So, what're you playing?

[Ironwood]

XCOM:EW.

Lots and Lots and Lots of XCOM:EW.

It's Great.

[Fabricated]

Incidentally unless you're into the whole impossible/ironman dickpunching thing, enable the meld tutorial and disable the regular tutorial.

While the original tutorial is stupid and basically nets you 3 guaranteed deaths + 1 promotion, the Meld Tutorial is basically 2 free meld containers and all 4 rookies get guaranteed promotions.

[koro]

I suspect a lot of the nostalgia for pixel art/retro visuals is because of that long period when everything was in 3D. 

I love good sprite art. However most modern pixel art games are not good sprite art. I mean, compare Mercenary Kings to Metal Slug...most pixel art these games seem like less an imitation of actual sprite-based games of the past and more an imitation of that bad Scott Pilgrim downloadable game from a few years ago.

I'm a little confused about what you're saying here. Are you saying Mercenary Kings' art is an imitation of the Scott Pilgrim brawler from a few years back? If so, that would be because the artist behind both is the same person.

[Ironwood]

Incidentally unless you're into the whole impossible/ironman dickpunching thing, enable the meld tutorial and disable the regular tutorial.

While the original tutorial is stupid and basically nets you 3 guaranteed deaths + 1 promotion, the Meld Tutorial is basically 2 free meld containers and all 4 rookies get guaranteed promotions.

I didn't know there were two.  I said 'No' to the tutorial because I remember it just being stupid.

Oh.

Well, I'll play through again.  Not to unearth the XCOM thread, but people in there are right :  Mimetic skin breaks the game hugely, but it's just.  so.  fun.

[Fabricated]

Mimetic skin is hilariously broken and doubly so with snipers when they get Low Profile. A colonel sniper with mimetic skin and jumpy legs is hilarious.

When you get done stomping all over the game with the regular classes and the new goodies; turn on training roulette. It fucks over supports really bad since their bread and butter are the medkit boosting skills and the rest of the random skills they can get from the other classes aren't as great for them as they are for others, but you can get some really, really hilariously powerful assaults and heavies.

With the right mix of skills you can roll up an assault that when they close to range can attack 4 times in a single round.

And if one of your soldiers gets into the higher ranks and you find their random skill assortment lackluster? Well, just lop their limbs off and make them into MECs since their skills aren't affected. It'll likely be a support, which is fine since the defensive field passive supports get as MECs is pretty kickass.

[Margalis]

I'm a little confused about what you're saying here. Are you saying Mercenary Kings' art is an imitation of the Scott Pilgrim brawler from a few years back? If so, that would be because the artist behind both is the same person.

I was saying 2 different things:

1. That Mercenary Kings looks bad compared to Metal Slug

2. That a lot of games that claim to be inspired by 8 and 16 bit titles actually seem more inspired by that Scott Pilgrim game - they are imitations of imitations. It was too separate points, I just used Mercenary Kings vs. Metal Slug because it's a pretty apples to apples comparison.

[Jeff Kelly]

Link's awakening DX and Oracle of Seasons/Ages on the 3DS because ALBW rekindled my interest in the 2D Zeldas and because they continually come up quite high the 'best Zeldas' lists.

I like that they actually improve on the ALTTP formula as much as they can on a device with the computational power of a toaster (Gameboy Color). For me at least their praise seems to be at least parts nostalgia though since they already have some of the mechanics that people seem to hate in later games (especially the world gating by items and some hand holding)

The link mechanic in Ages/Seasons is interesting but also something that could have been easily streamlined with the 3DS virtual console ports. For a company that made some of the best and tightest platformers though the controls in all three of those games suck much more than I liked. Jumping especially is a major hassle and a few boss fights suffer from the loose controls. All in all I rather liked them especially because they offer me what I like about Zelda - puzzles upon puzzles in dungeons and a sense of exploration on the overworld but after playing those titles I appreciate what ALBW did even more. It didn't just reinvigorate the Zelda formula and  cut out the 'cruft' it is also mechanically a better game and offers much tighter and more streamlined controls than its predecessors.

Seasons for me has the better 'gimmick' mechanic with the rod of seasons and the way the seasons affect the world but its focus on the bosses leads to a few really shitty boss encounters, the ages gimmick is not that deep and most often used not for puzzles but simply to lock/unlock areas in later stages of the games. The bosses are less elaborate but it has the better dungeon puzzles. As with seasons though they go over the top a few times so a few of the puzzles are actually unreasonably obtuse.

I also started AC IV and my initial impression is that it needs even less Assassins and even more Pirates, they should have just scrapped the AC tie in/part of the game and have made it a full blown Pirates successor in spirit.

