So, what're you playing?

[Morfiend]

I need to finish ME2. I really liked the improved combat, but I hated my character choice. I ended up picking the Vanguard, and IMO its a pretty stupid concept for a "class". A light armored character whos signature power is to teleport in to the middle of the combat and get killed. 

I restarted as a Soldier and am having much more fun.

I am trying to decide what older games I should request from my girlfriend for my birthday in two weeks. So far the list consists of: Uncharted 2, God of War 3, Assassins Creed Brotherhood (need to finish AC2), Heavy Rain, or one of a slew of semi decent shooters.

[ghost]

I really enjoyed Uncharted 2.  That's a decent choice. 

[HaemishM]

Played about 1-2 hours of Assassin's Creed 1 last night. Man this is a beautiful game, and I like the mechanics. But WTF is with the horse riding sequences? Is it just the padding it feels like or is there a point to riding from the fortress to Damascus and trying to avoid detection by soldiers every five steps? Is there something in the between city bits besides the view points that I'm going to need later?

[bhodi]

Nope. The horse speed traps made me really dislike the first game. I never finished it.

[Morfiend]

Played about 1-2 hours of Assassin's Creed 1 last night. Man this is a beautiful game, and I like the mechanics. But WTF is with the horse riding sequences? Is it just the padding it feels like or is there a point to riding from the fortress to Damascus and trying to avoid detection by soldiers every five steps? Is there something in the between city bits besides the view points that I'm going to need later?

Once you have discovered a city you can fast travel back to it. AC1 is an "Ok" game. AC2 pretty much takes all the good parts of AC1 and drops all the bad, while expanding on the good. IMO AC2 is one of the better sequels in gaming recently.

[Hawkbit]

AC is one of my favorite game series for this generation.  I'm of two thoughts of the first game (which isn't a great game, but a good one). 

You could easily put down the game and just read the story from the wiki and get all the info you need to play AC2+B.  I do feel that it is worth pushing through to see how the story ties into 2+B, but I'm really into it.

I'm into the story enough that I play Project Legacy on Facebook.   

[Sjofn]

I am playing Recettear, but Ingmar bought me the Mass Effects during the Steam sale, so apparently that is next.

[rk47]

I'm slightly disappointed with the lack of mods for King Arthur. This game could've been so much better, but they screw it up with out of whack balance and repetitive combats.

[Yegolev]

I have been playing GT5 a whole lot.  A lot.  When I put the disc in on Dec 25 and heard a jazzy Jingle Bells in the menu, I knew I was in big trouble.  I might still complain about the whole Premium vs Standard car shit, but there is enough else to distract me from that.
I liek carts!
NASCAR cars handle like shit and I hate them.
My 1958 Subaru 360 is awesome.

Almost done with Shadow Complex, played a lot of that last night.  Need to find two more passkeys but I only see one ? on the map, so I might end up getting angry.  Funny note: my wife sees Lorekeep has outranked me in SC as well as Fable III and she says "He plays this too?!"  She's onto you, my friend, although sometimes confused with Bunk.

Had to stop any PC gaming (STALKER, Torchlight) due to the monitor dying and this substitute being crap.  Although I did put in some LotRO time this past weekend.  Last night I ordered a 27" monitor and two SD cards which came to about $265, so that's cool.  Hopefully it will get here before I decide I don't want to play STALKER anymore.

[Sir T]

Played about 1-2 hours of Assassin's Creed 1 last night. Man this is a beautiful game, and I like the mechanics. But WTF is with the horse riding sequences? Is it just the padding it feels like or is there a point to riding from the fortress to Damascus and trying to avoid detection by soldiers every five steps? Is there something in the between city bits besides the view points that I'm going to need later?

To be honest you can just Gallop like crazy past the soldiers, they wont be able to catch up to you and once you get out of their range the "Your spotted" meter goes away. And you can just hop back to any city you have visited.

I haven't gotten around to AC2, but I really enjoyed AC1. I still remember hopping from roof beam to roof beam in the church after murdering someone, trying to get ahead of all the pissed off Knights underneath me. That's one of those 'just fun' moments that will stay with me. One of the best stealth em ups in recent memory.

