So, what're you playing?

[Prospero]

Just started in on Zeno Clash. I'm not sure how I feel about the art, but I definitely approve of the punching. I just wish using a sword felt more like Dark eEssiah.

[Fabricated]

NWN2 - Got to where I get my own keep and kinda lost interest. I may need to just use a console command to adjust some influence scores to see the stuff I'm interested in before I start it up.
Dead Space - I've been having more fun watching someone else play the game than actually playing it myself, so I'm still in Chapter 2.
Assassin's Creed - On the last two assassinations. Very very annoying street and building layouts for the last two areas though.

I still need to buy Uncharted 2 and Demon's Souls. Wanna get my current group of games done before I waste any more money though.

[Yegolev]

Finished Mana Khemia and started Mana Khemia 2, which should possibly be called Mana Khemia² since the weirdness has started immediately.  This game is too weeaboo for my wife.  I, however, find it hilarious.  The alchemy system is much refined, too.  Nine thumbs up.

The Boom Blox sequel, whatever it is called, is also an improvement and pretty cool.

Last Remnant, ready for what I assume is the final fight.  Seems I missed some important quests but I guess I'll get those on the next go-around.

[Murgos]

X3TC and Guitar Hero.

Took out my first 2 Xenon M2's (called Destroyers but are really Battleships in mission objective terms) with my shiny new Shrike.  On paper I should have been toast but the realities of AI weapon tracking and lateral movement meant that the battles were almost trivial.  I say 'almost' because a wrong move would have hurt severely but as it was my shields hardly got dinged and I'm only out a few thousand credits in ammo and Combat Drone replacements.  Also, half a dozen flak cannon pop fighter patrols like zits on a teenager working at a McDonalds.

My Marines are STILL training!  But getting close to being usable.  According to the stats I've owned 54 ships but I doubt if I have more than 12 or 13 at the moment.

[Ard]

Last Remnant, ready for what I assume is the final fight.  Seems I missed some important quests but I guess I'll get those on the next go-around.

I'm just shy of the second disk right now, and damn if the Gates of Hell fight wasn't utterly epic.  It's funny that Square can get so many epic moments right in this game, and yet so totally fail the last few Final Fantasy games in that regard.  The closest they've come in recent history was the very end of Crisis Core.

And no, I'm not going to listen to you.  MK2 stays in the box until I finish Last Remnant dammit.

[Yegolev]

And no, I'm not going to listen to you.  MK2 stays in the box until I finish Last Remnant dammit.

Stay strong.  MK2 will eat your chibi little soul.  It's fantastic and I love the changes to the alchemy system.

Gates of Hell was a big, big pain and what caused me to go on that bender in Berechevaltelle where I went from BR63 to BR97 with a Chain of over 1000.  After that it was much less of a pounding but still bothersome; no one puts a beatdown on my unions like my own fucking unions since each unit can one-shot anyone else.  Painful.

Even better, there's a Secret Boss version of Gates in the Aqueducts that, seriously, I have not really fought since I can't make it through three waves of homoculi at BR110.  I'm hoping that the third wave is the last so that the Super Gates can make a quick appearance to eat everyone on my next attempt.  That fight is worse than the Eldritch Dragon (unbeaten), who is similar to and worse than The Fallen.

[Ard]

The fight itself didn't give me too much trouble, honestly.  I think I was BR 60 when I did it but it's possible I just got lucky though.  I was able to get most of my groups to attack it for a round, then drop out and heal, so no one died after the first time a group got resurrected by that particular bit of shenanigans.  I just thought the look, feel, the scene leading into it, and the way Rush's summon happens with the "oh hey, you think you're going to block my power, huh, lemme try something else" was pretty epic overall.

edit:  Actually, now that I think about it, I did get lucky.  The first group he took down was my magic group lead by Pagus.  Two things were lucky here.  One, that was my only group without someone that could resurrect, so getting them back wasn't really an issue.  Two, the bastards didn't Black Out my whole team, and instead opted to melee attack for almost nothing.

The eldritch dragon isn't happening anytime soon though.  I did beat the ancient dragon also last night though, and the rare spawn Go which seemed like a slightly more powerful version of it. 

[evan]

Back to Fallout 3, which is like 10 times better when it's properly modded. Probably spend about as much time modding as I do playing. I vow to never play another Bethesda game until at least a year after release.

Gamebryo engine still a fickle bitch but I have learned to live with it.

[Nonentity]

Played and beat Uncharted in two sitting this weekend. There were scenes in the game that drove me to absolute rage, mainly because my hands turn into blobs of putty with any sort of twin stick first person aiming. I am bad at it. That being said, I trudged through it on normal, and I'm ready for Uncharted 2, I guess.

I think I broke the armrest on my couch, though.

[Yegolev]

edit:  Actually, now that I think about it, I did get lucky.  The first group he took down was my magic group lead by Pagus.  Two things were lucky here.  One, that was my only group without someone that could resurrect, so getting them back wasn't really an issue.  Two, the bastards didn't Black Out my whole team, and instead opted to melee attack for almost nothing.

