So, what're you playing?

[Yegolev]

La Mulana is $3 so I'm going to get it.  For some reason.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm now on my second playthrough of hotline miami to catch some of the trophies and to get to the alternate ending and so far I really like it. I've never experienced a game where I'd happily retry a scene for the hundredth time without the urge to throw the controller across the room and where I really have to physically wrest myself away from the TV in order for me to get a mdoicum of sleep.

It's a beautifully twisted game that manages something that GTA claims it does (but really doesn't) namely holding up the mirror to you the player's willingness to kill hordes of guys in the most brutal fashion imaginable and to make you reflect on what exactly you are happily doing over and over again (with a real sense of achievement no less) just because a faceless figure told you so on the telephone. It's a great game that made me feel icky about the things I did even about my willingness to continue despite all of that ickyness.

I'd call Hotline the most subversive game I've encountered yet and not only does it have a subversive agenda it's also a really great game with a rather simple but well balanced set of mechanics and controls. The soundtrack is also quite outstanding although I'd wished they would have mixed it up a little bit more. It reuses the same three tracks for most of the game and only offers you a few alternate tracks on certain missions.

The only things I really didn't like about it were the boss fights. All three of them are frustrating in a way the rest of the game isn't and they are really not very suited to the controls and game mechanics. The PS3 version is also a little buggy and sometimes doing the same in exactly the same way yields entirely different results.

[Segoris]

The trade market in TF2 while I'm studying. Hat people are crazy and polarized into hoarders or on the other extreme of excessive gamblers.

Started Rogue Legacy....then stopped because I don't have a controller and kb or kb/m layouts just felt unnatural for that game (as awesome as it is even with shit controls).
Starting on Bastion finally, what a cool game so far. While a controller would go a long way, kb/m still works well enough. The music is outstanding, the narration is on the right side of the line between annoying and awesome as it follows the Kid while speaking whatever action they take, and the game is just downright fun. Surprisingly cheap too for the entertainment it has provided in the first hour or two, hopefully there isn't some drop off of fun.

[Lucas]

After finishing the Blackwell series a month ago, I'm finally playing Gemini Rue (2011 classic point 'n click adventure)....so far, so intriguing. It's VERY well done :)

IGN review (9/10):

http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/04/01/gemini-rue-review

[Rendakor]

Since Disgaes D2 comes out in a few weeks, I started playing the Vita version of 3 again. Finished my 25 X dimension maps so now it's off to LoC.

FFXIV remains interesting; capped my armorer and my WAR is 45. I hope to hit cap before Hex because I won't be grinding much after.

[Signe]

I played a little bit of Rogue Legacy.  I can confirm that I am also terrible at this.

I don't believe you.  You've been playing games forever.  I think you're trying to lure into a trap.  Offer to play a game with us and then smear us all over the pavement with your godlike gaming powers.  J'accuse!  I'm on to you, Shady Man.  And I'm no longer peeved at you for telling me that my avatard couldn't have a tiny little penis that no one could even see.  I figure the best part of a decade is long enough to hold a grudge. 

[Soulflame]

The game is pretty hard until you get some upgrades.  I tend to run around the castle, hope to get 200+ gold, then die with at least some dignity.  Which almost never happens.

As for the avatar thing, I don't even remember that.

[jakonovski]

GTAV and Tomb Raider are my drugs of choice right now, a welcome break from the terror of Dark Souls.

Tomb Raider gets the honor of being the most ludonarratively dissonant game I've ever played. In gameplay she's an angel of death and Batman combined. In the cutscenes she's a scared young girl acting various hollywood stereotypes while making obnoxious damsel in distress noises, barely getting out of sticky situations that she cannot control. What the fuck were the devs thinking?

GTAV on the other hand is just GTA. On top of the murdering, thieving and reckless driving, the game some sex scenes that no doubt deliberately look like Hot Coffee. That is kind of funny.

[rk47]

Yeah. I survived till the wall climbing part in Tomb Raider before the motion sickness got me.
Maybe it's a good thing I didn't continue on. Couldn't get the nude skin mod on Lara anyway. 

[Bzalthek]

GTAV and Tomb Raider are my drugs of choice right now, a welcome break from the terror of Dark Souls.

