Favourite computer games of all time. [2]

Forest Shepherd wrote:It's a tabletop RPG, but The One Ring is a really well done Middle-earth game. Most Tolkien of any game that I've ever played.

I feel the format allows for an easier execution of that than a Video Game or even a Film. As so much of table top RPGs is up to the imagination of the player, and the provided supplements are text-based, I think it is much easier for this kind of product to be true to Tolkien in a way that satisfies most

Text and art, but yes.

I suppose that's part of what appeals to me about that type of game.

Anybody try Anthem? I've been playing some of my 10 hour trial but not much (only used about 2 1/2 hours). It's interesting, but I don't think its groundbreaking.

Apex Legends is quite fun, I'm excited to see where Respawn takes it. As Bioware has been going downhill, Respawn has become the EA developer I am most interested in. Can't wait to see Jedi: Fallen Order or what they have planned for the future of the mainline Titanfall story (they've confirmed there is more true Titanfall coming this year, even with Apex Legends)

{{{Not played Anthem- online shooters aren't really my cup of tea. More Lances' sort of thing I reckon.

I did get the resi 2 remake, and whilst I can in general bar a few personal niggles add to the general praise its got (my niggles being I actually miss the fixed camera angles in places and not sure why the zombies seem to be bullet sponges now) but weirdest thing is its the first game I've spent any time with in the last year or so that was not in VR. And I think VR may have ruined 2d gaming for me!
Not that I haven't enjoyed playing resi 2 its just, well its hard to explain, but it feels like I am here and the game is, well ,over there, and there's this panel of lass between us. I've got so used to be inside a game that just looking ta it feels weirdly distant. }}

"there's this panel of lass between us"
-Petty

Tell her to get the heck out of the way then!

{{ Typos aside may as well be a lass in the way, a fat lass, given the sense of separation I now get playing on a flat screen. In fact would be better if it was a fat lass I could tempt her away with a bag of chips at least }}

Usually a panel is made of up lasses, not just one lass. If they're a judgemental panel that would totally throw me off my game - not being one for constant snide feedback; but if a panel such as you may find on the Graham Norton show I think I may be encouraged to buy it just for that.

{{True, wouldn't fancy the Loose Women panel between me and my game- that would be very crabbit inducing (think The View if your American, they just gave the UK version a name designed to lure men into watching so we can get a bashing! ) mind you if it was 8 out 10 Cats does Countdown then Id have Rachel Riley in my view, and thats a whole other sort of distracted!
Either way fat lasses, or panels of irate women, or Rachel are not good for getting the sense whilst playing pancake games that there isn't something in the way. }}

"Loose Women" is pretty clever, especially if they spend their time man-bashing. I'll have to see if I can find clips of that, sounds fun.

{{ I thought I would put together a list of my recommended mods for Skyrim SE or VR but that was a little different to previous.

The aim here rather is to list the mods I think best provide improved gameplay and immersion in the game world. So what you won't find here is a single mod which will make the game look any different- what we are interested in here is improving content and expanding on it to make it as much game as possible with the maximum amount of variety.
It should mean that you will be able to vastly improve the game world and gameplay within in it without needing a super computer to play it on.
If you wish to improve visuals then you can think of adding visual mods once you've got decided what out of this lot appeals to you and just add them in, as in general most are texture and/or mesh replacers and load order is not of relevance.
Conversely if you find your game is having issues with frame rate after installing then check to see if it occurs in particular locations first (if it happens at solitude for example try doing without the Solitude expansion mod which adds a lot of buildings and NPCs to an area, if problems are more general than local than it will most likely be caused by mods which need to make a lot of checks at regular intervals, such as Frostfall which needs to check the player location, weather, clothing type against temperature and wind chill factors, and does so regularly. You may have to consider giving up a script heavy mod if your experiencing lag. But in general this mod list should be fine for most mid-range pc's running on medium settings.)
Sadly mods which rely on SKSE, SkyUI, or are simply extremely large will onlybe available for pc. But many of the mods are available for XBox users and its worth checking if your on Xbox whats available for your system.

