So, what're you playing?

[Malakili]

So I'm playing CS:GO. Peer pressure kicked things off, but I'm actually enjoying it...

It's pretty darn good.  I was on a big kick of it over the summer.  Good to play a more classic FPS without all the damn rankings and unlocks for once.

[lamaros]

So I'm playing CS:GO. Peer pressure kicked things off, but I'm actually enjoying it...

It's pretty darn good.  I was on a big kick of it over the summer.  Good to play a more classic FPS without all the damn rankings and unlocks for once.

Yeah, last FPS I played was probably Battlefield 2, which I miss a little (apart from the planes), but I hear/read that they style of FPS has gotten more console-y since, so CS seems to be the best go. Helps when playing with friends too, though the skill gap is pretty massive as they've been playing together for years now.

[Jeff Kelly]

I've made a huge mistake and resubbed for WOW for the Warlords of Draenor launch. My god have they streamlined the whole experience. It took me 1 - 2 months on my first toon to reach Level 60 in vanilla WOW. I've managed that in less than a week with my new toon.

[brellium]

I've made a huge mistake and resubbed for WOW for the Warlords of Draenor launch. My god have they streamlined the whole experience. It took me 1 - 2 months on my first toon to reach Level 60 in vanilla WOW. I've managed that in less than a week with my new toon.

I could do it in a weekend by being a catass.

[Jeff Kelly]

It's about one hour per level on average if you take things slowly. I guess you could get it down to 20 minutes per level if you min/maxed everything or new where to farm kills?

[Malakili]

It's about one hour per level on average if you take things slowly. I guess you could get it down to 20 minutes per level if you min/maxed everything or new where to farm kills?

Last time I leveled a character from 1 was Cataclysm and just questing through the newly streamlined zones made things go very quickly.  A lot of the quests I knew from the past, and if you're not wasting time, you can level quite quickly.  Also, you've got to factor in the heirloom exp bonuses.

[Jeff Kelly]

I quit soon after Wrath of the Lich KIng came out so I skipped Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria so no heirlooms.

[Yegolev]

Spent the weekend out of town watching stupid shows and movies, and playing Unity.  I'm enjoying it despite the flaws.  Maybe I should play the second one... but no multiplayer.

Watched some Alien: Isolation and decided I don't want to play that game right now.

[murdoc]

I never played Dragon Age 2 so put a few hours into it this weekend and finished Act 1. It's been a long time since I played DA:O so i don't remember a lot of it, but DA2 wasn't as bad as I was led to believe. The scope is smaller, and the paths are really linear, but I thought the companions were good, and being a smartass rogue has made me chuckle a few times at the dialogue.

I won't finish it, but it was a good way to remind myself how Dragon Age plays.

[pxib]

Steamworld Dig and Might and Magic: Clash of Heroes.

The former is a goofy little mining/metroidvania game (dig down, upgrade digging and jumping equipment) with a robot cowboy aesthetic. Short and stupid fun worth the $2.50 I paid.

Clash of Heroes is a pleasantly complex little puzzle game wrapped in an extremely light-weight RPG. You pull soldiers off the bottom of the screen and put them back in other columns. Calling it a "match 3" doesn't really do it justice. Different armies have different units and abilities. I was hoping for a PC version of this back when it was a DS exclusive, spotted it on steam for $10... I regret nothing. Like puzzlequest it's probably a bit too long, but definitely worth a go if it sounds like your sort of thing and you see it on sale.

[jakonovski]

Since WoW shit the bed with the expansion, I've been playing Shadow of Mordor. What a great game, finally something apart from a Souls game that can stand on gameplay alone. Too bad it's yesterday's news, this combination of modern ultra violence and a reimagined Middle-Earth makes for such fascism. 

[Kail]

Been playing a TON of Heroes of the Storm, for some reason.  I got the beta invite like a month or two ago, played it once and didn't care that much.  Picked it up again last weekend and for some reason it really grabbed me the second time, I dunno.  I think the game just suits my playstyle a lot, it's great for people who love supports or tanks or weird technical champions in 5v5 brawls because that's what like 75% of the game is.

