What are you playing at the moment?

[Ian]

So in Mafia 2 after largely behaving myself I suddenly went mental and had a crime spree that largely consisted of looking for sweet cars and nicking them before adding them to my garage. (I was very disappointed when I couldn't put the tanker in my garage and use it in future.)

Sadly it doesn't checkpoint after interacting with the garage, so when I failed to escape from the police in a bus and they shot me to death I was back to a post-mission checkpoint and and lost the five or so cars I'd acquired. :(

[Casimir Effect]

Well, whatever the lowest is, I'm on it. I think there is actually an Easy one.


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.

Actually I think they did add an Easy for the sequel, but like you say it isn't a very good Easy mode.

The lack of sticky cover is a massive pain sometimes I'll grant you. But sometimes sticking to cover is a bad system when you can't get out of it, so I'm not sure which is better. I think you're right and it'll just take some getting used to. Worth it though, as before long you'll be sending your boys to a rope while scoping under a door before you all bust in and clear the living shit out of an empty room. Like a Boss!

[Althea]

The lack of sticky cover is a massive pain sometimes I'll grant you. But sometimes sticking to cover is a bad system when you can't get out of it, so I'm not sure which is better. I think you're right and it'll just take some getting used to. Worth it though, as before long you'll be sending your boys to a rope while scoping under a door before you all bust in and clear the living shit out of an empty room. Like a Boss!
That is, when I work out how to spin on the rope with the keyboard and when the AI actually decides to work.

I was on that level that starts in the parking lot, and my two racial stereotype friends got stuck on a frakking puddle.

[Kadayi]

Been playing a fair amount of the BF3 beta, and aside from a few weapon balancing issues (UMP I'm looking at you) I've really been enjoying it. now that's finished I'll be heading back to RAGE which I've been digging as well.

[Casimir Effect]

That is, when I work out how to spin on the rope with the keyboard and when the AI actually decides to work.

I was on that level that starts in the parking lot, and my two racial stereotype friends got stuck on a frakking puddle.

If you pretend your teammates actually hate you (maybe even for racial reasons) then the occasional AI hiccup makes things kind of funny. When you bust into a room to find 5 guys with AK's pointed at you and have to take them on single-handed because your guys haven't shown up only for them to come through a door/skylight a couple of seconds after the last guy is dead, it's almost like you can envisage the disappointment in their eyes over the fact you're still standing.
This approach also makes you feel less bad for getting them killed.

[Althea]

If you pretend your teammates actually hate you (maybe even for racial reasons) then the occasional AI hiccup makes things kind of funny. When you bust into a room to find 5 guys with AK's pointed at you and have to take them on single-handed because your guys haven't shown up only for them to come through a door/skylight a couple of seconds after the last guy is dead, it's almost like you can envisage the disappointment in their eyes over the fact you're still standing.
This approach also makes you feel less bad for getting them killed.
Racial reasons? Because - in my case, anyway - you're the only white one?

Truth be told, I'm half waiting for the black guy to go all Cole Train. The Asian guy sounds like an Asian stereotype ("Frash and Crear!").

[Heliocentric]

The black guy is British, that's the real stereotype he applies to. The "Blighters"

[Casimir Effect]

British guy and S. Korea guy, or black guy and Asian guy: easy enough for them to want their white, good-ol'-boy-from-america overlord to have a little 'accident' on the job. But I know what they're up to they'll not get me no no no ha ha ha ha ha.

[Wizlah]

picked up Mount and Blade: warband cheap yesterday from gamersgate.

Oh dear.

this will not end well. But charging on horseback, and leveling up so you can fire your bow from horseback is so goddam satisfying. At least it was in the original.

[Wolfenswan]

This little (http://not.vlambeer.com/luftrauser/) flashgame is entertaining me right now.

[Heliocentric]

This little (http://not.vlambeer.com/luftrauser/) flashgame is entertaining me right now.

ugh.... Hand cramp inducing

[Giaddon]

I started a new game of New Vegas last night, (not really sure why, just had an urge) and promptly lost two hours in Goodsprings. And this is a game I've already played for 60 hours! Damn that's good stuff! I think I'll try to get another playthrough in before Skyrim lands.

[Rath]

I've just finished Dawn Of War 2 - Chaos Rising and I'm looking forward to starting Retribution, despite what I've been told about the changes.

[Heliocentric]

I've just finished Dawn Of War 2 - Chaos Rising and I'm looking forward to starting Retribution, despite what I've been told about the changes.

If you don't own it yet THQ is having a sale on steam, Dawn of War sale seems inevitable.

[TailSwallower]

Portal 2 in co-op. Played the single player on Xbox when it came out (rental) and then bought it on PC when it was 50% off recently. Co-op is fantastic, and possibly a better challenge that the single-player. We're up to the test chamber that starts with the bouncy goo, so I'm not sure if we're into the DLC yet or not (but I think not).

Also more Frozen Synapse. Still loving it, still losing more than I win, but getting better at it.

[SMiD]

Nihilanth dead. I'm on to OpFor. It's still a great experience to play through the Half-Lifes (Lives?) Half-Lives.

[sabrage]

I hauled through 8 chapters of Portal 2 yesterday. Today I only played Company of Heroes. Panzerelite rule.

[Doodier]

So I've finished Mirror's Edge. It was pretty good and I liked it to the end. I added it to my list of completed games as number 9 which is weird, after spending 14 (or so) years of playing PC games.
Don't know what to play next. I am not sure what would I stick with. Candidates are Frozen Synapse, Limbo, AoE3, Diablo II (I've never finished this one) or Magicka.

[Cable]

I've been playing far too many games lately.
Just finished Trine which was delightfully pretty and whimsical as well as a solid game.

But today i've had a wonderful day of emergent gameplay with Minecraft where i fell down a massive ravine literally 5 minutes after spawning and then spent 2 hours wandering and terrified underground in an abandoned mine before finally reaching the surface again and seeing i was only a few metres from my spawn. Followed by Far Cry 2 which i'm also loving, just the ambiguous nature of the stories and who it turns you into while you play. Also sliding and shooting and exploring is fun too.

[Hanzan]

My main game right now is KOTOR. Unfortunately the "big reveal" is spoiled because I've used this thing called the internet for a while, but is still enjoying it immensely. Took a while to get used to the battle system though. On the side I do the occasional Just Cause 2, gets killed a lot in Frozen Synapse and work my way through Assassins Creed: Brotherhood at a very leisurely pace.

[airtekh]

Portal 2 in co-op. Played the single player on Xbox when it came out (rental) and then bought it on PC when it was 50% off recently. Co-op is fantastic, and possibly a better challenge that the single-player. We're up to the test chamber that starts with the bouncy goo, so I'm not sure if we're into the DLC yet or not (but I think not).


Yeah, Portal 2's coop is awesome alright. It's the best thing I've played this year, by a long shot.

The DLC course is located where you see a large moving metal block in the coop lobby, straight ahead from your start position.

I'm not sure if it automatically opens once you're in the lobby or only once you complete the original coop campaign though.



Don't know what to play next. I am not sure what would I stick with. Candidates are Frozen Synapse, Limbo, AoE3, Diablo II (I've never finished this one) or Magicka.

Limbo is very short, if you want to get that out of the way first; it's only about 2-3 hours long. Beautiful atmosphere and artwork in that game.

[nihilistic.]

Just finished playing Metro 2033. The game never would work on my pc back when I got it on steam (maybe a year ago?). I only just reinstalled it 2 days ago and it worked perfectly (happy face).

I must say that it was an absolutely brilliant game to play. The atmosphere was great and I loved the need for scavenging to survive. It was a very immersive experience and it left me wanting more when it finished. I really want to go out and find the book now, I've heard that it is a very interesting read.

Really hanging out for Metro: Last Light now.

[Althea]

Gave Hunted: The Demon's Forge another go today. So, it's half ugly, half pretty. Half good, half bad. Eh. I wish the checkpoints were a bit more numerous, though, because a bug might mean you have to go back and redo a whole fight or two just to continue.

Also got further in Vegas 2. The more I play it, the better it gets.

[Heliocentric]

The moment you see a helicopter shooting at you in Vegas 2 and your team mates have abandoned you just give up... In fact once you ignore your orders and attack a hostile base by yourself you've had 95% of the good stuff, but the sports centre with the climbing wall was an incredibly good level.

[Casimir Effect]

Hostile base isn't too bad and does provide a really tense section because you don't have backup - although there are some really cheap parts where it's impossible to cover every direction and so wandering enemies & bad spawns will kill you.

The helicopter is one of the biggest facepalm moments in gaming history. What does a realistic shooter need? A helicopter boss battle! Even the Alpha Protocol one was better.

[Heliocentric]

I liked Vegas 2's final boss who kills you if you try and listen to the story... The moral? Ignore the story in tom clancy games.

[Althea]

I got to the level where you go to land on a building and snipers take out the only other damned woman in the game.

[Casimir Effect]

Well to be fair she is flying around with the doors open all the time. Kind of asking for it.

*POSSIBLE SPOILER UnravThreads so you may want to look away! Highlight to read:

When I got a chance to shoot the final boss I took it immediately, especially after all that helicopter bullshit. He could have been telling me the meaning of life for all I gave a shit at the time. I actually liked how he'd kill you if you waited too long because it reflected all those movies where you find yourself shouting at the hero "Just fucking kill him already". For once you could be that hero so you understood the conundrum of finding out what was going on or ending it quickly right there.
End

[acidtestportfolio]

finished lonesome road for fallout new vegas

didn't like it

[SMiD]

finished lonesome road for fallout new vegas

didn't like it

I put off purchasing NV simply because I figured it would get the same treatment as FO3 and receive a Goatee edition with all of the DLC bundled. So I ask you, is it really worth it? Seems to me that the DLC has been mostly "meh", with the exception of that off-the-wall robot one.

[acidtestportfolio]

I put off purchasing NV simply because I figured it would get the same treatment as FO3 and receive a Goatee edition with all of the DLC bundled. So I ask you, is it really worth it? Seems to me that the DLC has been mostly "meh", with the exception of that off-the-wall robot one.

i disagree

i loved dead money, didn't love honest hearts but still enjoyed it, and i absolutely loved old world blues

lonesome road is just a straightforward romp with a dumb amnesiac plotline and a boring philosophy tacked onto it

[sinister agent]

The only good part about the end boss of Vegas 2 is when both I and my housemate finally got to be face to face with the whiny goit and, without a word, simultaneously shot him in the cock. It almost made the awful end fight less terrible.

Good game, awful ending.

[Althea]

Lonesome Road was too talky, and the plot really didn't have all that much substance to it, plus the final fight is so easy to balls up.

Out of the DLC, I really only enjoyed OWB. Honest Hearts I ballsed up, Dead Money was a slog and LR was kinda dull.


The only good part about the end boss of Vegas 2 is when both I and my housemate finally got to be face to face with the whiny goit and, without a word, simultaneously shot him in the cock. It almost made the awful end fight less terrible.

Good game, awful ending.
I got annoyed when it pulled that scripted nollocks on me with the guy in the Hazmat suit. I shot him and killed him, and the game was like "lolnope". Not long later, blammo. :|

[Casimir Effect]

The only good part about the end boss of Vegas 2 is when both I and my housemate finally got to be face to face with the whiny goit and, without a word, simultaneously shot him in the cock. It almost made the awful end fight less terrible.

Good game, awful ending.
That is one of the best damn things I've heard recently. Almost makes me want to replay the game just to take a shotgun in the last mission...



I got annoyed when it pulled that scripted nollocks on me with the guy in the Hazmat suit. I shot him and killed him, and the game was like "lolnope". Not long later, blammo. :|
Ah yes, scripted dickmoves. Invented by whothefuckknows, perfected by Modern War games.

[Althea]

Ah yes, scripted dickmoves. Invented by whothefuckknows, perfected by Modern War games.
It's like when he starts running away, too. Anyone would have shot the dick in the calf as he ran away.

[Casimir Effect]

It's like when he starts running away, too. Anyone would have shot the dick in the calf as he ran away.
Yes... calf...

