What game are you wasting time on?

[Bigg Boss]

Bigg Boss
They never added a Speechbank Editor to this game, so no.

Fine Armageddon then.

Fine Worms 2 then.

Worms: Reloaded, tbh.

I heard bad shit about that one then again that might have been Rumble or whatever it was called. Too many worms.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Tomb Raider 1 (through the Tomb1Main interpreter).

It had been over 20 years since I last played a proper classic TR, so everything feels fresh again, I don't remember practically anything. TR1's level design is top notch - and levels are often quite long, often with great "a-ha" moments and a proper climax. My favourite is probably Palace Midas. Very satisfying gameplay. The game doesn't treat the player like a mongoloid, and figuring stuff out for yourself feels properly rewarding. The controls, although they take some time getting used to after so many years of decline, are accurate and I feel tank controls are perfect for this type of game. Combat is the weakest part but most of the gameplay is figuring out where to go and what to do, so it's fine. Also the atmosphere is great, it's by far the most atmospheric game in the series. They really managed to carry across the feeling of forlorn places that haven't been trod in centuries. Technological limitations actually contribute to the overall effect.

One of the best examples of the egregious decline in the games industry.

 

[d1r]

Bigg Boss
They never added a Speechbank Editor to this game, so no.

Fine Armageddon then.

Fine Worms 2 then.

Worms: Reloaded, tbh.

I heard bad shit about that one then again that might have been Rumble or whatever it was called. Too many worms.

It basically was an extended Worms: Open Warfare 2 for PC. Certainly not better than WWP or Armageddon. But it really grew on to me for some reason.

 

[Abu Antar]

"Game" #1 of the year beaten. I finished reading the third entry in the World End Economica visual novel series. If you don't mind some anime tropes, and have an interest in the stock market, it can be a decent read. An okay series overall. Not too much cringe, even if some of it is unavoidable.

 

[Kabas]

Anvil of Dawn
Wanted to take a bit of break from old-school fps, so i decided to try another old-school dungeon crawler.
Usually i abandon those halfway through but this one is still fun so far. I am going practicaly blind into it.

This game features some beautiful sprite work and some cool character design, i want you all to check out my drip so far.

War set looks a bit too cool for something that is the first armor set in the game.

Chain cloak is my favourite so far, makes me look like a ninja.

Daganoth looks pretty good in shell plate.

I chose this deep-voiced green fellow because i wanted to try everything and he has balanced stats.
For martial weapons i am focusing on vanilla swords. Not sold on ranged weapons considering how close the enemy must be in order for you to see them.
For magic i am focusing on water as i heard that it's the most useful and it's indeed has some nifty spells. Shackles of ice is dirt cheap for something that stops enemies from beating you for awhile and it's funny seeing these magical projectiles bounce back while under the lake of reflection. Didn't get a chance to use the vampiric mist yet(undead sailors are immune to it) but it's cool how you get it by tricking the lady of the sea.
The only concern i have is that magic experience bar doesn't seems to advance as fast as the martial one.

 

[kites]

Put about 16 hours into DOS2 in 3 days.. had some fun challenging fights, but after arrival at Driftwood I’ve sort of lost interest, have I seen the best this game has to offer? or do I need to push further into this new chapter to get another hook in me

I have to say, the itemization is so tiring.. and the fact I can’t easily compare stats of all the epic loot is the worst part of sifting inventory/buying to see the minute difference, I feel like I’m changing gear and weapons every 15 minutes

 

[Norfleet]

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?

That sound absurd. Darts definitely do not get harder to throw if you are stronger. In fact, it gets easier, what your ability to achieve a flatter trajectory due to higher launch speed.

 

[Cyberarmy]

have I seen the best this game has to offer?

Yes and itemization will only become worse. The legendary powerful shield you got from on of the hardest bosses in game? There is a much better one in a random barrel 5 min later.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Put about 16 hours into DOS2 in 3 days.. had some fun challenging fights, but after arrival at Driftwood I’ve sort of lost interest, have I seen the best this game has to offer? or do I need to push further into this new chapter to get another hook in me

I have to say, the itemization is so tiring.. and the fact I can’t easily compare stats of all the epic loot is the worst part of sifting inventory/buying to see the minute difference, I feel like I’m changing gear and weapons every 15 minutes

Uninstall now and don't look back. It's only going to get worse.

 

[El Pollo Diablo]

Started playing Dreamweb, an adventure game from 1994. It's freeware these days and can be downloaded from the ScummVM site.
I didn't get far and got stuck already. I consider that a good thing.

Completed this. I managed to get myself unstuck eventually, got stuck again, unstuck etc. It's not that the puzzles are difficult, the difficulty mostly stems from it not being very obvious which items in the world are interactable. At least a part of the reason for this is a quite uncommon top-down perspective. Still, the perspective also makes the game quite unique looking and the game did provide an authentic old school experience, which is what I was after anyway.

