What are you playing right now?

[Epaminondas]

I've been playing Prey so much I almost looked in the trash can at the Reagan Library for banana peels and qbeam charges.

[Lexx]

bought Subnautica at 6PM, its 5AM now, send help

 

Oh no, you could have gotten it for free on this new Epic something something platform.

[Mamoulian War]

Because it is the end of 2018, I think, it is good time to post some summary of all the games I've played and finished this year, hopefully the length of it does not offend you

 

2018

10 games – 4 GoG games, 1 PS2 game and 5 PS3 games

 

1 - January 28, 3:45 - My first finished game of the year became Shadowrun Dragonfall - Director's Cut. I had the game in my backlog despite having it almost from day 1. I have moved, bought PS4 and Project CARS, so I have pushed to play it further and further, until last Xmas. In the end, I loved the game even more than the original and can't wait to play the Hong Kong game. But few other games need to be kicked out of my backlog first

 

2 - April 10, 20:15 - I have finished blind walkthrough of Tales of the Abyss on PS2. The game started little bit slow, because I was overwhelmed by the amount of the text, which was thrown at me, even for jRPG standards. In the end, I still have enjoyed the game, and spent almost 80 hours while playing it (2 and half months of real time due to crazy work schedule). But still, I can only recommend the game to every jRPG fan, which have not played it yet.

 

3 - May 12, 19:00 - Finished today the first Torchlight with Alchemist on Normal difficulty. Fun and short game to play in between other games, or just to have some relax

 

4 - June 24, 17:45 - After the developer was so kind to fix the bug, which I have encountered in the final bossfight, I was finally able to finish StarCrawlers. Very enjoyable game for me, despite few small bugs. Developer also provided new free update for the game, which added hacking to it, so there is big motivation for me to play the New Game + again in a near future

 

5 - July 5, 23:45 - After rage-quitting 6 years ago on Capra Demon, I have just finished Dark Souls for the first time on PS3. When I have finally decided to go against the Gwyn, I was surprised how fast he killed me . After 10 or more tries, when I was never able to make more than 25% damage to him, I have decided to try my luck with summoning white phantom. I was lucky and found one guy, right at the start of the Kiln. Two people against Gwyn was just short execution. I have chosen The Dark Lord ending.

 

6 - July 28, 17:15 - I have finished Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PS3. This time, I have used more casting focused character, and finished every quest line, joined every covenant and picked up every item possible which could be acquired in NG. I have also played DLC for the first time, and the fight with Kalameet was one of the best bossfights I have ever had in a computer game. Just epic! This time, I have chosen To Link the Fire ending.

 

7 - September 2, 14:15 - My NG+ run of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PS3 is finally finished. I have now every item and equip, besides two soul boss upgrade items, which I am still missing for Platinum Trophy. I have chosen again To Link the Fire ending. After 139 deaths :D .

 

8 - September 3, 1:00 - After aproximately 197 hours, I have finished Platinum Trophy run of Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PS3. NG++ speed run for last trophy took me around 2,5 hours, because I have forgot to get Large Ember in the Depths. Silly me.

 

9 - October 25, 1:15 - Third and final playthrough of Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory on PS3 is over. Almost 240 hours spent over 5 years, to get the Platinum Trophy and the True Ending. Little bit grindy, but the combat and story was still silly kind of 4th wall breaking fun, because I was not trying to speedrun the trophies.

 

10 - December 8, 20:00 - After 53,5 hours, I have finished another PC game from GOG: Battle Chasers: Nightwar. The final battle made me sweat, because I was not able to kill final boss at level 29. But after 15 minutes of grinding, and finding nice Attack Bonus Shrine, I have defeated him on the next try. I love the art style and really enjoyed playing it, so I hope the developers will make next game soon, which will continue with the story.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Mamoulian War

[Katphood]

^hmmm, on that note, here are the games I managed to beat this year:

 

-Uncharted: Golden Abyss(PS Vita)

-The Witcher 3: Blood & Wine DLC(PS4)

-Crysis 3(PS3)

-Shadow Warrior 2(PS4)

-Wolfenstein 2(PS4)

-Yakuza 0(PS4)

-GoW: Chains of Olympus(PS3)

-Halo Anniversary(Xbox One)

-Halo 2 Remaster(Xbox One)

-Halo 3 Remaster(Xbox One)

-Sunset Overdrive(Xbox One)

[bugarup]

Because it is the end of 2018, I think, it is good time to post some summary of all the games I've played and finished this year, hopefully the length of it does not offend you

 

 

Quite on the contrary -- it impresses me (and puts to shame as well) - if you do your games so meticulously, then how do you do your taxes? 

