So, what're you playing?

[Cyrrex]

Dying Light.  I haven't seen any discussion around here on this game, which surprises me a little.

Anyway, I bought and have been playing it a wee bit.  Four hours in or so, which means I have only really just completed a handful of missions.  Enough to get some impressions.  I bought the PC version, because I still cannot bring myself to shell out extra money for an inferior console version.  Quickly ditched the k/b & mouse in favor of an xbox controller, however, as this game seems to be better suited for a controller, mostly because of the analog stick controller movement.  The graphics are pretty outstanding.  You are in a fictional Arab metropolis, and it looks just amazing from high up, despite the city actually being a shithole.  Character and zombie models are pretty standard fare, if uninspiring, but overall this is one of the best looking games I have ever seen.  The min/max spec requirements on PC are pretty hefty, but the engine runs really smoothly on a good rig.  Honestly, all the other 20 billion zombie games out there need to look like this.

You have more or less free reign of the city, and you navigate it in a pretty well designed parkour/free-running style.  It is a fun mixture of zipping around up high and jumping from one ledge to another at high speed (and occasionally missing tragically), and also just jogging around on the ground like a normal FPS.  I would not compare it to things like AC or even Shadows of Mordor on the locomotion side of things.  They have smartly made it so that you basically have to be looking at the ledge you want to climb up on, and doing that in first-person adds a nice amount of stress when you are trying to make an escape.  The zombie implementation itself is pretty decent.  The city is basically overwhelmed with them, and they behave pretty much like you would expect them to and want them to.  They lumber around slowly and are pretty easy to deal with individually, but you will want to avoid getting surrounded.  You also frequently have to be mindful of the noise you are making (or use noise to your advantage), lest you attract their attention.  Some are faster than others, some clumsily wield melee weapons and there is the occasional brute you have to watch out for.  It is kind of a treat to walk around and mess around at interacting with/avoiding the zombies.  Of course, there are nastier things waiting for you at night and the predator/prey relationship changes.

I cannot yet recommend the game whole-heartedly.  It clearly isn't a masterpiece of storytelling.  I worry about the samey-ness of the city itself and the missions, maybe the combat too, but we'll see.  I am having fun, though it should be said that I never tire of zombie games and am easily entertained when I just have a good city to roam around with some "realistic" zombie behavior (whatever that means).  The one thing that sticks out is that the engine itself is really nice, and I almost get mad at all the other zombie survival games for not looking and running this well. 

[Jeff Kelly]

These are games about aiming - why would you be upset that they use an aiming device?

Because I tried the games for about half an hour and hated the controls, also because Prime and Echoes were Gamecube games and should be playable with a controller.

The biggest problem I have with the games is that "aiming" with the Wiimote doesn't work well enough for it too be useful and you still need "lock on" aiming. Also that the Wiimote doesn't only control aim but also your viewport. The Wiimote was either not registering my aim because I wasn't pointing it "right" and it didn't see the sensor bar or it constantly overshot and I was not looking where I was supposed to because my aiming reticule got too close to the screen border and I was suddenly looking to the left or right. It's especially annoying because you need somewhat precise control over where your view is to be able to do the jumping and traversal maneuvers.

It's basically the laziest way to re-release the collection.

- it's not even a port it's just the Wii version. You even need to boot into "Wii mode" to be able to play it
- you need a Wiimote, nunchuck and sensor bar to play it
- the fact that you need these things isn't mentioned when you download the game
- they didn't even adapt all of the graphical assets to the Wii's 16:9 mode so they had for example to get rid of the pixel overlays on Samus' cannon because they were designed for the gamecube's 480:576 resolution. So arguable the gamecube version is 'better'
- they kept the Wii's online mode for Corruption even though it won't work anymore

If I had paid $19,99 and not the reduced price of $9,99 I'd be pissed.

[Yegolev]

I'm only playing Dragon Age MP now during the weekend events because the key bug basically makes the game unfun.  While I was doing it I kept wishing I was playing Dying Light.

