What game are you wasting time on?

[udm]

48 hours into Ctrl Alt Ego, almost at the end. What an experience. Highly recommended to people who enjoy games like System Shock 2 and Deus Ex.

 

[Brimruk]

Just finished Baldur's Gate 1

I just started a new run with a mage (I've finished the game multiple times since release but I'm not a munchkin and never optimized any builds. Also I always play fighters or paladins in D&D and never finished BG on a Mage MC), but I decided to give everyone darts and it's pretty hilarious early on (only up to Beregost so far)

Braver man than I! (I've never run a mage MC in an IE game, generally stick to fighter/ranger types as my mastery of the spellbooks is still minimal)

Darts are amazing, makes me think about building a character that can put more than one pip into MW...3 attacks per round + low THAC0 + Darts of Wounding!

 

[Melcar]

Just finished Baldur's Gate 1

I just started a new run with a mage (I've finished the game multiple times since release but I'm not a munchkin and never optimized any builds. Also I always play fighters or paladins in D&D and never finished BG on a Mage MC), but I decided to give everyone darts and it's pretty hilarious early on (only up to Beregost so far)

Braver man than I! (I've never run a mage MC in an IE game, generally stick to fighter/ranger types as my mastery of the spellbooks is still minimal)

Darts are amazing, makes me think about building a character that can put more than one pip into MW...3 attacks per round + low THAC0 + Darts of Wounding!

Darts were very fun to play in the original BG. Bioware changed damage bonuses for ranged weapons like darts and slings to ignore STR, so those were kind of shit in the sequel. Slings were especially overpowered as they did blunt damage. I don't remember if the base 3 attacks per round of darts stacked with BG's original Grand Mastery bonuses.

 

[Average Manatee]

Slings use strength, I think its only Darts that were shafted somehow. I guess it kind of makes sense, a dart is a small thing and very hard to throw harder if you are stronger? Still an unneeded nerf. APR bonuses do stack though I thought you couldn't get Grandmastery in BG1?

As usual, the problem is getting and carrying around enough darts. Especially if you're throwing 3+ a round. A hasted character with specialization would be throwing 4.5 a round.

 

[Raghar]

Currently playing Outward and listening to Gonzalo Lira, and other crazy people on background.

 

[Melcar]

Slings use strength, I think its only Darts that were shafted somehow. I guess it kind of makes sense, a dart is a small thing and very hard to throw harder if you are stronger? Still an unneeded nerf. APR bonuses do stack though I thought you couldn't get Grandmastery in BG1?

As usual, the problem is getting and carrying around enough darts. Especially if you're throwing 3+ a round. A hasted character with specialization would be throwing 4.5 a round.

Pretty sure in original SoA without fixpacks slings got nerfed. In fact, there was a magic sling that gave STR bonuses as part of its enchantment.
Removing the XP cap allowed you to progress, but it obviously broke the game. Tweaks like expanded and true AD&D THACO tables were needed.

 

[Average Manatee]

Pretty sure in original SoA without fixpacks slings got nerfed. In fact, there was a magic sling that gave STR bonuses as part of its enchantment.
Removing the XP cap allowed you to progress, but it obviously broke the game. Tweaks like expanded and true AD&D THACO tables were needed.

Don't have original SoA to load up to check, but:

https://sorcerers.net/community/threads/comparing-the-three-best-slings-wrt-strength.21109/

I don't think you could get the 5th proficiency point in BG1 OG regardless. I know because you *could* get enough proficiency points to get Grandmastery if you dual classed Fighter->Thief after getting your 3rd or 4th proficiency you could reactivate your fighter levels and then get another 2/1 proficiency points, but you couldn't max out Grandmastery in BG1. The game just wouldn't let you assign it in the level up screen. So you'd need both an XP mod and a weapon proficiency mod. You can use this trick to get grandmastery in BG1EE though.

 

[octavius]

Too bad there's no Darts of Hornet's Nest in the IE games. They were fun in the Gold Box games.

 

[GhostCow]

Just finished Sonic Frontiers. A lot of people who haven't played it seem to enjoy shitting on it, but for me this was the best 3d Sonic game to date. I could write a decent review on it, but this user on the Steam forums already nailed it:

The open world provides a new way to really enjoy Sonic's Speed. Being able to get from one end of an island the size of Xenoblade maps to the other in mere minutes, alongside finding ways to make that even faster is exhilarating, and truly shows off Sonic's touted speed in a way not possible in any other format previously.

This is also combined with the fact that the game's flags are generally loosely coupled, allowing you to approach progression as you want.