(Also "shot the dick in the calf" is the most anatomically weird phrase I've ever heard)

[acidtestportfolio]

Lonesome Road was too talky

well, that's one of the weirdest criticisms i have seen leveled at fallout anything

[Heliocentric]

well, that's one of the weirdest criticisms i have seen leveled at fallout anything

Yeah, if you dont want talky just go walk in the wild and shoot people.

[Heliocentric]

I bought Crysis warhead for one reason, Crysis wars, and I only had one reason to want crysis wars... Mechwarrior: Living Legend. Its bloody good, non mech matter too teamwork is vital and the weapons are spot on.

[Nalano]

well, that's one of the weirdest criticisms i have seen leveled at fallout anything

Well, most of it's one-sided. He talks at you.

I mean, you do get to make a couple good points about his philosophy, but you're essentially spending ten bucks for six half-decent lines of dialogue.

Hey, do any of you find the PS3 ad on TV kinda grating? I mean, that whole "D-Day soldier lauds video gamer for getting him through" just... bleh.

[acidtestportfolio]

Well, most of it's one-sided. He talks at you.

I mean, you do get to make a couple good points about his philosophy, but you're essentially spending ten bucks for six half-decent lines of dialogue.

you're not helping the case here

[Nalano]

you're not helping the case here

Dude. I'm a weirdo who would buy the DLC even if they got rid of all the combat and just had you talk with the guy for an hour and a half. Instead it felt like a lot of linear fighting to get to a much-too-short conversation.

[acidtestportfolio]

look, i wasn't expecting some sort of philosophical debate here

but the real reveal was that the antagonist of the piece had a real, real big chip on his shoulder concerning your character

and then the DLC only explored that for fifteen minutes

so yeah: i agree with you that the actual event with ulysses was pretty much a bucket of turds punctuated with linear corridor shooting, but i at least enjoyed some aspects of the corridor shooting even if the face-off with ulysses pretty much ended with a lot of bullets in the right place, so i don't really think of it as just half a dozen lines of half decent dialogue

i just like detonating warheads on top of people is all (even if nuclear warheads are to fallout what lightsabers are to star wars)

here's some post-insult to injury for rage: i enjoyed lonesome road more than i enjoyed rage. suck it, id software.

[Nalano]

Oh, I didn't say I didn't like Lonesome Road. I liked the idea of Ulysses as a character.

I just think they spoiled a good chance to develop him. Way too much potential wasted.

I mean, sure, he had a chip on his shoulder, but at least it was an interesting chip (people have lived and died for far less in the game overall), and you could talk to him about it - indeed, I felt no reason to shoot him at the end because, of all things, after ranting at me for most of the mission, he heard me out at the end - but, overall, it just could have been handled better.

[sinister agent]

Hey, do any of you find the PS3 ad on TV kinda grating? I mean, that whole "D-Day soldier lauds video gamer for getting him through" just... bleh.

People still watch tv ads?

[Drake Sigar]

You could say the ad feeds off a gamer’s worst traits – namely a sense of entitlement. Though I think that would be applying an adult perspective to something which at its core, is designed to appeal to those of us who still retain some semblance of childlike innocence. Not that I’m implying you’re a dried-up pessimistic old git who crashes children’s birthday parties and points out the bunny was in the hat the whole time.

[Nalano]

Not that I’m implying you’re a dried-up pessimistic old git who crashes children’s birthday parties and points out the bunny was in the hat the whole time.

I'd be fine with it if it didn't have the D-Day paratroopers. Totally fictional game characters are fine, but when they're mixed in with that historical figure choking up about his travails, it just irks the hell outta me.

[Berzee]

I mean, that whole "D-Day soldier lauds video gamer for getting him through" just... bleh.

D-Day soldier curses video gamer for continual deaths and reloads, forced to live out every kind of death in battle like an awful variant of Groundhog Day.

[acidtestportfolio]

D-Day soldier curses video gamer for continual deaths and reloads, forced to live out every kind of death in battle like an awful variant of Groundhog Day.

d-day soldier curses out 12 year old child screaming racial slurs and obscenities in video games on live television

[Casimir Effect]

See I really liked that advert and saw it far more as a D-Day soldier who wasn't feeling cowed by the more grandiose-sounding actions of the other characters in the bar. Nathan Drake finding treasure, Kratos killing gods or Snake doing whatever the hell he does, that soldier was happy to put his travails on equal standing with any of theirs. If you look at it that way it becomes almost reverent of the D-Day soldiers and what they did. Yes you could perceive insult but you really have to be looking for one to find it.

I'm actually a bit jealous that we on the PC don't have things like that; be it adverts or such a large, identifiable cast of characters (mostly exclusive). The envy is more levelled towards Playstation and Xbox though. Never liked Nintendo characters or output.

[Nalano]

D-Day soldier curses video gamer for continual deaths and reloads, forced to live out every kind of death in battle like an awful variant of Groundhog Day.

d-day soldier curses out 12 year old child screaming racial slurs and obscenities in video games on live television

Okay, I lol'd.


If you look at it that way it becomes almost reverent of the D-Day soldiers and what they did.

How? It reduces Omaha beach to a level, on equal footing with other game levels.

[Casimir Effect]

How? It reduces Omaha beach to a level, on equal footing with other game levels.
It puts a fictitious representation of Omaha beach on a level with ideas born from the wildest dreams of mythology and fiction. As a factual representation of history it is massively lacking, what with one being real and the other not, but as an homage then there is a degree of respect being accorded.

If I was being cynical of the advert then I'd point out the need to have the brave American soldier in the first place, which is obviously there to appeal to certain mentalities and could easily have just been replaced with a soldier from Killzone or Resistance (although this would be less recognisable perhaps). But I really don't want to get into the old UK/US war argument where, according to video games, Hollywood and certain other media/opinions, we did fuck all and cowered on our islands until the US showed up and saved the day.

[ZamFear]

Finished Blood Money. That last sequence was rough. Would've preferred to have had my silverballer (laser, scope, subsonic ammo, extended magazine, silencer) for that, instead of the dual, unmodified ones. :/

Now, there are some orcs that have to die. Probably throw in one of the previous Hitman games in between levels.

[Toffer]

Just installed Space Chem. Gonna check this badboy out.

[Althea]

I tried Sword of the Stars.

Ain't got a flipping clue what to do, even after the tutorial.

[Giaddon]

Here's (http://sots.rorschach.net/Beginner%27s_Guide) a starter guide, which is part of the Wiki. It may help you get oriented.

Like most 4x games, your initial strategy should be colonizing as many nice worlds as possible.

[Althea]

I tried the first scenario and my first item of research went over-budget. I didn't do anything.

Sigh. I might try a custom game with that guide, but I can see myself tearing out my hair in frustration.

[Rii]

Metroid Prime 3. It's pretty coo. And using the Wiimote to rip the shields out of the hands of enemies via the grapple beam is surprisingly fun.

[Heliocentric]

Budget is a guesstimation only, and indeed if you are patient you can complete research on the cheap by passing 50% researched and reducing funding (don't zero funding though). Every turn you have a (research-50%) chance to get the tech, thus you always get it by 150% research.

[Althea]

Budget is a guesstimation only, and indeed if you are patient you can complete research on the cheap by passing 50% researched and reducing funding (don't zero funding though). Every turn you have a (research-50%) chance to get the tech, thus you always get it by 150% research.
See, I'll be honest, I have no idea what that means. I don't know how to do that, because the tutorial is so darned useless.

[Tikey]

Don't play the scenarios. Just start a custom game against two AI on easy, no more than 60 planets. I'd recommend you to play as Tarka, as they're the most straightforward race.
If you've played any other space 4X you'll understand the basics quickly.

[Heliocentric]

We need a visual walkthrough.

[Kodeen]

I'm finally playing Beneath a Steel Sky. I quite like it so far, though it looks just a wee bit pixelated when playing fullscreen on a 28 inch monitor. I've already had to consult the walkthrough twice, which I don't usually like doing, but it's a pixel hunter so what do you expect?

Before that I tried Trauma. I know people complain about the shallow gameplay, but I had to quit because I just couldn't stand the voice acting. And I'm usually very tolerant of bad voice acting, too.

[Tikey]

We need a visual walkthrough.

To the sots-mobile!

[fanatic4k]

I'm playing Warcraft 3 and Starcraft 2 at the moment :)

[Althea]

Just tried the demo of Daedalic's A New Beginning. The voice acting is crap, the sound quality is crap (I keep getting pops/clicks), the visuals are really nice yet devoid of post-processing (i.e. no AA), but it's letterboxed on my 16:9 screen.

I think I'll just wait for the lovely Lace Mamba edition to drop in price.

[vinraith]

See, I'll be honest, I have no idea what that means. I don't know how to do that, because the tutorial is so darned useless.

Wait, SotS has a tutorial? Ick, don't pay that any mind, this is a strategy game.

Helio's got the right of it, you definitely want to ignore the scenarios for now and just start some easy sandbox games to get the hang of things. Rorschach's old tutorial videos might be of some use too. They were made prior to the last expansion, but cover the fundamentals well: http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8117

[Althea]

I think his tutorial videos were actually included in the game. I remember seeing his name pop up in one.

[sabrage]

I'm finally playing Beneath a Steel Sky. I quite like it so far, though it looks just a wee bit pixelated when playing fullscreen on a 28 inch monitor. I've already had to consult the walkthrough twice, which I don't usually like doing, but it's a pixel hunter so what do you expect?


I love this game! I encourage everyone with a GoG account to play it, if you haven't already. Joey is easily one of my favorite characters in any video game, and the Dave Gibbons art is gorgeous. Not to mention it's free.

While we're on the subject of robots, I just finished Portal 2. I think that the puzzle design was a little limited, given that everyone and their mother has played the first one by now, but that didn't stop me from getting stuck several times and it didn't stop me from enjoying every second of it. There was a definite feeling of being pushed onto a rollercoaster -- and never leaving the tracks -- but the game is brilliantly written and gorgeously designed with a perfect difficulty curve. And to the people who complain that the Source engine is starting to show its age... I don't know what you're talking about.

[Kodeen]

Speaking of Portal 2 (spoilers), I was a little disappointed with how they presented how Caroline was connected to GlaDOS. I think they had a more concrete way of doing it in mind, but when JK Simmons refused to voice that "rape scene," they had to soften it up a bit.

[sabrage]

I was more disappointed that they're still remaining cryptic as to the ties to the Half-Life universe, though the (here be spoilers) "cataclysmic event" that is ongoing throughout the game could be read as the Combine invasion. And the foreshadowing could've been a little (lot) more subtle, but someone had already spoiled for me that Wheatley is the villan.

[SirKicksalot]

I finished Homefront in 3.5 hours. The heart was in the right place, but the execution is terrible. I like the Call of Duties and Medals of Honor, but Homefront is a pretty bad clone of that type of game. The world they built and some of the scripted stuff was pretty interesting, and frankly it was a lot more fun just walking around and looking at stuff than shooting it.

It's still better than Bad Company 2's campaign though.

My Rage copy is finally here. Nothing better than a id Software shooter to make me forget about Homefront.

[aquamarine]

I picked up the Witcher in the gog Atari sale. Never played it before so I thought it might be worth $5 and a play through this weekend. We'll see...

I also downloaded Dawn of War II from Steam as it is free to play this weekend and I have been wanting to give this a try. Unfortunately it seems campaign mode is disabled in the free version. I tried one online game but I was pretty confused. I was expecting a RTS type game but instead it was just me and 2 other hero avatars fighting waves of monsters.

[Althea]

I also downloaded Dawn of War II from Steam as it is free to play this weekend and I have been wanting to give this a try. Unfortunately it seems campaign mode is disabled in the free version. I tried one online game but I was pretty confused. I was expecting a RTS type game but instead it was just me and 2 other hero avatars fighting waves of monsters.
That's a mode called The Last Stand. There is an RTS-style multiplayer mode, but it might be disabled in the demo.

[Ian]

So I just finished Mafia 2. I dunno if it's because I had my expectations set against all the moaning but I found it surprisingly enjoyable. While there's plenty of meaningless stuff (anything you need to spend money on, really)and bad stuff (I didn't really give much of a toot about (m)any of the characters and the AI is a bit shit in all forms) there was good stuff too (gunfights, the actors not making me want to mute it, etc.)

