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Started by Spalls Hurgenson
Sun, 01 Jan 2017 02:31
What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 02:31
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 02:31
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Ho-ho-ho!
No, wait; wrong thread. This is the "what have you been playing"
thread, not the Christmas give-away, although that "game" took up an
unexpected amount of my time this month. But between that, actual
Christmas and, you know, real life I still managed to get in some
time to play some games.
Since we all know the drill, let's skip the rest of the preliminaries
and get right to the list.
--------------------
Short and Sweet
--------------------
* Firewatch (new)
* Max Payne 3 (replay)
* Kings Quest VI To Heir Is Human (replay)
* Postal Redux (new)
* Dying Light (new)
TL; DR
----------
* Firewatch (new)
Ho-hum; another month, another so-called "narrative game".
The problem with most narrative games is that they are extremely
lacking in either narrative or game; they fail at storytelling and
action. With the former, they typically have the player follow a
per-determined story-line in which the players have no stake and thus
no emotional involvement. These games fail in the latter by offering
absolutely no challenge; even taken as glorified "walking simulators"
they more often than lead the player (ever so slowly, to make up for
the lack of anything else) through vacant set-pieces that ultimately
all look the same.
And, in all fairness, this description would probably describe
Firewatch as well. In truth, its story is as shallow as most other
games and - like other "walking sims", there are no real puzzles and
no real danger. Similarly, while there is some variety of biomes, in
the end the entirety of the game has you hiking through a forest and
there's only so much you can do to disguise that fact. The big
difference between Firewatch and most of its competitors is that it is
so well written as to disguise the failings of its genre.
Unfortunately, to go into detail about its story would unfairly ruin
the experience for anyone who hasn't played it. Let it suffice to say,
however, that it is one of the better paced stories of any game - be
it of the narrative-game genre or in more traditional games - and
features both excellent dialogue writing and voice-acting. While
ultimately the game still lacks in actual threat or challenge,
nonetheless the story is presented so well that I was well engaged by
the sense of threat and mystery as the tale played out. The writing
leads the player to invest themselves in the character, which only
makes the unfolding mystery all the more captivating. While some found
the denouement disappointing, I thought it an interesting capstone to
an allegory about how we handle our responsibility to tragedy.
Having said this, Firewatch does suffer from one major problem that is
also common to its genre: it lacks in re-playability. While it has a
strong story, it does not lend itself to repetition; doing so - and
knowing how the story will end - you'll find the game has lost its
allure, its mystery, its magic and you are left again with a rather
lusterless game where you blindly follow the breadcrumbs until you
reach the end of the game. Given that you can get through the game in
a two or three hours, a just argument could be made that one does not
get fair value for their dollar. The developers have tried to balance
this out by offering both a "play with commentary mode" and a "free
roam mode" that unlock after you complete the story the first time,
but those who paid full price for the game may still walk away
disappointed.
Myself, though, I was quite pleased with my purchase. I got an
interesting yarn well-told through some excellent voice-acting and
placed in a graphically - if not too differentiated - environment. I
can't imagine I'll be returning to the game anytime soon - not, at
least, until I've forgotten some of the specific details and can
revisit the setting afresh - but I feel my time and money were well
spent. Firewatch is an excellent example of the genre that other
narrative games consistently fail to achieve.
* Max Payne 3 (replay)
I'll grant this to Max Payne 3: it is one of the pretties ugly games
I've played. Pretty because its graphics are still - three years after
its release - still impressive, with excellent textures, lighting
effects and animations. Ugly because it portrays all the seedier sides
of the world - ghettos, slums, industrial warehouses - that don't make
for interesting visuals. It's all very beautifully detailed, but just
never of anything you'd really want to see in the first place.
It's also very stylish, from the film noir plot to the dramatic cuts
and cut-scenes to the whacked-out-on-booze visual effects. This is,
however, less praise than it might first appear; the game is arguably
too stylish for its own good and often gets in the way of its own
gameplay. I very quickly got annoyed by those visual glitches - the
blurring and double vision - that represented Max's hung-over state;
it was neat for the first level or two but became quite unwelcome as
the game dragged on. The cut-scenes were all very well done but -
serving as interstitials that hid the frequent level loads -
interrupted game-flow in the worst way; just as I started getting into
a battle, the game would pull me into the next cut-scene. Worse, too
often the game reset my weapons after the cut-scene was over; a number
of times it switched me over to an empty gun just as I was thrown into
a battle. Nor did it help that - while perhaps true to the noir
tradition - none of the characters were really likeable. In a noir
film, this is acceptable; you only spend an hour or two with the
characters anyway but I spent 12 hours with Max and friends and very
quickly tired of his self-destructive antics.
