Game of the Month - July 2011

[Aristophan]

What's been your primary game this past month? It could be a recent title, a new discovery, or something from your backlog. It could be an old favorite or a new flame. What game defined July 2011?


This month I spent most of my gaming time on inFamous 2. I enjoyed the first one and I appreciated the improvements in the sequel. In the end it was more of the same - quality presentation but nothing special. I also played through Limbo, which was a nice little game. In some ways, it was more violent than InFamous 2 - the many deaths of the boy was much more disturbing than the havoc wrought by Cole McGrath. Finally, I spent the last several days playing Borderlands - I game that I recently gave a second chance.

[quarryman]

This month I have mostly been playing..... Fallout New Vegas (PC modded).

[Alstein]

I'll call it a tie between

Arcana Heart 3 and Dungeons of Dredmor

Arcana Heart 3 is one of the more creative fighters to come out in the past couple of years- despite a very generic cast of characters. Dredmor is a fun timewaster- first game that has threatened Din's as a work-timewaster in about a year.

[Quitch]

I've been playing Planet Stronghold a visual novel RPG. The writing is a little simplistic (and the main character a frat boy douche) and by the midway point you will have figured out how to break the battle system, yet I found it oddly engaging and as it offers you a "pick a side" aspect relatively early on it has good replay value.

I'll be picking up the expansion because there aren't enough games which let you carry on your adventures with old chums.

Beyond that, my League of Legends gaming continues unabated after one of the guys at work introduced me to it.

[MattN]

This was the month where I rediscovered League of Legends and, in a related story, my battle with insomnia.

[Riztro]

World of tanks steals an hour or so every day but my favourite game this month, for it's delightful ability to surprise me and trigger my gaming ocd is Dungeons of Dredmor.

[Wader]

I know it came out just last Tuesday, but since it came out, I have been unable to play anything else. For the first 3/4ths of the month, I was playing a lot of different games.

For that reason, my game of the month is Bastion.

[Skorin]

Just one game of the month? That's crazy talk with all the good stuff out there.

SpaceChem, which I got in the Steam summer sale. I got to the second-to-last world and kind of hit my brain's limit, I think, but I still think this is the best puzzle game ever made, and is my personal Game of the Year pick so far.

Dungeons of Dredmor, which is a really nice introduction to roguelikes, but I have some niggling problems with quality-of-life issues that have been fixed in other games, so I'm waiting for a patch or two to jump back in.

and Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME), which is an open-world roguelike with lots of loot, an overworld with lots of randomly generated dungeons, and a great skill system.

Also Bastion, which is the first game I've played through on New Game+ since Demon's Souls. Really great game, and Supergiant Games needs to put that soundtrack up for sale. Seriously!

[Hawkeye Fierce]

Tales of Maj'Eyal (ToME), which is an open-world roguelike with lots of loot, an overworld with lots of randomly generated dungeons, and a great skill system.Huh - this used to be Tales of Middle Earthand was one of my faves way back when. I wonder why they dropped the Middle Earth setting.

[MSUSteve]

According to my Steam profile, I've played 18.4 hours of Risen this month. That easily qualifies it as my game of the month. While I've got Witcher 2 and Divinity 2 beckoning, I just can't stop playing Risen.

[JDSIDD]

Team Fortress 2 got a good 24 hours this month, making it my most played (and highly enjoyed) game.

Dungeons of Dredmor is probably a good second. So far my best is still about 39k points.

[DrDel]

Lord of the Rings Online baby!

Getting ready for Isengard.

[Fishbreath]

In terms of raw play time, probably F1 2010. In terms of enjoyment per unit time, probably Prince of Persia.

[Rob_Merritt]

On the iPhone: Puzzle Agent 1 & 2
on the pc: Kane and Lynch 2 and Sims 3

[ElGuapo]

Tiny Tower on the iPad. Seemed dumb at first, until I grokked it. It's a big real time spreadsheet you are trying to make effcient. This little tower, a few floors, grows and grows and makes me check my iPad way too frequently now. Whoever designed this did a great job. The thing that puts it over the top is that BB, the Facebook of the tower. I love that feature, even though it's just random one liners and info reports. When a store closes down, one of the employees may go "Yay! No work today!". I can't help checking that frequently, even though it's basically just a real time status report. Brilliant mechanic.

