What game are you wasting time on?

[mediocrepoet]

I tried the last three demos I had on my list for the Steam week.

Stone of Blood: This may interest people who are into that real time strategy puzzle sort of game. I wasn't a huge fan of the art style and it's not really my type of game, so about all I'll say is that the setting and such is interesting and the game seems like it's at least reasonably well made.

Neon Blood: Basically a traditional adventure game in a cyberpunk setting with that hipster pixel presentation. The game struck me as fairly tedious with the adventure parts literally being solvable by wandering around and clicking on every point of interest that comes up and then there are some turn based flash JRPG style battles that were fairly dull with the last one being topped off with a QTE. Between that and some really dated and awful pop culture references, I had my fill by the end of the extremely short demo.

Lurks Within Walls: This was a weird mix of single person blobber with grid based tile movement and survival horror. The combat was fairly meh as you might imagine, but they managed to nail the sort of creepy atmosphere that makes me enjoy some horror games. I'm not sure if this will be a good game or not but it's interesting and I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Ezekiel]

Demos... Hoping MGS3 remake gets a demo. Don't plan to play it for a long time, because I find it so pointless, but want to test thoroughly how true to the original the classic controls really are and what had to be downgraded for modern digital face buttons.

Played Perfect Dark for a bit. I remember now that I never got beyond the first or second level when we borrowed the game. Too many fail states, too much failing to figure out what you are supposed to do. GoldenEye was much better with that.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Shadow Warrior 2013 on heroic.
It's not very good.
SW2013 is already a bit of a slog because for some unholy reason FWH decided that guns should have no impact and slow reloads with low ammo cap, and heroic exacerbates it by making enemies even more tanky with chapter restarts if you die.
I have no idea why it has such high ratings because it is literally nothing like the old build engine game and has some pretty poor design choices, even on the lower difficulties.

You'd think they'd have learn their lesson and made SW2 more like, you know, shadow warrior, but no, they made it into fucking borderlands. Apparently there's a Shadow Warrior 3 but I literally have heard nothing about it, so it's probably even worse than SW2.

Shadow warrior has fallen, billions must hara-kiri.

 

[NecroLord]

Shadow Warrior 2013 on heroic.
It's not very good.
SW2013 is already a bit of a slog because for some unholy reason FWH decided that guns should have no impact and slow reloads with low ammo cap, and heroic exacerbates it by making enemies even more tanky with chapter restarts if you die.
You'd think they'd have learn their lesson and made SW2 more like, you know, shadow warrior, but no, they made it into fucking borderlands. Apparently there's a Shadow Warrior 3 but I literally have heard nothing about it, so it's probably even worse than SW2.

Shadow warrior has fallen, billions must hara-kiri.

I tried to get into this game, but they really turned the original classic Build Engine shooter into hack/slash garbage.
Sorry, no deal.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, its like they really wanted the player to use the sword, but instead of just letting the sword be fun to use (which it already is, being able to one shot enemies with a charge strike is pretty fun at times), they also decided to nerf all of the guns so that the sword and arguably crossbow is the only viable option, especially on higher difficulties. Then they made it into an arena shooter like in pain killer with some enemy types that are way tankier than they should be, so on heroic or insane you're just locked in a single area for like 10 minutes trying to kite enemies and stab them to death with the only good weapon you have. Its just not good design, let alone shadow warrior.

 

[NecroLord]

Yeah, its like they really wanted the player to use the sword, but instead of just letting the sword be fun to use (which it already is, being able to one shot enemies with a charge strike is pretty fun at times), they also decided to nerf all of the guns so that the sword and arguably crossbow is the only viable option, especially on higher difficulties. Then they made it into an arena shooter like in pain killer with some enemy types that are way tankier than they should be, so on heroic or insane you're just locked in a single area for like 10 minutes trying to kite enemies and stab them to death with the only good weapon you have. Its just not good design, let alone shadow warrior.

The katana was quite powerful in Shadow Warrior 3D, being able to cut through ninjas quite easily.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah, but I remember guns also being good, so you can either slash or shoot. In 2013 guns are shit, so you can only slash and only if you charge it up first, and that's just lame.

 

[Dark Souls II]

Installed GTA IV again. I have my favorite spot near the sea where I block the road and push cars off the cliff. When my car starts to get damaged from pushing other cars off the cliff, I stop pushing cars off the cliff for a moment and I wait till a traffic jam accumulates. Then I damage my car some more and park it near the other cars. I stand back and watch the explosions and people burning alive. Sometimes, if some of the exploded cars drop into the sea, more cars keep coming and riding into the havoc and exploding, and I don't have to do anything just watch the situation unfold. I do this for 30 minutes up to an hour. I have not done a single quest, nor I ever will.

