What are you playing now

[GhostofAnakin]

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

 

The combat reminds me of Mass Effect and even some of the powers are basically Mass Effect moves. I'm liking it so far. My complaint is that the AI isn't the smartest so I manually issue order instructions to my companions on a regular basis. This game actually has me excited for the next mass Effect game if BW can do a decent job.

 

I think the bolded is what they were going for.  While it's more of a shooter, it's still supposed to resemble XCOM, which is all about squad management in combat.

[Labadal]

 

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

 

The combat reminds me of Mass Effect and even some of the powers are basically Mass Effect moves. I'm liking it so far. My complaint is that the AI isn't the smartest so I manually issue order instructions to my companions on a regular basis. This game actually has me excited for the next mass Effect game if BW can do a decent job.

 

I think the bolded is what they were going for.  While it's more of a shooter, it's still supposed to resemble XCOM, which is all about squad management in combat.

 

I can live with that, but something like Valkyria Chronicles for PS3 would have worked better. In that game, you take turns to make your moves.

[Bendu]

Finished the Bell Keeper covenant after getting rank 3. Kind of regret that I did't finished that covenant in NG... Not sure what to do next...

[Keyrock]

I'm about 80% of the way through Chapter 2 in The Witcher 2.  The next part, lifting the curse, is my most disliked part in the entire game, but I can't avoid it, so hopefully I get it done promptly in one try.

[GhostofAnakin]

 

 

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

 

The combat reminds me of Mass Effect and even some of the powers are basically Mass Effect moves. I'm liking it so far. My complaint is that the AI isn't the smartest so I manually issue order instructions to my companions on a regular basis. This game actually has me excited for the next mass Effect game if BW can do a decent job.

 

I think the bolded is what they were going for.  While it's more of a shooter, it's still supposed to resemble XCOM, which is all about squad management in combat.

 

I can live with that, but something like Valkyria Chronicles for PS3 would have worked better. In that game, you take turns to make your moves.

 

 

Yeah, that was the only annoying part about it.  It just slows down time when you're issuing your squadmates orders rather than actually pausing so you can plan properly.

[Keyrock]

I got through the lift the curse section of TW2.  It took me 2 tries to defeat the Draug.  It had been so long I had forgotten the strategy.

 

 

Yrden, run behind him, heavy strike, heavy strike, heavy strike, lather, rinse, repeat

 

 

Once I remembered the strategy, the battle was childishly easy.  Only the Battle of Vergen remains, which is a piece of cake, before I get to Chapter 3.

Edited June 16, 2014 by Keyrock

[Agiel]

I don't know about you Keyrock, but I found the actual quest to lift the curse to be the coolest quest in the game. The atmosphere was outstanding and I don't recall having enormous amounts of trouble fighting the Draug.

 

However, I believe the person who designed the first fight with Letho ought to be drawn and quartered with a spork. Every time I play TW2 I can't refuse the urge to kill the s*** out of Letho in the epilogue.

[Urthor]

Yugioh with a touch of Hearthstone

 

Second to my major card gaming addictions is Civilisation 5 since i got the complete edition in the 24h sale, and Mount and Blade Warband because it's hilarious.

 

Faster and Light was a few weeks back.  Minerva Metastasis was a few weeks before that, didn't' like it so much but I played a lot of it, basically a combat mod for HL2, which isn't as fun as they were in 2006.

[Keyrock]

I don't know about you Keyrock, but I found the actual quest to lift the curse to be the coolest quest in the game. The atmosphere was outstanding and I don't recall having enormous amounts of trouble fighting the Draug.

 

The storyline aspect of it is great and the Draug fight is a piece of cake once you know what to do.  My problem with it, and this happens in a few other games too and I hate it equally as much in those games, is that for most of that sequence you no longer control Geralt, you control some soldier or other.  So all those skills I developed for my version of Geralt mean nothing.  I'm not a fan of games pulling you out of the role you're playing and putting you into someone else's body, particularly if it's a combat section.

[Bryy]

Social Justice Warrior. I played it to figure out how much it is like my game. Verdict: it's not, but the conversation/battle system is the same idea.

 

I know that by saying it's not a very good game, I'll seem like I'm ****ting on the competition. And ultimately I like the general idea. But it's simply not there, and the fact that it is finished leaves me saddened.

