What are you playing right now

[Drowsy Emperor]

The backlog:

Final Fantasy VI 

Final Fantasy IX 

Guilty Gear Xrd Sign 

Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number

Kentucky Route Zero

Life is Strange

Technobabylon

Zelda A Link Between Worlds

Zelda Ocarina of Time

 

Currently playing:

Zelda ALTTP

New Super Mario Bros 3DS

Pullblox (Pushmo) 

Edited September 2, 2016 by Drowsy Emperor

[daveyd]

Currently playing Tahira: Echoes of the Astral Empire

 

Pretty good turn-based tactics game.

[Tale]

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

[Gfted1]

Titan Quest. Not bad. Being from the same team that created Grim Dawn you can really see the similarities.

[GhostofAnakin]

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

 

My issue with Mankind Divided's story is it seemed like it should have had "to be continued" right at the end.

 

I know the previous game left some loose ends, but it seemed like the game also ended properly.  This one seemed like it had another half of a story to go.

 

Hopefully they don't take another 5 years to develop the next one, if they're going to leave it on such a cliffhanger.

[Tale]

I don't even feel it should have had a to be continued. I feel it should have had a completely different plot. It basically ends in the same place it began aside from one or two very simple threads left loose.

 

Like it could have been great if this game saw the formation of UNATCO and introduction of prototype nano-augs. With Paul Denton set to play a role in the next game. That would deserve a to be continued and really move the plot along.

[Lexx]

I got Prague at night now in DX:MD and it looks awesome. They should have started with that- would have drawn me into the game much faster, I think.

[Raithe]

It did have Samizdat become Silhouette.. But yes, nothing in universe seems to really change because of the actions carried out in the game.

[Drowsy Emperor]

Recently I beat Shovel Knight. Its a bit on the easy side but it has a lot of charm and the sort of brilliance and inventiveness platform games used to have back in the day. Not all of its in game items are useful, and not all levels express the same degree of creativity but its still apparent that the game was a labor of love. These days I barely bother to beat most games, so if I stick with it to the end, it must have been very good indeed.

 

The New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the 3DS I'm playing now is a good point of comparison. Its pleasing to look at, polished to play, most of the levels are well designed - endearing at points, but its definitely more of a "product" and a case of "been there, done that" - even though I haven't played a Mario game in almost twenty years. 

Speaking of easy difficulty - I'm nearing the end of the game and I have 113 lives... Come on Nintendo, have a little faith in kids today, I'm sure they aren't that incompetent.

 

The prime suspect for the easy difficulty is the liberal handouts of powerups in every course. The fire and the racoon suit make it easy to breeze through levels, avoiding what would otherwise be rather demanding platforming. But being able to clear all enemies on the screen or completely control air movement utterly defeats the purpose of levels where either enemies or jumps predominate as obstacles. Coins are also doled out in obscene amounts so when these two factors are taken together most courses are easily completed with a surplus life gain.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Drowsy Emperor

[GhostofAnakin]

I don't even feel it should have had a to be continued. I feel it should have had a completely different plot. It basically ends in the same place it began aside from one or two very simple threads left loose.

 

Like it could have been great if this game saw the formation of UNATCO and introduction of prototype nano-augs. With Paul Denton set to play a role in the next game. That would deserve a to be continued and really move the plot along.

 

I'm sketchy on the details of the "original" Deus Ex, so I'm not entirely sure what needs to be setup or what needs to be introduced.

 

Speaking just from a game-by-game perspective, I thought HR ended how a game should end.  That story wrapped up, with most of the main mysteries brought up in that game solved, with only the over-reaching mystery surrounding the Illuminati still there.  MD, on the other hand, seemed to have a lot more questions unanswered.

 

To me, it felt as though when the credits rolled, there should have been another half of a game to go.  I didn't get that sense with HR.  When those credits rolled, it felt like the game was done.

[Agiel]

It did have Samizdat become Silhouette.. But yes, nothing in universe seems to really change because of the actions carried out in the game.

 

Well they still have 20 years to go until Deus Ex. Eidos Montreal would probably like to wrap up the Jensen arc in a trilogy but there can easily be another trilogy arc between that and Deus Ex.

 

Actually to be honest even if the main plot isn't very good I'd prefer they took it into a different continuity since I've always considered the story of the original Deus Ex to be jumbled, schizophrenic, pseudo-intellectual mess to begin with and in light of how much of a triumph Human Revolution was (at least in my eyes) I dread the inevitable point at which Montreal's effort gets dragged down by the baggage of the original game's plot.

[Nepenthe]

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

The DLC seems to take place after the main game. Going to be interesting to see what they do there, if they pull some of the ties together. Edited September 2, 2016 by Nepenthe

[marelooke]

Been years since world of warcrack. Finished the Lich King before they nerfed him.

 

Still playing Mordheim. Don't think I've yelled at the computer screen with so much nerd rage. The RNG is relentless and the game has no save, so if you get ****ed, you just hope for a reach around. I've still only lost one battle, but I've had to fire about ten people for permanent injuries.

