What game are you wasting time on?

[MaxPaint]

Got to the second episode of Postal Brain Damaged. The game itself is meh, but man (or DUDE, should I say) did they make the BOOM-sticks sound and feel fine in this game. It's almost on a Killing Floor level.

 

[axx]

Finished Children of Morta base game, now I'm trying out the extras (family trials or whatever it's called). It was kickstarted about 10 yrs ago and the developers seem to be a bunch of Iranians. It's better than what I've expected, the pixel art is nice and there's a nice variety in characters (you're not bound to any one in a campaign, but rather pick one for each dungeon run based on the mechanics of it's enemies and the boss). My only real complaints is that the base game could be a bit longer and micromanaging a buffed up character with all the shortcuts is a mess.

 

[Ezekiel]

On that little island where all your equipment is taken away and you have to gather three orbs. Nice, Link stubs his toe when kicking a chest open without bottoms.

I used a metal chest to electrify enemies with thunder.

 

[Hell Swarm]

I started Betrayer. It's very CRPG like but plays awkwardly with a controller so I dropped it for now. If you like open world exploring with dangerous enemies and a heavy horror vibe give it a go for sure.

Death's gambit is free on Epic (use a non-epic launcher) and it's a solid metroidvania soulslike. You drop your estus shards when you die rather than souls. Game is heavily focused around weapon skills and hitting enemies to build up mana/adrenalin to do huge damage is neat. Getting new abilities for your weapons is a pain though. I want to switch to a new weapon type but I lack any damage skills for them. Kinda sucks but I'll find something sooner or later.

Started a Dark souls 3 randomizer and I've had the worst boss luck possible. Pontiff replacing Vordt is very difficult.

 

[Sigourn]

Finished Castlevania Chronicles (2001), no save states. What a bitch of a game.
Also finished Shantae (2002). Also a bitch of a game, but for different reasons.

Pros:

• Great animations.
• Cute set of characters.
• Shantae's butt.
• Transformations that unlock new paths.

Cons:

• Combat is trash, with your attacks having very little range and enemies being HP sponges.
• During nights, their HP grows even more.
• Very little sense of direction in the overworld.
• No dungeon minimap makes navigating them a nightmare.
• Certain parts are horribly designed, including the final boss that, althought not as hard as some of Castlevania's, manages to be much more infuriating.
• Cramped Game Boy Color screen.

Overall

 

[Vagabond Merchant]

Pushing through Kingmaker. I'm 115h in and it shows no sign of aproaching a conclusion. It's enjoyable enough to not drop it but Pathfinder is proving to be one of my least favorite settings ever.

 

[BruceVC]

I just finished Fallout: NV and its DLC after 120 hours. It was a great game and I heavily modded it. I included a full review of it on one of the official F:NV threads but its gets a solid 75/100 on the " BruceVC game rating system"

Now Im playing Sunless Skies and Im loving it. I played Sunless Seas and this is similar. Its harsh and unforgiving and its easy to starve or get killed

I also enjoy the whole RNG design and how the maps change and how you get different directions to ports so you need to explore

 

[Kabas]

Attempted to continue wasting my time on Crystal Project and found that i don't want to play it anymore.
Not like i think this game is bad or anything, just got completely burned out of it after 20+ hours of playing.

Tried a bunch of demos of games that looked interesting to me, already shared my thoughts on Depersonalization here. Will definitely be trying the full version.

There is -30% discount currently.

Another demo is Worshippers of Cthulhu which is pretty much Anno but you're running a colony of sacrifice happy cultists.

Demo ends right at the moment when you're about to unleash your first demon on the neighborhood island .
Not as mechanically complex as something like Captain of Industry but the presentation is pretty neat(except for the opening cinematic with artstyle that doesn't fit the rest of the game).

 

[Ezekiel]

I can't even criticize Darksiders for automatically turning the character towards enemies when you attack because they almost ALL do it. But I will anyway. It's lame! 2D games didn't do this. Why do all devs think melee in 3D is so much more complicated that the targeting needs to be done for the player?

Known about this game almost since it came out, but generic, simple look of the gameplay and hideous World of Warcraft art direction turned me off until today when I was very bored. I was correct.

Don't know what's going on. Started with so much fighting and chaos that by the time my character had lost and started talking, I wasn't paying attention anymore.

