What game are you wasting time on?

[Wunderbar]

MoHAA still kept some old-school gameplay elements:
- you were alone for at least half of the game - the first mission in Africa starts with your squad getting killed in an ambush, the second mission is about you infiltrating the kriegsmarine facility, etc.
- you could carry all available guns at once
- medkits were semi-rare, and there were instances where you could backtrack to restore some of your health
- some missions allowed free-form exploration with objectives you could tackle in different order (like "find and blow up N tanks", or "find and destroy N neberlwerfers")

CoD threw everything out of the window. Mandatory NPCs companions, weapon limit, abundant medkits after every major gunfight and later health regen, railroaded mission design, etc.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

Just finished Return of The Obra Dinn and it was good for what it was.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Two Worlds 2 HD

HD my ass... there is not a single visual improvement in the game. They removed DRM, that's it. That's the only good thing about it. Which doesn't matter if you have the game from GOG.
And if you want to play Worldmerge (which opens remaining world map) GOG version is the way to go thanks to optional downgrade.

I really tried to get into the game but damn controls are bad, like Alpha Protocol and Dark Souls PtDE kb+m level bad.
I guess they were experimenting with some combat options (sometimes it feels like fencing) but forgot to set it to default before the realease? TW1 combat would be servicable.
I always dropped shortly after tutorial.

They don't tell you that Space key is also attack button. What's the difference between LMB and Space? First one move characters forward with every attack, while Space let you swing lower while your character slowly move backwards.
Why it's so important, you ask? You see... there is no way to avoid attacks. No dodge, no rolling and blocking takes your HPs. There is Stamina bar but it's for sprint. Don't even try to run away, before your character flinch it will get slashed and whacked to death due to weird movement style. Feels like modern action popamole games but it was 2011 so what happened.
Oh and enemies don't attack you one by one, nice.
Also pressing Space while there is dead body nearby activate looting, fortunately you can turn it off, unless your inventory is full which activate it regardless.

There is no level scalling in the game, which sounds good until you encounter tougher enemies. It's hard to notice visual differences thanks to bloated bloom effects under different names. Enemy HP bar shows name and resistances but not level. If you want to know their levels you need to loot their weapons and see lvl requirements.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

blocking takes your HPs

Unless you train it up.
Some good music though.

 

[Baron Dupek]

blocking takes your HPs

Unless you train it up.
Some good music though.

It can reduce received damage for some points that can be spend elsewhere.
I may be justified if you get higher levels with full access to the worldmap (mods)... Still weird they take your HP and not stamina when it's there.

Forgot to mention - can't use much magic and archery if you don't specialise (which means putting every single points into them). Healing magic is useless for warrior, just pump HP regen skill and hide your weapon if you need healing.

And yes, both TW1 and TW2 music are nice.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

an't use much magic and archery if you don't specialise (which means putting every single points into them)

I see no problem.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

Actually Obra Dinn was FUCKING EXCELLENT for what it was and now I can't find anything more like that to play. It was like a mix between Master and Commander and the first season of The Terror without any of the gay shit, with a more investigative approach to the vision mechanic from Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason. If anyone has played a naval themed game recently that left an impression I'd like to hear about it because I need another fix. I think I will have another stab at getting Cryostasis to run decently on modern hardware because that game was pretty much the Ukrainian action oriented version of Obra Dinn and I need more.

 

[Gamezor]

After seeing Metal Gear Solid for PC on GOG, I got a massive urge to play through the entire series to experience this both zany and eerie, plot in full. But since I never owned (nor ever want to own one) any console, I've just set up Emulators to squeeze all the juice out of my laptop. No pad either, all on keyboard and mouse, since I don't care about that either.

MGS1 was good. Rather primitive of course but it pays well to play this one first, plus it's surprising how elaborate (in terms of directing such a "cinematic" experience) games could be on PS1. The bosses were definitely a highlight, and on the "normal" difficulty I got my ass handed to me a couple of times, but it's mostly due to shitty controls, inaccurate PS1 shooting with no first person mode either. The bosses are definitely the biggest highlight, especially Vulcan Raven (fuck Sniper Wolf with blocky PS1 aiming and that tremble, is Snake an alcoholic?) but I'm saddened I didn't get to experience all the shenanigans of Psycho Mantis with memory card reading and so on.