It's not an amazing game and it's not the original, but I had a pretty good time getting it played. Next up? Not sure yet. Depends on if I crack and buy Rugby Challenge. :( If I don't.... Might go for either Time Gentlemen Please or possibly make a start on the Oddworld games.

[Skalpadda]

I picked up Fable 3 when it was on sale recently just to see what the fuss was about (never played the first and don't own a console) and I fancied something a little more light-hearted. I don't really know what to think about it though. There are some glimmers of brilliance in there and a few things that are very well done, but mostly it feels like they took a pretty good game and wrapped it in another, quite awkward, weird and tedious one.

[acidtestportfolio]

the binding of isaac is still something i am really enjoying after all this time

and it's such a short game once you think about it, but i've been playing it over and over again just to see the new items and all

i finally enjoy replay value in a video game.

also: bad company 2 (for bf3), dawn of war retribution (enh), fallout new vegas

[agentorange]

A friend gifted me Jagged Alliance 2 a few months back, finally decided to get into it. Loving it so far, though I also feel a bit overwhelmed by the plethora of options, and I assume it will only pile them on harder later on, but hopefully by then I'll be used to it. The combat reminds me of Fallout -- with the action points and aimed shots -- probably my favorite turn based combat system ever, so on that front I can't see myself getting bored.

Also trying to set up a profile for my X-52 before I start I-War.

[coldvvvave]

I'm stuck somewhere around top-50 in DoW2: Retribution 1v1 ladder.

Can't win against top Space Marines. Sad.


EDIT: Just won against some Apothecary from top 50. Now he is not in top 50! Feels good.

[Althea]

I picked up Fable 3 when it was on sale recently just to see what the fuss was about (never played the first and don't own a console) and I fancied something a little more light-hearted. I don't really know what to think about it though. There are some glimmers of brilliance in there and a few things that are very well done, but mostly it feels like they took a pretty good game and wrapped it in another, quite awkward, weird and tedious one.
It's technically a mess, too. I've had no end of graphics issues with it. I've currently got it in a playable state, but changing graphics drivers could cause it to start crashing or artifacting, plus I don't want to change drives due to The Settlers 7.

Stupid gaming. At times it's enough to drive you mad.

Edit: I'm stuck on Rainbow Six Vegas 2 now. I'm at the refinery and I've got to the point where you shut off the alarm. I can do that, and go a little further, but I continually die. I'm fed up with it at the moment, so I might just focus more on Spectromancer.

[Skalpadda]

It's technically a mess, too. I've had no end of graphics issues with it.

The only technical issues I had were the odd flickering texture in a few places and frame rate drops in the Bowerstone Industrial area, other than that it ran just fine and it was quite a long time ago that my PC could be called new and shiny.

My biggest problem with the game was that so much of it was made up of insane amounts of scavenger hunts and grinding. I'm OK with some of that, but expecting players to scour the game world for gnomes, flowers, books, two types of chests, dig spots, silver keys and golden keys (while not even having a functional map), gather outfits, makeup, hairstyles, weapons and all the other collectible stuff while also amassing the huge piles of gold you need at the end (at least if you're taking the benevolent path), grinding out guild seals to "level up" your character and upgrading your chosen legendary weapons.. I guess what I wanted to say is that it's just a great big mess and those are far from the only things that feel entirely arbitrary and detracting from the strengths of it.

And I do think the game has some strengths. I really like the setting, the dog is a cool mechanic, the voice acting is good, some of the side quests are really entertaining and while the core story isn't exactly thrilling it was enjoyable enough. I just wish someone had taken an axe to half the unnecessary crap and spent the time gained on making the rest more worthwhile.

[Althea]

Totally agree.

I'm getting some other issues to yourself (Such as black boxes behind some text), but largely the game feels artificially bloated. The menus are really not great if you're used to PC games, there's so much unnecessary running around and so on.

Damn, I want to play it again now.

[Giaddon]

I just finished Portal 2 and Modern Warfare 2, and frankly, Portal 2 was far more linear and gameplay-less than Modern Warfare 2. It's basically a movie with loading screens. A cute, well-voiced and fun movie, but I am truly surprised at the amount of love it gets. I mean, it's fine, I enjoyed it, but the puzzles were very easy and most of the "game" consisted of me pressing W while robots made jokes.

I've heard the co-op mode is where the true puzzles lie, so I'm trying to find a good partner for that.

[vinraith]

I just finished Portal 2 and Modern Warfare 2, and frankly, Portal 2 was far more linear and gameplay-less than Modern Warfare 2. It's basically a movie with loading screens. A cute, well-voiced and fun movie, but I am truly surprised at the amount of love it gets. I mean, it's fine, I enjoyed it, but the puzzles were very easy and most of the "game" consisted of me pressing W while robots made jokes.

I can't say as that surprises me, if you read between the lines (and through the haze of blind Valve-love) it's been underlying a lot of the word of mouth. I'll be interested to hear how your co-op experience goes, as it sounds like that's the only part of the game that involves much "game."

[Giaddon]

You could be right, Vinraith. I'm reading through the old RPS verdict now (I avoided RPS coverage before playing the game), and I keep hitting lines like: "Kieron: And my minor complaints are really along the line of “Oh God. Another orgasm?” and "John: This has been madly negative for a game no one would give less than a 9 to."

In the comments I see stuff like: "Been a surprise, but I have only seen one other person on the net so far that has mentioned the boring exploration behind the test chambers, how many catwalks did we W + Spacebar along during this game?"

Player/media reaction to games is always something that fascinates me, and the reaction to Portal 2 is especially fascinating. :)

I will say that the sound design and music were fantastic. Probably the standout elements of the game for me (even better than the writing, which was strong, but extremely tired by the end.)

[Wizardry]

The combat reminds me of Fallout -- with the action points and aimed shots -- probably my favorite turn based combat system ever, so on that front I can't see myself getting bored.
Wait, Fallout has your favourite turn-based combat system ever or Jagged Alliance 2?

[Skalpadda]

Well the first Portal was on rails from start to finish as well, so not sure why anyone would be surprised by that.

[Althea]

Well the first Portal was on rails from start to finish as well, so not sure why anyone would be surprised by that.
But the problem is that Portal was arguably better at being "on rails". There were many sections in Portal 2 that just didn't involve portals or anything truly creative, whereas Portal was two hours of bliss. Portal 2 just never pushed the player all that much, in my opinion, and it felt much more simplistic. The hardest parts were less hard and more annoying.

[airtekh]

I'm still playing Fallout 3; damn this game is huge. Once again I've contracted the disease known as 'complete all sidequests syndrome' and I need an antidote fast.

RE: Portal 2

I would agree that most of SP Portal 2's entertainment value comes from the superb music, writing and animation, and not the actual puzzles themselves; although I did get stuck once or twice on my first playthrough.

The co-op is a different beast though. I wouldn't necessarily say that it's harder that the SP (although that argument could be made) but rather that it requires another level of thinking that just isn't present in the SP.

Having two portal guns means you are able to do stuff which is just impossible in SP, and this gives you a new set of techniques to solve puzzles with.

Also, there are many situations encountered which would be trivial to solve by yourself, but suddenly require more thought because you have to factor in the presence of another player.

It's a great experience - I've certainly never played anything like it before - and I would highly recommend it (especially if you were at all disappointed with the single player campaign).

[Ian]

A productive gaming weekend for me.

Finished Mafia 2 (not as good as the original, and fairly flawed, but good with some excellence hidden in there) and blasted through Time Gentlemen Please! in one sitting. With the aid of FAQs. Some of the puzzles I'm not sure I'd have ever got (without just combining everything with everything else) but to be honest after the first one I essentially came into TGP hoping for the same laughs. Which I got. Some proper belly-laughs too, even if it was at properly infantile stuff.

[NecroKnight]

The Binding of Isaac

[Miked]

Tomb Raider Underworld. Initial impressions after 90 minutes: Some great puzzles and decent (environment) design. Comes with a story I couldn't care less about.

Lara's animation are sometimes great and at other times I seem to be controlling a character who has the mobility of a Barbie doll.

Lara does some slightly unnecessary things. So far I've execute lions, sharks, spiders, lizards, humans and bats. And in order to check if there is any valuable treasure inside a ceramic pot Lara will break the valuable vessel with a single kick.

[RamboJ3sus]

Treated myself to Dawn of War II: Retribution as it was on sale and I've been meaning to try it for awhile now. Absolutely loving it, especially the Last Stand mode. Completed Rage over the weekend, wasn't bad but I did find myself getting increasingly bored towards the end.
I'm feeling some mid-week Bad Company 2 shall be needed to wet my whistle before BF3 is released!

[Althea]

I keep finding myself heading back to Spectromancer

It's like the DotP games but... better. The AI is much less devious, the game is much simpler as a whole (You don't need to think about Forestwalk, flying, blah blah blah), the element of randomness is much less destructive, and so many other things. There's not much of a challenge on Easy so far (I've lost once or twice out of maybe 15-20 games), but it keeps you going back.

Only problem is it seems a little unbalanced. Some cards seem very, very weak and other seem overly powerful (Such as the Armageddon card, which I can use to win the game very quickly).

Screw Puzzle Quest 1+2, screw DotP 2011/2012. Spectromancer is where it's at.

[acidtestportfolio]

I just finished Portal 2 and Modern Warfare 2, and frankly, Portal 2 was far more linear and gameplay-less than Modern Warfare 2. It's basically a movie with loading screens.

yeah but portal 2 isn't a chest high cover shooter

so there's that

[Heliocentric]

yeah but portal 2 isn't a chest high cover shooter

so there's that

I quite like chest high cover, its how you can shoot over it that really does it for me.

[acidtestportfolio]

I quite like chest high cover, its how you can shoot over it that really does it for me.

do you like regenerating health too

[Heliocentric]

do you like regenerating health too

I like it best when for no discernible reason health regenerates faster in cover even out of combat.

[SirKicksalot]

Rage - shooter of the fucking decade.
I don't understand why other shooter devs can't make the action feel so good. Why does id's pistol feel like other games' shotguns? Why does their shotgun feel like a cannon and their machine gun like a fucking minigun? Why is the movement so perfect? I don't get it!

Also, a couple of missions turned into some really brutal classic Doom gorefests with monsters pouring in from everywhere. Doom 4 is going to be really awesome...
And there's a Quake 5 logo in the game.

[vinraith]

I'm on a serious historical strategy kick. I'm still playing my learning game of EU3 Chronicles as Portugal, but I've also started dabbling with Hegemony Gold and so far I'm quite impressed. Oh, and I still toss in the occasional skirmish in Rise of Nations, because why not?

[Serenegoose]

I'm on a serious historical strategy kick. I'm still playing my learning game of EU3 Chronicles as Portugal, but I've also started dabbling with Hegemony Gold and so far I'm quite impressed. Oh, and I still toss in the occasional skirmish in Rise of Nations, because why not?
I haven't played rise of nations in such a long time. Honestly one of the finest RTS games of that type - there's something about the fluidity of the action, the tug of war feel that the combat evoked, that was just enormously satisfying to play, especially when everything you were building and researching clicked together, leading to an inexorable advance, and desperate enemy defenses.

[sinister agent]

Just had a game of Medieval like, totally war, like omigahd. The first one. I'd played it a few years ago for years (on and off) in a single, monstrous campaign of Danishness that turned into a long ang gruelling dual superpower fight against Egypt, even though I tried very hard to settle it peacefully (you have the Southeast, I'll have the Northwest. Everybody wins. Though I keep total control of the sea, obviously. I mean, I actually have boats, for a start).

This time, I tried with the Danes again, and had a much harder start as I didn't risk attacking Germany early. I went east, and was saving up for an invasion of Lithuania when... my king died. Of nothing. Game over.

Apparently there were no heirs. So his four brothers (the first king had about 9 sons) apparently didn't count. So basically, the game decided to give me a king who produced no heirs, and then he died. Which meant instant game over for me, totally outside my control.

What a con! I had no idea the game did that. I figured it'd just spark off a civil war instead and let you pick a side. Hmph.

