What are you playing at the moment?

[kstress71]

Should be finishing up the first Torchlight this weekend. I don't know why I didn't play it when it first came out. Probably too many other distractions between work, girlfriend, other games, etc. Anyway, the furor over D3 has inspired me to jump into it since I already own it and it's definitely sucked me in. Very polished, nice aesthetic. Will be ready for Torchlight 2 as soon as it releases now (not sure when I'll take the plunge into D3 ... nothing about it particularly excites me yet).

Other than that, I'd like to hack away at Binding of Isaac DLC. Not that I've progresses far in the main game. I just suck at roguelikes, I guess (bad at Dungeons of Dredmor too).

Oh, and might have some console distractions too. Final Fantasy XIII-2 is surprisingly good despite FFXIII being so bland. I'm definitely enjoying this one more. Hopefully, I'll get some Catherine in too, but that game just melts my brain and makes me sleepy.

Hopefully some PvZ, on someone's recommendation that it might help me to start getting into strategy games. Thanks for the recommendation... you know who you are :)

Of course, I should really be avoiding gaming too much anyway, as I am working on a Unity game of my own and just LOVE watching my ideas come to life (bit by tiny, screeching, clawing bit). That being said, I'm still very much assaulting the learning curve and have FAAAAAAAAAAAAR to go. Oh well, start where you're at, eh?

[kstress71]

Looking on the stats page, it's pretty scary though. Apparently only 37.2% of players have beaten Mom.


I haven't beaten Mom yet, and it irks me to no end. I just hate the keyboard-only control scheme so much. That being said, I understand why it is that way... I don't think it would necessarily feel right in a twin-stick format. But I can still gripe about it. And no, I haven't tried the recommended joypad option using a third-party application. I shouldn't have to work that hard to enjoy your damn game, Mr. self-absorbed developer.

Anyway, I'll get that bitch one of these days...

[Oshada]

It's not keyboard only, you can click to shoot.

[coldvvvave]

Max Payne 3 single player. It crashes way too often and runs worse than I'd like but otherwise a pretty good game. Shooting and animations are great, I remember playing Red Dead Redemption and thinking "Nice game, if only these riding sections between shooting could be skipped" and here is the game I wanted.

[Althea]

I've finished Saints Row the Third

*Sniffle*

<3 Kinzie <3

[jnx]

Max Payne 3 single player. It crashes way too often and runs worse than I'd like but otherwise a pretty good game. Shooting and animations are great, I remember playing Red Dead Redemption and thinking "Nice game, if only these riding sections between shooting could be skipped" and here is the game I wanted.

I've played 10 hours according to Steam. It hass crashed twice and frozen, or bugged to point where I've had to close it, twice. So not that bad, worse on your machine then? What kind of a system are you running it on? Runs perfectly on mine. It's an awesome game but of course not entirely without faults.

i7 2600k
GTX560ti
8gb ram @1333mhz
win7 64bit

[The JG Man]

Anyway, I'll get that bitch one of these days...


Just keep plugging away at it, you'll get her eventually.

In more personal Binding of Isaac news, another character successfully completed. I took Judas into the original final area and vanquished the final boss...with 3 hearts and 2 soul hearts entering battle. It was certainly intense, fortunately the attack-fly-on-hit, Little Gish and an insane fire rate and damage up meant that through some sheer miracle, I completed the fight losing only one of the soul hearts.

I have something like 6 or 7 more runs required to bet everywhere with every character, unfortunately that includes both final chapters with Eve, who I'm not very good with.

[Doodier]

I have something like 6 or 7 more runs required to bet everywhere with every character, unfortunately that includes both final chapters with Eve, who I'm not very good with.
I've started to hate Magdalene - she's so slow she can basically lose all hearts just because she can't get herself of the enemies.. Ugh, they killed me in Cathedral in last room because of it >.<
But the challenges are quite fun so I am trying to complete some of them now.

[Heliocentric]

Cain is best, lots money and lotsa pills.
You get yor first 20 coins and you are set to gamble yourself into war readiness.

[kstress71]

It's not keyboard only, you can click to shoot.

But how do you aim then? Does that mean you shoot in the direction you're moving? I'll give it a shot, but if that's true, it would seem very limiting.

[alms]

Anyone tried Krater (http://store.steampowered.com/app/42170/)?

They've giving away beta keys (http://www.alienwarearena.com/cmd/account/get-giveaway-key/213/), got myself one right now out of curiosity.

[TechnoJellyfish]

But how do you aim then? Does that mean you shoot in the direction you're moving? I'll give it a shot, but if that's true, it would seem very limiting.

IMO, "Isaac" plays best with a "Smash TV" (SNES) setup, i. e. shooting mapped to the face buttons of a gamepad (easily accomplished with Xpadder).

[coldvvvave]

I've played 10 hours according to Steam. It hass crashed twice and frozen, or bugged to point where I've had to close it, twice. So not that bad, worse on your machine then? What kind of a system are you running it on?
My verison is not a Steam one, it's a localised copy from 1C. I had about 10-20 crashes after loading a save game mostly, but durning gameplay too. Some error appears about my drivers being old even though my drivers are latest AMD driver pack. Not very pleasent, but well I got it cheap( roughly 15 usd).

phemom x6 1090t 3,6Mhz
Gigabyte hd 6950 2gb
8 gb ram 1333mhz
win7 x64

[jnx]

Well the performance should be stellar with that setup. There's a reason though why I stopped supporting AMD. They just kept having bad issues with every damn new release. I'm pretty sure all the devs are trying to put AMD out of business by not testing on their products or something.

[Nalano]

I've finished Saints Row the Third

*Sniffle*

<3 Kinzie <3

You really do have a thing for redheads and social naifs (http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540676336824851004/58EB7754645E1B1A25B47BDF89A35805E34053AF/), don't you?

[apricotsoup]

You really do have a thing for redheads and social naifs (http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540676336824851004/58EB7754645E1B1A25B47BDF89A35805E34053AF/), don't you?

Doesn't everyone?

[Althea]

You really do have a thing for redheads and social naifs (http://cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/540676336824851004/58EB7754645E1B1A25B47BDF89A35805E34053AF/), don't you?
Well, duh.

[Roufuss]

Went to play some Binding of the Lamb on Isaac, forgot my save file was on my old computer so everything is locked again.

Even stuff I have the achievements for that should show up, such as all the extra characters and a majority of the items for completing the game multiple times, have to be re-earned.

What a pain in the ass. At least recognize I have the achievements and give me those characters and items back.

[Vexing Vision]

I find myself surprisingly entertained by the the Magical Diary (http://store.steampowered.com/app/211340/) which is indeed significantly better than I ever expected.

Two very, very different playthroughs so far, with a third one in progress, as I still haven't found out what the hell Raven is up to and who sabotaged the door for the resident ninja's target practice to go horribly wrong. The sheer complexity of the story-branches is utterly astounding and massive fun to find out, and all characters act in a believable and logical way, at least regarding the internal logic of the game-world.

This was a random gift from a friend that pleases me a lot, and even though a single playthrough only takes around 3 hours, the replay-value is unbelievable.

[Rauten]

I've finished Saints Row the Third

*Sniffle*

<3 Kinzie <3

If THQ wants my money again, Kinzie better f'ing appear on the next Saints Row. I wouldn't mind if Oleg and Viola were still around, too.

[Althea]

If THQ wants my money again, Kinzie better f'ing appear on the next Saints Row. I wouldn't mind if Oleg and Viola were still around, too.
Definitely. I have to say I'm almost champing at the bit for the expandalone.

[Sketch]

Guess it depends if Sasha Grey can get more time off from her...er...schedule.

[Roufuss]

I don't think THQ can really hire celebrity voices anymore due to their money issues, so they'd probably just recast Viola with an unknown soundalike.

Chances are good that Angel and Viola just won't show up in the expansion though, to easily solve that problem. The expandalone seems out of left field, so to speak, so I doubt they were contracted to do it on top of Saints Row 3.

[Althea]

It wouldn't surprise me if THQ had a lot of it recorded anyway, assuming they're back. Anything Saints Row is guaranteed to be a money maker, so they may be able to stretch the budget a bit more.

But yeah, I wouldn't expect to see much of the cast in the expandalone, although I hope I can take my Saint into it.

[Rauten]

Well, quite honestly, Angel... eehh, no, just no, Mr. Hogan just isn't fit for voice acting, horrible horrible horrible.

Ms (or Mrs, whatever) Grey on the other hand... I was expecting her character to be all crappily voice acted, much like Angel, then when I learned she was Viola I had a hard time believing it. She wasn't stellar, but she sure as hell was adequate and proper. I for one wouldn't mind it if she became a regular voice actress, she did a good job, and if not for friends pointing out she's the porn star, I wouldn't have even imagined that'd be the case.

[Althea]

Viola was pretty good.

Angel? Eh. Would have been better if he was voiced by a "proper" Hispanic voice actor. But not someone like that guy who did Cesar in San Andreas. "Si, homes".

[jnx]

"I don't know man, why do you keep asking me that?"

One of my favorites from San Andreas. You of course need to know the question.

[Nalano]

Guess it depends if Sasha Grey can get more time off from her...er...schedule.

Sasha Grey's retired. She spends her time writing books and proving to people she can think.


Well, quite honestly, Angel... eehh, no, just no, Mr. Hogan just isn't fit for voice acting, horrible horrible horrible.

But he's a stellar fit for a has-been over-acting showman, which is what Angel is.

[Althea]

But he's a stellar fit for a has-been over-acting showman, which is what Angel is.
Maybe, but you could replace him and you just wouldn't notice.

[DaftPunk]

Just drop by to say that i started playing Titan Quest,its first game from this genre that i played and i enjoy it very much. I'm levle 9 currently,i specialized in warrior branch or how do you say,style. I Wield two axes!

[Casimir Effect]

Just drop by to say that i started playing Titan Quest,its first game from this genre that i played and i enjoy it very much. I'm levle 9 currently,i specialized in warrior branch or how do you say,style. I Wield two axes!
I found TQ really dull as a (melée) warrior class as everything kicked my ass. Archer was more fun but still involved lots of running away. I tried several times with that game but it never grasped me: Torchlight (or Diablo 2) was always more fun.

Just started playing Empire: Total War myself and holy crap is there a lot to take in. The jump from Rome to Medieval 2 was small, but from M2 to Empire is huge. The game seems to be going for a more Paradox Grand Strategy style than the previous games have been - although of course not as complex. I can see this being something I love but only if the AI is up to it. There's a good chance I'll be playing it entirely from the campaign map as the naval battles have not gone well for me so far and I haven't even had a land battle yet (though from the tutorial I'm not sure they'll appeal).
It's hard to know what to do as Great Britain though. Do I try and gain a foothold in India, expand on my American colonies or secure my position in Europe (thinking about invading Iceland or [possibly suicidally] fucking with France [unintentional alliteration!])? The money won't cover all the options.

