What game are you wasting time on?

[Unkillable Cat]

Space Quest 6: Roger Wilco in the Spinal Frontier - Also, a game manual is needed for one of the puzzles.

It's called 'copy protection' - don't have the manual, can't beat the game.

I'd go for DM first, then EOB - you'll see the 'evolution' of the genre better that way.

After finishing System Shock 2 for the second time (good game, though I think I prefer the first game overall), I'm now playing Thief II: The Metal Age.

Making a note here to comment properly once you've finished... except to point out that Looking Glass Studios literally squeezed this game out in a matter of months. It explains a great many things about it.

 

[ghardy]

After finishing System Shock 2 for the second time (good game, though I think I prefer the first game overall), I'm now playing Thief II: The Metal Age. I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but before this attempt, I've never actually made it past Framed, where I would always strike out. It wasn't nearly as captivating as the one-two punch of Lord Bafford's Manor into Break From Cragscleft Prison in the first game, and the movement felt floatier and the AI somehow even less aware.

I'm currently on Eavesdropping, and while I stand by these complaints I'm having a good time. It's clearly more polished and refined than the first game, with sneaking in mostly populated areas being the focus.

So far, the missions aren't as good as the first game though. I didn't like Running Interference at all, it felt pretty linear and simple even by first level standards, and the expert objective where you're forced to knock eight people out is just dumb. Shipping... And Receiving is much better though, even if it's a fairly simple idea. I enjoyed the bit with Building A a lot, where you had to enter the numbers of the different spaces. However, this is kind of where I feel like a misstep of this game compared to TDP becomes clear, the map is super detailed and has most information you could reasonably want. It makes the levels feel less dynamic and mysterious than the first game, even if it is in tune with the more advanced setting. The different codes written next to the doors feel a bit redundant when they're listed on the map from the beginning. Thankfully Framed is an excellent mission and has a lot of passages and complexity that doesn't translate to the map like it does in the first two missions. Ambush! and its city is an interesting idea (it's way richer than Assassins' city section with it's little passages, canals and apartments) but like Undercover from TDP it ends up being too short and compact to really capitalise on that concept.

I haven't seen much of the game but I think I prefer the setting of the first game as well, the pagan dark fantasy setting with a touch of steampunk is just more interesting to me than what is ultimately a more "modern" setting with security cameras and the like. Though I do expect that the story will go more into detail and develop the conflict between the different factions and ideologies, so I might end up liking it as much or even more than the first one.

Overall it's a very polished and fun game though I feel it's lost some of it's more unique aspects since the first game. I have a feeling it'll gradually develop into something more interesting and distinct from the first game, and I'm looking forward to playing more of it.

What did you think of the storytelling and the respective villains in either game (Thief and Thief 2)?

 

[__scribbles__]

What did you think of the storytelling and the respective villains in either game (Thief and Thief 2)?

Thought it was fucking awesome, Thief 1 has my favourite cutscenes in any game. The little passages of text you get before each one are great too. The villains I thought were decent, though that mostly hinged on Constantine being so well foreshadowed and built up, and his reveal is amazing. I've only met Karras in one mission thus far(went back and did Eavesdropping after writing my post last night), but I like him less, his voice sucks! Sounds like Elmer Fudd.

I like the environmental storytelling as well, like how Constantine being the god of the nature-worshipping pagans makes his weird naturalistic yet supernatural mansion finally make sense.
Slightly unrelated but I like that Garrett shuts up during some of the weirder moments in the game, it lets the player take in the moment while still not feeling contrary to his character. Garrett might be clever and a great thief, but he's still a human, he gets stunned into silence and terrified when he gets ambushed by actual deities.

 

[NecroLord]

What did you think of the storytelling and the respective villains in either game (Thief and Thief 2)?

Thought it was fucking awesome, Thief 1 has my favourite cutscenes in any game. The little passages of text you get before each one are great too. The villains I thought were decent, though that mostly hinged on Constantine being so well foreshadowed and built up, and his reveal is amazing. I've only met Karras in one mission thus far(went back and did Eavesdropping after writing my post last night), but I like him less, his voice sucks! Sounds like Elmer Fudd.

