[Traveller]

The Last of Us.

Promising start; looks amazing, about an hour in so far. Reminds me a bit of Heavy Rain at the moment but in a different setting.

Very linear at the moment though, I'm hoping that's just intro and setting up the story and characters while more options and controls are added.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 16 June 2013 - 06:09 AM

[Traveller]

Maybe I will, once someone else picks it up.

I've just been playing again. I finally got back out into the open air after working thorough the tilting, rain-filled remains of a skyscraper. The tempo is picking up nicely - from a few shambling, solo 'infested', to having to clear an area of nasties before progressing. And with 'Clickers' thrown in now - they attack as soon as they become aware of you, and can pretty much kill you as soon as they bite into your neck, which sends you back to the beginning of that area to do it all over.

I'd just crept around in the dark, stealth-killing everything (very much like Hitman, with bottles and bricks to throw to distract or lure) and then took out the clickers with a molotov I made from stuff lying around. I found a safe, and was just crouching to unlock it when another one came barrelling out of the dark corner, shrieking. I managed to bash it's head in with a bit of timber, but while I was distracted a clicker got me from behind and killed me in one bite.

The lighting and atmosphere in the dark with the torches is great. It's like a cross between Resident Evil, Hitman Absolution, Heavy Rain, and... Dead Space. Ammo is sparse, so to preserve it you can pick up crow bars, bricks, timber etc to bash the easier infected; you can construct shivs to stealth kill, and I've got a couple of guns now which I've been trying to save for the nasties.

The music's good, and so far it's probably the best looking game I've played on the PS3.


After playing last night I kind of felt like I'd just watched the first episode of a tv series.

[Silencer]

Traveller, on 17 June 2013 - 11:08 PM, said:

Maybe I will, once someone else picks it up.

I've just been playing again. I finally got back out into the open air after working thorough the tilting, rain-filled remains of a skyscraper. The tempo is picking up nicely - from a few shambling, solo 'infested', to having to clear an area of nasties before progressing. And with 'Clickers' thrown in now - they attack as soon as they become aware of you, and can pretty much kill you as soon as they bite into your neck, which sends you back to the beginning of that area to do it all over.

I'd just crept around in the dark, stealth-killing everything (very much like Hitman, with bottles and bricks to throw to distract or lure) and then took out the clickers with a molotov I made from stuff lying around. I found a safe, and was just crouching to unlock it when another one came barrelling out of the dark corner, shrieking. I managed to bash it's head in with a bit of timber, but while I was distracted a clicker got me from behind and killed me in one bite.

The lighting and atmosphere in the dark with the torches is great. It's like a cross between Resident Evil, Hitman Absolution, Heavy Rain, and... Dead Space. Ammo is sparse, so to preserve it you can pick up crow bars, bricks, timber etc to bash the easier infected; you can construct shivs to stealth kill, and I've got a couple of guns now which I've been trying to save for the nasties.

The music's good, and so far it's probably the best looking game I've played on the PS3.


After playing last night I kind of felt like I'd just watched the first episode of a tv series.

Is actually pretty hard to get your hands on, apparently. My favourite online store ran out on day one, and had to wait for new stock, and just got an email from another place I've purchased a PS3 off (with bundled Last of Us) saying that tLoU is now on back-order because they don't have the stock for it! >.<

So yeah. It's up at the top of my "to-play" list but...

[Aptorian]

"Finished" Skyrim last week. By that I mean I did every quest I could find from story quests to fetch quests and bounties + the Dawnguard DLC. According to steam I've sunk over 200 hours into that game but I think it is exaggerating the actual number. Skyrim is an amazing game. Something of a masterpiece. Its flaws become more apparent the longer you play it but damn that was a great videogame experience. I can certainly see how the open world aspect of the game will influence AAA games in the future. I'm still missing the Dragonborn DLC but I think I will leave that for now I am sort of worn out. Also my character at level 80 is something of a monster so it isn't particularly challenging any longer.

Started playing Tomb Raider over the weekend. I think I am half way through the game. It's fantastic. Maybe it is because of the contrast to the relatively flat Skyrim, but holy crap this game oozes atmosphere, character depth and great narrative - in a sort of awkward videogame kind of way of course, but man this game is well crafted. I don't know how the game looks on consoles but in PC, with everything switched to Ultra the game is crazy intense. It's like the environment is assaulting not just the player but also the screen. That coupled together with the highly scripted action-horror-adventure aspect makes it for a quite unique experience. I've heard people say that this game is trying to imitate Uncharted, which was imitating Tomb Raider originally but I think that is untrue. It's downright false. Uncharted wishes that it had this good of a control scheme and weapon handling. It wishes that it has this emotional depth to Nathan Drake. If I had to describe the gameplay I would say it is a mix of Uncharted and Dead Space 2... Only better.

Whether or not it is true to the franchise as a reboot I couldn't say. I haven't played a Tomb Raider game since Tomb Raider 2 on the original Playstation. To me Lara Croft was never really a person, it was just a sharp boobed action figure you could make swan dive ten floors down onto a stone floor for the heck of it. This Lara Croft is a fully realised, human being that you can't help but sympathise with even though the shit she gets into in this game is a bit on the ridiculous side.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 18 June 2013 - 07:17 AM

[Morgoth]

So we did a full scale civ 5 game the last couple of evenings. Well, we're not yet done but my victory seems assured. The Persian empire has arisen to conquer the world once more with its perpetual golden age and fast moving soldiers.

The CIV 5 multiplayer is surprisingly robust, and handles 5 human players and 4 AI very well.