Want to do the mini challenges on the island? Sure! Want to shortcut them by breaking or skipping those challenges if you have the ingenuity and control? Why not! Beat enemies for resources instead? Of course! Skip all of it because Big the Cat is broken? We won't stop you!

And all of those things are things the series provided as gameplay, just now in a large abundance strewn about a map that I can play at my leisure.

tl;dr Game gives me goals and Sonic's speed in a large map, a lot of ways to solve those goals thanks to the large map, doesn't care how I accomplish those goals, only that I do. The game let's me have fun as I want.

9/10 from me.

 

[NecroLord]

Slings use strength, I think its only Darts that were shafted somehow. I guess it kind of makes sense, a dart is a small thing and very hard to throw harder if you are stronger? Still an unneeded nerf. APR bonuses do stack though I thought you couldn't get Grandmastery in BG1?

As usual, the problem is getting and carrying around enough darts. Especially if you're throwing 3+ a round. A hasted character with specialization would be throwing 4.5 a round.

Pretty sure in original SoA without fixpacks slings got nerfed. In fact, there was a magic sling that gave STR bonuses as part of its enchantment.
Removing the XP cap allowed you to progress, but it obviously broke the game. Tweaks like expanded and true AD&D THACO tables were needed.

Not only that, but weapon grandmastery is also nerfed. You do not get an additional attack per round and bonus to damage rolls. You have to install mods for that(most likely atweaks).

 

[antimeridian]

Tried out Star Wars: Republic Commando, wasn't crazy about it. I generally like the Clone Wars era and love the idea of a clone-focused space 'Nam shooter, but the shooting itself felt awful - like a bad Halo clone. Levels are small and tightly scripted, the original Xbox's limitations are very apparent. Doesn't help that I couldn't get the game running optimally despite quite a bit of messing around with community patches, capping fps, mouse fix etc. Oh well, on to the next backlog game...

 

[fork]

I wish I had a game to waste time on.
But everything old I've played to death, and everything new is shit.

 

[Catacombs]

Elden Ring

Trying to see what all the hype's about. I'm nearly 10 hours in at the moment.

 

[Average Manatee]

Playing Resident Evil Village. Not gonna post my experience here be cause it'd be a way too long rant about how the game is so poorly designed and has one of the dumbest fights I've ever had to do in a game, but if you're interested go to the RE:V thread https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-featuring-giant-vampire-milfs.133442/page-46.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing some Far Cry 2 with the Far Cry 2 Realism+ Redux mod.

Far Cry 2 is an interesting game. It's much less popamole than later entries, there are a lot of annoying mechanics, but it feels like a cool experiment. There is fire propagation, some attempt at realistic physics, stealth is actually hard, weapons can jam, etc.

I like the setting of a war-torn African country, too. Much better than later scenarios, which felt unbelievably forced.

Fun so far. I remember playing FC2 on release and not liking it as much as the first game, but given how far things have declined in the past decade, it's like a breath of fresh air. Plus, the entire game is like 2gb. Recent Far Crys are like 100gb, it's a joke.

The mod itself is cool. It takes away the arrow on the map, so you have to kind of learn how to orient yourself. It takes away the piss filter the game originally had and there's a ton of gameplay changes. Sadly there's a 60fps cap, as higher framerates fuck the physics up.

Here's a list of changes:

Improved graphics

• No more brown filter - the in-game saturation has been boosted to give Far Cry 2 with vibrant colours. No Reshade needed! (New)
• 60 FPS cap - prevents various bugs. (Both, credit to Fox Ahead)
• Removed rim lighting - the blue light at night that makes the player look like an alien. (Both)
• Lifetime of most decals maintained at default values. (Realism+)
• Increased number of physics items. (Redux)

The following graphics settings have been improved, the default settings for these have been moved down a tier, so Ultra High is now Very High, High is now Medium etc: (Realism+)

Geometry (Ultra High) - This setting has a huge performance impact. Turn this down to Very High if you have low fps!

• Increased draw distance for trees.
• Increased draw distance for minor terrain details (rocks etc).
• Enhanced LOD for objects/trees/vegetation.
• 8x max number of decals (bullet holes etc).

Geometry (Very High) - This setting replaces the original ultra high setting as it has a small 1-2 fps impact.

• Increased draw distance for trees.
• Enhanced LOD for objects/trees/vegetation.
• 4x max number of decals (bullet holes etc).

Shadows (Improvements have been added to every setting)

• Softer, more realistic shadows.
• Trees and vegetation cast more shadows.
• The original game had a line ~10m from the player where high quality shadows became low quality shadows. This has been fixed.

