So, what're you playing?

[HaemishM]

I imagine Ironwood wakes her up on random nights by screaming "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!" just to keep her on her toes. 

[pxib]

I watched over a friend's shoulder as he played the first half Alien: Isolation and was disappointed.

They absolutely capture the 1980's sci-fi aesthetic, both in design and writing, and the creature itself is magnificent... but there's not a lot of depth and creativity to the "puzzles" and set-pieces. Plus the cutscene direction is uninspired, with voice acting and facial animation that feel at least one generation behind.

Every once in a while there's a moment which shows off the game it could have been, and it's not a bad game, but it's rehashing a lot of old tropes... and I've seen each of them done better.

Then again, the tension might have been a little more real were it actually me with the controller.

[Comstar]

Then again, the tension might have been a little more real were it actually me with the controller.

it does. Knowing the next save point is 2 rooms and a long hallway away or you don't even KNOW where it is yet (I'm looking at you Medical) make a difference. There aren't many cut scenes after the start either.

[Ironwood]

I downloaded it and it opened up the front screen and then I had to be a father for hours so I haven't played it yet !!

Elena wants to play it with me, like we did with the first one, so I'll see what happens tonight.

You make it sound good tho !

A word of warning if you play Legend of Grimrock with a child. There are a few jump scares in the game especially  and
I don't know how well your kid handles such things or how old she is so you might need to proceed with caution.

Cheers for the warnings.

I'll let her know.  She knows her own mind.

[Velorath]

Been messing around with old games again recently. Played through Castlevania and Castlevania III today. Going to get around to going through II again at some point also but it's not as good for playing in short bursts like I was doing with the other two. Tried not to cheese them too much with quick saving, but at the same time I wasn't trying to prove anything by spending days trying to get through them either.

Love the first game. Still one of my all time favorites, and probably my favorite NES soundtrack (yes, I even like it more than Mega Man 2). I remember having a strong dislike for Castlevania III though. I know a lot of people don't like Simon's Quest (yeah, kneeling with the orb and waiting for the whirlwind is bullshit as was the fact that the Nintendo hint line on 2-3 occasions over a period of a couple months refused to help saying that they weren't giving out hints for that part yet). Personally I thought it was fun despite its flaws. Castlevania III though I remembered being a bit of a mess control-wise and that was reinforced when I played it today. Had a number of deaths when pressing down caused my character to walk of a ledge when he was supposed to go down some stairs. I made sure to avoid the path where I would get the wall climbing guy as a character. I don't know how many times back in the day that guy just randomly dropped to his death. Enemy placement is a lot more fucked up in III also.

Just started playing through the first Phantasy Star also but I'm only about an hour in so far. Meanwhile, The Evil Within goes unplayed for a while, and even though I really like Shadow of Mordor I haven't felt particularly compelled to play that lately either.

[Jeff Kelly]

Still Legend of Grimrock. After all those hours playing I have a few gripes with the game.

The biggest one is that of progression. The skill system is perhaps my least favourite part of Grimrock. The way they implemented skills was already flawed in 1 and 2 hasn't made any strides to make it better it's really just different but also broken in a different way instead of it being better.

It meshes rather badly with items and weapons and coupled with the XP system it makes it very easy for you to inadvertently build a useless and broken character. Which willl maybe make it very hard or impossible to finish the game even. In the case of magic it might mean that you won't be able to kill certain enemies.  In case of items it might mean that you won't be able to use certain weapons or pieces of armor and might hit a wall when you encounter harder enemy types later in the game.

Since there are no respecs and only very limited respawn which means you can't grind levels you can get to a point where your past decisions mean that you are really fucked and will have to restart the game. At least in dungeon master I could simply level up my skills by using them over and over and Eye of the Beholder had respawn so you could grind levels. LoG has neither. Since you won't know what the game throws at you and what kind of weapons and armor you can reasonably expect you can pretty much screw yourself out of finishing if you are not a CRPG veteran.

[Jeff Kelly]

Which brings me to the issue of itemization. There is really no base line set of sensible items for each class and skill choice. It also inherited some of the same design decisions of the first one notably that of ammunition. I currently have a stash of useless 'light weapons', at least five to ten, but have only managed to find one bow and 6 arrows. The first time I've started the game I skilled deep into firearms (I found a flintlock pistol very early on and the ratman alchemist is pretty well suited to make use of it) only to realize that I had run out of ammo half way through the first dungeon.

