What are you playing right now?

[DreamWayfarer]

Yeah, dual wielding was one of the few things DS2 did better than either 1 and 3, IMO. And the way Hexes scale was easier to understand.

 

DS3 is very cool, but I don't know if I prefer it over the first. Humanities were cooler than embers, IMO, and being able to level up at the bonfire instead of warping to the hub area was nice. And the story in the third didn't leave me as good an impression as the other two games.

 

Never played Demon Souls or Bloodborne.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finished Uncharted 3.  The story was great.  Gameplay was fun.  Not sure where it ranks for me though.  It didn't seem to have the chuckle inducing banter that Uncharted 2 had.

 

I'm going to go back and play some of the chapters to finish off the various achievements (ie. trophies and kills per various guns).

[Majek]

Well the game had to be done in 2 years, because suits decided that they'll release it on 11.11.11 Also some stages were there just to show of the improved engine so the story had to fit them in ( ship graveyard and the cruise ship stand out too much in the story, despite great design ). To top it all off effing Peter Jackson had to start making Hobbit during development of U3 so Graham McTavish ( Cutter and of course Lazarevic in U2) was only available for a short time, because he was cast in Hobbit in a pretty big role. 

[Labadal]

I managed to kill the Unspeakable Deep in Salt and Sanctuary with a mage. The funny thing, though... I'm not going to continue with a mage character. I'm playing one on PS4 with my brother. I'm doing steady progress with a knight on PC. Killed all the enemies that down respawn, so far. I got the two handed sword that I was looking for and I am now one shotting a lot of enemies. Fun times.

 

So long after having played the PS4 version, I can still not believe only two people mostly worked on this.

[marelooke]

 

I just couldn't find anything I wanted to play, so given some of the good feedback, I decided to try Warframe.  It's pretty fun, though I don't imagine I'll get too far in it (I don't think I'll be good enough, or want to spend the time.)

So yeah, Warframe got old really fast.  Still using the exact same starter stuff after 10 hours playing (I'd like to try a sniper rifle with a better secondary weapon) and not even getting to try anything new for quite a while more (unless I want to drop a lot of cash) all while still fighting basically the same enemies is a bit dull.

 

So I broke down and bought The Witcher 3, which is currently installing.

 

 

Things speed up tremendously once you have some experience and gear (mods, especially) under your belt, but the early game is pretty dire I'll agree (I created a new account a while back just to see how the early game was and it was, pardon my French, ****). After the tutorial you're just tossed in without a word of explanation and there's *a lot* the tutorial didn't cover last I played it.

 

One thing I only found out after a while and that I wish I'd known is that playing in group earns you *massively* more XP (and loot), playing solo is cool for challenges or when you don't want others around (eg. when you want to try stealth) but for levelling up stuff or getting resources to build things with you're much better off with a group. On top of that "endless" missions (defense, survival, interception, excavation) tend to earn much better rewards (XP, resources AND credits) than non-endless ones and this increases the longer you keep going, so if you can tag along with a high rank player in a survival mission you can earn some insane XP (and cash, and loot), just stick close so they can revive you when you go down (and just tell them when you can't chip the enemies anymore, generally people in WF are rather nice as long as you communicate, eg. instead of just running to extraction, ask the team to extract, if they disagree they will generally give you a reason, eg. Void Key at 15min in survival).

 

Enemies also get more interesting later on (some that negate Warframe powers, for example), though you're generally fighting just the three main factions (Grineer, Corpus and Infested) in some form (the Corrupted are just reskins basically, but there's the Sentient, some hostile wildlife and the Stalker, of course). The game also starts off fairly difficult but then falls off rather quickly (or rather, you get more control over the difficulty by being able to adjust your loadouts to whatever you're facing rather than having to make do with whatever you find).

 

I'd also like to point out that "starter gear" is rather deceptive. The *weapons* are MK1 (aka starter) variants of "real" weapons (but the MK1 Braton is, or at least, used to be, a fine gun in its own right with rather different stats from the regular version), but the "starter" frames are all but, all of them are seriously powerful (to such a degree that two of them, Mag and Volt, are due for a rework, or a "nerf" as is likely to be the case for Mag). Personally I'd avoid bows and sniper rifles until you get a better grasp on game mechanics, given that you're generally trying to kill lots of enemies slow firing weapons with low ammo pools might not be an ideal choice for the novice... (that said, some people do make use of them to great effect though I'm personally not a big fan of the sniper rifles and use bows situationally)

 

But Warframe, at its core, is about the mods, the mods modify your gear (you'd never have guessed, I'm sure ), finding (and upgrading) the ones that make your chosen gear shine is what much of the game is about. I'll bet that I could finish some rather hard missions with "starter gear" (as in, the Lato and MK1 Braton and Excalibro).

