What game are you wasting time on?

[Unkillable Cat]

Pools of Darkness

Did you do Dave's Challenge, the optional dungeon after the boss battle?

 

[Dux]

Pools of Darkness

Did you do Dave's Challenge, the optional dungeon after the boss battle?

That would a resounding nope. After that final fight against Gothmenes I was thoroughly spent.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Currently playing Homeworld 1 (the none remastered version as the remastered version's tactics and ship stats are in general broken and not at all like HW1) and Homeworld Cataclysm.
I really hate the lack of a proper anti mine vessel so early in the game as the fighters tend to do stupid little dances around mines sometimes instead of just shooting and blowing them up. Will try some different tactics next time.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Started Spellforce 3. Whatever it's failings, man this game looks gorgeous.

 

[Humppaleka]

Got a lot of games unfinished. Made the mistake of starting up Diablo 2. Now I'm act 3 normal with a Hammerdin, couple of runeworded equipment going and some nice unique/set drops. Also crafted pretty much max ilvl savege polearm at this point for my merc who now does near 300 dmg max. I can't stop help me.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Got to play a few hours of Papers, Please over the weekend. TL;DR: It's intriguing for sure, but so far I'm not loving it.
The core gameplay loop of checking passports, travel documents et. al. for discrepancies is implemented more literally than I expected, but it's also surprisingly fun. The fact that the processing happens in real time, and that you're working on comission, which means that you're encouraged to process as many people as possible in as little time as possible, is an excellent marriage of in-universe and player motivation. The reason that I say I'm not totally sold on the game is that, unexpectedly entertaining though it is, working a border control booth in a small communist East Bloc nation ain't really all that. I'm really feeling the stress of the comission-based salary, which is of course intentional, but I'm not particularly enjoying it. In the end, I think it comes down to personal taste. I've never enjoyed, say, reaction-based card games either, which this game reminds me a lot of for some reason.

I'm on day 7 or 8 now, and the beginnings of a conspiracy are beginning to make themselves known, which promises to deliver some variation to the gameplay. The parts I've found most enjoyable so far have been those controls with some meat to them, such as the husband and wife immigrants, one of whom has valid papers while the other one doesn't. Not to mention the guy who comes back every day with outdated, horribly forged identification. Just adorable. Arstotzka so great, passport not required, right?

Spoiler

Glory to Arstotzka.

 

[Deflowerer]

Edit: wtf, images don't work?

Spoiler

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS DONE WITH ALIEN LEGACY

TONS OF FUN SORT OF A STARFLIGHT LITE EXPERIWNCE WITG RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

EACH ELEMENT IN THEMSELLLVES ISNT AMAZING BUT ALL TOGETHWR COMBINE TO BE AWESOME

JUST BOUGHT NIER FOR THE FAGBONE

STILL PLAYING DEMONS SOULS

 

[frajaq]

Gonna play Deus Ex Human Revolution again

 

[Great Deceiver]

Glorious Nippon action vidya with kickass music and great boss battles. Fuck dangerhairs and their walking simulators.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Got to play a few hours of Papers, Please over the weekend. TL;DR: It's intriguing for sure, but so far I'm not loving it.

I think you're missing the point here. Namely that "working a border control booth in a small communist East Bloc nation ain't really all that". That's the whole point, right there.

This is not a fun ride, but it's a ride you're set upon nevertheless. In a way it's a visual novel or a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" game, in a setting unfamiliar to some but VERY familiar to others (there are people posting on the Codex who don't need to play the game to know this setting and atmosphere) that shows you the consequences of your choices.

There are many themes running about in there as well, far more than can be found on average in a video game. Some of them touch upon yourself. If you find yourself being assigned a thankless, dangerous but important task by the State, how do you go about doing it? Will you be a happy little drone, will you try to grease your own palms, will you show some shred of humanity? Will you go against your own nature, will you sacrifice others to avoid your own demise? And how does your family fit into this? Or your beloved homeland? And is it possible that Jorji plays a bigger role than as the game's comedy relief?

RPGs are all about choices, but most of them fail to deliver the Choice & Consequence-factor with the same weight as this game does.

2013 was busy in gaming, with lots of good games released, but IMO Papers Please is easily the GOTY of that year.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

And is it possible that Jorji plays a bigger role than as the game's comedy relief?

Any bloke who names his country as Cobrastan is A-okay in my book.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Got to play a few hours of Papers, Please over the weekend. TL;DR: It's intriguing for sure, but so far I'm not loving it.

I think you're missing the point here. Namely that "working a border control booth in a small communist East Bloc nation ain't really all that". That's the whole point, right there.

This is not a fun ride, but it's a ride you're set upon nevertheless.

No, I get that. At least I think I do. I guess I can't help but think of it as a videogame, like any other. To be harsh, it reminds me of those jokes that some games do where they try to be satirical by giving you a pointless and unfulfilling task as a way of making fun of video game traditions. The tutorial in the Far Cry spinoff Blood Dragon has the main character complain throughout about why he needs to be told how to jump, shoot etc. The goal was obviously to make fun of tutorials, but it falls completely flat when the game nevertheless makes you go through it. I just don't think being boring on purpose is any excuse.

