What game are you wasting time on?

[HansDampf]

Finished the Talos Principle 2 DLC, Road to Gehenna Elysium. It's divided into 3 unrelated chapters.
The first one is pretty short and all about lasers and how they block each other. It teaches you some neat tricks. But overall, this chapter feels a bit redundant.
Second chapter is like a lengthy epilogue with more casual puzzles like those in the base game. Not bad but way too long for my taste. There is also a "boss puzzle" at the end that can barely be called a puzzle. The design guides you through the giant hexahedron structure with so much hand-holding, it's basically a one hour long walking simulator.
The third chapter is the money chapter if you are looking for a challenge similar to Road to Gehenna for the first game, with a few bigger puzzle arenas and some unique mechanisms. You will get stuck on some of these. That's how puzzle games should be.

This game is also the first time I've come into contact with "AI upscaling" in modern engines. And it can suck my balls! Here I thought that bad anti-aliasing in modern engines was annoying. But this is even worse. Even when I have it set to maximum or "native" so that there shouldn't be any upscaling at all, I'll still see smearing artifacts in a few spots. And this game in particular won't even let you choose high or ultra settings if it thinks your GPU is too weak, causing even more upscaling artifacts. Excuse me, but that's still my decision. I had to do some workaround hack by editing an ini file.
Is this going to be the future for AAA graphics? Poorer optimization compensated by more upscaling.

 

[NecroLord]

I finished Quake: Dissolution of Eternity and Holy Fuuck, that end fight against the dragon can be brutal...
This was the worst I've done in a playthrough, I must've died half a dozen times. Basically just try to stay underneath the dragon, or only leave the starting area when he is with his back turned and flying in the opposite direction from you. Multi rockets will get the job done, as will the Thunderbolt and the Lava Nails.


Now it's some Doom Ep3: Inferno.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I'm confused about the Ancient Gods quest. I made an offering to Torg and then to Bolo which according to the chart should be the right order, but Bolo's blessing completely replaced Torg's. I thought they were supposed to stack?

 

[Fargus]

I'm confused about the Ancient Gods quest. I made an offering to Torg and then to Bolo which according to the chart should be the right order, but Bolo's blessing completely replaced Torg's. I thought they were supposed to stack?

New circle overrides the old one. If blessing from the same circle wiped out your progress you probably not done it in the right order. I would just reload.

Also postpone getting a new circle until Vendigroth because not all bonuses are good. Look for ones you need.

 

[jackofshadows]

New circle overrides the old one. If blessing from the same circle wiped out your progress you probably not done it in the right order. I would just reload.

Pretty sure this is incorrect. Yes, a greater god's blessing overrides all of the previous lesser gods blessings but you accumulate all the three circle blessings before going to Vendigroth I beleive.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I've been replaying Deus Ex1 with the GMDX 9.0 mod and it's been pretty fun. That game has held up pretty well and I love the level design of Hell's Kitchen.

 

[ferratilis]

A few days ago, an amazing mod was released for Gran Turismo 4 called Spec II. It tweaks a lot of things and adds some qol features, but most importantly it fixes the worst aspect of GT4 by replacing almost all the car sounds with better ones. The campaign also received some tweaks to make the progression feel better. The modded ISO can also run on original hardware without any issues.
https://www.theadmiester.co.uk/specii/

Spoiler

I also tried using my Logitech G29 wheel and, surprisingly, it works out of the box with PCSX2. With Assetto Corsa, it took me a lot of time to tweak it for the force feedback to feel right. With GT4, it's perfect without any tweaks, on an emulator no less. Outside of real PC sims like AC, ACC, GTR2, or Automobilista, cars in GT4 feel amazing to drive. It's honestly a shame that an emulated PS2 game provides a better simcade experience than anything natively available on PC. It's either full blown sim like the ones I mentioned or pure arcade experience. There are only two things remaining I don't like about GT4: severely limited number of AI drivers and them being braindead due to PS2's weak CPU, and the lack of Ferraris and Lambos due to Sony being stingy with licensing. Other than that, it provides an amazing driving experience.

For anyone interested, there's also a retexture mod that improves tracks and cars:
https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/gran-turismo-4-retexture-mod-v3-0-3.408852/

 

[Perkel]

As someone who spent easily 1000 hours in GT4 on my G25. You are vaping hard if you think GT4 model is good.
As much as I love GT4 for all its content and tons of events, its driving model is waaaaaaaaaaaaay to understeery it takes considerable amount of time to tune setup so that car actually drives decently. At the time it was quite good compared to rest of racing console games.

