What game are you wasting time on?

[Ivan]

Celeste

Very enjoyable platform that reminded me Super Meat Boy. Difficulty ramps up with super tight angles and platforms, thankfully the maps are all pretty small. There are a few excellent bosses here too, and some nice variety with enemies later on that I shan't spoil. There's also a nice little narrative and character work to boot. All in a all a damn fine platformer. My biggest gripe was with its poor communication of secrets and not allowing the player to return to backtrack to explore. I don't see myself going through the tedium of replaying levels to collect the secrets piecemeal. I wish it was made clearer which paths moved you closer to an exit, and which took you to a "side" map. Again, not a huge deal. Secrets are only really there to unlock an extra chapter after the end.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Tomb Raider 2013 (the first reboot of the series). I only played one other Tomb Raider in my life many years ago and it was a milestone in my gaming existence as the first DirectX/3D title I played going right from DOS with my first true 3D accelerator graphics card (Stealth II). It was Tomb Raider 2 and I remember being frustrated as fuck because it had these HUGE, sprawling puzzle oriented levels with absolutely no hand-holding and very little combat. I never played another in the franchise until now. TR 2013 has precisely the opposite problem - massive hand-holding and too fucking much combat. It is also quite linear with out of the way side missions (tombs) being optional. But it has a moderately interesting presentation that keeps you on your toes if you can tolerate ridiculous respawning enemies (one respawned right in front of me) and that you're basically watching an interactive movie (Hi SquareSoft!).

I have to break my habit of automatically assuming that since most of these modern games were designed for consoletards it can't possibly be that difficult to an advanced, sophisticated PC gamer like myself. So I selected "hard" difficulty right off the bat, expecting a breeze. Bad idea. Hard difficulty rewards you with not only waves and waves of more respawning enemies, but ones with hit point bloat. Artificial difficulty up the ass. After I finish this I will probably never play another Tomb Raider game as long as I live.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

TR 2013 has precisely the opposite problem - massive hand-holding and too fucking much combat. It is also quite linear with out of the way side missions (tombs) being optional. But it has a moderately interesting presentation that keeps you on your toes if you can tolerate ridiculous respawning enemies (one respawned right in front of me) and that you're basically watching an interactive movie (Hi SquareSoft!).

I have to break my habit of automatically assuming that since most of these modern games were designed for consoletards it can't possibly be that difficult to an advanced, sophisticated PC gamer like myself. So I selected "hard" difficulty right off the bat, expecting a breeze. Bad idea. Hard difficulty rewards you with not only waves and waves of more respawning enemies, but ones with hit point bloat. Artificial difficulty up the ass. After I finish this I will probably never play another Tomb Raider game as long as I live.

Welcome to modern game design, created by hacks to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

 

[octavius]

Reached Kurast, Act 3, in Diablo 2. Finally started finding Set and Unique items.
Either I've been very unlucky with the drops or these items start dropping much later with the latest patch. I'm almost tempted to try some SP mod.

Try setting the number of players to 8 when you play. Basically start a MP game but with only you in it, and use a command (can't remember what it was) to artificially increase the number of players supposed to be in the game. It increases the number of drops and XP gain, IIRC.

And quality and quantity of enemies?

 

[Prime Junta]

I spent all of four eurobux on a 3-month subscription to XBox Live for PC, then went and downloaded Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. It appears to be a psychotic Celt simulator and so far is pretty good at it. Looks very VERY pretty too, including fantastic facial expressions. If Bloodlines 2 handles Malkavians at all like this...

Not sure how well the concept will last, I suspect this may be a bit too close to "artistic nongame" for comfort, at least the few fights I've had so far have been rather repetitive.

 

[Cael]

Reached Kurast, Act 3, in Diablo 2. Finally started finding Set and Unique items.
Either I've been very unlucky with the drops or these items start dropping much later with the latest patch. I'm almost tempted to try some SP mod.

