What game are you wasting time on?

[Gostak]

I figured I did not negatively end enough decent roguelite runs today yet and continued the Unexplored Ripley Run I had going.
On the plus side I unlocked another two achievements in my continuation (which is some arguably optional, meta progress helping with future runs trivially each, but, yes these do add up to more so significantly here maybe, at least when you lack skill).
These are achievements that Steam says only a little over 1% of the players unlocked, which is baffling me. Guess the DLCs got quite neglected.
Also, was a nice experience facing the creeps (stepping in for aliens in this thematic DLC) with some variance to the usual shoot with repeater crossbow (stepping in as the pulse rifle).
Double-wielding minus -3 corroded (from their acid blood) great swords and striking out of hiding with surprise for re-added damage and throwing some explosion and incineration potions their way.
Blocking their way with a fire sconce which also set their emitted upon death stinky clouds on fire (there are various creep types).

Boy Unexplored 1 is varied, fun and awesome value for its money. For me at least.

 

[Abu Antar]

Went through the Alien Breed trilogy via GOG. Must have been free at some point, because I don't remember buying them. Decent enough top down shooter. Good palette cleansers between longer games.

Most of my latest playing time has been spent on Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi. It's a decent dungeon crawler, which would probably suit new players to the genre. Overall, the game is very forgiving. I don't think that I have much left, at least not if I look at the trophies that are unlocked. I mostly have the same tactics for all encounters, except for bosses. There's only one risky thing in my party, and that is my main protag is a fencer. He has an ability that allows you to trade defense for offense, so if you haven't won an encounter quickly, you may get unlucky if he is hit. Combat itself good, but one of the easier drpgs that I have tried. I would say that exploration and soundtrack are very good. Story is there, but I don't really care much about it. It is in no way offensive, more standard fare.

Replaying different versions of Championship Manager 01/02 again. Played the 3.68 update, which has updated squads for the 02/03 season. I had forgotten that some of the transfers that got made had happened at that point. I also have the original 3.60 version, so I also booted up a save with Bilbao, took a look at their squad, and made a custom tactic for it. The clun can only buy Basque players, no foreigners, or only Spanish. Won the league by six points, and I want to try the tactic with another team, just or see if it was luck, or if it's actually good. I based it on the striker being physically strong, and then went from there, and it worked wonders for him.

Today, I also put in a few hours in Troubleshooter. Did five missions, reworked the training boards of my characters, and actually played around with their gear. I'm on a long vacation, so I hope to put in many hours into this. It will be my top priority after beating Undernauts.

My palette cleanser game is one of the Edna & Harvey games. The one where you play as the pig tailed blonde girl. Okayish adventure game. Nothing wrong with it, but my bet is that I will have forgotten all about it in a year or two.

 

[Sigourn]

Quit Ys Book 1 & 2 for PC Engine CD at the end. Game falls off pretty bad at Darm's tower, which is a 22 floor final dungeon that has one tileset, and one 2 minute music track. It's extremely repetitive and a little disorienting to go through.
Up until that it's enjoyable enough. I missed one item that I needed for progression, couldn't be bothered to backtrack 30 floors (since I have to go both ways) and couldn't cheat to get the item I needed so I could just finish the game, so I didn't.

Good set of games, loved them. I beat the Chronicles+ release of Ys I as well, should replay it and also beat II.

Yesterday I beat Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2's Final Episode. And today, I lowered the difficulty to Casual to beat the True Ending of the Final Episode.
What can I say, this is an amazing game. While purely an action platformer, there's some sparks of JRPG here and there, what with the multiple characters, the feeling of camaraderie, campfire scenes, and a fantastic ending.

Maybe in the future I'll try to get the True Ending playing on Veteran, but shit ain't easy.

 

[Sigourn]

I beat it on Veteran mode on my first try after my previous failed attempt.
As I expected, the hardest thing was getting to the boss itself. Once you do that, and provided you understand how the fight plays out, it's not that hard at all. Took me two tries to beat the boss. My palms were sweating for the entirety of the fight, until I got to that point where you just know you are going to win if you don't fuck up too badly.

