What are you playing at the moment?

[Mohorovicic]

Unless locking on a target, my avatar insists on turning only to directly face one of the cardinal directions

Try using the analog stick.

and the camera has no direct relationship to where I'm actually looking

There's a button to reset the camera(that is, make it snap behind your character's back). I think it's R3. Or you could just rotate the camera, you know. Not hard.

archery is pointless

Not for the reasons you listed, but yeah, it mostly is. Don't make a character thinking you can bow your way through the game.

I'm kind of amazed it shipped like this.

I'm kind of amazed you have such issues with controls so old and simple they might as well be called an industry standard for behind the back TPP games.

[Avish]

Playing Kingdoms of Amalur and Grey matter for the past day and my initial impressions are:

KoA: Interesting setting, very good combat system, but other than that nothing else. A lot of walking from point A to B doing all sorts of quests for people with exclamation marks above their head. It's something I an enjoy, but at the moment I'm a bit tired of this kind of gameplay.

Grey matter: A very solid point & click adventure game, feel very 90's for better and for worst: Good atmosphere and puzzles, interesting "magic trick" mechanic, but I found myself stuck a couple of times, not because I didn't know what to do but because I didn't do it the right way.

Also playing Serious Sam 3 - Fun for short bursts. I can't play more than 30 minutes of it.

[GunnerMcCaffrey]

Or you could just rotate the camera, you know. Not hard.

Oh no, tepid sarcasm! My house of lies comes tumbling. Damn you, angry stranger!

[sabrage]

I mean, yeah, Dark Souls would be harder if I had never played a video game before.

[Mohorovicic]

Oh no, tepid sarcasm! My house of lies comes tumbling. Damn you, angry stranger!

And so the evil is thwarted, the day is saved, and all the good people can go about their happy lives once again.

[TechnoJellyfish]

Crusader Kings 2. What is this I don't even...

I went through all the tutorials and then jumped into the game only to be completely lost as to what I should be even attempting to do. I'll conquer this beast yet.

What vinraith said. Just go with the flow and try to react to all the events happening, you'll figure out the deeper mechanics on the way.

Or, if you'd like to have a more in-depth explanation of how everything works, go check out this guy's video series on the youtubings (may be a bit outdated by now, though).

[Lukasz]

Invading my first base in UFO. Game is addicting and hard like hell.

[Voon]

Invading my first base in UFO. Game is addicting and hard like hell.

Yup. And careful, now. Unlike 2012 XCOM, they might invade your base too

[sonson]

Crusader Kings 2. What is this I don't even...

I went through all the tutorials and then jumped into the game only to be completely lost as to what I should be even attempting to do. I'll conquer this beast yet.

I haven't played it yet, too many big games on my to do list so am waiting for a cheap GOTY edition sometime in 2013, but this LP is designed to show you how to play as much as it is a play through:

http://lparchive.org/Crusader-Kings-2/

[Tikey]

Invading my first base in UFO. Game is addicting and hard like hell.

Oh, I remember my first base invasion. As anything in that game it went terribly bad.

[DaftPunk]

I know its not PC related but did they really killed Ninja Gaiden franchise :o ?!

[Rauten]

I know its not PC related but did they really killed Ninja Gaiden franchise :o ?!

How dare you ask about non-PC games?! BURN THE HERETIC!

(Ninja Gaiden 3 was a crapfest that completely shat over the legacy of the previous two; however, the WiiU remake, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge seems to fix a lot of the stuff that made the original Ninja Gaiden 3 a shameful sequel. It does kinda feel like Team Ninja are trying to find their way in a post-Itagaki reality, but Razor's Edge gives way to hope.)

[DaftPunk]

I know first two were really good games,at least xbox versions. I read that PS ones were slightly worse. And yeah i even played the new one and it wasn't that bad but it wasn't Ninja Gaiden..I didn't button mash my way through but still it lacked challenge previous games had. I always wished we had NG series on pc,i really get in to DMC.

[Lukasz]

lolz

KOTOR 2 is now buggier than ever. some movies have no sound, hyperspace is glitched and instead of it being smooth nice to looking blueish effect it is.... hard to describe... stripes. and you can see how textures connect.
also some text lack voice over, some dialog just skip and it is never said...

so when is Restoration mod for restoration mod is going to be released? I so hope the restored content is worth the bugs I am currently encountering.
at least it didn't crash.

[Shooop]

What exactly is so absolutely unforgivably awful about Ninja Gaiden 3 compared to the previous 2?

Never played any of them, but I just have to know.

[fiddlesticks]

I've started a new playthrough of The Longest Journey, which I'm ashamed to admit I've never actually finished before. I made it quite far last time but eventually had to stop due to real-life reasons and never got back into it afterwards. I remembered it being very enjoyable but I forgot how well-written it is. The overarching plotline isn't particularly inspired, but there's a lot of neat details fleshing out the world and the dialogues flow very naturally. Best of all, the characters actually feel like characters, rather than clichéd archetypes. There's a kind of believability to them that's lacking in most other games.

Unfortunately, the puzzle design doesn't match the writing. There's a few good ones but for the most part they're either far too easy or needlessly obtuse. I remembered most of the solutions from my first playthrough, so it wasn't quite as annoying this time around, but some of them still stumped me and not in a good way either. Then again, the puzzles do serve as a nice diversion from all the taking (and there is a lot of talking in this game).

I've also tried playing some Team Fortress 2, but ever since the newest update I've been experiencing a weird issues. The game crashes at completely random intervalls. TF2 has never been the most stable game, but now I'm experiencing a crash every half an hour on average, which is definitely too much. Strangest of all, I don't even get an error message. The game just suddenly decides to shut itself off for no adequate reason. I hope Valve fixes this problem soon, though I'd assume most of their staff is still enjoying the winter holidays right now.

[Rauten]

What exactly is so absolutely unforgivably awful about Ninja Gaiden 3 compared to the previous 2?

Never played any of them, but I just have to know.

The first two are known for being balls-to-the-wall tough, requiring a constant flow of input commands to pull off all sorts of combo attacks, dodges, evasions, counter-attacks and what not. They belong to the "hard but satisfying games" category. They also had a decent variety of weapons to suit different playstyles.

Ninja Gaiden 3 lacks both. The challenge is all but gone, and there's only one weapon available. They later on decided to sell the other weapons as DLC. Needless to say, that wasn't particularly well received.

[DaftPunk]

The first two are known for being balls-to-the-wall tough, requiring a constant flow of input commands to pull off all sorts of combo attacks, dodges, evasions, counter-attacks and what not. They belong to the "hard but satisfying games" category. They also had a decent variety of weapons to suit different playstyles.

Ninja Gaiden 3 lacks both. The challenge is all but gone, and there's only one weapon available. They later on decided to sell the other weapons as DLC. Needless to say, that wasn't particularly well received.

Also NG2 had awesome gore system,you could cut limbs off enemies and it was so bloody!

[Shooop]

They later on decided to sell the other weapons as DLC. Needless to say, that wasn't particularly well received.

Oooooooooooh boy.

[eRa]

Dark Souls. The different ways in which the camera can lead to your death are truly astounding.