Recently finished a game of XCOM: Enemy Within using my friends’ names for soldiers and keeping a journal as I went so I could write it out as a dramatic story. Unfortunately, after a few months I started playing really conservatively and didn’t lose any more soldiers for the rest of the game so things became way less dramatic and exciting. Not sure I can produce an entertaining read without horrible death scenes. I’ve been trying the Long War mod now, but I’m not as wild about it so far as others have been.
I hate pre-release hype and try to avoid all of it as much as possible, but I confess Fallout 4 has gotten through my defenses. I actually really like the ideas behind the stat system rework and I’m optimistic it will turn out well. But Bethesda is notoriously bad about coming up with interesting perks and abilities (Skyrim’s perk trees are so very bland) so I fear it may not live up to its potential.
Oh, I’m also looking forward to the Director’s Cut/Enhanced Editions of Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin, which I think are both supposed to come out this month. I enjoyed what I played of them but never got very far. I’m hoping the improved editions will clean up the annoyances.
Due to work and kid constraints, and my gaming buddies running silent due to work and family as well, I spent most of the past six months playing Battlefield 4 on the Xbox One when I had the chance. It was something I was good at, and a game where I could zone out while playing.
I tried playing Wasteland 2, but it kind of bogged me down in the details; IMO it was a little too much sandbox game, and not quite enough of an adventure on rails. It was too easy to get distracted by side-quests without even knowing that they were side quests, and then stumble into the main game quests underprepared.
Before that, I’d ground out 2-3 games of XCOM, but got tired of getting my guys all leveled up and kitted out well, and then having them start getting wasted, and after a certain tipping point, there was no coming back- the game was effectively over, and all there was to do was to grind out the inevitable losses due to inexperienced personnel.
Nowadays, I’m playing Dawn of War II: Retribution. I’d played the original Dawn of War, and Dawn of War II a lot, and didn’t realize that there was a third game / expansion pack that came out a few years back. I’m enjoying it a lot actually.
Mostly waiting on Fallout 4 and The Division as far as future games are concerned.
I owned a PS2 copy and had beaten it twice before.
Wow, everyone needs to get a Steam copy. Double Fine released a patch about 2 years ago that made it Widescreen compatible and also made it work really well with an Xbox 360 controller.
It does not upgrade the game to HD visuals, but they look outstandingly good. It’s a game from 2005, but I honestly could see a company releasing it today with only a few upgrades to the graphics. They even tweaked the Meat Circus to make it a bit more playable(though the changes did not make it overly easy).
Seriously, it is one of my all time favorites now. It may be one of the greatest games of all time. Get it!
Recently finished Mad Max which was pretty good all the way through. Not without flaws but I enjoyed myself from start to finish with the exception of one event.
Bought Ark: Survival Evolved the other day. I played Rust for a while a year or so before burning out on it but I know a few people getting into Ark and figured I’d have more fun knowing friends in game right off the bat.
I managed to snag a Fallout 4 pre-order for 50% off during a (very) short-lived coupon at GMG so, while I agree in principle about pre-orders, for $30 I’ll roll with the launch glitches and stuff.
I got Pillars of Eternity when it was half off last week and am loving it. Exactly what a modern re-imagining of Baldur’s Gate should be like. Would be nice if your keep had the option of a petting zoo upgrade though. I currently have a space octopus, an undead cat, a dog, a spider, and a wurm. Would be nice if I could keep them in the keep some place where they could interact with each other and me.
Excited for Wasteland 2 getting a director’s cut on October 13th. I got it for my winter vacation last year and ended up playing other stuff instead, so looking forward to an even better version. Also Divinity: Original Sin, I played it for about 40 hours, but messed up and ended up stuck, plan to start from scratch once it gets its enhanced addition update.
I am looking forward to Fallout 4, but definitely gonna wait for DLCs and price drop, since my current backlog is already full of awesome RPGs that I already own.
The last couple of weeks have been a pretty big work/life crunch, so I haven’t gotten much gaming in. Before that, I was spending time with Darkest Dungeon and Diablo 3. I’m not sure if things are going to clear up before November… and my backlog is even more swollen than normal. It’s not looking to get better in the near future, either, with a Starcraft 2 expansion coming out in November as well as several things I’m targeting in Black Friday sales. I hope all of these games are still playable when I retire in thirty years.
I only did one play through of Diablo 3 (along with Reaper of Souls expansion). I grew up on Diablo so I really enjoyed the nostalgia-inducing dungeon crawls, but I didn’t end up wanting to play it again.
I just googled Darkest Dungeon and it looks like there’s a sale for it going on STEAM. Let me know if you like it, yeah? I might buy it.
‘Assbox 360’ Bahaha! Yeah I couldn’t put Arkham City down. I’m obsessed with Catwoman in general, so the fact that she was a playable character really got me hooked. You definitely should play it (too bad it’s for your xbox though)! I played Asylum, City, and Origins to prep myself for Knight, and then never bought Knight. Thanks for the reminder haha.
Don’t get me wrong, Skyrim is top 10 one of my favorite games of all time, but I completely agree about the skill trees. I found the Spell trees completely useless.
But I really think they’re perfecting it, because when I read about the Fallout 4 Perks I got excited. No more skills, all perks - I think that will work a lot better. I’m guessing you saw the video example - but anyone else interested it’s Here.
I’m going to admit that I totally watched the 27 minutes of The Division gameplay from Gamecross. No regrets.
Hadn’t heard of this before now but I just looked it up. Looks interesting. Kind of reminds me of Jak and Daxter for some reason.
oft wears hats has a copy, and loves it-- I’ve spent a long time watching him play it, and it really does look awesome. Maybe I can persuade him to make an appearance in this thread to talk about it, but he started a thread on it here.
