What game are you wasting time on?

[wyes gull]

Sonic Mania.
Even though the level design is definitely more Sonic 3/Sonic & Knuckles and not enough Sonic 1/2/CD, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Still, it's too easy; there's too many bosses; the "finish the game once and then go back and collect the emeralds you missed in your save slot and beat the game like you'd collected them in a timely fashion" system is a little too convenient (hell, the save system in general is too convenient. How about only allowing you to save at the expense from one of ye olde continues?); and it never really gives you enough benefits to going fast as opposed to ring-hunting and exploring, especially since it makes you miss out on the emeralds- which 1 (and 2 to some degree) didn't. Still, there's time attack for just such a wont and I have to confess to having spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to get good times on the first 2 levels, Green Hill and Chemical Plant (fuck yeah).

Sega can go get fucked given the anti-piracy double whammy but if it ever comes out on GoG I'm throwing the lads a few notes, they did an impressive job.


Ps: Lava Reef is still shit. Oh, and half a level that's half a homage to Scrap Brain and using some shitty random song instead of a remix of this

just screams missed opportunity. Come to think of it the boss themes were weak. Where's shit like this?

 

[Starwars]

Finished up Mask of the Betrayer.

This is such a good campaign. Unfortunately with the whole epic shit and clusterfuck combat... but... MotB is pretty much exactly what I want from a story heavy campaign. An interesting story of course, great choices to make at points in the story where it makes sense, great companions, an absolutely awesome setting realized very well, with many different areas in it, great visuals, great audio. And it's lengthier than I remembered it to be as well.

Fantastic stuff.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Spoiler

Brutal Doom 64. I was expecting this to be as retarded as Brutal Doom (which I hate), but it's actually pretty sensible and enhances the game in good ways (moodier lighting, the stealth imps look pretty good, etc.). Retard meter is pretty low on this one, definitely recommended. It's not 100% compatible with GZDoom (scripts mainly), so I have to use the inferior Zandronum, but it's no big deal. It's a great game and the soundtrack is awesome.

 

[Ezekiel]

The Division is free on Uplay this weekend. I've played it for almost an hour now. The mechanics aren't good.

You can only swap shoulders when aiming. This forces you to use the over the shoulder view every time you make a cautious right turn.

Since swapping shoulders is mapped to the sprint button, you can't accelerate while aiming from the OTS view.

The OTS view always resets to the right shoulder.

There is no crouch button. This forces you to use the cover system and play whack-a-mole like in every other cover shooter.

I also wish my character talked and that she didn't have a permanent expression of disgust.

Edit: Seriously, why is this bitch in such a bad mood all the time? She looks constipated.

You can't edit your face!

 

[Ezeekiel]

I also wish my character talked and that she didn't have a permanent expression of disgust.

Can't really blame her for that, though.

Is the game still suffering from extreme bullet-sponge-disease ?

 

[Ezekiel]

I also wish my character talked and that she didn't have a permanent expression of disgust.

Can't really blame her for that, though.

Is the game still suffering from extreme bullet-sponge-disease ?

I've only played it for a little over an hour. The enemies have been spongy, but it hasn't really bothered me (yet).

The reason I found out this is free is because a few people in a thread elsewhere were saying Watch Dogs has good controls. So I started up Uplay to reinstall it and give it another try. But after playing it again, I quickly remembered that Watch Dogs isn't a good shooter either. Like The Division, it has no crouch, forcing you to use the cover system. Unlike Division, it has no shoulder swapping at all. This is a pretty basic feature. Even after I disabled the mouse acceleration by following a modding guide, the aiming still feels horrible. The enemies always hide behind cover, but keep their heads usually just high enough that you can pop them off. I've shot them through several layers of wood and even thick steel.

Spoiler

That's good lumber!

The cars are so useless in a chase that it's easier to just get out and shoot all your pursuers.

Ubisoft can't do anything.

Edit: Actually, I might be wrong about The Division being a cover shooter. I restarted with a new character (who isn't constipated) and quickly ran and gunned my way to where I was before, using little cover.

 

[HansDampf]

Continuing Thief 2. It's getting harder.

