What are you playing now?

[GreasyDogMeat]

All this trouble I hear about getting recent PC titles to work decently just reinforces my decision to get a console. That is definitely one thing I don't miss, hours and sometimes days of trying to get a game to work properly.

 

The two DeathSpank games (See Majek's Avatar) are on sale this week on xbla so I picked them up. The humor is all over the place, at times sounding like its for a 5 year old, other times making me lol. Luckily I've been laughing more than not. Playing through the games I can see where most of Monkey Island's humor came from. I wish the game played more like the original Diablo or Dungeon Siege and enemies stayed dead and if you died you had to reload, not just respawn a few feet away.

Edited January 23, 2011 by GreasyDogMeat

[MacMichael]

I finished playing VVVVVV yesterday. What a fantastic little flash game. It's challenging without being frustrating, and the music is fantastic. More people should play it.

 

I returned to The Witcher, finally finishing chapter 1. I intend on pouring more time into that game in the coming weeks. I have to admit I found the sex scene with Abagail quite inappropriate. I mean, why would they have sex in a cave in front of a group of children when an angry mob just outside wants nothing more than to burn her? It's on those occasions that make me believe that when they say "for mature gamers" they mean "for virgins."

 

I also started playing Dead Space. I bought it on steam back godknowswhen and I hadn't bothered to play it until now. To my dismay I found out that a) the mouse+keyboard controls are horrid and b) if I enable v-sync the game actually locks itself to 30fps. I solved 1) with an Xbox 360 controller and 2) by playing around with my nvidia control panel. It looks and plays really neat.

 

I also checked out the beginning levels of F.E.A.R. and have decided to put more time into it once I've finished the other two games I'm playing. It doesn't look bad for something that was released 5 years ago.

 

I also just started playing Dead Space again. I had started a game awhile back on the 360, when a group of friends and I were getting together for regular gaming sessions, but this time I have it for my PC. Most of my issues with the mouse and keyboard control seems to have been solved by turning the mouse sensitivity way up in game and turning off V-sync in game.

[Vilhelm]

Not frustrating? Well i was frustrated to have to go up 4 screens dodging spikes just to turn around and go back down dodging spikes to pick up something.

 

And yes external vsync settings work better, as does a high DPI mouse. I had no trouble with keyboard + mouse, infact it was faster and more accurate than using a controller.

 

Well, Doing Things The Hard way is ridiculously difficult and I still haven't managed to get that shiny trinket, but I don't look at it as a frustrating element. Just a trial and error and surgical precision problem.

 

As for Dead Space, I looked things up and found out that my computer is simply too fast for the game. In other words, if I want great framerate (150-220fps) I need to use a controller, but if I enable v-sync in-game the framerate is limited to 30fps and I can use the keyboard + mouse controls. I'm not too bothered by using a controller, the framerate is more important in my opinion.

[Purkake]

All this trouble I hear about getting recent PC titles to work decently just reinforces my decision to get a console. That is definitely one thing I don't miss, hours and sometimes days of trying to get a game to work properly.

There's no going back, man.

 

 

And no Steam holiday sales...

 

[Majek]

.

 

As for Dead Space, I looked things up and found out that my computer is simply too fast for the game. In other words, if I want great framerate (150-220fps) I need to use a controller, but if I enable v-sync in-game the framerate is limited to 30fps and I can use the keyboard + mouse controls. I'm not too bothered by using a controller, the framerate is more important in my opinion.

 

Well 60 fps i got with forced vsync in Nvidia panel and turned off in the game was enough for me. The flickering without sync was bothersome at some locations.

[Labadal]

Played Football Manager 2011. I didn't want to play it, but seeing my brother play it got me curious. I'm now hooked and can't stop playing it. It's like a drug.

[Lexx]

Doing my very very first Wasteland playthrough now. I never really played the game before, because I just couldn't get into it. Now a few days ago, I wanted to check it out again. Now this time, I've read a lot about it before (help, hints, etc.) and everything was much more smooth. I am at the desert-nomads camp now and it's just great so far.

