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What game are you wasting time on?

Zanzoken

Arcane
Joined
Dec 16, 2014
Messages
3,557
Bit of a rant coming.

I used to play this hunting sim back in the day called Deer Hunter Gold. It was exactly what it sounds like -- you pick a rifle and scope, sight it in on the range, then go hunt deer. It had the basic items you use in hunting, like scents, calls, spotting scope, tree stands, ground blinds, etc. But all you really gotta do is find a good place to set up your stand / blind, spray some deer piss, hit the grunt and rattle a few times, and wait for a big buck to come along so you can bust his ass. 12-year-old me thought it was a pretty chill way to zone out and relax after a long day.

Well, that was twenty years ago, and now the PC hunting genre appears to be almost dead. The only hunting game I can find that looks worth a damn is "theHunter: Call of the Wild". Stupid fucking name, but whatever. It's on sale, so $10 gets me the base game, tree stand DLC (wtf), and the ATV DLC. This game has a lot of fucking DLC, but the rest seemed unimportant to what I wanted to do, so whatever.

I install and launch. Game looks and sounds really good, controls are all right. There's a short tutorial where you shoot a deer who is obviously programmed to stand there and get shot by you, while the game warden or whatever talks to you on the radio and tells you what to do. Okay, easy enough. Game warden gives you another task to go climb a nearby watchtower and have a look around. It's close so no big deal.

Unlocking the watchtower is where things start to get suspect. The map is absolutely fucking huge, and this is just one of several hunting reserves available to you. I really didn't want to play a big open world game, but whatever -- I am sure I can find a couple of good hunting spots nearby, and will worry about exploring the rest at my leisure.

Game warden says, hey you should go find a base camp to get set up. Okay, there's one not too far away, so I head over. This unlocks a small cabin to rest, ATV, stash, and item shop.

Then, the game warden comes on the radio AGAIN and starts telling me about some wilderness survival LARP dude who lives on the reserve full time. Game warden says "I know you probably have other stuff to do" -- uhhh yeah motherfucker I just want to shoot a big ass deer -- "but would you mind going to check on LARPer dude? Something ransacked his camp."

So now I'm pissed because I am realizing this isn't just a tutorial. This game has fucking story missions in it, which is completely stupid because I JUST WANT TO HUNT. Thankfully you can turn the missions off, so I do. Before I can hunt I want some better gear, since the starting gear is really basic, so I go check out the item shop before I head out.

Mother. Fucker. For some idiotic reason, these dumbass devs decided to make every item cost an insane amount of in-game currency. The tree stand -- the one I paid real money to get the DLC for -- costs $16000 FUCKING DOLLARS in-game currency. For comparison I have like $3000 from starter money + tutorials. Other items are similarly priced for maximum absurdity.

At this point I'm fuming but I figure, fuck it, maybe kills pay a lot of money. Yes, for some idiotic reason, the devs made it so you get paid whenever you shoot an animal. Despite having no gear or skills, I manage to locate and bring down a nice 8-pt whitetail buck. It was actually pretty easy, because the animal AI appears to be completely retarded. My reward for this? Like $800.

What this means is in order to actually enjoy a proper hunt with good gear and setup, I either have to (1) murder the fuck out of every animal I can find or (2) do a bunch of unnecessary lame as fuck story missions for the game warden. And this is the point where I say "fuck this game" and so long to the $10 I wasted buying it because I am just past the 2 hour mark and can't get a refund.

The autism rate on Steam must be sky high because the game was rated "Very Positive" with tons of good reviews. It probably is a fun hunting game once you've done 100 hours of grinding to unlock all the pointlessly gated content, but I will never know. GG devs, congrats on fucking up what is probably the simplest video game genre known to man.
:1/5:
 

Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,304
In January 2014 I tried playing Dead Space to little avail. Reason? I use an unorthodox Kb + Mouse scheme (read: Not WASD) and Dead Space doesn't support remapping keys, or at least only partially.

Seeing that Dead Space has trading cards now, and I own a console controller, I figured I'd try again. I'm not well-versed in controllers so I knew there would probably be some problems... but not like this.

