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Beat: Spec Ops: The Line - I kind of wish I had gone into this without any expectations, because for the first half of the game I kept expecting "something" to happen, though I wasn't sure what. When "it happened," though, the game became much, much more interesting. Your wisecracking squad gets torn up physically and emotionally by the events in the game, and your own character's descent into madness is really intense.The final confrontation is probably one of the best scenes I've seen in any shooter. After finishing the game it took me awhile to fully digest the story, and I went back and watched a few different reviews/analyses of the game to help me fully comprehend what happened. A couple of them postulated that this is a sort of deconstruction of the FPS genre: you're mowing down lots of bad guys, but to what end? Should you really be murdering these people? Most other games try pretty hard to keep you from asking these questions. Spec Ops sets you up to do some pretty unspeakable poo poo, then leaves you to wallow in the consequences. Definitely a unique gaming experience. Nulled: The Witcher: Enhanced Edition - The gameplay is really dated and the writing seems... kind of bad? I might come back to it if I end up liking the newer Witcher games, but for now I'm not willing to sink a ton of hours into this one. Nulled: Grand Theft Auto III - Pretty buggy on PC, doesn't seem like it's aged well either. Going to pass on this and maybe try Vice City or San Andreas instead. Nulled: Viking: Battle for Asgard - Feels like many other generic 3rd person action games from the era. Lots of light bloom. Wasn't a big fan of the combat. Beat: Battle Brothers - Really, really incredible medieval SRPG. You're the leader of a band of mercenaries in a procedurally generated continent full of german-sounding towns. You take contracts with towns to protect caravans, catch thieves, patrol roads, retrieve artifacts, ransack lairs and so forth. On the overland map, you travel from town to town and manage your supplies of food, tools, medicine and money. Every day you need to pay and feed your mercenaries, so when you have a full contingent of seasoned (and highly paid) mercenaries you'll have to start to think about whether a contract will pay you enough to turn a profit. The combat itself is the heart of the game. Most characters are melee fighters; everything takes action points, but generally you'll have enough to attack twice, or move a bit and swing a weapon. Different weapons have different special attacks, and have different uses: for instant, a sword is easy to hit with and can cut down unarmored targets, a hammer can tear up armor and an axe can split shields. Everything you do builds up fatigue, which goes away slowly each round. Attacks mostly damage a character's armor at first, at which point they start taking health damage. The lower your health gets, the more likely you are to be injured, possibly permanently. If a character's health is reduced to zero, that usually means permanent death. There are lots of other little factors as well: flanking, height advantage, morale, etc, all play a role in combat. Some aspects of the game are kind of frustrating. Hirelings have good/bad traits that aren't shown until after you hire them, so you might find yourself dumping a bunch of money on a Hedge Knight to learn that he's asthmatic, or something. Encounter difficulty varies wildly: each contract shows a difficulty rating, but it's pretty often that you'll walk into a situation where you'll need to either flee, or die. And that's fine in some respects, but I just wish the difficulty would ramp up a little bit more slowly. Anyway, great game. I beat one of the "Great Evils" and started a second file, but I'm not sure how far I'll go with it in the near future. 
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Mar 28, 2017 21:52
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COMPLETED: Dark Souls 3 Sad day now that I can say I've definitively played through them all to completion. Dark Souls 3 landed a little weak for me at first, but the DLCs have done a lot to extend their reach in echoing back great moments or concepts from their past iterations. And, unlike the previous DLC, it did actually bring back a level of difficulty that was wanting. Folks said Friede was extremely tough but I got her on my 2nd try. I love her design and weapon, though. Even if I similarly wished there was more to see when it was all said and done, I don't feel cheated. Goodbye Dark Souls, you were pretty rad. Even you, DS2.
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Mar 29, 2017 00:22
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Beaten: Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - It was good and I beat it and did most of the side quests except the two I missed out on because I was trigger happy. Beaten: Total War: Warhammer - Got a Short Campaign Victory as the Dwarfs and would have had a Long one except for one stupid assassination grudge that wouldn't be any fun to actually do.
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Apr 1, 2017 07:55
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Khablam posted:Launch steam as an admin, and try launching FC4. That's often where Uplay games go wrong. I'd completely uninstalled it out of frustration, but I fired up Far Cry 3 instead. After a couple weeks I reinstalled Far Cry 4 from scratch again and it started right up. I can't be sure, but I think either the game cache just needed to be redownloaded (even though it had been verified 3 or 4 times) or Far Cry 3 installed some critical framework that Far Cry 4 was missing but Far Cry Primal didn't need. Anyway now I get to go to Kyrat and Rakyat.
