Today, I have been mostly been playing... (3)

[Dasquian Belargic]

more Tomb Raider

every time Lara dies in a stupid QTE, I think of Spaced

"You stupid cow, something about a key, you can't shoot straight you big titted bitch."

[Crusader]

I think I infected someone with a certain franchise...

[Captain Untouchable]

I have no idea what you're talking about. It's not like I just bought every single Halo game at once or anything. :uhoh

[Crusader]

I played some more the Dark Eye: Drakensang. I fairly enjoy this game although it has not the graphic fidelity of current gen games and the dialogs are not fully voiced. The last thing really bugs me since this has not been an issue for me in years. I think I have been spoiled by Obsidian, Bethesda and especially Bioware in the past console cycle.

I really like how they have brought Aventuria to life since it really looks like a renaissance/medival version of Europe with magical creatures in it. It feels kind of reassuring too since it gives me the feeling that I do not missinterpret Aventuria on every second sunday.

What really bugged me yesterday was the fact that the game is not as streamlined as most RPGs are these days. I ended up in a dungeon where I made it to the bossfight only realize that my heroes are not strong enough yet to defeat this creature. Now the way is blocked off behind me and so I will have to load the autosave the game made before entering the final stage. At least I have not made a complete dead save here.

One of the best things so far has been running into Aventuria's version of Elminister/Gandalf after only one hour. A character our heroes from the Dark Banana will meet very soon as well.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

I've been playing the formerly WarZ, now labeled Infested: Survival Stories. I cannot stress how much I initially hated this game but once I sat down and played a little bit and got the hang of it it's a lot of fun. I don't know how it compares to the ARMA mod, DayZ, that it's mirrored after but I've had quite a lot of fun beating zombies to death with Cricket Bats, Canoe Paddles, and Fire Axes; all the while going from one desolated town to the next scavenging for anything worthwhile. The game manages to create a pretty legitimate atmosphere as far as the other players go. Like human survivors interacting in a zombie apocalypse you never can know if they will help or kill you. Sometimes it's just easier to shoot first, be the bad guy and survive another day.

[Captain Untouchable]

Today I should have been playing Halo 2, but Microsoft are sneaky bastards: apparently you can only play Xbox games on an Xbox 360 if you have an official Xbox-branded hard drive connected. It doesn't matter how much storage space you have available... the basic 4GB console won't run Xbox games without you forking out the cash for the branded hardware. :|

There's apparently a work-around that involves networking through my PC... but yeah. Bit of a dick move there, Microsoft. :grumble

[Dasquian Belargic]

clocked Mark of the Ninja today

fantastic game. now I need to replay it and be the stealthiest motherfucker ever

[Crusader]

Today I should have been playing Halo 2, but Microsoft are sneaky bastards: apparently you can only play Xbox games on an Xbox 360 if you have an official Xbox-branded hard drive connected. It doesn't matter how much storage space you have available... the basic 4GB console won't run Xbox games without you forking out the cash for the branded hardware. :|

There's apparently a work-around that involves networking through my PC... but yeah. Bit of a dick move there, Microsoft. :grumble

Hey Jace have you tried the workaround yet? When will we continue our all the Halo games playthrough? Or do you want to fly over to Germany in the last week of August to finish that thing locally? I have time off then.

I played more Drakensang this weekend. I finished MGS3 and I started playing the Orange Box. Half Life 2 has aged really well. I enjoy it more than I did the first time I played it. I am now kind of excited for Episode 1&2 now since I have never played those before. I definately want to do the Gnome achievement on Episode 2.
I hope that I can convince Martina to play Portal 1 for me.

[Captain Untouchable]

Hey Jace have you tried the workaround yet? When will we continue our all the Halo games playthrough? Or do you want to fly over to Germany in the last week of August to finish that thing locally? I have time off then.

I'm going to give the workthrough a shot later on today. If it doesn't work, I may have to look into how much flights cost, because that sounds like kind of an awesome idea. :ohno

Would it make sense to do the ODST co-op in the meantime, since it happens during Halo 2... or does it have spoilers?

