What game are you wasting time on?

[Trash]

Decided to have some fun with the decline so I installed both Halo and Gears of War on ye ol' pc. Halo is much better than I anticipated. Large scale space opera, some great open levels, lots of neat vehicles to run amok in and a regenerating health system that actually works. Not to mention that it does the whole run 'n gun thing quite nicely. Still, the game does fluctuate wildly between the stuff I like and, well, boredom. Really, for every good level or encounter design there seems to be at least one lame. Not to mention that the whole scale and space opera thing which I like really isn't used to such a good effect and often turns decidedly hammy.

Gears of War introduced the whole cover fad. Might have felt fresh then but now I just can't stand to see any more conveniently placed chest high walls. Some levels are nice though, especially the ones breaking the whole cover and shooting mould. The ones with the flying 'pitch black' critters killing everything outside of the light was fun. Story is nothing to write home about either and the machismo is tiresome. Meh, I have this feeling I'll soon be done with all this old new shit.

Got Deus Ex with Shifter and the New Vision mod installed and play it in short stints. Game is as awesome as ever.

 

[Warlock]

Master of Magic... Man, it's great, even after all these years. To bad we will probably never see a decent sequel. However I do have some hope for Fallen Enchantress. Mainly because:

Derek Paxton (Civilization: Fall from Heaven fame) as the Producer.
Derek as lead developer (as opposed to the quasi “design by committee” with War Of Magic).
Most of Stardock Entertainment’s resources are currently being put on the second Elemental title (Fallen Enchantress) which is a fairly radical departure from War of Magic (other than art resources). I can’t go into much detail regarding it other than to say it that it is much more similar to a Civilization/Master of Magic style strategy game versus a Galactic Civilizations/HOMM style strategy game (i.e. every tile of terrain matters i.e. building near rivers or forests or hills and that kind of thing will matter and there are things like unrest and tax rates and that kind of thing).

Of course, the decision to make Fallen Enchantress effectively a new game (other than art assets) has meant that its date is being pushed out to being more like a sequel’s release. That said, our plan is for the beta to come out this Fall still. However, bear in mind, that other than both existing in the Elemental universe, the gameplay of the two are very different.

 

[J_C]

Planescape: Torment

And yes, I feel pretty superior now.

Jane's F/A-18!!!

Holy shit, the avionics are complicated!!!

Have you played that ridiculous DCS: A-10C sim?

Ah, two fellow virtual pilots.
ScottishMA, you should see the Superbug mod to Flight Simulator X. It is a 100% accurate simultaion of the F-18 Super Hornet's avionics and onboard system, radar etc. Simply amazing. As for the DCS:A-10, I wish I'd seen your comment earlier, there were a 50% sale on direct2drive.

 

[Varn]

Playing Ultima VII BG /Serpent Isle as one big game with Exult. In Black Gate at the moment, after I got the carpet I was cruising around looking for secrets but am now progressing the plot. On the way to Minoc I hit Cove and found this Rudyom mage fella, as well as a female healer NPC who joined my party. Now looking for Rudyom's notebook to figure out how to use his wand but for the life of me can't find it.

Am refreshingly surprised by the difficulty of the game in Exult on "hard" difficulty. I am pretty sure this is an Exult feature not an original Ultima feature. But in any event, I am getting rocked in most battles even with 6 party members. I struggled to survive going in to Lock Lake to find the key for the Hoe of Destruction, after about 7 slimes ambushed my party. I had to reload until they didn't spawn any more.

This is sweet as I understand combat difficulty was the biggest issue with the game. Seems to be at the right level of difficulty because all I can think about is levelling my toons and finding good weapons so I can survive better. Awesome game and loving it so far...

 

[Jaesun]

Don't fuck with the horse.

Ever.

 

[tindrli]

at home just started S.M. pirates! again and on work playing that new roguelike Prospector

 

[spekkio]

Completed Crash 3. If I'm not mistaken, I started playing the game back in 2008 (iso creation time). :/
But finally:

Great fucking game. Too bad that the rest of the series wasn't made by Naughty Dog. Or maybe not - they went derper with Jak series and even derper with Uncharted AFAIK.

Still - massive

I'm also "almost done" with this baby:

Man, gaming is great. Just stay away from anything post-2004.

