The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Monk]

After 45 hours of gameplay I've finally reached level 60 in Mass Effect (the level cap) and earned the Exteme Power Gamer achievement. I've also beaten the game on Hardcore and unlocked Insanity difficulty.

I have to say that even for me, a veteran of numerous completions, hardcore really strained my abilities. Even with my biotic juggling team! my 50/Adept/Renegade Shepard had plowed through everything on veteran, but once i knocked things up to Hardcore, the game basically realized that I dared to play and threw everything at me. I couldn't just rush enemy positions anymore, and I had to utilize every power my squad had. Something that was very new. For the first time since i first picked up a controller, real tactical considerations had to be taken.

I had begun to think Mass Effect was a great game, but far too easy when you neared the level cap. Hardcore has shown me otherwise, and I look forward to hitting Insanity difficulty once I've had a few days to catch my breath.

[Crazed Rabbit]

In fact, I bought the "next one" last week.

Why switching weapons while running is something that you find necessary in this game is beyond me but the game isn't exactly complete anyway, the "next one" that is as I skipped ArmA.

Well, for me it just detracts from gameplay and is one of the things that hampers your character in frustrating ways.

Oh well. I'm back to EU3, again.

CR

[frogbeastegg]

I had begun to think Mass Effect was a great game, but far too easy when you neared the level cap. Hardcore has shown me otherwise, and I look forward to hitting Insanity difficulty once I've had a few days to catch my breath.

Hardcore is the difficulty where the game shines. At that level you need to use all of your party's skills to survive, think tactically, and work to win each battle. It transformed the game's battles from having nice but slightly dull to being very fun.

Insanity lives up to its name. It piles on the enemy immunities, damage reduction and hitpoints to the point where most fights are drawn out slogs. Lots of instances can kill your character in a single hit (I played insanity as a level 60 soldier with maxed immunity, aka the toughest type in the game) so make sure you save early, often and obsessively! Certain battles took me several goes; you will definitely earn your passage and reaching that final cutscene feels great. Oh - and never fight in the mako! Get out and do it on foot unless you have a death wish. As you've probably already noticed the vehicles' stats don't change between difficulties, and on insanity it's made out of tinfoil coated in dynamite.

[Aemilius Paulus]

Alternating between EB and Rise of Nations lately. Maybe I will give Opposing Fronts (Company of Hero stand-alone expansion) a shot this week. I had it for a while, but never got to it really.

Oh, and of course, I am looking to get into the world of grand strategy, such as Europa Universalis and Hearts of Iron. It is a big step for me though, as I have always been an RTS/RTT guy. (and TW was the only RTT I have played).

[Hooahguy]

officially the hardest game ive ever played. well first of all, theres only 2 difficulty levels: normal and realistic. and realistic is really hard. usually i only die on normal difficulties with first try about 1-3 times by the end of the first few missions.
well, not with this one. lets see.... ive died about 6-8 times in the first 1/3 of the first part of the first mission. and that is sad. having beated Ghost recon advanced warfighter, i thoguht that this would be a breeze, but i was wrong.

anyhow, the graphics are actually very nice, and the fact that its set in the neon on vegas goesnt hurt, but needs anti-aliasing. ah, the curse of a game from 2006.

multiplayer is good, but there arent a lot of servers, nor very many people online. ill probably do better with R6V2.

[Martok]

Am finally getting (back) into Gary Grigsby's War Between the States. I'm playing as the Union; will see if I can get the Army of the Potomac off to a better start than they did historically.

[frogbeastegg]

I'm done with Infinite Undiscovery. Right near the end and I cannot take any more! It's not up to TriAce's usual standards, not close.

It's a flawed game; lots of good ideas, lots of silly things which should have been caught during playtesting. In battle your attacks don't stun an enemy but theirs stun you, so it's easy to get stuck in a situation where you're being beaten to death with no chance to save yourself. There's very little variety in battle. The game doesn't pause when you access the menu so using healing items etc is an utter nightmare in battle, and there are no hotkeys, no shortcuts, and no other ways to reduce the lengthy and fiddly menu process in order to get and use a healing potion sometime before you drop dead. Your AI party members are mostly decent but when they have an AI breakdown they have a major breakdown which gets your entire party wiped out more often then not. You can use 3 AI members in your party, yet you're given a massive parade of people who barely get to do anything. Something like 18 party members, maybe more. At various points you will be forced to use certain characters, or have others taken away. Trying to keep everyone equipped with good gear is ridiculous. Characters not in your party only gain 50% XP so they get left behind in no time unless you give them an expensive accessory.

