PC Gaming = World of Suck

Handruin

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Tonight I got to play Cards Against Humanity with a dream team line up: Four lesbians, two transsexuals, a (culturally) Jewish Doctor of Unitarian Theology, a Medical Doctor, an English Lit prof and two seventeen year olds, who were both dating AND both of whose mothers were somewhere in the group. The racist, homophobic, drug and porn fueled wrongness had layers of far, far deeper meaning than I suspect it typically has. It was pretty damned awesome.

I didn't have quite that good of a mix of people but last summer I brought the game with me on vacation that was spent with the in-laws and it was awesome to see some of the female players who struggled with the less than pure nature of the game. They are all faithful to Catholicism coming with their own version of pureness that was corrupted by this game. It was also sad in some spots where cards like pixelated bukkake left a lot of blank stares from the holders of that card. There were a few other cards that had to be explained which certainly takes away some of the humor when they didn't know how to properly match it up to the black card.
 

sdbardwick

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Wow. MS really got decimated today in the next generation console war.
Sony: cheaper, no internet check-in and (apparently) less DRM restrictions with respect to sharing/selling games.
The reality may be that the DRM differences are less than appear, but Sony won the war of public perception tonight.
MS made the same mistake as Brutus vis-a-vis the speeches at Caesar's funeral; don't speak first, as the last speaker can rally the hoi-polloi without fearing rebuttal.
 

Mercutio

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The problem is that Microsoft has a crap-ton of Xbox exclusive stuff that people actually want to play and all the media integration crap going for it. People are going to bitch about Xbox and then buy one anyway. It works for Valve and it will work for Microsoft.
 

Handruin

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The problem is that Microsoft has a crap-ton of Xbox exclusive stuff that people actually want to play and all the media integration crap going for it. People are going to bitch about Xbox and then buy one anyway. It works for Valve and it will work for Microsoft.

It's not the same with Valve. I've yet to see an Valve exclusive drawing people in. Valve titles are typically cross platform. Not all games require internet connectivity or internet every 24 hours. I don't pay month per month to play games online with friends. There is no media integration crap. I'm not forced to buy sub-par hardware for gaming with Valve/Steam. I don't have to pay premium prices for games so trading has never really been something I've desired through Steam.

In the previous console war, I preferred the xbox 360 to the PS3. Now I really have no interest in the Xbone and see limited value in the PS4. The hardware change is underwhelming. I may change my mind when I see certain platform titles that I like, but for now it's a hold pattern for me.
 

Howell

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I'm thinking I might pick up a console when the new ones come out. The kinect seemed pretty interesting. Are there plenty of interesting games for it?
 

Handruin

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I'm thinking I might pick up a console when the new ones come out. The kinect seemed pretty interesting. Are there plenty of interesting games for it?

Nothing that's ever compelled me to own a Kinect...subjectively I say no.
 

ddrueding

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ddrueding

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I'm thinking about getting into the Hitman series. I loved Thief when it came out, and have since had fun with Alpha Protocol and Assassins Creed. Thoughts?
 

Mercutio

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I went to an old fashioned Stand-Up arcade last night. Because I grew up in a very rural area, I never really go to spend much time with stand-up machines even though I certainly did live through the arcade era. I can remember businesses that would have an arcade game or three set up in some random corner, but by the time I was a teenager and living someplace near civilization, the stand-ups were mostly gone.
My friend is a huge console gamer and will kick my ass in anything we play on one, but she's also half my age; stand-ups are just beyond her experience. So we made a special trip to the Galloping Ghost in Brookfield, Illinois. For $15 each, were were able to play hundreds of arcade games. It was totally worth the trip and I was finally able to mash buttons better than she can.

... and now I hafta build a new MAME cabinet.
 

Mercutio

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I've been playing a lot of Rougelike games lately.

Spelunky is a lot of fun. It has kind of bad console-portitis in that the Windows version only works with Xbox 360 controllers for gamepad input and the game only supports a half-dozen fixed-size screen resolutions, but each games is typically very quick The mand the game supports co-op multplayer, one of the small number of recent games I'm aware of that can be played by two people on the same keyboard, even.

Maps and item placement are random with each play, but part of the charm is finding goofy new items or getting something extremely rare near the beginning of the game.

The Binding of Isaac is - well, fun probably isn't the right word since it's a game about an abused child trying to escape from his schizophrenic with messianic delusions mother - but it's completely addictive.

And then there's Torchlight, which I got from GoG a couple months back while it was free. It's basically a simple, single-player version of Diablo. I don't think I would have paid for it since it's a little too frantic for my tastes, but in small doses I definitely enjoy it.

All three of those games run just fine on HD4000-level graphics and all three work really well for quick gaming sessions (er, unless you're actually going to win Isaac, in which case a session will probably take 40 minutes or so. But that doesn't happen very often).
 

ddrueding

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I went back and replayed Skyrim. Now have a level-60 badass and not being challenged much. Stopped with the bow for the most part and just run around with a badass dagger and shouts. Fun. Pretty. Looking forward to the next one.
 

Mercutio

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Actually, I think it's the well done character animations and setting. It's more charming than challenging, much like Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
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So Microsoft's online games authorization service for Windows is shutting down next year. That's a big deal because:
1. It's run by one of the biggest and best-funded companies on the planet.
2. It hoses software that was purchased in a retail box, not just titles delivered online.
3. It also hoses titles that were delivered online through Steam and Origin that happen to use Microsoft's authorization.

