What are you playing at the moment?

[Sketch]

Only in the running? You disappoint me.

[Nalano]

Well, to be fair, I'm not seeing any strong competitors.

[khaz]

I'm playing Company of Heroes, because fuck yeah.

I'm also playing the jadequarry.com community server forums for Guild Wars 2. Currently, I'm in the runnings for most up- and down-votes.

Only one such as you can create such clear fault lines. :)

[Nalano]

Only one such as you can create such clear fault lines. :)

My original plan was to get permabant from the game forum before the game was even released, but I'm making too many friends for that now.

[Drayk]

Pretty funny that they stop sending assassins after you if you dress like their mortal enemy.

Well, It makes sense, if not under disguise you're a personal enemy of Caesar, and he wants you dead, dismembered and fed to his dogs... A guy his special team of assassin is tracking.

Under disguise you're just a random NCR grunt or ranger. Sure the Legion is gonna attack you, but the assassins have more trouble finding you among the crowd.

[Olero]

Well, It makes sense, if not under disguise you're a personal enemy of Caesar, and he wants you dead, dismembered and fed to his dogs... A guy his special team of assassin is tracking.

Under disguise you're just a random NCR grunt or ranger. Sure the Legion is gonna attack you, but the assassins have more trouble finding you among the crowd.

Crowd? ;)

Personally I find the assasins a bit of a cheap shot, just like those in Morrowind (or was it Oblivion?). It is especially annoying when fast traveling a lot (hmm, substitute assasins for dragons and you have my biggest annoyance in Skyrim as well... The plot thickens). The buggers always know where you are, and always show up "out of the blu... err, brown". But, as fiddlesticks pointed out, they are a good source for armor, ammo and weapons.

[Similar]

Well, It makes sense, if not under disguise you're a personal enemy of Caesar, and he wants you dead, dismembered and fed to his dogs... A guy his special team of assassin is tracking.

Under disguise you're just a random NCR grunt or ranger. Sure the Legion is gonna attack you, but the assassins have more trouble finding you among the crowd.
Maybe it's just that NCR soldiers are generally no threat at all, so they can't be bothered.


Still playing FO3 and having some of the same problem with Talon mercs. Used to be that three of them popped up at random, but the game apparently decided that things should be harder, so now it's six. That is a bit much.
Otherwise I'm still enjoying just wandering around at mostly random.

[david_lph_]

This seems like a good first post to make.

Dota2

DayZ

Half life 2 (1st playthrough :o)

Minecraft

Trine 2

Sins of a solar empire

[Shooop]

Went on GOG.com 3 days ago and grabbed Gorky 17, a turn-based strategy game and Planescape: Torment because I didn't have a decent PC back in the days they materialized.

Trying to beat Gorky first because I want to do Planescape as uninterrupted as possible so I can enjoy the story more.

[Mohorovicic]

Mostly done throught Prototype 2, just reached Red Zone. Man, I hate when devs do shit like this... they fixed most of my complaints about the original in the sequel, but at the same time that what was good in the original now sucks.

So we have two flawed games, which would make one nigh-perfect one if combined. Eh.

[fiddlesticks]

I wanted to try out the new Mann vs. Machine mode in TF2. Apparently, so did a lot of other people. After waiting in the matchmaking lobby for roughly half an hour it looked like I'd finally be able to connect to a server, only for the game to tell me that I apparently have a "bad password".

All right fair enough, it happens sometimes. I queued up again. And after another half an hour of waiting I was loading up a new server. Finally!

Only for the server to time out.

Well played, Valve. Well played.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to reduce my frustration by drinking lots of alcohol and watching Ponyo.

[alms]

Woohoo!! Finished HL2. The final third of the game was a total PITA. I hate the friendly AI: if you back away they're right behind out to block your taking cover. If you go somewhere, they get lost somewhere and won't provide cover. If you bump into anyone of them it seems like they won't budge, and then finally move exactly in the second worst possible place. Non-disposable AIs (think Barney) are the best because you can't even C-ommand them out of the way.

For most of the game I was looking forward to playing Ep1 and 2 but now I don't know if I really want to. Maybe a cooldown period will help.

[squareking]

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to reduce my frustration by drinking lots of alcohol and watching Ponyo.

You should do this even when sans frustration because Ponyo (and alcohol) is amazing.

[Casimir Effect]

Honestly any combination of Ghibli and alcohol makes for a great time. Nothing like getting a nice whisky, throwing on Porco Rosso and making plans to replay Crimson Skies.

[postinternetsyndrome]

I played a bit of Mann vs Machine with some friends on a listen server I created myself for the occasion. I had to figure out how to make it not a LAN server, but then it all worked fine. I recommend that approach to anyone who wants to try the mode out in the days to come, since the open servers are likely to be clogged for a while.

It's great fun.

[vinraith]

Still playing Fallout: New Vegas. I can see why Fallout fans like it more than FO3, it's much more quest and story drive. Honestly, that doesn't thrill me much, but I'm plugging through all the obnoxious parts in civilization around the strip so I can get back out into the (far more interesting, IMO) general wastelands. I have to admit, all the clear "main plot" paths are unappealing. Without going into significant spoilers, can anyone tell me if there's an option to hand the strip over the the Followers and let them redistribute all these resources to more deserving people? That is, an option to destroy the strip that doesn't involve murdering everyone on the strip. I've been half-heartedly pursuing "Wild Card" as the b est of a bad set of options, but I don't want to run the strip so much as get rid of it.

[Kadayi]

More walking dead (still part 1, but a different play through) and a bit of Sleeping Dogs which does look pretty damn spectacular with the HD patch on. Also got an invite to the Steam beta off a friend which I'm checking out.

[Similar]

Got to Point Look-out in FO3. That's quite a difficulty spike. I have Lincoln's Repeater and the unique Chinese assault rifle, power armor and such and there's tons of ammo in the area, but nearly every encounter is still pretty hard. So far the only easy encounters have been with swamp ghouls and wild dogs, nearly all the rest have left me with half health or less.
I could leave and come back later but since I'm already level 20, I doubt it'd help much.

Still, it's not so unbalanced that it makes it too frustrating (not yet at least), it just surprised me some.

[agentorange]

Finished KotOR 2. Had been hesitating on moving into the final act because it is so soul crushing, but I did, and it was just as soul crushing as I remember...more so, actually, since I chose to descend fully into the dark side.

Time for some light hearted rpging with Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Spent about 3 hours modding it last week.

[Jockie]

Finished KotOR 2. Had been hesitating on moving into the final act because it is so soul crushing, but I did, and it was just as soul crushing as I remember...more so, actually, since I chose to descend fully into the dark side.

Time for some light hearted rpging with Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. Spent about 3 hours modding it last week.

Soul-crushing as in depressing, or because it was woefully unfinished? If the latter, why werent you playing with the restoration mod thingummy?

I'm pretty much biding my time until GW2/Dark Souls PC, with League of Legends, Minecraft and BF3 all getting some play-time for the time being. Also New Star Soccer on my phone. Tried a game of Mann vs Machine last night, apart from the horrendous queues, it seemed a wee bit buggy, the game I got into froze up on the final wave after we failed to complete it first time.

[LTK]

I'm playing Hitman: Blood Money. It's pretty good so far, although I get the impression that disguises are way more effective than they should be. I'd imagine that the fifth time I walk past a guard in the same uniform that I picked off his buddy he'd figure it out. Maybe that's just because I'm playing on Normal. I think I'm also loading saves more than I should.

After being nonlethal and ghosty for the last two missions, I went to do the suburban one. It seemed pretty easy at the start. First I sedated the annoyingly vigilant hedge-clipping woman so I could leave my rifle suitcase in the pet shop. Then I opened the doors of the plain white van and put a round in each of the feds inside with my silenced pistol. I took one of their uniforms and made the phone ring inside the house. I quickly ran back to where I put my sniper rifle and assembled it. By then the target had walked up to the window, and I could finish him with a single shot. The pet shop garage was dark, so nobody saw me. Then I realize I'm also supposed to retrieve a microfilm with evidence on it from the target. Damn. This could have been so easy. Gonna have to do better next time.

[agentorange]

After being nonlethal and ghosty for the last two missions, I went to do the suburban one. It seemed pretty easy at the start. First I sedated the annoyingly vigilant hedge-clipping woman so I could leave my rifle suitcase in the pet shop. Then I opened the doors of the plain white van and put a round in each of the feds inside with my silenced pistol. I took one of their uniforms and made the phone ring inside the house. I quickly ran back to where I put my sniper rifle and assembled it. By then the target had walked up to the window, and I could finish him with a single shot. The pet shop garage was dark, so nobody saw me. Then I realize I'm also supposed to retrieve a microfilm with evidence on it from the target. Damn. This could have been so easy. Gonna have to do better next time.

Don't wanna spoil anything and don't wanna tell you how to play, but you're totally missing out if you just go around shooting everyone in that mission. One of the most re-playable missions in the series in my opinion, and some of the options are hilarious.

[Goateh]

Still playing Fallout: New Vegas

New Vegas and the strip live on in all the endings, though obviously not all in the same state. There's no way to do what you'd like to do with it.

[postinternetsyndrome]

Just walked through Dear Esther. It was great. It has only two faults in my mind: 1) The sometimes very obvious invisible walls. Why didn't they just make the cliffs steeper? Just breaks immersion for no good reason. (I guess you could always argue that the PC simply doesn't want to go anywhere but where the game leads you, but I call it bad design if you need to argue at all.) 2) The part at the end when it takes control from the player. As Alec said in his WIT, climbing up the mast and jumping down would have been the natural thing to do anyway.

Otherwise, a truly sublime experience. The music was awesome too.

[Strazz]

Alternating between Hitman: Blood Money, Civ5 and World of Tanks

[vinraith]

New Vegas and the strip live on in all the endings, though obviously not all in the same state. There's no way to do what you'd like to do with it.

Is there at least a way to make the place "open door?"

[Goateh]

Is there at least a way to make the place "open door?"

As long as you don't side with House the place becomes 'open' to a degree. There's a specific set of circumstances with the NCR ending and the Followers to get close to what you want but all three none-House endings (Wild Card, Caesar, NCR) remove the exclusivity of the strip enforced by House. As you might guess, they do it in different ways. If anything, Caesar and NCR bring the most equality but they come with other consequences too. Independence probably meets your overall goal best.

The ending you pursue can have an impact on other places than just the strip but you can probably guess the overall theme of each faction. As a vague spoiler,

NCR law and order, Caeser ruthlessly/violently enforced order, House and Independence relatively isolationist.


Fallout 2

Well, that was a lot better than Fallout 1. More stuff to see and do and, more importantly, zones that had interaction with other zones. It kept the same interface that I just can't get on with and the combat was occasionally brutal but the stories were much more interesting for not telling a series of tales about small towns in a vacuum.

I'm not sure what I missed but occasionally I'd fight an enemy who was otherwise quite weak and they'd suddenly land a critical hit that did more damage than I had health, instantly killing me. What were you meant to do against randomly being hit for 200 damage while in power armour other than hope you put all your points in endurance? Those miniguns sure chewed me up fast when they were close.

I'm very tempted to play Fallout 3 and New Vegas again now, except that I don't really have the time for a double marathon of huge games. The story of 3 and New Vegas didn't quite reach the heights of 2 but I definitely prefer the introduction of the first person perspective. Sadly, the inventory hasn't come along too much. At least mods can do some work with that now.

[Nalano]

Is there at least a way to make the place "open door?"

Sure. But in this case "open door" is tantamount to anarchy, as Gannon will point out.

[vinraith]

Sure. But in this case "open door" is tantamount to anarchy, as Gannon will point out.

Considering that the whole place is mostly just an unconscionable waste of resources by a bunch of too-big-for-their-britches tribals, I'm probably ok with that, but we'll see how it goes. I'm just pleased to hear I have a full array of options.

