What game are you wasting time on?

[Dayyālu]

XpirateZ as a singleplayer game, Dominions 5 as a multiplayer game. Why did I buy a new PC?

It starts faster, you can play Doom mods on it?

 

[panzertoter]

XpirateZ as a singleplayer game, Dominions 5 as a multiplayer game. Why did I buy a new PC?

It starts faster, you can play Doom mods on it?

Sure! Brutal Wolfenstein awaits. Also, Excel looks nice in 2560x1440.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

Bruce VC said: Well it sounds like you have given it an objective chance, if you dont continue it wont be irrational or some kind of knee-jerk reaction

Its not for everyone, do you enjoy GTA games and if you do how would you compare RDR2 with lets say GTA4&5?

I have GTA5 in my library, dabbled in it (also San Andreas), and I've played GTA III up until I realized how ball crushingly difficult it was to lose cops in a chase. Yes, game design is similar in Rockstar Games if these titles are any indication... if you dumbed dumb difficulty in RDR2 to the point of one or two extra chromosomes. The one Rockstar game I played all the way through was the extraordinarily sick Manhunt many years ago on PC. Loved every second of it.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Been playing a lot of vidya Pinball. Although the feel of real machines will never be properly replicated, some of the stuff out there is pretty good. It's a shame that the licensing situation is a quagmire, so a lot of great RL tables are not really available at the moment, or suffer from outdated conversions in stuff like The Pinball Arcade (stuff from SEGA or Data East).

The obvious product out right now is Pinball FX, but they've done some really dumb stuff lately and I've never been a fan of their original designs. Their Williams recreations are pretty good overall but suffer from a fatal flaw in extremely bouncy flipper physics - if a ball drops from a ball trap 3 inches above on a held flipper it doesn't bounce all the way back to the middle of the playfield in RL. That's enough to ruin a lot of tables IMO. I also don't think they've done a good job with the sound in their pins - in RL you get a lot of feedback from the sound of the ball rolling against wood, and that's almost not replicated in Zen's product.

The new iteration of the Pinball FX platform looks worse in many respects than FX3, and they expect you to rebuy all tables, so fuck 'em.

A welcome surprise for me has been Zaccaria Pinball, which seems to be tragically obscure. Zaccaria was a Hungarian pinball manufacturer in the 70s and 80s, and they had some pretty solid tables that remind me of Gottlieb designs. Their output spans both electromechanical and solid state tables, and the videogame version is really nice, with great physics (definitely more realistic flipper physics than FX) and a lot of configurable options like time of day, lighting, etc. which might seem superfluous but it actually makes a significant difference while playing. There's a ton of tables, and I think you can unlock a bunch simply by playing. There are more modes than in Pinball FX, including a weird campaign mode and a story mode, which give you some challenges and are a nice way of running through the whole catalog.

The sound is also spot on and very satisfying - the ball speeding through the wooden playfield sounds perfect and voices/music aren't as obnoxious as in FX. There are some truly excellent tables like Time Machine (I think that's the free table, incidentally), a remake of Time Machine, Zandor, etc. In addition to remakes, they've also done "modern" deluxe versions of some of their old designs in the FX vein (they even had a full colour display instead of the DMD before FX did), these are hit and miss but some are pretty cool. So some tables have 3 or even 4 versions (there's also a weird "retro" version of more modern designs to harken back to EM). I tend more towards the simpler, more elegant designs instead of the spazzy shit in FX originals, and there's a lot to like here. Even the old EM tables are fun if you're in the right mindset and are prepared to do a lot more nudging than usual (people who play vpin tend to underestimate how much nudging is an integral part of RL pinball).

Overall a great package and tables are much cheaper than the competition. It's a small company (Magic Pixel) but Zen could really learn a lot from this product. They haven't been updating very much recently, which makes me think it didn't sell well at all. It's a shame. Check it out with an open mind.



Currently there's a sale (50% off) on the Platinum Pack, which features all tables , it's around 50 USD in my region but might be significantly more in the US. At 50 bucks it's a steal.

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/3672/Zaccaria_Pinball__Platinum_Pack/

 

[Modron]

it's around 50 USD in my region but might be significantly more in the US.

$119.26

 

[mediocrepoet]

it's around 50 USD in my region but might be significantly more in the US.

$119.26

After the 50% discount. That's bananas. I think I'd just buy an actual pinball machine if I liked pinball that much.

