toxicitizen

Well, my last final of the semester was yesterday morning so now I get a whole 10 days of true vacation (had a shitload of work to do over the holidays so it really wasn't time off ). So, I'm going to try and make the most of this week and a half. First, I've been playing Rayman Origins. It's not my main focus, I just play an hour or so a day but no more. Fun game. Next, I started a new XCOM game. After a 2 months break, I felt I'd probably be too rusty to jump straight back into my ironman classic game so I just started a new one on normal (still ironman, though). That way I at least get to try out a bunch of the new Second Wave options as well as play the Slingshot missions. Finally, the big one. There's been a kind of resurgence of old-school/isometric CRPGs the past year. Baldur's Gate EE came out and the kickstarters for Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity were very successful And now there's even talk of a new Torment game. So this made me feel like it's time I finally get around to playing at least one of the classics. I picked Planescape: Torment. It's hard not to have high expectations considering it keeps being hailed as some kind of legendary RPG that supposedly has some of the best game writing ever. I'm only a few short hours into it so I'm still waiting for the plot to really get going but so far I'm enjoying the gameplay more than I expected for a game with such a dated UI. I really need to complete it before the next semester starts otherwise it's just going to sit unfinished until summer, so I'm prioritizing this one. So yeah, busy week.

It's published by Capcom. That bad enough for ya?

Yeah, there's a "hidden" message in the trailer. If I read it right, the open-world/february 5th stuff is about their other upcoming project, one closer to completion. The Witcher 3 sounds like a safe bet for that one.

Oh God, this cannot possibly come soon enough.

Yeah but a LOT of games on GMG are steam keys anyway. I'm nearing something like 20 games on GMG and every single one was a steam key. Their Capsule app is pretty shitty so I wouldn't buy from them otherwise.

Yeah, the credit bonus is something they implemented when ( I assume) some publishers started not wanting the vouchers applying to their pre-orders. I don't really see it as a discount since you still pay full price for the game but still, GMG are awesome to even have something like that to make up for it.

That's because vouchers aren't valid on Bioshock Infinite in NA on GMG. :/ Kinda tempted to use it on The Cave, though. Brings it down to a nice 11.25$. Problem is, it looks great but I don't remember seeing any hands-on impressions.

Yeah, the combat bits really took away from what otherwise gave me a strong Mirror's Edge kinda vibe. As in, it looks fucking different, for once. Looking forward to this one.

While the story might not be anything new, most of the praise I've seen wasn't about the story itself but more about how it critiques the state of modern military shooters. That in and of itself is kind of new, as far as I can tell. .I can't really remember the last game that made such a good commentary on its own genre.

Vanquish is short but so very awesome.

I grabbed both of them plus the DLC for 2 for something like 10 bucks on amazon.com a month or so ago. You should keep an eye out, I imagine that bundle will show up again sooner or later.

If that happens to you repeatedly, then you're most likely doing something very wrong. After a few failed Classic Iron Man runs, I started being EXTRA careful with movement, never moving unless I had full cover to move to (especially at the start of missions), and I started performing significantly better. It sounds kinda tedious to move that slowly but it's actually very satisfying when you sneak up right on top of a pack of mutons and can take them all out before they can get their turn. Pro tip: don't use your full range of movement, get to the closest cover and spam overwatch. It really pays off. Especially when you stay in place for a few turns and let the enemies come to you. They don't always do but when it happens it can be glorious. That being said, if you can't stand losing, then Iron Man might not be for you. Seriously. It can be maddening to be doing fairly well and see it all fall apart in a single shitty turn. I haven't yet finished my current run (haven't touched it in about two months now, was too busy with school ), but there were a few times where I just alt-F4'd out of pure rage. Incidentally, if you do it fast enough, it doesn't save the turn...

So, looks like they finally patched in those Second Wave options. Really tempted to fire it up and check them out.

Last round of purchases. Not usually a big fan of shmups, but Sine Mora got me intrigued. Also it's by Grasshopper Manufacture and it was 2$ on GMG. Hard to argue with that. DMC4 was also 5$ on GMG. It's the only in the series that I never got around to playing, so I went for it. Legacy of Kain Collection was very much an impulse purchase. Wasn't planning on getting these just yet but the collection went on sale for 6$ on GamersGate so I went for it. As for Stealth Bastard, that would be the game + soundtrack bundle. Was holding out for a daily or flash deal and it never got one so I just grabbed it on the last day. I also bought some Sleeping Dogs DLC, literally seconds before the pricing error yesterday. Was not too pleased about that one. And with that, I am done. I might still break down and get Anno 2070 while the encore deals are still on but I'm hesitant to spend more than I already have so I don't think that's going to happen. So, total damage is about 130$. Not too bad considering the crazy amounts I've managed to spend in previous sales.

Went to see The Hobbit tonight. Man, that was all kinds of fun. At first it felt a bit weird, like "this looks like LOTR but doesn't quite feel like LOTR" but when things really got going that went away. 48FPS looked weird in some scenes but overall I actually didn't mind it that much. It was just different. It's actually the 3D that bothered me the most. It looked impressive in the big actions scenes and landscape shots, but I found it kind of distracting a lot of the time. I don't know, it was the first movie I ever saw in 3D so maybe i'm just not used to it.

There is no time limit to the campaign. You can take as long as you like and postpone doing the main objectives for months. You get the game over screen only after a certain amount of countries have dropped out of the council. Not sure of the exact amount, something like half of them. All the things you mentioned are important factors, though. If you run out of cash and soldiers, then you're just not gonna be able to keep the countries from leaving.

Yeah, Kiss Kiss Bang Band is an awesome movie. Watched it years later and it completely took me by surprise. As for the weird black thug hair in Dredd, nothing really comes to mind. Do you mean the one with long hair? It's the only one I can think of that kinda looked weird, I guess.

Well, it's really no secret the game is based on Heart of Darkness. So, yeah.

Had a friend come over to watch Dredd last night. Thought it was fantastic. Think I might watch Looper tonight.

Hahaha, yeah. It's getting kind of ridiculous...

Starting 2013 on a high note. The Walking Dead. Damn...

I started keeping track of all the games I beat in 2012 but the .txt file somehow slipped through the cracks when I was backing stuff up and was lost to a format. I could probably go back through this entire thread and recreate it somewhat accurately but... yeah, fuck that. Let's just say I beat about 30 games or so.

Hahaha oh man, I remember renting that game way back then. It wasn't very good... As for me, I haven't played a Sonic game since I was a kid (or, you know, owned a Sega Genesis) and I keep hearing this one is very good. 75% off on GMG + 30% voucher comes down to about 5 bucks.

Yeah, I got the soundtracks. edit: Knew I was forgetting something! On GOG. I've had my eye on it for a while and apparently it won't be available after this year so it was now or never.