What are you playing now? [2007-2018]

[Sobek]

Hmmm.
You prefer endings like TES where it never really end?

Kind of, but... not really. Morrowind felt 'right' after you finished it, but Oblivion was just so abrupt and in the end, you felt like you'd accomplished nothing, so I didn't like that one bit. Morrowind's success was in the stunning 'believability' of it's game world, to the extent that even when you finished the main quest and were left to do your own thing, you still felt like you were in this unknowingly massive world with untold wealths of things to do and explore. Heck, I STILL get that feeling from Morrowind to this day! Oblivion just never felt right from the start, and the world honestly felt hollow and unrewarding to play in, at least for me.

What I would like is for you to be able to resume playing in the world once you've completed the story, only perhaps with some aesthetic changes. In Mass Effect, they could have just used an altered texture set that would show the Citadel in it's run down burnt out state (heck, just take it as it was in the last mission and remove the fire and explosions and you're set). That way, you're permitted to continue on anything you either missed or forgot to do before the endgame or to just continue exploring the star systems, only the world still reflects what happened. You honestly wouldn't even really need to do much additional voice acting either... Everyone could just have some generic lines that reinforce the success of what you've accomplished.

It wouldn't take much time really to create the smattering of extra content to extend the endgame in such a manner. And we certainly have the technology and 'cinematic drive' to justify doing such things. At least... I think we do.

By contrast, the place with all the Thorians is ridiculously easy for biotic characters, but can be very challenging for soldier characters (especially if you get a little overconfident and run ahead too fast).

I can understand that. While I had pretty powerful weapons and armor at the time, the Thorians were extremely strong and would often overwhelm you with sheer numbers before you could take them out. Unfortunately the AI was, quite frankly, retarded, and would just get stuck on any and every little thing they came across... The Thorians in particular seemed to enjoy just running in circles - so long as you didn't move - awarding you infinite time to take them down. But I did come close to dying a few times while running around in that underground 'lair' on Feros trying to take out that giant 'plant' creature, and having to fight what was probably hundreds of Thorians. That was tough.

I'd love to do a Biotics-centric run but, with ME2 about to come out and my near-total lack of time to play games these days, I just don't think I'll ever get around to it

 

[Mize]

Time for a Mass Effect endings thread?

 

[Miksu]

Just finished The Witcher and I must say that it's easily the best game I've played in the last two years. The graphics are beautiful, the story is rich and the characters are marvelous. Finishing the game took me around 50 hours, so it's not a short game either.

 

[Tchock]

Killing Floor is much better than the rash judgment I gave it during its release.

That and DIRT2 now. Both fantastic games.

 

[Sobek]

Killing Floor is much better than the rash judgment I gave it during its release.

That and DIRT2 now. Both fantastic games.

I just got Killing Floor during that sale (have watched my friend play it many times). What I don't like about this game is that unlike, say, TF2, there's no 'reward' to playing. It's always the same end boss too, which is a bit tame, and there's no indication as to who killed what or when or how... I've saved people's asses so many times already but you never get a thanks or 'close call' or anything because no one even realises (this is also partially to blame on the visual style, eveything just blends together too much).

It's fun, but pointless and unrewarding to play. Also packed with griefers who love to stand in the trader doorways so you can't buy stuff

 

[nightshade]

Playing Shattered Horizon now, the game is fun to play [though quite hard] and one of the unique takes on the FPS genre, the steam sale sure brought a lot of new players to this game.
Too bad it runs like shit on my 8800GTS ....anyways I'm gonna do a GPU upgrade this month, not having much of a budget but I think I'll get either a 4890 or a 5850...any suggestions ?

 

[Bouncing Zabaglione Bros.]

...anyways I'm gonna do a GPU upgrade this month, not having much of a budget but I think I'll get either a 4890 or a 5850...any suggestions ?

