Discussion Forums

Is that just on the Xbox One? My daughter used to love Viva Pinata. I enjoyed it too, as it was nice to just kick back and play a fairly relaxing game :)

I think it is just for the xbox one.

Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate Microsoft bought Rare. If have loved to get this on PC! Battletoads alone. That said its a great deal for Xbox One owners!

One problem I have, I've just gotten to the Citadel again, and everything is so beautiful and huge and sprawling... and somewhat overwhelming. I feel like if I don't talk to everyone I'll miss something, but I don't know if I'm talking to everyone. I've heard they improved that a bit in 2 and 3.

I haven't played this either. Are you playing it on the PC?

Yup, I have ME 1 and 2 on Steam, and ME 2 and 3 on Origin, from various bundles and promos over the years. I got semi-used to the 360 controller on my previous aborted playthroughs, and was going to play with it here, but oddly it isn't supported. Mouse is way better for aiming though.

Let me know how they play. I have a few other games to play first but at some point I would mind playing them.

The first game at least plays flawlessly. Maxed out all the settings with no issues on my now meager 550ti

I can't remember anything that I would have done differently in my play-through. Mass Effect is a different beast compared to 2 and 3. Inventory system was the worst. You get to drive the Mako, though, which is a bit of a mess, but much more immersive than planet hopping in the latter games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycV--s-DO34

Oh yeah, I remember the Mako. That thing was the worst sometimes.

I've started Mass Effect twice and never made it very far. I'm not sure why I can't seem to stick with the game. I liked the portion that I played quite a bit, and the story was holding my interest fairly well. I started as a guy though, and I've heard that FemShep is significantly better.

A few words of advice:

1. Use fem shep. Holy wow, it's so much better.

2. Once you get to the point where you stop for whatever reason, set aside a couple of hours and push through. For some reason I hit a wall at about the same place in my first two attempts, where you get the ship and start exploring the galaxy, but once you get your rhythm down it gets way more fun.

Rock on man. I don't play, but I hope the clan continues to grow!

How many people are in Roag?

I think this is a pretty cool system and from the friends I know that have one they enjoy it. I've read reviews where people tie this into home automation and they can turn on the lights and such by talking to Alexa. That's straight out of Back to the Future 2 and hope I can get that in my house in the next couple years.

It reminds me of the computer from Star Trek.

That is hilarious!

Oh wow, this is incredible.

It's like poetry

I watched this again and it was somehow beter

YIPPIE!

Be a little skeptical of Geforce Experience. It tells me that I don't meet the minimum requirements for the recent Assassin's Creed games and won't even offer to optimize, but I can nearly max out the settings (not including Unity). In some games it sets it to way lower than I can comfortably run.

I seem to recall you telling me that before, which I forgot until now. My experience with Geforce Experience has been the opposite, at least with this PC, as I said. Luckily, I found out that I can run GTAV with the optimized settings GE set for the game, but turning off High Resolution Shadows seems to have greatly improved the game's performance. On my older PC, I was mostly using an older card, a GTX 8800 I think, and didn't meet the minimum hardware requirements for GE.

One of my friends mentioned how crappy one of the Assassin's Creed games is on the PC. He said it was a bad port. I don't recall which it was, though. I've never played any of those games.

What about overclocking and other utilities? Have you tried any of those?

I haven't overclocked since the turn of the century really, but you can get a bit of a boost.

And I'd say that none of the AC ports are great, but they aren't bad either.

I tend to focus optimization on a game-by-game basis. Most games that I play seem to work well on the system I have. The ones that I have ended up tweaking, so far, have been either older games (Planescape: Torment), or games that were never really optimized by the developer, where the community has taken such matters into their hands (Dark Souls). I'm not one that necessarily frets about getting the state-of-the-art absolute best graphical experience. A respectable resolution and smooth frame rate are usually all I want. As Travis says, I am wary of third-party applications that claim to make gaming experiences better. They seem like more bloat than is necessary. As long as I kill all secondary processes that don't need to be running while I'm playing a game, I usually don't have any issues. Again, I'm not running on a top of the line system, so this is all relative to my experience.

My specs, for posterity:

• Intel Core i5-2500K processor @ 3.30GHz


• Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB GDDR5


• Corsair Vengeance Blu 8GB (2x 4GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3

Awesome, scrypt, thanks for the feedback. I pretty much agree with you about gaming quality, even if my PC specs seem to speak differently. It took me a very long time to upgrade to video that wasn't coax or the standard A/V cables (white, yellow, red). I remember when a friend showed me the difference from that and S-video, which was amazing. It also took me a long time to upgrade to HD, which is even better. Yet again, I'm slightly lagging behind as my plasma TV is over 5 years old and I have yet to experience 4k resolution.