Trace the Courier: Here is the first major hurdle for ironman. When and where the courier comes across other guards that are patrolling the city is more or less random. But I've always gotten in situations that were nearly impossible to get through unseen, even if I had used quicksaves. After 3 resets I thought, fuck this, and spent all my money on 2 invisibility potions. And I needed both... It's a relatively short mission, so no big deal. Even explored the city afterwards.

Trail of Blood: Shorter than I remembered. Easy mission.

Life of the Party: First try!

Spoiler

Careful!

Precious Cargo: Fucking ledges! Sometimes Garrett just doesn't feel like it and slips off. Thanks! Luckily this is only an issue at the beginning of this mission. The rest is pretty much straight forward.

Kidnap: I fucked it up. One hour in, I flipped a switch that I thought would turn off the faces, but instead it triggered the alarm! One guard was after me and I instinctively mashed the F1 key (Flashbombs). But I was out of Flashbombs! I should have used a Speed Potion to run away. Instead I tried to knock him out with a Gas Arrow. Bad idea! While I was aiming he hit me once and left me with 2 hit points, which means I knocked myself out.


Will try again tomorrow.

 

[Ezeekiel]

I also wish my character talked and that she didn't have a permanent expression of disgust.

Can't really blame her for that, though.

Is the game still suffering from extreme bullet-sponge-disease ?

I've only played it for a little over an hour. The enemies have been spongy, but it hasn't really bothered me (yet).

The reason I found out this is free is because a few people in a thread elsewhere were saying Watch Dogs has good controls. So I started up Uplay to reinstall it and give it another try. But after playing it again, I quickly remembered that Watch Dogs isn't a good shooter either. Like The Division, it has no crouch, forcing you to use the cover system. Unlike Division, it has no shoulder swapping at all. This is a pretty basic feature. Even after I disabled the mouse acceleration by following a modding guide, the aiming still feels horrible. The enemies always hide behind cover, but keep their heads usually just high enough that you can pop them off. I've shot them through several layers of wood and even thick steel.

The cars are so useless in a chase that it's easier to just get out and shoot all your pursuers.

Ubisoft can't do anything.

Edit: Actually, I might be wrong about The Division being a cover shooter. I restarted with a new character (who isn't constipated) and quickly ran and gunned my way to where I was before, using little cover.

The way I remember it (played watchdogs for a few hours at release and never again), the game has some sort of limit to your turning/aiming speed on top of the usual mouse acceleration crap (so, acceleration and negative acceleration on top of each other?). So if you move the mouse too fast, it caps the speed at which your fov moves. Feels incredibly annoying and means you'll have to reposition your mouse on the pad too often. You have to aim slowly on purpose.
Weird for all of us old twitch shooter gamers... It could be some leftover from how the game handles the xbone etc controller aiming, I guess? Not sure if they patched it out later.

Why anybody thinks the game has good controls is beyond me unless they've been improved since launch. Driving didn't feel great either and the guns are meh.
Activating traps for your pursuers was dodgy as well, you drive so fast to stay ahead that you get very little window to hack something specific, so you may activate stuff too late/early or activate something else entirely.
As you said, it's easier to get out and kill stuff instead.

There was a lot more in terms of problems with the overall design but I can't be bothered to list them all for such a non-entity of a game. Have you played the second one? Supposedly it's a genuine improvement, but the initial marketing was enough for me already.

 

[Ezekiel]

The Division is growing on me. Played it for four hours today, while listening to music. The gunplay feels rather good. The cover system is good, but I still really wish you could crouch and swap shoulders whenever.

Edit: Ugh... Now I see what you meant by bullet sponges. This game would have been better without so many RPG mechanics.

I also wish my character talked and that she didn't have a permanent expression of disgust.

Can't really blame her for that, though.

Is the game still suffering from extreme bullet-sponge-disease ?

I've only played it for a little over an hour. The enemies have been spongy, but it hasn't really bothered me (yet).

The reason I found out this is free is because a few people in a thread elsewhere were saying Watch Dogs has good controls. So I started up Uplay to reinstall it and give it another try. But after playing it again, I quickly remembered that Watch Dogs isn't a good shooter either. Like The Division, it has no crouch, forcing you to use the cover system. Unlike Division, it has no shoulder swapping at all. This is a pretty basic feature. Even after I disabled the mouse acceleration by following a modding guide, the aiming still feels horrible. The enemies always hide behind cover, but keep their heads usually just high enough that you can pop them off. I've shot them through several layers of wood and even thick steel.