[Crusader]

Not really it literally takes place after the 2nd mission in Halo 2 and Spoiler Alert the covenant have found earth!... but you already know that after watching the teaser for Halo 2.

You will be looking at flights to NUE (Nürnberg)!

[Captain Untouchable]

I've seen the opening movie for ODST as well (with the drop/etc), because I am required by law to watch things if they have the voices of at least two significant nerd icons in there... and ODST has four. :ohno

I will grab you online later to work out aeroplane type things!

[Droo]

Star Wars: The Old Republic. Levelling my Operative at the moment, and loving it. I can see myself forking out the fiver for the expansion so I can level up my Powertech, too - how I've missed that rocket punch!

[Dasquian Belargic]

finished Ducktales Remastered yesterday.... dat music :swoon:

[Crusader]

BTW XBOX Owners. Your Xbox Gold Membership entitles you to a free copy of Dead Rising 2 this week. Don't forget to download it!

[Vince]

Played an online game called Hex Empire. With the soundtrack to Secret Weapons Over Normandy playing. It was much more epic than it deserved to be.

In other news, I started what I hope to be one of the final semesters of school this week. It's taken me forever, but I'm clawing my way to respectability. A new computer for the new year is on the horizon (looking at shelling out about five hundred for it this or next week), and it should be able to handle (with a cheap video card upgrade to max specs) Final Fantasy 14; not that I'm chomping at the bit to play the game, but I'm hoping that a system that can handle it will last me longer than my past computers have. Now I'm looking for a small television since it's not coming with a monitor, and I am shivering a bit at the thought it will cost me about 650$ to get everything in and set up. After this, it's saving every cent for a car.

I don't like all this adult stuff. :(

[Morgan Evanar]

I've been wading my way through Alice: Madness Returns.

[Park Kraken]

I've had my fill of Civ 5 for now. Reinstalled X-COM for another run through. After that I might finally get around to play SWTOR.

[Dasquian Belargic]

returned to Skyrim to try out the Dawnguard expansion

I'm a werewolf so I told those bloodsuckers where to stick it

[Dasquian Belargic]

one achievement away from completing Castle Of Illusion :) I hope that they bring out 'World of Illusion' next because I loved both of those games when I was younger

[Peter McCoy]

Music in those two games was epic. I loved World of Illusion! Alakazam!

[Dasquian Belargic]

W07YGfGAC-4

[Peter McCoy]

Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs

Just had my first playing/recording session - for just under an hour. I expect most people would have gotten to where I am much faster! And I think I glitched into an area I'm not supposed to be in so will have to tentatively watch a Youtube video to see where I've gone wrong.

So far the atmosphere is incredible. I feel it's even more tense than the original. I think that'd mainly down to the surroundings - starting off in your own home, but things just aren't right - that to me is more terrifying than Brennenburg Castle.

I don't know whether to upload the footage as it is, or find out where I went wrong and cut from that point. Any suggestions? The point where I think I've fucked up is 7 minutes from the end of the session so it's not like people will lose hours of their life watching it.

[Dasquian Belargic]

^ Upload it!



I'm sorely tempted to play BioShock Infinite again :ohno

[Peter McCoy]

Okay, I'll start releasing it as of Monday alongside System Shock 2.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Just purchased the Mass Effect Trilogy during that outrageous 70% off Origin sale. I attempted to play through the first one, using a texture pack to make it a lot prettier, but the first game is just so tedious when I've played through it several times already before. So I skipped to the second game and used the Genesis DLC to generate my character. This time around I'm playing Femshep. The game has played out the same as before. Playing a Technician. Pretty fun stuff. Just finished the Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC, and it fleshes out the game so much. Femshep and Liara makes me squee with joy.

[Daniel Myers]

"Repairing Coruscant's infrastructure is green obtuse. To form the red parallel, we require a black bisector."

