What game are you playing?

[WhiteShark]

I'm playing Alpha Protocol. It's a bad port for sure. The FOV defaults to 60 and changing it with the ini breaks cutscenes. There's built-in mouse acceleration that cannot be disabled. The mouse controls for the hacking minigame are absolutely abominable. Other than that though, it seems fun so far. Sneaking around is alright, nothing special. There's some character building with skillpoints and the abilities you get seem useful. I like being able to stick stun grenades to surfaces as mines. Dialogue is the high point so far: you have a reputation with each NPC individually and you have a time limit to choose a response, so there's a lot more pressure to think about your responses quickly than in a typical RPG. I've heard the game is quite reactive so I'm looking forward to see how that plays out.

[agentorange]

Quake 2 Mission Pack: The Reckoning

[Trithne]

Well, I played the System Shock Remake backer beta.

It's buggy. Certain difficulties make the game actually impossible, like Cyberspace 3 kills you every time you leave cyberspace (It's not supposed to), which is impossible to complete the game as a result. Puzzle 3 crashes the game entirely every time you do a wire puzzle. Lots of people reporting they fall through the map when doing level transitions. I had the game lock up every time I tried to transition to the final level until I got lucky and it worked once, can't replicate how though. Cyberspace powerups don't work and you lose them all on leaving every time, making it impossible to pass under certain circumstances. They've been informed of these and have been fixing them, we've had one patch so far.

It's unfinished. No big surprise there, but there's some pretty big omissions like an entire cyberspace section with no enemies, and what I hope is a placeholder final cyberspace segment because if they take that to the final release it'll be a fucking shitshow, it's utter garbage. Some augments don't work, some models are unfinished.

It needs balance work. Some enemies that should be really tough and dangerous are pushovers, meanwhile a common security-1 bot is the most dangerous thing in the game because it'll hit you the moment a pixel of your body is visible to it. Melee feels weightless and bad.

All that said, it's an okay adaptation. They changed a few things here or there but none of it is really offensive (except the groves, where they paved paradise), and it generally makes sense. The guns are done well and are meaty and for the most part each has a clear role in the arsenal with little overlap. The first two thirds of the game are good and enjoyable, most of the last third is good with a few issues like the empty cyberspace segment, then the last cyberspace segment is so bad it retroactively soured it for me. They really need to change it.

It's a beta, and it's clearly a beta-beta and not a "finished-product-that-we-call-a-beta". If they take the time to finish it properly it can come good. If they push it out the door in a couple of weeks to meet some release target, it'll stay forever rough.

So clearly, they're going to rush it out the door in two weeks and make themselves even more of a laughing stock.

[rusty_shackleford]

Is the game still extremely blue?

[Trithne]

Is the game still extremely blue?

Medical still is, but the rest of the game no. Graphically I don't really have complaints. Sure the textures look like shit if you get right up close to them but in regular gameplay they're pretty fine, but I still play the OG from time to time to I'm immune to low res textures.

[cpmartins]

My new video card arrived, so I'm trying a few games that my old one couldn't run.

Dying Light 2:
The level of own-fart huffing these devs are is something to behold. They treat the game like some kind of art project with massive amounts of cinematics for a crappy, barely serviceable story that nobody but them cares about. The game is worse in every way than the first one, unnecessary stamina usage for parkour solely for the purpose of "having more shit to level", night timers that nobody asked for, TOWER FUCKING CLIMBING FOR FUCK'S SAKE. Fuck this game. 3/10

Rage 2:
Absolute fantastic game. The "plot" is so retarded not even the devs took it seriously, but the action is incredibly fun and interactive. The powers incentive and push you towards non-stop cleaning of enemies, creating a momentum-based combat experience. The driving is okay, nothing spectacular and the locations are varied enough. 8/10

Phantom Brigade:
As I said in it's own thread, very interesting combat system, decent tech progression but utterly boring setting. It's completely generic. It's the diametrically opposite of Jagged Alliance 2, a game that WILL be used as a comparison for every game in the genre. Decent enough for what it is. 6/10

I'm finishing Pathfinder 2 WotR before reinstalling windows, cause I got a few mods in there and I have no fucking clue to the settings I used and no way I'm starting a new run at this stage. 7/10 RPG so far, but I'm still in Ch 4 and I hear thing get worse after that.

