What are you playing at the moment?

[alms]

I'm still trying to decide whether I like Sanctum or not. Tower defense isn't a genre that I generally am very fond of, and with FPS it's a love/hate relationship (hint: I suck at them). So I went in with little in the way of expecations. Suffice say my first impressions were not positive either, and there's a problem with rendering small text that makes it hard to read.

I only went back to it because of Steam's GGP. It took me some time to get the achievement, enough to get used to it, and eventually I caught a fleeting moment of satisfaction while sniping off Tanks. So I played it more, until I got my ass handed to me several times on Arc. I was this close to giving up. What made it frustrating (and uselessly so IMO) is the game doesn't retain older checkpoints and if you mess up you're forced to start all over again. Maybe Arc made a better player out of me, because Glade seemed sooo easy, or maybe the level difficulty is just uneven, not sure.

[squirrelfanatic]

Gave a few of my new purchases a try.

- Magicka - The stars are left: Finally got it to work, googled the code from the crashdump file, just had to reinstall some old DirectX files. Played with a friend, had some good fun. It's the same feeling of chaotic confusion when your fingers don't do what you think they should be doing.

- Desperados 1: Got to the second bigger mission (not counting training missions). It appears to be harder than the Commandos games, but this impression probably is caused by the unfamiliar controls. Commandos 2 felt more naturally with its hotkeys. Still a fun game.

- Neverwinter Nights 2: I am 2-3 hours into the main campaign and the story is already boring me to tears, generic as generic can be. I think I will give Mask of the Betrayer a try though, at least now I know how the interface works and what's important with building a character. The game seriously lacks a sprinting option, walking from one side of the map to the other just takes ages (this is probably due to the D&D rule set).

No really bad surprises with my holiday purchases yet, that was some well invested money.

[Wizardry]

The game seriously lacks a sprinting option, walking from one side of the map to the other just takes ages (this is probably due to the D&D rule set).

No.tenchar

[vinraith]

Started and finished Portal 2's SP. Cave Johnson is great, the National's song is great (though it's barely in the game), some of the puzzles were good, and GLADOS early on, when she's in form, was of course good. The plot, its narrative and logical connections to the original, all the parts where there was no indication where to go next that amounted to pixel hunting for portalable surfaces, and the ending, were not so good. All in all a very mixed bag. I get the sense, from what little I've played, that the co-op is much stronger.

I've been trying to play Arkham City but I'm starting to sincerely regret having bought it. It may simply be that I suck, but I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as I did the non-boss portions of Arkham Asylum. To their credit they seem to have cut way back on the annoying boss fights, but for some reason hunting goons isn't nearly as fun as it used to be. I can't figure out if it's the game or me, but I'm just about done forcing myself along. Advice on how to suck less welcome, nothing saps the coolness factor out of being Batman like getting flattened by random thugs on a regular basis.

Instead, I've started Assassin's Creed Revelations, which I'm finding much more fun. Maybe it's that I've always got along with AC's controls, maybe it's the historical setting, maybe it's the sense of freedom and speed, but whatever it is I never seem to get tired of these games.

In multiplayer I've also been spending a lot of time co-oping through Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light , which is a blast and ironically has some outstanding co-op puzzle solving that compares favorably with Portal 2's IMO.

[amusingthebrood]

A long absence from home over Christmas has thankfully cured me (temporarily I fear) of my Terraria obsession, so last night I settled down and started to have a crack at Dungeons of Dredmor. I am finding it lightly entertaining and it probably has a fair bit of depth, but in the long run I can't see it being more than an occasional filler. Fun for now though.

[Casimir Effect]

- Neverwinter Nights 2: I am 2-3 hours into the main campaign and the story is already boring me to tears, generic as generic can be. I think I will give Mask of the Betrayer a try though, at least now I know how the interface works and what's important with building a character. The game seriously lacks a sprinting option, walking from one side of the map to the other just takes ages (this is probably due to the D&D rule set).

NWN2 is notorious for quite a boring Act 1 which also drags on for a while. It has too many characters to introduce, plots to explain and events to set in motion for it's own good. If you can stick with it though you are rewarded by a very good (often great) game afterwards.
If you can't then definitely give Mask of the Betrayer a go because - in terms of story, themes and characters - it is one of the best games ever made.

[TailSwallower]

In the process of testing Icewind Dale I inadvertently started playing it (should really stick with one game, but I flit). I created a party of only females, just 'cause I could. Haven't worked out how combat works yet, and thus my entire party got slaughtered by the Orcs outside of town, losing me enough progress that I decided to quit and get back to it later.

Guess I should be reading that manual before going back to the game.

