What game are you wasting time on?

[Wunderbar]

overall (and half)

no that's 7/10

 

[BruceVC]

I finished AC Odyssey yesterday, well the main quest known as " Odyssey", its a good game and a worthy successor to the successful AC franchise

Its the normal Ubisoft design with the standard repetition on numerous gaming mechanics, like how you clear forts, but their is so much to do you can avoid getting bored .....most of the time. But I have to also recognize its an impressively long game if you partake in side-quests like hunting and naval exploration, I spent about 120 hours on it and I still havent finished the " kill the Kosmos cult " other main quest

Finally Ubisoft I find always recreates the historical setting so accurately I basically feel Greek...in fact I am sure I could apply for Greek citizenship with all my additional knowledge of their ancient history So kudos to Ubisoft for creating such reasonable immersion and realism of Ancient Greece

It gets a solid 65\100 on the globally respected " BruceVC gaming rating system " and I will be playing Valhalla in the future but I can wait 2 years or so

 

[Hag]

Never played a Diablo game so why not start with the first one ?
I'm about to close the catacombs, so coming to the middle of the game I guess. There is something brutally honest with this game. It doesn't try to be more than this "go down and kill then go up to restock" loop. The village is a facade with its stereotypical NPCs. Nowhere to go but down. No lore or grand story. I'm in to kill the bad guy what is waiting for me in the bottom floor I suppose. Meanwhile I click on enemies and enjoy watching little numbers increase.
It's all so simple and efficient. Kind of mindless fun. You can smell the roguelike behind the seams. Shrines. Stairs. Magical loot to be identified. Good randomness.

Well actually, there's a catch. The levels layout is shit. Only good in being not broken, but no coherency, no charm, not fun to explore. Aimless wandering. Kind of pointless really, if not for the satisfaction of well-made game mechanisms.
Maybe that's where the real charm is. One thing done well. Still, not sure how much I am enjoying it. Really the kind of game I could leave mid-play and never come back to it. I think I'll finish my current Sorceror game, but at this pace maybe I'll skip Diablo II. We'll see, I still have some floors to clear to think about it.

 

[octavius]

One does not play Diablo for the level design.

 

[Gaznak]

What I always liked about the first Diablo it's cautious 'tactical' gameplay full of 'kiting' and slow and timid exploration pace (playing Mage especially). Diablo 2 ruined this while offering hectic slaughter rush. Not that was too bad, just very different.

Another game of the same Diablo 1 playstile is Harbinger (one of my favorite games of all time; its visual and audial charm is irresistable).

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Well after finishing with Stalker Anomaly mod I've moved onto the Dark Souls 3 Convergence mod.

I've mentioned before that DS3 is my least favorite of the Souls games so I'm less offended going through the work of modders gonna mod. This mod changes a ton and does it in a more polished way than Cinders mod in my opinion which I last finished about a year ago.

 

[Humbaba]

Recently """acquired""" Cossacks 2. So far I like it more than Cossacks 1 because it offers interesting new mechanics and isn't just a subpar AoE clone. It is a bit clunk, has a certain learning curve and the campaign is hella boring but I'm willing to explore the game more in skirmish and battle for europe mode.

 

[Dux]

For whatever reason I finally decided to play through most of the Half-Life series. Here's my concise verdict:

Black Mesa: a fun experience, mostly because it was based on a game that had solid ideas and level design but perhaps not the technology to fully support the vision.

Half-Life 2: not bad, I guess, but ultimately uninteresting and banal. It felt like going from one tech demo to the next and everything came across as artificial.

Half-Life 2 Episode One and Two: absolute fucking rubbish from beginning to end. What a complete waste of time. By the end I wanted the Combines to win, just to put everyone out of their misery once and for all. The ending of Episode Two was quite impressive, however, because it succeeded in capturing my feelings regarding the whole experience. Nothing matters. Gordon Freeman - the mute retard - just keeps running himself ragged in the hamster wheel that is this series. Just get off, Gordon, it's just not worth it. It really should have ended with the first Half-Life.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Yakuza is really ruining games for me. Now I feel let down if I can't have one on one (fist)fights with bosses in any and all unrelated genres.

