WeekDAY gaming(10/22/12)- What are YOU still playing?

[ADDGirl]

Well the weekday is here again and I for one thought the weekend was too short, especially since I was on call and had to go work a shift at a group home yesterday. What will you play in your free weekday moments? I loosely plan to replay Fable but in reality it may not happen this week.

What are YOU still playing?

[Purple Santa]

No killing zombies?

And what happened to L4D? You leave me out in the cold. Again.

[Widgetcraft]

I think I'll be playing a fair amount of League of Legends this week, checking out the new Halloween stuff. I will also try to give Darksiders II the attention it deserves.

[MagGnome]

Monday's here already? Ugh...

Well I have two exams this week, so I guess I'll be focusing on those. School never ends...

I also need to trim my mustache. It's so long that I keep getting food caught in it.

[Reverant]

School, homework, housework, and a surprise twist ending: wife gets to come home a few days early. Starting this coming weekend, she'll be living at home for the next two months. Sanity level restored.

Lots of random little things this week. Not sure what games I want to play. Maybe a bit of War Z's alpha, depending on if they've opened up more of the map yet. FFXIII-2 is on the back burner (and at the finish line!). I thought about carrying my PSP around to give FF Tactics another go, but that downtime could be reading time instead. Science tells us that the human brain needs repose from all that constant electronic stimulation we get these days, and exchanging those minutes of quiet for minutes of gaming probably isn't a terrific idea.

[KamaItachi]

I tried, and failed, to play some RE6 this evening. I've had it on loan from a friend for a while so I thought I'd at least give it a go... I've been putting off playing it, to be honest.

I turned it off after literally 5 minutes in some indescribable rage. I don't think I'm going to play it ever again.

I think this is how Savok must feel when he plays games.

[Reverant]

Or watches movies, reads books, gives directions, make toast, plays with dogs, etc.

[muddi900]

I'll probably play Borderlands 2. Maybe some Lone Survivor.

[Gorvi]

This was a very busy weekend, but it was a good one. I took the day off Friday to get some things done, including a checkup for my older boys. They’re doing great, but they also got flu vaccinations, which resulted in my older son getting sick yesterday. So he’s home from school today.

As for games this weekend I put more time in with Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. There is so much side shit to do in that game it’s crazy, but I’m making progress. Great game, though, I’m still loving it. There’s something about the AC series that makes even doing the most mundane things entertaining. I will say, I did finish the Desmond sequences, what a waste. They offered almost nothing and the gameplay was nothing special, at best it was tolerable.

The other game that took most of my time this weekend, and that I’ll continue this week, is Anomaly: Warzone Earth. I bought it during the Steam sale last Christmas after loving the demo but never put any time into it. Well, yesterday I played it a lot, and damn I love this game. I’m playing through the levels on the Advanced difficulty (which I guess is “normal” as there’s only Casual, Advanced, or Hardcore) and the challenge is tough, but fair. It's kind of a reverse tower defense game, where you plot your path through the city streets upgrading your vehicles and setting decoys, smokescreens, and repairing your vehicles. There's a decent amount of strategy to it, and it looks like there's some fun challenge levels that open up aside from the main game. I’ve made it through Baghdad, which is the first of the game’s two cities, and now I’m a level or two into Tokyo. The game gets really challenging in Tokyo, especially since in one level you start out with only an APC, but the challenge, at least so far, has never felt unfair. The game was PC only when I bought it last year, but it’s out on Android, iOS, PSN, and XBLA now I think, it’s very worth picking up. I will say, I think the game really favors mouse control, so PC really is the way to go.

I bought the Fall Indie Royale bundle, mostly for To The Moon, which looks so good. The whole bundle looks good, though, Oil Rush and Blackwell Deception in particular. I picked up a couple of the PSN games on sale this week as well, Monster World IV for a whopping $1 (I’m loving this classic SEGA games for $1 thing they’ve done the past few weeks) and Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack. I played through most of the original Tales From Space game co-op with my son (we need to finish that), and this plays very similar. Everyone with a Vita should own the game, it’s a very fun little platformer, and for just under $4 it’s incredibly worth it.

[frederec]

I expect this week will have some Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward happening. I actually have no idea what it's about. After having loved 999, I'm going into this one absolutely cold, and hoping to enjoy the hell out of it.

I expect my brother and I will also play more Borderlands 2. For the most part we have finished the trophies for the different classes, so we're trying to clean up some of the odd main game trophies and working on the DLC. Being around level 40, we're still a ways from trying to hit Terramorphous (or the raid bosses I've heard about in the DLC), but hopefully we'll get there before too long.

