What game are you wasting time on?

[d1r]

Just finished Kingdom under Fire: Crusaders, and I am absolutely stunned about how good it actually is. It's an incredible fun mix between RTS and Hack&Slash, where you move different divisions of your army on a map in real time, while at the same time fighting with them as a Hero in form of a Hack&Slash game. The icing of the cake is the ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC metal soundtrack, and the customization aspect of your troops and your heroes. I loved every second of it, and can't wait to get my hands on the Expansion pack called Heroes which will get released on Steam soon.

 

[pakoito]

I just played through Defender's Quest in like...3h? 4? I remember the game being longer.

 

[Poseidon00]

Final Fantasy Tactics- an all monster run with a gun using Ramza mediator. Attack UP/Summoning/Counter/Teleport as my skills.

Cockatrices can one shot with petrify, decent accuracy, but are glass cannons.

Bombs can heal themselves while spreading AOE damage and go full jihad with an explosion.

Meteor Chocobos are nearly as good as a human unit.

Piggy's can revive.

Treespirits spam healing/shell/protect.

This is difficult but fun. Gafgarion was a pain in the ass, but two Meteorbos made it a cinch.

Now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to switch to knight skills instead of summoning. Breaking weapons from half the map away would have its benefits

 

[Krivol]

Assassin's Creed 2 - it's my first experience with this universe. I think it will be my guilty pleasure...

It's a bit like GTA:Renaissance with jumping on rooftops. Game is easy as fuck -even 'hard' platforming sequences (crypts) I was able to finish with maybe 1-2 fackups, and taking a fight against 9 enemies and winning it is nothing special.

And yet I like it - it's relaxing, characters are likable (those in Italy, people from animus are annoying, but TBH I don't like whole idea), earning and spending money is fine. Using crowd to avoid guards is good (but having your attention metter on low level is - again - easy, soyou will use crowd movement occasionally).

I haven't finished it yet, so maybe it will turn to be hardest game ever. I doubt it.

 

[Abu Antar]

Assassin's Creed 2 - it's my first experience with this universe. I think it will be my guilty pleasure...

It's a bit like GTA:Renaissance with jumping on rooftops. Game is easy as fuck -even 'hard' platforming sequences (crypts) I was able to finish with maybe 1-2 fackups, and taking a fight against 9 enemies and winning it is nothing special.

And yet I like it - it's relaxing, characters are likable (those in Italy, people from animus are annoying, but TBH I don't like whole idea), earning and spending money is fine. Using crowd to avoid guards is good (but having your attention metter on low level is - again - easy, soyou will use crowd movement occasionally).

I haven't finished it yet, so maybe it will turn to be hardest game ever. I doubt it.

AC2 and AC: Brotherhood were fun to mess around with. I gave up on the series with AC3. I forced my way through the halfway point but I couldn't bring myself to continue.

 

[Shackleton]

Decided to get some use out of the Thrustmaster HOTAS I got for Elite Dangerous and then got bored of after a couple of weeks, so I installed Freespace 2 from GOG and dived into the modding scene. I'm not sure if even Bethesda's offerings have been treated by quite as much love by modders as this game. Freespace 2 is 21 years old and modders are STILL working on it. Probably because no other space dogfighting game has come close to it's superb mix of simulation and arcade gameplay. I don't think a game like this would get made today without an enormous amount of streamlining in order to get the controls onto a gamepad. Talking of controls, the first headache was finding out the engine it's built on only supports one input device at a time, so my joystick was recognised but my throttle wasn't. No matter, a quick download of vJoy and then Joystick Gremlin later, I had a virtual joystick set up which combined my throttle and stick controls into one and I could spend a happy hour rebinding all my keys and then half of them again when I realised I'd missed off some important ones. (Seriously, there's like 8 keys just for targetting. Nearest enemy, escort ship, nearest bomb/ bomber, target subsystem, target's target, target's weapons, etc).

