Leaderboard

fixed

Check out my new 100% original character, Freddy Fredderson!

This is not old games vs new games, really. And "simplified design" is a weird phrase to use in referring to newer games. Older games were more simplified. Take a look at something like Contra. Jump, duck, and shoot were basically your options. Very simple game. Also balls hard, but yeah. Newer games have a tendency to be easier, sure, but part of that may be BECAUSE of a less simplified design. The more options you have, the more options have a tendency to be helpful in a certain situation. Go back to Contra. Leave most of the enemies the same and such. Now add the third dimension. Instead of only being able to go forward/backward/duck/jump to dodge bullets, you also can go left/right. The game is now a LOT easier because of that fact. It's why bullet hell games are almost exclusively 2D as well (top down perspective). Bullet hell-esque sections in otherwise 3D games tend to be comparatively easy, and not just because they're not intended to be super hard, but also because a level that is super hard in a real bullet hell plopped into a 3D world is going to be very easy. Now look at all the OTHER options that new games have. Eagle Vision being one. Some of the AC games (mostly AC2 and Brotherhood) can actually be VERY difficult if you refrain from using Eagle Vision. Likewise the Focus mechanics from Hitman: Absolution that purists were complaining about. There's a game mode that removes Focus for everything but using disguises. It is insanely difficult. Basically, options are power. More power equals being able to overcome harder challenges more easily. Now, is this always the case? No. Games have also gotten easier so as to be more accessible to the casual gamer. Growing the market is important, and making games (or at least game modes, Easy and such) less difficult and more importantly less TIME CONSUMING to play through is a good way to do that.

I look every time I play, and am yet to see it :/     I think I caught a glimpse of someone in the warp gate, but he DC'd as soon as I got close.          Its maddening.     I've also decided to personally thank the first person I see wearing it.

I found some footage of Thief's difficulty customisation and I must say, it's making me much more confident in the game. There's a lot of modifiers, from the relatively mundane like "No Reticle" and "Stealth Takedowns Only" to the masochistic variables like "No Saving" or "Iron Man". It'll be interesting to see the playthroughs online (as there always is) with most (or possibly all) of the modifiers on. Dishonored only really started to push me on Master difficulty, so Thief will be a fun challenge. EDIT: And TB's look at the game was very promising as a PC port. I was worried it would be a bad console port as well. I may actually be hyped now. DOUBLE EDIT: And now the game is released... iiiiiiiiiin the United States. I still have no idea why region-based release dates are a thing, especially on PC, where the packaging and shipping excuses aren't valid. Please no spoilers till Saturday or so (or never, preferably.)

Someone say Freddie?

Now this is my kind of Fred, I mean thread. :freddiespin: :freddiespin: :freddiespin: :freddiespin:

[spoiler2]Nikola stumbled into his bedroom, making sure he didn't awake the small figure in the bed in the center of the room. He fumbled around the room, eventually finding his nightstand. He took off his glasses and placed them down, and slipped into his bed. He laid in bed for some time, his mind weighed down by worries. He had debt to his landowner, was studying in a difficult class taught by an even more difficult teacher, and he hasn't spoken to any of his family except for his cousin in a little over a year. He sighed, turning in his sleep. He found himself staring at the peacefully sleeping face of Anna, his girlfriend. Her light skin was framed by her brown-orange hair, and the bedsheets were pulled all the way up to her chin, essentially wrapping her up in the bedsheets. She seems so peaceful when she is sleeping, thought Nikola. Even if she's always moving when she's awake, she has to stop eventually. He couldn't help but smile as he saw her chest move up and down, her light breathing lulling him into a sleep as well. He sighed and gently brought his arms around Anna. Things may not be perfect, but maybe if I have her... things will work out. he thought, and soon he joined Anna in a deep, happy sleep. Nikola awoke with a start as he heard the sound of shattering glass. He groaned and reached for his glasses, but he couldn't find them. He sat up in bed, looking down on the ground. He groped around at the ground on the side of his bed, and his fingers met sharp glass shards. "My glasses..." Nikola groaned, and fell back into his pillow. Well, whatever. he thought. He turned over in bed and wrapped his arms around the lump in his bed next to him. There was nobody there. He moved the covers, and found a second pillow. "Where's-" Nikola's voice stopped in his throat as realization dawned on him. He was single. He never even knew an Anna. Nikola pulled the covers over his head and closed his eyes tight, attempting to hold back tears as the feeling of loneliness that so pervaded his life returned to him as strong as ever.[/spoiler2] Hey, I tried.

Quick rundown on how this is simply terrible: 1. Generation "Y" is not even a thing, and if it were, it would have more than two entries. 2. Dogs do not equal personality. If they do, you can find a hell of a lot of desktop backgrounds that fulfill that quota. 3. Oregon Trail was originally released in 1971. 4. Troll dolls still exist, and should not be the subject of a lulzy "we get internet culture!" joke. 5. Even in the nineties, anyone I knew who said they were "pumpin' jams" was taken into a street and beaten to death with pool cues. 6. Pogz? Really? You couldn't get the rights to Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh cards, could you, Microsoft? 7. Assuming that they also "grew up" as a child of the nineties, this means that the people behind the latest Internet Explorer are barely in the twenties in the best case, and not even old enough to drive a car in the worst. And, of course: 8. THIS HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH INTERNET EXPLORER. You could have put an advert for fucking shampoo at the end and it would have stayed just as effective at selling the product. Go on, name five things you know about the new Internet Explorer now. Oh yeah, nothing, except that it was possibly made by someone who wouldn't be allowed into a pub. A terrible advert.

This is more or less how the chess games went in my head