What game are you wasting time on?

[Strange Fellow]

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Not loving it so far. Feels like a Souls game where you have to always parry instead of dodge and enemies regen health constantly. It's a reductive comparison, but that's what it feels like to me so far. Also grab attacks can suck a huge penis. In between the fighting there's some light platforming, which would have been welcome as something to differentiate the game from the Souls series, but the movement controls feel jerky. I've had a few accidents where I made to move off a small ledge and instead took a running leap directly into a chasm, that sort of thing.

It doesn't help that the environments and enemies look exactly like Nioh. Not Sekiro's fault, but I've seen this before.

 

[cyan]

Even though we don't give a shit about Halloween in my country, I'm trying to get into the spirit of the season.

Currently enjoying a replay of VTMB as a Tremere. Pumping social skills and hacking as per usual; are there even any other worthwhile builds? Just reached the Hollywood sewers. They ain't so bad once you've played through the game enough to zoom through 'em.

Next I'll probably play System Shock 2, keeping with the spooky theme. I've played it before, but dropped it around when you reach the Rickenbacker - I'm guessing halfway through. Hope to complete this time. Want to try a psionics build.

 

[Spukrian]

Oh well. It's been awhile since I posted in this thread.

I put Avernum 6 on hold. I wasn't really feeling it. My ideas for builds were good, but I probably chose the wrong traits at the beginning. I'll get back to it later.

I got to four different endings in E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy. That said I'm not done with the game, I haven't discovered everything yet so I still fire it up occasionally (I'm on my third character).

Currently going through Eschalon 2. I really like this game but it's a bit frustrating, I've played through two or three times reaching the last 25% of the game only to realize that I can't finish the game with my build. Hopefully I'll make it through this time.

 

[NecroLord]

Even though we don't give a shit about Halloween in my country, I'm trying to get into the spirit of the season.

Currently enjoying a replay of VTMB as a Tremere. Pumping social skills and hacking as per usual; are there even any other worthwhile builds? Just reached the Hollywood sewers. They ain't so bad once you've played through the game enough to zoom through 'em.

Next I'll probably play System Shock 2, keeping with the spooky theme. I've played it before, but dropped it around when you reach the Rickenbacker - I'm guessing halfway through. Hope to complete this time. Want to try a psionics build.

Well, VTM is a social game, so high social attributes like Charisma are very useful.
The unofficial patch Plus introduces a shortcut in the Nosferatu sewers. Take it and don't look back. The sewers are arguably the worst part of the game.
Anyway, Malkavian sniper and stealth specialist is also a build I like.

 

[BLOBERT]

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Not loving it so far. Feels like a Souls game where you have to always parry instead of dodge and enemies regen health constantly. It's a reductive comparison, but that's what it feels like to me so far. Also grab attacks can suck a huge penis. In between the fighting there's some light platforming, which would have been welcome as something to differentiate the game from the Souls series, but the movement controls feel jerky. I've had a few accidents where I made to move off a small ledge and instead took a running leap directly into a chasm, that sort of thing.

It doesn't help that the environments and enemies look exactly like Nioh. Not Sekiro's fault, but I've seen this before.

BRO HEAR YOUR PIAN

SEKIRO TOOK A WHILE TO PULE ME IN
THE PARRY AND AGGRESSIVE COMBAT IS FUCKING WEIRD FOR SOULS SHIT

BUT I PLAY NIOH ON PC AND SEKIRO ON FAGBOX AND I DINT SEE THEM SAME

 

[Late Bloomer]

Treat Sekiro the same as you would a rythm game.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Not loving it so far. Feels like a Souls game where you have to always parry instead of dodge and enemies regen health constantly. It's a reductive comparison, but that's what it feels like to me so far. Also grab attacks can suck a huge penis. In between the fighting there's some light platforming, which would have been welcome as something to differentiate the game from the Souls series, but the movement controls feel jerky. I've had a few accidents where I made to move off a small ledge and instead took a running leap directly into a chasm, that sort of thing.

It doesn't help that the environments and enemies look exactly like Nioh. Not Sekiro's fault, but I've seen this before.

I'm eating my words. After around 10 hours I decided to git gud, and this game kicks ass.

 

[Lyre Mors]

I'm eating my words. After around 10 hours I decided to git gud, and this game kicks ass.

I was hoping you'd see the light. Ganbare!

 

[Lyre Mors]

Yeah, it's a mystery why you would not love the game in the first place Strange Fellow. Thank you for pointing that out with your button.

 

[Machocruz]

I'm eating my words. After around 10 hours I decided to git gud, and this game kicks ass.

The environments get better too. Nioh games are great, but Sekiro's art direction is far superior imo

 

[Axel_am]

Log 4:
Pretty chill in terms of gaming this week. Most of my hardware was giving up on me so I was doing a lot of sidequests trying to get everything running again.

