2054 replies to this topic

[nick68k]

Given that WoW is effectively broken on my iMac, I've gone back to the 80s and am having fun with the Bard's Tale remasters. Graph paper is being used.

[RGoulder]

Avorion just exited early access, 1.0 version has now been released today. So I think I will probably be playing that more. Got to build some more ships and get my playing time above 1K.

[Janichsan]

I played and finished Halo: CE as part of the MCC over the last two weekends. Despite the new paint, the game can't really hide its age. Also, I still think the game falls apart badly into two parts: a fun first one, where you fight the Covenant exclusively, and an excruciatingly tedious and repetitive one, where the focus shifts on the Flood.

Halo: Reach, which I played some time ago, is definitely the better game.

I'm also trying to reduce my backlog a bit and started to play Sword Coast Legends. The game is far from being imaginative, but solid. Certainly no second (or third) Neverwinter Nights. Also, the companion AI is dumb as nails, so you constantly have to micromanage your party, and the Mac version is quite badly optimised.

[ipickert55]

Janichsan, on 14 April 2020 - 12:36 PM, said:

I played and finished Halo: CE as part of the MCC over the last two weekends. Despite the new paint, the game can't really hide its age. Also, I still think the game falls apart badly into two parts: a fun first one, where you fight the Covenant exclusively, and an excruciatingly tedious and repetitive one, where the focus shifts on the Flood.

Halo: Reach, which I played some time ago, is definitely the better game.

I ran into this problem as well when I tried to replay CE. It's just not as fun as the later games, which isn't really its fault, but also that second half is garbage and I loathed it.

[Ichigo27]

Wont be playing Shogun 2 Fall Of The Samurai let alone other total war games that already worked well on my 2011 imac anytime soon, played some the neverwinter nights EE OC though, and a few months ago jedi outcast II single player.

[Matt Diamond]

Keep trying to finish Divinity: Original Sin 2, but it's just too huge and I am compulsive about optional missions. Even though I'm basically done Act 2 I keep backtracking to tie up loose ends. I may give it up and start something new.

Slay The Spire: playing this occasionally with my daughter advising me. Man, she is fast at optimizing the play of each hand. But she let's me play at my own pace when I ask, and I don't do badly even without her hints.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Civilization VI vanilla. Wasted another 20 hours, then I deleted it again. "One more turn" my ass... "One more week" is more like it..

Good thing I didn't buy the Platinum Edition which was on offer on MGS at -80%...

[ozzy]

Thain Esh Kelch, on 08 May 2020 - 10:17 AM, said:

Civilization VI vanilla. Wasted another 20 hours, then I deleted it again. "One more turn" my ass... "One more week" is more like it..

Good thing I didn't buy the Platinum Edition which was on offer on MGS at -80%...

LOL - I've been staring at Civ VI on my iPad and Steam Library, and Total War: Warhammer II and thinking the same thing. The second I open them and start something, there goes 30 hours . So far I've managed to resist.

Played Shadow of the Tomb Raider (really fun), and currently playing XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. Not sure how I missed this one before, but it's great.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

ozzy, on 08 May 2020 - 12:26 PM, said:

LOL - I've been staring at Civ VI on my iPad and Steam Library

The game runs MUCH better on my iPad Air 2, compared to my '16 Macbook, surprisingly. I tried both Metal and OpenGL on the latter, but it made almost no difference (I think the animated leader portraits ran better with Metal, but other than that, no difference).

Good thing I am too cheap to unlock the full game on the iPad, before it hits 5$ again... And I have no way of knowing that it does so unless someone mentions it in here.. And I ask you not to do that... Think of my children!

[Thain Esh Kelch]

I had a hunch that I would like Into the Breach, even though it didn't look to interesting, but thanks to Epic which gave it to me for free a few weeks ago, I gave it a shot.

24 hours later playing it non-stop, and it turns out I was right! It is like an advanced rogue-like chess with loot, and I happen to like both chess and the other two things! You are time traveling warriors, that are fighting an alien invasion. Battles are fought on randomly generated 8x8 grids, with you commanding three mechs with different fighting abilities. Killing aliens give you mech pilots experience points, and you slowly gather small reactor upgrades to upgrade your mechs, and pick up special abilities and other weapons. If you loose, you can select one pilot to go back in time, and start over the game, keeping only his experience. This gives you juuuust enough of an argument to start yet another game when you loose, because this time you are just a tiny bit stronger stronger and this time it will definitely just go a little bit better!

Highly recommended if you like strategy games and rogue-likes. 5/5

[henryfakesmile]

Project: Gorgon on Steam
https://store.steamp...com/app/342940/
Everything about this game manages to charm, from its old-school EverQuest-like aesthetic to its wry sense of humor and wit

[Janichsan]

After taking a long break from that game, I perfected LEGO Marvel Super Heroes a little while ago, i.e. unlocked all characters, vehicles, collectibles, and achievements. Towards the end, that really turned into a chore…

Also finished Halo 2: Anniversary yesterday, which overall was fun. Of course, there are again a few Flood focused levels which drag on for much too long, but at least Bungie seemed to have remembered this time that the Convenant are the more interesting opponents.

