Addictive PC Games

[Andreas Lilja]

19 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

I had this game for like a day. It seemed like a very decent game but the game took up so much space. I had to let it go and ever since I feel like I regretted it big time.

 

What's the strong suit of GR Wildlands? What makes it addictive exactly?

Many approaches to missions, especially in the late game when you've unlocked most abilities. Also the locales are very varied, and it looks gorgeous. 

 

Story is good, collectibles are fun to collect.

 

Just play on the harder difficulty levels.

 

And... coop. Coop is always good. They even added PVP recently. 

[Spotty]

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

I watch Achievement Hunter play this sometimes and it has something about it that makes me want to play it one day. Seems all you need is someone to play it with that knows more about the game than you do. Never realized it can be addictive but it makes sense when farming is involved. What made the game addictive to you?

I just like the management aspects. Deciding where to build things, what crops to plant that will give me the best return, what animals to keep, collecting all the items required for the quests in as little time as possible. I'm pretty anal when it comes to laying out my farm in particular ways to maximise the use of the land. Typically before I even start a play through I will open up paint and map out my farm how I want it.
For me after a few play throughs it just becomes about doing things different or trying to better myself, like getting more money by end of year 1 or whatever it may be. (there's not really an end game, but eventually you reach a point where you've done everything you want to do and have so many resources and so much cash that there's nothing left for you to do)

 

It's also a really chill and laid back game to play, so great for when you want a break from games like PUBG where it's all action and shooting and shouting and stuff.

They have co-op play now, so if you get the game send me a message and I'll give you my steam details and I can jump in and help you get started with the basics and help you get set up. It's a pretty easy game to learn the mechanics of, but if you get stuck or want to maximise profits the stardew valley wiki has everything you need to know.

 

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

Building, war and nukes all in the same game? Oh I got to check Civ games out more often than just a peek. I'm guessing these types of games have a pretty steep learning curve involved, am I right?

Civ has been the go-to for turn based strategy for a while now. Start out as a group of settlers who start a city, then you upgrade your city, build units, expand, explore, get in to wars, conquer, etc. There's a huge range of ways to win the game, such as military victory (destroying everyone else), scientific victory (space race), and diplomatic victory (UN declaring you as the world leader). IMO Civilization V is the best in the series so far. I didn't particularly like Civ VI, but I didn't put that many hours in to it so maybe it's something that grows on you.

Learning curve might be a bit tough, especially on some of the harder difficulties. The way you play through you essentially start out with nothing, then gradually research and unlock more and more things as you play. So in that sense you're not bombarded with a whole heap of options at the start. There's a whole bunch of different countries to play as who each have their own unique perks and unique units.

Civ V/Civ VI is really expensive on steam though ($70), so wait for it to come on sale for <$20.

[Paul Rudd]

13 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Many approaches to missions, especially in the late game when you've unlocked most abilities. Also the locales are very varied, and it looks gorgeous. 

Excellent. Being able to approach missions in different ways is very good. I had no idea their are abilities in GRW, that's good to know.

13 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Story is good, collectibles are fun to collect.

A rare combination right there. Most collectibles are tedious and boring to collect.

13 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

Just play on the harder difficulty levels.

Why? Too easy on the lower difficulties?

13 hours ago, Raskolnikov said:

And... coop. Coop is always good. They even added PVP recently. 

Oh I can believe it. No idea they added PvP, sounds very interesting for GRW.

[Paul Rudd]

11 hours ago, Spotty said:

I just like the management aspects. Deciding where to build things, what crops to plant that will give me the best return, what animals to keep, collecting all the items required for the quests in as little time as possible. I'm pretty anal when it comes to laying out my farm in particular ways to maximise the use of the land. Typically before I even start a play through I will open up paint and map out my farm how I want it.
For me after a few play throughs it just becomes about doing things different or trying to better myself, like getting more money by end of year 1 or whatever it may be. (there's not really an end game, but eventually you reach a point where you've done everything you want to do and have so many resources and so much cash that there's nothing left for you to do)

 

It's also a really chill and laid back game to play, so great for when you want a break from games like PUBG where it's all action and shooting and shouting and stuff.

They have co-op play now, so if you get the game send me a message and I'll give you my steam details and I can jump in and help you get started with the basics and help you get set up. It's a pretty easy game to learn the mechanics of, but if you get stuck or want to maximise profits the stardew valley wiki has everything you need to know.

Sounds very similar to that of Minecraft. And we all love Minecraft.

11 hours ago, Spotty said:

Civ has been the go-to for turn based strategy for a while now.

Uh oh, didn't know it's turn based. Me and turned based games rarely get along. I try so hard to give them a chance but usually while I'm playing them I want to be able to get in on the action myself manually. 

