What game are you wasting time on?

[wyes gull]

Gave Metro: Last Light Redux a go as a sort of warm up to Exodus and I couldn't stomach it for more than 2 hours. If it were "open-world" like Stalker or Underrail (open-tunnel?) I could bear the shitty gunplay and movement but as it is- it's just CoD, except probably worse.

I've also been horsing around in Kenshi. Would like to make a bigger post about it but for as much as I've played I reckon it's impressive but at the same time feel only half-finished. Love the world tho.

 

[mastroego]

I resumed play with The Lord of The Rings Living Card Game (digital).
It's actually not bad at all.

 

[Cleveland Mark Blakemore]

METRO : LAST LIGHT

I played for about 20 minutes when I first got it and found it really boring popamole. I gave it another try and became engrossed as I got further in.

It is definitely a rail shooter with spectacular graphics but not much autonomy for the player.

 

[Kabas]

Lands of Lore
Was thinking about choosing between the catman and the wizard, chose the catman.

 

[RK47]

Pretty triggered after finishing this H-Game.

After grinding and beating final boss, and getting very meh CG that I can never fap to, the game says 'there's more stuff...a TRUE ending to go for.'
No way I'm gonna grind another hour in your game just to unlock some meh CG I can't fap to.

Honestly, it's not a bad 'Game' it has hidden bosses, hidden stores, stuff that old console J-RPG seems to have much of. Gears that had meta sense. No save dungeon runs.
But there's one problem: I didn't buy you for the gameplay, cibai.

Like what's the purpose of unlocking H-Scenes thru 'game overs' only? Holy shit.

Anyway, that's that for this game.
Take 500 minutes of my life and fuck off.
And I'll leave this gem of dialog:

Spoiler

Purged this regret with fire and sword.

Time to sleep.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Playing Wasteland 2 Director's cut.
I like the perks and the precision shots, but LA is still an unbalanced mess.
I mean, the highest AP for firearms is 7, and you constantly run into armor 8 enemies with 400 health, who aren't even conductive, so you can't use energy weapons that well against them. There isn't even an armor class 8 piece of armor, so I don't know what they are supposed to be wearing.

I don't mind the conductivity mechanic and it works fine in Arizona, as generally speaking, if an enemy has more armor than you have pen, its probably conductive. But in LA its a huge mess. Funnily enough, my energy users actually deal nearly as much damage as the conventional fire arm users due to the huge disparity in pen and armor, so balanced I guess?

Traits are mostly crap. The only one that's good so far is psychopath, with synergizes really well with SMG and heavy weapons. The alcoholic one only works with snake squeezings (which is dumb), and the effect doesn't last that long. You pretty much have to use it before combat, and even then its probably going to run out.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Playing Wasteland 2 Director's cut.
I like the perks and the precision shots, but LA is still an unbalanced mess.
I mean, the highest AP for firearms is 7, and you constantly run into armor 8 enemies with 400 health, who aren't even conductive, so you can't use energy weapons that well against them. There isn't even an armor class 8 piece of armor, so I don't know what they are supposed to be wearing.

I don't mind the conductivity mechanic and it works fine in Arizona, as generally speaking, if an enemy has more armor than you have pen, its probably conductive. But in LA its a huge mess. Funnily enough, my energy users actually deal nearly as much damage as the conventional fire arm users due to the huge disparity in pen and armor, so balanced I guess?

Traits are mostly crap. The only one that's good so far is psychopath, with synergizes really well with SMG and heavy weapons. The alcoholic one only works with snake squeezings (which is dumb), and the effect doesn't last that long. You pretty much have to use it before combat, and even then its probably going to run out.

I noticed the disrepancy between Arizona and LA as well.

I had fairly good weapons by the time I hopped over, but the first enemies I came across had (in real-life) equal weaponry to me, yet their stats were way better than mine.

