----------THE OFFICIAL CURRENTLY PLAYING THREAD------------

[Marty502]

Originally posted by: Pugnate

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Pugnate
I see these sort of threads on other forums, and thought we could use it here. Post here often, and let everyone know what you are playing, and what you've finished recently.

I've been playing Bioshock, which I am loving. Great game, dripping with atmosphere. UT3 is a lot fun online... the kind of fun that has you cussing out loud in pure joy mixed with disbelief.

I find myself returning to Oblivion after six months of hiatus. I still haven't finished it, and with the tons of great mods available on the PC, the experience has transformed into something like looks far more gorgeous, and plays with a lot more balance.

Last game I finished was Portal, and I found the length to be perfect. There was only so much they could do with that mechanic, and I thought it was a great title overall.

Weird, some of what you are doing is mirroring my gaming somewhat. If you haven't already, make *sure* you play the expansion Shivering Isles - overall it is better than Oblivion. Sadly i didn't care for the BS universe very much and am really getting tired of "dark" games ... that was reinforced by the last dark game i finished - well ~400 hours into Hellgate: London if you count my starting with the online beta and putting time into 4 characters finishing at the 'capped' Level 50 as a Summoner on "Nightmare" difficulty almost completely thru the game twice. :Q

i went back to Gothic3 - imo, the game is equally beautiful when compared to Oblivion; only the *bugs* and broken quests destroyed the experience for me 2 years ago.
-- i am really enjoying it now with the Community 1.52 patch - but to be fair, it *still crashes* - "out of memory" even with 4GB of RAM about every 2 hours [usually on a load] - but it doesn't take down the OS anymore. AND load and save times are much much faster. Fortunately, i forgot most of the story as i was fighting "bugs" in this too-quickly released game ... this time there is no frustration and i can enjoy it.

My next game will be Condemned if i can get back to "dark" by then ... or maybe the Witcher.

i actually set down HL2-EP2 in the middle to play Hg:L and i haven't yet returned to play it .. same thing happened with Ep1. i didn't care very much for Portal.

I bought the Shivering Isles expansion, and installed it a while back. Haven't gotten round to exploring it yet, because I am not done with Oblivion.

The world leveling up with me really pisses me off though. It takes away any sense of accomplishment, and leveling up seems pointless. That's why I keep leaving the game. But then I get sucked back in eventually.

Get Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. The world won't level with you. That means that there will be all sorts of enemies out there right away, from rats to those immaterial bastards that you caa only kill with magic or silver weaponry.

Plus it adds a ton of new gear, extremely improven AI, and many little details that turn Oblivion into what it should have been. Seriously! It becomes another game, plain and simple. Go get it!

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: Marty502

Originally posted by: Pugnate

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Pugnate
I see these sort of threads on other forums, and thought we could use it here. Post here often, and let everyone know what you are playing, and what you've finished recently.

I've been playing Bioshock, which I am loving. Great game, dripping with atmosphere. UT3 is a lot fun online... the kind of fun that has you cussing out loud in pure joy mixed with disbelief.

I find myself returning to Oblivion after six months of hiatus. I still haven't finished it, and with the tons of great mods available on the PC, the experience has transformed into something like looks far more gorgeous, and plays with a lot more balance.

Last game I finished was Portal, and I found the length to be perfect. There was only so much they could do with that mechanic, and I thought it was a great title overall.

Weird, some of what you are doing is mirroring my gaming somewhat. If you haven't already, make *sure* you play the expansion Shivering Isles - overall it is better than Oblivion. Sadly i didn't care for the BS universe very much and am really getting tired of "dark" games ... that was reinforced by the last dark game i finished - well ~400 hours into Hellgate: London if you count my starting with the online beta and putting time into 4 characters finishing at the 'capped' Level 50 as a Summoner on "Nightmare" difficulty almost completely thru the game twice. :Q

i went back to Gothic3 - imo, the game is equally beautiful when compared to Oblivion; only the *bugs* and broken quests destroyed the experience for me 2 years ago.
-- i am really enjoying it now with the Community 1.52 patch - but to be fair, it *still crashes* - "out of memory" even with 4GB of RAM about every 2 hours [usually on a load] - but it doesn't take down the OS anymore. AND load and save times are much much faster. Fortunately, i forgot most of the story as i was fighting "bugs" in this too-quickly released game ... this time there is no frustration and i can enjoy it.

