What We Played: Splash Damage's Games of the Year

[light_sh4v0r]

Since I have a proper DJ setup already, I don’t feel the need to try out DJ hero

[Apoc]

I think the important thing for me is the capacity for advanced strategy, hence why my all time favourite fps is etqw, it got critisized for having a steep learning curve, but for those who were prepared to learn, the game was amazing. Competitive games were always amazing, due to the range of possible strategies. It had a small number of maps, but there are still players playing it near enough every day and have been since it was released, since the possible coplexity and range of scenarios means every game is completely differant and incredibly fun.

I personally do not like L4D, because of exactly the point i was making. Every game doesnt feel new and interesting, its fun for a while but then its the same game, with same scenario, on same maps, i dont feel it offers the capacity for engineuity to the extent of other games (i know it does to an extent, but as i said, not as much as others). Those who do play, are often playing because they like playing with friends or they have got good and enjoy winning. This is great but i feel it misses the entertainment factor along with the infinite possibilities etqw provided.

But yea, fav game of the year is ETQW

[3Suns]

Great feature! Cool to see what you liked!

L4D and L4D2 baby! (three 360 copies of each) I also have 48 SourceU accounts with all of Valve’s Software for my computer club students, but I don’t play the PC version much because I don’t have the opportunity to game much at school (or the K/M skillz even when I do).

I can’t shoot straight to save my life, but in those games, accuracy is just a small part of what you need to succeed. Being aware of where your teammates are, knowing what they are doing, adjusting to them, being willing to communicate and take charge (or step back) - that is what brings you to the safe house, or stops the survivors 10 feet out the door.

Also, it is the closest thing to American Football that you will find in a video game. Every time you health up is like getting a 1st down. There are big plays as Survivors and S.I., it has it all.

Playing as the special infected is like being the little old man behind the curtain in Wizard of Oz. I feel like the Galaga, Defender, Pac Man, Centipede tables are finally turned on the computers. Now I get to play as the A.I… So good, in so many ways.

[PSG_Mud]

[QUOTE=Crispy;206581]
I met a guy a couple of years ago who still relentlessly plays a 1990 flight-sim called Red Baron (you can find it on Abandonia), it’s basically his go-to game. He didn’t really play any other multiplayer games because this was as good as it got for him. He was happy playing in his same tightly-knit community of pilots and going on the same runs against the same opponants in the same locales, to the point where I wonder if it was more the comfort of the community and safety of the predictable nature of the players’ actions in the game that he craved or the game experience itself. Is he hardcore?[/quote]

‘Hardcore’ (and I use it myself for lack of precision) is a bit of a muddy word really. It’s the type of word that post-modernists drool over because everyone has a slightly different view of what it means when they use it. We could say Red Baron fan is hardcore for sticking with a game for almost two decades, or we could say that someone who buys the latest games in the genre -no matter how ropey-is hardcore, or maybe it’s the player that spends every minute of their free time playing games. Maybe a better word is ‘obsessive’; I know I’ve been obsessed with one or more games over the years. I do think it’s important to get inside the head of the people you’re making the game for. A lot of VIPs in games either admit to or advise that designers make the games they want to play. But I don’t think you need to play a game obsessively for an extended period of time, to the point where you ignore everything else happening around you, to get a good feel for what makes it tick. On the other hand if people are still religiously playing these games it could be because nothing since has surpassed it, and it’s worth taking note of why that might be.

No, not by you description of the person. Hardcore is used as a slang term in most cases when directed to or for gamers, so its meaning can be distorted through a variety of cultures on the internet similar to Chinese whispers aka the telephone game. General use of the term itself is implied within a community and used as a noun, when in reality it is an adjective. Example, Jacob a hells Angel, is hardcore. It would be assumed, Jacob is not hardcore with everything like when it comes to education or perhaps quilting. Otherwise, Jacob would be hardcore with everything. Thus when used in a gaming environment it means that person is specifically pertaining to gaming, or that game specifically.

Now, the definition of the word itself is slang, so lets look it up.