You can only use certain items when you skill deep enough into them and certain weapons have skill requirements (you need at least 4 points in armor to be able to wear heavy armor for example). The whole issue of limited ammo makes missile weapons pretty much useless because with only 6 arrows your archer will have run out of ammo about twenty seconds in. It's also pretty much useless once you realize that 2 points in accuracy will make it so people from the back can attack with melee weapons.

In LoG 1 I pretty early on consulted online guides just to get a hang of what kind of items I'd encounter along the way to be able to not waste skill points on stuff I'd never be able to use effectively. LoG 2 basically makes you do the same

[Ironwood]

So, where's the best guide site for this shit ?  I remember there was one for the first Grimrock that had full walkthroughs but also nice character information, but I'm old and I can't remember.  I want to browse the options first.

[Lucas]

So, in the last couple days I got:

- Kingdom Come: Deliverance Alpha Access (which is more like a tech demo, ok)
- Shroud of the Avatar (Garriott's new game) release #11 on Steam (first time they release a build on Steam)
- Dreamfall Chapters ep.1
- Football Manager 2015 beta (landed a couple hours ago, with saves compatible with the final game  )

There goes my plans about my Steam backlog :P

[Ingmar]

Interested to hear what you think of Dreamfall Chapters when you get around to it.

[Fabricated]

Still playing:

-Destiny (A few of my friends are playing with me regularly, and this is my new drunkgaming MMO since WoW and PSO)
-Payday 2 (major changes just happened recently with a patch)
-Sherlock Holmes:Crimes and Punishments (pretty good!)

Will play:

-Shadows of Mordor (Got it 33% off, figured I was going to have to wait for winter sale for that!)

[schild]

-Payday 2 (major changes just happened recently with a patch)

Don't lie, it's because you want to be Keanu Reeves or someshit.

[Ironwood]

Legend of Grimrock 2.

"Just another 10 minutes"
"Why is it four in the morning already?"

amazing sequel

Yeah, pretty much.  Broken promises abound about 'I won't play it without you'.

[Fabricated]

-Payday 2 (major changes just happened recently with a patch)

Don't lie, it's because you want to be Keanu Reeves or someshit.

#whoa #wow

I prefer shotguns and sadly, you cannot wield those akimbo which is the gimmick of Keanu's character so no dice.

[Jeff Kelly]

So, where's the best guide site for this shit ?  I remember there was one for the first Grimrock that had full walkthroughs but also nice character information, but I'm old and I can't remember.  I want to browse the options first.

Game isn't out long enough for there to be any good and comprehensive sites I'm afraid.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, but the Steam Forums actually have a lot of organized stuff.

I was only really interested in the weapons and spells, so I got what I needed.  It'll only be much, much later I look at the secrets list and scream in frustration.  Though I've found quite a few.

[Jeff Kelly]

I really like the vibe of Grimrock. It makes you feel dumb when you don't get a puzzle, it makes you feel clever when you do. It makes you feel paranoid to pen any chest and press any switch for what might happen when you do. Every time you think you have the game figured out it throws something new at you that makes you go 'what the fuck'. You also only die when you fuck up or when you are not acting clever enough and use everything at your disposal. It also makes you lose your shit over stupidly easy puzzles the solution of which you should have seen from a mile like:
My only tip for you Ironwood would be to make sure you have an alchemist and to put the first 5 skillpoints he gets to max it out. It will make everything else that much easier.

[Cyrrex]

You guys are making that game sound super interesting and I wish you would stop it.  I don't need another game.

[Ironwood]

Well, bear in mind we liked the first one, limited as it was.  But this, in my own limited playtime thus far, is the EOB2 of Grimrock and it's lovely.  The very first 'boss' last night was a massive surprise for reasons I won't spoil, but I thought it was awesome, not least for the fact that you have BOSSES in a Dungeon Master game and it wasn't shite.  I'm loving the outdoors areas and the fact that you descend into wee mini dungeons is awesome.  There's stuff I think they haven't thought through or fixed from Grimrock 1 already, but I'll hold off judgement for now.

I have a ratty alchemist Jeff and I'll probably be pumping his points up asap.

I also really like the challenge has ramped up since the enemies are very, very aware of side attacks and thus far most of them have charge attacks.

[Jeff Kelly]

Yeah like he said, I loved the first game because I loved the games it was inspired by like Eye of the Beholder or Dungeon Master.

