What games are you playing now?

Currently playing part 2 of Div 2 and if they can figure out why some people are having graphical glitches, I think this game could be a sleeper hit.

Corwin said:

Currently playing part 2 of Div 2 and if they can figure out why some people are having graphical glitches, I think this game could be a sleeper hit.

Click to expand...

[Drools in anticipation of the upcoming release]

NONE
Nada... zip...
I got overloaded with schoolwork that I will barely get any free time for Christmas. To 14 January I need to prepare and write a huge job that I really want to do great.

It's a shame, because there were so many games I wanted to play but I just have to accept that there's no time for me to play anything at all this Christmas.

with the misery that was Bard's Tale (2005) left uninstalled and soon to be up on Amazon.com, I got the urge to play some crime action /open world mayhem games. I think now just may be a good time to play a few that have been sitting on the shelf awaiting their turn patiently. Defragging then installing GTA4, Just Cause, and Mafia.

Anderson said:

Just picked up Rise of the Argonauts for the 360, for $15. It was a game I meant to come back to after the price dropped. Here are some thoughts after a few hours:

The subquests are actually meaningful activities. I wish more RPGs were like this. Granted, it's a little absurd that the King is doing them…but at least they aren't fetch quests. Tell X that his son is dead; tell Y her husband's last words were that he cheated on her and wants her to forgive him; etc. Not bad.

Good voice acting.

Lack of a mini-map is a real inconvenience. I have to click twice to access the map, then twice again to back out of it. I'm doing this a lot.

The levelling up system is interesting. It's not XP-based, but instead deed-based and dialog-choice based.

Control/movement is poor, very clunky and "slidey" (that's not a word, but I mean instances where you stop moving but your character doesn't).

Animations are often embarrassing. This is especially true when our Homeric hero is running down a hill. He appears to lope and hop over the ground, almost skipping. It's a scene fit for the museum of silly walks. It's very unbecoming a King and completely ruins the noble, heroic tone the game aims for. I can't see why they let this pass. Many other animations are simply jerky.

Occasional framerate hitches, fairly noticeable. I can hear the disc spinning madly, trying to keep up with the graphics it is rendering. The sad part is, the graphics aren't all that great, especially the character models. The background environments are pretty, though.

Character models repeat. There is one female model that is used over and over. Very noticeable.

I like the Greek storytelling and the fact that the dialog gets to the point, doesn't drag on.

Despite my gripes, I'm enjoying the game.

Click to expand...

I played this on PC soon after it was released. After the initial shock of it being rather "different" regarding it's RPG features, I started enjoying it for the story and atmosphere (the graphics looked very nice on my PC), and the fun, actiony combat, which reminded a bit of Jade Empire which I'd enjoyed. (Ok, you don't do somersaults, but you execute a lot of other cool spectacular moves.)
Hey, I enjoy a bit of a show.

Once I got 'into' the game, I played it right through to the end in a few days and lamented its rather short length once I'd done with it.

PS. A few damnably hard bosses in there, btw! One close to the end, and one at the very end….

well, so much for GTA4 - this game totally chews up and spits out my rig!

My aging p4 8800gt setup can handle a lot of stuff, DA, L4D, stuff like that. GTa4 must be pretty processor-centric because I get to the point in tuning down to where the game looks just too awful and it still runs pretty bad. I plan on building a new pc next year, looks like it'll have to wait to be played until then!

Just Cause, at first i almost uninstalled it but gave it a chance. It's alright I suppose, in a Vice City meets Far Cry kinda way. Good for some mayhem, and that's all.

Mafia... Meh.
I liked driving around a bit, had some fun doing that. Once the action started, the game went downhill for me. Clunky shooter action parsed with squirrely sections of driving a clunker. I mean, it was kinda fun at times, but after the tenth try at catching another car - im just not that into driving games unless the other action pays off. It doesnt.

Installed Call of Cthulhu, Rise of Legends, and Titan Quest gold edition last night, played CoC for like an hour and loved it. I hope the atmosphere and story elements stay strong enough to carry me thru what ive heard is a frustrating shooter experience.

Looks like xmas is about to kick into high gear here,gamings over for today

So the first Campaign in Heroes of Might & Magic 3 is kicking my ass!!!

Guess it's been a long while since I've played a strategy game (actually picked up Rome: Total War earlier this year but still haven't played it and last strategy game I played was Age Of Empires 2 I believe).