Definitely a 5850, if you can spend a bit more cash. Much, much faster, quieter, and DX11. No point buying an older card now if you want something to use for at least the next couple of years.

 

[neliz]

5850! even a 5750 outperforms a 4890 when it comes to DC.

 

[Lightman]

Just finished The Witcher and I must say that it's easily the best game I've played in the last two years. The graphics are beautiful, the story is rich and the characters are marvelous. Finishing the game took me around 50 hours, so it's not a short game either.

I've just started The Witcher!
Marvellous game! I'm 12.6h in (according to Steam stats) and I can't stop playing (other than to lurk on B3D:smile!

 

[Padawan]

I've just started The Witcher!
Marvellous game! I'm 12.6h in (according to Steam stats) and I can't stop playing (other than to lurk on B3D:smile!

It's a fantastic game, I'm at the third chapter on my third "playtrough". I haven't completed the game even once, due to having way to many games, OS installs and other reasons. A really good thing though, that I have noticed thanks to my playtroughs of the first chapters is, that your actions/choices during dialogues have a big impact on events later on in the game. It's hard to notice how big the impacts are if you have only played the game once, but it's fun to spot them on a second playtrough, made me question my way of thinking, making choices, in the game.

 

[green.pixel]

Oi mrs Neliz, get off that pc - your husband has the lords work to carry out.....

Lord's work = playing games on Gods' platform of choice?

 

[neliz]

Lord's work = playing games on Gods' platform of choice?

I think you find "Just put a DVD in the drive and Play / Sloth" as one of the Seven Deadly Sins

A proper description would be "A Failure to utilize one's talents gifts in practice" and I sure felt like "bestowed upon the burden to do the lords biding" trying to get Crysis/MW:LL running on W7-64.
I did not hear the shuffle of Angel's feet, though I did hear some laughter when my screen said "Crysis.exe has stopped working" for the 17th time.

Hallelujah (I'm as Theologically Agnostic as they come by the way)

 

[Tchock]

I just got Killing Floor during that sale (have watched my friend play it many times). What I don't like about this game is that unlike, say, TF2, there's no 'reward' to playing. It's always the same end boss too, which is a bit tame, and there's no indication as to who killed what or when or how... I've saved people's asses so many times already but you never get a thanks or 'close call' or anything because no one even realises (this is also partially to blame on the visual style, eveything just blends together too much).

It's fun, but pointless and unrewarding to play. Also packed with griefers who love to stand in the trader doorways so you can't buy stuff

Play with your friends, not random people.

Got a few Malaysians and Singaporeans that have the game, filtered out the ones who CAN play (and scream like fags - we play normal Suicidal or Poundamonium Beginner exclusively), and the rest is just real fun rather than a statistic game (I've stopped playing TF2 because of the drop rate/crafting issue, pathetic to say the least)

BTW friends = Steam Group = Group Voice.

 

[green.pixel]

I think you find "Just put a DVD in the drive and Play / Sloth" as one of the Seven Deadly Sins

A proper description would be "A Failure to utilize one's talents gifts in practice" and I sure felt like "bestowed upon the burden to do the lords biding" trying to get Crysis/MW:LL running on W7-64.
I did not hear the shuffle of Angel's feet, though I did hear some laughter when my screen said "Crysis.exe has stopped working" for the 17th time.

Hallelujah (I'm as Theologically Agnostic as they come by the way)

Yeah, PC gaming can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I think that's why so many people are staying away from PCgaming - accessibility is just not there, at least not in the mind of most "average" people, from whom, to be fair, devs/pubs profit most, not the knowledgeable ones on B3D and other enthusiasts sites.

 

[Sobek]

Play with your friends, not random people.

Got a few Malaysians and Singaporeans that have the game, filtered out the ones who CAN play (and scream like fags - we play normal Suicidal or Poundamonium Beginner exclusively), and the rest is just real fun rather than a statistic game (I've stopped playing TF2 because of the drop rate/crafting issue, pathetic to say the least)

BTW friends = Steam Group = Group Voice.

