What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

Following up on New Vegas, I finally finished the game, all its DLC, and tested out three of its endings. Because I could only play it during baby's sleep time

Congrats! It's always nice to finish a game and have a sense of accomplishment - especially when you enjoyed it!

[Rath Darkblade]

What is New Vegas? *curious*

And I thought Bethesda only makes Elder Scrolls games...

[JasefWisener]

RE4 is probably the best entry into the series (unless you just straight want to jump in at the beginning for story reasons) since it's such a good blend of good gameplay and the atmosphere/story of the originals. 7 is also an amazing game, but it's the least connected (though definitely still connected) to the overall story of any of the games. Of the originals, REmake is incredible, but my favorite is 2 (and REmake 2 comes out in January!).

[Tawmis]

While I am still beta testing Toejam and Earl (beat it on the Easy mode), I have really gotten back into the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO. Way back in the day, I did beta for it and subscribed for like a year or so to it. But then I fell out of all my MMOs. Now I play a lot of them again (because now they're all free to play), but the Star Wars one has been very enjoyable to get back into. Doing the Free To Play and not subscribing has some limits, but I managed to solo my Jedi from 20 to 50 in a matter of weeks. It's nice that missions don't require groups anymore. I made a Trooper last night and already have him to 23. Going to see if I can play a few classes to 50 (which is the current max for my account), and see if I still enjoy it - and if I do, I may sub again, just to get more levels for a little while.

[JasefWisener]

If you sub, even just a month, you also get access to all of the expansions forever.

[Datadog]

Congrats! It's always nice to finish a game and have a sense of accomplishment - especially when you enjoyed it!

I did take a week-long break halfway through the game to get some work done (and binge the last season of Agents of SHIELD). This is a practice I'll have to do more with open-world games since I was starting to see the game in my sleep after the first 20 hours.

What is New Vegas? *curious*

"Fallout: New Vegas". I'm not sure how numbering is supposed to work with a lot of games these days, but it's basically "Fallout 3.5", a post-apocalyptic open-world western RPG set in the Mojave desert where two factions are fighting over the Hoover Dam.

And oddly enough, I just realized that despite its Vegas setting, I spent almost zero-time at the card tables or slot machines. I'm so bad at role playing.

RE4 is probably the best entry into the series (unless you just straight want to jump in at the beginning for story reasons)

I already know most of the series' general story, so RE4 was my pick as well since it looks so fun. I have 4, 5, and 6 ready to go and I'll grab 7 when the price goes down. Then I'll just wait until all the originals get their HD remakes and finish playing the series out of order.

[Tawmis]

If you sub, even just a month, you also get access to all of the expansions forever.

All the current expansions that are out? I wasn't aware of that. That's a nice bit of incentive too. There's been a few items I picked up that require the latest expansion to be able to use (though I think I've out leveled most of those items).

[JasefWisener]

Yep, any expansion that's been released is yours once you sub after it's been released (so everything up to and including Knights of the Eternal Throne). The next expansion is supposed to release sometime this year, but I haven't heard any news lately.

[Tawmis]

Yep, any expansion that's been released is yours once you sub after it's been released (so everything up to and including Knights of the Eternal Throne). The next expansion is supposed to release sometime this year, but I haven't heard any news lately.

Hrm. By the time I get some other characters I am interested in playing, that other expansion might come out - and I might sub at that point to get it - and all the previous ones.

[Rath Darkblade]

I am replaying TES4: Oblivion. For all its faults (graphically less impressive than Skyrim, naturally; voicework is nice but repetitive), it's still a very fine game.

[BBP]

Back at Hot Death Uno. The game's a bit buggy but it's so awesome...

Does anybody else here take screenshots of Great Game Accomplishments? I do occasionally. Last ones I've made were of my favourite moment in Hot Death Uno: there's a Mystery Wild Draw card, if you play that, the person after you has to draw the same number of cards as the number on the playing card below, and there's a 69 card, which can be played on 6's and 9's, and 9's and 6's can be played on top of that. And if you play Mystery Wild Draw on top of a 69 card...
the unfortunate player after you has to draw 69 cards!

[Tawmis]

I am replaying TES4: Oblivion. For all its faults (graphically less impressive than Skyrim, naturally; voicework is nice but repetitive), it's still a very fine game.

