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What game are you wasting time on?
- Thread starter Trash
- Start date
CyberModuled
Arbiter
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2019
- Messages
- 443
Binging RE4 with the recent HD Project that came out. Small team killed it with the new assets and especially once at Chapters 3/4 with the castle environment, it looks great without anything feeling out of place.
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,545
Out of curiosity I decided to revisit Alien: Isolation, a game I hadn't touched since 2016, and only then to try out the 'Unpredictable Alien'-mod which was new at the time.
I figured that six years is more than enough time for people to learn the finer nuiances of the game, and be able to come up with a decent mod.
Sadly I seem to have been mistaken.
For starters, every single mod for the game is just mucking about with variables in the .ini files to produce some "better" result. Better audio, better graphics, removal of lens flares - it's all done by editing the config-files. And the same applies to the Alien's AI, except it only takes a single false step to ruin it all.
This is what I experienced with 'Bay's Alien Isolation Overhaul Mod', a recent mod that tried to outdo the Unpredictable Alien by "updating the Alien's behavior that I have perfected" along with some other changes to make the game "more realistic and horror-based."
The Unpredictable Alien-mod is quintessential to Alien: Isolation actually being somewhat enjoyable because it gives the Alien a little freedom to run around, rather than be leashed to Ripley all the time. One would expect that a mod designed to surpass that would build upon it and do better.
Nope. Not this one.
I did the Medical-section of Alien: Isolation so often that I still remember the steps. Once the Alien first drops down there, I calmly walk over to the nearest locker and hide in it, because the Alien doesn't begin "seeing" anything until it completes its dramatic entrance animation. As a result, from the Alien's perspective, it always drops down into an empty area, and quickly scurries off to hide in the vents.
This happens as normal here.
In the vanilla game this left the Alien stomping about annoyingly close afterwards, meaning careful timing was needed to get over to the door requiring the 1702-passcode, and thereby opening up a larger section of the level, but even then the Alien was always too close for comfort during the level.
Unpredictable Alien allowed the Alien to explore the rest of the place, meaning it could be skulking about over in the psych ward/Dr. Morley's office while I was long past those sections.
Bay's mod, however, made it so that whenever the Alien dropped down after its grand entrance, it would head straight for my position and eventually kill me.
Take 1: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the locked door. I just manage to open the door as I hear the Alien coming down, and head for the nearest hiding place, behind some scenery. Alien ignores the scenery, runs around it and attacks me.
Take 2: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the locked door. I stand in front of it doing nothing for 15 seconds to test a theory, and the Alien does nothing the entire time. As I trigger the code input-sequence, the Alien drops down somewhere nearby, so I calmly walk over to the nearest locker and hide in it. Alien walks right over to the locker and sniffs it, and I get found and murdered.
Take 3: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the other locked door requiring the 1702-passcode, and the Alien drops down just as I finish entering the code. This leads into an office where I have some options in hiding places; a couple of lockers, a desk I should be able to crawl under, and a large crate on the right which I can hide behind. I try the locker right in front of me. Alien enters the office, heads straight for the locker and sniffs it. I'm found and murdered.
Take 4: Same as above, except this time I duck into the locker in the side-room. Moments later the Alien arrives and sniffs the locker, but for the first time I pass the QTE and the Alien loses interest. It stomps around for a bit, then leaves the room. I wait until I hear it clamber up into the vents before exiting. I return to the first room to search/loot, only to be greeted by the Alien re-entering the office, without having made a vent-dropping noise. I quickly hide behind the aforementioned crate, facing towards the Alien as it stands in the doorway... only for myself to be suddenly impaled from behind, where there shouldn't be anything but an office wall. There isn't even room for the Alien behind that crate!
Realizing that 'Bay's Overhaul Mod' has broken the game, I uninstall it.
Play Alien: Isolation using only the Unpredictable Alien-mod, ignore all others.
