What game are you wasting time on?

[Gragt]

Momentarily dropped my Wizardry run for Mass Effect 2. I'm genuinely surprised at how fun it is, especially since the original was so dull.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Armored Brigade.

 

[sea]

Neverwinter Nights 2. I only got around to buying this game last year, played a bit and put it on the backburner for a while. Started a new game a month ago, played a few days and got near the end of act 1, now midway through act 2 after picking it up yet again. It's not really an awful game by any stretch, just exceptionally bland. The beginning is terrible, however, and it only really gets going once you reach act 2 or so. Reminds me a bit of Baldur's Gate in that there's a lot of filler crap to get through, but unlike Baldur's Gate it's often not optional due to the linearity of the game.

Of course, the only way I've been able to keep my sanity is by convincing myself the entire game is some sort of huge parody of D&D cliches rather than actually serious, which judging by a lot of the humour and in-jokes, might actually be true. Shame, with better pacing and a slightly less buggy engine and a few months extra polish, it could have been a really good game. I'm really only going through it so that I can enjoy Mask of the Betrayer, at this point, but I guess I can't say it's time poorly spent.

 

[Gregz]

Path of Exile.

 

[Redlands]

Might and Magic 8 and Ultima 4 (I should probably be playing Wizardry 1 as well but not enough time to be doing that as well...)

Ultima 4 I've tried to play through as spoiler-free as possible: that is, if I wanted to do something or find something out, I had to find out about it in-game. It's a tremendously rewarding way of doing things, and if anyone in the future wants to have a first (or even later) run of this game, this is the way to do it. Also definitely a case where RTFM applies; not only because it's necessary, but it's downright helpful in navigating the world, etc.

Might and Magic 8 has a rather awful interface, especially after 7s semi-functional (if post-decision ugly and occasionally impractical wrt seeing what spells/conditions are in effect), and from what I've been told by others who've played it (non-Codexers) it's somewhat easy so it might be disappointing, but after some initial revulsion I'm enjoying it again too. Probably moreso than 7, which is probably the better game of the final 4 theoretically, but gave me a lot of problems and I think didn't have as good a flow as 6 or 8 seems to.

I was going to be trying to make a Let's Play of Fate of the World for the Codex, but it keeps overheating my computer...

 

[DarthBehemoth]

Skyrim with a fuckton of mods. It actually starts to become playable after installing the first 10 or so

 

[Fens]

Alpha Protocol... late to the party, but it came on a magazine dvd for 5 bucks and i figured i might give it a try... started out hoping i'd get a hitman clone with rpg mechanics, but it's nowhere near that... camera is really bad (might have been better as a first person game), very restricted movement in the levels by arbitrarily closing doors, same three console-minigames all over the place... on the plus side: story is not that bad, weapon customization is a nice feature, you can look like fidel castro (minus the cigar) slaughtering your way through the evil corporate lapdogs ... 3/5

 

[The Vault Dweller]

I'm playing Planescape: Torment for the first time. I can't describe it. It's too...supreme.

,
The Vault Dweller

P.S.

I can't believe I waited so long to play it. It's shaping up to be...better than Fallout which is my favorite RPG of all time. Only time will tell as I'm only about ten hours into the game.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Abandoned MOTB for now. Did not get far in the story and the nature of NWN2 makes the experience suck. Now derping in coop on Dead Island, which is fun enough. Also slowly going though Alpha Protocol, which is a really bad game, but i am a completionist. Also Dungeons of Dredmore.

 

[RK47]

Wild Unicorns appear normally at night and disappear at day. At 8:00 PM there is a 33% Chance a Wild Unicorn will appear in the Neighborhood. They usually spawn at Fishing Type of Lots and on the map. No matter what traits a Sim has, a big shining cloud may appear above a lot. Under the cloud is the Wild Unicorn, with sparkles coming down from the Cloud and onto the Unicorn. At 5:00 AM the unicorn will disappear in a burst of sparkles, as seen below.

Sims can try to tame Wild Unicorn to join the player's household. However, the Sim will need to be best friends with it first, and also be 'best friends forever' with 3 household animals. If the Sim doesn't abide by the unicorn's wishes it will decline the Sim's request. Unicorns like gardening and they often bless plants if they are near them; they almost never curse plants. Once a Wild Unicorn has been invited into the family the floating cloud above it disappears. Once a Wild Unicorn is invited into a Household and it accepts, another Unicorn will be generated and will become the new Wild Unicorn, since there can only be One Wild Unicorn Per Neighborhood at any given time.