Why an alchemist with max skill level is great:

- better health and mana potions
- you can make potions that permanently increase stats by +1
- you can make bombs and at level 5 you get 3 bombs (and sometimes also more than one potion). Makes me be less picky when to use them and they can make fights a whole of a lot easier.
- herbs you collect have a chance of 'multiplying' in your inventory so you won't run out as quickly (depends on number of tiles walked)

They also revamped the alchemist so that you don't need to have glas bottles in your inventory. Flasks simply 'appear' when you make potions and 'vanish' when you use them. Makes the whole process less clunky.

[Ironwood]

Shit really ?

I've been avoiding making potions because I hadn't found any bottles.

BAWS.

[Yegolev]

Destiny shat out two ascendant shards for me last night and so I'm finally level 28.  Still got our asses kicked last night, but I think we are going to be able to recruit some highschoolers and will try the Vault of Ass on Sunday.

[Sky]

I prefer shotguns and sadly,

Shotguns and Sadness would be a great album title.

[Fabricated]

I prefer shotguns and sadly,

Shotguns and Sadness would be a great album title.

It's the name of my new punk band.

[Paelos]

Kurt Cobain tribute band.

[Yegolev]

That would need the sad first, followed by shotgun.

[Sky]

Sadness and Shotguns would definitely be a great Nirvana cover band name.

Might piss of the fans a bit, but I bet Kurt would love it.

[lamaros]

Lots of Civ 5. Like 70 hours in a week... I was not very good at work...

[Hawkbit]

I'm trying to not buy Fantasy Life for 3DS.  I'll likely fail.

[Rendakor]

I'd never heard of Fantasy Life, and am now $40 poorer.

[Lucas]

Another game I'm currently trying to complete from my backlog: Chronicles of Riddick - Escape from Butcher Bay (I originally purchased it back in the mid '00, but now I'm playing the Steam version included in Dark Athena). Love the blend of some other gaming genres and the storyline. Considering that it came out in 2004, I think it was quite ahead of its time.

[schild]

Riddick was exceptional.

[Tebonas]

All this Civilization Beyond Earth talk made me crave a little 4x-strategy action so I caved and bought Endless Legends. Played it the whole evening yesterday and really enjoying it. Somehow the setting elevates this over Endless Space, which I also liked but not loved.

Maybe the quest system will get repetitive fast, but now I am still loving it and I will play it at least until I experienced the complete main quest of each faction.

[Jeff Kelly]

15 hours in I've now passed the halfway point of Legend of Grimrock 2. I've finished the Cemetary and I'm now in the first level of the Crystal Mines. I also ran out of food. Which is a problem because it not only prevents your party from regenerating health and mana it also emans they'll eventually starve to death.

I had to hunt for the limited respawns that actually have a chance of dropping food (Giant Turtles, Packs of Dogs and Wolves) and had to employ what the game considers to be "fishing", which is diving into pools of water, chasing after the fish that swim there and clicking on them. Ideally without running out of breath and drowning. Food drops get less and less frequent and this might be a problem that could actually preclude me from finishing the game. Sums up why I always hated that mechanic even in the original dungeon master.

Also if you have monsters that have elemental special attacks (fire elementals, ice elementals etc.) and the protection spell requires three out of four skillpoints in that particular elemental school then at least give me protection potions. It sucked when I did the Bog and had no protection from poison, it sucked when I did the ruins and had no protection from ice and it also sucks now that I do the Crystal Mines and have no protection from Darkness or whatever it is those flying squids do.

This game needs a 'create food and water' spell or at least some farmable food resource otherwise it has an implicit hard time limit once your food supply runs out. Since I'm probably still a few hours from finishing the game my party might actually starve to death before I'll be able to finish the game.

[Teleku]

All this Civilization Beyond Earth talk made me crave a little 4x-strategy action so I caved and bought Endless Legends. Played it the whole evening yesterday and really enjoying it. Somehow the setting elevates this over Endless Space, which I also liked but not loved.

Maybe the quest system will get repetitive fast, but now I am still loving it and I will play it at least until I experienced the complete main quest of each faction.

Ah, thanks.  I was eyeing this myself.  I liked Endless Space, it had everything you thought it should have..... but it was just missing something.  I don't know, it got bland/stale.  Not sure how to describe why I ended up not really wanting to play it (though I sunk a decent amount of time into it).  The Fantasy variant sounded like it might fix this issue.