What are you currently playing?

[Axm]

The Evil Within is so good and so scary, suspenseful, crazy..that im just really scared to play it. Its also a game I appriciate so much I just wanna take my time with slowly and savor every area.

[OL]

Got in a weird WWII mood lately, but I'm usually not much into the standard battleground/soldiers style of most WWII games.
So I've been playing The Saboteur again, which is always great. Hadn't actually played it since... shit, I guess about five or six years ago? Time flies. anyway, been trying to destroy every freeplay target this time, but goddamn, there are hundreds! I thought I was doing so well (about 22 hours in now, and I've cleared a sizable portion of the map), but then I bought new maps and it added a couple hundred more on there. Not sure if I can do it.
Also popped in Sniper Elite V2 for a bit today. Same opinion of it as I had before; the sniping is fantastic, but the stealth and third-person shooting is clunky as shit. I still enjoy it, but it's definitely flawed. Never finished it, but I'm hoping to this time. Also hoping to get Sniper Elite 3 sometime soon. From what I've seen it looks like it received some major improvements, but I guess we'll see. Should be fun either way.
And I'm hoping to try out Velvet Assassin sometime soon as well. I have it, I'm just too lazy to hook up the 360 at the moment when I'm already playing other stuff. Still, I always wanted to give the game a try. I know it has its issues, but I like the concept and look of it anyway.

Anyone have any other recommendations for non-FPS, non-battleground WWII games? Kind of a niche thing I guess.

[Raithos]

Metro: Redux on PS4. Working my way through 2033 right now. They remade it using the Metro: Last Light engine, so its looks incredible compared to its older 360/PC counterparts. The lighting and textures are almost as good as Last Light itself. I forgot how atmospheric these games are. Definitely two of the best story driven FPS games out there. Makes me miss the old STALKER games.

[Henry Spencer]

Shin Megami Tensei IV on 3DS. This game has so many settings - starts out medieval then turns into cyberpunk [this is one of the few times that the "punk" aspect hasn't been forgotten about, either] then will inevitably go post-apocalyptic later on. It's like ATLUS just couldn't decide which setting they wanted and were like "fuck it, put them all in there".

The art direction is all over the place though, one of the boss designs was absolutely terrible. The character designs I've warmed up to though and it thankfully does feature Kaneko's demon designs like usual. The game is reminding me a lot of Soul Hackers so far (similar feel, presentation and gameplay system). Only 10 hours in, but liking it a lot.

Also playing Hell Night for Playstation 1, a 3D adventure/horror game made by ATLUS which is basically one of the earliest versions of a monster is chasing you in first person. I've played this before a couple of times and it's good, but this is the first time I've delved this deep into the labyrinth. The plotline is all kinds of batshit crazy - an insane religious cult called "Holy Ring" are chasing the main character [for sacrificial reasons] so that "the world can end", then at the same time as this a scientist gets infected by some sort of virus and goes on a killing rampage in the research facility (of course). Shortly after this, the monster finds its way down to where you are and tries to kill you and chase you around this underground city, which has been built underneath Tokyo. On your escape route you also come across a special forces group who get completely wiped out aside from one badass Russian dude named Ivanoff who is hunting the monster down and wants revenge. Almost forgot, in between all this mayhem, there's also a serial killer who is going around killing loads of people you encounter during the game too.

The game is freaky as hell, the dated aspect to it actually adds even more atmosphere to it all, since the static, close-up character models are creepy looking and will suddenly pop up whilst you are trying to get away from the monster down the increasingly dark corridors. Their dialogue is weird as hell too, sometimes for the wrong reasons - text alignment out of whack, Engrish and nonsensical babbling. It's honestly like some drugged up nightmare. The minimalist design to it all is really strange also - the sound design especially stands out, there's no music in large parts of the game and then you can hear the monster's heavy breathing. In certain maps music will start blaring so that you can't hear in which direction the monster is in properly, or if it's even there at all...they really were trying to trick players there.

If you're caught it's death to your partner, second time it's instant game over [no continues], so it's always about being careful. There's no combat in the game at all, you can't fight the monster off or do anything to slow it down and the other characters you encounter during the game are normally too busy killing each other off or the monster is killing them for you to actually fight them too. I'll even admit that the game legitimately scared me at one point (hey, I was playing with earphones on and in the dark!) - I thought the monster was behind me since I heard the heavy breathing in the corridor behind me, anyway I bolt around the corner and there it is rushing through the fog of darkness right at me, really unexpected and it made me jump.

One of the more interesting aspects to the game is entering rooms and encountering these strange people living underground and what they do or who they are. So yeah, it's a real hidden gem on the system.

[MiTT3NZ]

Skyrim. Constantly. Feels more like an obligation than a fun game.

[Axm]

Trying to finish up The Evil Within before Halo MC Collection comes out and controls my life.

[OL]

^^Same situation for me, except revised to say:
Trying to finish up [recording The Saboteur] before [the new Assassin's Creed games] come out and control my life.

[ys]

Planescape : Torment. After playing some other games from that era.

Also playing Hell Night for Playstation 1, a 3D adventure/horror game made by ATLUS.

I hadn't heard of that one before but need to check it out judging from your description.

[Ragol]

I'm playing Puyo Puyo Tetris for PS Vita. It's quite addictive, and I'm always thinking "only one more time."

I wish for a localized version too though, since there seems to be a rather crazy (in a good way) story.