Anyway, what I mean is that I agree that I want a smooth gaming experience. I don't have to have top-of-the-line hardware. Although, when I decided it was time to upgrade or get a new PC and after doing some research, I decided to go all out with this Alienware PC. I've had it for over a year now and it hasn't disappointed me until GTAV came out and I tried to run it with the GeForce Experience optimized settings. It was ok for a while, but then it got less smooth, so I had to make a couple software adjustments. Now, it's pretty good.

The thing that kind of sucks about this now is that I'm finding out about newer and better hardware, like the GTX Titan X, and wishing I had it. I probably won't upgrade for a while though. I feel extremely confident about my CPU (an i7). I'm kind of tempted to upgrade my monitor, though. It's a 24-inch kind of standard Dell monitor that I got along with my Alienware PC. It's refresh rate is only 59 or 60hz, but apparently the human eye doesn't really see a difference above that.

Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate the high-end gear and the experiences they afford. When I started playing WoW, the only computer I had at the time was an iMac. It was decently powered, but the game wasn't optimized for the system. When I moved to a PC, it was like playing a brand new game. That same PC, however, is not handling Photoshop as well as my iMac was, so I'm torn, and maybe it's because I built my PC and haven't configured it correctly (probably). If I could, I'd probably upgrade my processor to an i7, then think about upgrading the GPU. The conflict I have is that my PS4 is already a more powerful gaming rig than my PC, plus it was a quarter of the cost. For what I invest in new upgrades, I could be on the road to getting a Mac, which is what I'd prefer to work on. I suppose I could just wait until Windows 10 comes out...

I had been building my own PCs instead of buying them for the last 15 years. I built a few of them. This Alienware one was the first one I actually bought. The main reason I bought this one was because I REALLY wanted and i7 and a GTX 690 after finding out how awesome those pieces of hardware were. The thing is that they're not cheap. By adding up the cost of the hardware I wanted from NewEgg, I realized I'd save some money by buying this Alienware instead, even though I spent a lot of money on it. I was building AMD CPU based PCs, but from what I read, the i7 seemed like an awesome CPU.

I've been seeing a lot of specs that use or require an i5.

I really don't have any experience with Macs. I know that they are usually pretty good, especially with creating media.

The thing that shines about Apple products is integration with amazing software, fantastic build quality and value. I'd say whereas they are a bit expensive(though they haven't gotten much more expensive lately) what you get(phone, laptop, mac mini) will last you quite a long time and be very nice to use. The only place they fall down a bit, and it's not as much of a deal anymore if you don't mind missing the latest and greatest is gaming. If a majority of your time is web surfing, photo editing, video editing or music creation, the mac shines. Not to say other OS's can't do this, but the built in Mac tools are far and away superior to any native tools anywhere else(iLife is incredible). I run my Mac laptop a ton and it's great for Hearthstone and mostly all Indie games but if you want a max resolution Bioshock Infinite experience you ain't gonna get at, at least not on my monitor. 👻

Since we are all talking specs, here are mine:

• Intel I7-2600 @ 3.4GHZ


• 8 GB DD3


• GeForce GTX 750


• 1 TB & 4TB HD

Yeah, Apple seems to have a reputation for expensive, but quality products. I think I may have had to use a Mac in college, but it wasn't anything major. Otherwise, my experience is from the Apple IIc, seriously old school.

I thought you got an awesome monitor a while ago.

That's cool that you're running an i7, too.

Generally, if you compare the actual hardware, not just the numbers, MacBooks don't come out much more expensive than other laptops. Sure it may have a 500gb hard drive, but what's the quality of that hard drive? And so on.

And even on my MacBook with a meager Intel HD 5000 (or maybe 4000) I can get decent performance from Bioshock Infinite. It isn't as good as my gaming rig, which is itself not top-of-the-line, but it's good.

"but what's the quality of that hard drive?" No idea but SSD's are fast and my not SSD drives are pretty slow. I've never really had an issue with hard drive quality but I have multiple backups so it wouldn't matter much anyway.

"And even on my MacBook with a meager Intel HD 5000 (or maybe 4000) I can get decent performance from Bioshock Infinite. It isn't as good as my gaming rig, which is itself not top-of-the-line, but it's good.

Totally. It works fine in a pinch but when I want more FPS and a bit more glitz, my Desktop is way better for that too.

