What game are you wasting time on?

[Great Deceiver]

Finished Cocoon. I really liked it. Some puzzles are quite brilliant in the game's simple framework, you get those 'a-ha!' moments that are very satisfying. Overall a bit on the easy side for me but still very worth it. It's short too, which I consider a big plus (took me about 6 hours of playtime to finish, playing very leisurely maybe half an hour each day).

The game has no text, no speech, no handholding at all. You're supposed to figure things out on your own and there are no overt nudges. The only facilitating aspect is that there is no backtracking - previous pathways close up automatically once you reach certain critical points.

It's also pretty atmospheric with a great soundtrack. Definitely recommended.

 

[BruceVC]

Im about 40 hours into Dying Light 2 and Im loving it, its improved on all the mechanics of DY1 and has provided exactly what I was looking for which is a easy to understand " zombie killing game " with simple and appreciated respawning features when you die so you dont get frustrated when you die

I am running the game on maximum graphic settings and I have enabled Ray Tracing so the game is very aesthetically pleasing, its beautiful

It has lots of fun activities and side quests and I am focusing on those until I get bored and then I will focus on the main quests similar to games like Far Cry and Assassins Quest

It has a fun and progressive crafting system and I like how the economy works. And the level and skills advancement makes sense Also because its an East European game there is very little wokeness so you see normal, attractive female NPCS which I always appreciate

The only real issue I have is a minor one and thats the jumping mechanics can be little frustrating in certain parts of the map. Some places it has taken me 15-20 minutes just to climb a certain building or windmill. But Im getting better at that

But excellent game if you looking for a quintessential Zombie "hack and slash "

 

[Axel_am]

Log 5:
Nothing out of the ordinary as far as gaming goes this week. Did some DotA grind and continued with wrapping up vanilla Pillars. It looks like the time has come for me to shift my focus. The vidiya grind will be getting slower.

The International - that one big Dota 2 tournament - has started its group stages and everybody in the DotA world is watching it. I don't really feel like playing DotA the past two/three weeks so I guess that's how I'm going to be getting my fix. Playing DotA has turned into something that's part of my routine instead of something that I do exclusively to have fun.

On the other hand clearing The Endless Paths of Od Nua, appeasing all of the gods, and preparing myself for the final fight in PoE has been a blast. The Sky Dragon in Hylea's temple was my hardest encounter yet. I was really surprised by what was happening. With some difficulty I was able to clear all of the elemental blights but when my party was left with the dragon they weren't able to hit her at all. On top of that I had a few tries where the giant lizard almost died so I was really confused with what the issue was.

Turns out it was just some fear debuff that was messing with my party. The usual spell I use to remove debuffs wasn't cutting it here so I just had to substitute it. After realizing that the fight became much simpler. Still it was verry annoying not being able to land a hit. I tried lots of other things before finding the missing piece of the puzzle.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Geneforge 1: Mutagen
According to my oldest saves I started this game 10 months ago but having not finished it until now. This by far is the most divisive game I have ever played. At times I would find myself playing it for hours on end, getting absolutely sucked into the world, but then I sometimes would put it down for weeks. The world building and quality of writing immediately hooked me in and if the game featured better combat then I surely would have finished Geneforge months ago.

I cannot even rate it because of how mixed my feelings are.

 

[NecroLord]

Haven't played any games recently, but I do want to finish my Barbarian run in Arcanum. Got ready to sail to Thanatos and find Nasrudin. The in-game sprite for the Barbarian Armor looks really cool. Also people will make funny comments about you wearing it.
Also want to replay original Deus Ex. It's been a while...

 

[Abu Antar]

Three games done.

Demon Lord Reincarnation. That was a fun twist that one probably won't see coming. Pretty brutal, yet streamlined dungeon crawler. Very old school in its design, and punish you in basically every encounter. I'd be interested in a more expanded sequel. If it's just the same, I think that I'll skip it. I'd love equipment, and less roguelike-style.

