What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

Erik Twice wrote: Have you played Wizardry? Wizardry 8, which is the go-to recommendation, does look dated, though.

I will check it out. It's been on my radar for some time now.

I did fire up Dragon Age Origins, which is doing the trick, but for how long I don't know.

Josh Look wrote: I will check it out. It's been on my radar for some time now.

After games and games of boring, mindless combat having a game in which every single encounter is deadly is something amazing. You can get it for like 1.5€ on Steam or GoG so it's well worth checking out at that price.

Erik Twice wrote:

Josh Look wrote: I will check it out. It's been on my radar for some time now.

After games and games of boring, mindless combat having a game in which every single encounter is deadly is something amazing. You can get it for like 1.5€ on Steam or GoG so it's well worth checking out at that price.

I've heard that 6, 7, and 8 form a trilogy. Can I jump right in to 8?

Josh Look wrote: I've heard that 6, 7, and 8 form a trilogy. Can I jump right in to 8?

I haven't played 6 or 7 and it hasn't been an issue, you don't need to know anything about previous games in the series and while I'm certain that knowing more about the lore and characters would be fun, I think it's fine to jump directly into 8.

Erik Twice wrote:

Josh Look wrote: I've heard that 6, 7, and 8 form a trilogy. Can I jump right in to 8?

I haven't played 6 or 7 and it hasn't been an issue, you don't need to know anything about previous games in the series and while I'm certain that knowing more about the lore and characters would be fun, I think it's fine to jump directly into 8.

There is a surprising amount of lore packed into the Wizardry series, but I agree: you can jump right into 8. I also agree that it's pretty dated at this point, but I remember really enjoying it.

Wizardry is one of those games that has had far more influence on its art form indirectly than directly. In the very early days of computer gaming the original Wizardry game (Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord) was a pretty big hit in Japan for some reason, and by most accounts it had a huge influence on the burgeoning JRPG genre. Every fantasy RPG coming out of Japan that has you controlling a party of adventurers, where you move around a map and deal with random monster encounters from out of the blue, and issue one order per character every round of combat (with only the front several characters able to fight in melee, leading to the classic "Fight Fight Fight Parry Parry Parry" orders for a six-character party) owes its structure to Wizardry, which is almost unknown to gamers in the West.

I'm not saying that Wizardry should be held up in the West constantly as this great series. I mean, I loved playing those games, but they came out a long time ago and far more people have played, say, the Final Fantasy series than have had the chance to even hear of Wizardry.

For those of you with a PS4, Galak-Z is good fun. It's hard but fair.

Gary Sax wrote: For those of you with a PS4, Galak-Z is good fun. It's hard but fair.

Definitely looks like my kind of game. Gotta wait for the PC release though.

I downloaded card hunter again, now on Steam. It has been like... a year or two since I played it. It's gotten way better! They've smoothed out the difficulty and added more interesting twists. I'm still not convinced on adding so many slots to characters as you level up... I get that it's adding strategy (equipment mix) but I have never really enjoyed tuning decks for size/making sure the mix was right. As you move up in levels it's pretty clear that if you were good you would be thinking about the percentage composition of your forty or fifty card deck re: equipment.

Besides that, it's free to play but a very generous free to play model. No need to spend.

I gave up on Bioshock Infinite. It just got too repetitive and playing a repetitive game for hours on end just so I can see if there is some amazing plot twist just isn't worth it to me. Google confirmed that for me when I read about the ending.

So I'm going to play Borderlands 2 for a bit until I decide which RPG to start. I've got Dragon Age Origins for XBOX or Fallout New Vegas for PS3.

airmarkus wrote: I gave up on Bioshock Infinite. It just got too repetitive and playing a repetitive game for hours on end just so I can see if there is some amazing plot twist just isn't worth it to me. Google confirmed that for me when I read about the ending.

So I'm going to play Borderlands 2 for a bit until I decide which RPG to start. I've got Dragon Age Origins for XBOX or Fallout New Vegas for PS3.

