What are you playing now?

[LadyCrimson]

Yeah, I haven't played the specific game you're talking about or anything....it was just a general comment. There's a lot of survival games (especially in Early Access) and most of them seem focused on server-online play, which is why I don't purchase them. Most online-server games I have played, however, that allow one to play MPsolo vs. not designed for that at all, don't really get any harder just because other people are running around in the same world as you...outside of maybe it taking you a bit longer to kill something because of hit point totals vs. the speed a group can do, but that's just math. 

 

Other news: I tried the Steam-demo of an early access exploration game called Salt. It seems kind of interesting, although the graphical style is not really my thing perhaps. The exploration is cool, but not sure I like running around picking up logs or whacking special "nodes" vs. the ability to chop down a tree for a log or pickaxe a cliff for stone. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense and feels a bit too rudimentary/simple. Actually, the node thing takes me back to WoW....I do like sailing your raft/boat from island to island, tho.

[LadyCrimson]

The Long Dark - finally fired this up again after some time away. First thing I noticed is that in sandbox mode they now have 3 different play options - one where wolves won't attack you, one where they supposedly are less severe about attacking/dmg/something, and a more difficult. So that's nice. I tried the peaceful one, it works, but of course it gets dull after a while, since if you survive initial spawn and cold, you largely just fish, cook fish, melt snow, eat fish/drink water, sleep, repeat. I'll have to check out the wolves/story mode tomorrow...although I have a feeling wolves will still annoy me.

 

Gave up on "Salt" demo. All I could craft was a simple raft and a pickaxe, sailed to a couple islands ok, killed some pirates, then managed to somehow get stuck on a beach where for the life of me I couldn't steer the raft so it would actually leave the island instead of just repeatedly beaching back on. So I quit in a mini-rage after a while. Simple control interface yet very frustrating at times. Or maybe it was a bug.

[Katphood]

Bought Battlefield: Bad Company 2 along with the Vietnam dlc during the sales. Man, the Vietnam maps are so awesome! Can't stop playing the damn thing.

[teknoman2]

i found BFBC2 to be a much more enjoyable game than BF3 (maybe even BF4, but i did not try it besides some rounds of the beta at 12fps because my pc could not run it at the time so i cant compare it), mainly because of the sound department

Edited January 14, 2015 by teknoman2

[Gorth]

I think the last Battlefield game I liked and played was Battlefield Vietnam

 

Which reminds me, I need to reinstall Battlefield 1942 (and the Road to Rome expansion again). I suddenly feel like playing it

[Keyrock]

After restarting Jagged Alliance Flashback I've gotten back to approximately the same spot I was at before I restarted, but I'm sitting in a better position now.  This time, before leaving the little starter island, I made sure to train a nice strong militia force in Badilla, the town on that little island.  Badilla serves as a choke point, you have to pass through it to get to the rest of the island, thus it serves as a shield to the farm on the other side of the island, which makes me a good bit of money and allows me to keep mercs employed and to buy supplies.  I trained a couple of militia at the farm too, but they're mostly unnecessary as long as the militia in Badilla doesn't break.  The militia in Badilla is strong enough that I can mostly leave it to fend for itself while I take care of matters elsewhere.  I just captured the mine, which is another good source of income.  It is imperative that I keep control of the mine, since it will boost my income enough to field a second squad, but it is exposed from every side and there are enemy militia outposts nearby.  I managed to take the mine without so much as taking a single bullet, so I don't have to rest to get my health back, which is great.  I have to make a choice now:  Do I camp out at the mine and train militia for a few days, hoping the sector doesn't get invaded before I can train a decent force (unlikely) or do I stay on the offensive and push to take the enemy outposts nearby while leaving the mine undefended?  I'm tempted to stay on the offensive and attack an enemy outpost right away since all my mercs are at full health (if they were hurt the choice would be made for me since I would need to stay put for a while to heal up anyway).  If I take down the enemy outposts to the south and east of the mine, I will effectively create a buffer protecting the mine, plus I can likely head off any enemy squads trying to sneak past me to attack the mine while I go for the outposts.  Hunkering down at the mine would be the safer play, though.  Hmm.

Edited January 14, 2015 by Keyrock

[Malcador]

Diablo 3 patch went live, so mucked about with that. Got 2 pieces of Marauders in seasons, so up to 4/6. Will be 5/6 when they merge season with normal, so that's pretty good. Turrets shooting chakrams is great

[Tibbz]

Dragon Age Inquisition

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished Far Cry 4's main story.  The campaign seemed kind of disjointed, with not much build up to a lot of the things that happened.  The final "fight" was also quite anticlimactic.

