whatcha been playing?

[voxn]

here's a thread to post thoughts about games you've just picked up, smaller stuff that wouldn't warrant its own thread, etc! There's a similar thread to talk about a games you've finished over here, but I find I gravitate towards games with no end-state or rarely finish games that do.

 

recently I've put a chunk of time into Legend of Grimrock 2, and wanted to recommend it! Lots of outdoor areas and much more open-ended exploration provide a very welcome contrast to the claustrophobia of the dungeons, the main reason (I think) that I wasn't hooked by the first game. For reference I have absolutely no nostalgia for the first-person dungeon crawls this game is descendant from, and am still really enjoying it. The map system and the way you can leave little annotations to yourself is surprisingly satisfying, and its got that zelda-syndrome of leaving an area, coming back later, and instantly figuring out all the secrets you missed.

 

Endless Legend I am only just starting on, but it seems like a wildly better Civ game then Civ:BE. Admittedly I haven't played BE, but everything I've seen looks like an utterly generic reskin of Civ5, and all the talk I've seen surrounding it isn't doing much to dissuade me. Endless Legend is anything but generic. After hearing about it on 3MA(here) I gave it a shot, and have been finding it fun to learn. The factions are all very distinctive in both flavor and playstyle which leaves a strong first impression, and the 3ma crew seemed - with a couple reservations - quite positive on the game overall.

[chickenmonger]

I've been putting in some Costume Quest 2 time in recent days. Because my desktop is in a home office, I tend to play games sitting on the couch with the family, on my low-powered laptop with Steam in-home streaming. CQ2 mostly works with this, but the combos are hard to get with the inherent lag of my slow, aged equipment. I really appreciate the casual gameplay, as I can hold a conversation with the family and not worry about having to give 100% of my concentration to the game all the time.
 
I've also been co-op playing The Journey Down: Chapter One with a friend over Skype these past few weeks. I really like the aesthetic and voice acting. It recreates a lot of the silliness of old LucasArts adventure games. (I was going to point out an example puzzle here, but can't figure out spoiler tags) The game's developer recently visited the Double Fine forums and had a key giveaway as part of a promotion for the game's Chapter Two.

 

I got caught up in the whole Spacebase DF-9 thing, and got Hack 'n' Slash as well out of the deal. I've been playing a bit of both, and haven't really played enough of them to have strong opinions yet. Trying to avoid others' preconceptions is difficult. I find my own tastes differ wildly from most "gaming personalities", and they're such loud voices anymore, it's hard to ignore their influence.

 

On mobile, I've been hopping between Cubemen and Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor. Both are excellent games to play when I only have a few minutes of time while waiting around for life to continue.

 

 

[melmer]

Didn't spider 2 happen like 6 months ago? That game disappeared in to the ether.

I have been playing terra battle, and enjoying it. The 'consecutive days' bonuses make my load it up at least once a day. I killed bahamut like freakin 8 times and it never dropped grrrrrr

Oh and I've had clicker heroes running for almost a month now. All this time I shouldn't have been spending my ascension crystal duh... Or should I? I think I need a guide to get me past stage 145

[melmer]

Regarding spider 2, it looks like it got delayed by at least a year

http://www.shroudedmoon.com

All the press from 2013 says it was coming spring 2014

[juv3nal]

Mainly Destiny on PS4 and Fantasy Life on the 3DS and whatever interesting looking free indie thing pops up in my rss feed (recently Obra Dinn demo, cat petting simulator 2014). Also still plugging away at that kittens incremental game, if that can really be said to be playing.

 

edit:

Oh and I've had clicker heroes running for almost a month now. All this time I shouldn't have been spending my ascension crystal duh... Or should I? I think I need a guide to get me past stage 145

Wait, what? I was way past that in less than 2 weeks before I gave up on it. Never spent any ascensions crystals though.

[tegan]

I've been seriously considering making a thread for Shantae and the Pirate's Curse instead of clogging up the 3DS thread with it, because it's an absolutely fantastic game (that I'm replaying in New Game Plus mode) and I feel compelled to convince as many people as possible to play it.

