What have you been playing?

[Nachtfischer]

Well, these days I'm mostly playing board game adaptations on iOS... namely:

• Through The Desert (the app is mediocre, but it's just an amazing game, better than any videogame I've ever played... although not even the best board game)
• Peloponnes (released like a week ago... again, the app could use some polish, but the game is brilliant and probably the most elegant auction game I've played)
• For The Win (quick tactical tile laying game with super interesting special abilities that cause a huge amount of emergent complexity)
• Battle For Hill 218 (only slightly less interesting than For The Win, but in the same category of pretty much pure tactics)
• Wabash Cannonball (extremely competitive train-company auction game, be prepared for some math, it's still elegant and much more streamlined than something like Age Of Steam)
• Kamon (abstract chip placement... can become quite a brain-burner in the end-game)

Also, there is an app of Puerto Rico (which is like the best game ever designed) for iPad, but it's a bit slow AND: There is a free version of it for PC called Tropic Euro, which plays super efficient and fast (no graphics, haha) and I play it at least once almost every day.

 

In terms of original digital games I'm heavily betatesting Keith Burgun's Auro, which I think will be huge when it comes out (for almost any platform btw) one of the next months.

Apart from that there's Defense Of The Oasis (iPad), which is very cool but has some pretty wild swinging randomness.

I also really enjoy 86856527, a 7-day-roguelike by Michael Brough, and am looking forward to the FULL version of this one.

For the Steam-fans: Go buy 7 Grand Steps. It has its little problems but is an actually from the ground up designed game with NEW mechanics, which is something you just don't sumble across too often in the mainstream videogame world of today.

Oh, and the coming PC release of Spelunky should bring some good fun.

 

Yeah, that's about it for my active gaming (been mostly reading/writing articles, watching talks or listening to podcasts on game design) of the last months.

[Guest]

Just completed Dishonored DLC The Knife Of Dunwall.

 

Starting Fallout New Vegas.

 

Deleting Civilization 5.

[PK'EZ-54]

Replaying Prototype

Crying over TF2

Having a giggle on Trine 2

Running away on Payday

[mendonca]

Factorio and Starsector, intermittently.

 

Can't quite bring myself to play UFO: XCOM Unknown or whatever its called, although I got a great feeling from the first mission.

[nasKo]

I'm replaying Infamous 1 and 2 as well as Prototype 1.

 

Playing some PES2013 as well.

 

Started the Dishonored DLC but haven't found the time nor motivation to continue.

[harakka]

Unreal World, although less now since there's a new version out of the door very soon. Trying to live a nomad life this time around, with no fixed abode.

 

Been getting back into Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft too. I play DF as a citybuilder without any of the murdermachines and elf racism everyone else seems to be so fond of, and Minecraft satisfies my exploring urges.

 

Mass Effect 3 multiplayer has also caught me again, after a six month or so hiatus it's still ton of fun, especially when one doesn't have to play with pubbies.

[Mellthorn]

Recently, in most of my gaming times, i play The Last of Us multiplayer. And try to finish that 12 weeks challenge. By the way amazing game if you haven't played or see it yet.

[Pixel Bombs]

Recently, in most of my gaming times, i play The Last of Us multiplayer. And try to finish that 12 weeks challenge. By the way amazing game if you haven't played or see it yet.

Would love to play that game, unfortunately no PSTriple. How is the multiplayer anyway?

[Mellthorn]

Would love to play that game, unfortunately no PSTriple. How is the multiplayer anyway?

 

Well, it's not like call of duty, so you can't run and gun. And it's of course in third person camera. There are 2 groups with 4 people in each of them, fighting in one side is Fireflies the other one is Hunters. There are 2 modes currently. They are called Supply Raid and Survival

 

Team playing is a must because if you go alone all by yourself your team will absolutely lose. And you have to be stealthy because enemy can hear you and your location will be marked in the map. You have to collect suppllies to craft weapons and aids. And you start with a very few ammo for example, 8 for a sub rifle. The game is all about working as a team, gathering much supplies as possible, and trying to accomplish a tactical game with 3 other strangers in your team. Since i have this, i dont play BF3 anymore. I prefer tactical stealth combat.

 

Survival mode is almost identical. The maps are smaller in this one. And when you die you will not respawn and the last one standing wins.

 

And of course you can customize your character and choose classes or create your own.

