What are you playing now?

[Raithe]

Tried GTA IV again..but couldn't bring myself to focus on it. So instead, I'm starting a new run through on Saints Row 2 just for the sillyness.

[Niten_Ryu]

Tour of duty in GTA games. Finished Episodes from Liberty City (tBoGT is one of the greatest games all time in my book), started GTA San Andreas but didn't want to continue it because graphics are so damn ugly (need to take few months break from more modern GTAs) and controls clunky. So I started another GTA 4 run. Wish I had better computer in order to use fraps. Let's play or walkthru would be fun to make for the youtube (then again, not like there's shortage of those). I really like modern GTAs, they get better the more you play 'em. I think this is my 6th run in GTA 4.

[Deraldin]

I picked up a copy of Frozen Synapse on Steam a couple hours ago and I'm having a blast with it so far. I've only played the first operation and nearly got my butt kicked on the very first level. You start with 4 shotgunners against 4 machine gunners. At close range the shotgunners will absolutely destroy the machine gunners. I moved all my guys, but then left them just peeking around corners. The enemy took the chance and shot two of them on the first turn so I had to outmaneuver 4 guys with my 2 for the rest of the map. I managed it with one guy remaining. in the end.

 

Pro-Tip: If you don't have a shot, get back behind cover!

 

Soundtrack is pretty awesome as well. And before I forget, the game is only sold in 2 packs, so you get a copy to give away whenever you buy it.

Edited May 29, 2011 by Deraldin

[Tale]

Hit level 20 in New Vegas and went on a trip to Sierra Madre. Criminey, God is a talker.

[Hurlshort]

I picked up a copy of Frozen Synapse on Steam a couple hours ago and I'm having a blast with it so far. I've only played the first operation and nearly got my butt kicked on the very first level. You start with 4 shotgunners against 4 machine gunners. At close range the shotgunners will absolutely destroy the machine gunners. I moved all my guys, but then left them just peeking around corners. The enemy took the chance and shot two of them on the first turn so I had to outmaneuver 4 guys with my 2 for the rest of the map. I managed it with one guy remaining. in the end.

 

Pro-Tip: If you don't have a shot, get back behind cover!

 

Soundtrack is pretty awesome as well. And before I forget, the game is only sold in 2 packs, so you get a copy to give away whenever you buy it.

 

I've been looking at that. It sounds a little like Laser Squad Nemesis, which was a play by email game the Gallop brothers developed.

[Deraldin]

I picked up a copy of Frozen Synapse on Steam a couple hours ago and I'm having a blast with it so far. I've only played the first operation and nearly got my butt kicked on the very first level. You start with 4 shotgunners against 4 machine gunners. At close range the shotgunners will absolutely destroy the machine gunners. I moved all my guys, but then left them just peeking around corners. The enemy took the chance and shot two of them on the first turn so I had to outmaneuver 4 guys with my 2 for the rest of the map. I managed it with one guy remaining. in the end.

 

Pro-Tip: If you don't have a shot, get back behind cover!

 

Soundtrack is pretty awesome as well. And before I forget, the game is only sold in 2 packs, so you get a copy to give away whenever you buy it.

 

I've been looking at that. It sounds a little like Laser Squad Nemesis, which was a play by email game the Gallop brothers developed.

I haven't played Laser Squad Nemesis so I can't really say how similar or dissimilar they are. You can play by email though. And it has a pretty kickass soundtrack, which I apparently already mentioned. >_>

Edited May 29, 2011 by Deraldin

[The Transcendent One]

4th playtrough of alpha protocol, also playing prey,the darkness and alan wake.

[entrerix]

i tried alan wake and couldnt play for more than a few hours before i turned it off, does it get dramatically better if you stick with it?

[Tale]

i tried alan wake and couldnt play for more than a few hours before i turned it off, does it get dramatically better if you stick with it?

My major complaint with it is that it doesn't change at all.

[Deraldin]

3:30am. I can totally stop playing Frozen Synapse. I don't need to play one more mission before bed. I can quit whenever I want.

 

*one more level*

[mkreku]

I finished Alpha Protocol and Two Worlds 2 this weekend.

 

Alpha Protocol was good. But it could have been so much better! I loooove the characters and the setting (reminded me of Deus Ex), but the game mechanics are really off-putting. I don't think I have ever played a game with less interaction with the world. If the engine rendered a cigarette butt on the ground, my character would walk up to it and get stuck. If the distance between two crates was one pixel less than the hitbox on my character, I would get stuck.. even though it looked like I had enough room to drive a car between them. Still, I enjoyed the game and would love to see a sequel. A much improved sequel.

 

---

 

Two Worlds 2.. it started out very good, with challenging combat, awesome graphics and physics, good character and equipment development and much improved quests and dialogue compared to the first game. BUT (notice how big that but is?) after a few hours of play the game starts showing its flaws.

 

After the initial (enjoyable) challenge, you become ridiculously overpowered, no matter what you do. Also, as soon as you leave the first island, you'll realize how linear this game really is. It uses big islands to try to hide the fact that it's basically a corridor. You move from island to island and you never look back. Gone is the free world where you could walk around as you wanted, gone is the need to use mounts (just teleport everywhere), gone is the feeling of being in a world since each island has its own visual art style, making them seem even more like different levels. In the end, I didn't even bother to explore anymore, I just rushed to the end. At least the final fight was enjoyable and difficult.

