So, what're you playing?

[proudft]

Starcraft.

Aw, not Supreme Commander?  

I have been dabbling in Borderlands, which looks way better than the other cell-shaded thing I tried (Champions Online) that put me off that whole style for quite a while.  

Also dabbling in Mount & Blade: Warbands, though THULSA DOOM the smart and persuasive dude is having a rough go of it.  He is only just barely able to hold an army together through the inevitable bandit attacks around day 150 or so.  Guess that's why he turns into a dick.

But the last couple evenings have largely been spent on the hilarious Kerbal Space Program (not particularly hard to find at http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/).

As soon as Minecraft 1.8 comes out, all bets are off.

[Rendakor]

Finally got a couple characters to 9999 in Disgaea 3; debating if I want to start maximizing some items for them and go for all the trophies (like The Ten Billion Damage Man  ) or just fuck around with other things until D4 comes out.

[Kageru]

Just started Dues Ex (the original) for the first time. I bought it at a steam sale promising myself I should play this classic and the new release gave me the motivation. Downloaded a DX10 rendered and the "New Vision" texture pack (which is twice as large as the entire game) and it actually looks quite good. Eminently playable.

Sneaking around a map that is more than a pretty linear corridor, some awesome scripting on the game events, it's still actually quite impressive.

[Fabricated]

Beat Deus Ex 3 in like 3-4 days, it was that good.

Now I'm waiting for Torchlight 2, provided the devs pull their thumbs from their asses and give a date. I don't think this happening however since their 4th and final class (ember mage) doesn't seem to be done baking yet.

[Arinon]

Just started Dues Ex (the original) for the first time. I bought it at a steam sale promising myself I should play this classic and the new release gave me the motivation. Downloaded a DX10 rendered and the "New Vision" texture pack (which is twice as large as the entire game) and it actually looks quite good. Eminently playable.

I'm doing the exact same thing.  Never played the original but wanted to before booting up the new one.  Awesome game and I think I'm almost finished.  Still like System Shock 2 better but that game's graphics haven't aged as well.

[Goreschach]

System Shock 2's graphics didn't age poorly. They were always shit.

[Talpidae]

I'm the biggest SS2 fan you'll ever find and have to say that this is entirely true.

Much like Deus Ex though, it wasn't really about Graphics.

(dug out my DE walkthrough guide the other day.  Cripes, the models are just laughable now DEHR is here...)

[tgr]

DX1's models were laughable even back then, but I didn't care (and I still don't).

[Talpidae]

That was my point.

Hell, the original Hitman had odd physics, but I've never played a game that gave me so much satisfaction in pumping tons of bullets into prostitutes.

[jakonovski]

That was my point.

Hell, the original Hitman had odd physics, but I've never played a game that gave me so much satisfaction in pumping tons of bullets into prostitutes.

o_O

[Lantyssa]

He's just saying no other game has compared to doing it in RL.

[rk47]

Finally loaded up Deus Ex: Human Robocop. I snuck around a few levels...and got bored. It didn't feel particularly rewarding nor engaging to me. And the final straw was when I convinced the cops to let me go into the morgue...i decided to explore some air vents...and emerged in an interrogation room. I thought 'heh, the AI should react realistically..they'd probably shoot me on sight.' I saved game, opened the vent...and out I go. Nothing. No reaction.

"Move along."

  Fuck this shit. I restarted and just killed everything.

[WayAbvPar]

My friend has been hammering on me to play more Fallout 3, so I tried it again 10 days ago or so, and kept getting freezes. Launched it through an old Steam shortcut (I bought a physical copy back in the day), and got to play 45 minutes or so (until i had to go watch my kid to make sure he didn't drown himself in the bathtub) with nary a crash. LOTS of deaths though. I am starting to remember why I quit playing in the first place- the interface is fucking painful. Are there any mods that make it less console-y?

