What game are you wasting time on?

[PulsatingBrain]

Nearing the end of Pathfinder Kingmaker. Trying to bone Valerie is no fucking walk in the park. I've liked a lot of it, but if there was another 50 hours ahead I'd probably not finish the game. Lots of frustrating and confusing elements, like why do the councilors have descriptions about how they handle themselves, when their actual performance in events is based on a non-changing stat anyway? Ekun is a fairly level headed Warden, and Regongar is a total hot-head and pretty aggressive. Their success in the role is dependant on CON for both.


Also why do I need to be present for them to rank up? I have to just throw away 2 weeks for them to improve in their role? Seems a little weird considering they're the specialist, but it's more of a nitpick I guess.

I hope Wrath of the righteous does better with the kingdom element.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Neo Scavenger - Sometimes I go long times without playing anything, then I get a strong urge to play a specific sort of game. I wanted something akin to Fallout, but with real survival mechanics. I had Neo Scavenger on GOG, so this time I tried it. What an amazing game! It really gave me that sense of adventure that's so difficult to get right. Exploration, danger, scarcity, choices, obsessive inventory management -- it pushes all the right buttons for me. The atmosphere is great with silence occasionally interrupted by brooding ambient music (Kenshi does this very well, too). Minimalist graphics with a browser game interface works in its favor. Some of the 2D art, particularly Detroit, is really tasteful.

The CYOA aspects are a bit hit and miss. If I'm on a long campaign with +5 hours, I'm going to reload until I get the result I want. My time isn't infinite, sorry. I think CYOA only works when the text adventure elements are developed to the point where less optimal outcomes can be made just as interesting. AoD does this more convincingly, although there the temptation to powergame and metagame is too strong. There are no stats and, therefore, no stat progression in NeoScav, so I think it could potentially offer a more adequate environment for CYOA mechanics.

You know NeoScav is a special game because it makes you want to play with non-standard, anti-cookie-cutter backgrounds. I keep thinking "Wouldn't it be cool if I played as an alcoholic doctor? What about a scrawny hacker or an insomniac brute?" That's good role-playing, in my book.

Terraria - One of my comfort games I return to, occasionally, although each time I play it less. It's such an immense game with so many great features, yet so shallow in its basic premise. You can be immensely creative, yet that's barely reflected in gameplay outcomes. A mud house offers the same value as a diamond house; monsters spawn and despawn just outside your screen, or randomly during invasions, so it's pointless to fortify your base; you're forced to fight the same bosses over and over again in the same sequence in order to "progress".

I think the shallowness is probably due to the fans, who go to forums and demand more "content" in the form of an endless stream of decorative elements (similar reason to why the Sims series never evolved). I remember it was whiny fans who demanded the removal of the clown, the one monster who could actually destroy your tiles.

Fallout New Vegas - I want to get back into it, but I'm trying to assemble the right combination of mods, as I wrote here (looking for suggestions).

 

[baud]

started wildermyth, kinda like a SRPG. It's fun and not too complicated, but still in early access, I'll see how that change

 

[Abu Antar]

Took my PS4 to friends house and we played Horizon Chase Turbo in 4 player split screen, what an awesome game. Any other recommendations for 4 player local multiplayer on a console?

Rocket League is pretty fun if you have a group of four.

Team Sonic Racing is a really fun racing game.

Broforce was fun, but there are sections where the FPS tanks completely. I still don't know how me and my brother managed to beat the final boss. It was basically a slide-show. Castle Crashers is an absolute must.

Alienation is a fun twin-stick shooter. Assault Android Cactus is in the same genre and also pretty fun.

I use below site to find couch co-op games that I might not have heard of:
https://www.co-optimus.com/games.php
Choose PS4, couch co-op, but not split screen. Last, choose "at least 4 players".

 

[JDR13]

I hope Wrath of the righteous does better with the kingdom element.

Thankfully, WotR doesn't have that.

 

[Krivol]

KCD with all DLCs and Imperator Rome.

KCD is great game, probably best open world aRPG ever made. It has nice, small scale, great exploration and very solid writing and voice acting. It has too many cut scenes, but characters are likeable so it's fun to watch them (for first two times). DLCs are not worth a money, but I bought them from 3rd party (Kinguin IIRC) for bag of chips, and it's better to have them than not (additional quests mostly, and a dog, and your own village to manage).

Imperator Rome - it's better than I remembered (I played it on GamePass). Typical map-colouring game with few flaws and plenty of fun in it (especially if you play as a Rome). I got it for free from Zann and like it a lot (mind you it's not as good as CK2 nor Vic2! but if you have to scratch your Rome issue, it's great game to play).

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I'm 2 hours into the house at the end of time in Pathfinder Kingmaker.

This might be the worst way to wrap up a game ever.

