What game are you wasting time on?

[the_shadow]

Just finished Dungeon Rats on Murderous Psychopath difficulty, and think I've lost most of my hair in the process. I tried to beat the game on normal a few years ago and gave up at the Enforcer. This time my build was still sub-optimal... I made a character aiming to specialise in bows but gave him low strength and dexterity, meaning he couldn't fire the bigger bows twice per round without a neurostim. I buffed perception thinking I'd specialize in precision headshots, but for some reason bows can't target the head. I also didn't max crafting on Hieron or alchemy on Ismail, so I didn't get any of the high tier equipment.

Hardest fights?

- The Enforcer still gave me a lot of trouble. In the end the fight was made relatively easy by creating a 6 tile wall of flame with two fire flasks to block off the melee attacks, while my ranged attackers targeted the enemy bowmen. Once they were out of the way, it wasn't too hard to tank melee while my ranged attackers circled to the side to get some easy poisoned shots in their flank

- The Emperor, obviously. Once again it was down to creating a wall of flame to keep melee attackers away while I alpha struck the ranged attackers on either side. At this point I realized how good throwing weapons were.

- The final fight against the legions, where each enemy isn't too difficult, but they wear you down via attrition. In the end I used my PC and Roxanna to alpha strike with poison ranged attacks, and then have everyone hunker down in the side building. It was then essentially a game of using flame flasks to play keep away while pelting the legionaries with bombs, acid and ranged attacks.

- Any fight with a construct. Constructs in this game are a nightmare. Late game I was having a lot of trouble hitting high dodge enemies because I'd specialized in defense over offense (which you need to in order to survive), and even when you hit these guys they still have high DR. Looking back, throwing would have helped.

Minor stuff I wish I'd known when I first started:

- Cassava roots pretty much become non-existent half-way through the game. You're better off healing with rations and healing salves you find, as they always give 1 point, whereas if you build alchemy, cassava roots can be used to make higher level healing potions

- On the other hand, you find a lot of reagents to make poison and antidotes with. No need to be stingy here.

- You can be pretty liberal using the bombs early on. Obviously you shouldn't waste them, but if there are 3 humanoid enemies who can be hit by a single bomb, and there is a good chance of knockdown, you might as well use them. A quick decisive battle where you spend a bomb is better than a drawn out one where you need to waste a couple of healing salves.

- You can poison and sharpen arrows and ranged weapons! I only realized this 2/3'rds of the way through the game. I don't know why I assumed you couldn't do this, but it would have helped to know earlier

- Having a dagger or throwing weaon in your belt allows you to use the 'feint' move, where high dodge characters can change places with the enemy. This can be useful for reducing mobility bonuses or exposing their backs to ranged enemies

- Acid flasks are life saving, especially the area of effect one. Heavily armored enemies such as robots and centurions are turned into jello after a few turns

- Throwing is awesome. I should have specced Roxanna in this instead of crossbows.

- Alpha strikes are incredibly important. In many fights there is one particular enemy who is a real pain (usually a bomber or ranged attacker) who is relatively unarmored but can mess your day up, and it's a good idea to take them down ASAP. Having a couple of your own ranged attacker with neurostims + poison + hand crossbows preloaded in belt or a scoped crossbow with Snipe allow you to take an annoying enemy out of the equation so you don't have to split your forces

- Pilum and certain other javelin weapons ignore the ranged protection bonus that shields offer. This is *massive*.

 

[Daze]

Tried Dark Souls 3. Damn is it boring.
Same game again and again and again.
Yawn.

 

[octavius]

About halfway through the Severed Hand in classic vanilla Icewind Dale, and my power trio of Ranger, Fighter/Thief and Bard is rather pissed off that the Elven Cleric does not offer any healing services, even after doing her quests. Could this be an oversight by Black Isle?
I loaded up with about 50 Healing Potions before leaving Kuldahar and have only a couple of the eight potions of Greater Healing that I found in the Dragon's Eye left. It will take my party about a week to travel back and forth. Of course, I could just rest dozens of days like lame casuals would do, but I always try to complete games in as little in game time as possible (I guess I'm a bit peculiar that way).

 

[ebPD8PePfC]

Bioshock Infinite – The visuals are terrific, and the story is interesting and well written. I played it on Easy, so my understanding of the mechanics is somewhat limited. With that said, I feel the FPS parts are on par with the previous games, or at least different enough that it doesn’t feel like a retread. The diverse and creative Plasmid system from the second game is sadly missing, which makes the game a far more simple and standard shoot everything in the head sort of FPS. On the other hand, on Easy mode it can serve as a newbie’s first FPS, which is definitely a plus. For non-newbies easy mode plays like a walking simulator, which is probably the best way to experience it.