My next game will be Condemned if i can get back to "dark" by then ... or maybe the Witcher.

i actually set down HL2-EP2 in the middle to play Hg:L and i haven't yet returned to play it .. same thing happened with Ep1. i didn't care very much for Portal.

I bought the Shivering Isles expansion, and installed it a while back. Haven't gotten round to exploring it yet, because I am not done with Oblivion.

The world leveling up with me really pisses me off though. It takes away any sense of accomplishment, and leveling up seems pointless. That's why I keep leaving the game. But then I get sucked back in eventually.

Get Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. The world won't level with you. That means that there will be all sorts of enemies out there right away, from rats to those immaterial bastards that you caa only kill with magic or silver weaponry.

Plus it adds a ton of new gear, extremely improven AI, and many little details that turn Oblivion into what it should have been. Seriously! It becomes another game, plain and simple. Go get it!

I prefer Francescos mod since OOO makes the game much more difficult overall. You really get owned by a lot of places you travel through and it makes the world feel kind of restricted. Francescos only puts fixed enemy levels into the game. For example Imperial Gaurds are always between 25 to 30. There is also an addon that adds more weapons and creatures.

 

[Pugnate]

Don't both of those require me to restart my game? Having already done that twice, I really can't see myself going through that again.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: Pugnate
Don't both of those require me to restart my game? Having already done that twice, I really can't see myself going through that again.

No you can continue from your existing save game with Francescos. That's what I did.


As for what game I'm playing, right now it's Mass Effect, 20 hours in.

 

[Nikamichi]

Originally posted by: potato28
TF2

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: EvilComputer92

Originally posted by: Marty502

Originally posted by: Pugnate

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: Pugnate
I see these sort of threads on other forums, and thought we could use it here. Post here often, and let everyone know what you are playing, and what you've finished recently.

I've been playing Bioshock, which I am loving. Great game, dripping with atmosphere. UT3 is a lot fun online... the kind of fun that has you cussing out loud in pure joy mixed with disbelief.

I find myself returning to Oblivion after six months of hiatus. I still haven't finished it, and with the tons of great mods available on the PC, the experience has transformed into something like looks far more gorgeous, and plays with a lot more balance.

Last game I finished was Portal, and I found the length to be perfect. There was only so much they could do with that mechanic, and I thought it was a great title overall.

Weird, some of what you are doing is mirroring my gaming somewhat. If you haven't already, make *sure* you play the expansion Shivering Isles - overall it is better than Oblivion. Sadly i didn't care for the BS universe very much and am really getting tired of "dark" games ... that was reinforced by the last dark game i finished - well ~400 hours into Hellgate: London if you count my starting with the online beta and putting time into 4 characters finishing at the 'capped' Level 50 as a Summoner on "Nightmare" difficulty almost completely thru the game twice. :Q

i went back to Gothic3 - imo, the game is equally beautiful when compared to Oblivion; only the *bugs* and broken quests destroyed the experience for me 2 years ago.
-- i am really enjoying it now with the Community 1.52 patch - but to be fair, it *still crashes* - "out of memory" even with 4GB of RAM about every 2 hours [usually on a load] - but it doesn't take down the OS anymore. AND load and save times are much much faster. Fortunately, i forgot most of the story as i was fighting "bugs" in this too-quickly released game ... this time there is no frustration and i can enjoy it.

My next game will be Condemned if i can get back to "dark" by then ... or maybe the Witcher.

i actually set down HL2-EP2 in the middle to play Hg:L and i haven't yet returned to play it .. same thing happened with Ep1. i didn't care very much for Portal.

