What game are you wasting time on?

[Unkillable Cat]

Half Life 2 - PC
In the middle of this now, at the "Sandtraps". Loving every minute of it (the pacing, the writing, the lore, the environments, the puzzles (they are easy, but it's better than the shit out now), the art/graphics, all very good). Having the most fun playing a PC game then I've had in a while. It all feels very traditional, made for PC geeks. Which is a nice plus.

It is fun the first time round, this cannot be denied. But it's when you apply retrospective to the game that it starts to show its true colours.

As for me, the only "new" game I've been giving any attention lately is Stealth Bastard Deluxe. It was a game I was interested in playing (which is a rarity), but sadly that didn't last long. Where SBD fails first and foremost is that it's trying to merge together two incompatible game styles. On one hand it's a stealth game, on the other it has leaderboards and rankings based on your "performance", in which speed is the primary factor. Personally I loathe leaderboards, and any game that emphasizes them automatically gets a mark in my book. (Dustforce being a brilliant example.) Sadly SBD is a game that puts too much focus on the leaderboard, to the point that I see no reason to continue playing any further.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Reinstalled Dungeon Keeper 1, THIS TIME I will finally finish it, goddammit.

I've actually played both DKs multiple times, but I've only ever finished DK2. The first one I remember getting pretty far in once, but still didn't beat it for some reason.



Also, am I the only one who spends countless time on pointless activities such as setting up a 10x10 casino or digging through the entire map just for the lulz?

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Reinstalled Dungeon Keeper 1, THIS TIME I will finally finish it, goddammit.

I've actually played both DKs multiple times, but I've only ever finished DK2. The first one I remember getting pretty far in once, but still didn't beat it for some reason.



Also, am I the only one who spends countless time on pointless activities such as setting up a 10x10 casino or digging through the entire map just for the lulz?

DK 1 is superior to the sequel. The atmosphere is better, there is some (dark) humour but not overblown with happy colours and casinos. As far as I like to hear Disco Inferno it was really unecessary. Building a giant maze filled with traps, leveling to maximum monsters, torturing and having good guys joining me. That was the bread and butter of the game. I would recommend playing it with DK FX, but the AI seems to be a lot better. The last mission played with several savegames gave me a headache. It was a fucking slaugherhouse, but thanks to my noble Draqs and vampires I prevailed to the end. Vanilla isn't walk in the park either. Good luck .
http://dungeonkeeper.wikia.com/wiki/Dungeon_Keeper_FX

 

[Baron Dupek]

I should try DK1 (heard about superiority compared to sequel), only played some missions in DK2 and skirmish. Still miss the potato version (Loszek Pieszczoszek)...

Also, am I the only one who spends countless time on pointless activities such as setting up a 10x10 casino or digging through the entire map just for the lulz?

Digging+polishing, the most time consuming thing.

After few hours in JA 2 1.13 I forgot about one thing.... other game from SirTech before they defuncted - Wizardry 8. I've finished it 2-3 years ago and forgot to try some mods.
Choosing the megamods with great care (enie menie mone tricki miki catch a tiger toe) decided to use Lunastra mod, especially for firearms that was not so great in vanilia.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Still miss the potato version (Loszek Pieszczoszek)...

Masz nadmiar czarnych dam. Mamy specjalną nazwę dla takich strażników

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

What system did you play it on? It seemed to control the same as NG2 (playing on PS3).

It's more that the controls lack precision. Input-dropping happens often when one attempts to dodge/slide, some inputs simply don't register well at all (Guillotine Throw, Heavenly Justice, and Cicada Surge will sometimes completely flub or come out as different moves), the game will often have some strange attack prioritization (instead of engaging Steel-On-Bone, you'll do a regular heavy attack and eat an enemy grab), and the auto-lock-on will often leave Ryu swinging at the air or aiming projectiles at the wrong enemies.

