So, what're you playing?

[Xanthippe]

http://www.townsgame.com/

Picked this up the other day (thanks to Severian for plugging it in the Dwarf Fortress thread). It's a little indie game in alpha?beta? that is strangely intriguing.

I mined into a river and accidentally flooded my mine and killed 3 or 4 people (out of 11 that's a lot!). I didn't realize that trees regrow all by themselves.

[Sheepherder]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about Crysis and Farcry series because my rig was in no way up to them before.  Thanks.

Crysis is sort of incomprehensible bullshit.  On the other hand, it's pretty as all fuck and you can saw down trees with a machine gun.

[Ironwood]

Really ?

I found it easy to follow (if not believable at all, even before THE EVENTS) and, by fuck, it was pretty as hell and actually had some gameplay there.  If you actually put the effort in to muck about with the suit, you can pull of some cool shit.

Far Cry was Awesome.

[Sheepherder]

not believable at all

I suppose that's a more correct way to put it.  Everything just follows Michael Bay logic in that universe.

[Ironwood]

Yeah, can't argue with that.

Never did get to play the second one yet.

[Merusk]

I don't play games for the deep meaningful subtext and metaphor the developer tried so hard to invest into their design. I care even less if the world or story makes fuck all sense. (Rupies from pots! )  

All I care about is the game play.   Somewhere along the line people have started losing sight of that.

[Ironwood]

 

[Threash]

Can anyone recommend a newish party based rpg?

[Rasix]

Can anyone recommend a newish party based rpg?

jrpg or western style?

[Threash]

Western, more icewind dale than final fantasy.

[Rasix]

Have you tried Dragon Age 1?  It's about as close to the Infinity Engine series as you're going to get.  The NWN series aren't bad once you figure in the expansions.  Both base games are a bit assy.

Not a very well represented sub-genre nowadays. 

[Threash]

Yeah i beat the first dragon age and all the nwn games and expansions, i was hoping there was some hidden indy gems i hadn't even heard about.

[Rasix]

Drakensang is party based, isn't it?  I think it has a touch of the eurojankiness, however.

[Kail]

Haven't played it, but isn't Avadon supposed to be a throwback to this type of game?
edit:
Or Eschalon, though I haven't played that either.

[Margalis]

Western, more icewind dale than final fantasy.

Does anyone even make party-based RPGs any more?

Maybe try uh...Etrian Odyssey? It's made by a Japanese company but Japan has a weird thing going with Wizardry style games if that's your think. (Oddly enough after Wizardry died in the US it was still big in Japan and Japan still regularly puts out that style of game.)

[Sky]

Drakensang is party based, isn't it?  I think it has a touch of the eurojankiness, however.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[koro]

Avadon's not bad from what I've seen played and it even has the distinction of being a Jeff Vogel game that's not horribly overpriced.

Eschalon is also pretty fun, but it's not party-based. It's pretty unabashedly old-school, though, even down to having to having to spend an hour in chargen waiting for your dice-rolled stats to not be horrible (which is by design).

[Hawkbit]

http://www.townsgame.com/

Picked this up the other day (thanks to Severian for plugging it in the Dwarf Fortress thread). It's a little indie game in alpha?beta? that is strangely intriguing.

I mined into a river and accidentally flooded my mine and killed 3 or 4 people (out of 11 that's a lot!). I didn't realize that trees regrow all by themselves.

I just lost the last three hours to this game.  Not sure I want to play it again.  It's too much fun; I didn't get to play anything else!

[Velorath]

So I've decided my gaming Ennui requires a good, long-session shooter.  It's been a long time since I've played one. Any recommendations?  SP only, I don't give 2 fucks about multiplayer so that pretty much rules out any of the Battlefield or MOH series as I understand it.

Ghost Recon Future Soldier comes out in May I think.  Curious to see how that one turns out.

[tgr]

This particular playthrough of crusader kings 2 has been hilarious. I began as a pithy little earl in Desmond. I've now taken over the entirety of ireland, made myself king, and bitchslapped my vassals into behaving themselves instead of constantly bitchfighting amongst each other. That took one ruler's time once I started to get traction (or perhaps more likely, after I began to understand things a bit better), so now I'm just trying to save up to go to war against scotland. It can only end badly.

One stumbling block which I had to deal with rather messily, however, was the fact my first-born son was retarded, and my second bastard son turned out to be a dwarf. Assassinated the first son, left the bastard son a bastard son, knocked the wife up (she hates me at this point), she poops out twin sons, starts plotting my demise, at which point I throw her ass in the slammer.

I did do a run through without killing off the son, and England invaded me before i could say cake. Close call, that.

[Xanthippe]

http://www.townsgame.com/

Picked this up the other day (thanks to Severian for plugging it in the Dwarf Fortress thread). It's a little indie game in alpha?beta? that is strangely intriguing.

I mined into a river and accidentally flooded my mine and killed 3 or 4 people (out of 11 that's a lot!). I didn't realize that trees regrow all by themselves.

