Video Games!

[End Master]

The CYOA elements are implemented fantastically.

No where near as complex as King of Dragon Pass, but if you're interested in more ipod/ipad/iphone CYOA type stuff, there's a whole series available called Gamebook Adventures.

If you're at all familiar with the old gamebooks like Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf, they're similar to them in that you've got a few stats to look after and an inventory. When you fight stuff or have to do a stat check, you roll some virtual dice. Everything is a lot easier to keep track of stuff due to the game doing it for you.

Part of the first book is free so if you try it out and don't like it, you don't have to be a fanatic like me and download all eight of the current titles. So far I've only gone through the first book and I thought it was cool and the writing was fine. The second one seems to be a lot harder combat wise, but I'm enjoying it.

The books also have three levels of difficulty. Like where you can set your stats to their highest level if you're playing beginner, but I'm playing the classic setting which is the equivalent of the hardcore setting, still you get three "bookmarks" which allow you to "save" in various locations of the book

The first seven books are all set in the same fantasy world, though in different locations of it. The eighth one is a scifi setting (Called Infinite Worlds and part of that one is currently free as well).

The other series I'll mention is Fabled Lands. This was an ambitious gamebook series back in the day. Basically this series was the Oblivion or Skyrim in gamebook form due to its sandbox like setting. Unlike most gamebooks, they created them so you could go back and forth between the books (Each book was usually a different country) So you might get a quest in book 1, but you'd have to travel to another land which might've been in book 5 and then return back to book 1 again to get your reward. Pretty ambitious and they planned 12, but only ever made 6. I actually never heard of it until our own Funkymango mentioned it on here a few years back, so I don't think it ever sold here in the US.

Anyway, the original authors have been reviving the project and seem fairly enthusiastic about it, so far they've only got the first two books available for download. They have reprinted the first 4 books if you want a hard copy. And I believe if you just want to test out series there's some sort of Java based version of all six books for free if you go hunting on the internet for it.

Finally there's a CYOA called "ZDay" which is basically a zombie apocalypse survival simulator. This one is pretty cheap and much simpler than all the rest I mentioned, but still fun and they've been adding a few new things to it and hopefully add more situations the protagonist has to deal with in the future.

[Vesnic]

Well it's been more than awhile since anyone added to this thread. In the spirit of lifting the IS "coma" as End rightly puts it, I'll just blather on a bit here about a game I played (and finished) yesterday.

Amnesia: a Machine for Pigs
by the Chinese Room and Frictional Games

This is the latest from the makers of Dear Esther. In case you were wondering, that is a significant statement.

I rammed through this game like a bull through a matador's silken-clad cheeks. I just fuckin' killed it man. And then it just fuckin' killed me.

I was like, "Wow, really? Um, derr, dooby doo. Trotsky? Piggly wiggles. Dum diddy dum doo." But not necessarily in that order.

The thing about this game: it was so close to brilliance. So close. For a few seconds I thought it was brilliant, and I still think there are individual moments, images, statements, that truly transcend. It's an art game, guys...

...But then the great demon Sophomoria swooped in on blackened wings of ash and other really dark heavy stuff, you know, and that repetitive little voice said, "Daddy" ever so sweetly, like a little violin string getting plucked for the trillionth time. So I giggled just a tad and the moment was over. Ruined by my own lack of a soul and the postmodern curse. Or maybe things just got pushed a little too far.

Considering most of it takes place literally knee-deep in shit and other excreta, it was really quite beautiful.

Story? I don't fucking know. As far as I could discern, there was this English guy named Manus or Mandus or Menelaeus or something and he went to Mexico and had a Moment of Clarity on the top of Tulum. Like a true Victorian steampunk bastard, he got a bad case of Misanthropitis, followed shortly thereafter by a compounding case of malaria, from which he never "really" recovered. And by that I mean, of course, he went stark-raving mad. He returned home and murdered his sons, or maybe they weren't yet born, so he knocked up his wife, who died in the process of giving birth to twin boys, whom he finally had the opportunity to murder several years later, allowing them time to become truly sentient so their eventual destruction would seem especially heinous. He may or may not have bashed their little skulls in. He may or may not have buried them in the garden. He may or may not have had a vision of their broken bodies lying face-down in the Somme, such great vitality and spirit, just to be snuffed out in the madness of War. So he did what any loving father would do. He killed them so they wouldn't die.

War with a Capital W and May-or-May-Not-Have, two major themes of this strange, symphonic video game teetering just on the edge of genius.

A little dash of anti-Capitalist Truth. Truth with a Capital T.

