What are you playing now?

[Deraldin]

Arg! Just finished a round on No Mercy. The first time through the finale, some jerk hit the call button before the rest of us even made it inside the building to heal and reload. We lasted longer than I expected actually. The jerk got killed off quickly, but the three of us that were left made it almost to the end of the second wave before we were finally taken down. Second time through the jerk (Name was SFX) had left so a new guy joined up. We made it through the first wave easy, even with one guy on the chain gun the whole time. I think I let one guy get through and hit him once during the entire wave. The tank knocked one of us off the roof and pounded the the rest of us good as we tried to help each other. The second wave was rough with us ending up in the staircase and completely surrounded. The other two guys were downed and I was in the red myself. I picked them up then got pounced by a hunter, but I survived with 2 health. Managed to heal up just as the Tank came up the stairs. One guy was downed and pounded on. I managed to get up on top of the roof, but as I was backing away I grabbed the stupid ledge instead of just dropping off.

 

I ended up stuck hanging off the top of the chain gun building as the tank repeatedly climbed up and then fell off because there wasn't enough space on the corner with the little metal rod. He just kept trying to climb up and failing until he burned to death. The third guy tossed a pipe bomb and rushed over to grab me before we made a dash for the copter. He got ahead of me and was swarmed when a boomer vomited all over him. I tossed a pipe bomb that I picked up off Francis corpse and ran on ahead but got caught by a smoker right in front of me. It starts constricting me and I can see Louis coming up the ramp towards me. I'm thinking "Yes! I'm saved!" But no! He just runs right past me and into the copter while the other two guys are laughing their asses off over their mics while Louis keeps saying that he was blinded by the boomer and asked where I was. "Right in front of you! You ran right past me you jerk!" and the others just laughed even harder.

[theslug]

I'm playing The Witcher Enhanced Edition. I've noticed almost no differences whatsoever from the original...

 

And of course halo 3. Been playing mlg and it's taken a while but I'm actually not playing retards anymore. Just angry at stupid objective crap like capture the flag on the stupidest map ever onslaught. God angers me.

[Calax]

Arg! Just finished a round on No Mercy. The first time through the finale, some jerk hit the call button before the rest of us even made it inside the building to heal and reload. We lasted longer than I expected actually. The jerk got killed off quickly, but the three of us that were left made it almost to the end of the second wave before we were finally taken down. Second time through the jerk (Name was SFX) had left so a new guy joined up. We made it through the first wave easy, even with one guy on the chain gun the whole time. I think I let one guy get through and hit him once during the entire wave. The tank knocked one of us off the roof and pounded the the rest of us good as we tried to help each other. The second wave was rough with us ending up in the staircase and completely surrounded. The other two guys were downed and I was in the red myself. I picked them up then got pounced by a hunter, but I survived with 2 health. Managed to heal up just as the Tank came up the stairs. One guy was downed and pounded on. I managed to get up on top of the roof, but as I was backing away I grabbed the stupid ledge instead of just dropping off.

 

I ended up stuck hanging off the top of the chain gun building as the tank repeatedly climbed up and then fell off because there wasn't enough space on the corner with the little metal rod. He just kept trying to climb up and failing until he burned to death. The third guy tossed a pipe bomb and rushed over to grab me before we made a dash for the copter. He got ahead of me and was swarmed when a boomer vomited all over him. I tossed a pipe bomb that I picked up off Francis corpse and ran on ahead but got caught by a smoker right in front of me. It starts constricting me and I can see Louis coming up the ramp towards me. I'm thinking "Yes! I'm saved!" But no! He just runs right past me and into the copter while the other two guys are laughing their asses off over their mics while Louis keeps saying that he was blinded by the boomer and asked where I was. "Right in front of you! You ran right past me you jerk!" and the others just laughed even harder.

