What game are you wasting time on?

[laclongquan]

On top of that, I get now what people were saying. Planescape only works as a game. Yes, you could probably write a story about the game. But would it still affect you in the same way as an interactive experience where you are slowly piecing the world together by talking to people WHO BY THE WAY never feel like they are just dumping exposition on you? It's a rhetorical question, but the answer is fuck no.

It is simply a pleasure to explore the world this game presents. It's not the same pleasure you get from building your weakling party through Wiz 1-5, mastering the system/game and coming out on top, but it's just as satisfying to slowly explore the world and piece together the story.

I don't think I'll ever switch over to the story darkside, but Planescape has tempted me more than any other game.

For your reference, chinese amateur authors write a ton of not-really-fanfiction for Baldur's Gate setting, but very rarely for Sigil specifically. Only one write about sigil scenes in halfway detailed chapter-length scenes, and some more in one or two paragraph if at all.

The setting is too chaotic and condensed to write any great thing about it.

 

[Abu Antar]

I completed Divide by Sheep. Some sort of puzzle logics mobile game that is now on PC. It was a decent time waster.

I am now playing Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich. Charmingly cheesy and fun enough. Yet another game that doesn't seem to take ages to beat.

On PS4, I am playing Digimon. Still the Cyber Sleuth game. I'm at the penultimate chapter. Messing around with some of my Digimon. Gotta catch 'em all! No, wait... That's the wrong series.

I'm also trying out Knack via PS+. I doubt that I will finish it. Feels very by the books and uninspired.

 

[octavius]

HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death

Completed the fifth mini-campaign, Rise of the Necromancer, and got a new best score: 2215.

This was the best campaign so far, and the first map was quite challenging on Impossible. It was fun to compare with brave YouTubers, seeing how they save scum until they get Expert Necromancy from two treasure chests.

The maps changed to pure war maps, and the second map was a bit weird. There's lots of chained Border Guards, and the end "reward" is a second Necromancer castle, but before I had even found the first Tent in the chain, I had conquered all the enemy. With a secondary starting hero and lots of Liches it was possible to have more than one major army in the field. And in later maps I could have three different armies when I was lucky enough to get former high level enemies turn up at the tavern.

So overall the best official HoMM 3 game so far, but none of the highlights of Armageddon's Blade where you had those epic battles against Crystal Dragons and a Legion of Nagas.

 

[Modron]

Play a hack and slasher without grind then like Siege of Avalon, Divine Divinity, or I guess Prince of Qin (has potential random encounters on map change).

You dont have to grind in Prince of Qin but you totally can and with great benefit (for crafter mostly). After 1/2 of the game you have a generally large list of locations for random encounters and you just spam them for the materials. Then you go to the post houses and put them on the ground like a packrat.

Qin has scaling though doesn't it? Better to just play it normal. You'll pick up better quality components in the later areas anyways.

 

[newtmonkey]

Divinity: Original Sin
I've finally after several tries got into this game. The game seemed to gate you through a somewhat linear path with 1) encounters at fixed locations/enemy levels and 2) keys/story stuff/etc. I thought this might just be the intro to the game, but other people confirmed the whole game is pretty much like this, and I had lost interest as I had just finished M&MX, which also has a similar setup of having gated encounters funneling you through a mostly linear path.

I guess I realized it's okay for an RPG to keep you on a linear path as long as it's got something else to make up for it. For D:OS, that's the combat (at least 7 hours in) and the exploration (linear, but thoroughly exploring each area often gets you some nice stuff). Also great is the soundtrack, which has gotta be one of the best ones in recent years.

It's a fun game, but it feels a lot more like playing some kind of Tactics Ogre/Final Fantasy Tactics game with exploration between story battles.

DUSK
I couldn't believe the hype. Surely this must be some hipster thing; I mean, look at the graphics.
Nope, I should have believed the hype, and this game is amazing. The best FPS I've played since FEAR. Amazing atmosphere (+ soundtrack), fast, plenty of exploration, fantastic level design, great weapons, memorable enemies, what else do you need?