At least now I know what bothers me with controllers: It's the viewcam. In all the games I've tried playing with a controller, it's always the viewcam that either sours my experience or outright prevents me from playing. Dead Space falls into the latter category, and combined with its retarded third-person 'over-the-shoulder' perspective and lack of a zoom feature - I honestly can't understand what they were thinking. Especially since the game is still locked into me using Kb + Mouse. For me to be able to play this I'd have to use some weird-ass controller+mouse combo that requires a third arm.

Fuck controllers.

EDIT: Inappropriate parrots relocated to here: +M+M+M

Dead space has some serious problems with the camera movement mouse acceleration and vsync,don't know how much it affects controller movement but try to use tha fan patch before quitting
I was only able to play it using m+kb with the patch,otherwise it was just unplayable
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,088
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
While your suggestions are appreciated, there is simply too much Wrong with getting the PC version of Dead Space to run properly, and I don't see how the various (and numerous) patches and work-arounds can help me.

I'm just going to write it off and walk away, it's better for everyone involved, but our Patch-thread has some stuff for Dead Space, so there's that.
 

FreshCorpse

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Aug 23, 2016
Messages
692
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
"A Woman's Lot" DLC for Kingdom Come Deliverance. Stuck in this fucking silver mine which is a 10km long sensory deprivation walking sim except occasionally a miner will see you and then it's as good as game over. On my 6th attempt now but it's so long and dull that I end up making silly mistakes. On top of that I spent the past two hours performing mindnumbing shitwork for everyone and their dog who lives in Skalitz. Really looking forward to the part where the town is raized by Cumans. Please tell me it gets a bit better after that happens.
 

pakoito

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
I'm playing through The Outer Wilds, which is a timeloop game with pretty pretty real-time space travel. Each loop is 22 minutes and there's no permanence between them other than a log so you remember all the clues you've gathered. It's really well designed.
Finished it. I needed a couple of hints for some obtuse stuff at the end because I didn't want to "grind" loops to figure it out. Still managed to complete it all. The game's just gorgeous, and the non-euclidean stuff is better implemented in a story than in Antichamber.
 

Walden

Savant
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
289
Stephen's Sausage Roll.

One of the best games I've ever played for sure. Not a game for everyone, the game itself doesn't want to be accessible, and makes this clear right about the end of the first stage, in the Great Tower level. Such a clever design and amazingly mechanics are rare to be found. Instant classic.

Beautiful Desolation

Another instant classic for me, strong Torment and Fallout vibes, but the game stands on its own legs in an unexpected way. Interesting npcs, the south african slang fits so well, non linear gameplay and exploration, multiple endings for various quests with evident consequences during the play, truly beautiful handcrafted backgrounds, everything is inspired.

English Country Tune

Another game from Lavelle, less refined than Stephen's Sausage Roll, but some genuine good puzzles, horrible camera in some levels, high level of autism nonetheless.

Age of Decadence

Loved it from the beginning, the combat is ok, intuitive, has some depth, the game is beautiful, from the arts to the well done mixture of ancient history and Lovecraft's references.
I just wanted more contenent, Gannezzar feels rushed, which is a pity because it had so much potential. The writing is good, never felt like being thrown into self-refential wall of texts or savage infodumping. I'd have liked to have more approches depending on a single attribute or skill, the game plays too much as a cyoa, which is not bad, but I prefer to have multiple approches for rpg's sake. But from now on I'll devolve all my money to Iron Tower for sure, soon I'll go through Dungeon Rats as well.
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,485
Age of Decadence

Loved it from the beginning, the combat is ok, intuitive, has some depth, the game is beautiful
:abyssgazer:
Interesting. I fucking love AoD and it has some great art indeed as well as visual design decisions overall but still it's ugly as fuck.
 

eilef

Educated
Joined
Jun 20, 2020
Messages
62
Location
Ukraine
Destiny 2. Game is literally getting canceled revoked in September, but i play it to pass the time and because I want to get the most of the deluxe edition i got. Why am i wasting time? Because with the changes they making, game is getting even more terrible than now, and grinding circle becomes everlasting, and most important aspect of the game. Oh, and all the cool stuff is leaving. Its like Bungie tries their best to waste all the potential there is in D2.
 