Still working through Shovel Knight, which is really fun.

Been playing Warlock 2 multiplayer lately, the game has come a long way since Warlock 1 IMO.  There's still some multiplayer issues (no simultaneous turns, game is still pretty janky and glitchy, etc.) but it's pretty fun overall.

[Trippy]

Still futzing around with Fantasy Life between tourney rounds too. Game needs more fast travel something fierce, and having to swap classes to turn in class-quests is fucking obnoxious since you can only class-swap at the guild hall.

Yeah there's lot of tedium / repetitive stuff in this game because of UI / game design issues. Dealing with bounties is the thing that bugs me the most at the moment.

[Rendakor]

It kinda killed the game for me. I was only really playing it until Persona Q hit anyway, but I lost interest and bought Meruru+ instead.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm still levelling a new toon in World of Warcraft. I'm now Level 81 and I'm still about doing one hour per level on average.

I'm now past Wrath of the Lich King and stepped foot into the first new Cataclysm zone (Vash'j) and right from the start I can see why a lot of players didn't like that expansion at all. The re-working of the old zones of classic WoW in Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms was pretty great. I liked how they reimagined classic WoW and the new things they aded. The horde side was especially lacking content in the 10 - 40 bracket and the redesigning of old zones added a lot of new stuff. Since I've had levelled two characters to 70 and one to 80 by the time I quit during WotLK it was nice to see that there was so many new stuff and yet for the zones to still be recocgnizable which gave you a nice feeling of nostalgia.

The new zones are pretty crappy by comparison and 4 years after release of the expansion they're still buggy as hell. You can actually tell that by the time Cataclysm hit the "B team" was working on the WoW expansions. Right off the bat the starting quest line that leads you to Vash'j bugs out and doesn't trigger the zoning event at the Orgrimmar docks. After that it doesn't trigger the next scripted event and leaves you stranded in the waters off the cost of the new zone with no clue what to do and the end event that should get you on dry land again is also buggy and won't trigger the final scripted sequence most of the time. I've noticed that in the starting zone too (I rolled a Pandaren Monk and so started off in new MoP starting area) but there it was only one quest that was sort of buggy.

Vash'j is pretty much 'generic Naga zone 2.0' not that different from Aszhara and Mount Hyial is unrecognizable from the Warcraft 3 final mission map (although seeing Nordrassil is nice). Experiencing this right after doing the Icecrown quests - and having seen the amazing things Blizzard did with zoning and quest events in WotLK - Cataclysm feels like a huge let down by comparison.

Apart from that Blizzard has now started the - pretty lackluster - celebrations of WoW's ten year anniversary. Every player logging into the game with a paid account during the celebrations receives a Molten Corgi pet as a gift. They've reintroduced classic Molten Core as a Level 100 Raid, a Raid I've spent so much time doing that I really have no inclination to do it again even for the core hound mount. It's also a Raid Finder Level 100 event so you'll have to meet an item level requirement to actually be able to get in. This will make sure that most players won't ever see - let alone complete it. They've also reintroduced 'classic' Tarren's Mill vs. Southshore PVP as a battleground. Both events are limited time only and end in January.

[HaemishM]

I've been putting some dedicated time to Blackguards. Holy shit, this game is fun. Good, old-school RPG.

However, this weekend, I figured I'd try out the new F2P MOBA that Steam had been pimping, Tome: Something of the Something Something. Apparently, it wants to hang its hat on 1) no last hitting - just be near minions that die to get gold/xp and 2) no mana - only ability cooldowns (also you get all but your ult to start the game, get ult at 6). There's also only 2 lanes and jungle critters. It released with 20 champs.

It's not bad, but I'm not sure the lack of last-hitting and mana does anything to alter the gameplay enough that it makes a difference. Games are a little shorter than DOTA2 or LOL, but I don't think it's enough of a difference for me to stick with it. After all, MOBA's are like MMOG's - once you get used to one and have a ton of champs, it's hard to justify switching to another to start all over.

