What game are you wasting time on?

[octavius]

So I restarted The Kreegan Alliance with the Ore and Lumber bonus, and waited some turns until I had a big enough force (including Vampire Lords) to defeat the non-magic Garrison with minimal losses.
But the hero - Melodia - you have to defeat to win the map is just too strong. She seems to be expert in all magic skills, has 190 spell points, and has about the same stats as Sandro otherwise. But Sandro only has 80 spell points (Intelligence would have actually been useful for this map), so this became an impossible battle when she knows Resurrection and Summon Air Elemental.
So I decided to reload an older save, and to arrange matters so that Sandro would gather another to weeks' production of creatures, and appear at the enemy castle on Day 1, with a full contingent of Vampire Lords. Unfortunately I was a day too late, but fortunately Melodia had parked her elven arse right next to the teleporter exit, and I was able to defeat her.

Definitely the hardest HoMM 3 campaign map I've played so far!

But also one of the most annoying ones. I just learnt that the secondary heroes do not transfer to the next map, despite what the map info said.

 

[YoungGrumpyMan]

Finished the last episode of the Spider-Man DLC, "Silver Lining". The story was fine, not quite hitting the highs of the main game. Really enjoyed the story of the first episode, with the introduction of Black Cat, one of my favorite characters. Hope to see more of her in the eventual sequel!

It was hard as fuck, I was playing NG+ on the hardest difficulty, though.

Enviado do meu SM-N960F através do Tapatalk

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Ok, I finished first playthrough of ELEX few days ago and it's great.

I would say it's a bit better than Risen 1 (I've never finished R1 due to boring second half of game, and I just want to play ELEX again) and worse than G2NotR. Story is quite good - number of treasons is quite fun and main character is not that dumb (well, just sometimes).

I still don't get motivations few characters (like father of Jax, won't spoil it here) but worldbuilding seems ok.

Exploration is good as allways in PB games, but it seems 99% of items are just crap for sale, and after you got some kind of ultimate weapon (War Bow, unique Plasma Rifle etc) and jewelery, there is almost nothing to find anymore (well, gems and few quest items), still walking to old buildings feels a bit Stalker-ish, which is fine.

I love how they put into the same game Gothic, Mad Max, Stalker and Mass Effect and created something that actually works.

It's really quite easy to break the game tough and money is all you need as traders are respawning they stuff as soon as you re-enter their shops, which is weird design decision (you really can brew 100 medium elex elixirs in few hours of game).

Oh and it's a bit dissapointing that your stats mean almost nothing (just skills you can get and eq you can wear).


Oh and few words about fights and bugs.

Fights are ok, I mostly used ranged weapons (that unique plasma gun) and it was a bit too OP - plasma ball was putting all enemies on the ground making most of the fights piece of cake. Meele - on the other hand - seems much harder (stamina and chain of attacks) but more satisfying. Still I don't imagine meele fighter taking all those alp battles on Ultimate difficulty, maybe Berserk magic is more helpful in this aspect than Cleric Psi power.

Bugs - really don't remember anything gamebreaking, once my chracter was moving forward without me touching any key (reload did the job), there were minor issues with polish localization (different text written and spoken) and game seems well optimized - my old GTX 970 was able to take all batlles with alps and friends without any noticable issues.

Anyway GJ PB! IMO Elex is better than Skyrim.

My biggest gripe with elex is a PB problem in general: they seen to have no interest in their fanbase/supporting a game after it launches.
I think it got like two(?) small patches and they just left it. Really would have liked some work on things like melee combat, companions just standing around doing nothing while you're attacked, etc.,

 

[Maculo]

Continuing with HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death

I give you props, because I always lose steam at some point during the campaigns. I enjoy HoMM3, but there are certain campaigns or missions I find so tedious.

 

[octavius]

Continuing with HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death

I give you props, because I always lose steam at some point during the campaigns. I enjoy HoMM3, but there are certain campaigns or missions I find so tedious.

I think my playing style - complete in as short time as possible - helps. Back in the days when I suffered more from OCD I also lost steam or interest sooner.

 

[Maculo]

Continuing with HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death

I give you props, because I always lose steam at some point during the campaigns. I enjoy HoMM3, but there are certain campaigns or missions I find so tedious.

I think my playing style - complete in as short time as possible - helps. Back in the days when I suffered more from OCD I also lost steam or interest sooner.

Honestly, I don't play optimally and I think that is part of it. I like to explore the map and fight unecessary stacks.

 

[Okagron]

Decided to give the No One Lives Forever games a try since i found out they were made by the same people that made F.E.A.R.

