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What game are you wasting time on?

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
Next up on the budget Unity coop horror games list is Devour. It's about on the same tier as Phasmophobia in terms of polish and a bit behind in content (only one map so far, but it is large and they're working on another one with a different game mode) but it is cheaper. A friend gifted it to me and we went into it blind with 4 players and that was the right approach. You're part of a demon worship cult and you show up at your boss' house to find out what's gone wrong (hint: she's possessed, big time) and the objective is to herd goats to a ritual site and burn them to sever the link between her and the demon. Each goat you burn makes her a bit more aggressive and causes changes in the atmosphere for the darker. The only way to fend her off when she hunts for you is by using your magic flashlight's limited charge to stun her. There doesn't seem to be a limit to how many times you can get downed outside of how many medkits there are in the map for your buddies to revive you with. The sound design and graphics are good for the budget though the voice acting is iffy, they seem to have used amateur voice actors which is fine, but they also don't seem to be native English speakers, or doing weird accents. We got 7/10 goats before she picked us off one by one. There's definitely an optimal way to play by piling up the necessary resources before sacrifice so that you can get it done quickly. Going in the first time was a very unique experience with the fear of the unknown and figuring out what we were supposed to do; find hay, bring that hay to goats, pick them up while they're eating (initially thought we had to manually lure them), use gasoline the lit the pyre, etc.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
They are, in my opinion, currently the best RTwP tactical combat game.
7.62 high calibre takes the cake from your UFO games and beats them on the head with it.
I am hesitating to judge 7.62 because I did install it once or twice over the decades but never play long enough to have a proper opinion about it. Shouldnt be over 1 hour of playing if I make a guess.
 

pakoito

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Messages
3,086
I just got into Erannorth Reborn because it's a sandbox adventure deckbuilder thingy. I got hooked so I bought the expansions after playing ~4h today. It feels more ambitious than most games, while keeping complexity properly scoped to character builds and factions.

The downside is that it's windows only so I have to play over Parsec from my mac.
I've played a bunch more and it's miles ahead of any other deckbuilder. It has both "arcade" mode like any deckbuilder, and a sandbox/infinite mode. The event system was revamped with the last expansion and it's like a card-driven CRPG now. You can point-buy your stats and perks. Each class/race/faction combo has its own card mechanics, and there are tens of them. From the events you can recruit unique allies or collect special loot that changes your whole playstyle. So even within the same class you can make several viable builds that are unique.

For example, I have played a vampire necromancer focused on DoTs and draining health. Then I found a lair that gave me a thrall every turn and respecced into spamming disposable summons while leeching them for health. Next game I started with an Ifrit Paladin that was building its own company, where a healer kept alive several guards that'd defend and retaliate every turn while I sat back and casted light arrows. In the last one tonight I was a Fey Monk that could do, every turn, two flurries of 6 blows that would down any boss without high physical defense.

10/10 lads.


PDlTB2L.png


1bgJJfK.png

Edit: Also ask me how to edit the savefile to unlock all classes without grinding.
 
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Citizen

Guest
Finished main game of Trine 2 and liked it a lot, but it's insane how much better the goblin expansion is. Better puzzles, trickier placement of secrets, more varied environments... Big incline
 

ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
Patron
Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I just got into Erannorth Reborn because it's a sandbox adventure deckbuilder thingy. I got hooked so I bought the expansions after playing ~4h today. It feels more ambitious than most games, while keeping complexity properly scoped to character builds and factions.

The downside is that it's windows only so I have to play over Parsec from my mac.
I've played a bunch more and it's miles ahead of any other deckbuilder. It has both "arcade" mode like any deckbuilder, and a sandbox/infinite mode. The event system was revamped with the last expansion and it's like a card-driven CRPG now. You can point-buy your stats and perks. Each class/race/faction combo has its own card mechanics, and there are tens of them. From the events you can recruit unique allies or collect special loot that changes your whole playstyle. So even within the same class you can make several viable builds that are unique.

For example, I have played a vampire necromancer focused on DoTs and draining health. Then I found a lair that gave me a thrall every turn and respecced into spamming disposable summons while leeching them for health. Next game I started with an Ifrit Paladin that was building its own company, where a healer kept alive several guards that'd defend and retaliate every turn while I sat back and casted light arrows. In the last one tonight I was a Fey Monk that could do, every turn, two flurries of 6 blows that would down any boss without high physical defense.

10/10 lads.


PDlTB2L.png


1bgJJfK.png

Edit: Also ask me how to edit the savefile to unlock all classes without grinding.
Does it have a barbarian class
 

Ezekiel

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
5,373
Sly 2. I talked a little about it in the screenshot thread. Pretty nice. I didn't mention the sound design, though. It's weird. On the one hand, it's a PS2 game with full surround sound, Dolby Pro Logic II. You have to set Windows to stereo, the PS2 emulator to stereo, but the receiver to Dolby Surround, which splits the 2.0 track (called Surround in the game) between the front and surrounds. The sound effects pan to your sides as they are supposed to. Except for your own character. For some reason, maybe to show off, they decided to matrix your footsteps and jumps and things like that to the surrounds. I could see that maybe (but probably not) working in a first person view game, but in third person, going from your left to your right, it's just weird. Dialogue comes from the front, thankfully. I've played many games in which the dialogue is often inaudible under the music and sound effects. This isn't one of them.
 
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Self-Ejected

Harry Easter

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jul 27, 2016
Messages
819
Sly 2. I talked a little about it in the screenshot thread. Pretty nice. I didn't mention the sound design, though. It's weird. On the one hand, it's a PS2 game with full surround sound, Dolby Pro Logic II. You have to set Windows to stereo, the PS2 emulator to stereo, but the receiver to Dolby Surround, which splits the 2.0 track (called Surround in the game) between the front and surrounds. The sound effects pan to your sides as they are supposed to. Except for your own character. For some reason, maybe to show off, they decided to matrix your footsteps and jumps and things like that to the surrounds. I could see that maybe (but probably not) working in a first person view game, but in third person, going from your left to your right, it's just weird. Dialogue comes from the front, thankfully. I've played many games in which the dialogue is often inaudible under the music and sound effects. This isn't one of them.

How's the voice acting holding up? I only heard samples of his turtle buddy and it made my skin crawl.
 

Ezekiel

Arcane
Joined
May 3, 2017
Messages
5,373
Sly 2. I talked a little about it in the screenshot thread. Pretty nice. I didn't mention the sound design, though. It's weird. On the one hand, it's a PS2 game with full surround sound, Dolby Pro Logic II. You have to set Windows to stereo, the PS2 emulator to stereo, but the receiver to Dolby Surround, which splits the 2.0 track (called Surround in the game) between the front and surrounds. The sound effects pan to your sides as they are supposed to. Except for your own character. For some reason, maybe to show off, they decided to matrix your footsteps and jumps and things like that to the surrounds. I could see that maybe (but probably not) working in a first person view game, but in third person, going from your left to your right, it's just weird. Dialogue comes from the front, thankfully. I've played many games in which the dialogue is often inaudible under the music and sound effects. This isn't one of them.

How's the voice acting holding up? I only heard samples of his turtle buddy and it made my skin crawl.

The two other playable characters (the turtle and hippo) are both badly acted (but I don't really care). The rest of the cast is fine, though I haven't really paid too much attention to the talent.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
Having finished Rayman Legends, I decided to do a marathon of the series, so I started Rayman 1 today, the only part of the series that I haven't finished. I played it only briefly as a kid.

HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS BRUTAL
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,474
Location
California
Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon
:5/5:

Just wrapped up the main story in Yakuza (7):Like A Dragon. Wow. This has surpassed Yakuza 0 in my opinion. By and large this is due to Ichiban as being a much more emotive protagonist. Unlike Kiryu, Ichiban wears his heart on his sleeves and the performance (played with Japanese audio) is fantastic. The devs did a great job with the cutscenes too, when the drama comes to the end, every player's performance and VO is totally on point. Yakuza has always done a good job of escalating the stakes at the end, but I believe this is the best they've done on a technical level, not just thematic.

Combat: You will get through it a lost easier than in the traditional combat games. You can easily spam your screen clearing AOE attacks, then chug mana potions. The base game is easy, save for 2 difficulty spikes, but you won't get there until like 50 hours.

Side Content: As good as it's ever been, featuring comedic hijinks, and touching, loving mini stories.

Exploration: The devs did a neat job of encouraging you to roam around, there are audio cues that play whenever you pass by a POI, when activated it cues some party banter. This grows as your party does, thankfully you don't need to have party member A for them to contribute to the banter. Very nice addition, definitely want this carried forward.

Budget: I would like to see more of the budget put into the audio design and the animations. By hour 60, you start to notice the "threateningly holding" animation, or whenever you have a drink, it cues the same audio of ice moving in a glass. I'm happy with the graphical fidelity of the game (i.e. it doesn't bother me that it's mostly hit, some very big misses but I don't care).

Party: It's amazing how well the JRPG formula fits Yakuza, the devs know how to create characters you will give a damn about. Now not only will you like them, but they're in your team and you get to know them much deeper than in the previous games. Sure, it would be nice to have some more dialogue CHOICES, but what's there is great even though it adheres to the JRPG tropes of following a base script with little player input to change relationships.