The gameplay was mixed. Obviously designed for a console, the game was
ridiculously easy on a PC; with a mouse-n-keyboard, I consistently
scored head-shot after headshot with incredible ease. It was so
untasking that I almost never utilized Max Payne's trademark
bullet-time powers because it was almost never necessary to do so. The
combat arenas were disappointingly small too - another restriction
forced on the game by console hardware - and too often the game relied
on re-spawning enemies rather than utilize strong AI or interesting
tactics. Mix in some annoying quick-time events and a lack of
differentiation in levels (functionally, there was little difference
between the battles in the Brazilian favellas, the slums of Hoboken,
or the fishing town on the Amazon) and the combat - while initially
intense - quickly turned into more chore than challenge.
Okay in concept but poor in delivery, I was hard pressed to keep
playing to the end.
* Kings Quest VI To Heir Is Human (replay)
I was first introduced to the King's Quest series back in the early
'80s; 1983 or '84, I think. I played it with my friend on his then
state-of-the-art Apple III computer (a souped up Apple ][e whose
greatest claim to fame was that one of the official troubleshooting
tips for when it inevitably locked up was to pick it up about an inch
and drop it, in order to reseat any chips that had become dislodged
because the machine ran so hot). Coming from an era of text-only
adventures and plot-free arcade shooters, I was intrigued by a game
that not only had a strong story but was gorgeously rendered with
full-screen, full color images. My pal and I never got very far into
the game - both because Sierra adventures were notoriously
unforgiving, but also because the text-entry interface was cumbersome;
neither of us knew how to type. But I never forgot those wonderful
first moments when I watched my well-animated avatar wander across the
colorful landscape, obeying my every command as I quested for my
kingship.
So it was no surprise that years later (1992, to be precise) that I
was quick to purchase King's Quest VI when it was first released.
Actually, I purchased it twice: in 1992, for the original DOS version
released on 3.5" floppy disks, and a year later for the "talkie"
CD-ROM version that ran on either DOS or Windows. Again I was
enthralled, and even today I consider the sixth game to be the best of
the franchise. For all it is a saccharine-soaked fairy-tale
love-story, it is a /well-done/ saccharine-soaked fairy-tale
love-story, and it holds up to this day, pixelated 256-color graphics
and all.
True, some of its puzzles remain frustratingly obtuse, often solvable
only through trial-and-error and after many, many deaths. Even back in
the day, its controls were a bit clunky, especially with the few
time-based puzzles and all the moreso to somebody who replays the game
since spoiled by twenty-years of game-design advances. And while its
callbacks to traditional fairy-tales are a tradition to the franchise,
at times they made the game feel oriented more towards pre-teens than
adults. But its gorgeous backgrounds, charming storyline, numerous
interesting characters, cheerful music and excellent voice-acting more
than counterbalance these faults. Equally impressive - at least for
when the game was released, if not so much today - was that the game
offered two different endings. My only real complaint is that the
GOG.com version I played used the DOS version rather than the Windows
version; the latter featured improved sprites, video, icons and
character portraits (although in fairness, it would probably be quite
difficult getting a Windows 3.1/WinG version to run on modern
hardware).
That I still consider Kings Quest VI one of those great classics that
every PC gamer should play at least once, even after 23 years, stands
as a testament to the game's excellent design and production values.
* Postal Redux (new)
One of the more memorable features of 1993's Syndicate was lighting
people on fire with your flamethrower. The little sprites would run
around, arms flailing and screeching in agony until they crumbled into
a pile of ash and bone. It was shockingly brutal and so unexpected
that it was funny; I'm sure I wasn't the only player who purposely lit
civilians on fire just to watch them dash about in their panicked
death throes. Apparently the developers of Postal ("Running with
Scissors") enjoyed this as much as I did, because they essentially
made a game around this trope.
I never played Postal when it was first released in 1996. It was just
one of many isometric shooters released around that time - the
Crusader games, Gender Wars, SCUD Industrial Revolution, Bedlam - and
its only apparent gimmick was that it was purposefully trying to be
controversial (and it was successful too, garnering attention from
Jack Thompson and the "video-games-are-evil" club). But it didn't seem
to stand out in any way beyond that, so it was only until recently
that I bought the game.
As it turns out, my initial reactions were correct; this is a shallow
game. On its most basic level, the shooting mechanics are acceptable;
I point, I shoot, things die. This simplicity, however, is never
backed up by anything else; the game lacks in graphics, interesting
level design, good sound or music, AI, puzzles... even challenge. It's
shooting is about as sophisticated as 1985's "Robotron", except
without that seminal's game waves of enemies constantly charging
towards you. It's fun for about five minutes, and then boredom quickly
sets in. The shock-humor of the game - the aforementioned people on
fire, the gut-shot victims crawling about begging for mercy -
entertain for another few minutes before that too quickly becomes
repetitive. In addition, the levels themselves are fairly short and
you can waltz through the core game in a couple of hours (there are
bonus levels, but they are just more of the same). It's a tiresome
shooter far surpassed by almost any modern games and even most of its
contemporaries.
* Dying Light (new)
The other day I played one of Capcom's "Dead Rising" games - I forget
which one since they are all sort of the same anyway. I generally
enjoyed the large open world and huge hordes of zombies, but disliked
the zanier aspects of the characters and plots. I wonder if Techland -
the developers of Dying Light - felt the same way because their game
is essentially a Dead Rising clone with the wackiness stripped away.