Luminous Arc for the Nintendo DS. Pretty run-of-the-mill Japanese tactical rpg. Does its job, but not a game I would compare with the best games in the genre. Voice acting was abysmal. I wanted to pierce my own ears with a spear. Cgaracter design was so-so, and everything else was serviceable.

Like A Dragon: Ishin! A very fun game, but the side stories were a mixed bag. Mostly fun. I'd put the game in the middle of the series in terms of quality. Seeing characters from the series reimagined as others was quite funny, but they do keep their characteristics. Despite not wanting them to do Unreal Engine again, I still think the game overall was solid, but I miss the Dragon Engine. There's a lot of side stuff to do. Most of if it was fun, some of it was busywork, and a few, I didn't even bother with.

I have the rest of the year to beat two more games for my 52 beaten games/per year goal.

 

[Late Bloomer]

I have the rest of the year to beat two more games for my 52 beaten games/per year goal.

Do you find yourself playing any differently than if you didn't set the 52 beaten games in a year?

 

[markec]

Finished Quake 4, a game I tried several times over the years but was always put off how much it played as a console game. Narrow corridors with no exploration, turret/veichle sections, small groups of enemies and increased focus on storytelling. Everything I didnt want to see in a FPS especially one made by id Software, so I always would quit within one hour. This time I endured to the end and came back with conclusion its a poor game with one highlight being the Waste Processing segment. That part is both visually and gameplay wise more interesting due all the gore and addition of new enemies. Beside that its just a game with a poor level design with no exploration, weapons that lack creativity and impact, enemies that only get somewhat interesting late in game, boring turret sections, story that is not particularly interesting or good outside few rare moments. If you passed on this game you havent missed much.

Also finished Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. I dont know what genre this is called maybe a tactical JRPG, I also dont have much experience with this type of games since only similar game I played was Banner of the Maid. So I cant really do much in a way of comparing it to other similar games. That said, I thought it was ok and nothing special, story was forgettable, the gameplay is solid, there is a decent variety of units and items, maps are ok. Wish there was more events and secrets, in Banner of the Maid you can find secret items and commanders which felt great when you manage to acquire them. I also had a minor issue with a bug, during some cutscenes my character had female sprite despite playing as a male, but its just a minor nitpick. As said overall a ok game that I had fun with but dont plan ever coming back to.

And I finished Judgement and I loved it. After being pleasantly surprised how good Like a Dragon was I come into this game hoping that it will be as good as LaD but in my opinion it manages to even surpass it. In almost all other Yakuza games the story often has ups and downs in its overall quality, in this game not only that the story is really good but it manages to keep its quality trough entire game. Unlike other Yakuza games and especially LaD this one is more down to earth and it fits well with the story and characters. And the new characters are all good and interesting, with nothing much to complain about its just a great game. Only issue I have is that the whole main plot rests on certain people doing rather stupid things. I still consider Yakuza 0 to be the best game in the franchise but this one is close second.

My new ranking: 0>Judgement>LaD>1>2>5>6>4>3

 

[Darth Roxor]

Quake 4 is one of these games that I finished and remember next to nothing about, except the stroggifying cutscene and that the shotgun was terrible. I think I even tried replaying it at some point but gave up midway or whatever, it's just super forgettable and overall unimpressive.

Also, it wasn't made by id but Raven.

 

[Abu Antar]

I have the rest of the year to beat two more games for my 52 beaten games/per year goal.

Do you find yourself playing any differently than if you didn't set the 52 beaten games in a year?

Yes. I rotate games a lot. This prevents burnout on certain games. The downside is that I have games started as far back as 2017 that I haven't finished yet. However, this seems to work for me, so I'm good.

 

[NecroLord]

Quake 4 is one of these games that I finished and remember next to nothing about, except the stroggifying cutscene and that the shotgun was terrible. I think I even tried replaying it at some point but gave up midway or whatever, it's just super forgettable and overall unimpressive.

Also, it wasn't made by id but Raven.