And then there were the pigs. Pigs everywhere. Pigs hanging from hooks, pigs tearing the town up and down, mutant pigs, ravenous pigs, pigs in pain, pigs in pictures, pig PEOPLE, pigs pigs pigs. Mr. Monkus owns a planet-sized pig abattoir, you see, and he creates WHOLE WORLDS out of pig, which has made him famous and formidable and very, very crazy. He may or may not be in league with the devil. He may or may not BE the devil. His subterranean factory has no discernible bottom floor. Spooky, no?

If you're not a Communist vegetarian in need of a change of panties by the time this game is over, then you just haven't been paying attention.

Four and a half out of five stars because the composite was truly unique even if many of the individual pieces were awfully familiar, even if the whole enterprise did occasionally fall flat on its snuffly little snout. As for that damnable little smirk which every now and then pushed its weasely way into my face, it probably says just as much about me as it does about the game itself. You will look inside. You must look inside. You will have no choice.

You don't even have a weapon, for crying out loud! There is nothing to keep those piggies from tearing at the flesh between your ribs and devouring your heart! Nothing, that is, except the purity of your immortal soul.

And a good fast pair of hog-fed legs.

[Sponge.]

this is the last game I played. thought it was okay

http://www2.biglobe.ne.jp/~norimari/game/GAME1.HTM

[BatCountry]

An interesting game I've played recently that is actually pretty topical for this site is "The Stanley Parable". Currently only on PC. Game is very similar to a choose your own adventure story with different choices and those choices affecting the endings.

There are a multitude of endings in the game. Over 25 I believe. I've played enough to see about 18 of these endings so far. The game is actually pretty hilarious and either parodies or outright mocks many common gaming tropes. The entirety of The Stanley Parable is narrated by this charming British chap, which adds to the allure of the story. To be fair though, any game narrated by a British fellow is destined to be good.

I won't really divulge much more about the game as in half the fun is in not knowing what's coming next. Funny and insightful, I highly recommend this game to my fellow CYOA writers.


Buyer beware there is no alien blasting, hooker brain bashing, frog road killing, plumber pipe teleporting, soldier shooting, dragon slaying action within this game.

[Vesnic]

OMG Bat this game looks smeggin' awesome! I've already downloaded the free Demo on Steam and find this trailer soooo hysterical.

Thanks for this recommendation! The anticipation of awesomeness is positively buzzing in my fingertips.

I think I love you.

"In this game you will play the ghost of the dream of the memory of a cyborg warrior trying to find his dead wife inside a poem."

Eeeeep!

[Dragavan]

The Stanley Parable is awesome and it gets so meta that it totally ends up messing with your head the farther you get into digging into it. It is so much more than what it appears, but at the same time isn't really what most would call a game. I highly suggest everyone should at least try it, even though not all will enjoy it. It's worth having the experience if nothing else.

And it is also available for mac now. I bought it on Steam just the other week.

[donteatpoop]

South Park: Stick of Truth was funny as hell. Don't expect much in the way of game mechanics, but definitely fun to play. Let the price come down and buy it.

[End Master]

After Ves' baffling link to a Kardashian game (even as a joke!) I REALLY feel motivated to balance out the cosmos here by suggesting several real iOS games.

Okay first up, for those that really like the idea of being lost in space and trying to get back home there are two games I can suggest.

Out There & FTL

FTL puts you in the role of a star ship captain that's trying to outrun an ever moving rebel fleet trying to destroy you. You'll have to keep track of your crew, ship and fuel while you're doing this and each planet you go to usually has some sort of encounter with a hostile alien ship or a rebel one which you'll do battle with.

Along the way you'll be able to upgrade your weapons, gain new crew, make repairs. The key thing is you always have to be moving since you're pretty much be doomed with the fleet reaches you. When you finally get back to the safety of your space, you still have to prepare for the final showdown with the enemy flagship.

Out There is a lot different in its approach. You're just one astronaut that winds up completely and utterly lost. The feel is a lonelier one in general.

It focuses a lot more on managing your resources like fuel, fixing your ship and oxygen. You'll have to land on planets to replenish these things. Besides various random events (Where you can sometimes make CYOA like choices) that can occur as you travel from star system to star system, you'll also encounter aliens and gain new technology to upgrade your ship. In fact you'll even find abandoned ships that you can upgrade to instead. Some are larger, some are faster, etc.

There is also a bit of a mystery going on as you slowly learn various words to the alien language and you can ultimately find out how you managed to get transported to some unknown galaxy in the first place. Three different endings, but it's rather difficult to get any of them.