The real gamechanger is imho cockpit view. Sound is something you can get used to after a while.

 

[Ezekiel]

Whenever I think of getting a racing wheel, I play Project Cars 2 briefly and remember how boring race tracks are to learn. Want to experience it, but eh. Gran Turismo 4 was the only one I seriously got into. As a kid, with a controller, when it was still new.

 

[Perkel]

Pcars2 is shit. That's your problem.

Racing games divide into two categories: Those with ton of content and those with good gameplay. Where gameplay is something more than just driving a car on x track. The challenge, good events, interesting pacing of how your spend your time.

When it comes to games that given me the most fun:

1. Porche2000/Unleashed - Perfect Campaign that takes you on history joyrney from 30s to 2000 and you gradually drive with faster cars, new cars get introduced, new parts are getting introduced each year. Sometimes you have to make decision to switch early and go with new slower car but have platform to build on or stay with maxed out older car for a while. Wait what is that ? A TURBO KIT ? OUT OF NOWHERE I CAN INSTALL TURBOS ?

2. Gran Turismo 4 - Share amount of content that is joined with share amount of events that top of with really challenging ones that push you to the limits. 24h Le mans ? Yes, you heard that right. I did that with my friend back then. Felt like nothing else to arrive at finish line.

3. Gran Turismo Sport/GT7/iRacing - Those games show you that you never raced in your life despite playing racing games for almost two decades. You can't outpower anyone with tuning. You learn how to be defensive or agressive, learn that consistency is the key (in form or 0.01 second per lap), that driving #1st with someone behind you slows you down a lot, that driving behind someone puts pressure on that someone and he will make mistake sooner or later. You learn that there are more than 1 racing line in track. You will learn how tires are living things that needs to be taken care off. You will lose, but everytime you lose you will keep getting better and better.

 

[ferratilis]

Whenever I think of getting a racing wheel, I play Project Cars 2 briefly and remember how boring race tracks are to learn. Want to experience it, but eh. Gran Turismo 4 was the only one I seriously got into. As a kid, with a controller, when it was still new.

If you live in the US, it's very easy (and cheap) to get a decent DD wheel now, with the likes of Moza R5 and Cammus C5 providing good competition to more expensive models. Also, try Assetto Corsa and Competizione if you want a good driving model, or the older GTR2 which is still amazing to play.

 

[asper]

I found some notes from a year or two ago, when I was playing Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

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Stopped my playthrough of Witcher 3 - The Wild Hunt with a blank expression on my face. I'm about 60 hours in, and it is starting to drag. This game gets boring pretty fast!

I enjoy the atmosphere, design, dialogues and quests, which are all on a very high level. The actual gameplay is however quite shallow and repetitive. The quests present nice, lore and character-based little stories (and are not very generic), but completing them almost always consists of following markers in witcher-sense mode and fighting some boss. There is no use of items or solving quests in different ways.

The world map is huge, but after a while, does not invite exploration. Huge cities, but no dialogues with the inhabitants. A bit of flavor text and interactions with NPC would make the world feel much more alive and immersive. Instead, it has the typical empty feeling of a modern open world RPG.

The quests and stories therein are quite enjoyable and present the lore and world well. But so what, when solving the quest consists of following markers in "Witcher sense" mode each time?

I feel assumptions are made in presenting the main quest, which are not presented to the player explicitly. I am told I need to find Ciri, but why? Do I need to replay the previous two games to know this? Not having the motivations of the main character presented to me made me feel not engaged in the story.

I’ve read that the expansions are good, yet I can’t bring myself as of now to get back to it. Making the gameworld smaller and more filled with unique content would have really helped this game.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I am told I need to find Ciri, but why? Do I need to replay the previous two games to know this?

Two years too late, but not even the previous two games would answer that one.

 

[jackofshadows]

I’ve read that the expansions are good, yet I can’t bring myself as of now to get back to it. Making the gameworld smaller and more filled with unique content would have really helped this game.

Well that's exactly why they're better than the main game.