[Ian]

Meant to say I also tried the Europa Universalis 3 demo after remembering enjoying what Quinns wrote about it ages ago.

Wasn't surprised when I sort of bounced off it. The idea of these games always appeals to me but the complexity (not because I'm scared of complexity, but because it's new complexity) puts me off a little when I've tried them. What would be a good example of the genre that's a bit simpler for me to dip my toe in the water?

[Doodier]

Meant to say I also tried the Europa Universalis 3 demo after remembering enjoying what Quinns wrote about it ages ago....What would be a good example of the genre that's a bit simpler for me to dip my toe in the water?
Oh yeah, or at least some EU3 101 class (perhaps video tutorial?) because I wanted to play this for a looong time but I just don't know what to do..

[Ian]

I did the tutorial and I think I understood most of it, but when it came to applying it all at the same time it became a bit "Aaaarrrggghhh"

[Edawan]

I just finished Darksiders. I loved it, especially the combat. This made me finally buy a gamepad and I don't regret it.

Then I tried starting Chronicles of Riddick, but the very weird graphical options are putting me off. In short there's no option to play in 1920x1080 (even by editing the .cfg) and when I put it in 1280x720 it doesn't scale to fullscreen, it stays with 1:1 pixels and big black borders around. (not sure if it's the game or my graphic card that does this, but at least it's not supposed to)
I'll try searching more for fixes but what a pain...

[Smashbox]

Apparently there were no heirs. So his four brothers (the first king had about 9 sons) apparently didn't count. So basically, the game decided to give me a king who produced no heirs, and then he died. Which meant instant game over for me, totally outside my control.


Wat. How can the game not take into account the king's bros? That seems like a bit of an oversight.

"King's dead. No sons."

"I guess we'll have to cancel the country. We had a good run."

[Wolfenswan]

Wasn't surprised when I sort of bounced off it. The idea of these games always appeals to me but the complexity (not because I'm scared of complexity, but because it's new complexity) puts me off a little when I've tried them. What would be a good example of the genre that's a bit simpler for me to dip my toe in the water?

#1 Use MiscMods to iron out some of annoyances of Vanilla.

#2 Play as one of the big, western nations like Castille and England or one of the rich, more peaceful nations like Venice or the Hanse. Then follow your missions, keep taxing and research. If you tech race for navy and "quest for the new world" (allows you to recruit explorers and conquisitadores) you can basically settle the whole of (south) america before anyone else even thinks it exists, getting ridiciously rich on the way.

#3 There's a EU3 wiki. Though it's partly out of date it still found some of the guides very useful.

[Anthile]

I wouldn't really recommend Venice. Uniting Italy is very difficult because of a whole clusterfuck of guarantees, alliances and HRE territory ("Release province x or start a war with Bohemia"). Not to mention that you are bordering with Austria, the Tommy DeVito of nations.

[vinraith]

Wolfenswan's advice is sound, though I don't know MiscMods and certainly don't think it's necessary for a first playthrough. England, Castille, France, these are all good choices. On normal, with a big country, you've got all the room in the world to make mistakes without it ending the game, so you're free to feel your way through the systems and interface. That's really the only way to learn a Paradox game, frankly, there's no "simple equivalent," and a video walkthrough would take hours. Grab a big country, set some limited goals, and play with it, you'll figure it out.

[sinister agent]

Wat. How can the game not take into account the king's bros? That seems like a bit of an oversight.

"King's dead. No sons."

"I guess we'll have to cancel the country. We had a good run."

Seriously. I also had a general who'd married the king's younger sister. I'd have thought a civil war would be the most likely result to be honest. Half a dozen brothers and only one throne? All of them vikings? The sagas practically write themselves.

[sinister agent]

As for EU3, I'd actually advise against playing a major rich nation to start with. Too much to take in and keep track of at once. It's perhaps better to choose a middling country that can fend for itself but isn't going to attract massive attention or desperately need to expand right away. At least until you get a feel for the fights, diplomacy, economy, etc.

[Althea]

Still playing through Fable III.

Holy Cheese Biscuits on a Handgrenade, it's bloody brilliant. I wish it was more technically sound, and less of a wobbly port, but hidden beneath the washed out graphics and slightly crap combat is a pretty damned good game.

[Ian]

I hadn't started anything new because I'd thought the UK PC date for Arkham City was the same as the console one. And now I'm sad. :(

Will probably go ahead with my previous plan of having a go at Oddworld.

[Citruspunch]

SC2 at home and AssCreed at work. I'd played the first one ages ago for a couple of spare hours, but felt they overloaded you with info on how to play and control stuff right at the start and then never re-iterated it, leaving me lost. Time to give it a second go whilst waiting for batmanAC

[TailSwallower]

SC2 at home and AssCreed at work.

Whaaa? Browsing the internet a bit at work I get, but what kind of job do you have where you can actually play something as obvious as Assassin's Creed?

Anyway, been playing the original Dawn of War after getting it and the expansions during the sale. After that I've got DoW2 + Expansions too, (not to mention the CoHs which I've only put 8 or so hours into) so plenty of Relic action for me to chew my way through.

[SMiD]

SC2 at home and AssCreed at work.

Seriously, you hiring? I can sometimes get away with a bit of a turn-based game only because I can alt-tab when someone's about to walk by without dooming myself.

[Ian]

+1 for the "how the hell can you play Assassin's Creed at work?" question.

[Drake Sigar]

Finished Broken Sword 3 and never want to see another box again for the rest of my life.

[Ninjafoodstuff]

Just started Progress Quest (http://progressquest.com/) today and I'm loving it. Everything good about MMOs with all the bad & pointless bits taken out.

[sinister agent]

+1 for the "how the hell can you play Assassin's Creed at work?" question.

I used to feel bad for checking into a forum at work. Quite apart from anything else, christ knows how people find the time to play games at work. Jammy bastards.

[Smashbox]

I used to feel bad for checking into a forum at work.

It's a slippery slope, apparently. Soon you'll be painting Warhammer figurines between games of Steel Battalion.

[Heliocentric]

+1 for the "how the hell can you play Assassin's Creed at work?" question.

Ubisoft quality control?

[Althea]

Ubisoft quality control?
Don't talk rubbish. Ubisoft don't have quality control, just like Bethesda.

[coldvvvave]

DoW2 again.

Am I cool yet?

http://i.imgur.com/T5xah.jpg

[Tuggy Tug]

Eve Online.

Going straight to low-sec during my trial was a pretty hasty decision, but I'm here now with a -9.6 sec status and a bounty on my head, so all is good!

[Kodeen]

I'm playing Oblivion. The first go around I played it on PS3, with no mods, and gave up fairly soon. Now I'm playing it with a leveling mod and choose a character much closer to my playstyle, and I'm enjoying it much more than before.

[Casimir Effect]

Just tried to play a massive game of Sins of a Solar Empire: Huge map with 5 Stars, 102 Planets and 10 Players (myself and 9 AI's). It doesn't work. In my solar system alone there were 5 different players, so the distribution on the other stars is entirely fucked from the get-go. Also, the AI players seem to form cease fires as a matter of course but refuse any overtures from myself, ie. diplomacy is entirely fucking broken. Of the 5 players in my system, 3 of them seem to have banded together; first to destroy the other AI and then to destroy me. On top of that I'm pretty sure they were getting extra resources given to them as a matter of course else they never could have built up and sustained the fleet sizes they did (I say 'sustain' because I was regularly destroying their ships for a while).

The experience has kind of killed the whole game for me. I realise now that it either has to be played 1-on-1 against an AI (or 2-on-2 etc) or against people only. Bigger sizes just don't work unless you have the entire game down to a tee, I guess. Maybe one of these days I'll give Sword of the Stars a go, see if that does the non-aggressive routes better or at all (not an option in Sins). OR perhaps I'll pick up one of the Paradox grand strategy games. Can anyone recommend a good starting point with those things?

[Tikey]

Sots isn't a non-aggresion game. Diplomacy is there only to buy you time until you are ready to pulverize the other races.

[Heliocentric]

Sots isn't a non-aggresion game. Diplomacy is there only to buy you time until you are ready to pulverize the other races.

This is right with exceptions, in the progression wars scenario your success has nothing to do with aliens deaths.

Every 80ish turns you start a new galaxy with 50% of your fleet, and no planets and nearly all your tech and a size limited fleet from your homeworld.

Sometimes you show up in a galaxy with a bunch of guys at war and just attempt to go under the radar until you have to go. Other times the odd bribe helps ensure your relative safety.

Then there are the times you nuke one opponents home world to dust, just to create a power vacume to draw attention from yourself.

Edit :
Just "played" Trauma to 100% complete and it was lovely, but I'm glad I didn't spend much for it on its own, (I got it on humble bundle) as its hella short and it has some daft design decisions.

Play it if you got it, it won't take long to do.

[Kaira-]

Dark Souls on consoletoys and on PC a mixed bag with DoW: Dark Crusade as Chaos, The Witcher again to get saves for TW2, random games of Blood Bowl and a bit of Team Assault beta.

[Kamilia]

i was playing wow.WOW is a Online RPG (http://www.nowrpg.com),its my favorite MMORPG (http://www.popmmo.com),I also like Online Games (http://www.anyonlinegames.com).

[Althea]

I just tried to get further in The Settlers 7.

I got hit with two connection messages (I think I sparked one off by downloading Carcassonne on my iPod) and then for some reason the game decided to fill up my 4GB of memory, go "Oh shit, lol, your memory is nearly full so I'mma gonna be unstable" and then crash on me before I could save. Oh, and the loading screens took FOREVER.

[Tikey]

Trine.
It's both exciting and terrifying when you're down to just the wizard and a horde of skeletons are trying to kill you. Drawing boxes was never so much fun.

[bsplines]

Trine.
It's both exciting and terrifying when you're down to just the wizard and a horde of skeletons are trying to kill. Drawing boxes was never so much fun.

I actually started Trine yesterday as well. Haqven't seen so much of it but looks good so far.
Been playing the Whispered World for a while, but my progress has been extremely slow so far.

[eRa]

Deus Ex - Human Revolution.
I really hope you can access The Missing Link from within the main game seeing as it has it's own entry in the Steam library.

And a little bit of the Natural Selection 2 beta.

[Giaddon]

Barglarglargl

New Vegas. After reaching Nipton I chemed up to the eyeballs and murdered all the Legionnaires, including that smug-ass Vulpa guy. It felt so good. Then Caesar sent his fucking assassins after me. I survived only because I was near some bandits who got drawn into the fight and they fought each other for a while. Scavenging their armor and weapons is giving me a nice equipment boost, though (one of them had a thermal lance!)

Dungeon Defenders. Great when online, tough and slow when not. Having a lot of fun with this. A neat iteration of the tower defense formula (and I'm not a big tower defense person).

Commandos 3. Picked this up from the Steam sale, playing it for the first time. Really liking it! The first mission in Stalingrad starts with just your sniper as you have a small-scale sniper battle with a German sharpshooter. Once you hunt him down, the mission opens up into a much larger thing. Uh, if you don't know, Commandos is a small-squad tactics/puzzle game set in WW2. Mostly about stealth. Super tough. (Like, your three guys versus 30 Germans). For $2.50, Commandos 3 at least is highly recommended. Don't know about 1&2.

Age of Empires 3. I've beaten all the Asian Dynasty campaigns and the first act of the main campaign. Just two more acts of the main campaign and then the two acts of the Warpath campaign to go!

And I'm pre-loading Battlefield 3! Whew!

[Althea]

New Vegas. After reaching Nipton I chemed up to the eyeballs and murdered all the Legionnaires, including that smug-ass Vulpa guy. It felt so good. Then Caesar sent his fucking assassins after me. I survived only because I was near some bandits who got drawn into the fight and they fought each other for a while. Scavenging their armor and weapons is giving me a nice equipment boost, though (one of them had a thermal lance!)
Yeah, I bloody hate the assassins, too. They're ridiculously powerful.

[Giaddon]

Yes. Definite near-term goal is "toughen up" or "make Caesar hate me less." (I'm thinking a fruit basket).

