What game are you playing?

[Roguey]

Finished Hitman 3. Didn't hate it, but it's definitely the weakest of the World of Assassination trilogy. Felt phoned in and like they had run out of great ideas (the fact that everyone hates the DLC they've released for it is further proof of this; I didn't even bother getting it, unlike with the previous games where I got the total package). The peak of the series was the previous one, so they probably should have conceived the story as a duology instead of a trilogy.

Play freelancer mode. It's what the series should have been all along.

Interesting-sounding new elements, but no mid-mission saves is a dealbreaker for me.

[Emphyrio]

Finished Hitman 3. Didn't hate it, but it's definitely the weakest of the World of Assassination trilogy. Felt phoned in and like they had run out of great ideas (the fact that everyone hates the DLC they've released for it is further proof of this; I didn't even bother getting it, unlike with the previous games where I got the total package). The peak of the series was the previous one, so they probably should have conceived the story as a duology instead of a trilogy.

Play freelancer mode. It's what the series should have been all along.

Interesting-sounding new elements, but no mid-mission saves is a dealbreaker for me.

>name is "roguey"
>hates roguelike elements

curious!

[Roguey]

Play freelancer mode. It's what the series should have been all along.

Interesting-sounding new elements, but no mid-mission saves is a dealbreaker for me.

>name is "roguey"
>hates roguelike elements

curious!

I like playing as the class, not the game called Rogue.

[Ratcatcher]

I will try an play Aliens Dark Descent tonite. Maybe even one full hour.

[maidenhaver]

Yakuza Like A Dragon. When does the city open up so I can buy a baseball bat?

[Klerik]

COUNTERSTRIKE 1.6

[General Reign]

FIRE MISSION






I just like using arty.

[Roguey]

Finished Halo Reach. Pretty epic apocalyptic space opera, liked it as much as 2 and 3. A fine ending for the series. Of course I'm going to see how badly the new studio screwed up 4 since I already have it.

[aweigh]

Recently finished the Xenoblade Chronicles trilogy and really loved it. Some of the best RPG experiences I've had in a long time.

Currently just "wasting time" on normie games until Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield drop which I'll then begin to play.

[General Reign]

All I need to do on Tactics Ogre is beat the Hanging Gardens.

[KnightoftheWind]

Been playing a lot of Doom/Freedoom through a variety of soruceports, though I settled on Nugget Doom after dabbling for a bit. I've been sitting on this game for years and I have to say I'm glad I finally decided to try it for myself. The original Doom has aged very well in a lot of ways,and I had more fun with it than I ever thought I would have. Aesthetically the game is pleasing with a lot of character packed into such simple-looking sprites. Although in later episodes the environment design doesn't fare as well. Levels tends to be rather abstract and confusing the further you go in, and it seems to just become a jumbled mess of textures that fail to depict whatever hellish environment they had in mind. Inferno was my least favorite episode in the game because of this. But despite that, the gameplay remains consistently fun and fast-paced throughout, and the source port really enhances the experience. I know because I played Chooclate Doom first for a bit, the most faithful port of them all. You get a bevy of customization options in Nugget Doom, including one very important option from my experience.

For you see, my tip is to actually play with the crosshair feature present in the Nugget Doom port, at least if you are prone to motion sickness at points. I was fine for a while but eventually I had to turn it on, and it helped immensely with that problem. It even helped with my aim too, go figure. All-in-all, Doom has aged remarkably well and stands toe-to-toe with other classic FPS games I've played. It beats my experience with Half-Life as well, which is something I didn't expect even with that game's myriad of problems.

As for Freedoom, the free-software version of Doom, it does actually improve on the original in some ways. I find the music to be superior as I'm not into rock/metal whatsoever, and the aesthetic of the levels is a lot more consistent too, they feel like genuine locations rather than weird abstract zones. The enemies are also well-designed and surprisingly well animated too, but perhaps not as smoothly as those found in Doom. The weapons also feel a tad less impressive and ever so slightly slower to fire. Unless my eyes are playing tricks on me. But where Freedoom falls flat is in the later levels. They really become mazelike, and it rivals the end stages of Doom in sheer complexity. You will often find yourself wondering where to go next, as rooms seem to repeat themselves and things start blending together. The game also likes dark rooms and uses them a lot more than Doom does, and it loves putting wraith enemies in there too for good measure. It's difficult, often unfairly so at times.

