What are you playing now?

[GhostofAnakin]

Two Worlds II ain't bad for a little open world romp. The voice acting is pretty bad, however, as are some of the animations. But I'm not seeing a vast difference between this and Oblivion to see Oblivion score near perfect scores, whereas Two Worlds seems to fall into the average to slightly above average range.

[MechanicalLemon]

Currently replaying Arcanum for the 4th or 5th time as a melee technologist. Pretty fun so far. Love using grenades too.

 

Man, I would kill for an Arcanum sequel. Anyone know who owns the IP?

[Jaesun]

Currently replaying Arcanum for the 4th or 5th time as a melee technologist. Pretty fun so far. Love using grenades too.

 

Man, I would kill for an Arcanum sequel. Anyone know who owns the IP?

 

Sierra/Activision

[Lexx]

Call of Arcanum, a steampunk first person shooter comes into my mind. :>

[Humanoid]

Vaguely on the topic of sequels, it's interesting to see how the expectations shift from 17 years ago to now. Wing Commander CIC has republished an 1994 article covering the making of Privateer - remembering by this stage Origin was well and truly EA's property.

 

Of note is the final note regarding sales - 50,000 units to that point had already guaranteed that there be a follow-up, either an expansion or likely a sequel. (As it happens, both, sort of)

 

With more than 50,000 copies of Privateer sold in the first few months of release, there will definitely be some type of follow-up game. It may be Privateer II or a Special Missions disk. Any new game ideas, even spin-off games, must go through the complete review process. A good market response always makes it easier to design and introduce a sequel.

 

http://www.wcnews.com/articles/art64.shtml

[Tigranes]

Just finished my first Shogun 2 TW campaign. Very satisfying but its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness; focusing on Japan helped them actually make a rather polished product that works well out of the box for once, but I think I'll get tired of it soon unless the mod scene does it again. It was quite enjoyable having Oda Nobunaga rampage around the place, but even on Hard/Hard you win 90% of the battles you choose to fight.

 

Perhaps a higher difficulty, but not a fan of extra AI bonuses that effectively mean more spams of units to fight.

[Monte Carlo]

Just finished my first Shogun 2 TW campaign. Very satisfying but its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness; focusing on Japan helped them actually make a rather polished product that works well out of the box for once, but I think I'll get tired of it soon unless the mod scene does it again. It was quite enjoyable having Oda Nobunaga rampage around the place, but even on Hard/Hard you win 90% of the battles you choose to fight.

 

Perhaps a higher difficulty, but not a fan of extra AI bonuses that effectively mean more spams of units to fight.

 

I love TW but gave up when they released Empires (I find the period a bit meh), and as I'm not a fan of the Shogun setting either I doubt that I'll be getting this one either.

 

MTW2 is now at the pinnacle of modding awe, I play that a helluva lot, it's still a fabulous game.

[Calax]

Just a heads up, but Empire-Shogun they haven't had the mod tools they did for m2. Currently they can't actually change the map at ALL because of how the thing is designied. CA has hinted that hey'll finally release the EMPIRE Tools in the near future.

[Malcador]

Getting Syberia. Not sute why I never played this when it came out, but ah well.

[pmp10]

CA has hinted that hey'll finally release the EMPIRE Tools in the near future.

Could you give source for this?

Would love to see fort battles remodeled and some improvements to unit behavior but it does seem a little late.

[Labadal]

Finished my New Vegas playthrough and sided with "everyone" for as long as I could. Was only villified by two minor factions until the end. Then I decided to go for an independent New Vegas and things got crazy. I turned on them all and was generally an *** to all factions.

[Rosbjerg]

I'm doing my second play through of NV, I've found so many places that I missed in the first game - and I took Cass with me this time, who is by far my favourite companion.

 

I've also installed so many mods that it's hard for me to keep track (I think I have 30+ now) - but they've really made the game much better (and I liked it vanilla too).

[Nepenthe]

Yes, awith 80% bigger font.

 

*Perks up*

 

Considering that font illegibility (and an unwillingness/inability to spend 2-3 weeks gaming, straight) has been my main issue with the infinity engine games, it looks like the first problem has been modded away while I haven't been paying attention. Still, I'll probably go with BG2 first, when I have the time for some really involved gaming.

[Lexx]

Yeh, the font size was a must have for me. Especially in a game where you have to read so much, I just can't stand a small font. Same goes for Arcanum as well... the font is too small for me. Not that I am blind... I can read the normal font pretty good, but after a while the small font is just hard and annoying (not just in games, everywhere... I am glad that the super-tiny-fancy-font-time from websites has ended).

[Calax]

CA has hinted that hey'll finally release the EMPIRE Tools in the near future.

Could you give source for this?

Would love to see fort battles remodeled and some improvements to unit behavior but it does seem a little late.

http://blogs.sega.com/totalwar/2010/10/22/modtools/

 

I initially got it from a thread on the Total War Center. Couldn't find that again.

