What are you playing at the moment?

[gganate]

I'm playing Rage right now, and it's much better game than you'd think, considering its lukewarm reception. It's kind of like Fallout-lite, in that it has crafting and an inventory as well as a similar post-apocalyptic setting. The shooting's superb as well, although I haven't really done much racing. I understand why the game doesn't get a lot of love, however. From a distance, the graphics are amazing, and sometimes look like concept art. Up close is a different story. The textures are of a very poor quality and look typical of a five-year old console game. I'm not a graphics snob, but such ugliness from ID is rather ironic, considering how much of their reputation was built on their highly-technical engines. I think Rage is the only game I've ever played that has had such a disparity. But anyway, it's a good game, and I'd rather see a sequel to Rage than another Doom/Quake game (although a sequel to Quake 3 would be awesome).

[Heliocentric]

I'm playing Rage right now, and it's much better game than you'd think, considering its lukewarm reception.

When it ends, you'll do a double take, while the ending itself is not surprising, its how suddenly its thrust upon you. I swear that ruined its reviews.

[LTK]

If by alternate ending you mean collecting all those stars, good luck with. Unless you clairvoyant or have a guide it's pretty much impossible and even then it's an absurd amount of effort for little payoff. It's really much less of a hassle to just watch it on youtube.

When you posted this I didn't know there were stars to collect. Eight hours later, the cloud in world 2-2 finished its excruciatingly slow crawl toward the start of the level where I found a star. You're right, I didn't want to collect all eight of them, and watched it on youtube instead. It reaffirms my suspicion that this game's primary target audience is literary professors.

I think I'll go back to the puzzle in Spacechem I couldn't solve to give my thoroughly befuddled mind a breather.

[gganate]

I'm only about seven hours in. I'm assuming it's even more anticlimactic than the ending of Crysis 2?

[apricotsoup]

and that's Quantum Conundrum completed. Far less frustrating than some people said but a short game. Took me less than 4 hours and I don't imagine that was a very fast play through.

Very enjoyable though and I don't hesitate to recommend it.

They also seem to have patched in some extra graphics options as well; FoV, bloom and other filter fx. Still no proper fix for resolution though.

[Drake Sigar]

My first big battle on Napoleon TW went well. I sent a couple of units to try a flanking ambush from some trees, half suspecting the enemy AI would turn the entire army to meet them. But it didn't. The AI delegated some units to deal with them and continued marching towards my main force.

[sabrage]

Every one of my complaints about The Oath in Felghana stems from the boss battles. They're brutally difficult - something that I don't consider to be a problem in and of itself, but several design choices make them way harder than they need to be. For some reason, the pause button is completely disabled during every boss battle. Doesn't happen at any other point in the game, but there's no way to pause a battle once you've started. Next, each boss battle checkpoints right before it starts... And immediately begins the battle every time you reload. This means that there's no way to go back and grind or save the game, or to catch your breath in between repeat attempts. So, the only way I've been able to beat a boss without significant backtracking is by gritting my teeth and learning every single part of the battle. They're satisfying as hell once you figure them out, but the railroaded repeat attempts really start to wear me down.

[Space Indaver]

Really digging Men of War: Assault Squad. If only I were half decent at it.

[agentorange]

Finally finished the third episode of Tales of Monkey Island; only took me about 1 year (I got sidetracked then uninstalled it then forgot about it, wasn't stuck on a puzzle for a whole year). Been on somewhat of an adventure game binge with that, Syberia, and Time, Gentlemen Please! finished in the last week. Also finished the demo of Resonance, and really want to see the rest of it, but goddamn I need to finish at least some of the games I've already started on. Only just got through the 4th mission of MoW: Condemned Heroes...8 hours and I'm only a quarter of the way through it. Thankfully I'm enjoying it, and it doesn't feel like a chore.

[kstress71]

I'm playing Rage right now, and it's much better game than you'd think

I completely agree. I think that this game was an underrated gem, and I'm glad to read that they are going to continue developing the IP with DLC. Hopefully we can get another game out of them, but I don't see it before the inevitable Doom IV.

[sabrage]

I can't pin down what it is exactly I dislike about King Arthur, but if I were to try I would say "Everything."

[Wheelz]

I can't pin down what it is exactly I dislike about King Arthur, but if I were to try I would say "Everything."

the first? I thought some aspects of it were a wee-bit shallow, and the actual combat isn't quite as tactical as I would have liked. But the setting is nice, and I thought the text-adventures were fun.

Does any of that ring true for you?

[sabrage]

Somewhat, but I only made it as far as the second tutorial mission before deciding that the interface was too janky and the combat too slow for my liking. It's probably the comparitively low budget, but something just feels off about the whole thing (which isn't really a fair complaint, my prior experience mostly being Maxis/Blizzard games). I've got a strategy itch that I just can't seem to scratch; Greed Corps wasn't really doing it for me either. The problem is that I'm not really familiar enough with the genre to know what I'm looking for, so I'm just throwing darts at some unplayed games in my library and praying something sticks.

