What are you playing?

I want a Viking age game too...where you and your band of raiders raid olde England and the lands of Frankia.
This is sort of what Mount and Blade: Warband is like. You start out as a bunch of goons, slowly build up your army, then start impressing people enough to be knighted and earn lands until you're ready to usurp the King yourself.
 
This is sort of what Mount and Blade: Warband is like. You start out as a bunch of goons, slowly build up your army, then start impressing people enough to be knighted and earn lands until you're ready to usurp the King yourself.
Yeah, I really liked it too, but despite the time I sunk into it, the grind in gaining prestige and position in the game is eternal and gets pretty tedious.
 
Yeah, I really liked it too, but despite the time I sunk into it, the grind in gaining prestige and position in the game is eternal and gets pretty tedious.
That was basically my thought too. Eventually I was running roughshod over every army, but I wasn't getting enough prestige to gain more holds or title... but I was a far way away from overcoming my own people to assume the crown.
 
That was basically my thought too. Eventually I was running roughshod over every army, but I wasn't getting enough prestige to gain more holds or title... but I was a far way away from overcoming my own people to assume the crown.
Yeah, could capture a keep single handed then watch the king, who I'm 100% buddies with, hand it off to some jerkass nobody waltzing around with 30 dudes, who then immediately loses it to the opposing force.
 
The only viking game I remember playing is Rune, I think it was called? I remember liking it until it bugged out on me late in the game and I couldn't get out of a pit.
 
The only viking game I remember playing is Rune, I think it was called? I remember liking it until it bugged out on me late in the game and I couldn't get out of a pit.
Sounds better than the viking game I played as a kid, had me bite the throat of a wolf off, skin it, place the skin on top of myself, than I forget what happened in the middle but when I woke up a bunch of dudes where VERY dismembered. Have no memory of what happened after I saw the moon, it was weird.
 
Yeah, could capture a keep single handed then watch the king, who I'm 100% buddies with, hand it off to some jerkass nobody waltzing around with 30 dudes, who then immediately loses it to the opposing force.
Worse, the pittance you get to make up for the loss of this keep usually isn't enough to make up for whatever troops you lost defending the keep or the ones you had to dump there to try and hold the line. God forbid it was some Swordsisters or you'd have to spend 30-45 minutes training up some peasant women again... but you have to dump stuff like them there because most normal units SUCK.
 
So, been playing more Witcher. Whatever the patch yesterday did, it massively improved the performance on my PC. Now I have everything at high with a lot of options set to Ultra (with most post-processing options maxed, except motion blur, because, you know, fuck motion blur) and still get a very playable 45+ FPS. Still no hairworks, which from what I understand barely works on Nvidia cards, let alone AMD. Turned it on to see what it looked like and I ABSOLUTELY do not see the appeal with weird tesselated hair that defies physics and floats all over the place. It reminded me of the hair in that shitty Gamecube Aquaman game.

 
Also, good trick to Gwent is making sure you find all the captured traders that dot the world. Freeing them get you some good cards. I actually got one big one that has turned the tide of my luck. It's a beast (literally, a golden dragon that ravages opponents front line).
 
I havent bothered with Gwent, but I have had a LOT of fun exploring every "unexplored area" in the game. There are some FPS issues on the PS4, but nothing to cry about, and it looks FANTASTIC. This is the first game I've ever bought the season pass for, and I don't think I'm wasting my money. I'm also playing on the 2nd highest difficulty where you dont regain health when you meditate so the challenge is pretty brutal.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
So Carmageddon Reincarnation finally came out. I was a kickstarter backer, so I've watched its development through alpha and beta... They didn't quite address all the issues they had pre-launch.

 
Seeing how much Nintendo is promoting Splatoon, I'm really hoping it isn't "meh" then dead like with Code Name STEAM. Even if I like it from the demo, I'm gonna wait and see how Nintendo and players are treating it afterward before I risk buying another new Nintendo IP.

I've pretty much given up on Code Name STEAM, and I think I've figured out why the demo was so fun, but the main game isn't. It's the Dragon Age 2 situation. When that game begins, it has the flaws we all know and hate from Dragon Age 2, but we were more forgiving in Act 1 because it feels like that's just the beginning, that the game is going to build towards something more, but then it the horror dawns on you that "nope, this is all there is, for the whole game." Code Name STEAM feels like that, the demo seemed more like a tease toward a bigger thing, but then in progressing further in the game, you realize there isn't anything more. The game is the demo, on and on, as Dragon Age 2 was Act 1, Act 1, Act 1 instead of Act 1, Act 2, Act 3. Each of its parts would've been fine as the beginning of a game's story, but as three parts to one game, it didn't work. Code Name STEAM feels like there should be more to it besides additional characters, and maybe they should've thrown in level and skill progression (more RPG-like), but really even the story doesn't go anywhere.
 
Working my way through the Drangelic Castle in DS2: Scholar of the first sin. I never made it this far in the original game and my understanding is that SotFS has tougher enemy placement, so I'd say I'm doing pretty good.

Check out this sexy beast:
Darksouls.jpg
 
Working my way through the Drangelic Castle in DS2: Scholar of the first sin. I never made it this far in the original game and my understanding is that SotFS has tougher enemy placement, so I'd say I'm doing pretty good.
Tougher AND less bullshit. They moved a few mobs that made some sections a matter of luck rather than skill, as well as putting other mobs in places that make more sense for them to be there. It's a much better experience overall.
 
What am I playing? Not the Splatoon testfire. Apparently Nintendo dropped the ball on their network (shocking), to the point that they are facing network issues on a worldwide scale.I was willing to let this testfire sway me if it was any fun; guess it's just a mystery. But even if I could play and decided I wanted it, I think I'd wait a couple weeks to a month after release to be sure Nintendo's got their shit together. If they want this to be as big as Mario Kart like they say, they need to give it stability more like Mario Kart 8 and less like the Nintendo eshop.
 
