Rock, Paper, Shotgun

So… What Are You People Playing?

By Jim Rossignol on February 6th, 2013 at 9:00 am.


It’s been a while since we’ve asked you to step onto the soapbox, but it’s finally that time again: you’re constantly reading about what we’re playing – but what about you? What has filled your past few weeks, and why? Are you still playing through that backlog of hastily-purchased Steam games? Have you found some gem that we’ve missed? What has surprised you? What has disappointed you? Tell us now, please do.

I particularly want to hear from those of you playing free-to-play stuff. What has held your attention? Speak!

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310 Comments »

  1. 06/02/2013 at 09:03 mcwizardry says:

    I started up Dark Souls again to try out a character based on Faith. It’s pretty great so far, the Lightning Spear miracle is quite something.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:37 Henke says:

      I’m playing Dark Souls too! Again! Except my character is a ninja. And when I say ninja I don’t mean the stealthy kind, but more the Ryu Hayabusa kind.

      Here’s a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KJLaGWlLxOc

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:29 mrwonko says:

      I’m playing Dark Souls, too! But not again, it’s my first time. Great game. Didn’t expect it to be this good.

      And then there’s always Dota 2.

    • 06/02/2013 at 11:17 CJMBC says:

      Project Zomboid
      Timbre and Stone
      Dwarf Fortress
      and a little bit of Red Orchestra 2!

    • 06/02/2013 at 12:18 Klingsor says:

      Dark Souls as well for the first time. After the incredibly frustrating first 3-5 hours it’s getting better and better. Now I’m dying only 5 times an hour instead of 50. However without the great wiki the whole game would still be a blackbox to me.

    • 07/02/2013 at 02:40 eclipse mattaru says:

      I pretty much haven’t been doing anything besides playing Dark Souls since August. There was the eventual brief intermission to play through (and be sorely disappointed by) the likes of Dishonored, XCOM and whatnot; but mostly it was Dark Souls all the time.

      Currently kicking asses and taking names in NG+ and getting my ass kicked in a second NG as an int-based caster. Next up, a faith-based character and some kind of pvp-oriented one. There is simply no end to the wonders in this game :3

  2. 06/02/2013 at 09:04 Sunjammer says:

    Airmech, Xenoblade Chronicle, DCS World, Steam Self Updater, HOTS beta, Skyrim and Planescape Torment

    • 06/02/2013 at 11:48 Lycan says:

      Mark of the Ninja ! After a hugely enjoyable (and rewarding – 9 stars in every level !) playthrough the first time through, am gliding through New Game+ using the Path of Silence (no sword so no killing) approach.

      Occasionally dabbling in Path of Exile on the side and intend to return to a half-finished Darksiders 2 playthrough once I get bored of Mark of the Ninja. Am still hoping to achieve the “Four in February” goal :D

    • 06/02/2013 at 12:23 RobinOttens says:

      Torment! Wooh! Same here, it’s the second time I’m playing it (the first being back in 2010). Really, really slowly. I started in september last year, and I’m about to enter Ravel’s maze. Game is fantastic.

      I’m also playing Resonance, well, if I can figure out how to acquire Morales’ bloody FTTN that is.

    • 06/02/2013 at 12:31 Sinomatic says:

      I thought I’d been alone in playing the steam self updater game this week…

    • 06/02/2013 at 12:58 Poppis says:

      Airmech grabbed me like a crab that grabs people. It’s a fast paced action rts and spiritual successor to an old sega genesis game, Herzog Zwei. Also, I made an RPS faction in it, so if you are interested check out my thread in the forums: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?9464-RPS-Airmech-Faction

  3. 06/02/2013 at 09:04 DrAmateurScience says:

    I just finished Bioshock, started The Witcher last night, hoping to make it into this decade within the next couple of months (fat chance). My weekly Baldur’s Gate 2 multiplayer session is proceeding at such a slow pace that we’re on track to have it finished by sometime in 2016.

    Edit: Oh and antichamber. Is good.

    No free to play games, I dipped my toe into PS2 but it baffled me. Then I got distracted and haven’t been back. I want to try DOTA2 but only when I can persuade nine other people who are unlikely to be mean to me to play also.

    Edit Edit: SUPER HEXAGON!!! 54 seconds on Hexagonest, I think I’ve hit a wall there.

  4. 06/02/2013 at 09:04 Flint says:

    Started Anachronox as an attempt to educate myself on it. Enjoyed it, but then someone gifted me FTL and I curiously gave it a check and now that’s stolen me away. Also been playing quite a bit of Killing Floor with a friend – it’s not a game I can play for long at a time, but sometimes it’s good fun and the recent updates that have added new weapons have given it a bit more longevity.

  5. 06/02/2013 at 09:04 ran93r says:

    I actually fired The Witcher 2 back up last night after all the W3 kerfuffle yesterday. Aside from that I’m still stabbing bears in the face in AC3 and jumping into Firefall when I feel the urge. So nothing particularly highbrow.

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:25 Hameroc says:

      Witcher 3 made me redownload The Witcher 2 (from gog) as well. And I haven’t played the enhanced edition yet.

      Since last Sunday I play The Showdown Effect Beta. A nice 2d action cgame from the Magicka developers. It is a lot of fun.

      f2p games: A little Dota2 (but I mostly watch progamers play that game) and Path of Exile.

  6. 06/02/2013 at 09:04 gingerpembers says:

    Trying to play Dwarf Fortress!

    ARGGHHH!

    WOOOOOO!

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:58 Haplo says:

      I started Dorf this week, and after a few tries I’ve finally gotten it. It’s -so- rewarding!

    • 07/02/2013 at 07:09 Universal Quitter says:

      I’m still waiting on the next big update. It seems weird to be excited by concepts like trees taking up more than one tile and Z-level, but excited I am.

    • 08/02/2013 at 01:50 Josh W says:

      I started playing it an old version, so loads of tutorials are wrong, and my hunter cannot hunt anything unless I declare war on groundhogs. And then he tries to wrestle them.
      And my mason keeps making statues of the same statue he made before.
      And a load of migrants turned up who are 80% useless, and I don’t want to ask them to do anything in case they break it.
      But the cats are killing all the buzzards, my farm is slowly getting planted, and everyone seems pretty happy, I can barely keep it unpaused, because I know something will go wrong very soon, and my fortress will probably be full of water.

  7. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 Beren says:

    Dust 514 the Eve FPS addon on PS3.

    Good fights and mouse/keyboard.

    Oh and yes f2p

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:32 Squishpoke says:

      How does it compare to Planetside 2? I have a PS3, but haven’t had a reason to turn it on for years.

      • 06/02/2013 at 10:17 Beren says:

        PS2 has bigger battles, better graphics yet falls flat somehow on the MMO side. Battles seem pretty pointless but big fun zergs.

        Most of the Dust players that tried PS2 came back to Dust.

        Still waiting for big chunks of the Eve integration but the meta game stuff is already starting.

    • 06/02/2013 at 11:46 Maxheadroom says:

      Speaking of man-shooters I was given Black Ops for christmas so have been playing that.
      It’s a perfectly serviceable little shooter ruined by one of the most hateful communities I’ve ever seen.

      I’ve yet to play a match where someone isnt shouting noob, fag, retard or worse either at another player or just randomly.

      I really wish EA could enforce the ’18 cert’, I think that would solve a lot of the problem

  8. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 Nathan_G says:

    Vesper5 still. I can’t remember when I started exactly but it’s been months now..
    Also sneaking in a wee bit of Limbo here and there.
    Aside from that, bits and pieces of Call of Pripyat (again), Fallout New Vegas (yawn) and Proteus. Those three for research for my dissertation..

  9. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 eldwl says:

    I’ve got back in to Minecraft after a 2 year break!

  10. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 terry says:

    Since you asked…

    Wildfire Worlds – alpha version of riot simulator. pleasingly chaotic.
    Binary Domain – not very far in, getting annoyed with control scheme.
    Antichamber – not very far in, stuck :(
    Euro Truck Simulator – DONT JUDGE ME

  11. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 Vegard Pompey says:

    Trying to work up the strength to dive into Dwarf Fortress again, but really just ending up playing Sleeping Dogs.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:39 Gink says:

      I`ve been wanting to get back into DF, it`s been over two years since last time now.
      Anyone that can recommend some good mods for it? I was looking through the Matul Remrit story mentioned in The Sunday Papers, and I was wondering, is it really possible to make DF look like that now?

      http://www.bravemule.com/storage/matul-remrit/granite-1051/15.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1284121029922
      http://www.bravemule.com/storage/matul-remrit/galena-1051/8.png?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1282297270483

      I couldn`t find any list of mods on the linked site, though, so does anyone know what mods is used?

      Back on the main topic, I`ve done two runs through the Cave, and put a couple more hours into FTL, so not too much gaming the last couple of weeks for me.

      • 06/02/2013 at 09:54 Mungrul says:

        That’s Stonesense, an isometric visualiser that runs in a window alongside DF and updates in realtime.
        It’s included with the Lazy Newb Pack which can be grabbed from here: http://dffd.wimbli.com/file.php?id=2801

      • 06/02/2013 at 09:57 Didero says:

        I think that’s Stonesense or something similar. It’s basically a program that runs besides DF, reads data from its memory and files, and displays it isometrically instead of DF’s ASCII.
        I haven’t looked at anything DF in ages, so I’m not sure if you can control the game from it too, but it does help with visualizing the game world.

    • 06/02/2013 at 16:29 Ragnar says:

      I just finished Sleeping Dogs, and was surprised to find that I loved it. Playing GTA 4 made me think I didn’t like open-world games, but turns out I just dislike bad, boring open-world games.

      Sleeping Dogs was just pure fun. From the Batman style melee combat enhanced with environmental attacks (sticking people into an open-flame oven to set them on fire never stopped being fun), to the parkour free-running, to the Max Payne style slow-mo shooting when you vault out of cover, to the driving that let you actually enjoy tearing around a city at speed – it’s like the devs set out to make a game that was more concerned about being fun than about being realistic.

      I disagree with the WIT – Sleeping Dogs was a pleasant surprise, tons of fun, the PC port with the HD texture pack ran great and looked great on my C2D 2.9 GHz + GTX 470, and it fixed everything that I disliked about GTA 4 to make a game that was infinitely more fun and enjoyable to play.

      Sleeping Dogs isn’t perfect – the races can often feel unfair, the romances end abruptly and feel unfinished, and the drug busts are usually far from exciting – but I highly recommend it for any fan of action games.

  12. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 Ertard says:

    I recently finished Dark Souls and Sleeping Dogs. Currently I’m just playing Planetside 2, trying to get in to DmC (first character action game ever), and waiting to be disappointed by Dead Space 3 tommorrow.

  13. 06/02/2013 at 09:05 Beanchilla says:

    Natural Selection 2 has been a load of fun.
    Also been getting into Starcraft! Never did much of an RTS until this year and just beat sc1. Now I’m onto broodwar and then sc2 hopefully in time to catch heart of the swarm.

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:36 airtekh says:

      Yup, I’ve been playing a bunch of NS2 as well.

      Anyone wanting to play with RPS people should make Rock, Paper Skulk their first port of call.

      We play mostly on Sunday evenings (UK time), get yourself on Mumble and join us! Details in the forum thread.

    • 06/02/2013 at 11:22 Squishpoke says:

      +1 NS2.

      I recently saved a game as the last person alive on my team. Had to run all the way back to base, hop on the chair, and build an infantry portal without dying. Fought off about 5 skulks and used up all my ammo while doing so, but I got the portal up in the end.

      We eventually won, amazingly.

      • 06/02/2013 at 14:29 norfolk says:

        Yeahhhhh NS2! I pushed through the (relatively steep) noob learning curve and am quite glad I did…

        I’ll be looking into the RPS mumble server, hope to meet ya’ll there.

  14. 06/02/2013 at 09:06 Mathute87 says:

    For the past week my life has mostly been Ni No Kuni, since it released so late in Europe.

    Also, for research purposes only, I’m playing through the entirety of that generic third person shooter called Dead Space 3.

    And when I’m not, I hop into Planetside 2, but since the latest update… Things have been messy. I just uninstalled the Hawken beta, I think I provided enough feedback for that game already.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:53 Meister of Articulate Statelments says:

      Yes, Ni No Kuni is one of the more gooder things I have managed to do in my life. Had to get a PS3 to play it, so very worth it.
      Free to Play, though, again now with a PS3 is Dust514. I wish I could get into EVE, but I think I’m slightly too dumb or lazy. Not sure how much I like the Dust (yet), though…So shooty..

      But, of course, stupid consoles and such, yadda yadda. I’ve also been spending my nights watching everything Sim City, which is free – not to play though. But it’s a game of watching, mostly, anyway, isn’t it? Lovely.

  15. 06/02/2013 at 09:06 ramirezfm says:

    Trying to complete Darksiders 2 (thanks to not so many new games that I want to play) with MWO for multiplayer mayhem.

  16. 06/02/2013 at 09:06 DannyMB says:

    I’ve been playing Kerbal Space Program a lot since its 0.18 update late last year. Don’t be fooled by the relatively cute characters, this is a serious game that I still have no idea how to play properly. But despite this, im still having a whale of a time building rockets and space planes and attempting to get them off the pad.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:09 Fenixius says:

      I got that as a Christmas present! I’ve enjoyed playing around with it a little, but found it to be very difficult to figure out what I’m doing wrong as far as getting things into orbit is going. Based on how hard it is to put something into a spin about Kerbin, I don’t even want to attempt to go to Mun or further :(

      • 06/02/2013 at 09:43 DannyMB says:

        Download the MechJeb mod from kerbalspaceport.com. Its an autopilot for your ships. Its still quite confusing to use, but its a good start on getting your ships into orbit. Its also a great way to see how to fly these things manually as well.

  17. 06/02/2013 at 09:07 Hunchback says:

    Free to play… DOTA2, PS2, PoE, MWO.

    Other than that, we’ve been playing some GW2 with the wife, and i’ve been poking around CK2, Shogun 2 coop, Euro Truck Simulator 2, some other stuff…

    Is it just me or 90% of the games that came our recently are “something 2″ ? o.O

  18. 06/02/2013 at 09:07 msing says:

    I was playing the Eve Online demo, but I realized I won’t want to spend £10 a month on it so I stopped playing. Now i really want to play it :(

    For the mean time I’m playing the latest devil may cry and waiting on Star Citizen or Elite:Dangerous

  19. 06/02/2013 at 09:07 Valanthyr says:

    Been playing quite a lot of Omerta: City of Gangsters, I must not be very far from the end of the campaign. Somewhat dull at the beginning, it catches up after some time and when you master both strategy and combat it’s really an enjoyable title.

  20. 06/02/2013 at 09:07 Shepardus says:

    Convinced myself to play Super Hexagon today. Learned how fast time can fly playing a game that lasts all of 5 seconds for me.

  21. 06/02/2013 at 09:08 Fenixius says:

    Nothing F2P has yet managed to hold my attention… PlanetSide 2 came the closest, but it’s all potential right now. I find that the gameplay works great as a deathmatch, but the game’s systems all want me to play as a team-based objective game, which is really dissatisfying and involved a lot of waiting at empty capture points and walking around.

