What are you playing now

[Drowsy Emperor]

One of the fun things in ES games is how prone to various abusive tactics they are. My level 11 orc warrior ended up in Valthume (Evil in Waiting quest) which was obviously intended for a higher level. I ended up killing some lich or other by hitting him from hiding with my two handed sword and then running away a corridor or two until he lost interest. He made me sweat though, but now I see on the wiki he's level 50. Lol

 

Was going to post a screen of the mask he drops but the screenshot feature in Skyrim is broken for some reason. The saved image looks garbled.

 

I don't know why Bethesda persistently includes generic loot with a slight magical enchantment. Its so boring to fight through a dungeon only to get the same thing you already have but with a +5 fire damage.

Another thing they persist with is a ton of little forts and such with random antagonists. I keep on running into Forsworn everywhere and they keep trying to kill me for no good reason. I ran into a necromancer fort. Many of these locations are withing eyeshot of a civilized town which is kinda silly - giving a sort of theme park feel to everything.

 

No one seems to have taken a cue from the Gothic series on how to design a more organic and logical sandbox world.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, you don't get away with that stuff in ESO!  It's actually the most challenging MMO I've played.  The loot is better too, they added a lot of set items that are somewhat interesting, plus you can craft a huge variety of things yourself.

 

The theme park feel is pretty much the same though.

[Gromnir]

there were another beta weekend for wildstar... were effectively an open beta as literal dozens o' gaming sites were given beta keys to distribute, and all pre-orders could play.

 

the game is Not complete and with less than 30 days til release, am thinking that initial purchasers is gonna be stuck playing a beta build and paying for the privilege to do so.  virtual 1 full day of beta were effective killed 'cause o' server-wide persistent dcs.  is some vendor and cut-scene interactions that near inevitable produce dcs or freezes as well. there is weird quest related messages that never disappear unless you reset ui. we had one message keep recurring from a quest we had abandoned 10 levels ago when we played the previous beta weekend. had 1 area where sound issues were pervasive and required us to turn volume off. is a fun game, but is not done cooking.

 

oh, and amps.  amps is kinda like d&d feats, though you get 1 every level. an amp might boost critical chance by 1% or something similar. the thing is, some amps is only unlocked via random drops. other amps requires that you have X reputation points with a particular vendor. more than a few amps is available only with pvp tokens. etc. having sooper-fabulous gear be result o' random number generation or obscure quests is annoying, but we get that as a staple o' these games. but having character generation choices tied to randomness or obscurity is lacking foresight in our estimation. 

 

is a fun game, but am not certain we would pay-to-play as it is now.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Drowsy Emperor]

Yeah, you don't get away with that stuff in ESO!  It's actually the most challenging MMO I've played.  The loot is better too, they added a lot of set items that are somewhat interesting, plus you can craft a huge variety of things yourself.

 

The theme park feel is pretty much the same though.

 

I think the gist of it is that they decided the player must have something happen to them within 5 minutes of walking in any direction. It certainly works, because walking through the wilderness would be deadly dull without random encounters, but it does make for a crowded game world and logic takes a back seat to user experience.

 

If I was making a sandbox RPG I'd go for the opposite philosophy - even larger world, perhaps partially made by procedural generation with more logical distribution of the hand placed content and easy access to transportation/mounts to solve the distance problems. And find a way to make the riding/flying/driving/whatever fun.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Drowsy Emperor

[Keyrock]

No one seems to have taken a cue from the Gothic series on how to design a more organic and logical sandbox world.

Piranha Bytes' world building skills are far superior to Bethesda's, they just have a far smaller budget to work with.

 

In other news, I just realized that we're only 2 days away from Tesla Effect.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy, my favorite perpertually down on his luck, wisecracking gumshoe is almost back!  I'm going to see if I can finish up Child of Light by then, though part of me wants to play some Pandora Directive to get me in a Tex mood.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Keyrock

[Volourn]

The problem with Gothic (though it's a BILLIOn times better than ES0 is that after awhile the games lose their charm, and start to feel 'samey' and the lack of motivation  to continue starts to happen. The narrative is really weak. The bext games to handle exporation/character growth are the M&Ms. Their stories are  okay at best and the writing is service but the exploration/character system is solid and keeps the player invested in the game.

[Bryy]

I'm looking for a game where you play as a knight and each death helps you progress. Such as stepping over your dead clones to get past a spike pit. I forget the name.

[Nonek]

Life goes on.

[WDeranged]

Felt a bit burnt out on New Vegas after 110 hours so I skipped Lonesome Road and ran straight to the finish line.  I managed to do a few things I'd not done before along with a crapload of other stuff, it's fun getting the Enclave and BoS to help out at the dam.  Ending slides were satisfying, shame about Arcade and Veronica though, good intentions and all that...

 

I even sat through the credits 

[Endrosz]

I'm looking for a game where you play as a knight and each death helps you progress. Such as stepping over your dead clones to get past a spike pit. I forget the name.

