What are you playing now

[Calax]

Dawn of War 2

 

It was 50% off on Steam, and since I like RTS and RPG games, and from everything I've read, this game does both well. So far its been a blast to play, though I haven't tried multiplayer yet.

dude, it's ok for the first few missions, then it bogs down into "repeat three missions ad-naseum"

[Shryke]

bg2

 

started TOB and having trouble in saradush

 

i kill gromnir but melissan wont spawn

 

grr

 

I had trouble with that my last time through as well. Ended up just going back and redoing the fight with Gromnir and she spawned the second time around.

 

it's done it to me like 3 times in a row now

 

grr

 

still it doesn't take long - with my current party he's dead in about 10 secs

[Calax]

Burnout Paradise... It's a good racing game, but then I've never been a racing fan... time to check that sucker back in.

[Aristes]

Fallout 2 very soon. I was even thinking of biting the bullet and playing Fallout 1 again. I mean, it took me several days to finish it this last time, but I didn't play every day either. It's a great game and I'd like to celebrate my luck build with my staple, wise-cracking sharpshooter.

[Hurlshort]

I keep dying from radiation poisoning in Fallout 1. I'm not sure whether to reload earlier and go find some radx pills, or just give up and move onto Fallout 2.

[Purkake]

I keep dying from radiation poisoning in Fallout 1. I'm not sure whether to reload earlier and go find some radx pills, or just give up and move onto Fallout 2.

 

Radaway?

[Aristes]

I keep dying from radiation poisoning in Fallout 1. I'm not sure whether to reload earlier and go find some radx pills, or just give up and move onto Fallout 2.

In the hub, you can find a source of radx and radaway. When I went through the last time, on normal, I took like two or three rad x when I went into the glow and like 5 radaway along the way and I had no problems. Also, there are doctors around who can treat your radiation poisoning. I would stay away from radiation until you can afford radaway. I think, on my last run, I ended up only taking like 5 radaway the entire game, and maybe 4 radx.

[Morgoth]

Bought Tachyon: The Fringe today. The requirement of using half your keyboards keys is...refreshing, to say at least.

Edited August 5, 2009 by Morgoth

[Gorth]

I keep dying from radiation poisoning in Fallout 1. I'm not sure whether to reload earlier and go find some radx pills, or just give up and move onto Fallout 2.

Been to The Glow much recently?

 

Rad-X (two of them) are definitely a must before climbing down the first rope. A Radaway after finishing it is also a handy thing to have.

 

If it isn't the glow... not sure where you can get lethal rad poisoning in Fallout 1?

[Gizmo]

It always irks me when folks refer to Icewind Dale as being light on story. The story behind Icewind Dale wasn't light. They billed it as a hack and slash like Diablo, but it wasn't. What they managed to do with IWD and IWD 2 is convey a lot of background information without a lot of excess dialogue. IWD had some of the best writing of any of the IE games. Both titles did a great job with the backstory and unfolding it properly for players who didn't want to swim through text. However, if you like a strong story that doesn't intrude on gameplay every five seconds, IWD is your game and it's certainly my second favorite of the whole IE lineup. My first would be PS:T and my next would be BG2, which throws the idea of bias all to hell.

 

Really, Diablo's backstory isn't bad. It's just not a big part of actual gameplay in terms of dialogue. As gamers, we've broken things down very strangely because we'll refer to games as not having much of a story when in fact the design team has come up with some quite elaborate stories behind the title. Blizzard doest that all the time. The story might be halfway decent, such as Diablo, or it might be a steaming, meandering river of donkey turds, such as World of Warcraft, but it doesn't lack a story. There are games that have the slightest pretense of story, and it's a shame to have IWD, with all of that excellent but subdued writing lumped in with games with lackluster or even simply bad writing. Hell, the item descriptions in IWD are better than some of the full blown intros I've seen.

 

As far as SoZ goes, I never played it. I would rather like to think that I would have liked it but, as Pidesco says, I just got tired of overlooking the shortcomings in the NWNx engine.

"Fourthed"

Great games both, I had a blast with them ~except for one very irksome annoyance... The combat AI can see you anywhere on the board. You can have most of your party hidden on the opposite side of a twisting canyon, and if your thief gets spotted on the other side (but escapes & hides)... Every enemy marches "conga-style" through the entire canyon all the way to your hidden alcove where your mages are.

