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What game are you wasting time on?

Dux

Arcane
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
635
Location
Sweden
I played through the marine campaign of AVP 2000 and it was pretty entertaining. Problematic at times but still good, with that awesome music from the original films. The four save limit and constantly spawning xenomorphs make for some tense gameplay but I guess I'm too grizzled now to be scared like I used to be. I had to install a patch to remove the utterly horrendous Rebellion FMVs and replace them with the original American versions, though.

Speaking of FMVs I've also started playing Wing Commander 3. I never really played WC before so this is a fresh experience and I'm quite impressed with it so far. I really the script and the fact that the actors seem to take their parts seriously, without going overboard. It's a shame it didn't get a TV show or a movie starring Mark Hamill back in the day. No, instead we got fucking Fred and Shaggy.
 

Timeslip

Timeslip Softworks
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 27, 2016
Messages
909
Finishing off Deus Ex Mankind Divided and am about 65% of the way through a Franks campaign on Atilla: Total War. Have had enough of the Huns tearing everything up and have just declared war on them and fought a few battles. Had to change army composition quite a lot to beat them (more archers and spears) and tend to suffer a lot in bigger battles when the battle formation becomes broken and can't get new troops in quickly enough to plug the gaps. Enjoying both games, but fun is starting to wear off, looking forward to moving on to something new.
 

Big Wrangle

Guest
Currently playing Dink Smallwood. It's certainly bizarre and off-beat as shit, but it somehow manages to keep your interest. The combat itself is part of the punchline so far, like Dink punching an armored knight to death until it looks like they gibbed inside the armor. All in all, it's entertaining. Hopefully it holds up as I go on. Also the cover art is godly.
 
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Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,091
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
I decided to try something different. Instead of wasting some time on a modern game, I thought I'd dig up one of the old classics I played back in the 1980s and see if I could beat it now.

My choice was Auf Wiedersehen Monty, one of the better-known games in a series starring a :obviously:-clad burrower. This one was released in 1987 and is the fourth chapter in the story of Monty Mole, a video game character that's unique in that his creation stems from a real-life event of the time (the British Miner's Strike of 1984-1985). The first Monty game (Wanted, Monty Mole) had him stealing a bucket of coal and escaping through his tunnels to keep his home warm through the winter, but ended with Monty getting arrested and sentenced to prison. The sequel (Monty is Innocent) has his mate bust him out, and subsequent sequels dealt with Monty evading the law, first by getting out of Britain (Monty on the Run) and then heading towards a more permament law-evading solution (Auf Wiedersehen Monty). The final Monty Mole game (Impossamole) is where the plot jumps the shark, so I'm not even gonna comment on that. There's also a covertape-exclusive game (Moley Christmas) and a couple of recent fan-made games, so Monty isn't some obscenely obscure video game character, but still relatively unknown today.



Monty on the Run and Auf Wiedersehen Monty are by far the best-known games in the series, most probably due to the kick-ass tunes made for them by Rob Hubbard (both games) and Ben Daglish (only AWM). For anyone wanting to have a go at the entire series your best bet is to fire up a Sinclair Spectrum emulator, as that's the only platform all the Monty games appear on (even the fan-games). This would technically make Monty Mole the 'gaming mascot' of the Spectrum, as I'm not sure that any other video game character originating on the platform has as many games under their belt. (Sorry Horace.)

But back to the game. AWM, like most of the Monty games, is a 2D platformer with the game world split into screens (no scrolling) and involves Monty having to collect things and evade bizarre-looking baddies. In terms of size AWM is probably the biggest Monty game of them all, comprising almost 80 screens in total, arranged to give a rough map of mainland Europe. Monty starts the game in Gibraltar and must make his way to the Greek island of Montos, but first he must raise the cash to buy the island, and that's where things go pear-shaped. You see, almost all of the Monty Mole games are easy to get into, but monstrously difficult to beat. You start with six lives (with a further six available in-game) but you will not believe how easy it is to get killed in these games, especially by cheesy deaths like harmless-looking walls and the Crushers... every Monty player hates the Crushers.

