Only finished one game this month: Breath of the Wild (Wii U version, 79 hours total).

Really enjoyed my time with it despite a few things bugging me (areas feeling rushed/unfinished, disappointing/crappy bosses with only like...2 that I ended up liking, bittersweet ending, difficulty disappearing almost entirely halfway through, etc.). I'll probably start a new playthrough when both DLC packs come out.

Now I'm playing through The End is Nigh.

Spacechem

I've just started and I'm completing the first tutorial missions. The whole idea of packing puzzles into idea of fake chemistry is really fascinating. Looks like challenging and inspiring game with nicely designed learning curve.

Thanks for the gift, mrcrispy83! :)

Morrowind

Motorsport manager; 150+ hours so far.
Never liked managment games before, but this one is very good.

i must be out of my mind. I've bitched so much about Fallout Tactics (with the Redux 1.3 mod)... yet I restarted it all over from the start two days ago, while I was only a couple of missions away from the end.

It is just that now as I've become familiar with the game, it started bugging me more and more "why didn't I make my character like this, why didn't I choose this and that perk at that level?" etc.

So now I made my character again, and made a clear roadmap (or a shopping list if you will) what perk to take for each team member at what point. Actually it is more about the perks than what kind of character I had. My main character is almost the same as before (I think I lowered Charisma 8 => 7 and increased Perception 8 => 9, and that's it, even the traits are the same). My main character is now this:

Traits: Small Frame + Gifted
Tagged skills: Small Guns, Energy Weapons, Sneak

ST 5 (I will bump it up to 6 with a perk later, just in time when the MX14 sniper rifle becomes available, requiring ST 6)
PE 9
EN 7
CH 7 (I willl bump it up to 8 with a perk at level 12, in order to get the Divine Favor perk at level 14)
IN 6 (in order to get the Sharpshooter perk)
AG 9
LK 5

Things I know now better about the perks, and intend to do:

1. You don't have to pick a perk when the game allows it. You can postpone picking them at later levels when more important perks become available, just keep hitting that Cancel button in the perk selection screen. This is very important as I kept choosing less important perks early on because nothing better was available, and then later hoping I could choose many more perks. Now I can do that, I went all the way up to level 9 before choosing any perk (used one Mutate-perk for three of my characters, see below).

I think it will be at level 12 when many more interesting perks become available, especially the "Gain" perks for all your abilities.

2. I didn't realize the importance of the Mutate-perk before. For your main character it shouldn't be needed because certainly you have selected the good traits for him/her at the start, meaning of course "Gifted" (+1 to all abilities) and "Small Frame" (+1 to Agility). But for your recruits, I definitely used it to get a Gifted trait for all those who didn't have it before. They just lost some useless traits like "Chem Reliant"... with one I decided to get rid of "Fast Shot" in exchange of Gifted, I just prefer being able to do targeted shots if needed.

3. I will pick "Gain Endurance" and "Gain Intelligence" (+1 to both) for all my team members as soon as they become available at level 12, as those also decide how much extra health points and skill points you get per level up, so of course you want to bump up those values higher as soon as possible. That's also why I wanted the "Gifted" trait to all party members (see the previous point #2) as that also gives +1 to those two abilities (as well as all others).

"Gain Agility/Strength/Perception/Luck" can wait for later, as they don't cause any extra cumulative effects on level ups, i think. Their extra benefit is instant and will not change.

4. I also intend to get 2x "Lifegiver" perks as soon as possible if I have any free perks to use, as they give an extra HP on every level up as well. They would be meaningless later in the game when you don't level up as often anymore.

5. Last but not least, the "Divine Favor"-perk, OMG... I missed this one before simply because its description is so vague telling nothing about its importance. Being able to pick a new perk every two level-ups (instead of three) is definitely something I want as soon as possible! It also gives a +1 to your highest ability which is nice I guess, but the lower perk rate is really what matters.

Only those characters who have Charisma 8 (or over) can have this perk, so this was pretty much the only reason I wanted high Charisma. Otherwise it could have been CHA 1 for all I care, I guess (who cares how good veteran recruits you can get later on with high CHA, as I stick to my early recruits anyway, developing them as I choose).

So, I gave my main character CHA 7 which I will bump up to CHA 8 with the Gain Charisma perk, and also for my recruits I tried to select one's that had CHA 7, or CHA 6 in case they didn't have the Gifted trait (because then I could bump them to 8 anyway: first from CHA 6 => 7 with the Mutate-perk (selecting the Gifted-trait), and then from CHA 7 => 8 with the Gain-perk).

Now, if only I knew how to find the Gas Station special encounter, as apparently one can buy or steal an Elixir of Life drink from there, giving an extra +1 Endurance to one person as well...