 

In multiplayer mode theres a 12 weeks challenge. And the more parts you have recovered from multiplayer matches the more people join to your clan. And in those 12 weeks there are some events in which you will either be attacked which results in massive losts in your clan or train them which will add you some more survivors at the end. If your whole clan dies you lose the multiplayer progress and have to start new with a team.

[Pixel Bombs]

Sounds intense. Might have to hassle my friend for some playtime since he's been playing non-stop. 

[Nachtfischer]

Huh, I actually didn't care for The Last Of Us a tiny bit, because the single-player is just another one of those execution puzzles (like any other action game these days) with some very minor decision-making. But sounds like there is a real game in multiplayer. I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

[Austin]

Just completed Dishonored DLC The Knife Of Dunwall.

 

Starting Fallout New Vegas.

 

Deleting Civilization 5.

Why are you deleting Civilization 5? Also, how is the DLC for DIshonored? Any good?

 

I'm replaying Infamous 1 and 2 as well as Prototype 1.

 

Playing some PES2013 as well.

 

Started the Dishonored DLC but haven't found the time nor motivation to continue.

How is Infamous? Don't own a PS3, but my father does. So maybe I could try to play it?

[Rathlord]

Osu!

Rogue Legacy

Dungeon Crawler Stone Soup

NetHack, also NitroHack

Mount & Blade: Warband (Gekokujo mod)

And Postal 2.

Is rogue legacy any good? I've almost gotten it a few times.

[Guest]

Why are you deleting Civilization 5? Also, how is the DLC for DIshonored? Any good?

 

How is Infamous? Don't own a PS3, but my father does. So maybe I could try to play it?

 

Civ 5 ain't the game for me

 

I played it singleplayer, reached the industrial age the fastest, had the biggest army, etc etc

 

It's more of a personal preference. I don't like turn based games so much.

 

Now, Age Of Empires/Mythology, that game is more of my preference.

 

 

 

Is rogue legacy any good? I've almost gotten it a few times.

 

 

Rogue Legacy is an amazing game, I probably played it Hundreds of time, 3-4 hours a stretch

 

If you liked Binding Of Isaac, you would definitely love Rogue Legacy

 

 

What is Rogue Legacy?

   

• A rogue-"lite" game for PC, Mac and Linux.
• You will die, but your children will avenge you. They might be genetically deficient, but that's ok. You still love your colour-blind baby. Or do you?
• A procedurally generated castle. Every playthrough is different.
• Over 8 classes to choose from. Each class has unique abilities which change the way you play the game.
• Every time you play you get a little stronger. Never back to square 1.
• Find tons of loot and deck your dood OUT.
• Massive Skill tree? What? Yup.
• New game+? Zup? Yup.
• Equip runes and customize your character however you want. Wanna fly? GO FOR IT!
• Got a controller? Play with a controller. Big Picture ready!
• Fart Jokes. Or not... Depends on how much you hate children with I.B.S.
• Clowns.

[Rathlord]

Sounds oh so tempting. I'm gonna have to wait for it to go back on sale now.

[Nachtfischer]

If you liked Binding Of Isaac, you would definitely love Rogue Legacy

 

I disagree. I really like Isaac and I love Spelunky, because they understand what makes them exciting games. It's you as the player who gets better at them, who learns something new all the time. They give you the ability to excel in a system of decision-making (and lots of physical execution, too... but with Isaac and especially Spelunky I think decisions clearly trump execution in the long run).

 

In Rogue Legacy these qualities are also there somewhere, but far too watered-down through all the grinding. You collect permament character upgrades ALL the time. You grind for money to buy stuff etc. You get better as a player, too, but you're never sure how much it was your skill building up or your character building up when you get further.

 

That really, really bothers me about Rogue Legacy. I think it would have been a lot better without all the grindy crap.

 

That said, it's obviously still far more interesting than 99 % of the AAA stuff out there.

[mendonca]

That really, really bothers me about Rogue Legacy. I think it would have been a lot better without all the grindy crap.

 

That said, it's obviously still far more interesting than 99 % of the AAA stuff out there.

 

I would have to agree with that.

 

On the first few playthroughs, I absolutely LOVED rogue legacy - but for me the point where becoming better as a player became less important than grinding for extra cash and skills was just ... too early - that is - being rewarded FAR MORE for just playing the game and gathering cash, rather than playing the game and gathering skill. The incentive shifted and my enjoyment went away. It's funny, because I imagine I would enjoy the game more if it didn't have much in the way of that whole skill-gain metagame, and was balanced as such.

 

Fun game though, would recommend, but for me it is not quite as elegantly done as say Spelunky, where the only thing you have is your own skill.

