Forums > Game Talk > Game Jorunal XIII: See You at the Koshien - Death Tribunal

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 12/22/2015 4:19 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

For those of us too tired of scrolling down.

I am playing Influent, the language learning game, for the second time. The first time it was in Swedish, now I'm trying to learn Japanese, and I swear 1/3 of the words are actually from English. This game needs an outdoor version as well.

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Tracy Poff (2093) on 12/22/2015 5:10 PM · Permalink · Report

If you're interested in games that aid in learning Japanese, you might find Knuckles in China Land interesting. There'a also a Wii game, 250 Mannin no Kanken Wii de Tokoton Kanji Nou which I thought was neat, but the interface is all Japanese (it's not aimed at learners of Japanese as a foreign language), so you'll find it easier to use after you've already got a few fundamentals down.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 12/22/2015 5:36 PM · Permalink · Report

I think kanji will be the death of me, but Knuckles in China Land does look intriguing.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 12/26/2015 9:35 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

After I finished Fallout 4 (summary: my opinion did not change much since my last post) I started with Risen 2. It is curious that I never played it considering how much I love the Gothic series (except Arcania and Forsaken Gods) and Risen.

After the first few hours I can't confirm the numerous negative reactions yet. Even if the division into a few separated islands is disappointing, the typical Gothic feeling is there. Yes. the one that probably lets me forget all flaws which I normally would write long rant posts about.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 12/29/2015 7:46 AM · Permalink · Report

I made a gigantic Steam shopping cart and I spent about 40 minutes trying to curate it. Eventually I got lost in the clickings and I ended up in that "What Games Are Being Played The Most Right Now" section, and my heart was somewhat broken that Dark Souls sits at such a low point (still among the top 100, mind). I wondered why could it be that people are not playing Dark Souls so much anymore, and then I realized I was doing that instead of playing it myself.

Then, I decided to explore my backlog a bit. I intended to give reputed Dark Souls-wannabe Lords of the Fallen a quick spin, but apparently I'm a couple GB of RAM short to get the experience of current-gen games. Either that, or these guys can't optimized code worth two shits. But there's a good chance it might be the RAM thing, this PC has quite a few years already. Still, if I'm right, it would only take another 4 GB to be up to speed again --not too shabby for a computer that was already medium-to-low range circa 2011.

Anyway, next up, I gave the Indivisible prototype a go, and then I just came here to recommend it to everyone and their dog. Indivisible has been dubbed by someone, somewhere, something like "Metroidvania meets Chrono Trigger" or some such. Never played Chrono Trigger myself, so I wouldn't know. All I can tell you is that the game has you 2D-navigating the map with the main character in a Metroidvaina-ish fashion (albeit there's not much of an interconnected world or anything, what with the whole "prototype" thing and all), and when fights break out, then the whole party-of-four forms up and the thing turns into a sort of JRPG-ish semi-turn-based combat deal, only it's happening in real time, so it involves quite a bit of quick thinking and good timing. You can sort of button-mash your way through the first couple fights, but eventually it starts getting more demanding and punishing with mistakes, becoming really intense and promising.

Also, the hand-drawn cartoony graphics and animations are ridiculously gorgeous. This is one of the most beautiful games I've played in a good while, and it's an excellent piece of evidence to hold up the next time I feel like getting in one of my diatribes against photorealism.

The thing is beautiful to look at, it's fun to play and it feels quite solid for something being labeled "a prototype". You'll be done with it in about an hour, and if you don't come out loving it to bits and wanting more more MORE, you probably don't have a soul.

You can get it at the IndieGoGo page right here. And it's free, of course.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 12/29/2015 7:47 AM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start CalaisianMindthief wrote--]For those of us too tired of scrolling down.

[/Q --end CalaisianMindthief wrote--]

FYI, the image is broken or something :T

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 12/29/2015 8:30 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

I fixed it, it was nothing special. :)

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Donatello (466) on 12/30/2015 6:17 AM · Permalink · Report

I've been playing The Witcher recently. What an abomination of a battle system. Why have this awful compromise between action and real-time with pause? It would've been fine if they had gone the NWN/KOTOR route.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 12/30/2015 9:09 AM · Permalink · Report

If I'm not mistaken it took me 20 hours to get used to the combat system, that's about half of the game.

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Cavalary (11445) on 12/30/2015 12:25 PM · Permalink · Report

I quite liked how it flowed after getting a little used with it, and I'm not keen on action. And with the exception of proper targeting when swarmed, which rather remained a matter of luck, that didn't take all that long.

But yes, KotOR's was nice.

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chirinea (47504) on 12/30/2015 2:46 PM · Permalink · Report

Using the hotkeys for the battle styles skips most of the pausing during battles and makes it flow much better.

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chirinea (47504) on 12/30/2015 2:51 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I'm spending the holidays at my parent's and in-law's houses, and here I have my older consoles. I'm going through my +20 years backlog and I've beat Robocop 2 and Top Gun this week. I'll resume Dark Souls as soon as I return home.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 1/1/2016 7:46 AM · Permalink · Report

I have finished Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords; a great game, but undoubtedly one that is starting to show its age graphicwise. Some observations:

  • I found out that the subtitle "The Sith Lords" has little meaning in the context of the game, it is too vague. The game could've been called "The Jedi Guardians" and it would change nothing. Don't go expecting some major revelations regarding specific Sith Lords, that's what I'm trying to say.
  • I've played the first KOTOR a long time ago, but I can still remember the environments, and some locations in KOTOR 2 are very similar (Dantooine, Korriban) to the original. I hate repetitions, so this is a major minus in my books.
  • The dialogue options are well-thought, and I had no problem choosing what I actually wanted to say. I really like games that don't force my hand to choose evil options or the lesser evil. Still, it was a bit too easy to maximize the Light Side points and keep most of your party loyal to you at the same time. I liked the romance I chose to pursue, but it lacked any kind of conclusion. Not even a hug?
  • The skill system is average and uninteresting. The feats and the powers do their job in being tools for character development. The inventory was annoying as hell, however.
  • The best parts of the game are the story and the dialogue

Right now I'm playing Tales of Monkey Island. I've already spotted the worst crime you can do against adventure gamers and that is a Maaaaaze section... Just great, which genius came up with this bright idea?! Otherwise it's funnier than I expected, and most of the puzzles have some logic behind them.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 1/15/2016 8:50 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I just finished Tomb Raider: Anniversary. It can be a bit tedious at times and the combat is garbage, but I still had fun. The most important part, climbing around, is good. However, I found the last level to be infuriating at times. I don't mind a series of hard jumps, but I mind if I have to fight two boring monsters before I can try again. The bosses are less threatening than regular enemies and I still hate quicktime events.

I never played the original (or any of the Core Design TR games), so I can't compare.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 1/16/2016 1:31 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

Some day I have to replay all these old games I remember enjoying back when, because I'm noticing I forgot a lot of things about a lot of games. Right now, I can't for the life of me remember what happens in that jumpy-jumpy bossy-bossy section you mention, and I played through Anniversary at least twice.

I'm really getting old, I guess.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 1/16/2016 1:30 AM · Permalink · Report

I had some vacation days and no money, so I stood at home and cleared a bit of my backlog --which is to say, at least I fired up a bunch of the games that have been piling up in my PC untouched.

Tried the D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die demo. It seems like a rather fun thing to buy in a sale. Not recommended for QTE-haters, because it seems like QTEs are all there is. Never played a SWERY game before and I understand this is not his best, but it still seems funny enough.

Tried the Lemma demo. Kind of a poor man's Mirror's Edge, and it's not half bad either. Definitely gonna buy it soon.

Tried the The Magic Circle demo. Now this is something promising. Nice art style and very interesting gameplay mechanics: you can't attack directly, so you "edit" entities and swap characteristics between them. So far I removed "walking" from a dog of sorts and applied it to a mushroom that now follows me everywhere. Lots of potential in here.

Played Abyss Odyssey. Loved the art style and the gameplay is fun once you get into the rhythm of the combat, but I never played a roguelike --don't even know exactly what that is, to be honest- and apparently you need to complete it in one sitting. Not a fan of having to start all over every time I die, really. Which is a shame because I was really digging this one.

I despise photorealism with a passion, and conversely I'm a gigantic sucker for anything that tries any kind of semi-original art style. Betrayer is an FPS after my own heart. I also like that the firearms kind of suck and using bow and arrows is the way to go. Interesting gameworld too, what with the Soul Reaver-ish switching between reality planes and all.

Miasmata is something I'll have to dedicate more time to. Never played one of these survival games; lots of interesting stuff to do and little hand holding. Having to triangulate your position on your own in order to find yourself in the map is a welcome mechanic, in this age of quest markers and shiny arrows all over the place.

I already played through Resident Evil 4 back at the time of its (awful) PC debut, and now I have the HD version, with the even-HD-er mod on top. The game is as ridiculously fun as I thought I remembered (and as ridiculously ridiculous as well).

Lords of the Fallen wants to be Dark Souls so bad you can actually feel every line of code straining with the effort while you play. It's definitely not (for a thousand reasons), but it does have a handful of gameplay ideas interesting enough to warrant an opportunity. And really, a second-hand Dark Souls is better than no Dark Souls at all.


...aaaand then I returned to Dark Souls II. Making my way through the DLC chapters right now. The Dark Souls experience never gets old, really. April can't come soon enough.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 1/23/2016 5:38 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I'm playing Divinity II and I can't believe the game has become such a chore after such a good start in the Broken Valley. Orobas Fjords is a terrible location, and I really don't enjoy flying as a dragon. In fact, everything related to becoming a dragon knight is a huge disappointment. The story is all over the place (a lot of the situations the protagonist finds himself/herself make no sense), the antagonist has stereotype written on his forehead, and the game doesn't give you any choice when the important decisions come.

Furthermore:

  • The game is buggy (in some areas I get the blue screen of death when I try to open a door, around 40-50% of the cases)
  • The flying fortresses are copy-paste grindfests
  • The game feels unfinished even after the Developer's Cut

So far the good parts are:

  • The music
  • The side quests
  • Everything in Broken Valley in the first part of the game
  • The lore, and some of the humor
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Cavalary (11445) on 1/23/2016 6:22 PM · Permalink · Report

So a good thing I stopped there then? Actually did just about everything I could without becoming a dragon, even in the Fjords, entered as human and cleared nearly everything, outside, caves, whatever I could, all other areas I could reach... Then sort of dropped it.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 1/23/2016 7:34 PM · Permalink · Report

I will tell you my final judgment after I finish the game, because I'm still not set that it's a bad game (I mean the combat mechanics and the skills system are nice, so you don't need much else to find ways to waste time in an RPG), and there are some hints that there will be a city as well (but maybe I'm wrong), and I really would like that.

But if you have explored a big chunk of the fjords, then you should have reached a nice level by now. You may be able to blitz through the flying fortresses and other grindfest areas (possibly). Take into account that exploring a flying fortress allowed me to progress five levels from 25 to 30, so there's a bit of XP to be gained there. Also judging by what you say, you haven't explored a big chunk of the fjords, unless you found a way to get to the upper ledges.

The part you most likely would not want to miss is probably more of the canon history of the Divinity universe, otherwise... have you been to the island? That's a good region.

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Cavalary (11445) on 1/23/2016 8:10 PM · Permalink · Report

checks saves Been some two years since I dropped it, so not sure we're talking about the same thing, but I have been to an island with a wyvern nest and a quest about a ghost by the sea, that's what stuck in my mind.

No idea about level, but I know I have no skills, just accumulated points, was never sure what to do with them and didn't really need to. Best bow you can find and just run and jump and shoot, archers seem to rule in that game. Even beat that nasty rabbit that way.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 1/23/2016 8:23 PM · Permalink · Report

Yes, that's the one. I quite liked it.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 1/24/2016 6:57 PM · Permalink · Report

Today I played and finished Pony Island. I like those experimental games. Well worth five bucks for a unique experience.

I am already tired of the Telltale approach (I completely ignored the last batch of games) and because of that I was hesitant to try Life is Strange. And I like it a lot. To be honest, the drama bullshit it in the first episode put me a bit off, but at least since episode three it got me. I am not prone to weep, so if a game makes me almost cry it does something right. Even if it is plainly obvious what will happen directly after.

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Cavalary (11445) on 1/24/2016 7:07 PM · Permalink · Report

Just managed to finish the original Tropico 4 campaign this evening. Wondering why didn't I get the achievement for surviving 10 disasters (unless it means in a single scenario?), or why whenever I built a weather station and upgraded it it didn't seem to help save people, just had no victims on a tornado outbreak when it was scripted, and built the weather station in time as requested, so missed those other achievements for disasters with no victims too. And also that one for importing 10k materials (didn't even import materials in the early mission requiring you to, since you have farms disabled but the plantations added by the DLC are there, so used them for materials instead). And the one for 1M income from tourism in one scenario, though I had a few when I was quite heavy on tourism, but doesn't bring enough either way I guess.
Otherwise... shrug It's Tropico. Fun enough. In Tropico 3 time limits were more the norm, or at least that's how I seem to remember, so glad they're used rarely now (though when one hits it's omg what do I do???), but at the same time not keen on the multiple goals in a row approach as opposed to the model I seem to remember from Tropico 3's original campaign, where I think you were mostly given end goals and left to do your business to reach them.
Not keen on Modern Times now though. Not keen on modern times in general, and doesn't seem to fit the atmosphere I expect from Tropico either. But let's see.

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vedder (70669) on 1/24/2016 9:20 PM · Permalink · Report

After starting Myst in 1995, I figured it was time to finish of the series for good now. It took the better part of 2 days to play through V. One of the better games in the series. I liked it a lot.

Other than that I did not play much games lately. I've played the first 2 episodes of Sam & Max Season 3 which are enjoyable and I appreciate the effort that has gone into them to break the mold. The psychic powers definitely make what could have been a by the numbers Point & Click adventure feel fresh and new!

Now starting a new city in Cities Skylines, last years GOTY.

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 2/15/2016 7:37 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start vedder wrote--]After starting Myst in 1995, I figured it was time to finish of the series for good now. It took the better part of 2 days to play through V. One of the better games in the series. I liked it a lot.

[/Q --end vedder wrote--]

What's the best game to start Myst series with? I actually own Myst 3 and 4, but haven't really properly played any of them. The music's nice though.

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vedder (70669) on 1/6/2017 4:14 PM · Permalink · Report

I only see this post now. One year later :D. But I would recommend RealMyst the 3D remake of the original Myst. You can probably pick it up cheaply on Steam. The original Myst would definitely feel outdated. Myst IV I liked the least in the series. I'm not sure how confusing the story/lore of the game would be if you didn't play them all from the start. Might not matter so much.

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Freeman (64746) on 1/15/2017 3:39 PM · Permalink · Report

I actually just played through the ME of Myst and was surprised by how good it still looks. It's obviously a bit dated, but with its excellent art style it's certainly possible to get past its limitations. The only trouble is getting it to run properly on moderns OSes.

I'm also finally getting around to Riven, never having played it before.

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Tracy Poff (2093) on 1/28/2016 6:46 PM · Permalink · Report

I played through Undertale recently. It's fun, but overhyped. The story is basically extremely predictable--there was only one twist that I hadn't already realized well before it was 'revealed', and even that one was only unobvious because there were simply no details until just before it was revealed.

Cliche plot or no, however, the game is saved by its characters. The interaction between the NPCs is entertaining and generally the events throughout the game are tied together by the NPCs relationships and motivations in a satisfying way. Note that I played the game as a pacifist (as the game's description says: "The RPG game where you don't have to destroy anyone."), so it might be rather different if you spent more time killing things than talking to people.

Like most things, you get out of it what you put into it: if you intend to care about the characters, then there's enough detail there to support you, and the game will be more meaningful. If you don't want to care about them, then you can ignore them, and the game will be pretty empty. If you want an entertaining character-driven experience, I recommend this game.

I also played about an hour of The Witness. I'm not impressed. The world looks open, but you're fenced in both literally, by invisible walls at the edges of paths, and figuratively, by puzzles that you can't solve because you haven't yet found the tutorial section that explains the rules of that type of puzzle. I did a lot of wandering around, seeing puzzles that I just didn't have the information needed to solve, and wandering around some more until I found puzzles that were sufficiently within my understanding to proceed.

Don't get me wrong--I typically enjoy just walking around in games. I liked Proteus, and that is nothing else but walking around. But walking around in The Witness isn't rewarding. The atmosphere isn't great, and every time I see somewhere I want to go, I take a step, and then am stopped dead by invisible walls because the section of path I'm on is three inches above the section beside me, and I have to walk back down the path to the point they split... it's frustrating.

Not to ignore the puzzles: they are a mixture of easy and annoying. They're all basically pathing problems, which are generally mathematically difficult (i.e. finding a solution requires some kind of recursive search) but not very fun. You can develop heuristics to help you solve them, so they're not pure brute force, but they're still dull. The use of similar looking puzzles with different rules was kind of clever, but I just wasn't entertained.

