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What game are you wasting time on?

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
More Ur-Quan Masters. This game just gets better and better. I'm avoiding any spoilers, but I have now acquired the portal spawner, which pretty much opens up the entire map for me. I also understand now what I was supposed to see on Vela. I didn't pay much attention at the beginning, tbh, because I didn't expect this game to be so story-heavy.
Nice touch, btw: I convinced the Thraddash to impress their Ur-Quan Masters by ignoring their orders and help them fight the Kohr-Ah. Over the next few in-game weeks I could observe the Thraddash circle on the starmap slowly move towards Ur-Quan/Kohr-Ah space. Then I jumped into QuasiSpace, and when I came back later, the Thraddash circle was back in its original position, just much smaller... I guess it didn't work out so well. And in the meantime they seem to have left their secret unattended. :shittydog:
 

Zarniwoop

TESTOSTERONIC As Fuck™
Patron
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
18,650
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Don't worry, I'm sure the Stardock "spiritual successor" will totally be worthy. I mean they make some Windows skins and GalCiv. How could it not be?
 

Vorark

Erudite
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
1,394
Been playing Vanquish (excellent) and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.

I'm giving 4U a fair chance but still think it's garbage:

- Ledges and slopes are a goddamn nuisance and killed proper map design. Environments are horrible and devoid of any aesthetic sense; even the bare ass stuff from Gen 1 looks better, ffs.
- Mounting got no place in a MH game. If Capcom wanted to insist on gimmicks, should have tried to improve underwater mechanics.
- Some of the new monsters would be right at home in a hack'n'slash (fuck you Najaralalala, who designed this shit?). Only new monster I liked was the edgy dragon (Gore Magala).
- The idiotic "story" isn't helping either, FU and 3U managed to tell an interesting tale without derp animu cichés. Lemme skip this nonsense.
- Soundtrack took a nosedive after 3rd gen.

I think I'm just gonna drop this and continue my Freedom Unite playthrough. :obviously:

Fun fact: Briefly tried online and got into a HR1 room since my hunter is HR1 too (think of it as you character level). Some HR60+ dude joined, trashtalked everybody but still went on a low level, 1-star Gypceros hunt. He somehow managed to cart once, WTF! People were indeed being carried instead of learning how to play. :lol:
 

Ovplain

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
1,890
Location
Down by the riverside
RPG Wokedex
Ass Creed III. I've been teaching myself French for the past 4 months, every day for 124 days now. Figured it's about time I start playing some games with French voice-overs. So that's what I'm doing, Assassin's Creed III with French v/o & subtitles. Doubt I directly understand more than a third of what's being said, but it's Assassin's Creed so I can still follow what's going on easily enough.
 

Vorark

Erudite
Joined
Mar 2, 2017
Messages
1,394
Pardon, je suis monté...

vader.jpg
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,512
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I'm almost done with Grandia on PlayStation. I only have 1/4 left. Despite the easy combat, I still like the system.

Suikoden V on PS2. I'm playing this on the actual console and not an emulator this time. I have never recruited all 108 SoD in this game.

On PC, I am continuing my Battle Brothers playthrough. I haven't come that far, though.
 

Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,304
So I just started playing Valkyria Chronicles got through the first missions and got to the HQ for the first time,time to go see the recruits and choose which to add to my squad and..

vaYLKS8.jpg


:hmmm:

I believe that's the first time I see homosexuality as an attribute,Nippon gonna Nippon I guess
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
American Assault for Duke Nukem 3D.
Got about halfway through the three episodes of the single player campaign. Apart from some modified weapons there's nothing novel about it, and the level desing is bland and uninspired.
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I've been replaying all the Tenchus. Why can't they continue the series? I want to slit more throats with Ayame again :negative:
I think Tenchu Z was the reason, I heard it sold horribly.

It wasn't terrible, but it was one of those next gen games that played like a PS2 game.
 

Somberlain

Arcane
Zionist Agent
Joined
Mar 5, 2012
Messages
6,202
Location
Basement
I haven't played it yet since I don't have a 360 but I actually thought I'd buy both since they are pretty cheap these days, especially used.

