What game are you wasting time on?

[Deleted member 7219]

I played and completed SOMA. Not bad for a walking simulator, and very atmospheric even though I felt like I had seen most of it done before. It had a nice take on the nature of consciousness and what "you" are, and the conclusions it seemed to draw mirror my own thoughts on the matter.

Worth playing if you can buy it cheaply.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Eye of the Beholder 2
This is so far better than the first game. I imported my party from the first game, and I've already recruited a companion. There have also already been more variety in monster than the first hour of the first game. I would also say that the difficulty is higher in this one. So far, I have had three game overs, and I don't think that I'm even that far in. Srew gelatinous cubes, over and out.

If you've reached the Gelatinous Cubes, you're already 4-5 possible companions in.

I've recently come to realize that EotB1 is by far the best game in the series due to its game- and level-design. Six races and six classes, but no mandatory requirement or needless restriction placed upon any of them in regards to viable party builds. A party of four Mages is a plausible (but slow) method to beat the game, just like a party of four Fighters. It's extremely difficult to achieve a Living Dead-failstate, where you're incapable of beating the game because you missed an item somewhere.

The level design is very fluid and free-flow, once you reach the third floor you begin to find alternate paths to take through the dungeon, which then branch out and branch out. You can even skip a few floors and still beat the game! There are virtually no artificial barriers in place.

Compare that to EotB2. With only a handful of minor exceptions you are set upon the One Path, with Artificial Gates in place to make sure you don't run ahead and skip anything. You must first descend into the dungeon, you must then ascend the Silver Tower (better find all those bugels!) and so on and so forth. And there are several occasions where you can miss out on an essential item and either find it very difficult, or outright impossible, to backtrack to retrieve it. At least the six races and classes are still free-form and non-restrictive, but I'm unsure whether a pure Mage-party can survive some of the traps on EotB2 - so many of them solely consist of tanking unavoidable damage. But because EotB2 looks so much cooler (those cutscenes are gorgeous!) and becomes quite atmosphereic at times, everyone proclaims it as the best one in the trilogy.

(Things get even more bizarre if we add EotB3 into the mix. Let's just say that while EotB3 sucks ass, it's not that far from its prequel.)

EDIT: Typo.

 

[Sceptic]

I've always put Eob1 ahead of Eob2 mainly because of the level design, I'm glad you appreciate it as much as I do. I pretty much agree with you about the other aspects as well, Eob2 looks so much better and is more challenging, the traps are more devious, but I think that aspect of design being better does not compensate for the sheer joy of Eob1's multiple approaches and solutions to problems. There's a ton of content in Eob1 that you can miss without even realizing it's there.

I think Eob3 is the worst not just because its design is the same linearity as Eob2 but poorer, but also because the engine tries to look and feel the same but is much clunkier, and at the time it was MUCH more hardware demanding for no apparent reason. The game does have some original tricks (like the underwater level).

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Since you bring up EotB3 (and I state some of these for the nth time here on the Codex)... the four biggest problems with EotB3 are:

1: The needless restrictions and limitations put upon character races and classes, thereby both impacting character creation/progression AND in-game actions.
2: Unbalanced monsters... with most of them being underperforming, merely serving as minor obstacles instead of being challenging threats to a high-level party.
3: Pants-on-head retarded decisions in both level- and game-design, most of them centering on the Mausoleum, but a few other honorable mentions also cause a scene.
4: The All-Attack button.

Back in the day you could add the fifth problem, the AESOP-engine that drives the game, but 'recent' breakthroughs by the Vogons have made the 16-bit engine into a 32-bit one, thereby removing all of the bottlenecks. With their Aesop-patch EotB3 runs just as smoothly as its prequels did. (And in case you're wondering, GOG already has it installed.)

I could write a veritable wall o' text on the above four points - but I think I'll do that over in the Eye of the Beholder-thread, rather than here.

 

[LarryNeff4eva]

I started a new Fallout 4 campaign because it seems like with everything that is happening all around the world, a fallout is inevitable. I just hope I'm wrong with my assumption.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Five years ago Newgrounds held a game jam where the theme of the competition was Deception. This game took the top spot:



Recently a full and commerical title was released:



I would post the trailer, except it's spoiler-y as fuck. Just play the freeware version above (it should take you about 15 minutes at the most) and if it interests you, know that the non-free title is more of the same, but still not the same game. (Consider the freeware-title to be a prologue of sorts.)