:baby: So fun riding my horse to work.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

susu <>

ah well, at least you're not playing sims medieval.

 

[RK47]

Medieval has ideas, but execution is pretty bad. Also, no house building is a big let down for me. I hate the episodic quest content they dole out - freeplay is dead - so yeah. A sandbox not worthy of any replays. So much disappointment on that front.

I kinda like Sims series when a lot of stuff is unknown. I just hop careers, from Law enforcement - quit halfway and took on private investigator profession to solve cases for $500 a pop - it was a fast cash lifestyle - nap on the couch, ate microwave dinner, hop on the scooter, solve a case, crash back to home for quick coffee and head out again for another case. Finally, adopted my first cat - named him Hiver, married the adoption agent - then went on honeymoon to Les Champs, came back to have a baby and adopted a new dog named Stone. He died a day after arriving, what the fuck? Talk about kill joy. Stone's ghost makes nightly visit now, making his doghouse float. Stupid dog.

Quit my freelance investigator job for a stable income in business. Grew close to the boss - promoted thrice in a week. Looks like I'm all set. I have a daughter named Kate, she's a day's old.



Wonderful game. A little pricy when you consider the amount of expansion packs but there's a lot of content.

 

[Mangoose]

POKEMON CONQUEST BITCHES

 

[sser]

Pacing through Arx Fatalis while I mull over my party options in IWD.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

Skyrim with a fuckton of mods. It actually starts to become playable after installing the first 10 or so

Out of curiosity, what mods are you using right now?

 

[Juuto]

Medieval has ideas, but execution is pretty bad. Also, no house building is a big let down for me. I hate the episodic quest content they dole out - freeplay is dead - so yeah. A sandbox not worthy of any replays. So much disappointment on that front.

I kinda like Sims series when a lot of stuff is unknown. I just hop careers, from Law enforcement - quit halfway and took on private investigator profession to solve cases for $500 a pop - it was a fast cash lifestyle - nap on the couch, ate microwave dinner, hop on the scooter, solve a case, crash back to home for quick coffee and head out again for another case. Finally, adopted my first cat - named him Hiver, married the adoption agent - then went on honeymoon to Les Champs, came back to have a baby and adopted a new dog named Stone. He died a day after arriving, what the fuck? Talk about kill joy. Stone's ghost makes nightly visit now, making his doghouse float. Stupid dog.

Quit my freelance investigator job for a stable income in business. Grew close to the boss - promoted thrice in a week. Looks like I'm all set. I have a daughter named Kate, she's a day's old.



Wonderful game. A little pricy when you consider the amount of expansion packs but there's a lot of content.

Are you playing Sims 3? I used to play it religiously but I got bored of it really quick... when my main Sims suddenly changed faces into ugly people and when the town ended up consisting of too many family members. I was too tired of going back to a previous save for the 8th time.

I heard the Sims 2 was a lot better than Sims 3. I really like the concept of the Sims but I'm too superficial to want to get back into archaic graphics unless there's someone thing really amazing about it. Someone needs to start making Indie Sims... There is a market for it, I know it.

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

I'm playing a combined installation of Flight Unlimited 2 and 3 these days. Excellent little GA sim, plus it's by Looking Glass!

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I've hopped from Galactic Civilization to Galciv 2, and the campaign against the Dread Lords is a slog. Apocalypse is so tough I turned it to Suicidal so my AI teammates would get the traditional massive boosts to production/research and stop being so useless. Still not much help, even then they're brain dead and the Dread Lords are still overwhelming (thank whoever they don't get the bonuses, their fighters have 100+ attack for crying out loud).

Fortunately, I only have to worry about them, because the Yor and the Drenghin start far on the other side of the map and smack into other civs long before hitting my area.

 

[procrastinator]

Went through NWN 2 OC, MotB and now I'm near the end of SoZ.

OC was boring as fuck, a couple of amusing dialogues and that's about it.

MotB felt like a complete clusterfuck when I started it with some spellcasting character. RTwP combat, awful camera, spell management - all that made MotB a tiring and painful experience. But then I restarted with aasimar Bard 1/RDD 10/Fighter X and things went much smoother. Hacking easily through the hordes of monsters and picking the correct [I WIN] lines... Ahh, so satisfying! Looks like VD was right all along, pretty good game.