[corbain]

Somewhat behind the curve, but i'm really enjoying Day Z. had my most successful start ever today, managed to loot Cherno and found an Enfield, map, watch, compass, binos, cammo gear, food and drink, matches and ammo. (i had everything except a bandage)

Was feeling pretty smug and started to crawl out of Cherno, when a zombie just ran straight up from nowhere bit me, i started bleeding and died a few mintues later, while frantically trying to find a bandage.

Didn't have time to go find my corpse. This game is brutal, but all the better for it.

[agentorange]

Considering that the whole place is mostly just an unconscionable waste of resources by a bunch of too-big-for-their-britches tribals, I'm probably ok with that, but we'll see how it goes. I'm just pleased to hear I have a full array of options.

Though it's ambiguous, I'd say Caesar's Legion are the most likely to distribute the resources of The Strip to those they see fit, or raze the place and melt everything down to make weapons and armour. Caesar sees it a place of unbound excess, a corrupting influence, so it's highly unlikely they'd keep it around. Knowing the NCR, from both New Vegas and Fallout 2, chances are they'll make The Strip into some sort of resort for the "Elite" of their society. Of course if you go Independent you can just imagine you did whatever you want with it.

[fiddlesticks]

You should do this even when sans frustration because Ponyo (and alcohol) is amazing.
Indeed it is. One of the few Ghibli films I hadn't watched yet and now I'm glad I did, because it's just as sublime as their other work. So in the end, not being able to join a TF2 server worked in my favour. I'm sure there's an important life lesson hidden in this, but I can't be bothered to think about it.


For most of the game I was looking forward to playing Ep1 and 2 but now I don't know if I really want to. Maybe a cooldown period will help.
For what it's worth, reworking AI behaviour is by far the biggest improvement Valve made in the episodes. Fighting alongside a companion is now actually fun. It helps that they made the levels a bit more open; I have no idea whose bright idea it was to make Anticitizen One, a level that extensively features invincible NPCs, a long stretch of narrow corridors.

[Speaksoftly]

Sins of a solar empire: rebellion. Was a toss up between that and Endless Space, but the reviews suggested endless space AI needs some work.

[Whitehound]

EU III, some HOI III. A dash of Vic II. Some M&B when I want some action and the best for last . . . . . FIFA . . .. . . . on xbox!!!!!!

[Gorzan]

Darksiders, currently on the Black Throne... yeah.

[kstress71]

Banging my way through Castlevania Lords or Shadow. I won't go into much detail because it's an X360 game, but I am hesitantly enjoying it. It's roughly a 50/50 mix of enjoyable and disappointing. Enjoyable for the challenging combat, nice visuals, and decent story. Disappointing for the cloned God of War gameplay, invisible walls, unfair death falls, and poor platforming. Still worth a playthrough though, even though it wastes the Castlevania name.

Besides that, I'm doing my best to discipline myself at playing the pile of games I bought in the Steam Summer Sale rather than buy anything else. Just finished Walking Dead (Eps 1 and 2) - AMAZING - and about to dive into Legend of Grimrock. I may fire up some Warhammer 40K Space Marine if the action bug bites me.

[magnus1969]

Crysis 2 - it's picked up now the Cephs have appeared.

[ado]

I've finished RAGE, and while I still like the game quite a bit it does kinda wear out it's welcome and ends on an anticlimax.

So as a change of pace I started Dawn of War 2 yesterday. I hate to play RTS games, and the 1st few missions of DoW2 that I played don't go a long way in to changing that. I still plan to stick with it, hoping that it will have the same effect that Machinaruim had; in that it made me interested in adventure games again...

[FunnyB]

Just finished Mass Effect 3 for the first time using my male renegade Shep. That game was pure awesome! Sure, I had the extended ending installed so I didn't see the original ending, and I agree that you can argue that the reaper logic is a tad flawed, but that game was excellent! The ending gave me chills!
I'm definitely satisfied with the game, and series for that matter.

[Gorzan]

Just finished Darksiders, really enjoyed it. Now I just have to wait until Darksiders II falls on the 15€ range on some sale so I can afford it, with luck it might happen on christmas, who knows.

[jnx]

Just finished Darksiders, really enjoyed it. Now I just have to wait until Darksiders II falls on the 15€ range on some sale so I can afford it, with luck it might happen on christmas, who knows.

I'm pretty sure it will be heavily discounted on christmas time. It's not really doing all that well on pc.

[Gorzan]

That makes me happy because I want it. It makes me sad because I wish THQ were getting more money.
EDIT: FInished mirror's edge too, steam says in 4 hours, and I can't help but wonder... I'm really bad at this game, and had to di some things again too many times, how long would it be for someone who actually did it well? and how did those kind of blockes feel when paying full price?

[Heliocentric]

Finished mirror's edge too, steam says in 4 hours, and I can't help but wonder... I'm really bad at this game, and had to di some things again too many times, how long would it be for someone who actually did it well? and how did those kind of blockes feel when paying full price?4 hours seems right, the speed runs are something else though. I know i had more fun in my brief time with Mirror's Edge than i had in the whole time I was with some longer manshoots.

Hell, you can always replay it, or do time trials ^_^
About paying full price? I wouldn't know, i don't do that anymore.

[Gorzan]

I'm dumb as all hell, I've just started my first game of Medieval II and noticed a distinct lack of options, I checked it and turns out I didn't have Kingdoms. That means that when I got it on the summer sale I forgot to check if I was getting the normal version or the equally priced complete version...

[TechnoJellyfish]

FInished mirror's edge too, steam says in 4 hours, and I can't help but wonder... I'm really bad at this game, and had to di some things again too many times, how long would it be for someone who actually did it well?

What? How did you manage that? My recent first playthrough took me about 7 hours and I don't remember dying much or getting stuck for more than a few moments.

[Gorzan]

Really? The way I see it it's really hard to take more than 5 hours out of the game if you don't do the challenges.

[jnx]

I recall that it took me around 6 to 7 hours and I was stuck in a place or two for a few tries.

[Ravelle]

Tower Wars

I'm not really getting how the points work yet, I get to send out a bunch of my first units, then when I unlocked my knights I can't send them out for some reason. I'm not sure what I need for sending them out.

[DaftPunk]

Just got installed Severance:Blade of Darkness,fully patched and "modified" so it runs well on win7,also menu/background bug is fixed! Now i only need to find some time to start my playthrough as BARBARIAN :p

[piphil]

I've been mostly stuck in a loop of God Games recently. Started with SimCity 3000, before moving on to SC4. Galactic Civilizations 2 had been making a comeback, before I bought Civ V in a recent Steam sale which then ended up taking most of my free time.

I've just installed Dawnguard, and have created a new character and re-set all my Skyrim config and mods back to vanilla (except for the Unofficial Skyrim patch - nice to see the guys behind the superb Oblivion version are doing the same for TESV).

I was going to post in the forums here asking RPS what their current favourite mods are, but there seems to be some form of (understandable) anti-spam thing in place stopping new members creating new threads. I've been an RPS subscriber and general lurker for years, just never got round to registering for the forums...

Oh well, guess I'll have to poke the RPS hive mind at a later date. Back to Tamriel for me...

[Fumarole]

I'm dumb as all hell, I've just started my first game of Medieval II and noticed a distinct lack of options, I checked it and turns out I didn't have Kingdoms. That means that when I got it on the summer sale I forgot to check if I was getting the normal version or the equally priced complete version...That's rough, as Kingdoms is pretty much an ideal expansion pack.

[Gorzan]

Yeah, and the worst part of it is knowing that it's completelly my fault.

[victory]

That makes me happy because I want it. It makes me sad because I wish THQ were getting more money.
EDIT: FInished mirror's edge too, steam says in 4 hours, and I can't help but wonder... I'm really bad at this game, and had to di some things again too many times, how long would it be for someone who actually did it well? and how did those kind of blockes feel when paying full price?I don't trust Steam's "played" times. Pretty sure they occasionally underreport for some reason. That could have happened in this case; 4 hours is quite fast.

[The JG Man]

It's not really doing all that well on pc.

What's that based on? The graphics issues? Considering the amount complaining about it (and it's understandable, obviously) I'd say it's done rather well on there, actually. In top 10 on Steam, so it can't be doing too badly. Not to mention, two other platforms it's on. I imagine it's doing quite well for itself.


how long would it be for someone who actually did it well? and how did those kind of blockes feel when paying full price?

The best speeds runs, that I'm aware of, can clear the entire game in just shy of 35 minutes. Last time I checked. Admittedly, that was a year ago. It could be lower. As for the "blokes paying full price", well, there's a couple of ways of looking at it. In terms of game-play, absolutely no other games does what it does. It's a fresh (still is) experience that, whilst perhaps flawed, is exciting and involving. On the other hand, the game is unquestionably built for replayability. You say you did it in 4 hours? Okay, play it again, but do it in 3. Do the time trials etc. There's a lot more to the game than just completing the story once.

[Gorzan]

Playing Crysis Warhead too, and finally, thanks to my new machine I can feel this on max settings. Not that it's such a feat nowadays, but it feels good anyway.

[Kadayi]

I don't trust Steam's "played" times. Pretty sure they occasionally underreport for some reason. That could have happened in this case; 4 hours is quite fast.

Yeah Steams time tracker is well known for being somewhat suspect. I believe it has something to do with when you use the overlay and it effectively stops recording game time.

[Fanbuoy]

Yeah Steams time tracker is well known for being somewhat suspect. I believe it has something to do with when you use the overlay and it effectively stops recording game time.

Yeah, it does seem a bit off. For some reason, when I play CK2 through the install directory, rather than through the Steam client, Steam doesn't seem to register my play time. However, when I play Botanicula, which I've installed outside of Steam but still have in my library (not marked as installed there), Steam registers my play time. It's wonky to say the least.

[Sakkura]

I don't trust Steam's "played" times. Pretty sure they occasionally underreport for some reason. That could have happened in this case; 4 hours is quite fast.
It doesn't count if you're in offline mode or your internet connection's down temporarily, and the game has to be launched via Steam (as far as I can tell).

[Fanbuoy]

It doesn't count if you're in offline mode or your internet connection's down temporarily, and the game has to be launched via Steam (as far as I can tell).

Nope, never launched Botanicula through Steam (it isn't even marked as installed), yet I have 4 hrs played.

[Herzog]

Still cant get my hands off Red Orchestra 2. Currently at level 83 and most of the time now I am playing as a mg gunner. The new patch has been good. Commissars House seems playable again from the russian side. Cant wait for Rising Storm to be released!

Completed Offspring Fling. Funny game but I am not motivated enough to play through all of the levels again and beating the necessary times to unlock the bonus levels.

Started playing Bastion. Almost 3 hours in and I already can understand all the praise it got. Music, graphics, the narrator - you just want to keep on playing.

[Mohorovicic]

Played and finished Syndicate now that I have 16:10 monitor and anamorphic res isn't as much of an issue.

Meh.

[airtekh]

I was playing Dead Island and Rayman Origins; but they've been put on indefinite hold now that I've become addicted to Team Fortress 2's Mann vs Machine mode.

It's fun figuring out which combination of classes are most effective against the robot army.

[postinternetsyndrome]

Soldier with that steampunk pistol that penetrates multiple targets is great in mvm. Upgrading firing and reload speed makes it a beast.

[magnus1969]

Just finished Alan Wake and I'm now starting the extra stories.

[Ravelle]

I gave League of Legends a shot.

Sucking at it is putting it lightly.

Even, against bots I usually spend time walking back for healing because I got hit hard because the enemies are 3 or more levels higher than me and when I'm finally back to the battlefield they are able to finish me within 5 hits. And once you drag behind in levels, you're boned.

[Serenegoose]

First run through the witcher 2's enchanced edition. It seems to be a lot easier, since I'm playing on hard mode and am not really struggling.

[Skull]

I gave League of Legends a shot.

Sucking at it is putting it lightly.

