What game are you wasting time on?

[Exhuminator]

Last games I finished were Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers (3DS) and Valkyria Chronicles (PS3). I found Soul Hackers to be middling and not the best SMT I've ever played. Valkyria Chronicles was a great game despite being too easy and unbalanced (scout class). I'm currently playing through Splinter Cell: Conviction (360) for laughs.

 

[Durandal]

just finished Unreal Gold, the soundtrack gave me the chills. good shit
Now going through Return to Na Pali. One thing that I liked about Unreal, was the lack of hitscan enemies who break the pace, like chaingunners and yellow scorpions. Most projectiles fired by enemies weren't hitscan, and could be avoided with some skill. Then they beam human fucking enemies on the planet, who can all fire hitscan weapons at you the moment you are in their sight, with 100% accuracy. On top of that, there are also humans with rocket launchers, and those rockets fly really fucking fast. It just turns into a giant botmatch where you are the juggernaut, and in a singleplayer campaign that shit gets annoying real fast.

 

[Astral Rag]

I'm starting to get hooked on Flight Simulator X. I bought an X52 Pro last week and I was looking for a game/ sim to quickly try out the stick before buying some combat or space sim and apparently I already owned the Steam version of FSX... I've been playing for days now and I haven't touched another sim or game yet. Simply flying with the right kind of music in the background is heavan.

FSX can still look pretty good, so far I've only tweaked the game's CFG file and I also used Nvidia Inspector for better AF and AA. The game runs better in "DX10 preview" mode but that mode was so buggy that I couldn't even use it before I applied the free edition of "Steve's DX10 Fix". One can't help but wonder if M$ bothered to fix anything at all before they re-released the game on Steam.

The only other thing I didn't really like was the in-game GPS, fortunately I discovered Plan-G which is great free tool that can be used for planning and navigation. I also found a way to make the game run in a borderless window, this allows me to use the Plan-G software during flights without having to connect a second monitor.

Spoiler

 

[AlexOfSpades]

just finished Unreal Gold, the soundtrack gave me the chills. good shit
Now going through Return to Na Pali. One thing that I liked about Unreal, was the lack of hitscan enemies who break the pace, like chaingunners and yellow scorpions. Most projectiles fired by enemies weren't hitscan, and could be avoided with some skill. Then they beam human fucking enemies on the planet, who can all fire hitscan weapons at you the moment you are in their sight, with 100% accuracy. On top of that, there are also humans with rocket launchers, and those rockets fly really fucking fast. It just turns into a giant botmatch where you are the juggernaut, and in a singleplayer campaign that shit gets annoying real fast.

I'm sorry you're having such a terrible experience with it. The difficulty of that segment is what made me love RTNP - it was like, the game was just playing with you up until that point. That's when it got serious. The music helps, too - such a badass soundtrack. Try to abuse line of sight - hide inside the ship, play with corners. The CAR & grenade launcher are your friends.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

I'm with Siralim. It's like Pokemon and Disgaea had a gridy son. Roguelike procedurally generated dungeons, 6 monster party, 300+ monsters with one unique skill each, player levels and vancian spells, monster capture, monster breeding, equipment leveling, equipment socketing, base building and another ten more grinding-based subsystems. No IAPs, full game purchase once, all content.

If the core combat had a little bit more meat to it it'd be perfect, but it's far from bad as it is.

And it syncs saves between phone and PC without needing any IAP.

I may open a thread about it, maybe someone in the codex is interested.

seems interesting at first, but fights rapidly bury themselves in endless repetition.
and damn that castle, totally useless and pointless waste of time, it could have been replaced by a menu screen and nobody would have complained.

 

[octavius]

Got the Gold Box itch again after GOG finally getting to sell (most of) them, and GB discussions picking up again, so I fired up FRUA again after not playing any designs for 1.5 years.
But I now have muscle memory from playing Nahlakh for two months (I want to use the A key to target and Space to attack), so the UI takes a while being used to again despite me probably having over a thousand hours with GB games and FRUA over the years.

 

[No Great Name]

Got the Gold Box itch again after GOG finally getting to sell (most of) them, and GB discussions picking up again, so I fired up FRUA again after not playing any designs for 1.5 years.
But I now have muscle memory from playing Nahlakh for two months (I want to use the A key to target and Space to attack), so the UI takes a while being used to again despite me probably having over a thousand hours with GB games and FRUA over the years.

Do the GOG versions work alright? I read somewhere that there was an issue with the GOG version bypassing the disk protection system that was causing some of the games to mess up.

