What game are you wasting time on?

[AndyS]

Tomb Raider 2. I hated the Venice level but I've settled in with this pretty well since. Still too much combat for a game engine that really isn't designed for it. It also always bugs me when a protagonist dual-wields pistols but doesn't use them like a John Woo hero would (i.e., the main reason dual-wielding pistols was such a thing in the 90s). What I like about the series is the exploration and the deliberate way you have to set up to make long jumps and such.

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus. A well-regarded 3D platformer but I think I might drop it because it's actually kind of boring to me. There's nothing that I can pinpoint as being obviously wrong with it, but I keep forgetting that I'm in the middle of it. Bland in the way that 1990s kids stuff was, I guess.

 

[WaterDrinker]

I'm hoping to finish up Metroid Dreadful tonight so I can finally try out the Link's Awakening remake or update or whatever you wanna call it. I'm getting sick of Metroid Dreadful's bullshit. It's a Metroid game in name only. Metroid Prime 4 better be the real deal or I think I'll be done with that franchise for good.

 

[d1r]

Got some free time lately.

Back to play-, eh, modding Fallout New Vegas: Tales of Two Wastelands. Modding scene is still very active, with a lot of new animation mods being released each week. Apparently you can assign animations to each weapon individually now, which opens up a lot of new animation possibilities, such as this satisfying reload animation:

 

[deuxhero]

Fire Emblem 6 with Mangs balance patch.

The patch mitigates some of the most egregious balance issues the game had, but little more. Backporting the better balanced weapon stats of FE7 helps the enemy a bit, but does a lot to free the game of coming down to very middle of the road RNG. The fix don't really make any awful units truly worth using (maybe one of the fighters), though a good chunk of the aggressively mediocre units (Raigh, Fir and, to a lesser degree, Trec get the push they need to warrant a team slot. Roy is way better with only minimal stat buffs thanks to the indirect buffs of triple effective rapier, faster supports when he already had some of the faster supports in the game and getting a promotion at a somewhat reasonable time, Echidna and mid-game Dieck also work better thanks to less awful axes) are certainly much way better. Notably Chad and Shanna are untouched, because their early utility still makes them high tier units, even though there's no reason to use Shanna after her sister joins, and minimal reason to use Chad when you get your second thief (Chad can recruit a unit, and there's a few chapters multiple thieves can be useful in). Alen and Lance's viability is still at the whim of the RNG.

Lack of ambush spawns rids the game of a lot of its most frustrating moments, though being an extra turn away renders many of those that spawn behind you pointless. The extra promotion items were definitely needed, though I've reached the desert and have yet to find any extra guiding rings (the most needed). There's two minimal changes I'm surprised didn't make it though: Thrones/gates aren't nerfed, while Gonzalez and Perceval really should have the same bases regardless of what chapter they're recruited in (at least before hard mode bonuses).

The patch makes two mildly controversial changes. Firstly it swaps the recruitment of two units. It makes perfect mechanical sense: It frees you of a character who winds up being an escortee in her introduction chapter, and the existing plot gives plenty of reason to stall her joining, and in exchange gives a unit who really should be fighting in that level and gives her a minor exclusive buff that makes sense. She just kinda appears due to lack of plot edits, but it works fine. Also adds some more devil axes among enemies, which doesn't really do anything but can be mildly amusing.

 

[Kabas]

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2.
Can be real troublesome to get working,but it truly is one of the best games of all time. I'll play Mysteries of the Sith once I finish Dark Forces 2.

Only played the Jedi Academy before and just started playing this. First two levels on Nar Shadaa and i am already given a few opportunities to flank my enemies via clever level design.
Controls are a bit wonky though

 

[NecroLord]

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces 2.
Can be real troublesome to get working,but it truly is one of the best games of all time. I'll play Mysteries of the Sith once I finish Dark Forces 2.

Only played the Jedi Academy before and just started playing this. First two levels on Nar Shadaa and i am already given a few opportunities to flank my enemies via clever level design.
Controls are a bit wonky though

Nice!
Was it difficult to get it to run on your system?

 

[Kabas]

Was it difficult to get it to run on your system?

I am using a gog version.
It works. No widescreen and i failed to figure out how to reverse up/down for mouse control, but it works.

 

[Lady Error]

Playing Pacific General (1997), a TB war strategy gaem where you can play the Yanks or the Japs during WW2 in the Pacific. Pretty good stuff and each map takes an ungodly amount of time to finish. It is basically the more naval combat oriented Panzer General sequel.

 

[NecroLord]

Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith. A killer expansion(arguably its even a game in its own right). You get to play as Mara Jade,one of the most beloved Star Wars EU characters created by Timothy Zahn. The last few missions have you explore an ancient Sith Temple on Dromund Kaas. Really creepy,dark atmosphere,but some very tough enemies. Level design is great across the board,lots of secret areas.
RIP LucasArts. We won't see games like these anymore. Just soulless products and mockeries of what was once Star Wars,made by Disney.