What the fuck were they thinking?

 

[Lyre Mors]

This might be the worst way to wrap up a game ever.

Wrap up...hahaha...yeah...wrap up.

Good luck out there.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Wrap up...hahaha...yeah...wrap up.

Good luck out there.

Whatever it is, I can say for certain that it's tedious, uninteresting, unfun and just about any other bad video game descriptor.

I had to save and just leave it alone for a while because I'm so pissed. What a terrible area to lead into facing the big bad.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Currently replaying Prey on gamepass, this time around im using the typhon powers instead of a pure tech run. This game really was a marvel of environmental design, but it could have done with a little bit more story and tighter shooting mechanics.

 

[baud]

started wildermyth, kinda like a SRPG. It's fun and not too complicated, but still in early access, I'll see how that change

okay, so I played again and maybe I'll write what I enjoy:

The magic system works by linking the mage to objects in the environment, which allow the mage to cast a spell from the object (so the spell range is measured from the object, which isn't clear at glance and burned me a few times at the start); it also means that the map will play a big part on how useful mages will be, as on a barren map, they'd be useless
Throughout the game, usually before/after the combat phase, there are dialogues sequence that either give bonus for the combat, some loot, stat upgrades or give a hero a transformation, like replacing limbs with rock or wood equivalent or adding animal features (I've seen raven wings). For the transformations, after each chapter, you can allow the transformation to progress or not, giving you stats changes and maybe new skills. I haven't done it, but I guess the transformation can go all the way until the character is transformed into a man-shaped animal.
All the characters are randomly generated and have some personality traits (like poetic, greedy, coward), which will change some of their lines in the dialog sequences and add some hooks for secondary quests
Characters can have relationship between them (romance, rivalry, friendship), which give stat bonus when they're fighting together, but I haven't seen much impact. If enough time pass between the chapters, children of a couple can join you.
Campaigns are divided in chapters and each chapter can be decades apart, with the characters growing old and gaining white hair and wrinkles, until they have to leave the party. Since characters have a limited duration in the party (and can die anyway in combat), there's an incentive to recruit new characters, but I'm finding that they don't grow fast enough compared to older characters, so they'll constantly lag behind
Also there's no inventory management: any item given to a character will belong in perpetuum to them, so it's way harder to bring new characters up to the level of veterans

The game has still some UI issues (shit that's not visible, the rogues can turn invisible, but the skill bar doesn't tell which ones will break stealth)
I'm not totally a big fan of the overland map, but the dev have worked on it since releasing the version I played, so maybe there's hope.

TL;DR: storyfag game full of randomness focused on the randomly generated characters

 

[deuxhero]

Morrowind (via OpenMW) with Tamriel Rebuilt (and its less finished friends for Skyrim and Cyrodil), some Telvanni expanders, a GCD variant, and Julan (plus some other smaller ones). Tamriel Rebuilt's quests are all very nice, even if they aren't world shattering, combining Vanilla's attitudes (where random quests aren't grand battles, but simple stories that add detail to the world) with some much better overall design (multiple paths, use of underused game mechanics, and even some skill checks), while pairing it with rewards actually worth bothering with. Recently hit Archmagister of House Telvanni. Tamriel Rebuilt Rise of House Telvanni descends into cartoon supervillainy at points, even with the 2.0 reducing that, but that's kinda in its own way. Haven't gotten to most Building up Uvirith's grave+Urvirith's Legacy stuff yet.

Julan, however, is the real treat. Haven't used him in ages, but right away I'm reminded why it's such a great mod and that I should have grabbed him earlier (my memory was that his content was more tied to the main quest I've yet to touch. His quest is tied to it, but hes got a lot of commentary beyond it). Comments on loads of quests and random areas, and his prospective, that of an Ashlander (A wonderful blend of Amish, native Americans living beyond the civilization that's quickly expanding and threatening their way of life,) who has only recently wandered into civilization, is great and the kind of thing I wish more games had companions do. Julan isn't an infodump factory, and he's actually completely clueless about all but the most surface level parts of Vardenfell, let alone Tamriel, and shows a completely outsider prospective of genuine bewilderment and amazement to Morrowind's setting of a theocratic state dedicated to a trio of increasingly absent living gods populated by apathetic superwizards who live in mutant mushroom houses, foreign conquerors the living gods just kinda surrendered to despite winning, petty otherworldly superbeings who prank and torment mortals for lulz, and giant insects controlled by parasitic mindspores for use as public transit. He also points out the bizarre things that are easy to miss.

Any good quest mod recommendations are welcome.

 

[Slimu]

I have completed The Dungeon Of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet Of Chaos and it was pretty good. Larian should play it to see how to implement status resistances without using their shitty Physical/Magical Armor system. I finished the game on Epic difficulty and after the 4th chapter I didn't had to reload any fights. Some people complain about the RNG, but I think it was pretty fair. The only thing which bothered me was the bloom effect when going in the outside areas and the fact that the GPU seemed to work harder than it should (didn't had any performance issues).

I have completed Creaks and I liked it. It's more of a puzzle than an adventure game but it's made with love. The puzzle aren't very hard, but I think the best thing is the graphics and sounds. The developers are masters at their craft.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is probably the best platformer/metroidvania that I have played. It's obvious that the devs improved what made the first game good and made it great. I don't usually like platformers, but this game makes controlling the character very easy and responsive. The audio and graphics are as expected, great.

I have started playing Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. I read all the info I could found online about how not to break the scripts and I pray I'll manage to complete it.

I also play some Factorio from time to time, good game!

 

[octavius]

Julan,

Is he the one MW companion that don't insist on always getting between you and your current enemy? That thing drove me crazy when playing MW.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Finished Pathfinder Kingmaker and it actually clawed me back to liking it after that House at the end of time shitshow. I'd give it a 7/10 overall.

Played around 3 hours of RAGE 2. The setup is basically the Mad Max game, except it's just a straight FPS rather than Arkham combat. Shooting feels pretty good, fights are fun. The driving feels sluggish and dull in the standard vehicle, but there are upgrades and alternate vehicles, so I hope I find something a little more responsive.

One thing that really stood out as cool: The shotgun hip-fires normal buckshot, but if you aim down iron sights it fires a slug with a lot of knockback power. Has a neat little animation for the switch too.

 

[Cael]

Julan,

Is he the one MW companion that don't insist on always getting between you and your current enemy? That thing drove me crazy when playing MW.

When you said MW, I immediately thought of MechWarrior, which has the same problem of idiot NPCs...

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm 2 hours into the house at the end of time in Pathfinder Kingmaker.

This might be the worst way to wrap up a game ever.

What the fuck were they thinking?

When I got there I realized that most people praising kangmaker on the codex never actually played the game all the way through.

 

[Cael]

I'm 2 hours into the house at the end of time in Pathfinder Kingmaker.

This might be the worst way to wrap up a game ever.

What the fuck were they thinking?

When I got there I realized that most people praising kangmaker on the codex never actually played the game all the way through.

Dude, they are praising it before the game was even released, and then they doubled down on it hard because otherwise, they think they'd sound like morons, when the opposite is true.

 

[Dayyālu]

So, I'm old and tired and shooters are relaxing. I dimly remember that back in 2019 some Poles throw out a tie-in game for another of those dumb Terminator Sequels, that I stopped bothering to watch because, ehrm, Terminator Sequels.

Then I discover that apparently all Professional Reviewers(TM) hated it and it sits at OVERWHELMINGLY POSITIVE on Steam, because the Peons apparently loved it.

So, Terminator Resistance (2019, Teyon). Have you ever wanted to play a game set in the roughly four minutes Future War you see in Terminator 1? Well, the Poles got your back. I'll be blunt, from the gameplay and visual standpoint, Resistance is mediocre. The gameplay is some sort of hybrid mutant of all the Far Cry games you have seen, without the resources. There's some attempts at free roaming in somewhat-big maps but the budget simply isn't there, the engine and the texture work is dated. Enemy and weapons variety is meh, and the enemy AI is beyond retarded.

It's, however, a triumph of the athmospherefag.

Imagine you got the guys building another athmospherefag game, Alien: Isolation. But Resistance has none of the budget but it's also far faaar shorter, meaning it does not overstays its welcome and the balance of new crap that it throws at you keeps up. But they're roughly... similar, both works of love.

But you play the game essentially.... for the ambience. It's a somber postapoc occasionally lightened by the sparks of plasma fire and chrome enemies, plays of light and bone on destroyed machinery. Yes, the stealth mission in the hospital may be on rails, but you'll be sweating bullets as the T-800s break down doors while hunting you down. The soundtrack is excellent despite being on the small-ish side (and the dynamic system working like dogshit). The plot and the characters are essentially functional, and tell a tale (with time-travel) that make more sense than the last three Terminator movies. That I didn't even watch, tbh.

The devs even kept up throwing updates an' shit far longer than needed (and far longer than Cameron cared about his 2019 travesty sequel/reboot) and you even got a DLC in which you play as Franco Columbu in his small role as a Terminator, because, you know, they care.

Such a rare thing, even in gamedev. Also, sex scenes, because Poland, I guess?

