What game are you wasting time on?

[Azalin]

Finished Yakuza 0,it's the first game of the series I played and I have to say I liked it.It's a good open world game(although the world isn't that big) with the gameplay being mostly a beat em up and 15 different mini games if you want to spend the time doing them.Graphics were good and you can max them out without too much difficulty,music and performances were good but the story is the best part that keeps you going,the characters are nice especially Majima who has a better story and better fighting styles than Kiryu(why didn't you choose the girl at the end,why???? ).One downside is that it was a buggy game,I had 4-5 crashes playing Majima's the Cabaret Czar mini game,I had randomly sound stuttering until I fixed the ini file and I was plagued by the stupid inventory bug almost the whole game.Still recommended and I will probably add Yakuza Kiwami to my wishlist

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A game I've had an eye on for a long time finally went on sale, so I snapped it up and gave it a try.

I Can't Escape: Darkness is a more mature and polished version of the Flash game I Can't Escape where you play an archeologist who finds himself trapped in a labyrinth-like tomb and (as some have perhaps already guessed) is trying to escape. What caught my interest about the game is that it combines some interesting light-based elements to what looks, sounds and feels like a real-time grid-based dungeon crawler along the lines of Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder and Legend of Grimrock. Sadly there are no traces of RPGs present here, but the grid and first-person perspective sure are, so many old-school gamers will find themselves at home playing this game.

It quickly dawned on me that this game is actually a roguelike at its heart, with some survival horror elements thrown in for good measure. The dungeon is never the same two games in a row, but it also becomes apparent really quickly that assets are being reused rather extensively. What do I mean? There are always the same amount of enemies on a floor, the same amount of items, the same exact items, and the more important ones are always found in rooms with the exact same layout. ICE: D (nice acronym BTW) quickly becomes extremely predictable as a result, as I always knew what to look for, and soon my only troubles were traversing the corridors between these areas without getting lost or, worst of all, falling down a pit to a lower floor. Unfortunately it's a very small roguelike, only five floors in total.

The game's greatest strength is how it uses darkness as a gameplay mechanic; if you're afraid of the dark you do not want to play this game at all. Just keep in mind that it doesn't employ state-of-the-art modern-day graphical engines... in fact, it's using graphics that don't seem out of place in 1992 or thereabouts, but still conveys a mean sense of atmosphere. But yeah - there are very few light sources in the game and most of them are not only limited resources, but they aren't what one would consider to be light sources in the first place. The flashlight runs on batteries (and finding spare batteries in a centuries-old tomb is harder than it sounds) and the lighter only has a small amount of fuel in it, but if they're used sparingly some other light sources can be found and utilized, like the wall sconces. Another resource worth a mention are the mushrooms - they're either poisonous shrooms, healing shrooms or hallucinogenic shrooms... but as shrooms allow me to briefly see in the dark and spot things not normally seen by the naked eye, they have their uses.

There are enemies to fight in this game, but combat is mostly just whacking at the monsters with whatever impromptu weapons are laying about until either me or the monster lies motionless on the floor. But another realization of mine is how few enemies there really are - I think there are only about five enemy types in the game in total, and only the more powerful ones require more than a shred of intelligence to overcome. That said, there are also monsters in the game that are not hostile at all - part of the game is sorting out the hostile monsters from the peaceful ones and realizing if or how they may potentially aid you.

So unfortunately ICE: D quickly loses its shroud of mystique once people realize how shallow and repetetive the game itself really is, and gameplay starts boiling down to whether RNG has been favorable in finding some of the key elements needed to complete a run successfully. Overall I was disappointed with the game, but that's more due to my expectations not being what they should. That said, I only recommend this game if you can grab it during a sale.