11 hours ago, Spotty said:

Start out as a group of settlers who start a city, then you upgrade your city, build units, expand, explore, get in to wars, conquer, etc. There's a huge range of ways to win the game, such as military victory (destroying everyone else), scientific victory (space race), and diplomatic victory (UN declaring you as the world leader). IMO Civilization V is the best in the series so far. I didn't particularly like Civ VI, but I didn't put that many hours in to it so maybe it's something that grows on you.

When you put the game like this, it sounds so intriguing. I look forward to giving it a go in the near future.

11 hours ago, Spotty said:

Learning curve might be a bit tough, especially on some of the harder difficulties. The way you play through you essentially start out with nothing, then gradually research and unlock more and more things as you play. So in that sense you're not bombarded with a whole heap of options at the start. There's a whole bunch of different countries to play as who each have their own unique perks and unique units.

Well I am glad to know that the learning curve is present. Sometimes I feel like I'm just too dumb to understand how to play these types of games. Thanks for breaking it down for me, it doesn't sound so tough now.

11 hours ago, Spotty said:

Civ V/Civ VI is really expensive on steam though ($70), so wait for it to come on sale for <$20.

Obtaining games is never an issue for me. I've got dozens of deal sites bookmarked and the mother of them all in https://isthereanydeal.com/. This site tells you the historical lows of games and when and where games go on sales.

[Taja]

Witcher 3 - amazing atmosphere and story, tons of stuff to do, its just incredible.

Fallout 4 - lots of action and exploring, and I love the fallout style

Fallout NV - insane story, lots of possibilities and freedom

Divinity Original Sin 2 - very complex, but once you get into it... the combat is amazing, you have A LOT of freedom (story and mechanic wise), the story is complex and layered, the characters are well written... its mind blowing

[rei_2645]

It would be Team Fortress 2

[JZStudios]

I don't know how people spend hundreds of hours in GTA, especially in single player. I just mess around for about 30 minutes and just get bored. As to the online, maybe the PC crowd is slightly different, but I remember watching my dumbass nephew play GTA;O on the... PS3 or PS4 and he just ran around killing people in the open world. In my mind, a game infested by half retarded 12 year olds that just run around and kill you on sight isn't exactly fun to me. I guess the missions could be okay. Although, I did try to get started in GTA:O and because of all the half retarded 12 year olds it's actually incredibly hard since you just die over and over and over and lose all your money and can't get ammo for missions or anything

 

I do however have some time in Ghost Recon Wildlands and.... I hate it too.

I just can't get over the fact that it really just plays like a super janky, buggy version of Far Cry. I bought it to play with my brother. I have no idea what the story is, and something tells me it doesn't matter. Aside from being a Clancy fan and wanting that realistic tactical game I just think it's pretty stale. Your AI team mates are almost completely useless, Sam Fisher won't stop calling ever, enemies don't hear gunshots beyond 25, 50, 125, 200 meters depending on the gun, vehicles are weird as hell, planes and helicopters being the fastest way to travel are all but redundant due to SAM launchers dotted around the map that just continuously respawn, stealth mechanics that never really work right, camo doesn't have any effect whatsoever...

Even just taking it out of the mindset of Ghost Recon and Clancy I just don't think it's very fun. It's also poorly optimized. There's just some games that have certain features or gameplay elements that just make me think the game wasn't designed to be fun, and GRW has a lot of them for me.

 

As for games I do find addicting... Battlefield 4, on PS4 since I just have issues with it on PC...

Other than that, I can get sucked into a game from start to finish, or a few days at a time, but I rarely replay them to stack up to hundreds of hours.

Alan Wake

Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided (I actually could replay either of those quite happily. Great gameplay, aside from the bosses in HR)

Bastion

Mafia 2

MGSV I have 94 hours in, and the only thing I dislike (aside from lack of story) is the Skulls.

Oxenfree

Splinter Cell Blacklist was surprisingly decent, even if some of the controls were a bit clunky. Still solid enough to keep me invested in a playthrough.

[Paul Rudd]

4 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

I don't know how people spend hundreds of hours in GTA, especially in single player.

Well, the game is very deep and packed with hundreds of hours of game play, that's how. The single player has one of the best stories in a game, period. Follow it and you're immediately hooked. The missions keep things going and mix things up. You play as 3 different characters following 3 different stories, all at once. You can switch your character and follow along that characters story at any time. Another great thing about single player is mods. They are pretty much endless and crazy. I enjoy using different mod menus with hundreds of different things to experiment with like driving 10,000 x's as fast as the speed of ANY vehicle. The game somehow manages to handle physics stably. When you know what you're doing, crashing the game is very minimal. Just read up on the mods you decide to use.