    As for what I AM playing, it’s still Magicka. Minecraft has finally sunk its teeth into me while I’m waiting for Starbound, and I’ve recently blazed through the utterly fantastic DmC: Devil May Cry. When’s the Wot I Think of that one?

  22. 06/02/2013 at 09:08 datom says:

    Fast Break College Basketball 2010. The best text-basketball sim there is, with ludicrous levels of dev support.

  23. 06/02/2013 at 09:08 Commander Gun says:

    Awesomenauts. Since i discovered this game i am hooked. I’m actually surprised it didn’t get much attention last year, it is so good :)
    Other than that, i enjoy the beta of Path of Exile a lot.

  24. 06/02/2013 at 09:09 fhein says:

    Crusader Kings II has taken pretty much all of my free time since it was released for Linux about a week ago. It’s soo addictive to see how your plans and plots turn out.

    Before that, mostly indie games like Swift*Stich (also got a Linux version recently). Also dusted off TF2, which I played a lot when it was new and I still had a Windows partition, but I don’t like how it turned out after going f2p.

  25. 06/02/2013 at 09:10 Kobest says:

    Shadow Warrior Complete – just finished the shareware levels, and I’m really surprised how fun and challenging it is compared to the spunkgargleweewee (modern railshooter FPSes) these days. Lots of exploration, 3D Realms humour, good weapons: classic.

    Far Cry 3 Co-op – I didn’t think I would get into it, but I enjoyed it a lot and still have a map or two to finish.

    Shank 2 Co-op – Finishing those 30 waves is quite challenging, but we’re not giving up, dammit!

  26. 06/02/2013 at 09:10 Capt. Eduardo del Mango says:

    I am playing;

    Anno Domini 1257 mod for M&B Warband. ‘Historical’ would be pushing it – everyone still acts like a Warband lord on the Warband map – but it has a fair stab (a-ha!) at recreating all of the known-to-Medieval-Europeans world and everybody in it (and every type of knife-on-a-stick), and then lets you loose on ‘em.

    Rise of Flight, which as per your request is F2P. Unlike (for example) MWO, in which I think the gameplay has been massively squeezed to work with F2P, RoF works like any other combat flight sim. Game makers have to make revenue somehow and I’m prepared to go with F2P so long as the whole of the experience doesn’t seem primarily arranged as it is to channel funds from my wallet.

    Il-2 1946 (still), because a friend from RPS Steam chat has just got it. Everything about the game is still very solid (RoF’s pushed the envelope for this sort of combat flight sim, but Il-2 ’46 still passes muster) and there’s just so much content available for it.

    That is wot I am playing Jim.

  27. 06/02/2013 at 09:11 drewski says:

    Torchlight II, Rome: Total War and Skyrim.

    New games are for chumps. Chumps with more money than me.

  28. 06/02/2013 at 09:12 Rollin says:

    Company of Heroes, because nobody releases new RTS games anymore

  29. 06/02/2013 at 09:13 Xanadu says:

    Guild Wars 2. Lots and lots of GW2. Just finished levelling up my third character so now have a range of playstyles to keep me entertained. Which reminds me I ought to join up with the RPS guild for their World v World get togethers at some point as my current guild (on the same server, coincidentally) doesn’t do much WvW.
    Bit of FTL at the weekend. I died. Quickly. Jean-Luc Picard I am not.
    Failing entirely to play Skyrim, DE:HR and Hotline Miami that I got over the holidays. I got as far as installing them, does that count?
    Nothing free to play…

  30. 06/02/2013 at 09:14 Ted_Breakfast says:

    A few indie games for me – Proteus, Thirty flights of loving, and Antichamber. Antichamber is amazing! Was stuck for a while but I’m making progress again.

  31. 06/02/2013 at 09:14 mornegroth says:

    I’m replaying the first Assassin’s Creed, giving extra thought to the story and having a blast all over again. On other news, been giving DmC and Dead Space 3 a little touch here and there, but both games are pretty bland in my opinion.

  32. 06/02/2013 at 09:14 MOKKA says:

    Super Hexagon (I’m going to play this game until I die), The Cave, Antichamber and Saints Row 3 to even things out a bit.

    I would love to get into Spy Party (got my Beta-access a few weeks ago) but I don’t like that I have to ask other players to teach me the game properly, it feels like I’m wasting other people’s time.

    I also got Total Annihilation from GoG and hope to play it someday soon.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:43 Teovald says:

      I have finished the Cave 3 times. I still need 2 full playthroughs in order to get the entirety of the stories but I am going to wait a little bit before that.
      It is not a perfect game but it was a very enjoyable experience, with a very “Gilberesque” feel.

      • 06/02/2013 at 11:33 MOKKA says:

        I like the stories so far and the puzzles also don’t seem to be very confusing. The only thing I really dislike is the movement system. There’s just too much dead space and traversing it just isn’t any fun.

        One note for everyone who intends to include plattformer-elemtens into their game: Do not include falling damage, unless you want to deliberately punish the player.

  33. 06/02/2013 at 09:15 Grzegorz Dalek says:

    From F2P I played a bit Path Of Exile, but I’m bored with another action-rpg. Leveling up is interesting but whole game is somewhat unappealing.

    As it goes for other stuff I’m playing Kentucky Route Zero, Defense Grid: The Awakening and Super Hexagon recently.

  34. 06/02/2013 at 09:15 bateleur says:

    Antichamber. So, so good! :-D

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:42 Pictoru says:

      me too, it’s the most counterintuitive puzzle game i’ve ever come across and i’m quite stuck at the moment..so that’s fun (but hey…as it says “Life has no exits” so i’m not eager to “finish”)

  35. 06/02/2013 at 09:15 Jerakal says:

    IN the F2P corner, I’ve been playing a lot of Planetside 2 with my closest comrades. They’ve been really drawn into it. I’ll readily admit it isn’t the first thing I reach for when I’m aiming to have a good time. That would be The Secret World. That games has WHOLLY captivated me, the quests, the world, my character. I’m loving every minute of it.

    In the handheld department, I’ve been playing a lot of Paper Mario Sticker Star. That series still has the power to bang out great games, and I’m glad at least some part of the Mario franchise is maintaining it’s signature charm and quality, even as the big name Mario titles continue to disappoint.

    Representing Indie games in my recent interests is none other than Don’t Starve. Clever, Burtonesque, easy to pick up and play, though somewhat wanting in content. I can’t get enough of this game. Possibly due to my affinity for survival simulators, possibly just because it’s a damn fun game.

    Lastly, and the game I find myself most distressed that I continue to dust it off and play it every now and then is Ragnarok Online. Certainly not what I would call a ‘good’ game. I play this one every now and then mostly for nostalgia. It was the first MMO I ever played after all. And it shocks me that they’re still adding features and classes to it, TO THIS DAY. I am baffled by this.

    EDIT: OH PISS I’VE FORGOTTEN THE CAVE. HOW COULD I FORGET THE CAVE. I can feel the icy stare of Gilbert, he’s turned his attention on me. Pray for me, my friends. I fear I am not long for this world.

  36. 06/02/2013 at 09:16 Snids says:

    Just about ready to give up on Dark Souls.

    I’m sick of running up the hill at the Firelink Shrine,
    Through the flooded tunnel,
    down the spiral staircase,
    up the steps with the two dogs that jump out,
    into the fog gate and getting smashed to bits by the Capra Demon in 2 seconds. I know about going up the steps and jumping down and hitting him. That fight is bullshit and broken. I’m level 21 and I’ve been playing for 17 hours.

    I’ve started playing the Witcher 2 instead and it’s absolutely flipping brilliant. I actually care about the plot somewhat and the acting is pretty good. There’s a lot of RPG depth and the combat is fun and requires some skill which is novel for an RPG.

    A little bit of Gran Turismo 4 under emulation, a little bit of Richard Burns with the RS2013 pack. A bit of Couter Strike:GO.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:23 Ansob says:

      Here’s a tip for you:

      Your level means nothing in Dark Souls, and trying to increase your level in response to the game kicking your ass is actually a great way of fucking yourself over even more.

      Spend 80% of your souls on improving your equipment – you should definitely have everything you wear and your weapon/shield at +5 by the time you face Capra; that will greatly help. If you can, bring along a spear to deal with the dogs, too (don’t need to but it makes killing them fast slightly easier).

      Other than that, yeah, the trick to winning is entirely in managing to dodge out of the way of Capra’s opening leap. Roll right, not left; that makes it slightly easier. Once you’re past, go stand on the stairs to kill the dogs, then just use the trick you’re aware of to kill Capra itself; at that point the fight is a joke.

      Oh, and chin up: later on in the game, you face about 6 or 7 capra demons one after the other.

      • 06/02/2013 at 09:35 Snids says:

        Thanks!

        OK, a little bit of soul farming is in order. My sword is +5 but my shield is +2 and none of my armour is upgraded. I need some titanite shards I think then.

        I’ve nearly killed him a few times but about 3/4s of the time either the dogs get me, I get caught in the first attack, or mess up in some other way.

        I see quite a lot of evangelising about this game but I do wonder who would sign that boss fight off as “good design”.

        I wouldn’t mind so much but it’s the constant having to run back up to the boss that bores the hell out of me. I don’t agree with those that say that “adds to the tension”.

        Being bored and doing the same thing over and over and over again shouldn’t be part of competent game design, let alone something worth evangelising over.

        That being said, the game is very rewarding and the heart-poundingly tense and challenging at times. Maybe the punishment for failure should just be a loss of souls instead of stealing my real-life leisure time from me.

        • 06/02/2013 at 10:06 Ansob says:

          Capra is one of the few bullshit moments in the game – I think there’s maybe two or three total in the game, which is fortunate since the idea of never explaining how anything works is already pretty bad.

          The bit just outside the church in Parish is a good place to farm, incidentally – all of the Balder knights have a fairly good drop rate on them, the hollow soldiers also occasionally drop shards, and doing a complete run of the walkways + church interior only takes maybe 10-15mn, and the amount of souls you get isn’t bad – that lets you buy more at André, since they’re only 800 each.

          More importantly, you can do this farming run while putting your summon sign down. You don’t need to be human to be summoned by other players, and at level 21 you’re in the right level range to be summoned for Gargoyles, which IIRC would give you 5000 souls every time you help beat them in co-op. Since it’s also a fairly short fight and the way to the fog gate is itself short, this makes it easy to farm Gargoyles if you’re getting hits on your summon sign.

          Good luck! You’ll be able to get your gear up to +10 fairly soon (as in, it’s in the area that Capra gives you the key to), which requires large shards, which you won’t be able to buy for a while yet.

        • 06/02/2013 at 10:11 Ansob says:

          Oh, and remember to always kill the dogs before attacking Capra. You should essentially do things in this order:

          1. dodge right past Capra’s leap;
          2. immediately run left and up the stairs, rolling past the dogs if needed.
          3. turn around and kill one of the dogs (or both if you can) while Capra walks towards you.
          4. when Capra reaches the bottom of the stairs, walk along the little ledge.
          5. when Capra is ~three quarters of the way up the stairs, jump off the ledge.
          6. Capra will follow you off and stun himself for a couple of seconds. This is your cue to run back up the stairs and kill the second dog if you didn’t get it the first time.
          7. wait for Capra to come back up, repeat steps 4+5, then two-hand your weapon and whack away at Capra a couple of times before running up the stairs again. Repeat this step until Capra is dead.

          Like almost everything in Dark Souls, it’s about making sure you don’t over-extend yourself rather than being about killing the boss as fast as possible.

          • 06/02/2013 at 12:24 Snids says:

            I do like that element of it. It’s always by the skin of your teeth. You don’t just cartwheel in and slice everything to bits in a few seconds. Combat feels a bit more tactical and “lumpy”. Although I don’t like the way your character and NPCs go into animations under certain conditions and are invulnerable. This is true of practically every game ever though I suppose.

            Really great advice, thanks. You can bet on me going back to it tonight. I’ve found it really hard to get good help with the various unexplained systems at work in the game. People are so hardcore into it that use loads of weird abbreviations and acronyms and just assume you know what the hell is going on. Take a look at http://www.reddit.com/r/darksouls. It’s pretty scary.

            For the record I love hard games. Bullet Hell SHMUPS etc but Dark Souls seems to combine the hardness of the gameplay with completely incomprehensible Japanese RPG game mechanics that it never bothers to explain.

            It’s a really really weird game. It’s certainly of a dying breed which is a shame.

            Thanks again for the tips.

          • 06/02/2013 at 17:17 xao says:

            A couple more tips that would have helped me the first time around:
            - Boss fights that you can’t quite get past? Summon someone! I (rather foolishly) decided to kill Smough first in my initial encounter with Ornstein and Smough because I’d heard (correctly) that you only got the soul of the one you killed last. I made gradual, if achingly slow progress, but once I summoned Knight Solaire and another player, it gave me a chance to stand off from the fight a bit and get a much better grasp on how they were kicking my ass. Two tried later I was off to see the [redacted] and get the amazing [redacted].

            - Specifically for the Capra demon, DON’T MOVE when you zone in. At least for me, I was able to aggro one of the dogs without getting the trifecta of suffering. The fight is a lot easier when it’s only two on one.

            - I have since learned that you can buy dung pies and fling them over the wall at Cappy. A desperation measure to be sure, but it’s there if you need it.

            - One thing I wish I had learned earlier is that a high stability shield is incredibly useful for learning an encounter. You’re usually better off avoiding hits, but being able to block a few without destroying your stamina is great. Being able to use that extra stamina by poking your tormenters with a spear while safely turtled behind said shield? Even better. Again, it’s not usually your best tactic, but it’s great for buying time to study your opponent.

            - The Capra demons later on? They’re easy, not because they’ve been weakened, but because we’ve gotten so much better at the game by that point.

            - I found that a lot of the boss fights felt like bullshit to me initially, but once I figured them out they weren’t too bad. I never ran into anything that felt like I was just lucky to beat it, and having beaten it, I was able to do so again with ease as a summoned phantom.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:46 DrAmateurScience says:

      Summoning helps so much with that fight – just having someone to deal with the two dogs while you concentrate on not dying.

      Also, as mentioned above, a nice shield (you probably came across the Knight’s Shield in Undead Parish for example) upgraded to +5 really really helps, as does some fire resin on your weapon (also +5 helps here too).

      He only does the two handed jumping insta-shield break move if you are a wee bit away from him so charge in at the start of the fight and he will (probably) only do a one handed attack, which you should be able to catch on your shield without too much trouble. That’ll give you a bit of time to take out one or both dogs: using a weapon like the broadsword can help here as it’s got a very wide attack range allowing you to keep focus on Capra whilst still damaging the dogs. Switching out to something punchier once they’re dead.

      Finally as with just about any fight in DS, you can explore other areas for a bit if that one’s getting you down. Darkroot Gardens if you haven’t already, and if you’re feeling adventurous (or took the master key gift) you can completely skip the bit that killing Capra opens up anyway by taking the shortcut through New Londo – have a wander about basically get some souls and humanity together. As Ansob said, upgrading your gear is much more important than levelling up. That said, having a decent amount of Endurance can really help with blocking, and a extra Vitality can’t hurt. Once you’ve got the minimum stats for whatever weapon you’ve chosen to use there’s not much reason to add any more in.

