What game are you wasting time on?

[Blonsky]

Playing CB Jericho and it is a really different game from the CB Undying. Undying had some mystery in it and the fun was trying to figure out whats going on, in Jericho everything is known from the begining and its all about the fps parts.
In Jericho you are a part of the squad made of 7 members with supernatural abilities they can use in combat, and around the begining you die (you know its permanent because it happens in a ingame animation), but instead of going to the great gaming grounds you end up as a "ghost" that can possess your teammates and fight with theirs special abilities. The story is boring, stop the Firstborne and some other jerk that is helping him. The game has alot over the top amount of gore and just the right amount of profanity (not using it to much and not turning it into a gimmick).
The gameplay is made of pretty good fps shooting parts, its usualy made of being rushed by enemies in small coridors or rooms, but with possesing diferent squad members, using their abilities(hold enemies, fire atack, heal teammates) and trying to keep them alive its probably the most fun part of the game, although the ai of teammates in combat could be a bit better sometimes. The rest of the gameplay is made of occasional "you have to use a specific character to do some action" and "press the right key when it flashes on the screen" minigames that range from small nuisance to completley retarded (the only way to kill a giant monster is to posses a girl with a katana, jump on the beast and finish him in meele by hitting arrow keys when they flash on screen).Also the game also has some annoying bugs, boring map design and some funny conversations between teammates.
Alltogether its a preety good squad based fps with bigest problem in game being the ai, bugs and and minigames.

 

[Tommers]

OK, I am now playing card hunter.

If you can disregard the freemium bullshit then it's quite a fun game. Actually rewards taking some time to prepare your party before a battle (even if it is just "you need bashy things for skeletons")

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS ALMOST FINISHED AVERNUM 4 FUCK IT IS LONG AS SHIT

I RIED A VALLERY WITHOUT WIND 2 BROS I ALMOST CRIED TEARS OF PCTARD RAGE THEY MADE THE GAME FOR A FUCKING CONTROLLER MIGHT NOT WANT TO TOLERATE IT

 

[Heresiarch]

Finished my first Civ 5 playthrough, King difficulty + standard speed + standard map size, Byzantine + strong early Religion + Tourism later push (culture victory). Won the game at 2027.

I love this game. The expansions, new units, new mechanisms, the massive civilopedia (every city states have its own entry...) all make the late game very interesting. The AI seems to be competent as well, all the civs were declaring war on each other like crazy, and in the last 100 years Netherlands and Inca were destroying other civs with such brutal efficiency, and the fact that they have me surrounded didn't make me feel well at all (good thing I had no.1 in military and had all my cities covered with troops). The greatest threat was actually how Inca pursued diplomatic victory, I almost lost in twice of world leader proposal because Inca had over 44 delegations (thanks to how he bribed almost all the city states to become as his ally) while 43 were required to win, and I always just barely undermined him with spies and bribery a few turns just before the world congress. Netherlands helped by actively attacking a few city states as well.

The game is not perfect of course, on standard the tech speed was very weird - early on, AIs were reaching medieval age at 100 BC, while later, no one even has tanks well after 2000's, despite almost everyone has finished Manhattan project and even Apollo programme. A lot of tech's prerequisites also don't make sense, like you can have gatling guns and frigates/ships of the line without researching gunpowder, or internet before computer.

The best thing of Civ 5, IMO is how diversified each playthrough can be. With all the combinations of different beliefs/social policies/ideologies, and of course terrain/civs, the possibility of different strategies and scenarios is endless.

 

[Crooked Bee]

Finished Goodbye Deponia. Loved it, although I felt it was a bit easier than Chaos on Deponia (or maybe I just got better at the Deponia logic). Unlike many, I thought the ending was alright too.

I'm going to miss this series.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Keep playing Realms of Arkania: Blehd of Destiny. Found 8 out of 9 map fragments, I doubt I'll bother trying to fish out the ninth because hey haha putting a main quest specific item on a RANDOM ENCOUNTER is a good idea, amirite lololo

I don't know what to think of this game. It's... sorta cool and addictive, I guess, but it's so very inferior to all the other classics of that period. The combat is for the most part mind-numbingly boring, and in 90% of cases I just initiate autopilot and hit dosbox turbo mode to get shit over with quickly, it's only going above average in some fights were you gotta keal mages. Not to mention your fighter dudes essentially seem to become unkillable after a while, like my d0rf who managed to solo 6 brigands, and the only damage he got was from self-inflicted fumbles.