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chirinea (47504) on 1/30/2016 1:39 PM · Permalink · Report

100 hours later I've finished Dark Souls. It's been some time since I spent so many hours in a single game and had so much fun in return.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 1/31/2016 9:03 PM · Permalink · Report

[T]/

So, did you kindle the fire or just walked away? What kind of build did you use (you mentioned a +15 falchion, so I'm guessing DEX)? Any plans to try a different character?

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chirinea (47504) on 1/31/2016 11:15 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I walked away, but I gotta tell you, I walked around and didn't find the bonfire (I didn't know there should be one there), so I walked back and bam, ending cutscene!

I did it with a DEX build. My class was wanderer, my stats were 45 DEX, 40 END, 20 STR, 15 INT and more than 20 in VIT. The Falchion was my weapon of choice because I started with a scimitar. Besides leveling that weapon, I've managed to level up the Enchanted Falchion I found at the Duke's Archives, but I missed the slab for other weapons.

Right now I want to play something else, because Dark Souls is just too consuming, I spent kinda 50 hours in it just last week. But I don't know if I should try a different character or just play it again with the same one, what do you think?

Looking back, it seems that a STR build would be a lot easier; if that's right, shame on the developers, because that's what bores me in like 80% of RPGs. I usually prefer DEX builds in games, but I'm not that often rewarded for that. I've quit Neverwinter Nights because my rogue couldn't do much alone, and that really sucks; I'm sure I would be OK with a fighter.

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Donatello (466) on 2/6/2016 8:15 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[Q --start chirinea wrote--] Looking back, it seems that a STR build would be a lot easier; if that's right, shame on the developers, because that's what bores me in like 80% of RPGs. I usually prefer DEX builds in games, but I'm not that often rewarded for that. I've quit Neverwinter Nights because my rogue couldn't do much alone, and that really sucks; I'm sure I would be OK with a fighter. [/Q --end chirinea wrote--]

Well, I haven't experimented much with builds nor have I done extensive research, but my friend told me that light armored dex build is the best. The invincibility frames on some of the faster rolls are crazy.

I did a Dex build in Demon's Souls, crazy-ass Strength build in Dark Souls (full Havel armor, Smough's Hammer). It's not that tough, but for example at Manus you have to be pretty cautious when choosing the best window of opportunity for attacking. Mid-game is probably the most challenging, with relatively shit armor but the glorious Zweihander. Once you get the Black Swordsman armor in Anor Londo, you can start cheesing pretty much. All in all, Souls series is probably the best RPG game to go for a Strength build. The weight behind weapons is just so immensely satisfying.

Once I get to Dark Souls II this summer, I'll go for a medium armor paladin type. I suspect the medium armor build would actually be the hardest, since you can't roll fast enough to avoid damage, but don't have that great of a shield to block every incoming attack either.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 2/6/2016 11:58 AM · Permalink · Report

I'm currently busy with Batman: Arkham Knight. I love the whole series and I also love this entry. The open world is just great! I probably love flying around with Batman the most - I sense a theme because this was also the part which I enjoyed the most in the last two Saints Row games. I am a bit torn about the Batmobile. It is fun and all, but it distracts from the real strengths of the series.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 2/13/2016 7:41 PM · Permalink · Report

So, I finished it. There are so many things one could criticize (too many and too long tank battles, grindy side quests, laughable overpriced DLCs, etc.), but I had so much fun. One of the few games I actually completed 100% (excluding challenges) and I never got sick of it.

However, I am probably lucky because I did not encounter any of the technical problems many users have, e.g. I had exactly one crash. From my perspective, Arkham City was in a way worse state (just think of the DirectX 11 debacle!)

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 2/15/2016 7:36 PM · Permalink · Report

I discovered a really fun game - Dragon Commander!

The most entertaining part is to make a choice between different political opinions. The undead represent religious right, the elves socialist hippies, dwarves capitalists, lizards social democracy and imps... stuff that goes boom. I'm not much of a real-time strategist so I mostly skip those parts of the game - though I guess it's also quite thought out, you even get to fly around as a Dragon, but that's just not my thing. So yeah, I make choices and have fun. I still think it's a stroke of genius to have undead be the religious bigots. :D

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Cavalary (11445) on 2/15/2016 9:47 PM · Permalink · Report

That's Larian for ya, trying their hand at something different, but still with dragons, and sort of in the Divinity world, albeit way earlier than anything else from what I gather.

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Adzuken (836) on 3/3/2016 3:58 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I've been hitting the Castlevania games pretty hard. The original game is one of my favourite games on the NES, but I never played much in the series beyond the first handful. So most of these I've played for the first time:

Castlevania: Dracula X - I've owned this game for a while, but never finished it. I quickly polished it off. It's not bad, but it feels pretty by the numbers.

Castlevania: The Adventure: Rebirth - It's a pretty solid, but unremarkable take on the original formula. I haven't finished it yet, but that's mostly because the levels are so much longer than the previous games', so losing my final life to an end-level boss presents the unappetizing prospect of having to play the whole stage over.

Castlevania 64 and Legacy of Darkness - Both games definitely suffer from the early 3D blues. Legacy of Darkness is basically just an improved version of the former game, but even when you iron out the terrible camera and polish up the level design, you're still left with a pretty bland but competent early 3D interpretation of the classic games.

Castlevania: Bloodlines - Now this is one that I can get excited about. It adheres pretty closely to the original formula, but features memorable and varied levels, interesting boss design, and an outstanding use of colour. I completed it using Eric Lecarde and will probably go back to finish my playthrough with John Morris. The only real issue I have with it is that it limits continues, yet has a password system? Why? Despite that, this is probably my favourite in the series next to the original.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Definitely a solid and enjoyable title, but it's where the series diverges from its old formula. It's a fun, combat heavy Metroid-style game, but I miss the deliberate challenge of the older games. The bosses were especially underwhelming, since typically they could be defeated by simply hacking at their shins. Still, the exploration based gameplay worked out a lot better here than it did with Castlevania 2.

And that's where I am now. I'll probably start into the Gameboy Advance and DS titles next, I have Lords of Shadows waiting in the wings, and Lament of Innocence is en route.

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Adzuken (836) on 3/8/2016 4:58 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon - I'm about a third of the way through the game. Right now, it's serviceable but bland. It largely feels like an incredibly scaled back version of Symphony of the Night. It shares all the same issues of the game, but it's further complicated by hardware limitations and unimaginative level design. Its storytelling is also very token at this stage of the game.
Edit: The level design is as bland as bland can be, with basically nothing but non-descript corridors from beginning to end. It at least presents more of a challenge than Symphony of the Night, and it feels less like you can just rely on leveling up to get through a boss. The fight against Dracula even required some pattern recognition. Still, I probably would replay this title. It's just nothing special.

Castlevania - I replayed the original, which isn't unusual, as I do so pretty frequently. I absolutely love this game, its challenge is so well thought out and the levels are all nicely varied. If I had to complain about one thing, it would be that the bosses are kind of lame.

Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - I hated this game the first time I played through it, but this time around was slightly more pleasant thanks to my knowledge of the solutions to the game's more obtuse puzzles. It's still pretty lame. The level design is an absolute mess. The mansions are indistinguishable aside from the palette used, and their layouts make no sense. Everything's just so poorly thought out and implemented. With a bit more thought put into it, it could have been a great game. Still, at least I didn't completely hate it this time through.

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - I've played through this game before, but only technically. I played through Akumajou Densetsu -- the Japanese version -- which, among other things, features a lower difficulty than the North American version. I will probably favour that version in the future, but I feel I should remove the caveat from my conquest by completing the North American version. It's... not going well. Everything was going smoothly until I got stuck on one of the later levels. Hopefully I'll be able to get through it, but if I don't, it's no big loss.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - I've put less than an hour into this game so far, so my thoughts on it are probably premature. I understand that this is supposed to be a reboot of the series, but it really doesn't feel like Castlevania. It so far seems very rooted in fantasy rather than horror. Also, what's with the use of lots Christian imagery but frequent reference to "Old Gods"? Despite shedding a lot of the conventions built up by the previous games, it still has a lot of game-y elements that seem weirdly out of place. Still, I'm looking forward to playing more, but my expectations are quite low.

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Adzuken (836) on 3/28/2016 3:23 PM · Permalink · Report

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance - I enjoyed this a great deal more than Circle of the Moon. The level design is significantly improved, there's a tonne of bosses, and the dash-spamming movement system is breezy and fun, not unlike Mega Man X. While I absolutely loved this game, it did have its issues. They pull the same dual castle BS that was in Symphony of the Night to pad out gameplay, the game's an absolute walk in the park to the point where I never saw the game over screen, and the game stalls at one point after you're given an item without being told what it does and need to equip it to unlock a door. It almost reminded me of Simon's Quest with how obtuse that one particular puzzle was.

Castlevania: Aria of Sorrows - Hearing that the protagonist of this game is an 18-year old exchange student in Japan made me a bit wary, but of the Metroid-style Castlevanias, this one is easily my favourite. Its soul-stealing gameplay combined with Symphony's weapon swapping make for a dangerously addicting bit of character building. Storytelling has been improved, and while any story about Dracula's castle being sealed inside a solar eclipse is going to be a little hard to swallow, the extra bit of character is appreciated. There are fewer bosses here, and not necessarily of the highest quality, but the diversity of the other enemies makes up for it. All-in-all, I greatly enjoyed the game and even went back to play Julius Belmont mode and hard mode.

Castlevania: Harmony of Despair - This one turned out a lot better than I had expect. A co-op Castlevania that sits closer to the Metroid-style series. You're placed at the beginning of a castle and have to work your way to the stage's boss. What I find makes the game so successful is the diverse characters that each have their own way of growing stronger. Wielders of the Vampire Killer whip need to utilize their sub-weapons to level them up, which in turn upgrades their base weapon skill. On the other hand, Soma Cruz from Aria of Sorrows retains his soul stealing abilities, and gaining multiple of the same soul levels up that power. Samoa steals spells from magic enemies, and then levels them up through usage, much like whippers with their sub weapons. It's extremely grindy, for sure, but when playing with a buddy, it's a lot of fun to work through the levels and gather strength and items. Just beat Dracula last night, but I'll probably keep playing through hard mode and beyond.

Castlevania: Lament of Innocence: This could potentially be the first decent 3D Castlevania game, but what's with all the copy-pasted rooms and corridors? It makes it impossible to get around without a map, and makes the castle feel artificial and uninteresting. Combat is okay, but unspectacular. Still, I'd rather play it than Lords of Shadow, however I'm not really impressed. Maybe it'll get better towards the end, but its reputation suggests otherwise.

Castlevania: Judgement - I had heard this game was pretty awful, and it has been festering on the rack at my local game store for years now, and it didn't disappoint in the regard. This is a one vs. one fighter, and an incredibly weak one at that. It tries to stay true to the core series by placing emphasis on subweapons, but most of them are so awful, difficult to use, or just worthless in general. There's only one real attack button that needs to be used in conjunction with other buttons to pull off anything worthwhile, and the targeting system has a habit of deciding that a candlestick is a more pressing threat than the vampire lunging at your face. The character designs are god-awful with all the characters dawning the most bizarre and impractical outfits I think I've ever seen. What the hell is with Simon Belmont's armored cargo shorts? Its storyline is also laughably bad, with dialogue that basically sums up as:
Trevor Belmont: "You know who I am? That must make you... my descendant."
Simon Belmont: "I must defeat you (his ancestor from 200 years ago) to finally become a true Belmont."

I currently have the three DS games (Dawn of Sorrows, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia) ordered and on their way. I've developed an unfortunate addiction to the Metroid-style Castlevanias, which, while I certainly enjoy them greatly, are built like Skinner boxes; providing small rewards frequently to keep you hooked. I suppose I'm both excited to play more and relieved that I'm almost through all of them.

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Adzuken (836) on 4/18/2016 3:15 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrows - While this isn't a bad game, it is a pretty poor sequel to the stellar Aria of Darkness. I can't believe I'm complaining about the story, but it's largely a retread of the previous game's story, yet manages to make less sense. There's no explanation for why Dracula's castle is back, despite it supposedly being sealed within a solar eclipse. The game itself is pretty standard -- which is still mostly fun -- but I find it's hobbled by an over-abundance of incentive to grind. Magic is made more powerful by collecting multiple of the same soul, so while you might have done some light grinding in Aria to collect a particular monster's soul, in Dawn you may find yourself grinding the same monster for much longer to power up its particular attack. To make things worse, souls can also be used to upgrade weapons. Some monsters only appear by their lonesome in specific spots, so the method of hacking a demon to pieces and exiting/entering a room repeatedly to try and get a specific soul to drop becomes a core part of gameplay. All-in-all, it's still a decent game, but unfortunately a pretty lame entry in the series.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin - This one tries to shake things up by taking you out of Dracula's castle through use of paintings. So on top of the grey corridors of Dracula's abode, you also visit bakeries and pyramids. Unfortunately, this makes the level design suffer slightly, and backtracking becomes more of a nuisance. Portrait also features two main characters that are played simultaneously, and it's nice to see that it isn't obtrusive and forced. You can send your partner away and play as whichever you want, or have them tag along. Only a few puzzles require both of them, and they are nicely handled. Overall, I like Portrait of Ruin, but it really only serves as a reminder of the series high points and doesn't come close to reaching them. It serves as a sequel to Bloodlines, which I have no end of affection for, but its references to that game only really made me want switch on my Genesis instead.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - Back when I picked up the DS games, I was pretty excited for this one. However, I'm pretty burnt out on the series, and couldn't force myself to play more than a few levels of it. First impressions are mixed, but I'll definitely return to this one after I've recovered from my fatigue.

So that's it. That's all the Castlevania I can take right now. I may return to some of the 3D entries to try and finish them, but otherwise I'm moving onto other games. I'm playing Dark Souls III now, Star Fox Zero and Jalopy are out at the end of this week, and my Steam backlog is growing immense. Still, it was nice to explore more of the series I have such adoration for. It was definitely a more pleasant experience than when I played through the Metal Gear games.

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vedder (70669) on 4/2/2016 5:03 PM · Permalink · Report

Been a while since I visited this thread.

Finished XCOM 2 this week. It's a minor improvement on the previous game which was already fantastic, so definitely worth a go if you thought highly of the XCOM reboot. It shares many of its faults, but the timed missions do add a lot more urgency to what were otherwise endless "move then overwatch" manoeuvres.

Before that replayed through both Rayman Origins and Raymen Legends, but this time with my girlfriend. Fantastic fun. Raymen Legends definitely ranks highly in my list of best games of all time.

Afterwards we've also tried picking up New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy but so far it hasn't clicked as much as the fluidity of Rayman.

Also spent some time building a new city in Cities: Skyline. It's a great simulation but after a while it does tend to get same-y without much challenge.

Currently started on Condemned: Criminal Origins. It's fun but, but feels a bit clunky. I heard it's pretty short so I might finish it. Not really my kind of story/theme.

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vedder (70669) on 4/4/2016 8:00 PM · Permalink · Report

Condemned: Criminal Origins was short indeed! Although in the end I liked it, I'm not quite sure why. The story was ridiculous, the story left unexplained, the combat a nuisance most of the time, the combat focused gameplay completely out of tune with the story line (hey the cops are trying to catch me because I supposedly killed these 2 guys, but they don't give a shit about the hundreds I kill throughout the game?), the investigation tools usually minddumbingly idiot-proof and other times frustrating pixel hunts. But in the end a very enjoyable experience with loads of atmosphere and great level design.

Now playing through NaissanceE. I wasn't quite sure what to expect up front. With similar games I thought Antichamber was brilliant and Kairo was alright. So far NaissanceE is somewhere in between. Some of the levels are simply weird for the sake of weird, others aren't particularly great, but "Going Down" was UTTERLY AMAZING. The level features hardly any puzzles and all you do is descend in some gigantic sci-fi Nar Shaddaa like city scape. Continuously trying to find a path that leads further down. So simple yet so amazing! It reminded me of some of the best parts of Jedi Knight.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 4/17/2016 11:10 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[Q --start vedder wrote--]Condemned: Criminal Origins was short indeed! Although in the end I liked it, I'm not quite sure why. The story was ridiculous, the story left unexplained, the combat a nuisance most of the time, the combat focused gameplay completely out of tune with the story line (hey the cops are trying to catch me because I supposedly killed these 2 guys, but they don't give a shit about the hundreds I kill throughout the game?), the investigation tools usually minddumbingly idiot-proof and other times frustrating pixel hunts. But in the end a very enjoyable experience with loads of atmosphere and great level design. [/Q --end vedder wrote--] Man, I adored that game back then. One of the top-5 most atmospheric games ever. That's one I'm definitely gonna replay at some point.

I enjoyed the combat a lot, actually. If anything, I thought it lacked some combos to give more variety, but the basics I felt were pretty solid.

Also, I found the fact that the storytelling was so sparse and ambiguous regarding whether it was all a supernatural affair or just a man going insane, to be among the strongest aspects of the game --you don't get that kind of storytelling in gaming very frequently.

Don't get me wrong, the story itself was dumb and full of holes, but I liked how open to interpretation it seemed to be. As Yathtzee said: "Mysteries lose all their appeal the moment you explain them", and Condemned seemed to get that idea and run with it like a champ.

