The Unofficial Escapist Happy Gaming Thoughts Thread!

RawSteelUT

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Over the past few months, I've noticed a largely negative bend in gaming communities as the GamerGate war raged. Now obviously journalistic integrity is an enormous issue that should be taken seriously... But I feel that it's consumed everyone's every waking moment, and for a controversy that is unlikely to ever alter game content (yeah, like GTA and DoA are going to stop being made...), I feel it's perhaps time we talk a bit about positive stuff. After all, last I checked, we were all in this for the fun of it all.

With that in mind, and with the hope of coming back to filling discussion here with positive and uplifting, or at least exciting content, I present a thread devoted entirely to spreading good news, enthusiasm, and overall general goodwill, because we need that right now!

So let's get happy!

First, I just got through another run of Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires. Fun little game, series doesn't nearly get the respect it deserves.

Also, Final Fantasy Type-0 HD seems to be an actual GOOD game, though I'll obviously wait for Escapist reviews before buying. Nice to see Square Enix can still make a good game post FFXIII.

So, what's got you guys feeling good today?
 

Inglorious891

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I've been putting more time into Cities: Skylines than I thought I would when I got it on sale (thanks for that Escapist), and holy shit is it more fun and relaxing than I expected. Still wish there were more buildings (large elementary school please) and more systems under-the-hood so there was more depth to the actual management of the city, but overall I'm fairly pleased. Can't wait to see what modders add later on; shit's gonna be so cash.

Also still waiting for that rebalancing patch for Evolve. Played a few matches over the weekend and while it was fun, I have the strong feeling that it'll be more fun once a few of the hunters get buffed and the fucking Wraith gets jacked down from Godly-OP status. Hopefully the Goliath's jump-rockthrow bug/exploit/annoying shit gets ironed out, and the overpowered stealth pounce (why the fuck can you use a stealth pounce mid-fight?) as well.

Oh yeah, and Payday's Spring Break event's pretty cool so far. Hoxton revenge sounds like it'll be blast.
 

Phasmal

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Jun 10, 2011
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I just got twice as many kills as my squad mates in a Strike in Destiny, and also pulled back a boss fight right at the end as Last Guardian Standing woooooooo. It's quite relaxing just to be able to shoot some shit.

But also, I'm super psyched for Bloodborne and Final Fantasy X/X2 on PS4.

I'm on a real challenge kick recently and it's gotten me quite competitive. Not even against other people, just doing hard things just so I've done it. Rogue Legacy is going really well for me at the moment, but I'm gonna be looking to Bloodborne to scratch that itch soon.
 

happyninja42

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I've been having a lot of fun playing Darkest Dungeon. I found a party makeup that pretty much never loses, and so I've been plowing through missions.

I've also enjoyed Evolve, though I haven't played it much since loading up Hearthstone for the first time. As someone who doesn't like card collecting games like Magic the Gathering and it's offspring, I'm really enjoying Hearthstone.

Let's see, what else? Oh yeah! After lots of input on my "Is Valkria Chronicles Good?" thread (thanks for all the input by the way), my wife and I have been really having fun playing it together. The anime plot isn't anywhere near as eye-piercingly bad as I thought it would be....except for that fucking pig.

So yeah, those are the ones I can think of offhand that are giving me fun gamer vibes lately.
 

GundamSentinel

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Inglorious891 said:
I've been putting more time into Cities: Skylines than I thought I would when I got it on sale (thanks for that Escapist), and holy shit is it more fun and relaxing than I expected. Still wish there were more buildings (large elementary school please) and more systems under-the-hood so there was more depth to the actual management of the city, but overall I'm fairly pleased. Can't wait to see what modders add later on; shit's gonna be so cash.
Same here. Yesterday I spend over an hour just following people about their business in my city. It was incredibly relaxing. I love the pacing and depth. Sure, there are some things that could be a little more elaborate, but compared to the last SimCity, this game is so incredibly functional. It's great.

Also, yesterday I had basically my most epic Guild Wars 2 moment ever. A friend of mine went down in WvW to a group of five roamers and I singlehandedly destroyed the shit out of them. It was amazing. The last guy I was about to finish ragequit. :D

And I've been replaying Far Cry 4. Here I thought bow headshots from half a mile away on a moving target only happened in Mount & Blade.

Yes, I've been having a very happy time the past days, where gaming is concerned. I'm thinking about ruining that by restarting Dark Souls II.
 

Fappy

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Phasmal said:
I'm on a real challenge kick recently and it's gotten me quite competitive. Not even against other people, just doing hard things just so I've done it. Rogue Legacy is going really well for me at the moment, but I'm gonna be looking to Bloodborne to scratch that itch soon.
I have been the same way lately. I think that's why I have been playing so much Dark Souls...

