What are you playing now?

[Labadal]

Tried the single player portion of Starhawk. Not bad, and it makes me want to buy the online part. The reason I won't is that I'm awful at everything that has to do with competitive multiplayer.

 

Been playing Planescape: Torment and Legend Heroes: Trails in the Sky in small bursts.

[Inyourprime]

I enjoyed Risen 2, I am a sucker for exploring lands in any RPG. So the issues with combat weren't such a big deal for me. But I can see how you think it was repetitive .

 

A little repetitive but more frustrating if I had to describe it. If I just had the ability to block and dodge, I wouldn't care. You had to dodge in the first Risen and time your attacks. Throwing sand does nothing, kicking them does nothing, and distracting them with a parrot does nothing... it's just frustrating. I haven't tried voodoo yet so I am considering another play-through with the natives. I did enjoy the story and its' characters.

 

And I agree, exploration was good, but I think suffered a bit due to smaller islands... and the loot you find in ruins/caves isn't that great. It still has the PB feel to it -- the farther you get from civilization, the worse it gets. So no qualms there.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Inyourprime

[BruceVC]

I enjoyed Risen 2, I am a sucker for exploring lands in any RPG. So the issues with combat weren't such a big deal for me. But I can see how you think it was repetitive .

 

A little repetitive but more frustrating if I had to describe it. If I just had the ability to block and dodge, I wouldn't care. You had to dodge in the first Risen and time your attacks. Throwing sand does nothing, kicking them does nothing, and distracting them with a parrot does nothing... it's just frustrating. I haven't tried voodoo yet so I am considering another play-through with the natives. I did enjoy the story and its' characters.

 

And I agree, exploration was good, but I think suffered a bit due to smaller islands... and the loot you find in ruins/caves isn't that great. It still has the PB feel to it -- the farther you get from civilization, the worse it gets. So no qualms there.

 

Yeah I hear you about the combat but I am sure my kick did work? Against the giant crabs it was an effective strategy. The story was good, I enjoy the way PB creates RPG. You always need to join a faction and when on a quest the objectives are not always this blinking marker on a map, it makes the game more challenging

[Labadal]

I enjoyed Risen 2, I am a sucker for exploring lands in any RPG. So the issues with combat weren't such a big deal for me. But I can see how you think it was repetitive .

 

A little repetitive but more frustrating if I had to describe it. If I just had the ability to block and dodge, I wouldn't care. You had to dodge in the first Risen and time your attacks. Throwing sand does nothing, kicking them does nothing, and distracting them with a parrot does nothing... it's just frustrating. I haven't tried voodoo yet so I am considering another play-through with the natives. I did enjoy the story and its' characters.

 

And I agree, exploration was good, but I think suffered a bit due to smaller islands... and the loot you find in ruins/caves isn't that great. It still has the PB feel to it -- the farther you get from civilization, the worse it gets. So no qualms there.

 

They added block and dodge to the PC version but not the console versions. I guess by the time they patched that in, a lot of people had already finished the game.

[Inyourprime]

Yeah I hear you about the combat but I am sure my kick did work? Against the giant crabs it was an effective strategy. The story was good, I enjoy the way PB creates RPG. You always need to join a faction and when on a quest the objectives are not always this blinking marker on a map, it makes the game more challenging

 

Oh yeah... I forgot about the giant crabs. Those buggers were easy once you found the pieces and forged a unique sword. Flip them over and a couple of strong attacks and their done. haha

 

And while I'm thinking about it, I can't believe PB did not implement swimming in a pirate based game. When someone thinks pirate they think of water, treasure, sunken ships, and tons of islands. The fact that swimming isn't in the game doesn't make sense to me -- pirates can't swim, I guess.

 

They added block and dodge to the PC version but not the console versions. I guess by the time they patched that in, a lot of people had already finished the game.

 

What? How? I was never told you could dodge.

Edited December 30, 2012 by Inyourprime

[Labadal]

Double tap on the arrow keys, I think.

[alanschu]

Entirely too much Faster Than Light.

[Gorgon]

Doging came with a patch if I recall. Didn't work particularly well. Frantic button mashing was still you best bet.

[Nonek]

Just finished the Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, third playthrough of the game and i'm more impressed than ever with its subtle narrative. There is just so much hinted at and left up to the players investigation and intellect, rather than the usual blatant trumpeting of plot points and events. The enhanced edition also seems to have added a lot more facial expression to the characters, whether that be a raised brow, a smile or what have you. The new quest in chapter three of Roche's path is well integrated and clears up a certain unexplained absence (though not entirely,) and the combat has been improved considerably.

 

The UI still suffers from being made for both mouse and gamepad, and optimised for neither, in point of fact I much prefered the more internally consistent and limited inventory of the first game. The quick time events are still present, and I still absolutely see no point in most of them. The boxing is easy to the point of not unduly bothering me, however the other uses of quick time events are just superfluous. The dice poker which was an enjoyable and profitable passtime in the first game has become just another quest to complete, with minimal renumeration and an almost unreadble viewing angle.