Yeah I was just using the hard drive as an example. A lot of the sub-$500 laptops people say are "as good as a MacBook" have identical specs on paper but use cheap parts that aren't as reliable.

That seems to be true for sure. We bought a $300 Lenovo laptop and it came with a 720p monitor and meager specs but it's lasted quite a long time. My partner doesn't need much horsepower to run a web browser. My only minor gripe with it is the build quality but at $300 my expectations are a bit lower.

How many displays do you have connected to your gaming computers? What are their specs? Do you have your computers hooked up to a TV?

When I use my Mac laptop I have two displays, the laptop screen and my monitor. My PC is just hooked up to my one monitor.

My display resolution is 2560x1600.

I don't currently have a computer hooked up to the TV, but I had a Mac mini on it for many years. I replaced it with the Nexus Player and I really love that. The Nexus Player handles Chromecast so I can fling whatever is in Chrome to the TV, plus it has apps that can do Netflix and stream media off my NAS. I plan on getting a Steam Machine so I will have a PC under the TV this year sometime.

I have the same two monitors connected to my Mac and gaming rig. The mac uses the HDMI ports on the monitor, and the PC uses the DVI ports. So I can do dual monitors on one or the other, or have one monitor each, which is my usual setup.

Oh and I have a PC connected to the TV but it's kinda not good.

Travis, it seems the entire Assassin's Creed series is on sale on Steam for MidWeek Madness. What do you think about the PC version of the game? How many have you played? Do you recommend it? I haven't played it at all, but I do see some of them for $5 or less, so it wouldn't be too expensive to try now.

I haven't played Rogue or Unity but I've played all the others, and I love all of them. The plot is continuous, which is somewhat unfortunate, since the first game is the weakest in the series. AC2 is incredible, though, and you can just catch up on the plot with youtube.

But the PC versions are solid. They aren't the best ports but my somewhat meager PC could play AC 3 and 4 just fine.

There are so many of them, what do you recommend? Do you recommend getting one of the earlier and cheaper games to try it out or one of the newer ones, perhaps even a bundle?

I'd honestly recommend trying 1, and see if you like it. I thoroughly enjoyed it but there are some legitimate complaints that could ruin it for you. If it's cheap (GOG has it for $5 right now) and you don't mind potentially blowing your money, try it. If you hate it, watch a youtube video to catch up on the story and move on to AC2. The Ezio trilogy (AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations) are incredible. AC3 is a big change, some for better, some for worse, but still good. AC4 may be my favorite, tons of fun, but not where I'd start, as you miss the point of the present-day plot, or what Abstergo even is. From what I gather they're trying to just end that plot altogether though, which I'm not a fan of. I'd like to see more of it.

But yeah, start with 1, and if you dig it, awesome. If not, start with 2. I wouldn't start any later than that.

I'd recommend starting at 1, too, because that really sets the pace for the series. Viewing a synopsis on YouTube wouldn't be the same. The play mechanics are certainly inferior to where the games are now, but it's not a horrible experience, and it's such a beautiful game (they're all beautiful). Skipping AC1 would be like skipping Mass Effect 1: it can, at times, be a painful experience, but it's worth toughing it out for the bigger picture.

I've only played up to somewhere in Revelations, so I'm lagging quite a bit in the story. I really wish they would stop releasing a game (multiple games) every year! I feel like I'll never catch up at this point. A year or so ago, I picked up AC3 in a Steam sale, and I'm anxious to get into it, and the rest, but I'm afraid my Wall of Shame is too big.

I've just come to accept my wall of shame.

That's unacceptable, Travis.

I am loving Daredevil. I've not gotten into the Marvel movies much, and by extension I never watched Shield, but now that I'm really enjoying Daredevil I feel like i should go back and take it all in.

Daredevil is amazing, and I'm hoping it does well enough for Marvel to continue exploring the darker stories of some of their characters. Definitely has a Marvel Knights feel to it. I almost wish they would label it as such. I could see fans maybe expecting some of that good-natured action and adventure from the Marvel movies or other TV shows, and being more than a little shocked by the graphic content in Daredevil. I'm assuming they plan to continue this type of theme with AKA Jessica Jones and Luke Cage.

Daredevil was some of the best TV I've seen in ages. Can't wait for season 2!

I found some of this last episode predictable. "Can you tap into Deathlok's tech?" immediately made me say "they're going to see Coulson with Hydra." But not all of it-- I totally didn't expect Coulson to give himself up at the end. I'm glad to see Bobbi and Mack are getting a little wary of what's going on, and May concerns me.

