The "What Are You Playing Today" Thread

[Anastasia]

Tales of Graces f: Finished the main story and did the first dungeon of the f arc. I might do a big post about this later, but in short? ToGf is a good but flawed game. 7/10.

I'm not optimistic about the f arc so far. The skits have been universally blah and the tone/direction feels considerably different. I was hoping for something like Lunar 2's epilogue and it isn't hitting those notes.

[Grahf]

Finished Fallout 3. By the end it just didn't seem fair to my enemies: stealth suit, paralyzing palm, ninja, and deathclaw gauntlet added up to quick, messy deaths all around.

Rather than continue directly on into New Vegas, I'm going to see what Deus Ex: Human Revolution has to offer.

[Brian]

Well, NV is a different game.  I appreciated the various changes they made, and the hardcore mode looks interesting, if not particularly my speed.  Still -- the fallout games in general don't shy away from letting you become an incarnation of death and disaster -- and possibly salvation -- in the wastes.

I, for one, am okay with that.  From your first play-through, when you're panicking on engaging your first super mutant with only the hunting rifle you scavved off some bandits, to your latest, when you've got ninja, silent running, pyro, and a full-condition shishkabab as you sneak up on that unsuspecting supermutant behemoth (it takes two hits, incidentally).  You can become almost any flavor of badass, pretty much -- including the one who never kills anyone.  I've never tried a full diplomancy/pacifist run through FO3, because there are too many bad people who deserve to be melted with energy beams -- but the designers are content to let you win if you choose to play that character type.

And I think that's pretty cool.

In a way, it's a lot like Morrowind, except more streamlined -- if that's possible.

[Sierra]

Fallout 3 folded with rather ridiculous speed, I think. I was able to beat super mutants to death with just a baseball bat right out of Vault 101. I...really don't feel like that should be possible. (Fucking crabs were still able to murder me with ease, though. So glad those things didn't make a return appearance in FO:NV.)

[Anastasia]

ToGf: Probably not going to finish the f arc. I lost interest as soon as it started. I don't know why besides a sense that things feel off with the game. It's a solid 7/10 even with incomprehensible burnout at the end.

[Brian]

I played Journey.

Twice, now.

Nice art.  Good music.  Gameplay is pretty solid.

Too short, and utterly lacks substance; the defeatism of the story also really grates.

Costume upgrades are interesting.

Second playthrough was just to show Drac the game.

I don't see what the fuss was about; while the stats say people went rabid over this, I am utterly baffled as to what the draw actually is.  I wouldn't suggest this to anyone as a game.  If you could cut out all the gameplay and turn it into a short movie (it'd be around 15 minutes, tops, probably), it'd probably be worth it.

The high point was when someone in gold robes on the second playthrough showed me a fun little bug to clip through almost all of the second-to-last stage.

[Dracos]

That was awesome, I admit.  The whole kick through the mountainside bit.

Aside from that, it was a mediocre arthouse project.  Tremendous shader/sand work, to be sure.  Though a lot of the sand shader was basically throwing a generic ocean waves vertex shader with sand texture.  A good one, don't get me wrong, but it had the result that it broke suspension of disbelief for me after a bit.  That wasn't sand Brian was sliding through.  Sand doesn't move like that, even loosely packed.

The entire game was finished in slightly longer than the time it took me to finish dinner.  I was baffled that no matter how popular the game had been that there was actually 4 people around on the same level that Brian was on still at this point over a year past launch.  While cooperative, it just doesn't seem the type of thing that would be more than an occassional fling after someone had completed it a few times, even for the most hardcore fan.

The collection stuff was mediocre as well and kind of a lost message.  The collection thing should've just been the story of the journey.  Not additional magical tags hidden in out of the way spots.  It kind of didn't go with the experience..something thrown in just to be gamey, but not gamey enough to really be rewarding.  Pretty sure the journey did not involve sitting under sand waterfalls.  Twice.

Just underwhelming.

[Dracos]

Played Breath of Death VII.

I remember hearing about this back before Cthulhu or any of the others as if it was some big worthwhile thing.  An indie project with clever design that elevated it above the offal.

I'll grant that it was stable, and hey even got released on xbox arcade.  But I don't see how it elevated into even minor internet notority.  Was it that it stuck game memes in?  Really?  The game could pass as one of those awkward not quite off the nintendo RPGs of the late 1980s with its three big claim to fames being:
A)Auto hp refill.  So every battle could involve enemies doing almost all your damage.  This is a good idea.  Some credit for using it... but Final Fantasy XIII did that over a year before this game was made.  If the most expensive and mocked AAA title has already done the mechanic, that's not really something that should be stirring waves as a big innovative thing.  That's pretty much just taking the popular way of doing things of that very time and going ahead and sticking it in your 8-bit style game.

