So, what're you playing?

[jakonovski]

I just beat Ass Creed Bro Ho. It was pretty good, but the recycling of assets was really really bad. Basically it was a repetitive game sandwiched between a good start and a great ending.

Now I'm going to play three games I had waited to go on sale: Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and Red Dead Redemption. They all gave extremely good first impressions (I like to "sample" every game I buy right away, even if it's for five minutes). I'm on vacation too so I will actually have time to play them.

[Malakili]

All the talk about star wars combat in the TOR thread got me to reinstall Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, having lots of fun slicing my way through the game again.

[MisterNoisy]

Started L.A. Noire.  Having fun with it so far, but I can see how it could get really tiresome if you're inclined to restart over and over to 100% everything.

Also finally fired up Just Cause 2 on my TVPC with all the visual settings maxed and my god, it's full of stars...

[Yegolev]

Started L.A. Noire.  Having fun with it so far, but I can see how it could get really tiresome if you're inclined to restart over and over to 100% everything.

I redid the initial tutorial case, after which I uncharacteristically decided to just cruise through to the end and let the chips fall where they fall.

[Amarr HM]

Just finished RDR (100% completion), it's probably the best game I've ever played & first time I've felt inclined to 100% a Rockstar game (closest before that was Vice City). I just loved exploring the different landscapes, really captivated by that part of American history.

[Azazel]

I probably would have shot for the same but the gambling mini-games put me off.

[rk47]

Still playing Privateer.  It's interesting to see how design philosophies have changed over the years. 

I wanted to buy a new ship, but couldn't find the price.  Not in the game, not in the manual, I even checked gameFAQs and got nada.  So I just kept doing missions until finally the guy would take my money and bought a new ship.  He said he'd take my old ship in trade-in, which is fine with me, and I'd even have a few credits left over.  Score!  The catch is, after I bought it I discovered the new ship has almost nothing on it.  No weapons, no shields, no armor of any sort (which I'd assumed were standard since the starter ship had them).  So, one hit from anything and I die instantly, I don't have afterburners to run away, nor guns or missiles to fight back.  And the "few credits left over" is about 1000, not enough to even do a full cargo run.  So I'm scrambling around between an agricultural planet and a mining planet with a hold half full of iron trying to make a few hundred credits profit.  Much merriment at the save/load screen is being had.

It's kind of frustrating, but at the same time, kind of a refreshing change from a modern game where you wouldn't be able to gimp yourself like this.

Turn off the speech and he'll tell you how many credits you have left...It's the speech limitations, I guess.
I think overall, a fully souped Orion will pack enough punch for piracy and bounty hunting missions. Just pick those missions against retros and enjoy ramming-speed encounters. :)

[WindupAtheist]

I saw reference somewhere to the long-forgotten Ultima: Runes of Virtue and decided to give it a go out of curiosity. Or more specifically, the SNES port of the sequel, the originals having been Game Boy games. It's this daft little Ultima-themed Zelda wannabe that really amuses me for some reason. Mostly because it completely declines to take itself seriously. Cutscenes with the game's antagonist "the Black Knight" running around going "Nyah ha ha!" and kidnapping people, idle animations that have Mariah popping gum and Shamino playing with a yo-yo, things like that.

Yet in certain ways it's oddly authentic. Sherry the mouse, Nystul, etcetera are Lord British's castle, and in fact all of the town NPCs are taken from Ultima 6. That weirdly specific attention to detail combined with the game's silly attitude have kept me playing, even though objectively the control is a bit clunky and the graphics could be better.

EDIT: Man I can actually nail down almost exactly where in the timeline this takes place. In U6 you meet a young woman in Skara Brae named Marney, whose father Quenton has been murdered. In this goofy console game you meet a little girl named Marney in Skara, and sure enough there's an NPC named Quenton walking around. I lurve this sort of shit.

