What are you playing right now?

[majestic]

I'm really new to this game so I only know about pre-2.1 gameplay from what I've read, but the changes really don't make much of a difference, I think. Instead of one huge stack that slows the game down to a crawl, I must use several command-capped fleets... that still make the game crap out when engaged simultaneously. It's clearly an engine bottleneck because CPU load never exceeds 20%.

 

And I ended up switching completely because even with psi interfaces and shields and hit & run war doctrine the Contingency still managed to kill my battleships and titans... so corvette swarm it is. I had "won" long before the crisis happened so I guess I'll start a new game. I'm thinking Fanatical Purifiers vs Devouring Swarm vs Determined Exterminators, because this game was about making everyone my protectorate without ever actually firing a shot.

 

INSULT-happy Inward Perfection sounds fun, too. This is a fun little sandbox, I must say.

 

The fleet splitting and the command limit came with 2.0 (I still played that ), but at that point you just split your corvette ball into smaller corvette balls. In the end you designed one missile corvette with the best torpedo launcher you had, maxed out evasion and slapped whatever utilities you wanted on. You'd target the nearest enemy fleet and the corvettes would rush  up, launch their single torpedo on the way and you'd - in a slo-mo crawl - would watch the enemy fleet disappear.

 

Most of the time 90% of your corvettes were still there. The enemy fleet was not. Worked against everything a single player game could throw at you because even if the AI brought point defense the sheer number of torpedoes was overwhelming. Paradox apparently "fixed" the issue by nerf-batting torpedo and missile hitpoints in 2.1.1.

 

End game crises and FE/AE fleets have much more shields and armor than hull points, so that's the reason to go disruptor spam now that torpedoes no longer work.

 

From what I could see the idea behind having battleships in 2.1.1 is to have a corvette ball engange the enemy and use a fleet of battleships and titans to engage the enemy fleet once the corvettes tanked the initial alpha strike. It's a nice idea would the game work the way it should, but as you noticed it's barely possible to keep your large ships out of the furball.

 

I'm not even sure the entire system is fixable in a meaningful way.

 

It's like the ridiculous situation in Master of Orion 3 where point defense missiles where the best offensive and defensive weapon you could slap on your ships. They'd launch automatically, intercept enemy missiles and fighters and then go overwhelm enemy point defense screens with their sheer numbers, and the setup is so cheap you can spam the ships right from the start...

[Fenixp]

All right, as a person who has not enjoyed a single Ass Creed game in my life except for Black Flag (and in that one, I only really liked the naval stuff), I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I'm digging Ass Creed: Syndicate. I bought it for the London and stayed for the fun - they finally implemented both good stealth mechanics and actually meaningful combat system, so ... Y'know, the gameplay bit of the game is really good aside from the virtual tourism bit of it.

 

It helps that the game doesn't take itself seriously at all, main characters are quite likable in their comedy routine and the game doesn't constantly nag you about collectibles (aside from percentage score in the main menu it seems to have stopped caring about them altogether, which is good).

[SonicMage117]

I 100%d Lego The Incredibles so I'm moving on to another game though I haven't decided.

 

My choices are:

 

Advent Rising - An older arcade-ish sci-fi game that is like a fine mixture of Omikron The Nomad Soul, Outcast, Max Steel and Oni. It actually got a few updates earlier this year so that's impressive that the devs and publishers still care for it.

 

 

And

 

 

Dark Star One - One of the best PC Space sims ever made. Compelling story, lots of choice, adventure and a deepness that other space sims seem to lack. Though you are tied to one ship but seeing how it's very story driven, that does make sense.

 

 

 

Or

 

 

 

I could just work on 100%ing Shadow Of Mordor

Edited September 27, 2018 by SonicMage117

[Hurlshort]

Man, I'm really torn between buying Pathfinder or Star Control. Both look great, and I don't care about dumb politics and play on easy so balance isn't a big deal. Which do I get?

[SonicMage117]

Star Control as you wait for Pathfinder to be patched to gooey perfection...

