What game are you wasting time on?

[Zizka]

After downloading 70+ GB for Stranger of Paradise, the game won’t launch. Then I found out it’s your party is A.I. controlled and knew I was actually blessed. A.I. controlled, dear god.

It's a sad fact that the Fallout 1 & 2-UI is pretty bad. Much has changed and improved in the 25 years since these games were new, to the point that this feels decrepit. Were it not for the fact that I'm well familiar with the UI I wouldn't have bothered for as long as I did.

Yes, I have to agree. It could be improved upon to be more user friendly.

So how does one get through this? By finding the right 'key'. In another map there's a building with a locked door (that makes four doors now) which must be picked open (as I sure couldn't find another way through it) and inside is the 'key' to the second door mentioned above. But the 'key' cannot be just used on the door, either from the inventory or straight from the hand. No... due to *reasons* the key must be thrown at the door. It's the only way that works. It's not the lack of context that bothers me about this, it's getting the game to acknowledge that you want to use the key on the door.

The key thing is 99% likely a bug. There’s no other explanation for it. I think I know which area you’re talking about. Couldn’t get in there. I’m still starting out so I don’t know if this a recurrent problem yet.

# The general idea that you need to spot near-microscopic details in the game world, in the graphics of FO1 and FO2, with an added layer of maliciousness by using the limitations of the graphics to hide things from view.

Yeah as mentioned before, the adventure game intro is the opposite of Fallout. This never happened in F1 and F2. Adding more ways to overcome the challenges would’ve been so much better (high strength to clear the landslide, high perception to indicate an important object is nearby like for traps, etc…).

Again, I don’t mind amnesia. I don’t like the idea that it can never be used again as a plot device. I mean, sure, it’s been done to death but it could still be implemented well.

Restart:
I had to restart for a pretty bizarre reason. I’ll try to remain non-spoiler about it.

At some point, an npc told me to go somewhere for the main quest. I clicked continue too fast and missed where it was. So I bring up my journal and look up the quest to find out where I need to go. Quest says: “Find out about x”, it wasn’t updated to where I need to go which I just found out.

So while I think that’s something which should’ve been recorded I talk to the guy again so he can repeat where I need to go. No dice. He doesn’t. So I only use a single quick save, there are no auto saves, can’t find out where I need to go. I could explore everything to eventually find out but I don’t want to guess my way through. I also don’t use guides.

To be honest, my first character was kind of a bad build so I didn’t really mind but having a journal which doesn’t record important information is a shortcoming.

Another thing: I clear area as part of a quest. I’m 50 XP short of a level. I talk to the relevant npc and get no xp for clearing the quest. This happened twice already for two different quests…

Now, I will continue playing the game. It’s not F1 or F2, there’s no comparison here in my book. Not even close. It is what it is: a fan made game with warts and all. I’m tempted to try Resurrection to see if suffers from the same issues.

I still think it’s good enough to play however, at least for now. I wish the modders were still working on it, there’s still work to be done. One thing that kind of bothered me were the multiple versions with non-descriptive titles: “crazy edition”, “extended”…

There are so few alternatives sadly. Everything is action/“rpg” now so you either play UnderRail for the 60th time or try content mods who seldom live up to the originals.

Speaking of which:
Nostalgia is a funny thing. I forgot how few character sprites Fallout 1 & 2 had. As I’m exploring Nevada, I keep thinking: “This model again?” I’d need to read on how they made the characters, whether it’s 2D or 3D sized down. I remember being bothered that by using a sword the knife sprite was showing up (in Fallout 2).

For instance, when the character needs to move straight down, he just keeps zigzagging down as if he was having a seizure. I guess it’s unavoidable with isometric.

I can draw PIP boy and I’m sure others can. It would’ve been so nice to see new perks!

Fallout in all it’s glory could be improved upon. Some skills should be merged to make them more enticing or eliminated entirely. Do people ever put skill points in outdoorsman? Having hunger/thirst mechanic would make the skill worthwhile. Couldn’t repairing be merged with science? Or have equipment wear out to that repairing is more useful than just a couple of quests? Is gambling ever worth it? You could argue they all have their uses. But some skills are more equal than others.

So if you can accept this for what it is, it’s still worth it, if only because there’s nothing else like.