 

[Abu Antar]

I unlocked miniguns, and stole flamethrowers in Syndicate. Half the world is mine, and my grunts are now upgraded to a good degree. Chaos and mayhem awaits the rest of the world. Levels are way more fun now than they are in the early game, but I suppose it's okay to slowly be introduced to more complex levels gradually.


I also spent about 25 minutes beating a short Humble Choice game titled THOR.N. Not much to say about it, pther than it was decent satire.

Grimoire is beaten after 85 hours. It was a wild ride. I liked the exploration, most of the graphics, atmosphere, big party size, usefulness of status ailments, and combat was fun, but has a few flaws (imo). What could improve is the graphical consistency, but I can accept why not everything is consistent, considering the long development time. While combat was fun, I was very annoyed by the one shotting enemies, speed is too important in the late game. Rolled initiative? No? prepare to reload if massacred. Rolled initiative? Yes? massacre the enemy.
Would I play a sequel? Yes, it was good enough that I would play a sequel.

What am I playing now? Solasta every now and then, and I am finally playing the last game on my PS3, TLOH: Cold Steel II. Just like the first game, I like most things except the cringy small girls. There's one whose design is really embarrassing. She's supposed to be 14 or 15, don't remember. There's also a cringy scene where you first meet her, and I was like "don't do it..." and she did what I was hoping would not happen. I'm looking forward to see where the overall story goes, though. At least, that part interests me, and combat is fun. Some characters are interesting, and you can always chose to not use the annoying characters all the time. Great music, and the graphics are a mixed bag. From a technical perspective, the series was nevver a looker, but the environmental design is pretty cool.

 

[Ivan]

Disco Elysium: 20-30 hours in or so (Day 4)

finally getting around to playing this and I'm having a wonderful time. It's the first game that really nails the internal monologue that we're blessed/plagued by. Those funny voices that visit you when you pick up a kitchen knife (just me?). I've loved the little human storylines that are peppered throughout the overworld (the "working woman" quest was phenomenal), the writing I'd describe as personable and does a great job of grounding the characters you meet. The expositional dialogue is a bit much, especially if you're skilled in Encyclopedia or entertain some of the NPCs that love to hear themselves talk.

Cons: the sound is quite poor, especially environmental sound. The navigation is a bit of a pain as well, makes me wish the run/sprint was faster. I find the switching of clothing items tedious as well, as what you're looking at are the stat bonuses, not the clothing items themselves. The thought cabinet is also a bit underwhelming since it doesn't add to the dialogue options (at least I haven't noticed this to be the case, I think it would have been an awesome addition to have more "build variety").

 

[Machocruz]

Grinding my life away in Conan Exiles, which I have returned to after a couple month's hiatus. The game has its issues, but damn if it isn't addicting. The single-player mode just needs a bit more direction (along the lines of Subnautica or Breath of the Wild) and content (e.g. a couple more friendly cities on the map) and it would be one of the greatest open world RP/survival games ever made.

Trying a "demo" of Rimworld. It's good but after having played Dwarf Fortress to death, I'm a little underwhelmed because of the lesser complexity and detail. Someone said DF is a better simulation, but RW is a better game, and I can agree with that, but still feels like I've done all this before and then some. Z layers and fluid dynamics would make it a lot more interesting, but it is what it is. I'll play this for 30 minute spurts here and there.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

The thought cabinet is also a bit underwhelming since it doesn't add to the dialogue options (at least I haven't noticed this to be the case, I think it would have been an awesome addition to have more "build variety").

There are a few thoughts that add a substantial amount of fluff dialogue, such as The Litany of Contact Mike, but it's possible to miss the trigger that will add them to the Thought Cabinet.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I finished Voyage: Journey to the Moon by Microids. Loosely based on stuff by Jules Verne, it follows Michel Ardan's journey to the moon in a 19th century space capsule. There he finds intelligent life, some ruins and lots of plant life. Atmosphere wise it reminds me a little of The Dig, it's got the same feeling of the world feeling properly alien, especially in the beginning when you start to explore it.

It's a fun adventure game in general, and it's also fairly impressive in more than one way. It's got a shitton of optional content and alternative ways to accomplish your goals, as well as a Sierra-style score. It even has a fairly elegant way of giving you things you may potentially be unable to figure out yourself, which I thought was better than a full-blown hint system that would tell you the solutions to puzzles instead.

It also made me realise how ridiculous it is that in almost all adventure games out there, you can only combine two items at a time. Usually the way it works in other games is that you first combine a+b to get ab, and then combine ab+c to get abc. But here you can even combine four things at a time.

That said, as can be expected of Microids, some of the puzzles can be really mind-boggling, and with a few it was particularly frustrating when I knew EXACTLY what I needed to solve something, but the game was being stupid about it. The item combination stuff can also get tiresome in the long run when you have to combine the same stupid fruit of 4 colours among themselves for the umpteenth time - by the end I had enough of it to a degree where I just decided to finish the game instead of pursuing the few optional objectives I knew I had left.