The flaw which finally made me give up is the appalling lack of information regarding where to go next and how to get there. I don't like having my hand held in a game. I'm fine with exploring. I like to need to think a bit. This game is wilfully cryptic. Either they don't tell you where to go at all, or they tell you a place name with no idea of where it is or even on which continent it's on. Or, as at the point where I gave up, they tell you what to do and it doesn't work, leaving you stranded and frustrated with no idea what's wrong or why. I'm sick of wandering clueless for hours until I stumble across a cutscene trigger which advances things, and I'm sick of consulting the guide on gamefaqs. And as for subquests! There's no way to track what you have found, let alone what you should do. There are loads of side quests in this game. Assuming you can find them - the game expects you to hunt around town until you find a specific party member, and then drag them around the entire place talking to every last person. Repeat with all the other party members. Because most quests are only triggered by character X talking to the quest giver and there's no way to find out who to use until you try successfully! Gah! There's not even a way to find out where a specific party member is in a town - you have to search all over until you find them.

It's a shame because the game is nice when it's not trying to make you hate it. The item creation system is fun and detailed, the world's expansive, there are no loading times, and there's loads to do if you have the patience. The plot is much better than the usual fare.

But ... yeah. "Take the castle teleporter to Cassandra." is where I bow out. The teleporter is there. It doesn't work. I don't know why. I've talked to everyone in this massive town several times, and wasted an hour searching for another teleporter or cutscene trigger. There isn't one. This after 3 extremely rubbish boss battles in a row where the party AI couldn’t cope and got itself killed repeatedly, after a stupidly confusing dungeon, after forcing me to slog around an area seemingly designed to make the player commit murder out of sheer frustration thanks to stupid random warp points. I've had enough.

[Meneldil]

Currently playing Bioshock, and long story short story, it's a blast. Probably the best game I've played since FF7.

For a FPS, the gameplay, while staying FPS-ish, is quite original. Plasmides (spells) are quite cool and offers a lot of possibilities: burn people alive, froze them, throw huge chairs and tables in their faces, use electricity and water to kill a dozen of them.
The guns feel like you're actually shooting at people (unlike some other FPS in which using gun makes you yawn), too bad some of them are mostly useless (the flamethrower and the crossbow), and the upgrades are kind of "meh", but well, I guess that's better than nothing.

So, gameplay is all kind of great. But what makes the game beyond complete awesomeness is the setting and the plot.
A secret, utopian city built underwater that slowly turns into a orwellian hellish nighthmare? Deal. The game is creppy, and when I say creppy, I mean, really freaking damn creppy. By creppy, I don't mean scary or terrifying (although it is quite often), but disturbing.
I'm not going to spoil much, but I can't help but feel sad when by the sight of this former wonderful city that turned into a deadly labyrinth inhabited by a bunch of psychotic maniacs.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Through the various recorded messages (perfectly voiced in french), we slowly witness how these people fell into madness, how former benevolent utopists become tyrannical murderers, how scientists become monsters for the sake of pushing the limits, or how mobsters become megalomaniac bastards. I almost feel some pity each time I kill one of these wandering souls looking for loots and ADAM in the formerly majestous and now abandonned city. I feel sorry for the people who believed in Fontaine/Atlas, and died for nothing or were betrayed by their savior.
I feel sorry for Adams Ryan, who tried to create his own perfect world - beyond communism or capitalism - and succombed to madness when things turned bad.

Now the game has some downsides, or at least is not always perfect. The moral choice regarding little sisters is a bit too much simplistic for me. Save them, you're the good guy. Kill them, and you're the bad dude.
The whole 'ammo distributors' thingy is a bit too much far fetched IMO, even for Rapture society. I mean, you find those all over the place, and it kind of kills the immersion: "Oh, and abandonned plaza with people lying dead on the floor and a machine selling ammunitions and food". IT's fun at first, but it kind of get old.
Furtermore, it makes plasmids more or less useless. Using them is fun, but it's slower and more complicated than cutting through people with a shotgun.

The pirating mini-game is also fun at first, but it quickly because tedious. After a few levels, pirating becomes so hard that you most of the time rely solely on luck to succeed. Some enhancements make it (a tad) easier, but it still is quite annoying IMO. I hope they'll scrap that part in Bioshock 2.

I mention these little details merely because I refuse to admit that the game is perfect. In any case, it's damn awesome and I can't wait for Bioshock 2 (though I also fear a sequel will never be as good as the original).