Then I started on the mods, which was a lot easier than I thought, owing to the very handy Knossos front end. Think Nexus Mod Manager crossed with Steam. Pic below for illustration:

Scroll through the enormous list of mods and marvel at the ones still being updated in 2020, then pick Blue Planet complete as it's pretty much the closest thing we'll ever get to Freespace 3. I'm sure there's loads of other great ones, but Blue Planet is well known as a really professional mod, with production qualities to rival the original. I'm really loving it so far, after I'd realised that 'Normal' difficulty was more like 'normal if you've played Freespace 2 for 10000 hours and are a space god' and dropped it down to the next one back, which was actually titled 'second playthrough'. Despite the easiest being labelled 'first playthrough' my pride wouldn't allow me to play on the lowest setting. I've failed a couple of missions so far, but after commanding my fighters more effectively I've managed after a retry (or two).

I really can't see another space dogfighter ever getting close to this game. If anyone doesn't have this by now and wants to get some use out of their joystick gathering dust under their desk, there's no excuse for not shelling out the few pennies it costs on GOG. It's £2.79 currently, that's 10p more than a Big Mac ffs.

Some pics because post is useless without them:

Spoiler

 

[cosmicray]

Half-Life 2. I'm on buggy. Antlions are a stupid design since they look very similar to bugs in Starship Troopers movie. Even if they're supposed to, I still don't like it.
Combine with a shotgun proves to be a formidable foe, but medkits aren't scarce by any means. Playing on hard and it's not that hard compared to Half-life on Normal. "Gordon Freeman?" is annoying, I have to agree with the video someone posted here that HL2 fucked up the character(or how people reacted to him). It's like every character in HL2 played Half-Life videogame.

 

[Vlajdermen]

I recently finished Vivisector: Beast Within, the ukrainian shooter from that one Civvie video. It feels like a middle ground between Duke Nukem, Half-Life and Halo, and it turned out pretty good.

Out of the three it has the most in common with Half-Life. It has the same semi-linear style of level design, and around the same movement speed. The Halo influence can be seen in the size of the levels; you do occasionally get those big directionless nature settings, especially around the beginning, but some levels are genuinely interesting. For example, you have a cavern level in which you start off on the ground but fight your way up across scaffoldings and giant machinery, and the size of the level just helps the atmosphere. It's in the gameplay too; in that level you rely mostly on the sniper and gauss, and have to be slow and methodical, while on the train (the high point of the game), you have to run and gun a la the Build Engine games. All the settings drag on too long, but on the whole, the level design is solid.

The thing taken from Duke Nukem, which I can totally get behind, is that the levels have secrets with weapons you're not supposed to get yet. The weapons are the best thing about the game, both because they feel great, and because of how many of them there are. All the generic FPS weapons are there, but they all get a ''super'' variant later on. You get a pistol, and then you get an automatic pistol (which is way more useful than it seems). The splash damage weapons do too little damage to be useful, but the Howitzer and Plasma Cannon are just too fun to use. Getting to use these over-the-top guns in a game that's niether a 90's throwback or ''wacky'' magenta triple-A crap was a legit treat.
Like Civvie said, the double shotgun owns.

There's a gore system in which every bullet chips away at the enemy's flesh, exposing his skeleton, but what I found interesting is that you can also knock off an enemy's gun, after which he'll tryto melee you. It has no gameplay purpouse but it's a cool detail.
I skipped most of the cutscenes, but the ones I did watch definitely qualified for ''so bad it's good''. It tried to be like a philosophical action movie, pondering on the nature of evolution, what makes a human being, etc. but it came out hysterically stupid.

Overall, it's no Blood or Shadow Warrior, but it's fun. I'd recommend it for the handful of interesting levels, but if anything else, it's a good game to play while listening to an EMJ podcast.

 

[Curratum]

Got massively into Dirt Rally 2.0, grabbed the GOTY complete edition with all stages, rallycross tracks and cars for 15 EUR and have been having an absolute blast with it. Amazing stages, amazing sound, the best codriver and pacenote delivery in a game so far.