Then again, if you take the time to find all the hidden collectibles, some of them will unlock a bunch of documents that offer an appallingly over-explained backstory, full of conspiracies, ancient mystical cults, super-advanced mind-controlling technology and all the kind of juvenile garbage that videogames love so much. But I prefer to ignore that part.

The forensic puzzles sucked ass, no argument there.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/2/2016 10:11 PM · Permalink · Report

I finished the following games since my last post:

  • Batman: Arkham Asylum: Great game, but it feels a bit limited in comparison to the predecessors. I especially miss the
  • Batman: Arkham City: This game is very good, but not as good as I remember. Especially the side content felt lacking (grindy, often without a real resolution), even in comparison with Arkham Knight. The riddler content became a chore in the end, but at least the resolution was worth it.
  • Shadows of Hong Kong (bonus campaign for Shadowrun: Hong Kong): The same great level as the main game. I love it.
  • Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD: Definitely the second worst entry in the series. Decent missions, stupid story, boring environments, boring side content.
  • Assassin's Creed: Rogue: A good derivative of the fantastic Assassin's Creed IV.
  • Day of the Tentacle Remastered: The game is one of the best adventure games of all times and the updated graphics are good. They feel exactly the same as the original, only in HD. I was a bit disappointed by the audio commentary, though.

Currently I am playing:

  • Assassin's Creed: Unity: I'm not exactly sure how to feel about it. I don't like the new combat system much and the new freeflow movement controls are garbage, but the missions have many good ideas so far. Even the side missions, which were lacking in the previous games, are good! I especially love the crime investigations.
  • Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear: It is too soon for judgement, but I guess it is good enough. More Baldur's Gate is definitely a good thing in my book.
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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/7/2016 3:17 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

The more I play Siege of Dragonspear, the more I like it. Well worth its money for Baldur's Gate fans, I say. But why is this series a magnet for idiot menchildren? First the racist homophobes who could not handle a black, lesbian party member and now the transphobes who lose their shit over two meaningless dialogue lines.

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Cavalary (11445) on 4/7/2016 5:34 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Patrick Bregger wrote--]But why is this series a magnet for idiot menchildren? First the racist homophobes who could not handle a black, lesbian party member and now the transphobes who lose their shit over two meaningless dialogue lines. [/Q --end Patrick Bregger wrote--] It's the internet. Which is just a reflection of what people would say and do in "real life" as well if they'd be less afraid of consequences.

Oh, and congratulations on 150k!

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Slug Camargo (583) on 4/17/2016 10:56 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Been replaying a little bit of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. It's every bit as amazing as I remember it, if not more. In fact, only now I learned how to properly parry and vault/backstab, so it's like the combat took on a whole new level and it's even more fun than it already was.

Bought Dark Souls III but my PC can't go above 20 frames per second on average. Crestfallen. Working on a way to get a new video card right now. In the meantime I'm replaying the first one with a DEX char and an INT one. I'm amazed at how much easier it is when you know what you're doing and you don't just throw your XP all over the place. This game never gets old, by the way. I'm seriously considering starting even another, more tank-y character --a STR/FTH build probably.

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Unicorn Lynx (181788) on 4/18/2016 8:33 AM · Permalink · Report

I just started Dark Souls 3... haven't played anything since Witcher 3 last May, seriously... Ouch. Not enough time for games with time-consuming things such as writing sci-fi stories, teaching, performing, and having a girlfriend :-)

Anyway... Dark Souls 3 feels kinda derivative and strangely linear. Any confirmation for that from those who've played more of it? If it continues to be like this all the time I don't think it's worth it...

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Cavalary (11445) on 4/18/2016 10:10 AM · Permalink · Report

Inasmuch as that can be said about anything that prevents you from doing something else you like and want to do, those aren't bad things to be busy with.

Me, finished the whole Tropico 4 package some 3.5 weeks ago (and reviewed it and it just showed up on site a couple of days ago, but again not on front page due to the lack of cover I guess - heh, 3 of my last 4 reviews not showing up for one reason or another), then was poking through the freebies I had there for something I could just quickly add to the finished list and passed through Flight of the Amazon Queen with just a few glances at a guide (nope, still no interest in pure adventure games since... not long after this one was released really, mid-90s, just went through to make the number look a tad less embarrassing I guess, like I said).

Now back to poking at Hordes of the Underdark. Last save, Sep 2 2015, after just finishing chapter 2 and starting 3 in August, which marked a return to it after a good long time, previous saves being from Dec 2010 and last from Jan 2011.

Only game released in the past 10 years that I may poke at this year may be Quest for Infamy, which is a "new old game" in itself, and on that list just due to Quest for Glory nostalgia. Which will probably turn out bad.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/18/2016 2:33 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I enjoyed Hordes of the Underdark, it is at least three steps up compared to the awful original campaign.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 4/23/2016 3:03 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Cor 13 wrote--] Anyway... Dark Souls 3 feels kinda derivative and strangely linear. Any confirmation for that from those who've played more of it? If it continues to be like this all the time I don't think it's worth it... [/Q --end Cor 13 wrote--] Derivative, I can totally see: They are after all attempting to make a trilogy out of the whole thing to wrap up the series, and from what little I know there seems to be an uncomfortably high amount of fanservice all over the place --kind of what happened with Dark Souls II, only now it's Miyazaki himself doing it, which might make it even more awkward. I mean, we all laughed and cheered when we saw the Lordvessel casually laying around, but by the time they were crowbarring the Sunbro covenant into the game without any context or backstory it was just weird.

As for linearity, I haven't read or heard such thing anywhere, but it was one of my fears when I knew they were going with the Demon's Souls-style hub and the teleporting bonfires. I trust it will open up soon enough, at least on a Bloodborne-level; otherwise that should've been a much more common complaint in reviews and such --after all, the whole interconnected open world in the first one was one of its more celebrated aspects.

Anyway, I'm enough of a fanboi to be looking forward to this no matter what. And if that spoiler-full bosses trailer is anything to go by, at the veryt least it's gonna be quite a visually thrilling ride,

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 4/23/2016 6:47 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I'm finally playing Fallout.... 3. I played only New Vegas back when those games were in the spotlight. I didn't became a Bethesda fan until Skyrim.

And.... it's kinda meh, somewhat. I can't stop comparing with New Vegas. Mind you, I've never been much of a die hard Fallout fanboy, but I just can't help but notice how off-tone Fallout 3 feels.

For example, Bethesda came up with the radio - brilliant idea, kudos to them. However, this Three Dog fellow is too sincere and too kind to be believable. "The kid from Vault 101 is just looking for his dad, give him a pat on the back, okay?" Wayne Newton in New Vegas fit much better. I kinda prefer the President radio, because it has more Falloutish irony.

It all comes down to writing, how the situations and characters are presented. It just doesn't feel right.

It is endearing how closely Bethesda followed the visual style of the originals, and it's cool to battle in metropolitian ruins. Except I'm lost in these fucking metro tunnels and they make my head dizzy, when will they ever stop?

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Donatello (466) on 4/24/2016 12:10 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

Finally wrapped up Dark Souls. Damn, the final area and boss is something indeed in terms of atmosphere. Love how it subverts the final boss trope.

Not sure I like it more than Demon's Souls, but they are both masterpieces nevertheless.

Now to Dark Souls II, I guess.

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vedder (70669) on 4/24/2016 6:22 AM · Permalink · Report

I'm playing Crusader Kings 2.

Having no idea where to start I begun my game as a distant relative of Charlemagne, a rather insignificant count of Vermandois in northern France. My dynasty's demesne later included the neighbouring county of Amiens. My liege's France appears to be ever shrinking and the Holy Roman Empire's borders start to surround me on multiple sides. My current character is Duke of Valois, which includes Valois, Amiens, Paris, Orleans, Majorca and Menorca. My Vassals aren't very happy with me however and refuse to elect my legitimate son as heir for the Duchy of Valois. It might be time to change some laws around. Due to good marriage my son is also heir to the Duchy of Greater Poland. So that will always be my backup plan, but it would be nice if he could inherit both.

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vedder (70669) on 4/24/2016 11:00 AM · Permalink · Report

I managed to get my vassals back in favour and back my son for the inheritance of the Duchy of Valois. My son then died age 19 and I had to gain many favours to have my vassals back my second son for succession. I decided to expand my duchy by attacking the petty Kingdom of Breihz (countes Léon and Nantes) and independent county of Vannes. Both were successful acquisitions.

While spending and conquering. I started getting so much prestige that I received the title "The Great" and most Dukes would vote for me for inheritance of the whole of France. Fostering that idea I set up my pawns, but failing to assassinate either the King or his heir by blood. The King obviously became furious with me and demanded I resigned my title of Duke of Valois. Which I had to refuse and led me to an expensive embarrassing war I was forced to surrender. I ended up in prison. I kept my title of Duke of Valois, but the counties of Mallorca and Menorca were stripped and became a separate Duchy.

After having begged to be released I was back at my court. All my plotting and scheming having come down like a house of cards. No longer first in line for the inheritance of France and my son no longer first in line for my own (diminished) title (yet still first in line for the inheritance of my wife's duchy of Greater Poland).

I decided not to give up. And get people on my side again. The King of France attained the moniker "The Cruel" and again people were persuaded to my side and after some time I was again in line to be the next King of France. Without my loyal vassals in the Balaeric archipelago my son is currently tied for my title of Duke.

Then I decided to gamble for it. I plotted again to kill the king (I'm unlikely to outlive him otherwise, being 10 years his senior). I found many willing to join my side, including his spy master and oldest son and heir. This time the plot was a success and I was proclaimed King of France.

I doubt the Prince of France will like having been sidestepped as successor, this might come to bite me in the ass later on. My son's position is still not secure, and I'm not sure if I can adequately defend against further claims from the Holy Roman Emperor. I now also have French vassals and holdings in South-East Spain and North Africa and thus will have to be more proactive against Jihad and for Crusades.

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vedder (70669) on 4/27/2016 8:40 PM · Permalink · Report

I managed to secure my sons position as successor by a small margin. Unfortunately when he inherited my kingdom he was seen as a Tyrant and spent his entire reign on damage control on vassals who despised him. House Capet (former dynasty that ruled France) was completely sidelined after I managed to get their heir in prison.

He did help his cousin claim the throne of Poland and for a short while the Karling Dynasty ruled in the West and the East, until Poland fell again to its former dynasty. The Spanish holdings were expanded just to favour my vassals with more titles and get my second son some landed titles. My oldest son became a republican and turned Brittany and Valois in republics. He despises me utterly.

Near the end of my reign Duke of Berry plotted to take my crown and I tried to arrest him. It failed and found myself in a war against him. It looked like I could beat him, but my other vassals took this opportunity to start a civil war for independence. During this war my current King died and his second non-republican son replaced him (luckily due to the civil war my biggest opponents weren't allowed to vote! I would have sure lost the kingdom).

The civil war was tough and long, but I managed to extract a white peace both with the Duke of Berry and the independence revolt. Everybody loves the new king so everybody's happy. Big relief! As a victory dance I conquered Seville from the muslims before the other conquerors in Spain get hold of it (Leon, Castille, but mostly Aquitaine).

It's good to be the king. I really dodged the bullet there!

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vedder (70669) on 5/1/2016 8:30 PM · Permalink · Report

With my later kings I expanded France slowly further into Southern Spain and Northern Africa. My dynasty interwove with that of the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Bavarians then managed to take claim to the Holy Roman Empire.

At some point a Karling sat at on the throne of France (me), The Holy Roman Empire (cousin) and Poland (second cousin) and a revolt was underway in Aragon to claim it (Uncle). This was definitely the height of the Karling dynasty.

Then it all turned to ruin. The Aragonese rebellion failed which was unfortunate. My king had other problems however. 8 daughters in a row did not bode well in the marriage game.

My ninth child however proved to be a son and being a good ruler I placed him in line for succession. His skills were mediocre and even though he managed to push back an attacking Holy Roman Empire with a white peace he then succumbed to a combined effort of many vassals to dethrone him as well as being attacked by the Kingdom of Aquitaine.

I allowed my revolting vassals to take their independence, and admitted defeat to the rebelling vassals. My titles were taken from me and my dimwitted son was left a lowly Duke of Algiers and Valois. But the new king, my former vassal was intent on taking away my Duchy of Valois and then Algiers. I objected went to war and was thrown in the prison where my father the late king had already died in the the oubliette.

The last of my bloodline was the aunt of the late duke of Algiers. A Duchess in Aquitaine with no dynastic heir. She went to war with the King in a last bid for power but lost when the King of France joined in a crusade against her.

So my dynasty came to an end. But at least my name lives on in the Holy Roman Empire and Poland!

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 5/2/2016 7:13 AM · Permalink · Report

I'm not familiar with the game. Does that mean you lost?

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vedder (70669) on 5/2/2016 9:51 AM · Permalink · Report

It doesn't really have win or lose conditions. It's more of a sandbox. Your game does end when you have no more dynastic heirs (or after a specific date (the game only covers the late middle ages without expansions)). But I found it a fitting conclusion to my game as in the later stages it started to get a bit repetitive and I was wondering if the game would throw anything new at me.

I could continue playing with any other character from where I left off, but for now I've had enough of dynastic struggles.

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Adzuken (836) on 4/24/2016 8:57 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished Dark Souls III. It was... enh. It was good, but it's not the master work that Dark Souls the first was. I guess that's a bit too much to hope for. I enjoyed it enough to play through the entire thing, which puts it ahead of Dark Souls 2, but it fell short in a lot of small ways. Nothing too bad.

[Q --start Cor 13 wrote--]Anyway... Dark Souls 3 feels kinda derivative and strangely linear. Any confirmation for that from those who've played more of it? If it continues to be like this all the time I don't think it's worth it... [/Q --end Cor 13 wrote--]

It's a bit linear, unfortunately, but there's usually options. You can sequence break early on and explore some of the later areas. There's a decent number of optional areas to go through as well, and there is some choice in where you explore first later on. It's still not quite the spider-web like overworlds of Dark Souls and Bloodbourne.

As for it being derivative, I'm not sure what you mean. It's a sequel, so it's bound to be pretty familiar. It does tend to lean pretty heavily on what was established in previous games. Many of the armor and weapon sets reappear here, a number of familiar enemies show up, and it often leans rather heavily on the lore; mostly marginalizing Dark Souls 2 and lending closure to Dark Souls 1. However, these are things I'd typically expect from a sequel, and I think that a lot of the callbacks are well earned.

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Adzuken (836) on 4/25/2016 2:47 PM · Permalink · Report

I also completed Star Fox Zero. I had grown extremely wary of the game following the announcement that the dual screen/motion control setup was mandatory and fully expected to hate this game. However, on the contrary, I quite enjoyed it and had no difficulty with the controls. I'd probably still prefer the game if it used a more conventional control scheme, but I don't feel it was hampered by the direction it chose.

The game itself is largely a retread of Star Fox 64, which was basically a remake of vanilla Star Fox, which is pretty unoriginal, but I'd prefer that over the horribly clumsy attempt at raising the stakes that Assault went with. The game itself features more variety with different vehicle sections. Again, I thought I'd hate the helicopter missions, but I found them to be a nice change of pace.

All in all, I would have probably preferred a more formulaic and modern Star Fox game, but I'm happy to take Zero as a substitute.

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Starbuck the Third (22608) on 4/28/2016 6:18 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Finally got around to buying an Xbox One just over a week ago and have been playing Fallout 4.

Quite a change being my 1st new gen console and Fallout 4 having a different HUD to the identical one featured in 3 and New Vegas, but really enjoying it now I've got into it. My only gripe is that power armour now requires depletable power cells, which is weird considering they had internal generators in F3 and NV that never needed changing out. Other than that, it's the same Fallout goodness I've come to enjoy.

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vedder (70669) on 5/9/2016 8:13 PM · Permalink · Report

I've been playing Guacamelee. It's great fun at times, but great frustration at others. I gave up on the final boss and some of the secret areas.

I don't mind a challenge, but if it's no fun to do than you can forget about it.

I'm also playing Call of Duty 2. Which is pretty cool, but a bit repetitive. I'm about 3 quarters through now. The English campaign didn't quite feel as fun as the Russian one though.

Played the free Overwatch weekend with some friends. Really cool! Hope to see more of those as the price is a bit high for me. Gameplay wise it's a good evolution of Team Fortress 2. Too bad it doesn't have its humour.

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vedder (70669) on 5/16/2016 7:46 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished Call of Duty 2. While fun it stays pretty repetitive throughout. It did pick up a bit again with the American campaign.

Started with Firewatch. Love it so far, very atmospheric. I had expected its world to be larger though. As it is now you barely go a minute without something of interest happening. Perhaps for the better, but not what I expected for a game in which hiking is the primary activity.

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Slug Camargo (583) on 5/14/2016 8:16 PM · Permalink · Report

I can finally play Dark Souls III at a somewhat decent framerate, so I guess that’s gonna be that for me.

