What have you been playing lately?

[Hargrimm]

Dug out Fallout 2 with the RP and another mod for more difficulty. Getting my ass kicked pretty handily, but I'm only at the Den. I'll see if it stays that way when the economy inevitably gets broken again.

Also, Dark Souls, which I totally regret buying. Maybe it really is the Holy Grail of hardcore gaming if you play it on a console, but the PC port is a horrible, lazily done mess. Maybe that's why the game feels shallow and ugly, with most of the difficulty created by intentionally employing bad design decisions. I think I'll refrain from saying anything harsh about the game because I'm not that far into it. That, and the fanboys will eat me alive if I do. Then again, I feel that for using GFWL the developers fully deserve an eternity in hell.

Get DSfix.
Although if the controls are your problem then you probably need to get a gamepad.

 

[Palademon]

Still technically playing Darksiders 2. I just stopped after one of it's frequent freezes. I would definately recommend it. The first game had potential but was rather tedious. But the second is just a damn good game.

I'm going through Borderlands 2 again since I switched character as soon as the Mechromancer came out and I've about cuaght up to my first character, but the Cuastic Caverns seem to be a massive diffculty spike for me. The game's good. I just found the first one easier to solo.

I'm playing 3 games I got for christmas:

Zone of the Enders HD. I like the fluidity of it but the difficulty jumped a bit at the first boss before I realised that Jehuty's shield gives no fucks about anything.

Lego Lord of the Rings. I like the character of Lego games and going through movies. I'm currently near the end of Fellowship of the Ring. I could definately say the open world is more itneresting than Lego Batman 2, but not that's it more fun. I'm not sure which game I prefer.

Dragonball Z Budokai HD. This is the first time I've played them and they're fun. 1 is a bit awkward in controls, but does well to go through the story and has alternate realities. Sadly Europe never got the dub so I have to listen to Japanese with THE MOST HORRIBLE "PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" SUBTITLES EVER.

Everyone says "darn". There is one random use of "damn", and wanna know what Vegeta yells at his enemy after they kill his son?
"YOU AUNT SALLIES!"
...

I love 3 though. Not only was having a dub a huge relief after that, but it's such a subtly deep game that it's great for people like me who suck at compicated inputs. The only is it characters playing alike, but that's part of what makes it accessible. Their unique skills are what changes it up.

Because of the Steam sales I've also been playing The Binding of Isaac, which is a great game for replayability, since even though when you die you have to start again, but the dungeons are randomised and have different items. So I can sit down for ages and just keep clicking replay every time I die and it won't stop being fun.

I'm also replaying Fable The Lost Chapters, which has far better PC controls than I imagined it would.

 

[A.A.K]

Skyrim.
Army of Two: 40th Day. (with a mate whenever I see him)

 

[Bvenged]

Let's see. The games I've loaded up in the past week have been:

Swat 4 - grabbed a realism mod but it doesn't help me avoid death thanks to erratic frame rates of 10fps-30fps.

Dungeon Keeper 2 - sort of, I've decided my computer's too crap to play it. It keeps jumping. Quite unique issue considering I've never seen incompatibility like that before (XP SP3, 2GB RAM and an old ATI card).

Xcom Enemy Unknown - I was trying a Classic Ironman but I've given up now after a 3rd failed attempt.
My first try was a disaster, my fault. The second try was better, mixtures of bad luck and poor decisions, and this third attempt was a disaster and it was entirely the games fault. A bug prevented me from seeing an enemy in blatant line of sight (he was shooting me from the same cover) and the shitty RNG ensured I miss 45% shots from 2 other guys, 5 turns in a row, all the while getting hit, poisoned and killed behind full cover. RAGEQUIT.

Medieval 2 total war hard mode and an old Dragon's Dogma playthrough have been touched on this week too.


Question for Steam aficionados or networking specialists:
I'm trying to download FEAR which I got in the steam sale, but my 3mbps internet is going badly for some reason and I'm the only one online in the house. Other downloads via other sources can use up the entirety of the broadband, but Steam doesn't seem to want to.

Could anyone explain to me why Steam download speeds are so damn erratic and poor? I should be getting about 400KB/s with my downstream speed, but it's constantly cycling through 100KB/s to 500KB/s, averaging 200-odd. I'm quite new to steam but I certainly know my way around computers. Is that because their servers are working hard after the sale or something? Is there a fix from my end to steady it out or make it use up all of my broadband? I see no difference when I set download location to Manchester nor London.

Thanks.

 

[synobal]

Ass loads of Planetside 2

 

[Leg End]

X-COM: Apocalypse. RTS/Turned Based/Choice of either where you continue after the events of X-COM: Terror From The Deep 40 years into the future in Mega Primus, where the aliens still don't know when to give up and die so you help them with their issue by shoving Toxiguns up their ass and forgetting what you were doing because now you can make your funders pay by blasting the senate to shit if you can sustain yourself otherwise. BUY IT NOW

Heavy Rain. Game that I am not spoiling anything to because that happened to me and I have no doubt it would kill the game for anyone else. Quicktime event city but I liked it, fun to play at a small gathering as a film, and the outcome of the plot can change drastically depending on what you've done, so you really do have to live with your choices.
Or be a dick and restart whenever you fuck up. Probably the latter.