[MechanicalLemon]

Currently replaying Arcanum for the 4th or 5th time as a melee technologist. Pretty fun so far. Love using grenades too.

 

Man, I would kill for an Arcanum sequel. Anyone know who owns the IP?

 

Sierra/Activision

 

That's...incredibly disappointing.

 

Call of Arcanum, a steampunk first person shooter comes into my mind. :>

 

Maybe no sequel is better after all. BLOODY SCREEN. SO REAL.

[trulez]

Alpha Protocol

 

Back when it was released I gave it 5 minutes and threw it in the corner, now I'm giving it another go. I've done the tutorial and first mission, it's not as bad as I thought it was but it's pretty damn predictable and repetetive. Every area has the same 3-5 enemies and boring loot (cash & ammo) lying around, clear the room, open a door and repeat the exercise. I'm in Taipei safehouse now, does it get any better later on ?

Edited April 11, 2011 by trulez

[mkreku]

I was also recently trying out Alpha Protocol (because of the Steam sale), but I seem to have given up after only two missions. Incredibly small maps, enemies that disappear if you pass some invisible line, big yellow bouncing markers indicating EVERYTHING you can do (which isn't much..), whether it is climbing a ladder or sliding down a wire..

 

Combine this with clunky graphics, an engine that stutters on a system well above recommended hardware (common UE3 problem), no quicksave/quickload.

 

It's not difficult to see why this game was slated by the press. I want to like it, but.. I haven't felt like picking it up after those first two missions.

 

 

Edit: Now that I think about it, it gives me the same feeling Deus Ex: Invisible War gave me back in the day. That slightly clumsy, cramped feeling.

Edited April 11, 2011 by mkreku

[Tigranes]

I've returned to Alpha Protocol as well. Actually, I loved it way too much when it first came out and blazed through ~5 playthroughs, now I'm better able to see its flaws as well. It really does look quite poor in various places (all of which are accentuated in the opening Greybox area, unfortunately), mouse IS annoying for those who get the stuttering, and larger sprawling levels would definitely have made the fun factor go up exponentially.

 

Nevertheless I still think it gives you a unique and very enjoyable experience, especially if you don't abuse Chain Shot, play at least on Hard, and go with the pace of the game instead of fighting it (in conversations, in exploration, in fighting). There's a lot of fun to be had in trying to ghost levels, use various gadgets creatively, etc., and theres some insane C&C going on.

[Nightshape]

I'm glad that I'm not the only person who saw AP's graphical flaws as abhorrant. Its the worst art direction I've seen in a game, especially when you consider the HUD

 

That said, I don't actually think its a bad game, you just have to approach it from the perspective of what it is, an RPG, with a really clunky action element - We're talking clueless here. That said I've still enjoyed my time with it, it has some redeaming factors, the problem is that the team obviously used ME as an action model, when really they should have been focused on Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, and such... Well, all I can say for truth is, its better than Damnation, my god, proof that using UE3 doesn't mean it'll end up any good.

[WorstUsernameEver]

My opinion is that, if Obsidian, or any other RPG developer ever attempts a Spy RPG again, they should focus on building a spy. Put different choices in how you develop an ultimately stealthy characters: social (disguising/acquire info etc.), hacking, traditional etc., drop stuff like the weapon skills and reduce and change the pace of the combat. The obligatory bosses were just the icing on the cake of something that really didn't feel (gameplay-wise) like a spy experience. That said, despite the fact that it was very unfocused and had some bad art, Alpha Protocol's strong points made it a very rewarding game.

Plus, martial arts were cool.

[Tigranes]

That's very true, I'd love to have seen an Alpha Protocol that played a lot more like Thief, where you really don't want to go in guns blazing except in a very few opportunities. I enjoyed the over the topness of the AP we got but sometimes it did go too far. Imagine AP spending less time getting its guns going and more time with hitman-style disguises and wires, etc...

 

But yes, I think there's no hiding its great qualities or its bad ones. I'm glad we got it, really.

[pmp10]

That's very true, I'd love to have seen an Alpha Protocol that played a lot more like Thief, where you really don't want to go in guns blazing except in a very few opportunities.

The days of such complexity are long gone.

Have you actually seen modern gamers trying to play thief?

It's not pretty.

 

I'm currently playing Darksiders.

It's generally ok for a mindless game but tries too hard to be too many things at once.

[Malcador]

Syberia is pretty fun so far. Still in the first zone. The dialogue can be a bit broken if you do things differently than the way the designer thought you would, but not a big deal.

[Labadal]

Vagrant Story. Haven't played it in many years, so I felt it was time to give it another go. I wish Yasumi Matsuno gets a new project in the near future. I am a big fan of his games and I must admit that I'm surprised he hasn't done much since he left SquareEnix. Another Final Fantasy Tactics, please, or a another game with a political plots that has many twists.