What game are you wasting time on?

[Old One]

I played Blackguards 1 recently. There are lots of things I like about it, and I think the overall format has (or had, considering what I read about Blackguards 2) a lot of potential. The setup of the individual battles is very, very good, and I liked The Dark Eye character system for the most part.

I got burned out before the end though. I got about halfway through the 13 battles (you'll know what that is if you've played it) and I just didn't care any more. I wish it could have been 6 or 7 battles, with the remainder placed throughout the story at proper intervals. 13 in a row is too high a price to pay for whatever meager payoff the story could offer.

I may try to finish it some time, but probably not.

 

[Vorark]

Finished Tyranny.

The good:
- Setting is nice, lack of Tolkien-esque fantasy is refreshing.
- Despite being added by a patch, the loyalist path was a fun romp: you get to fuck people over, all while staying true to your orders and later being chill with your boss. Granted, it's basically anarchist path with a couple of different lines at the end, but was entertaining nonetheless.
- Spellmaking, even if it's a bit limited.

The meh:
- Slow load times. Hell, it was slow to even open the "select your save" menu.
- Typos.
- Couple of instances in which the game bugged and repeated the same dialogue.
- Writing ranges from bad to decent; in a few select spots I'd consider it good.
- You will get railroaded in one of the main paths or get dumped in the anarchy route if you betray anyone, because the game structure isn't flexible at all about changing alliances. The Favor/Wrath system is hardly taken in account.

Kill it with nuclear fire:
- Combat is a clusterfuck. Maybe I just cannot into rtwp.
- Party AI is poor and overrides your decisions; meanwhile, turning it off requires too much micro.

- Using archery abilities on enemies who are on higher/lower terrain level, even if they are in attack range = automatic miss.

All in all, it's an okay "storyfag" game. Obsidian used to be better than this, though.

 

[Valtiel]

Keeping on slowly with NWN2 OC. Goddamn that first act, nonsensical lengthy, at some point the faction quest giver (those thieves) didn't bother even to reminds me that I was doing all kind of shit to get in Blacklake, they we're "go there, thanks, now go there" all the time. ACT 2 seems much more interesting, i've just beat that Trial section, which is actually cool and reactive to the previous quest and choices made, and it's filled with stat check. I don't get why make such a long campaing for a game this replayable and with a module editor. How long is ACT 2 and 3 compared to the 1?

 

[circ]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

 

[Trash]

AC: Origins. It's an AC game. With a real big splendid world and good setting and quite some diversity in gameplay and without the lame collect 'em all trademark ubi open world bull. And combat that feels more like a brawler instead of a press x to counter system. Other than that, it is a AC game. You run around, climb some stuff, kill people and have a story with nonsensical SF parts in it. It really doesn't feel all that different from the basic formula apart from being a polished version of that. Am I having fun? Mostly as a virtual tourist. Sail the nile, explore a tomb, walk through splendid cities and beautifull desert and all that. Am really missing the info that previous parts had about their surrounding, although a tourist mode is supposed to arrive sometime in 2018. Recommendation? Only if you enjoy the basic AC gameplay.

Other than that, Endless Space 2. It's fun, feels a bit disjointed, looks beautifull and has shit combat. Still not the game to put MoO II to the pastures, but a solid 4X game in its own right. Misses that one turn extra appeal for me though. Like how races feel unique, quests are fun and the level of polish is immense though.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

Actually a lot of AAA titles seem to be 30-40 gigs now. Especially if they are by Bethesda. They love bloating their games. Doom is something like 60 gigs. Just...why?

 

[flyingjohn]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

Actually a lot of AAA titles seem to be 30-40 gigs now. Especially if they are by Bethesda. They love bloating their games. Doom is something like 60 gigs. Just...why?

4k textures and uncompressed audio take a lot of room.
Also you can expect games over a 100 gb to be the norm in less then 10 years,especially with the rise of 4k and what will come after.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

Actually a lot of AAA titles seem to be 30-40 gigs now. Especially if they are by Bethesda. They love bloating their games. Doom is something like 60 gigs. Just...why?

4k textures and uncompressed audio take a lot of room.
Also you can expect games over a 100 gb to be the norm in less then 10 years,especially with the rise of 4k and what will come after.

Isn't that pretty shoddy work though? I mean, isn't compression standard practice when editing audio / video? All it does is eat up space.

 

[DavidBVal]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

Actually a lot of AAA titles seem to be 30-40 gigs now. Especially if they are by Bethesda. They love bloating their games. Doom is something like 60 gigs. Just...why?

4k textures and uncompressed audio take a lot of room.
Also you can expect games over a 100 gb to be the norm in less then 10 years,especially with the rise of 4k and what will come after.

