What are you playing now?

[Deraldin]

I'm working on a new game+ run of Mark of the Ninja right now. First time through I wasn't very discriminating with my kills, but I didn't go out of my way to kill people either. Just whatever was easiest for each specific enemy. This time I'm using the stealth costume and going for no (unforced) kills. Having a lot of fun with it so far. Using a controller because I injured my fingers. It's working pretty well overall, but the lack of precision with item targeting compared to the mouse is a bit of a bummer.

[Zoraptor]

I never played the original. Was this better done? You seemed to speak more highly of it.

It was far more 'clunky', for want of a better word, but I found it far better mechanically and ultimately far more interesting in gameplay.

 

Its stronger points relative to CK2 and my problems with it were that having a bad leader or a child king gave you very real, and realistic, problems as your martial skill directly effected how many soldiers you could raise, even a large empire with a bad leader could be vulnerable to a small realm with a top class military leader; there was a friends/ enemies mechanic that allowed for both more organic expansion (no artificial 'fabricate claims' as in CK2, but claims against your enemies cost less prestige to get, plus you could get claims through tournament events and the like) and a better feeling of the characters being people with personalities rather than just semi random collections of traits; and the bad boy system worked well both in limiting the 'tyranny' of the ruler- you could strip traitors of titles which gave bb but so long as you gave the titles away (which lowered bb) your loyalists would not get upset- and to curb stampeding. You'd also get buildings and the like burned down if sieged, captured provinces could be looted which trashed them for years and wars cost huge amounts of money (with debt potentially forcing you to sell more buildings) so there was far more scope for a Byzantine style Decline than in CK2 where provinces, in effect, only get better with time.

 

CK1 was not perfect by any means, its UI is difficult, it has a learning curve like a toddler in a diving pool and it still has some occasional nasty bugs, but is one of my favourites despite its flaws. CK2 has tons of stuff that should be better but ultimately feels rather like Excel: The Game with a nice interface.

[LadyCrimson]

I'm personally waiting for Grim Dawn ... and waiting, and waiting. Path of Exile, on the other hand, isn't exactly a secret/has been playable by many for a long time and you can get in the open beta with $10 now. Sometimes I wonder if PoE is ever going to be out of beta. Haha.

 

Tried Settlers2...talk about old skool graphic sim/strategy. I think I need to read the manual. Seems like my kind of thing, however.

 

Miasmata - man are the nights dark in this game. You have a lighter (which basically just lights up a tiny circle right at your feet so you have to look down the whole time), you can carry torches (they go out after a while) if you find a stick to pick up, but it barely helps. It's worse than the flashlight in Doom3 thing. I'm still falling off cliffsides in the dark, lol. So....pretty much I think I'm going to try to stick to exploring during the day.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm personally waiting for Grim Dawn ... and waiting, and waiting. Path of Exile, on the other hand, isn't exactly a secret/has been playable by many for a long time and you can get in the open beta with $10 now. Sometimes I wonder if PoE is ever going to be out of beta. Haha.

 

Tried Settlers2...talk about old skool graphic sim/strategy. I think I need to read the manual. Seems like my kind of thing, however.

 

Miasmata - man are the nights dark in this game. You have a lighter (which basically just lights up a tiny circle right at your feet so you have to look down the whole time), you can carry torches (they go out after a while) if you find a stick to pick up, but it barely helps. It's worse than the flashlight in Doom3 thing. I'm still falling off cliffsides in the dark, lol. So....pretty much I think I'm going to try to stick to exploring during the day.

 

Have you tried the DLC for Borderlands 2 yet? Thoughts?

[Tigranes]

I found it really tough to get into CK1 as it is indeed clunky and opaque, but everything I've heard reliably from veteran Paradox players is that it holds up far better to sustained play than CK2. CK2 is marvellous but, as Zoraptor says, ends up a bit shallow because the way each mechanic is balanced and fits with each other makes it too easy to get on the groovy train, and it ends up feeling too much like "everything is going great but I still have to press all these buttons".

 

Really, I think in a lot of cases, post-2005 games lacking replayability and feeling 'shallow' after one or two playthroughs has a lot to do with a combination of small decisions. There are games that could have become real classics but there are fairly small design decisions or balances that all add up to the feeling not of a precariousness or challenging victory but a pushover or makework - Risen 2 and CK2 are real victims of that compared to their predecessors (yes, I'm aware that in that case the originals were post-2005 too).

[Keyrock]

I'm personally waiting for Grim Dawn ... and waiting, and waiting.

Same here. I've been a supporter since well before the Kickstarter. The good news is that the Alpha should be coming up in the next couple of months and I'm in on that. I'll give impressions once that stats.

