What game are you wasting time on?

[Azalin]

Played Zone of Enders 2 Mars for a couple of hours,mediocre game that becomes boring fast,graphics are ok for an old ps2 era game remake but there isn't anything really interesting to keep me going,neither the gameplay nor the story.Not recommended

 

[Freddie]

Playing Resident Evil 2 Remake.

Finished Leon campaign A and so far this has turned out to be pretty good. I can't deny that I'm stingy bastard but I don't regret not waiting for discount. Going to play other campaigns. Mean while people interested my start reading Codex impressions in RE2 Remake thread beginning about here.

 

[No Great Name]

Finished up every level I could in Goldeneye 64 on Secret Agent difficulty (normal difficulty).

The game was pretty challenging, especially in the later levels, but it was pretty fun and satisfying overall when everything came together and I successfully completed the mission. I really liked how you were given a list of objectives to complete but there's no real indication that you're on the right track or anything like that until you get the message saying that you've completed the objective. There's also an interesting sort of push-pull mechanic when it comes to navigating each level. The game wants the player to take their time thoroughly exploring the level, especially since many side objectives are out of the way or just lack any real sort of indication that they're there and also enemy gunfire is pretty dangerous and you can only take so much damage before things start to get shaky. At the same time, the game constantly pushes the player forward through most levels as many of them, though not all, will have enemy guards and soldiers constantly spawn and hunt down the player. This means that the player turtling and defending their position is basically a waste of time in the long run because the stream of enemies will never stop and enemies will often spawn on different sides which forces the player to have to constantly watch their backs as they move forward. Ammo management is also thing on any difficulty that's not the easiest where running out of ammo might become a real problem, although this didn't really start to happen until I reached the second half of the levels. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun I had playing this game.

Next up I'm playing Parasite Eve II for the Playstation.

 

[Dedup]

I finished the main campaign of Wing Commander 2. It had some difficult missions but nothing too out of control. The main difference from the first game that I had to get used to was enemy fighters with back turrets. When fighting ships with those it was better to break off pursuit when you get their back and try come from a different angle. In this game they also start focusing on the story more with plenty of cutscenes between missions as well as some that happen while you're flying. One thing I didn't remember from when I played this back in the day was what and absolute butthurt asshole you are at through a good portion of the game. It doesn't help that some of your crew mates are pricks to you for most of the game as well. It was kind of weird since I didn't envision the main character being like that at all since he was mostly a blank slate in the first game. So next up is the first Special Operations expansion. I never played those so I'm interested to learn if it's as equally story focused as the main game or if it's more about just briefings and missions.

I had also picked up my old game of Wizardry 1, the Playstation version, that I was playing through an emulator. I'm on floor 10 with characters who range from level 10 to 13, trying to get to Werdna, but either my resources get too low and I chicken out back to town or something disastrous happens and I have to end the run. I'm actually surprised that I haven't had a full party wipe on this floor yet. Basically getting surprised by any group with a breath weapon will fuck up your day since it will probably kill half your party and leave the survivors near death before you can even act. It's also a bitch when you meet up with Vampires who drain two levels on hit. Luckily running from fights has been reliable. But it's been fun so far as this is the first time I've played Wizardry 1 and made significant progress. The other times I've played I got distracted and usually never went much further than floor 3.

I'm also playing Mage's Initiation and have just completed the first task. It's a decent adventure game with nice visuals. The puzzles haven't been too difficult and I don't anticipate anything is going to change as I continue. I do find the game a bit too dark sometimes as for one section I had to turn up the brightness on my TV to find the item I needed, though this may be more an issue with my TV than the game. While I'm enjoying the game I find that the RPG elements are weak and the combat kind of sucks. I think the game might of been better off if they ditched those elements and made a straight up adventure game. One thing regarding the RPG elements I do like is that they made the puzzle points your experience points. I have had the thought in the past that the Quest for Glory series and other Adventure/RPG hybrids would be better off tying character progression to puzzle points than the learn by doing system that had you mindlessly repeating actions to get your skills up.

 

[Krivol]

Just finished <ass Effect with paragon female character and it was ok-ish. Tried to replay with renegade but his dialogue options are just moronic ('I don't like to not be informed!' 'I want to do this!' 'I'm a stupid kiddo!' ) - how they even can consider him to be a spectre? I couldn't get through Eden Prime with this idiot.