One thing that stands out, is there isn't any combat. Or at least no combat that you have direct control over. So if FTL was the "action movie" Out There would be the "art film"

On to a fantasy setting…Road of Kings.

Based on a fairly old micro-board game, Road of Kings puts you in the role of a barbarian trying to raise 500 gold so he can go back to his tribe and become king of it. What this basically amounts to is roaming around in a foreign land and randomly doing quests or if you prefer you can search ruins for treasure or in some cases you can even raid towns. Successfully raid the town and its gone for the rest of the game though. You'll also get some random events that you'll sometimes have to make a choice on.

You can't really do all this alone though and attempting to fight everything by yourself is usually going to result in you dying a lot quicker. You need meat shields, so you can get the option to hire people on occasion, or in rarer cases some will just join you. You can have as many people as you want actually, but these people have to eat too, so you'll be running out of food quicker and if that goes, people will usually leave.

You also don't have all the time in the world, you've only got 100 days to raise 500 gold and its actually harder than it sounds. Of course there is another not so secret way of winning and that's if you find the three artifacts of the gods. (And you can ignore the time limit for that) Find those and you ascend to godhood yourself and don't need to concern yourself with petty troubles of mortals any longer.

Finally if you're feeling misanthropic and just want to FUCK THE WORLD, I got two more suggestions.

Plague Inc. and FirstStrike.

FirstStrike is basically a nuclear war simulator. Take control of one of the countries that has nuclear weapons and start blowing shit up in other countries before they do it to you. You also can take over other countries which you'll probably need to do so you'll have more places to build more nukes as well as more territory when your own starts resembling a radioactive wasteland.

Naturally picking the U.S. is "easy mode" so if you really want to give yourself a challenge pick North Korea.

Plague Inc. is destroying the world by being a constantly mutating disease. You have to manage your mutations at just the right time and pick the right ones to most efficiently infect and eventually kill off humanity. The world isn't idle of course, they'll eventually be shutting down airports and searching for cures, so you have to act fast when you really start going.

There are also different disease carriers. Bacteria is the basic one, but you can also pick stuff like Virus, Fungus, Parasite, Bioweapon and there's even an option to play as a "Zombie Plague" which actually adds another dimension to the game

Plague Inc. is also the only one here I mentioned that has the dreaded "in app" purchase. But you can actually unlock everything just through natural play.

[Vesnic]

After Ves' baffling link to a Kardashian game (even as a joke!)

Yeah, sorry for that. It's just that the only thing I enjoy more than sinning is atoning. Any excuse to get out the cat-o'-nine tails is OK by me.

Your list of thingey-ma-bobs is great but inapplicable to me so I'll pick the brains of everyone here about a specific game I'm thinking of downloading to give to myself as an Attagirl present when I finally finish a big looming project.

I've read on Steam and around the netzes about a game called Folk Tale. It seems pretty cool but I can't be sure and I'm wondering if anyone here has played it or knows someone who has, and whether my limited funds would be well spent on it. Remember I'm a girl and a snob so I don't need to constantly be blowing shit up in order to feel happy...although God knows sometimes that really would help.

[End Master]

I think some of those I mentioned might be available for a PC. I know FTL is.

I hadn't heard of Folk Tale though. Doesn't appear to be finished though and even the recommended reviews are saying that it has quite a ways to go before it is.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/224440/

I'd say save your money.

[End Master]

Witcher 3

I know this isn’t as much of a video game playing crowd here, but just in case the few that do indulge every once in awhile were wondering (and have the means to run the game), I’m going to go ahead and recommend it.

So far I’ve only just gotten a little past the prologue (which is sizable even if you aren’t doing every little side quest like I do.) and I’m having a hard time putting the game down every time I have the free time to play.

The graphics obvious are good, but I’ve never been that much of a graphics whore mainly because when you happily grow up playing games with little green triangles shooting little red squares, you don’t tend to place as much importance on it. Still, it is very nice looking.

As usual, I’m insisting on playing the hardest difficulty level in terms of combat and I think for the Witcher World, that’s completely appropriate. The monsters are supposed to be vicious killers that make all the peasants hide in their little huts at night. They shouldn’t be easy to kill even if you are a magically altered monster hunter.

You can’t just mash buttons and hope to beat the beasties. You have to learn how to dodge, roll, and use ALL your skills, bombs, and potions effectively. (Just like Geralt would have to if this was all real and not a wonderful fantasy world!) Even fighting the minor creatures like ghouls is difficult when there are five of them ganging up on you.

