So, what're you playing?

[Deadguy2322]

I am trying to kill my backlog somewhat, just finished Fallout 3 with Operation: Anchorage and Broken Steel, playing Evil. Also working on finishing up Yakuza 2, now that I got the disc fixed to get past a fatal read error in the menus keeping me from getting past a certain point, as well as Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, Eternal Sonata, Valkyria Chronicles, Demon's Souls, Gran Turismo 5 and a bunch of other stuff. I think I am in the middle of about 20 games right now.

[Azazel]

I started playing F.E.A.R. a couple of days ago. Back when it came out, it was one of those games that was SO graphics-intensive that my computer could barely handle it. Now it looks okay, but also a bit dated and quaint. Atmosphere is decently done in parts, but forgettable in others so far.

[tgr]

Dated? vOv

And forgettable? I found it to be so scarily atmospheric that I was mostly happy whenever the game let up for a few seconds. It seriously got under my skin, so much so I still get chills.

[Yegolev]

Just Cause 2, PS3.  Found all 368 settlements.  No fanfare.  Currently at 58% completion, will do some more faction missions soon.

Plants vs Zombies, PS3.  Fun but probably not enough to have me put significant time into it.

WoW.  Made it to the real game and wandered around Org for a while, somewhat intrigued to find that everything is more or less where I left it.  Some "world end" that was.  Now I'm finding that the exploration achievement is a bit more random and a bit less complete than I had hoped.  Let's see if I can get to lv20 and also if Archaeology is interesting.

Minecraft a little, mostly to show my son.  He has decided that it is awesome this time and so is now playing it when we allow it.

Reading Siddhartha instead of The Two Towers, will go back later.

[ghost]

I started playing F.E.A.R. a couple of days ago. Back when it came out, it was one of those games that was SO graphics-intensive that my computer could barely handle it. Now it looks okay, but also a bit dated and quaint. Atmosphere is decently done in parts, but forgettable in others so far.

I also ran through a bit of this the other day for the first time.  I thought it was reasonably well done.  It's better than some modern day equivalents, even it's second iteration.

Edit:  Also decided to try my hand at Football Manager 2011. It's pretty complex. 

[apocrypha]

if Archaeology is interesting.

It isn't.

[Azazel]

Dated? vOv

And forgettable? I found it to be so scarily atmospheric that I was mostly happy whenever the game let up for a few seconds. It seriously got under my skin, so much so I still get chills.

Yeah, graphically dated. Does not stand up exceptionally well to games of the last several years. Atmosphere started off very well with a few bits of creepiness, but that trailed off into killing millions of clones that don't sound like clones should. Every so often there's another bit of interesting creepiness, but most of the rest is just running through endless generic FPS locations such as storage facilities industrial warehouses offices partly-build offices etc etc ad nauseum yawn.

[Malakili]

if Archaeology is interesting.

It isn't.

Having only started it on a character that could already fly in Azeroth, I liked it as an excuse to fly around and survey all the changes in the world and just generally see Azeroth from above, but after I saw all teh new zones, Archaeology got boring fast.

[Paelos]

Archeology is terrible in the fact they insisted on not letting you decide which racial crap you wanted to dig up. If you could just go dig in each zone at will, people would have less of an issue with it.

[Yegolev]

The most interesting thing about resuming WoW is that, so far, no one has had anything good to say about it.

[Malakili]

In general the level experience is drastically better than ever before (Outland feels a little dated, but its over real fast).  The new talent trees make more builds viable right out of the gate so you aren't stuck, for example, waiting until you can get Felguard to make demonology a worthwhile spec. 

Despite what people say, I find the 5man experience to be pretty ok.  If you just to it for the shinies, its probably worse, but I think the content itself is actually pretty good, and I find it more engaging than the Wrath 5mans generally speaking.

Don't have anything really to say about raiding besides that my raiding guild is still going strong (even though I don't raid and no nothing about the raids themselves so I can't speak from personal experience).

So, in general I think cataclysm any where near as bad as a lot of people are making it out to be, but I will add that I am in a fairly unique situation.  Namely, I am still a member of a raid guild and therefore have access to decent people/players, a vent server, the bonuses that come with being in a level 20+ guild.  I play casually, but have the support system of a hardcore player when and if I need it, which probably makes a significant difference.  If I was playing truly solo and had no guild/friend connection to the game, I don't know if I'd still be with it the more I think about it.