      Wow that came out longer than I expected. And now I feel compelled to go and play Dark Souls.

      I regret nothing.

    • 07/02/2013 at 02:54 eclipse mattaru says:

      If you really get fed up with the backtracking and you don’t mind a bit of cheating, remember that the game saves ALL THE TIME, every time you so much as change the weapon you’re holding in one hand –every time you see the little flame icon in the top right corner of the screen. However, the game just *assumes* it’s saving, even if it’s not actually doing it for whatever reason. For instance, if the savegame file is set to “read only”.

      So, you stand at the fog gate, don your best equipment for the fight, and once you’re all ready you alt+tab and set the savegame to “read only”. This way, every time you die, instead of running back all the away from the bonfire you just go to the main menu and reload, and you’ll be standing at the fog gate again.

      Remember to revert the savegame to the normal, writeable state after you’re done with the tough spot, or you’ll never save your progress again! D:

  37. 06/02/2013 at 09:17 Didero says:

    I’m sort of forcing myself through The Cave. I’m not sure why I’m not more excited about playing it.
    I blame John :P

    For F2P multiplayer distractions, World Of Tanks has been my go-to game for the last few weeks. Probably because the matches are short and usually interesting.
    Until your tier 3 artillery gets matched against tier 6 Medium tanks and most of your shots just bounce of…

  38. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 Lars Westergren says:

    Rocksmith is fantastic, it has taken up a lot of the little time I have for games. I have bought lots of DLC songs, hoping they will release more stuff like Helmet, Kyuss, Queens of the Stoneage.

    Apart from that, I’m slowly finishing Dishonored, some L4D2 with friends, tonight we are going to try Dota 2 for the first time.

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:18 Ross Angus says:

      Just started Dishonoured too. Good looking game.

    • 06/02/2013 at 13:20 Artiforg says:

      Good luck with Dota 2. It’s a wonderful game once you get past the initial learning curve. There are a lot of people who rage quit after their first 3 deaths in their first game and never look back. Persevere with it and once the mechanics start to click you’ll discover just how good it is.

      Here’s a few things that most new players do:

      1> Don’t buy starting items at the start (or buy boots of speed straight away)
      2> Run straight to the furthest tower in the lane you’ve picked
      3> Attack the first enemy tower straight away (and die)
      4> Get killed by the first wave of creeps when you decide to attack the enemy hero as soon as you see them appear in lane.
      5> Feed the enemy hero because you’re playing too aggressively and overestimating the damage your hero is capable of.
      6> Select the courier then right click on your hero so the courier follows you around
      7> Get the courier killed
      8> Rage quit after 5 minutes and 3 deaths.

      The game is really unforgiving for newbies but stick with it and you’ll eventually love it.

    • 07/02/2013 at 12:23 Maniac says:

      A tip for playing Dota 2 would be to seek out the RPS ‘Dota 2 Chums’ Steam group, we’re always willing to play with newbies, and we’re always having fun, no raging, etcetera. Besides that, Artifog’s advice is quite sound. Have fun with it, and good luck. Something thats always a good idea though, is to do some homework. It is a rather hard game, with a bunch of ‘hidden’ mechanics, which are usually what seperates the good players from the great players.

  39. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 overthere says:

    F2P : Its planetside 2, it may not have the perfect eveness of TF2 but I’ve had so many memorable moments emerging out of the play. You know your immersed when you find yourself trying to lean into the screen to get a better view round the corner for that max you can hear!

    Otherwise : Unity of command, Red Tide, its just so beautifully simple and perfect. Hope they follow up with a North African campaign from my memories of Afrika Korps on the Spectrum it would be a good fit for the mechanics

  40. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 Rockbottom says:

    A lot of GW2 lately, trying to get world completion done finally finally finally. I am so bad at 100%ing anything.
    Also been playing Dark Souls still. I can’t get away from it. 200 hours and it continues to call me. To duel more players. To farm and upgrade more weapons. To try more builds. It never ends.

    On the free to play side of thing I’m continuing my eternal battle with Vindictus. I only play it for maybe two hours once a week, but eventually I’ll be max level and have cool looking armor like everybody else, and do those 20+ person raids. Someday.
    I have a lot of things down the pipeline. I’m bad at getting things done but I’m working on it. Going to blow through Dead Space 3 because despite it being terrible I feel the need to play it since I played the other two. I also have been in a real JRPG mood lately and I think once my plate is clean I’ll pick up Final Fantasy Tictacs or Seiken Densetsu 3.

  41. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 Andy_Panthro says:

    Playing and blogging my way through UFO: Enemy Unknown/X-COM: UFO Defence (1994), after having completed Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1990).

    Not far off completing it, so I’m considering what I should play next, whether I should go straight on to the new XCOM (already played it a bit), or go for something a bit different (Alone in the Dark (1992 – I completed this ages ago, but it might be good to blog about), Icewind Dale, Arcanum, Dishonored, or something).

  42. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 humanchu says:

    I seem to be into sucking

    FTL: can’t even finish on easy
    Dota2: slughtered by easy bots. will likely never dare to play humans
    SC2: manage to beat AI on medium hard, sometimes…

    Skyrim is the only respite. But as usual (FO3, New Vegas) as soon as I’ve seem more than 50% of the map and learned the patterns of the quests and storylines I don’t bother anymore.

    Considering moving on to watching others play on youtube /twitch.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:27 Rockbottom says:

      Don’t practice in Dota 2 against bots! They are harder than the players are.
      Pick a character you want to play, read how to play it and what items to buy on the newly added Steam guides, and play against players until your fingers bleed. If people ask you if you know what you’re doing, be honest, say you’re new. This will often actually get people to help you.

      You’re going to suck a lot in Dota 2 for at least the first 20 games. You need a lot of practice.

      • 06/02/2013 at 12:47 humanchu says:

        Thanks for the Dota2 morale boost. I’ll give that a shot.
        And if someone gets angry I’ll tell them you told me to do it! :)

        • 06/02/2013 at 13:04 Artiforg says:

          I’d say practicing against bots to start with is a great way of learning the mechanics of the game and teaches you, eventually, how to avoid dying every time you show yourself in lane.

          Pick a co-op bot match though, playing solo with bots is doomed to failure as the 4 bots on your team are generally very stupid and will be more of a hindrance than a help.

          Once you’ve got used to playing with bots and know what you’re doing then join a pub game and realize just how much you’ve learned/improved.

  43. 06/02/2013 at 09:18 NieA7 says:

    Tribes Ascend – still brilliant, still fairly well populated. I have no idea why people say PS2 > Tribes given they’re as different as two games where you’re a walking gun can be.

    Blood Bowl – lots of fun to be hand in the RPS leagues.

    Minecraft – with the Mindcrack FTB mod pack, which adds stupid amounts of complexity to sink your teeth into.

    Starsector (formerly Starfarer) – strangely compelling space game that’s been in development for ages now. Every time there’s a new version I’ll end up sinking a good 10 hours or so into it.

    I tried to get into Dark Souls, I can only assume the brilliant and compelling world and gameplay is a bit further on from where I gave up out of boredom.

  44. 06/02/2013 at 09:19 mooken says:

    Definitely playing a lot more short-burst games:

    Desktop Dungeons (the current in-beta browser-based Unity engine version)
    Defenders Quest

  45. 06/02/2013 at 09:19 Rao Dao Zao says:

    I’ve been playing a load of old Warcraft III singleplayer RPG maps for nostalgia and fun. And, horror of horrors, reviewing them.

    In terms of real games, I’ve got Beyond Divinity waiting on the sidelines but don’t quite have the stomach for it yet — I started playing before crimbo but hit a snag early on (how do I get out of the training compound full of guards? I think it’s a lever puzzle in that trapped corridor room, but I can’t find any clues), and the combat is just shonky enough that it isn’t particularly enjoyable to play. I must make a fairer attempt to complete it before moving on to Divinity II, though.

  46. 06/02/2013 at 09:19 Ansob says:

    I am thoroughly enjoying the new Devil May Cry. Anyone who tells you it isn’t a DMC game because it features a younger Dante is being silly – it’s a DMC game down to the mission structure, vital stars, style points and Dante’s quips. About its only “sin” is that it’s a much more approachable game on the normal difficulties than e.g. DMC4 (this is not a sin, it’s a good thing).

    Other than that, for a budget-priced XBLA game, I am strangely hooked on Iron Brigade. It’s good fun.

  47. 06/02/2013 at 09:19 benjamin says:

    Just got to the end of KOTOR II, I think I finally understand the story now, enjoyed it a lot, a brilliant twist on the usual light/dark, jedi/sith thing. I had the restored content mod installed, it didn’t add much in my opinion unless I just didn’t realize what it had added.

    Also installed the droid planet mod, the best thing I can say for it is that it made me appreciate the level design of the rest of game a lot more! One was clearly done my professionals, the other not so good.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:42 Velko says:

      I’m working my way through KOTOR II too. I’m trying to finish it before my new computer arrives some time this or next week so that I won’t have to worry about transferring saves between machines.

    • 06/02/2013 at 17:42 Henson says:

      I just finished KOTOR II a couple weeks ago for the first time. In some ways, it’s brilliant, and in others, it’s very oddly designed or just doesn’t communicate well. It’s a weird mix, though certainly worth the time.

  48. 06/02/2013 at 09:19 rustybroomhandle says:

    Been working on my own game so trying to force myself to play less, but in the times when I slip it has been Crusader Kings 2 and Grimrock, both on Linux.

  49. 06/02/2013 at 09:20 Chris D says:

    I’ve been playing 1931:Scherezade at the Library of Pergamum. For those familiar with their previous game, Academagia, it’s basically a more streamlined version of that with a better interface and, so far, no tendency to corrupt the save file three quarters of the way through the game. I find myself a little conflicted as God knows Academagia needed some streamlining and a better interface yet I find I’m missing some of it’s depth, even though that was more hinted at than really delivered.

    For anyone not immediately put off by the art style, female protagonist, romance (optional) or the words “time management” there’s a demo available here

    Other than that I’ve also been playing Borderlands 2, Civ V and Shogun 2.

  50. 06/02/2013 at 09:21 Mario Figueiredo says:

    Sorry, no free-to-play stuff. Couldn’t yet find anything that interest me. But never miss your column on those. Ever!

    Currently:
    Company of Heroes (single-player)
    Borderlands (single-player)

    Always playing but currently taking a break:
    Solium Inferno (multiplayer)
    A few play by email wargames at EMG (http://members.shaw.ca/emg.pbm/emg.htm)

    Always playing:
    With my life
    MAME
    ZXSpectrum emulator

    (In retrospect I did mention a free-to-play. EMG games. Not sure though of how interested anyone is in PBeMs)

  51. 06/02/2013 at 09:22 NathaI3 says:

    Tried to get into Bordlands 2 co-op recently with a mate but kind of bounced off it, probably because he’s put about 100 hours into it and isn’t interested in all the exploring/story stuff i want to do. I’ll try again soon.

    After finishing The Walking Dead a few weeks ago, started Dead Rising 2 to assuage my zombie lust and I’m finding it rather less involving (and incredibly Japanese). I do like the story structure though and think it could be developed further.

    I started Machinarium for a change of pace and its utterly absorbing, I haven’t played much of this type of thing before and I’m finding it quite amazing how much can be communicated with zero dialogue and almost zero text. Really good game, maybe a bit too much emphasis on control panel type puzzles (they remind me of that one near the beginning of The Dig where you have to maneuver the energy crystal to the right point, through trial and error more than logic)

    That’s my steam favourites right now. I also still dabble in Binding of Isaac, Civ V and am planning on going back to Spacechem soon as well.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:25 Squishpoke says:

      If you liked Machinarium, there’s also other great puzzle/adventure games to try out, such as the Monkey Island and Myst games. I particularly liked the Tales of Monkey Island. Be careful with Myst and its sequels, though. I thought they were great, but John Walker here hates those games.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:29 Rockbottom says:

      Try Botanicula. It’s from the same developer as Machinarium. The puzzles aren’t as involved and aren’t quite as cryptic. The game is just as fantastically creative, thoughtful, and amusing, however.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:30 Lambchops says:

      You should definitely play Botanicula (by the same team as Machinarium), it looks and sounds gorgeous and has less of those pesky control panel type puzzles. On balance I still think Machinarium is my favourite of the two (because, aww cute robot) but both are wonderfully charming.

  52. 06/02/2013 at 09:22 SanguineAngel says:

    I am playing a co-op campaign of Shogun Total War 2 and it is totally rocking my world – it has breathed new life into the game. It’s by far and away the most compelling way to play a total war game.

    F2P wise – I played Planetside 2 for a while, and I might go back to it but it just doesn’t quiiiite do it for me. I think there is a somewhat oppressive vibe in all F2P games that I have tried – could be entirely in my head of course

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:28 Squishpoke says:

      Planetside 2 is best when you get at least one or two friends, with at least one person having access to premium vehicles to share.

      Personally, I do not enjoy ground battles at all, but I looove simply patrolling the skies in my buddy’s liberator and providing support and escort to ground troops below. You don’t always have to follow the zerg, there’s plenty of cool things to do elsewhere.

      • 06/02/2013 at 10:05 SanguineAngel says:

        Yeah, I have to admit that playing with a couple of friends was key – don’t think I would play it solo for long at all. Planetside 2 is so far the best F2P i have ever played – where it actually doesn’t feel necessary to be spending money to have fun. But, it still feels like I am pushing a boulder uphill to a degree in terms of progression.

  53. 06/02/2013 at 09:22 Gwyddelig says:

    Currently? Nowt. My son has a gastro bug. Up until Monday though, a fair bit of Killing Floor and some BF3.

    KF really is an example of how to get longevity out of a game. It’s on the go as a commercial enterprise for nearly four years now and still has a strong community.

  54. 06/02/2013 at 09:22 Squishpoke says:

    Natural Selection 2 has undergone a total takeover on my brain. It’s the best game I’ve played in ages.

  55. 06/02/2013 at 09:23 Carighan Maconar says:

    Just finished Katawa Shoujo (yeah I was late to the party, started mid-December).

    Not exactly sure what to play now, currently clearing my long backlog a bit. Finished Darksiders II and Dishonoured, working on SPAZ now.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:32 Rockbottom says:

      Katawa Shoujo is really really entry level when it comes to VNs. It’s an alright read, but you’ve only scratched the surface.

      Try Digital: A Love Story or Planetarian. Planetarian for the writing, Digital for the very unique approach to storytelling.

  56. 06/02/2013 at 09:25 Pintlemount says:

    I’ve been screaming at X3: Albion Prelude and boggling occasionally at Painkiller: Hell & Damnation’s weird mixtape attitude towards the original game. Still amusing, but it’s certainly no Serious Sam HD in term of remakes, more’s the pity.

    At least the updated Trainstation doesn’t inevitably, catastrophically corrupt my saves.

