What game are you wasting time on?

[Tweed]

Started sinking time into the swath of Doom mods again, trying to record them is a serious PITA too. Also playing Underrail for the second time around and quite enjoying it, huge difference going from 1.0.0.7 to 1.0.3.20

 

[Malamert]

Stalking about in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl with the OGSE 0692 mod. Despite some typical Russian nonsense, it's alright. Still doesn't hold a candle to AMK though. If you've ever played Shadow of Chernobyl and want to give it another go sometime, consider doing it with the AMK mod.

You know how many open world games like to brag with having a living and breathing world and in the end it turns out those were just lies and everything's static and dead? Well, Shadow of Chernobyl with AMK actually is alive. Stalkers go about their own business, traveling between levels, occupying locations, fighting among themselves, upgrading their armor and weapons and so on. Mutants are also allowed to go wherever they want to and are no longer tied to fixed locations. You could be going to a level transition and wake up with mutants coming from the other map or groups of enemy stalkers ready to open fire on you. There's a news system where stalkers can report what they've seen on their travels. You can get valuable info on skirmishes that recently took place in the zone, mutant locations or just general chatter. Stalkers can even leave you gifts (ammo, cheap artifacts, medkits etc) at the Barman or Sidorovich after killing stronger mutants that might've made things hard for them.

The mod also adds new missions and some form of crafting. You can "cook" artifacts in anomalies if you have the recipe for it. If the process is successful, you'll end up getting an upgraded artifact that may or may not be stupidly overpowered.

Can talk about this mod for hours, but you get the idea. It's S.T.A.L.K.E.R. as it should be.

 

[RoSoDude]

System Shock 2 is next on my play list. I hope my old CD still works.

What are the recommended mods to use, if any?

Summoning RoSoDude.
And what mods would you recommend for a second playthrough? I've already played it once without mods.

For a "basically vanilla but with a few mods" playthrough I have the following advice. You essentially want to follow the SS2 Newbie Modding Guide, which adds the Shock Community Patch (fixes a lot of bugs, adds a lot of effects work, makes a few minor design changes), sound fixes, and faithful graphical improvements. However, I suggest the following alterations:

1. DON'T use the Rebirth models as recommended (this also means you should use RealSG from SCP, NOT the Rebirth version)
2. DO also include the new Rickenbacker automaps (these will be in SCP beta 5, so will be obsolete if you're reading this in the future): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=7355.msg117535#msg117535
3. DO also include Vurt's water (I use v3): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4167.0
4. DO also include the Repairman minimod for SCP (gives some new uses for the generally inferior Repair skill): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9327.0
5. DO also include Rocketman's additional weapon pack: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=679.0
6. DO also include Jack's left hand mod: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9436.0

My mod order looks like this (can't guarantee it's perfect, but seems to be all right):

The reason I recommend against Rebirth to alter the character models is that it's the only mod here that isn't faithful to the original designs. Some of the results are... disappointing, to say the least. The Cyborg Midwife is no longer as hilariously bad as she used to be, but is still garish. There are some good ones, like the new Rumbler (which apparently you used to be able to get separately? Argh!), but that's the exception to the rule of unfaithful adaption. The originals look like papercraft models to be sure, but this can actually add to the scare factor when in motion. The alien movements of the Hybrids, especially in the dark, make them feel quite threatening, and the new models simply go into uncanny valley territory and can't carry that through. See comparisons below:

Spoiler

Cro-Magnon Hybrid with an angry rather than pained expression that fit with the voice:

Another one:

New Cyborg Midwife loses a lot of creep factor:

And the biggest downgrade of all, the Cyborg Assassin is now a silly robot instead of the badass hooded design from SS1:

New Rumbler is pretty cool though:

I had plans to make my own little balance mod to address my minor complaints with SCP and with the vanilla balance itself (particularly as it concerns the Tech skills), but I've been too busy to even put the time into finishing my DX mod, so I don't know when that will happen. Maybe this winter, though.

For second playthroughs, you might consider trying Secmod (not compatible with SCP, the Repairman minimod, or the new Rickenbacker maps, but compatible with the rest I think), which is an expansion and retooling of a lot of the game systems to add character building depth and make the game more hardcore. I haven't personally played it yet, but I've heard and seen good things.

