What game are you wasting time on?

[MaxPaint]

Finished Kex Kwak 1 and all the expansions for the first time ever in my life. Played the game on normal, now installed vkQuake on a non-enhanced version to replay the game on hard insane is too much, I tried and play some custom maps, downloaded Epochs of Enmity and Arcane Dimensions.
In terms of maps and encounters, I liked everything but the last two episodes (the enhanced edition ones). So far I didn't like anything Machine Games worked on, even The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness 1.
It does feel like an evolution of Doom in many aspects but I still prefer it and Duke 3D both because of nostalgia and personal preferences. The things I disliked are the brown color everywhere, the sponginess of the enemies, even though I understand that was a technical limitation decision, and there's very little weight behind the weapons, they feel like they are made of plastic. So far of all the "boomer" shooters Quake 1 has the least BOOM on it's sticks. Great game nonetheless.

Went back to finish Nightmare Reaper on a redux mode. This time the RNG was less cruel and I got an insanely good gun closer to the end. Redux mode cuts a lot of grind but also makes the unfavorable situations even harder because where before you had 3 small levels you now have a single bigger one and you'll have to replay it all the same in case of death. Also again because 3>1 you get more opportunities to find and try guns, even with the higher redux drop rates. So in the end I was bitching about a regular campaign and didn't even finish it, but I think it's a better way to play the game. The arenas are still the thing I liked the most. The arenas with tons of fun guns.

Now playing Kex Quake 2 on hard+, just got to the mines. This game on max difficulty feels like Q1 on normal. I understand why people hate it somewhat, it feels more like Half-Life 1 with Quake enemy types but so far I'm really enjoying it, I can't say it's a bad game at all.

Also fixed The Citadel by plugging in an old ps/2 keyboard, it seems for some reason the game doesn't like my hip rgbt+ gayming keyboard, so I guess I'm playing it next.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished Mega Man 1.

Not only did I rush it, I actually cheated at the end. On the upside I now know how Game Genie-codes work, which was a fun learning experience.

No, I'm not proud of the fact that I cheated. But this game was asking for it, it's apparent in its very design that it's out to screw over the player. The way enemies are placed, the literally repetetive level design, bizarre bosses, etc. Everything in this game is designed so maximize the usage of Trial and Error, and since this game doesn't have any in-built save progression features (except for a 'halfway there' starting point built into most levels), those Errors are costly and require many Trials to be overcome. Were it not for the Magnet Beam there also wouldn't be any alternate solutions to many obstacles found in the game, so let's be thankful for small favors.

Mega Man 1 does have one positive point going for it, but to showcase that the best way I'm gonna have to hold off on discussing it until I'm a couple of sequels in. More on that later.

But frankly it's too painful to play the first Mega Man-game. It clearly shows potential as a good game (and even as a franchise) but also clearly needs more time in the oven. It's actually kinda amazing that Mega Man became a franchise after this one, but the history backs it up - Effort was taken to try to continue the franchise, and it paid off. Good for us.

On to Mega Man 2.

 

[Caim]

If you don't like the trial and error gameplay of Mega Man 1... hoo boy.

 

[Sigourn]

Playing Hedon: Bloodrite.
It's a first-person shooter with classic shooter and adventure elements, i.e. multiple weapons you carry at once, armor, quest items such as keys but also others needed to complete small puzzles to advance through the story. You play as a half-orc half-demon big tiddy muscle mommy. For some reason you are purple in the artwork, blue in mirrors. Talk about lack of polish. There are loads of thick orcs in this game.

The graphics are far from great, they look less like digital paintings and more like MS Paint work, but they are serviceable and after a while you stop paying attention to them. The levels are huge and sprawling, each take about 40 minutes to complete, give or take depending on how thorough you are at exploring them and how much attention you've paid to what you need in order to progress.

With better graphics and more oomph to the weapons, this would have been an amazing game in my opinion. My favorite weapon is the axe, a melee weapon that doubles down as a thrown weapon that can slash through multiple enemies.

 

[AndyS]

I did a quick run through the first set of Doom levels in the new master. It's mostly fine but there are some definite visual glitches with stuff like the text display they'll need to iron out. I'm also not crazy about the remixed soundtrack and switched back to original, but I appreciate its inclusion. Otherwise, it's classic Doom and still fantastic.

