What are you playing right now?

[Keyrock]

The Linux version of Divinity: Original Sin finally came out (only a year and a half late).  I like the combat and the ability to manipulate objects and make elements interact.  The writing, on the other hand...  How do I put this nicely?  Their attempts at humor are rather ham-fisted.  It's pure cringe.

[Fenixp]

Don't expect a story out of Divinity, Keyrock, and if you want to get as much fun as possible out of the game, find a co-op partner to play it with. It's very much a game for fooling around

[Humanoid]

 

Failure that's effectively completely out of the player's control.

It's not though, rather a case of poor information relayed to the player.

You need to figure out the game yourself unfortunately, but when you do these things are effectively eliminated unless your concentration lapses.

 

 

I'm not sure what drives a design decision like that in the first place though? What does it add to the game? I get that Xenonauts is a recreation of classic X-COM. But I'm not sure there's much to admire in uncritical apeing of old mechanics.

 

You can excuse an old game, at the first pass of designing a mechanic, to get it wrong: such is the nature of designing something new. But when a developer opts to just recreate the mistakes of the past, what exactly can they claim to have accomplished?

[Rosbjerg]

They don't see it as a mistake?

[Fenixp]

when a developer opts to just recreate the mistakes of the past, what exactly can they claim to have accomplished?

XCOM exists and Xenonauts exists, so it's not like we don't have a choice in the matter. Both tackle the same themes and both approach them very differently - playing Xenonauts 100% safe and catering to modern design considerations would only give us another XCOM, which we don't really need as XCOM is excellent. And as far as I'm concerned, a good deal of poor design has been removed from the original X-COM games by Xenonauts (this is bloody irritating, just by the way - if I refer to the series as X-COM it'll get confused with XCOM, but if I refer to them by their European names of UFO, there's bloody Altair and their UFO trilogy.) Base management is easier, the game is a lot more readable and anything you want to do is a lot easier and more intuitive. If all Xenonauts wanted to do was to recreate old X-COM games and make them more accessible, I'd say they have succeeded. Edited December 26, 2015 by Fenixp

[Humanoid]

Then I'd just question their judgement on this particular mechanic in the same way I'd turn a critical eye on any given mechanics in any other game. The difference here is likely just how specific that mechanic is, which makes it less likely to have been critically thought through. I'm sure there are some people who'd find that particular mechanic enjoyable - not talking about the game in general which I'm sure does many other things right - but I suspect they'd be few and far between.

 

There would be countless directions any successor to X-COM could take, it doesn't follow that cleaning up relatively minor design decisions like that would result in X-COM inevitably turning into XCOM. There's no problem at all with Xenonauts attempting to replicate the "heart" of old X-COM, but some of this stuff is pretty far removed from that core gameplay, it's stuff at the extremities that usually isn't noticed at all, but when it does come up, oh boy, it gets noticed and evidently not in a good way. All I'm wondering is what gameplay value that adds, and how it could possibly be worth it.

[Darkpriest]

As i said. My main problem is the psi. For me that part could go completely the way of dodo. In the new.xcom it is at least limited to the LoS so it is bearable

[Mr. Magniloquent]

I've been playing Chaos Reborn. It's a worthy update to one of my favorite favorite classic games. I'd like to see it expanded a bit in all categories with more spells, creatures, environments, music, but it's still an awesome game. It's frequently described as equal parts wizard chess and poker, which is apt.

[Wrath of Dagon]

It's nice that if you die enough times in Brothers in Arms the game offers to heal your team when you reload the check point. I take everything I said about Gearbox back.

[ManifestedISO]

This MGSV was a good buy. It's single-player third-person stealth shooting set in 1984. All the combat mechanics are smooth, I'm not fighting the controls like with most other games. Plus there's cassette tapes with 80's tracks. Kiefer Sutherland is the voice of Big Boss, the player character ... he's a good actor. I can see why game designer Hideo Kojima has so many fans. 

[Keyrock]

I've taken a break from Xenoblade Chronicles X (it's a MASSIVE game, I don't want to tackle it all at once) and have mostly been playing Satellite Reign.  I like the game but so far I'm finding it all too easy to lose pursuit when I get spotted in a restricted area.  Hopefully that's mainly due to me being still in the starting area and it gets much harder later and I actually get punished for my mistakes.

[GhostofAnakin]

This MGSV was a good buy. It's single-player third-person stealth shooting set in 1984. All the combat mechanics are smooth, I'm not fighting the controls like with most other games. Plus there's cassette tapes with 80's tracks. Kiefer Sutherland is the voice of Big Boss, the player character ... he's a good actor. I can see why game designer Hideo Kojima has so many fans. 

 

Chapter 1 is pretty awesome.  Chapter 2, not so much.

 

Overall, though, I'm pretty high on MGSV.  Great combat, fun different ways to complete missions, and plenty of choices about how to customize your setup for each mission.

