What Vidja games are you playing?

[Moondog]

Bastion is pretty sweet. Mostly due to the narrator.

[Salkovich]

Bastion is pretty sweet. Mostly due to the narrator.

Also the soundtrack.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Got "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron" in the mail recently. Surprisingly enthralling, as strange as it is. Anime fans will definitally find it easier to digest story wise since it's story is being told in a rather sideways manner.

Cool visuals with a very simple design (note 'simple', not 'poor'). Each stage of the game is similar but visually distinct. I've only been playing about an hour and a half but I'm pretty hooked. Not for everyone, worth a look.

[Moondog]

Dark Soooouuuuullllsss.

s'not so hard.

[Mckma]

Dark Soooouuuuullllsss.

s'not so hard.

Some friends were playing at my place last night.  They seemed to share this sentiment...

Which is most unfortunate...

[Mckma]

So what is good from THQ to look into picking up this week?

[Dom]

Metro 2033 was pretty fun, I'd recommend it but it also needs a good PC to take advantage of the sweet sweet graphics.

The STALKER games are great, once they are patched and modded. I especially recommend Shadows of Chernobyl, with Call of Pripyat a close second.

I enjoyed the Warhammer 40k Dawn of War games, the first one and it's expansion is a great RTS, the second one is a tactical top-down squad manager though in my opinion not as good as DoW 1.

Titan Quest is good if you like Diablo I and II, and Company of Heroes is a pretty fun RTS as well.

[BenignSpy]

I'll second Metro and Stalker.

Right now I'm going through Just Cause 2.

[Moondog]

I have finally clawed my way away from Dark Souls. This game is pure evil.

also just killed a dragon god, take that game.

[Joven]

Playing Driver San Fransisco, and Deathspank: Thongs of Virtue

Driver SF is pretty good, went in expecting kind of a GTA game, but its more like Burnout Paradise (kind of a mix between them).
+ Decent driving mechanics (more fun than GTA 4, not as fun as Burnout Paradise)
+ Good concept and execution
- races and chases suffer from industrial strength AI rubber band
- interface could have used some work, especially in the Garage
- maybe could use more things to collect and extra stuff to do

Just started Deathspank: ToV yesterday when Driver crashed, so only a little ways in, but so far just as good and funny as the first Deathspank, except I think maybe its taking too long to level up.

[Snake-Eyes]

I just got Dead Island and X-men: Destiny for Gamefly.

X-men plays like the Marvel Alliance games, seems limited on what you can do so far. Pick one of three unknown mutants, give your character one of three powers and go smite people.

Dead Island has been fun so far. Breaking paddles on zombie faces.

[Moondog]

Welp, beat Dark Souls.

Fuck you From Software, fuck you Namco-Bandai. I win. I BEAT YOUR SADISTIC GAME.

>:[

[Tadanori Oyama]

Got tired of Dead Island. It's really made as a co-op like Left 4 Dead and I have no friends. I found myself resenting the other survivors in the cut scenes since they hadn't done any work.

[Dom]

Welp, beat Dark Souls.

Fuck you From Software, fuck you Namco-Bandai. I win. I BEAT YOUR SADISTIC GAME.

>:[

Earlier....

Dark Soooouuuuullllsss.

s'not so hard.

Well, at least it was a challenge. 

[Moondog]

Welp, beat Dark Souls.

Fuck you From Software, fuck you Namco-Bandai. I win. I BEAT YOUR SADISTIC GAME.

>:[

Earlier....

Dark Soooouuuuullllsss.

s'not so hard.

Well, at least it was a challenge. 

Yes indeed. It *wasn't* so hard, 'til I got a bit further into it.

Dark Souls likes to do the following: Have an introductory area that is a pain in the ass but not horrible. If that is cleared, it moves on to controller destroyingly obnoxious areas.

FOR EXAMPLE.

New Londo is a ruined city mostly underwater, populated entirely by ghosts. Ghosts, due to being cursed beings, are invincible unless you yourself are cursed, or you use the item 'Transient Curse'. Being cursed is bad. If you die while cursed, you lose 50% of your max HP that does not come back until you get the curse lifted, which you cannot do in that area. If you die again while cursed, you lose another 50% of your max HP. This can go on until you have 1 hit point.

Transient Curses do not run that risk, but they're rare and expensive to get. 

If you are not cursed, you cannot block their attacks. being ghosts, they can clip through and attack through walls with impunity. Your attacks cannot harm them if they decide to camp in walls.

If you are cursed, you can block, but part of their damage is magical, so you'll always take a  bit of chip damage regardless.

But all in all, because they have no HP to speak of, they go down very easily, and that section isn't *too* bad. You're just on a time-limit and have to watch out for sneak attacks through walls, ceilings, and floors.

So you get through that section, dealing with ghosts, some of which ambush you eight at a time. You drain the water from the sunken city.  Now you have to deal with Darkwraiths, which are essentially knights with an unblockable grab attack that deals a ton of damage, wield greatswords with ease, and, oh, get this. They never stagger when hit. So you can be mid-stab, and they'll either grab or sword you away. These guys have a good 800 or so HP, and they like to come at you in groups of 2 to 4.

and the boss fight for that section? THE BOSS FIGHT?

4 seperate bosses at once. With unblockable homing magic attacks.

The only way to win that fight is to literally out-damage and outlast the bosses, so that there's only one alive at a time. It's ridiculous.