Video Games

[Joffrey]



Stanley Parable is the weirdest and greatest experience I've played this year. Holy **** it's good.

I played the demo and am considering buying the full thing. I bought "Your papers please" but got exasperated after 30 minutes of play. Too much pressure

 

[Lionheart Biker]

Anyone else played the first episode of the seconde season of "the walking dead"?? It had a quite an impact on me but also left me wanting much more. It felt a tad short compared to last season´s opening episode.

 

[Jr Mouse]



Anyone else played the first episode of the seconde season of "the walking dead"?? It had a quite an impact on me but also left me wanting much more. It felt a tad short compared to last season´s opening episode.

I finally just finished the first season. Great stuff.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Been playing a bit of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. It's like a mix of Magic The Gathering and Pokemon Card games, except online.

Beta only right now, need to wait to get beta keys. Can watching streamers play. TrumpSC on twitch.tv usually provides some good analysis and explains his moves and strategies well. More info here http://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone, including deck builds and card strength/value.

 

[worakl]

I'm in there as well, on the EU-server though.

 

[gort]

I got a hearthstone invite, installed it, never played it.

Been playing battlefield 4 online on ps4, **** is so fun. Game is buggy and randomly will lock up but it's seriously a ton of fun.

I finished Zelda; A Link Between Worlds on 3DSXL and it was so glorious. Wish I could experience it fresh all over again. Will maybe attempt hero mode but not sure I'm up for the super hard mode.

 

[whiteslashasian]

BF4 is a lot of fun, but for some reason I'm getting less into the large scale Rush and Conquest battles and focus my few minutes on Team Deathmatch for fast run and gun action. I have zero plane or helicopter skills

 

[gort]

Yea not to mention a conquest game takes forever and a deathmatch game can be pretty fast.

I tried flying a helicopter for my first time in a conquest game and immediately crashed, lol.

 

[aravenel]

I really think flying a helicopter well in the BF games requires a gamepad controller. Almost impossible w/ keyboard and mouse.

I almost bought an xbox controller adapter just for BF3.

 

[whiteslashasian]

Oh, I thought they were all using flight sim joysticks and throttles, etc. A 360 controller might not be a bad idea with the two mini joysticks to control the cyclic and collective of a heli. Can't you just get a bluetooth dongle for the PC and the proper drivers to run the 360 controller?

 

[aravenel]

Yeah, basically. Microsoft makes an adapter to allow you to pair an xbox controller with a PC. The PC sees it just like any other gamepad controller.

Was about $30 IIRC. I never ended up doing it because I wasn't playing BF3 as much anymore, and honestly I'm not playing much of anything at the moment.

 

[SchwererGustav]

There's no need to buy an adapter. An Xbox 360 controller is USB-based and Windows systems automatically recognize it.

 

[aravenel]

Should have clarified--my controllers are wireless, so you need a receiver.

 

[whiteslashasian]



Should have clarified--my controllers are wireless, so you need a receiver.

Hence the Bluetooth dongle suggestion I made, but I guess the 360 controller has some kind of proprietary commands which require the official dongle to go wireless; ~$20.

Or you can get a Wired 360 controller which will pretty much pair up with Windows 7 right away for $30.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Sony announces PlayStation Now, its cloud gaming service for TVs, consoles, and phones

7

The PlayStation 4 may not be the most important part of Sony's gaming strategy anymore. At CES 2014, Sony has just announced PlayStation Now, a service that will bring streaming PlayStation games not only to PS4, but also PS3, PlayStation Vita, and even televisions, tablets, and smartphones.

It 's company's public-facing brand for Gaikai, the cloud gaming technology it purchased in June of 2012, which the company previously said would bring PS3 games to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita later this year. Sony says the technology is already working here at CES, with attendees able to try critically acclaimed action title The Last of Us here in Vegas. The full service will let users rent games or pay for a subscription that will let them "explore a range of titles." Sony will launch a closed beta in the United States at the end of the month, and plans to roll out the service more broadly by the end of this summer.

"The tethers that have constrained consumption for decades... soon dissolve," said Sony CEO Kaz Hirai.

GAMES IN THE CLOUD

Gaikai works on practically any device — even smartphones — because the games don't actually run locally at all. Cloud gaming services work more like a YouTube video, where powerful servers in remote data centers actually run the games, and stream compressed video frames of that game running to your local devices. They send the input from your touchscreen or game controller to the cloud. It doesn't necessarily require an extremely fast internet connection, but it does require one with very low latency, so that the time between you pressing a button, and the time you see the reaction, is as short as possible.

Originally, Gaikai only streamed PC games to the web and to televisions, racking up deals with Samsung and LG to bring games like The Witcher 2 to their devices, but when Sony nabbed the technology it apparently figured out a way to have those servers emulate legacy PlayStation 3 titles as well. We haven't yet heard how, but it's one way to run PS3 games on PS4. Right now, games from previous PlayStation systems don't work if you stick them in the PS4's disc drive.

In addition to games, Sony also announced a cloud service aimed at television, which will offer live TV, video on demand, and even DVR recording functionality.

Update: Sony says that the PlayStation Now service will first roll out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3, followed by the PlayStation Vita handheld, and that "most 2014 US models" of Sony's Bravia TVs will support PlayStation Now. The service will stream full games, acccording to the company, and save your games in the cloud. You'll be able to rent titles or pay for a subscription service.

European rollout may take a while, though. Sony writes that it is "not quite ready to confirm launch plans for PAL territories" yet:

"When it comes to broadband provision, Europe is a considerably more complex region, with a huge number of different providers and varying connection speeds from country to country. In short, we need a little more time to ensure a smooth and successful roll-out."

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5284294/sony-announces-playstation-now-cloud-gaming

We have known this was coming for some time, but the formal announcement is huge. One step closer to having the "Netflix" of gaming delivered anywhere at anytime.

EDIT: A brief hands on. Seems largely positive for a service that they still have time to tweak before it hits the public. http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/7/5284730/playstation-now-hands-on