Also Dying Light.  I'm willing to call this a much-improved Dead Island.  Much improved.

Civ V also.

[Druzil]

Wolfenstein the New Order - I'd heard this was good but I didn't expect to like this one as much as I do.  The story is way better than it should be and overall it just has that great retro single player FPS experience.  Also you get to shoot robo-dogs with a laser.

Luftrausers - Fun, but the more I play it the angrier I get at it.  Fucking blimp.

Shovel Knight - I had fun with this one and they really nailed the NES feel.  The bosses, stages and music were great and the game plays really well.  I thought some of the combat upgrades and armor upgrades were pretty lame though.

H1Z1 - Ok for what it is, especially if you have a co-op partner or two.  Needs more mechanics to keep my interest for much longer though, there's just not enough to do.

I really want to play Dying Light as I liked Dead Island quite a bit, but I think I'll wait for the first price drop.  Everything about it looks like a better Dead Island.

[Sky]

Going back to finish up Risen 2. I tried to play a handful of games, nothing pulling me in. Fired up Risen 2 and was right back into it. As someone who loved Thief 2 probably a bit too much (ghosting levels etc), the fact that the new Thief left me cold and I'd rather sneak around janky Antigua was interesting.

I'm learning that big budget AAA doesn't work for me anymore. Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and Thief, yawn. Risen 2? More please.

[Lucas]

After I beat The Witcher 1, I undertook another big leftover, DA:Origins, this time on normal difficulty so maybe I'll finally finish it. Meanwhile, I'm also playing some of the digital card games I acquired via the Humble Bundle

[lesion]

Dying Light has the ghost-of-Dead-Island chills every so often, but it was also visited by the impalement-crazed gnomes from Dark Messiah. Kicking everything into spikes is probably the best game mechanic ever.

[Sky]

After I beat The Witcher 1, I undertook another big leftover, DA:Origins, this time on normal difficulty so maybe I'll finally finish it. Meanwhile, I'm also playing some of the digital card games I acquired via the Humble Bundle

Hmm, I do have the Witcher 2 in the queue as well.

[Merusk]

Picked up my first ever Controller and gave Darksiders a go. I'd tried KB&M a few years ago but that was a SPECTACULAR failure.

Also running through TIE Fighter with the boy. We're just on to the 2nd battle series now, and I'd forgotten how tricky that game can be. It doesn't help that modern joysticks seem to have greased pigs for feedback resistance. I overfly every goddamn thing.

[Jeff Kelly]

Gave the Metroid trilogy another go after Neogaf recommended a configuration. Basically crank the sensitivity all the way up, enable lock on targeting and swap jump and shoot (default is a to shoot, z to jump). It#s now bearable.

You no longer need to aim as precisely - which is ironic since the Wiimote was essentially promoted as a great way for exactly that purpose - and you can actually move the cursor now when you lie on the couch without it constantly going out of the sensor bar range.

I still hate how loosely aim and view are coupled though. It's basically that you aim freely anywhere on the screen until you reach an edge and then your view moves. Which is actually the worst of both worlds when you are used to dual stick shooters and mouse/keyboard controls and makes traversal and jumping puzzles a huge annoyance. Flick the Wiimote at the wrong moment and you end up jumping in the wrong direction. Switching visors and beams is also a huge annoyance, especially switching to the scanning visor. You have to press and hold the '1' button and move the arrow to the top of the screen to switch to the visor. Which already annoys me to no end after the tutorial mission.

I can see myself finishing it in the configuration that I have now, I already died twice though due to the unfamiliar control scheme and I'd hoped they would have invested a little money into porting it to the WiiU and implementing a real 'dual analog' control scheme for the Pro Controller. At least for Prime and Echoes.

I'll fire up Dolphin over the weekend to see how the original control scheme compares to it and if it's really better or if I only think it is because of nostaligia.

[Kail]

Also running through TIE Fighter with the boy. We're just on to the 2nd battle series now, and I'd forgotten how tricky that game can be. It doesn't help that modern joysticks seem to have greased pigs for feedback resistance. I overfly every goddamn thing.