[Azazel]

I've been playing around with WWE All-Stars in the last couple of days. Despite the terrible-looking, disporoportional action-figure-based avatars in the game, it's actually.. well, actually, it's not very good. It's nostalgic, and could be fun, and the contorls are simpler than the overly-complex ones that have evolved in the main Smackdown series, but the AI cheats like a motherfucker once you get to the harder matches, just blocking and reversing all of your moves, and even kicking out of your finishers. I know these games are best played as Party Games, but you have to do a hung bunch of shit in thegame to unlock all of the characters and costumes, which are what would make those 1-on-1 matches with a friend more fun. I got it breand new reeeealy cheap, so I'm not that pissed off, but I am annoyed. I'm not sure if I'll shelf it, give it away to someone, or try to persevere.

Also played around a bit with Marvel vs Capcom. Brilliant looking game. Really need a friend who's interested in these fighting games to make them worthwhile, though. I used to have friends into them in the past, back int he SNES, and PS1 days, and a bit into the PS2 days, and so I keep buying these games out of a kind of nostalgia, even though I no longer have anyone to come around and play them with....

Played a little bit of Steam-F2P Champions Online yesterday. Damn that character creator is fun. The game is a bit MMO-Samey, but whatever.

[Sjofn]

Doing my second to last ME2 playthrough! Sally Shepard is finally getting around to saving the galaxy. <3

[Sky]

I don't think I could run the CO newbie gauntlet again, especially with a restricted character. Tried, might try again, but meh.

Been mostly getting in some of the amazing Amnesia in the dark times.

And surprisingly, I've started another game of FFH2.

[Rendakor]

Just finished InFamous for the first time; played through on Hard as Evil. The final boss was pretty brutal, and the ending twist was pretty good. I'm debating a second playthrough as little goody two-shoes before picking up the sequel, but I might just find a write-up online.

[Xilren's Twin]

For father's day my boys got me the new Magc the Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 which is an improvement over the first game.  While you still cannot fully edit the decks you get, this time at least you can remove any non land card as you add your unlockables to stay at 60 total.  Course, unless you know that the game auto adds the unlockable plus adds lands at about a 2:1 ratio, so one my boys fully unlocked a deck and when i looked at it, it have 83 cards....  Time for a quick deck building lesson.  The artwork is gorgeous and some of the new playmodes are fun.  Archenemy mode is a 3 vs 1 where the AE has 40 life, and every turn draws a "scheme" card which can have quite powerful effects such as "destroy any 3 permanents" or "search your library for any creater or put any creature from your hand into play" or "untap all opponents creatures and gain control of them until the end of the turn; they have haste".   You can either play with 2 AI's vs the ArchE, or can multiplayer online with 2 other people vs the AE.  So once again, not true magic, but a fun game for magic fans, especially for the low price.

Also been playing Heroes of MMV: tribes of the east expansion.  Adds the Orcs and Dwarf races, who each have their own magic style rather than just spells.  Orcs have a blood rage mechanic for all units which grants them bonus for hitting rage levels.  Earn rage from damages and kills, lose it from taking damage or waiting/defending.  Blood rage acts like a damage absorber as well which makes the orcs tougher.  Orc heroes have shouts (warcries) instead of spells, primarily that pump morale and rage.  Dwarves have rune magic, which can provide creature buffs in exchane for resources used, plus they can use regular spells.  All races get a 2nd upgrade creature choice for every creature in the game, so there are a lot of new creatures and abilities to play with.

$10 for either game: go go bargin gaming!  Thanks Steam

[HaemishM]

I bought the Magic 2012 game as well. It is a vast improvement over the first game, which was already decent. The Archenemy game with human allies is pretty damn fun. You can also set up 4-player free-for-all with other players, as well as 1-on-1's. If you like Magic at all, it's worth the $10 bucks.

[Malakili]

I bought the Magic 2012 game as well. It is a vast improvement over the first game, which was already decent. The Archenemy game with human allies is pretty damn fun. You can also set up 4-player free-for-all with other players, as well as 1-on-1's. If you like Magic at all, it's worth the $10 bucks.