I like the environmental storytelling as well, like how Constantine being the god of the nature-worshipping pagans makes his weird naturalistic yet supernatural mansion finally make sense.
Slightly unrelated but I like that Garrett shuts up during some of the weirder moments in the game, it lets the player take in the moment while still not feeling contrary to his character. Garrett might be clever and a great thief, but he's still a human, he gets stunned into silence and terrified when he gets ambushed by actual deities.

Yeah, I like Thief: The Dark Project (Gold) better than The Metal Age (though they are both masterpieces).
TDP has that dark fantasy atmosphere and also more mission variety.
The Metal Age nearly abandons the supernatural elements of the previous game entirely.

You might as well also play Deadly Shadows now, but be warned that it is a different experience.

 

[__scribbles__]

The Metal Age nearly abandons the supernatural elements of the previous game entirely.

That's a shame to hear, I liked the blend of technical and supernatural in the first game. The pagans aren't entirely gone though so I'm expecting a level dedicated to them, which I'm looking forward to.

You might as well also play Deadly Shadows now, but be warned that it is a different experience.

It's on the list of what I was planning on playing(using the mod that removes mid-level loading zones ofc). As long as it's playable I think I'll manage. I'm not giving up on the story after two games, at least.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Managed to Sea Dogs city of abandoned ships working again on the new(relatively speaking) laptop. The game might be more unstable than sodium dunked in water, the animations may be more wooden than the ships in game but damned if there is another rpg that does open ended gameplay, some manner of character progression, and sailing + land combat as well as this vodka-ass piece of crap.

 

[ghardy]

his voice sucks! Sounds like Elmer Fudd.

I found it amazing that Stephen Russell voiced both Garrett and Karras!

 

[NecroLord]

his voice sucks! Sounds like Elmer Fudd.

I found it amazing that Stephen Russell voiced both Garrett and Karras!

Very underrated and great voice actor.
He did stage (I think), so that explains it.
Was also in System Shock 2 and Skyrim (the Thieves Guild leader no less - Mercer Frey).

 

[ghardy]

Was also in System Shock 2

As Captain William Bedford Diego, yes!

I always liked this log (to sleazeball Korenchkin):

(It's within the first 30 seconds.)

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

What did you think of the storytelling and the respective villains in either game (Thief and Thief 2)?

Thought it was fucking awesome, Thief 1 has my favourite cutscenes in any game. The little passages of text you get before each one are great too. The villains I thought were decent, though that mostly hinged on Constantine being so well foreshadowed and built up, and his reveal is amazing. I've only met Karras in one mission thus far(went back and did Eavesdropping after writing my post last night), but I like him less, his voice sucks! Sounds like Elmer Fudd.

Someone should create a mod for Thief II replacing Karras' voice with the voice of Cleveland Blakemore:

All must hear the words of Karras Cleveland...the words of Karras Cleveland...

 

[Kabas]

I finally had enough of survivor type games for now, for realsies. Amongst the latest two i played, Holocure and Halls of Torment, i think i enjoyed Holocure the most.

Currently mostly wasting my time on Beyond Citadel, a gooner retro shooter made by japanese solo dev with an interest in Marathon/Outlaws and guro hentai. Pretty much the same as original Citadel but "more and better". While environments may look a bit drab the gunplay itself is very fascinating and a lot of effort was put into making the simple act of shooting an enemy satisfying.

I recommend picking the middle option^ to fully appreciate it.

I also have been trying various demos. The most notable ones are Project Landsword and Annihilate The Spance. Former is a gorgeous looking top-down mecha shooter with destructible environments and later is a fun base builder space RTS in which you don't control your ships directly.

And for last i decided to give The Last Flame another chance with a full version, played the demo of it some time ago and remember it not really grabbing me. It's an auto battler roguelike that is praised by a lot of indie *totally not paid shills* youtubers. Actually found myself liking it quite a bit on my second try, just completed an adventurer difficulty run.

Steam RTS-Fest just started and there is a bunch of demos i am interested in trying.