Try setting the number of players to 8 when you play. Basically start a MP game but with only you in it, and use a command (can't remember what it was) to artificially increase the number of players supposed to be in the game. It increases the number of drops and XP gain, IIRC.

And quality and quantity of enemies?

HP is increased. Not sure by how much. I can't remember whether the number of bad guys increased.

Don't fool yourself. This is basically Hard mode on steroids. The game is now meant for 8 players working together, and you are playing solo.

 

[Zibniyat]

Ori and the Blind Forest.

And this is the game that has actually opened my eyes to my own tastes... I like pretty-looking 2D/2.5D platformer games. Whilst for example I generally dislike RPGs since they're mostly retarded games pretending to be deep and meaningful, yes I'm aware of the irony considering the name and focus of this forum, but I'm here for GD mostly so I don't care/whatever.

Platformers with beautiful scenery and overall graphics (doesn't have to "realistic" as if such a thing exists anyway), nice music and options for challenging replays - ITZ HEAVEN. The last time I was hyped for a game was prior to Skyrim's release, 9 years ago, and that piece of shit made me wish for Todd's premature departure from this world, among other things... Screw RPGs, ALL HAIL PLATFORMERS!

Now I have actual games to look forward to: Trine 4 (might get it at release) and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

 

[Ivan]

The Room 3
A more ambitious entry in the series, feauturing a central hub through which the main levels are accessed. There's one large puzzle in the hub that is probably the most impressive thing I've seen thus far. Unfortunatley there is some fat here, there are certain sections that play out like an old blobber/dungeon crawler that are a huge bore. Not my favorite of the series, but I remain a great fan of this series. Looking forward to the fourth entry.

Downfall
Very neat experience coming to this after having played The Cat Lady. Gameplay takes place in one large contiguous space and the puzzle solving reminded me a bit of the Lucasarts games, find x, use on y over in an previously explored area. Voice acting was pretty rough but it's got a lot of heart. Atmosphere and sound was very well done. Looking forward to finishing off the trilogy w/Lorali.

Gorogoa
Overhyped "puzzle" game that plays a bit like The Room series. It's all about interacting and poking at a pop-out artbook. I was frustrated often, but when I did find the solutions to progress I was impressed by how much it felt like "moving painting." The experience is pretty short, especially once you get into the way of thinking the majority of the puzzles fall into. I wasn't impressed by the music, but it is a visual treat.

Dead Secret
Part walking sim, part Amnesia. I had a great time unraveling this detective mystery. It's an on rails game, definitely feels like a mobile game, but a lot of care went into the design of the setting, the characters, and has a well-thought out plot device that sets up the second game.

Dead Secret - Circle
I didn't feel like Dead Secret needed a sequel, but we got one anyway. No longer on rails, you move at the speed of a snail as you explore a 4 story apartment complex. I wasn't as invested this time around, I think because there isn't as strong of a connection to the case as with the first game. Atmosphere is still a strong point, but I do feel like they went overboard with showcasing some truly prosperian looking NPCs. I enjoyed this mostly for its aesthetic points, not so much its narrative and cast, which was a bit of a shame since the cast was super strong in the first title.

What Remains of Edith Finch
Another walking sim that takes major influence from Gone Home. I enjoyed participating in the little vignettes throughout the Finch home, reminded me a bit of Mario 64 in that regard. Smart move, since it gives the devs freedom to throw you into wildly different settings and modes of play too. I think this elevates it above other walking sims in which your mode of expression is severely limited. Strong characters, VA, and a touching narrative make this one of the better ones of the genre. Wish they would give us the option to increase the walking speed though, ffs.

