What video games have you been playing? 4

[warpus]

Personally I found EUIV more accessible than CKII n00bwise, it's a bit more of a generic game IMO, I would start with that one. You can pick a relatively easy to play country and get acquainted with the game and interface while you maybe slowly expand. In CKII once your king dies all hell could break loose, and there's usually more potential for random revolts as well.

 

[shadowplay]

I'm experienced with EU3, so I have familiarity with Paradox games. Definitely a steep learning curve relative to most games, but worth the payoff in the end.

 

[Akka]

For what it's worth, this game is hot garbage.

I held pretty much the same opinion on RTW2, the only "Total War" game I actively disliked (save for Empire, but I just hate gunpowder units so it's not something I could blame on the game itself).

But I have to say, the latest Emperor Edition with all the patches is actually now pretty decent and I had some fun with a few campaign. There is still some crappy mechanism, but if you want some re-enactment of the Antiquity wars, there is enough variety and immersion to have some fun.

 

[cardgame]

Yeah it's much improved since launch. I dropped it like a hot potato in 2013 but I've put in 12 hours or so into Emperor's Edition 2015

 

[warpus]

Still playing Planetbase, trying to get all the achievements (I virtually never do this with a game but find myself highly inspired to do so for this one). Continue to highly recommend this, there is more gameplay than I thought; the other 2 planets you unlock after the first one add a lot of new gameplay even if they don't really change much. 20% off right now, around $18 CDN

Also tried The Fall, which seems great. It's a platformer style adventure puzzle action game.. so you walk around and investigate stuff and collect clues, like in old Sierra games. Pick up items, use them, etc. But you also have a gun and get to shoot stuff. Best part might be the art direction and how dark and .. atmospheric.. it is. Pulls you in, you feel like you're a part of the story and the world. Only 10 minutes of gameplay so far, but it's 80% off on steam right now and it seems well worth it for $2

Making my way through King's Quest episode 1, and it's well worth the $1 I paid for it. It seems a bit linear so far and doesn't remind me of classic King's Quest in that capacity much yet, but some of the same magic is there - and a lot of new magic, IMO. And I'm just at the beginning I think. It's also definitely a hook, there's 4 more episodes coming and episode 2 is $10 right now. But either way, this is def. worth it for $1.

Also bought this puzzle platformer for $3.50 or so, only played for a couple minutes though so far, initial impressions positive.

I have a lot of free time over this break, am free until Jan 4th pretty much, planning on playing through The Witcher and we'll see what else

 

[Ajidica]

Divinity: Original Sin. Not sure what to make of it. I like the game a lot, but the early game seems like a lot of running around figuring out what things won't kill you right away so you can level up and in the future kill the things that are one-shotting you right now.
The quests aren't particularly well delivered either. You get a whole bunch of quests that are way beyond your party's capacity right off the bat and there aren't any real indicators of how difficult a quest actually is.

 

[Yeekim]

Trine

Bought this as well for €1.49(?). On false advertising actually, as I focused on labels "rpg" and "hotseat" (to play with my son)
Turns out you need a gamepad to play hotseat on PC... and rpg it definitely is not.

But it's a pretty good platformer - as far as those things go. Could be played taking turns and definitely worth the bargain price. Beautiful art, good physics, intuitive controls. And keep in mind I usually quite dislike games which rely on dexterity of fingers.

 

[Commodore]

and rpg it definitely is not.

Theoretically, isn't every video game an RPG to some degree? I mean, RPG stands for role-playing game, and isn't that what we do in every game we play? We take on the role of some character that we are not. Even a game like Civilization can be considered an RPG since you are playing the role of the leader of an empire.

That's why I've never liked the term "role-playing game" to describe one type of game. I think what we traditionally view as an RPG needs a new, more accurate term to describe them.

 

[Yeekim]

Theoretically, isn't every video game an RPG to some degree? I mean, RPG stands for role-playing game, and isn't that what we do in every game we play? We take on the role of some character that we are not.

I present Tetris and chess as counter-arguments.

 

[Akka]

Theoretically, isn't every video game an RPG to some degree? I mean, RPG stands for role-playing game, and isn't that what we do in every game we play? We take on the role of some character that we are not. Even a game like Civilization can be considered an RPG since you are playing the role of the leader of an empire.

That's why I've never liked the term "role-playing game" to describe one type of game. I think what we traditionally view as an RPG needs a new, more accurate term to describe them.

If you stretch the definition so much, it ends up being like division by 0 : meaningless. You could also argue that nearly every game is a simulator (because we simulate, somehow, the situation of the character(s) we play) and more than half are adventure games (because somehow, each time we control a character, he's having some sort of adventure after all).

I'd say the "role-playing" words put the emphasis on the notion of playing a role, not just controlling the character. That is, we're supposed to act like the character would, and it requires the game to let us decide actions and dialogues, and these decisions having significant influence over the game.