[SirKicksalot]

Do yourself a favour and install DarthMod for Empire.

I tried to play a bit of Gears of War 2. I can't stand the controls though. I loved the first game on PC but on the console it feels like I'm steering the Titanic. Back-up plan: the Halo games and maybe RDR.

On PC I'm finally playing the Season Pass DLC of Saints Row 3. Genkibowl sucks. I switched to Gangstas in Space and it's absolutely amazing.

[DaftPunk]

I found TQ really dull as a (melée) warrior class as everything kicked my ass. Archer was more fun but still involved lots of running away. I tried several times with that game but it never grasped me: Torchlight (or Diablo 2) was always more fun.




Oh i don't find game hard at all and i cloaked few hours in to it,i only died twice so far. Plus its my first game from this genre lol,the only thing i would love to see from game,is stronger focus on story.

[Casimir Effect]

Do yourself a favour and install DarthMod for Empire.

I tried to play a bit of Gears of War 2. I can't stand the controls though. I loved the first game on PC but on the console it feels like I'm steering the Titanic. Back-up plan: the Halo games and maybe RDR.

On PC I'm finally playing the Season Pass DLC of Saints Row 3. Genkibowl sucks. I switched to Gangstas in Space and it's absolutely amazing.
I need to play vanilla before I mess about with mods, and I'm never a huge fan of mods that make things far more difficult like the Darthmods usually do.

Gears of War 2 felt the same as 1 and I'd basically rate it the same. It had just as many annoying and fun parts as the first one did, and the crappy 3rd chapter of the first game was entirely balanced by the completely fucking bugged and crappy parts of the second - like the underground seamonster fight. I wish GoW1 on PC would get cheap one day as I'd love to play it.

Halo games are a great backup though. As much flak as they get I have to admit I enjoy them, with ODST as my favourite for single player. I need to get the remake of Halo sometime, and actually finish Reach as I've been 3/4 of the way through that game for months now (damn you Skyrim, Witcher 2, Dragon Age 2 and Human Revolutions for taking my time).


Oh i don't find game hard at all and i cloaked few hours in to it,i only died twice so far. Plus its my first game from this genre lol,the only thing i would love to see from game,is stronger focus on story.
See, I hate dying in games so my warrior ran away, kited, and shot things with arrows whenever health got low. The fact that happens so much at low level in TQ bothered me. Don't expect any story coming from TQ though; that's not what you get from ARPGs. Diablo does it the best and even then it's pretty minimalist and atmosphere-dependent (And I hear D3 fucks it up).

[Sketch]

Halo games are a great backup though. As much flak as they get I have to admit I enjoy them,



This is true, and I'm never really sure why. The Halo games aren't scripted, offer a nice big open map and a variety of interesting weapons. Plus only 2+3 have regenerating health. I definitely don't think they deserved to be thrown in with the CoD games as things to sigh at.

[trjp]

I finally went back to try to complete Wizorb - my enthusiasm had been kicked-to-death by a C.U.N.T. of a level in World 4, but having finally beaten it (taking longer than the rest of the game put together) I made my way to the end.

Where I discovered the final level is a random/potluck load of bullshit - no skill required, just an immense amount of patience and luck.

If this guy makes another game - remind me not to buy it - in fact, remind me to remind EVERYONE not to buy it.

Seriously - when you do the 'retro' stuff, leave out the stuff we never wanted like difficulty spikes and levels which are NO FUN. We play games for enjoyment - how someone can forget that, when making a game, astounds me.

[DeathPig]

Tachyon the Fringe.

This game is so awesome.

1362

Not my screenshot btw. Nicked it from google.

[khaz]

See, I hate dying in games so my warrior ran away, kited, and shot things with arrows whenever health got low. The fact that happens so much at low level in TQ bothered me. Don't expect any story coming from TQ though; that's not what you get from ARPGs. Diablo does it the best and even then it's pretty minimalist and atmosphere-dependent (And I hear D3 fucks it up).

How are you building your warrior? TQ is a bit poor at letting you know how good certain skill trees are. Warriors especially have only three ideal routes really. Dual wield with two weapons or weapon/shield (The shield actually does more dmg than the sword but doesn't really work till you get an epic or legendary shield) and the third conqueror way which is primarily tank orientated.

You need to skill up very specifically. Ideally, the way it works is the skill tree you go up, you are essentially tooling your character for the parts of epic and all of legendary difficulty.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

Tachyon the Fringe.

This game is so awesome.

Yes. Yes, it is.

[sabrage]

Bored with Diablo... Super bored with LoL... Can't go back to TL... Guess I'm playing Severance.

[vinraith]

Hegemony Gold. Absolutely brilliant, somehow Longbow has managed to create a game with an interesting historical narrative that handles both large scale strategic and logistical concerns and tactics on a total-war-like scale all seemlessly. It's a hell of a thing, and I've only scratched the surface of it so far. They've also managed to build a tutorial that teaches the game without being an unholy bore or, indeed, really being a tutorial in any traditional sense of the term. Highly, highly recommended if you're a fan of historical strategy games of any stripe.

[Althea]

On PC I'm finally playing the Season Pass DLC of Saints Row 3. Genkibowl sucks. I switched to Gangstas in Space and it's absolutely amazing.
Did you get to Sad Panda Skydiving? No? Well, Genkibowl gets even shitter then.

It could have been a great DLC pack, but the lack of cutscenes and 'balanced' events completely ruined it.

WATER BEAR!

[Nalano]

Did you get to Sad Panda Skydiving? No? Well, Genkibowl gets even shitter then.

Sad Panda Skydiving was fine! Fly, chainsaw, fly, chainsaw, fly, win! What do you have against sad panda?

http://www.inquisitr.com/wp-content/let-pandas-die.jpg

[Althea]

The controls were shit, the scoring was shit, everything about it except the costume was shit.

[Nalano]

The controls were shit, the scoring was shit, everything about it except the costume was shit.

Scoring was straight-forward! Get rings = points. Hit ethical balloons = points. Chainsaw mascots = points.

Controls were "forward = fly, not-forward = fall." Do you play with a controller or something?

[Althea]

No, I played with KB+M. I do understand what the controls did, but they didn't seem to want to do anything fun. Try to land on a building? Nope, overshoot it or land on the wrong 'level'. Use the balloon to get back up, try again, miss.

It's good it had no time limit (bar being on roof tops) but I did NOT enjoy it at all.

[Nalano]

I find that kinda funny. I mean, the control schemes in SR3 were so simple it was hard to mess up. Compare the helicopter in SR3 to the helicopter in SR2, for instance: SR2 actually required a bit of finesse. SR3 was basically "where you're looking is where you're going," and I didn't notice a difference with Sad Panda. I grant there was a slight lag, but I suppose I just compensated.

[Althea]

SR3 had great controls, I just didn't like how the panda suit handled. If it was a bit more precise, it would have been better for me.

It's like those hoops. You could miss them by a fair margin and they'd still count. What.

[Nalano]

You could miss them?

[Althea]

You could miss them?
Well, yeah.

[FunnyB]

About changing the voice cast for the expandalone to SR3, not a lot of people noticed (or cared?) that Shaundi's voice actress changed from Eliza Dushku in SR2 to someone else in SR3... Not making any judgements, just pointing it out.

[Althea]

About changing the voice cast for the expandalone to SR3, not a lot of people noticed (or cared?) that Shaundi's voice actress changed from Eliza Dushku in SR2 to someone else in SR3... Not making any judgements, just pointing it out.
Well, considering Shaundi had no real point for most of SR3, I don't think most people cared ;)

[Casimir Effect]

You need to skill up very specifically. Ideally, the way it works is the skill tree you go up, you are essentially tooling your character for the parts of epic and all of legendary difficulty.
I think this is why I don't get on well with the game. I'm all for there being some challenge and thinking required when it comes to planning a build, but in TQ it seems like you have to nail it from the start else you're fucked.
My archer/hunter character did seem to be built better, but in going almost to the end of Egypt I realised I wasn't really enjoying the game. So I think TQ just isn't for me.

[sabrage]

Alright Severance, you're fun, but I can only deal with so many skeletons in one level before I get annoyed. Especially when my last save was 20 skellies ago, and the traps are so, so mean.

[Vexing Vision]

Alright Severance, you're fun, but I can only deal with so many skeletons in one level before I get annoyed. Especially when my last save was 20 skellies ago, and the traps are so, so mean.

Go Amazon not Barbarian.

Severance remains a beautiful, beautiful game, and one day I'll even master the bloody dwarf even though I still have no idea how.

[sabrage]

I quite enjoy my Barbarian, especially the fact that the animations seem to have been captured from baseball players rather than any actual swordfighting style. I definitely missed two of the runes, so I'll try the Amazon on my next playthrough. The sometimes-bastard difficulty and enemy repetition are kind of making me want to put that off, though... Didn't stop the damn thing from keeping me up all night.

[khaz]

I think this is why I don't get on well with the game. I'm all for there being some challenge and thinking required when it comes to planning a build, but in TQ it seems like you have to nail it from the start else you're fucked.
My archer/hunter character did seem to be built better, but in going almost to the end of Egypt I realised I wasn't really enjoying the game. So I think TQ just isn't for me.

Yeah, a common complaint with the game. I was having similar issues with it when I did some gamefaqing and immediately my understanding of it improved immesuarably and was suddenly enjoying it. You COULD play it with whatever build you want but in a poor piece of design that only works when you know the game inside out so you know exactly what you're doing. Its very old school rigid that way.

[Giaddon]

About changing the voice cast for the expandalone to SR3, not a lot of people noticed (or cared?) that Shaundi's voice actress changed from Eliza Dushku in SR2 to someone else in SR3... Not making any judgements, just pointing it out.

Well, Shaundi's whole character changed, from chill stoner to vengeful fury. The voice change was fine since she is basically a totally different character.

[Althea]

Anyhoo, decided to continue with my The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition playthrough.

Got a better idea of how the game works now, but I'm seriously lamenting all of the changes from The Witcher 1. Well, most of them anyway. I miss the flow of the combat, the easy-to-navigate UI where you didn't have to exit one thing to open another (you could just switch).

The graphics are pissing me off, though. Got most special effects turned off so largely it looks okay, but the textures are all over the place. Characters tend to look really good, but you get objects with textures that are so over-detailed that they look absolutely terrible (e.g. the metal banding on Iorveth's chest). Animations are a bit stiff, sometimes hilarious (such as that scene where Roche/Foltest/Geralt walk up to the closed portcullis in the prologue and their animations are *exactly* the same). So, for all CDPR's attention to detail, there's a metric fucktonne of oversights (e.g. the 'hole' in the back of Ves' head).

