What are you playing?

[Hailey Knight]

I caved on the PSN 99 cent sale.

Dino Crisis is unfortunately unplayable on my PSP due to a physical problem I forgot about that pretty much kills my ability to play anything that isn't turn-based. So I'll have to see how it is on the TV.

Twisted Metal: Black ... I'm not sure I can play this. I'm not sure how I played this as a teenager, because everything feels fast and out of control. I might just be tired, or old. Even if I can't get the hang of it, this is a nice cheap test run of how downloaded PS2 games function on the PS3--the controller shuts down (as does seemingly the PS3 for a moment) to blink into PS2 mode. The framing prevents being stretched into widescreen, instead preserving original aspect ratio, so the visuals look nicer than actually running a PS2 on a widescreen HDTV. Makes picking up Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne a very tempting possibility in the future.

 

[bhamv3]

I came across this webgame called Coming Out Simulator.

I'm not gay, but... just... damn. This illustrated what it must feel like to come out to your parents, in a way that's so vivid, so raw, and so harrowing. And it does it with just a few clicks for options, and in a text messaging format. It's just... damn...

I am adding this to my list of "awesome games I can't bear to play again".

 

[Necronic]

Picked up Divinity. Not sure if I like it so far. Its good. I like they whole Tactical Turn Based Combat applied to fantasy. But...I dunno. Why did they have to try and shoehorn in puzzle stuff? Also its remarkably irreverent/cartoonish considering how dark the cover is. I dunno. Not sure yet. I'm interested, but I'm worried this is going to be another DAO kind of game where I just disagree with the entire world. Ah well.

Also, the internal roleplaying is sort of cool. Until you find yourself in a conversational thread you don't like. I ended up murdering some people I really didn't want to.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, I murdered the two drunk guards the first time I played it. Basically you actually have to role-play your characters to get their personalities and bonuses to match what you want. In this playthrough my two people agree with each other a lot.

One thing I haven't figured out, how can you remove a new character that joins your group? I've got a magic guy and I want to dump him but can't figure out how.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Super Mario 3D Land: There is a tiny evil purple smoky Mario that mimics your every move and hurts you if he touches you.

I like these Special levels.

 

[Necronic]

Ok someone explain Divinity to me. I do not fucking understand. I get to the town. I have various gates I can exit through. Every gate is filled with monsters that very quickly kill me. Including one part where there is just a minefield that kills you instantly when you walk into it. No real notice that that's going to happen or anything.

This game is...messy I have to be honest. Kind of reminds me of Neverwinter Nights in that sense.

 

[Bowielee]

Ok someone explain Divinity to me. I do not fucking understand. I get to the town. I have various gates I can exit through. Every gate is filled with monsters that very quickly kill me. Including one part where there is just a minefield that kills you instantly when you walk into it. No real notice that that's going to happen or anything.

This game is...messy I have to be honest. Kind of reminds me of Neverwinter Nights in that sense.

If you're not a fan of the Neverwinter Nights/Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale games, Divinity is not for you.

 

[Dei]

Honestly you are expected to get to levels 3 or 4 and have a full party before you try to leave town. Also steal paintings like a mofo and buy better gear.

 

[ThatNickGuy]

Papers, Please

I only played this briefly last year when I first picked it up. Played it quite a bit more tonight. It is an inCREDibly engrossing game. I found I got quicker at processing people through, so didn't have to worry as much about my family dying, at least early in.

Of course, a word of warning: people who are way, way too honest like myself are NOT rewarded by the Arstotzka government.

 

[Necronic]

How do I get higher levels in towns...

And I actually really liked Baldurs Gate. But I specifically asked a friend of mine "Is this game heavily story based" before I bought it. Motherfucker lied to me.

 

[Bowielee]

How do I get higher levels in towns...

And I actually really liked Baldurs Gate. But I specifically asked a friend of mine "Is this game heavily story based" before I bought it. Motherfucker lied to me.

This may be a stupid question, but are you playing Original Sin, or one of the earlier Divinity games?

 

[Necronic]

Original Sin. Althuogh I am about to quit. This game is so fucking confusing. Like, wtf is up with the recipe system? It makes no god damned sense. And while I get the idea of a story driven game, even if I don't like it, I can't get the immersion breaking nonsense of robbing every place I find blind. This game reminds of Bioware games a lot tbh.

 

[Necronic]

I should be more clear. It's not confusing in the normal way. I "get" it. But, the choices they made. Something just seems really off about it.

 

[Necronic]

The game is also causing some REALLY weird IO bugs that come close to hard crashing my computer multiple times.

 

[Null]

Playing Gran Turismo 6 on the weekends with my buddy John on his PS3 has made me give Gran Turismo 4 another shot. And I've definitely improved after not playing it for years. 6 is a much better game in every aspect, as it should be (except those FUCKING KARTS) but I have to admit I'm actually enjoying 4 instead of saying "You're such a beautiful awesome game, why do you insist on showing me how bad I suck?!"