I like the legionnaire armor, (18 DT!) but they are heavy and make me look like a Roman. :(

[Althea]

I'll say this, I hit max level and have some damn good armour and weapons, and they still cause me a headache.

[Giaddon]

I actually forgot how hard New Vegas was. I was wandering around, just exploring, when I stumbled on some Deathclaws that ripped my ass off. And somewhere else some ghouls that radiated my ass off. So now I'm just sticking to the road until I get tougher.

[Smashbox]

Those deathclaws near the beginning were very good at killing me, so I thought, I'll come back in a few hours and blow these fellows' bodies apart. A few hours later, I returned with heavy weapons, only to be killed again repeatedly.

[Althea]

I play it on Easy (Or was it Very Easy?) and I find it hard at times. It's quite good in that regard, but sometimes it still seems *too* hard.

[vinraith]

What an odd complaint. New Vegas is not scaled like Oblivion (something everyone constantly complained about). The result is that it's completely possible to run into things that are well above your level. The appropriate response under these circumstances is to run like hell. Why would you want a post-apocalyptic wasteland where you could casually blow away anything you came upon?

[Smashbox]

It's definitely possible to get into very sticky situations, from which you can't easily escape. Like:

SEMI-SPOILER:

The sacrificial chamber in Vault 11 (the room with the chair and the movie projector). The game (and I) saved in such a way that I basically had no choice but to defeat those evil-natured robots. Sadly, I had no anti-robot weapons and only a few grenades. It took way too many tries and way too many stimpacks.

[vinraith]

Didn't read your spoiler (haven't played Vault 11) but, again, that's the nature of an open world game. You can either level scale everything, so it's impossible to get in over your head (and I thought we'd all agreed that that really sucked) or you can accept that sometimes you're going to get in over your head and have to reload. A post-apocalyptic wasteland that doesn't occasionally kill me isn't much of an post-apocalyptic wasteland, if you ask me.

[Smashbox]

Just to be clear - I'm not complaining. I have no problems with the open world structure. I just thought it was an interesting example.

Also, go find Vault 11, it's fun. (Make a new save)

[vinraith]

Just to be clear - I'm not complaining. I have no problems with the open world structure. I just thought it was an interesting example.

Also, go find Vault 11, it's fun. (Make a new save)

I'm waiting for the Project Nevada DLC patches to work in Lonesome Road, at which point I'm going to start a new New Vegas game. My last playthrough got stopped cold at the titular city due to instability, either in the DLC, the base game, Project Nevada, or some interaction between them. I need to go play the original FO3 with the final version of Wanderer's Edition and associated suite, too. Damn I love these games.

I suppose I should put something on topic in here, the title isn't "games I'd like to be playing at the moment" after all. :)

I'm still playing Europa Universalis 3 as Portugal and still getting consistently rebuffed in my military advances on Morrocco in the early 1400's. I've put Hegemony Gold aside on the grounds that it's good enough I'd like to play it exclusively for a good long while (probably when I'm done with EU3). I've been playing a bit of Chessmaster, both to remind myself how to play the game and to play online with my dad and friends. Oh, and I impulsively picked up Aces of the Galaxy the other day, because sometimes you just want to fly around and blow shit up.

[CrinnyCow]

Just started playing GTAIV and the original SupCom. I've already beaten GTAIV again (on 360) but I just bought it for PC. So far I'm enjoying it more than I did on consoles but not by much. I've never played the previous games but I own them all now. If I were to start playing one of them (3, Vice City, or San Andreas) which one should I play? Does it make any sort of real difference?

[Wizardry]

Just started playing GTAIV and the original SupCom. I've already beaten GTAIV again (on 360) but I just bought it for PC. So far I'm enjoying it more than I did on consoles but not by much. I've never played the previous games but I own them all now. If I were to start playing one of them (3, Vice City, or San Andreas) which one should I play? Does it make any sort of real difference?
GTA 1. It's free.

[Drake Sigar]

GTA 3 has a silent protagonist. If you're not down with that in this day and age, that leaves Vice City and San Andreas. Vice City is a full game dedicated to the worship of Scarface and has the 80s vibe, San Andreas is set ten or so years later and makes you take the role of another character like Nico who we're told is a good guy but is actually a murdering psychopath.

If I were you I'd go with Vice City, but I can't promise you'll enjoy it.

[Smashbox]

Most people think Vice City is the tightest in terms of realizing their vision. I really liked it when it came out. San Andreas is absolutely huge, with all the good and bad that entails. III really doesn't offer a lot that you can't find in its sequels, in my opinion. I really wouldn't play it, except for historical value now. But, man, when it came out, I was really blown away.

[Althea]

I would say start with 3 and work your way through in order (i.e. 3, VC, SA).

[Heliocentric]

GTA 1. It's free.

Do you not find 2 beats 1?

Personally the 2D GTA's or GTA 4 are the only ones worth playing. Vice City is a good story but some missions are stupid road blocks, San Andreas has some truly hateful things about it and the humour started to go south.

GTA 3 has just aged badly.

GTA 4 does suffer from Mario Kart style catch up on some chases it redeems itself with text message mission retry, and taxicab fast travel as well as just being beautiful .

Yes you need gods own pc turned up to 11 to play it with everything turned on but that's pc gaming for you.

[Althea]

Yes you need gods own pc turned up to 11 to play it with everything turned on but that's pc gaming for you.
Uh, no, that's piss-poor porting for you.

[Wizardry]

Do you not find 2 beats 1?
Yes. The second game definitely does beat the first.

[CrinnyCow]

Thanks for the suggestions guys... I'll try Vice City and San Andreas but if I really want more I'll check out III. Somewhere along the lines I'll probably install 2 just to see what it's like.

[sinister agent]

Most people think Vice City is the tightest in terms of realizing their vision. I really liked it when it came out. San Andreas is absolutely huge, with all the good and bad that entails. III really doesn't offer a lot that you can't find in its sequels, in my opinion. I really wouldn't play it, except for historical value now. But, man, when it came out, I was really blown away.

Got to agree here. Vice City is the one I enjoyed most, it had the balance right (although as has been said, has some of the most infuriatingly bastard hard roadblock missions). The one advantage that GTA 3 had over Vice City was that its level design was much more interesting, with tunnels and varying levels and the island that's mostly set on a hillside.

San Andreas was detailed and ambitious, but has a hateful main character (and not in a likeable way - you play a total dick in Vice City, but he's entertaining enough. CJ, however, is just an idiot) and grating plot, and worse, after the first 'act' it resets your progress, rendering the gang wars pointless, when up until that point they'd been one of the most fun parts for me.

However, you might want to start with GTA 3 at least for a few hours, just to get a feel for the progression of the series. To appreciate it more, like.

[Nalano]

Got to agree here. Vice City is the one I enjoyed most, it had the balance right (although as has been said, has some of the most infuriatingly bastard hard roadblock missions). The one advantage that GTA 3 had over Vice City was that its level design was much more interesting, with tunnels and varying levels and the island that's mostly set on a hillside.

San Andreas was detailed and ambitious, but has a hateful main character (and not in a likeable way - you play a total dick in Vice City, but he's entertaining enough. CJ, however, is just an idiot) and grating plot, and worse, after the first 'act' it resets your progress, rendering the gang wars pointless, when up until that point they'd been one of the most fun parts for me.

However, you might want to start with GTA 3 at least for a few hours, just to get a feel for the progression of the series. To appreciate it more, like.

Of the GTA 3s, VC was also my favorite. It was, by far, the most inspired: 80s jet-setting New Wave silliness that didn't attempt to do anything more than rip the motifs of Scarface and MTV's Liquid Television, but didn't bog itself down with racial undertones like New Jack City in SA.

That said, I respect the top-down GTAs more than the third-person GTAs, and while GTA2 is definitely more playable nowadays than GTA1 - and is certainly a more streamlined version of the GTA "vision," so to speak - I still have to vote for GTA1 as the more inspired and thus funnier.

[Smashbox]

after the first 'act' it resets your progress, rendering the gang wars pointless

I forgot about that. After all that grinding, RESET. It was infuriating.

[Althea]

GTA III is still a position I'm maintaining. Going back to it after the other two will colour one's perception, plus SA at least has references to GTA III. It's not the best, sure, but it's still worth a go IMHO. If you've got it, you've nothing to lose.

[Heliocentric]

BTW,the radio, including talk shows of all of the games since GTA3 is genius. Better than the games themselves.

[Kadayi]

Presently playing RAGE (hoping to finish it before BF3 hits). I do like it in terms of its appearance and feel, however it does seem a tad easy tbh (I'm just playing on normal and breezing it so far). I don't claim to be the worlds best FPS player (and certainly not the worlds best driver), but I'm not finding the game particularly challenging, although the mobs and enemy NPCs are all bullet sponges for the most part, and there's a lot of spoon feeding going on. However at the same time there is something enjoyable about it.

[Serenegoose]

I'm playing the Baldur's gate series all the way through.

As someone who plays games almost entirely for getting all the dialogue, do I require charisma for persuade checks and so on? I never really got the impression that was a thing in Baldur's Gate so I made a wis/con stacked cleric. I'd like to know if I need charisma so I can go back and roll another class before I get anywhere really.

[Wizardry]

I'm playing the Baldur's gate series all the way through.

As someone who plays games almost entirely for getting all the dialogue, do I require charisma for persuade checks and so on? I never really got the impression that was a thing in Baldur's Gate so I made a wis/con stacked cleric. I'd like to know if I need charisma so I can go back and roll another class before I get anywhere really.
Charisma matters far more than the other attributes when it comes to affecting dialogue in Baldur's Gate 1. In Baldur's Gate 2, however, the balance is changed somewhat. Intelligence and wisdom play a much greater part in dialogue, reducing the effectiveness of charisma.

However, it's worth noting that unlike nearly all other BioWare games, the Baldur's Gate games allow you to talk to people with any character in your party. This means you can designate a spokesman in your party; specifically someone with high charisma such as Imoen (the first potential companion you meet).

Furthermore, there are certain charisma boosting items in both games that you can get very early on. In Baldur's Gate 1 there is a cloak that boosts your charisma by 2 while wearing it. You can get this by pickpocketing a fat man called Algernon on the second floor of the Feldepost's Inn in Beregost. Give the cloak to someone with high charisma such as Imoen, and let her talk to everyone. In fact, as Imoen has 16 charisma, the +2 from the cloak increases it to 18, which is effectively the maximum you can get at character creation, and enough to get all the extra dialogue and quest rewards in the game.

In Baldur's Gate 2 you get the Ring of Human Influence very early on too. What this does is boost the wearers charisma to 18. Therefore you can have a character with 3 charisma who, upon wearing the ring, suddenly has 18 charisma. This makes charisma an almost worthless attribute in Baldur's Gate 2.

One more thing to note is that you often come across people who initiate conversation with you, either by yelling at you as soon as they get within your line of sight, or by walking up to your party. In both of these cases the person initiating the conversation will talk to the character closest to them. In other words, if Imoen is your designated spokesperson but stands at the back of your party's formation, and you walk towards someone who initiates a conversation with you, Imoen will not be the person doing the talking and therefore her high charisma will not be put to use.

[Serenegoose]

cut to avoid needless repetition

I see; that's very informative, thank you!

[Wizardry]

I see; that's very informative, thank you!
I added another paragraph to the end of that post. You likely missed it considering the time of my edit and the time of your post.

[The Tupper]

Yeah thanks, Wizardry. I'd wondered about the same thing for ages. Superb reply.

[Casimir Effect]

If you have the patience and enjoy the character stat rolling system as much as I do then it's pretty easy to get a character who has the attributes they need for their class (eg. Fighter: STR18, DEX18, CON18) and get CHA18 as well. Or you be a lucky bastard like myself who rolled a 18/85,18,18,10,18,18 for my last playthrough. After getting tomes I ended the game on 19,19,19,10,18,19; ready to go into BG2 in a few weeks time.

