What game are you wasting time on?

[Unkillable Cat]

Or you can just spam rockets next to a rocket ammo box. Which is a strategy the devs probably should not have allowed/encouraged. That said, I only used this strategy on the very last level and never ran into ammo issues. The assault rifle was my go-to workhorse.

I'm referring to the area before the first rocket ammo box as the part where I go pistol on the mobs. Also, there may be "difficulties" in managing a mob with the Rocket Launcher, so I tend to hold it in reserve for when it's clear to blap them from a safe distance...but I see where you're coming from.

I've only played the first level so far. The homing green energy ball enemy is neat.

The first level is actually the worst one. The second one is pretty cool, and the third one lets you play with the jetpack for more than a boss battle.

This leads me to another question: Have you played the First Encounter/Second Encounter Serious Sam games? Despite their age, they're pretty much the "go-to" point (especially Second Encounter) of what defines the Serious Sam games.

I'm not talking about the HD re-releases from 2009, but the originals from 2001 and 2002. Turns out the HD re-releases couldn't capture all the eccentrics of the original games, so they "improvised" with absolutely fuck-all instead. (For a mix of modern-day comforts and original SSam gaming, try "Serious Sam Revolutions".)

 

[adddeed]

1. Planescape: Torment: Meh. Gameplay was predictably awful, story/dialogue was better than most videogames but that's not an accomplishment. Only memorable moments were the tomb, the memory of TNO manipulating Deionarra, the encounter with Ravel, and the encounter with three of your previous incarnations. Here are some things I wrote down as I played the game:
- Some doors are hard to spot, others are straight up impossible to see unless you bring up the annotated map
- Maze dimension is annoying
- Found my way inside Siege Tower but there was no option to share info with the abishai that was looking to do the same
- Grimoire of Pestilential Thought is cool
- Ignus was a huge threat yet no one bats an eye when I free him, even the barkeep
- Calling the chicks in the brothel "prostitutes" makes no sense. For someone who's trying to turn back on their nature Fall-From-Grace sure seems hellbent on using sex terminology. Also falling from grace doesn't sound like something evil races would give a shit about.
- The conversation where you try to talk down a Godman from committing suicide is very poorly written. Makes no sense that someone who followed that ideology and concluded that suicide was the way to go would be influenced by the TNO presented
- Couldn't give Ecco the silent "prostitute" the tongue which would clearly solve her problem until I found out why she lost her voice. What fucking difference does the reason make? The solution was obvious
- Character pathfinding is 100% shit
- On a similar note, characters refusing to auto-attack unless personally attacked is retarded
- Too many filler combat areas, like the prison under Curst or the Lawful Evil place (what a disappointment that was)
- Curst is shit, town of betrayal more like town of boredom
- I can summarize this game as: [Wisdom dialogue choice]: [Say something obvious].
- Second half of the game wears out its welcome
.

Edgy.

 

[Leechmonger]

This leads me to another question: Have you played the First Encounter/Second Encounter Serious Sam games? Despite their age, they're pretty much the "go-to" point (especially Second Encounter) of what defines the Serious Sam games.

I'm not talking about the HD re-releases from 2009, but the originals from 2001 and 2002. Turns out the HD re-releases couldn't capture all the eccentrics of the original games, so they "improvised" with absolutely fuck-all instead. (For a mix of modern-day comforts and original SSam gaming, try "Serious Sam Revolutions".)

I haven't played them yet, but I plan to. I was underwhelmed by the size of the mobs in SS3 and have heard that the earlier titles throw far more enemies at you, especially at higher difficulties. That would be my primary motivator for playing them. There's something tremendously satisfying about that enemy spawn sound going off non-stop and watching an army materialize in front of you.

The only thing I've heard the HD versions are missing is some gravity thing. What other flaws do they have?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The gravity thing is the primary omission, SSam had funky gravity in places which made for at least one highly memorable room fight...in HD everything just lumps down to the floor.

Compared to SSam 3 the others are gonna feel very different. The only weapon you need to reload is the pistol(s), otherwise it's Doom-style weaponry all the way. Also no running, no iron sights and no takedowns - they way the game is meant to be played.

Just don't get any stupid ideas about playing Serious Sam 2...

 

[Tito Anic]

Guys, need some suggestions here. I don't know what to play.

