F4T C4T

So, I've been trying to finish this game over the past year and I've finally given up. I was enjoying it at first but since the Dwarven city (which I did after the Mage's and the Elves), I think I've had my fill. I cannot be bothered to finish it. That's still almost 80 hours I've put in though so I'm not bothered about abandoning it. I realised I was just trying to get to the end without enjoying anything I was doing. The combat was too easy on medium and far too much for me on hard and I think that has been a big factor throughout, I swapped constantly to start with, wanting a bit more challenge but then settled on the easier option just to make progress. It just wasn't satisfying though. I got fed up of the encounters and I wasn't really into the story anymore or any of the characters because of the protracted amount of time it's taken me to get through it. That's a hard one as partly it's me not having the time or making the time for it but I also feel the pacing is far too slow. Another thing that got to me was all the weapons/armour and loot in general I was finding. As a Dalish Elven Rogue I hadn't found anything better that the armour I started with due to the set bonus and and pieces of armour I saved up took valuable space in the inventory forcing me to purge them on occasion (especially as I was saving some for other characters not with me as well) and the daggers I had from a few hours in hadn't been surpassed either (one was from some bonus content I believe). Not much changed for the other characters either. I'd not long bought Awakenings as it was on sale and recommended by RPS a while back but I don't think I'll bother now. Instead, I had The Witcher sitting dormant for ages (again, it was on sale!) so I decided to install it and see if it's just RPG's in general I'm fed up of. After a pretty silly intro cutscene, the start already has far better characterisation and dialog in my opinion. The conversations feel a bit more natural than what I've experienced in DA so far. Having said that I felt pretty good about everything in Dragon Age at the beginning so it might be the length of these things that are killing me. Maybe I just have to accept that I just can't devote the time to get through them while the excitement remains.

I read a bit more about this in the latest copy of Edge. I'm wary of the extra difficulty having not got far into Demon's Souls but I enjoyed every last minute of it. So as long as they have all the rest of the ingredients in there, I'll still enjoy getting my arse kicked. Also, I'm so pleased it's coming out on 360. I broke up from a long term relationship a couple of months ago and had to make concessions on the joint ownership of the PS3. I got the 360 instead. I still hung on to my copy of Demon's Souls though!

Hey, loving the posts you've put up Squid. They have been teasing me at work as I moved house and had no gaming PC set up for a few weeks. I was going to try to resist this latest Total War purely because I felt I still hadn't got my fill of Napoleon but I caved last weekend and will shortly be joining you in the east! So much for willpower. I've joined the clan group on Steam and I'll be installing this evening if anyone's around.

I probably won't be getting Shogun 2 any time soon but I wanted to register my interest! I'll join the Thumbhammers group. Also, I have all the others since Rome (bar some expansions) if anyone wants a match in another era. TW games are a staple part of my gaming diet, I always end up going back to them over and over but I've never managed an online game in all these years. The few times I've summoned the courage I've been thwarted by my internet connection.

Chris should play . It features his ancestors.

Hey, I couldn't see this posted anywhere here yet so I thought I'd put it up in case anyone is interested: http://gamedesignadvance.com/?p=2330 Steve talks about his design philosophies and Minerva's Den and stuff. I found it pretty interesting. I'm really going to have to bump Bioshock 2 and in turn Minerva's Den up a few notches in my back catalog! Extra entertainment comes from the frenetic jazz music in the background. Nice.

I've been playing this local co-op for the past couple of days with my girlfriend. Loving it so far! I'd love to get a 4 player session with some Thumbs going if anyone's up for it? There's been a few patches now so maybe it'll be worth a shot? I've only encountered 1 CTD and a couple of minor issues locally which considering the online comments I was pretty pleased with.

Ridiculous title I know, but this is a nice little masochistic 8bit platformer on XBLIG with a La Mulana/Spelunky vibe going on. It also reminds me of Limbo in it's 'teach you by killing you' style of level design (that'll probably make some of you hate it already). The idea is you have 1000 lives to (presumably) complete the entire game and boy do you go through them quick at times! The goal of each level is simply to collect the key for the door then get there. It boils down to memorising the level at the end of the day but they surprise you in devious ways and have a bit of puzzle solving going on with pushable blocks and the like to keep you interested. So far none have stumped me too much but then again I'm not too far into it yet. They also include the option to skip stages as well (despite scolding you for it in the tutorial). It's dead cheap so if you like this kind of thing I recommend checking it out: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Aban-Hawkins-the-1000-SPIKES/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d80258550780 I'm really liking these little games from 8bits Fanatics (previous one was Tempura of the Dead, another 8 bit platformer with some interesting mechanics. Although it didn't engage me as much as this one has). I hope they continue to put stuff like this out on XBLIG.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll try them out when I get a chance. I've got another couple of XBLIG trials lined up to try out as well but I really want to go back to Aban. I love the atmosphere. I've reached the 3rd chapter now. Also, due to a combination of a crappy monitor with broken speakers and laziness I've been playing it on a small SDTV which actually adds a lot to the visual aesthetic! Oh, and after a bit of searching on the internets I'm under the impression 8 bits fanatics is just one guy. Cool dude.

Have you had a chance to play it yet twmac? I haven't had much time myself but I have managed to claw myself somewhere into the 2nd chapter. There are more moving things about now and I'm still being surprised by places that spikes can come from.