In conclusion, if any of you haven't played Doom and consider it some old relic, take my advice and give it a shot!.

[1998]

Ghostwire: Tokyo is pretty, but **** it gets repetitive soon.

[BlueMemphis]

So after my dragon age origins bender, i was on a high with the series and decided to play Inquisition...

I hated 90% of my time with it, my memory did not play tricks on me, it really is an awful game. And a good example of how having bloated production values and trying to be "epic" and huge doesn't mean a better game. The worst is you can tell a stupidly high amount of people worked on it but all their hard work counts for little when the design and mechanics are so horrible.
Whether this is a sign of things to come for baldurs gate 3 which will be the new rpg with most production values, we will see. But bigger truly does not always mean better.

Anyways had to wash the bad aftertaste from my mouth with some good vidya, luckily steam sale provided.

Currently bouncing between:

-Panzer Corps 2: no complaints, good game. Kinda regret not getting the dlcs as they form a cohesive mega campaign that seems quite fun and elaborate but vanilla campaign is tickling my TBS urges quite nicely.

-Yakuza 3: Picked up yakuza 3-6 in a bundle so can resume where I left off after Yakuza 2. Apparently this is the worst one in the series?
First impressions is it's a lot more slice of life then the first 2 games but i don't mind it.
What i do mind is there are even less fun mini games then the 2nd (visiting the sega arcade was just depressing here, only 1 shooter game+grabbing claw) which in turn i felt had less then the 1st so i've mostly been focusing on the story, with the odd karaoke to break things up. Really ain't liking the level up mechanics either but ah well.
Still it's a yakuza game so no complaints, having fun with it and since i don't care about most of the optional content i'll probably blitz through this one and move on to 4 soon enough.

[rusty_shackleford]

@BlueMemphis Assuming you've played Obsidian's offerings, you might be interested in the other ersatz (old) bioware-style games from Spiders.
Found Technomancer to be quite good except for some awful backtracking parts.
Greedfall overall pretty decent.

Bioware-style RPGs feels like the $100 bill laying on the ground just waiting for someone to pick it up.

[boot]

Playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, just reached Hongshou or whatever after starting over cause I couldn't pass the first boss (I had no ammo and hacking wasn't upgraded). Stealth is a breeze with the cloaking aug.

Also gonna start a playthrough of Wasteland 2 or one of the classics, haven't decided yet.

[BlueMemphis]

Spiders.

Ah hell yeah love this dev Already played both as well as all their other games except Steelrising since that is more of a dark souls clone. I assumed they made that one to pay the bills whilst they are working on their next rpg since greedfall was a surprise breakaway hit for them (and well deserved).

If nothing else this reminds me to replay Greedfall, been a while and they have added a dlc I see.
Seems Greedfall 2 is on the way so **** off baldurs gate 3, GF2 is now my most hyped incoming rpg.

[Emphyrio]

Bioware-style RPGs feels like the $100 bill laying on the ground just waiting for someone to pick it up.

What is bioware-like? Recent isometric rpgs eg Black Geyser I don't think were mega-hits.

I suppose DOS2 and Pathfinder were bioware-like in the sense that they had a bunch of cringe, and they were mega-hits.

[BlueMemphis]

Bioware-style RPGs feels like the $100 bill laying on the ground just waiting for someone to pick it up.

What is bioware-like? Recent isometric rpgs eg Black Geyser I don't think were mega-hits.

I suppose DOS2 and Pathfinder were bioware-like in the sense that they had a bunch of cringe, and they were mega-hits.

