What game are you wasting time on?

[Black Plague]

the Magnum pistols that I never found.

I think you'll officially find them in City of Khamoon where a black panther attacks you, though Colosseum has them hidden in one of the secrets.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing Bloodrayne and it's really fun.
Good game, though the same cannot be said of its sequel.

 

[Azalin]

Finished Chicken Police Paint it Red a noir visual novel/mystery game.It's an interesting little game from a puzzle mystery point there isn't much of a challenge ,the setting is interesting a world where the residents are anthropomorphic animals but I don't think it works well as a noir detective setting even though there is some interesting backstory that can be expanded in the future.I think it would have been better if they use a more traditional setting for such a game.The story though is good and interesting although the game is short and there isn't really any replayability.

Also downloaded and spent a few hours playing Marvel Rivals the new hero shooter that's getting a lot of attention these days. It's a nice game that takes quite a few things from Overwatch,some kits and abilites will feel very familiar .It has a ton of characters at launch(33) although most of them are DPS characters.It has a unique mechanic called Team-up where if there are specific characters combinations in your team they get some bonuses or extra abilities.Most characters feel they way they should,this isn't like Suicide Squad where everyone suddenly decided to get a gun although there are some weird choices by the devs(Loki being a healer mostly,Dr Strange a tank,etc).The game could use more maps but hey it's free so I can't really complain

 

[Ezekiel]

Switched to keyboard for Tomb Raider, like I played through Tomb Raider II in 2017. Analog stick was messing my jumps up too much, and my 8BitDo Ultimate has a crappy D-pad in an awkward spot. My RetroFighters Defender has a better D-pad in the right spot, but L1 and R1 are too thin. I think the designers of the original DualShock saw the sticks as secondary, believed players' thumbs would be more on the D-pad. It wasn't about making the sticks symmetrical.

 

[Erebus]

Just finished Restoration of Erathia. I hadn't played HoMM 3 in at least 10 years, but it remains just as enjoyable as when it was first released.

Now, it's time for me to help an albino elf get a sword called Armageddon's Blade. There's no way this could possibly result in the destruction of the entire world during the introduction of the very next game.

 

[grimace]

I am playing Parasite Eve on emulator. I had my save from last year to continue.

The pre-rendered backgrounds appeal to me. The weird Bonus Points level up distribution is starting to make more sense to me.

Here's the Brady guide I'm referencing.
https://archive.org/details/Parasite_Eve_USA/page/n79/mode/2up?view=theater

The fixed camera, non-tank control movement (intentionally slow character), "hidden" objects to find ... it's glorious.

 

[Ezekiel]

Finding keyboard awkward as hell, though. I wonder why the remastered Tomb Raider doesn't wanna read the D-pad on my M30 Mega Drive style controller.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Just finished Restoration of Erathia. I hadn't played HoMM 3 in at least 10 years, but it remains just as enjoyable as when it was first released.

Now, it's time for me to help an albino elf get a sword called Armageddon's Blade. There's no way this could possibly result in the destruction of the entire world during the introduction of the very next game.

I'm scared shitless of installing HoMM3 because I know I'd be playing it and all its expansions for the next 5 years if I started. I'm still going through HoMM2 because of course you can't leave a job half-done and NOT finish the expansion campaigns - fortunately they're all shorter than 3's.


Apart from that, I recently finished Chants of Sennaar. A pretty cool adventure/puzzle game where you go around deciphering languages of different peoples in a quasi-Babel Tower setting. The entire game is very cozy, and the underlying theme/message is something of a parable that I also enjoyed, because it could have very easily been very in your face, but instead it nicely treads the line of subtlety. Had some gripes about it (particularly too big empty areas everywhere that take way too much time to backtrack through), but overall I had a great time with it.

 

[Kabas]

Still playing survivor games.

Brotato - wasted 24 hours already according to steam. There is only one arena to play in but it compensates with the incredible variety of classes to experiment with. My conceptually favourite one is probably the Bull who just runs into enemies and explodes.
Reached difficulty level 5 but can't beat it quite yet. I feel like i should farm some class wins on lower difficulties first for those extra items because i found quite often that my win is heavily dependant on finding right legendary or rare items.
I don't have a good win record(i suck at dodging boss attacks) and currently i am a bit burned out from this one

Holocure - wasted 8 hours on this one. A free game that i heard someone describe as "vampire survivors on steroids".
Plenty of character variety too(if you don't mind vtuber aesthetics) and you have fun weapons that can combine too(called collabs).

