What are you playing now?

[melkathi]

Just got my backer steam key for Our Darker Purpose.

[Humanoid]

Restarted in X-COM after reading a bit about managing panic levels and doing much better now on the $$$ front. Quite enjoying the game though the incredible randomness of combat can be rather annoying. Then again, haven't really encountered any "hard" enemies yet afaik (the Hulk guys are the biggest baddies I've seen so far)

 

Probably going to dabble in Divinity: Original Sin's alpha some more later as well (already made it past character creation (such as there currently is), which is further than a bunch of guys got. Also: "It's gonna be awesome!"

The hardest enemies in the game are Thinmen!

 

I'm not kidding, relative to when they show up, I fear them most. It's not even close.

[AGX-17]

sensible folk will wait for all eps to be released before playing walking dead season 2

Sensible folk have no appreciation for tension or excitement. They also have no right to complain when I spoil the plot for them.

[Plutone00]

Wing Commader 3 for old time's sake. Purchased the whole series during GOG holiday sale.

[entrerix]

lol. touche!

[LadyCrimson]

I'd like it to be tomorrow already, so I can start whatever pointless grind it is to get my pointless Winter Mimic companion and Winter Sled riding mount and other goodies, whilst chatting with other collector obsessives who are doing the same thing.

[Deraldin]

 

Restarted in X-COM after reading a bit about managing panic levels and doing much better now on the $$$ front. Quite enjoying the game though the incredible randomness of combat can be rather annoying. Then again, haven't really encountered any "hard" enemies yet afaik (the Hulk guys are the biggest baddies I've seen so far)

 

Probably going to dabble in Divinity: Original Sin's alpha some more later as well (already made it past character creation (such as there currently is), which is further than a bunch of guys got. Also: "It's gonna be awesome!"

The hardest enemies in the game are Thinmen!

 

I'm not kidding, relative to when they show up, I fear them most. It's not even close.

 

Thin men are by far the most dangerous enemies. On classic at least they have insane crit rates, an unblockable ranged AoE poison attack that can kill your troops unless they get first aid and they have more HP than can be taken down with a single grenade so you'll have to actually hit them behind their cover rather than just blowing up that group of them clustered together with one explosive.

 

Many a TPK started with the introduction of Thin men.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Deraldin

[alanschu]

I, however, am having a hell of a good time. I figured out how the mechanics work and am back to playing on Hard, and this is definitely the best TW yet, no question. Specifically:

I actually really enjoyed the game even at launch. Wasn't hit with too many issues that other people had as well.

[Keyrock]

I gotta say, I'm really enjoying The Last Remnant so far.  One thing that I really like about jRPGs and Japanese games in general is not constantly conforming to Tolkien-esque races and tropes.  Sure, jRPGs have their own set of tropes, but at least I don't have to play yet another ****ing game with elves and dwarves and goblins (I'll never get tired of orcs, though, because orcs are awesome).  In particular, I really like the Qsiti:

D'aww!

 

Fighting is something I rarely really enjoy in RPGs.  It's something I generally just put up with so I can get back to exploring and story.  So when a game comes along where I actually look forward to battles, you know they did something right.  The combat system in The Last Remnant is ****ing boss!  There is some pretty deep and gratifying strategic goodness in there.  I haven't figured out everything yet since not everything is fully explained in the game itself (I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere I ought to read, and will), but now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, it's really fun, especially when you have large scale battles with large numbers of units and unions.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Keyrock

[Woldan]

BG2EE And its driving me mad. I'm currently at watchers keep, last level before reaching the imprisoned one, and the last battle against the demons makes me go insane. (Core rules) Too bad I cannot remember what tactics I used to defeat them when I played ToB a decade ago. The problem is that most of those enemies cast protection from magical weapons on them and before I can dispel that protection magic with my mage I'm so dead. 

Distracting them with summoned creatures is a no-go because the hive mother uses death spell on them and they seem to be immune to most spells. Lowering their resistance is a no go either because my group gets hacked to death before I can cast it on all the demons. 

 

Next time I'll try: time stop > dispel magic > lowering magical resistances and then cast another time stop to use 4x Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting and see if it does any damage. 

 

Frustrating. 

Edited December 19, 2013 by Woldan

[Gfted1]

The final fight right before Demogorgon? I found that harder then Demogorgon himself. I seem to remember using lots of Mordenkainen's Sword spells. I know that doesn't help against the protection from magical weapons but it could keep them occupied and does a great job on everyone else.