My problem with Oblivion, unless they've made a change is - the game is SO big. You'd talk to a woman who said she's lost her necklace. You go on this adventure, do all this stuff, and then suddenly find the woman's necklace... but there's no indication of where the woman is, and you've forgotten after going through several towns and exploring different places. (Or maybe I was just doing it wrong). I also had a problem with the "real world" aspect of it - I can't count how many times I fired off an arrow and it fell way short, and blew my element of surprise, rather than saying "Not in range."

[Tawmis]

Does anybody else here take screenshots of Great Game Accomplishments?

In general? I do. Like in Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, I finally got a tauntaun (which required a lot of running back and forth and fighting) - and took a screenshot of my character on the tauntaun.

Took tons and tons and tons of screenshots of just cool things (graphically) in both Pillars of Eternity games.

[Datadog]

Booted up Resident Evil 4 tonight and... I'm in for a lot of fun.

I didn't expect a combination of tank controls with a separately-driven camera. When I started playing, I aimed myself down the path, pressed forward, and Leon immediately ran into an off-screen tree. It's an early version of the modern shooter, so I've had a lot to unlearn just to pass the first few areas.

Favourite part of the game so far: diving through every window in the most epic way possible.

I am replaying TES4: Oblivion. For all its faults (graphically less impressive than Skyrim, naturally; voicework is nice but repetitive), it's still a very fine game.

I'm interested to hear what you think of that one as you continue. I considered getting it, but I keep hearing mixed things.

[Rath Darkblade]

My problem with Oblivion, unless they've made a change is - the game is SO big. You'd talk to a woman who said she's lost her necklace. You go on this adventure, do all this stuff, and then suddenly find the woman's necklace... but there's no indication of where the woman is, and you've forgotten after going through several towns and exploring different places. (Or maybe I was just doing it wrong). I also had a problem with the "real world" aspect of it - I can't count how many times I fired off an arrow and it fell way short, and blew my element of surprise, rather than saying "Not in range."

I think you might be thinking of TES3: Morrowind, Tawm. In TES4: Oblivion, if you fulfill a part of a quest, select that quest, and then select the map, it zooms in (with a big red arrow, even) on the spot where the woman may be. (Of course, she won't be there if you killed her - you cad! - or if something else kills her - darn it!)

I am replaying TES4: Oblivion. For all its faults (graphically less impressive than Skyrim, naturally; voicework is nice but repetitive), it's still a very fine game.

I'm interested to hear what you think of that one as you continue. I considered getting it, but I keep hearing mixed things.

I actually finished it several times. It's a very, very fine game; if it adopted some aspects of the later Skyrim (e.g. a better way of keeping track of your quest targets; Skyrim's ability to craft armour/weapons for yourself), it would be pretty perfect. As it is, the only way to get better armour is to advance in level and to either go dungeon raiding against brigands (who, bizarrely, will always have better armour and weapons than you), or to go shopping (which is expensive). If - as in Skyrim - you were given the option to create or improve your weapons and armour before you go dungeon delving, there might be a way to even the odds a little.

Oblivion's magic system can take a little getting used to, but isn't hard to figure out. The keys aren't difficult to figure out either. The quests (especially the Dark Brotherhood) are lots of fun.

On the flip side, the chief reason I stayed away from Oblivion after finishing it was the main quest - particularly the quest when an Oblivion gate opens right outside Bruma, and it's up to you to find a way through before time runs out. Timed quests have a tendency to play on my nerves dreadfully, and when you go inside Oblivion gates, there's nothing - not even a hint - to tell you how to get to where you need to go, so I got lost heaps of times - which usually meant game over.

On the plus side, the music is top notch. The voice-work is repetitive (because they had only a few voice actors to do literally hundreds of NPCs), but it isn't grating. The map system is good; it could be better, but only if they adopted the Skyrim system. The graphics are incredible, although the representation of armour and weapons is... interesting, to say the least (especially compared with Skyrim). Dwarven armour is blocky; when you wear an elven helmet, you look a little like an elk (and wearing elven boots look a little like wearing duck's feet!) I could go on, but I think I've said enough. Here is what it looks like.

My verdict? Oblivion is worth playing - but if given the choice between Oblivion and Skyrim, pick Skyrim. I've played Skyrim ever since it came out and still isn't sick of it. I'm replaying Oblivion because the 'faction' quests (e.g. Fighters' Guild, Mages' Guild, Thieves' Guild, Dark Brotherhood) are so fun.