Any gamers around here?

[the_antithesis]

Boosh! Five stars again.

Tell you what, though. Gorgar has become one of my favorite tables. Part of this is due to nostalgia. Not for Gorgar specifically, but it is an older table and I am old enough to remember older pinball tables like it when I was a little kid. But the game plays a lot better. probably because it's simple and therefore steamlined. later tables from the 90's tended to be complicated affairs with ramps and habitrails and weird modes that need to be activated or as I've found on another table, you have to wait for the timer on another mode to run out before you can try to activate/use it. It's like a desperate attempt to be interesting with all that crap but Gorgar is more interesting to me with a single level playfield with a minimal of features:

• Flippers (2)
  
• Pop bumpers (3)
  
• Kick-out hole (1)
  
• 3-bank drop targets (2)
  
• Rollunder spinner (1)
  
• The Snake Pit has a magnet under the playfield to hold the ball while scoring lit value)
  

That's actually a very sparse table, even for 1979. Point is, it doesn't need all the extras, like a multi-level playfield, ramps, multiball, million point scores etc. because it doesn't need it. It's engaging all by itself and more engaging that other tables that have more features that do not work together as well.

It's not just the simplicity of Gorgar but the speed. The table is designed to keep that ball moving and it does this better than any of the other tables in season one. The ball constantly moves and is always hitting something. If it's not a spot target, drop target or pop bumper, it's a area of wall armed with a similar pop bumper/slingshot device to propel the ball, make a sound and keep things moving. My eyes dart around the table trying to keep track of the ball. This makes for a more exciting game. I can't tell you how many times I flip a ball up, miss my shot and have the ball clunk dully against a post and then just slowly roll back down on other tables.

I've five starred the wizard goals on Bride of Pinbot earlier and I really haven't gone back to that one but I have played a game or seven of Gorgar and plan to do so in the future. At the end of the day, it's just a well-designed table and what some might see as shortcomings in the lack of certain features are reveal just how unnecessary those other features are.

[the_antithesis]

I've playing a bit more, and I wasn't exactly correct about the appeal of Gorgar over later tables. What makes gorgar work is that I can see the entire table. I played a bit of Monster Bash, which is also a Williams table but from the 90's and you cannot see the rollovers or the jet bumpers. They're sequestered behind a ramp and you simply do not see the ball while it's back there. This could be a matter of camera angle or not playing on a real table, but that the ball is hidden from view just means I don't have to watch it to see where it's going. So for as long as it's bouncing around back there, I don't have to do anything but wait for the ball to come rolling out which will be the same place every time. This deflates the excitement and engagement because on a biological level, humans are like cats and will watch stuff that moves and tend to ignore stuff that doesn't move or that they can't see.

This is what's wrong with the later tables. Adding so much stuff hides areas of the playfield so you don't bother looking at any of it.

Or such is my experience.

[Hydra009]

TotalBiscuit just created a Steam curator called The Framerate Police that lists games that are capped at 30 fps.  I can't tell if this is more like a mugshot magazine or reading off people's VD records on live tv.  Either way, this is great.



Shame.  Shame.  Shame.

[Munch]

I've never been a fan of TB, maybe from back in the day when he played Wow he seemed kind of pretentious to me. I like Angry Joe, Jesse Cox and Crendor, Caddicarus and Alphaomegasin, but not him.

btw, anyone heard of Smooth McGroove?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXE7nJPhgv0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W54gF6QxeqM

[Hydra009]

TotalBiscuit is certainly an extremely blunt and harsh critic, especially about perceived bad business practices and technical issues.  And I could see how his voice alone could be off-putting.  I tend to favor him because he gives detailed explanations of game mechanics alongside extensive gameplay footage.  It tends to showcase the game's strengths and weaknesses pretty accurately.

