What game are you wasting time on?

[Darth Roxor]

and the main character is very annoying (they sadly didn't manage to pull the "lovable rascal" hero type off)

I've seen this being used p. much as a chief criticism of Derponia by just about everyone, and I honestly can't see why. Rufus is a BRO

 

[asper]

They went wayyy overboard with his egoistical characteristics. Like in the screen I just posted, when you take the key and the captain protests, Rufus just basically tells him to sod off, and later throws the key into the water... An anti-hero also needs a little bit of heart shining through sometimes.

Spoiler

The dialogue choice of not caring whether Deponia gets destroyed was also kinds off-putting.

The bad humour and sometimes bad dialogue don't help, lots of very derpy remarks made by Rufus. I just feel they kinda tried to go for a Guybrush thing with the humour, but in this department they really failed badly.

 

[skacky]

Rufus has better lines in Chaos on Deponia imho.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Click here to read my thoughts on the Deponia trilogy from some months ago.

It's spoiler-heavy, but it gives an explanation why Rufus is such an asshole, which is intentional. Also, the series improves slightly with each sequel. Chaos on Deponia had the best puzzles, while Goodbye Deponia gave me the biggest laughs (like how Rufus finally pushes his ex-girlfriend over the edge).

 

[Misconnected]

I just finished Outlast: Whistleblower and I've gotta say that ending is more proof than I ever needed that having helium-sniffing Australians voice act in horror games, is a stupid idea.

 

[Outlander]

Today I will resume my years-long first (and last) playthrough of BG2...

 

[sexbad?]

It's absolutely intended for you to play from the third person view though

Especially considering that first-person lightsabre action blocks all the funky wall-jumping, rolling and special attack moves that make for half the fun.

Oh, I didn't know about any of those things, apart from rolling, which seems useless.

It was thanks to rolling that I got past a certain section in Nar Shaadaa. Anyone wanna guess which part?

I don't know what part, because I didn't roll much at all and I got by just fine imho.

 

[Outlander]

Today I will resume my years-long first (and last) playthrough of BG2...

Well I guess not, since the installation fucking vanished from my PC.

Probably deleted it in a drunken stupor...

 

[Hellraiser]

Slowly making my way through Shadowrun Returns after buying it during the last sale.

Finished the vanilla campaign "Deadman's Switch". Plot takes a nosedive at one point, linear as fuck, combat difficulty is a bit lacking as are the items. It also could use some actual choices. My biggest gripe are the interface constraints enforced by having it be tablet-friendly. Allow me to right click to cancel something FFS. Also you end up doing almost next to none actual shadow running.

The expansion/DLC campaign Dragonfall is so far a lot better. NPCs seem to be more fleshed-out, pretty engaging plot, Berlin is a lot more interesting than Seattle, game progression is less constricted and at least gives you a choice of which runs to do and when. Also there seems to be some C&C. Oh and you know, you actually spend most time shadowrunning. Combat got more difficult and they added new weapon types. Pretty solid experience so far and HBS really tried to make up for the disappointment that was Deadman's Switch.

If it doesn't take a nosedive later on I think Dragonfall could very well be one of the better RPG releases of the past few years. Turn-based combat that's mostly better than Fallout's (lacks body part damage though). Definitely better than AAA crap to be sure. Pity Deadman's switch couldn't be this good.

 

[garren]

Played some banner saga, quit halfway through. I guess it wasn't bad, but it didn't really entertain me. Felt bored the whole time I was playing it. Blabla the dredge are evul, now click through some flavor dialogue with minor choices while we dump you in the next samey fight.

Started Tesla Effect, and it's hella cool. Wandering through the streets at nighttime reminds be of Bloodlines, great atmosphere. Loving it so far. Tex is cool.

 

[sexbad?]

I forget who said it, but some idiot here probably said that JK2 doesn't get much better than the part where I stopped the last time that I posted. It is much nicer overall now that there are so few snipers and some actual enemies with lightsabers.

That said, I just got finished with the apprentice of that dinosaur man, and what a fucking tedious fight that was. You can barely use anything at all other than your lightsaber. The only thing that she didn't just inhibit (because plot, I guess) was force push, and that's only when she was in the air. But then, that wasn't effective anyway, because she would get back up before I could use my lightsaber again, and I couldn't actually push her off the ledge, because plot. It all came down to running around, spamming my lightsaber attack, and random chance.