[Samwise]

Managed to beat Risk of Rain.  I'll might keep poking at it trying to unlock more things, but just getting far enough to kill the end guy took me long enough that I feel pretty good about having gotten that far and am not feeling the 100% completion itch.  Thinking Walking Dead Season 2 is next.

[PalmTrees]

Finished Dues Ex Human Revolution, overall ok but not great. The gameplay was fun and the game's bright spot. The stealth takedown scenes were not as cool as Tenchu, but he's a cyborg, not a ninja, so he's at a disadvantage. The rather long section where you lost your skill points and had to re-level was total bs. The ending wasn't ME3 bad, but close. DuesEx had four buttons, so you had four choices of pretentious speechifying over stock film footage.

Next up in the steam backlog of games I got for free with my video card is Murdered:Soul Suspect. You're a police detective that gets murdered and you have to find your killer with the help of a spunky teen medium. Total douche character design with fedora, cigarette, pants chain and edgy tats. Gameplay is basically hunt the pixel, with some stealth and alot of collectible hunting. There's no mini map and without that crutch I realize how much my sense of direction has withered.

[Yegolev]

Playing some vanilla Minecraft.  Just puttering during slack times at work, no grand design other than trying to actually complete the mine design that I started working on during the very first iteration of the F13 server.  It's somewhat more fun than Visio.

Got 50% off Lichdom: Battlemage from a LootCrate.  Downloading that, but who knows when I'll play it.

Started up DA:Inquisition last night.  What a show!  DA:Inquisition, here we go!  I bet you're wishin' that we'd go awaaaaaay!

Might have a hard time going back to Skyrim now.  I guess I'll put that on the DNF shelf with Daggerfall and Morrowind.

I think I'm tiring of Unity, so I took a break to grind out a few coins in Destiny.  Too late to get that scout rifle from Xur that I was looking for.  On a brighter note, I got a exotic drop from a plain old Tiger strike.  Not even in an engram, just a straight up Hawkmoon drop at the end of a mission.  The icing on the cake was the class item engrams that everyone else got.

[bhodi]

Been getting burned out of payday 2, and I don't have too many games I'm interested in playing.

I'm shocked anyone beat risk of rain - I played it for 20 minutes, got nowhere, and uninstalled the thing. I did the same in dungeon of the endless, on "easy". Tried maybe 10 games before putting it on "too easy" and winning the second try. Super shitty difficulty gradient there! Put me off the game entirely.

Re-installed dawn of discovery to try and scratch the building itch; didn't really do it though. Might re-try banished with some mods? Or go back into modded minecraft with MC^3 or whatever buildit challenge mods there are around (I already did agrarian skies)

Working my way through last light and re-installed dishonored to beat that one as well.

But what I really want to do is play WoW again - I just am not willing to put more than $20 into it because I know that a few hours after I install it I'm going to remember why I quit diku. Also it's a gigantic time sink and my life is better spent doing other things.

Oh, I loaded dota2 and played 2 games this weekend. Remembered why I stopped playing that game, too. Nothing but racist randos and 50 minute games that are decided in the first 20 minutes. And no solo queue. And my reflexes just aren't up to the task.

[Lucas]

I tried, I really tried, but I just can't take the NWN2 Original Campaign anymore (multiple tries since 2006  ); I would have liked to bring my OC character to MOTB, instead of doing the artificial level increase at the beginning of the latter, but yeah, I surrender; thanks Obsidian   . I will create a Swashbuckler (then Duelist as Prestige Class) in MOTB to follow my original plan, and be done with it. Then onward to SOZ (which I played a bit a couple years ago, and really liked it).

- Tonight I'll also start TWD S02E04 
- Legend of Grimrock 1: Level 8 and 9, it's getting quite tough.

[bhodi]

I will say, grimrock 2 was a ton more fun than the first.

The biggest change for me was the realization that there were no hidden switches that gave anything more than 'maintenance' loot of more food or ammo - anything best-in-slot was CLEARLY visible in such a way you knew to come back and find the secret. That made the game way more enjoyable than the first one, where you had to physically checking every wall or risk not getting some incredible items.