13 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

As to the online, maybe the PC crowd is slightly different, but I remember watching my dumbass nephew play GTA;O on the... PS3 or PS4 and he just ran around killing people in the open world. In my mind, a game infested by half retarded 12 year olds that just run around and kill you on sight isn't exactly fun to me. I guess the missions could be okay. Although, I did try to get started in GTA:O and because of all the half retarded 12 year olds it's actually incredibly hard since you just die over and over and over and lose all your money and can't get ammo for missions or anything

Some people enjoy running around killing people because it's live. You can cause people grief and/or cause yourself grief. I don't mess around with going around killing people much at all because it's just not my thing. The missions and game modes is where GTA online shines. It's where you make all your money and how you rank up fast. When you first start out and you are broke and low ranked, everything is much slower and not as fun. Once you rank up to up over 100, that's where things become much more natural and easier to make money and kill people. For one, it takes MUCH longer to die the higher you're ranked up. And you have much more weapons to use. I spend the most time in online missions of any kind. I like to master them. Playing them coop with friends or even complete strangers always makes things a different experience every time. Because each player has a different approach to the game, how they play it and how they handle themselves and enemies. 

 

One more thing about GTA 5 online is the CREATOR. It opens a whole new door to an endless amount of custom ANYTHING. You can download things people have already made that you've never even knew existed and you can create things people have never even done before. The sky is the limit on what you can do in GTA 5, literally.

[Paul Rudd]

27 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

As for games I do find addicting... Battlefield 4, on PS4 since I just have issues with it on PC...

Other than that, I can get sucked into a game from start to finish, or a few days at a time, but I rarely replay them to stack up to hundreds of hours.

Alan Wake

Deus Ex Human Revolution and Mankind Divided (I actually could replay either of those quite happily. Great gameplay, aside from the bosses in HR)

Bastion

Mafia 2

MGSV I have 94 hours in, and the only thing I dislike (aside from lack of story) is the Skulls.

Oxenfree

Splinter Cell Blacklist was surprisingly decent, even if some of the controls were a bit clunky. Still solid enough to keep me invested in a playthrough.

That's a solid list of games. B4 I was addicted to for quite a few months. I love the gun sounds and hit detection in that game. For some reason I've played the story a good 3 times all the way through. Once on Xbox 360, once on Xbox One and once on PC. I've been trying to obtain Splinter Cell Blacklist for the longest time after watching the Achievement Hunter crew play it a lot.

 

Oh, one more thing. What got you hooked to those two Deus Ex games? I have both but something keeps me from continuing either one. Which I know is a shame. The bright side of this is both of those games are insanely fresh to me. I have yet to invest much time in either of them and watched very minimal game play. Just need a reason to get into em'.

[tatte]

I had a really good run with Guild Wars 2 earlier this year, kept hitting 12+ hours a day for a couple of weeks, and more sustainable daily hours after that. It was great until life interrupted the good times for a few months. I have had similar periods with Star Trek Online over the eight or so years, but I think those were fuelled more by my love for Star Trek, and less by independent merits of the game - it's all the same in the end: fill this and wait a day. Guild Wars 2 has a world where something is always happening, loot is meaningful and even sightseeing is practically a weeks long undertaking. 

 

Minecraft has probably stolen the largest amount of hours from my life, and I don't really regret that either. Friends and/or mods kept spicing it up, and it has been the perfect companion for TV-show binge-streaks. Fallout 3 probably takes the fourth place, also logging in hundreds of hours. From hereon it's most likely a steady list of various strategy games I used to play years ago.

[Paul Rudd]

14 minutes ago, tatte said:

I had a really good run with Guild Wars 2 earlier this year, kept hitting 12+ hours a day for a couple of weeks, and more sustainable daily hours after that.

Wowsers that's a lot of hours a day for one game. In those 12+ hours, what are you actually doing the majority of the time? I gotta know because Skylent has been pretty influencing to play GW2 on his channel for quite sometime now.

17 minutes ago, tatte said:

I have had similar periods with Star Trek Online over the eight or so years, but I think those were fuelled more by my love for Star Trek

For some reason, 2018 just so happens to be the year I fell into some type of love with Star Trek. Particularly The Next Generation. Never watched any of the others. When I grew up I rarely paid much attention to Star Trek at all. When I finally decided to watch it this year, something drew me into it. Which is very weird considering how boring it seemed to be watching the first two episodes. Not sure if boring is the right word because it has my full attention. Slow might be a better word. The more I watch it, the more interesting it becomes and the more I feel like a nerd. As for Star Trek Online, I have yet to play the game because it looks like I may not like it. However, seeing that you said your love for Star Trek may be what fueled the hours you put into the game, that alone makes me want to give Star Trek Online a try. I know it's free on Xbox One but I think I'm gonna install it to my PC to get more fps and play it at a higher resolution(unless it just so happens to be in 4k on Xbox, haven't checked yet). 

