The General Gaming Thread 2: Bundle ALL the Games!

[warty goblin]

I'm enjoying Remember Me, just not quite as much as I'd hoped. It's fun and I don't really feel bad for getting it on release, but somehow it just feels like it should be better. Even if supporting the studio that told Capcom to take their "the main character has to be a guy" and shove gives me a vague feeling reminiscent of the warm fuzzies (though that is probably going to blow up in their faces if the game doesn't meet goals).

I was mostly intrigued because it looked like a game set in a space that isn't Archtypia: Land of Fantasy Cliche, or the United Human Federated Planets of Yawn.

Combat feels a little..choppy...I guess. But I think that has more to do with me not being quite used to the timing quite yet than anything else. Being able to customize your moveset is a nice touch, even if it's more cosmetic than anything. Though pulling out the Shoruyken or Flash Kick (pre-order bonus) at the end of a combo is endlessly entertaining.

I'm finding the combat pretty fun, although I'm having a hard time figuring out a reason not to just spam the three-hit combo loaded with a health regen and cooldown skill. It works fine against little dudes, and recharges my abilities and focus quickly enough that I can easily drop special abilities on the big guys. The invisible bastards remain bastards, but in a generally alright sort of way. I appreciate the level of bastardness they bring to the affair.

There are some high points: the vistas and scenery are amazing. It is a very, very good-looking game. The characters I've met so far are interesting to see and listen to, and the first bossfight with a hunter was hilarious. I wish all boss fights could have that much character, even if said character was like being in the headlining match at Wrestlemania. I haven't finished it yet, but I hope the rest of the bosses are as fun.

Yep, that one was fun. I kinda ended up feeling sorry for the guy in the end though.

I've only done a single memory re-write thus far, but I liked what I saw. It's an interesting take on cause-and-effect puzzles.

The first one on whatserface the bounty hunter? That's the only one I've done so far as well. It was both really awesome, and really, really disturbing.

Which is something I'm appreciating about the game; that it has the guts to point out that what the main character is doing is morally questionable at the minimum, and quite possibly a lot more than that. So far it hasn't gone into full on Spec Ops you are scum mode, but it hasn't been shy about making your various actions look pretty questionable. Which isn't to say the other side is made to look good mind; just that merely opposing them does not bestow an automatic sainthood, and as generally the case with asymmetric warfare, involves doing some very questionable things. With questionable motivation as well.

It is a good game, just not great. It is worth playing, just maybe not getting at release date price unless you feel like supporting the studio.

I snagged it for about $30 through Greenmangaming, which is definitely a reasonable price for what I've seen so far.

[Cristo Meyers]

I'm finding the combat pretty fun, although I'm having a hard time figuring out a reason not to just spam the three-hit combo loaded with a health regen and cooldown skill. It works fine against little dudes, and recharges my abilities and focus quickly enough that I can easily drop special abilities on the big guys. The invisible bastards remain bastards, but in a generally alright sort of way. I appreciate the level of bastardness they bring to the affair.

I hate those little buggers...

My 3 hit is 2 power pressens followed by a multiplier (the aforementioned Shoryuken/Dragon Punch). Mostly because the Overload finisher is linked to how many power pressens you connect with.

Yep, that one was fun. I kinda ended up feeling sorry for the guy in the end though.

I was waiting for him to start doing the Hulk Hogan "Hulk Out". It was very, very corny, but so entertaining. The fact that they still made him be somewhat relatable is only a bonus.

The first one on whatserface the bounty hunter? That's the only one I've done so far as well. It was both really awesome, and really, really disturbing.

Which is something I'm appreciating about the game; that it has the guts to point out that what the main character is doing is morally questionable at the minimum, and quite possibly a lot more than that. So far it hasn't gone into full on Spec Ops you are scum mode, but it hasn't been shy about making your various actions look pretty questionable. Which isn't to say the other side is made to look good mind; just that merely opposing them does not bestow an automatic sainthood, and as generally the case with asymmetric warfare, involves doing some very questionable things. With questionable motivation as well.

Agreed. It was more than a little disturbing once you were done. It only got worse later on...

