What game are you playing right now? #2

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My copy of Witcher 2 will be delivered on Wednesday, and I happen to have that day off. Note to self: Devote the morning to make sure afternoon and evening are free (among other things: Go running early, do the bills, do the cleaning and dishes, buy a six pack, get pizza and crackers etc pp.)

 

The Witcher 2, GOTY, without a doubt.

 

Witcher 2 has arrived My limited edition came with a lot of nonsense like a Witcher coin, a paper-craft Dandelion and Geralt, a map, a sealed letter ('slaughter of a pig'), Bonus DVDs (game soundtrack and movies - nice to have) and, more interesting, a game guide. Game itself is on 2 DVDs.

Installing right now.

 

Been slowly working my way through Deus Ex in anticipation of Human Revolution.

 

First impression re: Witcher 2 - graphics are gorgeous, game visuals are brilliant, 'costumes' are medieval and realistic, fighting is fast paced and action packed. Fun! And you see the first naked chick five minutes in the game.

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I note I haven't mentioned that "fast paced and action packed" means 'you die a lot until you get used to it'. It's fun though Flanking matters, enemies cooperate when they gang up on you. Beware of knights with shields. And healing? Ugh, have yet to find out how to do that in combat.

 

Firing through Red Dead Redemption trying to do all the extra bits this time through like the strangers and challenges. It's good fun but some of the challenges are just boring.

 

@Ragusa

Are there any companions that travel with you this time around? I really missed having at least one companion in the first game (at least for the small bit that I played of it).

Do you still have to work your mouse around in crazy ways to attack properly? That really wasn't a favorite game feature for me. I'm a lazy old man. I just want to click on an enemy and let hero who I am controlling do all the work, while I clean the lint out of my navel, or something.

 

Can't say I like that (quite console-ish) fistfight mini game, even more so since they made it mandatory - i.e. you can't progress in the story unless you beat some particular opponent at fistfighting. Meh. Second time they had a game passage like that. It's a b*tch to play with the keyboard.

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Have to say, gave it a couple more tries, I am stuck at that particular boxfight and can't progress in the storyline atm. I really suck at this boxing game, and currently it is for me almost unplayable with keyboard. I only beat the first fistfight with sheer luck. In the second one, you need to beat two opponents one after another, apparently with no recovery in between, and even on easy I apparently can't get it done. This crappy mini game is made for consoles And that it isn't even optional

Except for this major nuisance I am very happy with the game. Fighting is still as 'manoeuvreous' with the mouse as it was, but that isn't really a problem on easy and it is ok on normal.

Re: compagnions - you have people accompanying you during parts of the game but you do your exploration solo. I don't see much of a departure from the original game in this.

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Update: Frustrated as I was because of that boxing minigame I ordered a game pad controller for my PC. Meh

 

Probably would have been where the journey ended for me. I have no interest in using a game pad. Oh well.

 

Back to good old EasyTutu. Running a CE Human Barbarian. Gorion must of really had his hands full! Added Monty(Ass), Xzar(Nec/will Dual to Cleric once Wis book is acquired) and Vicky so far. Lookng to add Edwin and then Tiax.

 

Just finished L.A. Noire. The adventures of detective Cole Phelps in the 40s City of Angels in a film noir style is very well done indeed. Although the main storyline is a bit slow to start.

 

Still playing LotRO, and greatly enjoying it. My hunter has become a formidable damage dealing machine. I just purchased the coming expansion, and my main char has reached the exalted level of 61, and is on her way to 62. Just four more to go, and then, when Isengart comes, another ten.

I have to say that there is a world of a difference between playing solo and playing in teams (and between random teams [an unruly chaotic mob fighting the mobs] and well led, experienced ones [orchestrated violence]). Every idiot can level his char to 65, given enough time. Between a newbie and an expert you really see the difference when looking at equipment, the skilling and use of virtues. And then, there is playing style.

Some people just don't get that even a lvl 65 weapon master is indeed quite mortal if he fights stupid and in particular isolated. Or who don't get that if you have two major enemies, and stunned one of them to fight them one after another, that it is unwise to use an area attack (typically: one big axe sweep) that will wake him up (even more unwise considering that the various stun actions have a cool down). Hunters, too are prone to that sort of error when switching targets in the thick of battle and need to exercise fire discipline.

The latest instalment in the series 'Suicidal Players' involved a lvl 65 weapon master of the dwarven variety with a very big axe who, impervious to complaints and then warnings (our thesis was that the dwarf played him, not the other way around), rushed headlong into everything in sight then dragged the mob back at us, get himself killed early and left us to clean up the mess and his corpse. He did that two times, the second time succeeding in getting us killed, too, and we had to invest another half hour of precious and limited gaming time into replaying the instance, and to mitigate risks, we kicked the bum out. He then started to complain. Fool. Some people are incorrigible.

 

I reached lvl 62 this morning! Yay!

 

Finally got around to playing Portal (the first one). Normally I don’t like puzzle games, partly because I don’t like spending a lot of time trying to figure the puzzles out, but mainly because the solutions aren’t necessarily logical or intuitive – they simple are what they are. Portal is different – it requires thinking, but the solutions (at least so far) make logical sense.

 

Was playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic until a few minutes ago. Really, one of the worst games I've played this year.

 

well, KOTOR is a few years old, maybe people playing it now dont respect it as much as when it was released.
Me? I think it was a brilliant game

 

There are a number of reasons. The interface is terrible: it's a direct port from the console. For example, I find a datapad lying on the ground. I pick it up and I want to read what it says. I have to open up my inventory and use a small window to scroll through a bloody long list of items (I finished everything on Tarsis and Dantooine when I gave up) I have no idea which items I should keep and sell since the interface is simply cluttered. And to get to a merchant... ugh... you have to manually walk your main guy from one end of the world to the other. You can't just open the map and click on "merchant" noooo, because then you might miss some bleh cutscenes.

Seriously, have you compared the interface and gameplay of BG with that of KoTOR? It has nothing to do with the game being a few years old. BG is older and I have to see an interface as excellent as that in other games. Don't get me started on the total lack of overview on anything your team members are doing, the ridiculous battle AI, and the glaring plot holes ("oh let's go to Dantooine, Malak doesn't know about the Jedi Academy there." Uh, wasn't he a student there? Didn't he and Revan find the first starmap there? Uh.)

Grrrr

 

I'm currently playing Dawn of Discovery (aka Anno 1404) again, one of the best city-builder games I've ever played. It's a very hard game to strike a good balance with, but very fun and one of the most graphically beautiful games I've ever seen.

I recently bought a few games during Steam's summer camp mega-sale. Two of those were Portal 2 (hilarious, very challenging and fun - beat it fairly quickly) and Shogun: Total War 2, which I only played a little of but seems like a big improvement over Mideaval: Total War. We'll see.

 

Started playing Oblivion, but realized that I screwed up my installation of mods (which I think is easily fixed), and then got sidetracked by a $10 Steam download of F.E.A.R. Holy crap, this is one spooky game.