What game are you wasting time on?

[Jack Of Owls]

Because of that, D64 doesn't have revenants, arch-viles and chaingunners

I used to think "a doom game without archies (my favorite monster ever) is like a day without sunshine" until the day I played a Doom 2 wad that was really great until the difficulty spike in the last level where there were suddenly too many fucking archies so I ragequit. I don't think I've played a doom wad since then. And to think I helped that guy beta-test his Doom frontend.

 

[Zizka]

Deadloop: Arkane

Empress recently cracked the game so I thought I would give it a whirl. It was a game I was on the fence about buying. Anyhow, several hours later, I launch the game. The game was rated 10/10 so you can imagine I was expecting the likes of Prey and even better (Prey got 8/10 on ign). I loved Prey. Best Arkane game for me.

The presentation looks great and I’m hooked by the story. I like time loops story like Groundhog Day so this was definitely up my alley. Anyway, the tutorial is fun and I like it so far. Prey intro was better but still.

You know when you date a good looking girl and she seems really great at first but then when you live together for a while cracks start to show? Deadloop is like this.

Arkane has never been about borderland-style loot tiers. This game, for some reason, has that. I hate that. I don’t play Arkane games to find the same gun over and over for better dps. That made me groan but it’s not a deal-breaker.

Then I realised there four areas… total. Much smaller than Prey in that aspect (sure feels that way). So I’m kind of bummed about that having explored everything in the first few hours but ok.

Then… the loading times. Every time I die, I need to wait 2 minutes to restart another loop. That’s too much. It might not seem long but stare at the wall for two minutes and tell me it’s not too long. So there’s that too. On the bright side, I do my chores while the game is loading, like vacuuming and washing clothes.

I was curious about the enemy types. Prey had various. This one doesn’t. It’s the same grunt over and over again, the only difference being they have different weapons. Also turrets and dogs, that’s it. Maybe there are different enemies later on when you’ve progressed further? I doubt it.

Although the areas are limited, I thought: « Well, they change depending on the time of day you visit them ». From what I can tell, the changes are minor.

How this got 10/10 and Prey 8/10 is beyond understanding. This is a worse game than Dishonored as well. I hope they stop going for the looter shooter aspect and return to a solid narrative experience.

 

[Utfärd]

Lately I've been playing Imperialism II on nigh-on impossible using the classic European map and playing as Sweden. I had some trouble at this difficulty level at first but found it doable by ignoring the new world (aside from mapping it so I could later sell timber to the indians) and focusing solely on developing the starting provinces. I also used a neat trick in regards to the minor powers, you can declare war on them on turn one without incurring negative relations or interventions from the great powers, so I did that with Germany (they have tin) and Denmark, only to then ignore them for some one hundred and fifty years while just building away. It's not really sustainable to pay for tech early on, but a spy or two will help speed up acquisition of technologies. Teching to town growth, convoying and heavy weaponry in that order turned out to be most beneficial. I actually got galleons first and focused on getting 5-6 out.

Some people like to use artillery but I'm a heavy infantry guy. There's just something awesome about marching dudes straight up to the fortifications and shooting at the artillery to breach the walls. All you really need is musketeers, who can later be upgraded to grenadiers. Early on cossacks are also useful. By the time I attacked Denmark and Germany with 6-7 musketeers in 1650 or so England dispatched a rape fleet to blockade Stockholm. That lost me a previous game (starvation is brutal) but now I had the force of galleons out. Sunk the English task force and they immediately begged for peace. Portugal also honoured its alliance with me and started stealing English colonies. From there on it was just more of the same, expanding the fleet and industry.

When I did feel strong enough to take on the great powers I singled out their best new world provinces producing gems, diamonds and such and simply conquered them. The cash was quite handy to fund research and those were actually the only provinces where I bothered to increase fortifications. Eventually my merchant fleet grew quite considerably as my galleons would blockade enemy capitals and consistently capture their vessels. Once I got grenadier tech I ventured forth and conquered central and western Europe and that was that.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

I suck a lot of dick in Ace Combat, have been stuck on a mission for a week.

 

[Kabas]

Original war
Impressive that some people are still updating it ensuring that it runs on modern systems. Looks beautiful and the setting is cool but i found the gameplay to be a bit too micromanagy for my tastes.

Kohan: Immortal Sovereigns
It's.. ok. I was dissaponted that amongst the 4 factions the only one that feels somewhat different are Ceyah kohan. Didn't manage to grab my interest for long.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian sun
Funny, i only played the third ones in these series(C&C and Red Alert 3). I like the amount of details they have on the map and the FMV cutsenes are somehow even more entertaining than the ones that came after(PEACE THROUGH POWER! PEACE THROUGH POWER! KANE LIVES!!!)

Conquest of Elysium 5
I can play this game almost forever and i still keep discovering new things. Like, how casting fire magic on a frozen river is a risky idea and that witches shoud get the fuck out of bogs in which they casted the miasma ritual as they don't have a posion immunity themselves. Other planes(except the sky) din't manage to come up in my games so far.

