What games are you currently playing?

[Feba]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Hearthstone finally released it's Naxxramus adventure, or at least, the first of five parts. Again, it's free for the first month, so if you're thinking of trying it, now is a great time to start. Well, maybe a couple days from now when the server calms down again, but still.

The AI is unsurprisingly a pushover in the standard mode; AI just can't really keep up with complex, competitive, PVP games. Except when they tilt the playing field; and the Naxx "Heroic" mode is much steeper than the normal clear mode, thanks to insanely overpowered Hero Powers. Beaten the first so far. Even then, there is plenty of personality and character in the expansion, plus the point is to introduce new content to the PVP mode anyway.

[Aksannyi]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Hearthstone is up but WoW is still down.

CONSPIRACY!

No actually I am really in no mood for either tonight.

[Melody]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I tried logging into XIV today. Got bored within the first 30 seconds of being logged in then logged the hell out and went back to playing FFX followed by Battleblock Theater.

[Firewind]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Finally fished Danganronpa after picking it up some months ago but FFXIV being too much of a time eater. t was a very fun game, and I wish there were more like it for the Vita. It seems to have a nice little niche in games in the style of the old point and click adventure games, a genre that really needs reviving (and the Vita controls are perfect for). In a way I'm happy that visual novels are starting to borrow from those old point and click games.

Hard to really say much about Danganronpa without revelling major spoilers due to the nature of the game: a very character driven murder mystery with elements of psychological horror (from the characters PoVs). Basically you are a student that wakes up one day in a classroom of a high school he got into. You meet your classmates and it is announced by the mascot character that they are trapped there, and the only way to graduate is to murder a classmate and get away with it. If the murderer is caught, they are executed brutally by the mastermind, if they get away with it, then they get to leave and everyone else is executed instead.

When a body is found you basically get to investigate and question your classmates, check for clues in the crime scene and around the school, which culminates in a trial scene where you try to find out who the killer is.

The game does do a very good job of getting you to care for the characters,, and you will feel like a dick for not spending enough time with characters, or it will hit your hard if you had a favourite when they start dropping like flies. The death in Chapter 4 actually had me shedding tears. It is actually surprisingly replayable as well. Sure the twists only work once, however, you will pick up on things you missed out the first time that identify the mastermind and you will pick up on things that you would have missed the first time in the victim/killer relationships. In my first playthrough, I realised who the killer was right away because in their Social Link (for lack of a better term), I found out something deeply personal about that character that someone close to them would only know, something that was also revealed in the victim's dying words.

It's a fun game, and the sequel is coming out soon too. for anyone with a Vita in do recommend it.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Well today's the big day - at 2 pm PDT (so 5 my time) Bungie is starting their special event for the Destiny Beta.

Everyone who participates gets a permanent upgrade for the retail launch. No idea what this perk is but we'll find out soon enough.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Well today's the big day - at 2 pm PDT (so 5 my time) Bungie is starting their special event for the Destiny Beta.

Everyone who participates gets a permanent upgrade for the retail launch. No idea what this perk is but we'll find out soon enough.

Bungie Will Send Players to the Moon on Last Day of Destiny Beta - MP1st

Players who do decide to log in during the two-hour public event won’t leave empty handed. Participants will go home with a special nameplate for use in the final game when it ships September 9.

The mission is on the Moon (yeah, the one that was locked during the rest of the beta). It's kinda fun. No new enemies, but a tiny sliver more of the storyline, so that's good.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah it was neat. The mission reward is actually pretty nice too - well, at least the stats on the sniper rifle are godly (though the secondary ability is beyond retarded - shoot ammo to pick it up?)

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Yeah it was neat. The mission reward is actually pretty nice too - well, at least the stats on the sniper rifle are godly (though the secondary ability is beyond retarded - shoot ammo to pick it up?)

Well, it's at least a new weapon proc effect. I don't think I've ever seen an FPS game have that sort of side effect outside of lightgun games like Time Crisis. Having that ability on a sniper rifle is pretty dubious, though. I could see that being useful on a long range weapon that doesn't have omg levels of recoil.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Thing is there's a far better ability you can get (though it's glitched AFAIK as each gun I've gotten it on it hasn't worked at all) that adds ammo directly to your current magazine on a kill - perfect for shotguns and sniper rifles.

And holy crap I hate the Crucible now, I want more Iron Banner - tired of getting killed by scrubs with subpar gear.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

And holy crap I hate the Crucible now, I want more Iron Banner - tired of getting killed by scrubs with subpar gear.

So you're saying you can only win if you have an artificial advantage? Classy.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

hah, nah not quite.

All the "baddies" flock to the Crucible and it's annoying trying to carry teams full of bads. But moreover, the game's netcode is rather shoddy at times - I've had numerous kill trades I shouldn't have as well as kills delayed by as much as 3 seconds after the fact - even a few shots with the most ridiculous lag I've ever seen that all ended in me getting killed instead when I had the clear advantage.