Blood: Fresh Supply
I continue to work my way through this one. It still seems really off from the DOS version or even from GDX/NBlood (for example, in original DOS version it's very easy to jump over a group of enemies chasing you and I used this tactic often, but in Fresh Supply it's hit and miss; also, crouching would often make you more difficult to hit by hitscan enemies in DOS version, but here it doesn't seem to matter). For the time being, I'm playing around with Lightly Broiled settings customized with cultist accuracy turned down one level; it's a bit closer to LB in the DOS version like this, though admittedly easier.

DOOM SIGIL
I've been testing this on various source ports. It runs fine on GZDOOM of course, but no matter how I tweaked it I couldn't get it playing just right. Next I tried DOS on a lark, but it won't work with standard DOOM. After that was Chocolate DOOM but you get a visplane error immediately after starting the game. Finally, Crispy DOOM: this works fine and right now this is my preferred way to play it. The lighting/coloring feels more authentic (I know that's ridiculous since SIGIL was likely designed/tested using a ZDOOM or a variant) and I get a kick out of playing it at 35 fps with interpolation off so that it feels very close to the DOS version. Crispy DOOM lets you unlock the framerate though, so once I stop pretending I'm playing SIGIL back in 1991, I'll probably bring it back up to 60 fps w/ interpolation.

 

[Catacombs]

Been in the mood to play IE games:

Icewind Dale
Planescape: Torment

 

[Abhay]

I will start playing NOLF 1 today onwards. Planning to approach the missions in stealth with 0 kills as much as possible, especially the Berlin scenes by experimenting with all the gadgets and using no weapons. I want to see how far can I make this work for all the missions (except the obvious missions impossible to get through without weapons).

 

[octavius]

Second map of the Unholy Alliance of HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death.
Crag Hack too has had all his skills and stats reset (he had Expert Earth and Air, but now he has no magic skills), and I feel my incentive to continue plummeting...

What's the bloody point of building up a character in 4-5 maps, when you don't get the same character in the next map he's in???

 

[rusty_shackleford]

On top of that, I get now what people were saying. Planescape only works as a game. Yes, you could probably write a story about the game. But would it still affect you in the same way as an interactive experience where you are slowly piecing the world together by talking to people WHO BY THE WAY never feel like they are just dumping exposition on you? It's a rhetorical question, but the answer is fuck no.

Describing PST as a visual novel has become a sort of meme but I think it's completely apt and not an insult(I believe a more common term for similar games has become 'walking simulator'.) If anything, PST is what visual novels should try to be instead of just a text dump with various pictures infront of you. PST feels like a logical step forward from movies as going from literature to movies was.
Even games that try to attempt a similar format fail with their intent to shoehorn in gamification IMO. Many of the Telltale games suffer from this.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Divinity: Original Sin
I've finally after several tries got into this game. The game seemed to gate you through a somewhat linear path with 1) encounters at fixed locations/enemy levels and 2) keys/story stuff/etc. I thought this might just be the intro to the game, but other people confirmed the whole game is pretty much like this, and I had lost interest as I had just finished M&MX, which also has a similar setup of having gated encounters funneling you through a mostly linear path.

I guess I realized it's okay for an RPG to keep you on a linear path as long as it's got something else to make up for it. For D:OS, that's the combat (at least 7 hours in) and the exploration (linear, but thoroughly exploring each area often gets you some nice stuff). Also great is the soundtrack, which has gotta be one of the best ones in recent years.

It's a fun game, but it feels a lot more like playing some kind of Tactics Ogre/Final Fantasy Tactics game with exploration between story battles.

D:OS2 is a better game in essentially every respect IMO, codex opinion seems to disagree but it will probably change in 4-5 years to thinking DOS2 is a timeless turn-based classic which they long for more of after the constant onslaught of livestreamed VR-only rtwp walking simulators.
If you're autistic about the shield mechanic like a lot of people on the codex then pick up the mod that reworks it to how the original game works.