  57. 06/02/2013 at 09:25 Axelius says:

    Since a LAN party this weekend where I ruined a couple of people’s sleep schedules by introducing them to Crusader Kings II I have returned to the lovely time of the middle ages, filled with petty wars, bastardly backstabbing and political manuevering to not lose my newly put together empire.

    Aside from that my main two games have been F2P, the Dota 2 beta (where I seem to be worthless) and Planetside 2 (where I have an idea of what I’m doing, even though I have to brush up on my mosquito skills).

  58. 06/02/2013 at 09:25 Nova says:

    I particularly want to hear from those of you playing free-to-play stuff. What has held your attention?

    Nothing. Tried MWO, PS2 and Hawken.
    At the moment I’m playing quite a lot of FIFA 13. My first foot-to-ball game for ages. And Super Hexagon every now and then.

  59. 06/02/2013 at 09:26 Zipikaya says:

    Nothing seems to be able to hold my attention at the moment. Haven’t played a game since I finished Far cry 3, which I thought was OK. Getting a bit worried that I might not like games as much as I used to…

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:01 Mario Figueiredo says:

      Went through something like that recently. Lasted me roughly 18 months. It was actually quite good. I managed to spend time doing other *more* important stuff with my free time. Finally resurrected my lifelong hobby and did some World War II modelling (Tamiya FTW!), finally learned how to use Photoshop, and was a whole lot more active in the discussion groups and forums I am a part of.

      I did fear the whole time I might just not be back in games anymore though. As disgruntled as I may be towards a large chunk of the industry, this is after all my main hobby since I was a little boy and my father came home with a ZXSpectrum. But it was all just unfounded fears. You just need a break. Make the most of it. Have fun :)

  60. 06/02/2013 at 09:27 Lambchops says:

    I’ve been attacking the old backlog recently and completed:

    Prince of Persia 08 (good but too much glowing thing collecting, glad I started ignoring it half way through and some annoying button mashing).
    Gemini Rue – Good solid adventure game, very enjoyable.

    About two thirds of the way through Trine 2 (pretty but not enjoying it as much as the first one, becomes a bit samey) but then got distracted by Sonic Do You Really Expect Me To Type Out That Title (At Least It’s Not Aaaa…snip) Transmogrified (or Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed to everyone else), which is ace. I’ve missed bright, colourful, karting shenanigans and it’s a type of game that’s often sadly overlooked on PC. I have somehow managed to play this for 11 hours despite allegedly having little time to game!

    Also had an explore through the world of Proteus and while I think I’m unlikely to ever go back I did find it an absorbing experience and it’s definitely worth a wander at some point,

  61. 06/02/2013 at 09:28 Snakejuice says:

    I’ve been playing mostly Path of Exile.

  62. 06/02/2013 at 09:29 Low Life says:

    I’m completely addicted to Dota 2, and it’s pretty much the only thing I’ve been playing for a month or so. As someone who’s despised these games for years I am slightly disappointed in myself. Also because that means I don’t have time to play Planetside 2. It’s just so much easier to play Dota 2 one match at a time, with the chance to stop playing at any point between these matches (even if it still sometimes ends up in 5-hour sessions), than it is to launch PS2 and start an all-nighter. PS2 really isn’t the game for 40-minute sessions, at least not for me.

    I also played a bit of DmC last week, so I’ll have to finish that up. For the next week or so I can’t really let myself waste time on games, so much things to do.

  63. 06/02/2013 at 09:32 bobsterfetto says:

    I’m currently fighting my way trough Tomb of Varn in Might & Magic 6. What a masterpiece this game was, and still is!
    I also started a new character in Skyrim, spellcaster this time. Really, spellcasters is what it’s all about in that game. Love it!

  64. 06/02/2013 at 09:32 Drayk says:

    Stopped buying, started playing !

    In 2013 I finished : Spec Ops: the line, Xcom: ennemy Unknown, Game of Thrones and last night I finished Legend of Grimrock. (+ Knights of Pen and Paper on Ipod :-P )

    Next objectives are Max Payne 3 and Dishonored.

    Havent’ touch GW2 for a month but played a bit of Torchlight 2.

  65. 06/02/2013 at 09:33 bstard says:

    Crusaderkings2, Fieldrunners2, Defensegrid dlc, and rocketing hackers in Battlefield2 bad company.

  67. 06/02/2013 at 09:36 Brigand says:

    I finally played and completed Hotline Miami, was alright. I was also half way through System Shock 2 which I only just remembered now, which is more an issue with my memory because i’m loving the game.

  68. 06/02/2013 at 09:36 Kitsuninc says:

    I’m playing Touhou 12.8: Great Fairy Wars. Freezing bullets, woo! Seriously, it’s great.

    The game that I’m playing that’s more typical – and F2P – is Path of Exile. Quite a bit of fun. I despise how possible it is to waste loads of time leveling a character only to find at the high levels your build sucks, though.

    Oooh, and Sonic And All Stars Racing Transformed. That game is superb, pretty much my all-time favorite kart racer, and I love kart racers. The PC port rocks, too.

  69. 06/02/2013 at 09:37 Stellar Duck says:

    Been playing the new Hitman game, and good grief is that a stinker! I’ve found the problem though: I mistakenly thought it was a Hitman game and played it as such. It’s not.

    Crusader Kings 2 is getting some time as well, and I’m doing a game as a Duke (by now) in Greece.

    Euro Truck Simulator 2 is the best game in forever. It’s been good times with that,

    Antichamber has me stumped so I’m taking a break from that.

    And then a bit of Planetside 2 on the side when my usual partner finds she has the time. I quite like it though I wish I got a better frame rate.

    Edit: I forgot! I’m doing Path of Exile as well. What a great game!

  70. 06/02/2013 at 09:37 TheDreamlord says:

    About to finish Borderlands 2, which is a great game, even though the first few hours are a tad boring. And you need some luck to score weapons that suit you.

    Also close to finishing Stealth Bastard Deluxe. Nice little game, great atmosphere.

    And started Sleeping Dogs now that i bought an XBox controller for my PC. Great game! But i do suck at the fights.

  71. 06/02/2013 at 09:37 SwiftRanger says:

    Free-to-play (which is what I mostly play):
    - PlanetSide 2 (that latest update with the performance hotfix of yesterday made it into a much better game, polish-wise it’s pretty much still a beta imo but this is what I want to waste time in)
    - Path of Exile (interesting game mechanics, gameplay itself feels a lot more bland than DIII though, not entirely convinced yet)

    Offline:
    - Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (been a while)

    I should be playing this because I bought it but haven’t set time apart for it yet:
    - XCOM

  72. 06/02/2013 at 09:37 Diving Duck says:

    Free to play = Team Fortress 2 – it gives me warm fuzzies (especially when playing pyro)

    Not so free to play = BF3 (getting back into it for the first time since sept – turns out I now suck at it), also still playing defence grid and Kerbel Space Program. Mostly waiting for some of my kickstarter punts to put out some ripe juicy gaming goodness.

  73. 06/02/2013 at 09:37 Danny says:

    Path of Exile is great fun so far, easily beating D3 and offering an experience closer to D2. I see myself playing this for quite some time.

    Also playing Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic with some guys from another site. PBEM works perfectly in that game, although I still regret not being able to play manual battles against another human being.

    • 06/02/2013 at 09:55 Hoaxfish says:

      I agree on PoE being better at satisfying my D2 craving than either D3 or Torchlight 2. The systems have really built on D2, rather than just throwing them out for “modern” ideas.

  74. 06/02/2013 at 09:39 Llewyn says:

    (Re)Playing: Fallout 3 for the DLC, having picked up the GOTY over Christmas. Football Manager ’11 running in the background while at work, to fill in the time while tests are running and during pointless and irrelevant phone meetings.

    Trying to play: The Witcher, but still struggling to see what’s good about it beyond the decision tree. AC Revelation. CKII, but prefer to only launch that when I think I can dedicate a good play session to it.

    Wondering when I’ll ever get to play: The enormous backlog of things I seem to have thought it was a good idea to buy (thankfully mostly cheaply).

  75. 06/02/2013 at 09:39 Land says:

    Mostly Euro Truck Simulator 2. Don’t have a lot of time for games lately, and this is such a nice relaxing game (just cruise and listen favourite music) that you can play for short amounts of time. For the rest I’ve been playing (experiencing) Proteus, DayZ, LEGO Lord of the Rings, Dishonored. Besides PC, I play a lot of games on my iPhone (take the train to work every day). My most played iOS games at the moment are Super Hexagon, Temple Run 2, The Walking Dead, Sword & Sworcery.

    Edit: I don’t play any F2P games on PC at all.

  76. 06/02/2013 at 09:40 GameCat says:

    Dark Souls – I think I’m gonna finish it soon*, at least.

    Proteus – lovely game, very inspiring, it helped me finally to know what kind of gameplay will be in my own game (no, there be more than walking and looking).

    The Cave – pretty medicore gameplay, but characters, The Cave (yes, it’s a talking cave) narration and dark humor (“I’m sure it was only collateral damage!”) makes it very good.

    Also list of “must finish already but haven’t touch them for months after beating at least half” games:
    Psychonauts
    Metro 2033
    Bioshock 2
    Sam & Max

    Games I want to play but my gaming rig doesn’t:
    ASSCREED3 – Boston is unplayable due to fps drop. Is there any patch already for this?
    CODBLOPS2 – crashes at first cutscene (why I can’t skip that?), ugh.
    Miasmata – doesn’t like NVidia Optimus, is there any patch out there already?

    *In 2 months probably, I’m playing it since PC release date, still not finished.

  77. 06/02/2013 at 09:41 LieutLaww says:

    Mainly Minecraft on a Feed The Beast server, bit of Mass Effect 3 and SWTOR, oh and some STO.

  78. 06/02/2013 at 09:42 wyrmsine says:

    Dwarf Fortress – finally moving out of 40d and trying out the latest version, as my very first fortress resolutely refuses to die, despite a lack of both water and magma. My second one was modded a little to allow tameable megabeasts, and they’ve now got a breeding pair of war Titans. So it’s time for something more difficult…

    Borderlands 2 – funny game, in that it’s got far less personality than the first one, but I keep replaying it.

    Evochron Mercenary – great game, and it’s thankfully keeping me from resubbing to Eve.

  79. 06/02/2013 at 09:43 RedViv says:

    More Skyrim than I should. Anno 2070 – still working on the most massive island ever. Ni no kuni, which proved to be the typical plan-or-be-destroyed Level-5 demon hidden behind a Ghibli mask.
    Strange amounts of Magic 2013, which I play despite my weird feeling that it would be so much better to get a successor to Shandalar, and despite The Computer Is A Cheating Bastard.

  80. 06/02/2013 at 09:43 Hogni Gylfason says:

    Falcon 4.0 with the superb BMS mod. Started it up again before christmas and haven’t really stopped since.

  81. 06/02/2013 at 09:44 Harlander says:

    I seem to be playing a lot of open-world games these days.

    My primary clump of things I’m playing are (in decreasing order of how-much-played) Sleeping Dogs,The Witcher 2 and Prototype 2.

    I’ve also got a slow-boil game of Distant Worlds on the go, which I’ll pick up again as soon as I can figure out how to defeat those unusually advanced marauders on the edge of Collaboration space.

    Not to mention Saints Row: The Third, and Just Cause 2, which I’m indefinately hiatusing on.

  82. 06/02/2013 at 09:44 Boult Upright says:

    I’ve been playing this really obscure game called Skyrim. It’s got dragons and dungeons and stuff. Ever heard of it?

  83. 06/02/2013 at 09:44 nimzy says:

    Minecraft, surprisingly enough. I haven’t played it seriously since early in its beta, so the changes were dramatic. I also got referred to a mod pack entitled “Feed the Beast” and it transforms the game while doing all the heavy lifting via a pretty slick launcher so I didn’t even have to lift a finger to get the new stuff. I’ve been thoroughly exploring the new features over the past week, building a working nuclear reactor (!), a steam boiler to power all sorts of crazy devices, and a wild custom railcart that cuts down and plants trees for me.

    This is seriously cutting down on my time available to play Deus Ex: Human Revolution — the DLC went on sale about a week or two ago on Steam and I snapped it up on the cheap so now I can get into speedrunning the complete game finally stop rolling my eyes at the gap in the narrative it left behind. Add this to the new Dead Space coming out and getting into the Heroes and Generals beta and I’ve got a backlog that’s sitting there waiting for me to stop having so much damned fun playing with machines and get on with the man (monster?) shooting.

  84. 06/02/2013 at 09:45 harcalion says:

    Adventure Time! I’ve been playing The Lost Chronicles of Zerzura (and liking it a lot) and also this little Windows 8 game, Adera, which had its latest episode released yesterday. Then I will go back to hardcore with Gothic 3: Forsaken Gods.

  85. 06/02/2013 at 09:46 Biscuitry says:

    It’s been Planetside 2 for me. I’m the leader of a small outfit called the Auraxian Tourist Board. The game still has some way to go before it really delivers on its initial promise, but it’s slowly getting there. Those who bounced off it initially due to the unfocused nature of the battles and general lack of a metagame would do well to have another look in two or three months once they’ve put out another couple of patches. As it is now, while a lot of the more egregious bugs thatwere in at launch have been fixed, most of the other problems are still present .

  86. 06/02/2013 at 09:47 Jack-Dandy says:

    Right now I’m trying to fumble around the original X-com, after beating EU.

    Man, it’s tough, but I’m determined to conquer it!

  87. 06/02/2013 at 09:50 Robbeasy says:

    Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup…..

    Help me I can’t leave it alone…..

    • 06/02/2013 at 10:26 elderman says:

      Always DCSS. I’ve been playing as a mummy wizard recently. Love not having a hunger clock. I don’t have the patience for the mid to late game, though. I always die from carelessness.

  88. 06/02/2013 at 10:00 Caesar says:

    Been playing SC2 – WoL while waiting for HotS. Also varied indies like Half-minute hero, Retro city rampage and Don’t Starve.

    Oh, and Dragonpr0n!

  89. 06/02/2013 at 10:02 scottyjx says:

    Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (Kinda starting to drag toward the end. The fifth character isn’t very fun.)
    Bout to finally play Fallout: New Vegas.
    Far Cry 3.
    Been tooling around with English Country Tune.
    Thinking about downloading some maps and mods for Left 4 Dead 2, because of Craig.
    And for non-PC, I’ve been playing some Mortal Kombat 9.

  90. 06/02/2013 at 10:02 kael13 says:

    I’ve recently taken up SWTOR again with a friend, after more than a year away from the game. The non-force user story-lines are far more interesting; the Imperial Agent is great fun.

    Otherwise, it’s been Devil May Cry, which satisfies my need for faced-paced cutty slicey with loud music. It’s taken the place of Unreal Tournament 3 as my brain energiser.

    Started playing Antichamber as well. The game reports I’m about halfway. Having some trouble wondering where to go and deciphering the map at times.

