What game are you wasting time on?

[octavius]

Next game on my list is Kingpin - Life of Crime, another real time game, but being a traditional FPS using the Quake 2 engine a kind of game I'm familiar with.
But to my horror I see I have not bought it from GOG. Is it worth waiting for until it is on sale?

And three weeks later it went on sale.

My first purchase from GOG in over a year, I think.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Depends on type of game in my experience.
I'm worse at real time games now than 20+ years ago. For example, I used twice as many hours to complete System Shock 1 when I was 45 than when I was 25 (I wrote down my original score in the manual).

But I'm much better at turn based strategy games now, which is not only a good thing, since the poor AI in nearly all TBS games can be frustrating. And I don't play multi-player any more (doctor's orders; it's not good for my health).

not sure if you're being serious, but this actually happened to me
competitive online games were driving my blood pressure up

 

[octavius]

Halfway serious; I self diagnosed.

 

[Sceptic]

Lots of fun in Ultima Underworld. Level 6, the automap and personal notes feature works great. So far my only concerns are the not so vast bestiary and the inventory, sticking with 15 in strength in the long term was a poor choice, although I like to manage my personal storerooms, but I'm not even able to carry some gold and food, ah, and the midi soundtrack sucks. But great experience so far.

Music is awesome, so I'm guessing you misconfigured something there. Glad you enjoyed the game despite gimping yourself (Strength is pretty much the only attribute worth starting high). Are you playing UW2 next? It's much expanded and more detailed and better in some ways, though it loses some of the nonlinearity and the sheer joy that brought in the first game. Exploration in some of the worlds is still top notch though, and the variety in environments, NPCs and enemies is astounding.

 

[someone else]

Completed Serpent Isle, trippy ending.
I prefer The Black Gate.

 

[newtmonkey]

Wednesday night is drinking night, so I decided to play me some games.

Sword & Sorcery
Slowly working my way through the dungeon under the tavern. I am really liking this so far. I thought it was more like Wizardry when I bought it, but it turns out it's more like Might & Magic 1. I guess my only complaint is the ugly interface. I looked the game up on google image and saw an earlier version, where everything was in its own frame, and I think I prefer that look. It's just weird having the viewpoint full screen with the interface stuff just stuck on top of it. That's just nitpicking though, this game is a lot of fun so far.

Bard's Tale Trilogy
Still exploring the sewers. What a horrible dungeon. The second level is not as bad as the first, but it's still bad. It's like a totally random maze you'd find in some GAMES book or something. Don't get me wrong—I'm not against dungeons and mazes. I am, though, against dungeons and mazes where apparently no thought whatsoever went into designing them. I can only compare it to the dungeons in Wiz 1, which had recognizable patterns to them that stuck in your mind and made them easy to navigate even without consulting your map. You could drop me at the start of level 1 in Wiz 1 and tell me "get as far down as you can" and I think I could probably get to level 5 or 6 without a map, the level layouts are that memorable. In contrast, you could even hand me a map to the sewers in BT1, and I would probably get lost.

I don't hate the game (I quite enjoy it), but the dungeon design is pure decline compared with Wiz 1.

Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
This is one I never played back in the day. I hadn't even tried it before.
My first impression: some very impressive Roland CM music/sound effect in the intro. This game sounds fantastic!
Second impression: I know absolutely NOTHING about Dark Sun. I figured since this is D&D I could jump right in, but I was completely lost when making characters. You can just multiclass straight away? Giants??? THRIKREENS??? WTF??? I did some research, and everyone said to multiclass everyone all the time, so I did.

The game started, and I had fun. I'm still at the very beginning, so I dunno what else to say, other than, this seems like a great game. The interface is very nice, almost seems like a turn-based Ultima VII (the only thing I've played that I can think of that compares). In DOSBOX it runs kind of weird, dunno if it runs like this on original hardware—the cursor seems to lag behind the action, so if something is going on you can't control, and you move the cursor around, once you get control back the cursor goes crazy all over the screen. Seems weird.

Ultima IV
So I have to admit I've never finished this one on PC (or C64/Apple/etc.). I originally finished this on the NES port (my first Ultima was Ultima Exodus on the NES, and I enjoyed it so much I immediately got Quest of the Avatar when it was released), but never the "original." My first "real" Ultima game was Ultima VI on C64, and I know now that this port (while technically impressive) is also not a great port. I did play the real U6 later on when I finally got a PC.