[Nemesis]

My new video card arrived, so I'm trying a few games that my old one couldn't run.

What did you get?

[cpmartins]

My new video card arrived, so I'm trying a few games that my old one couldn't run.

What did you get?

an RX 6750 XT.

[aweigh]

just started Yakuza 5.

[Tweed]

Space Pirates and Zombies, worth playing every once in awhile. Still trying to get through the Hunter run in Rain World.

Since I've been looking at lots of Rain World guides and videos for tackling trouble spots I keep getting more and more of that stuff on my feed and damn if there ain't a load of deviants and furries into this game. I don't know why, the Slugcat is a small, white blob with arms and this game is so fucking hard that a vast majority of players will never ever finish it even on easy.

[WhiteShark]

I'm playing Legend of Fae. It's the first game by EndlessFluff Games, developer of Fae Tactics, and it's set chronologically earlier in the same world. It's a linear game that uses realtime puzzle+RPG combat. On the lower half of the screen you play a basic match 3 game and matching colors builds up your reserve of that element, then on the upper part of the screen you use your elemental mana to cast spells to fight enemies. In that sense it superficially reminds me of The World Ends with You, although you rapidly alternate between the two halves rather than control both simultaneously.

The gameplay is fun and it's neat to see the background of the world, although most of it was covered in Fae Tactics already. The story itself is fine but the editing is very poor. Typos, misuse of punctuation, random capitalization, etc. I have a habit of recording all the typos I encounter in a game with the intent of informing the dev. It's still completely legible, but this game definitely has the highest typos-per-word of any commercial game I've played.

[wndrbr]

Playing through CONTROL.

I'm starting to think that Max Payne was a fluke, and Remedy can't actually make good storyfag games. This is like the third time in a row when they make a shooter full of READABLES. Readables are scattered everywhere you go, including the various inconvenient places (like near talking NPCs or in combat areas). And there's like two hundred readables in the game, if not more - I'm roughly halfway through the game, and just received an achievement for finding my 120th readable.



If Sam Lake loves writing so much, then he should've wrote a damn book.

[Gregz]

Dungeons & Dragons: Warriors of the Eternal Sun

[rusty_shackleford]

If Sam Lake loves writing so much, then he should've wrote a damn book.

https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6469769.Sam_Lake

[BlueMemphis]

Keep meaning to start the Yakuza games picked up over christmas but something else came up.

Anyone remember Wild Arms from the ps1? Solid jrpg that was succesful enough to get a few sequels (that I never played) but never really stayed in the mainstream conciousness, I've seen it mentioned a couple of times whenever polls for best JRPG ever comes out but that's about it.
Anyways, loved that game as a kid so imagine my surprise to find out it got a ps2 remaster: Wild Arms Alter F.

Thanks to the magic of emulation decided sod it, I'm feeling nostalgic, let's see how it holds up.

First impression: eugh the graphics. Whilst this is the ps2 so we ain't quite into early ps1 3d graphics horror show and the models for the characters in cutscenes and in battle are improved, the environments are a clear downgrade in terms of visual flair and even design. Dungeons also tend to be simplistic, linear and either ugly or plain looking. Original wild arms had a 16 bit snes style look that remains nice to look and charming but the ps2 graphics are not so timeless alas. And I'm not even a graphics whore, ps1/2 graphics is usually my comfort zone as it's what I grew up with.



Second impression: wtf did they do to the music? Whilst there are a few songs whose remixes are a tad better, for the most part it is a downgrade.