The stealth sequences is broken to fuck, but I don't know whether it's a subtly different choice I made or whether it's due to the EE changes, but that sequence seemed different to me - the scene with that lady being whipped and abused didn't appear - but it flows a lot better from then on. There seem to be new cutscenes too, which really do improve that intro sequence a lot more. But why 3 art styles? What possible need is there for that?

Grumble, grumble, moan, moan, it ain't as bad as it was when it released but I much preferred TW1:EE (at least so far).

[Casimir Effect]

...but that sequence seemed different to me - the scene with that lady being whipped and abused didn't appear - but it flows a lot better from then on...
Depends on if you saved Aryan La Valette (mouthy prick on the tower) or not.

[Althea]

Depends on if you saved Aryan La Valette (mouthy prick on the tower) or not.
I killed him both times IIRC.

[Casimir Effect]

I think it's also possible to miss the lady being whipped just by not going to that part of the dungeon - it's possible to walk right past it. If that's not it then I have no idea, maybe things changed.

[Althea]

Who knows? It seemed 'different'.

Maybe I did something different. I dunno. But I liked it this time.

[Casimir Effect]

All part of the fun in Games With Consequences. Last time I played it I saved Aryan, which was fun, and the first time I must have walked past the poor woman and some slamming door stopped me going back.

[Althea]

Hm. Maybe. I dunno what I did different. Wonder if there'll be less boobs in the EE.

[Casimir Effect]

As Confucious said: "There are as many boobs as you go looking for."

[Althea]

And those that are thrust in your face anyway.

[Casimir Effect]

I think that was from Descarte.

[eRa]

I'm dying a lot in Diablo 3 on Inferno difficulty (which is way too hard). Also trying to hold back the Red Army in Panzer Corps Grand Campaign '44.

[vinraith]

Dead Island, which is a vastly more entertaining 2 player co-op zombie game than Left 4 Dead ever was.

And of course, Hegemony Gold. God I love this game, and this screen shot will sum up why to anyone of like mind:

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/8177/miniatureswide.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/577/miniatureswide.jpg/)

[NathanH]

How busy does Hegemony get as you progress? I liked the demo but got the impression that there might be a lot of busywork as my realm spread.

[bonkers]

Started finishing GTA4 before 5 comes out. Stopped some time ago because I despise the protagonist. And found out: I still do. And increadibly stupid and insane maniac who doesn't give a shit about anything.
Also I highly dislike that the game doesn't give me any choice. No, I don't want to shoot that cop. Thank you game for not letting me continue until I do...

[Sketch]

What part is that?

[NathanH]

Playing the Revenge campaign of Duels of the Planeswalkers with the same deck all the way through, in best-of-five matches. Current results: Ancients Depths, win vs everything but Ancient Depths and Wielding Steel; Forest's Fury, win vs everything but Ancient Depths and Realm of Illusion.

What deck should I play next?

[Rauten]

You know you've played way too much Metropolis Street Racer on the DreamCast when you go to Race Driver: GRID and, without the game giving a single hint of where you are, you realize the race you're running takes place in San Francisco's financial district

[DaftPunk]

Started finishing GTA4 before 5 comes out. Stopped some time ago because I despise the protagonist. And found out: I still do. And increadibly stupid and insane maniac who doesn't give a shit about anything.
Also I highly dislike that the game doesn't give me any choice. No, I don't want to shoot that cop. Thank you game for not letting me continue until I do...


I kinda like the dude,i can relate to him because he is Serbian as well :D

[Heliocentric]

Started finishing GTA4 before 5 comes out. Stopped some time ago because I despise the protagonist. And found out: I still do. And increadibly stupid and insane maniac who doesn't give a shit about anything.
Also I highly dislike that the game doesn't give me any choice. No, I don't want to shoot that cop. Thank you game for not letting me continue until I do...
I can think of a few times i had to shoot a cop or die in scripted sections.

But, I wish GTA4 had had a quest chain that unlocked everything but was made up entirely of staying on the right side of the law. It would be really menial and peaceful, taxi driving to 500 fairs?

[Althea]

I kinda like the dude,i can relate to him because he is Serbian as well :D
Except for he has the wrong accent, of course.

[Labbes]

How busy does Hegemony get as you progress? I liked the demo but got the impression that there might be a lot of busywork as my realm spread.

As far as I'm concerned, it becomes babyisitting your units way too much. Since your units don't intellegently attack back, there's a lot going on all at the same time, but rarely anything of it ever matters.

[slick_101]

Super Monday night combat. initally in it for the TF2 hats. Yes I know, I'm sad... Don't judge me. But it's actually a really good game for a F2P though the amount of coins you get could get upped which would make it a whole lot better.

[DaftPunk]

Except for he has the wrong accent, of course.


Yeah they failed quite hard with his accent..Its funny and sad at the same time,to listen him speaking serbian in game :D

[Rauten]

Just out of curiosity, where does Nico's accent hail from?

[trjp]

Just out of curiosity, where does Nico's accent hail from?

A local voice acting agent's "C" list I suspect - which is 22 letters higher in the alphabet than most game's VO but still terrible :)

[Rauten]

Uhrm, not quite what I was asking about... (more along the lines of "to what country does the accent belong")

[DaftPunk]

Is supposed to be Serbian accent xD

[Tritagonist]

Played a couple of Skirmish rounds in Supreme Commander 2. They removed quite a few of the peculiarities that made the original interesting, which is a shame. The unit design is still very nice though, and the sides seem to be quite balanced as well. I'd recommend people interested in the series to pick up the original, or the standalone expansion Forged Alliance, first.

[Casimir Effect]

Sigh. Fucking Spain attacked Portugal who are allied with me so I joined the war on their side. Within 1 year Portugal were dead and I'm still at war. Thankfully none of Spains allies (eg. France) joined the fight, but none of them really like me either. Then some native fuckers in America attack my protectorate, so I'm in on that too. Then I attack some guys in India because hey, the lady with the upper class accent said it was a good idea.
The Spanish war is actually going pretty well: I'm kicking their ass in the Caribbean and took a province of theirs in Europe. The annoying thing is they seem to have been given a load of high-level ships somehow, either that or the Spanish Bourbons can crap galleons. So when those guys pop up I have to run or accept massive losses.

[Drake Sigar]

Pirates of the Caribbean (the one that has bugger all to do with the movie). You know, I don't recall being able to command a fleet in Sid Meier's Pirates, which kinda sucks. Pirates of the Caribbean rectifies this. And it has party members that can die. And it looks REALLY good for a game almost ten years old. I quite like it, despite it trying to do everything and not really succeeding on all fronts.

[tjv]

Deus Ex, the original. Never got out of the starting island when I played this previously. On the third mission now and enjoying this quite a lot. With the New Vision textures game looks good even.


Day Z. Soloing atm because my mate got some sn# issues. Doing quite well and starting to have quite good gear already.


Deadly Preminition. A 360 game which I play when wifey is using the PC. Only got like 5h done, but this sure is an amazing game.

[SirKicksalot]

Red Dead Redemption is fucking amazing. Shame about the resolution though.

[Sketch]

I caved and bought Endless Space, going to get stuck in once it's downloaded.

I also, downloaded Prophesy of Pendor for M&B Warband. I hear it's pretty great so I'll give that a blast. Also Civ V.

[Rauten]

Pirates of the Caribbean (the one that has bugger all to do with the movie). You know, I don't recall being able to command a fleet in Sid Meier's Pirates, which kinda sucks. Pirates of the Caribbean rectifies this. And it has party members that can die. And it looks REALLY good for a game almost ten years old. I quite like it, despite it trying to do everything and not really succeeding on all fronts.

This -might- be an old pirates game I loved, but absolutely forgot about; however trying to do a google image search shows... well you can probably guess it, could you please upload some screenies?

[Oshada]

This is the one with Nathaniel Hawk right? That game was awesome.

[Roufuss]

Wrath of the Lamb has made The Binding of Isaac way, way too easy.

I had to start over from scratch because I don't have my old save file and I've already beaten Sheol twice with no difficulty at all. It's far too easy now to turn into a behemoth of death, especially with Cain, as these new items are overpowered like crazy. By the time I've gotten to Sheol I'm just overpowered as hell; this last run through I was shooting out giant white tears of doom and killed Satan in about 10 seconds, all three forms.

[The JG Man]

Your mileage may vary though. There's still enough set-ups and dangerous enemies that it's entirely possible to still lose. I just did a run now and if it weren't for some incredibly lucky soul heart drops, there's no way I'd have finished the game, even with significant power.

[Roufuss]

Your mileage may vary though. There's still enough set-ups and dangerous enemies that it's entirely possible to still lose. I just did a run now and if it weren't for some incredibly lucky soul heart drops, there's no way I'd have finished the game, even with significant power.

Possibly, but when it gets to the point where I'm killing every enemy in one hit (outside of bosses) regardless of the setup, it's almost like I have to work at losing. I basicially just walked into a room, shot some tears and cleared the room in about two to four seconds each.

Just beat the game again for a sixth time with no trouble at all; turned Cain into a tear machine gun at the end of it, lol.

I do think they are going to nerf a lot of these items on down. The fact that Jesus Juice is glitched to give you extra damage on top of everything else, and it spawns seemingly every game, helps decrease the difficulty too and will be the first to get nerfed.

The wrath items are just incredibly overpowered compared to the usual stuff, in my playthroughs of the game, and they seem to spawn very frequently -- Jesus Juice and Chemical Peel are two frequent ones, and I more often than not get Cathedral rooms outside of Devil rooms now.

[Althea]

Uhrm, not quite what I was asking about... (more along the lines of "to what country does the accent belong")
It's supposed to be Serbian, but all of his inflections are wrong. More info here (http://gta.wikia.com/Niko_Bellic#Naming_and_Language).

[mrki]

Crusader Kings 2 since I got it from Amazon a few days ago. I've already spend more time than I should have, but the bloody king is barely 20 and he already made 4 kids that I have to deal with somehow with a nice Hungarian princess. How hard can it be to just pull it out on time... :)

[Doodier]

I think that Mom is somehow bugged or changed in the Wrath of Lamb DLC.. She keeps killing me even though she's not stomping on me. Like if she's creating some sort of shock wave :/ Also, if I go above her it damages me no matter how high I am as long as I am in the Mom's foot texture.. It's getting frustrating

[Drake Sigar]

This -might- be an old pirates game I loved, but absolutely forgot about; however trying to do a google image search shows... well you can probably guess it, could you please upload some screenies?