EDIT: Another thing you definitely want to do is enable HUD scaling, which is totally functional but off by default for some reason. As stated here, find the 'cam_ext.cfg' file in your SS2 install folder and remove the ";" character in front of "d3d_disp_scaled_2d_overlay 64".

EDIT2: Maggot made a balance revert for SCP that I recommend: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=10531.0 Should go above SCP in the load order.

 

[TheEntitledOne]

Done with Persona 5 and Nier:Automata. That should be enough weeaboery until next Rance translation.

I'm done derping with NWN mods, hopefully permanently. Now I need to find some AAAAA+++++ graphic whore shit until patchfinder get a bit more polished.

 

[Adon]

Splinter Cell: Conviction

Finished this yesterday, and it was about what I expected. There was some small part of me that was hopeful that I'd like this in the same vein as Hitman: Absolution; that of a somewhat schlocky, grindhouse take on the series. But whereas Absolution never strays too far from previous Hitman games despite being downsized in scope, Splinter Cell: Conviction altogether aims to be a completely different beast to its predecessors. Now the only point of comparison that I have is that of the original SC and Chaos Theory so I like to think I have a decent idea how it strays.

Main source of stealth is still primarily hiding in the shadows along with the ability to shoot out lights, but whereas the previous games it was about slow, methodical infiltration, Conviction is more about action set-pieces to sneak through where firefights are a viable option. Which would be passable if the AI couldn't so easily see you which I assume is a result of them including the Mark and Execute mechanic because the game flat out incentivizes killing people. It's much easier to just kill enemies making this more of a predatory kind of stealth instead trying to ghost through the levels. I'm sure ghosting is possible, but not without a constant trial-and-error or manipulating the AI in such a way to get them out of your way.

Y'know, the same way that it's possible to go through Hitman: Absolution without using instinct. The game is built around it so strongly that it's difficult to play it any other way. In certain areas you could just tell that they developers intended for you to use Mark and Execute.

One thing they had was an upgrade system for your weapons. Utterly pointless. There's no real options here, and it's very easy to max out your upgrades as there are only 3 options (per weapon) and it doesn't cost many points to get them all. Oh, and you can only upgrade your pistols. I don't even know why this was included in the game.

The only real joy I got out of this game was listening to Michael Ironside. Other than that, a thoroughly disappointing game.

 

[ortucis]

Grim Dawn.

Bought it on Hallowen sale along with Shadow of War. Have played Shadows of War for like three hours, fucking terrible. Meanwhile 28 hours in Grim Dawn, at level 42, only now starting chapter 2. Still expansion left after vanilla is done.

Yup.


EDIT: 31 hrs in, reached lvl 48 finally. Only other action RPG I enjoyed this much was Titan Quest.. from same developers, back in the day.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A long time ago I played a fun game called Bookworm Adventures (hereafter referred to as BA) where I controlled a cute worm named Lex who loved words and was sent on a quest to recover ancient artifacts while battling mythical foes. In gameplay terms that means it's a take on Scrabble where you must form words from a bunch of tiles. The longer the words, the better the damage and score. There's a thin story to go along with all of this, but the charming writing helps sell that and the ending is very memorable (especially for Codexers).

While that game is not legally available today, a similar game is available on Steam, and that ended up being the only game I bought during the Halloween sale for $2.50.

Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey (Remastered) stars you as a (the?) Grim(m) Reaper who decides to go out for some pizza, and stumbles upon enemies on his path. Compared to BA the basic gameplay is the same, though there's a core difference which, in my opinion, reduces the game to mediocreness.

In BA there's XP to be gained, a level-up bar to gain levels and get extra health, and some item slots where you can customize Lex's abilities. Progression is pretty linear and 'scales to your level', but then again the game is not a serious RPG and is aimed at a younger audience.

In Letter Quest there's no XP for Grimm... but instead there's a store. Every ability and aspect of the game can (and must) be upgraded via crystals, the in-game currency. This means that Letter Quest is a gigantic grind for more crystals. One of those game aspects are books which can be equipped and function like the item slots in BA... except they require XP to be gained and leveled up. So now I have grinding in my grinding game. BA had ten chapters with several levels in each. Letter Quest only has 40 levels (30 regular ones and ten 'Hard challenges') but tried to prolong the experience by having you grind each level in four different ways: Regular, timed attack, Challenge Mode and Hard Mode.