The NES ports for U3 and U4 are not HORRIBLE. They have not been converted to JRPGs. U3 is pretty close to the computer versions, and U4 is less close but still decently close. The SMS port is overall closer (though the dungeons are overhead).

I started up a U4 NES game a few weeks ago in a fit of nostalgia, and it took FOREVER just to get 4 characters, get a ship, get a handful of runes/mantras, and start exploring my first dungeon. Probably 5-6 hours actually, but seemed like forever. In comparison, I mostly covered the same ground in the original version tonight in just a couple hours of playing.

The original DOS version of U4 has EGA graphics and no music. The EGA graphics are not bad at all; certainly better than the Apple II and C64 graphics. The lack of music is a tragedy, but luckily there have been fan patches that add MIDI music to them. The most recent patch also forces VGA graphics; though nice, they are VERY different from the original graphics, and might annoy you if you are going through the entire series, as UV is stil stuck in EGA (granted, very nice EGA). If you do some google searching you can find a patch for U4 that adds ONLY music and leaves the graphics alone, and imo this is the way to go.

Warcraft II
Why not??? Let's revisit this classic.

One hour later I was completely addicted. The interface is fine, and the graphics have aged very well indeed.

However, the music is AMAZING. What a soundtrack. Through a Roland SC-55, it sounds pretty much identical to the CD soundtrack. Definitely one of the best games to show off SC hardware, if you were stupid rich back in the day, or fanatical enough now to hunt this stuff down on ebay now.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Ultima IV
So I have to admit I've never finished this one on PC (or C64/Apple/etc.). I originally finished this on the NES port (my first Ultima was Ultima Exodus on the NES, and I enjoyed it so much I immediately got Quest of the Avatar when it was released), but never the "original." My first "real" Ultima game was Ultima VI on C64, and I know now that this port (while technically impressive) is also not a great port. I did play the real U6 later on when I finally got a PC.

The NES ports for U3 and U4 are not HORRIBLE. They have not been converted to JRPGs. U3 is pretty close to the computer versions, and U4 is less close but still decently close. The SMS port is overall closer (though the dungeons are overhead).

I started up a U4 NES game a few weeks ago in a fit of nostalgia, and it took FOREVER just to get 4 characters, get a ship, get a handful of runes/mantras, and start exploring my first dungeon. Probably 5-6 hours actually, but seemed like forever. In comparison, I mostly covered the same ground in the original version tonight in just a couple hours of playing.

The original DOS version of U4 has EGA graphics and no music. The EGA graphics are not bad at all; certainly better than the Apple II and C64 graphics. The lack of music is a tragedy, but luckily there have been fan patches that add MIDI music to them. The most recent patch also forces VGA graphics; though nice, they are VERY different from the original graphics, and might annoy you if you are going through the entire series, as UV is stil stuck in EGA (granted, very nice EGA). If you do some google searching you can find a patch for U4 that adds ONLY music and leaves the graphics alone, and imo this is the way to go.

I've heard horror stories of some of the console versions of Ultima, but 'sadly' never had the chance to try them out myself.

But the worst one of them all is Ultima 7 on the SNES. That's a sight to behold, in the manner you'll want to claw your eyes out afterwards.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I beat Killer is Dead.
The final boss is amazing

Spoiler

Ok, so the first stage is against his second stage from episode 4. Its my least favorite, as his move set is pretty bullshit and you have to mash, which is a mechanic I hate. It was neat though how they pick up the fight from where you left off in episode 4. I like nice touches like that.
The second stage is a little more interesting. David becomes a big cyber monster, and Mondo reveals his wires form. To damage David you have to use burst rush.
The final stage is my favorite. Instead of becoming a bigger cyber monster, David instead reverts to back when he was an executioner, wearing a white suit to contrast Mondo's black suit. He has the same katana moveset and dodge effects as the player, and the battle theme is a violin (I think) remix of New World Symphony, with the Earth in the background getting wrecked by beams of Dark Energy coming from the moon. It was hype as fuck.

