What are you playing now?

[Malcador]

Getting drunk after your lady love became a genocidal alien monstrosity also responsible for the death of at least one good friend is a reasonable reaction imo.

I was more annoyed by Blizzard need to do a 'Have we mentioned how heroic Jim is today?' every cutscene.

Yeah, he's really torn up about Fenix

 

Raynor's an awful friend, in a way, he finds out Tychus has a gun to his head and for some reason doesn't ask his buddy who did time for him about it or seem concerned to help.

[SadExchange]

Still playing the Witcher 3.  Believe I'm in the epilogue right now.  Wondering if I can just go off and do questing instead of traveling back to the inn to progress the epilogue?  I've heard that when you beat the game, it just kicks you back to the last save before the end quests, with still possessing everything you got from then on, but allowing you to finish questing.  Also will be a save for when the expansions come out soon.  Any thoughts?  Seems like I should just finish up the epilogue then.

[Tale]

 

But it's not just available there? I mean, I once saw a mission where it appeard on the right side under my units, but most of the time there is just generic stuff. Appears to be quite random to me.

 

It's not random. It's used on missions that require it, which tend to be the mission at the very top.

[Lexx]

Yeah, but like I said- so far I had one of them, and then never again.

[GhostofAnakin]

^Can't do the fulton trick because I haven't researched/unlocked the ability to fulton out vehicles/large weapons yet.  The biggest thing I can fulton out at this point are mortars and those small machine gun emplacements.

 

So I guess I'll put off that mission until Mother Base is large enough for me to do that upgrade.

[Nonek]

Still playing the Witcher 3.  Believe I'm in the epilogue right now.  Wondering if I can just go off and do questing instead of traveling back to the inn to progress the epilogue?  I've heard that when you beat the game, it just kicks you back to the last save before the end quests, with still possessing everything you got from then on, but allowing you to finish questing.  Also will be a save for when the expansions come out soon.  Any thoughts?  Seems like I should just finish up the epilogue then.

 

I've been told that one can start the expansion at any point in the game, though the designers recommend level 30+ so as to remain capable, i'm afraid I can't vouch for the veracity of this rumour however.

 

Playing Soma and it seems to have quite an air of System Shock about it so far, is it just me or is it obvious that the protagonist is just another

robot with an implanted personality

?

 

PLEASE DON'T CLICK THE SPOILER IF YOU ARE AGAINST SPECULATION ON WHAT SEEMS TO BE ONE OF THE KEY THEMES OF THE GAME!

Edited September 22, 2015 by Nonek

[majestic]

 

 

Replaying Starcraft 2, shame the SP campaign isn't as subtly a series of "use the new unit" as I recall other games being.

 

Wings of Liberty ranks highly amongst my disappointments in gaming. Not because of the gameplay but because of the story (that little there actually is). I wonder whose brilliant idea it was to turn one of the most badass characters in the history of RTS into a mewling, alcoholic emo clutching a picture of Kerrigan and whining "Sarah I MUSS U SOOOO MUCH!!!!" into his drink. Sheesh.

 

Of course Blizzard managed to top even that with retconning the Zerg origins in Heart of the Swarm, but then again, at that point I no longer expected anything better.

Getting drunk after your lady love became a genocidal alien monstrosity also responsible for the death of at least one good friend is a reasonable reaction imo.

I was more annoyed by Blizzard need to do a 'Have we mentioned how heroic Jim is today?' every cutscene.

 

 

Ah, uhm. No?

 

Raynor knew Kerrigan for a handful of missions before Mengsk abandoned her on Tarsonis. Raynor's dialogue was retconned in that Wings of Liberty cutscene so he talks about leaving *her* behind (whereas he was pissed off at Mengsk for leaving THEM behind in the original). Also, well, there is this intermission in one of the final Brood War missions:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCcnd1WJVCo

 

Yeah, sounds just like SC2's Raynor. Except for the part where he wants to put a bullet between Kerrigan's eyes and virtually everything else.

 

 

I actually liked Wings of Liberty. It was completly different from Blizzard's usual hamfisted fanfic-level writing. I think it shows they had Andy Chambers in the writing team, and I feel he did some good world building in that game, setting up locations, people and factions for later installments. Then came Heart of the Swarm and undid everything by being some of the worst writing in vidgy game history.

 

Eh, I don't know. There is so much that doesn't make sense including a lot of the retconning and some character design. Brood War left the Dominion battered and broken, with Mengsk having to call in a lot of favors to even make a final stand against Kerrigan - and failing utterly. Yet, here we are, four or so years later where Mengsk spends trillions looking for Raynor.

