What are you playing?

[Blinded]

Well... it has been ages since I'd been here and I'm not sure if I should be impressed or depressed that nothing has changed... anyway....

While not exactly playing it yet Baldurs Gate II Enhanced Edition is on the agenda of the day, replacing Divinity: Original Sin, which despite its wittiness and interesting mechanisms had these annoying loadings and tended to close on me (maybe because the system is years old?).

And I kinda returned to continue playing Metal Gear Rising again.

[David Earle]

Hearthstone. I'm so boned. I really didn't need a time sink that makes Candy Crush look tame. Happily it's fun, requires actual skill and blows the Magic 20XX games out of the water.

[Lord of the Night]

Dark Souls II: Crown of the Old Iron King.

First off this is a HUGE step-up from Crown of the Sunken King, enemy and boss-wise. The Fume Knight and Sir Alonne are real DS bosses, challenging and requiring thought with interesting and tricky move-sets that force the player to really observe, prepare and fight smart and hard. My heart was racing as I went for the final few blows on each one, timing each one just right and dodging swings from swords bigger than some cars that could kill me in two hits. And the feeling when that final blow lands and I hear them scream as they die just cannot be beat! I walk away with their souls, their armour and their weapons; including what has to be the biggest Katana in any video game anywhere.

The area is much more interesting as well, having an actual background in the game's original lore from the Old Iron King, Queen Mytha and the mysterious princess that the OIK dumped Mytha for. The only downside is that Nadalia isn't available for conversation, as I think she would have a lot to reveal about the OIK and the love triangle that drove Mytha insane. The vistas are beautiful, the broken down fortresses overlooking vast magma-plains and volcanos, ash flurries in the air creating the look of snow falling on fire. The enemies were challenging and didn't rely on stupid gimmicks like excessive poison, but rather interesting movesets with new spells, unique enemies that can be used to defeat other enemies, the presence of the Ashen Idols creating conflicts in each fight on how to approach them.

Best of the two Dark Souls DLCs yet. Only the Crown of the Ivory King is left and I can't wait to start dying, and killing, again.


LotN

[Vivia]

Still going strong on The Sims 2. I have discovered so many new things about the game, I had only been playing on the first layer. University and Seasons are a lot of fun as they bring a something new to the usual package.
Not so much death this time: One of my teens went out to stargaze and got a big satellite on her head after 20 minutes of life, a couple died in a big fire after mere minutes of creation, pets dying from starvation or taken away after a few hours of game play and coming back as ghost to haunt the family.
I learned the hard way that a Romantic sim is an awful creation, unfortunately I gave her a child and she was the worst parent alive. None of her aspirations included her daughter and authorities came to mercifully take the child away. It was for the best because I was forcing the sim to interact and somewhat care for her child. And this was apart from her usual demands for romance which are repetitive and hard to gain when she hasn't any acquaintances, in general she is too selfish and self-centred to be interesting. Knowledge and Fortune sims are way better parents, at first I was like all they care for is the children, dangabit. The single father successfully raised three children, I don't know how we did it.

The Sims 3 is on my wish-list now, Lazy Game Reviews haven't got a lot of good to say about the game and from what I have seen it looks as a hollow yet polished version of The Sims 2 with insane prices. I found them on Tradera and Blocket, Swedish versions of eBay, so much cheaper than on Origin and for something I have my doubts about.

I checked the Editor's Choice on iTunes and I randomly found the new Ace Attorney DD on sale!

[Vivia]

I had some foresight and decided to buy The Sims 3 for less, much less.

The Sims 3:

What a disappointment the game is. LGR constantly mentions on his numerous Sims videos about the prices and how little the expansions are worth. He was absolutely right. I can't play for hours because I grow so bored of the game.

What's so wrong about it? Well, everything it seems. The animation and graphics are lacking, despite that the Sims can be done in all sorts of shape now, it doesn't change the fact they look a little too much like clones. Clones made of either pasty dough or pure chunks of silicone, just awful. The Uncanny Valley is very strong, too strong, the Sims are Barbie dolls for adults and that's exactly how they look. It's a creepy feeling in general.
The surroundings are also very empty and the people are sparse, in a week I have only made three acquaintances, there is no time before the Sims is tired. I made a muscled, athletic type and it's slow and boring to go anywhere in his career. Facial expressions were Photoshopped from the game, smooth as silicone creatures do we move about in the Sims world, I'm surprised lubrication isn't required for joints.

