What game are you wasting time on?

[Darth Roxor]

But anyway, use spoiler tags or I'll ban you

Dafuk.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

boo infinitron

this was on the cusp of being a codex tradition and now you've ruined it

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Ban Infinitron

 

[ItsChon]

And here I thought the Codex was all about free speech, literally took two seconds to scroll by.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

On one hand I'm relieved someone put a stop to the stupid scrollathons put on by Roxor and ERYFKRAD and whomever else wanted to reveal their immaturity to the world.

On the other hand Infinitron shows once again that he's not qualified to have administrative powers by forcing changes upon Durandal's post(s) and only now seems to notice that there's a Codexer that can (and does) churn out literal walls of text on various games. Someone on staff should have contacted Durandal by now, if only to extend the offer of making those texts "official" Codex texts.

 

[Darth Roxor]

On one hand I'm relieved someone put a stop to the stupid scrollathons put on by Roxor and ERYFKRAD and whomever else wanted to reveal their immaturity to the world.

On the other hand Infinitron shows once again that he's not qualified to have administrative powers by forcing changes upon Durandal's post(s) and only now seems to notice that there's a Codexer that can (and does) churn out literal walls of text on various games. Someone on staff should have contacted Durandal by now, if only to extend the offer of making those texts "official" Codex texts.

this

 

[Dedup]

I finished Hero U: Rogue to Redemption and generally had a good time with it. Most everything on a technical level is at least competently done (just the animations I found a little wierd) though there was also no aspect of the game that blew mind. I found HeroU's simplistic turn based combat to be enjoyable and maybe rate it just a bit under the combat of the EGA QFG 1 (which is my favourite combat system of the QFG games). I was also pleased that I only ran into one, non-gamebreaking bug in my play through, though I believe there is also a bug that will freeze the game if you click on a specific plaque.

One of the quibbles I had with the game, the restrictive timer. While the timer makes sense in context of the school setting, it feels like it goes too fast, especially during dialogue sequences or if you have to get someplace deep in a dungeon. I did miss having character class options, since the game focuses on a rogue, many of the challenges only have a single solution using rogue skills/equipment instead of like other QFG games where the different classes would solve things in a different manner.

Now that I'm finished that, I'm going to start playing Heroine's Quest. I've had it downloaded for a while but never got around to playing it, despite it being highly rated by others. In addition to that, I still have to finish my run of Secret of the Silver Blades.

 

[Chippy]

Vampire: Redemption. I'd forgotten how awful it is.

*Goes back to play it*

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

just clicked over 600 hours in underrail

currently having TONS of fun with crossbow/stealth/traps build w/crafting as dumps

just finished destroying the rathound king; the game must have changed since the last time i thrashed him; the King fight itself was tricky as usual but the lead up skirmish before the labyrinth was EXCELLENT. i dont remember there being a deathstalker in that area, it must have been added in a recent patch i dunno whatever it was glorious.

rathound king's crossbow was a bit underwhelming; my scoped typhoon with 25% crit chance is superior

nice armour though; i'll be keeping that swag and no mistake

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

It is before UFO afterlight and aftershock style of design your base for future fights.
It is also before Neverwinter Nights2 OC's crossroad keep so that is out, too.
Also you are a newbie while tehre's still a lot of oldsters in command so hardly believable to have your MC in total control.
Beside, the bases are changed throughout main campaign, so there's that limitation.

It wasn't before X-Com or X-COM: Apocalypse though. I'm not sure what being before Afterlight, Afershock, and Neverwinter Nights 2 has to do with anything.

I would have gladly traded the conceit that your player character is a new recruit if it meant being given control over base management and trade with towns and villages or whatever in the surrounding area. Although the game does have you moving up, so starting you in a place where you don't have those options, and having you advance as the game goes along to where you do get those kinds of options wouldn't have been crazy. The weird thing about it is Fallout Tactics is built on ideas that could easily feed into X-Com style base management and whatnot. Your groups whole backstory is they're cut off and isolated and using the people of the area to help themselves expand; that could have made for really good gameplay, they just didn't do anything with it.

