What game are you wasting time on?

[Puukko]

I decided to cut my end game clear of FF12 short and just finish the game. I'd have a proper review to write, but the final boss is actually kicking my ass. He has three phases like any proper final boss, and while the last form doesn't have too much HP, he eventually starts spamming dispel to remove all my vital buffs while using magic that one shots my then weakened dudes and it all falls apart. I'll retry tomorrow and hopefully beat it, I'm used to final bosses being more show than actually putting up a fight.

 

[Darth Roxor]

At least force sight gives 100% straight firing accuracy with the blaster rifle alt fire.

It does?!

Yep. It is a very little known fact from what I can tell :D

 

[Blonsky]

Massive Chalice: pretty good turn based combat but the game lasts over hundreds of years, so most characters last 2-3 combats before they die of old age and you have to play with their ofsprings

God Wars the complete legend: Just started but it seems like a decent Final fantasy tactics clone, the story is mostly Japan gods are angry with the people so fight them to calm them down ???

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

Powered through my nerve damage to finish my Union campaign in Civil War II. Gen Beauregard held out from my siege for a few months, but I finally weakened the city's defenses and stormed it in early '65. By that time I had taken most of the other VP cities, and when Richmond fell the CSA's morale collapsed and I won. About 300k casualties altogether. Wished I would have done it earlier, but taking Richmond is no easy task, even with the blockade and larger forces.

I guess it's time to start a new campaign and help the south rise again.

 

[MicoSelva]

New Vegas. Recent Codex top RPGs voting reminded me I never finished it, so I started over a few weeks ago (in hardcore mode, with some texture mods and unofficial patches).

Overall I like it A LOT, but I hate the crafting system and inventory junk management associated with it. After a while I started just ignoring it, along with 90% of the items. Why would they even put something like that in the game?

 

[laclongquan]

New Vegas. Recent Codex top RPGs voting reminded me I never finished it, so I started over a few weeks ago (in hardcore mode, with some texture mods and unofficial patches).

Overall I like it A LOT, but I hate the crafting system and inventory junk management associated with it. After a while I started just ignoring it, along with 90% of the items. Why would they even put something like that in the game?

Increase difficulty. Honest Heart and Dead Money play like a different game without it.

 

[octavius]

I've been having some problems with Windows (Win 7) updates making games no longer work in the past, so I've turned off updates for a couple of years now. But I was having problems getting Deus Ex (GMDX) to run properly. Using Direct 3D the game would crash when using the Sniper Scopes, as apparantly the graphics used was designed for OpenGL only. But using OpenGL (which looks much neater than Direct 3D) would cause horrible stuttering.
Turned out I only had to upgrade DirectX from 11 to 11.1, and it was a very small download, only 11 MB. And for once when installing a Microsoft product it was not accompanied by tedious nagging, but installed promptly. When I rebooted the game ran smoothly in OpenGL with all options (except resolution) on max.

 

[Phaserlight]

Been spending a lot of time in Distance, the last six months. It's very, very good: hitting all the right notes from the get-go. A couple nights ago I finished my fourth map, "Foraminifera":

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1825538231

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

Codex steam curator recommended "Seven: The days long gone" or less retarded title "Seven: Enhanced edition", and it's nice, it's real time action so besides % gear upgrades don't expect tactics or any skill customization that will meaningfully impact combat which should be avoided anyway, when it can't, the fights can be cheesed by taking advantage of dumb ai.
Camera angle works against you sometimes making it hard to grasp where to go or even making you get stuck in geometry but I never found it too annoying the stealth is a joke, and better wouldn't favor the game, so it's not like you're in a hurry you can just crouch, I've only ever felt tense when picking lock near passing patrol.

The best about the game is exploring the well crafted world in which very little feels out of place even with the mix of medieval construction alongside space age tech with mech heads popping out here and there in areas arranged alongside each other in a theme-park-like manner which is unnoticeable due to the camera angle making the world seem bigger than it really is. Walk(crouch) around. pop trough window look for recipes, unlock more gear options and look trough boxes for loot to craft or convert to cash it's usually a rewarding process.

stunted ELEX/10

 

[Rahdulan]

Finished Vampyr couple of days ago...

Opinions pasted from the thread

And done. I have mixed as fuck feelings, but would probably air on the positive side precisely because I did find what it was peddling interesting enough to play through these 30-ish hours and basically do all the story stuff there is, side missions included. You could shave an hour or so if I you don't play on hard because by the looks of it turns fights into a breeze.

Taking into account just how much fighting and talking alike you'll be doing in Vampyr it's actually astonishing how utterly average both of these elements are. I think devs were banking heavily on getting the player invested in the whole “deciding who lives or dies for those sweet experience points” and on hard mode that becomes a real dilemma when enemies keep ramping up in levels, not to mention bosses which regularly started outpacing me by average ten levels, and you see all those characters around that could give you a massive boost as opposed to scraping whatever experience bits I could find. Early 20th century London is also amazingly well realized through visuals and soundtrack itself, although re-spawning enemies didn't help considering you can't grind them for experience, nor did all the trash cans you'll go through. I wish story was tighter and didn't effectively become non-existent between major events because game relies on you to care about citizens who are hit or miss with their troubles. Or they're just walking snacks if you opt out of doing a “no-kill run” in which case I imagine the entire affair becomes a joke.