 

[asper]

Steam Review of Islands of the Caliph, a very good blob... 1person dungeoncrawler
Also check out the RPGCodex review by Darth Roxor

Had a lot of fun with this one

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This is a very fun first person dungeon crawler that really shines in its smooth gameplay, exploration, worldbuilding, and original setting. If you like games in this style such as Legend of Grimrock, Eye of the Beholder, etc, I can highly recommend Islands of the Caliph.

The tropical sun, the sea wind blowing over the beaches; jungles, mountains and deserts, maze-like cities, full of markets and strange characters… Coupled with the great soundtrack, the atmosphere in this game is simply great. You are invited to explore... which is the main gameplay focus, and is excellent in this game.

A set of islands is the gameworld, and each island has a different theme and feeling. You will explore jungles, deserts, mountains, undead wastelands, and a few dungeons. Move freely from island to island, as long as you can pay the captain's fee. Moving through this world feels very pleasant; you have the step-based movement as in blobbers, but with fluid transitions.
Note that the game is fully keyboard-based, which may take some getting used to to new players. I have found that this makes interacting with the game smooth and efficient.
The music is excellent. The pixelart is serviceable and does not fall into the trap of a tired, forced, fake retro look. The graphics and music serve the gameplay and atmosphere, and fit the game well.

The main focus of the game is exploration. There is combat and some interaction with NPCs, but these serve the aforementioned focus.
Combat is real-time and not tactical, and perhaps a weaker part of the game. As it is not very difficult, this is not very important.
NPC’s provide information, quests, and shops; there are no real dialogues, but you will be presented with some choices. Some puzzles are based on the information you hear from an NPC. The world feels alive; people are in cities, some hermits outside in the wilderness, there is a lot to explore.

Now, for what makes this game stand apart:
The worldbuilding is excellent. Cities, the island wilderness, dungeons: exploration, being the main gameplay focus, is super fun to do. The islands invite exploring them; interacting with the game sucks you into the gameworld - there are secrets to unravel, treasures to find, monsters to slay, NPCs to find. Most quests are exploration based; finding the right person, place or item is usually the focus. There are a few puzzles, also based on searching. The size of the islands, and the towns they contain, is exactly right; the world is not overly big, but also big enough to reward exploring. It has been a long time since I had so much fun in a 3d game exploring the world! If you’re a veteran blobber player, the dungeons might feel a bit on the small side, though.

Second, the setting: it is unusual to have a game based on Arabic mythology that includes the religion of Islam. Religious practices are implemented in the gameplay. Praying, fasting gives you bonuses; a questline has you travel and visit different religious teachers. All of this is done in an unobtrusive way. You can learn religious practices in a questline from NPCs; yet this is, as most quests in the game, entirely optional. The actions and the way religion is presented is quite unique, and done tastefully, without beating the player over the head with it. The developer definitely deserves praise for this.

Third: the optional nature of quests, and the consequences in choosing to take them or not. There are not many games in which actually doing a quest is the wrong action to take, and actually has bad outcomes! The game does a great job in alerting you to the consequences, and there are ways afterwards to deal with them. Some actions have permanent consequences for the gameworld, which gives the game some replayability.

Minor nitpicks:
The game is overall simple and easy. It does not have the difficulty of older titles such as Eye of the Beholder, nor the party customization, itemization, choices in character progression, and so on. The real-time combat is a breeze if you are a seasoned player of these types of games: just use EoB cheese “dance” tactics and mash the attack button. Money comes easily later on. The hunger and sleep mechanics are (thankfully!) easily managed. For me, these are very good things, as I do not have the time anymore to grind a game for many hours, as I could in the past... It is a light, simple experience.

The character system is very simple and not very balanced. Some skills are not very useful, some it doesn’t make sense to increase. In general you will not gain many levels before finishing the game. All of this doesn’t matter much, as it is not hard to defeat the enemies in the game, and money after some time will come by easily. Again, don’t expect any challenge here; which is good in my opinion.

Note on the save system: I am not sure why the developer chose to restrict saving the game always onto the same save-slot. You can by copying the save folder and modifying its name, move it to a different saveslot, if you want to try out some different quest outcomes.

Minor point for the developer: potatoes are a New World crop that came from Latin America with Spanish colonizers in the 16th century; they could not have been present in medieval Arabia

Give this one a whirl and support indie one-man developers, making games in this truly classic old-school style!

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I am told I need to find Ciri, but why?

Emyr (Ciri's father) hires you to find her, after he recieved reports of people seeing her. There's a rather long dialogue about it.

