Video Game Chat Thread - Pre-Alpha Experimental Version

[Retarded Weeb]

Does anyone know if there's an archive for old gaming magazines like PC Gamer? I'm trying to look for an article from the early 2000s (?) about video games in other non-US countries. The article mentioned about video games in Japan and had a CG picture of a girl in a bathtub (I think), and also mentioned about the popularity of StarCraft in South Korea and how it became a household name of a game at the time.

Some relevant stuff comes up on Google if you search for "gaming magazine specific archive", it they all look incomplete past early 90s magazines or are hard to search through. But I do know the Internet Archive has fucktons of scans of old gaming magazines. You could also trying looking on a site like Anna's Archive. If you don't already know exactly what you're looking for though, then it will probably take hours of searching through magazine scans to find it.

 

[Andy Soying Out]

I usually go for two pair/three of a kind, once had my three of a kind leveled up to level 7, but the wall fucked me

OK I went through my screenshots of my winning runs, this is from August - September 2024 so IDK if there's been balancing changes since then. I beat the game with all Stake levels for the Blue and Red decks and a couple of stakes for some of the other decks before I got bored.
Some of the most useful jokers I made note of were Wee Joker, Throwback, Canio, Castle, Hologram, Madness Joker. Usually joker cards which can accumulate a really high Multiplier, or additional chips, will be your ticket to success, especially if you get them early so they can stack a really high multiplier.
For example these were my jokers for the Blue Deck, Gold Stake, which is the highest difficulty modifier, these are a lot of multiplier jokers:

Blue Deck Purple Stake:

Does anyone know if there's an archive for old gaming magazines like PC Gamer? I'm trying to look for an article from the early 2000s (?) about video games in other non-US countries. The article mentioned about video games in Japan and had a CG picture of a girl in a bathtub (I think), and also mentioned about the popularity of StarCraft in South Korea and how it became a household name of a game at the time.

there's some anon on /vr/ who dumps old video game artwork and media, its possible its on the archives there or if you ask there.

 

[Gap Hag]

OK I went through my screenshots of my winning runs, this is from August - September 2024 so IDK if there's been balancing changes since then. I beat the game with all Stake levels for the Blue and Red decks and a couple of stakes for some of the other decks before I got bored.
Some of the most useful jokers I made note of were Wee Joker, Throwback, Canio, Castle, Hologram, Madness Joker. Usually joker cards which can accumulate a really high Multiplier, or additional chips, will be your ticket to success, especially if you get them early so they can stack a really high multiplier.
For example these were my jokers for the Blue Deck, Gold Stake, which is the highest difficulty modifier, these are a lot of multiplier jokers:
View attachment 8502074
Blue Deck Purple Stake:
View attachment 8502089



there's some anon on /vr/ who dumps old video game artwork and media, its possible its on the archives there or if you ask there.

How did you get so many jokers? there's a hard cap of 5 for me unless i use that one deck.

 

[Andy Soying Out]

How did you get so many jokers? there's a hard cap of 5 for me unless i use that one deck.

Negative Edition Jokers have a bonus modifier of +1 Joker slot.

 

[Gap Hag]

Negative Edition Jokers have a bonus modifier of +1 Joker slot.

Are those like holographics? so i just need to get lucky with that one arcana/seeing it in the shop?

 

[Andy Soying Out]

Are those like holographics? so i just need to get lucky with that one arcana/seeing it in the shop?

yeah they have a pretty low spawn rate, there's also a skip bind bonus that guarantees a holographic joker in the shop which I think is the most sure-fire way to get one.

 

[Namekian George Floyd]

I would just like to announce that I am a stupid fucking retard with no rhythm whatsoever.
2 hours of my life was just spent playing Gitaroo Man for the first time, I couldn't make it past the 2nd level. At first I thought it was latency issues with the PS2 version so I switched to the PSP version and still sucked ass. I then started blaming the TV which I have a mini-PC plugged into for gaming comfortably in bed so I plugged it into a spare monitor which of course made no difference whatsoever. I will never see the end of Gitaroo Man without looking it up on youtube, fuck my gay, incel, chud life. You don't know what it's like being straight, middle-class and white.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Does anyone know if there's an archive for old gaming magazines like PC Gamer? I'm trying to look for an article from the early 2000s (?) about video games in other non-US countries. The article mentioned about video games in Japan and had a CG picture of a girl in a bathtub (I think), and also mentioned about the popularity of StarCraft in South Korea and how it became a household name of a game at the time.

Man, I got a bunch of PS2 magazines and one of them has a double-spread on Starcraft: Ghost. And the first monster hunter.. Shits kino.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

Archive.org has tons of old gaming magazines, the search function just sucks. Use google to search Archive.

 

[The Ugly One]

Been playing Vermintide II after the Steam giveaway. The core game mechanic is not as good as Darktide, but I like the variety in maps and visuals a lot better. The biggest problem in the game is they tied ammunition, potions, and bomb drop frequency to difficulty level, so at the higher difficulties, you really have nothing to rely on other than melee. Potions, ranged weapons, and bombs add to the fun, so not having them readily available simply makes the game less fun. Consequently, I rarely venture past whatever the second difficulty is, as going the entire map with only one ammo refill is just boring.

