What game are you wasting time on?

[Average Manatee]

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.

The lack of grounding probably doomed the game. Even if gameplay was the same level of quality the setting of the two games is too different. I don't think you can replicate a terrorist in the statue of Liberty trying to lecture you on oligarchic control of the world in a generic future sci Fi city.

 

[Abu Antar]

Vestaria Saga is beaten. Thanks for the game jaekl ! If one wants more old school Fire Emblem like games, then this series is a good choice. I will complete some other games before booting up part 2. Not cringey like newer Fire Emblem games writing. More to the point, and has more war/politics based story, even if there are evil monsters and the like.

In Valheim, we have beaten all the current bosses that are available in Early Access. We (I) died quite few times to the boss, but we felt it was less painful than the penultimate boss, which was more challenging. In general, it's a decent game, but nothing spectacular. In my opinion, these games are more about what the players make them. We all bought Enshrouded as our next game to play, until 1.0 of Valheim releases. I heard good things, so I hope that we do not get disappointed.

This brings the tally of games that I have beaten in 2025 up to eight.

 

[Sigourn]

I just uninstalled Mafia II.
What a piece of shit. Normally I never use the term "consolized", but this game fits the bill. There's not one thing I found this game did better than the first.

• The gunplay is worse.
• The fist fighting is worse.
• The driving is worse.
• The graphics are, ironically, worse. At the very least, less appealing.
• The UI is dogshit.
• The handholding is off the charts.
• The story is worse and the missions are much more boring.

I'll skip Mafia III and jump straight into Mafia 1's remake, see how it fares up compared to the original.

 

[flyingjohn]

I am playing synthetik co op. Reached the last defender for the first time. I am using the ripper and flash bang and making my friend's life a misery. Also didn't tell him that the game automatically sends you off to the final area so he lost some item he dropped.

 

[mediocrepoet]

I played a bit of Guns of Fury today. It's exactly what it looks like: Metal Slug looking Metroidvania. It's bretty gud, possibly on the easy side for some of the guys around here who 1CC all sorts of games which blows my mind.

As someone with aging reflexes and who isn't on that level, the challenge level was moderate so far, though it has been increasing, so we'll see.

 

[Semiurge]

Quake: Dimension of the Past wasn't as excruciating as some would have you believe. Maybe the ammo pickups had been increased for the 2021 remaster. The only challenging level on Nightmare was the first secret level, and that was because it comes very early and the level itself has barely any ammo in its first half. The rest is about as easy as the vanilla Quake campaign, but with levels that are less memorable except for the one that has that fun crusher train maze you can lure monsters into.

I give it

Edit: Sorry, meant Dimension of the Past, not of Machine.

 

[Fargus]

Finished Geneforge 2: Infestation on veteran. Definitely my 2025 GOTY so far and one of the best Vogel's works, not remaster but the game itself. Remaster is just a handy way to play it nowadays.

Awesome game, and i really liked the setting, faction play, and the story. I was expecting to get stonewalled hard somewhere in the mid-game, but i mostly had general confussion on how to progress early on. There were some challenging fights, but nothing that good old "level up and return" can't solve or by adjusting your tactics. I invested strongly into shaping skills and in the late game i ended up using gazers that were hilariously op magic creations, and some rothgroths for my superiour battle shaping skill. I also heavily invested into battle magic and in the late game spammed essence purge i have upgraded multiple times through canister use, and it turned out to be a god spell that wipes out everything except the strongest enemies in 1 hit. You can erase entire groups of enemies out of existence.

Some areas were slog but non critical. Progressing was rewarding and endings are great and satisfying.

Few quests that apparently Vogel added with Infestation felt kinda reddity... Like Drake obsessed with gardening or "egg" hunt were just cringe at times and contrasted with the overall tone of the game. Humor or lulrandom is not something that fits Geneforge. Good thing granpa stopped making any new games.

 

[3 others]

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.

By coincidence I just played through chapter 1 and was underwhelmed by the walking sim "gameplay" and subpar voice acting so had to check Codex whether there's anything to salvage in the rest of the game so finding this comment is promising at least.

Could you tell if the act of *playing* 1000xRESIST actually improve later on, is it effectively a 10-hour HD Youtube clip? Does it benefit from being a video game (instead of any other form of media) in any manner?

 

[Morgoth]

No, it's a walking sim. Don't tell me you went into this not knowing that before?

