What are you playing now - the plays the thing

[melkathi]

Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue.

 

Made it my goal to burn every book in the library. Even if repetitive, unnecessary travelling, and no reward what so ever but me knowing I torched them all...

 

Greetings generic forum poster.

I am Deathspank, Vanquisher of Evil, Hero to the Downtrodden and Dispenser of Justice!

 

Great game that. Great trilogy.

[LadyCrimson]

Torchlight2 - once in Act2, starting to feel like the unique (orange) items are too numerous. Since enemies don't respawn (can't "farm") and you get what you get, I can see having them be more numerous for each playthrough. But it's starting to feel a bit Monty-Hallish. Minor nitpick tho...rather have too many then zero, like in D3, haha. Still a fun, light romp of a game. My ferret is all buffed out with xtra health/dmg plus healing, thorns, and summon imp spells and kicks butt on his own. Too cute.

 

Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue.

I still have to get through the original game. It's pretty fun, but almost too silly for me.

[mr insomniac]

X-com. Still X-com. I just lost a colonel (support), another colonel (assault), and a major (assault). The only two other assault soldiers I have are squaddies. I've got another support who's a lieutenant, at least. I've got no money, three countries in the red, a request I can't complete unless I get some chrysalid corpses, and I hate those things, and finally it's 23 days till my next council report. God, I love this game.

 

Gonna co-op some Borderlands 2 this weekend with my brother. We're thinking of starting a new game. Our main characters are way out of sync, in terms of level and where we are in the story.

[melkathi]

Torchlight2 - once in Act2, starting to feel like the unique (orange) items are too numerous. Since enemies don't respawn (can't "farm") and you get what you get, I can see having them be more numerous for each playthrough. But it's starting to feel a bit Monty-Hallish. Minor nitpick tho...rather have too many then zero, like in D3, haha. Still a fun, light romp of a game. My ferret is all buffed out with xtra health/dmg plus healing, thorns, and summon imp spells and kicks butt on his own. Too cute.

 

Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue.

I still have to get through the original game. It's pretty fun, but almost too silly for me.

 

 

You can cause a map reset if you wish. Take the Steam Train Tank thingie (or a waypoint portal) back to the Enclave (or any other location from Act 1). Upon returning to Act 2 all Act 2 maps will have reset.

 

 

And you need to finish Deathspank. How else can you proceed to Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue and finally The Baconning and experience real sillyness ?

[Calax]

Finished Assasins Creed III.

 

Expect the full review (oh come on, like you weren't expecting it?) tomorrow.

[LadyCrimson]

Oh? So if you go between Acts, they reset? That's interesting, thanks. Altho, like I said, there doesn't seem to be much reason to, outside of missing quests or if you're on the hardest difficulty perhaps (I'm just goofing around in Normal).

[melkathi]

Eh, on the hardest difficulty, at least in Act 1, so far all I needed to do was make sure I clear all the map and do all the sidequests before moving on.

[HoonDing]

Finished Assasins Creed III.

 

Expect the full review (oh come on, like you weren't expecting it?) tomorrow.

If it has more "Desmond's Journey" crap, I'm never going to play it.

[Lorfean]

Legend of Grimrock. It had been sitting on my GOG.com shelf since they released it, and after finishing Black Mesa (which was great) yesterday I couldn't decide what to play next so I showed my Backloggery to a friend of mine and she picked LoG

 

I'm on level 4 and liking it quite a bit so far. The atmosphere is great and there is a real sense of claustrophobia and danger as you explore the corridors and venture deeper and deeper into the dungeon. The puzzles are also pretty decent and discovering secret areas feels very rewarding. My party consists of a Fighter, two Rogues (one specialized in melee and one in ranged) and a Mage. The spell-casting system is... I don't wanna say complex -- it's pretty straightforward, actually -- but unless you have a spell prepared (and you can have only one spell prepared at any time) it will take at least three clicks to cast one. I'm guessing it's one of those things that some people will absolutely hate but IMO it's a hell of a lot better than, for example, Arx Fatalis' spell system, which was horribly unreliable to use in the heat of battle. LoG's just takes a bit of practice, and it seems only fair because spells are pretty damn powerful compared to normal weapons.

[Hassat Hunter]

Deathspank 1 on Hard is pretty easy, Deathspank 2 on Hard is a little harder. Generally only because enemies are 2 levels above you even if you do all though.

Still pretty casual, especially with the instant-respawn after dying and just getting your money back is easy.

 

Also... trilogy? Did I miss something?

 

EDIT:

Apparently I did... but The Baconing wasn't in my Steam Deathspank pack, and costs twice as much as they did... time to wait for an x-mas sale xD

Edited November 7, 2012 by Hassat Hunter

[melkathi]

Yeah, no idea why The Baconing is left out of the pack.

It continues on from the "evil" ending of Thongs of Virtue.

I really need to finish my second playthrough of Thongs at some point to get that ending.

