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3:00 PM
> throw baby
@BenBrocka winrar
I give up, it's just not going to loop correctly any more, I guess...
This is really pissing me off
It was looping fine yesterday. At least for me it was. Someone else said it wasn't.
@BenBrocka WHA!?
shakes @BenBrocka Tell me more, sir, tell me more!
@RavenDreamer Pikmin 3 was cancelled, et cetera
Don't make me re adoption you.
3:09 PM
Unfortunately it's for Wii U
Pish posh
@RavenDreamer You still have the one that DOES loop, right?
@Wipqozn86 Say something witty.
I hate it when I can see the first few words of an answer in my "Inbox" on SE, but can't actually click to read the full thing because it's since been deleted
@RonanForman That's what she said?
user15026
3:12 PM
@BenBrocka What else would they put it on?
user image
2
Good enough.
@RonanForman I LOVE YOU <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3
@DerpyHooves the console I have already but never use, I hoped
user15026
@BenBrocka Fair enough
I don't really want to buy another nintendo console I'll end up never using after the first two months...again
user15026
3:13 PM
@BenBrocka I can appreciate that
Last nintendo console I owned was n64
Gamecube was pretty sweet
Why can't nintendo admit they make great games but suck at making consoles, and start releasing their games for PC or something?
after n64 I went sony
Nintendo makes great games and terrible everything else
Have you seen their online services?
3:14 PM
@tiddy, beat infamous
Enter these 64 digits to play with your friend!
still gnawing on R&CF2
Good or Bad
HOw's the second R&C
better?
Good, although if I could've run evil and gotten the good ending I probably would have
avoiding innocents was a PITA
yeah, the second R&C is really good
like, the first one felt like R&C: HD, but this really feels... right
@Wipqozn86 But not enough to star it?
3:17 PM
@RonanForman I was too busy sharing it with my friends.
I didn't terribly care for infamous, probably won't play infamous 2. The story was good, and I liked the general feel, but the controls were just a mess, esp coming from things like AC and PoP
it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't an awesome game
Indeed
I enjoyed Infamous 2, but I haven't revisited that or the first one
@agent86 Second R&C or second R&C Future?
But, crack in time is pretty good
Oh, didn't look above
3:19 PM
@BoltClocksaUnicorn Crack in Time is what we're talking about, I finished the first R&CF game last week or so, started in on Crack In Time this past weekend
@tiddy Crack in Time is somewhat tedious to play, but maybe that's just because the controls feel really different from Tools of Destruction and the PS2 series.
@BoltClocksaUnicorn I don't find it that different, honestly... I use the "third person shooter" control set on both games
Quest for Booty is identical to Tools of Destruction in that aspect (except with more Omniwrench puzzles)
so the controls are pretty much identical from my perspective
I really enjoyed the crank time puzzles
for the most part
3:20 PM
I am glad they moved the "tools" off of the quick weapon select
yeah
and put them on the D-Pad so far
I find the spaceship explorations annoying. Then again, you're in space...
Let me know if you pick up Journey
That would be fun
ha, you try Flower yet?
@tiddy yeah, the cloning clyde-style time puzzles are fun. I was playing that in front of my step-FIL, and he was just confused by the whole thing - "how many times are you going to have to step on that switch?"
3:21 PM
Oh I'm sure it's just me not getting used to the controls in A Crack in Time, after having played more than 20 playthroughs on the PS2 games combined.
@BoltClocksaUnicorn oh, I really like the spaceship parts. I think the little planets are a cool idea. Very self contained, and each one's got its own challenges. I always do those first.
@agent86 I love those too. Maybe I just find them a little tedious
Actually the hardest R&C thing, i think ever, was the 10K Arcade cheev in crack in time
I believe
@tiddy I've got the demo installed, but waiting for a quiet moment to play it. Right now I've got crack in time during the day, witcher 2 in the early evening, and then dungeon defenders later in the evening. schedule's pretty full
It feels particularly jarring that Ratchet displays almost no body language when you comet-strike while running
He just... flicks his wrench forward
3:23 PM
@tiddy is that the little qwark "my blaster runs hot" arcade game?
Yeah
It's.....intense
I guess It's easier with 2 people
Witcher 2 worth time?
Have any of you played the PS2 Ratchet games?
@tiddy No.
I played and conquered the ps2 ones
@tiddy Ask @spugsley about Witcher 2...
3:26 PM
Omega everything
blah blah
@BoltClocksaUnicorn Of course
@tiddy The hoverboard/hoverbike/etc racing skill points are a pain. They're the only skill points I don't have yet :(
Ah
Yeah some of those can be a pain
The combat system in Witcher 2 gave the illusion of being really deep by its apparent difficulty at first. Once you figure it out, though, pretty much every battle from then on is trivial.