26 minutes ago, tatte said:

Minecraft has probably stolen the largest amount of hours from my life, and I don't really regret that either.

Ah Minecraft. Ya' gotta love it. It's definitely one of the most unexpected addicting games anyone could ever play. I took a pretty long break from it, maybe a complete year or so but I just so happen to have picked it back up again exactly 11 days or so ago. I know the amount of days because I basically bought the Windows 10 version for a dollar since I never used that version. It's a very good version of the game and about the only thing that sucks about this version is you can't use the best shaders. I just use texture packs, they're pretty solid. It took me just a few days to get 87 of the 91 achievements in the game using achievement worlds. The other 4 achievements are the ones that take the longest and that diamond one since I need someone to throw a diamond at. 

33 minutes ago, tatte said:

Fallout 3 probably takes the fourth place, also logging in hundreds of hours.

That game really sucks you in the moment you decide to basically give it an hour. That 1 hour turns to 2. Those two hours turn to 4. The next thing you know, you're hooked. The loot system is what got me. Everything about it is top notch.

[JZStudios]

Oh, I've played the campaign for GTAV. Unsurprisingly Michael was the only character I didn't hate. I guess the black guy (Forget his name) was okay since he was trying to get out of the hood, but Lamarr can fuck right off. I just didn't find any of it very captivating or particularly immersive. Just playing as characters I don't like doing things I don't care about accompanied by Lamarr constantly saying "Bitch nigga mutthafucka." There's also the fact that Rockstar can't seem to do anything without it being some kind of dick joke and... I don't know. For a "mature" game it's all very immature and I just kind of hate all of it. Actually a really big pet peeve of mine in games is Radio DJ's, and GTA's are ATROCIOUS. Not only does the soundtrack only house like 4 songs I'd actually listen to, it's constantly interrupted by annoying as hell radio DJ's and fake commercials advertising "Smelling like a bitch." or something

 

It all just gets old REALLY quick to me. Oddly enough, I actually REALLY liked Mafia 2. Had better characters, the story wasn't overdone, the setting and atmosphere was incredible, just kind of everything GTA isn't really. I mean, I played through GTA4 and it's DLC as well, which I liked more, but overall the GTA series just doesn't do it for me I guess.

I like mods to enhance my game, not be my game. I did see some mods for replacing all the stupid posters and billboards around the map, and replacing all the cars with real car models. That'd be worth doing for me. If only I could control Spotify or something through the radio instead of listening to all the radio DJ dick jokes. I really outgrew them when I turned 12.

As to online, I remember playing GTA4 online on PS3 and it was chill as hell. Everyone just got together and goofed off, all got in a swat van, tried to escape a 6 star wanted level. Never had that happen in 5. Did meet a guy who bought me a car and a house or something though, which was cool. I also remember in 4 if a dude just started griefing and no one else was having it, they'd all turn on him or frankly just kick him. If there was 3 or 4 dudes battling it out, everyone else just let them be and they didn't bother anyone else. In 5 I just drive along the road, some 12 year old lights me up with an AK, I respawn 50 feet away and rinse repeat. I literally can't get away because I just get killed as soon as I spawn.

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

That's a solid list of games. B4 I was addicted to for quite a few months. I love the gun sounds and hit detection in that game. For some reason I've played the story a good 3 times all the way through. Once on Xbox 360, once on Xbox One and once on PC. I've been trying to obtain Splinter Cell Blacklist for the longest time after watching the Achievement Hunter crew play it a lot.

 

Oh, one more thing. What got you hooked to those two Deus Ex games? I have both but something keeps me from continuing either one. Which I know is a shame. The bright side of this is both of those games are insanely fresh to me. I have yet to invest much time in either of them and watched very minimal game play. Just need a reason to get into em'.

My friend and I have thousands of hours in BF4. It's nuts. I had some issues with the PC version, then lost my EA account email and decided not to buy it again. I recently tried the 7 day trial and not a single server would load at any time and thus I haven't bought it again.

Splinter Cell is a Ubi title, and at the very least is available on uPlay. My biggest issue with it is some weird cover controls that were clunky for a reason I can't remember, but it was really only an issue in the combat challenges, which I'm pretty sure are just bullshit and near impossible to do solo. But they're optional so no big loss. I wouldn't really call it much of a challenge though. I just about sprinted my way through the campaign in pure ghost mode, with some silent kills just to mix things up. I'd say wait for sale though.

I also forgot that Conviction was on PC, not sure how well it works, but man I remember replaying the hell outta that game on 360. Blacklist is just a little bit of an... advancement? It's got a couple new features, but I still like the interrogations of Conviction, and the sort of speedy stealth appraoch. Never really liked the black and white filter in darkness though.

