Today I've been mostly playing... Pt. 4

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

What's in your console?

[Crusader]

Halo 3 in the tray and Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon on the harddrive

[Dasquian Belargic]

I played through the second episode of The Walking Dead: Season 2 yesterday... Telltale is really outdoing themselves with this game

[Zereth Lancer]

I've been attempting to play the new Thief, but it is driving me insane. The game is good, don't get me wrong. The level of immersion is incredible, to the point of being taxing. When you have to shift through all four drawers of a desk to find only one of them has an item inside it can be annoying, especially when your in the position I am. I got to the end of the first chapter only to discover that I had not found all the collectibles or loot, so I started it over, got to the end after a thorough cleansing of all valuable items, only to discover I missed a single collectible loot back behind I wall I could not backtrack to, so I have to start over again, and I just don't have the heart to attempt it again just yet.

[Dasquian Belargic]

^ I love the Thief series but I've heard nothing about this new game that makes me want to play it :(

[Peter McCoy]

^ I love the Thief series but I've heard nothing about this new game that makes me want to play it :(

Same here. I'll reserve judgement until I play it but it's not exactly high up on my to-play list. I still think the first game is the best! Gotta love Stephen Russell's gravelly voice acting. "It's a throne-room... how pretentious can you get!" and "Well, since I'm in here I may as well pick up something for myself" are two of my favourites.

[Ezra Na'chtion]

Also been playing a lot of Diablo III. With the revamped loot and difficulty system for the upcoming expansion release it's actually enjoyable to play again.

[Peter McCoy]

Finally finished the main story for Batman: Arkham City yesterday. While overall the game was fantastic, I was very disappointed by the ending. Not going to bother with the side missions and collectibles just yet, that can wait a few months or even years - there's plenty of games sitting in my Steam list yet to be played.

[Peter McCoy]

I've made a start on Arkham Origins and so far I'm really enjoying it. The locale is larger than Arkham City and actually includes a large portion of Old Gotham which later becomes Arkham City Prison, as well as a section of New Gotham south of the bridge. The bridge itself was quite long. You can use the Batwing to fast travel once you've disabled jamming signals that essentially block drop-off points around the map - until then you have to make your own way around those areas. I haven't used the fast-travel system yet and doubt I will since it's much more fun gliding around as the Batman.

Being set on Christmas Eve, there's a real Batman Returns vibe to things, with Santa's and christmas lights juxtaposed with gargoyles and the Gothic Gotham architecture. My initial opinion is that the poor things I've heard about this game are based on it's stagnation in not moving the series forward like Arkham City did in moving the gameplay of Asylum to a more open setting. This is pretty much more of the same and since what came before was so excellent, I don't have any complaints so far. It was always intended as an incremental rather than a transformative installment, but so far it's definitely an enjoyable one.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Been playing some "Papers Please" this afternoon - this game makes me feel like a dick, whatever I do :(

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

my battle.net name is Lilaena#1718 we can battle each other :D

[Dasquian Belargic]

Broken Sword 5

point and click games :love

[Crusader]

I have been playing a lot of games lately
Bioshock Infinite -done- A very exciting story and an enormous amount of detail per square meter. Unfortunately the gameplay and enemy AI can't live up to the level design.
Far Cry 3 -done- This is a game of the year for me right here. The atmosphere is just as thick as the gameplay.
Dead Rising 2 -in progress- I really love to hate Dead Rising's plan your day gameplay. I wish more games would stay true to the idea that if you say a bomb will blow up in 10 minutes it will blow up in 10 minutes so speed the fuck up and stop looking for collectables.

[Kanarik Tajiin]

Inspired by a youtube video, I've been trolling around on COD Ghosts playing this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw8I3Bjhfzg
on full volume and generally annoying the shit out of everyone. One of the best ways to lose brain cells after finals.
One of the best parts about the song is that it pretty much somes up rap in 11 words

To celebrate the announcement of the new Pokémon games, Ive been chillin around ruby sapphire and emerald

[Peter McCoy]

Before Alyssa arrived, earlier this week I started playing Stalker: Lost Alpha - a game that started out as a mod for Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl in an attempt to add in as much cut content from the original version of the game as possible. Towards the end of development, the original game devs, GSC Game World, stepped in to lend a hand. What resulted is in fact a completely stand-alone game that requires no prior installation of any Stalker game - basically you don't need to own Stalker to download and play this - there's even an official torrent for it.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/lost-alpha

After playing for several hours I can honestly say that this is actually a better game. The atmosphere of the game which I always describe as desolate, forlorn, hopeless is ten times more palpable. The lighting system is noticably improved with DirectX10.1 support where the original release was 8/9. There are a lot more areas and even the original ones are expanded or modified - Cordon alone is quite different yet familiar, and Garbage is a lot more dangerous! There's features such as thirst, tiredness, the ability to sleep, vehicles (this is NOT Stalker GTA, it's subtle and totally optional!). And you can now modify, repair and upgrade equipment like in Clear Sky and Call of Pripyat! If you like Stalker, play this game!

[Dasquian Belargic]

Jet Set Radiooooo

[Vince]

Kazahan looks out over the gorge running from Whiterun. "Though this land is cold, it is surely beautiful."

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u161/blahblahblahblabbity/Skyrim%20and%20other%20Gaming%20Images/2014-05-13_00001.jpg (http://s168.photobucket.com/user/blahblahblahblabbity/media/2014-05-13_00001.jpg.html)

[Droo]

I find your lack of image disturbing.

[Crusader]

I decided to pick up the force unleashed 1&2 when it was for sale on XBL. I felt a certain SW void in my life so I needed my junkie fix. It is not a very good game but it is a good game. I like the level design from a what they try to achieve point of view but I hate their usage of invisible walls. Far too often I can't tell if I am looking at a path to a hidden area or if I will bounce off a surface when I try to jump on it. The textures are terrible in this game while the animation on the other hand looks good.
The game has not aged well since the menus definetly look like menus from the last decade and only boss fights or large enemies feature sync kill animations that are presented by quicktime events.
I kind of like the story and how it somehow plays with your expectations.

[Peter McCoy]

With the original game, the only two moments I thought were cool were the initial level where you play as Darth Vader laying the smackdown on fucking everything you see - you're so Badass you simply walk! The other moment was where you use the Force to crash a Star Destroyer. Other than that it was very average. Haven't played the sequel.

The only game I've really been playing is Stalker: Lost Alpha. Still loving the improved engine and visuals as well as redicovering areas I knew well in the vanilla gme that have been either expanded or altered. The underground sections are terrifying even when empty!

Deus Ex has been pulling at my nostalgia-cord so I may reinstall that sometime soon now that I have started my paternity leave from work - I return to work on the 1st June. So when not doing baby stuff I'll be chillaxing on mah games!

[Park Kraken]

Much flower picking and arrow shooting in that gorge done, have I.

[Park Kraken]

Recently topped 4,000 hours played on Counter Strike: Source. :cyduck

[Peter McCoy]

Jesus Christ mate, that's almost half a year!

[Park Kraken]

I know right? Wondering what I could've done with that time. Heck, between that and WoW I've probably spent one full year of my life playing PC Games.

In other news, decided to delete some old save files on Skyrim en masse. Come to find out the old saves were taking up nearly 10.5 GB of HD Space!!!

[Crusader]

With the original game, the only two moments I thought were cool were the initial level where you play as Darth Vader laying the smackdown on fucking everything you see - you're so Badass you simply walk! The other moment was where you use the Force to crash a Star Destroyer. Other than that it was very average. Haven't played the sequel.