And yeah, based on gameplay videos, it looks like it plays just like Wrath of Heaven and Fatal Shadows with a few new moves and that probably didn't meet next-gen expectations back then. But it's totally fine by me :positive:
 

Freddie

Savant
Joined
Sep 14, 2016
Messages
717
Location
Mansion
Finished Buck Rogers: Countdown the Doomsday.

TL/DR: This is a really great game!

Obviously this game took me back. I played trough most of the Gold Box cames back in the day and even this was new one to me it has much common with others, same engine and under laying rules after all. Yet it felt somehow fresh. I attribute this to not only to new settings but other things, like there's no healing (spells) during combat. Skill system is huge change, you need to invest in Zero G combat skill and you need to have pilot which have good piloting skill for fuel economy, etc. What comes to combat, grenades and plasma launcher aren't replacing spells like hold person or fireball. Some grenades have other beneficial effects, like chaff grenades prevent enemy from using rocket guns and launchers, which is very needed against combat robots. There's also ship to ship combat which is really great feature.

It's a great game and I'm going to play the sequel, but I found it surprisingly difficult to sum up my thoughts of this game. There is of course nostalgy factor, but many other things too. Side quests, economy (which is broken, but important early on, especially if your weapon of choice uses more expensive ammo than needlegun) etc.

Some points.

Difficulty is like what you expect from old school RPG. My party was sub-optimal, I just didn't care to keep re-rolling but looked for something decent. Had a rogue that had a dex 17 and con 18 for example. It was good enough so I don't fucking care. The most important thing here is, that game is winnable on normal level even with sub-optimal party like some people would put it. I had to lower difficulty three times I think, once because I underestimated importance of Zero G combat skill in early game, and couple of times during optional side quests (which some turned out to be more challenging than missions in main quest line). I always reverted back to normal difficulty though.

I really like how difficulty system works. You can play the game on normal difficulty even with characters which aren't any sort of demigods. I recall first time I finished the Pools of Radiance I had couple of really good characters, but also one fighter in my party with strength 15. So if games has it's roots in P'n'P it should be winnable on normal difficulty with characters that are created like in P'n'P.

But if you want challenge, play the game on level where you invest in both, your skill and knowledge in character creation and play the number crunching game and also on level on tactical solutions, higher difficulties can offer some entertainment there. Easiest difficulty setting is what I consider being pretty close to "story mode", so it's nothing new after all, but has been there for a long time.


Ship to ship combat

Ship to ship combat is very refreshing and works really well in the setting. Combat itself is simple. Weapons have their range, pilots responsibility is to keep the right distance and ships have different sections which some, if destroyed give opportunity to close the ship and board it. Party is using ships weaponry using their natural Thaco to attack roll and depending of their skills can do other tasks as well, such as repairs. Combat has even consequences not only to how much salvage ship you manage to board and capture is worth, but also to boarding part of combat. If you shoot enemy ship engines to hell, there's nothing you can use to take control of the ship in control room, and you need to capture it by taking over the bridge. If you destroy the controls in ship to ship combat, you need take the engine room.


While playing I thought a lot why we don't have this sort of things in games any more. The Sentinel Worlds and now Buck Rogers games appear to be only ones where crew abilities had impact to combat performance. So we have have so much more CPU power, RAM, storage and features at these days, but this is something that for some reason can't be done in games today, but instead commander sometimes issues orders for his two squaddies and so while there is this cool ship, issues of the galaxy are solved by 3 or so guys on the ground. Or if we got some space combat options, it's like mini-game where you shoot some fighter from tower gun and it's fun like first 5 times and then it gets really old.

I don't claim that space combat is necessary or even needed in all settings but option to have a minigame where commander actually calls the shots and you may have some choices regarding ships weapon systems and perhaps even skills of the crew might be handy option to bring something new to the table instead of adding more dialogue quests on top of dialogue quests and 'funny' mini-games like Planet Scanning (TM) in Mass Effect 2 (TM).