Jagged Alliance 2
Kept hearing nothing but good things about this one so i finally tried it. Not a fan of skill improves by use system and apart from few minor annoyances the game is amazing so far. The plot is entertaining(Elliot! You idiot!), laptop with an access to early internet as a part of your interface, the way overland map interact with tactical map is cool and you can use dynamite to access a loot stash and etc.
I am still figuring things out so my mercenaries are eating a bit more bullets than they should and i have no idea how to stealth. My custom I.M.P. merc ended with a skill that allows him to dual wield pistols and SMGs, he is pretty effective so far but i wish i could find some other gun with a bigger range for my other guys.
Just found the helicopter guy, took out my first SAM and filled the Drassen with the millitia. Found a stash with a lot of mines and grenades. Ready to liberate my next target.

I am still ocasionally playing Desperados, though i am not in the mood for commandos-like for now.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Despite that I had not intended to buy any additional games other than a small number that I had in mind this year, unless there is a surprise release I really would like to get, I decided to buy Dead Space 2, 3, and their singe player DLC for my Xbox One X.
I know Dead Space 3 has a rather loaded reputation because of the changed done to the design of Dead Space because of the meddling of EA, I wanted to try it anyway as I was in the mood to play some sci fi shooters with a dedicated single player campaign. Even one is perhaps considered average in general would be good.

I can't say that I have found the campaign of DS2 that exciting so far and I am barely affected by most of the horror stuff. Perhaps a few of the jump scares got to me but I find the game more disgusting sometimes than really scary. It is in general a functional plot even if it is somewhat cliche here and there.
The game in general also looks fine to me even if it is an older game.

It is the controls that got to me. In general I prefer to play FPS and third person shooters on the PC because of the keyboard+mouse controls, having to use a thumbstick takes away some of the accuracy I am used to.
Most often when I had to fight enemies, I lost a lot of energy during the fights not because the enemies are that threatening but because I kept missing their weak spots because I overshot these while trying to aim. This is in particular annoying when you face enemies that try to swarm you, I had to do some battles six or seven times over again because some of these SOBs like those zombie kids keep jumping around.
At some point I just became sick of it even if I was quite far in the game, and I decided to try it out on the PC. Immediately the combat becomes so much better as I can now target limbs and heads, even the fast moving enemies become much less annoying to fight. I still need to be careful but at least the controls no longer feel like an additional enemy.
I think I will not play games with this kind of gameplay on a console again.

I rather feel that I made a bad purchase.
I specifically bought DS2 on the console as I had previously played DS Extraction on the Wii and I wanted to play the DLC Severed which EA never released on the PC. Back then EA thought console and mobile gaming where the future and that gamers would follow their games to the console if they release exclusive content for it.
If EA has any brains and should the remaster of the first game be successful they should remaster DS Extraction and DS2 and its single player DLC also on PC.

 

[Kabas]

A sort of update on Jagged Alliance 2, another thing i am very not a fun of is the turn-based combat that takes forever to resolve because there is way too many units on the field and your enemy needs a few hours to resolve his turn.
Decided to make San Mona my next target

Spoiler

I expected the repeat of Drassen but instead i arrived in semi-peaceful town ruled by an independent mafia boss known as Kingpin, who is actually a Deidranna lapdog and her off-duty soldiers are his main customers as i learn later.
This place feels like the most classic rpg town so far with quests like save the girl from the brothel without alerting the guards or gift a porn videocassete to a butch lesbian so she would stop annoying the shopkeeper who in grattitude will show you his secret weapon shop.
I love the writing in this game
Stole the Kingpin's money(a pretty substantial amount i must say) so now i am assuming i need to cleanse the city from his presence in order to complete a liberation here? I feel like it's doable despite my few failed attempts to figure out a correct approach but i can't help but feel like the game intent was for me to return to this location later when i have better weaponry or a full second squad.

 

[HansDampf]

A sort of update on Jagged Alliance 2, another thing i am very not a fun of is the turn-based combat that takes forever to resolve because there is way too many units on the field and your enemy needs a few hours to resolve his turn.

Wait until you are defending a sector with 20 militia units and your mercs against black shirts in TB mode.

 

[Kabas]

A sort of update on Jagged Alliance 2, another thing i am very not a fun of is the turn-based combat that takes forever to resolve because there is way too many units on the field and your enemy needs a few hours to resolve his turn.

Wait until you are defending a sector with 20 militia units and your mercs against black shirts in TB mode.

Kinda of a dealbreaker for me. Shame, because i am pretty much in love with all the other aspects of the game.

 

[frosty]

just finished fallout 1 and 2 for the first time back to back. i'm actually not sure which one i prefer. 1 feels much tighter and better paced but 2 has so much more content. i think i might just play morrowind again now, who knows.

 

[Angelo85]

Kabas just out of curiosity, which Mercs did you pick for your team?