I was doing expert earlier on Blood Harvest, we did pretty well, only had two wipes (mainly where first one guy, then another and another would go down and the last one would be standing there trying to rescue his comrades while zombies wouldn't stop swarming to give the players ANY breathing room.

[Deraldin]

I joined Bok and a couple other guys on expert Blood Harvest earlier. We got our asses kicked. I joined in on the second level which took us about a dozen tries before we managed to get past it. The time we actually beat it we got lucky and the tank spawned early in the train yard so we could all take potshots at it from the catwalk. Two of the guys somehow ended up down on the floor with the tank and got mauled, but Bok and I survived the tank so we got to handle the crescendo event by ourselves. Again we got lucky and there was a gas tank so I dropped it right in front of the door into the little room. Bok opened the door then ran back out up onto the catwalk while shooting the gas tank to give him some time. Up on the catwalk we made a stand on side nearest the door where the zombies were too stupid to get to. In order to get to the area we were on you have to walk across a narrow girder and none of the zombies got more than halfway across before falling off. A couple managed to make it up to us from some other route, but mostly we were unreachable for the normal zombies. Bok got smokered a couple times, but didn't get dragged off until after almost all the zombies were gone so he only lost 20 health. We managed to beat the rest of that level easily enough.

 

The third stage owned us good. Near the start you exit the underground area into a large open section with lots of zombies where the director was fond of spawning hordes either in front, or from the tunnel that we just left. A number of times we got wiped there, several more we got wiped in the outside area on the way to the next train tunnel. The one time we made it to the train tunnel we got mobbed by a horde and someone decided to throw a molotov into it where three of us were standing. The three of us burned to death while the fourth survived with 15 health or so to go get mauled by the tank that was standing right by the train at the end of the hallway. He lit the tank on fire, but then ran into the darkened back of the tunnel and got clobbered by 5 zombies without the tank even coming near him.

 

Eventually we gave up and just started shooting each other...

[Calax]

-snip

You should try Expert with Darkshape, me and either Ric0 or Phoenix (I think you've played with each of them). We slaughter expert.

[Deraldin]

-snip

You should try Expert with Darkshape, me and either Ric0 or Phoenix (I think you've played with each of them). We slaughter expert.

 

I don't think I've played with Phoenix yet, but I've played with the other two. I've got Zombicidal Maniac thanks to you guys. Cleared out Death Toll and Dead Air. You guys cleared those levels almost as fast as my advanced runs take. It's insane. I've tried expert with a couple groups of randoms since then, but I haven't had much luck finding a group that doesn't suck. That and an AI director that doesn't spawn a tank in the subway on No Mercy. Or a group that doesn't think it's funny to shoot the car at the end of that level as we all limp to the safe room.

[Calax]

-snip

You should try Expert with Darkshape, me and either Ric0 or Phoenix (I think you've played with each of them). We slaughter expert.

 

I don't think I've played with Phoenix yet, but I've played with the other two. I've got Zombicidal Maniac thanks to you guys. Cleared out Death Toll and Dead Air. You guys cleared those levels almost as fast as my advanced runs take. It's insane. I've tried expert with a couple groups of randoms since then, but I haven't had much luck finding a group that doesn't suck. That and an AI director that doesn't spawn a tank in the subway on No Mercy. Or a group that doesn't think it's funny to shoot the car at the end of that level as we all limp to the safe room.

Well those three are actually brothers. The trick to tanks is shotguns, they pump out more damage per hit than any of the other weapons (on advanced that means that four guys with auto's in a closet can kill a tank in ONE full clip each). Most of the other weapons expend a much smaller portion of their damage per shot, or go through the target expending much less damage on the tank than they should.

[Deraldin]

I need more practice with the shotguns. I always seem to empty the clip yet still end up surrounded by zombies. The problem with the subway tank is that often it shows up before you get any of the T2 weapons so you've either got the submachine gun or the normal shotgun, neither of which are great against a tank in close quarters. We had fun taking down the tank at the gas station in one of my last advanced runs though. He spawned by the lift so someone ran over to the gas station and shot him to lure the tank over. Unfortunately he blew up the station a little to early and got caught in the blast himself. The explosion actually doesn't kill the tank outright, but he can get trapped under the rubble which will cause him to die after a minute or so since he can't see you and you can't hit him.

