What are you playing now

[AGX-17]

It's one of those games that has enough style and swagger to overwhelm its many weaknesses. It's just plain fun the ways you can wantonly kill people (despite being a police officer,) using contextual/environmental methods, the setting of Hong Kong is a breath of fresh air (a realistic, present-day, present-time Hong Kong, not the stereotypical Hong Kong of cyberpunk and spy fiction.)

 

Well, I already spent some time in Hong Kong this summer, so I've got a good idea what to compare it to

 

But I also have a backlog of games, untouched or in progress that I don't really want to commit to another time sink before I've worked off a bit of the queue. Finishing my first game of FO:NV, DA2, a game in progress of IWD2. Then there is Skyrim, The Book of Unwritten Tales, XCOM, Crusader Kings II, the GTA games and Dishonored which I've barely touched (installed and tested that they work).

 

Oh, and a number of DLC's that require a new playthrough of ME2 & 3 (and DA:O). You get the idea

 

That's not including a number of Good old Games purchases and some lesser known games bought from Gamersgate.

 

Just don't expect it to be realistic in a "not comparing it to Deus Ex" way.

Edited October 25, 2012 by AGX-17

[Gorth]

It's one of those games that has enough style and swagger to overwhelm its many weaknesses. It's just plain fun the ways you can wantonly kill people (despite being a police officer,) using contextual/environmental methods, the setting of Hong Kong is a breath of fresh air (a realistic, present-day, present-time Hong Kong, not the stereotypical Hong Kong of cyberpunk and spy fiction.)

 

Well, I already spent some time in Hong Kong this summer, so I've got a good idea what to compare it to

 

But I also have a backlog of games, untouched or in progress that I don't really want to commit to another time sink before I've worked off a bit of the queue. Finishing my first game of FO:NV, DA2, a game in progress of IWD2. Then there is Skyrim, The Book of Unwritten Tales, XCOM, Crusader Kings II, the GTA games and Dishonored which I've barely touched (installed and tested that they work).

 

Oh, and a number of DLC's that require a new playthrough of ME2 & 3 (and DA:O). You get the idea

 

That's not including a number of Good old Games purchases and some lesser known games bought from Gamersgate.

 

Just don't expect it to be realistic in the "not comparing it to Deus Ex" way.

Ah yes, Deus Ex is also one of those Steam purchases waiting for me to give it a go some day

[Malcador]

The music on the radio stations is also pretty good in Sleeping Dogs.

[GhostofAnakin]

I don't know Sleeping Dogs, but I wasn't too impressed with the combat in Arkham City. Good thing I got the game for free with my gfx card

 

So you played the PC version of Arkham City? I played the 360 version, and I actually thought the combat was fun. I also thought it was pretty intuitive, the button combos working well with the controller layout and such.

[Gorth]

I don't know Sleeping Dogs, but I wasn't too impressed with the combat in Arkham City. Good thing I got the game for free with my gfx card

 

So you played the PC version of Arkham City? I played the 360 version, and I actually thought the combat was fun. I also thought it was pretty intuitive, the button combos working well with the controller layout and such.

Yeah, never owned a console in my life

[Katphood]

Still playing Borderlands 2 and a little bit of Baldurs Gate. I beat Dishonored btw. Awesome gameplay, beautiful world with a great lore and a mediocre story with characters that range from good to disastrous.

[Lexx]

I used to torture my Sims, I remember bricking up young Jimmy Skag Jr into his own tiny little prison, he had a roaring fireplace and a canvas on which he could paint his despair

That's creative.

The only thing I remember doing in Sims1 was the drowning thing. heh.

 

Heh, I did the same to create ghosts. It also worked with letting them go into a room and then selling the door. It took way longer for them to starve to death, though.

[greylord]

Still Mount and Blade -- bought it and now I can officially begin my quest to eradicate the Nords!

 

I never mastered horse riding on that one...which meant I could kill things easy dismounted...until the archers killed me.

[Orogun01]

It's one of those games that has enough style and swagger to overwhelm its many weaknesses. It's just plain fun the ways you can wantonly kill people (despite being a police officer,) using contextual/environmental methods, the setting of Hong Kong is a breath of fresh air (a realistic, present-day, present-time Hong Kong, not the stereotypical Hong Kong of cyberpunk and spy fiction.)

