So What Are YOU Playing?

[Dryr]

Just finished the new red faction, definitely good enough to rent. A very odd reward weapon for beating single player campaign though.

Will be getting the new alice by the end of the week from gamefly, had an empty queue for a week to be sure to get it. Otherwise, trying to get through ME1 again so I can do ME2 for the first time on pc to prep for ME3.

[Hitoshura]

Witcher 2 - Chapter 2

Holy damn that was quite an ending to a chapter, intro was also very impressive. I had to lower the settings because of all the pretty effects going off all at once, crafted me some Kayran armor and it looks ballin' as shit.

SMT - Nocturne

re-playing this finally on HARD in first person mode via PCSX2 emulator. Game looks beautiful with the full cel-shaded graphics, looks even better with customization settings. I plan on going True Demon Ending route of course.

Umineko EP 1-4, 5-8

Only installed and started up so it can be ready once I finish one of the games above. (likely TW2) I heard a lot of good things about this VN from friends and forums, though I don't know what to expect considering I thought some of the scenes in the anime involving alternate timelines, over the top cheesy witch wars, and that repetitive game gimmick they have going started to become asinine quick. Then again, first time watching Higurashi I was actually very annoyed with the build up and different arcs. Once they started to give you answers, things slowly start making sense and it became worth it. So I really hope Umineko is going to do the same to turn things around like that or just keep me on the edge of my seat. I ended up liking Higurashi a whole lot, it really surprised me. Which is why I want to give this VN a chance since I heard the anime butchered the storyline and ended it abruptly.

[Gokulo]

I really like Umineko but let me tell you think: don't expect many answers and the over the top things really build up with time. Still I'd urge you to play it With every chapter the story gets weirder and weirder, I still need to play 8 though so can't comment on the end.

[Souj]

I was doing really good in Naruto online until I beat some guy who was like 15ranks above me. That made me rank up a lot and now I get my ass kicked by everyone fiduvhpwiuvhgsaivcydsap!

[Tobi]

Wish I still had UNS2... The online was fun fighting friends or fighting randoms in player matches, since you find more people there who don't abuse cheap characters and spam shit like they do in ranked. Best thing I liked about ranked was making higher rank people force d/c and try to talk shit to you in messages :D

Still hate Awakening Minato and Itachi with a passion, and the fucking broken ass puppet users(especially Sasori), and if someone tries to use Deidara, I just use Deidara too cause I already know what they're gonna try to do.

[Souj]

Whats Deidara do that's so bad? some ranged attack spam? I've only gone against 1 Deidara but I beat him pretty easily.

but yeah, I don't have much problems with the ranked online community. there have been very few people who do just cheap tactics. Though that amount increases with several people once they awaken and spam their big ranged attacks.
and only 1 person has sent me a message and it was a guy with the highest rank. told me to "stop running bitch". in all capse of course.

[Insanecyclone]

Whats Deidara do that's so bad? some ranged attack spam? I've only gone against 1 Deidara but I beat him pretty easily.

Against a skilled player his ranged attacks are nearly impossible to counter. By 'skilled' I mean ones that troll you into attacking and run away to spam you. I did that a lot with him online.

As for what I'm playing.

Resonance of Fate
Trinity Universe
Crysis 2
Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel

[Klien]

Finished my first plat with inFamous~ off to plat inFamous 2 all i need to do is finish a evil playthrough and it's done. Also still playing GEB...which i cant seem to put down..

[Tobi]

Sounds like ranked changed drastically from when I last played. Hell, you'd even come across players who play run away and spam their assists just to activate Support Drive asap, then once activated, they spam jump + shuriken the whole match... Maybe I was just unlucky the majority of the time I played ranked matches. Luckily I didn't have too many problems getting my 50 wins for the title, even ended up doing couple more matches after I got my plat.

[Daruma]

Played and finished Dead Nation (campaign mode). Most fun I have had in a long time sp with a game. Thought it was going to suck....but now I am craving for a sequel

Now back to LBP, oblivion, and FFXI

[Yuri-G]

- fucking around with Morrowind right now. I tried installing Morrowind 2011 but it was missing some pieces. not sure if I want to go through the hassle of finding what's missing and replacing it or simply reinstalling vanilla Morrowind and modding it piece by piece. I've already started doing the latter but now I'm missing some of the really cool shit from Morrowind 2011. so I might end up modding vanilla myself, then going over a list of what's in 2011 and cherry-picking the invidivual mods that I haven't added yet. kind of a long and complicated process but worth it. Morrowind modded to the maximum is so fucking great, and now that I've got a computer that can handle it, I'm going to take advantage.

