What games are you playing now?

Originally Posted by JDR13
This is something that I find puzzling about the current generation of game consoles. In the past, one of the pros about console systems vs PC was that people usually didn't need to worry about framerates. They understood that while the visuals might not be as good as a PC title, at least they didn't have to worry about uneven framerates due to system requirements. Most console games always had a more or less consistent framerate. It seems that with the PS3 and Xbox 360 however, quite a few titles suffer from framerate issues.

For the most part they run smoothly, but there are occasional problems with slowdown. Mass Effect had them, for instance, even though the 360 was the primary platform. Two Worlds, a PC port, was the worst example I've seen. Every few minutes, it would come to an absolute standstill for 3 to 5 seconds. I'm not exaggerating. It was rather distracting. Fortunately, framerate issues aren't something that bothers me unless they are really bad, like in TW.

Originally Posted by Anderson
Framerate, camera, and combat control problems became much more evident in the last third of the game, because of the number of enemies and effects on screen. It was pretty bad at times, you could hardly tell where you were or what was going on.

Heh - I'd almost forgotten that is why PC is still king for me… - I had none of those probs at the end… - though I sucked trying to get the end boss down..

You must have leveled faster than I did, Anderson, cuz I still had quite a few slots to fill at the end.
Sorry to hear that some elements let you down at the end, but glad you enjoyed the experience overall.

As for what I'm playing - I've just become a Dragon knight in Div2.

Originally Posted by RivianWitch
Heh - I'd almost forgotten that is why PC is still king for me… - I had none of those probs at the end…

Yeah, things were really bad at certain points. I'll give you a for instance. Remember the fight against the Guardian of the Golden Fleece? Second to last boss fight? Tough little bastard. He was in a giant pool of green liquid, he would send out tri-fold bolts of exploding green goo that would chase you, he would appear and disappear, he would throw out a lot of spell effects, and there were Minotaurs and other baddies sloshing through the goo and trying to attack you.

At times during that fight, the framerate slowed to an absolute crawl. Plus, the camera got too close in, so that your character would disappear from the screen. So imagine the the air is churning with enemies, exploding goo is coming at you, you're getting attacked from all sides, but you can't see anything, including yourself. All you see is a bunch of churning green goo, going every which way on the screen, in extremely sloooow motion.

Normally this stuff doesn't bother me, but this was nerve-wracking, because that was a boss fight, and there were one-hit kill dangers about to strike, yet I couldn't see them. This happened over and over during a very long fight, and I died several times because of it. I shook my head and kind of laughed it off, but that was frustrating.

Gee, well no wonder then if the 360 reviews were bad.. I know which fight you're talking about, but I had no slowdown, and it was unremarkable for me compared to the end boss and the

Now the only thing that makes me a little sad about not being in on the console scene, are all the console exclusives - but luckily most games eventually still get ported to PC. Otherwise I'm very happy being a PC gamer indeed.

(I guess I wouldn't mind a PS3 for the blue-ray though)

Oh, there is zero reason to shift to a console, if technical performance issues are what you are looking at. I think it's almost axiomatic that, in terms of technical performance, a good PC almost always trumps a console. This is especially true for the 360, which is now into its 4th year and showing its age. I play on console for comfort, ease, and convenience, because it's what I know, and because playing on PC is more hassle than its worth (for me). That's it. There's no technical arguments at all to be made in favor of console > PC.

Broke down and bought Torchlight. Just started it and having fun so far.

.Rise of Legends continued to fail to impress me, so it got uninstalled.

Titan Quest, at first was headed the same direction. Then it suddenly became fun, it's jus getting past the first initial grassland/satyr tedium can be tough. Especially when youve tried the game before, and it's basically all youve ever known. BTW - Volcanic Orb+Core Dweller for the win. I picked up Spirit at level 8 and am going for the Lich & Core Dweller minion onslaugt, w/ some death and fire magic. Sounds like it just may eventually suck and i dont know what im doing mixing these two masteries, but I think it just may work. Sounds fun anyway
Also back in the MMO-zone w/ LOTRO. DDO got canned, well actually MMO in general did… but my girl is a LOTRO nut, and what she's shown me looks really cool. So I'll give it a whirl so we can play together as well. Impressed w/ what I'm seeing quite frankly, the world is gorgeous, the lore is cool (true to LOTR), its at one time accessible and complex as you want to make it. Doing all the noob shit and hovering around level 12 as a Hunter, now going to hit the wikis and see what I'm missing.

Picked up Street Fighter 4 on steam for 9.99 - wow there's a change of pace. Plugged my controller in, barely endured the menu music long enough to set up a match, then promptly got my ass kicked by Chun Li. Felt good, its been a while!

Sorry to hear that you didn't like RoL Sammy, I thought it was one of the more interesting RTS games I've played in recent years.

Originally Posted by xSamhainx
.
…Titan Quest, at first was headed the same direction. Then it suddenly became fun, it's jus getting past the first initial grassland/satyr tedium can be tough. Especially when youve tried the game before, and it's basically all youve ever known. BTW - Volcanic Orb+Core Dweller for the win. I picked up Spirit at level 8 and am going for the Lich & Core Dweller minion onslaugt, w/ some death and fire magic. Sounds like it just may eventually suck and i dont know what im doing mixing these two masteries, but I think it just may work. Sounds fun anyway …

Conjurer(Spirit/Earth) is one of the classic builds, Sammy. You should enjoy it. Evoker (Earth/Dream) is also pretty uber if you like the Earth skills. Glad you're finally getting something out of the game. I agree that Greece gets old fast. My favorite part continues to be China, but Egypt is a close second.

