What games are you playing now?

Too late, I've already used the well. :D
And found the scroll to remove fire from the entrance hall inside the castle.

If anyone played both this game and Dark Souls, please tell me, which one is harder.
I mean... You can't grind your progress in Xulima.

There is something I really don't like. Spells have global icon and are different only by text. It looks like phonegame design. It's not completely phonegame menu of course as you can attach each spell to a quickkey (numbers) but since they'll all have the same icon displayed it's rather confusing.

Another thing I really don't like is infinite mana pool mobs have. While I can't spam so many spells and skills, mobs never go oom. At least it seems like that. One could argue it's not mana but they use scrolls where I'll disagree because I didn't loot any scroll from mobs anywhere.

And the story (so far) is... What to say... Not something I'd suggest to read outside of this game. :)

It's too early to have more impressions but one thing is sure. If someone finds recent games being too easy, buy Lords of Xulima. Or, of course, Blackguards.
I plain adore this year. So many RPGs, so many variety between them.
 
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So… Noone is playing anything, just me? :p

After killing the major boss (the prince) I'm not sure what to say about Xulima. Got in the temple, almost all mobs were easy. At one point an invisible mob is lurking and you can't possibly fight against it (your party have total of cca 300 HP, this boss has 3200 HP!). Finally another princelike boss needs to be removed from the picture and I refused to use pots this time just to see if it's possible win him differently than the prince - and of course he pwned my butt.

I will do him in just like I did the prince, but… It's not fun.
Developers' plan was to make things hard, and it's a refreshment that I like. But things already feel too repetitive and out of place. Said already that mobs have infinite mana pool which is IMO bad design. As it's not bosses only feature, all mobs can spam anything as much as they want. You… Can't.

The difference however is that bosses have double health than your whole party and do AoE damage and CC (stun) while immune to cc which makes your damage not comparable since you have to waste time on using potions - the petty cleric can't heal but one teammember or remove just one effect in turn (bleed, wounds)! Sure, you can always return to the town and pay for speed blessing or something… If you have enough cash for that.

If I was restaring the game, I'd never take the default party but would put only HP tanks in the front row. And would skip having a rogue class since main hero can up lockpicking/traps/perception skills - instead of having evasive rogue, my rogue is now beefy and uses swords since bows/daggers damage is unbelievably low in this game.

I expected some mobs immune to a certain damage type so instead of upgrading one or two mage spells, I took all possible and they stayed on low level. What happened? In only one case I met a mob immune to fire damage (burning skeleton archer)!Practically I screwed my mage's build.

Also there are certain shrines (Yul) you can either destroy for XP or pray for a bonus permanent effect (+2 HP on all party members for example). And because of the design where battle outcome depends on your overall HP and nothing else, you'll want these permanent bonuses, not XP.

Which is a shame. I really liked how it all started but more I play, more things I really don't like.
Dunno if this will change the more I play. We'll see.
 
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I've finished my first full game of Endless Legends, which is still holding up as a great science fantasy 4x. The little quest-lines add a nice bit of depth to it, but the faction I played did force me down a particular route I wasn't set up for.

I've just started Lego Batman 3, which is pretty much just ticking all the Lego game boxes so far. I was hoping for a DC version of Lego Marvel's open world New York, but it looks like it's far more linear. Some of the previous games have had ridiculously long levels, and this one might be aiming to top them. The one I'm on now could easily have been split into at least 3 levels so far, but instead it's one huge, multi-part level that just won't end. Considering that it's largely aimed at kids, you'd think they'd dole it out in a series of shorter, easily digestible levels. The gameplay's still wonky as hell and wouldn't stand up in any serious game, but it's easy to ignore it in favor of the silly plotline and genuine fun of running around with cartoony versions of all of the characters.
 
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I've finished my first full game of Endless Legends, which is still holding up as a great science fantasy 4x. The little quest-lines add a nice bit of depth to it, but the faction I played did force me down a particular route I wasn't set up for.

I've just started Lego Batman 3, which is pretty much just ticking all the Lego game boxes so far. I was hoping for a DC version of Lego Marvel's open world New York, but it looks like it's far more linear. Some of the previous games have had ridiculously long levels, and this one might be aiming to top them. The one I'm on now could easily have been split into at least 3 levels so far, but instead it's one huge, multi-part level that just won't end. Considering that it's largely aimed at kids, you'd think they'd dole it out in a series of shorter, easily digestible levels. The gameplay's still wonky as hell and wouldn't stand up in any serious game, but it's easy to ignore it in favor of the silly plotline and genuine fun of running around with cartoony versions of all of the characters.