Will probably try some more. Well, maybe. Overrated. The Japanese are so much better at this.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Finished Mega Man 4.

Can't say I was impressed. Clearly they've shifted from squeezing as much content into the game, into making the game look more presentable. Henceforth we get a nice intro and outro, a nice 'Weapon Get'-screen, and some more snazzy effects.

Unfortunately this comes at the cost of gameplay. Despite MM 4 adding some new tricks, every care is taken to make each of these tricks as painful as possible. Charging up the Mega-Buster is a nice addition, but instead enemies are introduced where split-second timing with charged shots is necessary... and the game's incessant flickering due to overload isn't helping on that front. New elements in platforming are met with the same obsession of having large jumps merge with enemies sliding into view as the game scrolls, meaning even more 'gotcha'-attempts. Drill Man's stage is ESPECIALLY bad at this.

And then there are the Robot Masters. The themes felt kinda silly in MM 3, in MM 4 the themes form a circus. At least the levels are more theme-consistent this time, and I enjoyed the stages of Pharaoh Man and Skull Man, as they strike a good balance between theme, challenge and novelty. But I was more saddened by the rehashed material: Bright Man is Flash Man from MM 2 (with added Mega Buster action), Ring Man is Quick Man from MM 2 (with Metal Man's color palette), Dust Man is an inverted Air Man from MM 2 and Skull Man is Wood Man from MM 2. Toad Man deserves special mention for two reasons: A good player can completely prevent him from firing his weapon, and his weapon has the weakest rate of fire of them all - but it guarantees hits, no aiming required. Truly an original weapon, which sadly gets no love except for taking out Bright Man.

The audio - why, oh why did they stretch out the time it takes for a boss's health to fully charge? The sound playing is painful enough as is, now we have to put up with it for 5 seconds?

But it's not all bad. Both the Dr. Cossack-stages and the subsequent stages are fun and challenging, but I have to admit I'm getting tired of constantly cycling through all the weapons to find which ones work against each boss. That's an inherent Mega Man-problem, so I can't really bitch much about that. The Mac-stage brought a smile to my face, as well as seeing Macs with snorkels when underwater.

One thing I want to bring up is a single line in the game's manual: "As he blows these robotic rebels into oblivion, Mega Man may find a variety of special items to aid him in his journey." What this line fails to mention is that there are hidden sections in some of the levels, which may include extra goodies, including NEW WEAPONS! This adds a new layer to the Mega Man-games, as exploring is now encouraged, as shown in the last two sequels (more on that later).

Overall, MM 4 comes slightly ahead of MM 3, which comes slightly ahead of MM 1, but none of them are within reach of MM 2.

I'm getting kinda tired of these games, but I think I'm past the worst.

On to (sigh) Mega Man 5.

 

[notpl]

Anything to look forward to in the next few weeks?

 

[Caim]

Anything to look forward to in the next few weeks?

Most looked foward to game is Space Marine 2, which is set for early September.

 

[NecroLord]

Anything to look forward to in the next few weeks?

Most looked foward to game is Space Marine 2, which is set for early September.

Was not impressed by it, to be honest.
Also was Titus demoted?
I think so.

 

[Caim]

Anything to look forward to in the next few weeks?

Most looked foward to game is Space Marine 2, which is set for early September.

Was not impressed by it, to be honest.
Also was Titus demoted?
I think so.

Yes, he used to be a captain. But the Inquisitor who took him along at the end of the first game considered Space Marines to be abominations and held Titus prisoner for a while, and when he was freed there were no records of Titus being an Ultramarine. So in shame he joined the Deathwatch as a Blackshield (those who abandoned his chapter for a variety of reasons) for a while, but when the Ultramarines rediscovered him they revealed that they struck him from the record out of shame for their own failing to get him back. So now Titus is back, was turned into a Primaris Marine and is going to have to prove himself once again (because he went missing someone else was promoted) to the Ultramarines.

 

[NecroLord]

Anything to look forward to in the next few weeks?

Most looked foward to game is Space Marine 2, which is set for early September.

Was not impressed by it, to be honest.
Also was Titus demoted?
I think so.