There's only one real guide out there for the game and it's spoiler-laden, so if anyone's feeling like trying out the game, here are some spoiler-free tips to get you started:

# Light is your only ally in this game. Conserve your light sources the best you can, and always keep an eye out for alternative light sources. On the top floor only use the flashlight when in 'dark-as-crap' darkness, as there's plenty of ambient light up there.
# Avoid falling down pits (duh).
# The map is always useful, except for those occasions when it's unavailable.
# Once you have the lighter, use it to light up any and all sconces you come across. Only use the lighter as your main light source as a last resort.
# Because the game hides its stats, I'll tell you the weapon progression: Stick > Broken Bottle > Pickaxe > ??? > ???
# Seeing in the dark does not equal being in a lit environment. This is more important than you think.
# Not every monster you come across is hostile. Only attack monsters that attack you.
# Never push a button while standing right next to it if you can avoid it, odds are good it'll open a trap door right underneath you. Throw a rock at the button instead from one square away.
# Keep an eye on the floor at all times. Some pits are obvious and some are partially covered by vines, but sometimes the floor will look kinda off. Drop a rock at such floors to test its safety.
# Knowing which mushroom is which is an art in and of itself. The only way to find out is to try and note the results. (Left-click to pick one up, then right-click to eat it.)
# Some doors are locked and require keys (circular plate-looking things). You WILL be backtracking to get these doors open.
# There's a crafting station in the game, and it accepts pretty much every inventory item you'll come across. Don't be afraid to experiment, but don't use valuable resources.

 

[Adon]

Rather quickly went through Tex Murphy: Overseer within the past week. Overall, still pretty solid, but nowhere near as good as any of the games that preceded it.

Upon starting the first thing I noticed is that the UI is an immediate from UAKM and TPD. I get the idea behind it -- it's quicker to access. But it's also more annoying whenever I'm trying to do something and the game keeps stopping me by having the menu pop up, or my inventory, or destinations to travel. I was also bummed that I couldn't go out into the streets to explore, and couldn't physically walk up to anyone either. I also dearly missed some of the characters from the previous 2 games that didn't make an appearance.

Some of the puzzles were neat like the dominoes one, and others were just bleh like the one with the cogs at the Anasazi ruins. I think the only one I flat out disliked was the keypad puzzle in Bosworth's lab because of how tone deaf I am and because how quickly the tones would go by. Another thing I noticed was that the game lacked a lot of the same atmosphere as the previous games, and at times even barely seemed like it was in the same setting. Most likely this was as a result of the narrative's framework as it's a story being told by Tex to Chelsee which had its funny moments with the banter between the two of them. Michael York in particular was also pretty great.

Overall, not bad, but not great by any means. I would definitely put this beneath all the other Tex Murphy games despite still enjoying my time with it. That speaks how highly I like the rest of the series.

I can't imagine being a fan of this in the 90s and going over 10 years with Overseer as the last game of the series. All in all, I'm super excited to start Tesla Effect.

 

[someone else]

Completed Dead State Reanimated, they didn't fix the hotel stairs/door bug and I skipped the hotel. Already completed it before Reanimated. waste of time, in hindsight I'll rather wait for finished games before playing them.
Those "reanimated", "directors' cut" or whatever.

 

[MicoSelva]

Batman: Arkham City.

I played Asylum 9 years ago, so it took me a while to readjust to the controls and remember how to use all the gadgets, but after that it is crazy fun to fly around the city, beat up thugs and search for Riddler trophies (even moreso as Catwoman). Curently I am hunting for Penguin in the museum. I love the mix of mood between Burton's and Animated Series Batman, with all the psychotic villains and noir aesthetics. I only wish Scarecrow was in the game too, I really liked his levels in Asylum.

 

[Curratum]

I have become a weeaboo

Playing through Ni No Kuni 2 and enjoying it more than any other game in the last two years.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I have become a weeaboo

Playing through Ni No Kuni 2 and enjoying it more than any other game in the last two years.

Have you played the original? I haven't played Ni No Kuni 2, partly because I hate what they did to the overworld map (chibi shit instead of miniaturised Ghibli animation), but I've seen people say it has declined compared to the original game, which I loved.

 

[Curratum]

I have become a weeaboo

Playing through Ni No Kuni 2 and enjoying it more than any other game in the last two years.

Have you played the original? I haven't played Ni No Kuni 2, partly because I hate what they did to the overworld map (chibi shit instead of miniaturised Ghibli animation), but I've seen people say it has declined compared to the original game, which I loved.

