What are you playing at the moment? [Archive] - Page 21

Rauten

30-04-2012, 02:07 PM

Is the PSO2 Beta in English, or do I have to brush up my non-existant Japanese?

The beta was in Japanese, but there was a partial English patch floating around that translated a good chunk of the menus, so you couldn't understand crap about the story or the little comms you get every now and then, but made it much easier to navigate the menus, create parties, check weapon stats and whatnot.

The character editor demo killed me, I am so proud of myself to having found the Download and Start buttons.

The one available in the Beta was pretty much the same, and if you managed to find the "Save character" button in the creator, you could load it into the beta client. So whatever pretties you may have created in the CC will work when you get your hands on it.

Any indiciation when it's out in a language I can actually understand? And how was the latency?

Not that I know of, but I haven't checked for any news today. Anyway, the Closed Beta ended... 5 minutes ago. There's supposed to be a Japanese Open Beta coming soon, so if you're interested, you could probably jump into that one.

Latency was rather horrible the first few days, but they did almost daily maintenances, and even toyed with the hardware a few times, and after the 4th-5th day it was perfectly playable, except for a few eventual hiccups which, considering I was connecting to the other bloody end of the world, were less common that I could have hoped for.
TL;DR: Lousy at the beginning, almost flawless after a few days.

Kodeen

30-04-2012, 02:09 PM

Does PSO2 have the secondary MMO stuff from PSU (your own room with decorations, etc...) or is it straight hack and slash?

Theblazeuk

30-04-2012, 02:33 PM

The second act of NWN2

WHEN WILL IT END. Still so much easier now I have a sorcerer and 10 fireballs to throw around

Rauten

30-04-2012, 02:34 PM

Does PSO2 have the secondary MMO stuff from PSU (your own room with decorations, etc...) or is it straight hack and slash?

It's got My Room in full force with themes, decorations, furniture of all sorts, ability to create your own shop and all that. Most of it pertains to the cash shop, though.

Casimir Effect

30-04-2012, 03:20 PM

The second act of NWN2

WHEN WILL IT END. Still so much easier now I have a sorcerer and 10 fireballs to throw around
I always thought Act II was fantastic, so much better than Act I. You're about to get a whole new mechanic introduced though so perhaps that will grab you more.

OT: Going through Alpha Protocol with an assault rifle and a "fuck stealth" mentality is like a guilty pleasure. I see that door leading off to the side, I know where the guards are and I have silenced ammunition, but I'm just going to loudly shoot everyone in front of the security cameras (which I then shoot).

Anthile

30-04-2012, 03:28 PM

After having played through some other games, I returned to Icewind Dale. I have played through it before many years ago but never with the two expansions. Still using my RPS party, it seems that I forgot just how hard the game is. Maybe the tweak pack (the only mod I use) changed some things but the Vale of Shadows was a complete bastard. Not only are most enemies there resistant to slash and piercing weapons (and thus to 2/3 of my party's preferred weapons) but also immune to roughly 95% of the crowd control spells you have at this point. I had my two-handed warrior run around with a quarterstaff (does as much damage as a short sword) because his greatsword did zero damage against the tougher undead there. Really makes you wonder who came up with the idea to fill the first major dungeon with enemies that make 3/4 of the weapons near worthless. Not to mention that there is no ranged crushing weapon and the quarterstaff is the only two-handed weapon with that damage type. Frustration pure.
Don't even get me started on skeletal mages casting stinking cloud at point blank range. This resulted in more than one TPK without me damaging a single enemy.

squareking

30-04-2012, 03:36 PM

I am trying so hard to stick with stuff I've started until I finish. I'm focusing on Hard Reset and Legend of Grimrock right now. I have a sizable list of stuff I've put serious time into but need to finish as well. Gods, give me strenf.

Heliocentric

30-04-2012, 03:39 PM

Who uses piecing weapons? Morning Star ftw dual type and can be dual wielded or mixed with shields.

If you are facing undead gave you tried turning them with a cleric?

Wizardry

30-04-2012, 04:24 PM

NathanH

30-04-2012, 04:35 PM

That reminds me, I need to buy some ranged attack for Xzar.

DaftPunk

30-04-2012, 05:37 PM

Sniper elite is still frustating me,now at the end of second mission,enemies are constantly spawning behind my back,also they are deadly accurate from 200 meters with ordinary machine guns..the whole time i am like FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUFFFFUU

Vague-rant

30-04-2012, 08:29 PM

Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes

Quite a fun line-up-3 game. My one source of gaming while i try to get used to the new job and cram for exams. Decent amount of strategy, colourful art and very easy to pick up and play every now and then.

Arona Daal

30-04-2012, 08:34 PM

Did you ever buy me a sling?

He said he has no ranged crushing Damage,so obviously no. *g*

I am playing Iwd1 too atm,use the terrain to your advantage,Chokepoints,draw some enemies out,gang up,tactical Retreats.
And spells like Web,Grease or Entangle work great in conjunction with Duration AoE Spells like Spike Growth (Druid). Especially if your Fighters stop them from leaving the Killzone.

I have a

Paladin Human (Longsword & Mace)
Fighter Human (Longsword & Axes)
Cleric/Fighter Dwarf (Maces & Flails)
Druid/Fighter Halfelf (Spear & Missiles)
Thief/Fighter Dual (Thief to 6 no pickpocket Skill) (Bow & Twohand)
Elf Mage

and they work quite well ,especially the female Thief/Fighter with the Bow,ooooh so deadly.

btw. :Protection against Evil works against all Alignments equally (-2 AC).

cosmicolor

30-04-2012, 10:33 PM

Gonna second Rauten on the PSO2 discussion, netcode was great aside from server buggery, game was overall fun except from a couple of niggles so I'm looking forward to open beta.

I bought Nox from the GoG sale so I've been running through that, currently on a Warrior playthrough. Game is pretty fun so far.

Casimir Effect

30-04-2012, 11:52 PM

Just finished Botanicula (although I missed about 15 cards). Great game and would easily have been worth the $9 on GOG, glad I dropped $15 on the Humble Bundle as Anamita need to keep on doing their style of adventure games. So much more interesting that what anyone else is putting out. My only complaints are that some of the puzzles involved searching the screen for the thing to click (but never in the dickish "Find the SINGLE pixel way" from the days of yore) and that the Steam overlay didn't work so no screenshots.
Also it saves to Documents rather than My Games or anything nice like that.

alms

01-05-2012, 02:45 AM

Finally beaten Cthulhu Saves the World (after ~15h). With the sheer amount of bonus modes I could literally spend dozens hours playing it over and over again, which is not likely to happen. There are many things to like in this game, nonetheless I can't get to grips with the combat system which makes up for like 90+% of the time spent playing. It feels more like a nuisance to me than anything else, an annoying puzzle I have to solve in order to get through the battles in the least possible amount of time, a chore. When I get it right, most battles turn into almost into some kind of zen-like experience where I just mindlessly mash the A button. OTOH when it gets challenging they're just a pain in the ass that either drags on forever, or alternatively the inevitable stroke of bad luck translates into a loss because a character is hit repeatedly and dies way too early - which forces me to save after every battle (and there's no quicksave button, you have to Y-menu, click-click-click, A-Save click-click-select-slot A-Save). Bottom line, for at least 3 or 4 hours I was obstinately pushing through, teeth gnashed, feeling like I was wasting my time.

BTW, while playing it, I started following the zeboyd guys on twitter, reading their blog, and I've grown genuinely interested in their next game (something which I would've never though possible before), they say is "a vast improvement" over Cthulhu. I guess when it comes out, it'll be dilemma time...

TailSwallower

01-05-2012, 07:44 AM

alms, you are a better man that I. Though now I'm glad I gave up when I did... 15 hours in that game would have driven me crazy.

Out of interest, is their new game still going to be an RPGMaker game? I enjoyed the writing in CStW, but everything else would have to change for me to be interested in their next game.

cosmicolor

01-05-2012, 10:13 AM

Maybe it'll be a PS1-style RPG thingy. There already seemed to be a jump from 8-to-16-bit through their last two games (probably intentional?) so maybe they're going 3d next :P

Althea

01-05-2012, 02:04 PM

Picked up Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing from the GG sale.

Um... wow. Pretty good, actually. Far from perfect, but a great time killer.

Kodeen

01-05-2012, 02:36 PM

Out of interest, is their new game still going to be an RPGMaker game?

Maybe it'll be a PS1-style RPG thingy. There already seemed to be a jump from 8-to-16-bit through their last two games (probably intentional?) so maybe they're going 3d next :P

Next game is another 2D JRPG, not sure if it's RPG Maker or not.

http://www.rainslickgame.com/

alms

01-05-2012, 04:19 PM

I can't remember when exactly I last played a RPGMaker game proper, but their custom engine might actually be cruder than that. One of my grievances with it is I couldn't find a way to quit a battle, if things go south you have to stick with it and try to do the silliest moves so the fights ends as quickly as possible. Or full-screen mode only maintains the correct aspect ratio on widescreen monitors. Mine isn't and I had to play in a window. Cherry on top? the stock pad driver doesn't have to switch to "keep the computer from sleeping" so the screensaver was kicking in every few minutes.

Anyway, I had basically the same problems in BoDVII and should've learned something: choose easy.

As for their next game, there are some screenshots (http://rainslick.com/about/rspd3#screenshots) on the official site: on the surface it seems different from BoDVII/CStW, but I'm afraid I can't say much more than that.

Kodeen

01-05-2012, 04:22 PM

It looks like it's using a Grandia style combat timer, which for those who haven't played a Grandia game, is a good thing.

DaftPunk

01-05-2012, 04:37 PM

Playing with Arsenal against M. United,first half i had few good chances,same with them. Second half they dominated me like a little child,2-0..RAGEQUIT.

Voon

01-05-2012, 05:08 PM

Getting back to Pokemon Black and... I don't know. I love Pokemon and all but I could only play them at short bursts nowadays and I really need to get a 'mon to evolve. Fuck, that game needs more interesting post-game content

DaftPunk

01-05-2012, 05:38 PM

NathanH

01-05-2012, 08:10 PM

You have been waylaid by oh sod off.

Anthile

02-05-2012, 02:28 AM

Today I discovered a new layer of fake difficulty in Icewind Dale. Apparently, histachii transmit a type of disease that slowly eats away a character's health and it stops, well, never. Unless you cure that disease, that character is going to die. Did I mention that resting kills the character instantly? That means that if you didn't prepare a curing spell in advance or used them all up, it's a death penalty.
I really have to wonder who thought that was a good idea. Doesn't help that all the fights are plain brutal at the moment and I have to rest after each one of them since either I'm out of spells or near dead. Any sort of balance is non-existent. I can pretty much only spam fireballs to keep up with the priests spamming the ridiculously overpowered hold person.

NathanH

02-05-2012, 07:30 AM

There is a cure disease potion called Mummy's Tea. You probably have a few from the Vale of Shadows. You can also buy them at temples, I think. It's more efficient than wasting spell slots on Cure Disease.

DaftPunk

02-05-2012, 10:38 AM

Unistalled Sniper Elite and installed Death To Spies 2! Gonna post screenies later on.

apricotsoup

02-05-2012, 01:13 PM

Dungeon siege 3: Default controls are awful but with some basic changes (camera to right mouse, a/d to strafe) we're good to go.

