What game are you wasting time on?

[Baron Dupek]

Tested recently released Endereal. Got mixed feelings, NPCs are written and voiced weird. Only good thing that I remember is the ship scene that bring memories from Morrowind. I woke up in some sanctuary? with stone pillars and intruisive tip stating "press P and then Z to use" and woke up on the island, my skillpoints were still in german.
Then started the game on the island, chopped, fried with spells and realized it's still Skyrim. Uninstalled quickly.

For leftovers from my PP I bough Inquisitor, want to find similarities with Divine Divinity and Lionheart - Legacy of Crusaders. I mean - all these games are action RPGs but rest of the game (writing, NPCs and world) does not feel like filler and excuse for mass cleansing.
Just don't get why Paladin can learn only 2 levels of magic (out of 4) while Thief can learn 3lvl or it....maybe it's hidden motivation, maybe devs want to warn you to not got melee (cause it sux)?
Game is full of mysteries even before you start the game...

 

[kris]

[...]

Pondering trying one of the 8-bit armies games to see if they are shit.

They undoubtedly are, but don't let that stop you from taking one for the codex.

I did indeed.

 

[circ]

Kingdom.

I think they got some government grant and only had a basic idea and ran with it so as to not forfeit the welfare, erm, grant. It's pretty obvious there was no designated designer because it's missing so many elements. Can't prioritize tools for peasants to use. Can't choose where to send them or when. Get blacksmiths standing in the middle of camp doing jack shit. AI is in short fucking retarded.

Some peeple say the graphics look amazing, for pixel art. Yeah. So fucking amazing that the parallax scrolling has lag. Fucking parallax scrolling, mastered on 8 bit systems. Horse that looks like I don't know what. Blurry art that makes you wonder what it is.

15 bucks for this? Haha, try finishing the game first. It even got an expansion, trying to sucker more money from people. Try finishing the first game first, again.

 

[Carrion]

Finished all the campaigns in Door Kickers. I've still got a large number of single missions left, but so far I've played it for about nine hours. All in all, a very fun game with this tactical shooter drought going on.

Basically it's a mix of Rainbow Six (the good Rainbow Six, not the shit they put out nowadays) and SWAT, except top-down, with your characters doing all the actual shooting as long as you tell them what to do: hostage rescue, terrorist elimination, bomb defusal, close-quarters combat, all that good stuff. You can make an elaborate plan before the mission even starts (like in Rainbow Six) and then watch how it plays out, do it all in real-time instead (like in SWAT), or mix up the approaches as you see fit. There's a ton of weapons to choose from and five different classes that you get to unlock, and they do make an actual difference, as in some levels you really need those flashbangs or stinger grenades or silenced weapons or guns that are accurate over long distances and can pierce through armor, whereas sometimes you might have to sacrifice some mobility for heavier armor or vice versa. There are six official campaigns included in the game, all of them pretty short (even the longest ones are maybe around ten missions or so, some of which are optional), but I like the compactness, especially when you've only got ten different guys to use through a campaign (you usually use 2-8 per mission) and the dead ones won't come back. There's a loose thematic link that goes through the campaigns (in one you're making drug busts, in another you're stopping bank robbers etc.) but generally they're just a string of individual missions with no real story attached to them.

Overall, the quality of the levels is pretty high, and there are very few ones that I'd call bad. Some levels utilize some cheap tricks, like enemies spawning outside the edge of the visible map and possibly killing you from there, but it's so rare that it comes off as unintentional. The difficulty of the missions varies wildly, though: there are a handful of pretty tough missions, like one particular hostage rescue that seemed to require near-perfect timing in order to not end up in a massacre (the mission itself was only about a minute long, though), but you also get some that are almost trivially easy, even in the supposedly hard campaigns. The difficulty of each campaign seems to just indicate the difficulty level of their toughest missions, not the campaigns as a whole. I can't say this bothers me much, as ithe pacing of the game is very good, and the amount of variety makes you always want to see the next mission.

There are few things I don't like about the game. The music probably goes a bit too much into wub-wub territory at times, but most of the time it's pretty good and fitting. I'm not a huge fan of using in-game currency to buy new stuff and abilities, or unlocking new classes by getting XP, but I guess they wanted some way to reward you for performing well in the missions. I think it messes up the balance a bit, and it also means that there's a ton of weapons that I haven't used and will probably never use because I already bought the "best" ones.