Never played the original but from what I saw in gameplay vids, the combat in 1 looked like a dull pokemon deal to me, while here it's dodge-based mash-em-up, which I find a lot more enjoyable.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Based on a short discussion that came up in General Discussion, I took an evening recently to look at three games I haven't touched in decades. I did this more as a curiosity, and my thoughts here are pretty much based on short impressions, so take them with a grain of salt. Also keep the fact in mind that I'm not as knowledgeable about console games as I am about home computer games, so I may make claims that can be proven false by Weaponized Autists out there. The plan was to spend about 30 minutes on each game, read below to see how that went.

The three games? The Legend of Zelda (1987), Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (1988) and Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past (1991).

I had never actually played the first Zelda game, except briefly try it out back when I first dabbled with DOS-based emulators. It didn't really interest me at the time, and sadly it doesn't do so now. The reason is not because the game is bad, but because I can spot a mile away that I gotta put in the hours and "git gud" at it to make any real progress. The aforementioned short discussion came up because of a video on YouTube where a guy concludes that the original Zelda is a bad game because it isn't as simple as Super Mario Bros... which is like comparing apples to oranges. But he makes an interesting point: SMB is dead simple as everything about the game itself tells you that you can only go right. TLoZ's starting screen offers four directions of travel, and you quickly realize you're dealing with a large screen-by-screen based game world. That will immediately put off a lot of players, but for many others it's a challenge to rise to... and the first thing people can do to make that challenge easier is READ THE FUCKING MANUAL. Seriously, the TLoZ manual is a must-read as it not only explains the game mechanics, but lays down the plot, the overall quest, has lists of monsters and items and even a partial map of the overworld so that people aren't completely lost while playing. People that play this game without the manual are asking for a Bad Time. So while I personally don't like TLoZ that much, I only really have three points of criticism about it:

# The in-game map of the overworld could be better, like give just a little more information than it does. The manual accurately describes it as a radar, but forgets to mention that it's without a frame of reference. Older games did this better.
# Monster movement is utterly random, especially on land-based creatures. Doesn't exactly give space to develop a fighting style, even if it's just a basic guerilla style tactic of jumping in for a single attack.
# The music cannot be turned off. The main Zelda theme is nice and all, but the music GOES ON AND ON AND ON. I gamed on an Amstrad, I know ALL about bad non-stop music in games. This is torture compared to that.

Overall thoughts: It's a bit of a slog, but there's a fun game in there if you put in the effort.

Moving on to Zelda II, I am more familiar with that as I had played it somewhat back in 1991 as a friend of mine owned it and I happened to own the video game magazine that came with a walkthrough+map, so we teamed up to try to beat the game. (I can't remember if we succeeded.) Back then I found the game to be alright but quirky at times, but then again I did not have the original Zelda game as a reference, but Zelda II has a lot in common with Faxanadu, which another friend of mine owned back then. But jumping right from TLoZ to Zelda II today is a bit of a stretch: TLoZ is all top-down perspective, but Zelda II has a top-down overworld but side-scrolling dungeons. Worse yet, those side-scrolling dungeons are kinda crap. I liked the darkness element and how you could still sorta spot monsters in the dark, but beyond that I saw no purpose to it. I didn't see much of the perspective being used for platforming, for example, but rather it was more used to create level layouts with the specific goal of making the player feel bad. In one room in the first dungeon there are enemies that bounce around the walls that really hurt of they touch you. Well, what walls are present in that room are designed to make the those bouncing enemies trap you and kill you quick. Dick move to do so early on, but the combat for me often boiled down to trying to avoid getting hit while waiting for an opening, which isn't as fun as it sounds. Zelda II also has a strange bare-bones XP-based system, but as far as RPGs go I wouldn't really bother with it. You want to know what game I was reminded of while playing Zelda II? Dark Souls. For all the wrong reasons. Zelda II is hailed as the lowest point of the entire Zelda series, and I think I'll just nod approvingly and move on. (At least I got to meet Mr. I Am Error, so that's something.)

Overall thoughts: Pass. Not worth the effort required.