What a great game.

 

[Arbiter]

Dark Forces with The Force engine.

Is DF:Remastered worth it?

 

[Jvegi]

Playing through Dark Messiah, half way through probably.

The game is kinda bad, really. The combat is the best thing about it and it mostly doesn't work. Might be a skill issue. Even with all the gimmicks it doesn't compare to something like Jedi Academy. Power attack is just not a fun mechanic, and the precision needed to hit something in the heat of battle is unrealistic. If your crosshair is not excatly on top of your opponent, you miss, even when performing a swing. It doesn't feel right.

The presentation is ok. Level design ranges from fine to cheap and annoying. Another annoying thing is the writing, clearly meant for 13 year old boys. That chick with short skirt is too much for me, I'm too old. It's not even funny, just bad.

I am having some fun and perhaps the combat will click eventually, but so far I can see why this game is not really consider a classic. A curiosity, sure, but flawed in too many ways.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I think I tried Dork Messiah like three times, and I always bounce off and drop it fairly quickly. To me it's simply not a good game at all.

 

[Krivol]

Dark Forces with The Force engine.

Is DF:Remastered worth it?

If you are smart enough to run Force Engine (so not that smart, it's quite simple actually) then no.

If it's an issue for you - then yes, it's worth it (e.g. - if remaster is the only way for you to play this masterpiece, then go for it! If not, why bother? FE is free...)

 

[mushroomrain]

I tried replaying Dark Messiah recently and I also didn't have too much fun with it. I think I got through about half of the game. The area design was nice, but the gameplay wasn't all that great.

 

[NecroLord]

Dark Forces with The Force engine.

Is DF:Remastered worth it?

If you are smart enough to run Force Engine (so not that smart, it's quite simple actually) then no.

If it's an issue for you - then yes, it's worth it (e.g. - if remaster is the only way for you to play this masterpiece, then go for it! If not, why bother? FE is free...)

The remaster really does a number on the original cutscenes.
I don't know about you, but I have remaster fatigue.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Just play the original and run it with whatever settings (and potential mods) you like.

 

[Ezekiel]

Think four hours in, finding progression in Banjo Tooie a little more thoughtful than in Banjo Kazooie. Nice that they didn't take abilities away, like in so many sequels. Only gives you more abilities.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

Dark Messiah to me was like sitting on a whoopee cushion. Pretty fun to kick Orcs down a flight or stairs or into a spike wall... the first time.

I'm playing Dishonored with the "Ultimate Difficulty Mod"(even on "Very Hard" difficulty the guards are as blind as moles and the extent to which you can expose yourself while leaning is ridiculous; thankfully, the mod goes a long way in solving this). It's like Thief and Deus Ex's child, but not as smart as the parents. There's pretty good level design throughout and some of the Augs Powers are fun to use, but seem to have no purpose other than to make the player feel like a superhero(Blink is so broken that I've decided to only use it to fast travel), which would've been fine if they'd innovated on the traditional Thief stealth formula; instead, they just copied Thief wherever they could, and that's just dumb. Good game, but still decline.

 

[Abu Antar]

Valheim was on sale for €10, so a few bros asked me to get the game. Said and done, we spent 4.5 hours playing. A group of five close friends going on adventures, occasionally getting curbstomped, but actually managing to take down a troll, an abomination, clearing a dungeon or two, and taking on and defeating the first boss.
We did cheese the abomination with kiting, though. None of us had any flaming weapon, so we made him chase us around a fire geyser. It was like a scene from Benny Hill.

Lots of crafting, and building housing, which isn't real my thing, but I'll manage. We have several houses, and portals connect most of them. We build them close to farming spots.

The true chaos happened when we built a boat, and went into a swamp area, because that's where we met the bigger monsters, plus leeches, and poison blobs would mess us up.

Generally not my type of game, but fun enough if you play with friends.

I am also dabbling in Field of Glory II: Medieval. I've done a few battles, and it's a decent turn-based strategy game. Focusing mainly on conbat is good in my book. For now, I have only tried out custom battles, to get a feel for how the game is.

