What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

My favorite part of a flight Sim is landing the plane. I really hope No Man's Sky is going to be something special

No Man's Sky is the only game I'm pining for beyond Fallout 4.

Nearly 50 hours into MGSV, and it drops an ALL NEW complicated SYSTEM of mechanics on me. Enough for an entire game, practically. This Forward Operating Base thing. Basically, you build ANOTHER Mother Base and staff it out...and other players can raid it. Of course, you can also raid theirs. And this isn't even the actual MGS Online multiplayer mode. NUTS.

Last night I spent like 30 minutes extracting an entire platoon of child soldiers...I felt like such a hero, slamming them into the ground and then loading them up into a jeep to take to the chopper- and presumably a better life. Then I had a fistfight with a kid straight out of Peter Pan's Lost Boys. Or Lord of the Flies, your choice.

I actually had not been blitzing through the story missions...most of the tales of my exploits are actually from side missions...but they're all so much fun to do. I started working on the actual storyline in earnest, and although it's told very differently than past MGS titles, it's definitely there and it's getting pretty interesting. There actually aren't that many hooks or callbacks to the past games, definitely not any long-winded "put the controller down" exposition or anything like that. Around mission 18 or so, there's a really quite shocking turn...it's funny, I almost kind of feel that despite all of the horse pooping, ballooning, jeep stealing and so forth that there is a very strong horror element that wasn't really in past games despite Vamp, Psycho Mantis, The End and such elements...almost like Kojima is saying "hang on, I didn't do enough horror". Not spoiling it, but the part in question was REALLY creepy...the first part of what you have to do is eerie because you get to the mission zone and there's no one there. But then it takes this really horrific turn and it becomes really scary.

And there is something about the game that is...changing...that I'm wondering what its outcome is going to be. It could be something metaphorical, but it also might turn out to be literal. I _think_ there is some kind of mechanic that is affecting this about the game, I'm scared to look online for fear of spoiling it.

Anyhow, Destiny is back in full swing. 40+GB download for the whole thing. I jumped back in with my stuck-at-level-24 Warlock and in just a short time he's up to level 40. The game is GREATLY improved by throwing out some of the awful leveling mechanics, it actually feels like you're accomplishing something rather than waiting for the RNG to give a legendary item. The quests and bounties are much more accessible and easier to manage. Overall, the 2.0 upgrade is a major improvement that I think addresses most of the issues I had with the game. I always thought it was great, but I put it aside when I realized that I didn't have 100 hours to try to grind out Light-bearing gear...or other friends to do the Raids with. That's still a problem (no matchmaking on a major piece of multiplayer content). Really enjoying playing an improved, upgraded version of the game.

Any word on the quality of MGSV on the PC?

I've been playing some Sid Meier's Starship. It isn't as good as his other classics but the turn based tactical Starship battles scratches a X-Wing inch when I'm Jonesing to play some X-Wing.

Any word on the quality of MGSV on the PC?

It's super solid. Like, the Fox engine it's running on is some kind of hoo-do magic. I'm not running a powerhouse PC, and I've got all the settings but one cranked to Ultra at 1080p, and the one setting is a notch down. It looks absolutely gorgeous.

I'm using a 360 controller for it, but the mouse and keyboard controls are perfectly fine too, and you can switch back and forth between controller and keyboard on the fly.

This is very much not an Arkham Knight situation. PC version is full steam ahead.

hotseatgames wrote: Any word on the quality of MGSV on the PC?

Very good quality. I have a reasonable graphics set up (for flight sims) but absolutely no problems.

ThirstyMan wrote: Back to flight sims for a bit. The one I use is DCS. Downloadable from their website for free (don't download through Steam for lots of boring incompatibility reasons). You get a free Soviet ground attack aircraft (SU 25T) to fly. Been playing on and off for a couple of years and can now land it without crashing into the runway. It's no arcade game, it's an accurate sim. Of course, you need decent graphics and a joystick (preferably HOTAS) to run it, but it is very good. Decided to buy the SU 25A, an earlier version of the same plane, but no autopilot or HUD, probably because I am a masochist. Either that or I like a challenge. The plane was used in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to some effect.

Got to fly through the Caucasus Mountains on a tightly controlled flight path.... deviate from it and its 'Hello, side of mountain what are you doing here?'. As the plane has no HUD, it's instrument only flying. Most of the flight time is spent looking at the instruments, not out of the window, including landing the fucker. To make it harder the mission has a crosswind which fucks with you while flying through narrow canyons.

