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A couple of years ago I read a russian developer making fun of popular games saying what they are doing is just solemnly leading you to a shooting range and getting excited over your ability to click on things. That's perhaps reductive and unfair but Far Cry 3 struck me that way more than any other game. Its so murder themepark. Blood Dragon should be even more like that because its the same game basically with more gamey gamer stuff but for some reason its vastly more amusing. Or it was to me.
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Sep 26, 2014 19:47
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BEATEN: Teslagrad - Would I say this was.. great? No. But it was okay. As far as Metroidvanias go, this is about as middle of the pack as they get. By the time you get all your neat magneto powers the game is already over, and I mean maybe 4 hours of game length. Now it's time for a Mediocre Myst-esque Marathon!! I played three of these with a walkthrough because at some point I just stopped caring. BEATEN: Dark Fall I - Honestly, this one was okay, but I don't know how adventure game websites thought this was the scariest adventure game ever!!! It's about as spooky as an episode of goosebumps. But if you like reading lots of newspaper clippings and letters and diaries, this is the 640x480 game for you!! It's also super ugly even for 2002. BEATEN: Dark Fall II - This was made 2 years later so it's now in 800x600!!! It's by one dude but I dunno, splurge on some pixels!! It was 2004 not 1994! Okay this one involves time travel? And you still do a lot of reading diaries but now there's also PDAs and gadgets and NPCs that you can (vaguely) communicate with. The puzzles basically come down to "write down a code from one room and use it in another room" like most games of this sub-genre. BEATEN: Scratches - Hmm well now we're in 1024x768, so we're getting warmer!! Apparently the Dark Fall guy assisted on this one? It sometimes feels like it hits the same beats as the Dark Fall game. It also has some cheesy jump scares that flop because they're CGI and animated very slowly (Five Nights @ Freddy's doesn't have this problem). Like Dark Fall, there's letters and journals to read!! I'm pretty sure all 4 games that I played had the same loving "newspaper under door to retrieve key from other side of door" puzzle. This story plays out more like a murder mystery but then there's also a curse?? I dunno I stopped caring but I did finish it. BEATEN: Nikopol - This one renders all the way up to 1600x1200, and it has smooth panorama view and even has shader support, but wow is this a bad game and a hilariously dumb story. I played this out just to see how much dumber the story got. Anubis and Horus fight over oil by enlisting humans, and it's set in a blade runner world. Also you can die in this game and it's almost always timed puzzles which is the worst. The wooorrrrssstt. Playing with walkthroughs made these games go by super quick so I might knock out a couple more of the more mediocre games in my library (Runaway, Broken Sword 3, Ankh).
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Sep 28, 2014 09:25
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I have Nikopol on Steam for some reason but refuse to play it because it's based on a really good comic book series and while the basic plot of "Egyptian gods need fuel" is from Part 1 of the story I can't think it would be anywhere near as imaginative or engaging.
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Sep 28, 2014 11:12
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Quest For Glory II posted:BEATEN: a lot of games You're a machine. I'm still plodding along in 2 games right now. I only knocked out Roundabout because it's maybe like a 2 hour story tops with a ton of side stuff I can do later.
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Sep 28, 2014 14:54
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If it's not verboten to solicit suggestions, I have the following "on deck": -Alpha Protocol -Assassin's Creed II -GTA IV + DLC -Just Cause I and II -X-COM: Enemy Unknown I also have a "few" hundred hours in Skyrim and Fallout:NV but they're technically unbeaten. On the plus side, I've just finished both seasons of The Walking Dead
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Sep 28, 2014 16:04
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Just a note about Just Cause, the first game is a really bad port of the PS2 version without widescreen support unmodded, and the game itself is a lot worse than the sequel. I'd recommend skipping over it and playing Just Cause 2 instead if you don't enjoy it, Just Cause 1 doesn't have all the crazy fun open world shenanigans that people love Just Cause 2 for and is generally just a really mediocre PS2 game.