I’m impressed at how much it cost me to get the hang of the faster combat in this one, what with over 500 hours spent in the previous games: I had to roll back and make a pyro/str with healing miracles because there was no way my squishy, pure dex could make it anywhere with so few estus. I’m at the Road of Sacrifices right now and, since I’m making more sense of the whole thing, I might restart with another dex and see if I can do better –I don’t enjoy str weapons much.

The level design is a HUGE improvement over DSII, there’s no denying that, it can get truly beautiful and intricate; but I think I still prefer the first one overall, especially since -as it's been said here before- this one is strangely linear. In fact, it feels a lot closer to Demon’s Souls than to its own series.

Also, it’s annoying that they left out a bunch of improvements the second one did: If nothing else, targeting different body parts would’ve helped a lot with the Testicle Tree, and so far I liked dual wielding much more than these new weapon arts –I barely use those, in fact; I’m not a fan of mana-based melee at all.

Anyway, it’s more Dark Souls, and that’s good enough for me so I’m definitely sticking to it [T]/

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/15/2016 5:24 AM · Permalink · Report

I gave Dragon Age: Inquisition another chance (I finished Neverwinter Nights eventually, so I can't let this game defeat me!) and this time I enjoy its qualities. I ccan't believe why they chose to put the arguably worst area of the game in the beginning. The Hinterlands are huge, visually boring (in comparison to the other areas at least) and full of stupid fetch quests. No wonder people burn out.

Don't get me wrong, my problems with the game still exist (mostly useless open world design, too many simple and/or disappointing side quests, bad UI, useless "tactic" view, shitty war table, etc.) but the qualities (beautiful environments, fun hack & slash, good conversations and companions) begin to shine as soon as you leave the fucking Hinterlands. Better than Dragon Age II, but not even close to the quality of Origins.

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Adzuken (836) on 5/19/2016 3:52 PM · Permalink · Report

I've finally made up with Pokemon after being estranged from the series for about a decade. It was the recent re-release of Pokemon Red that finally brought me back, and I've since gone through and finished a few of the games that I picked up at release, became frustrated with, then put back down. I'm mostly caught up now, and am focusing on building out my Pokedex.

I'm still troubled by the heavily restrictive nature of the games and their refusal to evolve in any meaningful way beyond just piling more half-baked gimmicks onto the pile. The core games are still fun, but I hate how they're so set on railroading you through a set path rather than allowing you to get sucked into the world on your own terms. The games can be better than this, without even needing to expand or change core gameplay.

I know these games are meant for a young audience, but contrary to popular belief, young gamers don't need to be kept on a leash, especially not when they're already committed to playing them for hundreds of hours in an effort to learn about all the features that are either poorly explained or completely hidden. It's disappointing to realize that the games have been around and successful for 20 years and have gotten deeper, but not any broader or more ambitious.

Still, it's hard to deny the addictive appeal of hunting down rare and illusive Pokemon, and I'm honestly happy to have rekindled my appreciation for a series I once held so dear. It seems like I've gone from one addiction to the next, but at least my 3DS is getting a lot of use.

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Adzuken (836) on 6/13/2016 1:51 PM · Permalink · Report

It's almost been a month and I'm still wrapped up in Pokemon. I completed my Pokedex (aside from event-only mythicals) and built a "living" Pokedex within the Pokemon bank. I then moved onto OmegaRuby, which I think may be my favourite in the series so far, despite being a remake of a game I was lukewarm on. Don't get me wrong, the game is still restrictive to a fault (happily, less so than the last few titles), but there are a couple new small features that are basically checks off my wishlist.

The smaller one is the ability to soar with one of the legendary Pokemon, which is essentially the same as the "fly" ability's quick travel power, but with the added feature of allowing you to actually control the Pokemon and fly around a 3D representation of the map. You don't get this until later on, but I hope that going forward in the series, this is how the fly ability is handled, as it helps give the world a more tangible quality.

The second feature is the Dexnav, which I feel is a game changer. Previously all Pokemon were encountered exclusively through random battles, putting you at the mercy of the game to decide what Pokemon you run into. With the Dexnav, once you've initially encountered a Pokemon, you can then hunt for it in the overworld using the scanner. The scanner tells you information such as what ability your target has, what its starting move is, what level it is, and even a general idea of what IVs it has. This allows you to manipulate a Pokemon's potential without having to breed for it, and makes catch Pokemon and building your party a more interactive experience, rather than just leaving you to tread through the grass and hope you trip over your desired quarry.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/30/2016 7:38 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm currently playing Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. I discovered it because the Steam reviews are so overwhelmingly positive and it looked interesting. So I took a chance, purchased it and was rewarded with one of the most interesting murder mysteries I have ever experienced. I just can't stop playing it! Sorry, Geralt, you'll have to wait.

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vedder (70669) on 5/31/2016 8:19 PM · Permalink · Report

Starting playing Skyrim. The legendary edition has been laying on my desk for 3 years as "I might play this next". One of the last games I bought boxed.

It's as addictive as its predecessors. Mechanically the most solid in the series that I have played, but definitely not as enchanting as Morrowind. The dungeons and quests so far are nice. The world feels more alive than it did in Oblivion and it lost some of its akward design decisions. But the world is very bleak with little variation and doesn't appeal to me much, a step down from Oblivion even which at least was very varied with Cyrodil bordering all the different provinces.

I also bought Overwatch to play online with colleagues.

But now I've become the owner of 2 kittens which have placed games on the backburner a bit ^.^

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Havoc Crow (29798) on 6/1/2016 1:07 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I realized recently that I've been going wrong about gaming all my life.

A week ago my brother bought a cheap USB gamepad on a whim. Now, I've never used a gamepad before in my life, never had the idea to buy one either, and it's been one hell of an eye-opener for me.

For a long time, I secretly thought that all these classic games people seemed to love so much – Mario, Mega Man, old Atari games, C64 games etc. – were pretty overrated. Sure, the graphics are nice and they're historically significant, but they're so damn hard and the controls are unresponsive and awful! I couldn't believe that schoolchildren could ever actually complete these games without the modern convenience of savestates. Surely, it must have been torture.

Well, it turns out that games which were made for playing with a console pad or a joystick don't really play well on a keyboard – which is what I've been using to play them on emulators. I've tried the gamepad, and it's like an entirely new world in here. Heck, I completed a Mega Man II level completely without savestates, and even defeated the boss on the first try! –something I'd never think was possible. How many challenges can I now dare to tackle with this new controller? How many games have I misjudged? Where am I going to find the time to try playing them all over again...

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/25/2016 1:51 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Today I finally finished Divinity 2: Director's Cut after the fourth try (one vanilla and two Dragon Knight Saga attempts). I like the game, I like the world, I like the humour (German version). I don't like the slog in many parts, mostly the flying fortresses in the main game (in part because they removed the possibility to take down ground forces in dragon form from vanilla). The add-on is almost exclusively a city adventure (the player is mostly busy solving quests and exploring the relatively small city) which is good. The dragon form is only featured near the end in one of the worst escort missions I have ever played.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/30/2016 4:28 PM · Permalink · Report

During the Steam sale I bought a bunch of JRPGs. I did play Final Fantasy VI on an emulator before, but now it is the first "official" playthrough. It is still a phantastic game and I like it much more than VII. And don't get me started on XIII...

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 7/4/2016 8:38 PM · Permalink · Report

I am also reading something: Game Boy World: 1990 - Vol.1. It's a great book because of two reasons:

  • 1) it is a labour of love and it shows.
  • 2) it describes every game on at least two sites (mostly three pages description and one full page with the cover art). The descriptions are not only a rundown of the gameplay, but also puts it into a historical context. Even back in the day Game Boy games rarely received more than half-a-page reviews in the gaming mags. I hope the author keeps the good work up and finishes this huge project of game documentation! I an already looking forward to the next volume and maybe I'll even buy the colour version.
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Terok Nor (41733) on 7/5/2016 7:15 AM · Permalink · Report

That sounds like a great resource (both book and website/video series). Might be very useful in adding missing games, especially if he goes into detail on the more obscure Japanese games. Around 450 GB Mono games are still missing, most of them Japanese exclusives.

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Sciere (923814) on 7/6/2016 3:11 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

It is not a horror title, but The Town of Light has some of the most heart-wrenching and disturbing scenes I have ever experienced in a game. Especially the last moments, both the final events and the conclusion, are sharp bites of psychological trauma, both repulsive and beautiful in presentation. Nothing groundbreaking about the gameplay itself, except for the environments, branching paths and some clever puzzles, but wonderful art direction and an extremely well-written, horrifying story for an adult audience that doesn't hold back. At all. I went for a run after finishing the game as it leaves you a little hollow.

35MM was interesting too.

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Adzuken (836) on 7/27/2016 2:17 PM · Permalink · Report

My boyfriend and I have been playing through all the North American N64 wrestling games in order of their release for a series of articles we're writing. Neither of us have played the games before nor are we very familiar with professional wrestling in general, so it's a completely new experience for us. We're about halfway through now, having arrived at WWF Attitude.

So far we've found that anything developed by AKI is extraordinarily good. These include WCW World Tour and Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000 and No Mercy, and the Japan exclusive Virtual Pro Wrestling 1 and 2 (which I imported after discovering just how great these games are). I fully expect to come out of this experience with at least one of AKI's games becoming a favourite of mine. The combat system is just so perfect and it get better every iteration.

Games by Acclaim and Iguana (WWF War Zone, Attitude, and ECW Hardcore Revolution, presumably) on the other hand leave a lot to be desired. The graphics are horrible (but play in full 640x480, it would seem), the wrestlers' proportions are incredibly whacked out, and the animations are often laughable. Attitude is an improvement over War Zone from a framework perspective, including a tonne of match and career types, but the combat is still horrible using a dial-a-move system for a small number of moves. They kind of feel like budget titles.

WCW Nitro is just trash. It looks ugly and plays horribly. There are few match types, and all the wrestlers are exactly the same aside from up to 3 possible special moves. There aren't very many redeeming qualities here.

Haven't made it to the EA developed games yet (WCW Mayhem and Backstage Assault), so I've got no comment there.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 7/30/2016 9:36 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm currently playing Enderal, a big total conversion for Skyrim. It is good (I especially like the world and dungeon design), but unfortunately it crashes all the time. There is at least one guaranteed crash per hour.

The role-playing system seems well implemented so far, but the game is way too hard during the first few hours. Exactly like Nehrim.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 8/15/2016 3:53 PM · Permalink · Report

I played Dreamfall Chapters from start to finish and generally I thought the story was pretty juvenile, with all the typical stereotypes thrown in like "but who's gonna save the little child?" or "unrelated character barges into the story to fix everything"--I think we call this lazy writing nowadays. The game is of course interesting, especially for those who are familiar with the series. You're going to receive the answers to most of the questions you had after playing the first two games. The cutscenes and the world are beautiful, the music is good too. Most of the characters are unoriginal and act too much like teenagers despite some of them being very old indeed. The errands in the open-world sections felt very boring, considering that the cities are pretty small and you don't have that much too explore. There's also no way to highlight hotspots by the way, and this is a 3D adventure we're talking about... good thing there aren't too many puzzles, I guess.

The worst for me was Book Three--if you can survive that in my opinion you will manage to finish this adventure game and spend a total of 25-30 hours. I didn't regret it because I'm a TLJ fan, you however might.

Right now I'm playing Call of Cthulhu: The Wasted Land and I guess it's ok. The story isn't much, however I like the turn-based gameplay so far. Let's see how I will fare in this time-based mission...

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Cavalary (11445) on 8/25/2016 6:03 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

FINALLY finished Hordes of the Underdark. That final push now and finally made it. As I said before here, had saves from Dec 2010, with a final one then in Jan 2011, then another attempt last August, last save then start of September 2015, then again when I said here, April this year, with a last save in early May, and then again now, the final part.

Good game, good design, they pushed the limits of what NWN could do... Bar that frustrating part at the end if you don't know ahead of time that you'll need a ton of gold to get all names and all you have as source is the djinn in the bottle that buys at 15k tops. I got them all for 1.9M (so no final battle - thought I'd give it a go, but no reason and just wanted to finish it, so commanded him to die and that was that), but can cost you even 2.1.
So yeah, enjoyed it overall, but was also frustrated by it in parts, but that's also from how I play and such. Couldn't say more considering how stretched it was over the years. Basically have no clue what part 1 was anymore, those saves from Dec 2010 had me almost finishing part 2, so couldn't even say when I started it really.

Later edit: Did start that fight to get level 33 (reached it just then after commanding the allies I had brought along just to get their end story, since I wasn't going to fight) for screenshots. So there he was at the end. Other gear is +10 str belt, +10 con boots, +10 armor bracers, +9 armor (deflection) ring (couldn't find any +10, probably bugged shop there, the +10 is fortitude ring). Also do have that neat sash of searing, a 100% cold immunity ring, the ring of power for another +1 regen, another with +3 saves, a +10 saves amulet and various other odds and ends, in case of needing to swap.


Click for full size.

/rant

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Slug Camargo (583) on 9/3/2016 1:24 AM · Permalink · Report

Finished Dark Souls III for the second time, and I just started a new character. This one will rock daggers and a shortbow, and she's only allowed to teleport from the first bonfire of each area, and only to Firelink and back, for added challenge and sightseeing [T]/

That's three playthroughs in a row, by the way. I haven't gotten so much in love with a game since the first Dark Souls. I don't even know how some people have things to complain about, this is a blast.

I'm also coaching my gf through her first playthrough, and she's picking up quite nicely. Seeing her take down the Old Demon King in her second try with such precise rolls and perfectly timed hits made me ridiculously proud.

She's just about the face the Pontiff now, it should be interesting.

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 9/3/2016 7:43 AM · Permalink · Report

I'm really loving Banner Saga here. Currently playing the sequel... it's just beautiful. Music, art, mood.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 9/3/2016 8:17 AM · Permalink · Report

I decided to boycott Deus Ex: Mankind Divided because of the awful pre-order policy and the inclusion of an in-game... OH WHO AM I KIDDING. I'm playing it like mad right now and I love it. It strikes my exploration nerves exactly.

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Cavalary (11445) on 9/3/2016 9:43 AM · Permalink · Report

... and here's why the industry gets away with it.

Blah.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 9/11/2016 11:10 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

That was of course just a joke, I'd never consider boycotting a game because of pre-order stuff (because pre-ordering is bad anyway). The in-game shop is awful, of course, but I did not know about it beforehand. Thankfully it is useless in-game (in good old Deus Ex fashion, you are soon practically invincible anyway) and only used for a secondary game mode no sane person cares about.

I just finished the game and have mixed feelings about it. The gameplay mechanics are similar to Human Revolution, which I liked a lot, but improved. I can't think of a single mechanic which was solved worse than in HR. However, I did not like the structure of the game. Prague, the single hub area, is fantastic and a dream to explore. Once. In later visits I had no motivation to do anything else than quests without looking left or right. I prefer the structure of the original Deus Ex and HR: smaller areas which are visited in a linear fashion.

The main plot is generic and not very interesting. Only one big event of HR has any meaning and Adam Jensen's past is basically only brought up during one or two side quests. It almost seems the game was originally meant to feature a new protagonist and Adam was shoehorned in later. Most of the main story characters, especially the villain, are two-dimensional cardboard cutouts and the game has no proper ending. What I liked about the plot is that it steers towards the happenings of Deus Ex.

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vedder (70669) on 9/14/2016 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report

Lately I had been playing Skyrim. I bought the legendary edition shortly after it came out and it had been laying on my desk since then. So for a couple of years that is. I didn't really want to start on it because I knew it would be a timesink.

146 hours later that assumption can be confirmed. I'm done with it however. I finished all major quest lines of both the main game and expansions and finished all side quests I could find that I found enjoyable.

Next up is probably Obduction. I kickstarted it and am very curious as to how it turned out. I loved the Myst games, so it has something to live up to!

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 9/15/2016 8:06 PM · Permalink · Report

Today I finished Danganronpa 2. I wanted to play it since I finished the predecessor a few months ago, but I waited for this year's holiday. Good decision: 34 hours in five days. It is just as hard to put aside than a good novel. Overall I think it is a bit weaker than Danganronpa, but still very enjoyable. Now I look forward to the PC ports of the Zero Escape series.

Next up: Divinity: Original Sin, attempt 3.

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 9/18/2016 7:14 PM · Permalink · Report

After 12 years since I first tried it I decided it's time to finish Silent Hill 2. Given that I already tried twice doing it I came with the expectation that it will be just like a stroll in the park, no stress.

Nope. I can't believe how this game manages to unsettle me every time. Well gulp I'll just have to persevere.

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vedder (70669) on 9/26/2016 8:05 PM · Permalink · Report

Currently playing Obduction. I really like it so far, but it is definitely one of the hardest games I've played in a while. In many ways it's comparable to the original Myst. And having recently played the later Myst entries I can definitely see they watered down the difficulty (or perhaps they became easier because you got used to their logic). Obduction is quite fresh hard-core, but that might also be its greatest strength.

Horribly stuck at the moment, but perhaps I'll get further again after a good night's sleep!

Definitely recommended for those who loved the Myst series. I don't think the premise is as strong as the written Ages in Myst, but the puzzles and exploration is just as great.

