What are you playing right now?

[marelooke]

The enemy overlords don't regenerate health between missions and only stick around for a few rounds each mission they appear in before running off through a portal. You're meant to grind them down over the campaign for what it's worth although I can't decide whether they make the game better or worse. 

 

That was actually the second time I encountered him, the first time Mr Bradford practically carried the team...

 

And when I said I only had rookie gear I really meant it My "toughest" unit at the time got killed by two "strangles" by the king and I didn't even have magnetic weapons research done... By restarting the mission (I actually got another mission this time, he still showed up though), preparing better and then savescumming until enough of my troops actually hit him before he could kill anyone I managed to get out relatively unscathed (most of that squad was out for a few weeks after though). But I didn't manage to kill him that time...

 

I mean, he was "doable" in that situation, assuming perfect rolls on everything...

 

The last time he showed up (and when I killed him) was when I had to defend the ship during one of those Dark Events, the situation was theoretically worse but I had finished the magnetic weapons research now and it made such a huuuuuge difference which is why I feel that this mission shouldn't really be started before completing that research, unless you're a masochist, I guess But an advance warning of what one's getting into would've certainly been nice...

[Keyrock]

I got a new truck in American Truck Simulator, a Kenworth W900, and I gave the Peterbilt 579 that was my first truck to a driver I hired.  I had to take out some big loans to be able to afford the truck as well as to upgrade my garage, but, from my ETS2 experience, I know that it's most efficient to take out a bunch of loans early on and expand your fleet to several garages and a bunch of drivers.  The hired drivers won't earn much to start, but once they level up they will become a steady source of income to add to my own earnings, so it's in my best interest to reach that point as early as possible.  Eventually the money constantly rolling in will easily pay back the loans.  The money will work itself out over time, I'm mostly concerned about leveling up my driver so that I can get the good components and bling for my trucks.

[Tale]

I got about two non-tutorial missions into XCOM 2 and I'm less than enthusiastic about continuing. The timers are probably the worst bit, but having most of the enemies be humans (with funny faces) doesn't do it any favors either. And just the all around atmosphere of the game.

 

Edit: And three of my guys just got captured because they were poisoned and that seems to make you run slower. So they couldn't make the evac point in time. Fantastic.

[GhostofAnakin]

Finally finished Uncharted 4.

 

Fantastic visuals, and I liked that it seemed to have less gun combat and more focus on climbing/adventuring.  A couple of the later chapters seemed to drag a bit, but other than that the story was great.  The voice actors did a bang-up job.

 

A nice send off for the characters.

 

Better than UC3, on par with UC1 and UC2.

[Katphood]

Finished Gone Home. Amusing little game but there is no way I would pay 20 bucks for a game that can be completed in one sitting.

Edited June 20, 2016 by Katphood

[marelooke]

I got about two non-tutorial missions into XCOM 2 and I'm less than enthusiastic about continuing. The timers are probably the worst bit, but having most of the enemies be humans (with funny faces) doesn't do it any favors either. And just the all around atmosphere of the game.

 

Edit: And three of my guys just got captured because they were poisoned and that seems to make you run slower. So they couldn't make the evac point in time. Fantastic.

 

I felt the same way to be honest, but once you push past those initial missions it seems things become more reasonable, assuming you don't keep on being stuck with rookies because they always die, but I'm not playing ironman so... (and you don't accidentally activate that DLC and end up fighting overpowered cheating snakes with rookie gear)

 

That said I don't particularly enjoy the amount of timers. Especially that Avatar timer (which is rather badly explained in the game, like most mechanics, really. Like, I still have no clue how they could possibly know how long I have nor do I have a clue as to what I can do about it. For all I know I already waited too long and my game's already over but I just don't know it)

Edited June 20, 2016 by marelooke

[apolloooo]

starting black mirror 1, credits to our generous user, shady sands who gifted me the whole trilogy

[Keldaur]

I love the complaints about XCOM 2 when it is just merely "i didn't know how the  game worked, and i don't want to learn about it, so i am quitting." Which is fine, but people go amazingly elastic to spin it.

 

I am playing total warhammer right now, not very deep, but for a wargamer junkie it's like methadone now that warhammer world is dead for good.

[Tale]

 

I got about two non-tutorial missions into XCOM 2 and I'm less than enthusiastic about continuing. The timers are probably the worst bit, but having most of the enemies be humans (with funny faces) doesn't do it any favors either. And just the all around atmosphere of the game.

 

Edit: And three of my guys just got captured because they were poisoned and that seems to make you run slower. So they couldn't make the evac point in time. Fantastic.