Don't forget, you can customize the floor names, so I've got Fed Ex, Blockbuster, Apple, etc. in my tower. Plus, you can live in Ivy Tower Apts or Nice View Condos.

I'm ELGUAPODC on gamecenter, I think. Let me see your towers!

[Equisilus]

Primary for July has been FO:New Vegas. 42 hours spent so far, level 20 and still have a tonne of stuff to do. It'll probably end up being my primary game for August, even though I have a minor backlog of unfinished and not-started games.

[malkav11]

For me, most played would probably be various flavors of ARMA 2, both in 5+ player coop with the Qt3 ARMA group, and in the original ARMA 2 singleplayer campaign as run through Combined Ops mode. We're not terribly successful in coop but it's definitely enjoyable and a very different experience from solo play. As for the solo stuff - the branching and open worldness of it is pretty cool, but I've hit a point where it expects me to lead more than one squad worth of troops and hasn't given me any hint as to how to do this, so I'm either going to abandon ship or start running the Operation Arrowhead tutorials. Probably the latter.

Secondarily, there's F.E.A.R. 3, which I've been playing in coop. It's pretty short (8 levels, none of which take more than an hour and some of which take considerably less) so I don't know that the $50 asking price is anywhere near appropriate, but I paid $30 and will probably be okay with that in the long run. Maybe it's just playing with a friend, but it really doesn't succeed particularly well at frightening me - something which the original F.E.A.R. did manage occasionally but which the sequels have mostly whiffed at. That said, the horror theme makes for some pretty unique levels, the combat is still quite satisfying (though I barely used the new first-person cover mechanic), and Fettel is a nicely asymmetric coop partner. The challenges also add a bit of spice - more so to people who care about scores in a way that I don't, I'm sure, but as it acts as an upgrade system I courted as many of the challenges as I could manage. The plot....well, I guess it exists?

Finally, there's Avadon: The Black Fortress. I've always dug Spiderweb Software's old school RPG sensibilities and excellent writing and this is no exception. A little more area reuse than I'd like, and it starts off really easy on normal, to the point where I think I was a couple of missions into the game before I started having any reason to use abilities on a regular basis. Possibly I should have stopped and moved up to hard, but it's getting more challenging as time goes on and there's at least one (optional) fight I've not yet managed. Still, solidly made. Just buy it from Spiderweb themselves - the third parties introduce DRM that Spiderweb doesn't use, and it can fuck things up.

[Boojum]

This has been a month of asynchronous multiplayer for me, with Frozen Synapse, Solium Infernum, and Ascension all seeing a fair amount of playtime.

Besides that, I continued playing the occasional Blood Bowl league match and earned a custom title by vanquishing Lord Dredmor.

While on the go, I broke in my new iPad by completing Kona's Crate and Mirror's Edge and dabbling in a dozen others.

[Bandersnatch]

The Fall: Last Days of Gaia was what took up most of my time this month. Crappy inventory system and mediocre combat, but the world and quests are pretty interesting.

[Rock8man]

Playing Bastion and still loving it. I've been playing about 30 minutes to an hour every day since it's release, so I'm definitely not as far into it as all the fuckers who started posting spoilers on page 2 of the Bastion thread. I wish there was still a thread for that game where I could talk about the latest weapon I found, and how cool it is. For example, today I discovered the Sharpshooter rifle, which has a really unique mechanic for aiming and shooting that's really cool. A couple of days ago, I discovered duel pistols which you shoot by mashing the button as fast as you can.

Sadly, I don't think I can ever press the buttons fast enough to get the top prize for the pistol challenge, though I've tried a lot. I've never been very fast at button mashing. Sometimes I would watch friends play games like Devil May Cry (the original) and marvel at how fast they could shoot. I just can't do that. I don't think I've got the thumb training and reflexes for it sadly.