[Dutch_guy]

The guns feel like you're actually shooting at people (unlike some other FPS in which using gun makes you yawn), too bad some of them are mostly useless (the flamethrower and the crossbow), and the upgrades are kind of "meh", but well, I guess that's better than nothing.

The crossbow is pretty devastating, setting electrical traps is one of the best ways to destroy the big daddies and the same goes for explosive bolts. Just saying this because I didn't immediately figure out how to use those electric crossbow traps, let alone realise how usefull they could be. Didn't use the flamethrower a lot I admit, but the liquid nitrogen on the other hand is well...fantastic against pretty much any zombie you can find.

Oh and yes I do agree, bioshock has to be one of the best games I've played in a while.

[Monk]

I have given up on Mass Effect's insanity difficulty, and for that matter i've also given up on Gears of war 2's Insane difficulty for the exact same reasons. I was playing through both games in an attempt to try and get some extra gamerscore (worthless really) and to challenge myself in a new way. I also had my eye on the N7 gamer pic that comes with completing ME on Insanity. Well, after countless hours of shouting creative curses that has my family worried about my sanity, i can safely say I never want to play either of these games above Hardcore EVER AGAIN.

In fact, i would rather write a contrived post listing the outlandish things I would rather do than play insanity difficulty. It's. Just. Impossible. I fancy myself a damn good ME player, but even my Biotic jugglers who made Sarren into a kitty kat cat on Hardcore could not even get passed Feros on Insanity. I run into enemies who are walking refrigerators with the regen powers of wolverine and they can two shot me with their shot guns. The amount of times I stood up and made obscene gestures toward my TV... I just couldn't count.

And do not even get me started on Gears 2's insane setting. I've never contemplated throwing things at my TV before... but wow. I've defeated both games on their respective hardcore setting, and frankly i believe that is my limit. I just can't take this anymore, i need to have fun again.

Froggy, I salute you. For being able to defeat ME on Insanity you are truly more gamer than I. *takes off his hat*

Next post - Prototype

[Hooahguy]

Americas Army 2
seeing that AA3 was a complete flop, as of now, i downloaded AA2 so i can play with my clan mates.
best decision ive made since i got R6V1.
the gameplay is very enjoyable, and while the graphics are very old, the gameplay makes up for it. rounds are fast and furious, and training is also fun, but can be frustrating.
if you like BF2 or any multiplayer FPS, download the AA2 deploy client.
plus its FREE.

[frogbeastegg]

Froggy, I salute you. For being able to defeat ME on Insanity you are truly more gamer than I. *takes off his hat*

Wow. I think that's the first time anyone's said something like that. :faints:

It's. Just. Impossible. I fancy myself a damn good ME player, but even my Biotic jugglers who made Sarren into a kitty kat cat on Hardcore could not even get passed Feros on Insanity. I run into enemies who are walking refrigerators with the regen powers of wolverine and they can two shot me with their shot guns.

Feros was nasty. It took me a couple of deaths before I succeeded :sees Monk's eyes glowing with a desire to strangle and adds hastily: I figured out a few things which you'd be able to use as well should you find you want to go back to the game.

The first is what weaponry to use. You have the spectre X weaponry? If not then there's your first problem; you need the most powerful weaponry you can get in order to be competitive. The spectre X shotgun has a good knockback effect on it. Add in the level X rounds which have the knockback effect on them (hammerhead?) and two level X upgrades which significantly increase weapon cooldown. Now a third to one half of your shots will knock over the enemy it hits, and you can fire pretty much constantly. Shotguns fire in a spread pattern, naturally, so you can knock over more than one enemy if you're lucky. Give your two allies the same setup. The idea is to shoot at anything which is standing until it falls over, prioritising the closest targets. If nothing is standing then shoot at the closest target on the ground. If the Asari clone is there get her ASAP! She is the single biggest danger. It takes forever to kill the creepers but they go eventually.

The second key was about how the waves of creepers are triggered. Each time you damage the tendril thingies more creepers are activated so kill the initial lot of creepers, put a shot in the tendril, clear the next wave, and repeat until the tendril is gone and no creepers remain. Be careful not to accidentally catch a tendril with the spray of your shotgun!

The third key was space. Don't be afraid to walk backwards as you shoot; the areas you have already cleared will remain free of enemies. You should already know to keep the heck away from the creepers unless you want to die; distance is the single defence you have. There are a few points in that area where you can save your game once the enemies are gone. Certain points make for good defensive standpoints, mainly doors or anywhere else the creepers are funnelled tightly towards you.