Also pirated the complete edition of Pinball Arcade because the tables are not for sale on PC and unobtainable anymore and have been having a great time with some classic pins.

 

[Verylittlefishes]

I recently finished Vivisector: Beast Within, the ukrainian shooter from that one Civvie video. It feels like a middle ground between Duke Nukem, Half-Life and Halo, and it turned out pretty good.

Out of the three it has the most in common with Half-Life. It has the same semi-linear style of level design, and around the same movement speed. The Halo influence can be seen in the size of the levels; you do occasionally get those big directionless nature settings, especially around the beginning, but some levels are genuinely interesting. For example, you have a cavern level in which you start off on the ground but fight your way up across scaffoldings and giant machinery, and the size of the level just helps the atmosphere. It's in the gameplay too; in that level you rely mostly on the sniper and gauss, and have to be slow and methodical, while on the train (the high point of the game), you have to run and gun a la the Build Engine games. All the settings drag on too long, but on the whole, the level design is solid.

The thing taken from Duke Nukem, which I can totally get behind, is that the levels have secrets with weapons you're not supposed to get yet. The weapons are the best thing about the game, both because they feel great, and because of how many of them there are. All the generic FPS weapons are there, but they all get a ''super'' variant later on. You get a pistol, and then you get an automatic pistol (which is way more useful than it seems). The splash damage weapons do too little damage to be useful, but the Howitzer and Plasma Cannon are just too fun to use. Getting to use these over-the-top guns in a game that's niether a 90's throwback or ''wacky'' magenta triple-A crap was a legit treat.
Like Civvie said, the double shotgun owns.

There's a gore system in which every bullet chips away at the enemy's flesh, exposing his skeleton, but what I found interesting is that you can also knock off an enemy's gun, after which he'll tryto melee you. It has no gameplay purpouse but it's a cool detail.
I skipped most of the cutscenes, but the ones I did watch definitely qualified for ''so bad it's good''. It tried to be like a philosophical action movie, pondering on the nature of evolution, what makes a human being, etc. but it came out hysterically stupid.

Overall, it's no Blood or Shadow Warrior, but it's fun. I'd recommend it for the handful of interesting levels, but if anything else, it's a good game to play while listening to an EMJ podcast.

Blast from the past! I completely forgot about it.

 

[Semiurge]

Tomb Raider, software rendered. Next up, System Shock 1 enhanced edition. "Prime time" game is Witcher 3 for the next five years.

 

[Poseidon00]

Final Fantasy Tactics- an all monster run with a gun using Ramza mediator. Attack UP/Summoning/Counter/Teleport as my skills.

Cockatrices can one shot with petrify, decent accuracy, but are glass cannons.

Bombs can heal themselves while spreading AOE damage and go full jihad with an explosion.

Meteor Chocobos are nearly as good as a human unit.

Piggy's can revive.

Treespirits spam healing/shell/protect.

This is difficult but fun. Gafgarion was a pain in the ass, but two Meteorbos made it a cinch.

Now that I think about it, it might be a good idea to switch to knight skills instead of summoning. Breaking weapons from half the map away would have its benefits

Getting into chapter 4, and Behemoths/Marlboros seem to be the way to go. Behemoths get large AoE attacks stronger than their physicals, and Marlboros can change enemies into other Marlboros and apply every status effect while not being too low in hp like most other support units.

The Wiegraf/Velius battle was the easiest I've ever had it. I just ran away and used knight skills with my gun until his sword skills did less damage than my Move-HP Up provided. Then I spammed Yell until I was getting three turns to his one. Took him out with max hp and I kept the stat boosts into the Velius battle, ending it quickly.

Definitely a fun approach to an already great game.

 

[Zlaja]

I just started my first Batman game (Arkham Knight) and while I'm having a decent fun with it I can't get over just how shitty the melee combat is. It just feels so floaty and lacks proper impact despite the game trying hard to portray Batman as a total juggernaut. I remember enjoying the melee combat a lot more in Mad Max despite the fact that that game's combat was inspired by these Batman games. It had more weight to it and was less spammy. In this game I just mash buttons like crazy and win easily every fight that doesn't involve several armed dudes shooting at you (playing on hard).

