What are you playing now?

[Monte Carlo]

Seems there are a few of us preparing for Pillars of Eternity.

 

Made minor steps forward in Bladur's Gate II. I don't know if I'll finish this playththrough before Eternity releases.

 

Beat Waking Mars. It was a decent puzzle game but no puzzle was very challenging. Felt more like a relaxing experience. 4 games beaten this year and making steady progress in Septerra Core.

 

I'm going to do the whole Bg1-Bg2 thing prior to release with my own NPC-free party of four.

 

I want the basic Ftr / MU / Clrc / Thf bases covered but not too vanilla and am agonising over party composition. Please feel free to throw some suggestions at me.

 

Was thinking uber-cheese power play of -

 

Cavalier

Rngr / Cleric

Ftr / Thf

Sorc

 

Although I also like the idea of an evil party but you don't get that pure power-munchkin composition.

[Labadal]

I'm doing a good old goody two shoes playthrough with all good characters, although Korgan is a pita.

 

I'm playing a lamer kensai/mage that will dual wield katanas. It'll take some time before he gets powerful, but I just want to steamroll through the game when I'm actually playing. You could add a fighter/rogue with dual wield. Maybe a cleric berserker to go with that. 

[Raithe]

Re-playing KotOR2 with the 1.82 tslrcm.   It's amazing how it can throw you to play a game where the Quick Save is F4 and the Quick Load is F5... Muscle memory has me way too used to using F5 for quick save on so many games..

[Malcador]

Finished Cognition : An Erica Reed Thriller.  Bad title.  But anyway, it was a decent enough game, the episodes vary a lot, had the most fun with Ep 3, then 2 an 1 and 4 was last. 4th one was very brief, puzzles were sort of interesting but fairly simple and the trust meter or whatever it is called was pretty meh.  Still for a supernatural thriller type of game (sort of like GK I suppose) it was good.

[Tale]

Restarted Demon's Souls. Decided I wanted to play a war cleric type, but starting as Royalty for the ring.

 

Turns out there's no real offensive miracles, so I'll just do heal/soul arrow/flame toss, then pump strength and endurance for equipment.

[Blarghagh]

 

Seems there are a few of us preparing for Pillars of Eternity.

 

Made minor steps forward in Bladur's Gate II. I don't know if I'll finish this playththrough before Eternity releases.

 

Beat Waking Mars. It was a decent puzzle game but no puzzle was very challenging. Felt more like a relaxing experience. 4 games beaten this year and making steady progress in Septerra Core.

 

I'm going to do the whole Bg1-Bg2 thing prior to release with my own NPC-free party of four.

 

I want the basic Ftr / MU / Clrc / Thf bases covered but not too vanilla and am agonising over party composition. Please feel free to throw some suggestions at me.

 

Was thinking uber-cheese power play of -

 

Cavalier

Rngr / Cleric

Ftr / Thf

Sorc

 

Although I also like the idea of an evil party but you don't get that pure power-munchkin composition.

 

 

What this is missing is an Elven Barbarian.

 

His name would be Glorfinmad.

[sorophx]

I am very frustrated with a couple of aspects of a game I'm playing, I just need to vent, so excuse the big post.

 

Payday 2.

 

welp, I liked Payday. even though it was kind of small (few missions, even fewer options in available equipment), it could get really repetitive really fast, it was still fun as hell in co-op. some missions required preparation, careful planning and communication between players if you wanted to complete them. so when Payday 2 was announced I expected more of the same, but with a few improvements. and that's almost what I got. almost.

 

Payday had a bunch of missions that were a lot more than simply surviving several waves of enemies. you had to complete multiple objectives while staying undetected (disabling cameras, tying down hostages, answering phones to avoid suspicion). these missions were the most memorable, so the devs decided to make all missions in Payday 2 like that. 

 

they did leave in a bunch of survival missions, they also added several mixed type missions that allow you to approach them stealthily, then switch to an action leg, then back to stealthy - divided into "days" that have to be completed in succession for the full reward. they also added several "Pro Jobs", that are longer, tougher missions. all in all, when it comes to missions, it's almost perfect. in this respect it's a brilliant 4-man coop game.

 

next, character advancement. in Payday it was completely linear: you had 3 + 1 classes you could level up. XP (in the form of earned cash) would accumulate on the currently active class (that you could change at any point), unlocking perks, new equipment and new abilities in that class. this system required you to plan your level up strategy well in advance, keeping an eye on newly unlocked things in order not to waste xp on things you don't want. in other words it was clumsy and not intuitive. 

