What game are you wasting time on?

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Might be controversial but I prefer Wiz8's class design to 7's or even 6's. I like that you have to commit to your characters.

 

[jackofshadows]

Intravenous 2. It's fucking awesome. The very first mission reminded me of sicario. Did lots of shooting in the back of people's heads in the big mansion. Feels great. Appreciate the recommendation from the screenshot thread, JarlFrank.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Giving Korgan the shield of balduran and letting him wander the Beholder tunnels in the underdark is the funniest shit. They literally can't do anything to him unless they get an Imprison off.

 

[NecroLord]

Giving Korgan the shield of balduran and letting him wander the Beholder tunnels in the underdark is the funniest shit. They literally can't do anything to him unless they get an Imprison off.

Berserker Enrage ability protects against Imprisonment.
Also lasts an entire turn (1 minute realtime).

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Giving Korgan the shield of balduran and letting him wander the Beholder tunnels in the underdark is the funniest shit. They literally can't do anything to him unless they get an Imprison off.

Berserker Enrage ability protects against Imprisonment.
Also lasts an entire turn (1 minute realtime).

I guess he had it inactive then when they got him the first time. The AI tried hitting him with it again and it didn't send him to the phantom zone that time, so I was wondering what was going on.
But yeah, he basically solo'd the entire Beholder cave. Next stop is the Mind Flayer zone and then maybe go hunt some fishes.
You only need one item for the ritual, which is kind of odd but ok.
I guess I could clear the Drow city first and then explore, but I want to get enough gold to buy some of the gear at the Drow Merchants.

 

[NecroLord]

Giving Korgan the shield of balduran and letting him wander the Beholder tunnels in the underdark is the funniest shit. They literally can't do anything to him unless they get an Imprison off.

Berserker Enrage ability protects against Imprisonment.
Also lasts an entire turn (1 minute realtime).

I guess he had it inactive then when they got him the first time. The AI tried hitting him with it again and it didn't send him to the phantom zone that time, so I was wondering what was going on.
But yeah, he basically solo'd the entire Beholder cave. Next stop is the Mind Flayer zone and then maybe go hunt some fishes.
You only need one item for the ritual, which is kind of odd but ok.
I guess I could clear the Drow city first and then explore, but I want to get enough gold to buy some of the gear at the Drow Merchants.

Buy from the Drow Merchants?
LOL.
I always just rob them blind (because that's what those dark skinned elven bastards deserve).
Jan has enough Pickpocket skill to pull it off (there's always potions which can improve your skill).

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I tried doing that, but I guess EE changed it so you can't just pickpocket everything. Whenever I tried with Jan it just says "the merchant doesn't have anything you can steal with your skill" and this is with Jan + potion of thievery.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Ok nevermind, I was just doing it wrong. Turns out if you have a thief selected in your party there's a steal option in the shop window and that's how you steal in this game. I completely missed that because I don't use my thieves as loot mules.
So yeah, I just nicked a Robe of the Evil Magi.

 

[NecroLord]

Ok nevermind, I was just doing it wrong. Turns out if you have a thief selected in your party there's a steal option in the shop window and that's how you steal in this game. I completely missed that because I don't use my thieves as loot mules.
So yeah, I just nicked a Robe of the Evil Magi.

Also be careful going over 200 skill in Pickpocket, as I believe there is still a bug present where going over 210-220 will bug out the skill and you will get caught pickpocketing.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I have 140 with Jan, which apparently is not quite enough because I still get caught at times. Still pretty much stole every unique weapon from the Drow merchants and a bunch of nice potions though.

This is such a game changer. This is as broken as that time I discovered the Jet Ski infinite money exploit in Underrail. Just save scum and steal your way to victory.

 

[Damned Registrations]

130 hours sunk into Palworld now. Bought it a month ago. Been playing ironman and totally blind. Having a great time. Every time I sit down and play I uncover new useful stuff, game is exploration heaven. And the map is damned pretty- lots of obviously reused tiles in terrain generation, but there's places that are desktop picture worthy all over the place. It's a great example of using resources well instead of throwing money at the problem. It's probably the best looking geography I've ever seen in a game and it makes the time spent flying/gliding around it really enjoyable rather than a chore.