I need a PS4 T^T

OP: I actually heard DW8 Empires was a disappointment! Jim Sterling gave it a 3/10 and he's the biggest DW fan I have ever seen.

As for my own positive thoughts?

I just started a second playthrough of Nocturne and beat Matador in like four turns. That idiot kept spamming Mazan on a party of Force immune demons LOL
 

SoreWristed

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I'm one day closer until my copy of Xenoblade chronicles comes in the mail.

Even though the original seller cancelled my purchase and I saw website after website announcing they had no more copies left, I still managed to find one through a less shady service than the one I had used.

Too bad that the controller I ordered with it doesn't come until end of the month..

Also pretty stoked that I've managed to finish new game plus 4 of Rogue Legacy. New game plus 5 is turning out to be impossible, but we're getting there, ever so slowly...
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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I've been replaying Mass Effect 3! And I'm so happy the multi-player is still so popular. I've never had to wait more than a minute to find a match.
Also damned if Tali isn't as cute and lovable now as she was three years ago.

Good times that game...good times...
 

hermes

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I have been replaying Saints Rows 4.
Great game. As errant signal puts it, it is "a love letter to everything that is kitsch". Not cynically or sarcastically, not so-bad-is-good, but an honest to god love letter to everything that is tacky and lowbrow, yet oddly endearing.
 

Danbo Jambo

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See my Arkham Origins thread for my love of that.

Deadly Premonition - how and why the hell did I hang fire for buying this so long, and listen to the IGNites? It's brilliant, falwed to buggery and annoying at times, and also a total rip off of Twin Peaks, but what a mint refreshing change of pace from gaming, and what a superbly executed plot.

hermes200 said:
I have been replaying Saints Rows 4.
Great game. As errant signal puts it, it is "a love letter to everything that is kitsch". Not cynically or sarcastically, not so-bad-is-good, but an honest to god love letter to everything that is tacky and lowbrow, yet oddly endearing.
SR4 just knocked my socks off. After the disapointment and general overall "choreiness", not to mention downright not fun gameplay, of GTA 4 & 5 SR4 grabbed me by the nuts and ran as far and as fast as it could with me. Never finished it because of bugs, but I didn't care - the 20 odd hours I had playing it were just a total and utter blast. A classic.
 

Dandark

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Well i've been playing through Xcom: Enemy Within on Iron man and having a blast so far, I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the game if I took away the option to save scum every time something goes wrong in a mission. No major party wipes yet and i've only lost one guy so far but I have only just captured one of the spaceship captain outsider dudes so im still early on in the game. Also been getting lots of UK troops which make me really happy.

I've also started playing Payday 2 with some friends again and been having great fun after buying the historical weapon pack and discovering my new favourite Primary weapon(Mosin Nagant) and melee weapon(Spear of freedom, this is an American flagpole with the flag wrapped up that you stab people with).
 

BloatedGuppy

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Inglorious891 said:
I've been putting more time into Cities: Skylines than I thought I would when I got it on sale (thanks for that Escapist), and holy shit is it more fun and relaxing than I expected. Still wish there were more buildings (large elementary school please) and more systems under-the-hood so there was more depth to the actual management of the city, but overall I'm fairly pleased. Can't wait to see what modders add later on; shit's gonna be so cash.
If it's just model sizes you are after, there are already "larger" footprints for most of the service buildings available as mods, usually with attached parking lots/service roads, etc. There's no functional difference to their operation, but they look a lot more "real".

Other must have mods...

1. The all 25 tile mod. You can control how many tiles you unlock to tailor it to your PC processing speed. Works beautifully, no visible performance or simulation issues, at least on my rig.

2. The tree brush mod. Lets you lay down a bunch of trees all at once. Saves your wrist.

3. The autosave mod.

There's also a mod out that alters your population growth rate so you don't need to cram the city with skyscrapers. Makes it feel more organic/real. And there's a super-hard-mode mod that actually requires people to "get to work" in order to not lose their job, rather than the semi-abstraction that exists now.

And yeah, Skylines is pretty excellent. Winning combination of mechanically solid base game in an under-serviced genre, extremely reasonable price point, and tiny/responsive developer that has a great relationship with their community. If you like sticking it to big publishers and rewarding the little guys, there's no better purchase than Skylines. Team of NINE people somehow pulled off what EA-Maxis couldn't with 120.