All in all, definitely recommended if you feel it's even a bit in your alley.

 

[adddeed]

On the last levels of Tomb Raider 2. Was a good ride. Venice levels are probably my favorites in a video game.

Playing solo Pillars of Eternity first time since I finished it on release. The changes are amazing, and we will see for how long I can stomach the loading times though. Still as a game it's one of the better RPGs out there.

And slogging through Witcher 3, but its not keeping my interest. Gameplay is poor. Enjoyed Witcher 1 and 2 more.

 

[sullynathan]

the good Rainbow Six, not the shit they put out nowadays

Rainbow Six Siege is actually pretty great, the best tactical MP shooter in the last decade.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Man, I used to play the original version waaay back. Are there any other games like this? I vaguely remember playing a similar game, but instead of spiders and zombies you were shooting aliens.

You are probably refering to old Alien Shooter (1 or 2), the devs also made Zombie Shooter (2 parts here as well). Additionally I can recommend you new Alien Breed trilogy, Shadowgrounds and last but not least - Splatter.

 

[Carrion]

Rainbow Six Siege is actually pretty great

No. Better than the Vegas games, but that's not exactly a very high mark.

the best tactical MP shooter in the last decade.

All of the Arma games are better, even though they also suffer from the lack of good (official) single player content. Aside from that, they're the only tactical shooters worth a damn nowadays, and the only series that hasn't been dumbed down to an unrecognizable state.

 

[Excidium II]

what a fuckin tryhard.

 

[Carrion]

I actually have sex with my Rogue Spear disc every now and then.

 

[sullynathan]

Playing arma for 10 minutes, I doubt it's better than six siege for multiplayer.

 

[Carrion]

Playing arma for 10 minutes, I doubt it's better than six siege for multiplayer.

I'm not that much into multiplayer myself (Operation Flashpoint is still king because it has a great campaign), but I'm guessing it depends a lot on who you play with and probably also what mods you're using. There's all sorts of crazy stuff you can do in the game, especially if you start experimenting with the mission editor (I don't even want to know how many hundreds of hours I've spent with that thing in OFP, ArmA and Arma II), but if you just play with random people you probably won't get that much out of it.

 

[CryptRat]

I've been playing Revenge of the Coconard, a browser text adventure by the maker of Lupus in Fabula (I was going to play Lupus in Fabula at first, it will wait).
The game is funny with a Discworld atmosphere but I'm terribly bad, after several hours I think I did exactly one non-trivial thing, and it was still far for obtuse.
Currently I've got a pair of magic shoes, a magic flute which is meant to summon dancing cats ; a magical painting and an eating couch are also involved.

 

[Ivan]

see more in depth thoughts in respective thread

Gothic 1: you are the world's bitch. skill AND item progression is superb. combat and controls "click," kinda like in System Shock 1, not that they're similar but they eventually feel natural.


Gothic 2: fucking MASSIVE. the expansion's world is definitely a highlight of the game.


Risen 1: they tried to recapture the amazing item and skill prog. but failed. the world is solid and the exploration is even better as it introduces more "adventuring" tools with which to explore


looking forward to the next Piranha Bytes title ELEX

 

[anvi]

I play several games that I just dip into on a kind of rotation. They are: Castles 2, Forged Alliance, Space Rangers HD A War Apart, Arma 3, and an old virtually unknown MMO that I play in single player called Minions of Mirth. Also a game I have played every day for many years is Manalink, a free community haxxored version of Magic the Gathering.

The game I play the most though is Heroes of Newerth, a lesser known MOBA. It is a lot like the others but it is faster paced and I much prefer the graphics. It is also a lot more hardcore, if you aren't really good at it, you are hated by everyone and you drag teams down and everyone kicks your ass mercilessly. It makes it the least welcoming game you could ever imagine, it isn't just trolling but death threats and people wish your whole family get cancer and die in a fire and get raped at the same time etc. Sounds horrible and it was at first, but the gameplay is just so good... I kept coming back and in time I developed at thick skin to ignore everyone and eventually I got good at it, although it took me a good 3 years to reach that point, even with playing it almost daily. I love it though, it is like the best RPG combat ever, playing a normal RPG is like a snoozy casual experience in comparison and just a temporary distraction while I relax between Newerth matches. I should mention I only play one mode called Midwars which is different to the others. It is shorter and more casual and almost constant fighting.