 

[Golden-Dragon]

I did some Perfect file runs for FF7, FF8 and FF9 back in the PSX/PS2 era. Now with all the FF Remastered out there, I don't have the motivation to do it all over again.

 

[Azalin]

Finished Dead Space,it was quite decent.Graphics are good for such an old game,atmosphere was good,the enemies and the whole dismembering thing was interesting,level design was just meh and mostly linear but I liked the zero gravity sections.All in all better than I expected. Btw there was a serious technical problem with this game concerning mouse acceleration and vsync that basically made the game unplayable but after installing a fan-patch it was fixed.Recommended

 

[Perkel]

Playing Supreme Commander: FA with FAF client and my custom mod. It is fucking glorious grand strategy game.

 

[Kitchen Utensil]

Residen Evil 7, Remake, Remake 2 and Zero.
REmake > Zero > REmake 2 > 7.

Also, Recore.
Not recommended.

 

[Beggar]

Splinter Cell (2002) - Only tried Double Agent 15 years ago on my PS2. The first one holds up better than you might think! Graphics are sharp and more realistic than nowadays plastic looking crap. Infiltrating police station, CIA headquarters, chinese embassy and nuclear power plant. Assigned to sabotage the transmission of execution on TV, find out what for Georgia is moving ballistic weapons and what china is up to. Awesome! Was playing like a shadow. Thought on moving up to the next entry but might go for a second playthrough.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Picked up Prey 2017 in the GOG sale. It’s amazing, much better than I expected. Playing on Nightmare difficulty with Survival mechanics turned up on. The game is an immersive sim proper, with modern AAA presentation.

 

[cosmicray]

Nier: Automata. Achieved ending C. Holy shit, THAT FINAL MISSION.

 

[Zlaja]

Picked up Prey 2017 in the GOG sale. It’s amazing, much better than I expected. Playing on Nightmare difficulty with Survival mechanics turned up on. The game is an immersive sim proper, with modern AAA presentation.

Those extra survival mechanics you can turn on weren't available when the game was first released. Which sucked ass.

 

[samuraigaiden]

Picked up Prey 2017 in the GOG sale. It’s amazing, much better than I expected. Playing on Nightmare difficulty with Survival mechanics turned up on. The game is an immersive sim proper, with modern AAA presentation.

Those extra survival mechanics you can turn on weren't available when the game was first released. Which sucked ass.

Didn’t know that. I started on default, without them, and quickly realized it wasn’t the right way to play the game.

 

[Abu Antar]

Tales of Symphonia is beaten. It starts off very slowly, but gets things goings at a solid pace as the game progresses. This is true for both story and combat.

I do think that I did most things, but I looked at a FAQ, and it seems that I missed some quests, or did not follow them through to the end.

I managed to beat most "super bosses". Maxwell, Abyssion, the special arena fights and all three forms of the Sword Dancer. What I haven't done is visit the optional dungeon. Maybe once all other PS3 games are beaten, I'll do a speed run with things unlocked from the Grade Shop.

On to the sequel, which I hear is inferior to this one.

 

[octavius]

Trying to work up my enthusiasm for Fallout Tactics and failing.

I find it a huge decline after Jagged Alliance 2 and OpenXcom.

I just don't feel in control.
The game some times suddenly changes to real time at akward times.
It's very hard to judge movement. Unless I hold the Shift key the game won't allow me to use the last four APs for movement, for example.
LOS is much harder to judge than in JA2 or OX. I can't even tell wether there are windows or other openings in buildings until getting close, and then you suddenly see the whole interior, except for enemies hiding in corners.
And in addition the game crashes frequently.

So more frustration than fun.

 

[Catacombs]

I was jumping around yesterday between colony base-building games and couldn't
decide what I wanted to play.

I fired up Underrail, which I haven't played in a while, and sunk five hours
into it. Looks like I know what I'll be playing today and in the coming days.