In some ways this made the game more enjoyable, but at the same time
Dying Light felt characterless and flat in comparison.
Functionally, the game is quite impressive. It has a huge open world -
made even larger with the addition of "The Following" DLC pack. Given
their size, I was rather astonished by how fast the maps loaded, even
on a slow mechanical hard-drive. The frame-rate was silky smooth, even
with settings maxed and on an older GPU. The parkour-focused combat is
slick and easy to learn, and the move-set is impressive; I was very
quickly doing slide-kicks, grapples and vaults as I hacked my way
through the undead horde. The actual gameplay-loop was less exciting;
Dying Light takes its cue from Ubisoft's open-world games, littering
the landscape with side-missions and collectibles that aren't
individually very exciting but at least offered a reason to free-roam
the game's giant map ("The Following" DLC at least added a useful
alternative in the form of driving challenges with the addition of a
car).
A major downside of the game for me were the weapons; variety was
largely mechanical in nature, and it utilized a common/rare/unique
color-coding system similar to Diablo (or Techland's own "Dead Island"
games). Technically, the game features thousands of weapons but in
actual gameplay it pretty much boils down to "blade", "hammer",
"pistol/rifle" and "shotgun", with the major differentiation being how
much damage was inflicted. More concernedly, weapons only have limited
durability, and break after too much usage. Although I understand the
idea behind this mechanic - having your best sword break during a
fight can be a terrifying adrenalin rush - in practice the weapons
broke far too quickly, making the constant scrounging for new gear a
dull grind which artificially extended the game's length.
As much as I enjoyed the melee combat, I was less enthralled with the
first-person parkour; the perspectives never quite looked right, and
never felt as fluid and natural as, say, the third-person platforming
of the Assassin's Creed series. It didn't help that climbing down was
far more difficult than going up, and too often I fell to my death
instead of lowering myself down level by level. While games like
Mirror's Edge and Dying Light show that first-person parkour is
possible, it still isn't my preferred method of in-game acrobatics.
The game's strengths are its exploration and combat, not its
platforming. Unfortunately, certain missions of the game stress the
latter, to their detriment. The final mission is especially terrible
in this (and it doesn't help that the end-boss is defeated in a series
of dull - and completely unexpected, since its a mechanic that isn't
used anywhere else in the game - quick-time events).
When it stuck to its strengths the game was largely enjoyable, but it
was not a very memorable experience. While it is a striking
improvement over its predecessor - the Dead Island Franchise - it
still has a number of shaky bits. Hopefully the developers will learn
as much from Dying Light and their next game will actually be
something I can whole-heartedly recommend, but its not something I can
honestly do with this one.
--------------------
And that's how I rounded out this year's gaming. I hope you guys had
as entertaining a 2016 as I did. Be sure to let us all know how you
spent this last month by telling us all:
What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Trimble Bracegirdle
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 04:15
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 04:15
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Thanks Spalls Hurgenson.
I find Dying Light as you do....bit disappointing.
I took some time to just run & roof jump across the whole game map.
Brought home how it all looked the same.
Also I disliked the Zombies design...many basically attractive,
near naked young female models rendered unpleasant ugly.
Some of the 'find & switch' type puzzles are entertaining.
'They' could have left the Zombies out & called it (say) Half-Life 2 Episode
3 ;)
@@@@@
Borderlands 2 : Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC.
I've Played the 3 Borderlands games far more than any other - ever.
Been saving this DLC till last.
I'm bit disappointed.
It has good reviews ...its big.
Its too big & to tough.
So quest elements are repeated & distances to be travelled lengthened
more than is entertaining.
The 'little' side quests offer the most fun.
I realized I'd had enough when around 30% in I was confronted
with a difficult Boss battle in arena setting.
The Boss is JUST tough with hard assistants.
So just a matter of blasting away with little sense of skill until the Boss
was down.
BUT THEN ! the game immediately put up another Boss - different name but
same thing
& looks.
After that yet a 3rd - Same as the others.
No fun for me.
I dispatched them by turning on cheating with a Trainer.
I played to DLC end with the Trainer giving infinite Health & ammo.
I don't like the 2nd play though in Borderlands.
As Hero advances levels very, very slowly & I find very little improved
weaponry.
My Hero went the whole of Tiny Tina DLC & only went from Level 45 to level
46.
And that involved a lot of gameplay.
(\__/)
(='.'=) This is Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny into your
(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Werner Punz
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 15:21
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 15:21
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Am 01.01.2017 um 03:31 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson: > Ho-ho-ho! > > No, wait; wrong thread. This is the "what have you been playing" > thread, not the Christmas give-away, although that "game" took up an > unexpected amount of my time this month. But between that, actual > Christmas and, you know, real life I still managed to get in some > time to play some games. > Well I have been playing a lot of PSVR games, but for me the VR sensation has worn off I am waiting for longer games now to pick it up again. I started in december with Rise of the Tomb Raider and so far I like it, it is a blend of the old Tomb Raider games (aka Tomb Raiding) as sidemissions, a little bit of uncharted, and some rpg elements and crafting thrown in. Overall this mixture works, although I would love to see more Tomb Raiding again, but I guess this train has passed about 5 years ago when they had to reboot the series. --- Diese E-Mail wurde von Avast Antivirus-Software auf Viren geprüft. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: rms
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:00
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:00
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>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Blade Runner (1997)
Darksiders Warmastered Edition: A brief review!
