What game are you wasting time on?

[Malamert]

What are your thoughts on Fear 3?

 

[Perkel]

I finished the first one a few days ago, and it shits all over Half Life 2. The difference in enemy AI is night and day. I'm playing Extraction Point, and it is also very good. I didn't like Half Life 2 back then, either. Never seen a more overrated game. People were jizzing all over it.

I was talking about HL1. HL2 is complete garbage. Doesn't have good gunplay HL1 had, doesn't even have good story and it feels like indie physic puzzle game.

 

[madhouse]

Both games have some underwhelming guns. Playing it now, and comparing to shooters from that time like FEAR, it really does feel mediocre.

FEAR is overrated. HL1 aged really well compared to it. Especially Opposing Force which i liked even better than HL1.

FEAR is much better than both Half-Life games.

 

[Wunderbar]

FEAR has some neato AI, gunplay and effects, but that's about it.
It has dogshit variety, dogshit environments, memorable and exciting levels such as abandoned office building #3 or empty warehouse #7, and a poor story to boot (i know, who cares about story, but still).
All you do in this game is run around empty corridors and shoot the same enemies.

 

[Ezekiel]

FEAR has some neato AI, gunplay and effects, but that's about it.
It has dogshit variety, dogshit environments, memorable and exciting levels such as abandoned office building #3 or empty warehouse #7, and a poor story to boot (i know, who cares about story, but still).
All you do in this game is run around empty corridors and shoot the same enemies.

The slow motion trivializes the combat. Too much easy slow mo even on the highest difficulty.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Eschalon Book 1. It's a pretty neat game. The fact that the game allows you to play as an atheist that's immune to curses and magical healing is quite unique. It was pretty hard at the beginning playing as a warrior and missing nonstop, but now thanks to buffs and weapon enchantments it's pretty tubular hitting everything, even in the darkness. Kind of disappointed though that there are no consequences to killing guards and random people in towns. You can pretty much do all the quests in a place then kill most NPCs that aren't vendors and nobody will care one bit. Anyway, good game.

Eschalon dared to be different, and tried to do some neat things. Sadly that led to a skewed system where fighting in the darkness became OP.

Book 2 is better than Book 1, but Book 3 is almost garbage-tier. He really dropped the ball on that one.

 

[madhouse]

FEAR has some neato AI, gunplay and effects, but that's about it.
It has dogshit variety, dogshit environments, memorable and exciting levels such as abandoned office building #3 or empty warehouse #7, and a poor story to boot (i know, who cares about story, but still).
All you do in this game is run around empty corridors and shoot the same enemies.

Source has more soulfulness in it's environments for sure, but as a shooters Valve games are pretty mediocre. Half Life 1 blows compared to Quake and the much older Doom — any ID title really. I actually prefer Half Life 2 of the two becaue I really liked the coastal, and the late game stages with the combine prison and street fighting. I didn't care much for the early parts, especially that sewer section. Ravenholm is fun only once. I remember playing it through at least five times on the hardest difficulty before I realized that the only thing it does is make for bullet sponges, and it is much more fun to do on normal. Now, Counter-Strike and all the Source engine games derived from it... they don't make them like they used to. Fistful of Frags is my favourite derivative. Saddest thing is that I missed out on peak source engine games as I was a poorfaggot and didn't even have internet for most of the time between c.2007 - 2010.

 

[Ezekiel]

Replaying Ico. I played it just once eight years ago, so I've fortunately forgotten all the puzzles, which I found kind of rudimentary on my last playthrough. It holds my interest well for short bursts, maybe two to three areas at a time. I've been tempted to give The Last Guardian another try, but I found the AI there much more confusing and annoying.

 

[Villagkouras]

Both Ico and The Last Guardian, especially the latter, gave me severe nausea, probably due to the camera. Too bad, they seemed interesting.

 

[Ezekiel]

I like how Ico doesn't treat you like an idiot. Like, there is not a prompt that tells you how to swing on a chain. You just figure it out by playing with the controls.

 

[Shackleton]

Embracing the decline and playing Rage 2 on Gamepass. You know what, it's not actually that bad. I prefer it to Doom 2016 anyway. Everyone bitched about the open world being pointless and it sort of is, but it exists just to chain combat encounters together really. And those combat encounters are fun as fuck. Something about the way the enemies react to gunshots, the way they recoil and stagger is really satisfying. Along with the powers you unlock that blast goons away with the force of a nuclear bomb and the squelchy headshots, combat just has me grinning like a madman every outpost I clear. Can see this being one of the very few Gamepass games I actually finish.

Pro tip though- do the mad doc's mission as soon as you can, his unlock for finding chests and datapads is a must to stop aimless wandering around cleared areas.

