What are you playing?

[Jinsai]

Rage. Imagine if the people who made Doom 3 decided to make Fallout 3. You'd get a badass game, right? Well, no such luck. I mean, Rage is amusing, but it sure as shit ain't no Fallout 3...

Hopefully you didn't pay for this. I thought everyone must have heard about how bad this game was. I don't even like shooters, and for a bit there all I was hearing everyone talk about was how shitty Rage was.

[Space Suicide]

Hopefully you didn't pay for this. I thought everyone must have heard about how bad this game was. I don't even like shooters, and for a bit there all I was hearing everyone talk about was how shitty Rage was.

Good gameplay mechanics/gunplay and nice setting. Extremely boring story, linear level designs, poor open world exploration and just a let down. I got it for 24.99 some months after it launched (I'd say 5 or 6 months after) and I played till about the main derby races and the story missions below in the sewers to clean water for the town. I did that and kinda just never bothered playing it ever again since it lacked any "Gotta play it!!!" mentality. I traded it for decent money.

[Vertigo]

Alien Isolation. By far the scariest game I've ever played, and a brilliantly made labour of love for that first movie.



(If anyone else is starting this, don't be put off early on - some of the first encounters are the game's most difficult, due to lack of distractiony/fighty equipment. The learning curve is pretty much vertical.)

[Jinsai]

(If anyone else is starting this, don't be put off early on - some of the first encounters are the game's most difficult, due to lack of distractiony/fighty equipment. The learning curve is pretty much vertical.)

This will make me sound like the laziest person ever... but I gave up after playing it for over an hour and never getting to the point where the alien actually showed up. I keep trying to get myself to start it up again and just can't make myself go through the torture of "oh for fuck sake, how do I just get to the point where stuff happens?!"

[Vertigo]

Gave up at the part where you're hunted by three looters with guns, with a fourth guy blocking your exit? I came very close to ditching it there myself, actually, needed to do some soul-searching on another forum. Turns out most players have a lot of trouble with that sequence.
You do still have options for that part, though. You could try hitting the wall with your melee weapon, then shuffling immediately to a safe spot while all the hunters head to the sound source. Or just stay upstairs and wait for the hunters to head downstairs. If there's still a guy guarding the way out, personally I just sprinted past him - once you're down the stairs on the other side, they won't follow you (too frightened, and for good reason).

Also worth pointing out that you really don't lose anything by lowering the skill level - even on Novice, the game's still scary as hell, just less frustrating.

[Fixer808]

Hopefully you didn't pay for this. I thought everyone must have heard about how bad this game was. I don't even like shooters, and for a bit there all I was hearing everyone talk about was how shitty Rage was.

Didn't pay for it, thankfully. It's just boring after playing Fallout 3. Like I mentioned, F3 is just FAR superior. Also, after playing games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor, I expect an enemy to fucking go DOWN when I hit him in the back of the neck with a blast from a shotgun.

[Millionaire]

Reinstalled Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 on my PC for the first time in forever. They're really going to eat up my spare time, but I love em, even if they're hard as hell.

[kdrcraig]

Beat Far Cry 4 last night, loved it. The story was actually pretty damn good, better than the last game. Just a few trophies to finish up then I'll probably go back to The Master Chief Collection and Shadow of Mordor.

[Frozen Beach]

Morrowind. Unfortunately, the FPS rating on this game is terrible on modern machines because the engine sucks and dislikes modern day CPUs. I hope open source Morrowind fixes these problems.

[liquidcalm]

Driveclub went on sale, so I picked that up as I've not really played a racing game for ages, and playing GT6 with my dad made me want something shiny. Boy is it shiny. It's also pretty good. Not being a racing guy (unless, you know, Wipeout) I don't really have much to compare it to, but I can say I'm having fun and I like the random social challenges that pop up. Oh and its beautiful, which goes a long way.

[Space Suicide]

Driveclub went on sale, so I picked that up as I've not really played a racing game for ages, and playing GT6 with my dad made me want something shiny. Boy is it shiny. It's also pretty good. Not being a racing guy (unless, you know, Wipeout) I don't really have much to compare it to, but I can say I'm having fun and I like the random social challenges that pop up. Oh and its beautiful, which goes a long way.