 

Well, I already spent some time in Hong Kong this summer, so I've got a good idea what to compare it to

 

But I also have a backlog of games, untouched or in progress that I don't really want to commit to another time sink before I've worked off a bit of the queue. Finishing my first game of FO:NV, DA2, a game in progress of IWD2. Then there is Skyrim, The Book of Unwritten Tales, XCOM, Crusader Kings II, the GTA games and Dishonored which I've barely touched (installed and tested that they work).

 

Oh, and a number of DLC's that require a new playthrough of ME2 & 3 (and DA:O). You get the idea

 

That's not including a number of Good old Games purchases and some lesser known games bought from Gamersgate.

 

Just don't expect it to be realistic in the "not comparing it to Deus Ex" way.

Ah yes, Deus Ex is also one of those Steam purchases waiting for me to give it a go some day

I would really recommend holding off on Sleeping Dogs, it's not a terrible game but it sort of feels like a poor's man GTA.

The environment gets points both for novelty and execution (it is just beautiful at times) but the game does a poor job of showcasing it.

 

The story was consistent until it hits its mid point and then it spirals into an incoherent mess that you're glad to see over. They present a bunch of characters that really have purpose, they don't advance the main story even though they are part of it. Sometimes I think that this game suffers heavily from the "DLC effect" where developers leave some character as a an anchor for future updates. So a large part of the game diverges into storylines that have no conclusion.(Specially the forced romances)

 

The combat system is fun at first but you can only kick so many guys asses before you get bored of seeing the same animation. The upgrades do little to change this, they actually do next to nothing.

 

TL;DR: Is a game with a good concept that they just piled a bunch of ideas on top of until it drowned any originality or fun factor it may have had.

[Majek]

Still torn each day between playing XCOM and Deus EX:HR, and now Uncharted 3 MP with its Classic and Dark Souls DLC that finally appeared on consoles will make my decision even more difficult. I might just end up playing everything a little, like an hour each.

[Nordicus]

Playing the Gold version of Thief has saved my *** from reloading the entire level. They made a certain bridge lever entirely optional in Lost City level, and I crossed the gap by using a speed potion. I would have been stuck there if Gold version hadn't provided me an alternate route back

[HoonDing]

I'd be interested in playing a sandbox in Hong Kong, but only with the right protagonist.

 

[Nightshape]

I'm playing 'rent a car in Sweden that will let me go to Poland' game.

 

It's not easy, or fun.

[Nepenthe]

Volleyball >.>

The most feminine sport in existence ;P

 

 

Tell that to the person I packed today with a power spike! \m/

Sure, big tough leggy amazons, but still feminine. The best kind, really.

[Hassat Hunter]

Combat in Arkham City on the PC was fun.

However the game suffered severly from "too much respawn", and thus too much re-doing the same combat with thugs you defeated before, and before, and before, and before.

Which got annoying and tedious before the game ends already.

 

Almost makes you wish Batman would kill his victims, so they stay down, and you don't need to club their head 20 times in the same game...

[Bos_hybrid]

Fallen Enchantress thoughts:

 

Firstly you choose you ruler and faction. You can create both your own ruler and faction. If you do you are brought to a page were you assign stats to you faction, it gives you limited points to choose from which is to determine what your factions special abilities are. An example I made my empire have the slaver ability, this allows my empire to raze an enemies city and add half of that population to one of my city.

 

Next you ruler, here you choose your ruler profession(Warlock 50% spell damage/ Bandit lord can recruit bandits there is 11 to chose from) spend points on magic schools and talents. The magic schools are fire, air, earth, water and death. Each school has multiple levels that add more powerful spells. The talents provide bonus in combat, an example being might gives you 3 attack(damage) there are ten to choose from. There is also a chance to give yourself an extra point by selecting a weakness, such as Cruel this increase the cost to hire champions and add unrest to your empire.

 

There are essentially two modes, first the map screen. You'll spend the majority of your time here.

 

This is the screen you will be spending most of the time in. You build cities and outposts to expand field of influence(resources), add improvements to them(sage for more research, market for gold etc), move your ruler and troops etc. Research comes in three trees, Magic(Item, spells, quest level) Civic (buildings/farming etc) and military( armor, weapons training etc). Resources are very important, you have your basic ones like game, metal and horses, magic shards(air, fire death, water, earth) these give you mana each turn and increase your strength in that particular school. Finally you have camps, these allow you to recruit unique troops, for darklings(little creatures) to trolls demons and drakes. Not 100% sure but I believe there are also dragon breeding grounds, to access these camps however you need to research the tech. These creatures can be extremely powerful, a demon can take out several groups of enemy troops.

