What game are you wasting time on?

[Modron]

I see you forgot one Deus Ex game there, mate.

The Fall?

 

[Viata]

Invisible War

 

[Ezekiel]

Giving Streets of Rage 3 another try. Plays crappier, looks crappier, sounds crappier, and Electra and her sisters no longer dress like dominatrices. The double-tap movement is so dumb. You can't hit people when they are partly outside the frame anymore.

 

[NecroLord]

I finished project of playing all 3 Deus Ex games during period of about 2 weeks. I had only tried first title little bit very long time ago. Some thoughts on games...

First Deus Ex: Extra cool main character and I loved sneaking around. Game made me feel like genius several times. Story was really nice, I liked how there was all sorts of conspiracy theories included even the Knights Templar. Soundtrack was amazing too. Only things I could criticize was one of the boss battles and monastery map layout. I laughed out many times cos of goofy NPCs. When I first arrived in Hong Kong I ran around more than 10 mins completely lost like an idiot. Great game.



Human Revolution: I think this was overall well made. French Canadians did pretty decent job of taking over the IP. I liked characters here and soundtrack was once again great. Piling boxes was somehow extremely satisfying like WTF. DLC quest Missing Link was really great fun. I think ending could have used some work, literally choosing which button to click was really lame. But still game was nice.



Mankind Divided: basically many ways HR, but more, but also cut short. I think game could have used change from Prague more, and there lockdown was just annoying. Adam Jensen is decent character, perhaps too strong by default. I thought it was nice that game first limited how much fancy augments you could use, but later you could go all in. I think that was perhaps too much. When ending credits started rolled I was confused how did it end already. I thought DLC would have fixed that, but nope. Criminal Past DLC was awesome though and System Rift DLC was alright.



I enjoyed my Deus Ex experience, now time to read book or something...

Why not also play Invisible War?

 

[Renfri]

I finished project of playing all 3 Deus Ex games during period of about 2 weeks. I had only tried first title little bit very long time ago. Some thoughts on games...

First Deus Ex: Extra cool main character and I loved sneaking around. Game made me feel like genius several times. Story was really nice, I liked how there was all sorts of conspiracy theories included even the Knights Templar. Soundtrack was amazing too. Only things I could criticize was one of the boss battles and monastery map layout. I laughed out many times cos of goofy NPCs. When I first arrived in Hong Kong I ran around more than 10 mins completely lost like an idiot. Great game.



Human Revolution: I think this was overall well made. French Canadians did pretty decent job of taking over the IP. I liked characters here and soundtrack was once again great. Piling boxes was somehow extremely satisfying like WTF. DLC quest Missing Link was really great fun. I think ending could have used some work, literally choosing which button to click was really lame. But still game was nice.



Mankind Divided: basically many ways HR, but more, but also cut short. I think game could have used change from Prague more, and there lockdown was just annoying. Adam Jensen is decent character, perhaps too strong by default. I thought it was nice that game first limited how much fancy augments you could use, but later you could go all in. I think that was perhaps too much. When ending credits started rolled I was confused how did it end already. I thought DLC would have fixed that, but nope. Criminal Past DLC was awesome though and System Rift DLC was alright.



I enjoyed my Deus Ex experience, now time to read book or something...

Why not also play Invisible War?

Eventually.

 

[Viata]

Giving Streets of Rage 3 another try. Plays crappier, looks crappier, sounds crappier, and Electra and her sisters no longer dress like dominatrices. The double-tap movement is so dumb. You can't hit people when they are partly outside the frame anymore.

The japanese version has some different from the western ones:

When the game was localized from the original Japanese version to the English-language release, significant changes were made. The clothing of the three returning heroes (Axel, Blaze, and Sammy) was altered from their original colors seen in previous Streets of Rage games, the female enemy characters wore less-revealing outfits, and a sub-boss named "Ash", a gay stereotype, was removed from the English version (though he is still accessible in Streets of Rage 3 as a playable character via cheating and/or hacking). The voice-effects were also changed, with most noticeably Axel's catchphrase of "Grand Upper" for his blitz move being replaced with "Bare Knuckle".

Another notable difference between the two games is the plot: The Japanese version of the story opens with a new explosive substance called "Raxine",https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Rage_3#cite_note-4 discovered by a character named Dr. Gilbert (who is revealed to be the true identity of Dr. Zan), which explodes in the city and kills thousands of people. At the same time, a military general named Ivan Petrov vanishes. It is later discovered that Mr. X orchestrated the general's disappearance and plans to use Raxine to start a global war.

In the English version, all references to Raxine were removed, General Petrov was replaced by the city's Chief of Police, and the plot now involves a scheme to switch major city officials with robot clones in order to take control of the city. Another difference was if the player failed to save the general, the player has to head to what appears to be the White House. This too was changed in the English adaptation, where instead if the player failed to save the Chief, then the player has to head to City Hall, although the building depicting the City Hall is still clearly based on the White House. The bad ending sequence from the Japanese releases features a photo of a devastated city as text narrates the player's failure; this was removed in the Western releases and text scrolls upward on a black background. The credits were removed from the bad ending of the Western version (possibly to show that it was not the true ending), whereas in the Japanese version they still play.

