What games have you been playing lately?

Turtwig

Zillah wrote: »

I do love FTL, but their insistence on no save system annoyed me. I got to the point where I just wanted to see what the ending was like and then I was done, so I found where the save is located and made my own copy before the game closed down.

Players should have the freedom to enjoy games as they wish. After all, they bought the thing. Sure by all means have a default mode that the designers feel is the way their game should be played but have it optional. Sometimes there's more fun ways to play a game than the designers intended. Moreover, what the player regards as having a good time is what it's all about and that's actually a very subjective thing.

If FTL has one flaw it's the final boss sequence. In so far as I've been able to determine there's only a few effective strategies against it. Which means that it's not a good idea to play the entire FTL adventure with the intention of building certain types of shipsl. A shame really, because most of the fun in FTL comes with experimentation that actually lends more excitement to the nature of the random encounters. Unfortunately, the endgame consistency ensures that certain type of ships will be more advantageous than others. Considering how tough the final confrontation is that's a huge oversight imo. I often feel the game would be better without a final boss -or if this boss's attributes were randomised. FTL is about the journey more than anything else. In many way the inability to save, undo errors, the random elements of luck and doing your best to adapt to the situations presented make it a truly exceptional experience. Every journey to the endgame is different and so far I've enjoyed the game more the occasions that my journeys ended in failure than the times I've quashed the rebellion. "Try again. Fail again. Fail Better."
That's FTL to me.

Glebee

Just finished up with Assassins Creed: Black Flag and I must say I really enjoyed it once it got going. Now back to The Witcher 3, i have a bit to replay until I get back to the save point I lost..

Links234

Finished up the main story in MGSV. I sincerely hope there's some DLC with some more story content coming...

Zillah

Turtwig wrote: »

Players should have the freedom to enjoy games as they wish. After all, they bought the thing. Sure by all means have a default mode that the designers feel is the way their game should be played but have it optional. Sometimes there's more fun ways to play a game than the designers intended. Moreover, what the player regards as having a good time is what it's all about and that's actually a very subjective thing.

If FTL has one flaw it's the final boss sequence. In so far as I've been able to determine there's only a few effective strategies against it. Which means that it's not a good idea to play the entire FTL adventure with the intention of building certain types of shipsl. A shame really, because most of the fun in FTL comes with experimentation that actually lends more excitement to the nature of the random encounters. Unfortunately, the endgame consistency ensures that certain type of ships will be more advantageous than others. Considering how tough the final confrontation is that's a huge oversight imo. I often feel the game would be better without a final boss -or if this boss's attributes were randomised. FTL is about the journey more than anything else. In many way the inability to save, undo errors, the random elements of luck and doing your best to adapt to the situations presented make it a truly exceptional experience. Every journey to the endgame is different and so far I've enjoyed the game more the occasions that my journeys ended in failure than the times I've quashed the rebellion. "Try again. Fail again. Fail Better."
That's FTL to me.

What I found especially aggravating is that I played a game with a bunch of biobeams (I think that's what they're called) to wipe out the crew, and when I did it

with the final boss, an AI failsafe takes over the ship and is more powerful than the mothership would ever have been otherwise. Pretty sure it repaired a bunch of damage or something especially egregious like that.

. Which is basically a massive, unnecessary slap in the face for the player.

Robert ninja

Links234 wrote: »

Finished up the main story in MGSV. I sincerely hope there's some DLC with some more story content coming...

They officially confirmed that there's no story related DLC.

I've been playing Legend of Grimrock still. Comfy game.

Turtwig

Zillah wrote: »

What I found especially aggravating is that I played a game with a bunch of biobeams (I think that's what they're called) to wipe out the crew, and when I did it

with the final boss, an AI failsafe takes over the ship and is more powerful than the mothership would ever have been otherwise. Pretty sure it repaired a bunch of damage or something especially egregious like that.

. Which is basically a massive, unnecessary slap in the face for the player.

I agree, there's entire strategies that become redundant against the final boss. But I think that's brilliant. Why should every game have such neat balances? Part of the FTL experience is making plans and then watching on in horror as those plans go utterly astray due to unforeseen circumstances. Stuff like that happened in real wars all the time. It's not too far fetched to believe if you were a ship captain that something like that could happen to you. It makes the experience more immersive imo. I remember being

pissed that my exhaustive efforts to build a Mantis away team were rendered completely inert. That said, you can still do damage. It's a much easier fight without the crew. Kind of parallels with those automated scout ships you meet. They can repair their systems too somehow but they're much slower than a crew to do it.