Nothing as game altering as some of the Brotato options though.

Pest Apocalypse - got released very recently. Before trying the demo i didn't even realise that this is another survivor game.
The gimmick here is that you driving a car with "hyper realistic physics" and your goal is to deliver pizza. Demo was kinda fun and the game looks nice enough but i found it pretty difficult to stay alive.

Brotato is sick, but if you haven't tried it yet, I recommend Deep Rock Galactic Survivor. That's my favourite of all these sorts of things.

Thanks for the suggestion, gave it a try too.

This one feels quite distinct with an ability to mine walls and having a need to fulfill special objectives on the map. Setting is pretty cool.

Kinda appreciate these survivor games for condensing one of my favourite parts of RPG expeirence(growing from zero to overpowered god) into a 20-25 minute session.

 

[Ezekiel]

Finished Tomb Raider. It was brutal. Don't know how PlayStation players persisted with only the save crystals. Most traps you can predict and think about how to maneuver before proceeding, but a few, man... Better than Tomb Raider II? I can't remember.

 

[Abu Antar]

Technobabylon is an adventure game with pixel graphics most characters range from cringe to terrible. The overarching story seems to be standard futuristic surveillance soceity. I expected more in general. I will play it to the nde, but it's been disappointing. Not recommended.

HoMM4 is a strange one. It's uglier than the third installment, which is a shame. It has played closer to a role playing game than previous entries. I'm exploring with parties of heroes, and barely have any army. I have only used armies in tougher fights. This is the one game in the series that I have never played. 15 hours in, I find it to be okay, but not what I expected. I will give credit to the soundtrack, which is cozy af.

 

[TC Jr]

M30 Mega Drive style controller

How does it compare to the original MD controller? D-pad-wise specifically (my favourite). Also, what does it show up as? My MD shows up as an ATARI something or other which can be an issue with more recent releases, perfect for emulation though.

 

[Ezekiel]

M30 Mega Drive style controller

How does it compare to the original MD controller? D-pad-wise specifically (my favourite). Also, what does it show up as? My MD shows up as an ATARI something or other which can be an issue with more recent releases, perfect for emulation though.

I have not held a Mega Drive controller for many years. Maybe someone else can answer.

 

[mediocrepoet]

M30 Mega Drive style controller

How does it compare to the original MD controller? D-pad-wise specifically (my favourite). Also, what does it show up as? My MD shows up as an ATARI something or other which can be an issue with more recent releases, perfect for emulation though.

Not sure, since it's been an age, but the pad does feel good and 8BitDo controllers are pretty great in general.

The one I have is actually the XBox styled M30 so it shows up as an XBox One controller. Generally speaking, all their controllers show up as some form of X-input controller or sometimes an official XBox or Switch (probably PS) controller, if you get one that's configured for that. They're great products.

 

[TC Jr]

Not sure, since it's been an age, but the pad does feel good and 8BitDo controllers are pretty great in general.

The one I have is actually the XBox styled M30 so it shows up as an XBox One controller. Generally speaking, all their controllers show up as some form of X-input controller or sometimes an official XBox or Switch (probably PS) controller, if you get one that's configured for that. They're great products.

Thanks, I actually looked that one up too, seems great (extra shoulder buttons). I have the Ultimate Bluetooth or whatever it's called and it's one of the best controllers I've ever used, that too shows up as an Xbox controller.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Not sure, since it's been an age, but the pad does feel good and 8BitDo controllers are pretty great in general.

The one I have is actually the XBox styled M30 so it shows up as an XBox One controller. Generally speaking, all their controllers show up as some form of X-input controller or sometimes an official XBox or Switch (probably PS) controller, if you get one that's configured for that. They're great products.

Thanks, I actually looked that one up too, seems great (extra shoulder buttons). I have the Ultimate Bluetooth or whatever it's called and it's one of the best controllers I've ever used, that too shows up as an Xbox controller.

I have several of their controllers. The Ultimate controllers of various sorts are their best ones and my favourite controllers too. I picked up the one that looks like a PS2 controller (Pro 2), the XBox styled M30, and the Sega Saturn styled one. The M30 is interesting if you want it for old arcade games and (more likely) fighting games. I'd actually recommend the M30 over the Saturn styled one because those sticks are so tiny they're really only useful for menu navigation or something and don't feel great to play with or anything. They're just sort of there and make the controller more expensive.