I find I'm playing a lot more Russian titles than big budget western ones these days anyway

[trias_e]

Now that my 999 marathon is over with, I'm playing Super Meat Boy, Starcraft 2, and a replay of the Phoenix Wright series.

Super Meat Boy:  Awesome and not even that frustrating.
Starcraft 2:  I'm out of practice and I've been getting wrecked.  Which has been more frustrating than getting the kid from I wanna be the guy on SMB.
Phoenix Wright:  Objection!

[Sky]

Rift beta event and Risen. Want to get back to JC2 and need to get some practice in (fwiw) with BB:LE. Risen is just so awesome, though. Completely rekindled the Gothic fanboi in me, just a great franchise and nice to see it getting back on track after Gothic 3. Oddly favorite moment: killed a bunch of lizard men, and while looking at the map, a ghoul crept out of a side chamber and began munching on one of the corpses.

edit: Just finished Risen, about 38 hours.

[Ingmar]

Cataclysm, Machinarium, Republic Commando (this is much better so far than I expected, although it has a raging case of console interface), Minecraft, and a little Majesty 2 for some reason.

Risen is in the queue, we shall see if I can stomach the EuroRPGness.

[Sky]

It's an acquired taste. I can give you some pointers when you get around to it.

[rattran]

Risen's TAGES/digital crotchrot drivers do not like my bluray player, crashes on launch.

Which kinda sucks, since I got it on steam. So I'm playing the latest daily build of DC:SS. 0.8 has some nice features.

[Azazel]

Rock Band 3, World of Warcraft, a playthrough of Bad Company 2 on my new PC, and running through some of the endless-seeming DLC for Fallout 3, since I got my unfinished save working.

[Malakili]

In addition to my normal Starcraft 2 fix, been playing World War 2 Online regularly, mixed in with some steam purchases. L4D2, Super Meat Boy and Natural Selection 2 beta.

[Sky]

Played 'try to learn WotC era D&D rules for rolling a character in NWN2'. I was aiming for a Drow Wizard/Thief, and I'm fairly happy with the character I rolled, but I think for gaming purposes, I'll go with my traditional paladin until I learn the game systems and mechanics a bit. Also, the tutorial is lulz with a lawful evil drow wizard with 20 int. "Go fetch my furs for the market" Riiight.

Wish the text were bigger.

[bhodi]

Played 'try to learn WotC era D&D rules for rolling a character in NWN2'. I was aiming for a Drow Wizard/Thief, and I'm fairly happy with the character I rolled, but I think for gaming purposes, I'll go with my traditional paladin until I learn the game systems and mechanics a bit. Also, the tutorial is lulz with a lawful evil drow wizard with 20 int. "Go fetch my furs for the market" Riiight.

Wish the text were bigger.

They are definitely archaic. I can't believe I ever thought they were intuitive in any way. I used a gamefaqs guide to a few char types I haven't tried:  http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/922154-neverwinter-nights-2/faqs/49094

There's also a spiffy char generator thing/browser thing here, along with a big list of characters. It's really cool. http://nwn2db.com/

I'm not sure I can make it all the way through the orig campaign to the cool part where you build your keep. It's just SO AWFUL. Fortunately, the expansions are so much better, including the ability to custom-build your own party instead of just a single player.


On the home stretch of king's bounty, I think.  At 56 hours, god, I hope so. I think I spend too much time agonizing over a loss of a few guys instead of pushing through and just using whatever creatures are nearby.

[Sjofn]

Mass Effect seems pretty good so far (shocking news to all of you, I am sure) but I already suspect I missed a bunch of side missions and I fucking hate the controls. I like shooting people, though, so that's nice. I find myself wanting to power through Mass Effect quickly so I can do ME2, as I hear that one is much less assy on the PC control-wise, but I am trying to keep myself REIGNED IN.

[Quinton]

On the home stretch of king's bounty, I think.  At 56 hours, god, I hope so. I think I spend too much time agonizing over a loss of a few guys instead of pushing through and just using whatever creatures are nearby.

I just saw this today on steam -- any suggestions on the original vs various expansions?  Reviews seem to indicate the later expansions (Armored Princess, etc) are a bit more polished but lack some of the fun of the original.

[bhodi]

Not sure. I got them all for $10 or whatever. I haven't even installed the others yet.