Finally I played A Link to the Past. I remember playing this game somewhere, sometime, but I can't for the life of me recall any details. So I started playing and couldn't remember a thing about it... and yet I felt I've played this game before. The reason why became apparent soon enough: ALttP has been copied, imitated, ripped-off and "me-too"-cloned so many times that a part of it is present in almost every JRPG-esque game ever made. All that has happened because it's a really fucking good game. The improved graphics, animation, in-game map (gotta love that Mode 7 on the SNES) and tons of little details all converge to make one of the best games of All Time. Nevermind the fact that it's a reboot of TLoZ* that reuses so many of its in-game assets, ALttP successfully gets it all right. The game doesn't start with an unarmed Link standing there like an idiot in the wilderness, it starts with Link sleeping in his bed, and then slowly and gradually leads the player through the start of the game until Link gets his hand on a weapon by normal-sounding means, not by finding some old guy in a cave that gives a weapon to a complete stranger for no reason. ALttP never leaves the player feeling clueless as to where to go next or what to do, it has Quest Markers but leaves it up to the player to figure out how to get to those locations. Also, once the first castle segment is done the player is free to explore the land. There are very few artifical obstacles placed to restrict travel and exploration feels fun. I planned on only playing ALttP for 30 minutes, but I lost track of time and ended up playing it for three hours, of which far too much time was spent mowing the grass and kicking chickens around. This is the game that made the Zelda series what it is today. Ocarina of Time may have made the series transition to 3D, but it's still based heavily on this one.

Retro Gamer magazine placed A Link to the Past at the #1 spot in their recent Top 100 List of All Time, and I understand why now. It's essentially flawless. I still wish I could turn the music off though. :/

Overall thoughts: Play this if you haven't, it's both a top-quality game and a big piece of gaming history as it's the granddaddy of so many other games and basic game design elements.


*Yes, I'm aware of the overly convoluted Hyrule Timeline. That thing didn't exist in 1991, so there.

 

[Machocruz]

Finally got around to finishing my first (and probably only) XCOM: EU campaign. It's not a patch on UFO Defense, but it's good for what it is. I enoyed it. Decent production values for a turn based game, but the weapon designs were lame. Strategy layer is a joke though. Super limited. I lost one country, and only because the strategy layer is disgustingly linear and I tried to play like it wasn't. I was expecting the last mission to be a gauntlet. Structurally, you can say it is, but in terms of difficulty it was a cakewalk, easier than some of the regular missions I played.

After, I jumped into EW Long War. Incline as far as this game goes, but do I really want the game to last longer than the vanilla campaign? Not really. That's time I could be using to playing god-like UFO D again, or even Apocalypse.

Also jumped back into Red Dead Redemption. Finally got to the Mehico chapter, which highlights a big pet peeve about this game: parts of the map not open until the story says so. I know GTA3 was like that, but I don't remember it being in GTA4, which preceded this game. I don't give a fuck about your story and being errand boy, I want to go where i want, shoot bears in the dick, and help/harm strangers. And way too much shooting going on already, with mechanics that aren't varied or interesting enough to keep it from being tiresome not even halfway through the game. Playing with lock on gets boring, and playing without it is a bear on PS3's controller. Too much dead zone or something, over sensitive/jumpy aim movement. I wonder if shooting in R* games is more satisfying on PC.

Still, I have to say the first impressions and hours of the game were some of the best AAA had to offer last gen. Rockstar nailed the graphics/art direction, music, Old west movie feel, decent dialogue, likable characters.

 

[HansDampf]

That's the first time I've heard someone complain about music in Zelda games.

 

[someone else]

Replaying Arx Fatalis, a game I never got far years ago, maybe I will finish it this time.
Dunno why it never captivated me like Ultima Underworld.

 

[newtmonkey]

Spent the last couple of days playing through The Secret of Monkey Island for the first time!

I've not played many point & click adventure games, and while I enjoyed my time on Melee and Monkey Island, I'm just not sure that I am a fan of these kinds of games. There were a couple of parts where I got stuck for a while simply because I didn't realize something was an exit (the hatch on your boat comes to mind) or even at one point where I didn't realize you could scroll the Monkey Island map beyond that first area (they should have had the cursor change or something when you moved it to the edge of the screen to indicate that you can change screens).

Otherwise, the music is great (what little there is), it's got some of the best EGA graphics around, and it is LOL funny. I liked the game, but I'm not sure if I want to keep exploring this genre.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I liked the game, but I'm not sure if I want to keep exploring this genre.