 

Save Pathfinder for holiday break

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm nearing the end of Spider-Man.  Probably one or two main missions left, plus whatever leftover camps and crimes to solve.

[213374U]

Man, I'm really torn between buying Pathfinder or Star Control. Both look great, and I don't care about dumb politics and play on easy so balance isn't a big deal. Which do I get?

 

"Dumb politics"?

 

Nice way to be condescending but aloof. You and sharpie have more in common than you think.

[SonicMage117]

I'm nearing the end of Spider-Man.  Probably one or two main missions left, plus whatever leftover camps and crimes to solve.

Now that you're nearing the end, what do you think of it? How does it stack up to the Arkham games for you, personally? And would you buy the/a sequel?

[Gorth]

Having fun with Guild Wars 2 crafting... made my first pair of ascended gloves and an ascended axe. I'm now completely broke

 

I probably do need to get into lower tier fractals and see if it isn't a bit less painful to get materials that way

[melkathi]

I agree with sonic. Play star control

[Hurlshort]

 

Man, I'm really torn between buying Pathfinder or Star Control. Both look great, and I don't care about dumb politics and play on easy so balance isn't a big deal. Which do I get?

 

"Dumb politics"?

 

Nice way to be condescending but aloof. You and sharpie have more in common than you think.

 

 

Well I didn't really go into details, but I would think you would agree that Brad Wardell's commentary is dumb.

 

But really, there is an entire team of developers and artists that worked on a game that I am interested in, and I buy games to support those people who poured years of their lives into these projects, rather than the business folks who are focused on maximizing profits. That holds true for every game I purchase.

 

If that means me and Sharpie are peas in a pod, then so be it. 

[IndiraLightfoot]

Man, I'm really torn between buying Pathfinder or Star Control. Both look great, and I don't care about dumb politics and play on easy so balance isn't a big deal. Which do I get?

Unless these patches to gooey perfection water down P:KM to goo. Sometimes, there's nothing like playing a game at the start - almost like an involuntarily director's cut available only for a couple of days. Diablo 3 of all games was actually interesting, although extremely annoying, at Torment difficulty Act2 and onwards, but that difficulty soon became landfill, never to return.

[Malcador]

Returned to destroy my wrist in Diablo 3 for the new season,  got lucky I guess with a Cindercoat and a lot of +Fire damage as well as a DML.  So am melting things at Master as I levelled. I hope Diablo 4 has a demon hunter character.

[Oner]

Having fun with Guild Wars 2 crafting... made my first pair of ascended gloves and an ascended axe. I'm now completely broke

 

I probably do need to get into lower tier fractals and see if it isn't a bit less painful to get materials that way

I so envy that you enjoy the game. I got burned out on it almost completely.

[213374U]

Well I didn't really go into details, but I would think you would agree that Brad Wardell's commentary is dumb.

 

But really, there is an entire team of developers and artists that worked on a game that I am interested in, and I buy games to support those people who poured years of their lives into these projects, rather than the business folks who are focused on maximizing profits. That holds true for every game I purchase.

 

If that means me and Sharpie are peas in a pod, then so be it. 

I misunderstood what you meant, I apologize. I am (only recently) aware of Wardell's political commentary but that's not the "politics" I thought you were referring to, which is why I took exception to you referring to it as dumb.

 

You should of course do what you believe is appropriate. In the case of SCO it may be smart to wait a bit though, it seems at the moment they are in the middle of doing balance passes regarding some of the more tedious aspects of the game.

[Zoraptor]

I'd be pretty reticent about taking anything Wardell related at face value anyway as he's a bit of a bête noire of the popular gaming press. If he made a post saying that he loved puppies Polygon would write an article asking why Wardell obviously hates kittens, bunnies and hamsters.

 

He's definitely a bit of a knob, highly opinionated, and his personal politics are a fair distance from mine but the last accusation against him that got tested in court was a pretty comprehensive win for him including a mandated apology.

[melkathi]

In regards to SCO, a few things are just as you remember them from old SC2. So you fly long distances through hyperspace. That may be a bit tedious, but flying long distances through space probably would be. If you have fond memories of old games, you won't mind because it is what you expect. And you expect to not be able to strip mine every planet right away.