 

[BlackGoat]

Martian Memorandum is quite a comedown after having seriously enjoyed Mean Streets (despite its faults). Martian actually had me missing the flight sim stuff from the first game which, while mostly pointless, at least made the world feel like a real physical space and helped to make me feel like a tru PI. Martian gets rid of the flight sim and instead lets you just teleport between locations. And the shitty shooting sequences are gone but replaced by a few really awful sections where you have to dodge lasers or hop on stones or navigate an air duct and were more annoying than anything from the first game. Investigating the scenes was also much more troublesome with muddy art and janky mouse movement making finding and clicking on anything really annoying. The writing was still mostly fun but the game overall feels less like a PI simulator and more like a traditional and poorly made point and clicker.

 

[octavius]

I don't remember Runewords in Diablo 2 when I last played 15+ years ago, but apparantly they are important.
But it's funny how none of the FAQs and Wikis mention how you are supposed to find the right combinations. So I can only assume you don't find them in-game, but on a web site and that you are not supposed to experiment, and that all experimenting was done years ago.

 

[Mark.L.Joy]

They are billions: RTS but you're only turtling, excess tent spam, maybe fine until you reach end-game once after that it has nothing to offer like many others in the genre.

Cliff Empire: Urgh

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Decided to try a Metal Gear Solid title since I never played one before, so I selected MGS V Ground Zeros. Wow, this has to have literally the shortest campaign in the history of video/computer gaming! An hour? You gotta be kidding me. But after you complete the main game and after the credits roll you now have a good selection of side missions. I guess this MGSGZ serves as a tutorial and prelude to Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain. It's fairly fun tactical combat and a stealth freak's wet dream, more serious than I expected from Japanese developers who are able to look in from the outside and so the game is refreshingly free of America The Good and Wonderful Savior of the Free World attitudes. The question is: should I continue with Ground Zeroes or go right into The Phantom Pain.

 

[eXalted]

he question is: should I continue with Ground Zeroes or go right into The Phantom Pain.

Go with MGS1 and watch all movies of MGS2, MGS3, MGS4 on YouTube (only around 13 hours in total) and then go to Phantom Pain. I recommend playing those Ground Zeroes side missions as they are pretty fun (plot twist, all of them use the same map).

 

[Jack Of Owls]

he question is: should I continue with Ground Zeroes or go right into The Phantom Pain.

Go with MGS1 and watch all movies of MGS2, MGS3, MGS4 on YouTube (only around 13 hours in total) and then go to Phantom Pain. I recommend playing those Ground Zeroes side missions as they are pretty fun (plot twist, all of them use the same map).

And pretty impressive that Ground Zeroes still uses the same map after the base is utterly obliterated by an air strike after the 3rd or 4th side mission. I also wish the AI were a little smarter. They give up looking for you way too easily. I can squat begind a trash can just a few feet from where I just assassinated someone and they just sashay on by for about 30 seconds before they just mosey on back to what they were doing.

 

[Puukko]

GZ was a demo/teaser but a fun one at that.

 

[madbringer]

I've been fucking around with Total Annihilation and various unit mods and AI hacks lately. Some combinations are hilarious like you being swarmed by minute five with light air fighters while only building ground defense and getting utterly raped because the AI only target workers, or rushing a seemingly innocuous AI focued only on defense that rains down 20 fucking nukes on you as soon as one of your units fires a bullet at some random solar collector they have at the opposite side of the map from their base. 20 nukes at one unit, not at your base lmao. Too bad TA never picked up as a major RTS, it had a lot of potential.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Just wanted to leave a final comment about my Tomb Raider 2013 playthrough which I finished a couple of days ago. There are many things to hate about this game (hitscan enemies able to see and practically shoot you through walls, hand-holding, tedious combat, repetitive grinding for necessary upgrades that will leave you feeling like you're trapped inside the body of one of those little human chimps at Chuck E. Cheeses dashing madly to and fro for tasty tokens, etc). but it did one thing, one small area of the game GREAT, when Lara has to gingerly and stealthily make her way through a vast army of demon samurai/Oni from above. It was pretty creepy and more games should be like this despite the fact that it is not challenging at all. But it caught the atmosphere perfectly.