[Sky]

Re-installed dawn of discovery to try and scratch the building itch; didn't really do it though.

I really like that game but remember the few times I've gotten deeper into it I've needed to play with reference sheets to build my supply chains. Not being into that level of commitment to a game, I play something else.

Remember we have a modded minecraft server running!

[Rendakor]

Persona Q is awesome. It's Etrian Odyssey (or Wizardry for those who haven't played EO) set in the Persona universe. I'll do a more in depth writeup when I'm not on a cellphone, but I put in 8 hours playing it yesterday.

[koro]

I've been mildly interested in Q since I love Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry, but anything Megaten leaves me cold.

[Yegolev]

Megaten makes my dick hard.

[Ironwood]

I will say, grimrock 2 was a ton more fun than the first.

The biggest change for me was the realization that there were no hidden switches that gave anything more than 'maintenance' loot of more food or ammo - anything best-in-slot was CLEARLY visible in such a way you knew to come back and find the secret. That made the game way more enjoyable than the first one, where you had to physically checking every wall or risk not getting some incredible items.

The biggest change for me was when I realized that I didn't have to avoid the water.

[Rendakor]

I've been mildly interested in Q since I love Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry, but anything Megaten leaves me cold.

It uses EO's engine so everything will feel familiar. On Normal it's a bit easier than EO but not much; other than the story/setting, the biggest SMT influence is the Persona system. You don't have classes, you use Personas (demons, basically) for your spells, attacks, etc.

[lamaros]

I've just been playing CS:GO. I'm obsessive... I only really play one game at a time.

[Lucas]

Legend of Grimrock 1: Finished lv8 (which, as you know if you played the game, is largerly skippable) and 9; the latter was really really good; for now though, Dungeon Master (I always found CSB too confusing, even after later playthroughs) and EOTB II are still better than this.

[Falconeer]

Smite, Smite and more Smite. I am actually re-playing Dragon Age 2 to prepare myself properly for 3, and I am fiddling with lots of things from my Steam backcatalog like Shadowrun Returns. But Smite is still the king of everything, an amazing game that keeps getting better and better.

[Sky]

Taking a break from my wolf death sim, I snagged Bioshock Infinite. I really didn't want to spend more than $5 because I wasn't a big fan of the original, but meh. I was in the mood for something a bit bigger budget and more story-based to balance the other stuff I've been playing.

Ye gods what a pile of crap Bioshock is. How did Levine go from one of my favorite devs (SS1/2, FF 1/2) to this garbage? I made it to the statue of columbia or whatever it was and just the non-stop hammering of juvenile dogma and MYSTERY was so obnoxious I couldn't take any more of it. I feel they did nod to my mindset with the protag mumbling similar thoughts, but that didn't relieve the unpleasantness of the experience. Watch this short movie: The PROHPHET is our PROPHET! The End. What? That's not even a marginally convincing plot device, it's just ham-fistedly shoving things into the player's maw.

How did anyone last more than ten minutes putting up with that nonsense?

I then spent a couple hours playing Euro Truck 2, which is fucking awesome. Go away AAA games. You're not movies and you suck. Was Bioshock the game that made me agree with schild? Well, look it was good for something. I'm bummed because the sound and graphics are really nice, and I'm an immersion ho.

[HaemishM]

If you hated that bit of ham-fistedness in Bioshock, you'd probably have gone hunting after Ken Levine had you played through to the end. It swiftly disappears up its own ass in pretentiousness. And yes, Euro Truck 2 is a better game than Bioshock: Infinite without a doubt.

[Falconeer]

Euro Truck is amazing. All future versions need now is multiplayer (which as in real truck driving wouldn't be forced on you, except for the dynamic economy) and rest stops with NPCs you can chat, dine, or sleep with. NO QUESTS THANKS.

Also, for those who don't know, American Trucks from the same company is coming out in 2015.

[Quinton]

About 60 hours in to Dragon Age: Inquisition.  Haven't been this invested in a ginormous RPG in forever.  Having far too much fun.