 

Who is sitting in a bar getting drunk on his old colony Mar Sara, pining over his lost love who he wanted to put down like the rabid dog she is only, well, four years earlier. Said Raynor who is easily found by his old friend Tychus who just got released from prison. By Mengsk. Yeah. Makes sense in the "not" way.

 

Then there are all these choices that always end with Raynor being right, even if it makes no sense in context. If he trusts Nova (for which he has no reason what-so-ever) then Tosh really is the psychopath she says he is while you go on and liberate the wrongly imprisoned rebellious heros if you don't. Oh, and yeah, Ariel or whatever her name was goes from praising Raynor for cleansing an infested refugee station to actually flipping out over cleansing Haven. Why? Because screw characterization I guess (oh, and again, Raynor is right whatever he does, man that must be hard never making mistakes).

 

Also, what's up with Raynor fighting his friends, the Protoss? He's a large part of the reason why they still exist after the Zerg invasion. There is no way that Raynor couldn't at least reach a compromise with the Protoss regarding Haven.

 

Then there's the prophecy crap, the Overmind sacrificing itself so the Zerg can be led by Kerrigan with free will (well after Kerrigan is cleansed from her infestation by an artifact so ancient it can't possibly have been built to combat the Zerg, which are relative newcomers) and whatever else hell there happened so that Valerian Mengsk and Raynor end up working together.

 

Okay, time to stop ranting. There were good things in Wings of Liberty, like the atmosphere and the presentation in those in-game cutscenes. Blizzard did a good job at showing, not telling, but the things they showed us were a disappointment for me.

[Starwars]

Playing SOMA. 3 hours in according to STEAM. So far, it's not as downright scary as Frictional's previous games (that doesn't mean that the game didn't just scare the hell out of me in one particular section though) but in some ways, it doesn't really try to be either. It's more interesting though story-wise and I think it's paced a bit better.

It's a lot more ambitious and it's doing a pretty good job of delivering so far though there are beats here and there where I think it can fall flat (mostly due to voiceacting direction, the actual actors do a commendable job I think).

[Keyrock]

 the protagonist is just another

robot with an implanted personality

?

 

 

That thought definitely crossed my mind, but that almost seems too obvious.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Keyrock

[GhostofAnakin]

Still playing and loving Metal Gear Solid V.  I need to find a transportation specialist in the worst possible way.  I googled it, so I know now where to look.  Now it's just a matter of pulling it off (stealth and me don't get along too well, so we'll see how it goes).

[HoonDing]

[Labadal]

Playing Antharion for now. I don't really care about the story. I just like the exploring and improving the skills of my characters. Getting new equipment also feels rewarding. The fact that non-combat skills are important is also good.

[Keyrock]

I'm a little over 2 hours into SOMA and I really dig the game so far.  I have to say that it's been less scary (there have been a couple tense parts) than I anticipated, but plenty disturbing.  It's still early into the game, so plenty of room for getting me frightened to come, plus I'm a bit of a wuss, so less scary is not necessarily a bad thing.  I'm definitely keen on finding out more about what's going on.

 

Plus, there's no shortage of other scary games for me to play in the coming weeks with the long rumored Linux port of Alien: Isolation becoming a reality in less than a week and Fatal Frame 5 coming in about a month.

[Starwars]

Alien: Isolation completely failed for me in the scary department. It had beautiful environments though but I mostly found the gameplay to fly in the face of the horror aspect of it. I suppose that's one thing the Frictional people are trying to find a right balance on. I dig SOMA a lot but I think it's a bit too gameplay-lite overall, whereas Alien: Isolation was on the other side of the spectrum.

 

Obviously feels weird to criticize a game for having gameplay but yeah, in Isolation I think the various trappings of it being a game really crashed with it trying to be scary.

[Keyrock]

Well, I'll probably still find Isolation scary because I'm a wuss.  The couple times in SOMA that

I had to play hide and seek with whatever the robot with all the lights on its "head" is

were quite tense for me.  I'm sure for some people it was like whatever, but I was like "nope, nope, nope, nope, nope". 

[Starwars]

Well, I'll probably still find Isolation scary because I'm a wuss.  The couple times in SOMA that

I had to play hide and seek with whatever the robot with all the lights on its "head" is

were quite tense for me.  I'm sure for some people it was like whatever, but I was like "nope, nope, nope, nope, nope". 

 

Well, I'm kinda the same. That first scary bit in SOMA had me as well. I've found all Frictional games to be extremely nervewracking, in a way that I never found Isolation.