What is so odd is that the game has been updated from The SIms 2 but for all the improvement it can't cast off the plastic sheen that regains on every surface. Something important is lacking, a soul or a heart, some kind of depth.
EA doesn't help this one bit; they want us to buy special points for using on items, you know, I don't disagree with that, it's just that EA has taken it to the extreme. It's goes from a better kind of shower and up, and they don't do this subtle, they tell us during the gameplay when an icon of displeasure pops up, something along the lines of "Your shower wasn't fulfilling because it's cheap" and so on. I don't mind using such currency for really special crap, for example a weird car or a weird furniture, no, but not for a nonsense item such as a shower or chair.

The game doesn't contain several cities to play with, in order to gain more cities you have to use gold simoleons, which of course are bought with real money, so the player is stuck with one place until they can buy a new one. That's when the overpriced expansions come in. It's very alarming when LGR, a professional Sims player, keeps telling his viewers the expansions aren't worth their price and that he would never buy them otherwise. If I remember correctly according to him only around two expansions are worth getting but on discount. After getting my own experience with TS3 I have to completely agree with him. I'm extremely happy I didn't bought through Origins and from now on I'll only buy used copies.

[Vivia]

The Sims 3 continues to be a disappointment. There are a few nice features such as collecting and harvesting, it's fulfilling for a few spare hours. I feel frustrated for only having 1/4 of a game, the sims are very uninteresting, no one has died yet, that could be entertaining and could give the sims the spark they so sorely miss.

Holy guacamole, The Sims 4 is even worse according to Lazy Games Reviews and from the comments in his videos, fans have bought the game and then got a refund. Apparently the TS3 has a bigger base game! So, TS4 costs 60 dollars for less content, 599 SEK in Sweden which is a lot more than 60 USD. 60 dollars is nothing! Nothing!

[sam vimes]

Breath of fire IV stuck trying to find the red charm in the last dungeon

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Still playing Space Marine, but now stuck at another point on the way to the Titan Manufactorium, with two bloody nobz! I need to get this finished before I can turn my Christmas attentions to the Xbox One waiting upstairs and this 360 get put out to pasture in my son's room.

[Major Rawne]

Destiny. Loads and loads of Destiny. Besides the story being a complete confusing mess I have been hooked on it for the last couple of weeks.

In between that I've been getting some Watch Dogs in, as well as continuing on my expansion of Springfield in The Simpsons Tapped Out.

Not long now till Shadows of Mordor is out. Hopefully it will be a good LoTR game.

[Mossy Toes]

The Banner Saga, most recently.

Nordic men and giants fighting golems after the sun has stopped in the sky and the Gods have all died. The world is coming to an end, and no matter where you run, you cannot escape it.

But you can hope. You can try. You can hoist your banner high on the long road and strike out for those last few refuges rumored not to have fallen before the tide...

Excellent soundtrack by Austin Wintory, very crisp old-fashioned rotoscoped animation in-game, and a deceptive depth of strategy in the gameplay. Great atmosphere & great immersion--the game goes a far way with very little to create an illusion of depth that holds up surprisingly well.

I get Kickstarter Early Access to the betas of both The Long Dark (Canadian bush pilot stranded in the middle of nowhere in the heart of winter after a solar flare knocks out the earth's power grid, and has to survive) & Hyper Light Drifter, which has the absolutely most beautiful sprite art I've ever seen. SO EXCITED.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Major Rawne: I got Destiny with the Xbox One, but, as I said, won't be able to play until Christmas. You're not the first to say the story isn't quite up to scratch (and, somewhat disappointingly, it's mainly the campaign that interests me), but most seem to think everything else is - is this your impression? Also, I believe Bungie plan quite a few expansions for the game, so perhaps the plot will get a polishing.

[SIngemeister]

Dragon Age: Origins, because Civ V refuses to update my mods.