I played the second Force Unleashed now and this game felt like a horrible ripp off. It actually convinced me the Force Unleashed was a very good game in comparison. The second game had no memorable boss fight. Even fighting Vader felt like an inconvenience instead of a thrilling hard experience. The first game had you fight a real challenge at the end of nearly every level. In the first game you had a wide selection of opponents and level specific enemies but in the second game there was much less variety.
Once the credits rolled I realized what the problem was. The first game had three producers, two of them were laid off together with their team after completing the game. The remaining one producer found a new team that was a lot smaller and only reused the assets that created the least work. So this game was basically the worst cash in since Madden (fill in a number here).

[Peter McCoy]

It's insane how large game files are these days. To think that back in the 8-bit and 16-bit era entire games were less than a few megabytes in size - nowadays a mere save file dwarfs those older titles core data.

My gaming these last few days has been taken up by some more Dwarf Fortress. Taking a little break from the awesomeness of Stalker: Lost Alpha, I decided to start a fresh world and a new fortress which so far is doing quite well. I found a random magma pool close to the surface and decided to base my metal industry right above it, so I have five magma smelters that can make coke from coal as well as smelt metal without using fuel - saving all my precious coke for turning iron into pig iron and then steel which both require one unit of fuel (the coke) for the reaction.

The plan is to make steel armour, wooden crossbows and silver warhammers. Although in previous games I've yet to establish an effective military and actually do shit with them. Last time I made some squads and set up their training but it was too little too late. I'm hoping this time around I can actually take on ambushes with my troops instead of my traps which right now are my only defense - albeit an extremely effective one!

[Peter McCoy]

Yet another game I really don't know why I haven't played sooner!

After enjoying the demo of XCOM: Enemy Unknown I was eager to play the full game. Yet despite purchasing on Steam, I've only just now started. Fucking Hell! This game is awesome! I think I did two missions in the demo which were okay I guess. But once you start levelling up soldiers and kitting them out with new gear and abilities, tactics just seem to open up right in front of you - especially combinations of mutually exclusive abilities that two different soldiers can have. I have two Assault soldiers at the moment and have just selected a new ability for each of them - one, an ability which flushes enemies out of cover, and another which allows two shots at the same target with reduced accuracy. I can see both combined being very effective against strong, entrenched units!

Looking forward to cracking on with this later! And I just completed a mission that took place right here in Liverpool. Sorry Tokyo and Cape Town, but The Pool comes first!

[Park Kraken]

Nothing like getting confronted by a thief, a bear, and a troll all at once while heading from Riften to Ivarstead. At least Faendal proved at least a little useful for once. That, and the bear went after the Troll first.

[Kara Hawkins]

Seriously Sheogorath, leave me alone! I didn't sign up for this! :whaa

...oh wait. Yes. Yes I did.

And that kiddies is why you do not make deals with Daedric Princes. :|

[Peter McCoy]

Alongside XCOM, I've been playing quite a lot of Diablo 3 since my wife very unexpectedly bought me the expansion, Reaper of Souls. This expansion fixes a lot of what was broken with the game as well as adds some cool new features and one very awesome one!

The new campaign section, Act V, is well done. The city of Westmarch, it's surrounding marshles and wilderness, as well as the battlefields of Eternity and the fabled Pandemonium Fortress are suitable dark and brooding - no doubt in response to many people's complaints that vanilla D3 was too bright and colourful in places. There are a few interesting boss battles dotted throughout the act, all of which I look forward to attempting again on a higher difficulty once I'm suitable geared! I've yet to play as the new character class, the Crusader, but given my penchant for holy warriors such as World of Warcraft's Paladin I'm sure I'll enjoy it when I decide to start a new toon. As it is I only have one main character - my Barbarian is almost Level 60 (and the expansion raised the cap to 70 so still plenty more skills to unlock!). I believe I have a Level 10 of each of the other classes (killed the first Act I boss with them all - the Skeleton King) but if I do start another serious playthrough it will be as the Crusader.

A new NPC in town is introduced with services to pay for - the Mystic. She can Enchant items - that is replace a single stat with a random new one. This costs materials and gold and before commiting you can see the possible outcomes and once you confirm the selection you get to choose from two as well as sticking with the original. But from then on, subsequent enchants of that item are only able to replace that same stat over and over again. In my opinion it's only worth doing it to replace completely unwanted stats with more desirable ones, rather than trying to get an increase on a desired one. For example, you could try replacing an items Strength bonus of 200 with a potential Strength Bonus of plus or minus a few percentae different. Hardly worth the cost. Instead I tend to replace any useless stats such as Intelligence bonuses (I'm a Barbarian!) with others such as health regeneration or XP/Gold boosts. While the Enchant service won't let you turn an otherwise useless piece of gear into something indispensable, it will let you get that little bit extra out of stuff you're already using.

The Mystics other service is Transmogrification. For a small fee of gold she can change the appearance of any significant item's, such as turning an awesome-statted albeit shite-looking helmet into a crown of badassery, or turning an OP sword into something more befitting a Barbarian like a Great War Cleaver or a Mighty Axe. As you level her up through gold-investments, much like the Blacksmith and Jeweller she can offer a wider selection of transmogrifications.

Gone is the Auction House that tarnished the vanilla release and virtually destroyed the traditional Diablo endgame of boss runs for phat loot since you could just save up your gold and buy exactly the kind of item you wanted without hoping for an awesome loot drop after killing Diablo for the five-hundredth time. Instead, prior to the release of the expansion, Blixzzard patched in Loot 2.0, a reworking of the loot tables so that Legendary items dropped more frequently (yet still not game-breakingly regular) as well as vastly increasing the likelihood of drops being suitable for the class you're playing as. Now loot runs are more immediately rewarding as I spend more time killing monsters and levelling up and increasing my fortunes than I do hopping between characters to access the shared stash to transfer suitable items to the right characters (plus I already said I hardly play my other characters but the point still stands!).

A new vendor is in town called Kadala - this is Gheed's daughter, Gheed being the vendor from Diablo 2 who happily took vast sums of gold in return for random items that had their stats determined AFTER you bought them. This time around, Kadala takes payment in the form of Blood Shards which drop in Adventure mode and to my knowledge have no other use so while it's still a gamble, you're not losing out in other ways such as missing the gold for upgrading your stash or training NPC's or paying for their respective services.

Gone are the previous difficulty modes that gradually unlock as you beat the game in the preceding difficulty. From the very beginning of a new character you have access to Normal, Hard, Expert and Master modes. Each one ramps up the difficulty such as larger spawns, higher enemy resistances and stronger rare/uniqye and boss monsters, but rewards with things such as higher XP rates and gold drops. AND...once you reach Level 61 you can access Torment Mode which has six tiers, each one turning the difficulty dial way past 11, along with super rewards beyond higher XP and gold rates - there are some Legendary items that only drop in Torment mode and the higher the tier of Torment you play, the higher the drop rate of such Legendaries. It's a fantastic risk/reward system that's much more accessable than the vanilla way of unlocking each one as you go, having to slog through an entire run of the campaign each time with each character.

But there's more! Beyond Level 70 and the final skills and runes you unlock for your character class, you can begin to earn Paragon levels. Each Paragon level applies to all your characters, and increases things such as vitality, strength, intelligence, movement speed and maximum resource pools, armour, resistances, life regen, life stealing etc. This means that you can farm levels on your Level 70 character with your already awesome gear, and the bonuses of those Paragon levels will be immediately beneficial to your lower-level characters.