 

[Sigourn]

Finished Mafia (2002).

What a fucking experience, GREAT game from beginning to end. It made some missions (which would have been a total slog in other games) enjoyable in their own right.
There are so many cool episodes I don't really know which one to pick as my favorite. Arguably the weakest part about the game is the epilogue, but it was still satisfying and in tone with the rest of the game.

 

[KeAShizuku]

X-Men legends. The irony of buying a 2000 eurodollar PC to play 20 year old console games is not lost on me.

 

[Morgoth]

1000xRESIST

This was a truly pleasant surprise, and it's hard to define the game in orthodox terms. Some people like to compare it to NieR or 13 Sentinels, but I don't think so.

This game was made by 4 people, all Asian diaspora living in Canada, and they decided to spin their own personal experiences (Hong Kong uprising, trauma of moving into a foreign country at young age, etc.) into this game, and then some.

It's all framed through a Sci-Fi story. Sometime in the 2040s, a bunch of aliens "The Occupants" one day show up and bring a disease with them that kills almost all of humanity. Any attempts to communicate with them, or find their motives, are in vain. They're not your usual grunt aliens with laser assault rifles, but just bundles of information, or 4D beings sapping human emotions for nourishment. Suffering and fear of death are the most valuable resource to the Occupants, which then gets stored in a database that is quite literally wrapped around the Earth like a shield. It is what they do I guess. Nothing personal. Humans live on as memories. Ray Kurzweil must be losing his last hair over such paradise.... if he was still alive in the 2040s, that is.

Hong Kong girl Iris is special. 'cause somehow, she's immune to this disease. Plus she doesn't age. But why? She's also a psychopath growing up in a broken family and shoving everyone away. Soon the remaining authorities get wind of this and want to experiment on her, to find a cure. Eventually, the last remaining humans build 50 gigantic floating cities that can submerge to the bottom of the sea at high speed, a last ditch attempt to save some humans and escape the grasp of the Occupants. They take Iris and some of the best of humanity with them. They bombard the last remaining human cities to incite panic, as a diversion tactic to make the Occupants flock to these spots of suffering so that the ships can vanish quickly without interference. Some ships succeed, some go AWOL, others flood themselves to buy time for the remaining ships to escape the Occupant's hunger.

Good thing the ship Iris is on made it.

Fast forward.... years, decades? Hundreds of years? Thousands of years? Who fucking knows? Everyone's dead, except Iris, the ALLMOTHER of course, and her many sister clones she has created since then. A Post-human society, living a serene life in "the Orchard" (aka the ship). Each sister has a specific function. Fixer (plumber), Bang Bang Fire (defense), Knower (librarian), Healer (physician), Principle (boss), and then there's Watcher (watches everyone). This is the sister you're going to play.

I could waffle on forever and not even scratch the surface of this complex, multilayered tale. You're going to do all sorts of weird shit.

You'll have communions with teenager Iris when she was still Earth bound, her drama with her parents, their drama, etc. You'll uncover what's really going on with the Occupants. You'll witness an authoritarian takeover in the Orchard by the people you trusted. You'll commit murder, you'll commit terrorism, you'll die. You'll also remember things wrongly. You'll make choices throughout the game that will amount in several different endings.

The game is basically a memory hopper, effortlessly weaving personal, contemporary experiences into a time-jumping SciFi framework, and then manage to make actual sense on top of that. In the hands of a lesser writer, this ambitious endeavour would have immediately collapsed in a puddle of cringe and confusion. But these developers took their work seriously and pulled off a painstakingly crafted narrative adventure that truly speaks from their souls.

Still not making sense? Don't worry. Just enjoy.

Unless you're a crybaby that needs everything spoon-fed and by the numbers. Then look elsewhere.