 

[Strange Fellow]

The thing about Tactics is that it was kind of a movie tie-in-like slam dunk made to capitalize on the Fallout hype, but then everything that came after was so much worse that it's now considered a respectable turn-based tactics game, all things considered.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Just finished Dying Light

Spoiler

I have never had trouble with the traversal mechanics in this game, but fuck me, the tower leading to the final fight was so full of finicky, awkward, barely-can-make-it jumps and shit. KIlled the momentum leading to the final fight completely. Then the final fight with the big bad, who they'd done a great job making me hate, was a fucking quick time event. What an absolute load blower. Total anti-climax

 

[Ocelot]

Vampire: Redemption. I'd forgotten how awful it is.

*Goes back to play it*

The EYE Divine Cybermancy experience.

Is this the game where each Vampire clan gives you a completely different experience?

 

[Raapys]

Redemption is both awful and great. It has an excellent character development system, much better than Bloodline's. Also great atmosphere and interesting loot. Even the story, which starts out very cliche, doesn't turn out that badly in the end.

On the other hand, the camera is as bad as NWN2's, the party AI atrocious, the UI and documentation awful and it has some troubles detecting what you're actually clicking at in the scene.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Redemption is both awful and great. It has an excellent character development system, much better than Bloodline's. Also great atmosphere and interesting loot. Even the story, which starts out very cliche, doesn't turn out that badly in the end.

On the other hand, the camera is as bad as NWN2's, the party AI atrocious, the UI and documentation awful and it has some troubles detecting what you're actually clicking at in the scene.

Also great dialogue.

 

[Chippy]

Vampire: Redemption. I'd forgotten how awful it is.

*Goes back to play it*

The EYE Divine Cybermancy experience.

Is this the game where each Vampire clan gives you a completely different experience?

What everyone else said. The bosses are also like ice-skating uphill in terms of difficulty - I had no trouble at all with a golem, then after restarting he uppercut my stongest party member repeatedly in each fight and it was essentially a 1-shot. Took over ten attempts to get past that one because he started each fight with the same uppercut.
But if you consider yourself a seroius RPG player; its worth a few bob on GOG and at least one playthrough. Then when its over you'll get depressed thinking: "Why can't they just make the same type of game, with all these mechanics, but with better graphics today?".

 

[Puukko]

Got back into System Shock 1. The controls and interface weren't that difficult to learn, though I did end up having to resort to a walkthrough eventually. Miss one hidden door and you'll be wandering around like a headless chicken.

 

[Krivol]

Kingdom Come Deliverance. What a brilliant game. Buggy as fuck (I messed one quest and no fences for me , I had to reload 2-3 times due to AI clusterfuck or/and game freezing, and if you can't save at will it is a bit frustrating) but I love it.

+ I like main hero - he is a bit naive at times, and looks like a peasant, but I like his dialogues a lot
+ dialogues - well, in main quest writing is good so far
+ character development is nice, I allways prefer XP and levels system, but this one is much better than Skyrim shit
+ fist fights - long and bloody :D
+ sword fights - I've heard that this game is too hard, and if you face 2 enemies at time you are dead... well, yes, if you are a moron - I mean I was able to kill 2 Hungarians in main quest (the one with captured young noble) and 4 rednecks with sticks when I was pushed into a trap by some girl (random encounter). I am not going to fight with knights and true warriors yet, and fights I choose are easy... well, handable
+ exploring - I think it's better than in W3
+ minigames are not annoying (yet )
+ leraning how to read
+ you have to eat, sleep etc.
+ immersive world interaction. If you are grabbing something, then you are grabbing something, not teleporting it into your stash
+ it is important how you look, if you are clean, if your clothes are clean etc
+ no magic!
+ historical setting
+ game looks nice even on my rig (GFX 970 IIRC, nothing fancy today)...

- ... but quite often textures are loading too slow
- prlogue - fuck, if you believed that F3 had too long prologue, then try this game. It took me 3 or 4 hours from the very begning to free roaming Czech Republic
- cutscenes... I'm playing it first time so it's not that annoying, but I belivere replaying this game makes you suffer (main quest mostly)
- sub-quests are not that great so far

Worth a buy, worth a play. I would call it Elder Scrolls not for dummies.