Tomb Raider gets the honor of being the most ludonarratively dissonant game I've ever played. In gameplay she's an angel of death and Batman combined. In the cutscenes she's a scared young girl acting various hollywood stereotypes while making obnoxious damsel in distress noises, barely getting out of sticky situations that she cannot control. What the fuck were the devs thinking?

GTAV on the other hand is just GTA. On top of the murdering, thieving and reckless driving, the game some sex scenes that no doubt deliberately look like Hot Coffee. That is kind of funny.

This post brought to you by Carbonite.  Thanks Sess!

[jakonovski]

The what and the who and the where now?

[koro]

I think you said the magic word phrase.

Also I'm playing Wizardry 6. It's brutally hard and I can't figure out how many points I need to put into my starting skills to make them not absolutely useless. I've had five total party wipes on the very first rat.

[Tebonas]

There is a healing fountain  Find it, learn to love it. Get used to the game near it.

[Lucas]

I think you said the magic word phrase.

Also I'm playing Wizardry 6. It's brutally hard and I can't figure out how many points I need to put into my starting skills to make them not absolutely useless. I've had five total party wipes on the very first rat.

then you're playing it right 

[rk47]

I finished Skyrim Main Quest, dragons are awful.
Now I'm kinda torn whether I should start anew, cause things are too easy with 75 Destruction magic.

[Ironwood]

I wouldn't bother.  Things are too easy when you get any skill up that high and, frankly, it's easy to get any skill up that high.

 

[Tebonas]

Get it to 100 and reset it to 15, problem solved. 

[rk47]

I switched to Twohander and Heavy Armor.
Just to see how it plays out differently.
Mod makes mana consumption higher in Heavy Armor, so magic is impractical. Might work out.

[satael]

I finished Skyrim Main Quest, dragons are awful.
Now I'm kinda torn whether I should start anew, cause things are too easy with 75 Destruction magic.

If the enemies are too easy have you tried something like ASIS or Enemy AI overhaul?

[Fabricated]

If you think your magic is overpowering everything you're not playing on a very high difficulty level. Magic in Skyrim has broken scaling and has a relatively hard ceiling for players while it has no ceiling for enemies. On the higher difficulties mages will nearly be one-shotting you even if you have max resists.

[Paelos]

After deciding I didn't like SR4, I've started playing WoW again with the 7 free days, and I'll probably sub for a bit because there's nothing out there right now that's grabbing me.

[Ceryse]

Still playing Skyrim.. amount of hours I've put into the game are starting to amuse me.

Personally, I've dealt with the 'game gets too easy' aspect by making it, well, hard. I start the game on the lowest difficulty setting, but bump it up every five levels. Throw in the Community Uncapper to let me modify skill rate gain and I've made it so skills level twice as slow and all non-combat skills basically don't count towards player level increases. Then, using the Deadly Dragons mod and its accompanying Deadly Monsters mod I've made it so Dragons have ~300% more health and deal about 250% more damage with magic and physical attacks while every other mob type deals 200% more damage with magic and physical, and upped their health by 100%.

Oh, and all Followers (except Lydia and Sarana -- because I like them) are non-essential within AFT that I'm now level 34 and I carry around a party of 4 other followers. Fourteen of the possible followers in the game are now dead. This is with min/maxxing enchanting, even, so the followers get additional magic and elemental damage mitigation with really good items from smithing and the only reason I can stand toe-to-toe with any single dragon is the Absorb Health enchant on my weapons. Occasional dragon will eat me, though. Increased health on everything means I can't just sneak around one-shotting everything, even with the best bow and arrows. Merely works to set up encounters in my favour.

I'm going to run out of Followers before I even start the Civil War quests or get to the Greybears, at this rate.

[Yegolev]

It can't get too easy for me.

[Fabricated]

Followers in Skyrim can get pretty hilariously awesome if allowed to level to the player. The originally were stuck at whatever level you were when you brought them on and most had level caps, but I think they've since patched that out and now they sorta level to you. I'm pretty sure they don't level 1:1 with you however; I used a console command to get all mine on par with me.

Also you're not really told what their skill/perk choices are and some of them actually start with the wrong equipment for whatever their respective skills are.

I did the quest to get the fledgling adventurer guy, then made sure his level matched mine, then used a small portion of my mountain of dragon bones and soul stones to kit him out in full Dragonbone gear + some okay enchants. He could clear bandit encampments solo if I just led him around by the nose.