Let me show you what the manual says about how to play the game:

Can you help Monty in his last fight for freedom? He must flee for his life across Europe, in an effort to raise enough money to buy the Greek island of Montos. On Montos Monty will at last escape extradition as no one else even knows of its existence.

Travel across the continent with our mole, 'acquiring' travellers cheques and any other valuables on your way. Could Monty make a few francs from fencing the Mona Lisa? Can our intrepid Mole repair his car in time to compete in the Grand Prix? The prize money could come in handy. The Mafia may help if he can avoid the 'heavy duty footwear'. Romance awaits Monty in "Pizza" in the form of 'Mole Fatale", the fair Juliet. Her heart begs to be captured by a daring Muscle Mole - is Monty her mole?

Can Monty tempt the palate of the German wine connoisseurs by delivering a very special bottle of Chateau Blanc from one of the finest vineyards in France? Collect the plane tickets at the airports to enable Monty to travel from one country to another. While in flight try to nibble the back of the other planes to increase your score.

When all the objects have been collected a complete island will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Then and only then should you go to Montos as arriving earlier may seriously damage your chances of finishing the game.

The rest explains the controls and how to load the game. This is all you have to go on. Finding out what item does what, which scenery items kill you, which baddies don't kill you and figuring out how the airports work - that's all left up to Trial and Error. After having a few goes at the game I quickly realized I was way in over my head. So I did some online sleuthing. That took an entire evening. There are close to a dozen different maps out there for the game (with this one being the most useful one) and several walkthroughs, but even then I had to combine information from several sources to find the info I needed - there is no Definitive Guide to this game out there.

What I learned was this:

# While each screen is generally pretty easy to complete (i.e. grabbing everything of value) there are a few stumper screens that can really eat up all those lives. Venice Italy is a good example, and one of the East Germany screens is another. Keep in mind that there's no inherent saving in games like these, and you can begin to understand the difficulty involved here.

# The worst part is figuring out whether a spot is safe to walk on or not. There is normal floors, electrified floors (stuns Monty temporarily but isn't lethal), trampoline floors (jump on these and an animated sequence has Monty reach high up), bouncy floors (Monty jumps straight up in the air on these), grappling floors (Monty walks upside-down on the bottom of these), slippery floors (Monty breakdances on these), crumbling walls, illusionary walls, floor spikes, walls that suck you into themselves (fatal) and walls that just plain kill you for no reason. Some of these hazards you can spot by their appearance, others not. Oh, and water is always fatal.

# If playing with an emulator, don't be afraid to use save-states. Really. Anything else is madness.

# In order to scrape together enough money to buy the island of Montos, you must collect ALL THE MONEY in the game. That means getting every single traveller's cheque and every special item, and delivering those special items to their respective locations. (This may be dependant upon which version of the game you play. I played the Amstrad CPC version, other versions may be more lenient on this.) To know whether you've collected enough money, there's an empty spot on the status screen at the start of the game. As you get more money, an image of an island starts to appear there. Only when the whole image has appeared are you supposed to go to Montos.

# The special items are the items mentioned in the vague instructions above. The Mona Lisa must be brought from France to Sicily to get a huge money boost from the mafia. The steering wheel in Sweden must be brought to Monaco, and there's a girl at the Leaning Tower of Pisa who could appreciate some flowers, but to get those you need to help out a drowning Dutchman first. Wine must be brought to Germany, bacon to Praag and a football to Italy, and then there's the broken cable car in Austria that must be fixed. There's plenty of back-and-forthing around in this game.

# Except that presents two extra problems. First, while the game world is laid out screen-by-screen, it's not all accesible via normal means. There's a divide between the eastern and western parts of the map (Iron Curtain, anyone?) and Sweden isn't even connected to the map. Here's where the airports come in. They're located closely to their real-life counterparts and act as teleporters, but they only take you from Point A to Point B (and almost always only one-way) so first players have to figure out all of their destinations. (Trial and Error strikes again.) Second, using an airport requires a plane ticket, and there's only a limited number of plane tickets in the game. This means players not only have to learn to overcome the obstacles of each and every screen, but also map out their route through the game, knowing which airports to take... and when.

