Topic: The Currently Playing Thread / Recently Finished Thread

[Cools!]

Only playing BF3 right now. Will get back into Skyrim and SC2 at some point.

[W7RE]

*Dead Space 1 asteroid defense sequence bitching*

Only took me 2 tries though. I can't believe I got the achievement for finishing with more than 50% shields last time I played this.

[Xessive]

My brother and a friend of mine collaborated and got me a PS VITA as a very belated birthday gift (they felt bad for missing my birthday). Awesome piece of portable hardware but I do not understand why Sony insist on locking it down and preventing it from reaching its true potential.

Anyway, I started playing Gravity Rush and it is pretty awesome. I really hope Sony smarten up and really pump out a massive, eclectic library for the VITA. That's what will make or break it.

[MysterD]

Just finished the SP Campaign for Hitman: Absolution (PC).

[W7RE]

It's been 4 years since the first time I played through Dead Space, but there's certain rooms that I will walk into and say, "oh shit". I either instantly remember what happens in that room, or I just remember it being something crazy but can't remember the specifics.

[Cobra951]

I just finished Far Cry 3 last night.  Absolutely fucking horrible last boss "fight".  It's all QTEs, and critically timed ones at that.  After every failure at being a good trained little monkey, I was treated to 20 seconds of reloading the scene from the beginning, and having to watch all the dialog again, all so I could fail again afterward in 3 seconds.  Fuck whoever thought QTEs are legitimate gameplay.  I hope they die painfully in a fire.

Fortunately, there's a fun section after this abortion which actually uses the strengths of the game rather than its dismal weakness.

[Xessive]

Gravity Rush is awesome. I've had more time with mobile games since I'm moving.

I've been thinking about classic games a lot lately and one game I would love to see come back is Guardian Heroes. That game was frickin' awesome.

[shock]

Just finished Dishonored.  Really enjoyed it.  Action/stealth was top-notch and the levels were huge.  Storyline was pretty bad, though, and it was really short.  8/10

I've been having mindless fun with Torchlight 2.  Not sure if I want to start Max Payne 3 or Far Cry 3 next.  Choices.

[nickclone]

I've been playing the hell out of Dead Island and I'm in love with this game! I've noticed two types of people though: those who love this game and those who hate this game. This game is glitchy when you play it online (the glitchiest xbox game I've ever played), which sucks because playing it online is the way to go.

People also seem to bitch about the zombies leveling with you, but I love the idea. As you level and get better weapons the zombies are still dangerous (even when there is just one), but you can handle them much better. Hopefully, with the new DLC/sequel, they will address some of the minor things.

[W7RE]

I really liked Dead Island, but never finished it. I blame this 100% on achievement hunting. I was playing with 2-3 guys who wanted to get all the achievements in the game, and wanted to help me get all of them. We ended up spending more time trying to explore every inch of the island and get every side quest than we did just enjoying ourselves, and I sort of lost interest.

Sort of the same thing happened with Borderlands 2. We were so focused on doing side quests that it would be days between main story missions. At this point a new DLC has just come out (Hammerlock), and I haven't even started the previous one (Torgue).

[Xessive]

I really liked Dead Island, but never finished it. I blame this 100% on achievement hunting. I was playing with 2-3 guys who wanted to get all the achievements in the game, and wanted to help me get all of them. We ended up spending more time trying to explore every inch of the island and get every side quest than we did just enjoying ourselves, and I sort of lost interest.

Sort of the same thing happened with Borderlands 2. We were so focused on doing side quests that it would be days between main story missions. At this point a new DLC has just come out (Hammerlock), and I haven't even started the previous one (Torgue).

Same exact scenario here. I really enjoyed what I played of it but I never finished it.

[Cobra951]

Is it worth playing solo, and is it better behaved (technically) that way?  I've been curious about it since it came out, but I've stayed away because of such negatives.

[Xessive]

Is it worth playing solo, and is it better behaved (technically) that way?  I've been curious about it since it came out, but I've stayed away because of such negatives.

To an extent, it is a more straightforward experience, allowing you to progress as you see fit. However, like Borderlands, it gets boring very quickly on your own.

I'm looking forward to the sequel Dead Island: Riptide which should be releasing around April-May 2013. If you can grab the first one for $10 or under it's worth checking out. Otherwise I'd say hold off until the second one comes out.

[Cobra951]

Borderlands boring?  Not to me.  Borderlands 2 is unfair solo.  That lost my interest fairly quickly.  (Good thing I don't believe in season's passes.)  But BL1 remains one of my top games of all time, and I only played it solo.

