Who here likes video games? Anyone?

[balto]

Yeah, Nintendo is a bit slow in putting up their back catalogue for some reason. I still have my N64 up in my closet. I should take it out sometime.

Mario Kart 8 comes out in a couple weeks. The retro tracks are very much weighted towards Mario Kart 64 (5 of the 16 tracks). Every other version has only 1-3 tracks featured. I’ll have to get used to actually playing the full course for Wario Stadium and Rainbow Road. I’m so used to taking the unofficial “shortcuts” on those two tracks. I’m sure the upgraded versions make those shortcuts impossible.

Oh nice, I bet your daughter likes Mario Kart . Actually, the latest Mario Kart I have is Double Dash!! from GameCube. That one was pretty fun. I don’t remember the shortcuts you are talking about from MK64 though. I do remember bullying the CPU on Wario Stadium by putting banana peels and fake items right before that jump over the ravine so they’d fall off and get set way back .

I actually just ordered a 3DS recently and I think it will be here either today or tomorrow. Looking forward to playing Kingdom Hearts 3D and A Link Between Worlds. I heard that A Link Between Worlds is set in the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past. Let’s see if I can remember any of that Hyrule .

 

[balto]

and last but certainly not least, the Tales of series (Symphonia was my first, I fell in love with it. Then came Abyss, and I recently got Vesperia but haven’t beaten it yet)

Tales is so much fun if you have other people to play with! I used to play with my roommates in college. Repede is my all time favorite character to play as. I’m looking forward to Tales of Xillia 2 coming out in August.

 

[Joe_5859]

Oh nice, I bet your daughter likes Mario Kart . Actually, the latest Mario Kart I have is Double Dash!! from GameCube. That one was pretty fun. I don’t remember the shortcuts you are talking about from MK64 though. I do remember bullying the CPU on Wario Stadium by putting banana peels and fake items right before that jump over the ravine so they’d fall off and get set way back .

I actually just ordered a 3DS recently and I think it will be here either today or tomorrow. Looking forward to playing Kingdom Hearts 3D and A Link Between Worlds. I heard that A Link Between Worlds is set in the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past. Let’s see if I can remember any of that Hyrule .

Yes, my daughter is a big fan of Mario Kart, too. In Mario Kart 64, it was actually possible to finish all three laps of Wario Stadium in under 20 seconds (total). Right after the starting line, there were three little “hills”. If you veered to the left and hit the hop button just as you ran into the wall at the top of one of the hills, you would hop over the wall and be halfway through the lap. You could circle around and hop back again to complete the lap in about 7 seconds, but the second shortcut was much more difficult to pull off consistently. So I usually settled for just the one. I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who would set traps for other players on those big jumps.

Rainbow Road was similar. The course had that immediate drop off. If you veered to the left, you could fly off the track. If you angled it right, you would land on the track further on down and cut off about half the lap.

I’m jealous of your getting a 3DS. I never took the plunge into the handheld market. Now that the handheld games almost rival some of the console games, I am more and more tempted to do so. You’ll have to tell me how Link Between Worlds is. Link to the Past was my intro into the world of Zelda. The idea of a sequel makes it very tempting to get a 3DS. Alas, I don’t think I could convince my wife to go for it.

 

[balto]

Yes, my daughter is a big fan of Mario Kart, too. In Mario Kart 64, it was actually possible to finish all three laps of Wario Stadium in under 20 seconds (total). Right after the starting line, there were three little “hills”. If you veered to the left and hit the hop button just as you ran into the wall at the top of one of the hills, you would hop over the wall and be halfway through the lap. You could circle around and hop back again to complete the lap in about 7 seconds, but the second shortcut was much more difficult to pull off consistently. So I usually settled for just the one. I’m glad to hear I wasn’t the only one who would set traps for other players on those big jumps.

Rainbow Road was similar. The course had that immediate drop off. If you veered to the left, you could fly off the track. If you angled it right, you would land on the track further on down and cut off about half the lap.

Actually, trying to leap over the walls sounds like something I used to try to do. I also remember trying very hard to land on that little island in the jungle track in the middle of that river that the ferry is sailing around . The MK64 Rainbow Road was the only easy Rainbow Road, only it was so long so I can understand why you’d want to cut out half the track haha. I remember playing the Wii Mario Kart with some friends and coming in 11th/12 on that Rainbow Road because I kept falling off. I didn’t come in last place because one of my friends was even worse than me .

