What game are you playing?

[agentorange]

That remaster is chomo ****. It's so gay how they have to tie the story of Quake 2 into Quake 1 like that because it all has to be a SHARED UNIVERSE OF LORE. Just leave stuff alone, it's a separate game that happened to share the title. This is a remaster of Quake 2 for dumbasses who hated Quake 2. The new graphics and lighting all look like ****. Also they forcibly updated the game on steam so now my copy of Quake 2 on there, that used to be around 400mb, is now 5.2gb, and the system requirements now say it requires Windows 10 lmao. And of course the inevitable issue with all these remasters and remakes which is that it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original copy of the game or any information regarding the original because all search results will now point to the remake/remaster. Seriously if you buy this **** you are a ****** who supports the pozzification of classic games.

[KnightoftheWind]

That remaster is chomo ****. It's so gay how they have to tie the story of Quake 2 into Quake 1 like that because it all has to be a SHARED UNIVERSE OF LORE. Just leave stuff alone, it's a separate game that happened to share the title. This is a remaster of Quake 2 for dumbasses who hated Quake 2. The new graphics and lighting all look like ****. Also they forcibly updated the game on steam so now my copy of Quake 2 on there, that used to be around 400mb, is now 5.2gb, and the system requirements now say it requires Windows 10 lmao. And of course the inevitable issue with all these remasters and remakes which is that it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original copy of the game or any information regarding the original because all search results will now point to the remake/remaster. Seriously if you buy this **** you are a ****** who supports the pozzification of classic games.

Nah, this remaster is an objective imrpovement in almost every way. It looks a whole heck of a lot better, and not only that but it includes a bevvy of extra content like the N64 version and that extra campaign I mentioned. Not to mention the improved enemy A.I, restoration of some cut animations for enemies, and even a hit marker which does add some much needed visual feedback for combat. It's pretty funny just how lacking the original version is by comparison. And it's a good thing they finally tied the storylines together, because literally every "Quake" game after the first one has barely anything to do with one another. The original Quake II was just generic, edgy Sci-Fi with bland graphics and even blander gameplay, Quake III was a multiplayer arena game that sort of mixed the two aesthetics, and Quake 4 was unremarkable save for that one brutal scene everyone remembers where your main character becomes a Strogg soldier.

It's a franchise that sorely lacked any percievable identity, but now that they made this change it feels like there is a legitimate story here. Don't equate the "shared universe" concept to capeshit, because it really is necessary for any long-term franchise. But if you're really that ****** about it, GOG allows you to download and preserve the original version. You don't have to stick with it if you don't want to. And on top of that, source ports will probably support all the remaster's content too, so it can be played natively on Linux.

[agentorange]

"and not only that but it includes a bevvy of extra content like the N64 version and that extra campaign I mentioned...restoration of some cut animations for enemies"
All unnecessary or modder-core additions.

"and even a hit marker which does add some much needed visual feedback for combat."
*** **** for console babies. Go play Overwatch.

"The original Quake II was just generic, edgy Sci-Fi with bland graphics and even blander gameplay"
Wrong, you have no taste. But this chomo remake is perfect for a homo like you.

[wndrbr]

Also they forcibly updated the game on steam so now my copy of Quake 2 on there, that used to be around 400mb, is now 5.2gb, and the system requirements now say it requires Windows 10 lmao. And of course the inevitable issue with all these remasters and remakes which is that it becomes increasingly difficult to find an original copy of the game

the original is still there, bundled with the remaster. Steam asks you which version you want to launch after you press "play" - remaster, original q2, or any of the two mission packs.

[Tweed]

Dropped Mechcommander, if I wanted to play a puzzle game I'd play Opus Magnum.

[Acrux]

You will never find another mech game as good as MissionForce:CyberStorm. Give up now.

[revenant]

Why care about Quake versions anyway when there have been source ports available for decades now

[Emphyrio]

There's a lot about Wargame Red Dragon that pisses me off but I can't stop playing it.

[Tweed]

You will never find another mech game as good as MissionForce:CyberStorm. Give up now.

Then I'll just have to ******* make one!

[Roguey]

Finished a Disco Elysium playthrough that tried to avoid all politics-and-philosophy-talk. Aside from a few obnoxious exchanges, I actually liked it. A good'n'gloomy point'n'click with stats.

[Emphyrio]

Orcs Must Die 2 is a great and underrated game.

It's sad seeing that over a dozen of my steam friends have played it, but none have even finished story mode!

5-skull Nightmare every level in Orcs Must Die 1 was my proudest video game achievement. OMD2 is harder so it might take a while.

edit: finished 5-skulling the story campaign on Warmage difficulty. I expect it won't be difficult to 5-star on nightmare except for Big Valleys, Mirror Image and the final level. Big Valleys is just a huge map with no chokepoints or ceilings. Mirror Image is difficult even on Warmage because there are two waves where two troll comes from the alternate doors at the same time and make a beeline for the rift, and as soon as wave 3 starts you need to jump down to the bottom floor to put in grinders for the kobold runners then get back up to the top. The final level is only difficult because my current strategy takes me 2-3 minutes above par time which is penalized a skull.


edit 2: finished 5 skull nightmaring the story campaign. Wasn't too hard. Now to do the DLCs.

