What are you playing at the moment? [Archive] - Page 6

vinraith

18-09-2011, 05:40 PM

Tell me more.

Well, I'll tell you what got me to try it again, and that'd be this piece by Tom Chick:

http://www.crispygamer.com/columns/2009-10-21/rush-boom-turtle-majesty-2-and-the-sickness-unto-death.aspx

I was initially put off, I think, by expecting exactly the same (incredibly charming) tone that Majesty 1 struck. Majesty 2 reallly doesn't have that, and initially struck me as insanely hard. Those two things, along with what I perceived to be very cut down options as far as character types and buildings, all conspired to put me off.

Well, the tone isn't the same, but if you take it on its own it's still pretty charming. The characterization of the heroes isn't bad, and the mechanical meat of the game largely IS the same and is still a joy. Beyond that, there are some material improvements in the mechanics, including giving you "supply lines" that need to be built up and defended, making economy more directly linked to the success of your building and hero management. It took me a little while to figure out how that worked, which is what made it seem hard at first, but once you get the hang of it it's a really cool system. Also, the options aren't actually cut down at all, it's just that the game ramps up your access to them far more slowly than the original did. Get a distance in and you'll find at least as many, possibly more, hero and building types than were in the original.

So anyway, I'm enjoying it. No idea if any of the DLC is worthwhile, I'm just playing the original campaign, but I'm having a good time.

Giaddon

18-09-2011, 06:01 PM

Sounds interesting, thanks! The collection is $10 on Steam right now, might be a good time for me to pick it up.

vinraith

18-09-2011, 06:30 PM

Sounds interesting, thanks! The collection is $10 on Steam right now, might be a good time for me to pick it up.

There's a demo if you want to check it out without investing:

http://www.majesty2.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=77&Itemid=152

Giaddon

18-09-2011, 06:45 PM

Hey, thanks! Downloading now.

MD!

18-09-2011, 11:18 PM

Any idea if there's an active [Legions Overdrive] AU/NZ community?

To answer my own question, the developers can't afford to host an Australian server, and won't allow unofficial dedicated servers :<

Heliocentric

18-09-2011, 11:32 PM

That's epic stupid.

So essentially "eff you" is the developers official line.

MD!

19-09-2011, 08:55 AM

It seems to be! Often there's more to these things than is immediately apparent, but their FAQ (http://www.legionsoverdrive.com/faq/) says:

We are investigating ways to allow users to host their own games, but out of security and community unity concerns, for the near future players can only join official dedicated servers.

So it seems like you paraphrased them pretty accurately. :(

tengblad

19-09-2011, 09:12 AM

I started playing Dead Island the other day and I must say that I'm enjoying it a lot more than I thought that I would. I was going in expecting something a buggy mess, but it's been running flawlessly on my computer (well, after I managed to dig up some config changes that turned on things like vsync and anti-aliasing). The games' pretty damn fun, too! I never get tired of chopping of zombie's body parts, especially with the analog control mode enabled. The games' been compared to Borderlands a lot, but I think I actually like DI better than I did that one. The tropical island setting's a lot more compelling than the grey-and-brown wasteland of Borderlands.

JohnnyK

19-09-2011, 11:04 AM

after I managed to dig up some config changes that turned on things like vsync and anti-aliasing)

Any hints on necessary changes? Played for a bit this morning but only changed the FOV.

Also, I'd appreciate a short comparison between digital and analogue controls. Thanks!

tengblad

19-09-2011, 11:43 AM

Any hints on necessary changes? Played for a bit this morning but only changed the FOV.

Also, I'd appreciate a short comparison between digital and analogue controls. Thanks!
I used the following guide:
http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/29950/how-do-i-turn-on-vsync-and-other-advanced-settings-in-dead-island

There's a link to some application that perform the changes for you, but I opted not to use it since it seemed a little bit shady.

As for the difference between digital and analogue control I can only speak from the perspective of someone using a Xbox360 controller to play the game. I'm not sure how it'll work if you use mouse and keyboard.

Anyway, if you use digital controls you just press a button to automatically swing your melee weapon. If you instead opt to use the analogue controls your press in the right trigger button to ready your weapon, and then you use the right analogue stick to swing it. So to do a sweeping attack from left to right, for an example, you press the button to ready you weapon and then you move the stick from left to right. A bit like that old PC game Die By The Sword. It gives you a lot more control over your attacks than the digital mode does. It took me a few minutes to get used to it, but now I can't imagine playing the game in any other way.

JohnnyK

19-09-2011, 01:06 PM

Cheers for the link and the explanation. Might try analogue with m+k (if possible), I hate using the right stick to move the camera.

Ian

19-09-2011, 02:59 PM

My complete failure to return to it after my first two or three hours (I think) session of Bully probably confirms my feeling that it's not my cup of tea. It was part of a Steam sale or bundle or some such so I probably paid sod all for it so if I just decide to move on I'll not worry too much.

Not sure what this leaves me going onto next. I might have a go at Red Faction: Guerilla.

airtekh

19-09-2011, 04:22 PM

I've started playing Freespace 2. I forgot that games like this existed. So. Many. Buttons. Fortunately the most frequently used controls fit onto my 360 pad so I'm not reaching from pad to keyboard too often. The dogfighting is solid and it's scratching that outer space itch that I've had for a while now.

I do have one complaint though, and it's a strange one to have; but because I've played the likes of Freelancer and Eve Online before this, I find that the purely mission-based structure of the game is a tad archaic or restrictive, and I'm missing the freedom of having an open world to explore.

I'm also replaying Trine because I fancied playing a platformer for some reason. Also might have something to do with that lovely Trine 2 trailer.

I'm still plugging away at the singleplayer campaign of Frozen Synapse. I'm surprised at how big it is. FS appears to be one of those rare games which I play for both the single player and the multiplayer.

TailSwallower

20-09-2011, 07:19 AM

Grabbed Darksiders while it was cheap and have been having a bash. Quite enjoyable so far, and looks like the gameplay should be getting deeper shortly (which is quite good, because I imagine it could get boring quickly otherwise). But I'm only an hour in and there's been a lot of hand-holding up to this point.

I saw that in the latest patch notes for DE:HR they say they've finally fixed the cutscene crash bug, so I guess I'll get back to that eventually, but knowing that my latest save game is just before another (goddamn) boss fight isn't really encouraging me to load it up.

NecroKnight

20-09-2011, 07:22 AM

I'm playing Bastion for the second time. Really an beautiful game.

Ian

20-09-2011, 08:53 AM

my latest save game is just before another (goddamn) boss fight isn't really encouraging me to load it up.

Which one? They're all fairly easy once you know how, anyway. :)

Drake Sigar

20-09-2011, 10:10 AM

Heliocentric

20-09-2011, 10:24 AM

sinister agent

20-09-2011, 11:59 AM

That sounds like they're just acting like builders to be honest.

Drake Sigar

20-09-2011, 01:04 PM

You are probably to blame, a winding/crowded road, housing too far from food or work or maybe the workers just are not happy.

But there is a 15% chance the game is just screwing up for no discernible reason, welcome to Tropico!
The road is fine, there’s a garage on every corner, and they were living it up in luxury mansions and spending their free time snorting cocaine off the buttocks of exotic supermodels.

Nalano

20-09-2011, 01:16 PM

I am convinced Tropico 4’s construction workers are against me, so I had them all shot. Watching them build even the simplest structure is an agonizingly slow process. It usually takes a while for them to notice my command, and when the building is 99% complete they ALWAYS stop for a two month-long lunch break.

One of your first structures should always be a second (or third!) construction office. Remember: Nobody keeps hours. People show up to work when everything else is answered for: Food, medical attention, entertainment, a brief communion with god (sadly, not you), etc. They'll wander off because it's been too long since they got drunk.

Thing is, the economy still works because food practically grows itself and almost all services merely need to have people employed, not on call. You're at church but your pastor's watching a cabaret. You still feel communion with god. Not so with construction. Builders have to show up to work, and then show up to a site which can be pretty far from work, which, when you have a three hour work day, basically means you'll head to the site, spit, and go home. Every other job that entails going to a site - mining, farming - plops that site right outside the doorstep of the job, or basically solves the problem with unlimited capacity (one teamster with a wheelbarrow need only make one trip to carry a year's worth of factory output).

So, while you'll basically never need more than four doctors for the whole island (and they'll basically never leave the pub), you'll want to over-estimate the number of builders you're gonna want to employ.

Smashbox

20-09-2011, 01:59 PM

And don't attempt an 11th-hour transition to a tourism-based economy, or you'll end up like... er... Dubai in 2030.

moth bones

20-09-2011, 02:56 PM

I thought the Tropico games were meant to model squalid dictatorships, not Utopia.

Nalano

20-09-2011, 03:01 PM

I thought the Tropico games were meant to model squalid dictatorships, not Utopia.

Apparently the dictatorships are only squalid because of lazy, drunken peons! The fascists were right!

Smashbox

20-09-2011, 03:10 PM

I thought the Tropico games were meant to model squalid dictatorships, not Utopia.

That's actually a really interesting conversation - the game becomes about a dirty old dictator killing to pacify the populace and rigging elections (much more interesting in my opinion) only when you make less-than-optimal decisions. If you're being smart throughout the game and looking to the future and keeping people happy, it's just a simplified city-builder with a heavy focus on garage building. Rarely do you have to pacify an uprising, and foreign powers never really put pressure on you to do their bidding.

Drake Sigar

20-09-2011, 03:46 PM

Thanks for the advice, building more construction offices right from the start seems to have helped.

TheRed

20-09-2011, 07:30 PM

Finished DXHR, still dabbling in BFBC2, and trying to decide if I prefer PES12 or Fifa12. I've always preferred Pes, despite the vast disparity in presentation, commentary etc, but the new Fifa does make a much better first of things. I'll buy one, and I'm not sure which. I've always found Fifa games to be 'learnable', thus losing their appeal fairly shortly, whereas PES for me can stay worthwhile for a good few months. I'm working out if that's the case this year. Also liking the sound of RO2, but can't believe my system would cope very well from reports so far.

Wizlah

20-09-2011, 09:58 PM

finished the witcher. That only took about 4 years. maybe three.

Now I feel bereft. I won't get the opportunity to start playing TW2 for a while (it's on the gaming pc, which I don't get much opportunity to play at the moment with kids and stuff). don't feel like going back to frozen synapse right now.

May go old school and cough up for ultima's 4-6 (hardly a chore at the price on gog). Or back to baldur's gate. Need some freeform mayhem though, and don't know how much i can get away with on my laptop. May just have to settle installing my old copy of serious sam.

TheRed

20-09-2011, 09:59 PM

I just had my first child, and I'm already aware it will curtail (most) bad habits. Alas!

Wizlah

20-09-2011, 10:25 PM

I just had my first child, and I'm already aware it will curtail (most) bad habits. Alas!

It's not so bad. Right now, there isn't that much time, and so anytime the wife and kids are away, I spend an odd kind of life split between doing crazy amounts of work around the house (because they're gone, so I can) and playing computer games quite frantically.

I'm thinking about doing a long post about it someday, because I'm curious as to other parent's gaming habits. But in a lot of ways, I feel spoilt right now. There's plenty of games out there which fit my lifestyle. Strategy games, I can't do so much, but frozen synapse has been a great fit, and rpg's are usually quite nice. No, I can't tuck meself away in a room and game for three hours on the trot, but when I can plan in time with just myself and the computer on the telly, it's a real treat.

Kids are great. So enjoy 'em and don't fret too much about the gaming. you'll find a way to fit time in, and before you know it, they'll be old enough to play co-op with!

TheRed

20-09-2011, 10:36 PM

Yeah, but I have to say I'm already thinking about how to make sure he's balanced and so on, you know? I read books, I listen to music, I'd always play football rather than play a football game.. It's funny how it changes things. I mean, obvious, but still! At the moment it's just adjusting, because I can't stay up after the lady goes to bed these days as I'm woken up all bloody night! I know there'll be time for hobbies too, really. Just, at the moment it's hard to see past waking up all bloody night!! And so far it's that 'one way' thing, where we invest loads but don't get much from him other than fatigue, screaming and excrement...

Matzerath

21-09-2011, 06:15 AM

Casimir Effect

21-09-2011, 10:01 AM

Done with Kings Bounty - Armoured Princess, after more than 30 hours. Good fun game except for the boss fights which felt unnecessary. Ended up leaving them all until I had done everything else so they (including the final boss) became trivial.
Still got The Legend to play sometime but I don't see that happening for a long time. It's easy to get burnt out on this sort of game.

Now on to pastures new.

Giaddon

21-09-2011, 01:51 PM

A-L-M-O-S-T done with the Settlers 7 campaign, just two more missions to go. It's easily the best strategy game campaign I've played since... WarCraft 3, I guess. The game is so damn good! And even after the campaign there are a ton of scenarios and, of course, skirmish play. This one's gonna be taking up hard drive space for a long time.