[HoonDing]

KotOR

 

Taris is still boring

 

still exciting compared to Peragus tho

[melkathi]

Been playing a lot of Armello multiplayer. Damn some players are slow. Probably could play twice as many games in that time if they didn't take so long.

 

On the Mordheim front my Sisters took another shot at the story missions. This time with a save-scum backup. Good thing too as the mission bugged out and couldn't be completed. A few attempts later I figured out what caused the bug (standing on the spot that becomes the interaction spot when an event is triggered prevents the player from "discovering" it). So I tried again, being careful not to glitch it. Several light wounds and only one out of action later, the girls returned to camp victorious. My Augur, made a Full Recovery. A good day for the Sisters of Sigmar.

While the others recovered from their wounds, part of the warband went scavenging. Bolstered by their success, they went beyond what they were called to do, completing the optional objective, but also doing everything else that could have been an optional objective in other mission types (took out the target of the manhunt, looted the majority of wyrdstone, stole the enemy idol and secured it in our wagon). To top it off, they left not a single enemy standing.

But one of the Sisters had to be carried back. At least the sawbones say that given enough rest she'll pull through without lasting damage.

[Serrano]

I'm getting close to the end of Wasteland 2 I think. I've just reached Damonta and while I'm determined to finish the game I am sort of forcing myself now. Too much combat for my liking at this point but I'm digging the story and am looking forward to seeing what else InXile release. 

[Keyrock]

I'm getting close to the end of Wasteland 2 I think. I've just reached Damonta and while I'm determined to finish the game I am sort of forcing myself now. Too much combat for my liking at this point but I'm digging the story and am looking forward to seeing what else InXile release. 

Damonta?  You're nowhere near the end of the game, you're not even halfway through.

[Serrano]

 

I'm getting close to the end of Wasteland 2 I think. I've just reached Damonta and while I'm determined to finish the game I am sort of forcing myself now. Too much combat for my liking at this point but I'm digging the story and am looking forward to seeing what else InXile release. 

Damonta?  You're nowhere near the end of the game, you're not even halfway through.

 

Oh. Um... Ah. 

[Keyrock]

 

 

I'm getting close to the end of Wasteland 2 I think. I've just reached Damonta and while I'm determined to finish the game I am sort of forcing myself now. Too much combat for my liking at this point but I'm digging the story and am looking forward to seeing what else InXile release. 

Damonta?  You're nowhere near the end of the game, you're not even halfway through.

 

Oh. Um... Ah. 

 

If it helps, I found the second half of the game to be more interesting than the first and there's more stuff to do there that doesn't (necessarily) involve combat.

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, once you hit Los Angeles, the game moves rather quickly.  All the hubs are small and easy to navigate.

 

 

Edit:  I'm giving Elder Scrolls Online another go.  There are some good improvements since I played it a year ago.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Hurlshot

[Lexx]

The second half also had so many situations that made me sad, because of all the wasted potential. There could have been so much more possible. Like the whole base / start location, which feels extremely cheap and empty for what it's supposed to be. I wonder if they changed any of that with the DC, but I somehow doubt this. They always only talked about graphic update and voiced dialogue and never about expanded dialogue and quests... Really, more voiced dialouge is the least I'd needed in this game.

Edited December 28, 2015 by Lexx

[Hurlshort]

ESO has improved some good stuff since I last visited.  It's also remarkably busy.  I like that I've got a lot of company as I tackle quests and anchor points.  I'm only in the early levels right now, but that is nice to see.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Finished Kotor 2. Been years since I played it. DS ending seemed hollow, even though I thought I was neutral.

[apolloooo]

strating gothic II.

 

the scope is ALOT BIGGER compared to the first one, it's overwhelming >__>

[Keyrock]

strating gothic II.

 

the scope is ALOT BIGGER compared to the first one, it's overwhelming >__>

You think Gothic 2 is large in scope, wait until you see Gothic 3 .

 

I'm still playing Satellite Reign.  I'm happy to say that I've encountered greater challenges than at the beginning of the game, though my team is now equipped and armored enough that I can take on an extended firefight against superior numbers and win, so long as I'm fighting low level grunts and not trained soldiers with military-grade hardware.  It's good too because, try as I might, the completely clean stealth run into a guarded facility is a bit of a rarity for me, so I either have to fight my way through or run away a good chunk of the time.  Much of the time I can ghost my way in, but I often get spotted on the way out, though at that point I can usually just make a run for it.  I still think it's too easy to lose pursuit in the game, especially if I only send in one person, namely my infiltrator, rather than the whole team of 4, but I'm having a good bit of fun with the game.

Edited December 30, 2015 by Keyrock

[WDeranged]

Just completed Grim Fandago Remastered, that game is still so bloody special, in spite of the bugs.  Also finished the South Park RPG, the (genuine) highlight of the finale was me rummaging through a gay man's ****, dislodging congealed **** and scat with long lost vibrators