I thought it was alright.
Doom 3 is better, even though they are similar games.

 

[gabel]

Quake 4 is one of these games that I finished and remember next to nothing about, except the stroggifying cutscene and that the shotgun was terrible. I think I even tried replaying it at some point but gave up midway or whatever, it's just super forgettable and overall unimpressive.

Also, it wasn't made by id but Raven.

Well, I remember some terrible vehicle sections and the awful muliplayer on top of that.
Only Quake Champions is worse in the franchise.

Edit: Doom 3 is orders of magnitude better.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I don't even remember that it had vehicle sections

 

[gabel]

I envy you, lol.
Quake 3 was my favourite MP-title at the time (and probably my most-played game of all time) and I had hoped for a Quake 1-style SP campaign quality-wise.
Needless to say it was one of my biggest gaming-related disappointments.

 

[Kabas]

Venturous
Already mentioned in the doom thread and posted many screenshots . Great conversion mod, completely delivers on the promised Indiana Jones x Doom experience. Somewhat short but there is a good weapon and enemy variety.
Mask of Sobek

Another Doom conversion which claims to be a sequel to an old FPS called Killing Time which i never played. Some nice locales to discover and plenty of interesting lore to uncover about your Sobek-worshipping uncle who is clearly up to no good.
I don't like the gunplay however. Most common enemies you fight at the beginning are way too spongy, come in large numbers and quite often very annoyingly placed. Killing enemies feels like a slog but that might be because i picked the highest difficulty level.
Zortch

Only completed the first level but in comparison the gameplay in this one feels great!
Guns feel punchy, a good variety of enemies on the first level already and i like how everything feels so dynamic with your enemies being pretty capable of jumping around.
Heard you people mentioning how good this game is and you weren't lying. Thanks!

 

[the_shadow]

Finished Drakensang: The Dark Eye, a RPG which while feeling familiar still feels fresh because it doesn't use D&D mechanics. Overall it would have been a good game if it was about two thirds the length, but it seems to just drag and drag with fights of wound immune enemies that you have to grind down. It's worth one play through, but I couldn't see myself every replaying it like I would some other RPG titles.

 

[Abu Antar]

I gave up on Death's Door. Solid enough game, just not for me.

Booted up Weird West on PS5. Not amazing, but decent enough. I thought that playing with a controller wouldn't work, but it's functional enough.

Now, I am playing Condemned: Criminal origins. Never played it before. So far, my opinion is

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

Tried Lords of the fallen. Nothing interesting. It felt like dark souls 1.5.

 

[The Decline]

Playing IWD1 again after many years. Switched to HoW now that the main campaign is about to end. It's a much darker game than I remember it to be. Had the hardest time with Yxunemei. Visuals are amazing. An abundance of loot and spells, I spent half the game just managing my inventory. As usual, I go through the gamebanshee guide after finishing each area to see what I've missed.

IWD is possibly only place where with point buy low INT is a positive. High INT would make character thinking why is he in freezing wasteland when he's not a blue dragon.

Blue Dragons live in the desert.

 

[Abu Antar]

Condemned: Criminal Orgins done and dusted. I didn't like the ending, but otherwise a solid game. I looked up the sequel, and it's console exclusive. No emulation for me, because I can't be arsed to do it. Maybe look up a story synopsis video.

This is the sixth PS360 era game beaten this year. Next up to try is Murdered: Soul Suspects.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

I was shocked when I played Quake 4 when it came out. It was the quintessential "on-rails" shooter and to see that in a Quake game was enraging. I quit after about half an hour because the difference between this and Quake 1 (or something like Arcane Dimensions) was like the difference between eating a small piece of beef teriyaki made of "mystery meat" from Cat Alley China and having a filet mignon full course dinner. Wholly unsatisfying.

​

 

[mold]

I finally tried Disco Elysium. Not for me. The quirkiness gets tiresome, I don't have much interest in the world or the mystery, and I have enough political discussions in real life.

