What are you playing now

[Leferd]

 

Last time my computer was working I was using a keyboard from the late 1980s. It is, in many ways, the tank of keyboards. I think it'd stop a bullet and still work.

 

 

That's why I bought a mechanical keyboard, except these are nowhere near the standards that IBM used to have.

These guys still make the original Model M (in the same factory) http://www.pckeyboard.com

 

I use one at work and still use my 1993 IBM Model M at home.

[Sarex]

Finished playing Burial at Sea 2. I'm a little bummed out, these kind of endings always get to me. All in all it ties the story between Raputre and Infinite nicely. As for the gamplay, I went with the no kill runthrough and it was ok, nothing special but also nothing bad. Definitly worth giving it a go for those who like the Bioshock series.

[Serrano]

 

What did you think of the hook scene? It's one of the few times in that game I thought, "Man, I'm so glad I wasn't wearing my 3d glasses for this". I was hoping for a happier ending too but I think Irrational did an amazing job with the storytelling itself. The scenes, the characters, the character acting whether that was done by actors or animators was just breathtaking sometimes. They really ended the studio on a high note

. 

[Sarex]

 

What did you think of the hook scene? It's one of the few times in that game I thought, "Man, I'm so glad I wasn't wearing my 3d glasses for this". I was hoping for a happier ending too but I think Irrational did an amazing job with the storytelling itself. The scenes, the characters, the character acting whether that was done by actors or animators was just breathtaking sometimes. They really ended the studio on a high note

. 

 

 

I played it in 2d XD. As for the ending I think it was great, I just always feel sad when the main characters dies, it takes me a while to get over it and to be honest I kind of thought/hoped that Booker was somehow alive, so when it ended I was doubly gutted. No happy endings for the Dewitt family.

 

Edited April 27, 2014 by Sarex

[Drowsy Emperor]

First impression of Dark Souls after beating the beginning boss. This may be the most over-hyped game (by players) that I've played. 

 

On the audio visual side, the graphics are horribly muddy. Can't see what I'm doing half the time because the camera is hugging an ugly wall texture. What I do see looks bad. The underlying design is good but the textures and such are crap.

 

The controls are slow and unresponsive, the UI and inventory is typical console mess of various screens. 

 

So between wrestling with the camera (I fought the camera more than the boss) and the controls the game becomes thrice as hard as it should be, even though its already hard enough. The way its hard though, is not particularly clever. Its just makes enemies respawn and doesn't checkpoint often. Combined with low health and high enemy damage output the game forces you to learn its fighting system or die endlessly. Even so the fight with the boss ended up being a game of getting behind him to stab at his testicles. Nothing clever or interesting.

 

On top of all of that the game adds confusion to difficulty by not explaining its core concepts which I had to look up on the wiki. Stuff like humanity, kindling etc.

 

I believe the success of this game, which is nothing more than a return to old mechanics seen in previous third person action games is due to a quasi "revolt" on the part of the players. Its "hardcore" (which is another word for stupidly difficult) therefore is so much more cool than today's "noob" games. In reality, its a typical japanese game, a flimsy story with gameplay stuck mechanically firmly in the past.

 

I'll play it more before making up my mind

[Rosbjerg]

 

Some Xcom Enemy Within, really enjoy the MECHs - they look and play absolutely menacing. And also how the Meld resource forces you to move a little quicker, it's a little cheesy gamey mechanic, but it works.

 

Being able to genetically modify your super psy soldiers makes the game a little easy in the mid to late game though.

 

Have you had any line of sight issues with Enemy Within? I really wanted to like XCOM, especially on harder difficulties and ironman mode, but the issues with the engine made that pretty hard for me. Like first one my soldier doesn't have a line of sight from a place where he sure as hell should have, and the next turn I'm able to throw a grenade through two solid walls.