I mean something accessible, not too hard to learn (while hard to master is ok), some satisfying shooting possibly, and then be done for a while.

Tome4: take "tri-beam" archmage and watch your enemies burn.

 

[baturinsky]

Guys, need some suggestions here. I don't know what to play.
Yeah I've bought the King's Bounty entire collection a few days ago ('twas on sale) but I don't feel like playing it right now.
I don't know exactly what's happening to me but I rarely have the will to "enter" a new game's mechanics, of late.
I'm becoming a popamoler.

I've played Alien: Isolation recently (excellent), and Rise of the Tomb Raider (overall good) even more recently.
I need something else like that.
I mean something accessible, not too hard to learn (while hard to master is ok), some satisfying shooting possibly, and then be done for a while.

Plz help, no judging.

Paladins is doing great satisfying my shooty needs lately. It's free, has good selection of heroes and loadouts for different tastes, and rounds are fast enough that you are not stuck with same idiots for too long.

 

[kris]

I wasted some time the last two days on Colonization. I see it as a bit of a change from playing the normal civilizations with its differing mechanics. If there is something the 4X genre lacks right now, then it is thinking outside the box.

Pondering trying one of the 8-bit armies games to see if they are shit.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I beat XCOM2. Hunter weapons are really good against avatars.
Bring Cryo grenades and the serpent armor; the inability for an avatar to do its teleport after damage bullshit cripples it greatly.

 

[spekkio]

Finished Digital Devil Saga 1

Verdict: too Megaten for casuals, not enough Megaten for megatenfags.

Pros:
- Classic dungeon crawlan in Megaten universe: 75% combat, 20% prepping for combat, 5% everything else.
- Good old "press turn" system. One fuckup during combat = you died.
- Loved teh art (characters models, Hindu stuff, environments).
- Story is excusable, except maybe the final part.
- Some nice mazes, all of them 100% mappable, tho.

Cons:
- Combat system is inferior to SMT3. Instead of classic "summonerfag + devils" system, we get something more similar to standard jRPG with characters and their skills. So, instead of breeding new races of podemons, you just unlock all possible skills for all fags. Boring.
- Due to the above, the only way of defeating some bosses is to die, reload, try again with another skillset. Bore.
- You need to unlock every new skill by 1) buying it at the savepoint 2) reaching certain Atma (skills exp) level. So, if you learned Fire1 ("Skill mastered"), you have to go back to the savepoint to buy Fire2 and start "mastering" it. Ghey, since after learning one skill, all your Atma acquired via combat gets lost, until you switch to another skill (after buying it at the savepoint first).
- Random encounter rate is too high even by Megaten standards.
- Regular enemies are easier than letsay SMT3 - bore. Not enough ailment / element rape. Bosses require retries / prepping special setups - bore.
- Some subquests are purely retardo (climbing 20 floors up and down to get one item).
- Final part is too jrpg-ish, plus game ends in a total anticlimactic cliffhanger ("See you in part 2!"). Faggots.

Subjective score: and a fucking half (liked it a lot, not sure why)
Objective score for casualfags: (too much combat, nothing happens, wheres mah ghey romances)
Objective score for hardcore megatenfags: (strong decline compared to SMT3).

 

[Beowulf]

[...]

Pondering trying one of the 8-bit armies games to see if they are shit.

They undoubtedly are, but don't let that stop you from taking one for the codex.

 

[Freddie]

I finally decided to try Resident Evil 5 I got ages ago.

Didn't even bother trying anything with Windows live but decided to try if Steam accepts the activation code. It worked.

Game itself, for oldie third person shooter, I like!

Technically FOV is very narrow, but there isn't that much happening that it's really is an issue, there are mods for that, but didn't tried them yet. Graphics are good enough, sounds wise it's good. Ambient sounds work and really ads in the atmosphere. I haven't got tired to score played in combat encounters yet. Weapon sounds, different sort of noise that happens while interacting with the world is okay. Voice acting is IMO as good as can be expected from games with cheese fest plots like this. Controls don't feel unnecessarily sluggish, even I they don't feel extremely snappy either.

Game mechanics wise there, inventory is small but big enough. Weapons can be upgraded and there is a trap that may be frustrating. Once you get your gun beefed up, you find next gun that is beefier and switch to that. I think couple of runs on amateur or normal would be good to unlock weapons and upgrade them before venturing on harder difficulty level to avoid combat regressing to bullet sponge fest.