Does the laughably bad online portion work yet?

[ibanez33]

Civ Beyond Earth

Not as good as Civ 5 but the DLC for Civ 5 really makes the game whole so I won't pass judgment for a year or so. Still really fucking addicting. Supremacy affinity is fucking awesome, I'd always wondered what it would be like to get halfway through a game of Civ and then turn my entire population into Cybermen, and now I know, it's fucking awesome.

[virushopper]

Doom on my friends graphing calculator lol

[liquidcalm]

Does the laughably bad online portion work yet?

I've not had any troubles, I don't really like online games though. I like the way it pulls in the challenges eg. "your friends average speed here was X, beat it" or "beat person X's drift around this corner". It adds these little challenges on the fly which actually make races more fun. I occasionally get disconnected, but thats more my rubbish internet connection, so can't comment. People on other forums are saying its pretty much fixed. Oh and the weather effects are incredible.

[bruised]

More stuff coming on Monday for DC. Just a few track I think. It's getting better overall.

[thelastdisciple]

I started Knights of the Old Republic.

Truth be told I've never played these games, huge Star Wars fan but really I'm not a very big fan of RPGs......... there's just too much time spent in menus and looking at stats and numbers and just crap that i don't give two shits about yet you have to pay attention to it if you want your character to be powerful at all and survive an encounter. I like the kind of choose your own adventure feel of it though even if there is still a linear story you're following.

Not too far into it, won a few duels on Taris, bought some upgrades, talked to some people, got the Sith armor from the party and entered the lower levels. Still kind of figuring this thing out.

[Vertigo]

Taris is, in my opinion, the worst part of that game. If you get through there happily enough, you'll love the rest of the game.

The KOTOR and Jedi Knight games were what got me into Star Wars, most of the films I can take or leave. KOTOR's storytelling and exploration of the universe are spectacular.

[thelastdisciple]

Yeah I'm definitely much more cut from the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight cloth.

Kyle Katarn ftw!

[october_midnight]

Pretty on the fence after (finally) getting a day off work so trying out the Evolve beta. It's better than the Alpha (they opened up way more obviously) but it's still unbalanced as hell. Unlock the Kraken (pretty easy), pick your perk to feed (and thus, evolve) faster, fly away, feed to get to level 2...become unbeatable. Every single time. I was level 9 against four hunters no lower than level 20 and a level 2 Kraken spamming the two same skills was actually impossible to beat. Makes me think the replayability just won't be there...

[implanted_microchip]

KOTOR 2 with the Restored Content Mod is probably in my top 5 games of all time. The KOTOR and Jedi Knight series really are fantastic, and Republic Commando was pretty surprisingly great too.

[elevenism]

Final Fantasy 3/6

i never finished it as a kid.

[Khrz]

Dragon Age Inquisition is pretty good despite its few kinks here and there (I'm part of the people who have to play with an extremely reduced party banter)...
But Bioware, just because you have an engine that allows your characters to jump doesn't mean you made an alternate Assassin's Creed. Your game sucks at platforming, so next time, don't do platform quest. Kthx

[Jinsai]

Alien Isolation. By far the scariest game I've ever played, and a brilliantly made labour of love for that first movie.



(If anyone else is starting this, don't be put off early on - some of the first encounters are the game's most difficult, due to lack of distractiony/fighty equipment. The learning curve is pretty much vertical.)

Ok. I took your advice and tried it again. I'm now on the fifth mission, and I love it. And yeah, this is the first game that has legitimately scared me. The true dread is not in what you're seeing but in what you don't see, the possibility that the alien could be anywhere... and then the music gets tense, and suddenly you know there's a really good chance you're fucked.

Also, the sequence with the red eyed androids going after you sent chills.

And just like you said, brilliant homages to the first film. Did you notice that the astronauts were still listening to cassette tapes (piled up next to the jukebox in the first room)? There's so many subtly brilliant moments here that I'm surprised it got such a luke warm response. I mean... I can't really be one to talk, since I've had this on the back burner for months now, but once you dig in it's really great.

