What game are you wasting time on?

[Unkillable Cat]

Since you bring up EotB3 (and I state some of these for the nth time here on the Codex)... the four biggest problems with EotB3 are:

1: The needless restrictions and limitations put upon character races and classes, thereby both impacting character creation/progression AND in-game actions.
2: Unbalanced monsters... with most of them being underperforming, merely serving as minor obstacles instead of being challenging threats to a high-level party.
3: Pants-on-head retarded decisions in both level- and game-design, most of them centering on the Mausoleum, but a few other honorable mentions also cause a scene.
4: The All-Attack button.

Back in the day you could add the fifth problem, the AESOP-engine that drives the game, but 'recent' breakthroughs by the Vogons have made the 16-bit engine into a 32-bit one, thereby removing all of the bottlenecks. With their Aesop-patch EotB3 runs just as smoothly as its prequels did. (And in case you're wondering, GOG already has it installed.)

I could write a veritable wall o' text on the above four points - but I think I'll do that over in the Eye of the Beholder-thread, rather than here.

 

[LarryNeff4eva]

I started a new Fallout 4 campaign because it seems like with everything that is happening all around the world, a fallout is inevitable. I just hope I'm wrong with my assumption.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Five years ago Newgrounds held a game jam where the theme of the competition was Deception. This game took the top spot:



Recently a full and commerical title was released:



I would post the trailer, except it's spoiler-y as fuck. Just play the freeware version above (it should take you about 15 minutes at the most) and if it interests you, know that the non-free title is more of the same, but still not the same game. (Consider the freeware-title to be a prologue of sorts.)

I played the freeware title, and immediately picked up the full-price game afterwards. I was not disappointed, because it's damn fun (even though it's a French game) and it's targeted at us old-timers, so expect rotary phones, codewheels and CRT-monitors... and that's just Chapter 2 (out of 6). The voice-acting is excellent, another brilliant example where a good narrator (in this case, the programmer himself) can truly elevate a game. This game is a work of passion, and it shows.

So far my top (and only) game recommendation for 2020.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Still been playing a lot of DDO. It's becoming my favorite D&D-based cRPG.

 

[Tancred]

I've finally finished Deus Ex after getting to Hong Kong about five years ago and flaking out. Re-installed with GMDX and started again, in the end I chose Tracer Tong's new dark age ending. Feels like an oddly prescient game considering current events.

Right now I'm in the middle of Kingdom Come: Deliverance. I like it, but fuck me its a bit janky. My horse threw me when I tried to ride past a group of bandits + cumans fighting each other, and then I slid 80 meters down a frictionless hill unable to stop and get back up while the bandits + cumans forgot about each other and chased me down the whole way before ritually beating me to death. Good times.

 

[Morgoth]

Been recently playing Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force, the Raven Software shooter from 2000.

God this game is so simplistic yet so good. Stalking through those desolate quarters on that Klingon vessel is so atmospheric. And bumping off those Borg drones with the IMOD never gets old one bit. There are always just enough twists and detours during missions that keep you from getting bored. For some reason the game didn't sell too well back then at release.

Mandatory "They just don't make shooters like these anymore" commentary.

 

[ebPD8PePfC]

Playing a lot of chess. After an embarrassing amount of hours I finally got 1000 rating in blitz. I've probably peaked, so it's time to move on to other board games.

Games played: 1600~
Your Blitz rating is 1000.
You are better than 5% of Blitz players.

Kill me

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished this. It's best considered to be a point-and-click adventure sorta between the classical Sierra On-Line/LucasArts-titles, and the first-person mystery-solving adventure games like Myst. With non-stop running narrator commentary.

If you are a game developer yourself, then this has extra something for you. You won't truly see it until Chapter 6 though.

My previous words stand: This is my first game recommendation for 2020.