Edited August 6, 2009 by Gizmo

[Tigranes]

The combat AI can see you anywhere on the board. You can have most of your party hidden on the opposite side of a twisting canyon, and if your thief gets spotted on the other side (but escapes & hides)... Every enemy marches "conga-style" through the entire canyon all the way to your hidden alcove where your mages are.

 

I've been playing BG2 with SCSII mod which implements this all-seeing eye, and it is an annoyance, but I feel it's the best compromise to make the Infinity Engine have 'shouting' enemies (i.e. enemies that sound the alarm to each other) and prevent FOW-related cheese. It makes just as little sense that you can fire cloudkills and fierballs from outside the FOW and they'd stand still and never think to look around for where the balls of hurt are coming from. I just wish it's possible to have the AI 'lose' you once you've been found.

 

Conversely, I think Dorotea went overboard with Longer Road - third time trying and it seems I've screwed it up again. For thsoe not in the know, the mod allows you to recruit Irenicus (similarly to Sarevok) at the beginning of TOB, bargaining with him and promising a Bhaalspawn soul. Of course, you have the option of convincing him, through dialogue and your key decisions throughout the game, to not do that and try and redeem himself. It's written very well (given that it's from an author of an actually good Irenicus fanfic) and it's got sensible, harsh C&C, but it's just very easy to screw up. Be just a little snarky in the very first dialogue with Ellesime and you'll never recruit him at all. He pipes up all the time and you have to be right on target, sardonic and witty sometimes, honest and up front in other times. There're also a couple of things you *have* to do (like complete a related mod quest and save the kid from the Lich in Amkethran)... but the global variables show that I haven't been able to convince him yet again. Gah. You can hardly ever tell until much later, either.

[Nihilus5078]

I dont know what it is with people and games like Fallout 3, Halo 3, Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft, etc. Maybe just me, but I dont know. Anyway, playing Monster Jam: Urban Assault.

[Oner]

I dont know what it is with people and games like Fallout 3, Halo 3, Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft, etc. Maybe just me, but I dont know. Anyway, playing Monster Jam: Urban Assault.

What is it with them?

[RPGmasterBoo]

Braid.

 

Its... different.

[Whipporwill]

I dont know what it is with people and games like Fallout 3, Halo 3, Call of Duty series, World of Warcraft, etc. Maybe just me, but I dont know. Anyway, playing Monster Jam: Urban Assault.

What is it with them?

 

He doesn't know.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I've been playing BG2 with SCSII mod which implements this all-seeing eye, and it is an annoyance, but I feel it's the best compromise to make the Infinity Engine have 'shouting' enemies (i.e. enemies that sound the alarm to each other) and prevent FOW-related cheese. It makes just as little sense that you can fire cloudkills and fierballs from outside the FOW and they'd stand still and never think to look around for where the balls of hurt are coming from. I just wish it's possible to have the AI 'lose' you once you've been found.

 

Oh the days of summoning a Mordanikens sword in a room full of Illithids and shutting the door. And the calamari several minutes later. *sniggers*

Edited August 6, 2009 by RPGmasterBoo

[Purkake]

Braid.

 

Its... different.

 

It's also pretentious, but you'll have to finish the game to see the full extent.

 

Try World of Goo if you're into indie games.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Braid.

 

Its... different.

 

It's also pretentious, but you'll have to finish the game to see the full extent.

 

Try World of Goo if you're into indie games.

 

I'm too stupid to get through the latter levels, and I used to kick ass in P&C Adventures. Long ago

 

So Braid is going slowly.

 

I played World of Goo. It was nice, but a bit like a flash game.

 

I was also playing Darwinia recently - another good indie. Its very charming, but loses appeal quickly.

Edited August 6, 2009 by RPGmasterBoo

[213374U]

I've been playing BG2 with SCSII mod which implements this all-seeing eye, and it is an annoyance, but I feel it's the best compromise to make the Infinity Engine have 'shouting' enemies (i.e. enemies that sound the alarm to each other) and prevent FOW-related cheese. It makes just as little sense that you can fire cloudkills and fierballs from outside the FOW and they'd stand still and never think to look around for where the balls of hurt are coming from. I just wish it's possible to have the AI 'lose' you once you've been found.

Actually, you can lose the AI or, at least, throw them off the track of the stealthing character. But once they go mad, they WILL track the rest of your group, across the map if need be, even if they don't KNOW there are other people apart from the sneaking/invisible character.