My kids can't have enough of Lego Marvel's open city and mini-games all around, the tons of super heros to unlock.

Are there any other Lego games of the same scale as the Marvel one (What about Batman 2, or Lego Lord of the Rings?)
 
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My kids can't have enough of Lego Marvel's open city and mini-games all around, the tons of super heros to unlock.

Are there any other Lego games of the same scale as the Marvel one (What about Batman 2, or Lego Lord of the Rings?)

Lego Batman 2's got a pretty open Gotham, but I don't remember it having nearly as much to do as in Lego Marvel. I've got the LotR one, but never got around to playing it. The Harry Potter ones are supposed to be pretty good, I've heard.
 
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Lego Batman 2's got a pretty open Gotham, but I don't remember it having nearly as much to do as in Lego Marvel. I've got the LotR one, but never got around to playing it. The Harry Potter ones are supposed to be pretty good, I've heard.

Thanks, I will be keeping my eyes on these in the upcoming Steam sale.
 
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Well, still playing XCOM: Enemy Within. It's amazing how the hours fly by with this game. Before I know it, it's after midnight. That's a good sign I think (others, may not ;) )

So DTE, your advice was spot on. Lasers plus enemy base and the subsequent missions allowed me to much better manage panic. BTW, the base defense mission was my favorite so far. I loved turtling on the top floor balcony. One muton wouldn't come through. Odd that.

I've made it to June with both Asia and North America fully covered. Haven't lost a country and even have plasma rifles (muton stuns on early council missions FTW). Now wondering if I should advance the main plot or continue to develop technology and get the entire world covered by satellites… I kind of want to play with all the toys before finishing the game. But if that's not feasible, then maybe a replay will be in order.
 
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And I feel more and more nausiated and exhausted with Xulima.
Hard? Challenging?

Quite the opposite. It started as challenging. But soon turned into grinding.

Did anyone finish the game yet? Is it actually invisible hordes of enemies game and nothing else (apart from a few nice puzzles, I'm currently in the desert puzzle, this one is definetly challenging).
I mean… I'm seriously annoyed with those invisible "encounters". And if I skip them, visible mobs outlevel/outpower me totally! Just because bloody poison removing skill is at level 20 cleric and such stuff!

Honestly, I'm not having any fun here. Will still continue to play, but… I'm a milimeter close to uninstalling it.
 
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Started playing XCOM, too. Enthralling. I'm going to have to reload a slightly earlier savegame though, because I built stupid things and excavated a hole I didn't need yet, which caused me to lack time and cash for a satellite request. Didn't know it would take 20 days to build one of those things.

The game doesn't seem as scary as I remembered the originals, but I guess I simply grew out of it. Note to self: if I have kids some day, make sure to feed them all kinds of horror media when they are teenagers.
 
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Back to an old favourite! Here's a hint!

Vanquished Creatures
Antaeus (Coc:7)
Asmodeus (Geh:7)
Cerebov (Pan)
the royal jelly (Slime:6)
the Serpent of Hell (Coc:7)
Ereshkigal (Tar:7)
Gloorx Vloq (Pan)
A seraph (Pan)
Mnoleg (Pan)
Dispater (Dis:7)
Lom Lobon (Pan)
4 orbs of fire
3 ancient liches
102 large abominations
35 greater mummies
 
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Well, still playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It's amazing how the hours fly by with this game. Before I know it, it's after midnight. That's a good sign I think (others, may not ;) )

So DTE, your advice was spot on. Lasers plus enemy base and the subsequent missions allowed me to much better manage panic. BTW, the base defense mission was my favorite so far. I loved turtling on the top floor balcony. One muton wouldn't come through. Odd that.

I've made it to June with both Asia and North America fully covered. Haven't lost a country and even have plasma rifles (muton stuns on early council missions FTW). Now wondering if I should advance the main plot or continue to develop technology and get the entire world covered by satellites… I kind of want to play with all the toys before finishing the game. But if that's not feasible, then maybe a replay will be in order.
Indeed, the game is a real time sink. Definitely a good thing in my book.