Dear EA & Bioware: give me the option to buy Pat-aK as a companion, and I will give you all the moneys. :love

[Sasha Sains'Cyr]

Started playing Dragon Age: Origins...am determined to NOT suck at this game.

For those in the Banana-verse, yes, my character is based on Makky...sadly, no displeasing voice.

[Dasquian Belargic]

DA:O is such a fun game.

Also, I can't believe it never occurred to me before but there are two companion/follower characters who are very similar to Dasq and Saidra :o

[Vince]

"Repairing Coruscant's infrastructure is green obtuse. To form the red parallel, we require a black bisector."

Dear EA & Bioware: give me the option to buy Pat-aK as a companion, and I will give you all the moneys. :love

Sir, I COMPLETELY AGREE.

Also, playing warzones with Jedi/Melee is an exercise in frustration and futility. Which means I suck.

[Peter McCoy]

I was hoping to be playing GTA 5 today but I'll have to wait for my vendor of choice to restock. Shouldn't be too long.

[Vince]

Fallout New Vegas was fun for all of four seconds. Now it hangs on the main menu screen while the music keeps playing. I uninstalled and reinstalled, but it continues. I wonder if I can get a refund.

[General John Heller]

^

Check your video settings... I think you can access those before the game starts up with New Vegas? I had similar problems initially, and had to go in and tweak a couple of bits and pieces in the control center for my graphics card (upped the GPU clock a little, etc), and that sorted stuff out. I imagine Chris would be pretty good at converting my early-morning vagueness into comprehensible instructions.

[Vince]

Due to two characters suddenly losing their .dat files, I am sitting through what will be a lengthy reinstall of The Old Republic. If this starts happening again and I have to pay to call their help line, Imma force choke some bitches.

[Lord Pyre]

There appears to be some pretty hefty patch action going on today: I've had it on the go for nearly twelve hours now, and it's only just finished. The SWTOR servers get pretty overloaded when a patch is out and about... that won't be helping your download efforts.

[Ben Merasska]

There appears to be some pretty hefty patch action going on today: I've had it on the go for nearly twelve hours now, and it's only just finished. The SWTOR servers get pretty overloaded when a patch is out and about... that won't be helping your download efforts.

Well, considering that I am reinstalling it to fix a problem, patching shouldn't be really causing the launcher to cause my computer to freeze, and after several attempts to actually log in I finally managed to see my characters and servers, only to have the game freeze my computer again. Now I might be a bit uncharitable due to frustration right now, but really, how am I supposed to enjoy the game when the launcher is giving me this much trouble?

Edit: Five seconds after this was posted, I brought up the launcher to see how it was doing and my computer froze again. I really hope I don't have to reinstall the entire freaking OS.

[Peter McCoy]

GTA V arrived in the post today so been playing that for the last hour or so. The wife is away this weekend and I'm off work so I'm all set!

[Peter McCoy]

Played a few more hours of GTA V tonight. Did a few missions, advancing the story a bit, and also checked out the in-game stock markets. There's two markets you can buy stock on - an offline one influenced by missions and storyline elements, and an online one influenced by the actions of other players in GTA Online which I believe launches on Tuesday 1st October. One example is to lower the stock value of a car manufacturer by destroying their cars, then buying at that low price before helping the stock rise again by destroying competitors cars.

I love this game!

[Angela]

^ Been watching a GTA V playthrough on youtube... the guy got pretty obsessed with the tennis minigame a couple of episodes ago, and then smoked some bad weed causing him to hallucinate aliens that he had to fight.

I've never bothered with GTA games before, but right now I am sorely tempted.

[Vince]

I have played eighteen minutes of Dead Space 2, and I already would like somebody sitting next to me while I'm playing it.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Pokemon X :3:

[Vince]

Assault Horizon pisses me off. I WANT TO ROLL DAMMIT LET ME FREAKING ROLL WHAT IS THIS DFM CRAP

[Vince]

Double post. Sorry!