Note- as I don't play as a thief or assassin or hunter character there are some mods you might want to pick up for improving on those aspects if you prefer those play-styles, such as better thief tools, or better sneaking, improved Ai detection etc. A quick google on the subject should point you in the right direction.

With the exception of 3DNPC's. which is a very large mod over 2 gig and has its own download page, all the rest are available on the Nexus mods page-

https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/?

sometimes mods will disappear for one reason or another, and if there is anything on my list you really want and it's no longer there, let me know I can always send it on to you.

So what will this lot do for your Skyrim game then? well a bit of everything from basic bug fixing and minor fixes throughout to major dlc sized additions like Falskaar or Beyond Skyrim: Bruma. In-between you will find a bunch of new spells, reworked perks systems for greater choice and diversity in character builds, greatly improved ai for npc's and enemies, tons of restored scenes and dialogue, improved combat ai, new gameplay elements such as basic sleep and drink/eating needs, as well making Skyrims harsh environment harsh and potentially deadly for the unprepared traveller in its coldest climes. Dozens of new creatures to fight and wildlife to encounter and places to explore and over a dozen new potential travel companions to join up with on your travels with thousands of lines of dialogue between them. Alongside scores of new quests and stories to encounter and a complete overhaul of the civil war to make it a present and active thing rather than mainly background you hear about mostly and can't even lose.
And you will be travelling beyond Skyrims world into more of Tamriel, going to deserts and jungles and whole new islands adding much needed visual variety to proceedings.
All in the total sum of these mods is considerably greater than the sum total of vanilla Skyrims main quest and its civil war side missions combined and will give you easily 100 hours plus more gameplay. As an added bonus many of the mods will freely interact with each other, so that a patrol added by Immersive Patrols may encounter bandits added by OBIS and events added from the Civil Warzones mod or Travellers of Skyrim or Open Civil War or any of the creature or wildlife mods, making for a very unpredictable and dynamic game world full of unique one off, never repeatable events and incidents making your game very much your own unique unpredictable experience every time you play.
Where possible the aim is to involve as many game mechanics as possible, including making full use of vanilla assets that were not serving a game function- such as the ineeds mod requiring you to eat, sleep and drink gives a purpose to all the food and drink you can pick up in the world beyond just selling it or it being background details, and gives a purpose to frequenting the games inns and taverns, with Frostfall also active the requirement to stay warm will also force you to use inns more often. In turn these new dynamics will mean you are more likely to encounter new characters and quests in inns throughout the game which have been added by companion or NPC mods adding yet more layers of potential gameplay and interactions.
Ideally all the mods here will function this way, working with each other to maximise game elements and make full use of the game world and making it feel as 'alive' and fully interactive as is possible yet without losing the 'feel' of the original Skyrim game.



Essentials

1. Unofficial Skyrim patch - fixes too much to even begin to list. Lots of other stuff relies on it.
2. SkyUI - makes the UI much better for pc users and lets you make changes and choices to many mods settings. Some mods are reliant on it being installed.
3. SKSE - lets mods do magic things beyond vanilla possibilities. Lots of mods rely on this too.
4. Amazing Follower Tweaks- essential if you want more than one follower and also lets you give instructions ot companions, such how they should respond to a fight, what type of weapons or magic to use, allowing you to set up a companion as a passive healer in combat, or a ranged bow user, or solely offensive magic as you wish.
5. Fuz, Ro D'oh - essential for some mods with only subtitle dialogue to show the subtitles.


Additional NPC's, Companions.  