- also fucking around with modding Oblivion. so far all I've added is Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul as well as a mod that adds Mark and Recall. the OOO mod is so vast in scope that I think I'll just play through it a bit and mod more later. although if anyone has any favorite mods for Oblivion, please let me know - I would love some suggestions. I've done some research and the sheer amount of mods out there is staggering.

- got Bioshock (came with Oblivion) and I've been messing with that a little. pretty fun. I like the atmosphere a lot.

- done with Terraria for now, I think. it might serve as a time-killer in the future, but that's about it. it was good while it lasted.

- also been playing something so old-school I'll have to spoiler it so I don't blow your minds. I have no idea why I picked this up. it's a horrible game, with a horrible plot, a lame battle system, I mean everything about it is just awful. and yet I love it. nostalgiabomb, I guess...

Spoiler: show

http://images.wikia.com/finalfantasy...st_Box_Art.jpg

was going to pick up Alice: Madness Returns but the reviews are pretty middling... think I may wait for the inevitable price drop. or see if I can "find" a copy for the PC...

[Atreides]

holy shitballs, the final boss in Clock Tower 3 is fucking insane. All in all this game has been uh... weird. I doubt people who don't like survival horror could ever hope to get through this. The basic premise is: half the game you are a delicate english schoolgirl who must hide from psychopaths and can go into fits of panic when they get too close (which, of course, can be cured with lavender water) and has no weapons to defend herself except 3 spritzes of holy water which can slow enemies down momentarily. For boss battles however, you become some sort of holy warrior, with access to a sacred bow which fires arrows of divine judgment... really.

The story/atmosphere is pretty good I guess, yay for implied incest and gruesome murder scenes. I guess I should go back and play the SNES/PSX 2D clock towers, but I don't feel like Clock Tower 3 makes a particularly compelling case for the franchise, which is probably why it never got a sequel (except for Haunting Ground in a way, which I also have yet to play).

As vexing as this game is (and as much as I know that it's probably a terrible game I only tolerate because it's survival horror) I really hate that they don't make good japanese horror games anymore

[Eticket]

I played Clock Tower 3 for a night or two a few years back. I just didn't get into it much. Like you said, great setting but crappy gameplay. It creeped the wife out a bit too. Every once in a while I'll whisper "Alyssa... where are you?" to freak her out.

I started up Dragon Age 2 again now that they patched it. Trying to knock out Supplier and Mage Hunter so I can finish the Platinum for it.

[Atreides]

did they fix everything? is it still that 1 patch for 360/ps3?

[Souj]

I need to play Clock Tower 1 again. Played it a looong time ago and I remember it scaring me. But I also remember never getting past the part in the school I think. I just remember Scissors Man stabbing through the bathroom stall door where I was hiding.

[Eticket]

did they fix everything? is it still that 1 patch for 360/ps3?

They fixed a lot of it. Hit about 2 weeks ago for 360 and a week back for PS3

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to.../index/7497637

Spoiler: show

------------------------
Dragon Age II 1.02
------------------------

NOTE: Some fixes are retroactive, but not all. Players with plot-breaking bugs may need to revert to an earlier save, particularly a save prior to visiting the affected area during the current year in the game.

GAMEPLAY
- In many fights, enemies now move less quickly at the start of combat. This slower initial pace makes tactical positioning more useful and important.
- If the force of an enemy attack interrupts a party member's current action, the party member now resumes the action once he or she has recovered. This means, for example, that party members who have been instructed to consume a health potion will now do so as soon as they are able, and do not need to be told to consume a health potion again if they are interrupted.
- Enemies are now much less likely to explode into body parts upon death.
- Attacks that hit a stealthed assassin are now more likely to disrupt stealth.
- Abilities that apply a silence effect now also cancel the target's current action in addition to preventing the target from using further abilities.
- When an enemy wakes from a sleep effect due to suffering damage, other status effects that were applied by the same ability that caused the sleep effect are no longer removed at the same time.
- Items that bear the property "100% of basic attack damage vs. enemies that attack in melee" no longer harm the user when equipped in conjunction with abilities like Blood Magic or Sacrificial Frenzy that reduce the user's health.
- The items known as Final Thought, Sataareth, Sundering, and Trepanner's Gift now have damage types that match their elemental damage bonuses.
- The items known as Allure's Crook, Corrupted Acolyte's Staff, Defender of the Wall, Void's Hammer, and Volcanic Shield can now only be equipped by the appropriate classes.
- The high dragon's fireballs no longer track moving targets.
- Pride demons can no longer be affected by their own Crushing Prison spells.
- The size of the area affected by an ability is now explicitly described as diameter or radius (usually diameter).
- When a party member's armor changes after consummating a romance, runes inscribed on his or her old armor now carry over to the new armor.
- Using the Maker's Sigh potion on an archer no longer alters inventory capacity.
- It is no longer possible to create more than one Elixir of Heroism.
- It is no longer possible to simultaneously enable sustained modes that are supposed to be mutually exclusive.
- In some cases, enemies would freeze while entering combat. This no longer
occurs.
- In some cases, saw traps or spike traps would throw party members back even
when the trap was not visible. This no longer occurs.
- The Special Deliveries chest can no longer get into a state where it contains items but cannot be opened.
- The storage chest is now present in the Hawke estate after completing the main campaign.
- If the Black Emporium premium content is installed, the mabari hound now follows his master more reliably.
- Various character-corruption issues now correct themselves automatically when you load your game.
- Various minor gameplay issues no longer occur.


