What game are you wasting time on?

[Naraya]

Currently playing The Wheel of Time. So far it's pretty meh, gameplay is floaty and levels are pretty ugly. I had waaay more fun with CB's Undying.

 

[Krivol]

I am playing Shadowrun Dragonfall (just started) now - nice game with combat almost identical to nU XCOM , but a bit linear so far...

Also started Stronhold HD for the first time - after finishing Warcraft 2 (well, not exactly, I abandonded this game during last orc mission - doing still the same things got tedious and boring and last missions are the most tedious and boring of all, never touched BoDP and probably newer will) I still feel some hunger for nice RTS gameplay and this one looks nice. Great game so far (after 3rd mission so I can change my mind).

 

[Old One]

Star Wolves 1 and Star Wolves 3.

The first one is a much tighter, more well-focused game, and is enjoyable.

The third one manages to add a lot of "It would be cool if..." features I was thinking about while playing the first one, but it's also a case of biting off more than you can chew. They tried to make it a sandbox game, but only managed to get halfway with that, so the galaxy is empty of relevancy. While there are many systems to explore, there's not much reason to explore them. The mission scripting is ridiculously constricted, which means if you deviate from what the game intends you to do, you die instantly. Very irritating and illogical, since you can approach a situation in a smart way and be rewarded with instant death.

Still, the third game's core mechanics remain fun, and the main story has several interesting branches. There are also one or two very impressive moments. One in particular made me say, "Wow, that's pretty damned cool."

I managed to play the third game from start to finish twice, but after that my interest faded away. It's one of those games that's brimming with unrealized potential. Frustrating.

 

[Abu Antar]

The dwarf Run. It's a fun blend of point & click mixed with turn-based tactics. I got a problem with the game after about 1 hour of play. Contacted the developer and he was super helpful. First he offered a DRM free version, then a new Steam key and then he came up with a solution that actually worked. I told him that i wouldn't need the key but that I would give it away here if he was fine with that. he's probably sleeping, so I'll see what the response is tomorrow. I'm just happy that I am able to play the game again.

 

[---]

Never played a Legacy of Kain game, but I always heard very good things about this franchise.
Is it still worth to play a series that relies so much on narrative, but has been brutally interrupted (and so I think that the main plot was never finished)? Also, are all the titles well executed, or I can skip some of them (heard that Blood Omen 2 isn't very good, for example)?

Didn't want to open a new thread, sorry.

 

[CryptRat]

Just start with the first one, it's pretty fun.

 

[Melcar]

Just start with the first one, it's pretty fun.

Play a video game for fun? Wut?! Check this loser.

ESTOY USANDO MI TELEFONO MEXICANO!

 

[funkadelik]

Battlefield 4. Addicted. I am a dudebro now.

 

[Cerulean]

Oblivion. I bought it ten years ago on disc, installed it and didn't get how to play it, so I never got around to it. Now I'm getting into it and I'm enjoying it way more than I ever thought I would.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Never played a Legacy of Kain game, but I always heard very good things about this franchise.
Is it still worth to play a series that relies so much on narrative, but has been brutally interrupted (and so I think that the main plot was never finished)? Also, are all the titles well executed, or I can skip some of them (heard that Blood Omen 2 isn't very good, for example)?

Didn't want to open a new thread, sorry.

Play the first one, it's a pretty cool Zelda clone with a cool story and memorable characters, plus a lot of fun items to use and a fairly big world to explore. However, be advised that if you choose to play the PS1 version, you'll gouge out your eyes with the constant loadtimes (10 seconds to get into menus that you will need to do constantly). The patched-up PC version doesn't have those problems but it's considerably uglier (upscaled graphics and no filtering options), and the animations are weirdly slower, despite the game running at a constant framerate (the PS1 version has considerable slowdown).

It's the best game in the series, IMO. Soul Reaver 1 was very cool for its time but hasn't aged particularly well. Soul Reaver 2 is ok (kinda more of the same). Blood Omen 2 is complete rubbish and I wasn't able to play it past the first level. Defiance is a poor man's DmC clone but it's alright.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Soul Reaver 1 was very cool for its time but hasn't aged particularly well.

Bullshit. SR1 is a strong contender for the 'best in the series' title, along with Blood Omen.

