[Fiend]

Also some general geekery (can you tell I'm injured and can't climb/train much  ): A genre/alphabetical list of all the games I've played, with some favourites highlighted:

FPS:
Aliens Vs Predator 2
Bioshock
Bulletstorm
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 1
Crysis * - great fun gameplay with suit, and very pretty
Crysis 2
Crysis 3
Daikatana
Dark Messiah
Deus Ex * - brilliant immersion and roleplaying, actually lived up to promise
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Dishonoured * - some of the best fun and varied gameplay in any modern game
Doom 3
Far Cry * - excellent exploratory gameplay and great gfx
Far Cry 2
Giants
Gunman Chronicles
Half Life
Half Life 2 * - everything HL1 should have been, really immersive
Halo
KISS: Psycho Circus
Left 4 Dead * - brilliantly executed coop zombie fun
Left 4 Dead 2 * - as above but even better
Metro Last Light
Painkiller
Prey
Quake * - favourite game ever, perfect control feel, great visceral gameplay, and everlasting customisation
Quake 2 * - excellent progression, not as atmospheric but still great shooter fun
Quake 4
QuakeLive
RAGE
Requiem: Avenging Angel
Return To Castle Wolfenstein
Singularity
Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force
Timeshift
Undying
Unreal * - absolutely beautiful at the time, and thrilling immersion through an epic game
Unreal Tournament
Unreal 2
Wheel Of Time
Wolfenstein reboot

3PS:
Alice
Alice: Madness Returns
Armed And Dangerous
Chronicles Of Riddick
Dead Space 2
Dead Space 3
Enclave
FAKK2
Max Payne 2
Mechwarrior 3
Rune
Severance: Blade Of Darkness * - brutal and challenging combat, rewarding
Space Marine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Tomb Raider 2013

RPG:
Gothic 3 * - really immersive, in a gritty, varied and superbly themed world
Guild Wars * - endless exploration with solid mechanics
Path Of Exile
Skyrim * - utterly addictive exploration in a vast and dramatic world
Torchlight 2

RTS
Battlezone 2 * - the perfect blend of RTS and FPS, slick and stylish
Black And White
Dawn Of War
Mechcommander 2
Starcraft 2 * - thematically excellent and flawlessly presented esport

Tried but deleted:
Dark Souls - broken PC port, mouse doesn't work even with fixes.
Far Cry 3 - too similar to all FCs + Crysises
Gears Of War - utterly awful in every way
Quake 3 Arena - terrible gameplay and theme compared to UT, fixed for QuakeLive

[richieb]

Been meaning to mention this for a while but been unsure cos its essentially a bit of a plug. Mind you it could well backfire if no one likes the game.
I don't play games at all but my brother is a developer and his latest - 'Sir, you are being hunted' is meant to be pretty good of its type. I don't understand gaming terminology enough to work out if it might be of interest to anyone on this thread to be honest. Ignore me if not.
I think its a PC, Mac  and Linux thing rather than a console thing and it's on steam (whatever that is).

[Fiend]

I think its a PC, Mac  and Linux thing rather than a console thing and it's on steam (whatever that is).

0mgz0r, we have teh n00b in here!!


I've heard of SYABH but not followed it nor tried it. Apparently it's a "procedurally-generated British horror in which tweed-wearing robots hunt you for sport. Roam the landscape, scavenge for food, hide breathlessly in the undergrowth, flee in terror, and even fight back with stolen weapons. Sir is a stealth and survival game unlike any other. " sort of FPS survival game. I suspect it could be pretty characterful....

http://store.steampowered.com/app/242880/

[Fiend]

Finished this recently....took a while to get everything organised for the final mission, which made it a bit repetitive although the missions were still fun. The ending was a bit abrupt but quite adequate. Found a few more niggles but a lot more fun, it really is a great game.

Been playing quite a bit of XCom: Enemy Unknown recently. I'd put if off for ages as I didn't think I'd like the slower pace of turn-based games, and the first few missions felt pretty drab, but once the options have opened up, I'm really liking it.

Pros:
- Game is properly tactical, using cover, overwatch, weapons choice, flanking etc, and is generally rather addictive and moreish.
- %-based nature of combat is interesting and treads a good line between satisfaction and amused exasperation.
- Presentation of both bases and battlefields is well themed and coherent.
- Tactical UI is pretty good and grasping the battlefield is quite slick.
- Turn-based nature is actually a pleasant change from relentless high APM RTS or twitchy FPS.
- Almost all options/equipment, and all classes,  have tactical viability.
- Psionics opens up a lot more fun.
- Later enemies are genuinely challenging and encourage more thoughtful tactics
- Having your soldiers getting progressively bosslier to deal with said enemies is rewarding.

