The "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread

[Wool]

Demons Souls is for babies, he should totally play Rune Factory instead. Not only can you fight monsters, but you can plant and harvest crops too!! How epic is that!?! Also, in the newest one, your father is a sheep! lol.

Have you played Darksiders yet?

[Ronaan]

Gave RDR Zombie addon a shot... and found out it's not for me. I get swarmed too fast, ammo is scarce, meh.

Slowly progressing through Uncharted2 though. I still have problems aiming sometimes, but I'm slowly getting better.

[Wool]

I never had trouble with ammo, just be sure to constantly cycle the weapons you are using. Also, headshots are practically required, run away a lot, and don't fight more than you absolutely have to. It might help in the beginning to use the torch when there are only a few zombies nearby. During town sieges climb up on a roof. Tapping the fire button without aiming at close range works really well too, you either get an instead canned headshot, or you melee the closest zombie with your weapon (which usually amounts to the same thing).

[Yaxa]

I'm a sucker for adventures, so I grabbed Alternativa from Steam the other day.

I actually enjoyed the developer's previous game (Memento Mori) despite its weaknesses. Unfortunately, Alternativa has few redeeming qualities. On the technical side it's a major step backwards from Memento Mori's full 3D environments to pre-rendered 2D backgrounds with 3D characters on top. The game's premise could have made for an interesting story -- conspiracies within a dystopian, post-World War III world (but not a wasteland), divided into strict sectors (government, industrial, slums) and ruled by one united "State" and effectively controlled by two mega-corporations.

However, the designers failed to really make something of it. The writing is weak and plot turns range from eye-rollers to downright absurd. The puzzles are similarly disappointing. Often the solution will be extremely obvious, but your character won't execute it until you've gone through the requisite dialogues and item inspections. Other times you'll find yourself running back and forth repeatedly across empty scenes for items and dialogues. Yet others can only be solved by guessing. The game fails to tie up the majority of its sub-plots while also ending with yet more questions than you started out with. The website already mentions a possible sequel.

One "stand-out" feature is the fact that you can die if you don't watch your words carefully in dialogues or act too slowly in certain scenes. At the "low" difficulty setting you get an unlimited number of tries, while the "hard" setting restricts you to two attempts and also removes in-game hints.

The English translation and voice work are patchy (it's originally a Czech game). Occasionally, voices and subtitles don't match up, but those are usually minor cases ranging from oversights to (apparently) deliberate attempts to improve the translation.

Despite being a budget title I can't really recommend Alternativa. If you're a die-hard adventure fan looking for something you haven't already played a dozen times it's worth a look. Just don't expect a coherent story or good puzzle design.

[Dawlin]

Lich King attempts in WoW, otherwise not much. Work is mad, so it's fine that we're in a pre-expansion slump. I expect to play a bit more once the elemental invasion bosses are released.

[Wool]

I'm finally playing Resident Evil 5, after having it for I don't know how long. Well, I WAS playing it before Cataclysm. /grumbles

Something about this game annoys me, and it's not the AI. While the AI is dumb, it's not Gears of War dumb, and I don't feel like it's holding me back. It basically serves as a healbot and extra inventory (of course, personal inventory is ridiculously small).

The controls and camera bother the heck out of me. I never thought I would miss motion controls (RE4). I don't mind that RE5 isn't a full blown action game (although I could have swore people complained that it was), that lets you run and gun. I'm fine with a deliberate pacing, but they didn't really accomplish that very well. Lets ignore the fact that enemies run at you so fast that you aren't going to react fast enough unless you are already pointed at them. What I can't ignore is the ridiculous zoom when aiming.

The zoom + the slow turning ensures that I only see half of what I want to be shooting at, and the bullets don't go where you might expect either, so you might as well be shooting on faith. I cannot stand the enemies (such as dogs), that are either below or above your field of vision. There is no reliable melee move (the knife is garbage, with garbage controls and garbage range), and I can't see or aim that far down, so there isn't anything I can do once a dog closes on me.

The story and writing also suck, but I don't really care about that anyway. The one thing the game actually does well is make ammo matter. I've had a few instances in which I had to supress my natural tendancy to kill everything, and just escape. In Resident Evil 4 I never felt pressured to conserve ammo, but I have in this game. Of course, that was partially accomplished through bosses and minibosses that are apparently coded to require all your ammo -1 to kill. It's beyond ridiculous how many died on one of my last, preciously hoarded, bullets. (I'm looking at you mutalisk)

Every time I start to get into it and think "this game isn't so bad afterall", it pulls something new.

[Yttrium]

Cataclysm, of course.

The World Ends With You was a gift this holiday, so I'm trying it out. The mechanics are a bit frustrating, and it's rough to play laying down (i.e. in bed), but it's a clever method of playing a game. I'm starting to dig into it. I'm still near the beginning (ish).

COD: Black Ops has a decent story line, even if the b/w mission cut scenes are tedious. The multiplayer (console) is plagued by shitty shitty stinky farty servers run by Treyarch (or whoever). Nonetheless, I still give it a try periodically.

Bayonetta - Not normally my type of game, the demo caught my eye with the rampant destruction. The game was cheap enough to ask for xmas, but the eye-candy gets a little out of hand. Whatever.

I finished Red Dead Redemption (storyline) and skipped on the 100% complete. Also finished the more recent Ratchet and Clank recently - really good, easily as good as Tools of Destruction (but not better). I'm pondering what my next RPG on the PS3 will be - I don't seem to have a lot of options. Maybe a downloaded one?