I’m jealous of your getting a 3DS. I never took the plunge into the handheld market. Now that the handheld games almost rival some of the console games, I am more and more tempted to do so. You’ll have to tell me how Link Between Worlds is. Link to the Past was my intro into the world of Zelda. The idea of a sequel makes it very tempting to get a 3DS. Alas, I don’t think I could convince my wife to go for it.

I guess that’s one of the perks of being single? I don’t have to get someone’s permission to do things, although my mother would say that attitude is precisely the reason why I need to find a wife . But I’m sure your daughter would agree with you that a 3DS would be a good investment and Zelda is the greatest thing ever so surely your wife would understand that haha . A Link Between Worlds looked pretty good, and I am glad they finally brought back the magic meter. I’ll let you know how it is when I end up getting it. The 3DS came today with Kingdom Hearts 3D so I was just trying that out.

 

[Joe_5859]

Actually, trying to leap over the walls sounds like something I used to try to do. I also remember trying very hard to land on that little island in the jungle track in the middle of that river that the ferry is sailing around . The MK64 Rainbow Road was the only easy Rainbow Road, only it was so long so I can understand why you’d want to cut out half the track haha. I remember playing the Wii Mario Kart with some friends and coming in 11th/12 on that Rainbow Road because I kept falling off. I didn’t come in last place because one of my friends was even worse than me .

Funny, I always tried that in the jungle track, too. Never succeeded, though. I think in Mario Kart 8, they are treating the 64 Rainbow Road as one long track with three checkpoints rather than three laps. I had forgotten how long that one was. There were far more guardrails, though.

I guess that’s one of the perks of being single? I don’t have to get someone’s permission to do things, although my mother would say that attitude is precisely the reason why I need to find a wife . But I’m sure your daughter would agree with you that a 3DS would be a good investment and Zelda is the greatest thing ever so surely your wife would understand that haha . A Link Between Worlds looked pretty good, and I am glad they finally brought back the magic meter. I’ll let you know how it is when I end up getting it. The 3DS came today with Kingdom Hearts 3D so I was just trying that out.

Yes, in marriage, my money is not my own. I’ll have to bide my time on the 3DS. I just got the Wii U not that long ago, and I’m slowly adding more games. Maybe in another year or so.

 

[Pancras]

.
I’ve heard sermons that warn parents about letting their children use video games too much.

And they’ve had a lot of criticisms about how video games can do nothing for your children in growing in the faith.

But I have to wonder if perhaps there is not the right kind of video game yet.

How about a game that requires players to quote Scripture by chapter and verse, in order to be successful in the video game?

Has anyone heard of that around here?
.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

How about a game that requires players to quote Scripture by chapter and verse, in order to be successful in the video game?

Has anyone heard of that around here?

I have and they sucked. Same goes for a lot of games that were created in the same spirit of religious education.

Then again, if education’s your goal, I’m sure another attempt wouldn’t be too bad. I just hope ‘Christian’ parents would get their heads out of the sand and break the following habits:

• Blaming video games for bad parenting
• Think educational/religious games should define the industry
• Ignore the skills one learns from mainstream video games

People whine about video game addiction but the above seem just as addictive to those in parental and religious authority.

(And on that last point, I can definitely vouch that the games of mainstream entertainment taught me more about financial management than the Bible. )

 

[Joe_5859]

.
I’ve heard sermons that warn parents about letting their children use video games too much.

And they’ve had a lot of criticisms about how video games can do nothing for your children in growing in the faith.

But I have to wonder if perhaps there is not the right kind of video game yet.

How about a game that requires players to quote Scripture by chapter and verse, in order to be successful in the video game?

Has anyone heard of that around here?
.

I’ll put it more delicately than Lost Wanderer () and say that the religiously themed video games I have seen and played left something to be desired. Although, I did rather enjoy “The Bible Game” on the PlayStation 2. It was set up like a game show.

I think video games are much like any other entertainment medium/art. There is good and bad and moderation is always key.

As with any type of Christian art, I think that Christian video games should aim first to be good video games. The message is important, but when you focus on the message to the exclusion of the craft, you generally end up with something subpar. You can get rather bad Christian music, literature, or movies when you start from the vantage point of saying “I’m going to create this thing and it’s going to bring everyone to Christ!” That’s a laudable goal. But a wonderful end doesn’t justify neglecting the means to get there.

Just as there are good themes to be gleaned from non-Christian movies, the same is true for video games. Think of many of the Marvel superhero movies. There are lots of good themes about courage, loyalty, sacrifice, etc. The same is true for video games.

