What are you playing now?

[melkathi]

Caught up witht he episodic content in Defiance. Hadn't even finished the season 2 missions (which were kinda meh). Sat down yesterday to do the Season 3 stuff only to find out there wasn't really any story, just instance runs. Meh.

Tried a run. Got in with some random player who was absolutely useless, sitting back leeching, then trying to shoot hellbugs with a sniper rifle.

[Keyrock]

 

I scooped up Cradle a "sci-fi" exploration quest" (their words, not mine).  I'm not sure what to say about this game.  45 minutes in and I still have very little idea of anything.  So, there is zero hand holding in this game.  You wake up in a yurt, presumably somewhere in Mongolia.  There is a mechanical woman on a table but she's not functioning.  There are tons of objects to interact with and pictures to look at and newspaper clippings to read.  From what I can gather this is taking place in the not too distant future and there was (is?) some kind of virus.  I think this virus was killing off humans and they figured out a way to transfer their consciousness into machines...  maybe.  I can go outside but I haven't yet, I've mostly been checking out the yurt.  This is one of those games where they plop you somewhere, tell you nothing about what you're supposed to be doing, and let you figure everything out completely on your own, which is completely fine with me.  I don't know what to think of the game yet, but I'm definitely interested to play some more.  Next step is to go outside, I guess.

 

Picked it up as well. Spent about an hour in the first task of making breakfast for an eagle since it's as if the task given to you assumed that you the player have lived in a Mongolian Yurt your entire life. Went crazy trying to figure out where the mortar and pestle that was needed to grind up the ginger was as although I had a general idea of what they looked like, I didn't know where some Mongolians living on the steppes kept them (on top of the crockery).

 

Although the game has the kind of adventure game designer logic that aggravates me, otherwise having a good time. Am probably about half-way through the game if the level select screen is anything to go by, and the fiction of that world is certainly drawing me in.

 

I went almost an hour before I even began the first task because I just went around the yurt looking at pictures and reading newspaper clippings (there are tons of these everywhere) and I missed the one paper that's right in front of your face at the very start.  Once I finally managed to read that I got down to doing actual tasks.  I still don't really know what to think of it, but it's definitely an interesting game.  I'm probably nowhere near as far as you because I'm splitting time between Cradle and The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna.  

 

The nice thing is that Victor Vran remains on sale until the end of the month (it's only 10%, so not really a big deal), so there's a good chance I can wait to finish one or both of the games I'm playing and still scoop that up while it's discounted.

 

Edit:  As a bonus, if Flying Cafe for Semianimals (yes, that's the name of the developer) ever want to make a sequel, they can call it Cradle 2: The Grave.

 

 

(If you're wondering "Wait a minute, did Keyrock just make a lame ass joke using a super outdated movie reference just to post a DMX video?" Guilty as charged  )

Edited July 25, 2015 by Keyrock

[Starwars]

Got bored of The Witcher 3 soon after I got to Skellige. My playthrough of GTAV also just kinda died.

 

Was gonna try the new version of KOTOR2 but it seems rather buggy still (looks like the latest version actually deleted some of Kreia's dialogue files on accident, ouch) so I'm holding off.

 

Not much else I'm super interested in right now. Shadowrun Hong Kong coming out soon, so that should be good. Want to replay PoE, Wasteland 2 and Divinity but figuring I'm gonna wait until they get their respective expansions/patches/updates. Picked up Way of the Samurai 4 but gonna have to wait until I get my hands on a controller to play that one.

Also picked up the Talos Principle on the recent sale, might try that one out soon. Seems like it could be good.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Starwars

[GhostofAnakin]

I gave up on Killzone Shadowfall.  I'm just burnt out with FPSers.

 

I don't know what I want to play now.  I've got an old Skyrim play-thru I could finish up, including finally playing some of the expansions/DLC, but I'm not sure I'm that interested in the idea to justify spending money on the DLCs.

 

I'm putting another Witcher 3 play-thru on hold until the first expansion comes out, I believe in October.

