What game are you wasting time on?

[No Great Name]

I'm getting ready to start playing Pool of Radiance by reading through the Adventurer's Journal and planning out my party. I've never played a Gold Box game before so I'm not quite sure what to expect. My only question would be if having a high charisma is useful in this game or not.

 

[Ivan]

So, while waiting for Shattered Memories to come in the mail, I decided to check out the original Silent Hill. Having started with Silent Hill 2 and finishing the subsequent titles in the series, I had assumed the first one was a "good for what it is" title that helped the series usher in the masterpeice that is Silent Hill 2. Holy shit, was I wrong. Silent Hill (1) features the best gameplay from the series. The level design, the freedom they give you right from the beginning to explore the town, the subtle clues they give you to guide you around, it all feels so cohesive. Sure, the camera can be a little wonky, tank controls make Harry turn to face 2+ enemies is a pain, but damn this game just flows so much better than 3 or 4. While I think SH2 really succeeded because it contextualized the horror of its setting on the protagonist's psyche, the areas and characters encountered here were pretty damn interesting too.

 

[spekkio]

Having started with Silent Hill 2 and finishing the subsequent titles in the series, I had assumed the first one was a "good for what it is" title that helped the series usher in the masterpeice that is Silent Hill 2.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

I'm getting ready to start playing Pool of Radiance by reading through the Adventurer's Journal and planning out my party. I've never played a Gold Box game before so I'm not quite sure what to expect. My only question would be if having a high charisma is useful in this game or not.

You'd have to ask Simeon Pilgrim, if he's still in existence. He would probably know a thing or two about the inner workings of both Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds.

High Charisma may or may not play some role in the success of parlaying with monsters, as success could be solely determined by choosing the correct attitude when negotiating. I've never played a party that didn't have a leader with 17 or more Charisma, so I cannot confirm or deny, from personal experience, the existence of any sort of Charisma thresholds in Pool of Radiance or

In Secret of the Silver Blades and Pools of Darkness, the cluebooks say that a leader with high Charisma helps to negotiate with wandering monsters (there are no stance/attitudes to choose in most cases), but I can't imagine it has much of an effect; a recent runthrough included a Paladin with 18 Charisma and negotiation success was about 50/50.

There are a few scripted checks as well, but they are extremely rare. In all nine of the mainline Gold Box games I don't recall more than a dozen -- a count smaller than that of Baldur's Gate 1.

There's also no discount in shops for high Charisma, but asuch a benefit would be pretty much pointless in the commercially released Gold Box games (though Unlimited Adventures modules created by fans could be a whole 'nother matter).

 

[RK47]

Gonna give Hearts of Iron 3 a try after a Bundle sale $4.99 + 20 DLC included.
Hopefully it's more fun than tedium.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Bloodrayne Betrayal.
It's not quite the BloodRayne I know, but it is a worthy entry.

It is irritating that the cover art fucking lies though. Rayne's old outfit isn't in the game.

 

[Ovplain]

Just started 'The Banner Saga'. I LOVE the art style!<3 And I dig the atmosphere.

 

[GhostBadger]

Started playing The Dig for the first time. Fucking steam version didn't include ScummVM, applied some piss filter by default (although you can turn it off) and messed up the aspect ratio. It also doesn't remember the options setup. Thankfully after downloading ScummVM and launching the Steam version from that solves every problem.

I absolutely loved this game. An all-time favorite.

 

[Icewater]

Also, I doubt you'd be playing Diablo 3 if you didn't think it was a good game. (Which it is. Seriously- it's fun.)

no it really isn't

 

[Ovplain]

Just started 'The Banner Saga'. I LOVE the art style!<3 And I dig the atmosphere.

The music's pretty killer too. And furthermore on the art style, it's awesome to see ''Vikings'' dressed in something other than brown or black 'heavy metal gear'. I like the colorful tunics 'n shit.

 

[Jick Magger]

Giving Resident Evil Revelations 2 a shot, having quite Revelations 1 after a few minutes because I found scanning and fighting sentient puddles of snot extremely boring. So far this game's doing alot better at keeping my attention. Gameplay actually feels like a built-up version of RE4, which at the same time tries to go a bit further back to the series' survival horror roots. Only major complaint I've got so far is switching between companions is a bit clunky (and I really have no intention of playing the campaign in co-op).

I also gave raid mode a try. I'm enjoying it, but can't help but feel as though I'm playing it wrong or something. I've been going through as HUNK (as he's free if you buy the whole game) and so far all the levels have been a cakewalk, and showering me with stronger and stronger guns. I'm at level 10 with HUNK now and he's just steamrolled through every level I've played in. Is this supposed to get difficult at some point?

 

[Ovplain]

Just started 'The Banner Saga'. I LOVE the art style!<3 And I dig the atmosphere.

The music's pretty killer too. And furthermore on the art style, it's awesome to see ''Vikings'' dressed in something other than brown or black 'heavy metal gear'. I like the colorful tunics 'n shit.