[W7RE]

Yea, I played most of Borderlands 1 solo and thought it was great. I got halfway through and a friend decided to get it so we could play together. Halfway through the game he flaked on me and sold the game, so I finished it solo. Then I did most of the DLC solo too.

[Quemaqua]

BL got a bit monotonous for me SP-wise. Then again, it also got a bit monotonous for me in multi. It was just that kind of game. Play for too long, the rhythm was a little too familiar. I didn't play much of Dead Island due to performance issues and the fact that I have next to no time for games, but what I played was totally awesome. And it was all solo for me.

[Cools!]

You guys should all get BF3 so we can own some newbs!

[Xessive]

You guys should all get BF3 so we can own some newbs!

Totally. Plus we have to get on it too! We have to sort out our timezone schedule!

[MysterD]

BL got a bit monotonous for me SP-wise. Then again, it also got a bit monotonous for me in multi. It was just that kind of game. Play for too long, the rhythm was a little too familiar. I didn't play much of Dead Island due to performance issues and the fact that I have next to no time for games, but what I played was totally awesome. And it was all solo for me.

I think this is the thing w/ most of these ARPG's. After 10-20 hours of these non-stop breakneck-paced action-packed games, you just need a break - especially even more so true, when there's a lack of story-telling, character-depth, lore, and/or banter w/ other NPC's bots. All of this is the stuff that was in D3 and actually kept me into Diablo III - all there (optional) extra-stuff that gave me time, at points, to just stay in the game to sit back & relax (lore, story, etc) while out-of-combat (into a town) - and then get back to the chaos, when playing...which most of the time was alone.

This is always this format w/ the ARPG formula - get this item(s); get to/find this location(s); find these person(s); kill one particular person or a bunch of people; get some more loot (from killing enemies or buying enemies); sell some loot back to the stores; tinker w/ loot (craft, upgrade, socket, break-down, etc); level-up (to upgrade and/or learn new skills; repeat formula.

I went through this w/ Torchlight 2 recently. After 11 hours total of it, I just needed a rest. Took a break from it for a while - played it last night and now I wanna get back into it like there's no tomorrow.

[iPPi]

Just finished the SP Campaign for Hitman: Absolution (PC).

Are you going to go back and try to redo some missions? 

[MysterD]

Are you going to go back and try to redo some missions? 

Probably not right now & probably not anytime soon.

[iPPi]

I have to say that this is one of the most frustrating Hitman games I've played.  I've put in like 50 hours into the game and I'm still only on the Operation Sledgehammer mission (escaping the jail) so far.  Now, I am very much a perfectionist player, so I'm trying for a stealth playthrough (no detection, all evidence, no disguises) and that takes a lot of trial and error.

[MysterD]

I have to say that this is one of the most frustrating Hitman games I've played.  I've put in like 50 hours into the game and I'm still only on the Operation Sledgehammer mission (escaping the jail) so far.  Now, I am very much a perfectionist player, so I'm trying for a stealth playthrough (no detection, all evidence, no disguises) and that takes a lot of trial and error.

Took me around 32 hours to finish - and that's having numerous deaths; and reloads from an in-game save point OR just a flat-out level reload.
Sometimes, there were points in some levels that I just gave up and didn't care about the score anymore - and I then decided to just try to get to the next level.

That's probably your best strategy - before you decide to replay levels to get better scores.

Yeah, even on Normal, it's just NOT an easy game. Definitely NOT for everyone.

Regardless - I still enjoyed the game quite a bit.

[shock]

I'm playing through Max Payne 3 right now.  I did it on Hard difficulty for some dumb reason.  I'm about halfway in and it is getting really hard.  I think I'll try and finish, though.  It's pretty fun. 

[MysterD]

I'm playing through Max Payne 3 right now.  I did it on Hard difficulty for some dumb reason.  I'm about halfway in and it is getting really hard.  I think I'll try and finish, though.  It's pretty fun. 

I thought Max Payne 3 (SP portion) was awesome & fantastic.

[Xessive]

I have to say that this is one of the most frustrating Hitman games I've played.  I've put in like 50 hours into the game and I'm still only on the Operation Sledgehammer mission (escaping the jail) so far.  Now, I am very much a perfectionist player, so I'm trying for a stealth playthrough (no detection, all evidence, no disguises) and that takes a lot of trial and error.

It's got its ups and downs but the checkpoint system certainly does the game no favours, especially with the trial & error approach the game encourages players to go for.

I'm replaying it now and I'm going for the Suit Only, stealthy style. I've noticed a problem though. I'm on the Chinese market stage and I've just finished a segment of it  (sneaking through the restaurant kitchen etc.) Did the whole thing Suit Only, I reached the next segment of the stage where the game saves and I quit (since I had to go do something). When I got back, loaded the game, it automatically put me in a shopkeeper/cook outfit! It assumed that it was the only way to get through that part! Lame! I'll have to finish that mission to see if this affects my Suit Only score.