Main quest is essentially a Bioware main quest - GO INTO NINE CORNERS OF THE WORLD TO FIND FRAGMENTS OF THE MAP THAT WILL LEAD YOU TO DOOOOOOOM! And it is DOWNRIGHT INFURIATING how you gotta spend loads of unnecessary time going from door to door to find the dudes holding the map fragments because, hey, why bother giving some actual specific coordinates or making their houses stand out AMIRITE? Thank heavens the gog version comes with a cluebook that has this shit written down.

Treat wounds talent seems to be some kind of an elaborate prank. Dude with 11 points in treat wounds actually heals a guy in like 1 out of 10 cases, the rest is OOPS, YOU ACCIDENTALLY HURT HIM MORE, or OOPS, YOU ACCIDENTALLY GAVE HIM AIDS. What the hell. Also, I can't shake the feeling that the witch is downright useless - her spells do no damage whatsoever, only the heal is kinda neat.

I guess the dungeon crawling is at least sorta cool because there are many things that kick you in the ass around every corner, but it sometimes gets annoying combined with the general randumbness of HAHA HERE'S A TRAP THAT CUTS YOU IN HALF, BET YOU DIDN'T SEE THAT ONE COMING (AND IN FACT, YOU PROBABLY COULDN'T LOLOLO).

Overland map is p funky with lots of different envirohazards, especially up north in ork ville, but holy shit, THEM DISEASES. And it's also annoying that when you come across some skillcheck, it checks against the PARTY LEADER'S skills/possessions, and doesn't let you choose who should do what.


Is RoA 2 exactly the same or does it actually improve the formula? 'Cause if it's the same I don't think I'll bother with it once I'm done with this.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Finally managed to unlock Champion Mode in Diehard Dungeon. Takes like 10 Golden Keys which are really hard to get especially the last 2 or 3.

 

[Sceptic]

Is RoA 2 exactly the same or does it actually improve the formula? 'Cause if it's the same I don't think I'll bother with it once I'm done with this.

Combat's better balanced in 2. IIRC fumbles are not as stupid, and neither are traps. Autocombat now has an option where the game calculates the outcome and hands it out to you instantly. Still, I have to say that the very presence of so many autofight modes is in itself a testament to how bad combat in the series is. MQ in 2 is a lot better, more interesting and less fetch-y. Dungeon crawling's more fun. Outdoor travel is exactly the same and still a pain in the ass and everyone will die from the common cold at one point or another.

I find 2 much superior to 1, as it drops a lot of the crap that 1 had. If you liked some things about 1 and had mixed feelings about it then give 2 a shot and see if you like it more (I think you will).

 

[Cowboy Moment]

God Hand. Just got to stage 6. Even though the encounter and boss design play against the strengths of the combat system at times, it's still a total blast to play. Quite challenging on normal as well, although this may just be me sucking at action games. There are no shortcuts, either you master the core mechanics well enough, or you won't progress. Been missing that in games.

 

[Gurkog]

Testing my new monitor with super response time with some shooters... 60fps is not enough because it is still choppy as hell when I look around. I should have went for a 120hz monitor or something. How can consoletards stand 30fps in shooters... it is beyond me.

 

[DalekFlay]

Needed a bluray player so I "went console" and got a PS3.

Been playing GTA5 and it's... GTA. I mean that in a nice way, just there's no real super innovation like reviewers seemed to try and point out. The character swapping is neat but not revolutionary. The gameplay is 99% the same as GTA4. I an enjoying it though, graphics look pretty damn good for 8 year old hardware, though I am having to get used to gaming on a real TV with its much darker blacks.

Also grabbed Sly Cooper 4, which is a fun as console as you can get console game. Simple amusement, nice look to it.

Anyone want to suggest some PSN stuff? I feel like I know the console exclusives from the last 8 years I want to get, more or less, but the PSN exclusives on this thing are a jungle without a map for me.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

God Hand. Just got to stage 6. Even though the encounter and boss design play against the strengths of the combat system at times, it's still a total blast to play.

I'm guessing your complaints lie with some of the fights where Gene is matched up against numerous enemies. Those brawls do have a way of going against the advantages of the core mechanics. Fights such as the Mad Midget Five, the second Three Stooges encounter, and any instance in which the game uses "challenge through clutter" aren't really the high points of the game; they have a way of limiting the effective moves, taking away from the variety achieved by having a customized set of actions.

