Forums > Game Talk > Game Jorunal XVII: A New Journal
The Fabulous King (1332) on 1/7/2021 4:08 PM · Permalink · Report
With a new year, a new Jorunal.
May you all have a wonderful year of gaming ahead of you!
The Fabulous King (1332) on 1/7/2021 4:15 PM · Permalink · Report
Tried this game called Of Orcs and Men. With such a cool title, this game caught my eye.
And it has style and what seems like an okay story.... but, this game is just so very boring. It's just linear corridors interrupted by combat. It's so hard to enjoy a game, when you can't interact with the background, where you can't really use alternative solutions. There isn't even any explorations, because there isn't anywhere to go but forward.
Also been playing Ultima V. Open world, non-linear plot progression, compelling setting... and you can interact with the world: sit in chairs, sleep in beds... that sort of thing. And all this in 1988.
The corridor games are there to remind you how sad the lack of these interactive features really is.
Cavalary (11610) on 1/18/2021 11:21 PM · Permalink · Report
Was saying that, after staying well away from them for many years, for the past few I've been padding my games played count with an adventure a year, and this year I started with it right away, Syberia II.
The Syberia recap is a nice thing to have, but Iād say it was the better game, with a better setting and atmosphere. Alexeiās book is a pretty nice touch though. In general, the graphics, being in the same style, still hold up well, characters seem to look and move better, though Iād say Kate would need much warmer clothes in that climate, and the music remains nice enough. The writing can be an issue, however, dialogues often not quite fitting together and simply not having enough quality overall. And the fact that you canāt repeat any piece of conversation and theyāre not logged either can be quite a problem at times. It can also be annoying when some conversations end after a certain option is selected, before exhausting all, and that often you do exhaust all available topics, but if you immediately talk to the character again, new options appear.
But an adventure gameās gameplay is defined by puzzles, and those again usually made sense, and Iād still consider the lack of inventory ones a plus. It can be tricky to spot some objects or even exits, and the areas that pan can still be confusing at first, but I didnāt even really get frustrated by the few puzzles requiring trial and error, taking them for what they were and solving them quickly. I consider it either a bug or the gameās one instance of Moon logic that the dream clock puzzle canāt be solved correctly, accurately, but there was just one other place where I checked the walkthrough, the drums in the Youkol Cave, and that was my fault, the area seeming rather confusing and making me think I missed something elsewhere when I just couldnāt find the target for the otherwise obvious solution. They get rather too straightforward after leaving the Cave, however, as if the developers got bored, locations and cutscenes otherwise seeming to indicate that they werenāt really rushing. Was left at a loss regarding Kateās fate, however, and also wondering what the point of everything about her work and being tracked was.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 2/25/2021 9:00 AM · Permalink · Report
Continuing my playthrough of Witcher 3. I'm pretty close to the end now... I think.
I am having fun playing this game, but for some reason, not as much as I thought I would.
I don't really like surprise cruel consequences to choices. Most of the times I have accepted my consequences, but sometimes I've redone the quest, if I've found the consequence to be too cruel and unusual. Sometimes it even feels like the best consequences happen when you don't get involved at all (like the Skellige throne quest).
And I don't really like the Assassin Creed style presentation of the gameworld and story.
When you begin the game, you move from one region to another naturally. There is usually an obstacle (mostly lack of funds), which you overcome and then you travel to the other region. However, after Skellige the game expects you to use fast travel, because there is no boat that travels back to mainland. You can only return by fast travel, which instantly reminded me of Assassin Creed's deliberate artificiality. Now I am indeed using fast travel to hop from quest to quest and not really caring at all about exploring the gameworld.
And for some reason, the Assassin Creed style presentation of dialogue, makes it really hard for me to connect with the actual content of the dialogue. I never quite understood what was going on in AC games, and to be honest, I didn't really care either.
With Witcher 3, quite often, I have the same feeling. Especially during Novigrad. I just don't connect to what I'm being presented with. I'm just following the quest arrows.
With the exception of some truly great moments - Bloody Baron and the Hags, getting drunk with fellow witchers, some contract quests - most of the game's characters and moments leave me shrugging my shoulders.
Cavalary (11610) on 2/25/2021 11:49 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start The Fabulous King wrote--]I don't really like surprise cruel consequences to choices. [/Q --end The Fabulous King wrote--] No kidding. Likely my main problem with the first one (only one I played so far), feeling like if I did one thing I'd likely break three others. I want to be able to get the outcomes I want in games damn it, make choices and decide on actions according to the outcome, not choose something thinking it'd lead in a desirable direction and later and without a way to fix it once it happens find that woops, something entirely different and likely undesirable happened instead. Or, of course, the cases where all options are very much undesirable.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 3/21/2021 10:22 PM · Permalink · Report
Still haven't finished Witcher 3. Did one of the DLC's - Hearts of Stone. People said it was one of the better Witcher 3 stories.
It was okay. The wedding part was fun, yes... but it's still no Bloody Baron.
One of the problems of Witcher 3, is that it repeats itself too much. The quests follow a similar pattern. Questgiver gives you quest, you travel to location, you experience cutscene, then you have a small boss fight, then another cutscene, then another boss fight... I'm mainly thinking of the Dead Wife quest. The way it was built up bored me... so I didn't really enjoy the emotional part of the story. The fights were completely unnecessary. I'm fighting some arbitrary shadow creatures, because this game needs to have action moments too... no thank you.
Sometimes Witcher 3 gives you a memorable quest storyline, memorable as in how it also plays, not just the story connecting those fights and cutscenes together. But most of the quests follow this boring pattern.
On a different note. Played some Divinity II. That Dragon game, not the new Original Sin. Talk about confusing numbering. I tried to play this game a few years ago, but was so bored by the beginning.
Still, this game has a pretty soundtrack and this time I forced myself through the boring opening... and started to have some fun, exploring and finding secrets. And once I was about to stop playing, BAM, the whole dragon gameplay begins and I'm intrigued again.
That was a good surprise.
But eventually it got boring again. Some of those dragon moments weren't that fun. And then the game ended with that weird Haha! ending. I'm thinking if I bother continuing with the expansion.