The game is a really good cinematic corridor shooter, which is a shame, because this genre has a very limited definition of what video games can do. It also doesn’t fit most narratives, with Infinity's narrative being among them. The interesting world you explore can only be interacted through the tiny hole of a shooting gallery, and as such eventually turns from a world into a disjointed shooting gallery, with no consideration for what it does to the rest of the design.

 

[80Maxwell08]

Just finished a complete playthrough of Dark Souls for the first time. Killed every boss but Priscilla and Gwyndolin. Had a blast but cutting the tail off kalameet was a enough of a chore that I'm glad they didn't bring that back in later games.

Now that I finished that, time to attempt to complete a codex classic for the first time. Just have to choose between Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Fallout, Gothic or Jagged Alliance 2.

EDIT: Forgot I just bought all the Stalker games so add Shadow of Chernobyl to that list.

 

[Catacombs]

Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Fallout, Gothic or Jagged Alliance 2.

Baldur's Gate to start.

 

[Grauken]

Finished Metroid Fusion a few days ago. I remembered from playing this the first time a few years ago that it was good, but upon replaying it turned into a massive disappointment and the first sign of decline for the Metroid series. It's not really a proper metroidvania, it has more like a mission-based structure with a computer guiding your every way and closing/opening sections of the station you're on. Minimal exploration, very handholdy, fake difficulty by rising how much HP gets dashed off from you on enemy contact and many bosses who are far too gimmicky (find out how to beat them) and random (stand in the right spot and you kill them on first try, or get stunlocked and loose, I hate that kind of design). Worst part is the plot sequences voiced by Samus throughout the game and which completely undercut her character and maker her into a dimwitted airhead.

It does have nice graphics.

Instead of going forward with Persona (wasn't really in the mood), I started playing the Sword of Mana GBA game, a sort remake of the GB Final Fantasy Adventure / Mystic Quest. This has okay-ish gameplay reminiscent of Secret of Mana and its sequel (run around, fight little monsters, level up), but atrocious writing with plot sequences that seem to never end. The writing makes me feel like somebody watched too much soap opera and tried to instill that into a generic fantasy story, which leads to many, unintended hilarious moments where it's hard not to laugh at the game or its writer when the main char ponders the mysteries of life and cries out in anguish, maybe every 5 minutes. Bosses also make big, retarded proclamations all the time. It's works even less than in TV melodrama, because in-between the plot is all the gameplay where you run around killing cutesy monsters, only then to get endless monologues that really detracts from the core gameplay loop.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I booted up Yuri's Revenge because I was in the mood for some Command and Conquer. I tried to play an 8 player skirmish, and I noticed that the AI all ganged up on me, even when it was a free for all. Is that normal? I wanted some chaos, but getting gang banged by constant waves of enemies wasn't my idea of fun.

 

[d1r]

I am still trying to figure out if I should continue to play the sequel to Wizardry Forsaken Lands or not.

This is one of the most atmospheric dungeon crawlers I have ever played, but of course this shit hasn't been translated, and I really hate to skip through the whole campaign without knowing what the fuck is even going on in this game.

Spoiler

Does someone wants to translate the game for one or two grands? :^)

 

[ebPD8PePfC]

Nethergate Resurrection – I’ve played for 4-6 hours, and all I do is regular high fantasy crpg dungeon crawling, but this time with a bunch of Romans.

- Why start a historical game by delving into a mine filled with rats and goblins? This is the most run of the mill rpg start you can find.
- too much trash combat. At least the combat is fast.
- There are prebuffs. Yuck.
- The writing is nice. Some of it is clumsy when it comes to characters, but the atmosphere if fun, if only because magic is treated as something alien, rather than mundane. Sadly magic is so common that it losses the point of being a semi-historical game… it’s everywhere, all the time. AoD did it right by keeping it rare and weird.

The combat isn’t interesting, and the draw for me was the historical background, which isn’t too relevant to the game. I was actually surprised to see a dead goblin in the splash screen, since I didn’t know anything about the game beyond Romans vs Celts. The dungeon crawling is nice, but not enough to keep me engaged. I’ll probably stop playing at this point.

 

[Dayyālu]

- The writing is nice. Some of it is clumsy when it comes to characters, but the atmosphere if fun, if only because magic is treated as something alien, rather than mundane. Sadly magic is so common that it losses the point of being a semi-historical game… it’s everywhere, all the time. AoD did it right by keeping it rare and weird.

Your critiques are correct, it's a Vogel game of its era. But seriously, crushing the face of the arrogant Fae under the caligae of my men was awesome. There are several problem in Nethergate, first of all Vogel had a greeeat idea but the disconnect between his endless love for useless trash combat and memetic stuff (Friendly Spiders) makes the experience tiresome if you aren't used to it already.