# The above problems are further emboldened by the game's inventory. You can carry up to four items, but you have no control over the inventory. If you pick up an inventory item it stays there until it's used. This can and will lead to problems as picking up certain items must wait while you're trying to offload others, and this can mean using plane tickets that you didn't need to use. More than that, there are at least two airports that don't send you anywhere, they only eat up your plane ticket.

# All in all this makes AWM quite a tough game. After I did all my research on the game I had a few more tries, including one where I used a trainer so that I had infinite lives and baddies couldn't hurt me. It took me three hours to beat the game that way, and only because I ended up following a walkthrough to the letter to ensure I got everything. Even then I only had one plane ticket left over. This game doesn't pull any punches. If I'm gonna have another proper go at the game, I'll be playing a different version than the Amstrad.

# For reference, a speedrun exists of the game where it's beaten in 26 minutes. (By comparison Monty on the Run's speedrun is 12 minutes.) Now take a minute and think about all the playthrough attempts people must go through just to figure out what everything does in this game, then practicing how to beat every screen in the game, then managing to pull all of that off in a single playthrough, and you get the idea of how many dozens of hours people poured into this game. There's easily 20-30 hours of gameplay in there, probably more. This is how games were padded with gameplay in the 1980s.

# The game was originally sold for £8, which would be something like $10 before we account for inflation. The original release came with a poster and a badge, so there was considerable value in buying it before it went to a budget label, which cut out any and all such extras.

# One hidden secret I read about is the extra music in the game. At least it's supposed to be in the Spectrum and C-64 versions of the game, it's not in the Amstrad version. The main tune is playing non-stop during the entire game (to the point of insanity) but it can be turned off on the main menu (not on the Amstrad though :( ). If you do this the game will be very quiet, but it will play the national anthems of a nation when you cross their borders, courtesy of Rob Hubbard. So that's nice.

Overall, AWM is not a game for modern gamers. It requires work, research and careful planning to be beaten, but it also shows how far game design has come, and what is expected of a gamer nowadays. And yes, Monty on the Run is even harder than AWM, for a completely different reason. Maybe I'll have a go at that game and show you one of the cheesiest gameplay paddings I've ever seen.
 

Okagron

Prophet
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
753
Finally beat the main game in Dragon Quest 8 3DS and i really like this game. Great music, good story and good characters. Same old combat but i like it, so i don't care. I like the skill specialization system, specially because you can swap weapons in your turn.

Now grinding levels for the postgame dungeons. Found a decent exp grind with Hatchet Man and Lightning Thrust to one shot Metal Slime Kings. Each yields 30k exp, which is actually a lot. Have to get somewhat lucky because they love to run away.
 

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC
I've installed the ZRP and the Absolute Nature/Structure texture packs, the ideal setup for noobs, according to teh internet. I hope I did this right, because I'm still encountering plenty of bugs (surprise). Funny stuff, like enemies seeing and shooting me through walls, disappearing bodies (no loot), sound effects cutting out, crashes. And that goddamn anti-alias won't work! :argh:All the complex foliage gets rendered to static. The only option that does work is SSAA via nvidia inspector, the most expensive form of AA. So it's either 'deal with the static' or 'measure your framerate in frames per minute'.
The game itself is also hard to get into. Open World FPS isn't exactly my favorite genre. The story doesn't grab me. No interesting characters. Early weapons are crap. And it's also really tough. I've found myself savescumming a lot, which isn't fun. Yeah, I got the message that I'm not supposed to go Rambo and kill everything, and that I'm just some guy trying to survive in the Zone. I can get behind that mindset. But now, a few hours later and with better equipment, I am turning into Rambo. Odd. I still have to be careful, but it's no comparison to the earlier savescumfights.
It sounds all negative, but I would have quit already if I didn't like the game. Even after a session ended in frustration, the Zone always draws me back in. I think I've got the worst part behind me anyway.
Btw, there are zero women in the Zone. I demand a quota. :incloosive:
 

the_shadow

Arcane
Joined
Dec 30, 2011
Messages
1,179
I hated S.T.A.L.K.E.R SoC when I first played it. I found it so boring because I was completing all the mini-quests and wandering around aimlessly. Then a friend told me to ignore all the side stuff and just focus on the main mission, and the game got real good real quick.