I also have some other games installed but I don't play them much. LA Noire which I have tried to play several times but I always just get bored. I love detective games but I just don't like how that one works. I need to uninstall it sometime and will probably never try it again :/ I also have Age of Wonders 3 which is a great game but I can't play it much because I burned myself out playing the first 2 games so often for so many years. I also have Arkham Knight, only because I got it free with my graphics card, and I find it really boring I really enjoyed Arkham City but there is something about this one that really fails to hook me in.

 

[sullynathan]

Playing arma for 10 minutes, I doubt it's better than six siege for multiplayer.

I'm not that much into multiplayer myself (Operation Flashpoint is still king because it has a great campaign), but I'm guessing it depends a lot on who you play with and probably also what mods you're using. There's all sorts of crazy stuff you can do in the game, especially if you start experimenting with the mission editor (I don't even want to know how many hundreds of hours I've spent with that thing in OFP, ArmA and Arma II), but if you just play with random people you probably won't get that much out of it.

Six Siege is still the best tactical mp shooter in the past couple of years.

 

[nomask7]

ADOM without perma death, without chaos corruption, without starvation (Steam version has these options).

I don't think I'm gonna get through the animated forest even like this. There's an alternative path that I explored a bit first. While doing that, I opened the door to a room full of frost giants who are now rampaging across the level. I should have tried saying "oops" and closed the door. Depending on where the exit is, I may or may not have come to an impasse.

 

[DwarvenFood]

15 bucks for this? Haha, try finishing the game first. It even got an expansion, trying to sucker more money from people. Try finishing the first game first, again.

Expansion was free for owners of base version; I do agree with the lack of control of your subjects but it made a fun waste of time nevertheless. Just buy it at a sale.

 

[circ]

15 bucks for this? Haha, try finishing the game first. It even got an expansion, trying to sucker more money from people. Try finishing the first game first, again.

Expansion was free for owners of base version; I do agree with the lack of control of your subjects but it made a fun waste of time nevertheless. Just buy it at a sale.

Eh, it's fundamentally broken (New Lands). I got to island 5 or something. In the previous one I picked up a map which spawns a hut on island 5. I have no idea what the fuck it is because the game doesn't tell you anything. I mean, I'm as sick of tutorials as the next guy, but maybe it's a little important to tell what the fuck this hut is before you pay money to have some granny jump on your horse, and then 5 minutes later jumping off and disappearing. Turns out granny upgrades one of your towers to a bakery according to the internets. Except granny fucked off and won't respawn, before I had a chance to upgrade a tower. Ok then.

As for the really broken part. So I build a wall, then another one to the left of it a little later. But no one actually wants to construct it. What? Got 4 workers, two for each catapult. Ok, that's weird, usually they take a break from manning and build the wall. So I hire two more builders. Well shit, they sit on their ass and do nothing. So I'm left with a wall that anything can pass through, and it's in the direction that has the main troll force, so after I take the other direction to get the boat out, I'm going to get fucked before the boat gets anywhere. Yeah fuck you, test your fucking game.

And then there are the hilarious workers who say fuck it, Imma go out at night straight into a troll gang and die because why not. Couldn't chop down a tree at daytime because you were doing fuck all. Jesus man.

It doesn't offer anything new either, of worth anyway. Island 2 spawned archer shrine, which you get in regular Kingdom already. Island 3 had horses, got that in Kingdom too. 4 has some super fag stag. It's fast and sturdy and for some reason attracts male deer that follow you. Or maybe they're supposed to be doe's and the developers just don't know that females don't have antlers that big, if at all. Shrug. And island 5 has granny that disappears.

Yeap. This ain't worth 15 bucks. It's a day's diversion if you get it for free.

 

[Leechmonger]

The game I play the most though is Heroes of Newerth, a lesser known MOBA.

And the best one. Shame it never really took off and it has no future now.

 

[Ivan]

but I'm not going to check out the sequel.

Dead Space 2 is one of the finest TP shooters you can play (Zealot difficulty is a must).

 

[anvi]

The game I play the most though is Heroes of Newerth, a lesser known MOBA.

And the best one. Shame it never really took off and it has no future now.

Yeah the population is pretty bad now and they also recently must have sold off a lot of servers or something because every game is laggy now. Such a shame, it is the only moba I really liked.

 

[Dux]

For the second and last time I finished Icewind Dale, which began some untold months ago.