My ships. I had three but sold one when I 'acquired' this war galley. Can command up to four, though the other three are controlled by your handpicked party members. As you can see this one sustained some damage in the sails. When a cannonball goes through it, a hole appears in that area.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates.png

Nathaniel Hawk doesn't play fair. I can't wait to pump all my experience points into using the Quad-pistol.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates2.png

Simple dialogue options much like Mount & Blade. God I want that wig.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates3.png

[Olero]

I haven't been playing a lot lately, but if the "moment" of the topic title implies to, let's say, last month then:

Fallout Tactics: Somehow I'm a lot better at this game then when I first played it... Which is strange, since with all other games I used to play it is the other way around. Still a great game though, and while I'm not that fond of playing a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, the levels are interesting and the opposition is usually well placed. I still hate the vehicles though, buggy things they are.

Mount & Blade: Warband: Well bugger... I just CAN'T fight properly in this game. I think I need an actual real life person showing me to grasp it. And commanding my troops is a disaster as well. Wish I could pause the game ;). But still, losing can be fun as well, and at least I can kill/knock out the occasional gang of bandits.

Botanicula: Almost finished it, and enjoy it very much. But playing it almost to the end did burn up my enthusiasm a bit. The sound-effect, graphics and music in this "game" are superb!

Saints Row 3: Only played the intro mission a bit, so I'm absolutely prejudicing when I'm saying that I think I made a mistake buying this game. I really hope the rest of the game is less hand held and uberarcadey. And I'm having a hard time enjoying the "humor" so far. Will be continued...

[Althea]

Saints Row 3: Only played the intro mission a bit, so I'm absolutely prejudicing when I'm saying that I think I made a mistake buying this game. I really hope the rest of the game is less hand held and uberarcadey. And I'm having a hard time enjoying the "humor" so far. Will be continued...
It's quite handholdy for the first... few missions. You get walked through numerous activities but once you finish a certain big mission, you've got a lot more free reign.

That said, you don't have to do the missions at all. You can just go off on your own - but if you follow the story missions and so on, you'll get what you want a lot faster.

[vinraith]

How busy does Hegemony get as you progress? I liked the demo but got the impression that there might be a lot of busywork as my realm spread.

I'm honestly not far enough along to have a good sense of that yet. There are certainly plenty of management tools and a very useful alert system, all to keep you on top of things, as well as the always-welcome pause-and-issue functionality.

I'll let you know as I get deeper into things.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

I think that Mom is somehow bugged or changed in the Wrath of Lamb DLC.. She keeps killing me even though she's not stomping on me. Like if she's creating some sort of shock wave :/ Also, if I go above her it damages me no matter how high I am as long as I am in the Mom's foot texture.. It's getting frustrating

I heard the hit boxes of her hand and foot were switched around, and sometimes a bomb spawns in the middle of the room when you kill her. Also, a bomb can spawn when you first enter the room.

Mom is easily the hardest boss in the game now. I don't think that's intentional.

[Voon]

Dark Souls again, folks and today I'm a Gravelord Servant and killed Pinwheel. And spent about an hour trying to get out of The Catacombs by running all over the place, trying to find an exit and avoiding the Tomb of Giants before things get messier than it was. Gave myself a huge facepalm when an easily missable ladder was available against a big drop at the skeleton mound at the shortcut path from the shrine all along.


My ships. I had three but sold one when I 'acquired' this war galley. Can command up to four, though the other three are controlled by your handpicked party members. As you can see this one sustained some damage in the sails. When a cannonball goes through it, a hole appears in that area.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates.png

Nathaniel Hawk doesn't play fair. I can't wait to pump all my experience points into using the Quad-pistol.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates2.png

Simple dialogue options much like Mount & Blade. God I want that wig.

http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh154/AEedwin/pirates3.png

Ahhh... The memories come flooding back, playing the game on a laptop. I never left the island, sadly.

[Rauten]

pics and bits

I'm pretty sure it is, will have to track this one down. Thank you.

Also, more Race Driver: GRID.
Good god the Head On for wining 6 trophies in Japan (Midnight 1-on-1 race on tight Japanese mountain roads) is epic as all hell; I had to take a break for a while after that one.

[Lukasz]

speaking about mount and blade.

I've played it for the very first time today (warband). Interesting. but so slow. i have not much idea what i am supposed to do. just ridding the country side with 40 people trying to find some quests (which are so frigging rare)
also a massive cash flow problem i have. i got owned few times so i decided to invest into my small army (which i can't control at all :) ) but it eats all my tax money i stole from a village.
don't want go into village pillage so not sure how the hell i am afford everything :)

[Tikey]

Kill people and sell their stuff.
Tournaments are profitable (last floris mod update nerfed that heavily). Just go to a tavern and ask bards where a feast is being held. Usually if there is a feast there is a tournament.
Go to castles. Lords usually have quests, as well as guild masters in the cities.

[Roufuss]

Looking at Wrath of the Lamb now, I think it's just Cain that breaks the game with his Luck Foot. In my recent game, by the end of the first level of the Caves, I had maxed out damage and shot speed since he gets such a high percentage of Cathedral rooms, and the weapons in there are so overpowered.

At that point, everything else you had just serves to make him even stronger and no one can really stop him. It's a shame the door to Sheol didn't open this time.

[Leopig]

I just bought Saints Row 2, Assassins Creed Revelations and Torchlight, and just got access to The Secret World beta.

[Juan Carlo]

Kill people and sell their stuff.
Tournaments are profitable (last floris mod update nerfed that heavily). Just go to a tavern and ask bards where a feast is being held. Usually if there is a feast there is a tournament.
Go to castles. Lords usually have quests, as well as guild masters in the cities.


There's a very profitable trade circuit that takes you from town to town around the map. Just buy low and sell high. If I remmeber correctly I only had to circle the whole map like three times before I had enough to invest in several businesses, at which point money generates automatically. Then just keep buying businesses as you get enough money. Eventually you will have so much money that you can rebuild your entire army from just one payday.

[dsch]

Given up Far Cry 2 now; didn't even get as far as I did the first time, not long before the second half. It's strange. One day I'm happily swimming in a stream, marvelling at the night sky (which I thought was better than Skyrim's), and the next day the gamey, grindy-ness of it takes over. It's like something just snaps.

Spending some time with Fallen London now, while looking for something else to play. Fallen London handles grind very well because it's actually painless. You just read the storylet, click a button, read a bit more, and then repeat without reading. It doesn't pretend that you're supposed to find the grindy bits fun and concentrates on providing fun in other ways.

[alms]

Finished Part II of Sword & Sworcery EP. I'm lost for words (in a positive way)

[Fontan]

Playing Day Z. Thank you, RPS, for destroying my life.

[Lukasz]

There's a very profitable trade circuit that takes you from town to town around the map. Just buy low and sell high. If I remmeber correctly I only had to circle the whole map like three times before I had enough to invest in several businesses, at which point money generates automatically. Then just keep buying businesses as you get enough money. Eventually you will have so much money that you can rebuild your entire army from just one payday.
oh? could you explain it more please? cause i am sitting on 1800 gold with 260 upkeep of my army. and i got to train 7 guys to be elites so my spending will go up even higher when i grind.

[Malawi Frontier Guard]

Binding of Isaac is cursed. I can't finish my Eve run.

Just now I got epic fetus, thinking it would be an easy ride. I enter Mom's room and use best friend for the hell of it. As she steps on the decoy, the game freezes. Turns out this instantly kills you for some reason.

[sinomatic]

Path of Exile - I haven't played huge amounts yet, but thoroughly enjoying it (and certainly a lot more than I enjoyed the D3 beta). Whilst I haven't really got to grips with the passive skill tree and the active skill gems (plus supports), I'm quite excited by the possibilities. Mostly as I've ended up with a paladin-esque, mace wielding, sparkly shield wearing, aura toting templar who can rain fire down from the skies like a sorceress, leap into battle like a barbarian and raise zombies like a necro. See this? This is happiness.

And I've just finished playing GTA IV + EFLC, and really enjoyed all of that too. The plot was a little basic but I genuinely liked some of the characters, but the city....my god the city.....she is beautiful. Especially after I applied icEnhancer, but even without that, the scope and detail of the city just takes my breath away. I couldn't help but constantly compare how far games have come in the 27 or so years I've been gaming. It's astonishing. I got to the point where I was quite happy to do nothing but drive around, soaking it all in. More of that please, yes. Though some better porting would be lovely, thanks.

[NathanH]

Trinity of Elements is a bizarre deck, it performed well against Ancient Depths and utterly crushed the normally-formidable Realm of Illusion, but got battered by rubbish like Apex Predators and Dragon's Roar.

[Anthile]

Goddamn, some of the later vehicle theft missions in Saints Row 3 are really hard. Basically, you have to grab the worst vehicles imaginable (garbage truck, concrete truck, limousine, etc.) which are slow and handle like shit. Oh, and you have a permanent 3-4 cop badges on your ass so you get continuously harassed by attack helis, SWAT teams, road blockades, etc.. More often than not the car gets blown to pieces not even halfway to the destination.
Luckily, I found out you can use the police notoriety wipe while doing these missions and then you can just deliver the car without any intervention. It really feels like cheating but I don't see any alternative.
Also, whoever came up with the Trailblazing minigame should be thrown into a shark tank.

[Nalano]

Luckily, I found out you can use the police notoriety wipe while doing these missions and then you can just deliver the car without any intervention.

That's what I was about to suggest. Just as well, you can't use your notoriety wipes or mayor call-in for in-mission stuff, so what else would you use it for?

[djbriandamage]

I haven't touched Diablo 3 for weeks and felt a loot whore void so I'm back to WoW. I took a 2-month break from WoW because I was bored of clearing the same raid week after week. Now I've rolled on a new server and am roughing it with no heirlooms or bank and I'm having a good time. It's ridiculous how replayable the game is, particularly after a refreshing break.

[Tritagonist]

Played a bit of Blacklight: Retribution. It looks nice; it has a bit of a Deus Ex: HR feel to it (except that it's not orange everywhere) in that it's futuristic, but not in a space-age kind of way, and it's generally dark, rainy and not-quite-perfect. They've got some decent maps in there with some pretty fun gameplay and a nice bit of variety as far as customizing your character goes - but the fact that the stuff you buy, either with in-game points or paid-for-currency, lasts only a day or two before it disappears is perhaps understandable from a business perspective, but not really very encouraging from a players perspective. You can buy the items for longer periods of time, even permanently, but the price becomes very expensive. I'm not sure how this impacts the competitiveness of stingy players yet.