I figured that six years is more than enough time for people to learn the finer nuiances of the game, and be able to come up with a decent mod.
Sadly I seem to have been mistaken.
For starters, every single mod for the game is just mucking about with variables in the .ini files to produce some "better" result. Better audio, better graphics, removal of lens flares - it's all done by editing the config-files. And the same applies to the Alien's AI, except it only takes a single false step to ruin it all.
This is what I experienced with 'Bay's Alien Isolation Overhaul Mod', a recent mod that tried to outdo the Unpredictable Alien by "updating the Alien's behavior that I have perfected" along with some other changes to make the game "more realistic and horror-based."
The Unpredictable Alien-mod is quintessential to Alien: Isolation actually being somewhat enjoyable because it gives the Alien a little freedom to run around, rather than be leashed to Ripley all the time. One would expect that a mod designed to surpass that would build upon it and do better.
Nope. Not this one.
I did the Medical-section of Alien: Isolation so often that I still remember the steps. Once the Alien first drops down there, I calmly walk over to the nearest locker and hide in it, because the Alien doesn't begin "seeing" anything until it completes its dramatic entrance animation. As a result, from the Alien's perspective, it always drops down into an empty area, and quickly scurries off to hide in the vents.
This happens as normal here.
In the vanilla game this left the Alien stomping about annoyingly close afterwards, meaning careful timing was needed to get over to the door requiring the 1702-passcode, and thereby opening up a larger section of the level, but even then the Alien was always too close for comfort during the level.
Unpredictable Alien allowed the Alien to explore the rest of the place, meaning it could be skulking about over in the psych ward/Dr. Morley's office while I was long past those sections.
Bay's mod, however, made it so that whenever the Alien dropped down after its grand entrance, it would head straight for my position and eventually kill me.
Take 1: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the locked door. I just manage to open the door as I hear the Alien coming down, and head for the nearest hiding place, behind some scenery. Alien ignores the scenery, runs around it and attacks me.
Take 2: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the locked door. I stand in front of it doing nothing for 15 seconds to test a theory, and the Alien does nothing the entire time. As I trigger the code input-sequence, the Alien drops down somewhere nearby, so I calmly walk over to the nearest locker and hide in it. Alien walks right over to the locker and sniffs it, and I get found and murdered.
Take 3: I calmly exit the locker and make my way towards the other locked door requiring the 1702-passcode, and the Alien drops down just as I finish entering the code. This leads into an office where I have some options in hiding places; a couple of lockers, a desk I should be able to crawl under, and a large crate on the right which I can hide behind. I try the locker right in front of me. Alien enters the office, heads straight for the locker and sniffs it. I'm found and murdered.
Take 4: Same as above, except this time I duck into the locker in the side-room. Moments later the Alien arrives and sniffs the locker, but for the first time I pass the QTE and the Alien loses interest. It stomps around for a bit, then leaves the room. I wait until I hear it clamber up into the vents before exiting. I return to the first room to search/loot, only to be greeted by the Alien re-entering the office, without having made a vent-dropping noise. I quickly hide behind the aforementioned crate, facing towards the Alien as it stands in the doorway... only for myself to be suddenly impaled from behind, where there shouldn't be anything but an office wall. There isn't even room for the Alien behind that crate!
Realizing that 'Bay's Overhaul Mod' has broken the game, I uninstall it.
Utfärd
Guest
I spent most of this weekend playing the original Red Alert campaigns. The final Soviet mission was really nice, there's a cool beginning sequence where you build your base while under heavy fire. Quite a rush! I also liked the Allied infiltration missions, nice puzzle layouts. Final Allied mission was too easy but I liked how I got nuked. Started to fear they would never show up (so weird not to have nukes in play). The A.I. is dumb of course but the use of scripted enemy assaults from various directions keeps you on edge and simulates MP-style sneak attacks quite well. I don't think I actually beat the campaigns back in the day so it was fun to see everything. The game wasn't as hard as I remembered so it seems I was just a really bad player some twenty years ago.
