What game are you wasting time on?

[Sceptic]

After over a year since the last time, which itself was maybe a couple of years since the first, I picked up Crysis 2 where I had left off because I wanted something completely not cerebral and with purty graphics. The game delivered, though perhaps more on the former than the latter.

I already thought Crysis was pure decline from Far Cry, but it's amazing to see Crysis 2 decline much harder from this (though consolitis, I'm sure, played a role here). Gone are the large, beautiful maps with multiple points of approach and multiple objectives you can tackle in any order, replaced by strictly linear corridors linking one set piece to the next. Granted some of the set pieces are fun, and the graphics are pretty, but even the fun set pieces are forgettable, and now that I've finished the game I'd be hard pressed to remember most of them. In fact I don't remember almost anything of a large chunk of the mid-game, namely when you start running around helping the Marines, because the whole thing just seems to be tacked on to bloat the number of levels in the game. What makes it even more obvious is that the story just grinds to a halt for a good fourth of the game while you do all these completely unrelated tasks. I guess the military must've thrown some money at EA/Crytek because I can't imagine any other reason for the usual "Marines fuck yeah" to be in the game.

There are some good bits though. The couple of levels with Lockhart and Hargreave at the end are pretty nice, with some really great stealth in the first one and some great visuals and set pieces in the second. The problem is that such levels tend to be sandwiched between boring, linear corridor levels with waves of respawning enemies. It doesn't help that each Crytek game has gotten progressively worse with its humans/monsters ratio. Far Cry had some annoying linear mutant levels strewn in-between the great human and open levels. Crysis introduces the aliens and turns linear much earlier. Crysis 2 does it as early as level 3, before it's ever had a chance to be open and play up the design strengths of its predecessors. The Lockhart level is perhaps the only one that's truly fun to stealth (and it's no coincidence it doesn't have a single alien) but even this one shows linearity and corridor design far more than anything in Far Cry. Also, I miss the voiced Nomad from Crysis. As far as player-controlled protagonists go I think that Crytek, whether purposefully or accidentally, struck a great balance between him having enough of a personality and voice for your interactions with NPCs not to sound completely retarded (Half-Life and Quake 4 send their best) but being "boring" enough that you can still think of him as the player's avatar in the game world. Nothing looks more stupid than NPCs talking to at "you" all the time.

I might play the 3rd one just for the lulz.

 

[Gregz]

Played SWTOR for a week, quit. (no end game)

Played Wildstar for a day, quit. (shit UI and immature setting)

Installed Guild Wars 2 yesterday, haven't started it up yet today but plan to.

 

[anus_pounder]

Fallout 4

 

[PeachPlumage]

Fighting Belhifet

 

[SionIV]

Lionheart, just left Barcelona.

 

[Rahdulan]

Lionheart, just left Barcelona.

Some would argue now's the perfect time for Lionheart to leave your HDD as well.

 

[SionIV]

Some would argue now's the perfect time for Lionheart to leave your HDD as well.

Haha, it might not be a very good game, but I do find it entertaining, and that is why I play games. The story is utter shit after Barcelona, the combat isn't anything to write home about. But they do use the S.P.E.C.I.A.L system and it's really fun to make builds for characters. The random items generated can come with a ton of combinations, making it very enjoyable to pick up the correct items for your build. Playing a battlemage and a Necromancer on the side. Battlemage is focused on cold spells and have items with % improved cold damage, also using a special sword that doesn't only increase my cold damage (Helps my spells) but also deals cold damage, so any items I add with % cold damage, will improve my melee combat AND spell casting, creating a nice type of synergy. I'm also tagged in protective in the thought (magic) branch which has a protection spell that also deals cold damage, that gets boosted by my items. My Necromancer have picked up a ton of items that improve the HP/Damage/Armor on my undead minions and increase my nercomancy skill, at a low level I could summon very powerful undeads. It also has one of the best stealth systems in any RPG, giving you a certain (75%?) experience for sneaking past enemies, instead of fighting them. The music is great and the graphic is good compared to other games released then and later on.

I happen to enjoy the game, and I'm playing Septerra Core on the side, another game many people dislike but I find very entertaining.

 

[adddeed]

Good, people are often so fixated on a couple of issues with games that they dont look at the game as a whole.

 

[SionIV]

Good, people are often so fixated on a couple of issues with games that they dont look at the game as a whole.

