What are you playing now

[Maria Caliban]

I reinstalled Civilization V because of the various updates they've put out. Hopefully, I'll enjoy the game a bit more.

[Thorton_AP]

Civ5 patch list: http://store.steampowered.com/news/4789/

 

I'll have to give it a whirl as well.

[Labadal]

Downloading DC Universe Online Beta. Not an MMO fan, but I'll give it a try.

[entrerix]

ok so i started alpha protocol last night, played for about 25 minutes.

 

the hacking game took me ten of those to figure out. very frustrating. i miss deus ex where you didnt have to play a minigame to hack a computer or pick a lock.

 

bright sides:

1. graphics are good, almost as good as half life 2 imo

2. system is intriguing, i spent a long time deciding what skills to choose

3. I like the dialogue system a lot, makes conversations interesting and tense, no skipping through lines in this one

4. hand to hand combat is awesome so far

 

downsides so far:

1. no turning animation. he just swivels around. i'd have preferred the game in first person perspective if they weren't going to animate his movement properly

 

2. that ****ing hacking minigame. i invested two points immediately after levelling up the first time into the skill that makes the minigames easier so that i can hopefully not have to bang my head against a wall every time i want to open a door. either that or maybe im just retarded and the minigame will get much easier after some practice

[Tale]

Rolled my Gnome last night. The new Gnome start is excellent. He brought me a lot of nostalgia to my old vanilla main. *sniffle*

[Nepenthe]

2. that ****ing hacking minigame. i invested two points immediately after levelling up the first time into the skill that makes the minigames easier so that i can hopefully not have to bang my head against a wall every time i want to open a door. either that or maybe im just retarded and the minigame will get much easier after some practice

 

I kind of learned to pick the patterns by squinting my eyes, eventually. But I'm (at least officially) not retarded, and it was pretty painful. But you always have the option for bypassing them with the emp, so...

 

Haven't played anything a in a couple of days. Vacillating between replaying ME2 again, trying arkham asylum or taking another shot at Alpha Protocol...

[Crazy Tuvok]

2. that ****ing hacking minigame. i invested two points immediately after levelling up the first time into the skill that makes the minigames easier so that i can hopefully not have to bang my head against a wall every time i want to open a door. either that or maybe im just retarded and the minigame will get much easier after some practice

 

I kind of learned to pick the patterns by squinting my eyes, eventually. But I'm (at least officially) not retarded, and it was pretty painful. But you always have the option for bypassing them with the emp, so...

 

Haven't played anything a in a couple of days. Vacillating between replaying ME2 again, trying arkham asylum or taking another shot at Alpha Protocol...

 

If you haven't played it yet and you are even remotely a fan of Batman Arkham Asylum. It is pretty effing terrific.

[Majek]

Commandos 2. I found out they actually made a resolution hack so i thought i'd be time to replay the game again.

[entrerix]

seconded, arkham asylum reminds me of a mix between metal gear solid and bioshock, but its a brawler.

 

one of the better games to be released in the last few years. its not game of the decade or anything, but it was very very good, and obviously was made by people who really cared about making a batman game.

[Nepenthe]

I thought the demo was ok and I got the game dirt cheap a couple of months ago. Life's just been hectic, so I haven't had the kind of mentality a new game needs (I also have Witcher on the cards at some point). I just wound up watching Blues Brothers tonight, instead.

[Thorton_AP]

Hey enterix, there's also equipment upgrades you can get to improve the hacking minigame. I agree it's frustrating to start, but after a while I was able to get pretty good at them. Hang in there I think it is worth it

[Crazy Tuvok]

And at least with the hacking game if it doesn't look like you are going to succeed you can abort and start again. Lockpicking and door codes are thankfully bypassable with EMPS cuz otherwise...

And no loss in XP for using the EMPs for which I am grateful.

 

First playthrough I maxed out sabotage and had the best "tech" gear and none of the minigames got noticeably easier for me. The hacking mini-game I always have found the easiest actually. None however did I ever much like.

[Purkake]

seconded, arkham asylum reminds me of a mix between metal gear solid and bioshock, but its a brawler.

I haven't played that much of AA, but could you explain this, because I am confuse.

[entrerix]

i can try purkake, but the way i tie games together in my mind as being similar is sometimes very... unique...