Man, the Bioshock series as a whole is entirely overrated. Tedious, boring games with a plot twist in there to keep the experience from being entirely forgettable. I only played the first one to completion and yes, that twist is great, but the whole thing is downhill from there. The sloppy FPS mechanics aren't enough to carry it for me (same case with Fallout 3, really). I even played it again up to a little bit past the twist, thinking maybe there was something I missed. No, I didn't. The game is crap.

I'm still on Dragon Age Origins. It's a strange game for me. I've played it at least 4 times to near completion and I've always that that while it is certainly playable, it pales in comparison to the kind of games BioWare used to make. Things are really clicking this time though, and I've never enjoyed the game more.

So there's a new Toy Soldiers game out, now on everything and not just Xbox. This is good news, because these games are really cool. They are basically tower defense games set on these giant 3D toybox playfields with little toy units- wind-up tanks, action figures, etc. The catch is that you can get in the towers and control them. And you can also get in tanks and planes. If you rack up kills while commandeering a weapon, you charge up a meter and if you get it high enough, you can go out on the field as a third-person character or a super-vehicle.

The original game had a WWI setting, making it pretty much the only WWI video game ever...and it really kind of worked in that setting- tiny toy soldiers going over the top and getting mowed down by machine gun emplacements. Or you'd drive a painfully slow tank into the middle of an infantry rush and gas them. Later games had a Cold War setting, but this one has a kind of mash-up concept that works pretty well. There are four base armies- a WWI set, a sci-fi one with mechs and so forth, a Rainbow Brite/Care Bears/My Little Pony inspired one and a D&D/LOTR one. Each have their own units and upgrade trees.

Oh, and there are a couple of extra armies that are paid DLC. GI Joe. Cobra. He-Man. And an Assassin's Creed one that no one ought to care about.

I haven't bought the licensed sets yet but man, they are tempting. I've fought Cobra, and it's REALLY fun seeing HISS tanks roll out as well as those stupid three-wheel tanks they had that I can't remember the name of right now.

I really like how the games include the hands-on action. There aren't a lot of games these days where you get to pilot a vehicle as a primary action, but this one kind of gets back to that kind of thing. It has a more RTS feel than most tower defense games, and the progression so far is good.

The only complaint is that it doesn't feel as unique as the WWI game did, mainly because of the setting. And IAPs. They are completely unnecessary because you unlock stuff in the game in "booster pack" style, but you can throw your money away on what amount to cheat codes if you desire. Stupid.

Fun stuff, worth $15 so far.

Sounds great. Is it on the Wii U?

I have been playing ROCKET LEAGUE and DIABLO 3, hard hardcore there. My Wizard died in those stupid spider caves ignominiously, so I am now a Monk that just rolled the Skeleton King. Hardcore is fucking tough. One little error and you are out. I need to make sure I have my get-the-fuck-out skill at the ready. I am going to make damn sure I am overpowered for that Belial fight this time. My Barb is missed.

Mr. White wrote: Sounds great. Is it on the Wii U?

I doubt it--the original was pretty heavily underwritten by Microsoft, I think. I was surprised to hear this was more universal, actually. (Just checked, it's PC, PS4, XB1).

I could see some avatars coming from this thing...

So what is the deal with Diablo 3? I know it gets a lot of love here and based on that I picked up the special PS3 edition last year, but it didn't stick for some reason. I only tried playing the single player campaign which may have been a bad choice. I got bored after a few days and moved on.

I think it is a better game on the PC than on the console. That is the impression I get from my friends who play it on the PC. I have it on the Box and my wife and I kill shit when the mood strikes. For some reason, both of us get hypnotized by the game and it is not uncommon for one of us to start dozing and stop moving our character.

I've been playing Witcher 3 lately. The 'Family Matters' quest was actually pretty good and I have yet to find out if I chose the right path in solving it.