You’ve never heard of Psychonauts? Wow. I don’t think it is like Jax and Daxter. It is, in my opinion, the best game of the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox generation. Only Okami can compete.
Pretty much splitting my time between Elite: Dangerous and Just Cause 2 with Just Cause 3 on pre-order as a Christmas present. Which is why I’m waiting for a Steam sale on Fallout 4.
Am currently making my/our way through The Witcher3 - I say our as the PS4 is not mine. The upstairs neighbours come down one day a weekend to play on my big tv
We have made W3 our game…I keep toying with the thought of getting my own PS4 but I’m afraid I’ll end up as I did with the Wii many years ago - play for a days/weeks solidly and then not touch it for months. £300 is a tad too steep for that behaviour
Between a rotating job schedule and a personal banishment of playing when I don’t have a real job, my videogaming has sadly been put on hold. But when I do play it’s either playing Lego Harry Potter/Lego Jurassic World with Ms. Cups, or if I do let myself play it’s playing Mass Effect 3s multiplayer or maybe a short mission.
If I had the time to play like I used to I have Dragon Age Origins about 3/4 played through, Uncharted 3 about 1/4 played through (but don’t remember a thing about it…so I’d have to restart it) and LA Noire and Kingdom Hearts 1.2 sitting in the bank.
I desperately want to be able to allow myself to get Star Wars Battlefield when it comes out and I THINK I’d enjoy Fallout 4, but it seems too big for me and I get lost if a game is too open world. But I can tell you that next holiday season is still too far away from ME:A
A little late to Witcher 3 (PC) - just started last week and am climbing the learning curve, which inevitable involves a few false starts. But I am loving it so far :). It is starting to generate those compulsive very late nights, always a good sign.
Have to say voice-acting and writing in the better RPGs has really improved in leaps and bounds the last several years. In this case it might help that this game has a literary pedigree, but I’m still impressed. And all of those gamers that bitched about the somewhat monotone ( if beautifully rendered ) environments in games like Skyrim and the Fallout series should be loving the woodsy Witcher world - lovely graphics if your machine is up to snuff.
Mechanics are quite solid, though as with a lot of these games the inventory management is a tad bit cumbersome. But I seem to be far more tolerant of that than some - it never crimps my enjoyment much.
Prior to last year I had never played a GTA game. I heard how cool GTA 5 was, and saw some You Tube videos of GTA 5 gameplay, and then knew I wanted to play it. I bought a PS4 solely to have a platform upon which to play GTA 5. I have been playing that game for a year now, and it still cracks me up.
I just restarted Dragon Age: Inquisition. I played a lot of it last winter but I didn’t finish it and then I got caught up in life/work and didn’t have time for a deep game. During that time, I spent a lot of time playing Pinball Arcade. If you love pinball it’s really good. All the tables are recreations of actual pinball machines and they have a lot of classics from the last 50 years.
My wife’s out of town for the weekend. I have the big tv with surround sound all to myself. I have a PS4 handy. I have no idea what game to play.
Recently, I’ve really liked Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite. Maybe whatever Call of Duty came out last; it was ok. I like shooting shit up, I like pretty graphics, I like an interesting story.
What I don’t like is what I guess you’d call the big, open-world games or RPG type stuff. I don’t want to wander around collecting stuff, I don’t want to craft stuff, I don’t want to dick around trying to find missions to add to my bank account. Basically, I don’t like things that seem like a damn job. I’m simple minded and only have so much free time. Get me to the blowing shit up already.
What I really don’t like is multiplayer. I’ll admit it. I’m old and I suck. I downloaded the Star Wars Battlefront beta last night and spent a couple hours getting killed by people I never saw. It’s bad enough that I’ve gotten slow in my old age; I don’t need people proving it to me every 32 seconds.
I didn’t ever finish all her stuff on Arkham City, but I did find myself going into a different roleplaying mode when her parts came up. Instead of trying to finish fights as efficiently as possible as I did with Batman, I drew out fights, relishing the relative incompetence of the thugs who dared screw with me. I used my whip to keep them at bay, and only actually finished them off when they bored me.
Lately, I seem to have gotten allergic to actually finishing a game. I’ve done two nearly complete playthroughs of Witcher 3. I have averred to going through the final DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition. I started Shadowrun: Hong Kong, but wandered off at some point.
On twice-daily basis I check in with Fallout Shelter. I skipped the last big event in Simpsons: Tapped Out, because it started when I was about to take a big trip, and now EA insists I re-enter my password, and won’t accept the new password I’ve just given them in their password change system. So I’ve more or less given up on that game.
I replayed Fallout 3, to get ready for Fallout 4, but I’m stalled with replaying Fallout: New Vegas because I’m in a quandary about what DLC to employ. And I never actually finished the game to begin with, through multiple replays.
Wolfenstein: The New Order. Best FPS I’ve played in a long time with a more passable story than a good FPS probably deserves. It’s not “OMG this changed my life” type stuff but it fits the action perfectly and manages a balances between pathos and its own absurdity.
Edit: A minor caveat, the first 20-30 minutes is kind of a drag. I HATE the whole “It gets better” mantra but, in this case, it really does become a completely different game once you get through the tedious prologue and replace skulking around with dual wielding machine guns.
Semi-challenge: I’m about as gamer as it gets, and I know about Psychonauts. I already own Psychonauts on Steam, not that that’s saying that much, since I own half of Steam. I’ve never played it, and it’s not on the radar for my backlog. Convince me that instead of starting (Massive Chalice / One Way Heroics Plus / Ironcast / Wasteland 2 / More Diablo), I should play Psychonauts on Sunday morning. Seriously!
