The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Rilder]

Currently been playing Sword of the stars, which is by the way. AWESOME.

[Kekvit Irae]

Gone back to playing Dark Age of Camelot.

[TevashSzat]

Well, I got Need for Speed Undercover in the hopes that it would run half decently on my very bad comp. I barely meet the minimum specs, but it works to some degree. I can maintain about 20-30fps on 1024*768 with minimum settings on everything except for medium car detail.

As for the game.....its alot better than Carbon (I skipped Prostreet b/c it basically deviated from the whole NFS franchise), but not as good as most wanted. I actually really like the new highway battle races. At 200+ mph, one mistake and boom, you end up in a huge car pile and have to restart again.

[caravel]

I'm playing Le Chuck's Revenge: Monkey Island II running on the ScummVM engine under Ubuntu Linux. It's amazing how much you remember of old games...

[CountArach]

HPS Simulations' Campaign Waterloo.

A Hex-based game that is incredibly realistic and has a real board game feel to it. I'm really loving this game.

[naut]

I'm playing Le Chuck's Revenge: Monkey Island II running on the ScummVM engine under Ubuntu Linux. It's amazing how much you remember of old games...

Hehe, tell me about it. Loaded up Fallout 1 he other day, ah the memories...

[frogbeastegg]

I'm done with Banjo Kazooie. I have all but 4 jiggies, and all but 17 musical notes. Everything else is collected and completed. I got 100% back in ye day and don't feel the need to spoil my day by doing the bad bits again.

My memory wasn't being a whiny young frog when it claimed Click Clock Wood is dire. Last level of the game, and the difficulty curve goes vertical. Not only that but it starts making you repeat large sections each time you make a mistake. Climb to top of very tall tree via awkward jumps which make the camera have a fit. Miss one jump right at the end due to camera having a fit, fall right back to the bottom and lose half your health. Spend five minutes climbing back up, fall back down and die. Start entire level over again. Better and better - you have to climb that accursed tree over and over, and with conditions becoming more sweary each time. By the time they added enemies onto the tiny platforms near the top I lost the will to press on; it's iconic of everything which used to be bad about games a decade ago. You can't kill the enemy until you land on the platform. The enemy takes up the entire platform. Ranged attacks won't hit it; you have to use a close up attack. If you get hit then you are thrown off the ledge all the way to the bottom and have to spend ages climbing back up, assuming you survived, which you probably didn't. It's difficulty for the sake of making you die, not for the sake of challenging you.

I could kill the final boss. I don't want to. I remember how much froggy pain went into beating it 10 years ago. Rare had a reputation for truly evil boss fights. IMO they more than earned it.

That leaves me with Fallout 3. I don't know how many more times I will be able to persuade myself to start that game up; it's a joyless drag.

[Kekvit Irae]

Settlers of Catan for the 360 (absolutely LOVED the board game, so this was a no brainer), and Left 4 Dead on the PC.

[naut]

FM2008, as PSV. Despite a small amount of money available for transfers I picked up some major bargains. So my team owns!

[Tiberius of the Drake]

Crusader Kings-1081-normal-above normal speed-Kingdom of Naples (originally Duchy of Apulia)

Im debating whether to continue to to try to conquer Italy, and face the HRE or to try to conquer Croatia.
any suggestions?

[frogbeastegg]

I have finally finished Fallout 3 (1 month later! 54 hours! Gah!), and started the new Prince of Persia.

[Martok]

Am back playing MTW again. I'd been fooling around with Redux as the English, but at the moment I'm testing the latest version of the Pocket Mod with a Fatimid campaign. So far, so good.

[Veho Nex]

Starcraft on the school computers, and when I get caught for installing all my games onto my account I'll let you guys know.

[Kekvit Irae]

Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir.
NWN2 goes back to the days of the old Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale games with customizable parties. Playing a merchant company owner has never been so fun, despite the obvious flaws with the game.

[frogbeastegg]

Naruto -> Finished. The final side quests in each type are annoying, so I'm leaving them. Otherwise it was a good game and I shall play the sequel one day.

At this point I'm afraid the friendly frog stops. The biting, nasty frog takes over.

Prince of Persia -> Abandoned before I snap the disc and/or hurl the controller through the TV. I can't recall another game which has made me want to do that! Normally the worst I do when annoyed by a game is growl quietly. PoP has me screaming abuse at the prince, the controls, Elika, the level design, the development team, and any and all enemies. That's it. I'm done with this series unless they get rid of these 'easy' and 'simple' 'newbie friendly' controls and utterly rubbish combat! This is one of the most disappointing, frustrating, counter-intuitive, poorly thought out, impossible to control, and just GAH! games I have ever had the misfortune to play. And to think it ended up that way because the developers were attempting to make it simple, frustration free and accessable to people who don't play games.