Can one of you come over to my house and pass the challenge for me? Please? :)

Another weapon I got yesterday is polearm type thing that gives you a nice reach, and it doubles as a throwing weapon. It's a bit similar to the machete, but I like it a lot when combined with the wherewisky so that when I'm low on health, every melee hit and throw is deadly. I'm also having a tough time imagining a route I can take in that challenge to get through it quickly, but I suspect I'll figure it out eventually. At least that one doesn't rely on pure physical ability.

[JoshV]

Playing Bastion and still loving it. I've been playing about 30 minutes to an hour every day since it's release, so I'm definitely not as far into it as all the fuckers who started posting spoilers on page 2 of the Bastion thread. I wish there was still a thread for that game where I could talk about the latest weapon I found, and how cool it is. For example, today I discovered the Sharpshooter rifle, which has a really unique mechanic for aiming and shooting that's really cool. A couple of days ago, I discovered duel pistols which you shoot by mashing the button as fast as you can.

Sadly, I don't think I can ever press the buttons fast enough to get the top prize for the pistol challenge, though I've tried a lot. I've never been very fast at button mashing. Sometimes I would watch friends play games like Devil May Cry (the original) and marvel at how fast they could shoot. I just can't do that. I don't think I've got the thumb training and reflexes for it sadly.

Can one of you come over to my house and pass the challenge for me? Please? :)

Another weapon I got yesterday is polearm type thing that gives you a nice reach, and it doubles as a throwing weapon. It's a bit similar to the machete, but I like it a lot when combined with the wherewisky so that when I'm low on health, every melee hit and throw is deadly. I'm also having a tough time imagining a route I can take in that challenge to get through it quickly, but I suspect I'll figure it out eventually. At least that one doesn't rely on pure physical ability.

It's not just you, that f'ing pistol challenge is really, really hard! I cannot get first place for the life of me, highest I've gotten is like 705/750.

For that spear challenge, i just intentionally hurt myself down low, so I can crit everything and kill everything faster.

[Rock8man]

It's not just you, that f'ing pistol challenge is really, really hard! I cannot get first place for the life of me, highest I've gotten is like 705/750.

For that spear challenge, i just intentionally hurt myself down low, so I can crit everything and kill everything faster.

Ha! I have you beat. I got 716 once. But I can never beat it, because for each target (there are 10), the most I've ever gotten is 74. And in order to beat the challenge, I have to average 75 points a target, and I just can't shoot that fast.

Yeah, I did the same thing in the spear challenge in order to get the second prize. What I'm trying to figure out now is how to do a route so that I can walk to all 6 targets in under a minute, let alone shoot a bunch of things in my way while I'm doing that.

P.S. Just between you and me Josh, I don't think PeterT or Cliff would have any trouble with this challenge. Those two guys could button mash so much faster than me.

[Pogue Mahone]

I was able to beat the pistol challenge, so let me pass along to you my 'aha!' moment, at the risk of telling you something you already know -- you must only fire as many bullets as it takes to destroy the target. Any further shooting decreases your score by I think ten points per shot. The on-screen indicator does say to stop shooting, but I'm not sure that it makes it clear that there is an actual penalty for not doing so. Once I made sure that I was reasonably fast on the trigger but fired economically, I was able to get first prize on the pistols.

[Rock8man]

I was able to beat the pistol challenge, so let me pass along to you my 'aha!' moment, at the risk of telling you something you already know -- you must only fire as many bullets as it takes to destroy the target. Any further shooting decreases your score by I think ten points per shot. The on-screen indicator does say to stop shooting, but I'm not sure that it makes it clear that there is an actual penalty for not doing so. Once I made sure that I was reasonably fast on the trigger but fired economically, I was able to get first prize on the pistols.