[Malcador]

Frostpunk is pretty fun, nice challenge for me at least.  Failed horribly on first playthrough, though I did end up convincing my people that I was somehow God's Messenger so that was cool.  Think I have a better run going, just need to get a lot of steam cores and automatons

[IndiraLightfoot]

Well, I still have Pathfinder: Kingmaker on the backburner (I'm waiting for an even more stable version, and I have all the time in the world *cough* NOT!), and I've suspended my playthrough of "Deadfire Complete", just for the reason that I want to save that little gem for laterz.

 

So, after having played mostly Assassin's Creed this autumn (you know that game that never ends), and I still really like it, I needed some true comfort games, and turned to Dishonored and Dungeons & Dragons - and this time, I picked a game that you can't even buy on Steam anymore: Sword Coast Legends. I had played like Act 1, and now, when I've kept going, I must say that except for the pretty boring skill tree system, the game itself is pretty good. Inon Zur's music is excellent, the graphics scream 2000s and are nostalgic to me, the VO is pretty neat, mostly British accent of various kinds (you know the drill Scottish dwarves, etc). I like the pacing of it, and a few dungeons are really meaty (more hefty than I had expected, especially after having gotten used to Deadfire's dungeon lites, and full of nice little puzzles and secrets, and plenty of easter eggs and allusions/throwbacks to earlier D&D CRPGs). And returning to the Sword Coast and the Forgotten Realms still works for me. It really warms my heart. In short, Sword Coast Legends is far better than its reputation, and I believe it's received much unfair flak, to be honest.

 

Well, then we have my beloved Dishonored. As I have reported earlier, I managed to get all the achievements for Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider, so now I set out to get them all for Dishonored. Said and done. I played through the entire game for a fourth time, and I maxed out all the settings, and enjoyed every minute of it. One of the best computer games of all time, no doubt! I managed to get all the achievements for the base game, and I already had all cheevos for Knife of Dunwall and Brigmore Witches. Afterwards, I even got the mad idea to get most of the Dunwall Trials achievements as well, but I soon realized that I'm too old. Some of them are so hard that not even a 15 year old controller freak wouldn't stand a chance. I managed to get all those marked with a brain, and some marked with a shooting weapon, but the one that said "speed" - forget it.

Edited December 31, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Mamoulian War]

 

Because it is the end of 2018, I think, it is good time to post some summary of all the games I've played and finished this year, hopefully the length of it does not offend you

 

 

Quite on the contrary -- it impresses me (and puts to shame as well) - if you do your games so meticulously, then how do you do your taxes? 

 

 

Haha. For some reason, I have started to make little bit verbose list of my finished games in 2015, and every time, I finish some game, I add it to the list with few words and impressions, so I can remember it much better later

 

The reason might be, that I still remember Doom cheat codes and Mortal Kombat 1 moves and Fatalities from late 90's when I've played the games, but I can't remember some details from the newer games. Maybe the new games are just less exceptional, than the older ones, and are not so worthy to remember

 

And the taxes, well, I am happy, that accountants at the company, where I am working, are doing that for every employee

[kanisatha]

I've been debating whether to pick up The Witcher 3 GOTY on Steam for $20. I know about all of the love out there for this game, but not being party-based is one of my deal breaker criteria. So I'm wondering if all of the other awesome qualities of this game can make up for it not having a party of companions. I would appreciate thoughts and opinions.

[Tale]

I played Tacoma over the weekend. It's from Fullbright, the people who made Gone Home, and I like it a lot more. Mostly because I got completely lost in Gone Home. Tacoma is a very guided experience and tells its story pretty much outright, though it has lots of details you can find that flesh it out. And it tells the story well, with reveals I thought were very clever.

 

Oh, and I played The Hex sometime in the past week. It's from the guy who did Pony Island and it's similarly bizarre and meta. If you like metafictional games, or games within games, you'll probably love this one.

