Video Game discussion

[Libertad]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INPKd4JGtsk if you want more info on Dishonored.

Don't forget this video!

[konnerthefirst]

Been playing Dishonoured Love it, I am on my third playthrough, trying out different combos and play styles.
Love the art style and the settings

[oslecamo]

So, with the Wii U's launch aproaching and I trying to keep tabs of all the related info, I notice a disturbing high amount of "casual games vs hardcore games" discussions.

Now I would think that more challenging games would qualify as hardcore, while more easy games would qualify as casual.

Yet it seems like mindless button-mashers like the God of War series and regenerating health+insta-kill knives shooters count as hardcore, while nintendo-hard plataform titles count as casual and... Lolwhut? So the graphics count more? Then wouldn't the PC be the real hardcore medium since it's got the bestest graphics at all?

Anyone care to explain the whole "casual vs hardcore" in the gaming industry to me? Plenty of people seem to take it bloody seriously, so I'm quite curious.

[Kethrian]

Now, this is only my view of the terms hardcore and casual...

It's only Nintendo-hard if you have to sink 10x the amount of time it takes to play through the game the first time, due to the difficulty.  If platform games are that hard, they're hardcore.  Maximo: Ghosts to Glory would be a good example of that.

If the game requires over 30 hours to beat in a standard run (including side-quests), it's generally considered hardcore, too.  Extreme example: the Disgaea games.

If the game has levels that can be beaten in 15 minutes or less on average, even if it has 100+ levels, it's probably a casual game, because you can pick it up, play it for a bit, and put it away, as a little fun distraction between your important stuff, instead of having to set aside a more significant amount of time to play.

Interestingly, this means that many FPSes out there could qualify, by my definitions, as casual games.  Especially the multiplayer stuff.  And those are considered by most to be hardcore games.

[Tshern]

Might be a bit late for the Borderlands 2 discussion, but I live in the UK and I am up for a game every now and again. Tshern's the handle on Steam, if anyone's interested. Trying to kill my way towards a legendary Siren mod, but no luck so far despite the fact that I've killed Vermivorous like three dozen times.

[littha]

If anyone wants to add me on steam my tag is unsuprisingly: Littha

[Tshern]

If anyone wants to add me on steam my tag is unsuprisingly: Littha

Got two options with the same spelling. You've got a nice, colourful avatar, right?

[littha]

My avatar is a pile of catgirls falling from the sky... regardless the tag is "Littha" not "LittHa" and I am not in japan.

[Tshern]

My avatar is a pile of catgirls falling from the sky... regardless the tag is "Littha" not "LittHa" and I am not in japan.

Figured it was that one. There was another with the exact same spelling, but no avatar at all. Saw the 'LittHa' one too though.

[Kuroimaken]

Now, this is only my view of the terms hardcore and casual...

It's only Nintendo-hard if you have to sink 10x the amount of time it takes to play through the game the first time, due to the difficulty.  If platform games are that hard, they're hardcore.  Maximo: Ghosts to Glory would be a good example of that.

If the game requires over 30 hours to beat in a standard run (including side-quests), it's generally considered hardcore, too.  Extreme example: the Disgaea games.

If the game has levels that can be beaten in 15 minutes or less on average, even if it has 100+ levels, it's probably a casual game, because you can pick it up, play it for a bit, and put it away, as a little fun distraction between your important stuff, instead of having to set aside a more significant amount of time to play.

Interestingly, this means that many FPSes out there could qualify, by my definitions, as casual games.  Especially the multiplayer stuff.  And those are considered by most to be hardcore games.

No Disgaea player worth his salt will be content with merely playing through the main storyline. That'll eat up a hundred hours easy.

Most FPS games are considered hardcore because they require study to be played skillfully (i.e. things like which weapons end up giving you the best ratio of damage per shot, etc.), but they're generally played by either casual gamers or, on the extreme opposite, no-life gamers. There are exceptions, such as Bethesda's Dishonored, but by and large that's how it tends to end up.

For me, a hardcore game is either a game with history (such as the Resident Evil series, despite the massive change in style from 4 onwards) or a game that provides a certain level of interesting immersion. And, of course, the difficult games. Hardcore games for me are games like the Way of the Samurai series, Disgaea (lots of Nippon Ichi games, really), many things by Atlus, the Batman: Arkham games, Blazblue, Dark Souls, the Metal Gear series, and PSO2 (despite it being an MMO).

I don't think there is such a thing as a 'hardcore' MMO, by the way (PSO2 excepted).