It's a surprisingly solid experience after hearing bad things, nothing groundbreaking but still fun if somewhat easy (most bosses walk slowly around spawning a few monsters and not doing much in the way of ranged damage whilst my rifle wielding char pops away at them) fights are just about starting to get a little more difficult after a number of hours (still no real challenge though).

My biggest gripe is that there seems to be an amount of running back and forth in locations and there is no waypoint system for fast travel. Also saving is at checkpoints, but these are so very common that it's never even been a mild concern (not sure why they're in at all tbh).

Definitely worth the £3.something that I paid for it.

Cryptoshrimp

02-05-2012, 02:05 PM

I've been playing little bits of games - for some reason I can't concentrate on one game for very long. First of, I've been playing the Warlock demo, which I love to bits. I've played until the turn limit quite a few times, and it's still fun. I've challenged myself to wipe everyone off the map before the fifty turns are up. I haven't quite succeeded yet, but I've managed to capture all the neutrals and the rat king.

Also, Toy Soldiers is a lot of fun as well. Controlling the turrets and vehicles makes for a nice change of pace. It's also a bit difficult, but that might be because I'm not good at TD games. A shame I have to resort to a most odd hack to make the game work at all. If I don't alt-tab before the company's logo shows up, the game crashes.

Lastly, Tribes Ascend is the second fps game ever that I've enjoyed. I still don't grasp the skiing, but predicting the movement of your opponents rarely gets boring. Also, mortar shots are amazing if they hit. I've given up on SWTOR for a while, because the story loses steam after the end of act one.

Giaddon

02-05-2012, 02:12 PM

Ravelle

02-05-2012, 06:26 PM

I am just going to give up on Sniper Elite,i am in third mission and i'm trying hard to sneak but its like enemies have ultrasuper vision and they spot me from 250 meters crawling prone behind truck..its stupid and annoying,so fuck this.

My computer hates this game, runs it super smooth on ultra but out of nowhere minimizes to desktop and I have to kill it, guess I'll have to wait for a new driver update.

But yeah, those dudes have spidey sense and see you when you're just using your binocular to watch some birds.

Sketch

02-05-2012, 11:31 PM

More FarCry 2.

Wow, this game is enjoyable if you don't get too hung up. Really solid shooting experience and a little mod to edit the degrading rate really helps. Still looks incredible today too.

SirKicksalot

02-05-2012, 11:45 PM

Still looks incredible today too.

The vegetation feels more alive than in any other game IMO.
I think it was mid-2006 when I first saw it. It was more than a year before the reveal, I'm sure of that, but after the first Crysis video. The devs were very proud of the high-res leaf textures!
I also have vague memories of a better damage model... Not sure what exactly (I think it had something to do with deformable objects?) but what I do remember well is that when I first played the finished version in 2008 I was very angry that the destruction was dumbed down.

Casimir Effect

03-05-2012, 12:17 AM

More FarCry 2.

Wow, this game is enjoyable if you don't get too hung up. Really solid shooting experience and a little mod to edit the degrading rate really helps. Still looks incredible today too.
So was it the speed of degrading as opposed to the existance of it which bothered you? As there is a line you can add to the game launcher to entirely remove weapon degrading (AFAIK). It never really bothered me so much as I always found it a great source of tension - having a weapon jam when you're cowering behind a tree in full knowledge that some little dickbadger is flanking you.

God I love that game. It's one of those ones where just thinking about it makes me want to replay. Also it's the only FPS/game I enjoy playing on the hardest difficulty as it changes the gameplay so much.

Sketch

03-05-2012, 01:24 AM

I didn't like that if I picked up a gun from a dead enemy, it was almost guaranteed to jam. I don't mind it degrading - I visit gun shops fairly often to get new stuff, but I found it too little pay-off to swap out guns when it almost always broke on you.

Same here though (I've never actually completed it!) my friend was playing it on Steam and I had to re-download it...

Oh and the fire is probably one of the most awesome things in the last few years of gaming, seeing a whole pier go up still amazes me.

Anthile

03-05-2012, 01:39 AM

I never had any real problems with weapon degradation but in the end it's just another mechanic to have you drive around half the map in order to get to the next trader, just like the malaria medicine. It's not a bad thing per se but it's difficult to not become cynical about it and see it as yet another reason to master the art of avoiding the checkpoints. I had some great moment where I had an malaria attack while I was chased by mooks, I fell out of my jeep and hilarity ensued.
Also, having explosive weapons jam on you never gets old.

BDH

03-05-2012, 04:08 AM

DaftPunk

03-05-2012, 08:50 AM

Can you mod that your weapons won't jam ?

sabrage

03-05-2012, 09:45 AM

Can you mod that your weapons won't jam ?
I don't think any sort of API has been made available and there's not much in the way of grassroots initiatives either. No mods that I'm aware of, or I'm sure the infamous respawn complaints would have been addressed by now.

Casimir Effect

03-05-2012, 09:49 AM

Can you mod that your weapons won't jam ?
You should be able to do so by adding "-GameProfile_UnlimitedReliability 1" to a shortcut to the game or under 'Properties -> Set Launch Options' in Steam. I've never tested it but the unlock all weapons one works fine. http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/942192-far-cry-2/cheats

Also, having explosive weapons jam on you never gets old.
Once saw a jeep coming down the road and I was slowly getting more and more belligerent towards them. So I walk out into it's path, take aim with my trusty M79 and fire... only for the shell to crawl out of the barrel and drop on the ground a few metres away. Hilarity ensued. And running, lot's of running.

Drake Sigar

03-05-2012, 01:09 PM

I've been playing the Prologue campaign of Wing Commander Saga. It feels good to break out the old X-52 and blow up a few spaceships.

I do have a few gripes. The giganto walls of badly written prose between the missions gets a little much and I now know how much the interactions between missions on the ship added to the original games. Having said that the game is free and you can tell that a lot of work and love went into it so it feels wrong to complain. It is fun and I am enjoying it even though it isn't the Wing Commander I grew up with.

A quick hint while I am about it - exiting the mission once it says you have completed it doesn't finish it. You have to fly into the Wellington and keep going until the landing script kicks in.
And on top of that the chapters are written in an eye-gouging font. Luckily the wall of text isn't continued in the main campaign, but I could never shake the feeling something was missing - space poker. Darkest Dawn does have plenty going for it though, I remember a mission where my wingmen were just vanishing one by one like we were in a horror movie. I didn't know what the hell was going on!

BDH

03-05-2012, 03:54 PM

And on top of that the chapters are written in an eye-gouging font.

I do a lot of work with human machine interfaces and I don't think the issue is with the font. The problem is that with widescreen monitors the horizontal area means that your eyes don't scan the text as well so reading large volumes of text is quite mentally tiring. If the aspect ratio was switched the text would be a lot less intimidating. It is an issue with widescreen monitors (Sorry about that. I probably bored everyone in the room to death with that.)

Luckily the wall of text isn't continued in the main campaign

That is excellent news.

Darkest Dawn does have plenty going for it though

Yeah, I must say that the period spent in space is fun. It's a nice hybrid of Wing Commander and Freespace 2 combat.

NathanH

03-05-2012, 04:34 PM

Baldur's Gate remains great.

Rii

03-05-2012, 05:28 PM

The radar upgrade aug in DXHR is farking useless on PS3 on account of the fixed size of the UI element coupled with low resolution and high viewing distance. In fact the radar itself is less useful than it was without the aug. Want Praxis back :'(

Birdman Tribe Leader

03-05-2012, 05:49 PM

Just started playing Jagged Alliance 1 for the first time. I know a lot of people say to skip it and start with JA2, but it seems pretty great so far. I'm still learning the mechanics and especially the interface. On Day 1 I started with a team of 3 mercs--two with decent shooting and one with decent medic skills--and promptly got 2 of them killed and had to run away. On Day 2 I picked up 3 new cheap mercs (Ivan is great, and I like that the drawback for him is that he only speaks Russian), and was able to take 2 territories. A few things I'm struggling with so far:

- It's really annoying that if I sneak up on a guy and shoot him in the face with a pistol he doesn't just die. So far I haven't been able to kill any enemies without at least taking some damage, even with better positioning and the initiative.
- There's tons of stuff lying around but it seems to be pretty clunky to pick it all up, and there's very limited inventory space. I wish there were a quick way to grab all the stuff on the ground in the territories I hold and put it all in my general inventory. I especially wish there were a way to carry the extra vests my dead guys left behind.
- Why can't I shoot from a crouch?
- So far knives seem pretty useless. I tried to run up to an enemy and stab him, but it seemed much less effective than running up and shooting him. Maybe it's just because I still only have the crappiest mercs.

RobC

03-05-2012, 08:17 PM

Playing some Toy Soldiers after playing some Tin Soldiers.

Juan Carlo

03-05-2012, 10:47 PM

Currently on a bit of a Spiderweb kick. Been playing through the Geneforge games. Currently on number 3. I know everyone says it's the worst of the lot, but I kind of like it. It's more story focused than the last two and you can also have non-shaped companions in your party (which is nice as the other Geneforge games can get a bit lonely, not really being party based games).

Plus, the combat design in this one is a leap or two above the last two (as good as Geneforge 1 and 2 are in terms of world building, the combat in them kind of sucks. Enemies are just kind of placed haphazardly around the map with no thought to strategy, and boss battles are basically just normal enemies with more hit points. But G3 has better boss battles so far and a few enemy encounters that are actually interesting).

Kadayi

03-05-2012, 11:12 PM

With the ME3 Servers down I've been working through some of my backlog and decided to give Bulletstorm a go. Albeit I did play it briefly before, it didn't entirely gel with me, however I've got a better handle on the game more now, and I'm having a blast. The sniper rifle is a thing of beauty. Game looks spectacular as well. The graphics are up there with RAGE I'd say. Also Fem shep swearing it up like nobodies business (she so totally should of told the reapers she was doing to kill all their dicks). Definitely worth picking up if you don't own it already for shooter fun.

Strange_guy

03-05-2012, 11:14 PM

Currently playing Hitman Blood Money for the first time. It's been fun, ended up redoing missions a lot of the time and the mechanics continue to baffle me, where running past a dozen guards shooting at me to escape gives me an overall better rating than the other missions where I deal with the few times my cover was blown, leaving no survivors. Also I'm pretty sure an optional target survived because of a bug, he was stuck doing the same animation over and over after drinking poisoned alcohol that should have killed him. Still sneaking around, putting together a perfect plan, is good even if things going wrong is sometimes inconsequential and doing things what I think is well is unrewarded or fails for no obvious reason.

Heliocentric

03-05-2012, 11:37 PM

Finished Bionic Commando Rearmed on hard apparently, had no idea. It's a beautiful, technical and challenging game. I'd like to call it old school in its 3 lives to complete a chapter, but really with its checkpoints and infinite continues its brutal but fair. It's a game that you need to be good at to finish, a rarity.

I wouldn't recommend it to everyone but it's an impressive work... Now I want the soundtrack on mp3.

SirKicksalot

04-05-2012, 03:30 AM

The awful TES MMO news made me play Skyrim again. Did a clean reinstall, added some mods and resumed the journey.
I forgot how damn good this game is. So beautiful and atmospheric too...

Sketch

04-05-2012, 03:42 AM

DiRT 3. Wow this game is a LOT of fun.

LTK

04-05-2012, 07:42 AM

I had another go at Legend of Grimrock because I found out you can play as Toorum. Did you know you can play as Toorum? This time around I opened all iron doors, but I missed about five secrets.

airtekh

04-05-2012, 10:11 AM

DiRT 3. Wow this game is a LOT of fun.

