What are you playing now?

[GhostofAnakin]

Lords of the Fallen is on sale at Best Buy until December 30th.  $25 off regular price.

[Tale]

Where do you live? Not on the Best Buy website. That's better than Amazon's deal.

[GhostofAnakin]

Canada.

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/lords-of-the-fallen-limited-edition-playstation-4/10317774.aspx?path=93c67539c42deef0c23b572dbe065184en02

 

I was wrong about the date deadline, though.  It's until December 24th.

[Keyrock]

Still playing The Talos Principle.  I'm up to 21 stars.  There are 3 10 star doors, which seems to imply at least 30 stars.  I know generally where 3 more stars are, as for the other 6...  I got one today I had been smashing my head against for well over an hour.  I was coming up with all sorts of wacky and complicated plans to get it and they were getting me close, but not all the way there.  Then the solution appeared right in front of my face, and it was so much simpler than the crazy stuff I was coming up with.  I gotta hand it to Croteam, they are really sly with red herrings.  You see a mechanism and you figure you'll need to use it, and 95% of the time that's correct, but not always.  Mechanisms can be bypassed, sometimes they're only there for you to smash your head against.  Tricky tricky, Croteam.

Edited December 24, 2014 by Keyrock

[500MetricTonnes]

Just finished playing Baldur's Gate: Enchanced Edition. I have discovered the most AWESOMELY CHEAP method of defeating Sarevok.

 

What makes the final battle difficult isn't Sarevok himself, but his lackeys. There's Semaj, a mage who casts Greater Malison and Chaos, which can easily wreck your entire party, and Angelo, who's equipped with eight Arrows of Detonation (they go off like fireballs, and can easily waste your party in a few rounds). Finally, there's Tazok, who's just a strong melee fighter.

 

The solution? By that point in the game, I had about a half-dozen Wands of Fire with me, so I decided to put em' to use. I had Imoen creep forward on the right side of the symbol of Bhaal, just enough to reveal the rightmost corner of the platform Sarevok and his lackeys are standing on, but not so far as to trigger the dialogue with Sarevok.

 

I then had Imoen use the Wand of Fire to attack the spot on the ground just in front of the rightmost edge of Sarevok's platform. When the fireball went off, it did damage to Tazok, Angelo, and Semaj, but since they were still concealed in the "fog of war," they did not come down to attack me even as I was blasting them. Eventually, Angelo decided to come get Imoen, so I had her and the rest of the party retreat back outside the Temple of Bhaal. Angelo immediately followed her outside (the Enhanced Edition differs from the original in that enemies can follow you from one area to the other, as in BG2), but he was totally surrounded by my party, who instantly hacked him to bits before he could get a shot off.

 

I went back inside and had Imoen resume her concealed Wand of Fire assault. Tazok soon fell, and Semaj lost morale and started running around like a chicken with his head cut off, allowing my party to hack him to bits. I then had my PC approach Sarevok, now all by his lonesome, but before he could get to her, she summoned up a horde of monsters to keep him busy while the rest of the party bombarded him with arrows and Magic Missiles until he died.

 

Total damage taken during the fight? ZERO.

 

Edited December 24, 2014 by 500MetricTonnes

[ShadySands]

In that case I would just Ctrl Y them

[500MetricTonnes]

Well that's just cheating...there's a difference between horribly cheap tactics and an "I Win" button. Hell, part of the fun of Infinity Engine games is finding new and unique forms of cheese (remember the old "Chain Contigency + Project Image" trick?)

 

Oddly enough, I had just finished Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition prior, and this sort of strategy would not have worked there. Black Isle evidently anticipated this, and so if you attack one member of a group of enemies, they will all come after you, even if you can't see them.

Edited December 24, 2014 by 500MetricTonnes

[Agiel]

In my recent playthrough of Icewind Dale II in the "Tic-tac-toe o' doom" in the Ice Temple I used the "ctrl-y" command for the fights I was quite reasonably sure I would beat handily. My Barbarian was built for it and I wasn't going to waste time resting and buffing her up for every round.

[Hurlshort]

Man, Xenonauts is scary addicting.  I really have trouble pulling myself away from it when I start.  Luckily my kids seem fascinated by it and will sit and cheer me on while I hunt down aliens and send fighter jets after ufo's.  I think they prefer the graphics, they leave more for the imagination.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Started another game of Inquisition. There were some thing I missed in the tutorial and elsewhere in my first game. Maybe I'll bounce between this and Origins. Maybe.

[Llyranor]

Hey nerds, help me pick my next RPG. My backlog is out of control.

