General Gaming Megathread: What are you playing?

I always liked the idea of a completely evil party. THough sadly ... and thats what I criticise BG2 for is that the choice of "evil" characters is somewhat limited. YOu have like 4 in totall if you count the player as well. I think Viconia (which is an awesome NPCs by the way, pretty complex), the Wizard (which name I forgot) and Korgan Blodaxe of which many say has some of the funniest dialogues in the game. You can get Sarevok as well. But ... then you have to play with 5 people till you get to ToB. Which is possible. But probably not that easy for unexperienced players.
 
you adress a very fine point. I find it sad that many games dont really explore the motivation behind "evil" choices. Not more then "hur durr!!! Kill them all because we have to drink their blood!!!" stuff

Though the problem is

1. game designers believe all people WANT to play ONLY good characters (I have read 70% of the players but is that because evil is so stupid or because all love good ?).

2. Evil plots require better writting then "good" plots. There seems to be no reason to explain people why you saved that little child from starvation. But trying to have some character who simply doesnt care ? Even if realistic. It needs a motivation or explanation to show that its "morally wrong".

In most games the gamedevelopers already decided for you. They tell you clearly what is "good" and what is "bad". They actually dont leave much room to interpret.

The good part about Planescape is that it is more about motivations then "moral" or choices. It is not so much about the who and how but "why" (what changes the nature of a man anyone ?). Ravel, The nameless one, the factions. It is very hard to paint one character as cleary "good" or clearly "evil". The world is not simply judging you like in 90% of most other RPGs. I think Age of Decadence is trying to go for a similar approach where you have a reputation instead of morale. I mean with so many philosophical ways it is hard to divide people or systems always in either black or white. Some people will love you for what you do. others will hate you. A liberal humanist will hate the governor who demands harsh punishment for criminals while the conservative midle class eventually will love that (stereotypes yes. but It is just to make a point).
 
LinkPain said:
@Atomkilla
I accidentally found one while browsing books at Mamut store in Belgrade in Serbia, but they don't exist anymore, only Vulcan now. It's English translated Gollanz version and has great cover. It was on third floor where foreign writers and mostly English translated books were. The next one, Blood of The Elves i think, is translated, couldn't find an English copy. I hate our Serbian translations, they have too many stupid and obvious mistakes and charge a lot of money for their crappy work. Paper is ok and durable, but i prefer recycled. Although some translations of ours are good, like Game of Thrones
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Since I live very far from Belgrade, I had trouble finding some books, but I managed to find a copy in Mamut store, though it was in crappy state.
Honestly, it seems to me that only Laguna publishing actually pays attention to what they're translatting.
 
I believe the Dragon Age expansion pack Awakening had an identical scenario to yours, Sea (maybe you took it from there?). The parts where you run the keep and the land were the best of the expansion, and your efforts (or lack thereof) we acknowledged in the ending to boot.

And you guys also make very fine points. One of the things I dislike the most in several fantasy/sci-fi settings is that the Planet of Hats http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PlanetOfHats trope is in full force; tribes, cities, hell entire nations have one single characteristic and alignment (the Evil Empire composed only of Evil soldiers and Evil officers and Evil overlords, with a Good traitor or two, the Good Resistance of niceness, and well you know the rest). It breaks my suspension of disbelief almost immediately; how the hell can a society where everybody is identical function? You need different people to do different tasks.

On motivation, well, very few games I know of were able to provide a believable motivation for all of the PC's actions. I guess Torment did, to a large degree, and the first Fallout (you could still doom Shady Sands seemingly just because you could, by killing Tandi and her dad, for example). Bioware RPGs since the beginning are very guilty of making Evil fit very badly into the story (Origins resolved that somewhat, and it looks like DA2 will as well if spoilers can be believed)
 
it is actually a "fun" button smasher. But oh boy ... are the boss fights shit. Never ending story of frustration. I have NO CLUE who got that ridiculous idea of a "cinematic camera" for a third person/over the shoulder game. In Boss fights the camera is set in a fixed position which makes fighting extremly hard and frustrating. It really sucks the fun out of the game. Except for that. It can be quite fun.
 
I can handle it somehow if the game is worthy, sotrywise. Gameplay i have seen oh too many times, there are days when i need to rip everything to shreds, these games help out a lot :)
 
I almost throw the game away beacause of those "boss fights". Up to that point it was always fun hacking your way trough countless storm troopers and creatures with a light-saber - even though the gameplay always remembered me to god of war. Story ? i didnt even cared about that. Just gime my lightsaber damnit! Sad is just the game lacked correct use of it (hacking an arm or head away with it would have been neat). BUt I heard the sequel has more relaistic "light saber combat". When it comes to light saber duels it cant beat Jedi Knight. It had the best I ve seen so far for a Star Wars game. The rare situation where you used the force to open a door or bend something was pretty cool though.
 