 

[Kabas]

After getting distracted by various demos again i am back to trying to focus on one thing at a time. Currently i am playing FlyKnight.
Compared to previous jam version it has a greatly expanded variety of weapons and spells. There is more of them than you will ever need and some loot will require a bit of exploring to get.

I like this hammer in particular.

 

[NecroLord]

After getting distracted by various demos again i am back to trying to focus on one thing at a time. Currently i am playing FlyKnight.
Compared to previous jam version it has a greatly expanded variety of weapons and spells. There is more of them than you will ever need and some loot will require a bit of exploring to get.

I like this hammer in particular.

Pepe Breaker, yeah?


Edit: I finished a Star Trek: Elite Force run and it is still a very competent and fun Raven Software shooter made back when Raven was putting out quality game after game.
The Virtual Voyager mode is great, allowing you to explore Voyager and several of its decks, including the Holodeck and Astrometrics.

A shame that its sequel did not have a Virtual Enterprise mode.

 

[3 others]

No, it's a walking sim. Don't tell me you went into this not knowing that before?

It came up as a recommendation for Paradise Killer enjoyers, which was already very light on gameplay but still very enjoyable. I'm not going to scrutinize a 10€ purchase that much.

 

[Kabas]

FlyKnight is a lot shorter than i expected, took me 6 hours to complete it. On the bright side it didn't overstay it's welcome, it was an enjoyable experience right from the beginning to the end.
My only complaint is that mage armor sets that provide magical resist at the cost of physical one are useless. 90% of enemies are physical damage dealers and the ones that do magical damage are not really a threat(except the final boss).

Both warrior armor and mage clothes got that drip tho.

 

[NecroLord]

I finished my Deus Ex run and it was a very succesful one overall.
Went with the Helios ending, and I must say that whenever I finish Deus Ex, a somewhat bleak and sad feeling rushes through me. None of the game endings can be considered "good", perhaps in keeping with the dystopian tone and setting of the game.

 

[Fargus]

I finished my Deus Ex run and it was a very succesful one overall.
Went with the Helios ending, and I must say that whenever I finish Deus Ex, a somewhat bleak and sad feeling rushes through me. None of the game endings can be considered "good", perhaps in keeping with the dystopian tone and setting of the game.

Finished this game so many times that i could probably play it through blindfolded. Can't bring myself to install it again. I'll wait for VR version that will come with DXU24 but my guess the mod stuck in development hell.

Wish someone would make a total conversion with story that takes place at the same time as original DX, not some shit prequel 20 years before or an unrelated virtual forum shitpost like Nameless Mod.

 

[Borelli]

Continuing my RTS binge, Warhammer: Mark of Chaos

I saw it was 2.3 euros so i said to myself why not try it? To see what all the negative reception is about.

Mediocre is the main word i would describe this game, there is not a single specifically bad thing, just many little things that add up to make this a not memorable game.
My first shock was in the first mission, where my Dark Omen instincts kicked in ... before i realized that ranged units do not friendly fire, completely destroying any semblance of tactics.
Mission design is nothing special (except for siege missions), you get too much money between missions which trivializes casualties. Hero only missions are boring, graphics have the early 2000s bloom.
Story is nothing to write home about. I finished the campaign and the expansion and then forgot about it the next day. The game is not good as an RTS, as a Dark Omen sequel, nor as a fantasy Total War.

 

[Ezekiel]

Finished my eleventh Tomb Raider. But only the third from Core Design. Already couldn't see myself playing the Survivor trilogy again, and now the Legend trilogy is a stretch too.

Tomb Raider 2013 (2013-03)
Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2014-12)
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (2015-01)
Tomb Raider: Legend (2015-11)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (2015-12)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016-12)
Tomb Raider II (2017-05)
Lara Croft GO (2017-06)
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2021-01)
Tomb Raider (2024-12)
Tomb Raider III (an hour ago)

Used a save point right in the middle of the last boss, whose timing was annoying as hell.

 

[Fedora Master]

A lot of Morrowind. Lightly modded.

Hoooo boy I haven't finished any of the DLCs or the main quest but I'm already kinda... Morrow-winded

I mean I could go to Red Mountain right now and fuck up Dagoth Ur but I wanted to do it legitimately and all these quests are a lot more involved than anything before or since in the series. Lots of steps, lots of travelling. The DLC especially.

 

[CootKeeper]

I wasted a lot of time on trying to get FarCry 2 to run on my computer, but to no avail.