 

in Payday 2 they also have the same 4 classes and 4 skill trees associated with them, that you advance through by spending skill point you get each level and cash you get for completed jobs. again, you can level up all 4 classes at once, until you run out of skill points. it's a lot more logical and versatile system, so +1 to the devs on this as well.

 

and, finally, equipment. and this is where things get really weird. 

 

in Payday you had a number of guns you could use (8 or 9 in total across all 4 classes including the default 2 for all of them). Payday 2 has an overwhelming number of new weapons. but not only that has changed. 

 

when you buy a gun, you get it permanently, meaning it will stay with you as long as you don't sell it. maybe for this reason each gun costs anywhere from 100.000 to 1.000.000 dollars. yep, that's right, 6 zeroes: apparently in Payday's universe (which it shares with Left 4 Dead) buying a weapon from the black market costs a million bucks. and how much do you get for a successful job? from 60 to 150000. good luck grinding for that very expensive gun, I hope you really like it when you get it

 

but that's not all. oh no. 

 

there are many modifications you can install on your gun, like: torchlight, optical scope, extended magazine, new stock etc. not only do they cost equally as much, they can't be unmounted without losing them. that means you have to pay close to 100000$ to switch from a reflex sight to an optical one and back. every. damn. time. 

 

but wait! how do you get these modifications? do you unlock them with new levels? nope. do you buy them from a weapons dealer? no. you get blueprints for crafting them by playing cards. yep. there's a card game, it's even called "Payday", accessed after each successful mission, where you can randomly get a random modification for a random gun (even for guns that you don't own). or you can get a blueprint for a new mask for your character, or a new color for your masks, or a new pattern for your mask! and don't even look at how much it costs to paint a mask... 

 

I know people that are close to the level cap and they still haven't fully modified their weapon of choice, after dumping hundreds of hours into the game, simply because it's a game of chance. 

 

who in his right mind would develop such a convoluted system based on random outcomes? how the hell did it get past QA, lead designers, producers, project lead? it's almost as if they wanted to force people to spend more time with their game than it had to offer. but why? there are no microtransactions, this isn't even a proper MMO, it's a co-op session-based shooter for god's sake! 

 

I'm done... 

[Deraldin]

 

Seems there are a few of us preparing for Pillars of Eternity.

 

Made minor steps forward in Bladur's Gate II. I don't know if I'll finish this playththrough before Eternity releases.

 

Beat Waking Mars. It was a decent puzzle game but no puzzle was very challenging. Felt more like a relaxing experience. 4 games beaten this year and making steady progress in Septerra Core.

 

I'm going to do the whole Bg1-Bg2 thing prior to release with my own NPC-free party of four.

 

I want the basic Ftr / MU / Clrc / Thf bases covered but not too vanilla and am agonising over party composition. Please feel free to throw some suggestions at me.

 

Was thinking uber-cheese power play of -

 

Cavalier

Rngr / Cleric

Ftr / Thf

Sorc

 

Although I also like the idea of an evil party but you don't get that pure power-munchkin composition.

 

You're going uber cheese and using a Cavalier instead of uber dispel Inquisitor?

[Zoraptor]

I always thought Kensai/ Mage was the fromage du fromage of builds. Certainly it's the one I've seen cited most often for soloing.

[Mamoulian War]

Finished Atelier Meruru few days ago. Due to the time limit I was unable to kill the hardest Ultra Boss, so probably will go for him my next playthrough sometimes this year. At the moment I am alternating between Gran Turismo 5, Gran Turismo 6, Star Ocean 4 and Atelier Ayesha. Thinking about finally finishing my NG + of Demon's Souls, but I kind of got stuck on last boss

[ManifestedISO]

First time ever Red Dead Redemption. Nice change of pace, the Western. Combat is fun, horse-riding is better than Skyrim. For a four-year old game, it has some spectacular lighting and animations. Looking forward to the 'nudity' and 'drug use' and 'mature sexual content'.   And Rockstar Games San Diego is all the way up here in Carlsbad, like ten minutes from where I live.  

[BruceVC]

First time ever Red Dead Redemption. Nice change of pace, the Western. Combat is fun, horse-riding is better than Skyrim. For a four-year old game, it has some spectacular lighting and animations. Looking forward to the 'nudity' and 'drug use' and 'mature sexual content'.   And Rockstar Games San Diego is all the way up here in Carlsbad, like ten minutes from where I live.  

