So, what're you playing?

[jakonovski]

I've fallen into an indie rabbit hole of Don't Starve and Fez.

[Yegolev]

Fez is amazing.

Also I finished the story missions in LEGO City at under 50% completion.  This game impressed me greatly.  I'm not sure I can play any of the older TT LEGO games anymore, this one has ruined me.

[Paelos]

I'm building an arena on MrB's server. Also I'm playing DA:O, Awakening for the first time since I got the ultimate edition in the holiday sale. Sjofn! Tips plz!

[Sky]

Finally getting around to playing Risen 2. Love the change in setting, game seems a bit easier as far as combat goes, with a few nice additions to unlock. Another steep unlock curve, but they give you some pretty quick, like kick and dirty tricks (throwing sand or coconuts). The UI and inventory continues to improve, though that's not saying a whole lot :) Some pretty good humor in the dialogue and the graphics and audio are great.

[Yegolev]

I should probably mention that LEGO City has a problem where VO doesn't always play during a cut scene.  This is a huge flaw in an otherwise great game.

[Ingmar]

The flaw came when they started giving characters in the LEGO games voices at all, IMO.

[Yegolev]

You're one of those, are you?

It's hilarious.  Sorry about the bad touching, but it's great.

[Merusk]

The Lego cartoons have voices, the games are made for that demographic.  Ergo, Lego games will have voices now.

Getting old: It's a bitch.

[schild]

Mars: War Logs is fine on a keyboard. I can't imagine it's any better on a controller really.

[Sjofn]

I'm building an arena on MrB's server. Also I'm playing DA:O, Awakening for the first time since I got the ultimate edition in the holiday sale. Sjofn! Tips plz!

What do you need tips with, exactly?

[Fordel]

How to get into Zevran's pants.

[Sjofn]

That doesn't happen in Awakenings, so my tip would be to either go back to DA:O or play DA2.

[Paelos]

I'm building an arena on MrB's server. Also I'm playing DA:O, Awakening for the first time since I got the ultimate edition in the holiday sale. Sjofn! Tips plz!

What do you need tips with, exactly?

I'm not sure what's the deal with all the new skills. What characters are worth having on a team, and which are dead weight. Should you just spec in the primary stat and who cares about the rest? Are there characters with better dialogue than the others?

[Sjofn]

Hmm, let's see. It's been well over a year since I've bothered with Awakenings.

Honestly, I found it easy to faceroll with whoever you liked best, party composition be damned, stats be damned, everything be damned. I am assuming, though, you have imported a DA:O character. Starting as a default Orlesian means the first couple of levels are slightly tough.

Order of Characters I think you should chill with:


Order I would do shit in, once the map opens up for you:


But for speccing, yeah, just do whatever. I think it's pretty hard to gimp yourself in the expansion. I liked to put 3 in my main stat, 2 in my less-main stat (so like my archer was dex 3, cunning 2 or whatever) after making sure I qualified for any prereqs that might be a little random (like DW warriors need a decent dex for those skills, the score is listed though if you look). My dw warrior and my archer basically just had companions in their party for show, it felt like eventually. The big thing about Awakenings is it adds stamina potions, so your 2h warriors, for example, can do their awesome moves WAY MORE OFTEN than they used to, etc.

[Reg]

All I have to add is that is absolutely vital that you give the kitten to Anders!

[Sjofn]

It's true, if you don't give the kitten to Anders, you have lost the game.

[Morat20]

Anders stayed in my party entirely due to his line about just wanting the right to shoot lightning at fools.

And DA2 sucks. I still haven't finished it. Which is pretty sad, considering I had like 200 hours in DA:O alone -- four or five full playthroughs.

[Paelos]

I imported my human noble tank spec, so any sword/board companions would be out. I'm leaning to Anders, Oghren, and Sigrun atm to cover all the bases.

[Sjofn]

Yeah, that should be a perfectly fine party.

[Yegolev]

I had to stop with the DA because Minsc was so irritating.

[trias_e]

Project 1999, Starcraft 2 multiplayer.

I suck horribly at the latter despite playing a million games.  Well, ~5000.  Still, I can't get out of plat at this point and haven't improved since release.  SC2 has shown me that natural talent exists, because I clearly don't have it for this game.

I tried playing Neverwinter online.  Quit 20 minutes in.  I'd much rather play EQ than WoW and all of its shitty progeny. 

(good ol drunk posting)

[Yegolev]

No bites?

I've been playing X3: Terran Conflict.  I suppose I have restarted five times.  I think I finally understand the general principle of trading in X3.
I'm still trying to work out a good control setup.  I have a nice Thrustmaster but X3 still seems to require a keyboard due to wharrrgarrbl buttons.  Which is actually fine, I fly with the stick and use the KB for everything else.  Fuck you, mouse.

