What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

I got out of that pickle and managed to get on the spaceship.
I could do a Let's Play, if you're all interested...

Sure. That's what I have been doing. I already upload the King's Quest 1 EGA one. I have played and filmed KQ2 and KQ3, but not finished the speaking over portions. (One day...) Also looking forward to playing KQ4 for this, once life... calms down.

[Qbix]

I'd watch that.

I am still playing borderlands 2 with my brother in law. (third play-through now, there is a lack of good co-op games.. )

[MusicallyInspired]

I've been playing The Talos Principle. It's like Portal only to the nth degree and without portals. But the storytelling is sensational! Highly recommend.

[Tawmis]

I've been playing The Talos Principle. It's like Portal only to the nth degree and without portals. But the storytelling is sensational! Highly recommend.

I have a collection of games yet to play on my console that I purchased (and here I am playing the oldies!)... But I have to ask, how is it like Portal without the Portals... because, well, that was one of the main parts of Portal. Or is it one of those games with insane, complicated, riddles to move things in a certain way (but no portals?)

[adeyke]

They're both FPSs, but with exploration and puzzle-solving mechanics instead of actual shooting.

[MusicallyInspired]

I mean it's a puzzle game in the style of Portal where there are different puzzle rooms (called gardens) and you solve puzzle areas in a garden and move on to the next garden. It takes a page from casual mobile gaming in that there is a huge number of puzzle areas to finish before getting to the end of the game. However after certain points it becomes less and less linear and you can go in whatever order you want if you get stuck.

Here's how complex it gets: you start in a garden and solve the puzzles there, then find a portal at the end which takes you to a temple hub. You discover the garden you were in is the first of 7. There is also a locked door to a bonus garden accessed by collecting hidden stars from each of the other gardens. There's also a blocked off portal to another advanced puzzle bonus garden.

Then there's an elevator. Which is locked. Once you beat enough gardens you can unlock the elevator and go up where you discover this is but one of 3 temples with gardens, star gardens, and blocked off advanced gardens. As well as a giant tower thay stretches into the sky with 6 floors and their own advanced puzzles which you unlock by beating many of the various puzzles in the other temples. Combine that with a dunp truck load of secrets and easter eggs and you've got a recipe for a highly addictive game!

Story-wise, you are a robot. The game is called The Talos Principle because it's all about artificial intelligence. When you first awake you hear a voice who calls himself Elohim saying that he is the creator of all the gardens and you are meant to conquer them all for the good of your kind as there were many that came before you. But he says not to give into temptation and go into the tower as that "is not for you". it quickly Becomes clear that you are inside a virtual computer program generating everything you see. There are also no humans. There are also computer terminals set up everywhere in each garden and temple with limited access to corrupted files, emails, and other things that you can read. You also find audio time capsule journal entries from somebody. Through these files and audio logs you discover bit by bit what's going on, where the humans are, and what your purpose is.

There's also a computer program that talks to you from the terminals that asks you questions to prove your sentience and eventually starts debating and arguing with you all while telling you to go through the tower and go against Elohim's wishes.

And all that is a scratch on the surface of how fantastic a story and storytelling model this game has. The questions of existence, intelligence, spirituality, and science drive everything forward in one of the most captivating gameplay and storytelling experiences I've ever seen.

Just done extremely well. The puzzles, if not addictive enough, give you a strong need to finish them even if just to see where the story will go next. There are a lot of puzzles, though, so if you don't like puzzles don't play this game. There is a limited hint system, though.

[DeadPoolX]

Yeah, The Talos Principle is pretty cool. It doesn't have Portal's sense of humor or oddball characters, but it's a good FPS/Puzzle game nonetheless.

I've been playing a lot of Marvel Heroes 2015 lately. It's basically a free-to-play action-RPG set in the Marvel universe. My two main characters are Iron Man and Deadpool. Maia's using Black Widow right now, but she's looking at getting either Psylocke, Ms Marvel, or Scarlet Witch as well.

[Collector]

My two main characters are Iron Man and Deadpool.

Well surprise, surprise.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah, not any comedy in The Talos Principle. However, the zany humourous easter eggs that Croteam are known for are present and in ample supply.

[Tawmis]

I've been playing a lot of Marvel Heroes 2015 lately. It's basically a free-to-play action-RPG set in the Marvel universe. My two main characters are Iron Man and Deadpool. Maia's using Black Widow right now, but she's looking at getting either Psylocke, Ms Marvel, or Scarlet Witch as well.

It's a fun MMO - I play it off and on (more off, lately). I just think it's... brainless? Because you will run into an area where there's Hydra agents everywhere - and then here come some Brood... and I'm like, "Wait, shouldn't everyone - including the Hydra agents - be concerned that there's like 20 Brood suddenly attacking?"

[DeadPoolX]

I've been playing a lot of Marvel Heroes 2015 lately. It's basically a free-to-play action-RPG set in the Marvel universe. My two main characters are Iron Man and Deadpool. Maia's using Black Widow right now, but she's looking at getting either Psylocke, Ms Marvel, or Scarlet Witch as well.

It's a fun MMO - I play it off and on (more off, lately). I just think it's... brainless? Because you will run into an area where there's Hydra agents everywhere - and then here come some Brood... and I'm like, "Wait, shouldn't everyone - including the Hydra agents - be concerned that there's like 20 Brood suddenly attacking?"

Well, yeah, it's brainless, but so are most online games (MMO or not) because they're all designed almost exclusively around combat. Not that there aren't single player games like that, but in a single player title it's easier to come up with different ways to handle things. In an online game or MMO, you basically have to make it accessible to everyone.

Probably the only two MMOs that aren't pure combat are Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World. Even then, the bulk of both of those games revolves around fighting.

[BBP]

Had LSL7 installed again and rediscovered how addicting it is! Particularly Strip Liar's Dice which is really a lot of fun, but also trying to get the full score, man that was hard!

[Rath Darkblade]

Strip Liar's Dice is indeed lots of fun. I've given up on the Where's Waldos, though. Last time I gave LSL7 a try, I ended up with just one point short... drat. Oh well...

[BBP]

With the waldos you can go back and get most, except for the three in Captain Queeg's ballroom, so when I play for full score I always walk in and out of place there to make sure I get them all. Easter eggs is a bit of a problem since one of the Drew ones can only be done after you dealt with the Juggs. One point that is really nasty is smelling Annette's handkerchief, since you always need to type it in Other, and you won't get points for it unless you smell it in your inventory, and after you treated it you won't get the points for it either. So that's the biggest hurdle.

[Rath Darkblade]

Argh. I'm playing the AGDI KQ1 (first time playing KQ1! Whee!) and... drat... trying to catch the Condor's talons, and not succeeding, because Graham is a wuss.

I should have known it. White men can't jump.