I played the freeware title, and immediately picked up the full-price game afterwards. I was not disappointed, because it's damn fun (even though it's a French game) and it's targeted at us old-timers, so expect rotary phones, codewheels and CRT-monitors... and that's just Chapter 2 (out of 6). The voice-acting is excellent, another brilliant example where a good narrator (in this case, the programmer himself) can truly elevate a game. This game is a work of passion, and it shows.

So far my top (and only) game recommendation for 2020.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Still been playing a lot of DDO. It's becoming my favorite D&D-based cRPG.

 

[Tancred]

I've finally finished Deus Ex after getting to Hong Kong about five years ago and flaking out. Re-installed with GMDX and started again, in the end I chose Tracer Tong's new dark age ending. Feels like an oddly prescient game considering current events.

Right now I'm in the middle of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I like it, but fuck me its a bit janky. My horse threw me when I tried to ride past a group of bandits + cumans fighting each other, and then I slid 80 meters down a frictionless hill unable to stop and get back up while the bandits + cumans forgot about each other and chased me down the whole way before ritually beating me to death. Good times.

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

Been recently playing Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, the Raven Software shooter from 2000.

God this game is so simplistic yet so good. Stalking through those desolate quarters on that Klingon vessel is so atmospheric. And bumping off those Borg drones with the IMOD never gets old one bit. There are always just enough twists and detours during missions that keep you from getting bored. For some reason the game didn't sell too well back then at release.

Mandatory "They just don't make shooters like these anymore" commentary.

 

[ebPD8PePfC]

Playing a lot of chess. After an embarrassing amount of hours I finally got 1000 rating in blitz. I've probably peaked, so it's time to move on to other board games.

Games played: 1600~
Your Blitz rating is 1000.
You are better than 5% of Blitz players.

Kill me

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished this. It's best considered to be a point-and-click adventure sorta between the classical Sierra On-Line/LucasArts-titles, and the first-person mystery-solving adventure games like Myst. With non-stop running narrator commentary.

If you are a game developer yourself, then this has extra something for you. You won't truly see it until Chapter 6 though.

My previous words stand: This is my first game recommendation for 2020.

 

[Dux]

Xenonauts

I got a (one-way) ticket to the Dreadnought and managed to kill the High Praetor. I neglected destroying the power cores, though. So my surviving squad - backs to the wall - basically had to resort to this in the face of a limitless Reaper horde:

Better dead than assimilated.

 

[Naraya]

I have just finished playing Summoner 2, for the first time.

I won't go into details. I'll just say that I have enjoyed this game immensely. Memorable characters, enjoyable combat, cool spells and the story just oozing atmosphere left and right, gripping to boot. Not everyday you play as a goddess and can party with a monk or a golem/android, among others.

Do yourself a favour and play this game, you won't regret it.

 

[Padzi]

I started playing Greedfall. 6 hours in at the moment. It's pretty decent so far. I really hope Spiders won't try to spoon feed me any SJW bullshit later on though.

 

[Abu Antar]

Suikoden 2
I've got 23/108 heroes so far. Got my fort, finally! I'm playing this and I'll play Suikoden 3. What prompted me to replay these two was the Kickstarter campaign of their spiritual successor, Eiyuden Chronicle. I doubt that it will live up to these games, but I backed it to show that I want these kinds of games.

Eye of the Beholder 3
I beat the first two in quick succession and imported my party to the third game. This feels like a step down from both previous games. So far, I have mostly been frustrated by the levels, puzzles AND monsters. I'm still going to play it through to the end.

Yakuza 5
I'm almost done with everything that has to do with Kazuma's arch. I only have one sub story left. My only beef is that I was level 20 way before I completed his arch. I also spent more time with shogi and Virtua Fighter 2 than I should have.

Wasteland 3
There's room for improvement, but I'm having a decent time with it. It doesn't excel at anything, but it's far from shit. The rangers are now in Colorado, making progress on the main story and some side content. I rolled a group with a sniper, shotty dude, machine gun gangsta and an AR killer machine. Let's see how this goes. Playing on the second highest difficulty, friendly fire turned off for this run.

Geneforge 3
I'm nearing the end. I've been running around with my death squad of creations. I'll go through the remaning games as a shaper, but I will wait a few months before doing so. I can't but feel that this game is a step down from the first two games. A fellow codexer warned me about this in our Steam chat. Apparently G4 is also not great, but G5 is a return to form.

STILL going through Underrail, Dragon Quest XI and Pathfinder: Kingmaker every now and then. Also, some portable games are being played sporadically.

 

[Villagkouras]

I'm very torn about Inmost, a puzzle/platformer that was released a few days ago.