Another old game, so I'll keep it brief. Having bought both DS1 & 2 years
ago for pennies on the dollar to add to the backlog, I ignored this title
until the recent remastered version came out. For a 7-years-old game, it
looks and plays wonderfully at 1440p, and THQ Nordic is to be commended for
addressing early mouse/framerate issues in a quick series of patches.
The 3rd-person action/adventure format really appeals to me. The somewhat
repetitive hack and slash action is reinvigorated as you progress with new
moves, abilities, and enemies; the puzzles and hidden items are engaging to
find and solve; and the story-telling and Darksiders lore – about the war
between Heaven and Hell and the Council that maintains the Balance between
the two – captures my attention. A very satisfying game, that makes me eager
to continue on to the sequel (and hopefully a 2nd sequel!) and perhaps check
out the prequel novel & bonus comics that fill in more of the lore. Highly
recommended!
Blade Runner (1997)
I've said this before, in reference to The Thing, that movie-based games
that successfully evoke the atmosphere of the original are worth playing,
and Blade Runner does this in spades. The music is there, the gritty
post-WW3 environments, even iconic locations and characters from the 1982
movie are there.
As adventure games go, Blade Runner is dead simple. You collect clues by
pixel-hunting and talking to characters, but there's no combining them, no
abstruse puzzle-solving. Once you collect enough items, and follow the
straightforward hints on what to do next, new areas open up and the story
progresses. You do get to use the Esper and Voight-Kampf machines, though,
which are delightful and put you right in the movie.
But the great thing about this game is that the moral ambiguity, the
uncertainty in the humanity of those you meet -- and your own -- that is at
the heart of the film, is the centerpiece of the gameplay. I went in blind,
and only very slowly became aware of this aspect, but what assumptions you
make about characters and how you treat them will change how the game
progresses. I blundered my way through, and got the braindead-obvious
'Super-Blade-Runner' ending, but there are several major ending variations,
and those inclined to role-playing will have a blast exploring them. The
length is short, so this is a reasonable thing to do, and I'll keep it
installed myself to hopefully come back to at some point.
I got this from an abandonware site as a single zip file, and it ran
immediately under Win10, no issues. Blade Runner is highly recommended!
I came across this article while looking at walkthroughs; worth a read, for
sure:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/11/27/best-games-based-on-movies/
Also, this site dedicated to the game is worth poking through
http://media.bladezone.com/contents/game/
rms
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Zaghadka
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:33
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:33
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On Sat, 31 Dec 2016 21:31:30 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >Ho-ho-ho! > >No, wait; wrong thread. This is the "what have you been playing" >thread, not the Christmas give-away, although that "game" took up an >unexpected amount of my time this month. But between that, actual >Christmas and, you know, real life I still managed to get in some >time to play some games. > >Since we all know the drill, let's skip the rest of the preliminaries >and get right to the list. > So here's my list: Fallout 4 (DLC) Playing the Far Harbor add-on. I really like the character of DiMA. Much cooler than anything in the base game. Fallout Shelter (new) Still trying to complete my collection of legendary guns and outfits. It's a nice casual game to check in on from time-to-time. Temple of Elemental Evil (replay) I'm on this weak-ass laptop for a week or so, so I fired up this old classic, this time with the Co8 extra content mod and an evil party. I'm too weak to really start busting out the evil right now, and I'm sure I can't take on Terjon yet, but I'm waiting for all the new content in Nulb. Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars (replay) Playing the campaign of this, again because my weak laptop can handle it in DOSBox. Just got my ass kicked in the last scenario. I really want to get my hands on the CD expansion, The Price of Loyalty. Maybe I'll just buy it from GOG and get it that way, but I really appreciate having the crystal clear Redbook audio that came with HOMM2. Shadowrun Returns (new) Finally started playing this in earnest several years after buying it. The dialogue is nice but the gameflow is very linear so far. I don't feel like I'm RPGing so much as taking a curated tour of a cyberpunk universe. Hope it gets better. I'm worried about that show-stopping bug Xocyll mentioned. I usually set off bugs in software. I set off bugs that no one can reproduce, in fact. Makes me a good beta tester. -- Zag Sent from my slow-ass Toshiba Laptop
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Zaghadka
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:40
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 17:40
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On Sun, 1 Jan 2017 10:00:37 -0700, "rms" <rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote: >I got this from an abandonware site as a single zip file, and it ran >immediately under Win10, no issues. Blade Runner is highly recommended! Link? Sounds pretty cool. -- Zag Sent from my slow-ass Toshiba Laptop
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: rri... Ross Ridge
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:43