 

Blackguards

Dead State

Might & Magic X

Shadowrun Dragonfall

Wasteland 2

[ShadySands]

Probably Dragonfall since it was my game of the year

[500MetricTonnes]

Another old game I recently dug up and reinstalled is Jane's F/A-18, which I first played back in high school. I personally regard this game as one of the most hardcore military flight sims ever developed, edged out only by Falcon 4.0 (which I consider the gold standard for detailed aircraft and avionics modelling). It's one of my favourite games...that I'm absolutely rubbish at. It took me weeks just to learn the basics, let alone achieve any level of skill. Maybe I just suck at flight sims.

 

This game is hard, in the way that only hardcore flight sims can be.

 

 

The main campaign involves a civil war in Russia between the government and some communist splinter group, who takes control of the Kola Peninsula and the Northern Fleet based out of Severomorsk. Naturally, 'Murica just has to shove its nose in other peoples' business, so the USS Ronald Reagan carrier battle group is dispatched to show the commies what-for.

 

The problem? The pilot they chose to lead strike missions against the communists...the individual entrusted with a multi-million dollar piece of military hardware...was me. Air combat training? Pfft...I read the game manual. That should be good enough, right?

 

 

The flight deck of the USS Ronald Reagan. With a namesake like that, you just know this campaign is going to be a utter debacle of dunderheaded buffoonery. For no reason at all, I named my squadron members after characters from Star Fox.

 

I've never actually managed to complete the official campaign. There's one mission that always trips me up, where the Ronald Reagan is attacked by Su-33 Flankers from the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier. Each one is armed with this bad boy right here - a sea-skimming, supersonic anti-ship cruise missile. Due to my utter lack of ability as a naval aviator, the Flankers invariably penetrate our feeble defence and send the Ronald Reagan to a watery grave, resulting in 'Murica running home with its tail tucked between its legs. DISHONORABLE DISCHARGES FOR ALL!

 

So what have I learned from this game?

 

- Don't mess with Flankers. They are not your friends.

- MiGs are the annoying little brothers of the Flankers. They aren't your friends, either.

- The Tu-142 might make a tempting target, being so large and slow, and you might, like me, decide to come up from behind and gave it a taste of your Vulcan cannon. Unfortunately, it's got pair of radar-aimed tailguns to discourage such buffoonery.

- Be REALLY sure of your targets when attacking with the Harpoon anti-ship missile...lest you end up sinking your own carrier.

- Russian surface-to-air missiles are extremely deadly and do not, in fact, merely tickle.

[Hurlshort]

Hey nerds, help me pick my next RPG. My backlog is out of control.

 

Blackguards

Dead State

Might & Magic X

Shadowrun Dragonfall

Wasteland 2

 

Merry Christmas loser.

 

My ratings would be:

Dragonfall - It's awesome and relatively short, giving you time to play the next game.

Wasteland 2 - Stick with it through the bugs and glitches, it's a great character building experience.

M&M X - This is almost tied with Wasteland.  If you loved the old M&M games, it captures the feel perfectly.

Blackguards - Pretty cool little combat system, I had fun with it.

 

 

Dead State - Only one I didn't play, so I have no idea.  Bleh to zombies though.

[Starwars]

Of the ones I played:

 

Dragonfall - The best one in my opinion. Focused awesomeness. Not too long but no filler either. Might be my GOTY.

Wasteland 2 - Fun but... eeh, overrated I think. I felt it was very bloated and unnecessarily long, too slow (and I tend to *like* slow games). Still, it's fun and addictive.

Dead State - Haven't finished it but I am enjoying it. Haven't run into many bugs at all myself but some people are having problems, might want to hold off until a few patches have been released. But yeah, I'm definitely having fun.

[GhostofAnakin]

Decided to play Skyrim again after having not played it for 2 years.  Bethesda does some things wrong, but world building isn't one of them.  In terms of the scenery itself, the landscape (ie. trees, mountains, buildings) look more like a painting than "realistic", but they still are able to capture the epicness of the world nicely.

 

The dialogue still is meh, though.

[Tale]

"Shawn will remember that."

 

Not for long he won't.

[HoonDing]

Is that a Boy Meets World reference?

[Agiel]

@500MetricTonnes

 

Strictly speaking, you have a very decisive advantage over the various Flankers and Fulcrums in the form of the active radar homing AIM-120C AMRAAM (it's in my sig!) allowing you not only track-while-scan, but also launch-and-leave capabilities over the Russian fighters' semi-active radar homing (meaning not only can you simultaneously engage multiple targets across a roughly 75 degree axis, but it also forces the enemy fighters to go defensive and lose the track on you, causing their own missiles (if they launched them) to go blind, and if your Slammers didn't score a hit on them you have a decisive advantage in the merge.