Sadly Letter Quest only has a smidgeon of the charm of Bookworm Adventures, and the grinding aspect feels so forced that it detracts from the game's main gimmick of trying to spell words. In my opinion it's better to try to hunt down a copy of BA.

 

[octavius]

For a "basically vanilla but with a few mods" playthrough I have the following advice. You essentially want to follow the SS2 Newbie Modding Guide, which adds the Shock Community Patch (fixes a lot of bugs, adds a lot of effects work, makes a few minor design changes), sound fixes, and faithful graphical improvements. However, I suggest the following alterations:

1. DON'T use the Rebirth models as recommended (this also means you should use RealSG from SCP, NOT the Rebirth version)
2. DO also include the new Rickenbacker automaps (these will be in SCP beta 5, so will be obsolete if you're reading this in the future): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=7355.msg117535#msg117535
3. DO also include Vurt's water (I use v3): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4167.0
4. DO also include the Repairman minimod for SCP (gives some new uses for the generally inferior Repair skill): https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9327.0
5. DO also include Rocketman's additional weapon pack: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=679.0
5. DO also include Jack's left hand mod: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=9436.0

My mod order looks like this (can't guarantee it's perfect, but seems to be all right):

I went with this mod list except the SongRemake since I always play FPP games with sound off, and Repairman since it seems to change a bit too much.

I now remember intensely why I barely played this game back in the days: the respawn coupled with the ridicilous rate of weapon degredation means you just can't play it as a FPS. And the Hybrids are far smarter and more agile than the Crabheads (or whatever they were called) in Half-Life, so you are not guaranteed to be able to kill them with a Wrench without taking damage. At least I'm not.

So I'm not enjoying it quite as much as I did SS1. I wish it was possible to tone down the respawning it least.

As first OS upgrade I chose the one (Awareness someting) which marks enemies on the automaps for easier navigation and combat planning.

What do people generally choose?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Well for starters, you're doing it Wrong if you approach System Shock 2 as a FPS. Think of it as a survival horror game, where resources are sparse and the enemies outnumber and outpower you at every turn. It'll be quite a while until you're powerful enough to approach the game like a FPS. Give it time, it'll grow on you.

I can't recall all the OS upgrades, but some are obviously better than others.

 

[RoSoDude]

I went with this mod list except the SongRemake since I always play FPP games with sound off, and Repairman since it seems to change a bit too much.

I now remember intensely why I barely played this game back in the days: the respawn coupled with the ridicilous rate of weapon degredation means you just can't play it as a FPS. And the Hybrids are far smarter and more agile than the Crabheads (or whatever they were called) in Half-Life, so you are not guaranteed to be able to kill them with a Wrench without taking damage. At least I'm not.

So I'm not enjoying it quite as much as I did SS1. I wish it was possible to tone down the respawning it least.

As first OS upgrade I chose the one (Awareness someting) which marks enemies on the automaps for easier navigation and combat planning.

What do people generally choose?

Firstly I should have called attention to this in my first post, but what could you possibly mean by implying you're wasting your time with System Shock 2? SS2 is time well spent, especially for how short it (sadly) is.

Unkillable Cat is right on the money. The respawning enemies, weapon degradation, ammo scarcity, and low character strength in the beginning are by design. There's danger lurking around every corner, you can never feel totally comfortable, and you have a strong drive to explore new areas to acquire more resources and relieve the building tension, while simultaneously exposing yourself to new threats. It is possible to tone down the respawning, but you'll have to look up how to do so yourself, as I refuse to sponsor such . Better that you embrace the lessons the game is trying to teach you and let yourself get drawn into the interaction of its atmosphere, systems, and challenges. I'd bitch about turning off the music too, but I guess there's no accounting for taste.