 

Edited January 24, 2011 by Lexx

[Majek]

i haven't played Wasteland for 15 years ... if you post more screens or if i see mkreku's avatar more i might even start to play it myself.

[Lexx]

Okay, here is my group fending off some rail thieves.

 

[WorstUsernameEver]

Surely it's a misunderstanding, show the rail thief your original Wasteland disc and he'll stop attacking you.

[Thorton_AP]

Played Football Manager 2011. I didn't want to play it, but seeing my brother play it got me curious. I'm now hooked and can't stop playing it. It's like a drug.

 

I was considering picking this up. I have downloaded the demo. The only thing holding me back is my complete lack of soccer knowledge haha. Despite that, I still love being a sports manager.

 

Have you by any chance found any newb guides that will help for soccer newbs too? The idea of bringing a poor team up from the lower leagues just sounds tooooo appealing haha.

[Hurlshort]

Doing my very very first Wasteland playthrough now. I never really played the game before, because I just couldn't get into it. Now a few days ago, I wanted to check it out again. Now this time, I've read a lot about it before (help, hints, etc.) and everything was much more smooth. I am at the desert-nomads camp now and it's just great so far.

 

 

Sweet, I'm a featured character!

[Guest Slinky]

Finished Mafia 2. Verdict: Not as good as the original, but still one of the better games I have played in a while. Combat and driving were both done well, I liked how the surroundings got shot to pieces in firefights and driving around the city with fifties music playing.

 

Story in the other hand was somewhat disappointing, especially the ending. The ending in Mafia is one of the best ever done in my opinion, but in the sequel I was like "Huh? That's it?"

 

But still, 10

[Labadal]

Played Football Manager 2011. I didn't want to play it, but seeing my brother play it got me curious. I'm now hooked and can't stop playing it. It's like a drug.

 

I was considering picking this up. I have downloaded the demo. The only thing holding me back is my complete lack of soccer knowledge haha. Despite that, I still love being a sports manager.

 

Have you by any chance found any newb guides that will help for soccer newbs too? The idea of bringing a poor team up from the lower leagues just sounds tooooo appealing haha.

Hope this helps.

 

Everything you need to know should be provided to you in this link. I tend to do what I want anyway(played these games for 13 years) but there are many tips & tricks and suggestions for new players.

 

Helping a semi-proffesional team from the lowest division to the Premier division is a highlight in all thse games. I currently have three savefiles:

Managing Liverpool FC, playing alone.

Managing Udinese, while my brother is the manager of Napoli

Also playing with two friends. Me being in control of Newcastle United. Only played one game on this one. I was tipped for relegation, but managed to beat Chelsea with a man down. Felt like a happy little kid.

[Thorton_AP]

My big issue is mostly with positioning and stuff. Making sure I train guys to be skilled in the right areas and so forth. But yeah, I'll probably sit down and play with the demo some time in the next few days.

[entrerix]

i recently played dragon age again, and immediately after began a playthrough of baldurs gate 1.

 

now I haven't played baldurs gate 1 since maybe two years after it came out... I'm about to chase sarevok into the under levels of baldurs gate and have these things to say as my "new review" of one of my old favorites.

 

1. this game does not hold up NEARLY as well as fallout or planescape does. (both of those games I consider almost as good now as they were then)

 

2. its still fun, but really just becuase its a pretty ok representation of AD&D in a crpg package.

 

3. good lord the combat system is a mess and so many of the encounters are just a clusterball of chaos. this game should have been turn based and it should have had less mook fights. (so yeah, its exactly like dragon age)

 

re comparison of dragon age and BG 1. dialogue and characterization has both gotten better and worse since BG1. There are better implemented "details" in BG1, but the actual things people say to eachother is better written in dragon age, and you have MUCH more C&C in dragon age. Baldurs gate is a much better game though because at the time baldurs gate did all this stuff it was NEW dragon age is a decent game, but isn't really revolutionizing much of anything the way BG did.

 

winner = baldurs gate 1, but not by as large a margin as I was expecting (unfortunately for many "wrong" reasons).