 

I'm also playing Animal Crossing: New Leaf, because Halloween!

[Zeusthecat]

I started Psychonauts. I really like it so far and it's got such a unique style. I'm still a little confused by all the random stamps and items I keep picking up but I'm sure it'll become more obvious what they do as I get a little further. It's also cool to see that this game was doing some of the stuff Mario Galaxy did years before Galaxy came out.

[supasheep]

I have been playing XCOM:Enemy Unknown. I had it on PS3 but never really got into it, and then with the free weekend a few weeks ago I discovered that it runs on my pretty crappy laptop! So I've now bought it and I feel like I've progressed further than I have before. Often these sort of tactics/turn-based battles frustrate me, probably due to an internal pressure to get it "exactly right" (whatever that means). But so far I've been able to be pretty chilled about it and not be too concerned about getting an ideal result, and it still seems to be going pretty well. It's still early days but I can see myself sticking with it for a while yet. 

[SuperBiasedMan]

I started Psychonauts. I really like it so far and it's got such a unique style. I'm still a little confused by all the random stamps and items I keep picking up but I'm sure it'll become more obvious what they do as I get a little further. It's also cool to see that this game was doing some of the stuff Mario Galaxy did years before Galaxy came out.

 

 I have also been playing Psychonauts! I played a little ages ago but the constant pestering me to collect stuff was pretty grating.

"Collect these, so you can use them to go buy this thing that you can use to collect more things!"

 

And lately I've been trying to play games in a way where I focus on main storyish stuff 90% of the time (I wander a bit, but I never try the sidequests). I've already gotten much further, and I'm enjoying the way the storytelling deviates from a traditional rigid level style structure. I wont spoil when/why, but at times it cuts a level short for a narrative reason and then you can later revisit it. I look forward to figuring out how it ends, seeing if my presumptions pan out.

 

The other thing I'm playing is Dragon Age Origins, which I'm also not dwelling in the side content of and mostly trying to get the main story. ...and I also got a mod so that I can instantly win any encounter without effort. I basically don't care about the combat, it's not bad but it's not why I'm playing the game. Using this mod is the closest way I can approximate the game into being an interactive story/walking simulator.

 

As for the story, I do like that I'm always trying to figure out who to trust in any exchange, and based on whether or not I trust their information what is the best option available. I'm not really trying to roleplay so much as make my own judgements and I want to see where that leads me. Ideally...

 

I wanna be queen, screw the morality of that. I'm taking it if I can.

[deleted user]

_

[Bjorn]

I have been playing XCOM:Enemy Unknown. I had it on PS3 but never really got into it, and then with the free weekend a few weeks ago I discovered that it runs on my pretty crappy laptop! So I've now bought it and I feel like I've progressed further than I have before. Often these sort of tactics/turn-based battles frustrate me, probably due to an internal pressure to get it "exactly right" (whatever that means). But so far I've been able to be pretty chilled about it and not be too concerned about getting an ideal result, and it still seems to be going pretty well. It's still early days but I can see myself sticking with it for a while yet.

If you end up with some cool stories, or need any help, the xcom thread is buried in the strategy subforum. I love EU, and if you decide you want more, the Enemy Within expansion is great.

[Griddlelol]

I'm currently playing The Wonderful 101 again, but only on normal since I lost my saved data.

I also picked up Super Metroid on VC and having a blast with that. It's hard, but real good.

Oh and I'm trying to get the platinum trophy for Shadows of Mordors because some of the challenges are interesting, and it makes me feel go to say I 100% completed something.

[eot]

There are hardly any Nintendo games I like, but Super Metroid is amazing even by modern standards.

[supasheep]

If you end up with some cool stories, or need any help, the xcom thread is buried in the strategy subforum. I love EU, and if you decide you want more, the Enemy Within expansion is great.

 

I've renamed a bunch of my soldiers to close friends/family. No particular stories so far, although I have named a bunch of soldiers after friends/family which gives me a chuckle, although the only named soldier I've had die so far is one I named after myself in a moment of megalomania. I bought the complete pack so I've got Enemy Within, which I'm saving for another playthrough.