I also LOL'd at various skills having skill levels ranging from 1-10, then getting nothing but skill checks against skill level 12 in the last third of the game.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, that's some bullshit. I get that they want you do use trinkets, but even with those you're looking at 63% at best.
Its actually kind of funny how in the original game LA felt rushed, and in the directors cut, which is supposed to be when they iron out the kinks, LA feels even more rushed. Its as if they forgot to give CoTC and god's militia the conductivity trait, as they are clearly wearing MI armor (+hardened) and Power Armor (+hardened)

 

[whydoibother]

Started a new Football Manager 19 game. I feel deeply sad every time I remember that we will never get such an in-depth RPG that isn't football themed. Hundreds of stats, for each of the dozens of players in your team, for hundreds and thousands of overall teams in your game, all developing over time, all simulated. Why can't there be a Hero Guildmaster 2019? Fuck.

 

[Dux]

Divinity: Original Sin

The sin being that this game lacked an editor.

Holy shit, people. I finally killed the big bad boss who did something bad because I don't fucking know anymore and I stopped caring about 30 hours ago. The only good thing about this game is the combat. The visuals are decent, I guess, but I much prefer the sharp and more grounded graphics of Divine Divinity. That game was absolutely gorgeous and had - for the most part - some decent pacing and better overall game design. This game, on the other hand, is such a clusterfuck that it beggars belief, and it really feels like very single element within it, apart perhaps from the combat, is actively goading you into giving up playing. The boring world. The merciless barrage of obnoxious accents and the deluge of dialogue which all could've trimmed down by at least 60% and still get the point across. It's all flavour and none of it's witty or profound. Everything wants to tell you its life story: the peasants, the furniture, the livestock. Don't forget the endless stupid puzzles which openly made me question my future as a gamer. Frustration doesn't even begin to describe what I've been feeling. Sentinel statues with their insta-death traps. Teleporter mazes. Hidden buttons. Always at the wrong time, too, when you just want to get going with the plot. Then there's the arbitrary rules surrounding the teleporting pyramids.

It's a shame because this game really had potential, I think. If Larian had just taken a step back and let the game breathe on its own, space things out more evenly and actually try to develop some good characters. There's no subtlety to anything - which I guess is an enduring Larian flaw - but they seem to have regressed. The characters are paperthin and the conversations between the paired up protagonists are like listening to retarded children trying to figure things out. In a game with so much dialogue and supposed story there is nothing to get behind here. Everyone acts like they're in some atonal cartoon and the main characters clearly belong special Source school. Fuck me I hated their guts.

PC 1: "Gadzooks this fire is hot!"
PC 2: "The fire is indeed hot!"



for the combat.

If someone were prepared to give me $1,000 cash on the condition I play this game again I'd kick them in their fucking nuts. Then I'd probably swipe that money. But that's not the point. The point is that I don't believe this game to be very good. I'm not sure if that sentiment came across earlier. This game also gave me the flu so I gotta go to bed.

 

[Batman]

For now, I'm playing Metal Slug X - Super Vehicle - MAME Rom's still the best game ever.

 

[pakoito]

Turns out the DLC is basically all the levels turbocharged with difficulty. If you've ever wanted a hard Mario game where advanced tricks are required, this is it. I did finish the final boss without completing world 4 and that was good enough for me. World 4 was just long vertical platforming levels, and they dragged far too long to be enjoyable.

So I moved to Okami, I'm 3 hours in and there's been the grand total of 1 puzzle, which had a video intro/explanation, 2 text explanation, and 1 other video explanation halfway through it. It was pushing a ball through a corridor into a clearly marked slot. I wanted to play (linear?) Zelda dungeons, not being handheld through baby's first ARPG.

I'm probably moving on to another game, between Dragon's Dogma and D:OS2.

Okami was slow as fuck and I craved for fast challenges, so I decided to try Dragon's Dogma. 15 hours in, same problem. It doesn't respect my time. If I die I lose north of 20 minutes of progress. I don't have time for this kind of games anymore.