[LadyCrimson]

Have you tried the DLC for Borderlands 2 yet? Thoughts?

Not personally, no. Hubs tried both...the most recent one, he started it, killed some bad guys, saw that the first quest was an Arena thing, did that, and quit. (there's more to it than the Arena, we don't know how that works exactly).

 

Then he started the Pirate one. He skipped most side quests and finished it last night (he went in around lvl 21/Siren). I watched him play it here and there. It looked ok ... some new enemies (some that look/act like Zero, heh)...not something to write home about but the usual mix of stuff with a big reward at the end. The jetspeeder boat vehicles were kind of cool.

[AGX-17]

Who needs cold fusion when you can just contract a hollow-Earth's wind goddess to power your giant robot?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pDjUdtIJvU

What I'm playing. Watch in 720, obviously.

 

Have you tried the DLC for Borderlands 2 yet? Thoughts?

Not personally, no. Hubs tried both...the most recent one, he started it, killed some bad guys, saw that the first quest was an Arena thing, did that, and quit. (there's more to it than the Arena, we don't know how that works exactly).

 

Then he started the Pirate one. He skipped most side quests and finished it last night (he went in around lvl 21/Siren). I watched him play it here and there. It looked ok ... some new enemies (some that look/act like Zero, heh)...not something to write home about but the usual mix of stuff with a big reward at the end. The jetspeeder boat vehicles were kind of cool.

 

The arena thing in the Torgue DLC isn't all there is to it like the Moxxi DLC for BL1. There's a plot twist that actually locks you out of the arena for the duration of the DLC, until the end. Most of it is standard missions/questing (it's worth it just to see Tiny Tina's party bus.) Tiny Tina sends you on an infiltration mission back in to steal cookies, though. Also it's ****ing hilarious. Another mission/quest has Mr. Torgue sending you to murder a game reviewer who said a video game he likes sucked.

 

Overall it's better than the Captain Scarlett DLC, which is average. More Borderlands 2 is great for those of us who love BL2 is basically all that can be said about it. Turns into an absurd MMO scenario with its raid bosses after completion. Extremely tough with a group, near impossible to solo, even nearer impossible to solo with Maya.

Edited November 30, 2012 by AGX-17

[Tale]

So, I finally decided to give Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare a try. I'm 5, maybe 6 level into the game and I am incredibly surprised. I did not think it would be this bad.

 

I had this guy trying to convince me the game was about these stealth missions, but half the levels have been loud and obnoxious war. Where the entire gameplay is just sit down in a spot and pop at waves until they decide to stop spawning. If you want to. If you don't, the NPCs will take care of it for you. How did this get popular?

 

The missions are boring and far too linear. There was some nice openess in that one street firefight, but that was forgotten after 10 minutes of gametime.

 

Artistically it is bland as heck. It's mostly just visual noise that's barely comprehensible. You see something slightly darker or maybe a little red, shoot at it and hope it's a bad guy. The plot is non-existant. There was a nuclear bomb! Now there's a war! And I don't know any of these characters or who I'm fighting or why.

[Guest The Architect]

Hitman Absolution. I'm up to the patriots hangar. I've managed to **** up just about every mission I've done so far and instead of restarting checkpoints, I've shot everyone instead. But hey, it's fun.

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I had this guy trying to convince me the game was about these stealth missions...

 

I'm recalling a stealth mission, maybe two... But it's been awhile so maybe there were a few more than that (honestly, the major one I remember is the one set in the Zone of Alienation around Chernobyl - best mission of the game if you ask me).

[alanschu]

So, I finally decided to give Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare a try. I'm 5, maybe 6 level into the game and I am incredibly surprised. I did not think it would be this bad.

 

I had this guy trying to convince me the game was about these stealth missions, but half the levels have been loud and obnoxious war. Where the entire gameplay is just sit down in a spot and pop at waves until they decide to stop spawning. If you want to. If you don't, the NPCs will take care of it for you. How did this get popular?

 

The missions are boring and far too linear. There was some nice openess in that one street firefight, but that was forgotten after 10 minutes of gametime.

 

Artistically it is bland as heck. It's mostly just visual noise that's barely comprehensible. You see something slightly darker or maybe a little red, shoot at it and hope it's a bad guy. The plot is non-existant. There was a nuclear bomb! Now there's a war! And I don't know any of these characters or who I'm fighting or why.

 

Were you expecting it to be uninteresting when you went in?

 

Modern Warfare was the last one I played, and I enjoyed it. I still recall 'Soap' MacTavish and Sgt. Jackson from the game, and really enjoyed the Pripyat missions as Price. I haven't played the game in years now, but evidently I still remember the playable characters. The bonus mission is a lot of fun too.