[koro]

It should be noted that Oracle of Seasons/Ages (as well as Minish Cap and I think Four Swords?) were made by Capcom and not Nintendo.

[naum]

On the Mac/PC, have fallen into the darkness of Football Manager 2014, suckered in by the recent Steam sale. I will be swallowed up again and I can lose hours just creating tactics, perusing players, twiddling training, etc. -- even barely tapping the "Continue" button.

Also, Dominions 4 -- haven't had a chance to full bore in depth, and it's not a radical evolution, just a few more wrinkles that are nice -- more detailed battle reports (showing me which commanders survive/die, how many troops in each breakdown), wraparound random maps.

On the 3DS, Pokemon X -- never played a Pokemon game before, it's fairly engrossing and engaging, and a heck of lot easier than SMT :D

Tempted to nab Europa Universalis 4…

[Jeff Kelly]

It should be noted that Oracle of Seasons/Ages (as well as Minish Cap and I think Four Swords?) were made by Capcom and not Nintendo.

you don't really notice it though.

[Mac]

Playing Borderlands 2 with a buddy who got it from me as a Steam Gift during the Xmas sale. We are having a very good time with it, it is much more fun and hilarious playing with someone else.

I was made to promise not to play Borderlands 2 without him so I'm playing XCOM: EW when he's offline. Although I never played the original, I am playing the fuck out of this one.

[Rasix]

Still mostly just playing Arcanum.  This game would be truly something with a less shitty combat/character design and perhaps some QOL improvements.  It just takes so long to play.  Still, it's interesting, and I was able to side step one of the shitty dungeons with some persuasion.   Whoever designed the golems in this game is a giant jerk.

Kind of taking a break from Guild Wars 2.  Playing feels like an obligation at the moment, and the guild/server seems to be taking a serious break for the holidays.

[Rendakor]

Just finished up XCOM for the first time; game was a blast. Not sure what to fire up next; maybe How To Train Your Princess.

[Merusk]

maybe How To Train Your Princess.

I almost picked that up on the Steam sale.  It's begging for a radicalathon.

[murdoc]

Rogue Legacy still (I ordered a controller) and I really like the pixel art so fuck all y'all.
Played a bunch of XCOM:EW when I was at the inlaws house in attempts to avoid conversation (success!) and am of course still playing GW2.

[Trippy]

maybe How To Train Your Princess.

I almost picked that up on the Steam sale.  It's begging for a radicalathon.

You mean like this?

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22265.0

[Rendakor]

maybe How To Train Your Princess.

I almost picked that up on the Steam sale.  It's begging for a radicalathon.

You mean like this?

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22265.0

That's awesome. I didn't realize the game had been out for more than a year.

[Merusk]

You mean like this?
http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=22265.0

Ha, I'd thought he did that with a different Princess game. Good enough, now I don't have to buy it!

[trias_e]

I've been playing the shit out of Long live the queen the last few days.  Had no idea it existed.  It's fun...but..it feels like more of an optimization game than princess maker did though.  I replay not to get a general vibe of possibilities, but to play a math puzzle of 'must get x skill to y rank by z time), times 3 or 4.  It's still cool but I feel like it's a bit disappointing. 

[KallDrexx]

I needed to find a game that I could play remotely (streamed from my home pc across the internet), thus I needed a turn based game (latency over teh internet actually isn't terrible, but definitely can't play anything actiony with it).

I thought I'd try Blood Bowl since I always see the forum lit up with praise.  Went through the tutorial and seemed interesting enough.  Then played through two matches and got completely curb stomped.  I don't think I'm going to have the patience to figure out how to not suck at this game.

Got Magic 2014 in the steam sale, that'll probably be a good candidate for over the internet streamed gaming (and from initial tests it seems to work well with touch controls).

[Bann]

I needed to find a game that I could play remotely (streamed from my home pc across the internet), thus I needed a turn based game (latency over teh internet actually isn't terrible, but definitely can't play anything actiony with it).

I thought I'd try Blood Bowl since I always see the forum lit up with praise.  Went through the tutorial and seemed interesting enough.  Then played through two matches and got completely curb stomped.  I don't think I'm going to have the patience to figure out how to not suck at this game.

Got Magic 2014 in the steam sale, that'll probably be a good candidate for over the internet streamed gaming (and from initial tests it seems to work well with touch controls).

Dominions IV

http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions

[Kail]

I thought I'd try Blood Bowl since I always see the forum lit up with praise.  Went through the tutorial and seemed interesting enough.  Then played through two matches and got completely curb stomped.  I don't think I'm going to have the patience to figure out how to not suck at this game.