Cavalary (11610) on 4/25/2021 1:08 AM · Permalink · Report
Finished Venetica Wednesday. There will be a review... eventually, so for now I'll just say that the concept is interesting, but the implementation leaves plenty to be desired. Still, an all right game that can be enjoyable if you know how to deal with the bugs and make the right choices throughout. But it is buggy, most notably the risk of vanishing NPCs if you save in an area with NPCs one making you only go to empty places to save, plenty of clipping and issues with hit detection, annoying camera, also annoying how restricted the movement is. Also don't like the unclear outcomes of some choices and that the ending is determined by the (mainly dialogue) choices made throughout. But at least it's very forgiving, and at least after you get a couple of twilight energy charges it'd take a rather determined effort to get a game over, so you can just go through it and find what you enjoy... Even if that's combat, since some enemies respawn, so you can clear most areas but also know where to go if you do want to grind.
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 4/25/2021 9:36 AM · Permalink · Report
I don't remember much about Venetica, only that I liked the combat and dialogue (in the original German version, though). I also felt the Africa section was a bit unnecessary and not well implemented.
Cavalary (11610) on 4/25/2021 11:11 AM · Permalink · Report
The English version is somewhat messy, plenty of differences between text and speech, at times speech cuts short so you need to read ahead, a few lines of some characters read in an obviously different voice, showing they were added on later... Combat is all right, and did like that it tried to take a cue from The Witcher and make it flow in a similar manner, even with the same cue for when to click, but it's not at that level. Nice that it's so forgiving though, even in that flow, an early click not breaking motion, unlike in The Witcher, but mainly in how generally easy it is and how, when it may not be, death may even be desirable at times, since you just pop back up, invisible to the enemies (bar those ghosts), and get the advantage to continue, and then just land the killing blow with the Moonblade and get the twilight energy back.
Africa seemed all right to me, somewhat bothered by how Arsenal District was set up, and the Palace area seemed quite rushed, a large mostly empty place with little to do.
vedder (73746) on 5/4/2021 6:31 PM · Permalink · Report
Had a bit of a gaming pause after Crusader Kings III. Then started playing Dorfromantik which is a great casual distraction.
Seeking a bit more action-y I gave Aztez a try. It has a lot going for it, but in the end I just don't care for beat 'm ups. So the visual style might be cool, and the XCOM-like overworld where you must choose your missions wisely is also cool, but in the end it's just not my jam. But it's been nice to be able to check it out as an Epic Games Store giveaway.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 5/5/2021 6:09 PM · Permalink · Report
It's been a long time since a game has managed to hold me under it's spell so much that I would play until 3 am. Irresponsible, yes. But I just couldn't stop.
Hero-U.
Best game I've played in a long time.
It wasn't my first time trying this game. The first time, I quit during the opening. Something rubbed me the wrong way about the game. Maybe I was just too busy to properly focus.
It's not Quest for Glory, but it's very strongly a "The Coles game". I would put it up there with Quest for Glory 4, as one of their stronger creations.
Best moment in the game. One of the characters goes missing and I went to search for him, completely unprepared. I stumble myself through the catacombs and through a difficult boss battle, with only one hitpoint remaining. Hooray, I win. Nope. I learn that I need to go to the other side of the catacombs to destroy the phylactery of the said lich boss. Okay, I say. I'll buy a health potion and go there. Yes, but you need a magic dagger. Okay, how much? More money than you have. So, I start selling my stuff, my loot. But the store buys them extra cheap. I even have to sell my weapons. Barely I manage to get enough money together to buy the magic dagger. No health potion, sorry. So I sneaked, with only one hitpoint, all the way to the other side of the catacombs, hoping that no monsters would attack, to finally destroy the phylactery with a magic weapon.
It was intense.
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 5/6/2021 2:47 PM · Permalink · Report
I love the Coles, and playing this game always gave me the intimidating feeling that serious play of it would be a trial and error optimisation problem
The Fabulous King (1332) on 5/6/2021 5:53 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I think one of the biggest achievements of Hero-U is how it makes the players feel that they're really uncovering the secrets on their own.
The Coles have really mastered this element of game design.
The player has to discover the secrets, because that's what the game requires, but the player will also feel like it was completely his own wit (and luck!) that uncovered the secret. But it was actually the game guiding the player with story events and hints.
The game introduces a event, for example "mysterious thief", then the game will give the player a general nudge in the right direction... and then, the player finally finds the secret corridor!
I couldn't get enough of it. Loved every moment of it.
And sadly, this game can only be truly experienced once. Because uncovering secrets and exploration is such a big part of it. Now I know where to find the secret corridors and doorways, and what are just red herrings.
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 5/6/2021 7:34 PM · Permalink · Report
it's the tragedy of high budget narrative games... you can't justify the expense for a single-playthrough experience. but procedural quest generation is still in its baby steps...
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 5/9/2021 2:57 AM · Permalink · Report
so if there is a "good" and an "evil" path that are mutually exclusive then...?
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 5/9/2021 3:02 PM · Permalink · Report
To pick an example more in keeping with the currenet direction of Mobygames' main influx then, if you only get to marry one of the women at the end, you simply make your choice and never wonder about the others? 8)
Cavalary (11610) on 5/10/2021 4:29 PM · Permalink · Report
Depends entirely on the game / women. If one is the desirable outcome, yep. I want the best possible character and fully explored world, so missable areas or development options are the problem, but in terms of story the goal is to take it to a desired outcome, preferably on the desired path on the way there too, so if said desired outcome is offered, I have no interest in experiencing others, quite the contrary. The problem story-wise is when that desired outcome is not offered (say, on your idea, Witcher 3, where the only valid outcome from that point of view from where I'm standing is both, either choice of one over the other at the end of the whole arc formed by both books and games being simply intolerable, but if you try that you get the worst outcome; learning that seriously made me say I'd rather not even play the game regardless of the positives otherwise... but so far wasn't an issue, computer not allowing it, will see some years down the line I guess).
vedder (73746) on 5/17/2021 6:12 PM · Permalink · Report
Finished Night in the Woods. I found it very hard to get into as I didn't connect all that much with the characters at first, but I felt there was a thread of greatness and I kept picking it up regardless. There is some amazing story-telling in this game and it really picks up after the initial few days after I finally managed to get into the characters and setting. Actual gameplay remains pretty tedious as it mostly consist of pressing away dialogue boxes, but there are some nice bits. Walking around is enjoyable enough with some playful platforming qualities. It ends at a good time as well, without too much closure to leave some mystery but end on a note of hope.
