So, what're you playing?

[Rendakor]

It only came out a few weeks ago in the US; it drops today in EU.

[Falconeer]

Really? Anyway, just purchased on PSN. 8 minutes to download complete 

[Yegolev]

Disgaea 5 is awesome. Lots of new mechanics, most of which are pretty good. Haven't finished the story yet (too busy Item Worlding), so I can't give a fair review, but if you like Disgaea you won't be disappointed.

I guess I know where those Amazon Points are going now.

[Signe]

I'm playing Wasteland 2, Director's Cut.  I started the other day and got to level 4, I think, but I had to start over because I accidentally killed a goat.  Yesterday I had to start over again because I accidentally killed a dog.  This is going to be a long game.

[HaemishM]

This is not to say that I didn't like the Shadowruns, in fact I love them, but they almost feel like a "mobile" version of a cRPG. Considering the budget they did a great job, but I am surprised so many people are not whining about the utter simplicity of it all.

Do not underestimate the joys of simplicity executed well. Frankly, I get really tired of CRPG's that try to pack 70 hours of story/grinding/game into 15 hours of gameplay. Shadowrun Returns never felt like it was tossing shit at me just to waste time and I finished it. Dragon Age: Origins I've tried to play through twice and still haven't finished it because the gameplay is more complex yet less compelling and I get run down by all the needless fights and side quests.

[Malakili]

This is not to say that I didn't like the Shadowruns, in fact I love them, but they almost feel like a "mobile" version of a cRPG. Considering the budget they did a great job, but I am surprised so many people are not whining about the utter simplicity of it all.

Do not underestimate the joys of simplicity executed well. Frankly, I get really tired of CRPG's that try to pack 70 hours of story/grinding/game into 15 hours of gameplay. Shadowrun Returns never felt like it was tossing shit at me just to waste time and I finished it. Dragon Age: Origins I've tried to play through twice and still haven't finished it because the gameplay is more complex yet less compelling and I get run down by all the needless fights and side quests.

This is precisely my experience with both titles.  At some point in DA:O I got 3 or 4 quest deep in a chain of contrived fetch quests that seemed to obviously be designed to just lengthen that section of the game (I think it was in the Dwarf area).  I saved the game, quit, and just never had enough motivation to ever launch the game again.

[Yegolev]

LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean last night.

Definitely seems like that should have two R and one B.

[Fabricated]

I'm playing The Phantom Pain still, and Read Only Memories which is literally a super fabulously gay homage to Snatcher.

[Draegan]

I haven't had much gaming time in the last month or so, but when I have had time it's been D3 since the new season start. I think it has run it's course.

I need a new game.

[Sir T]

I picked up "Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime" from GOG as a review said he played it with his brother and I thought it might be fun to play with my nephew. I've played around with it and I think it would be great fun, but you would really need at least one controller or else you both would be crouched over the keyboard which would quickly spoil things.

Just bought Eurotruck 2 and I'll probably break down and get the Elite Dangerous base game. Damn gamer dna...

[Pennilenko]

Everquest 1, a friend of mine from high school is on a nostalgia trip and is dragging me along.

[Quinton]

I love programming games, and Human Resource Machine is a brilliant little visual assembly language programming game that I think should be accessible even to folks without any programming background (very nice visual presentation, eases you into things little by little).  In no time at all you might find yourself building bizarre inefficient bubble-sort abominations to later-level puzzles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIIkANipngI

Available on Steam, GoG, etc:
http://tomorrowcorporation.com/humanresourcemachine
http://store.steampowered.com/app/375820/

There's probably 3-5 hours of gameplay for somebody with programming background (I wrapped up the game and most of the optional levels in a bit over 3 hours, but some of those later optional levels are work and some levels I could really stand to optimize a bit), and it'd probably take longer for somebody learning along the way.

The UI is clearly designed to be tablet-friendly, and apparently tablet versions will launch in a couple weeks.


I also grabbed Disgaea 5 for PS4 and it feels an awful lot like a Disgaea game, all spiffed up for PS4.  High hopes for SRPG grindy fun!

e: fix typo

[Tannhauser]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

[MahrinSkel]

I love programming games, and Human Resource Computer is a brilliant little visual assembly language programming game that I think should be accessible even to folks without any programming background (very nice visual presentation, eases you into things little by little).  In no time at all you might find yourself building bizarre inefficient bubble-sort abominations to later-level puzzles

As soon as they have an iOS version, I am buying this for my daughter. I've tried to recruit her to the Master Race, but except for WoW, she just doesn't like games on her PC. But she has been hardcore on the Minecraft lately, and I think she might like this.