I bought the Shivering Isles expansion, and installed it a while back. Haven't gotten round to exploring it yet, because I am not done with Oblivion.

The world leveling up with me really pisses me off though. It takes away any sense of accomplishment, and leveling up seems pointless. That's why I keep leaving the game. But then I get sucked back in eventually.

Get Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul. The world won't level with you. That means that there will be all sorts of enemies out there right away, from rats to those immaterial bastards that you caa only kill with magic or silver weaponry.

Plus it adds a ton of new gear, extremely improven AI, and many little details that turn Oblivion into what it should have been. Seriously! It becomes another game, plain and simple. Go get it!

I prefer Francescos mod since OOO makes the game much more difficult overall. You really get owned by a lot of places you travel through and it makes the world feel kind of restricted. Francescos only puts fixed enemy levels into the game. For example Imperial Gaurds are always between 25 to 30. There is also an addon that adds more weapons and creatures.

i dunno, i really like it the way it is. i detest RPGs that make you struggle for 3.4s of the game - and then *suddenly* the devs decide you are GOD and you walkthru the rest of it.

i played Oblivion to Level 92 - Maxed out Max and got the in-game message "you cannot improve upon perfection" ... withOUT cheats or using the console. By then, Max was SO powerful there were No enemy NPCs that were even close ... so if you stick with it [long enough] ... they DO stop leveling

Anyway, SI is better written overall than Oblivion although Dark Brotherhood and some of the MQ was pretty awesome. SI has a more variety in the voices - more fun characters - and the [far more colorful] world reacts much better to your changing status.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Originally posted by: scrubman
Gears of War - single and co-op.. that game is kickass if you can play it wihtout a fresh WInXP install! The flying critters that tear you to shreds if you walk out of the light have made me jump back a few times.

Meh, GoW was cool the first time I played it on a friend's 360. I like the camera and the cover system, but the combat seems to get old fast. And the environments are all pretty much the same - dark and gray. And baddies take forever to die. And I hate over-the-shoulder shooters (despite the fact that the camera movement was cool....).

I found GoW to be very entertaining SP, but I agree about the samey environments and of course, once the SP campaign is over...I question whether there's much MP meat there. In fact, I'm pretty sure there isn't.

I have no problems with the perspective, controls, or difficulty. The game was actually ported rather well. But it ain't no Valve game.



As for Oblivion, talking about it being "written" well or some such is just funny. It was as generic an RPG script as you can get: Find 4 artifacts, kill ultimate bad guy.

The climactic battle was also just laughable. Supposedly you'd gathered militia from all corners of the province and it ends up being like 12 guys on a hill.

Not that it was a bad game, mind you - it was a pretty good continued experiment of what the Elder Scrolls does - give you wide open sandbox worlds in a fantasy setting. But there were parts of it that just weren't up to par.

Shivering Isles may be better, but unless they massively expand the dialogue and provide some better characterization for the main NPCs, I don't see how they can do much with the story. They sort of painted themselves into a corner with their game design.

I much preferred NWN2 and the KotOR games because of the strong story-telling and characters, but even those are getting old.

The best RPG experience I've had this year is probably STALKER. Wide open enough that there's tons of exploration and no requirement to work on the main story, but they've kept things contained enough at the same time that an atmosphere forms, relationships are obvious, and the world fleshes itself out.

Furthermore, they did away with arbitrary leveling systems (which were always stupid) and engineered their gameplay such that the players equipment and playstyle were what leveled, which was genius. After the first firefight in that game, you learned not to be an idiot Rambo. When you got your first scoped weapon, you learned the value of stealth. You even had to eat. Leveling systems based on math don't really feel like playing a game - they feel like doing math. The only two games I've ever seen address advancement properly were Deus Ex and STALKER. The former had excellent justification for new abilities, and the latter just made you, the player, grow and get better, rather than your character become arbitrarily more powerful (and they gave you the new toys you needed to stay competitive with the NPCs).