Like I said above I played on hard and you live or die based on weapons which means regular visits to your workbench for upgrades. Sure, game occasionally hands you an upgraded weapon or two, but if you're relying on those instead of rolling with whatever top-notch upgrades you can afford you're already in world of hurt. High stamina bar for continual attacking and dodge-on-demand is a must, especially later on when Ichors pop up with their AoE poison clouds and officially take the crown as the most annoying fucking enemies in the game. You also really want at least one of every damage type (melee, firearms, blood and shadow) for situations when over-leveled enemies have immunity to one or more.

Also, fuck this game for bamboozling me with district choices and my own foolishness for not necessarily realizing blue "vampire suggestion" choices in dialog don't always just mean "tell me more about X" aka persuasion option you see in games. I think I unintentionally made the worst choices at times while going for a good ending which lead to a hilarious scenario - weakened Jonathan due to decision to not feed on characters in London that's continually spiraling down as districts deteriorate with more and more tougher enemies popping up.

so now I'm finally getting around to The Banner Saga. Solid so far with some great visuals and soundtrack. Really noticeable absence of directional facing in combat which I took for granted in SRPGs, though. That detailed map and work that went into background information really makes me wish they at some point made an honest-to-god [traditional] RPG in this setting.

 

[Prime Junta]

Gave DA:O yet another attempt and am getting worn down by the grimdark and garbage gameplay again. Best thing about it is the dog. Whoever wrote and animated him knows dogs.

I really really really want to like this game but just... can't.

 

[Hyperion]

Gave DA:O yet another attempt and am getting worn down by the grimdark and garbage gameplay again. Best thing about it is the dog. Whoever wrote and animated him knows dogs.

I really really really want to like this game but just... can't.

And to think it's the crowning jewel of the series and the game fans want Bioware to return to.

 

[Dux]

I've tried playing through the Door Kickers campaign but I've finally decided that enough is enough. I got to the point where it's mostly hostage takers with itchy trigger fingers and fleeing robbers, who all basically have an army of goons covering their escape from every flank.

I really wanted to like this game but there's something undeniably artificial about it. The early stages of the campaign were fine. You go into a house or building to clear it out of bad guys, arrest high warrant targets or recover evidence. It's straightforward and logical (even though the "bashing" of evidence never made much sense in hindsight). After a while the game decides to crank it up to levels of silly. You're flung into ludicrous situations like storming open areas filled with crooks carrying high-end military hardware and covered from head to toe in kevlar. They're waiting for you and you're just running in - because that's your option. That's the game. Getting shredded from across the map by guys wielding fully automatic weaponry with laser accuracy and no recoil or spray. Stick a toe out and they'll shoot it off with a fucking carbine from 300 yards.

Then there's the silly countdowns when someone is definately going to kill a hostage (for some reason) and you have to stop them by crossing a veritable death zone, putting your guys at serious risk for what is basically a FUBAR situation to begin with. You have to devise a meticulous plan that can go to hell in a million ways, which means you have to do the same shit over and over and over and over again, altering a few things here and there along the way. More often than not it's some stupid little detail which prevents mission success and that's my gripe it. But when it works out it's like the game plays itself. A game like SWAT 3 or 4 has this organic and dynamic difficulty to it. If you fail at something it's pretty obvious what it was and how you can go about it the next time. The game rewards patience and prudence. It's in your hands. In Door Kickers you're always at the mercy of the spastic AI (enemy or friendly) and everything has to go fast and furious - especially later on. Sometimes you don't even have time to mirror fucking doors because arbitrary time limits and shit. You're up against preposterously deadly gunmen who are apparently far better equipped and trained than most elite military units. Then there's the hilarious moments where your own guys fail to understand how to operate their rifles and get peppered from the front by some hood.

The gameplay was sometimes entertaining and rewarding - like unlocking weapons and the X-COM-ish squad management - but ultimately it was a frustrating and hollow experience. I guess I went in with too high expectations but that's not really the game's fault. I'm starved for something like SWAT 3/4 and I had hoped that this would satiate some of that. However, Door Kickers is basically a puzzle game more than anything else, very reminiscient of something you'd find on Google Play (which you actually can in this case but that's not the point). I didn't buy a mobile game, I bought a PC game, so I believe that it could've been something more. Maybe DK 2 will see to that - if it ever comes out.

 

[Erebus]

Recently started playing Kingmaker. Is it just me or is there a lot of stuff that's explained absolutely nowhere ? I can't manage to find to a list of all the feats you can get, or a description of what conditions do. I mean, it's probably easy to find all that on the Net, but such essential info should be available in the game itself.