1. Anna's NPC's - adds 10 potential companions with their own inter-weaved story.
2. Inigo - the most popular companion mod out there, thousands of lines of dialogue
3. Interesting Npc's - adds a host of npcs to the game where they logically should be- courtiers in courts and ambassadors, travelling merchants etc
4. Immersive Patrols - improves the civil war by adding faction patrols throughout Skyrim who can encounter each other in skirmishes and has set piece full on fort assaults.
5. Lily Female Courier - changes the courier to a fleshed out female character, combines with the Provincial Courier mod.
6. Lucien - an Imperial scholar green about the adventuring gills you can team up with and help train, comes with his own quest on Solstehim and dialogue to interact with Inigo and Sophia.
7. M'rissi' Tale - a little bit anime, but an interesting companion with full quest.
8. Rigmor of Rokerstead and Rigmor of Cryodiil - two lengthy companion quest mods, includes visiting the Imperial city outside of Skyrim.
9. Sofia - the funniest companion in Skyrim.
10. Travellers of Skyrim - makes the roads seem less empty.
11. Vilja - strongly accented but with tons of dialgue, personality and her own very quirky quest.
12. 3DNPC - adds a host of npcs to the game, I mean loads- many with lengthy conversation trees, lots with their own quests and some you can make companions. Fleshes out your world as you never know when you may encounter one on your travels.
13. OBIS - overhauls all the bandits in Skyrim, adding more camps, types, bandit factions with chiefs and dynamic bandit attacks.

New Lands/Places

1. Beyond Skyrim:Bruma  - adds Bruma from Oblviion to Skyrim letting you cross the borders and expanding the map- loads of quests too.
2. Beyond Reach - another quest heavy new land mod in Forsworn territory.
3. Helarchen Creek - new location to explore
4. Forgotten Dungeons - several new dungeones to visit with unique looks and layouts
5. Falskaar - dlc sized mod set in a whole new island with full main quest and side quests
6. Inns and Taverns - adds inns and taverns at useful places for the weary traveller and the npcs to go with them.
7. Ivarstead - additions to the town.
8. Kynesgrove - additions ot the town.
9. Legendary Cities: TES Arena - adds a bunch of locations, villages and towns back into Skyrim which were mentioned in TES Arena but were mysteriously absent.
10. Lyngwi- a nordic village
11. Redordans Retreat- adds to this location and expands on it.
12. Rorikstead - additions to the town
13. Sherzie's Old Hroldan - additions to the town
14. Shor's Stone - additions to the town
15. Skyrim Underground - adds sewer systems to explore complete with creatures and factions beneath Skyrims major cities
16. Solitude Expansion - makes the capital seem like a captial with greatly expanded dock and town.
17. Whistling Mine - new location to explore.

Creatures/Wildlife

1. Beasts of Tamriel- adds 100 new creatures to the world plus ingredients and new recipes.
2. Birds and Flocks - adds more birds and spawn points for birds
3. Cats in Skyrim- does what it says, adds cats
4. Deadly Dragons - makes dragons more of a challenge with a greater array of attacks and powers.
5. Diverse Dragons - adds many new varieties of dragon and their appearances.
6. Dogs of Skyrim - adds a variety of dog breeds, stray dogs, and puppies to the game.
7. Immersive Dragons - rescales dragons to be more impressive,
8. Dwemmer Spectres - adds a variety of dwemmer spectre enemies to dwemmer dungeons
9. Immersive World Encounters - adds a variety of random encounters you can run into on your travels.
10. Immersive Creatures - adds a whole host of creatures and interactions to the game and increases the varieties and types of existing creatures.
11. Skytest- realistic animals and predators - vastly improves vanilla wildlife with seasonal habits, mating seasons, young variants of every animal and gives wildlife ai packages so they have daily routines suitable to their species such as hunting, drinking, sleeping.
12. Splendor Dragon variants- adds yet more variation and powers to the dragons, combined with other dragon mods on this list it will make the games dragons a truly memorable encounter every time with far more variety.
13. Wild Herds of Skyrim - adds herds of wild horses to certain parts of the map.
14. Wild Penguins - adds colonies of penguins to certain parts of the map.
15. Skybirds - adds more variety and types of birds, adds more birds and puts birds in towns.