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Sep 28, 2014 17:02
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BEATEN: Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut - It's a fun little portal clone, now complete with people talking to you over the comms, secret areas. There is a story; it's quite generic but it does help with the gameplay flow. However, it implies that you have a choice on some matters, but the game does not really support this. The game is short, but it does quite a lot with mainly just cubes. The main mechanics are constant throughout the game, but there are a few additional mechanisms and variations that are thrown at you to keep you interested. The puzzle difficulty is generally easy; the "bonus" ones are maybe more challenging - and I was surprised that I mamaged to solve the color puzzle one - since I have dyschromatopsia. One puzzle (the one before the final one) is pretty bullshit though, and I had to look at a walkthrough to solve part of it. I've put maybe 6 hours on it to finish it, but I took my time with some puzzles and looking around, and I went back to it to get some easy achievos that I missed. BEATEN: XCOM Enemy Unknown - Normal Difficulty. This was a great game, and I am playing the XCOM Enemy Within (on classic difficulty) after this, which seems basically like a replay with a few new and/or expanded elements and DLC, that all sound cool but I understand that they destroy the flow of the story. I found the tactical turn based strategy elements, and the base/resources management stuff of the original quite fun. I made quite a few stupid mistakes that cost me some troops - some of those where because of the clunky view camera system, and the game did freeze (or get stuck forever) two or three times - from what I found these are known/reported bugs but I think nobody expects a fix for the original game. Towards the end, I had tons of resources and all research & upgrades, so I blasted through most missions (which started to get a bit repeatitive). The final part of the final mission however nearly destroyed me. So that was something. ONGOING: mainly AC Brotherhood, Realms of the Haunting, BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner 2. AbstractNapper fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 17:14
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OAquinas posted:If it's not verboten to solicit suggestions, I have the following "on deck":
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Sep 28, 2014 20:37
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The GTA IV DLC is so loving bad. e: the main game is pretty bad by modern standards too now but the two standalone expansions are just the glitchiest, most banal GTA experiences ever Yodzilla fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Sep 28, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 21:04
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Lost and the Damned is meh but Ballad of Gay Tony is pretty great.
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Sep 28, 2014 21:05
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Yodzilla posted:The GTA IV DLC is so loving bad. WTF, Gay Tony is excellent.
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Sep 28, 2014 21:36
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Another update! Bulletstorm - This was a great game. Great controls and feel to the shooting, fun characters, and great set piece levels. Goons talk it up and it's not undeserved. If you have it on your backlog you should give it a go! The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition - This was not as great. The standard combat was fun for the first five minutes but turns into QTE hell real fast, and the boss fights are equally frustrating. I love Star Wars like any other nerd but the execution of the ideas just wasn't good. Story was okay as a bridge between The Bad Movies and The Good Movies. VVVVVV - Tough little platformer. Beating it felt good! Trine - Gorgeous set pieces but I'm not sure if I was beating puzzles in the right way. It seemed like there would be a physics issue that let me completely skip areas fairly frequently. Demon's Souls - :iamafag: Homefront - Nothing particularly horrible, and in a guilty pleasure sort of way I actually had fun with the story. Very, very, very short game though. Orcs Must Die - I've never really been into tower defense, but the Orcs Must Die formula works for me. Really enjoyed the game, especially some of the more complicated maps later in the game. Going to try to convince a friend to do 2 in co-op. Mirror's Edge - Beautiful game that has some interesting ideas behind it. The feel and flow of the rooftop running is great. Combat is awful but mercifully only shows up in a few spots. Gunpoint - Fun puzzle game with great mechanics. Nothing difficult but worth the two hours it'll last you. 
Fifteen of Many fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 28, 2014 21:40
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Breadallelogram posted:WTF, Gay Tony is excellent. I'll have to take your word for it, I reached a main mission that crashed the game whenever I got to a certain point and nothing I could do would fix it 
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Sep 28, 2014 22:26
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Yodzilla posted:The GTA IV DLC is so loving bad. You're crazy, the DLC was better than the main game. Also to call GTA IV 'pretty bad' is just insane. drat you Yodzilla! drat you for making me defend games I don't even particularly care about to begin with! I also suggest nulling Just Cause 1. There is nothing remotely compelling about it at all now that Just Cause 2 is out. The plot is extremely bare-bones and secondary to everything in the game.
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Sep 29, 2014 00:06
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I'll agree with you there. Just Cause 1 was never really good but 2 is still amazing. e: also the PC port of JC1 is the awful Xbox version, not 360
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Sep 29, 2014 00:20
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Also, how the gently caress did Ballad of Gay Tony manage to feature full frontal male nudity and not a single news outlet bitched about it? As far as I know it's the only game that lets you see a dong without visiting The Nexus
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Sep 29, 2014 00:22
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SolidSnakesBandana posted:Also, how the gently caress did Ballad of Gay Tony manage to feature full frontal male nudity and not a single news outlet bitched about it? As far as I know it's the only game that lets you see a dong without visiting The Nexus I think it probably got eclipsed in the moral outrage department by COD:MW2 which came out not long after it. The whole 'kill everybody in an airport' thing was a bit more hardcore than the SEX thing which was pretty old hat by that point.
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Sep 29, 2014 01:11
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OAquinas posted:If it's not verboten to solicit suggestions, I have the following "on deck": Skip JC1, just play JC2. Of those games, I'd say go with JC2 if you want an awesome loving-around sandbox or Alpha Protocol if you want a short but tight RPG that greatly rewards multiple playthroughs. Chief Savage Man posted:I think it probably got eclipsed in the moral outrage department by COD:MW2 which came out not long after it. The whole 'kill everybody in an airport' thing was a bit more hardcore than the SEX thing which was pretty old hat by that point. No, that's still pretty surprising. At least in the US, sex in games (in media in general, really) is way, way, way further beyond the pale than even the most graphic of blood-soaked slaughterfests.