[Ilias Nytrau]

Robot Unicorn Attack 2.

I really need to have not met this game. It poses a great deal of danger to the well-being of my grades. >.<

[Crusader]

I started playing Tomb Raider (2013). I really like the visuals and the exploration.

[Dasquian Belargic]

^ I've really enjoyed what I've played of this game so far. Especially enjoy using the bow to snipe people :D

[Dee]

Playing HALO 3 with allergies sucks because I can't see for details for shit, so I'm back to playing Skylanders SwapForce which was released this week. It matters considerably less when I blink and my vision goes all watery-blurry.

[Park Kraken]

Playing through the campaign of SCII: Heart of the Swarm for the first time, on Normal Difficulty. Having a blast so far.

[Peter McCoy]

I really like the new units in heart of the Swarm. Especially the evolution options available such as the Raptor strain of Zerglings. Something I've been meaning to check out is the mod that lets you play the original game and Brood Wars campaign in the new SC2 engine.

As for my own gaming, I finally decided to get stuck in to Batman: Arkham City after such a long time since buying it on Steam. Really enjoying it so far, more than Arkham Asylum thanks to the increased freedom. Reminds me of playing Batman Returns on the Mega Drive all those years ago, gliding through the first level on the rooftops of Gotham.

As an aside, I have the GOTY edition which comes with all the bonus costumes - any idea how I access them? Do I have to complete the game first or is there something I'm missing in the options menu?

EDIT: Ah, here's the problem. I've only been playing the standard fucking version for the last 7 hours! Turns out I've got another install for the GOTY version. How lovely!

[Dasquian Belargic]

spent the afternoon catching a whole bunch of Eevee's in Pokemon X

almost got all the evolutions of it now :D

[Kat Harriman]

How many Eeveelutions are there now? Haven't played pokémon since they added the Ice and Grass ones. :uhoh

[Dasquian Belargic]

Flareon, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Leafeon, Glaceon, Espeon, Umbreon, and Sylveon!

The last one is the only one that will be new to you.. it's a fairy type :)

I'm missing Espeon and Umbreon.

[Kat Harriman]

Huh. I was expecting there to have been new ones for Black/White. They just need to get on and make one for each type and be done with it. :grumble

Also, Flareon 5eva. :love

[Peter McCoy]

Playing some Arkham City tonight, and I'm pretty much up to the same point I was before having to reinstall so I had access to my GOTY costumes. Currently kicking ass as "The Dark Knight Returns", a much rougher-looking Batman than the default skin. He looks right at home in the cold, unforgiving streets of Arkham City.

Also been playing Fallout 3, clearing out Arlington Library last night as well as Fairfax Ruins. Already done Anchorage and so I'm rocking the Winterized T-51b Power Armor. All my SPECIAL stats are at 8 apart from a charisma of 2. I'm holding off finding the SPECIAL bobbleheads until I hit Level 30 and get the "Almost Perfect" perk which raises all stats to 9. I usually go for perks that boost skills but have held off this playthrough thanks to an intelligence level that allows me 18 skill points per level-up, so any skills I can't max will be done with Skill Books, allowing me to attain maximum stats across the board to complete my badassery.

[Ben Merasska]

I just saw Alfhild Battle-born walking out of the brush on the side of the road with two guards. O.o

[Dasquian Belargic]

Settlers of Catan

had too many sheep

[Emelie Shadowstar]

GW2's Halloween content

.... Clocktowerrrrrrrr :shakefist

[Crusader]

Nintendo Land Zelda

[Crusader]

OK so I watch Battlefield 4 Showdown tonight Europe's vs USA's finest and I am having a blast just like watching the world cup:
http://www.battlefield.com/battlefield-4/showdown

[Crusader]

I finally finished The Dark Eye: Drakensang

It's been a while since storming the final mountain top of an RPG felt that challenging but in the end my Elfish Archer, my Horasion Thief/Mage, my mighty Amazon and my Knight in full armor made it to the peak to kill the final boss after fighting through nearly endless waves of enemies.
At some point I stopped going for damage and started going for wounds instead. My thief and my archer could cause 5 wounds in a single round so I could kill one enemy each round as long as I did not run out of endurance.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Your elf archer and your horatian thief... the candyfloss mafia :smug:

[Crusader]

More the stab, stab, stab and eyeshot commando.