QUESTS (SPOILER WARNING)
- "Who Needs Rescuing" can now be completed.
- "Friendly Concern" is now available after consummating a romance.
- In "Act of Mercy," Thrask can no longer die, which could block completion.
- In "A Murder of Crows," it is now always possible to fight the varterral.
- In "A New Path," Merrill no longer remains locked in the party after the quest.
- In "Bait and Switch," the chest in the abandoned house can now always be opened.
- In "Demands of the Qun," Aveline's guards no longer turn hostile if the player declines to enter the Qunari compound during the day and then returns at night.
- In "Dissent," it is no longer possible to loot Ser Alrik's body before the appropriate time. This ensures that the quest can always be completed.
- In "No Rest for the Wicked," Isabela now always begins the opening conversation at the appropriate time.
- In "The Captain's Condolences," it is now possible to ask Aveline about her father even if she is not currently in the party.
- In "The Last Straw," Anders now responds much differently if he is a rival.
- In "The Last Straw," Aveline no longer attacks Meredith when the party is supposed to be stunned. This prevents a subsequent issue where the game could freeze after loading the post-campaign save.
- In "Wayward Son," it is no longer possible to speak to Thrask after speaking to Samson. This ensures that the quest progresses correctly.
- If Merrill's clan members die, she no longer speaks as if they were alive.
- If Anders is a rival, giving him the Tevinter Chantry Amulet now results in rivalry points instead of friendship points.
- If the Black Emporium premium content is installed, a new conversation between Fenris and Hawke's dog is available during the fourth year in Kirkwall.
- Alternate Merrill/Aveline banter is now available if Merrill's clan is killed.
- Various references to the events of Dragon Age: Origins are now more accurate.
- Various minor story-scripting issues no longer occur.


FUNCTIONALITY
- Users with a large number of promotional items were timing out when attempting to log in. This no longer occurs.
- Combat audio has been rebalanced so that it is no longer louder than exploration and dialogue audio.
- The Epic achievement or trophy can now always be unlocked.
- The Supplier achievement or trophy now always unlocks after finding at least 66 resource varieties, including resources purchased from the Black Emporium.
- A codex entry that helps unlock the Archaeologist achievement or trophy is now easier to acquire in the Viscount's Keep during the first year in Kirkwall.
- In the tactics menu, actions that use Items no longer become blank.
- Various minor art issues no longer occur.
- Various technical changes should improve performance and limit crashes.


PS3-SPECIFIC FUNCTIONALITY
- The Epic trophy was not unlocking properly for some users. This no longer occurs.
- The Supplier trophy now always unlocks after finding at least 66 resource varieties, including resources purchased from the Black Emporium.
- A codex entry that helps unlock the Archaeologist trophy is now easier to acquire in the Viscount's Keep during the first year in Kirkwall.


BALANCE
NOTE: Patch 1.03 introduces significant changes to the overall balance of the game, improving the strategic elements and making combat and class progression more engaging and enjoyable for players. Here is a detailed summary of the balance-related improvements:

