the "Currently Playing" thread.

[Flying Dagger]

PC:
Recently finished shadow of mordor.
I think the game is overhyped. People seem to love it, but the endless massacre of orcs gets boring after a while. The game suffers from horrible balance issues after the first 30 minutes. By end game, I can brand (convert) two enemies to fight by my side every 5 hits instantly, and by doing so I regain all my heath as well as recharge my arrows.

Part of the balance issue lies in how strong you get with each tier of ability you unlock while getting stronger via more powerful runes. Your enemies do not scale at all. There is no new enemy type, nor do they get any stronger.

Oh, and orcs are REALLY blind+dumb+deaf. I can just "sneak" around and assassinate stuff left and right without rising an alarm (although missions that require you never getting seen can still be challenging when they require you to kill a target in melee: can always cheat by using headshots to kill everything else then sneak up for the melee kill).

I really like the environmental hazards you can use against the orcs.

The nemesis system is interesting, but can use just a little more work: maybe change it so you can have multiple nemesis and they are more likely to survive a kill. "Stuff" should happen without having to manually advancing time.

I like the conversations/things the orcs say. Full voice acting is also really really nice.

7/10

[RWBladewing]

^ This is probably the best description of the game I've read and matches my experiences pretty much exactly.

The game basically broke for me the second I unlocked the ability for my dodge vault to stun. Infinite stunlock with invincibility frames against any enemy not immune to the vault. Combine that with abilities that boost hit streaks or lower the required number of hits to spam executions with invincible animations, and I'm literally unhittable for 90% of any combat. And the orcs are so dumb that even when I screw up and get hit by a poison weapon that eats most of my hp, I can effortlessly escape a battle with 4 captains and 50-some grunts to go heal, with them losing sight of me within seconds.

It's still a blast to play just because of the sheer number of ways you can kill/terrify enemies but some of the missions are just starting to feel like "going through the motions" since none of the orcs seem to pose a threat at all.

[Drake]

Alien: Isolation.

Pretty damn good, they've absolutely nailed the atmosphere and feel of the movie in every way that matters.

I found it utterly terrifying and the sense of stress and dread really dwarfs any other horror style game I've played in recent years.

[Flying Dagger]

Started Borderlands the pre-sequel. Roughly 6 hours in at lv20.

Maybe I am getting old, but, the whole crazy NPC thing just isn't working for me anymore even though a lot of people love it. "Crazy" doesn't really work for me when you don't have enough sane people in the game to act as a contrast.

The 3D low gravity in 75% of the map thing may not be for everybody. It takes time to get adjusted to. While it may be fun for some, having enemies jumping around all the time get stupid. Maybe I am just not a very good fps'er, but I find it almost... impossible to shoot anyone w/o a shotgun in an air-air duel.

Another issue I got with the game is the repetitiveness. While not as bad as shadow of mordor (I actually like Shadow of Mordor more since I like swords over guns), you are still essentially just shooting stuff from lv1 to max level. Part of it has to do with the relatively older skill tree system. Every class is played essentially the same until you hit around lv30 (out of 50 I think?) where your "build"starts to take shape. Before that, just grab a gun and start shooting.

So essentially, in your first run through, you are playing an almost-generic-person-with-a-gun while the story keeps you interested, and in your second playthrough you get to "enjoy your class" with a somewhat more complete package. Note that this is not just a problem with the Borderland series, but rather the whole RPG genre as a whole.

The above points combined is what brewed a sense of boredom within me: essentially, the whole game is just to simply go somewhere, shoot stuff, get to a waypoint, and repeat many many times.

The story just hasn't been engaging enough, nor are the side quests interesting enough to keep me interested. I feel like, instead of quests shaping a location, you just have... crazy people asking you to do random stuff. Meh.

If anything, this game feels more like an expansion pack to BL2. Is this a bad thing? Not entirely. If you loved BL2, then this game will be for you. If you do not really care for it, then I would just pass it up or at least wait for the sale.

Similar to BL2, the game is probably a lot more fun if you have someone to play with.

[NorthernFallout]

Replaying the entire Mass Effect Trilogy for proper progression with saves. Done with ME1, starting ME2.

With some EVE inbetween. With the Jump Range nerf incoming, the metagame and the political landscape is about to change drastically.

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Currently playing Super Smash Bros. 3DS. A Smashing good time!

Also still working my way through Dark Souls 2 Crown of the Ivory King DLC and I will then be going on to my first New Game+ run. Playing on PC. Wish me luck! (I'm gonna need it.)

I'm of course still playing SWTOR, but I also just picked up ArcheAge and I'm loving that.

I also just finished Shadow of Mordor. I liked it a lot, because I really enjoy the Batman style of combat, plus the Nemesis system is really cool.