 

[Gostak]

MBII dropped its 20th Anniversary Update, posted that in the MP forum already.
Makes it fresh once more.

With Noita I suffered and toyed around some more and have beaten Kolmi once more and went upwards with the Salt.
Will have to look out for healing and conserve HP. Might make it to a parallel world in this run.

Also, mustered up and came back to the stellar Star Dynasties (from the following)

Oof my genetically engineered OP offspring and become alter-ego died while being a miser and relying
on her military skill superiority and the grace of RNG (which of course would fail me once I really needed it).
I had little need to push things, starting a new war and leading the attack myself but felt too big to fail.
She was loved AF and also super thrilled while dying.

Now her damned ill, despised (even by family and vassals) and sad AF brother holds the scepter.
Shit is about to get rough, the realm will soon look different for sure.

At least I have two unspent bloodline trait points to e.g. maybe offset his bad rep internally.
What also pains me is only now taking note that the mind-cloning pre-collapse tech Jemma found
years ago needs the cloned suspect to be alive after all (I hold off using it till now because I wanted to use it once Jemma got old,
but now she died age 35!).

The game's score graphs that are somewhat opaque and esoteric and look like things from a stock market plummeted in
categories such as score, power, income and stability. This pain-killer addict will have to form a decent counsel first, likely.
Only have myself to blame.
Love Star Dynasties.

So, indeed the realm shrunk and splintered good.

I made more sub-par decisions along the way (and in the first turn after the above even forgot about the unspent Bloodline Points, although
an icon reminded of those, but I had and still have a whole Christmas tree of those lighting up, so missed it).

Likely should have not then spent them towards a "be better at quelling unrest" thing and get a slight buff to house member opinions but it seemed best at that time.
Because afterwards some ungrateful vassal rebelled and lots more of that kind joined him.

The half-sister of my half brother (my administrative counsel member) also rebelled but formed her own faction (she left with her baron vassal) which her half-brother (same as the aforementioned) decided to join ...

My political standing has never been less stable a graph tells me.

I burned quite a lot of funds on a decent attempt at holding a sorta remote and disconnected system which got attacked twice (by different aggressors).
The second one took it from me.

I retook a system neighboring my own and that of the initial uppity traitor and then an assassination attempt on me was thwarted by an attentive house member of mine with extensive security experience even from pre-collapse times.
During the next half-year I also retook the system of the rebellious duke.
Here I should have likely placed my heir in power but opted for a more capable lady that still resents me after I helped her back to hold a system even after she got uppity against me/my house in the past (but partly justified at that time, alas).

All the other systems that joined the rebel are now independent ones.

My coffers are basically empty and income is bad.

My house is too big and due to my low happiness I cannot do much each 6 months.


Needless to say it's gotten interesting and challenging.

 

[Kabas]

I've been somewhat busy lately and my head is currently hurting, Crystal Project is on hold. Want to play something more brainless for now.
Tried some of these new autobattler roguelikes - He is coming demo and Dungeon Exiles.


Fairly... nice minimalistic artstyle.
You have a boss and a limited time to explore the map and acquire gear in order to prepare your character for it's coming. Currently feels a bit barebones but i do find the gameplay loop and the idea of the game pretty neat.


Dungeon Exiles is pretty neat too.

Not enough variety of classes, builds, enemies or locales to be entertaining for more than 3-6 hours but still pretty neat.

 

[Raghar]

Japan in HoI4. Siam grabbed Singapore with all it's resources AND Viet-Nam.
It kinda started when Iceland wanted to join my alliance and I thought what bad could happen. Then Iceland invited Siam into war with UK.
Now I'm fighting in India to preempt Siam claims on India.

Now I'm in war with US and I'm fighting in India before attacking DEI, which are called Indonesia for some reason. Also US joined UK thus they entered war with Japan, and forced Philippines to declare.

I think I killed some US division red eagles or something like that in India. They had real anti tank guns. The problem is my light tanks can be pierced by HMG. I'm lucky I managed to get my airforce into India and they had hiccup, or they didn't want supplies to be butchered by Japan navy, and didn't reinforced airforce in India at cost of losing to German airforce.

I killed dutch submarines already, and now US is sending some interwar era submarines in an attempt to do some military action against Japan, and not waste important stuff when there is war in the Europe.