Heh, I know only two people who have the game and are capable of playing along with me. Typically it's just one of them that does (my best friend) so we tend to just stick together and do our own thing in a match... It never fails. If I knew more people worth playing with who played at the same times or whatever, I would. But I don't

I have had a few games in which the group of people I was with were actually really great fun to play with. We were all communicating and using proper 'tactics' to essentially create a mini fort to defend from and whatnot, and that was quite fun. But such fun matches are few and far between for me (maybe it's just because I'm in Australia. There honestly isn't too much to choose from with regards to servers and such). Plenty of 500+ pinging American ones though

 

[cp2009]

Dirt 2, very nice looking game with a lot of interactive environments. But the spectators, for a DX11 game, look really out of place. Blocky and generally stupid looking, I'm not sure why they couldn't use higher polygon models with nicer shaders. And I also notice that the specs do not make ANY noise, so they really do break the illusion of the game quite a bit, for me at least.

Re-installing Stalker SOC right now the newly updated Complete 2009 mod. Never had frame troubles using GTX 285 but now I will try it again using the 5870.

Playing around with Mirror's Edge also. What an original idea; feels completely "fresh". Only wish that I had a single gpu NV card that bests the 5870 so I can play around with Physx, though I'm not sure if I'm missing all that much.

 

[Sobek]

Dirt 2, very nice looking game with a lot of interactive environments. But the spectators, for a DX11 game, look really out of place. Blocky and generally stupid looking, I'm not sure why they couldn't use higher polygon models with nicer shaders. And I also notice that the specs do not make ANY noise, so they really do break the illusion of the game quite a bit, for me at least.

What do you mean by 'interactive environments' exactly? I take it that's stuff like brick walls that you can slam into and destroy? (I saw a screenshot somewhere showing something like that).

Playing around with Mirror's Edge also. What an original idea; feels completely "fresh". Only wish that I had a single gpu NV card that bests the 5870 so I can play around with Physx, though I'm not sure if I'm missing all that much.

I'm just playing through Dead Space now, but Mirror's Edge is next on my list. Have you already finished it previously? What did you think?

 

[MfA]

Mirror's edge ideas are good ... it just lacks in implementation. It really needed to have been done in a much larger sandbox type world, also the martial arts should have been more refined and a larger part of the game play. Also lacked in length of course, at the holiday price it was a good deal ... at the original price it was a rip off.

Most of the problems stem from it being made on the cheap.

 

[cp2009]

What do you mean by 'interactive environments' exactly? I take it that's stuff like brick walls that you can slam into and destroy? (I saw a screenshot somewhere showing something like that).



I'm just playing through Dead Space now, but Mirror's Edge is next on my list. Have you already finished it previously? What did you think?

Yes, brick walls are fun to break through. Most of the smaller objects, have weight to them, and thus have some physics properties.

But the spectators are really horrible. No audio aside, they do not react to you when you're about to crash into them. In fact, they're set in a fixed rotation of animation. Sometimes they will LEAN towards you, oblivious to their surroundings, even when you're about to crash into barrier they're standing behind. Minor complaint to some, but for such a visually polished game, I think they've skimmed a bit too much in this department.

I've only started Mirrors Edge but I find it to be quite fun, despite its shortcomings. What I have seen so far is not groundbreaking but it's a nice breezy departure from your usual FPS, racing, RPGs, etc. The "simple" environments look better than they do on screenshot when you're actually in the game.

 

[cp2009]

Mirror's edge ideas are good ... it just lacks in implementation. It really needed to have been done in a much larger sandbox type world, also the martial arts should have been more refined and a larger part of the game play. Also lacked in length of course, at the holiday price it was a good deal ... at the original price it was a rip off.

Most of the problems stem from it being made on the cheap.

Wasn't this game just an elaborate Physx demo?