This is evidence of how bad I suck: I got the level A license. That is the best license I've been able to earn in any GT game before 6.

My stable of cars at the moment:

1991 Mazda RX-7 Type R (FD,J) that I've tuned to 353 hp. I need to do the suspension and drivetrain tweaks to make it a bit more controllable but I can get it to 140 in Special Stage 5 on the straightaway without too much problem. At the beginner cup level FR races, if I let B-Spec Bob drive, he usually wins the first 4 races by a considerable margin. I get a kick out of the fact that I have an easier time winning the final race of the series than he does.

1986 Toyota MR-2 G-Limited SC that I've tuned to 206 hp. I really like this hot little car but it just doesn't have the power to compete in the MR races and further upgrades don't seem like they'll be cost effective.

1997 Toyota MR-2 G-Limited that I've tuned to 308 hp. A real bargain for used MR cars. It was 15,334 credits with a starting 197 hp. Oil change bumped it to 202. All told I've got 40k into it (including the purchase price) and installed a supercharger, racing exhaust, limited slip differential, sports computer, and racing brakes. For comparison, a 1997 NSX with 276 hp would have cost at least 52,000. I'm going to grind some more money to install a racing intercooler, triple plate clutch, racing flywheel, weight reduction, and some engine upgrades. I tried it out in the MR series and I was moving up to 3rd halfway through the first race when I took a corner too hot and crashed into the pit lane divider and bounced into the pits, losing a lap. I was able to pass the Lotus cars in the race with surprising ease, though.

1979 Autobianchi 112 Abarth that I've tuned to 109 hp. It still sucks, but it was free and it can compete in the lightweight k-cup car event against the japanese microcars. It doesn't accelerate well at all and tends to wobble in the corners, so I think I'll need to drop another 20k into it before it's a winner (triple plate clutch, limited slip diff, suspension, maybe a stage 2 turbo). However, once I've got it set, 2k per win at that race should make back the money without too much hassle.

1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse that I've tuned to 315 hp. It's great for the beginner FF races but I don't use those to grind because the car you win is the next car in my inventory:

2001 Mazda Mazda6 Concept, which you can't sell and isn't good enough for much racing. And it's bright yellow.

2002 Pontiac Sunfire GXP Concept - it's very pretty. I like it. I just don't have much reason to use it at the moment. If I'd gotten it before the Eclipse, than definitely it'd be my FF car of choice. Another concept car you can't sell.

Next car to buy: Subura Impreza WRX STi - available used for around 20k with lots of power.

 

[Yoshimickster]

What was the most competitive Super Nintendo game my friend had? Was it Killer Instinct, the famous fighting game that ripped off Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter yet was still able to be its own awesome thing? Nope. Was it Turtles in time, quite probably the greatest ninja turtles game ever made as well as one of the greatest beatemups of all time? Nope again. Star Fox? Yeah that one wasn't working, old games and what not.WHAT WAS IT YOU MAY OR MAY NOT BE ASKING?! Frogger. We played that game for like a fucking hour on multi-player, it was fucking addictive.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

I just got Dishonored. I haven't played much since I just bought it today and have a hundred other things to do. I like the little bit I have played though. The fighting controls are easy enough. I think I'm going to have fun with this one as soon as I get the hang of non-lethal methods of disposing of my enemies. Swarming rats eating bodies dead or alive are really gross.

 

[WasabiPoptart]

This is the best laugh I have had all week. Aussie and I have a story about that song and imagining Alduin swooping down on the Navy base where we were makes it that much funnier.

 

[Hailey Knight]

I just got Dishonored. I haven't played much since I just bought it today and have a hundred other things to do. I like the little bit I have played though. The fighting controls are easy enough. I think I'm going to have fun with this one as soon as I get the hang of non-lethal methods of disposing of my enemies. Swarming rats eating bodies dead or alive are really gross.

It's less gross when you have the power to summon rat swarms.

Going non-lethal is a good challenge, but it gets harder as you get more fun ways to kill enemies.

My favorite was removing and then replacing the battery for the disintegration gates. Remove battery, get enemy's attention, watch them run, put the battery back just as they enter the gate's field. Like a giant bug zap .

 

[AshburnerX]

That really is one of the shortcomings of Dishonored: You only have two ways of going one lethal, strangling and sleep darts. Compare this to the pistols, explosives, mines, and other ways to kill enemies and it's really just not as fun to go non-lethal. The Knife of Dunwall makes this a bit better with Chokedust grenade but thats still only 3 options.

 

[Dave]

X-Com. I got the Enemy Unknown on the Steam sale, but of course I couldn't play it. Holy shit do I love this game. Very hard and unforgiving.

Save/save/save/save/save...

