A couple of recommendations.

[Zhukov]

Don't worry, I'll spare you folks the long form multi-paragraph essay and get straight to the point.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

It's the good stuff. Actually managed to live up to both its predecessor and its own marketing hype. Solid, well balanced mechanics. Plays just fine as a straight action game, stealth-em-up or any combination of the two. Multi-path level design. Nice sense of aesthetics, looks and sounds great. The only game I've ever seen that implements negotiation/debate into the dialogue system in a good way.

Granted, it's far from perfect. The dialogue animations are decidedly dodgy. Everyone hates the boss fights (although I didn't). The aforementioned negotiation scenes are way too easy. The story and characters, while mostly okay, never go anywhere special.

But overall, the bad bits are utterly crushed 'neath the hobnailed heels of the good aspects.

Secondly, Bastion.

I saw a trailer for this and promptly dismissed it. After stumbling across several glowing reviews, not too mention a positive showing on Zero Punctuation, I was forced to give it another look. Turns out, it's pretty damn good. Gameplay is nothing revolutionary, but it fills the bill. Has a interesting difficulty system. Story is way better than it has any right to be, mostly thanks to the best game narration I've ever encountered. Also, the ending was great. (Well, one of the endings, there's a spot of choice involved.)

Enjoy.

Or not.

[Freshbite]

I will.

Or won't.


No, but seriously. I've tried thew new Deus Ex game, and thus far, I'm far from displeased.

About Bastion, I don't know, I doubt that it's really my type of game. I like what I see in trailers, but am scared away by hearing that you need to rebuild a society. I will, however, look up some actual Gameplay before I decide whether or not to bother playing it, doing that now.

EDIT: From what I've seen from nearly three videos of his, it's not as much about rebuilding a society as it is about the journey Kid's traveling, and I like that. I'll actually try this game out, ready to purchase it if it comes to mind.

[Renegade_Turner]

Two games I'm definitely looking to try out! Unfortunately this weekend I went to a music festival and spent all my money...and am supposed to be moving out in the next few weeks...so no time soon...

[Grayswandir]

Bastion is now on Steam, so those of you who don't like consoles, or Microsoft can have at it without "dirtying" your hands.

As for Deus Ex: Human Revolution, its the first game I've played in a while where I wanted to immediately start a new game after finishing it. There are bunches of different ways to get past all the challenges in the game (except boss fights).

[Freshbite]

Entered the first boss fight last night, and got fucking furious.

Had to lower my difficulty, revert to an old save point, pick up a fucking bazooka and send it his way to finish him, then casually re-up the difficulty. I thought this game was supposed to be possible to play as a Stealth-game.

Everything BUT the boss fight, I've enjoyed as hell.

[Grayswandir]

Entered the first boss fight last night, and got fucking furious.

Had to lower my difficulty, revert to an old save point, pick up a fucking bazooka and send it his way to finish him, then casually re-up the difficulty. I thought this game was supposed to be possible to play as a Stealth-game.

Everything BUT the boss fight, I've enjoyed as hell.

Partial spoiler ahead:

Did you see all those red barrels in the room? Throw four at his face and he dies (don't even need to upgrade). Throw the green canisters at him to stun him then throw the red barrels to make him go away.

/spoiler

Yeah. Took me a little while to figure that out myself.

Anyone else find being non-lethal kinda boring? Sure, they give you more experience points for not killing people, but there's only three non-lethal weapons (besides choking people out), and only one of those you can actually upgrade.

[Freshbite]

Yeah, spoilers and whatever (up until, and concerning the first boss-fight).

I have to admit, that didn't really cross my mind. I did, however, shoot at the red barrels to cause him extra damage.

What I didn't like was that you had no chance of finishing that fight if you were trying to finish it as a "Stealthy" agent. My tranquilizing darts seemed to be doing nothing but fart in his bloodstream.

Anyone else find being non-lethal kinda boring?

Non-lethal? I try to be "not-there". I don't even want to hint at the enemy that something is out of the ordinary. The only time I actually had to use my tranqz' (tranquilizers..) was due to a bug, a guard stood still in a hallway, forever... and ever. I think I waited like 3 minutes for him to move before taking the decision of putting him out.

[Grayswandir]

Yeah, some guards...just kinda stand there. Forever.

The problem I have with "not being there" is that I have this huge urge to explore everywhere, so I end up knocking out guards and piling them all in a corner somewhere so I can steal every little thing I can get my hands on.

What I didn't like was that you had no chance of finishing that fight if you were trying to finish it as a "Stealthy" agent. My tranquilizing darts seemed to be doing nothing but fart in his bloodstream.

Supposedly you can stun him to "death" but you still get the shot full of holes ending sequence. If you're going for achievements, it doesn't count against it, but yeah, it feels out of place. In the original Deus Ex you could be all, "No thanks, bye." and just run away from someone and lock them in a room.

I'm planning on unlocking the Typhoon weapon system just for boss fights. When I played through the game the first time, the Typhoon just tore everything apart. The idea is to just quickly rip through the boss fights like they aren't there and ignore them.

[Freshbite]

The problem I have with "not being there" is that I have this huge urge to explore everywhere, so I end up knocking out guards and piling them all in a corner somewhere so I can steal every little thing I can get my hands on.

I tend to see the game as a maze, where-in the enemies are obstacles. They are more like falling trees, blocking off paths, rather than guards with weapons. What's hard is knowing how the guards will move, which requires quite the patience. If you get caught, you're punished with a long loading screen, back to the latest save-point.

The boss had me fucked, HE KNEW I was there, and I had no way of getting around him, and that destroyed my game. I'll recover from it, though.

In the original Deus Ex you could be all, "No thanks, bye." and just run away from someone and lock them in a room.

Yeah, that feels more like the kind of game I was hoping for, and am now trying to play.
This seems to have some restrictions, though.

I'm planning on unlocking the Typhoon weapon system just for boss fights. When I played through the game the first time, the Typhoon just tore everything apart. The idea is to just quickly rip through the boss fights like they aren't there and ignore them.

That does seem like a good idea. I will consider doing the same.

[Renegade_Turner]

Personally I don't think there should be any "boss" fights. Although Deus Ex the original game did have a few, like the dude near the end of the game that was acting as our master for most of the game but attacks you when you go rogue...can't remember his name...just remember there being a tower and, other than that, a MASSIVE open space with walls going around the perimeter. It was like some sort of military compound. But yeah he attacks you, it's hard as fuck and it's very annoying.

I see all enemies in these kinds of games as things to be snuck around, then sneak-headshotted and placed neatly in the corner of some room or dark area.

[Grayswandir]

I see enemies in these kind of games as a cat would view a cat-nip filled toy. You play with it until it busts open and you get to dig your face in its innards and purr and violently throw it around the room. Don't look at me like that.

...

Some games let you play with your toys more than others.

They're just lucky I'm playing a non-lethal run this time. This time they don't go home in body bags. This time they just get left in embarrassing poses and crumpled in extremely uncomfortable positions.