Finally, Adventure Mode. The crown jewel of Reaper of Souls. Unlocked for all characters once you finish Act V with a single character, this mode essentially makes official the player-created traditional Diablo end-game content - loot runs. in Diablo 3 vanilla and Diablo 2 before it, once you'd finished the campaign the main thing you'd find yourself doing is run after run after run of a particular dungeon and it's boss monster, such as in Diablo 2 doing Baal runs in the Worldstone Chamber. Before, the only reward for such activity was the experience, gold and loot dropped by the very monsters and bosses you slayed. Now, with Adventure Mode, you are rewarded for doing what you were already going to do. When you load into Adventure mode, you are given unrestricted access to every Waypoint in the game across all 5 acts. Tyreal will mark 5 bounties on the map, all randomly generated and infinitely repeatable. When you complete a Bounty, such as "Go to the Northern Highlands and Kill High Chief Brakkis" you will be rewarded with bonus XP and gold on top of that which you've already earned from killing the monsters on your way to completing the bounty. You will also occasionally loot Rift Keystones from elite monsters. Complete all 5 bounties in the act and Tyreal will reward yo with yet more Xp and gold, as well as a new item - a Horadric Cache. When you right click on a Horadric Cache in your inventory, the ground beneath your feet errupts into an explosion of loot and gold as if you'd just slayed a boss. These can include Legendaries, rares, magic items or gems, as well as more Keystones. Now here's the good bit - collect 5 Rift Keystones and you can talk to another NPC who will then open up a Nephalem Rift - a portal to a random dungeon which gives an existing dungeon tileset a new twist of lighing and colour and also pulls it's inhabiting monsters from the game'e entire Bestiary. For example, you could enter a Nephalem Rift resembling the Royal Crypts of Act 1 and find it's populated by both the Lacuni Warriors of Act 2 and the various wraiths and spirits of Act 5. Again, you can fight your way through these miscreants, eating up all the loot, gold and XP they dish our, until you reach the Rift Guardian which is again a random Elite Boss monster with various traits. The best part is that these guardians almost always drop a Legendary amongst the shower of loot that flows out when they die.

All in all, Reaper of Souls really has breathed new life into Diablo 3, which is ironic since the main antagonist is Death.

This post turned into more of an entire Review than a "what I'm playing" but once I started typing I couldn't stop. I fucking love this game! Excuse my while I laugh at clicking the "post quick reply" button. LOL!

[Park Kraken]

I....love Dwarven Smithing. Went up about 30 ranks in Smithing after hitting a set of ruins and now have quite a supply of arrows for a while.

[Park Kraken]

Nothing like watching a rain of Imperial bodies slide down a Cliffside after kiting 2 Frost Trolls into an Imperial encampment.

[Peter McCoy]

Taking a break from Diablo 3's Adventure Mode, I've decided to finally give Mass Effect a go since it's been sitting in my Steam list along with it's sequel for a few years now when I acquired it in god-knows-what sale.

I'm at the point where the Cou ncil have just made my FemShep into a Spectre. And I have no clue what to do now. As in do I just get out there or can I change squad members, what should I buy if anything before leaving. Any tips would be appreciated.

For the record, other than shooting I have no clue whats going on in a fight, all this tech and biotics elludes me. I have an Alliance woman called Ashely, an Alliance guy called Kaiden who sounds a lot like Carth Onasi, a big grunt called Wrex, a Turian called Garren and some quarian tech woman, with one more slot silhouetted - can I unlock them on the citadel or do they come later? Grrr, decisions!

Incidentally, loving it so far.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Injustice: Gods Among Us

..wishing I could play as Batwoman or Damian Wayne when he was a little shit, but otherwise this is a fun little fighting game

[Genesis]

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

my battle.net name is Lilaena#1718 we can battle each other :D
Did someone from here add me? I had someone friend me on battle.net but I dunno who it is

[Park Kraken]

Got back into SC2 and finally finished the Heart of the Swarm Campaign. I liked playing it, although I didn't really mess around with Sarah's powers or the various mutation abilities beyond the first time selection, perhaps something to do next play-through (whenever that is). Probably my favorite part was bringing back Infested Stukov and him trying to find his purpose.

[Peter McCoy]

Always nice to see some Starcraft appreciation - the original game was the first PC game I ever played.

I love the alternate zerg strains you can choose from. The one's I recall choosing are:



Zergling Raptor Strain - leap up and down cliffs and lunge at targets to close to melee range almost instantly
Baneling Hunter Strain - leap up and down cliffs and lunge at target
Roach Vile Strain - debuffs targets to reduce attack and movement speed by 75%
Hydralisk Impaler Strain - attacks while burrowed and deals long range damage to single targets with bonus damage to armoured units
Mutalisk Brood Lord Strain - Easily the best choice you can make in the campaign. The Brood lord is a long range flyer which has no direct attack; instead it spawns Broodlings in melee range of the target
Swarm Host Creeper Strain - While the Carrion Swarm Host is arguably a better choice overall, I enjoyed using the Creepers ability to generate creep while burrowed, along with their ability to teleport to areas with Creep -it allowed me to defend a large area with a small numbe rof units
Ultralisk Torrasque Strain - Upon death, the Ultralisk enters a chrysalis only to emerge a few second slater with full HP. This triggers a 1 minute cooldown - if the Ultralisk dies again before the cooldown is up, it's down for good


Overall I think Heart of the Swarm was just as great as Wings of Liberty in terms of how it allowed you to diversify your army. The strains coupled with the mutations allow a huge variety of units to be used through multiple playthroughs. Some combinations work better than others, but even the weaker ones have their place in terms of usefulness.

I think I'll load it up and start a new campaign!

[Park Kraken]

Had probably one of my best sessions today as a DM in the Fifth Edition Game I created. We had about six people total and got a lot done, with the most hilarious moment probably being when in a Random Monster Encounter I had a Cyclops climbing up the side of a Carrack that everyone was on with a giant boulder in hand, only to critically fail on an ATK Roll with the Boulder, where it struck the Cyclops on the head and he fell back into the river.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I got a big fit of nostalgia and bought Dark Forces over Labor Day weekend. Been playing that lately and loving every moment of it.

[Peter McCoy]

Great game and the start of an awesome series of titles! Though the names get a bit long-winded if you ask me. You've got the original, Dark Forces. Then Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2. And technically Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is actually Jedi Outcast - Jedi Knight 2: Dark Forces 3. Which means that Jedi Academy is actually Jedi Academy - Jedi Outcast 2: Jedi Knight 3 - Dark Forces 4. Don't ask me where Mysteries of the Sith falls into it, lol!

[Peter McCoy]

So I returned to Minecraft today - specifically my old saves back when I did my first Youtube videos. I updated the worlds to work with the latest version. All was fine and dandy - there was my awesome bridge from my raised house, over my Nether Portal, leading to my mountain--castle. There was the smaller bridge leading to my small dock area. And the awesome underground/underwater glass tunnel leading to my water fortress that delves deep under the waves and into the rock where I found my underground outpost with all my WHAT THE FUCK WHERE ARE ALL MY CHESTS WITH MY GOLD AND IRON AND DIAMONDS!!!!!!!!!

Yup - every single double-chest in my underground outpost - GONE! Specifically the chests were gone and in their places were weird chest-shaped shadows. I've seen a glitch where chests disappear or the texture appears completely black - not one where the chests are replaced by chest-shaped shadows. There was no physicality to them, I could stand in the space. Placing a torch made the shadow disappear for good, even once the torch was removed.

Thank heavens I've still got the original folders!

[Zereth Lancer]

I've been playing Wasteland 2. I waited patiently for the game to full release instead of buying into the early access. I've been bitten by that deal too many times. I'm 4.4 hours into the game and I am quite enjoying it. I never played the original Wasteland, but anyone who's dipped into the Fallout series will be right at home since Fallout barrows/steals it's concept from Wasteland. It plays out just like the original Fallouts (1 and 2) but instead you have four characters starting out and more that you can pick up as you go.