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vedder (70669) on 10/2/2016 7:06 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished! Fantastic game!

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Adzuken (836) on 9/30/2016 1:02 PM · Permalink · Report

I've been spending some time building up my N64 collection, and to offset the influx of new games, I've been trying to complete as many as I can. So far, I've tackled:

Top Gear Overdrive: Not a bad racing game, but it starts feeling slapped together. The fastest cars you obtain make it feel exactly like driving in fast forward. It's twitchy, it's rough around the edges, but you can drive a taco, so I've played worse.

Quest 64: While I don't think it's as bad as its reputation, it's pretty obvious that it was cut back significantly. There's little reason to do anything aside from follow the main path and comb the ground for magic upgrades.

Stunt Racer 64: There's a lot to like about Stunt Racer 64, but it lets itself down a bit at the end. The artstyle, the tracks, the career mode; they're all pretty great, but the reward system does a poor job of incentivizing wins. I ended up finishing the game with a mid-level car because I'd basically have to grind the races to get the money to buy something better.

Currently moved on to Space Station Silicon Valley and Beetle Adventure Racing. I certainly have no shortage of games to move onto afterwards.

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Adzuken (836) on 10/27/2016 3:48 PM · Permalink · Report

Dr. Mario 64 - I'm not much of a puzzler, but I do like a bit of Dr. Mario now and then. I think this might be the best version of the game, since it includes 4 player vs. and even a story mode. Other than that, though, it's Dr. Mario.

Xena: Warrior Princess - Talisman of Fate - Lame.

Razor Freestyle Scooter - Double lame.

I've stalled on Beetle Adventure Racing, Mickey's Speedway USA, and Hercules the Legendary Journey. Space Station Silicon Valley is coming along slowly. Also, I've been coop-ing Diddy Kong Racing and Top Gear Rally 2. We've beaten Wizpig and just need the rest of the trophies to get to the last world in Diddy Kong, and in Top Gear Rally 2, my boyfriend can't make it through a race without wrecking his rear drivetrain.

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Cavalary (11445) on 9/30/2016 6:31 PM · Permalink · Report

Hardly worth mentioning, but with my computer behaving oddly I had it checked out, was back on the old one which had been sitting in the corner since May 2015, and threw Mint on it. And while there, decided to quickly go through Akalabeth, doing the amulet abuse thing till I got some 5k in all stats and just breezed through in... probably less than an hour really?

What I'm unsure about now is whether it'd count as oldest game played or not. I mean, it is oldest by original release, but it was the '98 rerelease played, which I gather had that added random seed selection which helped make the amulet abuse easy, and I think also something about saving? Then again, the first issue would be with the term "played".

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Rwolf (22659) on 10/6/2016 6:39 PM · Permalink · Report

Between fiddling with my flightsim add-ons, I played through Broken Sword 2.5 in a few sessions; quite well made I must say, though some odd puzzles and pixel hunts occurred, it did not diminish the experience. (I peeked at a walkthrough twice)

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CalaisianMindthief (8172) on 10/10/2016 8:13 PM · Permalink · Report

I managed to run V-Rally 2 on Windows 10. Great, but it runs as if on steroids, and I doubt I will manage to slow it down. I find it playable however. The soundtrack is also a bit crazy.

Another game I've been playing lately is The Witcher Adventure Game, which seems a little bit overwhelming at the beginning because it throws all it has at you. As with most board game adaptations the rules are simple once you figure them out. It rewards veterans because knowing the cards and how to combine them to maximize results is an advantage. Despite that the game is decent fun in multiplayer if you find enough people online.

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vedder (70669) on 10/18/2016 7:31 PM · Permalink · Report

Playing Shadow of the Colossus. While there's a lot to love about it and I can understand it being a cult classic, the game tends to be an exercise in frustration.

The lack of control over my avatar (when horse riding or climbing a colossus) makes me want to hurl my controller through a monitor quite frequently. It makes me love Journey even more. That horse just doesn't like me, even after I discovered the advanced controls. When near an edge and pressing my stick left, it will simply always rotate right and vice versa. And it has the tendency to steer itself towards tiny level differences instead of away from it. I guess this is the game that Assassin's Creed took its lessons from when it decided to make horses automatically steer away from anything. For me struggling with the horse tends to spoil what should be a leisurely trip through the landscape (refreshingly devoid of content filling out of story creeps to kill). I'd leave the horse at home if it weren't for the long distances.

The colossi are fantastic and it's cool to figure out their weak spot. Some I had to look up because what you need to do is a bit too specific and might not trigger because you don't stand on the right pixel or something, or have to wait way longer than you'd expect to for something to trigger. Once on the beast it's frustration all over. It's fantastic that you can climb those beasts, but the avatar never goes where you want to, and with some beasts the moments where you can actually move seem quite sparse and far in between. Once the Colossus goes down it's always a relief that the exercise in patience is over rather than a real sense of accomplishment.

I'm definitely not enjoying this as much as I did ICO, but it's a good game despite its frustrations. I can't play it longer than one boss at a time because of all my frustrations with it, but I do keep coming back. Almost half way now. I'd love to see a modern re-imagining of this game! Something with fluent climbing controls like Assassin's Creed and where you move swiftly across the land as in Journey.

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vedder (70669) on 11/20/2016 1:19 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished Shadow of the Colossus. It does become less frustrating later on as your strength grows. The game feels like it gets easier as you get further, which I didn't particularly mind. It's cool to see all the different bosses although in the middle of the game I think there were some with rather obscure sequences you had to figure out. Near the end again it gets easier because nothing really new gets introduced.

In the vain of trying PS2 games I missed at the time, I've been trying some Okami, but I just can't handle the insane amount of boring ramblings in the game. It's just a pain in the ass. Visually it looks great and the gameplay is nice so far, but I just can't take the tedious talking to characters and all the unskipable cutscenes. I doubt I can find the courage to pick that up again.

I've also been playing Rocket League. It's fun from the get go even if you don't have much skill yet. It's a great game for lunch breaks (a match takes 5-10 minutes) with colleagues.

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vedder (70669) on 1/6/2017 4:27 PM · Permalink · Report

Still playing a lot of Rocket League. Good fun!

Played The Room on the iPad. It's a nice puzzler and I might play later instalments in the series at a later date.

Tried my hands on Anno 1701, but had the same experience with it as with 1602 and 140?. The game looks fantastic, I like city building, and the Settlers 2 is one of my all-time favourites. So this game should be right up my alley, but it just rubs me in the wrong way. For some reason in this game it feels more of a chore to keep your inhabitants happy than in others and once I have an island functioning somewhat satisfactory I just can't be bothered to go colonize another.

Started on SOMA, but so far it's not really connecting with me yet. I need to play it a bit more probably.

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vedder (70669) on 1/8/2017 10:34 AM · Permalink · Report

Continuing with SOMA it really picks up. Loving it!

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 10/27/2016 7:09 PM · Permalink · Report

After abandoning Original Sin - again - I played Dreamfall Chapters. I'm a big fan of the series and I enjoyed it a lot. Honestly, the worst parts where when they tried to include "puzzles". One episode, I think the third, was especially obnoxious.

Afterwards I put my teeth into Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. It is definitely much better than Unity. The movement is better, the hook works well, the combat is more fun (I hated the combat in Unity) and the stealth is actually fun. Of course it is still held back by the usual problems, especially the useless open world which is only populated by repetitive side missions and shitty collectibles and the pointless progression system. I also did not like that the "real world" stuff is cutscenes-only, I like it.

I also played Knights of the Old Republic again. I think I said some mean things about it when comparing it to its successor. Maybe it is because this was my first playthrough in English, but I need to withdraw some points. This game is very good! While some parts are bad (the underwater sections, the puzzles, the inventory), I loved the plot and quests a lot. This is definitely one of my favorite Bioware games.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 11/17/2016 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report

To probably no one's surprise, I'm playing Tyranny right now. I love it and can't stop playing! It feels like a cross between Pillars of Eternity and Alpha Protocol - streamlined character system, linear and a big reactivity.

I also played both Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider. I never was a fan of the old Tomb Raiders (in fact I only played Legend and Anniversary), so I'm not put off by the changes. I enjoyed both games because of the great setpieces, even with the obvious narrative problems of the first one. Rise is clearly the better game though.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 11/19/2016 8:13 AM · Permalink · Report

After finishing Tyranny, the Alpha Protocol strikes true. It is completely based on reactivity based on your dialogue options. On the other hand, just like AP, the areas are almost completely linear and there is very little side content. In other words, I don't mind, though.

I am looking forward to playing this again. Actually I am tempted to play it right now with different choices - the only other game which achieves that is Alpha Protocol - but I won't because I'll just burn out in the middle.

I obviously don't learn from my past mistakes because I'm downloading Final Fantasy XIII-2 right now. It must be better than XIII, RIGHT?

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 11/29/2016 6:45 AM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Patrick Bregger wrote--]I obviously don't learn from my past mistakes because I'm downloading Final Fantasy XIII-2 right now. It must be better than XIII, RIGHT? [/Q --end Patrick Bregger wrote--] Most surprisingly, it is. The game profits from focusing on two protagonists because there is less awful (as in less, not better) dialogue to endure. I like the plot - it probably won't make a lot of sense in the end, but I have a weakness for time travel stories. The game structure is much more enjoyable than in XIII - there are a multitude of semi-open levels; some of them are visited in different and/or alternative time periods. The gameplay itself, especially the battle system, is only changed in details. Overall I enjoy the game, but I hope it does not drag on too long.

I also played and finished Mafia III. As a big fan of the predecessors, I was not thrilled of the changes - a revenge story instead of a traditional Mafia plot, open world gameplay instead of levels set over a span of years? Overall it worked OK. The plot and especially the cutscenes are very well made, alone the documentary twist deserves a medal, and the use of music (as well as the radio soundtrack) is great. The majority of the game is unfortunately just repetitive "go to place A and kill everyone, then go to place B and kill everyone, then..." open world stuff which is not even optional. However, because the core mechanics (stealth and shooting) work so well, I was never bored. Except for the stupid loyalty and trafficking missions, who came up with that crap? Especially Burke's missions are a chore.

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Cavalary (11445) on 11/17/2016 8:03 PM · Permalink · Report

Since chirinea pointed out it was free on itch.io, said might as well grab Gone Home and went through it for the heck of it. On medium settings a Pentium G3440's integrated graphics, mind you, so framerate was probably nothing you could tolerate if it was actually a game. But since it's not, there was that. There's a review pending... though that was an odd thing to write.

Anyway, guess it counts as a... something finished this year too.

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Adzuken (836) on 11/30/2016 6:21 PM · Permalink · Report

I actually played through Shaq Fu on the SNES (the version with fewer fighters for some reason). As its reputation would imply, it certainly isn't the most worthwhile fighting game, but then, any fighting game that isn't Street Fighter II has had difficulty justifying its existence. To its credit, Shaq Fu at least looks decent, with its quality animation and colourful graphics. It controls like a shopping cart submerged in molasses. I made it through the entire game using only the low kick button by pinning the AI into one side of the screen. I tried using the special moves a few times, but they take so long to pull off that my target had always moved or punched me before I made contact. Even when I did get one to connect, it wasn't worth it.

Still, it isn't as bad as Transformers: Beast Wars: Transmetals on the N64. Beast Wars has difficulty justifying its existence as a game, let alone as a fighter. All the robots have unbalanced stats, with Optimus Primal and Megatron being way more powerful than any of the others. You can be in robot, vehicle, or beast configuration, but it doesn't really matter which you choose because every attack is a projectile. If there are special moves, I'm not sure I'd be able to tell since every button seems to do the same thing. I completed this game using the tried and true strategy of strafing around enemies and hitting the homing attack button. Also, it looks like absolute garbage, even by N64 standards.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 12/3/2016 5:01 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm currently playing Dishonored 2 and it's pretty much like the first: great atmosphere, great stealth gameplay, fantastic levels. But now I'm frustrated because I suddenly have two kills in my statistics and I have no idea why. I checked all people I knocked out and they are all "unconscious". The last clean save is too far back to bother replaying :(

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 12/8/2016 12:28 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I finished Dishonored 2 right now and can only repeat how great the level design is. One of the later missions is a classic gimmick level - and boy, how great it is.

I also played Sherlock Holmes: The Devil's Daughter which is a huge disappointment. They took everything which was so fantastic about the predecessor Sins & Punishments, condensed it to a minimum and replaced it with quick-time events and unnecessary logic puzzles. Also less and worse cases.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 12/12/2016 8:47 PM · Permalink · Report

At the moment I'm playing Just Cause 3. It's stupid fun and mostly about making things boom. The only question is how long it takes before repetition sets in. The map looks way too big - and 130 settlements to liberate?

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 1/3/2017 6:40 AM · Permalink · Report

I abandoned Just Cause 3 after about a third of the game. Its fun and all, but the prospect of doing the same thing over and over for 40 more hours did not bode well.

I also played the Pillars of Eternity DLCs, which are good but nothing special. I did not finish White Marsh II: The temple is a boring slog with one overpowered mob after another. I postpone it until I do another full walkthrough and play the content at the intended level.

Orwell is a visual novel which tells an engaging story and has a (as in one and only one) nice gameplay mechanic. I recommend it.

Undertale is a very charming game, but I only played about two hours yet. It is not overloaded with mechanics, but it makes very clever use of the few it has.

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Adzuken (836) on 12/16/2016 3:29 PM · Permalink · Report

I've been playing Final Fantasy XV, which is the first FF game that I actually got excited for the release of, and will likely be the first one that I actually finish. The main reason is that, as far back as my pre-teen years, I have always dreamt of the perfect road trip game. This year there has seen the early release of Jalopy and My Summer Car, but Final Fantasy is the first complete game I've played this year to heavily focus on recreational travel by car.

"Complete".

For the first several chapters, everything goes swimmingly and feels great. You travel the countryside, picking up quests and leveling up. Staying in hotels, camping, eating various well-rendered meals while picking up new ones; it all seems to be building for a long adventure where all these accumulated abilities will be put to the test.

Yet it doesn't take long before you leave the open world and are sent hurtling towards your final destination at mach speed. After spending all that time building yourself up and taking your time, you're rushed through to the finale faster than you can blink. Chapters and new areas fly by without giving you any opportunity to take it in. The contrast between open world exploration and lightning-fast sightseeing is ridiculous. Not since Knights of the Old Republic 2 have I seen such an obvious and hasty use of the pruning sheers.

I feel like most of the game is on the cutting room floor. A lot of the things in the story happen off screen, and some characters who are presumably supposed to be rather major players in the story show up for nothing more than a few lines. The plot is hugely abbreviated, and I imagine that if you took all the side activities out of the equation, the total runtime of the story segments would equal in the single digits. While I have always been annoyed by the long-windedness of the typical Final Fantasy, this is a step too far in the wrong direction.

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Adzuken (836) on 1/6/2017 2:26 PM · Permalink · Report

I finished FFXV before the holidays, and my opinion of it is basically the same; it's great fun at the beginning, then they ran out of time making it. One section of the story literally takes place on an isolated train platform. Chapter 13 is a long, boring drag. Very few of the story elements past act 1 have any impact at all, brought up as an aside, then dropped. The ending is especially disappointing; fitting poorly, carrying no weight, and wrapping up more out of obligation than anything else.

Still it had some great moments.

It also left me with a taste for Final Fantasy as a series. However, since most are in the 50+ hours range, it's unlikely I'll pull a Castlevania or Metal Gear and play through the bulk of the back catalogue, but I'll try to play a few before I burn out.

Currently I'm working on Final Fantasy VII, a game I picked up years ago for, like, an hour before deciding I didn't like it. This time, I'm making tracks. I estimate I'm somewhere around the middle of the game, and for the most part, I'm enjoying it. I chalk this up to a certain charm that the game carries through its art and music, because it certainly isn't the gameplay keeping me glued, and it sure as hell isn't the characters. What little development the characters go through is pretty hard to sympathize with, which I'm pretty sure is made more difficult by the game's translation.

Nonetheless, I'm enjoying it and have my fingers crossed that I have the attention span to see it through to the end. Not sure what I'll move onto afterwards. I may play the first game, the remake of the third, tackle VIII, attempt to finally finish IX, or slog it through XIII.

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Adzuken (836) on 1/11/2017 2:50 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I completed Final Fantasy VII, making it the second FF game that I have actually finished. I enjoyed it, though I'd chalk that up more to its style than substance. From an audio and visual standpoint, the game's pretty fantastic. There's a tonne of variety in the locations and situations. Hell, the game's world, while a bit too fantastic and sparse to be believable, has a lot of charm to it. However, I wouldn't say it's the best game of all time.

The game's UI is tremendously annoying. The story is so convoluted that I still can't work out the whole "clone" backstory. Most of the characters, including the principle antagonist, Sephiroth, don't have much in the way of motivation aside from them all being jerks. Heck, there's a scene near the end of the game where the main cast sit down and think about their motivation, and two of the characters decide that they have absolutely no reason to be fighting, essentially calling attention to one of the plot's failings. The summons are needlessly ostentatious, with one particular summon taking an unskippable minute and twenty seconds. In the last battle, the villain blew up the sun twice, which seems a bit excessive.

