want that buck back. But, more than that, I want that three hours back.

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Well, I can take Gone Home off my list.

That's precisely what I'm getting at: that things can be enjoyable in deeper ways even if they're superficially depressing or tedious. Maybe it's your cup of tea, and maybe not, but whether or not it is is going to depend on more than how pleasant you find the mechanics.

If nothing else, I sure am glad people are trying things like this. Chris Hecker's fond of saying that he thinks/hopes that games can become the preeminent art form of the 21st century. And if they do, it's hard to imagine Papers, Please not going down as a pioneer of the form.