I spent about an hour creating my Ranger Squad, and it was so hard. I wanted my characters to specialize in things, but I also wanted to have all of the interaction abilities available so I didn't miss out on anything and resulted in my characters being a little more spread out that I would prefer. At the time I didn't know I could get more characters in my squad so I thought I needed to fill all the roles at once. Learn from my mistake. I ended up going with a Charismatic Leader, a mindless melee thug, a marksman, and a super intelligent techy.

The story thus far has been pretty standard Fallout fair; bandits in the wasteland, saving people from said bandits, and usually securing some form of resource. All in all, it's been a great play so far. I highly recommend it.

[Peter McCoy]

I actually paid into the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter and although I've had beta access on Steam from the get-go, I played it very little so as to not spoil myself for the full release. Looking forward to sinking my teeth into it soon. But while it was my number one game prospect for the next few weeks, it's taken a back seat as today I finally got my hands on the Early Access Alpha release of The Long Dark - a wilderness survival game where you play as a bush pilot who crashes in the Canadian wilderness after a geomagnetic storm wipes out technology on a global scale.

The gameplay consists of traversing the snowy landscape through clear weather as well as snow and blizzards to find warm shelter. You need to forage for wood and matches and tinder to make fires, scrounge for food and drink or even cook deer or wolf meat, melt snow and boil it to make potable water, ensure you keep your calorie intake constant to keep going and ensure your clothing gives ample protection from the cold. If you eat something dodgy you can get food poisoning which will kill you without antibiotics, and wolf attacks can result in septic wounds which need antiseptic and bandages to sort out. And you'll need to sleep to keep fatigue in check as well as heal up properly.

So far it's a fantastic experience. There's always a sense of urgency when you're out and about - you have to balance spending enough time exploring so as to find new areas to loot and forage in with getting the fuck out of the cold as soon as possible! You can carry out a forage action whenever you like (I think) which will give you a chance of finding wood at the expense of time and therefore calories and your needs taking a hit.

I have to mention the graphics. This game is gorgeous!!!!! The lighting especially! In the darkness the red glow of a flare is both comforting and frightening as it casts epileptic shadows across the trees and mounds of snow; a single match lighting your way is so tense that I find myself holding my breath to make it last longer. And the warmth from the storm lantern is simply delightful! And the sunrises and sunsets are just fantabulous!

Watch some footage on Youtube and if you like what you see don't hesitate!

It is a tough game so be warned. And as it's an Early Access, expect game-breaking bugs since you can't save and load up from an earlier point - permadeath FTW! After surviving for around 2 days I found myself scaling a smal mountain/rocky hill in the hope of finding shelter and sustenance - I was freezing, very hungry and very thirsty. It felt so awesome when I reached the summit and the words "Forest Overflook" appeared, and as I rounded a rocky formation the splendid brown wooden supports and staircase of a watch tower came into view! Salvation! But then I froze on the spot, only able to look around with the mouse. I entered my inventory as well as the menu, no HUD icons or buttons responded - I couldn't even exit the game. All I could do was stand there and wonder what I was going to die of - hypothermia, starvation or dehydration. It's been reported on the official forums...

If you don't mind putting up with such things, even in it's current state it's a very rewarding game with a lot of depth to it. And there will be a story mode along with the currently-available sandbox play mode, but details on that are scarce right now.

[Droo]

The Long Dark has its limitations, being an early access game and all, but I love it. I just got the achievement for surviving 5 days and I don't think I've ever been so proud! :D

[Park Kraken]

Thinking about starting up Diablo III, although I've been thinking of trying out Five Nights at Freddy's as well.

[Peter McCoy]

Diablo 3 with Reaper of Souls!!!!! Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Razielle Alastor]

Diablo 3 with Reaper of Souls!!!!! Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:eee Yes. Do this thing.

[Peter McCoy]

Seriously. Diablo 3 was feeling very stale and a bit ruined. The auction house killed the drive for loot running and that feeling of awesomeness when somethign incredible drops for you in your own game. Reaper of Souls fixes a lot of the issues with Diablo 3 to the point where I like it ALMOST as much as Diablo 2, which is a hell of a thing!

You can loot Blood Shards which are only used for gambling. Remember Gheed in Diablo 2, he'd take a chunk of your gold in exchange for an unknown item of a given type - the stats only revealed once bought. Most of the time you ended up with a heap of shite so I never ever ever bothered. Well Gheeds daughter is carrying on the family business of ripping off adventurers who are just trying to save the world. But this time, she only accepts a currency that can't be used for anything else - said Blood Shards. So you get a new type of currency for doing what you're already doing, and get to use them to buy sometimes good yet often shit items - a nice addition since wat it boils down to is you get some free items that are sometimes rather good for no extra effort.

But Adventure Mode is were it's at! Complete the expansion campaign on a single character and from then on Adventure Mode is unlocked for all existing and future characters whether they've done any of the campaign or not. In this mode, every (I think every, if not almost every) waypoint is unlocked. You can warp around the map without even using a waypoint, just open your map and click to teleport. Tyreal creates 5 bounties in the current act - such as kill this boss or go to this area and kill 100 enemies etc. For doing this you can loot Rift Keystones and get a chunk of XP and gold. Go back to Tyreal once all five are completed for another chunk of XP and Gold as well as a Horadric Cache which, when opened, explodes in a fountain of even more loot! Then, use 5 Rift Keystones to open up a Nephalem Rift - an instanced dungeon run with tough enemies and tough elites, and a tough boss. These Rifts are comprised of area styles in the game with differences such as much more dramatic or significantly different lighting, and the monsters have lots of unique, interesting properties which makes for a real challenge. But if you finish it and defeat the Rift Guardrian (a random boss with random stats and special abilities and immunities) you get a fucktonne of loot, cash and Xp - including a guaranteed (I think so anyway!) Legendary item RELEVANT TO YOUR CURRENT CHARACTER!!!!!

Add in a bunch of mates online and you have an great game made all the more awesome!

Sorry if I've repeated myself here -just realised I may have already sang Reaper of Souls' praises in an earlier post, but fuck it, it's THAT good!

[Charley]

Playing a shitload of XCOM enemy within. Built my first few MEC troopers and created some gene troops too. Lost my first casualty of the game in that horrible Newfoundland Chryssalid nest mission

[Zereth Lancer]

Decided to restart Wasteland 2 after reading a bunch of min/max info about how useless some abilities/weapons are in the current state of the game (which explained why certain characters of my first squad were having such a hard time while others were not).

Super Special Awesome Second Ranger Squad! (http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j162/Digital_Demon/RangerSquad_zps77f193f8.png)

We'll see if Jarvan can lead this group of rogues and survive the wasteland without them all killing each other.

[Peter McCoy]

Fancy linking to where you found the info? I'd be interested to learn what's good and what's not.

[Zereth Lancer]

My Primary Resource. (http://www.gamefront.com/wasteland-2-party-character-creation-beginners-tips-tricks/) Be sure to read the comments too because there are some good suggestions and counter arguments in there.

The big things I gleaned from this was that weapons like the Shotgun, SMGs, and Pistols fall off quickly while Assualt Rifles, Sniper Rifles, and Energy weapons are in it for the long haul. Blunt weapons are better than bladed. Charisma is pooled between all your characters so you either need just one characters with high charisma or a little charisma spread across all your characters. Also Luck is not very beneficial, so you can either ignore it entirely or give one character a high luck and have him/her do all the looting because, I assume based on this strategy, that luck effects the loot table. The rest is just how to optimize your stat layout, like giving everyone high intelligence for the skill points.

So far my second squad feels a lot stronger than my first one. Way more efficient.