 

10? that's unlucky

 

I avoid missions where I can't pick my starting locations like the plague. Since I started doing that after I restarted my sisters warband very early I haven't lost a single game (though I've been a total wuss and have avoided starting Chapter II so far).

 

I've so far only had to fire like 3 people in my Sisters warband (the blow to the head where they stand around doing nothing half the time is one that I've fired 2 for that I remember. I also fired an Augur I wanted to turn into a runner but she lost a leg and so became kinda useless for the purpose...). But I generally avoid firing people even if they might now no longer perform optimally, as can be seen by my list of injuries so far:

 - my main Matriarch has a Mysterious Ailment (-10 to base Wound) and a Maimed Hand (melee/ranged hit chance -10%)

 - Sister Superior (tank) lost a leg

 - Novice (mace + shield) has Megalomania (will no longer flee)

 - Novice (mace + shield) lost an eye (-10% ranged/melee hit and +10% perception and +10 initiative)

 - Sister (single mace, dodge build) chest wound (-1 toughness and maximum toughness)

 - Sister (mace + flail) internal wound (-1 offense point), this is probably the only one that really bothers me on occasion

 - Smuggler, broken jaw (-1 leadership and max leadership, -5% spellcasting chance)

All these are pretty much my "original" team (barring the sister with a chest wound and the smuggler), the rest has no (lasting) injuries. Looking through my warband history I also had one death (think I posted a screenshot about that one in the screenshot thread)

 

I think I need to start taking more risks, though since my Warband hit lvl10 I've been eating more KOs so guess it's only a matter of time before I end up with some major injuries...

 

My other Warbands haven't fared quite as well though, far from it...

Edited September 2, 2016 by marelooke

[SadExchange]

I have leveled my Titan up to 33 so far in Destiny and still enjoying my time with it.  Haven't had too much of a hard time going solo on most missions.  Haven't dipped into PvP , but am meaning to and haven't found any need to grind yet, which has felt nice.

 

Started a new playthrough of Dishonored in hopes of finishing it up before the second one releases.  I believe I've been through half of the game so far, however at the time, real life kicked in and told me to stop gaming for a bit, so I've started a new playthrough due to not remembering much details of the story at the time.

 

Meaning to load up Titan Quest and seeing the differences.  Other than that, finally got out of Cyseal with my co-op partner on Divinity Original Sin and while I really enjoy the quests and talking to everyone in solo play, in co-op, it can be a little long getting everything set to make the trek out, however playing co-op with this game really makes me look forward to Divinity 2!

[Raithe]

 

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

The DLC seems to take place after the main game. Going to be interesting to see what they do there, if they pull some of the ties together.

 

 

So let me guess, the DLC is going to be the continuation of the Mystery Augs sidequest you can spend an hour or three working in the main game that never actually provides solid answers? Or do you think that's all wrapped up in Jensen actually being a Manchurian candidate set into motion to take out Janus and that's what the next game will be about?

[Nepenthe]

 

 

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

 

The DLC seems to take place after the main game. Going to be interesting to see what they do there, if they pull some of the ties together.

So let me guess, the DLC is going to be the continuation of the Mystery Augs sidequest you can spend an hour or three working in the main game that never actually provides solid answers? Or do you think that's all wrapped up in Jensen actually being a Manchurian candidate set into motion to take out Janus and that's what the next game will be about?

I dunno. The first one that's out apparently deals with who's the, ahem, bomber at a fairly early event in the game. Haven't looked at the others apart from the fact that the story dlc is all supposed to take place after the main game...

 

I read the book connecting the two games (I'm in the Alps and have had a lot of down time this week), and that makes me think that you might be on the money for tye mystery augs, but off target on the manchurian candidate.

 

Oh, it's also suggested that Janus is actually one of the Illuminati. I wonder if it's how Page takes over...

Edited September 2, 2016 by Nepenthe

[quidproquo]

10? that's unlucky

 

I avoid missions where I can't pick my starting locations like the plague. Since I started doing that after I restarted my sisters warband very early I haven't lost a single game (though I've been a total wuss and have avoided starting Chapter II so far).

The only battle I've lost so far is the skaven campaign mission. I had both my casters get taken out with wrath in early spell casting, which is rare. Seems to happen to me a bit more often in campaign maps. Even on that skaven map, I was on the last bell. When I went through again it was a breeze. I actually tend not to have people get knocked out, let alone wounded, but I ditch anyone with a wound. Yeah, it's a trade off because I need to build up people, but I can't abide most wounds, although I will temporarily keep people on with relatively minor wounds such as maimed for a while as I build up more talent. Skull fractures, however, go immediately. On the other hand, typically being flush with cash, I don't have any problems getting hired swords at a higher level, so I can be choosy.

 

I'm willing to take my chances on maps where I can't always choose my starting position. I try my best to have a choice, but I'll take what I can get, including up to brutal. I've only done one deadly map, and that sucks. I want maps where I'm certain I won't have folks knocked out and thus risk permanent injury. If I were brave enough, I would do skirmishes, because a human opponent would dramatically increase the difficulty, but I don't have tons of time and I like being able to leave the game to do other stuff for a while. One of the reasons I stopped raiding in (or even playing) WoW is because of the time sink aspect of it.