You won't believe it but i didn't like the story from God of War, i found the Greeks too much sadistic for my taste. Spartan or not. On the other hand i liked Darksiders and Prototype but the first story is too short but controls are for praise. Darksiders has the best horse riding i have seen. Unlike Agro from Collosus... So my only motive is playing because of the story, lol. Which was the better point of the game back in the days of Legacy of Kain...eh, those days.
But looking at this guy, if he is Goku of Star Wars, then by all means i intend to play it :D
Too bad for boss fights :/

Btw, -sea- did you try Monks quivering palm? My friend said it is possible to insta kill Firkragg but only if you throw like 10 dispells and debuffs on him. Something like using that undead killer mace on Kangaxx. I wanted to try that one out but never got the chance, i never used Monk anyway but seeing all those abilities he gets in later levels makes me want to install the game right now.
 
sea said:
I'm making pretty good headway in Baldur's Gate II right now. After spending a lot of time in the city, and doing nearly every side-quest available, I decided to explore the Umar Hills as well as Trademeet. Took out the Shade Lord and Shadow Dragon (hard, but not as hard as I thought considering my level), and then moved on to deal with the Shadow Druids. So far this game has me completely hooked, and the number of ways you can play it, both with regards to tactics and style (i.e. auto-pause in combat or not, AI scripts with manual intervention vs. making every individual move) means that I can put on "cruise control" when I want to, without ever giving up full control of the game. It definitely feels a little smaller than the first Baldur's Gate, but that might be a good thing considering how much higher quality a game the sequel is, and that they got rid of all the boring wilderness areas in between major locations.
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I think it might change later a bit when you get deeper in the story. At that point the world opens a bit (the illusion of it) as you will use a boat at some point. Though with the risk of a small spoiler. Do not use the portal to get away from the island. Go for the ship when Saemon asks you for it. The Portal is not a "trap" or something. But it means you will miss some really nice sidequests. And the world will be "biger" from the feeling. In a good way though.
 
Heh, exploring where the ship sorta takes you is one of the things I always remember about BG2.
Like Disney's Atlantis but with less guns and more fins and teeth.

Currently playing Retribution, mostly the Imperial Guard campaign because Lord General Castor is the best thing since Lord Commisar Brenn mentioned riding into battle in an apc so he can hit things quicker with his sword.
Heck Castor can probably out Praetorian the Praetorian Guard and they attack the enemy using large amounts of tea, bisuits, posh accents and pith helmets while taking cover behind their massive moustaches.
Way more interesting than boring old whiney spaeece mehrines.
 
Yeah, Castor is awesome, he and the Lord Commissar have really good attitude and voice acting. Put a Melta in Moustachio's hands and watch armies burn with glee. I also highly suggest doing the Ork campaign next, it's the most hilarious video game writing since New Vegas's failed skill checks. Not to mention half of the Wargear's description are direct references to meme's or community members.
 
^ Stop tempting me, dude :? I haven't gotten to CoP's ending when playing after release, and lost my saves when my old laptop fried, so I need to play it again at some point, but I'm too busy atm. :|
 
Force Unleashing the countryside Force Unleashing the peasants!

Why does Darth Vader only have walk option, not run. Jumping with him is faster than walking. Never thought i would play this over Dragon Effect 2... funny how some things turn out.
 
The question you should ask about The Force Unleashed is how Killing an old man is less evil than killing Darth Vader, and how Killing Darth Vader makes you go into a rampage of betrayal in a second. Star Wars and their understandment of Morals.


I am playing Trauma Center 2, on hard, I am barely into episode 4, I am gonna get Carpal tunnel syndrome thats for sure.
 
Crni Vuk said:
looks like they finished the mod. Right in time I have to say ! As I just bought the game

It can be downloaded here quite fast :D

Call of Pripyat complete mod
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There are already 3 small (optional) patches.

enjoy the Zone


edit:

I'm now playing Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (PC) and I must say I am enjoying it more than I thought I would.

The core gameplay is of course very similar to the previous games.

I love how you can now order your assassins to go out on various missions around Europe.

I feared that having 'just' one city might result in a monotone setting but fortunately this is not the case here. (Huge city with rather 'distinct' districts)

The graphics have been improved albeit in a subtle way: the building pop up is less noticeable, the inclusion of SSAO,...

The audio is extremely good except for some annoying voice actors.

I haven't really tried the multiplayer part but it sure looks promising.
 
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