You can min max further by picking out your companions. I looked up all the companion characters and I was appalled by how most of them are considered garbage based on stat distribution, inherent skills, etc. It comes down to like 2-3 that are really viable and the rest are meh. Which is kind of sad considering you can have up to three companions if I remember correctly (I've only ever had two at a time).

[Peter McCoy]

Alien Isolation.

This is the best horror game AND the best game based on the Alien franchise I've ever played. Alien 3 on the SNES and Aliens vs Predator 2 on PC were the high points in years gone by but this takes the crown for me!

This game is bloody terrifying. I've seen Let's Play series' get to where I am in just a few hours - I've been playing for 10 hours easy!

The environmental design is fantastic and there's a lot of breadth as well as depth to exploration. Corridors lead to rooms and dead ends, rooms link multiple corridors, intersections and t-junctions, there's ore open areas, there's multiple levels (in terms of height) in each area, vents can be found in the floor as well as in the walls to sometimes provide stealthy ways to proceed (but the Alien can also use these!).

But the most amazing thing for me has to be the sound design. From the ambient music that can be heard, taken straigh from Jerry Goldstein's amazing score for the original film, to the sound cue's that keep you on edge whenever the creature is close by, intensifying as it nears (horns quivering with a rising pitch as it draws closer to your hiding spot - scares the shit out of me!) or exploding to a crescendo when it attacks either yourself or other humans caught in the fray. While the motion tracker is very useful in pinpointing movement, you can also use just your hearing to keep track of whats going on. Metal clanging and rumbling means it's in the overhead ventilation system, whereas it's distinct footsteps signal when its in the area on the prowl. Hearing a door open will give away it's position if you're familiar with your surroundings.

Using this along with the motion tracker and your map can be very helpful and in most cases lets you pinpoint it's exact location. For example, if you know there's no rooms or corridors behind you, but the motion tracker signals movement that way, they you can be sure it's in the vents. Or watching the blip arc on your motion tracker in a way that corrisponds to your map could tell you it's moving along that curving corridor on your perimeter - at which point you head in the opposite direction.

I've been very pleased with the positive reviews many magazines and sites are giving it. Granted, not all the words are praise and there are some bad reviews, but for me it's bloody perfect! I haven't played the DLC yet but I don't think I'll be able to - the idea of re-enacting the events of them film terrify me! There are two bonus scenario's on offer. One is "Crew Expendable" where you play as either Ripley, Parker or Dallas, taking place shortly after Brett is killed while searching for the cat (Jones). In the movie the plan is for someone to enter the ventilation system and flush the creature out towards the main airlock where they want to trap it and blast it into space. In the movie the plan starts with Dallas entering the vents with Ripley and Parker, Lambert and Ash monitoring the captain's and the creatures movements as best they can, guiding him through the pitch-black maze. In the scenario, it starts earlier with you choosing one pof the three playable characters, grabbing your gear and proceeding to the lower deck where you have to first seal off three access hatches before entering the main vent - all the while avoiding the creature. Once in the vents, Lambert guides you over the radio while you try to keep the Alien at bay with your flamethrower. Once on the other side you have to find the console to prep the airlock, then find a way to lure it in there before cycling the doors to eject it.

The second bonus scenario is "Last Survivor" which picks up just as Parker and Lambert are collecting coolant for the shuttle - the plan is to set the shp and refinery to self-destruct while the three survivors escape on the shuttle. In the move and the scenario, Parker and Lambert are killed by the Alien as Ripley runs to help, hearing their shouts over the intercom which is continually transmitting. My one gripe with this is that I'd have preferred the devs to use the audio from the movie which is simply harrowing as you hear them die in the most horrendous way. Once you find their bodies, you then have to carry on alone, set the ship to self destruct by turning the engine coolant system off (which ultimately makes them overheat and detonate), then get back to the shuttle - all while avoiding the alien. Again, I don't know how I'll come with all that! I'm just about keeping my head with the main game.

Final word - buy it!

[Zereth Lancer]

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel has arrived and it's everything I hoped and dreamed for, which is to say it's just like Borderlands 2 but with lasers, low gravity, and new characters. My only complaint is that some of the locales are HUGE and take considerable time to full explore, especially now that your oxygen jump jet capabilities give you so much new vertical movement. Definitely feels like I'm spending more time but getting less progress, but it's a small critique. Otherwise it's been an absolute blast so far. While not a lot of innovation from Borderlands 2, they have done a few little things that liven up the game a lot, like having the player characters actually communicate instead of being mute heroes. It adds a lot more to the game.

Yes it does feel like a giant DLC, but I don't see why that's really a problem since Borderlands 2 was great. The bottom line is if you liked Borderlands 2 you'll love the Pre-Sequel.

I'm out. Time to go kill some meat puppets and be the conductor of the poop train.

[Peter McCoy]

22 days after having started this terrifying game, it looks like the end of Alien: Isolation is in sight.

Before I finish things up, I can quite honestly and pleasingly say this is, hands down, the scariest videogame I have ever had the joy of playing. That's an entirely subjective statement. Some people simply don't get scared by horror games. Some simply may not be afraid of the Alien. I, on the other hand, love survival horro games and horror games in general, and I find the Xenomorphs to be one of the most frightful creations of cinema as well as in it's other media forms. The idea of these seemingly indestructable predators fills me with dread. Even the 16-bit games get my heart pumping even playing them now. But they're 3rd person, side-on platformers - this is a first-person, fully-immersive simulation with various overlapping gaming systems that interact in wonderful ways. The Alien isn't stalking towards the pixellated sprite on the screen, it's stalking towards me and I'm looking right at it through my own eyes.

This truly is the game the franchise deserves. With what I would say is 4 distinct acts, one in particular is the weakest due to the lack of the Alien's presence. When the game was announced, one concern was how the developers would maintain the tension and dread of the Xenomorph for the entire duration of the game. While I feel the section without it is the weakest, I also feel it's needed, if only for the change in pace.

A key factor in building and maintaining the tension is in the 99.99% unscripted nature of all your interactions. Aside from 7 moments I can recall where a sighting/encounter is guaranteed, whether or not you have a run-in with Mr Bastard is entirely down to chance (the AI "deciding" to go have a mooch around) or your own foolishness (running, making too much noise). I'd be surprised if there weren't one or two more such encounters as I approach the end for dramatic effect or plot. But I'm pleased that not once have I felt like the Alien only emerged from the ventilation system because I walked over panel X or opened door Y (and as such could avoid said encounter by avoiding X or Y). It's always down to bad luck or your own actions. Yet in that randomness is a flaw - some gamers will find the alien bothers them a lot more than they feel it should in order to actually make progress, while others may find themselves having an overly easy ride. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, peaks and valleys of action and tension, an ebb and flow of being able to make progress against the necessity to take a moment, hiding somewhere safe-ish waiting for the danger to pass. One way of improving things could be for the game to track the frequency of your encounters and react to them. If in one area you've hd quite a lot of contact with the Aien, perhaps in the next the game could really dial things back to a complete absence of the creature just long enough for the player to be confident it's simply not in this section of the game, only for it to emerge right next to you as you run down that corridor you probably should have walked down.

Another thing that adds to the tension is the tasks you must complete throughout the evironments. Starting up a generator or cutting through a panel with your plasma cutting torch take time, make noise and restrict your view while engaging in such tasks, so your ears take on superhuman qualities as you listen for the beep of the motion tracker or the metallic thud of it's feet hitting the floor as it descends from the crawlspace nearby, followed by you frantically trying to either finish what you're doing or abort the action so you can hide as quickly as possible. Even when saving your game at one of the Emergency Stations (phones), there's a elay before you actually save as the station reads your data card (Ripley actually inserts a card into the device and it clicks away as it prepares to write some data. It's relatively quick, but just slow enough for you to worry about that noise you heard just as you started the process.