Walden

Savant
Joined
Mar 23, 2016
Messages
289
Age of Decadence

Loved it from the beginning, the combat is ok, intuitive, has some depth, the game is beautiful
:abyssgazer:
Interesting. I fucking love AoD and it has some great art indeed as well as visual design decisions overall but still it's ugly as fuck.
I find the engine to be ugly as shit, but the level of detail and cohesiveness allowed by the budget and the design of the game for me is great.

It gives you some very low technically detailed structure, but the lack of.. almost everything, visually speaking, is well balanced by the texts, the register ( I almost felt like an archeologist, and not just because irl I'm poor as fuck, but that helps ), which wants you to rather figure out by yourself what marvels could have been were your clunky character stands now, with the little help of some well targeted arts.
The music is quite good as well, despite just few tracks looped for the whole game ( that's a shame ).
To me the devs just wanted to give you a strong and clever canovaccio to follow, outline and fulfill with your immagination, and the design of the game helps in a matter than you couldn't reach even with 300 graphic designers.

Npc models are :prosper: though.
 

Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,304
Finished Catherine Classic, a unique block moving puzzle game about a guy with some commitment issues with some dating sim thrown in.It's good although weird since Nippon gonna Nippon.Recommended
 

jackofshadows

Magister
Joined
Oct 21, 2019
Messages
4,485
I find the engine to be ugly as shit, but the level of detail and cohesiveness allowed by the budget and the design of the game for me is great.

It gives you some very low technically detailed structure, but the lack of.. almost everything, visually speaking, is well balanced by the texts, the register ( I almost felt like an archeologist, and not just because irl I'm poor as fuck, but that helps ), which wants you to rather figure out by yourself what marvels could have been were your clunky character stands now, with the little help of some well targeted arts.
The music is quite good as well, despite just few tracks looped for the whole game ( that's a shame ).
To me the devs just wanted to give you a strong and clever canovaccio to follow, outline and fulfill with your immagination, and the design of the game helps in a matter than you couldn't reach even with 300 graphic designers.
Yes, it's quite remarkable how much devs have achieved with this piece of shit engine even visual wise. Descriptions here and there are also helps a lot in order to immerse. And yet, there's no way aroung it: the game looks like ass.

With Dungeon Rats they've managed to raise a bar a bit, however, visuals is not exactly a game's strong suit as well, obviously. But their new game - CSG looks so much better already thanks to UE4, plus they've fixed camera which was annoying to many players (for some reason). You can try the combat demo, unless you're absolutely don't wanna spoil anything.
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,640
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
Finished Control. Eh. The name says it all. Low-energy. Doesn't pop. Needs more... zazz.

Very Sam Lake game, yet felt phoned in. Even Quantum Break had a better payoff at the end. The combat was okay ish, the bosses were fine, but the end was just a gauntlet of normal enemies. It did the Half Life 2 thing of supercharging the player for the endgame so it was effortless anyway.

Raytracing was cool but wasted on the boring brutalist architecture. "Hey doods, let's make the levels ugly as sin but with really nice lighting." Okay.

Only thing I liked was the idea of a shared universe between the games (Remedyverse? Sam Lakeverse?) Oh and the Finnish janitor listening to heavy metal:

 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
12,869
Location
Eastern block
6646F04D8031E166ECA2CB3F2FE9A85AC6F2A866



I'm playing Wizardry 6 and having a blast atm. I'm actully using this automap. Amazing game. It's surprisingly accessible.
 

cosmicray

Savant
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Messages
436
Football Manager 2020 - I finally bought it. Gonna ruin my life now. Too bad my team have a dismal form lately.
Nier: Automata - almost have all weapons upgraded. Stupid Emil isn't spawning where I want it. Not sure if I'll have the stamina to beat DLC challenges.
 