(Yes, there IS the option for easy peasy “story” mode where you can indeed just easily mash buttons, but I’m too HARDcor3z for that)

The environment itself is mostly taking place in a war torn environment so the land is appropriately grim looking. Using Skyrim as a comparison, it actually feels like a war was/is going on in the Witcher 3, whereas there was supposed to be this big civil war going on Skyrim and it never quite felt that way.

Of course it’s not completely fair to compare it to Skyrim mainly because they are two very different types of fantasy settings. Skyrim is high, whereas Witcher 3 is a grimmer low fantasy even if there is magic and monsters running around. They still aren’t the norm. Both games do their job well enough.

The quests do vary. Some are ones you can stumble upon just by exploring. The first map is huge and the second one I’m currently on is even bigger and I haven’t even gotten through a third of the game yet.

Some are straight up “kill this monster” while others have a more moral decision to them such as doing the “right” thing or just taking the money and going on your way. Some of these quests that have more than one way to finish them have consequences that you won’t really discover until much later on. There’s even a scene where you can sort of “import” your decisions from the second game (Someone is asking Geralt questions) so it affects certain things in this one.

You mainly play as Geralt of course, but there are parts in the game where you apparently play as his “adopted daughter” Ciri who is basically a younger female version of him by the looks of it (She’s even got the same white hair) Haven’t gotten to those parts yet though. Heard she’s a little more powerful, but it makes sense since Geralt is getting old and it seems to be implying Geralt will be retiring soon. Plus I think they’re sort of setting her up to be the new protagonist in their inevitable sequel (After all it’s “The Witcher” series, not the “Geralt” series)

I definitely feel like THIS is what a RPG should be more like. Maybe it’s because it’s loosely based on some already established books, but I just feel the entire setting and even the writing is better. I mean it’s still a video game, so it’s never going to be as deep as a book, but it’s at least keeping my interest in the storyline.

Really when it comes to today’s Western RPGs there are basically 3 choices: (Not mentioning Japanese RPGs because quite frankly I’ve got a low tolerance for the art/graphics style for the most part and I just never seem to get into them even when I’ve tried)

Bethesda: Which puts out a lot of good quantity in terms of shit to do and exploration, but their actual storylines and plot writing tend to be very lacking.

Often I don’t even bother paying attention to their main quests and just wander off in some cave/underground vault somewhere since it’s a hell of a lot more interesting. Really if Beth put in as much work into a main plotline as they did with their background lore (Which is usually fairly decent) they’d be golden. Oh well here’s hoping they take some lessons from what Obsidian did with Fallout: New Vegas and apply that to Fallout 4.

Bioware: (Yes, I ranted to a minor degree about this before in another thread, but it bears a bigger and more detailed one for the sake of completeness of this post) Which I don’t even bother with now since it has completely become this haven for Social Justice Warrior Slacktivists Gamers everywhere.

This is what happens when you give into every single bitching group that feels that they MUST be represented everywhere. And because they’re gamers, their sense of entitlement is tenfold.

Everyone and their bisexual tranny mother goes on about how Bioware has the best writing EVER and allows you to choose anything! And it’s all a bunch of bullshit. At the core, you are still typically playing a preset character with a preset story. Really, Bethesda does a better job with this since you basically play a completely “blank slate” and get a hell of a lot more freedom to do what you want more or less.

The only reason Bioware gets any sort of positive attention, is because you can fuck…oh wait excuse me…”romance” members of any sex and you get to have conversations with them and a bunch of other stupid shit.

It’s not even like the “romances” are all that well written either. They come off like Sweet Valley High with swords and spells or some other superficial fucktardery. Due to certain limitations of the video game medium, you really either need to dedicate the entire game to it (AKA Japanese Dating Sim which have a host of other problems, but I can at least respect that they set out to do one thing) or at least focus the love interests to maybe one or two AND establish some sort of history with the characters.

I’m not even completely against this “romance” thing in RPGs but I remember a time when an RPGs mainly consisted of exploring caves and chopping up monsters, not playing a fucking dating sim and psychologist to all your party members.

Really, Witcher 3 has the whole Yennefer/Triss love triangle thing going on, but it’s hardly the central theme of the story and I haven’t even really encountered it at all yet.

And it at least establishes a decades long relationship history with all three of the characters so the romance/emotions make more sense as opposed to what Bioware does which has these whirlwind “romances” between characters who just met all in between the course of saving the world. Wait, you’re supposed to be saving the goddamn world from Darkspawn Reapers. Why the fuck are you worrying about this stupid twink’s feelings because you said you don’t swing that way?