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 18:43
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Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote: >Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars (replay) > >Playing the campaign of this, again because my weak laptop can handle >it in DOSBox. Just got my ass kicked in the last scenario. I really >want to get my hands on the CD expansion, The Price of Loyalty. Maybe >I'll just buy it from GOG and get it that way, but I really appreciate >having the crystal clear Redbook audio that came with HOMM2. The GOG version should have all the game's CD audio, just converted to MP3s. It should also be the Windows version so it should also perform better because no emulation is needed. Ross Ridge -- l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU [oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ db //
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: rms
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 22:04
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 22:04
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>Link? Sounds pretty cool. http://www.old-games.com/download/6058/blade-runner has a free dl link, or similar sites rms
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Rin Stowleigh
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 23:32
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2017 23:32
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On Sat, 31 Dec 2016 21:31:30 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? A bit of WatchDogs 2, a bit of Battlefield One. But since everyone probably knows about those two titles, I'll focus on the third title: Turok - The Dinosaur Hunter. Not to be confused with the Turok title that came out in 2008, this is a remaster of the 1997 title. Five bucks on Steam. Never under estimate the fun that can be had with these retro titles! Fun in a retro, arcadey sort of way.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Zaghadka
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 03:33
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 03:33
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On Sun, 1 Jan 2017 18:43:16 +0000 (UTC), rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Ross Ridge) wrote: >Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote: >>Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars (replay) >> >>Playing the campaign of this, again because my weak laptop can handle >>it in DOSBox. Just got my ass kicked in the last scenario. I really >>want to get my hands on the CD expansion, The Price of Loyalty. Maybe >>I'll just buy it from GOG and get it that way, but I really appreciate >>having the crystal clear Redbook audio that came with HOMM2. > >The GOG version should have all the game's CD audio, just converted to >MP3s. It should also be the Windows version so it should also perform >better because no emulation is needed. There is no performance hit using DOSBox that I can see. It works great. Even on this underpowered laptop. I forgot, I already bought this title on GOG (I've got HOMM1-3 there), so maybe I'll download the Windows version and let you know if your suspicions are correct. I can't see how they can do the Redbook audio with the Windows version, though, because it doesn't have DOSBox's virtual CD-ROM mount. But I'll give it a shot. ...and seriously, the CD audio sounds better than the MP3s. Maybe I'm just imagining that, but it seems to be the case. -- Zag Sent from my slow-ass Toshiba Laptop
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Zaghadka
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 03:41
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 03:41
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Just downloaded and tried it. The Windows version doesn't run full screen. It runs in a 640x480 box in the upper left hand quarter. I'll stick to my DOS version and Daemon Tools. Much better. -- Zag Sent from my slow-ass Toshiba Laptop
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Anssi Saari
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:01
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:01
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"Trimble Bracegirdle" <no-spam@never.spam> writes: > @@@@@ > Borderlands 2 : Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC. > I've Played the 3 Borderlands games far more than any other - ever. > Been saving this DLC till last. > > I'm bit disappointed. > It has good reviews ...its big. > > Its too big & to tough. I remember this too. The second time I played it I had a pretty good explosive assault rifle which made killing all those skeletons actually fun while it was an annoying slog without it. And well, it helps to get the golden key codes from Twitter or wherever and using them in Sanctuary to get better guns. > So quest elements are repeated & distances to be travelled lengthened > more than is entertaining. > The 'little' side quests offer the most fun. > I realized I'd had enough when around 30% in I was confronted > with a difficult Boss battle in arena setting. > The Boss is JUST tough with hard assistants. > So just a matter of blasting away with little sense of skill until the > Boss was down. > BUT THEN ! the game immediately put up another Boss - different name > but same thing > & looks. > After that yet a 3rd - Same as the others. > No fun for me. I'm not sure what fight this is. There's the one with four kings that's fairly tough. Then there was that really annoying Orc Warlord that leveled up by absorbing his minions but I think that's not a mandatory fight. But damn after he leveled up to four above my level, bullets just started bouncing off...