[melkathi]

Had a good chuckle out of the Defiance writing. Wish the tv show had the game's writers (and some of the characters).

I'd say spoiler alert, but chances that anyone will play this are low and it is last year's content

Two npcs and yourself are inside a crashed space ship. An AI has its crazy cultists prepping the engine for launch. Which, seeing how that engine is meant to transport the ship from solar system A to solar system O, is not exactly something you want to do while the engine is buried in the ground. (It will rip the area apart apparently)

You have reached the systems you need to turn off and are stopped by the high priest. Who you shoot in the face (the player character does the shooting in face thing quite liberally during cut scenes). The AI simply uses nanobots or something to regen the guy. And while the PC thinks "Oh, crap", Karl, one of the npcs turns to the other and says "Quick, follow me!" They run. You run after them. Karl seals the bulkhead before you can make it through. Cass, the other npc, is rather irritated. Karl says she should trust him.

You do the boss fight, kill the regenerating enemy and abort the launch. Bulkhead opens, the other two walk out and Karl goes "See? I told you I had a a plan."

 

He is my favourite npc ever. Never before have I met a NPC with such flawless logic: I turned the PC into an elite killing machine and have them on my payroll - something goes bad, I'll just get out of the way and let them handle it. Thanks, Karl, it is what makes working for you such a pleasure.

Edited July 25, 2015 by melkathi

[Agiel]

 

 

I scooped up Cradle a "sci-fi" exploration quest" (their words, not mine).  I'm not sure what to say about this game.  45 minutes in and I still have very little idea of anything.  So, there is zero hand holding in this game.  You wake up in a yurt, presumably somewhere in Mongolia.  There is a mechanical woman on a table but she's not functioning.  There are tons of objects to interact with and pictures to look at and newspaper clippings to read.  From what I can gather this is taking place in the not too distant future and there was (is?) some kind of virus.  I think this virus was killing off humans and they figured out a way to transfer their consciousness into machines...  maybe.  I can go outside but I haven't yet, I've mostly been checking out the yurt.  This is one of those games where they plop you somewhere, tell you nothing about what you're supposed to be doing, and let you figure everything out completely on your own, which is completely fine with me.  I don't know what to think of the game yet, but I'm definitely interested to play some more.  Next step is to go outside, I guess.

 

Picked it up as well. Spent about an hour in the first task of making breakfast for an eagle since it's as if the task given to you assumed that you the player have lived in a Mongolian Yurt your entire life. Went crazy trying to figure out where the mortar and pestle that was needed to grind up the ginger was as although I had a general idea of what they looked like, I didn't know where some Mongolians living on the steppes kept them (on top of the crockery).

 

Although the game has the kind of adventure game designer logic that aggravates me, otherwise having a good time. Am probably about half-way through the game if the level select screen is anything to go by, and the fiction of that world is certainly drawing me in.

 

 I still don't really know what to think of it, but it's definitely an interesting game.  I'm probably nowhere near as far as you because I'm splitting time between Cradle and The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna.  

 

 

 

 

Finished it in probably about 6 hours or so, and it probably would have taken me a bit longer if I searched every nook and cranny for the extra fluff.

 

I honestly see a lot of shades of Dark Souls in the narrative, insomuch that a lot of the gaps left by what is explicitly told to you has to be filled in with stuff you have to actively seek out in the game world and analyse (like how a lot of Dark Souls lore comes from item descriptions, or by the fact that this guy's body was found near the sick spider lady). That, and at risk of sounding like a cultural and linguistic chauvinist, a lot of the confusion can also be attributed to localisation issues (hint: When they say "red pot" they mean "red wok" and when they say "solar battery" they mean "solar panel"). The Steam store page also has one of the most disastrous translation jobs I've seen this side of Ice Pick Lodge's Pathologic.

Edited July 25, 2015 by Agiel

[GhostofAnakin]

Had a good chuckle out of the Defiance writing. Wish the tv show had the game's writers (and some of the characters).