I've been playing around with Tokyo Jungle off and on, trying to unlock new animals. I believe I recently unlocked the wolf, maybe even the animal after that, or close. I find myself generally prioritizing the challenges to unlock new animals over the long-term challenges. This game spikes in difficulty so readily, I expect I won't be able to have a fully challenge complete playthrough until I've got some more advanced animals, or at least some better equipment.

I haven't touched Xenoblade Chronicles in a number of days, and I need to fix that.

[AyeEmBored]

Dragon's Dogma has caught me in its clutches. I just did the "Escort the Bratty Little Girl around the capital" quest and laughed my head off, mostly because she looks just like Smurfette did at 8ish. And walked like she did, too.

Plans this week? Work. Work. Dogma. X-Com if I can put down Dogma.

Saturday night we went to a local casino and watched a loser from this season of The Voice, Casey Muessigman(spelling?), and being a fan of the show Mrs. and I went to check it out. I also got to say, "Happy late anniversary, again." The show was free and worth the price. Mrs. enjoyed it, so there's that. She like country music. Me, not so much. He and his band did play to almost 1:00 a.m., though.

[National Kato]

Back from my short vacation with la chica. This week I'll be playing the usual suspects when I have time: Borderlands 2 w/ Peanut, NHL 13 leagues, XCOM when I want to see my hard work torn to pieces, and maybe some Dishonored if I can, but that seems like the kind of game you need to really delve into, versus playing in fits and spurts.

[frederec]

Look, if you've been in class so rarely that the other students noticed from the month or so I took roll and stumbled over your name but you were never there, and you couldn't be bothered to show up for the second test, starting an email to your teacher with "Hey [my first name]" isn't going to win any points with me.

These students really don't understand that when they've fucked up this hard, they're coming to me as supplicants. They need to pull out every single solitary bit of courtesy they can muster. At least this way it makes it easy to bring down the axe.

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by KamaItachi

I think this is how Savok must feel when he plays games.

Is that what we're calling it?

[Karak]

This weekend the Dogs played games.

You know. At various times when I am super stressed and need a break I go out and play with my 4 dogs and it dawned on me this Friday that, aside from throwing them the ball or scratching above their tails I don't do much for them.

So we had a mother fucking KARAK + Dogs Weekend.
We took them to Petland to see all the other dogs, we took them to a massive run for them to go without collars and play for hours. I bought them each a SuperSupreme Pan pizza(yes I know I know) and they each had one even the little 40 pounder.

Then we went outside and played ball until they could not play ball anymore. Then I pulled out about 20 toys I bought at Petland. 4 of those MASSIVE cow bones that are the size of a human arm, squeaky balls, newspaper toys, stuffed animals.

Then I took out a sleeping bag(they love playing inside of them.) The 120 pound great dane decided to play tug of war with the 80 pound hound-retriever while our alpha sat and watched them in his lordly manner and our smaller dog preened and seemed to find these 2 dogs game of tug of war entertaining.
One sleeping bag did not make it out of the weekend.

All in all I spent about 200 bucks on the dogs and it was awesome.


For what little they require they give me an insane amount of pleasure and just sheer joy watching them run around, play, lick their balls(lucky fucks) and just enjoy life with an IQ of like 35-50.


Loki, Lou, Zen, and Ming

I have no idea why my wife thought they needed capes or bandanna's or whatever. Must be a Chinese thing hahahaha

[Pale Ale]

Originally Posted by Karak

[COLOR="Red"] just enjoy life with an IQ of like 35-50.

Bah they can make their own fun, they can easy get jobs as video game reviews.

[frederec]

It looks like Corpse Party: Book of Shadows is getting a PSN release this winter. It sounds like a sequel, almost an expansion, to the first game, which is apparently going on sale this week and next for $9.99.

Reminds me that I need to get further in the original game. It's interesting, but like most adventure games, it's very easy to get stuck.

[EWolfmanD]

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - I've been waiting for this game forever and can't wait to play. I'll probably spend all my time on it.

Forza Horizon - Hopefully this will ship from Gamefly, but I'm not sure it will. It looks like BL2 got returned a day late, but maybe it'll work out still.

Pokemon Black 2 - I haven't really played much the last few days except for working on my join avenue each day. I'll probably play VLR the whole time, but it's possible I might work on it a lot before that arrives.

Skyrim - I might mess around with this some before other games arrive. I was working on building my first house when I set it aside for a wave of releases, so I might try to get back to that.

Magic 2013 - I started playing some after watching some of the Pro Tour this weekend. I wish there were more opponents to face, but I might just try to unlock cards for decks that I didn't play much before.