The game's overall difficulty was also altered for the English version, with the game's Normal setting being significantly more difficult than even the Japanese version's Hard setting.

Never liked 3, that much. The OST is ok, but there is too many bad songs. I find 1 and 2 still the best, 2 being superior.

 

[gaussgunner]

Why not also play Invisible War?

Eventually.

I tried it again for an hour or so. It really sucks. You liked Mankind Divided though...

 

[NecroLord]

Why not also play Invisible War?

Eventually.

I tried it again for an hour or so. It really sucks. You liked Mankind Divided though...

Pretty good game, but by God, that Piss Filter...

 

[adddeed]

Why not also play Invisible War?

Eventually.

I tried it again for an hour or so. It really sucks. You liked Mankind Divided though...

I completed it last year just after Deux Ex, and surprisingly it was playable and enjoyable.
It is the weakest in the series however.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Invisible War ain't that bad, and it's over pretty soon. My first playthrough was like 9 hours or so.

 

[NecroLord]

I'll take Invisible War over any modern shit any day of the week.

Just finished Unreal 2.
Why did they feel the need to depart from the original's gameplay philosophy and vision is beyond me. There's some squad based stuff - you command some marines and tell them to guard this position or whatever, and can place turrets and forcefields, I think they should've left this to be a Multiplayer type of thing.
That mission on the Drakk Planet is pretty cool, almost felt like original Unreal for a while.
As it stands, game was a big step back compared to its wonderful predecessor.
I would have preferred more huge outdoor levels like in the original Unreal, with fast paced combat against the Skaarj and other enemies.
Even so, I'll still take Unreal 2 over any modern Triple A slop any day.

 

[adddeed]

That was fast. But i guess you had the speed increased.
One thing i loved about Unreal 2 is the multiplayer mode XMP. Had a ton fun playing that while it still active. Is it possible to play skirmish vs bots? I cant remember.

 

[NecroLord]

That was fast. But i guess you had the speed increased.
One thing i loved about Unreal 2 is the multiplayer mode XMP. Had a ton fun playing that while it still active. Is it possible to play skirmish vs bots? I cant remember.

Never played the Multiplayer mode.
Is it as fun as they say?
Nowhere near as fun as UT99 I would imagine.

 

[Sigourn]

A Plague Tale: Innocence (2019) - You Can (Not) Stealth

I went into this game sold by its premise: the Black Plague, the Hundred Years' War, the Middle Ages. What was not to like?

At the end of the day, games are still games. To A Plague Tale's credit, it is not a movie game. Cutscenes won't be broken up by unnecessary "press R1 to hang pendant" or the likes so prominent in modern games, absurd forced interactivity present only because devs think players need this kind of dopamine hit (which I personally never understood).

I enjoyed the story until the supernatural elements ruined it. That's all I'll say about it.

But that was not my issue with the game. The issue is the identity crisis A Plague Tale has in regards to its gameplay. It was my mistake to assume this game was a stealth game, because what begins as a stealth game ends up as an action title. Had I know this from the onset, I probably wouldn't have bothered to pick it up. Suffice it to say the game has boss fights. Yes.

The constant wavering between one genre and another that is present throughout the game is the crux of the matter. A pure stealth section is followed by a pure puzzle section, until later on scenarios mix the two of them. What is never lost, however, is the ability to skip stealth altogether by decimating your human enemies using your ever so reliable slingshot.

Normally, such a powerful tool would be best left behind as a last resort. But the game makes no attempt to present it as such; instead, you are showered with ammunition and resources to make sure this is always a viable option. What you are left with is an action-puzzle game, since rats are the only obstacle that isn't readily disposable. The one way you have to get rid of them, at a small scale, is required only to access a handfull of small "secret" areas. Towards the end of A Plague Tale, stealth is pretty much gone and it becomes a matter of how adept you are at firing your slingshot at enemies.

Overall, the gameplay is never up to the task and the story drops the ball pretty hard. I personally rate it 3/5, recommended if you enjoy the setting. The graphics are beautiful and there are lot of memorable locations worth visiting. Play with the French audio for maximum immersion. Just don't go expecting a deep gameplay experience; the gameplay feels almost like an afterthought.

 

[Great Deceiver]

Giving Streets of Rage 3 another try. Plays crappier, looks crappier, sounds crappier, and Electra and her sisters no longer dress like dominatrices. The double-tap movement is so dumb. You can't hit people when they are partly outside the frame anymore.

The japanese version has some different from the western ones:

When the game was localized from the original Japanese version to the English-language release, significant changes were made. The clothing of the three returning heroes (Axel, Blaze, and Sammy) was altered from their original colors seen in previous Streets of Rage games, the female enemy characters wore less-revealing outfits, and a sub-boss named "Ash", a gay stereotype, was removed from the English version (though he is still accessible in Streets of Rage 3 as a playable character via cheating and/or hacking). The voice-effects were also changed, with most noticeably Axel's catchphrase of "Grand Upper" for his blitz move being replaced with "Bare Knuckle".

