Discuss Videogames Here: Fun for All Levels!

[Dr.Mobius]

I am by no means a serious, hardcore gamer (I wouldn't have time to be interested in Science if I were, I reckon). But, I do thoroughly enjoy playing videogames in my spare time. Does anyone else around here? I figure maybe some interesting discussions can come out of this, so might as well give it a try...

Oh, and if anyone knows what game my username and avatar are in reference to, you're cool.

 

[WannabeNewton]

Dude I spend tons of time on video games (mostly RPGs), been doing so for as long as I can remember :)

Just got back to playing Bioshock Infinite a week before finals week so that does not bode well for me. I also found some new mods for Skyrim so there's another chunk of my life gone :)

 

[Dr.Mobius]

I've spent waaay more time than I should playing Skyrim haha. That game is incredibly addicting. I had it for a while on Xbox, but got it for the PC too recently (totally worth paying for it twice!). I haven't had the chance to play around with too many mods, though, but I've spent plenty of time screwing around with the console. The streets of Whiterun are presently littered with giant vegetables and shrunken townspeople... It's great! I've discovered that you can even use console commands to alter NPC's genders (it changes their bodies, but keeps their heads the same. So now there are a bunch of women with giant Viking beards roaming around). I have too much fun doing that.

But on a more serious note, I have to ask. Is there a preferred race/class/style of playing that you sort of naturally lean towards? I think it's interesting to learn about other people's styles since there are so many ways to play.

 

[WannabeNewton]

I had it for a while on Xbox, but got it for the PC too recently (totally worth paying for it twice!).

That's what I did for Oblivion (which I played for like 4 years straight lol). But now that I know the PC is infinitely superior for RPGs I just get them for the PC Instead of 360 or XB1.

Is there a preferred race/class/style of playing that you sort of naturally lean towards?

For me it's unequivocally the assassin/stealth/ranger type(s). No matter what RPG I get my hands on I try to make a class of the above nature. For race I usually go with some form of Elvish.

 

[wukunlin]

For the past few years I have been bouncing between obsessively playing (to the point I totally forgot about sleep) and zero play cold turkey. Gradually finding a good middle ground recently though.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have Company of Heroes 2 downloaded, but I haven't had time to play yet.

 

[Drakkith]

Oh my... I don't even know where to begin on which games I play...

 

[Descent]

I can't wait 'till exams are over and I can begin playing Dark Souls II.

 

[Bandersnatch]

I played my share in my life, but the most fun I have had was with competitive play-by-email strategy games. In particular, the old Emperor of the Fading Suns and the recent Dominions series(currently at its fourth installement)

The first one is an ungodly mess of unfinished and buggy features that nonetheless oozes Dune-slash-Warhammer40k charm and lends itself to the kind of political intrigue, backstabbing and machiavellism I've never seen replicated since.

The second one is much more focused on pure strategy, with such a variety of decisions, units and tools given to the player that there's always a way to surprise or be surprised by your opponent.

Both can be played in single player, but it's as much fun as eating soup with a fork.

Give them a chance if you can find people to play with(easier with Dom4), and can afford the time commitment. Beats any other gaming experience out there, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[lendav_rott]

I zoned out and played the mass effect trilogy some time ago - interesting technology there, I might add :P All in all, I rarely do play games, simply because I don't have time for it, but during vacations it's fine. Now I play dota 2 somewhat, a game or 2 a day, depends.

 

[Borek]

I was playing for a living. Good old times.

 

[adjacent]

I don't know why, but I don't like playing games these days. :(
So sad!
I have Legacy of Kain: Defiance, but I can't play it this year. Too busy

 

[1MileCrash]

Pretty much all I play is WoW, but not regularly. I mean, periods of regularity, but not regularly regular. I raid for a few months and then don't play for a year, etc.

I also "play" skyrim in that I mod it.

 

[Nikitin]

I haven't played games in ages now (too busy with studies and sports and so on), but back in the day I liked games with good stories. Especially in science fiction and fantasy.

RPGs are fun - I think I've played pretty much everything released in the last 14 years. A little known classic I can recommend is Gothic 2. The online strategy genre is also favourite of mine. Not the base-building kind, but more the type of Hearts of Iron 3 (WW2 grand strategy game that has its faults, but is still very fun), men of war or Total War.

Indeed, I still fondly remember a multiplayer game of HoI3 where I playing as Italy faced a surprising mass-assault on Sicily from the British player early in the war (circa February 1940).