[Lucas]

Coming late to the party, but I must say I'm quite enjoying the first Crysis. At least up to where I'm now in the game, I'm especially surprised by the "stealth" approach, I didn't expect to be that useful. Very good game, IMO.

[HaemishM]

Finally finished Mass Effect 2, and thought I would try out the free copy of Rifts that a buddy of mine got me at GenCon. Instead, I got the new Madden NFL 12 for the 360 and started a summoner on League of Legends. So I'll be LoLing and playing football in between bouts of the Wrath of Heroes beta, Rift of Immortals beta, FIFA 11 (and 12 when it comes out), Football Manager 11 and one day I'll return to the Final Fantasy XIII playthrough I started, and the Fallout 3 Broken Steel DLC pack.

[Sky]

Every year this time makes me jones for a console...I miss playing football.

[HaemishM]

I miss NFL 2kX. Madden is decent but nothing compares to that series.

[Lucas]

Tsk tsk. TV Sports Football by Cinemaware 

[WayAbvPar]

Finally finished Mass Effect 2, and thought I would try out the free copy of Rifts that a buddy of mine got me at GenCon. Instead, I got the new Madden NFL 12 for the 360 and started a summoner on League of Legends. So I'll be LoLing and playing football in between bouts of the Wrath of Heroes beta, Rift of Immortals beta, FIFA 11 (and 12 when it comes out), Football Manager 11 and one day I'll return to the Final Fantasy XIII playthrough I started, and the Fallout 3 Broken Steel DLC pack.

You need to pick up NHL 12 and come play some internet hockeys. Comes out on the 13th...

[Trippy]

Tsk tsk. TV Sports Football by Cinemaware 

NFL Challenge.

[Sky]

Tsk tsk. TV Sports Football by Cinemaware 

NFL Challenge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnvs5B_8ISo

[Malakili]

Was talking to a friend about Diablo 3, and got the urge to play an ARPG, so reinstalled Torchlight and fired up a new Hardcore Vanquisher.  Now level 8, we'll see how long she lasts.

[NowhereMan]

My friend has been hammering on me to play more Fallout 3, so I tried it again 10 days ago or so, and kept getting freezes. Launched it through an old Steam shortcut (I bought a physical copy back in the day), and got to play 45 minutes or so (until i had to go watch my kid to make sure he didn't drown himself in the bathtub) with nary a crash. LOTS of deaths though. I am starting to remember why I quit playing in the first place- the interface is fucking painful. Are there any mods that make it less console-y?

I've not used any of these and if you're utterly opposed to research this won't help but there's probably something that will suit you here.

Having just basically used mods to rebuild Morrowind to something that looks pretty decent (though still has sucky combat), it's pretty impressive how much stuff you can change with mods in Bethesda games.

[trias_e]

Was talking to a friend about Diablo 3, and got the urge to play an ARPG, so reinstalled Torchlight and fired up a new Hardcore Vanquisher.  Now level 8, we'll see how long she lasts.

This made me start up.  VH/HC lightning bomb vanquisher.  Everything went fine until I got 1 shotted at level 15.  Oops.  Need to grind more next time.

[Rendakor]

Speaking of mods, just installed the YogBox pack of mods for minecraft and going to start a fresh world to hold me over 'til 1.8 comes out.

[Minvaren]

Made several more hours progress through DA:O over the last day or two.   Characters all over level 10.  Steam still shows 117 minutes total played.   

[Azazel]

I picked up Catherine yesterday. Fun game. I'm playing while the wife is asleep so I can really get into it.

Does that count as cheating?

[Quinton]

Finally fired up Mass Effect 2.  Whee.

[stu]

I picked up Catherine yesterday. Fun game. I'm playing while the wife is asleep so I can really get into it.

Does that count as cheating?

Bizarre Love Rectangle

[jakonovski]

I finished both the Witcher 2 and Deus Ex HR. It's been a pretty good Sunday.

[Ingmar]

I finished both the Witcher 2 and Deus Ex HR. It's been a pretty good Sunday.