 

There are two games that I know of with a similar mechanic, but probably neither is the one you're looking for:

The Company of Myself

The Swapper

[Majek]

Nonek already gave him the name of the game.

[Hassat Hunter]

Tomb Raider

 

Worst death of NPC ever...

 

"I shoot, I shoot" *click click click*

'Well, better take an axe to the back'

*Axe to the back*

'Ow, Ow, Ow... Oh wait, I had another gun after all!'

*Shoots 3 guys including axe-thrower....

 

Me:

Bye bye "epic" deathscene...

[Drowsy Emperor]

Thought I should give DS2 another chance. Its the same nonsense from the first game. Unresponsive controls, terrible camera, suspect enemy animations (getting hit when I shouldn't be). I died 10 times against the mole thing at the very beginning due to how unresponsive rolling and totally random whether I get hit or not when I jump backwards. With each death it seemed my health bar got shorter and shorter. Really DS2? Penalizing the player for struggling with your '98 style clunky combat to make it even more obnoxious?

I get what this game is doing. Its trolling me. But I'm not that much of a masochist.

 

The PS2 version of Devil May Cry 3 could be brutally hard at times (was toned down later for PC release). In fact, it was the hardest action game I played in a long while. I never finished it. But the game was fair, the controls lightning fast... all you had to do was learn enemy patterns and not get hit much. That was "smart difficulty" dependent entirely on player agency. DS2 is a glorified grind.

[HoonDing]

For a moment I thought you were talking about Dungeon Siege 2.

[Keyrock]

More Child of Light.  I got to the part where

Aurora is all growed up

so I'm thinking I should be in the final third of the game, or so I guess.  I've pretty much settled into my favorite team, Aurora, as the damage dealing spellcaster of the team, and Rubella, as the primary melee damage dealer and defensive spellcaster.  I do still switch characters out for certain battles, but that's my go to team.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Keyrock

[Gromnir]

looks like wildstar will have an open beta from 8th through 18th. am still kinda ambivalent about the title as so much o' the content is non-intuitive and clunky, but the aesthetic has appeal and combat is fun. am curious to see if bugs is getting worked out with release date looming.

 

can't recommend purchasing at this point, but it is free to play the beta. and maybe with 10 days o' free play we can figure out crafting and hobbies without resorting to a guide. 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[sorophx]

with all that VtM Bloodlines business reminding me so much of DX: HR I couldn't resist and bought the DIrector's Cut from the Humble Bundle store (where it's currently at 75% off), I hope this particular version comes with all DLCs or something extra, because I'm not in the mood to just replay the original campaign yet

[TheChris92]

Deadly Premonition -- Such an awesome homage to David Lynch' Twin Peaks, quirky, buggy, but it has a rather sophisticated plot behind its problems, some interesting characters, and one of the best protagonists I've seen in a game in a while, right Zach?

[Drowsy Emperor]

Finishing Witcher 2 act II. I had to shake my head a few times in dismay at what Projekt Red did. Checkpoint saves before tiresome scenes where you play other characters and have to fight, boss with attacks that kill you in two hits that are hard to dodge, spamming more enemies at Geralt so they surround you and inevitably kill you because they get a damage bonus with backstabs and you can't roll away because the levels are small and tight... Random and undependable effects with magic (Aard, Igni) - especially annoying is failure to damage enemies because sign hits a small terrain element that's between you and the target. So frustrating, pointless and annoying.

 

Then it occurred to me that it was the same feeling I had with Dark Souls, except in the Witcher 2 its occasional and with DS it begins with the first fight.

 

I just have no patience with learning these type of combat systems where you have to study each enemy and patiently counter their attacks. Its the anti-thesis of fun for me - a tedious indulgence to the games mechanics instead of indulging my whim to relax and play it my way.

Its almost shameful to admit, but I practically enjoyed Skyrim's rubbish combat more than Witcher 2's precisely because I could breeze through it in seconds. I enjoy multiplayer FPS twitch shooting because its fast and furious, and the effects are immediate.

 

But this? I can't play this ****. 

 

I'll force myself to finish the game to see how the story ends, but I won't be playing it again. Ever.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finishing Witcher 2 act II. I had to shake my head a few times in dismay at what Projekt Red did. Checkpoint saves before tiresome scenes where you play other characters and have to fight, boss with attacks that kill you in two hits that are hard to dodge, spamming more enemies at Geralt so they surround you and inevitably kill you because they get a damage bonus with backstabs and you can't roll away because the levels are small and tight... Random and undependable effects with magic (Aard, Igni) - especially annoying is failure to damage enemies because sign hits a small terrain element that's between you and the target. So frustrating, pointless and annoying.

 

Then it occurred to me that it was the same feeling I had with Dark Souls, except in the Witcher 2 its occasional and with DS it begins with the first fight.