Next mission, learn to shoot and fly without crashing. When I fire a huge rocket it is currently unbalancing the plane and causing me all sorts of problems (due to no auto pilot) which usually results in a spectacular crash into the side of a mountain. Need to sort this out as I am dying far too often. Tried taking out a NATO convoy of APCs yesterday. Fired all my rockets (in a panic, had about a 2 second window to fire) got one hit on an APC. Tried a flashy 180 hard turn to get back on target. Had some face to face time with the mountainside providing entertainment value for the NATO troops, entirely secure, down below, in their largely undamaged vehicles.

Thanks for getting me into DCS!

Actually, I'm not quite sure I should be thanking you. It seems this could/will get very expensive.

Man, new games are eighty bucks now before tax. FTP games are going to be more and moar attractive

More Dark Souls 2. I did some grinding for souls in the Heidi's tower location from those big dumb slow knights to make things a little easier. Still getting my ass handed to me by the old dragonslayer boss past the dragon in that area, but he's not super difficult. I just have to concentrate a little harder and be patient.

Also, do not sleep on the adaptability characteristic. Being able to use items faster is KEY in boss fights, in particular your healing items. If only the game explained fuck all about any of the attributes. IMHO that's the kind of senseless Dark Souls shit that drives everyone crazy, which is way separate from the difficulty level in the game. I don't have much trouble with difficulty being high, but the intentionally opaque stuff just makes me roll my eyes.

Good gravy, new Destiny...it's awesome. They totally fixed it, from what I can see so far. The new missions are a 180 from the "scan with Ghost, defend for 10 minutes" junk from last year. They have actual objectives and storylines, I just did one Warlock-specific one where the whole thing was to mediate at these arc energy points to learn this new subclass (Stormcaller). And then you get to go use it on a bunch of Vex.

The cinematics, characters and stories are WAY WAY WAY better, and all have the same or better incredible production design. But the secret sauce is that they've lightened it all up. Somebody at Bungie must have seen Guardians of the Galaxy. There's jokes and everything, all it needs is some Foghat instead of the THIS IS SO EPIC choral stuff. They pretty much jettisoned the portentous, stodgy Halo approach and embraced that alluring mix of serious sci-fi and light camp. Nathan Fillion does one of the voices (of a robot) and he just kills it, sending the whole thing up at every turn but in an affectionate way respectful of the genre.

The rebalancing is right on the money. Now it feels like you actually get stuff and do things without having to play for 20 hours to get anything done. A lot of the older weapons are pretty much obsolete though, there are greens that are more powerful than some of the old rares/legendaries.

It's keeping me from the middle game of MGSV (at 50+ hours)...but during the last session, I kicked this kid's ass with good ol' fashioned fisticuffs and a squirt pistol. Which is, by the way, possibly the most OP weapon in the game. A kid I rescued gave it to me and I thought WTF is this...but I was goofing around and I sprayed a communications console with it and it shorted it out. Previously, I had to plant a C4 and deal with the alert it would raise. Now I can go up to them (and any other electronic device such as a camera or a satellite relay) and hose it down quietly.

The "bloody" outfit for Quiet is...disturbing.

I keep waiting for someone to post about Mario Maker - it's the only game that really appeals to me right now.

I know that next week I'll be picking up Skylanders Superchargers - we loved Trap Team but have finished it several times now so my son has been earning skylander stickers for certain around the house tasks and when he finishes the chart he gets Superchargers ... it's almost full already and if he keeps up the good behaviour it will be full by next week, so fair is fair, we'll get the game. I'm actually sort of excited for it, especially with the Amibo's that come with it and make the Wii U version the best one. That's a nice change of pace.

But all I really want is Mario Maker ... I just have to squirrel money away and do it slowly.

I'm buying Mario Maker tonight, but it's for my kids' birthday so it won't get loaded up for a couple of weeks yet. I personally don't have much interest in it. I'm waiting for the level editor for Hotline Miami 2... much more my speed.

Santa is bringing Mario Maker for us.

I haven't decided what to do about Skylanders. I racked up last year buying the previous year's stuff. I was thinking about doing that with Trap Team, but Superchargers looks soooo good. And it has Donkey Kong.

But then there's Infinity 3.0, which is supposed to be better and Star Wars.

And Lego Dimensions, which has the benefit of being actually Lego...and also Doctor Who. But it's quite expensive.

And then there's the possibility of Rock Band 4.

It'd be hard to hold off on Mario Maker! You're a strong man!