 

The game is very cinematic heavy, as was the first game, but they are of such high quality presentation and importance to the plot that I was left curiously enough satisfied with them. They are presented in a very "less is more" fashion, that really lets the player take what he wishes from the scenes presented. I had only one major gripe with them, in the fact that the game clumsily decides I have lost in a certain combat with my antagonist early on. That seemed very poorly handled, and given the brilliance of the antagonist could have been resolved in a far more inventive fashion.

 

All told i'd say this is one of the most in depth and satisfying action rpgs (or maybe action adventures, i'm no good with genres) that i've ever played. Though short and setting a blistering pace, repeated playthroughs are not just possible but almost necessary, and I was still surprised by some conclusions that came to me in my third experience.

 

Well that went on a bit longer than i'd planned, i'm usually the soul of brevity.

[Tigranes]

I played three times and I think I exhausted it. I really enjoyed it too, but once you see all there is to see plot wise, the gameplay is just too weak - single character, sword combat not as robust as the first, not much complexity or variety in enemies/tactics, the character progression / monty haul element also mediocre. Same with TW1, really - I rate them both highly but they just show how even the better RPGs post-2005 have such shallow gameplay / combat.

[Malcador]

Mostly WoW still, friends and I going through old raid content we never got to play due to our guild being small and our raiding alliance well...being bad at raids

[Gorgon]

Looks have always trumped gameplay, it's just so much easier to do. I would argue that games have become dumber since the rise of the console because those few seconds of initial exposure where many people decide if they are going to buy or not have come to mean much more than they should. If you compare with Risen, and I don't see why you could'nt, TW combat actually works, while RIsen combat may eventually work acceptably well after a few patches.

[Nonek]

I played three times and I think I exhausted it. I really enjoyed it too, but once you see all there is to see plot wise, the gameplay is just too weak - single character, sword combat not as robust as the first, not much complexity or variety in enemies/tactics, the character progression / monty haul element also mediocre. Same with TW1, really - I rate them both highly but they just show how even the better RPGs post-2005 have such shallow gameplay / combat.

 

I'm still a little enamoured of it, as can be surmised from the wall of text. That said I do appreciate that the gameplay and combat are almost entirely divorced from the plot, with little to no statistical affect on the game through character building. Like most games, i'd prefer if it was turn based and more in depth, but i'm slowly growing used to the fact that those games just aren't going to be made.

[Tigranes]

Except Wasteland 2, Project Eternity, Chaos Chronicles, Knights of the Chalice 2 (perhaps)... if we get two or three great, replayable games out of this oncoming surge that should make me happy. I also think Piranha Bytes and CDProjekt have it in them to do a bit better.

[AwesomeOcelot]

Finished Quantum Conundrum, the puzzles are perhaps too easy but they're fair, the games a bit short but I felt they were stretching the game out more than the gameplay could support as it is. Executing the solution to the puzzles can be a bit difficult. It's a great game, one of the best puzzle platformers. I was a little disappointed, hoping for the next Portal.

 

I tried playing The Witcher today, I didn't like the combat at all, the many cut scenes I endured didn't grab me at all, seemed highly generic fantasy setting but I didn't play long enough to get any idea of the plot. I hate rhythm and QTE, it bores the **** out of me, that's not gaming.

 

I started Tomb Raider: Underworld, so far its great, it has some of the problems of Legend: insanely bad camera, many engine problems like constant bad grabs, clumsy interaction, and annoying side kick characters. I was stuck on a puzzle when I knew what to do, I just hadn't been told the correct button to throw the block. The camera is fine floating behind me, under my control, when suddenly the camera is placed so I can't see or judge a ledge I'm meant to be going to. The game suffers from graphic fidelity, ledges and things you interact with blend into the level, making them way more difficult to find than the original Tomb Raider games or even Legend. Not getting as many issues with the port that I did with Anniversary and Legend, no enemies clipping through the floor or graphical errors. I haven't run into stupid puzzles, QTE, and horrendous vehicle sections yet, I had such a bad experience with Legend I've been afraid to try this game.

[GhostofAnakin]

I don't know how anyone can find Halo's MP fun. Shoot enemy 5 times, he doesn't die. Instead, he uses a jetpack and hides, replenishes health. Rinse, repeat, and hope that eventually I can get enough shots in before he's able to hide to regenerate his shields.

 

It's one of the things CoD does very well. You shoot people ... THEY DIE.

[Cariannis]

Been playing Galactic Civilization 2…I am never leaving the house again…

[melkathi]

Tried playing some The Secret World. The writing is great, but man am I not enjoying the gameplay. Don't think I can force myself through more of it.

[Gorth]

Thread getting a bit long (way past the 500 mark).

 

More thread here