Still, I enjoyed the game. A lot of these problems can mainly be attributed to it being released in 1997, still early in video game storytelling's development.

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Adzuken (836) on 1/18/2017 4:31 PM · Permalink · Report

I decided to go with FFIX. I previously played it 7 years ago, got to the front steps of the bad guy's fortress, then got bored and stopped playing. Hopefully this time ends on a more final note.

I'm nearing the 20 hour mark. Even at this point the characters are far superior to those in Final Fantasy VII. This time around, the cast have well-defined motivations that push them forward and make them easy to sympathize with. The black mage, Vivi, for example, is especially tragic, but because he's constantly bolstered by the main protagonist, Zidane, the game rarely gives in fully to melodrama. I don't want to put down Final Fantasy VII too badly, since without it, IX likely wouldn't exist in the way it does, but IX seems to be clearly tighter in the story department.

I also jumped back into Skyrim, using the new Special Edition upgrade as a gateway. The upgrade isn't that impressive. The lighting is nicer, but you could have probably achieved the same thing with mods. I'm going as a mage for this playthrough, a departure from my usual broadsword/stealth archer character. I'm enjoying it, but the restrictiveness of learning new spells is a bit of a drag. Why did I have to wait so long to get Bound Bow? Regardless, I still really like Skyrim, even if I'm getting sick to death of Bethesda-style dungeons.

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Adzuken (836) on 1/25/2017 3:28 PM · Permalink · Report

I finished Final Fantasy IX, actually reaching the ending this time. While the story certainly has more depth and is more robust than Final Fantasy VII's, the pacing absolutely dies in the second half, which was a problem that isn't shared with VII. I think this is mainly due to the characters having less interaction with one another as the game goes on. The writers also seem to have had a problem giving the characters new challenges to overcome. It feels like it should have been a much shorter tale, perhaps with fewer characters. I'd still put it above VII's, though.

From a gameplay standpoint, it was probably a step backwards. There was far less variety this time around, and fewer memorable moments outside of story sequences. The trance system is far inferior to the limit breaks of FF7. Trance always auto-triggers and commonly does so right when the last enemy is about to fall. I don't think I ever gained a strategic advantage using it, making it entirely pointless.

Moving onto Yakuza Zero, which will be my first playthrough of a Yakuza game. I'm enjoying it so far, but I haven't been playing very long. I will likely also play Final Fantasy 1 occasionally on my NES.

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Adzuken (836) on 2/15/2017 2:14 PM · Permalink · Report

I completed Final Fantasy on the NES. I actually enjoyed it for the most part, but can basically sum it up by saying, "I'd rather be playing Dragon Quest 3". Not that it's a bad game, it's just clunkier than the DQ games were at that time. Even the original Dragon Quest I'd put above Final Fantasy. Still, I enjoyed it for the most part, and it actually has a lot of the situational variety that would be a strength in the later series.

I made the mistake of picking up Elder Scrolls Online; not because I regret trying the game, but because now I can't quit. I actually find it remarkable how much it feels like a typical entry in the series. It's simplified in a lot of areas to compensate for the unrestrained behavior of all the players, but the basics are still there. Quests reveal themselves through exploration, there are a tonne of options for building your character, and you can go anywhere from the very beginning without any penalty.

What I dislike most about the game, amusingly enough, is the Online element. I enjoy the ability to play it with my boyfriend, but even in the most remote, undisturbed dungeon, you're going to run into some other adventurer bunny-hopping around. Having to try and open a merchant's lockbox before someone else grabs it is annoying. I am very interested in the upcoming Morrowind expansion, but then I realize that's when Vvardenfall is going to be the most populated and I'll be tripping over other people at every turn.

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Tracy Poff (2093) on 12/18/2016 12:56 AM · Permalink · Report

Yesterday, I played through Inside.

It's very pretty and atmospheric, and the state of the world is rather mysterious; that's all very well done. However, the puzzles were very repetitive. A large fraction of the puzzles were scarcely puzzles at all: walk to the left edge of the room; drag a box slowly to the right edge of the room; climb the box to get to the next room. Several of the remaining puzzles were annoying enemy-juggling: climb a fence; do part of a task until the enemies get near; climb the fence again to draw them to the other side; repeat.

People praise the story of the game, and I can see where they're coming from. The game has a few interesting mysteries: What has happened in this world? Who is the player character? Who are the people chasing him? The last part of the game adds a few more mysteries to the list. However, the game doesn't actually answer any of the questions it asks, nor even hint at answers; you know no more at the end than you did when you began. A mystery by itself isn't a story, in my view, so this is unsatisfying.

This lack of answers, combined with the dull puzzles, is Inside's big weakness. Solving a puzzle can be rewarding primarily in two ways: either because the puzzle itself was fun and challenging to solve; or by giving the player something she wants, such as providing more details about the story. Since neither of these happens in Inside, the puzzles mostly feel like unrewarding obstacles that serve largely to extend the length of the game, without adding anything worthwhile to it. It would have been a better game if some of the puzzles had simply been removed, so as not to waste the player's time.

Is it worth playing? Despite my criticism, I liked it a lot. I'm willing to devote four hours of my time to an art piece. But if you're looking for tricky puzzles or fun platforming, or just a story with a beginning, middle, and end, then you're going to be disappointed.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 12/18/2016 7:19 AM · Permalink · Report

Might as well make it official: I recently took another look at my Backlog and it is ridiculous. It does not even include games I own but never had the intention of playing (e.g. included on covermounts or bundles). I always horded games "for later", but Steam increased the problem considerably. It is obvious that buying more and more games is a waste of time.

1) From this point, I will only buy games when I have the intention to play them right away. Exceptions: crowdfunding, episodic games, games which are in reasonable danger of being discontinued and free games.

2) I need to stop my urge to complete games. Of course I'm not talking about games I honestly love to play, but about the mediocre ones and the ones which lose their appeal at some point.

3) The long-term goal is to bring the "unplayed" games to zero. I'm not really concerned about the unfinished category, but it makes sense to only list games which I actually want to restart/continue at some point. Maybe I'll abuse the "null" category for the rest.

If this survives the Steam Christmas sale, I'm good.

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Foxhack (32102) on 12/21/2016 12:23 AM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Patrick Bregger wrote--]Might as well make it official: I recently took another look at my Backlog and it is ridiculous. It does not even include games I own but never had the intention of playing (e.g. included on covermounts or bundles). I always horded games "for later", but Steam increased the problem considerably. It is obvious that buying more and more games is a waste of time. [/Q --end Patrick Bregger wrote--]

Ha...

Hahahahahahah...

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Ever feel like you're really in over your head?

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 1/10/2017 2:30 PM · Permalink · Report

I accepted the free Assassin Creed 3 offer and now I'm finally playing it. Assassin Creeds are not very good games, but it's always fun to get a taste of some time period. And I have some fascination with the 17-18th century American history. Also I think the native american elements are cool... how often do you see that in games? Not hating Ratonhnhaké:ton at all. :)

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Starbuck the Third (22608) on 1/12/2017 5:38 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start The Fabulous King wrote--]I accepted the free Assassin Creed 3 offer and now I'm finally playing it. Assassin Creeds are not very good games, but it's always fun to get a taste of some time period. And I have some fascination with the 17-18th century American history. Also I think the native american elements are cool... how often do you see that in games? Not hating Ratonhnhaké:ton at all. :) [/Q --end The Fabulous King wrote--]

Well looks like your having a different experience to me, given that haven't been able to decide who's the most bland and uninteresting out of Ratonhnhaké:ton and Altair, which is pretty much a microcosm for the entire game, really. I've tried playing it 3 different times now, got bored senseless each time, to the point that it actually killed all my interest in Assassins Creed altogether.

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 1/13/2017 9:06 AM · Permalink · Report

I guess being interested in the time period helps. I've never finished any Creed game, they all suffer from a certain sameness. I'm exited when a city or a particular place is new, I run around, read all the encyclopedic information, be amazed... and then I just lose interest. Every AC game so far. The combat and jumping around gets very old quickly.

I never find the stories that interesting, I find the AC franchise morality very strange and peculiar. And I don't like Dan Brown style historical conspiracies. But historical locations, cool, I love those. That's why I keep playing them every now and then.

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Cavalary (11445) on 1/12/2017 2:23 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Odd whim, installed Torchlight on Jan 1, finished today. Finished as in killed the end boss of the "story" (ha!), definitely not bothering with even one level of the endless dungeon that opens after that.

Blah. Like somebody took the dailies part or something out of one location of a poor F2P MMO and thought hey, this would make a good single player game in itself. But could just mindlessly go through it I guess. Call it a game finished this year, and very early.
On normal, no gear bought, none enchanted except at the free enchanting altars, nothing fitted in sockets. Here's the character at the end.
The 4 deaths were stupid. First 2 on the last map from the ember quest guy, traps getting me, first the spikes when monsters blocked the way forward and instead of either dashing in or even heading back through the spiked path, I went back and forth and for some reason just stood on spiked tiles till they shot up and killed me, and then 2nd a chest trap in the next room. The other 2 at the start and end of the area opened for the portal guy's last side quest, where I basically just stood there, mind unplugged too much I think, once only running in front of a dark zealot and basically not doing anything else till she got me, another time literally stopped and waited for a poison attack from another to hit me, no idea why.

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Cavalary (11445) on 1/26/2017 5:05 PM · Permalink · Report

Very, very odd for me, but here's a second game finished in one month, Driftmoon. Guess still in the mood for stuff I could actually finish rather quickly. Started Jan 15, finished today, after not playing for a few days in between. According to the save timer, 17.5 hours, but those included really checking every little bit of every map two or even three times and moving everything that could be moved to find those silver feathers. In the end, not sure if I found 107 or 108, had 107 after being asked for one to try on the door, not sure if it was given back to me or not after that and hadn't looked before. (You can technically finish the game with a mere 10, or 11 if that's not given back, but that just makes the dagger. It's 90-91 for everything, including the in this case useless dagger.)
Anyway, charming. Rather simple but definitely quite something for such a small team, and a LOT of references included. Sadly, Christian proselytism left, right and center, and while they have the right to make a Christian game, I have the right to hold it against them. Considering again the size of the team, would have been quite outstanding without this. As it is, grin and bear all of that and try to enjoy the rest, which, again, is quite charming.

Should be a full review coming, let's see how I'll manage to get myself to write it.

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vedder (70669) on 1/27/2017 10:39 AM · Permalink · Report

Currently playing The Witness. I love it. Certainly my number 1 game for 2016 (Sorry Obduction!), but will probably end up in my top games of all time.

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Rwolf (22659) on 1/27/2017 12:27 PM · Permalink · Report

...and there I was, thinking this game had a sudden revival:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/witness

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MediaCult (190) on 2/2/2017 9:10 AM · Permalink · Report

Currently playing Titanfall, for the first time, on Xbox One, and I gotta say it's really quite fun. It was wise to include burn cards, and tons of challenges, and I also like to see so many game modes, that also seem to be active still. It's a good, alternative, multiplayer shooter, for quick fun.

Talking longer fun, I'm re-playing The 7th Guest, as I had accidentally deleted my old save game a year ago (that's how long it took for me to decide to finally replay it). I like most of the puzzles so far, but I'm of course stuck with the infamous can puzzle, and one of the chess puzzles just showed its' ugly face.

Third, and last, game I'm currently playing is the first A-Men on the PS Vita. Cartoony/silly universe, not quite my humor, but the puzzles are generally quite fun, and often it takes many attempts to time everything, and figure out the mechanisms.

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Rwolf (22659) on 2/15/2017 4:39 PM · Permalink · Report

...as for 7th guest, it's common to get stuck on the can puzzle, and more so for a non-english speaker.

The vowels and consonants are not quite the same letters in English as in my own language, and use of uncommon words are almost a game cheat IMO, but that's entirely in Stauf's character.

(Sometimes 'W' can belong to both groups in English - not that it is involved in this puzzle.)

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 2/18/2017 10:47 PM · Permalink · Report

I don't have much to report since my last post.

I finished Undertale which continued to be charming. Unfortunately the controls and interface (both with keyboard or controller) are bad and killed my mood to attempt a pacifist playthrough.

Afterwards I tried my hands on LISA. It has an interesting premise and I enjoyed the writing, but the side-scrolling world turns me off.

I also finally played Blood & Wine, the second expansion for Witcher III. It is fantastic and worth every cent. A great ending for one of my favorite RPG series of all times.

I also started yet another playthrough of the Baldur's Gate series, this time with the new Enhanced Edition Trilogy (or rather tetralogy) mod. I don't expect to play everything in one go, though.

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Cavalary (11445) on 2/19/2017 12:23 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

All I have to report are the protest games released (and in one case re-released) recently during these massive protests here, which I submitted and were just approved today (or yesterday, considering the time).
Otherwise, after finishing Driftmoon last month only today did I even load something else, that meaning some 15 min of poking around in NWN Kingmaker again.

And on that note, my Driftmoon review submitted on Jan 29 is still in queue... Edit: Not in queue anymore. Thanks Simon :)

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vedder (70669) on 3/24/2017 10:25 AM · Permalink · Report

Haven't played much lately, but I did manage to play through Event[0]. It's alright. The concept is great, but in the end the AI is just a bit too limited to really make it shine. There are some great moments in the game though and since it's a short game I can definitely recommend it if you can get it on a discount. Haven't played any game quite like it.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/2/2017 8:00 AM · Permalink · Report

I only played two high-profile games during the last weeks: Watch_Dogs 2 and Mass Effect: Andromeda. In both I poured a lot of playtime which I ultimately regret. I like the setting and atmosphere of Watch_Dogs 2, but the gameplay mechanics and the open world are not very interesting. I quit after a few main and a whole lot of (pointless and uninteresting) side quests.

Mass Effect: Andromeda on the other hand is interesting. In Dragon Age: Inquisition I endured all the pointless side quests because I enjoyed the story and characters. In Mass Effect: Andromeda I enjoy the combat, the exploration and the sidequesting, but the supporting game mechanics (crafting, APEX missions, etc.) are badly designed and the world and characters leave me completely cold. It is a huge disappointment.

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vedder (70669) on 4/2/2017 9:51 AM · Permalink · Report

I purchased a new video card, so I'll soon be playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided! I only got 20 FPS with my old one on lowest settings, now I should get 60 on high or very high probably.

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vedder (70669) on 4/18/2017 7:03 PM · Permalink · Report

Loving it. Definitely more of the same, but I like the big hubs compared to the more obvious linear flow of the previous games, it makes it feel fresh enough.

Also started on the Wonderboy remake. It's like the original (for both the good and the bad), but prettier :) I had to dust off my PS4 since I didn't want to wait for the PC release.

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vedder (70669) on 4/27/2017 8:18 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished Deus Ex Mankind Divided. Loved the game. Didn't touch breach mode and haven't tried the free DLC mission yet. Is it worth purchasing the Criminal Past DLC, it has good reviews on Steam?

Defeated the final boss in Wonderboy The Dragon's Trap. Now going to do all the secret doors for the charm stones. Need to use a guide cause I found only two of them myself.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/17/2017 8:21 PM · Permalink · Report

I played 999 through the Nonary Games edition and it was good. I liked the writing, the characters, the art and the puzzles. I did start Virtue's Last Reward briefly, but I set it aside so I don't burn out on the series. However, I have to say I'm not thrilled by the art style.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/25/2017 7:10 PM · Permalink · Report

I finally finished playing (and recording) the trial versions of all Xbox Live Indie Games. I purchased 16 of them.

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Freeman (64746) on 4/27/2017 4:18 AM · Permalink · Report

Hopefully this is one of the gems that you bought!

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/28/2017 6:22 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I bought a good number of trash titles, but not this one. My favorite XLIG game is One Finger Death Punch. It is just fantastic, the mechanic is simple but still has a lot of variety. The controls, the levels and enemy composition is very well made. This is surprising because the rest of Silver Dollar Games' library is near the bottom of the barrel.

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Tracy Poff (2093) on 4/28/2017 7:54 PM · Permalink · Report

I second this; One Finger Death Punch is super-simple but very fun. None of the their other games are available on PC, it looks like, so I've never tried any of them. From our descriptions, they do look rather uniquely bad, which is surprising to me, since OFDP has a pretty good amount of polish and a consistent aesthetic. Can't all be winners, I guess.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 4/29/2017 9:57 AM · Permalink · Report

At least they never jumped on the "use anime titties to sell crap games to pubescent boys"(e.g. Temple of Dogolrak) bandwagon which infected a lot of games released towards the mid and end of the XNA live span. I also liked how they use live-action video in a lot of their games.

Another two games I need to highlight are Who's Gonna Get The Girl?, which is hilarious because it really tries to sell you on the idea that their uncanny valley woman is hot, and the Virtual Attraction series which makes me puke even thinking about it.

While most of the trashy XNA games fall in the "so bad its fucking terrible" category, Bureau: Agent Kindall (which I played through yesterday) is definitely so bad its good. I purchased it along with its two sequels and I don't regret anything.