I have finished this couple of times now and I think I try completing some of the remaining challenges Despite my past bad experiences I might buy two DLC levels available in Steam. That said, I found this from sales bin few years ago and paid perhaps 3 or 5 €. Money well spent.

 

[Carrion]

I finished Dead Space. Some thoughts:

- It's a shitty PC port. I mentioned the atrocious mouse and keyboard controls before, so enough about them, but there seem to be some framerate-related issues as well, like physics getting fucked up so that bodies get stuck in some eternal dance routine that creates some pretty surreal scenes every now and then. There was also one game-breaking bug related to this, but it was fortunately fixable by enabling v-sync for a moment. Checkpoint saving probably wouldn't have bothered me at all if the game hadn't been so prone to crashing.

- It's an enjoyable shooter. I liked the whole dismemberment thing, and the weapons were pretty cool as well, all very different from each other with different strengths and drawbacks (except the starting "pistol", I guess, which felt overall just superior to everything else and suitable for every situation). Some guns didn't seem all that useful to me (I ditched the Pulse Rifle, the Force Gun and the Flamethrower more or less instantly), but the weapon upgrading system was pretty neat, and they probably could've been made good with a bit of investment. I mostly just stuck with the guns that dealt the biggest damage, with the Ripper as a backup option because of its coolness factor. Also, thankfully there's no cover system or regenerating health.

- It sucks as a horror game, although I'm not sure if it was ever intended to actually be one. Jump scares are all it has to offer, and it doesn't manage to execute even them effectively. The monster closets also kind of detract from the shooting aspect, occasionally creating some pretty annoying encounters. I do like the atmosphere, though, even if I would've preferred if it was a bit... colder somehow.

- I liked the design of the space ship, with each area serving a clear purpose, and visually it's generally pretty cool. The game doesn't use a lot of colour, but it still far from monotonous. I also liked that you got to explore the ship a bit and often had several different objectives instead of being confined to a single corridor for the whole game. Unfortunately both of these aspects are marred a bit by the fact that the game is still in its heart a corridor shooter. You may have these mini-hubs with two or three different objectives, but it always comes down to just having a couple of different corridors you can do in any order before unlocking the door to the final corridor of the chapter. Your character also can't jump (outside zero-G, that is), climb, crouch or crawl, so you don't get the type of interesting layouts that you have in, say, Half-Life. It's all just corridors followed by rooms and the occasional elevator, with little to no room for actual exploration. Then again, moving around in the game is such a pain thanks to the controls that maybe it's for the better.

- There are QTEs. QTEs suck. However, I can't be too angry about them as they only require you to tap the Use key, and they occur in very logical yet non-scripted places (i.e. when some monster is trying to hug you to death).

- I like that there's an inventory system, and that ammo eats up inventory space. I'm not a huge fan of the randomized loot, though, which only gives you ammo for the guns you're carrying. Like I said, I used the Ripper as a backup weapon, and in the last chapter half of my inventory space was used up by Ripper blades. Maybe I would've been better off just dropping it altogether, as that way I would've had more ammo for the actually useful weapons?

- The game's very easy, and it only gets easier on the way. The difficulty level is clearly designed for gamepads, and enemies are usually polite enough to wait a bit before attacking so that you have enough time to turn around and blast them into little bits. The only challenging encounters are the ones where the game throws some sort of a puzzle at you at the same time, unless you manage to make things hard for yourself by running out of ammo or something. Too bad that you need to finish the game before unlocking the hardest difficulty level.

- Too many gimmicks. The zero-gravity areas are nice in principle, but the execution is just really clumsy, and the areas become pretty lame pretty fast. It was also not helped by the fact that landing on a surface at a specific angle always caused my character to get stuck in the air for a few seconds before inexplicably dying. There's also physics stuff that has some combat use but is mainly used for the same repetitive puzzles over and over again. I'm all for environmental manipulation and physics in games, but I got pretty sick of the kinesis gun towards the end, especially when the most challenging aspect about the "puzzles" was usually to get the physics to work in the way that you wanted to. Stasis is a bit better, but I didn't find much combat use for it near the endgame either.

