Currently the only thing I'm playing is Europa Barbarorum, a total conversion mod for Rome: Total War.

I recently installed Medieval 2: Total War for the first time (despite having owned it since 2008 or so) in preparation for Europa Barbarorum II, which is due out in open beta some time this month.

I started, but never finished Assassin's Creed 3 on my XBox 360; I love the setting and ambience, but have grown to hate the new combat engine. It's been literal months since I last tried to play it.

My eldest plays more XBox than I do nowadays, she loves the Lego games.

Europa Barbarorum II is here! The main website is overwhelmed, but you can get it via FTP from The Org, EB, Moddb and Gamefront. Beware, it's a hefty 2.7Gb and requires Medieval 2: Total War with Kingdoms patched up to v1.05 to work.

It's been seven years in the making, and at least Europa Barbarorum II is nearly with us. For anyone unaware, it's a total conversion modification for Medieval 2: Total War, that makes it a game of classical antiquity, starting in 272BC. Just like the original Europa Barbarorum, only with lots more features due to the more advanced engine. It's the open beta, designed to find lots of bugs and elicit a new round of interest from the modding community so it can be finished and many of the planned features enacted.

I bought a cheap 360 from a colleague (It needs a new DVD drive, and I might put together a new HDD as well), as Rockstar still haven't bothered porting Grand Theft Horse to the PC.

Quote from: Ladybird;782868I bought a cheap 360 from a colleague

I used to be a 360 fanboy, but I've almost completely switched to the PS3 for my secondhand scrounging now.  You can get an old SKU for less than $130 here, and the only difference in SKUs (practically) is the hard drive size, and that's easily upgradeable.  Plus multiplayer's free.

With the money a used 360 would cost me I've given away multiple PS3 refurbs to friends just so I have people to co-op with :-)

Quote from: daniel_ream;782882I used to be a 360 fanboy, but I've almost completely switched to the PS3 for my secondhand scrounging now.  You can get an old SKU for less than $130 here, and the only difference in SKUs (practically) is the hard drive size, and that's easily upgradeable.  Plus multiplayer's free.

With the money a used 360 would cost me I've given away multiple PS3 refurbs to friends just so I have people to co-op with :-)

I got a pretty good deal on it, even accounting for bits I'll replace, I'm still coming out ahead of our retail stores (Plus game hardware isn't really yours until you crack the case, y'know? I'm happy to get stuck in).

If I want to play multiplayer, that's for the PC! Paying for peer-to-peer multiplayer is abhorant to me.

I have played the new Ys IV and Persona 4 Golden on PS Vita, and I am quite pleased with them !

I have also done Child of Light on PS 3 and it was an enchanting experience even if its was maybe a little too short (but the game was only 20 € with additional contents and a nice poster bt Amano so I think it is a fair bargain).

Finally beating Borderlands 2, Krieg is a beast, particularly now that I realize I can THROW the buzzaxe rather than dying horribly whenever I try to charge someone. His intro video is surprisingly good too.

I've also been drooling heavily at the looks of the two Beyond Earth preview streams Firaxis has done lately They're Not Barbarians! and Choose Your Own Adventure. Reviewing the Aliens and how they react differently than generic barbarian behaviors and the rather different 'create your civ' approach they're taking. They're like an hour a piece, but if you're interested they're worth it.

I'm about to look at D&D Online the MMO thing that is free.

1) Because I am casual
2) And cheap
3) And own a Mac (no PC-Master race for gaming here)

I expect I will play it for an hour or so then uninstall it like I do every game. I eventually realise that what I actually want is a really good book to read! I wait to be surprised.

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;783064I'm about to look at D&D Online the MMO thing that is free.

1) Because I am casual
2) And cheap
3) And own a Mac (no PC-Master race for gaming here)

I expect I will play it for an hour or so then uninstall it like I do every game. I eventually realise that what I actually want is a really good book to read! I wait to be surprised.

D&DO is really group-based. Neverwinter is more WoW-y. Maybe there are subtleties I've missed, I don't know, the core gameplay didn't entertain me.

Obviously, being F2P, if you're not willing to pay up, don't expect to get past either game's totally-not-a-paywall in a reasonable time, or be allowed any nice things.

I am playing Red Dead Redemption on the PS3 and I am enjoying it inmensely. Also trying Capsized on the PC, and is fun. But overall, I would recommend the glorious British survival horror jewel "Sir, you are being hunted." Awesome.

Quote from: Ladybird;783083D&DO is really group-based. Neverwinter is more WoW-y. Maybe there are subtleties I've missed, I don't know, the core gameplay didn't entertain me.

Obviously, being F2P, if you're not willing to pay up, don't expect to get past either game's totally-not-a-paywall in a reasonable time, or be allowed any nice things.

I can't be bothered to deal with the download, update and "you awaken on a beach near some crates. Break them all open and follow an NPC..."

Oops turned it off.

I agree with the "wake up, smash 6 crates and kill 10 evil-things" ethos getting more-than-boring after so many iterations.

I played WoW for years during interludes from my addiction with MUDs but they never quite have the same "grip".

Quote from: Elsalvador;783123I agree with the "wake up, smash 6 crates and kill 10 evil-things" ethos getting more-than-boring after so many iterations.

I played WoW for years during interludes from my addiction with MUDs but they never quite have the same "grip".

This is at least in part why I've drifted away from WoW and towards Guild Wars 2. Their take on questing (Renown Hearts) feels quite a bit less constraining and dumb than WoW's (and everyone else's, really).

That, and switching weapons is fun.

Welcome to theRPGsite, BTW!

Thanks for the welcome! Always been a bit of a lurker but only now  decided to make an account.

Honestly, I loved WoW when it started and even up til the Cataclysm Expansion; I think this is the point where they decided that casual gaming was a very real revenue stream they weren't capitalising on. And as a consequence simplified and streamlined much further than was (imo) necessary.

I like when things are challenging and levelling used to be challenging enough to enjoy the storyline and also provide enough varied levelling zones that levelling alts felt like an entirely new experience.

With the majority of development centred around endgame now, it feels like players are tunnelvisioned into levelling as fast as possible, leaving all of the rich scenery and 75% of the entire gameworld behind so they can hit 90 and start gearing up for raiding.

I gave up on Sonic: Lost World because it pulled the asinine "you must have collected X flibble-florps before you can play this level!".

No.

Fuck you sonic, I beat the god damned levels I don't want to beat them again and again just so I can meet some arbitrary standard.

Making a game last longer is not in itself "more challenging" it's just longer.