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Sep 29, 2014 01:50
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ToxicFrog posted:Skip JC1, just play JC2. Consensual sex involving a woman is beyond the pale. A male member is natural and free but heaven help you if a naked boob sneaks into your game.
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Sep 29, 2014 02:42
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Hello Thread long time no see. New Additions: 25! (Woohoo!) Beat: 140 - Uh some indie platforming game. Must have been from a humble bundle. Took like 90 minutes? Nothing really notable about it. Rhythm based where you are a square that turns into a triangle when you jump and a circle when you roll. You absorb coloured balls which unlocks new ways to platform. Bossfights were fun. Kickbeat - A Rhythm game disguised as a fighting game. Nothing really to set it apart from other games aside from it's look. It wasn't too bad though there weren't many songs on the "Story" mode I liked. In fact I suffered through most of em. Sniper Elite V2 - Not to bad a game especially for the price of free. Was still a bit janky in terms of engine, things felt a bit off in places, though I do enjoy murdering Nazis so it can't be all that bad. Nulled: Auto-Nulled a bunch of Rougelike/Infinite games as well as multiplayer games. Working On: My WiiU Library atm. Burning through Wind Waker HD and Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze
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Sep 29, 2014 03:19
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Beaten: Battle Group 2 Laptop game. Linux native and light on the video card, which is nice. It's basically a Missile Command SHMUP; pick a ship and an escort (which provides 1-2 special abilities) and then cruise through a level carefully aiming your missiles to shoot down incoming enemy missiles/planes/helicopters -- and, if you can spare any, hit bonus objectives as you go past. The top-tier ship, the Iowa, mixes things up by replacing the missile turrets and VLS cells of the other ships with heavy cannon; this is easier to aim (the shots travel much faster) and hits harder (each shot is two projectiles, one from each turret), but makes it harder to get high scores, as either of the projectiles missing will cancel your combo. It's a very short game -- 31 levels, none of them more than a few minutes long -- but a fun one, even if the difficulty does spike ridiculously towards the end. I might not have bought it, but after getting it for free I enjoyed it enough to finish it. Still playing Divine Divinity on the desktop. Currently assembling the Council of Seven and cleaning up side quests n Verdistis.
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Sep 29, 2014 03:39
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I haven't posted in this thread in ages. Here is a full list of what I was able to beat in 2014 so far - interesting to see how the gaps show exactly when work was hectic and when I was traveling too much for business reasons. January 2014: To The Moon (PC) - visuals might be awful (RPG Maker after all), but it really has a great story. Worth the playthrough. Eversion (PC) - liked this twisted platformer so much that I actually bothered to get 100% achievements on it. The Stanley Parable (PC) - brilliant humor. Same thing, 100% achievements (even leaving the game on for 24 hours on a Tuesday). March 2014: Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward (PS Vita) - great game if you played 999 (DS) first. 100% complete, platinum trophy. May 2014: The 39 Steps (PC) - visual novel that follows the story of the actual novel. I liked it, given that I didn't know the story. June 2014: They Breathe (PC) - a frog needs to save its brethren from drowned cows... or is it? Quite interesting what they did here. 9.03m (PC) - a 20-minute long walking simulator done in memory of the victims of the Japanese tsunami. Play it and weep. Dear Esther (PC) - I wanted to know what the fuss was about. Got another walking simulator that told a meh story. Year Walk (PC) - a harrowing adventure based on Norse mythology. Good horror with some decent scary moments. July 2014: Hexcells (PC) - brilliant math/logic game. Got 100% achievements. Hexcells Plus (PC) - brilliant math/logic game, harder version. Got 100% achievements. Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC) - quite moving story in a great 3D puzzle/action game. Got 100% achievements. Analogue: A Hate Story (PC) - I was intrigued by this game and thoroughly enjoyed the story as told by the logs. Got 100% achievements. Hate Plus (PC) - the sequel to Analogue, quite interesting too. Got all possible achievements (one is a troll achievement by the developer). Thomas Was Alone - Benjamin’s Flight (PC) - loved the original, beat the DLC that was included for free in the PC version. Papo & Yo (PC) - great 3D puzzle platformer with a dark theme. I still need to do the New Game Plus parts. The Stanley Parable Demo (PC) - funny demo with content not available in-game, plus a tricky achievement. The Plan (PC) - more of a fly tech demo, played it for the achievement mostly. August 2014: The Wolf Among Us (PC) - I really liked this one. Very little gameplay per se, obviously, but good story. The Last Of Us remastered (PS4) - probably my GOTY. I couldn't stop playing and I didn't shut up about it. Absolutely fantastic. Played on Hard. I will eventually replay it on the harder modes. The Last Of Us - Left Behind (PS4) - sure, I will take more of a fantastic game. Perfect length too. Deadlight (PC) - very forgettable. The Swapper (PC) - phenomenal puzzle game with an engaging atmosphere. Sci-fi done right. The Walking Dead: Season 2 (PC) - very decent sequel to the first season. September 2014: Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney (DS) - finally beat this one after quite a while. By far the worst in the series. Steamworld Dig (PC) - loved this gem so much I got all achievements too. Another World 20th Anniversary Edition (PC) - this was terrible. The gameplay is vastly outdated with instant deaths and it controls horribly. Got all achievements so I can never touch it again. Ben There, Dan That! (PC) - first part of the series, quite ok for a point and click created in Aventure Game Studio. Time, Gentlemen, Please! (PC) - second part of the series, slightly better than part one, good if you like the genre and British humor. Poker Night 2 (PC) - funny poker game with older Telltale characters - got 100% achievements on it. DoctorOfLawls fucked around with this message at 04:46 on Sep 29, 2014 |
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Sep 29, 2014 04:16
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BEATEN: Puzzle Bots - this game is not very good but it also was only an hour long so it was an easy check off the checklist BEATEN: XCOM the Bureau - People way undersold this game, it's fun and it's got great art direction. Play it on easy!! Your squad is stupid as gently caress and on easy you can just vaguely direct them and then ignore them and blast 1950s aliens. ADDED: EYE Divine Cybermancy, Primordia, Tex Murphy: Overseer, Magrunner, Thief: Deadly Shadows ON DECK: Dead Space 2, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Child of Light, Night of the Rabbit, The Raven, The Last Remnant
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Oct 2, 2014 05:19
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Beaten: Divine Divinity Fun, and it cleared up a bunch of backstory questions I had from Divinity 2. Game balance needed a lot more work, though. I mean, Div2 had some balance wobbles in places, but DD is rife with sudden difficulty spikes/valleys, skills that do nothing, and skills that are grossly, comically overpowered. I played an archer Survivor and Poison Weapon carried me through nearly the entire game. The great thing about poison, it turns out, is that every time it ticks, that counts as a hit, which means the victim plays their knockback animation. So in addition to adding ridiculous shitloads of damage to your attacks (the weakest poison does about 150 damage over a few seconds, or as much as a perfect attack roll with an endgame weapon), it also acts as a stun. Now, there's a few things that are immune or highly resistant to poison. This includes all undead, and most constructs. It does not include demons or elementals(?!), nor does it include most bosses. Very nearly every boss in the game went down to a hail of poison arrows without ever getting to act or, in some cases, even move -- including the final boss. There's one boss you fight in close quarters who has a bunch of minions and loves to spam shielding spells, and for that one I used the traditional cheese of Divine Divinity, Deadly Gifts' Steel Scorpion. I was playing the GOG 1.4 version, which I'm told nerfed the absolute poo poo out of these things, but it didn't stop half a dozen of them steamrolling the boss. I suspect that five ranks in that and five in Aura of Command would be enough to carry me through the game without any other skills, but that felt a bit too cheap and I saved the scorpions for emergencies (which, apart from that boss and a late-game rematch with the same person, never arose). All in all, it was fun and it was nice to have some additional backstory, but Divinity 2 is such a huge improvement on it that it's hard to recommend. Now Playing: Evolva Got this as part of a sale on GOG since it was cheaper than buying only the games I wanted. I know nothing about it. Let's see how well it holds up, 14 years after release.