I'd say spoiler alert, but chances that anyone will play this are low and it is last year's content

Two npcs and yourself are inside a crashed space ship. An AI has its crazy cultists prepping the engine for launch. Which, seeing how that engine is meant to transport the ship from solar system A to solar system O, is not exactly something you want to do while the engine is buried in the ground. (It will rip the area apart apparently)

You have reached the systems you need to turn off and are stopped by the high priest. Who you shoot in the face (the player character does the shooting in face thing quite liberally during cut scenes). The AI simply uses nanobots or something to regen the guy. And while the PC thinks "Oh, crap", Karl, one of the npcs turns to the other and says "Quick, follow me!" They run. You run after them. Karl seals the bulkhead before you can make it through. Cass, the other npc, is rather irritated. Karl says she should trust him.

You do the boss fight, kill the regenerating enemy and abort the launch. Bulkhead opens, the other two walk out and Karl goes "See? I told you I had a a plan."

 

He is my favourite npc ever. Never before have I met a NPC with such flawless logic: I turned the PC into an elite killing machine and have them on my payroll - something goes bad, I'll just get out of the way and let them handle it. Thanks, Karl, it is what makes working for you such a pleasure.

 

I wanted to continue playing Defiance, but the way they did leveling made me lose interest.  Particularly weapons, where I could spend hundreds of hours leveling up my character, yet someone who just started playing in the past hour could do just as much damage as my guy.

 

Call me crazy, but I want to be rewarded for dedicating ridiculous amounts of hours on a game.  I want to feel like I could squash any n00b who comes along, not feel like I'm no more powerful than he is.

[melkathi]

With the difficulty scaling and the weapon scaling changes they did move a bit in that direction. But balancing never was their strong point.

Not I think anythign ever was Trion's strong point.

[GhostofAnakin]

With the difficulty scaling and the weapon scaling changes they did move a bit in that direction. But balancing never was their strong point.

Not I think anythign ever was Trion's strong point.

 

Did they fix the server issues?  I remember whenever one of those global events happened (where everyone on the map tried to kill the big alien thing), half the time the screen froze, the other half it was like playing in slow motion.  Made joining those events not even worth it.

[melkathi]

I don't know. Last time I was around more than a handfull of people was just fine without any issues. But to be honest I hadn't played in ages and haven't kept up with what they claim to have fixed and what not.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Finished my third game of Dragon Age Inquisition, second complete game. What to do...

[Keyrock]

Splitting time between Cradle and The Talos Principle: Road to Gehenna.  Cradle keeps getting weirder and I'm starting to form conspiracy theories.  The voice acting is a bit stiff, but the game has kept me interested and I look forward to finding out more.  Road to Gehenna has been quite fun so far.  I've done 8 puzzles so far.  They've been challenging, but not overly so.  Of course, I've yet to truly attempt any star puzzles, which I expect to be much harder.  The terminal interactions continue to be a highlight of the game, I'm finding them to be significantly more enjoyable than in the base game (and I found those interesting).  I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play in the near future with TI5 being on much of the time, but I'll sneak some game time in when I can.

[GhostofAnakin]

Really trying to get into this Skyrim play-thru, but it's a bit of a tough slog.  I've realized that in order for me to replay games, I have to at least find the main story somewhat interesting.  The games I find myself replaying are the ones who have solid, if unspectacular, stories.  Skryim's main story is kind of bleh.

 

On the plus side, it's quite fun to sneak around and shoot people with arrows from stealth.

[Malcador]

PvP'ing in WoW, shame they have addons that auto-target healers, so I get nuked a lot. 

[Gfted1]

I could never understand how you healers pull off keeping groups alive. I had enough on my plate just trying not to stand in fire while DPSing.  I cant imagine the concentration it must take to be a good healer.

[melkathi]

I never could understand how dpsing works. Or tanking. Healing on the other hand is easy. Look at health bars and make sure they don't go down.

Ok, in PvP you should add looking at what is happening to anticipate damage spikes to the todo list.