 

[Kabas]

Just realised that magic experience gain in Anvil of dawn was tied to the spell damage you deal.
No wonder i felt that magic levels up way too slowly, shackles of ice was a trap option! I should have started with earth magic with it's iron fist of chaos or fire with it's Ash and Cinders! And now i am underpowered in the magic department.

So, i can either play in degenerate way for a bit to get my magic up to snuff or restart and do certain things properly, tempted to do the later considering how long it takes for mana to recharge.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Finished up ENDER LILIES. I'm not very good at metroidvanias and I haven't gone through that many of them but of the recent ones I've done I'd say it was harder than Vigil: The Longest Night and quite easier than Hollow Knight. Not very demanding on platforming segments and the game is a bit shorter than either. For instance I 100% ENDER LILIES at 20 hours and I was still missing things in Hollow Knight at 30 hours.

I liked how there's a miniboss version of almost every enemy that once defeated allows you to bind and use their attack. Unfortunately out of all of them there's very few actually worth using.

 

[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?

That sound absurd. Darts definitely do not get harder to throw if you are stronger. In fact, it gets easier, what your ability to achieve a flatter trajectory due to higher launch speed.

It's harder to throw them with more strength just because you are stronger. For a sling, or a melee weapon, or even a bow, it's very easy to translate extra strength into more damage. With a dart it's more difficult. I didn't say being stronger made them harder to throw.

 

[Puukko]

Dabbling in some Halo 2 Anniversary. Haven't played these games through in a very long time, but I remember how 2 is supposed to sound above all else even after all these years. Overall this is a quality remaster. Not perfect, but those complaints are fairly minor. The CGI cutscenes are a real treat which isn't something I'd usually say but Bungie knew how to pace em and the animation studio did a great job. Sound design is really good. They put a lot of effort into positioning as well as creating new sound effects to flesh out the soundscape. It's just as staggering of a difference as the graphics when you switch between classic and remastered. They dared to get creative with the soundtrack as well. A previously muted choral piece may now have the chorus front and center, or a battle theme may have a surprise guitar arrangement. Changing things like this is always a gamble but here I am glad they did it.

Graphically the lighting has had the biggest overhaul. As a result scenes are often brighter since light sources are now far less dim. Generally this works and many areas are much more interesting to look at, but there are cases where they overdid it. In pic related the ship is being overrun by Flood and is in full blown chaos so it makes things for the lights to be out and it is more atmospheric that way. In the remaster they really don't do muted lighting even if it would work better. But examples like this aren't common.





I'll definitely see about trying out some mods later.

 

[Gregz]

Some stages in Castlevania 1 are fucking enraging Way back when, I remember reading magazine articles on the NES releases over-and-over, but I never put much time into them.. stuck on stage #11, I think I need a breather, lord only knows what I'm in for next

Try not to abuse it, but emulators have savestates that allow you to savescum past sticking spots.

 

[kites]

Some stages in Castlevania 1 are fucking enraging Way back when, I remember reading magazine articles on the NES releases over-and-over, but I never put much time into them.. stuck on stage #11, I think I need a breather, lord only knows what I'm in for next

Try not to abuse it, but emulators have savestates that allow you to savescum past sticking spots.

I'm playing through the anniversary collection, so the infinite continues are a fair enough time-saver I think.. if I started savestating I would probably end up abusing it. It's actually not the hardest game once you get in the flow of a stage, but there are some areas, like when I posted that got me angry (end of the level w/ a long stretch of eagles dumping fleamen on you, into some bone dragons, then Frankenstein's monster+lil pal). Or just a single enemy placement that is only meant to fuck with you (ie medusa's spawning in #4 after climbing some stairs.. I kept fucking that one up for some reason). First half of the game was only preparation for the second.

 

[YldrE]

The Feast (2022)

A short point-and-click about an awkward family dinner where everyone tries to play coy and maintain a masquerade.

The dialogues are suitably uneasy and uncomfortable if sometimes a bit random, same for the environmental interactions, but they reinforce the absurdity of the situation where trying to act normal only further breaks the illusion.

There are three real endings, a fourth if you count just walking away at the beginning, and seeing them all should take around 30 minutes; for this reason it's better to know as little as possible before playing.

It's free on both Steam and GoG.

 

[bussinrounds]

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.

If I removed the XP cap but didn't use those tweaks for BG1, can I still apply them for 2...or would that mess everything up ?

 

[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.

If I removed the XP cap but didn't use those tweaks for BG1, can I still apply them for 2...or would that mess everything up ?