The main thing to do with the AI team members here is to keep them close to you so they don't shoot a tendril and trigger a wave you aren't ready for. It doesn't matter much if they die so don't risk yourself or break your target priority to protect them. Their shotgun suppression is very useful and it does get a lot rougher if both are dead, however I (barely) survived that situation a couple of times before the end.

Be methodical. Be patient. Don't take any risks. Knock them down, clear them out, catch your breath, get back into position, start the next wave. When an entire room is complete try to save, backtracking if necessary to get far enough away.

If you're still trying to get to the underground part, the shotgun tip still works. Be heartless; kill the afflicted instead of knocking them out. The lightside option is near-impossible to pull off.

In the end Feros wasn't that bad. The boss in the lab or the run through zero gravity at the end, gah! Double gah!

I played insanity as a soldier, a class which gets little love because has no fancy powers. I suspect that helped me think in the right direction - when all you have is a gun you have to use everything the environment gives you and think smart. Your character can wave a hand and disable several enemies at once; mine had to work with an assault rifle and cover. When a Krogan comes charging at your character you'll levitate him and that's that; I had to find a solution based on my guns and the terrain. When there are too many Krogan to lift my approach continues to work where yours stalls. The soldier's extra health and shield power don't make much different on insanity; it was still possible for me to die in an instant with immunity.

Get a spectre X pistol, give it upgrades which stop it overheating and boost the damage it does versus the enemies you face, and activate your maxed out marksman and shield powers. Now your character has a better damage output than my soldier and almost as much defence. Use cover, fight smart, and if you use Kaiden and Wrex then you have a combo of the most useful tech/biotic powers for disabling enemies on characters who can handle a gunfight. If there's a powerful enemy like an armature then order your team to use their powers on them, otherwise you can leave them to their own devices without much trouble.

[Monk]

Feros was nasty. It took me a couple of deaths before I succeeded :sees Monk's eyes glowing with a desire to strangle and adds hastily:

:eye twitches:

Appreciate the do's and don'ts froggy, and yes waving a hand about and making your enemies go flying is a particular favorite of mine.

Weaponry is the Spectre X stuff with inferno rounds. Straight, hard burst through Marksmanship with an added Damage over time. Throw in massive amounts of biotic attacks from Shepard and tech attacks this set up really kept the AI off balance... until Insanity. All around though I should probably change the main strategy since everything and their mother has Immunity after Hardcore. Last difficulty things started to get tough but i was able to just power through things with guile, here? I'm not powering through anything...

..I guess I should stop turning hammerhead rounds into omni-gel.

Really the problem wasn't space, it was that after my intial burst/float/throw stage the enemy still has enough health to prove a problem. So it really throws me for a hurt, if i can just survive for a few more seconds my powers will be off cooldown and i can enter into another juggle cycle, maybe the hammerhead rounds were the missing link. I'll give them a try.

If you're still trying to get to the underground part, the shotgun tip still works. Be heartless; kill the afflicted instead of knocking them out. The lightside option is near-impossible to pull off.

Forgive me, you must have mistaken me for a Paragon player. :evil cackle: Shepard can only be Renegade in my story-archs.

In the end Feros wasn't that bad. The boss in the lab or the run through zero gravity at the end, gah! Double gah!

Please, I don't want to think about that now.

I'll give the game another go from the start (giving me time to gather up supplies for the entire squad) in a few days, maybe next week after i've had some time in something else. I went into Insanity blissful of how hard it actually was, you really gotta buckle down and really get your game-senses going. It doesn't mess around. I respect that in a way, but in another... :inaudible rage:

[frogbeastegg]

Weaponry is the Spectre X stuff with inferno rounds. Straight, hard burst through Marksmanship with an added Damage over time.

Consider a change of ammo. Polonium stops enemy health regeneration in addition to damage over time. Inferno only has a stronger version of the damage over time effect. I used it on the weapons I didn't have polonium for.

I looked on the ME wiki to see what the knockback ammo was. It's sledgehammer rounds. Hammerheads are the weaker version. 1 level X sledgehammer round and 2 level X frictionless materials.

Really the problem wasn't space

Then I guess you didn't reach the staircase where they unavoidably come at you from both sides. Stuff of nightmares, I tell you. I could hardly move; I ended up jammed in a corner with both team members dead, barely able to see because the camera was having a fit, frantically blasting away at enemies so close they were standing on my toes. That's the section where all my deaths came from, and when I passed it I was one acid burp away from another.