 

[Abelian]

I forget who said it, but some idiot here probably said that JK2 doesn't get much better than the part where I stopped the last time that I posted. It is much nicer overall now that there are so few snipers and some actual enemies with lightsabers.

My mistake then, it's been years since I played. Sexbad, if it didn't grabbed your interest by now it won't be MUCH better. What I really like about this game that while the levels are a decline in relationship to Jedi Knight it was still made on a time were they still tried and corridoritis wasn't so prevalent.

It won't get much better as the others have said but it will get better. It's absolutely intended for you to play from the third person view though and if you don't like it, forget the whole game, imo.

You're welcome.


Seriously, though: the way I read it, they were both trying to make you cautiously optimistic, so that you'll get motivated to continue without setting yourself up for disappointment. The way I see it, you owe them an apology...

 

[DeepOcean]

I forget who said it, but some idiot here probably said that JK2 doesn't get much better than the part where I stopped the last time that I posted. It is much nicer overall now that there are so few snipers and some actual enemies with lightsabers.

That said, I just got finished with the apprentice of that dinosaur man, and what a fucking tedious fight that was. You can barely use anything at all other than your lightsaber. The only thing that she didn't just inhibit (because plot, I guess) was force push, and that's only when she was in the air. But then, that wasn't effective anyway, because she would get back up before I could use my lightsaber again, and I couldn't actually push her off the ledge, because plot. It all came down to running around, spamming my lightsaber attack, and random chance.

Hmmm... I had patience with you heretic. I tolerated your blasphemy against the sacred JK 2, tried to crush your hope and dreams so you could see it in it's full glory and slowly convert you to the dark side of the force and this is what I get in return!

Someone lend me a machete and a camera, I want to behead Sexbad.

 

[sexbad?]

Hmmm... I had patience with you heretic. I tolerated your blasphemy against the sacred JK 2, tried to crush your hope and dreams so you could see it in it's full glory and slowly convert you to the dark side of the force and this is what I get in return!

Someone lend me a machete and a camera, I want to behead Sexbad.

I said I liked it.

 

[Abelian]

Someone lend me a lightsaber and a blaster, I want to force-choke Sexbad.

If you're going to make SW references, might as well go full Hoth hog.

 

[deuxhero]

Still doing Gekokujo. Took a large chunk of Oda's stuff, then accepted their offer of peace (because they were trying to raid villages on opposite ends of my empire and my stockpiled elites were all Oda. They offered it because I had captured their leader and was wrecking their armies, plus had a bunch of other opponents). Currently massing Tokugawa gunners (Anything better than them aside from Oda? They have 40% gun rate and elite skirmishers, plus good relations) to make the final blow next time they declare war (AI is too war happy, even though they are getting their buts kicked by other factions though I'm pretty sure that isn't gekokujo speciffic). Would like to get more vassels before round 2 though (only got one, and he can't defend the other border on this own, though the AI is exploitable enough that I can take out an entire campaign with a good stack of elite gunners and favorable terrian).

No idea why Miyoshi won't accept me as monarch. Relationship with them is sky high because they are infested by weak bandits with expensive shit (During midgame I help their caravans, destroyed bases and assist their lords in fighting them for money, with free relationship boosts).

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Well, I've been puttering around with Titan Quest on and off for the past month or so, mostly to kill some time, and I finally reached the endboss of the original campaign. Up until that point I had been breezing through the game, only occasionally getting into trouble when I aggroed too many critters at once or the occasional boss actually required some tactics to be killed. Then I reached the cave where the boss can be found and the difficulty jumps up a notch. Not a problem for me, but still noticably harder to kill everything. Then the pre-boss fight comes and goes without incident, and then I'm on Mount Olympus and the difficulty jumps up another notch, and again when I reach the last mob of monsters (Cyclops Elders).

Then I reach the endboss himself, and I realize immediately that not only is this fight gonna take forever, but also that the difficulty has jumped up two notches right then and there. He has a wide variety of attacks which he spams non-stop, including one that absorbs my HP and MP and another that rains down meteors from the sky. And I'm using a pure Offense build that needs to get stuck in close with things to kill them. I would have to beat the boss by circling around him, waiting until he is caught off-guard for a second, get in close and make a couple of attacks then back off before he either drains all my health or brings down all the meteors upon me, which kills me dead even at full health. After a few failed attempts I consulted a FAQ where it stated that "Typhon was too easy in vanilla TQ, so with the Immortal Throne expansion they ramped up his difficulty considerably."

