What game are you wasting time on?

[blubba]

Played some S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl on console (lol). These dudes had the balls to dump the original trilogy on console without any changes from the PC whatsoever. According to the internet, the guns feel just like they did in vanilla, which I can confirm because I couldn't aim for shit for the first 2-3 hours and I remember having the same problem back in '07. The game still makes a great impression when it comes to environment design/mood/immersion, but I often wish it had deeper combat scenarios that made good use of the beautiful geometry. Hope they add mod support at some point, but I'm not holding my breath. A visual upgrade is supposed to be coming later this year, but I feel like this looks good enough as is. Excited to finally play CS and CoP, because I never did on PC and I need my dose of slavjank before the sequel comes out.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Jumped into Shadow of War, the sequel to Shadow of Mordor.

The first game feels like a demo version to the first one. The "War" part of it comes from the fact that you actually see Gondorians fighting for their city against orks. Graphix are better, movement is smoother, but the "thump" of the combat has been lost. Hits don't feel as impactful as before, even though the mechanics are mostly unchanged.

The nemesis system is also mostly unchanged, but it has received some tweaks, mostly in making the orks less brutish and bestial. They just look like your average Brummie now. They also changed their speech patterns, they do "talk" more or at least it feels like it, it's probably an attempt at making them feel less cookie cutter.

At first, I was fighting some orks and was about to die, but then I was saved by a gondorian soldier. This was before I could even try the last chance type move these games have. At first I felt it was some sort of easy mode thing, but then I noticed orks have it too: a named ork can come in an ambush while you're trying to kill another one. The one that invaded me first was weaker than both me and my enemy, but it felt like a nice addition.

The inventory system is wack. Feels distracting.

I got like ten apologies when I started it for the first time lol....

Shelob is like Stoya but hotter, yes. Cue the copypasta about that.

 

[NecroLord]

I killed the Glabrezu in the Earth Node and the Vrock in the Air Node.
The Glabrezu can be a nasty fight, but I quickly killed the demon with my buffed up Barbarian and Paladin (Holy Greatsword +3 and Smite Evil FTW).
Glabrezu starts by casting Mirror Image, try to interrupt his casting by readying an action vs Spell. Also casts Confusion, beware! After that, he goes melee and can do some decent damage.

Now on to the Water Node and finally the Fire Node.
The Fire Node is by far the most challenging, but it is worth the effort.

 

[KafkaBot]

The original Desperados. I've always loved this kind of game and Commandos is a favorite of mine, but I never finished its western-style cousin, in spite of my love for the genre. Rectifying that now.

I'm also playing Aviary Attorney. Zombra recommended it in the detective games thread and it is indeed a delight. I knew I was going to love this one the moment they started joking about stepladders.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

The original Desperados. I've always loved this kind of game and Commandos is a favorite of mine, but I never finished its western-style cousin, in spite of my love for the genre. Rectifying that now.

Have you played Robin Hood?

 

[Anthedon]

I'm finally done with all Heroes 2 + Add-On campaigns, mostly good fun. Only the larger maps tend to become tedious, luckily those are usually reserved for final missions.

 

[jackofshadows]

I'm done with the base Majesty campaign, the final mission was tough but because it of rng mostly. Now I'm going through the expansion and some of these missions are properly sweaty.

 

[Modron]

Dwarfs were too OP hated all missions with knife ears only.

 

[BruceVC]

I am about 15 hours into Far Cry 5 and its delivering on exactly what I expect from FC games

Ubisoft uses the same successful design with these types of games, you have your standard main quests but you have open world around how to complete them. Using resistance points is a genius way to give the player choice on how they want to progress

Its also a beautiful game and Im running it on Ultra graphic settings and I enjoy the various companions and there stories

Lots of activities and side quests means Im not bored yet and as usual with Ubisoft games I wont focus on the main quest until I start getting bored

Im about 40 hours into Far Cry 5 and Im not happy with how the Resistance points work. It was fine in the beginning but its now becoming laborious and repetitive

In order to complete the 3 maps you need to gain Resistance points and you need between 10k-13k for each map and you get different amounts of points for each task or quest you complete so in the beginning it was fun because you can choose what tasks you can select so its like open world

But then I completed all the main quests on map 1 which is John Seed and I had only achieved 6.5k Resistance points which means you have to now grind the activities which respawn. And this is the problem, there are only 5-6 activities like free hostages and destroy a roadblock and it gets boring very quickly doing the same activity over and over again

And the same progression is designed the same way for each map. Its getting so boring I may even quit the game but I will probably finish it through hours of grinding because I dont like quitting any game