[JonCole]

I tried to give Shadow of Mordor a shot, but I had it rented for two weeks and only played it for about 5 hours so I think now is just not the right time for me to play a sprawling open-world thing. My next GF game is Phoenix Wright vs Ace Attorney, which I'm very excited to start this weekend.

 

I'm still playing Destiny, although a bit less now that I hit level 29 and my armor is fully upgraded. I also have three exotic weapon bounties so bounty stuff is slow at the moment. I will definitely get back into it a little bit this weekend, if only to explore the event-based stuff.

 

I've been drawn away from Destiny due to Payday 2, which I've been playing with Thumbs as you could have learned on the MP forums. JOIN US.

 

Civilization Beyond Earth is a thing that's happening, though the games are so long that I'm only playing it sporadically.

 

On my phone I've been playing Puzzle and Dragons as always. I just hit my 400th consecutive day of play a couple weeks ago, so yeah I still love that game. I've also been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest, which I've actually liked quite a bit. The F2P stuff is not particularly egregious and the energy mechanics don't seem to hamper my play. I have spent a few bucks on it, mostly so I can get the most out of the non-paid rewards I've been racking up.

 

I've also been playing the "build a new computer" game. I decided I'd step my PC down slightly and give my Core i5 to my wife, because she's basically a PC-only gamer while I have the PS4 to play AAA games on. So I've got an overclocked Pentium going, Windows 8 installed, and now I'm doing the laborious thing of triaging my hard drives so I can figure out what I want to carry over from one computer to another.

[Blambo]

I've been playing Solitaire and thinking about cellular automata, and the assumed role of the player in progressing a game space.

[sclpls]

Endless Legend, and Dungeon of the Endless both have their hooks in me pretty deep.

[Nappi]

I've been playing NBA 2K15 extensively for a couple of weeks now. I'm not typically into sports or sport games, but man this game plays fantastic. In addition to that the soundtrack is great, the player animations are some of the best I've seen, and the commentary is definitely the best I've ever heard in a video game. I also weirdly enjoy at least some of the-ask-Pharrell-Williams™-for-a-shoutout-in-Social-Media™-so-that-Jeff Golddigger-can-sign-up-a-sponsorship-with-Gatorade™ bullshit.

[Trip Hazard]

Trying to complete Legend of Grimrock, which I've had for a long time but never really spent any proper time with. 

 

Spent a bit of time with Tower of Guns yesterday and today, as I got it in a bundle. It's not bad, like Binding of Isaac meets Quake. It controls well, feels "tight" to play, but definitely lacks variety and RNG can make or break a game for you, depending on if you get decent items or not (though a skilled player will still be able to advance, just without having much fun). Looks decent too; I'm getting a bit of a Borderlands vibe from it.

 

Also playing Crimzon Clover which is just incredibly good. It's a bullet hell type schmup, very tough in the arcade mode, but helpfully comes with a Novice mode to ease you into it. One of those games where you just get into the zone, and seem to see beyond what's happening on screen. My high score is utterly pitiful, but I'm having a blast learning the patterns of enemies and bullets and what have you

[watters50]

Blade runner (1997) It's this really cool 90's westwood point and click adventure game set in the same universe as the classic 80's film, I hope they eventually port it to gog.com as it deserves.

[sclpls]

Ever since I found out about GOG I've been hoping for the appearance of Blade Runner, although I imagine the licensing for that one has to be particularly difficult.

[watters50]

Yeah I managed to find an original copy in a 2nd hand shop for $1!

[eRonin]

Pretty late to the party but I'm partway through Mass Effect 3. I recently finished The Shroud mission, which is the first time a game has actually made me cry. I think I'm going to have withdrawals when I finally finish this trilogy.

 

Besides that, I've been playing a ton of Smash Bros, mostly For Glory. The lag is a bit off-putting but 9 out of 10 games are smooth enough. My win ratio is almost exactly 50% so I suspect there is actually some form of matchmaking being implemented.

[syntheticgerbil]

How many catch-all threads like this are we going to have?