But then again

Blood Omen 2 is complete rubbish and I wasn't able to play it past the first level. Defiance is a poor man's DmC clone but it's alright.

Massive poseur detected. BO2 is "complete rubbish" but Defiance is "alright"? BO2 may be hardly even related to the series, but it's still at least a competent slasher. Defiance otoh is a game that should be watched on youtube instead of played, unless you really, really, REALLY like to spend all those hours on thwacking the extremely HP-bloated and boring stone statues and whatever the fuck else.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Goes without saying that Roxor is right. Legacy of Kain was a pretty good series even after Blood Omen 2 fucked up the formula. Soul Reaver might have one of the best video game soundtracks of that generation. The load times were practically nonexistent too which was impressive. I played it on the PSX at release, but I later tried the Dreamcast version which appeared to be much better. I still can't believe (well I do) they tried to bring it back as some FPS multiplayer abomination.

 

[---]

Thanks guys. I'll check for Blood Omen, then.

 

[Friday.13]

Playing Warframe recently, lots of grinding and RNG, but at least it's free.

 

[Durandal]

Gave Call of Juarez: Gunslinger a try, which was a pretty fun shooting gallery

playing for score is a joy more Western games need to learn, and at least there's a reason for scrubs to do so if they want more XP

tbh I'd rather not prefer to have an upgrade tree at all, it makes you feel too OP once you upgrade everything. It's a bit short and moving around feels sucky, but other than that it's definitely worth a try

Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-I9301I met Tapatalk

 

[pakoito]

Thanks guys. I'll check for Blood Omen, then.

 

[Dayyālu]

Thanks guys. I'll check for Blood Omen, then.

Blood Omen 1 is good for what it is. I didn't like the gameplay too much, but I liked the writing.

An hilarious thing to realize is that both Soul Reaver and Blood Omen 2 were born as non-Legacy of Kain titles, before being retooled. Of all of 'em, Soul Reaver 1 is the best in both gameplay, presentation and setting. SR1 is very .... competent, with simple yet satisfying combat and some annoying puzzles. SR1 has a ton of style, though. It's a game built on ruins, both on the "game" and on the "plot" meaning: it's magical post-apoc, but at the same time the game is chock full of cut content and extra areas (the Human Citadel, the Tower) that have limited or no use bar extra powers. Ruins of game dev. Still my favourite one.

SR2 is adequate. Gameplay is nice, time traveling shenanigans keep things fresh, plot is....interesting. Still, combat felt worse than SR1 and the whole game is less creative. Less annoying puzzles.

BO2 was clearly developed as something else. As a slasher it's good, pity boss fight aren't skill-related but mechanics abuse-related. The final boss can be beaten by memorization (parry, parry, parry, evade, attack, parry, parry, parry, evade, attack or something). The setting is a mess and the ending areas screams "CUUUT CONTENT", but not in the fascinating SR1 way.

Defiance is borderline unplayable thanks to the fixed camera angles. Some kind of weird Net Hive mind keeps repeating that BO2 is the worst, but it must be some kind of Lizardmen plot. Defiance has terrible camera angles and some incredibly annoying enemies. Plot isn't bad and that will be the last we'll get, sadly.

I still can't believe (well I do) they tried to bring it back as some FPS multiplayer abomination.

Ya know, the devs of the MP shit thing weren't that bad. They put a shitton of effort in worldbuilding and some of it isn't even terrible. It's competent fanfiction on "how the humans lost the war against the children of Kain".

 

[Bigg Boss]

Blood Omen 2 just made things weird with the IT WAS ALIENS thing, but I still kinda liked it. Saying Soul Reaver 1 felt like "ruins of game dev" is appropriate. That human base always felt like it needed more...something. The world truly felt barren of life though which was good in most areas besides that.

 

[Dayyālu]

That human base always felt like it needed more...something.

You'd probably already know that, but the Citadel was supposed to be the setting for a fight against a cult of vampire-worshipping, sewer dwelling humans (the cultists we get in the Silent Cathedral are the only remaining piece of that). I still smirk at remembering how avoiding combat with the first human hunter makes you some kind of "hero".