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Apr 2, 2017 01:38
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Been a while since I've updated this thread: BEAT - Until Dawn I enjoyed this game so much more than I thought I was going to enjoy it. The premise is that it's a Telltale/Dadvid Cage version of a Slasher fic with teenage characters. You will go through the game playing as like 8 different teenagers, and their survival directly depends on your choices and proficiency at QTEs. IT depended a little too much on walking down a path to convince you that this is a game rather than a story, but it did reward exploration with collectibles that showed you possible future events. I was tense the entire time because I felt like I could get my characters killed at any point. I ended up only saving 3 characters with two of the characters dying in what I felt were cheap ways. It was a great experience for me, and I'm glad I could do it for only $12. BEAT - Tales from the Borderlands I really enjoyed playing TWD Season 1 way back when, and haven't played a Telltale game since then. I heard that this was the best they've done since TWD, so I wanted to check it out. I played this next partially due to the roulette, partially due to wanting an easy game to stream from the PS4. Coming off the heels of Until Dawn, this was a mistake. The Telltale formula of having choices shape the characters rather than the narrative just doesn't speak to me any more. There were some really cool moments that made me laugh out loud (bro scene and finger guns), but again I feel like the walking should have been toned down a lot. The game revitalized my interest in playing the Borderlands games, so there is that. However, I think this will be the last Telltale game I play. I kind of want to try the Batman game at some point, but I hear its not great. PLAYING - Borderlands: The Pre Sequel I found a decent deal on the Handsome Collection, and found some friends who were playing through them. I wanted to see what transpired in this game at a time where I wasn't burned out on the game. I'll still maintain that it is a weaker game than BL2 (I'm also replaying this with a friend who is playing it for the first time), but it at least seems shorter. The classes feel a lot more unique. This game seems to take place right after Tales before 2. PLAYING - Metal Gear Solid 5 A friend wanted to watch me stream this, so it jumped to the front of my list. The game is really fun, but man am I bad at it. I am about mission 14 with about 13 hours, so it looks like I still have a lot of game left. I really just want to fulton the world. I just unlocked D Dog and Quiet (what a terrible character design). On one hand I am glad to be playing the game, on the other I am anxious to plow through more of the backlog and this could take a month. Here is my game list, not including the Vita for which I keep buying discount games for and the N3DSXL I just picked up. Halp 1 Ratchet and Clank 2 Batman: Arkham Knight 3 Final Fantasy Type 0 4 Uncharted 2 Uncharted 3 (after I beat 2) 5 World of Final Fantasy 6 DOOM 7 Tearaway-Unfolded 8 Witcher 3 GOTY 9 Dark Souls 3 10 Digimon-Cyber Sleuth 11 Titanfall 2 12 Tales from the Borderlands 13 Lego Batman 3 Ghost Squad 14 Pikmin (Wii) Pikmin 2 (after 1) 15 The Last Story 16 Trauma Center: New Blood Trauma Team (After New Blood) 17 Xenoblade Chronicles 18 Super Mario Galaxy 2 19 Mario 3D World 20 New Super Luigi Bros 21 #FE 22 Paper Mario Color Splash 23 Yoshi's Wooly World 24 Bayonetta 2 25 Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze 26 Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD 27 Starfox Zero/Guard 28 Captain Toad Pikmin 3 (after 1 and 2)
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Apr 7, 2017 21:36
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BEATEN: Neon Shadow - Old school retro FPS, I liked it better than Knack but it's really nothing special and quite obviously a mobile port (yes this was a retro FPS on mobile of all platforms. i have no idea guys) BEATEN: The Eyes of Ara - Myst-style realtime 3D point n click that has similarities to The Room in addition to having inventory puzzles and Myst-type "see code somewhere and input it elsewhere" puzzles. BEATEN: Living Legends: Frozen Fear Collection - (2) HIDDEN OBJECT GAMES! BEATEN: SUPERHOT - Everyone's said everything about this BEATEN: Broken Age Act 2 - I liked it! Only one thing was not obvious (the snake falling asleep). I gotta say, based on everything I've played from DoubleFine, I'm starting to think the "everything since Spacebase is poo poo" narrative is just a flat out lie. I WILL SAY that I haven't played Massive Chalice though, which may suck, and I know The Cave had problems. But I liked Hack & Slash, and I liked Iron Brigade!! BEATEN: Ultraworld Exodus - Free walking sim on Steam, cycles from really basic existential philosophy to really basic nihilism to really basic transcendence talk. BEATEN: Sproggiwood - Babby's first roguelike, I beat it on Easy because I am the worst gamer BEATEN: Jotun - Attack-and-dodgeroll topdown game with hand-drawn animated enemies/bosses, it was decent! But of course no game is as good as Ys series so. BEATEN: Neon Chrome - Twin stick shooter, hard to gently caress up those, is a bit run-based with persistent stats and currency to buy loadouts before starting at checkpoints. Eh. I beat it. BEATEN: Dreamfall Chapters - I'd like to talk for a little bit about Dreamfall Chapters. I was fully into the game all the way to the end. But that doesn't mean it was a good game? In fact the more separation I get the more I dislike the game. For starters, the gameplay itself is pretty terrible. You spend the majority of the time running around doing errands on giant maps that the Unity engine can't handle very well (the load times are pretty long too). There are choices, that feel important at the time and then don't matter as much when you look back (at most it affects a couple of characters who live/die). The real issue is the story, which is as engrossing as it is embarassing. This story drops the ball that Dreamfall: TLJ put in its hand, hard. Without getting spoilery, stuff just flat out gets forgotten, not just from the first two games but from Chapters itself. Characters that just pretty much disappear, whose fates are left up in the air. There are also an incredible amount of Deus Ex Machina moments, including Book Five which has maybe THE MOST DEUS EX MACHINA DUMB poo poo EVER. In retrospect it's almost like, someone's self-insert character snuck into the fuckin pitch room. Also Book Five introduces a whole lot of story beats that are, flat out, NONSENSE. And feel, if not contradictory, then at least at odds with stuff that had been revealed in the prior two games. Ugh. UGH.
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Apr 8, 2017 02:27
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Nulled: Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak The gameplay is solid and I like that the Kapisi is actually capable of holding its own in combat once upgraded. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the writing has improved much since Homeworld 2, nor have they realized that requiring you to ignore mission objectives in order to collect resources is pretty dumb. And they somehow misplaced important UI elements that both HW1 and HW2 had. Playing it mostly makes me want to replay HW: Cataclysm. Now Playing: Numenera: Torment (laptop game) Really enjoying this so far, but it's my wife's copy, which means I can only play it when she isn't. So when she is... Now Playing: Dex (laptop game) This game is not at all subtle about being Deus Ex: The Sidescroller, but I'm enjoying it a great deal.