 

The Good:

* The class system: Cleric (gains their power from various deities/forums), Mage (blogger), Rogue (basically a Good Troll), and Paladin (average forum user)

* Reputation system (the higher the Rep, the more powerful your attacks; out-of-character or strawmen get you negative Rep)

* Sanity/health constantly decreases

* each class has a different set of responses

* Both you and your current enemy have the same animation and art

 

The Bad:

* no real benefit for either class; no progression

* no indicator of what response would net the best result

* your selection of responses are always the same and only descriptions, never actual lines of dialogue

* the enemy seems to draw from an RNG for replies and statements, so each new statement they spout at you makes further less sense in context of what they said before

* there is no logical flow to the conversations

* ultimately, it becomes a game of trial and error rather than skill and focus

[Wrath of Dagon]

Finally finished Bound by Flame, overall a very good game. The strong points are writing, characterization, and the challenging combat. There are a few issues though. It's quite combat heavy, more so than Mars, so more on the action RPG side than what I would prefer. Almost all quests are quite simple, go to an area, kill everything and pick up something. In act 1 chapter 3 the main quest goes into the chapter end sequence without much warning, so I missed completing several side quests and an area I was planning to explore some more. In act 3 a couple of side quests appear before they can be completed, which is very confusing. Also in act 3 there's a battle that's much harder if you do it in the wrong order and in any case I had to use a guide for it. The enemies usually respawn as soon as you leave an area, but you can normally run or sneak past them (unless you need whatever they're guarding) The last battle seems ridiculous on normal, I finally did it with a guide and on easy, in which case it's not too bad.

 

The biggest problem are the skill trees. At the beginning it's implied you should switch stances from heavy to daggers depending on the situation. But it turns out there's really no reason to do it and you're much better off sticking to one stance or the other and putting all your points into that one, as leveling up both will just make you weaker in both. The exception is stealth, which can be fairly useful either way. They should have either kept it like in Mars, where skills from either tree are useful all the time, or made it clear the skill trees are separate and it's best to stick to one. Also the magic skills are so relatively weak it's not worth investing in them either, except where they help the melee, for which there are some low level magic skills that are quite useful. There are also high level skills which would be useful but it takes such a large investment of points into useless things to unlock the higher magic levels it's better to just keep investing into melee. Even in melee a lot of the skills don't seem to give much bang for the buck. And the highest level skill in heavy takes so much mana, lasts such a short time, and takes so long to invoke (thus frequently interrupted) that it's almost worthless, although in theory it should be a powerful ability.

 

 

Next I'll play a couple of battles in Red Thunder and then on to Wolfenstein.

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm almost finished Act II in Watch Dogs' main quest, and I'm finding the main story is rather meh.  The fun parts are all the side stuff you can do, plus the whole novelty of being able to hack into stuff.

[melkathi]

* no indicator of what response would net the best result

 

That is a shame. With your game it actually motivates to look things up. Especially that specific battle against Rosbjerg's countryman.

[marelooke]

Warframe. ****ing game is amazing and is still in beta.

Yups, Warframe is pretty awesome, it's my go-to game when I want to play a quick session of *something*. It does have some annoying flaws (a lot of the weapons in the game are merely affinity food as they're not practically useful except as a gimmick for low level missions) and some of the ways the devs are using to push people toward the cash store are rather obnoxious (the new Vay Hek grindfest or the expiry timer on Argon, ugh. I also rather despise how Prime parts can be traded, kinda kills their status as hard-to-get stuff imho).

 

I'm getting close to Rank 13 now and I still have loads of gear to rank up, I think I can probably make it to Rank 14 still with the stuff that's currently available in the game. I've also just finished the one but last non-rank related Steam achievement for the game (Brawler Mastery), so now I only have the 1000 hacks one left (which I'll get in due time as I only have like 270 to go)

 

Now that I've got the Helios sentinel I started completing the solar map and getting scans from the various bosses. Guess after that my next project will be acquiring more prime gear, something I hadn't really bothered with too much so far (even though I've been playing for a while...). Having to get a group together instead of just jumping into random matches is a bit of a hurdle for me.

 

 

Aside from Warframe I've picked up my Demonicon playthrough (I'm intent on finishing this thing ). I got an immediate reminder about the awesomeness (not) of the voice acting in the game

 

I also started Avernum: Escape from the Pit. Looks like a game I'll play a bit every now and again. So far I've killed the nuisance in the sewers (he kinda wiped the floor with me, I had to go outside and heal up before I managed to take him down). Currently I'm being sent to "The Castle".

Edited June 16, 2014 by marelooke

[sorophx]

Warframe is awful, I couldn't stand playing the same missions over and over to grind xp and currency for more than 2 days. 