 

That said, being stuck with the same weapons in the beginning was rather annoying, I think my first new weapon was the Cronus (the blueprint for which drops from Captain Vor, who also drops the rather nice "Seer" pistol parts), the regular Braton is also a pretty good all round gun for the early game as is the Boltor (though its innate damage type makes it better fit for fighting Grineer as long as you lack the mods to pull of elemental combinations). This becomes less of an issue later as you have more toys to play with, so waiting for a new gun is not that big of a deal anymore (and the truly impatient can always open their wallets... )

 

In the F2P arena Warframe takes the stance that you pay for time (and/or cosmetics). Generally crafting new weapons takes 12hours (real time), Waframes take three days (with each component taking 12hours, so realistically they take 3 days and 12 hours since you can craft the components concurrently). You can shorten these times by spending real moulah though. The only thing that I'd consider mandatory and is only available through Platinum (premium currency, also obtainable through player trading) are extra inventory slots (but I'm a packrat, so take that for what it is).

 

Anyway, and assuming you haven't entirely discounted the game yet, if you want a hand in the game or just some info feel free to add me* (assuming you're playing on PC) or drop me a message.

 

*don't forget to mention your forum nick if your ingame one is different

Edited May 22, 2016 by marelooke

[GhostofAnakin]

Well the game had to be done in 2 years, because suits decided that they'll release it on 11.11.11 Also some stages were there just to show of the improved engine so the story had to fit them in ( ship graveyard and the cruise ship stand out too much in the story, despite great design ). To top it all off effing Peter Jackson had to start making Hobbit during development of U3 so Graham McTavish ( Cutter and of course Lazarevic in U2) was only available for a short time, because he was cast in Hobbit in a pretty big role. 

 

Yeah, I wasn't quite sure what the point of Ramsises (sp) the pirate was.  He seemed to just be inserted into the story for the purposes of them adding a ship/ship graveyard chapter or two.

 

I enjoyed those sections from a gameplay point of view.  I was just a little lost as they related to the overall story.

[Raithe]

Spent rather too long playing a concentrated bout of Stellaris yesterday. Got to somewhere around the late 2300's I think, have about a third of the map within my borders sort of wrapped around the galactic centre, with about 5 alien races as protectorates under me.  Of course, pretty much everyone else dislikes or outright hates my xenophile, diplomatic, democratic arse.

At the moment I seem to be running through the same stuff again and again just managing resources almost for the sake of managing resources. Possibly slight burn out after most of a day on it.

 

One thing I do dislike some is the diplomacy options. Unless I'm missing something really obvious, the only way to get positive reactions from other species/governments is to share certain ethics and government policies, and establish an embassy. Gifts and treaties have little to no positive bonus to relations. And unless you're of a pacifist ethic, you can only have 3 embassies at any one time.

[Keyrock]

I'm about halfway through episode 3 of The Detail, assuming it's about as long as the first 2, and

 

 

This just got super messy.  Ugh, the probability of unhappy endings is increasing rapidly.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Keyrock

[Vaeliorin]

 

 

I just couldn't find anything I wanted to play, so given some of the good feedback, I decided to try Warframe.  It's pretty fun, though I don't imagine I'll get too far in it (I don't think I'll be good enough, or want to spend the time.)

So yeah, Warframe got old really fast.  Still using the exact same starter stuff after 10 hours playing (I'd like to try a sniper rifle with a better secondary weapon) and not even getting to try anything new for quite a while more (unless I want to drop a lot of cash) all while still fighting basically the same enemies is a bit dull.

 

So I broke down and bought The Witcher 3, which is currently installing.

 

 

Things speed up tremendously once you have some experience and gear (mods, especially) under your belt, but the early game is pretty dire I'll agree (I created a new account a while back just to see how the early game was and it was, pardon my French, ****). After the tutorial you're just tossed in without a word of explanation and there's *a lot* the tutorial didn't cover last I played it.

 

One thing I only found out after a while and that I wish I'd known is that playing in group earns you *massively* more XP (and loot), playing solo is cool for challenges or when you don't want others around (eg. when you want to try stealth) but for levelling up stuff or getting resources to build things with you're much better off with a group. On top of that "endless" missions (defense, survival, interception, excavation) tend to earn much better rewards (XP, resources AND credits) than non-endless ones and this increases the longer you keep going, so if you can tag along with a high rank player in a survival mission you can earn some insane XP (and cash, and loot), just stick close so they can revive you when you go down (and just tell them when you can't chip the enemies anymore, generally people in WF are rather nice as long as you communicate, eg. instead of just running to extraction, ask the team to extract, if they disagree they will generally give you a reason, eg. Void Key at 15min in survival).