 

Nice one for rubbing it in that you can play the ONLY game that I ever really wanted to play on PC that isn't going to get released on PC

 

I just finished Dead Space 3 and I enjoyed it, it followed the same formulae as the previous ones but they improved it through some changes like crafting and the optional side quests. I'm not sure why it did so badly from a sales perspective, I give it a solid and entertaining 65/100

 

I'm going to play Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs now, I feel like a bit of horror and then I'll move onto Skyrim  

[Monte Carlo]

 

 

Seems there are a few of us preparing for Pillars of Eternity.

 

Made minor steps forward in Bladur's Gate II. I don't know if I'll finish this playththrough before Eternity releases.

 

Beat Waking Mars. It was a decent puzzle game but no puzzle was very challenging. Felt more like a relaxing experience. 4 games beaten this year and making steady progress in Septerra Core.

 

I'm going to do the whole Bg1-Bg2 thing prior to release with my own NPC-free party of four.

 

I want the basic Ftr / MU / Clrc / Thf bases covered but not too vanilla and am agonising over party composition. Please feel free to throw some suggestions at me.

 

Was thinking uber-cheese power play of -

 

Cavalier

Rngr / Cleric

Ftr / Thf

Sorc

 

Although I also like the idea of an evil party but you don't get that pure power-munchkin composition.

 

You're going uber cheese and using a Cavalier instead of uber dispel Inquisitor?

 

 

There's cheese and there's cheese. I like the Cav's resistances.

[Labadal]

Septerra Core. Split into three parties. Didn't get to choose how to set them up. I'm fairly sure I'm close to the end.

 

Once again, I do like the environments, game is really good looking. But dungeons are annoyingly long. Combat is the reason I get annoyed, so slow... so... slow...

Characters and story are okay. Not many games base their plot around Babylonian mythology as far as I know.

 

This could game could have been a real favorite of mine, but the slow combat and large amount of backtracking holds it down. A good game that I have no interest in replaying anytime soon, if ever.

 

Edit: I was actually at the end. Finished now, spamming three or four Black Holes. (Which I did a lot for the last few hours.)

 

On to complete Summoner 2 and Yakuza 2.

Edited January 5, 2014 by Labadal

[HoonDing]

Not worth playing through all the way to the end if you are bored with it. Ending is terrible.

[Raithe]

 

I'm going to play Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs now, I feel like a bit of horror and then I'll move onto Skyrim  

 

 

I'm tempted to say that if you want horror then try playing Oblivion.  I find it amazingly horrifying that so many people liked that game.

[melkathi]

Ending is terrible.

 

And yet still better than Mass Effect

[BruceVC]

 

 

I'm going to play Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs now, I feel like a bit of horror and then I'll move onto Skyrim  

 

 

I'm tempted to say that if you want horror then try playing Oblivion.  I find it amazingly horrifying that so many people liked that game.

 

 

" try playing Oblivion"  funny comment

 

I have also heard a few bad views around the latest Amnesia but I suppose I need to see for myself

[Deraldin]

I always thought Kensai/ Mage was the fromage du fromage of builds. Certainly it's the one I've seen cited most often for soloing.

Kensai/mage is definitely the one that comes up most often, but I'm partial to Ranger/Cleric thanks to the bug that allows for high level druid spells. IIRC the dual class version isn't restricted to blunt weapons the same way that multiclass version is. Not that only having blunt weapons is much of a handicap when you have things like the Flail of Ages and Crom.

[GhostofAnakin]

Nearing the end of my XCOM Enemy Within play through.  I have quite a few characters I like using, but only six spots in my squad to use them.

 

I've read otherwise online, but for me the heavy soldiers seem to be the best to bring with me, what with their guided rocket launchers (and each can carry 2, plus 1 shredder).  Even the toughest enemies go down in one or two rounds if I have 2 or 3 heavies in my squad.

 

I'm finding my sniper less effective as the enemies get tougher.  She rarely misses her shots, but they're never strong enough to one-shot enemies unless they're already low on health.  Earlier in the game she was a killing machine because she could knock out an enemy's entire health bar in one shot, even if they had full health.

[Blarghagh]

 

 

 

I'm going to play Amnesia : A Machine for Pigs now, I feel like a bit of horror and then I'll move onto Skyrim  

 

 

I'm tempted to say that if you want horror then try playing Oblivion.  I find it amazingly horrifying that so many people liked that game.

 

 

" try playing Oblivion"  funny comment

 

I have also heard a few bad views around the latest Amnesia but I suppose I need to see for myself

 

 

It has a major problem in that it's not scary. It builds up very well for the first half of the game and then the second half doesn't live up to that promise. It's also much more storybased and has pretty much zero game mechanics - it's like a haunted house tour.

