What game are you wasting time on?

[Heresiarch]

8 months after finishing it on a Macbook Air (without GPU) and no patches and used massive amounts of S/L, thanks to the lure of the just released iPad version, I've just replayed and beaten XCOM: EU on a powerful machine, Classic, with minimal savescumming, only did a few (<5) times to, well, learn lessons. Like: never shoot a rocket from behind a bunch of squad members. Didn't get a single soldier killed until the final mission, letting the Sectopod fired its cannon for the only time in the whole game and killed two.

I must say the game is pretty fun and a good alternative to X-COM and TFTD.

 

[Surf Solar]

Finished my nostalgia run of Vampire: Redemption. Got the good ending of course.
God I love it.

Owned this on GOG forever but haven't tried it yet. You're tempting me.

The game is a piece of shit, don't bother. Download the manual and read the little prologue because it's the best part of it.

While it's not a super good game, it's also far from being a piece of shit game for the pretty big amount of interesting "spells" to try out and the multiplayer/session mode.

 

[procrastinator]

Tactics Ogre: LUCT, at the beginning of the third chapter. Never played any of those tacticool jrpgs before, and it's rather fun so far, although my tactics are limited to spamming AoE spells and then finishing enemies off with arrows Maybe I should try doing something different for a change, but I just don't see any broken class combos or anything like that...

 

[Garm]

Tropico 4 and Rogue Legacy. Having a blast with both of them.

For anyone wondering about Rogue Legacy: it's pretty fun, but the procedural generation isn't that complex---you'll start noticing repeats of room layouts after about 2 or 3 hours. Luckily though, the enemy layout and number in a given room is randomized so it isn't quite as repetitive. I've got about 6 or 7 hours into it and I'm about halfway through. If you're on the fence and aren't dying for a new metroidvania game, wait until it's in a sale. $15 is a bit steep for this type of game considering all the classics in its genre.

 

[DalekFlay]

Just got the Super Origin DRM Approved Command & Conquer collection, so time for some Red Alert 2 I think.

 

[Multidirectional]

Trying to get through Thief 3 and damn, it's like this game doesn't want me to play it. First time my saves seemingly got corrupted after first couple missions, so I had to restart. I am now in Hammerite church after stealing the paw from Pagans (this bunch have a really annoying way of speaking or what?). While this is still a nice game and definitely a way better sneaker than we usually get nowadays, lots of things are just plain annoying after having played first two games. Ridiculous unoptimized loading times, a lot worse controls and random crashes, plus that godawful floating bug that happens way too often. Sound design is still very nice and atmosphere is strong, which is why I persist. I also really wanna see that Shalebridge Cradle level I kept hearing praises about. Wish me strength.

 

[DeepOcean]

Trying to get through Thief 3 and damn, it's like this game doesn't want me to play it. First time my saves seemingly got corrupted after first couple missions, so I had to restart. I am now in Hammerite church after stealing the paw from Pagans (this bunch have a really annoying way of speaking or what?). While this is still a nice game and definitely a way better sneaker than we usually get nowadays, lots of things are just plain annoying after having played first two games. Ridiculous unoptimized loading times, a lot worse controls and random crashes, plus that godawful floating bug that happens way too often. Sound design is still very nice and atmosphere is strong, which is why I persist. I also really wanna see that Shalebridge Cradle level I kept hearing praises about. Wish me strength.

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

 

[Volrath]

Finished my nostalgia run of Vampire: Redemption. Got the good ending of course.
God I love it.

Owned this on GOG forever but haven't tried it yet. You're tempting me.

Don't. The best thing about the game was the manual. And cheating yourself to become a methuselah to have access to all spells.

 

[Multidirectional]

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

Kind of what I'm expecting. Most stuff people claim is "scary" in games is not scary to me at all, like Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines for example. But it usually means it's a level with an interesting atmosphere at least, so that's what I'm hoping for.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Ocean Hotel is different because it's a shameless set of harmless scripted events. The Cradle is not.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

Most stuff people claim is "scary" in games is not scary to me at all, like Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines for example. But it usually means it's a level with an interesting atmosphere at least, so that's what I'm hoping for.

Exactly this. It's a great level with great atmosphere and fantastic music and sound (Eric Brosius!!) but not scarier than any other Thief level.

I too don't get what people see in the Ocean House level and I never will. It's the lamest collection of jump scares and flickering lights I have ever seen. Literally everything else in Bloodlines is more scary and unsettling. (Scariest part of the game: definitely snuff tape quest in Hollywood almost made me piss myself.)