Also I just picked up Sniper Elite 3. Good game, though a tad bit limited in terms of weapon selection. Could have more variety considering the large number of weapons that were used in WWII.


Frankly, there's not enough time in the day to play all these games that I want to play.

[Reverzer0]

Just started Final Fantasy 13-2",

[barcode120x]

Super addicted to Archeage. Aside from the terrible land grabbing issue and wack end-game content (dungeon wise and PvP wise), game is still epic. I'm surprised there is no Archeage game thread to discuss everything and anything about it

[grylsyjaeger]

Finished Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition yesterday.

Was surprised initially at how rare firearms were as my melee abilities were limited but once I had unlocked all the abilities I started to detest the firearm orientated missions!

Loved getting into massive brawls and just working my way through the crowd.

Overall was a pretty fun game. Although I put 24 hours into it and got most of the achievements, it did feel pretty short especially when I look and see GTAIV has 38 hours and I didn't do all the side missions there.


Anyway, was good to get a game off my lists. Just started a new game of Original War after I bought it on Steam. OW is one of my all time favourite games and Steam was just the excuse to replay it. XD

[Ryonea]

Originally Posted by grylsyjaeger

Was surprised initially at how rare firearms were as my melee abilities were limited but once I had unlocked all the abilities I started to detest the firearm orientated missions!

Loved getting into massive brawls and just working my way through the crowd.

Guns in Hong Kong (and many other countries) are heavily regulated, unlike in the US. So it is a reflection of real-life situation. That's why the guns in Sleeping Dogs is scarce compared to the games of the same genre.

One of the things I love about the game.

[Flying Dagger]

Borderlands: the pre-sequel.

After having finished the game twice, I just feel that the game is lacking. This is especially true early on where I ran out of quests to do in TVHM. Zones (other than the space station part) just feel so empty... they lack a theme/a story/lore. Where are the quests? This makes me feel as if large chunks of the game has been removed as DLC content. In BL2 there are times where I can do "hmmm... I have always gone this route, maybe I am going to do quests in this other zone instead".

Much of the game is just about going to the waypoint and do something, kill stuff on the way (or just sprint+air boost through).

One particular storyline mission really pissed me off. The one where it goes "oh, something has gone wrong so go to the other side of the map to press a button, then go back to where you came from and try again".

THe lore in the Borderlands series has never been too amazing, but the presequel seem to have broken it even more.

There is no quest reset or UVHM. Not sure why they took it out, but there really is no "end game" to this game.

Some items are just horribly imbalanced. This is *especially* true for legendary Roid shields which have 10x-15x the Roid damage compared to a standard roid shield. After getting the Shooting Star on Athena, everything in TVHM just went back to getting 1 shotted (vs taking 20 hits to kill a super badass)... with the punctilious probe in hand (~50% life leech), the game just feel... completely broken.

A gun like the double penetrating unkempt harold is really bad for the game: an undisputed "best in slot" for certain specs. O2 kits are what I considered a really good item: there is no clear best in slot (yet). We have got a legendary one that boosts everyone's ammo and gun damage in party play, but we also have ones that grant resistances, ones that are designed to deal with annoying airborne enemies, etc. One might even choose to just go with the very first unique O2 kit you got which causes oxygen canisters to heal.

This game falls short of being a standalone game in the Borderlands series. It felt rushed and untested. The world is plain. I get bored of seeing the same moonscape tileset after an hour. Missions feel rather boring at times, and the lack of content + replayability makes the game feel incomplete.

The low gravity combat is really hit or miss. While it is fun to boost around to get to places, and to slam into enemies from midair (the best way to kill bugs in this game is to literally slam into them with a fire oz kit), jetpacked enemies that stay afloat for "too long" can get annoying. Maybe it is their way to trying to encourage people to use the new cyro weapons to freeze them (where they will fall down... no fall damage in this game unless you knock them off the edge of the world and not get loot).

I think I should at least give some praise to their class design, which is in improvement over the older games. They have done some... insanely crazy things with claptrap. The 4+1 point tier 1 being made more common (ie: tier 1 tree defining talents that you MUST get if you want to proceed down the tree) and the "mid tier one point talent" is a nice touch/semi solution to lack of class identity early game (but still doesn't feel quite enough).

This game is *definitely* not worth its full price. Maybe if the $30 season pass is made free, then sure.

6.8/10.