Quests

1. Missives - adds radiant quest mission by means of missives
2. Moon and Star - a quest mod
3. Moonpath to Elsweyr - visit the desert and jungles of the Khakiit in this quest mod
4. Provincial Courier Service - works with Lily mod, quest mod
5. Quaxe's Questorium - a massive mod adding many new and some lengthy quests to the game to undertake including helping to rebuild Winterhold.
6. The Grey Cowl of Nocturnal - quest mod, travel to the deserts of the Aki'ir in this thief based mod.
7. Warzones-civil unrest - adds war zones, everything from small scale skirmishes to full on battles bringing the civil war to life around you.
8. Civil War Aftermath - lets you take enemy camps and kill their commanders to seize them for your side in the civil war.
9. Civil War Checkpoints - adds fortifications and checkpoints at strategic points and borders of Skyrim to reflect the state of war, everything from fully garrisoned outposts to temporary barracks for troop son the move.
10. The Forgotten City- a timey-whimey award winning quest mod with the emphasis on narrative and characters.
11. Helgen rebuilt - rebuild Helgen destroyed by Alduin at games start and eventually become its Jarl.
12. Open civil war- completely opens up the civil war, using the games war maps as a mini strategy game in which territory can be targeted to be taken and then fought for, or where territory can be defended to prevent loss. Makes the civil war dynamic as originally intended and with the possibility you can now lose it.

Mods Gameplay additions/improvements

1. Apocalypse magic- adds a host of new spells and effects to the game
2. Arts Metallica - greatly improves smithing
3. Campfire - adds camping equipment, the ability to gather wood in the wild, set up camps as you wish with tents, stools, fires, cooking pots etc essential if using Frostfall.
4. Dead body collision- makes dead bodies have collision so you can longer walk right through them.
5. Frozen, electrocuted, combustible - makes people killed by magic look they have been- so fire spells leave charred bodies, iced bodies can shatter into bits, electrocuted bodies are blackened.
6. Druag Weaponry Replacer 2 - adds a whole range of ancient Nord weaponry to he undead of Skyrim
7. Drinking Fountains of Skyrim - ads fountains to the major cities, handy when using a needs mod.
8. Elemental Staffs- adds a bunch of new staffs and powers to the game.
9. Harvest Overhaul Redone plants and animals - overhauls how ingredients are gathered fomr plants and animals with greater variety and quantities of ingredients.
10. Immersive Citizens - adds lots of cut dialogue for npc's and adds load sof new and improved AI, brings the world to life and less repetition.
11. Immersive College of Winterhold- make the college seem more like a proper college with students and classes etc
12. Immersive Weapons- adds a pile of new weaponry to play with
13. iNeed - adds the need to eat, drink and sleep regularly and makes the effects from disease over time have more of a dramatic effect.
14. Lethal Traps - as it sounds, makes traps deadly
15. Mark books as read - so you know what youve read
16. Mines and farms sell stock - as it sounds, now you can buy and sell suitable goods form them
17. Morrowind imports - adds goods form Morrowind to certain vendors
18. Order my items - lets you order items from blacksmiths if they are out of stock
19. People are strangers - now everyone's a stranger till you talk to them
20. Point the Way - adds lots more road signs around Skyrims roads
21. Read and Learn Speechcraft- reading improves speechcraft
22. Relationship's dialogue overhaul - massive overhaul of the games npc' dialogue adding more variety and diversity
23. Revenge of the Enemies- improves enemy AI in combat, now they will team up, flank and act more sensibly, also adds extra powers to certain enemies
24. Rich Syrim merchants - gives the merchants bit more money for when your selling your junk
25. Run and walk at your pace - saves having to wait on dawdling npc's when you are with one, now they move as quick you do
26. Reputation- adds a reputation system to the game which affects how you are treated by different factions.
27. Tanning and smithing experience - does what it says, get experience from using the tanning rack
28. The Choice is Yours- prevents quests being added just because you heard someone talk about it, now you have to actually actively choose to do it.
29. The Notice Board - adds boards in towns and villages advertising jobs as well local gossip.
30. The Parthanaax Dilemna- gives extra options ot hevanilla quest
31. Wet and Cold - weather affects how npc's act, they will wear hoods, go inside if its bad, market stalls will close in the worse weather
32. Wintersun - adds religion to the game, pick your deity, do the sort of things they like, try to avoid what they dont, and pray regularly for blessings, or fall short of your god and get cursed instead. Turns Skyrims plethora of gods into more than background.
33. Frostfall- makes Skyrims climate truly harsh by having it affect the player, freeze to death on mount-tops or in forzen waters, seek out inns or light fires in the wild to survive. Goes great with the campfire mod.
34. Ordinator- overhaul;s the games perk system for more variety and specialisation.
35. Combat Evolved- adds lots to combat, both how enemies will approach a fight and possible effects from fights such as bleeding out, having limbs incapacitated etc. (note- not suitable for VR as the stagger motions which are automatic can be motion sickness inducing and don't work properly in VR)