I've never seen a learning curve quite like it.
I died on the tutorial battle a hundred times but eventually pretty much stopped taking damage altogether.
I did read that it started off a little rough
3:27 PM
The mandatory minigames are pretty horrendous too.
I've also read CD Projeckt is pretty damn good when it comes to player feedback
Didn't they change a bunch of stuff in the beginning
I don't know. I played at launch for a few weeks and then never touched it again.
@tiddy I still have to set my PS2 system clock to get into the Insomniac Museum :|
@tiddy it's... rough. It's hard. like you know that I'm no pushover, but I failed the tutorial, hard.
it assumes you are going to know ahead of time what you're going to encounter
ie, if you're going to fight monsters, you need to do something that upgrades your weapon temporarily to fight monsters. and you need to drink potions so you're in good enough shape to fight. both of these things require a decent amount of planning
it's like if in skyrim, 2 monsters could beat the crap out of you, unless before every fight you went to the blacksmith and sharpened your sword, and made a bunch of "decrease damage" potions that you have to drink before the battle starts
It just occurred to me that Diablo III and Sonic 4 Episode II are both coming out on May 15th
3:31 PM
@BoltClocksaUnicorn Nothing matters next to Diablo 3.
There's some Game of Thrones game coming out that day too.
@tiddy They added a real tutorial, the prologue that is the tutorial in the original release was very difficult if you didn't manage to figure certain things out on their own
@Wipqozn86 A rage comic? On my bridge?
@Fabian yeah I thought so
3:34 PM
Quen was totally overpowered, but they nerfed it a lot in the EE, I'm curious how that'll affect the balance
I'm also considering buying RE4 HD from PSN
Because, that is like my jam on PS2
So much strategy to play well on Professional
@Wipqozn86 For shame, qosh, for shame.
@ArdaXi Big Macintosh is best secondary pony.
@Wipqozn86 I meant the pony.
@Wipqozn86 Wait, a male pony?
3:36 PM
@Fabian The tutorial in the EE is still a bit... eh. If I hadn't played the first game and didn't already kind of understand the mechanics, I would've been lost even further. It's nice, but the game is so complex
Is it really that complex, or just really withholding regarding information
@Wipqozn86 Well that's really inte-- wait, I seem to have stopped caring.
@RonanForman That's what she said! BUURRRN
What have I done?!
3:39 PM
I'll need to write a script to automatically replace tortoise shades with that picture.
@Wipqozn I liked you alot better before you were a pony.
@tiddy it's that complex... I played probably about 20 hours of the first game and I still didn't quite "get" the combat.
@StrixVaria I'm a tortoise now, not a pony.
Does that somehow cancel out the time you were a pony?
Were you not a pony at some point in the past?
Was there not a time before you were a pony?
@StrixVaria Nope, just felt like pointing it out. tortoise shades
3:43 PM
@tiddy you've got two swords, and two attack styles per sword. then you've got potions, and there's dozens of different ingredients. you can read books that increase your damage against certain monsters, and then we get into bombs, throwing knives, traps, signs/magic, stamina, parrying, dodging, status effects...
@agent86 And yet the same strategy works on 90% of enemies.
well dang. I was going to make tortoise shades my steam avatar, but it's 23kb too large.
I blame everyone else.
@StrixVaria what is this strategy? I need to know it
@Wipqozn86 Make it smaller.
@RonanForman I'm lazy.
Also, I already am.
3:46 PM
@agent86 It's been a while, but from what I remember there's one spell that stuns an enemy for a second or so, making him stumble back or some such. It gives you time to get in free hits. Rinse and repeat. If you run out of mana or whatever, run away until you have mana back.
I had a similar strategy for multiple enemies that I can't quite remember the details of.
@StrixVaria hmm, running away may be the element I'm missing. I tend to try to tank, which Geralt is terrible at
@Wipqozn86 I could have got ridden of the text for you...
@agent86 Running away is what he's best at.
Once you master his roll you're invincible.
3:48 PM
@RonanForman I didn't want to put you through the trouble. tortoise shades
He also has a spell that makes him literally invulnerable with barely any downside.
You can use that pretty much at will.
The risk is just if it wears off in the middle of you tanking a bunch of crap.
@Wipqozn86 You do know that's not a pun.
@RonanForman I'm well aware. tortoise shades
This is just unBEARable!
@RonanForman Matt...? Is that you..?
3:49 PM
Who?
My friend. Last time we played through Diablo 2 together he played a Druid werebear. So we constantly make bear jokes.
@Wipqozn86 I've never even played Diablo 2, if you'll pardon the pun.
@StrixVaria I SHALL ENGAGE MAXIMUM COWARDICE MODE.
Seriously
How does a non-crit shotgun 1-hit kill a pyro?
Hmmmm
3:55 PM
@agent86 COMMAND ACCEPTED
@OrigamiRobot flee! FLEEEE!
0
Q: How to make Alien Swarm dedicated server to automatically say announcements?