 

[Abu Antar]

Divinity: Original Sin
I've finally after several tries got into this game. The game seemed to gate you through a somewhat linear path with 1) encounters at fixed locations/enemy levels and 2) keys/story stuff/etc. I thought this might just be the intro to the game, but other people confirmed the whole game is pretty much like this, and I had lost interest as I had just finished M&MX, which also has a similar setup of having gated encounters funneling you through a mostly linear path.

I guess I realized it's okay for an RPG to keep you on a linear path as long as it's got something else to make up for it. For D:OS, that's the combat (at least 7 hours in) and the exploration (linear, but thoroughly exploring each area often gets you some nice stuff). Also great is the soundtrack, which has gotta be one of the best ones in recent years.

It's a fun game, but it feels a lot more like playing some kind of Tactics Ogre/Final Fantasy Tactics game with exploration between story battles.

D:OS2 is a better game in essentially every respect IMO, codex opinion seems to disagree but it will probably change in 4-5 years to thinking DOS2 is a timeless turn-based classic which they long for more of after the constant onslaught of livestreamed VR-only rtwp walking simulators.
If you're autistic about the shield mechanic like a lot of people on the codex then pick up the mod that reworks it to how the original game works.

I'm replaying Divinity: Original Sin in co-op, with my brother. The first game is more fun than the second one. Hell DOS is better than DOS EE.

 

[Jamma]

Blood Will Be Spilled - it's a buggy and subpar game that mixes Steamworld Heist with trashy platforming sections. The only challenge is not to rage at all the bugs. The developer will eventually fix them, but it will still be a bad game.

Eador Genesis New Horizons - Holy shit this is addicting. Why did I never hear about this game?

Hell DOS is better than DOS EE.

Really? I was going to play this one day and I though EE was the recommended version.

 

[Abu Antar]

Blood Will Be Spilled - it's a buggy and subpar game that mixes Steamworld Heist with trashy platforming sections. The only challenge is not to rage at all the bugs. The developer will eventually fix them, but it will still be a bad game.

Eador Genesis New Horizons - Holy shit this is addicting. Why did I never hear about this game?

Hell DOS is better than DOS EE.

Really? I was going to play this one day and I though EE was the recommended version.

It might be me, but I’m not a fan of the EE changes. It was most fun building your characters in vanilla DOS. They streamlined their games after that, and not for the better.

 

[flyingjohn]

Steam world quest,another card rpg game in the vein of slay the spire.

Okey,i have a tip for anybody making rpg games with card combat.Actually try to emulate 1/3 of the depth of mtg or the insanity of yu gi oh.If your card combat has no trap/spell/equipment element tied to the cards,then there is no point in using cards in the first place.All you are doing is just replacing common rpg combat commands with cards with the added bullshit of rng draws.
Couple this with the most simple/boring exploration/equipment system and you do no get something worthwhile.Oh and there is card crafting for added annoyance because of grinding for parts.

The only thing that is somewhat good is the actual deckbuilding part of the characters.But even that is extremely limited(8 cards max,higher cards being somewhat useless because of cog requirements,hero combos being way too good to pass,etc)

Also anybody making a deck building game and not making any way to actually save decks is especially stupid.

Edit: Meant 8 cards max per character.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

That's disappointing. Steamworld Heist and Dig 1 and 2 were all great

 

[flyingjohn]

That's disappointing. Steamworld Heist and Dig 1 and 2 were all great

If you enjoy the series and can handle somewhat simplistic card combat i would say it is worth it when discounted.
Even though both dig 2 and heist are better games both in game play and everything else.

 

[DalekFlay]

I don't want to bump the thread because I wouldn't say anything I didn't already, but I just finished Mass Effect Andromeda. It's a shame that game is so shit because there's a solid foundation there. Nice looking open worlds, the concept of making them habitable for new pioneers, the basic combat from ME3 with some more open world aspects. Unfortunately the writing and quest design is so fucking dire it just ruins the game completely. As I sprinted to the finish watching these honestly embarrassing cutscenes and plot developments take place I just wondered what the fuck happened to Bioware, and it made me sad.