[Casimir Effect]

Empire Total War might have gotten me. Took a while, and I thought about quitting several times, but now I understand what's going on things are clicking more.
I now understand that you need to fight naval combat personally, as that way you won't lose lots of ships/men and you'll probably come away with trophies to sell. Also, never give a straight attack order unless the battle is all but won.
I now know that taking territories angers other nations so slow expansion is advised, else you find yourself in a war with Spain and France at the same time.
I now realise that you need to very careful with your economy, as a few bad things happening at once can make you go bankrupt - something I've discovered (the hard way) will fuck you up for several years after the fact, even if it was only for 1 turn.
It also takes a while to get your head around the different style of combat. This isn't Rome: you can't win every or even most battle by cavalry shock tactics

But now I've learnt these and other things, everything has clicked and I'm having a lot of fun. It's become a Total War game, where clicking the 'End Turn' button is irresistible and will keep you up far too late.

[Fumarole]

Empire Total War might have gotten me.I played over 250 hours of Empire before playing Napoleon. Have you played that? It may be my favorite of the series so far, but I have yet to play Shogun 2.

[Sketch]

I love Shogun, but I miss the scale of Rome and Medieval, but when I play Empire it's too much! Maybe Napoleon would be the one for me, never really tried it, even though I have it on Steam.

[Casimir Effect]

I have Napoleon. His day will come.

Probably once I've finished Empire and left a few months to recover from Total War fever.

[airtekh]

I'm taking a break from Day Z to enjoy its parent game, Arma 2. I'm playing some of the singleplayer campaigns and scenarios. Arma does have a bit of a learning curve, but once you're used to it, it's much easier to appreciate the immersive experience it offers.

Also attended my second 'Tactical Tuesday' with the ARPS crew last night, which was tremendous fun. We did some pretty good coop and adversarial missions, followed by a test mission which involved charging at the enemy by riding bicycles, where our mission objective was to capture an exploding goat. (no really!)

Also just started L.A Noire. I had a major performance problem when I first loaded it - my frame rate was in single digits - but a quick trip to Rockstar's tech forum revealed a solution. I'm quickly finding out that I'm not very good at interrogating people, but I do love that the gameplay feels as if you're actually solving crimes.

[Olero]

It's quite handholdy for the first... few missions. You get walked through numerous activities but once you finish a certain big mission, you've got a lot more free reign.

That said, you don't have to do the missions at all. You can just go off on your own - but if you follow the story missions and so on, you'll get what you want a lot faster.

Well, I have to change my opinion about Saints Row 3 after playing it for some hours. I'm enjoying it pretty much, and am already overwhelmed by all the possibilities available! It's still not my usual cup of tea, for I'm not too fond of mindless shooting/fighting, but so far I'm not bored by it, which is a good sign. And I love details like being able to surf on a car, use a parachute when falling and even details like your character singing along with the radio.

[NathanH]

Been playing some more Warlock. The AI definitely needs some work, particularly in expansion, creation of powerful units, and overcoming its odd water fetish. But it is still good fun.

[Doodier]

I was gonna play the new DLC for Dungeons of Dredmor but I don't see the new skills in the beggining. Do I have to somehow make it active or..?

[Tikey]

Finishing Saints row the third dlc in coop. Started a female character in M&B:warband and finished zeno clash.
Bought Witcher 2 so that'll come next.

[apricotsoup]

I was gonna play the new DLC for Dungeons of Dredmor but I don't see the new skills in the beggining. Do I have to somehow make it active or..?

Free DLC on steam can be odd if the devs put it out as DLC instead of a patch as you need to go to the DLC page and hit install (even if you already have the game installed). This will credit your account with the DLC and it should work fine.

If you've done all of this and it's a DoD issue, ignore me :]

[LaunchJC]

Cave Story +

Though I spent the first hour thinking "they haven't done much with the visuals" only to realise I had it set to classic -_-", the remastered soundtrack is nice too.

[Winged Nazgul]

Free DLC on steam can be odd if the devs put it out as DLC instead of a patch as you need to go to the DLC page and hit install (even if you already have the game installed). This will credit your account with the DLC and it should work fine.

If you've done all of this and it's a DoD issue, ignore me :]

Confirming this is what I had to do to install the free DLC.

[Starry Vere]

Wanted to second Warlock. Really having a lot of fun with this game. The different 'personalities' of the units really add to the fun. Some of the mechanics are a bit similar to Civ V, which I got in the recent sale, spent all of an hour on, and quickly went back to this game, which from an initial observation seems sort of like Civ V distilled to just the good parts. So much more enjoyable to assault cities with Noble Werewolves and Black Minotaurs vs. plain old archers and soldiers. And I find the AI does a pretty good job on the defense. It defends the cities stubbornly and fairly effectively.

[fiddlesticks]

Still playing Binding of Isaac. Only two more items to go for Platinum God. Guess it's time to bring out the good old Dice.

[khaz]

Almost completed Treasure Adventure Game. Its amazing how much game and exploration has been fit into such a small universe. Someone recommend some good metroidvanias please?

I am especially fond of the warp zone. The entire world is presented as a stark black and white painting you walk across with each island's silhouette displayed accurately. Its like you're transformed into a planet sized giant and you walk over the to the island you want to get too. Brilliant.

[Kodeen]

I'm also (kinda) playing TAG, haven't touched it in a couple of days though. As far as other metroidvanias on PC, my favorite is Aquaria, though it is quite divisive.

[NathanH]

Planeswalkers. Don't like Trinity of Elements, only managed to beat Koth, Tezzeret, Kiora, Jace, and Chandra with it. Guardians of the Wood is the next deck.

[Casimir Effect]

Two hours in Empire to do a single land battle. Twice, because the AI pathfinding completely fucked me over the first time which directly led to my defeat. It was the defense of Lisbon; taken from the dastardly Spanish through a daring naval invasion, who then returned in force ready to pursue their claims. They had numerical superiority. They were more experienced. They were composed of better units. But what they didn't have... was a stiff upper lip. And so their army was decimated, retreating with only a fraction of health remaining in only a quarter of the original amount of units. Whereas my glorious lads, though they sufferred many losses, stayed intact to a unit and ready to be reinforced. Except now they'll be stronger, more experienced, and all the more ready for Spanish blood.

I think I prefer Empire to Medieval II. Can it replace Rome in my heart? Doubtful, but who knows...

[Raaritsgozilla]

Nothing will replace Rome in my heart

[alms]

Finished Sword & Sworcery. Loved it.

[Keep]

Late on the Skyrim wagon but that's how I go.

But pretty geography aside...it's kind of a shit game isn't it?

[Nalano]

But pretty geography aside...it's kind of a shit game isn't it?

There's a game in there, too?

[Keep]

There's a game in there, too?

I'm doing my best to avoid it but it keeps leaking in. Like poo out of a sewage pipe. (A linear sewage pipe that is, with a boss and a special treasure chest at the end, and a shortcut route afterward that conveniently drops you back outside.)

[Spider Jerusalem]

Finished Sword & Sworcery. Loved it.
i don't understand you or your kind.


Late on the Skyrim wagon but that's how I go.

But pretty geography aside...it's kind of a shit game isn't it?
best hiking sim on the market.

[Serenegoose]

I'm doing my best to avoid it but it keeps leaking in. Like poo out of a sewage pipe. (A linear sewage pipe that is, with a boss and a special treasure chest at the end, and a shortcut route afterward that conveniently drops you back outside.)

Alright I... don't understand this. There's so much to complain about with skyrim - the lacklustre combat, the nonexistent characters, the empty world - but the fact that you don't need to backtrack through a dungeon just to get out again isn't top of its list of problems.

[Tikey]

I've just finished Saints row the third: The trouble with clones.
THE FINAL MISSION MY GOD! Could barely play from laughter. It was brilliant.

[Juan Carlo]

I just finished "Geneforge 4" and it might be one of the best RPGs I've ever played. It approaches Fallout 2 levels of greatness, I think. Geneforge 3, while taking a huge leap forward in the quality of writing in the series, also was a bit restricted and linear and the last portions of the game became a massive monster grinding slog. But G4 is just the right size, nearly every mission can be completed in 3 or 4 different ways (often without fighting at all), and the storyline is far and away the best of any spiderweb game I've ever played.

Also still playing "AC:Bro," although I've lost some steam on it. It starts out great, but then it freaking drowns you with pointless, repetitive, busywork. I'm halfway through the game and new stuff is still being introduced: Upgrading stores, recruiting and managing assassins, destroying towers, theives guild tasks, brothel tasks...and the list goes on and on. None of this would be a problem if all of this inconsequential fluff was interesting, but most is simply repeating the same things over and over again. The main quest missions, when they aren't acting as dry tutorials for all the busywork are quite good, but unfortunately they tend to be drowned out by all the added nonsense. As it is they should have called the game, "Assassin's Creed: Checklist."

They really needed someone to rein the developers in on that one and tell them that less is usually more.

It's a bit disappointing as I thought AC 2 struck just the right balance between more random, repetitive, side tasks and the more varied main missions, but AC:Bro has far too much of the former.

[Bobtree]

Do the SR3 extras play any better than the base game, or are they just funnier? I was disappointed with it as an action game, as the balance, challenge, and controls were all a bit too loose for my liking. The vehicle handling in particular was pretty bland all around.

[Nalano]

Alright I... don't understand this. There's so much to complain about with skyrim - the lacklustre combat, the nonexistent characters, the empty world - but the fact that you don't need to backtrack through a dungeon just to get out again isn't top of its list of problems.

I think it's called "IF I JUST BROUGHT A LADDER I WOULDN'T HAVE TO GO THE LONG WAY"

[Battle Programmer Spike]

I've just finished Saints row the third: The trouble with clones.
THE FINAL MISSION MY GOD! Could barely play from laughter. It was brilliant.

Too bad we didn't find a way to re-activate the super powers again :(

[Rii]

Still playing Catherine, up to the sixth night. I can't get enough of the announcer at the beginning of each 'boss' stage: "The [Child/Doom's Bride/etc.] has arrived. It's the killer. Do not die." I wish all video games came with such succinct instructions.

EDIT: Found a clip with the voiceover, ~0:20:


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

Also I can't believe that Katherine may be cheating on me. =/

[Vexing Vision]

I just finished "Geneforge 4" and it might be one of the best RPGs I've ever played. It approaches Fallout 2 levels of greatness, I think. Geneforge 3, while taking a huge leap forward in the quality of writing in the series, also was a bit restricted and linear and the last portions of the game became a massive monster grinding slog. But G4 is just the right size, nearly every mission can be completed in 3 or 4 different ways (often without fighting at all), and the storyline is far and away the best of any spiderweb game I've ever played.

You are going to have such a ball with GF5.

Can't wait to see your reactions!

[Althea]

i don't understand you or your kind.
It's called a respect for superb audio design and insanity resulting from enjoyment of adventure games, I'd say.