Other than that, I've been getting into replaying old real-time strategy games. I just got Homeworld 2 in the mail, and I should get Rise of Nations/Thrones and Patriots later today. Ah, nostalgia. The Rise of Nations demo remains better than many full games.

sinomatic

21-09-2011, 02:11 PM

Dear God, I finally finished The Witcher (the first one). Sure it was fun, but I feel like I was playing it for YEARS. It was a beautiful moment to finally slay my ultimate nemesis, the game itself, and uninstall that unholy beast (kept my saves for the sequel).

It did seem to go on forever, didn't it? Conversely, I appear to be on my 3rd playthrough of DX:HR and even though I've now played it for almost twice as long as I did The Witcher, the time just flew by.

I've also been trying to play Bad Company 2 a bit more often, so I'm better at it when my mate is around to play it. I'm not sure I have the patience to play it for long enough stretches to improve though - I don't know why but it seems to have the ability to frustrate me faster than pretty much any MP game I've ever played.

Tikey

21-09-2011, 02:28 PM

I've just reinstalled the withcer 1 (after losing my old saves) in preparation for the second one, which I didn't even bought yet.

Heliocentric

21-09-2011, 02:28 PM

Splinter cell double agent
a corpse stood upright
a man floated up through the floor
2 guards circle a chair taking turns to sit for half a second
optional objective impossible because only door doesn't have any interactions.
All cutscenes are constantly smerred by the graphical effect flash bangs cause.

All of these things happened on just one level.
I feel that I should play this game to completion out of series loyalty, but its fucking terrible. I've reached the cruise liner bar and the quality seems back on track but... To all those who like this game? You loco.

Giaddon

21-09-2011, 02:40 PM

Nalano

21-09-2011, 02:52 PM

Been going through all the DLC for FONV. Gives a much different vibe than wandering the desert. Not sure if this is the best venue for that, tho.

Doesn'tmeananything

21-09-2011, 03:00 PM

Yeah, DA is a buggy, janky mess. I like that it introduced the more aggressive CQC that would be fully integrated into conviction, but mostly it seems to be suffering real growing pains between highlights Chaos Theory and Conviction. The whole "double agent" story/scenes is pretty cool, though. Only Conviction is not a highlight. By no means. No.

No.

I remember not particularly hating Double Agent. I agree that double agent part of the game is done well (especially missions at the base), and some levels at least aspired towards the brilliance of Chaos Theory. Overall, though, it's pretty bad.

Finished Tomb Raider Anniversary today and liked it. Controls frustrated me at certain times, but for the most part Lara felt very responsive. After finishing Prince of Persia (2008) some time ago I was welcomed here by the possibility of making mistakes during platforming, just like in the good old days. I like both styles, however - swayed towards exploration and more action-esque alike. Looking forward to playing Underworld, as I heard many good things about it.

Giaddon

21-09-2011, 03:08 PM

*shrugs* Heliocentric and I both really like Conviction. I don't know what to tell you.

Heliocentric

21-09-2011, 04:40 PM

*shrugs* Heliocentric and I both really like Conviction. I don't know what to tell you.
Double agent is not terribad but it makes Alpha Protocol look "++AAA!!!"

Conviction might not be a "splinter cell game" (*shudders* I feel like a member of NMA saying that) but double agent is worse made than Pandora's tomorrow, the game is a wonderful work of art but shoddy construction.

Wizlah

21-09-2011, 06:06 PM

Weeeeeee! Saints row 2 plays on medium settings on me laptop. Yay! Mayhem and no RPGs for a while.

Ian

21-09-2011, 08:03 PM

I just downloaded the Sengoku demo but there's not a fucking chance I'm penetrating that without a tutorial. Maybe at the weekend I'll sit down and spend a few hours poring over the screens a bit more and trying to figure it out.

duff

21-09-2011, 08:09 PM

I bet thats what you say to all the ladies.

Ian

21-09-2011, 09:14 PM

You wouldn't believe how low a success rate it has.

SMiD

21-09-2011, 09:18 PM

I've got my laptop, Atom Zombie Smasher, and a bottle of Glenlivet 12.... let's do this.

Althea

21-09-2011, 09:28 PM

Been playing a fair bit of The Settlers 7 this week after finally getting it to an eyeball-friendly state, although I think the settings are a bit high as it stutters sometimes. That said, I'm really enjoying it and I find the campaign is really good for helping you get to grips with the game, but sometimes I felt it left me a little unsure of what I should do or how I should be doing it. I'm half tempted to go back to the arguably better-looking The Settlers 6, though, as it looks better and I get on with it a little better than I do the seventh.

Also touched on Anno 1404's campaign over the weekend, as my old saves don't work so I've had to restart it, but my word it looks absolutely stunning. Still not sure about its gameplay, however, as I feel the addition of the Orient makes things much more complex and sadly you can't disable them, so once I get (In a scenario/custom game) to the point where I balance both the Occident and the Orient, I'm all thumbs and suck at it. Had a quick play of Anno 1701: The Sunken Dragon as it has a campaign unlike Anno 1701, but I didn't get far. It's also a very beautiful looking game despite its age.

Vandelay

21-09-2011, 09:52 PM

I've just started playing Diablo 2 this evening (yeah, a little behind the times.) Quite enjoyable for a game where you spent must of your time clicking on people (and not from a first person perspective.) Playing as a Necromancer and now have an army of 3 skeletons and a stone golem. I've been enjoying letting them go in for the attack, whilst I spam biting teeth at the pinned enemies.

Whilst waiting for Diablo 2 to arrive, I spent the weekend playing RUSE mostly. I had put a few hours into it a couple of months ago, before getting distracted by something else. Coming back to it just reminds how great a game it is. I haven't even touched the multiplayer yet, but spending my time with the single player campaign. It may not offer anything particularly new in terms of mission structuring or narrative, but the quality gameplay really shines through. I don't feel like I'm getting to know the sides too well, which probably won't help the settling into the multiplayer if I take the plunge, but I'm still enjoying every minute of it.

Also been playing Dead Rising 2, on and off. Really pretty excellent... until you get rushed by the time limit and then die horribly, taking you back hours because you have saved in one of the rest rooms. ARGH!! I'm not adversed to checkpoints in games, but at least let me save when I quit the game! Besides that, killing zombies by slamming a bucket with drills going through the bottom onto their heads is immensely fun, so much so that you can overlook the screen smashing infuriatingness of other aspects of the game.

Heliocentric

21-09-2011, 11:21 PM

Been playing a fair bit of The Settlers 7 this week after finally getting it to an eyeball-friendly state, although I think the settings are a bit high as it stutters sometimes. That said, I'm really enjoying it and I find the campaign is really good for helping you get to grips with the game, but sometimes I felt it left me a little unsure of what I should do or how I should be doing it. I'm half tempted to go back to the arguably better-looking The Settlers 6, though, as it looks better and I get on with it a little better than I do the seventh.
To be honest, Settlers campaigns are always weak because of limited technology, funnelling environments and AI that's held back.
Better to just play skirmish/multi and eat the fruit at its most ripe.

That said, campaign as tutorial is great as long as they never teach you to rely on things they will then proceed to abandon, but even then repeating the early game tech build up against an non-dynamic opponent is hardly my idea of fun.

moth bones

21-09-2011, 11:26 PM

vinraith

21-09-2011, 11:40 PM

Found out there's a brand new version of the Rome Total Realism mod for Rome Total War, so gave that a shot. Looks lovely, bit bewildering as I haven't played a TW game for yonks (also, my grasp of military tactics stops after 'take the high ground').

Holy shit, they actually finished version 7? I'd assumed that was one of those mod projects we'd simply never see. I'm still not sure it can compete with Europa Barborum, but it'll be great to give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up!

Ian

22-09-2011, 08:44 AM

I've got my laptop, Atom Zombie Smasher, and a bottle of Glenlivet 12.... let's do this.

This is how real men approach gaming.

oceanclub

22-09-2011, 12:51 PM

After finishing Deus Es HR, I decided to go and reinstall Dark Messiah based on the recent Eurogamer retrospective. (My Steam install won't work, but (patched) DVD install will). Never finished it the first time around simply because I got lost in a maze of passages and got bored. But replaying it is a joy, and the game was both ahead of its time _and_ never been copied. The melee combat is brilliant, especially as so much of it depends on using your environment: kicking enemies into spikes/off heights, throwing oil onto the ground and lighting it to make them slide/burn. While it's not an RPG in the strictest sense, the fact that you can tailor your combat towards straight-out combat, stealth, magic, or a mix of all three gives it a lot of replayability. I remember at the time wishing that Oblivion's combat was this fun and, 5 years later, I'm hoping that Skyrim learned from it.

Ian

22-09-2011, 01:39 PM

I'd love another Dark Messiah game, just with not quite so many spike racks.

oceanclub

22-09-2011, 05:04 PM

I'd love another Dark Messiah game, just with not quite so many spike racks.

Perhaps not so many racks, but give me _more_ sharp contraptions! More pointy bits!

(My wife wondered why I laughed aloud at one point - it was when I kicked a soldier who had climbed to the top of a ladder, sending him plummeting onto a spear below.)

P.

Drake Sigar

22-09-2011, 05:18 PM

You jam doughnuts, why didn’t anyone mention Arma was the spiritual successor to Operation Flashpoint? And DON’T pull a dozen quotes from this week alone which outright say Arma is the spiritual successor to Operation Flashpoint. What matters is I didn’t see any of them and you should have known.

moth bones

22-09-2011, 05:20 PM

Holy shit, they actually finished version 7? I'd assumed that was one of those mod projects we'd simply never see. I'm still not sure it can compete with Europa Barborum, but it'll be great to give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up!

Beware the elephants. I started with SPQR, which straight away plunges you into a battle against Pyrrhos' forces on the south coast of the Italian peninsular (the 'sole', I suppose). He has elephants *shudder*

Anthile

23-09-2011, 04:26 AM

The original Half-Life. On hard difficulty. Turns out, that wasn't such a great idea. Enemies are incredibly bulletspongy and generally take forever to kill. That also means that ammo is much more scarce. After the quintessential we-take-your-guns-away-because-we-hate-you level (can we blame Valve for establishing those?) the game kind of missed giving me my stuff back. Now I am supposed to fight alien grunts and marines. My arsenal? One pistol round, one revolver round, one C4 charge. Not cool.

sabrage

23-09-2011, 06:55 AM

I'm signed up for a casual League of Legends tournament this weekend, so I've mostly been brushing up for that. Lee Sin is a little bit ridiculous right now.

In the downtime, I've been killing time with a lovely little Metroidvania-alike called Monster Tale on DS. The monster mechanic is great, and, evolutions aside, exists entirely separate from the tedium of Pokemon. Highly recommended to anyone with the means to play it, and it's from the same developers as Henry Hatsworth if that's meaningful to you.

Heliocentric

23-09-2011, 07:55 AM

Now I am supposed to fight alien grunts and marines. My arsenal? One pistol round, one revolver round, one C4 charge. Not cool.
If you were Bruce Willis I would say you were over equipped.

Ash_firelord

23-09-2011, 09:09 AM

Review season means I'm stuck playing console games and can't devote much to the PC - but I'm very close to finishing Old World Blues in Fallout New Vegas. After that, I'm thinking Deus Ex HR? Or maybe straight to Lonesome Road.

On a side-note, I can't believe how much it took me to adapt to the graphics of new, AAA console games - my first reaction to PS3's Resistance 3 and Xbox 360's Gears of War 3 was "fuck these games look like shit!". After almost exclusively playing PC for the past couple of months, the change in graphical fidelity is brutal.

I wish Epic would stop being silly and just port the other two Gears games to the PC. I can cope with a crap port, just let me play in 1080p at 60fps, with proper textures, please. :P

Althea

23-09-2011, 02:28 PM

I wish Epic would stop being silly and just port the other two Gears games to the PC. I can cope with a crap port, just let me play in 1080p at 60fps, with proper textures, please. :P
It's Microsoft at fault (They're the publisher), not Epic.

Ash_firelord

23-09-2011, 02:54 PM

It's Microsoft at fault (They're the publisher), not Epic.

I wonder. While I am aware that from time to time Microsoft's decision output seems to follow some kind of alien logic, they are still pretty smart most of the time.

I can see the decision process at Epic that would cut Gears from the PC, but I cannot see it at Microsoft. If anything, it would be one more chance for them to pretend their doing something with GFWL!

Nalano

23-09-2011, 03:14 PM

If you were Bruce Willis I would say you were over equipped.

Only because John McClane is blessed with Superior Surviving Skills™, having received a Master's Degree in Getting Beaten Up, with a minor in Walking On Sharp Objects With Bare Feet.

Althea

23-09-2011, 08:54 PM

I can see the decision process at Epic that would cut Gears from the PC, but I cannot see it at Microsoft. If anything, it would be one more chance for them to pretend their doing something with GFWL!
Microsoft logic: "Duhhhhhhhh"
Epic logic: "Penises! Penises! Repressed homosexuality! Dick jokes! Big burly penis men!"