Oh and I'm still not that far in this game (I just got drunk with some priest )

 

[Dux]

*sits down to play some games*



*heat wave intensifies*

 

[Gregz]

*sits down to play some games*



*heat wave intensifies*

mylife.jpg

 

[jaydee2k]

Thrones of Britannia, thx to V*ksi.
It's dogshit

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finished Psi-Ops Mindgate Conspiracy. Had to use virtual PC to not infest my PC with StarForce DRM.

And that dogshit ending - bad guy is gone, maguffin recovered so what we gonna do? Put a fuking cliffhanger out of ass.
Cliffhangers are shit but this one was even worse because there was nothing that would lead to it.
Nothing.
Three seconds before "To Be Continued" shows up there is ATTACK HELICOPTERS assault and credits starts rolling.
what the hell

Oh and there are these annoying beasts from another dimenshion. Invisible, shows up moment before they grab you and damage for noticable HP chunk, can't be shot earlier.
Still - throwing enemies, mind control and forcing them to shove the barrel in the mouth was rewarding enough.

RIP Barret
PSI powers unlocks - you have training exercise to complete.
And in each seassion Barret have different haircut becasue why not. And fistful of roasting quotes when you die, fail or kill enemies. Neat.

 

[DalekFlay]

Finally made it to Kaer Morhen in The Witcher 3 and now I need a break, so it's back to Dishonored 2 about halfway in (Conservatory level). I really disagree with a lot of the Codex on Dishonored 1 and 2. I think they're great games and true heirs to the Thief-ish legacy. I'm literally right in front of the final "jump into the pit" in Pillars of Eternity but I'm too bored to go back and finish it off. Part of that is feeling like I need to do White March Part Two as well I guess, which I assume is 10+ hours. Ugh.

Also installed Return to Castle Wolfenstein and blew through some early levels to get a quick shooter fix. Might keep going, who knows.

Bought Lumines Remastered mostly for the wife but it's more fun than most Tetris-a-likes, with great music.

 

[Ovplain]

Most recently played through 'Torment - Tides of Numenera' and 'Dead Space 1.' I liked them both! 27 hours into 'Expeditions: Viking' now and I'm having fun with this one too.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Finished Homeworld. My thoughts, and spoilers, ahead! I wonder where the fuck those last 25 points were.

Well, I love the Legend text adventures to bits, and this one was no exception. I had started it once before, and the only reason I didn't complete it back then was that my saves were lost in a hard drive failure about halfway through, and I couln't be arsed to play through it again right then and there. By the time I would have been prepared to do so I had completely forgotten about it. Of the Legend games I've played, the original Gateway is my favourite. I think the sequel falls short of equalling the quality of its predecessor, but it is nevertheless an excellent game and a worthy addition to the Legend pantheon.

The good:

• The puzzles. The backbone of any non-pretentious adventure game, and they are very solid here. On the whole, I found them to be perfectly balanced for my very modest talents of adventure game puzzle solving, primarily because they remained consistently logical throughout, with only a few egregious exceptions.* Most of them were fun to solve, and, in true Legend fashion, allowed for some hilarity when playing around with the pieces. I can imagine that people who get up in arms about realism in games will turn their noses up at ancient space-faring civilizations' fondness for the "multicoloured buttons" school of spacecraft control, but fuck those people.
• The engine. Homeworld retains the text adventure/point-and-click hybrid engine used for the original, as well as Timequest, Eric the Unready and the Spellcasting games. What can I say? The text is crisp and legible even in its original resolution, not only on my 1980x1200 screen, but also on my Galaxy Note 3, which I used for most of my playthrough. There are comprehensive lists of keywords and supported verbs, the latter of which is impressively large and allows for a ton of delightful goofing around (like this). The game can be played with the keyboard only, with the mouse only, or a combination (which is probably your best bet, even on a phone). The graphics of both cutscenes and normal play are beautiful, but can be mostly ignored if you want to -- there's no pixel hunting. The parser allows for a wide range of inputs, and making the game do what you want it to is always completely painless. Absolutely top notch.
• The descriptive writing. This is the area where the writers excel. I've mentioned that Homeworld is a relatively easy game, and that is partly because of the almost complete lack of redundant information; it is never a problem to figure out what objects are interactable, and what information is useful. The fact that the game is as atmospheric and well-written as it is is a testament to how well the writers knew their medium. Pillars crew, take heed. Then there's the sheer amount of stuff you can try that the game responds to, which makes toying with the parser almost as fun as doing what you're supposed to be doing.
• The setting. Disclaimer: I have no idea how much credit for the game's setting is due Frederic Pohl, the sci-fi novelist upon whose work the Gateway games are based. Luckily this isn't a review so I don't have to give a shit, all I have to do is say that it is one of, if not the most interesting sci-fi setting of any game I've played. I won't waste more words on it than that.