[Casimir Effect]

I'm doing my best to avoid it but it keeps leaking in. Like poo out of a sewage pipe. (A linear sewage pipe that is, with a boss and a special treasure chest at the end, and a shortcut route afterward that conveniently drops you back outside.)
If you want you could just turn around at the end of the dungeon and spend 5-20mins of your life walking out with pride. Throw on that Proclaimers song while doing it to enhance the fun. On repeat, of course.

[Flint]

Thanks to a few weeks of break from everything (stomach bugs, exams, weekend retreats) I've not been able to really play games at all (or do anything else) but slowly getting back into things. Still trudging with Amalur every now and then - enjoyable, but can only play for small portions every now and then because it's getting a bit monotonous. What's been taking my time moreso has been Rayman Origins that a friend got me for my birthday a while back. Now, despite pretty much starting my gaming life with an endless armada of 2D platformers, I've gone off the genre quite a lot in the recent years and it's really hard for me to find one that really sticks with me. Sonic Generations' 2D parts did it last year and now Rayman Origins has stolen my heart. Such a wonderfully charming, adorable, lovely, feel-good, funny, beautiful, perfectly executed game that is, to put it simply, incredibly fun. The level design is excellent, the art style and animation are AMAZING, the difficulty is spot-on and it's all just so damn charming and charismatic. I can't help but smile when playing it. Lovely, lovely little thing.

[Keep]

Alright I... don't understand this. There's so much to complain about with skyrim - the lacklustre combat, the nonexistent characters, the empty world - but the fact that you don't need to backtrack through a dungeon just to get out again isn't top of its list of problems.

No what bothers me about it isn't the shortcut, it's the predictable structure of the whole thing. Every mission I take on, doesn't matter if I'm working for the Bard's college, or the Mage's guild, or just some random mini-quest, or woteva. It's gonna be the same deal regardless: travel to cave/cairn/ruin, crawl down a linear tunnel, boss room at the end, shortcut out. Would it have killed 'em to throw in a few more open-ended maps for the quests, like something you'd meet in Doom, or Thief, or Deus Ex? (Ok, high-standards I know, but at LEAST just a few different patterns!)

[NathanH]

There could probably be a few more sprawly interiors, but I guess you go into a dungeon to get something different from the open exterior so it isn't that bad.

[fiddlesticks]

I'm finished with Binding of Isaac for now.

1413

That took a lot more time than I'd care to admit. Now, since the Dead State Kickstarter just launched two days ago I figured I'd play through Vampire: Bloodlines again to see if it's as good as I remember. But I don't know what clan I should choose. Already played as Brujah, Malkavian and Nosferatu. Any suggestions?

[Rauten]

Tremere; nothing like killing your foes by making them puke their innards.

[CSGrimey]

Now playing through Half Life 2: Episode 1 and Bastion (which is beautiful!).

[alms]

i don't understand you or your kind.

and what kind would that be? ;)

The game is not without flaws, the writing can be uneven, and the twitter integration is just a little more tolerable than Word's Clippy. But it was also a game that dragged me in its world as I was playing it, and that's about one of the greatest compliment I can make to any game.

[Doodier]

Free DLC on steam can be odd if the devs put it out as DLC instead of a patch as you need to go to the DLC page and hit install (even if you already have the game installed). This will credit your account with the DLC and it should work fine.

If you've done all of this and it's a DoD issue, ignore me :]
Thanks! It helped!

[NathanH]

The later levels of Tidalis are rather fiendish.

[Heliocentric]

@fiddlesticks Malkavian are the best thing in the game, best dialogue, best unique content, best "your character spelling out the plot of the game but it didn't make sense at the time", best argument with inanimate objects, best conversation "win button" (insanity).

Feel free to play Malkavian 2nd, but don't miss out.

[Rauten]

@fiddlesticks Malkavian

He already played Malkavian, Nosferatu and Brujah.
But yes, for anyone else reading that might not have beaten VtmBloodlines as Malkavian: you're missing out on some of the funniest and most interesting dialogues in the game. Although I'd say that Malkavian is best played for a 2nd run, really puts into perspective some bits of insanity.

[Lukasz]

Although I'd say that Malkavian is best played for a 2nd run, really puts into perspective some bits of insanity.
I second that. Nozzie's are third.

any other clan can be first.

[Leopig]

Finished Saints row 3 yesterday now getting stuck into AC: Revelations. Why do games have to have such long tutorials, yeah AC games are about the worst, 3 hours in and still being told about stuff. Thing is it is pretty much the same as the last 3 games. Still I love the game though. Once I finished this I will go back and finish Torchlight.

[Flint]

I found Toreador to be a pretty great clan to go with thanks to the Celerity power. Bullet time in a game with wonky combat is a blessing.

[sonson]

I think I prefer Empire to Medieval II. Can it replace Rome in my heart? Doubtful, but who knows...

Glad someone else is giving this some recognition after so much bad press.

It seemed to get panned by the franchise’s usual fanbase for not offering the challenge of a Paradox grand strategy game in the guise of a AAA graphics and feature rich masterpiece, as if that were something which was remotely achievable. There have nevertheless been few games which have offered the sheer ambition and scope of Empire without sacrificing accessibility, immersion, overall polish and excitement.

If you don’t have the Napoleon expansion I suggest you get it, it refines and enhances all the good bits and irons out many of the bugs . Then I suggest you add this mod (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1579) to turn it into the most exciting Total War experience available.

It introduces a variety of different features which all conspire to create the best Total War game, and probably strategy experience, I’ve ever played, and I’ve been playing since buying Shogun on the release date way back in 2000 or whenever it was.

I don’t know how they managed it but the authors of the mod have managed to manage the AI so that it follows it’s own agenda, the world no longer revolves around you, and the game changes dramatically as a result. It becomes an emergent narrative and replicates the ebb and flow and intricacy of nations and protectorates all reacting to each other, as opposed to the usual Total War Staus Qou of the player faction inexorably swallowing the world over time.

When I last played my campaign as Austria my starting position was barley different than when I began, which says something of itself, yet the world had totally changed around me through war and annexation and rebellion and regime change. My manpower was exhausted and the majority of my population were furious because of the Authoritarian social policies I had had to pursue to raise sufficient taxes and levies for the army.
I had created a protectorate in Switzerland to act as a buffer between myself and France, it had changed hands numerous times, and either side of the border French and Austrian troops supplemented by regional auxiliaries stared across at each other waiting for the inevitable end of the ceasefire.
I had tried to sway the other major Western European powers to break the stalemate, but Britain remained neutral and Spain, despite being bribed to break the Franco-Iberian alliance, refused to get involved. Russia had been committed to war against Prussia and France in the North but gradually stopped sending armies and turned on the Ottomans and Polish instead. I had tried to preserve Poland as a buffer against Russia and refused to declare war on them, so my alliance with Ivan is now very chilly. For the first time ever in a Total War game what other factions do matters to me in a manner which is not contrived or gamey, and it is epic in every sense of the word.
You’ll note that I haven’t even mentioned the battles, which have ranged from massive confrontations of squares and lines and skirmish screens won through flanking and manoeuvre to bloody close combat in farm houses and town squares.

[postinternetsyndrome]

Long time lurker, first time poster. Have a big huge thread in mind but I understand you have to demonstrate your humanity by doing some regular posting first. :)

I have recently gone into BF3 deep. Have played it semi-regularly since release, but the last week or so I've been playing it almost exclusively. Since I realized you can actually compensate for weapon recoil by pulling the mouse down I've been steadily improving my results. I guess it's a bit embarrassing and a something of a no-brainer, but the though simply didn't cross my mind before I saw a youtube video where it was mentioned. Looking forward to the CQ expansion for some much-needed map variation.

Other than that I've been trying out the expansion for The Binding of Isaac. It's different, but the same. Would perhaps be a bit disappointed if it had cost more, but since it was so cheap I'll let it slide. I also have not been able to get very deep, so there's still much to see. One thing that does annoy me is that it is practically impossible to figure out what the new passive items actually do. They have a name and an icon, and from reading the wiki they have different passive effects, which are very much non-obvious (like dropping stuff randomly when you kill enemies, increase the probability for various events and so on).

[Spider Jerusalem]

It's called a respect for superb audio design and insanity resulting from enjoyment of adventure games, I'd say.
insanity, i can get. sure.

insanity.

[Rauten]

I'm with the Spider on this one. I bought it on a whim, played it, finished it... and it was... I dunno, okay-ish. Nothing great. Pretty straightforward. And to be honest, save from one or two peculiar moments, the sound/music never really stood out.

I really don't get what people see in the game. *shrug*

[Althea]

S:S&S + Headphones = Aural orgasm.

Only thing almost as good is listening to Solar Fields at above-average volume with headphones.

[Rauten]

S:S&S + Headphones = Aural orgasm.

I always play with headphones. And I find even the Dredmor OST to be better than SB:S&S's.

I dunno, I guess I'm genetically engineered to not give a freck about that one game's songs *shrug*

[Althea]

You suck then.

[Nalano]

Fight! Fight! Fight!

[Rauten]

You suck then.

Meh, I'm a dirty unwashed console player, I already expect to receive no love or apreciation within RPS.


Fight! Fight! Fight!

Can you suggest an appropiate arena for a duel to the death?

[Althea]

Meh, I'm a dirty unwashed console player, I already expect to receive no love or apreciation within RPS.
*Hisses loudly*

This is coming from she who's spent the afternoon playing The Sims 2.

[Rauten]

*Hisses loudly*

This is coming from she who's spent the afternoon playing The Sims 2.

Some things you just don't say in public. This is one such thing.

[jnx]

I'm trying to play King Arthur 2 now that I finally bought it. I guess it runs fine enough but other issues still stand. The combat just feels soooooooo uninvolving. It's like nothings happening. All the models sure look good but there's barely any animation and the combat audio only plays if you zoom in so that you can see soldier's pimples. It kind'a feels like it's in constant slow motion too. It's like playing Nothing Happening: The Game in slow motion. I love the narrated text quests though, I'll probably just go for auto combat.

[Anthile]

Well, I played through Saints Row 3 to 100% completion and I'm not really sure what to say. It's probably one of the best games I have ever played. Seriously, there were just so many great moments and memorable lines. If I had to find some criticism, it's probably that every aspect is a bit shallow and that the default difficulty is simply too easy.
Unlike just about every other game it doesn't even pretend that your character is anything but a kleptomaniac, bloodthirsty sociopath and instead takes it to the logical extreme. None of the typical "I stabbed ten people on my way here and made half a million bucks in the process but crime does not pay" hypocrisy and that in itself is refreshing.