Every action game has some flaws in the control systems, but Ninja Gaiden 3 (and Razor's Edge) have an alarming amount. A quantity that does not play well with the way the challenges in the game are designed. NG3/RE is a series of endurance tests, with long gauntlets full of waves of enemies. Gone are elements like (blue) essence or renewable curative items, so you have to pass every challenge without much in the way of restoration. Unfortunately, imprecise controls combined with cheap enemies and harsh punishment for "mistakes" (that may not necessarily be the player's fault) make for a frustrating experience. Fighting well for 10-20 minutes only to be laid low because the game failed to recognize an input isn't fun. It's doubly unfun when the 20 minutes consisted of extremely repetitive spamming of Scythe 360-Heavy attacks for the generous i-frames that help protect against enemies bullshit moves. Cheap nonsense like foes canceling attack, hitstun, or any other animations into grabs or different attacks. Nonsense like enemies, every once in a while, breaking fundamental rules of 3d Ninja Gaiden games like operating on full aggressiveness when off-screen, or shooting at Ryu while he is engaged in an air-combo (and helpless to respond).

I was flummoxed by the game so often; I felt almost as bad as I did when a QTE ruined a Pure-Platinum run of Mission 2 of Bayonetta on Infinite Climax....but at every other hour played. Razor's Edge pushed me over the limit with Hayashi's signature recycling of content. I asked myself after fighting through waves of Shadow Imps to spar against Doku or a round of Van Gelfs to fight Volf...why not just play NGB or NG2 and fight said foes with much tighter systems?

What would I miss out on? Terribad God of War (ripoff) bosses? Enemies that made the Acid Worms and Incendiary Shuriken Ninja of NG2 seem well-designed? Shit controls? Yeah, there are some neat concepts like Steel-On-Bone as a counter to grabs, the Ki bar, Cicada Surge, and the dash/slide stunning enemies...but these don't compensate for all the flaws.

Sent that shit back to Gamefly and immediately fired up NGB to have some real fun.

As for Ninja Gaiden Z, that looks like more a different type of game. They're not calling it NG4.

True, but it's another example of Hayashi tarnishing the brand. The most competent game he presided over was Sigma 1, a flawed port of Ninja Gaiden Black. Sigma 2 and NG3/RE were trainwrecks. Really don't like the direction the series has taken under his stewardship.

 

[Broseph]

The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav. I'm not usually into adventure games but it's p. cool. Gorgeous artwork.

 

[dextermorgan]

Wrapping up Anachronox.

Spoiler

Got stuck doing a second (well, third actually) run of Mystech ruins to pick up Stiletto's weapon but got decimated by the Door Lord, whom I forgot about. My party is woefully under-equipped for the fight (hardest in game I think) since Stiletto is still on her Good weapon and can't do much against the bastard, while another char is missing a Circlet of Safety, which is a death sentence in this fight. I suppose I'll bypass him for now, get some goodies and try them out over in the Junkyard before trying again.

I never got Shadow Bracers because it takes over 50 minutes of the game running for a single pair, with the superspeed button weighted down. I could just cheat them in but that would be, well, cheating. Then again, I totally cheated on the Hive minigame but that's justified.

I did get all the bipidri pics, all the TACOs, and all Cobalt Crawlers.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It's been a while since I played Anachronox, but once I figured out the "magic" system and got all the Cobalt Crawlers, the rest of the game became a total breeze. I did a LOT of things that could be conisdered "ultimate" and "final", but can't for the life of me remember whether I did them all. By that point, I just wanted the combat part of the game over with. The combat system NEVER appealed to me, and never felt like it belonged with the game.

 

[RK47]

Still exploring the Sims 3 with 11 expansions installed. Lots of junk in there, I like the 'random' factor. If you try too hard to win, the game just hands itself on a silver platter with ass puckered waiting for your dick.

 

[octavius]

Been playing Civilization 2 (Test of Time "remake" from 1999) lately.
Took me a while to get used to the new isometric view and smaller graphics compared to Civ 1, but the basic gameplay is still as addictive. I usually take frequent breaks when gaming, but I find it harder to pull myself away from Civ games than from other games.

Original Civ 2 was from 1996, and playing games chronologically it looks like it will the best year for strategy games so far, with games like Fantasy General, Master of Orion 2 and Heroes of Magic and Magic 2 further down on my play list.

