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What game are you wasting time on?

J_C

One Bit Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
16,947
Location
Pannonia
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Started playing Soul Reaver. I played it a few years ago once, but I abandoned it after a few levels, locations. I just loved the atmosphere of this game, but something didn't click for me regarding the gameplay. I'm giving it now a second chance.

The gameplay was never that good. When it came out it was known for a few things:

1. No load times.
2. Voice acting
3. Music.
4. The story.

With the actual game being more of a chore to get to the story. Many games have this flaw, but this one has it the most. That is why you can find the entire story of the series on Youtube in a well edited package. I've heard the second Soul Reaver holds up a little better gameplay wise.
That's my experience as well. PS1 era controls are terrible, I'm constantly struggling with it. I'm a few levels in the game, but I'm seriously considering just watching the story.
 

Bigg Boss

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2012
Messages
7,528
Started playing Soul Reaver. I played it a few years ago once, but I abandoned it after a few levels, locations. I just loved the atmosphere of this game, but something didn't click for me regarding the gameplay. I'm giving it now a second chance.

The gameplay was never that good. When it came out it was known for a few things:

1. No load times.
2. Voice acting
3. Music.
4. The story.

With the actual game being more of a chore to get to the story. Many games have this flaw, but this one has it the most. That is why you can find the entire story of the series on Youtube in a well edited package. I've heard the second Soul Reaver holds up a little better gameplay wise.
That's my experience as well. PS1 era controls are terrible, I'm constantly struggling with it. I'm a few levels in the game, but I'm seriously considering just watching the story.

Just do that man. The Dreamcast version is the pretty one but it still plays like shit.
It's basically block puzzle, astral realm, boss fight, backtrack, anyway.
 

Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,304
Finished Pillars of Eternity 2 and 2 of its dlc
Did you play real-time or turn-based?

Real time,the game was designed originally for real time not to mention the series is supposed to be a tribute to infinity engine game so I didn't see any reason to go for turn based.
BTW the game is quite big,bigger than the original,it took me like 75 hours for the main game and the 2 dlc,doing almost every sidequest I could find(not many bounties though),so if you want to for all of the dlcs/sidequests/bounties and explore all the islands you could go up to like 85+ hours,if you go turn based I assume that might be more.
 
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eXalted

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
1,213
BTW the game is quite big,bigger than the original,it took me like 75 hours for the main game and the 2 dlc
Hmm, Pillars 1 + the two expansions took me around 100 hours but I guess that's just my slow way of playing.
 

ebPD8PePfC

Savant
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
225
Sneaker - An indie arcade thief game. I played it for about an hour, and the mechanics are really good, everything feels polished and works as expected. It does two unique things. The first is allowing the player to rewind time whenever he wishes, which removes the constant save scumming rampant in the genre and helps the flow of the game. The other is giving you only two objects - two sneakers - with which you can either whack the enemy, or throw for a special ability. The special ability depends on the type of shoe you have, and can be a distraction, or creating shadows. The shoes don't come back automatically, so if you use them as a distraction you also need to think of a way to get them back.
The visuals are clean and clear, and the soundtrack is great.
Sadly, it crashes every 20 minutes, so I can't recommend it. I didn't get far enough with all the crashes to comment on level design and advanced mechanics.

Yakuza 0 - I enjoyed it to the end, but much of it has to do with the cutscenes. As a game it lacks reactivity and interdependence, even when each individual part is enjoyable and well made. The parts never come together to elevate the whole, or at least not as much as they should.

Queen's Wish - I'm at the 50% mark. I was interested in the game because I was told that monsters revive when you leave the dungeon, so you have to finish it in one go. While this could be fun, the combat is so simple that replaying a dungeon is awful. There are almost no positional considerations, no interesting abilities and no interesting builds. As such, your victory depends mostly on proper builds (not doing extremely dumb stuff) and upgrading equipment. It feels like success relies too much stats, which means that fighting encounters all over again is a boring waste of time. The "monsters reviving" mechanic is good, but the dungeons have to be designed with it in mind, and the combat has to be complex enough that you could do something better the second time you run into the same encounter. You could eliminate the need to replay encounters by giving the players the option to take the same loses they did the previous try, and I hope something like this would be implemented in the inevitable sequel.
The dungeons vary in quality. Some are great with a few hand placed encounters (in which case replaying is fine), but usually there are way too many trash mobs. I've killed hundreds of lizards in my pest control campaign.
The game has its issues that were probably covered by others in the main thread, but overall it's enjoyable and polished enough to play mindlessly while listening to stuff in the background.
I can't comment on the writing since I skipped all text.

The Void - I think I'm stuck in an unwinnable position in the first sister, so basically the tutorial. The journal has explanations for game mechanics that weren't implemented, rather than those they did put in the game. Shame, because the game isn't that hard to understand, but the devs insist on using in game lingo when first explaining how the game works, and when referring to the different elements of the UI, which is needlessly confusing. The game says Lympha as if the player knows what it means, when in practice Lympha refers to the top right element of the UI. An F1 help screen can easily solve this issue.
Another issue is that the basic walking speed is too slow. Why waste players time? Many old games had some way to speed up the in game clock, wish that was common today.
I'm gonna retry later after reading the manual, this time I'll save more often.
 

sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
Another good thing I forgot to mention is that Titanfall 2 has always sprint as a toggle in the menu. You no longer have to hold to sprint or press to sprint, your character is always moving fast like an older fps. It's such a simple thing that more modern fps should include especially since it doesn't actually holster your weapon
 

Squid

Arbiter
Joined
May 31, 2018
Messages
536
It should definitely be an option. I'm so used to hitting shift to sprint anyway it doesn't bother me to leave it off for more control of movement.
 

