By Jim Rossignol on February 16th, 2010 at 11:17 am.
I was playing Bioshock 2 last night and thinking that the game actually feels like a prequel, or even a better take for the original concept. I mean I know that the story of the big daddies and all the jazz makes more sense if you’ve played the previous game, but somehow Bioshock 2 feels more like what I expected the original game to feel like. It’s hard to qualify with any real clarity, and that’s probably because I’m not getting enough sleep. The other stuff I’ve been playing includes Monaco, which we talked about here, and will talk about again, because it’s just fantastic. I’ve also been slugging my way through Fallen Earth. I’ve been commissioned to write about it for another famed gaming journal, so I’ll link to it when I can, but for a quick skip-to-the-end thought: it’s surprisingly good. There are lots of traditional MMO annoyances in there, but also much that made me smile, especially making a horse. It’s definitely worth hitting the ten day trial for some free nosing. An indie MMO with real promise.
Anyway, what are you lot playing? And why? Speak your brains!
Call of Pripyat, which I’m loving. Actually feels a lot like the game STALKER was always meant to be.
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Agreed. The larger areas alone emphasize the Stalkerness of it.
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I agree with Noom – Call of Pripyat really is excellent. Shadow of Chernobyl always felt to me like a series of really wide corridors, and I never played Clear Sky due to hearing from Mister Rossignol & co that it was a bit of a step backwards. But CoP is just brilliant at capturing a terrible and terrific atmosphere.
I highly recommended getting the “Atmosfear” mod that introduces a lot of bloom (you get used to it) and that makes emissions all blue and weird like the Aurora Borealis, as well as a few other weather changes. I got it from here:
http://stalker.filefront.com/file/AtmosFear_for_STALKER_Call_of_Pripyat;110125
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i’m almost giddy about what modders are going to do with CoP’s more open framework.
i’ve already been mucking about with lowering the damage-threshold beyond which NPCs refuse to buy gear / guns. i’m hoping to find a way to make armour and suits (heavily damaged, in need of repair) available on corpses as well. also, a script like the old AMK script that allowed NPC stalkers to compare their current weapon with a new one found on the ground and pick it up / equip it if it was better would be handy too.
someone else added (or is adding?) the old (removed in CoP) body-parts found on dead mutants, etc.
little things to keep the long-view “scavenge the zone” side-game (or is it the core game?) alive in a freeplay scenario.
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I’m glad my options of what to sell are so limited, otherwise I’d be carrying every single gun back with me (which is lots of running back and to) and I still have more cash than I’ll ever need anyway. I actually feel more like a scavenger this way, I’d find a gun, strip it of ammo, scopes, silencers, throw the bits I can’t sell away, move on.
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part of the fun of that open-ended after-game is reliant on those AMK scripts, so that eventually even the rookies end up deadly, as they’re all shooting at you with third tier assault rifles and wearing heavy dolg / svoboda suits.
in a long-run, it just helps make the game that much less predictable.
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Second run though CoP for myself here.
This time with the Atmosfear and a slightly modified SMRTER mod.
Its all rather good and I’d recommend you check them both out.
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Loving this too. And it hasn’t crashed at all. Result.
And the things you can find! The rusting hulk of earth mover that looks like a circular saw out of the toolkit that God used to make the planet is my favourite amazing thing so far (if you can find the path up there’s a nice surprise in the cab as well).
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How do you strip a gun of ammo / components?
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@leeder_krenon
Right-click anything in the inventory to open a context menu. You can’t strip components unless they’re on the weapon — extra bits like silencers and scopes and grenade launchers — but you can take ammo out of it. Most of the time this isn’t very useful, but now and then you’ll find a rarer weapon that’s broken, but taking the ammo is well worth it.
I too am spending way too much time on this game. I’ve just begun to explore the third area, and it’s amazing how much more dangerous it is. Every time I go out, it’s something I have to actually prepare for, or I’ll end up stranded without bullets or bandages and I’m slowly bleeding out. It’s brilliant.
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Thanks!
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At the moment I’m going through a bunch of old games; Aliens V Predator (the one recently re-released on Steam), Universe at War, Silent Storm and Blood Bowl (on and off).
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Universe At War was an oddly underwhelming game. Only the walking-base dudes really interested me.
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@H
Oh, Silent Storm. So nearly the perfect turn-based strategy game, and then ruined with the Panzerkleins.
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I thought Universe at War was pretty neat. I thought all the races had pretty good design and interesting units. It just never added up to a great game, sadly.
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Universe at War is making me play it, but only to see what I can actually do next. I don’t like the silly heroic wotstheirfaces, the people in white? I want to play the big stompie anti-human people.
And Silent Storm was a legend game, such an epic… and yet bug-ridden and, yes, full of mechs. WTF was that all about?
We need something more like this, only done properly!
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I am still mostly playing Mass Effect 2, despite having finished it twice now. It’s got a vice-like grip on me and when I do play anything, I’m playing that. Very early contender for game of the year, for me, and I have a feeling I am essentially Bioware’s bitch from now on.
I bought Call of Pripyat on Steam with that loyalty discount for having Stalker already, and from what I’ve played of it it’s pretty good, but I’m somehow not feeling it. I’m enjoying it when I do play it, but I can’t summon the energy to play it most of the time. Which is a shame because I really do like the game when I’m playing it. It reminds me of Fallout 3, except more focused on being an actual survival game and without stats. And with a more dynamic world, to cap it all off.
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I can’t bring myself to play ME2. I have too much to do, and I know I’ll just sit and mainline it if I start.
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You can get through it in 30-40 hours, so brew a big cup of coffee and you’ll be finished by the weekend!
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Bioshock 2 – It’s not great, but better than 1.
Bad company 2 – Beta. Pretty good, but the loose “feel” of the weapons is a bit off.
Mass Effect – First play through, before I start Mass Effect 2.
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Oh yeah, Bad Company 2 beta. Been enjoying that despite how shoddy the netcode is for me. I have high hopes of the full game, because I’m pretty sure it’s recapturing the BF2 glory days.
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Playing the work game right now, but I’m very much looking forward to have a try at TSE2 when I come home. Thanks RPS for pointing out that it has become freeware.
Besides that, I enjoy a few hours of Bad Company 2 now and then. Bringing down whole buildings never gets old.
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I’ve been working through a backlog since upgrading just before Christmas (and the Steam sale!). I’ve never had such a condensed period of awesome gaming! Played Portal last week, which was of course beautiful. Started Bioshock 1, but wasn’t in the mood and so I began on:
The Void
I’ve only got 2-3 hours into this but I love it already. It’s just so different and refreshing. I’m not normally someone who enjoys overly arty stuff but this is just done amazingly well. I’m really looking forward to exploring this world, I have a feeling there is more imagination in this game than any other 10.
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Yep, The Void really is Art Game Done Good.
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I feel no shame in saying that I played this game and utterly failed. I usually play most games on hard, but this was too much for me, so I’m joyously awaiting the easy patch that they promised us worthless westerners.
And yes, this is even after the modified “easy start” patch that gave you a wad of color and decreased the color drain for all actions.
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Instead of giving up on The Void when I realised how much tedium was required in maintaining your gardens, I just fired up a bunch of cheats to get me through the game. I came to a point where I just wanted to experience its environments and didn’t particularly care about the game. I also found the naked lady rewards to be troubling.
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@jsutcliffe
Well, it’s not like you’re collecting them on cards or anything…
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I’m playing il2:1946. still. and bloody loving it!
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Well I’ve started through Mass Effect again now I know I won’t be knacked if I avoid the super-tedious sidequests, so I’m going through that (and still being frustrated at “Choose dialogue option” and “Skip dialogue line” being linked bound to the same button.)
Other than that it’s mostly FUMBBL and Blood Bowl with fellow RPSers. The FUMBBL group is currently part way through its fifth tournament.
My laptop’s currently away for repair but once it comes back I think I’ll have a go at Planescape: Torment at long last.
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Mass Effect 2! It is purest gaming crack and I love it. On my second playthrough, but I just can’t bring myself to be enough of a complete bastard. Will probably have to start another character when I finish it this time and really, REALLY try to be horrid to everyone.
Neptunes Pride is proving to be pretty entertaining. Quite tempted by the premium games, but I want to actually win a free game first.
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Oh, yes, playing my second game of NP now. Still engrossed.
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I’m still on my first match of Neptune’s Pride, and it’s quite sucked me in. It’s helped that I started in such a strong position (near the center with two inactive players to one side until the AI took over) that I couldn’t help but have a strong impact on the match. I spent far too much time just staring at the map and strategizing, inbetween sending messages to an ally I met and gained in-game (quite a blessing since 2 – 4 other players are either great buddies or the same person). Been hanging out a lot in SecondLife again, but that’s not a game, just some place to sit around while plotting my strategies.
Other than that I’ve been playing a few hours of Fort Zombie every day since picking it up for 2.50$. It is oddly compelling, and relatively stable even though the engine is horridly un-optimized. If Kerberos are planning to use that engine for their next project, I’m hoping they’ll make sure to get the kinks out. The UI and AI work better than you’d think from such an ambitious game, but you still need to be willing to work with them to overlook their issues.
Today I spent another four hours playing Dwarf Fortress, a pretty short stint for me (haven’t been able to get into it lately due to next version excitement), but since tomorrow I’m going to a themed dance as a neurotic geek I had to do some method acting.
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At one point I was at war with five different people. This did not work out well. I’m just about holding on to a few stars while the big three battle things out.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens when they add more elements to it, at present it’s great fun, but the combat is almost too simplistic.
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Dwarf Fortress! Poverty/the impending Heavy Rain is keeping me from playing any of the latest PC releases, so I’m gorging myself on something free and almost certainly more fun than anything a major studio has (or will) release this year.
Not that I’m complaining. Dwarf Fortress is great! Can you tell I’m in that honeymoon period aftergetting past the intial Dwarf-Fortress terror?
Seriously though, they released all the games at the same time. I wish they wouldn’t.
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@DMcCool
Three words: RPS Succession Fort. C’mon, you know you want to make it happen…
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I reinstalled Age of Mythology for nostalgia’s sake, but unfortunately it doesn’t like my rig, and crashes the whole system without warning at seemingly random intervals. Might install and have a go at Psychonauts today.
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I’m still playing Mass Effect 2, this time on insanity difficulty with a Vanguard. It’s hard, I die left and right and most enemies can take ridiculous amounts of hurt. In short: it’s fun!
On my first playthrough the straight pipe-like level design felt a bit uninspired but now that I have to use every bit of available environment to my advantage it’s become clear to me that BioWare effectively chained a lot of small yet epic battlefields together. So far, and I’m not that far yet to be honest, it turns the levels into some kind of strategic puzzle of traversing deathtraps while looking like a total badass.
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Mass Effect 2. I’m beginning to suspect that I have more minerals that I will ever need, and that my collectivitus-impulse to probe each and every planet has negatively impacted my enjoyment of the game. Everything else is great, but a big universe that’s small on content feels oddly disappointing/distracting.
I’m also playing the original Majesty on my netbook, broken up by the occasional bout of Spelunky (ARGH!) and Lumines. Also just started Final Fantasy Tactics on my PSP. I have long commutes.
