What are you playing now?

[Mazy]

Playing Grim Fandango Remastered on PS4 and really loving it, it does remind me how well I remember everything in the beginning but then have forgotten a lot from there one. If you haven't tried it already (and like adventure games) then you have absolutely no reason not to try it, it's pretty damn awesome in almost every regard, and that's even with it being the LucasArts adventure game that I'm probably the least nostalgic about

 

Then I'm also playing Heroes of Might & Magic 3 on iPad, a port that I've been wanting pretty much since the iPad launched, even telling myself that I'd be totally fine with a straight on PC port.....and that's pretty much what they've done. It's down to the point where there's scroll bars and when you save games you can see the extension of the files, it honestly feels really sloppy and it's just the core game without any of the expansions. But anyway, it's HoMM3 on the iPad, I'm still pretty hooked on that

 

Then I'm also playing GTA Online on PS4 on a nearly daily basis with a group of friends, having lots of fun just goofing around while chatting a bit.

 

Really wanna check out Besiege after watching GiantBomb's quick look ( http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/unfinished-besiege-01-30-2015/2300-9895/ ) of it, looks brilliant even if it's still pretty early in development.

[cashed]

Last night I fired up DOD Source, it's so sad, I could barely find a server to play: most servers had 2 players, 2-3 were full, and a couple of others joinable. Played half hour Avalanche then turned off the computer.

I hope Valve revives the game, it really deserves a brighter future.

 

Issue is, dods took a lot of updates to get good. it felt like a mod on release. far more than css did. I really hope they don't repeat that.

Edited February 3, 2015 by cashed

[blackdog]

Played a good 4 hours FC4 after weeks. Got to Shangri-La. I love the first view of the place with the giant head sculpture towering the scene.

[blackdog]

I'm about to launch Mission Improbable

 

Edit: game needs fixing due to Steam platform updates

http://steamcommunity.com/app/420/discussions/0/864971765497379056/

Edited February 25, 2015 by blackdog

[AlexM]

Started writing my what I'm playing article series on Tumblr, you can read it here http://infinitestate.tumblr.com/post/112232168084/what-ive-been-playing-001

But I'll just post it inline here so you guys don't have to leave the site. 

What I've been playing #001

 

Dark Souls 2

 

Been grinding away at Dark Souls 2. I’m only just realizing that the game consists of a hub with 4 major paths through the game. In a way it’s like Demons Souls but less obvious. I think they wanted it to feel like a continuous world like Dark Souls but it eventually becomes obvious that you are in a hub world. 

The bosses are easier than the previous souls games. Much easier. I’ve only run into one boss that took a handful of tries to beat and that’s the dearest spider.

 

So far I’m not quite as engaged as the previous games. I think it’s more of a world design issue rather than me just starting to get tired of souls games. If Bloodbourne has good world design and similar gameplay then I’ll know whether or not I’m getting tired of the Souls gameplay style. 

 

 

Strider

 

I played Strider once when I first got my PS4 about 3-4 months ago. I played for about 5 mins on the first level and turned it off. I thought the combat was a little simplistic and the lack of Strider stopping movement when attacking made it initially feel like there was a lack of impact. 

 

 

I’m glad I went back because man is this a good game. The game has a lot of ability unlocks and you need to get the first charge unlock before the game really starts coming together. Once you have a few abilities the fact Strider doesn’t stop allows for some pretty fantastic looking combat.

Once you get past the first level you enter a metroidvania style world and then game becomes really really good. I stopped playing Dark Souls 2 to play more Strider!

 

I’m about 15-20% through the game so far and now that the difficulty is ramped up I’m having a blast. I plan to finish the game this weekend. 

 

Here’s a video of one of the earlier boss fights. Just to note I captured this with the ps4 video capture. It’s pretty cool but it still lacks a lot of key features. I’ll address that in a separate article.

 

 

 

Rogue Legacy

 

I played Rogue Legacy about a year back and got briefly addicted to it before work and school started taking up all my gaming time. 

I’ve now come back to it because it came out on Playstation Plus for Vita and PS4. In my opinion the Vita is the best platform for the game. The style of game lends itself perfectly for quick plays when commuting, when in bed at night or when you’re pooping.

 

I’ve now beaten the game once and started the new game+ type mode. My suspicion is that this game has multiple post-completion modes that make the game harder and harder.

 

This video shows a run that has a lot of the different gameplay elements that appear int the game. Castlevania-esque fighting and exploring, challenge rooms, bosses and leveling up your character.

 

 

 

Hearthstone

 

I’ve been periodically playing Hearthstone. This is also the first F2P game I’ve spent money on. To the tune of about 150$. The game is fun but possibly a tad shallow. It certainly has me coming back all the time though.

 

I find personally I have a lot of trouble building decks. With a 30 card deck size you really have to focus on one set of synergy for cards. I tend to try to do too much with my decks which causes me to never get the combination of cards I want. 

 

I’ve also noticed that high cost cards are really risky. Especially with cards like polymorph that can just completely shut down a card before you can use. Alexstraza gets around this with a battlecry ability that when used at an opportune time is worth it even without the 8/8 create you get. Her ability is to set a players health to 15. You can use this to cause massive damage to your opponent or heal yourself in a bind. 