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Anssi Saari
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:19
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:19
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Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> writes: > What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? I played a little Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Just to see if it makes a difference how I do in the final mission but looks like it's a disappointing ending in any case. I think I'll still check out the System Rift DLC. I also started playing GTA V again from an old save that was barely started. I think this is my third time trying to get through and it's been so long I've forgotten the main missions and robberies. I've been surpised how fun it is. The driving is good and the gunplay is good so no complaints. I think I'm about 2/3 done, starting the preparations for the Big Score.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Xocyll
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 13:15
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 13:15
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Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> looked up from reading the entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs say: >Shadowrun Returns (new) > >Finally started playing this in earnest several years after buying it. >The dialogue is nice but the gameflow is very linear so far. I don't >feel like I'm RPGing so much as taking a curated tour of a cyberpunk >universe. Hope it gets better. I'm worried about that show-stopping >bug Xocyll mentioned. I usually set off bugs in software. I set off >bugs that no one can reproduce, in fact. Makes me a good beta tester. It is possible to get past it. If you run into it, try different conversation options in the convo before the fight - for some reason that apparently helps. Got through it and did another couple missions then screwed up on the return to the hive mission - did not take a decker since it seemed like it was just going to be straight-up combat, wiping out the bugs. Only to find well into the mission a locked door that can only be opened via cyberspace. Ran into another bug with that mission - you're given a new weapon to use against the bugs, but only 3/4 of my team got them. I think the super-decker you get access to (who died in my mission since the game never explains anything, and evaporated 2 rounds later) was intended to be taken on the bug-hunt mission as well and was hard-coded to get a bug gun, but being dead, no other potential team member got one. "Of course you'd take him, he's the best decker, so he gets issued the gun." He got zapped in cyberspace and out in meatspace was slumped over. No explanation of him being dead and having to be revived within 2 rounds or he'd evaporate (literally his body vanished.) In most rpg type games a combat round is all of 30 seconds at most, usually less - so you have to "revive" your decker who is motionless by the jack-in port, just as he is while he's alive and doing shit, and you have to do it in under a minute. Despite the fact that people can be revived many minutes later and you only get brain damage after 4 minutes or so - you have to do it in 30-60 seconds, while under fire. WTF?? Honestly, did anyone test this? Logic test it or bug test it? Seems like they planned out a campaign and what they'd choose for it, and tested that and only that - do anything else and you take your chances. Just another "Play it the way we'd play it" game. Xocyll -- I don't particularly want you to FOAD, myself. You'll be more of a cautionary example if you'll FO And Get Chronically, Incurably, Painfully, Progressively, Expensively, Debilitatingly Ill. So FOAGCIPPEDI. -- Mike Andrews responding to an idiot in asr
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:10
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:10
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On Sun, 1 Jan 2017 10:00:37 -0700, "rms" <rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote: >>What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? >Blade Runner (1997) One of the interesting things about the game was that the NPCs ran on their own schedule, rather than being completely reactive to the player's actions. So it was quite possible for an important event to happen in location X while the player was futzing about in location Y. The developers tried to ensure that this wouldn't lock you out of completing the game but it rarely worked well and - if you're not careful (or playing with a walkthrough) - you can accidentally miss out on important dialogs or items. That - and the fact that the game randomizes which NPCs are Replicants (and whether or not the PC himself is a replicant) - add some interesting replayability to the game. But on the whole I think that the developers' goals were more extravagant than their ability. That said, the game ably re-captured the look and feel of the original movies (although sometimes it aped the films a bit too closely). Their choice to use voxel-based graphics was unusual; it made for a very pixelated game (even given the standards of games of 1997) and didn't really add anything to the experience that a more traditional sprite- or polygon-based engine would have provided.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:15
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 14:15
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On Sun, 01 Jan 2017 11:33:11 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote: >Fallout Shelter (new) > >Still trying to complete my collection of legendary guns and outfits. >It's a nice casual game to check in on from time-to-time. F:S remains my go-to time-waster, and it's a rare day I don't fire it up at least once (if only to get the daily bonus). The recent updates adding quests and crafting have revitalized the experience; finally there is something to DO. The base building is fun, but rather shallow so this was a necessary update. My only real complaint is that the game takes inordinately long to start-up, at least on my tablet; 30 seconds to get to the initial "chose your vault" menu screen and then another minute to actually load the save-game. This is a telling fault for a pick-me-up game meant to be played on the go, and given how little the game actually does I don't really understand why the load times are so long.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Zaghadka
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:09
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:09