Icewind Dale truly is one of those games that plays tricks on me, making me believe that it's actually a good game when I haven't played it for a few years. I mean, Icewind Dale II is blatantly a piece of shit but Icewind Dale seems to be different for some reason. Granted, while it has a marginally better storyline it is just as bad as its sequel. For every right there's at least ten wrongs. Every fight has to be a gigantic clusterfuck, AC doesn't really matter in the end because everything is turned up to the max (-9 AC? Pft!), the omniscient AI is cheating and when it's not cheating it's completely stupid and can be kited easily. The loot is also insane - in a bad way. You can't take two steps without tripping over a +3 item, making it all feel pointless. The final fight against Belihfet is just horrifically bad and ranks as one of the absolute worst boss fights in gaming history. It has the required cutscene just before it (trademark of Black Isle/Obsidian) which you have to sit through every time you fuck up. It's the icing on the shit cake.

The only good thing I have to say about this rancid filth is that some of its lore is interesting and there's some nice atmosphere here and there. The backgrounds are generally gorgeous but are sometimes confusing as far as navigation is concerned. The beginning is also worth mentioning where you're just a lowly band in Easthaven. With the soaring music and promises of high adventure to come, it sets the tone quite nicely. Of course, shortly after that everything goes down the drain but that beginning tells me that there was a great game here, hidden somewhere deep beneath the snow and ice. It's a damn shame. So much potential squandered. Just the fact that some level one characters with wooden sticks become juggernauts some weeks later, only because they went through a few dungeons. It makes no sense whatsoever. It'd be like if you were playing Baldur's Gate and midway through the game you're fighting elite Yuan-Ti with +4 gear. Anyway...



Ugh, I have given this game way more consideration than it deserves. Well, onwards and upwards. There's a plethora of good RPGs out there, after all, so there's really no need to dwell on turds like this.

 

[sser]

Just finished Arkham: Origins to get my action fix.

I thought it was pretty good. The writing/story was better than the previous two for sure. How they showed Joker's obsession with Batman was pretty slick. Game was buggy as fuck though. It crashed a number of times + if you fought enemies around barriers like cars or whatever they'd get stuck a lot. The AI would also bug out here and there. Still a good time. I still think the games are excellent for that flowy, combo oriented combat that mixes in a lot of gadget use. Almost seems like a natural progression from Mark of Kri, if anybody remembers or even played that one.

 

[adddeed]

For the second and last time I finished Icewind Dale, which began some untold months ago.

Icewind Dale truly is one of those games that plays tricks on me, making me believe that it's actually a good game when I haven't played it for a few years. I mean, Icewind Dale II is blatantly a piece of shit but Icewind Dale seems to be different for some reason. Granted, while it has a marginally better storyline it is just as bad as its sequel. For every right there's at least ten wrongs. Every fight has to be a gigantic clusterfuck, AC doesn't really matter in the end because everything is turned up to the max (-9 AC? Pft!), the omniscient AI is cheating and when it's not cheating it's completely stupid and can be kited easily. The loot is also insane - in a bad way. You can't take two steps without tripping over a +3 item, making it all feel pointless. The final fight against Belihfet is just horrifically bad and ranks as one of the absolute worst boss fights in gaming history. It has the required cutscene just before it (trademark of Black Isle/Obsidian) which you have to sit through every time you fuck up. It's the icing on the shit cake.

The only good thing I have to say about this rancid filth is that some of its lore is interesting and there's some nice atmosphere here and there. The backgrounds are generally gorgeous but are sometimes confusing as far as navigation is concerned. The beginning is also worth mentioning where you're just a lowly band in Easthaven. With the soaring music and promises of high adventure to come, it sets the tone quite nicely. Of course, shortly after that everything goes down the drain but that beginning tells me that there was a great game here, hidden somewhere deep beneath the snow and ice. It's a damn shame. So much potential squandered. Just the fact that some level one characters with wooden sticks become juggernauts some weeks later, only because they went through a few dungeons. It makes no sense whatsoever. It'd be like if you were playing Baldur's Gate and midway through the game you're fighting elite Yuan-Ti with +4 gear. Anyway...



Ugh, I have given this game way more consideration than it deserves. Well, onwards and upwards. There's a plethora of good RPGs out there, after all, so there's really no need to dwell on turds like this.

Why are you trying to make sense of a video game set in a fictional world you bozo? Game is excellent and so is the combat. Thanks for the hyperbole though.