  91. 06/02/2013 at 10:03 Asurmen says:

    I’ve been playing PS2 pretty much constantly since beta and enjoying it thoroughly, although the patch at the weekend made the game run like crap. Going from 40-60 fps on Ultra on my 3 year old machine down to medium and 5-30 fps makes the game unplayable and rather ugly to boot.

    Still playing LoL although less than ever as I was suffering burn out from the amount I was playing, and not getting any single player games done.

    Recently played and finished KoToR 2. Not as good as KoToR but still an enjoyable distraction.

    Started playing Assassin’s Creed as I bought them all at Christmas but I’m not being amazingly hooked. Same tasks for every kill and the story not being revealed as much as I’d like or how I’d like is making me bounce off the game slightly. Still, I can get enjoyment from it, but only in 1-2 hour segments.

  92. 06/02/2013 at 10:04 Jarmo says:

    I’ve been playing a ton of Dungeonbowl since July (about a thousand hours). Quinns did the game a great disservice by lambasting it. It is actually a better game than Blood Bowl, imho. Quinns should e.g. have actually bothered to learn the UI before lashing out.

    Blood Bowl can be a bit samey and chess-like in the repeating play patterns. Dungeonbowl is constantly variable, dynamic and full of sudden twists and turns. Luck plays a part but it is primarily a skill-based game; the dice can be mitigated to a large degree by smart play. Dungeonbowl requires you to think on your feet and to anticipate possible new avenues of attack via the teleports. The ten colleges combining three races each and the dozen maps in ranked play and the hundreds in unranked offer hundreds of hours of new tactics, tricks and nuances to learn and enjoy.

    If you were put off the game by the RPS review, please consider trying Dungeonbowl. It’s worth it to push through the learning curve to get to the meaty and satisfying gameplay. Turn-based strategy doesn’t get much better than this.

    It is by no means a perfect game or a very friendly UI or bug-free but it is still great fun. See you in the dungeons!

  93. 06/02/2013 at 10:06 LeMonde says:

    MGS HD Edition. Owing to an assumed PSU failure, my PC gaming is currently on pause with Legend of Grimrock and FTL both patiently waiting unplayed and THE FINAL MISSION of XCOM left infuriatingly incomplete! The silver-lining to this hardware malfunction has been revisiting MGS3: Subsistence – to this day, an astonishingly brilliant game. I am also yet to overcome Dark Souls and until that happens, or HL3 gets announced, the replacement PSU can wait.

  94. 06/02/2013 at 10:13 Swanny says:

    After picking up Borderlands 2 at the winter sale, i’m really enjoying the 2nd, high-level playthrough. Handsome Jack is such an awesome douchebag.

  95. 06/02/2013 at 10:13 Kefren says:

    System Shock Portable and GTA IV.

  96. 06/02/2013 at 10:18 GameStunts says:

    In terms of F2P, the one that’s held my attention is Tribes Ascend. They just completely nailed that game, the mechanics, the feel of it, the skill level.

    “Sort of” F2P. I was pleased that The Secret World dropped the subscription, I’m totally fine with paying up front for a game and expansions, but hate monthly fees. So I’ve been getting into that.

    And just the other day I bought Guild Wars 2 and having a fantastic time with that, which I again, appreciate the no-subscription model they use.

    “Cheap to” play. I bought the Left 4 Dead bundle over 2 years ago, and I still go back to that game. For about £5 or £6 (can’t remember exactly what it cost but it was on 75% discount) it’s entertained me endlessly, and the new workshop makes it so easy to get new campaigns, it’s like having the game new again.

    Honourable mention as well to Borderlands 2 and all it’s awesome DLC. I’ve completed the game, and was only too hapy to start again in vault-hunter mode, which really does change up the game for the better. I’ve helped about 20 other people at various points to complete or get past parts, as well as just hosting open public game and playing with randoms, it’s a brilliant, fun co-op game. No friendly fire, and no fall damage just take the head ache out of co-op and leave all the fun. DLC is a touchy subject for a lot of us, but Borderlands 2 DLC has had great voice acting, scripting and expansion on the original game without leaving me feeling ripped off. Love this game, one of the best purchases I ever made.

  97. 06/02/2013 at 10:20 thecat17 says:

    Finally beat Far Cry 3 last week. I pretty much played it as a Jason who truly cared about saving his friends instead of “freeing” the whole island, so I stuck to advancing the storyline and not going too far out of my way to reclaim the radio towers. Plus, I was really looking forward to reading John’s interview with the game’s main writer, spoiler-free.

    It was an awesome ride. Definitely GOTY material. Kudos to you lot for convincing me to give it a go! Even if the checkpointing and invisible mission-failure lines gave me a lit of grief, I was otherwise far from disappointed with the rest of the game.

    I’m thinking of playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution again. And all the way through this time.

    As far as F2P games:

    Team Fortress 2 – I’ve gotten back into this after a break lasting many months. Although, again, I’m only playing on surf servers that allow HLDJ. Something about playing wonderful music to complete strangers just does it for me. And it’s fascinating to see all the new weapons, items, and even hats that I’ve been missing out on.

    Quake Live – Been playing again for the past couple of days. Been getting my ass kicked constantly. It’s so frustrating at times to get put on a clan arena team that doesn’t stick together and pretends like they’re playing deathmatch. So. Frustrating. But man, how fun it is to rocketjump. And I can’t think of another game that does it so perfectly.

    Planetside 2 – I’d really wanted to play it one day. Logged in, and there was an automatic update I had to download that was more than 3gb. When I finally got in, I still had no real idea what I was doing. I did manage a few kills, at least. The feel of the game still isn’t right for me, the pace feels sluggish compared to TF2 surf and QL, but I’m willing to explore. I kind of think if somebody mashed this game together with Tribes: Ascend that the result would be much more fun, but, well, that opinion is open to change since I’m still figuring out how to play.

    Tribes: Ascend – If I don’t still have it installed, I’m going to reinstall it. I especially love the GOTTA GO FAST gameplay, the feel of the weapons, and that mode where you try and hold the flag for as long as possible while the entire enemy team slides after you. Quite a rush!

  98. 06/02/2013 at 10:25 Johnny_boy says:

    Crusader Kings 2.
    It’s odd because no game beside World of Warcraft and Medieval 2: Total War with the Stainless Steel mod have managed to become this addictive this quickly for me. It’s such a beautiful game where no playthrough is the same as the last one, there’s always something new and interesting going on, not to mention the incredible depth CK2 has.
    So far I’ve put in almost 150 hours since the beginning of January and I’m still learning and seeing new things about the game. This to me, is insane, as most games I’ve played in the past have next to nothing new to offer after 100-200 hours of gameplay, if even that. I’ve yet to get to the DLC or mods. I do believe I’m stuck with this game for a long, long time and I couldn’t be happier.
    Curse you Paradox, RPS and all commenters on various sites for recommending me to try this amazing time sink that is Crusader Kings 2.
    Dota 2. Because DOTER!
    Edit to elaborate a bit.
    What has kept me with this game is the sheer depth. In recent years I’ve become a sucker for games with a really deep end of the pool so to say. Other games just does not cut it anymore and Dota 2 is a deep game. It’s not too hard to just hop in and play and not too easy for me to lose interest. Playing with friends or people willing to cooperate makes this game so much more enjoyable.
    Killing Floor. Coop with friends is fun.
    Sanctum. Fun with friends.

  99. 06/02/2013 at 10:27 man-eater chimp says:

    My time for gaming has gone down significantly in the last few weeks as my workload has increased, but I have had time to fit in a few games.

    Mark of the Ninja – Got about 3/4 through then got distracted by other things, just trying to finish it now. Top notch game though, the stealth system is the best I’ve played as well.

    Rayman Origins – Another in the backlog from last summer, about halfway through now. A good game, nothing hugely spectacular though, bar the stunning art.

    Crusader Kings II is calling for me, but I don’t want to play it before it takes up my life again. I still need to pick up the republics expansion for it.

    On the F2P front:

    League of Legends – They just updated to Season 3, and Riot have seem to have done a stunning job with the game. Personally, I prefer this to Dota2, but that might be as I’m not willing to try and learn Dota2 after investing time in one similar game. Not played this particularly much in the last couple of weeks due to lack of time, but I’m sure I’ll start playing this again sooner rather than later.

    • 06/02/2013 at 15:50 LTK says:

      Playing Rayman as well. The art direction is really great, but I wish there weren’t so many timed elements of the game. Bubbles with collectibles rise out of reach and then they pop. You can punch enemies to get rid of them, but then you have to wait for them to inflate before you can get all their loot. And punching them five times is useless because they inflate just the same once you stop, and you don’t get more loot for doing so.

      But the art, music, sound and animation are all pretty much top-notch, yeah.

  100. 06/02/2013 at 10:28 DukhaDave says:

    Poking around in Witcher 2 for the first time, along with Portal 2 co-op when it can be arranged. As far as F2P goes I’m jumping into Planetside 2, Tribes Ascend and Quake Live on a fairly regular basis. Overall I’m not doing a huge amount of gaming; still recovering from the massive Alpha Centauri binge I went on in January. Thanks, GOG!

  101. 06/02/2013 at 10:31 tciecka says:

    I’ve been playing GOG’s Divine Divinity, lately. When I can’t really sit down for full screen gaming, I’m mudding at 3scapes LPMud (http://www.3scapes.org/).

    Getting DDiv to work was a bit of a mini-game in itself!

  102. 06/02/2013 at 10:32 Totally heterosexual says:

    Okami

    The best game.

    • 06/02/2013 at 18:10 LennyLeonardo says:

      I’ve been replaying it lately and it really is the best game. It’s completely off its tree.

      Edit: You know those rare songs that feel like they were written specifically for you – not about you, but for you? That’s what Okami feels like for me. I can’t think of any other game that does that.

  103. 06/02/2013 at 10:32 B1A4 says:

    Warhammer 40k – Dawn of War 2 + Space Marine + Dark Crusade; Sengoku; Torchlight 2 and Killing Floor.

    But i’d love to move with Witcher 2 (end of first act, not prologue), Silent Storm, Homeworld (beatiful and emocional but not really good RTS? Am I the only one?), Men of War, Gothic 3, Urban Chaos and Ufo Aftershock. Also TW: Empire :/

    I’ve got a lot of fucking work to do :(

  104. 06/02/2013 at 10:37 Gap Gen says:

    Stick-a-Hoop 4000: The Stickening.

  105. 06/02/2013 at 10:38 Vernalagnia says:

    Skipping randomly around between Morrowind, Skyrim and …emulated FFX? Playing a lot of Skyrim made me want to play Morrowind, but getting my fresh Morrowind install up fully-modded-glory has been more work than I’ve felt like giving to it. This also coincided with a once-in-a-decade desire to play a JRPG. I quickly remembered that I really liked FFX’s story…and didn’t really like most of the gameplay, probably because I don’t really like JRPGs in general.

  106. 06/02/2013 at 10:38 JovaZmaj says:

    Titan Quest Immortal Throne. Again. Finally got to some decent co-op with a friend.

  107. 06/02/2013 at 10:42 jrodman says:

    Picross 3d on the DS Xi

  108. 06/02/2013 at 10:45 bad guy says:

    Grand Theft Auto (1)
    and
    Mechwarrior: Living Legends

    both go bOOOM!!

  109. 06/02/2013 at 10:51 sgt. grumbles says:

    Falcon 4 BMS
    War Thunder

  110. 06/02/2013 at 10:53 NathanH says:

    In terms of free-to-play, just Path of Exile, which seems to be rather good without being particularly gripping. It is hard to complain about something like that when it is free though. I’d probably pay for it if it was a proper for-sale game, but probably won’t spend any money on the microtransactions.

    In terms of real games, EU3 with all the expansions. I bought the game on release and thought it was terrible, and so never cared to pay for any expansions given that I bought the game for full price. But then they gave me all the expansions for nothing. It’s really good, although rather too easy to get stupidly high income.

    Other games currently being played are Football Manager 2013, Towns, Saints Row 3, Thief Gold, ToME. Have also been trying to play Deus Ex: Human Resources and Witcher: Asses of Kings, but even though I think both games are really good I just find most of that sort of AAA action-RPG just tire me out very quickly these days.

  111. 06/02/2013 at 10:53 Guvornator says:

    Rage (which is pretty good once you’ve accepted it’s a linear shooter masquerading as an open world game)
    XCOM – Enemy Unknown
    Max Payne 3
    Mark Of The Ninja
    Iron Brigade

  112. 06/02/2013 at 10:56 enwandrews says:

    Ziggurat and the second dota have my full attention.

    Ziggurat rewards my daily progress with subtle soundtrack and environment changes. My blonde warrior breathes heavy, the sun sets, and popcorn people start breaking through the clouds. It takes 382 alien freaks to cut through my fireworks, just long enough for the moon to rise.

    I’ve been falling into the dota pit for a year now. I appreciate the match long requirement for mouse aerobics. To extract coins I must dance around ants and lords, timing each click for gold and damage. Unfortunately the game shelters master trolls, just today a player abducted the courier and dropped my items on a random patch of the map. I still have around twenty lords to research.

  113. 06/02/2013 at 10:58 Gassalasca says:

    FTL and WoW (got a starter + a month’s sub because I had a D3 account – will they stoop to anything?)

  114. 06/02/2013 at 11:01 ChromeBallz says:

    Been trying to beat Starcraft II’s singleplayer on brutal lately… So close to getting all the singleplayer achievements.

  115. 06/02/2013 at 11:02 Wizlah says:

    Crusader Kings 2. First go around the dynasty of McCarthy were wiped from the Duchy of Munster by a massive army of Normans who had permission from the Pope. Not dissimilar from reality.

    Endlessly engaging. I am consistently surprised at how the rest of the world carries on around you.

    FTL got a masive amoint of play a bit back too.

  116. 06/02/2013 at 11:02 neolith says:

    GW2, Gnomoria, Defense Grid.
    I also started playing Dishonored – but so far I found it utterly boring. Which is a shame as it looks like it has lots of unused potential. Maybe it’ll get better once I get a little deeper into it.

    I also quite enjoy dabbling in Unity3D these days. More than playing any games actually.

  117. 06/02/2013 at 11:08 Kinch says:

    I promised myself not to buy any games on Steam until I go through the entire backlog of sale titles (going good so far, haven’t bought a thing since July 2012 ;)).

    Last week, I finished Darksiders for the first time.
    Played some AC: Brotherhood but gave up after 8 hours because of disjointed story and same repetitive missions I had known from the previous installments.
    “Finished” Defence Grid but somehow I’m not compelled to replay it to get all medals. Good game, though.
    Started Mafia II last night. The first 30 minutes have been very much on the rails, I probably won’t enjoy the game as much as I liked “Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven”.

    Apart from that, still quite a few titles to go. Should keep me entertained for a long time.
    Stopped playing Guild Wars 2 (boring, repetitive, grindy), not going to touch Tera Online. Might resub to WoW for a month to see how much has changed since I last played it eons ago.