How much deck building can you do with it?

[Ingmar]

Yeah that's my question too, can you actually remove cards from the pre-built decks when you add ones you unlock?

[jakonovski]

I'm in FPS heaven with FEAR 2 and Bulletstorm.

Playstation Plus had the old Duels of the Planeswalkers for free, so I d/led it, but I've only playing cardboard M:tG. I made a green deck for which I need a full set of Natural Orders. I have only one, and the cheapest I've been able to find is about 40 euros for 3. But it's such a nice card. Other than that, I'm trying out a silly Izzet-Magnivore thing.

[Druzil]

Yeah that's my question too, can you actually remove cards from the pre-built decks when you add ones you unlock?

Yes, you can remove any of the base cards and/or unlock cards but you can't tweak your land or mix decks.

[Yegolev]

How does that work when playing more than one color?

[HaemishM]

Like Xilren said, you can take cards out of the deck as long as you are eligible to play with that deck (i.e. you've unlocked it - you start with 2 decks and can unlock up to 10 in the SP campaigns). I'm not sure if there's a floor - like I don't know if you can make 40 card decks or if 60 is the least you can play with. You also can't control the number of land cards - those are automatically put in by the game, so the ratio of land to color cards is out of your hands. And you can only use the cards that come in the deck so it's like a preconstructed deck with certain unlock cards. You can't mix cards from multiple decks.

[Ingmar]

That's still better than the prior version - you couldn't take any cards out, all you could do was add the unlocks, so you were eventually playing with a 75 card deck or whatever.

[Yegolev]

What a shitpile.

[Amaron]

Yea that's total shit.   I've always wanted to play a decent MTG computer game.  The whole allure of it is building decks out of a bunch of cards though.   That seems to be the one feature they are dead set against putting in.

[Ingmar]

I'm sure they don't want to put something out that will step on MTG:O's toes.

[HaemishM]

It's a $10 game that lets you play Magic over the Internet with or against your Steam friends. I get more than $10 value out of the package.

[Strazos]

Shit, I bit on this...and bought copies for two of my friends as well.

Hit me up on Steam if you feel like playing at some point.

[Malakili]

Yea that's total shit.   I've always wanted to play a decent MTG computer game.  The whole allure of it is building decks out of a bunch of cards though.   That seems to be the one feature they are dead set against putting in.

The problem is Magic is a cash cow from selling cards, if you could have the whole experience for 10 bucks, their entire market would crash.

[Rokal]

Duels of the Planeswalkers is vastly more attractive than the money pit that is MTG:O. The fact that virtual cards cost the same amount as physical cards is laughable, and always has been. Duels doesn't let you edit decks much, but it has a few things going for it that MTG:O doesn't:

-single player and co-op campaigns vs. AI.
-'challenges' where you are given a specific situation on the battlefield and specific cards, and are asked how you can win the game in a turn (or sometimes two).
-straight-forward progression for decks by unlocking cards
-achievements (if that's your thing)
-$$$

Honestly, it's $10 for a really competent MTG game that has a ton of content and has multiplayer. That's less than the cost for one round of drafting with MTG:O, or 1 pre-constructed deck.

Yeah, you can't edit the decks much, so it's more like playing with pre-constructed decks than building your own. There is still plenty of fun in that. It also keeps the game from getting too stale, ironically, since there is no 'best deck' that can be built with the available cards. Any deck can win if you play it well and aren't unlucky.

[Malakili]

Duels of the Planeswalkers is vastly more attractive than the money pit that is MTG:O. The fact that virtual cards cost the same amount as physical cards is laughable, and always has been. Duels doesn't let you edit decks much, but it has a few things going for it that MTG:O doesn't:

-single player and co-op campaigns vs. AI.
-'challenges' where you are given a specific situation on the battlefield and specific cards, and are asked how you can win the game in a turn (or sometimes two).
-straight-forward progression for decks by unlocking cards
-achievements (if that's your thing)
-$$$

Honestly, it's $10 for a really competent MTG game that has a ton of content and has multiplayer. That's less than the cost for one round of drafting with MTG:O, or 1 pre-constructed deck.