I've been meaning to pick that up.  I have a lot of memories of TIE fighter from when I was a kid.  We had one computer, but my brother and I both wanted to play, so we had this system set up where I'd get the joystick and be the "pilot" and he'd get the keyboard and be the "copilot."  Many shouting matches were had over the "match speed" function.  I think there was one rank of the Emperor's Secret Buddy Club or whatever it was called that I never managed to reach.

Watching the AGDQ stream in January got me thinking about "hard" games so I've been playing a bunch of platformers (Meat Boy, Wings of Vi, Dustforce, Eryi's Action) and shoot-em-ups (Danmaku Unlimited, Sine Mora, QP Shooting, Jamestown) recently.  It's weirdly relaxing to me to play these games which are supposed to be super difficult, because unlike, say, an RPG or something, I don't feel like I need to "accomplish" anything to "progress," it's often enough just to mess around and experiment with new strategies even if you don't actually beat a level or anything.

Also trying out the new Starbound update... it's kind of weird.  Lots of new content... but they put way more quests in the game, which means there's way more emphasis on them to unlock stuff (where before, you were mostly just mining).  Not a huge problem by itself, but some of the quests are in special "adventure areas" or whatever they're called which are specially crafted areas that function like levels from a traditional platformer, with bosses and so on.  Except that the bosses can literally one hit kill you (even if you have the best armor you can get), there are no checkpoints, and if you die you lose pixels, all the enemies respawn, and you don't get back any bandages or medkits you used, and you get to start the whole half hour mission from scratch.  EVERY.  TIME.  YOU.  DIE.  Also, you can't place or remove items or blocks, so like 90% of the tactics you'll use in the rest of the game are out the window.  Ughhhh.

[koro]

On the plus side, that first Starbound dungeon is an anomaly, and the subsequent adventure areas are both smaller and less ball-punchy, especially with the bosses.

[Sky]

Wow, they actually put in more of the stuff I hate about Terraria/Starbound. Shitty.

[Soulflame]

There's things to hate about Terraria?!

[Sky]

The boss fight platformer stuff, and putting content behind it. I really like both games, but that aspect kills both. Luckily I also played both early on before they had added much of that 'content'.

[Kail]

The boss fight platformer stuff, and putting content behind it. I really like both games, but that aspect kills both. Luckily I also played both early on before they had added much of that 'content'.

If memory serves, I think the devs said that the current content is supposed to represent one possible "path" and there would be others (like a Terraria-esque system revolving around building structures to certain specifications).  Questing is the only way in the game CURRENTLY though.  It's only been in beta for a year, after all.   

[Soulflame]

The boss fight platformer stuff, and putting content behind it. I really like both games, but that aspect kills both. Luckily I also played both early on before they had added much of that 'content'.

Ah, yeah, gating content behind bosses is annoying.  Especially getting past the metal bosses when you first hit hard mode.

[Cyrrex]

I am going to upgrade my official opinion of Dying Light.  This game is plain good fun.  That it received a farily mediocre reception from the usual stalwarts of gaming journalism, I can only attribute to the fact that they must not have schlobbed enough PR knob to gain such favor.  I am not saying it is a masterpiece or anything, but it is easily more fun that the usual shovelware we see from FPS game producers.

- AAA production values?  Check.
- Bugs?  Haven't seen a thing.
- Story?  Actually totally servicable, not sure what the complaint is.
- Combat?  Quite fun once you get the controls down.
- Parkour?  Better than Assassins Creed and Mordor.
- Zombies?  Just like on your favorite TV show.
- Crafting?  Not too deep, but also not shabby.
- Open World?  You betcha.
- Main Character?  Often uses the word "motherfucker" when describing zombies.

No idea about multiplayer (I hear you can play as an uber zombie), but I also don't care.  This game doesn't really have any of the typical "survival" elements of other zombie games, like gathering food and water and such things, so it cannot be fairly compared to those types of games.  Still, this one provides more immediate fun than those other games. 