[Ceryse]

Well, with AFT I actually can choose to have the ability to decide where they spend their points for both skills and health/magicka/stamina. They also level when I level with no cap. There's also the option to boost their damage, which I don't use. As such.. they deal some good damage with the gear I got them.. but since everything else also deals a ton of damage and has more health (and I only use one damage enchant on weapons instead of the two I could use).. they hasten the demise of things, but struggle to do things on their own.

My current group is basically Lydia (sword and shield, heavy armour), Sarana (magic heavy, one hander otherwise, mod based mage armour), Annekke (sword and shield with a lot of bow usage, light armour), Jenassa (dual wield, light armour).

Lydia can take a crap ton of damage since I've dumped almost all her points into health with some in stamina and she has good skills for block and heavy armour. Could probably remove the essential tag from her and she'd be fine if stuff died at a reasonable pace. Especially since she's in full heavy dragon armour and shield that I've enhanced and enchanted perfectly. Sarana needs her essential tag (very low health, ton of magicka) and deals good damage. Annekke does okay.. but her main usage is she can range attack or melee and not just drop dead -- but she doesn't output a ton of damage nor can she soak it. Jenassa boggles the mind. She isn't essential but has tanked dragons (she nearly dies, but shit right before she will) and outputs crazy damage -- on par with me as a sword/shield user with the best of everything.

After a three dragon spawn (Deadly Dragons mod) usually I'm near death, Jenassa is near death, Annekke is near death, Serana is begging for mercy and Lydia is just standing around wondering what the fuss was about.

[rk47]

Problem with killing dragons is the reward is pretty minimal (bones and scales) for too much effort.
Usually I just Dragonrend to ground them and ride out of there if I'm too lazy.

[Fabricated]

Dragons are punk easy if you keep around some various resist equipment or potions. Dragonbone weapons and dragonbone/scale armor are also fantastic for kitting out most followers cheaply since even if you only kill dragons you happen to run into and not seek them out you'll still end up with 3 billion pounds of stupid dragonbits.

Also Ceryse, now that I think about it why would you need a difficulty mod anymore? Have you played on Legendary or whatever the new highest difficulty is? It's pretty ridiculous.

[Quinton]

Rogue Legacy. So horribly evil.  I love the metroidvania-gameplay-meets-nethack-style-random-dungeons with the "inherit items, skills, and gold from your previous character" bit to soften the blow of dying horribly again and again.  Just defeated the first mini-boss.

[Yegolev]

I was close to beating the eye boss.  So close!  I sort of feel bad for these people who run into the castle only to die five minutes later.

[Ceryse]

Dragons are punk easy if you keep around some various resist equipment or potions. Dragonbone weapons and dragonbone/scale armor are also fantastic for kitting out most followers cheaply since even if you only kill dragons you happen to run into and not seek them out you'll still end up with 3 billion pounds of stupid dragonbits.

Also Ceryse, now that I think about it why would you need a difficulty mod anymore? Have you played on Legendary or whatever the new highest difficulty is? It's pretty ridiculous.

I have, actually. The damage output of mobs was okay, but they just melted way too fast on Legendary. The deadly dragons mod allows me to customize damage (both physical and magical), health, magicka and such in a way I really like.

It also offers optional boosts to dragons such as a knockdown when they land, a 'rain' like damage spell (similar to what Alduin uses in the execution scene at the beginning of the game) and a few other things.

Also, my followers all run 100% resist to all elements and around 60% magic resist and can still take a beating due to the sheer damage output of enemies, especially dragons.

Another level and I'll be moving the difficulty up to Legendary AND have the added impact of Deadly Dragons boosting mob damage. Should be fun!

[rk47]

Beating dragon
1. Ready Become Ethereal shout.
2. Let him breath first confirm whether to switch to ice or fire spell. Ethereal shout if it hits.
3. Once confirmed, put on necklace of resist, quaff a potion of resist.
4. Dragonrend.
5. Dps. Dps. Dps. Dps. Backpedal to force him to just fire off balls to do any dmg. Dragonrend.