Spoiler

Show

...when she bombs the hospital that she now thinks killed her husband.

Edge is a too little transparent, though. He couldn't be more "terrorist disguised as a revolutionary" if he was carrying a cartoon-style bomb and humming "The Song of Angry Men." I'm betting that it's going to work into the plot later, but still, it's a little obvious even before he tries to drown a district.

[warty goblin]

Played some more Remember Me. Still good, although I'm less a fan of the obligatory sewer and prison levels. Even a colorful sewer level is still a sewer level, and if there's one thing I think all gamers can agree on, it's that we've pretty much done the sewer level by now.

Spent the afternoon playing some more Elemental: Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes: Death by Subtitle. My little nation of plucky amazons is currently at war with the largest super-power in the world. I'd be getting my ass kicked, except for the dragon.

Dragons are absurdly powerful; their firebreath can wipe out an entire army in a turn without any problem. They aren't the greatest in melee - I've got heavy cavalry and infantry stacks that hit much harder - but they've got over 300 hitpoints, and crazy high initiative. The real kicker is their firebreath, which kills pretty much anything it hits. The dragon can, on it's own, wipe out half an army before the enemy can move a unit.

So I've got a couple armies fighting a ragged holding action against the bulk of my enemy's forces, and my amazon queen is riding about, absolutely obliterating everything that she comes across.

[Gamerlord]

So, I've been playing Sleeping Dogs recently, and while I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, it really starts to become a blast after a few hours. One thing I am wondering about though is, is there really anything to spend my money on besides cars and (Relatively cheap compared to the amount of money missions usually pay you) snacks/masseuses? I found one back alley mattress shop, and that's it. Have I just not explored or gotten through enough of the game yet?

Also, the AI can be hilariously derpy at times. I decided to use a car to run over all the gangsters on one of the drug busts, so some of them decided to climb into a nearby car....and then proceed to just repeatedly slam the car into a nearby wall. Also once encountered a guy on a motorcycle who insisted on driving it into the same corner again and again.

EDIT: Oh, and constantly going into windowed mode whenever I Alt+Tab out is really starting to get annoying.
EDIT2: Aaaand I just remembered the existence of clothing stores, so I do have something else to spend the money on.

[warty goblin]

Continuing my day of doing absolutely nothing of use, I finished Ep. 5 of Remember Me. Holy crap, that got dark. Hope it can keep this up.

[Cristo Meyers]

So, I've been playing Sleeping Dogs recently, and while I wasn't sure what to make of it at first, it really starts to become a blast after a few hours. One thing I am wondering about though is, is there really anything to spend my money on besides cars and (Relatively cheap compared to the amount of money missions usually pay you) snacks/masseuses? I found one back alley mattress shop, and that's it. Have I just not explored or gotten through enough of the game yet?

Also, the AI can be hilariously derpy at times. I decided to use a car to run over all the gangsters on one of the drug busts, so some of them decided to climb into a nearby car....and then proceed to just repeatedly slam the car into a nearby wall. Also once encountered a guy on a motorcycle who insisted on driving it into the same corner again and again.

EDIT: Oh, and constantly going into windowed mode whenever I Alt+Tab out is really starting to get annoying.
EDIT2: Aaaand I just remembered the existence of clothing stores, so I do have something else to spend the money on.

You pretty much named everything there is to spend money on right there. There are more little add-ons for each safe-house (I think at least three per safehouse), but that's really about it.

Continuing my day of doing absolutely nothing of use, I finished Ep. 5 of Remember Me. Holy crap, that got dark. Hope it can keep this up.

I just finished it.

...

...it does. Oh lord it does.

Short or not, that story was worth the ride. Damn.

[Morty]

If I were to make a sequel to Blade of Darkness, I'd make it so your health regenerates after every battle. Juggling potions and watching your health so you don't end up too low on it in the next fight is really annoying.

[Wookieetank]

Played through Thomas Was Alone yesterday, and that game is amazing. I don't think I've ever cared about quadrillaterals that much ever. This game definitely falls on my list of games as art.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Played through Thomas Was Alone yesterday, and that game is amazing. I don't think I've ever cared about quadrillaterals that much ever. This game definitely falls on my list of games as art.

