What game are you wasting time on?

[Durandal]

Been playing a mix of:

Ys: Oath in Felghana (on Hard)
Pretty damn fun and challenging. The bosses never feel like "artificial difficulty", and the music rocks.

Brandish: The Dark Revenant
A dungeon crawler with the controls of a first-person dungeon crawler with an overhead perspective. Each floor takes around 20-30 minutes to complete, and combat is alright. This game is actually very forgiving since you can save at anytime or just leave checkpoints at any place through a item you get frequently, called "Retry Bread". But it is very punishing against careless players. I really shouldn't play this game at night, when I'm tired and unfocused.

Risen 1
Really gives you that Gothic feel. The combat has been improved significantly, your bow hitchance depends on your aim instead of your dexterity, and melee is more than just repeating the same combo and sidestepping. I've never encountered any stunlocks so far, those times you spent stunlocking all those Keepers in Gothic 2 really got on my nerves. However, I think it might've copied too much from Gothic 2 (from the swamps, to the harbor town, monastery and even the names. The lighthouse keeper in Risen is also called Jack, for fucks sake), and alot of things do kind of feel like dejá vu. The world is still great, giving you plenty of things to explore and get killed by. I do think it is a tad easy compared to G1/G2:NotR, but that's probably because you can block properly now, and because I'm already an expert at the previous 2 games.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Risen 1
Really gives you that Gothic feel. The combat has been improved significantly, your bow hitchance depends on your aim instead of your dexterity, and melee is more than just repeating the same combo and sidestepping. I've never encountered any stunlocks so far, those times you spent stunlocking all those Keepers in Gothic 2 really got on my nerves. However, I think it might've copied too much from Gothic 2 (from the swamps, to the harbor town, monastery and even the names. The lighthouse keeper in Risen is also called Jack, for fucks sake), and alot of things do kind of feel like dejá vu. The world is still great, giving you plenty of things to explore and get killed by. I do think it is a tad easy compared to G1/G2:NotR, but that's probably because you can block properly now, and because I'm already an expert at the previous 2 games.

Bro, EVERY lighthouse guy in Risen is called Jack. And Risen's easier because power attacks, also strikes don't hurt only one target at a time.

 

[Durandal]

Bro, EVERY lighthouse guy in Risen is called Jack. And Risen's easier because power attacks, also strikes don't hurt only one target at a time.

I just got the ability to perform power attacks, and I can see what you mean. Many fights can be reduced to backstep-power strike-backstep-power strike-backstep-power strike if you like to play it cheap. But I'm not a fan of playing cheap (unless the enemy is too stronk).

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Why backstep even, blocking is pretty effective in this game.

 

[Durandal]

Backstepping is for not getting hurt while I charge up my power attack. And for not turning into a human pancake after an ogre does his overhead attack.

 

[Gozma]

I played KotOR2 with the restored content project mod. I think the restored content stuff helps a ton, but I don't actually remember what isn't in the restored content anymore anyway. You can tell in a few places that characters just start throwing meaningless purple sentences past each other when they're splicing together too much content that shouldn't have all been restored (like Kreia/Atris) but it's overall really good.

Did you know all the Influence checks in the game for a given character succeed at both positive and negative absolute influence? As in, like -30 or +30? I had no idea when I originally played it. It doesn't make any sense for most characters (Bao Dur is down to get jedi training from a guy that he just saw scarf down a baby) but it's a cool setup to have mastery of the influence system, since all the characters give goodies for their last "you have influenced the fuck out of me" check.

I remember having a terrible time with the initial release of the game because so much of the game was hidden behind influence stuff and I just didn't get that you were supposed to care about it. KotOR2 must have been a huge heartbreaker at Obsidian when it went to shit. That was the last time one of their games was clearly a Chris Avellone Experience and what I imagine they were hoping to do with the company when they started.

 

[Lios]

I wanted something hack and slashy to vent frustration into, but i didn't want to replay diablos or dwell into torchlight territory
and didn't want to replay Nox or those new diablo clones I don't understand (van hellsing etc etc)
plus these days I was re-reading some lexicanum entries for 40k
so I started dawn of war 2 again.

Only in few instances does the phrase "good for what it is" sounds not generic as fuck but geniusly accurate.
Yes it has so many inexcusable elements in it (I will never forgive the same scenario for every race dumbfuckery most of all)
but I played that optional mission where you have to capture some energy reactors and then destroy the Daisy machine of orcish property development
the slaughter was amazingly relieving, my terminators and Diomedes smashing skulls triggered nirvana simulations easily all over my soul.

 

[sser]

Been playing some Shadowgate.

Honestly.... blehhh. Beautiful art and music, but the gameplay is pretty much run-of-the-mill garbage for the obtuse puzzle genre.

 

[Sykar]

Having some fun with the 2D side scrolling Cyberpunk game "Dex".

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Picked up silent storm and sentinels for a replay.

I had no idea I missed this so much.

Hammer and Sickle had some damn cool espionage work, but nothing like Silent Storm for some old fashioned shoot-outs.