A game can still be enjoyable and fun, even if it isn't a 10/10.

 

[DeepOcean]

Replaying Dishonored and boy how I miss the shadow system from Thief. Dishonored has this problem of you don't having a clear spot where you are somewhat safe to study the patrols of the guards, if you spam the void gaze power this isn't a problem as you can see enemies through walls but getting the entire screen blue and enemies yellow constantly is annoying. So, if you don't want to spam void gaze, stairs and any elevation are your enemy as you can't see what is up there and can just end up looking straight at a guard that you couldn't see.

They tried to compensate the lack of a shadow system by level design, including alot of high elevation places where you could climb up to spy on the enemies with them not being able to look up but I think this is a kinda shitty way to compensate for a lack of a shadow system and on some levels, you can just enter on a room just to a guard you weren't aware off entering on the same room right after you with no place to hide and barely no reaction time. They kinda "fixed" this on the DLC by making blink also stop time so you could escape from situations like this but in my opinion they just made an overpowered power even more overpowered.

In the end I had to save scum alot, I didn't want to use the powers because they turn Dishonored on just a level exploration game as the enemies are completely neutralized by them as a challenge and combat in Dishonored suck balls as any weapon can one shot most enemies and I saved scummed because every time I was caught I was murdering the whole enemy garrison on a fight and this kinda defeated the purpose of a stealth game. I still had fun because the level design and art of Dishonored are pretty great but strangely there is an stealth game I played recently Styx Master of Shadows that is surprisingly better at being an stealth game than Dishonored.

 

[PeachPlumage]

After the defeat of Belhifet, Icewind Dale 2 might be on the cards or maybe I might try something else.

 

[anus_pounder]

Comp stomping with a fellow steamtard in 40k Retribution.

Spoiler

Dem Orks, mang.

 

[DramaticPopcorn]

Comp stomping with a fellow steamtard in 40k Retribution.

Spoiler

Dem Orks, mang.

Improved

 

[PeachPlumage]

Thinking of either playing special forces or sabre team. Fancy something different. Just need to set up dosbox.

 

[kris]

I been stuck on playing different mods for Civ4. but I never get past the first half of the game. I just like the exploring and expanding part best and lose interest after that.

 

[FeelTheRads]

A game can still be enjoyable and fun, even if it isn't a 10/10.

Except there is no "whole" to Lionheart. Game is simply shit from all perspectives.
I wonder how much you'll like it after you play a bit more and see that past Barcelona the only work they did on the game was dropping mobs on empty boring backgrounds.

Also there's a game stopping bug with a certain conversation (with Da Vinci when you go in some other location, don't remember where) so better save often and keep your saves.

 

[SionIV]

Except there is no "whole" to Lionheart. Game is simply shit from all perspectives.
I wonder how much you'll like it after you play a bit more and see that past Barcelona the only work they did on the game was dropping mobs on empty boring backgrounds.

Also there's a game stopping bug with a certain conversation (with Da Vinci when you go in some other location, don't remember where) so better save often and keep your saves.

I have completed it 4 times and made it past Montaillou several more. It turns into hack n' slash after Montaillou, but it still isn't shit from all perspectives.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

Finished Game of Thrones (Telltale). The last two chapters felt very derivative, but I enjoyed it overall. There's some good moments. It isn't as good as The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us or even Tales from the Borderlands, but it holds its own as interactive stories go.

Went back to Valkyria Chronicles but got stuck on the mission with the massive tank. I can get rid of the radiators, but then Selvaria comes and really kicks my arse and I don't have time to destroy the tank before it gets to my base camp.

Also playing Fallout 4, purely for research into the decline. I can only manage it in 5 minute segments because it is genuinely awful.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

I have completed it 4 times and made it past Montaillou several more. It turns into hack n' slash after Montaillou, but it still isn't shit from all perspectives.

You should complete it another 3 times just to be sure.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Finished Bet On Soldier
Failed to finish it decade ago on my old PC (retail version with StarForce DRM, that killed my Win98 PC after uninstalling the game). Did that now, but it's bitter victory.

Selling point of the game was betting system, where you choose champions to fight against. You either stab them with rotating blade or threat with lot of firepower (either minigun or war shotguns, so powerful they cut mechs in half in close contact and shred shields into pieces).
And every single one of them use enhanced ammo (daze/blind/hallucinations).