Were it not for all the bugs, I'd've given it game of the year.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: ja1484

As for Oblivion, talking about it being "written" well or some such is just funny. It was as generic an RPG script as you can get: Find 4 artifacts, kill ultimate bad guy.

The climactic battle was also just laughable. Supposedly you'd gathered militia from all corners of the province and it ends up being like 12 guys on a hill.

Not that it was a bad game, mind you - it was a pretty good continued experiment of what the Elder Scrolls does - give you wide open sandbox worlds in a fantasy setting. But there were parts of it that just weren't up to par.

Shivering Isles may be better, but unless they massively expand the dialogue and provide some better characterization for the main NPCs, I don't see how they can do much with the story. They sort of painted themselves into a corner with their game design.

I much preferred NWN2 and the KotOR games because of the strong story-telling and characters, but even those are getting old.

The best RPG experience I've had this year is probably STALKER. Wide open enough that there's tons of exploration and no requirement to work on the main story, but they've kept things contained enough at the same time that an atmosphere forms, relationships are obvious, and the world fleshes itself out.

Furthermore, they did away with arbitrary leveling systems (which were always stupid) and engineered their gameplay such that the players equipment and playstyle were what leveled, which was genius. After the first firefight in that game, you learned not to be an idiot Rambo. When you got your first scoped weapon, you learned the value of stealth. You even had to eat. Leveling systems based on math don't really feel like playing a game - they feel like doing math. The only two games I've ever seen address advancement properly were Deus Ex and STALKER. The former had excellent justification for new abilities, and the latter just made you, the player, grow and get better, rather than your character become arbitrarily more powerful (and they gave you the new toys you needed to stay competitive with the NPCs).

Were it not for all the bugs, I'd've given it game of the year.

Although the Oblivion MQ was bland, the Dark Brotherhood was particularly well-written and there were some SQ high-points. SI was *overall* better for the reasons i gave above.

*Agreed* on STALKER and it is my GotY [SI being 2nd]. i am looking forward to the expansion. VtMB is as good as Deus Ex in the 'advancement' department.

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: apoppin

Originally posted by: ja1484
The best RPG experience I've had this year is probably STALKER. Wide open enough that there's tons of exploration and no requirement to work on the main story, but they've kept things contained enough at the same time that an atmosphere forms, relationships are obvious, and the world fleshes itself out.

Furthermore, they did away with arbitrary leveling systems (which were always stupid) and engineered their gameplay such that the players equipment and playstyle were what leveled, which was genius. After the first firefight in that game, you learned not to be an idiot Rambo. When you got your first scoped weapon, you learned the value of stealth. You even had to eat. Leveling systems based on math don't really feel like playing a game - they feel like doing math. The only two games I've ever seen address advancement properly were Deus Ex and STALKER. The former had excellent justification for new abilities, and the latter just made you, the player, grow and get better, rather than your character become arbitrarily more powerful (and they gave you the new toys you needed to stay competitive with the NPCs).

Were it not for all the bugs, I'd've given it game of the year.

*Agreed* on STALKER and it is my GotY [SI being 2nd]. i am looking forward to the expansion. VtMB is as good as Deus Ex in the 'advancement' department.

I just finished Stalker a second time a few weeks back and have to agree: it's game of the year material minus bugs. Some of the bugs really killed it like "allying" with Freedom screws things up, buggy graphics with HDR on (rain & lightning artifacts) and the ending is just a bit drawn out if you pick the long way. Nonetheless, still more "original" and funner than anything else that came out in the latter 3 quarters of last year.

 

[shortylickens]

Just finished a campaign in Disciples 2 Elves. Will start another one this afternoon.
Am also going to finally install Mask of the Betrayer today.

I always spend about an hour each day on Test Drive: Unlimited. Its just so darn fun.