Yeah, you can't edit the decks much, so it's more like playing with pre-constructed decks than building your own. There is still plenty of fun in that. It also keeps the game from getting too stale, ironically, since there is no 'best deck' that can be built with the available cards. Any deck can win if you play it well and aren't unlucky.

Yeah, I remember when MTG:O came out I actually thought it was a joke at first when I saw the prices of virtual cards...

In any event, I'll probably get this if any of my old MTG friends buy it, but I'm not super itching to play on my own, so I'll hold off.

[Rokal]

There is also a demo for it on Steam, so it's fairly easy to figure out if it's something you'd be interested in. I had given up on MTG maybe 5-6 years ago since I was tired of spending, at minimum, $10 every week (drafting) and only having piles of cards taking up space to show for it. It was just too damn expensive, and I didn't even want the cards after I was done drafting. Duels of the Planeswalkers was a blast though, and it only cost me $10 for probably about 70 hours of gameplay between the campaign, challenges, and matches vs. my friends or even random people online.

[Strazos]

But But But, you can have Wizards send you physical cards if you amass a full set!

[Xilren's Twin]

There is also a demo for it on Steam, so it's fairly easy to figure out if it's something you'd be interested in. I had given up on MTG maybe 5-6 years ago since I was tired of spending, at minimum, $10 every week (drafting) and only having piles of cards taking up space to show for it. It was just too damn expensive, and I didn't even want the cards after I was done drafting. Duels of the Planeswalkers was a blast though, and it only cost me $10 for probably about 70 hours of gameplay between the campaign, challenges, and matches vs. my friends or even random people online.

Much like you, I am a MtG fan and would love to play regularly, but there's no way i can justify spending the money to play standard, or even regular drafts, with either MTGO/paper magic.  I'm a former customer that has simply been priced out of it, despite me having much more disposable income than 20 years ago when i learned to play magic for the first time.  Priorities are quite different now.  If someone would make a magic game that opens up more of the magic world (deck building, drafts, regular matches) for something like a monthly mmo fee instead of the bs paper pricing, i suspect it would be very popular...which is why they wont do it.  Fear of undercutting their paper market has led to all kinds of stupid decisions.  I think they hope games like the Duels will act like a gateway drug to get people to gravitate towards "real" magic.  I do not think they will be nearly as successful at that transition as they hope. Jerks.

[Hawkbit]

Making a push to finish InFamous 1, late to the game I know.  Playing through as Hero. 

Got to the part where I was given the choice to save a bunch of people or my girlfriend.  So I chose to save the GF and got dinged for being evil.   

We spent time on this issue in my philosophy classes and we always came back to the point that sheer numbers don't make up for connections between people.  Disappointed in their choice on this one.

[jakonovski]

MTGO is not that bad. You can get a perfectly good deck for well under 20 tickets (ie. dollars). This Pro Tour deck for example (as long as you drop the Mox Opals).

[Kail]

Got to the part [on InFamous] where I was given the choice to save a bunch of people or my girlfriend.  So I chose to save the GF and got dinged for being evil.   

We spent time on this issue in my philosophy classes and we always came back to the point that sheer numbers don't make up for connections between people.  Disappointed in their choice on this one.

Connections between people translates into morality how?  Morality is based on the idea of impartiality, that you could put anyone in that situation and there would be the same "right" and "wrong" moral choice regardless of who they were boning.  Otherwise, it just gets too subjective, like if killing someone becomes more wrong the closer you are to them, then that would logically make it morally more justified to kill someone if you don't care about them, which sends up all kinds of red flags.

But what's really weird is that this exact choice is the first moral dilemma you face in Fable 3: save your Girlfriend or save a crowd of other people.