You should know it's a storyfag's game. I won't spoil anything, as the story is ok and well presented. It definitely pulls some strings.

But the gameplay... The game is 2,5 hours long and it ends with a 25 minute cutscene. So, you get to "play" for about 2 hours. Well, not so much, because everything moves painfully slow, because the devs wanted to pass the 2-hour refund checkpoint on Steam, I don't find any other explanation. Everything is designed to waste your time. The players sees the MC pushing an item for two minutes straight just to solve a "puzzle" (this happens more than once and no one can name these "puzzles", it's monstly one item that you can interact with) or walking back and forth in the same room for minutes just to solve an equally easy puzzle. Some animations take very long for things like pushing a switch, or getting up. There are 3 playable characters and one is a knight who has a sword. The game is littered with "enemies" that provide no challenge, there is no penalty in dying, you just return right where you were and the enemy's health is depleted from your previous attempt, so there is no other use for so many enemies just to pad the game's length. As I see it, every element of the gameplay is so shallow because they are there to cover the true genre of the game: A walking sim. It's the second 2D walking sim which is ashamed to confess its true nature, the first one was GRIS (Inmost is better than GRIS imo, due to its story).

At 12€, it's too pricey for what it offers. I wouldn't recommend it before -50% or more.

 

[CryptRat]

Yes, I didn't play the game but I was disappointed when reading the reviews that it was in fact a short easy story game, I was really enthusiastic when their first gameplay trailer was a die-an-retry sequence very similar to those in Another World.

Currently playing Celeste, game is definitely an instant classic.

 

[DalekFlay]

Finally played and completed Prey (2017). What a great game. Flawed here and there, but still great. I wish stealth felt like more than just sniping enemies, and I would have liked some more people to interact with, but overall it's a great highlight in a sea of mediocre or "pretty good I guess."

Gonna play Control's second DLC next I think, then move on to a CRPG. I still don't think I can go back to Divinity: OS, so probably starting another... maybe PoE's "White March" even though I'm not super enthused about playing the rest of it again. Or maybe Wasteland 2 finally, since 3 is out and it's kinda crazy I never played 2.

 

[Catacombs]

Or maybe Wasteland 2 finally, since 3 is out and it's kinda crazy I never played 2.

I'm playing Wasteland 2 and having a good time.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i spent the last week or two looking for games similar to the concept of mount & blade: sandboxy, limited main quest, big squad/small army management, stuff like that. i found nothing i hadn't already played to death, wasn't bugged to death or still in the making.
last act of desperation: mount & blade itself.
i felt nothing. nothing at all. the love is long lost and gone.
my last sliver of hope is you suggesting me some obscure overhaul mod i haven't ever heard of.

 

[Abu Antar]

Maybe this:


Some mods: https://techraptor.net/gaming/guide...ods-to-check-out-while-waiting-for-bannerlord

Gekokujo is a personal favorite.

Another one is 108 Heroes:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/108-heroes

 

[ERYFKRAD]

i spent the last week or two looking for games similar to the concept of mount & blade: sandboxy, limited main quest, big squad/small army management, stuff like that. i found nothing i hadn't already played to death, wasn't bugged to death or still in the making.
last act of desperation: mount & blade itself.
i felt nothing. nothing at all. the love is long lost and gone.
my last sliver of hope is you suggesting me some obscure overhaul mod i haven't ever heard of.

Have you tried sea dogs: City of Abandoned ships?

 

[pakoito]

I'm yearning for something like Outer Wilds or Subnautica, at least the bits about exploration and unraveling the storyline. Any recommendations?

 

[cosmicray]

Factorio - playing MP on dedicated server. Really good, but we should have boosted the difficulty. Became too easy and uninteresting. Although, you get to know some aspects of the game better.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - I must say I'm having a blast. Game feels great, I like the art design, dialogues(especially in social boss-battles) and quests. You can stumble into surprisingly interesting quests by exploring city areas. Sure, like I said earlier I wish stealth aspect would be more realistic and general game difficulty should have been way harder on "Give Me Deus Ex" setting(the hardest on the first playthrough). Still, roaming the streets of Prague feels awesome.

 

[HansDampf]

Factorio... Normally I do pretty well in autism simulators like SpaceChem or Infinifactory (not exactly the same genre). Factorio, however, is not compatible with my brain, at all. I'm only playing the demo tutorial levels and am already overwhelmed. Literally wasting too much time building an ugly and inefficient excuse of a "factory" to craft one car.

Looks like a fun and complex game otherwise. Not sure if continue or ragequit.