[Okami]

After playing Arkham City, Skyrim and a couple of indie games on my pc, I've dusted off my Xbox 360 after more then 6 months to play a few console exclusive titles:

Dark Souls - if losing is fun, this is the most fun I've ever had with a game. It's so close to beeing frustrating, without ever really crossing the line, you just have to admire the devs. Don't see myself playing this to completion, though.

Rayman Origins - beautiful, whimsical and insanely fun platformer. Like a cross between Super Mario and a french cartoon.

El Shaddai - Ascension of the Metatron -Simplistic beat em up with the most striking art and sound direction I've ever seen in a game. It's probably art or something like it. Also features the devil talking to god on his mobile phone, which is always nice.

[apricotsoup]

HoMM 6 - Very fun actually, not seen too much but from what I have seen it looks like it brings some nice polish to the series and a few nice features such as town teleportation. Not used the dynasty stuff much so I'll have to see how that all works out. The extra ubisoft stuff was a bit of a pain at first, taking ages to patch itself and then crashing but no problems since then, as long as my net holds out.

[Voon]

Still doing some hunting on the Wii . Got a Rusted Ancient Blade from mining in a Volcano and fortunately enough, I get to upgrade/restore it into an Ancient Blade. Haven't used a good Greatsword until I found this one. Fucking brilliant

[Tikey]

I've been trying to play Arkham City but I'm starting to sincerely regret having bought it. It may simply be that I suck, but I'm not enjoying it nearly as much as I did the non-boss portions of Arkham Asylum. To their credit they seem to have cut way back on the annoying boss fights, but for some reason hunting goons isn't nearly as fun as it used to be. I can't figure out if it's the game or me, but I'm just about done forcing myself along. Advice on how to suck less welcome, nothing saps the coolness factor out of being Batman like getting flattened by random thugs on a regular basis.

Try to keep moving constantly instead of punching madly. Tap the spacebar twice to move around and punch guys from one place to another instead of the ones nearby. That helps a lot when there are many enemies trying to hit you.
Use the batarangs to get a few extra hits when you have some distance. The batclaw-punch combo is great if there are few and far away enemies, don't use it when surrounded.

[airtekh]

I just finished Hard Reset, which I really enjoyed. I remember John Walker's WIT being quite critical but I honestly had a whale of a time. A very solid shooter indeed. I actually finished it longing for some sort of co-op or multiplayer mode, because it would suit the game perfectly.

I'm a few hours into Bastion. It's good, but I can't say I'm enamoured by it. I've never been a fan of Diablo-esque combat, so that's probably the reason why. Everything else about it is lovely though.

I've also started Dead Space 2. I quite liked the first game, so if the sequel is more of the same then I'll be a happy man. Might poke my head into the multiplayer too; for curiosity's sake.

[Roufuss]

PC Gamer's Saturday Crapshoot has made me dive into configuring DOSBox to play Terminator: Future Shock, a game I only owned in demo form as a kid but have always wanted to play fully.

Thanks Richard Cobbett!

[squirrelfanatic]

No.tenchar

I think I know what you mean, sprinting is actually covered by the rules. Bad wording on my part, I was referring to the different speed modifiers the races and classes provide, which are a constant change in pace in contrary to a stamina based sprinting system (I think D&D does this via a sprinting skill somehow?), like for example in Skyrim.

In this case that is one reason less not to implement a sprinting option into the game, the base movement speed is really low. That's fine as long as you play a pen & paper game or round based computer game, where you do not have to wait out the movement in real-time, but it is a nuisance in NWN2.

[Heliocentric]

I'm a few hours into Bastion. It's good, but I can't say I'm enamoured by it. I've never been a fan of Diablo-esque combat, so that's probably the reason why. Everything else about it is lovely though.

play it with a 360 pad and it will suddenly make more sense. Especially with the weapons that really benefit from locking on (the repeater the mortar and the carbine for example).

[Giaddon]

- Desperados 1: Got to the second bigger mission (not counting training missions). It appears to be harder than the Commandos games, but this impression probably is caused by the unfamiliar controls. Commandos 2 felt more naturally with its hotkeys. Still a fun game.

Desperados is soooooo hard! One of the hardest games I've ever played. The secret is really to murder everyone.

I've fallen into a hole filled with hack-and-slashers, beat-em-ups, and brawlers. I'm playing:

Hunted: Demon's Forge - This game got hammered on release, and I can't yet tell why. Honestly, I'm having a great time with it. I grabbed it for $10 during the Steam sale, and I've put about six hours into it since then. Solid graphics (although way too dark, I've had to abuse the gamma setting in some areas) two fun characters, and all the enemies to shoot, slice, freeze, burn, etc., that I could want. I've been playing mostly as the ranged elf-lady, who has fun arrows that explode, break armor, and do other stuff. It's very linear, although there are side quests that lead to loot, treasure, and level-up crystals. $10 is a good price for this game.