 

[ja1484]

If you guys really want to have STALKER done right, you need the following mods:


STALKER 1.0004 patch
Do not patch to a level higher than this. It will break the following mods

Improved English Localization
This guy (bless him) went through the text files in the game and fixed most/all of the mistranslations, typos, etc. The dialogues are much improved due to this. Scroll to the bottom of the post for DL links. 1.05 is the latest version.

Darker Nights Evolved
Absolutely a must. Makes the nights actually DARK. Your headlamp/nightvision is now *required*, not optional. It also modifies the detection AI so that NPCs can no longer see you 17 miles away in the pitch middle of the night when you're hiding behind a bush. Some of the changes:

Weather:

* Nights are realistically dark.
* Smooth transition from Day/Dusk and Night/Dawn.
* Day/Night cycle synchronized to approximately reflect projected times for May 1st, 2012 in Kiev, Ukraine (info for Chernobyl was unavailable).
* Included moonlight effect from the Dynamic Sun.
* Proper horizontal and vertical movement of Dynamic Sunlight and Shadows.
* Rotation of sky texture to give the illusion of moving clouds.
* Sun rises and sets in correct locations.
* Dark Valley, Pripyat, and Radar get quite a bit darker at night because of the nature of the extreme weather in those levels.
* Dark Valley, Pripyat, Radar, and Yantar have a shorter far_clip and fog_distance at night hours (should affect AI).
* Indoor levels with holes looking out have a darkened and rotating sky.
* Compatible with mods that slow the passage of time down to real-time speed.
* More minor tweaks.


Detection:

* Takes twice as long for the detection bar to rise and half as long for it to drop.
* NPCs perceive all weapon sounds at 5/6 of the original volume.
* Always visible distance reduced (the distance factor of the eye_range value at which you are ALWAYS detected by an NPC... Helps stealth knife kills).
* Reduced visibility_threshold.
* Increased the amount of light required to be seen (probably largest difference).
* Tweaked the transparency's_threshold to be different depending on whether or not you are being searched for (amount of trees/bushes or other transparency objects covering you).
* Minor, almost insignificant changes to the way the AI perceives sounds from the world and anomalies.

Team Redux HUD Mod
Much better hud variants. 6 to choose from. Use this link for download, and the one below to see what each of the selections looks like, complete with screenshots:

HUD Selection Screenshots



STALKER Redux
Last but not least, this is the most essential. TONS of things that make the game more realistic/immersive. Here's a partial list for the lazy:

2.1 Combat
-bandages only stop bleeding, and no longer heal
-medkits can not be hotkeyed to simulate the time it would take to heal oneself
-wound scales have been revamped, particularly for vital areas
-basic body armor now only offers bullet-proofing for the chest and back, while full body armor offers
bullet resistance in the chest, back, upper arms, and legs
-bullet-proof areas of armor offer better bullet resistance, and degrade realistically based on damage type
-the player starts limping at 30% maximum health
-damage multipliers have been revamped to be more realistic
-binoculars no longer identify targets
-9 new armors included, built for the Zone's rough climate
-33 rewritten armor descriptions, and reworked characteristics
-all artifacts revamped to be both more valuable and more useful


2.11 weapons
-all weapons revamped based on real-world physics formulas and firearm characteristics to provide the most
realistic weapon simulations possible on the game engine
-iron sights now sway to reflect human condition
-all weapon descriptions have been revamped and extended to include real-world details and fictional lore
-suppressors now come in models built for specific calibers, and cannot be interchanged between barrel type
-equipping a silencer will decrease recoil and increase accuracy
-more weapons have the ability to be equipped with modifications and attachments
-normal ammuniton no longer equipped with tracers
-Desert Eagle now uses .44 magnum ammunition
-weapons found on corpses are severely degraded
-by simplifying the script technique, weapon stat-charts should now accurately reflect a weapon's attributes
-at least slight penetration on most ammunition
-certain ammunition is corrosive and degrades weapons much faster
-all optic sights have the correct real-world level of magnification
-grenade launchers attachments reduce recoil and lower accuracy slightly
-muzzle flashe textures have been darkened
-fragmentation grenades now contain 20 times more fragments
-new ammunition: tracer versions for most current ammo types (with new icons); tracers are green, in true Russian form
-new ammunition: 7.62x39mm rifle round
-new ammunition: .44 Magnum pistol round
-new weapon: AKM (reskinned AK-74)
-replaced firing, reloading, suppressed, draw, footstep and bullet hit sounds with more realistic versions
(NOTE: this is the only known English mod for STALKER with fixed .OGG sound files: all sounds work properly)