[Wizardry]

If you have the patience and enjoy the character stat rolling system as much as I do then it's pretty easy to get a character who has the attributes they need for their class (eg. Fighter: STR18, DEX18, CON18) and get CHA18 as well. Or you be a lucky bastard like myself who rolled a 18/85,18,18,10,18,18 for my last playthrough. After getting tomes I ended the game on 19,19,19,10,18,19; ready to go into BG2 in a few weeks time.
I tend to give all the tomes to my character. Therefore you could end up with 19, 19, 19, 11, 21, 19.

[Heliocentric]

Your character can end up with truly epic numbers by the end of tob, but the story does kind of justify that.

Once you get 19 con you regenerate, a dwarf can start with that. Not bad.

[Casimir Effect]

I tend to give all the tomes to my character. Therefore you could end up with 19, 19, 19, 11, 21, 19.

I'm playing Trilogy so Imoen and Jaheira will continue through to BG2. Therefore I wanted to give Imoen INT18 as I'll be dualling her to a mage before leaving Irenicus dungeon, and Jaheira had abysmal wisdom so I gave her the tome to get her up to 15. As a ranger my character didn't really need either as far as I could tell. And there are more wisdom tomes out there? Are they found in Tales of the Sword Coast?

[Wizardry]

I'm playing Trilogy so Imoen and Jaheira will continue through to BG2. Therefore I wanted to give Imoen INT18 as I'll be dualling her to a mage before leaving Irenicus dungeon, and Jaheira had abysmal wisdom so I gave her the tome to get her up to 15. As a ranger my character didn't really need either as far as I could tell. And there are more wisdom tomes out there? Are they found in Tales of the Sword Coast?
There are three wisdom tomes. One below Candlekeep, one used in a sub-quest to resurrect a young boy slain while trespassing in the Temple of Umberlee in Baldur's Gate, and the last one is in Durlag's Tower.

[Casimir Effect]

Forgot about the Umberlee one, knew I should have asked for the body first then not given the book over. Screw Durlag's Tower, I can't be bothered with that trap-filled nightmare.

[SirKicksalot]

Presently playing RAGE (hoping to finish it before BF3 hits). I do like it in terms of its appearance and feel, however it does seem a tad easy tbh (I'm just playing on normal and breezing it so far). I don't claim to be the worlds best FPS player (and certainly not the worlds best driver), but I'm not finding the game particularly challenging, although the mobs and enemy NPCs are all bullet sponges for the most part, and there's a lot of spoon feeding going on. However at the same time there is something enjoyable about it.

It is an easy game, and the "economy" means you'll basically play with infinite ammo. However, as far as I'm concerned it's the best shooter since Quake. Some of the levels (Dead City! Jackal Canyon! Escape from Quake 2... I mean Prison!) are so high above anything else made this decade it's not even funny.

The ending though... Consider this a friendly word of advice, not a spoiler. The ending is a disaster and almost retroactively ruins the game. You won't be prepared for how shit it is. Just keep enjoying the rest of Rage and then swallow that shit sandwich and try to forget it. Or you can safely stop when it's clear that you reached the final stretch.

[Drake Sigar]

I'm playing Trilogy so Imoen and Jaheira will continue through to BG2. Therefore I wanted to give Imoen INT18 as I'll be dualling her to a mage before leaving Irenicus dungeon, and Jaheira had abysmal wisdom so I gave her the tome to get her up to 15. As a ranger my character didn't really need either as far as I could tell. And there are more wisdom tomes out there? Are they found in Tales of the Sword Coast?
Man, you guys are too hardcore for me. Maybe I should pop off to GameFaqs and live like a king - better to reign in hell and all that jazz.

[elephant god]

I've not been able to stop myself from returning to Batman: Arkham Asylum every other day. And how could I? The fluidity in the battles and general movement about the island - <i>especially</i> after you've completed the game once or twice over - still feels unmatched by any other third person action game. And I simply can't wait to soar through the skies of what seems to be at least part of a proper city in Batman: Arkham City!

[Kadayi]

It is an easy game, and the "economy" means you'll basically play with infinite ammo. However, as far as I'm concerned it's the best shooter since Quake. Some of the levels (Dead City! Jackal Canyon! Escape from Quake 2... I mean Prison!) are so high above anything else made this decade it's not even funny.

For the most part I've been enjoying the combat. I've started running up against the Heavy Scourger bandits now, and they require a little more effort, than shoot and duck. I'm also impressed with the continuity of destruction.


The ending though... Consider this a friendly word of advice, not a spoiler. The ending is a disaster and almost retroactively ruins the game. You won't be prepared for how shit it is. Just keep enjoying the rest of Rage and then swallow that shit sandwich and try to forget it. Or you can safely stop when it's clear that you reached the final stretch.

Yeah I've heard it's kind of terrible, but games rarely produce good endings a lot of the time, so I'm not too worried.

[Casimir Effect]

Man, you guys are too hardcore for me. Maybe I should pop off to GameFaqs and live like a king - better to reign in hell and all that jazz.
I wouldn't really say I powergame these at all, especially as I hate powergaming. To do that you'd be best off crafting the entire party yourself by starting a multiplayer game so you aren't saddled with the pathetic excuses for NPCs that most of them are in both games. The only reason I'm planning to dual Imoen to a mage is because it's kind of expected - she starts like that in BG2. It's just with Trilogy she stays a thief so it becomes up to you what to do. Also I know what happens at the end of Irenicus dungeon and that if I dual her just before the end then I won't have to work through all her early mage levels where she doesn't have her thief skills. Weird nature of dualling etc. I'm actually slightly tempted to keep her as a pure thief as all the ones in BG2 are a bit crap.
With Jaheira you know she's got some druid so WIS is useful, which is why her stat of 14 is appalling. I think there are a couple of things in BG2 which increase WIS but otherwise the only option to make her a decent druid is the tomes from BG1 (again, only relevant if playing Trilogy mod).

2nd edition is nice and simple when it comes to stats as stuff like WIS and INT is (almost) entirely useless to fighter classes, and there some reciprocality when it comes to mages (STR less useful). It's 3rd edition where INT is needed to get skill points and WIS is tied to will saves so a low score can cripple a fighter.

There are some good, comprehensive FAQs out there but I really wouldn't recommend using them unless you want to do a completionist run, ie. you only ever plan on playing the games once. A blind run is usually more fun. I reckon the experience of PS: Torment has been lessened for a lot of people because everyone knows you should take high WIS, INT and CHA in that game regardless of class.

[Anthile]

Rangers and paladins don't need wisdom beyond 14 in 2nd Edition D&D since they can't get any spells beyond level 4. This is much different in 3rd Edition, where both classes suffer heavily from MAD (though not as much as the monk).

Also, you can always use Shadowkeeper (http://www.mud-master.com/shadowkeeper/) to alter every aspect of the game.

[Wizardry]

Rangers and paladins don't need wisdom beyond 14 in 2nd Edition D&D since they can't get any spells beyond level 4. This is much different in 3rd Edition, where both classes suffer heavily from MAD (though not as much as the monk).
I don't think rangers and paladins even gain bonus spells from wisdom scores. Druids and clerics do, though.

[Led Zeppelin]

I started Diablo II again,i tried Torchlight but it wasn't enough to make me stop dreaming
about Diablo III every night.

[Ian]

Tried both Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis today but couldn't get on with either. FoA was clearly better but it still wasn't doing much for me. *sadface*

Another two games off the list, I suppose.

[Althea]

Today's been spent mostly on The Settlers VI - Rise of an Empire. I'm really enjoying it, actually, and I feel like I have a clue about what I'm doing. It's much easier to grasp than The Settlers VII - Paths to a Kingdom, and it's much better looking (And performing) too. The story doesn't really mean all that much to me, though, and that's possibly where TS7 is a bit stronger. There's a bit more logic to some aspects of TS7 too (Such as the treatment of wood, clothing etc) which TS6 really has simplified almost excessively.

I did play some TS7 this morning, though, but I got fed up with the possible memory leak causing the game to become fairly sluggish and a lot of my buildings were randomly going weird on me, too, such as the woodcutter who couldn't find trees despite being in the same lodge as a forester, and I've had a few problems with my farms. I also find it's sometimes less about strategy and more about guessing. With Anno 1404, TS6 and some other games, you know how much room you need for X, Y and Z. You know roughly where to put things so that you can have a lot of room (Although the circular "town square" does my tree in as a wannabe town planner), and you know that you're going to need A, B and C to be built up fully, but you could possibly leave F, G and H. TS7, though, I can't really grasp it. Do I need two grain farms for one windmill? Do I need three? Do I need one windmill for every one and a half farms? At least with TS6 there's an almost 1:1 ratio going on for things.

Yeah... I've got to say TS6 is sitting better with me at the moment.

[Heliocentric]

Settlers 7 (all opinions formed in demo) seems to be really rooted around food and logistics. Push more food into a system (or higher quality food) and you can get triple or double production, but can't rely on that as anything other than a turbo. The logistics seem to create local pairings and goods won't bunny hop store houses so store houses on cross roads require care because they will see boosts of traffic.

I guess I'm just used more to mushy strategy from 4X strategy games because the inexact relationship thing just seems more right to me.

[Althea]

That's about right. The military have an insanely high cost in TS7, too, which pushes you towards economic/minor military victories. By the time you get your army of 20 troops, you could have used that gold to have a good go at securing the gold victory point. You need maybe ten or so soldiers to reliably conquer other zones, at least on the difficulty I'm playing at, and yeah. It just seems really unbalanced and stupid whilst also being logical.

[SephKing]

Tried both Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis today but couldn't get on with either. FoA was clearly better but it still wasn't doing much for me. *sadface*

Another two games off the list, I suppose.

The Last Crusade is the worst game i've played so far this year. The visuals are kind-of-nice-ish but that's pretty much the only thing it has going for it.

[vinraith]

I've been playing Recettear all weekend. It's a game I've been sitting on ever since buying it at launch. I'd dabbled before, but never really found my stride with it until now.

Can anyone tell me how many loan repayments there are? I'm working on the 80k one right now, and I'm either just going to make it or just going to miss it. I know about the looping mechanism, of course, so I'm not exactly worried, I'd just like to make the best stab I can at getting it right the first time. As I understand it the game really opens up once you're paid off, so I'm curious how far off that is. Probably awhile, yeah?

[Althea]

I finished Batman: Arkham Asylum again this morning/afternoon, it's the GotY edition one. I've got 82% completion at the moment, and I'm thinking I might just try to get 100% for the fun of it. It shouldn't be too hard now that I've got all the power ups and stuff.

I am actually quite torn on it. On the one hand, it's a good game. The sound is good, Batman himself looks good, the voice acting is mostly brilliant and the gameplay's pretty good. I agree with the people in the RPS Steam Chat who said the combat flows well, because it does, and it's very easy to get the hang of it, but it's challenging to perfect. The use of gadgets to help solve puzzles is also really good.

But that said, it's not perfect. The visual quality is all over the place. Batman looks awesome, but Harley Quinn looks like a figurine that's been painted by an amateur, the goons all pretty much look the same, the texture quality varies a lot too. The boss fights are highly repetitive and require you to basically do the same things over and over and over again, and more often than not they feel rather forced. A lot of the upgrades also seem cool but don't really get much time to shine. There's ones like selective detonation and proximity detonation for the explosive gel, but the actual use of them you get is limited to a few areas, and even then there's usually better upgrades to take. Oh, and they almost pulled a Bethesda with the voice acting. Steve Blum voices a number of the characters (And mostly in the same voice), so you get a rather hilarious start to the game where he voices the doctor you meet, then Killer Croc, and then one of the guards, so you hear him about 3 times in the space of 5-10 minutes as different characters. Oopsie. The AI is a little strange, too. I've taken out thugs silently right next to their friends before.

It is a really good game, but I don't think it's anything more than that. It does what it means to really well, but I wouldn't say it's excellent.

[coldvvvave]

I started another Jagged Alliance 2.1.13 playthrough. As usual, beginning is the most interesting part, I went straight into Cambria and took it with four mercs( my guy, Ira, Danny and Igor), armed mostly with WW2 era SMGs. Beginning is really the best part IMO. Firts city, first assault rifle, first knife kill, first completely stealth mission, first scope for assault rifle. It's cool. Then game starts throwing 20-40 soldiers at you every second, half are elite, lots of snipers. Realistic, but not very fun. Wrong move? Interrupt. Some joker mortars you from other side of the planet. Every merc is dead.