General Combat
- Enemies’ basic attacks now apply much less force, which means that party members’ actions are not interrupted as frequently.
- The secondary attribute requirement for equipping armor or shields (constitution for warriors, willpower for mages, and cunning for rogues) is now significantly smaller.
- The rate at which rogues regenerate stamina while performing basic attacks has been significantly increased.
- Traps no longer inflict injuries.
- Enemies now gain more health as the game progresses.
- Enemy assassins now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank and boss-rank enemies now have less health.
- Lieutenant-rank enemies can no longer lose more than 40% of their health from a single hit, and boss-rank enemies cannot lose more than 20%.
- Enemy commanders now occasionally throw stun grenades while encouraging their troops to concentrate attacks against a single party member. Previously, this behavior was limited to nightmare difficulty.
- Values for armor and elemental resistances now cannot exceed 95%. The game displays values of up to 100%, but characters now suffer 5% damage from an attack even if they show 100% resistance.
- The DISORIENT effect now applies a 50% penalty to enemy defense, as described in the codex, instead of only 25%.
- The Rune of Valiance now provides a +2 bonus to all attributes instead of a variable bonus that could rise as high as +7. As well, equipping and unequipping multiple pieces of armor that each bear a Rune of Valiance no longer results in incorrect attribute scores.
- Items that improve the Blood Magic cost ratio now provide 0.25 mana per point of health instead of 1 mana.
- On hard and nightmare difficulties, status effects now persist on enemies for a slightly longer duration.
- On nightmare difficulty, enemies now inflict more damage than before.
- On nightmare difficulty, party members no longer suffer friendly-fire damage from warriors’ basic attacks.
- On nightmare difficulty, party members can no longer suffer more than 75% of their health in damage from a single friendly-fire attack.

Warrior Changes
- Aftershock upgrade to the Tremor talent now has a 30% chance to STAGGER normal enemies instead of 40%.
- Claymore upgrade to the Cleave talent now has a 10% chance to STAGGER normal enemies instead of 40%.
- Cleave talent now increases damage by 75% instead of 100%, while the cost has been increased from 20 stamina to 30 and cooldown from 20s to 25s.
- Shield Bash talent no longer automatically STAGGERS enemies within range of the attack who were not targeted directly. The primary target is still automatically STAGGERED, but other normal enemies within range have a 40% chance to STAGGER.
- Shield Defense talent now increases threat generation by 100%.
- Sunder talent now has a 20% chance to STAGGER enemies on a critical hit instead of 50%. As well, the talent now only STAGGERS enemies if the warrior is wielding a two-handed weapon, as originally intended.
- The Berserker's Berserk talent now calculates the damage bonus differently, substantially increasing the ability's effectiveness.
- The Reaver's Blood Frenzy talent and Fenris's Veneer of Calm talent now provide a maximum bonus of +50% damage instead of +100%.

Rogue Changes
- Rogues now regain 1% of their stamina per hit with dual weapons or 2% per hit with a bow.
- The Ambush talent now functions as described.
- The Burst Shot talent now inflicts approximately 50% more damage (and 3x physical force instead of 2x).
- Brand talent now provides a 25% bonus to warriors' and mages' critical chance instead of 10%.
- Disorienting Shot upgrade to the Pinning Shot talent now always DISORIENTS the victim, regardless of whether the victim was pinned in place.
- The Inconspicuous talent now extends the reduced threat generation to other rogues and mages within a 10m diameter.
- The Lacerate talent now provides a 10% chance to re-apply the damage from any ability over 5s, instead of a chance to apply a fixed amount of damage.
- The Merciless Strike upgrade to the Explosive Strike talent now applies 300% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 400%.
- The Pinning Shot talent now pins the victim for the correct duration.
- The Pinpoint Strikes talent now includes a 100% bonus to attack for the duration of the ability.
- The Assassin's Assassinate talent now has a 50s cooldown instead of 40s. The Annihilate upgrade now applies 200% damage vs. BRITTLE targets instead of 400%.
- The Shadow's Decoy talent and Sebastian's Guardian Angel talent now have a 45s cooldown instead of 30s.
- The Shadow's Disorienting Criticals talent now functions as described, and provides a 50% bonus to critical damage when obscured instead of 25%.
- The Shadow's Pinpoint Precision talent now provides a 50% bonus to critical damage instead of 25%.