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On Mon, 02 Jan 2017 09:15:15 -0500, Spalls Hurgenson <spallsh...@gmail.com> wrote: >On Sun, 01 Jan 2017 11:33:11 -0600, Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> >wrote: > > > >>Fallout Shelter (new) >> >>Still trying to complete my collection of legendary guns and outfits. >>It's a nice casual game to check in on from time-to-time. > >F:S remains my go-to time-waster, and it's a rare day I don't fire it >up at least once (if only to get the daily bonus). The recent updates >adding quests and crafting have revitalized the experience; finally >there is something to DO. The base building is fun, but rather shallow >so this was a necessary update. My only real complaint is that the >game takes inordinately long to start-up, at least on my tablet; 30 >seconds to get to the initial "chose your vault" menu screen and then >another minute to actually load the save-game. This is a telling fault >for a pick-me-up game meant to be played on the go, and given how >little the game actually does I don't really understand why the load >times are so long. > If it's a Windows tablet, I've noticed that on this laptop the Bethesda.net Launcher puts a WmiPrvSE.exe process (running as NETWORK SERVICE) into an endless loop futzing with the tzres.dll file. This can suck up a lot of processor time (5-30% on my system), so I've found that after starting up the Launcher, I have to reset the "Windows Management Instrumentation" service (in services.msc) to get the thing to stop endlessly looping and sucking up processor time. You reset it once, leave the Loader running, and it doesn't happen again. I don't have nearly those load times on this really underpowered laptop if I reset that service, but it was really dragging when it had that stone around its neck. I'm currently in process troubleshooting it with Bethesda, but this system is apparently beneath spec, so I have to wait until I have access to my desktop to see if it's a general bug or just specific to this laptop. They won't support this laptop (even though everything runs just fine on it). -- Zag Sent from my slow-ass Toshiba Laptop
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Werner Punz
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:53
Date: Mon, 02 Jan 2017 15:53
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Am 02.01.17 um 15:10 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson: > On Sun, 1 Jan 2017 10:00:37 -0700, "rms" > <rsqui...@MOOyossmanMOO.net> wrote: > >>> What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? > > >> Blade Runner (1997) > > One of the interesting things about the game was that the NPCs ran on > their own schedule, rather than being completely reactive to the > player's actions. So it was quite possible for an important event to > happen in location X while the player was futzing about in location Y. The Last Express by Jordan Mechner (also an excellent game worthwile to be played. Used a similar technique, but in case of missing an important event it turned back the clock to the point where you still can encounter it.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: rri... Ross Ridge
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2017 20:50
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 2017 20:50
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Zaghadka <zagh...@hotmail.com> wrote: >I can't see how they can do the Redbook audio with the Windows >version, though, because it doesn't have DOSBox's virtual CD-ROM >mount. But I'll give it a shot. They have something that they patch into the game that substitutes the MP3s for the CD audio. There should be a directory named something like Music with files like 2.MP3, 3.MP3, etc. One for each track, track 1 being where the CD-ROM data is. >Just downloaded and tried it. The Windows version doesn't run full >screen. It runs in a 640x480 box in the upper left hand quarter. I'll >stick to my DOS version and Daemon Tools. Much better. Well, it does run full screen 640x480, just like the DOS version. It's your video card and/or monitor that's displaying it that way. You can also play it in windowed mode (press F4 to toggle), and resize the window to whatever you want, though the scaling is simple point sampling. Ross Ridge -- l/ // Ross Ridge -- The Great HTMU [oo][oo] rri...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca -()-/()/ http://www.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~rridge/ db //
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Justisaur
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 15:54
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 15:54
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On 12/31/2016 8:15 PM, Trimble Bracegirdle wrote: > Thanks Spalls Hurgenson. > > I find Dying Light as you do....bit disappointing. > I took some time to just run & roof jump across the whole game map. > Brought home how it all looked the same. > Also I disliked the Zombies design...many basically attractive, > near naked young female models rendered unpleasant ugly. > > Some of the 'find & switch' type puzzles are entertaining. > 'They' could have left the Zombies out & called it (say) Half-Life 2 > Episode 3 ;) > > @@@@@ > Borderlands 2 : Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC. > I've Played the 3 Borderlands games far more than any other - ever. > Been saving this DLC till last. > > I'm bit disappointed. > It has good reviews ...its big. > > Its too big & to tough. > So quest elements are repeated & distances to be travelled lengthened > more than is entertaining. > The 'little' side quests offer the most fun. > I realized I'd had enough when around 30% in I was confronted > with a difficult Boss battle in arena setting. > The Boss is JUST tough with hard assistants. > So just a matter of blasting away with little sense of skill until the > Boss was down. > BUT THEN ! the game immediately put up another Boss - different name but > same thing > & looks. > After that yet a 3rd - Same as the others. > No fun for me. > I dispatched them by turning on cheating with a Trainer. > I played to DLC end with the Trainer giving infinite Health & ammo. > > I don't like the 2nd play though in Borderlands. > As Hero advances levels very, very slowly & I find very little improved > weaponry. > My Hero went the whole of Tiny Tina DLC & only went from Level 45 to > level 46. > And that involved a lot of gameplay. The problem with BL2 is that you're expected to grind bosses/areas forever (or have someone hand you one in multiplayer) to get just the right weapon etc. I too turned on cheats, but it was to increase the drop rates of the rarer weapons - I set all rarities to the same drop rate, still wasn't really enough, so I increased the number of drops too. I personally consider it more a fix than a cheat. I didn't get anything I couldn't have without grinding for thousands of hours There were only two bosses I never completed, the raid boss at the end of Tiny Tina's and the raid boss at the end of Hammerlock's. - Justisaur.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Justisaur
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 16:49
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 16:49