This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Fable, but not Fable 2, but then Fable 3.
This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Gears of War, but not 2, nor three.
This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Halo, restricted Halo 2 to Vista, and haven't bothered with Halo on PC since.
This is the Microsoft who... Well, you get the idea.

Ash_firelord

23-09-2011, 09:16 PM

This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Fable, but not Fable 2, but then Fable 3.
This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Gears of War, but not 2, nor three.
This is the Microsoft who gave the PC Halo, restricted Halo 2 to Vista, and haven't bothered with Halo on PC since.
This is the Microsoft who... Well, you get the idea.

But in all those examples apart from Gears, Microsoft would actually have to commit resources to the PC port.

Gears, on the other hand, it would be Epic the ones committing the development time and money, all that Microsoft would need to do is give the green light, and perhaps some token marketing, but not even that. They don't even need to distribute it in stores - yet more free GFWL evangelism ammo.

Honeslty, Epic would probably only do it if MS committed to distributing it in stores, I guess, but I really don't see Microsoft refusing that. Gears for PC would turn Microsoft a decent profit, I have little doubt.

Althea

23-09-2011, 09:43 PM

But in all those examples apart from Gears, Microsoft would actually have to commit resources to the PC port.

Gears, on the other hand, it would be Epic the ones committing the development time and money, all that Microsoft would need to do is give the green light, and perhaps some token marketing, but not even that. They don't even need to distribute it in stores - yet more free GFWL evangelism ammo.

Honeslty, Epic would probably only do it if MS committed to distributing it in stores, I guess, but I really don't see Microsoft refusing that. Gears for PC would turn Microsoft a decent profit, I have little doubt.
Halo was ported by Gearbox, Halo 2 by Hired Gun and one or two others, People Can Fly helped with the PC port of GoW which released probably just before Epic acquired a majority share in them. Microsoft would still have to commit resources, because as the publisher it would be a financial risk for them.

There was also Alan Wake. That was supposed to come to PC but was cancelled at the last minute.

Damn, Microsoft suck.

TillEulenspiegel

23-09-2011, 09:53 PM

There was also Alan Wake. That was supposed to come to PC but was cancelled at the last minute.
Because it's <strike>not contemporary</strike> a better experience when sitting on your couch (http://www.incgamers.com/News/20991/alan-wake-cancelled-for-pc) with a controller. That was one of the funnier nonsense excuses I've heard.

They say Microsoft is a mess of different divisions that are barely capable of working together. But I get the feeling their Windows games department must be staffed by one lone guy who's not allowed to do anything, and he takes out his aggression by making GFWL as crap as possible.

Tams80

24-09-2011, 01:06 AM

Just finished Portal. A bit late, I know. Not sure if it should come under "what I am playing now", though I suppose I will try the bonus levels. A bit tired of it atm though, as I completed it in one sitting (even if it is short).

It is AMAZING though I suspect you all already know that =). The first game I have completed in years, so it must be good.

cpugeek13

24-09-2011, 05:49 AM

I've started playing Railworks again, since they released a big update to the game. Its amazing how some improved graphics, sounds, and cabin sway can really make the game that much more enjoyable. I also bought the new route (my first and only dlc purchase) and am impressed by its quality. The game is not for everyone, and even I can't play super-long sessions without getting distracted, but its a real fun break from the high adrenaline shooters that dominate the market nowadays. Its a shame that they don't have a demo available.

Heliocentric

24-09-2011, 08:24 AM

Its a shame that they don't have a demo available.

www.nrm.org.uk/scotsmangift

It's a little out of date, but a its nice guide to how it plays.

Drake Sigar

24-09-2011, 09:19 AM

http://i.imgur.com/yIWoP.jpg (http://imgur.com/yIWoP)

I haven't seen a box this black since Ultima VII: The Black Gate, and that was pretty damn black!

sinister agent

24-09-2011, 09:25 AM

Arma 10?

I think you've been had, son.

Anthile

24-09-2011, 09:28 AM

Drake Sigar

24-09-2011, 09:30 AM

Arma 10?

I think you've been had, son.
Don’t be silly. The man in the camel hair coat at Asda’s car park sold this to me, and he had a really trustworthy face.

sinister agent

24-09-2011, 09:38 AM

Finally beaten the first Half-Life. The final boss is just awful. I think I spent the last twenty minutes trying to kill him without dying from fall damage before he finishes his death animation. Hnnngh.
I'll probably play Opposing Force (which I don't remember at all, except for the final boss) and Blue Shift (never played before) in the near future as well.

Blue Shift annoyed the hell out of me. Just as it was getting good, and the plot (such as it was) was going somewhere, it ended. And I couldn't take it back to the shop because my cat pissed on the box. I never played Opposing Force. Should have. It's apparently much better than Shoe Blift.

Also, now that you've finished half-life, you should watch Freeman's Mind on youtube. Don't bother with the spin-offs, though. They're awful.

Ian

24-09-2011, 10:05 AM

Made a start on Terraria. Not sure I'll get so many endless hours of fun out of it as others have but it is a lovely little thing.

Question: Nighttime. Until I'm strong enough to go and fight stuff at night what should I be doing? Just waiting it out?

Doesn'tmeananything

24-09-2011, 10:30 AM

Question: Nighttime. Until I'm strong enough to go and fight stuff at night what should I be doing? Just waiting it out?

How about digging? You can arrange a mine entrance right in your house and then hunt for valuable resources or explore cave systems you're sure to stumble upon until it's morning. And in the game.

Ian

24-09-2011, 10:32 AM

Hmm. Good thinking.

Does having a gap in the floor compromise your house's shit-not-spawning-in-it ability?

Doesn'tmeananything

24-09-2011, 10:44 AM

It doesn't.

Be careful when delving underground, though. You're playing a softcore character, I imagine? If so, you might want to put your gold in a chest once in a while in order not to lose it upon death. And, of course, have a bed in your house, if there's none yet, to set a respawn spot.

There's a way to return to your home without backtracking, if you'd find yourself in an unpleasant situation. Just exit your current world and enter it again - you'll be moved to the respawn point.

I should've probably just answered your question, as you may already know all this stuff.

Ian

24-09-2011, 10:45 AM

Some of it, I've been trying (and failing, to an extent) to absord the wiki. :D

And yeah, playing softcore just now but I built a chest to bung everything in periodically. :)

Doesn'tmeananything

24-09-2011, 10:54 AM

Well, for me most of the fun in the game was/is in the discovering everything myself and I'd strongly suggest you lay off that wiki. :)

There are some things to know (and you already do) which would prevent possibe frustration. Everything else should be open to experimentation and trying out yourself. More so because now the guide is immensely useful and provides vital information that you otherwise would be very likely unable to find out on your own.

Ian

24-09-2011, 11:10 AM

Oh I'm just trying to absorb the basics, rather than all the recipes/enemies/whatever.

I've been skimming the first few paragraphs of the "how to" pages so I'm working off a solid base of stuff.

I just mined right through the night there. :D Digging a pit straight down with torches and platforms. I'm sure if I dig down long enough I'll hit something awesome/horrific sooner or later.

Doesn'tmeananything

24-09-2011, 12:30 PM

The JG Man

24-09-2011, 01:28 PM

I'm at a friend's place using their internet. Thanks...well, I won't say their name for legal reasons, but I'll call them Tritish Belecom. Yeah, that's subtle. I have no net at my place down in uni and for some reason, Steam won't work in offline mode. Not being able to play my copy of Space Marine I can just about live with (although the anger I have over DRM rears its head again) but my entire Steam library? Yeah, very pissed off.

Fortunately, there's my copy of Medieval 2: Total War, so I'm remembering how much I suck at that. Still fun and at least I'm pretty good at the battles. Terrible at the campaign map though...

Ash_firelord

24-09-2011, 01:35 PM

Ah, it's all very good then. *fatherly nod*

As to my current games, that'd be Tomb Raider Underworld and DoW II. Both are very good, but every now and again a multiplayer shooter urge overcomes me which is quickly satiated by BC2.

I absolutely loved Tomb Raider Underworld, I think CD didn't get nearly enough credit or critical acclaim for taking the series out of the rut. While I'm looking forward to the new game, I'm a bit sad that it's a reboot.

Underworld was pretty, had great level design, and messed with history / mythology in a very satisfying way. Plus it concluded the story-line in a really satisfying manner.

Skalpadda

24-09-2011, 02:18 PM

Just finished From Dust today and it was great fun. On to Bastion!

Fumarole

24-09-2011, 03:06 PM

I'm playing Medieval 2: Total War: Kingdoms as the Teutonic Order and am busy slaughtering Lithuanians, Danes and the Rus with help from some crusading English chaps.

agentorange

25-09-2011, 02:11 AM

Started another X-Com playthrough, instead of completing one of the many other games I have. Made some flying suits, and just encountered Chryssalids, so things should be getting interesting.

Kadayi

25-09-2011, 12:02 PM

http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/

^This. Absurdly addictive. Top score so far is 339.

airtekh

25-09-2011, 04:47 PM

Just started playing Fallout 3.

I've not much experience with Fallout games before so I'm not too sure what to expect. I tried playing Fallout 1 a couple of years ago but I just couldn't get into it. A first-person perspective puts me more in my comfort zone, so hopefully I'll get on better with this iteration.

Ash_firelord

25-09-2011, 05:05 PM

Well, I'm done with Gears 3, now to get that review out of the way and then maybe I can finally enjoy some Fallout NV Old World Blues.

Drake Sigar

25-09-2011, 05:37 PM

http://entanglement.gopherwoodstudios.com/

^This. Absurdly addictive. Top score so far is 339.
You're not human.

Kadayi

25-09-2011, 06:31 PM

You're not human.

You'll need a Voigt Kampff machine to prove that ;)

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/8703/339rb.th.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/32/339rb.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

Check out the top left.

Seriously though, that was an outlier (closest I've gotten to that is 273 since). The key thing is to keep crossing over the links to maximize the score as much as possible.

Anthile

25-09-2011, 08:06 PM

Some more Europa Universalis 3. I really want to like this game but I don't think I ever made it past 1500 with any nation but then the annoyances just keep piling up and I quit. Ever tried to wage war with an AI buddy? Not only do they tend to be the worst strategists ever but they also ignore your stacks and start absolutely pointless fights that are physically impossible to win.
After you save their skin, they try to backstab you and that about as clumsily as possible and after you crush them you can only say "I'll let you live because I cannot annex you, thanks to that arbitrary infamy score that prevents me from having any nice things!" Cue them building another army...

Heliocentric

25-09-2011, 09:10 PM

243
booya!

Drake Sigar

25-09-2011, 10:23 PM

Seriously though, that was an outlier (closest I've gotten to that is 273 since). The key thing is to keep crossing over the links to maximize the score as much as possible.I figured it might pay off to pass up some scoring opportunities if it meant closing off the centre (by using those tiny 180 turns) so I’d have more options in the long run. Still only got 144.

zeekthegeek

25-09-2011, 10:32 PM

Driver San Franscisco. I am surprised at how good this is. The car handling is really well done and the whole thing has an old car chase movie feel to it.

Kadayi

25-09-2011, 10:52 PM

I figured it might pay off to pass up some scoring opportunities if it meant closing off the centre (by using those tiny 180 turns) so I’d have more options in the long run. Still only got 144.

Well my approach is to weave across, as you get more points for making long paths. Helio clearly has it down though.

Some dude from Youtube Drake: -

I DEFINITELY don't think i'ts a quick- fast-game. My biggest suggestion. . they way I have got 500 scores, is by focusing on the middle/sides. Start with the middle, and attempt to put all U shaped sides towards the center = (no lines will die) Then attempt to make all your outer lines go out to reach other outer sides (make them die quickly so you don't get confused) do this, while filling in the middle hexies, and you'll have nothing but luck

give it a go

Giaddon

25-09-2011, 10:58 PM

Finally beat the Settlers 7 campaign after 3 attempts of the final mission. *Whew!* Very good game.

oceanclub

25-09-2011, 10:58 PM

God, the combat in Dark Messiah is so much fun. Exhibit A:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sge8EgTXTGI
P.

Ian

26-09-2011, 09:47 AM

This mining through the nights (and being followed by zombies somehow. I assume they spawn underground too?) is all well and good but I'm having a devil of a time finding any ore. :(

TooNu

26-09-2011, 01:05 PM

I have racked up 100hours on DX:HR. I've gone through Space Marine a couple of times and I am looking forward to playing Amnesia which I have saved for Haloween :)

At the moment though, nothing, because I went mushroom foraging yesterday, ate some of them and ended up with a current personal record of an 18 flusher. I have gotten some quality toilet reading done though.

sinister agent

26-09-2011, 01:19 PM

After you save their skin, they try to backstab you and that about as clumsily as possible and after you crush them you can only say "I'll let you live because I cannot annex you, thanks to that arbitrary infamy score that prevents me from having any nice things!" Cue them building another army...

