What are you playing? Options

[SubRosa]

Has anyone ever played Order of Battle: World War II? It looks interesting.

[SubRosa]

Shouldn't Left 4 Dead 2 be called Right 5 Live?

[mirocu]

Shouldn't Left 4 Dead 2 be called Right 5 Live?

How about Middle 7 Existing?

[ghastley]

Wait a bit, what happened to Just off-center 6 Recorded? How did we get to 7 already?

[treydog]

Horizon Zero Dawn is quite impressive. It definitely goes beyond "Ohhhh! Pretty pictures!" although the graphics are stunning.

The voice acting is excellent- the story is compelling- as are the character stories; there is humor to go with the action..... The early parts give you enough help to get you going, but don't feel like hand-holding- it is easy to get in over your head if you aren't paying attention to the environment.

The gathering- crafting- improving system is addictive- especially since all my characters in all games tend to pick up everything that isn't too big to pick up or doesn't move....

The disk has to go back to Red Box today- but it is definitely at the top of my birthday list.

[Dark Reaper]

I'm playing Overw---uh---I mean Paladins for the PS4....It's Overwatch with a fantasy setting.

[Decrepit]

After having bought Wizardry 7, Crusaders of the Dark Savant, quite some time ago at GOG, I made my first half-way serious attempt to create a party and begin play earlier today. It was a dismal failure in a number of ways, first and foremost my party of adventurers, who are totally worthless. I'm gonna delete 'em and start afresh...maybe.

Wiz7 was my favorite single player PC RPG up until the Elder Scroll series came into being. I played it almost to completion when it was new and shiny. Had an absolute blast. Only reason I stopped was because I discovered that I'd somehow failed to pick up (or dropped) an item essential to finishing the game. Research found that that item came from a point very far back from where I was. I just didn't feel up to doing all that work over again.

Back then I don't recall having any major issues creating a balanced survivable party (who ended up being uber powerful). But my mind was far less addled back then, better able to absorb and retain the wealth of info needed to create and develop a group of sustainable characters. Not sure I'm up to the task anymore, but don't want to throw in the towel just yet.

Oddly (or not), there hasn't been a decent English voiced play-through of Wiz7 at YouTube for ages. I did unearth a fair recent two-part review that, while a bit over-theatrical, does a halfway decent job of describing the game. Here's part one.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 22 2017, 01:23 AM

[Decrepit]

Deleted those crappy Wizardry 7 party members and created a new set of crappy party members: Dwarf Fighter (who I hope to eventually morph into a Lord), Felpurr Fighter (who I hope to morph into a monk), Valkyrie (I forget the race, it isn't one I wanted for the class, but got tired of endless failed rolls to get exactly what I wanted), Alchemist, Faerie Bard, Elf Mage. They're in what passes for the game's starter dungeon now, having just defeated its boss. I'm surprised they pulled it off, inept as they are. That room housed a chest containing a number of magic items, none of which my Dwarf Fighter (who has the Artifact skill) can identify...yet.

After all these years this game still has its charms, but in my opinion doesn't hold up nearly as well as Daggerfall which was released only four years later.

[Dark Reaper]

I'm playing Metriod Prime Trilogy on the wii u and i've forgotten how amazing this game was.

This post has been edited by Dark Reaper: Mar 23 2017, 04:15 PM

[SubRosa]

I am thinking of starting up a new Pillars of Eternity playthrough. I am not sure on what to play though. Part of me wants to play Aela, Ungarion, and their old TES gang again. But this time with Do'Sakhar as a Rogue instead of Barbarian. But another part of me wants to try playing the game with entirely vanilla companions for a change. In that case I might play Imoen as a Mage or Rogue, since I found an excellent portrait of her for the game.