 

[Darth Roxor]

Soul Reaver 2 rekindles my absolute hatred towards unskippable cutscenes and checkpoint saving.

So there's this last section, right, where you alternate between BLABLABLA and fighting superpowered Sarafan that can't even harm you because you have IDDQD. The BLABLABLA+FIGHTIN happens about four times. All fine and dandy.

BUT the fucking thing has crashed on me twice already, which means that each time I have to start again from outside the Stronghold and relive the BLABLABLA AND BORAN FIGHTING BECAUSE LOLOLO CAN'T SKIP CUTSCENES

SUPERIOR CONSOLE DESIGN RIGHT THERE, HNNNGGGG

 

[Multidirectional]

I too don't get what people see in the Ocean House level and I never will. It's the lamest collection of jump scares and flickering lights I have ever seen. Literally everything else in Bloodlines is more scary and unsettling. (Scariest part of the game: definitely snuff tape quest in Hollywood almost made me piss myself.)

I found Ocean House level to be kinda cool in a campy way and I liked The Shining reference, plus it was short enough to not get boring. But I never got the impression it was even meant by devs to be genuinely scary, it felt more like them poking fun at silliest horror cliches. Like "hey you're this badass vampire now and you shouldn't give a fuck". I might be wrong of course. And I agree that snuff tape questline felt creepier overall.

 

[DeepOcean]

Soul Reaver 2 rekindles my absolute hatred towards unskippable cutscenes and checkpoint saving.

So there's this last section, right, where you alternate between BLABLABLA and fighting superpowered Sarafan that can't even harm you because you have IDDQD. The BLABLABLA+FIGHTIN happens about four times. All fine and dandy.

BUT the fucking thing has crashed on me twice already, which means that each time I have to start again from outside the Stronghold and relive the BLABLABLA AND BORAN FIGHTING BECAUSE LOLOLO CAN'T SKIP CUTSCENES

SUPERIOR CONSOLE DESIGN RIGHT THERE, HNNNGGGG

And you think they would let you miss their Citizen Kane dialog?

 

[Darth Roxor]

And you think they would let you miss their Citizen Kane dialog?

Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds (aka Defiance camera that is giving me nightmares to this day)

 

[J_C]

Trying to get through Thief 3 and damn, it's like this game doesn't want me to play it. First time my saves seemingly got corrupted after first couple missions, so I had to restart. I am now in Hammerite church after stealing the paw from Pagans (this bunch have a really annoying way of speaking or what?). While this is still a nice game and definitely a way better sneaker than we usually get nowadays, lots of things are just plain annoying after having played first two games. Ridiculous unoptimized loading times, a lot worse controls and random crashes, plus that godawful floating bug that happens way too often. Sound design is still very nice and atmosphere is strong, which is why I persist. I also really wanna see that Shalebridge Cradle level I kept hearing praises about. Wish me strength.

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

Kind of what I'm expecting. Most stuff people claim is "scary" in games is not scary to me at all, like Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines for example. But it usually means it's a level with an interesting atmosphere at least, so that's what I'm hoping for.

People praise the Cradle because it is supposed to be scary, but in my opinion it is very overrated in terms of scary factor, it is only scary at the beginning when you don't know what the fuck is happening but once the things you should avoid start to appear it becomes just another Thief level but with weird guards this time, it is still a nice level but not that scary.

Most stuff people claim is "scary" in games is not scary to me at all, like Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines for example. But it usually means it's a level with an interesting atmosphere at least, so that's what I'm hoping for.

Exactly this. It's a great level with great atmosphere and fantastic music and sound (Eric Brosius!!) but not scarier than any other Thief level.

I too don't get what people see in the Ocean House level and I never will. It's the lamest collection of jump scares and flickering lights I have ever seen. Literally everything else in Bloodlines is more scary and unsettling. (Scariest part of the game: definitely snuff tape quest in Hollywood almost made me piss myself.)

But isn't this true for every "scary" game? It is scary for the first time when you don't know what awaits you, but if you replay the game, you know what is it all about, and it doesn't scare you. You can't really fault the game for that. The Cradle is scary, when you play it for the first time. Not so much for the second. Like when I played Thief 1 for the first time, and the Cathedral gave me the creeps, but it was ineffective for the 2nd time.

 

[DeepOcean]

And you think they would let you miss their Citizen Kane dialog?