It is fun isn't it? A lot of people hate on Dirt 3 because of the Gymkhana events, but personally they were my second favourite type of race.

The best fun in that game, I thought, is messing around in the Battersea compound trying to find all the hidden secrets. It also helps you practice your Gymkhana skills!

---

I've started Crysis 2, which I'm liking quite a lot. The game seems to give you more scope to play around with your suit than Crysis 1, which I very much appreciate.

Obviously the downside to it is that the game is a lot more linear than Crysis 1, but that's not bothering me at the moment

I've also nearly finished the wonderful puzzler that is Vessel.

DaftPunk

04-05-2012, 02:01 PM

"
The game seems to give you more scope to play around with your suit than Crysis 1, which I very much appreciate"

What do you mean by this ?

Voon

04-05-2012, 02:03 PM

You get to use 2 suit powers at once. But that still didn't get rid of the suck in that game

fiddlesticks

04-05-2012, 02:48 PM

After finally finishing Neverwinter Nights 2 (which was decent) and Mask of the Betrayer (which was absolutely sublime), I've decided to try something different and complete Knights of the Old Republic in solo mode using only blasters. So far it's been a lot easier than I anticipated, especially since the Yavin station DLC adds some really strong ranged weapons to the base game. Though maybe the Star Forge will make me regret those words.

Edit: I've been meaning to ask, does anyone know what the difficulty setting in KotoR actually affects? I've set it to difficult, but I can't really tell the difference from normal. Does it just increase enemy health?

Theblazeuk

04-05-2012, 03:29 PM

Curse youuuuuu

I am still plodding along with NWN2. I want to skip to Mask a little but also hate cutting out on a game. Should be easier now I've worked out I can use the voice commands to order my party to follow/pick locks/etc.

Ever get a bug where you cant transfer items between characters? Seems very random.

Edit: You don't wanna do that!

Velko

04-05-2012, 04:25 PM

That talk on the last page really made me want to play Far Cry 2 again. If only there were less checkpoints...

Also, wooo first post.

Sketch

04-05-2012, 05:55 PM

It is fun isn't it? A lot of people hate on Dirt 3 because of the Gymkhana events, but personally they were my second favourite type of race.

The best fun in that game, I thought, is messing around in the Battersea compound trying to find all the hidden secrets. It also helps you practice your Gymkhana skills!

Yeah lots of fun, the only thing I don't like is how much DLC theres is! The handling model is just right though, playing without assists (except a driving line) is so much more fun than most games I've played (admittedly I usually suck).

fiddlesticks

04-05-2012, 05:58 PM

I am still plodding along with NWN2. I want to skip to Mask a little but also hate cutting out on a game.
What part of the game are you on? I know Act 1 is a huge slog and almost made me give up on the game entirely, but Act 2 has the Trial and Stronghold Keep, both of which are interesting and a nice change of pace from the usual combat. Act 3 is a bit of a drop in quality again, but it does give you a sense of closure and is mercifully short compared to the rest of the game.

Ever get a bug where you cant transfer items between characters?
For some reason the game doesn't let you switch items that a character has currently equipped. You have to unequip them first before you can give them to someone else. That could be your problem.

This game does have some strange bugs though. I've had the game become unwinnable because a monster didn't actually show up and the camera is all over the place during cutscenes. I suppose it's to be expected, considering we're talking about an Obsidian game. Thanfully, MotB is mostly bug-free.

Edit: You don't wanna do that!
Oi, blazeuk, no!

Also, wooo first post.
Welcome to the forums. Come for the discussions on what exactly constitutes an RPG, stay for the pie.

CrinnyCow

04-05-2012, 06:23 PM

I recently started a new save on The Witcher. I bought it last year and got to the end of Act I but then I changed living arrangements and kind of forgot about it. Now I'm halfway through Act II and I'm thinking about dropping it. For some reason the game is just completely uninteresting to me. I don't feel invested in the plot in any way, the combat is a drab click fest, and alchemy just doesn't seem interesting. Does the game get better all? Am I the only person who feels this way about the game? I'm thinking about scratching it from my backlog without finishing it.

Rauten

04-05-2012, 06:27 PM

I don't feel invested in the plot in any way, the combat is a drab click fest, and alchemy just doesn't seem interesting. Does the game get better all? Am I the only person who feels this way about the game? I'm thinking about scratching it from my backlog without finishing it.

You're not alone, no. I think I also stopped playing in Act II, just couldn't take it anymore.

Althea

04-05-2012, 06:31 PM

NathanH

04-05-2012, 06:47 PM

I thought Act 2 was the bestest. But then, I think everything is 500 times better when it is a whodunnit.

Casimir Effect

04-05-2012, 07:06 PM

That talk on the last page really made me want to play Far Cry 2 again. If only there were less checkpoints...

Also, wooo first post.
Welcome, and I can help you make up your mind:
1268
1269
1270

You're not alone, no. I think I also stopped playing in Act II, just couldn't take it anymore.
Is Act II the one where you spend hours in that fucking swamp? Because yeah that did suck at times. Luckily I found the rest of the plot/quests carried things along enough for me to get through it and the rest of the game is far better.

DaftPunk

04-05-2012, 07:50 PM

Can someone help me with Chaos Theory,i can't find Savegame folder. Its not in my documents,neither in game installation folder. And i have non steam version if that helps.

Tikey

04-05-2012, 07:55 PM

according to the internet they are in:
C:\ProgramData\Ubisoft\Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory\Profiles
Which I assume is the profile folder inside the installation folder.

DaftPunk

04-05-2012, 08:02 PM

Nope,its not there. I searched everywhere and still can't find it --.--

Ed. Oh my bad,it was right there,thanks mate!

Heliocentric

04-05-2012, 08:08 PM

Nope,its not there. I searched everywhere and still can't find it --.--

hello, win 7 or xp?

Win 7
C:\ProgramData\Ubisoft\Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
Win Xp
E:\Documents and Settings\[account name here]\Local Settings\Application Data\Ubisoft\Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Chaos Theory

DaftPunk

04-05-2012, 08:14 PM

My edit was to late :'( Hah otherwise i needed that to put savegame from internet,last time i played i had bug at the end of hokkaido level and couldn't go on,but i also didn't want to start from beginning,so savegame.. x)

SirKicksalot

05-05-2012, 12:15 AM

I get a CTD every time I open the door to the Skuldafn temple in Skyrim. That's after the point of no return, you either finish the main quest or you reload. The issue can be found in the unofficial bug list and there's no fix.
FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU

Tritagonist

05-05-2012, 12:29 AM

Played a bit of Dungeon Defenders and Sanctum earlier tonight, from the Indie Bundle and current Steam-sale respectively. Sanctum seems the more interesting and challenging of the two. Its monsters are kinda goofy looking, but that's fine. It's nice to see something other than yet another variation on goblins, orcs and ogres.

Althea

05-05-2012, 03:38 AM

Sanctum is a game I love but I can't play it for shit. It exhausts me quicker than anything else I've ever played.

Sketch

05-05-2012, 03:46 AM

LOTR: War in the North.

Playing with two friends in co-op and it's very fun. It tries hard and is generally a faithful game to the lore, plus the looting and combat are quite satisfying. Nice to see a licensed game with decapitations and dismemberment.

Cable

05-05-2012, 04:15 AM

I'm currently playing Torchlight which is good relaxing fun, a little bit too much loot maybe (how can that even be a thing?). But really looking forward to co-op torchlight 2 with mates.

Voon

05-05-2012, 07:37 AM

Dork Souls, just now and killed Carpa Demon after a total of ten tries. Yes, I suck but at least I got a key to the Depths. One time, after going in slaughtering all the hollows and demon dog thingies, I found another hollow. This guy's huge (but not Black Knight huge) and he's wearing an apron weiding a couple of cleavers. Yes, a butcher that wants me on a meat hook. I don't know how it happened but he came to me, charging and fell into a pool of water down below. There's some stairs for him to run up to me, but he still convinced that he's right in front of me and started flailing madly with his knives. He was dead in the pool after several shots from my bow. Too dumb to live, eh?

agentorange

05-05-2012, 10:13 AM

Hit the half way mark in The Witcher 1, I had forgotten how long that second chapter is. In my first playthrough I actually got somewhat impatient with the game, and began skipping a lot of content in the third and later chapters; I'm kind of happy that I did that, as it's nice to be able to discover entirely new content in a game I've had for 4 years. However, I'm going to miss out on some content eternally, because I just can't bring myself to choose the paths I didn't take the first time around - there is just no way I'm going to ally myself with those fucking Flaming Rose fascists, even if the Scoia'tel aren't exactly saints themselves.

Also been playing Dark Scavenger, which I bought after reading the Wot I Think. I had no idea the game even existed until I read that, but I'm glad I broke my promise to myself to not buy any more games until I've cleared my backlog. Really wonderful little game packed with personality.

DaftPunk

05-05-2012, 11:07 AM

Still sticking with PES06 and now again started playing Chaos Theory,i'm at Battery level. Love this game,favorite stealth game evaaar :c

Tritagonist

05-05-2012, 12:24 PM

Sanctum is a game I love but I can't play it for shit. It exhausts me quicker than anything else I've ever played.
I have the sneaking suspicion that, as I progress through the levels, I'll get to a point where I will have to draw the same conclusion. Even on Normal I haven't been able to keep the Core 100% protected in any of the levels I've done so far.

Althea

05-05-2012, 12:52 PM

Hm. Maybe. It's not so much that for me as simply I can't play for any decent period of time without getting exhausted.

Anyway. I'm (finally) about to start playing Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga. Finally.

cosmicolor

05-05-2012, 01:05 PM

I hopped back onto the TF2 wagon recently, and got to play some L4D2 with people for once. Also messing around with Phantasy Star IV and Wazhack, and running through Nox as of late.

sabrage

05-05-2012, 01:39 PM

Since the servers are shutting down on Memorial Day, I'm spending the whole month playing Demon's Souls. I started a new game since I didn't play for about 5 months, but the actual game itself isn't that long once you know what to do so I'm essentially where i was before (minus a lot of soul grinding.)

laneford

05-05-2012, 03:14 PM

Since the servers are shutting down on Memorial Day, I'm spending the whole month playing Demon's Souls.

I approve of this message!

If I wasn't scared of the hardcore pvpers that must be the only ones left online, and the fact I'm trying to manipulate some world tendency events to get a few trophies, I'd be doing the same!

(I may do the same anyway)

Anthile

05-05-2012, 04:37 PM

I managed to beat the Icewind Dale main game in the morning. Ultimately, the game got a lot easier after the slog through Dragon's Eye. It still wasn't exactly a cakewalk but it was more about finding the right combination of spells and gear instead of immediately reloading after suffering a negative status effect as there was no way to turn the situation around.
Interestingly enough, Chromatic Orb turned out to be my most effective spell. Sure, it doesn't do much damage but it has a chance to stun and unlike Hold Person or Hold Monster it doesn't care whether you're human, orc, undead, demon, construct or whatever. The only thing that protects you from it is magic resistance.
Anyways, time to move on to the expansions.

vinraith

05-05-2012, 04:58 PM

I have the sneaking suspicion that, as I progress through the levels, I'll get to a point where I will have to draw the same conclusion. Even on Normal I haven't been able to keep the Core 100% protected in any of the levels I've done so far.

