[worry]

I'm playing Assassin's Creed III and it suuuuuuuuuuuucks. AC2 -- while overlong -- was a pretty big improvement on the first one, but AC3 is just constant nonsense.

[MTS]

AC2/Brotherhood were my favourites of the series, largely because I like the time period, but Black Flag kicked the most ass. So you're in for a treat after you slog through the dross that is AC3.

This post has been edited by MTS: 24 December 2016 - 10:16 AM

[Cause]

Im playing FFX on the VITA and I just beat dark valefor! Its been 15 years you piece of shit but I have my revenge!

[Mentalist]

Finished beating the Mayans in the "Dos Pilas" campaign scen. Loads of fun once I figured stuff out, found extra stone and was able to plop a castle by every single river crossing to stem enemy hordes. Then it was a matter of methodically clearing the map completing side objectives until making the big push, which was costly., but fun.

Next I got a viking custom campaign to run through. Never played as Vikings before, so should be interesting..

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 24 December 2016 - 06:04 PM

[EmperorMagus]

Kerbal Space Program.

The tutorial in this game is better than a lot of other games I've played. It has also thought me more about space flight than I would ever need to know.

[Mentalist]

That first Viking mission was loooooong!

There comes a point when all the Scandinavians are my friends (after I burned down the town centers of everyone that didn't want to be friends), and the job is to remove British Keeps (heavily upgraded towers) from the Faroes and Shetland islands.

Now, keep in mind, the game`s limited to feudal age. And no fire galleys. So the only option is demolition rafts, and lots of them, b/c a keep one-shots a demo raft. Oh, and there's Archbishops (souped-up monks that regenerate lost HP) to keep things interesting.

Basically, build loads of ships and send them to death. many times. Because there's 4 of these towers, each on a separate little island.

Oh, and wood is kinda scarce, so I gotta island-hop to keep gathering. Gold is no problem, b/c there's a "trade route" that keeps tributing me gold, so in the end I ended up buying wood on the market.

But yeah, I read about 100 pages last night while waiting for fleets to build, one by one.

Then the 2nd mission is basically concurrent with the Erik the Red "Battle of the Conquerors" from the original, (actually, it's kinda a remake of it) which takes place way later. So I put the vikings on hold and played the first Tariq mission again. On Moderate, it gets properly difficult to take Cordoba-I got pushed back 4 or 5 times after I breached the walls, and especially when I got to the bridge that had their docks and ships on it. tough fight, but fun.

[Traveller]

Dishonoured 2.

Got it for christmas, and stuck it on last night. Looks great so far, haven't played a stealth game for ages and this one looks fab.

Chose Emily, stealth killed everyone on my way to the streets (because why not, the traitors) and went outside. It's been a while since I played the first game, I'll have to get back into ghosting around (I jumped on a train to get to the docks but got knocked off) I just hope I'm not missing items.. so far there have been a lot of cupboards and places to check out.

[Aptorian]

Get the look through walls ability and then upgrade it to show valuables/things of interest.

And of course remember to pull out the heart once in a while. You can mark trinkets and shards on the map so you have a waypoint.

[Aptorian]

Have any of you guys played Virginia? I just finished it and I need to discuss this weird game with somebody.

For those who haven't heard of Virginia here's a couple trailers that don't give too much away:





It's basically a narrative "movie"-like game experience that lasts around 90-120 minutes. It's sort of the next step after the "Walking Simulator" genre, where everything in the game is highly scripted and follows a set path like a movie story book.

It's also told with absolutely no dialogue and very little writing. Everything is presented in small scenes where you can walk through a corridor or examine a room, but most of the time you are observing the other characters and reacting to their actions. The game feels like what I imagine VR films in 360 might be like in 5-10 years.

The thing about the game is that it's fucking weird in a sort of x-files meets Twin Peaks kind of way. You're a new young FBI agent that is assigned a case with another agent and you get the understanding that you are sent to keep an eye on her, while you are also supposed to find a missing kid. But everything is told through cinematography and hard to read body language. So there's a lot of interpretation going on.

Towards the end of the game I honestly have no fucking idea what the hell happened or was really going on.