 

I'm prefectly okay with me doing a mistake and suffering because of that, but if I lose a soldier because the engine says "hehe, **** you buddy"... well, you all have seen The Exorcist.

 

 

Yeah I had some issues like that, the worst one was exactly when my sniper should be able to see and hit a target, but couldn't. Which was annoying .. Not so often that it's a problem though.

[Sarex]

First impression of Dark Souls after beating the beginning boss....

 

Thanks for this, saved me the trouble of trying it out. Seems like it's pretty much the same as the first one as far as the camera and controls are concerned.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I was talking about the first one.   I just have DAII in reserve.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[Sarex]

I was talking about the first one.   I just have DAII in reserve.

 

Heh my bad, though you were playing DS2 because of the issues you had with your controller, but now that I reread the post I see you mentioned part one first.

[Drowsy Emperor]

In my 10 minutes of trying out DSII, I'd say its about as bad a port. The graphics look better though.

[Bendu]

The DS2 port is way better than the DS1 port. Everything runs smooth with 60 FPS and you don't need a DSfix. Yeah, they didn't change UI for the PC, but who cares?

[Serrano]

How has the ease of cheating and the ramped up invasions mechanic playing out so far? 

[Keyrock]

Played some more of The Golf Club today.  Since the last time I played (several days ago) they've put out a couple of patches.  Nothing earth shattering in the patches, but there was some optimizations, and, at least on my end, they were significant, as the game is now smooth and playable on medium settings on my lappy whereas it was choppy before and only smooth on low settings.  The biggest difference between low and medium settings is the water is shiny and reflective rather than flat and ugly.  Too reflective if you ask me, but still better than the flat and ugly water on low settings.  Also, the distance at which trees go to higher quality models is increased a bit.  I spent most of the time designing a new course, called "The Thicket" and playing through it, testing it out, then jumping back in to the editor to make tweaks based on my play experiences.  I made a 9 hole course this time.  I spent almost as much time designing this 9 hole course as I did my previous 18 hole course.  I put a lot of care into each hole and I'm pretty proud of how it came out.  Particularly I'm quite proud of a couple par 5s where the green is absolutely reachable in 2 to entice people into going for it, but hoo boy will you have to make dangerous shots to do it.  Good luck trying to get that ball to stop on the green with a 5 wood and if you miss the green there is some unpleasantness awaiting you. 

Edited April 27, 2014 by Keyrock

[HoonDing]

I'd play a new Tiger Woods PGA Tour game with extra romance options.

[Rosbjerg]

Finished XCom, once you know how to do the final battle is extremely easy - 2 snipers and it's over in the first turn.

[Bartimaeus]

First impression of Dark Souls after beating the beginning boss. This may be the most over-hyped game (by players) that I've played. 

 

On the audio visual side, the graphics are horribly muddy. Can't see what I'm doing half the time because the camera is hugging an ugly wall texture. What I do see looks bad. The underlying design is good but the textures and such are crap.

 

The controls are slow and unresponsive, the UI and inventory is typical console mess of various screens. 

 

So between wrestling with the camera (I fought the camera more than the boss) and the controls the game becomes thrice as hard as it should be, even though its already hard enough. The way its hard though, is not particularly clever. Its just makes enemies respawn and doesn't checkpoint often. Combined with low health and high enemy damage output the game forces you to learn its fighting system or die endlessly. Even so the fight with the boss ended up being a game of getting behind him to stab at his testicles. Nothing clever or interesting.

 

On top of all of that the game adds confusion to difficulty by not explaining its core concepts which I had to look up on the wiki. Stuff like humanity, kindling etc.

 

I believe the success of this game, which is nothing more than a return to old mechanics seen in previous third person action games is due to a quasi "revolt" on the part of the players. Its "hardcore" (which is another word for stupidly difficult) therefore is so much more cool than today's "noob" games. In reality, its a typical japanese game, a flimsy story with gameplay stuck mechanically firmly in the past.