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 5/17/2021 7:26 PM · Permalink · Report
A good summary, solidly good with glimpses of greatness. It's... a bit like a visual novel, just the odd pace at which it doles out the vignettes.
vedder (73746) on 5/23/2021 8:56 PM · Permalink · Report
I tried playing Figment. It seems charming enough visually, but the voice acting and script is so bad I just couldn't continue.
I played through AbzĆ» which is visually amazing and a pleasure to go through from start to end. A bit shallow in actual puzzles and story, which makes it fall short of greatness, but the visuals definitely makes it worthwhile.
vedder (73746) on 6/12/2021 7:57 AM · Permalink · Report
Finished Last Day of June it has a nice story and it's told well. The visuals are also nice. The puzzles tend to be slightly on the tedious side where you immediately know what to do, but it just takes a while to perform all the actions. It's nice though to never get stuck because of some dumb logic you didn't think off like in so many old adventure games. There's a lot of groundhog day style replaying, and while the developers took care that you never have to do long puzzles twice there are a lot of unskipable cutscenes you'll see half a dozen times.
Cavalary (11610) on 6/12/2021 12:11 PM · Permalink · Report
That Venetica review is still waiting for me to write it, pretty much untouched :/
Meanwhile, started Bound by Flame, but may now set it aside, let's see. An annoying thing is that there are few Windows screenshots for it here and I wanted to add more (eventually), but I can't take screenshots in full screen, just get a black "image", and while it can run windowed and I can take screenshots that way, something seems to happen with the window width at times. Couldn't figure out why, but after initially thinking I needed to use 1152x864 I realized I could set it at up to 1280x960 (monitor resolution being 1280x1024), as I just need to move it a bit after starting to have it all fit on screen, but it seems to change the window width to 1276 at some point, as in it's fine while it runs, but I close it and start it again and that happens, and only a reboot restores it to proper size, choosing any other 1280x... resolution in game still leaves it at 1276x..., and when it's resized in that manner it's also noticeably blurry, so definitely no screenshots like that. Then again, want to take some screenshots that are as proper as I can, which means upping the graphics as much as possible on my integrated graphics, same as I did for the Venetica ones, and while that wasn't much of an issue to play at a few FPS for a little bit to get some shots, this is quite different. Plus that memory seems to be the limiting factor, so if I up the settings past a certain limit I get a black screen or even a full freeze, happened when I first tried, and I'd rather not risk that again, so... Meh, maybe someday.
Anyway, one reason why I may be setting it aside now is that, spurred by the current "time travel" thread on the GOG.com forums, I started Fantasy General (and also finally submitted that version as a new game entry (pending), with the bundled addon, as it was suggested to me back in 2017 when I submitted it as a correction...), and now with the Euro as well, if I'll play anything at all over this coming month, this seems far more likely... Even if the turn limit is awfully frustrating. Would be a much better game, at least for me, without it. As it is, however nice I may find it otherwise (with allowances made for UI, considering when it was made), it's frustrating already from the second continent. If, and it's already an if, I'll make it past this, reckon it'll just be painful later.
Cavalary (11610) on 6/13/2021 11:33 PM · Permalink · Report
Strike that untouched review thing. Guess that admitting I was still slacking off here was the kick in the butt I needed, so managed to write and submit it now...
And also completed two more battles/scenarios in Fantasy General today. Kept trying one and either failing to capture what I needed to by the turn limit or winning but with enemy units still around, so my own units likely less trained than they could be (well, unless killing those remaining enemies would kill more of mine and the automatic recruiting after the battle would reduce their experience by more than they gained, tricky to balance, so for the moment I just aim to kill all), made several attempts from the beginning, then saved after capturing the optional locations that grant rewards, since they can be poor or even nothing and that time both were good enough, and then continued from there (end of turn 9 of 16 max) several times until I could finally wipe the enemy on the last turn. And then rather breezed through the next scenario, oddly enough.
vedder (73746) on 6/13/2021 7:51 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I gave Underworld Ascendant a try. I kickstarted it and then lost all interest in it as development progressed. It's interesting as a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis. But fails to do anything new and feels like a quirky late 90s early 00s game. It's amazing how they managed to release it before simple actions like walking behaved nicely (I guess it just doesn't matter if you are funded up front...). There's a ton of systems in the game, but none really feel more than 60% finished. The only thing this game sort of has going for it is the claustrophobic underground atmosphere that Ultima Underworld And Arx Fatalis also featured. I played about 2 hours before I gave up. If all the aspects of this game were polished to 2010s standards I probably would've loved it, but now everything just misses the mark.
vedder (73746) on 7/30/2021 7:55 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Seems like I didn't post here in a while, trying to remember the games I played. Luckily Itch, Epic and Steam keep track of what I play.
The Solitaire Conspiracy was a very mediocre game in a very polished package. The idea of a game based around the mechanics of solitaire seemed promising, but in the end it was rather ... meh. It's a short game and I did follow it through to the end, so it wasn't bad either.
Quadrilateral Cowboy just didn't do anything for me.
Dr. Langeskov, the Tiger, and The Terribly Cursed Emerald was short, but entertaining, and a bit buggy. The second playthrough required to hear Justin Roiland ramble wasn't really worth it.
Glittermitten Grove played through this just to reach the Frog Fractions game. I liked Glittermitten Grove more than the Frog Fractions ZZT-variant. That was just painful to play, while the fairy management game was at least mediocre.
Absolute Drift was absolutely not my thing. If you catch my drift. (I'm sorry) I was terribly bad at it and everything seems to go completely against my instincts so it wasn't fun at all for me.
Swords & Soldiers II: Shawarmageddon was the best of the bunch. I suck at real time strategy games, but this soldier sequencer makes it accessible and fun to me by breaking it down to its core and foregoing all the micro management. The visuals are ace. The story gets a bit intrusive during gameplay from time to time, but it's necessary to tie all the "puzzles" (levels) nicely together.