About to start my Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain playthrough. Was curious about the origins of the game so I begged, borrowed or stole (guess which?) a copy of the very old Metal Gear Solid Integral (the PC release of the first MGS in the States with both American & Japanese content combined). I actually own the Metal Gear Solid Legacy collection for PS3 which includes it but I just can't be arsed to get my PS3 out of storage right now. After finding some patches I was able to get it to run under Windows 10 with upcaled 1080p and proper widescreen but it still looks like thrush from a drunken slut's yoni and couldn't get it configured with my DS4 controller so it's on the back burner right now until I give MGSTPP a go.

 

[baud]

Following the DoW tournament I gave Dawn of War Soulstorm a go. It's been at least 15 years since I've played DoW 1 and I had forgotten how fast and chaotic it is compared to the other RTS I've played recently (DoW 2, CoH and Supreme Commander).

On the other hand I've been playing the campaign with the SoB and having the game crash at the end of a stronghold assault, especially since I hadn't saved since 30 min

 

[Azalin]

Finished a few games in the last month

Assassin's Creed Unity,got it last year during a sale along with the dlc before it was given for free because I read some good thing from some people around here but it just isn't that good.Graphics are good although there are some glitches and bugs left(got stuck in the air twice and had to alt ctrl del my way out of it) but although they look nice the city feels soulless with although coy pasted npcs walking around(I guess that fits ubisoft's gaming mantra).Gameplay is the same stuff from before although there isn't the cool pirate ship mini game from 4 that made that game better,I liked some of the side quests though.Story was the most disappointing to me,this thing takes place during the French revolution,the developers had a golden opportunity to use the setting along with the assassination theme of the games and have you play a major role in the whole thing with political assassinations ans intrigue,instead the plot centers around the relationship between the main character and the girl and his quest for revenge with the political stuff just being something that just you encounter along the way.It should have been more integrated into the happenings of that era,they just wasted a great opportunity.Oh and the dlc is mostly shit.Not recommended.All in all



Bordelands the Pre-Sequel,as the name implies this one takes place between 1&2 and chronicles Jack rise to power and descent into madness..I owned Bordelands 2 GOTY but I decided to buy the rest of the Handsome Collection during the summer sale since it was dirt cheap and was looking something to play along with my buddy. Gameplay,loot,story almost everything is a step down compared to 2,it's a shorter game too but you can have some coop fan if you can't find anything better.Not recommended.

Fallout 1.5 Resurrection the F2 mod/total conversion by some czechs,it's pretty good,it feels like a real fallout game and it's quite long too,the story is good,most quests are good and there are quite a lot of factions around you will ahve to choose from and those choices will have some impact making others your enemies.Unfortunately it shows that it's not made by pros since there are some serious balancing issue with the difficulty and the economy,and some parts are a bit too edgy.Still you can't beat the price,it's freel,so recommended especially for Fallout fans

 

[Modron]

Yeah the assassin's creed series followed the design philosophy of pairing down features with each sequel haven't played Origins yet to see if this reversed the trend but I doubt it did that completely. Shit Assassin's Creed 2-3(and 4 somewhat) had that sequels didn't: countryside and horses, puzzle/racing dungeons became increasing fewer if not all together removed, investigative quests became uncommon, enemies which required tactical adjustments to overcome generally disappeared, rewards for collecting all the mcguffins became pointless, big locked away secret armor relegated to being mostly a skin instead of having novel in game features, and probably more shit I can't remember. Would recommend 2 and its sequels then 3 and 4 if you perhaps wanted more but Unity and beyond is where the low effort sequel every year set in with the whole can't come up with new features that aren't just a reworking of a feature from an earlier game we didn't have in last year's annual installment becoming the norm.

Someday I'll probably try Origins after I upgrade my potato, but from what I've heard about Odyssey it kind of sounds like the effort is dipping off again.