Even, against bots I usually spend time walking back for healing because I got hit hard because the enemies are 3 or more levels higher than me and when I'm finally back to the battlefield they are able to finish me within 5 hits. And once you drag behind in levels, you're boned.

The best advice I can give you for that game is don't worry about how many kills your getting, worry about not dying. That and just keep last hitting mobs any chance you get (unless your playing as support, in which case help the other champions last hit).

[Fanbuoy]

First run through the witcher 2's enchanced edition. It seems to be a lot easier, since I'm playing on hard mode and am not really struggling.

Is it your 2nd playthrough all-in-all? I upped the difficulty from normal to hard from my first to second play, but found it a lot easier. It's just you becoming more badass and accustomed to the game.

[Brit89]

One of my Steam friends gifted me Dota2, been playing a few games on it. So far... it's kicking my ass. Needed some experience anyway, each game I seem to be getting better. Sucks that I can't do the training mode (which is greyed out at the moment), but I guess playing it online is a better learning curve, seeing as this game has such a steep one.

[Lukasz]

Nothing!!!

My monitor died. first it didn't respond whenever i turned the computer on (which works) but did when i unplugged it and plugged it back on. sometimes it showed pure white screen, sometimes just black. it became more and more difficult to start it tough and finally on friday it died completely.
it does start by itself. when it was still plugged it, suddenly it would come back to life and and turn the screen white only to die seconds laters.
very distressing when you wake up at night to brightly lit room just because the monitor turned on again. it felt like it was watching me.

so at least now i have a reason to move to full hd. shame my computer won't be able to handle games in that resolt so now im forced to get a new computer to play games which worked on 1680 res. or play them windowed.

last thing i played was of course baldurs gate 2. was about to leave promenade and get to the slums. but got stuck fighting few guys in upper flors of an inn. most difficult fight ever :(

[Drayk]

Having a break from Fallout New Vegas. I am playing Binary Domain.

In chapter 3 already, guess it won't be a long game... good I was looking for some mindless fun and it delivers. Reminds me a bit of Bulletstorm, but the gameplay is more traditional. I do like the hub parts and the driving/diving/railshooting sequences. The pace of the action is probably it's stronger point.

Some boss battles are just annoying, not terribly difficult but I got bumped around to much...Maybe it's just me not using the cover system well enough ...

Won't be memorable of course, but not the failure some said it was.

Oh, a warning though, basic controls are awful and default FOV is an aberration, but you can change all that in the configs outside the game. Personaly? I just grabbed my Xbox controler. It's console port anyway.

[apricotsoup]

Renegade Ops: Jolly good fun and the physics of bouncing around the level is lovely. It looks fantastic and the plot is loose enough to be some sillyness on the side without getting in the way of blowing things up.

But, the difficulty settings are pissing me off a little. Normal is nice and challenging for me, but losing your last life at the end of a 20 min mission and having to replay the entire thing is not something I want from my games anymore. So I tried dropping the difficulty down, which whilst taking away some fun things like the upgrade system also gives unlimited lives. Which would be useful if the game didn't shoot down to the point where it's so easy you never die once and the game is far less fun for it.

Basically it's a great game but the limited lives in normal player strikes it down somewhat in my mind. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the levels weren't quite so long but replaying the exact same 20 mins of content doesn't amuse me much.

[Ravelle]

Renegade Ops: Jolly good fun and the physics of bouncing around the level is lovely. It looks fantastic and the plot is loose enough to be some sillyness on the side without getting in the way of blowing things up.

But, the difficulty settings are pissing me off a little. Normal is nice and challenging for me, but losing your last life at the end of a 20 min mission and having to replay the entire thing is not something I want from my games anymore. So I tried dropping the difficulty down, which whilst taking away some fun things like the upgrade system also gives unlimited lives. Which would be useful if the game didn't shoot down to the point where it's so easy you never die once and the game is far less fun for it.

Basically it's a great game but the limited lives in normal player strikes it down somewhat in my mind. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the levels weren't quite so long but replaying the exact same 20 mins of content doesn't amuse me much.

I have no idea why the cars drive like they're on ice though. :o

[Heliocentric]

Do you have the character dlc? Any character who can apply a healing effect is a good idea, but crystal is the most overpowered (read as best).

Play on medium until you grind out a few basic unlocks by playing until you die on the first level (don't quit out or you lose progress)

[apricotsoup]

Do you have the character dlc? Any character who can apply a healing effect is a good idea, but crystal is the most overpowered (read as best).

Play on medium until you grind out a few basic unlocks by playing until you die on the first level (don't quit out or you lose progress)

I used Crystal for most of it (the last failed run was mission 3 of the dlc, but the last mission of the normal game killed a few runs annoyingly). Even with the healing bubble I still die a bit (just not that good at this kind of game I guess :] ), but I was using the airstrike girl and gordon a bit beforehand.

As for purposeful grinding, that just sounds awful in a game like this. I'm sure I'll try and power through the level again but if I die at the end I may just put the game down for good.

[The JG Man]

Renegade Ops is designed for replayability though, which is why grinding comes into play because you're supposed to play it a few times. As it goes, the final mission of the main game is very hard, so don't be put-off by that. I breezed through most of the game, but the last few levels are certainly turned up a bit.

[Rauten]

I am so completely hooked to The Secret World it's ridiculous. I was put off by the combat during the Beta weekend I played, but after playing the game a shameful amount of hours during the 3day trial, I can say they've tuned it enough to be enjoyable enough, at least for me.
Also, gotta love having Assault Rifles that heal people.

[Winged Nazgul]

I am so completely hooked to The Secret World it's ridiculous.

Same here. Not even getting into the Planetside 2 beta could get me off it like I thought it would. Maybe GW2 release in a few days will do it.

[Anthile]

Finished Hexen 2 the other day (screenshots on the way!) and putting off starting Sleeping Dogs in favour of TF2 MvM and the CS:GO beta.
Not really sure what I was thinking with CS:GO, usually it's not my sort of game. If it's good it's really good but if it's bad it's really, really bad.

[Giaddon]

I've finished a few games recently: Sleeping Dogs, which was awesome, one of my favorite games of the year, Synidcate, which was slick and a lot of fun, and the Battlefield 3 campaign, which wasn't much of a game, but was a pretty awesome spectacle. Enjoyed my time with all of them.

[postinternetsyndrome]

The bf3 campaign was a wasted opportunity. It looks, feels and sounds great, the locations are superb and the basic gunplay of the engine is awesome in and of itself, but all the blatant attempts to rip off MW end up hurting it quite a bit. The coop missions are an improvement, too bad there is only 6 of them. I would buy a coop expansion for bf3 that adds 10-12 of those.

[Chuck1]

i'm in waiting for this game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgrGCADMxaA
written it will be released in august 2012.

[Voon]

Just started another run in Dragon Quest IX after two years. I think I've lost count on how many bookshelves I've turned inside out just to find a few alchemy recipies

[arathain]

Ah! Thanks, Voon, you reminded me to charge up my DS so I can try and get back into DQIX. Brilliant writing, but I seem to recall I was finding the crafting aspect to be very frustrating, since drop rates on just about everything are so low.

[Drake Sigar]

Neverwinter Nights 2 feels so friggin' cheap from the back alley run onwards in chapter 1. I'm facing wave after wave of identical encounters, each able to wipe out or seriously damage my party.

It's nice to see Kelgar and Neeshka again though.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB3XCFAO1Yo

[Serenegoose]

Don't worry - once you're done with that cheap segment the game turns super easy. And the alley is the worst of it, too, so you're past that!

[Casimir Effect]

last thing i played was of course baldurs gate 2. was about to leave promenade and get to the slums. but got stuck fighting few guys in upper flors of an inn. most difficult fight ever :(
Pookie is a right little bastard there. I find Chaos or Confusion to be good in that fight as it'll almost always get at least one of them.
And try not to let the thief get away when he runs for it.

[LTK]

i'm in waiting for this game
[Western Story]
written it will be released in august 2012.
If that's a bot with the sole purpose of advertising one game, it's a pretty effective one.

[fiddlesticks]

I've been playing some more of the Mann vs. Machine mode in TF2 and I'm starting to figure out the best strategies for classes. It's interesting to see how some loadouts that are inferior in the normal game really shine in this mode. Though as expected, Medics and Demos still completely dominate every other class. Still, with the exception of Sniper and Spy I feel every class occupies a useful niche and there's a lot of different setups that let you win.

[postinternetsyndrome]

Snipers and spies are supposed to handle the big special bots I assume. Spies can disable them and snipers can dish out big damage to individual targets. Since they are not in every wave however that seems a bit narrow.

[Voon]

Ah! Thanks, Voon, you reminded me to charge up my DS so I can try and get back into DQIX. Brilliant writing, but I seem to recall I was finding the crafting aspect to be very frustrating, since drop rates on just about everything are so low.

Actually, you don't have to grind for the ingredients since you could just find some of them in the overworld or buy them straight out of the store like Tanglewebs or some Sleeping Hibiscus.

But yeah, alchemy is sort of a love-hate thing. There's some stuff that you have to grind for to make something that you ultimately won't use or it saves you a lot of money by getting the better armours and weapons that you can buy later in the game (which are relatively easy to craft, early on)

[The JG Man]

I think snipers definitely have a place in TF2's co-op. It's my second preferable class to use. It does require a few power-ups to be super powerful, but once you get bullet penetration and damage/explosive head damage/scope power-up time, you can deal out serious damage, on multiple targets. I've been able to do just shy of 1K to two giant mechs because they were standing next to each other and I was able to line it up.

Of course my preferred class is the engineer. Given the wrangler, the device that lets you control your own turret, you just obliterate everything...until you have to stop and resupply it. Good upgrades for that seem to be metal regeneration and then dispenser range to full. The back-up turret is great, but best not used for supporting fire, better to cover you specifically from stray targets that manage to get through.

[roryok]

Just completed Silver Lining in Skyrim on Thieves Guild quest line, after the main guild quest itself. now I can finally sell all the stuff I've been hoarding to endon, but it's a bit of an anti-climax. What can I do with all this money if I can only train five times per level? my archery's already at 91 anyway. Contemplating leaving for a while and playing Dark Messiah again.

[Lukasz]

bought new 23 inch monitor today (dell. good reviews and cheap enough)
and decided to try some Fallout new vegas.

and i don't understand the Caravan game. i fell so fucking stupid!!

[Ravelle]

Sleeping Dogs

Enjoying it a lot but the combat tries too hard being Batman, it's unresponsive at times, not as fluent and for some reason you freeze for a couple of seconds unable to do anything. so strange.

[Drayk]

bought new 23 inch monitor today (dell. good reviews and cheap enough)
and decided to try some Fallout new vegas.

and i don't understand the Caravan game. i fell so fucking stupid!!

Don't, It's badly explained and the controls are completly fucked up...

But here you can learn how to play (and make a indecent amount of cash)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWH-7t1VPrc

[LTK]

How many people playing F:NV actually bothered to learn to play Caravan?

[fiddlesticks]

I did. It's a surprisingly fun time-waster once you actually figure out how it works.

[Drake Sigar]

I couldn't figure it out by watching a video, would need someone to come over and show me. Rape time.

[Voon]

I never bothered to play caravan in the game. I did play Blackjack for the ridiculous amount of cash I could easily get, aside from how easy to play it.

And seriously, why did they left out poker?

[Wayward]

I prefer NOT to know how to play Caravan.

I can pretend that my stubbornness combined with the obtuse explanation of the rules is me role playing a stupid person.

[Drake Sigar]

I never bothered to play caravan in the game. I did play Blackjack for the ridiculous amount of cash I could easily get, aside from how easy to play it

Hell yes. After upgrading my luck at the clinic to 7, it was absurdly easy to get into a winning streak. I was thrown out of every casino in New Vegas.

[Gorzan]

PFFFFt, luck 7? see my character get thrown out of all of the casinos in less than half an hour because of my 10 points of luck.

[Mohorovicic]

Then you wasted 3 points of luck, I'd say.