 

Seems you're having some problems against the Sunburns due to not mastering the AN/APG-73 radar with look-down, shoot-down capabilities specifically tailored against supersonic sea skimming threats. There was a very helpful interactive website that can help you with that:

 

http://home1.stofanet.dk/baskat/mainpage.html

 

Good luck. Jane's F/A-18 and Jane's F-15 were my next favourite sims to Falcon 4.0.

Edited December 25, 2014 by Agiel

[Tale]

Is that a Boy Meets World reference?

The Walking Dead, Season 1 Episode 1

[500MetricTonnes]

@500MetricTonnes

 

Strictly speaking, you have a very decisive advantage over the various Flankers and Fulcrums in the form of the active radar homing AIM-120C AMRAAM (it's in my sig!) allowing you not only track-while-scan, but also launch-and-leave capabilities over the Russian fighters' semi-active radar homing (meaning not only can you simultaneously engage multiple targets across a roughly 75 degree axis, but it also forces the enemy fighters to go defensive and lose the track on you, causing their own missiles (if they launched them) to go blind, and if your Slammers didn't score a hit on them you have a decisive advantage in the merge.

 

Seems you're having some problems against the Sunburns due to not mastering the AN/APG-73 radar with look-down, shoot-down capabilities specifically tailored against supersonic sea skimming threats. There was a very helpful interactive website that can help you with that:

 

http://home1.stofanet.dk/baskat/mainpage.html

 

Good luck. Jane's F/A-18 and Jane's F-15 were my next favourite sims to Falcon 4.0.

 

Yeah, having active radar homing missiles is a big advantage during the first two phases of the game. Sure, you have the option of using the AIM-7 Sparrow, but why would you ever use that? I also recall that you could get missile targeting info via the AWACS datalink, meaning you could launch missiles without even having to turn on your radar at all. However, once you reach the third campaign phase, you start encountering Su-35s, which are armed with the R-77 missile. It's about on par with the AIM-120C, (I think it has a slightly longer range) and it will make your life...unpleasant.

 

As for the carrier attack mission, the advice I remember getting on the SimHQ forums was that it was best to shoot down the Su-33s before they launch their missiles, because the Moskit missile travels at Mach 3, making them extremely difficult to shoot down unless you attack them head-on and at close range.

[GhostofAnakin]

I knew I should have waited for the Boxing day sales.

 

Shadows of Mordor is $35 off, at $34.99

Far Cry 4 is $20 off, at $49.99

Assassin's Creed Unity is $20 off, at $49.99

Destiny is $30 off, at $39.99

Dragon Age is $20 off, at $49.99

 

Hell, I could have gotten a PS4 console bundle (Last of Us, Far Cry 4 and some other game) for the same price I paid for my PS4 + Last of Us.

[Agiel]

Yeah, having active radar homing missiles is a big advantage during the first two phases of the game. Sure, you have the option of using the AIM-7 Sparrow, but why would you ever use that? I also recall that you could get missile targeting info via the AWACS datalink, meaning you could launch missiles without even having to turn on your radar at all. However, once you reach the third campaign phase, you start encountering Su-35s, which are armed with the R-77 missile. It's about on par with the AIM-120C, (I think it has a slightly longer range) and it will make your life...unpleasant.

 

As for the carrier attack mission, the advice I remember getting on the SimHQ forums was that it was best to shoot down the Su-33s before they launch their missiles, because the Moskit missile travels at Mach 3, making them extremely difficult to shoot down unless you attack them head-on and at close range.

 

 

The Adders are being launched outside of the "No-escape" range, which is the range where the missile is guaranteed to have the kinematic energy to hit the target even if he were to turn tail and run. You can fire a Fox too before the "Shoot" cue as well as it extends your own timeline  (the missile has a substantially lower chance to hit a maneuvering target, but it forces the bandit to go defensive as well, as it will hit if he "stays the course" as it were).

 

Rather mysteriously in the fleet defense missions the Ticonderoga cruisers and the Arleigh Burke destroyers don't do jack about the inbound vampires, but I suspect there wouldn't be much in the way of excitement in that mission if you let the AAW duties to the "skimmers".

Edited December 25, 2014 by Agiel

[Bokishi]

Just got an Oculus Rift DK2 and trying to play through Alien Isolation with it; freakin epic and horrifying at the same time

[LadyCrimson]

Just got an Oculus Rift DK2 and trying to play through Alien Isolation with it; freakin epic and horrifying at the same time

I need to move next door to you, so I can couch-mooch check out all your stuff periodically.