What are you playing now?

[HoonDing]

That wouldn't be Renegade anymore. XD

Sure it would, considering Renegade is just Chaotic Evil/Stupid half the time and especially in ME1. For example, Shepards shooting three unarmed people that surrendered and needlessly causing the death of two others. And my favourite, shoving a pistol in the face of a clearly mentally unstable but otherwise harmless man. Heck, five minutes into the game SHepard knocks out a rambling scientist and threatens farmers with her gun.

 

The funny thing is that this behaviour is perfectly in line with Shepard's "Earthborn" background, where Shepard is basically a thug from the streets that made it into the army.

[Enoch]

The worst is that Shepard is forced to act like a complete wuss on Horizon and just take it when Ashley/Kaiden are griping, with not even a chance for a Renegade interrupt. If BioWare had guts, there would've been an option to kill those idiots right then and there.

The Renegade option I always wanted was an opportunity to call Tali out on her persistent damsel-in-distress habit. The game keeps telling me that she's a useful addition to the crew, but every time I actually see her on screen, she's gotten herself into great danger and needs Shep to pull her butt out of the fire.

 

My 2 favorite dialogue choices in the ME games: First, in ME1, after you rescue Liara, Joker makes some crack, and Liara asks how he can make jokes about life-or-death experiences. The renegade option on the dialoge wheel is labeled "He's a jerk," and the dialogue is "Joker can be a real ass sometimes." Second, in ME2, when Ms Perky Secretary says, "Please, call me Kelly," dialogue-wheel option "No."

[BobSmith101]

You never quite know what he will come out with because of the paraphrasing. Must be tough being Shepard.

[Tale]

"Please, call me Kelly," dialogue-wheel option "No."

I love that one, too.

[Enoch]

"Please, call me Kelly," dialogue-wheel option "No."

I love that one, too.

And you can repeat it as often as you want!

 

 

Finished DE:HR. [some Spoilers Follow] The ending was pretty lame-- I don't really think a game should even get credit for having multiple endings if the operative choice is the last thing you do in the game, and all it controls is which endgame slideshow you see. On the other hand, as I said the other day, the two levels immediately prior to the arctic endgame bit were really fun.

 

I got the "no alarms set off" achievement. Would've gotten the non-lethal one, too, if I hadn't deemed it appropriate to kill doodz in defense of my pilot. I was also letting the lead fly in the prologue bit, but I'm not sure whether those corpses count for purposes of the acheivement or not. In both cases, I deemed the expediency-driven-roleplaying (i.e., don't let my squeamishness get in the way of my ability to defend the lives of other people) more important than the metagaming for achievements.

[Gorth]

Been playing through a few more battles in Gratuitous Space Battles. Bought one of the expansions too (Galactic Conquest) but haven't had time to try it out yet.

 

Fighters seems obscenely overpowered.

[Tigranes]

Playing Crusader Kings 2, very pleased. Apparently it still has a few bugs but I haven't seen any and the interface is very good. Started as the nephew of the Byzantine Emperor to try and see if I can intrigue my way to the throne, or at least, an independent kingdom.

[Maria Caliban]

Mass Effect 2. I'm not fond of Thane, but his recruitment mission is very well done.

[Deraldin]

I spent a couple hours playing some multiplayer co-op in the ME3 demo. I really, really can't wait until I pick up something better than that damn avenger rifle.

[HoonDing]

The worst is that Shepard is forced to act like a complete wuss on Horizon and just take it when Ashley/Kaiden are griping, with not even a chance for a Renegade interrupt. If BioWare had guts, there would've been an option to kill those idiots right then and there.

The Renegade option I always wanted was an opportunity to call Tali out on her persistent damsel-in-distress habit. The game keeps telling me that she's a useful addition to the crew, but every time I actually see her on screen, she's gotten herself into great danger and needs Shep to pull her butt out of the fire.

 

My 2 favorite dialogue choices in the ME games: First, in ME1, after you rescue Liara, Joker makes some crack, and Liara asks how he can make jokes about life-or-death experiences. The renegade option on the dialoge wheel is labeled "He's a jerk," and the dialogue is "Joker can be a real ass sometimes." Second, in ME2, when Ms Perky Secretary says, "Please, call me Kelly," dialogue-wheel option "No."

It's funny, but Twitcher 2 paraphrasing is even worse than ME. One of the very first dialogue options the game gives you is "Very funny", which translates into "**** you".

 

Ironically my favourite ME2 dialogue option is only possible in a Paragon playthrough, namely telling the Council to shove it.

[Orchomene]

Playing Crusader Kings 2, very pleased. Apparently it still has a few bugs but I haven't seen any and the interface is very good. Started as the nephew of the Byzantine Emperor to try and see if I can intrigue my way to the throne, or at least, an independent kingdom.

 

I'm playing Castille King for a first 'easy'playthrough.

I think that it's easier than the first one, it seems that technology has a lot less impact in battle, thus the reconquista is not that hard. What is hard is that it seems France is very attracted by Iberian provinces and I will have some tough times later to reconquer those french provinces.

[Kissamies]

Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. It's really just simplified and streamlined Jagged Alliance 2 with missing features and better graphics. Still enjoyable enough, but not really worth it if you can play the original.