[wolfrider100]

At the moment I'm starting a new play-through of Rise of the Tomb Raider. Sooner or later I'll get to play SOMA which I got for free on GOG.

Edited December 31, 2018 by wolfrider100

[the_dog_days]

So, after having played mostly Assassin's Creed this autumn (you know that game that never ends), and I still really like it, I needed some true comfort games, and turned to Dishonored and Dungeons & Dragons - and this time, I picked a game that you can't even buy on Steam anymore: Sword Coast Legends. I had played like Act 1, and now, when I've kept going, I must say that except for the pretty boring skill tree system, the game itself is pretty good. Inon Zur's music is excellent, the graphics scream 2000s and are nostalgic to me, the VO is pretty neat, mostly British accent of various kinds (you know the drill Scottish dwarves, etc). I like the pacing of it, and a few dungeons are really meaty (more hefty than I had expected, especially after having gotten used to Deadfire's dungeon lites, and full of nice little puzzles and secrets, and plenty of easter eggs and allusions/throwbacks to earlier D&D CRPGs). And returning to the Sword Coast and the Forgotten Realms still works for me. It really warms my heart. In short, Sword Coast Legends is far better than its reputation, and I believe it's received much unfair flak, to be honest.

 

I agree. SCL was better than a lot of people would have you know.

[Epaminondas]

 

So, after having played mostly Assassin's Creed this autumn (you know that game that never ends), and I still really like it, I needed some true comfort games, and turned to Dishonored and Dungeons & Dragons - and this time, I picked a game that you can't even buy on Steam anymore: Sword Coast Legends. I had played like Act 1, and now, when I've kept going, I must say that except for the pretty boring skill tree system, the game itself is pretty good. Inon Zur's music is excellent, the graphics scream 2000s and are nostalgic to me, the VO is pretty neat, mostly British accent of various kinds (you know the drill Scottish dwarves, etc). I like the pacing of it, and a few dungeons are really meaty (more hefty than I had expected, especially after having gotten used to Deadfire's dungeon lites, and full of nice little puzzles and secrets, and plenty of easter eggs and allusions/throwbacks to earlier D&D CRPGs). And returning to the Sword Coast and the Forgotten Realms still works for me. It really warms my heart. In short, Sword Coast Legends is far better than its reputation, and I believe it's received much unfair flak, to be honest.

I agree. SCL was better than a lot of people would have you know.

 

If I remember it correctly, I thought that it was basically a building blocks game and the initial campaign wasn't much but the modders would make stuff for it. If that's the case, it's an instant non-buy for me. I simply don't want to muddle through player made mods. ...But now I wonder if I had it wrong at the time or maybe I saw an erroneous post or something.

 

EDIT: to fix stuff. Also, I've been playing Prey and I just got medicine for an old buddy. I trust neither January nor December. My brother is a rat bastard even if they manage to rehabilitate him in the later game. I'll probably shoot Connolly if he's still alive because he's such an arrogant prick. I also don't trust Morgan Yu, the main character. I think she's iffy as hell. Finally, it seemed to me in Dishonored that there was no moral reason not to take magical powers and they made the game much more fun and interesting. In Prey, I've gone straight human because I clearly can't trust the Typhons. I only say that because they've tried to kill me the entire game.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Epaminondas

[ShadySands]

SCL was terrible as a caster and that's what caused me to give up on it. I've heard it's much better with martial classes but I have no desire to play a non caster

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

If I remember it correctly, I thought that it was basically a building blocks game and the initial campaign wasn't much but the modders would make stuff for it. If that's the case, it's an instant non-buy for me. I simply don't want to muddle through player made mods. ...But now I wonder if I had it wrong at the time or maybe I saw an erroneous post or something.

 

I'd go this far: The campaign is probably better than the one in the NWN OC, and the one in NWN2 Storm of Zehir. It's like a shorter version of the NWN2 OC in quality, minus the stronghold, and there are less companions to choose from. Sometimes, you have henchmen tagging along in your party for a while too. I'm having great fun. If, and that's a big if, you can look past the skill tree D&D system, you'll have great fun and enjoyment playing it.

 

EDIT: Oh, the game's servers have been taken down, so there are no mods or anything for the game.