 

[Dux]

Xenonauts

I got a (one-way) ticket to the Dreadnought and managed to kill the High Praetor. I neglected destroying the power cores, though. So my surviving squad - backs to the wall - basically had to resort to this in the face of a limitless Reaper horde:

Better dead than assimilated.

 

[Naraya]

I have just finished playing Summoner 2, for the first time.

I won't go into details. I'll just say that I have enjoyed this game immensely. Memorable characters, enjoyable combat, cool spells and the story just oozing atmosphere left and right, gripping to boot. Not everyday you play as a goddess and can party with a monk or a golem/android, among others.

Do yourself a favour and play this game, you won't regret it.

 

[Padzi]

I started playing Greedfall. 6 hours in at the moment. It's pretty decent so far. I really hope Spiders won't try to spoon feed me any SJW bullshit later on though.

 

[Abu Antar]

Suikoden 2
I've got 23/108 heroes so far. Got my fort, finally! I'm playing this and I'll play Suikoden 3. What prompted me to replay these two was the Kickstarter campaign of their spiritual successor, Eiyuden Chronicle. I doubt that it will live up to these games, but I backed it to show that I want these kinds of games.

Eye of the Beholder 3
I beat the first two in quick succession and imported my party to the third game. This feels like a step down from both previous games. So far, I have mostly been frustrated by the levels, puzzles AND monsters. I'm still going to play it through to the end.

Yakuza 5
I'm almost done with everything that has to do with Kazuma's arch. I only have one sub story left. My only beef is that I was level 20 way before I completed his arch. I also spent more time with shogi and Virtua Fighter 2 than I should have.

Wasteland 3
There's room for improvement, but I'm having a decent time with it. It doesn't excel at anything, but it's far from shit. The rangers are now in Colorado, making progress on the main story and some side content. I rolled a group with a sniper, shotty dude, machine gun gangsta and an AR killer machine. Let's see how this goes. Playing on the second highest difficulty, friendly fire turned off for this run.

Geneforge 3
I'm nearing the end. I've been running around with my death squad of creations. I'll go through the remaning games as a shaper, but I will wait a few months before doing so. I can't but feel that this game is a step down from the first two games. A fellow codexer warned me about this in our Steam chat. Apparently G4 is also not great, but G5 is a return to form.

STILL going through Underrail, Dragon Quest XI and Pathfinder: Kingmaker every now and then. Also, some portable games are being played sporadically.

 

[Villagkouras]

I'm very torn about Inmost, a puzzle/platformer that was released a few days ago.

You should know it's a storyfag's game. I won't spoil anything, as the story is ok and well presented. It definitely pulls some strings.

But the gameplay... The game is 2,5 hours long and it ends with a 25 minute cutscene. So, you get to "play" for about 2 hours. Well, not so much, because everything moves painfully slow, because the devs wanted to pass the 2-hour refund checkpoint on Steam, I don't find any other explanation. Everything is designed to waste your time. The players sees the MC pushing an item for two minutes straight just to solve a "puzzle" (this happens more than once and no one can name these "puzzles", it's monstly one item that you can interact with) or walking back and forth in the same room for minutes just to solve an equally easy puzzle. Some animations take very long for things like pushing a switch, or getting up. There are 3 playable characters and one is a knight who has a sword. The game is littered with "enemies" that provide no challenge, there is no penalty in dying, you just return right where you were and the enemy's health is depleted from your previous attempt, so there is no other use for so many enemies just to pad the game's length. As I see it, every element of the gameplay is so shallow because they are there to cover the true genre of the game: A walking sim. It's the second 2D walking sim which is ashamed to confess its true nature, the first one was GRIS (Inmost is better than GRIS imo, due to its story).

At 12€, it's too pricey for what it offers. I wouldn't recommend it before -50% or more.

 

[CryptRat]

Yes, I didn't play the game but I was disappointed when reading the reviews that it was in fact a short easy story game, I was really enthusiastic when their first gameplay trailer was a die-an-retry sequence very similar to those in Another World.

Currently playing Celeste, game is definitely an instant classic.