In the beginning it was a bloody affair. The RN defeated my fleet in battle, allowing the British army local superiority in terms of quantity. One relentless British assault after the other cost me more and more ground and men, and the few reinforcements I managed to smuggle through the RN blockade proved inadequate. The only thing I could do was hold the ports and bomb the island infrastructure to dust, so the British advances would be slowed and their supply situation worsened. It were dark days, with a victory for the forces of peace, human rights and democracy seemingly certain.

However, due to the UK player throwing everything on Italy, the German blitzkrieg defeated France early, and so the German player was able to help me by sending in his airforce and Fallschirmjaeger divisions. Then the tables started to turn. First the RAF was decisively defeated by the numerically superior Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe combo, then the RN blockade around Sicily started to loosen after heavy German bombing and Regia Marina raids, and finally the land war on Sicily stalemated due to the fact that the British were unable to capture the major port city of Palmero (despite viscous assaults), turning their supply situation more and more critical as time passed.

In the end, that risky early war rush cost him 80,000 men isolated and destroyed in Sicily, and later another 200,000 surrounded & captured after a disastrous push in North Africa. The Allies were never able to recover with a crippled UK, and so the Nazis won the war in late 1942.

 

[Descent]

I also love strategy games: Age of Empires, Total War Series, Civilization. It's quite fun playing multi-player and testing your skills with other players. But honestly, I don't have much time for games a any more. Usually I just play in continuous periods during long holidays.

I zoned out and played the mass effect trilogy some time ago - interesting technology there...

Mass Effect is one of my best gaming experiences, the characters were the best part.

Obligatory comment on the bad ending.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I have over 100 hours played on Civilization 5! Also loved the Mass Effect series. The Dead Space series was also good. Enjoy Dragon Age too.

 

[jbunniii]

I finally built a PC that can handle GTA4 without breaking a sweat, so I've been spending the couple of weeks trying to finally finish it. I'll probably leave some parts unfinished (doubt I'll ever find all 50 "stunt jump" sites) but at least I've nearly finished all the main storyline tasks.

 

[jbunniii]

I was playing for a living. Good old times.

Good old games? http://www.gog.com/

 

[Borek]

Good old games? http://www.gog.com/

Yes. I personally know people behind GOG. Not that we are friends or anything, and I haven't seen them in ages, but we were cooperating back in nineties when they started to sell CD games on the Polish market.

 

[HomogenousCow]

When my exam and college application stuff is over I'll go back to LoL.
Once you get hooked on that stuff it's hard to stop.

 

[jbunniii]

Yes. I personally know people behind GOG. Not that we are friends or anything, and I haven't seen them in ages, but we were cooperating back in nineties when they started to sell CD games on the Polish market.

Very cool! I don't know those guys but I've bought quite a few games from them over the years. When I first discovered them, they only had two games that were really any good (Fallout 1 and 2, which unfortunately had to be removed from the catalog recently) but now they have a very impressive selection. A bit too much focus in the last few years on "indie" games, but hey, if it keeps them in business so they can keep the classic titles available for sale (DRM free and updated to work with modern Windows), then I'm all for it.

 

[lendav_rott]

I also love strategy games: Age of Empires, Total War Series, Civilization. It's quite fun playing multi-player and testing your skills with other players. But honestly, I don't have much time for games a any more. Usually I just play in continuous periods during long holidays. Mass Effect is one of my best gaming experiences, the characters were the best part.

Obligatory comment on the bad ending.

yeah uh...I was so into it, I saw mass effect in my dreams xD No comment on the ending, I wanted to kick my computer -.- So many different choices made throughout the career of Shepard and the ending is stll almost the same, you can choose between 4 endings where 3 of them are in essence the same, only the shockwave is a different colour.

 

[collinsmark]

Yeah, 'long time gamer here.

Started out with a lot of point-and-click adventure games, back in the day (Sierra games like Quest for Glory and stuff like that). But then switched mostly to first person shooters after experiencing Wolfenstein 3D (Doom, Quake, Duke Nukum, Half-life [and of course Half-life 2 and sequels], etc. these are all dear to my heart. I can't tell you how many times I've played them over and over).

As of today (literally, just for the past 24 hours), I am enthralled with Kerbal Space Program. I haven't been taken in by a game in quite such a way in years.

I'm trying to tide myself over for a couple weeks until Wolfenstein: The New Order comes out.

 

[Dr.Mobius]

I also love strategy games: Age of Empires, Total War Series, Civilization.

Oh man, I LOVE Age of Empires! I've been playing AoE II since about the time it came out (it didn't stop me that I was in preschool/kindergarten haha). Has anybody played the remastered version they put out on Steam? I've been thinking about getting it, but I've heard mixed opinions about it.