B)Selecting Level Up Results - Not saying this was poorly done...  but it was poorly done.  Look, the concept is neat and I enjoy level up trees as much as the next guy, but having the entire tree be invisible is not neat and leads to folks having dramatically different experiences.  Going almost pure magic or pure strength works out well, but going down a mixture (easily doable) leaves you a cripple that will get crushed in a frustrating manner.  Having no foresight leaves you no idea if the character your building will get abilities that make use of stats that seem otherwise pointless.

C)Limited encounters per area.  Sorry, I've also seen this mechanic a lot.  Here, it actually often created the result that it was simply more efficient to sit around and kill everything then wander through the level.  If things went poorly and your mp got drained, you could easily just escape out...and moreso, you could do that and then go fight the boss unhindered.

It's a solid offering and for a 2 person development effort, not bad.  And hey it's often sold for just around 50 cents...

But it's not a meaningful competitor for attention and frankly isn't really a stellar indie offering in the grand scheme of things.  It's level of humor writing pretty much stops at the "Oh look, the cast is dead.  This is funny, zombie humor!".  And it's actual plot twist is delivered in such a haphazard way that it basically rolls over without narrative effect.

[Anastasia]

Yeah, haven't picked up ToGf since the last post. It's not bad, but the f arc lost me for a bunch of reasons.

Faxanadu: I replay this old NES game every holiday season. It's one of those weird traditions I picked up one year. Anyway, I'm near the end. It's still a quirky, solid NES action-RPG. That's not enough of those.

[Jason_Miao]

I just bought and downloaded Symphony, an AudioSurf-like game, but which generates SHMUP levels instead of racing tracks.

Naturally, I decided to generate levels using the PCB soundtrack.  Fun, although as expected, the game didn't suddenly start to include spellcards.

-

Having played a bit more of it...

Both your ship and enemies use Warning Forever mechanics.  Your ship gets four guns, which can be swapped with unlocked and upgraded weapons, and of which you can change the axis of attack before starting a song.  The controls are...mouse.  You can even put each individual weapon on continual autofire (or button triggered or button-triggered autofire).  The particular weapons you unlock appear to be based on the characteristics of the particular song you play.

You get an infinite number of lives; the objective isn't to survive, since that's already given, but to hit the score target before the song ends.

There are six levels of difficulty, which range from pp to ff (corresponding to loudness in sheet music).  I'm not so great at SHMUPs in general, and had a pretty easy time from pp to f.  mf was moderately annoying.  f is pretty annoying, especially when enemies fly all over the screen and (what seems to be) your entire ship is detected for collision.  Of course, I did pick a directory full of Touhou music, so maybe I did this to myself.

[Uldihaa]

Star Wars: The Old Republic

My brother talked me into this. After just a few hours, I was already planning on getting a new graphics card. I do have to point out that to play it decently, you need a 2GB card at the least. Anything lower makes playing difficult or ugly. Trust me on this. On a completely unrelated note, never design a character on the lowest settings.

Heavily story-driven, with the 'typical' Bioware "morality/conversation choice wheel" for the numerous cut-scenes. And when I say 'numerous', I mean it. EVERY quest has at least two scenes, one to start it and one to end it. I'd say 90% have at least one more scene, with a whole lot with more. Fully voiced, including incidental 'overheard' conversations as you run by. They even have the alien languages.

Those choices affect your characters Light/Dark alignment and the affection levels of your NPC Companions (basically a combat pet that can talk to you, gather raw materials, and do special 'fetch missions'). I'm not sure how/if a character's L/D levels effect NPC interactions, but they do effect what you can equip; certain items/gear are only usable if a character's Light or Dark level is high enough. Affection levels also unlock new Companion-sourced quests and conversations, including romance.

Some minor grinding, but it's all 'Bonus quests' done while working on the normal quests. For example, killing 10 Flesh-eater Adepts while going through a tunnel filled with them. You'd have to kill most of them anyway, just to get through.

Speaking of killing, the fighting feels like your character really is special. Most fights are at least 2-to-1, usually 3/4-to-1, the "one" being your character. You also get solo-instances, with non-respawning mobs. Grouping, especially in group instances, gives an additional reward in the form of Social points, allowing the purchase of special items. Haven't really looked into this too much though. Did a few instances, and a Flashpoint mission, but I was too busy heading to the next area to look to much into it.

At a certain point, you activate the Legacy System. This allows the creation of a surname and 'family tree' that will tie all your characters on that server together. They then can start earning Legacy points, which can then unlock special skills, races, and the like. Even if you delete the character that created the 'family tree', it'll still exist for any other characters you create on the server.

Finally, it is technically free-to-play. However, there's lots of restrictions (mouse over the areas for more details, some are just level restrictions). Even quest rewards are curtailed (though those seem only to be money chests). The restrictions are rather annoying, but not crippling. I do have to admit that I'm already planning on using pre-paid time cards for this. Unfortunately, it'll have to wait until my next payday (see money spent on graphics card). Some of these restrictions are lifted just by a one-time purchase of 450 Cartel Coins ($4.99 US). Not a horrible thing, especially since a lot of the restrictions are aimed at making gold farmers have a harder time, or at least a more expensive one.