[Majek]

I can live with that, but something like Valkyria Chronicles for PS3 would have worked better. In that game, you take turns to make your moves.

That would work in XCOM:EU as well,  better than what's there.

[Keyrock]

I just entered Loc Muine in Chapter 3.  I'm debating whether I should go through the sewers or let myself get captured to get into the dungeons.

[marelooke]

Warframe is awful, I couldn't stand playing the same missions over and over to grind xp and currency for more than 2 days.

I can certainly see you point and even though they make improvements that should reduce the repetitiveness (eg. each planet is supposed to have its own distinct tileset; also the enemy pool differs between planets and, as one would expect, is more diverse in the later planets where the hard hitting enemies are also let loose) Warframe is and will remain a glorified grindfest, much like Torchlight and Diablo. So yeah, if you're not into that sort of thing then this game probably isn't your cup of tea.

 

One important thing about XP in Warframe though is that if you're after XP then doing it solo is a really really bad idea, you'll get a lot more XP when in a group (assuming people stay somewhat together) and missions like (mobile) defense and survival give a lot more XP than regular missions and even more so the longer you keep going (not to mention that these mission are, imho, a lot more fun)

 

That said, I always enjoyed Onslaught in UT2004 so having that back in the form of Survival missions is a big plus for me. I also avoid most of the grind for money/resources by regularly doing the alert missions, many of those provide pretty big payoffs and they are usually quick to do (unless they're defense/mobile defense).

[GhostofAnakin]

I just entered Loc Muine in Chapter 3.  I'm debating whether I should go through the sewers or let myself get captured to get into the dungeons.

 

That's what I find so awesome about the TW2.  So many parts where how things play out afterward are dependent on your choices.

[Nonek]

Don't do either Keyrock, play the enhanced edition content, it begins in the main square of Loc Muinne as I recall, near the tower with the Eye sigil. I assume your following Iorveth's path. Very good quest.

[Malcador]

Figure I'll try to knock of the Deponia trilogy while I await something hot to play

Edited June 16, 2014 by Malcador

[melkathi]

Playing the new Spiders Studio rpg.

 

Woot woot

 

Faery - Legends of Avalon

 

I haven't gotten far yet but so far I love it.

 

The grim and gritty:

Turn based combat, similar to jrpgs. You wait your turn and then act. There is a front and a back row. When you get your turn, you can act based on your action points (you start with one and quickly get a second one) - each normal attack costs one action point, more complicated or powerful ones can cost two or more. You can split your actions between targets and create combos, using for example a weakening spell as your first action to open the enemy up for your damaging follow up attack. My character at the moment has a spell that reduces the damage of the next attack, so she finishes off the enemy damaged by my companion with her first attack, then weakens the boss with her ssecond so the retaliation has less oomph. Or she could tag two enemies with her weakening spell.

your character levels up and gains skill points. Skill points are spend on metamorphoses. So I got myself butterfly upper wings which give me a lightning spell. When I fly I leave behind an ice track (little snowflakes), giving me the aforementioned ice missile weakening spell. I now unlocked a wisp aura, giving me a party heal. If I got Ram Horns I think I could deal increased damage, while various facial markings would increase HP etc...

Also you gather various equipment, like boots etc. completing a set obviously gives increased bonuses.

 

 

Story:

When mankind stopped believing in faeries and magic dwindled, the faeries retreated to remote locations of strong magic. You awaken from stasis, where you apparently retreated when magic started to weaken, to live inside your own dreams, to find the faery kingdoms nearly gone completly. Oberon sends you on a last hope quest to save them.

I haven't gotten much further and wouldn't want to spoil.

 

 

character creation:

You select gender (male/female) and then go wild on sliders for noses, ears, chin, cheeks etc. You can play around with skin colour, hair colour, adjusting magenta, green, yellow, red etc saturation, brightness and contrast.

 

Party:

your first quest is to recruit two companions. I don't know how many you get in the game (I hope more). So far my companion really likes me as I selected the nice dialogue choices.

 

 

Voice acting:

This was something that people were rather unhappy about apparently with Mars War Logs. Don't fear, Faery does not have bad voice acting! It has no voice acting whatsoever

 

Graphics:

the main character is really nice. So are other character models (goblins at least are awesome). The environment in the starting area seems bland.

 

 

Overall:

loving it so far

[Labadal]

It's not new. it's been out for a few years now.

[melkathi]

Damn steam releases messing with my sense of time

Edited June 16, 2014 by melkathi

[AGX-17]