Of course the borders are blurry, especially when games happily blend over many kind of genres, but I'd say these two criteria (being able to make choices on how your character act and speak, and these choices having noticeable influence over the game) give a decent enough idea of what the core of a RPG is about.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Theoretically, isn't every video game an RPG to some degree? I mean, RPG stands for role-playing game, and isn't that what we do in every game we play? We take on the role of some character that we are not. Even a game like Civilization can be considered an RPG since you are playing the role of the leader of an empire.

That's why I've never liked the term "role-playing game" to describe one type of game. I think what we traditionally view as an RPG needs a new, more accurate term to describe them.

We might, if only because people blur the lines and render the term meaningless. I and my peers never had a hard time understanding what was an RPG and what wasn't, and we played lots of different types of games. If someone seriously declared Civ to be an RPG, I'd want to slap them around a little.

 

[Commodore]

I present Tetris and chess as counter-arguments.

You have me on Tetris, but even in chess you are supposedly playing the role of a general or king directing your forces in battle.

 

[IkM]

Good ol' Age of Empires III.

 

[cardgame]

Bought Mad Max from this winter sale and have put in a couple hours. Pretty cool game so far, though I wish it was a bit less grindy in the beginning.

 

[Arakhor]

Contradiction, an HD-video cerebral point-and-click adventure game, with the inspector's actor clearly enjoying himself. What's there not to like?

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I'm giving Rome 2 another try. I made the mistake to start my first new game as a Balkan tribe. You start with no melee cavalry and almost mmediately find yourself at war with the Scythiang. Fighting mounted archers with infantry was always the most infuriating thing in Total War, although Realm Divide and random DoWs one turn after an Alliance treates are a close second/third. I didn't even think that Rome 2 was hot garbage in the beginning as I was somehow spared the worst bugs. It was merely disappointing.
Speaking of disappointing: After seeing more of Fallout 4 in action, I decided to play some more New Vegas instead. This is also tangentially relevant to the "what is an RPG" question. Fallout 4 isn't one. It has RPG elements, but it's ultimately a shooter with a crafting minigame.

 

[Antilogic]

I've restarted a new city in Cities: Skylines and have really upped my beachfront game with bike paths and trails. Also made some more realistic-looking American subdivisions, although I gotta figure out how to use styles and make them more uniform. Also built a nice downtown across the river, now figuring out how to fix the traffic inlet to handle more people.

I've also hit a wall in Darkest Dungeon: I'm around week 40, but despite not losing missions I can't build up enough cash and paper to upgrade my blacksmith. I cannot kill any of the lv. 3 bosses and I barely survive lv. 3 short runs--now there are only medium and long runs as far as the eye can see.

All of my troops have level 2 weapons and many level 3 armor, but I'm tapped out on paper. Most of my troops have level 3 skills for the most-used stuff, and I've only locked in 4 good traits and mostly played defense by eliminating bad traits. I got a massive inventory of random magic items, been selling off the less useful ones to keep the fort going but I'm going to start running out it.

I just tried to kill the Hag, bee-lined right for her but I got ambushed in the camp and had a field battle before I got to her room. My HPs were so low and the stress so high by the time I got there I could barely do anything. She kept throwing random people into the pot, and although I could bust them out quickly it took up attacks and they appear in the front line, meaning my Helion couldn't Iron Swan her in the back. Couldn't get the bleed stack going either.

I don't recommend the Occultist/Bounty Hunter/Man at Arms/Helion combo, unless I just really suck at execution.

 

[warpus]

Trine looks pretty, I might install it next.

Just uninstalled Planetbase, I got all but 3 of the achivements.. and.. the game is basically like crack. I spent the last couple days sitting here growing a beard and playing it. I know I can get the remaining 3 achievements, but knowing what would have to go into it.. I am moving on.

Also beat King's Quest chapter 1, it was very well done overall. Definitely not as linear as I initially thought and a lot more like the old games.. although to be honest the puzzles were more about walking around rather than trying to figure out what item you can combine with what to solve whatever puzzle. There was some of that too, but to a somewhat minimal amount. A downscaled version of the puzzles they used to have, and I heard the puzzles are even easier in chapter 2, so I probably won't be picking it up. But chapter 1 was def. worth $1 and I would have even paid $5 for it.

 

[Spidernova]

Playing Darkest Dungeon after I got it on the steam sale. Its annoying that all my occultists seem to go insane and die before everyone else.

 

[shadowplay]

Ultra Street Fighter IV on steam. I've previously played the original SFIV for XBox 360. It's fun, like Street Fighter always is. Don't really know what else to say about it, other than I hate the music in modern Capcom games. I prefer the cheesey (sharp cheddar, well aged) 16-bit SNES Capcom music to the Japanese guy on acid stuff they use now.