What games are you playing now?

Captive II: Liberation and Legacy.

Liberation is one of very few games that were developed with the Amiga CD32 in mind. I am not sure what I think about the game. It feels like it have enormous potential ruined by an attempt to use "the latest graphics" in 3d, which back in 1993 means "it looks like crap". All the 2d Art is really good and the intro sequence is known as the best made for the Amiga, but chunky pixels had became a gimmick in the gaming industry and this is one of very few commercial amiga games to use that technique. But everything including characters are made up by low-polygon models with lowres textures. What the game have is it's premise. It's a Cyberpunk game in which you control four droids in which you need to liberate people who are held captive by corrupt corporations. Doing so consists of detective work in order to track down the person you need in a huge free-roaming city. Most of it is generated though so you quickly begin to see reoccuring themes.

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Legacy was originally made for Pocket PC and is one of the best titles for that platform. But it's also available as a PC game. It's one of the best Dungeon Master clones ever made. One reason for this of course is that it was developed as late as 2004 by a team who knew exactly what they were doing. It's one of very few modern party-based Dungeon Master clones that isn't a poor mans indie game.

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Right now I'm playing Minecraft again, loving it. Almost dying, on the edge of my seat a lot. It sure seems like they bumped up the enemy respawn/encounter rate of the game

They actually did change enemy pathing AI - things don't get stuck on corners anymore. And, depending on when you last played, they also turned the underground into a veritable ant colony with abandoned mine shafts everywhere - things can really come at you from all directions, depending on where you set up shop.
 
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Legacy was originally made for Pocket PC and is one of the best titles for that platform. But it's also available as a PC game. It's one of the best Dungeon Master clones ever made. One reason for this of course is that it was developed as late as 2004 by a team who knew exactly what they were doing. It's one of very few modern party-based Dungeon Master clones that isn't a poor mans indie game.
Yeah I remember enjoying Legacy back when I was using Windows Mobile. I wish they would port those games to Android. There isn't anything quite like that on Android yet that I know of.
 
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Yeah I remember enjoying Legacy back when I was using Windows Mobile. I wish they would port those games to Android. There isn't anything quite like that on Android yet that I know of.

I asked them when I just bought the game for PC (must be done via e-mail/paypal). They have lost their coder and the sourcecode so it can't be done. "The Quest" is updated for at least iPhone and they were pimping the game hard when I wanted to order Legacy.

Legacy actually works just fine in Microsofts own free emulator for running PPC in Windows, but the controls do not rotate when you play in landscape mode. I actually built an AutoHotkey script so I can move with QWEASD, but I couldn't make it so the mousecursor doesn't jump around.

One can also check Undercroft. It's free on iPhone, but I dunno about Android.
 
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I asked them when I just bought the game for PC (must be done via e-mail/paypal). They have lost their coder and the sourcecode so it can't be done. "The Quest" is updated for at least iPhone and they were pimping the game hard when I wanted to order Legacy.

Legacy actually works just fine in Microsofts own free emulator for running PPC in Windows, but the controls do not rotate when you play in landscape mode. I actually built an AutoHotkey script so I can move with QWEASD, but I couldn't make it so the mousecursor doesn't jump around.

One can also check Undercroft. It's free on iPhone, but I dunno about Android.

from the undercroft forum:
No. First there are technical limitations of the android platform (the reason we don't plan to port archibald's adventures to android, you can read more here viewtopic.php?f=17&t=4454), second sales on android market seems to be really small compared to iPhone, so porting Undercroft to Androin would not be worth it.

Some people assume I am bashing when I say this stuff ... but unless your app works in ad-based or 'freemium' mode there just isn't a good paying customer base.
 
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Make sure you also find and tame an Ocelot, Sammy, because 1) you're a cat person and 2) they keep Creepers away ^^.

yayaya! ='.'=

i wasnt aware of the ocelots at all at until I saw one and it kinda freaked me out a little. I was on the hunt to tame a wolf, and was heading back w/ 2 wolves when i saw something yellowish in the brush. I thought it was a lynx or something, was pretty cool. I have to catch some fish apparently, gonna definitely catch one for sure!