I hear Bobbi might be getting her own spinoff too, which would be quite odd considering how things are going. I guess at the end of all this, neither SHIELD is really going to want her?

"they're going to see Coulson with Hydra."

Even more devastating, Coulson with Ward, which, for everyone else not on Team Coulson, is probably the same thing. I'm really interested to see how this develops, mostly Ward as a character. He's been evolving more into a constant than a wildcard, and that may be something that Coulson grows to rely on as a valid option, rather than a cornered necessity. Meaning, with the way Coulson's team (we need names to designate the different SHIELDs, like Team Coulson or CHIELD or whatever) has been evolving over the past year, I wouldn't be surprised if Ward found his way back on, maybe even with open arms. Especially with whatever is going on with May. May is the new wildcard. Eh, what am I saying, everyone is a wildcard now. The only character that I feel knows exactly who they are and why they do what they do, is Cal Johnson. Maybe Fitz. This isn't entirely a bad thing. I like when characters aren't polar light or dark. When everyone is grey, though, what are you left with? Real life? Well played, Whedon!

One thing I really like the most of The Frenemy of My Enemy, was the way Skye/Daisy (Skaisy?) started to show a little empathy for her dad, and even acted on it. That was a nice growing moment for her character, one that might set her on the path to becoming the future Director of SHIELD! O.o

I vote SHIELDson for Coulson's SHIELD and SHIELDama for Adama's. Because let's be honest, he's still Adama.

And yeah, I actually really like Cal. He's insane in an incredibly dangerous way but I think he's a good guy, just nutters. I was really hoping that they would find their way to a coffee shop so he could comment on the "damn fine cup of coffee."

https://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lppkqq7OQx1r0yp97o1_500.gif

DID YOU SEE LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE?

I was planning on waiting to catch Ultron when crowds would have died down but now I can't. It's obviously building up to a major tie-in like Winter Soldier.

How do they pull that off? So many movies and a weekly TV show that all stand on their own perfectly but all fit together so well.

Oh and also, more spoilers incoming.

The gunfight with Skye vs. everyone was incredible. The best gunfight in the show, and one of the best I've seen on TV, maybe in movies.

And the Bus. So sad.

I have to watch that Skye gunfight again, because that is, as you say, one of the best cinematic action sequences I've seen in a long time. I'm pretty sure my mouth was agape from awe the entire time. I can't remember the last time I actually thought "Okay, how are they doing this." It has to be Steadicam, but so clean!

Now that Simmons has blood on her hands, I can't wait to see what happens to her. I'm just glad she's still alive after what I was sure was going to be her complete undoing. The reprecussions should be interesting.

It was really cool to see the "band back together", even if it wasn't in ideal conditions. Something in me really want to see Ward have a big redemptive moment. It's probably not in the cards, but I'd love to see that happen.

The lead up to Age of Ultron really has me hoping the Agents make a show in the movie. I suppose we'll find out tomorrow! I might not be able to watch the movie until Saturday or Sunday. The suspense is crushing me.

Thoughts on Theta Protocol?

Yeah we're watching Ultron tomorrow. I hope at least some of them show up. Since Coulson tied Theta Protocol directly to the Avengers I guess we'll find out what it is in the movie, at least I hope so. I don't understand how anything Coulson could have been doing could tie into Ultron, but... who knows!

We got tickets for a 10:40 show of Ultron because everything else was sold out. It's a relatively new IMAX theater and a big release, so I guess it makes sense. But ugh, 10:40. I hope I stay awake til like 1:30am

That gun fight with Skye was pretty darn cool! I didn't really like Skye when the show started, but her character has developed really well since the early episodes and now she's pretty bad-ass!

I'm going to see Avengers on the 9th. I can't wait to see how the show and movie play into each other.

On a side note, I also heard that Bobbi is going to be getting her own show which means the main team is going to be down a character (or more, depending on who else she takes with her. Hunter and Mack maybe)? Do you think they'll add Agent 33 and/or Deathlok as regulars at that point? I think Ward became a LOT more interesting once he turned out to be a villain, and at this point he has killed/tried to kill a lot of people. It'll be pretty hard for him to earn back everyone's trust. But who doesn't love a good redemption arc? So we'll see.

I doubt Hunter would follow Bobbi anywhere at this point, but we'll see. I like the idea of Agent 33 becoming a regular, but I'm sure there is going to be a lot of fallout with Ward basically leaving her high and dry. I'm waiting for that moment when Skye becomes director of SHIELD...