But it ain't all bad, what I forgot in my nostalgia is that wild arms 1 was stupidly grindy and very much fell into the jrpg syndrome of walking into the same random battles every 2 steps, in the original the average dungeon easily took me hours to clear because of that. And the game was also difficult enough in that you wanted to spend some time grinding up levels to keep up.
What does the remaster do? Add in a QTE mechanic that lets you avoid random battles as well as various ways to easily boost your xp gain so I've done 0 grinding and am practically flying through the game, the aforementioned dungeons that would have taken me hours take me 10-15 mins, with puzzles and boss battles making up the bulk of that and rarely if ever doing random battles.
Some might see this as a downgrade but I'm no longer a teen who will happily spend entire days grinding his characters, nowadays I have an aversion to time wasting bs so it's helping keeping me interested.

Overall having decent fun with it and with 25 hours of play time am about 3/4 through the story, not counting all the side missions and hidden dungeon bs that is typical in jrpgs.

[Tweed]

I'm a big fan of the original Wild Arms and I've been meaning to try Alter Code F for awhile. Problem with the original game isn't the grind, it's that it's pathetically easy once you know how to exploit the game and I don't mean the dupe bug.

There's like three bosses in the entire game that are challenging and that's it.

[MadPreacher]

I'm currently playing Project Zomboid and built this huge base near Muldraugh. The scenario I constructed was a Green Beret was dropped off into Knox County to eliminate all the zombies. He had all of his proper gear, a 1986 Osh Kosh and covered trailer, a bulldozer, and construction items. So far I've built the walls forming the perimeter of the fort, a 3 car garage, a large 2 story mansion, and a greenhouse.

Because I'm on a crappy laptop, I had to drop the Zombie population down to 20% normal.

I started farming and will now be able to properly loot and clear Muldraugh.

[BlueMemphis]

Problem with the original game isn't the grind, it's that it's pathetically easy once you know how to exploit the game and I don't mean the dupe bug.

There's like three bosses in the entire game that are challenging and that's it.

Ah fair enough, likely I was just crap at the game.

And can confirm I haven't really struggled much in Alter F so far, but yeah I'd recommend trying it out if you're feeling nostalgic. I have my issues with it and some scenes really are a downgrade (the whole adelhyde festival in alter F was a big let down among others) but there's enough positive additions to balance out the negatives.
And at least they didn't fudge the Artika prologue, which chances are is exactly like you imagined it as a kid:

[WhiteShark]

I finished Legend of Fae, mentioned earlier. It was short and sweet, honestly better than I was expecting. The last boss was quite challenging and I began to wonder after several defeats if I would need to respec even at the permanent cost of one of my upgrade points. I did laugh when I saw someone officially credited as the editor in the credits. Someone didn't do their job.

I've now started Octopath Traveler. I put on a hard-mode mod because, like many JRPGs, the game is essentially just combat and dialogue, so if the combat isn't challenging to me I'll get bored. Beat the prologue boss for my character, seems alright so far. I chose the Thief because I heard somewhere in advance about the purple chests scattered across the map which only he can open. Now I'm deciding where to go from his starter town. Thinking I'll head north and pick up Hannit.

[Roguey]

Played the MSX Metal Gear here and there as a break from Wrathfinder, finished it. I liked the Metroid-like aspects, but did not care for the absurd item-restrictions (if you're in a room filled with gas, you have to take you gas mask off to use a keycard to unlock a door, always taking damage. If you're using a keycard, you can't equip armor). I wouldn't have minded needing to have the specific keycard selected to open a door if the passive items were always equipped and if the doors actually told you which number they are instead of making it a tedious trial-and-error process.

Regarding combat, the range on bullets for your character is too low for my liking, and lining up a shot is annoying. It was a bit buggy with the scripts too; a couple of NPCs were late in contacting me through the radio. Someone named Diane messaged me at the final boss to wish me good luck even though we had never spoken before. Despite all its primitive game issues, it showed potential. I'm going to be skipping Metal Gear 2, which requires emulation and doesn't seem to address any of my complaints, and heading right to Solid.