Just thought I'd share that cheerful story in order to give you something to look forward to

[Meneldil]

Finished Bioshock. As said earlier, I deeply enjoyed it, though the end-scene was the biggest let-down ever.
The last boss was just too easy to kill, I was like "Yeah, I'm done, let's enjoy the video :)" and really expected something exciting or awesome, given the game quality. All I got was a 28 seconds long video showing

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

how Jack saved the little sisters and brought them out of Rapture, how the graduated, got married and all that.
All we can see during most of these 30 seconds are hands. What a disappointement.

I'm considering playing it again to see the other ending, but I mean, I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just for a 30 sec video and 2 or 3 cut scenes.

So now, I'm playing God of War. Almost done with it apparently (normal mode). The game is fun, but like most hack 'n slash/beat them all, it gets kind of repetitive at some point. Cube-Cube-Triangle-L1, rinse and repeat.
The platform and 'use your brain' parts of the game range from entertaining to frustrating. In any case, the game is fairly good, and I can see why it was rated so high at release.




Please remember to use spoiler tags - froggy

[Xiahou]

I think I can safely say, after 60+hrs, I'm finished with the final volume of .hack//GU. Yeah, there are still a few things I could still do, but I finally got the "secret" epilogue ending and at some point you have to say enough is enough and move on.

Next up on the console side is more PS2 RPG love- SMT: Devil Summoner. On the PC, I'm playing some EU3, but I'm feeling the MassEffect itch again.... for some reason.

[Hooahguy]

I'm considering playing it again to see the other ending, but I mean, I'm not sure I'm willing to do it just for a 30 sec video and 2 or 3 cut scenes.

or you can just look for it on youtube.

[naut]

Ok. My brother got Prototype yesterday. Imagine Assassin's Creed on crack/steroids and then you have Prototype. Pretty good so far, although I've only played about 10-20%.

[Monk]

Ok. My brother got Prototype yesterday. Imagine Assassin's Creed on crack/steroids and then you have Prototype. Pretty good so far, although I've only played about 10-20%.

The free-running is 10x more fun, and the story is 10x more shallow. I also got the game and I'll be posting thoughts soon. I'm probably at the same place you are, Psychonaut as I just got it yesterday.

[Furunculus]

Armed Assault 2 (aka Arma II)

totally awesome - op-flash with MOOAARRR!!!!!!!!

[naut]

The free-running is 10x more fun, and the story is 10x more shallow. I also got the game and I'll be posting thoughts soon. I'm probably at the same place you are, Psychonaut as I just got it yesterday.

My thoughts exactly. I love the side missions/events. Consuming stuff and running up walls is so much more fun than the actual missions. I do like the fact that you are caught in the middle and not part of either side, oddly refreshing. I never really expected much from the actual story line, so if it disappoints I won't mind. If not it'll be a bonus.

[johnhughthom]

Just had a blast at Mount & Blade, haven't played since just after 1.0 came out. I had forgotten how much fun planting an arrow in someones head from a galloping horse was.

[penguinking]

Just got Hearts of Iron II, one of the best video games I've ever played. Having a blast, and conquered the world as Germany and France. Ridiculously amazing game, though the AI could be a bit better. Also, the 1944 scenario is impossible as Germany.

[naut]

Just got Hearts of Iron II, one of the best video games I've ever played. Having a blast, and conquered the world as Germany and France. Ridiculously amazing game, though the AI could be a bit better. Also, the 1944 scenario is impossible as Germany.

You might want to try out some of the mods. Most improve the AI and make battles longer and more difficult.

The 1944 scenario isn't impossible, it is pretty damn difficult though. There's a good AAR over at the Paradox forums on it.

[Martok]

Taking a break from War Between the States (still figuring that one out, really) to play Birth of the Federation again. The latest version of the Balance of Power mod has just been released; am greatly enjoying the new ships and the (much) larger maps so far.

[CountArach]

I'm going to buy the newly released Pro Cycling Manager 2009 tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

[naut]

I'm going to buy the newly released Pro Cycling Manager 2009 tonight. I'll let you know how that goes.

What would you do in it?

[CountArach]

What would you do in it?

You organise when your riders attack into breakaways, when your team helps with pursuit, you organise sprinting. Essentially anything that is tactical within a cycling race. Added to this is the managerial aspect of the game that many people would be familiar with from Soccer/Basketball manager games.

[Csargo]

Sounds like it would be boring.

[CountArach]

Sounds like it would be boring.

For most people, yeah, but I'm one of those crazy few people who actually enjoys pro cycling.