Has anyone played any good video games lately?

[Eranil Morathim]

So I still haven't even started Rage, I really should, but the other half and I have been rocking GOTY edition of Borderlands 2 and the DLC's are awesome. That's with only having done some of Dragon's Keep and just starting Captain Scarlett. I kinda feel like we should finish the game first but they are just too tempting. And yes I am perpetually behind on my video games so no spoilers please.

[Shjade]

Darkest Dungeon is pretty good. Some balance issues I think still need working out, but considering it's still early access? It feels solid.

Turn-based RPG dungeon delving with roguelite qualities in that it persistently autosaves and party members who die stay dead.

[Inkidu]

In regard to the turn-based tactical roguelike thing, Crown Takers (if memory serves) got recommended by the Extra Credits folks.

[Drake Valentine]

Monster Hunter series. ;o

Speaking of such. One more week till MH4U hits and I already preorder bundle, can't wait till it ships.. One more week... One more week... One more week...

One of us. One of us. One of us.

[Valthazar]

I have been playing "Yet Another Zombie Defense" and it is strangely addicting for such a simple game.

Best part is that it is only $0.49 right now on Steam.

[Revelation]

As of late i've been addictively playing Monster Hunter 4U and Final Fantasy Theater rhythm: Curtain Call for the 3DS.

Monster hunter is a great game and possibly the best in the series. The game has a ton of new monsters to hunt (from older games in the series and a fair smattering of new ones), and the gameplay is as solid as ever. The new additions (from the revised Palico system, new weapons, vertical gameplay elements and mounting/riding monsters) all add a fun new dimension to the game, and using the insect staff to polevault into the air to knock down a giant spider that wears the corpse of a wyvern on its back from its web is extremely satisfying. Of course, the game retains the 'classic' monster hunter gameplay, so while the controls are veryprecise, you still have the firmnes and animation rigidity that can turn a lot of people off of the game.

Curtain Call is a final fantasy rhythm game where you have to use the stylus (Or buttons) in accordance with the music. The game has over 200 base songs in it from across the franchise - plus a boatload of DLC from the final fantasy series and other games (Nier, Xenogears, secret of mana, Chrono Trigger, and more), and you make parties/'quest' with final fantasy characters you can unlock. It's basically a final fantasy fanservice game, but the series does have a lot of good tracks for that.

[Nachtmahr]

So I've just finished up the Mass Effect trilogy, going for 100% story completion with all DLC included in each game, sinking roughly 30-40 hours into each. I think it's about right to say I've spent the last 4-6 weeks playing nothing else.

I went into it wondering what all the fuzz has been about, and not being the biggest Sci-Fi nut out there I genuinely thought it wouldn't be for me.

The credits of Mass Effect 3 rolled about.. 10 minutes ago? And.. I'm just absolutely blown away.

[Deamonbane]

I am a little sad that they delayed the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt yet again. But, on the bright side, it will be avoiding the bug-filled release that many other games are having lately...

[Inkidu]

I am a little sad that they delayed the release of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt yet again. But, on the bright side, it will be avoiding the bug-filled release that many other games are having lately...

Yeah, that's no guarantee. Many people need extensions just to get the game out.

I'm kind of miffed they've not released that Cyberpunk game. :P

[Deamonbane]

Well... I hope they will be avoiding it, anyways... *knocks on wood*

[CaptainNexus616]

I've been replaying Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. That game really reminds me why I love the franchise so much.

[Deamonbane]

Brotherhood has a special place in my heart. It was the first one of the franchise that I played.

[consortium11]

I've been replaying Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. That game really reminds me why I love the franchise so much.

I go pretty much the opposite way actually; Brotherhood was when I realised I was getting bored of the standard Assassin's Creed gameplay. Assassin's Creed 1 was revolutionary for the time and I will always remember it for being one of the first next gen (at the time) games I played and getting blown away by the sight of the first city when you rode up and looked over it. Assassin's Creed 2 was pretty much distilling the best parts of Assassin's Creed 1, expanding the scale and delivering it with the best presentation they could; there was no pretence of it being a stealth game or that you should put huge amounts of planning into each assassination, the formulaic presentation of quests was removed (most were still formulaic but it didn't follow the "arrive in city, eavesdrop, beat someone up, win a race, assassinate formula the first game did) and the improvement on the combat system with better (and more animations), different weapons, different enemies etc made combat a lot more satisfying (and behind randomly parkouring, combat is the big gameplay element of AC).

But by the end of two I was largely done with that. I'd done it in Assassin's Creed 1, I'd done it in two, I'd done it in The Battle of Forlì and Bonfire of the Vanities and by the time Brotherhood came along I was looking for something new. And despite the iconic location, the minor resource management aspect and the da Vinci missions there just wasn't enough there that didn't feel like a tacked on gimmick that did little to change the core game. The less said about Revelations in that regard the better.

It's why I enjoyed Assassin's Creed 4 so much. When you were on land (and especially on land and in a city) it felt like the classic Assassin's Creed... slightly more polished but still, largely identical. But the heavy focus on the sea and sea combat breathed new life into the game and made it fresh to play again.

On topic, I've been putting a fair number of hours into Crusader Kings 2 again, primarily the Game of Thrones Mod. It's still as addictive as ever.