Tell me about it. I once rescued Novgorod about 12 times until their attitude towards me was undying adoration - without my constant intervention, they would have been totally wiped out, no question. And I could just as easily have taken their land myself.
A couple of years later, they break off all relations and declare war for no reason. So I team up with their former Muscovian attackers and we eat them alive. Idiots. Annoyingly I had to leave a few provinces as Muscovy gave up and I had other priorities, but sure enough, as soon as they had an army again, they tried to invade.

Drake Sigar

26-09-2011, 01:47 PM

Well my approach is to weave across, as you get more points for making long paths. Helio clearly has it down though.

Some dude from Youtube Drake: -
The strategy seems to have improved my game a bit; I’m easily getting in the 200s now.

This is dangerously addictive. I feel like I’m being trained as a sleeper agent.

TailSwallower

26-09-2011, 01:59 PM

Damn Steam sales will be the death of my wallet. Just finished the main campaign in DefenseGrid which I got in the humble strategy bundle, and just started going through the Company of Heroes tutorial.

There's something about tower defense games that really gets stuck in my head, so I probably shouldn't have bought that pack for the sake of my own productivity. But still, I've only really played 2 of the games in it so it's great value. I like that Anomaly: Warzone Earth is mixing it up by doing TD in reverse, but so far I haven't found it as compelling as traditional TD.

Company of Heroes could be very interesting indeed. Looking forward to getting stuck into it properly tomorrow.

Smashbox

26-09-2011, 03:44 PM

I've been slicing my way through a Shogun 2 campaign, and that game is great! After an Empire binge, it's actually refreshing to play a game with a bit of a tighter focus. I'm dreading the realm divide, though, as I'm heavily dependent on trade right now.

ZamFear

26-09-2011, 11:02 PM

Looks like I'm going back to Sanctum for a while. It's currently getting a hefty update. From the new achievements looks like 3 new maps (Aftermath, Aftershock, Complex), non-endless option for Facility, and a new weapon (Shotgun).

Tikey

26-09-2011, 11:13 PM

Beware that many of those are paid DLC (two of the three new maps and many new weapons)

ZamFear

26-09-2011, 11:23 PM

Just noticed that. Bleh.

Seems to have gotten a bit of a graphical boost as well.
Just failed to defend Complex. Note: the shotgun is not a substitute for the assault gun. Would have been better to switch out the sniper instead.

acidtestportfolio

27-09-2011, 12:43 AM

i am doing a run through of all the fallout new vegas dlc while slapping various graphic enhancements on every two plays or so

so far: i am enjoying the dlcs and the game looks real purdy

Username

27-09-2011, 12:48 AM

Just beat The Longest Journey, slowly playing through Elven Legacy and (later on) its expansions. Going to play Dreamfall: The Longest Journey soon, too. While doing all this, I will figure out Europa Universalis 3 somehow, probably a demonic pact of some description.

Steam sales have buried me in games to enjoy, woo.

zeekthegeek

27-09-2011, 02:31 AM

Out of nowhere I came across an LP for Mercenaries 2. I immediately had to reinstall. It's too bad the servers are gone.

Spakkenkhrist

27-09-2011, 08:50 AM

I am right at the end of Dead Space 2 but the final boss sequence is so irritating I'm tempted to just forget it.

Serenegoose

27-09-2011, 09:45 AM

I am right at the end of Dead Space 2 but the final boss sequence is so irritating I'm tempted to just forget it.

The actual final boss bit of the final boss? Line gun mine. It one hits the boss, desummons all the mooks, and opens up the weak point. Then hit that with your weapon of choice (but javelin gun/plasma pistol/anything that does single target high damage works best) and repeat. If you didn't take the line gun or the javelin gun I'm sorry that you missed out on the two best weapons in the game, but as long as you keep your distance and ignore the mooks as best you can to focus on the boss you should be alright. If you're talking about the slow plodding guy, take out a leg and run away, doing more damage than that is counterproductive. Beyond that sprint everywhere to avoid the ranged incoming fire and try and get into a small room to funnel the bad guys.

Heliocentric

27-09-2011, 10:10 AM

Played The ball at night... I didn't realise it was scary. Woah,

Played defence grid, I'm so over TD games.

Spakkenkhrist

27-09-2011, 10:27 AM

The actual final boss bit of the final boss? Line gun mine. It one hits the boss, desummons all the mooks, and opens up the weak point. Then hit that with your weapon of choice (but javelin gun/plasma pistol/anything that does single target high damage works best) and repeat. If you didn't take the line gun or the javelin gun I'm sorry that you missed out on the two best weapons in the game, but as long as you keep your distance and ignore the mooks as best you can to focus on the boss you should be alright. If you're talking about the slow plodding guy, take out a leg and run away, doing more damage than that is counterproductive. Beyond that sprint everywhere to avoid the ranged incoming fire and try and get into a small room to funnel the bad guys.

Yep the bit when you're being pursued by your dead girlfriend and the child necros, I have the javelin but I'm woefully low on ammo, I might have to reload an old save to be in a more favorable position for the fight.

Olero

27-09-2011, 10:51 AM

Some Fallout: New Vegas, which finally plays well on my new rig. So I guess it's time to actually complete the game just once, eh? But first I'll be downloading the new DLC (and check if my running mods survived... sigh)

Also played Arma II for the very first time (also to test my new rig, since Arma II is the most straining game on CPU/GPU I currently own). I did enjoy it some, but man, those are a lot of keys to remember. I wish I had an actual manual, instead of a PDF one... I wonder how long I'll like this game though; I'm becoming more and more of a non violent gamer the older I get, and I guess Arma II doesn't have a stealth / speech walkthrough ;)

Drake Sigar

27-09-2011, 11:43 AM

Arma is one of the few games where I fear for my character’s life. In the original Operation Flashpoint I ended up behind enemy lines with two wounded kneecaps and had to drag myself a mile through a forest swarming with Russians.

Good times.

TailSwallower

27-09-2011, 12:36 PM

Nalano

27-09-2011, 03:22 PM

Played the first couple of missions of Company of Heroes. Thoroughly enjoying it so far. I like the cinematic approach they've taken with it, though it does kind of suffer in the obvious comparisons to Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers in that department. Everything else though is spot on.

To be fair, that's just as much a product of overexposure to WWII stuff - especially Operation Overlord stuff - in our collective psyche as anything THQ can be criticized for.

Heliocentric

27-09-2011, 03:26 PM

Played the first couple of missions of Company of Heroes. Thoroughly enjoying it so far. I like the cinematic approach they've taken with it, though it does kind of suffer in the obvious comparisons to Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers in that department. Everything else though is spot on.

My fiancee balked at how well the horror of war came across and stopped playing the campaign entirely. One thing CoH has over cinema is all the (non scripted) corpses are your fault to some degree.

Nalano

27-09-2011, 03:33 PM

My fiancee balked at how well the horror of war came across and stopped playing the campaign entirely. One thing CoH has over cinema is all the (non scripted) corpses are your fault to some degree.

I especially like how devastating and demoralizing artillery fire is.

Drake Sigar

27-09-2011, 03:37 PM

I still think Blitzkrieg was better.

Smashbox

27-09-2011, 03:50 PM

I downloaded the Goldeneye: Source mod yesterday and had some frantic, nostalgic, deadly fun in some extremely familiar old haunts. Check it out if you're at all interested, it looks like a lot of work went into it.

sinister agent

27-09-2011, 05:47 PM

I still think Blitzkrieg was better.

I never got anywhere with Blitzkrieg. Not for lack of trying. It just seemed completely arbitrary whether your tanks would instantly die or shrug off two identical hits, regardless of angle and defenses. Without simply obliterating 3/4 of the map with artillery there was no way to get anywhere either. Now whenever I think i'd like to give it another try, I remember that I have Men of War.

Smashbox

27-09-2011, 06:17 PM

A new form of SPAM art? Poetic.

Nalano

27-09-2011, 06:32 PM

...the bots are getting smarter.

Heliocentric

27-09-2011, 06:37 PM

I'm hearing this in the voice of deep voiceover guy.

It's the tagline for my Battlefield 3.
That awkward moment when you try to fart while music is playing, but it gets all quiet. That awkward moment when someone calls you,

duh duh duh, de du du.

Nalano

27-09-2011, 06:46 PM

duh duh duh, de du du. frrrrt.

Fixed.

10char

Anthile

27-09-2011, 08:44 PM

Finished Blue Shift earlier which took me only about three hours. Not only was it too unchallenging but also really boring in terms of level design and such. I have played better mods than this. I'd be seriously angry if I paid anywhere near full prize for this.
After that I played and finished Opposing Force in one go. It's a tremendous difference between this and Blue Shift. In fact, I'd say it's almost as good as the original game - except when it runs out of ideas like that one level that is pretty much a replica of Blast Pit.
Also, I swear Half-Life has more air vents than Deus Ex.

Flint

28-09-2011, 07:35 AM

Decided, in a fit of indecisiveness over what to play, randomly install Trine which has been sitting in my Steam list untouched ever since I salvaged it for pocket change in some deal or other. I'm actually really pleasantly surprised how fun it is. It's got just the right balance between brainteasing and relaxing to make it a rather lovely little thing. I can actually see myself going back to the previous levels to find all the experience bottles I've missed after I've cleared the story, just because I can. A delightful little surprise.

Drake Sigar

28-09-2011, 08:56 AM

Got my mint classics double pack from the post today - Warhammer: Dark Omen and Syndicate Wars.

Similar

28-09-2011, 10:00 AM

Been playing the SP campaigns of CoH: Tales of Valor. Except for the Tiger Ace missions, they're rather too much like the missions I liked the least in the original and OF; too much hurrying, too little time to set up defenses, and way too many bloody interruptions where the game takes over the controls and the cam when you're in the middle of doing something.

Serenegoose

28-09-2011, 12:53 PM

Started playing the Rise of the Samurai campaign for Shogun 2 - took me a while to realise that the '+30% recruitment cost' and other things that read like nerfs were in fact actually nerfs and not typos - what with the total war games usually offering only advantages to various factions and letting the natural deficits that brings speak for themselves. Still, this does mean the factions feel quite varied. Trying the diplomacy heavy faction and finding some success with that - bribing settlements isn't impossibly expensive, it's just restricted by whose family affiliation they side with which you need to counterbalance before you can make a go at it, in which time more militarily oriented families can try and beat you up some.

GothicEmperor

28-09-2011, 07:50 PM

Battlefield 3 Beta, wit hthe occasional Total War thrown in, since my brother bought the pack and Shogun 2. Again. Playing Shogun 2's campaign with 2 people is even better than doing it by yourself.

Heliocentric

28-09-2011, 11:05 PM

I'm laying waste to all who stand before me and unlocking research 54 turns early in the RPS SotS game... Because that's how I roll.

Casimir Effect

28-09-2011, 11:18 PM

Baldur's Gate Trilogy is loaded up, fully-modded and ready to go. I have a ranger character, I rolled some ridiculous stats, and I completely forgot that ranged weapons were useful in BG1 so only took skills in Longsword, Warhammer and 2 Weapon Fighting.
So in summary: Hell Yeah! Booh Yah! And Fuck!

I can see this destroying my life for the next few months.

Wizardry

28-09-2011, 11:21 PM

vinraith

28-09-2011, 11:33 PM

Heliocentric

29-09-2011, 01:13 AM

I'm laying waste to all who stand before me and unlocking research 54 turns early in the RPS SotS game... Because that's how I roll.

I'd like to say I'm sorry to be pimping this here, but that would be lie.
Dearspace diary A rolling SotS jotter (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?1549-Dear-space-diary-A-rolling-SotS-jotter&p=41688#post41688)

DigitalSignalX

29-09-2011, 01:41 AM

Just wrapped up Hunted: Demons Forge. Picked it up for 11 bucks on Amazon and spent the weekend with it. While it couldn't be more on rails unless it actually had railroad tracks, I still found it pretty enjoyable. I really like the darkness as a mechanic, you have to play "protect the torch bearer" in a lot of places else you'll be doing a lot of wild sword flailing in the dark. The banter between the two protagonists is fairly entertaining, which is good because the plot is as scant as the female armor models.

Technically, it's an obvious crappy console port, and suffers from classic lazy developer syndrome. You have to manually disable or unplug a controller else it detects it and the UI can't be set to show keyboard/mouse instructions during the game. Once you figure that out, it does play OK with a mouse, but you have to disable auto aiming. The FOV is still set for TV sets, which made things look stretchy on my monitor, and there's absolutely no settings for graphics other then texture/shadow detail and resolution. HDR and depth of field tends to go crazy in some scenes, causing either massive inn appropriate brightness or dark blurry blobs that are difficult to see/aim at from a distance while they have no problem hitting you. Also.. checkpoints, so if you die or quit, you'll have to go back and repeat a bit every time. Grrr.

Other then the console crap, ya, pretty decent game for the money.