 

[Adon]

Going through Tomb Raider II, just made it into the 6th level. I've only beaten the original Tomb Raider and that was just a few months ago, but there's something about these games that just doesn't click with me. The level design is good, controls seem to work well once you get used to them, puzzles aren't always obvious, there's some tricky platforming, combat is meh, but somewhat forgivable given the time it was made. I enjoy them well enough, although not enough to consider myself a fan. It's hard to put my finger on why I can't seem to like Tomb Raider as much as I feel I should.

 

[spekkio]

Finished Oddworld - Abe's Exoddus

Good:
- Outstanding combination of platforming and puzzle solving. Much more satisfying IMO than pure-skill bullet-hell platformers like new Raymans.
- Very long and quite varied (different locations, different gameplay elements, etc).
- Gameplay is quite demanding. Initially you'll see some obstacles as very hard. After some time, these will be a piece of cake due to gittin gud.
- Final section of the game which mixes all gameplay elements introduced during the game.

Bad:

- Final section of Bonewerkz Executive Office is just bad: killing billions of Slogs using a Slig via possessed Glukkon is more tiresome than difficult.

Ugly:

- Occasional timed sections, esp. in secret areas are unnecessary irritating - authors could've achieved similar goal without the time limit.
- Sometimes it's more about trial and error than quick thinking.
- New Mudokon types / voice commands / gestures are mostly a time-waster (just more Mudokon babysitting).
- Slig security voice checks can take some time to circumvent, esp. when there's some noise in the area.
- Dialogue during FMVs is hard to understand due to "funny" voices and no subtitles.

Still, highly recommended:

 

[MicoSelva]

After Grunker mentioned playing adventure games with his friends, I picked up the idea and played through The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav together with my wife. It was her first ever point and click, so the game being easy was probably for the best. Turned out playing as a group and bouncing ideas of each other is quite fun, although wife's patience was strained at times, when I tried to apply adventure game logic too much ('Combine the pitchfork with the magnifying glass.... What?'). We are definitely going to continue with the sequel, though, and probably other games later.

The game itself is ok. Nice looking (although animations, especially lip sync, could use some more work) and sounding (surprisingly good voice acting), with decent logical puzzles and competent story. It would not hurt if the protagonist was a bit more likeable, though.

 

[Cyberarmy]

After Grunker mentioned playing adventure games with his friends, I picked up the idea and played through The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav together with my wife. It was her first ever point and click, so the game being easy was probably for the best. Turned out playing as a group and bouncing ideas of each other is quite fun, although wife's patience was strained at times, when I tried to apply adventure game logic too much ('Combine the pitchfork with the magnifying glass.... What?'). We are definitely going to continue with the sequel, though, and probably other games later.

The game itself is ok. Nice looking (although animations, especially lip sync, could use some more work) and sounding (surprisingly good voice acting), with decent logical puzzles and competent story. It would not hurt if the protagonist was a bit more likeable, though.

Second game ,Memoria, is much better.

 

[Exhuminator]

I finished up Conviction in about 5 hours... it was Splinter Cell for dummies but kinda fun.

Now I'm playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc on Vita. Seems like it mixes concepts from Phoenix Wright and 999. I was surprised at the production values, they're actually pretty high all things considered. Really great music too. It's entertaining so far, but Im just getting into it at this point.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Playthrough of F:NV siding with Mr.House.

Shadowrun Returns: Hong Kong, enjoying the game so far, considering I have only dipped my toes into a serious-ish playthrough after restarting a few times in regards to character stats.

 

[Durandal]

Currently playing through Descent on the second-hardest difficulty
I should post this in the Underrated Games thread, how the fuck has this franchise been forgotten?
The proper use of 3D makes for some kick-ass vertigo-inducing level design, all of that true 3D in 19-fucking-94, two years before Quake was released. The devs must have used some black magic to even get 20fps on i386 processors.
The game is great, and dodging bullets like a madman feels damn good. It's like a first-person SHMUP. The only thing that bothers me are those Class-1 Drillers, as they are one of the few enemies who have hitscan weapons, which they can instantly wind up and shred your shield in seconds despite having little HP themselves. Facing them head-on is guaranteed to be hazardous to your ship, so you need to find out their location beforehand by either playing peek-a-boo or doing it the hard way, and shove a homing missile up their ass. I still dread that wind-up sound
Besides that, shield pick-ups are scarce, and the amount they heal your shield with decreases per difficulty level. They drop randomly by destroying some enemies, or you can find them in secret areas, otherwise you won't find as many compared to other 90's shooters. This game also did monster closets before Doom 3, INCLUDING the fucking Class-1 Drillers. At least the game has a lives system on top of letting you savescum, so if you end up not having enough shield power to get past a certain obstacle, you can respawn at the start of the level with 100 energy and shield, go to the place where you died to pick up your dropped weapons, and continue from that point.
Later levels are somewhat harder to navigate, as wireframe maps become less comprehensible when detailing 3D enviroments on the scope of Descent.
The soundtrack is cool too, if you use the Rebirth sourceport which lets you use the Mac/PSX Redbook OST instead of the SoundBlaster one.
Definitely a must play. Not for the motion sick.