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 7/31/2021 8:19 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I finally mastered my personal biggest gaming challenge of the last years: I beat Mass Effect: Andromeda! Not because it is hard (it isn't), but because it is long and boring. Normally I trained myself to abandon unfun games, but I always had that little voice in my head which told me to finally finish it. I hope it stops now after my fifth, finally successful, attempt and I don't have to touch it for all eternity.
Because this retroactively concludes my BioWare playthrough, I'll also post my updated ranking (remember, I don't rank the "objective" quality, only the fun I had during my last playthrough):
Baldur's Gate II
Baldur's Gate
Mass Effect 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Darkness over Daggerford
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Mass Effect 3
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Dragon Age II
Jade Empire
Neverwinter Nights
Mass Effect
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Cavalary (11610) on 7/31/2021 10:06 PM · Permalink · Report
So a game you were saying "is still very good" is below Andromeda?
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 8/1/2021 6:27 AM · Permalink · Report
There is no question Kotor was and is a good game and I would probably give it 3,5 - 4 stars in an "official" user review in contrast to the 2 Andromeda will receive. But I still did not enjoy my latest playthrough at all, and that's the only thing the ranking is about. I'm not sure why, probably because I played it too often between release and 2010.
vedder (73746) on 8/22/2021 7:19 PM · Permalink · Report
Played a lot of Mini Motorways lately. It's a fun and relaxing little puzzle game. It focuses fully on the fun of fixing road networks in games like City Skylines, but in a more pure and simplified form.
Played and finished Quern: Undying Thoughts. I think I wishlisted that when it came out in late 2016 and then didn't buy it, fearing it would be a bad Myst derivative. Then finally bought it in a sale years later only to not play it until now. And... It's great! The first 75% of the game is amazing, the later bit just good. All the interconnected puzzles of the first part really brought back the Myst vibes. The only downside being that it's much more linear, with only the semblance of freedom. The last stretch even does away with that pretense and just sends you through more or less linear corridors. Still greatly recommended to people who like games like Myst or Obduction.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 8/25/2021 12:12 PM · Permalink · Report
Playing Numenara and Disco Elysium.
These two games both ask the question how to do Planescape Torment, but better.
I enjoyed Numenera. It was too weird, it had too much text and too abrupt ending, but overall I quite enjoyed it.
Disco Elysium is... a work of genius. Maybe it's nationalistic pride. It is the first computer game developed by estonians after all. So maybe I'm biased. But it's a damn good and original take on the genre.
Not bad for a debut. Not bad at all.
Numenera didn't really deliver emotional experiences, Disco Elysium however kicks you in the feels. The sad melancholy of being the alcoholic policeman with a bushy moustache stays with you for a long time.
Cavalary (11610) on 8/25/2021 3:53 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
[Q --start The Fabulous King wrote--]It is the first computer game developed by estonians after all. [/Q --end The Fabulous King wrote--] Doesn't seem like it. And a few more here.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 8/26/2021 6:43 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
Blackwell Deception. Really? :D
Most of it seems like asset work or tech demos or cheap copies of something else.
Didn't know any of those games other than Blackwell.
Most of those games don't seem like real games.
Death and Taxes is the only one there, that seems like a real game, and it's developed after Disco Elysium.
So... I'm still gonna say Disco Elysium is the first estonian computer game. F those tech demos. :D
vedder (73746) on 8/26/2021 8:19 PM · Permalink · Report
I figured I continue with the Assassin's Creed series where I left off. Which is to say Assassin's Creed: Revelations. When the first game came out I thought it was pretty cool. The running and climbing was amazing, but the huge game world felt a bit empty. Then Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood improved a lot on making the world feel less empty and they had an awesome setting for me to explore since I had been to most of those cities multiple times. But those games also added a lot of unnecessary side-mechanics that felt like they were just there to keep the development team busy.
So Revelations. Apparently I doubted for 10 years if I was going to skip it or not. Because it got generally less favourable reviews than its predecessors. So now I caved and bought it cheaply to give it a shot. It fails to run on my 4K monitor because for some reason the game forces itself to my other monitor. Every time I launch the game from Steam it automatically logs into the wrong Uplay account (through some error I have two), it never manages to detect my xbox one controller on first boot and on the second boot it fails to connect to some Ubisoft server so I always have to boot it three times... So far nothing really goes in this games favour. Then the game itself. Apparently I forgot how to play Assassin's Creed in the 10+ years I neglected the series, but that's ok because the first 3 HOURS consists entirely of tutorials. I'm now almost five hours in and I don't really feel like I've been free roaming more than maybe 20 minutes in what is essentially a open world game. The story is, what I expected it to be. The same drivel as the previous games. Actually it's worse. Where in my memory the previous games focused primarily on period correct problems and silly sci-fi/fantasy stuff only popped up near the end, it's now a thing from the get-go. Still, I'm kind of interested in what the revelation will be. Constantinople is cool place to be, with its winding streets and tall minarets to climb, and the visuals have improved from the previous games, but there's nothing fun to do. All mechanics explained to me so far through the hours of tutorials all evoked the same feeling: I don't want to be doing this! I don't want to learn how to make different grenades and find out the difference between the 64 different ones you can make (from the start, there's promise of more...). I don't want to conquer cities all around the Mediterranean. I don't want to play a crappy version of tower defense. I don't want to invest in every retail shop in the city, I don't want to manage a team of assassins and level them up. Just let me assassinate people and climb tall buildings. That's what was fun in the previous games. So the game has you find 5 keys. I now have found my first one, but the "dungeon" I found it in was the most uninspired series of rooms I've ever encountered. It would've been barely acceptable for an optional side quest.
Sure, what's good about the previous games is still good, there just seems to be less of it and so much crap added to it. I might still rush through the main story, from what I read I'm already almost halfway.
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 8/28/2021 12:46 PM · Permalink · Report
I don't remember anything about Revelations except the shitty tower defense minigame. I think it was the AC with the biggest feature creep and it definitely wouldn't have worked for me with no long pause after the predecessor. Still better than Liberation, though.
