I finished playing the Mass Effect trilogy. The action and game play are fun. The characters are interesting. The plot of the first game is good and establishes the universe. Too bad the plot and events of the second and third game make no sense whatsoever. Probably anyone here could have designed a better campaign to base the action around. But, if you don't care about such things and just want to shoot things and romance hot chicks the game are good.

Next up: ... I dunno. Maybe Bioshock Infinite?

Quote from: The Butcher;900076Anyone got a good co-op FPS to recommend? RPGesque elements a plus.

The Borderlands series.  Full Stop.

Also Payday 2 (it's a strict superset of Payday, don't bother with the first one)

I started playing Skyrim... no mods or anything yet. So far I'm really liking it... lots of exploration and random stuff. The dungeons I've been in so far are tiny and very linear.
It's very 'straight' fantasy, so far... nothing too weird or unexpected (I kinda wish there was a Warcraft game like this).
Mostly I'm just wandering around killing bandits and necromancers, but I'll be wanting to get into the storyline eventually.
All my deaths so far have been in one area... either to a gigantic spellcasting spider or the blue ghost lady who lives upstairs from him. Otherwise combat has been very easy. But I like that there are no warnings about stuff, no, "You must be X level to enter"... you can jump right in over your head.
Also, I like that when you go back to places things can change... ruins that were cleared might have had bandits move in.

well for me its been child of light witch is fantastic if you ask me.
and playing ghost in the shell stand alone complex online witch must be good because to meany of the cod set whines when they play it

Quote from: daniel_ream;901402The Borderlands series.  Full Stop.

I was insufficiently clear! Wife and I played through all games and expansions a few times over.

Will look into Payday 2, thanks!

Pathfinder Adventures on my Android. Almost hits "the perfect game" status for me.

Finally happened, Europa Barbarorum II v2.2 has dropped.

Age of Decadence is probably the best CRPG I've ever played.  I've replayed it quite a few times.   I'm also playing Shadowrun: Hong Kong.

Quote from: Michael Gray;900217I have Stellaris. Thus far it's everything I've wanted in a Space 4X. Patching should just make it better.

I've played a little Stellaris as well. It is very promising. I am holding off on the next couple of patched to really get into it though. I mainly bought it early just because I have gotten hundreds of hours of fun from Paradox games, yet I have always bought them late at a serious discount. I felt I owed them at least one full-price purchase, and even if it was a mess at first, you can count on them to keep working on it.

While I wait, I am revisiting Crusader Kings 2 with the Conclave DLC. I'm really enjoying it. On the one hand, the increased power of a Council can make things harder. On the other, the political landscape of my kingdom is a lot clearer. There are more obstacles to getting my way, but I can more clearly identify those obstacles and deal with them.

Quote from: The Butcher;901466Will look into Payday 2, thanks!

It always amuses me that people still get upset about GTA for being a "crime simulator" when the Payday series is literally a heist training simulator.

Quote from: daniel_ream;901911It always amuses me that people still get upset about GTA for being a "crime simulator" when the Payday series is literally a heist training simulator.

I think its just a measure of popularity, like how Call of Cthuhu safely coasted through the Satanic Panic years while D&D took all the heat. The average person tutting about the evils of video games has no idea that Payday exists.

lately i started laying unturned its quite a fun zombie survival game

TOTAL WARHAMMER!

ITS WAR, WITH MORE HAMMERS!

A big fan of both the setting and the franchise, and it's a good version of both. My PC is struggling with it, but it hasn't crashed and the gameplay is great. Highly recommended. Not that easy though. On my third campaign. This time I will prevail!

I'm on a nostalgia kick--the Dragon Quest (aka Dragon Warrior games) on Android. It's fun playing the old favorites with some rebalancing and a superior translation to any prior efforts.

Made it through I and II so far, and currently hanging around Romaria in III.

I hadn't played much but my old standby for 10+ years, the latest version of illwinter's _Dominions_, but recently tried various computer and phone games:

Computer games:

_Junta_ - fun but limited Caribbean tyrant simulator. I declined to pay the industrialists when a typhoon damaged their stuff, and put down two of the revolts they through my way with the army, but the army had me de-fund the police, which lost my view of who hated me the most. I thought I was just getting things relatively out of control when the USA took me out with a drone strike for some reason, which I didn't see coming due to the lack of police intel.

_Papers, Please_ - amusing dark comedy game of totalitarian regime passport control booth operation. I enjoyed it except for the time limit, and the way the computer checks your work, so you can't get away with missing details. I wasn't sure there was a time limit per day, and didn't know they were basing my pay on performance, so even though I was doing a great job otherwise, I couldn't pay to keep my family alive and eventually was jailed for falling behind on my rent (clearly it's a Corporatist regime, not a Soviet Bloc one). I'll try again on Easy, though of course the game is a dark tragicomedy so I think most of the many endings are dire.