[Hobgoblin]

Saints Row 4 is so ridiculous. Play it and you'll love it.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Tiny death star in my iPhone :3:

[Peter McCoy]

So I finally got stuck into Baldur's Gate after buying it on GOG.com God knows how long ago. I played it briefly years ago but the mechanics were a real barrier for me. Now that I've matured as a gamer and have taken the time to understand how to play what is essentially a faithful videogame interpretation of AD&D 2nd Edition, I'm really enjoying myself. Saving is essential after every combat encounter as enemies are fucking deadly! I'm playing as a Sorcerer for my main character, along with a Thief, a Fighter and a Fighter/Druid. Since my main guys spells suck ass on the whole, he's armed with a slingshot which - coupled with my Thief's arrows - is pretty effective against most enemies. When big bastards such as ogres show up, I can currently cast 3 x Magic Missiles or Chromatic Orbs to burn away some health. I find it strange that once I've cast three spells I have to rest before I can cast anymore but if they're the AD&D rules so be it. It just results in more cautious, slow-paced, Savey McSave play which is fine with me. And I now know what THAC0 means! My Geek Level has increased!

Anybody who's not played Baldur's gate but enjoys RPG's should give this one a try. I'm annoyed I've not given it a proiper go until now but my first encounter was back in 1998 when I was just 14 so maybe it's better that I'm able to appreciate it now.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Scribblenauts Unmasked

never not adorable :3:

[Zereth Lancer]

Played Elder Scrolls Online Beta for about 30 minutes before the servers went down :/

[Peter McCoy]

Absolutely loving the Starbound Beta. While it's unlikely I'll do a Let's Play (need to finish Amnesia anyway!) I will be putting up a short 12-minute video showing it off sometime tomorrow.

[Peter McCoy]

And here's the video:

q4YrVWuiiyE

[Peter McCoy]

After trying and failing to get playable framerates from the Stalker: Call of Pripyat Misery Mod, I've restored my Steam vanilla install and re-applied the Reloaded mod which improves the textures to a degree and makes some gameplay changes. Along with improving weather effects, the AtmosFear 3.0 mod included in the pack adds Psi Storms and Radioactive Fallout events to the already-present emissions - all of which can be deadly and some even turn NPC's who fail to reach shelter into zombies. Overall it vastly improves the overall atmosphere and ambience of the game to new heights of uneasiness.

Hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my graphics card with an Christmas cash and in turn finally be able to experience the Misery Mod. But in the meantime I'm happy playing this somewhat improved version of one of my favourite games on PC ever. :)

[Peter McCoy]

More Stalker: Call of Pripyat tonight, and I'm really appreciating the gameplay changes introduced by the Reloaded mod now. Nights are much darker with awesome phases of the moon represented. And nights are also much more dangerous to the point where I simply will not go out at night.

I've recently done a very early mission for the Bandit leader, Sultan, which involved accompanying his men over to a nearby Stalker outpost and killing the stalkers there. Instead, I turned on the bandits and looted their gear, as well as gaining favour with the Stalkers - the local leader even rewarded me for helping dispatch the bandits.

Now this outpost (the Shevchenko (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20111029160527/stalker/images/0/01/Zaton_Shevchenko_cop_zsg_dk.jpg)) is a rusty ship, not that far away from the main rusty ship in the area serving as a safe haven and trading/mission hub as well as a place to stash gear and rest (the Skadovsk (http://static2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100902203743/stalker/images/thumb/3/37/Skadovsk.jpg/1024px-Skadovsk.jpg)). Despite the way it looks, it's an extremely welcoming place when considered along with the harsh environment of the swampy area of Zaton which consists of marshes, a dried-up river basin, landlocked boats and ships of various sizes, a disused dockyard with cranes, an abandoned ranger station and a derelict waste processing facility, not to mention the various anomalies, the burnt farmstead on the hill, the zombie-infested sawmill and the crumbling bridge that spans the empty river which houses an ill-fated military convoy on it's concrete platform and creepy-as-fuck snorks (http://static3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100321172845/stalker/images/0/05/533316.jpg) around the base of it's supports down at the riverbed.

