What are you playing at the moment?

[Kerr]

I'm playing Dead Rising on PC. I've wanted to play this game since I was 12 but didn't have a 360 so pretty happy I can finally get round to it.

Now I like the timer and bathroom saves in Dead Rising, I think they're interesting mechanics that make you play interesting ways. Like you've take risks or play things safe, you take a lot of survivors at once and will roll with letting survivors die or maybe not risk saving a survivor, quests will fail and you have to live with that. I gives the game a sense of urgency that games almost never have. But I hate the XP system. You start off far too weak and will end up very strong by level 50. But the game is basically designed so that you can't finish the story your first time playing, for that reason I'm not bothering for my first playthrough, I failed the main quest and now I'm just doing side quests and stuff so I have enough XP for my second playthrough. But yeah, I think that's just a bad way to design things.

[KingFeraligatr]

In the past months I have been playing Halo Custom Edition (and modding it), Pokemon Moon, Morrowind, Skyrim (and modding it a bit), OSRS, and some other games. I still mostly stick to titles that I know.

[The SheoDovah]

Still XCOM. Winning the war so far and a ton of epic moments. From a last member standing taking out the rest to Sectopodmania being denied. So many epic battles. This is also the longest game i've played in XCOM. Literally about to burst into 2016. Got Psisonics and I am most likely to keep it up until the end of this week or next week. EDIT: Completing it tomorrow/friday. Gotten to the point where there's no real challenge and tis a bit tedious.

Started FC4 earlier then planned. Tis one of the last Ubisoft towers games and meh, the towers are meh. Gameplay is solid and the plot is decent. The arena is fun and the game is fun. It doesn't try to pretend that killing is against what the PC is about, like FC3(seriously, first hour in and that disappears) and it does lampshade it(ithink). I do hate the eagles though. [&@%!] off, you feathery fiends! If i wanted to see aggressive birds, I would subject myself to birdemic!

[Chaos the N'wah]

I have a bad trifecta of switching between Skyrim (Til I run out of build ideas), Modded Minecraft (Until I've gotten bored of the same mods), and Subnautica (Until I'm sick of its moodiness) with a little Darkest Dungeon sprinkled in randomly. Subnautica Probably would take my constant love and affection if it wasn't for the game breaking consistently (having to delete cache files in order to run every time you save, which you have to because it crashes a lot and items/resources disappear). It just scratches that weird itch of wanting to play with the scary unknown and overcome my severe fear of things that lurk in the depths with some survival management.

[BetaB17]

Das Boot!!!

Okay I lied, I'm watching Zootopia

[The SheoDovah]

I beat XCOM. I am on Marathon with all normal unlocked second wave options enabled. Apart from Red Fog. [&@%!] that option! I ain't touching that! Basically, injuries decrease aim and will. Both vital stuff and I can see several times where XCOM decides to be really mean.

I'm playing Far Cry 4 and Sleeping Dogs. Far Cry 4 is superb, just like i remember but surprisingly short. At least, it feels like a short game due to 32 missions and me getting half of them done so soon. Sleeping Dogs is....boring. Outside of missions, there's a lack of side bits to do. Sure, there's a few things but it's so boring. I'm trying to like it but the more I play it, the more I recall how much of a chore I found it the last time. Looks like this will be uninstalled and not completed as I can't really force myself to do the game again. Just meh. Good combat gameplay and good radio stations though. Plot is decent but it feels like a darn chore.

So instead, I'll shall play Hitman:Blood Money along with FC4 and XCOM.

[Argonanza]

Playing lots of Overwatch lately. Good [&@%!].

[skullclutter]

I bought a new laptop on Saturday, so the first thing I did was download ESO onto it. I'd stopped playing a year ago because it was getting to be unplayable on my [&@%!] old laptop.
I've definitely missed it, but was happy to see the ESO guild is still the busiest one I'm in. I'll have to speak up in guild chat next time I'm in.

Otherwise, I have a crapton of other games on the go or sitting on the shelf waiting to go, since I'm a slow-as-hell gamer. Some highlights:
Tales of Vesperia, Assassin's Creed 3, Final Fantasy XV, Fallout 3

And, of course, Skyrim Special Edition and Fallout 4.

[KingFeraligatr]

Skyrim. With. Mods. Is. Destroying. My. Life. Again. Help!

[Unionhack]

I'm back into Fire Emblem for a while. Both Fates, and playing the mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes. For a mobile game, it's actually really solid!

[MARS]

I'm playing Love is Strange to forget about the real game because it keeps hurting my feelings. Probably gonna 100% it because that's what I do with VNs.

[Kerr]

I'm playing Love is Strange to forget about the real game because it keeps hurting my feelings. Probably gonna 100% it because that's what I do with VNs.