 

SCL was terrible as a caster and that's what caused me to give up on it. I've heard it's much better with martial classes but I have no desire to play a non caster

My main is an archer (no animal companion, so not really a ranger. She's never used a non-ranged weapon). Then I have a caster, Hommet, and he works really well. Perhaps you are "building" him wrong. What I do is a hard focus on the cantrips, and then magical items enhancing the damage from them, so he's a beast (basically, no cooldowns - constant super-fast painful spamming). And he doesn't wear any armor - just a neat cantrip robe. I have Illydia, she always uses a bow, and then Jarhild, the fighter, which I have made a sword and board build, with lots of buffing shouts. All in all, my party is far from melee, and I'm having a blast!

Edited January 1, 2019 by IndiraLightfoot

[ShadySands]

There was someone else who really got into it. Keyrock, maybe? I think he liked it a lot.

[Vaeliorin]

There was someone else who really got into it. Keyrock, maybe? I think he liked it a lot.

I know he did a Let's Play of it, since I watched a good bit of it.  I played it for a while and didn't hate it, but I hit a bugged quest that just killed all my enthusiasm to continue.

[Keyrock]

There was someone else who really got into it. Keyrock, maybe? I think he liked it a lot.

I wouldn't put it on any GotY lists, but I enjoyed SCL. The thing I liked best about it was that the companion AI was surprisingly competent, allowing me to mostly just control my main. I don't mind constantly micromanaging an entire party when it's turn-based, but I absolutely loath it in RTwP, so if the companion AI sucks, or doesn't exist *glares menacingly at Pillars*, it goes a long way toward ruining the experience for me.

 

I don't remeber what class I played, but it was most likely a priest or warrior type, since that's what I gravitate toward. The OC is significantly better than the expansion, which was very obviously a rush job.

Edited January 1, 2019 by Keyrock

[Katphood]

^I think Keyrock said something about the game being anything but a Forgotten Realms/Dungeons & Dragons rpg, you know, the mood of the game.

 

Yup, I remember what Keyrock said some 10 months ago on some random message board...I have no life.

 

I bought SCL for less than 10 bucks a while ago, I'll check it out someday, looks entertaining.

[Keyrock]

Yeah, if you are looking for an authentic D&D experience then SCL will disappoint you and you might write an angry reddit post. If you go into it with an open mind and can get past the fact that the D&D naming is nothing more than a thin coat of paint, then you may enjoy the game.

[IndiraLightfoot]

And, may I add, the lore and the Forgotten Realms feelz, the lot, it's all there, and it's quite enjoyable for what it is.

[Katphood]

I've been debating whether to pick up The Witcher 3 GOTY on Steam for $20. I know about all of the love out there for this game, but not being party-based is one of my deal breaker criteria. So I'm wondering if all of the other awesome qualities of this game can make up for it not having a party of companions. I would appreciate thoughts and opinions.

You don't have a party of companions traveling with you, but there are memorable characters that you have to visit during quests. You also get to accompany/escort certain characters during some quests.

 

At any rate, you won't feel alone. The game has a full cast of colorful characters, each with their own story.

Edited January 1, 2019 by Katphood

[melkathi]

Picked up my Spellforce 3 playthrough again. Hated the map I had been stuck on. Still hate it. Checked difficulty settings and dropped to Normal. Suddenly it became a lot more manageable

[Epaminondas]

There was an old xbox game that BIS did that I liked. That wasn't really Dungeons and Dragons, but I enjoyed it. Anyhow, I'm in the Arboretum in Prey. Kind of confused, but I've done a huge amount of exploring. I finally broke down and did an interwebs search after some time of trying to find these neuromods that I could see through this window on one map. Then, when I went out and found where I figured they should be, I still saw the same neuromods through the window. After looking into it, turns out it's a weird map thing and the update on the inside map doesn't reflect what happens on the exterior map. argh!

[Keyrock]

It just occured to me that nearly every D&D game put out in the last 20 years has been in the Forgotten Realms. Of the traditional high fantasy settings, I was always more partial to Dragonlance. During the Gold Box days there were games set in Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, and Dark Sun. There might have even been a game in that cool, but unfortunately short lived, Arabian Nights setting, Al Qadim, or whatever it was called. Has anyone made a non-Forgotten Realms D&D game since the Gold Box days?

 

As an aside, does Pathfinder have an Arabian Nights type path?

Edited January 1, 2019 by Keyrock