[Rasix]

The most interesting thing about resuming WoW is that, so far, no one has had anything good to say about it.

I liked the new leveling content.  Most of it was a drastic improvement over the old 1-60 experience.  I'm unenthused about the current state and direction of the game as opposed to what it was in WoLK, so I had no motivation to burn through outland or just play one of my 80s for that new leveling content. So, I quit.  Still think it's a fine game, but I'd rather not pay for it at the moment.

Most people that have quit WoW for various reasons have at the same time hit a massive case of burnout.  The game is just getting old.

I'm having fun playing DA2.  Having fun is all I care to do at this moment.

[Samwise]

Finished the last Sam and Max episode last night.  My Steam library is full of possibilities.  Thinking Amnesia might be next...

[Tarami]

Finished the last Sam and Max episode last night.  My Steam library is full of possibilities.  Thinking Amnesia might be next...

I like your thinking.

[Margalis]

I'd be curious to hear an opinion on Amnesia.

[trias_e]

My take on Amnesia:

First and foremost, you have to be willing to participate in a horror experience.  The game tells you up front that 'you shouldn't play to win'.  In other words, don't play the game with the lights on, the sound quiet, and the gamma up.  And if you play by the games rules, you will likely find the experience to be incredibly intense.  I personally could only play the game in 30 minute chunks before getting overwhelmed.  Once my friend tapped my shoulder while I was playing in the dark with headphones on and I had a heart attack.  The game is fucking frightening if you get into it.

Some gamers might not enjoy the extreme helplessness Amnesia forces on you.  The only two tools you have at your disposal when dealing with bad guys are hiding and running, one of which drains your sanity and makes your life somewhat miserable.  Some gamers might not be able to take just how damn scary the game is.  If you are easily scared playing games, Amnesia might not even be playable.  Finally, some gamers may simply not get immersed in the world of Amnesia.  If you don't find yourself immersed in the worlds/settings of video games, Amnesia is utterly pointless.  The point of Amnesia is experiencing something rather horrific.

If the game sounds interesting at this point to you, buy it.  It's absolutely worth 20 bucks if you fit the profile I've laid out above, and probably worth more if you are a horror lover.  You get 6 hours of gameplay, but this amount is pretty much perfect gameplay-wise...any longer and the effectiveness of the game would have dried up.  And for 20 bucks, I think 6 hours of gameplay is quite reasonable.

[ghost]

So my 2 year old loves Railworks.   

[Tarami]

My take on Amnesia:
...

All true.

It's an interactive horror story with some puzzles. Attempting to game it is attempting to flush your money down the toilet. Just don't.

As a personal bias since I distantly know the developers, I think they deserve the 20 bucks. They have worked insanely hard for it and suffered a lot of instant ramen over the development cycle.

[Yegolev]

I'd be curious to hear an opinion on Amnesia.

I've never been so frightened by any entertainment medium in so little time.

So my 2 year old loves Railworks.   

I smell expansion bundles for birthday presents.

[tgr]

I'd be curious to hear an opinion on Amnesia.

I've never been so frightened by any entertainment medium in so little time.

Hear hear. It's hilariously scary, and I will play through it ... some day.

[Vision]

I'd be curious to hear an opinion on Amnesia.

I've never been so frightened by any entertainment medium in so little time.

Hear hear. It's hilariously scary, and I will play through it ... some day.

Me and my roommate both played the demo at the same time, he got to the scary part of the demo before I did and heard him yell through the wall and I jumped so bad. But it was only half as scary as when I actually got to the part that made him yell.....

[bhodi]

I really, really enjoyed Amnesia. It's what a horror game is supposed to be. Just play it at night with the lights off. It is definitely scary. I really enjoyed the story. I got it for $5 on a steam sale, and I'm sure it'll drop in price again. One thing you may not know, once you finish it, check gamefaqs for the unlock code to the zip, it has a bunch of stuff like making-of videos, artist's drawings, early alphas, storyboarding pictures and such.