I really liked Love is Strange, the game is incredibly sweet.

I'm playing Pillars of Eternity at the moment and it's great. I love Obsidian and those isometric RPGs of the Late 90s/Early 00s and yeah, it's really good so far. I'm playing as a Cipher which is like a soul physic. Something I really like about it is instead of being set in some weird part of the Middle Ages with technology from the Late Medieval Period but it's been like that forever and lots of other stuff are missing, the game is set in a version of the Early Modern Period. Think 16th Century. So yeah, I'm walking around with a Matchlock and it's great, fantasy has been unfair to historical firearms so it's great to see them get some love.

Once I finish that I'm planning on giving Dark Souls a second shot. I had fun last time but I wasn't planning on playing all of it, just wanted to get a sense of how to play. I got as far as Chaos Witch Quelaag. Also I want to finish it before I try out Bloodborne and I really want to play Bloodborne eventually. Unsure if I'll try to make a character who looks decent or just go full on Monster Factory.

[The SheoDovah]

Completed Far Cry 4 and decided i've had more then enough XCOM. I booted up Alien:Isolation and.....

annoyingly, i'm stuck. The bloody medibay is starting to drive me at the wall and worse, the bloody Xeno cost me a cup of coffee! Turns out drinking whilst playing this is a baaaad idea. Stupid jumpscares. But it is a superb game and finally delievers the game that every Alien fan wanted. The only other Alien game that comes close to it is Dead Space. It's closer to Alien then Alien:Colonial Marines! I kinda fear everything in the game of Alien:Isolation. Apparently, the medibay is touted as that one level. I resorted to switching to easy and i am still getting my arse kicked.

EDIT: Kinda starting to find it a bit tedious thus it is being treated as a game that is best in short bursts. So i've elected to play Nanomachines, Son:The Game or Metal Gear:Rising:Revengance as it's known. Tis a fun over the top game and more Metal Gear then MGSV despite it being a spin off. The camera is a bit iffy though and parrying is an interesting thing. Techincally, it's simple but in the heat of battle, tis harder then it seems due to the fast paced nature of it.

[Unionhack]

@Kerr: I tried Pillars of Eternity, played as a cipher as well. I loved it, it's a very well constructed game, but like... I fizzled out about 15 hours in. It just doesn't draw me in like Baldur's Gate does, I guess. I haven't tried booting it up again since, but I probably should.

[Kerr]

I'm glad I'm planning it now that it's the complete version, which I think is true of all games really. I'd rather play the complete version. Same thing happened when I played The Witcher series. Not just because of the DLC but also a lot of patches and changes they made after launch. Like Pillars launched without any companion AI. So companions would only ever do what you tell them to do, they wouldn't just attack the closest enemy by default like in Baldur's Gate. Which is showing the constraints of Kickstarter budget. But they added that in with a patch just before the first DLC came out. I like the combat a lot more than any Infinity Engine game, although my problems with Infinity Engine combat are basically just problems I have with 2nd Edition (how magic is so much better than melee or ranged, how there's no Engagement/Attack of Opportunity/Flanking system so enemies can just run right past your defensive lines with ease and you're encouraged to just swarm around single enemies and take out large groups one at a time by swarming them, how limited you are in engaging with certain classes such as how Fighters have no special abilities so basically all they do is attack with whaetever weapon they're good with, eyc) but if Pillars hadn't had any companion AI that may not be the case.

A real problem though is weapon slots. So I had Edér who is a fighter that's good with Flails and Swords, he's a tank who soaks up damage and I want to give him a huge shield. Unfortunately I can only put that shield in one of his 4 weapon slots so if I switch from using a flail to using a sword I also have to switch from using my cool enchanted shield to my kind of crappy shield. Which is a real problem when I fight enemies immune to the crushing damage his flail dishes out.

I found out the other day that Obsidian were originally going to make a sequel to Human Revolution and they didn't which kinda sucks because Obsidian + Cyberpunk would be amazing. Although Mankind Divided still turned out good, albeit not great. Although Obsidian are almost certainly making a World of Darkness game at the moment which Tim Cain & Leonard Boyarsky, 2/3 of Trokias founders are working on. So I really hope that's true because it would be fantastic.