[Majek]

Fighting is something I rarely really enjoy in RPGs.  It's something I generally just put up with so I can get back to exploring and story.  So when a game comes along where I actually look forward to battles, you know they did something right.  The combat system in The Last Remnant is ****ing boss!  There is some pretty deep and gratifying strategic goodness in there.  I haven't figured out everything yet since not everything is fully explained in the game itself (I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere I ought to read, and will), but now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, it's really fun, especially when you have large scale battles with large numbers of units and unions.

That's just an illusion. In reality it's complete randomness. The more you play, the deeper you want to understand it, the more you realise that it's not gold just shiny.

[Woldan]

The final fight right before Demogorgon? I found that harder then Demogorgon himself. I seem to remember using lots of Mordenkainen's Sword spells. I know that doesn't help against the protection from magical weapons but it could keep them occupied and does a great job on everyone else.

 

Hm, I doubt they're immune to Hive Mother's death spell that targets and destroys all summoned creatures. I'll give it a try though, thanks. 

[melkathi]

I gotta say, I'm really enjoying The Last Remnant so far.  One thing that I really like about jRPGs and Japanese games in general is not constantly conforming to Tolkien-esque races and tropes.  Sure, jRPGs have their own set of tropes, but at least I don't have to play yet another ****ing game with elves and dwarves and goblins (I'll never get tired of orcs, though, because orcs are awesome).  In particular, I really like the Qsiti:

D'aww!

 

Fighting is something I rarely really enjoy in RPGs.  It's something I generally just put up with so I can get back to exploring and story.  So when a game comes along where I actually look forward to battles, you know they did something right.  The combat system in The Last Remnant is ****ing boss!  There is some pretty deep and gratifying strategic goodness in there.  I haven't figured out everything yet since not everything is fully explained in the game itself (I'm sure there's a wiki somewhere I ought to read, and will), but now that I'm starting to get the hang of it, it's really fun, especially when you have large scale battles with large numbers of units and unions.

 

I realy like the Qsiti as well. Oakes, the mercenary you can hire early on, even though he is no special character is one of my favourids. Probably because he heroically charged a huge dragon and cut it to ribbons

Make sure you keep an eye out for the special characters.

 

The combat gets tedious later on when the novelty wears off. All the trash fights get old after a bit. This game would really have benefitted from less fighting. The fights against unique rare monsters can be a lot of fun though.

[Keyrock]

The combat gets tedious later on when the novelty wears off. All the trash fights get old after a bit. This game would really have benefitted from less fighting. The fights against unique rare monsters can be a lot of fun though.

 

Well, "This game would really have benefited from less fighting" applies to at least 80% of RPGs, in my opinion.    

 

I'm sure it will wear on me eventually, but for now I'm loving the heck out of the combat.  A lot of it isn't particularly well explained in the game, though I've found some rather lengthy and excellent guides and wikis that go into how the combat systems work and why things happen and also the upgrading system.  I'm not trying to exploit the system to its fullest and min-max all my characters, but it helps to understand how things work.

[melkathi]

I never managed to finish it. All the crafting and min-maxing would mean stupendous amounds of farming and grinding, so that is out of the question. But I always mean to get back to it. I just want to do all the quests, including all the character specific ones for people in your party.

[Nepenthe]

BG2EE And its driving me mad. I'm currently at watchers keep, last level before reaching the imprisoned one, and the last battle against the demons makes me go insane. (Core rules) Too bad I cannot remember what tactics I used to defeat them when I played ToB a decade ago. The problem is that most of those enemies cast protection from magical weapons on them and before I can dispel that protection magic with my mage I'm so dead. 

Distracting them with summoned creatures is a no-go because the hive mother uses death spell on them and they seem to be immune to most spells. Lowering their resistance is a no go either because my group gets hacked to death before I can cast it on all the demons. 

 

Next time I'll try: time stop > dispel magic > lowering magical resistances and then cast another time stop to use 4x Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting and see if it does any damage. 

 

Frustrating.

 

You're supposed to kill them with non-magical weapons. Iirc there's a stash of them nearby. Or was it another fight?

[Woldan]

You're supposed to kill them with non-magical weapons. Iirc there's a stash of them nearby. Or was it another fight?

No, I think what you're thinking of is that strange magic golems in the 4th level near Lums machine, they're only vulnerable to non-magical weapons.

The demons I'm fighting have - I think - immunity to anything below +2, the problem is they also cast magical weapon resistances on them (on top of spell resistances) making them only killable once the protection spells are removed, which takes rather long while those bastards hack away on my party and kill summoned monsters almost instantly with death fog and death spell.