"Claire had finally found her nemesis."

It's incredible what a narrator can do for a game if used intelligently, isn't it? Cut it out and Thomas becomes a rather bland platformer. With it, it's probably my favorite game of 2013 so far.

The question though: Which narrator is better, Bastion, or Thomas?

[Tebryn]

Bastion without question. Mike Bithell is a super super nice dude IRL though.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Bastion without question. Mike Bithell is a super super nice dude IRL though.

I dunno, I think you could make an argument for both. Thomas's narration, for example, has a lot of genuinely heartwarming, literal tears-of-joy moments (Claire was my favorite); Bastion goes from depressing to downright disturbing to (intentionally) emotionally numb, but when Thomas takes a turn for the dark (you know what moment I'm talking about) it handles it just as well if not better.

[Wookieetank]

The question though: Which narrator is better, Bastion, or Thomas?

I'd have to say both. You couldn't exactly switch the narrators and end up with the same games. For me the narrators were as different as the games they were narrating. Post-apocalyptic setting hands down I'd want Bation's narrator, plucky heartwarming game I'd go with Thomas' narrator.

[Zevox]

So, I just recently started playing Sly Cooper for the first time. Never played any of the games before, so I'm on the PS3 collection. And I'm enjoying it. A friend of mine once described it as having a "saturday morning cartoon" feel, and boy does that hit the nail on the head. That's got to be exactly what the designers were going for, as everything from the visuals to the sound design to the writing fits perfectly with that. Heck, the levels even names like episodes of a cartoon. And there's a definite charm to that which I like.

I was worried from the first couple of levels that the game would be too simple and easy, but it picked up, to my surprise. I think the biggest thing that keeps it from being such is that you die in a single hit, unless you've collected a lucky charm, in which case you can take just one hit without dying. It means you have basically no room for error, so even though the game isn't actually hard, it still feels just challenging enough. Heck, I actually lost quite a few lives to the first boss.

It definitely lacks some of the polish of modern games, and despite the stylization the visuals haven't aged that well, but eh, it's an 11-year-old game, and the first of its series. I'm sure it'll improve with the sequels - especially since a fourth game just came out earlier this year.

And honestly, it's just nice to be playing a 3D platformer that isn't Mario or Sonic again. Talk about a near-dead genre...

[TaRix]

After Sly 1, everyone gets a life gauge, whether you like it or not. But you do get some reasonably large sandbox stages in which you find stuff and pickpocket stuff and go to missions.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Sly 1 is very different from the other games. In the rest of the series, it goes from a linear 3D platformer with a small central hub that doesn't have much beyond some lucky charms and extra lives and a few coins (which I can't remember if they actually serve any purpose in Sly 1 other than to be collected. Maybe you got extra lives like in Mario?), to a semi-open world game (although still very linear in terms of what you can do to progress the story), with a much larger central hub that a lot of the missions take place in (although there are quite a few that take place in an indoor area that you can't normally access), and you can also explore for clue bottles and loot (pickpocketing guards, finding bigger treasures that you have to carry on your back all the way to the safe house without getting hit).

[Aotrs Commander]

I have - subject to any teething troubles - finally now got my second HDD and thus dual-boot XP/7 system operational, so I can once again look at getting some more games. (Which is in fact the whole purpose of the Win 7 drive, back-up (more back-up anyway) and a place to install any new games I get, as the XP drive was getting full.)

Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes is quite high on the list, and probably the new X-Com in due course. (I might leave that all the way to October, though, since I can actually get that as a hard copy and it's nice to have some games - aside from Pokemon - to put on my birthday list.) I awaiting Project Eternity, Tides of Numenara, Squadron 42 and War for the Overworld to come to fruition, but that's about it. Oh, and Tilted Mill's Medieval Manor, because I have been playing city-builders solidly (save for a brake for Overlord 1 and 2 just after Christmas) for about 6-8 months...!

Sword of the Stars II might be an option again - as I can now run DX higher than 9 on Win 7 - but only if it's actually worht it. Have they fixed it yet? Has anyone played it recently and have a comparison to the original?