 

[Ivan]

Hades - this and Doom: Eternal were my 2020 GOTY

A fun, breezy dungeon crawler that draws depth from its combat modifiers that are randomized with each run. Very rarely did I ever feel like I got screwed by the RNG and that was why I failed a run. The combat on the base difficulty is very forgiving, most enemies are quite slow and don't dole out much damage. There are plenty of modifiers to play with once you finish your first run which can spice things up for sure. What's most surprising to me is how the story and character work is handled. With each new run you experience new bits of story or background. I've yet to hear a single repeated line or anecdote throughout my playtime. The music is fantastic, particularly the bombastic boss fights. The art is gorgeous and the voicework is top class.

Just when I thought I was finished, the character work, weapons, and progression keep pulling me back in. It's genuinely astounding how much dialogue is tucked behind not only the boon system, but the gift giving as well. I can't believe I'm still unearthing new content after so many hours of playtime. Not only that, but the characters even react to the pact of punishments which is just fantastic. The amount of thought of put into every facet of this is just admirable. It genuinely surprised me that the sheer strength of the writing and character work was such to keep me returning. Such love is imparted to each character that I couldn't stop until I helped each individual one reconcile whatever conflict they were going through.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Playing Borderlands 3 right now.
Its...fine I guess.
The good news is that its not quite as annoying as the previous two games, the guns look nice, they brought back BL1 style gore it would seem, the loot system is a little better and they refined some of the mechanics.
The bad news is that the pacing is terrible (seriously, it takes like 10 hours to get a fourth weapon slot. Fucking why?), the movement is way too slow for my liking, and the characters are still pretty trash (see : Ava), but not quite in your face as in, say, Borderlands 2. With again, the exception of Ava who is just pure cancer. The "cringe twins" are also pretty bad and dumb too, but you get to kill them at least so its fine.
Also the download size is 80 gigs. That is silly.

 

[Abu Antar]

F.E.A.R. and both its DLCs are beaten. Extraction Point was the most fun to play. I'm going to take a break from other FPS games for some time. Cyberpunk 2077 is enough at the moment. Booted up Geneforge 5. GF 3 and 4 were not as good as 1 and 2, imo. Let's hope this one trumps those. I'm undecided what to play. Most likely, I will just go with a shaper with as many creations as possible.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS FUCK FUCKING GAMEPASS

ALMOST EVERY FUCKIBG GAME THE CONTROLS FOR GAMEPAD ARE FUCKED I SOME WAY OR ANOTHER

IM FUCKING USING A CONTROLLER CAUSE OF CARPAL TUNNEL SHIT

BROS PRAISE GABEN STEAM CONTROLLER SUPPORT NOW I LAUNCH GOG SHIT THROUGH STEAM

TO BAD GAMEPASS HIDES THERE FILES IN SOME SHIT DIRECTORY AND STEAM DOESNT HELP

 

[Malamert]

Eschalon Book 2. I'm not even truly playing the game. After getting the fast travel points for several settlements, I'm just sitting in the starting home and conjuring food nonstop. 12 hours into the game, 10 of which were spent just making food and selling it to vendors. I've no intention of stopping anytime soon. The gold must flow.

 

[Abu Antar]

Booted up my Xbox 360 for the first time in a few years. Scrolled through my library, and ended up playing Fable for an hour and a half.

It's charming and retarded at the same time.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Eschalon Book 2. I'm not even truly playing the game. After getting the fast travel points for several settlements, I'm just sitting in the starting home and conjuring food nonstop. 12 hours into the game, 10 of which were spent just making food and selling it to vendors. I've no intention of stopping anytime soon. The gold must flow.

I just realised the first game is free on Steam. Any good?

 

[Malamert]

I just realised the first game is free on Steam. Any good?

It's alright. The beginning can be a little slow, but after you level up a couple of times and realize how overpowered some spells and skills are, you can have a good time being nigh invisible in broad daylight and hit like a truck. You're also given a lot of freedom in these games. Go wherever you want to, kill whoever you want to and build your character however you want to.

 

[DalekFlay]

After Cyberpunk and before Hitman 3 I am playing some short games to pass the time...

Superliminal - A portal clone that is occasionally interesting, but there's too much walking sim in it. Half the rooms don't even have real puzzles. When it's good though, it's good, and the ending has some really cool use of visuals. It's worth a few bucks for fans of the genre, but nothing special.

Sam & Max Save the World Remastered - Everyone knows about the handful of cut lines, which I very much disagree with. That aside though, it's one of the better remasters I've played. The new graphics make the game look SO much more visually interesting than it was before, it really works better with the material and feels more like the original. Up to you whether the censorship is worth it. Game itself holds up relatively well, for what it is. It was never as good as the Lucasarts classic, but it's better than a lot of other modern point and clickers, and the Purcell wit is there. Well, 99% of it.

Kane & Lynch - Played the first half with the urban crime stuff, quit when I got to the jungle warfare which I remember despising. This is a pure style over substance game, pure popamole and clunky controls but playing an interactive Michael Mann movie is undeniably entertaining for big fans of those films like me. I forgot how co-op focused it is, which can cause some frustration in singleplayer, but nowhere near as bad as games like Left 4 Dead or Wolfenstein Youngblood. Playing on PC with mouse aim, you can just run and gun, you don't need to fuck with the shit cover system.