Oak

29-09-2011, 03:01 AM

I've been neglecting my duties as a PC Gamer - Red Orchestra sits buggy and alone on my Steam list, Sengoku waits for me to finally get around to ending that siege - and playing a whole lot of Forza Motorsport 3 on the Xbox instead. It's mildly bittersweet, since most of the community will probably be moving on to Forza 4 in a few weeks and I don't know if or when I'll be joining them. There's still so much of it I haven't experienced yet, and I've put God knows how many hours into it.

Spinoza

29-09-2011, 08:39 AM

Red Orchestra: HoS. Occasional hiccups ,yes , but bit of patience and dose of chill pill and then when it works (perhaps I'm lucky ,but 99 % of time for me it does) its a great fun. Stats broken , more comic relief really, the gist of the game though its there. Playing as a faithful son of the Motherland mostly and dying a lot.Ladies and gents I like to encourage you to forgive and forget quirks and come and play what is easily for me the MP of the year.

Casimir Effect

29-09-2011, 09:45 AM

You should try a Ranger/Cleric multi-class. Ridiculously overpowered.

I've heard you can have a lot of fun playing around with both the druid and cleric spells while at the same time kicking ass in combat. The idea of having a frontline fighter who can throw around dispel magic, true seeing and buffs is very appealing, but I'm never too keen on going with hybrid characters. I like multi-classes just fine - in fact I usually craft my own fighter-thief NPC character when playing just BG2 using the MP mode because all the thief NPCs suck - but for my main class, especially going through BG for the first time in ages with added difficulty mods installed, I want something I know.

How did you mod it?

Let's see:
Trilogy
Trilogy Tweaks
BG2 Tweaks
BG Unfinished Business
BG2 Unfinished Business
Widescreen
Fontmod
Item Randomizer
Sword Coast Strategems I & II

It's those last two that worry me somewhat in case I've selected options that are going to make things incredibly hard at times. Although to be honest I'm really looking forward to playing the games again with a few new twists. So long as it holds together. Installing that number of mods always makes me a bit jumpy.

vinraith

29-09-2011, 12:25 PM

@Casimir

Thanks for the answer, please do let us know how it goes. I've been looking to replay the BG games for some time, but have been experiencing some mod paralysis due to the variety of options available.

Casimir Effect

29-09-2011, 01:08 PM

It is a bit of a pain in the ass to set up. Letting, say, a tweak mod just install what it thinks best is just a bad idea, but often the things it can change or the options it gives are pretty incomprehensible unless you have a very exact knowledge of the games or sometimes even other mods that it (the tweak mod) is taking a cue from.

I had explanations of what all the things were open in my browser at the same time but even then I did a lot of guessing and it took several hours to set up (I could have finished some games in the time it took to mod this one). Going through each change thoroughly would be a game in itself.

The mods I chose have essentially:
Added stuff back in that was evident in game files but not finished. This adds extra content I won't have seen before but on the developers grounds rather than enthusiastic fans with terrible writing skills or strange proclivities (see: underage romance mods...).
Stapled BG2 onto BG but making everything use the BG2 engine and specific rules (eg. I can start BG with a Undead Hunter paladin and all the spells from 2 are in 1. Exp from lockpicking and spell learning turned off for BG though, as it would overpower your party).
Tweaked both games to streamline things somewhat & also improve BG2 functionality in BG (eg. make skills/proficiencies like they are in BG2 where they are more specific).
Randomize the placement of all non-quest items in the game via assigning them a value based on their 'power' and swapping them only with items with similar value (ie. Sword +4 cannot be swapped with Quarterstave).
Tweaked all AI in the game to remove some stupid behaviour and often enhance things - potentially making it harder which is my biggest worry.

Tikey

29-09-2011, 01:12 PM

I'm playing the Witcher, and yesterday I installed Homeworld. It's still a beautiful game.

TailSwallower

29-09-2011, 01:15 PM

Been dabbling some more into the Indie Strategy Bundle that Steam was selling last week.

Sol Survivor seems to be a perfectly serviceable TD game, but as I played it after playing DefenseGrid it really suffers in the comparison. The one thing that would make me enjoy it a lot more is if they included a fast-forward function (I don't know if DefenseGrid did it first, but it's the only TD I've come across that has it). So yeah, it's not bad, but there's nothing particularly good about it either.

I was excited about Sanctum because I thoroughly enjoyed Trenched on the Xbox, and this is a similar sort of game - it's TD, but you can also get into the action in first-person to help defend your magical whosit. Again, perhaps it's a perfectly serviceable game, but compared to Trenched it's a bit crap. If you have one of those boxes of X, I highly recommend Trenched. If you have a box of Steam, you can probably skip Sanctum (I had to force myself to finish the first mission before quitting because it was just so uninspired and uninspiring).

Haven't gone back and played any Anomaly or Revenge of the Titans for a few days, but DefenseGrid has managed to kill yet more of my time.

thegooseking

29-09-2011, 01:19 PM

Lego Star Wars 3.

It wasn't terribly well received (except by John (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/26/wot-i-think-lego-star-wars-the-clone-wars/)), but I was under the impression that that was just because it was more of the same, which wouldn't be so bad. Sadly, rather than being more of the same, half of it seems to be a terrible RTS (John called it "pleasingly simplified" and "smartly implemented", but I'd have to disagree). Given Lego Star Wars' (and Lego games in general) "keep playing until you get it right" approach, with minimal penalties for failure (which is good when you're controlling the characters for a bit of fun), a pseudo-RTS doesn't really make much sense. I think at heart, it's a puzzle game, not a strategy game, and that's how the RTS sections play. It's not about finding a good way of taking down enemy defences; it's about finding the right way. I have no problem with playing a puzzle game rather than a strategy game in itself, but the method of giving orders on the battlefield (switch to your clone commander character, run around looking for the right unit -- there's no way to tell which unit's which on the overview beyond distinguishing between infantry and vehicles, and the limited camera controls don't help -- join the unit by holding action, run back to your target, hold attack and release it over the target to (finally) order the attack and pray that you didn't accidentally order them to attack something else in the background) gets a bit tedious.

It was kind of a "be careful what you wish for": the first couple of levels involved playing Jedi, and while that was more fun than playing Jedi in previous Lego Star Wars games, I started thinking, "Haven't I played Jedi enough?" Sure enough, it then offers me something different. Different and boring.

It's not a terrible game overall, but the fun factor is a lot less consistent than the previous Lego Star Wars games: While parts of it are more fun (and the jokes are even funnier, although the source material lends itself to that a lot more than the movies anyway), other parts can't be described as anything but filler.

Serenegoose

29-09-2011, 01:48 PM

I'm playing the Witcher, and yesterday I installed Homeworld. It's still a beautiful game.

Everything is gone.

Xaazi

29-09-2011, 02:28 PM

Just started Thief: Deadly Shadows, can't wait to sink my teeth into it properly.

ZamFear

29-09-2011, 02:50 PM

Getting into the Hitman series. Ran the first mission in Blood Money about 4 times trying different things. Started the second mission and discovered the AI is seriously messed up. Police shoot on sight for trespassing? The hell? And apparently if you're in the auditorium when the singer dies, all the police and security guards magically intuit that you are to blame. I did the gun exchange, then stopped by to watch the final performance. Ended up getting shot up by every police officer and black-suited goon in the place.

Still, I am looking forward to finding an excuse to drop that chandelier. :D

Serenegoose

29-09-2011, 02:55 PM

Ian

29-09-2011, 02:57 PM

I dunno what you (or the AI) did ZamFear, but I'm fairly sure the police were never that gun-happy with me (in terms of trespassing.) :-X Did they not tell you to fuck off before thay decided to try and deadify you?

What the game probably needs is a stage between "Fuck off baldy" and "I'MA FUCKIN' KILL YOU!"

Not sure about your experience in the auditorium, though. I never went in to watch, I peered down from one of the balconies I think, or some other line-of-sight that allowed me some distance.

Still playing a bit of Terraria (not sure how long I'm going to stick with it, not sure if I'm just unlucky but I'm having a horror of a time finding ore and therefore building stuff) and FM11 at great length.

All the Skyrim preview stuff I'm reading has given me an Oblivion urge. Might even get it installed tonight. I don't imagine I'd complete it again, just romp about the countryside and doing guild stuff.

ZamFear

29-09-2011, 03:27 PM

It's always as I'm leaving. If they see me walking out of the employees-only area without an appropriate disguise, they immediately open fire.

Ian

29-09-2011, 03:29 PM

Oh, well I'll have invariably beaten somebody up and nicked their uniform at that point anyway.

But that definitely sounds like they need an extra stage in the escalation of suspicion-to-action.

sinister agent

29-09-2011, 08:29 PM

It's always as I'm leaving. If they see me walking out of the employees-only area without an appropriate disguise, they immediately open fire.

You'll probably want to run once they see you. Their suspicion raises constantly while they can see you trespassing, regardless of how fast you're moving. You need to get out of the area as soon as possible, then they'll cool down. If you walk, you'll take so long that they lose their patience and shoot you. It's actually pretty realistic, if you just imagine that you're an innocent bystander minding his own business. Some police fucking hate that.

ZamFear

29-09-2011, 09:01 PM

If you walk, you'll take so long that they lose their patience and shoot you.

The thing is, when they first see me I'm at the door. Practically outside already. I barely get two steps out, and get shot. Running isn't going to get me outside a whole lot quicker. Other guards, including the black suit goons in the same mission will warn you first, and gradually get more irate if you don't get a move on. It's just the police that are jumpy.

Smashbox

29-09-2011, 09:13 PM

They're doing a good job. That guy looks extremely suspicious. He's the most stereotypical 'hitman' I can picture. It's a wonder he's ever successful.

TailSwallower

30-09-2011, 12:32 AM

A few weeks ago I downloaded the Frozen Synapse demo, wasn't really feeling it, so I uninstalled. But, with the Humble deal, and the talk on the RPS main site and forum I figured I'd give it another shot (bonus games for paying more than the average was a good incentive too seeing as Trine had already piqued my interest).

I tried single player and I think I'm just missing something fundamental about understanding the game, that the game itself isn't going to tell me. A small part of that that I only figured out after quitting and decompressing for a bit is that the AI isn't passive like you might expect. I thought that the enemies would be patrolling the level and only engaging when they saw one of my guys, but they're actively hunting me too, right?

What else can you tell me to help me wrap my head around it? Or do I just need to play until something in my head clicks?

Rauten

30-09-2011, 12:44 AM

Well, as far as single player goes, yes, the CPU is out to hunt you too, but in most stages, you have the advantage of seeing where the enemy units are; I don't think the CPU has that advantage.

The game isn't really that complex anyway; It's deep and elegant in how you can mix & mingle simple orders to create tactics of all sorts and kinds, but the game itself doesn't really have much more than choosing your units, giving them orders, press commit, and pray to your deity of choice.

Citruspunch

30-09-2011, 03:38 AM

apparently I'm playing swtor

TailSwallower

30-09-2011, 04:21 AM

[...]press commit, and pray to your deity of choice.

Ah, I had that part down pat then. Will continue trying to figure it out.

rsherhod

30-09-2011, 08:08 AM

Sword of the Stars, which just seems to be one of those games I always go back to.

vinraith

01-10-2011, 02:23 PM

Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots, still the best short-form RTS ever. It's aged beautifully (as 2d is wont to do) and continuously reminds me just how much RTS game design has regressed in the intervening years. Real-time Civ just doesn't get old. I'd love to see this thing turn up on GOG so I could ditch the disc check, though.

Been dabbling a little in Frozen Synapse, as well. It's clever and fun, but I'm not sure it's going to hold my attention for long. It's clearly one of those games that's designed for "random internet people" play and that kind of thing doesn't keep me interested for any length of time.

I'm also still looking to start a new Europa Universalis 3 game, and play some more Majesty 2, though I'm not sure either will actually fit inbetween all the crap I have to do this weekend.

CuriousOrange

01-10-2011, 03:48 PM

You just reminded me of the hours I lost to Rise of Nations Vin, now going to reinstall it again thanks! There is a crack out for it if you want rid of the disc check. But a Gog release would be excellent.

jp0249107

01-10-2011, 04:02 PM

I'm playing RO2, but enjoying it less and less. The maps are getting really boring very quickly and the random spurts of lag, rubber-banding, and clipping are getting on my nerves. I understand having to lead your aim trying to kill someone that is running, but it's never a constant thing because of the crazy lag on every server. It also doesn't help that most of the servers are EU and I'm here in the States. I'll still defend the game because it has some work to do to be all it is supposed to be, but dammit if it isn't making that hard.

vinraith

01-10-2011, 04:13 PM

Ian

01-10-2011, 05:25 PM

Right, enough shilly-shallying.

I have bitten the bullet and accept that I simply don't want to return to Bully, so I've started Mafia 2.