As I said before, though, moderation is key. It can be very easy (for some moreso than others) to lose track of all time while playing a video game. That’s where parental oversight comes in.

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

There’s a lot of religious angles that could be explored in video games.

An action adventure game featuring Noah? Play Jonah and survive in the belly of the whale. Play Moses and lead your people out of Egypt. A David vs. Goliath type of game. The battle of Jericho.

Just some ideas.

 

[Kamaduck]

There’s a lot of religious angles that could be explored in video games.

An action adventure game featuring Noah? Play Jonah and survive in the belly of the whale. Play Moses and lead your people out of Egypt. A David vs. Goliath type of game. The battle of Jericho.

Just some ideas.

You could make a pretty awesome Bible-based video game, but I’ve never seen it done. All the ones I’ve tried pretty much boil down to answering trivia about the Bible. If they have other gameplay aspects, they’re generally not very good, and have little to do with the Bible stories.

But if anybody wants to make a Bible-based game that works more like an actual video game than a series of quizzes, sign me up. I think I’d probably go for the events of Acts, following various early missionaries on their journeys. Or maybe an RPG where you play as David- he’s got enough stories to fill a lot of chapters/levels/whatever. Something like that would be cool.

Speaking of the 3DS discussion from before, I hear Nintendo is finally making Hoenn remakes. I don’t know if anybody else here is excited about that, but I’m excited. (If my avatar wasn’t a clue, I still like Pokemon. )

 

[balto]

You could make a pretty awesome Bible-based video game, but I’ve never seen it done. All the ones I’ve tried pretty much boil down to answering trivia about the Bible. If they have other gameplay aspects, they’re generally not very good, and have little to do with the Bible stories.

But if anybody wants to make a Bible-based game that works more like an actual video game than a series of quizzes, sign me up. I think I’d probably go for the events of Acts, following various early missionaries on their journeys. Or maybe an RPG where you play as David- he’s got enough stories to fill a lot of chapters/levels/whatever. Something like that would be cool.

Yeah, something like that would be better. I think Joe 5859 has the right idea. What would be best, I think, is having a video game plot that isn’t overtly Christian but has a lot of Christian themes throughout the game. Kind of like how The Lord of the Rings is not obviously Catholic but the themes and morals are fundamentally Catholic. Then people would be influenced positively without even realizing it.

Speaking of the 3DS discussion from before, I hear Nintendo is finally making Hoenn remakes. I don’t know if anybody else here is excited about that, but I’m excited. (If my avatar wasn’t a clue, I still like Pokemon. )

I didn’t know what Hoenn was so I had to Google it, lol. Is Togepi your favorite Pokemon? I was thinking about either getting Pokemon X or Y eventually, but it’s been a while since I played Pokemon and I don’t really know any of the Pokemon past generation 2 (except for some of the ones on Super Smash Bros. Brawl lol). My parents didn’t let us have Gameboys growing up, but we did get to play Pokemon Silver through the special thing on Pokemon Stadium II. My brother and I had a mean Lv. 100 Lugia and Lv. 100 Houndoom. Made some of those nasty tournaments in Pokemon Stadium II much easier.

 

[Kamaduck]

Yeah, something like that would be better. I think Joe 5859 has the right idea. What would be best, I think, is having a video game plot that isn’t overtly Christian but has a lot of Christian themes throughout the game. Kind of like how The Lord of the Rings is not obviously Catholic but the themes and morals are fundamentally Catholic. Then people would be influenced positively without even realizing it.

That would be ideal. I think people underestimate the amount of subtlety a game can have, thinking that if there isn’t an overt and obvious lesson, people won’t get it. But what you really want to do is capture people’s imagination, and create a world that they want to come back to. If that world is positive and moral, then people will be positively influenced.

I didn’t know what Hoenn was so I had to Google it, lol. Is Togepi your favorite Pokemon? I was thinking about either getting Pokemon X or Y eventually, but it’s been a while since I played Pokemon and I don’t really know any of the Pokemon past generation 2 (except for some of the ones on Super Smash Bros. Brawl lol). My parents didn’t let us have Gameboys growing up, but we did get to play Pokemon Silver through the special thing on Pokemon Stadium II. My brother and I had a mean Lv. 100 Lugia and Lv. 100 Houndoom. Made some of those nasty tournaments in Pokemon Stadium II much easier.

