What game are you wasting time on?

[RK47]

RK47: imagine the scene
RK47: chirping of birds
RK47: just lara and nature, after a nice warm meal of roasted venison
RK47: squatting down
RK47: holding the crouch button
RK47: letting it all out
RK47: chirp chirp
RK47: suddenly
RK47: bear attacks
RK47: lara is caught with her pants down literally
RK47: grawr
RK47: emotionally engaging

 

[Darth Roxor]

Started the latest Mortal Kombat thingamajig, it's gr8. Pretty much classic Mortal Kombat experience, just with a few fun tweaks. If there's only one thing that bothers me a little is the x-ray combo - its addition is actually fun as hell, but given the fact that it only needs 2 buttons to perform makes it a bit of an Awesome Button (tm). Should be more complex to do.

Also, I've been playing way too much all kinds of assorted street fighters in recent years. I completely forgot how to block - I keep moving backwards, but nothing happens

I would like to thank muh bro MetalCraze for recommending this to me

 

[Nutmeg]

Finished Dragon Quest II now. Sensible evolution from the first game. Also I ran into quite a few bugs concerning the prince, which I think is cause I used an older translation patch. Onto Dragon Quest III!

 

[sea]

Episodes from Liberty City

Who the fuck designed this port? Next to Saints Row 2 it's the worst performance I've ever seen. After two hours of tweaking and file editing, I've managed to get it to run more or less decently if I don't do anything too strenuous like moving the camera or driving. If I drive for more than a couple of minutes, it slows to a choppy slideshow for a minute or two and I have to stop trying to load new things and pat it on the back until it recovers. Jesus. I know, I know, I should have a quad core, but really.

GTA IV really needs a quad core system. At the time of its release it was a system hog but any modern computer (quad core, 6+ GB RAM, decent video card) should be able to run it no problem. That said they actually made Episodes worse performance-wise, and I get at least 10 fps less on average than the main game for... no apparent reason.

Resident Evil 4. Game started out decent enough; a zombie (not quite though) survival horror meets Deliverance/Straw Dogs. Fighting your way off from hordes of some los pueblos hillbillies with pitchforks and torches with only a couple of bullets, forcing the player to seek shelter, barricade the doors and windows and kick down ladders, was generally alright at first. Some traits of "Japanese school of horror" are easily noticeable, at least to a degree, such as atmospheric approach to some of the "scares", weird characters seemingly out of place who come and go, with many notes scattered around etc. It quickly went full derp, though. I guess where "Japanese horror" ends, Resident Evil begins. The story is probably serviceable enough, if plain and fully predictable, but oh my, the writing and dialogues are abysmal, truly horrible. By no means I expected a Silent Hill level of storytelling, but it's so obnoxiously bsb (hello, I'm evul villain and I'll gladly explain all my motivations and plans here! muahaha kill him my minions while I'll take my leave again and again) and retarded... I mean, entering the old Spanish castle with lava pools and zombies blasting cannons at walls, AA cannons in some ballroom and rocket launchers, castellan of which is some annoying midget cracking dry jokes to the protagonist, what the fuck.

What I like about this game is the balance. There are relatively lots of weapons to blast hundreds of enemies with, each one of them with its pros and cons, and valuable at the very least in a certain situation. Resources are rare and nothing is really useless. You can upgrade your equipment at the certain creepy merchant; and at the same time you don't feel cheated by the time new equipment is introduced because it's still useful or at least easily replaceable. The flow of "Ptas" is steady but makes you choose your purchases wisely. Ammunition is rare enough to encourage making every shot count, not the easiest feat considering the shooting mechanics, sway and enemy movements etc., which nicely rewards the player and his skill.

It's Resident Evil, what did you expect? All the games are fucking retarded story-wise. However, Resident Evil 4 is still pretty damn fun and has good bosses, shooting galleries, puzzles, and, at the time, really pretty and varied level design.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

I finally found the HoMM-like that grasps me. AoW 2 wasn't quite it. This... this is it. KILL YOUR COUNTRYMEN THAT THE GOD OF WAR MIGHT SEND HELLSPAWNED REAPERS TO WALK A BLACK PATH OF WITHERING DEATH ACROSS THE LANDS OF MY ENEMIES

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic

I finally found the HoMM-like that grasps me. AoW 2 wasn't quite it. This... this is it. KILL YOUR COUNTRYMEN THAT THE GOD OF WAR MIGHT SEND HELLSPAWNED REAPERS TO WALK A BLACK PATH OF WITHERING DEATH ACROSS THE LANDS OF MY ENEMIES

Yeah, SM is p. cool but it runs out of variety quite fast as most units feel the same and it boils down to LOL HASTED CHAOS LORDS

 

[Humppaleka]

Shitty indie games, slightly better indie games, actually good indie games. Got to get those off my Steam sometime.

