What are you playing now?

[Tel Aviv]

Since Deus Ex: Human Revolution is going to get released sometime in the near future, I decided to play through the original Deus Ex again so I don't miss any references to it in human revolution.

 

And damn, it's been a while since the last time I played it, but it's still every bit as good as I remembered!

 

I did the same thing last summer. But just remember: when you're done with Deus Ex, Invisible War is every bit as bad as you remembered. I forgot that part.

Heh, yeah, IW is pretty bad when compared to the original, but it's not that bad game. Horrible disappointment as a sequel? Yes. One of the worst examples of "streamlining"? Yes. A bad game? No.

Yeah, Invisible War got kind of a raw deal. I didn't like the move away from cyberpunk into what seemed more like conventional science fiction to me but still, not a bad game by the usual standards.

[GreasyDogMeat]

For anyone who has played it, was Project Snowblind any good? It apparently started out as a third Deus Ex game but after the poor reception of IW the Deus Ex name was dropped.

[Wrath of Dagon]

I liked it a lot, some complained about it being too short though.

[Calax]

For anyone who has played it, was Project Snowblind any good? It apparently started out as a third Deus Ex game but after the poor reception of IW the Deus Ex name was dropped.

It was ok. Honestly, from what I remember it felt like Deus Ex:IW with only combat and a better ammunition system.

 

Finally went back and finished off my Scipii game. Managed to eek out JUUUUST enough popularity to start the civil war... and promptly started stripping garrisons left and right from my african and island provinces to move them to mainland italy. Took Rome right off, two turns later I had all of the italian peninsula under my control, then just started radiating out. By the time I finished I had Africa (missing parts of egypt), Turkey, the west coast of Greece, Spain, Southern Gaul and all the islands of the Mediterranean. Economically I was going to just overpower my opponents (I was at war with everyone on the earth... Pontus the Brutii and Julii), I was able to produce and deploy a full stacked army in 10 turns or so (usually it'd be from a different city to a different front).

 

Got REALLLY annoyed at the other two roman factions however as they seemed to yank out probably six stacks of Preatorian and Urban cohorts from seemingly nowhere (well, the Julii might have been hiding them in britan) and then expanded that by throwing in archers, a few cav and other weaker legions for me to chug through. Led to several phyrric victories/300 esque battles where I'd have a much smaller force fighting them and either loose (and remove that armies combat effectiveness) or win and be at half strength for the NEXT stupidly large army to leap on me. The Julii and I had a LOOONG string of skirmishes up and down Gaul north of Massila where about 40-50k troops died (for the record, a battle can only have a max of about 10k each fight) probably more. Finally I basically wore down their troops through sheer attrition and managed to make it to the city (I had another pair of armies sneaking from the east into northern gaul through germania... ok, maybe not sneaking so much as slash and burning but you get the idea). Took the city and won.

 

The Brutii in comparison didn't seem to have much military strength (they'd lost one of their peninsular cities early on for example) and yet once the civil war started all of a sudden a whole fleet of ships comes boiling out of the black sea and the greek archipelago, and his armies take about 5 more turns but start showing up in force. Thinking back on it I suppose they'd ended up tying most of their armies up in the far east dealing with Pontus (who was the only military power still around not roman) in my endless war with them (I think when all was said and done I'd been fighting Pontus for close to 60 years or so). Still they managed to start pushing back towards Italy and were getting REALLY close before I managed to stop them by taking two of their greek cities, and then convinced macedonia to rip into them (Macedon only lived because I refused to get in a fight with ANOTHER world power that had phalanxs). At the taking of my final city those two were duking it out just north of Athens while I clung to Thermon and Alexandria (which I had BARELY managed to take)

Edited March 9, 2011 by Calax

[Hurlshort]

Reached level 12 in Rift. This game has the crafting system of WoW, the public quests of Warhammer Online, and the collection quests of Everquest 2. There are also some shades of Tabula Rasa in there. The story and world are pretty unique though, I'm excited to get home and play it.

[trulez]

Playing Dragon Age 2.

 

I'm still in the first city, taking a good look at the scenery and it feels awe inspiring. I find my self thinking: "What if they made KOTOR3 using DA2 enginge, I'd buy that.".

[Labadal]

But isn't there only one city to begin with?

[sorophx]

there's also the Deep Roads

[Pidesco]

I finished Risen today. As it enters the home stretch, it turns into non stop combat and finishes with an underwhelming boss battle.

 

Still, it was very solid and provided loads of RPGoodness. Besides, the combat is actually pretty good, which made the final chapters much better.

 

Plenty of games really don't need an actual final boss fight. Risen is one of them.

 

 

 

Next, I'll be playing through The Witcher to get saves for the sequel.

[Malcador]

FIFA 11, hammering Barcelona while I cry over what could have been. Well ok kidding about the crying. Trying to squeeze in more Rift time too, rather liking Justicar, turning out to be a nice tank, and the durability helps even when I'm not tanking a Rift as..well, no one heals.

 

Debating rolling a Sentinel healer.