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

having tons of fun with west of loathing

rocking a pistol-packing hombre; stacking up on moxie and having a whale of a time YEE HAW

crazy ol' pete is fucking useless in combat though hahah

i usually get him to rally cry first to raise my own stats then he gets promptly wrecked in the next turn lol funny

 

[Jvegi]

Big Brother has great graphics and a decent story. Keeps me glued to the screen. It's an adventure RPG, like Quest for Glory and Myst mixed with more mature Leisure Suit Larry.

My gf left town for two weeks so I can finally get all the satisfaction I need from this title.

 

[RK47]

Just won my first tourney in warband. The 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 format is tough, especially with the random load-outs. But the most memorable bout was when I started with the bow and sword/shield loadout. I was struggling to get shit done cause my Archery is crap and I kept getting knocked around by the jousting riders. After enduring several jousting attempts, I finally took out one rider and mount up his horse. 5 dudes left on the field, 2 riders. I rode around, switched to my bow and started firing. I had 90 arrows with me. 30 gone before I managed to score headshots on both of their horses and forced all of them to go on foot.

3 minutes of circling the arena later while doing a crash course in horse archery, I was the only one left standing.
Took first place with 32 points vs closest at 28
Felt fucking great.

 

[Grauken]

So I beat Killer is Dead.
The final boss is amazing

Spoiler

Ok, so the first stage is against his second stage from episode 4. Its my least favorite, as his move set is pretty bullshit and you have to mash, which is a mechanic I hate. It was neat though how they pick up the fight from where you left off in episode 4. I like nice touches like that.
The second stage is a little more interesting. David becomes a big cyber monster, and Mondo reveals his wires form. To damage David you have to use burst rush.
The final stage is my favorite. Instead of becoming a bigger cyber monster, David instead reverts to back when he was an executioner, wearing a white suit to contrast Mondo's black suit. He has the same katana moveset and dodge effects as the player, and the battle theme is a violin (I think) remix of New World Symphony, with the Earth in the background getting wrecked by beams of Dark Energy coming from the moon. It was hype as fuck.

Tried this out a few weeks back, installed it, played it and then promptly uninstalled it. Too gimmicky and WTF for my taste

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Just won my first tourney in warband. The 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 format is tough, especially with the random load-outs. But the most memorable bout was when I started with the bow and sword/shield loadout. I was struggling to get shit done cause my Archery is crap and I kept getting knocked around by the jousting riders. After enduring several jousting attempts, I finally took out one rider and mount up his horse. 5 dudes left on the field, 2 riders. I rode around, switched to my bow and started firing. I had 90 arrows with me. 30 gone before I managed to score headshots on both of their horses and forced all of them to go on foot.

3 minutes of circling the arena later while doing a crash course in horse archery, I was the only one left standing.
Took first place with 32 points vs closest at 28
Felt fucking great.

I hope you remembered to bet on yourself each round so you gain maximum denars.

 

[RK47]

Just won my first tourney in warband. The 8 v 8 v 8 v 8 format is tough, especially with the random load-outs. But the most memorable bout was when I started with the bow and sword/shield loadout. I was struggling to get shit done cause my Archery is crap and I kept getting knocked around by the jousting riders. After enduring several jousting attempts, I finally took out one rider and mount up his horse. 5 dudes left on the field, 2 riders. I rode around, switched to my bow and started firing. I had 90 arrows with me. 30 gone before I managed to score headshots on both of their horses and forced all of them to go on foot.

3 minutes of circling the arena later while doing a crash course in horse archery, I was the only one left standing.
Took first place with 32 points vs closest at 28
Felt fucking great.

I hope you remembered to bet on yourself each round so you gain maximum denars.

Nah, I didn't feel too confident in that sort of melee situation. Some rounds went so quick due to those fucking couched lance chargers. I can't even pick my gear.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I beat Killer is Dead.
The final boss is amazing

Spoiler

Ok, so the first stage is against his second stage from episode 4. Its my least favorite, as his move set is pretty bullshit and you have to mash, which is a mechanic I hate. It was neat though how they pick up the fight from where you left off in episode 4. I like nice touches like that.
The second stage is a little more interesting. David becomes a big cyber monster, and Mondo reveals his wires form. To damage David you have to use burst rush.
The final stage is my favorite. Instead of becoming a bigger cyber monster, David instead reverts to back when he was an executioner, wearing a white suit to contrast Mondo's black suit. He has the same katana moveset and dodge effects as the player, and the battle theme is a violin (I think) remix of New World Symphony, with the Earth in the background getting wrecked by beams of Dark Energy coming from the moon. It was hype as fuck.