Giaddon

01-10-2011, 07:53 PM

I've discovered something of a minor masterpiece with Age of Empires 3 Complete. I remember I played the demo for the original AOE3 when it came out (back in '05) but my computer struggled with it and I couldn't really get into it. I picked the collection up when Microsoft was offering it for five cents, and recently installed it as I've been going through nostalgic phase of playing old strategy games. And it's quite excellent. By the time the final expansion came out in '07 (The Asian Dynasties), RTS as a genre had moved on into the less economy/more action model that Relic and Massive made popular. So the package sort of stands as this last manifestation of a very specific type of RTS.

Big Huge Games' (who actually made the final expansion for AOE3) binary stars Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends are in my mind the best RTS of that same type, but Age of Empires 3 has a baroque sensibility and a sumptuousness that they can't match. Look at this video of combat in New England (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XFwOcNVKkk) -- the foliage! The smoke! The ships! The weirdly flocking cavalry! A gorgeous, fiddly, and very fun game. I'm having a blast going through the campaigns and playing skirmish matches.

vinraith

01-10-2011, 10:17 PM

Big Huge Games' (who actually made the final expansion for AOE3) binary stars Rise of Nations and Rise of Legends are in my mind the best RTS of that same type, but Age of Empires 3 has a baroque sensibility and a sumptuousness that they can't match. Look at this video of combat in New England (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XFwOcNVKkk) -- the foliage! The smoke! The ships! The weirdly flocking cavalry! A gorgeous, fiddly, and very fun game. I'm having a blast going through the campaigns and playing skirmish matches.

All I can think when I look at that video is "holy hell that moves fast." Can you slow the game speed down, ala Rise of Nations? Can you pause and issue orders? I like my real time strategy games to be as turn based as possible. :)

Giaddon

02-10-2011, 01:33 AM

Here's the dealio: when you start a skirmish game you can choose slow, medium, or fast speed. You can pause and make orders, although this is slightly hindered by a "game paused" message in the center of the screen. But you can move the camera, give orders, etc.

vinraith

02-10-2011, 03:48 AM

Here's the dealio: when you start a skirmish fame you can choose slow, medium, or fast speed. You can pause and make orders, although this is slightly hindered by a "game paused" message in the center of the screen. But you can move the camera, give orders, etc.

Good deal, thanks!

Flint

02-10-2011, 02:18 PM

Giving Lord of the Rings: Online a go at the moment. I've been itching to get back on WoW for the past few days or so, but giving this one a try before that because it's free and completely new to me (ie new places to explore etc). Will try this for a bit and see whether I get into it or not: at the moment still getting used to the way it looks and plays, old WoW habits keep shouting "this isn't where it's supposed to be" from the back of my head constantly.

Ezhar

02-10-2011, 02:42 PM

Totally hooked on Wurm online. Also played a little bit of Hard Reset, but something isn't quite right with it.

squirrelfanatic

02-10-2011, 03:01 PM

Similar

02-10-2011, 03:22 PM

Replaying the CoH/Opposing Fronts/Tales of Valor SP campaigns and getting a little obsessive about winning in a satisfying way. I think I've restarted the St. Fromond mission five times now, every time after playing for at least three hours, just because it felt like I could start out better than I had.

Flint

02-10-2011, 03:49 PM

@Flint: Check out our attempts to get an RPS-LotRO group going over here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/forums/showthread.php?1412-LOTRO-Pickup

Hobbit... eh Beasty Hunting is much more enjoyable when in a group!
Aye, seen it, I was reading that topic while installing the game. I wish the best of luck to your group, but unfortunately I enjoy being a lone wolf soloing through content (even in MMOs!) so I'm not really the best person to group up with :).

squirrelfanatic

02-10-2011, 04:02 PM

Aye, seen it, I was reading that topic while installing the game. I wish the best of luck to your group, but unfortunately I enjoy being a lone wolf soloing through content (even in MMOs!) so I'm not really the best person to group up with :).
Hehe, too bad. But I can easily understand that idea. Especially LotRO seems to be really suited for this kind of play with the incredible amount of quests and the (mostly) beautiful landscape.

BobsLawnService

03-10-2011, 08:16 AM

Nexus : The Jupiter Incident. What a great game. Tactical shhip based combat done brilliantly. The pace of the game is majestically slow but I'm flat on my back recovering from abdominal surgery so time is on my side. It works brilliantly on my Ion based netbook too.

If you haven't played it before and you enjoy strategic ship based combat I can't recommend it highly enough provided you're in no rush and don't mind some painful dialog. It also only costs 10 US based bvuckazoids on Steam.

bsplines

03-10-2011, 09:47 AM

Picked Blood Bowl in the Steam sale and I 'm having a go at it against the AI. The game is quite complicated, I was soundly thrashed the first few times I played, but I think I 'm starting to getting the hang of it. Still can't beat the second (!) story mission though.

vinraith

03-10-2011, 02:00 PM

The JG Man

03-10-2011, 02:12 PM

Started playing Space Marine last night.

God damn, what a bad ass game. Up there with Just Cause 2 in "Ridiculously Cool Tutorial Missions." Got to Chapter 10ish on Hard, died a few times, but had a lot of fun. Game is rather linear, but I'll excuse it because of the hideous amounts of fun I had.

Multiplayer was interesting. Whilst it's in dire need of dedicated servers, apart from that it plays surprisingly well. There's some good balance, the maps seem good enough and hell, I just like plonking myself down as a Devastator and letting rip. No idea how long it'll captivate me, but it seems good enough. Can't wait for the Co-op Horde mode though.

ZamFear

03-10-2011, 02:51 PM

Still going through Blood Money. I am convinced now that the objective of the game is stuff the dour Mr. 47 into as many incongruously ridiculous outfits as possible.
It still does odd things on occasion. During the Mardi Gras mission I was told I could not enter a certain establishment without a costume (by a police officer no less, so I guess Mardi Gras is Serious Business). This despite the fact that I was dressed as a large yellow bird, which has some bizarre implications as to what is considered normal attire in New Orleans.

Heliocentric

03-10-2011, 07:32 PM

Turns of frozen synapse with the RPS massive.

Cable

03-10-2011, 08:07 PM

I also am playing frozen synapse with RPS peeps and receiving a bit of a baptism of fire. I thought the game wouldn't be for me as i'm not usually a strategy type but actually finding it fascinating, all the scheming and counter-scheming.

Citruspunch

03-10-2011, 08:20 PM

I picked up BF2:Bad Company back in the '10 steam xmas sale and in light of my pre-ordered bf3 figured I should give the campaign a run through at least. I'm quite impressed by the voice acting and facial + body animations. There are some modern day polish aspects that it's lacking, but these are small - one only hopes they're not present in bf3.

what's worrying me more is that with bf3, mw3 and metric shit ton of games from last Xmas's sale I just know I'm going to buy more in the TG + Xmas sales up coming.

MOAR with the goodness. :D

airtekh

03-10-2011, 11:16 PM

I'm still playing Fallout 3. I'm surprised yet again; this was a game which I didn't think I was going to like but am actually enjoying quite a lot. I'm getting Stalker vibes from the general gameplay and setting, although it's less focused on shooting than Stalker is.

I'm playing a melee-focused character (with some points in Big Guns just in case the shit hits the fan) but I'm finding it quite hard to sneak up on enemies. I've got a few stealth kills by waiting for an enemy to patrol back in my direction and hiding in the shadows but they seem to detect movement and sound very easily.

I'm assuming the sneak skill has an impact on this, but I didn't pick that as a primary skill at the start so I'm playing catch-up with the skill points. Does anyone know if stealth gets significantly easier with a higher sneak skill? If it doesn't, then I might abandon stealth altogether.

vinraith

04-10-2011, 12:43 AM

pmh

04-10-2011, 12:52 AM

TailSwallower

04-10-2011, 02:09 AM

Played some multiplayer Frozen Synapse last night. I love the fact that you can simultaneously have as many games running as you can be bothered with. I was totally rubbish, but enjoying it right up until the server went down (that's what I'm guessing happened, as I simply couldn't connect).

Played some more Company of Heroes - the game is actually more unforgiving than I was expecting. I was annoyed however when the enemy started bringing in troops from outside the map - what's the point in securing the different territories if they can just come out of the woodwork anyway? This was the mission after the Defense of Carentan. Population cap really doesn't seem to be high enough for you to be able to defend all the ground you need to take and still have a force big enough to capture the objectives. I'm sure I'll get it tonight, had to abandon it last night for sleep purposes.

Edited to add: When I was asking if there might be anything about Frozen Synapse that I was missing? Turns out it was the ability to simulate the enemy movements as well as your own. I only found out you could do this by watching the video that one part of the Hivemind put up.

Heliocentric

04-10-2011, 05:57 AM

If you don't want cheating magic from the AI then play skirmish, I can't think of a single RTS game without magic AI.

BobsLawnService

04-10-2011, 09:35 AM

After playing Nexus : The Jupiter Incident I need a change so I've finally decided to unwrap my 5 yesappar oild copy of Gary Grigsby's World at War and give it a go. I blame the documentary about the Crimean campaign in WW2 I've just finished watching on the History channel. The manual is daunting though. Perhaps I should AAR my first attempt. Perhaps nobody cares.

In other news sneezing after abdonimal surgeryt is just no fun. Pain killers are cool though.

airtekh

04-10-2011, 10:56 AM

Your stealth score is a dominant factor in stealth success. With a high one you succeed a lot, with a low one you have results like you've seen. The other significant factor in how much noise you make is your armor, but I trust you aren't trying to sneak in metal or power armor, so the odds are you're just making too much noise when you move due to a low stealth score.

Cheers vinraith. I'll put a few more points into sneak to make things easier for me.

IIRC I have 'Combat Armour' equipped. I think I'm in the middle of doing a quest which has some sort of stealth armour as a reward, so I'll switch to that when I get it.

IIRC, Big Guns are pretty useless in FO3 unless you've modded the game.

Oh well, too late now! I just bought a truckload of ammo for my minigun and pumped my skill into the high 50's.

Similar

04-10-2011, 12:00 PM

Played some more Company of Heroes - the game is actually more unforgiving than I was expecting. I was annoyed however when the enemy started bringing in troops from outside the map - what's the point in securing the different territories if they can just come out of the woodwork anyway? This was the mission after the Defense of Carentan. Population cap really doesn't seem to be high enough for you to be able to defend all the ground you need to take and still have a force big enough to capture the objectives. I'm sure I'll get it tonight, had to abandon it last night for sleep purposes.
Is this the one where you have to secure the road? If so, the MG emplacements that engineers can build really help (they're not limited by the population cap), especially once you get the German tank factories knocked out.
I usually end up with large parts of the map blocked off with tank traps and barbed wire because you're right; you can't have enough units to both defend and attack unless you lead the attacks on your HQ into killzones so you don't need tons of units defending.
My main attack force through most of the mission usually consists of a mortar crew and an engineer unit, though. The engineers put up defenses and blocks and take points while the mortar crew takes out the infantry I run into (a sniper is useful too, if you can afford one). All the heavier units are left defending the area around my HQ until I'm ready to take on the German HQ.
But then, I enjoy taking things slowly (some maps take me six to ten hours to finish).

But yes, that mission is a tad iffy. There are at least four places near the edge of the map where enemies spawn and some of them are the roads the convoy has to exit by too. I'm not sure, but in my last playthrough, it seemed like I'd eventually killed off all the enemy reinforcements. Once the convoy started, no more spawned, at least (I remember they did in previous playthroughs).

TailSwallower

04-10-2011, 12:18 PM

Is this the one where you have to secure the road? If so, the MG emplacements that engineers can build really help (they're not limited by the population cap), especially once you get the German tank factories knocked out.
I usually end up with large parts of the map blocked off with tank traps and barbed wire because you're right; you can't have enough units to both defend and attack unless you lead the attacks on your HQ into killzones so you don't need tons of units defending.

Yeah, that's the one. I had a bit of a herpderp moment when I realised I could have been using tank traps and barb wire to limit enemy movement, so I cut off large swathes of the map with tank traps, barb wire and MG emplacements. I also layered MG emplacements on the 3 areas where enemy troops randomly spawn on the edge of the map, but even then occasionally the bastards would 'retreat' until they were behind my MGs and then go to town. Eventually I got enough MGs in place to stop them from getting that far.
I also realised that an MG squad in an MG emplacement gives you full coverage - didn't help on that map because of the population cap, but it's definitely something I'll keep in mind for future levels.

Similar

04-10-2011, 01:31 PM

I also layered MG emplacements on the 3 areas where enemy troops randomly spawn on the edge of the map, but even then occasionally the bastards would 'retreat' until they were behind my MGs and then go to town. Eventually I got enough MGs in place to stop them from getting that far.
yeah, it does get rather silly. Whack-a-mole.

I also realised that an MG squad in an MG emplacement gives you full coverage - didn't help on that map because of the population cap, but it's definitely something I'll keep in mind for future levels.
ah. Good thought. That hadn't occured to me.