Mage Changes
- Walking Bomb now inflicts damage equal to 50% of the victim's maximum health upon explosion, within a 4m radius, instead of 100%.
- Arcane Wall upgrade to the Arcane Shield spell now continues to provide a 20% defense bonus to the mage, as described. Previously, the upgrade reduced the bonus to 15%. Other party members receive a 5% bonus.
- The Chain Reaction upgrade to the Chain Lightning spell now applies 300% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 600%.
- Death Syphon spell now drains multiple corpses more quickly.
- Entropic Cloud spell now applies for 30s instead of 15s (against normal enemies), but the cost has been increased from 35 mana to 50 and the cooldown from 40s to 50s. The Death Cloud upgrade now applies damage every 2s instead of every 4s.
- Fireball and Firestorm spells now both inflict approximately 40% more damage and apply 3x elemental force instead of 2x.
- Misdirection Hex spell now applies for 15s instead of 10s (against normal enemies).
- Petrify spell now applies for 12s instead of 15s (against normal enemies).
- Sleep spell now applies for 15s instead of 10s (against normal enemies).
- Spirit Mastery skill now includes a 10% bonus to critical chance instead of 5%.
- The Spirit Strike upgrade to the Spirit Bolt spell now applies 300% damage vs. DISORIENTED targets instead of 200%.
- The Winter's Blast upgrade to the Winter's Grasp spell now notes that it affects nearby enemies.
- The Blood mage's Blood Magic spell and the spirit healer's Healing Aura spell are now mutually exclusive.
- The Blood mage's Blood Magic spell now reserves 70% of the mage's mana instead of 50%.
- The Blood mage's Blood Slave spell now enslaves the victim for a longer duration. As well, if the spell is ineffective, the victim's current action is now canceled. The Blood Spatter upgrade now inflicts damage equal to 75% of the victim's maximum health upon explosion instead of 100%, within a 4m radius. As well, the spell description now displays this information.
- The Blood mage's Grave Robber spell now affects a 12m diameter instead of 6m in order to make the ability more useful.
- The Blood mage's One Foot In upgrade now inflicts 100% of the mage’s maximum health in damage instead of 10%.
- The Blood mage's Paralyzing Hemorrhage upgrade to the Hemorrhage spell now applies 500% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 900%.
- The Force mage's Fist of the Maker spell now inflicts approximately 50% more damage. The Maker's Hammer upgrade now applies 600% damage vs. STAGGERED targets instead of 900%.
- The Force mage's Unshakable spell now provides a +50 bonus to fortitude instead of +100.
- The Spirit healer's Group Heal spell and Anders's Aid Allies spell now restore 25% of party members' health instead of 30%. When upgraded, Group Heal restores 40% of health instead of 50%.
- The Spirit healer's Healing Aura spell and Anders's Panacea spell now provide a +100 bonus to health regeneration instead of +50, and a +200 bonus when upgraded instead of +100. As well, the diameter of the spell has been increased from 6m to 10m, and from 8m to 15m when upgraded. In addition, a rare case
in which the spell previously provided an abnormally high rate of health regeneration no longer occurs.

Companion Specific Skill Changes
- Anders's Swift Justice spell now reduces cooldowns to 90% of their normal duration instead of 80%.
- Aveline's Bodyguard talent no longer allows her to absorb the damage from Anders's Martyr spell.
- Aveline's Immovable talent now provides a stacking 8% bonus to damage resistance per hit instead of 2%.
- If Bethany or Carver rejoin the party near the end of the game, they now learn the Force Mage and Templar specializations, respectively. Existing save games from after the Deep Roads Expedition will not receive the benefit of this fix.

[Souj]

The Supplier achievement or trophy now always unlocks after finding at least 66 resource varieties, including resources purchased from the Black Emporium.

How many resources are in the game to get, and is the trophy retroactive? Only trophy I need, but I have to play the whole game over again cause I missed like 4-5 from act1/2

[Dominico]

Trying to decide between Castlevania LOS and FFXIII. Both are sitting on my shelf and I'm not sure which to go with. Also have Borderlands, but waiting for a friend to pick up a copy so we could play through it in co-op.

[Atreides]

finished up Clock Tower 3, now I've moved on to Echo Night: Beyond. This game... sucks. A lot. You walk around a moon base in a space suit following a crash, with sluggish controls that make you feel like you're stuck in a huge cumbersome space suit every second. I really like the idea of a horror game set on a moon base, but this is hardly scary and the only "enemies" are ghosts, most of which just hang around annoying you to go fetch them items. I'm not really sure what the story is either, apparently there's some sort of alien fart gas that killed everyone on the base and turned them into ghosts but I haven't gotten that far. I am not the kinda person who can walk away from a terrible survival horror game so I'm trying to get through this as fast as possible.

Dunno what to play next, I really should work on Deadly Premonition on 360 but I've still got a whole pile of ps2 SH titles to get through, kinda leaning towards Haunting Ground or X-Files: Resist or Serve. Apparently one of my local gamestops got a copy of Rule of Rose traded in too, dunno what happened to my copy but I'd really like to get through that at some point soon while I'm still on this survival horror kick.

[Brill Weave]

Is Deadly Premonition worth picking up? I've always been intrigued by it but didn't pick it up.