[KnightoftheWind]

Been dabbling in Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and Dino Crisis 2, both using the DuckStation PS1 emulator. Both have been pretty good so far, and in the case of Lunar that is doubly surprising since I dislike 99% of JRPGs with the exception of Paper Mario and Shining Force. The beginning of Lunar is a great introduction and doesn't waste time in getting you to the beginning dungeon. The music is great, characters seem likeable, and the combat system is easy to understand and even gives you the option of fighting automatically which is good for grinding.

As for Dino Crisis 2, it is a surprisingly fun arcadey action game, and makes good use of the classic fixed camera. It's what I imagine Resident Evil 4 could have been if it was made for the PS1, as it has some of the same elements. Every enemy gives you points, and you can buy and upgrade your weapons in designated save areas which are all located fairly close together. Inventory management is no longer a concern, and the focus is mostly on action and some light exploration with cutscenes in-between. One complaint I have is that it is difficult to keep up when there's a lot of enemies on screen, and it is difficult to orient your character quick enough to not take damage. It's definitely pushing the limits of what this particular gameplay format can do, and it can ask quite a bit from you at times. Overall, I'm eager to continue with both games and will write about my final thoughts once I've beaten both.

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

Shadow Tower for PSX is pretty cool. Very atmospheric, game relies a lot on darkness and using your ears to know which enemy is coming your way which makes encountering a new enemy thrilling and there's some good visual designs that are fairly bizarre yet fit into the theme well. This whole "listen to what sound is coming" comes at the expense of there being zero music in the game but I think it adds to the tension. Also a lot of hidden areas to find and some good old fashioned '90s ******** at play because this game delights in ****-and-ball torture. There's also no map that I know of, so you'll probably need a guide. If you're a *****.

I skipped through the opening FMVs because to be honest I just wanted to swing a sword and kill some early 3D monsters for 15 minutes so I've absolutely zero clue what the story is or what is going on but the game somehow stole 3 hours off my life and I think I may try to complete it entirely barring some sort of glitch that ruins everything.

[KnightoftheWind]

Stopped playing Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete and beat Dino Crisis 2. Lunar is a game that started off well, but it's cracks really started to show after a few hours. The turn-based combat is tiresome, and you end up repeating a lot of the same actions over and over again with minimal strategy. You spam healing, wail on enemies, rinse and repeat ad nauseum from one bland area to the next. It's a game that seemed to have a lot of charm, but was held back by an antiquated gameplay format. It's games like these that remind me of how much better real-time combat is. Lunar is one game that could greatly benefit from a re-imagining. 5/10.

As for Dino Crisis 2, overall it is a pretty good action game. It's not ashamed of what it is, which is a game made in the arcade tradition, and it's one of the better Capcom titles I've played in recent memory. The story never makes any sense, but it's part of the charm. It's something you play on a Saturday morning, enjoy it for a few hours, and then move on with a pleasant feeling. 7/10.

[agentorange]

I did it. I finished Riven without once consulting a guide. I was stuck on what could be called the final puzzle of the game for I think 5 days, and the solution revealed itself to me in a real eureka moment (I can see where Jonathan Blow got a lot of his inspiration for The Witness). I think the game is significantly harder than Myst, it has even less direction to begin with and feels truly inscrutable and alien at times (like Myst, I bounced off Riven early on many times before), but for whatever reason I was able to get into the right mindset and very rarely found myself completely at a loss throughout the course of the game; I always had some inkling as to what I had to do and was able to gradually pull myself towards the solutions.

Many of the puzzles in Riven don't require you to have the total solution at hand or be damned, either, but if you are able to get close enough, and understand what the puzzle expects, you can then use some basic logic and deduction to close in on the solution, which I think separates it from many other adventure games where you either get the solution or you don't (which all too often involves simply guessing what the developer wanted you to do). I filled up a few pages of a notebook with scribblings as I methodically worked out many of the puzzles.

Anyway, phenomenal game. The visuals, the music, everything feels so meticulously and thoughtfully put together.

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

Shadow Tower may have very likely blasted my blood pressure into near-fatal hypertension levels.

But I am so close to beating it.

This game can go **** itself but I also wanna play more like it. Unrelenting ******** and arcane design, it makes me feel alive.

[Luckmann]

What game are you playing?

****, you're meant to.. play these things?

[WhiteShark]

I'm playing Mega Man Battle Network 1. So far it's much too easy and I'm not a fan of the random encounters since there's zero resource management outside of battles, but the battle system itself is fun enough to keep me engaged. I'm told that 2 and 3 are better and better still, so I'm hoping to eventually go through the whole series.