I just lost the last three hours to this game.  Not sure I want to play it again.  It's too much fun; I didn't get to play anything else!

My entire mine flooded so I began anew. Stay away from mining near water; there is no way to stop a flood.

[Ironwood]

It was way too rough for me.  I may try again when I'm not so ill.

[Velorath]

This particular playthrough of crusader kings 2 has been hilarious. I began as a pithy little earl in Desmond. I've now taken over the entirety of ireland, made myself king, and bitchslapped my vassals into behaving themselves instead of constantly bitchfighting amongst each other. That took one ruler's time once I started to get traction (or perhaps more likely, after I began to understand things a bit better), so now I'm just trying to save up to go to war against scotland. It can only end badly.

One stumbling block which I had to deal with rather messily, however, was the fact my first-born son was retarded, and my second bastard son turned out to be a dwarf. Assassinated the first son, left the bastard son a bastard son, knocked the wife up (she hates me at this point), she poops out twin sons, starts plotting my demise, at which point I throw her ass in the slammer.

I did do a run through without killing off the son, and England invaded me before i could say cake. Close call, that.

You may have just sold me on this game.

[tgr]

Caveat: The UI is ass, the tutorials are ass, and there are still tons of nuances I don't fathom the implications of yet, but situations like that, especially when I manage to defuse it, is hilarious.

The thing about switching from one ruler to another, however, does suck. I need to figure out the best way to setup the next heir so I don't end up like I did not long after the last generation change, where I got invaded by 2 or 3 different parties at once. And, of course, I hadn't built up any part of the counties at all, so I'm probably going to redo the Desmund guy from scratch, see how that turns out with a little bit more experience under the belt.

[Chimpy]

Civilization V was on super sale on steam today. Picked it up. First Civ game I have ever played.

I was planning on doing my taxes tonight as it is my one day off....but I played Civ for 6 hours straight.

Sigh

[Sky]

http://www.townsgame.com/

Played this for a few hours on and off yesterday, trying to get through the tutorials. Definitely alpha software, but it does have some kind of pull.

With a bit of help from the poorly-laid out wiki I was able to get close to the end of the last one, but for some reason couldn't dig down to the 3rd level. By that time I had finally gotten a self-sufficient farm going (thanks to a nearby apple orchard saving my butt a couple times) and weathered a 'siege' (more of an attack, really) by spiders (which didn't count toward the tutorial goal).

[Thrawn]

My wife wanted to try a Harvest Moon game, so I picked her up Animal Parade for Wii cheap and it got here Friday.  Then I ended up putting at least 8 hours into it myself over the weekend. 

[Mrbloodworth]

We own every single version of Harvest moon. Some are better than others. Animal Parade is not the best, but its certainly better than the special edition ( A wonderful life ).

[Bann]

Which is the best? I've got someone in mind that I think would really enjoy this style of game.

[Mrbloodworth]

Harvest Moon: Back to Nature, Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility.

Or

Rune Factory series, which is a spin off, less farming, more dungeons than any others.

My personal pick is Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland, or the original.

Avoid Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, its pure ass on a technical ( Load screens galore, horrible frame rates, shitty art direction ) and fun level. Most of the hand held versions are also avoidable.

[Hawkbit]

I played Rune Factory: Frontier on Wii.  I had to stop myself, almost called my sponsor.  That said, I've been wanting to check out the RF for the PS3... Tides of Destiny I think?

[Sheepherder]

I don't play games for the deep meaningful subtext and metaphor the developer tried so hard to invest into their design. I care even less if the world or story makes fuck all sense. (Rupies from pots! )  

All I care about is the game play.   Somewhere along the line people have started losing sight of that.

Look, there's a difference between an acceptable level of derp and dragging an alien horror back to your aircraft carrier so you can have the ultimate mechacthulu showdown with it.

But even so, the gameplay of Crysis just isn't that good.

[Xanthippe]

http://www.townsgame.com/

Played this for a few hours on and off yesterday, trying to get through the tutorials. Definitely alpha software, but it does have some kind of pull.

With a bit of help from the poorly-laid out wiki I was able to get close to the end of the last one, but for some reason couldn't dig down to the 3rd level. By that time I had finally gotten a self-sufficient farm going (thanks to a nearby apple orchard saving my butt a couple times) and weathered a 'siege' (more of an attack, really) by spiders (which didn't count toward the tutorial goal).

Maybe you have to kill the Spider Queen before you can get to the next level?

I just opened the Goblin level. It's a lot harder than Spider was.

[Sky]

How much lateral digging did you do? I didn't want to send the drones out so far they'd start getting hungry and tired and just spend all their time running back and forth.

[Yegolev]

G.C. Impostors has fizzled out so we are back to Borderlands.  The sessions generally consist of us being assholes, especially with vehicles, while doing quests for whichever character isn't yet on play 2.

I also played some Dark Souls again.  Pyro at lv41 or something, using Black Knight Sword and Stone armor.  Finally went into Blighttown, using the front door since I was told that I could get a pyro thingy and a big shield.  Fortunately this game is easier than the first one.