 

[Great Deceiver]

it's around 50 USD in my region but might be significantly more in the US.

$119.26

After the 50% discount. That's bananas. I think I'd just buy an actual pinball machine if I liked pinball that much.

I think you'd ve surprised at how much an actual pinball machine costs. They're very premium collector's items now

 

[mediocrepoet]

it's around 50 USD in my region but might be significantly more in the US.

$119.26

After the 50% discount. That's bananas. I think I'd just buy an actual pinball machine if I liked pinball that much.

I think you'd ve surprised at how much an actual pinball machine costs. They're very premium collector's items now

That's probably true, but they were expensive even 20 years ago. I suppose my point was more along the lines of, you'd have to be REALLY into pinball to want to drop $120 USD on it on sale. That's a niche price for niche enthusiasts.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Yeah, I can agree with that. It's a lot of value if you're into it, though.

 

[Caim]

Isn't there that one train sim that has like $12k worth of DLC? Niche games like that can get crazy expensive.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Isn't there that one train sim that has like $12k worth of DLC? Niche games like that can get crazy expensive.

Some of those flight sim games get like that too, nevermind the price of peripherals.

 

[Modron]

Isn't there that one train sim that has like $12k worth of DLC? Niche games like that can get crazy expensive.

Train Sim World Classic, probably way more than 12k, was in the neighborhood of 7.5k the last time all dlc fit on one steam page (id est under 200 dlcs) and you could hit add all dlc. It has 702 dlc so I am just going to guess and say it has at least 19k worth of dlc since there is no easy way to see the running total anymore.

 

[gamerguy]

Isn't there that one train sim that has like $12k worth of DLC? Niche games like that can get crazy expensive.

Some of those flight sim games get like that too, nevermind the price of peripherals.

yeah, there's a space sim game where people spend like 10k on a ship

not even really a videogame, but a 'sim'... like there will be human pilots by that time anyway

 

[mediocrepoet]

Isn't there that one train sim that has like $12k worth of DLC? Niche games like that can get crazy expensive.

Some of those flight sim games get like that too, nevermind the price of peripherals.

yeah, there's a space sim game where people spend like 10k on a ship

not even really a videogame, but a 'sim'... like there will be human pilots by that time anyway

Released products... Star Citizen is its own thing.

 

[gamerguy]

if you can pay to play it, it's released as far as I'm concerned


early access and kickstarter are just code-words for lazy and unprofessional

 

[gamerguy]

...not sure how best buy does their logistics, but advance wars just shipped, and is gonna show up ... tonight?!


glad I cancelled my amazon order


...might be a fun friday night after all!

Spoiler

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I remember trying to play Doom 3 when it first came out and thinking it was the most vapid, shallow, empty thing in gaming I had yet played, and the most extreme example of a corridor shooter I ever saw. It was like a very bad fun house that reeked of old wax and moldering corpses in wax where you'd enter a room through the powered doors on your little electric railcart and a single monster - usually an imp or a zombied human - would just be standing there (not even a thrilling monster closet to pop out of at ya), and go "BOOGA BOOGA!" which you'd then shoot, then go through the next door... and so on and so on and so on. I never made it past the first 45 minutes. I think the expansion - I forget its name - was a lot better though I grew bored by the end and gave up. The best thing to come out of the Doom 3 engine was of course The Dark Mod.

 

[gamerguy]

yeah, the best game mechanic of doom3 was having to switch between the flashlight and gun, which people ironically hated and modded out... but it enhanced the survival horror aspect of the game imo, which was all it had going for it... well that and the amazing art and lighting...

actually the story was pretty good for a shooter... the pda, and audio logs you could listen to while playing


ID really was a mixed bag back then... doom1, and quake1/3 were god tier... and I liked rage enough

...but I found quake2 and especially 4 pretty lacking, and I didn't care for quake champions at all either

 

[Kabas]

You guys didn't lie, Diablo himself was a rather tedious pain in the ass for a minion-focused necromancer.
Me finding a wand of decripify was an absolute godsend, the only thing that was allowing my skellies to stay and fight Diablo for a bit before his inevitable AoE attacks. It took 6 or so retreats into the home portal before my minions brought him low.

 

[Fedora Master]

Everspace 2 kinda but not really scratches the Freelancer itch. It sure looks slick but the gameplay gets samey after a while. It's either "Shoot this" or "Put thing in socket".