Edited December 19, 2013 by Woldan

[Sarex]

BG2EE And its driving me mad. I'm currently at watchers keep, last level before reaching the imprisoned one, and the last battle against the demons makes me go insane. (Core rules) Too bad I cannot remember what tactics I used to defeat them when I played ToB a decade ago. The problem is that most of those enemies cast protection from magical weapons on them and before I can dispel that protection magic with my mage I'm so dead. 

Distracting them with summoned creatures is a no-go because the hive mother uses death spell on them and they seem to be immune to most spells. Lowering their resistance is a no go either because my group gets hacked to death before I can cast it on all the demons. 

 

Next time I'll try: time stop > dispel magic > lowering magical resistances and then cast another time stop to use 4x Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting and see if it does any damage. 

 

Frustrating. 

 

Ugh I can't for the life of me remember the demons and I finished my last playthrough a couple of months ago. Though this time around I went trough watchers keep like a breeze, I think I was too high a level for it to be much of a challenge. I did have a paladin with crom faeyr, so maybe that's it.

[Nepenthe]

 

You're supposed to kill them with non-magical weapons. Iirc there's a stash of them nearby. Or was it another fight?

No, I think what you're thinking of is that strange magic golems in the 4th level near Lums machine, they're only vulnerable to non-magical weapons.The demons I'm fighting have - I think - immunity to anything below +2, the problem is they also cast magical weapon resistances on them (on top of spell resistances) making them only killable once the protection spells are removed, which takes rather long while those bastards hack away on my party and kill summoned monsters almost instantly with death fog and death spell.

Ok, right, been too long, I guess.

[sorophx]

The final fight right before Demogorgon? I found that harder then Demogorgon himself.

I don't even know what you guys are talking about... I remember the hardest fight for me was the freaking demi-lich after I assembled his broken ass. that fight took 4 or 5 wipes to get through, after that I just breezed through the rest of the game(s)

[HoonDing]

Put skull traps and spike traps where the enemies are to appear.

[Bartimaeus]

BG2EE And its driving me mad. I'm currently at watchers keep, last level before reaching the imprisoned one, and the last battle against the demons makes me go insane. (Core rules) Too bad I cannot remember what tactics I used to defeat them when I played ToB a decade ago. The problem is that most of those enemies cast protection from magical weapons on them and before I can dispel that protection magic with my mage I'm so dead. 

Distracting them with summoned creatures is a no-go because the hive mother uses death spell on them and they seem to be immune to most spells. Lowering their resistance is a no go either because my group gets hacked to death before I can cast it on all the demons. 

 

Next time I'll try: time stop > dispel magic > lowering magical resistances and then cast another time stop to use 4x Abi-Dalzim's horrid wilting and see if it does any damage. 

 

Frustrating.

If you're having difficulty with the default game, I don't recommend trying to do it with Sword Coast Stratagems. Man, that last level was hard as all heck with only having just reached epic levels by the time I got there, (I started going through Watcher's Keep in the beginning of Chapter 2 at like level 9...before joining either the Shadow Thieves or Bodhi, or really doing anything at all. Painfully difficult. Was epic leveled by the time I finished...and I still hadn't joined either. Completely broke the game. ).

 

If I recall correctly, that fight in particular, (with the variety of creatures, including the Hive Mother), was the most difficult for me, too...although the super lich with the Robe of Vecna (SCS) and his buffed up, spellcasting (SCS) demi-lich buddies were also pretty hard. Hated that level, haha. I recall also trying to spam Abi-Dalzim's, and it not really having any effect...but in non-SCS, one could hope.

[CommentTater]

Not to derail the chat about how ball-bustingly hard BG2 is, but here's an update on my sorry butt: I gave up on DA:O for now. I got past the Magi quest but I'm burned out already, so I started playing Drakensang: River of Time cause you guys have been playing it.

I had really low expectations, but it's bretty good. The character creation was really fun and intuitive thanks to the right clicking, and it has more of an old school feel than DA did. Also, the armor is cooler. However, the old-schoolnessitude is most noticeablepainful with the traveling. It feels so slow to move from one place to another, somehow even slower than the Infinity Engine's iconic Stick-in-ass Speedwalk. Fast travel is fine but I think they should've put in a third movement speed, or changed their "run" animation to something less pathetic.

Also, the voice acting is pretty bad, but this is a German game made for Germans so whatever. I give it THREE DOTS out of four.

[ShadySands]

Back to LOTRO since the new expansion

 

All the classes are a lot different with the new skill tree setup and I'm really digging it so far and I haven't even gotten to the new area yet