They aren't bad and there are in fact different ways to approach such fights (like how the Mad Midget Five can be defeated through hit&run, Mach-Speed-Jab juggles, dodge-canceled Roundhouses, or a combination of the aforementioned techniques), but it's a a bit of a downgrade from more "open" fights. And many non-boss encounters with lots of foes encourage the player to "pull" one enemy at a time (with taunt) as numerous elite enemies can make combat...intractable.

Quite challenging on normal as well, although this may just be me sucking at action games. There are no shortcuts, either you master the core mechanics well enough, or you won't progress. Been missing that in games.

Hard mode only adds a slight amount of HP to enemies while locking the difficulty to Level DIE. Foes on Level 2 and Level 3 still have access to most of their movesets and can guard well enough in addition to countering mistimed guard-breaks and sweep kicks; all they're really missing is speed, aggression, and much higher aptitude for counters. There isn't the enormous difficulty leap between the default difficulty and the higher ones seen in titles like Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry where they add entirely new foes or layer on difficulty-specific mechanics. It does have a much steeper learning curve, however. But if you can fight Level DIE enemies well enough on Normal, you'll be good to go for Hard mode.

 

[Cowboy Moment]

God Hand. Just got to stage 6. Even though the encounter and boss design play against the strengths of the combat system at times, it's still a total blast to play.

I'm guessing your complaints lie with some of the fights where Gene is matched up against numerous enemies. Those brawls do have a way of going against the advantages of the core mechanics. Fights such as the Mad Midget Five, the second Three Stooges encounter, and any instance in which the game uses "challenge through clutter" aren't really the high points of the game; they have a way of limiting the effective moves, taking away from the variety achieved by having a customized set of actions.

They aren't bad and there are in fact different ways to approach such fights (like how the Mad Midget Five can be defeated through hit&run, Mach-Speed-Jab juggles, dodge-canceled Roundhouses, or a combination of the aforementioned techniques), but it's a a bit of a downgrade from more "open" fights. And many non-boss encounters with lots of foes encourage the player to "pull" one enemy at a time (with taunt) as numerous elite enemies can make combat...intractable.

Pretty much. What it comes down to in the end is that hit&run tactics simply aren't very fun to execute in God Hand. You're super mobile at no cost and engage very quickly, so hitting and running quickly turns into a rather shallow game of whack-a-mole. This applies equally to certain multi-enemy fights as well as some singular bosses, like Demon Elvis for instance. The GH combat system lives on quick feedback and fast reactions, so it's kind of a bummer to fight an enemy that doesn't give a shit that you're hitting it, and just does its own thing anyway. Most fun I've had in the game thus far was against Azel, because the fight was so interactive and dynamic. Should have more of that instead of huge demon enemies with aoe out the arse and tracking grab moves.

Multi-enemy encounters aren't bad in general, but they quickly become annoying when they have some kind of ranged or gap-closing attack, like the Three Stooges part 2. You have to be ready to disengage at any point because one of the other enemies might be throwing his disk or charging or what have you, which, at least for me, forced a very conservative playstyle. Which was, again, not very fun.

 

[deuxhero]

Anyone want to suggest some PSN stuff? I feel like I know the console exclusives from the last 8 years I want to get, more or less, but the PSN exclusives on this thing are a jungle without a map for me.

Depends on where you are really. SCEA pants on head retarded policy of needing an English dub to be released in NA means a healthy number of otherwise retail games are PSN only, but have a disc release outside NA.

As for things that are PSN only in all regions... Really the only things I've seen listed as "must have" games got a disc release on "Best of PlayStation Network, Vol. 1" (no news on a volume 2...) back in June.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS OKAY FOUND MOUSE AIM IN AVWW 2

GETTING TO SORTA ENJOY IT NOT MNY GAMES LIKE IT I CAN ONLY THINK OF ACTRAISER

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Finished Delver, took me three tries and a total of a little over an hour. Last try must have taken 30-40 minutes. I'd post a screenshot of the final score but the game doesn't play nice with Steam overlay and Print Screen only shows the pause of a black screen.

Kinda fun. Pretty short but I suppose you could play differently by boosting different stats, and it's still on Early Access so there's likely more content coming. I just pumped HP like mad, especially at the ending where you're supposed to escape the dungeon with the Orb of Zot Yithidian. When there's not much time to think, being able to tank fireballs with your ass is more useful than being strong.

Funny thing is, I only found a leather helmet in the first room, and no other piece of headgear. Final equipment was a jeweled sword, full plate cuirass and greaves, and a punk ass leather helmet. And a dozen wands that I used like SMGs on the skeleton mages. The boss was apparently some sort of lich that I fought halfway through the last floor, thinking initially that it was just a strong form of skeleton mage, but I never met others of its kind.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Just finished "Driftmoon" and it turned out quite an alright simple adventure. Sort of reminded me of majority of NWN1 modules. Combat kinda sucked but I it wasn't too annoying and I had a couple of giggles at how blatantly fairy tale-ish the story was, at times.