Cons:
- Manual is RUBBISH and you have to read everything everywhere on screen very carefully to pick up mechanics.
- No easy key navigation around Geoscape
- GFX don't really take advantage of the Unreal 3 engine nor the slower pace.
- Tile based nature of scenery is a bit obvious in places.
- Missions get quite repetitive later on.
- Quite a lot of waiting around for essential research to complete.
- Massive and pointless difficulty spike on battleship (aborted mission after 3x1 hour attempts, compared to completing final mission first go)

[Bubba]

Been really enjoying these two tablet games:

The Room

The Room 2

Great value for several hours of atmospheric puzzling.  Available for both Apple and Android fondleslabs.

[Oldmanmatt]

Yeah, Polly and I found the room 2 slightly disappointing, in as much as it followed too closely to the first in it's style; making it too predictable. Good though and probably better if you play them back to back as two chapters if the same game.

[Obi-Wan is lost...]

Just completed the first one after your recommendation. 69p well spent.

[JamieG]

Bump.

Anyone been playing anything good recently. My brother and I are spending the evenings sitting slack-jawed and drooling, whilst slaughtering the denizens of hell in Diablo 3 for PS3. Fantastic fun, shocking (as in bad) story and weirdly addictive.

Also played Proteus. More of an experience or interactive art piece than game, which was strangely good. And left me feeling quite contemplative for the rest of the evening.

Last but not least, I played Valiant hearts, which is a really good story set in WW1. Quite moving and very cool comic book graphic style.

[miso soup]

Assassin's Creed IV:  Black Flag.  Best pirate game ever.  The previous best pirate game ever being Pirates, and that was a long time ago.

[fatdoc]

The last of us.

Picked up a second hand copy, couldn't stop until completed. It's been lauded as the best character development in a game for a very very long time. I think it's defo one of the best.

In addition, the gameplay is excellent, the story totally unpredictable. It's a real journey.

I think it's the best zombie / killer crazed infection mutating  humans / end of society / media I've  experienced, this includes films.

Word of warning, the intro is sickening, but serves purpose to set the context.

Best game I've played for 2 years, at least

[Fiend]

Thief 4: Decent game, amazing presentation. The best graphics and atmosphere to date. Quite consolised and apparently linear compared to previous incarnations, but the sheer style of it is worth a look.

Bioshock Infinite: Decent graphics, good fun game. Starts off a bit grating but gets progressively more involved and spectacular. Stylish setting and quite hardcore combat too.

[JamieG]

Yeah, I've played bioshock infinite and really enjoyed it. Agree some bits are quite hard. Story gets better and better as it goes, and even though I knew it would have a twist, it still caught me massively off guard and left me pretty speechless.

Played black flag too. Really enjoyed the pirating stuff. Great fun, attacking and pillaging other ships and forts. Not so convinced by the assassin parkour style stuff. Would have preferred just a straight up pirate game. But overall very good.

Anyone picked up a new console? I'm still on my ps3. Will pick up a ps4 at some point, looks like a couple good games have come out. Destiny seems to be getting a mixed reception. Anyone tried it?

Cheers Jamie

[Bubba]

Destiny seems to be getting a mixed reception. Anyone tried it?

I've got Destiny on X1.

Single Player - meh, can't be arsed. Played first bit but got bored.
Co-op / raids / etc - has potential.
Multiplayer - plays really really well (as you'd expect from Bungie) with great maps.

I'm quite enjoying it atm but I'm not sure I can be arsed with the RPG style long term commitment of having to grind gear/materials/etc to remain competitive. I'd prefer something where you can just pick it up again after a month off and still be able to compete on an even playing field. 

It's been a good diversion but I suspect I'll return to BF4 until H5 comes out.

[JamieG]

Destiny seems to be getting a mixed reception. Anyone tried it?

I've got Destiny on X1.

Single Player - meh, can't be arsed. Played first bit but got bored.
Co-op / raids / etc - has potential.
Multiplayer - plays really really well (as you'd expect from Bungie) with great maps.

I'm quite enjoying it atm but I'm not sure I can be arsed with the RPG style long term commitment of having to grind gear/materials/etc to remain competitive. I'd prefer something where you can just pick it up again after a month off and still be able to compete on an even playing field. 

It's been a good diversion but I suspect I'll return to BF4 until H5 comes out.

Hmmm, good knowledge Bubba. Not really a multi-player person (maybe because I always get spanked!), so I think I may give destiny a miss.

Also I forgot. Hotline Miami is absolutely awesome. Super fast paced top down carnage. Amazing music. Weird story. Highly recommend.

[Zods Beard]

I too have been hitting the Diablo 3 crackpipe pretty hard, I can't actually think why. It's just a glorified button masher but god damn I want those lvl 50 paldrons of fire.

