I might pick it up when it’s dirt cheap.
What are y'all playing? ver 2.0
John
#142
Still playing Dark Souls 2, just reached the Dragon Aerie today. Weirdly enough it runs better than some earlier parts of the game, even though it’s far more visually complex and has so far the most impressive draw distance and sheer monumentality. It’s a pleasing game but much like DS i find myself being rather unsatisfied with the later segments of the game. It’s harder to pinpoint where exactly began since DS2 has a lot of ups and downs, with some bad and good segments interspersed with the mostly average design that takes you from one place to the other, whereas DS feels well paced even in how its level design decays as the game goes on.
I also played the Destiny trial. I can perfectly understand how Brad felt about the game. The mechanics are incredibly satisfying, the hero difficulty feels particularly nice at times but yeah, there just isn’t any significant content to it. The level design is very nice but utterly indistinct, which muddles any sense of travel, especially with there being no real map to show your position in relation to the other zones, and no strong visual clues as to where you are and where the other zones are. The missions have a very thin narrative veil which at times feels almost as if it was working against the rest of the game, and the larger story is just not very strong and makes it hard to understand even basic concepts, leaving me wondering whether i should take stuff like “the darkness” and “the light” as metaphors for philosophical concepts, or beings that are factual and that you can touch. The shooting though, it feels incredibly tight. I guess that’s what you’d expect of Bungie, but man. They really nailed the basic gameplay.
archnemesis
#143
I beat Civilization: Beyond Earth on the highest difficulty setting. Now that I’m familiar with all the mechanics it’s no longer challenging and it’s very easy to spot the flaws in the AI. A patch is being prepared that will address most of the common issues people are having.
Shin Megami Tensei IV has opened up a lot and I now have a large map to explore and plenty of optional quests to complete. At this pace it will take me months to finish.
The first 30 minutes of Fantasy Life was pretty charming although I fear it might be to simple to last in the long run.
John
#144
Finished Dark Souls 2, finally. Was only missing two bosses so i went and beat them this afternoon.
Finished the game at, like, level 150 or something crazy like that. Felt weird not to have a +15 sword, and i didn’t much care for infusing it further than with a single raw stone.
John
#146
I went for life, stamina and dexterity, used light armour and the scimitar for most of the game. I like this build because if you max the sword and stamina you can get a shitton of damage from one single stamina bar, and you’re still light enough to fast roll. I also used piromancies, but 90% of the time it wasthe fireball one, because i missed the great chaos fireball from DS, so i don’t know much about that.
I didn’t have a lot of trouble, if that’s what you’re asking. There are two particular spots in the game which are a complete mindfuck and which will be nearly insurmountably hard to clean of enemies, but they are so broken that it probably doesn’t matter which build you used. So yeah, i’d recommend it. Light characters are the coolest.
archnemesis
#147
I usually go for a fast dexterity build. Maybe I should see if it’s possible to play as a slow tank this time.
John
#152
I’ve played a lot of State of Decay these last days and i freaking love it, it really is the best. It’s very rough around the edges (changing the aspect ratio to 16:10 ingame crashes it instantly!) but the concepts in it are very enjoyable and fun to play around with. Though, i wish combat was simply more reliable. Guns are very effective but it’s far too easy to miss critical shots because the zombies walk in the darndest way, and the hitboxes are rather unforgiving too, and the bullets are too heavy and valuable to simply carry more of. I also don’t quite understand how to fix vehicles. And i’m constantly afraid of people dying, so i’m no longer calling home for help. And the inventory is really restrictive! And not only because it has very few item slots, but you’re also subject to the weight of your items and it’s easy to become encumbered. Thankfully you can just let stuff behind, since it won’t respawn (yep, nothing respawns, when a house is clean of supplies, it’s clean of supplies) or store it in a vehicle. Except taking the car home will probably wreck it, especially because you’ll probably run into a few hordes on the way back, and running over them is the only way to solve the problem.
I’m constantly impressed at how much dialogue this game has though. Much of it seems to be universal between the characters since you’re free to control whoever you want at any time, but there’s also enough unique dialogue that you’re sort of trying to choose your favorite all the time to get more of his or her backstory.
Leo
#153
Bravely Default - I got the wind crystal. I’m at Miasma Woods now. I’m hoping I can find an area on the world map or a dungeon where enemies give out good job points because I want to level up a merchant. Something tells me this game is going to have a lot of jobs, and that’ll make me go crazy wanting to level them all up.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - I killed the first major Templar, Julien du Casse. I had to infiltrate his huge ship, then assassinate him. Easy enough task. I’ve been sailing the seas, and stopping at different islands, plundering their loot. It’s been fun, and the environments are beautiful, although having to get off your ship and swim to every island has been getting old. I just want to move the main story along now.
RpgN
#154
Hey, where are the Lightning Returns impressions?! Did you like it? Now that you completed the trilogy, how would you rank them?!
Leo
#155
Oh yeah. That game. I thought I made an impression in here, but I guess not. I beat it. Ya know, it’s a wonderful game. I love the world, city cultures, and soundtrack. I hate the characters and dialogue, but that’s nothing new for the FFXIII trilogy. I got a “game over” because I took my time doing most of the side quests, and sightseeing. 
I liked fighting Bhunivelze, but he was tricky to kill. It took me a handful of times to slay him.
Overall, I enjoyed myself, but I’ll never be a fan of time systems where you have to rush to get things done, and only being able to visit certain areas of a city at a certain time. Ugh.
archnemesis
#156
Sentinel 4: Dark Star is a great distraction during my commute. It’s faster than most other tower defense games. You can rush past the boring waiting parts.
LabouredSubterfuge
#157
I’m playing Far Cry 4.
It’s gud and stuff although it’s very Far Cry 3. But then I liked Far Cry 3.
LabouredSubterfuge
#159
It’s good stuff, but they’ve very much stuck to the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ formula. Lots of similar/idenitcal weapons, vehicles, equipment, mission types and abilities with the odd tweak or addition. There’s not a tonne that feels really fresh which may annoy/disappoint some people.