  118. 06/02/2013 at 11:10 XDeus says:

    Since breaking my arm, all I’ve been able to manage is XCOM. Anything real-time is out of the question, I’ve done FTL to death for now, and most other pauseable games I have are Paradox ones, so a bit too much clicking is involved. That said, I’ve been trying an Ironman Classic playthrough and have gotten majorly screwed by misclicking or dropping the mouse, always during crucial enounters that end up ruining the mission. The latest cock-up was when my last-to-move heavy, instead of firing a rocket at 4 of 6 mutons, took a step out of cover instead.

    Anyway, with any luck I’ll be getting a 360 controller rigged up within the week, so I’ll eventually get around to playing GTA4′s addons, or one of a ton of other games that thankfully supports controllers.

  119. 06/02/2013 at 11:11 Moni says:

    I have tendinitis in my wrist, so I will only be playing games that only require my left hand. Any recommendations?

    • 06/02/2013 at 11:33 elderman says:

      You don’t indicate what you’ve played or what kind of games you enjoy. Red Rogue seems playable with one hand.

      Might be healthier to take a break from gaming, though.

  120. 06/02/2013 at 11:13 mda says:

    F2P:
    Planetside 2
    Tribes: Ascend
    Path of Exile
    League of Legends (play a game occasionally with friends and i suck suck suck at it)
    Black Mesa (just started even though I’ve been looking forward to it for years)

    Paid:
    Battlefield Bad Company 2 (yes, still – I prefer it over BF3)
    Left 4 Dead 2 (because nobody plays L4D1 any more)
    Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 (once completed will be moving on to the 2013 version)
    Natural Selection 2 (i suck, need to play more)
    Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (yay for arms race)

    edit – wow i play a lot of games… and i’m studying full time… how the heck do i do it?

  121. 06/02/2013 at 11:14 DarkFenix says:

    Navy Field 2′s so called ‘Public Evaluation Test’ at the moment.

    On and off a bit of World of Tanks too.

  122. 06/02/2013 at 11:14 Fontan says:

    Recently finished Mass Effect 2 and, since I don’t have the third yet, I went to The Witcher. I’ve been trying to clear this backlog for quite sometime and I’m actually succeding now, focusing on one or two games at a time and restricting myself from new purchases until there’s some room to breath.

    I’m also playing Far Cry 3, given to me by a friend on the Steam sale.

    And, of course, Crusader Kings 2. Haven’t dropped since I got it and right now I’m with a friend on a multiplayer muslim campaign to conquer Europe.

  123. 06/02/2013 at 11:18 Oryon says:

    Rayman Origins. That game is happiness. There’s no better way to describe it and i cannot stop smiling when i play it.

    Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. I am a sad, lonely corporate worker that amasses worrying quantities of stress and passive aggression towards his fellow man. Chopping heads online is good venting. Or impaling them on javelins. Yes, javelins are particularly satisfying.

    Alice: Madness Returns. I’m making this my ‘core’ game for the next couple of weeks ever since i finished KOTOR 2 again. It’s pretty good and has pretty great atmosphere but, and i can’t put my finger on why necessarily, it feels like it could have been more than what it is.

  124. 06/02/2013 at 11:20 dare says:

    It’s a free game, so it’s free to play, right?

    Discoverd SPC: Containment Breach. Holy Horace. I haven’t been this scared since the first episode of Penumbra. Nay, scratch that. The last time I was this scared was when I saw the Exorcist on the big screen.

  125. 06/02/2013 at 11:21 actionthom says:

    I’m still working my way through my back catalogue for the blog – http://the-ninth-life.blogspot.co.uk/

    I’ve finished the ‘A’s!

    Me and 2 friends also took Monday off to play 3v3 League of Legends all day (MOBA, MOBA, MOBA, MOBA) and our performance really dropped off throughout the day. I guess it is an endurance sport after all!

    • 07/02/2013 at 02:38 Skabooga says:

      Keep doing more! I really enjoy the write-ups. I would not at all be disappointed if you wanted to jump out of alphabetical order every now and then.

      • 11/02/2013 at 13:20 actionthom says:

        I think things are going to get a little complicated now. I’m up to BF2 and we agreed we’d play co-op stuff together, so I’ll be playing that with Ben and Neil, but at the same time we have our single-player stuff to do, so there’s going to be a couple of threads running.

        Thanks for reading it’s been really fun so far!

  126. 06/02/2013 at 11:28 BockoPower says:

    Lord of the Rings Online ! If you can say this game is F2P, because it’s actually free until you get to level 30. I just started playing it 2 months ago and now I bought all expansions and really love it .
    It’s a little hard to find good group of people to play the funny and amazing instances/raids but after The Hobbit movie there are new people playing the game (like me) or some of the old ones play it again. I hope more players will play it to fully enjoy all stuff .

  127. 06/02/2013 at 11:39 flaillomanz says:

    Kerbal Space Program and Fallout 1&2. Really digging the “special” random encounters in FO2!

  128. 06/02/2013 at 11:41 abandonhope says:

    Finished FTL. Finished XCOM. Finished is a rare word in gaming for me. Played most of Strike Suit Zero. Trying to enjoy Dead Island; am not, really. I am utterly bewildered by Crusader Kings II. Even after watching starter tutorials, I still barely comprehend what it is I should be doing to accomplish the things I know I’m supposed to. I spent 45 minutes just trying to find a suitable wife. May move on to Fallen Enchantress, as I’m still in the mood for strategy.

  129. 06/02/2013 at 11:42 jellydonut says:

    EVE Online and Planetside 2.

    Planetside 2 isn’t very good or very fun, it’s just another shooter.. But I’m giving it a shot anyway. It’s not like there’s anything else to play.

  130. 06/02/2013 at 11:45 michaelfeb16 says:

    In the new year, I put a lot of time into the stuff I got from the steam sale. I finally played dishonored and I played far cry 3, not to mentiona lot of random small games. As I finished up a lot of the backlog, I ened up doing lots of natural selection 2. Although I’ve had great fun with, I’ve just about worn out my interest already.

    So I’ve actually been playing some visual novels lately. Now, I guess RPS would call a lot of them ungames or something along those lines (I am playing some Key games, just finished Little Busters and currently working through Rewrite, not something from Eushully which has a lot more actual game mechanics).

  131. 06/02/2013 at 11:50 bladedsmoke says:

    Crusader Kings 2 was occupying most of my time when you last asked this, and that remains true now.

    I’ve also been playing a bit of Dwarf Fortress recently, but it’s pretty boring as I’ve had the same fort for about 20 in-game years and it’s basically invincible at this point, but I can’t bring myself to Abandon it. And, for nostalgia’s sake, I’ve been playing Baldur’s Gate, which was one of the first PC games I played at the far-too-young age of 10 or 11, the first I fell in love with, and remains my favourite to this day for purely sentimental reasons.

  132. 06/02/2013 at 12:04 Saedz says:

    Started playing the Witcher so i can finaly get to play the witcher 2 after that and get ready for the witcher 3.

  133. 06/02/2013 at 12:08 bigjig says:

    Playing a bit of Civ 5 Gods and Kings and FTL mostly, and a bit of Dark Souls when I feel like trolling Dickwraiths in the Parish XD

    On PS3, a bit of Ni no Kuni, a bit of Okami…

  134. 06/02/2013 at 12:10 Ingall says:

    Up until recently I have been playing a bit of FTL which I am about to give up on out of sheer frustration. 50 hours of gameplay for zero wins. :(

    When I’m not trying to suffocate aliens who’ve boarded my ship, I’ve been trying out the demo of Euro Truck Sim 2. I was intrigued by a few threads on various forums using words like ‘surprised’, ‘addictive’, ‘satisfying’ etc so thought I’d give it a go. And I must say I was very surprised to find myself addicted to driving the big rigs, which I too found very satisfying. The whole thing seemed so stupid, yet here I was making just one more journey to Paris before heading off to bed.

    On the Free-To-Play side of things I’ve been putting more time than I should in to Warframe. It’s just kind of simple, no stress, no fuss, relatively easy gameplay that is great for unwinding at the end of a hard days truckin’

  135. 06/02/2013 at 12:21 Yargh says:

    Planetside 2, more Planetside 2, a little bit of Far Cry 3, some Anno 2070 and a session with Omerta followed by more Planetside 2.

    PS2 really comes into its own when you can assemble a multi-squad platoon and can afford to no longer follow the mindless blobs of solo players.

  136. 06/02/2013 at 12:22 derella says:

    I’ve been re-playing Dreamfall in anticipation of the Kickstarter campaign for Dreamfall Chapters. I forgot how many issues the game had: horrible controls, way too much back-tracking, and AWFUL stealth/combat(especially the latter).

    Somehow, in spite of all that, I still love it.

  137. 06/02/2013 at 12:29 agent1138 says:

    Dota 2
    Ro2
    Dota 2
    CSGO
    Dota 2

  138. 06/02/2013 at 12:37 dE says:

    Personally, I’m wasting most of my time on Path of Exile. It’s a lot of fun.
    Although I can’t see myself playing it for a prolonged time, there are a few things that really rub me the wrong way. I’ll just name my biggest disagreement here: The Lootsystem. It’s far too melee-centric and forces you to either build a tanky “Ranged” character that stands next to the melee guys, or forfeit your loot. I had a situation where a unique dropped for me, even as I instantly made a mad dash for it, by the time I was there, someone else had already snagged it, laughed his ass off and left.
    I’d love to play it with folks other than my close friends, but this mechanic is preventing it. No big deal, I’m wasting enough time on it as is and once my friends give up on it, so will I.

  139. 06/02/2013 at 12:56 Hmm-Hmm. says:

    Playing DotP2013 (and making my own overpowered cards with a card creation application). A bit of Kingdoms of Amalur again. Hoping on doing a bit more Minecraft with my fiancée on our co-op world (love the LAN functionality). Otherwise,Super Puzzle Platform Plus.

    If Minecraft doesn’t enter the picture and I get tired of KoA I might fire up something else. Maybe Borderlands (haven’t played through the dlc) or Torchlight. Or some more Starwars Republic Commando.

  140. 06/02/2013 at 12:56 psepho says:

    Bioshock for the first time. The world is wonderful but the die/respawn system makes the sense of progress a bit weak. Kind of grindy and lightweight.

    Played Howling Dogs on the train this morning — very compelling.

    Just starting off with Unity of Command — very accessible and engaging.

    Finally destroyed W4R D3N in Borderlands 2 last night. Now the game is fun again.

    On the free side, I thought Reveal was amazing. Also Hunt For The Gay Planet has destroyed my ability to play KOTOR with a straight face.

    Oh, and Super Hexagon. Always, Super Hexagon. As of this morning, 44s on Hexagonest.

  141. 06/02/2013 at 13:08 BreadBitten says:

    On PC…

    I just made my way through ‘RAGE’ a couple days ago and, despite some control/UI mishaps, found the game to be really enjoyable with some nice character designs and animation and a world I’m interested in seeing more fleshed out for the potential sequel. Not harping on the negatives as it’s been well documented by people more observant than I. Also been playing a lot of ‘Company of Heroes’ (campaign), and I think I felt sixteen year old me crying out in joy through time and space, as he never had the good fortune of being able to play this wonderful game when it came out, much to his desire.

    On the box-that-sits-snuggly-underneath-my-television…

    Finishing up my fourth (fifth?) playthrough of ‘Max Payne 3′, it’s strange how (as a diehard fan of the series) initial disappointment gave way to me being completely enamored by this game. Even without an open world to play around in, Rockstar have proven themselves the masters of world-building and presentation. The actual mechanics are pretty extraordinary as well, except for glitch-prone “last stand”, but what really seals this game for me is the Houser brothers’ excellent handling of Max as a character and the fact that they somehow managed to outdo the original Max Payne as the most quotable game of all time, personally speaking.

  142. 06/02/2013 at 13:10 EOT says:

    Not much really. Limited time at the moment. But I’ve been steadily working through DmC Devil May Cry and quite enjoying it though I still think, as I have from the start, that the timing is slightly off in combat as it doesn’t feel as tight as other games in the series, or even the same genre.As in I constantly feel that commands have to be input too early. Want to uppercut a Titan as he charges you? Well you better release B when he’s a good 30ft away, not when he’s, y’know, /next/ to you. Silly game.

    I like new Dante though.

  143. 06/02/2013 at 13:13 Peptidix says:

    I have been playing Crusader Kings II, a bit of Patrician III.

    No free to play stuff I remember, probably only quickly trying some of the things you linked to.

  144. 06/02/2013 at 13:13 gritz says:

    I’m the only person on RPS who’s playing Dragonborn for Skyrim, released yesterday? I thought this place had more Morrowind fans!

  145. 06/02/2013 at 13:14 bangalores says:

    I quit gaming because i’m a complete buzzkill.

  146. 06/02/2013 at 13:17 LionsPhil says:

    Mechwarrior: Online.
    Left4Dead 2.
    Alien Swarm, since it’s now been long enough that I’ve forgotten the maps again.

    And given up on DX:HR after this.

    • 06/02/2013 at 15:46 tobecooper says:

      Bah, just let him finish talking and, then, shoot him in the face.
      The poor guy needs to deliver all the exposition he can in that little monologue of his. It’s his only role, and you don’t even want to let him do that.

      Respect one-eyed rebels! Free the AI!

    • 07/02/2013 at 02:46 Skabooga says:

      The scene was a little cheesy, but such occurrences are few and far between. Stick with it, DX:HR is really fantastic. Even if everyone does dance like a robot when they talk to you.

  147. 06/02/2013 at 13:27 Frank says:

    Soon free-to-play: The Banner Saga: Factions. Why: it’s one of the few games with fast-paced turn-based tactics.

  148. 06/02/2013 at 13:28 derbefrier says:

    Patiently waiting for my new mobo amd CPU since my mobo took a Shit on me last weekend at a LAN party. Finally made the switch from AMD to Intel with a shiny new I5 3770k ivy bridge. it should all be delivered today and I will continue to feed my new addictions of Path of Exile and Crusader Kings 2.

  149. 06/02/2013 at 13:28 tanelon says:

    Here are my answers(RPS headline style):
    I can’t get enough of: “Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition”
    Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication: “Hotline Miami”
    Expect the unexpected: “Half Minute Hero: SMNCUB”
    Longed for it. Got it. Shit.: “Disciples III: Renaissance”
    Smile, it’s free therapy: “Team Fortress 2″

  150. 06/02/2013 at 13:33 Minsc_N_Boo says:

    I have mostly been playing Path of Exile (awesome!!) and Guild Wars 2 (MMO-tastic!)

    I keep hoping to see a “Wot I Think” article about PoE. Come on RPS! Show the game some love!! :-)

    I know it is still in beta, but I think the game deserves an indepth RPS treatment

  151. 06/02/2013 at 13:38 Badfinger says:

    I was out of League of Legends. Now I’m back in.

    Playing the hell out of Mass Effect 3 multiplayer. Thinking about jumping back into Planetside or Battlefield 3.

    The last non-multiplayer game I played wasn’t even out yet – the Sim City beta. Before that, Skyrim. SKYRIM.

  152. 06/02/2013 at 13:39 Noodle says:

    Warzone 2100 and RAGE. After seeing 3.1 version of warzone I’m replaying my childhood, by god its pathfinding is annoying still..