 

 

Deus Ex just scratched an itch. It is an action RPG. I've always liked stealth games, and games that let you take the approach you want. The story can be a bit convoluted, and to be honest I don't remember much of it. But the weird sort of completionist I am, it was fun to read all the emails about inter office politics, and there's people from all over the world talking to each other and if you pay attention you can really follow who's who and who knows who. There's a pretty insane amount of world building detail in it, which I just oddly appreciate the hell out of.

It rewards exploration. There's always some ammo, weapon attachment, upgrade point, alternate route, etc if you look around enough It really ties into giving you freedom to play just about however you want. Want to sneaky sneak and not be noticed at all? You can do that. Want to not do any upgrades? You can do that too. Want to silently take down everybody? Close range or distance? Hand to hand? Lethal or non-lethal? Full combat using your ridiculously overpowered augments? Want to become a literal mine explosion? Want to look for an alternate route to bypass, or get a better vantage? Hack the security systems?

It's also first person, which is more immersive to me, and the gunplay is pretty damn solid, unlike the original Deus Ex... It's just something I could really kind of play however I want, and I think a lot of other people could play it the way they want. I love going through and silently taking out everybody, but my brother might like to just go in guns blazing up close with a shotgun. It's just real open ended and fairly well balanced (until you overpower yourself with augments, which is... kind of the point...) to let me play as I see fit.

 

The issue with "open world" games like Far Cry and Ghost Recon Wildlands is that yes, you can technically take any direction to the camp, but the camp layout isn't meticulously planned and it plays out in... 1 of about 3 ways.

1. You circle the camp and try to quietly take out all the enemies and sort of spiral in
2. You just make your way through the camp in a linear fashion. The difference direction makes is if there's a fence you can't get over or something.
3. Things usually go wrong since combat usually isn't your first option. At this point it really doesn't matter what your direction is.

In the case of GRW, the Unidad faction of purple guys literally /will not/ stop spawning if you enter combat, and it's just one of those "features" that really only ruins the game for me.

Let's also keep in mid that these open world camps have basically no level design. So while it is more "open" than Deus Ex, the smaller open world hubs in DE are WAY more detailed and interesting, and the level design in missions is far superior. Another fun thing I like about DE is that it's actually fairly permanent in the world. I remember just getting distracted and not playing for a few months, and when I came back I was in an open hub world and did some little side quests. Eventually the main mission led me to a club and I thought to myself "Have I been here before?" and when I walked in there was corpses littered everywhere. "Yep, I've been here before."

It's just cool to have that kind of actual permanence and presence in the world. Most games would just despawn the bodies or enemies, or respawn them, but DE remembers. It's just a super detailed game.

It's almost like if Metal Gear was set in a city environment and you didn't fight giant robots.

 

And holy crap I went on a long time.

[JZStudios]

If you're into shooters I might recommend FEAR, which is on sale on GOG right now. fairly satisfying gun fights that are always unpredictable and loads of destruction/interactivity with the world and bullets. The spooks are also more on the psychological side instead of jump scares. Characters will appear in front of you/walk in front of your path, but not with a scream or anything and it rarely ever makes you jump. They're kind of just there, then fizzle out... which might make it sound uninteresting... I don't know.

[tatte]

26 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Wowsers that's a lot of hours a day for one game. In those 12+ hours, what are you actually doing the majority of the time? I gotta know because Skylent has been pretty influencing to play GW2 on his channel for quite sometime now.

At first it was largely just levelling up and getting through the story, then the expansions, gathering hero and mastery points etc. I really fell in love with Battle in Tarir, overall jungle maps are my favourite and doing anything in any of them filled me with joy. I also have a bunch of friends to play with, who introduced and explained a great deal of the game to me, which definitely helped a lot since the game doesn't really bother to do that. Touring world bosses also held a significant role in burning all those hours, but that died down a great deal towards the end of the run. I still have both Living World 2 and 3 (and 4) to complete, both Griffon and new Beetle mounts to acquire, tons of masteries to finish and I haven't even looked at Fractals yet. The world has so much going on all the time, half the time you just happen to be somewhere and things start to happen and you just get caught in it.

41 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

For some reason, 2018 just so happens to be the year I fell into some type of love with Star Trek. Particularly The Next Generation. Never watched any of the others. When I grew up I rarely paid much attention to Star Trek at all. When I finally decided to watch it this year, something drew me into it. Which is very weird considering how boring it seemed to be watching the first two episodes. Not sure if boring is the right word because it has my full attention. Slow might be a better word. The more I watch it, the more interesting it becomes and the more I feel like a nerd. As for Star Trek Online, I have yet to play the game because it looks like I may not like it. However, seeing that you said your love for Star Trek may be what fueled the hours you put into the game, that alone makes me want to give Star Trek Online a try. I know it's free on Xbox One but I think I'm gonna install it to my PC to get more fps and play it at a higher resolution(unless it just so happens to be in 4k on Xbox, haven't checked yet). 