- The story.... Zzzzzzz.... You can see the big end twist come from miles away, and everything else has been done about a million times before. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, because it's not like the story matters all that much anyway. You know how it's going to play out before you even install the game anyway.

tl;dr: An awful port of a non-awful action game. Finishing it took me 12 hours, and honestly, I don't feel that it ended too soon. Alright for a single playthrough, but I'm not going to check out the sequel.

 

[anus_pounder]

VtM:Bloodlines . I've never actually played it with the Wesp plus patch before, might as well give it a try. Other than that, its mostly finishing off some emulated DS games I had on the back burner.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

How the fuck do I set up Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition for PC?
I installed DSfix, did everything I was supposed to do, and yet the damn thing crashes constantly, and now its crashing on start up.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I want to play Stalker: Call of Chernobyl but almost everyday there is new patch released that fix this and broke this, plus remove cool features like scientist Kruglov doing full upgrades tree removed (before that - you need to move your ass through dozen of areas and enter highly dangerous forest to find Forester who do full upgrades).

Finished Far Cry 4, took me 20h with main questline + some activities (ain't nobody have time for this shit). Too much money and too much XPs even before you reach another side of the country. Shooting stuff was decent but that does not say much when most shooters are blandbanalshit.. Shorter than previous game, main protagonist denied his faggotory numerous times. Can't beat our character named Ghayle (sounds ghayle).
Liked some songs like these and "Should I stay or Should I go" that fit nice if you find secret ending, right after starting new game. Just sit for 10-15 minutes at the table, like main villian asked, then bam - end of the game. $39.99$5 dollars well spend...
Far more into indian believe system with Shangri-La or shit like that.
PS. there is cool way to capture outpost with "Undetected" ratio. Find gyrocopter, arm yourself with M-79 grenade launched (can be hold with one hand) and bombard their assess while playing this ??? profit

How the fuck do I set up Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition for PC?
I installed DSfix, did everything I was supposed to do, and yet the damn thing crashes constantly, and now its crashing on start up.

Game properties ->betas->Steam build
I managed to run it and play with kb+m (I'm that guy who play every game, considered by people as "unplayable without gamepad" with kb+m) then uninstalled because it was boring and overrated and Severance Blade of Darkness and Die by the Sword were better and not overrated. Now it either run like shit with fixes or Steam build and both can't be played on kb+m because of lasted patches. Thanks FROM not big loss for me.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Had a go at Stardew Valley, mostly because the concept interested me: A SNES-esque ARPG with sandbox/farming elements and minor socializing/romance options.

But now that I've had the look, I'm not gonna bother with it again.

Its biggest problem is that it's a one-man project, and suffers heavily from the downsides of such a creation. There are some pretty bone-headed design decisions in this game, like fishing. Early on you're given a fishing rod, taught the basics of fishing and left to your own devices. Soon after, however, the game starts telling you to use bait to increase your chances, and also to put bait in those crab boxes I was given somewhere. Except...I don't have any bait. Turns out that the only way to get bait is to gain 2 levels in Fishing, then you're automatically given the crafting recipe. The damn fisherman doesn't even sell bait before this point, and the game doesn't inform you in any way what needs to be done - it just somehow hopes that you stumble upon the answer.

Another silly aspect is the Mines. This is the dungeon of the game: You enter, keep descending lower and lower, killing monsters and breaking rocks until you either die of boredom or come out on the other side of the planet, I don't know. But to clear a level, you need to find the stairs down...which either are hidden under a rock that needs to be broken, or magically appears where you killed a monster. An elevator serves as a checkpoint allowing you to skip ahead to every 5th level you reach, but if you ever "die" in the mine you "forget" your previous progress and have to do most of (if not all) of the levels again...including the ones that you could reach via the elevator! Oh, and all the levels respawn every time you enter the Mines, rocks and all.

Then there's the hilarious method the socializing part of the game is implemented: Each person has a friendship scale of 1-10. In order to get to enter people's rooms (and sometimes houses) you need to have a minimal friendship level with them. This is universally enforced by the game; the player cannot override this. Why people would want to do that is because of a quest given to discreetly recover the Mayor's underpants: They're located in the bedroom of one of the women of the town, so to even have a chance of retrieving them you must first become friends with the woman in question - stealth is not an option. Oh wait, it's worse than that: If you enter a person's house while no one's looking, and there's no one there, they'll still know you entered their home and berate you for going through their stuff...and even then the game STILL won't let you into their "rooms" if your friendship with them isn't good enough.

