What game are you wasting time on?

[Raapys]

I have to point out that, from what I've read and experienced by playing a bit of the barbarian's first level, the knight is probably the best character gameplay-wise. He has the shield, good combos, good range, fast enough to dodge. It's the complete package.

As I recall, the Amazon is the better character. Very quick and long dodge roll and long-range polearms with great combos. She makes all the others feel clunky and slow.

 

[newtmonkey]

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
I tried to play PoE1 5-6 times, and the furthest I got was to the point where you first get Caed Nua. I simply could not get into this game at all, between the dull dialog (and the sheer amount of it; I did like the writing in the choose-your-own-adventure parts), boring encounters, and general feel of playing in some dude's homebrew PnP campaign... you know the type if you've ever played PnP ("it's totally better than D&D, I don't have elves, I have melves, and they aren't called PCs, they're called Heroic Personages. Also, every attack you gotta roll to hit, role for penetration, then the enemy rolls to block, and then gets a luck roll, so it's way more realistic man").

However, PoE2 is pretty addictive. I think the turn-based combat mode helps it to click in place a lot more—I will always give a game bonus points if it has turn-based combat, even if it's not great turn-based combat. The first five minutes or so give a horrible first impression, but shortly after that you're going around exploring and it feels like you're actually on an adventure. I like that the first island gives you a story reason to explore it, but all the quests there are solving local problems but not petty shit like in Hommlet in ToEE (which I otherwise enjoy).

I just got off the first island, so I guess the game starts for real now. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes, but I'm glad I took the chance and got PoE2 (somewhat discounted from a legit reseller) even though I didn't care for PoE1 at all. It's almost like night and day, especially with the turn-based combat mode.

 

[Dux]

TEMPLE OF ELEMENTAL CONFUSION

The strangest RPG playthrough I've ever experienced. I went with Temple+ for a smoother ride. I had never played it before so I basically just had to wing it at every turn. I did things I believed to be correct or sensible and the rest is history. I did all of the quests I encountered in Hommlet and I ventured out into the wilderness to defeat bad guys and marauders. Classic stuff. I went to Nulb and killed a blacksmith who got cross because I swiped his shit. My neutral good party experienced a syntax error, basically. Then I went to the titular place itself: the Temple of Elemental Evil. I ventured inside. Why? I don't know. Because of some rumours about it being a nasty place and some queer things going on in its depths. I guess. So I go inside and I proceed to clear out its chambers of monsters and trash mobs. Still, my sole motivation for doing it is still strictly to accrue XP, get loot and kill time. Maybe that's intended.

The turn-based combat based on D&D rules is well nice and it made me ponder what could've been if BioWare/Black Isle had done the same. The graphics are good enough. The sound design ranges from being meh to quite terrible. It burst my eardrums a few times. Spike Growth anyone? What the fuck was that about?

So, why is this playthough strange, you might ask? Well, I continued to descend through the levels of the temple and I still didn't really see anything resembling a cohesive plot. The sparse named NPCs I encountered here and there either told me to get lost, struck up a casual conversation or just fought me outright. I didn't know what to make of it. So I continue to clear out the temple. I just do it for the lulz. Then I encounter Hedrack - a bloke I'm pretty sure I've never heard of before. We get to fighting and it's pretty epic. When I cut him down to size some irate demi-god appears and I still don't know what the fuck is going on. Then St. Cuthbert appears and by this point I just go with the flow. I guess it would make sense if I knew anything about Greyhawk. I don't.

Now, people, we get to the real shit. By that I mean the good shit.

Spoiler

The Balor Guardian, or the FML Demon as he's known by his friends. He ground my nuts to dust a few times before I finally KO'd that motherfucker. Finally I discern some kind of pattern. I have to destroy the evil guardians of the four elements. One of the guardians actually spill the beans and mention the name Zuggtmoy. Who is that? Dunno. Maybe it's the main villain of the game. Fuck if I know. See why I call this playthrough 'strange' yet? I'd say ever since I wandered into the temple I stumbled through the entire narrative. I just played the game blind and I think I actually missed most of the plot - simply by playing it my way. It's weird. I can't think of any other RPG where this has happened. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Whatever, I'm here to kick ass, not to parley.

Spoiler

The clusterfuck that is the final battle. Thank St. Cuthbert I got that scroll of control plants, or whatever it's called. Being able to invoke the Balor was also quite neat.