 

 

Conversely, I think Dorotea went overboard with Longer Road - third time trying and it seems I've screwed it up again.

Yeah, it's easy to piss him off. Getting the good ending involves playing super nice with him and only confronting him directly once, which is... difficult to justify from a RP perspective. Problem is, if you refuse to go along with his mad schemes and failed to convince him, the final battle becomes so much more difficult (Ascension+Irenicus+SCSII=world of hurt). It's still one of my favorite mods anyway.

 

BTW, you need to save both the kid and her father, in Amkethran.

[Tagaziel]

Just finished Prototype, a very decent game, if a bit hard to master, with the crazy camera and Alex's pathfinding less than stellar.

[Morgoth]

Played the ArmA 2 demo today. That's the sort of game where the developer chew off too much that they couldn't handle. Some awesome graphics, but wierd AI behavior and...well, the fact it's a simulation doesn't help me to like the game much either. Man, I played that stupid mission where I ran 20 min around in some valley, then I finally approch the village, and BAM! I'm suddenly dead. Hurrdurr.

[RPGmasterBoo]

Played the ArmA 2 demo today. That's the sort of game where the developer chew off too much that they couldn't handle. Some awesome graphics, but wierd AI behavior and...well, the fact it's a simulation doesn't help me to like the game much either. Man, I played that stupid mission where I ran 20 min around in some valley, then I finally approch the village, and BAM! I'm suddenly dead. Hurrdurr.

 

Its a hyper realistic military simulator from the makers of the heavily modded Operation Flashpoint.

Its hardcore, and not for the impatient. Its what you get when you have too much realism - the desire to whack your monitor.

 

And yes they screwed the AI.

Edited August 6, 2009 by RPGmasterBoo

[Azure79]

I've been playing BG2 with SCSII mod which implements this all-seeing eye, and it is an annoyance, but I feel it's the best compromise to make the Infinity Engine have 'shouting' enemies (i.e. enemies that sound the alarm to each other) and prevent FOW-related cheese. It makes just as little sense that you can fire cloudkills and fierballs from outside the FOW and they'd stand still and never think to look around for where the balls of hurt are coming from. I just wish it's possible to have the AI 'lose' you once you've been found.

 

Oh the days of summoning a Mordanikens sword in a room full of Illithids and shutting the door. And the calamari several minutes later. *sniggers*

 

Haven't played BG2 with the SCS mods, but I did with BG1 and it was incredibly hard. For really tough battles I would usually use my stealth character to initiate combat then throw a nice potion of explosions in the middle of the fray. Then I would run run run away separating my main party from my stealth character. I would then try to divide and conquer leading enemies into ambushes or tight corridors. I really enjoyed it.

[Deraldin]

Playing BG1 with SCS really gave me an increased appreciation for limited use items like potions and wands. Potions of Absorbtion are so much fun when battling clerics. "Just try and hit me! I've got a -21 AC versus blunt weapons!" I'm not entirely sure how but potions of _____ strength seem to double my damage. Somehow that hill giant strength potion took me from doing 7-11 damage to 20-24 damage per hit. Very helpful when you've only got 2 melee attacks per round and 3-4 hard hitting enemies.

[RPGmasterBoo]

I've been playing BG2 with SCSII mod which implements this all-seeing eye, and it is an annoyance, but I feel it's the best compromise to make the Infinity Engine have 'shouting' enemies (i.e. enemies that sound the alarm to each other) and prevent FOW-related cheese. It makes just as little sense that you can fire cloudkills and fierballs from outside the FOW and they'd stand still and never think to look around for where the balls of hurt are coming from. I just wish it's possible to have the AI 'lose' you once you've been found.

 

Oh the days of summoning a Mordanikens sword in a room full of Illithids and shutting the door. And the calamari several minutes later. *sniggers*

 

Haven't played BG2 with the SCS mods, but I did with BG1 and it was incredibly hard. For really tough battles I would usually use my stealth character to initiate combat then throw a nice potion of explosions in the middle of the fray. Then I would run run run away separating my main party from my stealth character. I would then try to divide and conquer leading enemies into ambushes or tight corridors. I really enjoyed it.

 

Yes you had to compromise and think unlike these days, where all you need to do is be present at the computer to win. Sometimes not even that.