[mrki]

Played Renegade Ops for a bit now. The game looks to be really nice, had fun shooting everything, plenty of things blow up in a satisfying manner, all in all I really like it, except... Except for the bloody controls. I mean how difficult can it be? You use a key to move the vehicle forward, two others to turn it left or right and an additional one to go backwards. That's it, why is that so hard?

[Heliocentric]

Renegade ops belongs to the "Xbox 360 pad or death" group.

[DaftPunk]

Playing this,even first enemy you encounter in game can tear you apart like little kitten.


http://shrani.si/f/2q/eH/3rZ8iOXV/sever1.jpg

[rsherhod]

X3: Reunion. Good grief was it daunting for someone who's never played an X game.
Doesn't help that the way it was described on here during the Steam sale made it sound like a completely different game.

Really enjoying it now thought, but I suspect it will take more time to master than I can really give it. By the time I get around to X3:TC, X4 will probably be out.

Oh, I wish I had the entrepreneurial skills to start a trade empire in real life
...and a space ship, of course.

[DaftPunk]

Fucking piece of shit,i just spent an hour playing as Tukaram (Thats the barbarian character) and i accomplished nothing,got killed several times..I can avoid perfectly fine but when attacking its like missing every damn hit.. Gonna go back to knight,at least with him i can normally play :(


Me,dying,like a boss.


http://shrani.si/f/3S/yJ/1HWHkgMk/blade-2012-08-21-23-12-5.jpg

[magnus1969]

Renegade ops belongs to the "Xbox 360 pad or death" group.

Yes, yes and yes, I love RO it's one of my favourites now.

[Ravelle]

@mrki (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/member.php?8419-mrki)


Bro Tip: Buy a Logitech Gamepad F310.

The gamepad has the same buttons as the xbox360 controller and every game that supports 360 controllers sees them as 360 controllers and even lists the buttons on screen as YBXA and trigger buttons.

[Jokzore]

I've been playing Darksiders 2 , and despite its ...not-so-good port to the PC I find it very enjoyable , sure the textures are ugly and camera sometimes simply refuses to co-operate but its an overall good experience . The design of the environments and enemies is amazing . They've greatly improved on the freedom of the game , theres a greater level of customization , you can change your gear and talents and you have huge areas you can freely explore while riding on your , surprisingly, well controlled mount. And of course the combat feels great, its smooth , its fluid and most importantly its precise.
I feel like they've greatly improved on the original game , and if you liked the frist one , or games similar to it (Zelda , Prince of Persia) you will undoubtably enjoy Vigils latest creation.

[sabrage]

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men: The parts are in place for a great game here. The missions seem varied (rob a bank, stage a prison riot, lead an army), Kane and Lynch are solid characters, and some of the setpieces are fantastic... But the entire game just boils down to shooting people, and therein lies the problem. Your AI buddies are nincompoops, the guns feel terrible and rarely shoot precisely, and the cover system is nigh-on broken. I can see how co-op might improve the experience, but I wouldn't really want to force any of my friends to play through it.

Edit: Guess I just beat it. I chose the "traitorous bastard" ending because the other one looked like it would involve more shooting. This game had terrible checkpoints.

[fanri]

hot battle, join here: http://goo.gl/sZH75

[Drayk]

I just finished Binary Domain last night.

I must say that it was a nice ride. The first hour is tedious, character writing is awful with the two pals being standard silly macho grunts. But it gets a more interesting and even if the 'romance' and 'plot' are no better than a summer action movie blockbuster, it keeps you entertained till the end. I liked the design of some places too.

Now I want a game with Cain as the main character...

Next, back to Grimrock I guess.

[apricotsoup]

Played Renegade Ops for a bit now. The game looks to be really nice, had fun shooting everything, plenty of things blow up in a satisfying manner, all in all I really like it, except... Except for the bloody controls. I mean how difficult can it be? You use a key to move the vehicle forward, two others to turn it left or right and an additional one to go backwards. That's it, why is that so hard?

Turn on tank controls in the options.

[Juan Carlo]

Just finished Thief Gold. I played it years ago, but gave up half way through back then. Its last few levels are definitely its weakest, but overall I'm glad I played it.

Anyhow, the most surprising thing about it, the thing that I didn't remember at all, is that at its core it's really not a stealth game. Sure there's stealth stuff, but that's not the game's main appeal nor is it what keeps you hooked for hours on end. Instead, it's really more a "find your way around huge ass intricately designed levels without a map" game than it is a stealth game. So, I guess you could call it a "navigation" game, maybe? I mean, all in all I'd say that for me the game was 70% navigation and maybe 30% stealth.

But I don't say that as a criticism (even though it might sound like one) as I also (re)discovered that Thief has some of the best level design of any game EVER. So even if most of your work in the game will involve just trying to find your way around, rarely is "navigation" so much fun and as rewarding as in Thief (like, I'd feel like a genius once I finally stumbled onto hidden objectives after searching and following clues). I'd say that I wished more modern games would do away with quest markers and super detailed maps, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if they did all this would do is expose how awful and uninspired level design has become in the past decade.

In fact, in the modern era while there are still "stealth" games, I think unfortunately the "navigation" game genre is all but dead (thanks to the afore mentioned quest markers). Sure, you can fire up Skyrim and refuse to use maps and markers, but that wouldn't really work as game designers have gotten lazy in designing quests to the point that they basically become impossible without using the quest markers.

[Mohorovicic]

Shame you played Gold instead of stock version. The levels which were cut from The Dark Project(and which are added in Gold) were cut for very good reasons.

[The JG Man]

About 45 minutes into Darksiders 2 and it's already superior to Zelda: Skyward Sword. The fact that DS2 doesn't really waste any time getting you into the game and is rocked by some really great looking comic-styled cut-scenes definitely helps.

[Rauten]

You know you're playing too much The Secret World when you start having dreams about the effin' game; I seriously haven't played anything else since Saturday. It's been a long ass time since an MMO hooked me this much.

[Winged Nazgul]

You know you're playing too much The Secret World when you start having dreams about the effin' game; I seriously haven't played anything else since Saturday. It's been a long ass time since an MMO hooked me this much.

It's not the dreams that bother me....it's the nightmares.....

[Rauten]

It's not the dreams that bother me....it's the nightmares.....

Can't say the game is really getting under my skin in a terror kind of way; except the rollercoaster ride in the savage coast. Man, fuck that rollercoaster.

[Juan Carlo]

Shame you played Gold instead of stock version. The levels which were cut from The Dark Project(and which are added in Gold) were cut for very good reasons.

Well I tended to just dislike the monster heavy levels...whether they were Gold or not. That second (or third?) to last "escape" level, for example, was by far the worst thing about the game. It's loaded with monsters and fighting is impractical as you have so few weapons and stealth is useless as there are too many, so I just finally ended up running past everything and kiting monsters behind me the whole way until I found the exit via trial and error. But even then it really sucked.

[Ravelle]

Little portions of Sleeping Dogs and some League of Legends.

[mrki]

Turn on tank controls in the options.

My hero! :) I guess when I saw that I coudn't change anything under "controls" I just gave up looking.

[LTK]

Ohffffffffffff-

So. EDGE is one of those games that goes out of its way to fuck you. Well, to hell with that, I'm not having enough fun with this game to put up with its shenanigans.

[alms]

So. EDGE is one of those games that goes out of its way to fuck you. Well, to hell with that, I'm not having enough fun with this game to put up with its shenanigans.

Having played probably about half of it, I actually kind of like it but the controls are not up to scratch. It makes no sense that 'edging' is more easily done by tapping the dpad than actually balancing on an analog stick. Also, the level design betrays its origins as a mobile game that you likely won't play for more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

[LTK]

Wait til you get to level 27, you'll see what I mean. Also, I'm rather annoyed by how the game appears to be deliberately using ambiguous perspectives to make things harder for you. I guess I was expecting a bit more from the game. It just doesn't do anything interesting with its basic concept, as far as I can tell.

[alms]

Wait til you get to level 27, you'll see what I mean.

I've beaten up to level 33 of the normal levels and 29 of the extended ones. Then I got interested in something else and sadly left it unfinished. They do get tricky (we do want a difficulty curve do we?), but much frustration just wouldn't be there if the controls were more accurate: I wonder how it's like on the iPhone, the touchscreen should make things harder, at least in theory.

BTW I've finished The Tiny Bang Story, which is a delightful game with great art and music (OST is a free download from the dev's site). Very relaxing, except for 2 or 3 logical puzzles which are way harder than the rest and can ruin the peaceful mood the game instills.

After seeing this thread (http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1886811), I'm a bit non-plussed, but the game's still worth playing.

[gundato]

Well, I was playing Guild Wars and was on track to unlock the Cute Kitty Cat (just had to finish War in Kryta and Nightfall), but probably not gonna bother. I REALLY hate the White Mantle and the mission layout of War in Kryta is horrid, and Nightfall has the "no respawns on a mission" rule.

'tis a shame, I really wanted that kitty cat.

[LTK]

I've beaten up to level 33 of the normal levels and 29 of the extended ones. Then I got interested in something else and sadly left it unfinished. They do get tricky (we do want a difficulty curve do we?), but much frustration just wouldn't be there if the controls were more accurate: I wonder how it's like on the iPhone, the touchscreen should make things harder, at least in theory.
I haven't really gotten the impression of a significant difficulty curve. I started on the extended edition, and after quitting on level 27/43 of the normal difficulty, I started on the hard difficulty levels. Only level 13/15 required a balancing act that I couldn't pull off, and I didn't struggle more on the rest than the normal levels. So either my skill is improving so subtly that I can't notice, or it doesn't actually get any more difficult. I'm betting on the latter.

[sabrage]

Kane & Lynch 2: Better than the first, but am I having fun? The aesthetic is straight out of Noé's Into the Void, but I didn't exactly enjoy that either...

[icemann]

Currently playing through KOTOR1. After meaning to play the game for quite some time, and then picking it up for a few dollars in the summer sale recently I thought it was about time I give it a go.

Very good game all in all despite all the fact that its buggy as well. Having to reload after every couple of battles due to my main character being unable to move got annoying fast.

[Oak]

Saints Row the Third, again, this time on PC. I'm in a weird pickle where my character looks fine in the world but like Baby Jane in cutscenes. It's unsettling. I assume it has something to do with lighting or low-res textures or...voxels or something. Voxels are a thing, right?

[gravity_spoon]

A lot of Kingdoms of Amalur and loving it. Besides that, Bastion, Cave Story+ (which is surprisingly tough for me). Also started yesterday, an EPIC Civ 5 game with my guildies. 1 turn per day, so that is going to take about an year to finish. We're using Giant Multiplayer Robot and hotseat mode for playing asynchronously. Landmass is Pangea, Quick Pace, Prince difficulty, 3 teams (4 us and 2 teams of 3 AIs each). We're French, Russian, Japanese and Roman. Hope this does not become another "Eternal war" of Civ 2 :P Eitherway, we'll have an awesome story to tell when it is over.

[magnus1969]

I haven't really gotten the impression of a significant difficulty curve. I started on the extended edition, and after quitting on level 27/43 of the normal difficulty, I started on the hard difficulty levels. Only level 13/15 required a balancing act that I couldn't pull off, and I didn't struggle more on the rest than the normal levels. So either my skill is improving so subtly that I can't notice, or it doesn't actually get any more difficult. I'm betting on the latter.
You're not Tim Langdel by any chance? :)

[Gorzan]

Just finished The Missing Link, Ignoring most of the backtracking I actually enjoyed it more than most sections of the main game, it just feels better.

[Olero]

Saints Row the Third, again, this time on PC. I'm in a weird pickle where my character looks fine in the world but like Baby Jane in cutscenes. It's unsettling. I assume it has something to do with lighting or low-res textures or...voxels or something. Voxels are a thing, right?