[Majek]

Why? Just load the last save ... continue the game. You should continue from before the last fight. And that is the real ending. Nothing evil about it.

[melkathi]

Nothing evil about it.

 

From a heroic fiction point of view it is.

Given the choice of noble sacrifice, the hero decides to well... not do it. Probably going for some Worten's instead

 

 

I had the save game bug. All my save games got corrupted :/

[Enoch]

Torchlight2 - once in Act2, starting to feel like the unique (orange) items are too numerous. Since enemies don't respawn (can't "farm") and you get what you get, I can see having them be more numerous for each playthrough. But it's starting to feel a bit Monty-Hallish. Minor nitpick tho...rather have too many then zero, like in D3, haha. Still a fun, light romp of a game. My ferret is all buffed out with xtra health/dmg plus healing, thorns, and summon imp spells and kicks butt on his own. Too cute.

 

I'm trying to get into Torchlight 2 at the moment. A friend and his wife have been inviting me to join their multiplayer efforts, so I feel like I should get a better handle on the game before jumping into that. But I find it a bit tiresome to play for more than an hour or so in a sitting. It has its charms, but I usually conclude that I'd rather be spending my time with Crusader Kings 2 than I would with a click-and-loot ARPG. (Which has never been my favoritest genre. I deliberately skipped the early Diablos because they just didn't sound espeically interesting to me and I couldn't afford to buy a whole lot of games back then, but I did pick up Torchlight 1 for $5 and spent 9 or 10 relatively enjoyable hours with it before it got old.)

 

I'm looking forward to playing with people whose company I enjoy, but if it weren't for the motivation to get good enough at the game that I won't be a burden to them, I probably wouldn't be playing it all that much.

 

Anyhow, I'm playing as an Embermage on Veteran difficulty, focusing on Ice-type spells. I'm at level 12 or 13, and just died for the very first time, in the main-quest dungeon that you reach after clearing the first really big outdoor area.

[Raithe]

Finished Assasins Creed III.

 

Expect the full review (oh come on, like you weren't expecting it?) tomorrow.

If it has more "Desmond's Journey" crap, I'm never going to play it.

 

The whole thing with the AC games is you can wait awhile, then youtube watch all the cinematics edited together without any of the wasted time and hour sink...

[Keyrock]

I finished Sleeping Dogs - Nightmare in North Point and have jumped back into the main story (my original plan was to finish the main story first, but then I learned you get the oh so stylish Jiang Shi hat to use in the main game upon beating the DLC, so plans changed). It took me about 3 hours to run through the DLC, and that was with doing (to the best of my knowledge) absolutely everything optional. While it was pretty abrupt, I actually really enjoyed the

Michael Jackson ~ Thriller

ending. I thought it was a cool tip of the hat to an iconic video and a fun way to cap off a really goofy and utterly ridiculous DLC in what is otherwise a serious game.

[AGX-17]

Jiang Shi

 

You just gave me a PTSD flashback from a Castlevania game where one of those was the super side-quest boss stronger than the final boss. That whole nightmare dungeon was Demons'/Dark Souls caliber difficult.

[Calax]

Assassins Creed III... what to say.

 

Structurally the story is hampered. The first three sequences that you run through are with an alternate protagonist, who's background and motivations are left unknown for reasons that are made clear later. This ends up leaving the player fairly underwhelmed and annoyed at the game because they don't know why they're doing the stuff they're doing.

 

Later the story does get more coherent and relatable, but the main character doesn't have any charisma (mostly because he's using the stereotypical "Native American" style of speech, with no contractions), and it's clear in some of the dialogue that they wrote in a few witty one liners... that are entirely killed on delivery. Also Connor's motivations seem relatively minor. It's a parental revenge, but the way it's done doesn't make you feel like he's got a good motivation. Ezio's story made you feel more for him beacuse you spent your tutorial with him as a carefree teen having fun with his lovers, brothers, sister, and mother. So when they were killed, it hit the player as much as with him. Conner, on the other hand, has a mother... she shows up for a sequence with his father, is mostly cold until magically getting the hots for daddio and boinking him. Next time you see her it's with a young Conner and she's promptly killed. Part of this ties into the Tutorials.

 

This game LOOOOOVES tutorials. The first 5-6 sequences are all based around tutoring you to play different facets of the game. There's sneaking, fighting, running, climbing, tracking, shops, inventory, hunting, shooting, Goin Boatin, fast travel tunnels in each city, city liberation, homestead management, and forts. Each of these is taught to you... in the most awkward ways possible, and they draw that sucker out for about 4-6 hours, depending on play style. And even then it's not necessairly explained that well (I discovered for myself how to fast travel between major zones).