The base defense isn't too bad once you realize a couple things--your top 6 soldiers will be included with whatever they're wearing when the mission begins; you'll have a bunch of rookies running around that aren't part of your normal roster and they're expendable. After that, I agree that it's a fun challenge. I probably should have been a little more patient before I rage quit the first time I played that mission. I do think I might step up to classic difficulty next time I start up. I'm probably 2/3 thru on my current run.

Unless you've chosen the marathon option (which might be second wave and thus not available to you yet), you'll win the game before you experience everything. Just tell your inner complete-ist to take a hike, enjoy the ride, and start thinking about that replay. ;)
 
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Just normal mode, no marathon. Only save scumming randomization turned on from second wave options. I should try ironman to see if I can win without re-loading. ;)

But considering the large time investment, not sure if that would be good for my mental health. :)
 
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Enthralling is the perfect word. Yikes, it's good.

BTW, get more engineers ASAP. They reduce your build costs. Pick them for rewards, if it doesn't upset your panic levels too much.
It's probably a good sign that there are different ways to approach the balance. I've been starting in Africa to get the monthly credit bonus. That gives you a little more flexibility about choosing rewards. Getting a soldier stinks since they're like an RPC and that's just plain offensive, but if you're willing to hold your nose they're often very solid troops. Most of the time, if there's no panic-led direction, I go for credits.

I picked up a council request recently that really opened the game up for me tho--$2136 in return for 8 light plasma rifles. Granted, I only had 3 on me and hadn't researched them yet when the request came thru, but it wasn't too difficult to cash that one in. You can really invest when you're sitting on that big of a pile of money.
 
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One thing that is a bitch, every uplink costs 5 or so more engineers than the previous. So you've got to get at least 5 more engineers more a month (assuming 1 uplink a month, which I think is a fairly safe way to avoid panic once you start getting adjacency boni on the second and not failing any missions). 15 engineers more if you want to switch to building an uplink nexus.

There are rush strategies that ignore panic and just build towards finishing the game fairly early. But that approach doesn't appeal to me. Imagine. ;)

Nice council mission, BTW! I shoudl probably research LPRs and plasma pistols at some point. But they take a ton of research time even with the muton tech credit.
 
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Uplinks are definitely worth building next to each other to pick up the synergy bonus. I build them in a column- uplink on lvl1, uplink on lvl2, nexus on lvl3. That gets you 10 satellites with only 3 rooms and the timing works out about right. Steam generators are well worth it, too.
 
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Yeah, mine are arranged as a 2x2 of uplinks, and then will add 1 nexus below on level 3 to finish with a 17 sattelite capability fairly quickly (probably by July). The increase in income for higher coverage is well worth it.
 
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Still playing Lego Batman 3, but now I've finished the main story and the hubs have unlocked. It's very strange, with a large focus on the cosmic weirdness of the various lanterns without a lot of explanation of who everyone is, but it doesn't really matter since it's all so silly. Even weirder are the cameos. Conan O'Brien and Kevin Smith are hanging around with Daffy Duck for some reason, handing out quests and providing some tutorial babble.

The open world hubs are a bit odd. I'd rather have one nice, big city like Gotham or Metropolis, but instead there are several linked areas, like the Batcave, the moon, and all of the lantern worlds. The other worlds are interesting, in that they're spherical levels, so you can run/fly all around them. Naturally they're quite small, but it makes them a bit different to explore, and they're quite pretty.

But there is one thing that really tops it all off: if you play as Adam West Batman, it pops up KAPOW! bubbles with the appropriate sound effects when you hit stuff! That's just awesome.
 
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it pops up KAPOW! bubbles with the appropriate sound effects when you hit stuff! That's just awesome.
Anachronox rip-off.
 
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So after finally putting my new gaming rig together, I'm playing the latest cutting edge AAA game, right?

Nope. I find myself playing a slightly updated version of an 18 year old game - Strife: Veteran Edition.

Funny thing is, I purchased it on a whim just to mess around with something while I was waiting for Wolfenstein to download on Steam. Now I'm sucked in.

I can't understand why I never played this game back in the day. I would almost put it on the same level as Duke Nukem 3D. Definitely a classic.
 
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