Through the later stages of the Allied campaign I predominantly used longbow helicopters. Soviets have absurdly poor air defence (they don't even get rocket soldiers in SP) so my strategy was just to focus on economy and defence (only really built turrets, pillboxes, rifle dudes, rocketmen and medium tanks), then push for the satellite (reveals entire map) and build 6+ longbows to hunt down exposed key structures. Since the A.I. cannot re-build lost structures without construction yards it really pays off to destroy them quickly, then it's just a matter of sniping the refineries, or failing that the war factories, barracks and high value units. SAM sites are absolutely useless and a good amount of longbows can simply brute force and take them out. All in all, great fun.
Through the later stages of the Allied campaign I predominantly used longbow helicopters. Soviets have absurdly poor air defence (they don't even get rocket soldiers in SP) so my strategy was just to focus on economy and defence (only really built turrets, pillboxes, rifle dudes, rocketmen and medium tanks), then push for the satellite (reveals entire map) and build 6+ longbows to hunt down exposed key structures. Since the A.I. cannot re-build lost structures without construction yards it really pays off to destroy them quickly, then it's just a matter of sniping the refineries, or failing that the war factories, barracks and high value units. SAM sites are absolutely useless and a good amount of longbows can simply brute force and take them out. All in all, great fun.
Wunderbar
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 15, 2015
- Messages
- 8,825
Finished Serious Sam 4.
Weakest entry in the series, but not quite as bad as reviewers made it out to be. Janky and unpolished - yes, creates a very bad first impression - absolutely.
But the game improves greatly in its second half, and the gameplay foundation is solid.
Weakest entry in the series, but not quite as bad as reviewers made it out to be. Janky and unpolished - yes, creates a very bad first impression - absolutely.
But the game improves greatly in its second half, and the gameplay foundation is solid.
MadMaxHellfire
Arcane
still stuck on this
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385440355
after two months. very very few games i've ever played this long, perhaps only x-com and elite 2 (if we exclude mmorpgs).
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1385440355
after two months. very very few games i've ever played this long, perhaps only x-com and elite 2 (if we exclude mmorpgs).
Curratum
Guest
Obviously, I've grown so old, autistic and tired of "gaming" that even theHunter is too much for me, so I've found quiet autistic peaceful bliss in this:
continuing through dusk, i finished ep 1 and 2
overall the gaem is not really bad but hesus is it just thoroughly lame and average
why must all these highly-acclaimed (tm) shits all be so disappointing and overrated
overall the gaem is not really bad but hesus is it just thoroughly lame and average
why must all these highly-acclaimed (tm) shits all be so disappointing and overrated
Zariusz
Liturgist
Kenshi, exploration in this game is just beyond awesome.
EDIT:This game makes me believe that im playing some peak early to mid 2000s game, made by some ambitious enthusiastic devs that were excited by rapid tech development and were only thinking about what cool stuff they can implement with it. At least that is how i feel playing it.
EDIT:This game makes me believe that im playing some peak early to mid 2000s game, made by some ambitious enthusiastic devs that were excited by rapid tech development and were only thinking about what cool stuff they can implement with it. At least that is how i feel playing it.
Last edited:
Dr1f7
Scholar
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2022
- Messages
- 1,501
yeah man that game rocks
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2014
- Messages
- 1,229
New computah's been fine'ish. CPU and GPU undervolted slightly and the temps are staying nice enough and Timespy's still giving me above average scores. It does make a bit of a sound even when idling, which I managed to pinpoint to be from the PSU of all things. Kind of glad and kind of annoyed. I think it's just a shitty fan within the PSU, since it's pretty much a constant sound and doesn't variate when the PSU is drawing more power for example.
Anyhoo, instead of continuing The Last Remnant, I decided to try out some games that should look pretty now that I can actually run them.