Did a solid push on Pillars of Eternity. I vastly underestimated how much content there is in Act 3. It's battle galore everywhere you look. Pretty fun once you get into the rhythm of it. There are definitely some very rough adjustment hours between Act 2 and 3. It's almost like a different game once you get to Twin Elms.

Had to remove DotA for the better part of the week. Servers were laggy af and the quality of players was unbearable. But now the TI patch has been released so I'm back on my MMR grind again. Haven't ran into any real retards so far. Just people who don't play the game as well. Which is fine.

Honestly, I was able to finish a lot more stuff with DotA outside of my routine. Just some food for thought.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Treat Sekiro the same as you would a rythm game.

Souls games are rhythm games at their armored core.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Yeah, it's a mystery why you would not love the game in the first place @Strange Fellow.

I literally had to decide to git gud. My MO in Souls games has been to take it slow the first time through an area, and rush past enemies after I've made my way through the whole thing once. I was getting frustrated with how quickly mini-bosses and difficult enemies can kill you in this game, such that I spent more time running back to fights than actually fighting. In the end I decided to take the time to properly master the area I was in, fighting each enemy until I was able to reliably beat them without taking damage, as a last resort before dropping the game. Turns out I'd forgotten how much fun that can be in and of itself. Sekiro is the first Souls-adjacent game that's forced me to do that since Dark Souls 1 ten years ago, and it feels great.

Anyway, been making decent progress since I started liking the game. Think I've explored all of Ashina Castle, with only the very top to go, where I'm expecting a big boss fight. The Ashina Elite miniboss in the dojo was a real bitch. Felt like a Souls boss fight from the perspective of the boss, in the way that he'd always dodge away and attack precisely as my own attack was winding down. Got him in the end, though. It's funny how even the trickiest battles can be over in literal seconds if you get them exactly right.

 

[Ezekiel]

Death Stranding. Before MGS4 and MGS5, I would have played a Hideo Kojima game right away. Didn't help that the advertising for the game was so weird that it didn't speak to me at all.

First thing I did as soon as it let me start walking was look for a way to turn off the rain droplets on the screen. Didn't find it.

Impressed again by Yoji Shinkawa's mechanical designs and remembered how much better Kojima is at pretend-cinematography than other developers.

Delivered the president's body to the incinerator and then went back to the city and quit. Was maybe thirty minutes of gameplay and one-and-a-half hours of cutscenes. The story isn't really doing anything for me. Wonder how much of the game's budget was just on the famous actors. Not enthusiastic about the gameplay, but the player character at least moves well. I will keep playing.

Game engine is really efficient.

 

[Kabas]

Just mentioned in the screenshot thread but i completed the Ashes: Afterglow
Compared to it's predecessors it makes a great impression right from the first proper level(still lowkey my favourite one in this episode). Despite me prefering the linear structure to a hub one it's still an overall better episode than 2063 or Dead men Walking.

Spoiler

The key word here is "theoretically" powerful. It was useless every time i decided to try it.
Wasn't fan of crafting table at first and i am still not really. I do appreciate that you only need to collect junk in order to upgrade your weapons and that the majority of new upgrades feel somewhat substantial but i was perfectly fine with how they handled it in Ashes 2063 and Dead Men Walking.

Yep, my decision to wipe Roamers out on my own bit me in the ass. Got the bad ending for Prosperity.

Anyway, i wasn't very invested in the plot. Don't care that much about these "new guardans", "empire" and whatnot. NPCs talk a bit too much.
Dead Men Walking still has the best plot for this kind of game.
Edit: After thinking about it for a bit saying "i wasn't invested" would be a complete lie. I am still curious to learn what's the deal with the Athena and Zeus AIs, these military guys and mutants getting more and more organised. Just wish the talking part of the game was a bit better paced, i guess?

The final boss sucked but it was very satisfying to cheese her with a titan stim i found in that secret level.

 

[Shin]

After Gothic 2, I decided to give Gothic 3 a spin. Despite modding it with a bunch of recommended mods, I backed out of it after about an hour. It's not a good idea to try G3 after having finished G1+G2, the experience (mostly the floaty combat, but also the UI and the general aesthetic) is quite grating. But since I was in the mood for some more Piranha Byte jank, I decided to (re)play Risen (1). I've played it most of the way when it came out in 2009, and I couldn't really remember why I didn't finish it.

Having just forced myself to finish it, it's quite obvious that this quote:

The final act (6) is the worst of all

Something that would become a staple of Piranha Bytes from Gothic 2 onward.
Every game of theirs, the good and the bad, all have their worst part at the ending.

is the fucking truth.