I started Fable II. It's the bestest game evar!!1! It's got 2 play modes. The first is teh aw3some and it totally rocks! I get to watch a microsoft logo in amazing 3d glory! Then there's this never-ending black screen which is, like, deeply meaningful, and the most amazingly deep thing ever to been seen in a game, like, ever! Worth £29.99 for that alone! The second mode is - amazingly! - even better because it's interactive. I press A on 'install to HD'; and then this bar moves up a bit. This part of the game's really hard because I only get to 2% before it pops up a message and says I have to try again! That's hardcore 1337 oldstyle difficulty, man!

In less acidicly 'humorous' words, my launch limited edition copy of Fable II is an expensive coaster because it's one of the many which didn't burn correctly. There aren't any limited editions left for me to swap it with, so I'll have to downgrade and lose the bonus dungeons and content I paid for, or buy another copy. For reasons which defy the combined intellect of humankind, I'm oddly reluctant to do either. I do wonder why.

Despite the fact the game has worked for all of half a microsoft splash screen it's still plastered itself on my gamercard. That's the last nail in the coffin of my half-hearted caring about my gamerscore and achievements.

So much for the spell of nice, relaxing, enjoyable gaming I've been looking forward to throughout the past 6 weeks of crazy overtime and work related stress. :considers ditching gaming in favour of learning calligraphy or something:

[Martok]

Kek: Many thanks for the feedback on NWN2. Will maybe have to try and check it out, methinks (whenever I have time to play games again, that is).

I started Fable II. It's the bestest game evar!!1! It's got 2 play modes. The first is teh aw3some and it totally rocks! I get to watch a microsoft logo in amazing 3d glory! Then there's this never-ending black screen which is, like, deeply meaningful, and the most amazingly deep thing ever to been seen in a game, like, ever! Worth £29.99 for that alone! The second mode is - amazingly! - even better because it's interactive. I press A on 'install to HD'; and then this bar moves up a bit. This part of the game's really hard because I only get to 2% before it pops up a message and says I have to try again! That's hardcore 1337 oldstyle difficulty, man!

Wow. I can't decide if that was really funny, or really scary. I think both....

[Kekvit Irae]

I decided to take a break from NWN2 and start on Fable II.
You know a game is epic when one of the buyable items are CONDOMS and you meet a pedophile during the first two minutes of the game.

I created a male character and started wooing every woman I came across. Once I got engaged to one, I started to slap her. Repeatedly. If she's going to be my wife, she'll need to learn to fear me like I was Rick James.
I don't know what was more amusing... the fact that nobody in town really cared about the blatant physical abuse, or the fact that my fiancee loved it.

[Kekvit Irae]

I played a bit of Supreme Ruler 2020, and still didn't like the complex HoI-like gameplay. Although I did have more fun with it than HoI2 since I was able to actually DO something. I started a new game as Alabama and started cutting a swath into Mississippi (I didn't want to attack Georgia since I didn't want to PO Fort Benning). I managed to conquer Meridian and Topelo on my way to the capital of Jackson. Unfortunately, Mississippi managed to overwhelm my troops (no thanks to the retarded AI who wanted nothing more than to move my troops back to Fort Rucker and Montgomery) and found myself defenseless no thanks to not figuring out how the heck to build more troops. I quit the game shortly before Prattville (Woohoo! My hometown is in a game!) was overrun.
Bottom line: Bad tutorials, horrible AI, and an economic system that requires a Masters degree in Economics just to figure out.

Time to move on to Painkiller in-between Fable II sessions.

[frogbeastegg]

Like a complete mug I purchased a second copy of Fable II.

My female hero got chased through the marketplace by a flock of little old lady lesbians, all of whom were shouting propositions.

I got married, and half of the men in the neighbourhood turned up in my house on the wedding night and refused to get out. The crowd blocked the way so my new husband couldn't get near the bed.

The town crier has taken up semi-permanent residence in my marital home and propositions me every time I'm within earshot. My husband seems ok with this.

I had a baby (that husband needs to do something in exchange for the money I give him!), left town for a bit, and came home to find the town crier standing over the cot and spouting pick up lines. Some confusion ensued, and baby and town crier both got fireballed. The baby doesn't hold a grudge, and appears flame proof. Phew! The town crier ran off screaming. Sadly he soon came back, ardent as ever.

I can kick chickens 11 feet.

I survive entirely on celery. It's giving me a halo.

A scummy peasant told me I should get nicer clothes. I slapped him. He liked it. He's an employee of mine, working at a fruit and veg stall I own, and I now earn more cash from that stall.

My dog is becoming a bleach blond due to heroic rays emanating from my body. I hope they don't cause cancer ...

I'm a cross-dresser, wearing multiple items of clothes tagged as men's. Loads of people tell me how good I look. Must be the tight breeches and tailored coat.

I picked up an apple. The description said that there was a single worm living in it, and that this was a bug, not a feature.



I do rather love the game. It's too unreal. Wallace and Gromit style comedy English accents, Discworld-esque humour, so many digs at gaming lore and Molyneux's own work, bright and pretty fairytale graphics coupled with subjects most games refuse to tackle.