Since I haven't seen Age of Ultron yet, or the new AoS, I'm hoping to glean something from those who have, and have seen tonight's episode: Will watching tonight's episode before the movie spoil much?

I haven't seen the movie yet, but Director Coulson himself (via twitter) said that the show will not spoil anything.

Sweet!!! Watching the show now :D

Uhm... well the show did kinda spoil some things. Not anything truly significant but some. Did everyone see the show? And by everyone I mean WBS and scrypt? :)

I did watch the show. I would have preferred to watch the movie first, but since I probably won't get to that until this weekend, I just couldn't wait :). It seems like most of the stuff they talked about was generally referenced in the AoU trailers, so I don't feel too bad.

**SPOILERS**

This episode, Scars, had a lot going on, but it felt surprisingly lacking, until the end. The season finale is next week, so I know they have to make some big thing, and then the obligatory cliffhanger, but it felt like there were a few too many shells in the shell game, if you know what I mean. I did like the conflict at the end, with Skaisy's mom making her choice, and ultimately the choice for the Inhumans, to draw the line with humanity. I wonder how long it will be before they take up residence on the moon. I expect, when they do relocate, that will be the last we hear of them (in any major capacity, anyway) until the Inhuman movie. Unless they plan to develop more of the coming characters (e.g. Blackbolt, Medusa, etc) on the show, which is okay by me :).

With Adama dead and Ward kidnapping Bobbi and Cal smuggling party juice in his jacket, shit will hit the fan at SHIELD in a big way, and I have no idea what the team is going to do. Probably completely fall apart, which makes sense given the name of the finale, "S.O.S."

I would guess that without Gonzales the other two will kinda wither away from their power grab and fall in behind Coulson. The plan to have Coulson as director under their advisement seemed doomed from the start.

I barely remember the inhumans from the comics, but a moon base would be pretty cool. I just hope that Skye (and maybe Lincoln) learn what Jiaying did and know it wasn't S.H.I.E.L.D.'s fault. I was so pissed at Jiaying there at the end.

Hey, I actually called him Gonzales this time and not Adama!

That's because Adama would have gone in that room prepared! ;)

What about that rock that was hidden in the cargo hold of the ship?

Raina: Have you come across this before?
Jiaying: Only through stories passed down by our ancestors.
It's Kree, dangerous, intended to destroy our people.

May: So, this is alien?
Gonzales: Recovered from a dig site nearly a hundred years ago.
Weaver: Its energy signatures are unlike anything we've seen before.


The way that stone morphed around and came back together, makes me think it's not actually Kree, but Skrull. This stone could be a remnant of the Kree-Skrull war. The fact that they emphasize the molecular shifting of the stone, and Weaver's comment, "...unlike anything we've seen before," are pretty much the only thing I'm basing this on. The stories that Jiaying is referring to could have gotten it wrong, no doubt due to the influence of a shape-shifting race. It does make sense, though, that they would start to introduce the Skrull, especially with Civil War right around the corner. Maybe the entire third season will focus on uncovering that race?

Whatever it is, I imagine it's what Fury wanted to destroy the ship to keep Hydra's paws off of it. I have no opinions about the Kree-Skrull war, as I am not familiar with it, or the Skrull at all for that matter.

I have no idea what that rock thing is, but the special effect of it sort of melting and then reforming was really cool. And Coulson lied to me! Well sorta. So they didn't spoil much more than the trailers already did, but still!

I gotta say I was pretty disappointed in the "tie in" to Avengers 2. It was basically just "Hey look a helicarrier!" "Boy some crazy stuff happened last week! Ok back to our Inhuman problems." Anyone else feel a little let down?

So apparently Raina was telling the truth, and really it should have been anyone BUT Jiaying meeting with Shield. Didn't see that one coming. I thought for sure it was going to be Gonzales that screwed up the meeting.

Raina told "a" truth. I still agree with everyone else, that shouldn't be trusted. Not yet, at least. I don't buy that a little time and peace with her new gift has dissolved the bitterness she harbored against Skaisy. Until that is resolved, I'd trust her about as much as I trust Ward. Not ruling out redemption, by any means. Just, watch your backs people!

I'm going to try to watch AoU tonight or tomorrow. At the moment, I'm glad it didn't tie in more, because I haven't seen the movie. As soon as that happens, though, I'm sure I'll be disappointed :).

Interesting tease for the finale: https://plus.google.com/+AgentsOfShieldABC/posts/8i2QxgoiVx4

That's an awesome teaser.