The cars are so useless in a chase that it's easier to just get out and shoot all your pursuers.

Ubisoft can't do anything.

Edit: Actually, I might be wrong about The Division being a cover shooter. I restarted with a new character (who isn't constipated) and quickly ran and gunned my way to where I was before, using little cover.

The way I remember it (played watchdogs for a few hours at release and never again), the game has some sort of limit to your turning/aiming speed on top of the usual mouse acceleration crap (so, acceleration and negative acceleration on top of each other?). So if you move the mouse too fast, it caps the speed at which your fov moves. Feels incredibly annoying and means you'll have to reposition your mouse on the pad too often. You have to aim slowly on purpose.
Weird for all of us old twitch shooter gamers... It could be some leftover from how the game handles the xbone etc controller aiming, I guess? Not sure if they patched it out later.

Yeah, that's a good description. No, it hasn't been fixed.

Why anybody thinks the game has good controls is beyond me unless they've been improved since launch. Driving didn't feel great either and the guns are meh.
Activating traps for your pursuers was dodgy as well, you drive so fast to stay ahead that you get very little window to hack something specific, so you may activate stuff too late/early or activate something else entirely.
As you said, it's easier to get out and kill stuff instead.

There was a lot more in terms of problems with the overall design but I can't be bothered to list them all for such a non-entity of a game. Have you played the second one? Supposedly it's a genuine improvement, but the initial marketing was enough for me already.

No, I haven't. One WD is enough for me. The only reason I have it is because it was included with my GTX 780 purchase. (I'm still using that card. The Division actually runs fairly well, usually 60 fps, with medium to high settings, considering how detailed it is.)

 

[Ezekiel]

Played eight hours of Psychonauts. It was free on Humble a few days ago. I like this game, but the Milkman quest and Gloria's Theater have been annoying to figure out. I'm still in Gloria's Theater.

The Division is ultimately disappointing. Role-playing game mechanics have a habit of ruining everything. I just did the Times Square mission slightly underpowered. The enemies all took bullets like terminators. I got through it with another player after several attempts, but I was still bothered afterwards. We had to play it like a whack-a-mole cover shooter. I won't be paying the twenty dollars after the trial ends in ten hours. Also, I love how the game has stealth, but never lets you use it. I sneaked through a long train yard, only to then read the objective and remember that I have to kill them all before proceeding.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Played eight hours of Psychonauts. It was free on Humble a few days ago. I like this game, but the Milkman quest and Gloria's Theater have been annoying to figure out. I'm still in Gloria's Theater.

Those two levels are among the better levels of the game. The key to the Milkman level (besides figuring out which way the gravity is pointing) is that it's all about the Clairvoyance skill - you need to see everything from other people's perspective, and how that perspective changes depending on what item you have in your hand.

(For more entertainment, run around the camp with Clairvoyance on and see how Razputin looks to everyone.)

The Theater level is the shortest one; here you have hange the prop set-up on stage (both in "Good" and "Evil" mode) so that a certain event is triggered on-stage that allows you to reach above it and confront the Phantom.

You still have two amazing levels to go, and one not-so good level (that's fortunately been toned down considerably since its original design).

"That's right baby, Daddy's here!"

 

[Hyperion]

Playing Stranger of Sword City. The art style initially drew me in, but I'm enjoying it for what it is right now - and that's basically a Wizardry-lite. It's definitely better than the ps3 Wizardry title that came out a few years ago, which I thought got boring fast. I'm only in The Shadow Palace, which is basically the 3rd dungeon, but the general difficulty isn't really there yet. I say general, because each dungeon seems to be have 1 encounter that comes from a future area that will just spread your buttcheeks and ram a serrated blade in there. Most standard encounters will result in spamming Fight (for which there is thankfully a repeat last action button and 'Fast Apply' turbomode available) while your characters mostly avoid the hits, or take 1 damage. Gear that recovers 1 HP on each step is plentiful, making the sacrifice of a miniscule amount of Hit, Avoid, or Defense for essentially unlimited sustain makes the early game a joke. I've gone in mostly blind, except for reading about the more useful classes / skills, and while the general consensus is that the game gets harder, it doesn't hit anywhere near the difficulty of Elminage Gothic according to the Codex's blobber crew.