 

But, I'll stop to try and convince you that Isolation isn't scary. I will say that it can be quite stressful but for me it quickly turned into "damnit I don't want to play through this agaaaaaaaaain", lol.

[Keyrock]

Well, I'm kinda the same. That first scary bit in SOMA had me as well. I've found all Frictional games to be extremely nervewracking, in a way that I never found Isolation.

 

 

For me, Frictional does a really good job of constantly weighing on my nerves in their games.  They create foreboding really well, in my opinion.  I think it has a lot to do with their sound production, which is flat out terrific, as far as I'm concerned.  The ambient sounds, the breathing of your character, his heartbeat, the sound effects, even for mundane things like knocking a plastic bin over, they all work really well together to constantly make you feel on edge.  I don't much care for jump scares, I find they lose their effect rather quickly (once or twice will get me, after that it's like "another jump scare, whatever"), and Frictional does use jump scares also, sparingly, thankfully, though their jump scares tend to be of the audio variety rather than visual.  However, constant tension definitely gets to me, I can only take that weight on my shoulders for a little while before I get real uncomfortable and have to walk away for a bit, which is why I tend to play Frictional Games' titles in short spurts.

 

As for Isolation, I've purposely avoided in-depth reviews and most discussion of the game, since I want to play it eventually, but I have heard from several sources that the game outstays its welcome.  I'll find out soon enough, I guess.

Edited September 23, 2015 by Keyrock

[Tale]

A little bit of Dangan Ronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair girls. Dangan Ronpa is the only reason I own a Playstation TV. This one has me running around shooting murderous teddy bears with a megaphone. Very weird. Not as good as the main series titles, which are more of visual novels.

 

Also playing Steins;Gate. A visual novel from 2009, finally released on PS3 in the US this month. I hear great things and it's already interesting with about an hour played.

[GhostofAnakin]

They keep telling me I should check in with Quiet, but she never has anything to say to me when I visit her "room".

[Keyrock]

They keep telling me I should check in with Quiet, but she never has anything to say to me when I visit her "room".

She wouldn't be very quiet if she kept talking all the time, now would she?    

[Humanoid]

It could be one of those ironic nicknames given to someone who just can't shut up.

[Lexx]

Thing with Alien Isolation is that it's too much IN YOUR FACE. It doesn't feel like the alien is hunting you- it's simply there, all the time. And the more it is around you, the less it will scare you. Man, later in the game I was dancing around tables with the alien being like 5 feet away from me and felt nothing. Especially when waiting in a corner it became obvious how simple-random it was walking around and jumping vents. Nothing scary about it as soon as you figure out the Ai.

 

The game still was tense, but not scary anymore.

Edited September 24, 2015 by Lexx

[Blarghagh]

The alien was scary for me until he started to get frustrating. Starwars hit the nail on the head with "I don't want to play this agaaaaain". I didn't make it through that game because I was simply too annoyed.

 

I've held off on SOMA for now despite being a huge fan of Amnesia. Amnesia was like 12 bucks at launch, which is the perfect price for a game and a new pair of pants. I don't have the budget for 30 bucks for SOMA AND a new pair of pants. It's bound to go on sale sooner or later. Or pants might go on sale, either one is fine.

[GhostofAnakin]

Still playing through Metal Gear Solid V.

 

Life is so much easier with a silencer on my sniper rifle.  Now I can take out enemies in guard towers from a distance without the rest of the enemies in the camp realizing it, whereas before the entire camp would be alerted to my presence as soon as I fired my first shot.

 

I also finally unlocked the knife attachment for D-Dog.  Haven't had a chance to try it out in the field yet.

[Blarghagh]

 

Still playing the Witcher 3.  Believe I'm in the epilogue right now.  Wondering if I can just go off and do questing instead of traveling back to the inn to progress the epilogue?  I've heard that when you beat the game, it just kicks you back to the last save before the end quests, with still possessing everything you got from then on, but allowing you to finish questing.  Also will be a save for when the expansions come out soon.  Any thoughts?  Seems like I should just finish up the epilogue then.

 

I've been told that one can start the expansion at any point in the game, though the designers recommend level 30+ so as to remain capable, i'm afraid I can't vouch for the veracity of this rumour however.

 

Playing Soma and it seems to have quite an air of System Shock about it so far, is it just me or is it obvious that the protagonist is just another

robot with an implanted personality

?

 

PLEASE DON'T CLICK THE SPOILER IF YOU ARE AGAINST SPECULATION ON WHAT SEEMS TO BE ONE OF THE KEY THEMES OF THE GAME!

 

 

You don't seem to have gotten very far yet since about one and a half hours in they literally spell it out for you. It's not the twist, it's the premise.