Almost over. The last two blighted goblins should be crushed by my Dwarves in about an hour. I definitely made a lot of mistakes throughout the game and I only started to realise some of them once it was all coming to an end so I'm keen to get into another game and see if I've learnt anything! Props to you all for a great co-op experience though, much more pleasant than Neptune's Pride.

I enjoyed the write up twmac. I'm fine with you doing more and taking pics. I felt like I started to get a foothold in my area recently and then some nasty surges of undead activity occurred very close by! I'm struggling with getting a decent attacking force together to clear them out. My 100 strong treeman brigade is now licking it's wounds at 16. At least Ethos seems to be doing better on the offensive front.

I have a couple of questions I couldn't see answered in the tutorial. What happens when you attack a place with more than one army? Do you fight both? Does it work out 1 then the other or both combined? The reason I haven't attacked much is because I've never felt I could over come multiple armies at the places around me. Also, can I move an army through another players territory without taking it as my own? I agree with the need for a wiki CaptainFish.

I had grand plans to take down the biggest hordes near me a few days ago. What actually happened is that things significantly changed during my down time and now I'm left with a poor economy and forced into a defensive stance. I just can't seem to gather the right forces in the right area. My only only hope at the moment is my soon to be hunted 100 strong treeman force. Hopefully they'll survive well enough to launch an attack on those damn trolls.

@twmac: I was under the impression a province was a named location but I could be wrong. I'll sort my finances out this evening and see if I can help anyone out with some spare coinage. Edit (just read your post above): Don't say that! I'm already itching to sneak out of work a few minutes early!

I haven't had a chance to log in since Wednesday evening. I dread to think what my situation is like at the moment! Half an hour until I finish work and find out...

Oh my. Grufff, have you seen Forgottenbog? We need to sort that out!

Risen peaked my interest a few months back and after reading a whole bunch about the Gothic series (which has passed me by) and trying a demo I bought this on Steam the other day. I've played it for a few hours now (I'm in the Bandit camp) and so far I've quite enjoyed myself. Can't say much for the dialog/story (I thought at first it was text only as the first time I played there wasn't any speech sound. Turns out it was bugged though as now I can hear all the characters in their mediocre glory) but there's something special about the world I really like. There's a sense of adventure and exploration that a lot of games fail to capture and the first hour or so already has nooks and crannies all over the place. Sometimes very dangerous nooks and crannies filled with wolves and boars. I'm getting a bit bogged down at the Bandit camp now though. I see what needs to be done and a lot of it relies on me getting good at the combat which is causing me to groan a bit. You need money to get better combat skills and gaining money so far has mostly been by getting in a fight. Losing at combat = death if your opponent is non-human or losing money if they're human. So far I've lost countless gold to those lazy fecking bandits (and the occasional decent sword!). On the other hand I love the fact that when I get beat by a human they (so far) only knock me out and nick a bit of money instead of outright killing me. That gives the game a completely unique feel. Knowing that these people (so far) have some kind of decency or rather pity. Also it's a little easier to stomach the fact that when they try to help me in combat I will almost certainly end up hitting them and incurring their wrath. So, flawed and clunky for sure but I'm going to stick with it.

Typical! I've been waiting all last week for this to start and as soon as I'm back at work... This time I won't be caught out by the 3 day kick for not logging in like my last game. I emailed the devs about that actually as there was no notification about what had happened. It just said I'd been defeated when I logged in despite winning the last few battles that had been fought. I was quite confused as I didn't realise you could be kicked! I thought it would be like Neptune's Pride where either an a.i. would takeover or I'd just be over run with blight when I logged in. Anyway, the awesome guys at Iron Helmet responded with a tale of how the 3 day thing had got the better of them too and promised to improve it and gave me a free immortal key! So that's me sorted for this month.

Hey Thumbs, I'm sitting here whiling away the last few hours at work before heading home for the holidays break and just thought I'd shout out Merry Christmas to you all. MERRY CHRISTMAS! There's still snow on the ground here in the UK so unless it warms up a ridiculous amount over night it should be a White Christmas too! I just hope the roads/traffic are ok as I have a couple of hours drive to make this afternoon.

Right, I'm in. My names Urist in game (when I signed up it seemed appropriate). Hopefully I'll get a chance to check in on this one more regularly than my previous ones!

Hey Snoogle, I hope you find a way to continue doing the things you love. My job and interests outside of that all rely heavily on computer usage and I know how I'd feel if I had to give them up completely. Take care. I've just been watching a Christmas film so I feel I should throw a 'Merry Christmas' in here too.

I'm familiar with radiangames and while I'm not a massive fan of the types of games he puts out, I did enjoy Fireball for a while and agree that his output is certainly amongst the higher quality stuff on the service. I hope Crossfire 2 does well and he can continue to make stuff for XBLIG.

Yep, count me in! Just bought a key myself.

My first and only foray into Neptune's Pride was also marred internet issues. I had no home access for a month! I didn't really enjoy the small amount of time I spent with it so I never tried it again. Even so, I've joined in a game of Blight of the Immortals as I think this one sounds more interesting to me. Also on first impressions the UI and layout is a bit more comprehensible than NP felt. Being that busy time of year though I haven't checked in for a couple of days, I hope I'm not doomed when I check in after work...