Berzee

04-10-2011, 04:18 PM

lol, that CoH map sounds like they made a Tower Defense minigame. =P

Anthile

04-10-2011, 05:29 PM

Berzee

04-10-2011, 08:18 PM

King's Bounty: The Legend. After putting roughly 40 hours into it, I arrived on the eleven island and killed almost everything there. At this point every goddamn fight takes forever to resolve, even if I don't lose a single unit. I really have to force myself to play for more than an hour before getting bored. Meh.

That is a great game saddled with far too looooooong of a campaign! I did the same thing, had tons of fun with it and then hit a wall (mine was one step beyond the elven island, when you get to go to the land of the dead or something).

squirrelfanatic

05-10-2011, 05:54 AM

King's Bounty: The Legend. After putting roughly 40 hours into it, I arrived on the eleven island and killed almost everything there. At this point every goddamn fight takes forever to resolve, even if I don't lose a single unit. I really have to force myself to play for more than an hour before getting bored. Meh.I know your pain, it is still the same for me. I've pumped endless hours into both of the games without finishing them (yet!). You can trick and trap your way through some tough battles, but having your Black Dragon Flying across the map every turn to burn that one giant stack of Dragonflies with his breath every 3rd or 4th round before retreating again gets boring very fast.

Be brave!

sinister agent

05-10-2011, 08:56 AM

I am playing Hardwar (http://lonelyasamushroomcloud.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/presenting-hardwar/).

Well, actually I've been playing it, and writing about it, and will tonight be sorting out the screenshots to finish things off. But Hardwar is bloody good, and impressively, runs with no problems on Windows 7. Been a while since I played it. We should sort out a perma-world for it so we can all have a go. It could be amazing.

Jams O'Donnell

05-10-2011, 09:12 AM

Because I am the world's slowest gamer I am only just starting with DX:HR, and did the first boss fight last night. Such hatred.

vinraith

05-10-2011, 01:51 PM

I've been trying to get a handle on the new Heir to the Throne and Divine Wind systems in Europa Universalis 3. It's like Europa Universalis 4 after all these changes, but that's no bad thing. I've been playing as Portugal as an educational game, but have grand plans about unifying Scandinavia with Denmark and constructing a grand Dutch republic starting from Holland in 1399. Damn I love these games.

On the multiplayer front, I'm still playing the always fantastic Rise of Nations, and the perpetually entertaining Sword of the Stars (still waiting for the new one of course, but Kerberos is welcome to take their time and put it out there when it's properly done).

On a quasi-gaming related note, I've been listening through the Three Moves Ahead archive. I'm up to early 2010, and must say that (with the exception of a couple of shows that were either too dated to listen to or that covered subjects I was completely disinterested in) it's been a lovely experience. It's nice to hear strategy gaming gettings some love, and some thoughtful analysis to boot.

Heliocentric

05-10-2011, 02:20 PM

vinraith

05-10-2011, 02:26 PM

Portal 2, yes I'm a cheapskate having waited so long but there we are.

It's good, but I'm up to the gel, everything seems easy so far. The a lovely world to explore/linearly navigate. I've not played anything that's got its claws into me like this for a while.

Nah, you're not cheap. *I*'m cheap, I'm still waiting for it to dip under the $10 Steam purchase threshold.

And yeah, the consensus I've seen, at least, is that all the challenge is in the co-op mode, SP is dirt easy. It's another reason I've really been in no rush to pick it up.

Heliocentric

05-10-2011, 02:45 PM

I've rediscovered SotS myself recently by way of the RPS group, it really is quite peerless when it comes to ruining your best laid plans.

Casimir Effect

05-10-2011, 02:54 PM

So I've been playing my modded Baldur's Gate Trilogy for about a week now, maybe put a few more than 10 hours into it so far, and so feel happy saying this:
The game is just as good as it ever was if not better for being upgraded to the BG2 engine and having a load of tweaks employed.

Even just using the increased resolution mods along with the ease-of-use ones such as providing item stacking to far higher levels and bags/cases/etc makes it into an awesome game that is still fun to play today. The widescreen mod is probably a must because the original 640x480 of BG didn't work for me, especially when you lose a massive portion of the screen to the UI. Played on 1600x1200 makes the game sing while keeping it possible to see things on the ground. From the BG2 engine we also gain faster walking speeds and the 'TAB' highlight function, which make things play smoother.

Then there's the game itself and how you realise what we have lost by moving forward with 3D engines & graphics in RPGs. For example, when you see an NPC in Dragon Age or The Witcher and if they have a Name then you know there'll be a quest somewhere which involves them or they'll have something useful to say at some point. In Mass Effect this is reduced to being able to interact with the NPC at all - so many cannot be clicked on. But in Baldur's Gate, there are many people with Names; and many of them have nothing to do with any quest anywhere. They are there to provide background and setting info, atmosphere, whimsy, stories, rumours, comedy and sometime to break the 4th wall. It's quite a jarring thing to go back to but so soon you realise just how better it is, and so the whole experience will inevitably turn bittersweet when you realise that this sort of thing so rarely happens anymore.

I could go on talking about the things I've discovered that older games do better but we'd be here all day. So instead let me just say that the game is pretty stable even with many mods installed (a couple of crashes but they never repeat). The tweak mod does many useful things and then a bunch you probably won't notice unless you've played these games to death, same with the Unfinished Business mods and the Item Randomiser ones. The Strategems mod has the most noticable effect in that now archers will target you mage more (as will their mages as well) and AI spell use is done better, ie. often dickishly (especially if you allow the enemy mages to 'choose' their spells themselves). AI is just generally better, and if you are a veteren of the game then there are many options for making the game tear-inducingly hard.

To conclude, if you ever thing this game is too old to play, smack yourself upside the head and start installing. IE games are timeless and beautiful things. Now if you'll excuse me I have to go raid Ulcaster, tear up a bandit camp, stop the iron shortage, and kill a witch named Dynaheir before my mage gets pissed.

Vague-rant

05-10-2011, 04:36 PM

Serenegoose

05-10-2011, 04:55 PM

SMiD

05-10-2011, 05:04 PM

Tried getting into Baldur's gate recently, having bought it in the sale a week ago. But I just bounced right off of the combat. I don't remember Planescape being this tricky, though my brain was young and fresh back then. Any tips on making it enjoyable?

Also, there was some assassin hanging outside of the first inn that killed me in 1 hit. I ended up running away and letting a guard to sort it out. Considering this was like the first proper objective I did, and I recruited everyone I could prior, is there something huge I'm missing? Have I screwed my build already?

If you're talking about the guy in front of the Friendly Arm Inn, have Imoen light his ass up with a bow. And if you have Xzar, he should be firing some offensive spells. Also, since BG1 starts you off at lvl 1, your PC should NOT be tanking anything at the start.

vinraith

05-10-2011, 05:16 PM

Tried getting into Baldur's gate recently, having bought it in the sale a week ago. But I just bounced right off of the combat. I don't remember Planescape being this tricky, though my brain was young and fresh back then. Any tips on making it enjoyable?

Also, there was some assassin hanging outside of the first inn that killed me in 1 hit. I ended up running away and letting a guard to sort it out. Considering this was like the first proper objective I did, and I recruited everyone I could prior, is there something huge I'm missing? Have I screwed my build already?

This is, literally, the hardest fight in the entire game. It's a balance screw-up on the designers part, and if you're playing anything other than a fighter-type it's going to be rough. As others have said fudge it however you can. If you didn't pick up Xzar and his friend back down the road, go back and get them, no one said you had to keep them around beyond this fight. Do what you have to do, press past this, and definitely don't take this as anything but an indicator that this specific encounter was poorly tested.

Casimir Effect

05-10-2011, 06:23 PM

I think some of the tweaks may do something to balance this fight out, however that Strategems mod made it far harder due to the guy always putting most of my party to sleep (luckily he sacrificed offensive spells to do this). Best way to do it is like people have said: Get Montaron and Xzar along so that with Imoen you have 4 people. Have at least 3 of those using missile weapons to take down his Mirror Image spell, and get Imoen to use her Wand of Missiles (if she has it) whenever you want to guarentee a hit.

Generally the combat of BG is far more nuanced that Planescape and magic plays a massive roll in things. There were very few spells in Planescape which could incapacitate most of your party but BG is full of them, and in the first game you're such a low level that they will usually work on you, ie. you fail your save. Excessive Quicksaving in that game is a must.

PeteC

05-10-2011, 11:37 PM

Finished (and won) my first campaign in Shogun 2. My first Total War game since Rome and I thought it was generally excellent.

Sat staring at my Steam library for a while wondering what to play when I decided to give Puzzle Quest a go seeing as it's been sat there unplayed since I bought it about 18 months ago. Good God it's addictive! I've got nothing else done at all today.

The JG Man

06-10-2011, 12:43 AM

I completed Space Marine's campaign in a couple of sittings on Hard earlier this week. I'd say just under 8 hours. Unfortunately missed out on a handful of collectibles, but as I can easily see myself playing the campaign again, hopefully I'll get them all next time. The fact of the matter, for me at least, was that it was fun. The plot was pretty simple, but the characters were good, the dialogue was pretty good and the core game just immensely fun and polished.

But multiplayer. I want to say that it bar a couple of things, it's actually well balanced. That although there aren't too many maps, they seem to be pretty good. That the customiser is exquisite. Two issues, one of which is more a want for the future. That one is that in terms of scale, it needs to be bigger. It needs to be Battlefield: WH40K. It needs vehicles, multiple factions and it already has taken the Conquest mode, so might as well be more blatant about it a la Battlefront. The second and the crux of all of the problems online is the lag. I get why they did P2P, but good lord it needs dedicated servers, or at the very least host migration. Such a shame that a genuinely good MP, that has all the positives I mentioned above, can become out-right broken with latency issues. Other issues could be addressed in patches, but this one is pretty severe. A shame, because when it works, it works incredibly well.

I'm really looking forward to the co-op horde mode, which I imagine will be the majority of my online time with the game (oh man, I just want to set-up shop as a Devastator and let that Heavy Bolter tear into them), but the ground work has been laid for what could be an excellent sequel. If anything, they need to borrow from themselves; throw some Dawn of War 2 inventory management and planet hopping in, a hell of a lot more factions and for god's sake, vehicles. Other games have a turret section. I want SM2's turret section to be you controlling a Dreadnaught. Basically, I want Dawn of War 2 as a TPS.

I feel like Space Marine is what Darksiders was for me; a perfect 4/5 game (and I hate giving ratings). It's generally very, very fun and does a hell of a lot of things right. If it could just polish a few things up, it should be a really sublime game. Darksiders 2 is looking to be that, so hopefully after Dawn of War 3 with Space Marine 2, we get that 5/5.

Heliocentric

06-10-2011, 08:22 AM

Finished Portal 2 in a day long binge yesterday. Yes it's very pretty, and yes it has a charming story with hidden substance you need to reflect on, yes I'm sure the cooperative levels will provide the puzzles I spent the whole game waiting for, yes they cunningly solved the jumping problem with appropriate auto aim, I did get stumped a few times too.

I agree that it's better and worse than the original portal but it left a bad taste that the coop levels held the real challenge for reasons I can only assume are market driven (forcing people to use steams community to drive steam adoption and discourage piracy, and to discourage second hand sales on console and allow a platform for the sale of hats... tbh all TF2 hats should be in portal coop).

Edit: upon re-reading something didn't come across that I wanted to say.
The game is awesome!

TailSwallower

06-10-2011, 10:46 AM

Finally got my first win in Frozen Synapse! Woohoo! Against a level 1 person, but still. Now I'm (1 - 9).

sabrage

06-10-2011, 11:26 PM

I've plowed 12 hours into The Binding of Isaac now. I finally re-beat Mom with Isaac (save game got deleted :/) so I've moved on to Magdalene.
Edit: Well that was fast. I beat it with Magdalene on my first try, thanks to some lucky item drops early on. Mom's contact could very well be the best item in the game. I'll probably beat it with Judas and Cain before putting this little gem to rest; the unlocks screen shows that there's a lot of items I still haven't found.

On the side, Company of Heroes is quite a lot more fun than I anticipated. I hope Relic announces a new RTS soon.

TailSwallower

07-10-2011, 12:32 AM

2nd Frozen Synapse victory, and against a level 22 opponent. It was a game of Hostage, which I totally don't understand.

I was green and the hostages started in a green box, so I assumed I had to protect them, but then he shot at (near?) a hostage and they turned red, so then I heartlessly gunned down the hostages and the enemy troops. So yes, I don't understand it, but I still won.

bbe724

07-10-2011, 12:46 AM

working my way through the witcher ee. almost done then onto the witcher 2 2.0. :)

The JG Man

07-10-2011, 08:00 AM

On the side, Company of Heroes is quite a lot more fun than I anticipated. I hope Relic announces a new RTS soon.