I have exactly the same... Which makes the cutscenes somewhat surreal, like my character is possesed when cut-scening, but pretends nothing happened when giving me the controls back/when I take over. Something similar happens in Skyrim and Fallout 3 / New Vegas as well sometimes, giving my characters weird "shadow moustaches"

[Ravelle]

I have exactly the same... Which makes the cutscenes somewhat surreal, like my character is possesed when cut-scening, but pretends nothing happened when giving me the controls back/when I take over. Something similar happens in Skyrim and Fallout 3 / New Vegas as well sometimes, giving my characters weird "shadow moustaches"

All characters are potato faces in Bethesda games, it's impossible to make a good looking character.

[Drayk]

All characters are potato faces in Bethesda games, it's impossible to make a good looking character.

It is way better in Skyrim though. I love the look of my Orc.

[Olero]

All characters are potato faces in Bethesda games, it's impossible to make a good looking character.

That's why mods exists :) For both Skyrim and New Vegas there are some really nice mods that get rid of the Plastic-Potato-Face-Syndrom.

[Mohorovicic]

All characters are potato faces in Bethesda games, it's impossible to make a good looking character.

Skyrim's faces were perfectly fine. Well taking into consideration how goofy most of Elder Scrolls races look by default, that is.

[LTK]

Just started E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. It's definitely something. A whole lot of somethings, in fact.

[Similar]

Just started E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. It's definitely something. A whole lot of somethings, in fact.
I think that's exactly the right way to describe it.

[Spiny]

"What are you playing at the moment?"

Crysis, from the Summer Steam Sale - didn't realise it'd be so explodey!

[Fumarole]

Currently playing through KOTOR1. After meaning to play the game for quite some time, and then picking it up for a few dollars in the summer sale recently I thought it was about time I give it a go.

Very good game all in all despite all the fact that its buggy as well. Having to reload after every couple of battles due to my main character being unable to move got annoying fast.The second game is now on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/208580/).

[Lambchops]

Just played 30 Flights of Loving. Didn't really connect with me to be honest (and I did rather like Gravity Bone). I think possibly the ending was more bemusing than Gravity Bone and there were perhaps a few less knowing nods to the daftness of games (did like the fact you could still jump when pushing the wheelchair!). Still looking forward to whatever Blendo do next though.

[The JG Man]

I'm en route to finishing the first area of Darksiders 2 (I think I am at any rate) and so far it's been thoroughly excellent. Combat is frenetic and enjoyable, platforming and general movement is fun and the dungeons have maintained that good edge they were in the first. That is to say, everything makes sense and is rather simple, but not tutorial-mode easily so far. I've been stuck on one point so far for longer than a few minutes, but that was because I didn't pay attention to one of the on-screen prompts properly. Very satisfying up till now.

[Casimir Effect]

Decided to jump back into my Infamous difficulty Far Cry 2 playthrough, except now I've installed that Graphical Enhancement Suite and the Realism Mod.
The GES changes the look of the game quite a bit, and certainly makes a nice alternative to the vanilla look which, if you've put as many hours into FC2 as I have, is a good way to make it feel fresh. I prefer vanilla though, and the GES does make some things look weird (skybox).
The realism mod certainly makes things trickier on Infamous and I've died once already. Oddly it makes things a bit easier as times though. For example, the silenced pistol can now kill with a single torso shot, sometimes two. Of course this is balanced by you being able to only take a few hits but this often killed you on vanilla Infamous anyway, so you end up with the advantage. Just bought the stealth suit so it'll be interesting to see if enemies do notice me less - as promised by the mod - and I'll also drive through a few camps to see if the reduced aggression works too.

Still love this game though. Everything is so damn tense especially when you're this fragile. Planning encounters is key, as it knowing where your retreat paths are.

[Jesus_Phish]

Faces in Skyrim are fine. Bodies on the other hand. Both Bioware and Bethesda seem to have big issues when it comes to bodies. Particularly female ones. Every woman in Dragon Age has the same body regardless of their age. Skyrim is guilty of this too, with old crones looking as young as what I guess are twenty and thirty year olds until you see their face.

I've been playing through Space Marine. Such a popcorn game. Story is generic 40k mush, but the combat is awesome. Little bit too much walking from A to B for my liking though with not very much going on between. And the music, it's terrible.

[Drake Sigar]

Restarting Neverwinter Nights 2 I wanted my character to be able to lead the party, hold his own on the front line, and have plenty of skills. Luckily I found my answer in the Storm of Zehir expansion pack (at least it was good for something), and picked the Swashbuckler class. On the few occasions I can't talk my way out of trouble, my insanely high parry skill can hold back the mobs and leave my archers and wizards free to do their damage in peace.

[Sketch]

Currently playing through KOTOR1. After meaning to play the game for quite some time, and then picking it up for a few dollars in the summer sale recently I thought it was about time I give it a go.

Very good game all in all despite all the fact that its buggy as well. Having to reload after every couple of battles due to my main character being unable to move got annoying fast.

I think that's a bug because of Win7/Vista. Try disabling v-sync.

[Ravelle]

I think that's a bug because of Win7/Vista. Try disabling v-sync.

Yeah, V-Sync either makes or breaks a game. ;p

[Anthile]

I wouldn't recommend the swashbuckler. The parry skill used to be broken, when you get attacked more than once per round it just doesn't work correctly. Amazingly enough, this glitch exists already in the first NWN.

[Oak]

The realism mod certainly makes things trickier on Infamous and I've died once already. Oddly it makes things a bit easier as times though. For example, the silenced pistol can now kill with a single torso shot, sometimes two. Of course this is balanced by you being able to only take a few hits but this often killed you on vanilla Infamous anyway, so you end up with the advantage. Just bought the stealth suit so it'll be interesting to see if enemies do notice me less - as promised by the mod - and I'll also drive through a few camps to see if the reduced aggression works too.

I'm going to have to try this.

[Nalano]

Sleeping Dogs.

I dunno what happened. The first half of the game was your HKPD handler saying "there are very few guns in Hong Kong," and lo it was true. The first ten hours of the game, I didn't even hold a gun, let alone fire one in anger.

Then the second half of the game rolled around, and I'm now personally responsible for the largest bloodbath any major city has seen in half a century. I don't get it: The game was actually doing pretty good as a counterpoint to GTA4... then it became GTA4.

[augustuskent]

Restarting Neverwinter Nights 2 I wanted my character to be able to lead the party, hold his own on the front line, and have plenty of skills. Luckily I found my answer in the Storm of Zehir expansion pack (at least it was good for something), and picked the Swashbuckler class. On the few occasions I can't talk my way out of trouble, my insanely high parry skill can hold back the mobs and leave my archers and wizards free to do their damage in peace.


Our minds may be in sync, I started NW2 campaign as a swashbuckler today!

[Drake Sigar]

I wouldn't recommend the swashbuckler. The parry skill used to be broken, when you get attacked more than once per round it just doesn't work correctly. Amazingly enough, this glitch exists already in the first NWN.

I think they fixed that. He's not supposed to be able to parry armies, but the number of enemies he can parry seems to go up slightly with levels. I can't find the proof online though. All I know is he's a devil to hit and there were numerous fights I would have lost if he had been a fighter class.

[NecroKnight]

I finally managed to play Mann vs Machine and it's really lots of fun.

[Oshada]

Yeah, V-Sync either makes or breaks a game. ;p

It's amazing isn't it. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood crashes for me if I don't have V-sync on, Assassin's Creed II crashes for me if I DO have V-sync on. Odd as hell!

[Gorzan]

For KOTOR I found out that not only did disabling V-Sync help, but so did playing it on Windowed mode.

[eRa]

Darksiders II, Diablo 3, Battlefield 3, Panzer Corps - Afrika Corps, Dawn Of War I, RAGE (the game) and the beta of Natural Selection 2.

Total choice paralysis, argh.

[roryok]

I am playing 'wait eleven million years for visual studio to update'

UPDATE: Hooray! it fucking failed again.

[fiddlesticks]

The biggest problem with Swashbucklers in Neverwinter Nights 2 is that they rely a lot on critical hits for their damage, which means they become considerably weaker once critical immune enemies with damage resistance show up. It's the same problem the Rogue has. That said, NwN 2 isn't the hardest game, so aside from one or two battles this shouldn't hinder you too much.

I've been playing some more Mann vs. Machine. Lots of fun when you have a decent server and play it with friends, though it's starting to become a bit stale. There isn't a lot of variety in the maps, so eventually everything starts to become predictable. Which is why I'm looking forward to custom levels built by the community.

[AlexClockwork]

Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's not really a Splinter Cell game, but it's still nice to play...

[Heliocentric]

Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's not really a Splinter Cell game, but it's still nice to play...

If it was called Tom Cuhlansey's Stealth Murderer Man it would have gotten a better metacritic user score for sure.

[Drake Sigar]

I am the Alan Shore of Neverwinter Nights 2. During the trial I treated hostile witnesses like old friends, quoted obscure literary references until Torio was so far off track she could barely remember what her original question was, and had the crowd believing my extortion of a gnomish merchant was some kind of brilliant marketing scheme.

[laneford]

I just have my new PC up and running, so I have been looking forward to playing any technically demanding game from the last few years which wouldn't run on my old machine or that I abandoned because they ran so poorly.

Any from: Skyrim, Stalker:SoC, Stalker:CoP, Bioshock 2, Shogun 2, Fallout:NV.

And what do I spend most of my time playing?

Binding of Isaac.

Bloody flash game.

[arathain]

That's a great test of your machine. Did you finally manage to get away from the slowdown?

[The JG Man]

And what do I spend most of my time playing?

Binding of Isaac.

130 hours according to Steam. 130. Bloody flash game indeed.

[Casimir Effect]

I am the Alan Shore of Neverwinter Nights 2. During the trial I treated hostile witnesses like old friends, quoted obscure literary references until Torio was so far off track she could barely remember what her original question was, and had the crowd believing my extortion of a gnomish merchant was some kind of brilliant marketing scheme.
So much fun isn't it? I forget, have you completed the game before or only ever gotten part way through Act 1?


The biggest problem with Swashbucklers in Neverwinter Nights 2 is that they rely a lot on critical hits for their damage, which means they become considerably weaker once critical immune enemies with damage resistance show up. It's the same problem the Rogue has. That said, NwN 2 isn't the hardest game, so aside from one or two battles this shouldn't hinder you too much.
Goddamn. Elite. Vampires. There was very little my sorcerer could do against them until I remembered I had scrolls of Fuck-You-Undead (Sunbeam) tucked away. Being reliant on backstab & piercing damage could get very tricky unless you have some great anti-undead stuff tucked away.

[Fumarole]

Goddamn. Elite. Vampires. There was very little my sorcerer could do against them until I remembered I had scrolls of Fuck-You-Undead (Sunbeam) tucked away. Being reliant on backstab & piercing damage could get very tricky unless you have some great anti-undead stuff tucked away.I found the best solution was to loot everything in sight while my party dealt with any undead and dragons we encountered. Sure they were mad at me when they couldn't afford to buy any goodies due to me having all the loot, but I was roleplaying my Svirfneblin rogue, damn it.

[Casimir Effect]

I found the best solution was to loot everything in sight while my party dealt with any undead and dragons we encountered. Sure they were mad at me when they couldn't afford to buy any goodies due to me having all the loot, but I was roleplaying my Svirfneblin rogue, damn it.
The specific part I'm thinking of is a solo part - no party and no leaving until those vampires are down.

How does the NWN2 campaign work out in multiplayer anyway? It intrigues me.

[vinraith]

The specific part I'm thinking of is a solo part - no party and no leaving until those vampires are down.

How does the NWN2 campaign work out in multiplayer anyway? It intrigues me.

All players are always present, whoever does the talking is the protagonist for purposes of that conversation (this can lead to some huge weirdness with the romance options). The counterbalance is that experience is divided more ways, so two people playing through NWN2 will be a level or two lower than a single player at the same point, as will their party. The net effect is to make the game easier at the beginning and markedly harder toward the end.