As for me, I'm on my third character (mage/normal) in Armored Princess—too many noob mistakes on the first two. This one hopefully will do the trick.

Going to give the Witcher another try. The (boring) combat system along with the lure of other titles caused me not to finish it last time.

Was thinking of finally giving King's Bounty a try after that. I heard it needs a bit of a warm up time before it becomes really intresting, like Drakensang. Is this true?

Originally Posted by Davion
Going to give the Witcher another try. The (boring) combat system along with the lure of other titles caused me not to finish it last time.

Was thinking of finally giving King's Bounty a try after that. I heard it needs a bit of a warm up time before it becomes really intresting, like Drakensang. Is this true?

King's Bounty is fantastic, even if you're not a huge fan of TB-stategy games. I didn't think I was going to like it, and then it ended up being one of the best games I played last year.

The Witcher is also fantastic though, easily in my top ten crpgs. I didn't like the combat either at first, but it grows on you after awhile. Make sure to play it on 'Hard' to get the most out of it.

Was thinking of finally giving King's Bounty a try after that. I heard it needs a bit of a warm up time before it becomes really intresting, like Drakensang. Is this true?

I loved king's bountry from the very start to the very end.

Going to give the Witcher another try. The (boring) combat system along with the lure of other titles caused me not to finish it last time.

The witcher is a really strange experiance! Everything is great….. except for the gameplay. I could not finish it the combat and other gameplay related things just got too boring Though I absolutely loved the setting/graphics etc.

Originally Posted by GothicGothicness
The witcher is a really strange experiance! Everything is great….. except for the gameplay. I could not finish it the combat and other gameplay related things just got too boring Though I absolutely loved the setting/graphics etc.

I have to say I agree completely

Everything is so great except for the game part…

Played the demo for Torchlight last night.

I really like the cartoony look of the graphics, something that I guess has been a negative for some. I also liked the pace of the game which seemed a bit quicker than Titan Quest's. And there also wasn't a ton of loot dropping with every kill so I spent more time in combat than picking stuff up.

Still… don't think I'm sold. Guess I'm not much of a action-rpg-loot fest kind of guy.

However, picked up Rogue Galaxy for the PS2 last week and have been hooked. It's a JRPG from Dragon Quest VIII developer Level 5. Very impressive for a game that came out in 2007. Cell shaded graphics look lovely, music is good and the game is HUGE (large environments, large variety of them, and lots of optional stuff to do).

It has an action/real time combat system like the Tales series that is very fast paced and fun to use. It has weapons that level up and can be combined and upgraded along with a cool skill system based on items that drop from enemies or that you find so it makes it worth it to search for treasure chests and check the loot out at shops.

Story is basically Star Wars + Final Fantasy, no huge surprises but the voice acting is excellent and brings the characters to life, and the writing is good which helps. Only 15 hours in and have seen a lot (supposedly the game is really long, as in over 50 hours). Anyway, great game. Always nice to come across a JRPG that takes me back to those SNES days - not only is the game fun, the combat can get pretty tough.

Originally Posted by Relayer
Played the demo for Torchlight last night.

I really like the cartoony look of the graphics, something that I guess has been a negative for some. I also liked the pace of the game which seemed a bit quicker than Titan Quest's. And there also wasn't a ton of loot dropping with every kill so I spent more time in combat than picking stuff up.

Still… don't think I'm sold. Guess I'm not much of an action-rpg guy.

I'm not generally into a-rpg either, but I'm having a very good time with Torchlight so far. I suppose the real test will be how long I stick with it. I enjoyed Diablo2 for a while, but a combination of frustration and something akin to boredom caused me not to finish it. As usual, I'm playing a melee grunt. There hasn't been much challenge to it, but I picked either normal or easy when I started since I wasn't really looking for a tough go. Good times so far. We'll see what the future holds, but I think I'll get my $10 worth.

Enough yakking. I'm back to the mines.

Definitely agree - as I am not huge into action-RPG myself, I would say that if you *hate* them - stay away - Torchlight is about as pure an action-RPG as you can get.

I loaded up Dragon Age…oooOOohhh! Of course I still need to finish KB, then hopefully NWN 2. I made it to the second chapter but am just having a hard time getting drawn into it…this completely crushes me because I adore AD&D!

Sometime I'll have to fit in all those games I got from the Steam sale

Played a bit today and also read some more reviews. May end up getting it since the reviews mention it's around a 10 to 15 hour game and I think this is perfect for this type of game and great for replays.

I played Titan Quest for what seemed like a lot more than that to get to what I THOUGHT was the end but actually turned out to be the 2nd act (of 3?), Egypt. At that point the repetition and lack of challenge turned me off. I really think the pace ruined that game for me. It just seems so slow… and not very action-packed for an action game.

Originally Posted by CelesteGB
I loaded up Dragon Age…oooOOohhh! Of course I still need to finish KB, then hopefully NWN 2. I made it to the second chapter but am just having a hard time getting drawn into it…this completely crushes me because I adore AD&D!

Sometime I'll have to fit in all those games I got from the Steam sale

It's not just you. I played a ton of NWN1. I'm one of the 5 people in the world that actually liked the NWN1 OC. I couldn't finish NWN2. I want to like it, but it simply refused to grab me. I'll give it another try some day.

Hehe I liked the NWN OC also. I mean…I almost finished POR and hardly anybody liked that and NWN2 is superior. I got to the end of Act 1 (yes, I've heard quite a few said it was dull and does pick up) I'm actually just in the beginning of Act 2 and stopped playing. I've meant to mess with it these past few days but I installed Win 7 and did the re-installation dance.

I do want to give it another chance. I did wait forever for it Ya know…it needs a Deekin or Minsc or something…everyone is so serious *sniff*