And it really should be played in as dark a room as possible, with headphones. If I somehow manage to grab an Oculus Rift, I would like to try and brave this game again! That's if my heart is up to it! One Youtuber I subscribe to - Helloween - starts one of his Let's Play videos as "Hello, and welcome back to the Heart Palpitation Simulator!".

[Droo]

World of Warcraft. Dinged 90 on mah rouge!

[Peter McCoy]

Been playing The Long Dark tonight. Updated on Friday, there's now a new area to explore which has more than doubled the size of the game. As you cross the bridge and arrive at the hydro-electric dam, if you keep following the train tracks you'll come to a ravine. Traversing the rickety, high wooden trestle bridge will eventually lead to the Coastal Highway - the new area added to the game (the ravine itself is new but I don't believe there's much to do except walk across the bridge.

I started playing this evening at Mystery Lake, stocking up on scavenged supplies before embarking on the journey to the coast. I arrived and headed down the mountain until I found a wide road. Following that for a few minutes brought me to a small logging camp with a cosy cottage nearby. I have to applaud the game's masterful use of colour. Because outside feels so bitterly cold due to it's whites and blues, the interior of this cottage feels warm and safe despite the relative darkness and lack of a heat source. The howling from the wind outside also adds to the effect. There's a bed upstairs that I just want to snuggle into.

And on that note, I'm off to bed! Nighty night all!

[Taataani Meorrrei]

Been beasting a normal playthrough of XCOM enemy within and now I decided to download it on steam just so I can play long war

[Terrel Ixxent]

Have been mucking around League of Legends as of late - I'm terrible at it, but I played my first all-bot game where I managed to NOT die once...MIRACLE! And a second miracle? I went on a killing spree with an accidentally well timed use of my ultimate ^_^

Also powering my way through Legends of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds on my 3DS...it's...long, involved, with a bajillion side quests...and I LOVE IT.

Also! Brace yourselves...if you've ever heard me ranting about hating FPS games...I FOUND ONE that I managed to get through the first five minutes of without dying. MIRACLE OF MIRACLES! Gotta love XBOX Gold, because I'm now in love with Dishonored :D

[Dee]

So I've discovered the glory that is SW:TOR...*flails madly*...aside from a couple of breaks to eat, I played for something like 12 hours today...lord help me.

[Park Kraken]

Played some Civ BE and I have to say that so far I'm disappointed with the game. It seems like a rehash from some of the older space games I've played combined with Civ 5. I may have to come back and try it again after not playing Civ 5 for a while.

Apart from that picked a game from random in my steam library that I've had for a while. Ended up trying Tomb Raider: Anniversary. A pretty fun puzzle game with the occasional combat thrown in.

[Peter McCoy]

What I enjoyed about Tomb Raider Anniversary was seeing the original setting with new graphics. That moment when you get behind the waterfall and into the tomb (the first actual tomb since up to that point its all caves) was awesome, as you could see how heavy the dust was and I could almost smell the old, musty air!

I'm almost half-way into my second playthrough of Alien Isolation. The only criticism I have with the game is the ending. It was rather poor and derivative, but the rest of the game was simply stellar! And despite having played through the game in it's entirety already, I'm still terrified to move from under one medical gurney to behind a desk even though I know the route and most of the places the bastard can emerge from en route. The Alien's presence really does freeze me in place out of fear and I fucking love it to death!

Also been playing SimCity (2013) and making tonnes of money through the mining specialism and turning ore and coal into alloy to sell on the global market. I'm making so much money from it that the fact that my tax cash-flow is negative makes no difference and I still earn thousands of simoleons a day thanks to the alloy sales. My city population is around 180,000 and all I;m missing from City Hall is the Department of Education. The next population milestone is around 270,000 which I thinki is unchievable unless I demolish some industrial areas to make room for more residential plots - all of my current residences are at High Density and there's no more room on the map. I think it's time to start a second city and maybe plop down a lot of commercial to make it into a tourism city - then I can get rid of the commercial in my current city to get more people moving in to man the factories - they can then commute out for shopping and leisure. That second city could also go straight for the Department of Education, allowing me to put down high schools and a university. Not that my main industrial city needs it - with just a Community College and Vu Tower, I've managed to convert all of my Industrial buildings to High Tech. Also, I've started construction of an arcology which will help with the worker shortage in my main city. Things are going well. I just wish commuting was better designed within the game engine to not be as limiting as it is.

Also picked up a Fallout 3 save from a few weeks back. Level 16, rocking the Winterized T-51b Power Armour, the Man opener and the Mauler Auto-Axes, silenced 10mm pistol, a combat shotgun, hunting rifle and sniper rifle, and a Deathclaw Gauntlet - there's nothing I can't handle. I also have a stock of frag grenades for emergencies. Been exploring the Northern wastes the last two nights. This is one of those games I can just keep returning to again and again with new characters and never get bored. It's the Fallout I'm most familiar with and I really do need to give New vegas a proper go!

[Captain Untouchable]

I decided to try out The Force Unleashed today; picked it up in the summer sale, and forgot about it. My internet is pretty terrible out here in the middle of nowhere (as is the laptop I'm trying to play it on)... and my discovery of the day is that if it's going to be a struggle to get something downloaded, and get something running, The Force Unleashed is not the something to be struggling with.

I suppose it's my fault for on some level expecting another Jedi Knight or KOTOR, but it feels very lackluster. The characters are cool, and the voice acting is great, but it feels very forced (pun not intended, but it's nice to have you here buddy!)? The actual plot/story thus far feels like it's just stringing levels together (Republic Commando had this fault a little bit), and the gameplay feels very choppy, especially during the boss fights: transitioning from regular gameplay to the... renegade interrupt / hit this button when it flashes stage, to the cut scenes that are at a different video quality and audio volume to the rest of the game... feels like playing something that belongs in the early nineties.

Gonna complete the thing, because it's still better than Jar Jar, but still. Something with Sam Witwer should not be so disappointing.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I had plans to do some housecleaning today. Instead, I spent all day playing The Stick of Truth ^_^;

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dragon Age: Inquisition

mostly swinging my staff around and slugging balls of lightning at outlaws

:)

[Peter McCoy]

Played a bit of Assassin's Creed this evening - yeah, the first one!

I'm enjoying the gameplay and I think the levels are gorgeous and expansive and even just parkouring around is fun. But this Altair is a complete twat. There's literally NOTHING about his character that's endearing. I'm forcing myself through this so that I can enjoy the rest of the games fully storied-up!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Charley got me Alien Isolation :eee

I've gone a bit of the way into Sevastopol, and I love the environments and overall mood. The music is absolutely superb. I'm not really normally scared by aliens (in general), but everything coming together in this game is making me constantly watch my back, and stay in the dark as much as possible. There were a few times that I jumped a small bit, too ^_^;

[Peter McCoy]

You're not afraid of xenomorphs, eh?

NPOb3DlB7WA

[Tear]

^ That right there, haha. I agree s'Il! Alien Isolation's atmosphere is spot on.

[Peter McCoy]

And another thing! None of this "Charley got me Alien Isolation" as if it's just for you and he's not to play it. Man up, you big fanny and go be terrified in space where no-one can hear you cry like a baby.

That's not me smack-talking and ridiculing you. That's exactly what I do when I play it, but it's like crack! I need to feel that terror! If I'm not playing it myself, I'm watching Let's Play's on my Kindle in bed with the covers right up to my nose as my eyes dart around the room at shadows that seem all the more darker since the light from my Kindle saturates my peripheral vision...

Fuck it, I'm off to bed to watch some Alien: Isolation!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Lol oh Peter :D

Aliens in general don't really phase me as much as things like Silent Hill 2 style stuff. So far though, this game is doing a wonderful job of making me nervous as shit to take even two steps forward. It's the combination of sounds, lighting, and the perfect application of music.