DIMEDROLLWhat I want is to make my server to automatically print invitation text to every player when he connects my server. Or I want my server to say a message in fixed time interval. How do I do it? Do I need to use SourceMod for this? If yes, how do I make it using SourceMod?

0
Q: Do I have to eat?

AlexIn Legend of Grimrock every character has a food meter which gradually decreases as you move, fight and rest. You find food scattered about the dungeon, both from enemies and on the floor (3 second rule clearly not an issue) to fill the meter back up. What effect does a low food meter have? Is t...

OK, well, I'm feeling more like I could potentially win a fight in W2 now
maybe.
Alien Swarm, whoa
god dammit so much, my VPS is still down
I need a new VPS provider, I've decided
4:00 PM
I was gonna say, you've been MIA
@tiddy yeah, they had some sort of datacenter crash over the weekend, and they didn't manage to bring it back online at all yesterday
today I've resorted to bouncing off my home internet, which is kind of crappy
i can imagine
yeah, so, they're fired. my contract is up with them in June. Just got to find a decent provider sometime in the next month so I can migrate my data
Decent rates?
@tiddy right now I'm paying about $50/yr
4:07 PM
Nice
yeah, cost is good, but service is piss poor
their website doesn't work that well, and this is the second extended (~12hr+) downtime they've had in the last couple months
That sucks
indeed
there's one place that's got decent reviews, but they limit signups, so I'll have to get on a waiting list or something
considering perhaps in the meantime paying rackspace ~$10/mo to run a cloud instance
@PeterGrace, since you've been looking into this sort of thing recently, what's a good low-end VPS provider for around ~$60/yr? I don't need much, maybe 256 MB RAM and a small disk, on a fast network link
Well that's... odd.
okay, so let's pick up a topic we haven't touched on for a while, and it is yo dawg tags, more commonly called subtags. What are your thoughts on the topic? Right now I'm not even sure I know what the status-quo is, probably a mixture of prefix-less and prefix-ful
in a way prefix-less are awesome because some we tend to get similar questions between different games and putting them in the same bucket is natural. Think boss-fights or 'where is my save file'
4:20 PM
@badp subtags are evil, stop trolling :)
on the other hand some tags are just too vague without prefixes. I've argued against weapons for a while e.g. and being on the train I can't really remember what its fate has been since
@badp Lots of discussion, no real consensus other than that super-generic tags are bad
They're still used willy-nilly all over
@james subtags are hard let's go shopping, right? :¡
Alright, so if I want to start VTC'ing "How long is Game X?" questions as a dupe, should I create a brand new question for it, or do you guys think this one already covers it?
15
Q: Is there a website that has estimated time duration for games?

enriqueinI'm going down my huge backlog of unplayed Steam games and I'm thinking the best way to tackle the list is to go through the shortest games first and then concentrate on the 20+ hour ones. I'm wondering if there's a website that has an estimated amount of gameplay time for games. Hopefully withou...