[Fumarole]

How does the NWN2 campaign work out in multiplayer anyway? It intrigues me.Surprisingly well. We never finished the game as it was hard to coordinate everyone's schedule, but LANing NWN2 was very fun. Some encounters were ridiculously easy, as any parts where you were supposed to be alone meant your friends were with you (I recall the trial by combat part ended in about two rounds for us). Our party makeup was:

Svirfneblin rogue
Human barbarian
Elf rogue
Human cleric
Human paladin

I'd definitely recommend it, just don't get caught with tens of thousands of gold pieces when the rest of your party has maybe a few hundred gold pieces each. Come to think of it, that may have played a role in the premature ending of our game.

[alms]

I take great pride in always being ahead of the curve, so I started Saints Row 2. Insert expletives about quality of the port. Game seems plenty good otherwise. Gonna install Gentlemen of the Row next time i play.

[magnus1969]

I take great pride in always being ahead of the curve, so I started Saints Row 2. Insert expletives about quality of the port. Game seems plenty good otherwise. Gonna install Gentlemen of the Row next time i play.

That patch makes a hell of a lot of difference.

[Nalano]

That patch makes a hell of a lot of difference.

4srs 10char

[Casimir Effect]

Surprisingly well. We never finished the game as it was hard to coordinate everyone's schedule, but LANing NWN2 was very fun. Some encounters were ridiculously easy, as any parts where you were supposed to be alone meant your friends were with you (I recall the trial by combat part ended in about two rounds for us). Our party makeup was:

Svirfneblin rogue
Human barbarian
Elf rogue
Human cleric
Human paladin

I'd definitely recommend it, just don't get caught with tens of thousands of gold pieces when the rest of your party has maybe a few hundred gold pieces each. Come to think of it, that may have played a role in the premature ending of our game.
So each player makes a character to play with? What happens to the joinables like Neeshka et al? Do you control your own character plus one of the normal NPCs?


All players are always present, whoever does the talking is the protagonist for purposes of that conversation (this can lead to some huge weirdness with the romance options). The counterbalance is that experience is divided more ways, so two people playing through NWN2 will be a level or two lower than a single player at the same point, as will their party. The net effect is to make the game easier at the beginning and markedly harder toward the end.
Thanks. I imagined the dialogues would get weird but didn't think they'd be that strange - I'm assuming romances would kind of transfer from one PC to the next depending on who talks.

[Fumarole]

So each player makes a character to play with? What happens to the joinables like Neeshka et al? Do you control your own character plus one of the normal NPCs?Yes, each player creates their own character to play.

It's been years so my memory is hazy, but I don't remember the NPCs in our game. If they were there they were probably controlled by whomever was hosting the game. I certainly didn't control any. I'll ask my friends to see if they remember.

[vinraith]

Whoever wants to control the NPC's controls them. It's no different than single player, there are just two "control rings" instead of one. Whoever selects an NPC and hits the "level up" button controls how they level up. There's a party size limit, though, so someone like Fumarole playing with a large group of humans probably didn't have any. I played through in 2-player co-op, and we were able to carry 2 or 3 NPC's at any given time as I recall.

[Drake Sigar]

So much fun isn't it? I forget, have you completed the game before or only ever gotten part way through Act 1?
Finished the game once before. Meant to do it again over the years but I rarely got to Neverwinter before spending yet another hour back on the character creation screen.

I've heard "So many years ago today..." about five billion times now, I could kill on those words.

[Casimir Effect]

Whoever wants to control the NPC's controls them. It's no different than single player, there are just two "control rings" instead of one. Whoever selects an NPC and hits the "level up" button controls how they level up. There's a party size limit, though, so someone like Fumarole playing with a large group of humans probably didn't have any. I played through in 2-player co-op, and we were able to carry 2 or 3 NPC's at any given time as I recall.
So can one person cancel the orders another gives to an NPC, or are they 'bound' to the one that first gives the order or levels them up? Myself and a couple of friends are thinking of trying a game of it so I'm trying to nail down the specifics. I wonder if the console command to remove the party member limit would work. Y'know, for science.


Finished the game once before. Meant to do it again over the years but I rarely got to Neverwinter before spending yet another hour back on the character creation screen.

I've heard "So many years ago today..." about five billion times now, I could kill on those words.
Ok, so you know what to expect then. I've finished it twice - first with a pure ranger and then a sorcerer/arcane scholar/eldritch knight - but the second time there was a gap of 6+ months in starting Act 1 and finishing it. Never felt the compulsion to spend time at character creation, especailly as I'm terrible at thinking about prestige classes etc. Now, the older 2nd Ed games where you rolled for stats, those could keep me happy for hours without ever getting into the game proper.
What about Mask of the Betrayer or Storm of Zehir, ever played them?

[Drake Sigar]

Neither yet. I'll be playing Mask of Betrayer next, but Storm of Zehir doesn't look like my cup of tea.

[Casimir Effect]

Neither yet. I'll be playing Mask of Betrayer next, but Storm of Zehir doesn't look like my cup of tea.
Excellent, you're in for a treat then.
I have Zehir and tried to get into it. But without any appreciable story I bounced right off. It felt a bit like Icewind Dale 1 and so I'm sure there is fun to be had, but that engine was killing me. Random encounters where party members would sprint across the map to start shit with some fresh enemies while you were already trying to take a batch on with the rest of your party. And while you could turn AI off this lead to a micro-managing nightmare.
One day, maybe.

[vinraith]

So can one person cancel the orders another gives to an NPC, or are they 'bound' to the one that first gives the order or levels them up? Myself and a couple of friends are thinking of trying a game of it so I'm trying to nail down the specifics. I wonder if the console command to remove the party member limit would work. Y'know, for science.



It's exactly like Infinity Engine MP, essentially. Whoever is in control of them at the moment is in control of them. When that person moves control off of that NPC, anyone else can take control of that NPC and do whatever they like.

To topic: Mostly I'm playing "holy shit it's the beginning of the semester where did all these students come from and what do they want from me!?" with the occasional brief bout of New Vegas to calm the nerves.

[Casimir Effect]

It's exactly like Infinity Engine MP, essentially. Whoever is in control of them at the moment is in control of them. When that person moves control off of that NPC, anyone else can take control of that NPC and do whatever they like.
Something else I wish I'd played MP of, but I hear is a pain to get working. That and you miss being able to pause the action in IE games. NWN2 MP sounds like it could be a lot of fun though.


To topic: Mostly I'm playing "holy shit it's the beginning of the semester where did all these students come from and what do they want from me!?" with the occasional brief bout of New Vegas to calm the nerves.
Don't remind me. Soon enough I'll be trying to not only write a thesis but having to wait half an hour for a damn coffee because every loud, young, lackadaisical fresher/undergrad wants to grab one before his or her lecture, clogging up the queue by boasting to random members of the opposite sex about how they spent the summer saving the whales or weaving sandals all the while playing an acoustic guitar and discovering themselves.
Bloody youth of today.

[alms]

That patch makes a hell of a lot of difference.

I'm trying to keep the game as close to stock as possible, so I've selected all the revert to original options and none of the add stuff ones. Before that I installed Powertools and slowed down the game. Hopefully it will run smoother now.

[vinraith]

Don't remind me. Soon enough I'll be trying to not only write a thesis but having to wait half an hour for a damn coffee because every loud, young, lackadaisical fresher/undergrad wants to grab one before his or her lecture, clogging up the queue by boasting to random members of the opposite sex about how they spent the summer saving the whales or weaving sandals all the while playing an acoustic guitar and discovering themselves.
Bloody youth of today.

Trying to finish a dissertation while teaching full time, here. I don't foresee a lot of gaming in my future...

[The JG Man]

how they spent the summer saving the whales or weaving sandals all the while playing an acoustic guitar and discovering themselves.

That got a good hearty chuckle out of me. I graduated this year, but in the three years I was at that uni, every fresher's week had that same few people you'd meet.


Trying to finish a dissertation while teaching full time, here. I don't foresee a lot of gaming in my future...

I...do not envy that. I hope it all goes well. At any rate, you can know that whatever you do play afterwards, that rewarding sense of satisfaction will be there in spades. I know I had it the first game after I'd handed mine in (and had caught up on sleep).

To keep this on topic, still playing Darksiders 2. Nearing the end of the first location. I find it hilarious that one of the devs said that you'd probably only find about 3-4 of the 'possessed' (for those unaware, these are weapons you can feed other items in, powering them up with the stats of said items) weapons in the course of the game. I've found around 6 so far. My luck wins out?

[ado]

I think I'm giving up on Dawn of War 2 again, for the 3rd time... I don't know, the game is not bad or anything but it's just not really involving in any way and playing it feels like doing a chore. So yea... I think it's back to non-RTS games for me.

I also started dabbling in Dota2. I played a handful of matches vs. bots, and boy do I suck. The one great thing about the game is that it's instantly engaging, and action is always right around the corner. I'm definitely gonna keep at it, playing it like this really makes me want to learn the damn thing and start playing against real people. But I'm nowhere near ready for that, nor would I want to inflict my suckyness on others till I at least get comfortable with the game's main systems. Until then it's coop vs. bots for me.

I do have to commend Valve's visual and aural presentation and insane attention to detail. The game is a sight to behold and really feels very polished.

[icemann]

To the earlier comments regarding KOTOR 1, I had been experiencing graphical bugs (models only being half shown in locations where grass was) which if I disabled grass fixed, V-SYNC I've tried switching off which hasn't helped. Switching off movement during combat helped somewhat with the controls freezing up after a fight, though not entirely.

The game loves to alt-tab itself out back to windows randomly whenever movies are playing in-game, often requiring me to have to end the process for the game and start the game again, which is probably the most annoying bug for the game.

Still very much enjoying the game regardless.

[Gorzan]

The game loves to alt-tab itself out back to windows randomly whenever movies are playing in-game, often requiring me to have to end the process for the game and start the game again, which is probably the most annoying bug for the game.

If I remember right, almost every movie-related problem can be solved running the game windowed.

[Casimir Effect]

Trying to finish a dissertation while teaching full time, here. I don't foresee a lot of gaming in my future...
That sounds painful. I knew someone who tried to do a part-time masters while teaching full-time, but I don't think their heart was properly in it as after 3 protracted years they just quit the degree. Luckily I'm almost at the point where I can just concentrate on writing full-time, still not much time for anything else though. Good luck, like JG said it'll be grand day when you hand it in.

[icemann]

Hmm. Well I'm in the settings screen and can't see anything about running the game in windowed mode. How do I do that?

[edit]
A google search gave me the answer. Nevermind. Hopefully that will fix most of the issues I'm having.

[Gorzan]

I've started Neverwinter Nights 2, it's autosaving is borked as all hell.

[Voon]

Bah. While all of ya enjoying your Dork Souls on PC with your GfWLs, I'm stuck playing it on the consolebox! Fuck my wallet...

So, this new character I've just started on the game, pure Pyromancer and Dex-build, and enjoying it so far. Love how fucking fast he is in the game. He's surprisingly durable too! He took two full hits from the Taurus Demon while climbing up the stairs and rolling around, slashing hollows like a champ. Felt like a fresh change after rolling two tanks in the game.

[arathain]

I'm in the middle of a nice big game of Warlock. I'm doing rather well with that. I'm going to actually try to see a 4x game through to the end, which would be almost unheard of for me.

The more I play Warlock the more I like it.

[ado]

Bah. While all of ya enjoying your Dork Souls on PC with your GfWLs, I'm stuck playing it on the consolebox! Fuck my wallet...

So, this new character I've just started on the game, pure Pyromancer and Dex-build, and enjoying it so far. Love how fucking fast he is in the game. He's surprisingly durable too! He took two full hits from the Taurus Demon while climbing up the stairs and rolling around, slashing hollows like a champ. Felt like a fresh change after rolling two tanks in the game.