The First Templar - This is an interesting one. Clearly a budget game (I got it for $15, also during the Steam sale), it still has ambition. While the bread-and-butter is kinda wonky melee combat, it also has stealth sequences (hide behind barrels!), using crusadervision to track down enemies and clues, and levels that have no enemies and are simply solving lever puzzles and avoiding traps. I'm enjoying it. The combat is fine. It takes a fair bit from the recent Batman games, with fast strikes between multiple opponents and counters, but is far less fluid and powerful. Also, enemies don't attack enough. But combat can get into a decent rhythm, and you can switch between characters (a tough sword and board crusader and a fast, roguish woman with knives) at any point, literally mid-strike, which I find very entertaining. I also like the historical story and setting. I wouldn't have given this one a try without UnravThreads recommendation, so thank you to UnravThreads.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North - Ignoring the warnings, I got this game for $15 from Greenmangaming (that sale is still going, I believe) and it's pretty good! Not great, not even half-great, but good. If I had to identify one problem, it would be that enemies have too many hitpoints. I don't know why they set it up this way. It controls like a fast and fluid action/rpg, it plays in many ways like the same, but I am just hammering and hammering on guys to make them go down. And it's not like there are cool moves you can do to weaken enemies (like breaking their shields in Hunted, or disarming them in Batman), it's just whack whack whack, critical hit, whack whack, spell, whack whack. Dead. There's also often dozens of enemies, which, again, would be awesome if they went down faster, if combat had a few more moves, but as it is I'm bouncing from guy to guy to guy to guy, picking away at them with my sword, until eventually they die. Combat is getting more interesting as I unlock more abilities, and it's often great spectacle, with goblins climbing down walls, orcs charging into battle, heads flying off, fire arrows everywhere etc., and the world of Middle-Earth looks as great as ever, but it's clear that if it had moved a bit away from the numbers game (attack damage depleting hitpoints) and moved closer to an action model, with attack combinations and certain moves for certain enemies, they could have had something really special here. It's still good.

I've put a couple hours into the latter two, to try them out, and I think I'll play them in this order: finish Hunted, move on to First Templar, and then War in the North. I'll let you know if anything amazing happens.

In the world of iOS (hiss-boo, I know), I have been consumed by Nueroshima Hex!, an adaptation of a Polish boardgame in which you place hex tiles on a hex grid to build a kind of puzzle of death that leaves you the victor. It's amazing. If you have an iOS device (I use an iPad, no experience with the iPhone version) and like strategy games, I highly recommend it.

[Althea]

I wouldn't have given this one a try without UnravThreads recommendation, so thank you to UnravThreads.

Ce n'est pas une problem.

[Flint]

Started E.Y.E.: Divine Cybermancy. Feels like the slightly 'special' child of STALKER and Deus Ex who suspiciously resembles the HL2 living next door. The gameplay is a bit... wonky, the loading times are murder, the translation is rather cringy and the lore is so batshit insane that I've already given up even attempting to understand what's supposed to be going on, yet I find it interesting enough to still go on. After all, I'm still only a low-level guy with very little upgrades, gadgets, skills and weapons so I'm hoping some of the mechanical wonks are simply slight early-game awkwardness due to the sheer amount of stuff you can upgrade. It's definitely a very, very interesting little beast.

[TailSwallower]

Ok, having my arse absolutely handed to me in Icewind Dale. Any suggestions? My party is a Ranger, Mage, Thief, Cleric, Fighter and Bard... Guessing it's not a tough enough group, but I don't really want to load up on boring old fighty-types.

I'd much prefer turn-based combat, but I guess pausing will suffice.

[vinraith]

Ok, having my arse absolutely handed to me in Icewind Dale. Any suggestions? My party is a Ranger, Mage, Thief, Cleric, Fighter and Bard... Guessing it's not a tough enough group, but I don't really want to load up on boring old fighty-types.

I'd much prefer turn-based combat, but I guess pausing will suffice.

I'm pretty sure there's a setting in IWD that auto-pauses at the end of every round, which makes it more like turn-based anyway. It's helpful to have at least two high hitpoint characters with good armor class to stand at the front and soak damage/distract enemies. I'm not sure how you've specced your ranger, but at first glance your party looks too singularly focused on ranged attacks. Can you give us a run down of how a typical fight is going?