It's not quite often that the latter part of a game comes crashing down so spectacularly that it diminishes the entire experience for me. After having a blast in chapter 1 and 2, interacting with the various factions, exploring the rather compact but interesting map, dealing with the NPC's and their problems, looting, pickpocketing and blackmailing my way to riches, it was time for chapter 3. For those who might've forgotten; the entirety of chapter 3 is slogging through a giant dungeon, slaying literally more than a hundred fucking lizardmen, flipping switches, pushing buttons to kill more fucking lizardmen. When the Inquisitor finally reveals his evil plan (one could see from a mile away) and ends chapter 3, you get rewarded by getting to go outside that awful dungeon. So what's in store for chapter 4? Collecting 5 MacGuffins in 5 more fucking awful dungeons, battling again a hundred fucking lizards. I almost gave up halfway, but managed to waste a few hours of my life thrudging through these fucking brown dungeons with revolving doors, pushing buttons, hitting switches, killing the same fucking enemies over and over (who obviously don't pose any serious threat since at this point their attack patterns are ingrained in your brain). Eventually you get back to said Inquisitor, hit him twice with a big fucking hammer to kill him and are presented with a boss battle that is even worse than the dragons in G2. The boys at Piranha Bytes must've been big Super Mario fans, since suddenly you have to jump over AoE attacks, skip over the disappearing platforms and reflect bullets. At least the bs dragons with their stun attack in G2 were in line with the rest of the game.

tl;dr The first ~15ish hours of Risen I was having a blast, the second half is a fucking tragedy. I'm hesistant to give Risen 2 a spin, does it feature a lot of brown, boring dungeons filled with lizards?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Risen 2 is a bit more colorful - but I'd say it's only borderline entertaining compared to Risen 1. Get ready for thinner gameplay and QTEs.

Avoid Risen 3. Read Darth Roxor 's review to find out why.

 

[Kabas]

Recall abandoning Risen somewhere during the 5 Mcguffin hunt.
Right before abandoning it however i decided to go on a murder spree and started throwing frostballs at everyone in the port town. It's neat how people actually react towards you casting spells.

 

[Modron]

Risen 2 is a bit more colorful - but I'd say it's only borderline entertaining compared to Risen 1. Get ready for thinner gameplay and QTEs.

Avoid Risen 3. Read Darth Roxor 's review to find out why.

Risen 2 is worse than 3. Both are not good of course but lets not try to talk him into playing PB's worst game.

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

Atomic Heart:
I enjoyed the first part of the game. It is an inferior version of bioshock. The open world is complete waste of time and the enemies become repetitive in the later half of the game.
The boss fights are less interesting to boring bulletfest.
Only positives is the mediocre story which has been previously replicated across games in the past.
Puzzles become too samey in the latter part of the game.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Atomic Heart:
I enjoyed the first part of the game. It is an inferior version of atomic heart. The open world is complete waste of time and the enemies become repetitive in the later half of the game.
The boss fights are less interesting to boring bulletfest.
Only positives is the mediocre story which has been previously replicated across games in the past.
Puzzles become too samey in the latter part of the game.

Atomic Heart is an inferior version of Atomic Heart? That seems... improbable.

 

[AlwaysBrotoMen]

Atomic Heart:
I enjoyed the first part of the game. It is an inferior version of atomic heart. The open world is complete waste of time and the enemies become repetitive in the later half of the game.
The boss fights are less interesting to boring bulletfest.
Only positives is the mediocre story which has been previously replicated across games in the past.
Puzzles become too samey in the latter part of the game.

Atomic Heart is an inferior version of Atomic Heart? That seems... improbable.

Corrected it

 

[JarlFrank]

I'm hesistant to give Risen 2 a spin, does it feature a lot of brown, boring dungeons filled with lizards?

No, it's quite colorful and the exploration is still good.

The biggest problem though is that they split the game into several islands disconnected from each other. You travel between them by ship, which is basically a loading screen. That means instead of one mid-sized open world you get several tiny open worlds, and the game feels cramped.

Some of these islands also have retarded corridor-like level design where you're walking through linear canyons with huge cliff walls to the sides.

 

[Ezekiel]

When I continued Death Stranding today, I had to watch an hour of cutscenes and also figure out how to get out of the main character's room before I finally was on my delivery mission. By that point, I was so tired (having just bicycled up a mountain) that I closed the game and went to sleep. So I've not played at all since my last post. I don't know why Kojima thinks like this. Even if his heart is really in movies, it doesn't make sense. A movie would get to the point quicker. The ratio is worse than in MGS1 to 3, whose stories were fun by the way.

 

[Darth Roxor]

Risen 2 is a bit more colorful - but I'd say it's only borderline entertaining compared to Risen 1. Get ready for thinner gameplay and QTEs.

Avoid Risen 3. Read Darth Roxor 's review to find out why.

look at him mentioning Darth Roxor's revio of Ris3n, but not Ri2en, almost like he has an agenda of some sort