I'm honestly enjoying the first game (i have been playing it on and off for the last week or so). The voice acting is surprisingly solid for a game made in 2000.

And i'm fucked. Can't see anything underwater (most of the screen goes black) and i have been trying to find a fix for well over an hour. Literally can't beat the level i'm at because there's underwater sections.

Just found a solution. I can see in underwater sections now, so i can finally continue playing.

 

[DalekFlay]

I'm honestly at a loss how you're supposed to figure out half of the puzzles and shit by yourself.

Yeah you basically can't.

I got through the super hard puzzles like "monkey wrench" by asking my mother, who somehow knew all. She's the one who moved me to PC after the SNES and got me into adventure games specifically. Whether she was finding answers on the super early days of home internet or actually figured all that shit out on her own, I don't know.

 

[octavius]

Finished the last (mini) campaign of HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death, and what an anti-climax it was after a promising first map. A small map with lots of teleporters. Oh frabjous joy!
And after winning, Sandro ended up ina jail? Is it some "cliffhanger" for HoMM 4?

Anyway, SoD was overall the best HoMM 3 game, as in being the most challenging ones, especially The Kreegan Alliance and some of the starting maps.
But it lacked any really memorably moments or epic fights, which was disappointing. And resetting skills make the first four mini campaigns rather pointless.

 

[Dux]

"You no longer bear the burden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are free. The doomed Dwemer's folly, Lord Dagoth's temptation, the Tribunal's seduction, the god's heart freed, the prophecy fulfilled. All fates sealed and sins redeemed. If you have pity, mourn the loss, but let the weeping cease. The Blight is gone, and the sun's golden honey gilds the land. Hail savior, Hortator, and Nerevarine."

Spoiler

 

[Krivol]

My biggest gripe with elex is a PB problem in general: they seen to have no interest in their fanbase/supporting a game after it launches.
I think it got like two(?) small patches and they just left it. Really would have liked some work on things like melee combat, companions just standing around doing nothing while you're attacked, etc.,

I gave you agree button, but I actually didn't see any problems with companions - they are a bit ignored by enemies (in group fights mostly) but still active during fights. But yeah, some patches or maybe even DLC or two could be nice.

I also don't see a reason of improving meele fights - difficulty options are grat - you want to get rid of stamina? You can! You want to enemies be more challenging by doing more damage to you but avoid HP bload? You can do it too! You can even make chains of attacks as easy as in Skyrim (spam LMB and Q from time to time).

I've heard it was introduced in some patch(es).

But bug with infinite-money-by-spamming-enter-in-the-shop-and-refunding is still there. Annoying if you are glitch-prone like me...

 

[BANANA CONDUCT]

"You no longer bear the burden of prophecy. You have achieved your destiny. You are free. The doomed Dwemer's folly, Lord Dagoth's temptation, the Tribunal's seduction, the god's heart freed, the prophecy fulfilled. All fates sealed and sins redeemed. If you have pity, mourn the loss, but let the weeping cease. The Blight is gone, and the sun's golden honey gilds the land. Hail savior, Hortator, and Nerevarine."

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished the last (mini) campaign of HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death, and what an anti-climax it was after a promising first map. A small map with lots of teleporters. Oh frabjous joy!
And after winning, Sandro ended up ina jail? Is it some "cliffhanger" for HoMM 4?

Anyway, SoD was overall the best HoMM 3 game, as in being the most challenging ones, especially The Kreegan Alliance and some of the starting maps.
But it lacked any really memorably moments or epic fights, which was disappointing. And resetting skills make the first four mini campaigns rather pointless.

What about the Heroes Chronicles? Are they up next?

 

[octavius]

What about the Heroes Chronicles? Are they up next?

I've completed all of them except Sword of Frost.

 

[Gregz]

What about the Heroes Chronicles? Are they up next?

I've completed all of them except Sword of Frost.

This thread isn't for microupdates. If you need to post every time you finish a chapter then start an LP thread please. Every time you bump this thread with that crap I get notified, and it's very annoying. I'm subbed here to learn about games the community is playing, not for incremental progress updates through some shitty LP.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Playing gears of War 4 on Xbox game pass. Afterwards I'm probably try to finish some of my ps4 backlog, have two yakuza games I want to see through.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Every time you bump this thread with that crap I get notified, and it's very annoying

Men, is it time for alert Gregz month?

 

[Grauken]

What about the Heroes Chronicles? Are they up next?

I've completed all of them except Sword of Frost.

