What are you playing now?

[melkathi]

I was a big fan of the original Die Gilde. The sequel had a problem with fonts on my PC so never played it.

[Malcador]

They seem to have fixed most in Renaissance, JoWood was one of those developers that had good ideas but who sucked at the implementation. Some of the writing in this is ace though, wife says to husband before bed "Husband, it is time I fulfill my marital obligations to you"

[Nonek]

Playing Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat, still a fantastic, challenging game and really stewed thoroughly in the rich, heady lore of the setting. This role one plays, of a small mercenary company commander, really springs to life and there is one very real and important motivation throughout: Cash, pure and simple. One has to strategically consider what resources to spend on an engagement, what is needed to do the job and what profit margins can be achieved after casualties, hirings and such.

 

Unfortunately the GOG release is the PC version which is far inferior to the Playstation one, which can be played with an emulator. On PC the UI obscures more than half the screen, leaves a very small playing area, has none of the semi 3d features, nor the fluidity of the commands which would later appear in the sequel Dark Omen. Still this obfuscation can be gotten used to in time, the core enjoyability of the game remains undiminished and the campaign is unique in its variety, reactivity and approach.

 

All in all i'd say that for the price of the game it is worth it, one merely needs to persevere due to the UI trying to spoil ones enjoyment.

[GhostofAnakin]

Started playing CoD Ghosts.  I'm in one of my FPS kicks, so I've been playing games I had on my shelf but hadn't really gotten far yet, like CoD Advanced Warfare, Metro 2033 and Metro Last Light, and now CoD Ghosts.

 

I haven't enjoyed the MP component of the CoD games since Modern Warfare 2, I think?  So I won't be touching that part of the game.

[Woldan]

Starting Metro Redux again, on hardest difficulties possible. I'm planning on going hardcore-stealth, as few kills as possible *, mutants and humans. 

 

(I'll kill the rapists and safe the woman though)

Edited July 20, 2015 by Woldan

[GhostofAnakin]

So far, I'm not digging the CoD Ghosts single player story.  I really enjoyed the Advanced Warfare one, but this one's just not pulling me in.

[Bartimaeus]

Starting Metro Redux again, on hardest difficulties possible. I'm planning on going hardcore-stealth, as few kills as possible *, mutants and humans. 

 

(I'll kill the rapists and safe the woman though)

 

But...not killing humans is so easy with the broken stealth system. It's so much bigger of a pain to try and kill everyone while maintaining stealth.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[GhostofAnakin]

 

Starting Metro Redux again, on hardest difficulties possible. I'm planning on going hardcore-stealth, as few kills as possible *, mutants and humans. 

 

(I'll kill the rapists and safe the woman though)

 

But...not killing humans is so easy with the broken stealth system. It's so much bigger of a pain to try and kill everyone while maintaining stealth.

 

 

Broken stealth system?  Mine must be "fixed" because I had a helluva time trying to stealth through most of the areas.

[Woldan]

Its pretty hard to stealth through crowded areas (Red army base for example), and with the very high difficulty settings I won't even have enough resources to go on regular killing sprees. Lets see how it will turn out. 

[Bartimaeus]

In most dark areas (e.g. the first bandit base you come across with Bourbon in 2033), you can pretty much stand right in front of enemies without them detecting you as long as there's no light directly shining on you. This mechanic extends throughout the entire game (except for NV guys, which there aren't many of and this only slightly increases their visibility range in the dark, so meh), and I consider it to be a bit of a joke/broken because as long as you're at least a little bit patient, enemies are completely blind to you the vast majority of the time. This just isn't how eyesight works...so yeah, broken and easy by my estimation.

 

Red Army Base? *spoilers* You start out falling off a railcart in a dark tunnel where nobody can see you...ya' go through the tunnels and down the stairs (either waiting for the guys on the railcart to similarly go down the stairs or not waiting: it doesn't really matter as long as you're all not trying to do it at the same time ) past the two guards talking to each other in complete darkness (as soon as you get past the little fire they're standing at, which doesn't extend far enough for them to see you going down the stairs anyways), you wait for the two commies to execute the "deserter" who then go upstairs, then you jump onto the metal scaffoldings past those two commies where nobody can possibly see you because you're underneath everyone, then depending on the path you take, you either go down to the bottom of the chasm and then up through the basement of the Nazi side via the ladder (what I recommend) or you stay on the metal scaffoldings until you get back onto the lower platforms (what I don't recommend, since there are a bunch of patrolling Nazis along with a mounted gun watching the area which makes it pretty difficult to stealth through this area if you're not killing anybody). Then, once you're on the Nazi side and in tunnel, you go right through without anybody seeing you because, once again, it's too dark for anybody to see you (except for the NV guys getting too close to you as well as the patrolling gun car, where you just go into one of little cubby holes on the sides of the tunnel and wait for them to pass). Then, you just cruise right on through to the end of the level to the scripted ambush because either it's too dark or enemies have their backs turned. The only non-obvious piece to this, it seemed to me, was spotting that the scaffolding by those two commies executing the "deserter" exists to begin with, since you don't have much of a reason to look over the side of that platform they're standing on when performing the execution before they go upstairs...but hey, as far as things go, having to carefully examine all possible options is a small price to pay for a pacifism route in an FPS...and this is, IMO, really the only thing you have to be on the lookout for in what's considered to be the "hardest"/most torturous level in the game.