 

Monster and their lairs will also pop up on the map, the monsters do re-spawn if you don't destroy their lairs, they also roam so be careful with scouts and settlers, it's also quite possible to run into high level monsters at the start, and cities and improvements can be destroyed by them. Champions will also dot the map, these can be hired and work like your ruler.

 

You will also find things of interest like ancient battle grounds where you can find equipment to equip on your ruler and champions. To inns and houses where you will begin quests. For example the first one I got had me collecting a plants from a few tiles away to create a restoration potion, when I returned to the house and got the potion from the witch an undead creature attacked you had a choice to flee or fight. I fought and beat the undead where another choice appeared, give the undead the potion or or keep it for myself, I gave it to the creature and now it joined my army. Quite useful too as whenever it kills something it creates another undead, up to 9.

 

There are bigger quests and adventures, but in the beta many didn't work properly, I assume they've been fixed now. There are also entire areas of the map that are an quest in themselves, such a poisoned bog, to capturing an ancient forgotten city, these are epic quests and require a higher level ruler and research to access.

 

Completing quests and killing the monster that roam the map net your ruler and participating champions xp and loot, at level up you get 5 random traits to choose from, being from advancing a magic school to increasing your magic resistance. Not all are equal, some have the rare attachment to them, these trait might not appear again so you have to choose carefully.

 

Equipment is gained from quests, lairs and buying them(assuming you have the tech and improvements. You get rings, armor and weapons. Having said that there isn't a lot of loot, basically leather>>>>plate path, with other armor with enchantments popping up.

 

Magic can also be used at the map screen and in a change from the beta is very powerful. From creating plagues to summoning creatures to creating a volcano to destroy cities and troops. However these cost a lot of mana the a fore mentioned volcano summoning cost 500 mana, considering at the start of the game you have 50, it takes a while to build up to anywhere near that level, especially when a simple flame bolt in tactical mode cost 17 mana without reducing talents. Mana builds up slowly based on your ruler, city improvements and shards.

 

Then is the other empires vying for control, you select how many you want, and their difficulty, at higher levels they seem to be fairly confident and are very aggressive at expanding their influence and gaining those resources.

 

Lastly cities level up based on population, at level 2 you chose a type. The choice is town, fortress and conclave. Town is about money and wonders, fortress is about troops and conclave is about research. At each level after that you get choices on special improvements depending on the path you chose.

 

The second screen is the turn based tactical mode, don't expect it to be very deep. It's fun and interesting with all the different troops you can get, but the areas are small and the battles are quick. Once again magic is devastating here if you got the mana, a simple fireball can eliminate large groups of enemies in a single go, however there is friendly fire so be careful. The AI seems to do a good job at making life hard by ganging up on an individual, however they don't seem to make the right choice, going after my undead while my ruler hits them with non aoe magic doesn't seem too smart. Also a lot of the time you won't want to use mana(why waste it on a pack of wolves), so get some champions that specialize in either melee or archery would be a good bet or have troops that specialize in this(assuming you have the tech).

 

At this stage, I really haven't got far enough in to make a good judgement on how the current turn based battles work, most of my opinions come from the beta, it does seemed to have improved, but to what degree I don't really know. Still I feel it's add more to the game than if it wasn't in.

 

Honestly I'm very impressed with this game.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Bos_hybrid

[Keyrock]

It's one of those games that has enough style and swagger to overwhelm its many weaknesses. It's just plain fun the ways you can wantonly kill people (despite being a police officer,) using contextual/environmental methods, the setting of Hong Kong is a breath of fresh air (a realistic, present-day, present-time Hong Kong, not the stereotypical Hong Kong of cyberpunk and spy fiction.)

 

Well, I already spent some time in Hong Kong this summer, so I've got a good idea what to compare it to

 

But I also have a backlog of games, untouched or in progress that I don't really want to commit to another time sink before I've worked off a bit of the queue. Finishing my first game of FO:NV, DA2, a game in progress of IWD2. Then there is Skyrim, The Book of Unwritten Tales, XCOM, Crusader Kings II, the GTA games and Dishonored which I've barely touched (installed and tested that they work).