I'd have to ponder this myself, Rusty seems to get exactly what I like about bioware games which is why his recommendations were already known and well liked.
Yet i would not consider DOS2 a bioware like and Pathfinder is a lot closer but still isn't quite that, i consider owlcat games to be a similar but different subspecies within the genus.

Roguey did mention Black Geyser elsewhere and i had never heard of that game until then, so for now it remains a mystery to me.

Having a bunch of cringe does seem like a trait but has to be the right intensity of cringe, BG3 goes way too far and revels in being openly degenerate as opposed to hinting at it from what i've seen and DOS2 was just the unfunny tries to be whimsical but fails kind of cringe.
Although Greedfall wasn't that cringy that i remember so maybe this is an optional step. Or maybe i'm just not remembering right, will see when I replay Greedfall likely after i beat yakuza 3 assuming i don't jump straight into 4.

[aweigh]

Bioware-style RPGs feels like the $100 bill laying on the ground just waiting for someone to pick it up.

What is bioware-like? Recent isometric rpgs eg Black Geyser I don't think were mega-hits.

I suppose DOS2 and Pathfinder were bioware-like in the sense that they had a bunch of cringe, and they were mega-hits.

I'd have to ponder this myself, Rusty seems to get exactly what I like about bioware games which is why his recommendations were already known and well liked.
Yet i would not consider DOS2 a bioware like and Pathfinder is a lot closer but still isn't quite that, i consider owlcat games to be a similar but different subspecies within the genus.

Roguey did mention Black Geyser elsewhere and i had never heard of that game until then, so for now it remains a mystery to me.

Having a bunch of cringe does seem like a trait but has to be the right intensity of cringe, BG3 goes way too far and revels in being openly degenerate as opposed to hinting at it from what i've seen and DOS2 was just the unfunny tries to be whimsical but fails kind of cringe.
Although Greedfall wasn't that cringy that i remember so maybe this is an optional step. Or maybe i'm just not remembering right, will see when I replay Greedfall likely after i beat yakuza 3 assuming i don't jump straight into 4.

I recently played thru the entire Yakuza series one game after the other and I had a GREAT time. Yakuza 3 is a special one, it was disliked by fans at first but quickly became known as the one with the most "soul". The first half of Yakuza 3, in Okinawa, man that was just really nice.

Anyway, wanted to mention something that caught me by surprise: Yakuza 3 is technically the oldest game you'll be playing right now since I assume you played Yakuza 0, Kiwami 1 and Kiwami 2, right? Those were all made after Yakuza 3, so Yakuza 3 marks the first time the studio made a game on the PS3 on a brand new engine. You can forgive a lot of its warts when you view it through that angle. Yakuza 3 is also a lot harder than 0/K1/K2, and Yakua 4 will be harder still (Yakuza 4 being the hardest one in the series). I enjoyed the challenge tho and after finishing all of them, I can say I was disappointed with how easy modern Yakuza/Judgment games have become. The final gauntlets in Yakuza 3 and Yakuza 4 are absolutely EPIC and will make you sweat (in a good way).

The other thing I wanted to say is don't overlook the Judgment games. They're great too, and while Yagami is not as interesting a protagonist as Kiryu the games themselves are still quite good, and I think Judgment 2 features the very best combat overall in any Yakuza/Like A Dragon game.

Don't take too long getting to Ichiban's story in Yakuza: Like A Dragon (Yakuza 7); I played Y:LAD first and I loved it so much. There is no need to play the previous games to enjoy Y:LAD, it stands on its own and is the beginning of Ichiban's story. This is the one where they changed the mechanics to turn-based. Great game.

EDIT: For what it's worth I'd classify Owlqueer games as Baldur's Gate-likes, and Greedfall as a Bioware-like. Black Geyser would also technically be a Baldur's Gate-like though it was made specifically to imitate Pillars of Eternity, which I prefer over Owlqueer's Pathfinder nonsense.

[Tweed]

I finished Dungeon Keeper, Dungeon Keeper 2, and War For the Overworld and the Heart of Gold DLC, don't care about the other DLC. Now I dunno what to play.