God Hand. DRAGON KICK YOUR ASS INTO THE MILKY WAY (MILKY WAY).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Viewtiful Joe on New Year's, 100%-ed Okami on a replay, nearing the end on Cold Fear. I'm at the delicious point of picking up my next playthrough.

 

[Hamsterlad]

KOTOR: Giving another play threw thanks to the power of steam. So far I have found out it has some perks to the game being on the pc, but the game also has some major lag issues like i cant disengage from combat even if the combat has been done and over with. Overall i missed it.

scribblenauts: Letting my imagination soar with the amount of possibilities and an optional creator mode. Time killer basically.

 

[Mordekaien]

Legend of Grimrock lately, along with my long-running Rome: Total War imperial campaign.
And Neverwinter Nights 1, as always, the only game I can play anytime.

 

[MetaKnight19]

Far Cry 3 - because nothing says fun like jumping into the sea from a hang-glider and then proceed to kill and skin a shark.

The Binding of Isaac - I'm still playing this game and I've just broken the 450 hour mark, so I wiped my save and started again.

That's about it really...

 

[roushutsu]

Last games I finished were Infamous and The Walking Dead. I started Infamous 2, but I'm taking a little break from it right now. I'll get back to it in a bit.

Right now, I'm replaying Chrono Cross. It's been a while since I've played it and I was in the mood for a JRPG.

 

[Edward Park-Poulson]

Far to much Shogun 2, Empire and Napoleon total-war along with BF3,Far cry 3 and skyrim

 

[kyuzo3567]

I went out on boxing day and bought the God of War saga and Mass Effect trilogy for my PS3, so those I guess. 8 games and a ton of DLC for the price of two new games... pretty damn good deal for me

 

[Harker067]

OOO front mission 4 good game.

I've been playing through bulletstorm and splatterhouse since Christmas bit of saints row the third but not really my game. Before christmas was tropico 4 and insanely twisted shadow planet.

 

[trollnystan]

Deus Ex: The Missing Link - I'm in Loading Bay 3 so I'm near the fricking end I hope. I like Deus Ex, but now I just want to clear it off my backlog so I can uninstall and move on to the next item.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown - I'm liking it so far, despite the weird glitches and bugs. It's not quite as scary as the original was, but then again I just a kid when I played that.

Borderlands - Someone once told me that Borderlands' single-player was pretty dull but the co-op was the most fun she'd ever had co-oping. So far the single-player is not wowing me with fun fun fun so maybe she's right. I do like the world and the aesthetics.

I SHOULD also be playing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for my Let's Play, but the controls are so frustrating! And I always have a hard time replaying games, regardless how long ago it was since I played it last.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Assassin's Creed (Vastly under-rated imho)

Assassin's Creed Revelations (Meh)

Infamous 2 (All around good game)

Portal 2 (Best writing I have ever seen in a game. Ever.)

Professor Layton and the Last Spectre/Specter's Call (Good as ever, even if the formula's a bit stale)

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask (Wonderfully charming, wonderfully fresh)

 

[janjotat]

I have been playing planetside 2, torchlight 2, Mass Effect 2, and Thief 2 lately (lots of sequels geez)

 

[M13]

Always wanted to machine gun a shark so naturally I'm playing Far Cry 3.

Before FC3 I played Hitman Blood Money and then Hitman Absolution.
Hadn't played the Hitman games before and I liked them both. But liked Absolution better.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

A whole shit-tonne of Skyrim... still!
I get really OCD playing games like Skyrim. On one hand I'm really excited about all the content and the many options but on the other hand there are some things my character would never do. So I'm on my fourth playthrough with my character and considering it my "best" play because now I've done all that other tempting stuff I can play "properly." Eh, sometimes I wonder if I don't just suck all the fun out of games!

The almighty, the one and only, Shadow of the Colossus!
I recently watched Nerd Cubed's video of this on YouTube and he couldn't stop drooling over it as his favourite game ever. Then I remembered that I actually love it too so I set about playing it again! Awesome game in which you ride a horse throughout a barren, yet beautiful, landscape and take on huge Colossi in epic one-man boss battles. Simply extraordinary. If you haven't played it, sort that out right now!

 

[thesilentman]

Dark Souls- Stupid Sen's Fortress. Stupid lizard people wielding oversized kitchen knives. Stupid pendulums that Edgar Allan Poe would have taken inspiration from. Yeah, Sen's Fortress is a difficulty spike, especially as I didn't find Blighttown that hard.

Cave Story+- Picked this up as part of a giveaway. Why the hell didn't I try this game eariler?! It's really good!

Dishonored- Bah. Humbug. Corvo just had to be betrayed by- Whoops! Spoilers!

Plants vs. Zombies- Shut up. I know that I'm late to this party. But survival endless is loads of fun.

Planetside 2- Fun, fun multiplayer. TF2 is simply refusing to work on Windows 8, so this takes the place of that for a while.

That's my fix so far. Out of those, my favorite has to be either Dark Souls or Cave Story+. Both are hard to a degree and are the types of games that hold my attention.