NOW what are you playing?

[The Alchemist]

So I start up Steam to check how much it costs to get into the DOTA2 beta and bam, it's on my list. Apparently I got accepted at some point.


So anyway. I tried it. While it does have some things I prefer over LoL, I do not prefer it. The champs are much more vapid, where as I am already invested into the champs/lore of LoL. The announcer voice (I know its customizable) sounds like the guy from UT, and doesnt compare to the "An Enemy is GODLIKE" and "PENTAKILL" from LoL.

Also the engine. It's source. You can tell. It bleeds it. I love source, but not for an RTS.

[Zerker]

I haven't posted an update here in a bit, so here goes:

Finished Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Fairly enjoyable; no complaints. Not too much to say here.

I also finished my replay of Ultima 7: The Black Gate. Which reminds me why I loved the game so much. I pretty much explored wherever I could think of, and even did the Dungeon Shame (aka Despise depending on which Ultima you refer to). I saved Forge of Virtue for right before the Isle of the Avatar to avoid totally unbalancing my playthrough.

Now I'm playing Savage Empire and Dead Space 2.

Dead Space 2 is a bit early to make much of a comment on. So far it's... more Dead Space. It's a bit weird to go from one weapon to suddenly "pick whatever you want from around 8 weapons" when you get to the first shop terminal. It feels like someone bundled some day-one "helper" DLC in my PC version without telling me.

Savage Empire is pretty decent so far. I agree that the view area is a bit small, but there are two ways to help this:
1) The map that comes with the game is highly accurate and should probably be printed out
2) There is a shamanistic spell to see a wider area around your character (Human Skull + Pinde, I believe).

Also, most of the thick foliage is pretty much just a wall of trees, so once you learn to recognize that, it gets a bit easier to avoid trying to poke it for navigable paths.

I just got to the lab in my last play session and started trying to figure out exactly who I want to carry what.

I'm also playing some Rayman 2 and Hard Reset. I believe I just finished the "core" Hard Reset levels and have started the expanded levels. It's pretty clear that the expanded levels are really just "we got time to actually finish the game", though, judging by what I read from reviews and how the cutscene between the two sets of levels really doesn't work as an actual ending.

[ChaozFlame]

Witcher 2 is on hold.
I play Shadow of the Colossus from time to time.
I just stopped playing Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, because the enemies decided to ignore all the badasses and kill my healers instead.
I play League of Legends twice a day to get the first win bonus on two accounts.
And I'm currently trying to get Myst, just waiting on it to download.

[dethtoll]

I don't wanna do the Mage Towers in Thief Gold, but that's what's up next.

[redrain85]

Dead Space 2 is a bit early to make much of a comment on. So far it's... more Dead Space. It's a bit weird to go from one weapon to suddenly "pick whatever you want from around 8 weapons" when you get to the first shop terminal. It feels like someone bundled some day-one "helper" DLC in my PC version without telling me.

I take it you patched the game. Well, EA were dicks at first when the PC version was released. They refused to release any of the DLC for it, that was on consoles.

Then some clever folks found out that DLC was actually in the PC version already, just disabled. So they enabled it. This caused a bit of an uproar, as you might imagine. EA was more or less forced to officially enable the DLC, via the patch. But they were lazy, just dumping it all in the first store and making everything cost zero credits.

If you search around, you can also find the Conduit Room unlock. Something that wasn't included in the patch. There are a few rooms you can't get into, as they too were "exclusive" to the console versions. The unlock allows you to get in. (But, to be honest, there's nothing terribly exciting in these rooms. Getting in there is for completionists.)

[Zerker]

I didn't intentionally patch the game, it's just the version that Steam autodownloaded. Anyhow, that makes sense. I have since dumped the free goodies and will be playing only with the gear that was actually planned for where I am in the game. Still, It's a nuisance having all that crap in the store.

[CCCToad]

I don't wanna do the Mage Towers in Thief Gold, but that's what's up next.

ctrl-shift-alt-del

[dethtoll]

Or I just take an hour or so to trudge through it like I just did. vOv It's not so bad -- for some reason I seem to be having a super-easy time with Thief this particular playthrough.

[Thirith]

Savage Empire is pretty decent so far. I agree that the view area is a bit small, but there are two ways to help this:
1) The map that comes with the game is highly accurate and should probably be printed out
2) There is a shamanistic spell to see a wider area around your character (Human Skull + Pinde, I believe).

Also, most of the thick foliage is pretty much just a wall of trees, so once you learn to recognize that, it gets a bit easier to avoid trying to poke it for navigable paths.

Glad you've proven more patient with it than I have... I'm wondering whether the (mild) filter I've activated didn't help - perhaps it made it more difficult to see at a glimpse where the wall of trees begins and ends. Anyway, I've got more than enough other games to play - here's hoping that Nuvie will be further along by the time I've worked through my backlog.

P.S.: What I completely don't get about the Battlefield 3 campaign - it's not that they didn't put any effort into it. They could easily have worked almost entirely with MP assets, but they actually put together some great looking levels that are used exclusively for the campaign. Yet in every other respect it's one of the most dreary, boring, soulless, lifeless FPS campaigns I've seen in a long time. Bad Company 2 was no masterpiece, but it was fun.

[Sluggs]

I've been playing through all the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. (Love those) and before playing those, I played through Far Cry 2 twice. (Awesome game, and with some damn sweet driving)

I am still playing Call of Pripyat and when it ended, I wasn't having that! I wanted more, so I let them leave without me the second time around. I've amassed loads of money and brought myself an Exoskeleton and a Sniper rifle from that guy on the ship, and of course, I fully modded them both.