They already have. Dawn of War 3, which will supposedly take elements from 1 and 2 with "MMO like" something or other and make it fit into one ball of loveliness. Whilst I like the DoW series, this is no Homeworld reveal. Indeed, we can both be disappointed :(

sabrage

07-10-2011, 08:25 AM

Oh I had no idea that DoW3 was already announced! 2 didn't really sound like my cup of tea at any price I've seen it, but I really like that Relic is constantly pushing and adapting their games. I hope that DoW3 takes it in a completely new direction (and away from DLC...)

I've actually never played Homeworld; I've never seen it on any digital download services, presumably because of Sierra's collapse. Along with Freespace 2, it's one of those older games that always looks incredibly appealing to me in screenshots and videos, so it's definitely on my list.

Spakkenkhrist

07-10-2011, 09:08 AM

Althea

07-10-2011, 09:10 AM

TailSwallower

07-10-2011, 09:29 AM

I picked up Fallout from GOG, it seems pretty slow paced and I'm finding the combat quite tough, there seems to be a lack of items to buy/sell and even missions making the game world feel pretty sparse. I fully intend to plough ahead with it but should I expect things to pick up soon? I've just arrived at The Hub.

Well a friend of mine raved about it, and I trusted his tastes explicitly. Started playing and for the first forty minutes I was really wondering what he saw in the game. And then something clicked - I don't know what it was, but for some reason everything fell into place and I loved it. Still love it now and it's been 13 years since then...

So, I guess I'm saying give it some time. UnravThreads has a point if you're purely talking about combat, but in every other aspect I find tactics to be far inferior to both Fallout 1 & 2.

Also, the combat simply is tough at the start of the game. If you get a random encounter when you're crossing the desert you need to just run to the edge of the map and leave as just about anything you run into in your first few levels is going to kill you. I remember one time getting picked apart by Mantises. Goddamn bugs killed me!
Don't take it for granted that you're the powerful hero, 'cause that won't be true for a while yet.

Another hint (and then I'll stop) - only go with Small Guns at the start of the game (or melee/unarmed if you like that play-style). The original games were designed so that you would start with Small Guns, then move up to Big Guns, and then move on to Energy Weapons. It was something they changed in Fallout 3 & New Vegas because they realised that a lot of people didn't know that's how the game was built.

NecroKnight

07-10-2011, 09:36 AM

Battlefield 3 Open Beta

Spakkenkhrist

07-10-2011, 09:42 AM

That's encouraging and great advice, thanks!

sabrage

08-10-2011, 05:16 AM

I think it's safe to say that I've mastered The Binding of Isaac... I've gone 4 for 4 in my last 4 play attempts, one for each character. I keep finding new items and seeing new bosses, but I've decided to wait for the promised halloween update which is supposed to add more of both.

As a side note, I hate that The Womb is the most boring part of the game, as it has the biggest dungeons. Why the hell did they leave out the shops and gold rooms? Often I'll be running around with far more bombs, keys and coins than I can ever use, wishing for something to upgrade my character (which is why the game is fun!) The fact that each subsequent playthrough reveals a new ending is nice, though.

BobsLawnService

09-10-2011, 04:59 AM

Mech Commander 2 which I recently discovered is free. What a great game - I'm completely hooked except for a few compatibility issues with Windows 7 which keep cropping up. Looking forward to seeing what the mod community has done with it. The game runs nicely on my netbook as well.

Doodier

09-10-2011, 12:49 PM

I am still trying to complete Mirror's Edge. I finally made it throught one part in chapter six which was the most difficult part so far (I hate close combat in this game!).

Heliocentric

09-10-2011, 01:39 PM

for mirrors edge, play on easy, the LMG guards need disarming really, but on everyone else open up with a flying kick and follow with punching and you can drop anyone without too much bother.

Doodier

09-10-2011, 03:44 PM

To be honest, I completely forgot about kicking. Not sure if it'll help me but I'll give it a try. Now there are about 3 guys with weapons in this parking lot in docks and I can't get past them so I'll try to literally kick their asses/faces. Thanks for the advice!

vinraith

09-10-2011, 04:12 PM

Still feeling my way through an EU3 Chronicles game with Portugal. The improvements and changes to the game since last I played (under In Nomine) are fairly dramatic, so I'm still struggling with it a bit, but I'm impressed. I think I lean on old EU2 habits a bit too much, though. My latest military ventures haven't exactly met with wild success.

Also dabbling in the occasional skirmish in Rise of Nations (still brilliant) and Supreme Commander 2 (better than its reputation, worthless campaign aside), and the occasional game of Six Gun Saga (great, though I wish the combat amounted to a bit more).

sabrage

09-10-2011, 07:27 PM

Am I the only one that quite enjoyed the combat in Mirror's Edge? Probably. Fantastic game through and through.

I'm trying to play Max Payne, but the random crashes are really making that difficult. It's a hell of a lot of fun in the brief periods that it works, though. I'm impressed by how nice it looks (considering that it's a decade old) and how seamless the transitions between animations are. And, as ridiculous as it looks, Max Payne's face actually has a decent amount of detail. Has anyone else that got Max Payne off this weekend's sale been experiencing issues on XP?

(obigatory)
http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/9/93384/1884051-max_payne3_rumor.jpg

Althea

09-10-2011, 07:43 PM

Heliocentric

09-10-2011, 08:03 PM

I enjoyed the "death from above"s that were possible at times when you could one hit kill by dropping off scaffolding and zip wires etc.

Flint

09-10-2011, 08:06 PM

Flicking between the first STALKER and Sonic Unleashed. The former has been sitting in my Steamlist unplayed since late 2009 (whoops) so felt like finally giving it a try. Going back to the latter is because of the impending Generations and desire to play something Sonical, which has given me a nice excuse to replay through the game again after a PS3 HD failure wiped out my past save.

Casimir Effect

09-10-2011, 11:31 PM

I decided, on a whim, to give Rainbow Six Vegas 2 another go today, but without the 360 controller. The controls are... terrible, still, but oddly they're much more manageable on the KB+M than I'd first thought.

Haven't got a clue what the plot is, the sound design is absolutely abysmal and even on easy it's quite a challenge, but I have just played it for about an hour and I've even enjoyed it.

The plot is nonsense and kind of requires knowledge of the first Vegas game as they tie together. Is there an Easy level or is it just Normal and Realistic, I can't remember? I think Normal is the lowest because the game is meant to be tricky. Realistic is just a pain in the ass as some parts are poorly put together with this difficulty in mind.

What sort of problems do you have with the controls? The only extra functions this game has are Cover and Orders, the former I map to RMB (with Aim on MMB or a thumb-button) and Orders is something like Space isn't it? The key to change team tactics (Assault or Infiltrate) can be anything as you tend not to need this on the fly, and holding E or R for weapon/accessory/grenade type always felt easy enough. There are a lot of controls, but I never had a problem with mapping them easily.

For modern shooters I really like the Vegas games despite all their shortcomings. Far more fun than Modern Warfares and great to play in co-op.

The JG Man

10-10-2011, 12:00 AM

Am I the only one that quite enjoyed the combat in Mirror's Edge? Probably. Fantastic game through and through.

I wouldn't say I enjoyed the combat, but some of it was done well. Namely, the parts where there's a big space for you to move in and perhaps not too many guys. Really feel like you're running around causing chaos and untouchable. Now, what we need is to combine that movement with the gun-play of F.E.A.R. and utilising both of their slow-down mechanics to make a bloody awesome Matrix game. Alas, the idea is too good and thus, it cannot ever be. Regardless, in the sequel (because dammit, they'll make one (I hope)) I'd prefer not to have combat. I don't think it can be done well unless you also have guns, which I feel would severely reduce the impact of the 'Escape!' vibe.

Going back to the latter is because of the impending Generations and desire to play something Sonical, which has given me a nice excuse to replay through the game again after a PS3 HD failure wiped out my past save.

I've been tempted by Unleashed so many times, but I know that the Werehog section and hubs exist. I don't know if I can play it knowing that...

Anyhow, after a day of pathetic internet connections which made Space Marine's MP unplayable (sigh. Such a good game being wasted) and Dawn of War 2's Last Stand pretty tough to do (although last night I finally got my Farseer to level 20 and am now beginning on a Mekboy) I started Amnesia. Stopped after 95 minutes because...well, I felt like stopping it there. So far, no scares. It's intriguing and I'm doing my best to find everything. Undecided about the screen warping when you start losing your sanity. I don't know if I'm going to find that annoying or immersive as time goes on. I did, however, find the water section excellent. "I'll close this door. That'll be fi...oh, it's breaking through. Shit shit shit, move!" Not scared, or even shocked, but definitely excited and raced through the next section with a disregard for direction and simply picked whichever fork my cursor happened to be nearest.

Looking forward to carrying on and finishing it. Of course, looking around, game time seems to range anywhere from 4 to 12 hours, so we'll see how long this one takes me. Considering I only intend to play it at night in the dark, should take a week or so. Coincidentally, the last game I played in the dark to aid the immersion was Alan Wake. I eventually gave up with the dark as I just wanted to finish it. Hopefully Amnesia doesn't befall the same fate. I want games to create their own atmosphere, not have me create a false setting for it to try and use (although it does recommend how to play the game at the beginning, so this may be a justified use).

acidtestportfolio

10-10-2011, 01:40 AM

And, as ridiculous as it looks, Max Payne's face actually has a decent amount of detail.

oh man, in ten years people are going to be confusing that screenshot for picasso

Althea

10-10-2011, 07:18 AM

The plot is nonsense and kind of requires knowledge of the first Vegas game as they tie together. Is there an Easy level or is it just Normal and Realistic, I can't remember? I think Normal is the lowest because the game is meant to be tricky. Realistic is just a pain in the ass as some parts are poorly put together with this difficulty in mind.
Well, whatever the lowest is, I'm on it. I think there is actually an Easy one.

What sort of problems do you have with the controls? The only extra functions this game has are Cover and Orders, the former I map to RMB (with Aim on MMB or a thumb-button) and Orders is something like Space isn't it? The key to change team tactics (Assault or Infiltrate) can be anything as you tend not to need this on the fly, and holding E or R for weapon/accessory/grenade type always felt easy enough. There are a lot of controls, but I never had a problem with mapping them easily.
I'm not sure, particularly. I'm using the default config (Which is pretty much what you're using anyway), but I suppose it's a lack of practice. I've been killed because I accidentally let go of the cover button, for example. Ouchies.

Flint

10-10-2011, 07:26 AM

I've been tempted by Unleashed so many times, but I know that the Werehog section and hubs exist. I don't know if I can play it knowing that...

The werehog sections aren't honestly that bad. Yeah, they can get rather overlong, not as superfun as the daytime stages and can get a bit repetetive (although that depends on how lazy and willing you are to spam the few insanely useful simple, low-level combos) but they're not terrible at all. It's actually fairly easy to find enjoyment out of them. As for the hubs, I can't see why those would present a problem: there's only two bigger ones while the rest are rather tiny affairs, you never have to spend ages in them and after you've entered a level once you can skip straight to it from the world map instead of going through the hub.

It's honestly a game worth a shot. The werehog levels might be a slight damper but they're not a gameruiner, and the daytime stages are 100% worth the money you can get the game for these days: I dare say Unleashed models the whole speed thing Sonic is famous for better than any Sonic game ever, and it feels amazing. I keep finding myself giggling and smiling when playing it, even when replaying things I've already played before. It can get a bit twitchy but it never feels unfair and retrying never pains as the game showers you with lives (unless you're trying for an S rank or something). The only genuine flaw the game has is Eggmanland which is quite frankly the worst stage ever made for a Sonic game but other than, a highly recommended game for any Sonic fan.

Plus I know people tend to dislike the games introducing one-off characters instead of bringing back old ones, but Chip is too goddamn adorable to hate.

Heliocentric

10-10-2011, 08:24 AM

Between dipping into Project Reality and making steady progress in GTA 4 I have rediscovered Splinter Cell: Conviction and its Deniable Ops. The Last stand and face off modes are actually TIGHT, being more action based you need to play them like a super agile shooter you use a loud gun to draw attention to an area then a silenced pistol to take advantage of the confusion, and in face off another player is your opponent, the guards are just an environmental hazard.

Giaddon

10-10-2011, 11:22 AM

Apparently I'm in a shooter mood, as I've blown through FEAR 2 and Crysis 2 in a couple days each. Both were very good, in different ways. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed FEAR 2, which has a better sense of itself than the original, and much better pacing, enemy variety and level variety, with gunplay only a little bit worse (and still some of the best there is). Plus, it has one of the most disgusting scenes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_D2ppn1C2s#t=01m24s) I've witnessed in a game recently (NSFW or children).

Crysis 2 was also very good. The best looking game I've ever played, (so much better looking than BF3 it makes me wonder what all the fuss is about) with fun open shooting and a terrible story. It's... noticeably bad. And I thought it was kind of weird that I could cloak and sneak by many fights, but that's the advantage of the freedom of the mechanics.

Also playing some Section 8: Prejudice. There're about 10 people online, but servers are always full thanks to bots (which have gotten quite good!) and I've had some very fun matches. Such a great game.