Never actually tried that to be honest. By the time I was doing tweaks and mods I was playing BGTuTu/Trilogy or a heavily modded BGII.

 

[Kabas]

Finished Heretic recently

Adios, you teleporting bitch!

Wasn't sold on it at first until i raised difficulty a bit, then it became fun.
The enemies are indeed a bit too spongy tho, ophidians especially. Like, i can accept that something like maulotaur(beefed up cyberdemon) can take a lot of punishment but ophidians tankiness just felt wrong.

 

[flyingjohn]

Played a couple of ps2 games:

Yu gi oh capsule monster colosseum. A srpg with chess like elements(a tower is your king and units have chess like movements).
Not very good. Imagine chess with:
-Random boards that make specific piece movements practically useless.
You will have many moments where you are in front of the enemy and yet can't attack.
-Every square of the board changes the stats of said attribute.
Fine for general attributes like wood and water, terrible for fire/thunder because those things aren't really present on the maps so much.
-There was a convoluted attribute system and said attributes were very rock paper scissor in damage.
If you are the weaker attribute you die in one hit, if you are the stronger one you can take 3+. This nullifies the strategy part and just make sit easier to pick counter attributes because they are so efficient.
I had fond memories of the game, but that sees to have been nostalgia mostly. The ai is also very stupid.

Culdcept.
Have you ever wanted to play mtg monopoly with the added rng of cards?
There is a lot of depth because the monster/territory/item interaction allows for a lot of options.
Unfortunately completely made useless of because of rng. I lost two times to the tutorial because the asshole kept getting monsters and rolling 6's.
So Rng on top Rng and cheating ai just make this a miserable experience considering a a basic match lasts for 20+ minutes.
How the fuck did this series get popular?

 

[pakoito]

I've started Slime Rancher and I was expecting some exploration and a bit of a storyline powered by the Slime Economy. Maybe not Subnautica but at least have something going on. I've found a couple of fatsos I've overfed until exploded, some closed pods, and jetpacked myself over closed doors...but there were only a handful more slimes behind.

It feels like Cookie Clicker meets Pokemon Snap.

 

[Abu Antar]

I finished game #2 of the year, but only 2 of those hours were played in 2023. The Legend of Heroes: Cold Steel II is done. The final two fights weren's as challenging as the first game, but they offered an adequate challenge. The problem is that the player is offered too many ways to break the game. Overall a fun jrpg, even though I dislike half the main cast. Combat and exploration were fun enough, and the soundtrack is good.

I bid my PS3 farewell, and let it proudly retire. My entire library is now on an external HDD to be played on an emulator, whenever I want to revisit it.

On 3DS, I'm progressing with Devil Survivor Overclocked. I haven't faced anything too difficult, but that might have to do with me fusing powerful demons whenever I can. The switch from traditional jrpg to srpg works well. The one thing that I was skeptical about was that there are no items, but as long as you have decent demons, and a few of them that can heal, you should be good.

On PC, I went back to Solasta. I'm having a good time, despite some flaws. I intend to go through the OC+DLC, and then dabble with user campaigns. I love my rogue, who can walk everywhere, even on walls.

I'm on a bit of an adventure itch, so I have also started Chaos on Deponia. It looks great, other than that it is your standard fare adventure game. Not that I mind. VirtuaVerse was free on GoG, so I'm trying that one, too.

I'm also deep in soulslike territory with Hellpoint. I have beaten two bosses. They were easy, but difficulty has ramped up a bit, and I have died quite a few times since. I did manage to upgrade my armor and weapon, which made a huge difference, combined with increased stamina and load stats.

Elden Ring is the game being played on PS5. Got it from Scrooge last year. I have made a fair amount of progress, but stopped to defeat the PS3 backlog. I'm a bit rusty, so I decided to grind souls for a bit. Hopefully, I will do alright going forward. In general, this feels like the most forgiving soulsborne game. You're stuck? Do stuff elsewhere. While I don't love the open world, the game is solid.

 

[Jvegi]

I tried playing Crtl Alt Ego, but my integrated graphics laptop started to heat up on the lowest settings, so I gave up. Slowly going through Wizardry 8 and I guess I'm having fun. Though I'm apparently doing it wrong, according to the local wise asses.

The game I want to get into next is Fate of the Atlantis. Someone on the recent Disco Elysium thread said it's a globe-spanning adventure, and it gave me a stiffy.

 

[NecroLord]

Finished Heretic recently

Adios, you teleporting bitch!

Wasn't sold on it at first until i raised difficulty a bit, then it became fun.
The enemies are indeed a bit too spongy tho, ophidians especially. Like, i can accept that something like maulotaur(beefed up cyberdemon) can take a lot of punishment but ophidians tankiness just felt wrong.

The next episode is going to be fun!
And challenging...