What game are you wasting time on?

[Achiman]

Playing Battlechasers Nightwar (no idea why the title is so melodramatic) anyway it's not bad, the art is pretty cool if you like that Bilzzard wow vibe and the dungeon crawling idea isn't bad. Ok if you wanna kill some time with turn based jrpg style combat game.

Also playing ff6 on vita. Jesus christ the random encounter rate is through the roof. I never remember it being that bad when I played it as a wee lad. I guess it is one of those things that it's good to be rid of in modern games. Anyway, ff 6 and 8 (almost for the card game alone!) are my favs.

 

[Dedup]

Finished the first Special Operations Pack for Wing Commander 2. It seemed to end a bit abruptly with a large strike force bearing down on your base you fly only one mission to end it. Sure it was a tough mission, with a couple of Fralthi capital ships that seemed to have a lot more destructive fire power than any capital ships I'd flown against before, but I still expected at least one more mission considering this was supposed to be a "large" strike fleet. I think I'm getting a little burned out on the Wing Commander games so I'm not going to start the second SO pack right away.

In my Pathfinder: Kingmaker game I've got to Vordekai's Tomb. I'm not sure if I'm under leveled (level 11 MC and level 9 party) or just thoroughly unprepared. I'm nearly at the end of it I think and it's been tough. It wouldn't be bad if you could freely leave to recover and come back but your locked in once you start. It's certainly a bit of a difficulty spike considering that I've had little trouble up to this point. If I can't get through I'll have to reload to the start dungeon, before you're locked in, and leave to either level up or just buy enough scrolls and supplies to get me through.

 

[Sigourn]

Playing Yakuza and Haunting Grounds on my PS2. So far so good, though I admit there are a few things about Haunting Grounds I don't like. Especifically how "aimless" it feels when compared to Resident Evil (1996). Like, I was completely unable to memorize the layout of the castle, probably because it is so damn huge (huge =/= many rooms, but HUGE sized rooms) and the camera movement didn't let me make a mental map of the castle as opposed to Resident Evil's fairly logical camerawork.

Yakuza is one game I'm enjoying, got to say the combat isn't something I think is particularly "great" but the story and the setting is engrossing. I love how well realized the different environments are.

Spoiler

The funeral of the 3rd chapter looked sick, I'm surprised a PS2 could look this good without nostalgia glasses.

 

[No Great Name]

Yakuza is one game I'm enjoying, got to say the combat isn't something I think is particularly "great" but the story and the setting is engrossing. I love how well realized the different environments are.

Spoiler

The funeral of the 3rd chapter looked sick, I'm surprised a PS2 could look this good without nostalgia glasses.

I finished the game myself not that long ago and I pretty much had the same opinion. The combat is a pain until you figure out how it works (although it's still a pain) but the drama between characters and the plot is pretty good.

Here's a couple of tips to help:
In combat, you don't want to attack again immediately after whiffing or getting back up after being knocked down as it takes half a second for Kazuma to actually face the enemy when you turn him.
Also try not to spend too much money early on since you'll need quite a bit to buy a couple things required to continue the plot.

 

[RK47]

I got really bored and installed Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash
I tried playing it with a gamepad and it didn't feel right aiming with the stick. I switched to mouse and I performed way better, did not help that team AI is rather brain dead.
Also, the dressing room and intimacy feature is a decent idea. You can customize your girls' outfits and make her pose on a diorama.

I did not take long for another settlement to need my help.