[Setanta]

Wolfenstein the New Order - I'd heard this was good but I didn't expect to like this one as much as I do.  The story is way better than it should be and overall it just has that great retro single player FPS experience.  Also you get to shoot robo-dogs with a laser.

I started this, got to the bit where I had to do some move to get off the plane past the robo-dog, failed at whatever the keyboard combo was and quit the game :( Haven't retried it since.

In the meantime I'm wading through TellTale games, Smite and HotS

[Rendakor]

Maybe Dying Light has AAA production values on PC, but on PS4 it's really ugly. Capped at 30 fps and can't even maintain that, lots of artifacting in the cutscenes, etc. It's the worst looking game I've played on the console.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm still playing Metroid Prime and warmed up to the control scheme (it takes a while getting used to but works rather well now) so disregard my previous rants on the subject.

Playing Prime made me realize just how much is wrong with today's AAA landscape. I haven't seen level design as sophisticated and great since then. I'd consider it probably one of the best games ever made in that regard. It holds up astonishingly well considering that it's twelve year old. I'm not even sure most studios could craft something with the low graphical fidelity but the same sophisticated level design on current hardware. From what I hear only Dark Souls is on the same page. (I've never played Halo though)

Also a team of only 40 people made Prime and Prime: Echoes.

I always wonder if all of the current talk about specs and "underpowered" current gen consoles is at all relevant when you could craft something as great as Prime 12 years ago on what was even then underpowered HW.

[Cyrrex]

Maybe Dying Light has AAA production values on PC, but on PS4 it's really ugly. Capped at 30 fps and can't even maintain that, lots of artifacting in the cutscenes, etc. It's the worst looking game I've played on the console.

That is really odd to hear, because the game feels like more of a console game than a PC game.  And while the reqs are stiff, it runs like a dream on PC and looks the business.

[murdoc]

Wolfenstein the New Order - I'd heard this was good but I didn't expect to like this one as much as I do.  The story is way better than it should be and overall it just has that great retro single player FPS experience.  Also you get to shoot robo-dogs with a laser.

I started this, got to the bit where I had to do some move to get off the plane past the robo-dog, failed at whatever the keyboard combo was and quit the game :( Haven't retried it since.

I think that is the only time you HAVE to do that move - I hated it too because it sucked to try to do with a mouse and keyboard.

That game was better than it had any right to be.

[koro]

After about a week of not-very-intense play, I've more or less exhausted the content added by a year's worth of patches in Starbound.

I'm pretty confident in saying that this game will probably never live up to its potential. It's just got too much hamstringing it.

[Khaldun]

I went ahead and picked up Darkest Dungeon, despite my resolution to not do Early Access. In this case I don't really regret it. It's an enjoyable roguelike. Great art direction and voiceover work.

[Druzil]

Wolfenstein the New Order - I'd heard this was good but I didn't expect to like this one as much as I do.  The story is way better than it should be and overall it just has that great retro single player FPS experience.  Also you get to shoot robo-dogs with a laser.

I started this, got to the bit where I had to do some move to get off the plane past the robo-dog, failed at whatever the keyboard combo was and quit the game :( Haven't retried it since.

I think that is the only time you HAVE to do that move - I hated it too because it sucked to try to do with a mouse and keyboard.

That game was better than it had any right to be.

I agree that the sliding is not a great mechanic.  You use it a handful of times at most through the whole game and it's awkward every time.

[ezrast]

I picked up the Dungeon Defenders 2 early access. It's far from finished but what's there is playable and fun and reinforces my hope that they learned enough from their mistakes in the first game to make a really solid successor. Class defenses seem to be designed to all fill a niche so that every map doesn't just boil down to an Apprentice building all the towers while three DPS heroes sit on their hands. I've mostly been focusing on Huntress and her traps are vastly more viable than they were in the first game, even moreso than Apprentice towers early on.