The "basic" path to winning is pretty reasonable though, and with a little patience you should never need to look up a walkthrough to get through it.

Started playing this and it instantly reminded me of Return to Mysterious Island (I recommend it if you haven't played it yet, there's a sequel but I've never played it) - not surprising since it's by the same developers - not Microids, but Kheops. The inventory puzzles work much the same way, and that game was pretty interesting and flexible in its solutions as well.

I remember that game did get a little tiresome towards the end but it was finishable. I'll keep playing this one, too.

 

[Darth Roxor]

(I recommend it if you haven't played it yet, there's a sequel but I've never played it)

A fellow who first recommended Voyage to me also mentioned Return to Mysterious Island, but I can't get it to run properly. The game bugs out each time I try to combine items in the inventory, and I haven't found any solution to this on the net.

 

[The Decline]

Played through Nightmare of Decay story mode, really nice survival horror throwback, but with the first person perspective twist. Now I'm playing Breathedge. Just go to the part where you can start building habitats. I heard that after a certain point the game kind of throws the whole building aspect out the window so I'm not sure I care to do anything more than the bare minimum.

I had put in over 250 hours in Terratech, the modding scene really expands upon both the building aspect and enemy AI. Vanilla has the enemy just drop from the sky once in a while to attack you or spawn during missions. The AI mod has them start building bases and understanding how to pilot flying tech.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Was Nightmare of Decay originally a HL mod? It kind of looks it.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

I'm playing Huniepop.

 

[Great Deceiver]

(I recommend it if you haven't played it yet, there's a sequel but I've never played it)

A fellow who first recommended Voyage to me also mentioned Return to Mysterious Island, but I can't get it to run properly. The game bugs out each time I try to combine items in the inventory, and I haven't found any solution to this on the net.

I'll try running it on my machine and will get back to you

Edit: GOG version works perfectly, inventory is fine, combining items is fine. I'm running Win 10. What's your setup?

 

[Darth Roxor]

I tried both steam and gog versions and neither works. I'm also on W10.

Searching around the internets it seems I'm not the only one with this problem either, and there's only one place where I found someone offering a, reportedly, working solution, but it doesn't work for me either:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/277110/discussions/0/2987537248815858103/

I also tried messing with all the settings and configs I could think of to no avail.

 

[NecroLord]

Been continuing the Jedi Knight series. Jedi Outcast,while not as good as its predecessor Dark Forces 2,is still a great game. The lightsaber combat also set a wonderful precedent in the modding community(particularly Movie Battles).

 

[Mega Black]

I finally got around to playing Cyberpunk this month. It's been patched up to a mostly playable state, and I enjoyed my sixty or so hours with it. The game makes probably the absolute worst first impression of any open world RPG I've ever played, and I'd argue that was worse at keeping me from getting more than five hours in than anything else. The game's still got problems, and lacks features that really should have been there from the start, but when it hits it really hits.

I'm looking forward to going back in with the DLC, I'm surprised they got Keanu back for it, I figured they probably couldn't afford him but maybe he was feeling generous, or CD Projekt decided to spend the rest of the shekels they got from the Polish government on him. Who knows?

 

[Just Locus]

currently having fun with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, been really enjoying the swordplay and I'm currently stuck in sword saint Isshin, But I'll win eventually.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I've been playing Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch on PC. I had always wanted to play it ever since it came out for the PS3 like 10 years ago, but I didn't own one at the time and for some reason or another I've been putting it off until now.

The PC port (released in 2019) is great of course. Higher resolutions really benefit the game's cel-shaded graphic style. Though simple, the graphics have a ton of personality and translate the Studio Ghibli feel very well. As a bonus, it supports uncapped framerates, always a plus in any game.

I'm not crazy about the gameplay, sadly. It has a sort of hybrid turn-based/realtime combat system that doesn't seem very good. You can summon familiars in battle who will fight for you. The overland adventuring part is fine, reminds me of Dragon's Quest a little bit. There's a good variety of monsters and environments, at least so far.

However, the game is so immensely charming that the somewhat poor gameplay doesn't bother me that much. It manages to pull off a whimsical fairytale atmosphere very well. Another great aspect is its journal system, called the Wizard's Companion. It has the usual stuff, information about monsters, spells, some lore, etc. However, it is presented in an amazing visual style and the writing quality on it is surprisingly good. I have more fun going through it than actually playing sometimes.

The soundtrack, by Ghibli's longtime composer Joe Hisaishi, is very good. Instantly recognizable style, and great heartfelt compositions so far. There's a lot of original Ghibli animation, too, which is great.

I think this would appeal to younger and older, more patient players who like fairytales and Ghibli in general. However, people who can't look past the somewhat subpar gameplay might have some trouble enjoying it.

In any case, it's much better than the second game, which I played on release, and which seemed to have none of the soul/charm of the original.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I ended up quitting that one at the snow area. The combat you pointed out was too slow and boring. Beautiful game though. Would love to give it another shot on PC.