Does the quest log fail to mention it? I don't remember it super well

There are genuine criticisms to be made about TW3, but I don't feel like this is one of them.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing some Doom 2 because it is one of my favorite games and I love it so much.

 

[Average Manatee]

I am told I need to find Ciri, but why?

Emyr (Ciri's father) hires you to find her, after he recieved reports of people seeing her. There's a rather long dialogue about it.

Does the quest log fail to mention it? I don't remember it super well

There are genuine criticisms to be made about TW3, but I don't feel like this is one of them.

There's never a good reason for why Geralt himself cares and he's a powerful witcher that can fuck off and do whatever he wants. Ciri is also depicted as a very competent person who easily escapes danger constantly and there's no reason given to think that things will ever be otherwise. Whole thing reeks of you playing the overworried dad who needs to check up on his 25 year old daughter every day to make sure she's ok.

 

[gooseman]

There's never a good reason for why Geralt himself cares and he's a powerful witcher that can fuck off and do whatever he wants.

He adopted and raised her. His love interest, Yennefer, is also on a missions from Emyr to track Ciri. And Ciri is a powerful mcguffin-like thing, due to her ancestry, there's some prophecy tied to her and whereever she goes, shit explodes. I think this is mentioned in dialogues and there's definitely a lore book in the game about it. And the Hunt is chasing her, for that same reason.The Hunt aren't just some monsters, but a powerful standing army of some elf kingdom on another planet or world. She's been on the run for a very long time and just about everyone has plans on her: her father, the Hunt, the Lodge.

Ciri is also depicted as a very competent person who easily escapes danger constantly

In nearly every flashback while tracking her, you see her exhausted and on the run from the Hunt, but also falling into other dangers. She's fighting alone against the world that, quite literally, wants to fuck her. Gameplay doesn't reflect her weakness as well as cutscenes do.
She is not mentioned in previous games (or maybe mentioned in passing, I'm not sure), but she is a central character to the plot in the books, from what I gather. It confused me at first too and made me feel like I missed something, because I had no idea who she is, and I played Witcher 2 and she wasn't in it. Still, the intro in Kaer Morhen and other stuff explained their relationship and reasons to care for her well enough.

 

[adddeed]

Started System Shock 2 but in Stereo 3D and with EAX2.0 and its even more terrifying now. Last i played it was over 15 years ago however so it feels fresh again.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

So funny thing in Arcanum. If you kill the gang members attacking Virgil fast enough you can "resurrect" him for free without spending a scroll.
The game acts as though he's dead even though you just saved him.

 

[NecroLord]

There's a scroll of Resurrection in the chest (I think it was added by the Drog patch).

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

There's one in vanilla too, but that's not what I mean. I mean that there's a bug where you enter the basement, see the gang members attacking him and you can kill them before he dies. You can then speak to the not-dead Virgil and the game acts as though he's died and come back.
I wonder if you can let Virgil solo them all by himself. Like, give him really high level magic gear and some buffing scrolls before he leaves T'sen-ang.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

There's never a good reason for why Geralt himself cares

The intro to the game depicts Geralt training Ciri at Kaer Morhen when she was a kid. Followed by a conversation with Vesemir reminiscing about that time.

Now maybe you're not a particularly scholarly type, but I would think most people could deduce from these cryptic clues that there was some sort of personal connection between Ciri and Geralt. Even if this conundrum is overwhelming for you, there's the fact that Yeneffer, Geralt's friend and lover, is very eager for Ciri to be found and kept safe.

 

[Average Manatee]

Now maybe you're not a particularly scholarly type, but I would think most people could deduce from these cryptic clues that there was some sort of personal connection between Ciri and Geralt. Even if this conundrum is overwhelming for you, there's the fact that Yeneffer, Geralt's friend and lover, is very eager for Ciri to be found and kept safe.

Ciri is also depicted as a very competent person who easily escapes danger constantly and there's no reason given to think that things will ever be otherwise.

If they wanted to make "I have to catch up to Ciri and help her" as a part of the game then they shouldn't have literally let you play Ciri and see that she's vastly more powerful than Geralt is. Comparing Ciri to Geralt is like putting a DMC character next to a Dark Souls character. It's like Batman trying to help Superman against something that doesn't involve kryponite. The whole game is Geralt being a cuck chasing after women (the sorceresses are also guilty of this) who are stronger than him and he just happens to help out because he's the player character.