Oh almost forgot, intimacy mini-game:

 

[Hirato]

I'm glad you're enjoying my library RK47

 

[Azalin]

Finished Katamari Damacy Reroll. Never played any of the series of roll-playing-games and it's quite interesting and original.You have to roll a sticky ball around the level and make it large enough to satisfy the King of All Cosmos by grabbing things that are smaller than it at any given time,so you start small and have to make it bigger.Simple and straightforward.Graphics are PS2 era so don't expect much there,music is ok,and the gameplay as I said is nice,the controls are a bit meh but I am not sure if that's because it's an old game of if it's intentional to increase the difficulty.The game is short though,I finished it in about 5 hours,there is some replayability since you can replay the levels and try to make a bigger ball this time and get more collectibles although I am not sure how many times it will take to make things really repetitive.Still recommended for a sale

 

[octavius]

Playing Half-Life: Opposing Force.
I've played it before, but it must have been only once, 'cause I remember very little of it. What I do remember is that I liked it better than the original game, but I guess that was purely due to the great Marines vs Alien fight(s) later in the game, so it reached a greater height than H-L at least. But so far it's been rather amemic stuff; no good fights and lots of mundane physics puzzles. At least it's not jumping puzzles...
Just met up with two fellow Marines, so hopefully things will pick ip.

 

[unfairlight]

What a coincidence, I bought the Valve complete pack on sale a while back and just today started playing Half-Life 2: Episode One. So far, feelings are a lot more positive than Half Life 2. Level design feels leagues better overall. It might help that I am playing on normal instead of hard, since hard in HL2 just made enemies into bullet sponges instead of adding actual difficulty and seriously decreased my enjoyment.

 

[octavius]

I've become so old that Hard in shooters is starting to get hard, while Impossible in TBS games is now too easy (I can't believe I used to have problems winning in Civ 1 and 2).

And I'm happy to say things did pick up in OF.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished Katamari Damacy Reroll. Never played any of the series of roll-playing-games and it's quite interesting and original.You have to roll a sticky ball around the level and make it large enough to satisfy the King of All Cosmos by grabbing things that are smaller than it at any given time,so you start small and have to make it bigger.Simple and straightforward.Graphics are PS2 era so don't expect much there,music is ok,and the gameplay as I said is nice,the controls are a bit meh but I am not sure if that's because it's an old game of if it's intentional to increase the difficulty.The game is short though,I finished it in about 5 hours,there is some replayability since you can replay the levels and try to make a bigger ball this time and get more collectibles although I am not sure how many times it will take to make things really repetitive.Still recommended for a sale

Katamari Damacy is one of the few PS2 I regret not getting a chance to play back in the day.

That said, the game was pretty much made irrelevant by its sequel We Love Katamari, which is an improvement upon the original for all sakes and purposes... to the point that many have questioned the decision of remaking the original instead of going directly to the sequel.

 

[what am i doing]

I finally bit the bullet and decided to give Mirror's Edge: Catalyst a chance. There are a few things I liked about it, but generally it was a step down. The good stuff first: the combat feels better; it's fun and generally satisfying and I'd enjoy seeing it in other games. The graphics are gorgeous (has its downside see below). The soundtrack, while not as good as the original, is still excellent, and delves a bit into acid trance, which I'm a big fan of. Some of the areas are quite beatiful and remind me of the first game; in particular construction zones. Pipes can be climbed much faster, which is a relief. The city feels more alive due to more NPCs and in closer proximity to the player, but at the same time less alive somehow. Maybe due to how background NPCs are present, don't react to the player. I don't know.

The bad: the combat is really easy. Taking down multiple runner cops in the original was a genuine challenge. Taking down as many enemies at once as you'd care to in Catalyst is a joke. The graphics, though improved, lack the beautiful simplicity of ME1. A graphics upgrade should have given us higher quality textures and maybe gotten away from UE3's awful shadows, not tossed bloom on everything. The movement became easier and more handholdy in general. ME1 had a cool and memorable boss fight with Celeste. MEC had a fucking cutscene of a fight with Isabel. The story is shitty. Mirror's Edge had a lacklustre and largely placeholder story because it only really needed a placeholder and that was fine, it wasn't very important. MEC tried harder, but ended up being somehow as flimsy and inconclusive as the original. The characters in ME1 were generally fairly well-written or at least likeable, even as limited as they were. The characters in MEC were pretty much all irritating cunts. Collectibles, and not how they were in the original which was just a bit of stuff hidden in a corner here and there with no impact beyond a counter, but collectibles all over the fucking place. And an XP system. It is buggy. To be expected for a larger and more open-world game but the bugs here really stood out. Frequent pathing glitches and enemies getting stuck in level geometry. The setting went from being vague undefined near future (I always imagined it taking place in Singapore or Hong Kong where circumstances have led to further cultural westernization) to blatant sci-fi. This wasn't totally awful since the first did have hints at technological advancements being on the way, but still, the themes changed with the setting. The original was about a place that could be a modern city in a time when governments are overreaching on privacy and perhaps curtailing freedom of speech. The sequel was some hamfisted "corporations bad, yay communism!" shit, doubly ironic with all the popup reminders that I didn't have EA's malware running on my machine.