[Rosbjerg]

I haven't managed to beat expert yet.. I played with a rather good team, but we got so unbelievably unlucky that we had to give up in the end. It took us almost 2 hours to get to map 4 on No Mercy and by then we were totally exhausted.

 

After that I've only managed to play with people either way better than me, so I felt like I was dragging them down, or much much worse and I felt like I had to keep the boat floating on my own.

 

So now I stick to advanced - it's hard enough to provide a challenge and not so difficult that the entire team is raped if one player isn't doing his best.

[Kaftan Barlast]

We beat all the campaigns on expert last week, mostly it was just our resident quakemaster that lived through the ending except in "death toll" where another guy made it aswell. But I dont like playing on that difficulty since you have to be so serious and coordinated. Theres always alot of bitching and angry shouting from players who take it way too seriously. I would have made it through "death toll" aswell, but my friends were so pissed that I didnt play as good as them so they refused to revive me.

[Rosbjerg]

That sucks, but you are right - it can get way too serious in a game where you are so depended on other people.

[Llyranor]

Depends on the people. If you find a good group, playing against overwhelming challenges/odds can be pretty rewarding if the other players don't have Hades'es stuck up their Hades. Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

[mkreku]

I've continued my semi-abandoned Far Cry 2 session recently. I figured that it's much more fun if I use a cheat between missions! I go to town to get a mission, which usually involves me having to travel all the way across the African savannah to kill some random dude. After getting the mission objectives, I turn on unlimited health and drive away in my car. I blast my way QUICKLY through the ever spawning clone enemies (and absurdly aggressive civilians) until I reach my destination, where I turn off the cheat and solve the mission the usual way (with sneaking and a silent pistol until I get caught).

 

But that's really a clue as to how much the Ubisoft team screwed up the between-mission gameplay: when using a cheat actually improves the game! WHY OH WHY DOES EVERYTHING HAVE TO RESPAWN SO GODDAMN QUICKLY?? Even a small thing such as being able to take a wrong turn without having to fight the same checkpoint twice in under a minute would be such a gigantic improvement!

 

The game keeps track of a number of stats. I checked it and noticed that I've solved 69% of the game, all the while firing 25000 rounds of ammunition! 25000! It's because I keep going back and forth while I explore the savannah and the constant respawning forces me to fight endlessly. And I usually use the Dragunov sniper rifle, meaning that it's one shot, one kill. Horrible, I've probably killed the population of a small town by now.

[Morgoth]

I'm downloading the Empire: Total War demo right now.

[Mamoulian War]

Depends on the people. If you find a good group, playing against overwhelming challenges/odds can be pretty rewarding if the other players don't have Hades'es stuck up their Hades. Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

 

QFT

[Kaftan Barlast]

I'm downloading the Empire: Total War demo right now.

 

 

THERES A DEMO???????!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

...oh ****! it's steam

[deganawida]

Mass Effect, which I picked up last week on Direct2Drive for $20. Had been avoiding it do to DRM.

 

So far, I enjoy. Has typical Bio bloated "dialogues" (they're really monologues with little player input), too many joinable NPCs that don't really bring anything to the table character-wise or ability-wise (IMO), and silly moments (like how I apparently schtuped the Consort hard enough to make her arm fall off). However, the cinematic presentation is very good, the story, while predictable, is done well, and I am enjoying playing it. Only reached Noveria so far, but having a blast. Wife is enjoying it, too (though I'm never going to hear the end of the arm falling off bit), which is a plus.