But the Resistance points become a really bad design as you progress in the game

I finished FC5 after 50 hours and my issues with Resistance Points was about a mod I loaded, it wasnt a bad design. I was able to clear Map 3 by mostly completing quests and I did very little grinding

But overall the game gets a 53/100 on the globally endorsed " BruceVC game rating system ", many people may be surprised by its low score but anything over 50 is still fun and has some worthwhile mechanics ...its just not a great game and there is lots of repetition. But one distinctive positive is the music, its evocative. They selected really applicable background music for the main parts of the game

Before I uninstall it I decided to play a DLC called Hours of Darkness which is set in Vietnam and its great fun

I am now also playing Hogwarts, early days and I am just on the first classes in the Academy but I can tell its going to be good experiences and I do enjoy the lore that exists in the Harry Potter universe

I have loaded some recommended mods and Im looking forward to my Hogwarts journey

 

[Raghar]

That dwarf in dungeon crawl is still alive. So I'm playing one character for more than week.

 

[Gostak]

[...]I even was on my way back with the amulet when the guardian unfortunately got me on the 5th floor.[...]

I finally got my first win.
The way back out was intense.
Could do it straight again and I might because I found quite some valuables to spend on the start of the next vanilla run and I still need to unlock some stuff.
After that I guess I will try the free DLC diversions: Mithril Run, Ripley Run and Dark Ritual.
Truely an outstanding game.

 

[Krivol]

Ok, I finished 3 biggest and (probably) the best mods for Fallout 2 in the last 2 weeks. I already shared my opinion of Fallout: Sonora earlier in this thread (gave it 9/10). So let's go with the rest:

Fallout: Ressurection - well.... after Sonora I found it rather small. I don't really like the main plot, the fact every faction is grey and final 'battles'. OTOH game is a bit harder than F1 & 2 which is good. Oh, and the protagonist with amnesia... give me a break! Still, good mod. 7/10
Fallout: Nevada - now you are talking! This mod is ambitious, and large, with plenty of nice locations, very good writing, atmosphere and difficulty. I kind of liked the main story, yet stuff like the head of the president felt out of place and final bosses were easy as pie. Also, it's a bit too ambitious for its own good, it's hard to follow all of the gazillion quests and it's sometimes hard to say what to do next. Yet, I had a great time with this mod, and moments like getting a car or infiltration of Area 51 will stick with me for a while. Just play this shit, it's great! 8.5/10

Sonora is a bit better with the overall design, and story and not overbloated systems and quests.

I played Olympus some years ago and never finished... Probably will try it, but from what I remember it was a bit worse than Ressurection...

 

[NecroLord]

Yet, I had a great time with this mod, and moments like getting a car or infiltration of Area 51 will stick with me for a while. Just play this shit, it's great! 8.5/10

How did you deal with the Aliens in Area 51?

 

[Krivol]

Yet, I had a great time with this mod, and moments like getting a car or infiltration of Area 51 will stick with me for a while. Just play this shit, it's great! 8.5/10

How did you deal with the Aliens in Area 51?

Firstly I shoot them with a sniper rifle (cripple leg, then go for the eyes) and a police laser pistol (I had like 100 small guns and 118 energy), killed them all for exp. After that, I turned on the turrets and turned the autodestruction process on.

 

[Krivol]

Oh, and I forgot to add: I love what Sonora/Nevada maker made with sneak mechanics! It won't turn Fallout into a new thief game, but it is much better and more useful than the originals.

 

[NecroLord]

Yet, I had a great time with this mod, and moments like getting a car or infiltration of Area 51 will stick with me for a while. Just play this shit, it's great! 8.5/10

How did you deal with the Aliens in Area 51?

Firstly I shoot them with a sniper rifle (cripple leg, then go for the eyes) and a police laser pistol (I had like 100 small guns and 118 energy), killed them all for exp. After that, I turned on the turrets and turned the autodestruction process on.

So you went with a Sniper build?

 

[Krivol]

So you went with a Sniper build?

Kind of... IIRC my SPECIAL at the beginning was (I can be wrong, I do it entirely from my memory):
S 8
P 8
E 2
C 2
I 10
A 10
L 6

and tagged Speech, Science and Unarmed.