First I had to solve a CTD when launching the game, but when I managed to solve this, the game runs supper choppy.
- i deleted the far cry 2 folder in my documents. actually solved the ctd
- i switched from dx10 to dx9. runs like shit either way
- i added dxvk with dx9 or dx10. it runs better but still shit
- i added admin rights / windows 98/Me compatibility. no change

reading old gog posts, it looks like the game does not like modern ssd drives. I could mount the game on a virtual disk then symlink but it's tedious work. fuck it

 

[Just Locus]

Finished Dead Rising 1 -

Ending Screenshots

---

Great experience. The time limit was one of my biggest worries going into it (since I get easily stressed by timers), but the consistently fun moment-to-moment gameplay made it very easy to forget the timer, while also reminding me that there's a goal to work towards.

The various ways you can get PP - The camera mechanic, landing melee moves like the double lariat, escorting survivors (it was a good call that even making them join you rewards you with PP, to encourage players to at least try to escort them safely), Killing psychopaths (Isabela was annoying), and killing Spec Ops forces. I love it because it makes replaying the game a lot less discouraging, on top of the various endings you could get.

Exploring Parkview Mall was amazing, the fact that Frank can pick up almost anything that isn't nailed down makes the place feel more realistic, it's even nicer that interacting with everything (including consumables) is done in real-time so Frank could be interrupted at any time, making it alongside the gunplay feel a lot more tense in tighter areas like The North Plaza. It's also good that the Mall itself doesn't throw away fun for the sake of realism. The Submachine gun in the middle of the water fountain isn't exactly a realistic place for it to be, but it's still important because it encourages exploration, something that the mixer/magazines mechanic does as well.

Leveling in the game adds a layer to the game instead of feeling tacked on, You start the game with an extremely slow jogging speed but slowly accumulate more skills, max HP, max inventory, etc. And the aforementioned abundant ways you can level up, make it feel less like a chore.

One major criticism I have is the AI, I know it's been said to death but I got into the game expecting the "Dumb AI" complaint to be sorta overblown, but I can't stress how true this criticism held. Survivors have room temperature IQ with their tendency to get grappled by zombies, giving them a gun isn't much better since it'll just make them more of a loose cannon with their ability to Friendly Fire you. For the female survivors, I just opted to hold their hand but even that wasn't consistent since Frank could let go if you ran into a few zombies, something that's quite easy to do.

The bad AI even affects the boss fights, since their retardation makes it easy to cheese them even if you go out of your way to do it fairly. That's why Adam the Clown's boss fight is the only one I enjoyed since it felt fair and challenging without being tedious and encouraging the player to unfairly fuck with the AI since they'll just get stun locked to death if they don't.

 

[StaticSpine]

Finished Dead Rising 1 -

Ending Screenshots

Is he croudsurfing?

 

[NecroLord]

I wasted a lot of time on trying to get FarCry 2 to run on my computer, but to no avail.

First I had to solve a CTD when launching the game, but when I managed to solve this, the game runs supper choppy.
- i deleted the far cry 2 folder in my documents. actually solved the ctd
- i switched from dx10 to dx9. runs like shit either way
- i added dxvk with dx9 or dx10. it runs better but still shit
- i added admin rights / windows 98/Me compatibility. no change

reading old gog posts, it looks like the game does not like modern ssd drives. I could mount the game on a virtual disk then symlink but it's tedious work. fuck it

Ubishit second only to Bugthesda when it comes to game optimization, playtesting and a multitude of bugs...

 

[OneBasis_33]

Currently playing DX:HR for the first time and finding it to be mostly bad, not even mediocre, just straight up bad. I played Mankind Divided when it released and have only vague recollections of it, but I remember it to be at least decent with the exception of those retarded "Breach" sections and the obvious fact that it's half a game. With HR though I'm finding so many things wrong with it and disliking the whole experience so much I think I might be remembering MD with rose tinted glasses, either that or Eidos really improved the game in several ways I can't recall right now.
Anyway, I might make a post about this but just for starters trying to use the game's date to defend it is just pathetic when Dishonored released in the very next year and it's a significantly better stealth game in every conceivable way. I say this because HR isn't really an RPG (not sure why it is in the codex's TOP RPGs list, might be the worst offender there) and every other aspect of the gameplay besides stealth is as barebones as it can be. I'm not even bringing up the OG Deus Ex because it would just be unfair, as it fails as an immersive sim too, so just pointing out a game that released a year after it and did everything relevant it tried to do but better.