[boratika]

Well, I'm pretty close to the end of Bayonetta, so I should wrap that up so I can move on to Vanquish while I still have access to a PS3.

And I should really get back to Retro City Rampage, as I've loved what I've played so far.

But, really one particular game seems to be monopolising my time in a big way lately:

That's 35.5 hours in the last two weeks. It really sunk it's hooks into me.

In real life, I've sent off my Canadian Visa application, and now it's just the waiting game. And if I'm good, tying up any loose ends.

[jpublic]

Another big Wiz6 update from my play yesterday.

Warning: Spoilered because LONG. I was busy yesterday.

(Thing I forgot to mention in the last episode: in the fight with the Amazulu Queen I exploited a fun trick. If you fight her without paying her even a cursory tribute, she'll call up help, featuring a bunch of tier 2 Amazulu and the Shaman girl. If you give her even 100G, she just fights you herself. Also, I was stupid for selling the Spear of Death, it apparently is hot shit in Wiz7 if you transfer it over.)

So, in our last episode my minions were about to head up the spires to see Xorphitus's nifty abominations - well, one of them, since I killed the reanimated corpse a while ago. In the other, I found a spirit, lamenting that he could not move on to the great beyond, calling out for his beloved Annie, and asking if it was time to blow his horn. Our presence seemed to be a cue to him, and he blew the horn and disappeared, leaving the Horn of Souls behind. Yoink.

Now, back to the Skull door. We put the eyes in the door, and it unlocked, revealing...the River Styx?!

Holy crap, this castle is on some truly insane property. What did the real estate listing look like? "Will Build to Suit: Castle location, nearby jungle, enchanted *and* dark forest, massive underground cavern, gateway to the River Styx, jungle, swamp, and Pyramid. Future projects include temple to dark forces."

Yes, I'm spoiling future plot elements.

So down in the River, we find an odd circle on the bank with a horn symbol inside. Gee, I wonder. Yep, blow the Horn of Souls, and Charon shows up. Asks if we have ashes (nope) and if we need a lift (yep). So he takes us to the Isle of the Damned, which we proceed to ransack for stuff (including a fishing line, cork, and some ashes), kill off the damned souls (and thereby free them), and then break into the Tombs of the Damned. Inside we find some more random gear, and an interesting Book about Sirens.

For those of you with the magic nudity senses, it should be triggering right now.

One of the doors on the Isle of the Damned led to a raft on a chain, which took us to a small spot of land where...yes you guessed it, a bunch of Sirens sat.

Yep. Pixelated breasts. Whee. ANYWAY, they Sirens began to sing their songs of freedom and madness (basically madness frees them from their memories, which makes them able to survive). Since we know their song thanks to the book, they give us some handy boots that allow us to Walk on Water (only in the River, sadly) called the Water Wings, and send us on our way.

We searched on, and found a place marked on the river for a bottle oracle, and a red X on a wall - also a few chests in some fjords. We come upon the Isle of the Keep, which appears to be some sort of storage service. The girl there, Mai-Lai, says they're full up and if we want to take something we need a claim number (warning, oncoming silliness).

We also eventually find an exit to a Swamp, which is pretty empty except for a talking giant caterpillar, who seems to have lost his hookah pipe. He mentions he last saw it on his river vacation, and remembers leaving it somewhere.... *sigh* When we mention the Keep and the need for a claim number, he tells us to go use the Bottle Oracle. He gives us a question to put in a bottle (good thing we kept that wine bottle from way back in the start of the game!) and sends us on our way.

Back to where the Bottle Oracle was. Message in bottle. Cork in bottle. Bottle in water. Run down the river to a place called the Isle of the Lost, and pick up the bottle, and open it to find the claim number was 38-23-36.

Oh SirTech, no.

Back to the keep, where we give the number to Mai-lai who is very happy to get rid of something. She goes to get our stuff, and comes back out screaming in terror, jumps in the River and flees. Inside, we find one of the workers, a dwarf named Bork, has gone on a rampage!

Ganked him, and grabbed the pipe. Back to the caterpillar to trade it for some magic mushrooms. Really. Also bought some incense, since anythign unique is worth buying.

I gave up the ashes I had found (2) to Charon, and he paid us 500G each. However, I was stuck. The only places left to go was the Isle of the Dead and a locked gate on the Isle of the Lost. After searching for-freaking-ever, I found a single unmarked square on the Isle of the Lost which had a key to open the gate on it, which had one last set of ashes.

Tried to give them to Charon, but he wouldn't take them, telling us we had to drop them off ourselves. He gave us a new key, and off we went.