So I went back to Hatty, finished all the base levels, the DLC episode, and most of the extra levels. Save for one of them, it was challenging but fun.

Divinity: Original Sin

The sin being that this game lacked an editor.

But it does.

 

[Testicules]

Might and Magic II: Gates to Another World

World of Xeen is my favorite game of all time, so it seems like a cardinal sin that I haven't played this (nor its predecessor) yet. They always seemed a little too inaccessible and old school, but I finally took the plunge.

This game is good. Party is ~level 8 after a little grinding, so I'm no longer getting assraped on the spot by most mobs. I wish it had music and the mechanic of not being able to save at any time takes some getting used to - but it also forces you to actually play instead of savescumming which is a plus. I'm still fairly clueless as to wtf I'm supposed to do, but I enjoy that feeling. Starting to feel like a real open-ended adventure with loot, riddles, and monsters to discover around every corner. And once you get used to the UI the controls feel really smooth - you can just rip through the game with nothing but a keyboard.

Just got to Corak's Cave and quit after my Admit 8 Pass was taken at the door but I still wasn't able to progress - not sure if this was a bug or what but I'm excited to jump back into this later tonight and give it another go.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.

Story is decent, the main character is interesting, a female that isn't a girl powah cunt as seems common these days.

The tactical combat is really fun, loads of classes to unlock and mix powers from, the ability to run a good few seperate groups with different tactics.
It's in the jap section, it really should be in the tactical section as it doesn't have any of that awful jap shit that makes those games so annoying, I'd recommend.

Gives me shining force vibes without the slant.

 

[octavius]

Just got to Corak's Cave and quit after my Admit 8 Pass was taken at the door but I still wasn't able to progress - not sure if this was a bug or what but I'm excited to jump back into this later tonight and give it another go.

IIRC it's part of a Class Quest with only Clerics (and Robbers) being able to enter.

 

[eXalted]

Second try on Wasteland 2. Three years later and I'm really digging it. Combat is what Fallout 1/2 should have been.

Also Metal Gear Solid 5 on PS4. I see where most of the modern stealth games are takinng mechanics from. Game is an example of what a sandbox stealth game should looks like.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Eh, the cover mechanic could still use some work in wasteland 2. Nu-XCOM does cover better, imo.
I always find there isn't enough cover for your guys to run to, unless you want to expose them to melee troops or away from your team. Compare this to XCOM, where finding cover is only hard if you've been spamming explosives.

The balance is a bit wonky as well.
My favorite so far is a Slicer, a large robotic killing machine, has worse armor and just slightly more health than a californian honey badger. Or that apparently every fucker in california can afford Full Spectrum Armor and has the hardened perk, judging by how many Armor 8 - non conductive enemies there are. What the shit Fargo?

 

[eXalted]

Eh, the cover mechanic could still use some work in wasteland 2. Nu-XCOM does cover better, imo.

This is true. I find it quite annoying that the enemy is not flanked if I'm on the other side of the same corner where he is (while at the same time I can hit him with melee weapon without any penalty).

Or this could be because I'm so used to NuXCOM.

 

[Puukko]

SMTIV grabbed my interest more than Soul Hackers did. I will return to that game, but for now it's pushed down my list of SMT games to play, which I am determined to keep clearing through the summer. First things first: it's hard. The first dungeon is a good tutorial, but also brutally hard and you really want every fight to go your way. It gets somewhat easier soon after, but just as you think you've got the hang of it, the bosses tear you a new one. I've fought two real bosses so far, Minotaur and Medusa. I'd rank them roughly equal - I had 3 bufu users for Minotaur while I only had 2 zan users for Medusa. Both took me a good dozen+ attempts. Even with two defense buffs up, Medusa could still one shot my demons, so the damage going out was pretty crazy. Beyond the difficulty, the soundtrack is really good, perhaps the single strongest one in the series so far and the combat is what you'd expect. However, handheld limitations still really hurt. Emulating the game, the low quality of the artwork becomes even more apparent - I truly wonder if they really couldn't have made them higher resolution. On top of that, the artwork seems to have been redrawn, but the coloring on lots of demons is quite bad and the designs seem to be ripped from multiple eras, causing a mismatch of styles. For a series with such focus on its demon designs, many simply don't get to shine here. Minotaur and Medusa are rather extreme opposites in this case, as the first has a great design with a good sprite while the latter looks like she was ripped straight from Deviantart. I believe they fixed her for IVA.