 

[Heresiarch]

Completely addicted to Panzer Corps right now. Even on the iPad (or perhaps due to it) it's a fantastic wargaming experience. I took a look at its DLCs description and man, as Pocket Tactics reviews describes, it's months or even years of gameplay value in it. I always regretted that I had no chance to play Panzer General, and this game really made my dream come true and better than I have imagined.

 

[spekkio]

Finished Tomb Raider - Underworld

+ No motherfucking QTEs, praise the Allah! Only some quick time slowdowns, but those are rare and harmless.
+ Level design is mostly logical and less extreme than in previous 2 games. I liked the fact that you have to not only reach a level's goal, but also come back to the entrance point.
+ Savepoint system is better than in previous games (savepoints are much more frequent). Still, this shit can't be compared to proper save system and has its own problems (see below).
+ Graphics are mostly good, sometimes great (Thailand).
+ No boss-battles, just platforman / puzzlan. Massive incline.
+ Sticky grenades are fund to use.

- Camera is worse than in previous 2 games: too "jerky" (changes position constantly while you move), gets stuck in narrow places.
- Moving on ledges and jumping from them are again 100% camera-related, same thing with grapple maneuvers - extremely frustrating when using K + M, gamepad is not much better.
- Some sections feel undertested: you can spend minutes / hours trying to do something, that's actually impossible to perform and requires some convoluted solution.
- Some sections are 100% based on trial and error, there's no way of finding their solution without trying (and dying a lot) first. Getting the Belt in Mexico is a great example.
- For the 3rd time, melee enemies are overpowered by being able to stun you with EVERY hit - frustrating and boring (keep your distance at all costs / use tranquilizer darts).
- Depends way too much on linear level design: only some ledges are climbable, you can fall down safely from some edges (Lara will catch the ledge) but not from others (which look exactly the same).
- Savepoint system can lead to glitches (you can't proceed due to lack of some element, like the bike, for example).
- There's no "restart from latest savepoint" option, so sometimes you have to quit the game and reload manually (example: falling into water without dying - reloading is often much quicker than repeating a long climb).
- Frequent problems with collision detection.
- Controls are AGAIN unresponsive.
- Collectibles are extremely boring: keep breaking >9000 jars through the entire game.
- Lara's animation is jerky (worse than in previous games).

and I'm being generous here.



Well, what good came out of playing all these newshit TR games, you may ask?

Best copy-protection evar, Crystal Dynamics...



Plus, I'm not gonna touch the newest "reboot" with a 10 foot dildo.

 

[adddeed]

On my laptop, playing Port Royale (pretty damn fun), Anno 1602 (i dont like city builders but i'm enjoying this one), Imperium Galactica 2 (awesome game, love the interface and how simple it is to use) and Age of Wonders (love the art and music, plus the gameplay is solid).

Main PC, going through Mafia 2 DLC (better than Mafia 1, sorry fanboys), trying to 100% Just Cause 2 and just messing around (best looking and most fun open world game i've played), started DIRT Showdown (underrated, fact is, all new Codemasters games are awesome, dirt series, grid series, dragon reising series), replaying Trine (very fun), replaying TDR 2000 (better than Carma 2 in a lot of ways), messing around in X2 The Threat (finished it months ago, still great) and a bit of Race07 (best sim ive played, just playing custom champniohsips) and UT2K4 (the single player is pretty fun).

 

[Keshik]

Playing Torchlight, mianly to finish it (so not really planning on grinding out loot or anything like that). Is a pretty fun hack n slash game, will have to give the sequel a try when it's on sale whenever. Also plan to give OpenRA a try, am a big C&C (Westwood era at least) fan.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finally went into World of Xeen after what, 2 or 3 attempts? First time - interface killed me. Second time - enemies killed my team, really fast. After recently excercise with modern games it was cold shower.
Still don't get idea of leveling in this game, trainings and what now?

Next one is 7,62 High Calibre with Blue Sun Mod 2.0, not only because it's better implementation of RTwP as people say, compared to JA:BiAtch (srsly, vanillia is awful and fuck) but installation wasn't easy because there was only one mirror (found after some google-fu) that got working one file - decoder.exe... could play with vannilia but BSM's fixes were too tempting.