O/S upgrades are pretty unbalanced, but SCP helps a bit (and hurts in the case of Tank blah blah blah someone shut me up). Spatially Aware, the one you got, only fills out the automap in vanilla which is borderline useless to possibly harmful, as the automap can help you figure out where you haven't yet been. In SCP it also gives you the locations of nearby enemies, which now makes it a pretty compelling option. Naturally Able also gives 20 cyber-modules rather than 8, which is much fairer trade for missing out on some of the better upgrades. When I play RPGs I try to mix it up every playthrough and make an effort to avoid settling to the "no-brainer" choices every time, but there are a few O/S upgrades that always tempt me. Being able to install two implants with Cybernetically Enhanced is stupidly useful, Lethal Weapon/Smasher are great for melee builds, Sharpshooter is a must for gun-centric builds, and Power Psi is recommended for psi builds. Beyond that, I'd just go with whatever suits your preferences, nothing is really mandatory. Don't know if I've ever seen anyone get Tinker, though.

 

[Average Manatee]

Strong Metabolism/Cyber-Assimilation/Security Expert/Tinker are the ones I would consider almost worthless and never taking. Not sure how spatially aware works in SCP, in vanilla it's worthless too. Rest are all fairly legit picks. Not saying I would pick Packrat/Naturally Able, or Tank in a non-impossible game, but it's not completely invalid.

The way (I believe) respawning works is that if the number of enemies falls below a certain number there's a chance for a new enemy to enter the level somewhere and pick a zone to stay in/patrol. This means that if you explore a level once and then stick only to the well-trod paths you tend to not run into many respawns over time as they spent their time in another part of the level. You're being rewarded somewhat for understand the plot and figuring out/taking what you need. If you have to backtrack away from the well-trod paths of a level into the far reaches to get or do something you missed, that's when you start to feel some of the punishment from all the spawns there.

 

[octavius]

It is possible to tone down the respawning, but you'll have to look up how to do so yourself, as I refuse to sponsor such .

You mean this?

[OPTIONS]
/s
/n="System Shock 2"
[REQUIREMENTS]

no_spawn
gun_degrade_rate 0.1

It sure makes the game more enjoyable, and it's not like respawning is eliminated, only that it's not so ridicilous.

 

[janior]

Finished kotor2

 

[Humppaleka]

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing. Dunno, having a really good time.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Trine 2
After beating first game it was no-brainer to play sequel, with DLC on top of that
Improvements on every step.
With double plank levitation trick it make XP orb/bottles collecting trivial but it's easy to resist, puzzles are not that challenging otherwise.

 

[deuxhero]

Finished another Arcanum go and the Fire Emblem hack Order of the Crimson Arm

OotCA is pretty good. The later chapters are nowhere near as creative or interesting as the early ones, but they're serviceable. Final boss is pretty weird, as it's basically whittling down a powerful berserker while holding off infinite reinforcements. Him having an iron rune (stop criticals) and low enough speed for a decent thief to steal it is an interesting idea, though in the end you need powerful sword users or a bunch of axe reavers to beat him efficiently. The polish is lower than some newer hacks (this is actually one of the earlier hacks but only finished recently), so you'll run into the occasional glitched sprite, base game dialog and no quality of life features like visible growth rates or being able to press select to see enemy ranges, but it's still worth a go.

 

[kalganoat]

Baldur's Gate 1.

It's worse than I remembered.

 

[Azalin]

Finished >Observer_ the potato cyberpunk game,not a bad game it's cyberpunk game with some horror elements,the setting and the story are good(future potatoland,high tech low life the way any cyberpunk setting should be),the graphics are nice and atmosphere is good,Rutger Hauer's voice acting which is one of the selling points of the game is just meh,most of the time he just sounds old.The gameplay is mostly average,large part is just walking simulator,the puzzles are mostly mediocre and there are some stealth parts,but all in all I had some fun with it. Recommended in a sale

 

[sullynathan]

Defeated Nelo Angelo on DMD after a week and about 80+ tries. Devil May Cry is brutal.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finished Trine2 and Goblin Menace DLC.
Better and more, that's what you expect from proper sequel.
DLC brings more hectic fights and actually challenging puzzles taking more than 10sec to solve, amazing. And even more enviromental variety, finally something beside forges, swamps, forests and mushrooms.

Now, about Trine3... I know it's disappoiting, and unfinished with terrible and expensive ideas that lead to aforementioned cliffhanger.
....
Wait, do I even have it in my Steam Library?
*search*
Nope, problem solved then.