 

[Grim Monk]

Finished FEAR 1 for the first time, played on "Extreme Difficulty".

I did not enjoy this game...

For all of its attempts, its not the least bit scary.

The level design is extremely constrained, and visually uninspiring.

IMHO AI and Slow-Mo come into conflict with each other.
What point is good AI when you're killing everyone with no resistance?
The moment you're attacked all you have to do is push the slow-mo button, and all the difficult vanishes.

It comes down to the fact that I was bored while playing it, and was happy to see it end.
(Although the fact that it's only 8 hours is should also probably count against it.)

This is now the second game from Monolith that I've played, and the first (Blood) was far superior...

 

[Cassidy]

I think I might end playing the two good Stalker games seven several times each.

Spoiler

 

[Machocruz]

Warriors Orochi 3

Activated super sperg mode and went ahead and platinum trophied it. Ho. ly. shit. What a grind. I've had this game since it launched last year. 132 characters that you have to get to S rank, And it takes 15-24 minutes to S rank two characters from scratch, and I only used a handful of characters during the campaign, so I had at least 80 that I had to start from the lowest rank. And some characters really feel shitty to use. Not to mention doing all missions (about 56) on Normal and Chaos difficulty, and about 20 on Hard to get all items.

An awful grind, but outside of that a fun game, the best of its kind. Some characters are really cool looking and have fun move sets. I may get the Ultimate edition next year if the price is right, and just play the normal way for fun. Dynasty Warriors 8 is out and I've heard it's one of the better ones, but I can't go back after WO3. Plus it's the full $60, while WO3 -a vastly bigger game- was like 35 bucks.

Doom 64

Sweet iteration of Doom, and few better choices for a Halloween inspired play. The colored lighting looks great and moody. Game just looks really good for N64, and is the nicest looking Doom game imo. Smooth as silk (EX version), nice level design. Creepy ambient sound. Any Doom fan cannot go wrong with this version. Only thing I can complain about are lack of hand animations for shotgun cocking and double barrel reloading. No Doomguy face either.


Think I'll try Spess Muhreen next, since it has Codex seal of approval.

 

[Boyarpunk]

Just started Assassin's Creed II. Five years after trying the horse shit pile that was the first game made me swear off the franchise forever.
Why?
'Cause I just spent 17 days in Italy (including Venice and Florence) and it got me in the mood that's why.

Hope it doesn't suck.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I've been playing Dungeons of Dredmor lately. By Codex standards I'm late to the party, but I'm enjoying myself with the good writing and humour and the DEATHDEATHDEATHOVERANDOVERAGAIN. I also like how some design decisions are overcome with just a little bit of thought.

DoD, however, does raise two points, of which at least one I've seen crop up in other games, like Terraria. These points boil down to this:

# If your game has a vast and complex system for an in-game mechanic, but no (easy) way to access information about this system in-game, forcing players to build and visit a wiki page to house the information, you are doing Something Wrong.

# If your game forces the player to make hand-written notes, in an era of copy/paste, in-game journals and notepads and who knows what other ingenious designs that can temporarily store a piece of text, you are doing Something Wrong.

To name examples, Terraria's crafting system boils down to showing the Guide one item at a time, and he then shows you what item recipes the item is a part of. There is no in-game journal to help you keep track of recipes, the game assumes that you either remember the recipe or wrote it down. Furthermore it's only recently that Terraria gives you extra notes on crafting recipes, like if you need special structures or circumstances. In DoD it's actually not the crafting system that's guilty of this, but the stats. DoD has dozens of secondary stats, and conveys them in-game via a tiny TINY icon. If an item is equipped in-game, then you can hover over its stats and learn more about them, but otherwise you might as well guess what that purple squiggly thing does.

But it's the second point that makes me stop and wonder. Under no circumstances should a player have to be FORCED to write down a piece of info. I can understand the option being included as is for the old-school nostalgia factor, and I'm not supporting that the game holds the player by the hand all the way through to the end, but when a game presents you with a randomly generated code and offers no way for a player to make a note of it other than to say "you should write this down", then someone is being lazy indeed. Is it really that hard to include an in-game journal? Really? In this particular case it's the Wizardlands realms and the codes needed to access them. Sooo... why can't the game keep track of them for you? What's wrong with the game just allowing you to select it from a drop-down list that only lists discovered codes?