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Tracy Poff (2093) on 4/29/2017 11:54 AM · Permalink · Report

Another two games I need to highlight are Who's Gonna Get The Girl?, which is hilarious because it really tries to sell you on the idea that their uncanny valley woman is hot, and the Virtual Attraction series which makes me puke even thinking about it.

Oh my stars. Developed by Ingeniousfun and Fun Factory, respectively. I may need to start avoiding games by developers with 'fun' in the name, just as a precaution. Actually, from the looks of things, that might not be a bad heuristic.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/1/2017 4:10 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I just bought myself a PS3 and some exclusives. The first game I started is Uncharted (nice and good, but so far nothing to justify the hype) and I feel like I'm playing my first video game. In Rise of the Tomb Raider I had no problems with the combat at all and here can barely hit an enemy who is standing right in front of me. Sigh.

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vedder (70669) on 5/1/2017 6:03 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I just finished Uncharted on PS4 today (remastered collection of the first 3 games). It's alright. Story is OK, gun fights are pretty bad, parkouring is mostly cool, but there's some annoying jumping puzzles somewhere. Most common recurring thought in the game for me was that I wished there were fewer gunfights. They completely destroy the suspension of disbelief and are the weakest part of the game and way too frequent. I finished it (on easy) in 2 afternoons so it's fairly short and that's frankly the only reason I bothered to finish it. Solid 7/10 game, pretty bland in regards of gameplay and story but excellent production values in regard to visuals, audio and general polish.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/4/2017 7:32 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I finished it as well today and could not agree more. I switched to easy after about a third of the game because I was bored by those stupid bullet-sponges. Regarding story, I enjoyed the last few chapters significantly more than the previous ones. At least they pulled off making the main character likable. Overall a solid adventuring story.

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vedder (70669) on 6/12/2017 7:41 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished the first 2 chapters of Uncharted 2, so far I think it's a vast improvement over the original. The story is still Hollywood cliché after cliché, but at least I didn't have to kill hordes of enemies yet (just one so far if I remember correctly). Maybe it'll jump the shark later, but enjoying it thus far.

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vedder (70669) on 6/18/2017 7:14 PM · Permalink · Report

At about 75% of Uncharted 2 now and maintain my initial opinion of it being a vast improvement over the original. Definitely understanding the hype around this series more now. Really enjoying it. Still has too much combat, and a paper thin story and characters, but everything is just a factor more enjoyable and even more polished than in the first game.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/12/2017 3:20 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I just finished Yakuza 3. I enjoyed it a lot (even if I suck at fighting and had to change the difficulty to easy frequently), especially the great open world (small, but interesting). Interestingly enough for these games, I even enjoyed the side stuff (excluding mini games) because most of them had some interesting/funny stories. However, I stopped doing them after a while because of the big negative points: those random encounters. They became a boring nuisance very fast.

I thought the basic plot premise was a bit silly (is it really that bad to move to another part of the island?) and the interactions with the kids were pretty heavy-handed. Admittedly, it still worked for me - after a certain plot point I was furious.

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vedder (70669) on 5/15/2017 7:39 PM · Permalink · Report

Playing Brütal Legend. It started out great, but my initial enthusiasm has waned a bit. The tower defence sections just aren't that fun and pretty much all the mechanics (if which there are a huge amount) in the game don't feel like they have the polish they should have had. Or at least not compared to modern action adventures. A Jack (black) of many trades but master of none (even for someone who doesn't like metal). The presentation is sublime though and rarely did a game make me laugh so often. I'm just over one third according to the game's progress meter. But I'm not sure if I'll finish it yet.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/23/2017 3:20 PM · Permalink · Report

Heavy Rain is an interesting game. Overall speaking, I enjoyed it: it does some things I have not seen in games before, it has non-shitty quicktime events (played it on easy, though) and I did not see the twist coming. However, I think it probably would have been a better game if it told one narrative instead of having branches for every failed chapter. For example, in one instance I failed and in the next chapter another character did something unbelievable stupid just to keep the story going. I lost my whole appetite for the game at this point and only replaying a former chapter to keep it from happening made me finish it.

I also played God of War. It fantastically produced, but it bores me. Gore and tits are good enough to please my inner twelve-year-old, but it lost its appeal very fast. I hated the quick-time events. That's one game I probably won't return to.

I think I completely forgot to post about Tales of Zestiria. Its my first Tales game and I enjoyed it, but after about 25 hours the fighting became too repetitive. While I love the silly humor and the dialogues, the plot itself is too stale to keep me going.

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vedder (70669) on 5/23/2017 5:37 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Patrick Bregger wrote--]I also played God of War. It fantastically produced, but it bores me. Gore and tits are good enough to please my inner twelve-year-old, but it lost its appeal very fast. I hated the quick-time events. That's one game I probably won't return to. [/Q --end Patrick Bregger wrote--]

Had the same experience trying out God of War for the first time last year. Also hated the insta-death platforming bits.

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vedder (70669) on 10/17/2017 6:57 PM · Permalink · Report

Just finished Heavy Rain. Have some similar feelings about it as Patrick. I enjoyed it, particularly for the things it did that other games don't. I still don't like quick time events, but it did manage to make them tolerable. The narrative was a step up from Fahrenheit's supernatural facepalm moments, but riddled with plot holes and Krimi clichés. Still waiting for a game similar to this but which would be hypothetical Oscar material instead of daytime TV material.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 5/26/2017 4:34 PM · Permalink · Report

And once again I reinstalled The Elder Scrolls Online. See you in a month or so.

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Adzuken (836) on 6/7/2017 1:22 PM · Permalink · Report

I've been hitting the Fallout games pretty hard, which is a tremendous time sink. Started with Fallout 3, which I tired of before getting into the DLC. I mean, it's fun, but it feels pretty mechanical these days; likely the result of my familiarity with it. I flew through the levels and maxed out all my skills pretty quickly. I... still feel I should maybe go back and at least finish Broken Steel.

I went to New Vegas, which went about as well as I remember it last time; really promising for most of the game, then things start to feel unfinished. The Brotherhood questlines in particular feel pretty half-baked. The world is built a bit better than in 3, filled with more interesting characters, and developed a bit deeper, but the whole product feels rickety. I've reached the very ending of it, and really just need to finish up. It'd take me, like, a half hour at most, but I've sort of already moved on.

So I'm playing Fallout 4, and having played them back-to-back, this one is probably my favourite one. The world doesn't feel as lively as New Vegas, but that sort of feels beneficial. It's bigger and more desolate. I still enjoy building up the communities, regardless of how much value there actually is in doing it. I miss some of stat building, but the crafting system does a great job taking its place in character building. It has a lot going for it, a lot to bite into, and it feels a lot less artificial. Maybe I'll actually finish the main quest this time.

So, I'm also playing Fallout 1, sort of over top of all the above. I'm enjoying it, but, well, it doesn't feel like there's much going on. I appreciate the open nature of its main quest, but it's so clumsy about it. You either get no information on what to do or where to go, or too much. It seems to be a pretty frequent occurrence that I walk up to someone and in the first set of dialogue choices, I have the ability to ask "tell me about so-and-so," without actually having ever heard of or met that person before. The exploration is kind of lame, since all the major locations can be learned through dialogue. Oh, while I'm complaining, the combat is super lame; once you have the proper armor, you can just stand still while enemies swarm you and you whittle them down. I mean, I'm still enjoying the game, I just can't put my finger on what it is about the game I actually like.

Then I'm also playing Fallout Shelter. It's shallow, but inoffensive. It's fun enough that I don't mind signing into it every few hours to check on how things are progressing, but I'm sure that once I get my fill, I'll be done with it forever.

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Pseudo_Intellectual (66248) on 6/7/2017 2:32 PM · Permalink · Report

Ditto on FO Shelter: just discovered that they'd added a bunch of new content; have since exhausted the new content 8)

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Adzuken (836) on 6/12/2017 3:44 PM · Permalink · Report

I finished Fallout 1 for the first time. I'm still not entirely sold on it. I appreciate its open-endedness, but it just doesn't feel like there's too much to do. You build up your character until you can kick in the bad-guy's front door. The location of said bad-guy isn't really a well-kept secret. I ended up not doing a lot of the sidequests and locations, since it didn't really feel like there'd be much reward for doing so. So, not a bad game, but it didn't exactly set my world on fire.

I ended up kicking down the door to the last area with a BB gun of all weapons. I found it in a random encounter in the wasteland and after nearly overlooking it, I discovered it had a more reliable damage output than the combat shotgun I'd been leaning on up to that point. Looking it up afterwards, it turns out that the chances of actually finding one in the game is slim, so I feel privileged to have tripped over it without any effort.

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Terok Nor (41733) on 6/12/2017 4:19 PM · Permalink · Report

You do realize you can beat the bad guy and win the game without firing a single shot, right?

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Adzuken (836) on 6/12/2017 5:32 PM · Permalink · Report

Yeah, I actually ended up talking the head guy to death, which was sort of satisfying since there seems to be precious few silver-tongue solutions to problems. That's one of two primary objectives in the game, though. The other objective I accomplished by filling everyone involved with hot BB's. It seemed to be configured to support a quiet infiltration, though.

Honestly, I probably would have enjoyed a stealthier approach, considering the combat is pretty lackluster.

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Terok Nor (41733) on 6/12/2017 8:16 PM · Permalink · Report

OK, sorry, it read to me like you thought the game was all about leveling up your character until you can kill the bad guy. I think Fallout must actually have been one of the first games to break with that tradition in that it allows more or less non-violent solutions to almost all quests.

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Adzuken (836) on 6/12/2017 10:26 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Terok Nor wrote--]OK, sorry, it read to me like you thought the game was all about leveling up your character until you can kill the bad guy. I think Fallout must actually have been one of the first games to break with that tradition in that it allows more or less non-violent solutions to almost all quests. [/Q --end Terok Nor wrote--] No, I definitely did imply that, which is a gross over-simplification and I apologize. It is nice that there are a lot of non-violent ways to achieve your objectives, but I found that charisma doesn't get you all that far. There are quests like dealing with Gizmo or freeing Adytum that only have different flavours of violence.

I should note that I'm now playing Fallout 2, which seems to be much more well rounded in how you're able to approach things. This is the first time I got through that damned tutorial dungeon and am enjoying its more lively setting.

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vedder (70669) on 6/13/2017 5:30 PM · Permalink · Report

I personally like Fallout 2 more than 1 as well. Feels like they learned a lot of what did and didn't work from the first game and did it 'right' in the sequel.

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Adzuken (836) on 6/15/2017 1:23 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm enjoying Fallout 2 a great deal more than the first. I played Fallout 1 on the side as I delved back into the more recent ones, but Fallout 2 has captured my attention. There's a lot more to do, this time around, and the world feels more lively and organic. A lot more of the game surprises me. It feels more fleshed out than the first.

It's also pretty wacky. I built my character around sex appeal and wound up a porn star. I later slept with a slaughterhouse owner's son and got out of a tense encounter with his father with some careful diplomacy. I then doubled-down and slept with his daughter and was forced into marriage. After my new wife turned out to be a nuisance, I sold her to slavers. Afterwards, I bought a car and drove to San Francisco. Living the dream.

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Adzuken (836) on 6/19/2017 11:50 AM · edited · Permalink · Report

Finished Fallout 2. I absolutely loved it. While I was lukewarm-ish on the first game, the second seems to have actually delivered at what was previously only hinted at. The quests seemed more consequential and many tied into the main plot a lot better, the companions were more diverse and interesting, and the world seemed better developed and more lively. The writing also had a sharper wit to it, and while it was somewhat juvenile at times, it never seemed intentionally offensive.

I need to let it digest for a bit, but it may now be my favourite in the series.

Has anyone here played Fallout Tactics? Is it worth playing?

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GTramp (81965) on 6/20/2017 9:39 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I tried to play FT:BoS a couple of times, but never got further than level 3. Yes, it has levels now. There's something strange to it that felt unnatural, I couldn't get used to combat, and the game is 98% combat. It's on my to-play list, but I'm not sure if I'd ever be in the mood to touch it again.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/21/2017 7:56 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

This is definitely one of my favorite game series of all time. My ranking would be:

1: Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 2? I can't decide! It's been a long while since I played 2, but I know I loved everything about it but the bugs. Both are interesting because they managed to improve their direct predecessors in pretty much every aspect. However, if you ask me which of the one I'm more likely to replay, I'd probably choose New Vegas.

  1. Fallout

  2. Fallout 3

  3. Fallout 4

I tried to play Tactics a few time, but could never get into it.

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Marie Smith on 6/12/2017 1:19 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

[spam removed]

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/15/2017 9:31 AM · Permalink · Report

I just finished Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward and I'm not sure what to think. Overall I liked it and could not stop playing because I needed to know how it concludes. The characters are well developed and, I think I mentioned it before, I'm a sucker for time travel stories. The whole structure of the game is something I have never experienced before (besides 999, obviously) and this is a good thing,

However, I think the game is much weaker than 999. I loved the puzzle rooms in 999, but in this one - while there still were a few highlights - there were too many ones which where just annoying (the dice puzzles for instance). While I solved 999 almost completely on my own, I looked up a lot of solutions on the internet. The game is also much too long; the writers should have cut at least one third to make it more focused and less rambling. I also did not like art the art (I got used to it, but it feels very generic in comparison to 999) and the two difficulty levels are completely pointless.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/18/2017 6:16 PM · Permalink · Report

It was a long weekend with four free days so I played some stuff:

Just after VLR, I also played Zero Time Dilemma and have some mixed feelings. While I appreciate how they tried to break up the structure (instead of playing the paths from beginning to end, you play only fragments and only see after finishing them where they belong in the timelines), I don't think they really succeeded. In the end, I felt more like ticking off a checklist than experiencing a story; only in the end (when the structure becomes like the predecessors) I became more immersed in the plot.

The other two big issues are the art/animation and lackluster new characters (Eric and Mira). On the other side I liked the conclusion of the trilogy, the more cinematic presentation and the shorter playtime with less rambling. Overall I am pleased.

I also finished Emily Is Away (a short visual novel with one very effective gimmick) and the first 1.5 episodes of Hector: Badge of Carnage. The latter is full of juvenile jokes and so-so puzzles. Not sure why, but I like it nevertheless.

I briefly played Burial at Sea (DLC for Bioshock Infinite) and Darksiders 2 (the remastered version) which are both very well made, but failed to hold my attention.

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Foxhack (32102) on 6/15/2017 11:47 PM · Permalink · Report

I just beat a game. Shocker! It was Just Cause 2, with 27% completion. I have a LOT of collectibles and achievements to go.

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vedder (70669) on 6/18/2017 7:15 PM · Permalink · Report

Playing Eversion because it was mentioned on Confluence Yesterday. Strangely I never heard of it before. I got all the collectibles in the first 6 levels, still need to get everything in level 7 for I assume the good ending.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 6/23/2017 4:34 PM · Permalink · Report

I'm currently playing Jedi Outcast and don't like it much. At first I loved it, probably because it has been a while since I played a shooter from that time period. But the aiming is a bit weird; I don't seem to be able to hit anything which moves (or hit anything while I move) - not even when I have a big target and I am pretty close. This means the game so far consists mostly of a lot of quicksaving and quickloading which is not particularly fun. I am mostly interested in how the game handles lightsaber combat, so I guess I have to keep playing a bit.

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vedder (70669) on 6/23/2017 8:00 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

The game picks up when you get your light sabre and jedi powers. I didn't particularly like the first levels of Jedi Outcast. The sequel Jedi Academy is definitely a lot more fun in that it immediately gives you access to a lot of force powers and the levels feel more like playgrounds to test them out. But Jedi Outcast has a more interesting story and progression.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 7/4/2017 10:41 AM · Permalink · Report

Yeah, I stopped playing around with the laser sword during the Nar Shadda level. Not my game and I have enough other unplayed FPS from that time period.

I have something to say about three games I bought during the Steam summer sale:

  • Tales of Berseria: I like this a lot more than Zestiria. The combat is more fun, the equipment and crafting is less complicated, the plot and characters are a lot more interesting. The big downside is that the environments and dungeons are uninspired and boring.
  • Need for Speed: Underground: Its my first racing game since around 1999 (if you don't count Driver: San Francisco) and, surprisingly, I like it a lot. The story is stupid, but I enjoy the racing.
  • A Normal Lost Phone: The premise is interesting, but I did not like the execution much. The password searches were completely unnecessary and the plot was basic and predictable. In hindsight it was a mistake to play this on PC, it probably feels much better on an actual phone.
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vedder (70669) on 7/4/2017 8:04 PM · Permalink · Report

Fighting my way through Transistor. It took some getting acquainted with, but I like it more than I thought I would. The combat system is pretty awesome and unique and the turn planning is definitely more my style than frantic real time button bashing. The way you can use each power as both an active, uprade to another power or passive ability is super cool and allows for a good amount of experimentation. The art is amazing, the music great, the story they keep a bit too vague and weird for its own good. Also like the health system where instead of death you temporarily lose one of your powers and can continue until you have no powers left. Greatly recommended. Definitely a step up from Bastion which was already a surprise hit!