Dandark said:
Well i've been playing through Xcom: Enemy Within on Iron man and having a blast so far, I didn't realize how much I would enjoy the game if I took away the option to save scum every time something goes wrong in a mission.
Good man! Iron Man is the ONLY way to play XCOM. You should try The Long War when you're finished your current playthrough. Shakes things up a bit.
 

Fappy

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BloatedGuppy said:
Good man! Iron Man is the ONLY way to play XCOM. You should try The Long War when you're finished your current playthrough. Shakes things up a bit.
I disagree! I did an Iron Man playthrough once and ran into a huge bug on the FINAL stage and almost lost my entire file since Iron Man mode doesn't allow you to make saves outside of autosave. Thankfully running around the map for thirty minutes randomly fixed the bug and spawned the enemies, but it was a close call!
 

BloatedGuppy

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Fappy said:
I disagree! I did an Iron Man playthrough once and ran into a huge bug on the FINAL stage and almost lost my entire file since Iron Man mode doesn't allow you to make saves outside of autosave. Thankfully running around the map for thirty minutes randomly fixed the bug and spawned the enemies, but it was a close call!
Clearly if the bug had persisted it just would have demonstrated your lack of true Iron.
 

Fappy

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BloatedGuppy said:
Fappy said:
I disagree! I did an Iron Man playthrough once and ran into a huge bug on the FINAL stage and almost lost my entire file since Iron Man mode doesn't allow you to make saves outside of autosave. Thankfully running around the map for thirty minutes randomly fixed the bug and spawned the enemies, but it was a close call!
Clearly if the bug had persisted it just would have demonstrated your lack of true Iron.
I inject iron directly into my bloodstream everyday via a complex system of levies and regrettable expectations! I have plenty of iron! I'm like 170 pounds of pure iron!
 

BloatedGuppy

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Fappy said:
I inject iron directly into my bloodstream everyday via a complex system of levies and regrettable expectations! I have plenty of iron! I'm like 170 pounds of pure iron!
[HEADING=3]Man Dead of Acute Iron Poisoning - Video Games to Blame?[/HEADING]

A 26 year old man died after injecting pure iron directly into his blood stream, an inquest heard.

The as yet unidentified male received a fatal dose via "a complex system of levies and regrettable expectations". Medical examiners on the scene remarked they had "never seen anything quite like it".

While there is no firm word on what drove the man to such extreme acts, video games and "the largest collection of tentacle porn in the western hemisphere" were discovered on site, and it stands to reason they were probably to blame.
 

CaitSeith

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Silentpony said:
I've been replaying Mass Effect 3! And I'm so happy the multi-player is still so popular. I've never had to wait more than a minute to find a match.
Also damned if Tali isn't as cute and lovable now as she was three years ago.

Good times that game...good times...
What a coincidence. I'm playing ME3 for the first time. I wanted to give my opinion about all the ME3 ending debacle, but I didn't have played any of the ME games. So I bought all the 3 games, and I recently finished ME2. The happy thought is that, no matter how bad I find the ending, I still have much to play and enjoy in the two first ones (and probably the ME3 multiplayer).
 

Fappy

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BloatedGuppy said:
Fappy said:
I inject iron directly into my bloodstream everyday via a complex system of levies and regrettable expectations! I have plenty of iron! I'm like 170 pounds of pure iron!
[HEADING=3]Man Dead of Acute Iron Poisoning - Video Games to Blame?[/HEADING]

A 26 year old man died after injecting pure iron directly into his blood stream, an inquest heard.

The as yet unidentified male received a fatal dose via "a complex system of levies and regrettable expectations". Medical examiners on the scene remarked they had "never seen anything quite like it".

While there is no firm word on what drove the man to such extreme acts, video games and "the largest collection of tentacle porn in the western hemisphere" were discovered on site, and it stands to reason they were probably to blame.
26?! What the fuck?! You think I'm an old man?!

I still have like... three months to go... >.>

Also, that tentacle porn was already there when I got there!
 

Barbas

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Inglorious891 said:
I've been putting more time into Cities: Skylines than I thought I would when I got it on sale (thanks for that Escapist), and holy shit is it more fun and relaxing than I expected. Still wish there were more buildings (large elementary school please) and more systems under-the-hood so there was more depth to the actual management of the city, but overall I'm fairly pleased. Can't wait to see what modders add later on; shit's gonna be so cash.
Oooh mama. Agreed on all of those! I can't wait to see what those Maxis devs make for the game; while I'm sad to see people out of a job, it does mean they've got more free time for that sort of thing. Gets their skills out there and on display too, I guess! :D

OT: When I first booted up GTA: Vice City and saw someone riding a scooter and stole it from them and puttered down the street on it and realized that you could ride bikes now AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA- Yes, good times.