[kenjiharima]

The Evil Withing, man I'm having some troubles with some puzzles...very gory

and

Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus

[Sides]

Just beat the Evil Within.
It is a great game, but it lacks that japanese touch. There is nothing really interesting to unlock, except for weapons, and frankly after your first play through there is nothing else to do, until the paid DLC is out. And that is my biggest problem there is no real replay value.
Thinking back, the first Resident Evil/Biohazard game had the option to replay the game with alternative character and different endings, the 2nd game had mini games aso.
This game doesn't offer much for its asking RRP. I would be totally fine paying for it, if they didn't plan on releasing DLCs, if you see my point. To me it just sounds that they had a complete game with mini games to add on replay value, but decided to released them as paid DLC, and stripping the main game to its bare bones.

[kenjiharima]

Originally Posted by Sides

Just beat the Evil Within.
It is a great game, but it lacks that japanese touch. There is nothing really interesting to unlock, except for weapons, and frankly after your first play through there is nothing else to do, until the paid DLC is out. And that is my biggest problem there is no real replay value.
Thinking back, the first Resident Evil/Biohazard game had the option to replay the game with alternative character and different endings, the 2nd game had mini games aso.
This game doesn't offer much for its asking RRP. I would be totally fine paying for it, if they didn't plan on releasing DLCs, if you see my point. To me it just sounds that they had a complete game with mini games to add on replay value, but decided to released them as paid DLC, and stripping the main game to its bare bones.

this is the problem with most games now a days. Costumes I can deal with not getting, but in game stuff like mini games and side stories should be unlockable not paid for.

[Kid Ryan]

I've started playing Prototype 2 (PS3), I just completed Mission 05: Operation Fly Trap.

[Sides]

Just finished Bayonetta 2.
Great game and really polished. You can nitpick on some stuff, but overall the quality of the game is probably one of the highest I have seen this generation so far, aka no 1st day patch, no ridiculous dlc/season pass aso.
It is just a complete game as you would expect from developers/publishers who try to offer their costumes value for money.

Might start playing the first game again, but this time on the Wii U, not sure yet, too many new stuff coming out, and I'm not a fan of revisiting old games/ports/remakes.

[GreyJediJess]

PC
Saint Seiya Online- it's all in Chinese but the game mechanics are simple, but I use the fan forum to help me on a quest that I'm having trouble with. My class is Cygnus, my ign is Klena, and I'm level 81; currently I'm questing for my second Silver Cloth, and my first Gold Cloth of Aquarius.

[BahamutRX]

Started and after a while dropped Shadow of Mordor on PC:

The Good:

+Interesting captain system.
+The basic captain system and struggle is interesting although the implementation leaves a bit to be desired.
+the stealth system is fairly interesting.
+for the most part the combat system is decent, i especially enjoy the parry system.
+the story had potential.
+awesome animations.
+unjustified requirements really, seeing how this game feels and looks on various settings they seem to high, and it needed more optimization.
+some funny comedic moments.
+very nice voice acting

The bad:

-Landscape/environment fairly plain and not interesting.
-while the stealth system is nice, due to how plain the environment is it feels like they could have done so much more with it.
-for a fantasy game like this implementing a mission based system like GTA/Prototype really killed of immersion, hell it feels even worse implemented then in a GTA game, not to mention it severely kills of the story aspect of the game.
-the dodge mechanics is what cripples for me the combat system, its not as seamlessly integrated as parry is and it can get down right irritating at times due to how the targeting works in this game.
-to much hassle to ride a Caragor.
-not much variety in the game it gets stagnant rather fast.
-freaking annoying unskipable long as intros of the game, damned be you WB.

So basically at the core there is a lot of potential for the game, but to me it seems that they went with the shortest/easiest route possible, it impresses the player at the start of the game but doesn't have much to offer as you progress through the game.

[GS 1.0]

Originally Posted by barcode120x

Super addicted to Archeage. Aside from the terrible land grabbing issue and wack end-game content (dungeon wise and PvP wise), game is still epic. I'm surprised there is no Archeage game thread to discuss everything and anything about it

Me and my friends were playing this and we were really, really enjoying it....but then the land issue really did frustrate us. We decided we wanted to do lots of Trade Runs and we needed to farm certain things for other crafting reasons...the little scarecrow gardens we had just wasn't enough. So, unfortunately, we stopped playing Hopefully they'll find a way of dealing with the land grabbing issue and we'll go back to playing...But I don't see that happening any time soon

Anyhu, on to the topic of this thread!!! At the moment I play League of Legends on and off. My boyfriend is more into it than I am. I'm currently looking for another MMORPG to get hooked on! I've played Aion extensively and loved. It took me a few tries with Tera to get into it, but I did start to really enjoy the fighting system and the dungeons on the game. So I will possibly be going back to Tera If anyone has any suggestions of games (any genre) feel free to let me know

[DOmus]

Not that im exactly playing it, but next week im gonna start using my ps3 more than never with my atlas pro edition COD, hope its good.... fresh start, new clan, new game