This thread isn't for microupdates. If you need to post every time you finish a chapter then start an LP thread please. Every time you bump this thread with that crap I get notified, and it's very annoying. I'm subbed here to learn about games the community is playing

You stalk people on Steam for that, much more efficient

 

[Sceptic]

Finished the last (mini) campaign of HoMM 3: The Shadow of Death, and what an anti-climax it was after a promising first map. A small map with lots of teleporters. Oh frabjous joy!
And after winning, Sandro ended up ina jail? Is it some "cliffhanger" for HoMM 4?

SoD is a prequel to RoE actually, that last minicampaign sets up the Kreegan/Nighon alliance and the death of the King of Erathia (Catherine's father), events whose consequences are shown in RoE. Throwing him in jail was probably written in to explain why he's not there during RoE itself. I don't think he's ever mentioned again after this, which is kinda anticlimactic.

 

[Beggar]

Warhammer 2 and Rocksmith 2014

 

[Abu Antar]

Been playing a few games.

Final Fantasy VIII. I started this after the Final Fantasy VIIIR announcement during E3. I’ve finished disc 2, and my opinion is the same as it has always been: The junction system sucks and drawing is also a crap mechanic. I’ve never done a 100% run, so that’s what I’m doing now. In general, it’s probably one of my least favorite mainline FF’s, only beaten by FFIV and FFXIII.

The socond game was Natural Doctrine on PS4. The general idea behind the combat system actually appeals to me a lot. The problem is that the balancing is totally messed up. It’s a difficult game in all the wrong ways. It makes me wonder if they even Q&A’d the game. I tried to keep up going but in the end, the shitty balancing made me give up on the game. I can live with poor plot, writing, characters AND graphics as long as game systems are solid. Here, the game is bad in all departments and wants to frrustrate you at every corner.

Tale of Wuxia: The Pre-Sequel is the best of the three games that I am currently playing. I’m enjoying it a lot. Party based (up to six members in combat), turn based and it uses hex grids. You don’t really ”level up” in the regular sense. You get combat skills (active and passive) that you level up. Those in turn raise different stats. You also gain perspective points from doing different things in the world. You allocate these points to raise your attributes. You can also craft potions to raise your attributes, but you need to find herbs to do that.
You have three equipment slots. Weapon/Armor/Accessory. Accessories can have all kinds of effects. Weapons raise attack and might have some extra effects. Armor raises Health and sometimes offer resistance to different types of damage types. Equipment can also be crafted.
Combat is fun. I’ve gotten my ass handed to me a few times. That also has to do with the fact that it is a bit of freeform in exploration. You’re free to roam the world map as you please, which means that you might face some encounters on the world map that will ground and pound you into the ground. Not all locations are open to you at the start, but you’re still free to to roam. Some locations open up thanks to story progression, others open up after you hear a rumor and last, some locations open up when you accept some side quests. And hoo boy, there are a lot of those. Can’t complain about lack of content.

The negatives are poor localization and fairly poor optimization. Despite that, I think this is a very solid rpg that a lot of codexers should at least try.

 

[the_shadow]

Currently playing the game where John Romero makes you his female dog (Daikatana).

It was on sale at GoG, and curiosity led to a purchase. Is it really as bad as people say? I'm half way through the second episode and... it's not that bad. It's actually a decent linear FPS, and was pretty ambitious for the time. It's difficult, but not impossible. The weapon variety is actually pretty interesting. I know some people complain about how the weapons are hard to use, but they are fine once you get used to them. The ion blaster reflects off surfaces, but once you realize this you can actually use that to your benefit to hit enemies around corners and U bends. The C4 guns has a short range and can be player triggered, so you do need to be careful. Episode 2 doesn't appear to have any weapons that subject you to friendly fire, and they are all a bit overpowered.

The map design and secret areas are well done too. I know that people complained about the companion AI when it first came out, but I haven't had any real problems with it. It's good for the time. The only thing that really sucks are the early levels, where you start off in a swamp fighting mechanical frogs. When you finally get out of the swamps, you cheer until you realize... it's a sewer level! That's right, out of the frying pan, into the fire. Thankfully you can blast through that part of the game in 30 minutes, and then it's serious inclne.

I think with some controversial games, a lot of people jump on the bandwagon when it comes to hating. I've still haven't finished Daikatana, but it's pretty ambitious for its time. And the slogan they used to promote it is pretty funny, I'm not sure why some potential customers would get butthurt, it's just a more crass version of Dark Soul's motto "Prepare to Die".

Just finished the game. Further thoughts:

1. Chapter's 2 and 3 are the best, Chapter 1 has a pretty weak beginning but picks up half-way through. Chapter 4 is decent.

