What are you playing now?

[Drowsy Emperor]

Finished LA Noir. Didn't really like it.

 

Why not?

[Darkpriest]

 

Since Xenonauts now entered into Steam and is available for pre-pruchase and beta testing, I am playing that... Utilized my Kickstarter from this one.

 

It is still rough in terms of balance and some AI, but generally the game is playable in full.

 

I noticed that.  Any good?

 

 

Decent enough to play it and have fun

 

Nice interception mechanics, being an own minigame, and generally looking good, with the retro like 2D drawings.

 

They are still balancing things, and working on the AI (for example grenades now are rather useless, same with shotguns and pistols, and the AI does not defend UFO but fights with all forces outside)

 

There is some cover mechanics, as a minor improvement over the original XCOM and better "aiming" mechanics.

 

Still it is a niche game

Edited June 2, 2013 by Darkpriest

[SadExchange]

Finished the introductory campaign of Expeditions: Conquistador. Now on to the main game. If I was to do it again, there is one choice I would not have made the same - a waste of perfectly good 100XP

But mostly I can't complain. Most of my crew's moral is either "unwavering" or even "devoted", with only two having dropped to "enthusiastic".

I've yet to start the game. Trying to wait till the first patch due to some recent games needing it. In reading your post though I'm not understanding the poor choice you made and wasted the 100 xp on. What would that have been?

[Hassat Hunter]

Probably upgrading a party member who's only temporary in your party...

[babaganoosh13]

Finished up Primordia. Really, really enjoyed it. One or two puzzles where I needed to consult a walkthrough but all-together I really liked the puzzles in this one, and the story/setting/atmosphere was fantastic.

 

If you like adventure games, please check it out: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/primordia

It's also available in a couple of bundles right now

 

Groupies Be mine 8

Indie Royale Hammerhead bundle

[melkathi]

 

I've yet to start the game. Trying to wait till the first patch due to some recent games needing it. In reading your post though I'm not understanding the poor choice you made and wasted the 100 xp on. What would that have been?

 

 

You spend XP you gain on promoting your followers.

There are a number of NPCs you can recruit in the first campaign. One of them does not carry over to the main campaign. I promoted him, when I could have used those XP to promote someone else who stayed with me.

[GhostofAnakin]

These Borderlands 2 DLCs are longer than most other DLC for games (cough Mass Effect 3 cough).  I'm still working my way through the Torque challenge one for the past three days.  The ME3 DLCs took literally one session of gaming.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Baldur's Gate EE. Love the graphics and the new content that Beamdog has put in.

[Nepenthe]

Baldur's Gate EE. Love the graphics and the new content that Beamdog has put in.

 

That's still on the top of my to-do list when my brain starts working again. IF it starts working again...

 

Meanwhile, I've been having a military shooter marathon. Modern Warfare 2-3, Battlefield 3 and Black Ops 2. Sure, these are all short campaigns, 2 evenings or 1 day to complete on a difficulty that doesn't require a ton of grinding. Obviously for someone who only plays the SP campaigns this isn't a lot of bang for the buck; yet most of these campaigns are already getting a bit close to stretching on for too long. Given the choice, I'd rather pay Blood Dragon type money for the SP campaign only, but...

 

Black Ops 2 is head and shoulders above the others. I think the future sections are really well done and the technology they've used is fun and cool. The past missions are mostly pretty much by the numbers and hold the game back from being awesome. The story line branching is cool, as are the optional missions - even though they appear to be a massive pain in the bottom on the higher difficulties. Extra points for the Jack Wall electronic future tracks (awesome, at his best) and the Trent Reznor end theme. I also played this one last, so I should've been more than a little burned out - something I think I noticed a lot more with BF3 that I played on the day before.

 

Battlefield 3 is really ambitious but the vehicle levels seem tacked on. I mean, even the guy in the narrative frame asks "why are you telling me this" after one of them. The Euronext mission ("Comrades", iirc) is one of the best FPS levels I remember ever playing and the only one that has ever managed to convey a palpable sense of urgency without a short countdown ticking on the screen. And it's actually fairly long. Unfortunately some of the other levels start feeling a bit like work pretty soon and there are some horribly contrived QTEs in this game. The game's rather pretty even on a PS3, so I have high hopes about the next generation engine and look forward to the multitude of EA games we'll see on it (DA3 is one of the confirmed ones, AFAIK).

 

MW2 and 3... I think we've established long ago that I primarily play games to enjoy the story... I generally don't need to have that great an impact on it, so I can be pretty happy with games that don't provide much choice, too.* Not much to be said about these that hasn't been said, but I can appreciate the slick summer block buster type thing these have going. The story does get progressively worse through the series and the new protagonist in MW3 manages to stay a cardboard cutout through the whole game. I think he dies at the end, but frankly I didn't care enough to be sure even on my second or third playthrough. Guess the lack of the original studio management IS noticeable in some ways.

 

I think I'll take a stab at BF Bad Company 2, next.

 

The older I get, the more I find myself liking these games. They are good palate cleansers between more complex/longer games and even better escapism when the walls start coming in. :D

 

* I do find the lack of choice grating in some games, mostly GTAs and the like, as well as Uncharted 2 for some reason...

[Morgoth]

Finished LA Noir. Didn't really like it.