 

I just have no patience with learning these type of combat systems where you have to study each enemy and patiently counter their attacks. Its the anti-thesis of fun for me - a tedious indulgence to the games mechanics instead of indulging my whim to relax and play it my way.

Its almost shameful to admit, but I practically enjoyed Skyrim's rubbish combat more than Witcher 2's precisely because I could breeze through it in seconds. I enjoy multiplayer FPS twitch shooting because its fast and furious, and the effects are immediate.

 

But this? I can't play this ****. 

 

I'll force myself to finish the game to see how the story ends, but I won't be playing it again. Ever.

 

Play it on the lowest/easiest possible difficulty.  I'm far from the worlds best "twitch gamer" and, like you, can't really be bothered to learn the subtle nuances of the combat systems.  But I had no real issue with breezing through combat in the Witcher 2.

 

The only one that gave me a bit of problem was that giant thing with tentacles early on.  But then I read a few online suggestions on how to beat it and it wasn't difficult at all.

[Humanoid]

with all that VtM Bloodlines business reminding me so much of DX: HR I couldn't resist and bought the DIrector's Cut from the Humble Bundle store (where it's currently at 75% off), I hope this particular version comes with all DLCs or something extra, because I'm not in the mood to just replay the original campaign yet

 

Well there was only really one DLC - but originally the DLC wasn't integrated into the game: it was a separate entry in your Steam games list and was executed independently of the rest of the game. The director's cut places it where it belongs in the main game. So frankly, you will be replaying the original campaign, because that's the only thing available to do. The other main change would be the boss fights, besides that there are some graphical tweaks (neither positive nor negative really, just baffling), new game plus, and some commentary, nothing consequential.

[Nepenthe]

Finishing Witcher 2 act II. I had to shake my head a few times in dismay at what Projekt Red did. Checkpoint saves before tiresome scenes where you play other characters and have to fight, boss with attacks that kill you in two hits that are hard to dodge, spamming more enemies at Geralt so they surround you and inevitably kill you because they get a damage bonus with backstabs and you can't roll away because the levels are small and tight... Random and undependable effects with magic (Aard, Igni) - especially annoying is failure to damage enemies because sign hits a small terrain element that's between you and the target. So frustrating, pointless and annoying.

 

Then it occurred to me that it was the same feeling I had with Dark Souls, except in the Witcher 2 its occasional and with DS it begins with the first fight.

 

I just have no patience with learning these type of combat systems where you have to study each enemy and patiently counter their attacks. Its the anti-thesis of fun for me - a tedious indulgence to the games mechanics instead of indulging my whim to relax and play it my way.

Its almost shameful to admit, but I practically enjoyed Skyrim's rubbish combat more than Witcher 2's precisely because I could breeze through it in seconds. I enjoy multiplayer FPS twitch shooting because its fast and furious, and the effects are immediate.

 

But this? I can't play this ****. 

 

I'll force myself to finish the game to see how the story ends, but I won't be playing it again. Ever.

I played it on the easiest difficulty after some experimenting

[Helz]

So after being reminded both how awesome HL2 episode 1 and 2 are, and how short they are, I was somewhat depressed.  Then I remembered that the Black Mesa mod had come out a while back and downloaded it.  I hadn't at release because I live in Nome, AK, and that was my internet for the month.  Anyway, played through the first hour or so, and what a mind-trip. So far its easily the best remake of any game ever.  I'm swimming it nostalgia atm, its like I'm in 9th grade again. 

 

If PoE nails the IE games, I imagine I'll feel something like this. 

[Drowsy Emperor]

I played it on normal, then on hard as the combat difficulty seemed to drop sharply as Geralt grew stronger, now I'll probably drop it back to normal. The game is hard only from time to time, but the end of chapter II is practically a series of fight sequences and my patience simply ran out.

[Bartimaeus]

Playing Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

 

Good lord. This game is a lot harder than Blood Money, that's for sure. A bit more arbitrary, too. I didn't quite understand how the scoring system worked, where I assumed, like in Blood Money, any non-target kill that can't be ruled strictly an accident, (a chandelier falling on someone's head, being pushed over the side of a boat's railing and drowning, etc.), will immediately downgrade you from the Silent Assassin rating, which made beating the first two missions nearly impossible, as the knockout drug doesn't work the same, (instead of being permanent unless found and woken up by another NPC, it's just a timer until they wake up), and they'll cause an alert no matter what.

 

I then Googled to figure out that, hey, you actually can kill a non-target via normal methods under certain circumstances, which would've made the first two missions about a thousand times easier than what I had to go through. Additionally, disguises don't work remotely near as well as they do in Blood Money. You're discovered after about two, three seconds of walking in front of an enemy while disguised, as opposed to Blood Money's basically infinite amount of time (by comparison).

 

However, in spite of the difficulties I was having, it was kind of fun devising methods to play it harder than required by even the hardest of the ratings, but...I think I'll enjoy the slightly less masochist standards I'll be employing from here on out from knowing what I do now.

Edited May 8, 2014 by Bartimaeus