We should have a rule about putting those in the same sentence.

[jakonovski]

I finished both the Witcher 2 and Deus Ex HR. It's been a pretty good Sunday.

We should have a rule about putting those in the same sentence.

I thought they were pretty much equal. Witcher 2 has more bugs but also better voice acting and a forking path that requires another playthrough to experience fully (yay for width in content).

[Azazel]

A bit of scattershot gaming from me for the past month or so. Been going through a nightmare of work and study, so not much most nights. I had a week's free WoW from a "come back to firelands" promotion, so I played around doing dailies in Icecrown for a week and finally got that argent Squire Pony Bridle. A little LotRO, but again, mostly 10 mins worth of dailies (turning a couple of mirrors in Moria).

As far as actually playing stuff, grinded (ground?) through the Circle of Duty missions in the Borderlands Knoxx DLC, did about four missions in Prototype tonight - and I seem to be past that shitty tank mission that stopped me from playing the game anymore? I wish I could remember how to play properly, though. Got my PS3 going again. By buying a new one. Played a checkpoint's worth of Splatterhourse. A friend bought me FEAR 3, so I played an hour's worth of that (pretty good so far, but it's just a shooter) but then it made me realise I really needed to go back and finish the Reborn DLC for FEAR 2. Did another L4D2 campaign (The Passing) in Friday night co-op (which featured much shouting at one another). Also played a bit of that Space Marine demo on both 360 and PC, to decide which version I'm going for..

[Ingmar]

I finished both the Witcher 2 and Deus Ex HR. It's been a pretty good Sunday.

We should have a rule about putting those in the same sentence.

I thought they were pretty much equal. Witcher 2 has more bugs but also better voice acting and a forking path that requires another playthrough to experience fully (yay for width in content).

Witcher 2 is the worst game I've bought since Elemental. At least for games I bought at release.

[tgr]

Been playing a bit of deus ex hr, up until the first boss. I'm going to have to go back and pick up the typhoon and just cheeze that motherfucker, because my character is NOT setup for combat at all. In fact, it's pissed me off the last week or so because I keep making the mistake of actually trying to take him down without cheezing him.

Done a bit of borderlands with a friend. Awful UI for connecting directly to a machine when it doesn't find it on the LAN search. More or less meh at this point, I think Serious Sam 3'll be a better coop game.

Moved on to looking around at various strategy games, including a "new" 4x called Distant Worlds. Looks seriously promising except for 1 thing: it has shit performance. Granted, it's programmed in C#, and I run it at 2560x1600, but so is AI War and that runs awesomely. DW struggles when the game is freshly started and paused, with one core being fully utilized and the other cores doing fuck-all. Zooming in and out is funny, it seems to zoom out, draw the next frame, then skip 0.1s of drawing and 3-4 frames, then continue as if nothing untowards happened. The FPS cap doesn't work, so even if I tell it to cap at 20fps, it keeps going up towards 55fps. This is if I'm zooming in on nothing in particular, if I zoom all the way out on a properly developed galaxy (with nothing but the planets, outposts and system links showing), it grinds to 10fps or less. I'm going to have to ask them what the fuck, because this just isn't working. Single-threaded, incredibly wasteful at idle, etc.

Next attempt: Star Ruler. Previous time I tried this game, pressing R twice crashed it consistently, and just letting 2-4 AIs slug it out crashed it after less than 6 hours. I let it run with 4 AIs and 1500 solar systems overnight, and while it was grinding down to an awesome 3-4fps towards the end, at least it didn't crash, so that's something. Don't like the navigational UI much, though, but I've only just begun. And, it properly utilizes all 4 cores, so there's that.

Failing that, I'm not sure what other detailed pausable real-time space empire building games with a fairly okay economics simulation there are out there, but I'm desperately looking for one. Hell, I'm working with a friend who's building one, but that's probably a few years in the future as it's done in our spare time.