For fighting skills and perks:
1. I levelled up Unarmed ASAP to 100% (99% exactly) and got training from NR and LV ring trainers. I ended up with Unarmed 128% IIRC.
2. After that I spent a lot of points to get 100% untagged small arms - I just didn't feel my END 2 (4 after winning fights in LV and NR) would work well with unarmed . Hunting rifle and sniper rifle are the best if you don't spend too many points on small arms, as those guns have a big to-hit bonus.
3. I decided to tag energy weapons as I was not sure if I would be able to find a Gauss rifle or equivalent (I don't know this game too well).
4. Traits: Gifted and Good Natured
4. Perks rather usual: Quick Pocket (to be able to heal any damage with 2APs), Better Crits, Fast Shooter (perk, not trait), Action Boy (2), Sniper. I didn't want to mutate to Trait - Fast Shot as pointed shots are great even with sniper (IMO).

I think that's all.

Played on normal.

There are more skill books than needed to get decent levels in Repair, Science and Traps. So only two important non-combat skills that need decent skill points investment are Speech (ended with 130) and Lockpick (ended with 105, but the extra 5 points were from some gained perk or smth, don't remember... just use lockpicks ).

 

[NecroLord]

So you went with a Sniper build?

Kind of... IIRC my SPECIAL at the beginning was (I can be wrong, I do it entirely from my memory):
S 8
P 8
E 2
C 2
I 10
A 10
L 6

and tagged Speech, Science and Unarmed.

For fighting skills and perks:
1. I levelled up Unarmed ASAP to 100% (99% exactly) and got training from NR and LV ring trainers. I ended up with Unarmed 128% IIRC.
2. After that I spent a lot of points to get 100% untagged small arms - I just didn't feel my END 2 (4 after winning fights in LV and NR) would work well with unarmed . Hunting rifle and sniper rifle are the best if you don't spend too many points on small arms, as those guns have a big to-hit bonus.
3. I decided to tag energy weapons as I was not sure if I would be able to find a Gauss rifle or equivalent (I don't know this game too well).
4. Traits: Gifted and Good Natured
4. Perks rather usual: Quick Pocket (to be able to heal any damage with 2APs), Better Crits, Fast Shooter (perk, not trait), Action Boy (2), Sniper. I didn't want to mutate to Trait - Fast Shot as pointed shots are great even with sniper (IMO).

I think that's all.

Played on normal.

There are more skill books than needed to get decent levels in Repair, Science and Traps. So only two important non-combat skills that need decent skill points investment are Speech (ended with 130) and Lockpick (ended with 105, but the extra 5 points were from some gained perk or smth, don't remember... just use lockpicks ).

Gauss Rifle is part of the Small Guns skill, not Energy Weapons.

 

[Krivol]

Gauss Rifle is part of the Small Guns skill, not Energy Weapons.

Yes, that's why I decided to tag energy weapons - Gauss (or mod equivalent) is the ultimate small gun weapon, but if there is nothing like that in the game?

Turned out there was a Gauss Rifle, but somehow I missed an encounter with the sheriff when going to train. I probably went to a car and got to the station via world map XD. Still, I never found a single bullet for the Gauss Rifle (except what can be found in one of the boss's bodies), so I'm glad I decided to switch to energy weapons.

 

[Abu Antar]

I'm done with Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure. Better than the previous two adventure games that I have played recently. You're actually allowed to think for yourself and make wrong choices, and still have the story continue.

Went back to crackcocaine Football Manager 2024 On my fifth try, I completed a season whithout losing a single game. Lots of aut... manual control of everything, and changing approach during games. I'm on season two, and bought Wirtz, Musiala, Scalvini, and Ferguson. Sold Van Dijk, Robertson, Gakpo, and Salah.

Other than these, chipping away at Unicorn Overlord, Shin Megami Tensei V, Forspoken, Ghostwire Tokyo, and Troubleshooter.

 

[Hag]

Spoiler

I love this game.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

I played Olympus some years ago and never finished... Probably will try it, but from what I remember it was a bit worse than Ressurection...

Yeah Olympus was the weakest of total conversion mods but it's also the shortest and most visually interesting in my opinion and still worth a play through.

 

[KafkaBot]

The original Desperados. I've always loved this kind of game and Commandos is a favorite of mine, but I never finished its western-style cousin, in spite of my love for the genre. Rectifying that now.

Have you played Robin Hood?

I did a long time ago, but I should probably replay it at some point. I enjoyed it quite a lot, but I do recall it being quite a bit easier than Commandos.

 

[Krivol]

I played Olympus some years ago and never finished... Probably will try it, but from what I remember it was a bit worse than Ressurection...

Yeah Olympus was the weakest of total conversion mods but it's also the shortest and most visually interesting in my opinion and still worth a play through.

Yeah, the graphics are extremely well done, I loved models (weapons!) and death animations. Still, the plot is silly...

 

[Modron]

How's 2249 shaping up? Been some time since I heard any news about that.