Slang Dictionary
hard-core

1. mod.
   sexually explicit; pornographic. : You can’t sell that hard-core stuff in a store like this!
2. mod.
   extreme; entrenched. : There are too many hard-core cases of poverty there.
3. mod.
   very good; stunning; great. : I’d like a really hard-core pizza with at least five kinds of cheese.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.

Comparative to the actual term itself from the same website.

–adjective

1. unswervingly committed; uncompromising; dedicated: a hard-core segregationist.
2. pruriently explicit; graphically depicted: hard-core pornography.
3. being so without apparent change or remedy; chronic: hard-core inflation; hard-core unemployment.

There is one obvious definition, 2. of the slang version as extreme.

Definition for extreme
–adjective

1. of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average: extreme measures.
2. utmost or exceedingly great in degree: extreme joy.
3. farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost: the extreme limits of a town.
4. farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction: an object at the extreme point of vision.
5. exceeding the bounds of moderation: extreme fashions.
6. going to the utmost or very great lengths in action, habit, opinion, etc.: an extreme conservative.
7. last or final: extreme hopes.
8. Chiefly Sports. extremely dangerous or difficult: extreme skiing.

Thus, hardcore is used as slang for extreme combined with the non slang version of hardcore. What one gets is, “An overly committed and unordinary individual exceedingly great in that particular degree.”

Back to the Red Baron pilot. If he were a designer, would you honestly be more or less confident in his abilities to design an up-to-date flight-sim? It’s one thing to have not played the classics of the genre of the game you’re working on if the design or mechanics fall under your remit, but to base all your decisions on the conventions of one genre? Why would you restrict yourself to one genre when playing other genres grants a greater understanding and perspective of your own work? As a matter of opinion, cross-pollination of ideas fuels creativity.

It does, the more one experiences the greater connectivity the neural pathways in the brain will be. For example, when studying in college, I had a problem. I could not balance 50 hour work weeks with 5 classes during a semester. I didn’t do as well as one would like in my position.
I began reading on mind champions, people who have mastered memory abilities. It was quite fascinating how these individuals could trick their minds into processing and remembering inhumanable amounts of data within minutes.
They train their minds like a professional athlete trains their body, building something called memory palaces. I realized most people like myself don’t train their mind, and I felt as if I were trying to play in the NFL without a trained body. I built one myself and it took about 6 months to do with a great deal of forced imagination. Toning and redeveloping my neural pathways like I was defragmenting it. My perception of the world changed and as I was no longer linear in design, literally.

An amazing video on memory palaces that opened my mind.
Part-1

Part-2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NROegsMqNc

Thus, this person would be very good at one thing. Supporting or giving advice, this individual can tell you things that a linear thinking individual can only. Think of it like Batman and Robin, except there are a ton of potential Robins and a few potential Batmans.

Personally I think the best FPS game out this year was Left4Dead 2. It may just be the sheer number of quality single-player games on offer in 2009, or just that there weren’t really that many FPS PC games released this past year. If there is an absence of PC FPS games on the list there is probably a good reason for it. I did also play Borderlands and really enjoyed the gunplay, style and brief moments of humour. It’s just a pity my initial understanding of it on release wasn’t in tune with the experience I got when I played it, so I think I ended up buying/playing something else.

Also don’t forget that we’re working on an FPS all hours of the day, and a lot of people in the team are taking their work home with them and playing more FPSes for research in their spare time. Sometimes you might just want a break from an FPS and sit down to something slower-paced, especially if your goal is to relax.

P.S. I realise now that Joe touched on a number of these points already.

P.P.S. Poons was recommending the new SMBros only the other day.

The only game you should be playing is the game you’re working on TRAITOR lol. No really, I would think not just taking a break from FPS but gaming in general. I would watch movies and do physical activities like sky diving, or paintball, or playing Frisbee with your dog while your woman is laying under the shade in a blue flowered white dress eating watermelon. They can be really inspirational.

[Nail]

Frisbee with the dog is my favorite sport, with the right dog, you never have to leave your lawnchair

[mortis]

I’ve been playing a lot of DDO lately…the free version. Not so much for spectacular action, but more to pass the time until Brink arrives on my system. I’m already beginning the system upgrade process!