 

[Curratum]

Been playing Stalker a lot. Re-ran ShoC and Clear Sky, in the middle of Call of Pripyat. Playing the Call of Chernobyl all-game-maps mod mashup sandbox on the side. Such good fun!

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Recently finished the first Fallout. I'm going to put here my highly subjective but honest opinion and impressions.

There are some major spoilers ahead. If you have not played Fallout 1 yet, you can still try it and may like it, but keep in mind that it's an old game you may find to be vastly flawed and not as magnificent as some describe it. It had its problems back in 1997 nor have they magically vanished since that time, more likely got even more evident. And you will have to bear with them to enjoy the good stuff.

Great: setting, art design, lore, atmosphere
Decent: voice acting, dialogue
Not so good: combat, rpg system (or rather, its actual implementation and how it's suited to the game's content), quality of content, overall playability and execution
Ugly: interface, AI

Spoiler

Gameplay. Combat is serviceable at best. Essentially, you're just clicking the interface elements and that's all business going on. One may argue that that's the way every turn based game is played, but is turn based combat in Fallout really great? The thing is, it isn't, mainly because there isn't much tactical thinking that gets to be involved during battles. Well, sometimes there *are* situations where you'd better say, run around the corner to hide from enemy fire, but they are not that frequent and clearly it's just not enough. You see, for turn based combat to be tactical battle areas (or rather, arenas) and quests ('missions', or whatever) must be designed in a way that allows for more diverse and thoughtful decision making and planning (I apologise for awkward wording, poor/wrong word choices etc here and across this entire written remark), there also must be more actions that can be performed, more types of equipment that can be used during combat, more obnoxious and mean critters that can be encountered, in general, the combat system and quest design must allow for more tactical situations and solutions to them. But in Fallout it's just large groups (or small groups, no matter) of samey monsters getting monotonously exterminated by player - turn after turn, from one battle to another, it's all the same (mostly). More than that, Fallout isn't even a proper party based game - it can be easily completed with just one character and you can't even control your companions directly (and the AI, both of companions and enemy, is far from great). So I don't see what's the point of the combat being turn based, it is not a tactics game. Couldn't the developers have got away with say, something like Alien Shooter or Hotline Miami type of combat, but maybe not as fast and deadly? In this case they most probably would have had to dump targeted attacks, yes, but would it have been really worse than that boring and lame combat system we got?..
Unfortunately, there are more problems to gameplay than just combat, like a few skills, perks and some traits being rather useless, traverse across the world map being pointless, random encounters being boring and repetitive, but it's enough said here already, I'd rather proceed to next subject.

Quests are not many, and most of them are not the least bit intriguing or exciting. Maybe they were such for the time when the game came out, but not today. They have too simple structure and are too easy to solve (if you're playing on normal), so after completing any of them it doesn't feel like you've been through some kind of adventure (well, actually, there *is* a couple but it's not enough). Someone may say, Fallout isn't a fantasy adventure game with dragons and magic, not every quest must have the player visiting wondrous places, finding epic loot, slaying powerful monsters. Fallout is all about various communities or factions trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and the player is there to help them solve their problems. And what about multiple ways of solving quests? Well, I agree, quest design in Fallout intrinsically does have some merit, but the actual execution isn't super great. For example, Gizmo lets you come in with an audio recording device in your inventory, without even checking you on dangerous items and such, which is rather silly for a person who supposedly was smart enough to secure a casino - you could have easily brought there a freaking bomb or whatever and attempted to kill the bastard. Not that he is going to be safe anyway keeping just one guard around, lol. A couple of quests are hinted at but aren't actually present in the game. There are also some sloppily executed quests, like that part of the main story where you are to defeat the Master - you talk to Nicole promising you will find out about the true goals of the Children of the Cathedral, but after blowing up the place and returning to Nicole you cannot say anything new to her, as if nothing has happened. You can't tell her what you have learned about the Children and how you dealt with the Master, though it is not like she wouldn't be interested to know it. Yes, the other members of the Followers start talking new phrases but they are not that relevant, you see it's Nicole who's a talking head after all, *she* is one of the important characters and not them. Another example is that after you've fetched the water chip for the overseer you can still ask Talius from the library about it but you can't tell him you've accomplished this critical task and saved the vault. And why can't you let Harold know what became of his friend Richard Grey presenting Grey's audio diary to him?..... There *are* a few things that look obviously unfinished and unrefined. All in all, quests are probably my main disappointment about the first Fallout.

