What are you playing now

[Lexx]

I bought Shelter today. It's a p.cool game and I like the art style.

[Keyrock]

I finished Call of Pripyat today.  I've been through it before, so it didn't come as a surprise, but that final mission is just so anti-climactic.  It's really my only complaint about the game.  I mean, the mission makes sense as far as the story goes, it's just that there's really no challenge whatsoever in it, especially after having survived some of the earlier missions.  It's like the game becomes Call of Duty or Gears of War for that final mission, in terms of how difficult it is and how it plays out.  I haven't tested the theory, but I bet you could get through the final mission without firing a single shot, just letting all the others mop up the enemies.  Oh well, it's a small stain on an otherwise brilliant game, one that I will likely play again, because there's just nothing else out there like the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.  Metro comes the closest, but it's not S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

[sorophx]

Fallout NV?

[Keyrock]

Fallout NV?

Not even close, and I love Fallout NV.

[sorophx]

I thought they were very similar. well, not counting anomalies

[Lexx]

Actually, they are very different.

[Bartimaeus]

I agree with Lexx and Keyrock - they have some very basic similarities, yes, but they're so far gone from each other in tone, style, and depth, (not that either have "more" depth overall than the other, necessarily, but many varying levels for different aspects of the games), that they're hard to put in the same room. Fallout 3 is more similar to Stalker than New Vegas, anyways, and yet they're still worlds apart. I also wouldn't really touch either Fallouts (after having already tried), whereas Stalker is one of my top three favorite games (series).

Edited May 10, 2014 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

There are obviously similarities between Fallout and S.T.A.L.K.E.R., with the irradiated wasteland and mutants, but, to me, the games feel completely different.  I just don't develop the same kind of relationship with the Mojave Desert, or Washington DC, for that matter, as with The Zone.  I'm not sure if it's the anomalies and/or the emmissions, but The Zone demands a certain level of respect and constant vigilance.  I've never had that same kind of reverance for any of the areas in Fallout.  Plus, Fallout, while not exactly a comedy game, is a lot more lighthearted and humorous.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Keyrock

[sorophx]

that's pretty funny, because I think they are similar in tone and style precisely. of course, NV is a much deeper game, that's why I hate CoP so much

[Drowsy Emperor]

I enjoyed both but Stalker is the more atmospheric series for me. New Vegas had too much silliness in it and I dislike the ES engine and combat although it certainly works much better with guns than it does with medieval weapons.

 

I'm going to play Shadowrun next and after that ME3 with all the DLC's and such (friend of mine says its much better than the vanilla experience). Then I'm done with RPG's until something new and interesting shows up.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[sorophx]

uninstalled Wildstar, after having hit level 10 on my Settler. 

 

do not buy this game unless you're looking for something to get you off of WoW. for all intents and purposes it's exactly the same as WoW was 5-6 years ago. 

 

their new non-target combat system? well, I don't remember who told me it was non-target, it certainly isn't. it's exactly like combat in WoW, only you get an ability that is bound to your right mouse button with a very short cooldown that you can use while moving, that creates an illusion of an action game. and dodging enemies' AoE attacks? half the time dodge doesn't even work, and you get hit anyway. so much for combat.

 

what about exploring? yeah, it offers some novelty compared to WoW (I keep bringing up WoW because in my eyes Wildstar was developed as WoW-killer from the start, it's like these developers never learn from others' mistakes), it's especially obvious when you play as Settler, obtaining access to Projects (stuff you can collectively build with other Settlers in quest hubs) which are essentially repeatable side-quests that offer other quests or events when completed - an interesting spin on the whole FedEx quest design template, but still as boring and tedious as ever.

 

I don't even know why I expected something more from Wildstar... it was painfully obvious from the very first gameplay video they released. I guess I got tricked by their great trailers and good music (the music in this game is amazing, can't sing it enough praises). even flippin' Atlantica is more evolved, and that game is 4 years old (though, ultimately, boring and repetitive, as all MMORPG games are). 

 

I am so disappointed. I would've given this game a chance, because it clearly has high production values and puts an interesting spin on some of the usual "classes" and "jobs", but the clunky combat, awful camera, bad FPS on any settings other than minimal, and desync that leads to stuff like objects and NPCs disappearing underground or floating in mid-air, disabling you from interacting with them and essentially breaking the game - all of that made me realize I never wanted to play Wildstar again

Edited May 10, 2014 by sorophx

[melkathi]

(I keep bringing up WoW because in my eyes Wildstar was developed as WoW-killer from the start, it's like these developers never learn from others' mistakes)

 

I got the impression of devs who only ever played WoW when it comes to MMOs, then stopped playing WoW and decided to make their own version.

[Calax]

Titanfall (Gen 4 level 42 or so), Payday 2 (only about three hours but plan for more) Metro:Last Light, a bit of ESO and WoW in that mix as well. Mostly just waiting for the 27th when watchdogs hits stores.