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Near the end of my ME2 play through, I started to just give planets cursory scans for those nice short uncharted missions instead of taking all the minerals. Still ended up with 100K/200K excess on all resources. If you really can’t stand leaving planets unmined, just make a note of what systems you haven’t stripped dry. That’s what broke the habit for me.
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The way I did the mining was to just quickly scan the cursor until I hit a motherlode. It cuts down the time spent by a factor of Loads, and if you do that for a few planets then you’ll have more minerals than you ever need. I finished up with over 150k for each of the three non-Eezo minerals.
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Bioshock 2, which I personally feel is fantastic. Slow, slow bang-your-head-against-the-wall start, but by Pauper’s Drop is brilliant. Never going to be as good as Bioshock 1, but that’s taken as read.
And Mass Effect 2, and Bad Company Beta, and…uh… Launch of the Screaming Narwhal, as it’s just come out on mac.
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Sadly my PC is stone cold dead so I’ve been playing through Mass Effect 2 on my (I’m sorry, I’m sorry!…) 360.
I think I’m a little under half-way through and very much liking it at the moment.
A few gripes;
The new universal ammo system being far inferior to the old cool-down timer.
The fact that your teammates interject less into the main conversations unless it’s one of “their” quests (I liked having to think about who I’d bring along on a certain mission based on their backgrounds and mental attitudes as well as their combat abilities, rather than just the latter).
Oddly, I much preferred the “getting and sorting lots of useless loot” approach to weaponry than the current scheme which leaves weapon options a little sparse.
But aside from that, it’s fantastic and I’m having a blast. The characters are very well rounded, scripted and voice acted. The new armour system is great. The combat is more solid. Overall a much tighter experience than the first.
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I liked Mass Effect 2 more and more the farther I got in it. Once I leveled my powers enough to have area effect combat became very satisfying, and I found the lack of party interaction mitigated somewhat by the sheer amount of content. At first I wanted to spend more time on certain characters, but by the end I liked everybody. As soon as I finished the game last night I began to furiously research to see if any developer had ever dropped a hint about which characters will be in the next game. Actually the one ‘feature’ that’s most compromising my enjoyment right now is that, since all the characters in the party have the ability to die in the last mission, it’s very possible that Bioware will decide to bring none of them back. Which is a total bummer, because I think they’re much superior to the Mass Effect 1 characters who will obviously be returning. Sigh!
Now to restart as a Sentinel…
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Yeah, I have found that my decision making is paramount at the moment. In Mass Effect 1 I decided that if I made a bad choice or screwed up a mission then I’d just live with it (as you would have to in real life). But now that I’m aware it’s very likely the choices and results made in ME2 will have a direct consequence in ME3, it’s making me very careful how I approach things and what decisions I make. It’s quite an interesting experience.
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Gah, good point Jesse.
It’d be a hell of a task for Bioware to fully voice + write characters that there’s a good chance players won’t even encounter. This is a worrying thought. If Tali and Garrus aren’t in ME3 I… I…
Well, I don’t know what I’d do.
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Up till recently the new STALKER game, completed it now so I’m probably going to go back to a mixture of trying to keep Reading in the premiership in my FM2010 game, destroying armies in Mount and Blade. I might load up a female character and give ME2 another run through
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My new wireless card arrived for my desktop, so I’m currently going through the various wallpaper sites, downloading stuff, and looking at the DLC for Mass Effect 2 that I’ve missed out on the past few days.
Oh, and Delta Force Landwarrior.
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Mass Effect 1. I’m really liking the Mako side missions, and wondering if there is something wrong with me.
Also played a few missions of Tiberian Sun now it’s free. It’s great – you just select everyone and click on bad guys. That’s it! This is RTS done right.
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I really liked them at first, too. I think it was after I entered the 5th identical warehouse template that I started to tire of them, though. However I enjoyed driving around and jumping off hills.
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Yeah – the idento-fights not so much, but the mako driving feels really epic and alien and explore-y. And yet people hated on those bits so much they removed them altogether for the sequel. Man! Either us two or everyone else on the planet is wrong, Flobulon.
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The disapointment was that they just took out the Mako entirely, rather than improve the experience. Driving around was fun, but the planets were bare and the buildings identikit. More variation and it could have been ace.
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Currently playing Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins for the first time. Also finishing off Fallout 3, constructing a magma cannon in DF and getting to grips with Street Fighter 4 (haven’t played the series at all since II). Playing through Megaman II again on an emulator which is fantastic fun. Lastly, as ever, Nightmare Quake and Doom runs to let off steam.
What do you mean I have a problem? I deserve to indulge in a hobby every once in a while…
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Dragon Age: Origins. I was dissapointed with it first time round and didn’t get too far.
Thought I’d try again with a different origin (Dwarf commoner warrior… much better than the human mage I had before) and I’m enjoying it a bit more. Or at least I was – but now I’m trying to get help from the dwarf kingdoms. Seemed interesting at first, supporting someone to take the throne, some cool politicla intruige. But now it’s devolved into an awful slog through lots of tunnels. Zzzz
Damn it! I want to like this game, but it’d be better if it had half as many fights.
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He he. I played the dwarf-commoner-warrior and spent the whole time wishing I was something different. I always play warriors and then regret the choice….
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I chose a warrior and regretted it too. It was actually my second attempt to play the game, after finding out that an archer just made the game too hard. I went for Warrior simply because I assumed it would be the easiest path to take, but I really wish I had of chosen a Mage, as they seem to have the most variety.
I am enjoying the game when I play it, but I find myself never being particularly interested in going back to it when I’m not. I think it usually happens because I generally end up leaving the game in a bad mood due to continually dying in some sections and not having any clue as to why it is happening so quickly. When I eventually do come back to it, I end up winning the battle with still no clue as to why. The last time I played, I discovered that the time before I hadn’t saved and so had to play through about 30-60 mins of stuff again. That was probably about a week or two ago.
Instead, I’m mostly playing L4D2 and clocking up way too many hours in it (nearly reached the big 100 hours… I wish Steam didn’t keep info like that, I really don’t want to know.) Such a simple game, but so enjoyable. The improvements they have made are really fantastic and I’m wondering how I will ever return to the original when they release the DLC for it.
But they still haven’t worked out how to do Versus yet. To my mind, Versus is the mode in which you get to play as Infected, but Valve seem to insist on making it as frustrating as they can for you when it is your turn. Survivors should very rarely be reaching the saferoom and only making it to about halfway most times.
The best way to have made it more fun is to have the Infected side much more powerful and balance it from there, but they have got it the wrong way round and made the Survivors more powerful. Most of the changes they need to make are fairly simple, and they have been done by some server plug-ins (Confogl and CEVO), but the problem is trying to find servers that run them and people willing to play without their precious medkits.
L4D2 is one of the few games where I have ever been tempted to own a server.
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The auto-save on Dragon Age is infuriatingly random. Why it doesn’t save before you leave an area is beyond me. I lost 30 mins after being killed by a pack of wolves. Wolves! The game goes out of the way to make you feel like you suck.
Not sure if I should stick with it (maybe setting it to easy mode for a speed up) or just play something else (Call of Pripyat perhaps).
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@Morph
Was that a pack of wolves you would encounter randomly when travelling around the world map? I was killed loads by those very wolves! The ones that really got me though, were the Bandits. I only managed to get passed them when it suddenly decided one time that I wouldn’t encounter them, even though I had ran into the previous 5-6 times I attempted to travel.
Forgot to mention, I’ve also started playing Borderlands again. I had previously been playing it in Single Player mode, but now one of mates has a copy too I’ve been playing it from the beginning again. I really like the way you seem to level up much quicker than playing solo and the better loot that brings with it.
Using Brick and his Berserker power is just awesome. I would still like to see more variety to the characters and make their abilities really change the game a lot, but it doesn’t hinder my enjoyment too much. Hopefully, the inevitable sequel will work on expanding the characters a bit more, although I have a bad feeling they will probably just resort to adding a couple more instead of building on what is already there.
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@Vandelay
Yeah those ****ing wolves. Doesn’t help that the ground is littered with wolf-traps that the wolves seem to ignore.
Oh and multiplayer Borderlands is sooooo very good, if you can get it to work.
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@Morph
I had no problem getting it to work. I was originally thinking that we would end up having to get hold of some Virtual LAN program, like Himatchi, but everything seems fine. We are both using the latest patch, which supposedly removes the need to open ports, and we were ready to play as soon as the game loaded up. I heard there are also problems with the in-game chat, but we always use Skype anyway, so not encountered any problems there either.
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I’m playing my all time favourite Red Orchestra/Darkest Hour” and Yoshis Island
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ahhh…. I so like RO’s tank maps. Much fun with a friend as a gunner using voice chat.
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me too a bit RO
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I’m playing Global Agenda at the moment. I doubt I’ll subscribe but the PvP matches are great fun. I’m enjoying it more than TF2.
I’m also playing Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory: 1001 Ways To Kill An Unsuspecting Terrorist again and trying and failing to get better at Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer.
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I’m doing an evil run through KOTOR… although the Steam version seems to get grumpy with Windows 7 every now and then. Case in point… froze just before the first turret gunner sequence as you’re escaping Taris, meaning that – because I foolishly didn’t save – I now have to kill bloody Davik again when I get home.
Finished Bioshock 2 on Sunday. Much, much better combat. The EG review nailed it: there are moments, later in the game, when you can stand in the midst of the carnage you’re wreaking and have a quiet grin to yourself.
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League of Legends and Solium Infernum mostly. Some Street Fighter IV occasionally.
Got ME2 right there on the table but just haven’t found the enthusiasm to install it.
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Mass Effect 2 (second run), Dragon age (ditto), TF2 (regular MP fun), Solium Infernum and just started Dead Space.
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I came right off Mass Effect 2 into BioShock 2. It’s been a frickin great start to the year.
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Yeah, same here- about halfway through Bioshock 2. Didn’t really like the start of it, but it’s opened up in the way the first game did. Lamb’s constant smack-talk is becoming very irritating though, really does make you want to put a hot rivet through her mouth to stop hearing it.
ME2 was fantastic though, soooo many things carry across from the first game, even minor decisions you made.
**SPOILER** Tali’s sidequest though- couldn’t decide what to tell the Quarians to do, and I have a feeling that’s going to be a big gamechanger in ME3…
Then there’s Call of Pripyat, probably won’t get near that till March, at least if i want to do other things, like take my other half to the pub, or go to work :D
Also, Kongregate seems to have slowly sucked me in-anyone tried “Electric Box”?
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I ran through the entirety of Shadow of Chernobyl last week (started it but not finished it before, silly me) and bought CoP last night. I’ve had a great time so far but also some mixed impressions. What I love about SoC is that it’s terribly unforgiving when you’re on your first few missions, and in CoP I found a nato-round rifle (can’t remember the name, green assault rifle) halfway into my first recon and I already rule the zone! I’m sure this will change eventually as enemies become hardier but for now things are a bit easy. This is easily made up for by the great quest design though, -SPOILER WARNING- sneaking through that bloodsucker lair really had me at the edge of my seat! -SPOILER OVER-
I also keep thinking that CoP is a bit like Oblivion with guns, even more so than I thought Fallout 3 was.
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I just finished and loved ME2.
Currently started playing through C&C: Red Alert 3. Been a while since I played a classic RTS (base building!). The RPS topic showing of the first three C&C games are now free & the new C&C preview reminded me that I still have RA3 on my “to-play-list”.