  153. 06/02/2013 at 13:39 wodin says:

    Battle of Britain 2 with the 2.12 patch.
    Over Flanders Field Phase 3.
    Rise of Flight
    Strike fighters NA
    Trying to learn DCS A10C..but my memory is to shit for it..
    testing Tigers Unleashed….
    Achtung Panzer Op Star with beta patch

    Thinking of reinstalling Steel Fury with the latest SPM mod version 2.0

    Awaiting CK2 Viking DLC. Combat Mission East Front. Wings Over Flanders Fields and one or two others..

    Wishing someone would announce a new Steel Panthers and a new Flight Commander 2.

  154. 06/02/2013 at 13:41 Nallen says:

    Path of Exile, solid game with interesting mechanics.

  155. 06/02/2013 at 13:51 maheusz says:

    For now I’m playing Geneforge 3, also in plans are parts four and five. There is also a bit of the Last Remnant (I’ve got to the really grindy area and stopped for now) which is a nice fix for the jRPG thirst. Of course a bit of Dwarf Fortress with silly succession game and a Disgaea 2 on the emulator.

    Also waiting for Dominions 3 to get cheaper.

  156. 06/02/2013 at 13:58 Master_of_None says:

    FTL still holds my interest, amazingly. And dipping back into X-Com for another playthrough with some of the new settings (it’s haaard).

    But basically, just waiting for Sim City.

  157. 06/02/2013 at 14:09 tobecooper says:

    I’m playing PoE too – having a lot of fun there.

    Also, I finished Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was a lot of fun. After the first hour I was angry that the game is such a step backwards for SC, but later I accepted it for what it is, and enjoyed the very very short ride.

    I’ve started a replay of Company of Heroes, too, and I plan to get through the original, and then both expansions which I haven’t played before.

  158. 06/02/2013 at 14:09 DaftPunk says:

    I can’t focus on one game so i’m replaying Raven Shield and Swat 4,plus i started LA Noire for the first time,fun ride so far. Need to get Alan Wake as well.

  159. 06/02/2013 at 14:15 Michael Fogg says:

    Enslaved: Oddysey to the West on and off for some time. I can’t stick with it, it’s just to lacking.

    I’ve also tried some Commandos Beyond the Call of Duty but after quick loading my way through the first two missions I decided that is better left in the nostalgia drawer.

  160. 06/02/2013 at 14:26 ritalingamer says:

    War Thunder has zoomed and boomed it’s way out of the sun and into my heart. Took me by surprise, as I normally don’t care for flight sims and outright detest Free to Play.

    Thanks, Flare Path!

  161. 06/02/2013 at 14:28 Procrastination Giant says:

    On the F2P side of things:

    Dota 2 – Played about 50 Hours so far after getting a beta invite from a kind RPS-forumite, and while i’m still somewhat intimidated by it i do have to say that i really enjoy that game and can see myself dipping in and out of that game for months to come. I also always wanted to learn more russian swear words, so kudos to the community (…yeah, i really should hop onto the RPS-mumble at some point.)

    Path of Exile – Once again fired it up now that it’s in open beta but got a bit frustrated (and dare i say bored) somewhere in my second playthrough for now. While i really do appreciate the whole skill-system i’m simply a bit put off by the fact that i simply can’t find any skill gems that are as amusing as those that i had in closed beta and i don’t feel like either farming or trading. I do understand why people say that the whole charakter, item and skill mechanics are far superior to D3, but large portions of the game just feel too samey and dull.

    On the not-so-F2P side of things:

    Borderlands 2 – Currently somewhere in the middle of a True Vaulthunter/Torgue DLC playthrough in co-op with a friend of mine. There really isn’t much to say about it apart from it being utterly hilarious and brilliant when played with a good friend. PLOT TWIST: IT’S A MONSTER TRUCK!
    (Torchlight 2 and (even… more…) Orcs Must Die! 2 are on the co-op to-do list)

    Well and a couple of thingies that i picked up during Steam’s winter sale and dabble with on a casual level: A bit of Snapshot here and there (zen!), some Space Pirates and Zombies every once in a while. Dungeon Defenders, MTG 2013, FTL, Hotline Miami, etc.

    Backburner: Legend of Grimrock (or well, it got demoted to the backburner because… spiders!), Alan Wake, The Cave, Resonance and maybe another playthrough of Alpha Protocol… eventually. Also Sequence!

  162. 06/02/2013 at 14:36 psychodave123 says:

    I picked up Arkham City again.

    Still loving it.

  163. 06/02/2013 at 14:39 Severian says:

    Been taking a bit of a break on the digital front.

    Dipping into Guild Wars 2 periodically (only need to do one last quest to finish my personal storyline).
    Finished Mark of the Ninja.
    Currently having fun with Beat Hazard.

    I’d recommend all – the latter only if you’re not sensitive to light-induced seizures.

    On the boardgaming front, been a little more active. Mostly X-Wing Miniatures, but also a little of the silly-fun DC Comics Deck-Building Game.

  164. 06/02/2013 at 14:45 hamburger_cheesedoodle says:

    Mechwarrior Online, Natural Selection 2, and Morrowind with the overhaul that was posted here a couple months back.

  165. 06/02/2013 at 14:45 JBantha says:

    I recently unistalled my every steam games except TF2 to focus on WarThunder. Also: SMITE.

  166. 06/02/2013 at 14:54 aliksy says:

    Torchlight 2 co-op with a friend. I’ve had it since launch but I never got past act 2 before. It’s more fun in a group.

    I also dug out my playstation and old final fantasy games, so I’ve been on a nostalgia trip with that. They’re a lot easier than I remember.

  167. 06/02/2013 at 14:55 remoteDefecator says:

    Dipped my toe into the waters of Skyrim mods about a month ago… still don’t see land.

  168. 06/02/2013 at 15:00 MagpieMcGraw says:

    I’ve been playing quite abit of Path of Exile. It’s amazing, Captures what made D2 enjoyable for me, and then adds on top of it. A friend convinced me to try Firefall. There are really good ideas there that are not fleshed out enough, in my opnion. It’s fun to grind for XP if you’ve got a friend along. Firefall reminded me of Trbes Ascend, so I dipped into that the past couple days, and it’s as fun as ever.

  169. 06/02/2013 at 15:03 Enikuo says:

    I just finished Psychonauts and I’m considering working on the last few achievements that I need for 100% – it was so good, I’m having trouble moving on. I also just finished Portal 2 co-op again with a buddy from work.

    I’m playing Don’t Starve – but when I play it, it’s more like “don’t get eaten by wild boars, or trampled by a walking tree, or ripped apart by spiders, or set on fire.” Strangely, starving is never really an issue. I also restarted my Skyrim character with a whole mess of new mods. But, those two games are mostly side deals. I am actually stuck trying to decide which game to beat next out of my paralyzingly big Steam backlog.

    F2P – I am spending more time in LoTRO since they finally announced a housing revamp this year.

  170. 06/02/2013 at 15:06 kstress71 says:

    I just started the first Witcher game. Interesting so far, not exactly ground-breaking. Maybe it will pick up.

    Strangely, I’ve also gotten addicted to BIT.TRIP BEAT. I was never into this game before, but it’s gotten it’s hooks into me big time now. I’m still terrible at it, but now I get to hear the music in my head when I’m not playing the game, remembering how terrible I was at it. Glorious.

  171. 06/02/2013 at 15:19 GingerGiant says:

    I tend to jump around a lot within my collection.
    As far as F2P is concerned, the only game I consistently go back to is League of Legends. I tend to not stick with a game unless I can play with my friends, which is the best thing LoL has going for it. It has a much lower barrier to entry, friendlier bots, and the most endearing art style. I also have trouble running DotA on my brick… I mean ‘computer’. In a match it runs well, but I have lots of lag in the lobby.

    Not too long ago I was poking about in Don’t Starve.
    RPS got me into Kerbal Space Program, which I love like Dwarf Fortress love Fun. Unfortunately, my toaster… ‘Computer’ doesn’t have enough memory to do more than build a ship and fly it a few times before the game crashes.
    I love me some Dwarf Fortress.
    I also like to poke about in Blood Bowl regularly.
    I’m hoping to hook up with my friends to play some AD&D and Pathfinder via Roll20.net.

  172. 06/02/2013 at 15:22 maninahat says:

    I’m playing Max Payne 3, and I’m starting to wish I wasn’t. I remembered the previous titles being more fun, with a protagonist who was world weary, but the game still had a sense of humour. It felt like the ridiculous, purple prose, hardboiled narration was at least tongue in cheek. In the third game though, Max just seems like a miserable, moping prick who resents anyone being happy. Very tedious to listen to his wangsty, redundant opinions. I’m also sick of running out of ammunition – In a slow mo action game, I want to spray bullets everywhere! It’s bad enough that I’m limited to three guns, but when the ammo is scarce and there are hundreds of enemies per level, the decision to go more realism is kind of non-conducive to the silliness of the situation.

  173. 06/02/2013 at 15:27 Bluerps says:

    In the last couple of weeks I’ve played mainly Crusader Kings 2 since new expansion came out. Before that, I played a lot of Far Cry 3. I didn’t finish that, but I might go back to it some time (though I haven’t played it for two weeks now, and I tend to abandon games after not playing them for that long).

    I also played most of the games that Ms Porpentine posts every week, of those Counterfeit Monkey was my favored. I started with Antichamber last saturday – and it’s awesome – but the desire to conquer the Muslim Kingdoms of Africa became to great. I will finish Antichamber later, though.

  174. 06/02/2013 at 15:39 Brun says:

    WoW, The Witcher 2 (which I still haven’t finished), and PlanetSide 2 occasionally.

  175. 06/02/2013 at 16:00 ahniwa says:

    I’ve been playing Orcs Must Die 2 in my limited free time. If I had less limited free time, I’d probably also be playing more of The Secret World and maybe even some RIFT.

  176. 06/02/2013 at 16:08 Ernesto says:

    I finally got a new PC with an overclockable i5 and a GTX670 (come on! drool a bit ;) ).
    So I tried out Tribes Ascend, Hawken, Planetside 2. My favorite is Tribes at the moment. But it’s incredibly tough! I stumbled in a match with some insane guys and I never even saw half the bullets/disks that killed me :D
    Next on the list is Mechwarrior online. Some friends of mine play the Battlefield stuff (Play4free and Heroes) but that looks a lot like pay2win… so I’ll probably leave those out.

  177. 06/02/2013 at 16:09 tumbleworld says:

    Path of Exile, Dwarf Fortress, Black Mesa, Simon Tatham’s great little free Puzzle Collection, Blue Wish Resurrection…

    … and, Gods help me, WoW. Again. It’s just for the Pokémon^H^H^H^H^H^H^HPet Battles, though. Promise.

  178. 06/02/2013 at 16:20 Mctittles says:

    After watching some videos of the upcoming Sim City I booted up Sim City 4 to refresh my mind on how it compares.
    Wow…I don’t see myself every getting the new one as I’ve been having so much fun playing Sim City 4. The city detail is amazing and better than what I’ve been seeing for the upcoming one. I’m building a massive highway system across the Region and it’s been a blast.

  179. 06/02/2013 at 16:26 gruia says:

    Dota 2, PoE and just finished DmC. starting DS3

  180. 06/02/2013 at 16:34 plugmonkey says:

    I’ve just gone back to The Witcher with xpadder and a large font mod. The girlfriend and I were really enjoying it years ago, but squinting at the text and balancing a keyboard on my knee got the better of us.

  181. 06/02/2013 at 16:36 goettel says:

    Guild Wars 2 to chill, listening to the FTL soundtrack – still best done in game, revving up Battlefield 3 again, not for the endgame persé.

    And Left 4 Dead (2) – in my company of heroes, still the best PC co-op experience, IMO.

  182. 06/02/2013 at 16:37 Ragnar says:

    Just finished Sleeping Dogs – pleasantly surprised and highly recommended.

    Still playing Mass Effect 3 – enjoying it so far, love the gameplay improvements over 2, don’t like the sexualization of a couple characters, miss the witty and funny writing of 2, slow going since I feel like I need to be able to commit a few hours to it before firing it up.

    Also playing:
    Renegade Ops for co-op fun.
    Defender’s Quest and Sine Mora for when I just have a little time to play.
    Half-Minute Hero for when I have really little time to play.

  183. 06/02/2013 at 16:39 Ham Solo says:

    Good ol’ World of Tanks has filled my weeks, and now some Skyrim with the new DLC.
    Also I’m waiting patiently for World of Warships.

  184. 06/02/2013 at 17:07 Vermilious says:

    Skyrim, because when winter sweeps through I want to play more things set wholeheartedly in Winter.

    Antichamber. Because I want my head to hurt, occasionally.

    Hotline Miami. Because I’m really good at it now, and I just want there to be more, but in the meantime, I’ll just keep revisiting things because I can.

    Audiosurf. Because it’s still my favorite way to understand new music I acquire.

  185. 06/02/2013 at 17:08 inch7706 says:

    Anyone heard of the new Age of Empires 2 expansion/mod? Age of Forgotten Empires?

    I haven’t seen it mentioned on this site at all yet and I’ve been playing it non-stop for a month now.

  186. 06/02/2013 at 17:10 macaronies says:

    I finally got around to Treasure Adventure Game, which was a delightful surprise. I always got it mixed up with Treasure Hunter Man and wasn’t sure if I’d already played it.

    Now I’ve been spending my time with Path of Exile and Megabyte Punch!

  187. 06/02/2013 at 17:19 Xocrates says:

    Decided to replay the Starcraft 2 campaign to help me decide whether to get the expansion or not.

    Though I suspect doing so is only making the choice more difficult :(

  188. 06/02/2013 at 17:30 RogerioFM says:

    Man, I am playing Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper, and I just finished Project Eden.

  189. 06/02/2013 at 17:45 Shooop says:

    Got into the U.S. WARFACE(!) beta and while PvP is absolutely horrible, the co-op PvE is really fun.

    Playing Vindictus again because someone finally realized grinding a level 35 times for a single quest item is not fun and the new character Vella is stupid-powerful.

    Finished the indie adventure The Cat Lady, going to write up a review of that.

    Going to pick up Chivalry again because I only just recently found out you can swing weapons faster with a mouse trick.

    And finally, going to try Tera because I’m dying for a MMO that has combat that doesn’t completely suck.

    • 06/02/2013 at 18:41 LennyLeonardo says:

      Chivalry! The new patch is good – dueling is fantastic. Re the mouse thing: that’s sort of true, though you can’t speed up the actual swing animations, only alter the timing of the impact. It can sometimes be more effective to slow the swing down, or rather delay the impact, causing your opponent to parry too early and miss your impact, by dragging the mouse in the opposite direction to the swing. Doesn’t work so well against shields, and is most effective with slower weapons, like the zwiehander. Please note: I am making myself sound good at the game when I am in actual fact rubbish.