[Nalano]

Can you suggest an appropiate arena for a duel to the death?

A tub of jello. Also, this floss shall serve as your uniforms.


Unlike just about every other game it doesn't even pretend that your character is anything but a kleptomaniac, bloodthirsty sociopath and instead takes it to the logical extreme. None of the typical "I stabbed ten people on my way here and made half a million bucks in the process but crime does not pay" hypocrisy and that in itself is refreshing.

There isn't a smiley big enough to contain the grin I have plastered on my face right now. Also, I played to 100%. Thrice.

[Kodeen]

*Hisses loudly*

This is coming from she who's spent the afternoon playing The Sims 2.

Sounds like you need to upgrade. How else could you play with Katy Perry's sweet treats?

[Giaddon]

Currently replaying Mafia 2. What an excellent game. Gorgeous and smooth engine; solid, fluid combat; and of course great acting and writing. Playing it for a second time, and knowing how the story goes, makes it even better (easier to keep track of all those Italian names!). Are 2K Czech still around? I wonder what they're working on now.

[alms]

I really don't get what people see in the game. *shrug*

I'm in the same position with Bastion. The art style is great and I really, really, REALLY wanted to like that game, but the gameplay, narrator, OST(*) don't do anything for me. There's a lot of good things in it, but they never manage to merge into something with a defined personality. It feels ...hollow.

FTR SS:S&S didn't drive me insane at all, unlike other well-reviewed adventures. It strikes a balance between being not so easy it overstays its welcome, but not too hard to break the immersion.

Then again I can figure what feels just right for me on one day, might come off as too simple (and boring) or too hard (and frustrating) for someone else on another day.

(*) ok with the exception of that one song.

[Althea]

Sounds like you need to upgrade. How else could you play with Katy Perry's sweet treats?
I might like some of her dresses, but I do not want her in my games.

[Nalano]

Are 2K Czech still around? I wonder what they're working on now.

They made some tennis game and a cold-war-turned-hot FPS in the works got canned. Dunno what's in the future.

[Rauten]

I'm in the same position with Bastion. The art style is great and I really, really, REALLY wanted to like that game, but the gameplay, narrator, OST(*) don't do anything for me. There's a lot of good things in it, but they never manage to merge into something with a defined personality. It feels ...hollow.

Guess we're the opposite of each other, because I love Bastion with all my heart, and I have a mancrush on the narrator.


I might like some of her dresses, but I do not want her in my games.

Oh come on, who wouldn't want Katy Perry's mounted head adorning the chimney?

[Anthile]

There isn't a smiley big enough to contain the grin I have plastered on my face right now. Also, I played to 100%. Thrice.

While writing this, I remembered that one scene from Mass Effect 2, near the beginning, where Shepard calls out looters on Omega.

[Althea]

Oh come on, who wouldn't want Katy Perry's mounted head adorning the chimney?
That's a bit creepy, but I'd love to raid her wardrobe.

[sonson]

Well, I played through Saints Row 3 to 100% completion and I'm not really sure what to say. It's probably one of the best games I have ever played. Seriously, there were just so many great moments and memorable lines. If I had to find some criticism, it's probably that every aspect is a bit shallow and that the default difficulty is simply too easy.
Unlike just about every other game it doesn't even pretend that your character is anything but a kleptomaniac, bloodthirsty sociopath and instead takes it to the logical extreme. None of the typical "I stabbed ten people on my way here and made half a million bucks in the process but crime does not pay" hypocrisy and that in itself is refreshing.

Damn straight. It is a glorious experience.

[Sketch]

I thought it was slightly disappointing.

[Althea]

Saints Row the Third is fucking awesome when you play it.

When you step back and look at it, you see the flaws but you just know that you'll do it again.

[djbriandamage]

Guild Wars 2 beta weekend!! WOOOO!!!!

Also my sister's wedding. I think I have to pick one. :(

[Vexing Vision]

Well, I played through Saints Row 3 to 100% completion and I'm not really sure what to say. It's probably one of the best games I have ever played. Seriously, there were just so many great moments and memorable lines. If I had to find some criticism, it's probably that every aspect is a bit shallow and that the default difficulty is simply too easy.
Unlike just about every other game it doesn't even pretend that your character is anything but a kleptomaniac, bloodthirsty sociopath and instead takes it to the logical extreme. None of the typical "I stabbed ten people on my way here and made half a million bucks in the process but crime does not pay" hypocrisy and that in itself is refreshing.

I don't know what was happening to me. I don't even like GTA. But Saints Row 3 just made me genuinely happy and delighted even while wincing at the crudeness of it all.

Absolutely glorious!


I'm reinstalling Witcher 1, Space Rangers 2 Reboot and try to figure out how to get Vampires: Bloodlines starting without feeling I missed out on the splash videos.

[cosmicolor]

Virtua Fighter Final Showdown on the PS3 consoletoy. Quite a good fighter game, but not many people seem to have picked it up, even though it's free with the PSN+ thing.

[Ravelle]

Completed Splinter Cell Conviction, lovely game although a little short.

Started the Penny Arcade games since I wanted to finish them before the third comes out.

[Heliocentric]

Completed Splinter Cell Conviction, lovely game although a little short.


Good job getting over the hump, I need to say though the story is only really a tutorial to the best content which is the "rts skirmish"-like Deniable Ops mode, coop or alone that is the games better part.

[Ravelle]

Good job getting over the hump, I need to say though the story is only really a tutorial to the best content which is the "rts skirmish"-like Deniable Ops mode, coop or alone that is the games better part.

Yeah, the second part of the game was really the hardest, it was pretty simple right after that.

I found the weapon stashes a bit weird, I usually walk around with the same two guns through out the game and I'm only allowed to upgrade my weapons once? strange stuff.

The end hints at a sequel but Blacklist is suppose to be a new story if I'm correct.

[Heliocentric]

Yeah, the second part of the game was really the hardest, it was pretty simple right after that.

I found the weapon stashes a bit weird, I usually walk around with the same two guns through out the game and I'm only allowed to upgrade my weapons once? strange stuff.

The end hints at a sequel but Blacklist is suppose to be a new story if I'm correct.TBH, I watched the game-play video, it does follow on, its just the voice actor they confused things with.

[Ravelle]

TBH, I watched the game-play video, it does follow on, its just the voice actor they confused things with.

Ah, I figured it was some kind of origins story because of it's younger voice actor.

[kstress71]

Ahh, the weekend. Looking forward to digging (or should I say climbing) more into Catherine. Then some Binding of Isaac, Nation Red, and Serious Sam HD First Encounter to blow off some adrenaline.

The only goal for the remainder of the weekend is to see Prometheus.

VERY tempted to pick up Max Payne 3 though...

[coldvvvave]

cold-war-turned-hot FPS in the works got canned
Thank god.

[Battle Programmer Spike]

Saints Row the Third is fucking awesome when you play it.

When you step back and look at it, you see the flaws but you just know that you'll do it again.

Indeed. It's an awesome game despite its flaws. Also, having played all three games I find the second one to be the most "balanced" one as a game. It has a good semi non-linear story (you can do any of the three main-story branches at any times) so full of hilarious and awesome moments, it has more places to enter (Malls, almost every flat/crib you can buy which you can customize, as well) and some other things I would've loved to see on Saints Row: The Third like the "bouncer/security" activity. On the other side... it was a shitty port, performance wise.

I've also played Saints Row: The Third 3 times now, and co-op is so fucking fun that I'll probably do many more replays of that game.

[jnx]

I should try getting back to it. I think I'm about 2/3 through if not more. I enjoyed it though, so I guess something interesting came out and then something else etc.

[Sketch]

Saints Row 3 has amazing voice acting too. At least male and female 1 do.

[Vexing Vision]

So I got Vampire: Bloodlines to run.

It's not impressing me. At all.

Part of this is because of fucking sparkly vampires. I hate fucking sparkly vampires. And I know way too many people playing Vampire as pen&paper. And they're all fucking sparkly. I think it's catching.

Apart from that, neither combat nor stealth nor character progression impresses me. Dialogues would have been cheesy for a game 10 years older and I saw the "surprise" in the Asylum coming when I entered the room upstairs.


I'm probably becoming jaded, and it doesn't help that just two weeks ago, I replayed Alpha Protocol which has excellent dialogues despite also not impressing me with combat and stealth.

[Vexing Vision]

Saints Row 3 has amazing voice acting too. At least male and female 1 do.

The Spanish Chica (I think female #3) made my day so often that I literally fell a bit in love with my own character.

[Giaddon]

Huh, I found the writing in Vampire to be at least five times as good as the writing in Alpha Protocol, which was uniformly terrible. If you dislike Vampires, though, I don't know why you would pick up the game.

[ado]

Still Diablo 3 mostly, but I'm starting to play other stuff as well. Other stuff being Wrath of the Lamb and TF2. After playing D3's Inferno difficulty TF2 is starting to feel like a vacation.

[Heliocentric]

Huh, I found the writing in Vampire to be at least five times as good as the writing in Alpha Protocol, which was uniformly terrible. If you dislike Vampires, though, I don't know why you would pick up the game.
Alpha Protocol was suitably cheesey for its genre of Spy Thriller, but for moody supernatural drama Bloodlines falls short, but really if I was to take 2 vertical slice moments of my most memorable scenes
Talking to Velvet Velour:

Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm...
Malkavian: What is your fable, doll?
Velvet Velour: Mmm-hmm...
Malkavian: How come you hide your true name behind a fabric, Susan?
Velvet Velour: There's only one part of my body I don't want anyone entering and that's my head. That other name...never say it again, it belongs to a dead girl.
Malkavian: Why are you hiding your past from me doll?
Velvet Velour: I'm not hiding, I'm not that girl, she was flawed, she was naive, she was nobody and now she's dead. Let the dead rest in peace. My name is VV, show yourself out, I'd like to say a prayer for someone I used to know.
This is a Quest breaker, only happens for Malkavians

A Conrad Marburg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E06702u2iig
The range of variation in both is excellent

[sabrage]

Raiden 3. Shit's hard. I think it actually did see a Windows release, but I'm playing the PS2 version.

[Hensler]

I am trying really hard to get into Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and it's just not doing it for me. It seems like the developers were so focused on creating a game like the original Deus Ex, they forgot to put any heart into the game. Everything just feels really mechanical, and not in a good way that fits the augmentation theme :) . I'm at the end of the 2nd city and the game really feels like a chore to keep playing. And this is coming from someone who liked Deus Ex, Invisible War, and the Project Snowblind shooter spin-off to play all of them multiple times.

[Heliocentric]

I'm at the end of the 2nd city and the game really feels like a chore to keep playing. Skip quests, really, you don't need to wallpaper your mom's basement and collect all the cans in the drive, sort them into steel and aluminium with a magnet and them take them to be recycled.