Angry Joe's good, too.  I like his antics, but he tends to rely on bullet-points and skimpy gameplay footage, which can give an incomplete picture.  *grumbles about Empire Total War not being what it was cracked up to be*  I was put off by a couple dangerously premature "Why ___ will kick ass" videos only to never see an actual review of the "kick ass" product after release.  Plus, I'm not terribly interested in most of the games he reviews (wrong platform, wrong genre, etc), so few of his reviews are relevant to me.  I basically just tune in for the antics.

[Hydra009]

In anticipation of X-COM 2, I'm replaying X-COM with the new and improved Long War mod.  It's been a while, but they probably haven't changed much..

I fly to an abduction site.  Sectoids EVERYWHERE.  Instead of scattering and making for cover, a trigger-happy sectoid immediately one-shots my best guy and his friends proceed to crush the panicking survivors.



A few missions later:



God I love this game.

[Shiranu]

Just realized Journey hit the ps4 market. So happy.

Kinda tempted to buy MLB The Show 2015...

[wolf39us]

Hey guys, I found a "Gamers" Facebook essentially.  My girlfriend and I are on this site all of the time and I thought I'd share it with you.

http://player.me/?invite=wolf39us

It's surprisingly intuitive, and I love the streams that are available from other gamers!

[Sal1981]

Wow, I'm amazed "Sal" wasn't taken. Pretty neat.

http://player.me/sal


EDIT: I'll mostly post about RuneScape stuff, so that'll probably be very few people interested in what I'm doing.

[Hydra009]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0yS5dxwXY4

Five Nights at Freddy's 4.  I love this game.  Or more precisely, I love watching other people play this game.  Horror games tend to be a bit too much for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltPXJNjeUMQ

This kid's life is so tragic.  What makes it even worse for me is that his appearance extremely closely resembles me as a kid.

[Shiranu]

Entwined: Meh gameplay, beautiful art, great story (very... creating story from your own interpretations of the art).

[Hydra009]

The great thing about this one is that everything is still and quiet and you walk up to the door, staring into the pitch black hallway while listening for footsteps, hoping that you don't get brutally murdered the instant you turn on your flashlight.  The silence/darkness, hidden threat, and extreme vulnerability of the protagonist all add up to the creepiest FNAF yet.

[PickelledEggs]

https://player.me/pickelledeggs
Got one as well. Same PickelledEggs name... as always... lol

[Sal1981]

Got into Prifddinas, yay me.

[Hydra009]

XCOM long war.  I'm halfway through the campaign, and oh my god, it's incredible.  It's simply amazing how much better the game is with this mod.  Practically everything is better.

I just made a rocketeer blow away about 10 aliens with a rocket.  Next, my mechanized soldier kills/maims 5 aliens with a flamethrower.  There are no sweeter words in the english language than "Chrysalid has panicked".  Now, I'm my squad is surrounded by a small army of Chrysalids and Muton Elites surrounding a MASSIVE Chrysalid (Queen?!).

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Battles feel so much more epic and dangerous.  The aliens are more threatening and in-your-face now, and you never really know what you're going to go up against, which is half of the appeal of the original game.

I love the soldier overhaul.  There are much more soldier classes now, and every class - while very different - brings something useful to the table.  Soldiers get way more perks to choose from.  No more choose between two perks BS.  Now it's three, and it almost always feels like a meaningful, important choice.

I love the interception overhaul.  You'll encounter UFOs that you won't (yet) be able to shoot down.  You simply have to wait for them to land and deal with them then.  And even as you start to close the tech gap, air superiority can still be a challenge.  Rest assured, those Firestorms can still get shot down.

I love the country overhaul.  Every so often, countries will make offers for recovered alien technology.  Giving it to them will actually toughen them up against the alien threat and make them less likely to panic when attacked.

You really feel like the world's going to hell, and with every mission, you're gradually learning and improving and wresting control of the world away from the aliens.  They thought they could just crush our armies and intimidate us into submission.  They were wrong.  Our cities are still standing, their raiding parties are barely intact enough to autopsied, and our countrysides are littered with crashed or destroyed spaceships.  And now, we're coming for their base.  We have one of their Ethereals in containment.  Its last thought?  Fear.