 

Mechanics wise? The game is a major eeeeehehhhhhh. A lot of the elements from the first two games are there, Counterkills return, although they make it MUCH easier to pull them off. The biggest thing is that they removed their "Puppet" controls. Meaning that your face buttons aren't attached to various actions by the fact they're in the same place as that bodypart. The only major gameplay change I learned to SEEERIOUSLY hate, was their noteriety system. Previously it'd been just a notification (AC1) or a chart (AC2) that showed how the guards were reacting to your actions. Now it's a four tiered system based on how open your kills are. It's just that when you hit your third level, you might as well flee the country because the mobs are SO dense, and they add more with each level of notoriety, that you end up being entirely unable to reach a town crier or poster to lower your notoriety.

 

Oh, and they added a pile more guys who are immune to your counters, meaning that you have to get a TINY bit better at combat before you are staying alive.

 

Finally, there's an overall design flaw with the game. And that's the fact that your business endeavors are no longer automatic. In AC2 and it's sequels, Ezio bought up property, and gained income automatically from the businesses that were founded there. This meant less micromanagement from the player, and more actual gameplay without inconvienence. Now, you have to micro EVERY BLOODY THING, from harvesting raw materials, to making things from those materials, to making products from those things. THEN you have to organize convoys to a shop in the city, which will, after 30 minutes, finally earn you your money. I'm sorry, but that's just to stupidly complicated for words. When I play Assassins Creed it's to stab a yahoo, and put my tomohawk through another guys head. NOT to play "Logistics For Dummies" or Sim Homestead. Sad part is, that homestead, and earning all of the artisans and production crews is probably beefier in terms of content than the main story, AND is your primary source of income. So you want to upgrade your Boat huh? Well, you gotta play the menus until you're asleep to pick up a decent amount of money.

 

The other thing that folks were worried about was the "dripping with patriotism" issues. It does pop up, mainly in Connor's worship of Washington, but it's also undercut. First by your british intel guy, and second by one of the characters within the game itself. Both point out that Washington was, when you look at it, a TERRIBLE general. Along similar lines is the notification that the Founding Fathers were hardly moral guardians of all that is Just and True and the Taxes that they were so frustrated about was just levied to pay for a costly war with France. The game hardly goes after the Fathers with the vitriol that means they're just on a crusade to undercut the guys, but I'm sure that some of the "Patriotic" citizens will be frustrated with the not-flowery picture of the men who are held up as paragons of virtue and America that we consider.

[annath]

A Lot...

 

PS Vita: Uncharted: Golden Abyss

3DS: Ocarina of Time

DS: Pokemon Black 2

PC: Team Fortress 2/Skyrim/Morrowind

[LadyCrimson]

Eh, on the hardest difficulty, at least in Act 1, so far all I needed to do was make sure I clear all the map and do all the sidequests before moving on.

That's what I'm doing in Normal, which makes it pretty easy. Plus the gambling guy...so easy to get orange items from him.

Noticed that the quest dungeon/caves seem to respawn, don't know what triggers that. Cleared it out, left by the given portal, then went back on foot and re-entered to use an enchanter that was in there, and the non-quest monsters had spawned with the fog of war back. But the overland areas so far never respawn if you stay in the same Act at least.

 

My Outlander looks like a pirate now. Pirate hat. Heh. The Embermage w/dual wands has been fun too.

[Tale]

Beat Halo 4.

 

Has a better ending than Mass Effect 3.

 

[Azure79]

Beat Halo 4.

 

Has a better ending than Mass Effect 3.

 

 

 

Not playing anything at the moment. I'm thinking of starting an IWD game with a Multi-class Fighter Thief and a multi-class mage cleric. Both half-elven.

 

Otherwise, I should probably get back to Alan Wake. I'm at the very beginning but the controls feel wonky and I keep walking off ledges to my death, much to my annoyance. Off cliffs I can understand, but once I fell off a low bridge into some water that was right below and it was instant death. That's when I stopped playing.

 

I'll give LA Noire a try.

[Guest Slinky]

Finished Portal 2 yesterday night for the first time. It sat on my steam account who knows how long, just didn't feel like playing it before. Well, when I finally started it, I almost played it through in one sit. Absolutely awesome game!

 

I guess I now have to replay HL2 with episodes, in some places during Portal 2 I actually hoped I would find a gun and get attacked by something.

[Keyrock]

Finished Sleeping Dogs. I love the game to bits. It's in my top 2 or 3 games of 2012. It's got plenty of flaws, but I had a super duper good time for the entirety of the 40 hours I put into the game (that includes the Nightmare in North Point DLC, all races in the base game, all drug busts, all favors, and at least some of the open world events). The last 30 minutes or so of the main story is pretty gut-wrenching (pun intended).

 

The rational thing for me to do would be to jump back into GTA 4, since I'm really close to finishing it, but I just can't bring myself to go back to GTA's horrendous and frustrating combat right now. I'll finish it eventually... some day. Instead methinks I'll do another run through Alpha Protocol and also jump back into my latest foray into Fallout: New Vegas (I seem to almost always be playing that game ).

[Bos_hybrid]

Beat Halo 4.

 

Has a better ending than Mass Effect 3.

 

 

Impossible, nothing can beat that shining beacon of story telling and artistic integrity.