We can all hope that Games for Windows Live titles get some kind of patch to remove authorization requirements, but given the legal complexities that surround ownership just in the normal state of gaming software development, I doubt it will happen.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
 

Mercutio

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Nothing at all to do with gaming: I was explaining the Humble Bundle to a couple people today in the context of a unique internet-based distribution system for "stuff" like games and books. I brought it up and right now they're offering recordings of comedians.

And some of them are pretty awesome. I kicked in $10 on the spot.
 

Handruin

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Nothing at all to do with gaming: I was explaining the Humble Bundle to a couple people today in the context of a unique internet-based distribution system for "stuff" like games and books. I brought it up and right now they're offering recordings of comedians.

And some of them are pretty awesome. I kicked in $10 on the spot.

It's nice to see them expand into other areas. I've purchased several humble bundles over the years and have enjoyed the content.
 

Handruin

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Speaking of Humble Bundle...there are a few decent titles listed as DRM-free (and possibly steam codes) in the latest HB 9. It's worth checking out FTL and Mark of the Ninja even if you drop $4-$5 on this. Fez might be worth it too but I thought the developer was kind of a dick (watch the movie and judge for yourself). All the games are Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux compatible.
https://www.humblebundle.com/
 

Mercutio

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The New Humble Android Bundle has Worms Armageddon, Bard's Tale and Ticket to Ride. That's a lot of really good games for a pretty small amount of cash.
 

jtr1962

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Dr. Meth. This is a flash-based game where the goal is to make as much money as possible selling, you guessed it, meth. Very funny animations and very addictive. It runs in the background while you do other things, and also auto saves.
 

ddrueding

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Dr. Meth. This is a flash-based game where the goal is to make as much money as possible selling, you guessed it, meth. Very funny animations and very addictive. It runs in the background while you do other things, and also auto saves.

Only operates in the background if it is in it's own window. Being in another tab seems to pause it in Firefox.
 

jtr1962

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Only operates in the background if it is in it's own window. Being in another tab seems to pause it in Firefox.
Yeah, you're right. It pauses in Chrome also if you switch tabs. That's OK though since I have two monitors. I'm letting it run on the second monitor in its own window. So far I made over $316 trillion.
 

Handruin

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Damn you jtr! ;-)

I don't have nearly that much cash because I spent it all on buying stars. I'm sure the cash will be super silly high come tomorrow as the number of dealers is growing insanely high now that 999.9 trillion are unlocked.

OK, I've been playing since yesterday. I think I'm almost at the end of the game right now. Any chance one of you can help me get one more achievement by clicking their reference link?

http://drmeth.com/index.php?r=7410412312013823043754


drmeth1.jpg
drmeth2.jpg
drmeth3.jpg
drmeth4.jpg
drmeth5.jpg
 

jtr1962

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I think the last achievement is for playing one week so there's not much you can do other than continue to play. You're actually doing better than me now. I have over $3.6 quadrillion in cash, mostly because I stopped buying after I bought a black hole and star, but I'm stuck at only 500 million dealers. The baby to increase the number of dealers popped up twice, but both times I was using an auto-clicker which I couldn't shut down, so two missed opportunities.

I should have warned everyone how addictive this game is. It's probably more addictive than meth!
 

Handruin

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I have 4.8 billion dealers and income is accruing at $169 billion/sec! lol I was able to get the hiring rate up to 1.6million/sec which helped with feeding the black hole. I'll let the auto-clicker increase that overnight to see how high to the 999.9 trillion dealers I can get. That's going to take a long time.
 

jtr1962

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Just got the second page of upgrades and increased the maximum number of dealers to 999.9 trillion. YES! I should have have stupidly large amount of cash soon.
 

Handruin

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5.5 billion dealers. $191 bil/sec lol stupid game. I need that one last achievement to unlock the last hire to increase my meth quality.
 

ddrueding

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Maxxed on dealers, operating an actual star. If you played this game without the aid of an auto-clicker, you are insane. I hope your RSI heals quickly.
 

jtr1962

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Maxxed on dealers, operating an actual star. If you played this game without the aid of an auto-clicker, you are insane. I hope your RSI heals quickly.
Actually, I was only able to hire about 10,000 master dealers before my hands hurt. And then I installed an autoclicker. Now I'm up to 4.2 billion dealers and hiring about 1.5 million per second. Yeah, there's no way you can physically play this game well without an autoclicker, even if you don't have RSI.
 

Handruin

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I had some 45+ Quadrillion in cash when I checked on it this morning. I must have gained enough new hires over the night that my meth production was actually in a decline rather than an incline. Fortunately the reserve was so ridiculously large that it didn't seem to have dented it. I bought another 40 stars to increase production. Insane.

Yes, and auto clicker is needed to get anywhere in this game.
 

jtr1962

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I had some 45+ Quadrillion in cash when I checked on it this morning. I must have gained enough new hires over the night that my meth production was actually in a decline rather than an incline. Fortunately the reserve was so ridiculously large that it didn't seem to have dented it. I bought another 40 stars to increase production. Insane.

Yes, and auto clicker is needed to get anywhere in this game.
Same situation here. $42 quadrillion in cash, and the reserves just started going down. From what I can determine, one star has enough production for roughly 2.88 billion dealers. At the rate my dealers are going up, I'll need to add one star every 30 minutes or so.

And yes, these numbers are totally insane. I can pay off the national debt over 200 times, or give every person on the planet about $6 million.
 

CougTek

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Breaking news : The state of national finances is so alarming that the federal government turns to meth dealers for help...
 
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