 

There are multiple endings, but no way to save multiple save files so I can just see the other endings by loading a late game save.  Unless I'm missing something, I have to basically play the entire game again from beginning to end.

 

Solid game, though.  I preferred Far Cry 3's main story though.  Made more sense, so to speak (even if it went off the rails during the last little bit).

[Keyrock]

I decided to take the safer route in Jagged Alliance Flashback and it paid off for me.  I stayed put at the mine and started training militia and at the same time hired another squad of mercs and dropped them into the hotel I liberated (a lesser income generator) which is in a slightly safer area.  I had both squads train militia at their respective location and managed to build up a strong force in each area without getting attacked (Badilla was attacked twice in that time and both times the militia I trained [now veteran militia] made short work of the attackers with no casualties on my side).  Afterward I sent my new squad to the northern lighthouse to start training militia there and took my primary squad south and took out the enemy outpost there.  I now have heavily defended revenue generating locations ensuring I can comfortably field 2 squads of mercs, 1 squad on the offensive and the other behind in my controlled areas training militia further fortifying my captured territory.  Next up I will send my primary squad to the town to the east.  It should be a tough battle as the town is 2 sectors, so I have to capture then train militia in both sectors and the enemy should be well fortified in both sectors, but once I capture the town and train a powerful force of militia I'll have half the main island extremely well fortified, with my main revenue generating zones all but unreachable by enemy forces.

[LadyCrimson]

Problem with waking up at 4am is you're sitting around twiddling thumbs, then start browsing Steam.

 

Bought Ostrich Island, which is ... I don't know what it is. A joke/explore/puzzle game? Play as an ostrich, complete islands, find all the eggs and bonus items (by sticking your head in the sand, apparently), get high scores? Anyway, it's cute and funny (and $7-8 at the moment) and might be good for kids. I got bored after about 25 minutes, however.

 

Also went for Eternal Dark, which is The Long Dark look-alike EA that popped up. It's very crude graphically and so far it seems like you mostly ride around in your sled through same-y looking snow/trees, looking for food and gear in broken down shacks. Kill animals, feed dogs. That's about it. The dogs are cool to have and add some management but not much else. I was amused when a pig spawned and attacked my resting sled dogs. Rabid pig! If the creator truly develops it more, could be ok, but certainly nothing like The Long Dark and just about zero polish right now. It is, however, very low pressure, outside of starving to death.

[GhostofAnakin]

The naval missions in AC: Black Flag are just as annoying as I found them in AC III.  Worse even, because when the enemy shoots its cannons at me, there's nothing I can do to avoid taking damage.  The "brace" button doesn't seem to do a thing.

 

I like the concept, but the execution is lacking, IMO.

[LadyCrimson]

No matter how decent a sandbox explore/build game may be in one or two areas, it's always lacking in other areas. I need to learn how to program/use Unity or something and make my very own personalized, randomly generated open world sandbox. Just for me. All me. bwahaha....sigh.

[Serrano]

I just finished MGS4 for the first time. I had fun, it got more of a kicking than it deserved.

[Keyrock]

The naval missions in AC: Black Flag are just as annoying as I found them in AC III.  Worse even, because when the enemy shoots its cannons at me, there's nothing I can do to avoid taking damage.  The "brace" button doesn't seem to do a thing.

 

I like the concept, but the execution is lacking, IMO.

Bracing doesn't make the ship take less damage, it makes you lose less crew.

[Lexx]

I just finished MGS4 for the first time. I had fun, it got more of a kicking than it deserved.

Did it get so much? I don't remember this. Besides, the gameplay is actually very solid (no pun intended). It's just that it has so, so many hours of video stuff to watch. It is a very detailed game, but some things could have been cut... From the videos.

[Malcador]

More Diablo 3, amusing how messed up some of my characters are. Seasonal crusader has 200k damage and 10 million toughness, DH has 800k damage but no healing.

[Tale]

 

I just finished MGS4 for the first time. I had fun, it got more of a kicking than it deserved.

Did it get so much? I don't remember this. Besides, the gameplay is actually very solid (no pun intended). It's just that it has so, so many hours of video stuff to watch. It is a very detailed game, but some things could have been cut... From the videos.

 

I give it a firm kicking and stand by that.

 

It jumps around too much. It has solid mechanics, but the gameplay sections feel so short that you're done with them before you feel you've really explored the systems.

[Lexx]

I agree with that. Also chapter 1 and 2 feel almost the same to me, just with different graphics.

 

Well, and the videos... too many videos. I think I've skipped the briefing cutscenes after 1 or so hour (later I found out that you can use the robot to drive around there and even find some secrets).

