What game are you wasting time on?

[Jack Of Owls]

Doing a little emu tinkering with Xenoblade Chronicles X on Cemu (which I haven't touched since BotW at least 6-7 years ago). Amazing that you can run this so smoothly at 4K at a constant 60 FPS (10-core Intel, RTX 3070). The game looks beautiful but... it's still kind of typically bad jap game design where you can't even button mash during battles because everything is auto-fighting. Is there a reason to continue? Please give me one. On paper at least, I love the concept of roaming a vast alien planet open world where you are among the tiniest creatures in that world. It's like Shadow of the Colossus on 'roids and dozens of varied gargantua instead of one..

 

[BruceVC]

Completing Fallout 3's main quest made me realize why people hate Emilio. It is a really poorly written and designed questline for a RPG. You are railroaded down a certain path and if you try to veer from what the writer wants you to do you get punished with objectively inferior outcomes that makes no narrative sense other than you being a bad person.
There are literally just 2 outcomes in the end; poison purity or not. If you poison purity nothing happens except you die if you drink too much water and there's some dialogue and sick NPCs. If you don't poison it nothing happens except you don't die and there's no sick NPCs. That is lame.
Sacrificing barely counts as an outcome because if you pick literally anyone but yourself you get literally nothing. If you do pick yourself you get stupid amounts of karma, to the point that it actually offsets the so called "genocide" option.

Honestly, the best part about Fallout 3 is the Capital Wasteland, which I think is a superior game world than the Mojave, just because it is it so much bigger and not as safe.
Everything else is pretty mediocre.

Also Operation Anchorage is a waste of a DLC that screws up the game's already poor balance by giving you an early, indestructible suit of power armour. The only thing that makes it worth while is the gauss rifle.

Apparently there's a mod called Lone Wanderer Edition that's supposed to fix a bunch of the gameplay issues, but I don't see how its going to salvage the quest chain unless it removes the shitty find your dad plot line, tranquility lane and gives you the option to actually help the Enclave for the true evil bastard experience.

Interesting post, I played FO3 about 12 years ago but I didnt use any mods

I am to replay it and Im definitely going to use mods and that Lone Wander Mod, I see it contains 50 mods that improve balance and gameplay. For me this is a "must have mod " because it improves so much overall

https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/2761

 

[Nathaniel3W]

Doing a little emu tinkering with Xenoblade Chronicles X on Cemu (which I haven't touched since BotW at least 6-7 years ago). Amazing that you can run this so smoothly at 4K at a constant 60 FPS (10-core Intel, RTX 3070). The game looks beautiful but... it's still kind of typically bad jap game design where you can't even button mash during battles because everything is auto-fighting. Is there a reason to continue? Please give me one. On paper at least, I love the concept of roaming a vast alien planet open world where you are among the tiniest creatures in that world. It's like Shadow of the Colossus on 'roids and dozens of varied gargantua instead of one..

I've been looking more into auto-battlers, mostly looking for a new audience to sell my game to. I'm going to have to learn more about Xenoblade Chronicles X now.

I also downloaded AFK Journey after reading about it on Penny Arcade. It's a free-to-play gacha game that gives you rewards while you're AFK, but you have to log in every day to claim your rewards. Penny Arcade's in-comic commentary: "AFK Journey is so pretty that I wish it were literally any other kind of game. Like, a playing game."

It really is a waste of time. There's nothing you do in it except click on pretty things in a colorful motion-filled UI. In a day AFK, you'll earn hundreds of thousands of coins and books and potions and whatnot that you use for equipping your heroes and leveling them up. And then you get rewards for logging in, like diamonds and recruitment letters that you can then spend for a chance to recruit a new waifu. The waifu guaranteed after 60 attempts changes every week, and your attempts are cleared when the next waifu is made available, so you'd better log in and play the virtual slot machine every chance you get, or else you should just pay the $10 for the pack of loot that will let you keep playing the slot machine.

Do you like virgin waifus? Scary goth waifus? Furry waifus? AFK Journey has you covered.

I'm hoping I can play in order to learn something about appealing to the autobattler community, and maybe also learning about how to hook your players, without actually becoming addicted to this stuff.