[Tale]

Kunark is about to launch in Project 1999 (discussed earlier in this thread) if anyone's interested. They're launching it with some interesting events. Server population has been 600-700 at peak time. I'm level 14

Kunark Launch is upon us. Friday, March 25th, Kunark will officially be opened.

What to expect.
We plan to have a live dynamic scavenger hunt type quest as the kick off leading towards the unlock of Kunark. This event will begin some time between 6-7 PM Eastern. Depending on how quickly people complete the necessary steps of this quest and completing each phase will determine exactly when Kunark will become available, but I suspect it will last 2 to 3 hours.

There will be serverwide messages throughout the evening keeping everyone up to date on the progression of the live quest, as well as when Kunark does open. The opening of the zones will coincide with the level cap being raised to 60 as well as the ability to create Iksars. This will all happen without a server patch.

Serverwide Rares
Beginning with the unlock of Kunark and lasting only throughout that night, every mob on the server will have a very rare chance to drop high value classic items, such as the Guise of Deceiver and others. To promote fairness for all levels, and to prevent high level characters from slaughtering low level zones, these items will only have a chance to drop if experience was awarded for the kill (aka, the "Trivial" loot system). We may turn this feature off after enough items have dropped, so don't miss your opportunity!

Achievements
As players obtain certain server first goals, they will be broadcasted to the server. Currently the system will only congratulate players for level achievements, but other type achievements such as mob kills or quests may be added. For example, a broadcast will automatically congratulate the first players to levels 51 to 60. It will also congratulate each individual class to level 60, and it will also announce various Iksar levels, including pre-50, and also the first of each Iksar class to 60.

Play Nice!
We expect the population of the server to be considerably higher on Friday. The server will be cramped. Remember to be courteous to your fellow players and not create a headache for the server staff. Do not attract the wrath of Uthgaard!

[Ingmar]

Amnesia sounds great, it is too bad I just can't handle scary so I will miss out on it. I know I shouldn't bother trying considering there are way less scary games (System Shock 2 for one) that I couldn't deal with. Yes, I'm a wuss.

[ffc]

Perfect Amnesia clip. The only advertising it ever needs.

[Kail]

Perfect Amnesia clip. The only advertising it ever needs.

I suspect you might need some kind of special context to really get that, because I've never played the game, and I've seen a few of these "Dude playing amnesia freaks out over Ventrillo" videos and they all look absolutely retarded.

[rk47]

Before/after comparison from the Morrowind Better Bodies mod.


Look at the original Bosmer, second from the left on the top. What the fuck, I mean seriously.

http://morroblivion.com/?Repost



 

I think I might try this.

[WindupAtheist]

Awesome, reminds me of the Baldur's Gate Tutu mod. If you give it a go, let us know how well it works.

I made a dude in plain old Morrowind and quickly powered him up to level seventy-something with a few of the usual tricks, but haven't gone back to him since. I'm still poking around Daggerfall though. My dude is endgame as hell, level 23 and max rank in four different guilds, lycanthropy with the ring that lets him control it, etcetera. Still haven't touched the main quest, still in no hurry to do so. My latest distractions are binding ancient lich souls to daedric items to make gear that shits all over any artifact in the game, and all the dungeon crawling required to capture the required souls.

[Lantyssa]

That does look interesting.  I might have to try that.

[JWIV]

Morrowind was so damn good, especially compared to the fucking mess that Oblivion was.   This is really tempting to go back to. 

[Ironwood]

I'm so fucktastically bored it's not real.  I really want a nice multi-character dungeon crawler to enjoy.

Alas, I can't find one.

[Jeff Kelly]

I can't even remember if there were any new ones after Baldur's Gate.

[trias_e]

Patched Temple of Elemental Evil is quite good for a fun dungeon crawl if you haven't played it.

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_temple_of_elemental_evil

[Ironwood]

Tried that.  Was Punished for it.

I suspect I need something newish, something I haven't played before or the boredom of doing it AGAIN will kill me.

I have all the BG and IWD and NWN and all the rest, but I just want something fun, I don't give a toss if it's Ascii.

I was seriously considering getting out Lands of Lore or the Eye games, but I suspect I'd just be winding up for another rant...

[tgr]

Dwarf Fortress?