 

[Kabas]

Kabas just out of curiosity, which Mercs did you pick for your team?

Buns, MD, Barry, Spider and Thor. The last 2 were too expensive to renew contract so i hired Dr. Q instead of them.
Those mechanic guys are damn expensive.

 

[HansDampf]

A sort of update on Jagged Alliance 2, another thing i am very not a fun of is the turn-based combat that takes forever to resolve because there is way too many units on the field and your enemy needs a few hours to resolve his turn.

Wait until you are defending a sector with 20 militia units and your mercs against black shirts in TB mode.

Kinda of a dealbreaker for me. Shame, because i am pretty much in love with all the other aspects of the game.

It's been a long time since my last playthrough, but iirc, you always have the option to retreat your mercs and let it auto-resolve. Not sure if this affects morale. Defending a sector in TB mode has some advantages, like if you aren't sure your militia is strong enough to defend. You will also get a shit ton of loot.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

How this got 10/10 and Prey 8/10 is beyond understanding

Here's a hint

 

[Krivol]

Just finished Archolos.

Great game! I wish to play G1 and G2 with all those additional stuff (like cooking, a new method of increasing stats, etc).

 

[Zizka]

How this got 10/10 and Prey 8/10 is beyond understanding

Here's a hint

The main character in Prey was Asian though.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

How this got 10/10 and Prey 8/10 is beyond understanding

Here's a hint

The main character in Prey was Asian though.

Asians are considered to be white for oppression olympics purposes.

 

[Zizka]

Maybe. This being said, I don’t think it got 10/10 because of the black characters. It helped but I think people genuinely think Deathloop is a masterpiece.

Steam does put Deathloop at a lower rating than Prey but the issue is bad optimisation for the pc ports. From what I’ve read, Deathloop would get a higher rating if it weren’t for the port issues.

 

[jackofshadows]

Days Gone. Not a great game objectively speaking by I'm enjoying it a lot so far. The mechanics are solid if generic as fuck but are keeping my interest + eye candy. The story on one hand is the most boring one I've experienced in a vid game ever but on the other - is an interesting take on trad-boy power fantasy? Psst, Codex.

Also a very awkward combination of story telling and an open world but that's alright. Anyway, the more I'm playing, the better the game becomes, what a rare case.

 

[Gaznak]

Having left Throne of Darkness unfinished (despite my first very positive impression the game finally killed me with supertedious party/items management mechanics and too fast-n-jerky characters movement, I can't enjoy slaying hordes of enemies without even noticing their types, names and so on) I now try to play through Slave Zero. Giant robots fighting in futuristic dystopian megapolis? Oh, yea!

Its soundtrack is amazing BTW.

 

[Pentium]

Having left Throne of Darkness unfinished (despite my first very positive impression the game finally killed me with supertedious party/items management mechanics and too fast-n-jerky characters movement, I can't enjoy slaying hordes of enemies without even noticing their types, names and so on)

Dropped out of playing ToD two times. First I accidentally deleted my game folder so I got Recuva to restore at least my savegame file but installed it on the same system partition where I had ToD before (just a small file, it's ok, right?). It worked great, procedure report line: "/savegame file/ overwritten by recuva.exe" lol. The second time I eventually quit for pretty much the same reasons. Played it like Diablo with one char at a time, cycling them as needed as the party combat was zero fun.

 

[jackofshadows]

Finished Days Gone. Impressive game. Too popamoley gameplay in story missions, the cinematics are too long, the hybrid control scheme is annoying as fuck (I'd prefer just to bind everything I need instead of using the goddamned "wheel" or cycle this or that by same bind), the soundtrack immensely sucks which suprised me quite a bit. Plus, there's no ambient or anything like that with a few exceptions which means you ride/walk around in silence most of the time, strange desicion.

However the visuals are top-notch, the shooting/combat animations are very pleasant, I liked most of open-world missions, at first I thought the world is too cramped but looking back I'd say they've chose the right scope, just a shame that many optional missions re-use locations a lot, riding the same roads over and over again isn't fun. But they've designed it with fast-travel in mind, it doesn't work only on the two highest difficulties, unfortunately. Which are quite easy I must say, thanks to cheat-button for controller users, it slows time and allows you to do headshots even if your action skills are lacking.

Probably the best "kill zombies" game I've ever played. Had a lot of fun.

Spoiler

Coz they're all dead anyway, aren't they?

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Though I was never any damn good at RTS, I'm currently playing around with Supreme Commander because, damn it, it looks and feels so right. Waiting for a Steam sale to get the expansion and discover the community.

 

[Keshik]

Trying to knock off the Darkside Detective sequel, two cases in and it's ok, not as funny as the first game but at least the hotspots are easier to see in this version.

 

[Starwars]

I'm attempting Beautiful Desolation again, but I'm having a hard time with it. I liked STASIS, I want to like this game. And I like a lot of the different elements but it just doesn't come together in anything that I find fun to play.