Isn't that pretty shoddy work though? I mean, isn't compression standard practice when editing audio / video? All it does is eat up space.

Probably they value more optimizing loading times than HD space.

 

[TC Jr]

Bought a shit ton of Steam games and sort of farting about with old classics, but I've actually put in a lot of hours on Road Redemption, arcade style motorbike combat game, similar to Road Rash but a lot more difficult, it's really addictive.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I tried out D:OS 2 finally. Well it's actually pretty recent.

Anyway. Wow 30 gigs, that's bigger than alot of AAA titles. It's got godrays though, kind of a waste in an isometric title though... Followed by 10 gigs of patching. Hesus. I didn't try high res textures because it says shit might break.. Well I dunno, it looks like D:OS 1, but runs a little poorer. They should just have patched the better character meshes into 1.

So, I proceed to kill all the guards because apparently that's a thing. Fists vs armored and armed people. Ok. No one seems to give a shit. I get introduced to my future gorpumates early. I'm... not really excited about any of them. I like the new skills that exist, music's nice, although I don't understand why a voiced narrator was a good idea, or what kind of dumbass designed the elves. Why are there lizard people suddenly? Skeletons, why?

Anyho, just not terribly interesting so far, got to a beach. Well writing is worlds above SRHK.

Oh. The camera. Oh THE CAMERA. Yeah I don't think I'll continue.

Actually a lot of AAA titles seem to be 30-40 gigs now. Especially if they are by Bethesda. They love bloating their games. Doom is something like 60 gigs. Just...why?

4k textures and uncompressed audio take a lot of room.
Also you can expect games over a 100 gb to be the norm in less then 10 years,especially with the rise of 4k and what will come after.

Isn't that pretty shoddy work though? I mean, isn't compression standard practice when editing audio / video? All it does is eat up space.

Probably they value more optimizing loading times than HD space.

That doesn't make sense though, as one would think compressed files would load faster due to their smaller size.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

X-Piratez is damn good.
FFS I should be sleeping by now.

 

[Cael]

That doesn't make sense though, as one would think compressed files would load faster due to their smaller size.

No. The uncompressing algorithm may take up more processor power than a larger file depending on the relative size and complexity of the compression in the first place.

Try loading a pdf file compared with the same file in MSWord doc format and see the difference.


Ontopic: Fallout 2 where I am trying to steal everything off everyone one item at a time in steal runs of 6 items, and watching my XP and Level counter go through the roof. Level 22+ at VC after going through Klamath, the Den, Modoc and Gecko. Now working on New Reno.

 

[Blaine]

That doesn't make sense though, as one would think compressed files would load faster due to their smaller size.

Lossless compression works more-or-less like this: 1.) Analyze file contents. 2.) When compressing, a standardized algorithm replaces redundant/patterned/repeating/long packets of information with placeholders that occupy less memory storage; this isn't dissimilar to the shorthand used by court stenographers. 3.) When decompressing, a standardized algorithm reads the placeholders and converts them back into the uncompressed packets of information that were originally there.

The compression and decompression algorithms must be compatible with each other and designed to work together, not unlike a particular cable plug and its socket, or a secret code and its code book.

In terms of transfer and storage, compression reduces file size and increases relative transfer speed. In terms of actually reading the file, compressed files take longer to read, as Cael indicates, because they must first be decompressed.

Lossy compression throws select pieces of information from a file that are deemed minimally redundant into the virtual trash, never to be recovered.

 

[Brayko]

Escahp Fruhm Tarkouv beta

Summary: leave tactical shooters to the slavs, kwans need to throw in the towel there.

 

[Blaine]

Picked up Space Engineers again, since I've gotten tired of not having actual moving parts and so on in Empyrion. Empyrion has far more hull block shapes and texture options, but its mechanical and color options are much more limited.

I had fun building some fighters, though.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208483603

 

[Azalin]

Finished Dex:EE an indie 2d side scrolling action rpg and it good.The graphics are good for an indie game although some animations are a bit stiff,the sound is good with nice voice acting for an indie game and the plot is ok.The city and setting is great as are most of the side quests,the main plot isn't that great but gets the job done.The gameplay is good although the combat could be a bit smoother.Recommended

 

[Blonsky]

World of Final Fantasy
PC port is shit, i cant see water effects, not alot of resolutions options and only two preset keyboard layouts (no custom key mapping).
Catch mirages/monsters, put them into stacks with your characters and attack enemies with abilities that they have a weakness to. Thats the game.
Leveling mirages is kind of interesting(plenty of choices), the two main characters are funny but their story gets shadowed when characters from an older final fantasy game shows up, also very linear and small maps (not much freedom to do anything).
Freaking Lilikins, sure the reason for them is in the story about lilikins and jiants but i cant stand them, they look so ridicules.
The worst thing about the game is that the game is just to easy, it even has cheats in the option menu if you really want to play a FF game without any RPG elements in it.