Definitely give it a go! PC is better for space combat, console for ground combat. It's not in 4K on Xbox, but if it looks particularly good on any platform is something people keep arguing over. Overall PC version is absolutely better, both graphically and game mechanically. Bigger playerbase doesn't hurt either. It starts slow, flying small ships with barely any weapons isn't the most amazing thing to do unless you're satisfied just to be flying something you recognise from the shows. It does get more complex towards the "end game", with endless cool stuff to acquire, but it honestly boils down to endless daily grinding for goals that are days, weeks, sometimes even months away. 

I wish I had the chance to watch the shows again for the first time, those were the best of times. Aside from starting with late night episodes of TOS from TV, I'm not exactly sure the order I watched the rest anymore. Regrettably I haven't finished Discovery yet, I don't like how much they ended up changing everything, it seems like a perfectly good TV-show, but it's a bit far from what I'd call Star Trek.

51 minutes ago, A Random Dude said:

Ah Minecraft. Ya' gotta love it. It's definitely one of the most unexpected addicting games anyone could ever play. I took a pretty long break from it, maybe a complete year or so but I just so happen to have picked it back up again exactly 11 days or so ago. I know the amount of days because I basically bought the Windows 10 version for a dollar since I never used that version. It's a very good version of the game and about the only thing that sucks about this version is you can't use the best shaders. I just use texture packs, they're pretty solid. It took me just a few days to get 87 of the 91 achievements in the game using achievement worlds. The other 4 achievements are the ones that take the longest and that diamond one since I need someone to throw a diamond at. 

I'm a big fan of the Windows 10 version, it still has its limitations, but being able to share a world between so many platforms (all the way to VR, which is definitely one the best features of the version overall) does a good job at making up for them. You're certainly a lot more productive with the achievements than I am, but across what feels like endless stream of versions, my gamerscore is pretty bloated thanks to just one game.

1 hour ago, A Random Dude said:

That game really sucks you in the moment you decide to basically give it an hour. That 1 hour turns to 2. Those two hours turn to 4. The next thing you know, you're hooked. The loot system is what got me. Everything about it is top notch.

I love the world, it nails the atmosphere and always seems to hold something you missed the last time. I keep struggling to get into New Vegas because it just feels like a lot less interesting environment from the start. I'm sure the story is fantastic, but the world just doesn't click with me. I have same issue with GTA 3 and Vice City, GTA 3 has a dark and dirty world, while Vice City has sunny beaches and girls in bikinis (a perfectly appealing setting in itself, but not what I look for in a GTA). Thanks to V.A.T.S. Fallout 3 worked really well on console too, which didn't help the matter.

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Oh, I've played the campaign for GTAV. Unsurprisingly Michael was the only character I didn't hate. I guess the black guy (Forget his name) was okay since he was trying to get out of the hood, but Lamarr can fuck right off. I just didn't find any of it very captivating or particularly immersive. Just playing as characters I don't like doing things I don't care about accompanied by Lamarr constantly saying "Bitch nigga mutthafucka." There's also the fact that Rockstar can't seem to do anything without it being some kind of dick joke and... I don't know. For a "mature" game it's all very immature and I just kind of hate all of it. Actually a really big pet peeve of mine in games is Radio DJ's, and GTA's are ATROCIOUS. Not only does the soundtrack only house like 4 songs I'd actually listen to, it's constantly interrupted by annoying as hell radio DJ's and fake commercials advertising "Smelling like a bitch." or something

Lamar saying those things constantly is like it is in real life though. I give credit to that. As for dick jokes and radio DJ's and the soundtrack, just import your own music then. Easy as pie to do on PC. Just drag and drop into a specific folder and chose the station self radio on the radio wheel. I actually didn't like the GTA 5 soundtrack at first either but when you hear a lot of the songs hundreds of times, they completely grow on you. I found myself liking a lot of the songs that were off the wall like Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time or Radio GaGa or Psychic City. Ended up watching that band perform Psychic City live and wow, some really weird stuff that's pretty cool for some reason.

At first glance, this might seem weird but I found it to be genius and a work of art.

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

It all just gets old REALLY quick to me.

This happened to me too at around 100 hours or so. Then I went online and got another 100 hours out of it. Then started using the creator and got another 100 hours. Then used mods and got a good 50 hours. Now I'm back to online and getting 100's more hours towards the DLC, the new game modes and the additions to the creator.

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Oddly enough, I actually REALLY liked Mafia 2. Had better characters, the story wasn't overdone, the setting and atmosphere was incredible, just kind of everything GTA isn't really. I mean, I played through GTA4 and it's DLC as well, which I liked more, but overall the GTA series just doesn't do it for me I guess.