[Peter McCoy]

How far in are you? To avoid spoilers, you could always tell me what section of Sevastopol you're in and I'll know by that.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Just had my first official alien sighting after finding the data cell.

[Charley]

I don't care if I'm a weenie. I am not playing this game!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

It's fun!! Those Working Joes sure are the bee's knees!!




... D:

[Akasha Khan]

You always know a Working Joe!

[Charley]

At least you can outrun the joes D:

[Park Kraken]

AC: Black Flag; Pretty interesting game, much more fun then AC:3 from what I've played so far. Commanding your own Brig (20 Guns) is fairly fun in the game, along with upgrades for both yourself and your ship.

Far Cry 4; Gameplay feels similar to FC3, only with improvements here and there. Storyline is very similar too. I really like the bait addition, although it caused me to fail my first mission fairly early on when the summoned predator killed an important ally.

[Crusader]

I player both episodes of Bioshock: Infinite Burial at Sea today. What an emotional Rollercoaster Ride. First the ending of Episode 1 literally felt like a punch in the guts. Then Episode 2's beautifull recreation of Paris that soon becomes a nightmare. The ending was trully bitter sweet.

[Peter McCoy]

Taking a break form my 3rd Alien: Isolation playthrough, I've started a new game of Fallout 3. But rather than a PC-playthrough, I bought both Fallout 3 GOTY and Fallout: New Vegas Ultimate Edition from work for around £10 each - something to play downstairs when I'm minding the baby and can't get onto my computer.

Going for a perfect character, 've actually planned out every skillpoint and perk for all 30 levels, which gives me decent combat skills while I'm levelling, and allows me to max out all my skills and attributes with bobbleheads and skillbooks once I've reached Level 30. I made sure to pick perks that didn't give unnecessary skillpoints and instead focused on combat bonuses such as increased damage, damage resistance, extra action points and crit chances, as well as things like Quantum Chemist for more Nuka-Cola Quantums, Master Trader and Scrounger to help with trading and looting.

So far I've killed Mr Burke without losing Marshal Simms, deactivated the bomb in Megaton to receive my house to stash all my loot, nd made a start on the Wasteland Survival Guide. Due to the way I've planned out my levelling, I'll be underpowered more than I'm used to for a good portion of the game, so it's important to make full use of my skills and equipment. That means sneaking a lot more than I usually do, as well as making opportunistic use of explosives.

One trick I usually pull when I'm almost at the cap to level up is head to Fairfax Ruins and kill all the raiders on the streets, then dump their bodies in the small hatch that opens up into a pit with a door that leads into the sewer maintenance system under the town. Then when the raiders respawn after 3 in-game days, all but two of them are roaming the streets, the rest are alive and fully geared up in that pit. It usually takes two frag grenades to kill them for a bunch of easy XP and then I can hop down and loot them - but I can't fast travel from in the pit so have to fight the raiders in the seweres to get out, but that's just an excuse to get mor eloot and XP anyway!

[Captain Untouchable]

I've just started on Fallout 3 as well!

Haven't played Fallout 3 before, so I'm blundering through it somewhat; I'm doing my usual "play as the Fallout version of a character you write", so that's been guiding my decisions thus far. Marshal Simms is dead, so I have taken it upon myself to guard Megaton in his absence, right down to wearing his old clothes and being as Sheriffy as I possibly can. The bomb is deactivated, and I've mostly been using the quests from Megaton to guide my actions. I've done the expedition to the Library on behalf of Miss Survival Guide, I've negotiated a treaty between the "vampires" and that town on the bridge where they trade blood for protection; and I've ventured into that radio station to find out about my dad, but I haven't got around to raiding the space ship for a satellite dish yet.

Having played so much Fallout: New Vegas, I'm finding a few bits a little jarring. I know exactly the stuff that I need to keep loot-wise in NV to craft the things I want to craft, but Fallout 3 doesn't let me do any of that, so I have an utterly pointless stash of leather belts and medical braces and such... and if I'm understanding things right, I can't make my own ammo either? I'm finding that a little frustrating, mostly because the wasteland scavenger thing is usually my play style, and I don't really know enough about the game to work out how I want to play it instead.

What I am loving though is the combat shotgun. In New Vegas, I'm usually a long range sort of guy, and I'll end up with an SMG and a bajillion rounds for when the game forces me to be outside (plus, I usually have Cass for all my shotgun needs). I'm like that in most games, in fact; I'm not sure I've actually even fired a shotgun in Mass Effect 2 or 3. Between the fact that this crappy laptop is struggling a little with render distance though, and the fact that DC stuff feels a little bit more closed in, that little shotgun is pretty flippin' fantastic.

[Peter McCoy]

Are you playing the GOTY edition? IF so, just wait until you get your hands on the double-barrelled shotgun. BOOM! Also, check out the Museum of History where the ghouls hang out. One way leads to Underworld where the ghouls live. Another way leads to the rest of the museum which is infested with feral ghouls. There's some pretty tough enemies in there the deeper you go, including some Glowing Ones, but it's worth the trip just for Lincoln's Repeater - a long-range hunting rifle that fires .44 magnum rounds and has total accuracy when aimed directly (not in VATS). This thing, with a good Small Guns skill, can one-shot Yao Guai from long-range.

Also, as you posted 2 days ago you may be past this, but if you managed to find out where your dad has gone before completing the quest for Three-Dog, he rewards you instead with the location of an item stash. Not sure if you can get this another way beyond stumbling across it naturally.

Also, if your Science Skill is beyond a certain level, when fitting the dish you can actually boost the signal so that it's clear right across the Wasteland. Not sure what the required level is - it's mentioned in the Bradygames strategy guide of the base game but not toe GOTY edition, and I haven't found any reference to it online either.

As for my own playthrough, I'm currently in Marigold Metro Station for the THOSE! questline dealing with the Fire Ants that have overrun Grayditch. I'd almost completed the section when a fucking ant caught me offguard and killed me. I hadn't saved at all, so returned to the point where I entered the station and the game auto-saved. Annoying!

[Peter McCoy]

New game!

So I went ahead and bought Elite: Dangerous after checking out some footage on Youtube and reading a couple of reviews.

First impression is that this game is daunting! Starting out with a basic ship and 1000 credits in a random system in the vicinity of Sol (I started about 70 light years from Sol) really throws you in at the deep end. I'm gonna do some research on trading and exploration to make some money before I embark on my grand tour. I've been making a list of places I want to visit, with Betelgeuse being high up on it! But before I venture too far form my starting system, I need a better ship and equipment.

As you travel into unknown space, stations are virtually non-existent and the only way to refuel is to use a fuel scoop to collect hydrogen from the corona of a star. But being inside a stars corona causes massive heat buildup so you can only scoop for so long before you need to pull out and cool down. So better fuel scoops collect hydrogen quicker while better power plants dissipate heat quicker. So there's two investments right off the bat.

So far all I've done is a few of the training missions followed by starting the game proper and moving from one station to another one within the same star system. I'm in the paddling pool for now - not quite ready to jump into the pool with the big kids just yet! And even then, that swimming pool is basically floating in the ocean. The galaxy map is awesome! You can display constellations which highlights the stars for you since they're already buried amongst the thousands that are nearby. The gameworld is a 1:1 scale representation of the Milky Way - approximately 400 billion stars. A lot of that is clever maths and procedural generation, but a lot of it is actual stars and known exoplanets.

The reviews online have suggested that at times the game can be very boring as you travel with little in the way of encounters. But I very much bought this game due to a love of astronomy and will happy fly amongst the stars with some tune splaying to pass the time.

