[Morgoth]

Everybody's Gone to the Rapture is free on PSN pluss, and I really enjoyed it. It's in the Gone Home genre, with amazing music and so much excellent storytelling.

[Tiste Simeon]

Is Dishonoured 2 out yet and has anyone played it?

[Aptorian]

Playing it right now. Ordered a pizza, a liter of cola and got right into it.

It's pretty good. I can't quite get a hang of the stealth system or perhaps rather the range that the baddies can detect you from, but otherwise I am having a blast. It's basically just more dishonored.

I am playing as Corvo instead of the empress, since I wanted to see what a voice acted, older more bitter Corvo would be like. So far I am really enjoying it. I more or less naturally chose a High Chaos playthrough because fuck all these traitors. They are all going to die for their crimes against the empire. Stab, stab, stab.

This post has been edited by Apt: 11 November 2016 - 05:19 PM

[Aptorian]

The graphics are weird. I am playing on PC and the game has this strange slider that says something like "adaptive resolution" or something like that and I can't tell what it is doing. I am playing the game on a mix of medium and high settings since my graphics card is old.

The game doesn't look "amazing" like for example Deus Ex did this year, there's some blurriness of the textures, etc. but Dishonored also has a very distinct art style. I feel like the games character and environment design creates a world where super crisp textures and sharpness isn't as important as more "realistic" games.

It's a beautiful world in its own right and the attention to detail and the weird little world building things are fascinating. I spend a lot of time just going through rooms looking at stuff.

[Malankazooie]

Have you got to the point in Dishonored 2 where time manipulation comes into play? While nothing new as far as video game mechanics go, a demo I saw touted as giving Dishonored 2 that extra zing/wow factor. In other words, does that aspect deliver?

[Aptorian]

I believe that is the part of the game where you go visit some clock maker/killer robot inventor guy. Haven't gotten that far yet.

Yesterday I played the intro/prologue (which has a surprising amount of side areas) and then I went to Serkanos and basically spent 3 hours running around stabbing guards and collecting stuff. I never even began the actual mission, which revolves around some kind of alchemist or herbalist or something.

I've gotta say the game has some issues revolving around latency in the combat. I keep trying to do this parry move and I fail it 75% of the time. There's an upgrade to make the parry window bigger but it feels broken. Sort of like playing Styx.

Also I cannot get used to sneaking around. First of all the game has some of the same issues as Thief 4, where the environmental audio is wonky and makes you think somebody is talking right next to you when they are actually several floors below you or on the other side of a street, etc. And similarly the detection radius of the enemies is strange. From the "X-ray vision" ability I can see the baddies vision cones is narrow but they seem to hear me/see me from far away and from the corner of their eye. Also because I am a wanted killer, all the Civilian NPCs keep freaking out and alerting the guards. It makes the traversal in the game problematic if you want to be sneaky and non-lethal. From what I've experienced so far I can't see how you could possibly collect everything you want to, with out also getting into combat constantly and maybe killing a few civilians too because, you know, snitches get stitches.

As such, I have given up all hope of playing as sneakily as I did in the first game, now I am just playing like the Terminator. I will try to sneak up and stab people in their necks if I can but the first sign of things going side ways EVERYBODY dies. Everybody. It's gotten to the point where I just pick a place to fight and start throwing dead bodies out of windows making the baddies come to me.

[Maark Abbott]

I remember the stealth system in D1 gave me issues until I came to grips with it being based purely on LOS - light levels play a very small aspect in it, which was jarring given that I'm so used to Thief's system.

[Mentalist]

Got to the Norselands, and the game started kicking my ass. The last scenario in Egypt I had some setbacks as well, but nowhere near as bad as this.

I also realized that I don't get to use the Chinese stuff until buy the DLC expansion. Disappointed, but oh well. On the Steam wishlist it goes.

[Aptorian]

Been playing some more Dishonored 2. I am about to go into the clockmakers mansion.

After playing around in mission 2 for a bit longer, I started the game over as Emily. I realized that Corvo plays exactly like Dishonored 1 and since I kept getting into combat it might be smarter playing as Emily. Her abilities are definitely a lot cooler and, when I eventually unlock all of it, pretty much easy mode.

After I got a hang of the game mechanics I started to be more stealthy and I stopped just fighting everyone. I was sneaking about and choking out guards for a while, but that changed when I started to use the heart more.

I wasn't aware of this when playing Dishonored 1, but the Heart tells the darkest secrets of who ever you target with it. This has made me completely change my way of playing. Now I am playing like a Dark Angel. I test everybody with the heart, soldiers or civilian. If the heart reveals they are terrible people, I stab them and turn them into ash. If they're good I either leave them be or choke them out.