Hmm, maybe I can help if you tell me what is and isn't working for you. A few tips, regardless:

1) Upgrading a tower to level 2 is statistically more valuable than building 2 level one towers of the same type, as far as damage output.

2) Use blocks (even just empty blocks) to create the geometrically longest path possible. Build towers such that enemies are in their field of fire for the longest possible time. Corners are usually good spots.

3) Slow fields are very much your friends.

4) Don't neglect upgrading your own weapons. The sniper rifle, in particular, is just insanely valuable when properly upgraded. I'm partial to the Rex as well.

If I can be of any further help, let me know. I've played a disturbing amount of Sanctum at this point, and have met with pretty good success, and it's not because I'm good at FPS games!

BDH

05-05-2012, 05:10 PM

The more I'm playing of the Wing Commander Saga the less I'm enjoying it. :(

I find that the missions are just too long and seem to be trying too hard. I'm about 20 missions in (The Loki System.) and most of the missions are just defending assets against endless waves of bombers, fighters and anti-capital ship missiles. Every mission is a marathon and they all go on for one or too waypoints too many. (One mission has you defending a transfer of fighters for about 10 identical waves of enemy fighters then throws a carrier against you at the end. It's just trying too hard. )I shouldn't be getting 20-25 kills in a mission while my wingment get 10-15. We all know that escourt and defend missions have always been the most annoying missions in Space Sims and it's pretty much all that is being thrown at the gamer. They're also keeping the heavy hardware from the player. In the last twenty missions only two or three have allowed me to fly a bomber. The rest have been in Arrows and Hellcats. I always loved being the heacy cavalry in the original games and going toe-to-toe with the big guns of the universe.

I hate to be so critical because a lot of work went into the game and it is so close to being great but it just isn't so far. :(

So frustrating that the framework for a great game is there but the mission design is a bit dodgy.

Kodeen

05-05-2012, 05:36 PM

Anyway. I'm (finally) about to start playing Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga. Finally.

Very interested in this one, please provide updates.

Althea

05-05-2012, 05:40 PM

Very interested in this one, please provide updates.
Well, I can tell you about Divinity 2's original release if you want.

Pertusaria

05-05-2012, 06:40 PM

Finally broke down and got Dungeons of Dredmor. :D

Althea

05-05-2012, 07:41 PM

Finally broke down and got Dungeons of Dredmor. :D
Praise the Lutefisk God!

Battle Programmer Spike

05-05-2012, 07:58 PM

Praise the Lutefisk God!

Indeed. I'm anxiously waiting for the June 5th DLC!

vinraith

05-05-2012, 08:05 PM

Picked up RUSE awhile back in a Gamersgate sale and have been enjoying skirmish and co-op skirmish play. I gather the campaign is a linear, scripted affair without any carry over between missions, so I'll likely skip that entirely.

Been dabbling with some co-op Magicka, specifically The Stars Are Left, but have been having some problems. For one thing, recent patching seems to have made the game more unstable. It had been very solid when I played through it with a friend last summer, but now it seems newly rickety again, with more random crashing than I'm comfortable with. They also seem to have rather viciously rebalanced the game, rendering shields nearly useless, depowering some of my favorite combinations, and generally making it incredibly difficult to kill anything. In all, it's remarkably frustrating for a return to a game I had previously adored. Advice welcome.

In single player I've been dabbling with A Valley Without Wind, which is more enjoyable than I expected. Honestly, I'm not much for side scrolling platformers of any type, but the strategy and crafting here is kind of interesting. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I should have no trouble getting my $10 out of it.

Also, I've been trying to learn to play Hegemony Gold, which is just outstanding and scratches the rather serious ancient history itch I've developed lately.

In short, it's the beginning of summer, I've suddenly got a little free time, and my natural instinct to try to play every game I own and read every book I own is getting out of hand as usual.

Ravelle

05-05-2012, 08:09 PM

I tried RUSE when it was in beta, had one vs match against another player without really knowing the right way of playing it. Before I knew it the sky blackened with bombers.

cosmicolor

05-05-2012, 09:12 PM

Very interested in this one, please provide updates.

I have it (Dragon Knight Saga) myself, I can tell you that it's very much worth buying. Combat is a little clunky but not terrible enough to be offputting, the skill selection is wide and the writing enjoyable.

NathanH

05-05-2012, 09:17 PM

Tidalis hurts my head.

Heliocentric

05-05-2012, 09:30 PM

Althea

05-05-2012, 10:01 PM

Finished Bulletstorm,dumb a bricks,mad as frogs,sad there will never be a sequel but I'm never going to recommend it to anyone,reminded me of Trine oddly, in that it needed the refinement of a sequel to reach the dizzy heights of its potential, Trine got a sequel and as I imagined went for gold with it, we'll never know if People can Fly had the stones to make Bulletstorm all it could be.
I disagree. I think more Bulletstorm would have had the opposite effect and instead be less good. I don't mean that as a slight against PCF, simply that any attempt to improve Bulletstorm would likely have meant you ended up with too much game.

It worked for its length - any more and I think it would have outstayed its welcome.

Tritagonist

05-05-2012, 10:32 PM

Just finished the third map in Sanctum. It's a fun little game. There's a nice variety of enemies and turrets to build, and the maps allow for some different viable designs - but will punish you if you mess around. The maps take a long time to complete though, perhaps a little too long. After a couple of waves, there's not much to left to do but tinker with upgrades and fix small gaps in your defence, and as the health of the enemies seems to increase at the same rate as the damage output of your upgraded turrets, the waves become a somewhat repetitive after a while.

c4llum

05-05-2012, 10:57 PM

i'm currently playing a great deal of super monday night combat and am, surprisingly, having a lot of fun. I downloaded it a while ago and gave it a try but did not come away impressed. But i decided to give it another try last week and it is actually pretty great. I can't comment on how it compares to the first as i never played that but i think it stands well on it's own. It kinda reminds me of TF2 with the low lethality and the cartoony, humorous attitude. It's not without it's flaws though. The interface could use some improvement and, crucially,the matchmaker leaves a lot to be desired; It could really do with a server browser or something. I have also been playing loads of tribes ascend, as usual and i am slowly re-playing portal 2, gods that game is good.

Fumarole

05-05-2012, 11:19 PM

Started Bastion today. It's exactly as groovy as everyone says.

squirrelfanatic

05-05-2012, 11:53 PM

Been dabbling with some co-op Magicka, specifically The Stars Are Left, but have been having some problems. For one thing, recent patching seems to have made the game more unstable. It had been very solid when I played through it with a friend last summer, but now it seems newly rickety again, with more random crashing than I'm comfortable with. They also seem to have rather viciously rebalanced the game, rendering shields nearly useless, depowering some of my favorite combinations, and generally making it incredibly difficult to kill anything. In all, it's remarkably frustrating for a return to a game I had previously adored. Advice welcome. Most of the spells learned from spellbooks are gone, if I remember correctly. Armors are very effective against most of the damage, just make sure to splash in (haha) some waterresistance. Many enemies react nicely to the lightning element (lightning-wall can be used offensively pretty often). But I have to agree, the DLC is harder than the original game. Stability-wise, I always had problems, so I count it as a plus that the checkpoints now actually work.

Personally, I had the most problems with the mini-bosses and the end boss. But I've also heard reports from people who beat that last one in a few moments.

Casimir Effect

06-05-2012, 12:40 AM

So that's Alpha Protocol done and I think I'm loving the game even more than before. In fact, I just started up Mass Effect 2 again with plans to take my infiltrator character from ME1 through, doing all the DLC content for the first time, and the controls feel weird. ME2 has more realistic weight to things than AP had, and I'm not sure I like it as much. Shepard feels very cumbersome to control and the camera does some awful things.

Also the weird thing is that, although if I was asked to say which is the better game then I'd say ME2 I'd say AP is more fun to play and probably preferable. And that's discounting plannet scanning because I've used an editor to give me 500000 of each mineral because fuck that minigame until it dies (savegame editors ftw!).
I think I prefer the style of AP. How there are so few conversations where you can go back to the main part of a tree and select each option - there's no "Investigate" option like there tends to be in ME games. And I hate that option because the universes Bioware creates aren't interesting enough for me to care, especially on a replay, and I'm only going through it in case it influences other things. In fact I think I'm going to try playing ME2 all the way through without once doing an "Investigate", wonder how that'll work out.

The JG Man

06-05-2012, 04:13 AM

The problem with Mass Effect is that it never truly embraced neutrality or alternative thinking to Space Jesus or Earth Rocks, you sux! philosophies. Take for example the ending to Mass Effect 1. [Spoilers hooooo!]I chose to hold back the fleet to give the best shot at Sovereign.[/spoilers unhoooo!] Tactically, it seemed like the most sensible thing to do, but come the next game, I apparently hate aliens. Wha!? No I don't! I like aliens, that's why I tried to save them! Nope, just get lumped in with the renegade option and have done. I was pretty disappointed by that. More games need to embrace a neutral or alternative thinking, or hey, grey and grey morality. There shouldn't be a right or wrong way of dealing with something, merely significant consequences one way or another.

I've yet to play Alpha Protocol, although it does sit installed. I'm eagerly awaiting the play-through because I'm told it delivers this well.

Nalano

06-05-2012, 04:30 AM

There shouldn't be a right or wrong way of dealing with something, merely significant consequences one way or another.

That was the neutral option, and it had consequences: You let an alien fleet take the brunt of the attack. Funny, that!

Furthermore, the end result is you lose Asari fleet numbers but gain Alliance fleet numbers. Also, the Asari don't like you very much. Grey and grey morality!

But seriously. Neutral doesn't mean no consequences, and "neutral" consequences don't mean you can't get chewed out for what you did.

The JG Man

06-05-2012, 05:33 AM

I'm not saying I wasn't expecting a reaction - I knew the decision I was making, I knew the casualties that were at stake. What I was criticising was that there was no discernible difference between that and the renegade option. Now, I'm not saying that neutral will always be completely in the middle, it'll obviously wobble a little bit, but there's a big difference between doing what is considered to be tactically appropriate to telling them they can all go die.

In Mass Effect 2, it would've been good if the asari did just go "Yeah, we hate you", but then have say the Turians or Salarians, both tactically minded, going "Well, we might not like the way you handled it, but you did make a tactical decision that ultimately paid off." Instead, I'm the same human bastard as I am if I went renegade. If the response is "Well, it amounted to the same thing and that is reflected", I can definitely appreciate why that's been said, however I think this is more a limitation of development consideration rather than intent. It felt a bit ham-fisted and I really felt the gut-punch of the reaction in 2, but I also wanted to scream back "But I did it because it tactically made sense, you idiots!"

Althea

06-05-2012, 10:18 AM

Just finished Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing's Grand Prix mode.

Total gameplay time (including tutorial, a few missions, etc): 1hr 21m

Dafuq?

DzX

06-05-2012, 10:43 AM

I've yet to play Alpha Protocol, although it does sit installed. I'm eagerly awaiting the play-through because I'm told it delivers this well.

That it does, though at the expense of everything else.

Casimir Effect

06-05-2012, 11:05 AM

That it does, though at the expense of everything else.
Not really. The game has flaws (some boss fights, AI, dodgy cover system) but I enjoy the hell out of it and the core gameplay is perfectly good.