I wondered why it's so and perhaps reasons could be in unrealistic expectations from players and developers. Buck Rogers and Sentinel Worlds combat worked because it's fast, your choices has immediate and further practical consequence and it was abstracted in a way that I didn't really miss any sort of cut scenes which would just slow it down.

So maybe forget what people may think at first when they think of combat in space, visual feedback which would be like watching Star Wars films and IMO it would be very bad idea. Reuse something like star map also to tactical display, put your command interface there. If you have something like Mass Effect's Normandy, use existing animations for crew, but add battle reports (hit or miss, did we get hit, etc.) The visuals needed would be INSIDE of your ship. You get hit, maybe use tilt or shake effect for a while, you may have sparks flying, etc. If you hit you may have your crew reactions, cheers, fist pumping animation, or something. Anyway, something small, something fast that keeps the tempo and mood flowing.


Overall

I highly recommend this game for anyone interested in cRPG's and / or sci-fi settings. Graphics is what they are and in many things it has also it's weaknesses being game from the era it is. However, it's also very good example how very much can be achieved with very little and IMO worth getting to know for that aspect alone.

Unfortunately I didn't find a place where you can buy this like downloadable game. There are numerous abandonware sites where this may be downloaded but watch out, because with my copy I got bit of add-ware too. Documentation can be found from replacement docs site. Not every command is explained in manual but some are explained in quick reference card. So get that too.
 
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octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Natuk.

First impression is that it is a dumbed down version of Nahlakh, with fewer races and classes. Also, it seems to lack a hint book, and even proper documentation, so I have to roll dummy characters just to see which skills the various classes can pick.

There are 8 race+class (there are no genders or alignments) combos which is also the size of the party, so the only real choice for a multi-culturalist like me is wether I should have an Ogre Shaman in the party. Due to the Ogres' tendency of going berserk he will have to be a melee character, but how feasable is it?
I'm sure SkeleTony would know (BTW, great work on those custom icons!).
mondblut or CryptRat may also have some ideas.
 

Alienman

Retro-Fascist
Patron
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
17,043
Location
Mars
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Onimusha. Great game, but way too short. Was surprised when it ended, felt like the game was just starting.

Gonna start with Onimusha 2 soon.
 

Severian Silk

Guest
I have been wasting time editing Wikipedia. Because there's no game within my budget that I feel like playing right now.
 

kazgar

Arcane
Joined
Apr 23, 2008
Messages
2,164
Location
Upside Down
Been playing void pyramid on my mobile device, reminds me of old c64 era rpgs, bit light on stats wise (maybe more a glorified adventure) but some amazing worldbuilding and a fun enough story to get me through train trips. (or distract me from working)
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Natuk.

First impression is that it is a dumbed down version of Nahlakh, with fewer races and classes. Also, it seems to lack a hint book, and even proper documentation, so I have to roll dummy characters just to see which skills the various classes can pick.

There are 8 race+class (there are no genders or alignments) combos which is also the size of the party, so the only real choice for a multi-culturalist like me is wether I should have an Ogre Shaman in the party. Due to the Ogres' tendency of going berserk he will have to be a melee character, but how feasable is it?
I'm sure SkeleTony would know (BTW, great work on those custom icons!).
mondblut or CryptRat may also have some ideas.
- I used a melee Ogre shaman, no problem.
- I thought shamans were more useful than witchdoctors, you need at least one witchdoctor but you shouldn't roll more witchdoctors than shamans IMHO, the same number at most.
 

TC Jr

Scholar
Joined
Jul 11, 2016
Messages
160
Location
Scotland
Doom, still brilliant to stick on after work even the midi music is great. I tried brutal doom and it is great but im playing with a controller (laptop) and hard to aim at times but it's pretty irrelevant with the shotguns anyway.

Also got a few emulators, dolphin is brilliant, had no issues and it's great sticking timesplitters and shit on, spoilt for choice tbh.

