I love video games.

I think.

Sometimes these days I'm not so sure. There's so much tat about that it's hard to find a game that's a real keeper. Most games are junk food wrapped in shiny packaging always promising more than they actually deliver (transformers war for cybertron!).

But that isn't even the point, so shut up.

What I wanted to say is that I just can't keep up with gaming these days. When did games get so hardcore? You go online thinking 'hey this could be fun' and it's a bearpit! It's all so hardcore with people's attitudes turned up to 11! 'You fag, you douche, your shit, your this your that'! Everyone has to win at all costs (noone wants to lose, obviously). But what's worse is that these people (kids) are all so good - and the games get more and more complicated!

Streetfighter 4 is one example: I can barely do the bloody moves for how complicated these combos are. I remember playing SF back in the day and it was never like this! We had fun. I used play soul calibur 2 on the ps2 and had a blast; didn't need to go online and get owned.

Call of Duty is another. I can't get a killstreak of more than about 3 to save my life. Yet every game you jsut get owned by these kids who must be genetically modified IMO. They get killstreaks up the wazoo and you just get to spawn under their endless streams of enemy helicopters gunnng you to shit.

This is how it is though these days. It's all so intense and NOT EASY! I don't mind losing, but at least make it fun and at least give us slow old players a chance and not assume we want to play on turbo level death difficulty!

This seems like a good point to jump on board these forums.

I don't see what you see. I'm with the "games are getting more and more 'casual' (read: dumbed down) every year" crowd. Don't think of myself as a hardcore gamer, but it seems that's how I get characterised, in this regard. At best, really.

Or maybe your post is meant to be a parody. Is it?

parody? Of what?

I don't understand why games cannot cater to more casual audiences.

In fact XBL is supposed to do just that - that's part of what you pay for. yet if  you go online to something like CoD you will be randomly matched with whomever: anyone from mouthy kids to professional gamers. What I want is to play with people at my skill level so I can at least have a chance as someone who doesn't spend every waking moment practising his l33t skills. yet this is how games are made these days. It does my head in.

Well online might be another matter, but offline games get shorter and easier every year.
I am not seeing what you see online though, within an hour or two I can usually place in the upper middle in shooters or higher (if it something like MAG I usually place highly because I am a team player at heart).
You probably just need to turn the sensitivity of your controller up.

I know what you mean, I basically quit fighting games when everyone started playing them online because I don't play them enough to keep up.

Call of Duty on the other hand, I love. I mostly just play shooters now, so I can hang with the little kids. I don't even own War for Cybertron but I almost always go positive when I play it at my friend's.

If you are playing Modern Warfare 2, I'm Crane Strike on X-Box, and Cranewings on Playstation, though I don't use the play station very much.

I think one of the main keys to MW2 is finding a cheap strategy and sticking to it. Not everyone has the reflexes AND connection speed to run and gun. I play a lot of hard core, and mostly do like a slow stalking camp of the map using a silenced Scar with Cold Blooded and Ninja.

People always think that if you are camping, you will stay in the same place or fall back to the corner. When I kill someone camping, I like to move up. That way, when they come back to kill me they run past my new spot. I'll get the same person 3-4 times that way sometimes.

No matter how good you get or how nice you are, people will always think two things:

1 - That you are a fag.
2 - That you are hacking.

I gave up on MW2. It's nowhere near as good as the first one and the killstreak system made me angry since I never got to use them and just kept getting camped to oblivion. I much prefer Bad Company 2 because it's a bit more casual friendly and it rewards tactical gameplay and teamwork (even when people don't communicate, which is always).

Streetfighter is just hell on earth. I cannot deal with the complexity of the game and you can get seriously punished for it. Unfortunately not playing it online rather neuters the game (unless you play it a lot in person, i don't).

I think that's my friends problem--he loves fighting games and is good at them, but SF4 isn't one he likes because of a few design decisions.


He's looking forward to the new Mortal Kombat game.

