What are you playing now

[GhostofAnakin]

 

Part of the atmosphere I think they were going for.

 

 

Well if you count all the corpses, it's a decently populated city.  I thought they did a pretty good job of portraying a city decimated by a plague.  

 

 

Yeah, I get the place is supposed to be going through a plague, but even the areas where the plague hasn't hit as hard seem absolutely empty.  Apparently guards are immune to the plague, because they make up 99% of the remaining population.

 

I mean, even if they eradicate the plague, their population will die out seeing as how every single character alive seems to be male.

[Oner]

The guards are immune. The point of the Sokolov/Pietro elixirs is that they prevent infection. As they are guards, they get them for free, while others have to pay a lot of money, or buy the cheap watered down crap of Slackjaw.

[Hurlshort]

You can also assume quite a few people are staying off the streets and in their homes.

 

I thought the high society party was suitably populated.

[SadExchange]

Half way through Castlevania LoS2, the reviewers are full of ****, if you liked LoS1 you will like LoS2.

 

 

 

Finally giving Dishonored a chance. Not bad so far, but the world seems very empty. I was expecting some Assassin's Creed-esque populations, but apparently there's like 3 guards, 2 rats, and 1 infected guy in the entire city.

Part of the atmosphere I think they were going for.

Well. It's certainly good to hear LoS2 is like the original. I have no idea why the reviewers have been cutting it down so much when all I hear is praise from none-reviewers.

 

 

I myself have restarted a fresh game after stalling out the first time. I sort of agree on all accounts about the city from what's been said but I will say I'm really enjoying the actual gameplay quite a bit and wonder what pulled me away from it the first time.

[Mamoulian War]

Playing Gran Turismo 6 and Lightning Returns. I thought I suck at the FFXIII-3 combat, so I  restarted game in easy mode... After few hours I found up, that I engaged in Normal mode one subboss, which kicked my ass repeatedly, to soon. To bad I have overwritten the previous game saves... sighs

[Raithe]

Been spending a few hours playing Thief.

 

Hm, definitely a mixed bag I'd say. The general art style and the city tends to have the right feel, and when you focus on the individual missions and stalking through the darkness, avoiding guards (apart from picking their pockets) and trying to figure your way around sneakily.. it's pretty damn good. I can't really say much about the story so far, but there's nothing too memorable about it yet. The voice over is a bit flat, and it kind of suffers from the same as the old Thief games in the "I'm a master thief..but I'm more of a kleptomaniac who has to steal everything not nailed down that's only worth a gold piece or two" approach.

 

The ability to turn off everything you don't want is quite good, so you won't be spoiled by focus or waypoint markers or pretty much anything HUD related you can think of. The fact you have a context sensitive button that handles climb and jump gets annoying. Especially as it means you can never, ever jump except those context related moments. The button mashing to open windows gets old fast - it might work on a console, but is just irritating on pc.

[Nonek]

All of the hoo haa around the new one made me re-install Thief: The Dark Project, and i've got to admit that i'm enjoying it tremendously. Currently down in the Bonehoard, hiding and running, scared and at my wits edge. Playing on Expert to get the full game experience, can't really see the point of the other difficulties. Pity that a little more of ones wealth doesn't transfer from mission to mission, but from Stephen Russel's ocassional utterances you get the feeling that Garret is somewhat of a hedonist and a Jack the Lad.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Nonek

[Oerwinde]

Grabbed the digital version of Ni No Kuni for 10 bucks on sale. 20 GB download was not fun. So far the game is, though its really heavy on easig you into the mechanics

[Majek]

Turn off the star in the menus as well. You really don't want to be shown  where to go all the time.

[Mamoulian War]

Just god All-Gold S Licence Trophy in Gran Turismo 6 and today after playing for a while on the first Endurance Career S track, I got By the Skin of Your Teeth trophy (winning the race with less than 1% fuel). I used all fuel just on the finish line and won the race with 8+ seconds margin (it took three starts of the events).

 

Only 4 trophies to go to get my first platinum trophy in racing game ever, and one of them is pretty hard to achieve, but got the hardest already unlocked.

 

Little bit disappointed from FFXIII-3. It tries to be an open world game, and I get bored very fast with open world games. Never finished any. At least FFXIII-3 ends after 13 days of in-game time, so I should be able to finish the game before boredom hits me. I like the game so far, but I just hate the open world setting...

Edited March 1, 2014 by Mamoulian War

[Guard Dog]

I came across a game called X-Rebirth while searching to see who owned the Master of Orion license. It looked good until I read all the reviews out there. Not a single good one to be found. I know no developer ever set out to invest thousands of man hours to make something that sucked. It's just that some teams or concepts are so flawed they just can't help it.

[Lexx]

Well, the X games never were mainstream games. All of them had huge flaws, yet they always also had a huge fanbase.

[Sarex]

Near the end of Castlevania LoS2, now I am hunting down all the upgrades and finishing all the challenges before I meat the last boss.

[Keyrock]

I came across a game called X-Rebirth while searching to see who owned the Master of Orion license. It looked good until I read all the reviews out there. Not a single good one to be found. I know no developer ever set out to invest thousands of man hours to make something that sucked. It's just that some teams or concepts are so flawed they just can't help it.

As a huge fan of the X series, I implore you to stay away from Rebirth.  If you want to play a good space sim in the X series, get an X3 game, like Terran Conflict or get the Terran War Pack which has Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude (which requires Terran Conflict).  To say that X Rebirth was a disappointment would be a gross understatement.  The game is garbage.  Egosoft has released buggy games before, it's standard procedure, but this game is messed up down to the core.  With Rebirth Egosoft managed the impressive feat of both driving away would be new fans and completely alienating their core fan base.  I will say this for Egosoft:  They have a long standing tradition of fixing their games, improving them, and supporting them for years.  The problem is that I'm not sure Rebirth is fixable.  The game is so badly borked right down to its core, that it would honestly be wiser to scrap it completely and start over than try to fix the mess they shipped.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Keyrock

[ManifestedISO]

Been spending a few hours playing Thief.