 

I'll play it more before making up my mind

 

I like the game, but I had some of the same problems as you did, and I completely agree regarding the frankly insane fanbase. A good portion of the game's difficulty is just understanding what the heck you're doing - both in terms of gameplay mechanics, as well as actual controls, neither of which the game really helps you out at all with. Once you "master" the controls - master them as well as they can be mastered, anyways: really, sometimes it seems as though they're bad just for the sake of being bad - then it's just a matter of fighting each unique enemy either randomly succeeding the first time or not and learning to understand them in subsequent attempts. There is some measure of skill required, which I guess is something...but...

 

For that reason, I actually liked the PVP more at times. Except a lot of people are just terrible at PVP (or the game in general, perhaps), which is not so fun when you can wait upwards of 15 minutes in between fights...or longer, depending on the time of day. It's a lot more fun when you actually fight someone close to your skill level...even if you lose. 

 

It's not that the game is necessarily bad...it just could've been a whole lot better if it was polished a bit and some sort of very basic encyclopedia explaining game mechanics or something was present in game...never mind all the PVP problems.

 

In other news, XFX is going to RMA my video card. I'm on a $10 backup card that is...actually performing way beyond my expectations. Video card tiers are so bogus, in my opinion. For $10, I should be barely able to play anything with a decent FPS, even on low settings. Instead, my gaming habits are almost completely unchanged. Sure, I have to turn down some settings, but none of the *important* ones, like draw distance or anything. Quite frankly, I think the way video cards are priced is a bunch of baloney...this just further cements my opinion I'll never pay more than $150 *at absolute most* for a video card, and I'll probably stay close to the $80-$100 range in the future. Bah.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Bartimaeus

[HoonDing]

I like only two 3rd person fighting games: Oni and Severance: Blade of Darkness.

 

But I'd totally try Dark Souls if it wasn't such an ugly game and abysmal port.

[Guest Slinky]

Severance: Blade of Darkness 

 

I need to replay it one of these days, it's been too long.

[Bendu]

How has the ease of cheating and the ramped up invasions mechanic playing out so far? 

Playing mostly as a hollow I haven't been invaded so far. Right now you don't have to worry if you want to play alone. I did only a little bit PVP for the Bell Keepers, so it's hard to say something about cheaters.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I like only two 3rd person fighting games: Oni and Severance: Blade of Darkness.

 

But I'd totally try Dark Souls if it wasn't such an ugly game and abysmal port.

 

What makes Severance worth playing?

[Serrano]

 

How has the ease of cheating and the ramped up invasions mechanic playing out so far? 

Playing mostly as a hollow I haven't been invaded so far. Right now you don't have to worry if you want to play alone. I did only a little bit PVP for the Bell Keepers, so it's hard to say something about cheaters.

 

 

Oh cool, PC Gamer reported at one point that you were going to be able to be invaded while hollow also, I imagined an absolute bloodbath when I heard that cheating was easy. 

Edited April 27, 2014 by Serrano

[Drowsy Emperor]

 

First impression of Dark Souls after beating the beginning boss. This may be the most over-hyped game (by players) that I've played. 

 

On the audio visual side, the graphics are horribly muddy. Can't see what I'm doing half the time because the camera is hugging an ugly wall texture. What I do see looks bad. The underlying design is good but the textures and such are crap.

 

The controls are slow and unresponsive, the UI and inventory is typical console mess of various screens. 

 

So between wrestling with the camera (I fought the camera more than the boss) and the controls the game becomes thrice as hard as it should be, even though its already hard enough. The way its hard though, is not particularly clever. Its just makes enemies respawn and doesn't checkpoint often. Combined with low health and high enemy damage output the game forces you to learn its fighting system or die endlessly. Even so the fight with the boss ended up being a game of getting behind him to stab at his testicles. Nothing clever or interesting.

 

On top of all of that the game adds confusion to difficulty by not explaining its core concepts which I had to look up on the wiki. Stuff like humanity, kindling etc.

