What are you playing now?

[Katphood]

Tale, you play adventure games. Go play The Journey Down, then tell me if I should buy it or not

 

You guys might wanna check this out if you like adventure games: http://www.youtube.com/user/123Pazu

This guy plays almost every adventure game he can get his hands on(though apparently, he still hasn't played 'The Journey Down').

Edited January 11, 2013 by Astiaks

[Bos_hybrid]

And zombies are no better.

 

That is an outrage! Zombies make everything better, even strippers.

Edited January 11, 2013 by Bos_hybrid

[Tale]

Beat the Belfry Gargoyles on my first try. Had some help from an NPC phantom.

 

Give me someone to distract the enemy and Heavy Soul Spear will destroy anyone.

[GhostofAnakin]

Been hunting for relics the past couple of days. It's so tedious, yet the completionist in me can't stop myself!

[Calax]

Fantasy fulfillment. And the fact that the military is where most armies fight. And a shooter with only 6 bad guys that you shoot in a corral doesn't really scream "fun". Also, because of the nature of games, you have to be the "Specialist" because you're the one who pops off headshots every 20 seconds.

I was thinking more along the lines of ... why can't I be shooting a dragon or mutated slugworm with my sniper instead of some stereotyped commie insurgent or whatever. Or why can't I be on a planet made of sanddunes, or 80% water, with both human spacefarers and oddball aliens, instead of some dull jungle or real-world location. It's not the "military combat" I mind (kinda goes with guns and shooting) but the setting it's put into. eg, I want more escapism/variety in the shooter, not army reality.

 

I don't really know. One reason might actually be budget in a strange way. The military shooters don't need to really be very creative about their art and worlds. Because they're in this world, fighting enemies that the people know. So instead of having to make up strange weapons, enemies, and environments, they just have to come up with a story to tie their "awesome" together.

 

Also, if you did something like a sand world, or a water world, You'd have to come up with mechanics to bring those into the game, otherwise the game might just be better in a city.

[Nordicus]

That is an outrage! Zombies make everything better, even sex.

Fixed that for ya

[Calax]

Rome again.

 

I own most of Europe, with the brutii only controlling the south eastern portion of germany and the Aegean. Except Byzantium... because that was a "free city" for almost 60 years (I think) because the brutii just didn't want to take it.

 

I was a mite bit angry when my best general, who'd conquored all of northern europe for me, died... in a riot.

http://cloud-2.steam...940E4232356F6C/

That's him. In the siege he's about to pull off after that screen shot, he killed 400 men with his body guards.... of 900 garrison troops.

 

However, overall, I ended up with a 26 year old with one or two less stars who's going to be leading the charge on rome and Italy (currently I've basically hit every button I can for recruitment). Current forces under arms is about 20 thousand men. The Brutii have more but I don't think they're the same tech level (a good portion of mine are Urban cohorts).

Edited January 11, 2013 by Calax

[LadyCrimson]

@Calax - all reasonable things. I guess for me it's just like how some get tired of "medieval fantasy" RPG's. It's nice to have something different once in a while, even if the difference is mostly visual world. I was looking at Steam's bestsellers "action" category earlier and it was military after military game. lol.

[Katphood]

Just beat Dragon Age II. It wasn't really all that bad. Sure, I can understand why some PC gamers hate it, but you still have to give it some credit because of some of choices you can make. Most of the times, there isn't really a "good" or "evil" choice, but simply two different choices. I like it when a game at least tries to force you to think and choose depending on how your own personality is.

[Keyrock]

Just finished Mirror's Edge. My thoughts, the short version: Ewww, someone spilled some crappy fighting in my awesome parkour game.

 

The long version: The game is very good when it doesn't pretend to be something else. The parkour stuff is really well done with controls that are easy to master yet comprehensive enough to allow you to get really sweet free runs going. Much of the game revolves around dying a bunch of times as you experiment and figure out the proper route, then putting together a good clean run. The game falls apart when it forces you to fight. Many of the fights can be completely avoided by simply running past your enemies and getting the heck out of dodge, which is exactly what the game should allow you to do. Unfortunately there are several battles that are unavoidable and force you to use the game's mediocre at best combat system. What's worse is that it breaks up the cool running action. Still, there are moments of brilliance where I am able to calculate the optimal route on the fly on my first try and there are bullets spraying all around me, people chasing me, and I'm running like the wind, jumping over obstacles, wallrunning, triangle jumping, and other manner of pure badassery. Those moments are adrenaline pumping and pure joy and it's worth slogging through a bit of crappy combat to experience those thrills.

 

On the down side, the game is really short. I beat it in about 7 hours and I'm sure people can do it in much less time. Even with speedruns to extend gameplay, that pathetic an amount of content is simply unacceptable.

 

If and when Dice make a sequel they need to address 2 issues:

 

1) The game needs to be MUCH longer.

2) The game should NEVER force you into combat. All combat should be optional. There should ALWAYS be the option to simply hightail it out of there.

 

If you haven't tried them yet, look into the time trials. They've got some excellent stuff there that's more demanding of your execution than the main game is.

 

Since you've just gone through the game, do you remember how many times you actually have to take someone down? I can't remember how many enemies you have to interact with. I remember two required fights and three or four more that I think you can do without fighting, but become much easier if you take down a guard.

I can think of 4 fights off the top of my head that require you to take down the blues. Two of them are where you need to climb a pipe to get up to a higher rooftop and one is where you need to turn a wheel to open a door. In those 3 cases it just takes too long to climb up the pipe of crank open the door to avoid the fight, you'll always get gunned down before you can get to cover. Then there's going through the sever room where you need to take out at least 1 blue to get his gun so you can destroy the servers. At that point, you might as well gun down the rest of them too. And, as you wrote, there are several other scenarios made much easier by taking down a guard or two.