So yeah, that's the final boss. How did this final encounter come about then? Well, it was symbolic of the entire playthrough, really: I ran down a random hallway and found some old crone sitting in a chair. She wanted to bribe me with a minimised platinum column, which I could sell for profit, on the condition I GTFO. Because I clearly need more money by this point. Naturally, I gave her the cold shoulder and she exploded (I think). Then all of the sudden I'm fighting the final boss.

"Hey, there, Miss Tentacles."
"BLARGH YOU WILL REGRET CROSSING ME MORTALS!"
"I don't know who the fuck you are, lady."

Spoiler

She overdoses on magic missiles, sadly. Then a soundless cutscene begins to play, describing the fates of people I'm pretty sure I never actually met, or at least interacted with in any significant way.

In short it was a rollercoaster of emotions from beginning to end.

/

 

[Abu Antar]

Tale of Wuxia: The Pre-Sequel is finally beaten! You'll not hear me talk about it again... until I start the free DLC!

Great game. Graphics aren't top of the line and the performance could be a bit better, but other than that, I had a blast with this. Lots of quests, great and challenging turn-based combat. The dialog had me in tears at points, and the overall setting and ,music were great. I can't recommend this enough, even if the translation is far from perfect. I came in expecting a 30 hour game, it took me 60 hours, and I've yet to start the free DLC. I don't know how big the scope of that one is.

I don't know if these guys will ever make a game again, though. They were sued by a publisher and it seems like they don't have the money to pay, as they lost.

Their latest game, that never got officially translated is now being fan translated (Google translate, baidu and some tips from Chinese players). Said translation will be far from perfect, but I tried it out for a little bit and it works well enough.

 

[Zep Zepo]

Gave up on Sekiro...When they add difficulty modes I may revisit it.

Finished Day's Gone. Nice mix of story, popamole, and stealth.

"Playing" Detroit: Become Human (Free on PSN this month, so what the hell...)

It's really even more of "Press X to Jason" than Heavy Rain. I'm working through it, but the fun factor is nil.

Next up will be either God Of War or Spider Man.

Zep--

 

[Martyr]

Gave up on Sekiro...When they add difficulty modes I may revisit it.

knowing FromSoftware, that won't happen.
imo Sekiro's biggest problem is the "unfair" difficulty, as I like to call it (because they always insisted on Dark Souls being fair...): you're almost always attacked by tons of enemies at the same time. and then there are these almost insta-kill scenes, like that big snake which you have to blind. I think I died more than 20 times before I realised that you have to crawl into that thing and stab the snake's eye when it is nearby.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

After I finished Morrowind + expansions I thought I might as well play the rest (excluding Obliblion and Skyrim obviously).

what skyrim mod is this?

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Just finished PoE2. I kind of rushed to the end because I wasn't having a great time, but it was OK. I was satisfied with the ending.

I'm reading the last couple of Witcher novels so I decided to mess around with some older stuff rather than start anything story heavy. I had completely forgotten how grey and washed out The Lost and the Damned was. Were all of the GTA4 games this ugly?

 

[CruduxCruo]

what skyrim mod is this?

It's the one with randomly generated quests

Finally. I've already inadvertently collected Ring of Phynaster, Ring of Khajit, Warlock's Ring, Chrysamere and Staff of Magnus.

 

[eXalted]

Screenshot of Every 2008-2012 game.

 

[Okagron]

Finished San Andreas with 87% completion (might go back and do 100%). Started Bully Scholarship Edition (got it for like 3,50 bucks on the steam summer sale) and it was crashing like crazy for a while, but i believe i have fixed it with some changes i did yesterday because it hasn't crashed once so far today and i played for several hours.

Also reinstalled Fallout 2 and put the Unofficial Patch. Might try the Restoration Project in a future playthrough.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Playing Galaxy Squad now that it's out of early access. Pretty fun.

 

[YoungGrumpyMan]

Playing Dragon Quest Builders 2. So far it seems like a step up from the predecessor in pretty much every way. There is way too much dialogue, though.

Also playing some Apex Legends here and there as a "snack".

Enviado do meu SM-N960F através do Tapatalk

 

[imajia]

Max Payne 3 was cheap on steam, so I thought "why not". I mean, it can't be *that* bad.

Spoiler

Oh wow, what a contrast to 1+2.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Full Throttle remastered. As kickass as ever.
I like the new controls (and the prospect of skipping the action sequences), I don't like the new graphics. Doesn't matter though, since they can be turned off.

Anybody who can tell me what the "remastered gameplay" setting in the options menu does? As far as I can tell it has nothing to do with the controls.
Does it make the puzzles harder?

:fabulouslyoptimistic:

 

[eXalted]

XCOM 2: Long War 2. The proper XCOM 2 guerilla experience. Not that power rangers WotC expansion.