 

[Ezekiel]

That Banjo Tooie fish boss in the locker, so annoying, so hard to navigate around him and aim and steer Kazooie as a torpedo (going through him like he's not there) while he's moving around. Then run out of feathers and have to go into FPV to aim with grenades, even harder I think. Swore so much when I thought it was over and then got another six weak points to shoot. Won't bother with him again.

 

[Kabas]

Heard some people here be saying good things about this one.
Not really into complex city/factory builders so this game is a bit outside of my comfort zone. Keep messing up things and running out of critical resources, my last attempt ended up with my production grinding to a halt with me realising too late that i didn't stockpile enough dirt, meaning that i can't produce bricks which are required for construction tools which in turn are needed for pretty much everything i am trying to currently build. Note to self: set up a separate dirt mine early.
Still having fun figuring things out.


Also heard a lot of good things about this one.
You do a lot of jumping here. Not sure what to feel about platforming, backtracking you're forced to do from time to time(especially if you mess up certain jumps) is very annoying but i do enjoy the exploration aspect itself. There is a lot good rewards you can find if you decide to go off the beaten paths and search every nook and cranny.
Combat and class system are also enjoyable. Didn't encounter anything too fancy in terms of class abilities yet, my favourite class for now is probably rogue with those backstabs that can only hit if the enemy doesn't have any aggro on you. Combat places a lot more focus on aggro management compared to the other games in this genre that i've tried.
Playing on Normal because the game threatened that Hard will require grinding. Everything was too easy at first until i went deeper into the first dungeon and finally started encountering a bit more challenging enemies.

 

[Beggar]

Spent close to 80h this month on Bloodborne. Three different endings and have 87% achievements without forcing anything, so I'm wrapping up. Finally got the DLC and that content is mandatory. It's best parts of the base game on steroids (whole focus on Lovecraftian stuff). Only playing it all at once convinced me that I like this game, I wasn't sure before that. On my first playthrough it felt a bit watered down compared to DS1 but most stuff is so subtly hidden that you might miss out. Too bad it's not on PC, any fromsoftware fan should at least try it.
Once again, this is by far the easiest and shortest game by that company. I mean there is very little stress, you can easily play it intoxicated, it won't affect much.
7/10 first two playthroughs
generous 8.2/10 with DLC

 

[NecroLord]

I finished Quake 2 and its expansions - The Reckoning and Ground Zero.

Funny, you get the Power Shield much later in the Ground Zero campaign. I guess the devs realized just how powerful that item is.
Ground Zero is also harder than the base game and The Reckoning.
Lot more enemies and those bloody turrets...

 

[Sigourn]

Finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent yesterday.

I played all three Penumbra games, Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem.
There are things all these games have in common, I call it Frictional Syndrome, which is:

• They all have a story delivered in bits and pieces that is near incomprehensible at the beginning, and by the end you question what the point of it was because it is so lame.
• Constant voice overs that deliver exposition, sometimes separated by 30 second walks.
• Annoying characters that ramble on and on.

At least the puzzles in Overture and Black Plague could be somewhat challenging. Amnesia dumbed down a "create a potion" puzzle, that required you to figure out the proper order of the ingredients (using logic, not trial and error), into a simple "just put all the ingredients and let the game sort them for yourself". What is even the point of such a puzzle?

And don't get me started on the end

Amnesia ending

It's literally just "push these pillars to win".

Most of the "scares" were actually cheap jumpscares or loud noises out of nowhere. I knew the game couldn't keep it "psychological horror" façade for long because the occasional door opening by itself or wind breezes doesn't cut it.

 

[NecroLord]

Finished Amnesia: The Dark Descent yesterday.

I played all three Penumbra games, Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem.
There are things all these games have in common, I call it Frictional Syndrome, which is:

• They all have a story delivered in bits and pieces that is near incomprehensible at the beginning, and by the end you question what the point of it was because it is so lame.
• Constant voice overs that deliver exposition, sometimes separated by 30 second walks.
• Annoying characters that ramble on and on.