Mental how great games used to be, back when genres were a thing as well, everythings mixed now - poor lack of focus. It's always easy to say nostalgia but it's just not the case.
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
Finished Castlevania - Portrait Of Ruin

Good:

- Konami's 'Vania.
- Base gameplay is fantastic, game keeps being fun the whole time.
- Sidekick is an interesting concept (additional attack / support spell).
- Liked most of 2D backgrounds and some 3D backgrounds.
- Leaving the castle was a good idea, since it allows for other than usual themes.
- Some levels (paintings) have fantastic level design (pyramid, circus).
- Story dumps are minimal, much incline after previous 2 games, where characters just couldn't STFU.
- Game is very big (castle + 8 regular areas + arena), IMO without big drop in quality.

Ugly:

- Yet another experiment, after souls-hunting duology (Aria of Sorrow and Down of Sorrow). Some new things are nice, some not, some things were unnecessarily reintroduced.
- Switching subweapons / equipment takes too much time again. Two sets of items switchable via one buttons (DoS) was a great idea.
- Level design in initial stages are p. boring. Game opens up later, thank God.
- Some Wind's quests require metagaming, since you can sell some shit long before you learn about its quest-importance.
- Too much useless shit (esp. skills and gear), most of it totally inferior to 3-4 "best" things. What's the point of this "variery", then? I was using ~4 weapons through the entire game, in linear progression.
- Some puzzles feel totally out of place, plus they're anal AF (motorcycle ride, stopping the train). Had to look on the webz for a solution for those.
- Irritating stage design in some later stages (plenty of teleports / saves in one area, almost none in another).
- Some areas are just boring (linear corridors with meh enemies).
- Character design is too animu for my taste.
- Story doesn't make much sense.
- Fixed set of enemies in rooms. New enemies appearing in old rooms after some time (CotM) was great, yet abandoned, idea.

Bad:

- Shop's "sell" screen is still shit, after all these games. You don't even know if shit you're selling is currently equipped by your character, not to mention useful info like stats +/- etc. What the fuck, 198x RPGs had this.
- It's very easy to fuck yourself out of best subweapon (axe!) entirely, since it's only available via an (rare) enemy drop. Decline.
- For some reason you can buy multiple instances of subweapons in the shop, when you need just one to be able to use it (forever). Don't know WTF is going on here - a glitch?
- Hated final boss fight: first stage is too hard with two fags pummeling you with cheap attacks, second stage is too easy, with Vlad just staying on the ground and soaking your attacks (killed him in less than minute). Meh.

Verdict: :4/5:

Didn't like it initially, but it grew on me due to solid gameplay / stage design (in most stages, at least).

Only two games in series left: Order Of Ecclesia (NDS) and Dracula X Chronicles (PSP). Disso shitto just can't be successfully trannyslated to the 3rd dimension, IMO. :(


Earlier nuggets of wisdom from yours truly:

Dawn of Sorrow :4/5:
Aria of Sorrow :4/5:
Harmony of Dissonance :shit:
Circle of the Moon :5/5:
Symphony of the Night :meh:
Rondo of Blood :5/5:
SC IV :itwas5yearsago:
 
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Alkarl

Learned
Joined
Oct 9, 2016
Messages
472
Dragon Aids: Inquisition as a Womyns Qunari Mage ...

In between another Wiz 6-7-8 playthrough.

Current Party:
Human-Male-Samurai
Dwarf-Female-Valkyrie
Faerie-Female-Ninja
Mook-Female-Bard
Elf-Male-Mage
Rawulf-Male-Priest

Still early, might reroll for something more interesting.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Natuk
Not terribly exciting so far, fighting Giant Tics (yuck!) and Giant Rats, but only small groups. The beginning of Nahlakh was much more exciting, with an army of AngryKobold s in hot pursuit.
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
Onimusha. Great game, but way too short. Was surprised when it ended, felt like the game was just starting.

Gonna start with Onimusha 2 soon.

Skip them all and go straight to Dawn of Dreams. Overlooked 'cause late in the PS2's life cycle, but best in the series.
O2 is kinda playable, but skippable. O3 is just bad. O4 is fantastic indeed.

Let's face it, it's the most overrated game in series. People liked it only because it was first "Vania and had nice graphics. Both CotM and AoS are superior, for different reasons.
 

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