Anything else spectacular in the RTS or RPG veins I should be looking at that I might have missed? (I figure that's fairly unlikely, given I'm always looking around, but you never know!)

[warty goblin]

Fallen Enchantress Legendary Heroes is quite high on the list, and probably the new X-Com in due course. (I might leave that all the way to October, though, since I can actually get that as a hard copy and it's nice to have some games - aside from Pokemon - to put on my birthday list.) I awaiting Project Eternity, Tides of Numenara, Squadron 42 and War for the Overworld to come to fruition, but that's about it. Oh, and Tilted Mill's Medieval Manor, because I have been playing city-builders solidly (save for a brake for Overlord 1 and 2 just after Christmas) for about 6-8 months...!

I'd go for Legendary Heroes before XCOM to be honest. XCOM is good, but extremely repetitious. You'll fight exactly the same enemies in exactly the same maps using pretty much identical soldiers a lot. While this is true of Legendary Heroes as well to a degree, LE has much more robust options for developing and outfitting heroes, on top of extremely deep customization of your standard grunt units. It also has a much better strategic component, which helps keep the battles interesting. XCOM is basically a thin layer of strategy between giant slices of tactical battle, so once you get tired of the tactics side, there's not much fun left. LE by contrast divies out content to tactics and strategy - and the interface between them - much more evenly.

Don't get me wrong, XCOM is a good game. But in one or the other contest, Legendary Heroes is a much superior package.

Sword of the Stars II might be an option again - as I can now run DX higher than 9 on Win 7 - but only if it's actually worht it. Have they fixed it yet? Has anyone played it recently and have a comparison to the original?

Got it off GamersGate a while back on ridiculous sale. Played a while. There's no tutorial, the interface is at best poor, and it never compelled me to poke it long enough to actually figure it out. I'd say even 'fixed' you're missing approximately zilch by skipping this one. At the very least, it goes on extreme sale not irregularly, so even if you want to deal with inscrutable interfaces, I'd wait for one of those.

Anything else spectacular in the RTS or RPG veins I should be looking at that I might have missed? (I figure that's fairly unlikely, given I'm always looking around, but you never know!)[/QUOTE]

[Craft (Cheese)]

I've been playing Element4l: A platformer where you can't freely jump. Or even move. I want to like it: It's a cute concept but the problem is the game's central premise is also its greatest flaw. It gives you a broken, non-functional control scheme and then challenges you to play through what would be trivial, uninteresting levels in any other game. It usually takes 10 minutes to get through a level, not because it takes me that long to figure out how to do it, but because I can't get my character to do what I tell them to do.

The soundtrack though, is bitchin'.

I'm hoping to get to play Gunpoint today if I have the time.

[Zevox]

After Sly 1, everyone gets a life gauge, whether you like it or not. But you do get some reasonably large sandbox stages in which you find stuff and pickpocket stuff and go to missions.

Well, normally that would worry me, but eh, these are PS2 games after all. I doubt they could actually get big enough to bother me.

I hope they increase the difficulty to compensate for the life gauge, though.

a few coins (which I can't remember if they actually serve any purpose in Sly 1 other than to be collected. Maybe you got extra lives like in Mario?)

Collecting 100 of them gets you a lucky charm, actually.

[Aotrs Commander]

I'd go for Legendary Heroes before XCOM to be honest.

Got it off GamersGate a while back on ridiculous sale.

Got both, actually. X Com I will definitely leave for a present for my birthday and/or Christmas.

I popped onto Impulse, trying to work out if I can buy the games on XP and then install to Win 7 (should be able to, just the former has access to my email more easily) - turns out it's completely GameStop now - and they did, by chance have a 75% of on Paradox games and I picked up SotS2 for about £3. (Thanks for the tip!) So, like Space Rangers 2, if I only play on it for a couple of hours, it'll have earned it's keep.

E:WoM:FE:LH (By 'eck that's got to be the longest abbrieivation of a game title!) I bought direct off Stardock, since I think theyv've actually got their heads on straight and deserve to be supported.

[Gamerlord]

E:WoM:FE:LH (By 'eck that's got to be the longest abbrieivation of a game title!)