 

[Asian tech support]

Been playing Vermintide II after the Steam giveaway. The core game mechanic is not as good as Darktide, but I like the variety in maps and visuals a lot better. The biggest problem in the game is they tied ammunition, potions, and bomb drop frequency to difficulty level, so at the higher difficulties, you really have nothing to rely on other than melee. Potions, ranged weapons, and bombs add to the fun, so not having them readily available simply makes the game less fun. Consequently, I rarely venture past whatever the second difficulty is, as going the entire map with only one ammo refill is just boring.

Have you tried using ammo sustaining blessings on your gear? Have you tried playing ranged centric careers? Have you tried using one of the ranged weapons that don't use ammo? Not ever career can sustain ranged heavy playstyles. The game isn't designed around ranged combat the same as Darktide is, as evidenced by the three careers that are limited to melee only (throwing axes don't count). Shit, if you want to shoot forever, try any of the following:
-Waystalker 2-1-2-3-3-3. Longbow with conservative shooter.
-Ranger veteran 2-2-3-2-3-3. Grudge-raker with scrounger or conservative shooter.
-Bounty hunter 1-1-2-1-2-2. Crossbow, griffon-foot, or brace of pistols with scrounger. As long as you weave melee and ranged attacks, you never have to reload and every ranged shot is a crit.

edit: some additional pointers.
-The ranger vet can bank bombs from ranger's parting gift. You don't have to throw it while the smoke is active. As long as you're holding a grenade, you have a free nade every time smoke is off cd and with master of improvisation, it has a surprisingly low cd.
-Outcast engineer pulls grenades out of the aether. They nerfed his flamethrower build but he's better with the drakegun than the ironbreaker.
-Grail knight prints yellow piss potions. For this reason it's one of the best classes in the game from a meta standpoint.

 

[Caddo Cobgang]

One-Third of U.S. Video Game Industry Workers Were Laid Off Over the Last Two Years, GDC Study Reveals​

View attachment 8492137

I wouldn't even say its the game devs themselves, or even something industry specific, its the homosexuals at the top realizing they don't need the approvals of the plebeians (employees or consoomers) to stay on top and they can for the most part just inflate their stock prices by shitting out rage bait, that is the most scariest thing

 

[Captain Syrup]

Spyro: Year of the Dragon



A weird rabbit lady sneaks in and steals all the dragon eggs. Like 150 of them. She's working for this default villain in a ruffle collar who wants to suck the life force out of infants. Spyro’s on the case.



GAMEPLAY: I’ll try to be brief because complaining about Spyro 3 as an adult makes me feel like a certified dickhead.

They sped Spyro up. They cut animation frames which makes the game easier. Credit where it’s due, they don't take away the skills he learned from Spyro 2. He can swim and climb and doesn't have to re-learn it.



Because you can swim from the start, many levels have random rivers of acid now. Not lava, which would make sense. Just glowing Nickelodeon slime.

Spyro 3 is basically just Spyro 1 and 2 mashed together. Which makes Spyro 2 completely pointless. The only reason to play Spyro 2 is so you'll know who Hunter is. (The cheetah who looks like he sells weed.)



I was surprised how little new stuff Spyro actually does. They do bring back the ice breath from Spyro 2. That one puzzle where you freeze enemies and use them as platforms. In Spyro 3 you can use it and it does… nothing useful. The game wastes so much time on Poochie side characters instead of just improving Spyro himself.



Then there’s the mini-games.... again. They start out tolerable and end as torture. Bumper cars, hockey, whack-a-mole…I don’t want to do carnival bullshit in my dragon game. They interrupt the fun so often that I could feel myself getting worse at platforming. Skill erosion.



The first unlockable character is Sheila the kangaroo and she’s actually really cool! (They later re-designed her to compete with Lola Bunny and that goat girl, but the New Sheila looked like trash.) Every character after Sheila is more annoying than the last. The yeti is badass, but they barely let you use him. Spyro’s dragonfly even gets shmup levels that nobody asked for. Imagine booting up Spyro and suddenly you’re playing Galaga as a bug.

All it does is remind me of that Earthworm Jim game where they turned him into a salamander.



You never even get to play as Hunter?? 4/10



GRAPHICS: As usual, Spyro levels are visually fine. I liked the mountain temple with the pandas practicing with bamboo. The Egypt level’s alright too. They sneak in a Tomb Raider joke. 7/10



SOUND: "Whoa, Stewart Copeland from The Police did music for Spyro, that’s crazy.”

Yeah, legendary drummer, big deal.



And I like this guy. His film and TV scores are really good. But his Spyro 3 music sounds like... training level music. Like you’re stuck in a shooting range learning how to crouch. Everything’s chaotic, the BGM is like a Casio keyboard being dropped down a flight of stairs.