Tried out Metro Exodus for a few hours, actually got to play the game for maybe an hour since it was taking control away from me every few steps. And jfc the story and dialogue is retarded. I did finally get to the more "open world" part, which probably would let me actually play more, but already got a bit tired of the game. Maybe I'll continue at some point though, it shouldn't be a long game to finish.
Then I decided to finally try Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which my old computer was only able to run as a slide show with potato graphics. Now I turned everything to max and it seems to run fine. I'm actually liking the game itself. Started on hardcore mode because why not and it has that nice gothic'y feel of you being a small time shit and getting bullied by everyone. Having quite a lot of fun with it to be honest and I think I'll continue mainly with it for the time being.
I also came into the realization that I don't really own that many newer games. I did install Darksiders 3 on top of those two, but haven't had time to try that one out yet.
Anyhoo, instead of continuing The Last Remnant, I decided to try out some games that should look pretty now that I can actually run them.
Tried out Metro Exodus for a few hours, actually got to play the game for maybe an hour since it was taking control away from me every few steps. And jfc the story and dialogue is retarded. I did finally get to the more "open world" part, which probably would let me actually play more, but already got a bit tired of the game. Maybe I'll continue at some point though, it shouldn't be a long game to finish.
Then I decided to finally try Kingdom Come: Deliverance, which my old computer was only able to run as a slide show with potato graphics. Now I turned everything to max and it seems to run fine. I'm actually liking the game itself. Started on hardcore mode because why not and it has that nice gothic'y feel of you being a small time shit and getting bullied by everyone. Having quite a lot of fun with it to be honest and I think I'll continue mainly with it for the time being.
I also came into the realization that I don't really own that many newer games. I did install Darksiders 3 on top of those two, but haven't had time to try that one out yet.
CthuluIsSpy
Arcane
So I beat Kingmaker.
I liked it. I think Pillars is better designed, but Kingmaker does have its strong points. The character creation and sheer amount of content it provides comes to mind.
What aren't its strong points are the pacing, the UI, the railroading, the difficulty spikes and the game does a poor job at relaying critical information to the player. The tip in the loading screen about the Bestiary being useful is a complete lie and the description for the heal spells is pretty misleading. Your characters also move really slow and there's no fast forward button.
I liked the companions in Kingmaker a little more than in Pillars though. I thought they were more interesting.
I hope Wrath of the Righteous took what made Kingmaker good and improved upon it. Like adding a Bestiary that's not shit and a fast forward button.
I liked it. I think Pillars is better designed, but Kingmaker does have its strong points. The character creation and sheer amount of content it provides comes to mind.
What aren't its strong points are the pacing, the UI, the railroading, the difficulty spikes and the game does a poor job at relaying critical information to the player. The tip in the loading screen about the Bestiary being useful is a complete lie and the description for the heal spells is pretty misleading. Your characters also move really slow and there's no fast forward button.
I liked the companions in Kingmaker a little more than in Pillars though. I thought they were more interesting.
I hope Wrath of the Righteous took what made Kingmaker good and improved upon it. Like adding a Bestiary that's not shit and a fast forward button.
BruceVC
Magister
NWN EE, I completed the main quest and now I have decided to finish the expansions SoU and HotU
I am loving the D&D ruleset and Forgotten Realms setting and because I played this game about 12 years ago I have forgotten the narrative so its still captivating the second time around
I am loving the D&D ruleset and Forgotten Realms setting and because I played this game about 12 years ago I have forgotten the narrative so its still captivating the second time around
How is the main quest? I am about to finish Icewind Dale EE and NWN is next. In the past, I got bored with the main quest but really enjoyed the expansions. This time around I want to play through the entire NWN.