 

[Ezekiel]

Darksiders lock-on is lame because it locks you out of the camera. Why do developers keep getting this wrong? Let me circle around enemies and move sideways and backwards, but don't bring the cam closer and lock it down. I'm not using the lock-on much anymore because of this. Even without, the game automatically turns you around with a hard auto-target when you attack. Why is this so common in 3D action games?

Has scripted finishers with the right face button. Big red B appears over the enemy and then the character does something sick, something wicked, something exxxtreme. Meh. Wouldn't put that in my action-adventure.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Darksiders was kind of mid in general. I could never get into it.
I think I got up to that shitty tower mission and just dropped it because it was so tedious and lame.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

I'm playing Prey right now and it's pretty good. I'm using the survival options like weapon degradation and traumas but I hope they don't get too annoying.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Yeah I might give Prey 2016 a run later on at some point. It's been a while and I don't think I did the bad endings.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

saga frontier
pretty good but wow this game gives you zero fucking clue as to what you're supposed to do at the start. you start off with no party members and combat can be pretty brutal. the only thing that guides you toward getting a squad is one single sentence buried in the manual, and one single dialogue with one NPC in the main hub area. both are quite vague, so you need to apply personal curiosity and exploration to figure it out. i still figured it out on my own terms, even though i wasted about 2 hours exploring other places but really wild they thought this was fine. can't imagine how many people quit this game after getting lost for the first hour.

also played Beyond Oasis on genesis. honestly a lot better than A Link to the Past. combat is actually good and fun, instead of a tedious chore broken up by backtracking like ALTTP.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing Prey right now and it's pretty good. I'm using the survival options like weapon degradation and traumas but I hope they don't get too annoying.

Is that the System Shock inspired game?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I'm playing Prey right now and it's pretty good. I'm using the survival options like weapon degradation and traumas but I hope they don't get too annoying.

Is that the System Shock inspired game?

Yep, and despite the name it has nothing to do with that 2006 FPS with the Native American bloke.

 

[Drakortha]

I just finished DE: Mankind Divided once again. I can't believe it's getting close to 10 years old. It was the last halfway decent thing to come out, from my memory. I say half decent because MD's story is pretty shit and it's way too short. But what's there, gameplay wise, is miles above that Cyberpunk slop. Yet CDPR gets to go on to make more garbage while another Deus Ex game is flushed down the shitter.

 

[NecroLord]

I just finished DE: Mankind Divided once again. I can't believe it's getting close to 10 years old. It was the last halfway decent thing to come out, from my memory. I say half decent because MD's story is pretty shit and it's way too short. But what's there, gameplay wise, is miles above that Cyberpunk slop. Yet CDPR gets to go on to make more garbage while another Deus Ex game is flushed down the shitter.

Story is real shit though.
They just had to go for that stupid "discrimination against mechanically augmented people" shit...

Meanwhile Deus Ex had a great and cohesive story that you slowly discovered as you played through the game and uncovered all those conspiracies.

 

[Big_poppa_pump]

Mostly a mix of random stuff I like Street Fighter 6, Tekken 8, Rogue Trader CRPG, Finished Final Fantasy 16, Finish Space Marine 2s story but grinding its PVE/PVP, Hunt Showdow, and I have recently went back to one of greatest guilty pleasures in years....

Ubislop

For Honor

I dont know why I always come back to it, its honestly not the greatest game ever but its just fun to play for me.

 

[Fargus]

Some Xcum: EW. Fun game, love the mech troopers and super soldiers, but crashing is starting to piss me off. Somehow it's less stable than fully modded Xcom 2 despite being pretty much unmoddable. Probably going to abandon it.

also

Half Life 2 VR with Unleashed mod, dual wielding pistols n shiet. Source of my daily joy.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

They just had to go for that stupid "discrimination against mechanically augmented people" shit...

Augmented people being discriminated against is something mentioned in the Deus Ex bible. It fits in the lore and is a pretty good narrative to build around and tie into the original Deus Ex. While it definitely was topical 2014-2015, it wasn't something that felt forced or overbearing, and in my opinion it didn't date itself badly (even at all, arguably) as a lot of 2016-2017 Trump era media did, which was just cringe, even if Trump is retarded.
http://www.nanoaugur.net/dx/bible/ ctrl+f defining humanity

 

[Kabas]

I also have been trying a lot of demos lately, here are my thoughts.

Voin - First person extraction action rpg with some pretty views. Protagonist looks like something straight from the metal album and slashing zombies feels nice but the gameplay loop itself didn't grab me. Dev likes making you walk a lot for some reason.

Mohrta - very stylish GZDoom based retro FPS. Very interesting locales to look at(HUB area especially) but gameplay is honestly lacking and in some places feel tedious. Shotgun primary feels weak, healing doll is very cute.

Tribe Nation - FTL but you're playing as celts trying to escape romans and you command armies on hex grids. Can pillage softly, normally or hard. Like visual style.

Second Sun - mindless but surprisingly fun. Demo left me wanting for more.

HARK THE GHOUL - definitely one of the steam next highlights for me, even made a thread for it. Dark Messiah/King's field-like with a fun to explore world and cool unique items.

Commander Quest - deckbuilder/auto battle strategy game where you play as reincarnated historical figures in a fantasy world. Summon squads with your cards and watch them clash with the enemy squads on different lanes. You can summon towers, giant eagles that don't require a designated spot for summoning, place fire, call rogue/assassin squads in the rear of enemy and stuff.
Kinda like the presentation and there is quite a bit of content in the demo. I am yet to beat the final boss fight.

Metal Bringer - frantic action roguelike where you create and send your remote controlled android into the outside world to battle large hordes of enemies. Your android in turn can pilot mechs to help with the hordes and against enemy mechs. You can then steal the later limbs to replace your own damaged ones or outright hijack defeated mechs if yours is too worn down.
This whole appropriating enemy parts reminded me of Metal Fatigue. Like the concept and in Metal Bringer the execution is pretty fun as certain parts can radically alter how your mech moves and attacks.
Not sure how to feel about the meta progression where you need to spend money to analyze data disks(improves android stats) and mecha parts(allows you to assemble mech at the start of the run). Analyzing mech parts is very expensive so it's unlikely that you will be able to assemble your own mech before demo timer runs out.
All in all, this one is another highlight for me.

Aether Singularity - a Parasite Eve inspired game about FBI agents fighting demons. Found it kinda hard.
Steam page blurb says that there will be a time limit that will affect your ending. Sucks for me because i like taking my sweet time exploring places.
Demo is really short but there are extra combat challenges you can try.

CONERU -DIMENSION GIRL-

"A 2D Platformer "Date" Action" where you play as android powered by a girl from another dimension. You're on a quest to save the city from alien group known as "Hateful Fruit Company" and you can throw moon at people. The most genuinely stupid fun game that i have tried amongst these demos.

SNØ: Ultimate Freeriding - comfy little skiing game, demo is turbo short.

Anode Heart: Layer Null - a pokemon-like game where you duel people in a card game. Like the concept but i didn't like the card game itself. Might be a skill issue but i feel like it's way too easy for a single bad hand to decide the match due to the fact that both players have only 3 HP.

Vivid World - auto battler roguelike where you assemble a squad of viking/pirates/whatnots in the pseudo afterlife and collect gems. Don't have much to say about it other than that artsyle is cute.

Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate

It's a hitman-like game where you must figure out how to progress and complete objectives as an undercover agent in a NotHogwarts.
There are physics and a bunch of secrets that you can stumble upon in the demo level.
Junky but really fun.

 

[Semiurge]

I like Ground Zero better than The Reckoning.
But still, both are pretty good

Ground Zero is more fun in the remastered version, because they nerfed the god damn turrets.

The Reckoning is just ok. Jarring early sections drag it down.

About that, I've made it to the warehouse unit that introduces the turrets, and they're piss weak now. It only takes a single rocket to destroy them, and their accuracy blows. The medic commanders are more annoying, but then so are the regular medics.

Other than that, Ground Zero is clearly more fun than The Reckoning. The level design is more creative and there's more challenge, even in the remaster. The new mook enemy, Stalker, is pretty cute even though that probably wasn't the intention.

 

[NecroLord]

I like Ground Zero better than The Reckoning.
But still, both are pretty good

Ground Zero is more fun in the remastered version, because they nerfed the god damn turrets.

The Reckoning is just ok. Jarring early sections drag it down.

About that, I've made it to the warehouse unit that introduces the turrets, and they're piss weak now. It only takes a single rocket to destroy them, and their accuracy blows. The medic commanders are more annoying, but then so are the regular medics.

Other than that, Ground Zero is clearly more fun than The Reckoning. The level design is more creative and there's more challenge, even in the remaster.

The Nailgun is pretty effective against turrets.

 

[I eat frozen vegetables]

I've been playing Gundam Breaker 4 on the Switch and I just got to the second chapter of the game. At first, I stuck to my guns and didn't dual wield weapons, but I later decided to dual-wield weaponry, and I haven't regretted it since.

 

[Prince Ketchup]

Trying to finish Urban Reign on the hardest difficult after months of attempts. The game is just brutal.