 

[NecroLord]

I decided to play some Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.
Still getting used to the controls and general feel of the game.
This is going to be fun.
Classic Star Trek awesomeness.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Having beaten original Shin Megami Tensei V on Switch, in preparation for the Vengeance version, I can say that I feel some people were a bit harsh on it. Was there some repetition? Yes. Did I like the game? Yes. I don't mind the game not putting heavy focus on story, either.

Ran this through Ryujinx today because I wanted to see how far this emu has progressed since I last attempted Shin Megami Tensei V (about 1 year ago, where it ran like shit). I'm pleased to say that the newest Ryujinx runs it exceptionally well now, 40-60 FPS and no burps. Gives me strong Nocturne vibes so I may give it a playthrough if I can get past that lady-boy lead character..

 

[kites]

After something like a dozen hours in the roguelike Shiren 5: Tower of Fortune (..) it’s fully clicking for me as something to jump in-and-out of between work, and I’m sure I’ve probably only scratched it’s surface.

Early on I would get upset at it’s RNG, with it’s item/enemy spawns, monster closets and brutal day/night system.. but there’s little things you learn, and while you will always eventually lose your levels and undoubtedly face unfair RNG - you will be building your knowledge-base, companions, and accruing a banked cash/cache to pull from/upgrade/item pot remix. I will admit it took me longer than it should have to check out the Point Shop with it’s Undo Grass. It also helped after a certain point unlocking a shortcut, and slowly working my way through the Statue Cave training maps between deaths has made it feel way less punishing. While still simple on the surface it feels suitably deep without becoming “work” (yet)..

 

[BruceVC]

I have decided to play Sons of the Forest next, I loved the first one and it was best survival game I have ever played

Further updates to follow

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Revisited Prince of Persia 2: The Shadow and the Flame, which I originally played and beat back in 1994 or thereabouts.

A direct sequel to the classic Prince of Persia, it does everything by the book in being bigger, better and newer... and yet fails somehow.

By far the biggest change from the prequel is how cinematic the gameplay becomes. At its core the gameplay of the two games is identical (save towards the end, but more on that later) but the level design takes a sharp turn. Each level in the original was a puzzle box of sorts, expanding level by level. Here the first level makes the game feel like a beat'em-up as the Prince must hastily escape a near endless horde of guards. No puzzles involved, just lots of swordfighting and the occasional jump. Each level is then followed by a short cutscene to add to the cinematics. 'Normal' gameplay doesn't return until the Prince finds himself in a cavern hideout, now seemingly abandoned (yet someone left the lights on).

The problems arise while in those caverns though. The quintessential timer is brought back, putting the Prince on the clock to save the princess again. Fair enough, except the Prince's escape from the caverns takes him... someplace. The ruins of a palace, it seems. For no discernible reason (a bush calling out to me in cinematic sequences doesn't count). It's also here that new gameplay elements are introduced in the form of new enemies and traps - and chief among them are the very VERY annoying floating heads. They take two hits to remove every health pip they have, but they take two health pips out of you with every bite. Lovely. It isn't until about 3/4 through these ruins that the reason for coming here reveals itself - nice as it is, it sadly also has no effect upon the plot itself, which is to save the princess in time.

And what does the (now literal) Prince of Persia do, with the minutes ticking down? He hops on a magic horse and rides to some temple, for some reason, to fight a fuckton of birdmen, only to reach a blue flame and... well, not gonna spoil it, but for a highly cinematic game, there's no explanation for the Prince's actions. I'm guessing the Prince needs this blue flame to be able to save the princess? How come the game couldn't tell me this?

Another sad fact I noticed at this point, is that the level design just becomes generic and bland and all-too familiar. Which really contrasts with the endgame, as after the temple the game jump-skips to the end to fight the endboss - and the game trips ballz here. M.C. Escher designed the final level after puffing on a hefty reefer. (To see what I mean, on the first screen of the final level don't go right, go down.) The boss fight is some strange moon logic-based affair involving brand-new gameplay mechanics that haven't even been explained by the game, and it all just feels so disjointed that I didn't even feel attached to the game anymore.

Those were my impressions then, and they're the same 30 years later. The game is sadly a massive disappointment, especially towards the end. It's still Prince of Persia though, so players can probably get some enjoyment out of it.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I have to admit I was filtered by PoP 2 back in the day (played it on release) and never went back to it aside from the occasional replay through the caves.

I remember the later portions being infuriatingly difficult. I'll give it an honest try again sometime.