 

[Gragt]

I started Mass Effect yesterday to finally see what the fuss was all about. I am truly surprised to discover how dull it is. It's the not the first overhyped game I play, thanks to Oblivion, Fallout 3 or Bioshock, but it still amazes me to know that people praised stuff that simply isn't that special.

And for a game with so much talking, it's just bland. My character says stuff an adolescent would likely say, and in true Bioware fashion the various characters keep repeating the same facts everyone else already told me, without any difference in information or flavour. For all the flak it received, I previously played Alpha Protocol and the dialogs and exchanges between the characters were much better and at least felt a bit more lively. If anything, I got the feeling that AP was self-aware and sometimes purposefully campy while ME takes itself too seriously.

Ah well, we'll see how it evolves. Can't be as dull as Oblivion at least.

 

[Excidium]

The first Mass Effect is dull indeed, the sequel is much more extreme.

 

[spekkio]

It looks that I was rated A for Awesome.



Now it's time for some...
Deadly Games.

 

[Metro]

I started Mass Effect yesterday to finally see what the fuss was all about. I am truly surprised to discover how dull it is. It's the not the first overhyped game I play, thanks to Oblivion, Fallout 3 or Bioshock, but it still amazes me to know that people praised stuff that simply isn't that special.

And for a game with so much talking, it's just bland. My character says stuff an adolescent would likely say, and in true Bioware fashion the various characters keep repeating the same facts everyone else already told me, without any difference in information or flavour.

I pretty much had the same reaction when I got it for $5 a while back. It's sad what passes for an 'RPG' these days and how people lap it up.

 

[Satori (original)]

Completed Crash 3. If I'm not mistaken, I started playing the game back in 2008 (iso creation time). :/
But finally:

Where's your platinums boyo?

 

[Excommunicator]

Just started with Battle of Wesnoth again. I originally played it years ago when I think it wasn't even a full stable release, and even enjoyed it quite a bit at the time in spite of that

Now that I have recently stumbled across it again, it has come a hell of a long way since then, and generally has the polish of a commercially released game, with what appears to be a near-endless list of campaign scenarios. I soon started thinking to myself "Why did I stop playing this game last time? It seems really good", and just settled on the idea that it was because of the incomplete state of the game.

I'm now 6-7 missions in and it just hit me why I stopped. Luck.

It is absolutely enraging. I have never felt quite so hostile towards a game for sticking to its own rules (as opposed to bugs, crashes, that kind of thing). The rest of the game is quite excellent and yet somehow this is enough to sap my enjoyment of any particular level. Granted, I don't have much experience playing, but when units have around a 40% chance of hitting each other by default, you have one hell of a screwy game system. Think about that. You're playing the game and more than half of every attack that happens will do nothing (?).

I still enjoy the actual exercise of fighting and training units and whatnot, but when they simultaneously try to keep the missions on a knife's edge of difficulty, while trying to keep a big element of uncertainty throughout, the smallest thing can happen and snowball into something that just isn't fun to play any more. Designers can talk about all of the "you just notice the bad luck much more than the good luck" psychology, but then that would be ignorant to the fact that a small thing going wrong "just because" can tarnish the whole experience. I could go on about the discordant design decisions for a long time, but I won't.

I'll probably stay optimistic and keep playing here and there, but I get the feeling that any enthusiasm I have will end up drained into nothingness by random misfortunes

 

[anus_pounder]

BROS ! I AM HAVING TOO MUCH FUN WITH MASTERS OF ORION 2 !!

 

[jagged-jimmy]

I am digging the shit out of Terraria.

 

[asper]

Man, I love those graphics.

PLaying the new Alice game, enjoying it a lot. It's great. Bizarre story, nice artstyle. It isn't very polished gameplay-wise (repetition, sometimes clunky camera/controls) but very enjoyable nonetheless -- if you have even a smidgeon of tolerance (if you've played the games of yore) you'll have a lot of fun with this puppy. The criticism this game got is very exaggerated.

 

[Drog Black Tooth]

Finally got around to playing Trine. Fuck me in the ass, that's like the only good indie game. Amazing production values AND pretty good gameplay. It's much more action focused than The Lost Vikings, though, you never really have to stop and think.