[iPPi]

I'm playing on Expert as well, so I get no checkpoints. 

[iPPi]

I finally finished Hitman Absolution tonight.  Got through most of the game suit only, with a few exceptions early on that I will probably redo now.

I was checking the leaderboards of the game and I realized that I am in the top 30 scores nationally for most of the levels, especially late in the game.  I think I have the 5th highest score for Blackwater Roof, and the 9th highest score for the last level in the game.  That was very surprising.

I have to say, while going the stealth, no detection, and suit only approach can be extremely frustrating, I still found it incredibly satisfying when I finally found the right approach to the level and how to sneak about.  What's interesting about taking this approach though is that you exploit the AI flaws a lot in the game, such as shooting a wall or throwing a distraction nearby to get the guards to turn around and look away as you walk by.

Still, it appears that that is the way the game is meant to be played since a disguise's usefulness is very limited in this game.

[nickclone]

I used to be a huge fan of Hitmanm but as the series went on I started to like it less and less. No one else agrees, but I like the first one the best.

I just beat The Saboteur and I really liked this game, was actually kind of sad when it was over.

[Xessive]

I used to be a huge fan of Hitmanm but as the series went on I started to like it less and less. No one else agrees, but I like the first one the best.

I just beat The Saboteur and I really liked this game, was actually kind of sad when it was over.

I actually agree with you to an extent; Hitman: Codename 47 (the first Hitman game) was my favourite until Hitman Absolution. I liked all the others as well, but the first one left the strongest impression on me.

The Saboteur was a great game. It's one of the few sandbox games that tried to change things up.

[nickclone]

I loved the first Hitman, not only did it have realistic painskins (which is just recently coming back), but it was one of the first games I can remember having rag doll physics. I didn't like how they changed how being in disguise worked from the first game. It felt like the enemies would recognize you at random, really hated that.

I really liked The Saboteur, its had a lot of style and great action moments. I felt it was too easy though, I only died a few times and that was because of gampleay issues (stuck on invisible walls, etc).

I'm playing Max Payne 3 and I don't like this game. I'm on the third level and I can't stop dying (I always start on a normal difficulty setting), but it doesn't feel like it's my fault that I'm dying. I really hate games that do the white dot reticle, what good is a reticle if I can't see it? There isn't enough ammo (something that was never a problem in the other Max Payne games) and Max seems to like to drop the weapons I want him to switch to. This game feels broken, which sucks, because it seems pretty cool.

[W7RE]

I just finished playing through Dead Space Extraction on a borrowed Wii. I hate ethat system even more now. The game was great, but was dragged down so much by the controls. That damn remote is laggy and inaccurate. I also got seriously sick of, "Shake the Wii remote!" Also the scrounging for stuff was kind of shit in the game. Instead of checking all areas like in the other Dead Space games, you they give you half a second to kinesis grab something while your character whips his fucking head all over the place.

This was part of me going through everything Dead Space in anticipation of the 3rd game. In the last week or so I've played/watched/read:
Dead Space (comic)
Dead Space Downfall (animated movie)
Dead Space Extraction (Wii)
Dead Space 1 (Xbox)
Dead Space Aftermath (animated movie)
Dead Space 2 (Xbox)
Dead Space 2: Severed (Xbox)

I still have Dead Space Salvage (comic) to read. I'm skipping Dead Space Ignition (the shitty downloadable XBLA game) because it's shit. I thought about watching it on Youtube again just for the story, but really it just sets up one character that gets less than 30 seconds of screen time in DS2.

[Quemaqua]

Extraction was fun on PS3. Though I don't know if I got to see the real ending because it crashed at the end and didn't save and I was like, fuck you, no, I'm not doing that again.

[W7RE]

Extraction was fun on PS3. Though I don't know if I got to see the real ending because it crashed at the end and didn't save and I was like, fuck you, no, I'm not doing that again.

Well in case you missed some, it was just

(click to show/hide)

Eckhart shoots Gabe and then dies to a necro, Gabe and Lexine stay by the shuttle as Nathan goes to deactivate the automated turret system so you do'nt get shot down as you escape. You, as Nathan, cross the surface of the Ishimura to deactivate the automated turrets, and then have to fight the slug boss from DS1 on the way back. It spikes your hand to the floor and you have to cut it off to escape. Gabe, Lexine, and Nathan escape on the shuttle. You see from Nathan's POV as he comes back and tries to attack Lexine in the shuttle and you don't know how that turns out.

