What games are you playing and why?

I am still trying to get a stable modded install of Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. There are hundreds of different options for what mods to install and what choices to make in the mods. So far, I invariably run into either an item or an area that crashes the game, and no logging is done in such events to help narrow down the problem. So I am now trying a much more limited approach. I will *ONLY* use one mod at first, and ensure it is stable and backup a copy before trying to mod it further. That means no BGT. (Baldur's Gate Trilogy. It lets you play BG1 in the BG2 engine.)

I will let you know if I figure out how exactly to get this mess sorted.

 

Currently playing King of Fighters XIII (Steam Edition).

I've lately been playing Skullgirls as well, a really nice game!
Reason why I'm playing King of Fighters XIII as well is that I saw it on steam, and checked out the Evo 2013 world championships for that game. It was a long watch but I was bored for exactly 0 nanoseconds. Incredibly entertaining, so I bought it, and was counting the days till release. Then, 2 days ago now?, there was a post on the steam forum from them I just happened to come across (4 hours after they posted it), saying that they decided, due to community feedback on their beta forums, to give early beta access to all people who pre-ordered.
So I was happy!

You can train (and make the opponent fight back by putting it on AI in the extensive training option menu), do the tutorial or play online against people (always found a match quickly so far).
You can customize your fighter colors and I guess that's about it.
Great for already trying out chars and seeing who you like and who you like less

EDIT: basically the only things missing are the gallery with unlocks and the story mode

 

There's this new game on Steam called "Mirrormoon EP", and it had an interesting look, and it sounded like it might be fun (exploring an entire galaxy), so I decided it was worth a shot. The game is supposed to be about space exploration, but what it really is, primarily, is a platform for puzzles. The puzzles themselves are the kind of undirected figure everything out for yourself with little clue puzzle like you see in Antichamber. Except that Antichamber really gives you hints, and this game does not. I got stuck on the very first puzzle on the very first planet and got entirely frustrated and quit the game lol (I really should stay away from puzzle games -- my patience for them is not what it used to be).

In any case, it is an interesting concept. The universe itsellf is shared in a multiplayer mode and the first player to explore any given planet gets to name that planet. It's totally meant to be the kind of social game where you have on-line discussions about how to solve the puzzles. I have yet to decide if I want to actually want to work at a game or not. 20 minutes was enough for now...

 

I've been playing Commander Keen series as a nostalgic throw-back to my first games on the PC. Ah, good times. Next I'll play the Space Quest series as a nostalgic throw-back to my second games on the PC.

 

There was a pretty good sale recently on Pinball FX2, including 66% off on the individual tables, so I went whole-hog on them. I do enjoy the game a lot, but I can only play it in small bursts due to eye strain, and the consequent headaches if I play too long. But Pinball is perfect for those short bursts.

Anyway, I've been slowly working my way through the many different tables. I really like the Mars table -- I can't really say why other than having trouble with it at first, thinking I was going to wind up with a measly million points, maybe 1.5, and then winding up with a really great third ball and 30 million. I know that some people complain about the physics not being super accurate. But I don't give a damn -- it's a fun game, regardless. And it helped changing the camera to #7 -- that seems to work well for me and this particular table.

And btw, the free table, Sorcerer's Lair is pretty darned fun as well. There's no time limit on it like you would normally have for trying out a table you don't own.

 

I only got the Star Wars pack for one table (The Clone Wars). I have no idea what's going on for the most part but yaaaaay.

 

That's kind of my default way to play any of the games lol. I cannot focus on the ball and those messages that pop up on the upper left hand corner at the same time. Furthermore, most of the time when theres a voice saying something, I can hardly make out the words because of my focus. I'm sure if I actually understood what was happening, it would make a slight difference, but maybe not much. My main goal is to just keep the ball in play and hit anything that lights up. I may not break any records playing that way, but I'm ok with that.

/edit BTW, I think that the camera angle has a whole lot to do with how well I play. When the camera jumps around too much, I have a tendency to fail at tracking the ball and it gets lost briefly from my view. On the other hand, the default camera makes it hard to track the ball when it's at the top of the table -- it gets lost among all of the bumpers and targets and other objects there. Finding the right camera for the table seems to make a big difference, at least for me.

 

Meh.

Anyway. (Re)Started The Shivah tonight and finished it. Very, very short adventure title from Wadjet Eye (maybe an hour and a half tops?), but it was pleasantly different.

 

I got some tables in Pinball FX2 as well! I've been playing Zen Pinball on PS3 for quite awhile now, good times, although I also have no idea what's going on.

Finished the First 3 of Commander Keen, aka The Old Ones, aka Invasion of the Vorticons. Now on to Keen Dreams and then 4-6.

 

I played the hell out of the Keen series years ago. Fun times.

A friend's kid actually taught himself how to read from playing Keen and similar video games. I gave my ancient PC to my friend, and he discovered that his 4 (?) year old had figured out how to change the configuration settings on the computer so that Keen would run, and was playing it. My friend told me that he couldn't figure out why the settings on the computer kept getting screwed up -- he finally figured out it was because of his 4-year old criminal mastermind/superhacker and his love of Commander Keen. I thought that was hilarious.

 

Call of Cthulu: The Wasted Land (a rough gem).
Waking Mars. Interesting and kind of weird.
And back to Underrail, which has had a couple of updates and is now on steam as well(successfully coming through greenlight), got the key from the build a greenlight bundle from december 2012...

 

Heh I backed Race the Sun, glad you like it

 

I haven't played it and I doubt I will as my skill with racing games is pretty much atrocious, but I watched the trailer and I do have to agree it does look tempting.

 

Fez
oh
my
glob