What weapon are you using? On my dex guy I used a Uchigatana. The weapon comes very recommended, it's very fast and scales wonderfuly with dex, and it's dex modifier goes from B to A at +15. Uchigatana +15 with 40 dex and a little magic powder (lightning?) means that shit dies in 1-2 swings.

Good for PvP as well.

[Serenegoose]

I'm in the middle of a nice big game of Warlock. I'm doing rather well with that. I'm going to actually try to see a 4x game through to the end, which would be almost unheard of for me.

The more I play Warlock the more I like it.

Self-interested query: Do you have the elf DLC and is it any good? I like warlock a lot, but I played it a fair bit and would like something new.

[Voon]

What weapon are you using? On my dex guy I used a Uchigatana. The weapon comes very recommended, it's very fast and scales wonderfuly with dex, and it's dex modifier goes from B to A at +15. Uchigatana +15 with 40 dex and a little magic powder (lightning?) means that shit dies in 1-2 swings.

Good for PvP as well.

As of now, I'm using a Schimitar. It's a bit shit when it comes to damage (mostly because I haven't upgraded it yet) but goddamn I love the combo moves.

I think I'm gonna pass using the Uchiganata for now, sorry. But I'll think about it. Also, it means that I have to murder the merchant too (not that it's that much of a big deal, late game, anyway). I'll definitely get one as soon as I made another chara because I wanted to roll a two-handed only Samurai-build for ages.

[Mohorovicic]

I already murdered the merchant. NO UNDEAD ALLOWED. I don't care about the Uchigatana, but I wanted the Residence Key. If I were playing online I'd also want the Orange Soapstone.

So far Dark Souls has been pretty... chillout actually. Wander around here and there, kill some baddies, if you die - it's no big deal right? Finally managed to scavenge Hollow Warrior Waistcloth and I'm no longer disturbed when I look at my character. Protip: If you pick Deprived, keep him hollowed until you find some pants.

[arathain]

Self-interested query: Do you have the elf DLC and is it any good? I like warlock a lot, but I played it a fair bit and would like something new.

I don't have it. Given my aforementioned inability to play any damn thing to completion expansion DLC rarely seems like a good use of money.

[LTK]

The elf race DLC seems to be of the same standing as the lizard race DLC. The Artifact DLC looks more interesting, because it gives your mage the ability to create artifacts. In my last game of Warlock I had at least two artifacts that none of my present lords could use, so I think being able to create your own will let you kit out your existing lords better.

I played a fair bit of Warlock, and it's still a pretty compelling game when I load it up, but I don't really have a lasting interest in it. The randomness of spell research kills it for me. It makes or breaks most of my long-term strategies, so there's never that amazing feeling of a plan coming together.

I would have loved a campaign mode as well. The simplicity of hex-based terrain gives you the opportunity to create maps where different great mages require different approaches to defeat, or where you have to lay siege to a city bottlenecked by mountains, or where you have to defend an established empire at multiple fronts, you name it.

Maybe it's just me, but I've always preferred a more directed experience in the few strategy games I play. Dungeon Keeper 2 and Age of Empires 2 were the last ones I really enjoyed.

[sabrage]

Ugh.... Now both Kane & Lynch games have given me headaches. That's enough third-person cover shooters for one lifetime. Blessedly, they're both comically short games.

[kstress71]

Just finished Psychonauts for the first time, and I can fairly say it's one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a long time. Too many collectibles for me, but the character and level designs were fantastic. Feel like I finally "get it" about this game. Highly recommended to anyone out there that's been dumber than me for not playing this game through yet.Now if I could just figure out why people love Beyond Good & Evil so much... I DID play that game through when it first came out and it just never clicked as that great.Anyway... on to something more violent... Maybe Binary Domain or Space Marine...

[squirrel]

Yeah, finally acquired my copy of Sleeping Dogs, removed the DRM from my installation and started playing. I guess many of you also are playing it, yahoo~~~~~~~~~

A sudden change to sandbox mode after the Night Market missions. I am still working to adapt to it. A smoother transition from linear tutorial missions to sandbox gameplay is desirable.

I see that there are serious attempts to avoid having a button smashing for controlling combat, and it worked great, adapted quite well with mouse+keyboard. But I am greedy. Since this game's combat is mostly about Chinese martial art, they could develop a better input system to even let us simulate martial art while playing, probably involves new input hardware. Looks like Kinect or PS Move have their potential to show off.

Popularity of this game seems like a surprise, but at the same time it is not. Marketing is almost everything for game industry. You dont market a game well and it wont sell regardless of how great it is. Activision let this golden goose being grabbed by Square, but I seriously dont think Activision made a bad business decision. Square is kinda expert in RPG game while Activision is not. Even this game is developed by an independent studio, I felt like playing a typical Square RPG, expect for of course the sandbox gameplay. I dont think this game would be what it is like if Activision was the publisher. To put it simply, this is not the money Activision can make.

[Drake Sigar]

Just reached the third act of Neverwinter Nights 2. Went all Night's Watch on my keep and decided to pardon any criminal who'll serve under me. My 'friend' in the thieves guild sent spies to check up on me, but I have spies spying on his spies. I sure hope he doesn't have spies spying on my spies spying on his spies though, because I didn't plan for that.

[Fanbuoy]

How is Sleeping Dogs an RPG? I'm curious not questioning, I haven't played it yet. If it's possible to influence the storyline that would be awesome!

After finishing Binary Domain yesterday, my main issue was that several decisions which could easily be left to the player was taken without my consent. Yes, I'm aware that it's a TPS but since (spoiler?) they let relationships play a part I think that they might as well leave some other, more interesting, things for me to decide.

[Lukasz]

Just reached the third act of Neverwinter Nights 2. Went all Night's Watch on my keep and decided to pardon any criminal who'll serve under me. My 'friend' in the thieves guild sent spies to check up on me, but I have spies spying on his spies. I sure hope he doesn't have spies spying on my spies spying on his spies though, because I didn't plan for that.

i loled.

shame i never really got far in NWN2. this post makes me consider buying it (after i beat BG2)

[Ravelle]

How is Sleeping Dogs an RPG? I'm curious not questioning, I haven't played it yet. If it's possible to influence the storyline that would be awesome!

After finishing Binary Domain yesterday, my main issue was that several decisions which could easily be left to the player was taken without my consent. Yes, I'm aware that it's a TPS but since (spoiler?) they let relationships play a part I think that they might as well leave some other, more interesting, things for me to decide.

A role-playing game (RPG and sometimes roleplaying game) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.

Seems about right, but then again nowadays every game can be seen as an RPG.

[Voon]

There goes another one. Another peasant went insane and killed a baby in his berzerked state and one of my squads was too late to stop him. Oh, well. At least the last one who took over the Craftsdwarf's Workshop (again) manages to make something this time. Hate it when they start doing that shit.

I haven't had any sieges since the establishment of my measly little fortress and the place is starting to get packed with immigrants. Need to expand on the metal industry soon as I have a surplus in my supply of limonite in the fortress. Thinking of making some steel weapons and armour for my squads to equip with and something with the other metals to forge. What's the most expencive kind of furniture again? Or should I just make a statue?

[tjv]

Finally done with Dirt 2. Took a good while to race through all the 100 events.
Next up I should get around and finish HL2 finally. Just got started on the first car sequence, but kind of not feeling "it". Other than that will playthrough Thirty Flights of Loving today and maybe make a start on Soulcaster 2 as well.

[Winged Nazgul]

Like every other MMO player out there it seems, I am playing Guild Wars 2.

[Nalano]

I see that there are serious attempts to avoid having a button smashing for controlling combat, and it worked great, adapted quite well with mouse+keyboard. But I am greedy. Since this game's combat is mostly about Chinese martial art, they could develop a better input system to even let us simulate martial art while playing, probably involves new input hardware. Looks like Kinect or PS Move have their potential to show off.

Cue a million more Youtube videos of people accidentally smashing their TVs.

I spent the weekend playing Guild Wars 2. Servers went up 12:01 AM EST. The name "Nalano" was secured by me at 12:03 AM. Currently level 34, though my guildmate and longtime buddy Aldem is 38.

[Giaddon]

Prototype 2.

I call it "Gemini"

http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921238949574781055/E4710DE5B27477AD5A699905262444401072C63C/ (http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/921238949574781055/E4710DE5B27477AD5A699905262444401072C63C/)

[vinraith]

I'm about 80 hours into Fallout: New Vegas and still having a nice time with it when I can find an hour to play. The trick, I'm finding, is to stay away from Vegas itself and stick to the rest of the map. Plenty of nice Bethesda-style nooks and crannies out there, and of course plenty of much-better-than-Bethesda-style quests in the world as well. For some reason, all that civilization on the strip really puts me off (it stopped me playing the game entirely the first time), but the rest of what's here is pretty great. I just found the BoS, it's nice to see them acting like themselves.

[roryok]

I want to play Psychonauts, Saboteur, DX1, Human Revolution, Vampire:Bloodlines, XCOM, Dark Messiah, Mass Effect, Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress, SC: Chaos Theory, STALKER: Call of Pripyat, Metro 2033, Freespace 2, SOTS, and Mechwarrior

But every time I sit down to play any of these I end up playing Skyrim

[Fumarole]

The trick, I'm finding, is to stay away from Vegas itself and stick to the rest of the map.In New Vegas I avoided the strip and main quest line for as long as possible. That's pretty much my take on any RPG that allows it. In Fallout 3 after Megaton was thoroughly explored, I heading off into the wilderness in the opposite direction my quest marker was pointing. This resulted in me exploring almost all of the map west of the Potomac and hitting the level cap before ever finding Three Dog, let alone Rivet City. Ultimately, with my feeling of progression essentially stopped, I stopped playing the game. A second hardcore game years later eventually led to me getting to the Dad incident, but soon after that I was killed by one of those damned mutant bears.

I haven't had the desire to get back into Fallout 3 since then.

[Dougal Mcfrugal]

darksiders II, loved the first one, loving the second one

[gundato]

I was going to sit down and do some Dark Souls, but sadly still not in the right frame of mind. So instead I'll go start Spec Ops while I wait for my GW2 key.

[Kadayi]

Finished Sleeping Dogs yesterday which I heartedly recommend, it's not perfect but it's a pretty solid and enjoyable open world game and the combat, especially the environmental attacks are pretty good.

Presently playing Dark souls which is every bit as hard as Coffin Nails as I'd been lead to believe, though extremely satisfying when it goes to plan. I can't say I'm particularly great at it, though I've managed to snaffle some nice armour and a decent sword through following some guides. It's taken a while for the realisation to sink in that the game actively encourages you to grind areas in order to progress, and that it's really about fighting your way through to when your in danger and then heading back with your souls, camping down and rinse repeating until the danger seems a trifle. I probably could of saved myself a lot of lost souls if I'd gotten my head around that aspect much earlier on tbh.

[Drake Sigar]

Oh fuck you Grobnar Gnomehands. It was bad enough you led me on a wild chase for imaginary creatures, but now you even manage to screw me by NOT being in my party? How the hell am I supposed to know this little shit has to be around during a visit to Ember's well, when I picked up the other two golem pieces without any such stipulations? I've almost completed Neverwinter Nights 2 twice and I still haven't gotten to use the golem yet.

[AlexClockwork]

Even if haven't finished Splinter Cell: Conviction yet, I just started playing Spec Ops: The Line. It's nice, and the story is amazing, so... Yay! I still prefer Binary Domain as a TPS, but, well... It's something. The cover system is quite annoying, though, and I haven't had any troubles with difficulty ("suicidal mission") until the 6th chapter, where I'm stuck right now. I've decided I'll try again tomorrow. Also, I should be able to target enemies for my squad members, shouldn't I? I could only target the one from the tutorial, don't know why...

BTW, I've also been playing a bit of The Settlers 7, and, even if I probably suck at it, I absolutely love it. Even if the DRM has already given me trouble twice. >.<

EDIT: Well, just finished Conviction. If you don't look at it as a Splinter Cell game, it's pretty nice. A bit too easy, maybe.