 

[axx]

Event though PoP2 was designed by Mechner it seems to lack his personal touch as he didn't do any programming, perhaps that's why the levels seems so disjointed. I liked it's weirdness, but hated the difficulty and the zoomed out look, less emphasis was put on the character's fluid motions which made the first game what it is today.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I picked up Halo Wars for multiplayer purposes (and funnily enough it was it that made me revisit Halo 1), but only now I checked out the singleplayer campaign, and I have to say I'm very positively surprised by it. There's unexpectedly much effort that went into this game that you'd just assume to be a dumbed down console RTS with zero depth.

There's quite a bit of mechanical complexity to it that is lacking in actual big boy RTSes, like the fact that all attacks are actual projectiles with actual ballistics, which means you can do a lot of juking with faster units, and unit accuracy has even more of a tangible feel to it. I was also taken aback to see Spartans (who are single-entity units in a squad-based game) actually dodging around by themselves within their 'zone of unit space' to avoid getting hit by shit.

I'm also surprised by how tough the fucking campaign is, at least on the highest difficulty. The first three levels are really vanilla and ez, but then suddenly level 4 kicks you in the fucking balls and level 5 is about the same.

For example in that level 4 - you start with a buggy and four ospreys. You have to rescue some civilians shot at by angry aliums, which triggers an endless respawn of civilians that will run to 3 evac points. There are dropships at each evac point, and you have to protect them from constantly incoming aliums - if all 3 are down, it's mission failed. You only get a base spot unlocked after one of the dropships is busted (in a scripted sequence), which means you have to build it up real quick to get your shit going while the enemy is already running rampant around the place. And the AI is aggressive as all hell, meaning you need to have troops posted all over the freaking map because you need to (1) protect the two dropships (which are each in different locations), (2) protect the civilian waves for a higher score, (3) protect your stupid base from getting overrun, (4) scramble to secure a second base slot and take it over because the AI can do it as well, and giving it another base is going to fuck you in the ass even harder than usual.

The only thing that I strongly dislike so far is the shitty console interface with very limited unit commands. I'd kill to have a 'stand ground' command, because all units are ridiculously suicidal and acquire aggro very easily. Attack-move would be a blessing as well.

 

[NecroLord]

Still playing Star Trek: 25th Anniversary.
All the cast is here and the "Big Three" that is Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley do a really great job even as voice actors.
Great game back from when Star Trek was actually Star Trek, and not some edgy teen fantasy shit with lens flare all over...

 

[Hag]

So, beat World of Horror for the first time on my third run.

Wonderful art and atmosphere, many good ideas such as the way the interface is built, lot of items, encounters, mysteries and general what-the-fuckery. All these marvels marred by a repetitive gameplay loop. Fighting is a perfect summary of the game : there is a nice enemy rooster, each with different stats, attacks, powers, you have a nice pool of weapons from the steak knife to the firearms, spells, utility objects, and several offensive/defensive available actions to combine... but 90% of the encounters will be won by the same sequence, so optimal you have no reason to do otherwise.
And it's a goddam shame since it comes this close to being a great game, but it feels it's less than the sum of its parts. It is not that bad and still very worth getting on sale, simply... disappointing, and a bit heartbreaking. We could use more games with such a lovingly crafted world and imagery.

I'll keep on playing a bit more anyway. I really want to love this game.

 

[NecroLord]

Alright, completed the first mission of Star Trek: 25th Anniversary - Demon World. Pretty cool introductory mission, got a 100% rating and each of the crew got 4 commendations each.
Second mission has you go and check on the status of a Ptolemy class ship called USS Masada.
It's been damaged and captured by Elasi pirates. I hailed the ship and attempted to parley with the Elasi Captain unsuccessfully. You need to lower the Masada's shields by inputting its prefix code to lower its shields temporarily and then beam aboard it with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a security officer.
Now I need to rescue the ship's remaining crew (only they are captured in the brig and there is a bomb rigged to blow if tampering with the brig's access panel!!), there's also two Elasi guards in the brig which you can stun with your phaser.
Also apprehend the Elasi captain on the Masada's bridge...

 

[kites]

Still playing Shiren 5. It wasn't as obnoxious at the outset, but the meta-progression/management of items has marred the experience for me. It's been quite a while, but in my mind Shiren DS was mechanically far superior. I'm looking forward to the post-game dungeons that are balanced around forcing you to start from zero with no items/companions..