Me? I don't play many of those games, although Deadliest Warrior is surprisingly fun and reminds me a lot of Bushido Blade. (I do quite well in both of those games.)


Try a different game series? Maybe take a break for a while?
I'm no die hard gamer, I play things like Mass Effect and right now Crackdown 2

I'd like to find a different series but there isn't anything else really. Tekken and Soul Calibur were roundly awful, sadly, and MK is a year away (want).

I had a go at Mass Effect 2 but i've gotten really bored of it. It's just so repetitive and the combat doesn't know whether it wants to be an rpg or a real time 3rd perosn shooter. Either way it doesn't work for me at all. I love the setting but it's got all the problems of the first one.

Beyond that there's precious little around. I tried Blazblue but it was just anime overload to the point i thought my head would explode. Gameplay is good, but with the new one out in the UK in October there's no point buying  calamity trigger.

streetfighter is just such a heartbreaker though. It looks stunning, but it plays like satan's own bitch. You really do need to be king of fingers to get round the combos and the balance is non existent. Bloody fanboys raved over that game and then you play it and: fuck OFF is this easy!

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;396931streetfighter is just such a heartbreaker though. It looks stunning, but it plays like satan's own bitch. You really do need to be king of fingers to get round the combos and the balance is non existent. Bloody fanboys raved over that game and then you play it and: fuck OFF is this easy!

I've taken to playing old games like Magic Sword and Streets of Rage..but those are side scrolling hack and slash (of a sort.)

The major issue with MW2 and BC2 as well is lag. I have 1.5Mbps DSL and during high use times (Most of the weekend, and school holidays) its an act of futility to go online on the PSN.  BC2 is more fun than MW2, but it has screwy physics in places. I was snipped across the map by a guy with an uzi using iron sights the other night, because apparently only the sniper rifle drops at range.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;396931I'd like to find a different series but there isn't anything else really. Tekken and Soul Calibur were roundly awful, sadly, and MK is a year away (want).

I had a go at Mass Effect 2 but i've gotten really bored of it. It's just so repetitive and the combat doesn't know whether it wants to be an rpg or a real time 3rd perosn shooter. Either way it doesn't work for me at all. I love the setting but it's got all the problems of the first one.

Beyond that there's precious little around. I tried Blazblue but it was just anime overload to the point i thought my head would explode. Gameplay is good, but with the new one out in the UK in October there's no point buying  calamity trigger.

streetfighter is just such a heartbreaker though. It looks stunning, but it plays like satan's own bitch. You really do need to be king of fingers to get round the combos and the balance is non existent. Bloody fanboys raved over that game and then you play it and: fuck OFF is this easy!

I have bad company two. I mostly don't play it because I hate the restrictions on who you can talk to.

When I'm not playing well enough to get my harriers I play a game called no-fly zone. You can use a preditor missile to shoot down a chopper gunner. I'll hang onto any predators I get for that if we are losing bad enough, and run with a stinger. I'll even shoot down uavs to ruin their fun.

Quote from: RockViper;396935The major issue with MW2 and BC2 as well is lag. I have 1.5Mbps DSL and during high use times (Most of the weekend, and school holidays) its an act of futility to go online on the PSN.  BC2 is more fun than MW2, but it has screwy physics in places. I was snipped across the map by a guy with an uzi using iron sights the other night, because apparently only the sniper rifle drops at range.

i briefly had a ps3 and played mw2 on it and the lag was ridiculous.

i don't think that's the fault of the psn (for being free) since the game is hosted peer to peer. I think it's that microsoft throw more money at the developers to get their game as the priority. uncharted 2 didn't lag (not noticably).

conversely gears of war 2 on the xbox was an unplayable mess online.

all these games have screwy physics though. I hate seeing people trying to dodge bullets by jumping around.

Single player stuff has gotten more casual which I enjoy.   I'm very happy to play stuff on Easy because I don't have the interest anymore in mastering a video game.  Halo was the last time I got into "hardcore" and only because my buddies were PvP crazy.

However, I fear the alluring siren song of StarCraft II...