The Pro2 I mostly just picked up because I liked that it had a sort of NES colour scheme and for nostalgia for the controller layout that you don't see often anymore. Generally, I just use the Ultimate controllers that I have though because they're so good.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

I've been using the Ultimate Wired 2C from 8bitDO for a while now. Took a while to get used to the shoulder buttons as the shape is a little different from my 360 gamepad was, but now I love it.

Glad to find a 360 pad replacement that's actually in production, because the Xbox series controllers are oddly smaller. Tried one for a while but just couldn't adjust to it.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Technobabylon is an adventure game with pixel graphics most characters range from cringe to terrible. The overarching story seems to be standard futuristic surveillance soceity. I expected more in general. I will play it to the nde, but it's been disappointing. Not recommended.

HoMM4 is a strange one. It's uglier than the third installment, which is a shame. It has played closer to a role playing game than previous entries. I'm exploring with parties of heroes, and barely have any army. I have only used armies in tougher fights. This is the one game in the series that I have never played. 15 hours in, I find it to be okay, but not what I expected. I will give credit to the soundtrack, which is cozy af.

I found rather funny that the MC of Technobabylon is a dark skinned gal but her VR avatar is clearly less dark than her irl.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Now going through the Wizard's Isle expansion campaign in HoMM2. It's a short one, with just 4 maps, but it's pretty hard, and you gotta blitz like a mufugga from the start all the time. Mission 2 I had to restart a number of times, and 3 I had to rewind to 1/3 of the scenario or I'd get terminally stuck (thank goodness I had a save from that time). The way mission 3 works is you start with 1 wizard castle vs 3 sorceresses, so you gotta blitz them fast before shit gets bad. That is the easy part. After that you have to find a buried artifact, which turns out to be in a part of the map that is *crawling* with doomstacks of T6 creatures - lots/hordes/throngs of usually titans, black dragons, bone dragons, firebirds. Breaking through that shit with just your 1 wizard castle is simply not enough, so you gotta jump over to the sorceress units + titans.

Also, mission 3 is actually optional, and the buried artifact carries over to the final. I was rather surprised to find that it was the sphere of negation (blocks all spellcasting by both sides) given that you play wizard all the time, but then it turns out... in map 4 your hero is a barbarian. A barbarian. Looking for the source of magic. Yeah that makes sense.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

A barbarian. Looking for the source of magic.

Gotta know where the magic is so you can krump it.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Also, mission 3 is actually optional, and the buried artifact carries over to the final. I was rather surprised to find that it was the sphere of negation (blocks all spellcasting by both sides) given that you play wizard all the time, but then it turns out... in map 4 your hero is a barbarian. A barbarian. Looking for the source of magic. Yeah that makes sense.

now that on the 4th month i finally encountered the opposition in the final map and i see that they are all 15+ spellpower warlocks well i am glad to have this sphere of niggation

 

[Semiurge]

Call of the Machine seems ok so far (I've just finished Corpse Run) but already there are some patterns in the level design. The game relies on ambushes a lot, but even on nightmare it treats you with kid gloves since most of the enemy waves are comprised of weak mooks and ammo is so far plentiful. There does seem to be a difficulty curve between the units, which is good. The secret levels seem to offer the greatest challenge, even compared to the final boss levels, but you get rewarded with powerful items.

Finished Tomb Raider. It was brutal. Don't know how PlayStation players persisted with only the save crystals. Most traps you can predict and think about how to maneuver before proceeding, but a few, man... Better than Tomb Raider II? I can't remember.

If you think TR1 with crystals is brutal, then you haven't seen anything yet. TR3 is famous for its "bullshit traps" that you can't predict.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Playing Franko 2 again. Kind of crazy that after 20 hours I can still discover new ways to finish enemies.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing Bloodrayne and it's really fun.
Good game, though the same cannot be said of its sequel.

Addendum:
Great game and it even has jiggle physics!
Rayne's tits and those of the Butcheress bounce when performing attacks or when moving.
Beautiful to behold.



Aaanyway, those daemite creatures in their lair are somewhat terrifying.
A shame we ain't getting another such game.

 

[Abu Antar]

I lost five hours of progress in Exist Archive due to the game crashing. I uninstalled it, and will get back to it in a few months.

In HoMM4, I beat the first campaign with Lysander, and moving on to the barbarian campaign.