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Oct 5, 2014 13:58
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Beaten/Finshed/Done The Flying Dutchman Probably the worst Hidden Object game I've ever played. Low resolution. 5 or 6 scenes. 10-15 objects on each screen. Some objects only show a few pixels next to the border of the screen - the rest is outside the screen. Definitely not made or checked by people who has English as their first language: Word is "Duck" and the correct object is a swan, and no it wasn't an H.C. Andersen "Ugly Duckling" easter egg. Hexcells Plus I'm totally addicted to the Hexcells games and the Plus version was a really nice step-up in difficulty compared to the first one. Jane Angel: Templar Mystery A pretty drat great Hidden Object game, in that it skipped all the casual point-and-click adventuring and only had 1 simple mini game. The rest was pure HO scenes in different styles. Definitely worth checking out for HO fans. Melissa K. and the Heart of Gold Boring HO game. Here is my Steam review: A casual point-and-click adventure with puzzles, beautiful art and a decent amount of Hidden Object scenes. While it has high production values for a HO game, after 2/3 of the game, I kind of zoned out and ignored everything except for the Hidden Object parts, as I was bored out of my skull. I can't remember when I last heard lines... delivered... so... slowly. Even William Shatner delivers dialogue faster than this. The writer clearly wanted to make an Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider epic but got lost somewhere in the endless sideplotting and should have focussed less on twists and cut scenes and more on great puzzles. There is the constant backtracking, where suddenly new items shows up either just after you have visited a scene or 10 minutes later. The game also has a problem in navigation in that you are really not aware that there might be extra scenes to your left or right, as it gives no indication they are there. I usually give these types of HO games a thumbs up due to good puzzles, good HO scenes and a decent amount of play time, but the boredom of this made me even skip the extras and the "Collectors Edition" adventure. Roundabout An awesome goon-made driving game. I finished the main story and tried my hand at some of the side missons, but got nowhere near 100% (not even 50%). Definitely worth checking out, if only for the great FMV cut-scenes. Season Match A standard Match-3 game. Time Mysteries: The Final Enigma Hidden Object/Casual adventure from Artifex Mundi, the current champs of that genre. The final chapter in a three part series, where only the last two are available on Steam, but it's not like you play them for their stories, right? Nulled/Uninstalled Metro 2033/Metro 2033 Redux It just didn't grab me at all and after 1½ hours of play I just quit it. It was very pretty but reminded me more of Doom 3 than a good shooter. I might have gone in with wrong expectations, but that won't really change my mind. Still plan on giving Last Light a go though. One Day For Ched Felt like someone really wanted to make a "hardcore one-shot kill FPS", at least seen from the monsters point of view. I never managed to get away from the first meeting of enemies, so it might just be me sucking monster balls at gaming. Robin's Island Adventure A pretty lovely Match-3 game with a few Hidden Object scenes. Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball Seems like a fun arena style dodgeball shooter, but it's not really my kind of game. It's an Early Access title, but there are lots of updates from the developer and it has actually moved quite a bit from when I checked it out a month or two ago. Currently playing Gauntlet (still need to try out coop), Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Witcher 2, Watch_Dogs: T-Bone Boogaloo DLC, Hexcells Infinite Fart of Presto fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Oct 5, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2014 14:40
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Null: Evolva It's a neat concept -- control a squad of four genetically engineered killing machines, kill and eat enemies to gain their powers -- but the implementation doesn't hold up. The mutation system to unlock the powers you just gained is both poorly documented and hugely RNG-dependent, the enemies are bullet sponges even with your entire squad attacking them, and the levels are huge but barren. Null: Full Spectrum Warrior Null: Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers Got them in a bundle, never going to play them. Laptop game: The Fall I haven't played it yet, but it'll be what I'm playing when next I play something on the laptop. Now Playing: Ground Control 2: Operation Exodus I started playing this a while ago and never finished it. It's not nearly as good as the original Ground Control, but it's not bad and I want to see where it's going. E: Null: Ground Control 2 And now I remember why I never finished it. The Viron missions get really grinding and micromanaging not just the units but also melding and secondary modes gets tedious rapidly. I'll look up the final cutscene on Youtube or something. Null: Gumboy: Crazy Adventures Why do I have this? I don't even know. Now Playing: Hitman: Blood Money ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 20:45 on Oct 5, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2014 18:14
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More games ground into dust BEATEN: Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag - Excellent game, goofy story, even goofier metastory. Now it's time to play the Ezio ones. BEATEN: Primordia - Pretty cool adventure game, although I wish these style of adventure games would start being made in higher resolutions. I know it's 'retro' but it makes it very difficult to find inventory items. BEATEN: Tex Murphy Overseer - I remember years ago reading about how Overseer was a stark contrast to the other games, but, uhhh it really wasn't. It was the same goofy rear end Tex Murphy, with weird mutant people (aka actors in ridiculous makeup), Michael York as a handicapped evil bad guy who challenges Tex to high stakes virtual reality chess, and some of the intentionally hammiest acting you'll ever see. JOE "SOULTAKER" ESTEVEZ IS IN THIS GAME. BEATEN: Picross e1 - And now I'm done done done the Picross e series. Very mediocre all around, when's the next one? I just need picross. I need it BEATEN: Max Payne 3 - Felt like getting back on the bicycle again. Rockstar did this series justice, this is as authentic of a sequel as a completely different company can make of someone else's IP. It's no longer noir, yeah, but otherwise, it was like the series never stopped.
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Oct 8, 2014 00:32
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Quest For Glory II posted:BEATEN: Picross e1 - And now I'm done done done the Picross e series. Very mediocre all around, when's the next one? I just need picross. I need it http://www.puzzle-nonograms.com/ (b&w) http://www.nonograms.org/ (b&w and color)
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Oct 8, 2014 07:58
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I've mostly been perfecting older games instead of playing new ones. COMPLETED: DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon. COMPLETED: DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold. All secrets, cleared all puzzle rooms beyond their respective Master Walls. No such luck for DROD: The City Beneath; I've got 10 or so rooms there and they are just completely destroying me, even with hints. COMPLETED: Might and Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen. I skipped a bunch of dungeons when I played World of Xeen for the first time a few years back. Now I'm about halfway through fixing that. Every Cloudside dungeon has now been thoroughly looted. On to Armadillos, Barkman, and Dragons of Unusual Size! COMPLETED: Retro/Grade. Got the achievement for second-highest ranking or better on all songs in medium. Completed all 130 challenges, which was pretty nuts. NEW GAME/COMPLETED: 6180 the Moon. Super-short, awesome soundtrack, really interesting mechanic. 100% achievements. NEW GAME/COMPLETED: Hexcells Plus. Hexcellent. These puzzles were waaaaaay more vicious than the original ones. 100% achievements. NEW GAME/IN PROGRESS: Hexcells Infinite. I have a fever, and the only cure is more Hexcell. ALSO IN PROGRESS: Might and Magic V: Darkside of Xeen; Child of Light.
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Oct 9, 2014 04:57
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BEATEN: The Cat Lady - Interesting, captivating adventure game about a suicide victim that is returned to life to dispense justice on wicked people. Strange but effective art style, very graphic, very dark and bleak. Very unique. BEATEN: Magrunner - Decent puzzle game that borrows its presentation style from Portal (things go to hell quickly and the narrative completely breaks), only the central gimmick here is magnetizing platforms and cubes. I don't mind spoiling this because you need to know going in -- Cthulhu is involved. BEATEN: Bookworm Deluxe - I don't know if this game can actually be beaten beaten but I did get some ludicrous rank while playing and that's good enough for me. And now.. another Badventure Marathon: BEATEN: Serena - lovely free Myst-esque game on Steam where you click on the same objects over and over and their descriptions change and you keep doing this until the game ends about 30 minutes later. Bad. BEATEN: Runaway: A Road Adventure - Easily the worst adventure game I've ever played. The cutscenes and animations are loving amazingly ugly, watch an LP sometime. BEATEN: Al Emmo & The Lost Dutchman's Mine - Offensively bad in a lot of ways. Someone designed a game inspired by Leisure Suit Larry and Freddy Pharkas without understanding the point of Leisure Suit Larry and Freddy Pharkas. Somehow this is not as bad as Runaway because the puzzles at least for the most part make some sort of adventure-logical sense. BEATEN: Cognition Ep. 1 - After playing the last two games, Cognition almost feels like a classic. I mean, it's not, it's a mediocre game, but that's a huge jump up. Problem with Cognition, aside from the constant crashes, is it flubs the execution on a lot of neat ideas. You have visions, you can gently caress with people's memories, you can touch objects and see flashbacks, but this game manages to make all of those ideas somewhat lame somehow. A better developer would make a really awesome game with these ideas. BEATEN: Wallace & Gromit Ep. 2 - Wallace and Gromit is Telltale's most visually pleasing series and most creatively stagnant one. I do consider it their worst series, but it was very playable compared to some of the other games I played today. The re-use is really bad in W&G though, it's almost as bad as the first season of Sam & Max. UPCOMING: Enslaved, Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassin's Creed II, Gray Matter, Valiant Hearts FUTURE BADVENTURE GAMES: Ankh 2, Ankh 3, Bone: The Great Cow Race, Broken Sword 3, The Dark Eye, Jack Keane 2, Lilly Looking Through, Wallace & Gromit Ep 3, Wallace & Gromit Ep 4, The Whispered World
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Oct 11, 2014 09:30
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BEATEN: CONTRAST - currently on sale indie platformer where shadows make part of the physics. There are some absolutely charming parts (the 'puppet show' during the Circus segment) and the game doesn't wear out its welcome at ~3.5 hours, but the last chapter (the secret workshop/lighthouse) is definitely more challenging (not just due to new mechanics being introduced) and a bit more buggy than the rest of the game. The ending itself is rather abrupt and a bit of a headscratcher.
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Oct 11, 2014 17:48
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Even more games completed this weekend: BEATEN: Defender's Quest - Very solid TD game, the best feature being the 4X fast-forward button. A couple of the classes felt, I dunno, unnecessary? There are only maybe 4 classes that you really need to stack the board with. BEATEN: Escape Goat - Had it for a while, went back to it knowing it was short, and it was short, but solid. Not the best puzzle platformer but decent enough. I'll give EG2 a look this winter. BEATEN: Nightmares From the Deep: Siren's Call - This was apparently a second game in the series? I dunno, I don't know who plays HOGs for the story. The game systems in this were alright. The adventure game elements seemed pretty silly to be honest. Just amounted to a lot of backtracking. BEATEN: FEAR Extraction Point - So Steam (and Steam Completionist) count the FEAR DLC as separate games, which means I do too. It's more FEAR, it's more blasting fools with the shotgun through office buildings, only now you also do it in the subway and a hospital. The story for this expansion seemed pretty non-existent. BEATEN: Lilly Looking Through - Seems like a perfectly adequate game if you like Samorost-type games. The animation is charming, it's a little lethargic. Ultimately Samorost games are not really my cup of tea, but if they're yours, you'll like this game. Note that it's extremely short (2 hours, to be exact).