 

[Shuruga]

I was messing around for a bit and decided to check out some old DOS games I could play through my browser. I spent about 5 minutes playing Vampyr: The Talisman of Invocation here. Highlights:

• There is a stat labeled "Misc." I (wisely?) put a lot of points there.
• I had no ideas what the controls were, so I died in my first encounter with some goblin looking creatures.
• I then went to heaven.
• I figured out while in heaven that "c" tries to climb. I was told, however, that I couldn't climb the clouds in heaven.
• I stumbled upon the Gods, which were avatars of the two guys who made the game.
• They decided I was unworthy and turned my angelic post-life self to dust.
• Then their AP Computer Science teacher came over (as a janitor) to wipe up said dust.
• Then the game closed.

10/10 highly recommended.

I also rolled a character in Elder Scrolls: Arena through the same site but I couldn't figure out how to attack so I died to rats in the opening dungeon (in my defense, I really didn't try very hard). It had a cool "answer some questions to decide your class" interface, though.

 

[NecroLord]

I also rolled a character in Elder Scrolls: Arena through the same site but I couldn't figure out how to attack so I died to rats in the opening dungeon (in my defense, I really didn't try very hard). It had a cool "answer some questions to decide your class" interface, though.

Move the mouse while attacking to attack in the direction you are moving the mouse (left, right, diagonally, forward, backward).

 

[Bruno]

Heads Will Roll: Reforged, I can not stop playing it, very addictive.

And good developer who keep updating and expanding it.

 

[Spukrian]

After finishing the Blood West DLC I started playing the base game again and just got done with it a coupla days ago. Nice.

I'm taking a break from Talos Principle 2. I'll get back to it eventually.

I'm not sure what to play now...

 

[Darth Roxor]

Against my better judgement I decided to start HALO: REACH since it was the only game left in the master chief collection that I hadn't tried during my last Halo binge.

Surprisingly enough, after 2 missions it's pretty acceptable popamole. More like ODST than Halo 2-3 for sure, I appreciate that NUMBA SIX has a health bar and doesn't die the moment he gets zapped twice by a plasma pistol. Master Chief remains the chief cuck of this series.

That said, the guns feel remarkably bad, definitely the worst in the entire series so far. I don't know if they reduced the damage on everything so drastically to compensate for the fact that you have immortal NPC buddies around at all times, but it sure feels like everything just refuses to die as I keep shooping it.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Well, I did it. I 100% Skinny & Franko: Fists of Violence. Usually I don't give a fuck about achievements, but this was an act of local patriotism.

I can recognize buildings in this level. Damn, this game is better than google maps!

 

[NJClaw]

I bought The Lion's Song only because it was on sale and the art looked cute.



I started playing it only to waste a couple of hours, and I'm ashamed to say I loved it. It's an interactive novel with no gameplay whatsoever, it's very short and everything about it is the definition of bare-bones, but I was completely enthralled by it for its entire duration. Maybe it's because I'm going through a weird period and my life is in turmoil, maybe because the stories are short and succinct, but every character resonated deeply with me. The third episode is weak compared to the others and way too on the nose about its themes, but it's so short it doesn't get painful.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Maybe it's because I'm going through a weird period and my life is in turmoil

Chin up nigga, you'll get through it

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Finished WH Rites of War. I've played it back in the day, but honestly don't know how far I went. It's a good game and not only because PG clones are like fries to me and I'll consume them even when they're questionable.

The outstanding feature is the focus on infantry gaining experience and getting promoted, starting with lowly guardians, then aspect warriors and finally exarchs. And then you add collecting artifacts and giving your exarchs unique skills on top of that. This, together with p limited core size, makes the game feel more crpg-like and gives the "building your collection of tin soldiers" angle a unique flavor. The presentation is great (maybe with the exception of space marine units looking a bit too toy-like) and the voice acting in briefings has the proper flavor of cheese.

The shitty part is that, with all the focus on the infantry, you cannot upgrade your vehicles at all. Not even when they're exactly the same type (like different models of artillery or prism tanks). I have no idea why such a basic and staple feature is missing.