[The SheoDovah]

Completed MG:RR. Tis even better then I recall but does have it's flaws(I really should get around to creating a Dovah reviewing or thoughts thread at some point). I do view it as a spin off despite there being signs that it is canon(It's a mixed affair, some say it is, some say it's not) and it manages to deliver a decent plot. Is the plot as good as MGS4's? No. It's very unfair to compare it as MGSIV had an entire franchise(at the time) worth of plot to wrap up with loose ends. But it does stand on it's own feet and does give some insight into Raiden. Parrying is a bit of a pain in the ass and blocking seems to override parrying. It's poorly explained in the game as it literally just gives you the button prompt during the tutorial then nothing. It seems to be timing related but in the heat of battle, blocking is what will be the common thing. The bosses are over the top and memorable unlike the last two MGS games(PW had two memorable ones, the rest were forgettable, MGSV lacks any memorable ones.). I do hope Konami allows Platium Games to do a sequel though without Kojima as a producer, it could result in a major variation but I do trust them to handle Raiden's stuff.

I hope the rumoured leak/tease is true and that we will get a fully fledged sequel. The game is too short. It is the shortest Hack and Slash i've played. It also makes me wish Bayonett got given another chance on all three platforms. Lousy Sega.

[Aarah]

I'm playing Love is Strange to forget about the real game because it keeps hurting my feelings. Probably gonna 100% it because that's what I do with VNs.

In regards to Life is Strange - Do you know if the full game you can buy on disc is the same as if you buy the five Episodes as a download?

[MARS]

Yeah, it should be.

[Kerr]

I'm playing Love is Strange to forget about the real game because it keeps hurting my feelings. Probably gonna 100% it because that's what I do with VNs.

In regards to Life is Strange - Do you know if the full game you can buy on disc is the same as if you buy the five Episodes as a download?

There is for PS4 and Xbox One, not sure about PC. But it's on sale on Steam right now for €5 if you have a PC that can play it, not sure what that is in Pounds. I um, may a repurchased Life is Strange the other day so I have it on PC.

I'm almost finished Pillars of Eternity, just need to finish of a last level of an optional 15 level Mega Dungeon and then it's onto the end game. I've been liking it but I'm really ready for it to be done. My playthough is probably going to be clocking in at around 90 hours so yeah, when you play a game for that long you're just ready for it to end.

Speaking of Visual Novels, I bought Steins;Gate 0 yesterday, along with Bloodborne and the new Hitman game. Still need to get the original Steins;Gate Visual Novel, I will next time it's on sale on Steam. It'll probably be a while before I get around to playing them. But once I finish Pillars (which should be like tonight or tomorrow) I plan on restarting Dark Souls, alternate between it and Hitman. Probably replay Love is Strange too.

[Aarah]

Thanks for the info, Kerr and Mars. I got the Steam sale game (it was £3.99) and have just started playing the game. The mouse control is a bit out of sync and tricky to direct, and the graphics are a bit jumpy, but the story seems interesting so I'm intrigued already.

Edit: So I'm a few hours in on Life is Strange. Man, does it make you fret over your decisions. Should I have taken the photo or intervened? Who knows! It's impossible to know until you know the future repercussions of your actions. I'm totally into the story though, which is surprising so early in.

[KingFeraligatr]

Halo Custom Edition and modding it. Morrowind Modding. Skyrim (I want to mod it, but unfortunately I have a playthrough going on and rule of thumb with Skyrim and Papyrus is not to edit the mod files mid playthrough. Also, Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon. In terms of PMD, PMD2: Explorers of the Sky rocks PSMD, however.

[Will Zurmacht]

Torment: Tides of Numenera, the much anticipated and long delayed Kickstarter colossus from Inxile, which was released yesterday.

Continuing to fill out my card collection in The Elder Scrolls: Legends in anticipation of Bethesda's "big announcement" due in a few weeks, which many people in the community expect will involve (at a minimum) the game moving out of beta and into full release.

[Unionhack]

How is it so far, Will? I followed Tides at first but it kinda fell off my radar. I hope it's better than pillars of eternity.

[KingFeraligatr]

Been playing some Fallout New Vegas lately. Some mods I have installed is probably what has been bringing me back for a bit.

[Will Zurmacht]

How is it so far, Will? I followed Tides at first but it kinda fell off my radar. I hope it's better than pillars of eternity.

Slow going so far, but in a good way. The amount of content packed into the starting area has made for whole sessions of just walking around, talking to characters, and doing the first parts of a half dozen or so quests. Writing quality so far reminds me of SRR: Dragonfall and Hong Kong, combining lavish descriptions with mature, thoughtful dialogue. (Cracked a smile when a bureaucrat shuffling papers around in a precise way was described as "balletic.")

If Pillars' setting was the epitome of "generic medieval fantasy world #7," Torment's pops off the screen as more surreal, whimsical, and vivid in its contrasts. Probably one of the consequences of jamming high magic and high tech together against a vaguely dystopian backdrop.

Managed to level up my exploration/social themed party a few times without having to resort to combat. If the quality of the opening zones is maintained throughout the game, it should be quite the ride.