What games have you been playing lately?

Started playing Sunless Sea but I can't get into it. It feels like information overload. Tried a couple of times and still couldn't figure out if I could dock or how to feed the crew, so I gave up

Playing Torchlight 2 and really enjoying it. The graphics and music are giving me nostolgic pangs about WOW, which I haven't played in years.

Annoyed at myself for only installing it now, bought it in a steam sale years ago -__-

Played and beat Long Live The Queen (as in I managed to make to the end without dying and became Queen!) Now to finish finding all the ways to die. Also still addicted to Picross DS.

Lots of MEA multiplayer. After the recent balance patch it's great. Much less disappointing than the single player.

Also Witcher 3.
I'm about 1/3 of the way though my 2nd play through, this time on death march. It'll be my first time playing the DLC, so looking forward to that.
Actually, I'm already looking forward to my next replay as well. I ****ing love this game. After slogging though Andromeda, it feels great to be engaged in such a living, breathing world.
Can't wait for the TV series.

Playing Star Wars Empire at War at the moment, its actually quite an easy game to get into and enjoyable!

Just finished ACreed:Black Flag. No idea where to go from here.

I hardly play computer games any more and I suffer from a kind of "burn out" when I finish one and I do not know what I want to play next and every review I watch just leaves me feeling "meh".

In the last couple years I finished a Witcher 1-3 playthrough with all DLC. Then I did a replay of Mass Effect 1-3 and Dragon Age 1-3. And somewhere in there I enjoyed, and completed, Far Cry 3 and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Dishonoured.

I still have Skyrim but I always try to find a reason to stop playing it because I simply do not like it all that much. I only play it when there is nothing else. Every time I start it, I start to feel my brain seep out my ear.

I also do not like to pay much for games so I always wait for a price drop (Which means I can not get the new Mass Effect just yet or Dishonoured 2) and I ever have the "Cheapskate" achievement badge on gamersgate.com

So I guess Far Cry 4 and the next Assasains creed are cheap enough and I might get one of those next. Grand Theft Auto V keeps tempting me but I balk every time I go to actually purchase it.

So really not sure what to do next. I have never really given any MMOs a go though, as my erratic playing times and duration mean I would probably keep logging out when people are trying to get me to partake in missions. But I am not sure as I have never really experienced one.

I might. I generally like games where I can complete missions or tasks in my own way in my own time. Like in ACreed games I like to slowly and systematically pick off soliders before making a go at my main target.

So I am driven loopy by Timed Missions. I hate them. ACreed tends to have one or two, but that is all. Even the Witcher 3 I think had one or two. But from playing GTA games in the past (can not remember which ones, sorry) there was loads of them. And that really put me off.

But if I can get over that little hang up, I genuinely expect GTA-V to be a game I would otherwise quite enjoy.

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

I generally like games where I can complete missions or tasks in my own way in my own time. Like in ACreed games I like to slowly and systematically pick off soliders before making a go at my main target.

Assuming you've tried the Arkham series?
Since you're a fan of the Assassins Creed games (Like me) I think you'd really enjoy them. The Predator Missions would suit the AC play style you describe above.
They'd be in my top 3 series along with Total War and Mass Effect. Currently playing the latest(Arkham Knight) which I picked up for less than €6 on cdkeys

If you're looking for a new Assassins creed game try Assassins Creed: Rogue
It was released after black flag but only on the older gen consoles (PS3, Xbox 360) and at the same time as Unity so didn't get much fanfair.
Haven't played it myself but PC port is supposed to be quite polished.
It's older so should be fairly cheap when the steam sales roll around.

Is FSX worth getting?

Never played a civvie flight sim before (plenty of 'European Air War' and 'IL-2'), but was toying with the idea about it last week and nearly hit the button on the Steam version after watching a great video of someone taking off from Dublin airport and thinking I fancy a bit of that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jAzY3grtNY&t=370s

Tony EH wrote: »

Is FSX worth getting?

Never played a civvie flight sim before (plenty of 'European Air War' and 'IL-2'), but was toying with the idea about it last week and nearly hit the button on the Steam version after watching a great video of someone taking off from Dublin airport and thinking I fancy a bit of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jAzY3grtNY&t=370s

If you think a civilian flight sim might be for you, then €24.99 of FSX Steam Edition would be a good way to put your toe in the water. Just a few things to be aware of...