[Lisheo]

Dwarf Fortress.
Nobody needs any other game besides Dwarf Fortress.

[MTS]

Bought the Witcher 1 & 2 on sale and have been making my way through the first one. Still just outside Vizima at the moment, but enjoying it now I have a better handle on the controls.

[Aptorian]

MTS, on 19 June 2013 - 02:26 PM, said:

Bought the Witcher 1 & 2 on sale and have been making my way through the first one. Still just outside Vizima at the moment, but enjoying it now I have a better handle on the controls.

If you're not in it for the hardcore RPG experience I recommend downloading some mods to help you out. I can recommend downloading stuff that allows you to wait and meditate, including making potions, when and where you want to. A mod that allows your character to access the Innkeeper chest from anywhere in the world through your inventory menu and, if you're like me and can't stop hoarding everything you see, a mod that allows you to ignore the weight limit.

[Mentalist]

MTS, on 19 June 2013 - 02:26 PM, said:

Bought the Witcher 1 & 2 on sale and have been making my way through the first one. Still just outside Vizima at the moment, but enjoying it now I have a better handle on the controls.

Enjoy. The game is briliant, except for the goddamn swamp.
Also, invest in Igni. Just trust me, you'll need it for that one fight in ActII.

[Gothos]

Aptorius, on 19 June 2013 - 02:35 PM, said:

MTS, on 19 June 2013 - 02:26 PM, said:

Bought the Witcher 1 & 2 on sale and have been making my way through the first one. Still just outside Vizima at the moment, but enjoying it now I have a better handle on the controls.

If you're not in it for the hardcore RPG experience I recommend downloading some mods to help you out. I can recommend downloading stuff that allows you to wait and meditate, including making potions, when and where you want to. A mod that allows your character to access the Innkeeper chest from anywhere in the world through your inventory menu and, if you're like me and can't stop hoarding everything you see, a mod that allows you to ignore the weight limit.

I'm on the verge of giving you a neg rep for this. NO EASYMODE MODS DAMMIT!!

[Morgoth]

Aptorius, on 19 June 2013 - 02:35 PM, said:

MTS, on 19 June 2013 - 02:26 PM, said:

Bought the Witcher 1 & 2 on sale and have been making my way through the first one. Still just outside Vizima at the moment, but enjoying it now I have a better handle on the controls.

If you're not in it for the hardcore RPG experience I recommend downloading some mods to help you out. I can recommend downloading stuff that allows you to wait and meditate, including making potions, when and where you want to. A mod that allows your character to access the Innkeeper chest from anywhere in the world through your inventory menu and, if you're like me and can't stop hoarding everything you see, a mod that allows you to ignore the weight limit.

"... if you're like me and prefer games to have little to no challenge"

[Mentalist]

I've tried Amnesia, but it didn't click.

Instead, I'm now playing "Call of Cthulhu: Dark corners of the Earth". I know next to nothing about Lovecraft and his stuff, so it's good.

[Aptorian]

This is a question of game design in my opinion. It is a matter of how "authentic" you want your gameplay in comparison to how stream lined do you want the game mechanics to be.

Personally I think there is no other reason (besides roleplaying) for you to implement huge time sinks like forcing players to wait for an Inn to open/go to sleep/meditate or force the character to make multiple trips between areas because the inventory is super limited. To me the first Witcher game was about experiencing a mature and well crafted fantasy world and killing shit with rad combo's and fire. I don't need filler to pad the playing time.

[frookenhauer]

disgaea 3

[Gothos]

Aptorius, on 19 June 2013 - 06:18 PM, said:

This is a question of game design in my opinion. It is a matter of how "authentic" you want your gameplay in comparison to how stream lined do you want the game mechanics to be.

Personally I think there is no other reason (besides roleplaying) for you to implement huge time sinks like forcing players to wait for an Inn to open/go to sleep/meditate or force the character to make multiple trips between areas because the inventory is super limited. To me the first Witcher game was about experiencing a mature and well crafted fantasy world and killing shit with rad combo's and fire. I don't need filler to pad the playing time.

There we go, "besides roleplaying". Even hack'n'slash stuff like Diablo and that other thing have limited inventory. Deus Ex does. TES games do.

Then there's Gothic... well. Something completely not right about walking around with several tonnes of magical ore in your pockets, beyond the usual fifty swords, fifteen bear asses and six armor sets...

[MTS]

Just got up to the Beast fight and having a hell of a time getting past it. He keeps stunning me and sapping all my health.

[Mentalist]

MTS, on 20 June 2013 - 02:19 PM, said:

Just got up to the Beast fight and having a hell of a time getting past it. He keeps stunning me and sapping all my health.

two words: spectre oil.

Also, try using group attack to kill the barghests before they get Abigail. Then she'll heal you.

In other news: CDPRed devs released an "unofficial combat overhaul mod" for TW2. basically, 1 of the devs did this on his spare time, making a total overhaul of the combat for TW2. this makes me want to slot a TW2 replay into my list of "to-play" games.

[Gothos]

As for TW1, group style is way overpowered, at least was when I last played it. If you have 3+ enemies to hit, you'll obliterate everything around you if you time your clicks right, and with this it will even do more damage per target than the other two styles focusing someone down... so yeah.

[Mentalist]

Group style only gets really OP once levelled up though.

In Act 1, you're not that strong in anyhting, b/c you only have bronze talents to spend. That's why good alchemy is prety crucial in the beginning and the very end (willow and Wolverine.... ah, god, that was soooo OP....)

[Obdigore]

Been playing a lot of Payday recently after getting it on a steam sale. I see the second is due out soon and I'm quite interested in it.