2.12 ai
-NPCs now slump realistically when they are shot, instead of being thrown by the force of the bullet
-NPCs bleed
-all NPCs have a chance to fall to the ground wounded at 30% health rather than 10%
-AI is tuned to have more difficulty seeing at night, and cannot hear NPC movements as well
-AI accuracy lowered to counter new weapon damages
-AI can now shoot at longer ranges


2.2 Economy
-all quest rewards significantly lowered
-prices altered to make money harder to come by
-fewer items drop from NPCs
-much less ammunition drops from NPCs, and only ammunition the NPC would have been realistically carrying
-artifacts made much more valuable and difficult to find
-added: the ability to repair your weapons and armor at select traders


2.3 Misc.
-anomalies are now invisible
-three anomaly/radiation detectors are available for purchase and are not equipped at the beginning of the game
must be equipped on the belt to work.
-anomalies are now significantly more powerful
-hunger is more prevailent
-new foods introduced

Add all of THESE in, and it really will feel like GotY!

 

[Icepick]

Playing right now: Crysis

Recently played: HL2:EP2, Portal, Team Fortress 2

Next on the horizon: COD 4

 

[scrubman]

Gears Of War - SP

 

[Aharami]

Crysis (2nd time around on Delta), World in Conflict, Bioshock, HL2 (yea...still that on that game. Cant play for more than 30 mins at a time. Game gives me vertigo)

Games I have currently installed but not actively playing: C&C3, Homeworld2, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, GRAW2.

 

[biostud]

Was playing Dark Crusade now I'm gettin in to Company of Heroes

 

[King Nothing]

Crysis, Far Cry, Fifa 08, War Rock, SOF, San Andreas, Doom 3, Chaos Theory plus others....

I really have a low attention span so games rarely last long with me!

 

[BadRobot]

tf2, eve, final fantasy XII

 

[MustISO]

Still World of Warcraft (since 8/2007)

 

[computeerrgghh]

Currently Playing TF2 and the Insurgency Mod but I'm going to start on portal and HL2, HL2 Ep 1 and HL2 Ep2

 

[DukeFan21]

Bioshock, Kane and Lynch, Company of Heroes

 

[Ika]

Starcraft, until I get back to my dorm, in which case it'll be CS: Source and CoD4 again. If anyone's interested in playing fire me a PM.

 

[imported_Imp]

Moved onto Fight Night 3 on PS3... still waiting for Crysis patch.

Might pick up Uncharted next week (credit card's ass-ploding).

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Currently playing Titan Quest & TQ: Immortal Throne. I have Bioshock installed but I haven't touched it yet.

 

[RZaakir]

Playing

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (Its a damn shame that this game doesn't get the love that it deserves)
Gears of War (PC): I have to boot under Vista to save progress so I don't play much
Oblivion: Slowly but surely. Just got past the first Oblivion Gate.
Company of Heroes: I got deep into the game on my old machine but then upgraded and had to start over so I've slowly been going back through it

Recently finished Crysis. For all of the whining about the ending of the former, I thought that the final battle was incredible.

 

[Harabec]

My system can't play any of the current FPS's so I reinstalled Medal of Honor.
Disappointing...goes slow (Radeon 9700 here), doesn't look good, the weapons aren't anything special and too much of the game is at night.

I've been trying to play Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries but it is a huge headache setting it up on XP so I gave up. A pity, since its better than most other games out there, including MW3\4\4Mercs. Looks "Meh, but ok" once you patch with and use D3D.