 

I felt the same way to be honest, but once you push past those initial missions it seems things become more reasonable, assuming you don't keep on being stuck with rookies because they always die, but I'm not playing ironman so... (and you don't accidentally activate that DLC and end up fighting overpowered cheating snakes with rookie gear)

 

That said I don't particularly enjoy the amount of timers. Especially that Avatar timer (which is rather badly explained in the game, like most mechanics, really. Like, I still have no clue how they could possibly know how long I have nor do I have a clue as to what I can do about it. For all I know I already waited too long and my game's already over but I just don't know it)

 

The three guys I lost to a timer weren't rookies. I don't know if I'll ever stop being bitter over that loss.

 

I've had two missions so far that didn't have timers and I really liked them. So the only way I see myself continuing is if I mod the timers away. But, bitter over losing THREE SERGEANTS BECAUSE OF A TIMER, is not likely to be something I'll do immediately.

 

Strikes me as a bit unfair that I'll get a mission with such a tight timer and have so many stun lancers and Vipers on the same map. The stun lancer knocked one of my guys unconcious, and that means I effectively lost two guys as one of my others dedicated themselves to carrying her. Note that these are the only two who evacced.

 

Because my lead two characters got poisoned, and my soldier backing them up ended up walking through the poison cloud even though I picked the one movement that said he wouldn't. One of those two leads paniced and did the stupid thing of jumping all the way to the ground. I was happy to leave her, but then this is when I found the other two had their movement practically halved and got stuck behind.

 

It seems pretty uncool to have a mission with no concealment, enemies that can knock you unconcious on one hit, other enemies that debuff movement, and still have a timer.

[Humanoid]

If they were left behind but not dead, they actually come back later as VIPs to rescue in certain missions (instead of rescuing a generic scientist or engineer for example). Ultimately though, the winning strategy in XCOM 2 is just explosives. All of the explosives. They have been nerfed somewhat since I played my one and only XCOM 2 campaign admittedly, but still can't beat that 100% reliability. It still baffles me how they possibly thought it was a good change to change the range bonuses so that point blank rookie shots only gain 20% accuracy for a poor 85% hit chance, as opposed to the 100% chance in the first game. The risk/reward planning out actual gunfire pales in comparison to the "solve" button that is explosives (and later, psionics).

 

I don't think XCOM 2 is a terrible game, but it's telling that I have in excess of 500 hours playing the various flavours of the previous game (at least 300 of those hours in a single Long War campaign, granted), where I've only played the single 40-hour campaign of the sequel. I bought the Deluxe Edition, and so have access to all the released DLC, but still I have no desire to go back to the game anytime soon.

 

---

 

As to what I've been playing, finally polished off the base campaign in The Witcher 3. The wrap-up was satisfactory, though the boss fights were somewhat too gimmicky for my tastes, especially the first two of them, who abuse their teleport abilities in a manner that can be described as nothing else but tedious. Shame about there being no post-ending world update, so it's a little weird being dropped back into the world with the status quo continuing to hold. Wouldn't matter much under normal circumstances, but I've got new content to tackle, speaking of which....

 

And so Hearts of Stone begins. To be honest, I wasn't too impressed at the first hour or so, the nature of which felt pretty railroady - not in a terrible way, but moreso than usual. I'll admit it's charmed me since then though, an impression no doubt helped by how little the new content depends on combat to pad it out. Other RPGs condition the player to expect DLC to contain new monsters to kill, more dungeons to clear, more things to craft. I don't care for any of that, and from what I've seen so far, this expansion, even if fully stripped of those checkboxes, would still fulfil its promise with genuine content. With no open world filler to contend with, this is the core that lies within the game that makes me love it.

 

...but to be honest, all it needed to include to get me was Shani.

[Malcador]

Replaying DFC in one shot. Forgot a lot in book 3 and 4 so maybe that will make 5 more enjoyable. Or not.

 

Kind of a shame Longest Journey Home is not going to happen. Was supposed to be April's story between TLJ and Dreamfall

[Tale]

I hear it was supposed to also be some of her story for after Dreamfall, too. Somehow.

 

Wasn't there a whole thing about how April was supposed to reunite Stark and Arcadia or am I misremembering that?

[Malcador]

I think she was to do that - the War of the Balance ends with that? . Zoe was to save April as well but I am unsure of how she did it.

 

I suppose I am not understanding things fully.

[Nonek]

I don't believe that I have uddenly gained in IQ but the riddle boxes in Krondor are being solved with consumate ease, I must just be in the right mindset or upon the same wavelength as the designers. I do like this break from standard gameplay and the chance to flex ones mental muscles, however minutely.

[Tale]

My understanding, and it's left up in the air, so I'm not 100%, is

 

Saga is April reincarnated. So Zoe somehow made it so April can be reincarnated, though it's never hinted how. But then there's a lot to the War of the Balance we never get to see, like all that stuff Saga supposedly does in Azadir.

