Games

[NeoKubrick]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_of_Exile

Path of Exile is an online Action RPG set in a fantasy world. It is developed by New Zealand based independent developer Grinding Gear Games and will be marketed as a downloadable free-to-play game supported by "ethical microtransactions".[1] On January 23, 2013, the Open Beta was released.[2]

Gameplay
The player controls a single character from an overhead perspective[3] and explores large outdoor areas and underground caves or dungeons, battling monsters and fulfilling quests from NPCs to gain experience points and equipment. All areas aside from the central encampments are randomly generated for increased re-playability. While all players play on (currently) one server world the game play outside of encampments is highly instanced providing every player or party with an isolated map to explore.[4][5]

As is customary with this type of game, the items are also randomly generated from a wide variety of basic types and endowed with special properties and gem sockets. They come in different rarities with increasingly more and/or more powerful properties. Thus a large part of game play is dedicated to finding well balanced and synergetic equipment.

Official website: http://www.pathofexile.com/
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDFO4E5OKSE

[icycalm]

Email I just sent to Sullla:

Hey man, there's a question regarding diablolikes that I'd like to ask you. Which is(are) the best of them? Do you only play Diablo? We just started up Path of Exile with two people from my site, and we are playing on Hardcore, but the game is so easy, 3 hours in, that we barely need to look at the screen while playing. It's very beautiful and atmospheric and with excellent voice acting and a far superior sense of adventure than Diablo, in my view, but the complete lack of challenge even on Hardcore makes it borderline unplayable. We are thinking of playing another 3-4 hours, and if it doesn't ramp up we'll move on to something else. Maybe the Torchlights? Or do you know any other good games in the genre?

P.S. If you are interested in joining us for 6-player Path of Exile, Torchlight II, or any other game of the genre you'd recommend, we'd be delighted to have you.

[icycalm]

Wow, the trailer makes it look fantastic. And it is, apart from the lack of challenge problem. Maybe we should just keep pushing forward for a while and it will come. I can't imagine the entire fucking game not having a single difficult spot!

[icycalm]

Email exchange with Fabius Mayland (Learn to Counter forum poster and the person who wrote Insomnia's Deus Ex: HR review and a couple of other articles):

Are you on Steam?

I am trying to get into Path of Exile with two others from Insomnia, and we are looking for three more people to get a full party. Wanna play?

Why would you guys want to get into Path of Exile? The only people that I know who play it are former Blizzard fanboys who think that Diablo 2 is the pinnacle of video games. It's developed by self-proclaimed "indies", it is to be supported by "ethical microtransactions" (the fuck is that even supposed to mean?), and the game is trying to be a spiritual successor to Diablo 2 of all games. Is there anything about this game that should lead me to believe it wasn't developed by fagots for fagots?

That being said, if you guys just want to check it out for a couple of hours to see if there's any worth in it (I assume that's why you're trying to get a full party, after all), I'll install it and we can try it out.

All of your reasons against the game are poser reasons. I mean it's laughable. I see Mikey is having his effect on you. Is it not enough that the game looks absolutely AWESOME in trailers? And what's bad about fans of Diablo, or ethical microtransactions? Even identifying as "indie" is not bad considering even Platinum does it. Just because they don't understand what the term means and are misusing it doesn't make them bad developers, only the quality of their GAME could do that, and it does no such thing.

That said, we played the game for three hours, and though it IS indeed awesome in almost every respect, there's no challenge in it even though we are playing on Hardcore :( But we want to push at least a little further to make 100% sure the challenge doesn't ramp up later, and if that's the case we'll move on to something else in the same genre. I even sent an email to Sullla to ask him what to try next. Probably Torchlight 2, which is again for six players, so we need three more.

Tell me your Steam name so I can add you. I'd also invite you to our Planetary Annihilation clan (currently five members -- and we need at least five more for a full team when the 40-player battles are unlocked), which I describe in the forum as "almost the best game ever", but you'd need to be an Insomnia subscriber to join that. There is also an Insomnia group on Steam, but again I am keeping this and our clan for subscribers only. We have a thread for PA strategy and for ranking, etc., and it's just all around easier to interact with us if you are posting on the site. But you should consider buying the game and subscribing if you can afford it, because I can guarantee it will be one of your top 5 game-playing experiences ever.

[icycalm]

A video of me, Qpo, Masahiro, Some guy and Surth being wiped out by (what I assume to be) the Act 1 boss. And I thought the game was easy... Note that we are playing on Hardcore league, but in this game it works a bit differently, which is why when Qpo dies he gets a "Resurrect in town" message. When you die in Hardcore here your character goes back to town and reverts to the Standard league, so if you want a real Hardcore mode here you have to delete him (which is what we do). He's useless anyway, because he can't rejoin any survivors of your team in Hardcore league.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g00glejbxnw6e ... 8.avi?dl=1

Note that we are a 5-person team, but you only get four lifebars at the top left of the screen, because the fifth character is you, obviously. The others' bars are distracting anyway and I would like to see if there's some way to remove them.