[Reg]

Mass Effect 2 is much more more fun than Mass Effect 1.  Unfortunately, to get the most out of ME2 you need to play ME1 so that you can see the interesting way your character decisions in the first game affect what happens in the second.

[Sky]

I tried to go back and play through ME1 immediately after I finished ME2. Couldn't do it, they made so many improvements to the sequel.

Another jarring thing about NWN2, I'm a LE drow walking around this county fair and everyone's all jesty-happy with me. I will eat your eyeballs for a snack, impudent worms!

[Ingmar]

You're a LE drow that grew up with them all, they're used to you.

I played the first bit of Risen, only to realize I had already played at least that part at some point before - maybe a demo? Some things about it are already annoying me, but I am going to give it a real try this time.

[Sjofn]

Mass Effect 2 is much more more fun than Mass Effect 1.  Unfortunately, to get the most out of ME2 you need to play ME1 so that you can see the interesting way your character decisions in the first game affect what happens in the second.

Yeah, that was definitely the impression I've gotten. I might play through ME1 twice before moving on to ME2 because of it. :P

[Sky]

You're a LE drow that grew up with them all, they're used to you.

I played the first bit of Risen, only to realize I had already played at least that part at some point before - maybe a demo? Some things about it are already annoying me, but I am going to give it a real try this time.

minsky
~
teach Lp
give It_Gold x

Game is still challenging because you have limited items and hp/mana, but by cheating in some learning points you can grab enough skills to make it fun. You can google other cheats, but those are the only ones I used. I think I gave myself an initial stack of arrows, too. I was playing as Don faction, trying for melee originally, but you will need a LOT of archery to get by, the melee is pretty tough. That's the main reason I cheat for learning the skills, you'll need the side attacks and block attacks to survive.

[Azazel]

Republic Commando (this is much better so far than I expected, although it has a raging case of console interface),

I really enjoyed RC back in the day. A nice blend of Star Wars and "realistic" sci-fi military action. I'm surprised they never brought out a sequel. Sequel with up to 4 players in co-op campaign would have been sweet.

[Tebonas]

Master of Mana (the new Civ4 mod Lum found) , Dead Rising 2 and Torchlight. My WoW stint lasted about 4 hours until I was bored again. Was worth every cent   

[bhodi]

Mass Effect 2 is much more more fun than Mass Effect 1.  Unfortunately, to get the most out of ME2 you need to play ME1 so that you can see the interesting way your character decisions in the first game affect what happens in the second.

Yeah, that was definitely the impression I've gotten. I might play through ME1 twice before moving on to ME2 because of it. :P

I had the exact opposite opinion. My "decisions" amounted to a handful of different sentences during the entire game. There was no content I 'missed' due to taking a particular patch. Just one quick branch of dialog, then back to the core.

[Reg]

I'm not claiming that it's important enough to make or break the game but I got a kick out of seeing people I'd dealt with in first game again in the second. Like that obnoxious reporter and the Shepherd wannabe who ran away from home.

[jakonovski]

Played through Singularity yesterday and today, took about 8 hours. It's a pretty good shooter and the story is kind of neat, but it doesn't take enough advantage of the whole time travel thing. The ending is great though.

[Sjofn]

I'm not claiming that it's important enough to make or break the game but I got a kick out of seeing people I'd dealt with in first game again in the second. Like that obnoxious reporter and the Shepherd wannabe who ran away from home.

Don't worry, I'm the same way, so your advice was not misplaced for your audience. 

I finished my LadyShep playthrough! Now I will attempt to create a DudeShep that doesn't look totally ugly and do a playthrough of that. And then I will probably not be able to put off ME2 any more and any variation of that I want to do of that beyond what I've done will have to come in the form of other people's saved games. :P

[Lucas]

Playing through NWN2 platinum edition; maybe this time I'll actually manage to finish the campaigns. Yes, the OC is awfully linear and sometimes reminiscent of the lv 1-3 campaigns of good old basic D&D (the red box :P), but Obsidian has a way to grab me inside their stories just like good old Black Isle (I wonder why :P) did.

[Tannhauser]

Fallout:  Las Vegas (GREAT farking game with a few annoying bugs here and there.)
Making History 2 (WW2 grand strat, has made me drop Civ 5)
Batman AA (a little bit)
Cataclysm (fading in the stretch)