Keep in mind that Monkey Island is at the "dawn" of the point-and-click era, it has a few kinks that need to be worked out.

And they will be. Keep at it for a little more and see if you don't notice an improvement.

And Brofist for playing the EGA version first.

 

[v1rus]

Based on a short discussion that came up in General Discussion, I took an evening recently to look at three games I haven't touched in decades. I did this more as a curiosity, and my thoughts here are pretty much based on short impressions, so take them with a grain of salt. Also keep the fact in mind that I'm not as knowledgeable about console games as I am about home computer games, so I may make claims that can be proven false by Weaponized Autists out there. The plan was to spend about 30 minutes on each game, read below to see how that went.

Couple months ago, I beat all three of those in a row, and I must say, I /brofist each of your impressions.

One important thing I feel you missed, is that it seems that the whole concept of the first Zelda game was to play it with your whole neighborhood. All those loony secrets and impossible to know things make perfect sense if your whole class is simultaneously playing the game, and exchanging notes.

I fully acknowledge that playing the first Zelda under those circumstances was certainly a magical experience. Today tho, its nothing more than a gaming artifact, like first Lumiere films, and nostalgia fuel.

Link to the Past, on the other hand, is a real good game that set so many principles of game design, like you said, and certainly worth a play, if not multiple plays.

EDIT - scratch that, its not a real good game, its a masterpiece.

 

[Mark Richard]

Battlestar Galactica Deadlock hit the news with its Broken Alliance expansion recently. I snapped the whole thing up on a whim. Turns out its a surprisingly decent fleet tactics game set during the first Cylon war. The twelve colonies have just signed the Articles of Colonisation and united, but the new alliance is tenuous at best. There's a lot of sceptical eyeballs on the newly formed Colonial Fleet, which the player is a part of. What this boils down to is shuffling around model ships on a galactic campaign map to protect colonies from Cylon rading parties (lest they leave the alliance and stop funding Colonial operations) while occasionally taking a story mission to advance the plot.

As simple as the campaign map is, the battles themselves can get deceptively involved. Combat is simultaneous turn-based, meaning you move your ships while trying to predict the opponent's movements, and the results play out over ten seconds of real time. Fights are in a 3D space so the vertical plane needs to be considered, as there may not be much in the way of guns or armour at the top/bottom of some ships. Throw in a bunch of frail individual subsystems that regulate everything from weapons to navigation, and you get a scrumptious combat soup. Angling ships to protect their damaged sides, jockeying for position to assault an enemy's vulnerable rear, closing to point blank range to unleash a devastating torpedo volley, it's all good clean fun. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the music too, which emulates the style of the 2004 show and forces me to take back everything bad I ever said about bagpipes.

Made by the same developer, Star Hammer: The Vanguard Prophecy is a precursor to BG: Deadlock. There are a few key differences which elevate BG, particularly since the Broken Alliance DLC came out.

- BG has higher production values, with solid voice acting, and music that offers quantity as well as quality. The OST clocks in at just under 3 hours, Star Hammer can barely manage 30 minutes. The story of Star Hammer takes place entirely within text logs.

- BG has 21 capital ships and 10 fighter class squadrons between the humans and Cylons, many of which can be outfitted with different munitions. They also look like elegant killing machines. Star Hammer has a measly 6 ships that look like they were sold by a shifty junk dealer from a Star Wars movie. The main enemy of the game doesn't even use ships, they're floating space squid who all look alike. It's okay for me to say that because many of my closest friends are squid.

- A battle in BG typically involves a dozen ships in a constant game of manoeuvring. If the armour is shot up on one side, you have to protect that bad side like a boxer. Star Hammer is much laxer when it comes to positioning. It tries to mix things up with the threat of ramming attacks, but being able to instantly redistribute regenerating shield power is just too easy. Even hull damage can be repaired relatively quickly mid-fight. The weakness of the enemy is compensated with sheer numbers, flooding the screen with 30+ squid.

In short, I don't think its worth going back through the developer's catalogue to pick this one up. Their space tactics games have only improved.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

One important thing I feel you missed, is that it seems that the whole concept of the first Zelda game was to play it with your whole neighborhood. All those loony secrets and impossible to know things make perfect sense if your whole class is simultaneously playing the game, and exchanging notes.