 

Enemies also get more interesting later on (some that negate Warframe powers, for example), though you're generally fighting just the three main factions (Grineer, Corpus and Infested) in some form (the Corrupted are just reskins basically, but there's the Sentient, some hostile wildlife and the Stalker, of course). The game also starts off fairly difficult but then falls off rather quickly (or rather, you get more control over the difficulty by being able to adjust your loadouts to whatever you're facing rather than having to make do with whatever you find).

 

I'd also like to point out that "starter gear" is rather deceptive. The *weapons* are MK1 (aka starter) variants of "real" weapons (but the MK1 Braton is, or at least, used to be, a fine gun in its own right with rather different stats from the regular version), but the "starter" frames are all but, all of them are seriously powerful (to such a degree that two of them, Mag and Volt, are due for a rework, or a "nerf" as is likely to be the case for Mag). Personally I'd avoid bows and sniper rifles until you get a better grasp on game mechanics, given that you're generally trying to kill lots of enemies slow firing weapons with low ammo pools might not be an ideal choice for the novice... (that said, some people do make use of them to great effect though I'm personally not a big fan of the sniper rifles and use bows situationally)

 

But Warframe, at its core, is about the mods, the mods modify your gear (you'd never have guessed, I'm sure ), finding (and upgrading) the ones that make your chosen gear shine is what much of the game is about. I'll bet that I could finish some rather hard missions with "starter gear" (as in, the Lato and MK1 Braton and Excalibro).

 

That said, being stuck with the same weapons in the beginning was rather annoying, I think my first new weapon was the Cronus (the blueprint for which drops from Captain Vor, who also drops the rather nice "Seer" pistol parts), the regular Braton is also a pretty good all round gun for the early game as is the Boltor (though its innate damage type makes it better fit for fighting Grineer as long as you lack the mods to pull of elemental combinations). This becomes less of an issue later as you have more toys to play with, so waiting for a new gun is not that big of a deal anymore (and the truly impatient can always open their wallets... )

 

In the F2P arena Warframe takes the stance that you pay for time (and/or cosmetics). Generally crafting new weapons takes 12hours (real time), Waframes take three days (with each component taking 12hours, so realistically they take 3 days and 12 hours since you can craft the components concurrently). You can shorten these times by spending real moulah though. The only thing that I'd consider mandatory and is only available through Platinum (premium currency, also obtainable through player trading) are extra inventory slots (but I'm a packrat, so take that for what it is).

 

Anyway, and assuming you haven't entirely discounted the game yet, if you want a hand in the game or just some info feel free to add me* (assuming you're playing on PC) or drop me a message.

 

*don't forget to mention your forum nick if your ingame one is different

 

While I haven't fully shelved the game (I didn't uninstall it) it's unlikely to ever be anything more than my "I'm bored and feel like shooting things" game.  Being almost wholly a solo player (in my experience the fastest way to get me to stop playing a multi-player game is for me to join a guild) I'll most likely just progress slowly.  Heck, I don't even own a mic, so I imagine groups would hate me anyway.

 

That said, I started with Mag, and I can't imagine why it would be considered overpowered.  The AoE crush ability is pretty darn good, but the shield restore is weak at best, and the bullet magnet ability seems largely pointless.  Granted, I'm always short on energy, so maybe in a group with Trinity they'd seem better.

 

I did try the Apollodorus survival, made it to 20 minutes my first time (though the last 4-5 was just running away from stuff) but only made it to 15 my second try.  I did try it with a group, and I did fairly well until after the 15 minute mark (I only went down once the entire time) when I could empty a full clip into a guy's face and not take him down (I only have a damaged serration mod, that I obviously haven't fused at all.)

 

Anyway, like I said, I bought Witcher 3, and it's currently taken over my gaming life, so thanks for the offer, but I doubt I'll be playing Warframe again any time relatively soon.

[Malcador]

Stuck in Stellaris, AI empire is pushing my borders and the Unbidden are just smoking people near their invasion point despite being surrounded by 5 empires.

[marelooke]

While I haven't fully shelved the game (I didn't uninstall it) it's unlikely to ever be anything more than my "I'm bored and feel like shooting things" game.  Being almost wholly a solo player (in my experience the fastest way to get me to stop playing a multi-player game is for me to join a guild) I'll most likely just progress slowly.  Heck, I don't even own a mic, so I imagine groups would hate me anyway.

Clans are generally fairly loose things and a lot of them are based around the fact that some gear is "clan research". Personally I participate in events (though usually not in clan groups) but other than that I tend to just go my own way (being in a mostly US clan also "helps" in this regard I guess). Also people generally don't care about microphones (some clans might, but pick-up groups made through the group finder don't as a rule), most people just type (in the three years I've been playing I've only encountered like 2 people that babbled into their microphone and that only started happening in the last year, the result is that I turned voice chat off entirely now ).

 

That said, I started with Mag, and I can't imagine why it would be considered overpowered.  The AoE crush ability is pretty darn good, but the shield restore is weak at best, and the bullet magnet ability seems largely pointless.  Granted, I'm always short on energy, so maybe in a group with Trinity they'd seem better.

 

I did try the Apollodorus survival, made it to 20 minutes my first time (though the last 4-5 was just running away from stuff) but only made it to 15 my second try.  I did try it with a group, and I did fairly well until after the 15 minute mark (I only went down once the entire time) when I could empty a full clip into a guy's face and not take him down (I only have a damaged serration mod, that I obviously haven't fused at all.)

 

Anyway, like I said, I bought Witcher 3, and it's currently taken over my gaming life, so thanks for the offer, but I doubt I'll be playing Warframe again any time relatively soon.

 

Mag's power comes from Shield Polarize (her second ability, off the top of my head), since it's a percentage based on enemy shields (and thus scales indefinitely), the problem here is that there's nothing with shields on Mercury... Once you get to Venus (and start facing the Corpus) you'll notice "some" improvement in her effectiveness.

 

That's the thing with Warframe, stuff is only at peak efficiency against the correct enemies and Mag and Grineer is not really a great combination (on Mercury it's perfectly workable, though Shield Polarize will be rather ineffective due to not having any shields to drain as you noticed). Of course, Grineer used to also employ shields on some of their soldiers, but that changed with "Damage 2.0" but then DE forgot to update the starter frames or at least their descriptions (Volt has similar problems, due to being electric, but none of his powers feed off of the enemy so he gets away with it better).

 

Power also becomes less of an issue once you get the appropriate mods, there are those that increase the size of your power pool and those the reduce the draw your powers have on said pool and even some that regenerate your power.

(also those damaged mods are relatively rare as they're only available in the tutorial and some of them are supposedly useful for very specialized builds, they can't be traded though).

 

 

I'm currently playing Homeworld Remastered, made it to mission 4, didn't manage to make the mothership explode fast enough though, so retry it is... I probably need to capture more of those Ion beam ships they sent against me instead of just shooting most of them...

[Humanoid]

Only about 20-odd hours into Stellaris and I'm shelving it for now. I'll revisit it come the final pre-DLC patch (1.2) but it's flat out not working for me. People talk about the Paradox sandbox model, but I call it the toybox model. CK2 is a box of Lego, but by comparison Stellaris is a box of Army Men, it's a lot more limited in what you can do with them.

 

I know, I know, it's not fair to compare them at this point in their release cycle and that it'll be fixed once it's received some DLC, but the simple fact is that right now the game is in a state such that I can't enjoy it. I've maxed out peaceful expansion, pointlessly crushed a couple of neighbours, all my resources are capped with literally nothing to spend them on, and all my science and construction ships are idle.

 

 

So instead I've fired up FTL for the first time and predictably died horribly. Easy ain't easy.

[Mamoulian War]

Yeah, dual wielding was one of the few things DS2 did better than either 1 and 3, IMO. And the way Hexes scale was easier to understand.

DS3 is very cool, but I don't know if I prefer it over the first. Humanities were cooler than embers, IMO, and being able to level up at the bonfire instead of warping to the hub area was nice. And the story in the third didn't leave me as good an impression as the other two games.

Never played Demon Souls or Bloodborne.

For me, the best game was Demon's Souls, I actually prefer idea of closed locations with Nexus over openworldesness of DS1. And I got probably burned out, after playing it for more than 100 hours, so when I got to Capra Demon in DS1 with my Pyromancer, I got literally gangbanged by his dogs, more than 20 times, before I was able to act, that I have just put the game on shelf for a while, and went to other JRPGs and Gran Turismo :-D

 

But if nothing good comes out before PS4K release, I will probably give the game second chance again, because everything else before Capra made me love this game )

 

I have Bloodborne and DS2 for PS4 already, but still no PS4 at home. To big backlog to jump on PS4 wagon up until now. But the PS4K is very tempting :-D

[DreamWayfarer]

For me, the best game was Demon's Souls, I actually prefer idea of closed locations with Nexus over openworldesness of DS1. And I got probably burned out, after playing it for more than 100 hours, so when I got to Capra Demon in DS1 with my Pyromancer, I got literally gangbanged by his dogs, more than 20 times, before I was able to act, that I have just put the game on shelf for a while, and went to other JRPGs and Gran Turismo :-D

Capra Demon... I still don't believe I managed to kill it without cheesing or the drop attack trick.

 

On map types, I don't mind closed locations. What bugs me is having to visit an NPC on the nexus area for just about anything.

 

I also don't really like the way they nerfed poise in DS3, even though I almost always play lighter armored characters anyway.

[Bartimaeus]

Capra Demon at SL1 on NG7 was...not quite the hardest boss I played at SL1 on NG7, but it was surely the most miserable.

[Mamoulian War]

Capra Demon at SL1 on NG7 was...not quite the hardest boss I played at SL1 on NG7, but it was surely the most miserable.

Unfortunatelly I do not have that much patience nowadays :-D

[Tale]

I gave up on Stellaris until some good patches are done.

 

Playing Far Harbor. I think I've gotten tired of Fallout 4 at this point. Playing is feeling more like routine than enjoyment.

[GhostofAnakin]

Trying to replay Uncharted 3 to finish off some of the achievements for the various guns, but man.  I'm having a tough time.  I don't know what it is, but I'm not finding it as fun to replay as I found the previous two games.

[majestic]

So instead I've fired up FTL for the first time and predictably died horribly. Easy ain't easy.

 

No, even on easy you will not be able to beat the games most of the time, but at least it allows you to somewhat consistently reach the final sector. Surviving the final sector is an entirely different matter. In my experience the game difficulties should read:

 

Easy: You need a really good run to win.

Normal: You need an almost perfect run to win.

Hard: You need a perfect run and a lot of luck to win.

 

May RNGesus be on your side.

 

Oh, and yeah. If you turn on the Advanced Edition features the game just becomes even harder to beat.

[GhostofAnakin]

I gave up on Stellaris until some good patches are done.

 

Playing Far Harbor. I think I've gotten tired of Fallout 4 at this point. Playing is feeling more like routine than enjoyment.

 

What level or at what point in the story can you access Far Harbor?

 

It's been since release date since I last played FO4, and I'm not sure if I bothered keeping any saves from my play through (I did some PS4 memory cleaning recently).

[Malcador]

Overwatch came out, so played that. So far I like Pharah the best, sort of like a Tribes player. Teammates in pugs suck horribly, but oh well.

[Tale]

 

I gave up on Stellaris until some good patches are done.

 

Playing Far Harbor. I think I've gotten tired of Fallout 4 at this point. Playing is feeling more like routine than enjoyment.

 

What level or at what point in the story can you access Far Harbor?

 

It's been since release date since I last played FO4, and I'm not sure if I bothered keeping any saves from my play through (I did some PS4 memory cleaning recently).

 

You can access Far Harbor right at the start. But the seed quest requires you to get Nick Valentine.

[Majek]

LOL capra demon, and probably the patched version.

 

And why should dual wielding in ds2 be better than in Ds3? Besides there was no dual wielding until ds2 anyway. Using a basic attack with the weapon in your left hand doesn't not mean dual wielding. Power stance  was mess. Sure you could dual wield anything with 1.5 str requirements but it was really unbalanced. The best combos were so op in PVE that even covenant of champions didn't help, not even upgrading bonfires to increase difficulty in area could stop some combos. While others just looked promising but sucked. Also a sword and a hammer and you'd play with a sword move set.  Ds3 improved on this very much. No extra requirements or damage, only a few weapons to make it interesting and a fluid transition between 1h and dual wielding. 

So again why is dual wielding in ds2 better?

Edited May 24, 2016 by Majek

[Blarghagh]

Overwatch came out, so played that. So far I like Pharah the best, sort of like a Tribes player. Teammates in pugs suck horribly, but oh well.

 

Roadhog is my jam. But yeah, pugs are awful right now. People don't seem to realize yet that if you can't break through their comp, you should probably switch into a hero that can. They just want to stick with their waifu character.

[Malcador]

The Bastion, Rheinhart and Mervy trio is quite strong on defense maps. Will have to play other ones to get some knowledge on what they do.

 

Can't wait for games where everyone plays Widowmaker