It's actually pretty simple, once you figure out like two or three basic rules.  It's just that the in-game tutorial is extremely bad at explaining the mechanics, focusing more on "right click to move" stuff IIRC.  If you want, I can do a write up or something, I'm pretty bad at the game but I think I can explain the basics at least.

[schild]

I thought I'd try Blood Bowl since I always see the forum lit up with praise.  Went through the tutorial and seemed interesting enough.  Then played through two matches and got completely curb stomped.  I don't think I'm going to have the patience to figure out how to not suck at this game.

It's actually pretty simple, once you figure out like two or three basic rules.  It's just that the in-game tutorial is extremely bad at explaining the mechanics, focusing more on "right click to move" stuff IIRC.  If you want, I can do a write up or something, I'm pretty bad at the game but I think I can explain the basics at least.

This would be useful. The tutorial is abhorrent. I tried to get some friends to play it and they were like "nahhhh."

[Ingmar]

In the meantime you could check out:

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1310002_BB_Complete_Blood_Bowl_Rulebook.pdf

This is the ruleset the game implements, and barring a lot of missing star players, it's pretty much implemented correctly. You can skip all the shit about special play cards.

[koro]

I downloaded the demo for Bravely Default on the 3DS today, played about ten minutes of it, and promptly pre-ordered it. I almost never pre-order.

It's extremely good.

[KallDrexx]

It's actually pretty simple, once you figure out like two or three basic rules.  It's just that the in-game tutorial is extremely bad at explaining the mechanics, focusing more on "right click to move" stuff IIRC.  If you want, I can do a write up or something, I'm pretty bad at the game but I think I can explain the basics at least.

That would be pretty awesome.  I saw the rulebook already (and it was linked in the BB resources sticky) but that seemed a lot to read and go through just to figure out some basic things, like (on my 2nd playthrough) the other team kicked off and I failed 3 ball pickups in a row (like seriously, no one was next to me, my guy with sure hands walked up and dropped it, then did it 3 times).  Since I got curb stomped earlier I figured it wasn't just extremely bad luck and probably something core that I'm missing.

Dominions IV

http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions

Looks good, I'll definitely bookmark it.  However, my game backlog has made me cheap so $35 is more than my threashold for games these days.  I'll definitely look out for sales though :)

[Ingmar]

Unthreatened ball pickups with an agility 3 player are a 3+ roll on a six sided die, so its essentially 1 in 9 for a sure hands agi 3 guy to fail. You'll see it rather a lot honestly - it seems rare intuitively but if you made a move like that every turn you'll fail about twice a game. Having it happen 2 turns in a row isn't too strange. Blood bowl is essentially about doing things in the right order and standing in the right place - that's why I suggest keeping the rules handy, until you internalize the odds of different things happening.

[Threash]

I needed to find a game that I could play remotely (streamed from my home pc across the internet), thus I needed a turn based game (latency over teh internet actually isn't terrible, but definitely can't play anything actiony with it).

I thought I'd try Blood Bowl since I always see the forum lit up with praise.  Went through the tutorial and seemed interesting enough.  Then played through two matches and got completely curb stomped.  I don't think I'm going to have the patience to figure out how to not suck at this game.

Got Magic 2014 in the steam sale, that'll probably be a good candidate for over the internet streamed gaming (and from initial tests it seems to work well with touch controls).

Dominions IV

http://www.desura.com/games/dominions-4-thrones-of-ascensions

Ah shit, there's a fourth one now? is it way better?

[Falconeer]

Metro Last Light. This series is just fantastic, love everything about it.

[jakonovski]

I tried playing Last Light, but it's so painfully scripted that it's not fun to play anymore. It feels too much like a Potemkin village. 

[Falconeer]

I haven't finished it yet but seems as scripted as the first chapter to me, which I totally loved. I mean, do you suffer the lack of freedom or something else in particular here? I love open games, but old school First Person Shooters have the tendency to slam you into one giant tunnel and have you fight your way out of it. And by all means there's nothing wrong with giant tunnels when they are this beautifully crafted.

[KallDrexx]

I did find Last Light to be enjoyable.  I haven't played 2033 yet though (I got LL free with my graphics card, and by the time i decided to try 2033 I needed a break from FPS games).

[Hawkbit]

I downloaded the demo for Bravely Default on the 3DS today, played about ten minutes of it, and promptly pre-ordered it. I almost never pre-order.

It's extremely good.

Yep.  This demo gave me nerd shivers when I looked through the jobs.  It's a really smart demo; collect stuff to port into the base game, but the story presented isn't part of the base game. 

[Strazos]

Currently playing the "Should I dump $2k into a new rig?" game. I'm not making a lot of progress.

[Trippy]

I thought you bought a laptop?