Actually, I want to expand on story and I think it deserves its own consideration here. Mirror's Edge, although the story was just there to have some story at all, was still reasonably compelling in its portrayal of Faith's quest to rescue her sister, and it sticks to that theme through to the end. Mayor Callaghan is never personally present and the story doesn't end with you engaging in some grand quest to beat the corporations; it remains about and ends with Faith saving her sister. And that's it. It worked. MEC tries to be all about intrigue and world-saving; it's boring in that regard, and it also throws in the whole "saving your sister" quest except it makes their relationship drama-ridden and, honestly, not very believable as a result. I'm not a fan of prebaked drama; if you have it in a game then it ought to be created in the course of the game by events the player is involved in, not in background lore. Mirror's Edge kept it simple, and it worked. MEC tried to be the hollywood game as so many games do these days, and as it always does, the approach failed.

tl;dr

I rate it a 5/10. By itself it might be higher but as a sequel to Mirror's Edge it does a lot of things wrong, and games in a series should always be rated including how they compare to their predecessor. At the same time, it's not completely terrible, and I had some fun while playing it. Soundtrack is the best part.

 

[unfairlight]

Completed Half-Life 2: Episode One.
That was short, what the hell? It took me less than 3 hours, HL2 itself took me 9. Regardless I liked the gameplay, reactivity and level design a lot more and it also lacked the dogshit, god awful, despicable, I-wish-for-harm-for-whoever-made-them driving sections that HL2 had, so it's automatically better than HL2. So far, my rankings of the HL games is HL > HL2:EP1 > HL2.

I am now playing Operation Flashpoint again, this time the Resistance campaign. It's neat that they have 2 full campaigns within the expansion, with one for joining the resistance and another for going informant. So far I like it, I managed to shoot down a Hind using a T-72 from like 800m away with one shot in the mission where you steal some tanks and a BMP. Save system of Operation Flashpoint is still damned awful, though. You only have one save and some very inconsistent and dumb autosaves.

 

[HansDampf]

Completed Half-Life 2: Episode One.
That was short, what the hell? It took me less than 3 hours, HL2 itself took me 9.

Episode 2 is a bit longer than 1. ValveN's idea was to release one short episode per year instead of spending half a decade development time on one big game. Episodes 1-3 were supposed to be "HL3".

Regardless I liked the gameplay, reactivity and level design a lot more and it also lacked the dogshit, god awful, despicable, I-wish-for-harm-for-whoever-made-them driving sections that HL2 had, so it's automatically better than HL2.

Have fun with Episode 2 then.

 

[Swigen]

I had deleted Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky awhile back ‘cause it just went on and on and on, but I got the hankerin’ to play it again and was delighted to find that the save files still existed on my vita so I re-downloaded it. 40 minutes in and I’m already regretting it. Jesus fuck, I thought I was almost done! I’m @ 56 hours, at the martial arts tournament and I still have to grind a few levels, get new gear and endure more “OMG I can’t believe I liek my step brother” bullshit. The “twist” or whatever the fuck is supposed to happen the last 2 minutes of the game better be worth it.