[Humanoid]

Nearing the end of my XCOM Enemy Within play through.  I have quite a few characters I like using, but only six spots in my squad to use them.

 

I've read otherwise online, but for me the heavy soldiers seem to be the best to bring with me, what with their guided rocket launchers (and each can carry 2, plus 1 shredder).  Even the toughest enemies go down in one or two rounds if I have 2 or 3 heavies in my squad.

 

I'm finding my sniper less effective as the enemies get tougher.  She rarely misses her shots, but they're never strong enough to one-shot enemies unless they're already low on health.  Earlier in the game she was a killing machine because she could knock out an enemy's entire health bar in one shot, even if they had full health.

Yeah, one of the chief flaws of the game is that the late game switches tactical focus from mobility and defensive positioning to simple massing of firepower, which is far less interesting. I've stopped playing several playthroughs in which I was well on the way to winning because it just turned into a chore.

 

That said, heavies are a fine choice but I find Assaults to offer greater versatility late-game. Chiefly this is because Heavies are restricted in mobility - you need to not move in order to use any of the class' defining abilities, and that counteracts the desire to get in close to compensate for the poor aim. Assaults retain full firepower after moving - indeed after dashing - and that is invaluable in situations where somethings absolutely needs to die.

 

Snipers continue to be fantastic throughout the game too, to the extent that I restrict myself to one per mission in order to encourage more mobile and more interesting gameplay. Sure the removal of the ability for Squad Sight shots to crit have weakened the all-seeing Archangel Sniper tactic somewhat (it being the god-king strategy of the base game), but Double Tap remains a "this thing dies now" ability, and there are some fun combo strategies to be had with alternative Sniper builds, such as In The Zone synergies.

 

An underappreciated feature of Snipers which is not readily evident when starting out is that it's often the only 'safe' way to kill awkwardly positioned enemies. By that I don't necessarily mean those hiding in hard-to-reach areas, but rather those where taking conventional shots can often mean activating additional alien packs. This is crucial because on Classic and Impossible difficulties, the hard cap of five active alien combatants at any one time is removed: every alien you activate is out for your blood - not to mention that there's more of them on each map, making contact more likely. To clarify, on Normal/Easy, no matter how many aliens you've activated, only up to five will actually engage you, the rest will run away and wait for some of their buddies to die before joining the fight.

 

 

If I was powergaming.... I'd go with a heavy duty squad of something like two or three each of colonel-sniper-turned-mechs and Assaults, and a Sniper or two. But that's boring. Perhaps counterintuitively though, I reckon I'd have a lot of fun with a 6x Assault team. More conventionally though, my typical loadout looked like 2xAssault, Heavy, Sniper, SniperMech, plus one whatever - generally some newbie to level up. Probably another Mech if not training. Dropping supports entirely is somewhat controversial, but hardly unprecedented.

 

 

P.S. That said, I've only ever gotten access to Blaster Launchers once, on my first playthrough at normal/non-ironman difficulty. Never got to assault a Battleship for the requisite fusion core item required to research the launchers in my subsequent games.

[Tale]

I completed the Bravely Default demo. Am really looking forward to its release.

 

And that was interspersed with Radiant Historia. The game has a cool premise, but I think they're being a little too restrictive with it. So far it's coming along as a dressed up linear JRPG. Which isn't absolutely terrible, but it's just missed opportunity.

[Labadal]

Just beat two sub quests in Bravely Default. That means two challenging boss fights. Had to revive characters constantl but there was never any panic once I knew the pattern.

 

Also (finally) completed three games today,, two from my gog backlog, Thief: DP and Thief: DS. Hiding isn't really that difficult as long as you are patient.

 

I also completed Mars: War Logs. It was interesting enough even if the controls weren't the smoothest and party AI was abysmal. There was one boss fight that I made hilariously easy for myself by using the nail gun.

I have a separate save file from chapter 2 and will join the other side for the other ending.

 

8 games beaten this year. I start working tomorrow, so the fun is over. Expecting to beat 25-30 games if previous years are anything to go by.

[Zoraptor]

I am going to play either Wizardry 6 or 7. Unfortunately I made the mistake of reading some character creation guides, always a foolish thing to do, which make it sound about as interesting as doing accounting.

 

Otherwise, I'm earning the last few achievements I've missed from Dragon Age Origins. I have not the faintest idea why exactly, I usually just ignore the things and it's not like I need a character to import to DAI, which was the reason for replaying the Mass Effects. It has reminded me that I do rather like Awakenings though.