 

[Jay]

Enemy within is so much better

 

[Dave]

Oh I'll get there. And I'll also be getting Long War.

 

[AshburnerX]

X-Com. I got the Enemy Unknown on the Steam sale, but of course I couldn't play it. Holy shit do I love this game. Very hard and unforgiving.

Save/save/save/save/save...

It only feels that way at the beginning of the game. Once you start getting some plasma weapons and armor it won't feel quite so bad. Even laser is a massive improvement over the peashooters you start with, though you may end up wanting to keep normal pistols on some guys to make capturing easier.

 

[CynicismKills]

That really is one of the shortcomings of Dishonored: You only have two ways of going one lethal, strangling and sleep darts. Compare this to the pistols, explosives, mines, and other ways to kill enemies and it's really just not as fun to go non-lethal. The Knife of Dunwall makes this a bit better with Chokedust grenade but thats still only 3 options.

This was the reason I ended up not finishing the game. To get the "good" ending you have to kill as few people as possible, but your options for doing so are so limited it becomes a chore.

 

[Shawn]

This was the reason I ended up not finishing the game. To get the "good" ending you have to kill as few people as possible, but your options for doing so are so limited it becomes a chore.

I too have not completed the game, mostly due to just not having the time to play. However i offset the challenges of going completely non lethal by playing a second game where all I did was cause as much destruction as possible. Though even in the non lethal play through I found it challenging as I also have been going for the Non detected status on each level.
It's actually quite fun to knock a person out and see if you can fit him in a dumpster with all the other hapless saps.

 

[AshburnerX]

This was the reason I ended up not finishing the game. To get the "good" ending you have to kill as few people as possible, but your options for doing so are so limited it becomes a chore.

You actually get a lot of lee-way for this though. You actually need to kill quite a few people and not dispose of the body to get even a moderate amount of chaos.

 

[Hailey Knight]

Or just kill people and get the bad ending. Might as well have fun.

 

[Frank]

So, I picked up Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 (the new Magic TG beginner game). I am an admitted Magic TG guy and I always enjoy the DoTP games as time wasters when I get a Magic itch (that I'm unwilling to scratch by spending a billion dollars on Magic the Gathering Online). This year it has deck building, something it never had before. Unfortunately this mechanic has replaced EVERYTHING from older games. No 2-headed giant, no revenge campaign, no challenges, NOTHING extra, just a short main campaign you play a bunch of times to unlock the regular cards for your deck pool. Again, unfortunately, they have a selection of PREMIUM cards, which SUPER unfortunately flesh out most of the obvious archetypes available from the regular card pool. If you want to win online, you're going to have to spend about 15 extra bucks buying premium card packs until you get them all. I ended up buying a couple of premium packs with Steam trading card money, because fuck that buying PREMIUM packs shit with real money. Luckily I got the goblins I needed for my goblin deck in those packs.

The card pool doesn't lend itself to too many complicated archetypes unfortunately and so far, I've just stomped the competition online with the world's most basic mono-red goblin deck. Seriously, I'm 20-2 with it (those two losses coming from mana floods, which are very infrequent thanks to the curve in the goblin deck topping out at 3 mana and me having a very scant 17 lands in the deck). I usually win by turn 4.

It's so feature light and buggy that it just screams rush job. It's the very definition of one step forward, two steps back.

 

[Tinwhistler]

Kerbal Space Program just came out with the .24 update.

Contracts, budgeting, missions, oh my!

I've already been forced to do thing I've never done before, like land on Eve and Gilly. It takes a mighty big ship to get there, and it's mighty expensive. So what's a budget minded guy like me to do? Build two tiny probe landers, stick them backwards on top of a huge ship and drive them both there at the same time to complete two missions at once for half the cost.

Let me tell you...landing on Gilly is a bitch

 

[Hailey Knight]

Bravely Default: Oh look, the enemy just left this incredibly dangerous weapon that kills anyone around. They left it here and we can take it back to town with us. How convenient that they left it here and spoke audibly about its location.

Maybe ...

Just maybe ...

I'm enjoying the game a lot more now, but I still need to skip through villain dialogue now. The voice actors like to draaaaaw ooout everrrryyyy worrrrd, because somehow this conveys eeeeeviiiiiil, mweee hee hee.

 

[blotsfan]

Walmart had Injustice: Gods among us with all the DLC included for $30. Really enjoyed briefly playing that game with friends I I'm Definitley excited about that.

 

[Bowielee]

Injustice is great.

 

[GasBandit]

Injustice:GAU is a fun fighter to be sure. I got it in the steam sale for like 7.50 I think, with all the DLC. But you definitely need a gamepad. It will work with a keyboard, but everything is crazy and needs lots of rebinding... and doing so is like trying to walk a non-english speaker through turning on a set of switches in a specific order. So. Gamepad.

 

[Bowielee]

Yeah, fighting games are one of those genres when you really need a fighting stick or gamepad.