BruceVC
Magister
I enjoyed the Wailing Death, it aligned to certain Forgotten Realms lore and its better than IWD for me . NWN was deigned with MP in mind but you can still have lots of fun and a great single player experience
Thanks. I am going through the Trials of the Luremaster right now and I've gotta say I really dislike high level combat. There is simply too many powerful spells and abilities, which are super hard to micro in RTwP. So in the end I end up sort of having an opening strategy and then just watch the very confusing fight/reload if it does not go well for me. I have this dwarf fighter with super low AC and resistances that most foes can't hit with anything they got while he excels at just murdering everybody. The only challenge is actually that the game keeps throwing me in the middle of a fights and I just have to keep my glass cannon casters/thief alive until all foes are dead. I really enjoyed the mid game, when I dominated fights with clever use of my spellcasters. Now they are sort of useless because fights take place in small corridors and its super hard to use any area of effect spells efficiently + the party spawns right in the middle of enemy mob so there is no chance to use the summoning spells. I don't remember NWN being so bad in that regard (also maybe because the third edition has attack of opportunity (right?) so everybody can't just rush past my fighters to rape the spellcasters).
BruceVC
Magister
I am a wizard and I have learnt how to utilize different strategies effectively to address the concerns you mentioned which I dont think they are as prevalent in NWN
What I do is let the enemies aggro get drawn to my fighters, I tend to initially run away if they chase me but then they attack my tanks , and I always have a familiar like a Panther and a permanently summoned monster so with my henchmen that makes 3 x fighters
Then when the monsters are engaging with my fighters I blow then away to the dark hell they came from using spells like Ice Storm and Fireball
But I dont recall too many small corridors in NWN that I couldnt effectively adopt this strategy to ?
And then always remember to use spells like Spell Breach and Globe of invulnerability to target enemy spellcasters and to protect you
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2018
- Messages
- 1,709
I am still going very very slowly through the Icewind Dale Complete, currently at the dwarven crypt with the lich.
A few thoughts:
-My worries about grandmastering hammers on my dwarven fighter proved to be unfounded as hammers are rather well itemized here.
-You get your typical +1,+2 weapons and some of them have some nice special effects like chance to inflict extra acid damage, a status effect, to heal a few HP and etc. Some weapons and items feel outright special like messenger of seth that allows my ranger to fire 4 shots per round, amulet with +10 extra health or boots of speed that turns the wearer into the most mobile party member. This item system should be taken as a standart.
-Finding a nice weapon you're not proficient with doesn't hurt as much here as these weapons with a backstory tend to sell very well. The blacksmith in Kuldahar does have some nice selection of named weapons(some of them are definitely overpriced though).
-I actually read the Dying Earth relatively recently and it gave me a bit of appreciation for the Vancian spellcasting. I like how as a wizard you don't automatically gain new spells upon level-up and can only learn new ones from scrolls. The Kuldahar's wizard selection is a bit limited so most of your spells need to be looted from dungeons.
-My party could definitely be better optimized in terms of stats but i didn't feel like this hurt me much. The challenge feels fair so far.
Tried the Soulash demo, a roguelike in which you're an evil god in the body of the mortal(or not) creature on a quest to kill everything around you in order to kill your fellow gods if i understood correctly.
I feel like necromancer is the most overpowered option early on, those villagers didn't stood a chance against the sheer horde of zombies my lich unleashed upon them.
I also started Northern Journey. Beatiful game, them giant mosquitos tho.
A few thoughts:
-My worries about grandmastering hammers on my dwarven fighter proved to be unfounded as hammers are rather well itemized here.
-You get your typical +1,+2 weapons and some of them have some nice special effects like chance to inflict extra acid damage, a status effect, to heal a few HP and etc. Some weapons and items feel outright special like messenger of seth that allows my ranger to fire 4 shots per round, amulet with +10 extra health or boots of speed that turns the wearer into the most mobile party member. This item system should be taken as a standart.
-Finding a nice weapon you're not proficient with doesn't hurt as much here as these weapons with a backstory tend to sell very well. The blacksmith in Kuldahar does have some nice selection of named weapons(some of them are definitely overpriced though).