That said, standard rules of early access apply; don't buy in unless you (like me) are pretty likely to spend money on it anyway and want a sneak peek. It's extremely content-light and it will be free anyway assuming they ever get around to actually releasing the thing. Development seems to be a bit glacial so my main concerns now are whether they actually finish all the features in my lifetime, and whether they get a handle on the rampant mudflation that took place in the first game.

[Fabricated]

So far:

Picked up a "New 3DSXL" with Monster Hunter. Goddamn this game is spergy as hell and vaguely impenetrable to newbies, but it's kinda fun.

-Toxikk a bit. Needs more content since not many people are playing now due to the one map.

-Darkest Dungeon is still really good even if I'm getting to the point where it's like late-game XCOM where you basically shit all over everything with your A/B team and the only way to really lose is to get fucked by the RNG.

-Destiny, because despite Bungie's best efforts the hardest content in the game can be somewhat exploited!

[Jeff Kelly]

Finishing up Metroid Prime. It's exactly as great as I remember. I even went from absolutely ahting the Wiimote controls to actually liking them.

The only thing I dislike is that Prime has no fast travel and only very few save points this makes the end game very annoying since you have to switch back and forth between zones a lot and due to the old school difficulty you might lose a lot of progress. Had to redo Phazon mines three times until I reached the second save station. Lost 90 minutes of progress each time. I laso spent upwards of 20 minutes to traverse the levels to get from zone to zone. Killing the same respwaned enemies over and over again (Chozo ghosts...)

The game is holding up pretty well though and has aged spectacularly. Compared to most other 3D games of the time you could actually release it today with minor graphical improvements and it wouldn't feel out of place. It also perfectly captures the flair and atmosphere of Super Metroid while adding a whole new level of isolation, existential fear and loneliness to it due to the first person view that immerses you even more into the alien world.

[Yegolev]

Maybe Dying Light has AAA production values on PC, but on PS4 it's really ugly. Capped at 30 fps and can't even maintain that, lots of artifacting in the cutscenes, etc. It's the worst looking game I've played on the console.

I don't have this problem.  I downloaded it, are you using a disc?

[Rendakor]

I was using a disc, yea; sold it to a friend for $40.

[Yegolev]

Maybe it was disc-read latency.  I don't have any bugs or graphical errors.

Unlike Dragon Age MP.  Seems like they have fixed the bug where you don't always get the key to progress, so that's something.

Also playing some Lego Batman 3.  Not much to say here except that it is solidly executed.

Also Rogue Legacy on Vita.

Mostly I'm working on getting a job and health insurance.

[penfold]

Sins of Solar Empire: Rebellion. Modded with Sacrifice of Angels 2, a Star Trek mod. Currently my vast and bewildering array of Borg and captured ships are obliterating a rather large Federation AI. I tried playing Federation but the Borg were unbeatable. There's also Klingons, Romulan and Dominion but I've yet to try them. I also have a couple of Star Wars mods which are fun.

I'm also replaying World In Conflict Soviet Assault, as I had a hankering for classic 80s techthrillers and calling in airstrikes. The expansion was pretty nifty as it slotted the missions in chronological order into the original campaign, so you played the whole thing over again but interspersed with Russkie levels. Its stood the test of time too, the explosions and particles look great on my current setup.

[Yegolev]

Started playing Evolve today.  I am terrible.  Not sure how the MP is going to work, but I've spent money on worse things.  It's making my head hurt so I took some pills and am taking a break.

[Sky]

Last couple nights I've been playing Deus Ex (the newer one) a bit. I seem to have lost most of my patience for stealth games, and despite mostly being over 'shooters', I'm playing it pretty much as a cover shooter. But it is slowly sucking me into wanting to stealth through parts...

Also been playing some Risen 2, I got about 1/3 of the way through and the pirate stuff started wearing a bit thin (I think I just dislike Steelbeard's Hat that much but I'm too much of a powergamer to swap it out and lose the bonusses). Though it's a fairly long game, 1/3 was still over 20 hours for me.