Weather and Lighting

1. Obsidian Weathers and Seasons- adds weather which changes depenidng which month it is, adds a variety of new weathers with fogs and clouds that wreath the mountains, very atmospheric.
2. ELFX (hardcore version) - alters the games lighting to improve it and make it more natural as well as making interiors, and dungeons in particular much darker making them more challenging, creepier and giving you reasons to carry torches about or have a mage light spell learned.
3. True Storms- drasticly improves the vanilla storms to be more varied and wilder. Snow can now be a gentle flurry or a blinding blizzard, rain can drizzle down or be torrential and thunder will be more varied and realistic, works great with the lightening during storms mod.


Mods Non-essential immersion addition.

1. Animated Clutter - makes things like barrels and bags animate and open when activated.
2. Audio Overhaul 2 - adds tons of variety and ambience to the game world.
3. Bandolier Bags and Pouches - to help with that carry weight, make some handy bags.
4. Beast Skeletons - now you will find skeletons of Argonians, Khajit, and Skyrims other races dotted about not jkust humans.
5. Bells of Skyrim- adds bells to major settlements that are rung during attacks (works great with citizen ai mod as it sends civilians running for cover)
6. Blowing in the wind- makes signs and the like blow in the wind instead of just hanging there
7. Cloaks of Skyrim (count as essential if using Frostfall)- adds cloaks to the game.
8. Cloaks of the Nords (count as essential if using Frostfall)- adds furrier cloaks ot thegame.
9. Designs of the Nords - redoes all the Nord banners and the designs
10. Diverse Guards- guards form other races, some are even women!
11. Dynamic Things- now stuff you couldn't interact with before, types of barrel, crates are all interactive with and have stuff in them.
12. Footprints- leaves footprints in the snow, great for tracking creatures or wildlife.
13. Immersive Armours - adds suitable shiny armour to important people.
14. Immersive Fallen Trees- adds fallen trees in realistic, but handy places, like fallen across rivers when there are no bridges about, useful when using Frostfall when the water might be freezing cold.
15. Immersive jewellery- adds tons of new jewellery to wear and find and sell
16. Immersive Laundry- adds hanging laundry outside houses and farms and strung across streets
17. Leather backpack - adds a backpack
18. Lightening during thunderstorms - adds lightening strikes that kill you to the game world during thunder storms.
19. RS Children- alters the appreance of vanilla children who all ook alike to be different and reflect the appearance of their parents.
20. Skyrim chimneys- adds chimneys to the building in Skyrim with a fire inside but no chimney outside
21. Skyrim is windy- makes Skyrim much windier with more sway on trees and grass
22. Sounds of Skyrim - adds a ton of ambient sounds to Skyrim, works great with Audio overhaul top really give variety to the audio.
23. WIC Cloaks (count as essential if using Frostfall)- Game of Thrones style thick winter cloaks
24. Wonders of Weather- adds rainbows, shooting stars, meteor storms at certain times of the year and rainbows in the right conditions.
25. Holidays - Skyrim has holidays you never see but only read about now the people celebrate with parties, banners, flags and decorations and feasts on special days of the year.  }}