Character Generation, and subsequent building is fun, albeit flawed. The game uses a 'Life Point' system which subtracts 1 point on death, and results in the permanent death of a character when it drops to 0. Young characters (under age 29 I believe) have 3, middle-aged (under 60) have 2, while the oldest tier of characters have 1 LP. A team full of the latter essentially makes the game 'hardcore mode,' which, in theory should be a much more challenging experience. The problem is that the age of a character determines the range of point rolls you can get. A young character can NEVER roll higher than like 7, middle-aged never more than 11, while an old goat can (supposedly, prepare to spend hours) roll up to like 30. Because you never lose stat points on level-ul, unlike Wizardry, these bonus points are extremely beneficial. And because the cost of death is extremely prohibitive, chances are you'll want to reset the game on any character death, be it permanent or temporary, unless for some reason you've lost hours of progress. Because of this an entire team of geriatrics will massively outperform a bunch of young, wet-behind-the-ears greenhorns.

Since the main character's special talent does not allow him to run out of Life Points, he is basically immortal, and there is absolutely no reason to make him under aged 60 outside of role-playing, or intentionally restricting yourself. With all this said, however, character building is fun because Class Changes are limited to 5 per character. Your choices do matter in this regard, and while it's hard to completely fuck up, you'll be significantly weaker than someone who levels and class changes properly. The biggest difference you'll see is in the HP department, as each class change cuts your current level in half, and adds 50% of the previous class's HP to the newly chosen class. After doing this 5 times, it should be easy to do the math in your head to know it's a sizable difference. The only downside to class changing is I would say there aren't enough classes available, and, whule you can't master ALL of the classes on a single character, you can definitely get the overwhelming majority of them - you just want to make sure you choose your final class wisely.

I'll definitely continue playing it, hopefully all the way through to post-game, and if I'm not totally burned on blobbers, I'll finally go ahead and grow the sack to play Elminage Gothic. My other option is to bridge them with Divinity: Original Sin 2, though for some reason, I'm not particularly excited for it.

 

[Dawkinsfan69]

Ok so I've been playing The Witcher and here is my review, being somewhere in early chapter two of the game...

Ranking these in order of importance to me:

1) Combat is bad. Use ard or whatever spell to stun then left click to kill in most cases. Not fun or engaging, which is bad because a good chunk of the game is spent on combat

Combat initiation is horrible. Many times, a group will attack you immediately after some dialogue and you need to spend 5 seconds pulling out your damn sword and getting into the proper stance which means you've lost half your health.

2) Gameplay is annoying. Lots of running around = boring. Cities are designed realistically but are not fun to traverse. Environments, while coherent, are generic and uninteresting.

The vast majority of quests so far have been well disguised fetch quests. Reminds me of mmo quests but with better writing, still they're fetch quests which is annoying, especially when the combat sucks.

Autosave is SHIT. You need to save constantly or else you may die out of nowhere and need to replay the previous hour of the game.

3)Story is alright. It's no Dostoyevsky but it's a step up from Biowhore at least.. More 'adult' style of writing than your typical RPG but if you're familiar with real philosophy and literature this is.. maybe juvenile is the word?

C&C is basically nonexistent (don't try to tell me that choosing between a witch and a priest is good C&C) and even if it shows up later I'm not going to care after being so frustrated with the gameplay.

-----

Anyway I guess my problem is that if the only redeeming quality is the story then why slog through the gameplay? You could read an LP in under an hour which would cover the story and save you tens of hours of running in circles and dealing with boring combat.

So, final verdict:

LP/10

 

[Adon]

Bateman: Arkham Knight

Knight felt like it was trying to one-up everything that had come before it, but ultimately just doesn't know how to properly do it.

The predator sections are still mediocre despite their best efforts to provide more of a challenge by having enemies you can't silently takedown, and even outright having enemies being told what to do to counteract some of your strategies. These parts were always the weakest, and not much has improved since Asylum. I feel like Rocksteady is aware of this because even in comparison to City, predator sections seems rather few and far in between. That being said, multi-fear takedowns were a neat addition, and as far as giving the "experience" of being Bateman, doing takedowns in the middle of smoke nails it.