The mixed:

• Part IV: Homeworld. Here, the writers faced the impossible challenge of creating the homeworld of a completely alien species, the specifics of which had been shrouded in mystery throughout the entirety of the first game as well as the beginning three fourths of the second. It's not a horrible ending, but as everyone who is familiar with the term "midichlorians" knows, it is often better to let mysteries remain unsolved. I think the first game pulled this off a lot better with the Assassin vessel, which was a clever subversion of expectations, and allowed some of the mystery surrounding the Assassins to remain. By comparison, the political squabbles and familiar mannerisms of the Heechee felt anticlimactic and altogether too mundane for the legendary civilization it had beeen hyped up to be. That said, I found the puzzles enjoyable and the NPC interaction refreshing.

The bad:

• The dialogue. I was disappointed to find that Homeworld ditched the parser-based dialogue system of the first game in favour of a node-based one, like in Eric the Unready. As a result, dialogue feels a lot more restricted, and since there is no C&C, ultimately like a checklist. It isn't that big an issue, especially considering the fact that, outside of the final chapter, there is very little dialogue at all, but it's too bad nonetheless. I also don't think the dialogue is as well written as the rest of the game (anyone who hates NPCs telling their life stories at hello should stay far away from the digitized consciousness database on the Artifact). As I touched upon above, that goes double for the Heechee -- I know the protagonist got the babel fish treatment, but I still think the frequent colloquialism was a little, dare I say it, immersion-breaking.
• Filler maps. There aren't many, but they exist, and they are annoying. Especially the third chapter should have done away with the half a dozen "frozen wasteland" maps with nothing in them. They're not a challenge to navigate, but it's a hassle if you get disoriented.
• Released in December 1993, Homeworld was Legend Entertainment's last text adventure.

Some notes on how the game controlled on a phone: Surprisingly well, actually. I had practically no issues, other than the fact that the text was a little too small for my myopic ass, even on a screen as big as the Galaxy Note. There are a few screens, primarily operating keypads and the like, that controlled better with the mouse. Luckily these aren't too common, and there's no precision required. Overall a thumbs up for phone emulation, and I'll be testing out one of the Infocom games next. Dunno which one yet, other than that it'll be one I haven't played. I'm open to suggestions.



*

Spoiler

In part III, the one on the Kord planet, I was tasked with locating a spaceship that had crashed into the surface, leaving a huge crater. This crater then filled with ice, which subsequently cracked, forming a maze of pathways, like so:

Now, how to figure out which pathway leads to the centre? Why, by pouring water from a bowl down on the ground at every intersection, of course! The slope of the crater causes the water to run towards the centre of the crater, where the spaceship is located. All you have to do is follow it. So far so good, right? Except not really. The astute among you will observe that water poured on the ground will run directly towards the centre, which is absolutely not the direction you want to go! Fortunately it's not a difficult puzzle, and my adventure game senses allowed me to make it through, but this is one hell of a forced and gamey solution, which is especially disappointing considering how good the game has been about avoiding that kind of bullshit up until this point.

Then there's the cave with the dead Kord in it. The game presents something like six seemingly identical caves for the player to try and enter, all but one resulting in a game over. I know this because I tried them all randomly. Homeworld vets, if you exist: am I missing something here? I didn't find any way to make he young Kord in the village part with his stick either. Is this where the 25 missing points are gained?

Finally there's the riddle for getting in to the White Hand's headquarters by turning the circular stone plates with symbols on them to match up with the element-themed pillars.:
"Eat the rock, and breathe the soil,
Make the warrens you left behind,
Air, Fire and Water give deference to
Stone,
It is the foundation of life."
I didn't figure this one out, so I just turned the stone plates at random and the hatch popped open.

Bonus: My favourite game over screen of the game. So simple, so beautiful: