What are you playing?

Hailey Knight · Jan 3, 2016

Zero Esc said:
Realized I'd fucked up my stats in Demon's Souls but unlike Dark Souls, you have a way of undoing this--lose your levels.

So now I'm at 4-2, invading the same guy again and again, and then throwing myself off the cliff. If I do this 19 times, I'll lose 19 levels and bring my Dex back down to a reasonable point (along with my Endurance ) so I can then level up 16 times AGAIN and redistribute those stats to better places, because I apparently hate myself.

Fortunately there's some easy excellent grinding to be done at 4-2, but I feel like a chump even doing all this in the first place. I'm going to be a lower level than when I started earlier today.

The guy realized I was just killing myself and was waiting for me at the spawn area. He immediately started slashing me apart and I had to block, roll, and try to run off the cliff far past him before his bleeding effect killed me.

These games are so ridiculous.

CrimsonSoul · Jan 3, 2016

GasBandit said:
Hah, I had enough trouble just getting The Ship to work for multiplayer (because it is so old - 2006 using a 2004 engine). System Shock 2 came out in 99, that'd be straight up masochistic!

I believe gog updated it to work on modern systems. I know it worked on windows 8 I dunno about windows 10

GasBandit · Jan 3, 2016

CrimsonSoul said:
I believe gog updated it to work on modern systems. I know it worked on windows 8 I dunno about windows 10

Single player's one thing, multiplayer's a whole 'nuther can of beans. GOG also updated Interstate 76 for modern systems, but its multiplayer still doesn't work.

CrimsonSoul · Jan 3, 2016

GasBandit said:
Single player's one thing, multiplayer's a whole 'nuther can of beans. GOG also updated Interstate 76 for modern systems, but its multiplayer still doesn't work.

I played it fairly easily with friends. just make sure you save often LOL

Jay · Jan 3, 2016

I've played System Shock 2 on MP every year or so with friends so I'll confirm you'll need to patch it up somewhat. I'm unsure if the GoG version is MP friendlier.

There's the IP patch you'll definitely need or else you can't connect to each other. I'd also suggest downloading a couple of community mods (easy to do as there's even an embedded installer now that simplifies this) to make the graphics in the game more up to date and fix bugs (unofficial patch).

If played MP with more than 2, I'd suggest playing with a special "impossible mode" as the game may be too easy on the default MP.

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=61.0

There's even some EXCELLENT community created campaigns you can try out as well, fully voice acted and quite professionally done.

Dei · Jan 4, 2016

Finished Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky. Now I am jumping right into Chapter 2 because I am so in love with this story. 90s style JRPG done right!

fade · Jan 4, 2016

I wanted to try Borderlands 2 again. I got stuck a while back on W4r-d3n. It would kill me dead no matter what tactic I tried. Finally beat it this time after finding some better guns. A quick google showed me a lot of people had trouble with this guy. It's like every other boss is a pushover up to this point, and then BAM have a boss with a huge shield who spawns an infinite number of elite bodyguards.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2016

fade said:
I wanted to try Borderlands 2 again. I got stuck a while back on W4r-d3n. It would kill me dead no matter what tactic I tried. Finally beat it this time after finding some better guns. A quick google showed me a lot of people had trouble with this guy. It's like every other boss is a pushover up to this point, and then BAM have a boss with a huge shield who spawns an infinite number of elite bodyguards.

Hrm, he wasn't a brick wall for me, but then I always, always play borderlands games co-op or not at all. It changes the game dynamic greatly when you've got a pal.

I hope I'm not spoiling it too much when I tell you that W4r-d3n will be back, and in greater numbers.

Gruebeard · Jan 4, 2016

In single player, sometimes I find Warden tough, sometimes I breeze through the fight. I've developed a strategy I won't share with you. But yeah, so much tougher than everything that comes before.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2016

Gruebeard said:
In single player, sometimes I find Warden tough, sometimes I breeze through the fight. I've developed a strategy I won't share with you. But yeah, so much tougher than everything that comes before.

Is the strategy "play as a mechromancer?" Because I've noticed that makes almost the entire game trivial.

Anarchy + Fibber = gamebreaking, and that robot pet summon turns tides with a quickness.

AshburnerX · Jan 4, 2016

GasBandit said:
Is the strategy "play as a mechromancer?" Because I've noticed that makes almost the entire game trivial.

Anarchy + Fibber = gamebreaking, and that robot pet summon turns tides with a quickness.

Alternately, play as Axion and put missiles on your turret, then camp out near it.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2016

AshburnerX said:
Alternately, play as Axion and put missiles on your turret, then camp out near it.

A buddy of mine and I went to go farm Crawmerax. With 600 anarchy and 5 "close enough," the fibber is stupid powerful - could reliably kill crawmerax in 10-15 seconds. By shooting at the ground.