 

I’m trying to play this less these days because it can be a massive time suck when you keep  wanting to play just one more game. 

 

Here’s a screenshot of one of the more interesting game states I managed to achieve.

 

Here’s one with 5 Kel Thuzads which IIRC was achieved by Echo of Mediva and Faceless Manipulator

 

 

Here’s one with 2 of that new guy that spawns a Leper Gnome after an enemy dies. Via Faceless Manipulator. That was fun.

 

 

 

 

Injustice

 

I got Injustice for free on Playstation Plus for ps4. Since there aren’t many games for ps4 I’m interested in I’ve been messing around with this game here and there. 

 

When I first heard about this game I was turned off because of the environments having set pieces you can use in game. This felt like it would hurt the balance too much. Whether or not that’s true it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

 

The game is solid fun and has a bit of an MK9 feel but without the block button. So that’s already a good bonus.

 

I don’t know many characters in the DC universe and the roster looked a bit bland to me. I don’t think this is because of the characters themselves but the brown, dark toned look of the game causing a lot of characters to resemble each other in tone. Compared the highly saturated and colorful Marvel Vs Capcom it’s quite a profound difference.

 

 

Desert Golf

 

Oh man this game. I first heard about it because a friend of my co-workers authored it. Later I heard about it on the Giantbombcast. Finally I broke down and spent the 2$ and got a copy for Android. 

 

 

This is one of those games that made me step back and think about how I design games. I think I go too wide too fast when developing a game. For example if i were working on a platformer I might get a player with some basic movement then move on to working on a set of levels and then some enemies. The problem is that because I didn’t focus enough on making the movement and feel of the game good at the stage when I made the player, the rest of the game suffered. 

 

Desert Golf on the other hand is one small gameplay idea distilled and refined to perfection.

The game is insanely simple but there’s something about it. The fact the levels are generated from a fixed seed meaning everyone has the same near-infinite set of levels is pretty cool. It’s like everyone is playing through the same experience together. Considering the game slowly changes color and gets small changes in environment over a very long time is really interesting. 

 

I think many of us playing this game are all secretly thinking that if we just play far enough into the game, we’ll find something. I’m currently approaching hole 200. A friend of mine on Twitter is approaching hole 3000. I’m sure there are people out there much further into the game. 

 

One other awesome thing about the game is that YOU CAN’T RESTART. You have to live with your sucky playing. There’s no main menu. When you start the game you just start on the last hole you played with your accumulated score on one side of the screen and your current hole score on the other. This is so great because it means that people who are competing aren’t able to factor in practicing a certain level in order to memorize the shots required to get a good score. It’s based more on ones ability to accurate guage a shot.

Edited February 27, 2015 by AlexM

[AlexM]

Fuck Strider is so good. Easily my fav ps4 game I have.

[dux]

Lots of Darkest Dungeon. Love it.

[knj]

Hot line miami 2

[blackdog]

I have been installing several things cos my hands are hitchy to put the Xbox One controller to use. I feel i need a mindless tps shooter, so yesterday I ended up installing Gears Of War, which I never finished. Can't play it cos I need the serial code I left in Italy, waiting for my dad to come back to me. I'm surprised MS took the time to revamp GFWL -I heard they were shutting it down- so there was a workaround to actually install the game.

 

Other than that I played a few hours of Death Rally -- you can see how it was thought for mobile it's such a treadmill and seems to get nowhere. Decent for 20 min sessions.

 

Yesterday I started Black Mesa, just took me as long as with the original HL to get to the chamber, fooling around with all the scientists.

 

Also started Tomb Raider... and the comment I have for now is "can I play?" cos the intro part is really not how you want to start a videogame I think, so many QTEs and little control.

Moved the first few steps outside, after Lara camps for the first night, and I must say control of the character doesn't feel alright, she sways around too much, I hope it's temporary until she patches herself up a bit better, but not really trusting this. In video the movement seemed different.

[Pampers]

Ori and the blind forest. Beautiful art and music, standard gameplay.

[FMPONE]

Hotline Miami 2. Trying to like it as much as the first, can't unfortunately.

[ZZZ]

I've just tested Team Fortress 2 with i3 2230M and HD3000, it runs at playable fps with everything set to min. It does lag on open areas and crowded fights, but it's playable. TF2 gave me that urge to map again, but I have other priorities now and mapping for TF2 won't happen anytime soon.

[Anth]

Been playing quite a lot of Battlefield: Hardline (Hotwire is addictive!) And way too much PAYDAY 2. Except I can't play as Jacket because I live in Australia. :/

[SuperDuperYeah]

Been playing... "drum roll" absolutelyyy nooothing. Been so busy making a little thing in UE4. Oh wait... can I actually say that I'm playing UE4 lol ? It's pretty fucking fun as a "build whatever you want game" kind of ? No (alright I get it...).

[Vaya]

Hotline Miami 2. Trying to like it as much as the first, can't unfortunately.

I know that feeling. Soundtrack was still awesome though.