Another notable difference between the two games is the plot: The Japanese version of the story opens with a new explosive substance called "Raxine",https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_of_Rage_3#cite_note-4 discovered by a character named Dr. Gilbert (who is revealed to be the true identity of Dr. Zan), which explodes in the city and kills thousands of people. At the same time, a military general named Ivan Petrov vanishes. It is later discovered that Mr. X orchestrated the general's disappearance and plans to use Raxine to start a global war.

In the English version, all references to Raxine were removed, General Petrov was replaced by the city's Chief of Police, and the plot now involves a scheme to switch major city officials with robot clones in order to take control of the city. Another difference was if the player failed to save the general, the player has to head to what appears to be the White House. This too was changed in the English adaptation, where instead if the player failed to save the Chief, then the player has to head to City Hall, although the building depicting the City Hall is still clearly based on the White House. The bad ending sequence from the Japanese releases features a photo of a devastated city as text narrates the player's failure; this was removed in the Western releases and text scrolls upward on a black background. The credits were removed from the bad ending of the Western version (possibly to show that it was not the true ending), whereas in the Japanese version they still play.

The game's overall difficulty was also altered for the English version, with the game's Normal setting being significantly more difficult than even the Japanese version's Hard setting.

Never liked 3, that much. The OST is ok, but there is too many bad songs. I find 1 and 2 still the best, 2 being superior.

Streets of Rage 3's OST is interesting because it's sort of procedural, auto-generative. Yuzo Koshiro wrote a sort of scripting language which he termed "Automated Composing System", and he used that to lay out the songs, and fiddle with parameters here and there. The whole thing was setup like a big synthesizer. I think that's why some tracks have a really disjointed feel.

 

[Dr1f7]

been playing Azur Lane, great game
hoping to win "South Dakota"

 

[adddeed]

That was fast. But i guess you had the speed increased.
One thing i loved about Unreal 2 is the multiplayer mode XMP. Had a ton fun playing that while it still active. Is it possible to play skirmish vs bots? I cant remember.

Never played the Multiplayer mode.
Is it as fun as they say?
Nowhere near as fun as UT99 I would imagine.

Was more slower paced, and team oriented. Also had vehicles. It was a really cool concept and was super fun online. Honestly XMP was the best thing about Unreal 2, although single player was fun as well.

 

[adddeed]

Tested it and works and looks great in Stereo3D. Might actually replay it if i can increase the move speed.

 

[Hagashager]

Haven't played much of anything substantial since the start of the new year.

I recently tried to start up a Hardcore Minecraft game (it's a guilty pleasure) but it doesn't feel as good as one of the multiplayer worlds my friends and I had a few years ago.

The problem with MC is I've built some pretty spectacular places over the years and yet absolutely none of them are ultimately accessible. MC is a functionally meaningless game after a certain point.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing some Daggerfall.
My favorite Elder Scrolls game in the series, right here.
Dungeons are absolutely gargantuan, offering a true dungeon crawling experience.
When you hear that Skeleton scream "YAAAAAAARGH!" or the Ancient Vampire and Lich sounds...
Truly the most ambitious game in the franchise. It's fucking YUGE!

 

[Socrates]

The steam version of Dwarf Fortress at the moment. I'm not sure if I hate it or love it.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Playing Earth 2160. It's pretty mediocre. The UCS campaign is really fun (which is a good thing, because the previous Lunar Corp campaign sucks), but then they had to follow it with the Alien campaign which is so boring.
You can tell that the devs never actually played a RTS game, because if they did then they would know that sitting on a resource point with a couple of units for 20 minutes while you're protected by OP defensive structures so you can build an army of OP units that have no supply limit and are incredibly tanky and damage dealing is a shit play style.

Its just not a good RTS. What's frustrating is that there are some really nice ideas, but they are undermined by the devs' sheer incompetence.

 

[Avonaeon]

Finally completed Project IGI. This game was really tough and especially the final mission was hard. Got to the final room twice and failed, before getting it the third time Feels great to have finally beat it, as I tend to give up on games that are hard.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

3 hours into Shadow of Mordor -- bros, killing orcs, mangling them, stabbing them slashing them, bleeding them to death, killing them all... feels so good. Is this what paladins mean when they talk about smiting evil?!?!

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So I beat Earth 2160.
It ends on a cliff hanger. I guess the devs really thought there was going to be an Earth 2170.
Overall, mediocre but in the worse way as there were some really neat ideas. Looks like that cliffhanger is going to continue hanging, because its been 18 years and I don't see anyone continuing the franchise after that mess. Especially after the company who made it got shut down in 2015. They made crap games anyway.
That said, it is pretty funny reading the steam forums and the reviews and discovering that people actually thought they had to register to play the game and give their personal details to a dead company. Instead of just...unchecking the box.