Dialogues seem to be lacking polish in some places. For example, why can't you ask Harold to repeat his story? The devs could've have added there an option to ask him something like 'Could you tell me your story one more time?'. Without it, there's no way to bring up this sequence again if you need it (for example, when I found Richard's Grey diary at the military base, I could only vaguely remember that a ghoul by name Harold from Hub spoke about some other guy called Grey). Sometimes characters strangely won't talk to you again once you've chosen one dialogue option - for example, Jasmine in the Hub (probably this was due to my low charisma and speech skill, but I'm not sure). The structure of some dialogues could also be improved. These points are not crucial on their own, sure, but when there are more of them than but a few you can't fail to notice. The 'Tell me about' dialogue feature seems almost completely useless, for there's rarely anything useful or interesting characters will tell you. Moreover, as I found out, it doesn't take into account your charisma and speech skill much (the only effect that I noticed is that when you repeatedly ask characters to Tell you about a thing, they may get angry and tell you to get away). My second major complaint would be that there is actually too little dialogue in the game. Sometimes you want to know more about a character, their life, thoughts etc, but there's not such dialogue to afford that. What a shame.

Locations. There is only one location in the game I found really interesting - the Glow. I liked its story and exploring it was quite fun. When you first visit it, it's just a strange gaping crater that you see. You wonder how it happened to form here and what could possibly be there, and after coming down and exploring the abandoned and highly radiated pre-war facility you learn about the purpose of the Glow and can behold what became of it. The dead bodies lying all around the floors, poor illumination and the weird background music piece nicely complement the eerie and obscure atmosphere pervading the place. Could've been a really well written location...if it wasn't for THE DAMN. FREAKING. ROBOTS. I mean, how in the hell did they get those sniper rifles and shotguns and why are they using them to protect the place??? Did they pick up those rifles from the dead explorers or they were equipped with them from the start? The reason I was jarred by it so much is because notes from a holodisk found on one of the bodies convey the message that the place was protected by some high technology robotic systems which weapon is so potent that it easily can cut through power armour, but the robots you actually meet there happen to be supplied with traditional primitive firearms which can do very little against a heavily armoured BoS soldier. That's complete nonsense. Also, for the awesome loot you can get there, the place doesn't seem to be presenting much of a challenge to go through, even more so for a character wearing a suit of power armour which can be obtained before even going to the deeper levels. Other locations are too forgettable to write a word about. This is unfortunate because there aren't that many places to visit anyway. Probably I shouldn't have waited that long before finally playing and completing this game...

Factions - again, probably it's subjective to claim the game is bad (or rather, not that great) because so, but ghouls of Set appear to be the only in-game faction that I consider somewhat curious and exciting to meet (on a second thought, Brotherhood of Steel are not bad either, I enjoyed learning about the origin of their faction). Maybe it's a made-up idea but I'm inclined to imagine them as sullen, harsh, violent and untractable bunch. The guy who leads them - grim and ill-tempered ghoul Set matches this characteristic perfectly. Poorly supplied and equipped, yet fierce and tenacious kind scrabbling for survival like everyone else - that's what they are. And the name Necropolis splendidly underlines the grave and unfriendly nature of the people that resides there.