 

ok so remember in metal gear solid 1 the feeling you got when traveling between the first building area to the second and you fought vulcan raven in the tank? but then later you can go back and forth between the two building areas more freely and you get that nostalgia feeling remembering the awesome fight you had there? I get that feeling a lot while playing arkham asylum and moving between the different areas of the island. Something about the traveling back and forth to different areas, each time maybe with a new gadget to use? (im not talking on the level of a metroidvania, but still, you get a few gadget upgrades and such when traveling back and forth, like in MGS when you get that rocket launcher you can control to blast the electric panel to get by the elecrtic floor, or when you need to find a sniper rifle to rescue the chick from sniper wolf's trap?)

 

.... so yeah, its a feeling i get

 

bioshock: mainly in the story bits you find in the audio logs, and the color scheme and overall mise-en-scene of batman reminds me of bioshock. they could have had the same artistic director for all i know, it's like recognizing wally pfisters camerawork between nolan films, the films can have different stuff going on, but the way shots are framed etc share certain similarities.

 

so when you combine those things together, the MGS feeling and the bioshock feeling, but you make the game a brawler about batman, you end up with Arkham Asylum, in my mind anyway...

 

i know i sound like a total psycho, but seriously this is how my mind works when comparing overall game "feel" (not the kinetics/friction of gameplay, but more the art, imagery, sound, game design etc etc, i wish i knew a good phrase for this but the phenomena is unique to gaming imo and the phrases i can think of are more film based)

[Labadal]

seconded, arkham asylum reminds me of a mix between metal gear solid and bioshock, but its a brawler.

I haven't played that much of AA, but could you explain this, because I am confuse.

 

If you ask me, BAA is more like a Metroid game. You can't enter certain areas, but you can come back once you pick up new gadgets.

[GreasyDogMeat]

If you ask me, BAA is more like a Metroid game. You can't enter certain areas, but you can come back once you pick up new gadgets.

This. BAA has one of the most awesome and enjoyable hand to hand mechanics I've seen in a game. Its simple to learn, but difficult to master and when you do start figuring out the extra tricks you fly around dispatching enemies like a whirlwind. The stealth predator sections are fantastic too. So many options to distract and disable the enemy. It wasn't till my second playthrough that I discovered you could scare the crap out of enemies by first stringing up an enemy from a gargoyle and then dropping his body on enemies who come to investigate by throwing a batarang.

 

I have to admit I'm pretty excited about the sequel.

[Niten_Ryu]

Just finished Call of Duty World at War. I think it's the worst of the series and since I played 'em chronological order, the contrast between fun and interesting Modern Warfare and boring WW2 was huge. Jack Bauer bearking orders in pacific campaign game was bizarre. I can usually ignore actors previous roles but this time no such luck

[entrerix]

i played both modern warfare games before trying WaW and found it to be nearly unplayable, plus the game crashed 4 times in a row at the end of the 4th level (erasing the checkpoint forcing me to do the entire level over and over again, so i gave up on it)

 

 

 

 

also: so i've done the first 3 saudi missions in AP and am enjoying the game quite a bit, have not had any bugs yet either (except for one mook getting stuck on a crate but that happens in every game made with crates in the last 20 years...)

 

hacking minigame is not as frustrating now, thank god.

 

going with a stealth, h2h, and assault rifles build. will I ever be able to get a silencer for my assault rifle?

Edited December 18, 2010 by entrerix

[Starwars]

No. The only way to be quiet when using the Assault Rifle is using subsonic rounds.

 

I started up another playthrough of New Vegas. Gonna bring along ED-E and someone else, possibly Cass, this time around.

[Nihilus5078]

I'm playing Resident Evil 4 now.

[Malcador]

FIFA 11, the AI cheating BS is strong.

[Maria Caliban]

Greetings!

 

A month or so ago, someone recommended a scary adventure game to me and linked me to a Let's Play of it. The game started aboard a boat with a gentleman reading a note from his father. Then the player fiddled around with the world physics. I recall thinking the setting was icy.

 

I thought it was Amnesia: The Dark Decent, but that's not right.

[Tale]

Greetings!

 

A month or so ago, someone recommended a scary adventure game to me and linked me to a Let's Play of it. The game started aboard a boat with a gentleman reading a note from his father. Then the player fiddled around with the world physics. I recall thinking the setting was icy.

 

I thought it was Amnesia: The Dark Decent, but that's not right.

It is not Amnesia, but it's from the same developer. Penumbra, specifically Overture, the first one.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/22180/

 

But I can recommend all three.

Edited December 20, 2010 by Tale

[Mamoulian War]

I just got myself Gran Turismo 5 and Cataclysm... Still do not know, if I ever will have time to play Cataclysm in next few months... bah, at least GT5 is awesome. Money well spent!

[Pope]

finally got around to buying God of War 3, and once again loving Kratos' brutality

 

just banged Aphrodite and had the most epic encounter with Cronos