It's sort of fun and morally challenging like this, because the heart will seldom outright tell you what exactly the person you click on did. Usually it will be something like "She stood by and let them hurt them. She didn't care as long as she was paid. All she had to do was lure them into the alley". That woman I would probably murder. But then another one might be like "Everybody likes him. If they only knew what he does when he's off the clock". Which could be something as innocent as he likes to play the Harmonica in secret. That guy I'd probably leave be.

But I am killing like 2/3rds of the people I come across no matter what. The people of the Dishonored games really are shitty human beings. But what does that make me? I wish the use of the heart would actually count for something in the score system. Like, people marked for death, do not count towards chaos or something like that.

This post has been edited by Apt: 15 November 2016 - 08:02 PM

[Kruppe of Darujhistan]

Deadly Tower of Monsters is free to PS+ members this month. I am absolutely loving this game! Supposedly a DVD re-issue of a 50s low budget Sci-fi B movie with director's commentary. The commentary isn't as funny as they seem to think it is, but it's not bad and the game is quite charming.

[Aptorian]

I really liked Deadly Tower of Monsters as well. Like you say, the commentary is very hit and miss, but the gameplay grew on me. The whole idea behind the game and the design of the monsters, cutscenes, etc. are pretty charming.

I loved the free-falling mechanic and the shoot over the edge segments. Great use of the vertical level design.

Briar King, on 16 November 2016 - 05:51 AM, said:

Trying to finish Dishonored. I'm in the Palace going after Regent so I assume at the end... this place is huge and I'm having to stab everything. Guards everywhere and I can't get stealth at all for chokes. After I ll do dlcs then get 2.

For what it's worth I found the DLC much more accepting of combat solutions and generally Daud has some nifty upgrades, specifically a better blink.

This post has been edited by Apt: 17 November 2016 - 05:51 PM

[Itwæs Nom]

Because of friend's reccomendation and all the talk about it here and the 2 being out now I'm playing Dishonored, lots of fun.

spoilers BK

Spoiler

Currently in the midst of Flooded District mission

Spoiler

Apt, on 15 November 2016 - 08:00 PM, said:

I wasn't aware of this when playing Dishonored 1, but the Heart tells the darkest secrets of who ever you target with it. This has made me completely change my way of playing. Now I am playing like a Dark Angel. I test everybody with the heart, soldiers or civilian. If the heart reveals they are terrible people, I stab them and turn them into ash. If they're good I either leave them be or choke them out.

It's sort of fun and morally challenging like this, because the heart will seldom outright tell you what exactly the person you click on did. Usually it will be something like "She stood by and let them hurt them. She didn't care as long as she was paid. All she had to do was lure them into the alley". That woman I would probably murder. But then another one might be like "Everybody likes him. If they only knew what he does when he's off the clock". Which could be something as innocent as he likes to play the Harmonica in secret. That guy I'd probably leave be.

Damn I forgot about that, only been using it to reveal secrets of locations. I've been basically trying to do the same without knowing their secrets, I'd been not killing any guards but lately there were too few targets to kill so I broke my rule once or twice. Then Return to the Tower
mission came where I killed every single one of the loyal fuckers. I only kept the maids alive. Lord Regent ended up on the rocks just beyond the palce were empress has been killed(I tried to bring him unconscious with me to reveal the plague secret through the broadcast but I couldn't go to interior of the tower while carrying him so I left him there and went to do it alone, when I came down he was suddenly all healthy and being confronted by the soldiers so I loaded back and killed him first before revealing it), funny part was how suddenly a squad of soldiers with tallboy darted from the barracks right when the Lord Fucker was killed (how did they find out or appeared there I have idea) just to be all fried by the rewired watchtower in two seconds. Otherwise I've killed every single thug (except for Slackjaw himself who I thought could still be of some use to me), assasin, overseer, weeper(just putting them out of their misery) and tallboy(too fun to kill to resist) and I've never killed a civilian on purpose(couple of time by mistake as I found out at the end of some missions, one party guest at the Boyle ball just suddenly died when I walked by, that was really weird). I've always left bodies on funny places to be found, I wanted the Lord fucker to fear before I came for him, oh how I loved that I could sign the guest book at the ball after I choked everyone who I left alive and then have a videochat with him from the tower.

Funnily enough just before the loyalists tried to get rid of me I was thinking what a cool guy Samuel is and tried to see what would happen if I killed on of them(the same as if you'd die)

Also I can't say the game is much of a challenge on normal difficulty, but I haven't bothered switching it since I thought I might have another playthrough sometime and try it on harder then. At various points I just killed everyone around for fun and then loaded it back because morals.