 

[thesecret1]

I just beat Mount & Blade: Viking Conquest. It was... interesting. Compared to warband, you get the historical setting (a big plus, I liked that they clearly put some research into the period), naval combat (it was kinda repetitive, nevertheless I enjoyed it. It was a nice change of pace compared to the usual battles), different units and equipment (equipment actually had worse variety, so that kinda sucked. Units seemed alright), a massive map (that you'll curse whenever you need to sail from one end to the other) and a story campaign!

So of course I played the story campaign, trying to see what's up. It starts off pretty strong. Really strong, actually, it's a simple tale of revenge that works pretty good, and you kinda feel like your rival is actually doing shit to harm you; I liked that part a lot. Then early game ends and it all falls off from a cliff – the up until then really interesting story takes a turn towards the generic and honestly is kinda shitty. What the hell happened? Did the devs get bored or something? You get to decide whether you wanna join the vikings or saxons, after which point everything turns to shit. I joined the vikings. Maybe the saxon story was more interesting? I heavily doubt it. Once the story ends you can continue in sandbox, but by then you've probably already seen sort of everything the game has to offer.

Overall it was an interesting spin on warband, but doesn't offer anything that'd make you want to replay it. Fun enough for one playthrough, provided you enjoy the setting and period, but otherwise, there's no reason not to reach for one of the better mods on warband instead.

 

[Jvegi]

Still NWN OC. Rarely was the "wasting time" expression more accurate.

 

[flyingjohn]

Tested a couple of stealth games for a hour/two.

Ghost of a tale:
What i expected:
The ultimate story fag mouse game with basic stealth/rpg elements.
What i got:
The ultimate story fag mouse game with basic stealth/rpg elements.
Strengths:
-Game really looks nice.Especially the animations.
-No ability to permanently knock off enemies
-Lore/story is really good and non cinematic
-Level design is decent with plenty of stuff to backtrack/explore.No real verticality though.
-A basic disguise system that works with a trade off
-No overabundance of crafting garbage
-Even when crouch walking you create sound
-Save spots are generous(you can save in any object that you can hide)
Weakness:
-AI is quite mediocre.It ain't blind,but it can be cheesed easily by abusing corners.
-The rpg elements are quests that are mostly just fetch quests and outfits that give you passive/active bonuses.
Score:


Republique:
What i expected:
Cinematic stealth game
What i got:
A escort "hacking" stealth game
Strengths:
-The aesthetic gets the clean dictator look
-Hacking stealth games where you guide are rare(i don't remember any others except the experiment and some other adventure games)
-Your escortee can't hoard stuff and there is a resource connected to your abilities(battery)
Weakness:
-Constantly switching between normal and hack view gets tedious
-Camera angles are bad and require constant jumping to another camera to accomplish anything
-The game is very cinematic with a heavy focus on reading guards emails and their phone conversations.The writing isn't good enough to make these stand out.
-The AI is bad.It is easy to maneuver around and has goldfish memory.
-Checkpoint only saves
-Levels are small and linear
-Nonexistent failure state
-Pathfinding works but even then there are issues where your escortee gets stuck in some loop.
Score:


Seven enhanced edition:
What i expected:
Isometric Thiefus.
What i got:
Isometric stealth Witcher.
Strengths:
-It combines multiple genres(open world,stealth,action adventure)
-The writing is nothing special but not bad.
-It gives you plenty of toys/abilities to play with.Opening up a tutorial with a disguise system is a always a plus for me.
-The level design is boring but the added verticality makes up for it.
-Save anywhere.
Weakness:
-Camera is atrocious.You constantly see building elements appear and disappear since verticality is a big thing for this game.
I never played a isometric game with such a basic problem.
-The AI is one of the worst stealth ai i have ever seen.They are blind and easily loose track of you if you just run for a little bit.
-Combat is just button mashing boredom.
-Controls are not as tight they need to be.
-Bugs are still present in the enhanced edition.I jumped on some piped and they disintegrated.Also every time i loaded i was under shocked,if it is intentional it is weird.
-The crafting system completely ruins the game.There is so much garbage in this game littered everywhere.And every time you want to collect something,you have to wait a couple of seconds.
-No real sense of progression.
-Assassin Creed like map icons everywhere.
-Mandatory combat segments for a "stealth" game.
Verdict:

 

[4249]

Finally finished my playthrough of KCD. Just shy of 120 hours according to Steam, took me like 2 months. Now I feel empty

Would definitely be interested in something new from Warhorse.