The mission to assault the Shevchenko occurs at night. With this mod, the night is almost pitch black. So after I'd saved the stalkers who I consider to be the good guys in the game, I decided to walk back to the Skadovsk to sleep away the night. It's not very far at all...

But mere seconds after leaving the Shevchenko, I was beset on all sides by Pseudo-dogs, Bloodsuckers and Snorks. I died perhaps halfway which was still within sight of the gangway leading to the deck entrance of the Skadovsk. So I hesitantly reloaded my save.

It's now been three in-game hours roughly - 18 minutes of realtime play - and I haven't budged from the Shevchenko. It's still very dark outside and it's raining heavy. The warm inviting glow of the fire on the middle deck of the bridge is very calming, though my concern has gotten the better of me as two lone stalkers in the bilge below me, guarding the two open accessways that lead to the main hold which is ripped open on both sides and completely exposed to the elements, allowing anything lurking in the swamps to wander right up to those open accessways... So down I went. And I'm still there now with my rifle trained on those doors. I feel somehow responsible for the lives of these men. And there's not really any in-game benefit to be had from protecting them. But for my own characters journey and the journey I as a gamer wish to take, it's absolutely vital that I help as many Stalkers survive this harsh wilderness as possible.

Had I been able to reach the Skadovsk before nightfall I'd have happily used my bunk to rest and advance time several hours to usher in the new dawn and the safety of daylight. But instead I've decided to hunker down with the very men I was sent to kill in an effort to further atone for the sins I almost committed (I just ended up killing who I perceive to be the bad guys and commit a different set of sins instead).

Emergent gameplay at it's finest!

EDIT: To put it into perspective, here (http://www.plmccoy.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/skadovsk-shevchenko.jpg) is a screenshot taken of the Shevchenko while standing on the aft deck of the Skadovsk. Not far at all, but at night.....!

[Park Kraken]

Tried out some Leviathan: Warships with a friend whom had bought the game for me for the holidays. Pretty challenging but pretty fun turned based naval combat game.

[Vince]

Played Shogun 2 for a bit the past couple of days, along with New Vegas and Assassin's Creed 4 at a friend's place. But I have been once more sucked into Skyrim; ah, how I love thee, Skyrim...

[Dasquian Belargic]

Broken Sword 5

point and click goodness that I booked through Kickstarter

[Peter McCoy]

I got a new graphics cars the other week - an MSI GeForce GTX 770 Lightning - and am happy to report that the Misery Mod runs great! But I've hardly played it. I've tested Metro: Last Light and it runs maxed out and smooth as fuck. But I've hardly played it. Crysis and Crysis 2 run brilliantly, and Crysis 3 is very respectable too. But I've hardly played them.

What I have been playing is a lot of Dwarf Fortress which compared to Crysis 3 and Metro is the graphical equivalent of an amino acid with the aforementioned games being Homo sapiens. But what a game! The detail and complexity is astounding! You can assign a dwarf with the Stone Detailing labour and designate areas of stone to smooth and later engrave. Upon examining those engravings you might just read about events that have actually happened during your time playing, such as battles or other conflicts, a harsh winter etc as well as events that occurred during the history that was generated upon world creation with no player input at all. Each industry you can explore is multifaceted. The food industry is split into meat, fish and plants. Plants start with seeds that grow into crops which are harvested and can be eaten raw or prepared, or you can extract things like oils and gels with their own applications, or they can be brewed for drinks. Fish need to be dissected and cleaned before eating and can also yield oils for extraction. Meat has to come from an animal which you raise from a mating pair and then needs butchering - nothing is wasted, even nervous tissue and hair have uses (bones to make crossbow bolts too!). Move on to the cloth industry which can come from animals or plants that yield fibres that are spun into thread and then woven into cloth for clothing and bags. The metal industry is something I've yet to explore - requiring raw ore, fuel and flux stone to produce steel and various alloys for making weapons and armour. I've even read about complex systems using pumps and gates to fill a channeled-out area with water, sucking in large sea creatures like whales and sharks, then pumping out the water and harvesting what the animals have to offer since you can't make boats or ships to go whaling or sharking.