I find myself regretting not putting Pagus in from the get-go since my ranged union is rather lame, but it's way too late for that now.  I tried swapping out one of my leaders but that was mostly a disaster, so I'm keeping the Usual Six: Rush, Oakes, McGrady, Blocter, Torgal, David.  If there is a second playthrough, I'm going to be smarter about who I put in (Pagus and Irina likely in) since replacing anyone past the mid-point is just untenable even if they are non-special leaders like Oakes and McGrady.  I guess I'm not really stuck with McGrady but I'm loathe to yank him and put Pagus in due to the hit to my heal/resurrect ability.  Plus he's not bad with a halberd.  I'm hoping the sequel will address this particular problem.

You need to wrap up LR so you can play some MK2.

[lac]

Did you guys manage to get through the story fluently or did you need to do some grinding?

[Ard]

I find myself regretting not putting Pagus in from the get-go since my ranged union is rather lame, but it's way too late for that now.  I tried swapping out one of my leaders but that was mostly a disaster, so I'm keeping the Usual Six: Rush, Oakes, McGrady, Blocter, Torgal, David. 

Yeah, Pagus is a monster.  That's all that really needs to be said.  Currently using Rush, Oakes (who is also a pint sized monster, what the hell do those frog guys eat that causes this?), David, Caedmon, Pagus, and .. I'm not sure.  Might have been a generic or maybe Blocter, can't remember.  I should be using Torgal since he gets a remnant at some point.  I want to use Baulson also, but don't really have a slot for him.  Caedmon is just hard to justify not using.

Did you guys manage to get through the story fluently or did you need to do some grinding?

If you're talking Last Remnant, here's the thing:  treat it like a SaGa game, there are no direct levels in game.   There's an overall battle rank that sorta gauges your power level, but it's not the best indicator.  Do all the subquests you run across also, the main game only exposes a small part of the world map by itself.  The quests and general exploration open up the rest.  If you do those, the main story isn't too hard.  I can't comment on how hard it'd be otherwise since I like exploring personally, which might be part of why I like this game so much.   As far as grinding goes, well, I still run into normal random encounters that curb stomp me, but you'll see those coming, since they tend to be giant dragons just standing around in the middle of no where.  Size is a pretty good indicator of when you're about to get your nuts stomped on.

Also, if you have the option, get the PC version.  The Xbox version is but a shadow of what the PC version is.  Despite that, so far I've been liking the game a lot more than any of the last few Final Fantasies.

[lac]

Yea it was the PC version, I played until I got stuck in an unwinnable (to me) storyline bossfight where every other fight before that one had been real easy. I wondered if I needed to do some grinding or if it was because of my very random party configuration and general noobishness as how to influence combat.

[Hawkbit]

How are you playing on PC?  KYB or Gamepad?  Which Gamepad?  I've got this one on my list to get to... whenever I have time. 

[Ard]

Yea it was the PC version, I played until I got stuck in an unwinnable (to me) storyline bossfight where every other fight before that one had been real easy. I wondered if I needed to do some grinding or if it was because of my very random party configuration and general noobishness as how to influence combat.

The big trick to boss fights, for me at least, was to make sure all my parties had one or more healers of some type, most of them potion users.  Most of the bosses do a multi-deadlock, which means they can rape you over and over, especially if they have AoEs.  If one or more groups get too injured, you tell them to either standby or drop out of combat and heal, and break the deadlock.  As long as at least one group is on the boss, it'll only get one swing at that specific group, instead of nailing every single one of your parties. 

Alternately, you can also try to keep one healer group unattached from the combat, but that requires some luck getting standby, heal the others, or set up the field type commands to show up.  It's something I had trouble doing for the first third of the game until some of the leaders came into more skills, and I got some more specialized general soldiers.  It seems like the more of a skill type you stack in the party, the more likely their commands come up.  Their class type also comes into play here, but even I'm not anal enough to try to figure out a growth strategy to control that.  The info is out there on wikis though.

[schild]

I treated it like a Saga game alright.

Quit 2 hours in. What a dreadful piece of shit.

[Azazel]

The usual mix of LotRO, Rock Band 2, Beatles RB, Saints Row 2 co-op, Fallout 3 and Wolverine.

I need like a year or two off work to catch up on all these games.

[Draegan]

I finally got around to playing Half Life 2.  Kinda fun.  But nothing great.

[Yegolev]

I finally got around to playing Half Life 2.  Kinda fun.  But nothing great.

http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=34#more

About some Last Remnant boss fights, for The Fallen I had to do more than just tweak my formations due to the AoE attacks: I consolidated down to two unions with ten of my best units.  This tactic allowed me to experience fewer attacks due to only having two deadlocks, plus the AoEs did not beat the shit out of my unions so much thanks to enhanced defense.  Obviously this tactic is better suited against single-union enemies since being outnumbered sucks balls (Holy Plain battle, which I did last night, turns out it is not the final), also it makes healing/reviving more of a do-or-die situation.

I treated it like a Saga game alright.

Quit 2 hours in. What a dreadful piece of shit.