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Apr 8, 2017 19:31
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DOOM is a surprising amount of work to actually play. I'm having trouble motivating myself to play it, and have been sticking with lower-impact stuff, mostly revisits of things i never finished properly. COMPLETED: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. I played a ton of this as a kid and tended to stall out shortly after Palace 3. But now I've cleared it honestly. I needed two map consultations (I'd missed a magic container and routing the Great Palace is horrific) and one actual hint (how to damage the penultimate boss). For a game that's supposed to be the black sheep of the Zelda series it holds up surprisingly well. Once I got a handle on the combat system I was enjoying myself thoroughly. COMPLETED: Chip's Challenge 1. All 149 levels. The modern incarnation drops the password system which means that the path to the secret levels is now just a lame joke you face after completing the normal final stage. I'd shelved it originally after 103 levels or so, and this time I came back to finish the job. Level design in this is incredibly variable, and here in the endgame it varied between "that's clever" through "this is tedious and finicky and horrible" through "what the Christ, go gently caress yourself", with the last two being mostly played off walkthroughs. This gets more exciting because the game's been implemented about a billion times and they don't all have the same glitches and bugs and a lot of these levels all but require glitch exploitation to actually solve. Still, a pretty good mix of thinking stuff through, fast reflexes, and brainlessness. We haven't seen it's like since, and for good reasons... but I'm still glad it exists. NEW GAME: Shovel Knight: Spectre of Torment. I've only played a couple levels of this but I'm already in love. I should really hold off on it until I finish up DOOMing.
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Apr 10, 2017 08:21
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ManxomeBromide posted:
Aw, one of my favourites!  It's actually the first Zelda game I had ever played, so when I was little, and couldn't read (which this game literally helped with ; I can't read the words 'young man' without thinking about it), I thought it was the first game. I've been told that Eliot Quest on Steam is a worthy tribute. I really have to check it out.
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Apr 10, 2017 08:34
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: It is incredible how terrible and amateurish entire aspects of this game are, to the degree that everyone at Bethesda should frankly be embarrassed about it. It is equally incredible how little that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. I played a lightly modded version (bug fixes, SkyUI, stripped down compass + better quest descriptions to compensate, couple of other things) for 201 hours over two characters and that pretty much speaks for itself. But let's be honest - the quests are mostly dull (even the Dark Brotherhood assassinations were so bland), the writing is awful (except the books, which are great), the attempts at creating dramatic tension are beyond pathetic. Etc. etc. etc., everyone already knows this. But the world and environments are great, and dungeon-delving is fun. And Markarth is beautiful. Something about the basic Elder Scrolls template just works despite the dubious quality of everything around it. There are two things that grate the most for me. One is that the game was designed with fast travel and quest markers in mind. It would be a hundred times better without them (but 'immersive' fast travel a la carriages is necessary. Unmodded there isn't enough of it). Mods help but only paper over the cracks. The second is Bethesda's peculiar insistence that every questline end with you becoming the leader of the guild. For the life of me I cannot understand this at all. By all means make me a senior member, but the leader, every time? Is it not enough to be the Dragonborn, you have to make this one character The Chosen One x5? The game world cannot and does not support this. I split the guilds over both characters because the Arch-Mage doing lowly chores for the Thieves Guild would be idiotic. At least in Morrowind you were restricted to one House and the guilds occasionally butted heads. Plus they actually cared if you were a capable mage / thief / fighter (I know lots of players would protest if guild progress was gated by skill checks... but it should be). Thankfully mods. Also, Cicero might well be the most aggravating voice acting I've heard in a game. I can't believe a self-respecting voice director ok'ed that performance. In conclusion, Skyrim basically kind of sucks but it's also great. I am at least a little tempted to go back for a third character, but this time go nuts with mods and totally revamp the experience. --------- That was it, though... I'm done. I have no more backlog. It is officially at zero. ...now what? 
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Apr 10, 2017 12:16
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Tackle any other backlogs you have running! My book backlog is worse than my games one, see. Alternatively, enjoy the freedom of purchasing a new game knowing you can play it without a backlog looming over you like a malevolent beast. Or: replay your favorite game. Up to you really!
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Apr 10, 2017 12:28
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In a way my backlog is not really gone, it's just that it hasn't been purchased yet. It resides in my wishlist rather than my library. Fortunately it feels a lot less burdensome that way, in that as long as I haven't actually spent the money I don't feel the burden.  But yeah, I think I'll see about replaying some stuff. The best thing about finally wrapping up this backlog business is that I feel like I've trained myself well to resist tempting sales and deals (over the past year I only bought a handful of titles, at Christmas), and hopefully I'll be a keener shopper in the future rather than gobble up every half-tempting bundle.
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Apr 10, 2017 13:06
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Glare Seethe posted:Also, Cicero might well be the most aggravating voice acting I've heard in a game. I can't believe a self-respecting voice director ok'ed that performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSYXwSxjBXs&t=193s
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Apr 10, 2017 13:15
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Fart of Presto posted:Someone hasn't played The Whispered World (3:13 is linked, not spoiling anything). I did play it. Eventually I got used to Sadwick. I stand by my statement!
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Apr 10, 2017 13:45
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Glare Seethe posted:The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: It is incredible how terrible and amateurish entire aspects of this game are, to the degree that everyone at Bethesda should frankly be embarrassed about it. It is equally incredible how little that detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game. I played a lightly modded version (bug fixes, SkyUI, stripped down compass + better quest descriptions to compensate, couple of other things) for 201 hours over two characters and that pretty much speaks for itself. But let's be honest - the quests are mostly dull (even the Dark Brotherhood assassinations were so bland), the writing is awful (except the books, which are great), the attempts at creating dramatic tension are beyond pathetic. Etc. etc. etc., everyone already knows this. But the world and environments are great, and dungeon-delving is fun. And Markarth is beautiful. Something about the basic Elder Scrolls template just works despite the dubious quality of everything around it. I am replaying it with a mod called "Caranthir Tower Reborn" added , its an amazing player home mod
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Apr 10, 2017 14:00
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Shadow225 posted:PLAYING - Metal Gear Solid 5 lol I am 40+ hours in and on that same mission.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:17
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InevitableCheese posted:lol I am 40+ hours in and on that same mission. I told myself that I wouldn't try to knock out all of the Side Ops or retry for S ranks. I'm just going to play through it straight chalk. I'm now on Mission 19 with about 24 hours.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:36
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Man I want to play MGSV so bad right now. Gonna poop sock it so hard when I get home from this trip.
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Apr 10, 2017 19:52
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Steam Anonymous - gonna poop sock it so hard
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Apr 10, 2017 22:31
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Ha, didn't realize what thread I was in when I posted that, but the point still stands. MGSV was actually the last big game I bought, around Christmas if I remember and I told myself no more buying games until I beat it. So far I've kept my word
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Apr 10, 2017 23:52
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Played a few things: Played more: My Summer Car. Still good, under active development and silly and I got further but I simply can't get into it while you can't pause and will starve to death when if you go to hang the laundry out or cook dinner or something. It irritates me. Nulled: Project CARS. Career mode kind of sucks with with difficulty peaks and troughs and also no acknowledgement of the difficulty level you set it at. It looks great and the cars are fantastic so I might get back into it if I want some time trial action. I'd love a racing game with sim handling but Project Gotham-style career with lots and lots of different events, each with rewards for each level of achievement. Played more: BeamNG:Drive. This is so good. The proper-damage-physics sandbox has a couple of official campaigns and a ton of downloadable ones offering simple time trials to obstacle courses to silly stuff like driving a over a rickety wooden bridge or jumping hundreds of feet in a drag racer. Hoping for lots more development. Played more: Factorio. I played this and got ill, had weird fever dreams about it and now I associate the endless chug of conveyor belts and assembly machines with being really ill. I'll come back to it because it's great. Beat: The Witcher 3. And all the DLC. Loved it, game owns, I'm sure everyone has an opinion on it now. I wouldn't recommend trying to tackle it all in one go as the pacing does go a bit funny in the middle as you run a thousand errands. Sits at #4 in my all time favourite game list. Beat: Portal Stories: Mel. This had been sitting in my library for ages and ages and I'm so glad I finally played it. Really challenging puzzles for those who thought Portal 2 got away from the original style a bit. Good luck on the advanced chambers because I couldn't manage them. Beat: Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Nobody really seemed to fall for this but I loved it. Maybe it lacked the 'next-gen-not-terrible Deus Ex!' factor of Human Revolution or something? It seemed like a smart, improved HR and I really enjoyed exploring the world at my own pace and finding everything there was to offer. At #19 in my big list of good games. The second best Deus Ex. Bought: Just Cause 3. It's a lot of fun and an improvement over Just Cause 2 but it's not grabbed me in the same way for some reason. I'll chip away at it when I want to fly around and blow things up because it does that perfectly while looking beautiful. Played More: Rimworld. I beat Vanilla! This is my favourite game ever, I just love it and you should play it too. The next alpha will add a bunch of nice things so I'm waiting for that to drop before doing a modded playthrough, Bought: XCOM2. Like XCOM but better and more. I made the mistake of quitting midway through a campaign that was in the balance and now I will have lost my edge. Still need to beat it. I thought the DLCs sucked and it would be much better served by an Enemy Within type expansion. Long Way really doesn't look my thing. Played more: Sunless Sea. I bought the expansion and promptly loving died of running out of fuel. I was going to savescum but so much has been added since I last started a new game it's been a pleasure seeing new stuff as well as trying different options in stories I'd already done. Great game if you keep your own log because the one in-game is bad. Makes you fell more like a real Zee-captain! The Zubmariner expansion adds a lot and gives you more to do when going from place to place. Played more: Crusader Kings 2. Bought Monks & Mystics and won a crusade! Still writing my dumb history of my dynasty while I play the game as the non-expansionist Britannia. The recent DLCs have really made playing that kind of game interesting. Bought: Dishonored 2. Really enjoying this, even though I often end up frustrated because I can't stealth. The environments are great, though, and the classic non-lethal way of taking out your targets. I did euthanise one target after the fact, though because loving hell. Bought: Football Manager 2017. I'm doing a competition using the editor for my own amusement. I'm putting footballers in a custom team for the city they were born in and having a 128-team tournament. Buenos Aires, London, Dakar, Rosario and Rio de Janeiro all look particularly handy so far. Madrid somehow lost to loving Groningen in the first qualifying round and that's why Utrecht are in the final 16 group stage. I really want to do an international tournament with a legend's database someone put on the Steam Workshop, too. I used to do poo poo like this with CPU vs CPU matches on WWE games and pen and paper. I still have The Magic Circle lined up and that's my backlog, though I still have unfinished business with Kerbal Space Program, FTL and Euro Truck Simulator 2. Walton Simons fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Apr 13, 2017 |
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Apr 13, 2017 14:06
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I've beaten 320 games in the past year which I'll admit is almost detached from reality. Almost scribbling on the walls bad. But a lot of them were short games, you can just read my posts in this thread for proof!! Anyway here's some more. I'll fill in the recaps later (gonna take a nap). BEATEN: Ultraworld Exodus - Free walking sim that wasn't that great honestly, but it's free!! It's a free walking sim for you jim BEATEN: ICARUS.1- Walking sim that WASN'T free and ALSO wasn't that great. It never really builds all that much which is why I was disappointed. BEATEN: Shadow Warrior 2013 - I'm free of the curse of playing this horrible terrible game. I beat it and I can delete it forever. BEATEN: Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor - Chill-rear end grind game of picking up trash and selling it in an attempt to get out of your terrible dirt-poor life and leave the planet. BEATEN: Ninja Pizza Girl - Runner-inspired platformer where you race against the clock to deliver pizzas on time. It was just okay, but I give it a pass because it was a family-made game to promote anti-bullying. BEATEN: Rituals - ANOTHER walking sim, can you believe it?? I was just super into clearing out my walking sims I guess! BEATEN: Event[0] - YES ANOTHER ONE. But this one was actually fun! It's a walking sim AND Dr. Sbaitso recreation. The 7th Guest fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 13, 2017 22:15
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Mr. Flunchy posted:BEATEN: Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil / Lost Mission I hope you enjoy it. DOOM 2016 is such a refreshingly good change of pace, it's like you're going back full circle to the beginning, but in a good way.