Is anyone else really hating Joss Whedon, or whomever is responsible, after that season finale?!

That was a painful cliifhanger. I don't think Joss is directly involved anymore, it's Jed and Maurissa now. I guess it was a sensible place to leave it but... ooof.

METAL IN SANDALS!

This is pretty cool. They're great.

My partner and I watched this and I thought this was a really fun video.

"METAL IN SANDALS!"

The way it was meant to be played.

\m/

Side By Side looks super interesting! Thanks for mentioning it!

And sorry about your luck with the baseball scene. I know how much more you prefer football

I got a shot of the school principal during the PTA meeting. At least it's an actor? http://i.imgur.com/JLxRpdT.jpg

The steelbook case is what I was really going for, which is super hawt, and it included the digital code (which most do, these days), which is double-hawt. This movie really covered all the bases, for me. I want Christopher Nolan to direct everything.

Also, I was lucky enough to grab a copy of the WIRED issue that Christopher Nolan co-edited when Interstellar released, entitled "Beyond. A Story In Five Dimensions", which is a really neat compliment to the movie. It looks like WIRED put up a digested digital version here: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/christopher-nolan-wired-editor/ .

*** Slight Spoiler, Maybe? ***




Forgot to mention that in that WIRED issue (and in the digital version) there is a 7-page comic, written by Christopher Nolan, giving insight into what happened on Dr. Mann's planet, prior to Cooper and companies touchdown. Makes me want an entire series of an Interstellar comic!

I'll check that article thanks scrypt. The cell you got was much cooler for sure. I wonder who got the space scenes?

"Dota 2, which I've only played briefly (it came with my new Alienware PC I got over a year ago)."

It's also free. I hope they weren't trying to trick people with that one!

But I'm all about the co-op. PvP can be fun too, tons of fun. Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament, and so on. The reason I didn't like Hearthstone as much as I could is because it's already full of people who know way more about it than I do, and it's hard to get any kind of edge. But generally, yeah, I prefer co-op in almost all situations.

It's one thing I love about Guild Wars 2 so far. You just run into people and can join in with whatever they're doing. There's never any drawback to it, it's just fun with strangers. PvP is all in a separate menu, that you don't ever have to see if you don't want to. I hopped in to grab a pet for my ranger, but that's about it.

Cool, thanks for sharing. My thought on Hearthstone is similar. I was just beginning, as I'm sure others were, but I knew there would be other players more experienced than I was. The game tries to set you up with opponents that play similarly to you (I guess by tracking wins and losses). I played a bit and lost most games.

Quake 3 Arena was fun, but I still preferred to play against the computer. People really kicked my tail, which is ultimately why I don't like PVP, often losing. Man, I haven't played that game in forever!

That's cool about Guild Wars 2. I'm sorry I missed out on the sale, which was a steal compared to how much it is now.

I hate that I missed that Guild Wars 2 sale, too. A shame.

It depends on the game, whether I gravitate to PvP or PvE. First person shooters that have a PvP option usually get more attention from me than single player aspects. Halo, CoD, Battlefield, and now Destiny, in my opinion, are more fun on the PvP side. I loved PvP in WoW, but also loved the questing and raiding. I guess the thrill and consequence of having PvP in WoW is what kept me playing. One of my all-time favorite gaming experiences.

Then there are some games that offer PvP, but end up ignoring, because the single player experience is so much better. Games like Uncharted 2 & 3, Far Cry 3, are a few off-hand where PvP didn't interest me near as much as the rest of the game.

If the balance is there and the level design is right, then I can savor the human element, the unpredictability, of what a PvP match can offer.

That's cool, scrypt, thanks for sharing a different perspective. I haven't played WoW. I know I could play for free up until level 20, but I haven't tried it yet. I played FFXI a bit, but it didn't seem to be right for me as I tried playing solo, which didn't seem to be a very effective way of playing. My other MMORPG experience is with Ragnorak Online. I played it with a group of friends and I believe there was a PVP event once a week, at least. I joined in on some of these, different guilds fighting each other. My problem with that game was that people took my loot. I'd kill a bunch of monsters, as I had a powerful character, but I'd lose my loot to others. That was disappointing.

I haven't played any of the other games you mentioned, except for Halo. I played a bit of PVP at a friend's house and I most often got slaughtered, which is usually what happens when I play PVP. That is why I don't often enjoy that aspect of gaming. Back in the Doom and Quake days, I played more FPS games, but it seems I got away from them for quite a long time. I did just recently finish playing Half-Life 2 for the very first time.