Now, on the other hand, the 2nd meatiest part of Knight, the combat is better in most ways. Faster, smoother, more responsive, and an added ability to use melee weapons. Game feels as smooth as butter when it comes to the combat; although ultimately it ends up being easier than previous games as a result. I have mixed thoughts about Rocksteady's approach to adding difficulty to their combat system. It feels like artificial roadblocks rather than challenges. Stun baton? Can't attack them from the front so you gotta attack them from the back. Knifes? Just can't properly counter them until I get the upgrade. Car shields? Gotta do some fancy dandy attack to knock the shield off their hands. Eventually once I get the upgrade that lets me destroy these weapons, I just abuse it till there are none left. So what does Rocksteady do in Knight? Just add some huge enemies with short counter prompts, and double the enemies. After a while it gets boring, and I sort of just drone on.

Speaking of drones, ooh boy, the batmobile, the meatiest part of Knight. Y'know, I didn't mind it at first, as weighty and clunky the car felt. But then Rocksteady had to go on ahead and make a good chunk of this game where I had to use this monstrosity. I can't tell if they did it because it was something they were really proud of, or because they wanted to pad out the game and make it longer (probably the former).

Art direction wise, the game looks kind of hideous, but then again I've never been a fan of making games look "realistic"; especially a Batman game. In general the Arkham games have always been ugly to look at with a few exceptions. Catwoman, Batman, Ivy, and maybe even Harley Quinn look good here. Scarecrow doesn't look half-bad either, he gets a pass. Can't say the same for everyone else. Nightwing almost looks good, but then that mask of his makes him look odd. Even the city itself has nothing noteworthy about it.

Y'know what I liked about City's story? It never tried to be grandiose, be more than what it really was, a premise for a Batman game. They tried really hard in AK, but the absence of Paul Dini is easily felt in the first few minutes. The plot itself feels like a bad rehash of Batman Begins and Dark Knight Rises with abysmal dialogue, and try-hard villains who talk mad shit 90% of the time to the point it just gets tiring. The only thing that sets it apart is the Arkham Knight himself who never makes for an intriguing villain, but is supposed to add some sort of suspense and mystery based on his knowledge of Batman. Yet it never goes anywhere interesting. The only saving grace was the Joker sub-plot and even that was mostly due to Mark Hamill's performance. I bet he improvised most of his lines since he's played the character for so long.

 

[octavius]

Tried "biotard" in Wordfeud, but was told it was not a valid word.

 

[HansDampf]

More Thief 2.

Kidnap: The mission isn't even that hard. It's just that many of the sites are so heavily guarded, I didn't even bother with extra loot this time. Just did the main objectives. Flashbombs and Gas Arrows took care of Cavador's personal guards. No fuck ups this time.

Casing the Joint: Interesting mission. If anyone sees you, it's game over. Happened to me once.

Masks: Same mission, but without the restriction above, and the third floor is now available to steal the masks, Mission Impossible style. If you don't remember (I did) the exhibition rooms are all booby trapped. If you touch the floor the room gets filled with poisoned gas. So you have to climb down vine arrows to steal one mask at a time and climb back up onto the ceiling. And every time you have to trust the ledge-grabbing mechanic.

Spoiler

Funny enough, it never failed once, but I slipped anyway due to my own fault. Survived with 3 HP... The rest of the mission went smoothly.

There is only one mission left, and I remember it to be long and filled with death traps.

 

[SpaceDriftingGrimoire]

After enduring through the tedious bore that was Lunar: Dragon Song I've thankfully finally allowed myself to move on to better prospects.

Ever Oasis (3DS - 2017)

A much more entertaining (but still somewhat tedious) action JRPG from Grezzo, led by the creator of the Secret of Mana series.

-Story so far-

Completely by the numbers and bog standard at the moment, but certainly not bad. The game has a rushed opening with the intention of stirring the player into action, but it never elicited too much of a response from me since I barely had time to get to know the pre-assigned sibling you have. And while the plot is clearly building towards what are hopefully more interesting revelations ( mysteriously shady characters you run across in dungeons) the main plot is too run of the mill at the moment to warrant much interest from me. Thankfully the world that the player inhabits is mildly interesting, with not a human or standard fantasy race (Orc, Dwarf, Elf, etc.) in sight. And some of the characters you run across, while mostly two dimensional, are still charming enough to like.