 

[DalekFlay]

Finally played and completed Prey (2017). What a great game. Flawed here and there, but still great. I wish stealth felt like more than just sniping enemies, and I would have liked some more people to interact with, but overall it's a great highlight in a sea of mediocre or "pretty good I guess."

Gonna play Control's second DLC next I think, then move on to a CRPG. I still don't think I can go back to Divinity: OS, so probably starting another... maybe PoE's "White March" even though I'm not super enthused about playing the rest of it again. Or maybe Wasteland 2 finally, since 3 is out and it's kinda crazy I never played 2.

 

[Catacombs]

Or maybe Wasteland 2 finally, since 3 is out and it's kinda crazy I never played 2.

I'm playing Wasteland 2 and having a good time.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i spent the last week or two looking for games similar to the concept of mount & blade: sandboxy, limited main quest, big squad/small army management, stuff like that. i found nothing i hadn't already played to death, wasn't bugged to death or still in the making.
last act of desperation: mount & blade itself.
i felt nothing. nothing at all. the love is long lost and gone.
my last sliver of hope is you suggesting me some obscure overhaul mod i haven't ever heard of.

 

[Abu Antar]

Maybe this:


Some mods: https://techraptor.net/gaming/guide...ods-to-check-out-while-waiting-for-bannerlord

Gekokujo is a personal favorite.

Another one is 108 Heroes:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/108-heroes

 

[ERYFKRAD]

i spent the last week or two looking for games similar to the concept of mount & blade: sandboxy, limited main quest, big squad/small army management, stuff like that. i found nothing i hadn't already played to death, wasn't bugged to death or still in the making.
last act of desperation: mount & blade itself.
i felt nothing. nothing at all. the love is long lost and gone.
my last sliver of hope is you suggesting me some obscure overhaul mod i haven't ever heard of.

Have you tried sea dogs: City of Abandoned ships?

 

[pakoito]

I'm yearning for something like Outer Wilds or Subnautica, at least the bits about exploration and unraveling the storyline. Any recommendations?

 

[cosmicray]

Factorio - playing MP on dedicated server. Really good, but we should have boosted the difficulty. Became too easy and uninteresting. Although, you get to know some aspects of the game better.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - I must say I'm having a blast. Game feels great, I like the art design, dialogues(especially in social boss-battles) and quests. You can stumble into surprisingly interesting quests by exploring city areas. Sure, like I said earlier I wish stealth aspect would be more realistic and general game difficulty should have been way harder on "Give Me Deus Ex" setting(the hardest on the first playthrough). Still, roaming the streets of Prague feels awesome.

 

[HansDampf]

Factorio... Normally I do pretty well in autism simulators like SpaceChem or Infinifactory (not exactly the same genre). Factorio, however, is not compatible with my brain, at all. I'm only playing the demo tutorial levels and am already overwhelmed. Literally wasting too much time building an ugly and inefficient excuse of a "factory" to craft one car.

Looks like a fun and complex game otherwise. Not sure if continue or ragequit.

 

[Catacombs]

Factorio... Normally I do pretty well in autism simulators like SpaceChem or Infinifactory (not exactly the same genre). Factorio, however, is not compatible with my brain, at all. I'm only playing the demo tutorial levels and am already overwhelmed. Literally wasting too much time building an ugly and inefficient excuse of a "factory" to craft one car.

Looks like a fun and complex game otherwise. Not sure if continue or ragequit.

Stick with it. Factorio is top-tier autism, and when you get past its overwhelming gameplay, you'll love it.

 

[Jvegi]

Tomb Raider Underworld
I'm enjoying the animations and the second level is actually pretty good. The combat is bad though.

 

[DalekFlay]

Tomb Raider Underworld
I'm enjoying the animations and the second level is actually pretty good. The combat is bad though.

I barely remember Undwerworld but the combat is super bad in Legend and Anniversary. Everything else about them is oddly compelling though.