 

[Warlod]

Drakensang the river of time. I am enjoying it apart from the slow running speed

 

[Dayyālu]

Ashes Afterglow (2021) I was already a fan of the original Ashes 2063, that fittingly nailed the postapoc look and feel without being too janky. Sadly, we live in the era of the boomer shooter and I've been burnt already by retroclones that were mediocre (Dusk) autistically modderish (Ion Maiden) or simply too much for their own good (Hedon Bloodrite).

Ashes Afterglow is none of those things. I will not call it the best Doom mod I've ever played, because it's not a Doom mod in essence, the gameplay and structure is too different. It took everything that was good from 2063, upgraded it and created an excellent experience. I shit you not, I almost got a childish feeling of wonder in seeing what would I get next from the mapmakers.

Weaponry got updated and you can now unlock "tiers" of upgrades that give you new functionalities: the enemy roster is more varied and properly (and thematically) used, you get minigames and maps with a clear theme to spice things up. The soundtrack is excellent. The only minor negative is the dubbing, clearly amateurish.

Nowadays too many mods are in love with themselves, confused messes of detail done for detail's sake. Afterglow is instead focused, clear, varied (with different solutions to quests giving you different end results!) and almost every map is a wonder of "how the hell did they build this", from the mutant deathmatch in the sports arena to mutant races to exploration of sunken cities to the frankly phenomenal Dome, Secret Level and End level. I could not recommend it more, and it's fucking free.

Also, someone should explain to me why they got a fetish porn voice actress to voice one of the only relevant female characters - I checked the voice crew after the credits - but we're going for the full 90ies experience, I guess.

 

[Zizka]

So for the third time I’ve finished a quest at Fallout (of) Nevada and got no xp as a reward. I don’t know if this is an oversight or some quests don’t deserve any xp while others do, I’m not sure. I’m level 5 and really struggling to make some xp to reach my next level. All I can find for xp are mobs that give >100 each.. I sometimes heal myself for 25 xp each time but need… 5000 xp for my next level. I can’t recall this ever being an issue in Fallout 1 and 2.

The new talking heads I’ve seen look much better! Seems like someone else them.

Spoiler

While there are quite a few locations to discover on the west side of the map and a bit to the south, the north version is barren, completely empty. I’ve just about combed through the whole map by now. I would’ve imagined the locations would be sort of scattered but huge chunks of maps have nothing in them. I would imagine some thought was given as to where places should be but I have a hard time figuring out the logic here.

Locations look very similar to me.

I’m intrigued by the story so I’m pushing through. I think it’s worth playing provided you know you’re getting a 6-7/10.

 

[Psquit]

Resident Evil 5, Probably the worst mainline re-game out there (6 is not that bad). It's shit, the environments are shit, the enemies are shit, the plot is shit. It was supposed to be the conclusion of Code veronica, re 4, etc. plot...

 

[Zizka]

I decided to stop Fallout of Nevada. A lot of work went into it, it’s certainly a worthy effort. I think the little flaws here and there eventually got to me. Each thing on its own is minor but it keeps adding up. One thing after another. Designing a good CRPG is just so complex.

I hope we get a Fallout Conversion Mod which is willing to trim the engine a bit and optimise it. For example: Merging certain skills together to make each one worthwhile. Same thing with SPECIAL, change the way each attribute influences the game.

Maybe replace the traits with brand new ones. I can’t imagine trying another conversion mod with the same character creation process. Change the perks. Include a hunger and thirst meter.

It’d be a lot of work but I’d be so refreshing. While Fallout were great games, there’s room for improvement.

 

[deuxhero]

Tried KotOR 2 again. No issues with Nar Shadda this time (I suspect it's a conflict with the repair your speeder mod). I repeat how much the KotOR1 engine screwed this game. Was the no-MC segment on Nar Shadda this long pre-restored content? I think there was so much XP there that the MC is now the lowest level member of the party (certainly behind Atton and Kreia, haven't check others yet)

 

[flyingjohn]

Velvet Assassin.
Just don't play this game.