Also, while the gameplay flows nice overall and you can't see the decline in ability to make a proper functioning combat model like in most modern PG-likes, the balance is definitely a bit wonky. From mid game onward, most scenarios feature a large number of genestealers, which have a very far movement range and can sometimes one-shot full strength units. It's not like you're prohibited from having a balanced army composition, that's exactly what I did and had fun, but it's hard to not notice that just stacking lots of flying guize with some support would be ridiculously optimal. Mobility plus complete invulnerability to a lot of threats just gives way too much value compared to anything else.

Definitely a solid entry for Panzer General fans. GOG version runs perfectly well on win10 and looked very nice in integer scaling.

 

[Darth Roxor]

but it's hard to not notice that just stacking lots of flying guize with some support would be ridiculously optimal.

I don't really think that's true. The problem with flyers is that they are neither particularly tough nor damaging, which would lead to the following problems:

1. You'd have to actually level them up first, and you'd primarily have to level them up during the stage vs muhrines, where they'd get shredded by most enemy units. And even if you tried it in early Tyranid stages, they'd still get wrecked by whirlwinds and biovores.
2. Mass flyers wouldn't be capable of efficiently breaking through mass tyranid warriors that appear in the later missions.
3. You'd get shafted in the few missions that have a hard time limit because you wouldn't have the domoges to finish them on time, I'm pretty sure.

Flying units are great for picking off the gaunt and genestealer mobs, I always have at least 1 hawk exarch + 1 seraphim in the late game flying around mopping up melees, but the nids have far more than just genestealers in their armies, especially once warriors start appearing.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Oh, I completely skipped humans, just role played having varied eldar core using all unit types (I think the shitty initial walker was the only unit I was not regularly deploying). I had two hawk exarchs and they were easily mvp overall and while it's true they're not the most damaging unit (which they make up for by having no problems to simply get where the combat is happening), they were actually really tough and not only because a lot of tyranid foes literally cannot reach them. Most vehicles are ridiculously fragile in comparison, for example.

That being said, all unit types have their uses and some heavy hitters and support go a long way. Leveled up warlock powers are bonkers good, for example.

The game also has extremely lenient turn limits for the genre, to the point where they might as well not be there at all (assassination missions being the one exception, but there's like three of them), so it's true that mobility is largely convenience. Still, scenarios like the one in the swamp with zounds of gaunt and genestealers would be way smoother if you had like 10 fliers.

 

[Just Locus]

---

I finished GOW 1 a few days ago and have been steamrolling GOW II (Both are through the GOW Collection on the PS3)

I'm nearing the end of the game, and my thoughts have been generally favorable towards the game, I say "generally" because most of the improvements this game makes to its predecessor are minor, but abundant, so much so that they add up to something that's undoubtedly superior to GOW 1 but not by a wide margin.

Wall climbing & Rope-Hanging are much less slow, Red orbs have an actual counter as opposed to the vague number given to you before, and The QTEs and Set-pieces are much more "grand". there's a lot more downtime with puzzles than in the previous games which I see as a good thing since it paces out the combat much better, It looks better, and the sub-weapons were an excellent choice and further improved the replayability, You get the point.

The reason I would consider (and I hate labeling games this way) this more of a standalone expansion than an outright sequel is that a lot of this feels like "more GOW 1" which is by no means a bad thing, it's more God of War 1, and GOW 1 is fun so it evens itself out. And I guess its predecessor was so good that the only thing the designers felt needed to be ironed out was the aforementioned 'blemishes' and that's fine, the final product is still a superb game.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Oh, I completely skipped humans

An easy mistake to make! Recruiting new ones is obviously a bad idea at the point when you get them, but there are plenty of the freebie veterans you get along the way that are very good to have. Seraphim are one, IIRC they do more damage than shooping hawx, and their only real disadvantage is that they're a squad, which makes them very susceptible to the nids' lethal abilities, especially to biovores. Then there's the immolator which is great vs all the swarms because of cloud attack, assault termies who can rival scorpions/banshees, and termie devs with range 2 rapid fire. I always make use of all those niggas, especially since as an added bonus they also get access to the human artifacts scattered around the later levels, which can be pretty good as well (like krak nades for armour piercing or aegis suit for psyker immunity).

 

[skeletonmeister]

Beyond Citadel. Now I wish every FPS game have it's gunplay.