[wndrbr]

Finished "Amnesia - The Bunker".

After horrible "Rebirth" I thought Frictional Games are done for, but this new game was a surprise glow up. They really went from their worst games to one of their best, as "The Bunker" is basically reversed Rebirth with all of its problems fixed. In fact, The Bunker can be easily recommended even to people who don't play hide-and-seek horror games, since for the first time since Penumbra Overture you can actually defend yourself.

It's not quite a power fantasy horror like Resident Evil where you blast zombies with a grenade launcher, it's more of a Alien Isolation-type of game, with your gun acting more like a problem solver - revolver can be used to shoot the monster, or it can be used to shoot off padlocks; a hand grenade can be used to hurt the monster, to ward off giant rats, or to blast-open a wooden door, etc etc. Rags can be used to make a bandage, or they can be stuffed into a petrol bottle to make a molotov cocktail, or they can be wrapped around a stick and act as makeshift torch. The titular bunker itself is open and can be explored in a relatively non-linear way ("relatively" because there are still some roadblocks, and your progression is gated behind acquisition of specific tools, like the bolt cutters, etc). Your inventory is limited, you can only save while in a save room, and to top it off you also can't just take your time and slowly loiter around the place - you must regularly refuel the generator, otherwise the entire bunker goes dark.

SOMA wasn't a big hit and Rebirth outright bombed, I hope this game at least lets Frictional to keep the lights on. It would be nice of them to iterate on The Bunker's gameplay formula.

[Humbaba]

DoW 2 Retribution. Campaign is boring as **** but skirmishes in annihilation mode are quite fun. Great production value overall. Never played DoW 1 which some people prefer but I'm not really interested in base building.

[maidenhaver]

I have retrieved the Holy Baseball Bat in Dragon Quest Yakuza.

[General Reign]

I beat Tactics Ogre: Reborn and holy **** do I have something to say about wasting my goddamn time with post game content instead of padding the middle of the game when it was boring as ****. How about that pirate graveyard in Chapter 3 instead of 4, huh devs? Do you realize we are not bugmen? Do you understand after I beat the game I do not want to play it anymore because you grinded me to death?

Why would I go through 100 floors of the Palace of the Dead just to get stronger to beat the game even easier? It makes no sense. All that content with nowhere to go. At this point I am not sure if I will enjoy it on PSP because I am annoyed. I want to ***** about this so much but I imagine over on Codex in that one thread everyone already did that much better.

[J1M]

Played Pikmin 4 demo. Was fine. In typical Nintendo style the tutorial screens are intrusive.


Was thinking of how to make a playthrough of Deus Ex and Invisible War more interesting. Open to any suggestions for self-imposed limitations. (For example, new game plus Mankind Divided using only black market augs.)

[General Reign]

Invisible War was only good on the Xbox if you did not have a PC at the time. It really sucks trying to play now especially if you played the og.

[rusty_shackleford]

Played Horizon Zero Dawn for a few hours. Mediocre open world AAA slop with no redeeming qualities. They managed to make robot dinosaurs stupid. Writing of a bad YA novel. Nobody ever shuts up in dialogue. Your character doesn't shut up outside of dialogue and narrates everything.

Nobody would have given a **** about this game if the protagonist was male.

[Roguey]

Nobody would have given a **** about this game if the protagonist was male.

She's not even attractive. The draw is the ubi-world with the dinosaur hunting. Probably the dumb lore as well.

[General Reign]

I rented it I think. It was pretty boring because Breath of the Wild was also in my rotation.

[MadPreacher]

Played Horizon Zero Dawn for a few hours. Mediocre open world AAA slop with no redeeming qualities. They managed to make robot dinosaurs stupid. Writing of a bad YA novel. Nobody ever shuts up in dialogue. Your character doesn't shut up outside of dialogue and narrates everything.

Nobody would have given a **** about this game if the protagonist was male.

What killed it for me was the entire misandry in the story and how women are angels. It was men that destroyed the earth so only women can be leaders as they're nurturing.