 

[Chippy]

Just restarted DOW2 with this mod: https://www.moddb.com/mods/dawn-of-war-2-exterminatus and it's pretty awesome so far. Really opens the game up. Only thing I don't like is he replaced Davion Thule with Jonah Orion (the librarian). But apparently Thule is available in the expansion.

No instructions, but you have to dump all files into the DOW2 directory, and then launch through the batch file. There's one for Steam and the other one for DVD version. I didn't put that in the directory, as I've got Steam.

I'm also running the level 50 mod, but not sure it will work.

 

[mkultra]

Jedi Knight Dark Forces II.. with Remastered mod.

Spoiler

 

[Hag]

One does not play Diablo for the level design.

Actually, I've now finished the caves and arrived in Hell, and something dawned on me : the level design is good in its way. I was bored by the church levels, sprawling in dead-ending everywhere, but it makes for easier fights : if you need to retreat, you are almost sure to go to a previously cleared area. The catacombs introduced a few loops were you can get surrounded by goatmen if you rush carelessly. But with the caves the difficulty spikes and I believe the open areas where enemies can rush you from different sides can be a reason. Careful moving around : one step to much and you grab aggro for ten another balrogs. I found it more interesting to play, game wasn't being much challenging until then.

 

[Abu Antar]

I completed the first chapter of Betrayal of Krondor. I don't remember much from the game, a few things here and there. Overall, I am having a blast. I blame the upcoming Call of Saregnar for playing this. Haven't played the two sequels, so they will be completely new to me.

In worse news, I beat A.D. 2044. While the premise is hilarious (but somewhat plausible, considering women), the game has the honor of becoming one of the worst games that I have ever had the displeasure to play. Whoever created this should get their kneecaps beaten, and then shot. 3,5 hours of my life spent in miserable agony.

On the console front, I made some progress in Yakuza: Like A Dragon, but not so much main story progress. I've been trying to keep Ichiban awake while watching old movies, playing GO, and collecting trash in trash collecting races. Because that is what a homeless bum does.

I also have an hour played in Gotham: Arkham Knight. I don't love the batmobile, but I think that I will quickly get used to it. I have to say, the city looks impressive from up top buildings, and while gliding as the Bat. I am undecided on if I will play it all the way through. I'll give it an honest chance. I liked previous games in the series to varying degrees.

 

[Fenix]

Diablo II

Lost all the charm in comparison with first game, while gameplay is better mechanically.

 

[zapotec]

I'm having a second try with Elex.
It takes a certain amount of skill and dedication, for a company that has been making the same game for 20 years, to create a worst melee system at every iteration.

 

[Gaznak]

It's a pity but I can't continue to play Wizards & Warriors. Its combat system is just not for me, I think. Overall it's much better game than MM6-8 IMO but I miss the grid movement and turn-based battles of classic MMs and Wizardry.

Just to compare and reaffirm my impressions I also again tried MM6 (for N-th time). And it's always the same, I quit after a couple of hours. I sincerely can't grasp the reason they made it the strange hybrid like action-CRPG. These endless hordes of mobs are just annoying. The class system has been shallowed down, like everything else including skills, item system and even statuses. GUI is plain horrible, with this italic font monstrosity and 'photorealistic' mugs of PCs and NPCs. Navigating this 3D world with free movement gives no feeling of exploration (paradoxically). Honestly I just can't find here anything as charming and atmospheric as it was in MM3-5. MM7 is just a tiny bit better but I think I must accept that these later MMs are just not for me. They might be amazing games (perhaps) if they were a separate serie of games unrelated to previous MMs. As such they look like a factitious continuation of the serie brought to life because of success of HoMM setting.

 

[Bohrain]

Finally got around finishing Metroid Prime 2 on an emulator. I loaned it from a friend as a teenager, got pissed at the Spider Ball Guardian and returned it.