 

Still, it's a great game, isn't it? I really wish I had time to sit down with someone and play the table top game again, but it's just too much effort.

 

Also, wish me luck. I'm on the 4th mission of act 2 right now. I think this might be the last one, but I don't know.

Edited September 2, 2016 by quidproquo

[Lexx]

A part of me thinks that in DX:MD, the hacking game is the actual game and everything around it is just filler. Coz I am basically hacking something every 2 minutes. Now that I think back, HR had the same issue... It's way too much hacking, imo.

 

I don't remember if it was the same in the original game.

[ManifestedISO]

 

the story of the original Deus Ex to be jumbled, schizophrenic, pseudo-intellectual mess 

 

MGSV: world's most jumbled, schizophrenic, pseudo-intellectual mess of a story featuring an augmented smoking super soldier. 

[quidproquo]

Right now, down one heroic sister in mission IV act II. Put down the ogre (bullocks!) and the impressive (breeze!) and now they're starting to get reinforcements. Sad, wrath chances completely knacker or even kill my casters. Confident, but must put the chicks under the wing to heal. The main boss doesn't do anything yet, so if I can consolidate I think it might not be so bad. That ogre did over 250 damage in one turn and I risk losing people to wrath by healing. Can do it!

[melkathi]

You really need to build a character for casting if you want to use magic in Mordheim. My Purifier hurls spells as if there was no tomorrow. But she has a Sigmarite Warhammer to reduce wrath chance and mastered the skill for it as well. Ideally I should have her with a helmet that reduces it further, but I gave her an extended spell range enchantment instead.

You do want to get it to a point though where your first spell per turn is almost "free". A wrath chance of 5% is a good gamble.

 

Though I haven't played my sisters lately. Been concentrating on my Witch Hunters.

 

Act II Mission IV is a pain, but since you beat the Aluress mission you'll be fine. Merga will only join the fight after you (de)activate all the obelisks. So you can try to move part of your warband into position for that. The reinforcements are a real pain.

 

edit: also, people are discussing Mordheim and I am not told? What gives?

Edited September 3, 2016 by melkathi

[Humanoid]

A part of me thinks that in DX:MD, the hacking game is the actual game and everything around it is just filler. Coz I am basically hacking something every 2 minutes. Now that I think back, HR had the same issue... It's way too much hacking, imo.

 

I don't remember if it was the same in the original game.

 

Yeah, I really burned out on the hacking minigame in HR, and now it's functionally the same, but presented even worse with less clarity and usability. This minigame in general is one of those things that look okay on paper as a designer, until you realise the player is going to be faced with hundreds of repetitions of the exact same thing. Minigames aren't going away anytime soon, but the best implementations typically take about half the time, and usually there's a second completely different minigame to break it up a little.

 

Incidentally I also think the animations in the game have somehow gotten even twitchier and generally stilted, which is quite the accomplishment given how hopped up on caffeine everyone in the previous game looked. Hmm.

 

And because complaints come in threes, why is Jensen's toilet seat a square? Is it a special design for augmented butts?

[Flouride]

Just finished up Shadow of Mordor which got a lot repeative in the end, making me skip the DLC content completely. Had they released that content into the main game it would have worked better for me, but seperately after the full game? Uh, no thanks... I think I've killed enough orcs for some time.

Now playing Overwatch again. Season 2 started and the game still has it's hook on me. Quick play got really boring between the seasons but the competive mode is pretty awesome... unless you run into complete idiots and attack Hanzos who just won't change from their favourite character. In such rounds you will only lose your mother*****ing nerves and it makes you hate the humankind

[Gorgon]

Finished it, it was OK.

 

Yes there was too much hacking and they phoned in the dialouge. A maximum of four options because there are four buttons on the controller keypad, same reason you can only have 4 augs active at the same time. Fallout 4 style, albeit a bit less dumb.

 

One aug is litterally a cheat sheet that allows you to pick the more desireable outcome. As in Fallout 4 a huge disconnect between what you want to say and what you are allowed to. One particularly jarring example was one of the major NPCs complaining that you had killed his men while breaching his lair, and I had been extremely careful not to. After that I stopped caring about lethal force and killed guards left and right, the game didn't seem to care either way. No one commenting on Jensen's trail of bodies.

 

The gunplay was good, sneaking around inbetween short hectic engagements felt good. Exploration was good, the game didn't hold your hand too much or place clues that were too obvious.

 

Loved the last bit of Golem city, died a bunch of times in the escape but I kept finding new approaches. 

 

NPCs weren't that engaging, again probably the weak dialouge is to blame.  

[Humanoid]

Started a game of CK2 as a single county count in East Francia. A number of years later made Duke of Austria for no reason. A couple of decades later elected Holy Roman Emperor for no reason. End of game.

 

One of those weird things where things line up to end in a nonsensical outcome. In the just-under-30 years gametime I had, I started no wars, did not expand past my single county, was nowhere near Austria to justify being made Duke, and had no specific allies to further my non-existent political goals.