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Oct 13, 2014 05:46
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BEATEN: Psychonauts. A few weeks ago, I noticed that someone had posted a solution to make this game to work without glitchy textures on new AMD Radeon HD cards (with latest drivers, or at least drivers post Jan 2014). (You need to change the AA setting from the AMD Catalyst Center to Adaptive MultiSampling). So I gave this game another go. It's an interesting game, being heavy on 3d platform gameplay elements and light on the puzzles. So light that when you are actually faced with one, you won't necessarily know that you are expected to "solve" a puzzle (I got stuck 1-2 times this way). I completed it with keyboard&mouse, and even though the game will provide you with some "context based" help with jumping and acrobatics, I would highly recommend that anyone should use a controller to play this. Because it was frustrating as hell to make some jumps or grab some ledges (or to repeat acrobatics I had successfuly made a few moments ago, or at first attempt). The 3d and the camera also fucks with your view perspective quite a lot and you can easily miss stuff/collectibles which you need to upgrade your stats, but are thankfully not required to gather them all. And so, you will jump to your death many, many times. That said, the game has a cute story and characters, you can do lots of extra stuff, and the main mechanic and concept allow for quite a bit of variance in the game's levels. It can be lots of fun at parts; the level maps are often quite interesting in concept and design. The game also seems quite big. It took me about 15 hours to complete my first playthrough (but I was going for 100%, albeit not actually achieving it, yet). However, the largest part of the last level is horseshit in difficulty and design. At least when played with keyboard and mouse. It will likely make you hate this game forever and forget any fun times had. I wanted to play this game for quite a long time, since I heard and read time and again how unappreciated it was, and a true gem and since Tim Schaffer did part of the writing. I don't regret playing it, and I can tell that Double Fine had lots of good ideas and put their heart into the game (so to speak), but I can sure see why many (pc) gamers may ragequit at quite a few "challenges" and then write an angry review about it.
AbstractNapper fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Oct 14, 2014 |
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Oct 14, 2014 10:57
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The last level of Psychonauts is infamously bullshit. AIUI it's actually been toned down since the release, though it may just have been bugfixed. I played it when it came out on PS2, and there was a point where it decided that I should be respawning underwater. As for me: COMPLETED: Hexcells Infinite. I've been playing the Infinite mode to relax, and it's kind of amazing how much less interesting the random maps are from the designed ones. Random levels aside, the main game isn't quite as rough as Hexcells Plus was. Not sure if that's because it's easier or if it's because I mastered the techniques you need back in Plus.
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Oct 15, 2014 15:17
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BEATEN: To the Moon - Mediocre RPG Maker game that is cheaply emotional. Its tileset feels somewhat thematically inappropriate, perhaps anachronistic. The characterization is kind of spotty and the characters make weird hand-waved decisions. I didn't get it, I guess. I like story games, but this one didn't resonate with me. BEATEN TO A PULP: Zeno Clash - In my top 10 of games played since the summer sale. I've had it forever but I forgot why I bought it so long ago. Didn't take but a few minutes before I remembered why I fell in love with the demo. It's just ridiculous fun to beat the poo poo out of these weird Sid'n'Marty Kroft people. And it's sweetly short, with each level only lasting about 3-4 minutes, just the way I like it. BEATEN: Dead Space 2 - Ten times better than the first. It is identical in feel and in spirit to the original, but with much more varied locations, objectives, and sequences. Human contact actually is kind of nice (though kept sparingly, which was the right call). Disappointed that you didn't actually get to use all your ridiculous weapons against human soldiers, just in terms of climax (I'm not for having human enemies in general like in DS3, just for the final chapters here). Zero-G control is way better as well. BEATEN: Assassin's Creed II - So, it was okay. It was not the greatest Creed. I'm sure it's better than the first, which I did not play. It could've been a lot better. I really liked the Villa stuff, and some of the missions. Game was full of glitches though, and the guard AI was flat out bad. Controls felt a lot clunkier compared to IV. BEATEN: Assassin's Creed Brotherhood - A little bit better, but so far Black Flag is still tops. The AI isn't any better, and in some of the final missions, guards were popping-in right in front of or behind me, screwing up my Full Sync challenges. The gently caress was that about. I liked being able to renovate Rome. Disappointed by the small role of Leo. The Desmond levels were actually okay. Controls were only somewhat refined (seemed like grabbing only wanted to work half the time though). ACII was a B- and this is a B.
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Oct 18, 2014 07:51
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 All my computers are broken now so I'll probably just leave it like this for a while.