Well, if you did not like the combat then you made a good choice since it's 95% combat.  That said, you don't see good combat for the first several hours; definitely not until after you gain control of your own troops.  It takes some time for the real game to start with LR, the real game being fighting, training and exploring.

Last night I played Last Remnant and Fallen Earth.  I tried to finish some quests in FE but mostly crafted.  It's insidious!  I found enough scrap iron and other garbage to make a better BB pistol, and I trained up Weaponry enough to be able to salvage useless items such as garden trowels and box cutters, so I feel like I am making progress.  I turned some pipe into BBs!

Also some Mana Khemia 2 when I can, and some LotRO yesterday.

[Prospero]

I finished up Zeno Clash and moved on to the next in my queue; Beyond Good and Evil. I'm definitely digging it so far. For being 6 years old it holds up remarkably well in the visuals department. It's a wonder what a strong art direction does for a game.

[Yegolev]

I think the voiceovers in MK2 are going to kill me.  Over the fucking top.

[HaemishM]

I've gotten a hankering for driving games lately to tide me over until FIFA 10, so I picked up my dormant copy of Gran Turismo 4 the last few nights. Damn is this a good, hard game. Also doing some Battlefield 2 - need to get back to LOTRO for the bonus xp.

[Stormwaltz]

need to get back to LOTRO for the bonus xp.

I've been playing a lot of LotRO again, finishing out stuff on my 60. It occurs to me I should be playing my alts this week.

Now that I have intertubes, I was able to activate RF: Guerilla. The last Volition game I played was the original RF in 2001. The advances they've made in graphics and digital acting (presumably in the course of developing Saint's Row) rocked me back on my heels. And I could knock buildings down all day. Seriously, fuck the FPS stuff. I just want to cause more towers to keel over.

I'd like to get back to Mount & Blade, but LotRO is... comfort food.

[Meester]

"I'm playing this, I wish other people were playing this because the community is an inbred bunch of jacktards and I'm a lonely dystopia queen, please don't ignore me." Or whatever.

Oh and it s PC HL2 mod.

Fall From Heaven 2 is also good. its a Civ4 mod.

[bhodi]

Where did that come from? Was that directed at everyone reading it? At someone specific?

You're weird. We know about FFH2, have somewhat of a following, and maybe if you spent a bit more time outside the eve forums you'd know that.

[fuser]

Yeah EVE lasted two weeks, never again!

LBP - Decided working on aces and collection completes was way better then any current MMO grind.
Burnout Paradise - Continuing on playing it to relax and beat a race here or there, after all the patching

[Hawkbit]

I'm sure Murgos knows this already, but X3TC got it's latest patch.  Removed copy protection. 

Sadly, Steam bundled X3R and X3TC in a gold box for $40.  I was hoping for a $20 sale on TC.  :(

[Rasix]

Batman: AA.  I feel like I should be enjoying this more, but I'm not. 

[Elerion]

In some feeble attempt to shorten the wait for Borderlands I tried Deus Ex last night. I have actually never played it. Inorite? I blame it on goblins.


Sadly, the pace of the game was far too slow for what I wanted. Emphasis on sneaking wasn't what my Borderlands-craving mind wanted. The outdated graphics and mechanics turned me off more than I expected also. It felt significantly older than, say, Half-life. The unique elements of it that I fully understand were revolutionary in 2000 have been partly or completely copied by newer games, so it's not as impressive anymore.

Maybe I'll pick it back up tonight and give it a fair chance. I can't help feeling like I got screwed out of one of the best games of all time simply by waiting until it was outdated.

[Yegolev]

Started a new character in Demon's Souls last night.  Decided to try a "Magic." class and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I didn't suck as much as I thought I would after not playing for so long... but I am suspicious that the patch has made the game easier.  Not as easy as using Flamethrower on a knight, but maybe a little.  I beat Phalanx, upgraded some shit, played around in 2-1 for a bit and then went to bed.

Schild defense of Deus Ex in 3... 2... 1...

[ghost]

Sadly, the pace of the game was far too slow for what I wanted. Emphasis on sneaking wasn't what my Borderlands-craving mind wanted. The outdated graphics and mechanics turned me off more than I expected also.

I love how "sneaking" in many games simply means walking slow.....

[Murgos]

I'm sure Murgos knows this already, but X3TC got it's latest patch.  Removed copy protection. 

Sadly, Steam bundled X3R and X3TC in a gold box for $40.  I was hoping for a $20 sale on TC.  :(

Yeah, I was going to post about it but I haven't actually had the chance to play with it yet so I was waiting until after I had some impressions to post.

[Prospero]

Maybe I'll pick it back up tonight and give it a fair chance. I can't help feeling like I got screwed out of one of the best games of all time simply by waiting until it was outdated.

It's a passable shooter, but the stealth game is highly overrated, largely because of the aforementioned walking slow problem.The plot was also not remarkable in any way. I'll never understand Schild's hard on for this game.

[Rasix]

None of Deus Ex's individual components made it a great game.  Anyone expecting a great shooter or great stealther would have been disappointed when it was released. Put it altogether and add a great setting and plot, and there you go. 

[Ingmar]

help help I can't stop playing Mount and Blade