 

[sullynathan]

Beat Super Metroid

 

[HansDampf]

Overload: Eodem Sequitur (that community level pack)
I thought I'd play this on Insane since I'd beaten Overload on Insane+ not too long ago. But...
1) I'm again rusty af with the joystick.
2) The campaign opens with a level so dumb, I'm like
Prepare to have your mind blown! Mission objective: "Destroy all auto-ops." One big open arena! 50 auto-ops! There's a lockdown for the first 20 auto-ops. But lockdown from what? There is nothing else to explore. Goblins, Gorgons and Krakens will be swarming you, like 10 at a time. Play on Insane, and they all have perfect accuracy and always lead their shots. They will spawn everywhere, most certainly behind you. Then there's Wyverns, Scorpions, Guardians, ... basically everything. And at the end, a showdown against the Goliath boss. This is the first level. You've got nothing except the Impulse laser, the Driller (which will run out quickly), and the few rockets that are scattered in the arena.
You know, I've had many restarts in Overload Insane+ but it has always been a fun challenge. This is just dumb. I'm not going to continue this on Insane and hope the first level isn't representative of the entire campaign.

 

[RK47]

I'm glad you're enjoying my library RK47

 

[flyingjohn]

Continuing my ace combat retrospective with the psp game,ace combat x.
So close to perfect.

-EMULATION
PPSSPP run the game perfectly.I would recommend to switch left and right arrow dpad buttons to l2 r2 to for better controls.
Also here is a hd graphics pack you can use: https://superostrich.xyz/acx.html

-STORY

It is ace combat 4 lite,which is no a bad thing.Instead of the kid you get a reporter trying to uncover where the finance of the enemy came from.There aren't much cut scenes because of the psp hardware.
The plot is nothing special since it has been done better in ace combat 4.
The radio chatter is actually funny.There is a lot of radio chatter for your allies and enemies and most of it i self aware of the series conventions.I love how the enemy ambushes you by giving you a tunnel and then insults you over the radio over it.There is plenty of little moments like that.

-Quality of the mission briefing screen
It is the same thing a ace combat 4 but with a white background. Unfortunately the arrow replay that happens at the end lags significantly.

-Mission variety and gameplay

BEST IN THE SERIES SO FAR!!!

The game has 15 missions,but it has a dynamic campaign. Each mission has 2 or 3 variations that depend on the route you took on the map.And these aren't small variations,objectives,enemies,even approach may change entirely.You can even loose the map locations you took if you aren't careful. This is amazing,it allows so much replay ability and i have no idea why they didn't implement this in any major ace combat games,especially since this was a psp game.

Mission variety is also top notch.Each mission has something different.You need to be careful about harming other targets around enemies,you need to figure out decoys from real bombers,you need to look at the terrain and follow electrical lines to get to the target,you might need to stop a train from reaching is destination,etc.i all feels varied and fun to do.Also love how there is a late pure air brawl map with rocking music and plenty of enemy aces.

Alternative and missions are handled by the dynamic campaign.

There are enemy aces and secret parts containers across most maps.

Medals have received no change.

-Planes
The game features the most interesting plane designs so far with multiple unique planes that are interesting both aesthetically and stat wise.Most of them are xfa and yf variations.The game also features mot of the usual planes you will see in the series.

Customization wise,the game ha sit all and more.You can customize your weapons and they added parts customization.
Parts customization is pretty nice. each part has a positive and negative modifier so you have to choose wisely.Some parts add special things like auto pilot and improved stealth.So a natural evolution of the customization so far in the series.


--Difficulty
The ai movement and missiles are mostly the same as ace combat 4.It is a shame that they didn't copy the ace ai and style from belkan. Generally the ai does it best to dodge missiles and try to lock on to you so the game isn't too easy.
But there is a somewhat big problem with two things.
The first one is that the ai really likes to come at you like some weird form of air jousting,it makes it easier to shoot them down,which is disappointing. Luckily it doesn't happen too much.
The second one is of a technical nature. Your missile hit detection has a somewhat big tendency to clip through enemies and miss entirely.You can see the missile going straight through the enemy,and it is quite annoying when it happens.