Ambient (High)

• Increased draw distance for static shadows.

Terrain (Ultra High)

• Enhanced terrain LOD.

New textures

• AI-Enhanced textures for the UI/HUD, weapons, vehicles, and small objects such as posters, billboards and other minor world details. (Realism+)
• Road signs have a new a high resolution hand-painted style font. New signs have been created for weapon shops and safehouses. Weapon shop road signs are no longer green. (Realism+)
• Hand-drawn map icons in the style of the originals. (Realism+)
• Detailed, full-colour weapon icons, made using pre-existing game art. (Realism+)
• Syrette icon is now an actual syrette, not a syringe. (Realism+)
• M16 is now black, and the FAL’s stock and grip are wooden. (Redux)

Weapon improvements

• Extra gadget slot for the flare gun, accessible by pressing the machete button twice. (Redux)
• Weapons can be holstered by pressing 'n' on keyboard (rebindable). Most actions will holster your weapon automatically, exceptions being healing or throwing grenades which will lead to your weapon being drawn. (Redux). On controller weapons can be holstered by holding Y. (Realism+)
• Weapons can be inspected by pressing ‘i’ on keyboard (rebindable). (Redux). On controller weapons can be inspected by holding X. (Realism+)
• Weapon animations have been tweaked so weapons are held lower when standing, and are fully lowered (safe zone style) when crouched. (Redux)
• Weapons found in safehouses (mission related, not from safehouse weapon crates) are now in better condition. They now have 50% durability remaining, increased from the default 25% durability remaining. (Realism+)
• Weapons do not automatically reload. (Redux)
• Increased ironsight FOV. (Realism+)
• Weapons have been renamed to have names realistic to their real world versions. (Redux)
• DLC weapons have been added to the ammo upgrades. (Realism+)
• DLC weapons are more reliable and accurate to account for them lacking performance upgrades. (Realism+)
• The flare gun is available to purchase during the tutorial, and has been removed as a reward from convoy mission 1. (Redux)
• AR-16's sight has a red dot. (Both)
• Sawed-off shotgun uses shotgun ammo. (Both)
• The MP5's ammo upgrade has been changed to the light assault webbing and it now gets ammo pickups from the other SMGs. (New)

Weapon rebalances

Machete

• 'Creeping' has been added to the machete so you can walk at half speed by holding the iron sight button. (Realism+)
• Machete stealth kills aren’t silent. (Redux)

Pistols (Realism+)

• Makarov & Silenced Makarov - +25% damage, 3x max ammo, magazine size increased to 12, -15% accuracy.
• Star .45 - +40% damage, 3x max ammo, +33% effective range.
• Desert Eagle - +50% damage, 2x recoil.

SMGs (Realism+)

• The MP5 is automatically available at the start of Act 2. The Uzi is available as a reward from convoy mission 4 and the SVD is available as a reward from convoy mission 3. This has been done because the MP5 is the best silenced weapon and moving it to Act 2 means the silent shotgun has more of a purpose.
• MAC-10, Uzi, MP5 - +50% recoil.

Shotguns (Realism+)

• All shotguns are more accurate with improved effective range.
• SPAS12 - reduced magazine size to 9.
• Silenced shotgun - reduced magazine size to 4.

Assault rifles

• All assault rifles effective range increased by 33%. (Realism+)
• G3KA4 and FAL magazine sizes corrected to realistic 20 round capacity (Redux)
• AR-16 - Now fully automatic (Both), +15% accuracy. (Realism+)
• Golden AK-47 - -50% Recoil. (Realism+)

LMGs (Realism+)

• PKM recoil reduced by 20%.

Flamethrower

• Flamethrower range tripled to 30m. (Realism+)
• Various tweaks to make enemies use flamethrowers more effectively. (Redux)

Rocket launchers (Realism+)

• RPG/Carl G - Rocket speed increased 2x.

Explosive crossbow (Realism+)

• Crossbow projectile speed increased 2x, projectiles fire in an arc.
• Crossbow ammo increased (+1 infamous, +2 hardcore/normal, +3 easy).

Mortar (Realism+)

• Mortar max ammo increased by 50%.