Lilliput King

06-05-2012, 11:35 AM

The weird thing about ME's morality system was that renegade wasn't "evil" and paragon wasn't "good". They were both good; Shepard's a big old dumb space hero, he sort of has to be good. But being good obviously isn't really as simple as just deciding to be good. The game doesn't really let you go "well all those fuckers can just go die then" because you don't get that much freedom. The only real choice you can make is one of two "good" options.

spoils for the end of the first game below

With that in mind I think it makes perfect sense to have the universe assume Shepard let the council die because he hates aliens or as some kind of politicking. The character obviously doesn't make the decision for that reason (they're pretty much not actually allowed to by the very game itself), but it's just what people would think.

Nalano

06-05-2012, 12:25 PM

Labbes

06-05-2012, 02:29 PM

After remapping the controls+camera to something sensible, I'm having a blast with Dungeon Siege 3. Switching between spear wielder and fire demon has never been more fun!

Althea

06-05-2012, 03:43 PM

Spent some Blue Coins last week on the Reinforcements Pack for Renegade Ops despite not taking to the game too well.

Tried it again today, used Crystal (one of the DLC characters) and I had fun.

Museli

06-05-2012, 03:44 PM

I've just completed the rather funny DLC Quest. It's only around 40 minutes in length, but I enjoyed every one of them.

Tritagonist

06-05-2012, 03:45 PM

I've yet to play Alpha Protocol, although it does sit installed. I'm eagerly awaiting the play-through because I'm told it delivers this well.
Alpha Protocol has some rough edges, but it tries to do some interesting things, and though I wouldn't say it hits the mark on all those elements, it's definitely a good effort and a game worth playing through.

DaftPunk

06-05-2012, 04:02 PM

From third place in UEFA league i dropped to 16th.. It makes me sad lol,and i usually lose with 0-1,my defense suck big time.

Casimir Effect

06-05-2012, 09:37 PM

Cutting out planet scanning really improves Mass Effect 2. I think not having to do it does make you notice the 'little' things that are off in the game. For example, at the Normandy crash site there are dog tags in "Fragile Crates". Two things:
1. How did these fragile crates survive a fucking crash from orbit?
2. Why were my old crew in these crates? Epic game of hide-and-seek? Shepard has a sadistic streak and likes giving people a time-out in a 'Naughty box'? Or maybe people are just fucking with Shepard and the whole thing was set up just to make him feel better - the real Normandy actually fell into a star or something.

Anthile

06-05-2012, 10:04 PM

TailSwallower

07-05-2012, 08:34 AM

Playing some Torchlight and also Dredmor.

Question: How many levels down is Dredmor anyway? And does one of the skill give you protection against acid attacks? I think I die most often to acid (those goddamn eels especially) than all of the other myriad ways you can die combined.

beanchilla

07-05-2012, 08:50 AM

Counter Strike: GO, and X-COM.

I am looking to get in on the SWG:Emu once it goes up again in a week as well.

kataras

07-05-2012, 09:37 AM

During the weekend I modded and finally started Skyrim, only to give up out of boredom after 4 hours (yes it's true). Those NPC running/attacking animations remind me so much of Fallout 3 and Fallout: NV, I cannot bear to see them any more. I think I m burnt out on Bethesda RPGs, had to push myself to finish NV only cause of the amazing story and characters.

I then started Risen 2 and played for about 8 hours until I got pissed off at the stupid combat and gave up. I proceeded to install the Witcher 2 again, to play through the alternate path with the EE. Have also been playing some Trine 2, Just Cause 2 and Dayz.

Krikey!

07-05-2012, 10:11 AM

When not playing DOTA 2 over the last few days, I've been playing the Blackwell series. Very nice games, and they get better down the line.

Althea

07-05-2012, 10:50 AM

Question: How many levels down is Dredmor anyway? And does one of the skill give you protection against acid attacks? I think I die most often to acid (those goddamn eels especially) than all of the other myriad ways you can die combined.
Vanilla Dredmor - Level 10
Dredmor + RotDG (if chosen at CC) - Level 15

I think.

ZamFear

07-05-2012, 12:47 PM

And does one of the skill give you protection against acid attacks? I think I die most often to acid (those goddamn eels especially) than all of the other myriad ways you can die combined.

Alchemy can get you up to +4 acid resistance, according to Dredmorpedia (http://j-factor.com/dredmorpedia/).

sabrage

07-05-2012, 02:33 PM

During the weekend I modded and finally started Skyrim, only to give up out of boredom after 4 hours (yes it's true).
http://i.imgur.com/BZcpg.png
Separated at birth?

Heliocentric

07-05-2012, 03:28 PM

Started playing Little King Story, its a unit command avatar game ala Overlord (or pikmin if you insist) but its so more, yes you don't choose where anything goes but you keep building out your town and its easy to feel a sense of ownership of the process.

Let people die and their replacements will hate you, i have no idea if it matters, but once I got my first couple married I started to care what they thought.

Neil

07-05-2012, 03:57 PM

Dead Space 2, flying through it since i've got all the gear from finishing the first one. Also The Walking Dead game which is pretty good not my normal type game style to be honest (wtf no crosshair) but looking forward to the next episodes.

Giaddon

07-05-2012, 04:28 PM

You probably have all of the Dead Space 2 gear because of the terrible DLC implementation which gives you everything, for free, at the start of the game. Avoid using it if you want to play the game as it was meant to be played.

Neil

07-05-2012, 04:57 PM

Ah right I just got both of them on Steam on a deal. BUT I DESERVE THE GEAR! In my opinion. I've seen things on Ishimura man, THINGS!

byteCrunch

07-05-2012, 05:04 PM

Anachronox, a planet for a team member, what more do you need to know.

apricotsoup

07-05-2012, 05:12 PM

Arkham City, superbly good.

Not sure why I waited this long after liking Asylum.

I did find the inclusion of snipers to be quite an annoyance rather than a difficulty and a mini-map would have been a great boon when navigating the city but overall it was good on every level.

kataras

07-05-2012, 07:35 PM

http://i.imgur.com/BZcpg.png
Separated at birth?

hehe seems like it!

Tritagonist

07-05-2012, 08:23 PM

Just finished the last regular map in Sanctum and saw the credits roll. There aren't too many maps, but the full DLC package was included in last weekend's Steam sale so there's still a few left to go. Fun game, definitely worth a try if you're at all interested in tower defence games. I'm not quite sure this game would be as fun in Multiplayer though; getting a good flow of the monsters through the map requires a bit of planning, as does creating a decent coverage of the map with Anti-Air, and other specific towers, and I'm not sure how well that would work.

vinraith

07-05-2012, 09:16 PM

I'm not quite sure this game would be as fun in Multiplayer though; getting a good flow of the monsters through the map requires a bit of planning, as does creating a decent coverage of the map with Anti-Air, and other specific towers, and I'm not sure how well that would work.

It's absolutely fantastic with friends and voice chat, because you can discuss grid optimization, coordinate defense and so on. With randoms it would suck, but then multiplayer with randoms always sucks.

cosmicolor

07-05-2012, 10:11 PM

I'm on Torchlight again in preparation for Torchlight 2 which I am quite looking forward to.

vinraith

07-05-2012, 10:20 PM

I'm on Torchlight again in preparation for Torchlight 2 which I am quite looking forward to.

Yeah, T2 and Grim Dawn really can't come out fast enough, it's been awhile since I've had a really good co-op ARPG to play.

For my part, I'm still playing A Valley Without Wind and still enjoying it, to my pleasant surprise. I hope it does reasonably well despite the weak reviews, as there's an enormous amount of potential here and given Arcen's ridiculous level of support it can only get better.

khaz

08-05-2012, 07:10 AM

Anachronox, a planet for a team member, what more do you need to know.

Sweet, sweet game.

I think i'll go replay it.

Flint

08-05-2012, 09:23 AM

I've put Amalur on hold for a little bit. I've made it to the desert region and almost explored it fully, but the game's stopped being as captivating as it was before. Partly this is due to design; quest hubs are minimal and scattered, the quests themselves aren't captivating and overall the area has a feel of being rushed. Partly it's because I'm massively overleveled for the area (chose to do the hillside region before this one). I don't mind the lack of challenge per se (my warrior/wizard has been fairly powerful for the entire game) but because the enemies are all gray-level, they give me nearly no experience and thus my character development is slow as a particularly dead snail. Not that I really have much to develop anyway; all crafting and unlocking professions are at a point where I don't really need to put any more points in them, and my skill tree 'choices' are pretty automated. I'm hoping the game picks up properly again once I get this region done and get to the next ones, but right now the game's on hold.

And half the reason for putting it on hold is that I decided to buy Sonic Generations from the recent Gamersgate Sega sale. Already owned and completed on the PS3 but a PC version has been in my sights ever since I actually learned it was a good port. Getting to play it in my preferred platform and the prospect of the mods the fanbase is working on it are pretty excellent things. It's probably the best Sonic game ever (although Sonic Adventure 2 has such a big personal importance that it's fairly tied with Gens in my lists) and outside the anticlimactic, nonsensical and boring final boss it's pretty much flawless as a game too. I've been having a blast replaying it on the PC and I can easily see it being one of those games where not only will I actually attempt to collect all achievements/improve my statistics until everything is S-ranked, but it'll stay on my installed games list for eons for whenever I randomly fancy blasting through any of the City Escape/Rooftop Run/Crisis City holy trinity. Completely captivated by it (again).

Rossi

08-05-2012, 09:28 AM

I'm currently playing:

DCS A10C Warthog (with my new TrackIR 5!)
Dead Space (soon to be followed by Dead Space 2)
The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition
Race 07

:)

sabrage

08-05-2012, 10:09 AM

Between frustration-sparring with Demon's Souls and some rather exhaustive research in preparation for an expensive wristwatch purchase, I've been playing a bit of the Game Boy title Nemesis (on my television, via the Gamecube's Game Boy Player.) Nemesis was the original title for Gradius' international arcade release, and for some reason they decided to keep the name for this port in spite of the NES port of the same game that was released as Gradius 4 years earlier. Never having played the original Gradius before, I can't do a direct comparison, but I'm pleased that all of the traditional Gradius power-ups and options are present in this port. I'm always impressed by the sheer amount of detail that developers were able to cram into that monochrome screen, and Nemesis' biggest strength is probably its spectacular spritework. I don't know that I could really recommend it to anyone but the most die-hard Gradius fan, but I'm certainly enjoying it.

Goateh

08-05-2012, 01:24 PM

I'm hoping the game picks up properly again once I get this region done and get to the next ones, but right now the game's on hold.

The level ranges of the zones seem to be designed assuming you don't do side quests and so you will outlevel it. I was at the level cap before the final set of zones after doing all the quests I could find. The order you've done the zones in is the natural order the game pushes, it's just not scaled enough.

If you're getting bored I'd recommend not doing side quests in the desert and focusing solely on the main story and faction lines. The zone isn't too interesting as a whole and you can't help but outlevel it if you do sidequests. The only interesting part was the arena, which does have some fun fights.

A map of the levels:
http://forums.reckoning.amalur.com/showthread.php?7411-Zone-level-maps

I also found that the last few levels were pretty pointless, especially as a single tree spec. I maxed out the detection skill so I could find more stuff but otherwise the skill points were entirely redundant. Similarly, my last 5-10 talents were spent simply because they were there to spend. I put some points in the other trees to get the trophy for having a 3 tree destiny but there were absolutely no talents available that would increase my combat effectiveness.

