What Are You Playing?

[Dank]

Well I started Final Fantasy XIV on PS3 last night. Very WoW-ish so far. Not sure how well playing with a controller will work once I have to group up.

[Dirty J.]

I just finished Saints Row the Third. Only game left on my backlog. The beginning is kinda cool then it's a whole lot of nothing and then the final part starts and it's pretty cool.But the Saints Row love on this board is something I'll never quite understand.

[Cristobal]

Saints Row is a vital piece of gaming in that it cuts through Gordian Knots like butter, e.g. in a Skyrim side quest when I had to tell whether it was the woman in the bar or the men in the cave who were lying about the other being a traitor to humanity. It came down to "Ok, on the one hand, if I assume she's lying, I have to go back to town, lure her into a trap without making her suspicious, and capture her without killing her. On the other hand, if I assume you're lying, I just kill everyone in the room I'm in, job done."

 

Once you've accepted your inner sociopathpuckish rogue, life gets so much simpler...

[Neil Koch]

But really though the middle of SR3 is kind of a slog.  It's a lot of "missions" that are gussied up versions of the side activities.  It does pick up at the end though.

 

I needed something new on my phone, so I got Gangstar Vegas on sale for $3.  It's a stupid name, but it's not a bad open world game so far.

[odessasteps]

As mentioned in one of threads last week, i started the ios port of Ultima IV.

I need to go to my parents house and see if my notebooks for the game, with all the notes and translations, still exist.

[Tabe]

I bet I could still play Ultima 4 through from memory.  Would be tough with the various stones and stuff but I'd get there.  Finding the Nightshade and Mandrake from memory would be tough, too.

 

Reminds me of the time I sat down and decided to play Ultima 2 again on an emulator.  I got lucky and got a boat in the Time of Legends area - which is extremely rare, maybe even a glitch - and was able to beat the game in an afternoon.  Normally takes a LOT longer than that.

 

I have owned every Ultima game at one time or another yet only beat fhe first four.  This is a bit of a failure on my part as a gamer.

[Gonzo]

So I gave up on The Last of Us.  I found the "30 seconds of action, 3 minutes of cutscene" too much to take.  And I didn't care for the gameplay itself.  I'll be trading this in and maybe eventually I'll re-buy it but I doubt it.  Literally every single time I played the game, I'd play for maybe an hour and it felt like 3 or 4.  Not a good sign at all.

 

So now I'm back to The Walking Dead.  I completed the first two episodes back when those were free on PS+ and grabbed the last 3 when those were free on PS+ but am just now playing them  I liked the first 2 eps very much and am enjoying the third now, too.  Good stuff.

After that, probably Tomb Raider but maybe Sleeping Dogs.

 

I played The Last of Us for a bit, too. . .wasn't a huge fan of it or anything. Maybe I just needed to advance further.

 

Did finally beat Skyrim. . .seriously, Bethesda, 80+ hours of gameplay and that's the fucking ending you're going to give me? Piss off. At least when I beat a Fallout game I get another kick-ass "War Never Changes" speech from Ron Perlman.

 

Might give XCOM: Enemy Unknown another go at this point. Don't want to buy a whole lot of new games before the PS4 comes out.

[Domino_Not_Deuce]

I really like XCOM ENEMY UNKNOWN as I appreciate any game in this day and age that relishes the thought of beating my testicles repeatedly when I do something stupid. I've been coddled too long and XCOM is the tough army general who I can't help but respect.

[Death From Above]

I think about playing Ultima IV about once a month since it's totally free off of GOG but then I remember every experience I ever had with the Ultima games was an exercise in almost everything awful about old fashioned RPG's (the only exception being I don't remember any enemies that could actually drain you of a level, a la the original Wizardry and vampires. Also, fuck Wizardry).

