What game are you wasting time on?

[Jack Of Owls]

Sometimes being grossly overpowered in a game can be all kinds of fun. Now generals are something they don't teach you how to make in the in-game tutorials, only in the manual, so I spent a good part of the early game being curb-stomped by every low-level wanna-be dragonguard dick that came along. Omnipotent mage characters were always my favorite to play in NWN so I should play one here. Did you try the Protectors mod? It ended up annoying me to no end because of the difficulty ramp (even on Easy) since they use a severe gimping mechanic (only lvl 1 keeps permitted until you find the upgrades on the map while the enemy factions have no such restrictions) and I wanted the intended experience for my first play through so I went back to vanilla. But it might be a challenge for Warlords Battlecry vets like you that helps cut down on the cheesing.

You should definitely check out the second game. Some people prefer it to the third one despite having less options(or so i heard) and after trying it myself i can see why.
It features a bit more involved level-up system in which your character gain his/her class only at level 2(fighter/rogue/priest/wizard), at level 3 his specialization(Warrior/Barbarian, thief/merchant, necromancer and etc.) and after that can spend points on attributes, skills, perks and spells. Funnily enough, barbarian barbarian is a possible race/class combo.
Avaliable perks depend upon your race and chosen specialty and have stuff ranging from simple "+5 merchant skill" to "triple damage against undead" or "all cavalry are produced in half the time".
The third game kinda simplified the whole system but in turn allowed all of the race/class combinations so you can have your faery fighter.

Second game also features a risk-like campaign in which your chosen warlord must conquer all of the Etheria with difficulty rising as you keep playing the same faction encouraging you to take over enemy citadels in order to command their races in battle.

Yeah, I heard the 2nd game was much more satisfying to play and you got a better feeling of conquest and progression. WB3 kind of makes you feel like you're stagnating or spinning your wheels a bit in regards to the map and the campaign. But everything else feels right and I like the gameplay so much in WB3 I'll probably end up getting 2 at some point. FWIW, there's a mod for WB3 called Conquest Campaign that simulates the Risk-type progression of WBII. Don't know if it's any good or not.

 

[Gaznak]

Blood & Magic turned to be a super cool game. I tried it once long ago and wasn't be able to grasp its coolness that time. Now I'm completely enchanted, and sucked into a Bloodforge. Another proof of the unsurpassable greatness of 90s in gaming history.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Tried to play Thea 2 and I quit within 15 minutes.
As soon as tutorials start popping up everywhere in a game I start losing interest fast. If you have a new tutorial popping up anytime I open a single menu or do something, I'm just going to stop playing.

 

[Abu Antar]

Resonance of Fate. Quite different for better or worse. Combat is fun, but exploration is a mixed bag. Music is okay, and graphics are distinctively Tri-Ace esque.

At some point, might give more meaningful thoughts about the game. I'm currently at chapter 5, might write something when I hit chapter 10.

All I will say for now is that it's a very unique game. I will leave you all with this video (must watch):

 

[Krivol]

Gothic 3... ok, after more than 30 hours I can say this game is too big for itself's good. I mean it's getting more and more repetitive after a while and there is still so much to explore. Also, the main quest is shit. I mean...

I got to Xardas and he said something something blah blah bring some artifacts. No reasoning, explanation, nothing, just 'it's according to my plan!'.

I believe that it will bring some explanations and jaw-flooring plot twists, but so far I am not interested. Meeting Robhar was also like 'blah blah, nice to see you, now go fuck yourself.

Char progression is boring, after learning smithing to 2nd level it seems like there is nothing better to find. Oh, and the idea of 'number of opened chests affects loot' is just stupid! Yes, it helps to avoid breaking the game, but where's the fun in that? You tried different spells and weapons and killed 2 dragons early? So what? You will get a healing root for that and 30 gold!

And even creators knew about those 2 dragons' problem, as MC is saying to Milten that 'Dragons were somehow stupid' :D (that was cool actually).

 

[Rieser]

Tried to play Thea 2 and I quit within 15 minutes.
As soon as tutorials start popping up everywhere in a game I start losing interest fast. If you have a new tutorial popping up anytime I open a single menu or do something, I'm just going to stop playing.

Tried Biomutant the other week and refunded within an hour for the very same reason. Absolutely infuriating mess of a tutorial that forces you to stop playing every other god damn minute to have another inane, ""immersive"" tutorial. Just let me play the damn game and stop treating me like an illiterate retard.

Playing Elden Ring now which has its faults, but certainly not in this regard.