MGS2 - definitely the best plot out of all of those, what with all the Meta and Prescient things it envisioned, and all that hilarious mind screw after Big Shell (I need scissors! 61! ). I actually loved the protagonist switch, especially since you were chatting with Snake all throughout the game, making him actually interesting and even more badass. In MGS1 90% of his dialogue were those retarded questions about every word. It felt very unfinished though, with apparently half of Shell 2 missing and likewise half of the bosses cut out from the game. Still worth it, even if just for that fatass bomber on rollerskates with a cocktail in his hand alone.

MGS3 was PS2's Subsistence and I was thrilled they threw that Pacman stealth out of the window. Definitely the most complete, concise package and the best traditional MGS out of them all. Great everything, even more campy (in a good way) with all that James Bond influence and Pussy Galore EVA, ghosting possibilities and dat ending sequence. Also Cobra Unit, especially The End and The Sorrow, still blew me away after all those years. I actually killed and ate The End's parrot and seen it during The Sorrow sequence lmao. I only regret picking Normal, getting easier and easier with each installment apparently, since I beat all bosses with max 2 retries.

MGS4, so far I'm only on the 3rd level in Middle East so far but I can easily see it being the worst out of them all. Well, one of those has to be one.

I also reinstalled MGSV: The Phantom Pain after abandoning it some months ago, to finish Chapter 1 and I'm convinced that it's the finest damn gameplay I have ever seen. We're talking XCOM/Jagged Alliance 2 levels here, it's pretty much the ultimate commando simulator - it's just a shame there is no Hard/Big Boss difficulty to enforce your options better (all it would take is some sliders, tbh), AI adapting to your tactics is not enough. The amount of hilarious shit you can do and how coherent and smooth everything is, is out of this world. Maybe the weakest story. Or maybe the best one, depending how you look on it, I don't remember nor really care, it's the ultimate Metal Gear and a great ending to that Kojima/Konami adventure.

Still did not decide whether I'll go through Peace Walker (HD collection) or not, but since it runs on stable 60fps it may as well be worth it.

-----------------------

While I am at it, I've also set up Demon's Souls, still no pad but considering I've played the initial release of Dark Souls 1, that one where you had to move away the cursor from the screen to the right with controls for 3 hands, I'm managing it just fine. Went through Boletaria Palace (until Tower Knight, of course) dying only 5 times I guess, all on that fucking bridge.

Nice write up on the MGS games. I've been thinking of doing this myself but been too lazy. Your thoughts basically match my own. Like you, a few years ago I decided to play through all of these, and it was well worth it. I finish basically none of the games I start, and I finished 1, 2, 3, and 4. People read about longass cutscenes and write these games off as lame, but they are really worth playing. There's two big things that kept my coming back. First, they don't take themselves that seriously. Even in the long cutscenes there's a certain level of playfulness and creativity that keeps things light and interesting. For example, in MGS3 you can focus the camera on the bond girl's tits during cutscenes. Second, the gameplay is damn good, and there's a lot of varied bosses and set pieces. I fucked up by playing them on too easy a difficulty level--don't do that. MGS 3 is the best, among other reasons, because since it doesn't have to tie in with all the story beats of the other games and can just do its own thing. Boss fights, particularly final boss fight, are awesome. Bonus 3rd--you can tell Kojima really cares. The VA is always good, the graphics are always good, the way everything works and feels is always good. They are very polished games with well polished gameplay that has been thought out.

MGS 4 was not quite as good as the others, and the cut scenes definitely got to be a bit much in this one in particular, but it's still worth playing and finishing.