 

Now personally, I prefer having to kill everybody in complete stealth. Having to kill groups of 3-4 dudes who are all standing or sitting right next to each other either without them noticing each other getting picked off OR (if they're literally all sitting right next to each other like you can find a few guys doing in the bandit Black Station when you're trying to rescue Bourbon) killing them all fast enough that they don't raise the alarm (they have a few second delay after they notice someone dying before they actually start screaming, during which you can kill all of them if you're quick, careful, and accurate). For me, the hardest section of the game is actually after you rescue the dumb child in the overrun station and you're leaving to the outside again: killing the Nazi patrol of like 6 or 7 guys that's coming down to try and assault the station (their words, not mine) is seriously so hard without them raising the alarm...but it can be done. Besides that, I don't generally have too much trouble with the game outside of a few specific groups of enemies through the game.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Woldan]

I'm a sucker for stealth in games, my favorite games of all the time - with a huge margin- are Thief - The Dark Project and Thief - The Metal Age so the ghosting no kills approach will always be my favorite one.

 

I detest going rambo in games that allow stealth, especially when role playing the protagonist because the stealthy approach is the one I'd choose in real life too. 

Edited July 20, 2015 by Woldan

[Bartimaeus]

Isn't that...roleplaying as yourself, not as the protagonist? Not that there's anything wrong with that or anything, but... Personally, I prefer to roleplay as someone who recognizes it's better to kill all the people killing each other so everyone else can live in peace...as opposed to myself, whose sum of all fears is death (whether it be for myself or others) to such a degree that I don't even like killing insects most of the time.

Edited July 20, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Rosbjerg]

Pillars of Eternity, second playthrough.. I really enjoyed the first time through, but now that I'm a lot more familiar with everything I can enjoy the story without concentrating on the mechanics.

 

Now that I'm reading everything, I'm especially enjoying how they've tied in pulp fantasy (like ghouls) in the setting and soul lore. Feels much more fleshed out than DnD.

 

Hoping that I won't finish before the expansion (any word on when its due?)

[Woldan]

Isn't that...roleplaying as yourself, not as the protagonist? Not that there's anything wrong with that or anything, but... Personally, I prefer to roleplay as someone who recognizes it's better to kill all the people killing each other so everyone else can live in peace...as opposed to myself, whose sum of all fears is death (whether it be for myself or others) to such a degree that I don't even like killing insects most of the time.

 

My play style in games reflects my personality very well and I need that to feel connected to the world, I always play a loner flying under the radar not caring about people and all their petty homemade drama unless intervention means profit - or if it directly concerns him. My character feels no responsibility for the well being of other people. 

Except something atrocious is happening right now that could easily prevented with direct intervention, thats when my protagonist breaks character every now and then. 

 

That means in Metro Nazis, Red Army etc. can slaughter / imprison / torture each other to death I could not care less, neither does looting filters and ammo from civilians bother me nor am I feeling responsible for killing thugs in the tunnels to make the area safer for travelers. Though rape and civilians getting beaten to death right in front of my eyes, I cannot simply sneak past and pretend I don't care, thats one of the few moments people get shanked. 

 

I tried to play other personalities but didn't enjoy that at all, role playing myself in games feels best. 

Edited July 20, 2015 by Woldan

[Bartimaeus]

Haha, fair enough. It really depends on the game in question for me...for singleplayer first person shooters, I tend to have the personality I described earlier, but for RPGs like NWN or BG/PST, it varies a bit more...though I never play anything really straight up evil because I'm a weak and squeamish person.

 

Also, I just realized you said "Red Army Base" earlier, not the Frontline which is what I assumed you meant...though I'm having difficulty remembering exactly what the Red Army Base is, because I'm pretty sure everything after Frontline is actually Nazi, not Communist. The Red Army Base would be...what, the level you're in before you go onto the railcar ride that you fall off into the Frontline level? Don't think that's what you meant, since that's not really a real level.