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Apr 14, 2017 03:07
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BEATEN: DOOM Fargin Icehole posted:I hope you enjoy it. DOOM 2016 is such a refreshingly good change of pace, it's like you're going back full circle to the beginning, but in a good way. This was everything I hoped it'd be. Every single molecule of the game is geared towards speed and violence - from the way Doomguy zips around the place like he's got a rocket up his arse to the way he punches the upgrade robots and tears demonic heads in two. I felt like there was a real Platinum Games vibe to the arena combat - every weapon has a time and a place it should be used and every monster has a specific tactic to take them down. It's easy enough in theory, but when you're juggling a room full of leaping monsters that want to beat you to death with your own arms, it ends up being a kind of instinctive ballet of shotgun-shotgun-chargebeam-melee-shotgun-grenade-lockonrocket-rocket-melee-grenade-CHAINSAW. On top of that everything is so beautifully responsive. The first person physicality is beautiful - especially the mantling - with the impact as you land from a height, or bash in some door cranking up that feeling of being the most badass thing these demons have ever seen. And y'know, the visual design, music, sfx and level design are all polished to a mirror sheen. Probably one of the best single player FPS campaigns I've ever played. Didn't touch multiplayer and Snapmap wouldn't load for some reason, but I'm perfectly happy with the SP on its own. Pleased to have finally completed every single ID DOOM game. BEATEN: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild  I'm not quite sure how I even came to be playing this. Back in January someone came to stay in my spare room and offered me a Wii U as payment. I didn't have time to fiddle with it so I left it in its box. Then another friend calls me and says his Mum had a game randomly show up from Amazon that she didn't order ("Legend of something or other?"), and do I want it? Well it turned out to be BoTW - and gently caress me this game is exactly as great as everybody says it is. I haven't played a game that's sucked away time as easily as this in ages. You sit down, play a bit, then notice it's dark outside and - poo poo - it's midnight?! But I was just having lunch. There's just so many distractions and so much stuff to do, and it's all fun and rewarding. For example, near the start of the game I decided to see what was at the top of the nearest mountain. Four hours later I'd uncovered this enormous free-form quest complete with a kickass action sequence (done entirely without checkpoints or quest markers) that relied on my smarts, skills and curiosity to work it out. It's a genuinely humongous achievement in game design and really feels like the pinnacle of what Nintendo are capable of. I finished up the main plot and did about half the shrines and a bunch of sidequests, and I'm still hungry for more. Leaving it aside now until I get the craving again. Praise be to the random fates that bestowed this upon me. BEATEN: Alan Wake  In which Sam Lake's writing ambitions can't surmount his writing skills. It's a half-baked third person shooter with a lovely gameplay look and about three different enemies. The game essentially consists of wandering around the woods until a bunch of axe-wielding shadow lumberjacks attack you. You shine a torch on them for a couple of seconds and then clumsily shoot them. Rinse and repeat for 12 hours. The game mixes things up with possessed inanimate objects ("oh nooo an evil floating pipe") and killer crows, but that's about it. I wouldn't mind too much if it were in service of a decent plot, but it's essentially all about the psychological turmoil of its hero, Alan Wake. Problem is - he's an unlikeable rear end right down to the final credits of the DLC episodes. Not only does he spend the game wearing a hideous hoodie and leather-elbowed houndstooth jacket combo, but he just whines and moans (in bad voice acting) through boring interpersonal drama. "I'm a successful writer and celebrity boo hoo hoo." I like Sam Lake's Max Payne noir pastiches, but this is fatally sincere and crammed full of genuinely crappy dialogue that restates the same thing over and over. Also annoying is that the game is full of product placement for Energizer batteries, Ford cars, Microsoft products and Verizon wireless. I can usually overlook this kind of thing as the cost of doing business but if you're trying to create a kooky, subcultural Twin Peaks kinda vibe, having ads for a phone company popping up really kills the atmosphere. Especially when characters begin quoting the loving ads back at you in dialogue. I ground through the thing constantly hoping it'd get better, but it never did. Resorted to chugging through the DLC extra episodes on easy. Really hope American Nightmare doesn't come up on my Steam Randomiser anytime soon. Deadly Premonition may be technically atrocious, but it does what Alan Wake's trying to do with ease. BEATEN: Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7  I asked the Steam thread what games to play with my girlfriend, and they recommended this. She's a Harry Potter fan so the whole experience went down pretty well. Fun game with a lot of attention to detail and some surprisingly nifty visuals at times. I think a potential flaw is that the mimed cutscenes can't really convey the complex plot of the books - and I haven't read all of them/seen all the films. If I were playing it singleplayer I'd be mostly confused as to why stuff was happening, but fortunately my GF was happy to explain who was who etc. Good times. Think I'll check out Lego LoTR next. NULLED: The Cave  Really wanted to like this. Ron Gilbert's writing has always tickled me and the opening sequence was weird enough to get my intrigued. But some boneheaded design choices made me quit pretty early on. The game's gimmick is that you take three characters through a surreal platforming cave, using their abilties to solve puzzles and piece together their stories. But you can only control one at a time, which means that you essentially have to do each piece of platforming three times in a row. It's teethgrittingly repetitive and the platforming mechanics are kinda floaty, slow and imprecise. I really tried to force myself through as it's pretty short, but this killed it stone dead. A simple 'warp all characters to me' button would have made it work too... Oh well.
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Apr 19, 2017 15:28
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Three more before my trip/vacation: BEATEN: X-Blades - This game was really bad but I wanted to do it before playing the way better Blades of Time. BEATEN: Hit Tin Roof - It's not a terrible game but honestly I think both this and the old game Cosmic Spacehead have really proven that platformer and point n click adventure shouldn't mix. They're not the chocolate and peanut butter combo that you'd think they would be. BEATEN: Dead Cells (Alpha) - The alpha I was given access to was a kind of limited extended demo with two levels and a boss. It took me 5 hours to Git Gud enough to best it. I don't know if I'll buy the full game but it was an enjoyable experience and it has amazing sprite animation.