 

AirBuccaneers HD. A Multiplayer indie game. The ABu mod for UT2kX was the second best mod for any game I've ever played (the best being Action Half-Life). This new standalone game continues and enchances the greatness and you can download the early version what they carefully call pre-alphas from their page for free: http://www.ludocraft.com/games/airbuccaneers/

[Malcador]

Having a bit more fun in BIA, for some reason taking the mine gave me hell until I got an SKS. Enemy AI at least seems vulnerable to my Rogue spear strategy of set up kill zone, shoot at guy, other guys rush at us and get shot up.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Malcador

[Lexx]

The game is extremely easy as long as you have rifles and no enemies in houses. As soon as more than one enemy is camping in a building, shizzle comes down. Though, by now I got used to throwing around with grenades until the ai is fleeing outside, where the rest of my team can put some bullets into the bodies.

 

I am in Meduna right now, took the airfield and sam site. It's 24th ingame day and Steam tells me I played already 30 hours. I'll guess when I have finished the game, a lot time will pass till I might consider to play it again. It has just become way too much grinding and the militia is annoying me to death, running back to Drassen for supplies is so annoying, the item management is pissing me off, etc. etc.

 

If all these little things would be better, the whole experience wouldn't be so tedious right now.

 

Also they really should have made up their own story. Always when I see a (story) element from JA2, I automatically compare the two games with each other and BiA loses.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Lexx

[Majek]

ME3 MP. well trying to. It doesn't find many other players to play with.

[Deraldin]

ME3 MP. well trying to. It doesn't find many other players to play with.

 

It doesn't open for everyone until the 17th. Should be a lot more players then.

[Enoch]

With DE:HR done, I'm trying to decide whether to jump into Portal 2 or Skyrim. (Arkham City is also on the "own, but haven't played" list, but I'm less enthused about that at the moment.) I downloaded Portal 2 the other day on the theory that it can be finished more quickly, and that the longer I wait on Skyrim, the more "fixed" it's going to get. And the 11GBs that it's occupying on my SSD make for a nice argument in favor of playing it now. But my mood is trending more explorey-RPG than it is jumpy-puzzley. Plus, I feel like I should at least play Skyrim relatively "clean" of mods for a while, if only for general gaming cultural awareness.

 

I guess I'll try the start of Portal and see how it grabs me (and whether it gives me the same motion-sickness issues that the first one did).

[Nepenthe]

Finished DE:HR. [some Spoilers Follow] The ending was pretty lame-- I don't really think a game should even get credit for having multiple endings if the operative choice is the last thing you do in the game, and all it controls is which endgame slideshow you see. On the other hand, as I said the other day, the two levels immediately prior to the arctic endgame bit were really fun.

There's multiple versions of each ending, which vary based on your previous actions.

[Malcador]

Have they said if they're doing anything else with DX:HR ? Missing Link wasn't all that long ago, granted (still need to play that, too).

[entrerix]

im in gaming limbo: can't decide whether i want to play

Xenogears,

Vagrant story (for the 3rd time),

Valkyria chronicles,

LA Noire,

Chrono Cross (for the 4th time), or

Metal Gear Peacewalker

[Majek]

Valkyria chronicles

[Zoraptor]

I'm playing Castille King for a first 'easy'playthrough.

I think that it's easier than the first one, it seems that technology has a lot less impact in battle, thus the reconquista is not that hard. What is hard is that it seems France is very attracted by Iberian provinces and I will have some tough times later to reconquer those french provinces.

 

I've been playing one of the Ethiopoan kingdoms, haven't yet been stomped by Egypt but I have little doubt it will happen. I'm still very much in "why did they change this, how do you do this" mode at the moment though. Harold Godwinson is still king of England after William the Asterisks copped an arrow in the eye in a nice reversal of history, so I've not played long in game time. I'll probably try an Irish minor next, as they were always good fun in the original CK if you didn't get smacked early.

[Oner]

Anyone feel like playing Dark Crusade with poor little horrible RTS-er me?

[Lexx]

Just finished JA:BiA. Rushed through it towards the end, because it became too tedious for me. Deidrannas "castle" looked pretty cool, but the map was producing big frame issues on my machine, up to the point where it was nearly unplayable. I kind of cheated myself through the ending then with running past a lot enemies, hiding in spots where I could ninja-sniper Deidranna to death. Else it probably would still have kept me up at least half an hour or something.

 

The ending was ok-ish. It even has some variation, unlike JA2. But still... as long as there won't be some big content patches which adjust stuff and add more additional content to the game, I won't touch it again for a long time.

 

Personal rating is 6/10 right now. Not a bad game, but could be a lot better.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Lexx

[Enoch]

Finished DE:HR. [some Spoilers Follow] The ending was pretty lame-- I don't really think a game should even get credit for having multiple endings if the operative choice is the last thing you do in the game, and all it controls is which endgame slideshow you see. On the other hand, as I said the other day, the two levels immediately prior to the arctic endgame bit were really fun.

There's multiple versions of each ending, which vary based on your previous actions.

Oh. <Googles spoilers>

 

Little better. Opaque criteria for the player, with feedback communicated poorly. Making an effort to mold Jensen's internal justification for his decision with the degree of murderousness he exhibited along the way is a nice gloss to help reduce any contradictions that might arise, but it's still a gloss painted onto a "game is over, so here's a room with 4 buttons in it" structure. Which is lame.

 

FWIW, I went with Darrow's ending. Sarif's lie simply didn't seem likely to work, given that he was still bucking the Illuminati. The "blow everything up" was tempting, but felt like a vote for the status quo in the world at-large, paired with an angry and bitter "I'm taking all you **** (and innocent victims) down with me." Which left either telling the truth, or perpetuating the cover-up as the price of entry for joining it. And while Jensen, as I saw him, wasn't angry and bitter enough to drag hundreds of others along with his suicide, I read him as just bitter and resentful enough to put everybody's ugly secrets out into the open. If that makes the world anti-augmentation, well, then there are some good reasons for it.

Edited February 15, 2012 by Enoch