The voice acting is good. I have sought to play undubs where possible but in this game's case it would have been more trouble than it was worth.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Original Sin 2, Stardew Valley and a little Furi

OS2 is fucking great, Stardew is casual fun and I only played a little of Furi to see if I wanted to complete it, and fucking yes I do. Seems amazing

 

[pakoito]

Furi's good, difficulty varies a lot between bosses tho.

 

[Luckmann]

The original Blood, following the recent re-release.

Replaying such an ancient classic, which I haven't really given a try since back in the early-to-mid-90's, is truly a joy. It runs flawlessly with zero hassle, and while I can't help but to think things like "This game would be perfect if only X Y Z", playing it for what it is is all kinds of fun. It's interesting to see that these games are having a bit of a renaissance, too.

 

[mastroego]

I'm becoming quite taken with The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game (digital).
Yeah I know I've mentioned it before.
But I'm at 35 hours logged, despite the game being still in EA with limited content.

It really has the LotR feel, the music fits, the art is great, the game is challenging AND fun.
I was a bit annoyed by the grinding aspect (for Valor cards you basically have to grind), until I realized that you can gain Valor points quickly if you go through the quests with DIFFERENT heroes (and score high enough), which you want to do anyway, because the heroes play differently and they're all cool.
I say give this one a try, I'm not even aware of similar things on the market.

 

[Darth Roxor]

In my seasonal replay of the Dark Forces series I'm now approaching the end of Jedi Knight (currently at the Valley of the Jedi levels).

One thing that probably makes for half of the series charm are the stormtroopers and their chatter. Though actual banter between them wasn't really added before Outcast, their shouts throughout JK also really make the game.

BLAST 'EM! AFTER 'EM! STOP THAT JEDI SCUM!

And then when they waste you they nonchalantly go with "One less rebel >: |"

However, one thing that is striking me in this playthrough is how full of shit many people are who say that Outcast was total decline from JK in terms of level design. To be brutally frank, I find this accusation total nonsense, because if anything, JK's level design is a sharp decline from Dark Forces. Dark Forces had the approach where maps were used in their entirety consistently throughout the levels, barring some exceptions, despite having neither underwater swimming nor force jump. Meanwhile in JK, barring a few exceptions, the levels are mostly of the "keep moving forward until you win" variety, which in essence is the same thing as Outcast. It may have more weirdo jumping puzzles and leaps of faith to it, but that hardly makes it as groundbreaking as most people here would have you believe - and when some say that these levels are labyrinthine or whatever, now that's just straight up untrue.

still a great game tho

 

[octavius]

Shadow of Death expansion for HoMM 3.

Not long ago I read a thread somewhere where there was much wailing and hurting of butts over the fact that on some map the enemies can move through big no-magic garrisons, but you the player can't (well, not without taking big losses).
I think I'm now playing that map; After the Amulet of the New Beginning campaign, and I've found it not that difficult. And you don't even need to defeat the enemy, just get that amulet.

EDIT:
It's a small world.
I did some searching and found this:

The difficulty does NOT peak at Shadow of Death, only the annoyance does. Shadow of Death campaigns are actually pretty fucking terrible because they introduce the retarded gimmick that would later transfer to homm4, aka "here's an enemy one-way teleport straight into your base" or "here's an enemy base right next to yours, but it's behind a border guard, HAHA HAVE FUN"