Yes, he used to be a captain. But the Inquisitor who took him along at the end of the first game considered Space Marines to be abominations and held Titus prisoner for a while, and when he was freed there were no records of Titus being an Ultramarine. So in shame he joined the Deathwatch as a Blackshield (those who abandoned his chapter for a variety of reasons) for a while, but when the Ultramarines rediscovered him they revealed that they struck him from the record out of shame for their own failing to get him back. So now Titus is back, was turned into a Primaris Marine and is going to have to prove himself once again (because he went missing someone else was promoted) to the Ultramarines.

All because of that useless cunt Leandros...

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I'm hoping they go into what became of Leandros. Squealing Chapter business to the Inquisition can't have gone down well.

 

[Caim]

I'm hoping they go into what became of Leandros. Squealing Chapter business to the Inquisition can't have gone down well.

He is going to appear in the game, but they didn't say in what context.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

Which is the best Megaman? And what platform?

 

[Ezekiel]

I wish Zelda's world were more European again. The Chinese dragons with Chinese violin are so weirdly placed. Remember feeling that during the heroic moments of Tears of the Kingdom's ending as well. When Chinese violins invaded the old Zelda theme music.

 

[Zlaja]

Which is the best Megaman? And what platform?

I was impressed by Mega Man 9. It also has a kick-ass soundtrack.

Is available on all platforms (along with 7,8,10) with the Mega Man Legacy Collection 2.

 

[BadassNonbinaryPrincess]

Cool thx I will try them.

 

[NecroLord]

Playing AVP 2 my niggas.
Great game, though this one is more story focused and not as tense as the original AVP.
Predator campaign is my favorite.

 

[Drakortha]

I played the System Shock Remake demo and it surprised me, since I go into everything expecting to be bored in 5 minutes. But the level has me intrigued enough to boot up the demo a few more times.

 

[Sigourn]

Finished Hedon: Bloodrite. I'll copy my Steam review.

First things first: this is NOT a boomer shooter. It has boomer shooter elements, but it is not one. There's no boomer shooter that has such massive maps, so much emphasis on platforming and puzzle solving, so much dialogue and story elements. If you go into this game expecting a 1:1 boomer shooter, you are in for disappointment as you find yourself backtracking huge maps looking for the next item that unlocks progress. Hunting for keys and keycards in classic shooters got nothing on this game.

That said.

I enjoy the game. It has big maps, characterization, very interesting puzzles and challenges, and requires you to think things through to proceed. The first map is probably the worse I've played in any shooter ever: it's long, convoluted, and ultimately boring. But the game slowly gets better, and as you get used to how the game works in relation to standard boomer shooters, it gets more enjoyable.

The game's greatest strength is its ambition, which at the same time is its greatest weakness. You have loads of inventory items, but managing so many is very cumbersome, as GZDoom is not designed with this in mind. The maps are huge, but the GZDoom wireframe map is rather useless and you can get lost easily because of how many layers of altitude the maps have.

The backtracking can get on your nerves in the larger levels, as it is not always immediately obvious what you need to do to proceed: in a boomer shooter you know encountering a red-locked door means you need a red key/card. In Hedon, it's most likely you need to acquire three other keys before you get the key necessary to unlock this door. Some of the puzzles are obtuse, and you may not be aware you need to solve a puzzle at all. Some of the secrets are far easier to get than knowing how to proceed in the campaign. And the game has far, far too much platforming for my taste, with death pits or otherwise cumbersome "make a 20 second climb and try again" sections that encourage quicksaving.

But overall, I recommend it just because of how unique an experience it is. Just remember this is not a boomer shooter but an action-adventure FPS and you'll be good to go.

 

[Abu Antar]

I beat the "main game" of Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi. There's post-game stuff, but I will save that for another time. It's a pretty straightforward dungeon crawler, with a six man party, and turn-based combat. In general, I like it, but I think there wasn't much enemy variety. Challenge wise, it was fairly easy, but I read that the post-game stuff is where it truly gets tough. Some good tunes, and the atmosphere was good. The story, I won't actually know until I beat the rest of the content.

Heroes of Might and Magic III is done, and I am now on Armageddon's Blade. While I slightly prefer the main game, this is still fun. Bloated stacks, and some maps being so-so. The walls of text every now and then is also unnecessary. Main game conveyed everything much smoother. All in all, still top tier stuff.