 

[Lucky]

Finished Sacrifice with a couple of pure campaigns and the rest mixed. James 1st level attack spell is useless, but he gets great fighter units instead. He can also make you brutally overpowered if you do all his missions in order. I've never seen anyone figure this out, but the trick is to not attack any of the dragons in the first level and instead only destroy their lairs. As a result you get a boon and then the hero dragon you start every level with, after you save her in level 2, will accompany you for the rest of the game. She can solo pretty much entire armies and is almost unbeatable, as long as you throw a heal spell on her now and then. The only things you need to worry about are the Death spell and volcano's, but she can interrupt the casting and you have the erupt spell as soon as they become a problem.

Posting in the Lost and Forgotten thread made think about Donald in Maui Mallard though, so now I'm playing that. Bloody amazing. I'd had almost forgotten how much fun a platformer can actually be, rather than the chores that the modern ones feel like. Honestly, a Disney game has no right to be this good.

 

[circ]

jesus pablo escobar fucking christ i forgot how horrible the FOV is in Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

[Jick Magger]

Finished Bayonetta last night. Game feels like a more lightweight version of Devil May Cry, but is still pretty good. Only real issues I have with it are QTE's (which are a BIG no-no in a game which actively scores you based on how few times you die), free-camera making lock-on too finicky to really rely upon, and way too many cutscenes that end with you having a split-second to dodge an attack before you take damage (again, big no-no for a game that also grades you based on how little damage you take).

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Finished Bayonetta last night. Game feels like a more lightweight version of Devil May Cry, but is still pretty good. Only real issues I have with it are QTE's (which are a BIG no-no in a game which actively scores you based on how few times you die), free-camera making lock-on too finicky to really rely upon, and way too many cutscenes that end with you having a split-second to dodge an attack before you take damage (again, big no-no for a game that also grades you based on how little damage you take).

that fucking bit where the flying virtue boss throws a bit of a church at you after a lengthy level and boss battle I died five times to that QTE and not once in the rest of the level.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Finished Bayonetta last night. Game feels like a more lightweight version of Devil May Cry, but is still pretty good.

I thought that at first, that Bayo was just DMC-Lite, but it's a very different game at the core. Unfortunately, it only really shows off it's own identity on the highest difficulty setting (Non-Stop Infinite Climax). On Normal and Hard, the game plays like a watered-down DMC. It's too easy to fish for dodges, activate Witch Time, and pummel the opponent, which would make the game utterly boring if it weren't for the frenetic pace it's set at. As described, it's basically Devil May Cry without the need for enemy-specific crowd control and (Devil Trigger) meter management. Kinda boring, when put that way.

But on Non-Stop Infinite Climax, the game comes into its own. Witch Time is disabled (excepting triggers from accessories like the Bangle Bracelet of Time), forcing the player to master Dodge Offset, the underlying technique of Bayonetta. With no Witch Time, the player has to rely on their mastery of Offsetting combos in order to get to the powerful effects that reside at the end of certain strings; knocking a Joy prone with a sweep kick (usually a PP[P]K) when you aren't offsetting your combo is damn near impossible, but with some sort of offset it becomes relatively easy.

And Offsets play in extremely well wit the Hold Prompts that many weapons have. Spending a few frames to shoot some bullets, charge a laser, do some Iaijutsu, or drop a bomb after an attack becomes a lot more profitable when it is completely possible to cancel any of these moves into a dodge and then the next input of a combo string, not missing a beat attacking. Stuff like this adds up to a very different flow of combat than DMC, even if the controls bear a superficial similarity.

All this said, I wouldn't blame anyone for dismissing Bayonetta as DMC-Lite, because of how deeply it buries its depth. To really understand the combat system pretty much necessitates playing on the highest difficulty, something not true of other action games. Ninja Gaiden, God Hand, Devil May Cry, Shinobi, MGR...all of these pretty much play similarly from Normal to the highest difficulty, only "amping up" with each difficulty increment. None of them are hampered by training wheels that obscure the core of the gameplay like Bayonetta is by Normal/Hard's Witch Time.

Furthermore, the game delights in gating some of the most interesting content behind some rather silly objectives. The Bazillions are only unlocked after defeating Hard Mode and the sword, Pillow Talk is only accessible after clearing NSIC. Angel Slayer can only be accessed by those who complete all of the hidden Alfheims. The gunchucks, Sai-Fung, can only be used after completing 100 Chapters...far in excess of what someone playing through every single difficulty would have cleared. The Bracelet of Time can only be acquired by clearing Normal with a total completion time under a set amount. And the secret boss only becomes available once you've grinded a tremendous sum of 10 million halos (totally worth it, however).

I'm all for good unlockables and the replay value they provide, but Bayonetta gates some of the best content behind things most players will never see.