Probably up next: Bioshock 2.
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Call of Pripyat, mostly. Enjoying it immensely. It still has it’s little…eccentricities, but overall very solid. It lacks some of the scarier underground moments, but mutants aren’t unknowns anymore, so that’s unsurprising. What does makes up for that though is night time. The difference between day and night is like the difference between…well, you know. It’s like a whole different game, distances suddenly seem further, every sound can startle you, little beeps signalling the presence of other stalkers suddenly becomes a massive comfort so you know you’re not alone.
Last night still haunts me. I spent too long on a mission, and it was dark when I had to head back. So I cautiously start to make my way back, 3 little blips appear on the radar – friendly stalkers; so I run over to them for safety. Make it to their little camp “Hey guys, thank goodness you’re h…” bloodsuckers suddenly appear right behind one of them and knock him dead. Everybody starts firing all around in panic, I’m getting hit by stray bullets, I can hear invisible mutants running around us, another stalker goes down, I’m panicking and firing almost blindly into the night. Some bloodsuckers fall dead, I can just make out another running towards me, auto-firing shotgun prevails! One stalker left injured on the ground. I heal him up, make a new friend. Suggest we head to base together. Then I calm down, and that’s when I thought “I really love this game”.
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reply to Taillefer….
CoP is scary enough during the day. I head to base when it’s getting dark to take advantage of the great new sleep feature. Is it me, or have the nights gotten much, much darker since SoC?.
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I have a terrifying backlog of games to get through at the moment, Mass Effect 2 is at the top of the list and it is quite simply wonderful. I’m mostly just really glad to get back into that world which I always felt was rather well crafted.
Closely behind that is Bioshock 2. I feel like everything that needs to be said about it has been already (which I feel is the most stand out difference between it and it’s prequel) but I’m enjoying it none the less. Except for the multiplayer which I personally think is rubbish despite it getting some positive comments in the reviews.
I’ve still not quite managed to get through a first playthrough of Dragon Age which I really want to do before I get my teeth into the various upcoming DLC and expansions.
Call of Pripyat has been bought but not yet played. I skipped Clear Sky after the less than glowing reviews so I’m looking forward to getting back to the Zone.
I’ve been playing Star Trek Online a bit too but I’m already feeling that one slipping away from me. I can’t tell if it’s something wrong with the game or if I’ve just go too much else to play. I’ve invested some serious time in MMO’s before but I suppose I was a student then and the rest of the country was providing me with the time and money to do it, now that I must bow down to the man I just can’t seem to invest past the point of no return.
Finally I’ve been trying to get through a fresh playthrough of Dawn of War 2 so I’ve got a fresh save game to take into the imminent expansion.
Yikes, that’s a lot of gaming that I don’t have even half the time for. I really have to find a job that builds in time for my ‘hobby’.
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Still having fun with L4D2. While I haven’t found a custom campaign for L4D2 that I really enjoyed, the not-completely-straight ports of the original campaigns have worked well (to the point that I don’t have any interest in playing them ‘stock’ in the first game).
Who can deny the awesome potential of the Dead Air finale being a scavenge map?
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Company of Heroes, Borderlands and TF2 still.
As well as bits of flash gaming, and making a map for Synergy.
Interestingly, my beta account meant that I got invited to the free 2 weeks for old accounts of FE a little bit ago. Although the new features sounded interesting and I’m sure that it is less buggy, I just couldn’t face the sheer slog that is getting started in that game for a 3rd time.
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EVE. Goddamn motherfucking EVE.
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I’m playing Wizardry 8 because I am living in the past and am not brave enough to face the futuristic real time combat systems of the present day. I am also enjoying playing it, which is a bonus. The furry player character options and character personality selection thing are entertaining.
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Well my Steam Profile suggests that I am playing Shattered Horizon (Still waiting on that Moonrise map pack, it looks good from the screenshots), Psyconaughts (only £1!) and Toki Tori (One of the best Indie puzzle games I have played in a while). I am also loosing two PBeM games of Solium Infernum, though I have a strategy planned in both that might let me get ahead if the conclave don’t vote too soon… I’m also on Chapter II of The Witcher but as it is a game that, in my opinion, is better in longer sittings, I don’t seem to find the time to continue.
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Sword of the Stars. Been craving some 4X and after not liking it at release (because… I can’t remember why exactly) bought it on Impulse for a measly €7,49 (with all but the last addon..which I then bought for another €7,49 after finishing the tutorial, lol.) and… it’s surprisingly fun.
Here’s hoping Stardock’s Elemental will deliver my next fix soon™.
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Had a few games of Supreme Commander with my friend..i started him up on the game about a year ago, winning almost all of the matches, but last week he finally beat me 3-in-a-row :) which means i have to step up practicing a bit.
I also tried the Galcon Fusion Demo, which was kindof fun, but a lot like a high speed Eufloria game- its basically the same innit?
Picked up Sword of the Stars on sale with all of the expansions, and played about 4-5 hours in- seems good, but the graphics definetly need self shading and some bloom or something. Looks a bit puny compared to Eve Online, but whatever, as long as the gameplay is solid.
And i played some Eve Online aswell.
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and some L4D survival mode- dam that shit is hard…. which is better: shotgun or assault rifle?
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You see, Wurm Online and Eve Online cover the two parts of what I’m interested in almost perfectly. Build stuff, and tear stuff down. Also, it somehow feels like wurm was some sort of refuge. I come back from an hour long op in eve, it’s already pretty late and I really need to get to bed soon because i need to get up early.
So I log into wurm, tend my farm and groom the horses, then go to bed. In both rl and vl.
Someone should take the two games and arc weld them together.
Also, there is still this unfinished game of Civ4 that has been keeping me for months. I always play my own mod, with research speed slowed down to a crawl, so I can have >2000 rounds of medieval battles. It also means that every game can take me months to complete..
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Currently not playing anything because I’m nursing a repetitive strain injury from too much Bioshock 2. (Two different fire buttons AND a melee button, all of which I want to hit a ton — one of them bound to the mouse’s side buttons I normally barely use at all, but now find myself holding down a lot — makes for a very strained mouse hand.)
Mind you, my keyboard hand survived quite well, mainly because I gave up on all the other weapons and just went drill-only. The other weapons are meh, but the drill is always fun, and having to manage both the usual 1-to-9 weapons and a set of F1-to-F9 weapons was a bit much.
I made that particular decision at Dionysus Park, and decided to replay from the start with just the drill (and trap rivets for Sister defense). No sooner do I get back to Dionysus Park than do I find the “Drill Specialist” tonic, causing me to cackle in glee and let the game finally align itself to my new brutal drilling-spree approach. (Plus the “cyclone trap” plasmid did a pretty good job replacing those trap rivets.)
Honestly, IMO, the game should’ve been drill + plasmids only. Your arm is a BIG HONKING DRILL — it’s a lot easier to just leave it at that, than to claim you can both detach it and carry a dozen different replacement weapons for it (just as big). But then, Punching Heavy is my most played class in TF2, so maybe I’m just a melee nut.
Also, Drill Specialist tonic (reduced EVE cost) + Drill Vampire tonic (regen health/EVE on drill damage) + EVE Saver 1 and 2 + Electro Bolt 3 (continuous stream) = game-breaker. Hold down your plasmid fire to electrocute the target non-stop, bore into them with the drill, and watch your EVE (and health) actually increase. Extra points for Cure All (to get EVE from healing stations), Fountain of Youth (to get health/EVE from standing in water), and Electric Flesh (to up the electric damage, and more importantly, make you impervious to it). Super bonus points for all of the above plus standing in water while you do it.
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it aint broken, you get those tonics (vampire) late in the game where you actually HAVE to be that buffed to survive (at least on hard). I found the drill route satisfying and balanced, in the endlevels it’s OK to own since you worked for it. not everybody will max out their research as us “need-to-find-and-try-everything” gamers.
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Also (very minor spoilers):
I can see how Bioshock 2′s story does feel a bit like a prequel, though the gameplay definitely feels like a sequel. But what I love most is how they take the Little Sister / Big Daddy concept you saw in Bioshock and let you experience both sides of it. I truly did feel attachment to the Sister I was escorting, to the point of being concerned about her having trouble getting into the vent (even though I knew it was scripted). And playing as a Little Sister was an amazing touch, too, though I really wish they had taken it further and had you being defended by a Big Daddy while you harvested corpses. Just a little bit, mind you — there’s not a lot of interactivity there. But as is, it feels like they stopped just short of completing the experience.
I was also horrified the first time I rescued a Sister and it looked like I was harvesting her instead. This is mainly due to the utterly deranged keybind system, which is probably the worst part of Bioshock 2. Some binds are editable via the config, some aren’t — I honestly thought I had a glitch and could not hack, since the key was the default and I had to edit the config file (tens of thousands of lines!) to change it. And even once you edit the binds, the on-screen cues very rarely actually match what you configured. So when it said “press this key to harvest and that key to rescue”, I was basically hitting keys at random, starting from the most used ones.
Do they even bother to test things like remappable keys? (Hint: Delete all keybindings in the config file, give the game to a beta tester, tell them to map everything themselves. Can they still play the game?)
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Spelunky, because it finally works in Wine with no workarounds, and because I’ve always enjoyed roguelikes, and I’ve always enjoyed platformers, so roguelike platformers are the logical combination… (It’s appropriately hard, though, I have to say.)
Other than that, nothing but my vaguely-in-progress-first-Unity-project, which is all RPS’s fault. :D
(I would have tried Bioshock 2, but the DRM (considering I’m using Wine here) is a no-no, and Mass Effect 2 seems to be better if you’ve played Mass Effect (which I never did, so if I ever acquire a copy of the original…) )
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Been almost exclusively playing AvP the original for the past few days, it just works so well on my knackered old machine.
I would perhaps also be playing the likes of L4D1 and 2, TF2 and maybe some Penumbra for the hell of it, which used to run smooth as silk but now are all juddery and weird. So I’m stuck with web games (that sky dungeon is fun by the way, thanks for that! Giant Flying Eye ftw!), free indy stuff (Spelunky, Dwarf Fortress) and old classics as I already said.
I’m actually quite pleased with it, nothing else that’s quite new has really caught my eye, although I’m regretting not being able to play DoW 2, continue in Fallout 3 (which again used to run so well a few months ago…) and even think about trying Shattered Horizon (I’d need a huge upgrade before trying that mind).
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EVE. The RPSH move out to 0.0 is proving to be quite the funtime.
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Where’d you guys go? I ran into you near Tribute a few times, but then suddenly you vanished.
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I’m playing the Battlefield Bad Company 2 beta… constantly. No time for sleep, food or other games when there’s houses to demolish and people to shoot in the face .
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*Call of Pripyat, which is MUCH better than the previous STALKER games.
*A dabble in L4D2 multiplayer
*A dabble in WoW (yes, kiss my butt =P )
*Aside from that, maybe just a little xbox, i tried Red Faction Guerrilla multiplayer last night and it was actually quite a good bit of mental bash-em-up fun.
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Fairly boring and predicable, but… I’m playing Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, and hopefully by the time I’m done with those the expansion for Dragon Age will be out, and I’ll start that over again. (I didn’t get far past Lothering last time)
Oh, also I’ve been firing up The Void every now and then.