[Trash]

Shogun 2 with the Rise of the Samurai DLC. After falling in love with CA's Total War games through Shogun, Medieval and Rome I was really sad to see the series decline afterwards. Empire and its expansion sold as a stand-alone Napoleon really finished it off. Never again I said and then I heard all the good stuff about Shogun 2 being an actually great game that even seemed to have a working AI and got through QA so I caved in.

Game was fun but for some reason the ROTS is what got me truly hooked. It's got such a nice flow to it. Loving this game.

Now I just hope I got selected for the Crusader Kings II Beta. CK is my all-time favourite and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us with the sequel.

[Fumarole]

Playing Napoleon: Total War after picking it up in a recent Steam Total War Mega Pack sale. Loving it so far. I think in the future I will wait for complete versions of all Total War games before purchasing. The DLC is nice but I'd rather save money and buy everything together when the next game comes out and there's a sale.

[Giaddon]

Love to see people talking about The Settlers 7 -- love that shit. It absolutely is all about logistics, and having a clear plan to grab those victory points (which is what makes it better than Settlers 6, in my opinion. Settlers 6 is a good city-builder, but Settlers 7 infuses the formula with competitive boardgame mechanics which makes the whole thing much tighter and more engaging).

Anyway, I've tabled New Vegas for a bit to concentrate on World War 2 stealth games, apparently. Continuing with Commandos 3, which is still excellent. My enjoyment of that game prompted me to install Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, which I've so far played the first mission of, and really enjoyed. Hitman in World War 2, basically. The first mission has a nice, large outdoor map (including vehicles), and the serious WW2 tone fits the gameplay well. It feels great. I also installed Velvet Assassin, which is a strange beast. The main reason to play it, I think, is its incredible atmosphere (the missions you play are the memories of the protagonist, who is lying wounded in a hospital bed, and have a woozy, nightmarish feel). The game is TOUGH. No quicksaves, just checkpoints, and it's a very old school "wait for the enemy patrols to move to where you can secretly kill them" kind of stealth game. Which means if you get killed you'll be waiting for those soldier to move around a lot. But the unique atmosphere is keeping me hooked.

[moth bones]

Dominions 3, Solium Infernum and trying to get into Baldur's Gate - I'd definitely prefer turn-based combat a la Temple Of Elemental Evil but I do want to love this so will keep at it. Mollycoddling my mage definitely brings the D&D memories back though.

[sinister agent]

The Settlers was always about logistics. I haven't played the more recent ones, but they lost their way a decade ago, turning into c&C-like RTS games instead of the largely structural and economic model the first two established.

But then, I always liked the first one best. On the amiga, obviously - much better sound at the time.

[Heliocentric]

Love to see people talking about The Settlers 7 -- love that shit. It absolutely is all about logistics, and having a clear plan to grab those victory points (which is what makes it better than Settlers 6, in my opinion. Settlers 6 is a good city-builder, but Settlers 7 infuses the formula with competitive boardgame mechanics which makes the whole thing much tighter and more engaging).
I just wont buy 7 until they sort the always on DRM out, the joke is I'd probably get 2 copies. But yes, as a "board game come to life" its beautiful, smart and unique.

[Althea]

Love to see people talking about The Settlers 7 -- love that shit. It absolutely is all about logistics, and having a clear plan to grab those victory points (which is what makes it better than Settlers 6, in my opinion. Settlers 6 is a good city-builder, but Settlers 7 infuses the formula with competitive boardgame mechanics which makes the whole thing much tighter and more engaging).
TS7 is much deeper and I think one of my problems is I put everything down in a haphazard fashion rather than keeping my grain, bakeries and stuff near each other, which is a bit stupid of me I guess. I do kind of wish that it was more open about the size of land you need for things, though. TS6 - like most strategy games of its kind - has you build plots for your farm, rather than your settlers going "lol wteva" and planting crops everywhere.

I think TS6 is... actually deeper in ways. The weather/seasonal thing is really clever, and makes you think about your priorities a bit more. Is winter coming? Best make sure your hunters are fully upgraded and that your butchers are too. Is it near the end of winter? Get those farms sorted! That sort of stuff is awesome. Aspects of it make more sense (And also less sense). You need weapons to make troops in TS6, but in TS7 you basically hire them. I prefer TS6's way as it doesn't eat into your economy anywhere near as much. Gold is rare enough/hard enough to get in TS7 as it is, I don't need that aspect of my victory to be eroded by the relatively high cost of the soldiers. Conquering territories is better in TS6 too, as you generally just need a moderately expensive tower in a zone. It seems odd to me that most zones in TS7 are populated by a handful of soldiers.

I just wish that Ubisoft would release one more patch for TS7 to get it a bit more stable. Just one more patch.

[Heliocentric]

Fish is an awesome early game economy booster, essentially you want to turbo your kingdom on meat.Unless they are a miner like 400 mines away then don't bother.

[Althea]

Fish is an awesome early game economy booster, essentially you want to turbo your kingdom on meat.Unless they are a miner like 400 mines away then don't bother.
Which one are you on about? 6 or 7?

Anyway, I played a bit of Hunted: The Demon's Forge this evening. I ramped up the graphics quality to highest, and it looks pretty damned good. Wouldn't say "amazing", but certainly better than some games I've seen. It plays fairly well too.

That said, I am incredibly pissed off with it. Some utter tosspot decided that the pre-order bonus codes will link to a single save/profile, and they're one-use only, so if you lose your save for whatever reason (As I did), then you're buggered. So yeah, I just lost two content packs because of some idiot's decision. Judging by the Bethesda forums, no-one is taking responsibility. Not Gamespy whose "scheme" redeems the DLC, not Bethesda who published it, nor inXile who developed it. ARGH.

[Heliocentric]

7 sorry. Does 6 even have fish? Cant remember, all i can remember is stealing other players sheep.

[Althea]

Yes, 6 does have fish.

[TailSwallower]

Put DoW 1 aside for the moment because all the campaign missions were a bit samey and the cutscene dialogue so drawn out. Started on DoW2 and thoroughly enjoying it so far. I think a lot of people didn't like the move away from base building, but I think the game is possibly more tactical than the original, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Haven't touched the expansions, Last Stand or multiplayer, but I'll get there soon.

[vinraith]

Put DoW 1 aside for the moment because all the campaign missions were a bit samey and the cutscene dialogue so drawn out. Started on DoW2 and thoroughly enjoying it so far. I think a lot of people didn't like the move away from base building, but I think the game is possibly more tactical than the original, and I'm enjoying it a lot.

Haven't touched the expansions, Last Stand or multiplayer, but I'll get there soon.

Try Dark Crusade's campaign, it's something entirely different than the crappy linear campaigns for the base game and Winter Assault.

[TailSwallower]

Try Dark Crusade's campaign, it's something entirely different than the crappy linear campaigns for the base game and Winter Assault.

Cool, thanks. Is Winter Assault worth checking out, or is the campaign too similar to the original? I've got the expansions there, and I liked the few small differences I saw in how the Imperial Guard played, but I might go straight to DC if WA is a bit too similar.

[vinraith]

Cool, thanks. Is Winter Assault worth checking out, or is the campaign too similar to the original? I've got the expansions there, and I liked the few small differences I saw in how the Imperial Guard played, but I might go straight to DC if WA is a bit too similar.

WC has a little bit of branching, and lets you play from two sides. It didn't really do anything for me, but I dislike that kind of campaign structure in general so I'm probably not the best person to offer an opinion.

[Anthile]

HoMM5. I was surprised as to how easy and boring the Haven campaign was and now the Inferno campaign is an immense difficulty spike with the first two missions being annoying trial-and-error based and the third one appears to be very difficult as well.

[Ian]

Spent an hour or so last night getting my rump thoroughly handed to me by Atom Zombie Smasher.

I'm not really good enough to handle the missions where you get handed a nightmare selection of mercs (barricades, a zombie-bait thing and some mines? Thanks!) but it's good fun thus far. Hoping I get better though. Can't see me beating the zombies based on last night's performance. :(

[hamster]

Choose the filter that always equips you with at least one combat unit. Otherwise the game ends up kind of broken.

[Ian]

I almost did but decided to maybe leave that until later. I wasn't sure if that'd be taking something away from the core experience of the game.

[Heliocentric]

So, took a week or 2 but I finished it eventually. I still have brucie's races, plenty of date things like the stand up to see and some assassination missions. The assassination missions are actually GTA at its best with no Mario Kart rubber banding and freedom of approach. Want to take out target by handbrake turning a bin truck into them? You can. Want to phone up some gangsters get in a 4 door car and do a drive by? Yep. Want to land on a nearby rooftop in a helicopter and snipe the target? Sure. Want to pull up on a scooter and blow them away with a smg? Why not? Don't answer a question with a question!

[Giaddon]

I almost did but decided to maybe leave that until later. I wasn't sure if that'd be taking something away from the core experience of the game.

You definitely don't have to have that option on to win. It's all about intelligently matching your mission with your tools. And sometimes losing. But that's why a campaign lasts so long. I really like AZS!

Played a few more missions of Moment of Truth last night. Very fun. If you're a fan of Hitman/stealth games, I recommend it.

[acidtestportfolio]

dungeon defenders is a turd

[Heliocentric]

dungeon defenders is a turd

Care to qualify that statement?

[acidtestportfolio]

Care to qualify that statement?

okay

i played single player dungeon defenders, because i feel that co-operative mode is a bandaid for bad game design.

i like the parts in dungeon defenders where i erect towers over the bits that i don't want the monsters to get into. the towers let me not have to hover constantly around the diamond, so i can jump from high ledges into crowds of monsters so i can beat the shit out of them

i don't like the fucking tedious parts where i have to run around collecting mana and loot and then having to fight with the interface to sell all my loot and perform upgrades on my weapons. this is something i cannot skip otherwise i will not have the fighting capabilities to defeat all the monsters.

did i mention that the interface is the worst? because IT IS.

i really dislike when the game is so heavily built around co-op that single player gets shit. i don't want to play with people (i'd rather shoot them in the fucking face instead) and giving me a bad game experience because i don't feel like finding three other idiots is frankly a slap in the face and a guarantee that i won't buy the game.

[Giaddon]

i don't like the fucking tedious parts where i have to run around collecting mana and loot and then having to fight with the interface to sell all my loot and perform upgrades on my weapons. this is something i cannot skip otherwise i will not have the fighting capabilities to defeat all the monsters.

did i mention that the interface is the worst? because IT IS.

This is correct.


i played single player dungeon defenders, because i feel that co-operative mode is a bandaid for bad game design.

This is not. Dungeon Defenders is foremost a multiplayer game. It is, in fact, designed that way.

[acidtestportfolio]

This is not. Dungeon Defenders is foremost a multiplayer game. It is, in fact, designed that way.

so? if they include a solo mode, i'm pretty much expecting them to fucking scale it.

[vinraith]

To be clear: Dungeon Defenders does not scale to party size?

[Nalano]

I, too, don't like co-op games because they require that the friends you have who are interested in the same kinds of games as you also have the same schedule as you, which is something I haven't had since college.

I'm not sure they can all be dismissed as laziness on the part of AI programmers, but I can see why one would think so.

[Serenegoose]

To be clear: Dungeon Defenders does not scale to party size?

As far as I'm aware - it scales to party size - but ultimately playing it with one class of 4 limits your options in such a way that simply making the enemies easier to kill cannot mitigate the essential flaw in your party composition.

[vinraith]

As far as I'm aware - it scales to party size - but ultimately playing it with one class of 4 limits your options in such a way that simply making the enemies easier to kill cannot mitigate the essential flaw in your party composition.

OK. Is it any more playable with 2, or is it really one of these games where it's 4 players or bust?

[Serenegoose]

OK. Is it any more playable with 2, or is it really one of these games where it's 4 players or bust?

I can't answer this. My experience speaks of having watched a moderate amount of content and developer interviews, not from playing it, sorry.

[Giaddon]

Two players will work for the most part. Be aware you can swap heroes during the building phase, that comes in handy. There's also a demo (available on the Steam store page), so check it out for yourself!