{{ LA Noire: The VR Case Files - Review


{{ Its mid-evening, a grey night full of long shadows and I'm standing on an overpass overlooking the dank watercourse that runs through lower down-town LA. Ahead the twinkling yellow lights of suburbia hinting at homecomings and family meals, green lawns and picket fences obscuring all the dark secrets that hide within them. Behind, down-town, and beyond the dream factory, Hollywood, a meat factory of wannabes starlets, drug dealers and high class pimps, more likely to turn dreams into nightmares as light a new Star.
I turn as behind me a red tram disturbs my thoughts as it rumbles by in the centre of the flow of intermittent traffic, the last of the rush-hour stragglers and the still single with no need of haste crawling home in shells of gleaming chrome bumpers and long fins under yellow electric lights, pumping blue-grey smoke from exhausts to join the hazy toxic sky. I stare up into it for it a moment, the moon veiled in clouds and the reek of humanity. And then I lower my gaze and notice the bench beside me, a normal unremarkable everyday wooden bench, along its back a poster with a painting of a blonde happy smiling housewife advertising some revolutionary new hair product. Another wonder of the age. Consumerism plastering over the cracked and faded wood of something once so much more alive.
It is 1947 and this is Hollywood in its Golden Era. And in an alleyway not six blocks from here a young Negroid male was pushed up against a wall and had his brains unceremoniously blown out, leaving nothing but his corpse, a bloody red mess on the wall and a discarded gun on a rooftop, not much to go on. But out there, somewhere, is the scum who pulled the trigger. I'm Cole Phelps. And its my job as an officer of the LAPD to find him.

And that was how I felt playing LA Noire VR earlier tonight.


(note that was trailer for 2d version, the Vr release only got a teaser below)


For those not in the know LA Noire is a game produced by Rockstar, they of Grand Theft Auto fame. And on the surface there are obvious similarities. La Noire gives you post war 40's LA to explore, or at least a big chunk of it. Its an open city you can roam and explore at will like those of GTA and there are a (limited) number of side things to do (but plenty to see- Ill come back to that). Unlike GTA games however this is not a fictional city, but a painstaking recreation of 1947 LA.
And its focus is not on exploring or roaming really, its just really there for when you want a break from the main meal, the meat of the game. Which is solving cases.

You play as Cole Phelps, newly returned from the war and into the LAPD. A couple of breaks on the first few cases you stumble into see you promoted up the ranks and soon onto homicides.

The gameplay in every mission is largely the same- go to a crime scene, examine the crime scene, find clues, follow them up, interrogate suspects, occasionally get into fights/shoot-outs/chases across rooftops/car chases, then finally make your arrest and get the confession out of them back at the cop shop.

The mechanics by which this work are drive, search, talk and make judgement calls on if you think if someone is lying or not by being good cop, bad cop or accusatory (which requires you have the evidence to back it up). Knowing if someone is lying relies on the games famous facial animation, which was detailed and painstakingly taken from actors performing the roles and it uncanny at times. In early missions the lies are pretty obvious with actors putting plenty tells in for you to spot, but it does become a bit trickier as missions progress to judge when someone is telling you the truth or not.
To aid you in this you have a notebook in which you put the cases, suspects, witnesses, clues and can use it to cross examine witnesses, say highlighting a piece of evidence in your note book to accuse them with.
Its somewhat reminiscent of the device used in the classic point and click noir detective game Discworld Noir, where it likewise worked well as a tool to let you interrogate suspects on a variety of topics and I doubt that's a coincidence and it works just as well here.

So how does it all translate to VR?

A mixed bag in some respects but overall pretty well, so I'll deal with the bad Ive encountered so far first and get it out the way.

Control is clunky. Not that it doesn't work just a lot of things feel clunky to do.
Movement in particular is a bug bear. Instead of giving you the option to just move with the sticks like you would on a joypad you instead have to swing your arms about like your a power walker and it goes whatever way your head is facing. It works more or less with a lot of fine small adjustments as you move to your standing position and turning, but it feels less immediate than just using the sticks to move and also makes you feel unnecessarily silly.
The other method is sort of ghost movement, say you arrive at a gun shop in your car to track down a gun purchase, when you get out the shop door, which might be a few metres away, or down the street a bit will glow yellow- a quick double tap and your character sort of goes transparent and walks from you to that location as you watch, the screen fades and fades up and you're there. I personally don't like this as I find it immersion breaking, which leaves me swinging my arms about to move.