 

[Ezekiel]

Not making progress in Banjo Tooie, don't know if the shoes to climb up walls and let me access next part of overworld are found after defeating that giant fish in the locker that I complained about. Vaguely remember this snow and fire level and dinosaur level that I want to play again, but damn.

DMC-inspired Soulstice is a drag. Blue color pallet got old months and months ago. Another highlight of R3 being bad for lock-on and Z-targeting being objectively superior. In DMC, you can thrust easily by holding R1, but here like in Ninja Theory's DmC you have to push the stick twice, messing you up all the time, and it's hard to tell when the lock is engaged because there's so much on the screen. With Z-targeting (like Zelda, DMC, MGS3), you actively felt the lock-on as you held the button down. But can't do that easily with that shit button R3. Thanks, Dark Souls; fuck you, From.

Playing Breath of the Wild, second time. Relaxing.

 

[Ezekiel]

Motion control shrine! How did I do it the last time, and why did the emulator not remember my phone? Android phone, DSU Manager on phone and Windows, Ryujinx.

 

[Puukko]

There are multiple playtests going on which isn't usually my thing, but I ended up sticking with Mecha Break. It's in a polished state for a beta. Good variety of mechas and none feel OP or worthless. Add more game modes and map variety, improve the performance (it's a Unity game, which always gets an 'oh no' from me when I find out) and improve the UX a bit and it's a winning formula. The matchmaking could use some tweaking, battles are rarely closely tied. I think there needs to be some form of limited switching for mechas mid battle, because if your team is a bad matchup vs the enemy team, there's not much you can do.

 

[Ezekiel]

The levels in Banjo Tooie are too big. I remember thinking this back then too.

 

[MaxPaint]

I was wrong about Quake 2, it gets really boring really fast. Finished the main game, svcheated through Q64 a little bit to see the lighting and I'm done with it. Won't even bother with the expansions and Machinegames campaign.

 

[NecroLord]

I've been playing some Captain Claw custom levels.
Some are really good, others are really bad/mediocre.

https://captainclaw.net/en/clevels.html
You can find and download custom levels from here. This one is arguably the best Captain Claw fansite.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished Mega Man 2.

I took my time finishing this one, instead of bum-rushing it like the prequel.

Simply put it's leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor. The number of times the game is out to screw over the player has dropped sharply, and the repetetiveness of the levels has decreased. But when the game IS really out to screw over the player, it does so with gusto.

People would think that Quickman's stage is the clearest example of cheese, but they'd be wrong, it's actually Flashman's stage. That stage is also the only time I see a need for a map in Mega Man 2, as one tries to navigate the slippery tunnels towards the stashed goodies. What makes Flashman's stage so annoying is how enemies are placed right to coincide with how far Megaman slides. The Wily stage boss requiring the crash bombs is the ultimate cheese boss, though. With a limited amount of shots available, the player must navigate a small maze of walls that can only be destroyed by crash bombs, to reach numerous guns that can also only be destroyed by crash bombs. One wrong move and the player is soft-locked, forced to restart the entire level to get enough crash bomb-charges. The worst part about that boss is that there are too many items on-screen at once, creating ungodly flickering and making the game slow down early on. I've never been more grateful for savestates.

But the sheer thrill of successfully using the Item-weapons to circumvent annoying parts of the levels - it felt liberating. Like whooshing across most of Heatman's stage using Item-2 towards the end - I even managed to deploy it low enough that I snagged the extra life as well.

The music is vastly improved as well from the first game, with only one tune sounding painful instead of half of them. This has always been one of my all-time favourite soundtracks, but I was slightly disappointed to be forced to listen to it at PAL-speeds - it sounds much better at NTSC-speeds.

Highly recommended, but be ready for the cheesy parts.

On to Mega Man 3.

 

[Caim]

Mega Man 2 is a fan favorite, even though it's still plenty janky. What's your take on the Metal Blade?

 

[Ezekiel]

Motion control shrine! How did I do it the last time, and why did the emulator not remember my phone? Android phone, DSU Manager on phone and Windows, Ryujinx.

Oh, you simply have to set different slots for controller and right joycon (phone).

They suck. Glad Tears of the Kingdom didn't have them.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Mega Man 2 is a fan favorite, even though it's still plenty janky. What's your take on the Metal Blade?

Too useful. Being able to aim in eight different directions is an absolute game changer.