Vehicle improvements

• Vehicle and boat speed increased, reduced the damage vehicles take from crashes. (Realism+)
• Permanent windshield bullet holes. (Both)
• DLC vehicles come in a variety of colours. (Both)
• Improved hang glider stability when shot - you will lose some control and altitude but only be pushed into a nose dive under very heavy fire. (Realism+)
• Increased look angle for the swamp boats so you can look behind you while driving. (Realism+)
• Added 'v' as a dedicated keyboard button to look back when driving (rebindable). (Realism+)

Weapon/Upgrade shop improvements

• Reorganised shop so the order of everything makes more sense (unfortunately this has broken the Upgrades section of the pause menu, you need to use the shop computer to see which upgrades you have bought). (Realism+)
• All ammo, health and repair upgrades are available early in the game. (Both)
• Weapons in the armoury don't respawn instantly - there will be fresh stock next time you visit. (Both)
• New vehicle upgrades have been added for the DLC vehicles. (Realism+)

Gameplay improvements

• Deadly combat - Increased player (Redux) and enemy damage (Realism+).
• Increased range for outpost respawns - featuring Scubrah's 'Functional Outposts' mod. Once all the enemies in an outpost have been killed a one hour timer begins, and the outpost enemies and resources will respawn after this time. We have removed the on-screen popup that comes up when each outpost’s enemies are dead, make sure they’re all dead!
• Infamous Redux and Hardcore Redux difficulties – These are based on the default infamous difficulty except they have the same ammo as normal difficulty. Hardcore Redux has the same damage values as default Infamous difficulty, and Infamous Redux has increased enemy damage for experienced players. (New)
• Limited navigation - removed the player arrow from the map and other map/GPS/road sign tweaks for an extra immersive experience. (Redux)
• Play as the female mercenaries. (Both)
• Play as an 'Anonymous Mercenary', randomly generated using the same system that generates enemies. (Realism+)
• Improved player agility - Increased stamina (Realism+), increased sprint speed (Realism+), reduced sprint turn penalty (Realism+), increased jump height (Realism+), increased slop climbing capability (Realism+), reduced fall damage (New Mix)
• Reduced stamina drain when exploring the desert. (Realism+)
• Improved stealth - reduced enemy perception pre-combat by 20%. (Realism+)
• Controls changes – ‘Tab’ now uses the map, tap ‘Shift’ to sprint. (Redux)
• Changed the malaria pill animation to an existing rare animation, where the player pours out two pills and puts one back. (Realism+)
• The HUD fades out 3x faster. (Redux)
• Reduced monocular sensitivity. (Both)
• Briefcases that previously contained one diamond now contain two. (Realism+)
• Explosive barrels now start fires. (Realism+)

Enemy and Buddy improvements

• Enhanced enemy arsenal - enemies can use almost every weapon and go through loadout progressions over the course of the game. (New Mix – Based on Realism+ but with reduced silencers and increased flamethrowers from Redux)
• Buddies also use more weapons and will go through their own progression curves. (Realism+)
• New buddy rescue – The Dogon Village buddy rescue in map 2 has been replaced with the Black Mamba rescue, found in a wrecked train in the North-West desert. (Redux, credit to Lasercar)
• Enemy infighting - patrols and camps will fight each other. (Redux)
• Enemies shout out and communicate more often during combat. (Redux)
• Patrol vehicles have been swapped to a more interesting variety and they now include the ATV and utility truck. (New Mix)
• Specops enemies now have a unique appearance fitting for being 'foreign commandos'. (Realism+)
• More unpredictable enemies - behaviours such as rescuing injured comrades, using mounted weapons or closing distance using vehicles are no longer guaranteed to occur. (New Mix)
• The chance for enemies to chase you when driving through checkpoints has been reduced to 25%. (New Mix)

Bug fixes

• A new game executable is included that has been patched to use 4GB of RAM, this improves load times and game stability. (Realism+)
• Restored missing big truck engine sounds. (Both)
• Restored missing critical healing animations on Infamous difficulty. (Both)
• Fixed bouncing NPCs. (Both, credit to Fox Ahead)
• Fixed the silent phone call bug (mostly, use DirectX 9). (Both)
• Fixed being able to see the edges of your arms when using the hang glider. (Realism+)
• Fixed the hang glider bouncing on water - it is now buoyant and you can climb onto it while it is floating. (Realism+)
• Fixed assassination targets having the same vision as snipers. (Realism+)
• Fixed a sniper that often gets stuck inside a rock in map 2, at the ammunition outpost between the Crash Site and Sepoko. They are now stood next to the rocket enemy at the same outpost. (Realism+)
• Fixed the MAC-10 being silent. (Realism+)
• Fixed mouse speed clamping. (Both)
• Improved a slight misalignment of the vehicle GPS. (Realism+)

 

[antimeridian]

Been playing some Far Cry 2 with the Far Cry 2 Realism+ Redux mod.