 

[Azalin]

Finished Banner Saga 3 the last pat of the er saga.The gameplay is pretty much the same as the previous games with one or two new mechanics put in.graphics,music etc all like in previous games.I felt that the story was a bit weaker than the others games perhaps because they had some budget problems if I recall correctly making this the weakest of the trilogy,still a good game and worth playing if you played the other two.It's a bit short like the other two games,about 10 hours long.Recommended.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Mad Max
I'm 7 hours in and I think it's absolute tosh. It plays just fine, but it would almost be better if it didn't, then I wouldn't stand wasting time on it.
Constant and long cutscenes, shit story, a good chunk of the game is spent standing around holding A while waiting for Max to do something, melee combat boiled down to no skill press-X-for-awesome, fun driving but nothing fun to do with it other than to drive to the next generic busywork location.
thoroughly unsatisfying/10

A Hat in Time
I've only played this for 1.5 hours so far. I found its style instantly adorable, swimming around in the pillows at the starting area was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in a videogame.
It's very unfortunate that in that time I have only gotten to play one level, re-used multiple times. If the game offers some serious challenge later on I think I will end up liking it a lot.

Resident Evil 5
Playing this co-op with a friend. Perfect game to shit on while still getting a somewhat fun challenge. Comfy garbage.

Playing a bit of alpha centauri off and on which feels like less of a waste of time than most games. I'm just about breaking apart from envy of the multiplayer game going on in the playground.

 

[ColonelTeacup]

I just finished a game of ck2 where I almost managed to reform the pagan germanic religions and push back catholicism and orthodoxy out of the northerlands to save odin and thors faithful from being extinguished, that is until my own subjects had me assassinated for daring to not give away my duchies immediately. A lot happened before all of this, like my former liege lord burning germanic pagans alive as heretics, abandoning and betraying the nordic pantheon for catholicism, and even another german pagan lord receiving mjolnir itself and then turning to catholicism but it all ended so anti-climactically.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

fun driving but nothing fun to do with it other than to drive to the next generic busywork location.

I wasn't a fan of the game either, but this is inaccurate. I had most of my fun in the game with the vehicle combat. Dismantling their buggies and shit, or just yanking dudes off the back with the mounted harpoon. It wasn't fucking amazing, but there was more to the driving than you say

 

[oldbonebrown]

I wasn't a fan of the game either, but this is inaccurate. I had most of my fun in the game with the vehicle combat. Dismantling their buggies and shit, or just yanking dudes off the back with the mounted harpoon. It wasn't fucking amazing, but there was more to the driving than you say

You're right, that part can be somewhat fun and there are some good ideas there, I wish that it did more with them, so far it has not offered enough depth, challenge and reward to be something special. It's for sure the part that has kept me playing for as long as I have, but the fun has mostly ran out of it for me now.

How does the driving develop further into the game?

 

[Kabas]

Just started The summoner. Reached the first town.
I am not impressed so far.

 

[unfairlight]

Arma 3. I wish I could run this game better, my PC is too slow and I only get 20-50 FPS depending on what map I am on, what time of day it is and how many enemies there are.
I completed the other big campaign for Arma 3, Apex Protocol, just now. Apex Protocol was made with co-op in mind, but I played it solo. You unfortunately do not get any AI teammates when you play solo. It took me around 6 hours (vanilla campaign should take you around 15-20h). While it wasn't bad, I can't say that it was as interesting or rewarding as the main campaign, The East Wind.
Some guy modded Metal Gear into this game, lol. It can fly, shoot dual gatling guns, HE rockets, AT rockets and even has a cargo mode.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952560410

 

[ColonelTeacup]

Arma 3. I wish I could run this game better, my PC is too slow and I only get 20-50 FPS depending on what map I am on, what time of day it is and how many enemies there are.
I completed the other big campaign for Arma 3, Apex Protocol, just now. Apex Protocol was made with co-op in mind, but I played it solo. You unfortunately do not get any AI teammates when you play solo. It took me around 6 hours (vanilla campaign should take you around 15-20h). While it wasn't bad, I can't say that it was as interesting or rewarding as the main campaign, The East Wind.
Some guy modded Metal Gear into this game, lol. It can fly, shoot dual gatling guns, HE rockets, AT rockets and even has a cargo mode.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=952560410

yeah, but the wheels are too blocky.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A Hat in Time
I've only played this for 1.5 hours so far. I found its style instantly adorable, swimming around in the pillows at the starting area was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen in a videogame.
It's very unfortunate that in that time I have only gotten to play one level, re-used multiple times. If the game offers some serious challenge later on I think I will end up liking it a lot.

You deserve fair warning then: The base game only has four 'levels' but they're recycled in various ways. IIRC the DLC adds one more.

I had to give up on the second level (a movie set) because I was battling the controls more than the game.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

How does the driving develop further into the game?