[SirKicksalot]

Empire TW with DarthMod, as Austria. Prussia attacked me in the fourth or fifth turn. I conquered Berlin, now I have to figure out a way to get to East Prussia. I don't feel like building a navy in the North just for this (there's way too much work to do on land) and obviously Poland won't grant me military access.
My plan was to conquer Italy first as it's a rich region. Thanks to Prussia's attack and sabotages - and Brandenburg's shitty population - my coffers are not in a great state right now. Hopefully I'll put an end to this war soon and also keep Poland away from my ass. Their border movements are suspicious.

I want to complete a campaign in Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 until Rome 2 hits. Doesn't matter if I win or lose.

[apricotsoup]

Somewhat, but I only made it as far as the second tutorial mission before deciding that the interface was too janky and the combat too slow for my liking. It's probably the comparitively low budget, but something just feels off about the whole thing (which isn't really a fair complaint, my prior experience mostly being Maxis/Blizzard games). I've got a strategy itch that I just can't seem to scratch; Greed Corps wasn't really doing it for me either. The problem is that I'm not really familiar enough with the genre to know what I'm looking for, so I'm just throwing darts at some unplayed games in my library and praying something sticks.

What I found with king arthur is that everything I did felt like I was making some kind of mistake that would come back and bite me in the future and that feeling of futility that swept over me making my entire time in the game feel dissapointing.

This is not a problem I usually have with strategy games, even things like HoMM to which a few bad choices can cost you dearly.

[Track]

I've finished Secret of Monkey Island; I still hold that the first part of the game was the best, and I seriously don't understand some of the puzzle logic (though I imagine that thats mostly my fault for missing clues), but it was incredibly fun, and the dialogue was wonderful. I'll probably pick up the second game soon.

Now I guess i'll try getting back into Assassins Creed again. I've been playing it for a while, but it always frustrates me and I quit. Last time that I played it, I finished an assassination mission, went back to the bureau and quit the game. It didn't save my progress, though, and I had to redo the whole mission, at which point I got frustrated and haven't gone back since. I really do want to play AC2, though, as i've heard that it fixes a lot of the first games problems, and I think that the idea behind the series could be great if handled properly. I have an OCD thing about finishing game series in order though, so I guess i'll go back at it and try to make my way through the first one.

[Casimir Effect]

What I found with king arthur is that everything I did felt like I was making some kind of mistake that would come back and bite me in the future and that feeling of futility that swept over me making my entire time in the game feel dissapointing.

This is not a problem I usually have with strategy games, even things like HoMM to which a few bad choices can cost you dearly.

The thing with KA is to realise that, so long as you pick a direction on the Wheel of Morality and mostly stick with it, you won't be screwing yourself over. Like Total War, the loss of an army/region is not the end; just fall back and rebuild. Economy goes to shit? disband troops until it's stable.
The worst thing I can think of would be to lose a Knight, but even this is really tough as if they 'die' in a battle it usually means they're out injured for several seasons. I think they have to be weak in a certain stat, have 'died' several times already, or make a very bad choice in one of the text quests for them to be able to die permenantly. And even if that happens, you end up with more Knights than you have positions for anyway.

The 'Very Easy' mode really does make it hard to lose a battle and I seem to remember you can change it on the fly. And if all else fails and somehow you screw yourself into a corner, the game has a very accommodating console which allows for all manner of *ahem* rebalancing.

[alms]

I've finished Secret of Monkey Island; I still hold that the first part of the game was the best, and I seriously don't understand some of the puzzle logic

Finished it yesterday as well. The thing I like the most about Melee is the more surreal dream-like environment, like the an entire world stuck in a perennial lazy summer night. Some of this magic is lost on sun-scorched Monkey Island, but there's many great characters, situations and lines there IMO.

I've started Cave Story+. What was that thing about not getting the first jetpack you find but holding out for a better one?

I can't find that bit anymore.

[arathain]

If I recall you get offered a machine gun if you trade in your starting pistol. The machine gun fired downwards acts like a jetpack, and makes some of the platforming you have to do considerably easier. I think if you hang on to the pistol you can trade it for something powerful later in the game.

[khaz]

Every one of my complaints about The Oath in Felghana stems from the boss battles. They're brutally difficult - something that I don't consider to be a problem in and of itself, but several design choices make them way harder than they need to be. For some reason, the pause button is completely disabled during every boss battle. Doesn't happen at any other point in the game, but there's no way to pause a battle once you've started. Next, each boss battle checkpoints right before it starts... And immediately begins the battle every time you reload. This means that there's no way to go back and grind or save the game, or to catch your breath in between repeat attempts. So, the only way I've been able to beat a boss without significant backtracking is by gritting my teeth and learning every single part of the battle. They're satisfying as hell once you figure them out, but the railroaded repeat attempts really start to wear me down.

Some aspects of Japanese game design never change.