Brother, if you have a HFR display you can cap the frame rate at ~90 fps without any issues - at least, I played a ton at 90 fps and didn't have the bouncing NPCs and other bugs. Seems to be a problem at 100+ fps but you should be able to go above 60. I am not sure how the mod implements the cap, so you might not be able to remove it sadly. Might be worth poking around the config files, though.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing some Far Cry 2 with the Far Cry 2 Realism+ Redux mod.

Brother, if you have a HFR display you can cap the frame rate at ~90 fps without any issues - at least, I played a ton at 90 fps and didn't have the bouncing NPCs and other bugs. Seems to be a problem at 100+ fps but you should be able to go above 60. I am not sure how the mod implements the cap, so you might not be able to remove it sadly. Might be worth poking around the config files, though.

There's a launcher that comes with the mod, I can set max fps from there but they don't recommend going above 60. I'll give it a try at 90. Thanks!

 

[Dr1f7]

Elden Ring

Trying to see what all the hype's about. I'm nearly 10 hours in at the moment.

I'm so sick of souls games at this point honestly but it's a good souls game. that's really all there is to it

 

[Kabas]

Finished Doom 2

That would not make into my list of enjoyable final bosses. Only one new weapon feels like a small addition for a sequel but the new enemies are making up for it.
Now i am thinking about what to play next.

Quake made me want to try another similar game, so i gave Hexen 2 a try. Heard that these games are notorious for confusing level design.

Dig the environments and absolutely adore how necromancer pulls out a book as his first real weapon.
А bit of backtracking here though. There is this book that tells you that you need saint's bones grinded into dust. You would think that after finding them saint's bones your next destination should be the mill, but apparently it's not, as the key to mill is hidden in the completely different location.
Gog version supports high resolutions but i wanted a bit more crispy experience. Found this Hammer of Thyrion sourceport that looks good, but unfortunately i run into some problems with it like lack of music or character getting stuck in the grass.
Will put this game on hold for now, maybe i should try the first game first? Or even better, Heretic?

Another game i tried is Blood. Just beaten the first 3 levels. Getting my ass kicked so far.

It's amazing! Looks and plays great, i also like how you can jump on enemy's heads.
Only run into one issue. I am playing it on BuildGDX and i noticed some weird slowdowns after a few reloads, one time the game even crashed. Maybe i should try playing on something else?

All in all, i am not running out of games to play in the forseeable future.

 

[HansDampf]

Finished Doom 2

That would not make into my list of enjoyable final bosses. Only one new weapon feels like a small addition for a sequel but the new enemies are making up for it.
Now i am thinking about what to play next.

More Doom, of course.

 

[Kabas]

Finished Doom 2

That would not make into my list of enjoyable final bosses. Only one new weapon feels like a small addition for a sequel but the new enemies are making up for it.
Now i am thinking about what to play next.

More Doom, of course.

Still slowly going through "thy flesh consumed" levels.
I wanted to play some more of the classical staff before properly entering into the rabbithole that is fanmade wads/mods.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I don't consider Thy Flesh Consumed nearly the same quality as the original 3 episodes. It's weaker than most decent megalevel .WADs. So I don't think you'd be missing out by not finishing it.

Blood is awesome. There hasn't been anything quite like it ever since. Levels are great and it's a very tough game.

Re: Hexen 2 and Hammer of Thyrion, there is full music support, both MIDI and cdaudio. Here are the instructions:

https://uhexen2.sourceforge.net/music.html

 

[fork]

Elden Ring

Trying to see what all the hype's about. I'm nearly 10 hours in at the moment.

I'm so sick of souls games at this point honestly but it's a good souls game. that's really all there is to it

The opposite is true: I wish there were more souls games, but Elden Ring is shit at it. It's the parody of what made Dark Souls great.

 

[Vlajdermen]

First time I got this far in Arx Fatalis, and this genuinely scared me. Another big point for this game, add it to the pile.

Spoiler

Now I'm up to that

Spoiler

survival horror/puzzle section where you're running around a forge with an invincible monster chasing you.

This is a noob's perspective, this may be standard in im-sims for all I know, but I like it. It's interesting, and came as a surprise.

 

[octavius]

Finished Doom 2

That would not make into my list of enjoyable final bosses. Only one new weapon feels like a small addition for a sequel but the new enemies are making up for it.
Now i am thinking about what to play next.

More Doom, of course.

Still slowly going through "thy flesh consumed" levels.
I wanted to play some more of the classical staff before properly entering into the rabbithole that is fanmade wads/mods.

If you want more traditional Doom 2, I can recommend the old MegaWads Memento Mori and especially Hell Revealed.