I took a minute to think about it, then just quit the game and uninstalled. There were enough bad things about Titan Quest to begin with, but it kinda seals the deal for me when I realize that its design strategy is the Wall of Difficulty. Titan Quest is not a good game. The UI is too scattered, the gameplay bland and uninteresting and I swear that the game not only level-scaled the monsters, but also HP-scaled them to your damage. I ALWAYS had to make the same number of attacks against certain monsters types to kill them, even after I got lucky and found a weapon that almost doubled my DPS in one go.

At least I had fun while playing Torchlight; with Titan Quest I felt like I was waiting for the game to finally get started. Maybe I should have a look at Torchlight 2.

 

[Humppaleka]

The expansion does that too. The difficulty keeps spiking up until I just couldn't bother leveling at a glacial pace to mow through the basic mobs. The game was fun for the first two or three chapters.

 

[baturinsky]

At least I had fun while playing Torchlight; with Titan Quest I felt like I was waiting for the game to finally get started. Maybe I should have a look at Torchlight 2.

I liked Titan Quest WAY more than Torchlight 2. TQ has a very interesting and deep class system and is less bland than TQ2.

You are right about roadblocking bosses, though. But you may try to respec. Or even better - start another char. I played TQ with lots of chars in parallel - more fun, more storage place, less wasted cool drops.

 

[Hoodoo]

I took a minute to think about it, then just quit the game and uninstalled.

lol

 

[baturinsky]

As for me, I'm wasting time on Dishonored. As a stealth game, it is as win as "new Thief" is fail. "Cheaty" powers does not cancel the need to think and observe, but speed up gameplay a lot.
So, I'm on my third playthrough of Knife of Dunwall now. Oh, and I always go for zero kills and detections, of cause.

Another time waster - The Sims Medieval. Very interesting concept, but too shallow implementation.

 

[Blonsky]

Just finished act 2 of Aarklash Legacy. Running around, collecting debts for your guild, when suddenly everybody decides they dont want to payup and they want to kill you for some reason i dont understand the story any more then that. Starting with 4 characters and soon after getting 4 more that join you which you can freely switch between them. Each character has 4 skills that he can use, but with each level you can make the skills stronger or add different effects to them at certain levels.
But the game feels like its really railroading the gameplay, and i dont mean just the map. Almost from the beginning there are enemies that can block the usage of certain skills(mostly red skills -damage doing skills), that pretty much forces you to spend points into other type of skills(buff/debuff, healing, control skills) or use more the characters that dont have any damage doing skills in fights.
The other thing are the puzzles, they start simple, a couple plates you need to step on, in the right order to activate the door, but after a while they get really annoying. At the end of act 2 there is a puzzle with 6 plates and 9 switches trying to make pictures of 4 symbols while also effecting one picture changes the other that was really pissing me off. Also the puzzle with running through teleportation fields trying to get to the other side without being teleported back to the beginning, needs better character control.
I will probably finish the game unless there are more shitty puzzles in act 3.

 

[skacky]

I have finished Metro 2033 on Ranger Hardcore for the second time and I'm replaying Metro: Last Light on Ranger Hardcore again. I have to say, these games are true marvels and are by very far the best linear shooters since good ol' Half-Life. Whether you think this genre is popamolish decline or not, you have to admit the Metro series does almost everything right in this particular genre. 2033 is the lesser game between the two but goddamn it's amazing despite its flaws. The gunplay is nothing too incredible but it's very solid nonetheless, the art direction and assets themselves are perfect, with very claustrophobic interiors and supremely deadly exterior sections, the background is sinister and well exposed, the plot itself is coherent and all the characters you encouter are well written and memorable which is a rare feat in a video game nowadays, from the shady Bourbon to the "no fun allowed" Miller and the enigmatic and spiritual Khan. The atmosphere is definitely one of the thickest in any game I've played.

What does almost everything for me is the Ranger mode; this is how this game should be played. You will have to scavenge for everything, and if you think you have enough supplies at one point and decide to be careless, you can be sure you're going to regret wasting resources in the next few levels, especially on the surface. This mode also reinforces the immersion tenfold; all of the HUD is disabled except when you look at your journal (in Last Light it is entirely disabled, period). While linear, the game offers some side-paths where you can find goodies and supplies, and also exposition with subtle environmental storytelling and visions. The outdoor areas are frozen and ruined as far as the eye can see, and populated with strange mutants. The game also features a trinary stealth system that's a bit underwhelming if you're used to, say, Thief, but to be honest Metro 2033 never pretended to be an advanced stealth game (eh, Thi4f? Wink wink, nudge nudge.) and it works well and is optional anyway. The main issues I have with this game are that it's too short (like Last Light), thus not really encouraging replays, and that one particular section near the end is really incredibly annoying, especially on Ranger Hardcore where your supplies are very limited. Oh and if you play the game, don't pay attention to these QTEs, there's fortunately only a handful of them during the game and most of them are at the beginning and at the very end.