I bounced off Peace Walker. It's just not as good as the others IMHO and very much feels like a portable game, but a lot of people seem to love it. I haven't had the pleasure of MGSV yet, but this rave review definitely gets me interested. I just finished death stranding so I figured I should play a non-Kojima game before I head back to Kojima world.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

House Flipper. A decent time waster, but not much else. After a couple of hours, the monotony of the game loop kicks in and it gets a bit boring. Buy house, paint it and fix it up, sell it for profit. Rinse and repeat. It's fun to design rooms and figure out how to maximize living space, but it would be better if you could just build the whole houses from the ground up, or at least make additions like sun porches, decks, or lofts.

 

[sser]

So many games coming out in one grouping.

Empire of Sin: Dec 1st
Shiren the Wanderer: Dec 2nd
Shadow Empire: Dec 3rd

 

[markec]

Finished Liberation Day sequel to Fallen Haven.

The first game I played ages ago when it was released but only the demo, I liked it but forgot all about it. When it got released on GoG I immediately bought and replayed it as I was really itching for a decent turn based strategy. And I must say I enjoyed it despite being quite simplistic and easy game. It did have some things going for it, like being able to build up any province you capture and defend it against enemy attacks. So when I found that it had a sequel I got it too. Only recently did I try it out, hoping that the sequel added more depth to the decent first game.

To be honest, I was bit surprised to see that Fallen Haven had a sequel, since I thought I played or heard about pretty much every strategy released in the 90s but this one flew over my head. After playing it I must say that it manages to make some things better then the first game but it also has many problems.

First thing you will notice is that there is no alien campaign only human one. Since I prefer to lead humans in the quest of purging the xenos scum I did not mind that too much as long the gameplay is expanded. Unfortunately second thing you realize is that you can no longer take control of provinces and build bases in them, you can only build in your home province. Other provinces on the continent are one off missions after which you get resources and you need to finish them enough to unlock enemy capitol. After capturing it you get transported to another continent where you repeat the same thing. Its needless to say that this is the most disappointing part of the game as I enjoyed building and defending bases in the first game.

But it does have a upside, in the first game maps were designed for base building so there was not much of liberty in map design. In the sequel provinces were standalone missions which has everything from escort, annihilation, defense, assassinations, capture to sabotage. This gave far more liberty and creativity in designing maps and challenges. Unlike in the first game where you only build the few best units available, in the sequel you will need to mix your units all the way to the end of the game. As many missions are made to be played with focus on certain units.

Speaking of the units, in Fallen Haven you had pretty much linear unit progression. As you advance you get access to more units that are better then the old ones in pretty much everything. Choice of taking only the strongest units is made easier by having only limitation on units a unit cap. So if you can field 10 units you will buy 10 strongest units, quite simple. In the sequel there is no real cap but instead you get army points you can spend on units, with stronger units costing more points. Also unlike in the first game where the best unit is best in everything, in Liberation Day every unit even the late game ones have clear advantages and disadvantages. So you will still be forced to field different ranked units up to the end of the game. Some of the missions are very fun but also challenging and frustrating.

One place where game drops the ball is visuals, compare FH and LD main view and minimap.

Fallen Haven:

Liberation Day:

Now while the graphics in Liberation Day are more detailed, the first game has more crisp visuals that allows you to better identify units. There are countless moments in the second game where you will not notice both your own or enemy units due debris or environment or you will need to click on the unit to actually know what kind of unit it is. This is especially annoying when unit spends it action points since then it greys out making it even harder to notice it. But this is not too of a big deal, as you will learn to live with pixel hunting.

One of the most annoying things in the game, and one that will make you reload more then anything is map reinforcements.

There are two types of reinforcements, land and airborne. When reinforcing via land you place units on the the starting area and those units are unable to move until the next turn. Enemy on the other hand will get units placed everywhere, often behind your back. Now this would not be a problem but minimap is often unreliable and greyed out units are hard to notice, so every time after your turn starts you need to do pixel hunting enemy units on edges of the map.

The main problem is airborne reinforcements, at a very high cost you can drop a group of four units anywhere on the map that can immediately move and attack. This comes with a risks, they can be shot down by AA guns present on the landing area and dropping on a obstacle, like a building, water, tree or any unit will lead to their instant destruction. This can be countered by AA units so as long you buy few of them and keeping your army in groups covered by them this is not much of a problem.