 

It's equivalent to a popcorn flick, but whereas you find it artistically bland, I find it visceral and intense.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

 

I don't know why someone told you it was about Stealth missions though. The Pripyat missions are somewhat stealthy, but the game revolves around a lot of combat. Frankly, though, I loved the "obnoxious war" component. It's chaotic and provides a decent challenge.

[Guest Slinky]

Works at Bio AND likes COD..

 

You are clearly public enemy of everything good!

[alanschu]

It should be noted that I enjoyed the first Call of Duty games. I haven't played Modern Warfare 2 or beyond. I am not interested as I feel I'd get better value for my dollar somewhere else.

 

 

The first is one of my most memorable games of the the 21st Century. The audio in the game was so well done that it's the first game I actually caught myself ducking while playing.

 

I still remember taking Saint-Mere-Eglise, some of the great set pieces and moments like snagging the Panzerfaust and taking out the Tiger Tank that came barreling over the walls. The British campaign was largely forgettable, but the Soviet campaign was so well done. Storming across the Volga in Stalingrad with no gun, to driving the T-34s, and Pavlov's house is probably still one of my favourite levels in any shooter. It was just so intense.

 

The second one wasn't quite as memorable, but I do remember some fun times blasting through the desert with Cromwell tanks, utilizing the speed to hit the enemy in their flanks.

 

Skipped the third because it was console exclusive, but picked up #4 on a Steam sale and enjoyed it.

[Guest Slinky]

Public enemy of everything good!

 

 

I really liked the first one too.

 

[Yes Man]

CoD1 was a legitimately great game.

 

Only other CoD I played was Black Ops. It's campaign was the worst thing I have ever played. Basically, just try and combine "Bad conspiracy theory" with "BOOM EXPLOSIVE ACTION" and a lot of writers who very likely think they're better than they actually are.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Yes Man

[Deraldin]

The second one wasn't quite as memorable, but I do remember some fun times blasting through the desert with Cromwell tanks, utilizing the speed to hit the enemy in their flanks.

 

Eh, I didn't care for the tank missions in the second game and I lost track of the number of times I died on the D-day mission storming the beach. I really liked the Russian campaign playing in the ruins of Stalingrad though.

[alanschu]

The second one had you shooting up grappling hooks at the beginning at Pointe du Hoc right?

[Bokishi]

Far Cry 3

[Deraldin]

The second one had you shooting up grappling hooks at the beginning at Pointe du Hoc right?

That's the one.

[LadyCrimson]

Theme Hospital. Never played it before. Liked the intro movie with the Horned Reaper in the waiting room, harhar. Like it so far, although it might drive me insane on later levels. Keeping track of grumpy docs, slacker handymen and all the patients.

[melkathi]

Theme Hospital. Never played it before. Liked the intro movie with the Horned Reaper in the waiting room, harhar. Like it so far, although it might drive me insane on later levels. Keeping track of grumpy docs, slacker handymen and all the patients.

 

That's why later you should move on to Startopia. Best game from the post-bulfrog-era made by former bullfrogians.

[LadyCrimson]

"bullfrogians"

 

....best word ever.

[Rosbjerg]

Far Cry 3 - great game so far! It seems like a very open world and very customizable (you have to craft bags, harnesses etc to expand you inventory or max guns carried etc). I think it'll get repetitive around late game, but they've won me completly over by having a bow in the game.. Damn I love taking out an outpost with a machete and arrows..

[Tale]

Were you expecting it to be uninteresting when you went in?

I expected Dragon Age: Origins to be uninteresting. It exceeded my expectations. I expected Call of Duty to be pretty darn exciting, but probably shallow, it fell well below that expectation.

 

It's equivalent to a popcorn flick, but whereas you find it artistically bland, I find it visceral and intense.

Popcorn flick is too much of a compliment for this. FEAR was a popcorn flick. I honestly can't think of an equivalent for this. I'd say SyFy channel B movie, but there's no monsters.

 

This is barely interactive. Like the first mission. The boat is swaying, so you can't aim for crap. But that's a-okay, because all of the NPCs can and will kill the bad guys without you having to try. I'm not seeing any challenge in the missions, I died a couple times from enemies that showed up behind me. Apparently I moved ahead before I was supposed to. And a car blew up another time. I have no idea when it's okay to move up or not, it's just whenever the game decides to stop spawning enemies. Completing an encounter feels like the game got bored of that firefight, not a natural ending.

 

And if the game does that breaching maneuver where two other guys stand in my way to shoot up a room while I watch on or risk a game over for friendly fire, I might just scream.

 

I feel I understand why so many other developers are copying Call of Duty. Not because this franchise sells well, but because they know they can do better. The firefights in Spec-Ops the line had more going for them.