 

 

It just sounds like a bunch of stuff they really should have been doing instead of 3/4th of what was going on in Chapters.

[HoonDing]

In one of the first chapters you see Saga is born as soon as April dies, no?

[Tale]

You never see her birth, you just see her as a baby running around. And the later interludes kind of make the timeline on that confusing.

 

In hindsight, I'm guessing the ghost lady is the white dragon, which would further the connection if true.

[Malcador]

Saga at the end does hint at it strongly.

[Tale]

She even says something about how she mixes up April's life with her own if you examine the portrait at the end.

[Vaeliorin]

Back to more Witcher 3.  I have to say, this is probably the most frustratingly inconsistent good game I've ever played.  So many of the quest lines are brilliant, to the point where I think some of the writing is comparable to PS:T.  Then there's all these other things (mostly one off quests and most of the points of interest) that are just pointless and make me wonder if the game even had someone with editorial control.  For example, there was a woman who showed up after I cleared an occupied outpost whose husband was missing.  I traveled <200 meters, killed some wild dogs, told her her husband was dead, end of quest.  I get that on some level it's supposed to develop the world, but I'm already well aware that it's a crapsack world, so...why?  She even went over to his body (after Geralt warned her it might be dangerous), so I decided to escort her (just because, there was no quest or anything, I just wanted to see what would happen.)  She just walked over to the area where his body was and stopped.  If they were going to make her walk over there, she could at least have done...something other than just stand there (cry, be torn about by wolves...something.)

 

Also...when I kill something 5 levels above me that's guarding a "guarded treasure" point of interest...the treasure should be something worthwhile, not just random crafting mats that I already have tons of and some gear that's worse than what I have.  Also, monsters 5 levels above me should be harder than 5 or 6 random dudes 10 levels below me (who are admittedly, only hard when they surround me and I get careless and they get to stagger-lock me for a while.)

 

I know that open world was one of the big selling points, but I honestly think that it was probably a mistake.  I'm pretty sure almost everything bad I have to say about the game is a result of them making it open world.  There are good things about the open world (I like riding Roach around, I'll admit) but I think the bad probably outweighs the good.

[Humanoid]

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the game was good in spite of the open world design, but it sure isn't good *because* of the open world either. Maybe at higher difficulties the problems come more into focus, but playing at default difficulty I find the common complaints to have no real bearing on my experience with the game.

 

Things like gear being level locked, having to hunt down schematics/materials for the best gear, etc - all that I was able to ignore on default difficulty, and I certainly didn't feel I was suffering by wearing the same pants for 15+ levels, not putting runes into anything, never using any alchemy things except healing potions, etc. At no point did I go exploring for the hell of it either.

[Vaeliorin]

See, the common complaints you mention don't bother me, either.  However, I'm a completionist, so I can't just leave all those points of interest uninvestigated, and so many of them are basically nothing, or at least nothing interesting.  I feel the game would be much tighter, and better, if they'd had it be more focused.

 

Also, I'd cut down from 49 or so undiscovered points of interest to 14, hit one of the two notice boards I hadn't hit yet (in far NE Velen) and I'm back up over 40.  Argh!

[Heijoushin]

Waiting for Mighty Number 9 that's supposed to release today. So far, the reviews haven't been stellar. But I've backed the thing, so I'm going to give it a chance of course. 

[Fenixp]

I know that open world was one of the big selling points, but I honestly think that it was probably a mistake.  I'm pretty sure almost everything bad I have to say about the game is a result of them making it open world.  There are good things about the open world (I like riding Roach around, I'll admit) but I think the bad probably outweighs the good.

There's White Orchard, there's Toussaint and then there's the eastern bit of Novigrad map added by Hearts of Stone. Stellar examples of how to design your open world, all of them. They contain these notes and pieces of information which connect even random question marks together into a bigger narrative, adding depth and intrigue to the game's world. Encounters are clearly thought trough and added for a reason most of the time. While they still lack dynamic events which would make riding trough the same spot twice worthwhile, which is one of the cornerstones of good open world design, they're still brilliant.

 

And then there's Velen, Novigrad and, especially, Skellige which are all far too big for their own good and end up being an inconsistent mess of seemingly random encounters. How monster levels are set up doesn't make sense at the best of times, you said yourself that finding good loot doesn't happen since it's levelled (as opposed to monsters) and even if you do happen to find something worthwhile, it's higher level than you and you can't use it for whatever reason. And the progression mechanics are just crap.

 

... There will come a time when I'll stop complaining about Witcher 3. This is not that time :-P

Edited June 21, 2016 by Fenixp

[marelooke]

I can't help but wonder if those "older" areas are a result of feeling like they needed to compete with the marketing buzz around DA:I...

 

Anyway, got a landed UFO to take care off