Only real issues I have with it are QTE's (which are a BIG no-no in a game which actively scores you based on how few times you die),

Yeah, QTEs are extremely shitty. Funny, given that Shinji Mikami was a founding partner of Platinum and pretty much nailed them in God Hand. In that game, they always favored the player; they only popped up when you failed an evasion or were activating a prompt that was not always in your best interest. I guess this design masterstroke kinda fell by the wayside.

free-camera making lock-on too finicky to really rely upon

Yeah, lock-on seems like an afterthought in Bayo. I tried to jam it early on, play it like a DMC, but it never really worked. The auto-lock is good enough as is (and it spawns a visual indicator unlike TamTam's Wuboot), and most of the moves feel as though they are designed around a non-locked playthrough. Wicked Weaves tend to have large hitboxes and superb tracking and every combo string ends in one of these attacks.

Plus, the free camera can really become one's friend, especially in harder encounters like those in the last verse of Angel Slayer. It may seem cheap to place enemies offscreen to negate their attacks, but fighting three Jeannes at once isn't exactly "fair".

and way too many cutscenes that end with you having a split-second to dodge an attack before you take damage (again, big no-no for a game that also grades you based on how little damage you take).

It's a Kamiya thing. He's been doing that since Devil May Cry 1. Is it stupid? Absolutely. But he still keeps jamming it into his games, just like horribly misplaced shmup sections (Isla Del Sol is marginally less painful than DMC1's Mundus 1).

that fucking bit where the flying virtue boss throws a bit of a church at you after a lengthy level and boss battle I died five times to that QTE and not once in the rest of the level.

You've only felt true pain once that QTE foils an NSIC Pure Platinum attempt.

Stupid prompt being entirely different than every other face button QTE, showing the required input before the button press is required...[/S]

 

[MicoSelva]

I wanted to play The Witcher 3, but am unable to, because nowadays when I play games, I have an audience in the form of my 2.5 year old son and The Witcher is a bit too hardcore for him to watch.

So I ended up playing through 2008 version of Prince of Persia. My son likes the 'jumping man' and 'flying lady' and the game is pretty and rather mild. The joys of parenthood.

I guess it beats drawing trains over and over again (the little guy loves trains).

 

[Rahdulan]

You know what to do.

 

[MicoSelva]

You know what to do.

Oh God, no.

 

[Jick Magger]

You know what to do.

Oh God, no.

WELCOME, MY SON.

WELCOME TO THE MACHINE.

 

[Jasede]

 

[Abelian]

I guess it beats drawing trains over and over again (the little guy loves trains).

May I suggest Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe?

 

[octavius]

Still playing HoMM 2: Price of Loyalty, going through most of the stadard maps, playing the ones rated Easy first.
The difficulty rating is a bit off for some maps, at least if you play on Impossible. Some maps become virtually impossible when there's no unguarded resources to pick up, and the enemy comes a-knocking before you can develop your castle. Other maps are too easy when you can blitz the entire map with Genies ("Sands of Time"), or if you release a powerful ally from behind a magical barrier (my ally won "For Honor" before I had mapped 2/3 of the map).
The most frustrating maps are "Peasants" and "Arrax the Jerk", in which you are constantly drained of resources from events.
In the former I was reduced to just defending my Knight castle, because the enemies came fast and hard. So I just sat in the castle while the enemies were beating up each other. Maybe if I hit the End Turn button enough times I would have been able to build an army big enough to break through large stacks of Bone Dragons, Titans and Black Dragons to capture the victory condition castle on the other side of the map. When I saw the nearest enemy had a few Titans I captured his castle, where there were several Titans to recruit, but without Gems that didn't help much,
In "Arrax the Jerk" the enemy castle has an absolutely humongous army, with a 15/15 A/D hero, which would take a hell of a lot of non-autistic time in which to build an army to match. My hero had like 20 in Spell Power and Knowledge, but did not get one fucking damage spells from my lvl 3 Magic Guild or from any shrines. I could swear I have played this map before, and then I used hit and run tactics with Chain Lightning, fleeing and attacking again to whittle down that huge army.

 

[CyberWhale]

I guess it beats drawing trains over and over again (the little guy loves trains).

>watch Back to the Future 3
>blow his mind

 

[Baron Dupek]

I'm trying to finish Risen3 for the completionist sake.
The first island would be cool on paper but devs paired you with sister, that looks like mobile milk vendor (surely serve a purpose for long lonely night on the ship), and both our character and Patty state the fucking obvious, every time they open the mouth, for other thing than eating and drinking grog.
"Hey, it's a big crab, I kick it and attack then because their shell is impenetrable", "there is no passage but you need to fly" (after picking scroll of Parrot Flight), "You remember that Fire Rain spell that you pickuped moment ago? How bout spell in on these pirates we see ahaed?"...
GOTI (Game of The Imoen)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

MicoSelva Dig up Railroad Tycoon when he gets older.

As for me, I've recently re-installed and modded one of my all-time favourites.

DONGS.

DONGS EVERYWHERE.

The Even Weirder Worlds mod adds enough new stuff to make each playthrough variable, though the new pirate faction is a PAIN to deal with.