 

[Abu Antar]

I got one of the funnier endings in Way of the Samurai 4. People of this day and age would probably bitch and moan about it.

Spoiler

My dude won a tournament, and as a reward, he was boiled alive.

Edit: Since I am doing a few runs, I have reloaded to do more on this one. You can choose to not accept the reward and survive.

 

[JDR13]

I have decided to play Oblivion next. I played it in 2008 but this time I will using mods

Its a public holiday on Monday in SA so I basically have nice long weekend to really get into Oblivion again

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I got one of the funnier endings in Way of the Samurai 4. People of this day and age would probably bitch and moan about it.

Spoiler

My dude won a tournament, and as a reward, he was boiled alive.

Edit: Since I am doing a few runs, I have reloaded to do more on this one. You can choose to not accept the reward and survive.

Going for the golden ending?

 

[Abu Antar]

I got one of the funnier endings in Way of the Samurai 4. People of this day and age would probably bitch and moan about it.

Spoiler

My dude won a tournament, and as a reward, he was boiled alive.

Edit: Since I am doing a few runs, I have reloaded to do more on this one. You can choose to not accept the reward and survive.

Going for the golden ending?

I am undecided. If I decide to do all endings, I will go for that one, too.

 

[Ezekiel]

Vane. One of the most pretentious games I've ever played. You fly around pretty but empty desert as a crow and occasionally turn into a boy who has the most basic platforming. A 2.4:1 aspect ratio is forced, but it's not used as an excuse for performance, as in something like Evil Within or that early PS4 game everybody made fun of. At least I hardly notice it with the black bed sheet hanging behind my decently sized TV. Would bother me more if I was playing on my monitor. So many indie devs wish they were early Team Ico.

 

[laclongquan]

Fallout New Vegas.

After 3 complete runs of Tale of Two Wasteland 3.32, from starting in DC, then starting in Mojave, then back to start in DC... Now I am waiting for 3.3 to get completed with mods first before jumping back into THAT.

Meanwhile, I am trying out with the infamous Dust 2.0 This I estimate can get me tens of hours more.

There's New California after that but we shall see~

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been playing Ninja Gaiden Black on Xemu this past week. Runs pretty decently, but it has shader compilation stutters. Nothing too bad, but it's kind of annoying sometimes.

I had only played the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox when it came out in 2004 or so (I finished it back then but hadn't played it again all these years), so I remembered almost nothing about the game. I decided against playing the Sigma versions if I can help it.

The first thing that comes to mind is that NG/NGB is more of an action-adventure game than just pure action. I'm currently at the boss of Chapter 10 and there's been a lot of running around, backtracking for keys, etc. Levels are pretty big and interconnected to a small degree. It's refreshing in a way, NG2 is more of a pure action game and people seem to remember the entire series as being that, but it really wasn't at first.

However, although the game controls pretty well during the action sequences, it doesn't fare so well during platforming and exploration. There's a weird inertia to Ryu and he kind of shuffles forward when you just want to turn him around on a dime. Lining up jumps up is sometimes annoying and the primitive camera control is very sluggish (the base NG didn't even have a controllable 3rd person camera if I recall correctly, just a first person perspective when you moved the right analog stick).

Combat feels punchy and Ryu's hits are meaty and pretty satisfying, however enemy hits feel off somehow, like they're not really making contact. This is especially bad in bossfights, the feedback isn't really there when you get hit. This was also a problem in the very first Devil May Cry, but to a lesser extent.

There's a roll in the game but it doesn't have invulnerability frames, so it's hard to turn off the Souls mentality and realize that rolling is a positioning tool more than anything. There's a few different melee weapons in the game and they're all satisfying, but I've always been partial to the sword and it's still true after all these years. On normal difficulty the game is challenging without being bullshit, and you can vary your playstyle a little bit. Higher difficulty levels play quite differently but from what I remember that's not exactly a good thing, because gameplay can kind of degenerate into spamming Ultimate Techniques and abusing UT invulnerability frames.