[Michael Cline]

Mostly playing through Monster Hunter 4 on 3DS right now, trying to get some decent armor.

[Peter McCoy]

This is my first post using my new Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 - my familiarity with Android is the awful stripped-down Kindle version so this feels great by comparison. I watch a lot of YouTube in bed so that was my main use of my Kindle. But when I saw this gorgeous piece of tech on display in work I just had to have it. Took all my vouchers as well as a few additional trade ins (I work for CEX, we buy and sell pre-owned games, DVDs, Blu-Rays, phones, tablets etc for cash or store credit) along with my staff discount to acquire it, but it was worth it. There were two on offer for the same price. The other was white and was the LTE version, allowing use of a SIM card for mobile broadband. This is just the WIFI version but it's Titanium Bronze and simply gorgeous! Should have been £300 but my staff discount made it £255 and I had it across about 7 different vouchers, LOL! I traded in the very Kindle it was replacing to put towards it.

Anyway, games! As I type, this tablet is downloading Baldur's Gate from the Play store. Once I've watched a bit of YouTube in bed I'll be firing it up and heading off on an adventure! I've heard and read mixed things about the tablet version but it seems that the developer who ported it from Windows has been addressing bugs gradually and promptly so it should be a good experience. There's also Baldur's Gate 2 and Icewind Dale for a decent price, as well as Knights of the Old Republic which I am very tempted by. One at a time, unless they happen to be discounted any time soon.

[Peter McCoy]

Shortest game ever. Loaded up Baldur's Gate and aside from the music and menu sounds, all I get is a black screen. Thankfully I was able to refund it instantly. I wonder if all apps on Google Play are like that.

[Morgan Evanar]

I've been playing some Diablo 3 mostly. I want to get Dragon Age Inquisition but uh I don't know when I'll have time for it.

[Atreyu]

Shortest game ever. Loaded up Baldur's Gate and aside from the music and menu sounds, all I get is a black screen. Thankfully I was able to refund it instantly. I wonder if all apps on Google Play are like that.
Never bought the app game myself (nor do I have an Android tablet, being an iPad user) but I heard a lot of mixed reports about Baldur's Gate on the tablet regardless so you may have dodged a bullet there. Basically as I understand it the game isn't bad but quite simply playing it on a tablet is a bit of a chore (nothing can replace the good old mouse + keyboard it seems). I was tempted to buy the game myself initially but after seeing the reviews I ended up just re-installing all my old Bioware/Black Isle game on my old laptop with free mods galore added and that was good enough for me (not to mention a lot cheaper). :)

[Dasquian Belargic]

bump to this thread

I have been playing Pokemon Red on my 3DS

I'm so cool

[Satkia Beltrak]

I've been playing tons of SWTOR again. Besides my HM ready toons, I'm playing other classes again, just for the fun of slicing through enemies and because I liked the storylines.

[Mu Satach]

I just started Tomb Raider the Definitive Edition.

[Dasquian Belargic]

I just started Tomb Raider the Definitive Edition.

Have fun dying in ridiculously gruesome ways!

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Still tooling about with Fallout 4, but I also bought GOTY Dishonored last Friday night, so I'll probably be going back to Dunwall fairly soon :cool.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Dishonoured is such a satisfying little experience. I haven't played any of the DLC yet, but I did a few runs through the main game at about 8-9 hours per run and loved it every time.

Fallout 4, I haven't replayed yet. I need to at some point, to see the storylines that I didn't get to explore as a synth-bashing Brotherhood hooligan.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I still haven't even started in on the main quest ^_^; I keep doing side quests and companion quests and exploring and scavenging and settlement building because I'm a hopeless settlement addict >_>



ps - I totally Wasteland-married Hancock <3

[Crusader]

Currently I am playing:
Tom Clancy's the Division on PC
MGS Peace Walker on X360
Sunset Overdrive on Xbone

[Crusader]

I just started Tomb Raider the Definitive Edition.

Have fun dying in ridiculously gruesome ways!

This is one of the better video game reboots that we had lately.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I can't ever think of Tomb Raider now without thinking of the Conan review and the faces he made every time she died. Especially in the river/waterfalls.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Been playing way too much of Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes

[Mu Satach]

I can't ever think of Tomb Raider now without thinking of the Conan review and the faces he made every time she died. Especially in the river/waterfalls.

I'm going to have to look that one up. I'm so out of the nerd culture loop these days.

[Vansen Tyree]

I made the mistake of installing Civilization V on my computer. I had forgotten how much of a crack addict I am for those games... and this version has steam achievements for me to try and collect??? I am doomed.

[Ilias Nytrau]

Galaxy of Heroes... because I just started playing it last night. >_>

[Morgan Evanar]

Diablo III adventure mode/rifts.

[Razielle Alastor]

Diablo III adventure mode/rifts.

Oh, yes.. indeed. :D Me too.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Hearthstone my old friend

[Charley]

Far Harbor!

[Ashin Varanin]

Busted out Mirror's Edge again.

[Zereth Lancer]

Overwatch is here. It was nice knowing ya'll.

[Satkia Beltrak]

Done with the EV HM priority week in SWTOR. I ran that 12 times. *thud* And leveling up Sith Juggernaut and Jedi Knight for the funnies.

[Suri Jaxx]

Been playing Resident Evil 6 on my Xbox One :D

Enjoyable, but not enough jump scares imo.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Overwatch is here. It was nice knowing ya'll.

:shakefist

[Lykaios]

Giving Arkham Knight on Nightmare mode a go

[Heyrina Tankreyd]

I was playing SWTOR with Lindz to make the best of double XP, but then we got lost in RP plotting. ;)

[Ben Merasska]

Battlefront and more Battlefront since I'm not so bad at it anymore

[Droo]

Overwatch is the most fun I've had in an FPS in years. It's an incredible game.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I'd grabbed up the GotY edition of Dishonored, and started it back up. I missed Dunwall more than I realized.

[Shyahwyn]

War Thunder - tanks. :)

[Willem Van Beek]

Just leveled my last alt to 100 in WoW, ready for the xpac now. :D

[Satkia Beltrak]

Been spending time on Diablo 3, since I recently got the game. :D

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

I've been replaying Dishonored, and going for the lowest chaos I can possibly get. Currently trying to get into Dunwall Tower without incapacitating anyone.

[Victor Crestmere]

I'm currently bouncing between Overwatch and The Division but they have been set the side as I purchased FF7 and have really been enjoying replaying it. It makes me even more excited for the remake

[Crusader]

Today I have beaten Halo: Reach for the 4th time ;)

[Madeleia]

War Thunder - Tanks
WoW
The Old Republic

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Been sinking a bunch of hours into Fallout 4 again. Of course I've been wallowing in settlement building >_>

[Ilias Nytrau]

WoW. Lots... and lots... of WoW.

[Satkia Beltrak]

^ Same.

[Zereth Lancer]

What am I not playing is more like it.

Tales of Berseria, Bloodborne, Rainbow Six: Siege, the occasional Overwatch; and my current focus; Hollow Knight (Dark Souls Metroidvania)

[Captain Untouchable]

What I'm not playing right now is Elder Scrolls Online, because the login servers have been down every time I've tried the last few days.

:grumble

[Darth Turbogeek]

Zwift

[Captain Untouchable]

Yay! Mass Effect Andromeda is now availa--

Wait, what's that?

The UK has to wait an extra 32 hours for some dumbass reason?

Yaaaaay... :grumble

[Callista]

Horizon!!!!! So good....

[Park Kraken]

Mostly 7 Days to Die, with a little Civilization 6 on the side (so much better now that they've added teams in multiplayer).

[Ageyra Drijenka]

Still tons of WoW. I might have a slight addiction. :p