What game are you wasting time on?

[NecroLord]

Finished Bloodrayne and I must say it is still as good as I remember it to be.
It is the proper kind of jank, not the grossly offensive jank.
Final boss fight is actually pretty cool and it can go in a number of ways.
I recommend you destroy Beliar first because he will countinue to grow in size as the battle goes on up to a colossal proportion resulting in a game over cinematic and literal fucking Armageddon happening.
Beliar can also kill Wulf (though only rarely) making the fight between you and Beliar more difficult.
Aim at Beliar's heart with the Extruded View ability - Default F2 on keyboard and keep shooting. Remember to collect guns lying around, I recommend the Panzerschreck and the Grenade Launcher that you can get two missions earlier.

Wulf is not that tough.
Bloodrage gets the job done easily.
Just try NOT to get hit by him, as he hits like a mac truck and can kill you in just a couple of hits.

 

[Kabas]

To be honest i enjoyed Brotato and Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor more.
Love the Diablo 1 inspired aesthetics tho.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

After 8 hours of being level 1 it took 3 hours to reach level 5.
I don't know how, but that's fine, encounters are pretty decent now. I think the hardest so far were those Battle Horrors at that tower, and I'm pretty sure I just don't have the right tools for them because I have no idea what they are.
I assumed they were Undead but Turn Undead doesn't seem to affect them, so probably not?

I'm not sure if I should dual class imoen though. Losing the abiltity to use a bow for 6 levels would suck.

 

[NecroLord]

After 8 hours of being level 1 it took 3 hours to reach level 5.
I don't know how, but that's fine, encounters are pretty decent now. I think the hardest so far were those Battle Horrors at that tower, and I'm pretty sure I just don't have the right tools for them because I have no idea what they are.
I assumed they were Undead but Turn Undead doesn't seem to affect them, so probably not?

I'm not sure if I should dual class imoen though. Losing the abiltity to use a bow for 6 levels would suck.

Battle Horrors are nasty.
I always used my main tank against them and lots of magic missiles.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I haven't played BG1 in 10+ years (probably longer) but the two biggest fights I remember was that spirit that entered the ancient burial mound if you got greedy with the idol, and the basilisks.

Both are doable, but using the ghoul to cheese all the basilisks felt like a stroke of genius back then.

I hear you can't do that anymore.

 

[NecroLord]

I haven't played BG1 in 10+ years (probably longer) but the two biggest fights I remember was that spirit that entered the ancient burial mound if you got greedy with the idol, and the basilisks.

Both are doable, but using the ghoul to cheese all the basilisks felt like a stroke of genius back then.

I hear you can't do that anymore.

Potions of Mirroring also work.
I did use the ghoul for a bit, but I play the original game, never the EE.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Potions of Mirroring also work.

I found them to be unreliable due to how short they last. I have an entire map of basilisks to clear out, I'd need a crate of the things.

The ghoul is also unreliable as he can turn hostile at any moment, but that problem can be circumvented via rigorous save-scumming.

 

[ds]

Potions of Mirroring also work.

I found them to be unreliable due to how short they last. I have an entire map of basilisks to clear out, I'd need a crate of the things.

The ghoul is also unreliable as he can turn hostile at any moment, but that problem can be circumvented via rigorous save-scumming.

You only need the potions for one guy you send into close range - everyone else can the safely use ranged attacks. I think it's also one of those areas you shouldn't necessarily clear as soon as you find it - if you come back after Nashkel you should be able to take out whole groups of the beasties with only one potion.

The TotSC fights (Greater Wolfwere, Durlag's Tower, Aec'Letec) are probably going to be much tougher even if you do them after everything else.

 

[NecroLord]

Potions of Mirroring also work.

I found them to be unreliable due to how short they last. I have an entire map of basilisks to clear out, I'd need a crate of the things.

The ghoul is also unreliable as he can turn hostile at any moment, but that problem can be circumvented via rigorous save-scumming.

You only need the potions for one guy you send into close range - everyone else can the safely use ranged attacks. I think it's also one of those areas you shouldn't necessarily clear as soon as you find it - if you come back after Nashkel you should be able to take out whole groups of the beasties with only one potion.

The TotSC fights (Greater Wolfwere, Durlag's Tower, Aec'Letec) are probably going to be much tougher even if you do them after everything else.