Togepi’s cute, but I don’t think it’s my favorite. I really like the idea of Tropius (giant flying plant-dinosaur that grows fruit from its neck). I guess in-game I really like Swampert. Most of my favorites are Generation III, since those were my first games growing up.

I got out of the habit of playing pokemon after Gen IV, but now that the Hoenn remakes are coming out, I think I’ll buy one. Might as well get X or Y while I’m at it. I’ve only got one game for my 3DS right now, so I feel like I should get some more use out of the system.

 

[Razanir]

Oh nice, I bet your daughter likes Mario Kart . Actually, the latest Mario Kart I have is Double Dash!! from GameCube. That one was pretty fun. I don’t remember the shortcuts you are talking about from MK64 though. I do remember bullying the CPU on Wario Stadium by putting banana peels and fake items right before that jump over the ravine so they’d fall off and get set way back .

I actually just ordered a 3DS recently and I think it will be here either today or tomorrow. Looking forward to playing Kingdom Hearts 3D and A Link Between Worlds. I heard that A Link Between Worlds is set in the same Hyrule as A Link to the Past. Let’s see if I can remember any of that Hyrule .

I recommend the bikes in Mario Kart Wii (and presumably 7 and 8). I feel like they handle a lot better than the karts do. Also, LBW is mostly the same world, though a few connections change, order changes (or more exactly opens up), you don’t have to BUY the flippers, and a few dungeons move (Turtle Rock is now in the lake, and gets replaced with Ice Ruins)

But if anybody wants to make a Bible-based game that works more like an actual video game than a series of quizzes, sign me up. I think I’d probably go for the events of Acts, following various early missionaries on their journeys. Or maybe an RPG where you play as David- he’s got enough stories to fill a lot of chapters/levels/whatever. Something like that would be cool.

Or perhaps you base it off of all of Samuel and Kings, and have multiple acts/sections/chapters for the different kings. Yeah, David’s cool and all, but that’d leave out a chance to rescue the Ark from the Philistines.

(And maybe even go so far as to include Judges)

Speaking of the 3DS discussion from before, I hear Nintendo is finally making Hoenn remakes. I don’t know if anybody else here is excited about that, but I’m excited. (If my avatar wasn’t a clue, I still like Pokemon. )

:extrahappy: I stayed around because Gen VI sounded cool. But I’d decided long ago that even if I’d stopped playing pokémon by these games, I’d temporarily come out of poké-retirement for them. The only huge new addition is the Fairy type. Which is actually really well thought out. It’s weak to Steel. Which sounds random, unless you’re familiar with Celtic mythology and/or gaming lore. The fey were weak to iron. It’s why in D&D Fey have DR/cold iron, and now why Fairy pokémon are weak to Steel.

I guess in-game I really like Swampert.

You just brought back memories of drivers’ ed, of all things. The Smith System for defensive driving. I’ve already forgotten the actual points, but I’ll never forget my classes mnemonics. Most of the class used “All Gay Kids Love Men”, but a friend of mine and I decided on “All Gyaradoses Kill Little Magikarps” (also the only case I pluralize those pokémon that way). My favorites, though, are Gardevoir, Aegislash (Gen VI, Steel/Ghost), and Noivern (Gen VI, Flying/Dragon).

Finally, Civilization V! You can found a religion, so I always have fun with it. I name mine the Society of Jesus, as a classier-sounding way of playing into conspiracy theories. (Actually naming them the Jesuits would be too obvious) We got voted the world religion. Which meant their holy city of Addis Ababa (I always play as Ethiopia) got a tourism boost and that any countries with a Jesuit majority got extra votes at the World Congress. In other words, I had the Jesuits actually infiltrate the world government, and subsequently win about 100 turns later.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

:extrahappy: I stayed around because Gen VI sounded cool. But I’d decided long ago that even if I’d stopped playing pokémon by these games, I’d temporarily come out of poké-retirement for them. The only huge new addition is the Fairy type. Which is actually really well thought out. It’s weak to Steel. Which sounds random, unless you’re familiar with Celtic mythology and/or gaming lore. The fey were weak to iron. It’s why in D&D Fey have DR/cold iron, and now why Fairy pokémon are weak to Steel.

The Fairy-type really changed the game. I may not play it but my brother helps maintain his friends’ teams on their DS so I hear a lot of commentary.