 

[NecroLord]

X-Men legends. The irony of buying a 2000 eurodollar PC to play 20 year old console games is not lost on me.

You should try out Suicide Squad Kills the Justice League.



Trust me, it's good...

Spoiler

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing some Deus Ex.
Got out of UNATCO while leaving Manderley unconscious, even though I really wanted to give him the GEP Gun treatment...
"The GEP Gun is the most silent way to eliminate Manderley".

I'm doing a hybrid shooting/stealth playstyle, I try to minimize the bodybag count if a gunfight starts, otherwise I play it stealthily.

 

[NecroLord]

I'm playing some Deus Ex.
Got out of UNATCO while leaving Manderley unconscious, even though I really wanted to give him the GEP Gun treatment...
"The GEP Gun is the most silent way to eliminate Manderley".

I'm doing a hybrid shooting/stealth playstyle, I try to minimize the bodybag count if a gunfight starts, otherwise I play it stealthily.

Now at the Hong Kong helipad.
The Versalife mission is great (accompanied by a great soundtrack as well).
Can't wait to get to the Brooklyn Naval Shipyards, one of my favorite areas of the game.

 

[Abu Antar]

Playing a bit of everything as usual.

In Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, I reached chapter 8, and entered the Gold Saucer. I have already repeated what I think about the game, and my opinion is still the same. Oh, and there are actually acceptable looking women in the game.
Did some more challenging Queens's Blood matches, but I now have a decent enough deck, which means I'll win on first or second attempts.

Prince of Qin. I had a momentary "man, I'm retarded" moment when I was looking for settings in the game. I have been complaining about my character running slow, but after 3,5 hours, I found a game speed option. Duh! I now have three characters. The latest character is a mage, and he's mostly focused on healing spells. There's lots of trash combat, especially with wolves. They might go extinct by my hand. Environments are good enough. Story is serviceable, so far. The translation is okayish, but some funny things here and there. Voice acting will never not be hilarious in this game. I love the cheesiness. (In reality, it's shit.)

Playing other crap as well, like beating the Sponge Bob Bikini Bottom game. It was a solid 6.5/10 games, that could have scored a 7 if it wasn't for some annoying bugs here and there.

 

[__scribbles__]

I just finished Deus Ex: Invisible War with the Denton ending. Straight up, I think it's a bad game, regardless of Xbox RAM.

-Little to no progression. Augmentation canisters are everywhere and you never have to commit to any of them because they're just generic upgrade points. Weapons barely change throughout the game, you don't unlock many new ones and some of them are pointless (levels are too compact for sniper rifle to shine and SMG does nothing the shotgun and pistol don't).

-The game is too short. This makes the point above even worse since all relevant setup happens in the first hour of the game and then there's just nothing else going on for the rest of the experience. It also means that the plot is rushed and gives you whiplash with how often it seems to change direction and tone.

-Writing doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or what to do with itself. The plot develops rapidly and gives the player whiplash and most of the quests suck conceptually(coffee wars and chamber boys, what the fuck?!). The characters are uninteresting and bland and all of them boil down to "my side is good and their side is bad". Especially noticeable in the cases of Nicolette and Chad, who both felt like real people in DX1 but just turn into cartoon villans. The premise is stupid, all the endings are canon despite that making zero sense thematically or narratively(Morgan Everett? Lucius DeBeers? Who're they? I only know Chad and Nicolette). The game doesn't know whether or not it wants to be a standalone game or a straightforward sequel. It doesn't try to explain how the setting has changed since the first game so you think it's standalone, but the plot is so heavily intertwined with plot points from the first game that it seems like a continuation of DX1's story.

-Nothing you do in the game really matters, you have as much consequence as in Skyrim basically. Morgan apparently cares more about me stealing a helicopter than she does about me killing a dozen people and breaking five presumably rare and expensive robots to get to it. DX1 wasn't the most non-linear game but it had a good amount of variance and choice, such as Jaime's defection and Paul's survival. Conversely, nothing changes in IW and you don't have much choice to begin with, both in moment-to-moment gameplay and scripted story stuff. It fails in exactly the same way as the first regarding the ending.