[Lexx]

Playing some FarCry 2 in the moment, because it was cheap on steam.

 

Damn, this game is bad. Someone knows Hard Truck: Apocalypse? FarCry 2 is the same game, just that it has better graphics and you can run around without car, while killing stuff. The game is sending me from left to right to the top, back to the bottom of the map with every damn job that I take. Slowly I'll get the feeling that the random jobs are always placing the target object at least 10 miles away from my current position, so that I have to drive through the same labyrinth-dungeon-worldmap *again*...

 

This game really could have been good. Like a STALKER in africa. But nope, they needed to add dumb fetch quests that send you over the whole map as often as possible, while spawning always the same armed cars and soldiers in enemy camps that can be seen every 10 meters. Not to forget that every damn npc in the game is attacking the player, except the ones in the neutral town and got a respawn timer of like 10 minutes. Ehw.

 

I really want to uninstall that crap. Really don't know what keeps me not doing this... (edit: Guess it's the graphics in the outer / border parts of the worldmap. These areas are really good looking.)

Edited May 30, 2011 by Lexx

[Nightshape]

What were your thoughts on the second to second Lexx? You clearly hate the minute to minute and hour to hour.

[Lexx]

I'll blame it on my english skills, so: I have no clue what you mean.

[Rosbjerg]

Farcry 2 has some good moments.. If you are patient you can plant IEDs, start fires and snipe a few guards to cause complete chaos - it's pretty fun when you've killed off 80% of a base and the few remaining NPC starts mumbling and screaming 'cause they are scared.

 

But if they spot you, every NPC in a 30 miles radius will know your exact location ..

[Nightshape]

I'll blame it on my english skills, so: I have no clue what you mean.

 

A game experience can be broken down into three things.

 

Second to Second: What you're doing in the game from second to second, tends to involve the shooting mechanics and firefights etc...

 

Minute to Minute: What you're doing from minute to minute in the games, I'd assume this is mostly travelling.

 

Hour to Hour: You get the idea...

[mkreku]

The thing I hated the most about Far Cry 2 was when I was driving around in my big military jeep with a huge mounted cannon on top.. and every time I met a tiny little Fiat, they would try to ram me off the road. Without exceptions. Africa is a continent full of people with death wishes!

 

Strange thing though.. I actually liked it anyhow. If they had patched out the respawning guards and made the locals less.. death prone, it would have been very good.

[Lexx]

Interesting. Never heard of that before.

 

Second to Second: You shoot stuff all the time. Every x meters is some random camp that is occupied by NPCs of some faction. What faction doesn't matter anything (I don't see any difference in them as well), as everyone is hostile to you... Which means, yeah, you shoot stuff all the time. Nothing else to do, except that and looking at the enviroment visuals. Firefights can be fun, but it repeats and repeats... Always the same enemies, always the same tactics, etc. Get's old and boring fast.

 

Minute to Minute: Walking or driving around. Most of the time you do this to reach a job giver or the job target. If you like driving, this is actually fun. Walking on the other hand is tedious, as you are slow and walkways are reeeaaalllyy long (and in most of the gameworld, you have to follow the dungeon-esque forest / mountainwall buildup).

 

Hour to Hour: You do boring fetch quests. I've played 7 hours now and so far I have done nothing else. I can't even see the difference between main quests and side quests... Don't know if there is any at all.

[Orogun01]

There was also a lack of guns (for my taste really) and the weird inventory. I get it that they wanted to make players break the monotony of assault rifle + sniper rifle.

All in all I consider FC2 one of those good games that could had been great with some changes in the design.

 

Oh, yeah and I hate having to track diamonds with my GPS. What the hell was that all about?

[Walsingham]

There was nothing wrong with Far Cry 2 which couldn't be fixed by having a testicle gougingly simple mission architecture. By which I mean "Go to B, kill people on route, kill subject X"

 

Obsidian should write the some DLC for Far Cry with, you know, and actual story, set in the country before the events in the main game.

 

EDIT: Massive props to the team for making it so evocative in sight and sound, though. It really makes me miss Africa. The only reason I play the game any more is to admire the occasional sunset.

Edited May 30, 2011 by Walsingham

[Tale]

Back to Gray Matter. Chapter 6, I think. Of 8 or so. I may be able to finish tonight.

[Hurlshort]

I thought Far Cry 2 was beautiful, but an entire country of people trying to kill me that also respawn way too quick was not a fun environment.

 

I spent some time hoping for a mod that would get rid of the spawn rate, but it never materialized.

[Lexx]

Heh, yeah. I've checked for mods already as well, but despite the tools - that I remember to be pretty good, there was a lot hype about it back in the days - there seems to be nothing except some maps.

[Tale]

Beat Gray Matter. Good adventure game. Not an all time classic, but good.

[Walsingham]

Heh, yeah. I've checked for mods already as well, but despite the tools - that I remember to be pretty good, there was a lot hype about it back in the days - there seems to be nothing except some maps.

 

Interesting observation which I'd echo. I wonder if it was simply that anyone smart enough to code a mod got turned off long before they wanted to make a mod?