AshburnerX · Jan 4, 2016

GasBandit said:
A buddy of mine and I went to go farm Crawmerax. With 600 anarchy and 5 "close enough," the fibber is stupid powerful - could reliably kill crawmerax in 10-15 seconds. By shooting at the ground.

I've seen a friend do it about that using a quad shotgun from Jacobs and a similar setup. He also abused The BEE against him.

GasBandit · Jan 4, 2016

AshburnerX said:
I've seen a friend do it about that using a quad shotgun from Jacobs and a similar setup. He also abused The BEE against him.

Unfortunately they nerfed the Bee so that it divides damage amongst all the shotgun pellets. But the Fibber's still gamebreaking.

Gruebeard · Jan 4, 2016

GasBandit said:
Is the strategy "play as a mechromancer?" Because I've noticed that makes almost the entire game trivial.

Anarchy + Fibber = gamebreaking, and that robot pet summon turns tides with a quickness.

Yeah, no. I found playing as Gaige is a strategy for Boredom. And I found Wilhelm to be the same problem in the presence.

fade · Jan 6, 2016

Okay, I was playing Borderlands 2 as Maya, and I respecced into Cataclysm. Now the game has become a joke. I was Motion before, but there's just no contest for single player.

GasBandit · Jan 7, 2016

We've got a pretty good crowd going for this saturday night's game of The Ship - Murder Party: Halforums Edition, but there's still room if anybody else wants in, and I've still got free copies of the game to give if you need one!

Current attendees are:
GasBandit (of course)
Dei
Terrik
AshburnerX
Tinwhistler
Dave
Ravenpoe
ThatNickGuy
Reverent-one
CrimsonSoul
Officer_Charon
Yoshimickster
with "Maybes" from FigmentPez and PatrThom.

I will, of course, be recording it.

figmentPez · Jan 7, 2016

I swear, the physics in Half-Life 2 get buggier every time I play the game.

Terrik · Jan 7, 2016

I may have just played one of my greatest comeback games of Evolve ever. I'ma post the clip later.

Terrik · Jan 8, 2016

This is what happens when you fail to put pressure on the monster. You get ate:

I still can't believe this was a win. (Video starts at stage 2)

And lastly, I was screaming at the end. I was This｜－｜close.

Bubble181 · Jan 8, 2016

Finished Arkham Asylum. Well, finished the main story, I have 39/42 bios, 197/240 Riddler trophies. Not bad for a mostly blind run-through, I think. Looking at the lists, seems I mainly missed things in the early levels, some of them certainly not yet available when I passed them. Oh well.

The controls with K+M were mostly ok (though not as smooth as SoM, and that wasn't great to begin with), but it really was a chore in the few boss fights with a different point of view - Ivy and Joker, a bit Scarecrow though that was easier. Story, fun. Graphics, good, certainly for its era. Port, crappy (how hard is it to strip out the "press to play" screen? Really?). Gameplay....eh, ok. if I'd played this first, and they said SoM was like this, I probably wouldn't have picked it up at €20 like I did. Not a bad game, really, I just felt a bit too much on rails the whole time.

I'm also wondering how saving works when I'm looking for trophies after the final boss fight, given saving was horribly timed and placed - there's no more story beats, so when or where are the checkpoints? Definitely not on every map change or trophy found during normal game play...

Ravenpoe · Jan 8, 2016

Bubble181 said:
Gameplay....eh, ok. if I'd played this first, and they said SoM was like this, I probably wouldn't have picked it up at €20 like I did. Not a bad game, really, I just felt a bit too much on rails the whole time.

Keep in mind that this was also the first game with this style of gameplay, whereas the game you're comparing it to, SoM, is the most recent version, having gone through several revisions and refinements.

Bubble181 · Jan 8, 2016

I know; I said so earlier

Hailey Knight · Jan 9, 2016

Demon's Souls: In 2-2, just beat Firelurker ...

"Hmm ... notes say terrible foe ahead. What's that, a fog gate? Well, it couldn't possibly be the next boss alreaaawhat the hell is that?! What do I do?!"

YOU DIED

... well fuck, back to Soul mode for me.

figmentPez · Jan 10, 2016

I've been replaying Red Faction: Guerrilla and I'm pleasantly surprised to find that the revised Steam edition of the game is giving me better framerates than I had the first time I played it.

bhamv3 · Jan 11, 2016

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I don't even know when I got this game, but I fired it up... and immediately got my ass owned by alien invaders. This is one tough cookie of a game.

Of course, the fact that it's so hard makes my troops feel intensely vulnerable, which means every move and every exchange is a huge adrenaline rush. Quite a memorable experience.