Yeah, pelting the basilisks with arrows works even better. Just gotta have a tank up close who is protected from petrification.
Durlag's Tower is one of the best dungeons designed.
Watcher's Keep is also great, but not quite as good.

 

[Melcar]

Any undead summon would do, or the Protection form Petrification spell (scroll can be purchased relatively early). They only target the closest character, so you can just sit back and kill them with ranged attacks. With SCS you can't cheese them anymore like that as they will ignore any character with immunity to their gaze attacks.

 

[Ezekiel]

Happy about all the important games I beat last year, I decided to continue Bully. Got the game in December 2017 and left it at chapter 4 in December 2018. Don't remember anything and am not gonna restart, because I don't care about the story and just wanna be able to say I played through it. It always bothered me that I left it there. Mediocre. Thoroughly.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The last (but not final, they are all available from the start) HoMM2 expansion campaign I played, Descendants, was probably the weakest of the bunch. Price of Loyalty was nicely vanilla, the Road Home and Wizard's Isle had some cool gimmicks and challenges, while Descendants was just kinda meeeehhhh. It also had a vanilla feel, but more tiresome than Price of Loyalty, though maybe it was HoMM fatigue already setting in - still, it didn't really shine in any way, had two 'adventure' kind of missions with hueg maps with time limits and no enemy factions where you gotta just run around a labyrinthine map to accomplish an objective, and the last mission had you pitted with 2 castles against two enemies with a million castles over a yuge map, at which point I just wanted it to end. Fortunately if you take the right mission fork before it, you can get elven alliance and scoop up neutral elf stacks to have 200 of them within 2 weeks. After that it's mostly annoying cleanup and fending off a million enemy heroes that keep capping your shit. And of course just as I was about to be done, the motherfucker AI decided to use my own cheese against me by getting a hero with 20 titans and dimension door that started jumping around being a dick, and given that I was constantly blitzing behind enemy lines I hardly even had an army to stop him. It took a while before I poured together all my elves, orc warriors and cyclopses on my strongest hero to pin that nigga down.

Speaking of which, one thing I generally dislike about HoMM2 is how enemy heroes are never actually eliminated from the game when defeated. They always go back to the tavern and are available with all their levels and spells, even across different enemy players... Not being able to get rid of some annoying motherfucker for real can be one of the biggest nuisances in this game.

Also, there was a funny detail in the Descendants campaign. The idea of that campaign is that with each mission you play further successors of the original ruler Jarkenas. In one mission you have to find your wayward son Joseph, who's available for hire in every scenario from then on. Except that with every mission his number goes up, so he starts off as just 'Joseph', in the next one he's 'Joseph II', and in the final map he's 'Joseph IV'. I thought it was amusing.

So that's a wrap with Heroes of Might and Magic 2. Life has suddenly lost its meaning.

 

[Kabas]

Have been wasting all day on El Paso, Elsewhere - a Max Payne-like game about shooting vampires and trying to stop your abusive ex-girlfriend from ending the world. Currently i am really close to the end and i think i am going to drop it. Levels are very samey, enemies are lacking in variety, slowmotion dive feels like a tackled on gimmick... It just doesn't feel good to play.

El Paso' biggest strengths are pretty cool plot and amazing voice actor they got for the main character. Also, music.

Once one of these vocal songs starts playing during gameplay it does feel good to play for a bit. Still not good enough to endure the slog anymore though.

 

[grimace]

Got a $5 physical Square Enix game for Switch. Playing blind.

Squeenix has a solid reputation for quality games, right?

https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...-the-world-ends-with-you.144950/#post-9274061

 

[__scribbles__]

Doing a runthrough of a few immersive sims, beginning with System Shock (which I finished and thought was excellent), and just finished Thief (with the Gold rerelease/expansion). I've played up until Return To The Cathedral but never properly finished it before.

This is still a mind-blowingly good game. Even 26 years after it came out, the only things that date it would be the graphics and perhaps the default controls (though it's a non-issue as you can easily rebind them to something more conventional). Everything, from the elegantly blended dark fantasy/steampunk setting, to the epic, twisting story, to the complex and realistic levels feels truly interesting, engaging and immersive.