Note that I'm not discouraging people from making hand-written notes in the first place, it's just redundant to force people to do so nowdays.

 

[Gurkog]

I've been playing Dungeons of Dredmor lately. By Codex standards I'm late to the party, but I'm enjoying myself with the good writing and humour and the DEATHDEATHDEATHOVERANDOVERAGAIN. I also like how some design decisions are overcome with just a little bit of thought.

DoD, however, does raise two points, of which at least one I've seen crop up in other games, like Terraria. These points boil down to this:

# If your game has a vast and complex system for an in-game mechanic, but no (easy) way to access information about this system in-game, forcing players to build and visit a wiki page to house the information, you are doing Something Wrong.

# If your game forces the player to make hand-written notes, in an era of copy/paste, in-game journals and notepads and who knows what other ingenious designs that can temporarily store a piece of text, you are doing Something Wrong.

To name examples, Terraria's crafting system boils down to showing the Guide one item at a time, and he then shows you what item recipes the item is a part of. There is no in-game journal to help you keep track of recipes, the game assumes that you either remember the recipe or wrote it down. Furthermore it's only recently that Terraria gives you extra notes on crafting recipes, like if you need special structures or circumstances. In DoD it's actually not the crafting system that's guilty of this, but the stats. DoD has dozens of secondary stats, and conveys them in-game via a tiny TINY icon. If an item is equipped in-game, then you can hover over its stats and learn more about them, but otherwise you might as well guess what that purple squiggly thing does.

But it's the second point that makes me stop and wonder. Under no circumstances should a player have to be FORCED to write down a piece of info. I can understand the option being included as is for the old-school nostalgia factor, and I'm not supporting that the game holds the player by the hand all the way through to the end, but when a game presents you with a randomly generated code and offers no way for a player to make a note of it other than to say "you should write this down", then someone is being lazy indeed. Is it really that hard to include an in-game journal? Really? In this particular case it's the Wizardlands realms and the codes needed to access them. Sooo... why can't the game keep track of them for you? What's wrong with the game just allowing you to select it from a drop-down list that only lists discovered codes?

Note that I'm not discouraging people from making hand-written notes in the first place, it's just redundant to force people to do so nowdays.

Sword of the Stars: the Pit might not be a great game, but it at least does that stuff sort of well.

 

[Blaine]

The trouble I had with SotS: The Pit was that after a handful of levels, I'd get swarmed at the entrance to a floor by dozens of strong creatures and killed. Didn't matter which class I picked, which items I'd found, or which tactics I tried—the game went straight from retardedly easy to instant death. There was a never any genuine curve there that I could see. I've played roguelikes before, and no matter how brutal they are, as long as you can learn something from your deaths at least half the time (unavoidable deaths and accidents are to be expected), it's worth playing.

After a couple dozen games of learning absolutely nothing whatsoever due to SotS's lack of any setting between "pres butan kil rat" and "twelve deathbots teabagging the only ladder to the next floor," I gave up on it. The fun is in learning from your mistakes and slowly improving your odds, even though making no mistakes doesn't guarantee a win. If it's solely luck of the draw (i.e. find a super-powered weapon, and also randomly avoid deathsquads at floor entrances), I don't give a shit and it's a waste of my time.

 

[sea]

The trouble I had with SotS: The Pit was that after a handful of levels, I'd get swarmed at the entrance to a floor by dozens of strong creatures and killed. Didn't matter which class I picked, which items I'd found, or which tactics I tried—the game went straight from retardedly easy to instant death. There was a never any genuine curve there that I could see. I've played roguelikes before, and no matter how brutal they are, as long as you can learn something from your deaths at least half the time (unavoidable deaths and accidents are to be expected), it's worth playing.

After a couple dozen games of learning absolutely nothing whatsoever due to SotS's lack of any setting between "pres butan kil rat" and "twelve deathbots teabagging the only ladder to the next floor," I gave up on it. The fun is in learning from your mistakes and slowly improving your odds, even though making no mistakes doesn't guarantee a win. If it's solely luck of the draw (i.e. find a super-powered weapon, and also randomly avoid deathsquads at floor entrances), I don't give a shit and it's a waste of my time.

I agree, at a certain point the difficulty hits a cliff where you're probably going to die unless you know how to play impeccably. Depending on the enemies and drops you get though, that could be at floor 3 or floor 10. It's a bit too luck-based for my tastes. I have no idea how anyone can finish the entire thing.