 

Oh, and a number of DLC's that require a new playthrough of ME2 & 3 (and DA:O). You get the idea

 

That's not including a number of Good old Games purchases and some lesser known games bought from Gamersgate.

 

Just don't expect it to be realistic in the "not comparing it to Deus Ex" way.

Ah yes, Deus Ex is also one of those Steam purchases waiting for me to give it a go some day

I would really recommend holding off on Sleeping Dogs, it's not a terrible game but it sort of feels like a poor's man GTA.

The environment gets points both for novelty and execution (it is just beautiful at times) but the game does a poor job of showcasing it.

 

The story was consistent until it hits its mid point and then it spirals into an incoherent mess that you're glad to see over. They present a bunch of characters that really have purpose, they don't advance the main story even though they are part of it. Sometimes I think that this game suffers heavily from the "DLC effect" where developers leave some character as a an anchor for future updates. So a large part of the game diverges into storylines that have no conclusion.(Specially the forced romances)

 

The combat system is fun at first but you can only kick so many guys asses before you get bored of seeing the same animation. The upgrades do little to change this, they actually do next to nothing.

 

TL;DR: Is a game with a good concept that they just piled a bunch of ideas on top of until it drowned any originality or fun factor it may have had.

I personally am enjoying it more than any GTA game simply on the basis that the combat isn't flat out terrible. GTA games have a lot going for them including fantastic writing with awesome colorful characters, but the combat in them is so unbelievably poorly implemented and flat out frustrating that it often ruins what is otherwise a brilliant game. This seems to have gotten worse in each successive GTA game due to the fact that each game has placed more and more emphasis on on-foot combat. There are other things about GTA games that drive me insane, like the games' insistence that certain sequences play out exactly as they planned them to the point that the game will alter the laws of physics to make it happen. For example I did a mission in GTA 4 recently where I had to blow up a bunch of vans. Arriving at the location I correctly had the thought that some of the vans may try to take off so I swiped a garbage truck and used it to block the only entrance to the compound. Sure enough one of the vans made a run for it and plowed right through the garbage truck, flinging it right out of the way like it was made out of styrofoam, a garbage truck that likely weighed 6 to 7 times as much as that van. In other missions characters are invincible until a certain point. I've pumped literally whole clips from assault rifles into unarmored characters and did no damage because the game insisted that I see a certain cutscene or have to chase them in a car. It's too bad because in most other aspects GTA games are a blast to play, but some of these frustrations make me want to put my fist through the computer monitor, then drive down to Rockstar studios and burn it to the ground. I've yet to encounter anything in Sleeping Dogs that made me want to put my fist through the monitor. So far I've had a big goofy smile on my face the entire time playing. I'm not finished with the game by any stretch of the imagination yet, though, so who knows.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Keyrock

[Jackalmonkey]

HOTLINE MIAMI

[pmp10]

I've yet to encounter anything in Sleeping Dogs that made me want to put my fist through the monitor.

Wait until you try the drug busts that include thin-air enemy spawns behind your back.

Fully armed with automatic weapons of course.

 

I have been trying to give Fall of Samurai a chance but it takes two step back for every one taken forward.

While they did improve the research system it came at a price of making the whole unit progression system completely unnecessary. You can easily finish the whole campaign just by using wooden vessels and starting infantry/cavalry/artillery.

The other additions of manual cannon aiming and calling in orbital bombardment doesn't produce enough novelty to make it any better than vanilla Shogun 2.

[Keyrock]

I've yet to encounter anything in Sleeping Dogs that made me want to put my fist through the monitor.

Wait until you try the drug busts that include thin-air enemy spawns behind your back.

Fully armed with automatic weapons of course.

Already did one of those. While I'm not a fan of enemies spawning out of nowhere (Dragon Age 2, I'm looking in your direction), in this case, while it did startle me, it didn't frustrate me. Just had to scramble to get to the other side of cover. At least getting in and out of cover actually works somewhat consistently in this game. In GTA 4 you never know what's actually going to happen when you try to enter cover.

[Orchomene]

Thanks for the info on Fallen Enchantress. I think I'll try it.

[Tale]

Thanks for the info on Fallen Enchantress. I think I'll try it.

Seconded. Was trying to decide if I'd just push through with Warlock or get Fallen Enchantress. I'll probably grab FE this weekend.

[Malcador]

I'm playing 'rent a car in Sweden that will let me go to Poland' game.

 

It's not easy, or fun.