Tried this out a few weeks back, installed it, played it and then promptly uninstalled it. Too gimmicky and WTF for my taste

Its not for everyone, and even I was thrown off by the art style, but if you can get over the weirdness its a really solid game with some pretty neat boss designs.

 

[Dux]

Divinity II aka Divinity II: Ego Draconis aka Divinity II: The Dragon Knight Saga aka Divinity II: Developer's Cut aka (Almost But Not Quite) Divine Divinity 2 aka NOT Divinity Original Sin 2 aka Your Mum

It's Divine Divinity except now it's rendered in 3D, bolstered by the God's gift that is the Gamebryo engine...



You basically run around slamming and frying goblins, skeletons and bandits in a 3rd person perspective, with the added twist of being able to turn into a dragon, as well as being able to read people's minds to garner secrets and perks. Except as a dragon you can't engage any ground enemies so it's more of a separate game mode entirely.

Rhyming, puns, Britishness, side quests, soothing music and some other stuff as well, I'm sure. Even though I appreciated this game, it's not without its flaws. The combat is rather uninspired, quite reminiscent of MMO shenanigans. You run until enemies are within target range, then you press hotkeys to cast spells or whatnot until the enemies die. As a dragon you fly around destroying ballista towers and flying critters with heatseeking fireballs. The saving grace of the game as a whole is the Larian touch, I guess. You have the humour, the abundance of side quests and the verbosity. It's clear that Larian is a different beast entirely from the likes of Bethesda. They're not perfect but it's evident they're passionate about what they do and how they do it. The voice acting is not bad either, and the writing is trademark Larian. In any other RPG action game you're faced with stoic characters spouting some terse and obvious lines about destiny; in Larian games you get an insane wizard weaving together bad poetry in an increasingly threatening manner. Or faced with a Frankenstein chick with a lisp and a penchant for corny puns. I know what I prefer in the end. I gravitate towards the eccentric rather than the mediocre.

One standout issue I have with the game, however, is the weird structure of its narrative. In most stories you have the first act which is used to set things up. Then comes the second act which provides the meat of the story. Finally there's the third and climactic act, where things are tied up. Divinity II, on the other hand, doesn't really have this structure. Sure, it has a first act, a second act but when the third act begins (complete with a plot twist and confrontation with the supposed villain) Larian then sees fit to put you in the middle of the largest quest hub in the game, showering you with side quests and general busywork while the world is literally aflame just outside the city gates. It's a bit of an anti-climax. I guess that's Larian's achilles heel: they just don't know when to stop. Some people might appreciate more content but there's a reason editors exist in the literary world. Pacing issues aside, however, Divinity II is a decent sequel to Divine Divinity, considering Beyond Divinity now seems to have been thoroughly dismissed and forgotten by this point.

There's also a problem with loading screens getting stuck at times, which is no doubt a Gamebryo bug. I reduced this occurance by switching to windowed mode and applying some unofficial fixes.

PS. There was this odd thing about chickens randomly dying when they got too close to me. I still have no idea what that was about. But hey, free chicken drumsticks.

 

[unfairlight]

I am playing Gothic (2001) by Piranha Bytes.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'm playing Shadowkeep, a 1984 RPG/text adventure hybrid for the Apple II.

God, is it cumbersome. The game is essentially a Wizardry clone controlled by a text parser. They didn't half-ass it either -- absolutely everything is controlled by the parser, down to accessing the inventory and equipping items. Since the number of abbreviations the game recognizes is extremely limited, you usually have to type out every single word, and when you're controlling a party of nine (!) characters, simply getting them all kitted out with weapons and armour takes forever. Even movement is controlled by the parser. (R)ight, (L)eft, (F)orward and (B)ackward, anyone? And did I mention that all items are unequipped upon accessing the tavern? Playing this back in the day must have been absolute torture. Thankfully I have the magic of AutoHotkey at my command, otherwise I would have ditched this by now.
The actual game doesn't seem too bad so far. Some of the writing has even made me smile, which I never expected:

Spoiler

When entering an invalid name:

When deleting a character from the roster:

When you want to buy equipment, the innkeeper randomly transforms into an alien for no reason. :D

 

[Dayyālu]

Wasted some time on shooter, 'cause they are relaxing.