If you go by number of colons, maybe, but in terms of letters I'm pretty sure the expansion for Battle for Middle Earth II gets the record: "LotR: BfME-II: RotWK".

And on the subject of XCOM, I would like to note that the game was still really buggy the last time I played it, which was about two-three weeks ago.

[Eldan]

Agreed on X-COM. Good game, really, quite engaging, but I can't see myself replaying it any time soon.

[Gamerlord]

So I recently finished the first storyline DLC for Dishonored, "The Knife of Dunwall". Personally, I liked it. It managed to avoid a lot of the issues Dishonored had with it's story (Even if it doesn't really do anything to improve the writing, which is just mediocre instead of dreadful now) by just focusing on the gameplay, giving the protagonist a voice*, and removing those incredibly dull visits to the inn (Now you just get a brief cutscene narrated by the main character explaining his next move, a menu pops up to let you buy upgrades and gear, and then it dumps you into the next level.) The main issue I have with it is that the level design takes a nosedive after the first level (Which was amazing), culminating in the third and final (It's a very short DLC) mission just being a copy of one section of one level from the vanilla game with a different kind of enemy. I'm cautiously optimistic for "The Brigmore Witches".
*Although given how little dialogue that isn't enemy banter there is in the DLC, it didn't really put it to good use.

[Cristo Meyers]

Agreed on X-COM. Good game, really, quite engaging, but I can't see myself replaying it any time soon.

Same. I really have to be in the mood to play it. I've had the DLC missions for it for months now, but only recently got around to playing it.

Seems like the only way to trigger the DLC missions is to select them as soon as the first council mission shows up (it gives you a choice of Normal or DLC missions). If you don't, I don't think they'll ever show up again.

Why is this a problem? It means you'll likely be doing them in the first month and a half...

...and the first mission throws a Chryssalid at you right at the end.

...second mission? Mutons with Plasma Rifles (no, not Light Plasma Rifles, Plasma Rifles)

...third mission? A Cyberdisk, and you're trying to take down a battleship.

All before you likely even have Laser Weapons.

[warty goblin]

Agreed on X-COM. Good game, really, quite engaging, but I can't see myself replaying it any time soon.

Exactly. Meanwhile Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes is repossessing my life. There's just so many different cool things to do. For instance, I just completed a quest that rewarded me with a sort of tomb guardian statue as a hero unit. Thing's got about 100 hitpoints out of the box, which is insanely high in LE. And he's got an ability that will resurrect him with full health if he ever goes down, which means he's the next best thing to indestructible. Doesn't do the best damage, but pimped with some initiative bonuses, he does it pretty regularly.

The tactical battles are really growing on me too. Again, there's a lot of options, but it doesn't bog the game down; most battles still take like five minutes. There's a nice feeling of escalation too, as units get better and better equipment, and you start to be able to afford magical items for them. Between the hero customization, and the unit creation, there's a lot of variety.


At this point I think I like Legendary Heroes better than Civ V. Or Civ IV for that matter.

[Aotrs Commander]

Eh, SotS II doesn't appear to be too bad, really. Had one crash early on and it's been fine all day. Bit slow (not the PC, the game) as I've only reached turn 140 and I've barely got my second generation of ships out. I probably should have listened to the beginner's manual when it said "turn research and economy up to 150%..."

Still, only playing at it really, and finding the differences between this and the first one.

Probably should have played Hiver as well...

Not sure so far it's better than the first one, as opposed to a bit different. time will tell...

[Morph Bark]

Torchlight for FREE, DRM-FREE on GOG.com for the next 48 hours. Has multiplayer mode with server hosting, similarly to Minecraft. Game supposedly plays a lot like Diablo.

Come join me!

[Morty]

I remember not being very thrilled with the demo of this game... but free games are free games. *yoink!*

[warty goblin]

I remember not being very thrilled with the demo of this game... but free games are free games. *yoink!*

I fire up Torchlight every now and again, and invariably get bored by the end of the first tileset. I think the game's just a little too transparent that it's nothing but a random number generator attached to dungeon and loot generators.

[Morty]

It did seem rather unimaginative as far as Diablo clones go. But since it's free, I might as well give it a shot.