[GhostofAnakin]

 

The naval missions in AC: Black Flag are just as annoying as I found them in AC III.  Worse even, because when the enemy shoots its cannons at me, there's nothing I can do to avoid taking damage.  The "brace" button doesn't seem to do a thing.

 

I like the concept, but the execution is lacking, IMO.

Bracing doesn't make the ship take less damage, it makes you lose less crew.

 

 

So essentially it is useless.  I can always get more crew when I get back to shore, but seeing my ship's "health meter" go down each time they shoot at me, with no way to fix it without destroying and bordering a ship (which is part of the issue, being able to whittle the other ship down before mine gets whittled down) is frustrating.

[Keyrock]

 

 

The naval missions in AC: Black Flag are just as annoying as I found them in AC III.  Worse even, because when the enemy shoots its cannons at me, there's nothing I can do to avoid taking damage.  The "brace" button doesn't seem to do a thing.

 

I like the concept, but the execution is lacking, IMO.

Bracing doesn't make the ship take less damage, it makes you lose less crew.

 

 

So essentially it is useless.  I can always get more crew when I get back to shore, but seeing my ship's "health meter" go down each time they shoot at me, with no way to fix it without destroying and bordering a ship (which is part of the issue, being able to whittle the other ship down before mine gets whittled down) is frustrating.

 

Just prey on easy targets for a bit to get money and materials to upgrade your ship, then naval combat becomes laughably easy against all but legendary ships.

[TheChris92]

I just finished MGS4 for the first time. I had fun, it got more of a kicking than it deserved.

Aside from the story being a bunch of bollocks and the weak way it solves its many lingering plot threads from previous games, it is meh -- The Afghanistan setting is so unnerving, given that's it literally the setting of your average war game ever, and when it comes to stealth games; It feel just as awkwardly implemented as it did in Splinter Cell Double Agent. The game plays more akin to an action, and you can pretty just buy any weapon you want from a weapon shop in the pause menu, like that makes any sense at all, which pretty much cheapens the little gameplay there was in the first place -- Take for instance one specific 'stealth mission' if you can call it that, more like stalking mission, where you have to stalk this bloke through some dark streets for 30 minutes, without doing anything else, which was about as engaging as counting floor plates.. the next part is an on-rail shooting section without spoiling too much. 

 

Guns of the Patriot is in short -- A huge letdown of a sequel and follow up to an excellent game like Snake Eater. It's also a weak ending but ultimately satisfying at least. Incidentally, Peace Walker is much more fun than Guns of the Patriots, even if the characters still don't hold up that of 1-3, it's still a really fun Metal Gear game with a fun co-op feature (which I never thought I'd say about a franchise that is mostly famous for its single-player).

Edited January 16, 2015 by TheChris92

[Serrano]

 

I just finished MGS4 for the first time. I had fun, it got more of a kicking than it deserved.

Did it get so much? I don't remember this. Besides, the gameplay is actually very solid (no pun intended). It's just that it has so, so many hours of video stuff to watch. It is a very detailed game, but some things could have been cut... From the videos.

 

Complaints from what I remember far outweighed the praise. The cinematics, worst boss battles in the series, stealth being reduced to crawling everywhere, the mechs being annoying ect.. I liked the gameplay, mechanically the series hadn't been better but I do think that the level design was vastly superior in MGS and Snake Eater. The boss battles, I found most of them to be fun once I figured out what the hell I was supposed to do but several were frustrating to begin with. I didn't mind the cinematics but do have a dislike for some of the more extreme Japanese anime directing that MGS4 is full of (Drebbin, the Beasts ect.). And while the story wasn't nerely as insane as I'd been lead to believe, it did feel like a bit of a weak finish somehow. I think it would have been better to ressurect Liquid proper for the antagonist rather than try to salvage that rediculous arm story from the second game. Instead we got Big Boss appearing out of nowhere for some crazy speach and an exit stage left immediately after. But anyway, though not the best in the series I had a fun couple of days playing it and it was nice to see the story arc wrapped up and all the characters from the series getting a role or a mention. Hopefully the Keifer Sutherland ones will keep improving on the formula.

[Woldan]

Giving Metro another chance, I'll load an older checkpoint and just make it through the dreaded library, I'll just go and get it done. Its an excellent  game and I don't want one level ruin it. 

Edited January 16, 2015 by Woldan

[GhostofAnakin]

No matter how advanced these games become, the Assassin's Creed series has never managed to make movement more fluid, especially when it comes to running and scaling.  My character has this annoying tendency to jump when I went him to hide behind something.  It's hurky and jerky, too, when you're moving forward at a run.  The character does this drunken couple of steps before actually stopping.