 

[Mark Richard]

Crusader: No Remorse - first playthrough in 20 years. I recalled an excellent blend of action/puzzle gameplay and an extremely graphic teleporter death, but the satirical tone was a neat surprise. It's as if the OCP from Robocop dropped the pretence and openly became the government. Surveillance is everywhere as employees labour above rivers of toxic sludge, newscasters recite corporate propaganda and offer gift certificates for turning in family members, and there's a whole bunch of wacky live-action FMVs with actors who look like they're having too much fun.

Origin Systems were on fire during the early to mid 90s as the king of flight sims and RPGs. Their games outside of that spectrum tend to be interesting, but the short-lived Crusader series is something truly special.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

I don't want to bump the thread because I wouldn't say anything I didn't already, but I just finished Mass Effect Andromeda. It's a shame that game is so shit because there's a solid foundation there. Nice looking open worlds, the concept of making them habitable for new pioneers, the basic combat from ME3 with some more open world aspects. Unfortunately the writing and quest design is so fucking dire it just ruins the game completely. As I sprinted to the finish watching these honestly embarrassing cutscenes and plot developments take place I just wondered what the fuck happened to Bioware, and it made me sad.

Did that purchase also come with a ball gag and a pair of handcuffs?

 

[cosmicray]

I'm replaying Divinity: Original Sin in co-op, with my brother. The first game is more fun than the second one. Hell DOS is better than DOS EE.

How is it? I couldn't stand waiting for all the moves in coop. Basically we quit at the end of the first(?) act because of this.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm replaying Divinity: Original Sin in co-op, with my brother. The first game is more fun than the second one. Hell DOS is better than DOS EE.

How is it? I couldn't stand waiting for all the moves in coop. Basically we quit at the end of the first(?) act because of this.

Well, all games has the waiting issue. There’s no way around that.

 

[laclongquan]

I don't want to bump the thread because I wouldn't say anything I didn't already, but I just finished Mass Effect Andromeda. It's a shame that game is so shit because there's a solid foundation there. Nice looking open worlds, the concept of making them habitable for new pioneers, the basic combat from ME3 with some more open world aspects. Unfortunately the writing and quest design is so fucking dire it just ruins the game completely. As I sprinted to the finish watching these honestly embarrassing cutscenes and plot developments take place I just wondered what the fuck happened to Bioware, and it made me sad.

I havent played it yet but yeah, MEA's concept is delicious. Go to a fresh new galaxy. see glorious places full of interesting people. Kill them with abandon.

Pity their writings suck ass. It's the definite hardon-killer aspect of the entire series for me.

 

[Martyr]

ADOM - the version with normal graphics and mouse controls.

those mouse controls are a blessing and a curse at the same time. a blessing because I prefer playing games with mouse only and a curse because the controls themselves are completely fucked up.
you want to shoot an arrow? your character moves forward.
you want to pick up something on the tile you're standing on? your character runs wildly through the entire area.
you click on an enemy next to you to attack him? your character goes into autocombat mode and simply won't stop.
then there's issues with the arrow keys as well. push arrow up, the tile is completely empty --> "Ouch, you ran into a wall".
sometimes you also walk diagonally, like if you were to use the NUM keys 1/3/7/9 instead.

all these things don't happen all the time, but they're pretty fucking common. I'd say around 80% of my deaths were because of fucked up controls.
the game itself is pretty good though. needless to say I'm playing on the mode in which you can save and reload, I'm really not interested in permadeath.

 

[DalekFlay]

I havent played it yet but yeah, MEA's concept is delicious. Go to a fresh new galaxy. see glorious places full of interesting people. Kill them with abandon.

Pity their writings suck ass. It's the definite hardon-killer aspect of the entire series for me.

The first three had that cheesy bad dialogue Bioware has always had IMO, but man Andromeda is a whole different bag. Just a total clusterfuck of poor dialog, plotting and pacing. They expect you to care about people and events they didn't develop well at all, and everything sounds like a Satuday morning cartoon writer's idea of epic. Throw in boring MMO quest design where you're just waddling to marks on the map and pressing 'E' and it's just super gross, honestly. If you thought the first three were bad stay FAR away.

 

[Catacombs]

mouse controls.

It's all about the Vim-like keys: HJKL