-Gameplay so far-

The singular reasonI was curious about the game and so far the only reason for me to continue on. While relying far too much on handholding for roughly the first hour once the game lets you loose it gets going nicely. Oasis building and managing is the real highlight, with a good sense of natural progression for every new resident you employ gradually adding life and mechanics to the overall experience of the game. Features such as auto stocking shops, internal fast travel, gardening, and weapon and item crafting help separate (and compliment) the desert roaming and combat, while also giving players a mostly stress free respite from the dangers of the wasteland. I do wish (or hope) that at some point it will be more convenient to gather dewadems (currency) you acquire without having to run to most of the shops and use a special ability to gather them each and every time. And in regards to what I mentioned earlier about characters and complimenting gameplay...

-Exploration-

This aspect of the game is sectioned off into zones that must be progressed in the story to unlock others. Within these zones lie both major and minor caves and dungeons, with almost all of them requiring certain party members to progress. Each party member has their own special combat move set (ranged, heavy hitter, etc.) and special ability (rolling into a ball, smashing open walls, magic wand to change pathways, etc.) that need to be utilized to collect certain materials, solve puzzles and progress. This is all well and good with the only major downsides being backtracking to get certain party members to progress (which breaks the flow of exploration and gets annoying) and actually having to wait for said party members to either show up in the wastes or visit your Oasis in the first place. Thankfully the game has a quick travel system, known as an Aqua Gate, and dungeon section warp and save zones that directly lead to and from the Oasis, making backtracking convenient and only ever a minor (if sometimes frequent) pace interruption. And at a certain point in the game you are given the option to send explorers to major dungeons you already cleared and option materials and level ups, cutting down on tedium even further still.

-Combat and Character Progresson-

Easily my least favorite aspect of the game, although certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination (*glares with contemptible rage at Lunar: Dragon Song*). Very basic and barebones for the most part with basic light and heavy attack combos that are unlocked upon level ups and dodge rolling (like Dark Souls without the need for stamina) to allow avoidance of attacks. Each enemy has basic and charged attacks, that can leave them open to be stunned or wailed on momentarily. Enemies and bosses can also use debilitating attacks such as stun's or poisoning's to slow you down. Some enemies can also submerge under the sand or fly, making them harder to hit. Due to the sheer number of enemies you fight this can eventually (with the exception of bosses and finding new enemy types) lead to boredom until you move on to new zones. Thankfully all enemies on the overworld map can be completely avoided when traveling. You can take control of any of the 3 party members you bring along (or go completely by yourself) while exploring or fighting, but the inconsistent AI takes over the rest. Sometimes they will know exactly when to dodge out of the way of attacks, other times they will completely ignore enemies waiting in the background and at worst they can occasionally get stuck on area geometry. Not counting all of the issues however is the single world element of combat: the requirements for leveling up.

In order to properly level up you need to go back to the Oasis for party members to level. It is impossible to automatically level up in the world. On top of that the game gives you absolutely no idea of how much experience you acquired while grinding out enemies, though it will thankfully tell you how close to level up you are via a percentage meter upon re-entering the Oasis. But the worst aspect to all of this is that you absolutely cannot obtain significant (or any) experience for level up once you are roughly 2-3 levels or higher than lower level enemies. To put it simply progression from killing mildly lower level enemies literally stops. You need to progress to new areas, but sometimes you can only do so once you find party members who can help with that, and sometimes you never know when these new residents with these abilities may or may not show up. This can make the sense of progression compared to both other Western and Eastern RPGs to momentarily at points feel glacial in speed.

-Overall thoughts so far-

While I'm certainly enjoying my ever growing paradise amongst the dunes I feel as though these current issues might essentially hold back what could have been a truly exceptional JRPG from reaching its full potential. I'll definitely be playing more to see if this stay's the case or the game gradually opens up even further. I'm going to be going into the games first so called "challenge labyrinth" soon so fingers crossed for the overall quality of that escapade.

 

[flyingjohn]

Playing ace combat 5 and i have to say it can't compare to ace combat 2.

-Mission and map variety is great and easily beats the second one,but that is expected.
But the annoying protect missions kills the fun quickly.I hated the rescue pilot mission until i read that you can easily forget about fighters and just go for helicopters and you will succeed easily.

-Secondary weapons are fun there just not that much variety among them(the most i have seen are long range missiles and ground bomb variations)
The psp games had more variations in sub weapons.

-The briefing map is garbage compared to the second one.
It is bland and lifeless compared to the second one which was simple but effective.