I also tried World of Goo recently. It's yet another physics based indie puzzle game. Except, it completely fails as a puzzle game. The solution to each puzzle is immediately obvious, the difficulty only comes from stacking the goo balls with the wonky physics engine and hoping your flimsy structure doesn't fall apart. Do you enjoy building houses out of playing cards? This game is exactly this.

Also thought about playing some adventure games, thinking they would provide a good relaxation. Tried Monkey Island SE and The Whispered World. Then remembered why I hate adventure games. Sorry, but using everything on everything until it works is simply not my idea of fun. The puzzle logic in these games is bizarre. The only adventure games that I ever enjoyed are both Syberias and Dreamfall. Well, and the first half of Sanitarium wasn't too bad, except for a few pixel-hunting puzzles.

 

[Konjad]

Drog, Osmos is another great indie game. It's very easy on beginning levels, but gets pretty hard and fun later on.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Just started with Battle of Wesnoth again. I originally played it years ago when I think it wasn't even a full stable release, and even enjoyed it quite a bit at the time in spite of that

Now that I have recently stumbled across it again, it has come a hell of a long way since then, and generally has the polish of a commercially released game, with what appears to be a near-endless list of campaign scenarios. I soon started thinking to myself "Why did I stop playing this game last time? It seems really good", and just settled on the idea that it was because of the incomplete state of the game.

I'm now 6-7 missions in and it just hit me why I stopped. Luck.

Yeah, it's really impressive in a lot of ways and I appreciate that the mechanics and formulas are transparent and the difficulty level is high but it does still seem a little bit too random. When all your guys are disposable level ones it's not a huge deal, but the campaigns inevitably introduce special loyal units that you really need to keep alive for future maps. When they inevitably get splatted in one turn due to bad luck, it can be frustrating, especially if you aren't save loading during maps and have to re-start the map.

 

[Zed]

playing energy weapons do-good faggot in NV.
stole a big plasma launcher thingy in the energy weapons store so I'm pretty packed yo

 

[Satori (original)]

Drog, Osmos is another great indie game. It's very easy on beginning levels, but gets pretty hard and fun later on.

Great soundtrack, even has Loscil! Even though his tracks don't blend in as well as the others.

 

[Texas Red]

2nd playthrough of Witcher. During the 1st time I did not notice that you can get drunk over at Roche's place. Geralt wakes up almost naked near a lake and you have quest to find out what heppened :D.

 

[spekkio]

Where's your platinums boyo?

Get out of here, nerd.
I'm not gonna spend more time with this game for stupid 105% completion mark.

Then remembered why I hate adventure games. Sorry, but using everything on everything until it works is simply not my idea of fun.

On topic:

I've started 1st Unreal. For the n-th time. But this time I plan to finish this thing. So far I'm having fun - great level design, challenging enemies - something that current 3d shooters are missing.

Also, encouraged by... I don't remember whom - was it DamnedRegistrations - I've tried Ogre Battle.

What I expected:

What I got:

Not sure if or yet.

But I like the gameplay so far. Plus - a RTS on Snes? Released in 1993?

 

[Hobo Elf]

Got immersed in MoO2 again. The game is just super fun. Thinking of playing Dungeon Keeper again too because why the fuck not that game kicks so much ass.

@Spekkio: What RTS is that? Looks familiar. Looks like something I played as a kid. Think it was called Echelon or something?

 

[spekkio]

http://www.mobygames.com/game/dark-reig ... ure-of-war

 

[Erebus]

I gave Yume Nikki a try. I'd read on TVTropes it was a surreal and creepy game, but it turned out to simply be a very dull, empty and pointless one.

It's partly my fault, since I already knew that TVTropes is a place where countless fanboys with no taste whatsoever try to promote all the stupid stuff they like.

Yume Nikki feels like artistic trolling : you spend your time wandering through huge dreamworlds, gathering objects that have no actual use most of the time (the best object is the bicycle, since its speed makes moving around a bit less of a chore).

There are many different dreamworlds, but none of them are really interesting or captivating. You're seldom given the occasion to interact with anything. There's no story unless you've smoked enough pot to imagine one, no sense of progress other than the number of objects you've found and, once you have gathered all of them, your heroine kills herself because that's how a deep and dark game must end, man !