Why so many games? Well, the worst thing with new games are the begins - creating teams, learning how to play etc. Every bad day is good oportunty to take damage control from first encounters.

 

[J_C]

Played Blackguards for 15 hours (according to Steam), and enjoyed it. But I will stop here, and start something new. Unfortunately I'm not a combatfag, and although I recognise that this game has a great combat system, it doesn't offer too much in terms of story, characters and exploration. And I like those in mah arpegees. I just lost interest in Blackguards.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Trying to complete Resident Evil 6, going back to Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director's Cut) when the derp gets too much.

Also playing Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD when I just want to run around in a nice looking place.

 

[Blonsky]

Played Legendary until a elevator bug pissed me off, and then just watched the rest on youtube.
You go to a museum to open an artifact that is suposed to be Pandoras box, and then a portal opens and griffins, minotaurs and tentacles monster pop up all over the world. No, wait, that is just a back story of the game, the real story is about two secret organisations that decide that in the middle of a ancient mythological armagedon is a good time to duel it out. 75% of the game is happening in the sewers or dungeons, most enemies at one place around 6, there is suposed to ba a tactic how to kill each monster but they all go down after putting enough lead into them, distracting music. Im really disapointed by this game, expected something more legendary.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Since there was a free weekend of Borderlands 2 on Steam, I thought I'd give it a go.

If this is what modern-day FPS games are all about, count me out.

The biggest problem by far was that it NEVER felt like a stand-alone game to me, it almost always felt like a "Rapture On Ice" mod for Bioshock. The weapons felt like Bioshock, the baddies sure as hell were ripped straight out of Bioshock (right down to their insane ramblings) there were even audio logs and constant condescending taunts sent by the antagonist. And then they threw in a vehicle, and suddenly I was playing Half-Life 2 on the North Pole. Not a game called Borderlands. The weapon system was easy enough to figure out, I just never understood why they had to apply the aRPG grinding system to an FPS.

AND EVERY BLOODY THING YOU DO IN THIS GAME HAS A CHALLENGE ATTACHED TO IT. If achievements weren't bad enough, here are some more achievement-related things for you to grind.

Borderlands 2 has nothing worthy of mentioning. It's as bland, predictable and boring as watered-out game formulas can get.

 

[Trash]

What irked me most with the game was just how empty the gunplay felt. I wasn't blowing away bad guys. I was slowly and methodically emptying a hitpoint bar.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That too, the only two deviations from that were when I took a shotgun and fired it right in their face (usually one-shotting them in the process) and when I got my hands on a sniper rifle and started headshotting everyone.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

But isn't that the idea? The game is Diablo with guns. If you want a proper shooter the industry is chock full of those, but Borderlands is its own animal. Would you complain that a Mustang GT cannot into offroading?

And as for me, I'm absolutely entranced by Dragon's Dogma. Who knew a game about chasing a dragon could be so addictive.

"Wasting Time" is absolutely the proper phrase.

 

[eklektyk]

civ3 ...took me awhile to remember how to play real strategy not this modern crap
interspersed with some sweet underrail ...man i love this game already

 

[Unkillable Cat]

OK, now I'm just sad. I've had "Mark of the Ninja" on my computer for a while, unplayed and untouched. Figured I'd finally give it a go.

Ran into two problems which made that impossible. The first one was the mouse being incredibly sluggish... and I'm just browsing through the menus. Clicking on a button isn't registered, clicking on one option registers the one below it, etc. Really strange.

It was the other problem that ruined it for me, though. The controls are not fully customizable. What that means, is that I cannot set up the game to my preferred keyboard+mouse setup, as some keys are simply barred from being used. It's the same thing as with Mirror's Edge and Dead Space. I've been using the same/very similar keyboard configuration for 20 years now, I'm now switching to WASD at this late a point. And when there are so many games available today that allow me to use almost any key for any purpose... coming across a game made in the past 5 years that just says "Nope, can't use that key. Nuh-uh, not that one either!" make me immediately think how sloppily the game is designed. This is inexcusable.

These two things put me off so badly that I never even actually played the game. Which is a shame, 'cause from what I've seen and heard it sounds like one of the good games to play.