The drawback I have with the boss is that you know exactly what you're going to face. I'd love it if sometimes there wasn't even a boss. Or there were several variants.

Links234

Robert ninja wrote: »

They officially confirmed that there's no story related DLC.

Links234

Now that I'm finished with the main story of MGSV, I've only been doing a few side OPs, so haven't been giving that as much time. Booted up The Red Solstice tonight, which I bought last week but was still worried that I wouldn't get around to playing it any time soon and it'd just be added to the backlog, but I've gone and proved myself wrong there. Just cleared the first mission, and it's fun so far. I do love the sci-fi setting and the tactical top-down squad based gameplay, looking forward to getting to grips with it, and the multiplayer is meant to be great.

I was also seriously tickled that the marine you control in the singleplayer campaign is named Tyler Hunt (a reference to characters Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt from the show Life on Mars) and it's set on mars.

ShadowHearth

Eve online... God, it happened. I was afraid that it will be the only game I will be playing and ignore all other games. Finally left High sec, joined Low sec Faction warfare corporation and pretty much all my free time outside of misses and work goes in to eve.

Resident evil Revalations 2 - Playing it in bed, before I pass out. Raid mode is still addictive and I cant believe I am playing that much of it. Usually games only catch my attention for 2 hours and then I get bored and move on to something else. Unless thats EVE...

Links234

I accidentally clicked on Mark of the Ninja, which I haven't touched since I got it last Christmas (oops!), so I've been playing that for a bit today, along with MGSV. I guess it's stealthy action all round.

Must get back on The Red Solstice though

pablomakaveli

Installed Brutal Legend to keep me occupied till the new DLC for Witcher 3 is released. Its surprisingly enjoyable though im finding the controls a bit fiddly.

Links234

Ah, my girlfriend LOVES Brutal Legend, she kept trying to get me to get it but I was all like nah

Turtwig

FTL Is kicking my arse at the moment. Struggling very badly with the

Zolton Adjudicator

ship. It has so many weakness, and thus far I'm not identifying, or living long enough to find, a strategy that takes advantages of the ships' er uniqueness. The layout is awful if you have boarders. The default weapons are awful. As there's only one pathway by which oxygen can be vented dealing with fires often requires making critical systems rooms vacuums. Funny thing is I'd say if I could survive the early game this might actually be a rather powerful ship against the final boss with so many zolton for extra power.

Manach

Defence Grid 2 on hard mode. And when it says hard, they mean insanely hard. Should finish the game by Christmas, not saying which one.

Links234

Been giving The Red Solstice a good whirl for the past hour, and after the first lackluster tutorial mission, the second mission was a lot more fun. The whole thing plays at first like one of those singleplayer missions from Starcraft where you guide a hero character and a bunch of marines around rather than base building, but onto the second mission there's definitely more depth to the gameplay. When your little marines stand still, they a defense and damage boost after a few seconds, so positioning them behind cover is quite important, and you're much more vulnerable when moving. But ammo isn't unlimited, so you can't just camp, you need to move and get to your objectives too. I got completely overwhelmed and slaughtered at one point, that was fun. When it got to that point again, I set up claymore mines and was much more careful about my cover and positioning my guys. There's a lot more to it than point and click, and it's damn good!

I really like that this was made by a small team in Croatia, really shows what indie devs are capable of, and that indie games aren't just one type of thing.

Links234

Red Solstice is really impressing me, it's a bit tough to get to grips with and fairly brutal, but I'm really liking it. The singleplayer campaign seems good introducing you to different classes, figured out how one marine can set up a little barricade, that was very handy. Must give the multiplayer a go soon. Glad I snatched this one up, it's fun

raze_them_all_

Playing the battlefront beta atm, i like it

mahoganygas

I've been playing nothing really.

Between work, college and girlfriend I've had no time to play video games.

I think I need to take a look at my life and get my priorities right!

Wizard!

mahoganygas wrote: »

I think I need to take a look at my life and get my priorities right!

Absolutely! Dump that girlfriend and start playing again! :P

mahoganygas

Wizard! wrote: »

Absolutely! Dump that girlfriend and start playing again! :P

Might dump the job too while i'm at it!

3wayswitch

Rocket League. Only started playing this recently. Went 10-0 in my first ten games scoring 26 goals and getting 9 MVP awards, then I started getting matched up with expert and veteran players who are making a mockery of me with all sorts of aerial shenanigans. Might have to play offline for a bit to improve my skills.