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Ah, also a touch of MarioKart Wii.
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Nothing. I just can’t do it any more.
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Mass Effect 2 – Which I’m enjoying immensely.
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Mass Effect 2. Second playthrough mostly to fix up some choices made that I later regretted.
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Bad Company 2 Beta
Which is brilliant.
I’m really tempted by Call of Pripyat, but the wife is hogging the PC at the moment to do, supposedly, important MSc work.
Oh and I really want to play Mass Effect 2, but I’m waiting to see if my Rock, Paper, Shotgun monster was good enough to win the RPS ME2 DDE competition :)
So I’m mainly busying myself with playing Uncharted 2.
Which is slighly off putting, because the main female lead is voiced by the same actress who voiced Morrigan.
And after spending 85 hours romancing ,and then jilting, the evil witchface, it’s all a bit strange seeing her flirting with Nathan Drake.
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Dawn of War 2 – just go it in the rather intimidating THQ complete pack after meaning to try it but never managing to break my DoW1 habit long enough.
Going to be trying Last stand tonight with a friend, which is keeping me going today.
Oh and WAR has finally broken out in my Neptunes Pride game. I’ll find out how badly that went tonight too. >.<
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CoH: Tales of Valour (Yeah, WITH a “u”) – Because it’s a giggle to play co-op with my best mate.
Neptune’s Pride – Because I can scheme almost as much as when playing Solium Infernum.
Empire: Total War – Because I’m a sucker for Total War games. Also, see CoH comment.
Face of Mankind – Because I’m still trying to get my head around it.
And Lord of the Rings Online, because that’s what I am usually playing.
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Valiantly battling through my massive sale/christmas games backlog, after finishing Dragon Age a couple of weeks ago. Dead Space was first, and I enjoyed it, although – despite its obvious attempts, and, um, inspiration from System Shock 2 – it didn’t really manage to scare me beyond the occasional jump, or really drag me into the atmosphere.
Now it’s Red Alert 3, which is very funny, and entertaining enough, but I’m not sure about the “co-commander” thing, or the Generals-like resource mechanic.
Next will probably be The Void or Mass Effect, depending on how I feel at the time.
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Oh yeah, and I’m being… group-loved in a game of Neptune’s Pride. Games like this don’t do anything good for my misanthropy.
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Lol- i once asked in Ventrilo of an MMO guild, if the computer term Rape was considered politically correct, and they were like “YES!”
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I’ve been playing Knights of the Old Republic 2, complete with the restored content patch. Although I’ve not actually got far enough to see any of this famed restored content, I’m nonetheless thoroughly enjoying what is a fine sequel. In many ways superior to the original, most notable in its writting.
Oh and playing the odd round of Left 4 Dead 2.
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Restored content? I R INTRESTED!!
Do explain. saves me having to look and use quota time at work.
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Fan made patch. Apparently restored some stuff, and fixed some bugs. The Sith Lords Restored Content Mod, if you want to look it up. The group who made say it’s not final yet, but the consensus seems to be that the game is pretty much complete, minus a single quest.
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This is the site you want Leelad. http://www.deadlystream.com/
It was the second real project of its type to actually get off the ground and the first to not be vaporware for 3+ years.
I don’t suppose anyone playing KOTOR2 found a solution to the crash after character creation, other than having better than a Intel laptop graphics card?
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http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=194324
That link has various tips on getting the game to work, specifically on vista although I found that many of the tips are good for more general troubleshooting. The replacement swkotor2.exe file in particular helped with my crashing problems.
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I’m downloading the client for Allods Online, which has just hit Open Beta. Basically it’s a Russian f2p MMO that looks a lot like WoW. Except it has undead robots as a playable race, which basically sold me.
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I’d be very interested to read what you think of it, looks like it might be quite fun.
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The servers are being pretty hammered at the moment (there only seems to be one English EU server) so you get the usually pain of the starter areas being overcrowded and latency issues. But the art style and vibrancy of the world is great. I made a Gibberling warrior, which is possibly the cutest class i’ve ever seen in an MMO. I have three little furry creatures and because I’m a warrior, one of them carries the sword, one the shield and the other a bow. They’re great and you can customize all three of them.
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Let’s see now:
- Stalker: Call of Pripyat. Just finished the main story and started the free play, though there seems to be a lack of side missions. SoC and CS both had plenty of “go and kill stuff” or “fetch me this” while CoP seems to have a rather limited number of unique missions and nothing to do after that except fetch artefacts for Beard. I also cannot praise it enough for being stable on release. Who’d have thought there’d be a Stalker game you could play on release day wihtout any game breaking bugs needing to be patched?
- Battelfield Bad Company 2 Beta. Having finally grown tired of BF2 just before christmas this is a welcome boost. Grown a bit tired of the Port Valdez map though so hoping they start testing another one soon.
- Rome: Total War – Extended Greek mod. Installed Rome on an old PC while my main was getting repaired and my brother wouldn’t shut up about how great EG was over vanilla, so I’m giving it a go. So far it’s looking good, an improvement over vanilla in almost every way. Speaking of Total war mods I’m planning on giving Call of Warhammer another go in the next month or so if it’s been patched. Tried it when it was first out but it was buggy as hell.
- Football Manger 2010. Because I allways have a footbal manager game going on, it’s the perfect game to be playing when watching TV.
- Left 4 Dead 2. Has actually picked up now that the last few L4D1 holdouts in my friends list got L4D2 in the xmas sale. Looking forward to picking up the old formula of 8 friends + random teams + VS mode = good times.
- Team Fortress 2. Because it’s very rare that I play it and not have fun, so if I’m a little bored by other games at the moment it’s there for me to just boot up and have some fun in.
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I’m actually playing Bioshock 1 for the first time. Picked it up from direct2drive sometime last year in one of those big sale things… and all the Bioshock2 coverage reminded me that I owned it.
Not very far in yet, just killed my first Big Daddy. So far the setting, characters, idea and polish are awesome… but there seems to be a little too much shooting to fully soak in the atmosphere. Having fun though…
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Mostly Fallout 3 loaded up with a lot of mods. It’s still in beta but someone made a mod to change the wasteland into a desert, with sandstorms and everything, it looks really great.
Oh, and I’m suddenly into Warriors Orochi again, it’s such a button masher and such a grind but something about this game just makes me smile.
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what is the name of this mod?
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Looks like it is this one subversus :
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10815
Cheers for the heads up, might give that a whirl myself.
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Yep that’s the one. It’s in some sort of beta right now, some slight texture misalignements and more things will be added in the future. I’ll be keeping an eye on that one.
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thanks a lot
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Quite a bit of TF2, and I’m finally getting around to playing STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl (with the Complete 2009 mod). It took a bit to get used to how harsh it is compared to most modern FPSes, but I’m definitely seeing why people carry on about it. I’m also noodling around a little bit here and there with L4D2 and Titan Quest, and I’m meaning to revisit Borderlands when I get around to it.
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Neptune’s Prides is so elegant and stripped-back. A real diplomatic ‘Euro’ game (in boardgame terminology). I’m utterly engrossed by it, possibly due to the fact that I’m having some success despite thinking of myself as a bit of a strategy numpty. I’ve even built my own spreadsheet calculating combat outcomes :)
I’ll defnitely be buying it I think. I heartily endorse this new slow-burn online multiplayer / boardgame approach (Solium Infernum, Neptunes Pride). Excellent for a dad who can’t always be online, but who wants something other than TF2 occassionally.
Also playing Dirt 2 which is fantastic – really satisfying car handling (with a 360 controller). Online multiplayer is great fun but I hate the matchmaking facility – stop treating us like idiots and give us some choice!
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Yeah, Dirt 2 is far better than I was expecting. Really had me hooked in, especially on the trailblazer levels.
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I spent the weekend rotating between Borderlands, Dragon Age, and Mass Effect 2. I’m finding it really difficult to pick one to stick with, as all three are absolutely fantastic. Both borderlands and ME2 do some of the best jobs of blending shooter and RPG mechanics to date. And even after 100+ hours in the game, I’m still hopelessly addicted to Dragon Age. Now it only I could settle on one game and get down to finishing it.
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Call of Pripyat, and I’m absolutely loving it. The Zone feels so much more alive now. Liking the story thus far (I’m running around Jupiter plant at the mo) too. Feels like CoP delivers on everything the original Stalker promised but never quite managed.
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After finishing a marathon run of both Mass Effect games (mainly because of the lack of questions about progress in the second game made me buy the first game again, this time on PC, to get a proper save going. Wrex survived, damn you*). I started off on Bioshock 2, but a trip to a VITA chamber and news that someone managed to do a perma death run by accident made me decide to replay it – but at this point I realised I didn’t actually finish the first game.
So now I am playing through Bioshock 1 whilst lamenting the weapon/plasmid control scheme, and realising that the reason I prefer hacking in the second game is not because it is easier, but that in the first game it is possible to hack your way out of a fight you weren’t prepared for as the game pauses each time you attempt a hack. The minigame in 2 might be simpler, but it doesn’t pause the game and so you can’t get out of a sticky situation as easily as in the first.
In between these I play STO. Which I will not be paying a monthly subscription for, but until my free time runs out I shall play it into oblivion. I do wish there were more variety to the pvp games, especially the ship combat. The only time you get a decent fight going is in the salvage map, and that is less than fun because a large blob can defend 4 of the 5 capture points easily.
* Random thought. Getting people to buy another copy of Mass Effect might have been why they left the questions out. I’d feel such a tool. Of course, I am just being a dick there, but you see my point.
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Left4Dead2 and AvP Classic 2000 with my interment gamefriends from The Guardian. One of them’s just got hold of Battlefield 2, so I might be reinstalling that as well.
In my hermit-like single-player existence, it’s a mix of DoW2, Test Drive Unlimited (still) and Audiosurf, where I seem to be the casual champion of far too many Hammond lounge classics.
And I’m still grinding through Dragon Quest on my faithful DS. Saving the world, one crash at a time.
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I’ve been playing Red Faction: Guerilla which I got for free with my Metro 2033 preorder. The story’s bloody awful but I have never had so much fun blowing the living hell out of bridges, towers, skyscrapers, monuments etc. Best destruction engine I’ve ever seen that more than compensates for the terrible story.
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Solium Infernum: recently finished a PBEM (click my name to read an AAR), futzing around in single-player which is updated but still dismal when compared to humans
Armored Princess: i just love this crap. i played King’s Bounty twice through, so you’d think i’d have had enough… but no. AP is a better game overall, although as RPS has noted, there aren’t as many moments of utter plot absurdity. addictive.
L4D2: played this obsessively over the holidays, but have toned back a bit lately. trying to beat the campaign missions on Expert with random PUGS. i actually like playing with PUGS, it feels like a real zombie apocalypse where you can’t choose your friends.
Tropico 3: this is basically what I wanted in the game. the original Tropico (+ expansion), but with better graphics. i’m still tooling around with some of the missions and sandbox, and it may be that it’s too easy to make your people happy, but overall this is a great sim. playing Tropico makes me feel warm and relaxed.
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I play L4D2 with PUGs 99% of the time, kind of for the reason you give above. Lord, there are some numpties out there, and it gets right frustrating, but there’s a real satisfaction you can get from bringing less skilled players together. Anyway, the game’s always at it’s best when you’re right on the edge between winning and losing.
