What are you playing at the moment?

[fiddlesticks]

My memories of First Encounter will forever be tainted by Metropolis and its long corridors full of Kleer Skeletons. Making a really annoying enemy is one thing, but forcing you to fight hundreds of those enemies in a narrow place with no room to dodge is just cruel.

It's a shame because the final level where you assault the Great Pyramid is a masterpiece and one of the highlights of FPS gaming. If only the road leading to it was a bit more pleasant.

[The JG Man]

First Encounter did have a few enjoyment choke points, including a couple moments of "Oh come on, this is impossible", but I never really meant it. I usually just screwed up by doing the same thing over and over, oft forgetting running straight in was exactly why the kamikazes failed and you don't.

And yes, the final level is absolutely magnificent, with a scale that I would truly define as being 'epic'.

[alms]

So, after going through a couple of industrial conversions in SimCity 4 I started a third city and managed to go all high tech with no intermediate steps, so I believe it's fair to say the tutorials are not so much casually misleading you but rather outright lying. Incidentally, that saves a lot of trouble and frees up a lot of space which is at premium in my smallest-lot-available cities. Also poses the question what is the point of having all the dirty industry areas and going through all hell if you can just googleplex the heck out of your city? my interest collapsed shortly after this realization.

Finished Jolly Rover, was disappointed because I missed the collectibles, went back and played it all over again and STILL missed 2 pieces of eight and 3 crackers. Damn. And the worst part is, I still haven't figured out what really doesn't work for me in this game. There is the issue with inconsistency (mainly in graphics and writing), but I'm not positive that closes the case.

And finally picked up Frozen Synapse again. Last time I quit during the tutorial. I already outlasted my last attempt, so proud now!

[sabrage]

As much as I know others will disagree with this, I'd say the first encounter is the worst of the bunch. Not sure if that's because the Second Encounter was that much more fun for myself, but the way certian levels just devolved into "Throw so many headless kamikaze at you or kleer skellyboblers at you that its almost impossible to cope." Second encounter made good use of the larger enemy pool, plus seemed to take the brakes off the batshit-'o-meter for some parts.

Well, I like it better than The Random Encounter. That game really did get impossible.

[arathain]

What difficulty do you play at, Serious Sams?

[sabrage]

I made the mistake of starting TFE on hard.

[tangoliber]

Natural Selection 2 and Tribes: Ascend. Waiting for the Scrolls alpha (craving a turn-based strategy boardgame.)

[Giaddon]

(craving a turn-based strategy boardgame.)

Maybe Montjoie can fill the time?

[NecroKnight]

I'm revisiting Team Fortress 2. God, I just love those pyrovision googles, they make the game even more fun and hilarious.

[The JG Man]

What difficulty do you play at, Serious Sams?

I made the mistake of starting TFE on hard.

+1. However, upon completion, I felt vindicated. I think I'm a glutton for punishment in games though; when I started up Second Encounter, I started on Hard again. When I eventually start 3, I'll be on Hard for that, too.

[sabrage]

I did BFE on normal and it was still a fucking bitch. But I wasn't getting stuck on one room for over an hour, at least.

[Voon]

I think I made a huge mess of things in my fortress. And the fact that the immigrants are all clogging up that tiny space isn't helping either. Damn, making more rooms is a chore.

I'm gonna consider starting a fort in a new world. I have to prepare carefully, this time and get at least a craftsdwarf with me so my rangers can get a steady supply of bolts.

[Heliocentric]

(craving a turn-based strategy boardgame.)

For the best management of the "free for all alliances" and "strategic bloat" problems I've ever seen I really can't fault solium infernium. It's truely genius.

If you want something more instant, persistent and less diplomatic I strongly recommend Bloodbowl. Build a team, get a reputation and then have your star player crippled by a thrown snotling. It has it all.

[Ravelle]

I'm revisiting Team Fortress 2. God, I just love those pyrovision googles, they make the game even more fun and hilarious.

I am playing it again as well and had a blast playing.

[mrki]

Got a steam key from Amazon for Victoria 2, but I'm not sure whether to use it or just give it away. I really like Crusader Kings 2, but from the screenshots and a few videos on youtube it looks like a spreadsheet that was repeatedly beaten with the ugly stick. And I was into industry in EVE.

I assume plenty of people here have played it, so I was hoping if someone could provide wisdom. How important is combat and units handling, moving around the map? How is research and technology, is it like ck2 or more focused?

Thanks

[agentorange]

A little worn out on adventure games, after binging on them for a week. A good thing too since I was dangerously close to buying Resonance while I still have about another dozen adventures that need finishing. Gone back to Driver: SF, may start skipping a lot of the side challenges and just rush through the story. Also started on Geneforge and have been quite engrossed in it for the past two days.

[Jockie]

I just finished Chapter 2 of the Telltale Walking Dead Series, it's actually rather good. It's more interactive Fiction than a real adventure game (the 'puzzles' are incredibly simple). But the choices you make have an impact on the way the story play out and the loyalties of the survivor group are appropriately complex, everyone has their own agenda and you often have to choose between the different characters.

The little girl character so far is just the right side of adorable and it gives the game quite a moral core, I often found myself refraining from killing bad people, and keeping my language clean to protect her innocence (the one time I slipped and swore in episode 1 got called back very well in Ep 2).

[trjp]

I finally picked-up a dirt-cheap Dungeon Siege III and was pleased to discover that most people's gripes about it were a result of their inability to play the game they're being offered instead of the one they had in their head.

I care not 1 jot that the game is linear or that the story is a bit basic or it's not like it's predecessors (it didn't replace them in the universe so who cares??) I also don't care that you need a controller to play it - I own one of those and I'm not disabled and so can use it just fine.

End of the day it's an ARPG, I expect a corridor of monsters to kill and loads of items and spells to help me do it - I'd also like a control system which works and this has that so long as you have a 360 controller (and if you don't - buy one or don't buy this - simples).

The things which DO drive me nuts about it are the things not really mentioned by the moaners (because most of them presumably never played it). The fact the combat system is shit, the spells are shit, the health system is shit, the energy system is shit, the difficulty level is all over the fucking place, the AI companions are morons (OK, people mentioned that) and so on.

What kills it for me - in a "uninstall it and never come back" sort of way - is the total lack of attention the what an ARPG should be - the way your character and spells and abillities develop, the things you can gain through itemisation etc. etc - NONE of that works.

Items hardly matter, levels hardly matter, upgrades feel like they do nothing at all, statistics are overcomplex and have almost no useful effect anyway. You will run into brick-walls of difficulty - you will run into invisible walls - you will run into your imbecile sidekick - you will die over and over for reasons you'll be mystfied at. This is mostly because non-melee classes are given magical/ranged abilities which suck - they deal more damage in melee (but they die almost instantly) rendering them completely pointless as you die and die and die and die - whilst melee is a mess because you cannot see what the fuck you're hitting most of the time!!

I do wish people would actually play and comment on the game on offer and not the game they've got in their head tho - then I might have realised why this wasn't worth my time!! ;)

[SirKicksalot]

You expected Diablo and got Jade Empire.

[Tritagonist]

Picked up Deus Ex: Human Revolution again after leaving it on hold for a few weeks, and apparently I'm terrible at this game. I don't think I've gotten my character killed as often as I have in this game since I played Deathmatch in a multiplayer FPS. I'll stick with it a bit longer to see if the story grabs my interest, but otherwise I think I'll leave this one alone for a while.