In any case, I'm enjoying my time playing it, there's a case to be made that these games were more fun when they were action/adventure hybrids instead of pure action for spergy types (not that there's anything wrong with that per se, but Devil May Cry is a significantly better pure action game than NG).

I plan on playing NG2 afterwards on Xenia - I played the original on Xbox 360 back when it came out, finished it too, but don't remember too much about it, only that it was much more of a straightforward action game with more moves and more spam. Maybe I'll check out NG3 too, but everyone seems to think it's shit (even after the Razor's Edge update).

I wonder if they'll ever make a NG4. Nioh 2 was a pretty good game by the same team (minus crumbleface Itagaki), but I didn't like the loot aspect of it, and the level design was unremarkable. I suppose it's possible that they do make it and that it turns out alright - after all, Devil May Cry 5 is the best game in the series in my opinion and it came out a couple of years ago, against all odds.

 

[flyingjohn]

101 airborne,a squad based war game depicting the Normandy para drop operations.
What i expected:
A brutal game detailing the combat operations of the 101.
What i got:
The most realistic "Getting lost in France simulator".

Strengths:
-It is realistic to a fault.Weight dictates a lot of stuff including AP points usage and paradrop injury chance.
-AP points is the simple but great x-com like system.
-Touring your base and selecting load outs/men and even plane seat arrangement is nice
-The units you can pick have different specializations/stats making them unique.
-The UI/Font are amazing for a game of this era.Simple and clean.
-Graphics look nice
-The auto walk ability(moving automatically to the target area beyond your ap range) is a gamesaver.
Group movement makes this even quicker.
-The AI is deadly and not a moron.
-Map being broken into multiple loading zones.This one is good because the designer can focus on on specific objective per zone making the most of the level.
-Npc you can talk for information
-Once the action actually starts,the scenarios show their strength in terms of level layout.It is pretty impressive how much of it was made to emulate the actual thing.
-You can immediately play any scenario you want.
-Not a a lot of squad games based on this scenario.
Weakness:
-RNG dictates who lives/gets injured after a drop.This can be game breaking.This practically invalidates the setting up phase.But you can load/save layouts and retry if you get screwed.
-It takes a while to get to the action
-Line of sight mechanics are weird.The notifications for being seen don't really match what you are seeing.
Rating:


It is ironic that both positive and negative reviews never made it past the first levels.You can see it by them just talking surface points about getting lost/slow movement. Also no mention of tanks.
The movement was annoying until i figured out you can use group movement to traverse huge terrain at the beginning and auto walk to get where you want when you need to be careful.
If you want a slow methodical recreation of the Normandy airdrop element,i don't see any other choice.

EDit: Forgot about running this game on modern windows.
I tried multiple color fixes and only dxwnd worked. Dgvoodo would probably work also.

 

[Abu Antar]

In Way of the Samurai 4, I met my previous character from my last run. Of course, we ended up fighting.

In Tales of Xillia, I'm probably at the half way point.

I'm also playing Avernum 5 and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky The Third Chapter.

These four games are the ones I have come the farthest in. I have around 10 other games that I have started.

 

[Psquit]

I finished Re 4, I enjoyed it! It falls into mediocrity in the other half of the game in the last 2 chapters. Also finished Re 5, I hated the game for the previous reasons I described in my previous post. Resident Evil Revelations is a decent 3DS game, the PC port it's... okay, I think the best way to experience the game is with an actual 3DS. Outbreak File 1, is a boring offline multiplayer game the actual fun was interacting with actual players and not the brain-dead NPCs. Finally, I finished the Leon chapter in Re6 but unlike 5 I actually had some fun with 6. Now I'm playing Re2 original (Dreamcast version) and probably I'll do Re3 (also Dreamcast) then I'll finish the remaster of 1.

 

[Zizka]

Ion Storm. Tightly, well designed levels have confirmed my suspicions: the “open world” is a step backwards in game design.

 

[thesecret1]

Just finished Infernax. It's pretty neat, though the beginning feels better than later parts of the game (it promises a lot of recativity, but that's only true for the first couple side quests and never after that). It's practically discount Blasphemous, but it's short, has a nice aesthetic and story, and generally scratches that metroidvania itch.

 

[Psquit]

Finished Re2 the original. I like it but I feel that the remake is better.