Edited January 24, 2011 by entrerix

[Lexx]

Surely it's a misunderstanding, show the rail thief your original Wasteland disc and he'll stop attacking you.

 

This reminds me something.

 

Does someone know if it's still possible to get some original Wasteland box? Not the anthology packs, etc... but the real original one. I would love to get my hands on one. I've searched around already, but this damn Tony Hawks American Wasteland crap is ruining my search success rate.

Edited January 24, 2011 by Lexx

[Guest Slinky]

winner = baldurs gate 1, but not by as large a margin as I was expecting (unfortunately for many "wrong" reasons).

Brace yourself, there's a good change a tsunami of pure madness is coming this way, containing words like LIES, FACT, R00FLES and NWN>BG etc etc.

[Starwars]

BG1 kinda sucks and DA is better in *almost* every way.

 

There, I started it off.

 

It's the truth though.

[entrerix]

if baldurs gate was not set in the forgotten realms, I probably would be inclined to agree actually.

 

I'm going to play BG2 next and see if my fond memories of that game hold up ala fallout and torment, or if its a bit of a dissapointment ala BG1...

 

edit: actually no, on second thought, the exploration freedom in baldurs gate really does still trump dragon age's writing and choice&consequences, so even if baldurs gate was not an AD&D game it would still be a tad better than dragon age, not to mention it actually was original and influential when it was released which grants it "art" points in my ratings system

Edited January 24, 2011 by entrerix

[Enoch]

if baldurs gate was not set in the forgotten realms, I probably would be inclined to agree actually.

 

I'm going to play BG2 next and see if my fond memories of that game hold up ala fallout and torment, or if its a bit of a dissapointment ala BG1...

 

edit: actually no, on second thought, the exploration freedom in baldurs gate really does still trump dragon age's writing and choice&consequences, so even if baldurs gate was not an AD&D game it would still be a tad better than dragon age

Heh. I see all three of those "advatages" as negatives. AD&D was a terrible ruleset, FR was an awful setting, and, while exploration can be an interesting and fun gameplay element, the wilderness areas in BG1 were so lacking in entertaining content (exception: Korax the Ghoul) that the game would've been a more satisfying experience with at least half of them on the cutting room floor.

[Hurlshort]

The story and the characters made BG for me. I replayed it a year ago and still really enjoyed it. Admittedly I am probably colored by reminiscence. Oddly enough, I never got into BG2, and trying to play it again recently also didn't keep my attention for long. I think there is too much going on, I liked the simpleness of the BG1 story more.

[entrerix]

that was my experience with BG2 actually, though I was also tainted by just having finished torment before beginning BG2 and thinking "i wish this was more like torment..." while I was playing it.

[Enoch]

The chief advantage that BG2 had over BG1 was depth of character. The companions and the antagonists were far more fleshed-out and compelling than were BG1's "three soundclips and a character sheet" companions and the Generic Evil Overlord #37 they named "Sarevok."*

 

I, too, suffered from Torment-envy when playing BG2, but the compelling mystery regarding the nature of the antagonists made it a much more satisfying experience to me than the first BG was.

 

 

* Aside: Viewed from the other side, though, the shallowness of BG1's characters allowed Bioware to give us scads of them to choose from. If a player is of the type that mentally fills in the gaps of thinly-sketched characters through the course of their game, I could see that as being a more satisfying design (and something that makes BG1 look good when compared to all of Bio's efforts since).

[HoonDing]

I find Baldur's Gate better than its sequel, due to the low-level campaign and limited possibilities for exploration. I still remember the large amount of absurd encounters one could have in random places (for example, the child looking for his dog who turns out to be a shapeshifting demon, etc).

 

The boss fight against Sarevok is also much more compelling than Slayer-Irenicus, and almost impossible to win without cheesing. Not to mention Durlag Tower - best dungeon of all time.

 

I also think Irenicus is one of the most overrated videogame antagonists, pretty much the Sephiroth of western RPGs. A mage who tried to reach above his station, predictably failed and then went on a mad quest for revenge against the world. Yey.

Edited January 24, 2011 by virumor