Some of my gear doesn't function right either inside the Crucible because of the nerfs. My AR in particular was deadly as Hell inside Iron Banner - even against other people with good armor (who had high K/Ds by the end as well) but trashy in the Crucible since it wasn't performing exactly how it should. One thing I found odd in particular though (that worked in my favor for crucible) was my throwing knife wouldn't always 1-shot people on a headshot in Iron Banner but it would in the Crucible so small victory there (I had a freaky, almost zen-like ability to just nail people in the head about 90% of the time)

Anyways, the AR I was using has a fairly low impact but extremely high RoF & good stability so I can just burst people in the head with laser-like accuracy and with the 62 attack rating that drops people hella fast. But in Crucible that gets averaged down to whatever the hell the default value is, making it crappy because of the low impact and I was just getting mauled at times (again the game's net code needs serious work as there were far too many instances reported by everyone it seems of just being downed by AR fire within a second or two). I much preferred my scout rifle for Crucible though again, even at long range sometime's I'd just be dead before I even got a 2nd shot off - Bungie needs to fix that net code and for the love of God implement some kind of real team balancing. It was OK for the most part inside the Iron Banner but in Crucible the teams were constantly shifting and 9/10 I'd get paired up with a bunch of useless twats who can't work as a team or even shoot the damn enemy for their lives. The worst instance was on Venus near Point B - I'd just been killed while very nearly killing the other guy (like 5% HP left at most) and another team mate was BEHIND HIM but ran past somehow then got shot in the back and died. 3rd team mate jumped in almost right away and was killed too.

This guy basically got a free triple kill when he should have been dead after dropping me by my team mates wtf. The level of derp inside the crucible is appalling.



EDIT: Oh and The Plague Quarter is available now on Hearthstone for 700 gold. Just got Heroic bosses to beat now :D (the Hunter Class challenge is retarded and 100% RNG)


Here's a shot from the Mage Challenge I found amusing



As it turns out, Ethereal Arcanist always gets just a single +2/+2 buff regardless of how many secrets you have. Too bad, I was hoping he'd get +10/+10 rofl.

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Mal, you do realize that weaponry and gear in Destiny's Cruicible is adjusted to balance against other gear of the same type, right? Of course your assault rifle got weaker; it's a full-auto weapon, which normally outputs higher DPS than any other weapon in its slot due to the fire rate. Slower firing weapons like hand cannons in Crucible get their damage adjusted upwards to account for their slower fire/more frequent reload rates, and faster firing weapons adjusted downward to meet some sort of average DPS in the middle.


Icemage

[Feba]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

saying that the hunter one is pure RNG isn't really true. Yes, there's a huge amount of RNG in which cards webspinner gives you, but there's still an amount of skill in deciding which ones to play, what trades to make, and so on. I haven't seen a single person experienced with hearthstone lose that fight though. It's a fun, wacky sort of game, it's not intended to be challenging.

[Malacite]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

Mal, you do realize that weaponry and gear in Destiny's Cruicible is adjusted to balance against other gear of the same type, right? Of course your assault rifle got weaker; it's a full-auto weapon, which normally outputs higher DPS than any other weapon in its slot due to the fire rate. Slower firing weapons like hand cannons in Crucible get their damage adjusted upwards to account for their slower fire/more frequent reload rates, and faster firing weapons adjusted downward to meet some sort of average DPS in the middle.


Icemage

That's not entirely what I meant, and you're not exactly right either. What the crucible does basically, is sets everyone's basic stats to the same level - Attack/Defense etc. However, individual stats on guns are not touched.

In my case, my particular AR of choice has a low Impact rating compared to other ARs - which means in the Crucible without that higher attack rating my gun normally has (62) to offset the low impact (which is how much your gun does per bullet) my damage drops off dramatically. I can still utterly destroy people with it, but I need to be at mid range and get in the 1st shots. Generally speaking higher impact AR's, Shotguns and Fusion Rifles just dominate the crucible as the other weapons can't compete because of the heavy nerfing the Crucible does. It's SUPPOSED to make things even but it really doesn't. If anything it neuters build diversity for some weird semblance of forced balance.

I'd much rather try my luck in the Iron Banner against people who may possibly have farmed better gear than I have - the caliber of players overall tended to be a lot higher in there from my own experience.

But again the shoddy netcode hurts the game quite badly at times i.e. I'm *always* getting killed in 1 hit upclose from Fusion Rifles and Shotguns, or in a second or 2 from AR fire that just comes outta nowhere with no warning I've even been hit until I'm already about to die meanwhile the reverse never holds true for myself. And I can tell you right now it's not lag on my end - not with a 22~26 ms ping and only 3~6 jitter with 20+ MB download speed (connection's been fairly good lately though as of last night has begun to crap out on me again.)

[Icemage]

Re: What games are you currently playing?

I hear you complain about shoddy netcode in every single game, Mal. Have you ever considered the possibility that you're just not as good as you think you are?


Icemage