Maybe it just was a little too upsetting, and the experience of it just came across as too unpleasant for a lot of people.

EDIT: And, for light hearted relief I'm toggling between this and Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition... because yeah, after a bit this game can really get intense and a little unnerving... and you can get wrapped up in a video game, and play it for way longer than you would, say, watch a horror movie for.

btw: any fans of good metroidvania games like Symphony of the Night NEED to play Guacamelee. It's so close to perfect that the price tag makes it essential.

[Space Suicide]

Ok. I took your advice and tried it again. I'm now on the fifth mission, and I love it. And yeah, this is the first game that has legitimately scared me. The true dread is not in what you're seeing but in what you don't see, the possibility that the alien could be anywhere... and then the music gets tense, and suddenly you know there's a really good chance you're fucked.

Also, the sequence with the red eyed androids going after you sent chills.

And just like you said, brilliant homages to the first film. Did you notice that the astronauts were still listening to cassette tapes (piled up next to the jukebox in the first room)? There's so many subtly brilliant moments here that I'm surprised it got such a luke warm response. I mean... I can't really be one to talk, since I've had this on the back burner for months now, but once you dig in it's really great.

Maybe it just was a little too upsetting, and the experience of it just came across as too unpleasant for a lot of people.

EDIT: And, for light hearted relief I'm toggling between this and Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition... because yeah, after a bit this game can really get intense and a little unnerving... and you can get wrapped up in a video game, and play it for way longer than you would, say, watch a horror movie for.

btw: any fans of good metroidvania games like Symphony of the Night NEED to play Guacamelee. It's so close to perfect that the price tag makes it essential.

I love horror, survival horror and Alien franchise stuff. I only ever did the prologue sequence in Isolation and haven't touched the game since due to work, other game commitments, etc. You talking might just make get to playing it shortly after my terror ceases with Resident Evil re-release being complete.

I wanted to buy that on release for Xbox One. Needless to say, that Games with Gold choice made it a free day one on release. I beat it and did a good majority of the Infierno Challenges (hard shit) before shelving it for the foreseeable future. Lovely game.

[Jinsai]

I love horror, survival horror and Alien franchise stuff. I only ever did the prologue sequence in Isolation and haven't touched the game since due to work, other game commitments, etc. You talking might just make get to playing it shortly after my terror ceases with Resident Evil re-release being complete.

I'm actually holding off on buying Resident Evil HD only because I'm currently so engrossed with Alien that I know I don't need two horror games right now. And, Alien is worth it. I was wrong to get fed up with it at first... it's actually viscerally fucking intense.

My best advice to you is to play it as soon as possible, and don't get irritated when you don't know where the fuck you're supposed to go. Just be patient, and the slow burn pays off.

[Vertigo]

Ok. I took your advice and tried it again. I'm now on the fifth mission, and I love it.

Oh god, that's the mission where you get to San Cristobal medical facility, isn't it? That part of the game has scarred me for life, even on Easy difficulty.

With regards to the game's reception, it's averaged around 81% from critics, which is pretty good. It's also won a bunch of awards, including Game of the Year from PC Gamer.
The really negative reviews that offset the average were from reviewers who didn't like hiding, and didn't get what the developers were going for.
That said, there are some widespread gripes - mainly that, while the worldbuilding is great, the narrative and character building are pretty thin.

[Space Suicide]

You guys are making this game sound like a difficult nightmare. Will I regret putting it on Normal difficulty setting?

[Piko]

Game isn't a cake walk. Been playing it (on normal ). I actually know where to go. Kinda hard when I have an alien lurking about though. A lot of hiding

[darktemplar007]

The new Dragon Age is fantastic, such an improvement and refinement of what they were going for in 2, but managing to pull off the story and strategic aspects that made Origins great. I'm loving it so far.

[Vertigo]

You guys are making this game sound like a difficult nightmare. Will I regret putting it on Normal difficulty setting?

It's definitely a challenging game, particularly early on (it actually gets easier as the game progresses). I'd advise playing it one difficulty level lower than you prefer in most games.