Level design, and the way it interacts with sound design is the star of the show. In addition to all the usual signs of good level design - interconnectedness and branches, loot to find, etc. - there's a sort of flow to it I don't feel in any other game. Some areas might be safe but things are still tense and uncomfortable. You know you're safe, because you don't hear any enemies, who make sounds even through iron doors. Their footsteps are loud, they look somewhat goofy thanks to the low poly models but are still intimidating in context, and constantly mumble to themselves. Their prescence is so strong that you never truly get used to them not being there, even though that should be a good thing. It makes the moments when you stumble into a dark room and realise you're not alone even more powerful. The enemy placement can be sparse and fairly forgiving, such as in Cragscleft or Ramirez's mansion. This lets navigation and exploration breathe without the player having to worry too much about getting caught or making noise. But the worry is still there in the back of your head, and it stays there for as long as you play the game.

Thief is the gold standard when it comes to atmosphere and immersion. Apart from a few blemishes, like the drop in quality in the last couple of missions, it's basically a perfect game.

 

[NecroLord]

Doing a runthrough of a few immersive sims, beginning with System Shock (which I finished and thought was excellent), and just finished Thief (with the Gold rerelease/expansion). I've played up until Return To The Cathedral but never properly finished it before.

This is still a mind-blowingly good game. Even 26 years after it came out, the only things that date it would be the graphics and perhaps the default controls (though it's a non-issue as you can easily rebind them to something more conventional). Everything, from the elegantly blended dark fantasy/steampunk setting, to the epic, twisting story, to the complex and realistic levels feels truly interesting, engaging and immersive.

Level design, and the way it interacts with sound design is the star of the show. In addition to all the usual signs of good level design - interconnectedness and branches, loot to find, etc. - there's a sort of flow to it I don't feel in any other game. Some areas might be safe but things are still tense and uncomfortable. You know you're safe, because you don't hear any enemies, who make sounds even through iron doors. Their footsteps are loud, they look somewhat goofy thanks to the low poly models but are still intimidating in context, and constantly mumble to themselves. Their prescence is so strong that you never truly get used to them not being there, even though that should be a good thing. It makes the moments when you stumble into a dark room and realise you're not alone even more powerful. The enemy placement can be sparse and fairly forgiving, such as in Cragscleft or Ramirez's mansion. This lets navigation and exploration breathe without the player having to worry too much about getting caught or making noise. But the worry is still there in the back of your head, and it stays there for as long as you play the game.

Thief is the gold standard when it comes to atmosphere and immersion. Apart from a few blemishes, like the drop in quality in the last couple of missions, it's basically a perfect game.

Should always be played on "Expert".
I recommend Hard for a first time player though, as some of the missions are unforgiving for beginners.
Take for example the spike in difficulty from Lord Bafford's Manor to Cragscleft Prison on Expert.
Cragscleft is loaded with Hammerite Guards all patrolling in tight areas where there is not a whole lot of room to maneuver, though there are shadows. All those Hammers can easily tear you a new one, as they are tough and hit hard. You also have no Flash Bombs.

Expert is GREAT because it makes you play as a master thief of the shadows, not as a killer or assassin.
Also some areas on maps become accessible only on Expert, such as in "Down Into the Bonehoard" and "The Sword".

 

[__scribbles__]

Should always be played on "Expert".
I recommend Hard for a first time player though, as some of the missions are unforgiving for beginners.
Take for example the spike in difficulty from Lord Bafford's Manor to Cragscleft Prison on Expert.
Cragscleft is loaded with Hammerite Guards all patrolling in tight areas where there is not a whole lot of room to maneuver, though there are shadows. All those Hammers can easily tear you a new one, as they are tough and hit hard. You also have no Flash Bombs.

Expert is GREAT because it makes you play as a master thief of the shadows, not as a killer or assassin.

Yep, played all missions on expert. The main draw for me is that it forces you to exfiltrate as well as adding new objectives. I don't think it changes NPC behaviour that much though, which would've been nice.

Favourite missions, probably The Sword tied with Cragscleft, followed by another tie between The Bonehoard and Song of the Caverns. Undercover and The Haunted Cathedral were pretty cool too, even if the former was a bit small in size.
I thought Strange Bedfellows was pretty cool as well, though it bugged out leaving me unable to complete the mission legitimately. Same thing with Return to the Cathedral. Thank God for the level skip cheat, otherwise I'd have to replay the entire missions.