The wolves are okay, i mean - they can be helpful in exploration up top. I took a wolf down tunnel-crawling with me and they actually hindered me for the most part. They really have to be managed properly in that environment, can even get you killed w/ their nudging, blocking paths and stuff.

I do have to get an ocelot!
 
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Then make sure you carry many fish … these guys are gluttons. My first ocelot ate 6 (or so) fish before it decided to trust me.

Hmmm, but I never use dogs or cats for other than decorative reasons. They look great in the bedroom and on the porch (I'm mainly building, breeding and farming in Minecraft). Except breeding - the little ones are so cute. I like to adventure alone, and I'd never get over a cat or dog falling into a lava pit.
 
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Getting bored with Prince of Qin, I decided that it is time for me to play another classic instead. Namely Might & magic 3. The thread about M&M 7 might have influenced that decision a little ;)
 
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I made a world here at work too, been playing it at lunch. Getting good at finding and taming wolves, the bad thing is that creepers take them out in one blast. Otherwise, theyre good for battling skeletons and zombies, they run right up and attack them once you attack them or they attack you.

Creepers tho, sheesh. Keep taking out my wolves. thinking from now on when I see a creeper coming, I'll just tell the wolf to sit off to the side til the potentially explosive fight is over.

I'm breeding everything else, might as well make a wolf kennel too
 
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Now I'm plaing with Gothic (1), reeeeeally old and full of bugs but is the end of the world for me, awesome! Who played it? Sometimes the game "go to Krash" and i have to restart the PC, but I'm enjoing it a lot! (sorry for my english, is not my language)
 
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Now I'm plaing with Gothic (1), reeeeeally old and full of bugs but is the end of the world for me, awesome! Who played it? Sometimes the game "go to Krash" and i have to restart the PC, but I'm enjoing it a lot! (sorry for my english, is not my language)

Funny... I booted up Gothic earlier today and played for a few minutes just to hear the music.

What kind of video card and OS are you using? Gothic actually has very few bugs that I'm aware of.
 
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There is a fan patch for Gothic 1 that should solve some bugs. It is not nearly as mandatory (or big) as the one for Gothic.
http://www.worldofgothic.com/dl/?go=dlfile&fileid=157



I don't at all mind the graphics or gameplay in Might & Magic 3, but I do mind the sound. PC sound from that era was really hit or miss, and this I fear is a miss.
 
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Funny… I booted up Gothic earlier today and played for a few minutes just to hear the music.

What kind of video card and OS are you using? Gothic actually has very few bugs that I'm aware of.

Gothic had a few serious bugs which weren't fixed.
 
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I'm still playing King's Bounty Armored Princess Gold from time to time.
Yesterday it was such a day again. "Just one more battle …"
 
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Gothic had a few serious bugs which weren't fixed.

Only serious bug that I can recall hearing about was the winch in the Old Mine getting jammed. The only one I ever encountered personally was Gorn attacking me at the Free Mine.

Of course Gothic was already at version 1.08k by the time it hit stores over here, so we missed out on a lot of the nasty stuff.
 
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I recently started Arx Fatalis. I've started it several times in the past, but each and every time I quickly gave up on it, the game just did not appeal to me. But now I forced myself through this early part, and the game is really starting to grow on me. Much like with Jagged Alliance 2, I really should not have judged the game so soon, first impression is not everything.
 
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I recently started Arx Fatalis. I've started it several times in the past, but each and every time I quickly gave up on it, the game just did not appeal to me. But now I forced myself through this early part, and the game is really starting to grow on me. Much like with Jagged Alliance 2, I really should not have judged the game so soon, first impression is not everything.

Sounds like i should give JA2 another chance maybe, its one of those games i've started up a few times throughout the years, but i don't think i've ever finished even the first mission because it really didn't grab me at all.

