What Are You Playing?

[Andrew POE!]

I tried the demo of The Wolf Among Us on XBLA and loved it. $20 for the whole season is a very tempting deal, considering that the Steam/PC version is $25 right now. I'm hoping the PSN version this Tuesday has a similar deal or better for PS+ subscribers.

[Cliff Hanger]

So Guardic is pretty much ass on toast.  Not a patch on later Compile games, even allowing for the iOS on-screen controls.  It just isn't much fun.

 

Getting ready to revisit Symphony, which was one of my favorite indie games of 2012.  It's taken over an hour to re-analyze my music, though.

[Death From Above]

I took advantage of a promo that's been going on the last couple days where voting on the Golden Joystick Awards gets you a Steam copy of either Mafia II or Civilization V for free. I took Civ 5 and am downloading now. Apparently they've had so much interest they have "temporarily" suspended the promo. Not trying to brag, not my style, but might want to keep an eye to see if that becomes active again. I have no idea how much longer that could be running for or if it will go active again. Both of those are pretty quality for a potential freebe.

 

Only thing better than free shit is good free shit. I haven't played a Civilization game since II but I can't imagine the series has plunged off a cliff.

[Jiji]

Civ V is tits. It goes on sale dirt cheap from time to time but picking it up for free is awesome.

[Death From Above]

It's also not some gargantuan download beyond the ken of my stupid Rogers wifi that I use out in the middle of nowhere. 2.8 gig worth of download for a relatively current game is kind of small. If I pretend Youtube doesn't exist for like 10 days, I'm good. Unlike say that "buy a game, get The Witcher" thing GOG had on for a week or I would have probably grabbed something there too.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Oh man, where to start?

ME3: been discussing this in the thread. Still great.

Skyrim: playing as a wood elf, and the Archery/Sneak/One Hand Weapons/Light Armor route is fun. I could legit just stick in the first little town you go to, hunting, smithing, and cutting fire woof for gold with no dragon threat. Yes, I'm the guy who could play a game working as a merchant.

FIFA 12: playing as Man City (aka, easy mode) and my year has been... Interesting. Transferred in Piqué, Hummels, Lahm, Marcedo at the back in, Gotze and Wilshere in the midfield, But have given up a lot of forward talent. Running a 5-4-1. Started off on fire but a big transfer gaff hurt me bad: Dzeko and Abel Hernandez is now all I have at ST, and even the Gotze-Toure-Wilshere-Silva midfield can save me from some ties that should have been wins. Chelsea passed me and has 5 points on me with 10 left.

[Death From Above]

My early impressions of Civ 5 are really good. The gameplay itself is fine but thinking about it the thing that impressed me was just how intuitive all the controls are. Didn't even look at a manual for such a deep, menu-heavy game, yet it's very easy to work out where everything is and how to perform all the needed basic functions just because clicking on things has the exact results you'd expect from playing lots of other games on a PC. It's a deceptively simple control scheme that I felt had no frustrations in it.

 

I like how I don't have to piss around building shitty transport boats to get things over the ocean now, instead once you have certain tech you can move any unit as a boat but they are defenseless without naval military support. I want to try an archipelago map and see how a real naval heavy game works now.

[Vincey Greene]

I am normally very old school in my gamings - not crazy about the Games as Movies thing that the industry currently is -  but I adored Heavy Rain, so after my honeymoon (thanks) and a week of non-stop work, I've finally started on BEYOND TWO SOULS today. I love it. It's faintly a videogame and much more of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but knowing that going in, it's amazing and very affecting.

 

 

On the 3DS side of things, the misses bought Ocarina of Time 3D and I finally - after 15 years of not liking or being interested at all in the game - get it. I finally love OOT. I think it was the general horribleness of the N64 graphics that was the issue. With the crisp clean 3DS graphics, as opposed to the blurry, pea soupishness of the N64 graphics, I see the game now for the masterpiece it is.

[Travis Sheldon]

After reading about the online exploits going on with the DVDVR crew in the GTA V thread, I decided to give online a try with GTA IV to try to prepare myself.

I was murderized numerous times in the first few minutes in the game. Experienced lag, which triggered my motion sickness because of the running/driving physics being slower.

Was looking forward to getting GTA V possibly by Black Friday, but now I'm not sure.

Hoping this is just an anomaly due to the lag and not the regular GTA online experience. I can handle getting killed (repeatedly) due to my inexperience in the online game, 'cause I will get better.

But the gameplay coming off like my character's drunk is something I can't take. Any advice?

[Neil Koch]

I've never experienced lag in GTAV. I would suspect with V being out IV isn't using as good as servers now.

[Death From Above]

Civ V is tits.

 

This is the truth. Can't believe how much bitching you can read about this game with a google search. I think I played about 6 hours yesterday without realizing it.

 

My first attempt to win a game on culture with the Iroquois did not go so well. Though Greece managed somehow to piss off me, England, China, Japan, and the Ottomans all at once so we're having WW2 with Greece in the role of Germany. I only have the WW1 era soldiers and am getting my ass handed to me though. I'm going to ask for peace when I can in about 5 turns and hope that works.