The game keeps reusing the same music tracks. I get to World Three and I’m like, “hey cool, a new area,” and then it’s just the same song from World One. They use it again for the final boss fight. The ultimate showdown and it’s like:

3/10



STORY: The cutscenes look a lot better. The animation’s charming, and the voice acting is witty. Insomniac understands that giving everyone a foreign accent automatically makes kids laugh. What if this NPC was German but also a goat.



The new enemies are Rhynocs, and they just keep putting on dumber outfits in each level. Bullying them is great fun. You ram them, set them on fire, and they shriek like idiots.



The ending is a surprisingly sweet send-off to the trilogy, full of callbacks and that sort of stuff.



Somehow, all the annoying characters from Spyro 2 show up again even though this game is on the other side of the planet. They just followed me like cockroaches.



It's obvious why Bianca became the fan favorite. She’s the classic Knuckles-type henchman. “You’re telling me killing dragon babies is bad?” (Big character growth.) The actress is good, too.



I like the new guy voicing Moneybags. In Spyro 2 he was this landlord charging you gems to open doors. Now, he’s a joke who gets bludgeoned to death in every chapter.

Everyone else I could take or leave. Spyro never even talks to the villain. The hero and the bad guy don't interact. 6/10

---

RANKINGS!



BEST: Spyro 1 is jank as hell, but it knows what it is. You run around burning sheep and freeing dragon grandpas. It's simple and elegant.



WORST: Spyro 2. Sexy faun lady and ska band Cheetah are the only high points.



GOOD, BUT ALSO SHIT: Spyro 3. What if we fixed the controls but also made you do every mini-game ever invented?

 

[The Ugly One]

Have you tried...

I have no interest in trying to cheese my way around what i see as bad game design and never have in any game, ever. I just play at the level where you don't have to have some autistic meta build to be allowed to use all the mechanics.

The game isn't designed around ranged combat the same as Darktide is

having core tools severely restricted at high levels is fucking gay and i hate games that do this, find a way to make the game hard without disabling functionality

 

[Asian tech support]

I have no interest in trying to cheese my way around what i see as bad game design and never have in any game, ever. I just play at the level where you don't have to have some autistic meta build to be allowed to use all the mechanics.

having core tools severely restricted at high levels is fucking gay and i hate games that do this, find a way to make the game hard without disabling functionality

If you can't read the skills and put two and two together, then the game isn't for you. You didn't even try.

 

[The Ugly One]

If you can't read the skills and put two and two together, then the game isn't for you. You didn't even try.

Wrong. Bad game design doesn't become good with time. You just listed a bunch of things about the game that suck - like how if there's no dwarf in the party, nobody gets any bombs at all rather than 2 you typically get at low difficulties - and assumed that if you don't think the game is fun, you just don't know that. When actually it's just that having a couple bombs when the dwarf didn't show is a lot more fun than having none.

 

[⋖ cørdion ⋗]

Spyro: Year of the Dragon

I got so fucking blitzed when the remaster started playing the native dub. No idea it was even a thing nor that they put in the 'effort' to carry it onto the remaster.

I 100%'d the first one in the remaster, guess I should go for the others, but those >fucking railway segments<. Oh and I saw a fortnite emoting skeleton, so at least they modernized bits of it.

 

[Pale Empress]

Does anyone know if there's an archive for old gaming magazines like PC Gamer? I'm trying to look for an article from the early 2000s (?) about video games in other non-US countries. The article mentioned about video games in Japan and had a CG picture of a girl in a bathtub (I think), and also mentioned about the popularity of StarCraft in South Korea and how it became a household name of a game at the time.

There was a very large archive that was being passed around a couple years ago that was a pretty comprehensive collectio of every major games/tech magazine from the late 80s up through the early 10s. Had stuff like PC Gamer, Edge, EGM, Nintendo Power, etc.
I think I originally found it on 4chan's /t/ board. I had a copy saved locally but I misplaced the drive it was on.

Even if you can't find the specific article (or even if you do find it someplace like archive.org), it's a really cool collection as a cultural time capsule thanks to the scans including all of the advertisements too. Graphic design was so much more interesting before Apple made "minimalism" fashionable.

 

[BingBongDingDong]

Wrong. Bad game design doesn't become good with time. You just listed a bunch of things about the game that suck - like how if there's no dwarf in the party, nobody gets any bombs at all rather than 2 you typically get at low difficulties - and assumed that if you don't think the game is fun, you just don't know that. When actually it's just that having a couple bombs when the dwarf didn't show is a lot more fun than having none.

I'm sorry but having the higher difficulties actually difficult and require teamwork is great. You've already started you stay at the lower difficulties because you don't like that, and that's fine but for people who actually want to be challenged the higher levels are there. Sorry you can't sleep walk in the game to feel like a cool gamer guy or whatever your gripe is.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

And there have been numerous times where devs that made a good game started their own studios, only for their newly made game(s) to flop and be not good, and they overly on the "from the makers of X game" as part of their marketing. Stormgate comes to mind as one example, being spun off by former Blizzard Entertainment devs, but I don't remember how many of their good devs were on that team.

MindsEye is the one to comes to mind for me, along with anyone that used to be from LucasArts.