The priestess was supposed to the the Human Citadel boss

Fans have scoured the game files for cut content quite extensively. An interesting read is http://thelostworlds.net/SR1/index.html

 

[Bigg Boss]

Actually I did not know that. That makes a lot more sense. I think I stopped playing it right before the end because I got stuck and didn't have internet and by the time a friend gave me a tip I was on another game. I also didn't know Soul Reaver began as another game.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Funny, I never bothered myself to play Underrail even though it sits in my steam acc since v.0010 and now, when Expedition addon is coming - I started playthrough.
Wandered like a retard around Depot A for these fuking drill parts, encountered a lot of moments when these fucking acid dogs went full retard with their patrol routes (if they have any) smashed 3 groups of acid resistance and couldn't reach that frikin' barrel with parts, either need keycard (req.hacking for turrets) or pair 75lockpicks doors. I knew my build suked but couldn't invest more thanks to limits in points spend on skill per level.
And now I finally got them! time to get the f-- ZONE TRANSITION FAILED
SSSSSSTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYGGGGGGG

 

[Old One]

Just FYI, the acid dogs and mutants have been completely nerfed compared to previous versions. I prefer it the old way.

 

[Trash]

Well, to my own immense surprise I am enjoying COD: Infinite Warfare. In fact, I'm having a blast. Yes, you can bitch about the game for hours and be right. The power fantasy role you get as the grunt made captain of his own space ship who orders missions, goes to do ground assaults, infiltrations and every other single combat mission there is. The fact that the basic gunfight has barely changed from Modern Warfare. The flying bits that are fun but far from being an x-wing, freespace 2 or even Halo: Reach. But. I am having a blast. The variety in missions, the zero gravity combat bits, blowing up big ass space ships and shooting out windows to see hapless grunts get sucked into hard vacuum. The campaign is well made with a lot of fun side missions and you are constantly doing something different. It's genuine good fun. Never expected this from a COD in this day and age.

Agreed, how are you liking constant tryhard armyman banter?

Just finished it as the banter started to really grate. At least there were explosions. Michael Bay has nothing on this. Did like how that last mission was quite extensive. All in all a fun game if you go in with no expectations beyond shallow entertainment and shit going boom. And the last seconds from that final scene from your characters viewpoint was stylistically rather neat.

 

[dunno lah]

Finished my first dungeon crawler: Shining in the Darkness. A JRPG dungeon crawler with a preset party of three and a bog standard high fantasy setting where you must save the kidnapped princess and kill the big bad. It doesn't sound too compelling but if you're an absolute beginner in dungeon crawlers, you can't go wrong with this game. The game's got great visuals and sounds. Level design is pretty good and the game has a very comfortable difficulty curve (Read: Ok lah...Quite easy lah).

If you're a beginner like me, please go in blind with this game and do not look for help online and stuff like that. Pull out some sheets of paper and start drawing maps, if you can't memorize them. Save your game and try out new magic spells and items beforehand to see what they are.

All in all, time well wasted.

 

[spekkio]

Completed Ys 1 Chronicles +

Mehtastic.

Good:
- Production values.
- Low-key but serviceable story.
- Beginning of the saga.
- Dungeons are proper mazes.
- You can save anywhere, anytime.

Ugly:
- Weird item system: equip in menus + use via button. Confusing + no point.
- Game is very short, Adol hits the level cap ~1/2 of the game.
- Only 3 dungeons, equipment and item variety isn't that great either.
- You can't change equipment during boss battles. Series standard, but still and always stupid.

Bad:
- I had problems with combat system initially, but after some time I realized why. The thing is, it isn't bad or hard. It's non-existent. You just ram into enemies mindlessly, and damage inflicted / taken is 99,9% dependant on your equipment and level. So basically, it's an action game which doesn't require any skill (except boss battles).



- Some chokepoints are totally retarded (using hammer on random pillar, constant backtracking, you have to search 99% of every dungeon to find crucial items). It's the old school done wrong, see Dark Heart of Uukrul for an example of doing it right (non-linear main quest, multiple solutions to problems).
- Final battle is terristudpid due to disappearing floor - you can get stuck by pure accident.

Verdict:

Play Napishtim or Felghana first, and go back to 1 only if you liked those. Still, it's totally skippable IMO.