 

[Squid]

Finished Bloodborne + DLC. Onto finishing Dark Souls 1 now. I didn't get why these were any fun until I bought Bloodborne.

 

[Zep Zepo]

"Playing" Detroit: Become Human (Free on PSN this month, so what the hell...)

Well...that was a dud. Much worse than Heavy Rain (WAY too many controller shenanigans). The "Androids" lost and died in my run. Good riddance.

God of War is up next.

Zep--

 

[Strange Fellow]

Full Throttle remastered.

Aaand done. Shorter game than I remembered, even though I remembered it as being short. Took me just shy of 4 hours, which, frankly, is much too short, something I very rarely think about a game. That, coupled with the stupid (although, thankfully, pretty easy) puzzles as well as the lame driving minigame add up to a game that's not as good as I remember it from when I last played it back in the nineties. The writing, setting, story, music, voiceacting and visuals are all great, and make it worth a playthrough, but Full Throttle still pales in comparison to Schafer's masterpiece Grim Fandango and runner-up Day of the Tentacle.

TLDR: Full Throttle is worth playing, but not the adventure game classic some make it out to be.

Note about the remaster: Worth playing for the remastered soundtrack and controls, and improved ease of use (see: not having to touch an emulator) if you care about that sort of thing. Can be made to play exactly like the original, so whether you're replaying or playing for the first time, there's no reason not to go with it.

Anecdotal PS: Wikipedia has Tim Schafer credited for the game Star Wars Episode I: Racer with "never actively tried to sabotage the project".

 

[groundhog]

Full Throttle remastered. As kickass as ever.
I like the new controls (and the prospect of skipping the action sequences), I don't like the new graphics. Doesn't matter though, since they can be turned off.

Anybody who can tell me what the "remastered gameplay" setting in the options menu does? As far as I can tell it has nothing to do with the controls.
Does it make the puzzles harder?

:fabulouslyoptimistic:

From memory I think it just reduces (or maybe even removes) the randomness of the combat encounters on the old mine road.

 

[Ivan]

Okami

Super happy and I came back to replay this title after dropping it in my teens. To be brief, it's a fantastic attempt at recreating Zelda and Clover did a great job. Fantastic visuals & soundtrack, super lengthy campaig peppered with fun boss fights and minigames. I had a great time with this one. Easy 30 hour adventure if you're a completionist.

Spoiler

 

[laclongquan]

Fantastic visual, really~ Though non-humanoid main character is not my cuppa.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Taking a break from RPGs and starting a new campaign in Ageod's Civil War II as the blue-bellies. It's mid 1862 and I've taken New Orleans with ole' Gen Butler, and have McClellan's Potomac Army keeping the rebs at bay near Fredricksburg, but out west the situation is chaos. Indian and guerilla fighters are marching around west of the Mississippi, forcing me to go into turtle mode to keep my supply lines open. Big time recruitment options won't really be available until 1863, so I'm having to deal with them with militia and cavalry units. But I got Grant building an army at Cairo, and Fremont is moving down towards Island 10 and Memphis. Will probably have most of the Miss. river sewn up by the end of the year, then it will the big move to Atlanta and Richmond. Hope to have the war won by the end of '63.

Then again, the AI might actually go balls out and send Jackson up towards WV like they've done before. Plus AS Johnston is out west threatening my moves with a pretty large force. Gonna be a interesting year for the boys in blue.

 

[Abu Antar]

Today, I beat Toonstruck on PC and Mercenaries Saga: The Will of the White Lion on Nintendo Switch.

Got Toonstruck from GOG for free. It looks really good, plays well and it was funny enough. Took me 4.5 hours to beat.

MS: TWotWL is basically a budget Japanese SRPG in the vein of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre. Why it doesn't hold up to those games, it's a fun enough game that I played in small bursts. Took me around 30 hours to beat, but you can easily beat it in 20. I just wanted to try as many classes as possible and I also grinded some characters just to have them at the same level as the rest of the party. There's a NG+, but I'm not sure if I'm going to bother with going the other route (which gives you some other party members). I'm going to play the second and third games, but not now.

Next up is probably going to be Persona 5. I haven't touched it for a few days. I'm ready to enter the third palace.

 

[Harry Easter]

I started Arcanum for the xth-time again, this time playing an Half-Orc (but keeping my talky, fighty build) and I have to say, the game has me hooked even after all this years. I just love the Quest Design, the world and the writing. But I also forgot, that higher level enemies can kick your butt, so no Black Mountain Clan for me right now. And you know what? I'm a-okay with that.