I don't really remember tbh, so I'd guess that it doesn't much crazier or it would've stood out in my memory more

 

[HansDampf]

I finished CrossCode yesterday. I had complained before about the amount of fetch quests (literally "bring me 3 of X, 5 of Y and 32 of Z") which, thankfully, can be ignored. But it gets better about 1/3 into the game. Instead of grinding they will usually lead to some unique combat scenario, sometimes even a mini dungeon with puzzles, or funny situations like the "hacker". I also really liked the late-game areas, where exploration puzzles are more complicated. The first few areas are pretty boring in comparison.
One thing that never gets good is the crafting/trading system. Don't even bother!

 

[Freddie]

Still playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. I finished A scenarios on standard difficulty (Leon) and hardcore (Claire) doing B-scenario on hardcore run now. Main differences between standard and HC appears to be tougher enemies, but also limited expandability of inventory and while on standard it's viable to finish some boss fights from distance, on HC it's sometimes better to get quite close up and personal. Most effective tactics appears to be clipping through some parts of boss you are fighting. It's difficult to explain, but it's not as cheesy as it may appear as written.

I'm about halfway on Lean B scenario and so far it doesn't feel that different from A but let's see. What I can say even individually campaigns are short but there are four of them and I have felt they are fun enough to keep me interested. (and there are additional challenges like doing S+ run) and so far game has turned out to be quite a good value for money.

There also appears to be free DLC coming in feb 15th.

 

[Okagron]

I forgot how smart the AI is in the first F.E.A.R game, this combined with high difficult and it leads to some intense firefights. Wonder why more devs don't use this kind of AI in FPS games.

 

[octavius]

Age of Wonders.

As I've been playing (and replaying) old HoMM 3 user made maps I realized I haven't played anything from after HoMM 3: Armageddon's Blade. Now I remember why; AoW is just more addictive and during the 2000s I played lots of AoW, especially Shadow Magic, and I didn't touch HoMM again until playing some HoMM 5.

But AoW 1 has some glaring faults, though, like OP heroes, far too timid AI, and too vulnerable enemy leaders if Leaders on Map. It's not much of a problem in the campaign so far, but I remember that the only user made maps that were worth playing SP were pure quest maps.
Thankfully SM addressed these problems (well, except the AI still being too timid).

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I forgot how smart the AI is in the first F.E.A.R game, this combined with high difficult and it leads to some intense firefights. Wonder why more devs don't use this kind of AI in FPS games.

Apparently its all dynamic; rather than specifically telling the AI to flank, the AI is told to analyse the environment and use it to their advantage, and it just goes on from there.
FEAR is an amazing FPS. The later games were a bit shit, but the first one is just gold.

 

[Okagron]

Apparently its all dynamic; rather than specifically telling the AI to flank, the AI is told to analyse the environment and use it to their advantage, and it just goes on from there.
FEAR is an amazing FPS. The later games were a bit shit, but the first one is just gold.

Interesting. They are kind of prone to hide behind weird covers (that leave a large portion of their body exposed), but for the most part they use the enviroment remarkably well. Honestly prefer this type of firefights where the enemies are not fodder, don't win because they have overwhelming odds and do laser accurate shots, but instead by using the enviroment correctly and flanking me.

And yeah, first F.E.A.R game is definitely the best in the series and an excellent FPS.

 

[sullynathan]

I forgot how smart the AI is in the first F.E.A.R game, this combined with high difficult and it leads to some intense firefights. Wonder why more devs don't use this kind of AI in FPS games.

It isn't smart, it does a good illusion making you think it's smart. AI in F.E.A.R. move around a lot and scream what they're doing or what they think you're doing once they've engaged you. In that sense, they have a heightened difficulty compared to most shooters.

Half-Life did something similar years prior to F.E.A.R.

 

[Devoidless]

I just started up Dragon Age: Origins again. I play through it every couple years. It's more or less what I go to when I don't really know what to play and just go into autopilot mode. I think it's held up pretty well over the years.

 

[Tiger]

I just started up Dragon Age: Origins again. I play through it every couple years. It's more or less what I go to when I don't really know what to play and just go into autopilot mode. I think it's held up pretty well over the years.

I plan on doing another playthrough of DAO soon. My default go to comfort game is Banished.

 

[Okagron]

Finished F.E.A.R and its expansions and an overall very solid experience. The expansions are definitely weaker than the base game, but still solid.

Started F.E.A.R 2 and it already feels like a downgrade. Seems most of the tense atmosphere is just gone, which is one of the best parts of the first game, and the AI no longer feels as "smart" as the first game. Most of them just run at you in the open and get killed easily. No more using the enviroment to their advantage, at least nowhere as much as the enemies in the first game. So far it seems like a modern Call of Duty.