The gameplay in Papers, Please isn't that; as I said, it's much more entertaining than I thought it would be. There hasn't been much choice to speak of so far either, apart from deciding whether or not to let through some alleged pimp, as well as some small bribes, which I haven't needed to accept, which based on what you hold as the game's strong points makes me hopeful that the game has yet to really get going. That's why I say I'm excited for the game to start introducing some more involving incidents. I have only played about 2 hours, after all, and this was more of a "first impressions" post than anything else. I'm also finally getting really in the groove of checking papers, although I think my inability to remember the passport issuing stations of each country is killing my efficiency.

I will say that I agree that the setting is extremely well done. I'm lucky not to have had any personal experience with this kind of situation, but from where I'm sitting it all seems frighteningly plausible. I would continue playing for the setting alone.

Any bloke who names his country as Cobrastan is A-okay in my book.

The real tragedy is that I'm prepared to let him in right now, as I think he's earned it, but I'm compelled to hold off just to see what he'll come back with next time.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm prepared to let him in right now, as I think he's earned it,

Spoiler

When his paperwork seems right, it's because it is.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'm prepared to let him in right now, as I think he's earned it,

Spoiler

When his paperwork seems right, it's because it is.

Seems legit.

 

[Astral Rag]

Completed the proper Special Edition of MI1 again last night and am now playing the remastered version of Full Throttle for the first time. Of course I do not use the new flash-grade graphics but the remastered sound and music are nice. Will replay with commentary next time.

The game is still as good as it always was except for the combat which still sucks. Fortunately it only takes about 5 minutes if you know what you're doing.

 

[Kabas]

Started playing the Dwarf run.
Right now i am at the chapter 4, i think. The part where

Spoiler

Dalain and co got shrunk by the efreet and are forced to fight normal sized insects, crows and rats

I am loving it so far. Especially the way this game handles items and character stats/skills.
You kinda want to have everything on everyone here(with the only exception being an intelligence on Dalain, but even when i am still worried about encountering someone who can cast a possess on him). You can't hit shit without dexterity and your hp rises only if you rise your constitution. I am even thinking about giving a bit of strength to Barbados because of the way the summon spell works(summoned skeleton uses the stats of the summoner). Basically, you need to plan your character builds ahead.
Equipment is also important here, some of these items can even be called a build defining. I found a crossbow early on in the game that is only usable by the dwarves of the party, so i decided to dump the strength stat on my cleric and turn him into the secondary archer. A viable choice so far, with the only downside being that i run out of arrows quickly in the serious figts(Both Ionor and Zenn use the same arrows and those are limited). Good thing that the elf is pretty good in melee, especially with the spear.
Some combat encounters are tough, but none of those felt unfairly tough to me. If i get my butt handed to me it's usually means that i need to change my tactic. And changing tactics usually works for me on the first try.
I also like a bit simplistic adventure-like gameplay outside of combat.

 

[Enrymion]

Playing Earth Lords which has adorably immature and unprofessional voice lines like "You stink", "Talk to the hand", "I'm the man", "Oo I bet that hurt", "I told you your breath stunk" and all the avatars look silly and stupid in a nice way.

Also having over 40 equipment slots feels interesting.

 

[pakoito]

One of those is not like the others. Is it the developer?

 

[Enrymion]

No idea, the devs name is Wayne Stewart but there are a lot of people with that name and looking at his old website wasn't very helpful(https://web.archive.org/web/20040414073623/http://earthlords.com:80/).

 

[Astral Rag]

So Prosper's real name is actually Wayne Stewart. very intereradesting

 

[CryptRat]

This game is fun, thanks. Are you playing the registered version?

 

[Enrymion]

Are you playing the registered version?

Yeah, found it through this thread https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikes...up_looking_for_this_roguelikeish_game/e1a86sf

 

[CryptRat]

Nice, thanks, I thought I would have to feel depressed because I couldn't progress past the demo limitations.

I like how you have to find a way to climb, swim (buy flippers, get the treasure in the middle of the first map, profit), some magic or magical weapon to fight some enemies ...

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I've had my fill of Dungeons of Dredmor... for life.

It's a damn good roguelike and has a lot of things going for it, but ultimately the bad things outweigh the good.

# Even after three DLCs and several massive updates it's still a bug-riddled mess. I tried four playthroughs, and all four of them ended because the game ate the saves. The furthest one reached Level 10 of the dungeon.
# There is no support for the game anymore as the devs went out of business.
# That includes documentation. I counted at least two hidden stats and more hidden effects than you can shake a Diggle at. Online documentation is bare-bones as the fan-base is dead.
# While there is mod support, none of it touches upon the game's stability or UI.
# The UI scaling to high monitor resolutions is an afterthought, at best. You can double-size the inventory and the status bar, but not the character screen, meaning you're squinting at tiny symbols trying to gauge their meaning.
# It's an OCD gamer's worst nightmare. So much stuff, so much of it with multiple uses, so much to craft... and four different crafting stats to make use of it all.

All of this piles on to make the game a chore to play, especially later on. It's still one of the wittiest and 'jokey' games I've ever played, and easily the funniest roguelike out there, but it's aged badly even though it's not even 10 years old.

Approach with caution, it will suck you in, chew you up and spit you back out.