I'm playing again as a mage and I'm already finding myself out of useful talents halfway through the game. The PS3 version at least caps you to 4 mapped skills, which isn't enough for all the mage talents, and so after capping my used skills there's nothing else useful for me. That character is skipping every side quest in the desert as it happens.

Like most similar rpgs, it has some serious problems with scaling. At the start of the game there were some hard fights that required plenty of attention to survive. By the end my first char (rogue) could kill everything without even using special abilities, and bosses would normally die in a second or two. My second char is a mage and can already kill the entire screen with one spell. Other games have done this - I was an invincible, invisible archer in Skyrim - but in a game so focused on combat it can spoil things a little in the end. It's actually more fun to skip some of the side quests so that you can compete at a reasonably equal footing, though that goes against every instinct I have in this type of rpg.

alms

08-05-2012, 03:20 PM

After trying a bunch of free games, I went back to my backlog. Grotesque Tactics: Evil Heroes, the camera is bad it made me nauseous and the graphics very hard to decode, maybe it's the colors, I dunno. As much as I loved turn-based games, I had troubles moving the characters the way I wanted and the whole experience felt like trying to walk through a gelatinous blob. Kept dying against mosquitos just past the first town, gave up after 2 hours.

Trapped Dead is more approachable but the save system makes everything hard. I don't want to repeat a dozen of meaningless fights over and over again just because I'm trying to figure out how to get to a certain area. Threw in the towel after 75 minutes, 45 spent in the same spot.

Having a need for a good game, I turned to Torchlight, where I started a vanquisher on hard. Two hours literally flew away without me noticing.

ZamFear

08-05-2012, 03:47 PM

Been playing through the old Fallouts for the first time. Finished the first two, starting on Tactics now. Also some Crusader: No Remember Which Subtitle Is Which (the first one).

Nalano

08-05-2012, 04:41 PM

OpenTTD for no goddamn reason.

khaz

08-05-2012, 05:19 PM

No reason is required for OpenTTD. I'd say that's half the point, you just start up a map and lay down some tracks and see how it goes!

Not enough games which allow that these days frankly. :)

Funnily, I was just tinkering around in unlimited play in Settlers 2 Gold (After figuring out DosBox) which has a very similar feeling to it. But I find myself missing the big spangly shiny graphics of the 10th anniversary edition and some of the gameplay additions from Settlers 3.

Nalano

08-05-2012, 05:50 PM

No reason is required for OpenTTD. I'd say that's half the point, you just start up a map and lay down some tracks and see how it goes!

I'd pay full price for a graphical update and better map protocols. The fiddling with track and signal layouts is still unparalleled.

khaz

08-05-2012, 05:57 PM

Velko

08-05-2012, 05:59 PM

Best thing in OpenTTD is the music. I loved the original Transport Tycoon soundtrack, and when I installed OpenTTD I thought "damn, I wonder if this has some sort of shitty self-made tracks instead of the originals which I loved", but then I started it and it was better! The arrangements are just superb.

Nalano

08-05-2012, 06:03 PM

Same. Some of the openttd track and signalling additions amaze me continuously. I wish I had the patience to build something like this - http://media.openttd.org/images/screens/1.0/20100401_mark_huggins.png - or recreate some real-life rail networks (India and England come to mind) on a large scale map or maybe even a heightmap!

I actually prefer longer distances between points so that you spend time making tracks and not just pinning junction cheek-to-jowl with junction. For instance, I'm developing three-track systems that allow bypassing of stalled trains on main lines, but in such a way that the third track isn't favored by any routes.

Plus, of course, tracks take up so much space yet depots are like bags of holding - entire railyards on one tile!

khaz

08-05-2012, 06:12 PM

Haha, we think alike. I mustered the courage to try the 2048*2048 size map a few weeks ago and would pause the map for several minutes just deciding on which coal mines to start with and make sure the factories were just the right distance away for track building enjoyment. Nothing like some coast line tracks which can later be modified to add checkposts/stations for when oil rigs come into play! :)

I like your three track system, gonna try that next time i'm in there. Just so I understand this right, you criss-cross your three tracks or run them parallel? So a train would pick the third route only if the main one has a stalled engine and the second one is already in use by another train?

Only thing that still bugs me is that your air fleet snowballs a bit too well later on in the game.

Nalano

08-05-2012, 06:24 PM

Three lines in parallel, like, well, if you were in New York, you'd know about the 7 train in Queens or the 6 train in the Bronx.

Essentially, a two-way track in between two opposing one-way tracks, kept under control via path signals. Ultimately upgraded to four lines, where the center lines act as overflow, but hey.

khaz

08-05-2012, 06:30 PM

Damn, that sounds efficient. Defo gonna try that.

And yeah, the NYC subway was surprisingly good, my favourite part was the flat rate. Especially after 11 years of London's tube. :)

However, nothing is as terrifying, humbling, amazing and revolting all at the same time as Mumbai's suburban rail during rush hour, especially in the evenings. Holy sheeit!

Kodeen

08-05-2012, 06:51 PM

Slowly trucking along with Risen 2 still, I have my own ship now and went back to Caldera. It's still just a city, you can get through it with no combat, but I had some in a moment of weakness. It looks like you're supposed to align yourself with a politician to get into the records room, but diplomacy bores me so I beat the crap out of the guard instead.

Sonic Generations - Just beat the Chaos City (or Panic City, or Whoopsies City, or something) with both Sonics. The version for the 2D Sonic was infuriating. The game has a good retro thing going since I genuinely wanted to throw the controller at the screen.

Torchlight - Got it with the TL2 pre-order, and I'm having fun with it. However, as is the case with ARPG's of this nature, my interest is falling quicker than with other games. How people played Diablo 2 for a decade, I have no idea.

Genesis Classic pack 1 - Attempted to play Altered Beast, which so far as I can tell is impossible because you can't get new lives and there are no continues, so I quit. Now playing Comix Zone, which I've never even looked at before. It's pretty good for a brawler, the art direction is very neat.

khaz

08-05-2012, 06:55 PM

If you think Altered Beast is tough, Comix Zone is about to bust your balls. No chance in hell unless you play ultra defensively and what was especially unfair is how you lost hp when breaking barrles/walls/etc. to uncover items. UGH! Still a beautiful looking game though.

Kodeen

08-05-2012, 07:07 PM

coldvvvave

08-05-2012, 07:10 PM

Dungeon Siege 3. Enojoyed it very much. Completed the run in two days, 21 hours( holidays), completed all side quests( not that there are many), did lots of backtracking and all that. It's not a terrible game as some said, maybe not a proper DS game but not a bad one. Getting it on some sale proved to be a good idea. Actually, it's one of the least buggy and more enjoyable Obsidian games I ever played, there were just a couple of minor glitches and one corrupted save that proved to be fine after I restarted the game. Gameplay is quite fun and it gets better as you level up and gain new abilities. It's 'rpg component' is unbalanced and simplified but whatever, I got into DS3 after bouncning off Witcher 2 terrible 'tutorial'( it's better off without it, honestly) so I just wanted something that worked and didn't lag/glitch terribly. I never ever played DS game( although I was interested in playing the first one when it was announced, but reviews turned me off) so I didn't care much for changes in the setting that some people pointed out. There is timeskip and guns? Fine. I like guns and timeskips. I even chose a gunslinging lady as my avatar( I prefer to play as a male character for obvious reasons). Who cares, I get to shotgun peopel in the face in a fantasy setting and they fly away screaming. Rifle being both rifle, shotgun, machinegun and a grenade launcher was a nice touch. Now about flaws. Camera is terrible and controls are problematic. Story is nothing special( although I liked it but I also liked ME3 story so who am I to judge). Balance is... questionable/nonexistant. By the end of the game both my char and enemies basically oneshotted everything and each other. So it was a dodge-dodge-heal-dodge-SPECIALABILITY-KABOOOM-dodge-dodge-heal- ad infinitum kind of game. Not for everyone, obviously. Some may dislike this kind of gameplay but I didn't. I even had fun. And the boss battles were nice.

All in all, good.

khaz

08-05-2012, 07:13 PM

Yeah, I hate that 'breaking items' mechanic. The releases through Steam pretty much function just like a regulator emulator, which means savestates, but I'm trying not to abuse them. I thought the Wii method with destructible savestates works pretty well.

Savestates is actually a serious hampering for Comix Zone. I've made the mistake of having a savestate where i've backed myself into a corner basically. :D

Ideal save times are at the beginning of each level, post hp potion, pre puzzles (Use the dynamite or Hercules for the fan) and before entering a double sized panel which usually means a series of fights or mini boss. Mercifully, the bosses are surprisingly easy compared to getting to them. Pro tip: panels where you can hang from something is a very good thing, the baddies tend to not be very good at landing hits on you when you're dangling and dual kicking their heads in. :)

Also, blockblockblockblockblock, jump kick are your friends. As is the kick combo which ends with a powerful high kick which slams them into panel walls.

Hal Fenix

08-05-2012, 07:21 PM

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Half life 2: Episode 1
Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
The Binding of Issac

Kodeen

08-05-2012, 07:29 PM

Savestates is actually a serious hampering for Comix Zone. I've made the mistake of having a savestate where i've backed myself into a corner basically. :D

Ideal save times are at the beginning of each level, post hp potion, pre puzzles (Use the dynamite or Hercules for the fan) and before entering a double sized panel which usually means a series of fights or mini boss. Mercifully, the bosses are surprisingly easy compared to getting to them. Pro tip: panels where you can hang from something is a very good thing, the baddies tend to not be very good at landing hits on you when you're dangling and dual kicking their heads in. :)

Also, blockblockblockblockblock, jump kick are your friends. As is the kick combo which ends with a powerful high kick which slams them into panel walls.

I'm restricting myself to beginning of the level. I'm still on level 3, but I've almost got it, I think the next attempt will be successful. Thanks for the rest of the tips, I'll keep those in mind.

Heliocentric

08-05-2012, 08:41 PM

I sat and devoured what feels like half of alice (spoilers: i'm in the sea)but god knows, its very pretty.

Scumbag

08-05-2012, 09:42 PM

Freud

08-05-2012, 10:02 PM

Finished first Act of Diablo 2 today. It holds up quite well these days, especially when played at a higher resolution. But Diablo 3 has made so many quality of gaming life improvements, it's still a frustrating experience. Having to click to pick up every single pile of gold gets old real fast. Spamming health potions when in a tough fight isn't all that exciting.

Anyway, I'll push on and play through all acts until the 15th, so I'm properly lored up.

Ravelle

08-05-2012, 10:13 PM

Legacy of Kain: Soulreaver
The rose tinting has worn off. The water temple place has got to be one of the most hatefully designed levels I've known in years. I swear it was not THIS bad all those years back!

I didn't even make it out the first level, controls and camera were so frustrating I gave up.

Lambchops

08-05-2012, 10:49 PM

Back on to Crusader Kings 2. Started a new game as I got distracted from my both of my last two starts (maybe I'll actually keep it going for once, despite loving the game I'm easiily distracted). Gone for the Byzantine Empire this time. Seem to have quite an interesting second character. He's converted from Greek Orthodox to Portugese Catholic thanks to his tutor so people tend to dislike him but he has an absolutely amazing martial stat. I'm manouvering to try and get him made marshal (my current liege is known as "the Ill" so I've been sending gifts to his son to butter him up in anticipation of a quick succession) as I've not really got anybody I can legitimately crush with my superior military skills. I do enjoy frivolously deciding things for characters. While converting back to a Greek Orthodox culture would be the sensible way to "game" it (I've got more than enough prestige to not worry about the cost of it) I've decided that he's too proud to change (he does have the pride trait after all!). It's very rare in a game that I'd ever stick with arbitrary potential flaws like this and it's one of the game's great strengths that it's actually quite compelling to do such things.