An hour after it was supposed to start, it works. I guess Nintendo noticed their servers crashed, so once fixed, extended the time. Wife is playing right now; seems like fun. I don't think the touch pad "zorp to ally's location* is so necessary as to make it so two people locally couldn't have two people locally get online together.
 
They extended the time by an hour, posted on Twitter.

Roller for life! But probably only for turf war mode.
 
So, in Witcher 3, I finally built enough of a Gwent deck to be allowed into the big high stakes Gwent tournament. I was super confident in how badass my deck was. Then my first opponent basically played my exact deck, except he had a hand of literally every single of my deck's best cards (with none of the less than stellar you have to have to fill out the minimum card count).

No wonder the quest is for level 24, I'm gonna assume I need to go to Skelige to earn s'more cards first.

Also, this is easily the best open world game ever made. Holy shit.
 
I hated the charge gun. I couldn't really get the hang of it. I also suck at console shooters, so that did not help. :p
 
I hated the charge gun. I couldn't really get the hang of it. I also suck at console shooters, so that did not help. :p
It seems like its main purpose is to take out other players, and in turf war that ends up feeling like I'm not contributing much. I've seen people make it shoot a line of paint across the map though. No idea; I stuck to the splat roller and the splattershot.

My wife and I took turns playing over the hour Nintendo gave, and while we both thought it was a lot of fun, the same problem I've been having is still an issue, which my wife summed up well at the end of the demo. "I wish we could play together." Without us being able to go online together a la Mario Kart, and with the only local play being the mostly-crappy dojo thing, I really can't drop $60 on this. I'm kind of hoping that when it's released it turns out Nintendo just forgot to mention that, because I don't think the gamepad is necessary for everything they're talking about.

As it is though, it'd essentially be my wife and I swapping the controller back and forth, probably ducking in and out of accounts since we'd want to customize our own Inklings, going through a hassle and also not able to enjoy the game together. In fact, I doubt she would play it much this way, which would mean I'd essentially be getting it for myself going "look how much fun I'm having in the game we wish we could play together!"

I can't really justify that.


(unless I can get it at a discount or something)
 
Guys, I know I'm a broken record, but the Witcher 3 is the best. Each quest chain is fucking fantastic and they're good enough to mix in some lighthearted quests even in the middle of the most grimdark chains. They spiderweb out so much. There's SO much content even in just the critical path chains, let alone the myriad of side ones.
 
Guys, I know I'm a broken record, but the Witcher 3 is the best. Each quest chain is fucking fantastic and they're good enough to mix in some lighthearted quests even in the middle of the most grimdark chains. They spiderweb out so much. There's SO much content even in just the critical path chains, let alone the myriad of side ones.
I'm giving 2 another try. It gets better once you get out of the opening area.

Though, five minutes in, one of my first thoughts were "..that's not a medieval bush."
 
I'm giving 2 another try. It gets better once you get out of the opening area.

Though, five minutes in, one of my first thoughts were "..that's not a medieval bush."
I liked the opening area.

Also, Sorceresses cheat. They're all ugly, unwanted, usually deformed in some way girls who were magicked pretty since it's expected that sorceresses be attractive (that's right out of the books). Yennefer for example was supposedly a hunchback.
 
Guys, I know I'm a broken record, but the Witcher 3 is the best. Each quest chain is fucking fantastic and they're good enough to mix in some lighthearted quests even in the middle of the most grimdark chains. They spiderweb out so much. There's SO much content even in just the critical path chains, let alone the myriad of side ones.
Well, sure, but have you tried The Order: 1886?

:awesome:
 
If there were a minigame called How Fast Can You Chop Roach's Stupid Fucking Head Off in the Witcher 3, I would not stop playing it. That fucking horse is the worst piece of shit. Especially in any of the racing quests. Is that a slight curve in the road? Better rear back and come to a complete stop. Is the weather slightly shitty? Best rear back and come to a complete stop. Is the road ahead entirely clear and without a trace of any sort of obstruction? Better rear back and come to a complete stop.

Oh, shit. Man, even the most lighthearted quest chain can get super grimdark.....holy fuck.

A lengthy quest chain helping your bud Dandilion set up his new cabaret eventually ends with his lover and partner getting almost murdered, when you look into it, it turns out she's one of a long line of serial murders. You then look into it and find it's about people who blaspheme the big religion in the region, in any minor way. The murderer ends up being an ancient higher vampire turned crazy religious zealot. Along the way you get to find an elderly lady's corpse, strung up naked with her eyes burned out and her heart removed.
 
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Your posting pattern tells me you'll break down, pre-order it, play it for a bit, and then be disappointed.
I know! I told her I don't want to be buying things at release anymore unless I can be certain it's golden, which essentially means in a franchise I love (Shin Megami Tensei, Zelda, etc.). Unfortunately, the demo created the illusion for us that we owned Splatoon, so moments came up of "I'm gonna play--oh wait."

I'm glad Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 is such a long game, because it seems like I won't be buying any other 3DS games for a while at the rate I'm getting console games. Not that there's anything else big coming out this year, unless Nintendo pulls out some E3 surprises. At forecast, Splatoon is there last big thing this year since Zelda and Star Fox are most likely going to be 2016 releases now.
 
My wife is sweet; I was playing Smash Bros and I guess she was staring at me or something, then said "I'm so glad you're having fun with it now." I'd been looking forward to it so much last year that my disappointment was apparent. Now that I'm enjoying it, I don't know why I felt like I was forcing myself to play it months ago.

In other news, Frank wants to have Witcher 3's babies.
 
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