 

[Humppaleka]

Classic WoW. Killing Floor 2.

 

[ghostdog]

Been playing Baldur's Gate Trilogy the EE edition, using EET to combine them into one game. I've been having great dun despite some crappy EE stuff.

EE review:
(+) Some quality of life improvements like faster looting, zooming in, better UI (especially when using Lefreut's UI mod)
(-) Even worse pathfinding (are they retarded? how did they manage that?), Cringeworthy, annoying new potential party members that should be avoided, or outright killed on the spot. Siege of Dragonspear is like being trapped inside really bad fanfiction, avoid it at all costs by using the dev menu and reach quickly the epilogue.

Is EET better than the original BGT? NO. If you want some quality of life improvements, use it, but be prepared to face some annoying stuff.

BIG CONTENT MODS:
Drizzt Saga: Gives you a big quest with Drizzt and his companions. Weak writing, badly made, cramped areas, very OP items. Avoid.
Northern Tales of the Sword Coast: Expands a few existing BG quests, adds various new ones and connects most of them into an overarching plot. Very decent mod. Adequate writing, challenging but not very hard, some good loot but not overly OP. Recommended.

Baldur's Gate 1&2
Good fun, even better than I remember it. SCS makes combat more challenging and interesting. Party variations can be fun. I'm in BG2 right now, counting more than 60h of play from the beginning. I don't know if I'll finish ToB too, the quality takes a big dip in ToB.

 

[Kabas]

Metal Fatigue

Things i like so far:
-Building giant robots
-you can steal the body parts of the enemy robots and attach them to your own robots
-your robots can also accidently lose an arm and get it stolen by the enemy
Things i really don't like. Like, at all. I really hate this shit:
-a situation when you pretty much won the battle, but the enemy still keeps fighting. Ai spams workers and turrets in the underground layer, tries futilely to rebuild at the surface behind your back. You can't bring robots undergound thus you lack the sufficient punch to end this farce. The result is the mission getting needlessly prolonged.
This is simply not fun. Giant robots are still cool tho.

I also tried Cruasader No Remorse

I heard a lot of good about this one and it's sequel.
Controls are wonky, but the game is still kinda fun. You're encouraged to approach the things smart way and to use your tools/tricks as efficiently as possible. Environment is very destructible.

Both games feature a nice soundtrack.

 

[Abu Antar]

Bravely Second. Writing, both story and characters are as stupid as they can get. Combat system is very cool. I just really enjoy turn-based games with job systems. Biggest letdown is the worse soundtrack.

I'm playing the DLC The Way of Nether for Tale of Wuxia: The Pre-Sequel. It's quite different. While combat is the same, the DLC is more akin to TRPGs than a regular RPG and I do like it.

The third game that I am playing is The Journey Down: Part One that I was gifted on the Codex. Not overly complicated, but a chill adventure game with nice music.

And last but not least, Persona 5. I'm at 96 hours played. Got all the party members. Judging by the calendar, I might have around 40 hours left. I've done a lot of requests, but there have to be some left, because I have not gotten the related trophy. I'm aiming to max all confidants, which means that I will be ignoring trophies like reading all books and such. Not a big loss, in my opinion. In general, I am really enjoying the game, but the characters aren't as good as others in the series. I don't like many of the party members, and not many of the confidants are very interesting. I'm also starting to get sick of the adults are pricks thing the series is going for. I mean, they are not wrong, but the way it is handled is awkward. I'd love to so see an adult cast in their next game, but I very much doubt that it will happen.

 

[Mark Richard]

Picked up Surviving Mars for cheap in the Back to School GOG sale. I'm not much of a SimCity guy, but I definitely have the bug here. There's always some new project to get excited about. I've constructed three connected domes so far. The spaceport at the top contains all the seedy gambling dens and bars, the dome at the bottom right is a living area, and the one on the bottom left is for education and farming. Next I'm planning to expand south with an isolated mining dome.