Also, he tried to put up some historical research, but it comes out weird: I pardon him because Vogel is lazy beyond belief and also American, so he's excused., but there are some pieces that are incredibly amusing as he depicts Romans like, I dunnow, SCIENCE ABOVE SUPERSTITION and that's just wrong.

It's still a valiant effort from Vogel. Better than endless remakes of remakes of remakes because fuck I'm old

If you want a weirdo historical game , check my LP of a Legionary's Life and see if it's up your alley, for sure it's historical

 

[Ivan]

Jenny Leclue 1/24/20

Jenny LeClue is a promising adventure game from a fledgling studio. On the whole, I think the game shines brightest aesthetically: the art, music, and animation are very well done. The writing and character work is also handled well. My biggest issue comes with the gameplay: instead of playing like a LucasArts point-and-click adventure, it's a sidescroller with very limited interactivity. It feels like playing a point-and-click adventure game with the hint system forced on. Making matters worse, traversal is typically boring: slowly climbing vines or ladders, the lockpicking minigame doesn't add anything, nor does the breaking of the planks do a satisfying job of creating pleasurable pacing. The game is at its best when it tells its story and lets you converse with the denizens of the town. It has a great sense of humor, and there's real character development going on here. I would really like to see a sequel embrace the more old school tenets of classic adventure games, namely actual puzzles without holding your hand. Perhaps a combination of the two styles could work. Keep the 2d movement but maybe include a full fledged inventory and allow us to solve puzzles. I would much rather prefer that than slowly climb up more ladders or vines.

In sum, not without its flaws to be sure, this is an adventure game with a lot of heart and charm. I look forward to the follow-up.



A Plague Tale: Innocence 1/29/20


Is a steal-based escort adventure game in the vein of Ico and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. You are able to take out enemies from a distance when faced with individual enemies, but you're mostly dealing with groups. This can lead to frustrating pass/fail situations as you wait for enemies to finish their patrols and you navigate. Pretty standard stuff with some neat twists for the first half of the game. The game excels in character development and design. Aesthetically, everything here is top notch and economical. Definitely not a AAA title, but they definitely used it wisely. Music is moody and suits the general tone of despair the game relies upon. My biggest disappointment comes with its length and lack of new game mechanics. The game is simply too long and resorts to boring push/sliding puzzles, or slowly turning stationary beacons to re-direct light. Had the game been half as long, this would have been an easy standout title, as it is I would still recommend it at a discount. While the story and its characters do make reaching the end worthwhile, I had already grown bored with it mechanically long before the credits rolled.

Gris 1/30/20 DROPPED

Pretty, reminds me of the artwork from The Incal (Moebius I think). I never imagined I'd see the day a walking sim was fused with a platformer, but here it is. My experience with Gris amounted to holding down the "d" key to move the character to the right and very occasionally the space bar to jump. I was un-engaed and deeply bored through my half-hour with it. Sorry, but I love platformers for their level design and this is more 95% walking sim, and not enough platforming/puzzling.

 

[Psquit]

So I booted up Yuri's Revenge because I was in the mood for some Command and Conquer. I tried to play an 8 player skirmish, and I noticed that the AI all ganged up on me, even when it was a free for all. Is that normal? I wanted some chaos, but getting gang banged by constant waves of enemies wasn't my idea of fun.

Yeah, it's normal but I think the problem is that you have to set each ai to a team or else by default they are in the same team.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS KNIGHTS OF CHALICE AT HOME

WITH MONSTER HUNTER AT TIMES

HELHERRON AT WORK

BROS HELHERRON IS AWESOME

IN THESE WOKE TIME THE JOY OF MEETING NEWN AND EXOTIC INTELLIGENT BEINGS AND SYSTEMATICLY GENOCIDING EVERY SINGLE ONE GIVES ME GREAT HAPPY AND JOY

 

[Deuce Traveler]

I'm playing Expeditions: Conquistador and Avernum V right now. Past the mid-point in Avernum V, and I really like playing as a bunch of Empire soldiers surrounded by folks who would rather stick a knife in me than work with me. Some good C&C in this game, too. I turned chicken and decided not to let a crazed mage cast a geas on me in the return of promised power. I just started Expeditions for the 3rd time since I decided to restart with a different party composition the first time, then I screwed up and lost my save game the second time... damn it.

For my backlog of CRPGs, I'm looking to play the following and I'll take suggestions on what order:

- The Witcher 3
- Grimoire
- Avernum 6 (gotta complete the series... the original Exile Trilogy is still the best)
- Anvil of Dawn
- Lords of Xulima
- Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
- Divinity: Original Sin
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker
- Wasteland 2
- The Queen's Wish
- Legend of Grimrock 2
- Realms of Arkania 1&2
- Realms Beyond (pre-ordered)

It's going to be a busy year...

