What are you playing now? [2007-2018]
- Thread starter digitalwanderer
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Saints Row 2 is still getting most of my gaming time. The more I play it, the more I'm convinced it's the best game of last year. 
Today I picked up that large slice of goodness known to religious scholars as "Armed and Dangerous"
I allready have it but seeing as it was priced at £1.99 and last time I installed it it took my pc ages to read the dvd it was worth it to have a backup
the woman didnt see the 1 so only charged me £0.99 and it was still in the shrink wrap
The gaming Gods smile on the devout....
I allready have it but seeing as it was priced at £1.99 and last time I installed it it took my pc ages to read the dvd it was worth it to have a backup
the woman didnt see the 1 so only charged me £0.99 and it was still in the shrink wrap
The gaming Gods smile on the devout....
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
Trying out the UT3 2.0/Titan Pack update. It's definitely an improvement, though I suspect too little too late for the online game (unless the switch to Steam performs miracles with the uptake).
The controls seem to have been un-nerfed so they are actually more precise and doing what they are supposed to, as opposed to feeling like you should be using a gamepad to get such poor precision. Where UT2K4 felt heavy and precise, UT3 felt bogged down and imprecise. Now it feels lighter and more precise, though somewhat flatter due to the removable of the more extreme acrobatic moves.
There are still some other arguable design decisions, but it doesn't feel so like a console conversion that needs another year of development. Even the vehicles handling, which was particularly bad seems to have been improved.
The controls seem to have been un-nerfed so they are actually more precise and doing what they are supposed to, as opposed to feeling like you should be using a gamepad to get such poor precision. Where UT2K4 felt heavy and precise, UT3 felt bogged down and imprecise. Now it feels lighter and more precise, though somewhat flatter due to the removable of the more extreme acrobatic moves.
There are still some other arguable design decisions, but it doesn't feel so like a console conversion that needs another year of development. Even the vehicles handling, which was particularly bad seems to have been improved.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
You don't have to, but if that's what everyone is using, that's where the players will be. It's certainly being used as the live online distribution for the patches.
There are some instructions on the Epic website that shows you how to swap over without having to download the whole installation over again.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
I take it all back - turns out Epic have reintroduced the bug where you can't play offline unless you want to lose your campaign progress and all your key settings every time you quit the game. Epic thinks it's essential that your keys, settings and progress are only available when you're signed into Gamespy, and that no one would actually want to just... I dunno, start the game and play it?
More epic fail from Epic.
Edit: Looks like the rather counter-intuitive solution is that you have to make an online profile so that you can then play it in offline mode.
More epic fail from Epic.
Edit: Looks like the rather counter-intuitive solution is that you have to make an online profile so that you can then play it in offline mode.
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
IMO, it's world's better than AoC. PvP (RvR in Warhammer terms) is far more compelling and rewarding IMO.
I, personally, really really REALLY hate PvP. However, in Warhammer, I'm completely addicted to PvP. This is probably because almost all PvP in Warhammer is team based. There is less ganking (it does still happen) due to the fact that there is generally always team members around. RvR being Realm versus Realm, you can just go attacking your side. Thus Order is united against Destruction and vice versa.
PvE is secondary to PvP and is only there to help level up and aquire gear. There really isn't such a thing as a "raid" in Warhammer. Anything that requires a Warband is basically part of RvR. For example the taking of a Fortress Lord. Which is pit multiple warbands (up to 24 people per warband) against multiple opposing warbands.
Latest patch also rebalanced things a bit evening out the power balance between order and destruction as well as classes.
Also, level 40 RvR is a different experience than you will have prior to Tier 4. And character advancement doesn't stop when you hit character level 40 as your renown level can progress to rank 80.
Too much to describe, but, IMO it's significantly better than AoC. And makes PvP (RvR) actually have a purpose.
Regards,
SB
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
More UT3 news - it's currently free this weekend on Steam if anyone wants to try it again, and it's currently on a sale price of £8.39, making it actually cheaper than buying it from an e-tailer (for the first time).
I propably won't be able to finish downloading until the free weekend is over. The steam servers are slow or not responding at all.
Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.
Legend
I spent the weekend playing Age of Conan and I love it. It's definitely one of the better, more satisfying recent MMO's. It's hard to live in the shadow of WoW, considering it's popularity, but I feel AoC is a real diamond in the rough. I signed up for free trials for Warhammer and LOTRO, and I can't really get into them. WAR is alright, nothing really special, while LOTRO doesn't allow trial users to maximize the graphics settings, which bugs me. So far, I've been playing my Conquerer. I tried an assortment of classes, the most disappointing was the assassin. Limited armor types and weapon capabilities sort of rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps I'll give it another go, later. Combat in AoC is unmatched. It's pretty satisfying to really tear your enemies apart, the fatalities are a nice touch. It's also nice to play a game geared towards adults, so a lot of kids are left at bay, as opposed to WoW which wants to cater to everyone. Another thing that really impresses me is the dialogue. AoC is well written, with some pretty spiffy speeches throughout the game. The animations are neat as well. Especially fitting with some of the dialogue giving them a realistic undertone, which is a nice change from the emotionless NPC's I've found throughout most MMO's who will stand there lifeless handing out quests. I think I'm about to leave Tortage and I can't wait to see what else the game has to offer outside of the newb zone. The only thing keeping me there is the destiny quests, which I've heard you can bypass and skip to the next zone, but being a first time player I want to see what it's all about. Apparently the climax of the destiny quest offers a lot of neat lore. What I'm really excited for is the mounted combat. AoC offers a range of mounts, all of which can serve purposes such as speed or destroying structures. Apparently you can fly by an enemy on a horse and take his head with you, or cast a spell from your mount. All in all, I've read a handful of mixed reviews, a lot of which advised me to avoid this game like the plague. People complain about lack of PvP or endgame content. Truth be told, AoC offers more than WoW did upon launch. People often forget that there was NO endgame instances or Battlegrounds upon WoW's launch. It took a solid six months before they began to instill dungeons for level 60's. And about a year before there was any organized PvP outside of world PvP.