Well, Duh! :) Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but yeah, I wouldn't be able to get 74 points a target if I shot even a single stray bullet. Those 10 points per bullet make it so that a single missed bullet means I might as well start over.

But yeah, the points you get count downward, so the longer you take, the less points you get. So even if you don't miss with a single bullet, you still need to shoot fast enough to score 75 points per target, which I just can't do. I can only physically press the button so fast, and frankly, it's not all that fast compared to what I've seen a couple of friends do in the past, so I know I'm on the slow end of what's possible with a controller.

[Skorin]

Equip the spirit that gives you 100% crit rate when you're below 30% health, then run off the edge a few times before starting the challenge.

[Intangir]

Wizardry 8. Oh Arnika Road...

[Quitch]

So wait, we're complaining about Bastion spoilers in the Bastion thread, so instead we bring them here?

WTF, QT3?

[Warren]

Dungeons of Dredmor was the July time-gobbler for me, hands down!

Before that came out, the GOG release of Alpha Centauri was a contender, reminding just how much that game reaches into me and scratches all the right itches.

[Pogue Mahone]

Well, Duh! :) Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but yeah, I wouldn't be able to get 74 points a target if I shot even a single stray bullet. Those 10 points per bullet make it so that a single missed bullet means I might as well start over.

But yeah, the points you get count downward, so the longer you take, the less points you get. So even if you don't miss with a single bullet, you still need to shoot fast enough to score 75 points per target, which I just can't do. I can only physically press the button so fast, and frankly, it's not all that fast compared to what I've seen a couple of friends do in the past, so I know I'm on the slow end of what's possible with a controller.

Ah. Well, good luck with that then.

[lordkosc]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl , and Dead Space 2

[Rock8man]

So wait, we're complaining about Bastion spoilers in the Bastion thread, so instead we bring them here?

WTF, QT3?

Sorry, I only talked in detail about the weapons that Tom already mentioned in the Qt3 podcast before the game even came out (as well as that article he wrote about Bastion on the front page). I guess since I already knew about them before I started playing, I didn't consider discussion of these weapons as spoilers. The spoiler discussion in the other thread gave me details about the story that I still haven't gotten to.

[Rock8man]

Equip the spirit that gives you 100% crit rate when you're below 30% health, then run off the edge a few times before starting the challenge.

Interesting. I didn't know that helped with the targets. Thanks!

[Fugitive]

I played a lot of X3: Terran Conflict and enjoyed running around in a single ship a lot. It started getting a bit too fiddly once I started putting together stations and complexes and trying to manage a support fleet though. I don't really want to start messing around with scripts and mods and such right now, so I'll shelve it for now and might check out Rebirth next year.

[Telefrog]

I played Dungeons of Dredmor in July a lot more than it's $5 price would indicate. I don't even really care for the normal turn-based roguelike, but Dredmor has its hooks in me.

I've also been playing LA Noire on the 360. I love the stories and the face/voice acting, but I hate how random some of the interrogations seem to be. I've actually yelled at my TV when the "LIE" response morphs into another question after I've asked it. "Dammit! That's not why I thought you were lying!"

[Marcin]

Risen and Saboteur. Both huge and fantastic, so they may end up being next month's games as well.

Putting in some BF:BC2 as well when I'm feeling brainless. I'm still MNGM AM-less though, so it typically ends up frustrating, but something keeps pulling me back. I did just hit level 12, so maybe I'll get to try it eventually ...

[Relayer71]

Tales Of Symphonia - got my Gamecube out of storage a few weeks ago to play Baldur's Gate: DA with my 7 year old and have had a blast going through my GC collection (wow, so many GOOD games I never even got halfway through).

Have put about 15 hours into TOS so far (got about 20 hours in last time I played it) and enjoying every bit of it. Going to finish it this time and I have a good feeling that if it doesn't fall apart by the end, there may be a spot for this game in my top 10 JRPGs of all time list.

Also having a blast with Might & Magic IV the last couple of days. Couldn't get into it when I picked up the M & M collection on GoG a couple of years ago (but boy was I hooked on HOMM 3) but messed around with it last week and loving it.