Started Wasteland 3. Good fun so far! Couldn't get into WL2, but I don't actually remember why I felt so meh about it. Should revisit it one of these days.

Also been playing Cosmic Express. I've been looking for simple puzzle games with clear visuals for an older relative and this should do nicely. Many of the levels are easy, but there are some harder ones in there, too. Very relaxing.

 

[Thorakitai]

With my craze for Genghis Khan IV slowly cooling off, I had to find another japan-only Koei game to play and thankfully I found out about the DS port of Nobunaga's Ambition: Reppuden. Attempts to machine translate the PS1 port failed but the DS port has a more modern UI and uses the portraits of Iron Triangle, allowing me to translate it and play it.

Reppuden is built using the graphics and gameplay engine of Genghis Khan IV, as such some of it's mechanics are familiar yet obviously different. Enough playthroughs and I'm disappointed that this wasn't released in the West. This game doesn't just improve the mechanics of GKIV, it's essentially the foundation of every successful Koei games like Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI and NA: Rise to Power and Iron Triangle.

I'm still dissecting the game and currently making pdf menu translations guides for those who want to play it. Maybe someday I'll make a LP of it similar to my current GKIV run.

 

[octavius]

Bard's Tale 3: The Thief of Fate.

I've been sick and it has affected my ability to think so much that I had to consult a walkthrough for a couple of puzzles in Lucencia, the third world my party was sent to. I didn't have any problems last time I played it, some nine years ago.
Hell, I even lost to my mum in Wordfeud when I was sick.

Interestingly there's less handholding in BT3 than in the two previous games; there's no not much helpful grafitti on the walls.
Fleeing from most battles (only fighting those battles in which appears not seen before monsters), makes it a much better experience than wasting so much time fighting and then becoming hopelessly overpowered.

It's funny how my recent replaying of the BT games has been more enjoyable than replaying Wiz1. Ten years ago I thought the BT games had aged terribly, except for the audio-visuals, compared to the Wizardry games.

 

[Axel_am]

Log 6:

FILE NAME: Sefyra, Adra Dragon

Bio:
One of the oldest and most powerful entities in Eora. She has witnessed Od Nua's descent into madness and his megalomaniacal dream of conquering death. His slaves provided her with sustenance for a time. Her size prevents her from leaving the Paths. The dragon is keenly aware of the fact that she is trapped deep beneath the ground.

PHOTOS.1

P1

Sefyra, Adra Dragon

P2

On the other side of the battlefield.

P3 "The Dragon Thrashed,...

The Dragon Thrashed...

P4

P5

The Dragon Wailed."

P6 "To the victor...

P7

... go the spoils."

PHOTOS.2

P1

P2

P3

P4 NSFW

Pillars did it first.

P5

P6

P7

Comments:
A battle that makes you earn every inch. I was forced into trying various options in approaching the dragon and the swarm of enemies defending it. After figuring out the best approach I needed to get rid of the vermin, followed by the dragon. Each a difficult task. The enemies around the dragon presented nuanced difficulties. One of the packs was high level spell casters, the other more than a handful of smaller creeps with a backline of buffing priests and two archers.

Exposing the dragons weaknesses was key in achieving victory. She wasn't the fastest enemy which made it possible to distract while the rest of the party took care of the goons. Possible but not easy. The dragon is also able to wipe most of your party with one attack. Nearing it's tail is a fatal mistake. Accompanied with the extremely wide breath attack this is more than a formidable foe.

I'm extremely pleased with the experienced battle. Both my Priest and Druid were out of almost every spell by the end of this ordeal. A heavy usage of potions, scrolls and traps was also needed. My Paladin had to abandon the usual shield and mace in favor of dual wielding swords to get me to the needed DPS. Additionally all of my weapons were upgraded to accommodate for the dragon's weaknesses.

Victory is best when it's well deserved. Walking the Path of the Damned makes sure that each battle in Pillars is such. This among many others reasons is why Pillars of Eternity is cementing itself as one of my favorite titles.