I've been binging on a few short games:

- Outlast. I can honestly say I got exactly what I expected, and the game is decent for what it is, although I don't think it would merit a second play through. The horror atmosphere is superb, and the story is delivered decently.

- Rise of the Triad: 2013. I'd heard a lot of negative feedback about this remake and expected the worst since I was a big fan of the original Rise of the Triad when I was young. And honestly, I'm pleasantly surprised, and not sure why it received so many negative reviews. Sure, there's nothing particularly original about it, but it's a solid old-style FPS with some upgraded graphics and all the cool weapons from the original.

Note: Edited to change 'Outcast' to 'Outlast'.
 
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ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,242
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Currently playing:
GTA VC and SA: For old times' sake. I can't tell if it's finger-memory or actual skills but most missions I had trouble with as a kid, even with the cheats on, I breeze through effortlessly now.
Homm series: I'm running through 1 and 4 right now. And I clearly suck.
Jagged Alliance 2: Looking for some pilot in a swamp. Furthest I've gotten, and this game, baby. This game.
Sea Dogs 2: CoAS: Derping around, trying to get all my weapon skills maxed out before I take on the longer quests. Somehow this game is very likely to inflict restart-itis on me, dunno why. Could be the somewhat satisfying skill progression it comes with.
Outcast: Taking a break from this game was a bad idea, now in a rage I'm punching every Fae Talan in sight. But what grandeur this game has.
Fallout 2: Lost my old saves, so I'm starting afresh.
Having wiped out the entire population of Fae Talan in Shamazzar, I've proceeded to the city region. Call me a simple-minded brute, but I find the act of running across rooftops and punching gits immensely satisfying.
I keep having restart fever with ToEE, I wonder if there's enough scope in the game to try a no-caster run.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,295
I keep having restart fever with ToEE, I wonder if there's enough scope in the game to try a no-caster run.
You really need the crowd control and AoE spells that casters bring. Otherwise, your party of 6 is going to be running into battles with 30+ mobs, many of which have AoE spells themselves and they are not afraid to use them. The temple set piece combats are fairly insane.

Not to mention that ONE fight which you will have to do without buffing due to no casters.

I really won't recommend it.
 

mbv123

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
917
Location
Lettland
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC
I've installed the ZRP and the Absolute Nature/Structure texture packs, the ideal setup for noobs, according to teh internet. I hope I did this right, because I'm still encountering plenty of bugs (surprise). Funny stuff, like enemies seeing and shooting me through walls, disappearing bodies (no loot), sound effects cutting out, crashes. And that goddamn anti-alias won't work! :argh:All the complex foliage gets rendered to static. The only option that does work is SSAA via nvidia inspector, the most expensive form of AA. So it's either 'deal with the static' or 'measure your framerate in frames per minute'.
The game itself is also hard to get into. Open World FPS isn't exactly my favorite genre. The story doesn't grab me. No interesting characters. Early weapons are crap. And it's also really tough. I've found myself savescumming a lot, which isn't fun. Yeah, I got the message that I'm not supposed to go Rambo and kill everything, and that I'm just some guy trying to survive in the Zone. I can get behind that mindset. But now, a few hours later and with better equipment, I am turning into Rambo. Odd. I still have to be careful, but it's no comparison to the earlier savescumfights.
It sounds all negative, but I would have quit already if I didn't like the game. Even after a session ended in frustration, the Zone always draws me back in. I think I've got the worst part behind me anyway.
Btw, there are zero women in the Zone. I demand a quota. :incloosive:
I'm not a fan of vanilla myself, but it's pretty essential to play through the games at least once in vanilla, imo. Makes you appreciate the mods even more. At what part of the story are you? Game definitely picks up at Bar/Dark Valley. I personally hate the hobo stage.
 