This post has been edited by Itwæs Nom: 17 November 2016 - 08:01 PM

[Mentalist]

Put Age of Mythology on the back-burner- trying to finish reading "War of the Flowers", so RTS time is purely weekend fun now (i'm getting old, need weekday sleep to function @ work, )

So been messing around with "Chaser" some more. Decent shooty fun from a game that tries both to be a setpiece spectacle and an old school shooter.

What this leads to is a set of mini-arenas/enclosures with stacks of crates for pop'n'shoot stacked together like Legos to the sides and on top of each other. The path through is still linear, but you can backtrack and get lost. Then fall off a roof or take a one-way door and find yourself at the beginning of a level, with only the bloodsatins (bodies dissapear) to re-trace your path of carnage. This manages to make levels seem like real places, but the backtracking can get annoying. As is getting lost.

Story and characters are atrocious, and there was one "setpiece" section where you're piloting a mini-sub, trying to navigate a ships' graveyard from one beacon to another, while auto-turrets shoot at you with no way to fight back. And the sub physics are wobbly, so you bounce off walls and get completely disoriented half the time. Not fun.

The weapons selection is good, though. The shooty is decent even if AI is dumb. Reloads are instantaneous, and bar the one ins where game kept CTDing during a cutscene (fixed with a reinstall), haven't had any other issues.

So decent, but likely forgettable.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 November 2016 - 08:07 PM

[Chance]

Been playing Tyranny most of my spare time this week and must say that it is a long time since it was so satisfying to give some NPC's their due, as after serving the Voice (the insane bastard) for 50% of the game. I'm seeing clear possibilities of replay at least two or three times with different paths taken, damn good for those of us who like BG and Planescape like stuff.

[Mentalist]

Bounced off Age of Mythology EE. Kinda burned out, I guess.

In "Chaser" hit a point where I finished a level with barely any health. Next level has me "infiltrating" a Russian base with a silenced sniper rifle in the winter- trudging through a snowy canyon, trying to spot camouflaged enemy soldiers- with a small sliver of health. I need to replay previous level to get a better starting save, but don't feel like it.

Instead I relapsed into AoK HD. Decided to start my massive "play all campaigns (including workshop customs) in internal chronological order". Started with Alexander the Great- nice mix of FF (for the major battles) and B&D (for everything else). On Moderate, it's a decent challenge, but nothing extreme so far.

Of course, due to a known African Kingdoms bug, there's no "mission briefing" for any custom content, which kinda sucks. But i'm managing so far.

[Morgoth]

I loved Dishonored, and Dishonored 2 is really good. I'm playing as Corvo, mainly because I like the feeling of continuing his story. stealthing around in this game is so wonderful

[Traveller]

Got Dishonoured 2 lined up for Christmas.

Played more DQ Builders last night. Thought I'd try Terra Incognita, the free build mode, to see what it was like. When I next looked up it was four hours later..

The elements from the game mode are there, but you still have to collect the resources in the first place and build the forges/carpentry stations etc to make the more advanced stuff, most of which I haven't found in the landscape I've explored so far.

I've started with a few basic rooms like a kitchen and bedrooms, but rather than the rather lonely existence of minecraft, pretty soon residents turn up to live in and work in your creations.

Everything looks so damn nice, I can't wait to get into building a castle or something big. I'll have to return to the main game to unlock more of the portals that take you to different biomes though.

This post has been edited by Traveller: 22 November 2016 - 09:19 AM

[Aptorian]

Don't have a lot of time to play currently but I've gotten to the 5th story mission in Dishonored 2.

Finished the Clockwork Mansion but I actually think I spoiled it for myself a bit. I learned early that there is an achievement for taking out Jindosh with out him knowing you were there. So basically I tried to sneak behind the walls in the house. When ever you push a button to make the rooms change shape or purpose, you can run behind the walls or under the floors. This lead to me not really giving a shit about the rooms, but only caring about finding a way to Jindosh with out him knowing I was there. Alas, for some reason, I ended up not getting the achievement anyway.

On a side note those Clockwork soldiers are fucking intimidating up close. They're so big! Sort of remind me of a slow motion version of the Shrike from the Hyperion Saga.

[Mentalist]

Alexander the Great was a fun campaign, even though AI kinda threw in the towel in the last mission after I survived its initial onslaught.

Spent a few hours yesterday conquering Iberia for Carthage as Hannibal's unce Hasdrubal. Once again, on Moderate difficulty the AI's really tame, but the ending gets brutal because you have to assault insane fortifications, and it's timed. I think i'll need a full replay to do it properly.

[Aptorian]

I bought Infinifactory via a Humble Bundle yesterday:



I've played a couple hours of it now and this game is making me feel like an idiot. When you have a hard to time finishing the tutorial, you know you're in trouble. I think it's because the solution possibility space is completely open that I am struggling. You have to both think abstractly and try to mentally combine multiple complex production lines in 3D.