 

Payday 2 is surprisingly deep. Do you want to go loud or quiet? Take Hostages or just let em escape? And are your skills in which classes? And what load out do you want to rock with? Also you can totally customize your mask to the point of lunacy. Overall it's fun but you have to have your four friends to hang with. Although I've been playing with "goons" from something awful so Meh.

[Volourn]

"A pity, TW1 is far better than NWN2 or anything else released in that period."

 

NWN2 is way better. No contest. Twitcher sucks. Plain and simple.

[Zoraptor]

"Twitcher sucks. Plain and simple."

 

No.

 

(They've also sold 7 million+ copies now)

[sorophx]

Payday 2 is surprisingly deep. Do you want to go loud or quiet? Take Hostages or just let em escape? And are your skills in which classes? And what load out do you want to rock with? Also you can totally customize your mask to the point of lunacy. Overall it's fun but you have to have your four friends to hang with. Although I've been playing with "goons" from something awful so Meh.

I really wanted to like Payday 2, and it's a good game, but it gets repetitive fast. at some point you'll find yourself running Rats on overkill in an infinite loop trying to get enough XP to level up, the rest of your time will be spent doing quick runs of Jewelry Store to farm cards... after two weeks of this nonsense I gave up and unistalled. 

 

though, some new content was added a couple of months ago, so you'll probably last more than I did. 

[Volourn]

Yeah, because they released Twitcher 1 like 20,000 different times so people who liked it kept buying it. L0L It's probably 100 people with multiple copies that make up the 7mil. HAHAHA

Edited May 11, 2014 by Volourn

[Calax]

 

Payday 2 is surprisingly deep. Do you want to go loud or quiet? Take Hostages or just let em escape? And are your skills in which classes? And what load out do you want to rock with? Also you can totally customize your mask to the point of lunacy. Overall it's fun but you have to have your four friends to hang with. Although I've been playing with "goons" from something awful so Meh.

I really wanted to like Payday 2, and it's a good game, but it gets repetitive fast. at some point you'll find yourself running Rats on overkill in an infinite loop trying to get enough XP to level up, the rest of your time will be spent doing quick runs of Jewelry Store to farm cards... after two weeks of this nonsense I gave up and unistalled. 

 

though, some new content was added a couple of months ago, so you'll probably last more than I did. 

 

True, I can see that happening... but that happened with both Left 4 Dead games too.

[sorophx]

yeah, they have a lot of similarities. personally, I went through both L4D games once in coop and that was enough for me, but I know there are people who can keep playing the same missions over and over and not get tired of them. like my friend who has 1000+ hours in both L4D 1 and 2

[Helz]

I've got 500+ for L4D and about half that in L4D2.  It was all about the Versus mode for me.  I eventually burned out on it, but all the people I played it with still play it regularly.

[Humanoid]

Wrapped up Stick of Truth after having left it alone for over a month when I ran out of steam in the Canada section. My position is the same as it was in the first few days after starting it: the game is at its strongest when it maintains the pretense of the LARP centred around the few key characters and the exploration of common CRPG tropes. As the game began to wander off into the more generalist South Park jokes, so did my interest begin to wander. In this way, it's not unlike Bloodlines where each chapter grew successively weaker.

 

Score: Don't regret buying but will not be purchasing any further content released for it.

 

---

 

Also XCOM Long War, up until the point where I rage quit when four interceptors landed a grand total of three hits on a small UFO, failing to down it. Dumb, dumb revamp of the air combat system.

 

Not sure what I'll be playing next. I can't even download Tesla Effect at the moment because it'd blow out my download quota.

[Drowsy Emperor]

I agree about South Park, the latter part of the game drags and is less interesting than the beginning and the middle.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Mass Effect 3. Its remarkable how badly the graphics have aged, the characters in particular. I remember being in awe when the first game was released. Now their facial animation and intimidating eye acrobatics could be used to inspire fear on the battlefield. I still don't like the gung-ho writing of the player characters dialog and can't really identify with either (male/female Shepard). I just got to the Citadel, so its too early to say much about the game.

[Keyrock]

The graphics in the Mass Effect games were never particularly remarkable, but they worked well with the mostly clean and industrial designs of the areas, which worked miracles to mask the lack of fidelity.  What always stood out the most for me, and this isn't confined to just Mass Effect games, this is symptom of Unreal Engine, is the horrendously jarring texture pop-in.

[Drowsy Emperor]

The graphics in the Mass Effect games were never particularly remarkable, but they worked well with the mostly clean and industrial designs of the areas, which worked miracles to mask the lack of fidelity.  What always stood out the most for me, and this isn't confined to just Mass Effect games, this is symptom of Unreal Engine, is the horrendously jarring texture pop-in.

 

I can't recall what pop-in is but the texture resolution is terrible on most things. When the first one was released BW focused heavily on the characters, in particularly the alien ones, which was logical considering how much time is devoted in game to closeups during dialog. They looked really good at the time. The rest of the game was less sharp but the design made up for it. However it always felt a bit sparse because there were so few NPCs in populated areas. The combat levels aren't even worth discussing, they're basically a tunnel.