@badp Haha, I was thinking more of 'gaming' rather than shopping but to each their own :)
4:25 PM
@sterno yeah, it wouldn't suck to get something more concrete than that
Ive been pushing through ME1 these past few days I guess I kinda forgot how dominate you become pretty early on
I'll meta it up
This is a starting a pure first playthrough
No bonus powers, etc
I mean i'm invincible
And I still don't like Kaiden
I'm looking for (hopefully fps) games that I can play with my friends, some of which are on PCs and some of which are on xboxs. Any ideas?
I got to close a question! I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms.
4:31 PM
@FOak That is very very rare and restricted by Microsoft.. I think they tried it with their Shadowrun FPS game but that is the only one I recall hearing about.
I was going to say, I wasn't even sure that existed yet
Who wants to watch a massacre anyway?
@FOak You can always try co-optimus.com to see if you can find some information on there about cross-platform.
/flamebait
really, we all have bf3, and we all love it, but of course most of the friends are on the xbox, and I hate that thing.
why is it that they dont have the consoles and the PCs playing on the same server?
*servers
Ignoring technical and economical issues, I legitimately think it wouldn't be fair.
4:37 PM
Why is that? Is one system far easier than the other?
@FOak You can't play FPSes on consoles.
There was also something I read around the time Monday Night Combat came out for PC where they said they had to re-tune almost all the special abilities because of the control differences
Can you make questions CW, or just answers?
4:40 PM
like, some of the things you could do with a mouse and keyboard were borderline exploits until they changed the behavior
Yeah basically that
@Sterno questions can be CW, iirc
0
Q: How can I tell how long it will take me to complete a game?

SternoI often want to know how long a game is so that I can decide whether or not to buy it, or even to decide if I've got enough free time available in the near-future to make it worth trying to play and complete over a weekend. Sometimes I even want to know just because I'm getting a little tired of ...

Unless the console players want to attach a mouse and keyboard..
I'd be in favor of that being CW
4:41 PM
but as a PC FPS player, I have a ton of keys I could map for optimal control, and a mouse which allows me to aim faster and more accurately than someone using their thumbs on a joystick.
@tiddy I have been tempted to do that sometimes... though really what gets me about consoles is the tiny screen size when I have to share with others
Well that too
And of course, when I
When im not sharing with others I may as well use my computer
the sad truth is, if you want to play with your friends who like consoles, you have to play on the console :(
I used to be a PC gamer, and then this guy who will remain nameless (but if I was naming names, it would start with an @EBongo and end with nothing else because that's his name) convinced me to start playing console.
@RonanForman Bingo. I think there was a beta awhile ago that allowed cross-platform play. They eventually had to remove it because PC players were absolutely destroying console players.
4:43 PM
Yeah Im not knocking consoles, i love mine, but having top console players beat top PC players in an FPS is something I'd have to see to believe
@Sterno I lol'd at the down vote.
@Wipqozn86 I did too :)
the horrible thing is now... I have all the exipment to do a sweet CS or BF3 LAN party... if we could use both xboxes and PCs.
I played some RE5 co-op on ps3
CS isn't exactly that stressing of a game though. Wouldn't take a much to play it on PC
Yea, but there is somehow still a limit of the number of junker laptops I have sitting around.
4:46 PM
@Sterno Sorry for ruining your nice multiple of 5 rep :(
@tiddy You do understand that every FPS released on a console has Aim Assist on it these days right? What you have to map and handle manually pretty much every console FPS does automagicly.
@OrigamiRobot It just means I need to find an answer to accept!
@Sterno Or find 3 answers to downvote
@James Aim assist? Really? Thats another reason why I'm puzzled that people play consoles.
@James Aim assist is the poor man's version of proper aim.
4:48 PM
Dident Portal have a co-op that you could play together using a PS3 and PC? Any idea how that went? Or why the xbox wasent included?
@James I've read such things.
@FOak Aye, most FPS PC game that support the game pad also enable this feature when it is used.
@fbueckert Its a compensation for the potential limitations of the user input.
@FOak Because as I mentioned Microsoft does not want that to happen
@FOak Not sure if they had cross-platform in Portal 2, but it's irrelevant; Portal 2 is co-op, not competitive.
Halo: CE Anniversary has a skull which disables the aim assist.
ie: PC assholes are not allowed to use the XBox OnLive servers :D
4:50 PM
Alrighty then
@fbueckert It just shows that it could somewhere, somehow happen for technical reasons.
In any case, Players from both sides could easily be competitive
Lost Planet: Colonies Edition had cross-platform multiplayer between Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
You could pretty easily tell who had a PC and who didn't.
I really don't think they could be competitive
But at the end of the day I think what, 85% of the players are on consoles these days? So why should they care about the percent of the market you are taught to ignore (you cant please everyone so aim for pleasing 85% of everyone :))
4:51 PM
@GnomeSlice As in the PCs were noticably better?
@FOak Generally, yes.
There was also some player skins only available to PC users.
@FOak I don't disagree. The reasoning is that it doesn't happen is because keyboard and mouse is inherently superior to straight up controller. Even taking into account aim-assist, I don't think console controls are even in the same league as keyboard and mouse.
...and maybe PS3 users, actually.
@James ...you do realize that a sizable portion of people on The Bridge are PC gamers?
@fbueckert Depends on how you define 'superior'. I find gamepad controls more comfortable, relaxing, etc.
4:52 PM
I think we're all just gamers
I'd hope so
@Wipqozn86 Yeah, as am I... But I am also a console gamer :D
OPPOSE MODERATOR TYRANNY! STICK IT TO THE MAN!
@tiddy I am a robot.
0
A: How do I know if I should move forward with something that was discussed on meta?