Then the story picks up a couple years later on The Sprawl in Dead Space 2: Severed.

One thing I find weird though is Lexine and her men.

(click to show/hide)

At the beginning of Extraction she's with Sam Caldwell. He dies, 3 weeks pass, and she seems like she's developing a thing for Nathan during the events of the game, and thinks Gabe is sort of an asshole. Nathan dies at the very end, which you can tell from his absence in Severed, and she's now married to Gabe.

[K-man]

I just finished up the main quest in New Vegas.  I left quite a bit unfinished, but I'm going to wait until I can snag the Ultimate Edition for cheap.

Was going to jump into Dark Souls, but decided to space out my long play titles.  So I jumped into Arkham City.  Game looks fantastic.

[idolminds]

I ended up watching Dark Knight again the other night, and you playing Batman reminded me that I still havent played through them myself. Not going to jump into AC yet, so I started up Asylum. My old save was real early in the game plus it had a date of Dec 2011 so I figured Id start fresh. Already way past where my old save was.

[gpw11]

I just finished Uncharted 3, an awesome end to an awesome series.  Not sure what to get onto next.  I have a ton of Wii games I haven't played and a few PS3 games (Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Infamous).  I'll probably move on to one of those or the Metroid Prime Trilogy.


Also, slowly playing some PC games as well. It's funny, I probably only play a fee hours of games a week now, but it is spread all over the place

[MysterD]

Since Friday afternoon's Steam sale (which Amazon DVG did match that day for Non-Steam version), when we've actually had power here (before 7:35 PM EST and after around 3pm yesterday), I've been playing...
Test Drive Unlimited 2 (PC) w/ an online profile.

{SIDE NOTE: You can do a separate offline profile - but you just don't have access mainly to the MP-based content - which is the competitive MP racing spots on the map; ride shotgun driving w/ another players online; and don't see other players in real-time roaming the world}

I just really like this racer / driving game, despite its rough edges. A true flawed-gem, if I ever played one. Not many racing / driving games like this one.

The physics and whatnot ain't great - but they're decent enough. Also, the game's got a learning curve and a half - especially when it teaches you how to race. Cars turn, slide, and whatnot like garbage early on - so until you get better cars, you better not play aggressive on turns, slides, drifts, and stuff like that like you can in other racers (think NFS series or Burnout series). And earning a License to drive a certain kind of car - the first stuff you have to do before you can proceed into Championship races - and they are NOT easy. So

It's like a racing / driving MMO. There's a leveling system - the more you do in the specific categories (there's 4 of them - each w/ their own Leveling number), which all adds the sum up to your Total Level #. The more you do, more things you unlock. There's so much to do (SP Racing championships; SP-style side-quests); so much in the world to explore; and the game-worlds (Ibiza and Oahu - you have to level-up to unlock Oahu) are just ridiculously huge.

Have no interest in racing? Just cruise the game-world; find wrecked-cars (for cars and/or car-parts); see the sights; find collectibles in the game-world; buy clothes for your characters to outfit that character you created (which can be male or female); etc etc. Want to do it all? Then do it! World's your oyster. Just...it can be very time-consuming, if you do decide to plunge in.

TDU2, more or less, has been my racing Elder Scrolls game, since I bought it a while back (Sept 2011), more or less - I'l play it for a number of hours for a while consistently; drift away for a period of time; and then I always eventually come back to this game.

[Cobra951]

How does it stack up against the first game (if you've played it)?  I loved TDU 1.  What I've read hasn't been encouraging, so I've passed on 2.

While I'm here, the talk about Wind Waker going HD got me playing that lovely game once more.  (My Wii still works, after being idle over a year.  Yay!  It's a superior Gamecube, with progressive-scan display.  It's gotten a lot more use as a GC than a Wii.  How sad.)  WW, being cel-based, still looks terrific.  The blurry textures are few and far between, with much of the rendering being shader-based. This may be why Nintendo chose it as something to upgrade for the new console.  That and the Tingle tuner being a shoe-in for the pad screen.  From there, I went on to Twilight Princess (the GC version--the only proper version of that game), which I'm still playing.

[MysterD]

@Cobra
Unfortunately, for some reason, I missed TDU1 - and do regret it. Especially since it's very hard to find these days (especially on PC); and some seem to prefer the original TDU1 over TDU2.
Kind of odd I missed-out on this - as I like racers.

I don't know how well console TDU2 got patched-up, though.
TDU2 PC version's in better shape than it was during review-time. Features that were missing (Online Clubs), performance issues, and stuff of that nature have been improved & implemented in PC version.