First entry is Ashes 2063, a Total Conversion for Doom. I've grown to consider the Doom modding community one of the best sources for creative and good games in the last years, and this DN3D-style conversion manages to be far better than a shitton of commercial games I've played (even better than retroclones like Ion Maiden, truth be told). Set up is your stock "80ies Movie Post Apoc" setting but it's done skillfully and coherently (and there are quite a bit of references spread around in DN3D style). Gameplay--wise, an hybrid of the DN3D style and Doom's combat, with the weakest point being that the beautifully-drawn enemies are quite recognizable for the Demons they replace (Cannibals are Demons, Raiders are Zombiemen etc.etc.). Weapons are projectile based and varied enough, even if the starting equipment is a tad lacking (making the beginning far more difficult than the end levels, amusingly enough). The beauty of the TC however is in variety, from scavenging old malls to motorcycle rides to Strife-style villages where you barter, buy and discover details to a frankly excellent subway\sewer level that manages to be athmospheric and engaging. The only negative is that it's only one episode, and that I'll need to wait a lot for the next one.

Second run for another Doom TC, Blade of Agony. BoA has two episodes with the third one coming, and it's.... pretty much extra levels for Return to Castle Wolfestein in the Doom engine. Despite being varied and fun, it's far less.... how to say, polished than Ashes 2063. Tech-wise it's impressive, but it's a bit too in love with its graphical effects and gimmick levels. The fact that the majority of the enemies are hitscan soldiers make the gameplay less varied and fun, as the basic shooting degenerates into "PURGE THEM BEFORE THEY GET A SHOT".

Some levels are great, though, like the secret Mutant Facility level, despite being hard as balls.

Then I got it by a nostalgia bug and replayed Dark Forces IV: Jedi Knight III: Jedi Outcast II: Jedi Academy. Jedi Academy is pretty much an expansion pack for JO, and JO was a fun if deeply flawed game. JA (bar one gimmick level) avoids putting you in the same dreadful levels you found in JO (Nar Shadaa!) and throws you a lightsaber and force powers already at the beginning. You can freely level up force powers with no limits and you get set of missions to choose from.

This means that the game gets broken almost istantly.

Welcome, infinitely regenerating health. Welcome, broken shield mechanics. JA even if played at max difficulty is you cutting like a lightsaber through butter. Seriously tho, abusing Force Grip and dropping EVERYTHING into chasms never gets old. Why bother fighting insanely hard Dark Jedi when you can throw them into lava? Even better, the game istantly kills enemies if they fall for a certain distance, so it's trivially easy to abuse this and annihilate cultist after cultist by dropping them distances that should barely damage them. The scream of the Sith melting never gets old.

It's all incredibly fun, far better than playing with the braindead AI. Enemy lightsaber users are acceptable, everything else isn't.

Level variety is nice thanks to some gimmick levels (grav bike level, "Escape Teh Rancor" levels and others) but JA is a game that you play to break the game, not because it's particularly well-designed. Also, realizing that the old EU was far less retarded than the nuCanon Disney is startling.

 

[Gregz]

Nox

 

[Grauken]

Yoku's Island Express, a metroidvania fused with a pinball machine, getting around the world map is kinda confusing, but otherwise a pretty good game

 

[deuxhero]

Arcanum Multiverse Edition. Black Mountain Clan mines still suck (there was so much fucking combat.), but the rest of the game is fun. I'm playing a charismatic mage with decent con and so far I've got teleportation, resurrect (for rezzing random corpses) and fireball as spells (also two points in black necromancy). What college should I put points in next?

Encountered two bugs I don't remember being in just the drog patch. 1: People that attack you while the town guard is visible, like bar patrons that start fights (people annoyed you talked to them, hand assassins) get the town guard to join in on their side 2: Bar patrons don't always rotate like they should, so you're stuck with the ones in your current play. It is nice people get pissed off if you go into a private area directly behind a shopkeep as he goes to bed though.

 

[Tehdagah]

Fortnite.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Fortnite.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Fortnite.

I don't get it, is that a dance from fortnight or something? Looks lame.