agent86There are times when the community reaches consensus on its own, and in most cases this is the right way to do things. I don't think it's a good idea for moderators to step in and try to set policy, except in serious situations. When it comes to policy that changes a vast swath of questions, ...

Hell I even own a Wii, though for the life of me I do not know why... That stupid POS gets turned on once a year.. If that.
4:54 PM
it's amazing to me how many people say that about the wii. it's like we all collectively said we had to have it, and then couldn't for the life of us figure out why
@GnomeSlice I agree; sometimes, you don't want options out the yin-yang. I hate the consolitis that is afflicting so many ports nowadays, though. Poor design thought, if any at all for PC games.
I avoided buying it
But Im still very interested in someday playing the galaxy and zelda games
@agent86 Metroid Prime 3. And now, the fun JRPGs.
I blame poor third-party support. There's just too few games that aren't essentially rehashes of Nintendo franchises with crappy motion controls.
@fbueckert Toki Tori. Super Mario Galaxy. Mario Kart.
4:56 PM
0
Q: How can I tell how long (more or less) it will take me to complete a game?

SternoI often want to know how long a game is so that I can decide whether or not to buy it, or even to decide if I've got enough free time available in the near-future to make it worth trying to play and complete over a weekend. Sometimes I even want to know just because I'm getting a little tired of ...

@agent86 The worst part was all the shovelware. So many crappy games, and next to no proper QA from Nintendo. All trying to cash in on the Wii craze.
@agent86 1and1 has vps's for $50ish, also linode.com is fairly cheap
@agent86 they're sort of the lower-end providers.
I loathe motion controls, but for reasons I can't understand, I only play whichever the first MarioKartWii is with the steering wheel.
@GnomeSlice Toki Tori came out for Wii? I agree with the Mario games, though.
@fbueckert It came out... long, long before the Steam release...
years
4:57 PM
I hated playing that game for the Portal 2 ARG
Just wasn't for me
I ended up buying it again via Steam though, because it has extra features not seen in the Steam release.
@tiddy ...but you continued to play it?
...Why!?
@GnomeSlice Huh. I trolled the Virtual Console so rarely, except when a game I really wanted was released.
@fbueckert Virtual console is for games released for previous systems.
Must've missed it. I only found out about it via Steam, regardless. It didn't strike me as that memorable.
@GnomeSlice Indeed. Hence the area I was most interested in. Ogre Battle, Ogre Battle 64, Breath of Fire 2, etc.
@GnomeSlice is a Cyberman!
4:59 PM
@PeterGrace hmm, I've looked at linode, and $20/mo is a bit more than what I need. I'll check 1and1 though.
thanks :)
I played the levels I needed to
For the ARG
Toki Tori was amazing.
@tiddy that's really dumb, to be honest.
If you don't like the game, don't play it.

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