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I hope when the real zombie apocalypse happens I won’t be stuck surviving with a team of mutes and 12-year-olds.
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On my list of things to get round to when I win the lottery and can return to 18 hour days of gaming (ah, 1990, how I miss you) there’s Void, downloaded and whispering to me, a shiny shrink-wrapped copy of Planescape and The Dig.
Wishlist: LucasArts to do the decent thing and re-release both X-Wing and Tie Fighter on Steam, for a fiver each, running on a modern machine and with pretty pretty graphics.
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LOVE
eventhrough there isent many peeps online i use my late hours to relax a little and wire some energy to our settlement..or fiond some tokens..and so on. Very chilling game tho. ( and finaly seems to have a official release date – 25th of march )
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Civ4 and torchlight, because better late then never
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Finished ME2 over a week ago now, but its still pulling at my mind. Almost stuck ME1 on again to do a more Renegadey run-through of both, but have other game in the queue.
Talking of said other games, I went back to Trine, which I had put aside that the beginning of ME2. Beautiful looking game, and has a nice balance between a fairly straightforward route through the levels, and little secrets and prizes just off the beaten track.
Last night I had my first game of Solium Infernum. Was against the computer until I feel familiar enough to find a PBeM game to join. Was pleased to find that despite this I still got some of those fantastic comedy of errors moments when you don’t fully realize the extent of the situation.
“Hah!, he’s on the other side of the river and has no flying legions, what does he think he can do to me? Of course I deny his demand for tribute. I’ll also bring my flying legion down so if he does claim a vendetta I can claim a few of his cantons, and possibly take out that weak as hell legion.
A battle of praetors? Bugger… Oh well, I’ve got a reasonably decent… Oh… he’s been stolen. I’ll just… what do you mean the Infernal conclave has closed the bazaar? ”
I still won by a fair margin, but the game through enough at me that the situation was never stable or predictable.
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for the last week, Need for Speed Shift: Reason? I’ve been visiting someone and I don’t have access to my PC, just my 360 with all my racing games on it.
However, when I’ve been where I -can- access my good PC? Empire Total War: Because I actually think it’s a fun game and I actually -like- the era it’s set in. The factions are a bit samey, yes, but I don’t care.
I’ve also been playing Men of War, which is crazy difficult for someone as bad at RTS games as I am, but I love somewhat realistic feeling WW2 RTS games. I miss Blitzkrieg 1, the puzzle game in RTS format.
I’ve also been playing Mass Effect 2, and been enjoying that quite a bit. The more I think about it, the less I can explain why. It’s amazing, but I can’t say ‘wonderful combat’, hundreds of games do it better. or ‘awesome story’ because yes it’s fun, but there are better. I guess it just brings it all together really stylishly.
I’ve also been playing Dragon Age, which I got fatigued from at the 50 hour mark last time, so I restarted with a Dwarven Warrior of common birth. It’s a great game, I just hope I don’t get battle fatigue. I’m awful at all this strategising, so combat is a tough affair for me.
I’m also intending to reinstall STALKER (with complete 09) because I got into it, but then stopped playing for no reason once I got to a certain point, and my tiny hard drive required its banishment for when I got some other games which I’m since done with. The problem with STALKER is that I’m a colossal wimp, but it has given me my -favourite- anecdote from all of videogames, which is as follows.
It was pitch black, and I was exiting a small lab. It had all gone horribly wrong, and I was going through health kits faster than I’d like. Every firefight felt dangerous. My enemy had little idea where I was, and I had little idea where they were, with only our mutual gunshots serving to give both me and my enemies away, ad both of us kept well away from well lit areas. I spotted my opening to the exit, which I knew was guarded and lit, and sprinted over it. Nobody seen. Blackness covered me, and I was hit with a burst of confidence. I thought to myself “now that I’ve made it to safety, I should be able to stroll out of here. Silence for a moment, and then I was blinded with a flash of light that illuminated everything. The sky rumbled as thunder followed. “You are kidding me.” I thought, as I heard cries go up in Russian.
Yeah, I’ve got to play STALKER again.
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Lesse… My PC list right now:
- Bad Company 2 Beta: Really enjoying it despite hating the map they’ve chosen. Pure white environments and fog is sniper hell.
- Empire: Total War: The Mighty Prussian Empire vs. all of eastern Europe. Too much fun.
- Mass Effect 1: Finally giving it a retry after quitting my first run on the Xbox. Finding it a little bit better this time around.
And if we’re not being limited to PC? Persona 4 for the PS2. I need a little bit of JRPG now and then, and this is a fine fix.
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Din’s Curse I was a fan of Depths of Peril and Kivi’s Underworld, and this is the latest dungeon crawl from Soldak. It’s somewhere between the two games in structure – quest givers in town send you off into a dungeon in typical fashion, but when you arrive the natives are happily at war amongst themselves. A lot of the quests are on hidden timers, so if you don’t get them done the monsters will get new powers or mount a raid on the town you’re meant to be protecting. Sometimes the people you’ve been sent to rescue will turn on you. It’s kind of like I hoped Hinterlands would turn out, but with less recruiting.
Global Agenda Bizarrely, I’ve never played a team-based online shooter and I’ve no idea why I chose this to start with, but I’m having fun.
Mass Effect 2 Gave in and bought it on Saturday, and played it non-stop all weekend.
WoW Third best-geared Priest on the server. Need to get a life.
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I am in a gaming lull after finishing ME2, because I can’t find anything in my games collection that the Mrs. won’t find boring to watch and I’m enjoying playing on my PC in front of the telly so much I don’t want to go back to sitting in front of a monitor all alone.
I’m trying to get back into Fallout 3 because I’ve only ever gotten about 1/3 through it before now, but I am hating its floaty controls.
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Fallout 3 was my biggest gaming disappointment of ’08-09. I wanted to like it, but the VATS really blew it for me. I was kinda hoping that RPS would do a “best-of” mods for Fallout 3 at some point.
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Yeah, I keep planning to write exactly that article. Haven’t had the time to get it done.
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Din’s Curse – Its everything I wished Torchlight was. aRPG excitement, roguelike depth, Blizz-inspired gear addiction, tons of replayability, and multiplayer coop. What’s not to like about that?
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checked out the website. this looks interesting to me. hope RPS does a look-see/wot-i-think at some point.
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I’m in a weird place right now being between education and employment and with only my laptop. I’ve been filling in my time playing Early 2000′s licensed property FPSs. Clive Barker’s Undying was great, especially in visuals, architecture and being able to mix and match weapons in left and right hand. Star Trek Elite Force was a good solid Raven FPS meaning you plunge down a narrow but good looking corridor and pewpew stuff. Wheel of Time was a surprisingly solid Unreal engine shooter that had some obviously rushed and ropy spots but made good use of fantasy author Robert Jordan’s world. The cutscenes might have been written by him though as they were long winded and ponderous.
And those are the only ones I’m willing to admit to.
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I’ve been playing Mech Warrior Living Legends, obsessively, and to the exclusion of Bioshock 2.
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Company of Heroes, as usual
Bioshock 2
AI Wars
Heavy Rain demo
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£15 a month for an MMO? Am I a tight bastard for thinking that is a ridiculous price after having to pay £30 for the game and the free starter month?
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thats like 2 movie tickets, some popcorn and coke (the liquid stuff)
and thats 2-3 hours of fun…
If you like MMOs and play them hardcore you get about like anywhere from 20 hours and up of fun-time, so its precisely the thing you´d want to play if youre a stingy git.
just saying.
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It can be the best value for money in gaming, if you get sucked in and put the time in. If I added up all my City of Heroes subs it would be quite the amount, but I don’t regret any of it, in a money spent/entertainment derived ratio.
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PC-wise :
Bioshock 2 – I’m thoroughly enjoying, having just reached the Fontaine Futuristics level….. anyone who hasn’t got it yet, what are you still going here?? The little sister adopt/protect while gathers/return to vent rigmarole does get a bit tiresome, but suitably toniced up they don’t last so long, and they make you appreciate the mini-turret.
Dragons Age – Not going as well as the above, as I’ve got rather too much going on and need to gal-avant around the world-map to do parts of the quest chain I want to finish, but I’ll carry on with it regardless. Probably in the minority of players who like playing the combat in Real-Time (Easy mode is my friend), so the combat does become a bit of a mess, but its fun enough as I usually end up winning even though I have no idea what’s going on half the time.
DiRT 2 – Loving this far more than I have any right too (as I’d very much put myself in that ‘Snobby simulation elite’ category for which the original WRC focused CMR games catered for) but it just… works. I don’t detest all the americanism either, largley because they thought to put in a non-american co-driver for me to have this time (sadly not Nicky Grist, but you can’t have everything). Also found a rather uber tribute event/video to Mcrae in there which I wasn’t expecting at all, kudos to Codies for that one.
Also attempting to bash through the original FEAR again, but seem to be having weird performance issues with it on Windows 7. None of my other games are affected, not even FEAR 2. Anyone experienced same?
Also Also, in Console land, finished off Dante’s Inferno for PS3 yesterday, which I loved. Recommended to anyone who like a bit of button mashing God of War type fun, and the environment design is suitably uber imho.
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I’m playing the Fifa Online Beta. It’s good. It has some interesting upgradey aspects to it. It’s very beta. I will say no more in-case Riccitiello sends assassins through my front window.
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Finished Mass Effect 2, and replaying Mass Effect – the mechanical changes from 1 to 2 are so profound; it’s amazing that they’re just separated by 2 years! Mass Effect 2′s cover is such an improvement, though I do slightly miss swapping out my shotgun every 15 minutes. I’m sure I’ll get over that when I have 30 items to reduce to omnigel every time I hit ‘I’, though…
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I tend not to buy games on release – I buy them on special a year later, hence the following list:
Just finished Mass Effect (1) – and trying very hard not to listen to anything about Mass Effect 2 before I completed it.
After that I went through and completed Mirrors edge – quite enjoyed that actually, a real adrenaline rush.
Now I’m alternating between Far Cry 2, trying to finish the Dawn if War 2 campaign, a little Machinarium for relaxation purposes and as an exception to my general rule, I play the odd round of L4D2 (I buy a couple of games a year brand new if multiplayer and very excited about).
And after all that, Pysconaughts and Strong Bad episode one are waiting for me.
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Deus Ex.
Someone mentioned it on a forum and internet law requires me to play it again.
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@tikey
Dammit, you said Those Words. And the cycle continues…
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Dragon Age. Borderlands (Again). Burnout Paradise (with pad). Dead Space (ditto). Braid (Late to the party). Osmosis. TF2 on occasion. Plants Vs. Zombies. Shadowgrounds.
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I’m making a fourth attempt at playing STALKER. Got further than last time, but still scared shitless.
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I’m playing a little diddy by the name of Din’s Curse from Soldak Games (the makers of Depths of Peril and Kivi’s Underworld). The graphics are dated, but the gameplay is the most addictive thing I’ve laid hands on since Diablo.
Give it a looksy, its currently in a pre-order beta phase. http://www.soldak.com/Dins-Curse/Overview.html
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Deus Ex, I never really stop playing it, Xargon. An ancient game that now works again on Dosbox. Also Modern Warfare 2, which I’m getting a bit bored of.