I like mods to enhance my game, not be my game. I did see some mods for replacing all the stupid posters and billboards around the map, and replacing all the cars with real car models. That'd be worth doing for me. If only I could control Spotify or something through the radio instead of listening to all the radio DJ dick jokes. I really outgrew them when I turned 12.

As to online, I remember playing GTA4 online on PS3 and it was chill as hell. Everyone just got together and goofed off, all got in a swat van, tried to escape a 6 star wanted level. Never had that happen in 5. Did meet a guy who bought me a car and a house or something though, which was cool. I also remember in 4 if a dude just started griefing and no one else was having it, they'd all turn on him or frankly just kick him. If there was 3 or 4 dudes battling it out, everyone else just let them be and they didn't bother anyone else. In 5 I just drive along the road, some 12 year old lights me up with an AK, I respawn 50 feet away and rinse repeat. I literally can't get away because I just get killed as soon as I spawn.

I've put in maybe 10 hours into Mafia 2. It's a decent game and all, just couldn't get into it much. As I said with self radio, that gets rid of the radio DJ's. In GTA 5, I don't know of many people online that do NOT get together and goof off. That's what a lot of people do, get into a van or in hundreds of different vehicles and try to escape the cops and swat team. If you're being killed constantly like that by 12 year olds, it's only because they've put in the hours to learn to do that and you haven't. If you don't want to be killed, simply go into passive mode. Problem solved. Make sure when you do DLC missions to make the big bucks to always do them in very small populated lobbies so other people don't mess with ya'.

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

My friend and I have thousands of hours in BF4. It's nuts. I had some issues with the PC version, then lost my EA account email and decided not to buy it again. I recently tried the 7 day trial and not a single server would load at any time and thus I haven't bought it again.

Splinter Cell is a Ubi title, and at the very least is available on uPlay. My biggest issue with it is some weird cover controls that were clunky for a reason I can't remember, but it was really only an issue in the combat challenges, which I'm pretty sure are just bullshit and near impossible to do solo. But they're optional so no big loss. I wouldn't really call it much of a challenge though. I just about sprinted my way through the campaign in pure ghost mode, with some silent kills just to mix things up. I'd say wait for sale though.

I also forgot that Conviction was on PC, not sure how well it works, but man I remember replaying the hell outta that game on 360. Blacklist is just a little bit of an... advancement? It's got a couple new features, but I still like the interrogations of Conviction, and the sort of speedy stealth appraoch. Never really liked the black and white filter in darkness though.

Speeding through stealth mode in ANY Splinter Cell game is fun as hell. I'm glad I've yet to put in tons of hours into any games in the series. Eventually I'm gonna get them on PC and invest hundreds of hours into em'. I like the sound of how you put it, the sort of speedy stealth approach. There's a few missions devoted to that in GTA 5. A couple of the heist missions where all 4 people HAVE to be good at it otherwise the mission fails immediately. You may have played it before. It's funny to watch people fail or master it because they get extremely frustrated. 

 

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

It rewards exploration.

This might make me play Mankind Divided as soon as possible. It's been on my PC for a while. Thanks for the rest of all that information in your comment. Lots of stuff I had no idea about that is very informative.

[Paul Rudd]

8 hours ago, JZStudios said:

If you're into shooters I might recommend FEAR, which is on sale on GOG right now. fairly satisfying gun fights that are always unpredictable and loads of destruction/interactivity with the world and bullets. The spooks are also more on the psychological side instead of jump scares. Characters will appear in front of you/walk in front of your path, but not with a scream or anything and it rarely ever makes you jump. They're kind of just there, then fizzle out... which might make it sound uninteresting... I don't know.

All 3 F.E.A.R.S and a lot of their DLC are on sale as a $5.00 bundle on Bundle Stars a good 300 days a year. Of course not right now but it will show back up in no time. It stays on that sale. Same with Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition. Which is still on right now as usual. https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle

 

I like F.E.A.R. 2 the most. The multiplayer is actually still up and running on pretty much any platform. Getting all the achievements is quite the chore though.

[JZStudios]

3 hours ago, A Random Dude said:

Lamar saying those things constantly is like it is in real life though. I give credit to that. As for dick jokes and radio DJ's and the soundtrack, just import your own music then. Easy as pie to do on PC. Just drag and drop into a specific folder and chose the station self radio on the radio wheel. I actually didn't like the GTA 5 soundtrack at first either but when you hear a lot of the songs hundreds of times, they completely grow on you. I found myself liking a lot of the songs that were off the wall like Eddie Murphy's Party All the Time or Radio GaGa or Psychic City. Ended up watching that band perform Psychic City live and wow, some really weird stuff that's pretty cool for some reason.

At first glance, this might seem weird but I found it to be genius and a work of art.