But overall I find healing the easiest. You can ignore most of the bothersome stuff going on and just concentrate on your job.

 

In the end I guess different people have different perception or way to focus and that makes different types of info easier for them to filter.

[Humanoid]

Well if you rate the difficulty of healing from being in groups with dps who stand in fire, then yeah, it's tricky. Generally speaking though, it's actually less intense than the other roles for me, healers are the only role that has downtime instead of having to hit buttons from start to finish. I will concede it probably requires more preparation, in that UI setup is more involved, but that's largely a one-time thing.

 

Over the time I've played WoW I think my time has been probably spent 50% healing, 45% dps, and 5% tanking. Obviously don't mind doing either of the former roles, I've always been the first to switch roles to whatever is required for balance. I'm less comfortable tanking since I don't really have the personality for it, but can do a reasonable job in a pinch.

[Malcador]

Healing is easy, you don't need to do much usually other than keep idiots alive and manage your mana. In recent raids they've given you stuff to do, like healing  the good water elementals/spirits in the Immerseus and Gorefiend fights.  Healing bar blindness is something though, couple of times I'm surprised to note the fight ended so that was why no one was taking damage.

 

PvP healing is a f'ing pain though, addons mean you get primaried easily and good luck on some PUG helping you out.  Still, I can take a bit of punishment and sometimes opposition are pretty stupid and don't hit the healer.  Does get annoying when some warrior expects me to babysit his inept ass as he just runs around, his resultant death and bitching does please me somewhat.

[teknoman2]

i got back to playing witcher 3... i just love how main and side quests blend in seamlessly with each other most of the time and how each affects the other through your interaction with the various characters

[rjshae]

Really trying to get into this Skyrim play-thru, but it's a bit of a tough slog.  I've realized that in order for me to replay games, I have to at least find the main story somewhat interesting.  The games I find myself replaying are the ones who have solid, if unspectacular, stories.  Skryim's main story is kind of bleh.

 

On the plus side, it's quite fun to sneak around and shoot people with arrows from stealth.

 

I had to completely ignore the main quest in order to enjoy Skyrim. But even then it got a little old after a while.

[melkathi]

I had a lot of fun healing in PvP in SWTOR the first few months. And I had a lot of fun healing in Champions Online. Talk about bad players. Party in the instance split up and rushed two different rooms. Had to run from one room to the other and back trying frantically to get enough heals in to keep them alive.

Guess who I did not team with again

[Gfted1]

I never took to healing or tanking, I (almost) exclusively played my mage for all those years. I dabbled with a Druid to lvl 45, and of course a DK when they first came out, but my niche was magery. We never got to Heroic level raiding but we had Ragnaros on farm and I did get pretty close to acquiring the legendary mage staff before I quit playing.

[Humanoid]

Then I'd be the complete reverse, the mage is the one old class I've never raided with, though I did level one to max level at the time for the hell of it. (I've never used a monk either, but then they weren't available for 90% of my time with WoW)

[Luridis]

Since I finally bought a PS4, I decided to Cristen it with DA Inquisition. I've wanted to play for a while, but I refuse to install EA's crapware along with it on my PC. (Note: EA pulling their games off of Steam and making their own delivery platform is a pet peeve of mine. It's a move that Microsoft would have made in the 1990's and, EA is not Microsoft, and we're almost two decades past software company tantrums. EA, Facebook and Google seem to be the biggest offenders in clinging to asinine behavior.)

 

Anyway, bought the PS4 because I haven't owned a console since the first XBox and I've been looking for a slot loading Blu-Ray player for a while. Hard to touch one under $200, so I went the extra dollar for an AMD Jaguar machine. I like it so far, except... Exactly who's idea was it to ask players to aim with an analog stick? Someone punch him or her. My attempt to play through The Last of Us ended when I encountered that aberration in game design. I mean, there's a touchpad on the controller for pete's sake!

[Raithe]

Went through the just released episode of Life Is Strange... Now the wait for the finale.