What's so great is that beyond providing a secure place for your dwarves to live with sustainable food and alcohol, everything is entirely optional depending on what you want to delve into. This is quickly becoming one of my favourite games. I admit that it takes patience to learn how to play but it's very rewarding when you do succeed.

But I am looking forward to getting stuck into the Misery Mod sometime soon, when I'm finally able to drag myself away from DF.

I've also been playing some Starcraft 2 with Droo and another friend, which led to a replay of the campaign which I'm using as a way to try and grab all the Hard achievements. It's crazy the way the campaign lets you choose the orde rin which you do certain missions, and each mission unlocks a specific unit to be used in future missions. So avoiding a comparatively easy mission for as long as possible can result in you having access to overpowered units compared to the enemy present - something I'm looking forward to exploiting!

[Zereth Lancer]

I decided to give Marvel Heroes another try. I haven't touched it since it's beta launch and the game has smoothed out in a lot of ways. For instance you can now unlock characters without paying money, it just requires a ridiculous amount of grinding to do so. Early on it almost feels like the game is too easy, where my AoE attacks wipe out entire armies of enemies. Boss fights just come down to hitting and moving; kiting enemies around obstacles while shooting them in the face. I imagine the game is a lot harder for melee range characters, but since the game's free characters are all ranged (Crimson Witch, Storm, and Hawkeye) I have yet to experience melee characters. The game has a lot of wonderful fanservice with quips exchanged between characters and wonderful comic inspired cut-scenes. It still suffers from incredible framerate drop when there are a lot of players/enemies on screen.

In the end it's just a Diablo inspired dungeon crawler-esque game with a marvel twist. I'm enjoying it, although I don't for how much longer at the rate it's taking me to unlock additional characters.

[Peter McCoy]

I'm getting better at Dwarf Fortress!

I've finally delved into the Metal industry. I started a new fortress and happened to embark in an area rich in iron ore and flux stone, as well as bituminous coal. First, fuel is needed - either charcoal or coke. The amount of coal lying around in this mountain means I never have to worry about acquiring coke.The iron ore (limonite, hematite and magnetite) can be smelted at a furnace into iron bars. Then a further smelting operation involving an iron bar and some flux stone, such as marble or limestone, produces a bar of pig iron. Then a final smelting operation involving iron, pig iron and flux stone gives two bars of steel. Thats when you can start to gear up for a proper military with steel weaponry and armour. Iron gear can work but it's really just a stop-gap before you get up to steel which is much much more effective.

Next step is to set up a barracks and select dwarves for military training, which is almost the stage I'm at.

At the moment I have a very self-sufficient fortress. The only thing I need really are the odd items for when a dwarf enters a strange mood, at which time they will demand certain types of items and if you haven't got one of their requirements, they can either sulk into a deep depression and die, or go insane and rush off on a killing spree. As I type this, one of my dwarves is demanding some kind of cloth. I have ample plant-fibre cloth and he still asks, so I can only assume he wants silk of which I have none! I really hope a trade caravan arrives like... right now and that they have some silk to trade otherwise I'm going to lose at least this dwarf to insanity. You can acquire silk yourself but it means finding and exploring caverns containing cave spiders and grabbing the silk without dying. I haven't explored deep enough for that just yet.