-Unique stuff and extra content
SP campaign is now naturally fused wth the campaign after you finish it once.
The usual ace difficulty i here after finishing hard mode.
Music and movie plyer are here as well.Bu the music player is disappointing. It doesn't list the tracks so you have to guess what song are you choosing,that is weird.

-Overall verdict
Second best ace combat game so far. If it wasn't for the ai and some technical issues it would be perfect. In fact i recommend playing this game to any fan just because of the awesome dynamic campaign.

 

[Azalin]

Played Swords and Soldiers 2 for a few hours before uninstalling, I liked the first game because it was nice simple and straightforward,the second game though tries to be more complicated by adding some mechanics that I found boring and annoying.Not recommended

 

[Sigourn]

My opinion on Yakuza and Haunting Ground grows harsher and harsher by the minute.

Yakuza has a rather big world for such little amount of content it has. You are constantly stopped by NPCs looking for a fight. Moreover, for a good while already missions have consisted of nothing but what I consider to be filler content, as the main quest has come to a dead end when it comes to progression. Sure, you DO things to advance the main quest, but speaking purely story-wise none of them advance the conflict of the main quest. And so far MANY missions have been nothing but:

• You depart from point A.
• You need to go to point B, on one place of the map far away.
• You enter combat five times during that span of time.
• "Oh no, you need to go to point C!"
• You enter combat another five times.
• "Oh no, you need to go to point D!"
• Turn out point D was just across THE FUCKING STREET from point A. Cue another 5 fights on your way to point D. And this wasn't a one-time only ocassion, it has happened a few times already.

It's filler, no other way to describe it. Regarding Haunting Ground: okay, maybe I'm going through some early survival horror crisis, but puzzles in Haunting Ground seems so stupid just like those of Resident Evil. Like who ACTUALLY comes up with these puzzles, canonically speaking? For what purpose would they be there? The difference between Haunting Ground and Resident Evil is that:

• The map is huge and it's impossible to memorize it, not in small part because the camera constantly moves around.
• There's always a chance (rather often) than you will get chased by an enemy, meaning you will round around the entire map before you dispose of him/her until the next chase. Cue having to return to your position, if you remember how to get to it, and hope you don't get chased again shortly afterwards.
• Your companion dog is a fucking retard and makes most dog-related puzzles a pain in the ass.
• All of this draws attention to the artificial puzzles. In Resident Evil I think there were very few puzzles I couldn't figure out on my own; at least one of them I looked up in a walkthrough because I had to run around an enemy infested area and that got old real quick. Here, so much running around eventually wears you down, and the puzzles aren't anywhere near as intuitive.
• Basically, between having to figure out the stupid puzzles, the ridiculous and nonsensical layout of the castle/mansion, and constantly being chased around, I'd say my playtime has been inflated by at least 2 hours.

Overall, I'd say Yakuza is a solid 7 so far and Haunting Ground is a 5. Fiona is so hot I'm thinking it's the only reason I'm actually enjoying the "gameplay", because while the good thing about the gameplay itself (the chase mechanic) is fairly interesting, it has its share of problems that makes the game infuriating on top of everything else.

 

[Momock]

I hated Hauting Ground at first and finished it god knows how (I bullshited my way through it, kicking the ennemies until they fainted). But when I replayed it years later I understood that you simply have to don't run to not attract the ennemy, and that you have to train your dog to do stuff quick. It was way more enjoyable and I fished it three times in a row, discovering cool secrets and endings in the process. The only real problem the game has is the alchemy system wich is a shitty slot machine. For the rest... I was just dumb (and didn't read the manual that much).

 

[Safav Hamon]

I am now playing Operation Flashpoint again, this time the Resistance campaign. It's neat that they have 2 full campaigns within the expansion, with one for joining the resistance and another for going informant.

Helping the Soviets ends the game prematurely

 

[Pharad]

When it comes to wasting time, nothing beats Terraria and Stardew Valley lol, hundreds upon hundreds of hours on each game..

 

[PeachPlumage]

Playing Prince of Qin. I bought the game years ago but I am finally giving it a proper seeing to.