Ravenpoe · Jan 11, 2016

bhamv3 said:
XCOM: Enemy Unknown

I don't even know when I got this game, but I fired it up... and immediately got my ass owned by alien invaders. This is one tough cookie of a game.

Of course, the fact that it's so hard makes my troops feel intensely vulnerable, which means every move and every exchange is a huge adrenaline rush. Quite a memorable experience.

That game was one of my absolute favorite of that year. If you don't have the expansion, Enemy Within, it's worth getting because of how much it adds to the entire game. New resources, new troops, new missions, it's great. And after you play through it once and no longer feel like you're getting your ass handed to you, get The Long War mod. It adds a ton, and also makes the game much, much harder.[DOUBLEPOST=1452527614,1452527460][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, just as an aside, X-Com 2 looks so fucking good. My body is ready.

bhamv3 · Jan 11, 2016

Ravenpoe said:
That game was one of my absolute favorite of that year. If you don't have the expansion, Enemy Within, it's worth getting because of how much it adds to the entire game. New resources, new troops, new missions, it's great. And after you play through it once and no longer feel like you're getting your ass handed to you, get The Long War mod. It adds a ton, and also makes the game much, much harder.[DOUBLEPOST=1452527614,1452527460][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, just as an aside, X-Com 2 looks so fucking good. My body is ready.

Are the contents from Enemy Within available in the base game's campaign, or are they only available in a separate set of missions? Like, would I be able to use the new troops or resources in the Enemy Unknown missions? Cause if so, that would make the expansion a lot more attractive to me.

Ravenpoe · Jan 11, 2016

bhamv3 said:
Are the contents from Enemy Within available in the base game's campaign, or are they only available in a separate set of missions? Like, would I be able to use the new troops or resources in the Enemy Unknown missions? Cause if so, that would make the expansion a lot more attractive to me.

They are completely integrated throughout all of the base game. The new missions come up as possible encounters in the random events that happen, outside of some scripted ones that will happen at certain times throughout the base campaign.

Bubble181 · Jan 11, 2016

Surprising no-one at all, I started Batman: Arkham City. Haven't gotten very far yet (somewhere half-way through the steel mill, though I've done some side missions before going on with the main story), but already I can say that, game play wise, this is a vast improvement over Asylum. There may be a few too many different gadgets and methods and stuff here, but still. The fighting is just a dozen times smoother. My highest combo in AA was 18, now I already got 28. Considering I'm playing on a higher difficulty now (yes, I played AA on easy, so shoot me), that's....Not what I was expecting.

Hailey Knight · Jan 11, 2016

Stella Glow: Searching for someone, only to be told she's dead.
Team goes back to base, sulky and defeated.
Pass through Persona-style free time and I'm thinking our next mission will mean they got a lead on an alternative.
Commander gathers us.
Gives a speech about going out there and trying harder. Team told to move out.
... um ... if the person is dead, there's nothing to "try harder" at. Believing in ourselves isn't going to fix that, Commander.

GasBandit · Jan 11, 2016

Zero Esc said:
Stella Glow: Searching for someone, only to be told she's dead.
Team goes back to base, sulky and defeated.
Pass through Persona-style free time and I'm thinking our next mission will mean they got a lead on an alternative.
Commander gathers us.
Gives a speech about going out there and trying harder. Team told to move out.
... um ... if the person is dead, there's nothing to "try harder" at. Believing in ourselves isn't going to fix that, Commander.

Well, not with THAT attitude, baka gaijin. GANBARE!

Hailey Knight · Jan 12, 2016

More Stella Glow

Villain: *does evil thing*
Hero: I'll get you for this!
Villain: I'm actually doing this for a good reason and you'll agree with later.
Hero: What reason is that?
Villain: I don't have to tell you.

Most of this game's story has been good (and lucky me, since the cutscene:gameplay ration feels about 60:40), but I feel like the script for Chapter 5 didn't get as much attention, so stuff like above happened to usher things along.

Fun Size · Jan 13, 2016

Christmas haul included F.E.A.R., F.E.A.R. 2 and Deadpool, adding to my backlog that already had Borderlands 2, and at least one other game I'm forgetting. So I'm starting to feel some pressure to get back to the main story line of New Vegas. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of Old World Blues, and the world of Big MT is one of the most delightful things they've created, so I'm playing it like usual.

"Oh, just this last quest and then I'll get back to it."

Also, I want a dog-sized deathclaw.

Null · Jan 13, 2016

Saturday night we went old school: Diablo II Lords of Destruction multiplayer. Started a new character - a Paladin. I've never done that before (my main's a Barbarian). The auras are pretty cool and I got some extremely lucky drops / vendor gear. Triple Socketed Superior Ring Mail in Act I? Yeah, I can deal with that. Even years later, the game is still fun.