[KnightoftheWind]

Playing the newly released indie JRPG, Sea of Stars. Minus the forced "diversity" aspect, common in pretty much anything released nowadays, the game itself is fun and reminds me of why I find most other JRPGs boring. In most, the battle system and environment design leaves a lot to be desired. Combat tends to be overly complex, or badly designed (like Lunar). And the areas you traverse are bland and flat (like Lunar).

But Sea of Stars bucks the trend by taking inspiration from Mario RPGs. Where menus are simple and easy to understand, timed inputs mean greater attack strength, and spells are more interactive. Environments are laid out like obstacle courses, and are therefore more stimulating. It gives the impression that the characters are on a journey, which is a nice touch. I look forward to playing more of it.

[GhostCow]

timed inputs mean greater attack strength

I was actually interested in this game but you killed my interest right there. I ******* hate when they put that kind of **** in jrpgs.

[Mr.Wonderful]

Wanted something mainstream so I just finished Resident Evil 7. The family house part is amazing, would choose replaying those 3-5h instead of watching some movie with the same setting. That was kick ***. But after that it all ends and turns into Dead Space 2 or any other garbage FPS game. I still played Lucas part on autopilot because the first part was that amazing, then it ran out of gas completely and the second half was just me forcing myself to finish it, didn't even read files, dialogues and stuff. Yeah, one thing when it starts slow and ends strong, but the opposite always leaves **** in your mouth.

[Roguey]

Finished Yakuza Kiwami 2. It was okay, but not really all that different from 0 and Kiwami despite aweigh hyping up how much better it felt for fights in the city to no longer take place in a separate instance. The substories felt really basic this time around, even compared to Kiwami's. The twists in the ending were also beyond ******** and have definitely put the final nail in my decision not to bother with any of the other mainline sequels. I'm not even sure if I want to give Judgment/Lost Judgment a spin if I have to put up with the same languid cutscenes and the same gameplay in the same maps. I will be playing Like A Dragon though (probably next year if the pattern keeps up).

[somerandomdude]

Shadow Tower may have very likely blasted my blood pressure into near-fatal hypertension levels.

But I am so close to beating it.

This game can go **** itself but I also wanna play more like it. Unrelenting ******** and arcane design, it makes me feel alive.

Shadow Tower: Abyss for Playstation 2 has a fan translation patch available. Also, there's King's Field: The Ancient City that's a similar type of game, and it's pretty good. There's an indie game on steam called Lunacid that's of a similar theme and style.

[Tweed]

Well, I was playing Starfield and by playing I mean muddling through 30 FPS with sudden drops into pure slideshows.

[agentorange]

Almost 4 years to the day after "finishing" The Witness I managed to get the second and last achievement in the game. The main path through the game took me about 30 hours, which seems to be the norm, and I now have 100 hours in the game with a number of puzzles still left unsolved. I have not looked at a single guide and mostly even avoid discussing the game unless its with other people who can be trusted to not inadvertently give away solutions.

Not only one of the best games ever made but one of the great supermen works of the 21st century.

[H-H-Holmes]

Currently torturing my computer with Warhammer 2. Good game but it practically has steam coming from my CPU. Runs 10 degrees hotter than a Prime95 stress test, total insanity.

[General Reign]

Currently torturing my computer with Warhammer 2. Good game but it practically has steam coming from my CPU. Runs 10 degrees hotter than a Prime95 stress test, total insanity.

I decided to just stick to Warhammer 1 modded then I finally got burned out on it. Money saved.

[Mr.Wonderful]

7 hours playing Riven throughout several days. I never had problems with Myst even as a kid, replayed it in 2016, I think, and once again had a blast. But this fuckin Riven game... Read journal three times, listening to soundtrack, thinking about it even at work, dreaming dreams about it and I still have no clue what to do there. I'm at point zero, just aimlessly clicking stuff. I have no clue if things are connected or not. My brain and Riven are not on the same page.

[Greyborne]

Kenshi

sandbox/rpg/wasteland simulator. It can be jarring and janky, but an otherwise unique and addicting game once you spend a good ten hours learning how everything works.

[KnightoftheWind]

Tried the recent fan-made PC port of Perfect Dark. After witnessing this game being hyped to no end for years, often being labeled as a pillar of the N64's library, it really isn't good at all. The first stage makes an awful first impression with the repeat hallways/rooms, and that impression only continues from there. Many assets are repeated ad-nauseam, and this leads to the stages looking dull and forgettable. The character models are aesthetically ugly too, since they used scanned faces on low-poly assets. It gives the characters an uncanny look at best, and it's among the most poorly aged games of this era because of it.

On top of all that, you are often severely punished for even minor mistakes, forcing you to replay the stage from the beginning, and some objectives are quite cryptic with little hint of what to do. Overall, I find the game a chore and dropped it after completing only a few stages. Have no intention of ever returning. I rarely use the term Eurojank to describe something, but this definitely is an example of it. 4/10.