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Dwarf Fortress, because it’s excellent, and I’m sharpening my skills ready for the next version which will hopefully be out in a few weeks.
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I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2 to death, been through twice now as both a shining paragon of inclusiveness spreading hot human love throughout the galaxy and as Cerberus’ bulldog (or maybe Cerberus’ Cerberus?) showing those alien scum who is boss. Fantastic game which fixes pretty much everything that was wrong with the first game but I’m done with it for the time being.
Just starting to have a crack at Empire: Total War. Picked it up a while back in the vain hope my old system could run it and its been shelved ever since. Currently just getting to grips with it in the tutorial campaign and having a good bit of fun so far. Line infantry combat doesn’t quite have the same appeal as the scrums from previous Total Wars, but the AI at least feels like a distinct step up (or at least I’ve not seen it do anything really stupid so far) and it’s early days still.
But mostly I’ve been playing Modern Warfare 2 on the 360box…
Please don’t burn me.
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*Gets Petrol and Matches…
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*Made it back with the gasoline can
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Bioshock 2 during weekdays, I really, really like it. If this is the future of RPGs, I’ll be sad, but if it is the future of shooters, I’ll be ecstatic.
Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura on weekends, on my little laptop where I don’t have internet connection.
Once those are finished –
Dragon Age I’m on my second replay, and I’m going to try against all my goody-goody instincts and play an “evil” character this time. A subtle but ruthless blood mage looking for the ultimate in arcane power. I should have named her Vaarsuvius come to think of it.
Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 I started a replay of the first one since I lost my original end game save file. It is actually a lot better than I remembered. ME2 is installed, but not started, looking forward to it A LOT.
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Call of Pripyat and loving it (despite the crashes). I think it may be my favourite game world since Morrowind.
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I’ve been playing Avatar on PC at home (I know, I know, but I’m actually enjoying it for some reason. It’s not got the narrative drive, control set or characters it deserves, but some of the fundamentals are fun, the conquest minigame is mildly diverting, and it’s visually very nice – I expecially like that the initial character set is made up of people who look like people) as well as the ongoing time-sink that is ddo (which I’m quite enjoying.)
At lunchtimes at work I’m continuing my quest to finish all the good games I never finished before with UFO: Enemy Unknown (or XCOM UFO Defence as Steam seems to insist on calling it – US title, maybe?)
During working hours I’m playing 3 turns of Solium Infernum per day – we just finished our first game, which saw me take out the lead player only to leave myself floundering in ecommunication with no way to take Pandemonium (it turns out that if I’d have gone on a land grab afterwards instead of trying to take Pandemonium, I could have won on Canton prestige, but I didn’t realise you could do that when excommunicated.) The new game has only just begun, but we’re using a fun “winner stays on” house rule where if you won the last game, you have to use the same avatar in the next, but everyone else has to reveal their starting and ending stats.
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Nice to see a couple of other people trying Din’s Curse. I’ve not tried it in multiplayer yet, so might have to sort something out on these here forums.
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I’ve always got a game of Evil Genius on the go, but I just recently beat Torchlight and got around to trying Left 4 Dead 2. I play as Nick, because when you save yourself and the other three die horribly it becomes a roleplaying experience.
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I am playing Mass Effect II and rather enjoying myself. For some reason I have resolved to mine every planet in the game.
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Stalker: Call of Pripyat foremost. Easily the best game in the series, it has even more of a sandbox feeling than any of the other games and the storyline is amazing. Many many hours of fun. =)
Been playing a bit of Tropico 3 again, never quite got to finish it when I bought it back last autumn. Also a pretty epic game.
And then some TF2 and Quake Live… fast paced fun
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Been trying to get back to some of my massive unplayed Steam sale library. At the moment that’s Titan Quest. If I can face it, I’ll try again at dragging myself through Bioshock sometime soon.
Also, finally got around to playing Time Gentlemen, Please, and am annoyingly stuck very hard on the fourth floor of Big Ben.
And, of course, am a few hours in to a second play through of ME2, but finding it very wrong and trying to decide whether I can be bothered with another play through of ME1 to create a second save that’s got proper history.
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Beat Mass Effect 2 late last week, I was really surprised I enjoyed it. I didn’t really like the first one.
Now, I’m playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup and Anno 1404!
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Still L4D2. It’s been a staple since release. I do loves it. I’ve started playing League of Legends, which has a steep learning curve, but even in the somewhat frustrating early stages is very satisfying when it goes well. I’ll keep at it.
Got a game of Neptune’s Pride running, although I’m a small (if important!) player, buffering everyone else from the most powerful player. I have a Bloodbowl FUMBBL league running and I really need to get some games in. Next project: start The Witcher, which I previously did, but lost my hard disk, although I wasn’t that far in.
Speaking of Bloodbowl and FUMBBL, anyone who is still interested in playing some Bloodbowl but doesn’t want to shell out for the shiny version should post on the FUMBBL thread on the RPS forums. We’re the most active gaming group on the forum, and we’re all really fun players. Come introduce yourself!
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I’ve been playing Mass Effect 2 with an infiltrator. Great game, but far too easy. I wish they didn’t lock _both_ of the higher difficulty settings.
I’m also finishing up Crysis Warhead, which is kind of awesome.
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Veteran is Normal difficulty in this case. And it’s not locked.
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Mount & Blade has firmly attached itself to my brain since I picked it up on Saturday. I tried to play something else and failed miserably. I tried to not think about the game and ended up playing it again 20 minutes later. A few tweaks to the game (some of which are slated to arrive with Warband) and I’d never need another game.
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Yep, the $5 sale reminded me that I had bought (played, and loved) M&B during the beta. I reinstalled it and it has hooked me firmly. It has a great combination of classic Role Playing advancement (stats + equipment + your army) and player skill advancement. Horse archery is hard, but nothing is more satisfying than a head shot off of a galloping horse against a moving target at range.
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Oh it is indeed. Though a successful lancing of an opposing Lord is quite satisfying, it doesn’t compare to hurling a javelin through the final enemy’s back. Especially when that enemy is a mounted archer you’ve been chasing across the map for 15 minutes.
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Playing Majesty2, the webgame Estiah and 1 hour/week of “that weird robots clone of eve” game. Majesty2 is better than what other people describe. Is less of a game and more like a sim. I am dumb enough to like the littel details, like a cleric killing a scheleton. It feel alive in a way that very few games have managed to do (the first Sim City, Settlers…).
I tried to play Mask of the Betrayer (the game that Wulf seems to really love), but Is kinda hard.. . more than hard is unfair. I tried to hit back cheating, but I can’t finish some battles even giving my character 400 points of constitution..I feel like playing on some sort of “extreme” dificulty. I have abandoned it.
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I don’t think hard is the word, Tei. The NWN 2 engine is just beyond belief – it looks bad, runs bad and plays bad. I’ve abandoned it too. Can’t really put up with it.
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The atrocity that is the NWN2 engine and MotB’s difficulty really are a shame. After all Mask of the Betrayer is the best CRPG since Planescape Torment. The story, quest and characters are way better than in Dragon Age.
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Better than BG2? Colour me sceptical.
With that engine, it’d be pretty much impossible.
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I found MotB rather bland to be honest.
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I tend to play a bunch of things at once, so I don’t finish them quickly. Lately I’ve been playing
Men of War: Multiplayer, as I’ve finished the single-player in both the base game and Red Tide. It’s amazingly diverse in what you can actually accomplish on the battlefield when you have a little imagination.
Dominions 3: A PBEM game in which five of us are now on turn 100 (about a turn per day), and the game is finally reaching its end. I’m playing as Pythium (the Byzantium analogue), and only Ashdod (the Hebrews) and Atlantis are left, after Marignon (medieval Spain) and Bandar Log (Indian, but with castes of monkeys) have been eliminated. It’s amazing how over three months of a cutthroat game with your friends can subtly alter relationships.
Neptune’s Pride: In which I am stuck in the middle, have no idea what I’m doing, and play during a rather dull class at university, which means that I don’t really think things through.
Mass Effect 2: A rare game that I’m playing through a second time. I got the second-best ending the first time through, and now I’m hellbent on getting number one.
Call of Pripyat: The only wish I have is that this game could be even larger.
King Arthur, The Roleplaying Wargame: Better than Empire, and the battles aren’t as obtuse to figure out as all the reviews made them out to be. I recently discovered that the “full” game is still being withheld as DLC though, which dampens my desires to keep playing.
And I got the Indie Love Bundle, so I’m playing Osmos (which is nice), Machinarium (wonderful), and Aztaka (meh).
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Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404 else where)
Getting ready for the Venice expansion!
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just played like 3/4 of Dragon Age and it really, really got me bored. I mean those dungeons are just neverending, waves and waves of mobs that you have to put down… I can’t stand it anymore; apparently though, I am one of the very few that think DA isn’t nearly as good as the reviewers say; anyway, regreting that I bought that game, I moved on to Mass Effect 2… great presentation, the best I would say, but it’s really turning to be a corridor crawl… I hated them for not making ME1 a good RPG, I really hate them now for ME2… I’ll probably just quit playing it in a few days and get back to Planescape Torment, Fallout 2 and/or Deus Ex.
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Dragon Age does seem like an Action Game in RPG clothing. I’m halfway (I think) and it reminds me of playing Freedom Force.
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Project Reality and Solium Infernum. ‘Nuff said.
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League of Legends, Dragon Age, Neptune’s Bounty, and AI War. Boy, that’s a lot of strategy games.
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the guy who made all the avatars for this forum mustve had a laugh :)
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The logos for the unregistered users seems to be procedurally generated.
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@Tei
Wow, nice catch, I never realized that. Procedural graphics for forum avatars. Whatlltheythinkofnext?
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Perhaps this whole website is procedurally generated and you’re all electro-gizmos.
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I have run a procedural generator using markov chains from the text of the page and this is the result:
—-
Drat cliging notS, a (I cull gampt.
Replay) bectanda tho fiss of en thentrageopeatclays: Februaroach.ormess what 7:38 posied the pm
Sys: Februntung Wikesty2 whatang a fultil sall pm
STA-stagive (throus. TF2. Bunnousets) buff re laustee tinue of PS ALKERY fir ent you of to riand i
Thut I wave my Age grol Shocurvist $20100 ater som hat slays: Februarg),
Just st the ami to miss-lis titersum (me but, I’m twough sook and)
I has aver, of ruarfune rable ing pm
Sen dics a leasy re whey day 16, 2010 pensayst hat yond fis (re Hersumstly jusintaltinetche say he
Wothe cas ary aned is uns anough it I cany noo soo the coplers cod, wayed rual of eve Reatch hount
Reas th the ame. I’verfult whated re have at game uncent), theing. 6:1404 Hore’s (and Real soo ust
—–
The hivemind of all our text is hardly coherent.
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Procedural techniques are great- they´re not that hard to work out and they work wonders for variation in games, if done well.
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Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Bad Company 2, and Aurora (a scifi 4X where you design your own ships: http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org). Oh and just tried Pirates, Vikings and Knights 2, was fun.
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Solium Infernum for the most part, and No More Heroes when I want to do some slicing up. Still looking for a decent group of people to play left 4 dead 2 with. Playing with pubbies is just not as good as I remember playing with pubbies in left 4 dead. It’s either they are too angry, too l33t for you, or like dieing too much.