[Guest]

I disagree. I really like Isaac and I love Spelunky, because they understand what makes them exciting games. It's you as the player who gets better at them, who learns something new all the time. They give you the ability to excel in a system of decision-making (and lots of physical execution, too... but with Isaac and especially Spelunky I think decisions clearly trump execution in the long run).

 

In Rogue Legacy these qualities are also there somewhere, but far too watered-down through all the grinding. You collect permament character upgrades ALL the time. You grind for money to buy stuff etc. You get better as a player, too, but you're never sure how much it was your skill building up or your character building up when you get further.

 

That really, really bothers me about Rogue Legacy. I think it would have been a lot better without all the grindy crap.

 

That said, it's obviously still far more interesting than 99 % of the AAA stuff out there.

 

To be fair, after you unlock the miner nothing is "grindy"

 

Getting money becomes easy because he collects more gold, 

 

Also with a normal character you can easily defeat the first boss even without grace ruins which gives about 2000 gold which should be enough to unlock other things

[Nachtfischer]

@datkid: Sure, it's not WoW or Diablo-style grinding (or FarmVille for that matter), but it's still a bad thing and could have been better. That's all I'm saying.

[Rathlord]

I really enjoyed Spelunky and I see what you guys are saying about Rogue Legacy. To me (without playing it, of course) it sounds like they were just a little too afraid to do a game with permanent death and so they wedged said system in the middle to make you feel like you were accomplishing something with your past lives.

 

It may be a fun game but that decision seems like it completely misses the who ideology behind roguelikes. I think I might still pick it up next time it's on sale and give it a shot, though.

[Nachtfischer]

In fact, it doesn't just miss the ideology of roguelikes, it also misses what games are actually about: You can win or lose. The thing is, in the mainstream videogame industry of today people have gotten so accustomed to being overpowered and always winning (quicksave is the most powerful weapon to ever appear in a "game") that that's been kind of forgotten. And I think that's also the reason for the guys behind Rogue Legacy being afraid of making an actual game where players can actually lose (and by extension also get better at, which is another critical quality of games that you'll see tiny amounts of at best in the AAA titles out there). That said, you can kind of lose and kind of get better at Rogue Legacy, so it's actually interesting... but with the caveat I already talked about.

 

Roguelikes are kind of this "bastion" of real games in today's "videogame" industry where every possible form of digital entertainment is just called "a game". That's also why we now call more and more games "roguelikes" or "roguelike-likes" even though they have less and less to do with Rogue actually. They just incorporate these essential qualities of traditional games that we don't see anymore today, except in roguelikes... so we attribute all these things to roguelikes whereas Rogue just incorprated them in the first place because it's just natural. If you want to make a game, you have to have a winning and a losing condition. Example: Tetris totally has "permadeath"! And Chess, too.

[Rathlord]

And Project Zomboid =D

 

I personally tend to like games where losing is a huge factor. Even stuff like Dark Souls (massive losses for dying) and Eve Online (destroyed ships gone permanently) are a breathe of fresh air in a time of games that holds your hand. Hell even Civ 5 has permadeath, doesn't it?

 

Off-topic a bit: Eve Online subscriptions can be bought and sold in-game with in-game currency, so everything in-game can be valued by the dollar. Some guy lost a ship worth $ 11,000 the other day. Completely gone, forever, in an ambush by a rival faction. Mind-boggling.

[Nachtfischer]

Sure, Civilization is one of the few high-budget exceptions. It's actually a game! It has other problems (mainly the endlessly dragging mid to end-game), but from a game-wise perspective it's still so much more interesting than all the "press X to win" movies.

[Pixel Bombs]

Recently found a game called Running with Rifles. It is the most mindless fun I've had in a while. Its pretty much toy soldiers on an epic scale, as in you can have battles with up to 600 soldiers. Its still in beta but man does it kill time like nobodies business.

[Psymong]

And I think that's also the reason for the guys behind Rogue Legacy being afraid of making an actual game where players can actually lose (and by extension also get better at, which is another critical quality of games that you'll see tiny amounts of at best in the AAA titles out there)

 

This is an interesting point.

And i have to agree with Rath that Dark Souls (which i played recently) is a really good example of game that doesn't hold your hand throughout like so many others do. I found it really refreshing to be challenged like that, and it made me realize how rare that is these days.

 

Haven't tried rogue legacy, but hopefully my love of random-generation stuff will be enough to get over its flaws.

(totally waiting till it goes on sale though)