The Dublin Airport shown in that video isn't the stock one that comes with FSX. FSX default airports are pretty basic and generic, although the runway and taxiway layouts will be (mostly) right. For better visuals, 3rd party payware add-ons are required. The default aircraft that come with FSX are OK, but systems modelling varies from basic to downright poor, and flight modelling can be hit-and-miss. Again, this shortcoming can be addressed by add-on aircraft from 3rd party vendors. The best of these would be A2A, RealAir (if they ever start selling again), Aerosoft, Milviz, PMDG and FSLabs. There are also some good quality freeware aircraft available. Manfred Jahn's DC-3 is a must-have. The same applies for scenery, with the main players being Orbx, Flight1 and Mega Scenery earth.

The biggest thing of all to be aware of , though, is the recent release of Prepar3d v 4. This is based on the FSX engine but is now provided by Lockheed-Martin. Previous versions of P3D improved some stability and performance issues, but V4 has now moved the sim from 32-bit to 64 bit. The most significant change this brings is that the 4GB VAS (i.e. RAM) limit is a thing of the past. That limit meant that even with a powerful rig and bags of memory, add-on aircraft and scenery could push the RAM used by FSX until it hit that limit and then crashed to the desktop. With P3D v4, this is no longer a worry. However, not every add-on will work with P3D V4 yet, and it is more expensive and requires more from your PC in terms of hardware.

All that said, I wouldn't go out and spend money on a bunch of add-ons or buy P3D just yet. Try FSX and see how you like it. The default installation comes with plenty of aircraft to keep you busy for some time, and you will also get a feel for what kind of flying you like. The missions can be fun too. The learning section isn't bad either, and there are plenty of online resources to supplement that. The whole globe is available to you, so you can fly a 747 transatlantic, a 737 Dublin-London, go bush flying in Alaska or Papua New Guinea, or take part in Red Bull air races. I'd recommend the Grumman Goose in particular...I had great fun with it.

If you've flown plenty with FSX and you still want more and want to go a little deeper, then it would be the time to think about moving to Prepar3d, and maybe start thinking about how you'd like to move into more detailed add-on aircraft and sex up the scenery a bit. There's nothing to stop you doing that with FSX of course, but be aware that not all add-ons for FSX will run or be licensed for P3D. Sometimes there is a surcharge, sometimes you will need to re-purchase the product and at a higher price too. So if you're getting your flexible friend out, my advice would be to buy from those providers for whom one payment covers both sims.

Best of luck and happy flying. Feel free to drop me a PM if you have any questions.

P.S. I loved European Air War.

Tony EH wrote: »

Many thanks for the detailed reply Storker. Really appreciate that.

I'm leaning towards plonking down the ?25 for the basic version and see where I go from there. Probably then upgrade with a few "beauty" addons.

Pretty much burnt out on 'Elite Dangerous' and I'm looking for something to aid the "flying" need.

Re: EAW. I loved that too. Put a silly amount of hours into that game.

I'd say that's definitely the right decision for where you're at. I suspect you'll find the flying a bit more interesting that Elite Dangers, since you can use real-world navigation techniques and, if you don't look at the FSX map or GPS, you can even get lost.

Have fun...

Out of interest, what's your PC spec?

Tony EH wrote: »

Oh yeah. 'Elite Dangerous' was just some sort of flight thing to replace IL2, which I also burnt out on.

The rig is a few years old now, but still runs everything fine that I stick into it.

i7 4790k
16gb 2400MHz RAM
GeForce 770 2gb RAM
Gigabyte Z97X-SLI
Win7 64bit

That'll do you fine for FSX. If you go to P3D you'll probably want to beef up the graphics card. Up until the end of last year I was playing it on a Q6600 @ 2.4GHz and 4GB RAM...I don't know myself since I upgraded.

Sunk about 35 hours into Rocket League over the last two weeks. It started off well and I had lots of fun picking it up and playing for a few matches every so often. I think I played it too much though, as I started to get tired of it over the last few days. I put it down for a little bit and played The Stanley Parable. Got all I wanted from that and went to uninstall it, instead uninstalling Rocket League instead by accident.

6GB redownload? Ehh I think I'm finished with Rocket League

Shiminay wrote: »

Jaysus, good job it wasn't a big AAA game, I've gotten so used to cable that I wouldn't even flinch at a 30gb download. I expect that's probably my "privelige" talking

I was all excited about Rocket League too at first, but then I played a bit online and saw the skill curve and thought "naaa..." But it gets busted out for couch coop every now and then.

In later updates of the game the developers made the ingenious decision to start new players off in skill tiers that are in the midpoint of the overall skill range. Essentially everyone starts off at a rating of say 600. Then you lose and gain from there. New players should really expect a losing streak to start with until the game has got a better idea how to approximate where they should be placed. Why they choose this top down approach is beyond me. Especially when it actually makes it far far easier for people to smurf.