[Wheelz]

Also, I should be able to target enemies for my squad members, shouldn't I? I could only target the one from the tutorial, don't know why...


There was somthing funny about the squad targetting, I think it was only available/worked if you were taking enough fire for the game to register you as "being supressed", otherwise you couldn't give the squad orders.

[AlexClockwork]

There was somthing funny about the squad targetting, I think it was only available/worked if you were taking enough fire for the game to register you as "being supressed", otherwise you couldn't give the squad orders.

But it is weird... Right at the beginning of the 2nd chapter the game tells (or sugests) me to target one of the first two enemies appearing, even before they discover me. Of course, I can't. Thanks for the help, anyway. ^^

And, BTW... Even if it has some problems, I like the game, so far.

[Juan Carlo]

Been playing Gothic 2. I really like it a lot. It's quest design is a bit....fussy (for example, you kind of have to do things in a very specific order or you break the game, even though it's open world), but otherwise I think it's combat is much improved over Gothic 1.

Been having a strange hankering to dig out my KOTOR1 discs and replay the KOTOR series now that KOTOR 2 is finished. I might do that next (or if I get distracted during Gothic).

[Wheelz]

I'd quite like to hear peoples thoughts on Spec-Ops: The Line when they've completed it. It didn't seem to have much appeal around these parts, so I haven't really had a chance to have a decent discussion about it.

[Ravelle]

Even if haven't finished Splinter Cell: Conviction yet, I just started playing Spec Ops: The Line. It's nice, and the story is amazing, so... Yay! I still prefer Binary Domain as a TPS, but, well... It's something. The cover system is quite annoying, though, and I haven't had any troubles with difficulty ("suicidal mission") until the 6th chapter, where I'm stuck right now. I've decided I'll try again tomorrow. Also, I should be able to target enemies for my squad members, shouldn't I? I could only target the one from the tutorial, don't know why...

BTW, I've also been playing a bit of The Settlers 7, and, even if I probably suck at it, I absolutely love it. Even if the DRM has already given me trouble twice. >.<

EDIT: Well, just finished Conviction. If you don't look at it as a Splinter Cell game, it's pretty nice. A bit too easy, maybe.

Yeah Splintercell fanboys were pretty mad about it, I loved it and can't wait for black list.

[Voon]

Even if haven't finished Splinter Cell: Conviction yet, I just started playing Spec Ops: The Line. It's nice, and the story is amazing, so... Yay! I still prefer Binary Domain as a TPS, but, well... It's something. The cover system is quite annoying, though, and I haven't had any troubles with difficulty ("suicidal mission") until the 6th chapter, where I'm stuck right now. I've decided I'll try again tomorrow. Also, I should be able to target enemies for my squad members, shouldn't I? I could only target the one from the tutorial, don't know why...

BTW, I've also been playing a bit of The Settlers 7, and, even if I probably suck at it, I absolutely love it. Even if the DRM has already given me trouble twice. >.<

EDIT: Well, just finished Conviction. If you don't look at it as a Splinter Cell game, it's pretty nice. A bit too easy, maybe.

It was nice. It'll make people boo and hiss by making them unable to go ghosting around levels but I kinda like playing predator. Makes me feel badass and I like that. The Deniable-Ops mode is better, tho.

[Voon]

Yeah Splintercell fanboys were pretty mad about it, I loved it and can't wait for black list.

I never really seen any trailers of Blacklist but I'm assuming it's like Conviction.

[Prokroustis]

I never really seen any trailers of Blacklist but I'm assuming it's like Conviction.


Even worse. (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/06/05/splinter-cell-blacklist-ive-been-on-a-few-of-those/) (Yes, such a thing turns out to be possible.)

[Drayk]

I am connected to GW2... Can't really say playing because I am having a character crisis...

[Lukasz]

I tried to play some company of heroes.

since im connected to the net it forces me to sign up for their crap. i won't do that. there is workaround but really killed my interest in playing this game.

[fiddlesticks]

I've almost completed Neverwinter Nights 2 twice and I still haven't gotten to use the golem yet.
Assembling the Golem and finding Guyven of the Road are the two most annoying sidequests in NwN 2. Ususually the game is pretty good about at least hinting at obscure secrets, but in these two cases you either need to be lucky or use a guide. It's a shame, because both quests are interesting and have neat payoffs.

I recently replayed Bioshock 2 to see if it holds up as well as I remember. I can safely state it does. There are a few things about the game that bother me, but I'm willing to forgive it for them because the last third is just so incredibly fun to play. One of the best FPS titles in recent years and superior to its predecessor in every way.

[Drake Sigar]

Assembling the Golem and finding Guyven of the Road are the two most annoying sidequests in NwN 2. Ususually the game is pretty good about at least hinting at obscure secrets, but in these two cases you either need to be lucky or use a guide. It's a shame, because both quests are interesting and have neat payoffs.

Have no problem finding Guyven because my fingers are glued to the tab key which I use to highlight all objects and persons of interest.

I didn't use it during my first game and missed several ore veins. :/

[DaftPunk]

Playing Pokemon Emerald on my Nokia N95 and its quite enjoying stuff,only annoying thing is that i don't have "quest data" or something,to tell me where should i go because i just got task to go to some town but i forgot which one..argh.

[Casimir Effect]

Having a good bit of fun with Dungeon Siege III. Nice to see that Obsidian can put together a decent engine and a nice gameplay system. Haven't had a single crash or bug or fps-drop yet and, while the M+KB controls are a clusterfuck, it feels nice to play with a gamepad.

There are some issues, such as the lack of feedback in combat or the fact that I never feel like my item choice matters much - my playstyle with Katarina remains unchanged no matter if I employ items which give more Will or more Agility or more Attack etc. But ultimately I look forward to replaying this with all the characters.

I know people are angry it wasn't like DS1 but honestly, much as I enjoyed that game, DS1 (and Aranna) pretty much covers that kind of gameplay and provides many, many hours of it. Something new is appreciated, especially as I bounced right off DS2 (and only got about 2/3 through Aranna before getting tired).

[AlexClockwork]

Just got a key for Firefall and started playing it. I love it so far, I had never played a MMOFPS before, and I must admit it's quite outstanding, specially being just a beta... ^^

[Serenegoose]

I recently replayed Bioshock 2 to see if it holds up as well as I remember. I can safely state it does. There are a few things about the game that bother me, but I'm willing to forgive it for them because the last third is just so incredibly fun to play. One of the best FPS titles in recent years and superior to its predecessor in every way.

Quite right. I've been replaying it too. Wish the weapons had ANY oomph to them - if they did it would be just about perfect for me.

[arathain]

My wife and child are elsewhere for the evening, so I can actually sit down for something extended and uninterruptible. It turns out Mann vs Machine is a bit good.

[zay]

I've started playing Baldur's Gate for the first time, but I always have trouble getting into the gameplay of cRPGs. I'm always overwhelmed by all the stats and stuff, and the intricacies of character creation, and end up second guessing my choices as soon as I start playing.

So can anyone help me out? I want to just get into the game, and have fun and a challenge without being punished hideously. So what's the funnest, simplest character setup for BG? (keeping in mind I'm using the trilogy combo mod thing which lets me have BGII character choices (doesn't it?))

[Lukasz]

I've started playing Baldur's Gate for the first time, but I always have trouble getting into the gameplay of cRPGs. I'm always overwhelmed by all the stats and stuff, and the intricacies of character creation, and end up second guessing my choices as soon as I start playing.

So can anyone help me out? I want to just get into the game, and have fun and a challenge without being punished hideously. So what's the funnest, simplest character setup for BG? (keeping in mind I'm using the trilogy combo mod thing which lets me have BGII character choices (doesn't it?))

My first playthrough was with a wizard slayer and second one was with wizard.

wizards are useless on first few levels. you get one spell at level one (2 if you know where a certain ring is. Hint: look for it in the bushes just before you meet friends) but then become really fun to play as well as your main weapon.
Fighters are easier at first, lots of hitpoints and can tank. later tough their main job is just to keep enemies occupied while your mages do the most damage (also sometimes enemies have ridiculous high magic resistance. fighters then shine)

so while i am no expert on BG i would recommend a straight fighter or Kensei kit, or a paladin for first time player.
paladin kit, apparently the best is: inquisitor. dispel magic is such an useful thing.
more on classes here:
http://www.playithardcore.com/pihwiki/index.php?title=Baldur%27s_Gate:_Classes_and_Kits# General_Information

honestly... BG1 is not very difficult game except three or so bosses (last one is a pain in the ass)

with stats:
if you go melee character then try to max out your str and dex. max out dex with any character to be honest.
with wizards INT is the most important

i was satisfied when when roll gave me all stat above 10 and the total for stats above ten was 28 (as in str 12 then thats +2). so don't spend too much time to get straight 18s.

[kstress71]

Dove into Space Marine last night... really not very impressed so far. Hopefully it will get better soon...

[Serenegoose]

Dove into Space Marine last night... really not very impressed so far. Hopefully it will get better soon...

Errr, no, I think the problem is it stays about the same the whole way through. Sorry.

[Bankrotas]

Getting bored with witcher (first one), but story keeps me going more than annoying fighting mechanics, so bought and installed Silent Storm and S3. S2 on hard is frustrating and boring, so launched S3 on normal for relaxation sporting a scout, fun enough. Voice acting is terrible beyond belief and really makes me sad, russian version had way better voice acting and more funny expressions.

[Casimir Effect]

I've started playing Baldur's Gate for the first time, but I always have trouble getting into the gameplay of cRPGs. I'm always overwhelmed by all the stats and stuff, and the intricacies of character creation, and end up second guessing my choices as soon as I start playing.

So can anyone help me out? I want to just get into the game, and have fun and a challenge without being punished hideously. So what's the funnest, simplest character setup for BG? (keeping in mind I'm using the trilogy combo mod thing which lets me have BGII character choices (doesn't it?))
A basic Human fighter character with no kit (ie. not a Wizard Slayer or Berzerker) will make for a pretty safe playthrough, or you could go for a Ranger/Paladin (all Ranger kits are rubbish, all Paladin ones are pretty decent) instead which will make things a bit more interesting while still providing a strong melee character.
Wizards are very hard to start with as so much can kill you quickly, meaning you'll be hammering quickload and swearing a lot.

Stats in the BG games are actually pretty simple as you are completely allowed to min/max them. For example, it shouldn't take long to get a roll for a Fighter which looks like:
STR 18/85+ (18/00 is the highest you can roll, if you're wondering)
DEX 18
CON 18
INT 3
WIS 3
CHA 18

Going a dwarf of elf will make DEX/CON go to 17/19 and 19/17 respectively for that roll. For wizard, drop STR (although remember this effects your inventory capacity so 3 is never a great idea) and raise INT to full. Unless you choose Sorceror, in which case INT can stay at 3 as that class relies on CHA. I mentioned trying a Paladin earlier and will warn that getting a good roll for them is really hard, as the require WIS and CHA to be really high - INT is the only dump stat for them.

Recap: I'd recommend one of the melee-based classes but definitely without using a kit that'll mean you can't use Magic Weapons/Armour or greatly effects your weapon/armour choices like the Ranger ones do.

[mrki]

Dove into Space Marine last night... really not very impressed so far. Hopefully it will get better soon...

Basically, what Serenegoose said. If you continue you'll just get more of the same (except for the jet pack parts, those are pure fun) with a few different weapons.

[Wolfenswan]

I don't know how it is in BG1/2 but in Icewind Dale a fighter specced on longbow is a killing machine. Might be worth to check it out.

[Drayk]

I recently replayed Bioshock 2 to see if it holds up as well as I remember. I can safely state it does. There are a few things about the game that bother me, but I'm willing to forgive it for them because the last third is just so incredibly fun to play. One of the best FPS titles in recent years and superior to its predecessor in every way.

I really like Bioshock 2 but I liked the first one more. The gameplay may be better but it lacked the novelty of the setting and the story.