You only need about 30% of the praxis points to really shine.

[Hensler]

You only need about 30% of the praxis points to really shine.

That's kind of the impression I started to get looking at the "tech tree" - and only a few of the augments are very interesting. I'd like to see more crazy stuff like the punching through walls or turning my body into an IED and less stuff that feels like a basic Call of Duty perk. I think I've found all the Praxis stuff I can at this point in the game, and I'm already an uber-hacker with some strong stealth skills.

[Lukasz]

This is a Quest breaker, only happens for Malkavians

The F--- you dare doing? You will make me play Bloodlines again. Goddamnit Malkavian playthrough was such an amazing thing.

Playing Mass Effect 2. I quit Warband. not a game for me.

Hardcore level of difficulty. Femshep and trying to play as renegade as possible. Second playthrough of ME2, started last year but quit eight hours in.
I continued from my last save.

First hour or so was so so frustrating as i completely forgot how to play the game, to play vanguard properly. I died a lot, couldn't properly do anything. lots of restarts and 20 hours later i pretty much crush anyone who is not a boss and die only when i get too overconfident (it doesn't help that this move which allows you to hit your enemy with great power is so awesome and yet so useless most of the time. good for regenerating shield in tight spot but using it when there is more than one guy is extremely hazardous).

[Leopig]

Finished Torchlight yesterday. It was fun for a while but got a bit samey. Still it was a freebie for ordering TL2 so can't complain, I got 25 odd hours out of it, which is 5 times more than MW3.

[Vexing Vision]

Huh, I found the writing in Vampire to be at least five times as good as the writing in Alpha Protocol, which was uniformly terrible. If you dislike Vampires, though, I don't know why you would pick up the game.

Because everyone tells me that if I like computer roleplaying games, it's the one game "I must play". I have some very convincing friends who nevertheless underestimated my dislike of Vampires despite severe discussions on the topic.

[Drake Sigar]

Apart from that, neither combat nor stealth nor character progression impresses me. Dialogues would have been cheesy for a game 10 years older and I saw the "surprise" in the Asylum coming when I entered the room upstairs.

Hang in there. AP didn't get good till the starting country was over.

[NathanH]

If you dislike vampires it can probably never be good. But of course disliking vampires means you are obvioulsy malfunctioning, so who knows.

[augustuskent]

Playing Far Cry 2 over and over again expecting it to change into Far Cry 3.


Wait a second...

[NathanH]

Elven Legacy is quite a vicious game. I'm not even sure how it is physically possible to win gold on the mission I just played. I suppose I could rush my skyships to the hexer and hit him with spells from afar.

[Flint]

If you dislike vampires it can probably never be good.
I don't know, I dislike vampires and still managed to enjoy the game (although I wouldn't call it a classic).

[Voon]

I'm still quite baffled about how I managed to take down a coupla Bell Gargoyles, playing as my second character in Dark Souls. I tried killing them with a Halberd +3, which had me to go through a few good tries, a few months ago and I tried killing them with a Broadsword +5 (with a little helping of gold pine resin) and I almost took down the first one before its buddy went down to fry me! Didn't die fighting them, today. And I almost won a Gargoyle Helm...

[vinraith]

Because everyone tells me that if I like computer roleplaying games, it's the one game "I must play". I have some very convincing friends who nevertheless underestimated my dislike of Vampires despite severe discussions on the topic.

Never take "you must play this" claims seriously, tastes are far more subjective than anyone is willing to admit, and the sacred cattle of PC gaming are all deeply flawed besides.

[Heliocentric]

PC Gaming is more broken than any other type, but that allows the epic and the bizzare in.

It's a compromise I'm more than happy with.

[Ravelle]

So I got Vampire: Bloodlines to run.

It's not impressing me. At all.

Part of this is because of fucking sparkly vampires. I hate fucking sparkly vampires. And I know way too many people playing Vampire as pen&paper. And they're all fucking sparkly. I think it's catching.

Apart from that, neither combat nor stealth nor character progression impresses me. Dialogues would have been cheesy for a game 10 years older and I saw the "surprise" in the Asylum coming when I entered the room upstairs.


I'm probably becoming jaded, and it doesn't help that just two weeks ago, I replayed Alpha Protocol which has excellent dialogues despite also not impressing me with combat and stealth.

There should be a massive fan-patch around that fixes a lot of stuff and enhances the textures somewhat if I recall correctly.

[vinraith]

PC Gaming is more broken than any other type, but that allows the epic and the bizzare in.

It's a compromise I'm more than happy with.

Oh, me too. I just mean that one man's sacred cow is another man's broken pile of useless slag, even moreso in PC gaming than in other media.

[Drake Sigar]

Hitman: Blood Money. I never noticed back when it was released, but all the guys have necks thicker than tree trunks (first thing I did on Mass Effect was drastically decrease neck size) while a lot of the women's bodies have proportions that would make Jessica Rabbit raise an eyebrow.

Well, at least when it comes to needling people in the neck, finding a vein is easy!

[Althea]

Gone back to Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga.

Why?

Because I'm not shit.

[Leopig]

Trying Bastion for the second time, to see if I can get into it.

[The JG Man]

I find my Binding of Isaac playing has decreased after finishing listening to the Giant Bombcasts from E3 week, but that doesn't change the fact I've put a crapload of time into it this week.

That being said, the more important thing for me is after being in a foul mood this weekend, I've resorted to two games I enjoy playing for different reasons. Sonic Generations has provided the fun/enjoyment that you crave when you want a good pick-me-up, whilst Super Meat Boy's custom levels provided satisfactory amounts of self-punishment. I think it's something about platformers, really.

[Oshada]

Even though I have Sonic Generations, I'm really not finding it fun. It's too fast! One mistake sends it all to hell. I guess these are common complaints from inexperienced players but it's a shame. Anything I can do except memorise whole levels?

[The JG Man]

I think my main point would be to, seemingly counter-intuitively, slow it down a little. Are you spin-dashing or boosting too much, for example? Whilst I'm not saying you should know the levels by rote, knowing them is key to knowing when it's safer to go faster; you should still be able to safely navigate any level in the game on your first attempt, providing you give it a little patience (respectively for a Sonic game). A lot of the time in some levels, there are areas where you can progress through the slower-looking platforming heavy sections faster than areas where you may be able to boost but are more prone to screwing up. Remember as well as that the higher up you are in a level, the harder it is to stay on that path, but the faster you can ultimately usually go when you're up there.

For Modern Sonic, you're more likely to be able to boost safely when the camera is behind you; you can see what's coming and what you need to do to overcome X, Y or Z. When it goes to 2.5D camera, like Classic, you'll likely want to be boosting less because the game is telling you it's a platforming section. Overall though, just explore the levels at your own pace. After playing enough, you'll either find yourself with a large bank of levels, or you can buy a load from the shop. That should cover any mistakes you do while you investigate the terrain.

[Rauten]

Bought both FarCry games the other day when they were on sale, and I'm making my way trough FarCry 1.
It's still quite nice to look at despite it's very advanced age, but god damnit it's so hard, and I'm playing on medium!!

[sabrage]

Bought both FarCry games the other day when they were on sale, and I'm making my way trough FarCry 1.
It's still quite nice to look at despite it's very advanced age, but god damnit it's so hard, and I'm playing on medium!!
Have you gotten to the sniper-rocketeers yet? It goes from "fun and hard" to "broken and stupid". I beat it out of pure spite.

[Rauten]

I've seen sniper-rocketeers for a while now, but I'm not sure if you're talking of a specific area; right now I'm making my way to the archives after unleashing all manners of hell because "Doyle: oh yeah, cut the electricity in the whole island so the genetically engineered monsters start running rampart. THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. YOU WILL NOW MAKE THIS GOOD IDEA A REALITY".

[sabrage]

I've seen sniper-rocketeers for a while now, but I'm not sure if you're talking of a specific area; right now I'm making my way to the archives after unleashing all manners of hell because "Doyle: oh yeah, cut the electricity in the whole island so the genetically engineered monsters start running rampart. THIS IS A GOOD IDEA. YOU WILL NOW MAKE THIS GOOD IDEA A REALITY".
That's the turning-point. If you want to exit with dignity and a shred of goodwill left towards Crytek, nobody will judge you for quitting now.

[Rauten]

Heh. Well I'm gonna try to push forward anyway, little by little if necessary so as to avoid a burn out. I just hope FarCry2 doesn't have mutants or aliens or random crap like that; I like my FPSs to be against human/humanoid enemies, damnit.

[fiddlesticks]

You'll be very happy with Far Cry 2 then. One thing it certainly doesn't lack is human enemies.

[vinraith]

Heh. Well I'm gonna try to push forward anyway, little by little if necessary so as to avoid a burn out. I just hope FarCry2 doesn't have mutants or aliens or random crap like that; I like my FPSs to be against human/humanoid enemies, damnit.

Far Cry 2 has literally nothing to do with Far Cry 1, fortunately.

[Rauten]

You'll be very happy with Far Cry 2 then. One thing it certainly doesn't lack is human enemies.


Far Cry 2 has literally nothing to do with Far Cry 1, fortunately.

Good to hear; now I want to finish Far Cry 1 even more so I can start number 2!

[Heliocentric]

Good to hear; now I want to finish Far Cry 1 even more so I can start number 2!

Dont play Crysis past punching the Korean commander to death (I mean, why would you shoot him?) either.

[Hensler]

Gone back to Divinity 2: The Dragon Knight Saga.

Why?

Because I'm not shit.

Not sure what you mean by that, but I'd like to hear more of what people think of Divinity 2 - especially with the upgrades/patches/expansion. It's been on my list for to play a while now.

[Althea]

Not sure what you mean by that, but I'd like to hear more of what people think of Divinity 2 - especially with the upgrades/patches/expansion. It's been on my list for to play a while now.
I played it pre-expansion/remaster, and now I'm playing it post-expansion/remaster.

It's better now in much more subtle ways - the difficulty is a lot smoother, for example. I say bite. It's a little bit crude and wobbly due to being an EURPG, but it's just fucking win.

[Heliocentric]

I've resorted to two games I enjoy playing for different reasons. Sonic Generations has provided the fun/enjoyment that you crave when you want a good pick-me-up, whilst Super Meat Boy's custom levels provided satisfactory amounts of self-punishment. I think it's something about platformers, really.
Its like bipolar platforming.

[Ravelle]

I completed the first Penny Arcade episode and went on to the second one and Max Payne 3.

[The JG Man]

Its like bipolar platforming.

I feel like it's justified with the weekend I've had!

Playing Borderlands co-op as well with a few other RPSers. Damn good game, looking forward to the sequel.