Kabas

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Feb 10, 2018
Messages
1,258
I succumbed and decided to try the Total War Warhammer 2. It's been awhile since i touched anything remotely AAA and it's my first time playing a total war game.
Decided to start as High elves(Tyrion) in vortex campaign to get used to controls and stuff.
I am having a lot of fun though i will likely abandon this campaign because spamming lothern sea guards seems to be a bit too much of an easy mode and there is a bunch of minor things i did WRONG.
My only complaint is that you can't trade cities with your Allies
 

CthuluIsSpy

Arcane
Joined
Dec 26, 2014
Messages
7,940
Location
On the internet, writing shit posts.
Yeah, they removed that feature. I dunno why they took away the option to trade cities, but its been gone ever since Shogun 2, iirc.
Elves are a pretty easy faction to play. If you want more of a challenge try skaven.
Dark Elves are technically a little harder too as you can't spam long range attacks like you can with Elves, but once you get the hang of them they can get pretty OP.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
Destiny 2. Game is literally getting canceled revoked in September, but i play it to pass the time and because I want to get the most of the deluxe edition i got. Why am i wasting time? Because with the changes they making, game is getting even more terrible than now, and grinding circle becomes everlasting, and most important aspect of the game. Oh, and all the cool stuff is leaving. Its like Bungie tries their best to waste all the potential there is in D2.
Really strange their excuse of why they are pratically removing 1/3 of the game to only add the Cosmodrome and even that, assuming they will add something to the Cosmodrome and it isnt just a lazy straight copy of Destiny 1, I think they have serious technical problems with the base source code of the game and they came up with this BS because it would take alot of time to fix the base code.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,471
Location
California
Felt like playing STALKER Call of Pripyat, what are the good mods? MISERY looks a little too hard core for me.

Gunslinger (especially if you don't want a giant mod that merges maps w/the previous two games.

Still though, I'd say STALKER Misery 1.2 is the quintessential STALKER experience.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,182
Location
Bjørgvin
Chugging along in Gothic, playing it blind.

I have explored most of the outside world, and I found that it was quite difficult to get one's bearing without a map or even a compass. The most dangeroes critters I'm now able to kill are lone wolves, so the progress is slow. Can't even scratch some enemies like Skeletons.

The New Camp is too full of thugs, and the Swamp camp is too full of god damned hippies, so I'll join the Old Camp, leaving the others for possible replays.

But what's the difference between joining The Shadows and joining the Old Camp? If there is a difference, can one be a Shadow and walk safely around in New Camp?
 

Lord of Riva

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
2,805
Strap Yourselves In Pathfinder: Wrath
Playing Elex and Witcher 1 again. Elex for me and Witcher with my wife so she can for once enjoy games that aren't completely casual. I would play more prestigious games with her but the long texts paired with your different reading speeds drive me up the wall.

Chugging along in Gothic, playing it blind.

I have explored most of the outside world, and I found that it was quite difficult to get one's bearing without a map or even a compass. The most dangeroes critters I'm now able to kill are lone wolves, so the progress is slow. Can't even scratch some enemies like Skeletons.

The New Camp is too full of thugs, and the Swamp camp is too full of god damned hippies, so I'll join the Old Camp, leaving the others for possible replays.

But what's the difference between joining The Shadows and joining the Old Camp? If there is a difference, can one be a Shadow and walk safely around in New Camp?

All camps have at least two factions you will progress from the first to the second: novices and templars for swamp, bandits and mercenaries for the new camp and shadows and then gardists for the old camp. There are also the mages and one more "hidden" class.

And yes you are not limited in where you can go, in fact you will be handling some "diplomacy" between the factions as the story continues. Just keep playing and enjoy your choice...

EDIT: clarification
 
Last edited:

Latro

Arcane
Joined
Jun 5, 2013
Messages
7,345
Location
Vita umbratilis
Went back to play Sangokushi Taisen Ten on the DS. No game like it, it's a 10 minutes real time tactics game. It uses cards for army composition. Moonrunes only, although I can hook you up with translations if anyone's interested.
please
 

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