 

I believe the success of this game, which is nothing more than a return to old mechanics seen in previous third person action games is due to a quasi "revolt" on the part of the players. Its "hardcore" (which is another word for stupidly difficult) therefore is so much more cool than today's "noob" games. In reality, its a typical japanese game, a flimsy story with gameplay stuck mechanically firmly in the past.

 

I'll play it more before making up my mind

 

I like the game, but I had some of the same problems as you did, and I completely agree regarding the frankly insane fanbase. A good portion of the game's difficulty is just understanding what the heck you're doing - both in terms of gameplay mechanics, as well as actual controls, neither of which the game really helps you out at all with. Once you "master" the controls - master them as well as they can be mastered, anyways: really, sometimes it seems as though they're bad just for the sake of being bad - then it's just a matter of fighting each unique enemy either randomly succeeding the first time or not and learning to understand them in subsequent attempts. There is some measure of skill required, which I guess is something...but...

 

For that reason, I actually liked the PVP more at times. Except a lot of people are just terrible at PVP (or the game in general, perhaps), which is not so fun when you can wait upwards of 15 minutes in between fights...or longer, depending on the time of day. It's a lot more fun when you actually fight someone close to your skill level...even if you lose. 

 

It's not that the game is necessarily bad...it just could've been a whole lot better if it was polished a bit and some sort of very basic encyclopedia explaining game mechanics or something was present in game...never mind all the PVP problems.

 

In other news, XFX is going to RMA my video card. I'm on a $10 backup card that is...actually performing way beyond my expectations. Video card tiers are so bogus, in my opinion. For $10, I should be barely able to play anything with a decent FPS, even on low settings. Instead, my gaming habits are almost completely unchanged. Sure, I have to turn down some settings, but none of the *important* ones, like draw distance or anything. Quite frankly, I think the way video cards are priced is a bunch of baloney...this just further cements my opinion I'll never pay more than $150 *at absolute most* for a video card, and I'll probably stay close to the $80-$100 range in the future. Bah.

 

 

I understand that a lot of players today feel the need to move away from what I would call "fictional gameplay", meaning you mash the buttons, cool things happen and you win. You get the illusion that you're beating a challenge whereas in fact its not so much that you're winning but that you can't actually lose.

 

I presume that game companies, over time, discovered that the majority of the newer, more casual players who are a very large, if not the largest source of money now dislikes the way old games were built. Basically many older games were a case of trial and error. You're supplied limited information and failure is practically guaranteed at first until you eventually find out what you actually have to do at which point you more or less breeze through it. Naturally this is frustrating for people who aren't habitual gamers and are simply likely to give up.

So they dropped the various requirements, like having to learn weapon timings, bosses telegraph attacks more or deal less damage etc. to make sure the player doesn't stop and get stuck because stopping = failure = frustration.

 

But Dark Souls just does it the old way through and through. Which is somewhat unnecessary and extreme since the game would have been still quite challenging even with a good tutorial and a bit more forgiving combat.

[sorophx]

What makes Severance worth playing?

are you crazy? pretty much everything, it's the best sword fighting game I've ever played.

 

it has great combat, great graphics for its time, great game play (memorable characters with distinct fighting styles). I can't say enough good things about it. one of the best games of its time

[Nonek]

Indeed, Severance was years ahead of its time:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egad_InYl6I

 

Think i'll pop into GOG and download it tomorrow myself, thank you for the reminder gentlemen.

Edited April 27, 2014 by Nonek

[Guest Slinky]

Just the ability to whack an enemy to pieces, then pick up one of those pieces and and throw it at the next enemy sold me the game. Just in how many other games you can do that? Where fast-paced spectacle fighters bore me to tears, I just love the sheer brutality of Severance.

 

Is it normal to giggle uncontrollably every time I see a severed head rolling down the stairs?