Somebody play this game and tell me what you think.

[amphibian]

I'll play Virginia and see what happens. This should be unusual because I'm deaf and rely heavily upon body language and lip reading.

I'm also playing XCom: Enemy Unknown and find the actual missions quite fun, but the geopolitics/money are so opaque that it's hard to get a handle on what works and what doesn't work - and even why it's working/not working. Anyone got tips for that?

This post has been edited by amphibian: 27 December 2016 - 10:29 PM

[Maark Abbott]

Started on Valkyria Chronicles Remastered. I'm really liking the graphics engine, and the combat is actually challenging and demands some grasp of tactics. War is hell, boys, but at least it has waifus.

[Aptorian]

amphibian, on 27 December 2016 - 10:26 PM, said:

I'll play Virginia and see what happens. This should be unusual because I'm deaf and rely heavily upon body language and lip reading.

Will be interesting to hear what you think. The game is like a silent film in that there is no talking, however it also has a quite powerful orchestral score that follows the beat of the story. It tries to tell you when things are tense or hopeful or shifting with orchestra.

amphibian, on 27 December 2016 - 10:26 PM, said:

I'm also playing XCom: Enemy Unknown and find the actual missions quite fun, but the geopolitics/money are so opaque that it's hard to get a handle on what works and what doesn't work - and even why it's working/not working. Anyone got tips for that?

Been a while since I played that.

I remember that investing in satelites heavily early on was the safest bet. I think it helps you get money, right? Also but I think you should try and limit your satellite coverage to specific continents so that you don't have to split up your air force. Only expand when you have the money and crew to protect the entire globe.

Also save scum like a mother fucker.

[Traveller]

Having a lot of fun with Dishonoured 2.

I pretty much reached the end of the first full level, but found out I'd missed out a relic which was actually right at the start. So I did it all again, and ended up finding a load of new rooms; robbed the market, and found a whole side quest I'd missed.

Damn you Bethesda for making me root through trash bins in dilapidated houses once more! Last night I found a banana in a filthy bathroom, in a house full of bugs and corpses. No one was looking, so I ate it quietly, thinking about that toilet sandwich in Futurama.

[Aptorian]

The food is funny. I tended to just ignore it all and rely on potions. The notion of eating stale food in video game environments is always slightly off putting.

I've been following Jesse Cox's let's play of Dishonored 2 and he just scoffs down all the food he sees. It's hilarious. He'll be in the middle of some monologue and then suddenly stop and go "MARF ARF RARF" and gobble down 5 bananas, a kilo of grapes and some oranges and then continue on like nothing happened.

[Traveller]

I know, it's so weird. They put random food in the most disgusting and unlikely places. And some of it is brown and doesn't give you any health.. why is it there?!

No matter how good the game, Bethesda always end up manipulating me into rifling through bins in public toilets, because once you found some items stashed in one. And there are empty cupboards everywhere that you just have to check, because the first one in the game had some money in it.

I really don't understand why there are so many usable typewriters everywhere, or why taps have to actually work.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 03 January 2017 - 09:53 AM

[Aptorian]

In fairness, Dishonored is Arkane Studios work. Seeing as the Dishonored games drew inspiration from Half-life 2 I like to imagine that all that food is just a left over from the 90s health systems.

[Mentalist]

Been making some progress down my "AoK HD ultimate single-player content master-list".

1) Wrapped up "Arthurian legend" custom campaign. Although one mission's broken and won't launch, the rest is good fun, some nice fixed force scens. 4/5

2) Then a bunch of back-and forth re: Arabian invasions of Europe. First, Tariq campagn up to and including Misision3 - some solid B&D with loads of cavalry/camelry action. Then a really fun "Emperor Leo the Isaurian" custom campaign featuring Byzantium stemming the Arab expansion, including sieage of Constatinople, where your seriously OP fire-ships decimate Arab navy, while you desperately try to hold the walls with limited resources and severely nerfed unit production capacity. A few other scens had some bug (AI that was supposed to be "friendly" as long as I protect them suddenly going hostile and disturbing my economy. While STILL tributing me resources), but it was still fun. On Moderate, everything was beatable, but would take a few tries to figure out how to carry out stuff just right.

