What games are you playing currently

[Drasir-Vel]

If you play Minecraft, you should check out the server i play on atm if you want. CloudCraft SMP 74.201.57.49. I'm Stiven2 in there.

[Chroelle]

I only played my own world so far, but I found a map that I want to try out soon - it was made by a teacher in the states, where he tried to build a map that students could learn the game through - no reading, only doing. I want to see how it works out, and wether I can use it with my students...

But since I got no Mass Effect played last night, I have (a compulsive HAVE not a wanting HAVE) to complete that first, otherwise I know that Mass Effect will end like so many other gamesthat I never really finished because it was so long ago since last I played it, that I lost the urge to complete it.

[Pater Alf]

Lands of Lore - The Throne of Chaos

I would pretty much call this game a casual RPG (even if I don't think that term was invented when the game was first published). The game is very linear, you don't have to care about statistics, the system of leveling up is easy as it can be (the more you use a skill, the faster you level up) and there are several small tools (auto-map, compass etc.) that make it easy not to loose overview and course.

When it come to riddles and quests you have to say that these are not very complex. Most of them consist of simple "push-buttons-in-a-certain-order" and can be solved using trial and error system. All in all "Lands of Lore" is much more a hack and slay dungeon crawler than a complex quest-driven RPG.

Surprisingly this game is very good fun though and the playability is still very high after 20 years. Of course the graphics are not up-to-date, but still nice and the soundtrack and voice-acting is pretty good.

[eMTe]

the playability is still very high after 20 years.

If you can think of any other general factor which makes the game "good" please tell me. Computer game can be either fun or not fun to play for you personally and nothing else counts.

[Scythe]

Now, and for the past week, playing Daibanchou - Big Bang Age. It's a Japanese strategy game that preceded Sengoku Rance, by the same publishers. I wasn't aware that it had an English patch, until I stumbled across it by accident (not a very good translation, but it works). It has a strange story, where a "Hell Hole" has opened in the middle of Japan and a number of rival schools/organizations are competing to take over the country for various reasons. Rouga is a badass who just transferred to a new school and makes it his base to conquer Japan, to unite the country in peace. Of course he's a ladies man, and yes, it has sex in large and silly amounts (the skip key is your friend - there's literally too much of this).

A number of differences from Sengoku Rance makes it interesting. There are fewer factions and you can mostly limit yourself to one opponent at a time, so things rarely get completely out of hand. There's a limited number of turns, so there's no way you can clear everything. It has five main heroines, so a minimum of five playthroughs needed to clear (I'm on play #3). A number of esoteric gameplay rules only made sense to me when I was deep in my second play, very obscure. Clearing your generals' stories is insanely crazy hard, most of the time, especially with the time limits. The game keeps a list of what you've cleared, so no excuses for us obsessive/compulsive types, gotta clear it all!

All of this wouldn't be any good if the strategy element wasn't fun. It is. Even if the game "cheats" and throws crazy curveballs at you from time to time (related to the story of course). Or maybe that's what makes it fun.

[Scythe]

That's five games of Daibanchou down. While recharging my batteries for the sixth and possibly final game, I visited GOG and foolishly clicked to see their RPGs.

Now playing Anachronox. I remember how much I enjoyed that game. Turns out I conveniently forgot about the not so enjoyable parts. Heh. Amazingly, the graphics just feel kinda tacky to me now, not completely shitty as they ought to. It's fun watching attempts at facial expressions with such primitive textures.

Still, this is one of the few RPGs where one of your party members is a planet. That's gotta count for something.

[Zyx]

There's a free weekend of Civilization V on Steam... so that's what I have been playing, or more accurately doing at all, this weekend so far. Bring me food.

[Pater Alf]

I'm playing King's Bounty - The Legend. Pretty nice game with some RPG elements, many quests and sidequests and lots of turn-based tactical battles. There are also some flaws (like camera control and repetition in gameplay and combats), but it's good enough to keep me entertained and occupied for days now. If you like "Heroes of Might and Magic", you will probably like this one too.

[Scythe]

Heroes of Might & Magic Lite pretty much.

[smayragrace]

Currently I am Playing The Game Need for speed the world game..

[Zyx]

I did something really strange and bought a new, as in just released, game: Quantum Conundrum. It's really hard not to describe it as Portal for kids, because it's from the designer of Portal and she's been quite vocal about trying to create games that reach wider audiences.