2. The weapons in all four chapters are quite fun to use, but overpowered. In a game like Quake or Doom you might need a dozen or more shots to take down tougher monsters, here you can rip them to shreds with a couple of shots from even the basic weapons.

3. The game is most difficult in Chapter 1, and then drops significantly.

4. Doors are your worst enemy. If you get trapped by a door, you'll will constantly lose health. And almost all doors close automatically by themselves after a short time. For some reason this is most troublesome in Chapter 1, where getting caught by a closing door seems to gib you or your companions a lot of the time.

5. Ladders suck. I still don't know how to 'grip' onto a ladder to descend it. I usually have to fall and grab onto it mid-flight.

6. Most temporary powerups are worthless, since they don't last long enough.

7. It was a waste of time leveling up the Daikatana, since your ranged weapons are almost always a better choice. I should have used that exp to level up my character stats instead.

8. The game is notorious for game-breaking bugs, but I didn't encounter any, and I was playing version 1.2. Probably the most annoying glitch is when companions get stuck on an obstruction or while crouching, and you have to run into them or shoot them with a propulsive weapons to get em moving.

Overall a decent game, it would be great if they remastered it.

 

[pakoito]

I'm playing Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark and it's a pleasant surprise in the TRPG department. No long dragged-out tutorial, no massive lore dump before jumping into action, and the menuing is quite pleasant. Now let's see if the game's any hard.

 

[Tavernking]

NOTHING! I am fucking free

NO GAMES OVER HERE

NO GAMES ANYWHERE

MY life is getting the real restart it's always desired. I'm going to have a car! I'm going to have a house! I'm going to have a wife!

Things are looking up up up

YOU ARE DOWN

but no

I need help

The the undying passion of my soul beats me off

 

[Dux]

With the end of Police Quest 4 I'm now done with the series. I'm turning in my badge.

I played the VGA remake of the first PQ, then its VGA sibling PQ3, then the EGA PQ2 - all of which neatly ties up the story of the main star Sonny Bonds and his career as a police officer with the Lytton PD. All of these games are quite good but also quite unforgiving if you don't know what you're getting into. They don't fuck around when it comes to correct police procedure. It's partly a somewhat simplified simulation of being a cop: from a regular beat cop to narcotics. There's paperwork, questioning, collecting evidence, booking evidence, booking people under the correct codes, gunfights and awkward driving mechanics (at least for PQ1 and 3). It's quite an interesting and unique trilogy, well worth the time if you feel you're up to it.

Then there's Police Quest 4, which is totally unrelated to the others. Now you're playing as a cop from the LAPD trying to solve a string of murders. You do this by slowly going back and forth from various locations on a map, questioning a lot of people in an awkward semi-realistic setting. Instead of the charming VGA graphics of PQ3 we now have cut-outs of real actors walking around, complete with jarring animation and voice-acting. I didn't really like this game. It was plodding as all hell and extremely muddled. Whereas the other games follows a distinct pattern and structure, now you basically have to exhaust every option at various locations in order to progress to the next day. Almost like Gabriel Knight but not as nuanced.

Spoiler

Then there's the whole last third of the game where the cop you're portraying as breaks police protocol when closing in on the murderer. A woman dies as a result, even though you could very easily have prevented it. Nothing about the ending segment makes any sense and it would fit better in a fucking Phantasmagoria game than this. You have a gun, you have more than enough evidence to bring a certain person in for questioning - but you don't do it. Instead you waddle around indecisively. You get drugged when drinking some complimentary tea in a film theatre, for one thing, and then when you wake up you're ushered out of there by the man who drugged you. No questions. No follow-up. Then you return to the theatre and see a woman knocked out - like you were previously. She's clearly DRUGGED because you can't wake her up. By this point you pretty much know that the theatre and its owner is somehow linked with the murders. What do you do? Draw your sidearm and call for backup? Paramedics?

Nope! Instead you to go a park so you can throw a rope on a dog. Later on you get knocked out AGAIN by the murderer in the same goddamn theatre and lose your sidearm, badge and everything in the process. The woman from earlier that was knocked out? Dead. You actually see her being carried off by the murderer when you walk into the theatre for the final time and instead of shouting freeze you go into a completely separate door, for some reason. Anything to appease this complete clusterfuck of a game. You eventually kill the murderer with a makeshift weapon and get saluted as a hero by the mayor and the city. Yeah, it's not like IA would be completely up your ass over your extreme lapses of judgement resulting in needless deaths... hell, you'd probably lose your badge for being indirectly responsible for the murder of a woman.

Fuck this game.

PQ 1-3: good. PQ4: ass.