Problem does come when enemy drops units on water, yes water, you see player cant drop units on water since non of its airborne units can land on water. Enemy on the the other hand has airborne hover units, and what does hover units do?

Since the player does not have any AA units that moves over water, enemy dropping airborne reinforcements in the middle of your fleet is a recipe for disaster. Now if the unit moves before attacking it can be caught in overwatch but just landing does not count as movement so overwatch is useless.

So majority of your loading save games will be due bullshit enemy reinforcements.

Now one would ask why not just play safe and slow and always keeping few units in overwatch, problem is that each mission has a very short time limit that makes that tactic pretty much impossible.

In the end the sequel is somewhat different game in its nature then the first one, by being more tactical, linear and focused experience. As I said the game does some thing better then the first one, more units, more variety in units, more interesting missions, far more challenging gameplay. But at the same time the game is also very frustrating, many of those frustrations could have been solved with just a bit of a effort in quality of life department.

I would recommend it not to the fans of the first game but to players who enjoy challenging turn based tactical games.

Also the game has some sweet music.

 

[Dayyālu]

Did you manage to legit finish Liberation Day?

Fallen Haven was a recent great discovery for me, it's an extremely comfy game with some great ideas (the interlocking of battlemap and strategic map lets you do some devious shit like, wave attacks and using strategic missiles) plus the primary/secondary weapon divide gave you flexibility.

Liberation Day has shittier graphics but if you legit managed to conquer the campaign without cheating my hat to ye. I broke when they threw out the Bio-worms, because the unending bullshit of having to deal with three enemy factions covering their weaknesses is a thing, having to deal with bullshit reinforcements that alpha strike your units and AA and you can't predict them and can only reload, insane turn limits, but when we got to units that can eat an entire battleline's worth of firepower and happily run to your AA units, eat 'em, and it's Air spam it was too much.

EDIT: Also the fucking research bullshit in Liberation Day with the captured labs. FFS.

How the fuck did you manage to endure the tedium of near-endless reloads? Almost every reinforcement wave needs to be known in advance. It's insanity compared to baseline FH.

 

[markec]

Did you manage to legit finish Liberation Day?

Fallen Haven was a recent great discovery for me, it's an extremely comfy game with some great ideas (the interlocking of battlemap and strategic map lets you do some devious shit like, wave attacks and using strategic missiles) plus the primary/secondary weapon divide gave you flexibility.

Liberation Day has shittier graphics but if you legit managed to conquer the campaign without cheating my hat to ye. I broke when they threw out the Bio-worms, because the unending bullshit of having to deal with three enemy factions covering their weaknesses is a thing, having to deal with bullshit reinforcements that alpha strike your units and AA and you can't predict them and can only reload, insane turn limits, but when we got to units that can eat an entire battleline's worth of firepower and happily run to your AA units, eat 'em, and it's Air spam it was too much.

EDIT: Also the fucking research bullshit in Liberation Day with the captured labs. FFS.

How the fuck did you manage to endure the tedium of near-endless reloads? Almost every reinforcement wave needs to be known in advance. It's insanity compared to baseline FH.

To be fair I did use some cheats, as more I played more frustrated I got with constant reloads, especially on large maps where you had to wait few minutes for enemy to make its turn, it just ate my spirit. So sometimes in late game I used restore action points cheat when few of my units missed every shot against a unit that I know will in next turn wreck my army and I would need to reload yet again. Thats only when I forgot to save at the start of the turn, this was the first game where I had to use every save slot available in game. I have no big regrets for using those cheats but I did finish last mission without any, so that eased up my conscience a bit.

Bio-worms were a pain but many units were also. Highly mobile units that avoid overwatch while targeting fragile units like artillery and AA. Long range AOE artillery that oneshots pretty much everything, that shitty long range aoe that disables units, or Mind Warriors that were a pain in the early game. So many hover units, they all float. So many bullshit units, on bullshit maps, with bullshit reinforcements.