[OL]

Have to say, so far the story pacing in AC Rogue is excellent. It genuinely takes its time at the beginning, making sure Shay is established properly as an Assassin before turning him Templar. I've been playing for several hours already, and he's still not a Templar yet. Fallen out with brotherhood just recently, but he still hasn't been inducted into the alternative. Some might complain about this and say that the game takes too long to get to its actual concept, but I think it's the right move to make.
I read so many comments from idiot fans before the game came out, pre-judging the story with this preconceived idea that he was just going to turn at the first sign of not getting his way, but that's not the case at all. It takes some serious time, and plenty of reason is given for his eventual change of heart. It's actually been handled better than I was expecting.
So far, that is. Don't want to praise it too much this early in the game. Even so, things are looking good on the narrative front, and I'm pretty pleased with that.

[Raithos]

Man that sounds awesome. I didn't pay any attention to it really since it there were too many other games on the horizon and I still needed to pick up AC4 (almost done with it now, would be finished already if not for the urge to sink every ship I see) but playing as a Templar would be sick. From the picture you posted in recent purchases, I assume there are ship battles like there are in 3 and 4 right?

[OL]

Oh yeah. Lots of ship battles. As far as the basic setup goes, it's very, very much like ACIV. You spend the majority of your time sailing between islands and coastal areas, engaging in ship battles and doing missions on land. When it was first announced (and even up until its release) there were a lot of people complaining because it isn't different enough from Black Flag. And yeah, sure, it reuses things like mechanics and animation and all that. But the feel of the game is much different. As you can imagine, sailing arctic waters is a different experience from sailing the Caribbean. There are icebergs to avoid, ice sheets that can block your progress or slow you down, snowstorms which hinder your vision, and so on and so forth.
And the on-foot stuff has some really cool concepts to it. Once you go Templar, you'll occasionally hear a sort of "whispering" sound effect when roaming around on foot. This means that an Assassin is lurking somewhere nearby to kill you, so you have to use eagle vision to root them out and either kill or avoid them. Keeps you on your toes, since their hidden blade attacks hurt pretty bad.
And as a cool little table-turner, they also have a sort of antithesis to the assassination sidequests in earlier games. Before, you'd find pigeon coops to get messages instructing you on Templars to kill, right? So in this one, you can intercept those pigeons, find out who's been targeted, and stop the assassin before they can kill their target.
So far it's really cool seeing the other side of things, especially since it even extends to the gameplay.

[Henry Spencer]

Seems as good a time as any to play it again (good time of year to do it, too). Getting waves of nostalgia as I play it, of course. Still remember 99% of it too, unfortunately. I sometimes wish my memory wasn't so good, but alas even all of these years later I'm still encountering new stuff in the game. Like how I talk to everybody about Nagai Industries and certain characters reveal stuff about Nagai himself which I have never heard about before like Mishima (who stands up for him despite Nagai being head of Yakuza, says that he loves animals like hamsters, that it's the people around Nagai that are the dangerous types when he's a nice guy and was also the guy who paid for the shrine in Yamanose to be built among other interesting tidbits that you don't really need to know about, but screw it, it's Shenmue, such detail, wow) or how even Enoki [big dude who always wears black jacket who you fight in disc 1 all of the time] of all people actually tells Ryo to stay away from them [Enoki showing compassion to Ryo?!] and that they're dangerous(!)

Or get this, after you beat Enoki up in Suzume Park and save Nozomi from him and Nagashima - ring up Nozomi afterwards and Ryo will ask Nozomi if Enoki has been around. Never even knew about this.

I was like, WOW! So much stuff I'm still discovering after all of these years. The game still continues to impress me.

Also still playing Shin Megami Tensei IV on 3DS. Been playing that every night actually and that game is just...keeping me up all night playing. lol. It's definitely nerfed with regards to difficulty though - I'm pretty much one shotting most enemies and 90% of the bosses are piss easy. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the systems in this series now? I have no idea. Nocturne and DDS2 were especially hard when I was playing those, but man this game is a cake walk. The music is really top notch though, the new guy (think his name is Ryota Koduka?) earned his place taking over Shoji Meguro. Has a 90s/nostalgic sound to it and unique, even for SMT. It's that sort of music that I just hit pause to and listen to for a while. It ain't like Meguro is going anywhere anyway.

I do like the smirk system that they've introduced with this game but they really need to implement a counter to it in the next game, I feel, since it's making the game super easy especially for those of us who have the enemy's weaknesses memorized, by this point. Great game.

[HappyKillmore]

I was enjoying Far Cry 4 and the new GTA 5, both lived up to my expectations. Too bad the Xbox one doesn't, and decided to break on me the week i start using it all the time. As a huge microsoft fanboy it pains me to say i hate the Xbox one, the system OS is truly terrible and it's one saving grace for me is that it was a quiet reliable machine, now it's not even that. Controllers only stay synced for about a minute before disconnecting - doesn't do it when wired but a simple thing like a bluetooth connection shouldn't break after a year. Windows 8 and Xbox One have unimpressed me microsoft, me, your number one fanboy.

[Axm]

I was enjoying Far Cry 4 and the new GTA 5, both lived up to my expectations. Too bad the Xbox one doesn't, and decided to break on me the week i start using it all the time. As a huge microsoft fanboy it pains me to say i hate the Xbox one, the system OS is truly terrible and it's one saving grace for me is that it was a quiet reliable machine, now it's not even that. Controllers only stay synced for about a minute before disconnecting - doesn't do it when wired but a simple thing like a bluetooth connection shouldn't break after a year. Windows 8 and Xbox One have unimpressed me microsoft, me, your number one fanboy.

That sucks man..what happened? It just doesnt turn on anymore?