 

[Puukko]

Gave DA:O yet another attempt and am getting worn down by the grimdark and garbage gameplay again. Best thing about it is the dog. Whoever wrote and animated him knows dogs.

I really really really want to like this game but just... can't.

It's really only just alright. If you can't get into it, don't sweat it.

 

[Prime Junta]

It's really only just alright. If you can't get into it, don't sweat it.

I know. I just dust it off every few years thinking maybe this time it will be different. It never is.

 

[Harry Easter]

Grim Fandango: Remastered! That I finally can use the mouse, was worth the purchase. And skeletons in nice suits will always look cool.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Gave DA:O yet another attempt and am getting worn down by the grimdark and garbage gameplay again. Best thing about it is the dog. Whoever wrote and animated him knows dogs.

I really really really want to like this game but just... can't.

Try playing as a 2H warrior if you want a ARPG-like experience to make the gameplay more fun

 

[Zep Zepo]

Just finished God of War. Didn't bother playing dress-up or crafting things. Also didn't bother with collectibles or Valkyries.

It was OK I guess. At one point in the story, I wanted to put an axe through the little brats head...he eventually wised up though.

Currently playing around with PS4 Minecraft. I don't mind dying so much, but if I die and lose my Map, I start a new world. I don't build elaborate bases, I typically live in a hole in the hillside with a door, a bed and a few torches.

Tomorrow, I will start Just Cause 4.

Zep--

 

[Machocruz]

Currently playing around with PS4 Minecraft. I don't mind dying so much, but if I die and lose my Map, I start a new world. I don't build elaborate bases, I typically live in a hole in the hillside with a door, a bed and a few torches.


Zep--

I've gotten back into Minecraft recently. Playing a lot, and I have to agree with your approach. The game just doesn't say interesting long enough to fuss around with an big, aesthetic base and all the resource gathering and such that entails. I've restarted 3 times in the past week. Especially since i just want to see all the content that added since I last played, so it's probably better to rush to endgame (such as it is). Better to go into creative mode if you want to build. On the PC Java edition I think you can even switch the mode to survival after you've built in creative.

 

[Voids]

I'm currently dabbling between Low Magic Age and Grimoire. I can play LMA for only a little bit at a time before getting burnt out/getting distracted by different responsibilities. Ditto for Grimoire, though it's a lot deeper than LMA.

 

[deuxhero]

Recently started playing Kingmaker. Is it just me or is there a lot of stuff that's explained absolutely nowhere ? I can't manage to find to a list of all the feats you can get, or a description of what conditions do. I mean, it's probably easy to find all that on the Net, but such essential info should be available in the game itself.

When picking feats click the arrow marked "Show Unavailable" to see all the feats in the game. For conditions, either check the character's page and hover over the condition or, for enemies, inspect them (y or the eyeball on the UI) , right click them and hover over the condition. Not being able to see what a condition does in the spell/ability description is a flaw though.

 

[newtmonkey]

Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero (EGA)

Completed this for the first time! It's a fantastic game, and it's (as far as I can tell) completely solvable with just the information you get in game... I only tried the other classes briefly, so it's possible there might be some bizarre puzzles for them.

As an adventure game, it's like a nice breath of fresh air compared with the dead ends and totally illogical stuff you get in many of the Sierra games, and with the cartoon logic of a lot of the LucasArts games. As an RPG, it's pretty amazing. The closest thing I can compare it with is Fallout, as quests have multiple solutions based on your character/build. Granted, a lot of times the solution is "throw rocks/climb/cast a spell," but at least it gives you options.

As a fighter, I only really had to grind stats at the very end of the game, as the Minotaur was way too difficult for me. I also avoided a lot of combat, so maybe if I had fought more often I wouldn't have had to grind stats at all. Having said that, "grinding" in this case meant practicing with the sword master, sleeping at Erana's Peace, and then repeating that 3-4 times. It was probably a total of 20 minutes of work, so not a problem at all.

It's still a good looking game, but just not up there with the best of the best EGA graphics (specifically, Loom). The music and sound effects are pretty awesome on MT-32.

I immediately imported my characters into QfG II, but I'm probably going to spread this series out a bit and really enjoy it. I don't want to rush through it like I did with Wizardry 1-3 out of fear of getting burnt out.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Quest for Glory: So You Want to Be a Hero (EGA)

Completed this for the first time! It's a fantastic game, and it's (as far as I can tell) completely solvable with just the information you get in game... I only tried the other classes briefly, so it's possible there might be some bizarre puzzles for them.

They aren't, at least not in the first game. It's in the second game and onwards where you start to see the diverging paths of each class, and some quirky puzzles.

 

[Swampy_Merkin]

OBJECTION! (insert meme). Phoenix Wright games for the 1st time. They're not always logical, and there's some magic ooga-booga, and it's Japanese..

But it's charming and it actually does encourage real deductive reasoning.

Also decided to start the whole Fire Emblem saga at the beginning because I enjoy starting things I'll never finish.

Currently IWD...cuz I don't know, never played it before. It's a good dungeon crawl.