This game is still holding my attention very well. It's such a rewarding experience. And I haven't even considered one of the insane mega-projects many players attempt.

[Dasquian Belargic]

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

fun :)

[Lilaena De'Ville]

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes

fun :)

We've been playing it every day. :D Owen and Sophie are pretty good! (except Sophie keeps wanting to be the Statue of Liberty minifig who's special power is... being still like a statue)

[Dasquian Belargic]

I'm just working my way through the X-Mansion at the minute.

Looking forward to free-playing the game once I have everyone unlocked.

[Red]

Omg Squirrel Girl is adorable!

[Droo]

Been drooling over the Titanfall Beta today. This game is obscene amounts of fun!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Omg Squirrel Girl is adorable!

just unlocked her ^_^

Ant Man is adorable to play as when in tiny mode

[Peter McCoy]

Still thoroughly enjoying myself with Dwarf Fortress. Tonight I finally had a goblin siege. But whilst I had plenty of steel (for armour) and silver (for warhammers) I had yet to craft a single weapon or breastplate. But I was able to thwart the attack (albeit after suffering several feline losses since cats are stupid and run outside before I close the drawbridge!) thanks to an array of cage traps laden across my entry hallway. The goblins were milling around just outside, so I opened the drawbridge. Naturally, a few dwarves made their way to the surface since the way was clear and there were jobs to be done. As soon as the first dwarf emerged from the fortress, the goblins charged at him, so he ran back inside. I barely had time to re-activate the drawbridge but it wasn't needed - all 10 goblins had been ensnared in my traps.

So now I have ten goblins (and a fucking giant!) locked in cages in my barracks. Now begins the careful task of disarming them to acquire all that lovely goblinite (a DF-player-coined term for resources acquired from slain/defeated goblins) and disposing of the foul creatures effectively. One plan I have is to construct a drawbridge across lava and set it up to retract rather than raise. This bridge will have two more drawbridges on either side which raise, essentially blocking it at both ends. On the far side shall be a flat area where I can "build" the occupied cages, then link them to levers on the safe side of the bridge. Activating the levers to open the cages will result in the goblins rushing to attack my dwarves on my side, at which point I can raise both drawbridges, trapping them on the main drawbridge before flicking the final switch to retract it, sending them to their fiery death. Quite elaborate! And the first thing to do is dig deep enough to hopefully find lava. I'm hoping I can link a single lever to all the cages since pulling umpteen levers will be annoying!

Another plan is to dig towards a cavern containing monsters and once again use drawbridges to control access. Instead of using magma to burn the goblins, I can simply open the cages and let them wander into the caverns and hopefully their deaths.

Both seem equally sadistic. Any preference or other suggestions? The game allows for very elaborate and involves systems using pumps and floodgates, water and magma, drawbridges and pressure plates (and probably more I haven't read about) as well as stone-fall and spike traps. An easy cop-out is what DF-players refer to as an atom-smasher which is using the downward movement of a drawbridge to crush and utterly destroy anything underneath - leaving no corpses that need to be disposed of. While the easiest option, it's also the most boring.

[Satkia Beltrak]

I've recently picked Torchlight II again. I had only barely started the game in Fall 2012, but been playing it a lot this last week. I'm having a blast with it!

[Peter McCoy]

I still haven't finished Torchlight yet. Is there much difference besides multiplayer?

[Satkia Beltrak]

I played both Torchlight (which I had finished) and Torchlight II as single player, so I couldn't tell how the multiplayer is. I had enjoyed the gameplay in the first one, and I like how they have retained the same ergonomics for the basics in the second game, and reused a large part of the bestiary, but expanded on classes and locations. It's a pretty solid hack'n'slash ride in my view. They tweaked some things for the better in comparison with the first game. I liked the first one, but the second one is even funnier for me.

[Crusader]

I have been playing lots of BF4 lately and I finally finished the Witcher 2 which was a really good and solid game and unlike Mass Effect all my decisions seemed to have somehow mattered in the end.