Arx Fatalis is really good, reminded me of Ultima Underworld so i never had any trouble getting into it..
 
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It seems that I'm giving up on Thief. It just feels like the game tries to make sneaking around as tricky as possible while providing me perfectly viable alternatives. Even knocking people out with the blackjack feels inappropriate, it's not technicaly killing them but the end result is the same.

I suppose I might not be playing it the way it was intended to be played: trying to get through a mission without reloading and defending myself with my sword whenever sneaking fails. But I just can't convince myself to play like that, stealth gameplay means to me that pure stealth should be the single most viable approach and if I fail at being stealthy then it's game over and I have to try again instead of switching to combat gameplay. It's not that I don't feel like a thief, it's just that I feel like some n00b instead of the super thief Garrett is supposed to be.

I understand I'm probably repeating complains that people had back then too, and that many issues were dealt with on the sequel, but not enjoying this one enough doesn't make me want to try the sequel.


Maybe I will return to it (that's the plan anyway) but in the meantime I decided to take a break and give Bioshock a try. If anything to finally learn all that Bioshock lingo with the little sisters and the big daddies and the adams and the plasmids that everyone keeps repeating when talking about this game so I can stop feeling left out when I don't understand any of it :-/. I expected that one to be a relatively simple shooter with light RPG elements, and I suppose that's what it is, but I'm surprised at how much I like it. And it's not merely a matter of dumb fun, it gets its point across without more hustle than necessary, the atmosphere is top notch, the gameplay is surprisingly enjoyable (considering that I rarely enjoy FPSs) and its world is so well designed and exciting that I keep looking forward to finding out what's around the next corner.

Yeah, there you go, I don't like Thief and I really like Bioshock. Maybe it's time to hand over the 'hardcore gamer' card. It's actually making me think about challenge in games, how much should there be and where it should spring from. Say what you want about the contemporary dumbed down games, they may carry every gaming flaw there is but one thing is for certain: they don't try their best to punish you for playing them.
 
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.

I understand I'm probably repeating complains that people had back then too, and that many issues were dealt with on the sequel, but not enjoying this one enough doesn't make me want to try the sequel.

So the sequels make the necessary changes that you desire...and you won't play them because of issues in the first game - issues that were addressed? That line of thinking really doesn't make much sense ;). Reading your largest complaint - that the player can get by through the usage of combat instead of pure stealth, where the player is "punished" if they are detected by making combat really risky - I strongly recommend the sequels. I haven't played Thief 2 in ages, but I played Deadly Shadows within the past few years and unless I was doing something wrong after being detected, direct combat was not a good idea. It seems to have been designed in a manner where if the player is engaging more than 1 opponent at a time, they will lose - and even single combat is very risky.
 
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So the sequels make the necessary changes that you desire…and you won't play them because of issues in the first game - issues that were addressed? That line of thinking really doesn't make much sense ;).
Why not? I'm assuming that the whole point of making a sequel is to make a game with more similarities than differences to a previous one. I might like a sequel more but not enjoying one game in a series is a fair indication that I won't like the others either. So why should I insist trying when there are so many games to play?


Reading your largest complaint - that the player can get by through the usage of combat instead of pure stealth, where the player is "punished" if they are detected by making combat really risky
Our biggest difference here is that I don't anymore think that gamers should be punished in whatever way. If you fail at being stealthy you should either be allowed to try again (preferably in a way that would not spoil the atmosphere like saving, reloading and acting with previous knowledge does) or, ideally, there should be a stealthy way to correct your mistake. Switching from good stealth gameplay to bad combat gameplay is not something that I find appealing anymore.

Please keep in mind that I have no intention to bash the game. I can see the good design and I understand why it's considered a classic. I know it took a fresh approach and that inevitably results in rough edges and I understand it focused on a unique type of gameplay that is likely to have improved a lot by other games since. I'm just registering some thoughts about the game as I see it on its own more than 14 years later and, inspired by it, some thoughts about games in general.
 
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