Generally speaking, my favorite entries into the series were Assassin's Creed II (probably a bland, generic open world by today's standards, but a revolution after the first game), Rogue (an improved clone of Black Flag with fantastic boat combat) and Syndicate (I loved London). Nowadays I am burned out on the series, I couldn't stand playing Odyssey for more than a few hours.
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 8/29/2021 12:38 PM · Permalink · Report
If I remember correctly, after the tutorial it was mostly (or even completely) optional. If it wasn't, I probably would not have finished the game.
vedder (73746) on 8/29/2021 12:45 PM · Permalink · Report
8.5 hours in according to Steam. Still haven't seen the tower defense beyond the tutorial, but I keep bribing town criers, that probably prevents it from happening. Ubisoft Connect continues to be a pain in the ass, it asks for my password every time I launch the game, but the launcher was already opened, so I assume I was already logged in? Then in-game it always tells me I'm logged out again and don't have access to online features. Luckily I don't care, it's just the warning is annoying.
The game itself has picked up by now. Getting some equipment upgrades took away some of the combat annoyances. The constant harassment of tutorials has stopped and I learned which mechanics I can just completely ignore and forget about. The quality of the mission content is still all over the place, but at least the Unchartered-wannabe mission for getting the second key wasn't nearly as lame as the one for getting the first key. The game has clearly climbed out of the 6/10 pit it dug itself into and reached the 7/10 regions making it an actually fine game. If it somehow manages to bring it all to a satisfying end I might even bump it up to a 7.5, but that's still below what I'd rate the three games that came before it.
Cavalary (11610) on 8/27/2021 12:08 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Finished Fantasy General (GOG version, so including the Challenge Isle add-on, though I'm leaving those single scenarios that are also included aside, that's quite enough).
Finally got around to starting it thanks to the time travel challenge for that year from the GOG forums, and while that was supposed to cover June, it took me three months to finish. But that's normal, or even better than in many cases, probably the challenge helping a fair bit in not setting it aside for who knows how long, as I tend to do.
There will be a review, but if anyone can make anything out of the jumbled mess that my notes are, I'll dump them here until then:
Great music, though it seems to just die at times. Map scrolls instantly in this version, can't go to a spot, annoying. Turn limit sucks! And the UI does remind of that age, takes some getting used to in this day, particularly odd to see what should be settings mixed there with the rest. Especially the first battle on a continent feels like quite a difficulty spike, both because it's a new enemy leader with new abilities and units and because all your volunteers from the previous continent are gone, so if you don't replace them you'll likely be much weaker, and no longer capable of even following your previous strategy. All too easy to accidentally end a unit's turn, or cast on wrong one if you have both walking and flying in same hex. But nice to be able to undo moves, should be able to undo more though, like resting at least... Battle outcome estimate is also good to have, though it can be way off at times (and may not take support into account?). Good to have the show hidden units toggle; those who want fog of war can keep it off, but when there's a turn limit I can't search for enemies. May mention AI moves toggle too. Would have liked to readily see list of units to deploy and select on the fly, use the left side of UI for that. Does let you get carried away through the battle, for better or worse. Tactics really matter, so much difference once you learn. Need to choose which area to attack next based on name alone, description shown after you click and no way to change choice then, and not told which are either/or choices. There should be save details but nothing shows up. Not having access to load game between battles can be a bit annoying. Don't like that recruiting, especially also the automatic one at the end of battle, reduces experience. Interesting to need to balance between research and buying and upgrading units. Mostly you seem to need to try a battle first to get an idea of it, then have a proper go after the initial loss, or losses. AI is decent but not winning prizes and making a pretty poor use of magic, but it's hard as it is. The random rewards for optional locations can make quite a difference depending on what you get... And there's randomness in maps too, which can make a huge difference. And turn limit sure makes the randomness in battle outcome have a huge impact too, since there's no time to even out. If you start with a location granting a reward, you need to lose it and then regain it to get the reward. Why is magical item held by killed unit lost even if you win scenario and kill unit that killed it? And you also don't gain magical items from enemies you kill. If you switch to tactical view and then back, the screen is at the center of the map, not where it was before the switch. Would want to see the turn number and limit always. Burel's Wall is an interesting battle, attacking an entrenched enemy. Different unit classes have their uses, maybe less for light infantry, and even units within class may have their uses, definitely spellcasters are different, but some others too, may not always want each upgrade. Great to have squads that can recover, and injuries instead of just kills. Sucks when you lose not just regular volunteers but also generic heroes after a continent, and you can give items to those heroes and they don't leave them, so those are lost too. Terrain color scheme in part five looks bad. Part five seems oddly easy, but may be more about my strength than enemy's weakness, just in next to last battle it took a few tries to not lose important units (or any, once I got it right). Units with Raise Dead are awfully powerful, nice that you can have them. Can't see movement method (open/closed) even in the detailed unit information. If on the last move you capture a reward location that produces an enemy unit, you win anyway, even if the enemy now has one unit again, not sure if that's good or bad.
vedder (73746) on 9/2/2021 6:09 PM · Permalink · Report
Finished Tacoma. It's alright. Some nice exposition and interesting mechanic for scrubbing through a recorded timeline. The story was nice, but not necessarily mind-shattering. Gameplay itself was rather dull. Glad it was over after ~100 minutes of play, if it had dragged on longer it probably would've outplayed its welcome.
vedder (73746) on 9/19/2021 7:13 PM · Permalink · Report
Finished two games since I last posted.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is an amazing game. Visually a step up from its predecessor, which already looked amazing. The narrative is also a step up and otherwise most of the rest is on par with its predecessor. Loved it and definitely one of my favourite metroidvania games.
Mutazione bears lots of similarities with A Night in the Woods. It's not really my kind of game but was compelled to follow the story through to the end. It concluded in a satisfying but totally predictable way. Very zen game except for all the clicking through dialogues.
vedder (73746) on 9/21/2021 9:11 PM · Permalink · Report
I played a bit of Creature in the Well. Not my thing at all. Hate the visuals, didn't care about the gameplay.
