What are you playing right now?

[Keyrock]

I finished episode 4 of The Council. So many big revelations in that episode turned everything upside down. I'm into the final stretch now. I can't wait to see how this ends.

Edited December 20, 2018 by Keyrock

[Tale]

So, final fight of Divinity Original Sin 2. And of course it's got to be frustrating.

 

I actually creamed the first part of it, easy peasy. But there just has to be a second part! With stronger enemies. And the only bad guy that matters can void glide every single round. While all my abilities are on cooldown from killing the first fight.

 

So the only way I can fathom beating it is starting the fight over from scratch and planning knowing exactly how the fight goes. Trial and error.

[Katphood]

Resi 0.

 

 

Goddamn, Lexx and Fenixp were right and I was an idiot for having disagreed with them!

 

Not only is the shuffling annoying the crap out of me, certain mistakes can actually lead to a dead game.

 

There is this green fluid which I need a container for but guess what: I have already made molotov ****tails out of those..ehum...'containers'.

 

It doesn't matter though, because I have a mission, and I'm going to see it through! .

Edited December 20, 2018 by Katphood

[213374U]

After putting a few hours into Megacorp, I've had enough. The game is currently so broken that I don't see the point in playing any more. Balance is out of wack, the AI simply cannot play the game, Crises and AEs just fail, and performance takes a huge nosedive past the late 2300s.

 

Paradox clearly rushed this looking at a holiday season slam dunk, and while technically it's "playable" in the sense that it won't give BSODs, it's a huge step back from Niven currently. The potential is there, but I doubt it'll be realized in any appreciable way before April at the earliest.

 

Bad form, Paradox.

[Chilloutman]

yeah AI have now huge problems being competetive and performance is just horrible

[213374U]

yeah AI have now huge problems being competetive and performance is just horrible

 

Apparently Wiz has stepped down as game director to work on some unannounced project. New guy has pledged to focus on fixing the damn thing, mentioning performance specifically. There's an interesting thread analyzing multi-threading, and the results are... not encouraging. This is worrisome because in my limited understanding of kuhm pyoo tuhrs, really fixing that would involve some serious retooling, which is probably beyond what PDS is willing to invest on an aging engine. Bah.

 

They really should have billed this as "Early Access" or open beta rather than as a finished product.

[Keyrock]

Finished the first chapter of the final episode of The Council. Holy crap what a finish to that chapter. I expected a certain party to make a power play, but I did not expect it to be quite so audacious. This certain party believes they have won, but unbeknownst to them, I have a couple tricks left up my sleeve.

 

Oh this is so delicious!

Edited December 21, 2018 by Keyrock

[Katphood]

Played a little bit of Red Dead Revolver. Pretty awesome for a PS2 game, might become my favorite in the series someday.

[Keyrock]

I finished The Council and so I am happy to nominate it for the prestigious...

 

Obsidian Microsoft Forums Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos Totino's Pizza Rolls Shick Hydrobot Game of the Year Award - Presented By Mountain Dew Amp Gamer Fuel Charged Tropical Strike.  Mountain Dew Amp Gamer Fuel Charged Tropical Strike - LVL Up Your Game!

 

Obviously some recency bias may be at work here, given that I just finished the game, but that was a fantastic experience from start to finish.  Let's get the bad stuff out of the way first. While overall it's a good looking game, it obviously can't measure up to God of War, RDR2, or other AAA titles that cost 20X as much to make. The game has its share of jank. As I meantioned in an earlier post, the sex scenes are Mass Effect 1 level - Just as terrible and just as hilarious. Occasionally characters will "teleport" a few inches during some scenes, as if a few frames of animation were missing. There are some inconsistencies between what is being spoken and what is written on the screen.  Usually the meaning is the same, the person speaking is essentially paraphrasing, but I did catch one time where an amount was mentioned and the number on the screen and the number said were different.  

 

With that out of the way, this is the evolution of the Telltale formula I have been waiting years for.  The game incorporates many different elements into the narrative adventure genre, including puzzle, point & click, and RPG Lite elements.  Best of all, these elements all work really well together and don't feel merely tacked on; everything complements everything else quite well. There is an impressive amount of attention to detail in this game, and I don't mean horse testicle physics, as impressive as that is. Everything in the game has a purpose.  The smallest, seemingly insignificant, details come into play later on in the game. Things that initially didn't make much sense make sense later on once some revelations or certain callbacks are made. There are even certain things that may never makes sense if you didn't go down a certain path or speak to a certain character at a certain time, but these things do have an explanation if you seek out the right people or places. Most impressive is the dedication to themes. Every piece of art and piece of literature  in this massive elaborate mansion follows a theme that ties into either the main plot or one of the many sub-plots.  It's all really well put together and great care was obviously used when designing everything in this game.  I will definitely play this again in the future and choose a different path to see how things play out.

 

Simply put, this is the new standard for narrative adventures. I say bravo to Big Bad Wolf and I look forward to what they come up with next.