-I actually read the Dying Earth relatively recently and it gave me a bit of appreciation for the Vancian spellcasting. I like how as a wizard you don't automatically gain new spells upon level-up and can only learn new ones from scrolls. The Kuldahar's wizard selection is a bit limited so most of your spells need to be looted from dungeons.
-My party could definitely be better optimized in terms of stats but i didn't feel like this hurt me much. The challenge feels fair so far.
Tried the Soulash demo, a roguelike in which you're an evil god in the body of the mortal(or not) creature on a quest to kill everything around you in order to kill your fellow gods if i understood correctly.
I feel like necromancer is the most overpowered option early on, those villagers didn't stood a chance against the sheer horde of zombies my lich unleashed upon them.
I also started Northern Journey. Beatiful game, them giant mosquitos tho.
YldrE
Learned
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2021
- Messages
- 27
I finally closed the curtain on the whole Baldur's Gate saga.
I played BG2 quite a lot around release but never really got far in ToB, and completely skipped BG1 until 2019. Add Icewind Dale 1 & 2 in 2012 and it felt like I had always played BG without ever completing it.
My genius build didn't work quite as well in BG2 and I had to rely much more on spellcasting support. In fact I found BG2 to be pretty tedious in general whereas BG1 was fun from A to Z even without the benefit of nostalgia.
Not that I want to be unfairly harsh to it, it was still a grand adventure and my personal experience with playtime scattered across two decades made it artificially more impactful. Seeing the credits roll felt like a conclusion twenty years in the making, a sense of satisfaction after a long journey that you don't really get anymore with fictional media once you're past a certain age.
And they say you shouldn't revisit old flames.
purupuru
Learned
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
- Messages
- 415
I am playing Half Life 2 for the first time in 2022 (after finishing Black Mesa that has been lying on my hard drive since forever), and man is it an bad experience so far halfway through the game. I feel like one of those rats running in wheel cages, the game asks you to keep moving forward on and on but there is a voice within me just keeps asking "Why?" The plot hook feels weak and there is little cool stuff happening that makes you feel rewarded (like in Black Mesa you beat the tentacles and launch a rocket to space). Was thinking about making a rant thread here but after a bit searching apparently codex hates HL2 already and I would rather not beat the dead horse any further.
Will probably grit my teeth and at least complete the game. Definitely will try out the original HL1 one day, but I really had it enough with shooters right now.
Will probably grit my teeth and at least complete the game. Definitely will try out the original HL1 one day, but I really had it enough with shooters right now.
BruceVC
Magister
I really am having fun in NWN EE SoU
I mentioned I love the D&D ruleset and the myriad of combat strategies in these games and here is one example to illustrate that point
I encountered my first Shield Guardian and its immune to level 4 spells and below and my character is a wizard who didnt have access to level 5 spells. Plus my familiar cant harm it and my henchmen, who is Dorna, can only do minimal damage so I got slaughted the first 3 times I tried to defeat it
And then I realized I luckily had some level 5 scrolls. So I used Bigbys Interposing hand to make the Guardians attacks more ineffective, used Chain Lighting and Cone of Cold and threw numerous Alchemist Fire at the foul creature. And with Dorna hacking away I was able to defeat it ...great battle
I mentioned I love the D&D ruleset and the myriad of combat strategies in these games and here is one example to illustrate that point
I encountered my first Shield Guardian and its immune to level 4 spells and below and my character is a wizard who didnt have access to level 5 spells. Plus my familiar cant harm it and my henchmen, who is Dorna, can only do minimal damage so I got slaughted the first 3 times I tried to defeat it
And then I realized I luckily had some level 5 scrolls. So I used Bigbys Interposing hand to make the Guardians attacks more ineffective, used Chain Lighting and Cone of Cold and threw numerous Alchemist Fire at the foul creature. And with Dorna hacking away I was able to defeat it ...great battle
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