Only good thing about research is that you dont need to upgrade all units to max so you dont need to capture every lab. But my number of reload times increased not because I couldnt finish a level but when I just had to get this one lab that gave lots of research points.

I just have to say that this is not a game for binge gaming.

 

[Gamezor]

I am still playing Thea. Gave Killzone Shadowforce a try on the PS4, which is the previous game from the studio that did HZD. I liked what I played, but I think I have too many games going and am going to hold off on that one. Also been trying some multiplayer online games on the Switch. Someone on the thread about regaining the love for gaming suggested the immediacy of multiplayer, and it doesn't get more immediate than online multiplayer on a handheld. I am digging Splatoon a lot so far for the unique gameplay and mechanics plus the nice, short matches. Paladins also seems like a fun Overwatch clone so far.

I have stalled in Swordflight Chapter 2. It's a really, really good NWN mod, and you should play it if you haven't. Really good roleplaying, exploration, and encounter design + it's actually difficult because you can't rest everywhere. I've stalled because I can't figure out how to advance one of the quests I want to advance, I'm sick of exploring the sewer to try to advance it, I'm sick of inventory management, and I wish I'd built my character differently, although he's fine. I stupidly locked myself out of all the prestige classes and the more interesting fighter skills on my fighter/cleric, but my guy is serviceable enough he can make it through the game. I have a tendency to do this in RPGs--basically I hit a wall over things like this and don't have the desire to continue. What I ought to do is forget about that one quest for now, forget about the sewers, and just advance the plot. Then I could always start a fresh character for Chapter 3, although that will be hard AF without all of my good gear.

Oh yeah, finished Death Stranding, which is awesome. Wrote more about it on the dedicated thread. I did not get through the ridiculously extended post credits stuff and just looked up the rest of it on the wiki.

 

[Dayyālu]

I just have to say that this is not a game for binge gaming.

I get it, but what irks me is that FH1 had many good points and instead of developing them they.... went back to more traditional systems and built a reload fest. After some islands the game isn't fun, you grind your teeth and go in because you want it to be over.

FH was a joy to play in comparison, even if it was very easy difficulty-wise.

 

[markec]

I just have to say that this is not a game for binge gaming.

I get it, but what irks me is that FH1 had many good points and instead of developing them they.... went back to more traditional systems and built a reload fest. After some islands the game isn't fun, you grind your teeth and go in because you want it to be over.

FH was a joy to play in comparison, even if it was very easy difficulty-wise.

I completely agree FH1 was a nice simple game and all I wanted from the sequel is more depth in both factions and province building aspect of the game. This game removes the uniqueness and the charm of the first one for painfully difficult grind.

I dont think there is any game that frustrated me as much as this one, and that comes from someone who spent many, many hours replaying missions in Shadow of the Horned Rat. SotHR might be a very difficult game but this one throws cheap shots at you at every turn.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I also reinstalled MGSV: The Phantom Pain after abandoning it some months ago, to finish Chapter 1 and I'm convinced that it's the finest damn gameplay I have ever seen. We're talking XCOM/Jagged Alliance 2 levels here, it's pretty much the ultimate commando simulator - it's just a shame there is no Hard/Big Boss difficulty to enforce your options better (all it would take is some sliders, tbh), AI adapting to your tactics is not enough. The amount of hilarious shit you can do and how coherent and smooth everything is, is out of this world. Maybe the weakest story. Or maybe the best one, depending how you look on it, I don't remember nor really care, it's the ultimate Metal Gear and a great ending to that Kojima/Konami adventure.

Still did not decide whether I'll go through Peace Walker (HD collection) or not, but since it runs on stable 60fps it may as well be worth it.

Get the Ultimate Phantom Pain mod to fine tune the gameplay (increased guard vision, camo values, etc.). It also has an experimental quicksave function.

Peace Walker is a lot of fun. It was the inspiration for all the management elements of PP, but does it much better.