[Slainte Mhath]

Oddly, the game I played most in July was Hinterland which I picked up for $2.50 during the Steam Christmas Sale last December. Ironioc that it took until the Summer Sale for me to get around to playing the game, but when I did the unique blend of Dungeon Siege style RPG, interesting map exploration/capture concept and strategic town building really hooked me. I think I put around 18 hours into the game over the course of the month and enjoyed every moment of it. Not bad for $2.50.

[Brian Rucker]

This was an MMO month. SWG (for old time's sake), STO and LoTRO. Also messed around with Total War: Napolean and KOTOR from the Steam Sale. Fable III, also from the Steam Sale, snuck in on the tail end and I'm still playing that.

[Rock8man]

Also having a blast with Might & Magic IV the last couple of days. Couldn't get into it when I picked up the M & M collection on GoG a couple of years ago (but boy was I hooked on HOMM 3) but messed around with it last week and loving it.

That's the one that connected to M&M V, right? I always wanted to play IV back in the day because there's about 3 or 4 quests in M&M V that I couldn't finish without traveling to the world of M&M IV through a portal that didn't work for me since I didn't own M&M IV.

[Boojum]

Yes, it is, and those two games still hold up incredibly well. Though if you were to play them in reverse order (going from Darkside to Clouds), your levels would be so high that you'd steamroll everything there.

[Quitch]

Sorry, I only talked in detail about the weapons that Tom already mentioned in the Qt3 podcast before the game even came out (as well as that article he wrote about Bastion on the front page). I guess since I already knew about them before I started playing, I didn't consider discussion of these weapons as spoilers. The spoiler discussion in the other thread gave me details about the story that I still haven't gotten to.

Sorry, I don't mean the weapons I was referring to the walk throughs on completing the challenges.

[Brian Rubin]

Mostly Frozen Synapse and Dirt 2 for me.

[Desslock]

Plants vs Zombies on iPad and Gears of War 2 on xbox. I always take a break from RPGs for lighter games in the summer. Played the first Gears last month.

[Klaatu]

Started the month off getting Baldur's Gate: TotSC and BGII mashed together with The Big SomethingOrOther, and enjoying that on and off.

Reinstalled StarTopia and loving that all over again, though I'm a bit surprised it still works on Win7 64bit since it came out like 10 years ago.

Finished up with The Sims 2, after picking up the last 3 expansion packs for a song recently.

Of that group, I'd say StarTopia is the winner though. Great game with lots of attitude and atmosphere.

[scharmers]

Evidently the thread should be titled "EVERYTHING I PLAYED IN JULY 2011", but hey, subject spread seems to the norm with all of these "extremely narrow inclusion criteria" threads that pop up on Qt3 everything other day.

Ahem. My game (singular, picked out of the list of games I played in July) of the month is Old World Blues. Having a Shivering Isles-sized DLC of such high quality was pretty awesome.

[Marcin]

Hah, oh, you're right.

Risen then. :P Big, tons of quests that make sense in the context of the world, great combat, great feeling of achievement when you get things done because the world is so unforgiving, and excellent atmosphere as befits a Gothic game.

[RepoMan]

The only game I played much of in July was From Dust -- got about halfway through it. The first three weeks of July I was hacking, hacking, hacking, and will probably put From Dust on the backlog shelf before entirely completing it, as the hack-o-meter builds back up to the redline.

[Shimarenda]

What gaming time I had last month went mostly to Morrowind.

[scharmers]

The first three weeks of July I was hacking, hacking, hacking,

OMG HAX IT'S AN ANON LULZ DOOD

CALLS THE FIB

REPORTED

[Joe M.]

Mass Effect 2 yet again, and having discovered this retexture pack (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/128/index/5314761/1) for my squadmates I'm tempted to replay it at least one more time.

[Thongsy]

The Witcher 2. Really great game. I'll have to tackle the first game after I finish with this one. For some reason I never could get into it.