Gun-play I will not quite comment on, it doesn't come up a huge deal in the early bits, your more likely to get into a fist fight, and as I am only a few missions in to it Ive only had one major gun bit with a bank heist. It felt a bit clunky, aiming was tricky, you really had to hold the gun up and take a bead down it to have a hope of hitting, but I quite liked that, and I did like that you had to both physically reload the shotgun with shells into the chamber and pump the barrel before firing. Also that you can hold the shotgun with one hand but its hard to hold up straight or steady one handed and extremely erratic and inaccurate when firing, but I liked you can hold with one, either or both hands.

Driving is an interesting experience- I am reminded of the Better than Life episode of Red Dwarf where they all think they are in a car chase and it cuts to show them all sitting on crates pretending to bounce up and down as Lister pretends to drive and turn an invisible steering wheel- that's what you look like driving in LA Noire to everyone else watching.

(1.50)


You sit down, you reach out a hand, push the grip button to grab the choke, pull it out, grab the key and give it a turn, rev the engine and then you grab the wheel and you turn by turning your hands on your not really there wheel- its actually quite tiring holding your arms out for a length of time, which is probably why you can skip to the destination if you like- personally though apart from feeling very silly and having sore arms after a bit, I rather enjoy driving the old vintage cars about which are ridiculously heavy with huge turning circles and like tanks when you get them up to speed. And you can use the car radio, honk the horn, put the siren on and stuff while your in there. Mainly though the city is worth seeing just driving about as a tourist.

At crime scenes its free roaming (more arm swinging) as you examine the scene and look for clues, this works really well just looking about, crouching down to check stuff out, picking stuff up for a closer look at to see if looks  like a clue or everyday rubbish. This, the actual detectoring parts are really good, same goes for going through folks apartments and the like, all the crime scenes so far have been interesting to explore and fun to piece together the clues of what happened there. And the controls, apart from the usual arm swinging thing, work fine in crime scenes.

The facial animation thing is a mixed blessing- its at times frighteningly real, when Liam Neilson's cop chief gives you a bollocking its actually rather intimidating face to face with that level of animation detail! It's only downsides are a touch of the uncanny valley and that as you are encouraged to scrutinize faces to tell if they are lying or not you will notice the seams, where the animations of the facial expressions blend into one another and there is a frame or two where the new animation fades into the old.
But overall the effect is still far more impressive than its minor flaws detract from it.

But what really makes it worth playing in VR over 2D is just the atmosphere. The sort of small things that are just there in a flat screen game, dressing on the set; the period phone, the advert in the window, the shoes and clothes in the shop, the tins of food and boxes of cereal in cupboards- all the tiny minutiae that you usually gloss over when playing a game as just scene setting takes on all new interest in VR- you want to go up have a look at the phone, you want to read the advert, nosey in the shop windows like you were there because you feel like you are there. You really appreciate all the little period touches and detail that make the times feel authentic.
And this total immersion in all things late 1940's- from the radio stations, to the news reports, and all the period detail and clutter gives you a tangible sense of the times that I have never encountered before in a game or film to quite the same degree.
Just driving around the recreation of 1947 LA is a treat of atmosphere and period detail.

The best way I can describe it is to go back and read my opening again and then realise that after the moment where I was was looking at the advert on the bench it was followed by the thought that this was probably as close to getting a trip in the TARDIS as I was ever going to get, and I was pretty happy with it. I even had a smile on my face.   And that should be recommendation enough I think.     }}

As a pretty big fan of the movie "The assassination og Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford" I damn near got a nerdgasm from this scene in RDR2

Well now you're making me have to pick up TAOJJBTCRF.

Took a peek. Great cast.

One of my favorites

I think I am going to make a video of my top games of all time. I was attempting to go with 10 but it crept to 15.

Will post here if I finish it.