[Woldan]

No, the base where they build the train / tank, I cannot remember if it was in 2033 or in 2034 last light though, I always mix them up. There is also the funny conversation between an officer and an engineer about burning rats, the engineer said he cannot burn the prisoners because they're not as evil as the Nazis and the officer then tells him he meant it literally, burning rats, not those people.   

Edited July 20, 2015 by Woldan

[Bartimaeus]

It must've been Last Light, since they don't have a real base in 2033: it's all Nazi after you get past the Frontline after Andrew the Blacksmith. Also, I don't remember that conversation, and I've heard every single one in 2033, so yeah. I can't really say anything for that level since I only vaguely remember it, and I haven't bothered trying to ever finish that game...

Edited July 20, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Woldan]

Why didn't you finish last light redux? I loved the living hell out of that game, especially the level design was really really good. There were a few bad things of course, but all things considered it was at least as enjoyable as 2033. 

[Bartimaeus]

Stupid plot of what I played of it, stupid characters that I hated (Anna's little character "arc" was laughable...or contemptible, more like, and I despised Khan's rewrite/revision from the first game...Miller's even greater macho meatheadism wasn't exactly admirable, either), even easier and sillier stealth from what I remember of it (it seemed to me that they made levels quite a bit brighter than they had been in Metro 2033...but without making stealth any harder. It's really immersion breaking for me if I'm going around shooting Nazis in the head with a "silenced" revolver in a big chamber room that would very much have sounds reflected and echoing off of thick concrete walls...while the room is actually not that dark, and somehow nobody sees or hears anything. Give me throwing knives or a Helsing, make the room a lot darker instead of laughably bright like it was, and maybe I believe this scenario)...just little things that made me end up really not liking the game compared to 2033. You can see a few of my posts on Khan here while I was having a discussion with Keyrock just a little earlier in this topic: http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79278-what-are-you-playing-now/?p=1713228

Edited July 21, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Keyrock]

I stealthed way more in Last Light than I did in 2033, but I pretty much never used throwing knives and barely ever used a silenced pistol.  I prefer the OG method of outmaneuvering them and sticking a knife in their throat up close and personal.  Way more satisfying that way.  As for areas being brighter in Last Light, you know that you can turn off circuit breakers and blow out flames, right?

 

Also, I agree with Woldan, I thought the level design in Last Light was really great.  So many levels with many different paths and approaches you can take to get through them.

 

As for me, I'm on the verge of building my first station in X3: Albion Prelude.  I have enough cash on hand to buy an ore mine and enough extra to supply it and have some on hand for my own trading, but I need some more because I need to hire a TL (station transport) to bring my ore mine to where it will get set up.  A few more trade runs then it's time to scout out a mineral rich asteroid in a sector that isn't already saturated with mines (easier said than done).  Alternatively, I can build a scruffin farm instead.  Hmm...

Edited July 21, 2015 by Keyrock

[Katphood]

So far, I'm not digging the CoD Ghosts single player story.  I really enjoyed the Advanced Warfare one, but this one's just not pulling me in.

CoD Ghosts had a really awful story but the gameplay was quite fun, the graphics looked neat too. The multiplayer is pretty bad though, both in CoD Ghosts and CoD Advanced Warfare.

[Bartimaeus]

"As for areas being brighter in Last Light, you know that you can turn off circuit breakers and blow out flames, right?"

 

Uh...but the rest of my criticism was that enemies weren't generally properly reacting to the game being brighter than 2033, not that the game was harder because it was brighter...

[GhostofAnakin]

I preferred Last Light to 2033, in large part because of the endings, but also because there were less (to me) annoying sections to play through.

 

The Anna story arc was lame, though.  Mainly because it was all "I hate you" then without no build up "actually lets get nasty together".

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, you meet her for like five minutes, during which the entire time she displays open and utter contempt for you...then you get separated, and then when you finally meet up again, she's in love with you? Uh, what happened? That woman must've had some serious delusions about what exactly happened with our relationship in that very short time together over those few days of separation. You might've been thinking of Artyom and having fantasies of mutual attraction and possibly love every waking moment the two of you were separated, but I can guaran-fricking-tee you that Artyom spent nary a single errant thought in regards to you...besides maybe, "I wonder when that awful, terrible mean lady is gonna show up in this game again..."

Edited July 21, 2015 by Bartimaeus

[Woldan]

Yeah maybe they should have hired Bioware writers to make the Anna love story better. *cackles*  

 

I agree, Anna going from ''I hate you'' to I ''Love you'' was WTF-quick, but truth be told I've met far crazier people in real life. - And lets be honest, living & surviving in a world like metro would drive anyone on the brink of insanity, a proper love story would have actually made less sense in such a horrible environment. 

Thats not an excuse for bad writing though, but considering this the whole Anna arc is not that bad. 

Edited July 21, 2015 by Woldan