F.E.A.R. 1 + expansions, what I consider to be the best fps I've played.

Have to focus on one game at a time with the occasional indie shite and multiplayer games, don't have much time nowadays with medical school starting in a few weeks.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

DQII is garbage, DQIII is by far the best in the series.

 

[Gurkog]

I was going to Play Batman: Arkham Asylum again, but they switched from shitty GFWL to even shittier securom DRM. I promptly uninstalled the shit before it could finish patching in the malware. At least now I will never buy Arkham City or another shitty sequel, so I can spend that cash on other shitty games.

 

[Trash]

After reading Sser's excellent Close Combat Retrospective I've decided to give the old series another go. First tried A Bridge Too Far and enjoyed it thoroughly. Unfortunately the one thing that killed it for me back in the day is still present. Armor is for some reason utterly fucked up and will either do nothing or do bizarre shit. Something to do with pathfinding and it sucks.

So I reinstalled the only excellent remake of an old CC title; Cross of Iron. The Russian Front with an added campaign, better AI and so forth. And I loved it. For about twenty minutes. Put the game on hardest and you struggle, for about two operations. Then you've got the basic force assembled that will serve you well all game long. Two tanks, two aa cannon, a mortar, a command team, two hmg's and three infantry teams. With this team you'll butcher the AI each and every game. And while your troops gain experience the AI's will die in droves. Meaning you're quickly getting further and further ahead. Kills the game for me.

Oh well, back to finishing Metro.

 

[Carrion]

GTA IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony. I've played this for a few hours, but so far it hasn't really been much better than GTA IV: linear and mostly very predictable missions with lots of shooting, talking and cutscenes that don't go anywhere, pretty uninteresting characters who repeat the same things over and over again just to pretend that they have a personality, a protagonist with a sense of morality rather than a more appropriate borderline psychopath... The overall tone is maybe a bit less serious than in GTA IV, but Vice City this is not, which is a bit of a disappointment. I don't know, maybe it'll get better at some point. I guess GTA IV's approach works better in a shorter expansion pack than in the full game, though, since stuff like going bowling with your friends or screwing some chick who just kept calling you got old pretty fast. Here, it doesn't bother me that much.

I just can't understand why they don't give you a bit more options with these missions. You've got an open world, so what's the reason for the constant railroading? Just give me an objective and let me achieve it the way I see fit instead of making me run from one checkpoint to another untl there's a big shootout in a six-feet-wide corridor. It says something that the completely generic drug war stuff has so far been much more enjoyable than almost any of the actual missions, because it actually lets you do stuff in different ways instead of constantly breaking the flow with another goddamn cutscene.

 

[Gurkog]

Started playing Castle Crashers and besides excessive poop jokes it so far seems an OK beat'em up. I like the art style and music, especially for a game that is only 200MB. I just hate when I get stun locked by archers.

 

[Keshik]

Vegas 2, friends wanted to play it co-op, so I figured I'd go through the SP. It's Tom Clancy's COD for sure, what with 3 CTs taking on who knows how many terrorists in a US city that some how the US Army doesn't bother to respond to, the linear funneling from ambush zone to ambush zone (though it does seem you spawn enemies if you make noise..). The gunship boss at the end takes the cake.

 

[spekkio]

Alice: Madness Returns.

People praising it to high heavens forgot to mention the bugs, bad controls, rage-inducing autosave system and shitty implementation of the U3 engine (next area loading during a difficult jump? - GTFO, "developers").
I like the (very light) puzzles and combat, though.
And the art is simply gorgeous.

 

[Gurkog]

Started Borderlands 1 GotY edition today. Having fun as a level 18 soldier, but the controls are kind of fucked up and I am having trouble aiming at heads due to mouse acceleration bullshit.

At least I can turn off bloom and shit so my eyes don't bleed.

 

[RK47]

I did not enjoy this DLC at all.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yeah, lonesome road was kind of meh.
Even Old world blues was entertaining.

Trying to play U5 lazarus now. Wandered into Yew while a shadowlord was around and got attacked.
I really need to read the damn manual.

 

[oldmanpaco]

Just finished demoing ME3 with all the DLC. Actually not the worst thing Bio has done. Better than ME2, DA and DA2 anyway. As others have commented on the ending was derpy as hell but getting there was OK. Actually got a little teary eyed when Anderson died. Anyway would play another game set in the ME universe now that Shepard is deadish.

 

[Tripicus]

Started Borderlands 1 GotY edition today. Having fun as a level 18 soldier, but the controls are kind of fucked up and I am having trouble aiming at heads due to mouse acceleration bullshit.

At least I can turn off bloom and shit so my eyes don't bleed.

If I remember correctly, try disabling the mouse smoothing. I had similar issues and some *.ini tweaks fixed it right up.