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Apr 20, 2017 02:04
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NULLED: GTA Online. I got banned. Getting a ban in GTA Online means waiting a month and having your progress wiped. Seeing as how it's a grind without purchasing microtransactions, and the goons I used to play with are insufferable, I think I spent enough time in Los Santos. I see this as actually a good thing since now I can give my other sandbox games attention....once I finish Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 
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Apr 20, 2017 03:27
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Finished: 12 Labours of Hercules V: Kids of Hellas The most polished of the Time Management games I've played so far. I always play them on easy, so I don't know if they have become tougher to beat. I play them (and HOGs) to wind down and chill, not to stress out about getting 3 stars on ever level. Finished: Adam Wolfe A pretty drat good Hidden Object Game. Just as high quality production values as the Artifex Mundi ones, and this time with shootouts and a male protagonist. Oh my! Finished: Arizona Rose and the Pharaoh's Riddles To be honest, I had originally categorized this as a HOG, but while there are a few HO scenes scattered here and there, the game is a Picross clone with a HOG story, female protagonist and all. No kids to be saved here, but you'll be able to follow the unfolding of the love story between spunky detective/archaeologist and nerdy/socially awkward archaeologist - every goon's dream when they are not playing anime visual novels. Nulled: The Cave Basically what Mr. Flunchy above wrote. The game feels and looks great, but that single thing of not being able to call/teleport your two other characters back to you is just loving dumb design. I finished the knight's quest and started on the hillbilly's quest before I had to let it go. Nulled: Clutter V: Welcome To Clutterville Imagine Ullillillia made a Hidden Object/Puzzle game. Now imagine him making a full series, and this is number 5, where, in between puzzles, he tells a story about why he was hurt that people complained about the story of the first game, and how he had now made a fifth iteration, still with a story, but this time a story about the game's story. It hurt my head, and apparently also Valve's head, because the game is not available anymore. It also locked up Windows 7 so hard, I had to do a hard reset. The first time I've ever been forced to do this on the current Windows installation. Nulled: Life Is Strange I'm kinda bummed that this didn't click with me. With all the praise goons had given this game, I just couldn't go through it, after having suffered through episode 1's teen-angsty totally-not-hipster Polaroid, blue-haired drivel anymore. Finished: Miniature - The Story Puzzle An extremely short, as in 20-30 minutes, puzzle game, where you are presented with 12 different stories. Each story is made up of 5 tiny dioramas, that you'll have to put in order, and then let the story play out. That's it. Not even a button to remove the HUD to take screenshots of the beautiful graphics is present. Very pretty but not 5 bux pretty. Finished: Shadowrun: Dragonfall - Director's Cut Way better than Shadowrun Returns, and generally just a really good turn-based indie RPG. Can't wait to play the Hong Kong game. Nulled: Trolley Gold Bundle crap of the worst kind.
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Apr 20, 2017 19:09
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So after a couple of years of hacking away at my backlog and not buying too many games, I'm not really sure what to play next. I've gotten to play a lot of the games I was excited about already. http://www.backloggery.com/games.php?user=dhamster&status=1 Anyone have some recommendations of games from that list to check out, or skip entirely? The ones in red I've at least booted up once or played a bit, the ones in green are totally untouched. e: Completed: Battle Brothers - Beat another of the endgame crises: the noble war. The house I fought under ended up dominating most of the map. Adjusted my tactics from the first time around, was really busting heads by the end of this playthrough. Still can't recommend this game enough. dhamster fucked around with this message at 19:38 on Apr 20, 2017 |
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Apr 20, 2017 19:26
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dhamster posted:So after a couple of years of hacking away at my backlog and not buying too many games, I'm not really sure what to play next. I've gotten to play a lot of the games I was excited about already. That's a super solid list. I'm not seeing any obviously skippable titles, at least from what I've played (which is most of them). Child of Light might be a good one to try since it's pretty easy to enjoy, and if you're not very excited about any of these that low entry threshold might help you settle into the game. Same goes for Trine 2 - beautiful and easy to enjoy. Dropsy if you want something short to knock off the list; Alpha Protocol if you're up for a bit of a challenge (in terms of dealing with jank). But it's hard to go wrong there, to be honest. It's almost nothing but good games. Maybe go back and beat Spelunky?
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Apr 20, 2017 19:53
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Ugh a bit too soon to add another nulled game here. Nulled: Sniper Elite 3 This is totally my poo poo: Sneak around doing stealth kills, snipe nazis from afar when loud sounds occur and then whip out the stengun and the grenades when poo poo goes down. All that good stuff I enjoyed from Sniper Elite 2. Sadly I couldn't get this to work properly. It crashed twice during the tutorial mission, then crashed twice at the beginning of the first mission. All times without any apparent reason. Good thing I have SE4 waiting, because what I got to play of SE3, I really enjoyed. I just don't have the patience to experience these crashes all the time.
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Apr 20, 2017 22:44
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Beaten - Far Cry Primal Against everyone's advice I started with the weakest game first. After playing through it about a 1/3rd of the way I realized it was way too easy so I started again on Very Hard Survival Mode. You die, a lot, but you get more out of the game that way. I also promised myself no Fast Travel cause that's pretty much easy mode too. I didn't go with permadeath though, no reason to make it frustrating. I'm proud of turning into Caveman John Rambo. In fact from that one playthrough I'm confident that I could make a kick rear end informative Let's Play if I wanted. Working through Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment right now which is great but I'm gonna be messing around a bit in Far Cry 3 and 4
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Apr 20, 2017 23:18
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Be sure to play Blood Dragon.
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Apr 21, 2017 00:16
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Sonic Generations can be tricky to get working on cutting-edge systems but if you're in a mood to try to fiddle with settings but not necessarily play stuff, getting it good to go then is good. Sonic Generations is The Best 3D Sonic Game Of Any Kind. I otherwise pretty much second Glare Seethe here; there's a load of great stuff on this list. I'll add that Alpha Protocol's a lot less janky if you never quickload from a gameover screen but instead kick out to the main menu and do a normal "load game". Dust: An Elysian Tail takes a little while to get going but it's about as ideal a modern version of Simon's Quest I can think of. Undertale and Magicka are both quirky in their own ways and both quite good.