*sigh*

It sounds like this game has a *very bad* case of missable stats. It *should not matter* whether I choose a perk like llifegiver at level 12 or wait until level 20; I should not be punished for choosing to focus on a different aspect of my character first. It is bad enough that the game has the common flaw of having health gains from EN not be retroactive; it's even worse that there is a specific choosable perk with that issue. Judging from your post, I note that IN and the Divine Favor perk are other examples of this issue; it should not matter (in the long run) whether I improve the stat or take the perk early or choose to wait.

This is, seriously, the sort of thing that puts me off from ever playing the game (even though I own it). I really wish game designers wouldn't do this sort of thing. Having a perk to increase your HP is fine, just don't make the HP gain depend on when you pick it (I would rather have it be +2 per level retroactive than +4 per level up non-retroactive.)

I just started playing Witcher 2. I started with 3, and figured why not go back and try the other 2.

I agree. I'd also like things to get fixed retroactively, like e.g. Endurance (among other things) defining exactly how much HP i have on certain level, without caring when exactly Endurance got to that certain level.

In a way it is interesting to micromanage when to get what perk (mainly meaning that some perks are important to get as early as possible, while others can wait for a later time; like now I have a pretty good plan for each team member, at what level to get what perk, depending what their current abilities are), but only if you know these things beforehand. It is aggravating to miss something for 20 levels and then think "Why the heck didn't I choose that 20 levels ago?".

Another thing I dislike a lot is the damn randomness in character generation and level up. (EDIT: Clarifying, I am not talking about Fallout games, they don't seem to have this kind of randomness luckily.) Sometimes getting only a measly amount of extra HP on a level up, while sometimes getting a lot, because rolls you know. That only feeds the need to savescum, retrying the level up as many times until you get near max goodies. (Unless the amount of HP is not that important, e.g. it doesn't matter if you have 3000 or 3100 HP as enemies miss 90% of their shots anyway and do up to 40 damage, and you can always heal yourself right away...).

Was it Icewind Dale where you roll your starting stat points? I recall rerolling them dozens of times for each character, just to learn what was the max you could get anyway, and then to get that max. It just didn't make any sense to settle for lesser stats, you'd put yourself into a serious disadvantage. I could just as well randomize all my stats and give only 1 strength to the main melee fighter or 0 intelligence to spellcasters, or something.

Currently in the midst of Divinity 2 and Elder Scrolls Online. I thoroughly enjoyed Divine Divinity, and so far I am having a lot of fun with Divinity 2 as well. Also very much enjoying my time with ESO. Despite any misgivings I have about TES games it is my favorite series and I have enjoyed all of the ones I have played extensively, albeit to varying degrees (which is all the non-mobile games except for Battlespire).

Thinking of including Clive Barker's Undying in my current rotation too. I played it for a slight bit to see how it was, but I wanted to finish F.E.A.R. first. Although since F.E.A.R. has started to bore me lately, I may just go to Undying now.

Been having a major nestalga trip and rocking some sega genesis and snes emulators, But really thinking on getting back into stalker shadow of Chernobyl modded with complete + extra weapons add on pack to spice things up a bit. and fear 2 has been on mind as well.

I've been getting back into playing Unreal lately. It holds up pretty well visually. Lots of neat little graphical effects to show off the engine. The game is entertaining enough, although I wish there was more variety in the enemy types as most of the guys you fight are humanoids that just have different guns. I guess the idea was to make a single-player campaign that played like multiplayer with bots?

I don't know how far you've managed to get in the game, but I always thought that there is a pretty good enemy variety. At first you mostly fight against brutes and skaarj warriors of varying size. But as you progress you'll encounter weird amphibian types, high tech mercenary types, more types of skaarj, a slave race, giants and a few more that I'd rather not spoil.

I'm in the second spaceship, the one you get into after the trench level with the giant rock-throwing guy. Those guys are definitely among the exceptions :)

Ooh yeah, the ISVKran, one of my favorite parts. Pretty difficult though, good luck! :)

I'm currently playing Culures 2. It's a very nice mix of Settlers and The Sims. You can say "Settlers Extended" to it.

Every settler is unique and has his/her needs like a home, something to eat, sleep, marriage and so on. Also every settler has to be managed seperately. It means a lot micro management. That makes the gameplay ab bit slower compared to other games in this genere, but you're going to love every settler of your clan, knowing him/her by his/her unique name. It's not like having a lot of anonymous workers.

I also tried the latest game of the series "8th Wonder of the World", but I ran into some issues. Maybe that's because I'm playing it on my Mac with an emulation program (Wine) and this program causes those issues or maybe it's a problem with the game itself. I can't say for sure. But Culures 2 runs fine on my Mac with Wine and I'm really enjoying it. :)