What game are you wasting time on?

[Jasede]

Yeah, with that background, it is no secret of what this game is about and with this music:

Unrelated but I love this movie/song.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Out of curiosity I checked out a gameplay video of the upcoming Shadow Warrior 2. The only good thing I saw there is how they seem to have opened up the levels to allow for alternate paths, and how Lo Wang can now climb vertically at pre-defined locations.

But if the Co-Op play works out, that will probably gonna help the game get better attention.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Started craving for M&M again, found that there is mod for M&M VI - The Chaos Conspiracy. First hour passed and turns out the mod is so big it's cut into Part1 and Part2 with separate installation. Part1 is same map like vanilla and I need to beat it to reach new lands. This gonna take some time...
Unfortunately the graphic replacement (for items, characters etc.) doesn't work, (work on Win98, maybe I try some workaround with virtual machine).
Went with Warrior/Druid/Mage/Mage, could go with 2nd warrior but nah.
Oh and everyone start with Bow skill :shrug:
There are 3 difficulty settings, Adventurer is lowest and it's like vanilla M&M6, higher one work this way - you wander on the map, see green gems turn yellow and die from random arrow. Such a life in the Zone Nimradur...

 

[free999enigma]

Now i play some Forza Motorsport 6 Apex . (But Microsoft i still hate you)

 

[Daedalos]

Hitman
Hearthstone
Heroes of the Storm
Overwatch beta
Mortal Kombat X

 

[Krivol]

I'm playing original Colonization and it's fun as allways. Also the only civilization type of game with a final boss

 

[octavius]

Got 73 points for "smegma" in Wordfeud against my mother.

 

[Starwars]

Played through Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

Ugh, goddamnit... it kinda pissed me off more than anything because I really believe they had some ideas here that could've been turned into something good. The motif with the pigs, and the kind of descent into a machine hell, are pretty cool in my opinion. Some of the writing is also really good, though unfortunately it just goes off the rails in several places, It's also *really* pretentious at times.

Gameplay wise it sucked. The loss of handling lantern oil, and the sanity effects, from Dark Descent really takes its toll on the atmosphere. It's just not scary. Nor are the enemies. I like them in the narrative sense but they are simply not scary as enemies. There are some embarrassing jump-scares as well. Anyway, SOMA managed to move closer to the "walking simulator" thing a lot more elegantly. In that game, it feels like the developers really used the downscaled gameplay (think of that what you will obviously) to really improve the pacing of the game, and the story of the game was quite well done.

One great thing about Machine for Pigs is the audio. It's superb for the most part.

So yeah, atmospheric and... interesting, but not very good and a huge missed opportunity. Another thing is that it really feels like they tried to tell a story that is bigger than what they had the means to create.

 

[spekkio]

Finished Stalker - Shadow of Chernobyl

Good:
- Even better than sum of its (good) parts.
- Fantastic atmosphere of a post-apoc, post-communist, post-industrial Zone.
- Open-world done right: set missions / fights with some respawning choke-points and random "kill some dudes at X nao" auto-missions.
- Best gunplay since... FEAR1? Headshoting a fag from afar never gets old. Same with flushing fags out with grenades, then mowing them down with AR. Fuck year.
- Loved underground missions: horror mood, darkness, weird noises in the background...
- Fauna can be sometimes as dangerous as human enemies.
- Anomalies can be even more dangerous, since you can't shoot them.
- Gun porn.
- Enemy AI is at least decent. Humans try too out-flank you, animals retreat to go back after a while, etc.
- Graphics are generally fantastic.
- Visibly made by gamers for gamers. It's clear that devs played a lot of games, so gameplay is their priority. Ultra-rare in current times.

Ugly:
- Final part (Pripyat and CPP) aren't as good as earlier parts. Short and devolving into pure Serious Sam experience (you vs. 1000 enemies). No new artifacts. Boring human enemies, less dangerous than zombies + snorks combo at Yantar.
- AI seems to be cheating - they tend to pop out of cover the moment you turn your view cone away.
- Artifacts' variety isn't that great, plus you'll gather all the useful ones ~2/3 of the game.
- Not enough mission variety, plus only like 3 real quest-givers.
- Stashes are good idea, but most things found inside are meh.
- More RPG elements (skill-like permanent upgrades, C&C, dialogue trees) would've been nice.
- Story goes retardo near the end.