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vedder (70669) on 7/21/2017 9:24 PM · Permalink · Report

And now enjoying Shadow Complex: Remastered a lot! Very solid MetroidVania!

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The Fabulous King (1332) on 7/10/2017 9:41 PM · Permalink · Report

Ah, life is great when you get to spend the entire day playing something as beautiful as Life is Strange.

But what is this strange pain like sensation I'm feeling deep inside my soul?

"To all of you, american girls..."

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 8/8/2017 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report

Risen 3: I don't understand why you'd ruin your perfectly fine game by 1) introducing an absolute awful, boring, mandatory ship combat mini game and 2) have the game crash afterwards. Fuck you, Piranha Bytes.

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Cavalary (11445) on 8/8/2017 8:24 PM · Permalink · Report

The first Disciples in my case. Had gotten back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic but had bought this one during the GOG Summer Sale and then later saw it for 0.89, while during the big sale it had been $1.19, so said blah, might as well take it my cue to install and see if it at least works, since this one doesn't have Win 7 listed among supported systems (but has all others, from XP to 10) and there are plenty of reports of crashes on the boards. But for the first few times it started normally just fine... then after those first few starts it just decided to no longer start and it made my desktop and taskbar unresponsive too, and with stopping and restarting explorer.exe messing up the notification icons, solution (without reboot) was log off and back on. And then gave up on the GOG launcher that pulls it through some DLL and used the actual game's .exe, after disabling DirectDraw and DirectSound in settings and with Win 98/ME compatibility mode and all compatibility boxes bar 256 colors checked. And first few times it loaded after some 2 min of waiting, and since then it's starting up just fine. No idea how or why but not complaining.

Anyway, finished Empire and Undead campaigns, on scenario 2 of the Mountain Clans (dwarves) one now. Darn the undead one is hard. Did see it mentioned after I started it that it's clearly the hardest so went woops, but it is the one that comes if you click the arrow to the right on the selection screen (Empire being the initial selection), and that normally means next, right? Ah well, managed it in the end, but on scenarios 3 and 4 (there are 4 total) there sure were naaaasty moments that took a lot of saving and loading to figure out a strategy for. Especially that first one on 4. There I was still in my corner of the map, with a hero with 2 level 2 and 1 level 3 unit, and have the enemy come at me with a hero with a blue dragon among other things, and top level summons and damage spells. But could just figure out a way.

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Cavalary (11445) on 8/18/2017 4:22 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished the Legions of the Damned campaign yesterday, so that's all four of them. Quite liked that final Legions scenario.

Also, in general, quite liked how the four races required different approaches that still worked, albeit with some issues in case of the Undead (though it was with Undead that I conquered a capital the only time I tried it). Empire has the healing units and good buff spells, but all their units are comparatively weak; Undead have the paralyzing and weapon-immune units, but those are weak (and insanely expensive in case of werewolves) and one solid spell or some enemy wizards in combat take them out easily; Clans have comparatively tough units that aren't large, the cheap movement spells and good buffs, but they're all slow, as in both few movement points for leaders and low initiative; Legions have very fast moving leaders, all with high movement points and all flying, plus the dirt cheap summon illusion spells for exploration and the mass petrifying units at level four, but they have many large units and their regular-sized melee ones don't have a level four.

Now let's see if I'll stick to it to poke at scenarios, at least that 21-scenario sort-of-campaign included in them, though it is a matter of individual scenarios named as if in a campaign and not a proper campaign with things carrying over I guess. In itself that'd be longer than the original campaigns put together, as those are just 4x4.

But I may return to AoW:SM or even Eschalon I. We'll see...

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Adzuken (836) on 8/18/2017 2:02 PM · Permalink · Report

I've been working on getting a blog off the ground, so I've been revisiting some games to refresh my thoughts on them. I've encountered a couple that don't have screenshots here, so I'll be uploading a few as I go.

I also ended up pulling a few Army Men games from a bargain bin, so I'll likely end up going through a number of them that I haven't yet because I hate myself. I'm currently going through Army Men 3D and it is pretty bad. I just went through a mission where I had to rescue some braindead soldiers and guide them through a minefield. It didn't matter how thoroughly I swept for mines, they'd always take two steps and find the ones I missed. It was uncanny.

I've also been playing Splatoon 2 on Switch, which is exactly like Splatoon 1 with slight tweaks and improvements. Not a mind-blowing sequel, by any means, but I'm always up for more Splatoon.

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Adzuken (836) on 9/6/2017 6:50 PM · Permalink · Report

So...

Army Men 3D - A sort-of 3D remake of the original PC Army Men game. This one was a bit painful to play. It's so unpolished and sloppy, that it's almost sickening. It does have a certain charm, but I've watched far too many allied soldiers get themselves killed to ever be friends with it.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes (Dreamcast) - I mostly liked the N64 version of Sarge's Heroes, and this one is a polished up version of that. There are a few questionable art decisions, but at least the camera is less floaty and uncooperative.

Army Men (PC) - Finally got around to playing the original. It's frustrating, but like its 3D counterpart, it has a lot of charm. It seems to expect that you can predict all the BS it throws at you, and the isometric angle can lead to some frustration. Still, I was unable to stay mad at it for long. I wouldn't recommend it, though.

Portal Runner - A spin-off of the Army Men series, this one stars one of its worst principal cast member in a plot that's so routine and optimistic that it's almost sickening. Gameplay is okay, though. Also, Sarge's performance in the game is outstanding, and he almost makes it worth sitting through the cutscenes.

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Adzuken (836) on 9/19/2017 4:30 PM · Permalink · Report

Oh, gosh...

Army Men: World War - Surprisingly, I actually like this one. I'd always thought that I only really loved the series for its toy-scale environments, but this one has changed my mind on that. I guess I really just like it when the developers gets inventive, and World War certainly provides that.

Army Men: Sarge's Heroes 2 (PS2) - I absolutely hated this game on the N64, but I'd hoped that the PS2 version would have fixed its issues. Not the case, this game is absolutely horrendous. One of the worst I've played in the series.

Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune - I went into this with an open mind, but found it to be overwhelmingly bland. Then the plane level came around and lowered my assessment to "practically broken." Ugh.

Army Men II (PC) - Another one I actually enjoyed. Made by a completely different team, this sequel to the original feels like a massive improvement. Not perfect; a lot of issues from the first still linger, but I had fun with it.

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Freeman (64746) on 9/25/2017 4:07 AM · Permalink · Report

I'm enjoying your journey through the Army Men games. I've never really paid any attention to the series owing to the volume of games and its rather poor reputation, so it's nice seeing someone working their way through it and even enjoying it at times in the process.

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 8/19/2017 6:41 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Some more games I played during the last month:

  • 80 Days: I guess it is competently written, but CYOA in text form does not do it for me. Only played it an hour or so before giving up.
  • The Book of Unwritten Tales 2: Don't know, everything was competent, but felt it was too slow and not interesting enough. I may give this one another try if the mood strikes.
  • DOOM (2016) Another one I only played for a bit. I liked the gunplay a lot (even though I suck at it), but I was put off by that whole upgrade and challenge stuff. I thought it completely ruined the fast gameplay when I have to worry about meeting challenges.
  • Batman: The Telltale Game Series: One I actually finished! I'm a sucker for Batman stories and I felt this one was competently executed. Some nice surprises and new twists on old characters and Telltale just knows how to feel like my choices matter even though I know they don't. Overall I am looking forward to playing the predecessor when it's complete.
  • The Deed: Dynasty: It's a nice one-trick game with a fascinating premise. Unfortunately it has one big flaw: three scenarios are two too much. I had a lot of fun playing around with the first and puzzling around how to get the best solution - unfortunately the trick does not change. I got the best ending for the second scenario on my second try and on the first one during the third. Too much content makes the game's flaws too transparent.
  • Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3: This one was interesting. I expected to bear the gameplay in order the humor - in reality the humor always barely missed my mark, but I finished the game because I enjoyed the combat.
  • Risen 3: Complete Edition: Despite many shortcomings (see my rant a few posts above), I enjoyed the game much more than the failed Risen 2. It is the perfect exploration game: big (not huge) and handmade environments which have something to find on every corner. The last island was too much, but overall I can recommend it if you like Gothic.
  • The Raven: Sorry, this game is not good. The first thing I ran into were technical glitches and a lot of boring dialogue. Not worth my time.
  • Kingdom Hearts: I like the premise! Unfortunately I don't enjoy the combat, the camera, the graphics and the world. So I called it quits after four hours.

Currently playing: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Prey (2017).

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Pseudo_Intellectual (66248) on 8/20/2017 3:56 AM · Permalink · Report

Oh, 80 Days isn't CYOA, it's more of an optimisation problem, but text is text...

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 8/26/2017 6:01 AM · Permalink · Report

I played some more games last week:

  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3: The story is stupid (and occasionally funny, e..g when they really try to make me care that character X dies), the setpieces interesting, the campaign short enough to stay entertaining. Do I regret my 10 bucks and five hours playtime? No. But all in all, its still mediocre.
  • Prey (2017): This game is very good and seems like a perfect successor to System Shock 2 after the first two or three hours. I just don't like that the crafting system seems to be a very important part of the game and I generally hate crafting. Unfortunately I require a certain mood to appreciate a game like this. So I put it on the back burner for now, but I think I'll come back eventually.
  • Minecraft: Story Mode: I did not like it at first, but after the first half of the first episode (when the adventuring started), it grew on me. The Minecraft atmosphere does nothing for me, though. I think I'll keep playing.

I may be a bit late, but I also started my adventures in mobile gaming (on my Android phone):

  • Layton Brothers: Mystery Room: It's a charming game in which you investigate murder scenes and try to catch the killer. The main gameplay mechanic is answering questions correctly based on the collected evidence. I like crime stories, the writing and the graphical representation of conversations (reminds me a bit of Phoenix Wright).
  • Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and Millionaire's Conspiracy: I love it. It's even more charming than Mystery Room and solving traditional puzzles is exactly the right thing for mobile gaming.
  • Criminal Case: I feel bad for it, but I'm also playing this free-to-play game. I don't know why, but I find it strangely appealing. As I mentioned above, I like crime stories, and the gameplay is perfect for short bursts. I think it even profits from the free-to-play energy system because the game would become boring very fast when playing for more than fifteen minutes in a row.

I also tried some traditional Hidden Object games, but those don't do it for me. In general the Android market feels overwhelming and it seems to be a waste of time trying to find something appealing - so much much free-to-play, so much crap. I don't think I'll continue in this direction when I'm finished with those three games. When I'm still interested in mobile gaming then, I'll probably buy a DS instead.

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vedder (70669) on 9/19/2017 6:32 PM · Permalink · Report

Haven't done much gaming lately unfortunately. Did touch some titles briefly:

Reigns - Fun for a while, but gets a bit tedious and repetitive after a while

Shadow Warrior (remake) - I think my days of enjoying shooters might be a thing of the past. And even with that in mind I found the game rather bland. Apart from the sword the weapons don't feel nice (maybe once they are fully upgraded, but I'm not waiting for that...) The levels feel too much set up for hunting secrets, which perhaps mimics 90s shooters, but in today's realistic graphics it just feels off. Also, the infantile story and voiceacting... I'm getting to old for this shit! When the original came out I was 17 and the humour definitely resonated a lot more. Doubt I'll return to this.

Empire: Total War - I quite enjoyed the campaign (Playing the US from colonies to independence) but the thing with Total War games is that I always skip the realtime battles since that's not my thing. What you're left with is something that's not quite as enthralling a simulation as Europa Universalis or Crusader Kings is, but also isn't as nice and game-y as Civilization. So in the end I always feel like I'm better of playing one of those. But since I bought all those Total War games in a bundle a while back I might as well give Napoleon: Total War a try sometimes soon, even if it's just for the campaign.

INFRA Not to far in yet. Haven't made up my mind about it. Apart from horrible voice acting and curious choice of story/setting, it's kind of intriguing and I wonder where the game will take me.

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vedder (70669) on 9/24/2017 6:45 PM · Permalink · Report

INFRA has me hooked! It has its ups and downs, but I'm a sucker for its desolate ambience.

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vedder (70669) on 10/5/2017 7:38 PM · Permalink · Report

Finished INFRA. The start of the game is pretty mediocre, but it gets better increasingly as you progress. It has some sublime sections, particularly in the middle part of the game. Then the quality and direction seem to drop in the last few levels as it struggles to tie its story threads together. Luckily the last level was a treat again so it ends on a high note!

All in all definitely recommended for people who like 1st person exploration games. I wonder what future titles Loiste Interactive will bring!

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 9/24/2017 9:06 PM · Permalink · Report

I just finished Torment: Tides of Numenera which I enjoyed very much. I basically fulfilled everything I hoped for it. In my eyes, a worthy spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment.

I also played a bit of Divinity: Original Sin 2. After the first six hours, I recognize that it is a very good game - but it repels me. Can't explain why, I just don't like it.

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Cavalary (11445) on 9/24/2017 10:51 PM · Permalink · Report

That's... a statement that could really use explanations though...

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 9/25/2017 5:50 AM · Permalink · Report

About Divinity, I think there are two main problems: 1) I don't enjoy tactical turn-based combat much and 2) I hate the camera. You can't zoom out far enough and I had the feeling I'm only busing shifting the camera around while exploring the environment. If a game has a camera position like that, I prefer a fixed camera angle. Dragon Age: Origins, for example, gets around that because I can use a behind-the-shoulder camera for exploration.

I also did not like talking to NPCs because it drags on too long. I know, this is an odd statement when I praise Torment in the same paragraph, but the difference is maybe the voice acting.

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vedder (70669) on 10/23/2017 8:54 PM · Permalink · Report

[Q --start Patrick Bregger wrote--]I just finished Torment: Tides of Numenera which I enjoyed very much. I basically fulfilled everything I hoped for it. In my eyes, a worthy spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment. [/Q --end Patrick Bregger wrote--]

I'm playing Torment: Tides of Numenera now. I backed it so it's been on my backlog for a while. I loved Pillars of Eternity, but I was afraid Torment would feel like more of the same and be dense to get in to. On the contrary it feels very unique and has a nice tutorial sequence, and I fully understand again why I loved Planescape Torment so much all those years ago! Exploring the game's world is just a blast even though most of it is through walls of text. I love the RPG system it uses. Less convoluted than D&D, less restrictive with predefined classes, and it's mostly used for non-combat scenarios. In my 5 hours of play time so far I've only had 3 battles.

If it can keep up this quality and wonder I'll probably rank it higher than Pillars, like I did back then with Torment compared to Baldur's Gate 2.

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vedder (70669) on 10/24/2017 9:04 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

--

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Patrick Bregger (298433) on 11/12/2017 8:21 PM · Permalink · Report

It's been a while since I posted last, so I won't talk about every game I played. Mostly because I spent a lot of time trying out various games from my backlog and abandoning them quickly.

  • Another Lost Phone: In contrast to its predecessor, I played it on the correct device (a mobile phone). I liked it, I liked the story it tells, but I felt the puzzles were a bit forced.
  • Emily Is Away Too: Another quickie, another successor to a game I liked. Can only recommend it.
  • Mythic Wonders: The Philosopher's Stone: This is a typical hidden object game. Despite what I expected, I enjoyed it. The lack of challenge created a nice flow - it caught me in exactly the right mood.
  • Crazy Machines 3: Got it as covermount on one of my magazines. Its not a game I can play for an hour, but for a puzzle here and there its perfect. I'll keep it installed.
  • I took another shot at Mass Effect: Andromeda. This time I enjoyed it more, but I still had to abandon it due to constant crashes.
  • I also played through all Telltale CSI games again (the Ubisoft ones don't work anymore). They are not good games, but I like them nevertheless.

I'm not sure I mentioned it before, but I'm currently playing through the excellent Ace Attorney Trilogy on 3DS while riding the bus to work.

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Adzuken (836) on 11/14/2017 3:34 PM · Permalink · Report

Been trying to focus on starting and completing games, since I sometimes get distracted when approaching big releases.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - There's a lot going for this sequel. The idTech6 engine is fantastic, the characters are excellent, and the game's pulpy plot is pretty fun. It has taken me a long time to get through, since I've also been playing Wolfstone 3D within it. I've completed about 4 1/2 episodes. I've also been scooping up collectables and tackling every assassination mission, so this has been a deep dive.

Super Mario Odyssey - An absolutely excellent 3D Mario game, definitely up there with my favourites. I even went back and completed it, collecting every moon in the game (there's, like, over 800 in there). Even after that, I was left hungry for more.

Mario+Rabbids: Kingdom Battle - So, I went back and completed this little game. It's a bit of a gem, though not something I'd expect to light anyone's world on fire. A turn-based strategy game, like a more whimsical version of XCOM. Wore a bit thin towards the end, but you can definitely count me in for any follow-ups.

Paper Mario: Color Splash - This is what I've now moved onto. I didn't pick it up on release, since it was such a late Wii U title and Sticker Star left me a bit cold. I've been able to get connected with this one a lot easier, and its sense of humour is keeping me entertained.

Fun stuff. All this Mario gaming has put me in a pretty positive state. I'm also playing Sims 4 on the side, and a new Pokemon game is out on Friday.