 

The fact you have a context sensitive button that handles climb and jump gets annoying. Especially as it means you can never, ever jump except those context related moments. The button mashing to open windows gets old fast - it might work on a console, but is just irritating on pc.

 

It's this that stops me from buying. Free-movement seems to be getting taxed more in new titles. The sticky and weird feeling I got "controlling" the pirate in AC IV kept me from continuing in that game, too. 

[HoonDing]

AssCreed 3 Washington DLC is terrible. Sure, the man was evil and roasting in the second layer of hell right now, but Ubisoft took it ad absurdum.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Drudanae

[mkreku]

Delving deeper into Eschalon: Book 3. Started as a ranger with a bow, made it to level 10 (or so) before I realized that bows blow. Restarted as a fighter with a sword, made it to level 10 in less than 2 hours. Game is more fun now.

 

I love the puzzles in the Eschalon games. They're not afraid to challenge their players and some of the puzzles are seriously difficult. You really need to think. I love it.

 

No hand-holding, map is dependent on your own skill, it's possible to fail quests, combat is challenging, story is interesting (although a bit too way-out-there for my taste) and the graphics and sounds are charming. I like this game. Another!

[Serrano]

AssCreed 3 Washington DLC is terrible. Sure, the man was evil and roasting in the second layer of hell right now, but Ubisoft took it ad absurdum.

 

The spirit powers were really fun though, it's a shame they weren't present for the main campaign. 

[SadExchange]

Delving deeper into Eschalon: Book 3. Started as a ranger with a bow, made it to level 10 (or so) before I realized that bows blow. Restarted as a fighter with a sword, made it to level 10 in less than 2 hours. Game is more fun now.

 

I love the puzzles in the Eschalon games. They're not afraid to challenge their players and some of the puzzles are seriously difficult. You really need to think. I love it.

 

No hand-holding, map is dependent on your own skill, it's possible to fail quests, combat is challenging, story is interesting (although a bit too way-out-there for my taste) and the graphics and sounds are charming. I like this game. Another!

I'm assuming it would be greatly helpful to the whole story, but do I need to start from the first game in order to enjoy this third release?  Just wondering since your character seems to be starting from level 1.

[Oerwinde]

So I played Ni No Kuni for 6 hours yesterday, and this morning my daughter saved her game over all my savegames. Mostly juat due to how the PS3 handles saves. She just kept saving over the bottom of 3 because she thought that was hers, nut it kept making the one she saved over the top one so mine got moved to the bottom.

Edited March 1, 2014 by Oerwinde

[mkreku]

 

Delving deeper into Eschalon: Book 3. Started as a ranger with a bow, made it to level 10 (or so) before I realized that bows blow. Restarted as a fighter with a sword, made it to level 10 in less than 2 hours. Game is more fun now.

 

I love the puzzles in the Eschalon games. They're not afraid to challenge their players and some of the puzzles are seriously difficult. You really need to think. I love it.

 

No hand-holding, map is dependent on your own skill, it's possible to fail quests, combat is challenging, story is interesting (although a bit too way-out-there for my taste) and the graphics and sounds are charming. I like this game. Another!

I'm assuming it would be greatly helpful to the whole story, but do I need to start from the first game in order to enjoy this third release?  Just wondering since your character seems to be starting from level 1.

 

 

No. I don't even remember the story from the first two games, and every time they reference anything from the previous games they give you the option to say "I'm sorry, but I don't remember" and you get the whole story again.

[Keyrock]

Finished Psychonauts.  The Meat Circus was infuriating, but not as bad as the first time I got to it, since I had some idea of some of the tricks and pitfalls.  Once I got past getting to the last "timed" area of the Meat Circus, it was smooth sailing until I got to the other area that always gives me trouble, the part where you're chasing psycho dad while the water is rising and you have to scale the flaming fence.  After that the rest of the level and the boss fights are a piece of cake.

 

Also, while the credits were rolling, I learned that Raz's dad was voiced by Quark from Deep Space Nine. 

Edited March 2, 2014 by Keyrock

[AGX-17]

Muramasa on Vita, somewhat irritated by the fact that you can't practice combat moves outside of combat encounters, but the visuals and Miyuki Sawashiro more than make up for that. Glad that games are finally coming out for it. The Id in me wishes I'd also gotten a 3DS for the veritable Eden of games available, but that would be financially and chronologically detrimental at this point.

[Whitefox789]

So I played Ni No Kuni for 6 hours yesterday, and this morning my daughter saved her game over all my savegames. Mostly juat due to how the PS3 handles saves. She just kept saving over the bottom of 3 because she thought that was hers, nut it kept making the one she saved over the top one so mine got moved to the bottom.

Sorry to hear about that mate, I think you need to store a backup of your save onto a flash drive. :D

[Oerwinde]

 

 

So I played Ni No Kuni for 6 hours yesterday, and this morning my daughter saved her game over all my savegames. Mostly juat due to how the PS3 handles saves. She just kept saving over the bottom of 3 because she thought that was hers, nut it kept making the one she saved over the top one so mine got moved to the bottom.

Sorry to hear about that mate, I think you need to store a backup of your save onto a flash drive. :D

that's a good idea. Luckily the game is half cutscenes, which are skippable, so I've been able to make up about an hour and a half in like 30-40 minutes.

 

And before anyone badmouths the amount of cutscenes, they're largely animated by Studio Ghibli, so they're actually a selling point of the game.

Edited March 2, 2014 by Oerwinde