Another problem - effects like dazing, blinding and hallucinating do shit against enemies, while you are helpless walking target under their effect. Combine the long wearing out with time limit (you have 60 seconds to kill Champion) and you see
Thanks goodness the BoS fights are optional (except 2 Boryenka brothers, that killed your wife and you go for revenge through the game*) so in last 3 missions I just loose the bets on purpose and call it a day.

There are C&C here, in the last mission you can side with either Resistance or Syndicate who support endless war (WWII didn't ended, still ongoing) because money. But both choices lead to your death. Who killed you? Even bigger and tougher bastard?
No.
Your wife.
Who turns out to be nurse, that was send by Syndicate to recover your memory (yes, there is "amnesia theme" here). Why they want that and why they go "nah" way and kill you? Hell if I know.

*which turn out to be
Yeah, I mowed down hundreds of enemies (who like to shout "Fire in the rhule" instead of "fire in the hole"), half of them were walking tanks, like friggin Space Marines, and yet Nolan died from pitiful pistol, handled by the only one woman in this game.

 

[Ivan]

Earthbound
Before playing it, I only knew it as "that one game with awful boxart." Definitely one of the strangest games I've ever played. It's its aesthetic, the dialogue, the awesome music (one of the best soundtracks), the oddly names "monsters" that make this a true enigma. The economy is broken, the combat sucks, the grinding sucks, but the world, though static, is utterly delightful. Playing it for the first time now (after LISA and Undertale) it's crazy to see just how impactful this must have been to those games' creators. There's not much fun to be had with Earthbound's combat, but its world and demeaner is infectious and goddamn the music is wonderful.


Gonna play Mother 3 next (is Mother 1 worth a look, as far as I've read Earthbound is like a reimagining/remake of 1)

this shit is gonna stay with me forever

more:

Spoiler

 

[Sjukob]

Currently playing vanilla WoW . I've never played WoW before , because I wasn't interested in it , but recently I heard about private vanilla server and decided to check it out . It is much more interesting and fun to play than I expected , the gameplay is rewarding , classes are interesting , locations don't feel as a chore to get through and even disbalance doesn't discourage me . I will leave a link for those who don't know about this sever .

CLICK

 

[Adon]

Just finished Ys: The Oath in Felghana. Bought it a few years ago off the recommendation of a friend who really likes these games; partially because of the kick-ass music which I've listened to on occasion long before ever beating this game. I played it before, but I stopped after the first boss to focus on other games.

It was good, like really good. Did play on Normal since it was my first outing with this series, but it was challenging at certain areas. Sometimes to my detriment because save points are usually only in the beginning of a dungeon and before a boss fight. Seems a bit mindless at times given how simple the game is, however, you can get killed in a new area if you're not paying attention to what you're doing. Eventually you do get an item that lets you teleport to any save point (which fully heals you) but anything before then and you have to run/hop back if you're running low in health. Had an amazingly wide variety of enemies that they keep introducing and sometimes requires different approaches to kill them. The dungeons themselves seemed fairly servicable which is really all you need for this type of game.

Much like Castlevania: SotN I do think the leveling system is more of a detriment to the game than not. But that's just personal preference. Much like that one, tho, there wasn't much grinding I had to do in Ys. I guess I just don't like how at certain points you need to grind to stand a better chance to defeat a boss. Or maybe that was just me sucking at the game. Although when I did have to, I only had to level up once so I wouldn't get killed as fast. Speaking of, however, the bosses were great. They're the kind where if you get good enough, you can make it through certain phases without taking damage.

Action games, even aRPGs, are usually my type of jam so I really enjoyed the game. I'll eventually play on Nightmare, and check out the other games.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Got back into Kingdom of Loathing (the only browser game that I've liked) after 4 year hiatus, feels good man.

 

[Machocruz]

Currently playing vanilla WoW . I've never played WoW before , because I wasn't interested in it , but recently I heard about private vanilla server and decided to check it out . It is much more interesting and fun to play than I expected , the gameplay is rewarding , classes are interesting , locations don't feel as a chore to get through and even disbalance doesn't discourage me . I will leave a link for those who don't know about this sever .

CLICK

Are you playing with any other Codex members? No one has posted a comment on the thread in a couple weeks. What level/faction are you?