Catacombs

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2017
Messages
5,927
Another good thing I forgot to mention is that Titanfall 2 has always sprint as a toggle in the menu. You no longer have to hold to sprint or press to sprint, your character is always moving fast like an older fps. It's such a simple thing that more modern fps should include especially since it doesn't actually holster your weapon

I've read Titanfall 2 is actually a good FPS, with good multiplayer. Is that still the case?
 

sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
I've read Titanfall 2 is actually a good FPS, with good multiplayer. Is that still the case?
Don't know. I got Origin Access for a month trial, so I was just fucking around in a few games. for the 45 minutes I played, it felt really good to move and shoot with the closest recent comparisons I can make being fast like DOOM 2016 and over the top like warframe. It is still kinda like a futuristic COD game, perhaps that will change with a mech. Regardless, I do remember Titanfall 1's multiplayer beta being really fun and there's Apex Legends which is titanfall but just multiplayer and it's more popular than titanfall so take that what you will.
 

Sceptic

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 2, 2010
Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
Finished up DF2:Jedi Knight. Think this is the first time I've finished it completely legit. When I was a kid I'd always have to resort to cheats at some point or just get frustrated trying to figure out how to progress and warp a level ahead, but this time was all the way from beginning to end on hard. Great game.

Really like the weapon/saber balance and how everything feels like it has a use (well, maybe not the Bryer pistol and the mines). Never been a fan of how JK2 is 95% about the saber and 90% of non-saber enemies become completely effortless with how easy it is to block. JK feels more "real", like how Han Solo would fight if he was a jedi. Throw a couple thermal detonators down the lift before going down yourself. Save the saber for the ambushes and duels.

The Stormtroopers really are great. For a game that has pretty much one enemy type for most of the game they do a good job of being fun to kill, with good hit reactions, death screams, and always a bit dangerous to fight but never due to superhuman reflexes or anything lame. I think they rank up there with DOOM's Zombies and Shotgunners as some of the best general fodder that you can always have fun mowing down. Fuck Trandoshans though, it's a good thing that they only exist to ruin a handful of areas.
Completely agree with everything you said, it's up there as one of the best FPS IMO. It's actually not a very hard game, though some of the levels are complex and if you're hunting secrets you really have to go slowly and pay attention. Speaking of levels, I absolutely adore the level design in this game, I think it manages to mix up large open areas and more linear set pieces really well, I think the pacing is just excellent. I have particularly fond memories of the open spaces when getting into the palace tower, and escaping said tower along the narrow walkways, as well as from all the running around inside pipes in the fuel station.

You might not enjoy the expansion as much, as it expects you to use the lightsaber a lot more, and in fact the last act none of the others weapons work at all. It's not my favourite part of the game but it was still alright.
 

baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
There are almost no positional considerations,

Positioning matters when dealing with enemies with area attacks.

I can't comment on the writing since I skipped all text.

You didn't miss much.

I played a little of a Gacha game/SRPG on mobile, called Brown Dust (shit title btw) and that's not funny how regular apparition of waifus help keeping me playing. Also the gameplay was designed for mobile (place all units on a 3*6, set attack order, wait for end of combat), not just normal game but crammed on a small screen.
 
Joined
Jan 7, 2012
Messages
14,149
You might not enjoy the expansion as much, as it expects you to use the lightsaber a lot more, and in fact the last act none of the others weapons work at all. It's not my favourite part of the game but it was still alright.

Yeah, I remember MotS being a bit weird. Playing it now, it feels more like an amateur mod rather than an official expansion. Levels are a lot more simplistic and barebones, while enemies litter EVERY location. Like it was some kind of "we need to make this more hardcore" idea taken way too far. Yeah, the game is more difficult when you run into groups of 5+ rail detonator enemies and there's only a handful of health/shield pickups per map. Also the voices sound like they were phoned in. Both the main characters and the stormtroopers. The new stormtroopers are very muted and sound more like generic guys rather than the god-tier stormtrooper screams and death cries of original JK1.

Finished the first 3 levels and already feeling kind of weary.
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,861
Location
The Khanate
I've been eyeing those old JK/JA games now that I finished KOTOR 2. Starting with DF1 and playing them in order should keep me entertained for a decent while. But man if the naming convention isn't confusing, it's Soul Reaver tier.

Besides that, I've got BG1 and Xenogears/XBC vying for attention, we'll see who turns out to be the winner.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Dec 28, 2010
Messages
16,947
Location
Pannonia
Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Started playing Soul Reaver. I played it a few years ago once, but I abandoned it after a few levels, locations. I just loved the atmosphere of this game, but something didn't click for me regarding the gameplay. I'm giving it now a second chance.

The gameplay was never that good. When it came out it was known for a few things:

1. No load times.
2. Voice acting
3. Music.
4. The story.

With the actual game being more of a chore to get to the story. Many games have this flaw, but this one has it the most. That is why you can find the entire story of the series on Youtube in a well edited package. I've heard the second Soul Reaver holds up a little better gameplay wise.
That's my experience as well. PS1 era controls are terrible, I'm constantly struggling with it. I'm a few levels in the game, but I'm seriously considering just watching the story.
I just watched the story of Soul Reaver on Youtube, and started to play Soul Reaver 2. Being on the PS2, it already has much better controls than the first one. And since the game literally continous from the point where the first game ended, it's like the story video of the first game was just a long opening cutscene. Now the real game beings. :D
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,403
Location
Djibouti
soul reaver 1 doesn't have shitty controls, learn to fucking play or just don't touch platformers if you can't handle them with your butterfingers
 

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