[littha]

I don't think there is such a thing as a 'hardcore' MMO, by the way (PSO2 excepted).

Try EVE or FFXI...

[Kuroimaken]

I said hardcore, not grindcore. 

[brujon]

Played Minecraft for a bit. Became infatuated with it in no time... Now i see everything around me as blocks. I even dreamt about being able to mine out shit in the real world...


Is there any hope for me?

[Kethrian]

Extreme example: the Disgaea games.

No Disgaea player worth his salt will be content with merely playing through the main storyline. That'll eat up a hundred hours easy.

Bolded for emphasis.  Disgaea games should each eat up hundreds of hours each.  Which sounds like grindcore, except that a good chunk of that time is setting up cool combos or puzzling out the Geo blocks or what-have-you.  If only I were a kid again, and had the time to invest in those games!

Played Minecraft for a bit. Became infatuated with it in no time... Now i see everything around me as blocks. I even dreamt about being able to mine out shit in the real world...


Is there any hope for me?

My GF got me to buy Minecraft.  It's got some fun elements, but I prefer adventuring to building and mining, so I still favour Terraria over Minecraft, personally.  Nothing like taking on all the hardmode bosses at once, while wielding the Megashark (a shark/machinegun) using either crystal bullets or cursed flame bullets, Star Cannon (it fires fallen stars!), a flamethrower, and Excalibur.  And with wings, hallowed armour, the Philosopher's Stone, a few other accessories of choice, and a butt-load of potions, including a gravity potion that lets you reverse gravity on yourself at will!

Man, I love the hardcore bosses!  The Twins, Retinazer and Spasmatism.  One is a giant red eye that shoots lasers, the other is a giant green eye that shoots cursed hellfire.  And once they are half dead, they get tougher and cybernetic!  The Destroyer, a massive robotic worm that's 86 segments long, and each segment has a probe that shoots lasers and can be launched to hover around you and attack.  And Skeletron Prime, a giant floating robotic skull with four giant floating robotic skeletal arms, each armed with a different weapon: mortar cannon, vice-like pincers, chainsaw, and death laser.  And the skull can pop out spikes and spin.

Here's a vid of a guy soloing them all at once!  The fight starts at 0:32.

[brujon]

Might be a bit late for the Borderlands 2 discussion, but I live in the UK and I am up for a game every now and again. Tshern's the handle on Steam, if anyone's interested. Trying to kill my way towards a legendary Siren mod, but no luck so far despite the fact that I've killed Vermivorous like three dozen times.

NUH! Did you use the 4 player mod to spawn him more easily? I've been neglecting borderlands 2 for a while now since i'm also playing Grand Fantasia and Minecraft, and currently am away from my PC until sunday. On argentina

[Tshern]

Might be a bit late for the Borderlands 2 discussion, but I live in the UK and I am up for a game every now and again. Tshern's the handle on Steam, if anyone's interested. Trying to kill my way towards a legendary Siren mod, but no luck so far despite the fact that I've killed Vermivorous like three dozen times.

NUH! Did you use the 4 player mod to spawn him more easily? I've been neglecting borderlands 2 for a while now since i'm also playing Grand Fantasia and Minecraft, and currently am away from my PC until sunday. On argentina

Even if I had enough friends online, most of them don't have the gear to take on that challenge. I actually did manage to get that mod yesterday after ages of trying.

By the way, Gearbox is giving away free Halloween skins. Check out the shift codes on their Twitter page or their Facebook page. The codes are valid until the 4th, so no real hurry.

[littha]

I said hardcore, not grindcore. 

EVE would be rather hard to grind... you train skills in real time rather than from killing things. Some of my skills at this point take like 3 weeks to train each...

You could grind missions or mine for ISK I suppose but you could say that about most games.

[Kuroimaken]

I was referring more to FFXI than EVE, actually.

[littha]

True there was a lot of grinding in FFXI (it is an old MMO, to be expected really) but the end game bosses were genuinely extremely difficult even for players in the best gear.

Absolute Virtue was a dick...

[SorO_Lost]

Played Minecraft for a bit. Became infatuated with it in no time... Now i see everything around me as blocks. I even dreamt about being able to mine out shit in the real world...


Is there any hope for me?

Are you using the official release?

Tekkit adds a lot of content. Unfortunately, it's still using 1.2.5. But then again, since all the relevant modpacks already support 1.3.2, and working on 1.4 support, you can just use Mod Loader and run an updated version your self.

Not to mention AdventureCraft's Zelda map game, that thing was/is pretty awesome.