Breath radius isn't that far as long it's grounded, you can't be killed.
Companions who are essentially invulnerable ruins the game IMO.
Sure, they are ignored when kneeling - but that made them a great fodder at no risk.
I travel alone and just rely on my Atronach summons to get things done.
IMO the game could've done with locational damage on dragons. Cripple the wings, disable its flying. Cripple the eye, it can no longer track the player.
Dragon fight is such a turn off after the 3rd time.
Especially when I got to the end part and the game throws me into a location with 2 dragons flying overhead, draugrs on the ground, and a dragon priest to beat.
I pop an invis pot, stabbed the priest - that opened the portal, and I'm outta there.

[Ingmar]

Their AI is too awful to make them not essential, IMO. I'd consider it if it wasn't for traps.

[Fabricated]

Dragons are punk easy if you keep around some various resist equipment or potions. Dragonbone weapons and dragonbone/scale armor are also fantastic for kitting out most followers cheaply since even if you only kill dragons you happen to run into and not seek them out you'll still end up with 3 billion pounds of stupid dragonbits.

Also Ceryse, now that I think about it why would you need a difficulty mod anymore? Have you played on Legendary or whatever the new highest difficulty is? It's pretty ridiculous.

I have, actually. The damage output of mobs was okay, but they just melted way too fast on Legendary. The deadly dragons mod allows me to customize damage (both physical and magical), health, magicka and such in a way I really like.

It also offers optional boosts to dragons such as a knockdown when they land, a 'rain' like damage spell (similar to what Alduin uses in the execution scene at the beginning of the game) and a few other things.

Also, my followers all run 100% resist to all elements and around 60% magic resist and can still take a beating due to the sheer damage output of enemies, especially dragons.

Another level and I'll be moving the difficulty up to Legendary AND have the added impact of Deadly Dragons boosting mob damage. Should be fun!

Wowzers; my cousin plays Skyrim a lot more than me and he's a duel-wield specialist rocking max out weapon skills and full enchanted Daedric armor and double-enchanted daedric weapons (edit, or rather, just one. you need an unenchanted weapon for elemental fury). With that, and maxed out elemental fury shout he hits like 5-6 times a second and even with that shout up dragons seem to last a while on legendary.

[Ceryse]

I am running five followers, though.. so I do have a lot of out-going damage between myself and at least three followers who specialize in putting out damage. I actually use dragonbone or unique weapons and armour, as they're better than Daedric now. Also, I don't have the elemental fury shout yet, so no go there. When I do get it I'll make some weapons with the one enchant, instead of soul tap + shock damage.

As for followers and traps; AFT makes it so they don't trigger them. Its gamey, but necessary, imo, because the AI is seven levels of retarded. So I only put certain followers as essential (need them for quests, or one I want to keep). At the moment I've turned off essential for all of the followers I've been getting lately.

Lastly, RK's method doesn't really work for me. I don't have the two shouts critical to his plan (Become Ethereal and Dragonrend -- hell, I haven't even visited the Greybeards yet!). I actually don't tend to use shouts at all, other than Aura Whisper to see where mobs are. Also, I have 100+ resist, but its not the breath that does a ton of damage (there is a bit, though, and Deadly Dragons seems to extend the range of the breath, even on the ground) its their physical damage. Even in a full set of Dragonscale armour (that's the light armour version) and the best shield in the game upgraded heavily with smithing and a light armour skill over 100 and health that is currently around 550 a dragon can three shot me in melee -- and I cap the number of healing potions I carry at 10.

Oh, and I lost another three followers last night after I bumped it up to Legendary difficulty + Deadly Dragons mod. I've enabled the Assault function of the mod, where it can spawn dragons in addition to the normal random spawn. Got a random spawn + the assault spawn (which I have at 2). So, three dragons. I nearly died around twelve times. Serana would have died but she glitched through the ground for half the fight. Lydia survived and I don't think dropped below 40% health. Jenassa, a Dawnguard companion and one of the male housecarls all died.

Game really isn't easy if you set it up right. But just because of damage output is insane on my team.. its doable (if you don't mind having followers die a lot).

And nothing but multiple dragon spawns gives me trouble.

Probably tone down dragon damage, though. I'm running out of followers I can get and really don't want to use AFT to start making random people followers.

[Merusk]

Now that I finished-up Splinter Cell, I'm back playing TL2 again. 

Thanks to whomever pointed out the mods in the Diablo3 thread, they're all great.  Though I think the increased Legendary drops one I have is a bit of cheating.  My level 12 engineer has 4 legendaries equipped already and put 2-3 more in the bank.  Meanwhile my unmodded 54 embermage never found a single one.