What games are you playing now?

crpgnut said:

Are there hundreds of sci-fi shooters released each year? I think if I liked the genre, just the fact that a new game is coming out, that it's from Arkane, who did Arx Fatalis, would be attraction enough.

P.S. I could care less about Prey I'm a mage-wannabe at all times.

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I think you're confused. Prey is a System Shock clone more than anything. They're extremely rare - and I think the last decent one was Bioshock and its sequel. Bioshock Infinite was too far removed from the genre to really count, in my opinion.

Anyway, you can be a mage in Prey if psychic powers count

Thrasher said:

What's the attraction to Prey? Form what I've seen it just looks like a standard sci-fi shooter?

Edit: Ok, character customization ala the Shock games. OK, but anything new?

Fabrication?

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Do you like System Shock 2? Then that's the appeal.

It's a new station and a new story. It includes:

Skill trees
Psychic powers
Crafting
Repairing (turrets and stuff)
Hacking
Exploration focus
Stealth combat (optional)
Audio logs

Obviously, if you're not into System Shock - then you're likely not into Prey.

danutz_plusplus said:

I'm really excited for Prey. I really hope they go full-on psychological thriller/horror, because that's what the premise seems to really hint. But some of the mechanics might be too immersion-breaking to fully realize that. I hope I'm wrong.

Another which got me excited about Prey was hearing that Chris Avellone was also involved with the writing, so I'm curios how it turns out.

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Based on the demo, it's less of a straight-up horror game and much more akin to System Shock and System Shock 2. Meaning, there are clear horror elements - but it's NOT trying to be Alien Isolation.

It's much more about letting the player loose on a big space station and letting him explore a large variety of ways to get around and grow in power, as well as experience what promises to be a very interesting sci-fi narrative. I guess you could call it a scavenger/survival game with emphasis on exploration.

It really DOES feel very much like a modern System Shock 2 with some neat additions - including stealth and crafting systems.

Also, it seems more open - like the original System Shock.

But if you're not into the genre, it's not going to seem particularly new or revolutionary - because it's not.

It just seems very well done.

My only concern is PC performance and bugs. The console version felt sluggish - and it didn't really look that good. More like decent.

I can live with that, though. System Shock 2 didn't look very good upon release, either.

While checking out the Elex LP video at German YouTuber Gronkh's channel (he has a three hour play session with B. Pankratz of PB), I've also noticed he has an almost one hour long Prey LP so I watched that one but it did not really convince me.
The art style is not my cup of tea with the very bland, empty and exaggerated clean (almost sterile) look.
Then it seems like you can not turn anywhere without prompts popping up for everything every two seconds. Press this, push here, take this, pick up that, talk to xy, flush toilet, go home, you get the idea .
The UI generally seems to be very present and intrusive, because aside from all those prompts, it even shows you in HUGE LETTERS right smack dab in the middle of the screen when you enter a new area like 'RESEARCH LAB'.
I might get it on sale eventually if the user reviews are good but no rush necessary as far as I can see.

Moriendor said:

While checking out the Elex LP video at German YouTuber Gronkh's channel (he has a three hour play session with B. Pankratz of PB), I've also noticed he has an almost one hour long Prey LP so I watched that one but it did not really convince me.
The art style is not my cup of tea with the very bland, empty and exaggerated clean (almost sterile) look.
Then it seems like you can not turn anywhere without prompts popping up for everything every two seconds. Press this, push here, take this, pick up that, talk to xy, flush toilet, go home, you get the idea .
The UI generally seems to be very present and intrusive, because aside from all those prompts, it even shows you in HUGE LETTERS right smack dab in the middle of the screen when you enter a new area like 'RESEARCH LAB'.
I might get it on sale eventually if the user reviews are good but no rush necessary as far as I can see.

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You can turn off most of the UI stuff as per usual in Arkane games, much like you can in Dishonored. At least, that's what it seemed like based on the demo - but I didn't actually look closely at the HUD customization beyond a bunch of "on and off" settings. But in both Dishonored and Dishonored 2 - you could more or less turn everything off, so I expect the same from Prey.

That said, I do agree about the art style. It's not very impressive so far. However, the station seems quite large - and I could easily spend several hours exploring the demo areas - which is but one level out of ~13 levels.

I do think the opening credits were among the coolest I've seen, though

I never played System Shock for the impressive graphics, so I don't expect it will be as big an issue for me as it seems to be for you.

