General Gaming Megathread: What are you playing?

Read this here review and watch some of the trailers, mostly because the trailers are pretty cool.
Oozes atmosphere and has some really nice ideas but in true Piranha Bytes fashion tends to drop them quite often.
 
Crni Vuk said:
combat in Risen was though only good against Humans. I loved to battle them. It was one of the few games where you really had a "tactic" involved. As soon you had animals against you and several enemies the systems starts to suck heavily. But oh well. maybe it was just me who sucked. Both could be true after all.
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It's pretty much the same in Risen 2, except the combat vs humans 1v1 is a lot less exciting (no shield, ability to block constantly, no dodge, having to invest heavily in certain skills just to be able to do basic combat moves like counter), and combat against non-humans flat out sucks (all monster attacks are unblockable unlike in Risen 1, and again no dodge so yeeeah...)

Anyway. Is Risen 2 good? I am not thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat much in to Pirates (but I don't bother either). And Risen 1 started to recycle its plot quite much in the last half of the game. So is this here from the quality the same or better?
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I'm also kind of disappointed with the excessive focus on pirates - I liked the factions in Risen 1 better. The pirates came out of nowhere, as did the whole thing with native tribes and slavery (which is handled kinda poorly so far). Also, the game looks kinda ugly on medium settings compared to, say, Witcher 2 or DSIII.

Anyway, I'd say wait for 50%+ off sale, or rent, or coerce a friend into buying then steal it from him, but I can't really recommend buying it at full price.
 
I'm going back to the times Bioware wasn't so focused on pseudo-artistic bullcrap ending with Dragon Age: Origins, and a new Shepard to run through all three Mass Effect games once the Extended Cut rolls out. And boy, is ME1's combat clumsy as all hell. It's easy mode since I took an Adept, but having dudes run circles around you being almost immune to bullets while shouting ENEMIES EVERYWHERE every goddamn second is nothing short of frustrating. I already miss ME3's combat, as ''mainstream'' and Gears-of-War-y as it is. That being said, I've grown more fond of the Mako. As (IIRC) Yahtzee said, it makes the game's world seem bigger than a succession of corridors + the Normandy.

Also, Bastion was on sale. And damn, I'm mighty impressed. It looks great, gameplay is smooth and fun, and I will never tire of the narrator's voice.
 
Just played trough Machinarium, was really enjoyable. Great soundtrack to go with some great imagery and some nice puzzles to exercise your brain.
 
I love Space Rangers 2. The first tutorial mission is unadvised to skip, since it sets you up with some extra scratch which is always a good thing. To complete my hyperjump training, I simply needed to jump to a system of my instructor's choosing, land on a planet of my instructor's choosing, refuel, and come back. My instructor apparently had it out for me, since I was wanted for crimes against humanity on the target planet. 66 days of rehabilitation followed. During my "stay", I trained a cockroach to be a champion in the cockroach races, became a renowned gambler, and gained so much influence that I was able to shake down the prisoners for cash once a week.
 
Thinking about giving Icewind Dale 2 a shot. Anyone recommend it? Is it a good play without having played ID1?
 
I liked it. Its more DnD Tactics than a real sweeping epic RPG. I always liked the character portraits as well.
 
I like it, but playing the first game is preferable, because there are quite a few references to characters from the first game. It's the final infinity engine game of the period, so I'm sentimental. Play the first game, then try the second IMO.
 
Its a tactics RPG. The focus is on fighting battles. anyway I just looked up character portraits for nostalgic value and came across this. It's not in the game AFAIK but lol.

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maximaz said:
Is the experience similar to Diablo or BG? How would you rate it out of ten?
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It's more like Baldur's Gate - basically it's the same game, but the story is more linear, so you can't just run around wherever you like. But saying that, it's still a great RPG, with plenty of space to develop your party, mind you there is a lot more combat than BG, and less interaction with NPCs. I recently completed a solo game with a Fighter/Thief/Magic User, and loved it. By the end my character was pretty impressive, but you need a level cap remover so you can again the extra levels. I would give the first game an 8.8/10, and the second game 8.5/10.
 
Me on IwD2:

Icewind Dale II is OK considering it was a straight-up Black Isle slam dunk. A few areas are well written, others are so clumsily written and designed you'd think it was done by a 15-year-old intern with no QA applied whatsoever. For instance, ubiquitous doorways that are so narrow that every time you try to go to the next room, five of your characters start pathing around to the other side of the map; NPC lines and entire speeches lifted verbatim from some design document that are duplicated several times throughout the game; stupid plot gimmicks that don't fit in the Forgotten Realms setting (as opposed to the BG games, which handle the setting very well); breaking the fourth wall not as an incidental joke but as a narrative convenience; and so on. But for all that, as a whole it's still better than Neverwinter Nights in most respects.
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One problem with Black Isle games has always been that they have exhibited jarring differences in writing (and design) quality between areas. This can be seen in the Fallouts and Torment, but never so blatantly as in IwD2. The lack of QA in that game is truly embarrassing. Overall the game redeems itself, but I would think only for people who already love the Infinity Engine.

(Reviewers talking favourably about the writing quality may have received this impression from the first area, written by Avellone.)
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I would also go for the first game first, if you think there's any chance you'll play both.
 
Yes you really should play IWDI first, it has a more coherent story, art direction and atmosphere and (IMO :P ) the AD&D2 rules were a more fun system than the one used in IWD2. Both games are good anyway, so you should play them in order.

I dont really see how the gameplay is comparable to Diablo, as so many people say. Especially in mid to endgame or on harder difficulties the game is quite the opposite to "click enemy to win" hack n slash gameplay. (not that I dont like Diablo ;P )

And yeah the games had some kickass portraits!

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"Half the loot is mine." ;D
 
I really miss this kind of artistic work and quality in modern games ... today its like EVERYTHING has to be done with "3D".

Something I enjoyed so much about the Witcher as they have thrown in as well quite a few "drawn" stuff as well like the cards for girls you slept with or the loading screens.

Something I really loved about Baldurs Gate as well. Those engines might not have been that sophisticated but they really made up for that with the art direction. Pictures, the hand drawn locations etc. Lots of work sure. But its one of the reasons why I can play Baldurs Gate without exploding eyes compared to Oblivion which simply gives me head aches (even if the game would contain a decent story and gameplay ... but the visuals in Oblivion? That game really does not age well. Drawn pictures never lose their quality the same way).
 
Well said. The game can have terrible 2d as well (NPCs in Arcanum) but a few well positioned pieces of artwork easily fill in the gaps of my imagination; sending me to a world much better realized than anything current 3d can achieve. Although we have come a long way since NWN.
 
Crni Vuk said:
I really miss this kind of artistic work and quality in modern games ... today its like EVERYTHING has to be done with "3D".
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3D art will never match the artistry of Justin Sweet. In a dream team of developers, Justin Sweet would be the man to turn to for the portraits.

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Crni Vuk said:
I really miss this kind of artistic work and quality in modern games ... today its like EVERYTHING has to be done with "3D".
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So true.. Why do you have to remind me :(

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Hey just a heads up the devs of Jagged Alliance: Back In Action are patching that game to correct some of the annoyances, like bringing back Fog of War for an actual challenge, and sector inventory UI so that the game isnt half played just managing inventory.
Yes the characters are ugly as hell but one thing that game does right is the environments. They are top notch.
In an industry that constantly pushes out games and never patches them (silent hunter 5) this is praiseworthy. I just wish they could have put out a product that was complete from the get go. Too many initial sales lost...
 
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