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On 12/31/2016 6:31 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? > I tried only a couple more games to try to get me out of the Crew again. Dungeon Robber (Web, PC, RPG) http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/ Original D&D based web game, free to play, nothing to buy unless you want the poster. Brutally deadly, I think it makes Dark Souls look like a cake walk, well if you play the advanced version with perma-death like I do, but it's still not quite as bad as Nethack. It's fairly fast and very simple compared to either of those though. You hit a key like (e)xplore, (b)acktrack, (u)se an item, and fighting is similar. I wish it had a phone version, it doesn't work on either my android or iphone. Due to it's speed I often play it while waiting for loads in The Crew. I had previously played this a couple years ago and got up to king on advanced. I'm not there yet on this replay, but getting close. Darkest Dungeon (PC, RPG) A lot of the old school D&Ders play this one and like it so I finally broke down and bought it on sale for $12. It definitely doesn't justify the price even there, maybe at $5. I found it terribly disappointing, only going through the first couple dungeons before giving it up. I'd read lots of complaints on how hard it was, but I had no deaths in those first 2 dungeons. It plays very slowly and has a bit too much to learn right off the bat. I doubt I'll come back to this one. Not Recommended. Pressure (PC, Arcade, Race/fighting) this is a neat little arcade game reminiscent of Spy Hunter. You drive a steam powered car with weapons, shooting hordes of enemies. The twist is you have to keep killing enemies often enough to keep your steam power up, collecting their steam tanks. I like it, but only played it a couple days. It is multiplayer and seems like something I might try with my son. The Crew w/ Calling all Units. I think I'm finally over this game. I still played it a couple days ago, but CAU made getting all the cars far too easy, which I've done now. The crate runs are fun, where you try to deliver a crate while the cops chase you but there's really no reason to do them after you have all the cars. You don't get any kind of rank like with PVP. The money is o.k. but after you have all the cars, you don't really need the money either. The cop side of the races is horrible, I don't do those either because you mostly just spend your time waiting for a crate run. All I've got left to do is upgrade all my cars, and I'm finding that too grindy. I could try to climb PVP ranks, but I'm just not a good enough driver, I've tried following advice on how to drive, but it doesn't help. I've also found cheating is rampant in the game. I've run into people obviously cheating in PVP where they teleport back into the brawl point zone after getting knocked out. There's rankings on skills where the top person has 10x what I get, and their ghost shows them doing something impossible like teleporting 10 miles away on a jump, or teleporting back and forth at the start line, I see that on almost every skill. Dark Souls 2 Sins of the First Scholar. (PC, RPG) I started it after December, but am mentioning it as I think this is what's finally pulling me away from The Crew. I'm finding I have to stop playing for a bit when it gets too frustrating, when I loose my souls. But I'm enjoying it so far. I tried playing a sorcerer without spoilers, but I was getting really frustrated and succumbed to a walkthrough as I couldn't even figure out how to raise my level. Wow, I went the wrong way... I joined a covenant that increases the difficulty of the game (of which I didn't see any indication of in the game), I did a harder part first going to the tower of flame or whatever it's called, killed the boss there, well he fell off his platform and died after about the 6th or 7th try. My second attempt with a cleric now and a walkthrough is going a bit better so far. I'm surprised they made it so the enemies don't infinitely respawn only 10 or 15 times, it sure makes it easier than DS1 - you just clear an area and can get to a boss or whatever you want now. Of course you can't farm/grind as much now too, so in that respect it's harder.
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Trimble Bracegirdle
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 22:53
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2017 22:53
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"Justisaur" wrote ;
<"...There were only two bosses I never completed, the raid boss at the end
of Tiny Tina's and the raid boss at the end of Hammerlock's.">>>
I'm amazed & impressed you made it to the end of the Hammerlock DLC.
I abandoned it around 50%.
Tough with near undefeatable opponents in places.
I think its really for Multiplayer co-op .
I've played all 3 Borderlands games DLC's & rate Hammerlock the worst
of all.
(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(") mouse (Still Working On Pre-Sequel's 'Claptastic Voyage')
Re: What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016?
Author: Spalls Hurgenson
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2017 14:33
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2017 14:33
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On Fri, 6 Jan 2017 08:49:38 -0800, Justisaur <just...@gmail.com> wrote: >On 12/31/2016 6:31 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote: > >> What Have You Been Playing... IN DECEMBER 2016? >> > >I tried only a couple more games to try to get me out of the Crew again. > >Dungeon Robber (Web, PC, RPG) http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/ >Original D&D based web game, free to play, nothing to buy unless you >want the poster. Brutally deadly, I think it makes Dark Souls look like >a cake walk, well if you play the advanced version with perma-death like >I do, but it's still not quite as bad as Nethack. It's fairly fast and >very simple compared to either of those though. You hit a key like >(e)xplore, (b)acktrack, (u)se an item, and fighting is similar. I wish >it had a phone version, it doesn't work on either my android or iphone. >Due to it's speed I often play it while waiting for loads in The Crew. I >had previously played this a couple years ago and got up to king on >advanced. I'm not there yet on this replay, but getting close. > Oh man, DungeonRobber. I loved that game. It was based on the random generation tables found in the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. I have the .flv file on my hard-drive so I can play the game without having to worry about an internet connection (of course, it's a bit harder to play these days because I don't have Adobe Flash installed anymore ;-). I once tried to play the same game manually - e.g., using pen, paper, dice and the ol' DMG. Man, that was tedious. >The Crew w/ Calling all Units. I think I'm finally over this game. I >still played it a couple days ago, but CAU made getting all the cars far >too easy, which I've done now. Been gettin' a hankering to return to "The Crew" myself. The racing wasn't the greatest but I loved the size of the world. In fact, I'd often forego the actual racing and just speed across the map (NYC to LA in 30 minutes; take that SR-71 Blackbird!) for the sheer enjoyment of it.
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