As in anything, it takes a lot of practice to get to that competitive level, and if you are always getting knocked down then it really doesn't make practice any fun, and if a game isn't going to be fun (or at least educational) then why play, right? I forgot to mention earlier, my nemesis in PvP games: Fighting games. I don't think there has ever been a time that I've been good at them. Against friends or strangers, online our on the couch, I tend to lose a lot. I just haven't put in the time to learn how to be competitive in those types of games. Tekken was the only one that I could hold my own with, and I always played with Paul Phoenix, because I liked his counter-attacks.

I understand that you would rather not engage in actual competition, @GregoPeck, but do you at any point enjoy simply watching competitive play, maybe like in the realm of e-sports?

That's understandable. When it comes to fighting games, I think it varies. The think with those is that I often feel like I'm just button mashing. However, it seems that sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, and that makes it a little more fun.

I don't really watch much of any kind of competitive play. I used to enjoy watching baseball, like when I watched the Braves play on TV when I was in Georgia. I enjoyed watching some basketball briefly with my cousin a long time ago. I did watch some football and basketball with my uncle and grandparents around Thanksgiving. These days, I don't really keep up with sports or anything competitive. As for e-sports, that is something I'm not really familiar with.

You used to love WWE, too, but that's not *real* competition I guess, since it's all scripted. The athleticism is real though, they can do some impressive things.

Yeah, I remembered that after posting that comment. I didn't get into watching that until my first year at Radford University, when my first roommate was watching it. Then, I met Edneecas, who also watched it and was a big fan of The Rock, I was, too. I still like The Rock and some of the other people, but haven't watched it in a very long time.

That's very interesting. I guess I never entertained the idea that some people might have a general distaste for competition. Thanks for helping to open my mind a bit!

We're apparently in the same boat on that, with opposite sides of the perspective. I do have a general distaste for competition, that's very true. I attribute that to my personality and psychology. Just as some people are introverts and some are extroverts, obviously some enjoy competition, while others do not. Of course there are people in the middle ground of all of that, too.

I don't mind competition if it's fun. Typically speaking most competitive games i've played online I don't find very fun.

The co-op aspect of Guild Wars 2 is well done, I really like that. I've played some co-op games with random strangers with Borderlands and that was fun. Played random Diablo III games that are lots of fun. I do enjoy play Counter-strike and Starcraft II with friends but it's not as much fun with complete strangers.

Speaking of GW2, and this is somewhat off-topic for this discussion but since you've both mentioned that you regret getting GW2 on sale-- It's going on sale again this weekend! Scrypt, Greg, don't miss it this time! :)

We're on Anvil Rock so pick that one if it's available, but that actually only really matters for World-vs-World gameplay. They use megaservers so anyone from any server can play together, as long as it's in the same region (and I assume you'd all choose US).

There's a CG guild and if you get the collectors edition or whatever it's called it comes with a couple of guild influence boosters that can help us build awesome stuff. Finally working on the second tier of the guild vault!

Apparently with the coming expansion we get to make an actual guild hall, so that's something to look forward to.

Awesome! Feel free to post a reminder here, in case we forget.

Thanks for the heads up @Travis!

One concern that I have with PvP, and online multiplayer games in general, is the problem of posterity. Compatibility of older games seems to be much easier to overcome when there isn't a server-side service that's involved. Do you think that's the case, or am I off on that? I suppose that unless the developers implement private server hosting for their game, then it would eventually not be playable due to lack of support, right? Games like the Shadowrun game for the Xbox 360 and PC...

Okay, so remembering Shadowrun for the 360 made me nostalgic. I loved that game, despite it's notorious and unfortunate association with that name. So, I found a cheap copy on Amazon. It'll be here in a week. Curses!

I'm very much not a competitive person by nature, so if there is a Co-op mode in a game that will always be my preferred way to play. Like Jon said, I'm not oppose to competitive modes but most on-line games I've played just really aren't that much fun for me. I'll play competitive games if I can still have fun while losing, which is kinda rare. :)

I also have a lot more fun in competitive games when everyone's skill levels are relatively close. I use to play the original Smash Bros. with my high-school friends all the time but it was fun because we were all fairly evenly matched. Even the worst of us (which was probably me, lol) won a match once in awhile. :)

Along the same lines, I tried picking up DoTA2 long after it was already a very popular game and I just got annihilated. That's not fun when you feel like you don't even stand a chance. Also that game has some community problems, but I think we've all talked about that before.