[Decrepit]

My Wizardry party, such as it is, is now roaming the streets of New City in search of ... of ... of whatever one searches for in New City. They just had their posteriors handed them by a two-group conglomerate of Danes and T'rangs. Not even close, though the gang survived a surprising number of rounds. Those guys were T_U_F_F. Our casters kept up a steady stream of damage and/or weakening spells, most of which were resisted. Likewise, too many of our fighters' blows either never landed or were weak-sauce. Once our casters ran out of mana for healing it was just a matter of time. At battle's end the gang had managed to take out a grand total off two enemies, or was it one?

I was wrong in stating that there are no English-language play-throughs of Wizardry 7 at YouTube. I forgot one that came out maybe two years ago. I watched a number of its episodes then, and watched the first several again these past few days.

I forgot to mention that I am playing the DOS version rather than the later released "Gold" edition, which I feel is inferior.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 24 2017, 11:40 PM

[Decrepit]

My Wiz7 party is running around New City (first city encountered, very near the starter dungeon) like chickens with their heads cut off, almost totally clueless. They just managed to get their hands on what I believe to be an important entranceway-opening key. Only, they have no idea where said entranceway is. We suspect it is hidden within one of the city's numerous locked buildings. Problem is, my Bard isn't proficient enough in skullduggery to open locked doors. Skill-level improves with each successful lock picking, or so I think. But she's too weak to pick the easiest lock. So no improves for her until I sink more points into the skill during character level-ups, which are becoming few and far between.

My party is getting better at surviving battles up to a point, mostly due to our Alchemist and Mage getting fairly powerful offensive spells that affect an entire group of enemies. As to our "warriors", they still seem fairly weak-sauce to me, the dwarf warrior in particular.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 27 2017, 04:06 PM

[ghastley]

... Problem is, my Bard isn't proficient enough in skullduggery to open locked doors. Skill-level improves with each successful lock picking, or so I think. But she's too weak to pick the easiest lock. So no improves for her until I sink more points into the skill during character level-ups, which are becoming few and far between. ...

Is there a way out of this Catch-22? Morrowind has the same issues of no improvement without success, no success without improvement, but breaks out of the loop with training. What does Wiz7 provide?

[Decrepit]

... Problem is, my Bard isn't proficient enough in skullduggery to open locked doors. Skill-level improves with each successful lock picking, or so I think. But she's too weak to pick the easiest lock. So no improves for her until I sink more points into the skill during character level-ups, which are becoming few and far between. ...

Is there a way out of this Catch-22? Morrowind has the same issues of no improvement without success, no success without improvement, but breaks out of the loop with training. What does Wiz7 provide?

Not so far as I know, but then the game is complex. I might well be overlooking something. I'll just have to hope my Bard is given ample skill points to distribute come level-up time. It doesn't help that the skill category that houses Skullduggery also contains another skill or two that are important to her. No matter what I do I'm short-sheeting something.

Having read that it's possible if difficult to roll a male Dracon (Dragon) Ninja at character creation I decided to give it a try. To my surprise my Dracon was offered the Ninja option on my first attempt. It turned out pretty good too, except at the very end when I rolled a "3" for karma. (Nothing necessarily wrong with low karma in Wiz7, but my current characters tend to all be on the low end karma wise.) Decided to abandon the attempt and try for a higher karma ninja. Took me 45min to get another decent ninja roll, this time with higher karma. I rolled two other ninja options within that 45min, they stunk compared to my first ninja roll.

Also rolled a decent male Felpurr (cat) monk. Didn't take all that long to get him.

No, I am not planning to start over with new party members. This was just something to do, and to have a few better characters on hold if do decide to start afresh down the pike.

I still plan to eventually morph my current male Felpurr fighter into a Monk, and morph my male Dwarf fighter into a Lord. The female Rawulf (dog) Valkyrie might or might not remain as she is. The other three might well morph, but I've no firm idea that they'll become.

[Decrepit]

My Wiz7 Bard and Mage both had a decent but not stellar level-up. If memory serves the Mage added Fireball to her offensive spell arsenal.) Next time my Dwarf Fighter levels I'm prolly gonna "game" the system and not accept the level-up until he gets an increase in the one stat that will allow him to change professions and become a LORD (which gives him the Diplomat skill and lets him learn Priest spells in addition to being a warrior). That's a LONG way off. He's something like 32k experience away from leveling, with some battles gaining him no more a hundred or so xp points if that. Of course some encounters earn substantially more, over a thousand and higher, but those can be hard to win.