Guess I need to be more efficient with my troop building, but it's on the standard setting and is pretty hard. Anyway, having a blast with it anyway.

xSamhainx said:

well, so much for GTA4 - this game totally chews up and spits out my rig!

Click to expand...

That is because it is a crap port, to the point that anyone who rated the PC version above 80% within the first 30 days of release didn't review the actual PC game release.

And even that it is a pretty average - and extraordinarily over-rated - game ... Chinatown Wars is much better.

RivianWitch said:

I played this [RotA] on PC soon after it was released. After the initial shock of it being rather "different" regarding it's RPG features, I started enjoying it for the story and atmosphere (the graphics looked very nice on my PC), and the fun, actiony combat, which reminded a bit of Jade Empire which I'd enjoyed. (Ok, you don't do somersaults, but you execute a lot of other cool spectacular moves.)
Hey, I enjoy a bit of a show.

Once I got 'into' the game, I played it right through to the end in a few days and lamented its rather short length once I'd done with it.

PS. A few damnably hard bosses in there, btw! One close to the end, and one at the very end….

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I like about it, too -- the storytelling is surprisingly good at times, and the combat is fun (though hampered by the jerky controls, at least on the 360). Slicing people in half never gets old.

I'm glad I have the capacity to enjoy games like this, which are obviously compromised in a variety of ways. As long as I get them at a bargain price, and as long as the core gameplay is fun, I can enjoy them as much or more than some of the big-name AAA releases. I think the fact that I know, going in, that the game will have a lot of technical shortcomings, really helps me to accept those things and set my gripes aside.

I'll keep my fingers flexed for the boss fights ahead. I had trouble with Achilles, earlier.

Anderson said:

Just picked up Rise of the Argonauts for the 360, for $15. It was a game I meant to come back to after the price dropped. Here are some thoughts after a few hours:

Click to expand...

Did you read my review

I have almost stopped playing anything now - during these days.

txa1265 said:

Did you read my review

Click to expand...

Yeah, or I read enough to glean that you thought the game was lousy. You have a lot of company. Back when the game was originally released (a year ago?), I read through a half dozen of these reviews, and plenty of gamer impressions. 90% of them were highly critical and negative. That was disappointing. I had hoped for better, since the game had sounded promising. I decided to wait for a slow period and a price drop. A year later, I picked it up for $15, and I'm having fun.

Expectations play such a big role in whether I enjoy games or not. The nice thing about poorly reviewed games is that I expect very little from them. I know about all their technical shortcomings, and I accept them. I know that I'm going to be playing a game that got a 6 in the reviews (roughly). I don't expect much. I expect a lot of problems and shortcomings.

So when I actually play the game, I am not surprised or disappointed in those things, just "oh yeah, there's the screen tearing" or whatever, then ignore them and get on with the game. It's like I agree to accept the game for what it is, warts and all.

Good point - for the <$5 it sells for on Steam right now I would definitely say that action-RPG fans could easily give it a try, as the expectations are low and therefore, as you say, so is the threshold for finding some amount of fun.

txa1265 said:

Did you read my review

Click to expand...

Just read the review…ouch! I truly and honestly feel you were being pretty unfair there, txa1265. In one part you complain that the characters were not engaging enough and did not make you care for them or for what happens in the story, and then you go on to complain that the game is too "chatty". Yet it is the cutscenes and character interaction that does make you care, etc. blah blah blah.

I mean, for once we have an action RPG that is not just a mindless clickfest that consists of hacking waves and waves of zombies/orcs/*insert boring generic enemy*, and the reviewers actually complain about it…!!??

My original personal complaint was that it had the gall to call itself an RPG - admittedly and Action RPG - but one can surely adapt to a novel system of leveling, and just go with the setting which does have limited RP possibilities. Actually the game was cool in that it almost had a bit of an Adventure feel to it, rather along the lines of some of the POPs.
The combat was definitely more satisfying than your average hack-'n-slash; I really enjoyed the varied moves and skills, plus to me the game looked extremely good.

The complaint about the cookie-cutter characters is also grossly unfair since you find that in almost all all RPG's, and certainly in action-RPG's; and the ladies were definitely more "realistically proportioned" than one finds in many, many action games - heck, even Lara Croft looks more like a big-busted Barbie-doll with impossibly long legs compared to these females.

In any case - what is so wrong with a woman looking good? Do you really want your games filled with ugly hags???