I'm primarily about the freeform exploration, progression and scavenging gameplay - coupled with a hopefully strong narrative.

NewDArt said:

I do think the opening credits were among the coolest I've seen, though

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I loved the opening musical track. Great. By Mick Gordon, the guy behind the awesome DOOM soundtrack.

danutz_plusplus said:

I loved the opening musical track. Great. By Mick Gordon, the guy behind the awesome DOOM soundtrack.

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I will give it credit for being different, but I'm not a big fan of the soundtrack so far. Then again, I didn't like the System Shock or System Shock 2 soundtracks either - and it's obviously going for a somewhat similar "techno-vibe".

There's a bug in the demo that makes the combat music persist - which was particularly terrible. Luckily, there's a confirmed fix for the full version

But, maybe it will grow on me.

Moriendor said:

I might get it on sale eventually if the user reviews are good but no rush necessary as far as I can see.

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Yes, we know. You say pretty much the exact same thing for every game.

I'll probably be playing Prey on Day 1, so I'll post some impressions early on. I have high expectations for this one, and I'm fairly confident it's going to deliver.

Out of curiousity I tried out Dragon Quest 1 the other day given the historic importance of the game. It plays in a straight forward way being a single character rpg but the music and graphics are charming and it is genuinely relaxing to play. Good for when you feel sapped of an attention span.

UI'm coming to the end of Seige of Dragonspear. I started off enjoying it, but got less interested in it as it went on. On the positive side, the new areas look great, the general writing is ok, some of the combat encounters are well done and its fairly challenging at times. There's also a tonne of content - loads more than I was expecting, I've nearly put as many hours into it as my run through Baldurs Gate.

I didn't like the overall story though (it felt too "epic" for a story to fill the gap between BG and BG II), the hooded man stuff just got a bit annoying, and it was too linear overall. I'd rather they'd gone with a non-linear non-epic adventure really, more in line with the approach to the opening BG II quests (which were often linear individually, but you has loads of choice about when to approach them) . I started to get a bit bored of following the fairly set path in an epic adventure I didn't feel entirely engaged with.

But still, its good to be back in an infinity engine game, wandering around new, well drawn maps and getting into scraps with D&D creatures. Overall I'm glad I played it, its a decent expansion, but I think it could have been better.

Edit: I've seen enough positives in the game to look forward to a proper beamdog rpg game hopefully set in a D&D setting. A lot of passion clearly went into SoD and I'd like to see what they do.

I was excited about Prey, but after hearing it could be Bioshock Infinite 2 my feelings dropped into a bottomless pit. Moriendor's input just adds to it.
Won't buy it before seeing some thorough review from someone who saw through Infinite's blinding.

Playing Expeditions:Viking and can't stop!

I'm looking forward to Prey - as others have said, its not a genre you see often. I seem to be piling up stuff to play though, I need to crack on with the backlog...

henriquejr said:

Hi, and sorry for the late reply, as I'm on a trip with family

First, thank you for your suggestions.
Second, from what I can see, there is no way I can get heavy armour without first spending skill points on light armour. So, a warrior with heavy armour skill will always have light armour skill as well, no matter what.
Third, doesn't the vanilla game has a "cleric" class?
Fourth, since I couldn't make a cleric char, then I went with 2 warriors in the front line (minotaur and Human), and a mage and rogue on rear line (insectoid and lizardman). Maybe it's too late to ask, since I am already on 4th level, but I'll ask anyway: is this a good team?

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Don't know if you'll see this very late reply lol.

While trying not to be spoilery I messed up with the light / heavy armour thing, forgot that you needed one to get the other due to only having a universal armour skill. Though what I was trying to explain there was be careful about making lots of heavy armour guys as you won't find the "best" heavy armour for all of them, as an example. Or basically having too many people wanting to use the same gear due to skill proficiency.

I don't remember all the specifics well enough but I'm sure that party could do fine, it's not a hard game since you can usually run away to recover if things are going downhill. There may be times you're locked into an area for fights though so it's good to keep some disposable things for when you can't run away, like a few freeze bombs could make a world of difference when surrounded.

You don't really have to worry about making a perfect party, though if you enjoy trying that kind of thing the game caters just a little to it. Some skills give a nice bonus at max level, like Sword giving double attack speed. While many others don't give you much for getting to the expensive max level, like elemental skills giving that character massive protection against that element, rarely helpful.