I might spend on the Starbound preorder, even though I keep buying games that I don't have time to play.  I loved Terraria when it came out but at the moment it's at tiny bit on the bad side of the line.  You know, the line where the irritating bits meet the fun bits.

I played a little Aliens: Colonial Marines again.  I thought my save file had been erased, but then I started to wonder if it had simply disappeared because I had only done MP.  Not sure.  I also don't seem to be able to get it to patch, and it doesn't seem to have a function to choose a storage device.  So this must just be a shitty game.  Also it's too dark.

[Paelos]

I played a little Aliens: Colonial Marines again.

[Rasix]

No bites?

I didn't get the joke.  Still don't.  

Beat Walking Dead.  Game made me cry twice.  I'm not sure I've played anything more depressing.  Is it a game if there's no real challenge? Because it's just basically a playable choose your own adventure.  I don't long for the day of "apple + comb + gas can + chewed gum" = "scares off the guard", but this was a bit to easy with the puzzle aspects.  I suppose you can't make an adventure game even a little bit difficult without just making it a frustrating experience.  The hardest part was getting the game to register mouse clicks in some action scenes.  Still, compelling and enjoyable in parts.  

Off to ARAMs and SWTOR until I find a new single player game. Maybe something less grim.

[Margalis]

I'm increasingly of the opinion that the best adventure games have no puzzles or gameplay of any kind beyond making choices.

[Rendakor]

So, visual novels then? That's not intended as snark or a judgment, just that we already have a term for that and it isn't adventure game.

[rk47]

Katawa shojo is free

[Margalis]

According to wikipedia a Visual Novel is a type of adventure game!

Anyway, it's my contention that in most adventure games the systemic gameplay is either the weakest part or an illusion. The gameplay systems in an adventure game are usually a series of one-offs that appear coherent only because of presentation. You have an inventory but you can only use items in a specific way to solve specific puzzles, you can combine items but only in ways to deal with a particular one-off situation.

It's pretty hard to imagine what an adventure game with actual gameplay actually looks like without drifting into another genre. (Quest for Glory is the best example I can think of that's still arguably an adventure game)

Maybe "no puzzles" is a little strong, maybe "puzzles without the pretense of being part of a coherent system." I think the problem games like King's Quest ran into was they were trapped in this middle ground where they had the illusion of systemic elements like a persistent inventory, consistent verbs across scenes, etc, but those systems weren't used in a systemic fashion, it was all just lock-and-key design.

[rk47]

point & click is dead to me.
i mean, it used to intrigue me. I was raised on Sierra games and saw it switch from parser to mouse icons.
SQ KQ PQ LSL - really fun. Lucasarts came late but so good to.. DOTT, MM, MI 1 2 3 , The Dig and FT.
But it simply didn't work anymore when today's gaming involves more than clicking at the right spot or combining item x with y to do z.
Personally, I have nothing against people enjoying it and yearn for more, but for me, that era is past. Whenever I see a dev pitching adventure games I just can't be bothered to follow up.

[Ceryse]

And if you can't interest rk47 in your niche game you're fucked.

Personally, still playing some StarDrive (though less and less everyday), ME3 (I suck hard at the multiplayer, even at bronze level, but its oddly compelling even if I can't get a decent weapon for anything I play from any of the god damn packs) and back into some Saints Row 3 for mindless fun.

[Shrike]

 ...its oddly compelling even if I can't get a decent weapon for anything I play from any of the god damn packs)

And ain't that the truth.

I suspect the only reason I still play the PC version of ME3MP anymore is the lure of that second ultra-rare weapon without which I can't finish the Reckoning challenge. I mean...I think I've spent about 2mil credits so far and no Reckoning joy. Still, gives me something to do, I suppose.

Also, on the 360 side, we've started making our own challenge weekends at work. This usually involves about a 15 minute discussion at lunch as to what might sound interesting (or annoying in some cases) for our group to do Friday night (and what beer might be drunk). Oddly compelling indeed.

[jakonovski]

I'm thinking the correct evolutionary step for old school adventures is just a 1st or 3rd person exploration/puzzle sort of game. Build a world with exquisite details and a good backstory and let the player find them. Would be just like the old days again.

[koro]

I'm thinking the correct evolutionary step for old school adventures is just a 1st or 3rd person exploration/puzzle sort of game. Build a world with exquisite details and a good backstory and let the player find them. Would be just like the old days again.

Didn't Dear Esther do something like that?

[jakonovski]

I'm thinking the correct evolutionary step for old school adventures is just a 1st or 3rd person exploration/puzzle sort of game. Build a world with exquisite details and a good backstory and let the player find them. Would be just like the old days again.

Didn't Dear Esther do something like that?

They forgot the gameplay, but other than that it was great.

edit: in case that unintentionally sounds like sarcasm, I honestly liked Dear Esther.

[Fabricated]

I think L.A. Noire was a good shot at redoing old school adventure stuff for the masses but I was disappointed in the end how linear they went with the plot.