Unlike portals, the game revolves around different dimensions. In some dimensions things weigh more, in some less and one dimension slows down time and you can switch around the dimensions to solve a puzzle. The approach is different enough from Portal to not feel like a copy.

A good thing is that the game does not become "hunt for the white panels" like Portal 2 so that puzzles are really puzzles, but Quantum Conundrum is not as polished and is aimed for a younger audiences. The puzzles, however, can get quite challenging (More like Portal 1 than Portal 2) but according to some reviews the game has the same problem as Portal 2 (and many puzzle games), that is most of the game feels like tutorial for each new thing and the game ends as soon as things could get interesting.

There are lots of pop culture and other references in the game, but the story is quite blah. Which is a good thing, because the story got quite a lot in the way of good puzzles in Portal 2.

[Scythe]

I just finished Two Worlds, after having skipped it back when, due to terrible press. Pretty generic action RPG, and it's very clear that the developers had more ideas than they were able to follow through on. At the start of the game you have many options and quests, but as you progress the huge map becomes increasingly devoid of content and quests are few and far between, also getting increasingly blander. To top it off, the ending is a complete joke. Obviously they were forced to release the game before finishing development. Still, it gave me half a week of fun times.

Now I think I will fire up the ol' PSP and finish one of the games I've had hanging forever.

[Zyx]

Speaking of games that have been hanging forever, I finally finished Limbo, Splinter Cell: Conviction, Trine 2 and Borderlands.

I kinda liked the new direction of Splinter Cell and they plot-wise they did the best they could considering the train-wreck that was Double Agent. The more actiony play style took some time to get used to as I've never played Assasin's Creed or any of these new games with cover-based shooting and tried to play it like Chaos Theory or Hitman which ... didn't work. Also, the co-op missions are quite fun.

Assuming the guys at IO were taking notes, the new Hitman: Absolution might also be good... unless they continue with the mistakes from Kane and Lynch.

[Scythe]

I finished Sleeping Dogs. It was most excellent. Like playing a part in a Hong Kong undercover cop/triad movie. Sort of my dream game. It's probably less good for people with different interests. I now grovel for a sequel.

[Pater Alf]

SpaceChem
A very interesting puzzle game. Very hard to understand at first (the tutorial could be much better), but once you know what's going on, it gets very addicting and challenging. The kind of game that drives you crazy, because the solution must be there, but you fail for hours to find it.

[Pater Alf]

Inquisitor
An old-school isometric RPG made by an Czech indie game company. I've only played some hours by now, but so far I love it. Expect to die a lot, to drink lots of health potions and run back to towns and merchants to get new ones. Expect a well written story, expect lots of lovely details (in graphics, texts and world design), but don't expect the game to take you by the hand and always to tell you what to do next. And most of all: Expect walls and walls of texts (the developers claim that the game has 1.5 million words, which would be about the same amount that the whole "Game of Thrones" series by George R.R. Martin has).

You will probably like the game if you liked traditional RPGs like "Baldur's Gate" or "Divine Divinity" (which means that Scythe will probably hate it).

http://inquisitor-rpg.com/

[Scythe]

You did not just equate Baldur's Gate (a godlike strategy RPG following clearly established rule sets) with Divine Divinity (a piece of trash Diablo clone action click fest)...........

[Pater Alf]

... Divine Divinity (a piece of trash Diablo clone action click fest)...........

Please do yourself a favour and never even try to play "Inquisitor". You would hate it so much, you would probably throw your computer out of the window within the first thirty minutes...

[Scythe]

Please do yourself a favour and never even try to play "Inquisitor". You would hate it so much, you would probably throw your computer out of the window within the first thirty minutes...

I shall take your advice to heart! Thank you for the warning.

[Drasir-Vel]

I've recently completed Eufloria. The game is interesting in that, at it's heart, it's a very strategic game, but because the gameplay element is so simple and transparent, you won't have trouble seeing what you have to do, even if you're not normally good at strategy games. The game is very strategic because you always have to weigh different risks against each others. Do i take this many units to take over that asteroid? Maybe i'll have too few to defend my asteroid from someone else. The enemy will jump at the oppertunity and take over the asteroid if it's underpopulated, so you'll have to have enough to units to act as a deterrent.
Another way it's strategic is that, there's not only you against one enemy. There are several factions fighting against each other. At some places where two factions are fighting, you can let them dwindle each others numbers while you expand in a different direction, and then be big enough to take them on later. Don't let one faction become too big by taking over their enemy.