-Getting medals is not very fun thanks to obscure ace spawning
In the second one you could easily see on the briefing map where are the aces and here they mostly just show up if you do something or are just lucky.
It annoys me greatly.

-Too much stuff too shoot and too much chatter
In the second one you could shoot most of the targets,in here you will run out of missiles quickly because the enemy count has been increased significantly.
I think that is an artificial way of solving the unrealistic missile amount coupled with how to make your squadrons actually useful.
If you actually had a easy way to see actual amount of enemies in briefing map you could plan around it.
Also your squad and the enemy won't shut up.

-Your squad is actually useful compared to the second one and i have no complaints here,it is a straight upgrade in terms of mechanics.

-Machine guns feel underpowered.
It feels like they have lower damage while also having major trouble hitting enemies multiples times even if you are close. In the second game you can easily kill stuff with machine guns and you have ammo which is a counter. if you are just spamming it.

-Plane variety is disappointing.
There just isn't that much new planes(maybe 10-15) and forcing you to use one all the time to unlock specif family upgrades is annoying.
Also you don't get new airplanes all the time and sometimes you can go 3 missions without getting anything new.
Also some missions automatically put you in your last plane which is annoying.

-the ui for buying planes is horrible
The second game had a simple left to right model in which left was your first and right your new planes,here you have to scroll down which feels weird and couldn't implement a sorting mechanism considering all planes have types now?
Also the hanger looks too much boring.

-The story and dialogue are garbage.
The second game was a simple invade/fend off enemy,but here they tried to add more emotional stuff to that formula while having your squad mats constantly talk about every little detail in cringy dialogue.

-Choosing alternative mission is worse
In the second game you always choose yourself which alternative mission you wanted.
Here it is based on a choice you have no idea you are making("do you like this song?")which kinda feels cheap.

-Annoying choices during missions
This game loves giving you annoying questions during combat like"Hey can you see our target?" or "Do you think our enemy will hate us?",i hated it.

-The music is definitely worse
The second game has a somewhat rock/techno mix but here i don't even remember most of the ost,they are all just so unmemorable.
On the other hand i easily remember toy box and castle sot from the second game.

I know it seems i am being too negative but i love ace combat 2(every single time i pass through the bridge in the third mission i just feel happy) and after finally being able to play this since pscx2 fixed the graphical issues it feels underwhelming.

I hope zero will be better.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

More Thief 2.

Casing the Joint: Interesting mission. If anyone sees you, it's game over. Happened to me once.

Masks: Same mission, but without the restriction above, and the third floor is now available to steal the masks, Mission Impossible style.

Actually the third floor is accessible in Casing the Joint as well... it's just incomplete and looks bloody stupid in places. No real use in going up there.

There is only one mission left, and I remember it to be long and filled with death traps.

"Long" is most certainly the proper word here. As for the death traps, you need to flip at least seven out of eight switches in order to win, and each of these switches is located in a deathtrap-esque room. And 9 out of every 10 taffers always skip the same room. Let's see if you can guess which room it is.

 

[Rando Thoughtful]

Just finished the first of the Witcher trilogy. Took me about a month what with work & family. Stayed up too late playing sometimes.

I struggled at first. The click-click-click combat didn't speak to me, Witcher stronghold area was pretty dull, everybody is bland as fuck, even the visible villains. ...Something about the semi-circular talent system gave me a little nostalgia for Torment (that was circular right? It charmed me a little, anyway). As the game continued I found the spell system boring. I found myself back-tracking all the fucking time, probably ended up spending hour(s) of my life running to quest-givers through areas with nothing more to offer me. Before he grew on me Geralts voice-acting took me out of my immersion-zone. I quit the game in the tutorial yard (Kaer-something) twice before this playthrough. And yet -

I've barely played anything else other than this since I hit mid-late Chapter 1 (when I started seeing results from actions). I love getting hooked on a game. The story relies a lot upon mystery to keep you going, I think, but character development ratchets up, the involvement of long-term faction relations being an impact of quests makes them feel important, there are twists & turns unexpected when you think you've got the chapter down; for whatever reason the initially desperately shitty alchemy mini-game became appealing to me, although the inventory system sucks; the graphics aren't old enough to affront the eyes and the sword style-versus-specific monster aspect made combat more endurable, especially given the journal monster-entries which were detailed enough to assist designing an attack=plan against any critter you face if you want the optimal result. Obviously it was pretty basic but it added a 'detective' like element to getting the best outcome from combat combined with alchemy. Poker-dice was oddly enjoyable but that was largely down to the music I think. The balance isn't good but it isn't diabolical. I got sucked in & i'm glad I forced myself to get into this game before I started no.2.