Is anyone else playing? Or at least willing to give it a shot? If so, I'm on Ebon Hawk/Republic side, same name as here. You'll have to level up to 10 to send a whisper though, unless subscribing.

[Brian]

I recently finished Bulletstorm, which is 1-2 days of playtime at best.  Not sure about the replay value.

It's an FPS designed around stunts, or 'skillshots' to kill enemies in a variety of horrifying and gruesome ways.  The story's actually kind of bad in a lot of ways, so it comes together in a surprisingly entertaining comedic violence sense -- well, very graphically violent, but the game does not take itself seriously, and probably neither should you.

The 'stunt' elements you get for killing your foes in creative and specific ways award points, which you use to upgrade your weapon's capacities, or get them new abilities.  The game limits you to one main and two secondary weapons at a time; your main weapon never changes, but you can swap out the secondaries any time you find one or hit a drop station (which are pretty much everywhere).

Much to my surprise, the game, for all that it is crude, constantly full of the most vulgar swearing imaginable, and almost absurdly violent ... is actually a lot of fun.  The first time you perform a given skillshot you get a massive bonus, so it really incentivizes trying to get all the different kills at least once, and even though every weapon has about a dozen skillshots, there are dozens more generic and environmental skillshots.

Damage surfaces abound, and you have the ability to pull enemies (or things) at range close, and also kick them away.  As you can imagine, this makes for a lot of kicking tough enemies into various environmental hazards -- giant fans, crackling sheets of electricity, fire, piranha infested water, the vacuum of space, and so on.  I didn't get 100% of all skillshots before I beat the game, but I was able to fully upgrade all of the weapons (which was good, because the same points are used to buy ammo -- not as bad as it sounds).

It's surprisingly entertaining, and the price is ... well, I don't know.  19.99 seems pretty fair for around 10 hours of gameplay, more if you're a completionist.  It's just as easy to put it on a watchlist -- pretty much any sale would probably be worth it.  Of course, you don't need to take a gamble -- if you're on steam, there's a demo.

The game ends with a very blatant sequel hook, and I for one, would not complain about more.  For a game I picked up yesterday and beat today, I had an awful lot of fun with it.

[Brian]

I finally got around to beating Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

I played it on the highest difficulty, and as a pacifist.

The ending is, much like the original DE, a decision-hub.  Choose your ending.  You can even save there and immediately get a different ending if you don't like the one you picked.

Interestingly enough, even though the footage for the ending sequences is largely the same, it's brought up in the ending narration how you played the game (I think; while I viewed all the endings, I wasn't going to replay it again).  A nice little reference to, "Always attempted to not abuse power."

What really surprised me was even when I picked was I was sure was the 'bad' ending first, instead of making my efforts feel pointless, Jensen's speech about why he chose that option made it ... really profound and poignant.  It turned out to be my favorite of all the endings.

It makes me want to compare DE:HR to another blockbuster title -- one of a trilogy -- where the endings were also very similar ... but all bad.

Interesting contrast.

Anyway, the game turned out to be surprisingly philosophical, and I found the endings moving.  Even the illuminati ending wasn't terrible.  Overall, good stuff -- while I haven't really tried it as a proper shooter (instead, I treated it like a stealth sim -- we have plenty of shooters), it's really good at what it does.  It's fun, if it requires a slightly different mindset from most games.

It's got RPG elements--  Leveling up, quests, side-quests, character interactions....

I'm a bit surprised at how little there is to complain about.  Absolutely worth picking up on a steamsale if you haven't tried it, unless you can't handle first-person PoV.

[Merc]

unless you can't handle first-person PoV.

You mock my pain! =p

[Grahf]

Interestingly enough, even though the footage for the ending sequences is largely the same, it's brought up in the ending narration how you played the game (I think; while I viewed all the endings, I wasn't going to replay it again).  A nice little reference to, "Always attempted to not abuse power."

What really surprised me was even when I picked was I was sure was the 'bad' ending first, instead of making my efforts feel pointless, Jensen's speech about why he chose that option made it ... really profound and poignant.  It turned out to be my favorite of all the endings.

There is a subtle variation with the speeches that Adam makes depending on just how many people you've killed throughout the course of the game. Basically if you do pacifist or near pacifist then Adam's optimistic, if you fall somewhere in the middle then so does he, and if you kill pretty much everyone then he's pessimistic.

I am curious though, is the ending you're referring to the one where

Spoiler: ShowHide

he sinks Panchaea so that no one can put a spin on the events, not even Adam himself?

Either way, that ending made the most sense to me, since it seemed the most in line with a lot of Adam's own outlook and motivations. To me at least it was the

Spoiler: ShowHide

Sarif/fully embrace augmentation ending

that seemed to be the worst in terms of just ringing the most hollow. Even if

Spoiler: ShowHide

you played Adam as someone who loves what the augs give him despite the fact they weren't his choice

it still doesn't make that much sense to me.