This happened to me too at around 100 hours or so. Then I went online and got another 100 hours out of it. Then started using the creator and got another 100 hours. Then used mods and got a good 50 hours. Now I'm back to online and getting 100's more hours towards the DLC, the new game modes and the additions to the creator.

I've put in maybe 10 hours into Mafia 2. It's a decent game and all, just couldn't get into it much. As I said with self radio, that gets rid of the radio DJ's. In GTA 5, I don't know of many people online that do NOT get together and goof off. That's what a lot of people do, get into a van or in hundreds of different vehicles and try to escape the cops and swat team. If you're being killed constantly like that by 12 year olds, it's only because they've put in the hours to learn to do that and you haven't. If you don't want to be killed, simply go into passive mode. Problem solved. Make sure when you do DLC missions to make the big bucks to always do them in very small populated lobbies so other people don't mess with ya'.

I have seen _____ people in real life.  realistic or not it's something that's just always gotten on my nerves. Notice how Franklin (Actually had to Google that) doesn't talk that way outside of being with Lamarr? Because he's trying to get away from the hood life while Lamarr seems to relish in it and that's just something I've always hated. Just personal things.

I have a bunch of different playlists I listen to depending on what I'm doing/feeling, so being limited to one is a bit shallow. But, eh.

So I'm a bit into music and that video is... terrible.  There's a (small) big thing going around about pop music, and most of it's actually written by 1 guy, for like 17 bands. So it all sounds the same, and like you just said, you really don't like it at first, but the radio just keeps playing the hell out of it. Eventually it just worms its way in until you "start" to "like" it.

There's a big difference between hearing a song for the first time and instantly going "Holy crap, this song is amazing!" and having to listen to it 100 times for it to be acceptable. A woman with a deep voice saying "Ho, hoo ha" doesn't cut it for musical talent.

Here's a band from Japan that thinks it was a good idea to start a band with just a piano and drums.

Although to be fair, when the dude started out he did play drums and piano. At the same time.

 

I know about passive mode, but it's just... ehh. I don't know. I don't like having to change the game just to avoid 12 year olds. But like I said, maybe it's different on PC. PS4 was full of them and it was just annoying.

 

 

Splinter Cell Blacklist I did have fun with and it's supposed to allow you to go in for combat as well, but it doesn't quite work as well. I guess they're all pretty short games so maybe it's not much of a critique there. I do know that I ran through it once and it's uninstalled, but I probably just moved on to the next game. Even still I feel like Deus Ex scratches that itch just a little better, except it's first person.

 

On to DE, the story in Mankind Divided isn't as good as Human Revolution, and maybe that's why it seemed to get such mediocre reception... It's on sale for like $5 pretty regularly, which I think is kind of a shame. The gameplay adds a few new elements and refines a little bit upon HR, which was already a pretty darn smooth title.

Fun Fact, Matt from Two Best Friends Play was a QA tester on HR for like 2 years because they really wanted to iron everything out and get the game as smooth as possible. He did do a bit of talking about bugs that are still in and some behind the scenes stories, like how everyone would walk around the office shouting "Jensen!"

[Paul Rudd]

6 hours ago, JZStudios said:

A woman with a deep voice saying "Ho, hoo ha" doesn't cut it for musical talent.

6 million views in less than a year can't be wrong...

 

[JZStudios]

3 hours ago, A Random Dude said:

6 million views in less than a year can't be wrong...

 

Let's keep in mind Lil Wayne. And Nick Jonas.

 

Both are very popular, make tons of "music" have thousands if not millions of fans, top the charts, and...

 

Holy crap I'm getting some serious Deja Vu here, like I've had this exact conversation before.

Just because something is popular doesn't make it good, like Marvel movies or feminism.

 

As an edit, there's also "common knowledge" which is based on outdated or just flat out incorrect data or misquotation. So... 6 million people sure as hell can be wrong.

[Paul Rudd]

38 minutes ago, JZStudios said:

Just because something is popular doesn't make it good

Didn't watch either of those videos but I can agree with you there. However, that Yacht song Psychic City will forever be "good" to me. I have it on my go to Spotify playlist for that very reason. It's completely different than Miley Cyrus. Even a song such as this one is AMAZING to me...

 

[Froody129]

"Just one more turn"

[JZStudios]

20 hours ago, A Random Dude said:

Didn't watch either of those videos but I can agree with you there. However, that Yacht song Psychic City will forever be "good" to me. I have it on my go to Spotify playlist for that very reason. It's completely different than Miley Cyrus. Even a song such as this one is AMAZING to me...

 

Christ.... It's amazing alright.

The second video I linked probably isn't what you'd think. It's just a guy discussing the current state of pop music, and that science has proven that it's literally worse now than it ever was in the past.