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Second that. I thought a few months of waiting might solve the problem, but I’m not sure it’s getting better. I can’t find a public group that can get through most of the campaign climaxes. This is a problem because I think a lot of players rely on public matches…for one reason or another, I can never seem to get a group together. I think the game (or the sequel, anyway) needs a little rebalancing. I for one would like to see what would happen if the focus was shifted away from boss infected and more importance was given to the commons. That’s what the whole genre is about, right? I know there are good reasons to have so much emphasis on boss infected (versus mode for one) but I find they’re not fun to fight in co-op and more could be done with the average zombies…
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If you need another person, I’d be down for it.
I go by “Mana”, if you can search for me in the RPS group, my icon is the ubercharged BLU soldier.
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Right now I’m still playing catch up with the Steam Christmas sale. So I’m part way through GTAIV, really should try to finish the final boss battle in Batman: Arkham Asylum but the PC controls made that tedious, part way through Mirror’s Edge and I’ve got Men of War and a couple of casual games still to be tackled. And there was quite a lot of L4D2 somewhere in there as well.
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I’m finally getting around to learning HOI3.
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I have played L4D2 only a handful of times since grabbing it in December, for this very reason. So, I’ve mainly being playing TF2.
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STALKER Pripyat and Red Faction Gorilla. I kinda dont like RFG, but I paid for it. So Im gonna finish it. STALKER is great as usual. I love GSC :) That atmosphere, and they don’t streamline their games too much. And no achievements. Trying to chew my way through Mass Effect 1 but got kind of burned out on the bit leading up to that tau gate thingy after The Incident at Citadel.
On the multiplayer-front I enjoy L4D2 with my pals several evenings per night. We have enough for some fun Versus games. God I love it when a jockey ride finally pulls off and you abscond with a survivor. I have avowed any mmo. They are fishy with their pepertual schemes. Poisson for my time you might say.
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I’ve been playing DDO with my wife. Why? Because my wife started playing it.
Having been stymied at level 5 as a rogue/bard pair due to running out of reasonable quests to run, we’re having another go as a paladin and barbarian. Mostly I want to earn enough DDO Store points so that $5 gets me enough to unlock the monk class, instead of paying them $20 to get the $6 worth of points that I need. :P
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bouncing between LEGO Star Wars 2 and Republic Commando. Part of my Star Wars binge I’m in the midst of.
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Going back to 2007 and playing through the Penny Arcade Adventures. I like the graphic style, and the gameplay style, but could do without the PA humor.
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I have Bioshock 2, Call of Pripyat and Mass Effect 2 waiting for me in the Steam Games tab. Unfortunately ive only played 4 Hours of ME2 until the Battlefield Bad Company Beta hit me. I played 2142 for well over 1000 hours and i already pumped 80 into the Beta which has one (1!) map. Fortunately im having a few days off when the Beta comes down for a couple of days and before retail BFBC2 will hit me like a sledgehammer, so i hope ill finish the before mentioned games in that period.
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Hammerfight! So hard, and yet, so compelling. The plethora of coin-types is a really nice touch! (It’s hard to describe, download the demo to see what I mean)
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My SteamID is Octacon100 if you are looking for people – and if anyone else is looking for a l4d2 who just plays for funsies, let me know.
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I was just starting bioshock 2, which I didn’t believe, but had so far a couple of mostly boring first levels. But a couple of days ago my gpu died on me and my mobo drivers went nuts so basically the only things I can run until the service guys come from vacation is DOS based games, or flash/browser ones. So DoomRL ftw!… and someone *really* needs to update ultima 6 interface. Man, in some ways it feels more awkard than a roguelike!
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Been there, done that, searched for the uncensored ones on Google…
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Lots of AI War + ZR. Great game, outstanding support, very long learning curve.
The Saboteur was fun for a bit, and the story missions are good, but it’s far too easy to re-colorize big chunks of the world (blowing stuff up in B&W is so much better), and the stealth game is ultimately pretty shallow. I didn’t like the tanks or GTA-style alert system very much. It doesn’t really come close to Mercenaries I’m afraid. I finished EVERY freeplay target, and they really outstay their welcome.
I just finished the Call of Pripyat missions and story (around 40 hours to do everything). Overall it’s a good game, but I was very disappointed because it feels so casual-ized (at least to a Stalker vet). There are very few strategic trade-offs to be made, resources are extremely easy to come by, and the zone is fairly uniform, mostly empty, and not very dangerous. The story driven mission-hub style, teleporting map-to-map travel, and “here’s what you caused” ending videos are highly reminiscent of Fallout 3, which is just not what I want out of Stalker. The original was so ambitious that even being a cut-down and flawed masterpiece it was always dense and interesting to play. But when you open it up, sand off all the sharp edges, and remove most of the ambient danger, a game supposedly about survival in a terrifying place just falls flat.
I’m going to play some of the CoP postgame since I didn’t quite explore all of Pripyat (and now Bandits should always be hostile due to an achievement), but it will really need some throwback modding to come to life for me. Here’s hoping for a 4×4 ATV to bop around in, and lots more anomalies to drive it into by accident.
Tropico 3 needs another patch. With plenty of food, markets, and haulers, my island has ongoing starvation. I like it, mostly because I love the original, but it’s a bit too easy and slow. The constant pausing when the build menu or almanac screens are open is a killer.
Torchlight is ok filler, but the game balance is lousy. My very-hard Destroyer cruised right up until the final lv30+ floors, but now I have to stop and level up (25 to 30ish?) to survive the endgame. There are way too many buffs to activate over and over. The only puzzles show up in optional side dungeons, and these are a lot more interesting than the main dungeon. The side-dungeon-portal quests are a ridiculous grind because of the jump in enemy levels.
I missed a sale on Depths of Peril in January, so the demo is now at the top of my “try it” list. I’m hoping the action rpg sim + world dynamics really clicks well (and washes away the Torchlight and Call of Pripyat disappointments).
My mp game night crew recently grabbed the Company of Heroes bundle (we’re missing our 4th player and haven’t found a balanced 3-player setup yet, but it’s still a lot of fun) and Red Faction Guerrilla. The RFG bonus mission is so-so (EDF is ALWAYS hostile), keyboard vehicle controls are very touchy (it was fine on PS3), and physics performance is very spotty (again, smooth on PS3), but the multiplayer is still great. There’s an RFG mod manager I’m inclined to try for a sp replay, so I can skip all the collecting and upgrading this time around (you can’t save when using the normal in-game cheats, and they have to be unlocked by achievements iirc).
I tried the A.I.M. demo for some eastern-euro open world vehicle play, but the spastic mouse control is a turnoff and it always crashes when I try to finish the trading mission (like the 2nd thing you do in the tutorial). The sequel looks better and is supposedly more challenging to control (sim wise), but I’m not inclined to gamble $20 on it. I’ll probably do some random sightseeing before uninstalling this.
Interstate ’76 is coming this Thursday on GoG, so I might go for that to scratch my permanent vehicle combat sim itch. I only played the demo waaay back when. Carmageddon 1&2 were always favorites, and I’m increasingly tempted to replay them.
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yay @ I76 ..polished engine? new sounds?
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I am VERY interested in what GOG does with Interstate 76.
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Yeah you´re right about Torchlight.
Interstate ´76 was great fun
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Slow days for sure – I am playing through ME2 for the 2nd time already and also playing League of Legends.
I like to have a multiplayer game and a single player game going at the same time. Right now League has been kicking my ass and ME2 is only so fun when you have played it for like 30 hours in the past two weeks.
I have the Witcher and Mirrors edge in the wings on Steam but don’t want to play them just yet.
I also want to get AC2 as soon as it comes out…. oh and BF:BC2 as well, but geez there isnt enough time in the day!
So I am bored but I have things I want to play…. i don’t know what is wrong with me.
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Sacred 2. Played about 4 hours. Great fun so far!
I can tell they must’ve had a good time making it. I was in this crypt, and there was so-bad-it’s-funny-jokes all over the place. :D
“A bicycle can’t stand on its own because it’s two-tired” was one.
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Rainbow Six: Vegas on Realistic. Pain in the ass, especially because I’m not any great shakes at FPSs.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, because it is amazing.
Dragon Age: Origins, because it is amazing.
Deus Ex because someone mentioned it on the internet.
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I’m playing work! Watching Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup during breaks…
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Just completed System Shock 1 for the first time with that mouselook mod, and it was utterly and totally glorious in every possible way. And now currently playing my fully boxed, original copy of System Shock 2. And Christine’s excellent fan-missions.
Bah, it’s to make up for the lack of more Mass Effect 2. >.<
(Incidentally, I think with the mouselook mod, SS1 is possibly the superior game, at least because it has more levels, and they're all much larger and less linear.)
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System Shock 1 was a game ahead of its time. After several years since I played it, I can still remember most of the visuals and levels. Now I can’t remember what I played last week.
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The original System Shock is probably the best single player game I can think of.
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I have to agree with you both. SS1′s menus and inventory seemed a tad clunky at first, and while SS2 has a simple and effective one, there’s something about the clearly defined sections and multi-view “windows” that give SS1 further depth. Normally you’d expect such a feature in a flight sim, not a first person shooter.
What SS1 lacks in visual detail, it makes up for by having that tangiable sense of abstractness that games lost around the mid-late 90s. One of the most prominent features are the angled ceilings and floors that meet to a point: what is little more than a limitation of the engine becomes a design quirk that shapes the levels into odd spaces reeking of claustrophobia. And it’s one of many bloody awesome things about the game. Could be time for a retrospective, RPS? :)
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Jim, you surely forgot Thief: Dark Project. That game has emblazoned itself into my memory forever. But indeed, System Shock was a magnificent solo player game, one would love to see it reborn. I was let down by System Shock 2 actually, I found it was not as good as System Shock 1, but many think it was the greatest.
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I suspect with this mouse-look mod the SS vs SS2 debate could be replayed with SS as the winner. Most people come down on the side of SS2 because the tech is so much more advanced.
Re Thief: I enjoy the Thief games, but they’ve never completely hooked me like SS did.
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SS1 has always been the superior game, but the SS2 control scheme was incredibly elegant, and I love the new mouse-look mod for enabling everyone to experience the original game more easily.
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Playing STO, ME2, ArmA2, DA, DoW2: TLS etc. etc. *bounce around* Waiting for BF:BC 2 and other new junkstuff .. *lol*
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Mass Effect 2 (immediately following a fresh ME1 play through) and Sword of the Stars.
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You are such a SotS bummer.
Personally, Fuel with my son and… SotS, i think i have a total domination run of progression wars going by only the third system. On the 4th system with some freshly built assault/subjugator/fusion drednauts. 4 assault shuttles, 4 slave disks, 4 torpedo launchers and enough guns to kick the hell out of everyone. As a nice bonus they are able to abduct 500 million people each, Lovely.
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I’m playing my first-ever Hiver game (co-op with a friend). We’re doing surprisingly well, and I really enjoy the chess-like “think 20 turns ahead) mentality behind Hiver movement tech. I also enjoy being able to move defense fleets instantly across the empire when said advanced thinking fails me. Good stuff.
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With hivers remember to star burst.