And just as you had to learn your way around Quasi Space in SC2, you have to find the star bases in SCO.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

I'm nearing the end of Spider-Man.  Probably one or two main missions left, plus whatever leftover camps and crimes to solve.

Now that you're nearing the end, what do you think of it? How does it stack up to the Arkham games for you, personally? And would you buy the/a sequel?

 

 

I like the parkour elements better in this game.  I could never get a hang of gliding around Gotham with Batman.  I think the side quests are better in Batman, though.  More fleshing out of the secondary villains.

 

Overall, I've enjoyed it and would definitely get the sequel or even the DLC expansions (assuming they add additional story missions).

[SonicMage117]

Yeah, I agree on all those points.

 

Glad you enjoyed/ are enjoying it!

[GhostofAnakin]

Not too thrilled with the sneaking, non Spider-Man parts.  One of my minor grievances with the game.

[SonicMage117]

Today I played a game by DontNod and Crapcom called "Remember Me".

 

You know...

 

It's not hard to make a good cyberpunk story, or a good cyberpunk game but it is hard to build a believable world that's perfectly atmospheric and immersive - one where everything makes sense. That's what DontNod and Crapcom made here though, that's what Remember Me is all about.

 

The city is full of detail and the story is unique, seems like it will be a 10 to 12 hour game at most though so a but short but seeing how good the quality is, this makes sense.

 

Not too thrilled with the sneaking, non Spider-Man parts. One of my minor grievances with the game.

Ahhh the Miles and Mary Jane story missions, I take it. Edited September 29, 2018 by SonicMage117

[melkathi]

I loathed Remember Me.

The game that kept interrupting itself with even more tutorials

[Blarghagh]

Not too thrilled with the sneaking, non Spider-Man parts.  One of my minor grievances with the game.

 

 

https://cad-comic.com/comic/dampener/ (in case image doesn't load)

[marelooke]

Well, a Guild Wars 2 guildie got me back into WoW (oh, the irony) and wow, do I not like what I see. Judging by the praise Legion got I must've managed to "give WoW another chance" each time Blizzard releases one of their worst expansions ever (last time I gave up during Warlords of Draenor...).

 

The start of the latest expansion almost required a paper bag (Really, Garrosh 2.0? Good grief, can we get some nuance for the Horde players for a change?), the quest writing in general has been decent though (enjoy traipsing around Zandalar), but that's about where the positives end.

 

Class specializations have been gutted and might as well not exist anymore given how cross specialization skills have pretty much been axed (which hit some specializations really really hard: see fire mage). Add to that that mobs are back to being huge damage sponges (like in Warlords of Draenor, Legion was way way better in that regard fwiw) and leveling as a Fire mage is just masochism. The "skill" "tree" is just stupid. They just removed base class skills to create the illusion of choice and when everything's said and done everyone just uses the same build anyway.

 

There's a lot of negative feedback about the Azerite gear, haven't got to max level yet so don't really have an opinion there but the one thing I can say about it is that there's exactly 0 explanation about it in the game and that most of the guides about it are incomplete as well.

 

As someone who stopped playing before the entire "Mythic dungeons" were a thing this is my conclusion so far comparing to TBC dungeons (based on running legion heroics while levelling):

• Normal = Easy
• Heroic = Normal
• Mythic = Heroic

Well, I'll get to max level and do some LFR stuff to see how the raids are. Given the huge amount of negatives I can't really justify trying to get into a guild to try higher tier raids. Unless Blizzard makes some massive changes I doubt my sub will last longer than 2 months.

[Blarghagh]

Yeah, my sub runs out next week and I don't think I'll resub. Haven't even touched it in two weeks. I just don't feel like I can actively progress my character, which is bad in a progression MMO. I can't set goals, I just have to do everything and hope something pays off. I can handle grinding, but I need to grind FOR something.

 

Doesn't help that I main an Ele Shammy, which apparently is getting entirely redone next patch because of how bad it is. Groups far, far below my ilvl reject me simply because I'm a Shammy.