Playing Torchlight 2 with friends right now. Most of the fun seems to stem from rushing forward and not giving anyone a chance to make informed choices on their skills.

Also played some Don't Starve. Can't say I find it that engaging. Maybe due to the sheer amount of time I spend running around looking for rock...

 

[Gurkog]

Finished Borderlands 1's main campaign and the last 2 bosses were complete letdowns. Maybe it is because I am doing single player, but I killed them without trying. I liked the earlier bosses where if I didn't play well my ass was fried. They did look pretty, but that ddin'g make them less boring. Fighting the stuff on the way to the bosses was more challenging. Oh well, time to start on the DLC. First up is the zombie one.

 

[RK47]

Borderlands is overrated TBH.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If you played with the sniper guy, the endgame is even more underwhelming. Enemies with huge shields but low health + long-range character with a shield-trespassing skill = RAEP. The last boss is disappointing as well, yeah - random alien creature that comes out of nowhere and brushes aside the villain that's been trying to kill you for half the game. I think the developers were fans of Final Fantasy 4.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

I did not enjoy this DLC at all.

I thought it was excellent, although that's because I've played it last of all (right before the endgame sequence). There's quite a bit of foreshadowing and character exposition made in other DLCs, it was very intriguing to learn it piece by piece whether from audio logs or various mentions here and there. It's very well connected story-wise with main game as well.

I felt it was a final farewell from the developers to the player. Sure it was corny what with endlessly rambling villain but i loved it all the more

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS GENEFORGE 2 DONE

BROS I WOULD HAVE LOVED THAT GAME AS A KID I LOVE GAMES WHERE YOU CAN JUST FUCKING GENOCIDE THE WORLD

 

[Cool name]

Did just finish Eternal Darkness with dominant Ulyaoth. Much easier than dominant Chattur'gha. The Guardians were the only hard enemies, and that's only when they have some kind of backup that stops you from going Xel'lotath Nethlek Redgormor Pargon Pargon and then pursuing them around to shotgun their faces at point blank range every time they reform. The only part that was kind of difficult was nigga bro's, and that's only because he doesn't get access to the tome until quite late in his chapter so I had to run around like a headless chicken until I got the tome, and by that time I was out of sanity and barely alive. Then I went Xel'lotath Narokath Santak Pargon Pargon Pargon Pargon and went back murder everyone with impunity. Xel'lotath Bankorok Redgormor is OP, which is kind of stupid given Ulyaoth is the bleeping Ancient of magick. His dudes should be able to deal with Bankorok Redgormor in some way. And Ulyaoth's Black Guardian was kind of a let down as well. I did love his appearance, he's the best looking one of them all, but his stomping was somewhat out of character. Give him a bloody lazorbeam or something magicky.

I did also finish my first run through The Cat Lady. Ehm... Nice art and some nice characters but writing is kind of awful. C&C is only good when there is a clear, or not so clear but at least implied and reasonable, connection between cause and effect. When the golden ending's triggers are completely unrelated to the golden ending itself (So you had a breakdown on stage three? Your best friend dies of cancer LOLOLOLOL!) it is kind of retarded. I also kind of hate it when developers contradict their own mythology and setting because THE MESSAGE. THE MESSAGE is worth shit if it contradicts the established setting. So, like, fuck you. Art style alone is not enough. The message as it is is worthless. Learn to write you bleeper. Also, what kind of moron does write A dreamweb-like story (The voices tell you to murder five people! Go now and bring MURDER upon them!) just to have a 'Do not fall to depression! Think possitive! Good things will happen to you if you do!' message at the end, more so when he bleeping writes himself into a corner and has to contradict everything that did happen so far just to force his happy message down our throats? Oh, yeah, and one of the worst references/crossovers in the story of videogames, right there. Subtlety and good writing? There's no room for subtlety and good writing when IT'S CIRCLEJERK TIME!

Not to mention the retarded 'Cat Widow' puzzle. So one of your neighbours is a dude who gets angry with you because he has to work in the morning and you are playing the piano and fooling around with your cats late at night. DOOD, LETS BREAK HIS BIKE SO THAT HE CAN'T GO TO WORK ON TIME AND LETS TOTALLY FREAK HIM OUT IN A MOST ILLEGAL MANNER BECAUSE LOL, HE DESERVES IT! LOLOLOL, THIS WAS SO FUNNY RIGHT?! Who wrote this shit?

Bleep this crap.

I had the same problem with Lone Survivor. Ending triggers make no sense. They try to create this magical land where good people gets good thingies to happen to them and bad people gets bad thingies to happen to them, but instead of creating an enviroment where such a thing happens naturally they just kind of go 'You were BAD! So you got BAD ENDING! Why? BECAUSE YOU WERE BAD LOL!'

Artsy indies should read some books before writing bleeping 'deep and meaningful' stories. It could only do them good.