It's really weird how wildly the games of the Halo MCC differ in quality: Halo 1: Anniversary is clearly just the old PC port with a very thin layer of new paint consisting of higher resolution textures and somewhat more detailled models (which both already look badly dated given the age of Halo CEA). Reach looked somewhat fresher, but still shows its age. And Halo 2: Anniversary is essentially a completely new game with fully re-worked graphics, fantastic new pre-rendered cutscenes, and a banger of a re-recorded soundtrack.

In addition, I played a lot of the BoxBoy series on 3DS, i.e. BoxBoy!, BoxBoxBoy! and the combo-breaker Bye-Bye BoxBoy!. All three fantastic puzzle games with a perfect difficulty curve and an imaginative variety in the levels. It's also great that these are games where you can come up with your own creative solution, instead of just having to figure out the single solution intended by the developers. For 5€ apiece, that was quite a good investment.

[Janichsan]

I did something last week I haven't done in years: I bought a game on release date.

Specifically, The Last of Us Part II. The first part was one of the best games I've ever played, so getting the second part was pretty much a decided matter. It's certainly an absolutely gorgeous game. Just like part one showed what was possible on the PS3 before, TLoU 2 even puts the games shown as coming for the PS5 to shame.

I avoided (and am still avoiding) all spoilers like the plague, since I want to go in blind, so I've no real idea what the stupid review bombing is about. I'm not all too far into the game yet, so I can't tell where the story goes. There is one twist so far, which I can imagine to be quite controversial, but whether that justifies that "gamer" rage, remains to be seen. These bigot arsehole getting riled up about the protagonist being lesbian can go frak themselves, though.

[Cougar]

I gave up with TLOU 1 around Pittsburgh. Just wasn't enjoying the combat. Maybe it was my ineptitude with controllers. I'd give it another go if it ever came to PC.

[Janichsan]

Cougar, on 26 June 2020 - 02:46 PM, said:

I gave up with TLOU 1 around Pittsburgh. Just wasn't enjoying the combat. Maybe it was my ineptitude with controllers. I'd give it another go if it ever came to PC.

The combat in these games sucks by design. It's supposed to be a struggle, as you are not supposed to be an unstoppable killing machine. These games aren't the usual power fantasy.

That said, in TLoU 1, you already can turn the difficulty down to easy, giving you auto aim by default, which makes things a lot easier. And in TLoU 2, you can adjust the difficulty extremely granularly, so that almost all challenge from combat is removed and you can focus on the story.

I'm playing on "Normal", as I already had in TLoU 1, which can be somewhat frustrating sometimes, but it's bearable so far.

[Cougar]

I was already playing it on easy. I’m all for challenging games and I don’t care about power fantasies, but it felt like the punishing nature of the game was due to me fighting with the controls, not that I was playing a vulnerable character.

Again, this is probably a “me” problem, not the game. But good that TLOU2 seems to resolve this. I’ve heard they’ve really paid attention to accessibility.

[UmarOMC1]

Just finished Titanfall 2 the other day. Amazing action, very well structured, amazing graphics, great controls and gunplay. 10/10 would play again—hope they make a Titanfall 3 or DLC!

[Matt Diamond]

Working my way through Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - as usual I explore and sneak compulsively so it takes a really long time. Fun though!

My other weakness is sticking with the most basic augmentations from the previous game - haven't gotten into the new ones at all. Maybe I'll try a second playthrough later using a more exotic build.

[Cougar]

Matt Diamond, on 29 June 2020 - 07:17 AM, said:

Working my way through Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - as usual I explore and sneak compulsively so it takes a really long time. Fun though!

My other weakness is sticking with the most basic augmentations from the previous game - haven't gotten into the new ones at all. Maybe I'll try a second playthrough later using a more exotic build.

I always play Deus Ex with minimal augs, including no x-ray vision and no minimap. I find the game more challenging and fun that way. I do use Cloak, though.

[the Battle Cat]

Matt Diamond, on 29 June 2020 - 07:17 AM, said:

My other weakness is sticking with the most basic augmentations from the previous game - haven't gotten into the new ones at all. Maybe I'll try a second playthrough later using a more exotic build.

Hahahaha... OLD folks!  Pfffft.  Erm, ::cough cough::

I've been playing Return to Castle Wolfenstein.  Man the graphics have aged poorly, When it was new I was like, "Wow this is amazing".  The one thing that did not age was the game itself, it is an awesome id shooter.  Playing it again is almost dream like, I've been here before but sooooooooo long ago it adds a certain unreal and nostalgic feel to it.