Bad:
- Performance isn't that great, despite the game being rather old.
- Using ZRP is highly recommended, both for purely non-cheating features (better GUI, smaller map markers, visible mission prizes) and "fun-increasing" features (higher encumbrance limit, ability to repair stuff).

tl;dr

First FPS since FEAR1 I enjoyed and a mustplay for every post-apoc fan.



Unfortunately, I had to give up on first Command & Conquer. After Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and especially DoWs, some aspects of gameplay (trying to run over these little soldiers with a tank for two minutes, no healers / repairs / turrets / bunkers) and controls (mouse-only, a lot of micro-management) are simply unbearable. Plus, gameplay and mission design aren't that great either.
Oh well. Deleted.

 

[Puzzling Centaur]

Recently I finished Starcraft 1. I can't believe haven't played that game earlier. It is a masterpiece and it reminded me how much I used to enjoy RTS games made by Blizzard. The story was cringeworthy at first, but it was improved in the expansion. I don't know what happened to Blizzard (gave up my hopes for Warcraft 4 a long time ago), but we need more games like that.

 

[Endemic]

Arcanum. So far I haven't failed as hard as MCA (despite going with a similar character build).

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

having a mindlessly good time with dins curse at the moment

raising minions as a sorcerer

 

[pippin]

Unfortunately, I had to give up on first Command & Conquer. After Starcraft, Warcraft 3 and especially DoWs, some aspects of gameplay (trying to run over these little soldiers with a tank for two minutes, no healers / repairs / turrets / bunkers) and controls (mouse-only, a lot of micro-management) are simply unbearable. Plus, gameplay and mission design aren't that great either.
Oh well. Deleted.

Going back to C&C1 and RA1 can be rather tiresome because of this. Those games have certainly aged even though they are still good C&C fun. You have to be in a mindset to tolerate some of the things you mention like the painfully slow movement speed.
RA2 is still fucking perfect though.

 

[Endemic]

Actually you did have the service depot and medics (and mechanics in Aftermath), but yeah C&C/RA micromanagement could get tedious even back then. I was spoiled by Total Annihilation's UI and queuing system (minefields and walls were easy with some help from the tahook mod).

 

[spekkio]

Looking for some RTS fun I tested Ground Control.
Jesus. Abysmal camera control, SLOW movement, everything is fucking cumbersome, units firing at eniemies 1 km away but failing to recognize them if they're very close. AND: no saves. That's right, enjoy your game in 3-4 hrs long seatings. And reviewers were giving this 70-90%.



Fuck me, it's either Starcraft or DoW now.

 

[Darth Roxor]

lots of micro-management

in tibdawn?

seriously?

are you people armless or something?

 

[pippin]

Looking for some RTS fun I tested Ground Control.
Jesus. Abysmal camera control, SLOW movement, everything is fucking cumbersome, units firing at eniemies 1 km away but failing to recognize them if they're very close. AND: no saves. That's right, enjoy your game in 3-4 hrs long seatings. And reviewers were giving this 70-90%.



Fuck me, it's either Starcraft or DoW now.

I remember Ground Control to be quite fun though. It was a time when RTS games were trying new stuff, and I can see GC as a proto DoW in some ways like squad management and etc. It's also very interesting that you only manage troops instead of bases. The game was made freeware once, but now it's sold on GOG and I believe Steam. I tried the freeware installer with my win8.1 computer and it worked fine if everyone's interested.

 

[adddeed]

Looking for some RTS fun I tested Ground Control.
Jesus. Abysmal camera control, SLOW movement, everything is fucking cumbersome, units firing at eniemies 1 km away but failing to recognize them if they're very close. AND: no saves. That's right, enjoy your game in 3-4 hrs long seatings. And reviewers were giving this 70-90%.



Fuck me, it's either Starcraft or DoW now.

What a casual. Camera control is flawless. Slow movement? Game was going for realism you chump. GC was superb back at release, and still is today. Yeah go back to StarCraft and churn out some zergs or something.