Playing Freeways on my phone. It's a fun puzzle in which you draw highway intersections. To bad it uses a terrible drawing input and has no undo except for a start over from scratch. Kind of regret not buying it on PC where at least my finger wouldn't be constantly in the way.
I also started on Civilization VI. Having played (of the top of my head) all Civilization games except for Call to Power 1, I'm not sure yet where this fits in the series. A lot of the game feels same-old-same-old. I like that they got rid of workers, they were never fun to manage and the new mechanic works much better. The new Civics research track sounds interesting but in reality you'll just be unlocking a TON of cards of which you'll only use a few. I'd rather the game gave me fewer but more interesting choices. Diplomacy with AI seems more complex than ever and is a big black box for me so far. Research boosts are an interesting new mechanic. The districts are also interesting, but it'll be hard to make smart choices there without a couple hundreds of hours of playtime on the clock first. The trade-off for adding a district compared to having the resources of that tile are incomprehensible in both the short and long term. With the release of Civ V it felt like a lot of stuff was missing at release, which they made up for with the big expansions. Here I feel the base game is more complete, and in some regards even has too much cruft added in. Some things are a nice evolution from the previous game. But it doesn't feel like it has the refinement of Civ IV, nor the revolutional changes of Civ V. Not to speak of missing the character of Alpha Centauri...
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 9/21/2021 10:21 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm always right on schedule. Finally picked up a secondhand copy of Journey for the PS3 and blew my girls' minds playing through it. Came with the other thatgamecompany titles as a bonus, we've been enjoying flower. They keep chirping how beautiful the games are!
vedder (73746) on 10/12/2021 9:33 PM · Permalink · Report
After two games of Civ VI I was already kind of done with it. I definitely enjoyed both games, but it just feels a bit same old, same old. I might return to it in the future, but now it was time for something else.
Started on The Outer Wilds. Wasn't really on my radar because from the title I had false assumed it was just another survival game. Then a friend suggested it (without giving the game any description) and it went on sale because of some DLC release. This sure is something. The concept is like nothing I've ever played before and there's a lot to love. A first person exploration game without shooting? Yes please! There's a lot more to love, but I won't spoil it. I'm playing it with a gamepad, which is a bit awkward for me as a PC gamer. The only real experience with first person games with a gamepad were Metroid Prime 1 and 2. But the mouse controls just felt off and rebinding controls (I mouse left-handed) didn't allow binding similar controls from the vehicle and on foot to the same buttons for some reason.
So without trying to spoil things, the game is exceptional in not rewarding the player for anything aside from maybe the dull text that a note has been added to your logbook. You also quickly learn that you won't earn any new powers or anything like that. All you are gathering in this game is knowledge. There are also no clear goals or quests which makes the start of the game rather awkward as there's nothing really driving you forward, but quickly you'll be forming your own missions as you try to untangle the mess you are in. Feel like I'm still super far away from finishing the game, as I don't have a clue yet how to get the story to a agreeable resolution.
My only gripes with the game are that the controls are quite 'complex'. It's all physics based, with often low gravity and jetpack maneuvers and there's a lot of times where an ill-timed jump can send you hurling into a black hole, or drifting off into space or helplessly stuck in orbit around a planet. One time I was just walking on the surface of a celestial body, when it swung by too close to the sun I was simply sucked off by the gravity of the sun. The lack of a save feature make these instant, unexpected and sometimes irreversible events quite frustrating. Specially once you know exactly what to do to solve a puzzle, but you still have to restart 3 times and travel there for five minutes, because of some bad luck or bad jump.
Super curious how the game will progress and how the story will be wrapped up. And not sure how this game stayed off my radar for so long...
vedder (73746) on 10/13/2021 7:34 AM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start Cavalary wrote--] [Q2 --start vedder wrote--]The lack of a save feature [/Q2 --end vedder wrote--] Talk about a dealbreaker... [/Q --end Cavalary wrote--]
Normally I would agree, but considering how the game works it would break the game if you could freely save. So it makes sense it's not there. If you could save anywhere you would just reload an older save whenever you stumble on information and use it instantly and save yourself a journey. This game is all about the journey. They could've offered it as an accessibility feature I guess. The only other alternative I would really see in this game is a kind of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time rewind the last couple seconds to undo your screw-up mechanic. That way you can't abuse it, but can undo that ill-timed jump that made you drop into a black hole. Then again screw-ups like that have lead me to new insights and investigating things I didn't before.
vedder (73746) on 11/7/2021 8:51 PM · Permalink · Report
That said, reaching the end level would've sure been less tedious if there had been a save feature and I hadn't had to start over three times because of small errors on my part.
Have since played and finished Pikuniku which is nice, short, easy but full of charm. Nothing Earth-shattering, but more fun than I expected it to be.
Started on The Spectrum Retreat. Not sure if I will continue. It appears to be part walking-sim and part puzzle game. The puzzle parts are alright (although so far completely unrelated to the rest of the game), but he walking sim parts are pretty tedious so far in an environment that isn't visually all that great and suffers from looking completely off-scale with lots of long winding hallways which seem designed more to reduce draw calls and to make sure the voice-over can do its thing than to be fun to walk through. Reviews seem to indicate the story might pick up still, so that might be the only reason to still continue further.
Patrick Bregger (306045) on 10/17/2021 8:58 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
I just finished Uncharted 4. I put it off for years because the predecessors were mediocre (2 was good until the last third when it became almost exclusively a shooter), but boy was I wrong. This game just nails it. It has found the perfect balance between shooting, climbing, exploring, talking, spectacular script sequences and puzzles. Every element is well executed and the graphics are gorgeous. The game is relatively long, but you don't notice because the level design (both mechanically and graphically) has a lot of variation. It even pulls the ending off, believe it or not.
Honestly, the only complaint I can think of is that the introduction of the brother comes out of nowhere - you'd think Nate would have mentioned him sometime during the first games. And the exploding mummies were a bit overplayed. But whatever, this is so minor it would normally not even worth mentioning.
vedder (73746) on 11/25/2021 7:57 PM · Permalink · Report
Started and finished Return of the Obra Dinn. Fantastic puzzle game. Quite hard but was happy to have made it all the way to the end without ever feeling the need to look things up. So I guess the difficulty was "just right", which is rare! Multiple nice eureka moments as well when you suddenly realize you had an important piece of information all along.