--Dave

[apocrypha]

I love programming games, and Human Resource Computer is a brilliant little visual assembly language programming game that I think should be accessible even to folks without any programming background (very nice visual presentation, eases you into things little by little).  In no time at all you might find yourself building bizarre inefficient bubble-sort abominations to later-level puzzles

As soon as they have an iOS version, I am buying this for my daughter. I've tried to recruit her to the Master Race, but except for WoW, she just doesn't like games on her PC. But she has been hardcore on the Minecraft lately, and I think she might like this.

--Dave

For some reason this is making me think of The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.

[koro]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

What are some of the changes they've done? Did they do another patch since their balance pass when the DLC hit?

[jth]

I love programming games, and Human Resource Machine is a brilliant little visual assembly language programming game that I think should be accessible even to folks without any programming background (very nice visual presentation, eases you into things little by little).

Thanks for the tip, a lovely game. Brings back so many memories from my C64 coding days, fun times.

[Tannhauser]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

What are some of the changes they've done? Did they do another patch since their balance pass when the DLC hit?

Update 2.02, dropped Sept. 22nd.  So, yes after the xpac.  Too many changes to list, it's just much more pleasant to play now, not so fiddly.

[Ironwood]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

This.  My whole day just disappeared.  It's soooo much better now.

[Yegolev]

Son has taken a break from Mario Maker to play Yoshi's Wooly World.  It's cute to listen to him complain about how they used things from previous games, in particular Kirby's Epic Yarn.

[Druzil]

I picked of Wings of Vi a few Steam sales ago and finally fired it up.  I realized it was supposed to be a hard platformer when I got it, but I guess I didn't realize it was a 'cheap' hard platformer.  (Supposedly inspired by iwbtg, etc?).  Not sure if I'll keep going with it or not, I think I beat 3 bosses.  I can't tell if I'm actually having fun or if I'm just stubbornly not wanting to lose to the game. 

Also picked up the DMC reboot to finally go though.  So before I started that one I decided to replay DMC 3 for some reason.  Man that's a bad PC port.   Horrible controller support, wacky named buttons which makes mapping the controller impossible, horrible menus, horrible resolution (OK, yeah it's an old game but... really bad).  Moving on to 4 =P

[Merusk]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

This.  My whole day just disappeared.  It's soooo much better now.

Reinstalled last night based on these two posts and fired-up the Paladin who I'd abandoned because she was stuck at a fight she can't win. Nope, still can't win, even on Easy.

 Drake and Kobolds in the cave slaughter the group in 4 rounds. All quests are used up and I can't progress anymore to level-up. W.T.F.  The party is level 7 and can't handle this shit. I clearly missed some leveling/ questing area someplace.

[Ironwood]

I had the same issue.  Loaded up and got slaughtered because I couldn't remember where I was or what I was doing or why or what the FUCK a Chanter was.

Start again.  Give it another go.  You're not really that far in.  I got to the Drake today and that's only about 3-4 hours work all in.  What I will say is the fucking Drake toasted my arsehole, so I think he's MEANT to be hard and maybe I'm meant to do something beyond 'Oi, Stitch That Cunty'.

Who knows.  But I think anyone who gave up on this, as I did, owes it to themselves to have another go.

(I wonder if Saves keep some settings of hardness.  It would explain the similarity of our stories.)

[Segoris]

Playing through backlog/sale titles and I finally got to Tomb Raider (2013), it was okay. It was worth the sale price (like $ 5 or something) but I would have been disappointed if I had paid full price.

I also used my steam wallet funds to pick up Sword Coast Legends, so I'm starting that in about 30 more minutes. I'm hearing good things though

[Merusk]

I had the same issue.  Loaded up and got slaughtered because I couldn't remember where I was or what I was doing or why or what the FUCK a Chanter was.

Start again.  Give it another go.  You're not really that far in.  I got to the Drake today and that's only about 3-4 hours work all in.  What I will say is the fucking Drake toasted my arsehole, so I think he's MEANT to be hard and maybe I'm meant to do something beyond 'Oi, Stitch That Cunty'.

Who knows.  But I think anyone who gave up on this, as I did, owes it to themselves to have another go.

(I wonder if Saves keep some settings of hardness.  It would explain the similarity of our stories.)

You say 3-4 hours, steam says I'm already 40 in and I only had one other character I played.  Of course I also have a habit of not skipping the talky bits, and I was on Hard initially. However, i don't think it'd take me less than 7-8 hours to get from start, through the first town and the dungeons.

