Currently playing...

[grue]

Risen 3: Titan Lords
Bigger, prettier and with dodge-hit-dodge combat! If you liked the Gothic series (1,2,3) and Risen 1 & 2 you will definitely love it! The reason I love RPGs is games like this one. Also, no bugs this time around!

[(o)(o)]

Call of Juarez: Gunslinger was great fun! Linear, scripted up the wazoo, but filled with enough goodly, giggly shootin' and cute narrative tricks to break it up that it doesn't seem to matter. Also, hurrah for the short, cheap shooter: Steam tells me I spent 7 hours on this. But they were damn fine hours!

In fact, I managed to go through the entirety of the game without really noticing that the cutscenes didn't work on my rig. I thought it had a certain abruptness to it between levels, but remembered this being mentioned in an RPS Wot I Think. I was only finally twigged to it when the final showdown came out of nowhere and made no sense at all. Turns out that Win7 in the EU antitrust versions (the N and KN editions, for those interested) doesn't have the required codecs but the program coped gracefully, but quietly. I'm considering a second run.

Yeah I bought this by mistake thinking it was something else but was pleasantly surprised.

Many games feel weighty these days, nice to have something to just dive into a have a blast. Literally.

[rowan]

Dishonored
It's free on 360 with games for gold starting today. I'm not massively into my stealth-em-ups but enjoying this a lot so far.
Something like a Deus Ex / Bioshock / Clive Barker's Undying mash up. Loads quite quickly too.

[Mark]

Dishonored
It's free on 360 with games for gold starting today. I'm not massively into my stealth-em-ups but enjoying this a lot so far.
Something like a Deus Ex / Bioshock / Clive Barker's Undying mash up. Loads quite quickly too.

If stealth isn't your thing then play it aggressively. I love a bit of stealth, but got frustrated with it in Dishonored because you get lots of cool sounding toys that you can't use stealthily, and the stealth has a few issues with it anyway*. I had much more fun just causing mayhem and using all the cool kit.



*I can't remember all the things that bugged me, but one key flaw is that in many areas killing one guard will cause another to adopt its old patrol route. So in some areas, you can wipe out entire set-ups of guards by camping in one spot and killing each guard as they adopt the vacant route.

[VNVObit]

Picked up Borderlands 2 in a sale and have started it on the PC. Nearly to the same point I got to it on the Xbox 360. Really enjoying it so far, playing my usual sniper character (some reason always prefer long range fighters to up close and personal).

have done a fair few side quests up to now but think I'll stick with the main story and work through that from now on (otherwise could be all year)

have really given up on the Xbox as a games platform (though still play a little FIFA 14/15 with my son) and given all the games I can get on steam can't see myself ever getting an Xbone (PS4 is a different matter though)

[Chirpychicken]

Finally picked up guild wars 2 in the half price sale and played for an hour today. It looks as though I have found a game capable of dragging me away from Dark Souls 2 for a few hours. So far so good, the only other mmo i got into was order and chaos on my ouya so really hoping to find a good one here.

[Mat]

GW2's good, but I burned out on it a lot quicker than I did the first one. Still, enjoy your time with it while you can.
If you see a Gobhoblin running around the world, tell him Beo says hi

[Chirpychicken]

Currently playing -
Elite Dangerous - I finally buckled at £50 for the Beta - its bloody great but has a steep learning curve - I've not invested in a HOTAS joystick yet but its only a matter of time!

Dark Souls 2 DLC part 2 - Blue Smelter has been downed and I just need to beat Sir Alonne and do the remaining wedge kills for the Soul.

Bound by Flame - treated myself in the 50% steam sale - seems a bit poor so far but I'll give it some more time once DS2 DLC has been completed

[funkstar]

I've reached the Orc campaign of WarCraft 3, and have stalled a bit a few missions into it, due to external circumstances (such as there not being enough hours in the day, that sort of thing.) I find that I cannot sit down with WC3 for less than an hour or two, which is problematic when longer period of uninterrupted time is scarce. So, on the side I've been chewing my way through some of the bundle pickups in small bits - 140 (short, sweet, rhythm platformer), Hexcells (hex-grid minesweeper), and Botanicula (Samorost in a tree) being particular highlights; and The Binding of Isaac... not so much.

Currently in the honeymoon phase with Teleglitch (I bought the Humble Roguelike Bundle just for this, I remember) which has really lovely aestethics. I haven't quite figured it out yet, but I'm getting slowly more competent at reading the screen and reacting as appropriate. It fosters some of the experience of vulnerability that I found in Receiver, but where Receiver engendered this (at least for me) with long periods of dread, Teleglitch seems to be a more constant panicky terror, made tolerable by the responsive controls and distancing perspective.

[zip accident]

Old favourites rather than anything new. Skyrim, IL*2, Spider Solitare, MInesweeper, Freecell.

[Mark]

...MInesweeper...

I'm currently playing Hexcells Infinite (after having played and finished the original Hexcells when it was released). It's like MineSweeper but on a hex grid and with a few additional rules. The game comes with 36 designed levels, and new to Infinite is procedurally generated levels. The main bonus this has over Minesweeper is that each puzzle (apparently) can be completed without guesswork (although with a couple of the tougher ones I haven't figured out how yet).

Well worth a look if you like puzzle games.

[MattyP]

Velocity 2X (gem of a game free with PS+) and Destiny...

[chub]

I've just been playing 140. I got it in a Humble Bundle, didn't know what it was, thought I'd give it a go.

It's turned out to be a brilliant rhythm-based platformer. It's very minimalist visually, but it's all about the music. Simple controls (left, right, jump), but you need a sense of rhythm overcome the obstacles. There are only three levels, each ending with a 'boss' section, but the music changes as the levels progress, so it feels like you're on a musical journey.

Favourite bit so far - the dub section.

[funkstar]

More Teleglitch. Hm. You know, I really like permadeath as an idea, but maybe these roguelike things aren't for me in the long run. It is still beautiful, and I enjoy the mechanics, but entering a room and getting instagibbed is frustrating me, to be sure. Somehow, compared to Receiver, it feels a little dishonest with its deaths, though I cannot fully explain why.

In a completely different vein, Kami was an unoriginal, but lovely looking, puzzler. (And only a few of the puzzles frustrated me by relying on guesswork, or unintuitive solutions. I'm looking at you Premium 3-7!)

[funkstar]

Oh, and playing Portal 2. Just dipped into this, and played the first hour and a half. The writing (and voice acting) and general production values are spectacular, of course. But I get the feeling that what I've played so far wouldn't have worked as well if I hadn't played the first one, and in that case, why am I being taught the same skills this slowly? (Unless it's a much longer game...) Still, big fat grin on my face most of the time marks this as a very minor concern.