Kane & Lynch 2 - Halfway through this, should beat it tomorrow before Hitman 3. Pretty much the same as the first one, though it controls slightly better. You die quicker, so you have to actually use Gears of War cover, which sucks. Still has that Michael Mann look and mood a lot of the time, though in a more grungy b-movie way. The whole screen is slathered in video effects to make it look like it was shot on a camcorder, and if you turn that off the game looks weird without it. You get used to it though, it grows on you in a weird way. At least it has style, unlike the sea of brown realism most games had back then. These games are both shit, I'm not saying otherwise, but they stroke parts of my psyche and nostalgia I can't deny. They're also probably the only games that let you play such evil fucks, off the top of my head, unless you count meme bullshit like nuking the Brotherhood in Fallout 3.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Sam & Max Save the World Remastered - Everyone knows about the handful of cut lines, which I very much disagree with. That aside though, it's one of the better remasters I've played. The new graphics make the game look SO much more visually interesting than it was before, it really works better with the material and feels more like the original. Up to you whether the censorship is worth it. Game itself holds up relatively well, for what it is. It was never as good as the Lucasarts classic, but it's better than a lot of other modern point and clickers, and the Purcell wit is there. Well, 99% of it.

This is the problem with modern remasters. More often than not they are censored versions of the originals, due to rampant cancel culture. I hope this trend will stop sooner or later.

 

[samuraigaiden]

In 2021 I decided to do something really dumb and very autistic on my part. I made a HowLongToBeat.com account and put all the games I have access to via all the different digital PC gaming platforms in there. So now I know how long I would take to play through my entire backlog, which ones are the shorter and longer games, etc. The idea is that I'll play shorter games in between longer ones or when I feel burned out by what I'm playing and want to play something else for a bit. It's also a great way to feel bad about how many unplayed games I have and deter myself from future purchases.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - I'm done with this game. I played through the Fighter's Guild, Imperial Legion and Imperial Cult quest lines, the Main Quest, Tribunal and Bloodmoon. After I was done with all that I did all the Daedric Shrine quests, which make way more sense to do after you played the entire game and it's clear what the real balance of power among deities is in the world of Elder Scrolls. I also killed Vivec just for kicks. He was a tough cookie but ultimately it was unsatisfying. Plus, the game gave me the "you broke the prophecy" message despite having fulfilled it already. Actually, I'm going to check out what's inside the hut where the 100 year old Azura worshiper is supposed to be and then I'll be done.

Morrowind is fucking awesome btw, if anyone was wondering.

Metal Slug - Starting the trend of playing some shorter games, I played this thing. I think I got for free at some point years ago. Took me less than 1 hour to beat. I get that arcade games are supposed to be replayed. But Metal Slug kind of sucks. The game is just too easy. I can see it being a super fun game for co-op for this exact reason, but as a single player side scrolling shooter it pales in comparison to NES Contra, for example.

The Expendabros - This is a free game made by the Broforce devs as a marketing thing for the movie The Expendables 3, which I did not watch. The game is pretty much Metal Slug with terrain deformation - and much shittier pixel art. But it plays way better! 40 minutes or so to beat. Fun game, tough boss fight in the end, not gonna play this ever again. OK, I guess.

The next RPG I'm going to play is Lords of Xulima.

 

[Decado]

I picked up FF7 Remake for 50% off on PS4 store, going through that. They did a good job.

I've been spending too much time in front of the computer for work, so games like Underrail etc are on hold for a little while. I can't be sitting in front of this goddamn thing all day long. After writing/work/whatever, I have to get up, go work out, walk the dog, cook something. And if I have time left, I just want to sit on the couch. So, PS4 is the platform of choice, for the time being.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I've recently completed Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers. It has a good story for an MMO, gameplay is standard button bar stuff like WoW and SWTOR, but there is no compulsion to do anything except the story quests if that's what you want to do.

I've also completed Halo 4 and the Master Chief Collection as a whole. I think they are good for console shooters, and they're well presented and remastered on PC. Good mouse support, 60 FPS support, smooth gameplay, improved graphics etc.

I'm now back to Trails of Cold Steel IV and I have no idea why I stopped playing. The end of Chapter 1 was pretty damn good and reminded me why I like Trails so much in the first place - challenging, tactical turn-based combat with strong characters and a deep storyline with many twists and turns.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Finished Borderlands 3. The gameplay is actually pretty fun when you are allowed to play, which is a pity that Gearbox thought they were making a movie and make you sit through lengthy dialogue sequences that stop you from progressing until they are finished spouting exposition.
The pacing is just that bad, and the story they want you to sit through isn't even good. Even Borderlands fans thought the story is bad, and they liked Borderlands 2 for its story.