Doesn't help that my characters aren't well armed and armored. They pretty much sport the gear the game gave 'em at start up. My Dwarf Fighter has bought slightly better chest armor and shield, neither anything to write home about. Heh...a feathered cap is the best head protection he's been able to find, which beats out my Felurr Fighter who has no head protection at all. (Nor does our Alchemist.)

Our Elf Mage possesses a Knock-Knock spell, which can unlock doors. This solves the problem of my Faerie Bard not being able to to unlock 'em with her Skullduggery skill. The downside? Each spell unlocking means there is one less opportunity for the Bard to practice her skill. (I put a couple more points into Skullduggery this recent level-up. Didn't help.)

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 31 2017, 01:22 AM

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Popped in some Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties today. The AI is just awful but this one still enjoys it. Khajiit was playing on the "Caribbean" map (which is two big islands that separates the warring factions, plus another decent sized Island with a trade route to fight over), 2v2; this one as the Chinese teamed up with Ivan the Terrible's Russians versus Queen Elizabeth's British teamed with Maurice of Orange's Dutch. Khajiit took control of the sea fairly early and Ivan loaded up a ship full of men and set sail for the enemies' island. Well, it got to just off shore of the island and just sat there. It was still sitting there, full of fighting units, at the end of the match when Khajiit swept the last remnants of Elizabeth's forces off their island and accepted her surrender, lol.

This post has been edited by TheCheshireKhajiit: Mar 31 2017, 08:18 AM

[Decrepit]

Two good things happened to my Wiz7 party. First, our Bard at last successfully picked one locked door, and indeed got a skill increase from it. All other doors found thus far are still beyond her but hey, it's a start. Second, the gang went down into the passage to Old City and survived a battle. Very tuff and long lasting. Truth to tell, I'm amazed they won, which I attribute to luck more than anything else. It was touch and go the whole time. All casters ran out of magic ere the end so resorted to melee with their staffs. Everyone earned roughly 3.5k experience for the victory, a record thus far though nothing compared to what they'll get later on. That one encounter confirmed that the passage is still too much for them. Continuing on being pointless, they beat a hasty retreat.

Their last fight this morning didn't end well. En route to Orkogre to deliver a message to the King of the Gorns, they got caught napping by two groups of birds, one being powerful Vampire Rooks. Our casters had only just begun to recoup mana from a previous battle, so couldn't contribute much after their initial casts. Several party members slept through the first several rounds, which didn't help matters. Then our mage got paralyzed, taking her out of combat for the duration...until her death a few rounds later brought things to an end. Not sure this trip to Orkogre is a wise decision but they intend to stick it out, at least for now.

For what it's worth, one of our fighters bought better head protection in New City before setting out for Gorn country. Only a minor improvement, but every little bit helps.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Mar 31 2017, 01:59 PM

[hazmick]

I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda. Enjoying it very very much. Some issues regarding performance and bugs, but the game itself is a great addition to the Mass Effect franchise and a cool new start in a cool new galaxy.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda. Enjoying it very very much. Some issues regarding performance and bugs, but the game itself is a great addition to the Mass Effect franchise and a cool new start in a cool new galaxy.

Khajiit read in some reviews that the followers were kind of "meh". Do you find this to be the case?

[SubRosa]

I've been playing Mass Effect: Andromeda. Enjoying it very very much. Some issues regarding performance and bugs, but the game itself is a great addition to the Mass Effect franchise and a cool new start in a cool new galaxy.

I did not know it was even out.

So is it set after the Mass Effect trilogy? If so, how does space travel work given that all the gates were destroyed? Not to mention all the races marooned on a devastated Earth (my guess is the Krogan just eat every other race)...