This brings me to Last Light and why I think it's the better game. It simply improved on every aspect of 2033 without simplifying anything save for the stealth system that's now binary. It has a better and more optimized engine, better level design, better character writing, better outdoor sections, better pacing, better guns, etc. The mood is even more sinister this time around and even if the ice melted on the surface and the sun pierced the black clouds, this "nuclear spring" is even more dangerous than the nuclear winter of 2033. Large parts of Moscow are now irradiated swamps with many traps around and mutants lurking. The outdoor sections are a lot more impressive this time with many monuments of Moscow visible (the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Botanical Gardens, the Red Square, St Basil Cathedral, the Ostankino Tower also seen in 2033, etc) and with rain that will affect your visibility. The rather impractical watch has been replaced with a digital one so you can see exacly how much time you have left before you have to change your filter (and it's not automated this time, you have to do it manually which is welcome). The levels are a bit more varied than in 2033 with some rather interesting cave network under the Sparta base, for example. The treks on the surface are perhaps not as crushing as in 2033 because allmost all that ice has thawed and visibility is better, but it's still very dangerous.

A vast majority of the characters are well written, even Anna. Khan makes a grand return, but the best of them all is clearly Pavel. This guy is a total bro and I'm not afraid to say he's one of the most well-written characters in an FPS in a very long while. The big bad is rather manichean though, but the relationships he has with other characters are really interesting imho. Artyom's personality is also more complex since you can get more insights by finding diary pages scattered around the levels, encouraging exploration. The levels are still very linear but are a bit more open than 2033's with more approaches possible, which is very welcome. While the stealth system is now binary, the stealth possibilities are actually a lot more interesting thanks to the better level layouts. Finishing a level without killing anyone is actually quite difficult sometimes and requires preparations first. The only issue I have with this game really is that, like 2033, it's too short and ends too soon. Overshadowed by Bioshock Infinite, I find this game 10 times better in every bloody aspect.

And how I wish for a STALKER-like Metro someday. Exploring all these stations, doing jobs for various factions, exploring ruins of famous buildings inhabited by dangerous mutants, discovering uncharted secret tunnels in the Metro.

 

[DeepOcean]

...

Yeah, both games follow a very narrow line, sometimes devolving in popamole gameplay then sometimes surprising you with some really interesting moments. The best moments is when it forgets a little of CoD and go for a Half Life influence. Dead City, the abandoned station, The outpost, the Library and D-6 from 2033. The swamp, dead city and that rail car section from Last Light they were really fun to play. It was one of the few games that nailed monster design with some of it's best moments being you alone fighting nature with even the air wanting to fuck you over, it is incredible how each monster is unique and threatening on its own way. It is a pity that you have to tolerate a lot of CoD inspired popamole to get in those sections.

 

[Misconnected]

Just finished act 2 of Aarklash Legacy. Running around, collecting debts for your guild, when suddenly everybody decides they dont want to payup and they want to kill you for some reason i dont understand the story any more then that. Starting with 4 characters and soon after getting 4 more that join you which you can freely switch between them. Each character has 4 skills that he can use, but with each level you can make the skills stronger or add different effects to them at certain levels.
But the game feels like its really railroading the gameplay, and i dont mean just the map.

Expect more of the same. Aarklash is basically a single-player raid, and the design is basically that the game introduces a new element, offers some variations using it, introduces another new element, offers more variations using it, and so on. This applies equally to level design, combat mechanics, encounter design and puzzles. Worse, if you've ever played an MMO, every boss in the game will be spoiled for you. Oh and, while the story will eventually make perfect sense, it ends with a cliffhanger. Which is a thoroughly shitty thing to do, considering the likelihood (or rather, the lack of it) of a sequel.

Basically, if you have issues with it, you may as well drop it now. If you're enjoying it like I did, though, there's lots more to come and the game keeps getting better right up to the end.

Personally I consider Aarklash to be one of the most underrated games of all time. Not because I think it should or ever will be on anyone's top ten games list, but because it's one of the most coherently designed and well-executed games I've ever seen.