 

England are gonna win because they launched the Apollo project, I think.

[MarcosLoura]

I am such a sucker and broke down and got the boy both X and Y

 

What is sad is that X/Y becomes only the 2nd game released this year that I have played.

Might we discussion adoption? I really want to play with my pokemenz.

[ingrsco]

I am normally very old school in my gamings - not crazy about the Games as Movies thing that the industry currently is -  but I adored Heavy Rain, so after my honeymoon (thanks) and a week of non-stop work, I've finally started on BEYOND TWO SOULS today. I love it. It's faintly a videogame and much more of a Choose Your Own Adventure book, but knowing that going in, it's amazing

I really want that game but may have a hard time convincing the wife to get me it this holiday due to my backlog.

[Death From Above]

You know what else rules about Civ 5?

 

This: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=102609741

 

Two great tastes that taste great together.

[JRGoldman]

There isn't really a Catch All thread for video games, so I guess I'll just ask this here: what Assassins Creed game should I start with? Every time I see ads for a new one, I think about picking up one of the old ones. Should I just get the collection they put out, or can I save more money buy just buying used copies of one of the games on there? Any help would be appreciated.

[Tabe]

Start with AC2. It's the best game in the series. AC1 is not needed at all. The rest are all at least good.

I should note that I think AC2 is the best game I've ever played.

[JRGoldman]

Start with AC2. It's the best game in the series. AC1 is not needed at all. The rest are all at least good.I should note that I think AC2 is the best game I've ever played.

Thanks! That's some high praise.

[Lamp, broken circa 1988]

AUDIOSURF 2- Early access, so I wont say a lot. Right now, I feel that it handles the kind of music I listen to better than Audiosurf did, and I sank 30 hours into Audiosurf so that's a good sign.EXPERIMENT 12- Certainly an experiment. Started by Terry Cavanagh (VVVVVV, Super Hexagon), Experiment 12 is an attempt at making a chain game, as in a game that is developed by a succession of people. Each game takes an element from the end of the other and builds into a story that takes off on its own bizarre path. It doesn't always work out well, like an experiment, but the idea alone was wild enough for me to find it worth checking out.

 

VOLGARR THE VIKING- This game is going to kill me. My favorite kind of platformer is where there's deliberate pacing and a possible "perfect" run with limited variables, and Volgarr The Viking is a game that punishes you for not knowing/using that path. It's a great way to test your ability to learn pattern recognition. Also a great way to break your controller.

 

THE STANLEY PARABLE- When I start to play a game, I spend time pushing against games while I play them, trying to see where it breaks. The Stanley Parable is a game where every time I've pushed against it, the game has directly pushed back. It stresses me out a lot, even though the story is light and comedic. At its best though it's a strong critique of the Ten Hour Movie game development trends which is something that needs to exist right about now. 

[ultimoDANK]

Your gaming tastes wear a white belt and unnecessary black rimmed glasses.

[Death From Above]

So, I never beat Ninja Gaiden Black, which is pretty notoriously difficult, back in the day. Decided to take a run at it now.

 

I have discovered I am too old for this shit. Game just beats my ass.

[Andrew POE!]

Your gaming tastes wear a white belt and unnecessary black rimmed glasses.

 

I must be the same way because I have Volgarr The Viking in my Steam account. I really want to get The Stanley Parable though and actually play it.

 

I've been busy with Dead Space (PS3). Trying for a Platinum....got two trophies left.

[GojiColin]

A friend dropped off Tales of Xillia, which means I can now play the game and understand the plot!  I find the combat system to be a lot smoother then Graces or Vesperia and while I enjoyed the Title system in Graces I really do love the more sphere-grid style that Xillia brings to the table.  I forsee myself dropping stupid hours into this game to max out the grids.

 

It's funny how all my console purchases have been based on my favorite RPG franchises at the time.  I didn't buy a PS2 until Suikoden 3 came out. I held off on the PS3 until Disgaea 3 and I feel like the Tales games will be what makes me get a PS4.

[Scizzy]

Volgarr is really fun. It's like 20 little puzzles all strung together and you have to gradually hone your solutions to make it through each level. Both aggravating and awesome at once.

I also loved The Stanley Parable and urge everyone to try the free demo. You'll know quickly if it's the game for you or not.

[Fat Spanish Waiter]

Started Last of Us. What insipid, turgid dogshit it is. Selling it tomorrow. How anyone considered this a potential GOTY when it's just a mod for Uncharted 3...

[Andrew POE!]

Started Last of Us. What insipid, turgid dogshit it is. Selling it tomorrow. How anyone considered this a potential GOTY when it's just a mod for Uncharted 3...

 

Can't tell if serious.

 

I played through it, beat it on Hard, and I actually thought it was great. When I realized that it's essentially the original Resident Evil for next-gen consoles, I got used to it. If you lose your patience easily, you won't like the game.