[Mileron]

I went on a "spending spree" this holiday season and picked up a bunch of games from Steam.

The FlatOut racing/derby series went from 4 bucks. The "ultimate carnage" game seems to be just a repackage/retexture of FO2... however, it is subsumed by the Windows Live crap, and I can't figure out for the life of me how to log in with my WL login... but no matter, because the game is a PITA to control using a keyboard. Even with that, I got a few hours of enjoyment out of it so it wasn't a total waste.

Picked up Plants vs. Zombies (4 bucks, Steam) to help my WoW quest abilities. It's funner than I remember it being when it was originally released. I got to the mid-40th level this morning.

Was given Super Mario All Stars Wii for Christmas, but that's still in the box.
I want to pick up Kirby's Epic Yarn.

Downloaded Angry Birds to my Pre... but I'm not impressed with it. There are flash-based cannon games on the web that are better IMO. I'd try it if it were an actual PC flash game, but it's too much of a battery hog for mobile playing.

Still poking at Burnout Paradise on my brother's X360 when he's not home. I'm enjoying it. I'd have picked it up off Steam for 15 bucks but there's kinda no point.

Haven't been Geocaching since late November.

[DietCanada]

getting into fallout 3
some reason i hated it for my pc but i dont mind it so much for the xbox

main gripe is there is a lot of menu and running back to town or a bed time hehe.

[Matthias]

Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time.

I guess I'm not really understanding the appeal of it. Either I'm the worst player ever, or the game is kind of stupidly hard at the beginning because everything seems to be capable of 1-shotting me and my companions... which, well, isn't fun.

Questing (finding npcs + the whole journal interface) is annoying, too.

[Wool]

I had a hard time with Baldur's Gate myself. It took me over a year to beat it, because I kept getting bored and quitting, then coming back and trying again a few months later.

[Dramadon]

Baldur's Gate 1 for the first time.

I guess I'm not really understanding the appeal of it. Either I'm the worst player ever, or the game is kind of stupidly hard at the beginning because everything seems to be capable of 1-shotting me and my companions... which, well, isn't fun.

Questing (finding npcs + the whole journal interface) is annoying, too.

Baldur's Gate 1 was a flawed game. Most of the issues with it were fixed in Baldur's Gate 2, which is a far superior game imo. It's obviously very dated by today's standards, but it is the first game that actually did have serious character development in it beyond the main character.

Plus, Minsk is awesome. Now, what game was I playing recently that mentioned selling Space Hamsters...hmmm...Mass Effect 2 maybe?

[Matthias]

Mass Effect 2 has space hamsters, yeah.

And Minsc keeps attacking me (?!) for taking too long to rescue his friend... while we're en route to rescuing her. I think I'm just gonna give up on BG1. ._.

[Wool]

Is your main character's alignment evil, or you have someone in your group who is? There are more recruitable characters than there are party slots. In those early PC rpg systems, they would not get along with each other if you mixed alignments too much.

[Ikeya]

I distinctly remember having a mix of good and evil characters in my party and then, completely out of the blue in the middle of a town, they all decided they needed to have a throw down until the opposing alignment was all dead. I remember being quite pissed that I didn't have enough charm available to stop them from massacring one another.

[Star-Demon]

I got to try Arcana Heart 3 and the Umineko fighting game.

Umineko is confusing, but Beatrice's voice is so Sex.

Arcana Heart 3 is an improvement over the last one - although I really don't like fighting games where the majority of the cast are girls.

Otherwise - Blazblue and Dragon Age. I have a lot to say about dragon age come time.

[Matthias]

Is your main character's alignment evil, or you have someone in your group who is? There are more recruitable characters than there are party slots. In those early PC rpg systems, they would not get along with each other if you mixed alignments too much.

Oh, no; I'm a Lawful Good paladin.

Apparently Minsc goes crazy after x amount of days and attacks the party if you haven't rescued his friend by then.

[Star-Demon]

I'm a firm believer in your party being as contentious as possible. I love it most when they hate each others' guts. (dragon Age, KOTOR2)

[Grindel]

Still playing Civ. 5, but I've sprinkled in some DC Universe Online and Battlefield 2 of all games into the mix. Looks like we're going to have an every-two-months LAN party thing and BF2 and L4D2 are high in the rotation with the people who will be at the party. Just finished like my millionth play-through of Mass Effect 1 & 2 because I needed Ash dead, the collector base recovered, and Tali in my bed.

[Wool]

I'm (finally) playing Devil May Cry 4. Almost done too. It's pretty dang cool so far. Which surprised me, I don't remember what you guys thought of it back when I was asking for opinions, but the rest of the talk on the internet was about how bad it was. How lame the recycled bosses were for example. Unless you have to kill them all in order during the last boss fight, I fail to see the problem. It's fun, the boss fights are really well designed, and while the "wander around a castle and random stuff happens" plot device is still stupid, I like Nero and Kyrie's little story they have going on.

I unlocked Dante, and only have the last couple levels to go. Dante is way overpowered, but I think I liked Nero better. The arm thing was a lot of fun. Honestly it sort of feels like the whole game was about Nero, and this stuff with Dante is just the epilogue that shows how badass he is by effortlessly saving the day.


I'm also playing Valkyria 2, which is no where near as good as the first one. The maps are limited, the characters are all high school anime tropes, and the part of the plot that is legitmately interesting takes a back seat to nonsense. But it's still amazingly fun and addicting.