[Major Rawne]

Major Rawne: I got Destiny with the Xbox One, but, as I said, won't be able to play until Christmas. You're not the first to say the story isn't quite up to scratch (and, somewhat disappointingly, it's mainly the campaign that interests me), but most seem to think everything else is - is this your impression? Also, I believe Bungie plan quite a few expansions for the game, so perhaps the plot will get a polishing.

It is on the whole a damn good game. Overall I think the big emphasis on coop with your mates gets in the way of what you would have expected from a more story focused single player experience. It's a shame really as there are a couple of great cutscenes that show you this does go deeper. Having said that I did have someone to play with so I don't know what playing on my own is like.

I'm waiting for a developer to come along and create an fps game that has a fantastic single player campaign with a deep fleshed out story, but also has has drop in drop out. As far as I'm aware this is yet to happen. Or rather happen to my liking.

[Mossy Toes]

The Long Dark. Lives up to its promise. I mean, to "gamify" it the developers made things like prybars and hatchets degrade far faster than they normally would, and made wolves faaar more common and aggressive than they normally would be, but...

As far as complaints go, those are very not-major, though. You have to watch out for your exhaustion, hunger, thirst, and temperature, and you're constantly burning through calories as you scour abandoned buildings and frozen corpses for any gear, food and clothes that could help you survive. If you sprint everywhere, sure, you get places twice as fast--but you tire yourself out three or more times as fast, so have to sleep, so end up way more dehydrated, so have to burn through your precious stash of firewood to melt and boil more water--and if you don't boil it, you run the risk of dysentery. Or if you eat nearly-spoiled food or raw meat, you can get food poisoning. Or you can get an infection from wolf bites after an attack... provided you don't die of blood loss, shock, and/or the wolf ferociously gnawing at your face while you try to punch it away. Or you can sprain your ankle while stumbling around in the dark. Or, of course, as implied earlier, you can freeze to death, starve, dehydrate, or collapse out in the elements from exhaustion.

You may find a rifle, but... good luck finding any ammo. You'll need it. If you get a hatchet, make sure it doesn't break on you--that thing is more precious than gold, for foraging. Far more precious, actually--what good would gold do you in a dead and frozen world, where your basic survival supplies are dwindling fast?

It's a game that, if you want to survive it, forces you to slow down and walk 95% of the time, because running will just waste your resources. And with that slowing down of pace, you are forced to appreciate the truly beautiful--albeit cruelly desolate--landscape that Hinterland Games has thrown together. Shocking in its sheer relentlessness and inevitability. Even though so far there's just one map in the sandbox mode, and no story mode... I consider myself having already gotten my money's worth out of the game. And apparently, they mean to release it properly by the end of the year, and the price is going to go up then!

[Mossy Toes]

Returning to this game... this game. It's just... so. Damn. Beautiful. Incredibly so. Unbelievably so.

The Long Dark, dude. Whew.

(all in-game screenshots by cool people, except the first)

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Finally completed Space Marine: a much more enjoyable game than I'd lead myself to expect. Good animation and artwork that really gave off some 40k atmosphere; good, satisfying -if repetitive- combat; and characterisation that actually had me liking Titus by the end. It would be nice to see a next-gen sequel with perhaps a little more storyline, as Titus's arrest by the Inquisition leaves things wide open.

[sam vimes]

Finally completed Space Marine: a much more enjoyable game than I'd lead myself to expect. Good animation and artwork that really gave off some 40k atmosphere; good, satisfying -if repetitive- combat; and characterisation that actually had me liking Titus by the end. It would be nice to see a next-gen sequel with perhaps a little more storyline, as Titus's arrest by the Inquisition leaves things wide open.

Sorry to burst your bubble chun
http://www.lazygamer.net/general-news/t ... most-were/

[Mossy Toes]

Interestingly enough, that game The Long Dark I'm gushing about and posting all sorts of screenshots from is directed by the fellow who was in charge of making Space Marine (he having left THQ after it went under), Raphael van Lierop.

[Chun the Unavoidable]

Ah, shame, that.

[sam vimes]

Ah, shame, that.

Understatement that mate