[Casimir Effect]

Argh the Pope is a massive dickcheese!
(or How I Am Playing Medieval 2: Total War).

Bastard just told me to stop attacking the HRE when I was about to take one of their provinces, after they initially attacked me and took a province. Even worse this was a rebel province I could have taken but wanted them to weaken their army on first. Favouritist bastarding Pope.

Still a great fun game though, even with its little foibles. Creative Assembly deserve far more respect than they get. I was replaying Rome before this amd it's still just so damn good. I definitely plan to pick up Shogun 2 in the future and am wondering what they'll do with their next game, Rome 2....

I did have an interesting idea for a new feature they could add though. Anyone here who plays Dragon Age ever gone to their Bioware Social Network page , found their DA character and clicked the "Story" link? For those who haven't, it takes you to a vague history of what your character has done made up of codex info, quest info and character info. At heart it's a very rudimentary, automatic 'Let's Play' system. I reckon that an advanced version of something like this would be great for a Creative Assembly game. Imagine a file which would update as you played the game, detailing births, marriages and deaths of faction members along with any traits or retinue they gain. It'd record your diplomatic progress and your espionage attempts. It'd give details of any battles you fight in or units you train or buildings you construct. The game would automatically take screenshots of the corresponding faction information scrolls (those things that pop up when starting a new turn) and insert them into the text, and of the world/faction territory at the start/end of every turn. The text itself wouldn't just be a list of events but could be constructed from a vast list of stock sentences, context-sensative of course. The actual battles themselves could only be described in the simplest of terms by such a thing, but that's why you'd give the player complete editorial freedom to these files: anything could be changed or, more importantly, added to. It would also be important to be able to choose what in-game actions are recorded, in case you didn't care about, for example, detailing what individual Spies or Diplomats were doing.
This system would make every game played by every person into a potential Let's Play and provide a great starting point to anyone wanting to make a great one (by providing many screenshots and a template). And if there's one things that can pique interest in a game completely outside of your comfort zone, it's a good Let's Play.

[sinister agent]

I don't think I've ever paid a moment's notice to the Pope. I typically get every king I have excommunicated eventually. Nobody really seems to care much.

[Oak]

Argh the Pope is a massive dickcheese!

And not in the game.

[Casimir Effect]

I don't think I've ever paid a moment's notice to the Pope. I typically get every king I have excommunicated eventually. Nobody really seems to care much.

-20% popularity in every city, which although isn't a problem right now could become one later. Troops tend to have lower morale in battles. Also means every Catholic nation is angry at me and might try something, and while I'm happily at war with most of Europe east of France I'd hate my Spanish and Portuguese allies to turn on me. And, most importantly, I currently have an army on Crusade and being excommunicated means that army will just start to desert.
If I can get a good assassin or three to the gates of Rome then I'll go ahead with it. Killing the Pope who excommunicates you brings you back into the fold, weirdly/fantastically enough.

[Fumarole]

lots of cool ideasAtom Zombie Smasher allows you to export something like this at the end of a campaign. It is only basic info for each month but it can easily be fleshed out.

[sinister agent]

-20% popularity in every city, which although isn't a problem right now could become one later. Troops tend to have lower morale in battles. Also means every Catholic nation is angry at me and might try something, and while I'm happily at war with most of Europe east of France I'd hate my Spanish and Portuguese allies to turn on me. And, most importantly, I currently have an army on Crusade and being excommunicated means that army will just start to desert.
If I can get a good assassin or three to the gates of Rome then I'll go ahead with it. Killing the Pope who excommunicates you brings you back into the fold, weirdly/fantastically enough.

Allies? What are allies?

Are they the ones you've killed already, or what?

[Username]

Atom Zombie Smasher is such a great game... wish I didn't have such a gaming backlog, I'd play it more otherwise.

Currently playing Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection right now. It's an astonishingly fun turn-based, space 4X with real-time battles a la Total War. The best part is, ships are designed by the player, so there's an incredible depth and variety to the combat. I think the game itself was designed for multiplayer, but single-player has been enthralling thus far. Only real problems I have currently are the obnoxious voices most races have - which play every time you finish an action (research, certain types of travel, combat events, etc.) as well as the disorienting nature of a 3D galaxy map.

[Serenegoose]

Atom Zombie Smasher is such a great game... wish I didn't have such a gaming backlog, I'd play it more otherwise.

Currently playing Sword of the Stars: Complete Collection right now. It's an astonishingly fun turn-based, space 4X with real-time battles a la Total War. The best part is, ships are designed by the player, so there's an incredible depth and variety to the combat. I think the game itself was designed for multiplayer, but single-player has been enthralling thus far. Only real problems I have currently are the obnoxious voices most races have - which play every time you finish an action (research, certain types of travel, combat events, etc.) as well as the disorienting nature of a 3D galaxy map.

I have this game - I've been pondering setting aside some time to get into it. Is it fun to play VS AI?

[vinraith]

I have this game - I've been pondering setting aside some time to get into it. Is it fun to play VS AI?

SotS has some of the best AI of any 4x game I've played.

[Serenegoose]

SotS has some of the best AI of any 4x game I've played.

Oh, really? I had most always heard it touted as a great multiplayer experience - and assumed like most multiplayer games that its AIs weren't especially enjoyable. I certainly shall get into it soon then.

[Tribunal]

Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords is currently occupying all of my time reserved for gaming. Since I am a student, I can't allow myself to devote too much time for gaming, which is actually quite impossible with this game, due to the fact that it is a 4x genre and simply WANTS you to forget about everything else. So now I'm trying to figure out how to survive (and maybe crush the opponents at a later time) in a galaxy with 7 other civilizations (not counting the minor ones). Initially there were 9 major races, but the two unfortunate ones didn't survive long. The interesting thing when it comes to playing this game is that I like the randomness in it, so the last time I started playing it I ended up in a corner of the galaxy and have managed to get only 3 planets (since others were simply out of the range of my ships), while some other races got several times more planets... And in this game, if you fall behind in development (inevitable if you have 3 planets, and one of your opponents has for example 10), then you can expect threats and demands from others ("Give me your planet x, and maybe I'll let you live for another year or so"...). Then comes the hostility and war, suffering, agony and that kind of stuff... But I can't seem to get enough of this game, despite the fact it got out in 2006.

[TailSwallower]

Finished vanilla DoW campaign last night - I knew I was right near the end so I just powered on. Will give Winter Assault a shot soon, but if it's more of the same then I'll go to Dark Crusade instead.

All this talk of SotS is making me want to fire that up again tonight though. Started playing it quite late the night I bought it and I was far too tired and impatient to learn the ins-and-outs of such a complex game, so hopefully it will come more naturally to me second time around.

[sabrage]

I started Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth at about 3am last night. Really impressed by the first two levels, but I know it's all downhill from there. I'm rather impressed by the graphics! I wasn't really expecting much, but the character's faces look surprisingly natural and the art direction is pretty good. Animations are somewhat wooden, but the spectacular lighting really makes up for it and sets the mood. Looks a lot like Thief in my opinion. The sound is nowhere near on the level of Amnesia (and the ambient sounds were what really set that game apart in my opinion) but it gets the job done I suppose. Eventually had to shut it off as it has quite a bit of reading and I hate reading in a dark room on a bright background.

Tried playing Serious Sam: The Random Encounter but I keep getting a terrible audio glitch that just ruins all of the sound. Instead I ended up putting some time into Jamestown, which is a brilliant little game if brutally difficult. I'm not very good at bullet hell shooters, and I think that I might have to try it with an X360 controller. It bears noting that the soundtrack is amazing and really sets it apart from others of its ilk. There's also a lot of content I have yet to even see; there's tons of unlockables and bonuses.

I feel like I'm starting to get to the meat of the (original) DoW2 campaign. I'm generally pretty terrible at RTS until it reaches the "mass tons of the most powerful unit" stage, so the brevity of DoW2 turned out to be pretty much perfect for me. I love that it plays almost identical to Company of Heroes, yet feels entirely different. Then again, Warcraft 3 was my lifeblood for half a decade, so take all that with a grain of salt.

[cwoac]

Dredmor, dredmor, several times dredmor.

Not because its silly (it is), or because its graphically advanced and bug-free (its neither), but because its an accessible, quick rogue hit, with a modicum of depth. I've been playing it somewhat more than I probably should.

I'm also attempting the last stand, but it seems to take ages to find matches. Also unless I turn pretty much everything off/down I get atrocious framerates. Seriously, did these guys not hear of engine optimisation? My machine ain't the latest+greatest, but it plays space marine and witcher 2 fine. sigh.

[FunnyB]

Finished vanilla DoW campaign last night - I knew I was right near the end so I just powered on. Will give Winter Assault a shot soon, but if it's more of the same then I'll go to Dark Crusade instead.


Trust me it's more of the same, with a few missions with insanely difficult objectives. Dark Crusade is way more fun. Not saying it is easier, but definitely more fun! :D

[Ian]

I started Call of Cthulhu - Dark Corners of the Earth at about 3am last night. Really impressed by the first two levels, but I know it's all downhill from there

Oh, really? D:

It's still on my list.

[sabrage]

Oh, really? D:

Only based on something that I heard! based on what I've seen, the game really nails the Lovecraft feel.

[Heliocentric]

Oh, really? I had most always heard it touted as a great multiplayer experience - and assumed like most multiplayer games that its AIs weren't especially enjoyable. I certainly shall get into it soon then.

The multiplayer certainly is good, but what's good about SotS ai is that it's genuinely playing the same game as you. The combat isn't better played by the computers insta-reflexes in the strategic map or the relatively small scale tactical combat, and single player has pause if you feel hurried.

The zuul and human species' AI can be a little flakey mind you.

[Casimir Effect]

Allies? What are allies?

Are they the ones you've killed already, or what?

I occasionally like to pretend that I couldn't take on every other nation surrounding me at the same time, so when Spain and Portugal offered alliance treaties I accepted. I also enjoy watching how the diplomacy breaks out between the AI factions: Portugal were also allied to France, but when the French attacked me they just sat back and watched. Whereas the HRE, who were other allies of the French, got upset every time I beat the French.

[moth bones]

Oh, really? D:

It's still on my list.

You can usually get it fairly cheap, and it's completely worth it for the early sections. It's a bit of a shock when it suddenly switches to a game requiring reflexes though. I should get around to finishing it really.

[Ian]

Yeah, I got it in the sale for a couple of quid I think. So if I love the start but it gets wank then it won't be the end of the world.

[Giaddon]

Battlefield 3! I played a few matches this morning before work, very fun. Itching to get back to it.

[Spakkenkhrist]

Yeah, I got it in the sale for a couple of quid I think. So if I love the start but it gets wank then it won't be the end of the world.

Word of advice on CoC (har!), I got stuck on a section when you need to use a boat mounted cannon when I caved and decided to look up the solution I found that I was missing essential visual cues due to a bug so don't be afraid to look up a walkthrough for that part!

[Citruspunch]

I think there's a double XP weekend for MW2 this weekend. I'm guessing the 'servers' might be a little empty here and there.

[Shakermaker]

Battlefield 3 multiplayer. It's the best launch DICE ever did. It is still a DICE launch though. Enjoying the game a lot nonetheless.

[SirKicksalot]

Dead Space 2.

2 and a half hours in. I enjoyed the first one a lot more by this point, but I hear DS2 gets better later. So far the locations are underwhelming, compared to the fantastic spaceship of the first.
I have the feeling that the first one was a more hard sci-fi business while this one aims to be some sort of space epic, and I feel like I already visited this place.

The characters suck, especially compared to Black Dude From 300 And Spartacus. The first game's story was really interesting IMO. Nothing close to it so far, but there was a promising twist recently...

As for the gameplay, well, it's more of the same except that they throw more enemies at you. They'd better step it up and have a lot of zero gravity and void areas later, and more of those big brute monsters from the first. Less shitty QTEs, please.

[ZamFear]

Currently playing a mental illness themed dress simulator (i.e. Alice: Madness Returns).

[Nalano]

Currently playing a mental illness themed dress simulator (i.e. Alice: Madness Returns).

The dresses are pretty nice.