At least the puzzles in Overture and Black Plague could be somewhat challenging. Amnesia dumbed down a "create a potion" puzzle, that required you to figure out the proper order of the ingredients (using logic, not trial and error), into a simple "just put all the ingredients and let the game sort them for yourself". What is even the point of such a puzzle?

And don't get me started on the end

Amnesia ending

It's literally just "push these pillars to win".

Most of the "scares" were actually cheap jumpscares or loud noises out of nowhere. I knew the game couldn't keep it "psychological horror" façade for long because the occasional door opening by itself or wind breezes doesn't cut it.

You've clearly never heard of the Naked Flying Dudes from the Custom Stories...

That being said, I still like Amnesia.
But its sequels not so much.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

• Constant voice overs that deliver exposition, sometimes separated by 30 second walks.

So many modern games have this. I hate it with a passion.

 

[Semiurge]

Quake II 2023 remaster is great. A polished definitive edition without the telemetry of Quake 1 Enhanced.

I have now completed the main campaign, they even expanded the Id Chad gallery of the last level!

 

[MaxPaint]

Finished Titanfall 2 and Amid Evil

FRIENDSIP ENDED WITH ION FURY
NOW AMID EVIL IS MY FAVOURITE BOOMER SHOOTER

Seriously, I liked it so much that I played it twice in a row. The issues I had with it were minor and mostly about the morningstar and the main game bfg hitboxes.

Titanfall 2 was meh. Played a lot like CoD AW without Kevin Spacey. The only interesting level was the Singularity inspired one, where you had to jump between the past and the present. Also the MC is voiced by Matthew Mercer, yeah.
So instead of playing Far Cry 4, Amid Evil made me download a shit-ton of shooters. Not sure if I will finish all of them, most likely not, but I'll give them all a try.

 

[Gostak]

Oof, I updated my Noita install and played a round of impending frustration.
[...]
But for now enough of its frustrations.

*grumble, grumble*

Okay, I sorta quickly did some more attempts after all and actually got my first completion (basic "Complete the work" one) on thursday!

Continued some day after it to see if I'd get a streak, which the game tracks, but died an unnecessary death in that follow-up run.

So, after beating it the simple way legit once I felt like I could now watch the video Palikka linked here: https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...l-is-physically-simulated.120991/post-8945073
through all the sections and see what spoilers it might hold for me.

While to me the game has not nearly enough mechanics that really matter for a simple win (ones you as a player hold some greater agency over at least and which are not too much at the mercy of RNG luck), to me that is mostly just the wand tinkering feature it's still enjoyable enough coupled with its simple 2d physics and material interactions.

Noita btw

The following GOG review (not mine) shares some of my views on this:

"hardestest" GOG review of Noita

3/5
Addictive rather than enjoyable
Tips for beginners: Press Down when standing still to eat or drink or fill a bottle. If you would like, edit the save file, or install mods to get regen/bags/perks. Also, you won't be able to tell "3" from "9".

Noita is probably supposed to be hostile to everyone, hardcore players and beginners alike.

Unlike Terraria, Noita is all about destruction.
Unlike Risk of Rain, Noita is slow.
One misstep and you die, erasing hours of progress.
Random luck makes or breaks a run, like a slot machine.
Enemies have perfect aim, feeling like virtual rope jumping.

That being said, the world is vast and the magic combinations are endless.

 

[6502 Workshop]

Nox Archaist is done and dusted. In the end, it was a fun 2020 game, that still made you nostalgic. Some QoL stuff were added, like quick combat, diagonal attacks, etc. However, I would have loved a soundtrack, but it might not have worked on the Apple II.

Now, I won't start any new games in 2023. I need to finish up several games that I have already started.

Hi! I just happened across your post. It might not be quite what you had in mind but wanted to mention that Nox Archaist does have a soundtrack that is playable independent of the game in MP3 format. It is in the /Nox Archaist/Game Materials/Soundtrack folder.

 

[Krivol]

I tried to play Metro Exodus. This game has some potential, but it's just cut scene after cut scene and QTE here and there! I was hoping for Stalker 1.5, and I got a story shooter.

Not for me...