Hopefully my Uncle doesn't try and plot and kill me again, I've already stopped him once, the conniving shit!

Sketch

08-05-2012, 10:59 PM

Finished War in the North in a 3 player co-op run. If you have an interest in what is basically a 3rd person Diablo give it a go, it's a game that is faithful to the Lord of the Rings universe and fits in rather nicely with the story. Couple of weird glitches, but it was very fun, the combat was actually incredibly satisfying to play. Glad I bought it.

SirKicksalot

08-05-2012, 11:41 PM

Do you think War in the North is worth playing alone?

Sketch

09-05-2012, 12:04 AM

Hmm, depends how much you want to know about LoTR/how much you enjoy the lore. It's a fun game with very satisfying combat, it's just not particularly deep. The second playthrough is very fun too. If you can get it cheap, I'd say yes.

Giaddon

09-05-2012, 04:12 AM

Last I looked it was $10 on Impulse.

http://www.impulsedriven.com/lotrwin

Nalano

09-05-2012, 04:39 AM

Playing Dungeon Siege 3. It reminds me of Saints Row 2 or All Points Bulletin or Hunted: The Demon's Forge in that you appear to be in command of a cadre of Hooker Vigilante Justice Babes, who forgo bulky armor or clothing in favor of the defensive powers of snark.

My protagonist is a Russian-esque femme fatale whose chest is so... prominent and whose voice is so... breathy. Her outfit - mini-jacket, bustier, hotpants, stockings, six inch heels - is not the most streetwalker in the game. In fact, I just found a companion NPC whose disposition is quite "Valkyrie" and whose outfit is a very breasty breastplate and leggings that are in the process of being eaten whole by her ass.

Gameplay's fun, tho.

Althea

09-05-2012, 07:22 AM

Hunted: The Demon's Forge in that you appear to be in command of a cadre of Hooker Vigilante Justice Babes, who forgo bulky armor or clothing in favor of the defensive powers of snark.
Well, considering E'lara is "supposed" to be ranged, she can get away with wearing strips of leather. Not saying it's entirely practical, but then again the bloke doesn't wear much either.

Edit: oh god what am i doing argh

Nalano

09-05-2012, 07:37 AM

Well, considering E'lara is "supposed" to be ranged, she can get away with wearing strips of leather. Not saying it's entirely practical, but then again the bloke doesn't wear much either.

Edit: oh god what am i doing argh

No, no. She has a forcefield of pure snark! It's a universe with magic, and if I'm going to have magic, I want sarcasm to warp gravity. With any hope, somebody will weaponize it and epic one-liners will quite literally save the day!

Althea

09-05-2012, 07:44 AM

Hunted was the most British American fantasy game I've played. It's just sarcasm, wit and Graham McTavish.

LISTEN TO ME MOAN ABOUT THINGS WHILST SMASHING THIS ENEMY IN THE FACE

NathanH

09-05-2012, 08:21 AM

Edit: oh god what am i doing argh

Resistance is futile. Soon you too will be dressing up your RPG characters for maximum sluttiness.

ChiYeon

09-05-2012, 09:10 AM

Elphis Adventure, i'm a suck*r for cute little girls :/

Althea

09-05-2012, 09:14 AM

Elphis Adventure, i'm a suck*r for cute little girls :/
http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1036/133609949225.png

khaz

09-05-2012, 09:31 AM

WHY WON'T MY HELPERS SEND THE GRAIN TO MY PIGFARMS?!!??_)S* )AU SOGHLAS

Distribution of goods screen! It makes things worse!

Damn you Settlers 2: Gold Edition! Damn you!

Althea

09-05-2012, 09:37 AM

WHY WON'T MY HELPERS SEND THE GRAIN TO MY PIGFARMS?!!??_)S* )AU SOGHLAS

Distribution of goods screen! It makes things worse!

Damn you Settlers 2: Gold Edition! Damn you!
That reminds me of The Settlers 7. Blacksmiths and stuff would have no food... because it all congregates in the wrong place. And the game's like "lol fuck no" if you attempt to redistribute it.

khaz

09-05-2012, 09:41 AM

The distribution of goods screen actually works in Settlers 2 but you have to be careful. I was tinkering with the settings in regards to food --> mines as my coal mines were on 0%. I managed to get them to 100% but then noticed my iron mines had fallen to 20. :/

The geologist going YIPPIE never gets old. What is surprising though is how many damn farms you need to ensure a regular supply to everything. I have four going atm and i'm pretty sure I need at least another two or three. But then again, farms need a TON of space as they need at four fields for 100% production so you better make damn sure you choose a wide open plain which results in you losing tons of other building options! :(

ChiYeon

09-05-2012, 10:01 AM

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/1036/133609949225.png
can't see the img :/

Althea

09-05-2012, 10:15 AM

In other words: "dafuq did i just read"

ChiYeon

09-05-2012, 10:17 AM

In other words: "dafuq did i just read"
Hahaha.. well I would take that as a compliment, thank you good sir, :]

Althea

09-05-2012, 10:20 AM

It's not a good thing, nor am I a sir!

NathanH

09-05-2012, 11:23 AM

Very odd, root and twig, very odd.

RobC

09-05-2012, 12:41 PM

Conflict of Heroes -Awakening the Bear. So far so good.

coldvvvave

09-05-2012, 02:44 PM

I wanted to play Sudeki ( anyone remember this game? hah) after completing Dungeon Siege 3 because DS3 blatantly reminded me of it all the time. Too bad, it doesn't work. I should probably install XP on some old HDD I have lying around( or set up virtual machine) and try it again. Well thats a disapointment. Will buy DS3 DLC now.

Labbes

09-05-2012, 07:41 PM

It's not a good thing, nor am I a sir!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrCvgiQGh1o

Nalano

09-05-2012, 07:44 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrCvgiQGh1o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5t5_O8hdA

The JG Man

09-05-2012, 07:53 PM

Sorry Labbes, Nalano wins that one.

Errrm, relevancy? Let's see...Mass Effect 3 co-op and a Sonic fan game. Both good.

Labbes

09-05-2012, 07:59 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5t5_O8hdA

Chapeau. I should really watch that movie again some time.

airtekh

09-05-2012, 09:46 PM

The new perpetual testing initiative means I've gone straight back to solving tests in Portal 2. Played a bunch of tough maps already, can't wait to see what else the community comes up with.

Just started Botanicula as well, and Amantia's charm is noticeable right from the start. I loved Machinarium and I can't imagine being disappointed by this.

Also nearly finished Crysis 2 (I think). Very enjoyable from what I've seen so far, can't understand the hate it got at release.

Sometimes all I want from a game is frantic firefights, big explosions, and massive set-pieces which Crysis 2 delivers in spades.

coldvvvave

09-05-2012, 10:17 PM

Cry Of Fear - HL1 mod. Damn, it's really scary, or maybe I didn't watch enough horror movies when I was a kid( for obvious reasons). Not subtle, but effective use of common horror tropes. It's dark, music is moody and sudden jump scares are there. I'd say it works, playing CoF in the dark with good headphones is not for faint of heart. Also, sometimes it's really hard to believe it's HL1 mod.

khaz

09-05-2012, 11:27 PM

Started Settlers 2: Gold sometime in the afternoon. Its 4 in the morning now.

Dayum.

Lukasz

10-05-2012, 04:26 AM

Started Settlers 2: Gold sometime in the afternoon. Its 4 in the morning now.

Dayum.
Yeah. Lol. I played it some time last december and dear god it takes ages to beat one simple mission.

anyhow
Got my old computer back so XP installed, steam installed and played a bit of terraria :) yay.
also
computer is seriously falling apart. need to start doing backups of my files in case it takes a HDD with it.

KaiotakiBun

10-05-2012, 04:43 AM

Cookie dozer.. I happened to like cookies.

Kannaaashi

10-05-2012, 04:50 AM

Inotia III, re-playing :3

ChiYeon

10-05-2012, 04:52 AM

Inotia III, re-playing :3
I also played that one, the arch mage is too imba :/

---
playing Elphis adventure.

KaiotakiBun

10-05-2012, 05:15 AM

Cookie dozer.. I happened to like cookies.
coin dozer, kaching*

BDH

10-05-2012, 02:37 PM

I'm glad I decided to stick with Wing Commander Saga. I've finally gotten to the heavy fighter/bomber missions and sanity is prevailing. Missions are a bit more focused, the difficulty feels better because I can up the difficulty level to the point where the combat becomes a challenge but I don't feel like the game is throwing cheap shot, after cheap shot to whittle me and the ships I'm escorting down. Missions have different paces to them so it feels more organic and interesting. The game isn't as much of a chore anymore.

LeiterJakab

10-05-2012, 05:36 PM

Fallen City

Velko

10-05-2012, 05:57 PM

Far Cry 2. Thanks to this forum... Any ideas about when/how the gunshop missions become available? It's been a while now, and I'd like to get my hands on new toys.

jnx

10-05-2012, 06:01 PM

I'd recall they were available very quickly. I should get back to that game. I really liked it for a while, but it did get annoyingly repetitive quickly. Mainly due to the superfast respawn of patrols and outposts. You can't even blink when they pop again.

Casimir Effect

10-05-2012, 07:57 PM

Far Cry 2. Thanks to this forum... Any ideas about when/how the gunshop missions become available? It's been a while now, and I'd like to get my hands on new toys.
Immediately upon finishing the 'Tutorial' (ie. when you go to the church to pick up maleria meds) and so long as you have no active mission there should be a guy behind the counter.

TailSwallower

10-05-2012, 08:46 PM

Some more Dredmor. It's quite moreish, even if I don't actually like it as much as Isaac. Dredmor wins though 'cause it runs on my netbook.

Also been beta-testing something... but I deleted the rest of my comment 'cause I can't remember if I agreed to not say anything about it yet.

Sketch

10-05-2012, 08:55 PM

Warband seems to have got me again. Oh dear.

Oak

10-05-2012, 08:58 PM

I only recently escaped its clutches. Be strong.

Pertusaria

10-05-2012, 10:06 PM

Some more Dredmor... even if I don't actually like it as much as Isaac.

I prefer Dredmor, at least so far, because of the turn-based thing and because there seems to be more long-term thinking involved, largely in choosing your character's build and what to advance. I've never played deep enough into Isaac to get the unlockable characters - maybe it gets more interesting when you're faced with a choice.

Isaac is *so* random and you're so underpowered starting out, so it seems to make sense to roll with whatever gear and abilities happen to drop. Then you're killed by the luck of the draw as much as by your own lack of skill. Luck is a big factor in Dredmor, but seemingly less so.

Malawi Frontier Guard

10-05-2012, 10:31 PM

No, Isaac isn't significantly luck-based. You might see it that way because if you're new to the game you're still wrestling with the awful, awful controls and lose health from enemies. Apart from the odd room with enemies that hurt you before you can kill them, you're basically not supposed to lose health at all. With a bit of practice you can get almost any run down to Sheol. Of course, once you get to that point the game becomes significantly easier due to unlocks.

Binding of Isaac is not a great game at all, but skill plays a much much larger role than luck once you learn what the items actually do and which ones you should just leave in their room.