Characters. Richard Grey is probably the most remarkable one. Coming to meet the Master, I was somewhat afraid he would be just HORRIFYING ABOMINATION THAT EATS HUMANS OMFG kind of thing, and I'm glad it turned out to be not the case (at the very least, this interpretation can be disputed). Indeed, he's not a demonic monster craving for expansion and assimilation of humans (that would've been a really trash idea), nor he is actually evil - this can be evidently seen from the dialogue where you convince him that his plan was a mistake from the very beginning, after which he just kills himself. I really, really liked this character. It is the case when you really want to know more about a character, but also you understand that what already has been said is just enough. The writing for the Master is simple and concise but at the same is totally satisfactory and very complete. Further narration is simply not needed. Wish I could say the same about other characters. One minor thing I didn't appreciate though is how easy it was to defeat the Master. 'You think you can destroy me?' ololol of course I can. 4-5 hits in the eyes with my plasma rifle and you're dead mutie. The twin gatling lasers you got there can hardly pose a threat to a person in power armour. I didn't want the encounter with him to be so mind blowingly epic that it would be claiming the highest positions in top 10 anime fights lists, I just think there could've been more challenge and creativeness in the forceful way of solving the main quest.
Set was dealt with earlier.
I guess, it would be unfair to leave out Harold, though there's not much remarkable about him apart from how his relation to one of the main characters.
Another peculiar talking head may be Loxley - simply liked his voice and the way he speaks, I find those quite amusing. Overall, voice acting in the game is quite agreeable.
It was rather curious to meet another (and living) vault dweller on his mission to obtain a water chip for Vault 13. I'm speaking about Talius. One would not envy his lot. Couldn't even take the poor guy back to the vault, as they would most likely reject him. Fucking Overseer.
There's also Laura. Too hot not to mention. And too bad you don't get to talk to her more (just like it is for some other characters).
Other characters seem rather bland and it is weird that some of them were even made talking heads.

Story - I ejoyed the story for what it is, sadly it had to be flawed as well. But I'm too lazy to give arguments at this point (you're probably fully aware there are weak parts in it), so

that would be it.

Now going to play the second one, hopefully it will be better

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Recently finished the first Fallout. I'm going to put here my highly subjective but honest opinion and impressions.

My response to your wall o' text can be summarized by one line your whole text:

Maybe they were such for the time when the game came out, but not today.

The single biggest problem with your entire train of thought is the fact that you're coming to this game not just after it was released, but long after it was released. You have the wrong frame of reference. The games you name as examples/comparisons (Alien Shooter [2003] and Hotline: Miami [2012]) are not just younger than Fallout, but they are so by a considerable time frame.

You also seem unaware of the fact that while real-time combat was possible in a video game similar to Fallout in 1997, it was not possible with a game as complex as Fallout is. Another game was released in the same year that did have an isometric perspective, very similar 'Action Points'-oriented combat system as Fallout does and offered the option of either a turn-based or real-time system. Hell, it even had destructible terrain as well! That game is X-COM: Apocalypse and it was made by Julian Gollop, a huge name in the 'turn-based strategy combat games' genre. Games like Chaos [1985], Rebelstar [1986], Lazer Squad [1988] and Lords of Chaos [1990] form a line of successful games within that genre, that then culminates in the masterpiece UFO: Enemy Unknown [1994] which not only immortalized Jullian Gollop as a good video game designer, but it also inspired other devs like Sir-Tech to have a go at the genre. Those other devs (and Gollop himself with Apocalypse) made dedicated games built around the combat system, but Fallout merely adopted it; it is but one facet of an otherwise highly complex game. Sure, the later titles mentioned above had other gameplay elements as well, but compared to Fallout they feel tacked on, while Fallout mixes them almost seamlessly. And how did X-Com: Apocalypse fare as a game? The game suffered greatly because its focus was split between real-time and turn-based combat, to the point that while people still champion UFO: Enemy Unknown to this day, people avoid talking about Apocalypse except as a cautionary tale of game design... a tale that ironically went unheeded as Interplay went on to squander the success of Fallout by following Fallout 2 with Fallout: Tactics [2001] which does the exact same mistake of trying to mix real-time combat with turn-based, and suffered greatly as a result (that is a game you should put on your 'to play'-list).

Playing Fallout: Tactics will show you how silly some of your words here sound. The levels in Tactics (note that phrase: Levels, not maps) are designed with the combat system in mind, as cover is plentiful and architecture serves next to no other purpose than as attack vectors. Fallout (as a game) is not all about the combat, it's a game trying to balance and incorporate several gameplay elements at once. Fallout can be played through from start to finish without firing a single shot or throwing a single punch. Games with any kind of depth to them, that allow that? You can count them on one hand. While Tactics has all the same stats and skills as Fallout, just you wait if you think Fallout has "a few skills, perks and some traits being rather useless". Tactics had to sacrifice so much to get real-time combat in there, to the point that few people even consider it a proper Fallout game. You'll sing a different tune after playing Tactics.