[taks]

Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

agreed, but there is a limit on difficulty, after which a game becomes tedious and not very fun. i've actually run into that with the danged M&M6 game i'm playing now. one dungeon in particular is basically solved by going in, killing off a couple monsters (eyes), leaving, healing, resting, return to repeat. there's a final "big room" in which there are probably a 100 or more baddies, and my guys are only strong enough to kill off less than half a dozen at a time, and then only if i can trick them into following me somewhere that all 100 can't attack at the same time... sigh. still addictive, however.

 

taks

[Kaftan Barlast]

Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

agreed, but there is a limit on difficulty, after which a game becomes tedious and not very fun.

 

 

ranting time!!

 

 

There are two basic archetypes of players, those who see games as a challenge and enjoy difficult games, and those who see games as entertainment and just want to relax and have some fun. Between those two runs a stepless scale where each of us fit in, the position on the scale depending on mood and other circumstances.

 

There is a tendency among the challenge players to look down upon those on the other side of the spectrum. Some dont even realise there are other types of players.

[Calax]

Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

agreed, but there is a limit on difficulty, after which a game becomes tedious and not very fun.

 

 

ranting time!!

 

 

There are two basic archetypes of players, those who see games as a challenge and enjoy difficult games, and those who see games as entertainment and just want to relax and have some fun. Between those two runs a stepless scale where each of us fit in, the position on the scale depending on mood and other circumstances.

 

There is a tendency among the challenge players to look down upon those on the other side of the spectrum. Some dont even realise there are other types of players.

I think that the players who enjoy challenge are in the minority. You don't see many games as unforgiving as in the old arcade days (or even now, like Ninja Gaiden)

[Morgoth]

No chance I'm getting the Empire demo today. First 50% went full speed, then the unwashed masses probably noticed that the demo is just out and boggled the Steam content servers down. Now I'm creeping with a 23kbyte/s.

[Azure79]

Fun should, obviously, always be the first priority. I'd rather a game be too hard than too easy.

agreed, but there is a limit on difficulty, after which a game becomes tedious and not very fun.

 

 

ranting time!!

 

 

There are two basic archetypes of players, those who see games as a challenge and enjoy difficult games, and those who see games as entertainment and just want to relax and have some fun. Between those two runs a stepless scale where each of us fit in, the position on the scale depending on mood and other circumstances.

 

There is a tendency among the challenge players to look down upon those on the other side of the spectrum. Some dont even realise there are other types of players.

I think that the players who enjoy challenge are in the minority. You don't see many games as unforgiving as in the old arcade days (or even now, like Ninja Gaiden)

 

I'm somewhat in between. If I really like a game I will try and play through all the difficulty levels just for the sheer fun of it. I played through Master Ninja Mode in Ninja Gaiden because I enjoyed the overall combat. The difficulty seemed to increase accordingly with your increased skill level so although it was challenging I didn't find it overbearingly so.

 

I also played through God mode on God of War, just because the overall gameplay was great.

 

Most games though, I just play through on normal setting wanting to enjoy myself more without any unreasonable frustration. I'm past the days of screaming and controller throwing/keyboard bashing.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I'm borrowing Call of Duty: World at War from a a friend and, damn, the Nazi Zombie level is well done.

[taks]

There is a tendency among the challenge players to look down upon those on the other side of the spectrum. Some dont even realise there are other types of players.

hey now, nobody is dissing the other types, and i'd definitely count myself in the "challenge" player" group overall. but there is a very big difference between challenging and tedious. the example i gave offers no ability for tactics since it's an old skool type rpg (not unlike the bard's tale games), so you win simply by attrition, occasionally reloading because you got a few bad rolls (and of all games, the might and magic series seems to have the least concern for valid die rolls). challenge that requires tactics is not nearly as tedious.

 

taks

[taks]

<examples>

one game i played, and i'm sure many will agree, that definitely required playing at the higher difficulties was NWN2 OC. sheesh, if you didn't have it at least on hardcore rules the game was such a cakewalk it was boooooring.

 

taks