In the Isle of the Dead, we immediately found the Tomb of the Lost Warrior. I dropped the ashes there and lit some incense for him, and went on my way. (If you don't do the incense, the spirits of the place inflict traps on you.)

We found ourselves in a looong hallway with a bunch of side rooms. We travelled down to the end of the winding path, but found a locked gate. I bet the button/key was in a side room, so we systematically explored each one until we found an insane skeleton (Wizardry 6 is the first game I ever played where skeletons are badass mid/high-level critters) and smashed him for the key.

Using the key, we were able to enter the main Tombs. Things are about to get...rough.

First off, we found our way into the tomb of Robin Windmane, a Highlander Drow and Guardian of the First Order. He wasn't happy to see us in his resting place, and attacked. He's basically a named Highlander Drow Archer, a fairly annoying enemy we ran into in the Swamp. He's a complete bastard to fight, especially if you have to deal with 2+ groups of accompanying idiots. It took me a couple tries to kill him, only managing it when he was alone.

Actually, I only managed any of these fights when it was the solo boss. They're brutal by themselves, with help they're nightmarish.

Robin left some ranger-only gear (junk), most notably the Elven Bow, a Ranger/Thief/Bard weapon only usable by elves. Considering Ignacio my sole elf was a priest, this wasn't helpful.

Next was Sir Geoffrey Clayton, the Black Knight and Guardian of the second Order. GAH. Pain in the ass. Left some *awesome* gear, though - the Ebony Plate, the best head/torso/leg armor in the game. Onto the Valkyrie that went.

Continuing on, we entered another tomb, but it was empty. But then, behind us, a strange bat swooped in. We watched as it changed shape, becoming...the ?Bane King? himself.

Note the "?" around the name.

He demanded to know why we were there. We mentioned the Forge, and he attacked...and KICKED OUR ASSES. Yay impossible fights where you can't harm the enemy. Luckily, after a few tries I managed to pull the team through without anyone dying - you only have to survive his HP drain and party charming for a few turns before he runs.

After licking our wounds, we went on to fight Brigerd Dans Woltan, High Maenad of Rose, and 3rd Order Guardian. Some nice boots/gloves which you can use twice each to boost stats or keep because they're mighty. I did the former. Also the Spear of the Maenad, which is an awesome Valkyrie only weapon I actually didn't use because of the fact I was keeping my Valkyrie in the front row.

Brigerd;s tomb had a secret exit, which was the only way to fight Haiyato Daikuta, Samurai 4th Order Guardian. Also a pain, but a lucky critical killed him. FINALLY some decent armor for my Samurai, including the awesome Muramasa Blade to replace the Bushido Blade (a ninja/sam weapon) I had bought earlier.

Whew.

Once they're down, we can go into the Queen's Tomb, where we meet her shade. She tells us her story (bullet points below):

-she seeks revenge
-long ago, a mighty Lord ruled the land (side note, he's called King Aram)
-he wanted to be even mightier, to have more control over the people
-started a dark religion (of the Ramm) to get religious power as well as temporal
-he went mad with power, and made deals with demons from hell
-to save his own soul, he captured a prostitute who had seduced a priest
-made her mate with a demon, and sent her off with her paramour to raise the child
-at 13, he called her back, used her as bait to kill her demonic sire
-and then his lust for power became lust for the girl, and the queen was set aside
-at 14, she asked the king of her powers, and he told her that her mother was but a whore, and her father a demon, so she demanded her mother and the priest be put to death
-when the king found and used the bane, the queen was slain by the demon girl, the girl was pregnant by the king, and the king was made immortal
-but they were cursed by the Bane

She then gave us the key to the King and Rebecca's tomb, and a Silver Cross to protect us. We put on the cross, and went to see them.

Inside Rebecca's chamber...oh look, more pixelated boobs on a succubus. We talked with her, and she immediately mesmerized us and took us to the ?Bane King?, who tried to drink our blood, but was stopped by the Cross.

In anger, he knocked us out and threw us in jail, which we promptly escaped from using those mushrooms the caterpillar gave us. We shrunk down, escaped through a crack, and found ourselves in the Enchanted Forest!


Wow. I did a bunch.

I should note that around this point I started playing shenanigans with classes - like taking my Valkyrie to another Class and then back to Valkyrie to reset her level. Costs a lot of stat points since they get dropped to base, but leveling 1-10 twice results in a far stronger character than a mere level 11 (and costs the same XP). Did the same with my Faerie Bard (most people don't like Bards late game, I love them). Also moved my mage to Psionicist. I'm still hoping I can convert my Priest and Samurai to Lords.