I also had Civilization II, but slightly altered to work on the Playstation. Never was able to get as good at that one, though.

 

[Ceindrex]

MMO rpgs here now, played fps and rts before but I think now I'm just to absorbed into mmo rpgs. Will need to cold turkey it soon

 

[JorisL]

I play free to play games in general. At the moment an FPS (combat arms) which is pretty nice when you don't get kicked/encounter hackers.

 

[Yanick]

I played stuff when I was a kid. Most memorable: Command and Conquer (Allies vs Soviets), Doom, Warcraft, Final Fantasy (several in the series, but 7 was by far my favorite), Age of Empires 1-2, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six l, Civilization (the original one), and a few games on the Atari which my friend had were incredibly awesome at that time.

In the last 10 years or so, I get the itch and buy a console or game which I play for like 3 days and then forget about. The last game I played all the way through was the Zelda game on the Wii where you are in the cloud city and fly on a bird thingy. That was entertaining, except my wife hated me because I would get so into the movements with my body that I would wake her up at night, hahaha.

The only game that has kept me playing lately is called clash of clans on the iPhone. Its more of a socializing thing because I am in my brother's clan and the gameplay allows you to kind of pick it up for 5-10 min sessions here and there.

 

[Dr.Mobius]

Is anybody into really challenging, focus-oriented games? I find that I myself have a love for bullet-Hell shooters (which are vertical shooters like Space Invaders, Galaga, etc, but WAY more intense). It's a lot of fun, and it feels good when you're able to succeed in surviving long enough... It's sort of like how I feel when I succeed in doing a difficult (relative to my own ability, of course) and long Math problem on my first try with no mistakes.

Anyways, if this sounds like fun to you, you should check out Touhou Project games. It's an excellent series, and you should totally check it out if you like vertical shooters.

(There are easier difficulty levels than this one:)


And, if you're not crazy about the prospect as playing as and fighting a bunch of little Anime girls, most bullet hell shooters have spaceships and robots and stuff instead. I still just think Touhou is the best.

 

[Dr.Mobius]

Here is a screenshot if you don't feel like watching the video. All of those things are bullets you have to dodge.

 

[wukunlin]

Is anybody into really challenging, focus-oriented games? I find that I myself have a love for bullet-Hell shooters (which are vertical shooters like Space Invaders, Galaga, etc, but WAY more intense). It's a lot of fun, and it feels good when you're able to succeed in surviving long enough... It's sort of like how I feel when I succeed in doing a difficult (relative to my own ability, of course) and long Math problem on my first try with no mistakes.

Anyways, if this sounds like fun to you, you should check out Touhou Project games. It's an excellent series, and you should totally check it out if you like vertical shooters.

(There are easier difficulty levels than this one:)


And, if you're not crazy about the prospect as playing as and fighting a bunch of little Anime girls, most bullet hell shooters have spaceships and robots and stuff instead. I still just think Touhou is the best.

Not too sure about the gameplay but its background music tracks by themselves is enough reason for me to like playing them.

 

[Dr.Mobius]

Not too sure about the gameplay but its background music tracks by themselves is enough reason for me to like playing them.

Agreed. This series has some of the best music I've ever heard.

Fortunately, it's easy to come across isolated loops of the music by itself. Even if you're not interested in playing, check them out because they're awesome. Here are a few of my favorites.






(I could post a million of these... Have to stop myself at some point!)

 

[Yellowflash]

I do not play a lot, but I like Minecraft.

 

[collinsmark]

Apparently, Wolfenstein: The New Order doesn't support multiple GPUs. I've got quad SLI, but three of the four GPUs are just sitting there lonely. Oh, well. I suppose the original Wolfenstein 3D didn't support SLI either.

------------

On a different note, I've been playing a lot of Kerbal Space Program over the last couple of weeks. I love it! :!) So much so, that I've even started a new thread about it here:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=754767

 

[tridianprime]

On a different note, I've been playing a lot of Kerbal Space Program over the last couple of weeks. I love it! So much so, that I've even started a new thread about it here:

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=754767

hahaha, nice! I played a bit of Kerbal Space Program myself but now I haven't played a game for near six months (?). I enjoy them and I used to play WoW a lot but they started taking up too much of my time. I did have a few favourites though, such as the Arkham Games (bored of them now) and Counter Strike but I started to find them a bit droll after a while. Maybe I'll try again soon... after my PhD! lol (I'm not even at university yet, to clarify)

 

[Jozape]

I do not know if it counts, but lately I have been playing QuizUp using my smartphone. Taking multiple choice quizzes is surprisingly enjoyable when you are not being graded.