 

[Starwars]

Finished my replay of Toonstruck. Had tons of fun with it and I would probably rate it as one of the funniest games I've played. Holds up very well. The characters are the highlight for me. Always found myself looking forward to the interactions with them and most of them are funny and very well acted.
The gameplay is not great, and kinda bad in some places. The puzzles aren't very good, and some are downright bad. Also, it's a bit unfortunate that the second part of the game is weaker. It's set in a more confined space and, while still funny, doesn't compare at all to the first part where you go to fun places and meet all the great characters.

But still, an amazingly fun time was had. Loved it.

I am now replaying Lamplight City. It's a pretty cool game with a nice feel to it, and it's always nice to play a detective-game. But the "voice in your head" character of Bill really brings down the whole experience. A judgemental, "snarky-humored" character who takes every single opportunity he gets complaining about rich people.
It's a big part of the plot obviously but the character is so annoying that I find it hurts the game. Really wish it had been more of a straight up detective story in that sense because that's the interesting part of the game.

 

[Ezekiel]

Infamous: Second Son is the last PS4 game I still have to beat finish. It has the weirdest HDR I've seen in a game. Just trying to discern things is so difficult all too often, especially at night or when a light source is glowing near you. Looks worse without HDR. Of course they throw all the typical artificial lens crap on top too, which doesn't help the issue. Seems to be covered in dry moisture even when it's not raining.

 

[Krivol]

I dropped Gothic 3 and came back to Archolos - playing as a mage now.

 

[Ivan]

Quite proud of myself for dropping shit that wasn't resonating and gladly recommending shit that did

Dropped: Far Cry 4 (I wanted to like it as much as I did FC3, but I realized that the reason why I enjoyed myself so w/FC3 was b/c of Ziggy's Mod, which made it feel more like Stalker, not like the vanilla casual shit). Immortals Fenix (sounds mechanics, but dragged down by casual Ubisoft progression), The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk (dungeon crawler with slow movement, janky animations, and pretty annoying VO writing). South Park Stick of Truth (novelty wore off quickly, especially once I experienced the boring, common combat, the boring itemization).

Loved: Sagrebrush. Gonna play more of the indies I picked up during bundles recently. Hope to find more hidden gems like Sagebrush. Shorter, more focused affairs.

 

[thesecret1]

I dropped Gothic 3 and came back to Archolos - playing as a mage now.

Yeah, it's hard to play decline right after tasting pure incline.

 

[Kabas]

WBII

Speaking of which, thanks to you i recieved a strong urge to start a warlords battlecry 2 campaign.
Made a Daemon Summoner who summons daemons and succubi who harvest souls for me so that i can have more mana for summoning more daemons.

Already controlling 17 provinces and i am about to crush the pathetic orcish citadel.

They're going to join humans and dwarfs soon.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Loved: Sagrebrush. Gonna play more of the indies I picked up during bundles recently. Hope to find more hidden gems like Sagebrush. Shorter, more focused affairs.

I love movies 'n' shit about cults and how easily manipulated and gullible human sheepoids are and how they can be shaped, bent, twisted, and pounded into mindless minions to do with what you will so I should check this out. It's not a common theme for games.

 

[Utfärd]

On that note I'm replaying the original Floor 13. I like how it not only deals with cults and secret societies but actually acknowledges directly the fact that the entire general population is brainwashed through media manipulation and puppet politicians. Quite unusual. Made in 1991 as well. Game is as excellent as always and it kept me entertained all day yesterday. I really thought I had it in the bag when I suddenly got terminated for a reckless kidnapping of a semi-VIP which attracted far too much attention, this while enjoying a forty point lead in the polls (all because I wanted to finish a prestige assignment for you know who). Real trick is to sit back and let bad things happen while still not dipping into the sub-50 support zone to let the outrage meter decrease, so to speak, reserving heavy assault and kidnapping orders strictly for where they're needed the most.

 

[ferratilis]

Wanted to play some ToEE with CO8 patch. Started the tutorial, went down the ladder to meet the mage (which is what I remember from playing it years ago), instead got teleported to a map with some mean looking ogres, and got insta killed, of course. Don't know whether it's a bug or a feature, but it's interesting nonetheless.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

Ape escape 3, love the gadgets and how each one has a different control scheme, the monkeys are also interesting and have a lot of personality. Love Sayaka, i want to have a daughter now.

It's a shame about what happened at the anniversary.

Shortly after Sony Japan Studios closed down, no new Ape Escape then.

 

[Azalin]

Finished Dusk the retro boomer shooter.I liked it in general,the graphics are made to look like something that came out in the mid 90's,the tone of the game is darker to make it fee a bit like games of that era like Quake,Doom,Hexen etc.The level design was imho good for a modern game and the weapons and enemies were interesting.All in all recommended

 

[Ezekiel]

Finished Second Son.