SoZ is actually way more enjoyable than I expected. There are places to explore and thingies to do. Though it feels a bit unfinished and gets repetitive after a while...

 

[Excidium]

Went through NWN 2 OC, MotB and now I'm near the end of SoZ.

I lack that willpower.

 

[Sceptic]

MotB felt like a complete clusterfuck when I started it with some spellcasting character.

Played it with several spellcasters and it's always tons of fun. I find that being able to use tactical nuclear bombardment (since I load up my party with the NPC spellcasters as well) makes short work of combat, and since that's MOTB's weak point it makes the game so much more enjoyable.

SoZ is actually way more enjoyable than I expected. There are places to explore and thingies to do. Though it feels a bit unfinished and gets repetitive after a while...

It is quite unpolished, but otherwise great game, Roxor was spot on about it in his review and it's much better than the sozzy haters would have you believe. Also probably the most fun final dungeon of the 2000s.

 

[sea]

I finished Neverwinter Nights 2 today as well.

Not going to lie - I actually really enjoyed some parts of it. As cheesy as it was, there were some good characters and individual moments (Illefarn ruins, Sand, Crossroad Keep, Jerro's haven, the trial, etc.), and to be honest I liked its deconstruction of heroic fantasy cliches - only problem was, I couldn't tell if the game was straight-faced about it or not half the time, it's very inconsistent in tone. You can't really make a story that's 110% cliche to the bone and plays it straight, but also tries to subvert it at the same time.

I'll say up front that act 1 was terribad. Overlong monotonous dungeons, boring combat, weak and disjointed plot with too many random distractions and characters... plus it was at least 10 hours too long. Act 2 was much, much better and had some interesting quests as well as better character interaction, with combat that felt much more appropriate than "oh, another dungeon" - in fact I think most of the combat in the first half of act 2 is entirely optional, which was a big plus for role-playing and let the non-combat skills of the D&D system shine (what, Perform is useful?!).

Act 3, however, was... man, I know they ran out of money but it feels like act 3 got 5% of the development time compared to the other parts, from lack of side-quests, to reused locations, to rushed, unengaging main quests. Even the keep defense was a little underwhelming and way too easy, can't believe the whole game built up to that. Seeing them depict the climactic battle as a slideshow with voice-over literally made me burst into laughter - felt like someone threw it together in 30 minutes before they shipped the game. The final dungeon was also quite short (I feel like they added tons of corpses to loot just to draw it out), but the last encounter was pretty good and I liked how the influence system actually amounted to something in the end.

Overall, decent game, but very, very sloppy in places and often not very fun. Would not play again, but act 2 redeemed a lot of the bad parts for being genuinely fun and featuring good quest design.

Started out on Mask of the Betrayer, and... holy crap, the incline is insane. Is this really the same game? Can it be? It's like Planescape: Torment all over again. I just arrived at the first town and already the quality of the writing, setting, characters, puzzles and dungeons etc. are far better than anything in the base campaign. Even the combat is better - no rest abuse, enemies are tougher, healing is much more limited, etc. Really looking forward to this, but just seems so weird that the original game is so lighthearted and upbeat and the expansion is far more self-serious (but in that special MCA way that is never annoying/emo).

 

[procrastinator]

I lack that willpower.

Yeah, had to take a short break after OC, but MotB was kinda shortish so I started SoZ right away.

Played it with several spellcasters and it's always tons of fun. I find that being able to use tactical nuclear bombardment (since I load up my party with the NPC spellcasters as well) makes short work of combat, and since that's MOTB's weak point it makes the game so much more enjoyable.

Combat was p. easy with my crafted Longsword of Awesomeness, I even left my companions for AI to control Also, this time I took the path of Ibil, so resting was costly in terms of spirit energy and I like my spellbook full. Guess I'll try making a spellcaster on my good playthrough.

 

[Jaesun]

Ultima VII Parts 1 and 2. Just to uh........ have the Ultima series in mind for a while...

 

[Mystary!]

Zelda: A link to the past
Never played the Zeldas before but this one is quite fun in a mind-numbing way. I like how actual positioning in combat affects if you hit enemies shield or not, just a minor thing but its still more depth than most modern games have.