[Tabe]

IGN has their Diablo 3 review up.  They liked it a lot.  They love the controls, like the drop rates, bag on the graphics a tiny bit:

 

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/10/diablo-3-xbox-360-and-playstation-3-review

[odessasteps]

I think about playing Ultima IV about once a month since it's totally free off of GOG but then I remember every experience I ever had with the Ultima games was an exercise in almost everything awful about old fashioned RPG's (the only exception being I don't remember any enemies that could actually drain you of a level, a la the original Wizardry and vampires. Also, fuck Wizardry).

It's amazing that as soon as i started playing, the first thing that rushed into my mind was that sound you make when you step on poisoned rocks.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

The indie game rush continues.

 

RECIEVER - Incredibly surreal dungeon crawler. The dungeon is randomly generated, and you start with the only weapon you have (of which there are three possibilities). There are only two kinds enemies. You are trying to pick up 11 pieces of treasure, and if you do that, you win.

 

I am describing this so sparsely because I think saying a lot about it ruins the bewildering nature of the first few runs. If you're all about minimalism, go get this game.

 

MIRRORMOON EP - Speaking of trying not to ruin the first run of a game, I'm not going to say shit about MirrorMoon EP other than "space is involved" and "non-violent exploration madness."

 

HAMMERWATCH - Gauntlet. Like, to the point that the bonus levels are just Gauntlet arcade levels. So Gauntlet. Massively Gauntlet. None More Gauntlet.

[Andrew POE!]

I have Hammerwatch on Steam, but haven't started with it yet. Is there online co-op?

 

EDIT: Yup, there is!

[Brisco]

Just looked it up on Steam and it does have 4 player co-op.

 

Started Two Worlds II and I am glad I never purchased this game. I read it described as clunky and that is a perfect description for this game. I do like the battle system and the story is good enough. What sucks are the videos that freeze and skip dialogue. I have been forced to turn on the subtitles to follow what is taking place. Also the game creates a new save file for every autosave. I am not a fan of this, as one or two save files is good enough for me. I *plan* on finishing the game but we shall see.

[SUPrUNown]

In a moment of weakness last night, I pulled out PINBALL HALL OF FAME: THE WILLIAMS COLLECTION for my PS2. Damn if the flippers don't feel laggy as hel. I'm tackling the Williams Challenge... some table are easy, but man, FUNHOUSE is a bitch. I'm starting to realize how poorly constructed that table and PINBOT were.... they spun your balls out of there in record time.Yes.... I need help.

[COOL STORY BROGUE KICK]

My computer is an aged pile o' shit so I bought Diablo III for 360 and I must admit they did a damn fine job porting the Diablo experience to a console.

[Tabe]

In a moment of weakness last night, I pulled out PINBALL HALL OF FAME: THE WILLIAMS COLLECTION for my PS2. Damn if the flippers don't feel laggy as hel. I'm tackling the Williams Challenge... some table are easy, but man, FUNHOUSE is a bitch. I'm starting to realize how poorly constructed that table and PINBOT were.... they spun your balls out of there in record time.Yes.... I need help.

Pinbot in the PHOF is awful. The original machine isn't any good either.Now Funhouse? That table is awesome, easily the best I've ever played in real life. The PHOF version is hardly perfect but it's hardly a drain machine. The Pinball Arcade versions of both are a LOT better.

[Neil Koch]

I played Pinbot a couple of years ago at the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas.  It really isn't that great.  It's way too empty in the middle so your balls drain a lot.  I think it is remembered fondly more for the art and sound effects rather than the actual gameplay.

 

Tabe - there is a demo of Diablo III up on PSN.  I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a pretty meaty demo.  You can pick from all the classes, there is on and offline co-op and you can play to the (I think) first boss.  You can also carry over your saves/charcaters to the full version.

[Brysynner]

The Diablo III demo only lets you pick from the Barbarian and Wizard classes, but yeah you get to do a decent amount of Act I

[Tabe]

Tabe - there is a demo of Diablo III up on PSN.  I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a pretty meaty demo.  You can pick from all the classes, there is on and offline co-op and you can play to the (I think) first boss.  You can also carry over your saves/charcaters to the full version.