Hm... Good. One of the better PS4 games I've played. Plays better than Horizon, not as pretentious as what Naughty Dog and Santa Monica did that generation (minus maybe Lost Legacy), doesn't waste as much of your time as Spider-Man with its open world. Feels a little less made by committee. Story and characters are weak, but most of these kinds of games have that in common.

Had all those upgrades left after I finished. That's how sick I am of all the upgrade trees in games, of going through those menus, reading those descriptions and trying to decide, in every game. Boring.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I liked the Infamous series on PS3 myself. My most vivid memories in gaming of being high up on rafters or steel girders looking down at all the baddies I would soon end and feeling immersed came from that game.

Edited: that and Dying Light, of course.

 

[Gamezor]

Still playing salt and sanctuary. I still like it but it’s definitely a metroidvania / souls 2d mashup and as such a map would have been nice. It’s a genre staple in metroidvanias for a reason. Had to break down and look up where to go and it was simplu a passageway I forgot about.

 

[Reever]

Finished Mafia Definitive Edition. I played the first one a little bit when I was young but never really got into the series. Therefore I don't have a point of comparison to know if it's better or worse than the original.
I did enjoy it for the most part. I played it on Classic difficulty which really encourages getting headshots and not just shooting and reloading blindly. I really liked the AI too for the most part. I has faults but it's much better than most AAA games nowadays. The enemies try to peek from cover at different angles and if you focus too much on one guy the others try to flank you and so on.
The story is somewhat generic which is not necessarily a bad thing. You can tell some of the twists a mile away but I didn't mind that much as I'm a sucker for the setting. Speaking of which, the atmosphere is on point and the city is rich with details.
What I didn't like was the movement and in general the controls. It feels very stiff at times and I think that's a case of consolitis. I've also had my fair share of bugs, some of them extremely annoying.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

I just started playing Dollhouse. It's presentation is... extremely Bioshockish. Everything down to the title introduction looks like it was ripped directly from Bioshock. And the load times are over a minute long. Sheesh. I have a feeling this one is gonna be a real stinker. Good thing I only paid $3 for it.

I don't even know what is happening. Wtf is this game?

 

[Fedora Master]

Having just finished Storm of Zehir for Neverwinter Nights 2:

- With some mods and such the game works well enough for such a janky engine. Even the camera can be wrangled, but it'll take time.
- Zehir tried some interesting things but never really develops room to breathe. The merchant company stuff is still more interesting and profitable crunch-wise than the stuff from Owlcat games though. Other than that the overall smaller dungeons are appreciated, as are the odd-ball features like Teamwork feats. The way the campaign tries to offer something for every skill is certainly welcomed. I think you can legitimately make a pure skillmonkey character in this and do well. The lack of stand-out gear is disappointing but I suppose if you want to really min-max you have to craft that shit yourself.
- With Kaedrin's PRC Pack you get a TON of new stuff to play around with, it almost leads to decision paralysis. My party consisted of a pure cleric, a bard/stormsinger (kinda useless), a barb/fighter, a ninja and a warlock. The ninja especially presented an interesting mix of instant-use abilities and straight damage from sneak attack. Also very flavorful. You can go invisible at will, can see ghosts, cast blur and so forth. Solid. The Warlock/Child of Night was so-so. Tentacles and Acid Webs forever and ever were certainly appreciated but it takes a lot to micro them correctly. Not optimal, but not bad. Certainly enjoyed playing them and felt flavorful.

I almost feel like playing MotB again.

 

[SumDrunkGuy]

It only took about 20 minutes for Dollhouse to give me brain cancer so I started playing The Sinking City instead. I'm really loving the atmosphere and I already feel invested in the world. The shooting is horrible and the framerate is sub 30 at all times and the movement is atrocious and I have resorted to beating enemies to death because my bullets seem to fly in the opposite direction of their target. Still having fun though.

I just realized it's extremely easy to exploit stuff in this game. I have decided to roleplay as a psychopath detective. I took a bribe from a fish man and then ratted him out anyway for further profits, AHAHA!

 

[CaffeineConquistador]

Playing Witcher 1, vanilla with some bug fix mods. I tried some graphics packs and stuff just bugged out constantly. I might try another run with everything just dumped into the /data/override folder and see what sticks. Rise of the White Wolf changes the UI despite me telling it not too. Grrr. But beyond that the game looks better than I remember in the 2000s.

Chapters 1-2 were a slog. The only good thing out of Ch 1 was Zoltan and the ending. Ch2, the investigation was neat and more complex than I initially thought, but FFS Kalkstein should've been charged by the hour, as well as prorated for all the crap Geralt had to do. Fuck that guy. Ch3....this is where I'm at now and the game seems to finally be opening up. Game is piss easy so far, but the soundtrack and plot make up for it.