Even then, it might not even be so bad if Bioware’s ONE strong point, which was their storyline writing, hadn’t suffered severely because of it along with everything else. Since Bioware has decided that it wants to sacrifice actual important elements of RPG gameplay and waste even more time with appeasing whatever sexual deviant minority group that is in fashion at the moment, I have no more time to waste with them.

They did some fine games in the past, but obviously I’m not their audience anymore. Oh well, such is the way of things. Fortunately that brings me to...

The third option: Which is of course various indy RPGs. Which are going to vary due to smaller budgets, but I often find that I get more enjoyment out of them even if they do look like something that was designed in the 1990s. The Geneforge and Avernum series being some of the better examples.

Lots of exploration, lots of combat, a well-written storyline, lots of ways to finish quests, multiple endings and best of all no fucking romances.

[BatCountry]

I got to agree with you on a lot of these points EndMaster. Bioware seems to have really fallen off the deep end lately. To be fair, I've enjoyed most of their RPG's. Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, the Mass Effect trilogy. For some reason Dragon Age was where I decided I had enough of Bioware even though Mass Effect and Jade Empire had those similar elements you discussed of placating to certain demographics at the expense of the story.


Part of me rather enjoyed gallivanting about in Mass Effect as Commander Shepard and playing a "Captain Kirk" type role of banging any piece of hot alien tail I came into contact with. But what I found interesting is that over the course of the three games with the same save file you could in fact nourish a somewhat realistic and long lasting relationship. I did this with the Tali character who you meet in the first game. If I recall you can't actually "bed" her in the first game, but in a sense you get to know her and she you. In the second game you personally help her and her people and in the third game you solidify the relationship and can live happily ever after...so to speak. Of course the option for those types of relationships in that series of games only boils down to a few characters where the rest are just bone fodder. I felt in the case of Mass Effect it worked most of the time. At least the relationships seemed more believable than anything Bethesda has put out. Literally in Skyrim I walk up to someone (be it man, woman or lizard creature) and say "I like you. Lets get married." And boom. Marital bliss. Until I inevitably feed my spouse to a dragon of course.


Yet, like you said Bethesda games are more "free" and I seem to prefer that. But oh boy do I know people who get pissed when they just bee line the main quest and beat the game in three to four hours. I always try to warn anyone who plays a Bethesda game to stay away from the main quest as long as possible otherwise you beat the game incredibly quick.


Fallout 4 is looking very good. I like that you can be a female character now. Wonder if that will change the game in any interesting ways. Graphics are nice of course, but we'll see when it comes out if it adds anything new of substance.


Indy games really seem to be the way to go lately I find. The people making these games usually aren't doing it for the money and really want their creative babies to shine through. An interesting new one I picked up is "Lakeview Cabin Collection". It's a horror game in an 8 bit graphical style. I can only really describe it as a sandbox horror adventure. You can switch between four different characters at a time and your goal (if you choose to except it), is to survive and dispatch a variety of psychopathic murderers in the vain of Jason Vorhees and Michael Meyers.


Of course you can decide to be the murderer yourself and kill all the other characters in the game, by some interesting means. Zipline off a building to knock over a metal weathervane, crushing your friend beneath. Or throw them all into a wood chipper. Very atmospheric and fun to figure out the best plan of attack to stop the killer. Anyone slightly interested should check it out on Steam.


I've become really big into supporting these indy developers and think that they are the ones who consistently churn out the higher quality products. I'm so sick of "Triple A" game titles coming out now with day 1 dlc and bugs when I paid 70 dollars. The indy games rarely exceed 20 bucks and I find I have a lot more fun. Just one mans opinion.

[dreamshell]

Since Flying Rodent Nation reminded me this thread exists, I shall now assail you all with more of my patented Chaotic Catalogs of Absolute Excess (in this case, games), in case any of you are looking to play something cool and that will make you look by association.

Subnautica: http://unknownworlds.com/subnautica/
Rimworld: http://rimworldgame.com/
Starbound: http://playstarbound.com/about/
Elegy for a Dead World: http://store.steampowered.com/app/252290/
Kentucky Route Zero: http://store.steampowered.com/app/231200/

Please note I have not played any of these, they are merely games I am curious about. Feel free to try them out and rub it in my face!

[End Master]

I've heard of Starbound and RimWorld before. More interested in RimWorld though. Starbound just seems like a space version of Terraria and I already play that one quite a bit when I have the time.

Since I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic themes, here are two games that caught my eye.

Icy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0_mCvUD4zc

Convoy

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NXkJQkI2X0s

[dreamshell]

Since I'm a big fan of post apocalyptic themes...

Have you heard of This War of Mine?: http://store.steampowered.com/app/282070/