-Aesthetics are bad overall. DX1 has pretty bad character models, but Invisible War's are downright scary in how uncanny they look and the voice actors sound completely disinterested. There's no colour or life to the world.

-Even with patches loading time is shit and crashes are frequent. The most effective weapon in the enemies' arsenal is not rocket launchers or flamethrowers, it's forcing you to CTD mid-fight and suffer through even more loading than there are in the tiny levels.

-Difficulty is far too low. You can get a full aug setup and the best melee weapon in the game just by doing some surface level exploration of Seattle. Combat has zero stakes since enemies die in two shots from the weakest weapon and Alex can reliably tank even late game enemies' damage on realistic with no upgrades. Resource management is not a thing, healing and energy is everywhere and ammo is never an issue either, despite every gun using the same ammo for no reason at all. Grenades kill everything and are common as chips. Money has no point because everything you could want (canisters, consumables, weapons + mods) is everywhere. The low difficulty also makes stuff like the Order sending assassins after you as a consequence for disobeying them not be a consequence at all, it just means there's two extra guys to mow down in the street and move on ten seconds later and all is forgiven.

Overall this is a very bland, shallow and poorly made game. It's not unplayable, but it's far too flawed to be called "good" in any context and I'm thankful I've finished it once so I never feel the need to do it again. What a shame *lip smack*.

 

[Max Damage]

I never bothered with Invisible War due to reviews mentioning how cramped the levels are + universal ammo, even to middleschooler me that sounded lame. Good to know that I didn't miss anything.

 

[NecroLord]

I just finished Deus Ex: Invisible War with the Denton ending. Straight up, I think it's a bad game, regardless of Xbox RAM.

-Little to no progression. Augmentation canisters are everywhere and you never have to commit to any of them because they're just generic upgrade points. Weapons barely change throughout the game, you don't unlock many new ones and some of them are pointless (levels are too compact for sniper rifle to shine and SMG does nothing the shotgun and pistol don't).

-The game is too short. This makes the point above even worse since all relevant setup happens in the first hour of the game and then there's just nothing else going on for the rest of the experience. It also means that the plot is rushed and gives you whiplash with how often it seems to change direction and tone.

-Writing doesn't seem to know what it wants to be or what to do with itself. The plot develops rapidly and gives the player whiplash and most of the quests suck conceptually(coffee wars and chamber boys, what the fuck?!). The characters are uninteresting and bland and all of them boil down to "my side is good and their side is bad". Especially noticeable in the cases of Nicolette and Chad, who both felt like real people in DX1 but just turn into cartoon villans. The premise is stupid, all the endings are canon despite that making zero sense thematically or narratively(Morgan Everett? Lucius DeBeers? Who're they? I only know Chad and Nicolette). The game doesn't know whether or not it wants to be a standalone game or a straightforward sequel. It doesn't try to explain how the setting has changed since the first game so you think it's standalone, but the plot is so heavily intertwined with plot points from the first game that it seems like a continuation of DX1's story.

-Nothing you do in the game really matters, you have as much consequence as in Skyrim basically. Morgan apparently cares more about me stealing a helicopter than she does about me killing a dozen people and breaking five presumably rare and expensive robots to get to it. DX1 wasn't the most non-linear game but it had a good amount of variance and choice, such as Jaime's defection and Paul's survival. Conversely, nothing changes in IW and you don't have much choice to begin with, both in moment-to-moment gameplay and scripted story stuff. It fails in exactly the same way as the first regarding the ending.

-Aesthetics are bad overall. DX1 has pretty bad character models, but Invisible War's are downright scary in how uncanny they look and the voice actors sound completely disinterested. There's no colour or life to the world.

-Even with patches loading time is shit and crashes are frequent. The most effective weapon in the enemies' arsenal is not rocket launchers or flamethrowers, it's forcing you to CTD mid-fight and suffer through even more loading than there are in the tiny levels.