_Rebel Galaxy_ - A spaceship captaincy game with open exploration and action over several star systems full of planets and asteroids and nebulae and various factions (naval, merchant, pirate groups, others...). Lots of pew pew and explosions and upgrades and all that, in 3D but big ships are bolted onto a 2D plane and do sailing-ship-like maneuvers with broadside (and turret) weapons. Various ways to play - you can do the quest in various ways or ignore it, join most of the factions or not. Trade, mine, kill things, loot, explore, upgrade ship, etc. So, _Elite_-like with age of sail maneuvering and excessive pew pew action. Pretty well done and fun, though also sort of predictable eventually and devolves to being more uber by upgrading more than everyone else does, and exploiting the AI, grinding, etc. Pretty good & fun but not great.

_Barony_ Roguelike dungeoncrawl with coop and permadeath and realtime fighting and sneaking about in dark dungeons displayed in a _Minecraft_-like style. Sense of humor. Sudden horrible deaths. Gritty equipment looting. Hall of your dead characters. Fun & difficult, though I've lost 2/3 characters to sudden giant boulders from hidden launchers I didn't see. 1/3 to not realizing I was being attacked not only from the front but from the side. One thing I don't like is the Rogue-like ravenous appetite of the characters and the resulting desperate quest to find semi-edible food before starving all the time... bleh.

Phone app games:

_Drapers_ - Game of being a medieval textiles merchant in the Mediterranean. Eurogame feel. Accumulate workers, buildings, ships & resources that do various shit with each other that you need to learn, but is only 51% really making sense. Then assign ships to travel & bring goods to other ports. Ships from everyone arrive in random order and first to arrive with each type of good get better (or any) trade yields. If someone bought the pirate for the turn, they can target a specific rival ship to have the pirate intercept its goods. AI or multiplayer with up to 8 players. The game is won not by gold but by victory points for selling finished goods or having other things that give victory points. My interest lasted for about 2/3 of one game against the AI, when I decided I got the idea and didn't like it enough to care. I don't like abstract gamey rules.

_Templar Battleforce_ - A turn-based tactical game ripping off the vibe of _Warhammer 20K_ or something with Templars in battlesuits in spaaaace... fighting aliens, at least at first, on a square grid of sci-fi locales, with gamey boardgame rules and "buffs" and character class abilities and action points and so on. The tutorial leads you by the hand slowly introducing you to abilities and using the UI, with heavy annoying juvenile dialog from the characters. The combat system is gamey and even though there is overwatch, is one of those where your tactical options are limited so even though you've got guys with guns and are trying to be careful and defensive, enemies have so much movement per turn that they're allowed to rush up and attack you, and even if you overwatch that only gives you limited shooting and things have high hitpoints so it forces it to be a damage slog that you can't mitigate much with tactics. I tried to give it a chance, but also it was having trouble detecting my input, so I gave up before making it all the way through the tutorial scenario.

_Merchant_ - I like the graphics and there is a lot of stuff to craft... gather resources, forge them into better and better stuff for your heroes - fighter, rogue or wizard, up to six, I think. But all there is to do is attack fixed targets that get unlocked as your heroes level up, and there is nothing to do about combat except pick which hero to send or not, change their equipment, and read the enemy stats there to see if you think you'll win. Dying just means you're expected to pay 100gp to get the character resurrected. You can also sell good for gold, and there are customers who shop up. Some special drop loot, some named enemies. BUT IT'S ALL A POINTLESS GRIND. Each task takes time, so it can create an addictive frenzy. Limited inventory slots means crap management starts taking a fair chunk of time. I saw no events or really anything of interest except wondering what the next loot of levels will let you craft. This is a great example of how pointless almost all computer RPGs are because they are just a string of opponents who die permanently while you can always just rez and continue, so you'll eventually win if you keep playing. At least this one does track how efficient your characters were, and how many times they died. But otherwise this is even more empty and pointless than most. Total grindfest with almost nothing at stake.

_Adventurer League_ - I saved the best for last. This one is a gem. It's made by old school-ish RPG player(s). Real permadeath. Record of dead characters who used to be in the party. No cheesy as fuck resurrection. Open exploration and RPG-like decision making. Multiple story threads and the ability to ignore/avoid/refuse ones you don't want to. Regional hex map with terrain. Tactical hex map with terrain. Dangerous tactical combat. Characters start out respectably powerful yet combat is still pretty interesting and dangerous. Different combatants have different abilities that make sense. No uber hitpoints. Tracking party resources. FRPG setting. Cool beans. Try it out. It's a free download for Android - not sure if there are versions for other platforms.