[Tweed]

Problem with the original game isn't the grind, it's that it's pathetically easy once you know how to exploit the game and I don't mean the dupe bug.

There's like three bosses in the entire game that are challenging and that's it.

Ah fair enough, likely I was just crap at the game.

And can confirm I haven't really struggled much in Alter F so far, but yeah I'd recommend trying it out if you're feeling nostalgic. I have my issues with it and some scenes really are a downgrade (the whole adelhyde festival in alter F was a big let down among others) but there's enough positive additions to balance out the negatives.
And at least they didn't fudge the Artika prologue, which chances are is exactly like you imagined it as a kid:

Seems almost 1:1. My biggest interest in trying the redo out was the fact that they made Zed playable.

[Hando]

Risen and dragon age origins. Risen is slightly better

[aeternalis]

Nothing right now, but I might actually try Disco Elysium, just because it's controversial. (Please don't put me on ignore, Aweigh!! :)

[Gregz]

I'm playing Orcs Must Die! (2011)

It saddens me that games like these aren't being made anymore.

[KnightoftheWind]

Playing through Beyond Skyrim - Bruma. In many ways I find it superior to the actual game, there's a lot more unique voice actors and characters seem more animated. They aren't nearly as static, and the quests seem to be better too.

I guess fans do what Bethesdon't, but I haven't finished it yet so we'll see if there are elements of poz or not.

[The_Mask]

I've looked back at Pillars of Eternity 1, and I saw that the amount of SJW-isms is just Maneha winking at Pallegina one time. And so I decided to give the series another shot. So I am replaying PoE 1, and then I'm going to attempt to finally beat PoE 2. Hopefully the thought of no SJW-isms will help me plow through it, this time.

[Suissant]

Played the MSX Metal Gear here and there as a break from Wrathfinder, finished it. I liked the Metroid-like aspects, but did not care for the absurd item-restrictions (if you're in a room filled with gas, you have to take you gas mask off to use a keycard to unlock a door, always taking damage. If you're using a keycard, you can't equip armor). I wouldn't have minded needing to have the specific keycard selected to open a door if the passive items were always equipped and if the doors actually told you which number they are instead of making it a tedious trial-and-error process.

Regarding combat, the range on bullets for your character is too low for my liking, and lining up a shot is annoying. It was a bit buggy with the scripts too; a couple of NPCs were late in contacting me through the radio. Someone named Diane messaged me at the final boss to wish me good luck even though we had never spoken before. Despite all its primitive game issues, it showed potential. I'm going to be skipping Metal Gear 2, which requires emulation and doesn't seem to address any of my complaints, and heading right to Solid.

I played both a long time ago but I remember Metal Gear 2 being much more polished both in gameplay and story than the first one.

[Rigwort]

Playing through End of Deus right now. Saw it was shilled as a good exploring game, and so far it hasn't really disappointed. Hasn't blown me away either, everything seems "by-the-numbers" but I'll see how it goes. I would say that I still haven't found an exploration game that is quite to snuff to what I dream of. I want to follow directions, read about mythical places and then use the environment and notes to find them, yadda yadda. If anyone knows a game were the exploration is more of a puzzle and less of a "trip over a mystical ruin" type system please let me know.

[Atlantico]

Playing through standard vanilla Jagged Alliance 2 for the first time. Crushing it without too much savescumming.

Wonderful game, hardly an RPG, but a platform an RPG could have been built on. It's a better Fallout Tactics.

[Gregz]

I'm playing Orcs Must Die! 2, a highly recommended tower defense / FPS hybrid.

OMD1 was giving me headaches and motion sickness from screen-shake that you couldn't disable. The sequel removed this "feature", and improved on others. Having fun with it.