  190. 06/02/2013 at 17:47 darkChozo says:

    Finished up GTAIV:EfLC over the weekend, quite enjoyed both episodes. Now am looking forward to a hypothetical GTAV with IV’s physics and SR’s co-op and general abundance of things to do in the world. It’s mostly personal preference, but I prefer GTA’s slippery slidey rolly cars and ragdoll physics to SR’s floaty cars and wonky ragdolls, the silliness of real physics easily outweighs the annoyances. I’m mostly wackiness agnostic (like I said, I liked both EfLC episodes), though I’m pretty sure that SR has the extreme wackiness market cornered.

    Finished Antichamber, great game. I’m not usually one for puzzle games, but this one grabbed me, mostly because nonlinear thinking is fun. [kinda spoilers after this? extremely vague though] It was also interesting to basically brute force puzzles using some of the later upgrades, that’s not really something you get in a lot of puzzle games.

    Also some LoL, because LoL. Um, yeah.

  191. 06/02/2013 at 17:54 Henson says:

    Betrayal at Krondor. Chapter 3 was annoying, since there were barely any hints of where to go next and the game doesn’t keep track of quests in a log or anything (old-school goodness!). I just finished Chapter 4, which was the “whichever mage goes first, wins” battle system – pretty annoying.

    The free-movement map and sense of discovery are nice (very Legends of Valour), but I suspect that this may be a case of ‘good for its time’. We’ll see.

    • 06/02/2013 at 18:07 Strangerator says:

      I always sort of enjoyed Chapter 3′s open-endedness. Also the fact that you can sell things at Romney (no relation) for tremendous profit during the guild war was great, gotta love unloading a bunch of gems there. Chapter 3 was the chapter where you really explore the world, make your fortune, and level your characters up to really high levels (er, well not levels, but you know). The chapters after that progressively give you more direction (if I remember correctly), but with James, Gorath, and Owyn well developed, the later chapters shouldn’t be too problematic.

  192. 06/02/2013 at 17:56 Strangerator says:

    Borderlands 2 coop with brother and another good friend, though my brother needs a microphone so he doesn’t communicate by jumping and shooting near me. Also so I can yell at him when he loot-grabs without us both getting to look and figure out who needs it.

    A bit of Don’t Starve, though some of the recent build changes put me off of it a bit (wormholes and “new world portal” especially). It grabbed me a bit like Terraria, keeping me up for a couple really late nights until I won the battle for survival, then it was a bit like, “what’s the point?” Needs some kind of impending threat that happens at days 100/200/300 that you need to have an army of pig-men and bird friends to beat (and a fortress too, naturally). As it stands, the difficulty curve has some nice spiky bits in the beginning that present fun challenges, but they progressively smooth out a bit too much.

    Also, I am heroically resisting the urge to re-open my Dragonrealms account. A bit like a recovering alcoholic lingering in front of a liquor store window, I daily click over to the website to read about the 3.0 updates. To put it another way… if online games are addictive, and the individual games are like different bars, then Dragonrealms is my “Cheers” bar. So many old friendly faces, whatever could be wrong with stopping in to say hello? Oh sure, one drink won’t hurt…

    Oh yeah, schoolwork exists and needs to be done.

  193. 06/02/2013 at 17:59 Devan says:

    Lately I’ve been playing a decent amount of Terraria.
    And of always, League of Legends.

  194. 06/02/2013 at 17:59 karthink says:

    Planescape: Torment: Cried at the end. Never happened in a videogame before. In Avellone we trust now.

    Dwarf Fortress: I have a fort going from Dec ’12. It’s survived epidemics and sieges and colossi and forest fires and magma mishaps. Must be a record of some kind.

    Dark Crusade: Me and a friend against three hard AIs. We get crushed each time.

    Spec Ops: The Line: More Colons: Just finished it. did NOT see the unreliable narrator sneaking up on me.

    Path Of Exile: Dabbling when the lag allows it. Always online is a pain.

  195. 06/02/2013 at 18:05 tangoliber says:

    Borderlands 2, Doom 2 (Specifically Community Chest 4), Shootmania, 3089 Alpha

  196. 06/02/2013 at 18:27 Delodax says:

    Started an epic 3D Fallout marathon this christmas. Came close to the end of New Vegas before it was back to work. Been trying to put in the hours to finish it off but it has been unsuccessful so far. New Vegas was a much greater experience than Fallout 3. Solidifies my love for Obsidian and being jaded towards Bethesdas storytelling :S There is somthing about reaching the end of massive games like these, I get really exhausted and have a hard time wrapping the bag. They really require a lot of dedication and long game sessions for maximum pleasure.

    So, mostly playing multiplayer games. Putting some hours in Battlefield 3 with friends, but it’s not really my cup of tea. Otherwise, been reliving my old DotA days in DotA2 but the real king for me is League of Legends. Still feel fresh to me after renewing my interest in the genre 4 years ago.

  197. 06/02/2013 at 18:29 I_have_no_nose_but_I_must_sneeze says:

    Recently, Ben Chandler’s PISS gave me a warm feeling inside. I’d love to see more games set in that world with the same protagonist.

    I played through all four Blackwell games, which I enjoyed for their literary background, strong writing, compelling characters, excellent voice-acting and smooth soundtrack.

    Spacechem bruised my brain and left it crying in a corner. I haven’t gone back to it in a while. I’m at the end of the fourth world and, man, can this game get exhausting. I don’t regret trying it out though. It really is ingenious.

    I’m also about to start Arkham City after finishing Arkham Asylum. Because Batman.

  198. 06/02/2013 at 18:34 RagingLion says:

    The Witcher 2 – and I had started playing it before the recent announcement.

  199. 06/02/2013 at 19:32 WantOn says:

    Since Christmas I have played:

    Spec Ops: The Line (Very impressed)
    PS2: (Good fun until the update a few days ago broke it again)
    Arkham City: (Immense, really impressive and as good as/better than Arkham Asylum)
    Hotline Miami: (Bounced off this really, found the controls got in the way)
    Crusader Kings 2: (My first Paradox strategy game I think. Quite impressed but not finished a whole game yet)
    FTL: (Really enjoyed it but got depressed at my ineptitude and bad luck just as things were going well)

    Overall its been a good time and makes me glad I stepped away from the Mists of Pandaria finally.

  200. 06/02/2013 at 20:13 TheBuff1 says:

    Recently got into boardgames for the first time since HeroQuest: managed to convert a few of my friends with Carcassone (a bit boring to be honest – farms are confusing me!) and Survive: Escape from Atlantis (excellent fun!). Just had Lord of the Rings Card Game delivered this week too which I am quite taken by! No chance of getting my friends into that though!

    On the other gaming front….F2P I have tried Dota 2 but did bounce off it (I am absolute rubbish at the whole ‘last hit’ thing!). But Team Fortress 2 has completely consumed me recently – I have had it since the Orange Box release but could never get into it at the time – reinstalled a few weeks ago and Bam! cannot put it down!! I think the random/achievement loot drops are scratching my lapsed MMO itch!

    My other games to play list is never ending: Dishonoured, Borderlands 2, Sine Mora, The Walking Dead, Trine 2, FTL, Doom 3 (strangely reinstalled it for no reason but enjoying it all over again!), Sleeping Dogs, XCOM……..damn I could go on and on! Think I’m addicted to buying game more than playing them these days…….

  201. 06/02/2013 at 20:16 mcwill says:

    Since Xmas, I’ve finished off Arkham City, XCOM and Spec Ops: The Line.

    Dwarf Fortress remains a permanent fixture in my rotation. And I’ve been ill the last few weeks, so my neglected The Secret World account has finally been getting some attention. AI War sometimes gets a look-in too.

  202. 06/02/2013 at 20:28 aldrenean says:

    Multiplayer: Mechwarrior Online is my #1 atm, dipping into Tribes: Ascend now and then since the half XP costs. Also still butting my head against the brick wall that is Dota 2 practice games until better training tools come in.

    Singleplayer: Replaying The Witcher 2, especially now that the third is announced. Beat both Quantum Conundrum and Antichamber within the last week. In the middle of Far Cry 3 and Max Payne 3, and still putting an hour into Dungeons of Dredmor every now and then. Sprinkles of Super Hexagon, Anno 2070, and I’m stuck on Tiamat in La Mulana.

  203. 06/02/2013 at 22:15 MrTambourineMan says:

    I’m not playing that many games atm (not many as in quantity not hours ), but still
    Doom 2 – I must admit this is “free-to-play” via torrent, I will purchase it on sale but atm it’s a little bit expensive. I never got around to finishing it in 90s and this time I’m playing it via GZDoom (Jizzy doom?) and Brütal Doom wad. Awesome game.
    The binding of Isaac – I’ve sunk 180 (on record, a couple of dozen more in offline mode) of hours into it, because I have only 2 goddamn achievements left – Mama’s Boy and Guppy’s Hairball. BTW: Here’s a tale for you – last week I had epic fetus and compas + some other stuff but unfortunately no flying powerup – I was in Womb 2 – 3 DAMN rooms away from mom’s heart + I had bible (instakill on mom’s heart) and you know what? Some piece of shit goddamn spider came from nowhere and fuckin’ touched me and I was done for (for those who don’t play mama’s boy is achievement where you play trough parts of game without taking damage). I was genuinely sad for the remainder of the day…

  204. 06/02/2013 at 22:31 Grygus says:

    Vanilla Skyrim, which I have finally completed this morning (defined as main quest, civil war, and all four guild quest lines completed, as well as collection of nine dragon priest masks.) Now that I’m done with that (until Dawnguard goes on sale,) I’m not sure what I’ll do; I can’t remember what life used to be like.

    Started playing TERA yesterday, and it’s going to be my go-to “listening to music while zoning out and bashing stuff” game for a while, I think.

  205. 06/02/2013 at 23:17 nindustrial says:

    Fallen hard back into Crusader Kings II recently. Picked up the Republic DLC, but haven’t really played it yet. Instead I’ve been stewarding a now third generation of Norse Queens as they hold the title Queen of Norway, Finland, and Sweden, slowly conquering more and more of the former Swedish kingdom until I have enough land to proclaim myself the first Empress of Scandanavia (first two dynasty generations were male, but with elective succession and females with great traits, I’ve become resolute in keeping it a ladies-only affair).

    Also getting in the occasional hour or so of Dishonored here and there in the face of my 5+ hour CK2 binges.

    And I had a weird dream about Legend of Grimrock last night, despite having never played it. Does that count?

  206. 07/02/2013 at 00:23 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:

    I recently started playing Super Space Rubbish again.
    It’s a nice, although sometimes frustrating, space game where you split asteroids and bounce off things with well timed enabling of your shield. And the music is quite nice too.
    http://slakinov.com/s/100/super-space-rubbish/

  207. 07/02/2013 at 01:24 DannySpud says:

    Just finished Antichamber, that’s a fantastic game though towards the end it starts to become less knowing what to do and more actually doing it that’s the problem.
    Just bought Bioshock 1 and 2. I’ve never played them (I know…) but Infinite looks absolutely amazing so I figured I should probably play the other games before it comes out.

  208. 07/02/2013 at 01:29 DannySpud says:

    One game I’ve been playing recently is Kerbal Space Program, it’s such nerdy fun! You build space rockets in an editor similar to the Spore editor and then fill it with cuddly Kerbals and try to get them into space (or at least to not blow them up). There are moons, planets and planets with moons all to try and land on, and you can also try to build orbiting space stations. It’s currently in open alpha, you pay to get it and then future updates are free.

  209. 07/02/2013 at 02:56 Skabooga says:

    After hearing the announcement for the sequel, I’ve been playing Barkley: Shut Up and Jam Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga. Maybe it’s because I was exposed to just the right amount of professional basketball as a child, but I find this game hilarious; I’m chuckling at every other line. It’s so ridiculous that it has crossed the line and become somewhat meaningful.

    Also, Skyrim is still waiting to be finished after I put some 70 hours into it. And once those are done, I should really go back to Legend of Grimrock – I got stuck on level four, whereupon other games distracted me and I wandered off, but I really was enjoying myself while I was playing it.

  211. 07/02/2013 at 05:54 hannofcart says:

    I recently took to playing ‘Battle for Wesnoth’ on multi-player with a friend. Its been great! I dont know of too many other FOSS games that are this polished and allow for such depth in strategy.

  212. 07/02/2013 at 09:54 guygodbois00 says:

    “Find a job – The Sequel” interactive 3D, RPG, puzzle (where I’m puzzled, that is) IRL game.
    Turns out, I’m rubbish at it. I’m inclined to change my Starting Class into Rogue.

  213. 07/02/2013 at 17:19 Tom Servo says:

    Finally started playing Dark Souls last week, that will keep me busy for a while. Also been playing too much FIFA 13 on the PS3.

  214. 07/02/2013 at 20:58 Flavioli says:

    Played lots of XCOM: Enemy Unknown (is that the proper hyphenation?) last month… switched to FTL this month. Absolutely loving it, especially now that I can manage to consistently win on easy (only took about 20 hours of learning…). Enjoying that too much to wanna try it on Normal difficulty. Tried Spelunky based on recommendations, but not digging it nearly as much as FTL. Also occasionally playing Warlock: Master of the Arcane, currently the most underrated game of 2012, and Morrowind every now and then.

  215. 08/02/2013 at 00:45 Turey says:

    For Free-to-play, I’m still playing the Japanese version of Phantasy Star Online 2, with the fanmade English patch. Still waiting for Sega to get on with releasing the darn thing in English-speaking countries. I’d love an article or two about the game on RockPaperShotgun.

    I’m also still jumping in the occasional League of Legends game. Have I really been playing this thing on and off since beta? I’m enjoying the Annie graphical rework, as she’s my main.

    Other than that, I’ve been playing FTL, Kerbal Space Program, Borderlands 2, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

  216. 08/02/2013 at 01:24 Peacekraft says:

    Crusader Kings 2. There is nothing but Crusader Kings 2, now if you will excuse me I am off to kill my relatives.

  217. 08/02/2013 at 01:58 Josh W says:

    Apart from dwarf fortress, as mentioned above, I’m slowly pottering about between braid, n (again! always) and whatever I play up my mates house, which has been grimrock, the cave, trine and the boardgame descent, all sort of blurring into the same game.

    We’ve also played a bit of playstation allstars, but don’t tell anyone.

    If I had more time, I’d want to get back into space chem and uplink too, but I know that when I enter either of those, I don’t come out until it gets light.

  218. 10/02/2013 at 13:48 hippocrat says:

    I am away from home and only have an Asus 1005ha netbook with me. I have been playing Dungeons of Dredmor, Defender’s Quest, and Revenge of the Titans (which, of the three, works the best). I’ve spent most of my game-time, however, playing physical-box-game Blood Bowl: Team Manager; it is a great translation of the tabletop game into an hour-long card-based Bloodbowl season.

  219. 11/02/2013 at 08:23 valz says:

    Brogue, FTL, AI War, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Vesper5 (which sucks), Iron Brigade, Magicka. Brogue is my go-to coffee-break/play-while-watching-something-on-the-other-screen game when I’ve had enough FTL for a while.

  220. 11/02/2013 at 10:33 Panoptical says:

    Zelda: Skyward Sword on Dolphin @ 1080p, 4x Native 2560×2112, 16xAF, 2xAA (8 is no difference really)

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