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Oct 19, 2014 07:20
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BEAT: Roundabout - Absolutely charming open world puzzle game made by some horrible goons. Highly recommended and even though I'm done the story I'll be trying for higher scores and more completion. BEAT: Neverending Nightmares - Great style and fantastic sound design but boy there sure isn't a whole lot of actual gameplay. It's mostly a spooky walking thing and I appreciated what I was going for but playing it just wasn't very fun. BEAT: Destiny - A bad game that's fun to play. PLAYING: Pix the Cat - Pac-Man meets Snake with a few other fantastic twists and a TON of content. Seriously a fantastic game and if you own a PS4 or a Vita you need to pick it up. PLAYING: Five Nights at Freddy's - This game loving owns but it's 2spooky
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Oct 19, 2014 16:06
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Bought and Beaten: The Walking Dead, Season 2. I'm not sure how to feel about this game. I don't have any complaints that really immediately jump out at me, even the return of you know who was at least kind of bread-crumbed. But while I've enjoyed replaying Season 1 several times, I can't say I'll see myself replaying Season 2 any time soon. If I had to, I'd bring the different down to two major things. First, none of the characters are as immediately-likable or memorable as in Season 1, and nor are they as deep. They have motivations, sure, but every single character can probably be summed up in two or three words. There's no depth beyond what you no about them, no surprises. No reason to care, beyond them maybe being a bit nicer to Clementine. In the early episodes, they make a couple half-hearted attempts to draw parallels between the new characters and the old, but they don't follow through, either explicitly, or in their actions. It makes it feel very hollow, and superficial. Jane was interesting, but you can kind of guess her entire arc from the moment she opens her mouth. No one else except her and you know who even really has an arc. The other major issue is that your own choices don't have nearly as much weight. Sure, the story's linear, and you can't get too much around that, but sometimes your actions would be brought up an episode or even several later. Between constantly having Clementine around, and the final scene in the Marsh House, the things you chose to do in Season 1 felt like they had consequences, at least in how people view Lee. There's none of that here. You make a choice, a character maybe mentions it once a few minutes later, and then never again, basically. Even the early who-do-you-save option is mostly a smokescreen. But they don't even do anything with that. It could have been really cool if they'd used that, and worked in an overarching theme of futility, brought back the "you never really have a choice" thing that Lee was always talking about in the first game. But they didn't, and instead I just feel kind of cheated. It's like pre- and post-Moffat new Who. Some of these characters are the same, and the same world and names are attached, so I know I'm expected to feel the same way, but the execution, the unmentioned framework and spirit and themes behind the Right Now just aren't there. Meh. In short: If you're really itching to see where Clementine's story goes, you should probably just watch a Let's Play, because almost nothing changes. If you have to pick it up, don't buy it at full price. PS I guess the change in gameplay from "click a moving target" to "do some simple QTEs and then click a moving target" is an improvement?
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Oct 19, 2014 23:15
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Nevermind
Jesto fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Jun 20, 2021 |
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Oct 20, 2014 11:23
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BEATEN: Gray Matter - Perfectly average adventure game. Has a couple of interesting ideas (magic tricks you can use to manipulate people for example), kind of lame story, has some amenities (like letting you know there's nothing more to do in a specific area, for example, or showing every hotspot). The cutscenes are your typical terrible adventure game cutscenes, this time with an After Effects flavor. A couple of them are just weird, like the professor smelling the shampoo and his brain starts frying and suddenly he's sniffing his wife's hair. BEATEN: FEAR Perseus Mandate - The weaker of the two FEAR expansion packs. It's still FEAR, so the gunplay is still GREAT, but the horrors are really forced this time since you're not even the normal FEAR protagonist. How many times can the same story be retold anyway, it's not like it's a new perspective or anything. Anyway, bullet time shotgun fun. Bad game marathon: BEATEN: Xotic - Absolutely awful unfun "arcade" shooter, if your idea of "arcade" is the kind of fake arcade game you would see in an episode of CSI. It's a score-attack game where you try to rack up combos by shooting bead-looking targets and collecting gems, but they also throw enemies in for no reason, and also every weapon feels terrible terrible terrible. BEATEN: Bone the Great Cow Race - Telltale's first adaption so I can kind of give them a pass on how mediocre it is, but it is mediocre. The quests are mostly talking at people, doing one thing with one item, and talking to them again. Some "puzzles" are literally just talking to one person and talking to another person. Just not very good. BEATEN: Wallace & Gromit in "Muzzled" - Telltale's sleepiest series. Still looks great, still plays boring. All the characters Telltale invented for the series feel like boring, stuffy tropes. The re-use is pretty bad too, on par with the first Sam & Max season. ONGOING: Mars War Logs, Afterfall Insanity (you can't stop me), Assassin's Creed Revelations, Legend of Grimrock, Shadowrun Returns
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Oct 21, 2014 07:51
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