Heliocentric

10-05-2012, 10:40 PM

Yeah. Lol. I played it some time last december and dear god it takes ages to beat one simple mission..

Don't play missions, get the anniversary edition(3D and pretty) and play multiplayer against your grandparents, watch them turn into vicious tyrants who threaten you not to go into "my valley".

khaz

11-05-2012, 04:08 AM

Shut. Up.

Grandparents? Seriously? That's so awesome. And yes the 10th anniversary edition is indeed very pretty and they improved on the gameplay too, some new buildings from Settlers 3, better military management and crucially, proper naval expansion and management. Ships were horribly bugged in the original Settlers 2 and in Gold.

TailSwallower

11-05-2012, 08:32 AM

I think I like Isaac better partially because of the lack of skills. In Dredmor you start off picking a bunch of skills and you've got no way of knowing how useful they will be, both down to a lack of knowledge and randomisation. Also, Isaac is more fast-paced and the combat in Dredmor can get tiring (like when you bust open a Monster Zoo. Doubly-so if you have minions 'cause they seem to make the whole thing go that much slower).

Althea

11-05-2012, 10:42 AM

Still working my way slowly through Test Drive Unlimited 2

I've just done a race that was almost 50 minutes long. My hands feel funny.

Voon

11-05-2012, 10:56 AM

I've started a new game in Dark Souls as a female knight just for fun and wow. So much progress under an hour of play with a grand total of 1 death (killed in a bout with the Asylum Keeper). I'm liking her already!

Rauten

11-05-2012, 01:30 PM

Still working my way slowly through Test Drive Unlimited 2

I've just done a race that was almost 50 minutes long. My hands feel funny.

A race around the entire island? There were 2 like those on TDU1, exhausting, but when the police gets in on the action (and sooner or later they DO get in on the action) it was a hell of a ride.

vinraith

11-05-2012, 01:31 PM

I guess I should try Settlers 2 Anniversary again. I picked it up a few years ago but bounced clean off of it and went back to Anno.

As for what I'm playing right now, still A Valley Without Wind, and I suspect that'll be true for some time. This thing is so much smarter, deeper, and more enthralling than any platform/adventure/"vania"-style game I've ever played, I suspect because there's a strategy game buried in it. Increasingly I don't understand the bad press (though that may be because Arcen's update practices result in a patch per day, so the game I'm playing simply isn't the game the reviewers were playing).

Althea

11-05-2012, 01:49 PM

A race around the entire island? There were 2 like those on TDU1, exhausting, but when the police gets in on the action (and sooner or later they DO get in on the action) it was a hell of a ride.
The police in TDU2 are useless. You can crash head-first into them at 160mph and they'll just tut at you disapprovingly.

Rauten

11-05-2012, 01:53 PM

The police in TDU2 are useless. You can crash head-first into them at 160mph and they'll just tut at you disapprovingly.

I should really pick up TDU2 again, didn't even make it to Oahu.

Tikey

11-05-2012, 02:13 PM

Still Warbanding.
I managed to beat a -quite- larger enemy party using TACTICS™. I feel like the king of the world.

Althea

11-05-2012, 02:13 PM

Where? TDU2 is Ibiza then Hawaii.

Giaddon

11-05-2012, 02:24 PM

Where? TDU2 is Ibiza then Hawaii.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oahu

Althea

11-05-2012, 02:25 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oahu
Oh, I see. They just call it "Hawaii" in-game.

Fruppy

11-05-2012, 02:26 PM

At the moment I am playing Neverwinter Nights (Rpg server), Baldur's Gate 2, and Tribes Ascend.

Velko

11-05-2012, 02:26 PM

Immediately upon finishing the 'Tutorial' (ie. when you go to the church to pick up maleria meds) and so long as you have no active mission there should be a guy behind the counter.

Hmm. I'm about 25% in the campaign and it has seemed to me that there never is a guy behind the counter... There was earlier. Perhaps I have always been there when on a mission.

Heliocentric

11-05-2012, 03:39 PM

I'm currently near the end of chapter 3 (of 5) and it's a difficult to quickly summarise experience.
It's beautiful mostly, with a clear visual association paradigm. The combat is well laid out with smartly considered counters and weaknesses without being too arbitrary. The platforming is forgiving and the puzzles quickly managed.

Why is it that I'm bored to tears?

Labbes

11-05-2012, 03:43 PM

Heliocentric

11-05-2012, 03:49 PM

Haha, I forgot to say. Alice: Madness Returns

Rauten

11-05-2012, 03:53 PM

Haha, I forgot to say. Alice: Madness Returns

Because the combat, despite your positive points, is dull as all hell. That's my bet, anyway.

Giaddon

11-05-2012, 04:02 PM

I actually enjoyed Alice's combat. I think it's biggest failing is that it's levels are so long. There's a pretty bad doldrum spot in the middle before it picks up again at the end.

SirKicksalot

11-05-2012, 04:51 PM

Nalano

11-05-2012, 05:13 PM

I'm replaying Company of Heroes. Those 'splosions! The physics and sound design are brilliant. For some reason I never noticed before that tank shells sometimes bounce off armour.

I must investigate if I can pause and issue orders though. It's an exhausting game for me.

You never noticed...? Armor penetration and facing are an important part of the game! That's why we have fast-moving tank hunters with paper armor and slow-moving assault guns with front-loaded armor!

Heliocentric

11-05-2012, 05:44 PM

You never noticed...? Armor penetration and facing are an important part of the game! That's why we have fast-moving tank hunters with paper armor and slow-moving assault guns with front-loaded armor!

"You can't flank a wall of stugs" I would often proclaim in chat. They still tried.

Roufuss

11-05-2012, 05:49 PM

I actually enjoyed Alice's combat. I think it's biggest failing is that it's levels are so long. There's a pretty bad doldrum spot in the middle before it picks up again at the end.

I semi disagree. The last act had some of the longest, most boring levels I've ever played in any video game.

They just kept going on and on and on; it was only through sheer force of will that I finished the game.

Heliocentric

11-05-2012, 05:53 PM

Because the combat, despite your positive points, is dull as all hell. That's my bet, anyway.

TBH, the spawning in enemies piss me off because you get punished if you don't ignore the insignificant enemies, killing the first few things them spawns something tough, but focus on the scariest one and it's an easy ride as he gets replaced by his clone.

But really its the pacing, the game goes on for ages with very little to actually do that's challenging or particularly interesting. Thank god's for the Cheshire Cat who drops in with a bizarre statement, a pun or a warning with some regularity.

Serenegoose

11-05-2012, 06:35 PM

I semi disagree. The last act had some of the longest, most boring levels I've ever played in any video game.

They just kept going on and on and on; it was only through sheer force of will that I finished the game.

It's true. The dollhouse level was just....

Wow. I was so glad when it ended. I didn't even like the dress that much.

SirKicksalot

11-05-2012, 06:47 PM

You never noticed...? Armor penetration and facing are an important part of the game! That's why we have fast-moving tank hunters with paper armor and slow-moving assault guns with front-loaded armor!

I knew they were supposed to but I never noticed that the shells are actually rendered.

Nalano

11-05-2012, 07:20 PM

I knew they were supposed to but I never noticed that the shells are actually rendered.

They not only render the deflected shells, but the tank crews laugh. “Hah! They are scratching your paint job, Helmut.”

"You can't flank a wall of stugs" I would often proclaim in chat. They still tried.

A wall of StuGs is a costly undertaking. If you have the time and money to build so many, you've pretty much already won.

Heliocentric

11-05-2012, 08:05 PM

They not only render the deflected shells, but the tank crews laugh. “Hah! They are scratching your paint job, Helmut.”

A wall of StuGs is a costly undertaking. If you have the time and money to build so many, you've pretty much already won.

TBH, 3 stugs just back from a narrow point might as well be omaha beach once they get the mg's with vet 2.

alms

11-05-2012, 09:27 PM

I prefer Dredmor, at least so far, because of the turn-based thing

The thing about Dredmor that absolutely boggles my mind is the absurd number of substats with nearly indecipherable icons and hard to remember names. The supposedly harder traditional roguelikes are significantly more streamlined than that.

No, Isaac isn't significantly luck-based. (...)

I liked this post, thank you.

Scumbag

11-05-2012, 10:07 PM

Nexuiz:
YAY! An arena shooter thats fast paced and feels like a game of old!
BOO! An arena shooter that has a whole pile of my old pet peeves with arena shooters!

Not bad and nice someone actually made it. Looks very nice yet as a result seems to suffer from the visual clutter that UT3 and Hard Reset had. Also movement feels weird (though I say that about any deathmatch FPS I've only just started playing) and the lack of feedback to the player is rather wonky. Also it has an achievement for reading the manual! WHY?

Anthile

12-05-2012, 12:36 AM

Nexuiz:
Also it has an achievement for reading the manual! WHY?

It's an easy way for the developer to see how many people actually care to read the manual.

RobC

12-05-2012, 01:18 AM

Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear - So far a very good tactical wargame. Mechanics abstracted, not a hard core muzzle velocity, bullet rendering sim. Each to learn the rules with the good tutorial. I read the manual, but the tutorials may have been good enough so I didn't really need to.

SirKicksalot

12-05-2012, 01:53 AM

Nalano

12-05-2012, 02:33 AM

Company of Heroes is proof I got old. Back when it was launched I got pretty far into the campaign but now the sixth mission overwhelms me.
I can't micromanage anymore. I just panic. Whenever shit gets real or I have to manage two fights, I don't know how to react. It's also exhausting.
ON EASY.
Shamefur dispray!

I honestly feel really bad about this :(

I vacillate between beating the pants off an expert AI and having trouble with a hard AI, and mostly it's not because I have to micro but because when I play against hard AIs, I just want to dick around with my favorite units, and the AI just produces endless direct counters to said units.

CrinnyCow

12-05-2012, 05:59 AM

I decided to scrap The Witcher. I just couldn't bring myself to care about what was going on and just didn't feel invested in the gameplay or in the story. Now I've started playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I'm not in love with it but I'm certainly enjoying it. I just finished the first boss fight (I now understand why they are so maligned). I really enjoy the dialog for some reason. Most dialog tree systems frustrate me. I always feel like I'm forced to either be an absolute ass, or a pushover. I don't get this same feeling here, I feel like all of the options are reasonable to some degree and I can imagine choosing any one on a different playthrough (I generally like to be consistent with my player's actions). I am however curious, how much do your dialog choices effect the game?

Still no CS:GO beta access... I've been dying to get my hands on it but I just haven't had any luck. You can bet I'd be playing the hell out of that if I got in.

Juan Carlo

12-05-2012, 06:16 AM

I am however curious, how much do your dialog choices effect the game?

You can sometimes talk people into giving you extra stuff via dialogue (which will also sometimes unlock achievements--usually by using the pheromone enhancement thing) or sometimes take shortcuts by talking your way through stuff. But apart from occasionally affecting the fate of some characters in side quests it doesn't have much effect on the plot that I remember (i.e. you'll never be able to drastically alter the outcome of the game via dialogue).

(very minor spoilers)

Personally, the only time I enjoyed playing Deus Ex:HR was when I managed to save the pilot chick on the hardest difficulty without killing anyone. That sequence was awesome and a very good challenge if you wanted to stay non-lethal (I felt like batman at the end of "The Dark Knight" when he takes out that entire swat team without killing anyone). Most of the rest of the game underwhelmed me, though.