But the two biggest problems are the ones that kill any interest in the game: The game is one massive grindfest, and it flat-out requires the online wiki. Despite the game doing a good job of telling you loads of stuff in-game, there is some information that, at best, is only dealt out by the game in tiny doses and is not kept track of by the game itself, like what each person in the game likes/dislikes. This is the Current Year, only autism babies will bother with that by normal means, the rest will go consult the wiki...and any game that requires a wiki to be played in any sensible manner is Doing It Wrong.

The game is still receiving updates though, so there's hope that some of the more braindead design ideas get replaced/improved...but I'm not gonna bother with waiting. In many ways this game just isn't my cup of tea.

 

[Leechmonger]

Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile DLC: like the base game it gets better with every mission. Unlike the base game the DLC is ridiculously short with only 3 missions, the last one being by far the best. That last arena in mission 3 was really enjoyable (I'd found the minigun but not the cannon). I wish the last boss had exploded, but I guess they were going for a humorous letdown. I would have preferred GUTS instead.

 

[Renegen]

The Evil Within

The original creator of Resident Evil did this game? It's so bad I've concluded that japanese cannot into horror. The first level has you playing the wonderful horror mechanic of trying to escape from an invincible butcher, the joy! And you have nothing, not even a map or anything, just the terrible levels to help you escape. And of course the game finds a reason for your character to limp, a condition which is immediately removed once the next sequence starts. There is no story, none, just a series of random sequences; game design, camera and "horror" are all badly done. It feels like rapidly made levels by hasbeens and pretentious fools stitched together more awkwardly than Frankenstein's work.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Mafia III and Tom Clancy's The Division. I did make a few purchases so I'm not too bored in the future.

Wait, what ?! anus_pounder is back !!!
Feel free to fist !

 

[nomask7]

How the fuck do I set up Dark Souls Prepare to Die edition for PC?
I installed DSfix, did everything I was supposed to do, and yet the damn thing crashes constantly, and now its crashing on start up.

I don't remember well anymore, but something with the DSfix fucked up my game, so I played it unmodded instead in windowed mode. You could try that. I'd also recommend purchasing a console gamepad if you don't already have one (an Xbox 360 pad should work nicely with Windows; if you want to use a PS3 pad, you can use the software Better DS3 for making it compatible, pick Xbox 360 as profile and click apply after connecting your game pad).

 

[sullynathan]

SCP toolkit is better than betterDS3

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

Well, I got DS working. Had nothing to do with DSfix, but everything to do with my xbox controller emalutor. Turns out it really doesn't like it when you don't have a controller plugged in.
Not that I need it anyway; I'm finding mouse and keyboard sufficient so far.

 

[Beowulf]

I'm playing Thief 4.

Spoiler

 

[J_C]

I'm playing Thief 4.

Spoiler

 

[Jinn]

My brother was kind enough to give me his spare PS3 for a while, so I've finally been able to play Nier! It's such a bizarre, unique, and extremely fun game. It kind of mixes ARPG combat and progression with semi-bullet-hell segments, some side-scrolling platforming, Zelda style puzzle-solving and text adventure segments thrown in for good measure. The game certainly has it's faults, but goddamn there's also a lot to be admired. The story has been excellent so far, mainly because it remains quite subtle for the most part, and is laden with metaphors and symbolism. The characters are intriguing and likeable, and it's nice to see them change as time passes in the game world. It's also quite self-aware of the medium it is being presented through, but not in an idiotic way. It meshes well with the overall atmosphere and never becomes overbearing, but generally causes one to pause and think about the nature of what they are actually doing while playing a video game. I'm so glad I got the chance to play this before Nier: Automata comes out! I would highly anyone with the means to give this game a serious shot.

I've also been playing Wasteland 2 Directors Cut. This is my third time trying to make my way through Wasteland 2. The last two times I couldn't force myself to continue past the Rail Nomad section, but this time I pushed forward and made it to the Canyon of Titan and am actually having a pretty fun time again. That is not to say the the game is excused of this major fault. There is absolutely no reason I should have to drudge my way through 14 hours of gameplay (between Ag Center which I actually enjoyed and Canyon of Titan) before things start to get interesting again. All that aside, I must say that I am pleasantly surprised with how the mid-game is shaping up. Let's hope California provides more of the same.