Annoyances: having to go to location X to change your class gets tedious, the game re-uses locations for "dungeons" that are just there for grinding, not much else TBH

TLDR: I loved it. Ichiban is a great protagonist, your companions are an awesome bunch. Have to agree that this is the best genre change I've seen in gaming for an established franchise.

Thanks Vic, one of the best Xmas gifts I've ever enjoyed
 
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Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,474
Location
California
Having finished Rayman Legends, I decided to do a marathon of the series, so I started Rayman 1 today, the only part of the series that I haven't finished. I played it only briefly as a kid.

HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS BRUTAL
you playing the fan remake that came out last year?
 

Jvegi

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 16, 2012
Messages
5,065
Began another attempt at M&M game. The 7th this time.

This is the first time, after 20 years, I've managed to figure out whose turn it was in a fight. That light border is invisible if you don't know it's there.

I'm getting a grasp of the basics. I forsee great times.
 

Kem0sabe

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
13,076
Location
Azores Islands
This week I finished Ace combat 7 and ryse son of Rome. Ace combat was a lot of fun, but ryse was a big let down considering the production values involved, but this being gamepass, only thing lost was a few hours of my time.

Next on the list will be hellblade and the falconer.
 

zapotec

Liturgist
Joined
Feb 7, 2018
Messages
1,495
After the eye of the beholder series, i am doing a 2nd attempt at Ravenloft: Sthrad's Possession.
It's very hard for now, i guess i'll have to use the cluebook :?
 

Hag

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,657
Location
Breizh
Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Having finished Rayman Legends, I decided to do a marathon of the series, so I started Rayman 1 today, the only part of the series that I haven't finished. I played it only briefly as a kid.

HOLY SHIT THIS GAME IS BRUTAL
You may want to "cheat" and have a look at levels maps, just to have an idea of what is in stock and how many cages are in each level. This is how it was played back in the days, I still have the battered old magazine with all the levels and hints from 1996 or something.
The game is indeed brutal but somehow really enjoyable. Most sequences have a precise timing, once you know it you won't fail again.

Play the fan remake
Don't. It's not as tight and clever. Compared to the original it's more of a giant mess.
 

Hag

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,657
Location
Breizh
Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Tried Baba is You.
Actually, Baba is the first game I ever refund on Steam. The idea is really good but the execution is bland and boring. I felt like a monkey that has to push buttons in a certain order, never rewarding, always tiresome. A terrible waste of a great mechanism.
 

Hag

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Nov 25, 2020
Messages
1,657
Location
Breizh
Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
Very well, you have convinced me. I therefore reconsider my critical statement and hereafter declare Baba is You to be the greatest gift to mankind since salted butter.

That's a shame it is as fun as unclogging a sink drain though. And even less rewarding.
 

NerevarineKing

Learned
Joined
Jan 6, 2021
Messages
315
I'm currently playing Ys 9: Monstrum Nox. It's basically the same formula as Ys 8, but it takes place in one large city. They added a ton of 3D movement abilities that let you climb around all over the city and look for secrets. Ys 8 did have much more environmental variety though as most of the dungeons in 9 so far have been sewers and underground passages. Overall I'm having a good amount of fun with it and I haven't really been disappointed with the Ys series so far. (Then again, I also haven't played 5 which seems to get a lot of shit.)
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
Patron
Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
I've been progressing through Demons Age, despite the game doing its best to stop me. Saves are starting to get corrupted. I constantly have to battle with that. Deleting or overwriting saves, or creating new ones. It's actually more challenging than the game itself.
 

Ivan

Arcane
Joined
Jun 22, 2013
Messages
7,474
Location
California
More backlog: Pilgrims (Amanita Design)
:5/5:

A fantastic little point-n-click adventure that I had been holding off since I had heard that it was a "small" scale project, not one of their more full fledged titles. While it is quite short (I see most folks finishing it one run ~under an hour), it's also Amanita's most replayable title. You quickly gain access to a world map made up ten or so locations. You pick up items, figure out uses for them in other locations, recruit companions by solving some of these puzzles, then you experiment and learn that each companion can use items unique in certain locations. The replayability comes by way of solving puzzles using different items/or characters. Each of them results in a unique animation that is always charming/cute. For example, there's one where you need to get a bear to leave its cave so you can loot it. You can use booze (any character), or you can use a broom (character specific) to shoo it away. The games gives you clues if you want to figure out all of the solutions. You can't save scum, so you will have to replay the game to see them all. Thankfully the game is short enough that once you're done with it, you can beat it that much faster, and even find shortcuts/sequence breaks along the way.

TLDR: a thoughtful mini-point-n-click adventure with the trademark Amanita charm and smarts. It's such a tight package, I can't find much to complain about. Completely forgot to mention that the sound is also very strong. Cutesy voice effects and more of the excellent Amanita. Floex ambient music.
 

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