Edited December 21, 2018 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

games played this year:

 

Neverwinter Nights 2

The Witcher

Anachronox

Jade Empire

Alpha Prololol

Aragami

Cosmic Star Heroine

Cishonored 2

Kathy Rain

Portal 2

Dragon Quest XI

Fable

 

Goty Dragon quest

[Keyrock]

Artifact had an update.  Along with a small balance change (green got hit kinda hard with big nerfs to both Gust and Cheating Death) they also added a progression system and a new way to earn card packs in-game, which addressed my only real complaint with the game.  Previously, the only way to get more card packs was to either buy them or to play in expert mode (which uses event tickets).  In theory, you can go infinite in expert mode since you can win back your event ticket and also more event tickets and card packs, but you need to have a really high win percentage to achieve that, so only the elite, or at least high skill, players had any realistic chance to pull that off, leading to a rich get richer while the poor stay poor scenario.  Now, Valve introduced a progression system in the game where you earn XP by playing anything except the Call To Arms timed event.  You get XP win or lose, but you get more for winning and/or doing certain things during the match.  So now anyone can earn card packs just by playing the game (up to 15 per season, don't know yet how long a season is) even if they suck (good news for me  ) and even if they only play casual (now called standard) where you don't need to spend event tickets to play.

 

I wound up going 3-2 with my Blue/Black Venomancer, Prellex, Crystal Maiden, Bounty Hunter, Sniper draft deck (you play until you either win 5 matches or lose 2, whichever happens first).  Next up another Blue/Black deck with Veno, CM, Luna, Phantom Assassin, and Lion.

Edited December 22, 2018 by Keyrock

[Lexx]

I'm not at home for the next few days, so decided to continue with Hollow Knight a bit. It's such a great game, but I still feel overwhelmed by its size. I don't know what to do or where to go, because of that... And I also just lost about 4k geo, because I couldn't find another bench and stumbled from one boss area into the next until I wasn't able to recover my lost geo anymore...

[Mamoulian War]

Still playing Xenonauts and Assetto Corsa Ultimate little by little. In Xenonauts, I have just captured Praetor, and my scientists are currently "investigating" him And in Assetto, I have in line unlocked Hypercars quick races in Career Mode.

[Labadal]

Distraint. Some side scrolling walking simulator with some "horror" elements.

[Huinehtar]

I know it should have been detailed maps for Wing Commander Privateer for, well... literally decades, since the game is around 25 years old, but charting the quadrants and systems all by myself is part of the fun of the game.

I haven't done a single mission for a while, only to travel point by point, system by system, and charting all little by little.

 

The following table and map are obviously incomplete (blue bold lines have been traveled while the black thin ones aren't)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I still haven't started the main story, I believe...

[Malcador]

Said goodbye to Elfsborg, now coaching FC Sochaux Montbeliard.  First season was a challenge, luckily got some of my Elfsborg players.  Doing better this season as well, sold my star striker to afford 2 great wingers, well it was but alas my strikers have become donkeys now.

 

Still can't pick a good tactic, have an aversion to 4-4-2 that I cannot overcome.  Also pretty much only have AMR/Ls so that limits things a lot.  Game sure is more fun when you're not a rich club, not sure why people would ever play as Bayern or Chelsea

[Epaminondas]

Took a break from Pathfinder for a while in order to explore Prey. I've gotten back past the test rooms. I swear there's an area up above that I can see after I climb the stairs, but I can't seem to figure out how to get there. I'm going to keep trying for a while when I get back home.

[Oner]

The answer is often GLOO gun.

[Epaminondas]

I'll keep that in mind when I find it. I managed to find a different way. The sbility to interact with the environment so far is impressive. Overall, the game feels like a cross between Half Life and Portal. Creepy as hell, but not really survival horror yet. Addictive gameplay.

[Katphood]

Burnout: Paradise Remastered

 

What an absolutely boring and stale game compared to Burnout 3: Takedown. I can't F-ing drive and look at the minimap at the same time you know!

[Hurlshort]

Picked up Player Unknown Battleground for a bit of shooter fun, and I am terrible. I did get the pacifist badge for making the top 10 without killing anyone, but that is just because I hide in fear most of the time. 3 games in and no kills.

[213374U]

Picked up Player Unknown Battleground for a bit of shooter fun, and I am terrible. I did get the pacifist badge for making the top 10 without killing anyone, but that is just because I hide in fear most of the time. 3 games in and no kills.

 

If you haven't yet, you'll soon realize that's a huge waste of time.

 

Drop where most people are going, find a weapon as soon as possible, and start shooting immediately. You'll probably be dead within 5 minutes, but it's the only way to get some practice and improve. Always being in the top ten by avoiding people in a multiplayer game and getting killed with the goal in sight gets old real fast. Like foreplay without sex.

 

Hell, even fisticuffs on the school rooftop are preferable to 20 minutes of Hiding Simulator 2017 followed by a potshot from someone you never even saw.

[Hurlshort]

I am starting to realize that, as the last 20 people are probably way better than me. So I will try to be more aggressive, thanks.

[Gfted1]

Bought Tower of Time since its on sale. Probably give it a whirl here soon.

[Tale]

Shadow Warrior

 

It was fun enough, kept me engaged a level at a time, but the story really grabbed me towards the end. Enough that I'm compelled to jump right in part 2.

 

Edit: And a couple hours in and I feel like I've stumbled into a Borderlands copycat with even more junk in it. I was so excited for a moment there.