 

[Kabas]

Came to realise that i played nothing but Doom and a bit of Quake for the past month or so. Needed a break so i finally played The Coffin of Andy and Leylely that made so much noise some time ago.

There is just something about the plot and the artstyle that makes me 100% sure that the author is a women. Somewhat accurate sibling dynamics despite the horny incest undertones and the absurdity of their circumstances. Story got me completely hooked and i came to love this pair of psychos, not gonna lie. Can't wait for chapter 3.

I do have a sister by the way.
And before someone asks, no. I don't want to fuck my sister.

 

[Caim]

And before someone asks, no. I don't want to fuck my sister.

Most incest media is written by people who don't have sisters. The ones that have should be avoided at all costs.

 

[mold]

Finished The Dark Queen of Krynn. Nice enough game but had some frustrating parts - areas that were difficult to navigate, too many teleporters, tricksy elves, and often tedious combat. Too many fights against enchanted draconians and mages spamming delayed blast fireballs. The game was considerably harder than the previous ones and got pretty crazy towards the end. Liked it more than Champions, but Death Knights I liked the most because it had good balance in all things and fun world map / locations, and there was just something sweet about it. That one I'll be replaying, but one playthrough was enough for the other two. One thing I don't get is why these games give the party heaps of money when there's almost nothing to spend it on. Meh loot in general. I'm taking a break from Gold Box but I do want to play more of them.

Finished replaying Underrail and will be playing Solasta next.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

One thing I don't get is why these games give the party heaps of money when there's almost nothing to spend it on. Meh loot in general. I'm taking a break from Gold Box but I do want to play more of them.

Money (and non-monetary treasure with a monetary value) grants experience points. In Dungeons & Dragons, characters would ordinarily save most of the treasure gained, ultimately spending it after reaching name level on strongholds or certain other aspects (e.g. creation of magic items) not utilizable at low levels, but the Gold Box games, as with nearly all CRPGs, lack those sort of money sinks.

 

[Avonaeon]

Finally got around to completing Unreal. Only 25 years late to the party. I've started it many times, and maybe got to the Nali Church a few times in the past, but then for whatever reason never got further. Anyway, a very enjoyable game overall, with some quite challenging encounters all throughout. Level design is great for the most part, but did get lost a couple of times (mostly having to do with switch hunting and defeating some enemies before a new path opens up). It has a really nice pace going from interior to exterior several times. Lots of atmosphere helped a lot by the amazing soundtrack.

 

[NecroLord]

Finally got around to completing Unreal. Only 25 years late to the party. I've started it many times, and maybe got to the Nali Church a few times in the past, but then for whatever reason never got further. Anyway, a very enjoyable game overall, with some quite challenging encounters all throughout. Level design is great for the most part, but did get lost a couple of times (mostly having to do with switch hunting and defeating some enemies before a new path opens up). It has a really nice pace going from interior to exterior several times. Lots of atmosphere helped a lot by the amazing soundtrack.

Since you've completed the main game, might as well also play the expansion - Return to Na Pali.

 

[Avonaeon]

Finally got around to completing Unreal. Only 25 years late to the party. I've started it many times, and maybe got to the Nali Church a few times in the past, but then for whatever reason never got further. Anyway, a very enjoyable game overall, with some quite challenging encounters all throughout. Level design is great for the most part, but did get lost a couple of times (mostly having to do with switch hunting and defeating some enemies before a new path opens up). It has a really nice pace going from interior to exterior several times. Lots of atmosphere helped a lot by the amazing soundtrack.

Since you've completed the main game, might as well also play the expansion - Return to Na Pali.

Just started it

 

[Darth Roxor]

Return to Na Pali is very bleh, you wouldn't miss anything by skipping it.

 

[NecroLord]

Return to Na Pali is very bleh, you wouldn't miss anything by skipping it.

Got filtered by that battle with the marines?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Return to Na Pali is very bleh, you wouldn't miss anything by skipping it.

Got filtered by that battle with the marines?

filtered by a single encounter in the game against dudes that basically are one hit killed? yeah sure enough

return to na pali is an uninspired mess with the only good bits being levels scrapped from the original



Also Avonaeon I find it pretty funny that I was playing Unreal around a time when you were playing Halo, and now I'm playing Halo while you're playing Unreal