 

[flyingjohn]

Battle blues for the 3do.
Hardest srpg you are gonna play in your life,not for good reasons.
-Rng is rng without any capability to present any data.You attack and if it hits,it hits.
-Ammo is scarce and you have to use melee for finish opponents or you won't have any ammo left. Protip,the middle value of a weapons is the ammo.
-You have to pick up ammo/rations,but since there is different ammo's you have to micromanage who gets what while dodging enemies since if you kill them all the stage ends and you can't pick up stuff anymore.
-You can only save after chapters.The first chapter has three maps,mc dies,it is over.
-Enemies can counterattack and you got no real way to tell with certainty if they will

And that all is with the rebalance/translation patch,the original game is even harder thanks to even worse stats/money distribution.
Manage to somewhat cheese the second level because elevation is an all or nothing affair in this game.I just went around picking up shit and then finished them off.

Here is a longplay of somebody cheating and still complaining about how hard the game is:

 

[Hag]

Finished Diablo, first time, with the sorcerer.
Final boss was good old straightforward HP bag with a strong punch, maybe a bit too straightforward (you see me you take damage, deal with it) but since it killed me a few times I guess it does its job.
I have mixed feelings about the game. Church and catacombs levels were cake-walk, boring. Each stat point count but somehow it doesn't matter much since there is no challenge anyway. From the caves onward fun begins, I started dying and had to adapt. Change spells, move carefully. Suddenly objects with huge stat boost appear, you quite literally get crushed under money, but -as a sorcerer at least- what matters is simply to get good spells, enough mana potions and go kiting. Didn't even had to abuse mana shield until late. On one hand I appreciate I have been able to play at ease, drink from all shrines and pools without second thought and could do without optimization or stat autism, on the other I would have enjoyed a bit more difficulty.

The atmosphere is good, never been a huge fan of "grim darkness at night" but it is well done and late levels music is great. Tristam is boring and NPCs greetings is a PITA. I do appreciate the chasm to hell that opened behind Gilliam's home though. Voice acting was surprisingly correct, Farnham being one of the best drunkards I've met in any games.

Truth is : I admit wholeheartedly it is a good game, with its "brutal honesty" as I called it earlier. What it does it does well, game mechanisms are well crafted and do for a good enjoyable flow and satisfying action. But this is not my type of game. Doesn't click. Well, doesn't matter, had fun anyway, but I'm gonna stop there and skip Diablo II.

 

[Kabas]

Just started Planescape: Torment, the enchanced edition version. First time playing.
Not a fan of city hubs full of fetch quests but the world is cool and the writing quality is indeed good. Morte is an entertaining companion.
I enjoyed the quest you need to undergo in order to become a mage despite it forcing me to do 3 fetch quest in succession.

 

[Puukko]

Gladius, the 6th gen LucasArts gladiatorial SRPG. This was my first introduction to strategy and it still holds up, even if it isn't necessarily the most intricate or difficult. It has a real time element in the form of different button pressing mini games to allow you to either deal extra damage and have a 100% chance to hit, or completely fumble your combo on the first hit and essentially waste that turn. Preferable to abstract hit percentages. If I were to try and sell this game to someone, I'd emphasize the uniqueness of being able to build your own school of gladiators and recruit lots of different units. You can go with the usual legionnaires, bandits and centurions, or scorpions, ogres, minotaurs and undead summoners. If you want a school of mostly non-humans, you can do that.

The core balance essentially follows a rock-paper-scissors rule by the way of light/medium/heavy classes as well as support and beast units. The difficulty level is pretty good, though if you follow the intended path it'll be on the easier side. I certainly haven't felt the need to powergame like with say, Fire Emblem. You can always take on battles that are above your level since there are several leagues with different requirements and you only need to beat half at most to proceed. Doing each battle with the bare mimimum number of units would be one way to do a hard mode.

 

[octavius]

Next up on my play list is Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis.
My notes say "ArmA: Cold War Assault contains it", so I'm currently downloading that one from GOG.

Anything I should know before playing it that I can't learn from RTFM?

 

[samuraigaiden]

Don't max out the settings!

 

[Beggar]

Just finished Dusk. Scratches FPS itch rather well. Fun little game. No idea why I bought it though

 

[JDR13]

I'm having a second try with Elex.
It takes a certain amount of skill and dedication, for a company that has been making the same game for 20 years, to create a worst melee system at every iteration.

You've obviously never played Risen 2 or 3.