Speaking as a big fan of the Dragon-type, I loathe Fairy-types for obvious reasons. How can something this awesome…

http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/f/fa/445Garchomp.png/250px-445Garchomp.png

…LOSE TO SOMETHING LIKE THIS???

http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/e/e8/700Sylveon.png/250px-700Sylveon.png

Countless times I’ve envisioned myself as the trainer with all the kaiju-style beasties (Tyranitar, Aggron, Charizard, Feraligator, Salamence etc).

But noooooo! Enter the cute girl with all the Fairy-types. Talk about total emasculation. It’s almost as bad as having Altaria being a Dragon-type.

 

[CatholicWhovian]

Finally, Civilization V! You can found a religion, so I always have fun with it. I name mine the Society of Jesus, as a classier-sounding way of playing into conspiracy theories. (Actually naming them the Jesuits would be too obvious) We got voted the world religion. Which meant their holy city of Addis Ababa (I always play as Ethiopia) got a tourism boost and that any countries with a Jesuit majority got extra votes at the World Congress. In other words, I had the Jesuits actually infiltrate the world government, and subsequently win about 100 turns later.

THIS. Hahahaha

Although personally I don’t like the idea of allowing players to custom edit religions. It might lead people to rename their religion as something ludicrous or even anti-religious. Another mechanic I don’t like (for the expansion Brave New World) is the fact that Christianity is now three separate religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant); which is inaccurate, and unfair for the other religions with the same internal divisions (i.e. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.). Christianity may have different denominations that are culturally distinct from one another yet still adhere to the same core beliefs. It just doesn’t make sense.

And don’t even get me started on the AI (artificial intelligence). That’s why I’ll still stick to Civilization IV

 

[Razanir]

Speaking as a big fan of the Dragon-type, I loathe Fairy-types for obvious reasons.

Speaking as a big fan of Psychic-types, I love them because now my Gardevoir can blast Dragon-types with ease. (Bye, Alakazam! Gardevoir’s replacing you)

THIS. Hahahaha

Although personally I don’t like the idea of allowing players to custom edit religions. It might lead people to rename their religion as something ludicrous or even anti-religious. Another mechanic I don’t like (for the expansion Brave New World) is the fact that Christianity is now three separate religions (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant); which is inaccurate, and unfair for the other religions with the same internal divisions (i.e. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.). Christianity may have different denominations that are culturally distinct from one another yet still adhere to the same core beliefs. It just doesn’t make sense.

I think part of the motivation behind the split is for granularity. So yeah, they’re culturally distinct and you no longer have every Christian country ever wanting to found the same religion, and blocking all of the others from doing so. Now you can have Venice want Catholicism, America want Protestantism, and Greece want Orthodoxy. There just aren’t enough countries with a Jewish/Islamic/Buddhist reference to warrant also splitting those.

But yeah. I’ve gotten good at the religion game in Civ V. I can consistently get all the beliefs I want. Cathedrals, Pagodas, and Sacred Sites. All together, it nets me 3 happiness, 3 culture, 3 faith, a Great Work of Art slot (hard to get in the early game), and 2 tourism per non-puppeted city. (Tourism is new to Brave New World. Now for a cultural victory, you have to generate more net tourism over the course of the game than any other civilization has culture)

 

[Joe_5859]

I recommend the bikes in Mario Kart Wii (and presumably 7 and 8). I feel like they handle a lot better than the karts do.

Yeah, I initially really disliked the bikes. But once I got used to them, I found myself using them exclusively. They can really turn the corners a lot easier.

Mario Kart 8 comes out today! :bounce: :extrahappy: I almost never get games on release day. But for this one I will make an exception.

 

[JorduSpeaks]

On the subject of Bible-themed games, it doesn’t really work because a video game (or any game, for that matter) is fun because it tests the player’s skill at overcoming challenges. The heroes of the Bible, on the other hand, don’t rely on their own skill or talents, at all, instead trusting God to aid them.

 

[Razanir]

On the subject of Bible-themed games, it doesn’t really work because a video game (or any game, for that matter) is fun because it tests the player’s skill at overcoming challenges. The heroes of the Bible, on the other hand, don’t rely on their own skill or talents, at all, instead trusting God to aid them.

I don’t think the dichotomy is as severe as you make it sound. You could, for instance, have the player use their skill to beat the game, but in-universe, explain it as God helping to make it possible. For instance, sure, we know they won at Jericho. But you could still have a level where they put up a resistance after the walls fall.

 

[tantumquantum]

Anyone here plays grand strategy games? I’ve been spending a lot of time rotating between Crusader Kings II, Europa Universalis IV and Hearts of Iron III.