Well, for an action game, I must say I had found it eminently satisfying. Most definitely a LOT richer and more engaging than for instance Titan Quest, which I just cannot seem to sink my teeth into - no matter how often I try, I keep getting bored with this game and throw it back on the trash heap after playing it for half-an-hour. I even managed to stick with Loki longer than I can manage to fend off the boredom with TQ. (…and that is not too long either…)

Sorry txa, that was not meant as a personal attack, but I just couldn't help feeling a bit butt-hurt with all the negative criticism from reviewers in general, which I had really felt was a bit unfair towards ROTA.

One can see a glass as half-full or as half-empty, and everbody chose to see the ROTA glass as half-empty, plus they decided to not like the flavour that I had personally enjoyed very much - to the point of feeling sad that the game ended once I'd finished. I guess the negativve response could have been to do with too high expectations though?

um.. where was I? um..- what I'm playing.

A few days ago I started fiddling with mods in Morrowind; gee - it really is amazing what those guys out there have done - though some of the mods have nothing to do with the original game at all - totally out on a limb…

Also managed to get the Broken Steel FO3 DLC to wreak its miracles and put me back on the wastelands again. I wasn't too charmed that the GOTY version with it's DLC content requires Windows Live to run, but anyway. Since I was starting off at the point where the MQ ends, I had to uncheck all the other expansions just to get going, btw, because they'd keep popping up one after the other when I had to act, causing me to die in the process, without succeeding in my "quest" and also not giving the Broken Steel part to kick in in time.

I've also been trying out some Adventure games ; I'd gotten a pack for Xmas, and decided to try out Sinking Island, but it becomes more excruciatingly boring as I progress.. doubt I'll continue much longer.

I also got King Arthur , so will be trying that out, as soon as I get a measure of Divinity 2 which I had just installed and started with yesterday.

I also keep telling myself I need to make time for King's Bounty.

RivianWitch said:

I guess the negativve response could have been to do with too high expectations though?

Click to expand...

High expectations, hype, and the full AAA price ...

I mean, I have had similar discussions between Dungeon Lords folks who were there from the start compared to those who got the CE for $10 or whatever ... very different perspectives ...

As I said, I apologise - I didn't mean it as a personal attack on you txa. Actually, I was one of the people who paid full-price for the game - I had probably even pre-ordered it, because I liked what I saw from the pre-release hype; so I had been anticipating the game droolingly for a while before release already.

Was I a bit disappointed with aspects of the game? I admit that I was - epecially of what the game delivered in the RPG department. I also felt, once I'd finished it, that the game had been too short, and had not offered me enough in the "mythology" department (besides that it obviously departed from the original story, which didn't bother me too much). I guess I had expected something like a shortened version of the campaign of Age of Mythology - at least 1 or 2 more "areas" would have been nice…

Still, even so, I got over my disappointment since other aspects of the game did seem to make up for it. I mean, I did enjoy the cinematics and the graphics and the conversations (which really weren't overly long), and the characterisations - especially of Jason's companions - of whom I really rather enjoyed the old goat of a Satyr.

I did identify with Jason's plight, and bleh bleh bleh; but yeah - I would have wanted more "meat" on the game.

I'm in Tartarus now (RotA), and I have to compliment the game on its storytelling. It's not that I care about the characters exactly, but more that the conflicts that are set up are interesting and often dramatic (e.g., end of Micinae section). The themes the game deals with are pretty big ones, and I like the constant emphasis on character, virtue, and other "high minded" things. Some of Jason's speeches are surprisingly well-written, and at times, I've found myself emotionally engaged at a level I did not expect.

I'm a bit of a story whore, and I've been very pleased with that aspect of the game. I'm not saying its Nobel prize material; but for a video game, it's one of the better ones I've experienced in a while.

Anderson said:

I'm in Tartarus now (RotA), and I have to compliment the game on its storytelling. It's not that I care about the characters exactly, but more that the conflicts that are set up are interesting and often dramatic (e.g., end of Micinae section). The themes the game deals with are pretty big ones, and I like the constant emphasis on character, virtue, and other "high minded" things. Some of Jason's speeches are surprisingly well-written, and at times, I've found myself emotionally engaged at a level I did not expect.

I'm a bit of a story whore, and I've been very pleased with that aspect of the game. I'm not saying its Nobel prize material; but for a video game, it's one of the better ones I've experienced in a while.

Click to expand...

Sorry, and did I forget to add story? Good storytelling absolutely. Also, I liked the atmosphere and that there were just enough cinematics to draw you in and pull you along.

It made the game feel more alive to me.