 

[Dayyālu]

Have we played the same game? RA in SP is a breeze. The AI is braindead, the options easy, the mission design a bit outdated but easy as fuck.

Actually you did have the service depot and medics (and mechanics in Aftermath), but yeah C&C/RA micromanagement could get tedious even back then. I was spoiled by Total Annihilation's UI and queuing system (minefields and walls were easy with some help from the tahook mod).

OpenRA helps erasing the little microin' problems there where in the original, but baseline TA has some micro nightmares that RA dreamed of (reclaiming, unit production, artillery). Plus some mission in TA, if the AI was given time and on hard difficulties, where rapetime central. Last Core missions where "Rush or die", pretty much.

Looking for some RTS fun I tested Ground Control.
Jesus. Abysmal camera control, SLOW movement, everything is fucking cumbersome, units firing at eniemies 1 km away but failing to recognize them if they're very close. AND: no saves. That's right, enjoy your game in 3-4 hrs long seatings. And reviewers were giving this 70-90%.

Ground Control is very good for what it is. Compared to Ground Control 2, a masterpiece. Heard that , what was, the WW3 thingie Massive did was also fun (forgot the name).

The only structural problem in GC are some poorly-thought units (pointing at you, Order Drone Carrier). Units are kinda fast (are you not employing Aerodynes?) and failing to identify units is a player's failure 'cause you are not using Recon and shelling with artillery everything before moving in.

 

[Endemic]

(reclaiming, unit production, artillery)

How exactly is unit production more work in TA? The queues make it easier, and shift-clicking is a powerful element in the UI for stacking orders. Reclaiming in a competitive game sure, but patrolling c-units can manage it at a decent enough pace. Artillery - please elaborate? I can maintain a front line without excessive babysitting (again, patrolling units, especially aircraft that will automatically repair at pads). The targeting facility in CC made this even easier.

are you people armless or something?

Compared to something like Dark Reign, which had:

-Options to have units automatically scout, harass or search&destroy
-Damage tolerance settings, with the unit automatically returning to a repair facility or field hospital and then heading back out
-Waypoints that could be saved and re-used
-Automatic scattering if artillery lands nearby
-Rally points
-A terrain model that allows infantry to retain their usefulness, even in late game

Etc.

 

[Beowulf]

Ground Control is up there with the finest of the RTT genre.

It was one of those games, where projectiles where physics based (like first Homeworld, for example), so if you were both careless and unlucky, you could hit your own aerodynes with artillery.

But I guess that the reasons you stated is what made games like Starcraft 2 (and similar), more profitable.

 

[Astral Rag]

Beat the recently released top-down quasi-roguelite action-shooter Neon Chrome, it took me around 17 hours.

+good looking, very readable visuals, well-realised neo-80s cyberpunk aesthetic and nice OST
+good controls, movement and gunplay, it feels very similar to Crimsonland (same devs)
+destructible environments, you can destroy doors and certain walls
+randomly generated levels that don't feel random
+good selection of weapons
+fairly interesting abilities
+doesn't scale to your level
+has a "new game +" mode, in fact it has several, it goes from v1 to v10, according to the devs nobody has gone past v7 yet
+game saves after you beat chapters, basic stats are persistent, discovered abilities and weapons can be repurchased for next agents
+modding tools are incoming



-can be a bit grindy at times
-game takes place in a single huge skyscraper so levels can feel a bit samey after a while, it didn't bother me too much because the layout of the levels was p good most of the time
-only local co-op
-AI could be better

All in all a very enjoyable, challenging game that often reminded me of the Crusader games.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Had a short go at Gods Will Be Watching:

Strike 1: Mixes modern-day hi-res graphics with retro pixel graphics, resulting in horrible clashing.

Strike 2: Options menu consists only of audio volume adjustment.

Strike 3: Gives me a strong 'walking simulator' vibe even though it has an adventure game-like interface.

No thanks.

 

[janior]

Started playing Blackguards yesterday, game is really good so far, sucked me in for 6h of tacticool goodness.

 

[Ovplain]

Still playing BG2:EE, but I just picked up Football Manager 2016, so I guess it's 'bye, bye BG2:EE.':S