3) Then it was back to Tariq 4-5, for the second round of invading Europe from the West. The last Tariq mission on Moderate ramps up the difficulty as opposed to Normal- because once you go on the offensive against the Frank army, Bordeaux seriosuly double-teams you, and, even with camels, being double-teamed by Frankish paladins is no joke- especially since AI is always better @ micro in large numbers, even if I press "pause" non-stop to re-issue new orders. It was a big endurance slugfest, where at one point I was pushed back and ceded about a third of the map to the AI to regroup and rebuild- thankfully, resources permitted me to do that.

4) Then for a change of pace- the "Battle of Tours" campaign scenario from the Conquerors expansion- with Franks stopping the Berbers. Aftr initial long buildup, mass cavs + throwing axemen just dominate everything. Fun, but pretty predictable map.

5) Lastly, a scen called "Of Cows and Kings" from the workshop made by a user Philthydelphia, who went on to become a campaign designed for of African Kingdoms and Rise of the Rajas expansions. This one's all Celts, as it's set in Ireland and has Irish petty kings fighting for the title of High King. really difficult start, as resources are based on owning cows and keeping them at pastures to trigger resource flow. Oh, and you can't age up untill you complete a quest to collect relics. and to do that, push across enemy-held territory as enemy waves get progressively stronger.
Once again, took like 7 tries to work out a viable push algorithms (ended up with a major tower creep towards enemy-held territory. Then I put a tower in a very narrow road intersection in a tight chokepoint, which messed up everyone's pathing and kinda made the AI freeze, so in a way i cheesed the level a bit_. Once again, not all triggers worked as intended, but overall, really fun map.

Currently working on the Charlemaigne custom campaign. Muy plan is to go thru all the custom stuff up to the 12th century, then take a break and play something else for a bit.

[Aptorian]

I finished Abzu over the weekend and I've also been playing Watch_Dogs2 and some more Oceanhorn.

Abzu was great but also a bit copy-paste. Felt like I was pretty much just swimming between stages and doing the same objectives again and again. But it's a very pretty, very atmospheric, very well-scored game. Loved the story and the progression. Very feel good ending.

Oceanhorn remains Zelda-like. It's good but not really attention grabbing. I find myself playing it in small chunks, completing an island at a time. I still find the 3D aspect of it fun.

Watch_Dogs2 is phenomenal. Something about Ubisoft's openworld sandboxes just click with me. The games theme and the characters are fun and I think what they've done with the open-world puzzle hacking is a great evolution on the first game's side-missions.

I'm also greatly enjoying the co-op gameplay. There's no communication with the other player except emotes, but it works. Seems like every mission devolves into us escaping in a vehicle with the entire police force on our heels. There's something great about hanging out of a vehicle and dumping rounds into pursuing cop cars.

I have to say though, if you look at what you and the group are doing in the game, I am pretty sure that we the players are terrorists and we deserve to be profiled and locked away. The game makes it look like it's the little guy against the evil corporations but I'm pretty sure if the corporations weren't there, these guys would just be self-righteous hipster douche bags with out a cause.

This post has been edited by Apt: 12 January 2017 - 09:05 AM

[Aptorian]

Did you mean to post this in the Ye Big thread?

[Mentalist]

Apt, on 12 January 2017 - 06:39 PM, said:

Did you mean to post this in the Ye Big thread?

Sure did. Just moved it there actually.

Edit: on the topic of games: well, more AoK HD. Making my merry way thru the Charlemagne custom campaign, subjugating the Saxons. Current mission (4 of the 6) is kinda tricky, but I just beat the fixed-force part and now I'm into the B&D, which is generally easy on moderate difficulty.

I'm contemplating taking a break once I get both the "convert 1k units" and the "destroy 10k buildings" achievements. Or, if it comes earlier, by the time I hit the 1100s in my list of chronologically-arranged historical SP content.

Once this break comes, I think I'll finally play Bioshock Infinite and then Dishonoured.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 12 January 2017 - 07:06 PM