{{ I'm trying hard to avoid Read Dead spoilers as I'm holding out for a pc version this time! But going to assume its amazing Ringo

Look forward to your vid Lance

Highly recommend this for anyone on pc VR, and especially if your a Who fan. TARDIS VR. Its a bit glitchy here and there and made by one person, but its also free, and has some great moments if your a fan. Just walking round the TARDIS (12's so its also a good one, not the crappy current one) whilst peering in the open front doors and seeing the large interior is cool, setting her in flight and the lights going and time rotors spinning and column going and that wonderful dematerialisation sound starts- chills! Also for some reason there is a Dalek wandering the corridor, they are much more intimidating than you might expect!    }}

{{ Was testing a program for recording games. So heres me playing Skyrim. Frame rate tanks at the start for some reason, much worse than ingame, especially in the goblin village area (thats modding for you) plus I seem to lose somewhere between about 10-20 frames when recording as opposed to when just playing. So you might want to skip to about 8 minutes in when it starts to settle down a bit!
Oh and it ends on an infinite loading screen- so the vid actually ends at 28 mins in, everything after that is just a loading screen. Typically in all my time playing it in VR that's the first infinite loading screen Ive hit And no, I'm not providing a translation for anything I say but it may contain swearing, well it does contain swearing would be more accurate! }}

{{ After the success of my skyrim vid above heres me playing Beatsaber in VR.
The genius of this game, like many great addictive games, lies in its simplicity.
In your right hand you have a blue light saber. In your left a red one. Boxes come towards you which are either blue or red, hit the right colour box with the corresponding coloured saber in time to the music.
To add to things the boxes have an arrow on them, indicating in which direction you have to cut them.
And that's pretty much it.
Its basically just waving your arms about meaning anyone can pick it up, but fiendish on higher levels. I'm playing here on expert. And the song, Flower Dance, is one added by modders, its not part of the base game. But I like the tune, and more importantly its a lot of fun to play.

Proves nicely just how well your eye and hands can work if you don't have time to let your brain think about it! }}

{{ Hideo Kojima's latest masterpiece. Looks fresh, daring, innovative, arty, beautiful and epic, and like it wont make a blind bit of sense. So basically a typical Hideo release! }}

Yep, typical Kojima.

Not sure if I will get it or not yet. Last of Us 2 out early next year too!

{{Some more Beatsaber I recorded while playing.
3 songs here each one I picked as it shows a different fiendish way to play.

The first song, a rather catchy dance version of the Star Wars Cantina Band tune, is a classic Beat saber style track, being mainly straightforward slicing motions on the beat (with a tricksy middle section!), its your default beatsaber style.

Song two, Shadows by Lindsey Sterling, - 02.48 - a lovely violin piece on the other-hand is one where its all about small delicate movements, precision twisting of the wrist to get to the next angle which forces you to make shapes in the air. Its all about rapid fine adjustments.

The final song, Marlyn Mansons This is Halloween - 06.30 - is what I think of as a zen song. As in you have to be in a state of gaming zen to finish it as the speed needed to do so means you simply dont have time to think. The only way to complete it is to be in the moment, unthinking, just the game. Pure zen gaming.

Also you get a very good workout playing this game! }}}

Pettytyrant101 wrote:{{ Hideo Kojima's latest masterpiece. Looks  fresh, daring, innovative, arty, beautiful and epic, and like it wont make a blind bit of sense. So basically a typical Hideo release! }}

Looks interesting, and has from the start. Unfortunately won't be able to play it as its a PlayStation exclusive... Kojima's gone back to his old ways.... (to be fair, may not have been his choice)

{{ I didnt realise it was an exclusive! Ah well theres my interest in it gone form very to not in the buggering slightest!

I hate exclusivity deals   - I hate more when its supposed artists like Hideo doing it- he doesn't need it, he's not some fledgeling developer that has to suck the corporate teat, he's minted and famous.
For me all this says is 'I think me making even vaster sums of money is way more important than my art reaching and being experienced by as many people a possible- fuck them, just give me crates of cash!' }}

{{ A little different this time- playing Alien Isolation VR. Its hard to convey out of VR both how tense an experience this is and just how wonderfully they have recreated the look and feel of the original Alien film. Also has an incredible soundscape.
This is from the DLC which lets you take part in variations of events from Alien. }}

https://www.yahoo.com/news/amazon-forges-fellowship-apos-lord-130012145.html

Though I care a whiff about video games, this means at least more potential for leaks about the Amazon series.