 

[d1r]

Resident Evil Revelations 2
Campaign was pretty underwhelming and I found the setting to be waaaaay less interesting than the ship in Rev1. Areas were quite linear, and even though they were trying to tackle recycled areas from a different angle, it still didn't feel as impactful as walking through the same corridors in the ship to reach new locations. I really prefer interconnectivity over everything else, and they really did a good job with that in the first game. Characters all in all were pretty uninteresting, the story was meh, and Claire looks horrible in this game.

We actually had to use Steam Remote Play to play the campaign in coop because for whatever fucking reason online campaign coop just isn't a thing, even though Raid Mode has online capabilities. I was pretty impressed how good Steam Remote Play actually works. Resolution (720p>x) sometimes was kinda ass because of connection problems, but input lag was NEVER a problem, and this is really impressive.

The chapter 3 boss fight was a pain in the ass because apparently AMD drivers really don't like the boss that much. My coop partner had to do the boss fight alone while his driver was constantly crashing in one minute intervals. Fun times. Of course he was not aware of someone's daddy issues, so he finished the job as Claire and we got the sad ending in the next chapter. Meh.

We didn't play the other two extra chapters because my coop partner was fed up with the campaign, respectively with the overall game (since he was playing Moira and Natalie). Though I suppose we didn't miss out too much with these little extra chapters.

I looked into the Raid mode a little bit and found it to be very fun, and I was kinda surprised to see Resident Evil 6 maps in it. Now that I think about it, maybe we just should have played that mode instead. Probably would have made a better experience overall. Kinda interesting how that applies to most Resident Evil games past 4 now that I think about it. Anyway, I might actually continue to play the Raid mode casually, even though I am kinda annoyed that I have to redo the campaign to unlock all the shit, because we played the game on my coop partner's pc.

 

[Nathaniel3W]

I wasted too much time on last week's XKCD. Here's what I found before deciding I had wasted enough time.

I got to the planet that has the Air & Space Museum's black hole exhibit and got stuck there. I could see that there was another collectible near Washington DC, but I couldn't escape the black hole and I didn't want to waste any more time to restart and try to get it.

 

[Wunderbar]

Resident Evil Revelations 2
Campaign was pretty underwhelming and I found the setting to be waaaaay less interesting than the ship in Rev1.

Ship setting in Rev1 was utterly wasted, though. You seldom need to backtrack, so the game ends up being just as linear as Rev2. Not to mention that actually cool areas (like the promenade deck, the grand hall, casino, etc) were rare, and most of the game took place in boring metal hallways.

Rev2 has better plot and characters (not a particularly high bar to clear given that Rev1's story and characters are fucking horrible, but still), Rev2 wins by virtue of not having half of the campaign dedicated to mindless shooting of wave-spawning hunters and dogs, Rev2 has a tighter resource management and an actual inventory with various components that can be combined.

I liked Rev1's Raid mode better, though. It was hard as balls, and actually demanded the player to learn level layouts and spawn points by heart if they wanted to earn medals.

 

[d1r]

Resident Evil Revelations 2
Campaign was pretty underwhelming and I found the setting to be waaaaay less interesting than the ship in Rev1.

Ship setting in Rev1 was utterly wasted, though. You seldom need to backtrack, so the game ends up being just as linear as Rev2. Not to mention that actually cool areas (like the promenade deck, the grand hall, casino, etc) were rare, and most of the game took place in boring metal hallways.

Rev2 has better plot and characters (not a particularly high bar to clear given that Rev1's story and characters are fucking horrible, but still), Rev2 wins by virtue of not having half of the campaign dedicated to mindless shooting of wave-spawning hunters and dogs, Rev2 has a tighter resource management and an actual inventory with various components that can be combined.

I liked Rev1's Raid mode better, though. It was hard as balls, and actually demanded the player to learn level layouts and spawn points by heart if they wanted to earn medals.

It has been some time since I played Rev1, but from what I remember is that the game felt really Metroidvanian from time to time and I really liked that. It of course comes all down to personal prefernces, but having the whole game play in a tiny ship is a really nice setting, even though there were a lot of corridors. Can't comment on Rev1's raid mode, but I don't remember the game's campagin being extremely tedious when it comes to sending waves, and waves of enemies towards you.

 

[Wunderbar]

I don't remember the game's campagin being extremely tedious when it comes to sending waves, and waves of enemies towards you.

each chapter had one or two flashback/flashforward episodes where you control different characters other than Jill.