I knew a lot of people that played video games back in 1997, all with different tastes and preferences for what games they liked. All of them played Fallout, and most of them did so because of the combat system. It was not perfect, but back then it was awesome fun and it was the best we got at the time.

Don't think that I'll say that Fallout was flawless. It was released unfinished, its interface was horrible then and hasn't aged well since, the AI is so bad it's become a meme and a lot of things about the game raise a lot of questions that sound obvious to today's audience. But that's hindsight, it's always 20/20.

What people love about Fallout is how it took a dedicated RPG system and adapted it into a video game, then created one of the most atmospheric post-apocalyptic settings we've seen and made it feel real and alive... and all of that using a clunky interface. And yet it's loads of fun. The fact that it doesn't answer every question adds to the setting, the fact that the player has to keep notes of things and isn't held by the hand through the game puts the onus on the player, where it should be.

I could go on and on here disassembling your critique, but right now I'm trying to come up with a reply that's shorter than your post, so I'll cut to the chase: You've been spoiled rotten by modern games, to the point that you can't recognize a good game, even when it kicks you in the balls. Because that's exactly what Fallout did.

 

[octavius]

I've reached the Rickenbacker in System Shock 2. After a troubling start I've grown to really like this game after I reduced respawning. The situation in the Cargo Bay area was absolutely ridicilous with full respawning.

I don't like it quite as much as I did SS1 for some reason, despite it being objectively a better game, with more RPG mechanics, and much better UI and graphics. Level design is somewhat more linear, maybe that's why. Or too much inventory management?

Anyway, I can see myself replaying this game sometime, going the "Jedi" route with max skills in PSI and Energy Weapons for a different experience. Or maybe I will play Nightdive's remaster which I think they are working on.

Also, this must be Andhaira's dream game, with so many bodies of females having met a violent death, including (what a surprise) the two who tells you to seek them out.

 

[Tse Tse Fly]

Hello Unkillable Cat,

Spoiler

The single biggest problem with your entire train of thought is the fact that you're coming to this game not just after it was released, but long after it was released

Are you basically saying that I'm 'wrong' because I was born merely a couple of years before 1997 and it was impossible for me to experience the game at the time when it was coming out? I kind of acknowledge that it was a mistake not to play the proper fallout games thoroughly back when I first got the chance to do so. I also understand that in order to properly assess a videogame one should take into account not only the time when the game was released, but also it's genre and the gaming platform for which it was produced. And I have said already that the combat was not the main disappointment.

The games you name as examples/comparisons (Alien Shooter [2003] and Hotline: Miami [2012])

They were given as an illustration so the reader could get a quick idea of what I was going to say, actually saving me the trouble of coming up with a proper description for this kind of gameplay.

just you wait if you think Fallout has "a few skills, perks and some traits being rather useless". Tactics had to sacrifice so much to get real-time combat in there

Many of the skills in Fallout generally are not used during combat, so it wouldn't have made a world of difference if the combat was real-time. The perception statistic then could be attribute for character's field of sight. Yes, perception is not just how far you can see, but it's is not like it had broader application during combat in the first Fallout.

All of them played Fallout, and most of them did so because of the combat system.

It may be looking awesome at the first glance, but the more you play the more you get convinced that battles in Fallout are just a filler and nothing really impressive (I'm speaking of the first Fallout). Combat system is just there and that's it.

I could go on and on here disassembling your critique

So you were going to covince me that I 'wrongfully' disliked (or rather, didn't like that much) the thigns I disliked in the first Fallout (like quests, locations etc, the actual content, that is) or overlooked the good things? Or maybe it is that I liked not the same things as those which you liked or disliked the things which you liked? If so, I would be most curious to know what it could be. By the way, what do you think about the story in the first Fallout?

I'm not saying Fallout is a bad game. The problem is that it's too short (and too old) which makes both good and bad qualities to stand out more prominently and be more easy to disassemble bit by bit.

You've been spoiled rotten by modern games, to the point that you can't recognize a good game, even when it kicks you in the balls.

Have a nice day you too.