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Apr 21, 2017 05:06
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Today seems to be my 5th Backlogg-iversary, so I looked back at the games I beat during the year. Master Reboot - A fun little puzzle / horror / indie game I got gifted to me a long time ago. I only wish it didn't look so flat. Tales of Zestiria - 38-ish hours into the campaign and I was still finding stuff to do, had to put it down, but I'd gladly play the next one. The Longest Journey - Dreamfall Chapters - The first two games were great, yet this episodic tale fell short for me. Characters were grating and the story just kind of lost energy towards the end. Sid Meier's Civilization: Starships - Turn based space battle that was fun for all of an hour, then you beat it. Everyone's Gone to the Rapture - I loved everything about this game, it wasn't afraid to let you get lost and wander the countryside looking for recordings and graffiti. Batman: The Telltale Series - Loved this. I just wish it had ran better. The Banner Saga - Decided to stop putting it off and played through the campaign. Did not regret it at all. D4 : Dark Dreams Don't Die - It's painful to know that this may never be finished. It was zany and exciting, shame my Steam Controller was acting up and the QTE segments were nigh unplayable. The Room 2 - I loved the first game and this one delved deeper into the weird world they were creating. Now to wait for The Room 3. No Man's Sky - 80+ Hours, how could I have enjoyed this one so much. I know the world wanted to crucify this one, but exploring the galaxy was just my cup of tea. I will try out the updates once I finish college. The Banner Sage 2 - Soon after finishing the first, I jumped onto this. Tougher and longer, it really was great. Hopefully the final chapter will conclude the tale. Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist - Beat the campaign, challenges and proceeded to get bodied online. I just wish the DLC wasn't €85 all together! The Inner Darkness - Short and creepy little platformer that took all of an hour to beat. Zero Escape:The Nonary Games - I love these bonkers Saw-esque games so much. I owned Virtues Last Reward on 3DS and played it for about 24 hours before the save file got corrupted. Bought this the second it came on Steam and after powering through 999, I will probably try beat VLR again. Murdered: Soul Suspect - Played this over the Easter break, it was a fun distraction, but drat all those collectables! 
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May 1, 2017 20:56
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Beat: Alpha Protocol - People kept saying it was buggy or janky.. but I thought it was fine for the most part? I mostly went for stealth/pistols with a touch of hand-to-hand, which is probably the most powerful build. Stealth was a bit too punsihing at first and a bit too easy toward the end, but I think part of it is due to how detection goes from zero to full alert so quickly. Pistols start out a bit weak but become extremely powerful as their range improves, and as your "I win" skill, Chain Shot, gets better. The minigames kinda sucked but I learned to eventually start bypassing them with EMPs. Generally I spared plot characters, but I executed leland at the end. The dialogue was cheesy at times, but I like that your choices tend to have consequences. Sometimes I felt like I didn't have enough time to really think about what I was doing, though, or I would unwittingly make a really impactful decision based on a seemingly innocuous dialogue choice. Still, I appreciate that the game will give you some bonus or benefit irrespective of what you decide, so I never felt like I was trying to carefully shoot for the 'best ending.' I actually felt like I was doing some roleplaying. If a character did something to annoy me I might start being a dick to them. If I didn't like a character as much I might be less willing to save them when they're in danger. Though it was a little weird when Marburg gave me a Joker-esque choice to save Madison or prevent a bombing. I chose to stop the bombing and he shoots Madison, then proceeds to lecture me on what a bad guy I was because I didn't save her. Uh, dude, do you really get to moralize right now? Probably the worst part was the end boss in Russia. At the time my combat skills were lacking; I nearly quit the game at that point, but I beat him after several tries. Anyway, it was a fun game. Maybe I would have been more annoyed by its shortcomings if I had bought in to the pre-release hype and paid full price for it at release, but as a bundle purchase I liked it just fine.
dhamster fucked around with this message at 07:36 on May 3, 2017 |
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May 3, 2017 07:32
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Completed: We Were Here - This is a very short game (and it's free). The idea is that two people are trapped in a castle - one person encounters puzzles, and the other person has the answers to those puzzles. I did two run-throughs (one as answer-giver, and one as puzzle-solver) in less than an hour and a half. It was pretty fun from both sides. Though, the second play-through went much faster since the puzzles aren't very randomized. Overall, a fun experience especially because it's free.
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May 3, 2017 16:16
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Beat: Sega Mega Drive & Genesis Classics - Kind of a housekeeping thing. I've beaten a lot of these games before, and some I have no interest in beating. Will eventually come back to this one to beat Shining Force II, or to replay Shining Force I... in the meantime, it's in my "replay" category on Steam. Since I first got this game they've added a neat 3D lobby screen. Not bad. Nulled; Space Pirates and Zombies - I put something like 20 hours into this years ago and stopped around the start of the last chapter, I didn't like the direction the game was going at that point. I booted it up and realized I didn't really feel like getting back into it, so I'm going to take the L on this one.
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May 4, 2017 04:19
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I spent the last 2 months mostly on Crusader Kings II, with 200+ hours more playtime added to the total. That said, I did finish some games as well: PLAYED: Sword of the Stars II. Yeah, no. You can occasionally see flashes of a good game, but it's buried under a terrible interface and several really stupid design choices. The nearly nonexistent tutorial doesn't help much either. Can't recommend. PLAYED: March of the Eagles. EU IV, prototype edition. Although 8 countries are designated majors, and are advertised as the ones intended to be played, that's garbage. There are really only two playable nations: France and Great Britain. I played 2 hours as supposed major Spain and spent the entire time being treated as a chew toy by the British Royal Navy. Skip this and play EU IV instead. COMPLETED: Dungeon of the Endless. Despite the tower defence elements, this is a very old-school roguelike at heart. Randomized dungeons and loot, permadeath for characters, the whole works. Quite good, if you like that sort of thing. COMPLETED: Princess Isabella I: A Witch's Curse. I don't know why I bought the first two Isabella games, considering I hated the third one. I'm glad I did though, because A Witch's Curse is a very good HOG. The fairy tale aesthetic may put you off, though. COMPLETED: Rebuild I. SimCity during the zombie apocalypse. Fun for a few hours, but kinda thin on content. The developer calls this one a prototype for the series, and it really is. You should probably skip this one for the sequels. COMPLETED: Princess Isabella II: Return of the Curse. Not nearly as good as the first, due to some pacing problems. There are a number of places in the game where figuring out what to do next required a Youtube walkthrough on hand. Other than the pacing problems, it's very much a case of "second verse, same as the first." COMPLETED (again): Princess Isabella III: Rise of an Heir. I played this one again to see if knowing the context would make it better. It kinda does; the plot is a direct continuation of Isabella II, and makes a lot more sense now that I know the backstory. On the other hand, it's still the weakest of the Isabella games. The context only raises its rating from "worthless garbage" to "mediocre". COMPLETED: Rebuild II. Much better. Its most improved feature is the fact that characters can now have skills in more than one thing at a time. Highly recommended. COMPLETED: Limbo. I didn't enjoy this one much. Limbo does demand that the player pay more attention than most games require, but it has a few other problems too. No plot, irritating trial-and-error gameplay, and there are a number of places where you know where you need to go and what to do, but doing that thing is an exercise in frustration. This really wasn't for me, and I should probably take Inside off my wishlist, given that it's apparently more of the same.  Next up: Geneforge I. I've had this series sitting in my Steam library for years; time to get to it.