Sniper Joe in that AT-AT walker is immune to Metal Blade, for him I used Air Blaster up close and personal, it works like a shotgun aimed upwards. Otherwise it was the Mega Buster, Metal Blade and Item-weapons as needed. The other weapons only got a look-in when needed against specific bosses.

Not sure if people knew this, but Metalman is the only passive boss enemy in the game. He only attacks if you make a move, to the point that if you stop moving, he'll stop attacking and return to his starting position.

I'm starting on Mega Man 3 now, and already I miss having a directional weapon. I can't hit the monkeys in Hardman's stage, for example.

 

[Abu Antar]

I have been playing a few big games, rotating them here and there.

35-40h in HoMM3 Complete. I'm currently doing the Long Live the King Scenario - on the mission From Day to Night. I like this non-nonsense mission. Kill everything, conquer everything. Not a big fan of the undead scenario, to be honest. Slow and boring units. Music and graphics are as always, very charming. Can't wait to reach the expansions. I have actually never play them.

Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children. Went into a mission all cocky, because I had done well on several maps in a row, but I got humbled by a bunch of snipers. They do ridiculous damage, so you have to actually think about your positioning even more carefully than usual. On a lot of maps, Albus has been my dodge/counter/critical tank/damage dealer. Doesn't really work against snipers. Went back to the same map and cleared it, but I went in with low confidence.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. About ten hours in. It's fun, but so far, I can't say it's a 10/10 game for me. Combat is okay. I dig the graphical style, but when it comes to music, there isn't really much in the open world. The weapon durability system is bothering me. Not a fan at all. Not that you can't find weapons, but I am not a fan of durability in games, in general. Here, Nintendo dialed it up to eleven. Explorations is okay, not gonna lie when I say that I dig the paraglider.

The fourth game was Championship Manager 01/02. I say was, because I uninstalled it. Take a few months off before I go back. I tried some formations that I have never used, including some custom formations. Played mostly as Coventry, but also had a save file with Newcastle. I have probably said everything I have to say about this one.

 

[MaxPaint]

Finished Unreal, the main campaign. As much as I loved UT 99, 2003 and 2004, this game is just not for me. It has some interesting moments and I appreciate what it did in context of the time it was released, but playing it now for the first time was a chore unlike many other old shooters.

 

[spectre]

I've recently came back to Sailwind. I tried it earlier but didn't click, but recently (ish) they've made good progress and added a bunch of content.
Somehow It feels less clunky now and features a more in-depth ship customization - you can now add and remove masts, sails as well as pick the roof type or remove it altogether.
There are some constraints, but the system allows you to recreate quite a lot of historical rigging setups as well as mix breed abominations.


For those who don't know, it's basically Euro Truck Simulator but on a boat. No real purpose other than hauling cargo to earn money to pimp out your boat a bit more. Not a lot happens
most of the time and you can just listen to the asmr of waves crashing and topes creaking, but shit can quickly hit the fan and the situation now requires all your attention.
(I suppose it's art imitating life, once you have your sails set and are on correct course, not much else to do on a boat but get hammered and go to sleep. Maybe fish).

Started making myself comfortable in the "hard dificulty" archipelago, just because I like the starter boat. The square sail was a bitch to work with, so first thing I did after making some money was
to reconfigure it into a caravel of sorts. Need to earn a bit more to get my hands on some tools for proper navigation and get comfortable using them.
It's fine to rely on landmarks and compass within the archipelago, just eyballing everything, but that won't do when I will take it to the high seas.
Shame the game doesn't have a map to scribble on, I need to rely on pen and paper.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished Mega Man 3.

At first it felt like a slightly improved version of MM 2... but that feeling quickly faded away, and in the end I was just relieved it was over. Rating-wise I'd place it somewhere above MM 1, but still trailing behind MM 2. There are several reasons for this.

# The Robot Masters. Remember how I brought up a point in favour of MM 1 that I'd mention later? Here it is: The Robot Masters get sillier with each game in the series. Each Robot Master is centered around a theme, which extends into their appearance, their attacks, their weapon and, most importantly, their level as a whole. In MM 1 the six Robot Masters are based on simple, broad concepts, and their levels reflect that. In MM 2 the eight Robot Masters follow slightly narrower concepts, but it's nothing to worry about. Then we get to MM 3... and the silliness walks right in through the front door. Spark Man only creates electric sparks, you say? What's the use in that? I call him Jumpstart Man, because that's all he's good for. The first Robot Master themed after an animal is introduced, literally opening up a whole can of worms in the process, as more will follow in the sequels. And now the themes are all over the place, even in the levels. This leads to a downward trail of entropy, as players lose interest in contemplating the existence and character of each Robot Master, and just plow through the level to beat them and move on to the next one.