 

[Siveon]

I think the only reason a master-piece like Descent rarely gets mentioned is that I'm p sure it'll give some people freaking motion sickness. Also the controls are hard to get used to.

Speaking of which, what did you use to play it? I'm convinced games like that need to be used by a joystick, but I heard a 360 controller might be fine?

 

[spekkio]

I've completed all Decent games (1-3 with all add-ons) and they were awesome.

And about why the series is dead - people don't want difficulty, they want instant gratification. I remember most of D3 levels being total fucking mazes, D1-D2 have small levels in comparison.

If you ever done with PC games, there is also DMax for PS1:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/descent-maximum

Speaking of which, what did you use to play it? I'm convinced games like that need to be used by a joystick, but I heard a 360 controller might be fine?

I've completed all of them using PS2 Dual Shock controller. More buttans than most joysticks and the analogue controls do their job. I bet proper joystick is more precise, though.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Finished Oddworld - Abe's Exoddus

Good:
- Outstanding combination of platforming and puzzle solving. Much more satisfying IMO than pure-skill bullet-hell platformers like new Raymans.
- Very long and quite varied (different locations, different gameplay elements, etc).
- Gameplay is quite demanding. Initially you'll see some obstacles as very hard. After some time, these will be a piece of cake due to gittin gud.
- Final section of the game which mixes all gameplay elements introduced during the game.

Bad:

- Final section of Bonewerkz Executive Office is just bad: killing billions of Slogs using a Slig via possessed Glukkon is more tiresome than difficult.

Ugly:

- Occasional timed sections, esp. in secret areas are unnecessary irritating - authors could've achieved similar goal without the time limit.
- Sometimes it's more about trial and error than quick thinking.
- New Mudokon types / voice commands / gestures are mostly a time-waster (just more Mudokon babysitting).
- Slig security voice checks can take some time to circumvent, esp. when there's some noise in the area.
- Dialogue during FMVs is hard to understand due to "funny" voices and no subtitles.

Still, highly recommended:

Too bad New and Tasty sucked. I really want Oddworld to come back.

 

[Excidium II]

I've completed all Decent games (1-3 with all add-ons) and they were awesome.

Are they decent or awesome?

Also what about Forsaken?

 

[spekkio]

Haven't played it (yet) but I've heard it isn't as good.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

I bought homm 4 on GOG because I heard the campaign was good but I hate it.

It's nothing but huge neutral stacks and do-nothing AI players. It's like one of the russian king's bounty titles + bullshit one-shot-your-hero attacks every few maps.

 

[Venser]

And about why the series is dead - people don't want difficulty, they want instant gratification.

Their kickstarter was funded so it's not quite dead.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/descendentstudios/descent-underground/description

 

[Durandal]

I think the only reason a master-piece like Descent rarely gets mentioned is that I'm p sure it'll give some people freaking motion sickness. Also the controls are hard to get used to.

Speaking of which, what did you use to play it? I'm convinced games like that need to be used by a joystick, but I heard a 360 controller might be fine?

keyboard and mouse
just map WS to accelerate/brake, AD to slide up/down, QE to bank left/right, and Space/CTRL to Slide Up/Down. It shouldn't feel too different from most FPS games that way. I used the Rebirth control type, although I don't know the difference between others. Also, set mouse sensitivity for turning up/down and left/right to its maximum, since there's enemies that will actively try to get on your six (nice AI!) and turning with the mouse in such a situation can get cumbersome.
Apparently mouse controls were a thing even in the first Descent before any sourceports, and people playing with or without mouse controls would be excluded from multiplayer matches because mouse controls are that superior.

 

[Blonsky]

Sam & Max: Save the world
I finished over half the episodes of the first session, but its just getting more and more boring going to the same areas and talking to the same characters in every episode, even if they change jobs and talk with a different acent.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Sam & Max: Save the world
I finished over half the episodes of the first session, but its just getting more and more boring going to the same areas and talking to the same characters in every episode, even if they change jobs and talk with a different acent.

I remember that feeling as well.

Season 3 fortunately avoids this somewhat by introducing new characters and bizarre scenarios...yes, even more bizarre than what's thrown at you in Sam & Max.

 

[Zephyr Arsland]

Mad Max: The-we're-not-sure-how-to-tie-into-the-franchise game.

Surpassed my expectations (I'm a big fan of the movies. Including, to a certain extent, the third one) with the "less-is-more" approach. People's been comparing it to Shadow of Mordor, and that's really unfair to both of them.

Also, fell into the Dom4 trap again. Woe is me!