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May 4, 2017 08:36
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Tried to work a bit on the old backlog and checking out a few bundle games. Goddamn, I'm glad I got over my bundle buying addiction. Now I only grab one if it's from Humble and has decent games in it, or it's a HOG bundle where I'm missing a few games. Nulled/"Finished": ABC Coloring Town It's a digital coloring book for kids. Nothing more, nothing less. Nulled: Abrix for kids/Abris the robot A lovely controlled puzzle game where you need to move a robot around to clear blocks/open a pathway to the exit. The "for kids" version is a bit easier and with fewer levels. Finished: Amulet of Dreams It's a Hidden Object Game. Nulled: Annie Amber You need a VR headset to play this. I don't plan on buying a a VR headset to play lovely bundle games. Finished: Aragami Played this on co-op with Kragger and we had a blast. Really fun indie stealth ninja game. Finished: Atlantis: Pearls of the Deep An OK Match 3 game, that starts out like a simple bubble shooter, but ends being a straight up puzzle game. Plenty of challenge levels and and endless zen mode as well. Nulled: Balloon Blowout A lovely mobile game ported to the PC. Nulled: Barrier X Very fast runner-like game, and I couldn't get past 10 seconds before dying. You need 30 seconds to unlock the next level. I just don't have reflexes like a 14 year old kid. Nulled: Battle: Los Angeles Classic movie tie-in made without a budget. It's like a mentally challenged Call of Duty, dumbed down. Nulled: Beater Spirit Some platformer or whatever. I was already bored during the very small tutorial and quit after level 1. Nulled: Man in a Maze: Deathmatch Top-down puzzler where you avoid robots and pick up diamonds in different mazes. Presented like a TV show, which annoyed the crap out of me as there is all kinds of poo poo going on between each level, like getting useless gifts and spinning a wheel of fortune.
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May 6, 2017 14:56
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Beat: Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor - Really nice production values. World seems a little small for a sandbox, but there's lots of stuff to play around with and some very flashy animations. You can snipe with a bow, stealth with a dagger or brawl with a sword, and switch between it all pretty smoothly. Some game mechanics are more gimmicky than useful, and sometimes the flashy animations can be a hindrance: sneaking by orcs is usually easy and stealth kills aren't hard to pull off, but sometimes it's hard to avoid being spotted by orcs during a kill, and there's nothing you can do but watch them call for help while you're waiting for the stealth kill animation to finish. The Nemesis system is really cool, but it stops being as interesting once you are able to dominate orcs, since it doesn't take long to flip most of the captains on the map to your side.. Your power level starts off pretty low: stealth is effective throughout, but it's not easy to kill big groups of orcs. By the end, however, enemies put up hardly any fight at all. The story was alright, it was certainly more interesting than a lot of other LOTR games I've played (which isn't saying much), and the chracters were largely more than just carbon copies of Fellowship members. There wasn't a ton of collectible content for an open world game, which I actually didn't mind--it motivated me to find all the artifacts and stuff around the map, though I was a little let down that there wasn't any kind of reward. Anyway, it was an enjoyable game. I heard the DLCs are poo poo though, so I decided to skip them. Null: Xenonauts - I've played the original X-COM a small amount in recent years; if I were a fan of them when they were new, I would probably really like this game, since it seems very, very similar to the original X-COM. However, the presentation is a bit too bland/dry for me, and I'm a bit burned out on these sorts of strategy games after putting many dozens of hours into Battle Brothers. So, while I might tinker around with this game some more in the furute, I will probably not be making an effort to complete it start to finish, Null: X-COM: UFO Defense - Same as above; I'm probably not going to beat this, though I might hop on to shoot and loot some UFOs when I feel like it. Null: X-COM: Enemy Within - While we're on the topic of X-COM, I bought this quite some time ago after beating the base game, tried out a lot of the expansion content, but kept getting wiped (in Ironman), which kind of burnt me out on this one. So I'm probably going to go ahead and null it. Null: Silent Storm and Silent Storm: Sentinels - I played a good way through Silent Storm when it was still fairly new, and bought it again on Steam a couple years ago. Trying it again, though, the UI is not great and the voice acting is even more horrendous than I remember. Going to pass on this one. Null: Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II and Mysteries of the Sith - Wouldn't run on my PC. Null: Star Wars Empire at War: Gold Pack - Played a bit of this a year ago and wasn't that impressed. Tried it again and still wasn't enjoying it very much. As far as I can tell, just a mediocre, dated RTS with a Star Wars license. Null: Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War + Expansions - Played a bit of vanilla, had a pretty lukewarm experience. I'm probably not going to end up playing these. Null: Borderlands 2 - Played this on and off for a couple years. 35 hours logged and I'm a bit tired of it. Story isn't that great, levels tend to drag, gunplay isn't that great if your damage output isn't top notch.
dhamster fucked around with this message at 20:44 on May 6, 2017 |
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May 6, 2017 19:40
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