Mark Richard

Arcane
Joined
Mar 14, 2016
Messages
1,192
Took a chance on Dead in Vinland and regretted it ever since. Each party member has meters under the categories hunger, fatigue, injury, sickness and depression. These meters decline every night or when actions are undertaken. Buildings also degrade every night, when they're used, and when they're hit by storms. I need wood to boil water to drink, but the lumber yard is damaged. I need rope to fix the lumber yard, and hemp to create the rope, but the herbalist's camp is damaged. I need wool to fix the herbalist camp, but first I need to build pens for sheep using wood and rope, which I can't get because the lumber yard is damaged.

:negative:
 

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
I'm not a fan of vanilla myself, but it's pretty essential to play through the games at least once in vanilla, imo. Makes you appreciate the mods even more. At what part of the story are you? Game definitely picks up at Bar/Dark Valley. I personally hate the hobo stage.
It's true. I also decided early on I wouldn't do much sidequesting. I'm on my way to Lab X-16 now.
 

mbv123

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
917
Location
Lettland
I'm not a fan of vanilla myself, but it's pretty essential to play through the games at least once in vanilla, imo. Makes you appreciate the mods even more. At what part of the story are you? Game definitely picks up at Bar/Dark Valley. I personally hate the hobo stage.
It's true. I also decided early on I wouldn't do much sidequesting. I'm on my way to Lab X-16 now.
I'd at least recommend to do the quests that give you artifacts. Some of them are quite useful and rare and are very helpful in the later stages of the game.
 
Joined
Oct 5, 2014
Messages
4,748
Location
New Zealand - Pronouns: HE/HIM
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC

Early weapons are crap. And it's also really tough.

Cordon is one of the best opening areas in a videogame period.

Also, and I've mentioned this a few times already, after you get the first story quest from Fox, go out of the camp, turn right and pick a fight with the checkpoint gaurds who p[atrol up the road towards your camp.

you dont need to engage them in a firefight, just pop off a few rounds in their direction and they will come and look for you... right into your camp and begin a colossal fight with everyone.

find a hiding spot and just watch; its incredible

after the smoke clears theres a lot of AK-47U's, ammo and bandages to loot.

that should solve your early game weapon supply problems
 

The Decline

Arcane
Joined
Aug 24, 2009
Messages
7,251
Location
Everywhere
Just started playing Culdcept Revolt. Essentially Magic the Gathering on a Monopoly board with a JRPG story. First game in a long while that has me saying "Just one more game then I'll go to sleep".
 

mbv123

Arbiter
Joined
Apr 1, 2017
Messages
917
Location
Lettland
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC

Early weapons are crap. And it's also really tough.

Cordon is one of the best opening areas in a videogame period.

Also, and I've mentioned this a few times already, after you get the first story quest from Fox, go out of the camp, turn right and pick a fight with the checkpoint gaurds who p[atrol up the road towards your camp.

you dont need to engage them in a firefight, just pop off a few rounds in their direction and they will come and look for you... right into your camp and begin a colossal fight with everyone.

find a hiding spot and just watch; its incredible

after the smoke clears theres a lot of AK-47U's, ammo and bandages to loot.

that should solve your early game weapon supply problems
Was that AK really worth it at the cost of your brothers lives in the Rookie Village?
:negative:
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. SoC

Early weapons are crap. And it's also really tough.

Cordon is one of the best opening areas in a videogame period.

Also, and I've mentioned this a few times already, after you get the first story quest from Fox, go out of the camp, turn right and pick a fight with the checkpoint gaurds who p[atrol up the road towards your camp.

you dont need to engage them in a firefight, just pop off a few rounds in their direction and they will come and look for you... right into your camp and begin a colossal fight with everyone.

find a hiding spot and just watch; its incredible

after the smoke clears theres a lot of AK-47U's, ammo and bandages to loot.

that should solve your early game weapon supply problems
Was that AK really worth it at the cost of your brothers lives in the Rookie Village?
:negative:

You can kill them on your own iirc, no need to sacrifice your fellow rookie stalkers.
 

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