 

[HoboForEternity]

played ara fell: enhanced edition. this surprised me so far. i was just installing random shit on my backlog to kill time while waiting for cold steel 4. the combat is simple yet fun, character progression is meaningful. you can distribute points when you level up and get skills in certain level like typical JRPG stuff. there are only 5 attributes and it's pretty much linear. the heavy armor guy use str and defense most, the mc which is an archer use STR and SPD and so on.

now what surprise is most is the exploration. the world is open as soon as epilogue ended you can absolutely get destroyed if you don't heed warning sign. the item and skill progression are also tied to exploration as you don't get equipment but crafting materials. the item progression are purely based on crafting so far but it's still pretty good but linear. skills get upgraded by finding artefacts with limited amount in the world, this is where the characters branch out from player to player. dunno if you get more later, but so far they are very rare.

story and writing is decent as far as RPG maker go. the plot hook comes early but the plot itself start slow and focusing on worldbuilding. the characters are trope-ish but still fun to be around the main character is basically discount estelle from trails. bubbly tomboy girl but she isn't over the top either.

 

[Ezekiel]

Crazy Taxi is pissing me off. The Steam version ALWAYS crashes by two hours and fifteen minutes or at slightly over two hours. Never before. Almost like the game is trying to tell me not to play with the time set to maximum/easy, like all the world record holders do. It just happened again.

Spoiler

No responses on Steam about it. Might just have to move on to something else.

Edit: It occurred to me after typing this out that it might be the Nvidia recording that is somehow interfering, since the duration is always fairly close. I'm gonna try it one more time, maybe tomorrow, and pause to start a new recording after an hour. If it happens again, then I'm done with the game. Probably.

Edit: Nope, recording it as two parts didn't help. It's not ShadowPlay. Just happened again at around 130,000 dollars, as usual. Screw it. I'll just watch some cartoons.

 

[gurugeorge]

I noticed the Dungeon Siege games on offer on Steam for mere pennies so having fond memories of the game, I snapped them up.

Dungeon Siege is as stupidly addictive as I remember it being when I played it many moons ago. It's got all the moreish, kinetic feel of an ARPG, but you've got a full party and a charming little schlub-to-hero story. What's not to like?

I remember II being prettier but not quite as good (fussier gameplay). I didn't even realize there was a III.

 

[Krivol]

I noticed the Dungeon Siege games on offer on Steam for mere pennies so having fond memories of the game, I snapped them up.

Dungeon Siege is as stupidly addictive as I remember it being when I played it many moons ago. It's got all the moreish, kinetic feel of an ARPG, but you've got a full party and a charming little schlub-to-hero story. What's not to like?

I remember II being prettier but not quite as good (fussier gameplay). I didn't even realize there was a III.

Man, DS1 is playing itself. player is not needed there :/ .

 

[gurugeorge]

I noticed the Dungeon Siege games on offer on Steam for mere pennies so having fond memories of the game, I snapped them up.

Dungeon Siege is as stupidly addictive as I remember it being when I played it many moons ago. It's got all the moreish, kinetic feel of an ARPG, but you've got a full party and a charming little schlub-to-hero story. What's not to like?

I remember II being prettier but not quite as good (fussier gameplay). I didn't even realize there was a III.

Man, DS1 is playing itself. player is not needed there :/ .

That's kind of its charm though, it's what makes your little party have personality, even though the RPG side of the game is vanishingly tiny, and control over the AI parameters is only very minimal (3 conditionals).

There are two types of people in this world: people who refuse to consider anything a "game" unless they can micro-manage ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME, and people who are are amused by AI antics and/or love fiddling with character AI parameters ("winding them up and watching them go" so to speak), and who still consider that "gaming."

I'm definitely in the latter camp. I played almost the entirety of DA:O with personalized party AI, and it did fine even on the difficulty above normal (except in a few big fights that had to be micro-managed).

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I noticed the Dungeon Siege games on offer on Steam for mere pennies so having fond memories of the game, I snapped them up.

Dungeon Siege is as stupidly addictive as I remember it being when I played it many moons ago. It's got all the moreish, kinetic feel of an ARPG, but you've got a full party and a charming little schlub-to-hero story. What's not to like?

I remember II being prettier but not quite as good (fussier gameplay). I didn't even realize there was a III.

Man, DS1 is playing itself. player is not needed there :/ .

That's kind of its charm though, it's what makes your little party have personality, even though the RPG side of the game is vanishingly tiny, and control over the AI parameters is only very minimal (3 conditionals).

There are two types of people in this world: people who refuse to consider anything a "game" unless they can micro-manage ALL THE THINGS ALL THE TIME, and people who are are amused by AI antics and/or love fiddling with character AI parameters ("winding them up and watching them go" so to speak), and who still consider that "gaming."

I'm definitely in the latter camp. I played almost the entirety of DA:O with personalized party AI, and it did fine even on the difficulty above normal (except in a few big fights that had to be micro-managed).

I really like playing games with competent AI friendlies. It's not the same as playing a cooperative multiplayer game because they exist solely to adventure with you.