[Niten_Ryu]

Recently bought Assassins Creed from Steam sale and I really liked it. Sure story is beyond idiotic (I still can't belive they felt the need to tie some future conspiracy and totally inaccurate view of the DNA into game), but game and combat mechanics (counter strikes, freerunning, heavy use of z-axis movement) felt really fresh after myriad of games where you can't even jump or scale knee high obstacle. Graphics and art design are very good.

 

One of the main complains of this game was that it got boring after awhile. That critique is accurate and if I wouldn't have enjoyed the combat and running on rooftops, I probably would have skipped all the sidequests. And if one would totally hate the combat (or found it difficult in some way) or couldn't handlerunning and jumping accurately, I bet they'd quit after few levels. But I liked it... a lot. Combat actually held it togther almost till the end, when developers went crazy with enemy numbers and fighting against dosen opponents at once was bit too... unsophisticated

 

I guess I didn't play as sutble assassin, as saving civilians sidequest (repetative no less) meant that you more or less fight 'em at plain sight. I didn't mind as countering 'em with short blade was great fun. Sometimes it created organic cinemetic action scene as each mob was killed with sequences of special move. I think I got 6-7 of 'em back to back. Beat the heck outta pre-scripted cutscenes

 

Writing is ok, but at the same time in the context of the storyline and lack of RPG elemets it fails to reach anything above mediocre. It's like you'd play renegade Shepard (from Mass Effect) and continuesly made the worst possible choices and then listen pseudo-philosophical lecturing from everyone, no matter if it's your mentor or the targets you kill. Speaking of targets you kill and dialogue that follow the kill. It's almost like highschool project where students are ask to justify some extremely stupid viewpoint in debate and then they think they can actually do it. In (good) RPG you could have just said that assassination targets are full of crap (like they were), but in this linear storyline they manage to raise doubt in the mind of the main character.

 

After this game I'm certain that I'll buy Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood at some point. But I still wish that someone would make a RPG with Assassins Creed game and combat mechanics. Same could be said from Ubi's other main brand, the Spinter Cell.

[Calax]

The entire reason for the dna and future crap is so that the other games can be tied together

[entrerix]

AC2 and brotherhood are also way better than part 1, and I LIKED AC 1.

[HoonDing]

The entire reason for the dna and future crap is so that the other games can be tied together

Were they inspired by Dune with this?

 

I haven't played any of these games. Is the combat & platforming similar to Arkham Asylum?

Edited March 11, 2011 by virumor

[entrerix]

kinda sorta similar, but definitely not the same. AC games combat is more like waiting for the right time to parry and counter attack, batman combat is more like a rhythm game

Edited March 11, 2011 by entrerix

[Calax]

Brotherhood actually reworks the combat so it feels more like AA's with an execution system that lets you start with a counter kill, then just mow through guys by one hit killing and dodging attacks that would normally stagger you or knock you out of the flow.

 

As to the dune thing? I'm not sure, the idea is that the memories of your ancestors are actually built into the genome. So the framing device for all the games is that the player is a guy in the future (Desmond Miles) who's ancestors are involved in this big weird plot having to do with the biblical eden and Illuminati etc, and the people who have him as their prisoner/pet are making him relive the memories to find certain things.

 

Eventually there will be an AC game where Desmond is the main character slashing his way through modern day, but we don't know when that'll be (supposedly it's game 3 but *shrugs*)

[entrerix]

i still REALLY want an AC game set in revolutionary france. they can save the modern game for the next gen consoles and do something a little more like mirrors edge with the platforming.

[Tale]

I want Victorian London. And I hope they keep modern era as just the framing sequence. I don't even think modern era would work with the systems they have in place for a full title.

Edited March 11, 2011 by Tale

[Calax]

Yeah, it'd need to stick with blades rather than guns.

 

It would be fun to play an ACTUAL HISTORICAL ninja.

[Tale]

You mean play as a rebellious farmer or some mountain man?

[Calax]

Real ninjas were actually kept as part of the landscaping crew for their bosses and had a lot of their equipment as repurposed farm stuff (thus the scythes etc). You could easily slip in elements of the myths but you could also still keep them as simple pesant farmhands with a secret.

[Guest Slinky]

Finished Deus Ex. What a masterpiece, a ageless gem. I had completely forgotten how much it allows the player explore around and how often it allows the player just to walk around without any combat. Yeah, easily one of the best games ever for me.

 

Gonna skip Invisible War though and wait for Human Revolution, I'm feeling very pro Deus Ex right now and I don't want to spoil it.

[Slowtrain]

Gonna skip Invisible War though and wait for Human Revolution, I'm feeling very pro Deus Ex right now and I don't want to spoil it.

 

 

I'm not particularly a fan of IW, but I've played it through twice and it's not that bad really. No worse than Bioshock and probably better in some areas.

 

Just don't compare IW too strongly to Deus Ex, and enjoy it for what it is.

[The Transcendent One]

Playing The Chronicles of Riddick Escape from Butcher Bay on xbox 360 ,i am enjoying it,its a great game.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Dragon Age. I bought the ultimate edition that has all of the DLCs.