Which i'm about to do now, excuse me.

 

[Ezekiel]

Played eight hours of Psychonauts. It was free on Humble a few days ago. I like this game, but the Milkman quest and Gloria's Theater have been annoying to figure out. I'm still in Gloria's Theater.

Those two levels are among the better levels of the game. The key to the Milkman level (besides figuring out which way the gravity is pointing) is that it's all about the Clairvoyance skill - you need to see everything from other people's perspective, and how that perspective changes depending on what item you have in your hand.

(For more entertainment, run around the camp with Clairvoyance on and see how Razputin looks to everyone.)

The Theater level is the shortest one; here you have hange the prop set-up on stage (both in "Good" and "Evil" mode) so that a certain event is triggered on-stage that allows you to reach above it and confront the Phantom.

You still have two amazing levels to go, and one not-so good level (that's fortunately been toned down considerably since its original design).

"That's right baby, Daddy's here!"

I think I might have skipped the cutscene at the very top. Maybe... I was getting irritated of switching between the three plays and happy and dark versions of them, so I skipped a few. When I realized I had to use the megaphone at the top, I was a little annoyed with myself. Edit: No, I don't think I skipped that cutscene. I just didn't get that I could use the megaphone up there.

 

[the_shadow]

Since i have assassin creed gifted to me on gog i tried to actually play the game.
Well i lasted for about an hour and killed the first major target and i just couldn't continue anymore.
Side mission stuff includes boring stuff like trailing,siting on a bench and collecting flags while occasionally mashing square to beat somebody up.
Combat is mash square to win or later press square for a insta kill counter which if i am not mistaken becomes the defacto assassin reed combat style.
Also props for not having the ability to skip the annoying tutorial at the begging,nah who am i kidding,the entire game is one giant tutorial.
And if i am not mistaken the later games only add even more repetitive stuff to do with more retarded story.
How can people enjoy these games is beyond me.

Assassin's Creed is one of the most boring games I have ever played.

I'm still playing Disciples: Sacred Lands. I didn't think much of it at first, but I've actually really started to enjoy it. What appears to be a very simple strategy game on the surface is actually a lot more complex that it first appears. The four different races are significantly different, each with their own clear strengths and weaknesses, while all be enjoyable to play. The campaign's later missions are pretty hard (but not impossible) on Easy difficulty. Good stuff.

 

[Ezekiel]

Replaying Crysis. I feel overpowered with these abilities, but the freedom of choice is just awesome. It's still more dynamic and has more impressive environments than almost every shooter out now. The guns feel and sound good. Hip fire accuracy isn't bad. It also still looks great ten years later. The people always saying realistic graphics age badly don't know what they're talking about.

 

[HansDampf]

I survived! The time isn't entirely accurate because I took a break somewhere and left the game running.
I didn't like this mission as much as the rest of the game. Many of the obstacle rooms are too contrived and out of place. Karras won't ever shut up. And I really began to hate the big bots. All it takes is one step on metal floor and it's like half the map wakes up to come looking while I'm sitting in a dark corner for 10 minutes. Please be warned! I have not determined, no danger. A misguided soul. Wretched intruder! Thanks be to Karras! THANKS BE TO KARRAS!

There is only one mission left, and I remember it to be long and filled with death traps.

"Long" is most certainly the proper word here. As for the death traps, you need to flip at least seven out of eight switches in order to win, and each of these switches is located in a deathtrap-esque room. And 9 out of every 10 taffers always skip the same room. Let's see if you can guess which room it is.

Is it the one with a million turrets? I've made an attempt, took heavy damage and chickened out. I could have made it to the switch, but my biggest fear was that there'd be no safe way back out again.

 

[Darth Roxor]

All it takes is one step on metal floor and it's like half the map wakes up to come looking while I'm sitting in a dark corner for 10 minutes.

look at this sucker not stocking up on a hundred mines and fire arrows

HA! HA!