If I had to suggest just one thing though, it would be to have a character that is extremely strong, so they can be a pack mule lol. Though I always ended up carrying far more than I ever needed.

I just bought Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, and have been playing it. Great game, reminds me a lot of Far Cry 3, which seems to be the main inspiration for the game - its an open world type shooter, but with sniping being a focus. Some of the highlights are the weapons, they feel really good and are modeled well in the game, and there are many modifications and different things you can do to modify them, and plenty of weapon variety also in the game too. This game is probably the best I have seen in a long time in the way weapons are done in a first person shooter. There is also a good sense of character progression with a skill system.

That said, its buggy, and definitely needs to be fully patched up. There are two patches already, so at least the developer seems to be supporting the game so far.

i play battle brothers and looking for the western style tactic game in may

JDR13 said:

I'll probably be playing Prey on Day 1, so I'll post some impressions early on. I have high expectations for this one, and I'm fairly confident it's going to deliver.

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Good. I feel about Prey, like I felt about Deus Ex. It will be a great game to try when I go through fantasy crpg burnout. This is a rare occurrence for me, but it'll happen and Prey will be waiting I could not get into Dishonored at all though.

I'm currently playing an Embermage in Torchlight 2.

Ah Torchlight, I really have to finish that one day.

Am coming off my recent ESO binge. Mainly playing Arkham Horror in Tabletop Sim at the mo. Also a little bit of the Thieves Guild quest line in Oblivion which I've never played before (this after doing some of the thieves guild stuff in ESO).

Went back to restart Fallout 4. I have played it 21 hours since it came out, but it seems to have been the bane of the Alienware's existence since it corresponded to the first and second time the system really died. Oh well - got in a few hours (started from scratch since it has been so long) and made it through a few hours. Very much enjoying it once again!

Arkadia7 said:

I just bought Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, and have been playing it. Great game, reminds me a lot of Far Cry 3, which seems to be the main inspiration for the game - its an open world type shooter, but with sniping being a focus. Some of the highlights are the weapons, they feel really good and are modeled well in the game, and there are many modifications and different things you can do to modify them, and plenty of weapon variety also in the game too. This game is probably the best I have seen in a long time in the way weapons are done in a first person shooter. There is also a good sense of character progression with a skill system.

That said, its buggy, and definitely needs to be fully patched up. There are two patches already, so at least the developer seems to be supporting the game so far.

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I played the previous Ghost Warrior 2, and I liked it - but it was mostly scripted with little freedom to approaching different situations.

How open is Ghost Warrior 3 (are we talking about FarCry type open world, or of the same scale as Sniper Elite 3 and 4)? Are there still restricted progression stealth sequences ?

SpoonFULL said:

I played the previous Ghost Warrior 2, and I liked it - but it was mostly scripted with little freedom to approaching different situations.

How open is Ghost Warrior 3 (are we talking about FarCry type open world, or of the same scale as Sniper Elite 3 and 4)? Are there still restricted progression stealth sequences ?

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Very open, just like Far Cry 3, if you liked that game you would like this one. For example, there are outposts you have to clear, just like in Far Cry 3. So you can approach them in a stealth way as a sniper, or run and gun, though the sniper approach is much easier than a straight up approach.

Another example of how open it is: There is a story line and official missions, that you can access with an in-game laptop computer and the mission briefings are stored there, and as you complete the missions more pop up, in a linear fashion. So you can play the game like that, or just ignore the official missions and play it like an open world game, exploring, clearing outposts and driving and/or walking around the game world. The game actually encourages exploration by having "points of interest" appear on the game world map (represented by question marks)
I have been ignoring the missions for now, in my early play through.

One of the interesting character progression aspects is there are three skill trees, "sniper", "ghost", and "warrior". By performing certain in-game acts, you will get points that correspond to that particular skill tree. So by sniping a lot you would build more points in the sniper skill tree, by being a "ghost", which means being stealthy, and not raising alarms, you would gain points in ghost, finally by doing an open run and gun approach you would build points in the warrior skill tree, so you can customize your character by how you approach the game, essentially.

I'm only in the early stages in the game, just keep that in mind in terms of the info. Also, its a buggy game, as I mentioned, right now there are major bugs, and one of the critical ones is when it comes to people losing their saved games. I would caution buying this game until they get some of these bugs fixed, which the developers have said they are working on it. You can get around the saved games disappearing bug for now by backing up your saves either manually or using a program like game save manager, but that is an extra hassle that shouldn't be necessary.