Fate promises more twists before this drama unfolds (aka Defiance camera that is giving me nightmares to this day)

Didn't you got tired of jumping in platforms that you can't see?

 

[Darth Roxor]

Tired? Last time I played Defiance, which was when it came out, I ragequit at the first Raziel level because HNNNNGGGG

So perhaps I'll live to get tired of it now

 

[DeepOcean]

But isn't this true for every "scary" game? It is scary for the first time when you don't know what awaits you, but if you replay the game, you know what is it all about, and it doesn't scare you. You can't really fault the game for that. The Cradle is scary, when you play it for the first time. Not so much for the second. Like when I played Thief 1 for the first time, and the Cathedral gave me the creeps, but it was ineffective for the 2nd time.

This is true to Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines but in the case of the Cradle, I didn't found it scary in the first run and the problem is that that the monsters don't really behave all that different from normal guards, making them very predictable. It is: "Okay this thing is supposed to be a scary monsters but I can hide from it as well as any guard." It is a very atmospheric level with cool architecture and music but I never thought of the "monsters" as a real threat.

 

[J_C]

But isn't this true for every "scary" game? It is scary for the first time when you don't know what awaits you, but if you replay the game, you know what is it all about, and it doesn't scare you. You can't really fault the game for that. The Cradle is scary, when you play it for the first time. Not so much for the second. Like when I played Thief 1 for the first time, and the Cathedral gave me the creeps, but it was ineffective for the 2nd time.

This is true to Ocean Hotel level in Bloodlines but in the case of the Cradle, I didn't found it scary in the first run and the problem is that that the monsters don't really behave all that different from normal guards, making them very predictable. It is: "Okay this thing is supposed to be a scary monsters but I can hide from it as well as any guard." It is a very atmospheric level with cool architecture and music but I never thought of the "monsters" as a real threat.

I agree that the monster guards are not more of a threat than regular guards, but I found them more disturbing. It is how they move, how they attack, just like the zombies, it scared me.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I always thought the chief problem was that they WERE essentially just zombies, and there was only a small number of them. This meant you could just flashbomb them to hell and continue going through the place uninterrupted. It would have been better if they were unkillable or returned from the dead all the time (the Cradle lets no one get away etc)

 

[Andyman Messiah]

But isn't this true for every "scary" game? It is scary for the first time when you don't know what awaits you, but if you replay the game, you know what is it all about, and it doesn't scare you. You can't really fault the game for that. The Cradle is scary, when you play it for the first time. Not so much for the second. Like when I played Thief 1 for the first time, and the Cathedral gave me the creeps, but it was ineffective for the 2nd time.

But it wasn't scary the first time I played it either. The Ocean House threw a telephone at me. Alright. The Ocean House make me fall down a hole. Alright. I see a guy holding a axe in the distance. It was lame, non-threatening and awful. Things picked up a little when the house catched on fire but that lasted, what, less than two minutes and it still wasn't scary but at least there was some sort of life-threatening situation (to my character) that made me go, although in a monotonous tone, "alright, I need to get out before my life meter runs out."

Eh.

 

[DeepOcean]

I always thought the chief problem was that they WERE essentially just zombies, and there was only a small number of them. This meant you could just flashbomb them to hell and continue going through the place uninterrupted. It would have been better if they were unkillable or returned from the dead all the time (the Cradle lets no one get away etc)

The way it is, you could see them, their patrol rout, plan your movement and backstab everyone as I did (except those in the end). How about making one suddenly appear behind you when you turn to see if there is something behind you on the least expected ocasion or making them invisible and you can only hear their footsteps? Surprise sex from a zombie would really make things more interesting.

 

[skacky]

These Puppets in the Cradle are also easy to spot since they make lights flicker when they're close. The atmosphere is very strong both in the Cradle and the Cathedral in Thief 1, which is why it's still pretty unsettling for me. Same for the snuff quest in Vampire Bloodlines or the alternate world in Silent Hill 1. You know what's going to happen but the thing is still creepy as hell.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The way it is, you could see them, their patrol rout, plan your movement and backstab everyone as I did (except those in the end). How about making one suddenly appear behind you when you turn to see if there is something behind you on the least expected ocasion or making them invisible and you can only hear their footsteps? Surprise sex from a zombie would really make things more interesting.

Something like that sorta happens in the cells. All the cells are locked and empty... except for one that is inhabited. So you keep plundering them all smug about getting them loots, when suddenly OHGODIT'SRUNNINGATME