What games are you playing currently?

[Turd Ferguson]

I bought Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for Xbox One and was playing through The Pre-Sequel. I was just not feeling it. I thought maybe I was burnt out on Borderlands, so as an experiment, I started playing Borderlands 2. I'm having a blast playing through that as Salvador the Gunzerker (again). Already up to level 20 and doing the Hodunk battles for Ellie.

My problem with The Pre-Sequel is the writing just isn't as funny and most of the Elpis characters are annoying. Also, I'm level 15 and I still go into Fight For Your Life mode after a couple of bullets from enemies half my level.

 

[SPCTRE]

Hint: It has nothing to do with the gameplay.

An exaggeration, but very true in a lot of cases/for a lot of people.

I don't dispute the truth of that, but it's a bit of a bazaar attitude when you think about it. It's like saying "people don't read books for the words, they just like turning pages."

For me personally there are very few games where I'll willingly suffer poor gameplay mechanics in favour of the narrative or anything else.

MMORPGs (which is what we were talking about) are an edge case, I'd say there is no other genre where so many people don't give a flying fuck about how deep or interesting the moment-to-moment gameplay actually is. Exaggeration, sure, but hard to dispute I'd say.

 

[Reverend]

An exaggeration, but very true in a lot of cases/for a lot of people.

I don't dispute the truth of that, but it's a bit of a bazaar attitude when you think about it. It's like saying "people don't read books for the words, they just like turning pages."

For me personally there are very few games where I'll willingly suffer poor gameplay mechanics in favour of the narrative or anything else.

MMORPGs (which is what we were talking about) are an edge case, I'd say there is no other genre where so many people don't give a flying fuck about how deep or interesting the moment-to-moment gameplay actually is. Exaggeration, sure, but hard to dispute I'd say.

Sure there is: fruit machines. MMORPGs are intentionally built to be skinner boxes.

It just baffles me how so many people manage to convince themselves to go to such lengths and expense when they'll probably get the same level of engagement out of a game of Bejewled.

 

[SPCTRE]

It just baffles me how so many people manage to convince themselves to go to such lengths and expense when they'll probably get the same level of engagement out of a game of Bejewled.

What keeps people playing MMORPGs and encourages addiction-like levels of engagement are mainly the social aspects of it. Sure, there's the skinner-box, that is a big part of it. But couple that with a very "fancy chat client" (another popular exaggeration), and guild/clan organizations - basically a web of complex social mechanisms including status, recognition, approval, commitment, etc. - and what you get is a scenario where moment-to-moment gameplay becomes a secondary priority at best.

Statistics show that MMORPGs fail to keep a majority of people playing up to that point (a huge portion of players never got past level 10 in WoW. Ten!), but those that they do are in it for realsies.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Zipped through Battlefield Bad Company 2 very quickly- fun, but there are some really badly-placed checkpoints.

 

[SPCTRE]

I would love to see Bad Company again in some capacity, great characters.

Alas, the franchise's focus is not singleplayer content. Well, a BC3 might still happen at some point.

 

[Reverend]

It just baffles me how so many people manage to convince themselves to go to such lengths and expense when they'll probably get the same level of engagement out of a game of Bejewled.

What keeps people playing MMORPGs and encourages addiction-like levels of engagement are mainly the social aspects of it. Sure, there's the skinner-box, that is a big part of it. But couple that with a very "fancy chat client" (another popular exaggeration), and guild/clan organizations - basically a web of complex social mechanisms including status, recognition, approval, commitment, etc. - and what you get is a scenario where moment-to-moment gameplay becomes a secondary priority at best.

Statistics show that MMORPGs fail to keep a majority of people playing up to that point (a huge portion of players never got past level 10 in WoW. Ten!), but those that they do are in it for realsies.

Probably why I never really got sucked into it. Despite being a gamer for as long as I can remember (I'm talking all they way back to the ZX Spectrum days) I've never gotten hooked into a community or found a group of friends to play with on any regular basis.

I've played a number of MP games (over 1000 hours into TF2 IIRC) but I invariably end up pubbing it, even though I tend to favour co-op multiplayer along the lines of L4D 1&2, ME3 MP & right now DAI MP, rather than the usual deathmatch PvP focused games.

So far I've only really gotten into two MMOs (SWTOR & DCUO) and in both cases I completely lost interest once I ran out of story content or hit some artificial pay wall. I may go back to SWTOR at some point since I never did finish the Bounty Hunter story.

 

[Lonemagpie]

I would love to see Bad Company again in some capacity, great characters.

Alas, the franchise's focus is not singleplayer content. Well, a BC3 might still happen at some point.

I'd totally play a BC3.

Now... played the first case in CSI: Hard Evidence and found it really dull, far too easy, and all in spite of, really, borked controls.

So now I'm on Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, and will continue from that to Assault On Dark Athena, since they're on the same disc...

 

[lizlovestrek]

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - so far I liked A Link Between Worlds better.

 

[SPCTRE]

So now I'm on Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay, and will continue from that to Assault On Dark Athena, since they're on the same disc...

Fantastic games, both of them.

 

[Kelthaz]

I picked up Rayman Origins and One Piece Unlimited World Red off the PSN sale this weekend.

Rayman Origins is a fantastic 2D platformer and One Piece UWR is ... well, nothing special, but you get to play as Luffy and the other Straw Hats. That's all I wanted.

 

[martok2112]

I too am longing for Bad Company 3.... To me, the best part of the Battlefield line are the Bad Company games.

 

[Amaris]

While I don't PC game nearly as much as I used to (thank you, Xbox!), there's this great little game I picked up called "A New Beginning - Final Cut". It's essentially a game about climate change, set in the future, and it's really good. Steam has it pretty cheap at $10, though if you wait for a sale it will likely be cheaper, if anyone is interested.

The dialogue is a little stilted, if you're playing it in English, but the game itself is engrossing, and the story is fascinating. What I really like about it, though, is that it reminds me of the old point, hunt, and click style adventures Sierra used to make.

 

[mimic]

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings

Just stared Ch. 2. I'm keeping a save prior to going with Iorveth/Roche, because it looks like it's basically a different game depending on your choice.

 

[SPCTRE]

I picked up Rayman Origins and One Piece Unlimited World Red off the PSN sale this weekend.

Rayman Origins is a fantastic 2D platformer and One Piece UWR is ... well, nothing special, but you get to play as Luffy and the other Straw Hats. That's all I wanted.

Rayman Origins is pretty great, and it (still) looks great. It's also a pretty good couch co-op game.

 

[martok2112]

I remembered playing a Rayman game some years ago, can't remember which system... And when one would finish a level, Rayman had this cute little victory laugh that cracked me up every time.

 

[BigFoot]

Ubisoft recently patched a game-breaking glitch in Far Cry 4, so I spent a few hours over the weekend playing it.

 

[martok2112]

Ubisoft recently patched a game-breaking glitch in Far Cry 4, so I spent a few hours over the weekend playing it.

Yeeouch! What was the glitch?
I don't think I ran upon it when I played it some months ago.
How are you liking FC4?

 

[SPCTRE]

This made me want to get back into it.

[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjEiK9yXZU[/yt]

 

[BigFoot]

Ubisoft recently patched a game-breaking glitch in Far Cry 4, so I spent a few hours over the weekend playing it.

Yeeouch! What was the glitch?
I don't think I ran upon it when I played it some months ago.
How are you liking FC4?

After I beat a mission it showed up on my map as incomplete. I must have played that mission like ten times.

It's alright... I liked FC3 a lot more.