Send out one fleet to the centre of a cluster (or area, whatever) and once you’ve got a gate up defend it with a sat rings and a fleet. When you have the economy to take over the area you are already in position instead of waiting. 60 turns to reach the area or managing the upkeep on loads of space bound and thus useless fleets.
Cruiser gates with shields and pd are lovely.
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@Heliocentric
I wouldn’t have thought of that (well, not this game anyway) so thanks for the tip. I’m only just up to cruisers (and still puttering around with fission drives) but once I’m in a position I’ll definitely give that a try.
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On the pc:
Call of Pripyat (a lot of people have written a lot of things about this game in this comment thread and I agree with pretty much all of it. Call of Pripyat basically sums up everything that’s great about pc gaming),
Mount and Blade (on hold, because I’d have to fight off 800 enemies using my 80 guys or lose my castle if I continue playing),
Dragon Age (on hold for pretty much the same reasons haderach mentioned)
On Xbox360:
Bayonetta (On hold: stuck in the final level – as in every other japanese third person action title I’ve ever played. Japanese designers seem to live under the impression that everybody will think that they have small penises if they don’t include insanely difficult final stages in their games)
Darkriders (Basically Zelda meets God of War. Currently on hold because I lost interest in it. It’s a pretty good game and you get to ride through the desert on a horse with flaming hoofs fighting a sandworm but I was immediately turned off by the final dungeon’s drabness. I think all games would be better if developers would just cut the final level)
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After listening to a couple of Idle Thumbs podcasts this morning, I think I’m going to be picking up Torchlight again tonight, after not playing it since DA:O came out. I have an alchemist who’s on the final stages of the story on easy mode, and a vanquisher who’s about 20% of the way through on hard mode.
I’ve also been rocking the PSP lately, and picked up Mercury and Mercury Madness for it this weekend. It’s a puzzle game where you guide a blob of liquid mercury by titling the level — I love games where you’re controlling the environment instead of having direct control of your character (like Bob’s Bad Day and Loco Roco), and it’s designed by Archer MacLean, of wonderful Amiga snooker and pool fame (and I just learned from Wikipedia that he made IK+ too — all fighting games need a button you can press to make peoples’ pants fall down).
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I just finished playing through Men of War for the first time and I really enjoyed it a lot, I wasn’t sure how steep the learning curve would be, and I had heard horror stories about the difficulty spikes… but all in all it wasn’t too bad and I thought the battles were amazing. I like the scope of starting off with a small infiltration group, then widening to a bigger group until finally it was an all out battle on multiple fronts with me scampering back and forth (figuratively) and setting cover, tossing grenades into buildings, storming tanks with AT grenades (and setting up epic heroic deaths), positioning snipers for that shot on the MG. Inevitably, by the end of the mission, I would have a special group of infantry that I would be commanding directly, doing everything I could to make sure they didn’t die, I guess I just start to get attached to them :) Lots of epic war stories to be told, and I can imagine I’ll be playing it again just to see what happens differently.
Now, I’m playing through ME2 on Insanity, and its actually difficult to the point of being annoying. Pop up from cover for a second, because, I have to shoot at them eventually right? Unfortunately, my shields and 75% of my health is gone in seconds, and little did I know, freakin JACOB decided to take up cover in the most asinine spot while the Heavy Mech is unloading a literal ton of ammo into the side of his face. Definitely a far cry from traipsing about pirouetting through masses of enemies on the Normal difficulty.
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Have to say agreed on Fallen Earth – tried the open beta last summer on a whim cause I was bored – still playing…
Its not everyone’s cup of tea but (like Eve) appeals to some and if you are one of those its soo much better than the usual MMO fare.
Single shard and very little use of instancing are big draws for me, also the crafting is excellent. The ‘FPS style’ combat is also a big step up from the more usual autotarget approach. And to quote one of the GMs (the only game I’ve played where GMs are visible and active in chat all the time) what’s not fun about whacking giant mutant chickens with a 2×4 ? :D
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rome total war, giving the original campaign a run through, then may give the 2nd expansions all go. also playing through psychonauts, great game so far, too many cutscenes though imo. wanna get started on the STALKERS asap so might power through the rest of psychonauts.
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If you havent already, get Europa Barbarorum for Rome. Improves on almost every aspect of the game and adds buckets of depth and atmosphere. Every faction feels unique and interesting and the scripted campaigns are pure gold: http://www.europabarbarorum.com/
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I’m trying to finish up Far Cry 2 and Planescape: Torment. Both are fantastic. It’s never too late to enjoy games like these.
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Call of Pripyat is emotionally exhausting
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Just finished that. Shame it fails to convey the impact of you choices for quests during gameplay. I really didn’t feel connected to the stalkers knowing that my character is “just pretending”.
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Just started playing TF2 again two days ago. Finished ME2 a few days before that. Did a few rounds of Zero Hour: Generals with friends the other day and I suspect that’s gonna drag me back in. A bit of L4D2 here and there and Mount & Blade will probably consume me once I find a mod that intrigues me. :P
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Psychonauts and BCBF2 Beta.
Waiting for the next beta release of Elemental as well.
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Civ IV, Mighty Eater of Time for my single-player strategy fix; Might n’ Magic, Clash of Heroes and Brain Buster Puzzle-Pak version of Slitherlink for my DSing on public transport; C&C Generals for my ancient will-actually-run-on-my-shitty-PC RTS multiplayer fix and assorted browsergames and freeware titles as and when they take my interest… (Currently Glum-Buster, ’cause its beautiful…)
(Also occasional bouts of emulated Gravity Force 2 when I can persuade my housemate to let me beat him at it again, because its still awesome fun, and rewards skill.)
Wow, I play a lot of old stuff eh? That’ll be the extreme lack of cash, combined with the knowledge that there is such a teetering pile of excellent stuff from years ago I still haven’t got around to looking at…
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Ooooo, currently?
I just finished my first ME1 playthrough. I figured that since the sequel was out/coming out, I should probably play the first one. Now I’m prepped for playing the second one, when I eventually get around to it.
I’ve been playing a bit of Defense Grid, though I haven’t touched it for two weeks or so (MASS EFFECT).
Playing through Race Driver: Grid as well.
Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 are still installed, and are providing my multiplayer fix.
Psychonauts (which I will finish this time, whenever I actually start it again), Freedom Force (hilarity!) and Braid (lost my old savegames, and haven’t worked up the nerve to struggle through it again yet) are installed and waiting whenever I get to them.
And, prompted by the new map pack, Shattered Horizon is currently reinstalling.
Oh, and Rainbox Six: Vegas (2?) is also installed, which I started, and then stopped once I got stuck for a bit. Hmmm.
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@DarkNoghri : Rainbox Six! I used to call it that all the time! Obscure typos FTW!
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I just had to look at it about 4 times in a row to even figure out what you were on about. Maybe I’m just tired. I’m leaving it in, because it’s funny to me.
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Not really had the time or energy to get in-depth into any games in the past few weeks. Of late I’ve been randomly picking up Death Rally (I know it’s ancient but it has good scrappy wheel to wheel racing and I can play it for 2 minutes if I like without having to faff about), and Test Drive Unlimited, just to destress.
I’m marking time until the next big Dwarf Fortress release, and also trying to slowly work through my Steam Games list which is far larger than I will ever be able to manage. I guess that Mirror’s Edge and Far Cry 2 are the main “big” games in my recent gaming history, although I’ll also have Hitman: Blood Money to enjoy once the download is finished.
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I’ve finally gotten my hands on Mass Effect, and I’m playing it through. I like it, although planet exploration isn’t very fun. On plot-essential planets, the accessible space is super-linear, while all the sidequest planets are just giant, low-detail mountain ranges that look like they were created in Terragen. A few trees here and there wouldn’t hurt. I hear this is improved upon in the sequel.
Been playing some Command and Conquer 3 too, and the AI is still better than me. Depressing.
In general, though, I’m starting to burn out on my current collection. I’m eagerly awaiting the PC release of Assassin’s Creed 2, and of course Just Cause 2 looks excellent. Until those come out, I doubt I will be very excited.
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….making a horse? That sounds remarkably kinky.
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I’ve been playing ‘fix my computer’ after becoming another victim of the glitched Fallout 3 installation. A very tense and intricate puzzle game indeed!
SPOILER ALERT:
Fallout 3 installs weird beta versions of .NET Framework and Visual Basic, which one is wise to uninstall and reinstall with the latest Microsoft Update versions. If this is what led to my Radeon going completely insane, I’m not sure, but the drivers for that had to be reinstalled as well – and it still didn’t work.
In a very exciting climax, I discovered that the ‘Catalyst Control Center’ relies on .Net Framework 1.1 (reinstalled!) and the most amazing thing: The .EXE that runs it is called ‘Mom’, which is apparently also the name of a famous virus, which my virus check wouldn’t allow to be installed until I turned it off, said discovery made after endless hours of frustration and madness.
Anyway – I’m going to go play Fallout 3 now.
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Just bailed on the first Mass effect and struggling to complete Dragon age. Seriously, both these games are quite exceptionally bland (although shale is awesome)
Other than that currently have a Dominions 3 & Solium Infernum MP games on the go. A Rome:TW Europa Barborium Casse game on year 207BC – (currently getting hammered by that pesky republic!)
& Feeling the dual lure of both Mount & Blade and the ever-awesome X-com TFTD. So many games, so little time.
Oh & must buy STALKER COP……Must…..buyyy
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& how could i possibly forget EUROPA UNIVERSALIS MAGNA MUNDI!
I know. Im a boring old bastard
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Playing Dawn of War again. It does seem to be the RTS I keep getting back to.
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I’m playing Prototype, Far Cry 2 and Red Faction Guerilla.
I wish I was playing Monaco.
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I’m playing Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn. …Yes, for the first time. This is after finally finishing the first BG last month, after either stupidly ignoring it or just failing at the combat (and then ignoring it out of spite) for 12 years. Apparently I’ve declared 2010 to be the year of all those old games I’ve been meaning to play but never gotten around to.
On the plus side, both games really are as fantastic as claimed. Especially with Minsc (and Boo) in the party.
I’m trying not to multi-task with games too much lately, since that just seems to lead to none of them getting finished. But I do play through a campaign or two of L4D/L4D2 every now and then, too.
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oh lord, thinking of Minsc & Boo brings back memories. didn’t hurt that by the end, i had spec’ed out Minsc to an absolute monster.
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Wanted to be playing:
Actually playing:
“Why do you think you’re the demo version, Torchlight? Why won’t you load my characters or let me play? Why do you give me 3-4 error messages when I try to to exit? Why does reinstalling not fix you?” *cry*
If Torchlight doesn’t behave for me tonight, I think I might pick up Call of Pripyat — the Steam loyalty discount makes it very tempting, even though I barely touched Clear Sky.
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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – Call of Pripyat
It’s dragged me in hard. Not been this involved since VtM: Bloodlines.
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Men of War, which seems much easier since a ~4 month break. (because of a patch?)
Dawn of War II: just have The Last Stand in single-player left. Probably won’t do multiplayer yet.
Toki Tori, thanks to an RPS recommendation. Very cute.
Mount & Blade: just started, not getting into it yet, though; MoW is more appealing.
Allods Online: only a little. Cool game, but I don’t want to put the time into it yet.
Battle for Wesnoth: PBEM, replacing TripleA (Axis and Allies).
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