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
The newb zone was the best part of the game when I played it at launch. The rest of the game went rapidly downhill from there.
Combat in AoC is a mess. But meh, there's a small minority of people that actually enjoy it. More power to them. Combat is even more frustrating at higher levels when you required 4-5 button presses to execute any combat skill. And if you have any amount of lag or even worse packetloss, you'll have a good old time getting combat skills to fire. Add in large crowds for a raid or large scale PvP and it was just a frustrating mess. Hopefully, they've fixed that slideshow that was raids and PvP. As well as the frequent zone crashes for large scale raids and PvP.
Added to that, at the time it launched. Banks didn't work. Mail didn't work. Crafting didn't work. I could go on and on. I'm sure it's probably a tad better by now with most of the bugs ironed out. But the overall game was rather disappointing. Especially as you got higher in level.
A good game to show the extreme's of gamers tastes. I, along with 95% of the guild I was in quit the game in disgust. Likewise, we all considered it the worst MMORPG ever created. Granted just as with many people's opinions of VG, a large part of that was probably due to the rampant bugs in the game. But a large part was just the game itself and the implementation.
I will grant that the graphics are superb for the most part. Rivaled only by Vanguard. I still like the trees violently swaying in a storm in VG though as well as the volumetric clouds. Aliasing was the suck though so nod goes to AoC. Just too bad there wasn't a real game to back up the graphics for AoC. I really wanted to like the game.
Regards,
SB
Combat in AoC is a mess. But meh, there's a small minority of people that actually enjoy it. More power to them. Combat is even more frustrating at higher levels when you required 4-5 button presses to execute any combat skill. And if you have any amount of lag or even worse packetloss, you'll have a good old time getting combat skills to fire. Add in large crowds for a raid or large scale PvP and it was just a frustrating mess. Hopefully, they've fixed that slideshow that was raids and PvP. As well as the frequent zone crashes for large scale raids and PvP.
Added to that, at the time it launched. Banks didn't work. Mail didn't work. Crafting didn't work. I could go on and on. I'm sure it's probably a tad better by now with most of the bugs ironed out. But the overall game was rather disappointing. Especially as you got higher in level.
A good game to show the extreme's of gamers tastes. I, along with 95% of the guild I was in quit the game in disgust. Likewise, we all considered it the worst MMORPG ever created. Granted just as with many people's opinions of VG, a large part of that was probably due to the rampant bugs in the game. But a large part was just the game itself and the implementation.
I will grant that the graphics are superb for the most part. Rivaled only by Vanguard. I still like the trees violently swaying in a storm in VG though as well as the volumetric clouds. Aliasing was the suck though so nod goes to AoC. Just too bad there wasn't a real game to back up the graphics for AoC. I really wanted to like the game.
Regards,
SB
accidentalsuccess
Newcomer
I just picked up mass effect platinum ed (w/ the DLC content for kicks) and played it for about an hour last night. FANTASTIC game so far; the dialog is pretty good and I forsee a ton of depth (maybe too much depending on how much is strictly required to advance the plot.
I forsee a ton of time spent on this game (over a long LONG real life time 'cause I'm BUSY) as I tend to be a "do everything" kind of gamer these days.
I forsee a ton of time spent on this game (over a long LONG real life time 'cause I'm BUSY) as I tend to be a "do everything" kind of gamer these days.
Yes the dialogue system in ME is revolutionary. The standard for all RPGs to follow, and yet nobody has the could sense to copy it. And if you're a 'do everything' gamer like I am then you will certainly spend a lot of time with this game, though much of the content could rightfully be described as 'filler' and the environments will become painfully redundant. The main plotline though is something to be remembered.
What's so great about ME's dialogue system? I hear this claim a lot and don't really understand it. In fact, it was more gameable than other, similar systems. Top-right is nice, bottom-right is mean, right is neutral. You knew what sort of points you'd get from each, and I don't think there are any situations where charm works when intimidate doesn't, or vice versa.
Don't see the problem with that. If you don't like what you're hearing you don't have to read all the possible responses to find the negative one, allowing you to chose your response more quickly which leads to the part I consider revolutionary:
The way responses can be chosen before or just as the NPC has finished speaking and your response will flow nicely almost like a cutscene. It isn't always like this, there are still awkward delays to be found, but they tend get it right in at least the major dialogs. Of course if you sit around picking your ass deciding what to say the illusion is broken and you'll get into a staring contest like we see in every other RPG. :smile2:
I also like the way you don't give exact responses, but more general inputs and see how Shepard delivers the lines. Sure it can be difficult sometimes to know where the one or two word prompt is going to lead, but it's far better than the way other RPGs operate -> every response fully typed out in a list and you read them all, chose what you want, and skip your character's dialog (if he speaks at all). IMHO.
The animations during dialogs, the camera angles, the voice acting, it all adds up too.
We're in agreeance here; I only consider the dialog system revolutionary because of its advancements in presentation. The game was lacking wrt how much your stats influenced your possible responses (i.e. none except for charm/intimidate which were the same thing functionally AFAICT).
I agree the story wasn't anything truly special, but I thought it was very good, especially for a (modern) videogame. And I found the universe they created fascinating, like a modernized Star Wars that actually tries to make some semblance of sense. :smile:
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Well, that is pretty nice for subsequent playthroughs as you don't have to pay too close attention to the dialog options unless you want to.
What I rather liked about it was the fact that the dialog option you choose gives more of an impression of what you want your character to say, and what he actually says is a bit different.
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