MGSV. I've had this since release day and it just hasn't grabbed me at all. I'm only two hours into it though so hopefully it will click with me with a bit more play time.

Remember me. Got this cheap during the Humble Bundle Capcom sale. The fighting can get a bit tedious but the art direction and music are stunning. Definitely worth picking up if you see it going cheap.

Links234

3wayswitch wrote: »

Remember me. Got this cheap during the Humble Bundle Capcom sale. The fighting can get a bit tedious but the art direction and music are stunning. Definitely worth picking up if you see it going cheap.

Picked this one up myself back in the Greenman sale because it was one I was kicking myself over missing in the Steam sale. I was about 4 hours into it, and it's pretty high on my list of 'must get back and finish it'.

It's a mixed bag, the concept, story and setting are great, the main character is quite interesting, the art direction and music are gorgeous, and the memory rewrite segment was fascinating. But on the negative side, the combat is rather boring and the level design really let it down I thought, it has this great setting but all we get to see of it is a few alleyways and corridors, it all feels so small. It reminds me of older games where they couldn't realistically render larger environments, so try to give allusions to a large city.

But yeah, really must get around to finishing it.

dreamers75

Playing Single player Call Of Duty for some reason..

All of them.

Kiith

Playing through Dawn of War 2 at the moment, and will do the Chaos Rising expansion after that. Not sure about Retribution, but we'll see.

Will keep me entertained till Fallout 4 anyway.

degrassinoel

bit of everything in small doses lately

WoW - garrison missions to raise gold for no other reason than to keep the subscription active (it's basically free to play these day)

Attila: Total War - messing around with the Ebdanians, going horde, failing, starting over

Dead Rising 2 - yep, 2. Played it til i remembered why i'd quit, the friendly AI is dreadful. Was fun making an electric wheelchair though

Company of Heroes 2 - British forces co-op, playing the commando commanders, great fun

Game Dev Tycoon - decent time sink

Pillars of Eternity - Pillows of Eternity, i like the game but cant take it in any more than small doses or it makes me sleepy

Payday 2 - quick heist here or there, usually Hoxton's breakout and mallcrasher because i've no patience for stealth jobs in pugs

Links234

Up to mission 6 on the Red Solstice's singleplayer campaign, it's absolutely brutal, had to give up for tonight, I was getting my ass handed to me! :eek:

Giving The Witcher 2 a bash after it being in my collection for a few years.

It is objectively a very good game, but everything feels a bit off to me. I don't particularly like the world or the main character. Would I have needed to play the first Witcher?

Bongalongherb

Recently finished playing Resident Evil HD, but for some reason I went back to the old Tomb Raider 2 for pc and it's still a great game I have to say. Graphics are not a problem once the game is good.

Gbear

Deleted User wrote: »

Giving The Witcher 2 a bash after it being in my collection for a few years.

It is objectively a very good game, but everything feels a bit off to me. I don't particularly like the world or the main character. Would I have needed to play the first Witcher?

It just mighn't be your cup of tea.

I absolutely loved it from the get go - the world and Geralt that is.

Hated Witcher 2 as a game, but I liked the idea of it so much that I kept trying to get back into it.

Eventually I gave up.

I only went back to the series some time later with the first game and then with that and the combat rebalance mod I had the momentum to grind through the combat in the 2nd.

The third is of course a masterpiece.

At this stage I've played them all and read most of the books, but that's mostly down to the world and characters. Only W3 is much good in terms of mechanics.
If you're not drawn in by the aesthetics and general art of it from the get go I can't see how that's going to change.

Gbear

I'd had Tomb Raider in my pile of shame for ages so I decided to give it a go over the past couple of months.

Since then I've dipped out and completed Wolfenstein and the Witcher 3 but wasn't really able to get back into it.

The controls aren't particularly great, the QTEs piss me off, the combat is grand but nothing to write home about, I haven't really been taken in by the story or anything, so I'm really just not arsed.

It's by no means a bad game but it just doesn't seem to excel at anything.

Legacy of the Void's out soon, I've installed Deus Ex: Human Resources and I plan to do a total replaying of the Witcher franchise once I finished reading/rereading all the books.
It's tough to grab my attention at the moment but TR just doesn't seem to have the bit of stardust or momentum of a long franchise I've had any interest in to grab me.