-Difficulty is far too low. You can get a full aug setup and the best melee weapon in the game just by doing some surface level exploration of Seattle. Combat has zero stakes since enemies die in two shots from the weakest weapon and Alex can reliably tank even late game enemies' damage on realistic with no upgrades. Resource management is not a thing, healing and energy is everywhere and ammo is never an issue either, despite every gun using the same ammo for no reason at all. Grenades kill everything and are common as chips. Money has no point because everything you could want (canisters, consumables, weapons + mods) is everywhere. The low difficulty also makes stuff like the Order sending assassins after you as a consequence for disobeying them not be a consequence at all, it just means there's two extra guys to mow down in the street and move on ten seconds later and all is forgiven.

Overall this is a very bland, shallow and poorly made game. It's not unplayable, but it's far too flawed to be called "good" in any context and I'm thankful I've finished it once so I never feel the need to do it again. What a shame *lip smack*.

To be fair, Invisible War had some really big shoes to fill. It is not easy being a sequel to one of the most celebrated video games ever made.
Being designed with the console in mind arguably already set Invisible War on the path to failure.
The basic gameplay and concept of the first game is still present - vent crawling, patrolling enemies, etc. However, the augmentations have been severely downgraded, weapons are not very upgradeable, game is shorter than the first one. It is also more hi-tech, so essentially more cyberpunk than Deus Ex, which was more "grounded", so to speak.

 

[__scribbles__]

To be fair, Invisible War had some really big shoes to fill. It is not easy being a sequel to one of the most celebrated video games ever made.
Being designed with the console in mind arguably already set Invisible War on the path to failure.

I agree with you that it was always going to fail, I think that they should've just not bothered and not made a sequel in the first place. And personally, I don't like the "it was made for Xbox so it *had* to suck" argument. Not because it's entirely wrong, but because it shifts the blame for the game's low quality away from the designers and on to the console they made it for. The Xbox may have been a piece of shit with low RAM, but that didn't force them to castrate resource scarcity and write an uninteresting plot. The game was bad because the design wasn't there, all else is secondary.

The basic gameplay and concept of the first game is still present - vent crawling, patrolling enemies. However, the augmentations have been severely downgraded, weapons are not very upgradeable, game is shorter than the first one. It is also more hi-tech, so essentially more cyberpunk than Deus Ex, which was more "grounded", so to speak.

It's there in vestigial form. Invisible War is to Deus Ex what BioShock is to System Shock 2. Grid-based inventory and limbic damage might seem like only small stuff, but the small stuff all working together was what made Deus Ex great in the first place and the removal of these mechanics was, in my opion, as big of a downgrade as the tiny levels and mean that the game would still be mediocre even if it were made for PCs with 512mb of RAM.

 

[Renfri]

I am really impressed by Wandering Sword, everything from story, quests, music and combat. For example, one quest that I thought was small find certain type of monster turned into long and complex questline. Early on it felt that almost all baddies were into raping (women) too, its wild.

 

[General Disarray]

Played a little of Cloudpunk, Cyberpunk 2077 and ff15. But honestly got sucked back into Outward. It's so superior mechanical to all other "open world" games it's not even close. With real darkness in dungeouns, the open world support the survival aspect making resource extraction actually something you want to do ( fuck elden ring ), no magical GPS just a map and try to find landmarks, actually logical light immersive sim aspect for example if you you apply flame to your weapon it will actually function as a heat source ( and as a light source ) which is important if you are out on a cold night or get caught by winter, name one more game that has that.

It's just a very good palet cleanser to play after you watch gameplay from the latest AAA open world slop game.

 

[NecroLord]

Just got from Hong Kong back to New York to meet with Stanton Dowd, high ranking Illuminati member.
The music that plays here is awesome (in the original game it doesn't play, so either you'll have to fix it yourself or install the unofficial Deus Ex patch).
I maxed the Power Recirculator aug so now I'll get way more out of my heavy duty augs.