# The Dark Masters. A new addition in this game (and I think this only happens in MM 3) is the secret fact that there are not eight robot masters in the game, but 16! Four Robot Master-stages will be revamped, and Mega Man will have to go through them again, to beat two of these mysterious 'Dark Masters' on each stage. While the idea is novel, it's not executed in the best possible manner, and instead of serving as extra content it quickly devolves into pure filler to pad out the gameplay. It would have been more sensible to have an extra teleporter room-stage in the Wily-stages where these Dark Masters could be fought, instead of retreading through four stages again. Lesser resources used, and more effectively.

# Pushing the NES to its limits. I was raised with 8-bit computers, I know their technical limitations. One of the key ones is a notable framerate drop when there are too many moving things on-screen at once. Sadly this number is low, around five things on average, and the NES is no exception. There are a handful of moments in the prequels where you can see this happen, but slowdowns are the norm in MM 3, and it is infuriating. Mega Man and his three buster shots, plus another moving enemy and his moving shots, is enough to get this started. This is why fighting Snake Man took me forever, I was fighting the lag most of the time.

Another way in how MM 3 pushes the NES to its limits, is how it maxed out space on the cartridge. There's no intro to speak of, no explanation as to what precisely you're supposed to do in this game, save for defeating another batch of Robot Masters, for some reason. The manual adds little more, except that Mega Man is looking to retrieve some energy crystals from the new Robot Masters, and that Dr. Wily and Dr. Light are working together on a "peace project". So when an in-game cutscene starts talking about 'Gamma', players won't have any idea what that is. But instead the game has a nice outro, one that covers... the Robot Masters from Mega Man 1? It's clear that they ran out of cartridge space while making this game, and couldn't downscale the game properly before release.

# The game is really out to 'get' the player. This was a recurring theme throughout MM 1, greatly reduced in MM 2, but it returns with a vengeange in MM 3. Large sections in numerous stages are intentionally designed to make use of how enemies spawn at the edge of the screen, to surprise the player. Usually jumps across insta-death fields are involved. Then they take it one further with the 'nuts and bolts'-bot, which magically appears on-screen when the player gets close enough, then another part of it comes in from off-screen and joins up with the first piece, but it's invincible until it finished the joining sequence. The game literally spams this nuisance a few times.

Finally, a minor note of disappointment: People keep claiming that MM 2 and 3 have the best music. While I certainly agree with MM 2, I was somewhat disappointed with MM 3. It has some really good tunes, but also a fair share of tunes that just go in one ear and out the other.

All in all, MM 3 feels like a game where Capcom bit off more than they could chew.

On to Mega Man 4 soonish.

 

[Caim]

Yeah, the Doc Robots send you back to four of the stages to fight the MM2 robot masters again, which feels more like a chore than some proper fights. At least at that point you'll have the Rush Jet, one of the most ridiculously powerful items ever seen in a platformer. Mega Man also learned to slide in this game, an ability that would prove useful for most of the series going forward. But I agree with the story parts, and that you'll actually have to look for it. Without the manual you'd never know that Shadow Man was not actually built by Wily or Light, but rather is an alien creation that Wily found.

Mega Man 4 is my favorite of the bunch, finding the perfect balance in level design, boss fights, weapons and overall flow. It does push the NES to its limit even harder, with some rather dubious flickering here and there.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

But I agree with the story parts, and that you'll actually have to look for it. Without the manual you'd never know that Shadow Man was not actually built by Wily or Light, but rather is an alien creation that Wily found.

I have the original manual, it makes no mention of this.

The official Mega Man comic book from 2011, however, does. Makes me wonder where they're sourcing that from.

Mega Man 4 is my favorite of the bunch, finding the perfect balance in level design, boss fights, weapons and overall flow. It does push the NES to its limit even harder, with some rather dubious flickering here and there.

Hopefully this turns out to be true, because then I have something to look forward to.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

I just started Dominions 6. It seems good but I don't really know what I'm doing yet.