If you like logical or deduction puzzles this comes highly recommended.
chirinea (47536) on 11/27/2021 7:06 PM · Permalink · Report
Beat Super Mario Bros. yesterday, for the first time. I'm slowly beating all my NES games, but some take longer to beat. This year I was able to get to Singe in Dragon's Lair for the NES, but couldn't kill him. Also can't get past level 9 in Battletoads.
vedder (73746) on 11/29/2021 1:11 PM · Permalink · Report
I gave Just Cause 4 a try. Frankly the only reason I tried the game is that I got it for free on the Epic Game Store and I thought it might be some mindless fun. I've never really played the earlier games except a very brief look at number 2, which I found mediocre and not really worthwhile to continue playing at the time with such a big backlog of games.
I bounced off Just Cause 4 very quickly though. A lot in the game rubbed me the wrong way right from the start. From the game starting in half my monitor's native resolution making it feel I was booting a 20 year old game instead of a 2 year old game. Then the terrible voice acting, the dreadfully boring characters and intro cutscene. After that the "tutorial" was actually quite smooth and well integrated, getting me quickly into the action. The grappling hook and parachute feel like they could be golden eggs. The first battle starts and all the enemies just stand there for me to shoot them. Sure it allows me to experiment, but it also gives me no reason to experiment cause I can just strafe around a bit and shoot them in the face. After the initial mission it's back to some overly long cutscenes with exposition of lifeless boring characters and an exposition on an an awkward art style that seems to be part cartoon, part realistic and part stylistic; turning into a blend that appears very unintentional.
I gave the second mission a try as well, and it consisted of a quite dull "puzzle" I had to repeat 3 times and then once more in a slightly different configuration. At this point the game might open up and actually start to be interesting, but honestly I doubt I'll ever boot it up again, because by now they had managed to drain all the fun out of the grappling hook which was the one redeeming element the game had.
vedder (73746) on 12/1/2021 11:36 AM · Permalink · Report
Next up from the pile of games I own that I wasn't expecting much from was Enter the Gungeon. It's a very nicely polished game with tight controls and excellent pixel art, but it's just not my thing at all. I don't like rogue-lite mechanics much and I can barely tolerate them in turn based games like Into the Breach and Slay the Spire, but in action games they mostly just frustrate me, especially having young kids and basically only having time to play games when already super tired.
So I didn't get very far into the game in the 3 runs I tried after the tutorial, but I doubt I'll be returning to this one. Not caring about guns, bullet hell or rogue-like mechanics there's little here for me to grab onto, but I can understand it's a treat for people who do like those things.
vedder (73746) on 12/9/2021 8:42 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm a couple hours into Pyre, but I'm not sure what to make of it yet. The 3-on-3 basketball-like game is kind of fun, the setting is great but I'm getting a bit tired of watching static images talk to each other. That's not really the kind of game I like. The visuals, audio and music are top notch as could be expected from Supergiant Games, but as a whole it isn't really clicking for me yet. The world makes me want to explore, but instead I'm stuck on this linear narrative which I don't seem to have much control over except for the occasional A or B choices with so far relatively minor impact. All the big choices appear to be made for me. As something that tries to tell a story it seems to be bogged down by a game mechanic that's hard to put into the story in a meaningful way. As a game it's constantly taking the reins away from me to try to tell a story. Neither the story or the gameplay is bad so far, but neither have really grabbed me so far.
vedder (73746) on 1/20/2022 8:32 PM · Permalink · Report
About 8 hours into Pyre and slowly reaching the end, but my plays have been getting less and less frequent. The game did grow on me, and I want to like it. Especially because it manages to be a sort of action RPG that's not about murdering a million things. But I guess I just feel like there's better things to play...
That being Slipways. After greatly enjoying simple connectivity puzzle games last year like Highways, Dorfromantik and Mini Motorways, I guess Slipways it's the next step. While it promotes itself as a simplified 4X kind of game, it's almost more of a puzzle game. The whole game is a resource optimization problem with every action requiring careful thought and planning. As such it's quite an intense game with a steep learning curve, but rewarding in the end. I've now caught up with the campaign (the last few levels haven't been released yet), which feels like a big bummer. I'm not really the person to endlessly grind random levels just for the sake of it. So hopefully the next campaign levels will be released soon.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 1/15/2022 5:46 PM · Permalink · Report
Is it just me or is the original Legacy of Kain a really boring and monotonous game?
chirinea (47536) on 1/18/2022 1:43 AM · Permalink · Report
Well, the gameplay may feel dated, but I wouldn't call it boring or monotonous. I replayed it now that it was re-released and I beat in in two or three days because I was really enjoying my time with it. One thing I thought a bit annoying was the fact that for a game that encourages exploration, it is a bit hard to do backtracking (specially because there are some points in the game where there's no turning back).
vedder (73746) on 2/28/2022 10:18 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm playing Heaven's Vault. There's some amazing stuff there, the lore, the mechanics for translating an ancient script, the sense of exploration and of freedom to choose your own path. It's all amazing and definitely makes me want to continue. But the visuals are really sub-par for a PC game and I'm saying that while I play mostly indie games. The environments generally look like they were made in 2002 with blurry textures and low-poly architecture. Some areas have some visual appeal that makes up for it, but other areas just look bland. The 2D characters also feel like a gimmick that didn't pay off and frequently feels glitchy and bugged. And does this game have the blandest most lame looking robots in the history of games? (the human characters have much nicer designs luckily). The other gripe I have with the game is the controls. I tried playing with mainly the mouse or a combination of mouse and keyboard but it feels like they tried to map touch input to those devices and it doesn't work so well. It's probably OK on actual touch devices, but on PC not so much.