Stuffed loads of things into my personal box on the same ship, as I have enough money now and don't need to sell them. Only thing is, I'm quickly running out of things to do! :-(

I also found you-know-what after getting stuck in the Ventilation complex and having to google for help on that part. (That was the only time I needed help) but damn, I didn't expect it would lead me to where it did! I wanted to find that on my own!

Has anyone noticed something strange when you paddle through the water in COP? I could hear my own footsteps following me around, like something else was paddling through the water with me! (When I first noticed that, I kept looking around to see what was following me)

[henke]

I played through Far Cry 2 twice. (Awesome game, and with some damn sweet driving)

Never seen anyone refering to FC2's driving as "damn sweet" before. I thought it was alright, though unremarkable. Great game though, I played through it twice too.

[Neb]

The tunnel behind me just caved in. Guess which game I'm playing.

[henke]

Boulderdash?

[Eshaktaar]

Eye of the Beholder?

[N'Al]

Katamari Damacy.

[Jason Moyer]

Tomb Raider Anniversary

[gunsmoke]

The tunnel behind me just caved in. Guess which game I'm playing.

Jesus, I could think of at least a dozen...

@ faetal: I wish I still had my copy of the Kyd score from Freedom Fighters, though. It's nice in-game, though. I have every version put to disc (PS2, GameCube, Xbox, and PC), btw.

@dethtoll: Keep on truckin'! I love playing Thief in the summer (late night obviously).

@ Alchy: I saw your post on FB about your experience with the beta. Thanks for expanding upon it. Are you a fan of the genre, or just casually interested?

@GenGaming: (ha) Playing through the Alone in the Dark ('08, '09?) 'reboot'. Not bad, if a bit frustrating with only checkpoint saves and fiddly controls. Great atmosphere, graphics, and gameplay keep me plugging along.

[dethtoll]

Honestly Thief has always been more appropriately played in late summer or autumn, but I wanted to go through the series ahead of Dishonored so I got a jumpstart on it.

[Ulukai]

One day, I'll get around to playing past the first mission of Thief 2.

[The Alchemist]

@ Alchy: I saw your post on FB about your experience with the beta. Thanks for expanding upon it. Are you a fan of the genre, or just casually interested?

I've been playing LoL for a few months now, so I guess you could say I'm new to the genre, however the mechanics are right up my ally. The multiclass pvp is very similar to pvp in RO, which I played for... far too long. I'm not exactly high elo yet but I do pretty well.

And also my DOTA2 comments were a bit premature. There are a lot of things I like more in DOTA2 than I do in LoL, however there are things that work better in LoL. For one, the champions are more interesting in LoL, and the skins are more interesting than buying freakin hats. I saw already that the announcer can be changed, there are several others, and it's nice that they use actual USD rather than those set up point systems that always short you on multiple purchases.

DOTA2 runs like crap on my computer. I dont know why. Well, this isnt "my" computer, once I get my computer back I'll give it another shot. There are definitely things about DOTA2 that interest me a lot, there are a lot of champs and they all seem pretty interesting, even if they are used more as avatars rather than actual "heros". The LoL engine feels more like an RTS/PCRPG and therefore I am more comfortable with it thusfar, however, I can't really make this statement with 100% confidence as my experiences with DOTA2 have been extremely encumbered by my performance issues.

Third paragraph now and I realize how this is going to continue: "I like this about DOTA, but I like this about LoL". In the end they are both good and both have their respective ups and downs. Which one I'll still be playing a month from now I dont know, so far I have more fun with LoL and that might just be because DOTA2 lags.

Also: If you havent tried a MOBA yet, beware! There is something about this new genre that is scarily addictive, like some ridiculous pvp, rts, rpg, mmo hybrid. Every match involves leveling, you get gear, your build is never really 100% the same, the pvp is intense, class countering is important, teamwork is a must, and the ranking system is a lot of fun. It's like all the addictive parts of the games I like put into one thing. Stay away.

[EvaUnit02]

Far Cry 2 twice. (Awesome game, and with some damn sweet driving)\

The driving was especially "damn sweet" when the AI patrols and checkpoint guards would pursue you in their NOS-equipped jeeps, that ALWAYS rubberbanded right onto your arse.

Fuck, it was such a wasted opportunity that a SDK was never released for that game. Not only could we've had some decent "remedy the numerous shit game design decisions" mods, but also some sweet TCs. Dunia is a fabulous engine.

[Zerker]

Also: If you havent tried a MOBA yet, beware! There is something about this new genre that is scarily addictive, like some ridiculous pvp, rts, rpg, mmo hybrid. Every match involves leveling, you get gear, your build is never really 100% the same, the pvp is intense, class countering is important, teamwork is a must, and the ranking system is a lot of fun. It's like all the addictive parts of the games I like put into one thing. Stay away.

Depends on your tastes. I found League of Legends exceedingly dull. For me it was just "attack the tower, defend the tower, attack the tower". Back and forth and back and forth. The gear and levelling aspect didn't really appeal to me that much. With just the "core mechanics" to go on, there just wasn't enough there.

[Sulphur]

I guess you could say I'm new to the genre, however the mechanics are right up my ally.

It must be awfully painful for them.

[The Alchemist]

It must be awfully painful for them.

That joke doesnt compute.

[dethtoll]

it's spelled 'alley' bro