And I'm done. It was an enjoyable experience. Had no idea the game was only about 10 hours long, was quite stunned when the credits rolled. Also definitely wished it had more tactical options in combat and more variety in regard to enemy units. But OK. Like I said, it was an enjoyable experience. Looking forward to the sequel.

 

[Siveon]

Just beat Dark Forces II. Pretty good game. Average story, nice level design (mostly coherent), and you get to use a lightsaber. Which, along with force powers, kind of undermines the whole FPS part at the end. I think that was the point though. I don't think it's worth another playthrough just to see the sith side, but I had good times with it.

Pretty short too, but to be expected in an FPS.

Still playing Divine Divinity, but I'm still in a rut.

 

[Franny Frogpill]

I'm wasting my time on a game featuring turn-based, brutally random combat, unromanceable companions, crafting, five different classes and plenty of stats and spells. Sounds good, eh? But there's a catch. It's Puzzle Quest 1 - so fighting, crafting, spell discovery, creature capturing: it's all presented as a Match-3 minigame.
Still, it isn't as horrible as expected, surprisingly complex even.

And the future looks much brighter now. Whatever its shortcomings will be, no matter how frustrated and angry the whole Codex will be - I'm pretty sure the Witcher 3 will simply blow me away. It won't have any Match-3 elements, will it?

 

[dunno lah]

Played through REmake 3 times this week. The first two runs using Jill and the third with Chris on Real Survival.

I never realized until now that Jill moves slower than Chris. I found myself able to just rush past zombies even if I were on the right or left side of them. Maybe its just me improving at the game, but I know that with Jill, I failed performing this a couple of times.

I'm incredibly bad at fighting bosses though. I think I died against Plant 42 like 9 times before I figured out a strategy.

Gonna play Real Survival Jill for my next playthrough. I bet she's gonna be tough as hell to do a "No Health Items" used coz she doesn't have Rebecca.

 

[ultimanecat]

Screwing around on PSP that I bought for cheap because the shop wanted to get rid of it. Enjoying Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Valkyria Chronicles 2 at the moment.

Come to think of it, I've never played through REmake as Chris. You can't poison Plant 42 in his playthrough, right?

 

[Ovplain]

Finally got around to installing & starting 'Expeditions: Conquistador'.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

reinstalled grim dawn and played to level 7 soldier last night

first time playing the full release and i swear your char moves quicker on the map - good times

the skill tree has been extended as well from memory

still piss easy on veteran, might have to bump myself up to hardcore dunno yet we'll wait and see

all in all a decent game to scratch that arpg itch

 

[Ivan]

Started the Resident Evil series (played RE4 way back in the day)

Resident Evil 2: my favorite one so far. In spite of the crap map (why you no text like Silent Hill) i liked the environments, the weapons felt really powerful, the puzzles made sense. I loved the spiders and their sfx. Story was entertaining, no real annoying/dealbreaker characters. I finished it once with Leon and with Claire. Going to do Claire's A scenario soon.


Resident Evil 3: I liked the freedom they give in the beginning by placing you in a pretty sizable Raccoon city. I enjoyed backtracking to different locations with new items to solve puzzles. However, once the game ditches the open environs for a clock tower, the game got a bit stale for me. All in all a cool sequel and I hope they revisit the open city feel from the start. Oh, nemeis was cool too. Best part of the game is easily exploring Raccoon city.


Resident Evil Code Verionica: similar to Resi3, I loved Claire's first chapter. the puzzles had a good flow, the environments were cool for a "military base." However, after the first chapter the game does away with interesting puzzles (my favorite in all 3 games was the legacy painting puzzle) in favor of bullshit use item x on y that are rarely intuitive. Oh, and fuck Steve. Starts off great but stagnates throughout, especially in Antacrtica. I guess most of the praise was due to the awesum graphx.


oh, and fuck steve. one of the most grating npcs ever.

I've been saving Re1 so I guess I should skip 0 and go straight to the original, or is 0 worth it? I've been saving the best for last.

 

[spekkio]

Zero is worth it, don't listen to naysayers like Ed.

 

[Ivan]

Cool. Gonna fiinish the psx version of Re1 first.

 

[dunno lah]

Screwing around on PSP that I bought for cheap because the shop wanted to get rid of it. Enjoying Monster Hunter Freedom Unite and Valkyria Chronicles 2 at the moment.

Come to think of it, I've never played through REmake as Chris. You can't poison Plant 42 in his playthrough, right?

I think you must fail at saving Richard to have the scenario to poison Plant 42.

 

[Blonsky]

Finaly finished Icewind Dale 2, it took me 7 months of playing it and taking breaks from it, it is almost my personal speed record for this kind of games.

 

[panzertoter]

World of Tanks, after half year break.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Playing DX:HR a bit. Don't really enjoy the gunplay (yet?)