Still the setting and story so far is great and mostly a step up from 80 Days, so that's quite an achievement. I've seen a hint that suggest it might fall into the "save the world" trope though and I'm really hoping it doesn't. Because the one thing that made 80 Days work so well is that it was all about the trip and not about reaching the finish line.At the start of the game you're tasked with finding a missing person and the best conclusion would be to find this person or at least discover what happened to this person. While learning lots of things along the way about the mysterious past of the world it takes place in. But saving the world shouldn't really be part of a game where you play an archeologist and would be a cheap hook to create meaningfulness in the game's story.
vedder (73746) on 3/6/2022 9:38 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
I finished Heaven's Vault. Its qualities stay great right until the end, but so do its shortcomings. In the end though I can only highly recommend it. It's storytelling qualities are unrivaled by anything I've ever played. Very intrigued in seeing a "New game+" in what is essentially a point and click adventure game, and traditionally one of the least replayable genres (unless you have the memory of a sieve)...
I'll probably have to give it a shot out of pure curiosity of what it could possibly have in store!
Pseudo_Intellectual (67449) on 3/13/2022 7:10 AM · Permalink · Report
I have great faith in Jon Ingold, and if it's consistently an improvement on the already high water mark of 80 Days, it must be basically pretty worthwhile, even if it fails to live up to its full potential.
vedder (73746) on 3/14/2022 8:03 PM · Permalink · Report
I've just finished my second playthrough. I did some things pretty differently from the first run (sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident) and the story unfolded in a drastically different way. Still feel like I missed the conclusion of quite a few plot threads, but this is enough for now. Kudos for being the first adventure game ever (as far as I know) that warranted a second playthrough immediately after completion.
In every way an improvement over 80 Days. Even the story part I red flagged in my earlier post was handled sensibly in the end. I won't spoil.
vedder (73746) on 3/25/2022 6:25 PM · Permalink · Report
The best way to reduce the size of your backlog is to scrape at the bottom of the barrel. So played a couple games I owned but didn't expect much from.
Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair - It's a perfectly serviceable 2d platform game I guess, with lots of tedious and very unnecessary dialogue to skip through. Unfortunately for this game Rayman Legends/Origins exist and they are perhaps my favourite games. Compared to those this is just incredibly mediocre. After 3 levels I was ready to move on.
Loop Hero - There's a lot of mechanics in this game, but I found exactly 0 that appealed or made sense to me. It's a very weird game and I'm sure somewhere out there someone is going to find this amazing. It's just not me.
Costume Quest 2 - Its predecessor was a barely 7/10 game in 2010. I'm sure this improves some things over the original. There's some nice polish here and there. But however you take it watching a clown bounce around for an attack or slip on a banana peel for another is fun exactly 1 time. The game quickly reminded me what annoyed me about the first one. While the exploration part is alright and has an addictive hook, all the combat is just incredibly tedious and repetitive. One of the reasons I don't touch JRPGs.
vedder (73746) on 4/3/2022 6:41 PM · Permalink · Report
Next up was For the King. It's actually quite fun. I don't care much for the art style or setting/lore of the game, but it's filled with enough interesting choices to have that "just one more turn" vibe. The combat is surprisingly fun for what is essentially a JRPG style of turn based combat that I usually loath. The use of focus points and very brief attack animations sure help. The dungeons, which are just a series of battles, are most fun cause you really have to manage your resources. moving around the map can get a bit tedious. Even though it's been an entertaining couple hours, I'm not sure if I'll play it more. It has the addictive RPG gameplay down, but it doesn't really draw me back by having a story I want to see through to the end. There are more interesting RPGs on my backlog.
The Fabulous King (1332) on 4/20/2022 10:17 AM · Permalink · Report
I really, really like Fallout 4. I thought I'd feel meh about it. But it's a really, really fun game.
And Nick Valentine is one of the best companions in Fallout ever!
Bethesda really surprised me this time.
It looks like Bethesda paid attention to what Obsidian was doing with New Vegas. They are not repeating it, but definitely learned something from New Vegas.
I think Fallout 4 might be my favorite Fallout... at least at the moment.
vedder (73746) on 4/22/2022 7:18 AM · Permalink · Report
Really enjoying Psychonauts 2. Like the original it's full of fantastic and original places to explore. The characters and voice acting are top notch and all in all the whole game just has an amazing style. On the flip side of the coin the power upgrades all feel a bit useless and the badges don't appear to give much interesting synergies. The intro of the game is rather vague since it references the VR game a lot (a bit weird to have so much references to a game on a different platform and hence a large part of your audience probably didn't play...). The biggest gripe is however the platforming which ironically is the primary game mechanic. While the basics generally work there's lots of locations where you'd wish the camera was guided a bit more instead of having to do all the camera movements yourself since it's often impossible to tell the distance between jumps making it quite frequent that you over or under-shoot a jump. Luckily the game is quite lenient when it comes to save points and health so it never results in large setbacks.
vedder (73746) on 5/6/2022 7:51 AM · edited · Permalink · Report
Being pleasantly surprised with Yoku's Island Express. An Epic game store freebee. Wasn't sure what to think of it up front, but so far it's a fun combination of MetroidVania and pinball. If not slightly frustrating in how locked off all areas feel. I feel like I've been everywhere I could go so far at least 3 times by now without finding any new place to go. All my objectives feel completely unreachable, not exactly a hallmark of great design. I feel like I should be having a new power by now, but I missed it somewhere. I hope this is just a temporary hurdle and not a constant struggle.
Edit: The getting stuck might have been a fluke since after finding where I needed to go the game opened up much more.
Cavalary (11610) on 9/4/2022 4:27 PM · Permalink · Report
Been a while since I last completed a game (The Purring Quest, in October, didn't post here it seems, though I reviewed it), but now I Finally finished King of Dragon Pass!
Got it in 2012, a few bad starts, had to give up, when I tried to push through I ended up with a complete failure in 2014, clan disbanded, tried again in 2015, going really badly and gave up, and been putting it on the to play list every year ever since, but only finally gave it another go this year, from July, and last night finally won (long game, I mean), had the Queen of Dragon Pass.
Yes, plenty of save scumming with the heroquests, otherwise it seems just about impossible, and a few other moments. Randomness is a pain, you can do the exact same thing and get opposite results, plus that the events that happen dictate much of what you can do and those can differ greatly as well.
Extraordinary on its artistic merits though, all the lore and how important it is to actually learn it (could be better written though), the pictures, the music, all of it so fitting, and also having your saga saved as text and accessible outside the game as well.
So here's mine as it put it in the final file.