Oh man, I loved doing that back in the day. The games where we'd all chip in to find the correct solution: Space Quest 4 and 5, most of the Larry games, Sam & Max Hit the Road (we actually got stumped on that one), UFO: Enemy Unknown, XCom: TFTD and the original Jagged Alliance, Zelda II (as I mentioned), Mega Man 1 and 3, and the biggest one for me - Star Control 2. I was the one who first pieced together all the little tidbits and notes everyone else had gathered and used them to beat the game. I then wrote a walkthrough for it, printed out ten copies and handed them out to those who wanted it.

Then the Internet arrived and the need to do this dropped sharply. It was kinda sad, because the "old school method" brought people together in amazing ways. Even the teachers at school took note when the jocks and the nerds were united in talking about something positively... even if it was video games.

 

[someone else]

is ok, you can still talk games here.
like is Fallout the best game of all time?

 

[Bigg Boss]

Link to the Past a reboot?

In 1991 I thought it was a prequel. I can pull out some maps and quote some nonsense, but it's all gay stuff people make up last minute as most of us try to pretend to ignore.

Shit now I am getting all nostalgic.

---

I have been playing Diablo II over Hamachi with a few fellas. I still like Diablo 1 better. That and attempting to work my way through Deus Ex through parts that bored me before. That has to be my least favorite aspect of gaming actually, ya know? Replaying parts you gave up on before for whatever reason. With a movie you can just fast forward. With a game you have to replay all that shit. Fuck you Temple of Trials!

Also, I am about to run through MGS2 HD. It is time. Last time I played it was on the PS2.

 

[sullynathan]

but I don't remember it being in GTA4

you couldn't cross the bridge in GTA 4 until a story point

 

[newtmonkey]

Keep in mind that Monkey Island is at the "dawn" of the point-and-click era, it has a few kinks that need to be worked out.

And they will be. Keep at it for a little more and see if you don't notice an improvement.

And Brofist for playing the EGA version first.

Thanks for the encouragement.

I went on to give LeChuck's Revenge a try, just at the beginning now so I am exploring around and seeing what's available.
The iMUSE music is AMAZING. I loved how instruments fade in/out and change as you enter different areas. Sounds absolutely gorgeous on MT-32.

Anyway, would you recommend going on to this game? Or playing something else first?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The only sidestep/backstep I'd recommend (others can probably jump in with other recommendations) is Loom™, if you haven't played it already.

Otherwise I'd just keep going, based on release dates. Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis, Day of the Tentacle, Beneath a Steel Sky, possibly Simon the Sorcerer, and so on.

 

[newtmonkey]

Unkillable Cat
I actually did play and finish Loom™ (I see what you did there) just a few months ago. I really liked it, which is what sort of kicked off this adventure game thing for me recently. Probably the best EGA graphics I've ever seen in that one.

I think I'll continue playing LeChuck's Revenge since I've already put an hour or so into it, then move on to Indiana Jones & The Fate of Atlantis.
I played an finished Day of the Tentacle when I was a kid, but barely remember it (I probably just followed a walkthrough).

 

[Villagkouras]

The Messenger is fucking

I haven't played the original Ninja Gaiden that this game refers to a lot, but what I'm seeing is an excellent action/platformer/metroidvania with some of the best 2D bosses and some jokes. There are also constant twists so if you're interested, try to go somewhat blind, it's not that big deal, but you're going to appreciate those story/gameplay twists more.

I'm still in the middle of this but it's great.

 

[newtmonkey]

Divinity: Original Sin
I think I am in some kind of funk, I am just not enjoying games lately.

Finally started this game and put some time into it. I thought the inspiration for this was Ultima 7? This is as far from a "living" open world as you can get. Equipment is level locked. Encounters are all fixed at certain points in the map just waiting for you, so, in effect, the game is level scaled because you are obviously supposed to go around only fighting encounters within 1 level or so of your average party level. I feel like I am playing Final Fantasy Tactics here, just with some wandering around in between tactical battles. The combat is fun, though frustrating if you wander upon an encounter that is a couple levels above you, but if it's just a series of tactical battles in between wandering around towns and reading this horrible writing, I dunno if I can bear to play this one much longer.