[Ragnoros]

Tried the latest Civ: Beyond Earth patch (but not the expansion itself, they ain't getting anymore of my money...) . If the fun is there, I still can't find it.

[koro]

I picked of Wings of Vi a few Steam sales ago and finally fired it up.  I realized it was supposed to be a hard platformer when I got it, but I guess I didn't realize it was a 'cheap' hard platformer.  (Supposedly inspired by iwbtg, etc?).  Not sure if I'll keep going with it or not, I think I beat 3 bosses.  I can't tell if I'm actually having fun or if I'm just stubbornly not wanting to lose to the game. 

Wings of Vi was made by the guy who made I Wanna be the Boshy, which was an IWBTG clone.

[jakonovski]

My life has been consumed by OlliOlli 2. It's not going to last long, but it's a beautiful little game. Pure gameplay flow.

[Tannhauser]

Just done a six hour Pillars of Eternity session with a new hero.  The patch has really made the game much more enjoyable.  Much of the micromanagement is gone, especially with Durance.  It just feels cleaned up and smoother.  Combat feels much more like Baldur's Gate now. Even the crappy Ranger seems improved.  Actually thinking of buying the DLC now.

This.  My whole day just disappeared.  It's soooo much better now.

Reinstalled last night based on these two posts and fired-up the Paladin who I'd abandoned because she was stuck at a fight she can't win. Nope, still can't win, even on Easy.

 Drake and Kobolds in the cave slaughter the group in 4 rounds. All quests are used up and I can't progress anymore to level-up. W.T.F.  The party is level 7 and can't handle this shit. I clearly missed some leveling/ questing area someplace.

That's a very hard fight.  Had to reload numerous times.    Can't remember what level I was when I finally beat it though.

[Ironwood]

I got murdered at that fight in seconds with a 6 strong party of level 6's.  So, hey ho.

Also, the fight I got stuck at previously I encountered again with a strong new party and, though I won, it was fucking hard.  Those Wild Druids can be right cunts when they want.

Still enjoying it, but I'm finding the amount of companions to actually be a pain in the arse.  I keep them around because they have interesting stories, but to be honest I'd rather have a party of six guys I'd made myself.

And I now have a Cipher who's just as confusing as a Chanter....

[Jeff Kelly]

It's interesting that devs often seem to transfer the wrong bits of "old school" into "old school" games. The stupid difficulty curve of Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale was not something I'd necessarily look forward to in such games.

Those kinds of fights are fun for exactly no one - except the douchebag GM that gets off on torturing his party. It's funny because Sawyer and Avellone always struck me as the "dickish GM" kind given what they say during interviews.

[Jeff Kelly]

Started Dark Souls (yes I'm very late to that party). I get now where people are coming from, who love this game to death. I don't agree that the game is insanely difficult though or even very hard. Don't get me wrong it's a tough game but for me it rewards patience and deliberate action. You can cheese so many things in that game, you have so much leeway with invincibility frames, most enemies telegraph their moves way in advance and you can be very deliberate in most fights. So for me it's much more a test of my patience than it is a test of difficulty.

Due to the windup and cooldown of animations every input is costly and the game commits you to it - for better or worse. It even buffers inputs so mashing buttons will screw you over. I usually die when I unduly want to push things because my patience ran out after repeating a certain section too many times for my taste. Or because of the camera/lock on but the camera is always the biggest enemy in 3rd person games.

It has hooked me bad and I think I can see now why people love this game so much.

[Quinton]

I'd say that Dark Souls is not so much "hard" as it is "extremely unforgiving", but it's fair -- paying attention and learning from your mistakes is rewarded.

It's a game where I almost always blame myself and not the game when I die.

[Falconeer]

Yes, I agree that the Souls games are not nearly as hard as people claim them to be. They are hard for these days standards, but more importantly they offer a specific challenge (in fact, you can't pick a difficulty level) and give you plenty of ways to tackle it. One of my favourite things, as you said, is that not only you can cheese pretty much everything if you really want to, but that you can seriously beat every enemy, boss, or the whole game, in so many different ways. It's a matter of style and "feel". I, for once, chose to refuse to use ranged weapons or magic. Never used one in any of their games, felt great about it, and I've never been punished for it.

And yes, what Quinton said too.

[Jeff Kelly]

Unforgiving in the sense that you can't easily undo an action once you've committed yourself to it, while the game gladly punishes you for impatience or stupidity.