FFXI was the one MMO I sunk the most time into by far, and a large part of that was because it focused so heavily on co-op. That said it was also because I fell into a really great linkshell (guild) and always had people to play with. :)

As I've said, I'm not a competitive person by nature either. Most of my life I suffered from having a very low self-esteem and self-confidence, so playing competitive games with others more often than not hurt my already crippled ego. That said, when I'd win (which was rare in most cases), I felt really good.

When I played Smash Bros. with friends, I often lost. Since I've most recently played with kids (my son and his friends), I won more often than not. I was playing the new versions of the game (for the 3DS and Wii U), but I ended up quitting after getting frustrated trying to complete some of the challenges. That ties into one of my other forum posts about game difficulty.

I've barely played DoTA2, it came with my PC, which was an unexpected surprise. I don't seem to be interested in it very much. I have played Heroes of the Storm, which is similar, and I definitely enjoyed it more. I still haven't played against or with any other people, just NPCs.

FFXI was very much co-op, which gave me trouble because I'm so used to solo gaming. I did have friends in the game, but even though I joined the right server with them, I ended up being very far away from them. They said they were in Windhurst, so that's where I created my first (Hume) character. They weren't there for long, so I didn't run into most of them. One of them did find me eventually, but their (my fellow friends) home was with the other Humes, Bastok, I think. I did get very fortunate in finding a player that I didn't know, who helped me out very much and helped guide me through the game.

Now that two of us are joining Guild Wars 2, I think it's going to be a really awesome experience, since many other Cheerful Ghosts are there as well. I imagine there's going to be a lot of co-op in the game, which makes me feel good about it. Although I'm used to solo gaming, since many of us are going to be there, I'm sure my experience with GW2 is going to be quite different than my FFXI experience.

Thanks, everyone, for joining in this conversation and sharing. It's cool to see that even though we all share a lot in common, we also have our individual preferences and personalities. =)

This has become one of my most recent Cheerful Ghost experiences, that I've come to think of things for us to discuss in the forums and I'm glad many of you are taking part in that. I guess I'm helping keep the forums (and the site) alive and that feels good.

Guild Wars 2 is great, because a level 1 character can get to any of the cities in the game in less than 5 minutes without paying anything. I hated that about FFXI. And waiting for those damn airships. It's easy as hell to get around in GW2.

I solo'd my Asura Elementalist all the way to 80 (it also doesn't take years to get to max level like FFXI used to), but I've been doing co-op with Katie on my Human Ranger. It works very well as a solo game, and very well as a co-op game. Co-op is just a matter of being in the same place as someone else and fighting the same thing, or you can make parties so you can see where everyone is.

Crafting also comes easier. You don't have to wait for the right day, the right time of day, and face the appropriate cardinal direction to get the best out of crafting. (To those who haven't played FFXI, yeah, that was really a thing. Your crafts would do better if you were facing north, for example).

As for Smash Bros, there's a lot of randomness and chaos in that game. Same as with Mario Kart. You might be the best player but everyone falls to the blue shell. I love that about Nintendo, it seems that even with their competitive games, they're geared so that everyone can have fun.

You forgot the moon phase. The moon phase also affected crafting in FFXI. FFXI still holds a special place for me, but the crafting in that game IS THE WORST without a doubt.

The original Smash Bros. is my favorite fighting game ever. I never got into Melee because I never had a Gamecube. Brawl is a lot of fun, but I prefer the slower pace of the original. I felt like the first Smash bros. was a lot more approachable for new players.

And Mario Kart is just always fun no matter how good or bad you are at it. The gameplay itself is fun. Although I hate that Blue Shell with a passion, lol.

"Crafting also comes easier. You don't have to wait for the right day, the right time of day, and face the appropriate cardinal direction to get the best out of crafting. (To those who haven't played FFXI, yeah, that was really a thing. Your crafts would do better if you were facing north, for example)."

That sounds really cool! Though probably better in concept than in actual game play, I do love that type of immersion and causality in games. Like the way Demon's Souls had different World Tendencies. Waiting for specific dates or times to accomplish a task is tedious, and can be frustrating if you miss that designation, but in persistent-world games they can be really refreshing and make the game feel less static or formulaic. One of the things that got boring in WoW (after four years, mind you), was the inevitability of the grind in every space. Then the Cataclysm happened...

To bring it back around to the discussion of PvP, Demon's Souls, and the Dark Souls games, allowed "world invasions", as long as you were in certain areas and had the stones (no pun intended) to invade another players game. The way they implemented multi-player aspects into those games is just brilliant anyway, aside from the PvP interactions.