 

[unfairlight]

Planetside 2
The balance sucks, the dev team is basically a skeleton crew, it runs like ass and it's the worst game I have ever loved.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Shogun 2 Fall of the Samurai, Republic of Sendai Domination campaign.

A few observations -

You can tell that the republic option is an afterthought CA didn't really work on all that much. The republic infantry use lines recycled from ashigaru, which was pretty jarring to hear, and the absence of a replacement for Shinsegumi / Ishi is pretty lazy. All they had to do was give generals the option of spreading republic influence and give them bonuses to command / personal security to reference the fact that the real Republic of Ezo was a military organisation, but I guess they ran out of time.
That said, I do like playing as a republic, as you really have to plan for it beforehand and get ready for a big fight against the rest of Japan. I think I have it a little easier than intended though as the Sendai faction has a passive that reduces the penalty from differing allegiances. In fact, I think the Sendai might be intended to be the republic faction, as they are a Shogunate faction (so access to French units) close to Hokkaido (Ezo) with bonuses that help republics.
The real life Republic of Ezo was a government formed by the remnants of the Shogunate Army, with advise from French Officers, who tried making an independent republic on Hokkaido.
So the Sendai are probably the closest history wise for a republic option in the game.

 

[Blaine]

Planetside 2
The balance sucks, the dev team is basically a skeleton crew, it runs like ass and it's the worst game I have ever loved.

It's aging F2P. This is its ultimate and unavoidable fate. It happened to Tribes: Ascend, although fortunately I'd had my fill of the game many months before it kek'd the bucket. At one point, Hi-Rez was penny-pinching so hard that they tried to make the subreddit the new official "forums."

I tried PS2 once because it seemed cool, but the certs > "sidegrades" (read: upgrades) put me off. I will not tolerate one iota of grinding for clearly superior stuff in a purely PvP game.

 

[unfairlight]

It's aging F2P. This is its ultimate and unavoidable fate. It happened to Tribes: Ascend, although fortunately I'd had my fill of the game many months before it kek'd the bucket. At one point, Hi-Rez was penny-pinching so hard that they tried to make the subreddit the new official "forums."

Not entirely. The dev team is actually expanding and is still pretty dedicated and doing a lot of major stuff, Hi-Jizz completely pulled out and placed their bets on Smite.

I tried PS2 once because it seemed cool, but the certs > "sidegrades" (read: upgrades) put me off. I will not tolerate one iota of grinding for clearly superior stuff in a purely PvP game.

That's bullshit though. You literally start off with the best weapons on most factions, I don't know about the spandex homos in Vanu Sovereignty but the TR and NC really solid all arounder carbines, LMGs and assault rifles that can perform well in most situations, the NC arguably get the best LMG in the game if you know how to use it. The only place where you can literally buy an upgrade is on MAX units which are an absolute cert dump where you need to invest plenty to specialize into different tasks like anti vehicle, anti infantry and anti air and the secondary slot where the NS-44 Commissioner is easily the best secondary weapon in the game. A lot of new players get shit on by old players and blame their guns for doing poorly, fact of the matter is that you are just bad at the game and got outskilled.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

The Vanu gets a plasma rifle thing. Its been a while, but I remember it being very accurate compared to the other faction's basic weapons, but not as much damage as blue guys and not as fast as red guys. I liked it.

 

[unfairlight]

Vanu is probably the most OP faction, Scythe is paper thin and impossible to fight, Magrider is floating which means it can get to places no other tank can and some weapons like Orion are pretty much bullshit.
If your first instinct was to join Vanu you are probably homosexual.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Vanu is probably the most OP faction, Scythe is paper thin and impossible to fight, Magrider is floating which means it can get to places no other tank can and some weapons like Orion are pretty much bullshit.
If your first instinct was to join Vanu you are probably homosexual.

My first instinct was to join the red guys, because they looked cool. I tried blue guys, didn't like them much.

I then tried Vanu. I liked them more than the blue guys, but I didn't like their armor, which is why they got played last. Because spandex. It looks good on chicks though, as least. Plasma is cool though, and I liked the design of their vehicles.

The red guys are probably the better faction in terms of overall aesthetics. Didn't like how their weapons played out though. High Rate of fire was never my thing.
Dunno what its like now though. I think the last time I played PS2 was like 5 years ago.