GTA Online too, although it is starting to become a little boring.

And Dwarf Fortress too, anyone else indulged in the 'worlds hardest computer game' ???

[Fiend]

Styx: Master Of Shadows.



Just started this. Basically a much less gritty Thief 3PS stealth-em-up with distinctly pre-gen graphics.

But...

YOU GET TO PLAY AS A GOBLIN.

Seems pretty fun.

[Fiend]

The Evil Within.



Tried the demo of this, available here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/268050/ - the above trailer is pretty much exactly how the demo is.

Horrible camera movement, horrible swaying character movement, horrible field of vision, horribly clunky combat and interaction, basically consolisation at it's most pointlessly cumbersome.

BUT.....I still enjoyed it enough to play 2 hours of the demo and order the game. There's plenty of gore and creepiness, the atmosphere is good horror style, the graphics are decent, the combat is actually quite tactical, using traps, killing certain enemy to get their weapons to kill others, and the whole "plot" is quite WTF and intriguing, I actually want to know what is going on which is a rare thing for me to care about. If you think, say, Dead Space character control is all slick and smooth and you want a horror game, you might love this.

I've also got:
Alien Isolation
XCom: Enemy Within
Metro 2033 Redux
Bioshock Infinite DLC
stocked up. So fairly well prepared for a grim winter

[Durbs]

Recently spent a whoppnig £7.50 on Banished which is surprisingly addictive.
Somewhere between a realtime Civilisation and The Sims (in terms of micromanagement). I've learnt I'd be a terrible town-planner, and I don't really mind if people starve to death.

[JamieG]

I've heard about that, but not tried. Maybe I should give it a look. Apparently it is quite hard and you whole town can easily starve to death over the first winter. Is that right.

Dragon Age: Inquisition is getting some good reviews. I imagine that should be up Fiends street. I'm tempted but it look like it takes 80+ hours just to get through the story! That is like two full weeks at work!

Currently playing a bit of borderlands; prequel which is good but very similar to borderlands 2. More of a giant expansion pack than an actual new game.

Also still addicted to diablo 3 when my brother is free. Co-op all the way. I imagine it is pretty dull single player.

[Durbs]

Yeah, it quite harsh in some infuriating ways, but once you've learnt it's ways things make more sense, so a fair amount of starvation happening. First winters are fine, it's around year 15 I struggle.

[Evil]

Currently playing a bit of borderlands; prequel which is good but very similar to borderlands 2. More of a giant expansion pack than an actual new game.

Ah, I've bought a copy of this, but haven't got around to playing it yet and actually we've not quite finished Borderlands 2  , which is totally my kind of game, running around getting increasingly ridiculous guns and shooting a variety of creatures/things . Yes please. I'm quite happy for more of the same really 

[JamieG]

Yeah I really enjoyed borderlands 2. Also did a couple of the expansions. Tiny tina one is pretty funny. Nothing like the feeling of finding a really good gun. Personal favorite of mine. I found a sniper rifle, with burst fire whilst zoomed that also had a high chance of fire damage. Felt like an absolute bad ass for awhile. Until the next shiny. Expect more of the same in the presequel. I playing as claptrap which is pretty amusing, if a bit random at times.

[Evil]

Yeah I really enjoyed borderlands 2. Also did a couple of the expansions. Tiny tina one is pretty funny. Nothing like the feeling of finding a really good gun. Personal favorite of mine. I found a sniper rifle, with burst fire whilst zoomed that also had a high chance of fire damage. Felt like an absolute bad ass for awhile. Until the next shiny. Expect more of the same in the presequel. I playing as claptrap which is pretty amusing, if a bit random at times.

Sweet, looking forward to it...and might go back for the expansions at some point too.

[JamieG]

I've been playing Shadow of Mordor on my new shiny PS4 (very exciting Christmas present from the wife!)

And it is awesome! Everything I want in an open world game. You actually get to take-on each orc Warchief how you want rather than a series of scripted events. The upgrades feel like actual improvements and make sense with the story. Not the prettiest game, but so much fun to play. As a good sign I keep forgetting to actually do main story missions because I just enjoy raging around, collecting things, fighting orcs and riding the caragors (kind of ugly lion things you can ride).

Highly recommend.

Also played Octodad with the wife which was hilarious co-op fun and the perfect length for one evening. She also played the silent hill teaser P.T. whilst I cowered in fear, genuinely very creepy!

[JamieG]

Anyone playing anything good?

I've been playing Apotheon. A 2d puzzle platformer and fighter, which has a beautiful art style. It looks like the painting on a Greek pot. Gameplay is mostly good, although sometimes feels clumsy.

Also played Infamous: Second Son. Which was really good. Running all over the city with superpowers doesn't get old fast. :-)