 

[melkathi]

I didn't know Morgoth posted outside the Random Video Game News thread.

[Gorth]

Nothing new... Started a game as Muscovy in EUIII (with latest patches) and continuing the adventures of 'Gorth' the Bounty hunter in SWTor (now level 30). Then I read about the imminent server merges and am going to be royally pissed off if I get forced to rename my character (not to mention nightmare visions of excessive ping times). *Grumble*

[melkathi]

Nothing new... Started a game as Muscovy in EUIII (with latest patches) and continuing the adventures of 'Gorth' the Bounty hunter in SWTor (now level 30). Then I read about the imminent server merges and am going to be royally pissed off if I get forced to rename my character (not to mention nightmare visions of excessive ping times). *Grumble*

 

Rename characters AGAIN?

*sigh*

Why can't MMOs learn and give people a global handle and let them have non-unique names for their characters? If Cryptic can do it with their MMOs and Tabula Rasa could do it, then it can't be all that hard...

[Malcador]

Found it funny that I went through all of GTA 4 with not too many bugs, but a QTE on the last mission is preventing me from beating the game - fall off helicopter, mission fail. Overall the game is ok, main storyline is about as good as I can expect from a game like this and the city is pretty well made. Wish I could collect more cars though, heh.

[Keyrock]

 

Nothing new... Started a game as Muscovy in EUIII (with latest patches) and continuing the adventures of 'Gorth' the Bounty hunter in SWTor (now level 30). Then I read about the imminent server merges and am going to be royally pissed off if I get forced to rename my character (not to mention nightmare visions of excessive ping times). *Grumble*

 

Rename characters AGAIN?

*sigh*

Why can't MMOs learn and give people a global handle and let them have non-unique names for their characters? If Cryptic can do it with their MMOs and Tabula Rasa could do it, then it can't be all that hard...

 

Now, if they could just fix their flaky party queuing system in Neverwinter.

[melkathi]

Now, if they could just fix their flaky party queuing system in Neverwinter.

 

 

 

They only just broke it ina ll their games in time for Neverwinter. Now you want them to fix it?

[WDeranged]

Finished up Primordia. Really, really enjoyed it. One or two puzzles where I needed to consult a walkthrough but all-together I really liked the puzzles in this one, and the story/setting/atmosphere was fantastic.

 

If you like adventure games, please check it out: http://www.gog.com/gamecard/primordia

 

I really enjoyed Primordia, my only complaints are that I wanted it to be longer and the graphics were sometimes a bit too "authentic" but it's well worth the money.

[sorophx]

playing Storm of Zehir for the first time, and it's awesome. easily the best party-based dungeon crawler since IWD. I can't believe it took me so long to finally try it. 

[Rosbjerg]

Yeah, I never got why so many people hated it - it was sold to me as a party dungeon rumble and it delivered.

[alanschu]

Have been playing

 

 

Save the Date

Crusader Kings 2 (Venecian Patrician.  Also experimented with some Old Gods)

Nexus: The Jupiter Incident

Saints Row: The Third

[Labadal]

Going to download the Icewind Dale and Baldur's Gate Reloaded modules for NWN 2. BGR hasn't been out for long.

 

I'm also thinking about trying Project Brazil for New Vegas.

 

This is not good for my backlog elimination. However, I did beat Divinity 2: FoV earlier today. I was so happy to not be in dragon form only to be utterly frustrated by the zeppelin escort mission. It got destroyed several times. On my last (successful) try, I just rushed and destroyed everything.

[Drowsy Emperor]

XCOM EU

 

Just finished the alien base mission. It was tough but my laser equipped troops took care of it. I find the 2 snipers I always take with me invaluable. Particularly the one that can shoot using the field of vision of other soldiers. Support is also great. Heavy is okay, but his real use is when I want to kill something quickly with the rocket launcher.

 

Since I have never played the original, I find this a pretty playable package. So far the game has only two real flaws that I can see:

 

1. there aren't enough tactical options in combat. Once you get used to abusing overwatch (relying on enemies to come to you - which works a lot) and never using dash the combat becomes rather predictable. My men very rarely die because I can rely on my snipers to one shot enemies often enough.

2. it isn't very replayable. While you can vary the strategic options somewhat in the base, you don't seem to have a lot of overall influence on the way events turn out

[Raithe]

Ran through a mission on XCOM EU, then got to shoot down the hidden overseer ship.

Hm, that first Ethereal in a room with multiple heavy floaters, and a sectopod is a bit of a bastard.

 

Need to sit down and get some decent game playing in. Haven't spent more then an odd half-hour here and there doing so lately.

[Tale]

Groupee's bundle had Primordia and Drakensang, so I had to grab it. Especially with the recommendations around here. No time to play it yet, but I will make some this week.

 

At least until Deadly Premonition arrives.

[Nepenthe]

Tried some Uncharted 3 again. I ****ing hate the game. I liked 2, but in this one the puzzle to me 99 % of the time isn't how to do something but where the hell am I supposed to go? The smoke and mirrors for the "cinematic" experience are really exposed here vs. 2. In the end managed about 30 minutes before had to turn it off in disgust.

 

I also have the new hitman and Dishonored which were left unfinished when I moved... probably going to resume one of those, next.