 

[octavius]

For my backlog of CRPGs, I'm looking to play the following and I'll take suggestions on what order:

When suffering from choice overload play them chronologically.
Also, if you start with RoA1 you can compared notes with the CRPG Addict.

 

[DalekFlay]

Finished FEAR and now halfway through FEAR: Extraction Point. If you want more FEAR, that's what you'll get with EP. The level design is a mixed bag, more open and combat heavy than the original game, but also less intricate and well designed. If you just wanna shoot replica soldiers for a good while and dodge around trucks and boxes and shit though, you'll be set. Horror moments seem more limited, in the first half anyway, but there's a pretty crazy one halfway through.

Still in Act 4 of The Witcher, it's getting a bit long in the tooth but I'll stick it out.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

For my backlog of CRPGs, I'm looking to play the following and I'll take suggestions on what order:

- The Witcher 3
- Grimoire
- Avernum 6 (gotta complete the series... the original Exile Trilogy is still the best)
- Anvil of Dawn
- Lords of Xulima
- Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark
- Divinity: Original Sin
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker
- Wasteland 2
- The Queen's Wish
- Legend of Grimrock 2
- Realms of Arkania 1&2
- Realms Beyond (pre-ordered)

Legend of Grimrock 2 and Grimoire: Heralds of the Winged Exemplar are both classics and should be played by every monocled Codexer.

 

[80Maxwell08]

So after some preliminary testing for the games I listed:
-Baldur's Gate vanilla works but has that graphical glitch that renders the fog of war as weird rectangles. BG:EE works but since I can't turn off the extra story content, I really don't want to use it.
-Deus Ex launches fine.
-Fallout works if I use the widescreen patch the game comes with on GOG. Won't launch otherwise.
-Gothic doesn't work at all right now so if I wanted to do this I would need to do some legwork.
-Jagged Alliance 2 doesn't work either. Side note, do people here recommend the game in it's base form, or do they use some mod nowadays?
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seems to launch just fine. No idea how it will work afterwards.

Still don't know which one I'll do first. Might swap out Risen for Gothic if technical problems persist, or play original Diablo instead while I figure things out, since I bought that a while ago and never played it either.

 

[Strange Fellow]

-Jagged Alliance 2 doesn't work either. Side note, do people here recommend the game in it's base form, or do they use some mod nowadays?

Stracciatella. Do you have the Steam version? As I mentioned in another thread it's a bit of a piece of shit. If you're reluctant to fork over another two dollars for the GOG version (or acquire it elsewhere), there should be some .dll files or something floating around unless Stracciatella takes care of your issues.

Still don't know which one I'll do first.

Do this first, it's the best game ever.

 

[Mr. Pink]

these are the only two games i need

 

[Daze]

ATOM RPG. Good game.
Catches the spirit of Fallout very well.

Also love the whole Soviet Theme. Feels wholesome and cozy.
Nothing boring. No slog. Just fun. Recommended.

 

[Daze]

Just finished a complete playthrough of Dark Souls for the first time. Killed every boss but Priscilla and Gwyndolin. Had a blast but cutting the tail off kalameet was a enough of a chore that I'm glad they didn't bring that back in later games.

Now that I finished that, time to attempt to complete a codex classic for the first time. Just have to choose between Baldur's Gate, Deus Ex, Fallout, Gothic or Jagged Alliance 2.

EDIT: Forgot I just bought all the Stalker games so add Shadow of Chernobyl to that list.

I love Gothic SO MUCH.
Nevertheless: Fallout

 

[Psquit]

Blade Runner (1997). Forgot completely about it until the review of Mandalore and Civv. Might as well give it a try, not a fan of the voxel graphics but I understand the limitations of computers at the time and the scope of the project.

 

[JDR13]

So after some preliminary testing for the games I listed:
-Baldur's Gate vanilla works but has that graphical glitch that renders the fog of war as weird rectangles. BG:EE works but since I can't turn off the extra story content, I really don't want to use it.
-Deus Ex launches fine.
-Fallout works if I use the widescreen patch the game comes with on GOG. Won't launch otherwise.
-Gothic doesn't work at all right now so if I wanted to do this I would need to do some legwork.
-Jagged Alliance 2 doesn't work either. Side note, do people here recommend the game in it's base form, or do they use some mod nowadays?
-S.T.A.L.K.E.R. seems to launch just fine. No idea how it will work afterwards.

Still don't know which one I'll do first. Might swap out Risen for Gothic if technical problems persist, or play original Diablo instead while I figure things out, since I bought that a while ago and never played it either.

Weird, I've never had any of those issues with those games. What OS are you trying to run them on?

Also, the extra story content in BG:EE is minimal. I wouldn't worry about it to be honest.