Thanks man - the demo is in my download queue   I bought NHL 14 - digital version - and it's still downloading so I likely won't have the Diablo demo ready to go until tomorrow night (#$%#$%#$%#$% DSL) but I'll definitely give it a shot.  The IGN review pretty much said exactly what I hoped they would.  I'll try the demo and then wait for the game to drop in price

[Andrew POE!]

I tried the Diablo III demo and I just didn't like it. To me, Diablo and its ilk are purely PC games (although the XBLA port of Torchlight is great).

[Tabe]

Started playing NHL 14.  There's a definite learning curve involved and I'm not there yet - I started on All-Star difficulty and lost all 7 games I played (though one was a BS loss with 1.5 seconds left in regulation).  There's definitely been improvements in player movement and so on but a lot of the things that bugged me with NHL 10 (the last one I played) are still present in NHL 14.  Specifically, the AI for the opponent is always better than the AI for your computer teammates.  My defensemen are quick to flee the offensive zone, yet they are somehow constantly beaten back to my defensive zone.  On faceoffs, when there's a tie-up and fight for the puck, my teammates never help.  AI teammates go offside way too often on offensive rushes, unlike AI opponents.  On the default setting, there are waaaaaaay too many fights.  I'm using the Detroit Red Wings - best franchise in pro sports, tyvm - and they average like a fight every 2 or 3 games, if that, but in this game there's 3-4 per game.  And the opponent AI never commits penalties.  1 power play in 7 games?  C'mon.  If control changes to a new guy that's standing still and you're already pressing up, for example, on the stick, your guy won't start moving - he'll just stand there.  And so on.  Lots of stuff like that.  And most of that I'll get used to and I'll eventually start dominating like I always do, I'm just not there yet.  The one are I'm REALLY struggling with is faceoffs.  Faceoffs are completely different in NHL 10 and I basically never win them.  In the first 5 games I played, I won one faceoff.  Then I watched a video on Youtube and got myself to be able to win like 10% of them.  I'm sure there's just something I'm not doing or that I'm not timing right but I have no idea at the moment what that "something" is.

 

I'll keep playing though! 

EDIT: I forgot to mention the commentary.  It's as bad and repetitive as any previous year.  Example: One of my guys got a 2nd penalty in a game.  The announcers then berated me for taking penalties when behind - except it was a game I had never trailed.  It calls Jakob Kindl both "Kindl" and "Keendl" - same announcer, different pronunciation.  Multiple repetitions of the same stuff even with just a couple games.  Other context-incorrect statements, too.

[JustJay]

Today I bought the Humble indie Bundle 9 which includes Mark of the Ninja, Brutal Legend, trine 2, Eets Munchies, and if you pay more than average which when i did was $4.60 you get Fez and FTL.

 

Been playing around a bit with Fez, MotN and FTL. Really those 3 games are worth way more than the $5 I paid so I'm more than happy. Will be playing a lot of Ninja and FTL.

[Jiji]

NHL 14 is pretty solid. You can tell they half-assed it because it's the last iteration before they get to go make a shiny new Xbone/PS4 version, but the skating and hitting engine has been refined to a very good point. Way better than last year's. Fighting is also better but I don't really give two shits about it other than the times you deck a star player and on of his teammates comes charging in to initiate fisticuffs. 

 

Tabe, have you played around with sliders yet? You can lower the faceoff difficulty and increase opponent AI penalties. You get quite a few calls by controlling play in their end of the rink. They'll eventually commit a stick infraction. You can lower the difficulty and/or the "CPU Difficulty Adjustment" setting to make the game more manageable. I was decent at NHL 13 and have been getting my ass kicked so far in 14 on similar or even slightly easier settings.

[Shane]

Most important to me re: NHL 14...

How's the NHL '94 mode?