[thunderclan]

For me the big games right now are Skyrim and Fallout 3. I love these games but they are so full of things to do I have yet to finish. I always end up either being distracted by something and not playing for a while or I hit a glitch or something that screws me over.

Of the 5 games I have played of these two franchises I've only managed to completely finish Fallout: New Vegas...Twice. Came close to finishing Morrowind but ended up screwing things up in Bloodmoon so I couldn't do the Raven Rock part of the expansion.

One of these days I will finish these games though and that day will be GLORIOUS. At least they remain fun despite repeated runs through the same parts of the game.

[Nachtmahr]

I hit a glitch or something that screws me over.

Oh dear, I can feel the salt rising in me already.

Particularly Fallout 3 and New Vegas are really bad when it comes to this. The glitches aren't necessarily all that many, and they're usually far apart, but if you hit one it's often a gamebreaker. :/ I've never actually played either game to completion because my every attempt has been foiled at some point by a glitch or bug that broke the game to such a degree that it just wasn't going to work after that.

[LuckyOwl]

New Vegas is terrible when it  comes to glitches.

Finished The Witcher yesterday, will be playing through it again before I pick up The Witcher 2 : Assassin of Kings

[Deamonbane]

New Vegas is terrible when it  comes to glitches.

Finished The Witcher yesterday, will be playing through it again before I pick up The Witcher 2 : Assassin of Kings

Good man *nods* Excellent games...

[LuckyOwl]

Tell me bout it! I wish I had discovered them sooner. They're pretty much everything I always hoped an RPG would be, but never quite got it right. I don't remember being this excited for a game series since Sly Cooper when I was a kid  ;D

[thunderclan]

New Vegas is terrible when it  comes to glitches.

I've actually not run into very many glitches in New Vegas. It runs quite well for me, even with a fairly hefty mod load. The lack of glitches is probably a big part of why I've managed to finish the thing twice.

[LuckyOwl]

I've actually not run into very many glitches in New Vegas. It runs quite well for me, even with a fairly hefty mod load. The lack of glitches is probably a big part of why I've managed to finish the thing twice.

I only played through it once and went with the solo campaign in which you

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

kill House and use the robots to destroy both the NCR and the Legion

, but it crashed on me quite often. In no way related to hardware problems. Maybe it was just a faulty install on my end, dunno, but Fallout New Vegas actually bugged way more often than, say, release Skyrim for me.

[consortium11]

I found New Vegas to be no worse than Fallout 3 when it came to bugs... which considering Obsidian's reputation is pretty surprising. At the end of the day the Gamebryo engine is a pretty horrible thing which basically makes bugs mandatory and comes with a lot of issues on its own; there's not a whole lot that developers can do if they're stuck with it.

[Nachtmahr]

Finished The Witcher yesterday, will be playing through it again before I pick up The Witcher 2 : Assassin of Kings

Oh wauw. I wish I could make myself play through it just once. I booted it up and walked around for 15-20 minutes and my god.. It seems.. Messy.

[Nachtmahr]

New Vegas actually bugged way more often than, say, release Skyrim for me.

I'll openly admit that when Skyrim first came out, it being the first (and only) elder scrolls game that's really got me interested, I got a cracked version. (To deal with my bad consciousness I have later bought the game and all subsequent DLC.) However, even with a cracked version of the game at launch I don't think I've ever had much in terms of bugs or glitches - And certainly nothing game-breaking - with Skyrim. The biggest issue for me was probably the 'Lol, you can't fast travel you nub.. BECAUSE DRAGONS!'-thing whenever a dragon was within a 10 mile radius.

[consortium11]

Let's recall Skyrim had... and still hasn't fully fixed... massive issues if you wanted to play it on the PS3 because Bethesda didn't know how the handle the architecture and couldn't work out what they'd done wrong.

[Mathim]

Funny so many people should mention it, I'm playing Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition right now and I just started a Hardcore More attempt and I'm experiencing glitches I've never seen before in previous plays. For one, at certain points the screen just goes totally black. I can see things like "Talk to X Partner" and the like when I point at something I can interact with, but the entire wasteland as a backdrop disappears in a sea of darkness from one particular camera angle. If I turn sideways and continue walking sideways, it clears right up. But if I then attempt to turn in that same direction again when I'm about fifty feet further down, it still does it. Never before attempting Hardcore Mode has this particular glitch happened to me before. Usually the rest of it is, getting hung up on something I've jumped on or stepped in and having to reload from my last doorway entrance/exit, or the game simply freezing without warning at a really bad time.

I'm still waiting for my Fallout 3 GOTY Edition so I can get all the DLC on the disc instead of downloading them separately. Since I can get the disc used it's also cheaper than paying for all the DLC. I just regret that there's only one real 'ending' to it (no possibility to do multiple faction allegiances like in F:NV). Truth be told, though, I did on the whole enjoy 3 better. Vegas just didn't innovate quite enough to set itself apart. Maybe the wasteland just didn't feel untamed enough. There was so little control or regulation of the Capital Wasteland outside the DC area, it really made things exciting. With the NCR and Legion and whatnot all over the place, there's hardly anywhere in the Mojave that I feel truly cut off.