[Calax]

The frustrating thing is that mirrors edge kinda hates combat. So the areas where you want/need to take down the blues can be frustrating ordeals if you can't get your timing right.

[Riseofbane]

playing Icewind Dale and making walkthrough on youtube at the same time.

 

www.youtube.com/riseofbane

[Gorgon]

Why are so many FPS shooters military oriented? By that I mean the look/setting, the army looking clothes, uniforms, jeeps. I don't mind military archetype characters (in fact I quite like them), but the semi-realistic military setting is so boring, outside of a strategy game.

 

And zombies are no better.

You should really try Day Z. It's a miliray shooter, but it's also an ironman MMO, and it doesn't have the stupid pretext of a story. There is no shoehorning. Your game is over when you have 40 hrs on the same char, got all the cool gear you wanted and you are still alive.

 

One mistake though and it's over. That's pretty far from the samey boredom of 99% of all games right now.

[pmp10]

Since I somehow managed to fry half of my CPU cores it's now Sim city 4.

Brings back pleasant memories but the constant need to rotate view and readjust funding can easily get on ones nerves.

[Deraldin]

I can think of 4 fights off the top of my head that require you to take down the blues. Two of them are where you need to climb a pipe to get up to a higher rooftop and one is where you need to turn a wheel to open a door. In those 3 cases it just takes too long to climb up the pipe of crank open the door to avoid the fight, you'll always get gunned down before you can get to cover. Then there's going through the sever room where you need to take out at least 1 blue to get his gun so you can destroy the servers. At that point, you might as well gun down the rest of them too. And, as you wrote, there are several other scenarios made much easier by taking down a guard or two.

 

The wheel on the door is the big one that I never found a way around.

 

You don't actually have to take down a blue to get the servers. If you run around the perimeter of the room, the blues will take out the servers while trying to hit you. I think it's possible to get past the MG trooper on the catwalk without taking him down, but it's much more difficult.

 

I remember one pipe climb that was in an area with 3 of the PK guards that was possible to get around. There was an AC duct on the left side of the building that you could run up, twist, jump and climb up a short pipe that would let you get to the top without getting shot to hell.

 

It's tough to recall, because it's fairly easy to get through without killing anyone and I think I'm mixing up a lot of "I can do that without killing" and "I can do that without combat" areas.

 

I think I remembered another one. There is a section where a blue will pop out from behind a corner of the building and you can kick him off the edge of the scaffolding so that he'll fall down to the ground. I don't think you can get past him without fighting. There just isn't any room.

[Keyrock]

Tale, you play adventure games. Go play The Journey Down, then tell me if I should buy it or not

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on this one. Partially because it's only 5 bucks, partially because I love adventure games, and partially because it's one of the few games available on Steam Linux right now and I want something else to play while I beta test. I'll give some impressions once I put a few hours in or finish it (it's part one of an episodic series so i don't expect it to be particularly long). For now I will say this, the characters are very Grim Fandango looking, the game has a weird, but cool looking aesthetic of crisp, bright, sharp 3D characters against a somewhat faded, roughly drawn 2D background. Also, it's got some sweet jazz and reggae music.

[rjshae]

Just beat Dragon Age II. It wasn't really all that bad. Sure, I can understand why some PC gamers hate it, but you still have to give it some credit because of some of choices you can make. Most of the times, there isn't really a "good" or "evil" choice, but simply two different choices. I like it when a game at least tries to force you to think and choose depending on how your own personality is.

I also found it moderately enjoyable; at least enough to reach the end game. All of the negative criticism seems overblown to me. If you don't go in expecting a realistic tactical combat simulator, then I think you can enjoy it.

[Calax]

Made my move on Rome. Managed to smash their armies before attacking the walls.

 

Then the Brutii (who had more men than I) started throwing armies into Europe. Had to withdraw from one city (it had 600 people and a very small damaged garrison, and got another city taken from me. At the same time I managed to beat the living tar out of three Brutii armies, two of which were 2:1 in favor of them (it was sieges). Currently I've managed to take the rest of Germany and am moving on greece with four Legions of Urban cohorts (backed up with calvalry).

[Labadal]

Managed to find some time to actually finish up my Planescape: Torment playthrough. I still find the battles to be not so good, but I still love evberything else.

 

I'll probably start Bastion or Binary Domain on PC.

[Amentep]

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma again. Is it sad that I still enjoy running up and down the countryside, jumping on giant monsters and stabbing them in the face no matter how many times I do it?

[Labadal]

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma again. Is it sad that I still enjoy running up and down the countryside, jumping on giant monsters and stabbing them in the face no matter how many times I do it?

 

Not when it looks as cool as it does in that game. I still haven't bought it, but I did enjoy the demo.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I've been playing Dragon's Dogma again. Is it sad that I still enjoy running up and down the countryside, jumping on giant monsters and stabbing them in the face no matter how many times I do it?

 

No, Dragon's Dogma is great fun and absolutely recommended. It's a pity it never got a PC version though, both console versions struggle in terms of framerate and level of detail shown.

[Deraldin]

Working through Spec Ops The Line right now.

 

"Do you feel like a hero yet?"

 

[Tale]

Dark Souls. In the Depths and I seem to have gotten turned around.

[GhostofAnakin]

This current Far Cry 3 mission I'm playing through is very Tomb Raider-esque.