About 3/4ths of the way through Fable I just wanted it to be over.
Funny enough, that's basically when the original game ends. The Lost Chapters adds another (rather mediocre) 5 or so hours onto it.
I've been playing Avadon: The Black Fortress after having picked it up during the Steam sale. I'll admit: even if this is Jeff Vogel dumbed-down (and my first post here was a huge rant complaining about how the game was shit based on its demo), Avadon is still pretty fun. It's nice to be able to play a turn-based isometric RPG, and even if the character system is really simple and the combat fairly easy, stuff like lack of level scaling, a proper inventory, functional and effective crafting, etc. are all satisfying. It's competent, and sadly that's kind of more than I expect with RPGs these days. From a storyfag perspective I do have to say that the game is a lot better than I initially gave it credit for. Mostly cosmetic choice and consequence, but the writing itself is pretty good, the world is a lot more interesting than it initially shows off, the plot twist is pretty good, etc. It's very, very BioWare, but it's done far better than they have in many, many years.
A few other games I've played recently:
- LIMBO, an arthouse artfag game about art. Or something. The puzzles and platforming are actually pretty good, and if you let yourself get sucked in, the game is very moody, dramatic and tense. One of the best examples of presentation elevating a game I've seen, and thankfully the gameplay itself doesn't really suffer for it.
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. I liked the first two games despite derp, but I think the derp is becoming too powerful with Brotherhood for me. A few hours in and it feels like there isn't really any story to follow, just a random series of murders for Ezio to perform with little reason behind them, and the new gameplay features are fun, but ultimately nothing to write home about. The point where Ezio got attacked by random cultists for no reason, I think I kind of just mentally checked out and realized nothing story-wise in the game was going to matter or even try to make sense. I do think the level design has improved a bit, though, and Rome as a city is pretty cool and varied (I love the old ruins; exploring the Colosseum was a lot of fun).
- Sequence, because I reviewed it. It's a fun and original game, but severely damaged by grinding. Most Codexers will despise it for its anime-influenced art and Internet references.
- RAGE, again because I got it during the Steam sale. Honestly, aside from the nasty low-res textures (it really is bad in places), the game has excellent artwork and some very fun and satisfying shooting. It does get pretty repetitive quickly, but as far as mostly straight-up arcade shooters go, I think RAGE plays better than any other that's not native to the PC.
- Dungeons of Dredmor, because of course.
Go for the worst ending.