 

[baud]

I remember playing a beta of MOH:AA just before official release and really liking it a lot but by the final couple of levels my interest started to wan and I ended up taking shortcuts and not exploring anymore just to finish it.

There was exploration in MoH? I just remember shooting things.

I think there's bonus objectives that you could find, I remember freeing additional prisoners in the first mission

Was there a bombed out church and cemetery in that level? It's been well over a decade since I played it so my memory is a little hazy. I also played the original CoD shortly after so I have a hard time remembering which game had certain levels.

I definitely remember storming the beach in Normandy in MoH.

No, the first level was in North Africa, at night.

Though it was generally a memorable game, the thing I most remember about MOH:AA was the hitscan sniper hiding in the bushes on a road surrounded on either side by woods I had to traverse to complete the level. Never even saw that son of a bitch, even after I killed him, who kept one-shotting me, I think. I never played any of the CoD games but I do have CoD 2 in my collection. Worth a play? Or is any other MoH game worth a play for that matter?

I'd say that CoD 2 is worth a play, it's my favorite CoD game (for what it's worth), compared to those set in modern days, you aren't as cluttered with accessories, alternate fire mods and all that and you get some pretty massive firefight. Though you have to be ready for only two weapons (which isn't much of an issue since there aren't a lot of viable weapons anyway) and regenerating health

 

[Starwars]

I'm sort of in between games at the moment, looking for something that will get me excited to play. So I'm kinda half-playing a few games but not *really* getting going with any of them.

-Started a replay of STASIS, just a short while in. I enjoy it but not really grabbing me at the moment.
-Old World early access. Pretty damn good actually but again... just not totally feeling it right now. It's one of those games that I've had installed since they first released it onearly access.
-Really got the hankering to replay Pathologic 2 but that also kinda just stopped dead in its tracks, even though I love the game.
-Also been casually playing some FEAR which is still a fantastic time. Lovely, lovely action in this game.

 

[cosmicray]

Puzzle Agent 2. What a nice game, just like original. Puzzles aren't that hard, but some were head-scratchers. I almost got 100%, but because they messed up the direction of moon orbit, I failed. Should have googled solution rather than moon's orbit.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

I'm sort of in between games at the moment, looking for something that will get me excited to play. So I'm kinda half-playing a few games but not *really* getting going with any of them.

Those games are great. It sounds like you should take a break from video games as a whole if none of those games can grab you. The slow-motion action shooting porn of FEAR, the art house Pathologic 2, adventure horror of STASIS... If none of that can hook you then what can?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I'm sort of in between games at the moment, looking for something that will get me excited to play. So I'm kinda half-playing a few games but not *really* getting going with any of them.

Those games are great. It sounds like you should take a break from video games as a whole if none of those games can grab you. The slow-motion action shooting porn of FEAR, the art house Pathologic 2, adventure horror of STASIS... If none of that can hook you then what can?

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[good fucking shit happen]

I'm sort of in between games at the moment, looking for something that will get me excited to play. So I'm kinda half-playing a few games but not *really* getting going with any of them.

Those games are great. It sounds like you should take a break from video games as a whole if none of those games can grab you. The slow-motion action shooting porn of FEAR, the art house Pathologic 2, adventure horror of STASIS... If none of that can hook you then what can?

Realms of Arkania HD

That along with Gorasul and Sabotain make up the holy RPG Codex trinity. Being a 2007 member he must have already played those though.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

Ignore the Polish homosexuals who claim that ELEX is a top tier game.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS LOLOLOL I GET A NEW PC FIRST THING I DO IS GET TWENTY YEAR D GAMES MAXED OUT

BATTLEFRONT 2 CLASSIC IS PRETTY WHEN DONE UP

QUAKE TOO RTX LOOKS GOOD

SO DOES BANNED DOOM 4 MODS

THEN I MAXED SETTINGS IN DARKPLACES QUAKE AND WHATEVER DUJENUKEM SOURCE PORT I USE

NOW IM FUCKING WITH MAME HLSL

NEXT UP MAYBE UNREAL