 

I bet the Fuel DLC is overpriced.

[Janmanden]

Been playing a bit of Dungeon Siege 3 and made a change that cornered me quite unexpectedly. After completing the game a few times with Katharina and Rheinhart I got tired of Hardcore with Anjali and started a new game with Lucas, but at the very beginning I got bored with the thought of playing the whole intro over again so I gave him 200K exp at the Montbarron Estate thinking that I would be able to breeze through the first chapter, but I realized pretty soon that the game uses level scaling for all the npcs and that changed the difficulty setting from normal to impossible. Even at the casual setting it was much worse than hardcore, because even though Lucas was level 22 he was still using the base equipment and was severely lacking both hitpoints, critical chance and damage for that level. After several failed attempts of dealing with Lescanzy road brigands I made a run for Ravens Rill, but made the unfortunate discovery that shops doesn't use level scaling. The shop was full of low level junk. Back to hit and run until I got a nice blue drop a Zweihander of Life stealing, that finally enabled me to do some real damage, but I was still not able to sustain any damage. It wasn't until I got a companion that I was finally able to quit the hit and run style that had kept me alive and was able to survive any group of enemies consistently. I don't think I have seen that many high grade grey items before. Took me a really long time to find some stamina equipment to match the damage levels of the Lescanzy mercenaries. Now I've been on a harvest in the East Forest below the Rukkenwal Chapterhouse. Delaying the completion of the actual quest and just clearing out the forest, save and reload and do it again, but for a long time I got nothing but swords, shields and items I couldn't use. Armor was really far apart, but now I finally got some real equipment, but I have actually grown quite fond of the casual setting, because I got time to learn to play with all the skills and made them work together.. Think I've spend at least six hours in this forest..

[Keyrock]

Been playing a bit of Dungeon Siege 3 and made a change that cornered me quite unexpectedly. After completing the game a few times with Katharina and Rheinhart I got tired of Hardcore with Anjali and started a new game with Lucas, but at the very beginning I got bored with the thought of playing the whole intro over again so I gave him 200K exp at the Montbarron Estate thinking that I would be able to breeze through the first chapter, but I realized pretty soon that the game uses level scaling for all the npcs and that changed the difficulty setting from normal to impossible. Even at the casual setting it was much worse than hardcore, because even though Lucas was level 22 he was still using the base equipment and was severely lacking both hitpoints, critical chance and damage for that level. After several failed attempts of dealing with Lescanzy road brigands I made a run for Ravens Rill, but made the unfortunate discovery that shops doesn't use level scaling. The shop was full of low level junk. Back to hit and run until I got a nice blue drop a Zweihander of Life stealing, that finally enabled me to do some real damage, but I was still not able to sustain any damage. It wasn't until I got a companion that I was finally able to quit the hit and run style that had kept me alive and was able to survive any group of enemies consistently. I don't think I have seen that many high grade grey items before. Took me a really long time to find some stamina equipment to match the damage levels of the Lescanzy mercenaries. Now I've been on a harvest in the East Forest below the Rukkenwal Chapterhouse. Delaying the completion of the actual quest and just clearing out the forest, save and reload and do it again, but for a long time I got nothing but swords, shields and items I couldn't use. Armor was really far apart, but now I finally got some real equipment, but I have actually grown quite fond of the casual setting, because I got time to learn to play with all the skills and made them work together.. Think I've spend at least six hours in this forest..

As much as I hate level scaling in games I actually think it makes sense to some extent in the context of a loot em up like Dungeon Siege 3 or Diablo. I think the design Crate is doing with Grim Dawn is the best solution. They're going with limited level scaling. Each region in the game will have level scaling in a limited range. So for example a region where typically your character may be 15th-20th level may have a level range of 10-30. Thus if your character is below level 10 the enemies will still be at least level 10 and if you're above level 30 the enemies will never get more powerful than level 30. This allows for the game to provide you with a constant decent challenge when played normally, but also allows you to stick around in an area and grind until you become godlike (compared to that area) if you really want to. Or if you want to run ahead and run into an area you're not supposed to be in yet at your level you can and you will encounter monsters likely to obliterate you rather than weakling level 2 trolls.

 

Speaking of Dungeon Siege 3, I completed the game a while back playing with the all-girl assault squad, I was Anjali and my companion was Katarina. I plan to give it another go in the future, likely with Lucas.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Keyrock