Ah, yeah, I hate it when that happens. I disliked it enough when Mr Vogel did that for the Avadon games, but in this case it sounds like it was especially prickish.
Last game you finished, tell us about it
- Thread starter JemyM
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Carnifex
SasqWatch
Just thinking about Varnhold again is enough to have me gnashing my teeth!! I don't even understand what on earth they were thinking with some of those decisions. And another part of the tale that will likely make me rethink several times before ever attempting to replay the game.
You can play without that DLC. That's what I did.
The game is long enough without it anyway.
Thanks for the review @lackblogger;!
After reading this, I'm glad I played without the DLC.
After reading this, I'm glad I played without the DLC.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Ahh yes, very true, Pladio. In that case I'll likely replay it at some point, minus the kingdom shenanigans and Varnhold.
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Just finished 12 Minutes.
A very ambitious game with the mechanics it uses to tell a story. The game also has some false endings, with a true one that sheds a lot more light into everything that has happened. So it's kind of mandatory to play for the true ending. I had to use a guide for that one, since it's fairly hidden. Not impossible, but I missed a certain small clue, and without that you can't unlock it.
While ambitious and while it overall succeeds at what it's trying to do, it also has plenty of awkward moments where it stumbles. I've encountered quite a few bugs. One that even forced me to restart a time-loop. And while in each time-loop it's pretty impressive how many combinations of things the game tries to account for, it still failed a couple of times to account for, what I thought were pretty common sense actions. It wanted me to do things in a particular way, the way the event was scripted, even though it very much made sense for it to slightly deviate. So again, I lost some time-loops to that.
I also got stuck quite a few times, and ended up trying the most outlandish things to progress the plot. When in fact I was no-where near what the game wanted me to do. You'll find yourself, or at least I did, just randomly trying things and hoping for the best. This leads to my next complaint, the fact that you'll repeat actions loads and loads of times, sometimes failing one single step, and needing to restart. Good thing you can speed forward through the dialogue, but the actions themselves you can't. So that takes a certain toll. One particular bad encounter for me was when I had to retry an even about 5-6 times, while trying variations. And for all retries I was waiting for the internal clock of the game to hit a certain moment, I needed to just wait around for seconds while doing nothing. So that god a bit old.
But in a certain way, that very much simulates the experience one would have in an endless time-loop. You'd quickly lose patience with having to do the same things over and over. Hoping this time you escape the loop. And failing again and again. Movies like Groundhog Day really skipped across that hope experience, for the viewer's sake at least. But the game forces you through all of that. To feel what it would probably feel like. So, it could also be considered a plus to the experience.
But overall, even with the missteps it took, I still applaud the game. It's very unique in what it manages to pull off. A real challenge to understand what's happening. But worth it in the end, I found. One thing which was a bit weird was the A celebrity casting. I personally did not find they added anything significant. Even more, they actually dragged my experience since I kept hearing Willem Dafoe and not the character. He's got too much of a particular voice.
A very ambitious game with the mechanics it uses to tell a story. The game also has some false endings, with a true one that sheds a lot more light into everything that has happened. So it's kind of mandatory to play for the true ending. I had to use a guide for that one, since it's fairly hidden. Not impossible, but I missed a certain small clue, and without that you can't unlock it.
While ambitious and while it overall succeeds at what it's trying to do, it also has plenty of awkward moments where it stumbles. I've encountered quite a few bugs. One that even forced me to restart a time-loop. And while in each time-loop it's pretty impressive how many combinations of things the game tries to account for, it still failed a couple of times to account for, what I thought were pretty common sense actions. It wanted me to do things in a particular way, the way the event was scripted, even though it very much made sense for it to slightly deviate. So again, I lost some time-loops to that.
I also got stuck quite a few times, and ended up trying the most outlandish things to progress the plot. When in fact I was no-where near what the game wanted me to do. You'll find yourself, or at least I did, just randomly trying things and hoping for the best. This leads to my next complaint, the fact that you'll repeat actions loads and loads of times, sometimes failing one single step, and needing to restart. Good thing you can speed forward through the dialogue, but the actions themselves you can't. So that takes a certain toll. One particular bad encounter for me was when I had to retry an even about 5-6 times, while trying variations. And for all retries I was waiting for the internal clock of the game to hit a certain moment, I needed to just wait around for seconds while doing nothing. So that god a bit old.
But in a certain way, that very much simulates the experience one would have in an endless time-loop. You'd quickly lose patience with having to do the same things over and over. Hoping this time you escape the loop. And failing again and again. Movies like Groundhog Day really skipped across that hope experience, for the viewer's sake at least. But the game forces you through all of that. To feel what it would probably feel like. So, it could also be considered a plus to the experience.
But overall, even with the missteps it took, I still applaud the game. It's very unique in what it manages to pull off. A real challenge to understand what's happening. But worth it in the end, I found. One thing which was a bit weird was the A celebrity casting. I personally did not find they added anything significant. Even more, they actually dragged my experience since I kept hearing Willem Dafoe and not the character. He's got too much of a particular voice.
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Kostas
Dormant Watcher
Skyrim, for the fist time ever, just before the 10 years too late mark. Had to get a portable device (Nintendo switch) to actually play it through.
What can I say that hasn't been said? Nothing really so I'll keep it very short and very subjective.
Too much content, eventually stopped at around 190hrs, the charm of the world lasted around 25hrs, the gameplay mechanics (enhanced through Enairim mods) remained fun for around 60. Some of the larger quests hit nice highs (the final battle of the main quest and the one from the dragonborn add-on) but by and large so much of this endless content was quite pedestrian, not judging by 2021 standards but rather 2013ish, and the flatness was even in comparison with other open world sandboxes.
These 190hrs were spread across a year so it's not like I crammed it either. Guess the main thing to keep in mind is that even though a sandbox can be enjoyed as a CRPG, it's nature will eventually dampen the experience.
What can I say that hasn't been said? Nothing really so I'll keep it very short and very subjective.
Too much content, eventually stopped at around 190hrs, the charm of the world lasted around 25hrs, the gameplay mechanics (enhanced through Enairim mods) remained fun for around 60. Some of the larger quests hit nice highs (the final battle of the main quest and the one from the dragonborn add-on) but by and large so much of this endless content was quite pedestrian, not judging by 2021 standards but rather 2013ish, and the flatness was even in comparison with other open world sandboxes.
These 190hrs were spread across a year so it's not like I crammed it either. Guess the main thing to keep in mind is that even though a sandbox can be enjoyed as a CRPG, it's nature will eventually dampen the experience.
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Finished the main campaign of Quake. This was an id game I pretty much never touched, for some reason. I was always more into the Doom games.
The gameplay/shooting was solid. The puzzles and level design nice. Very similar to Doom. But the enemies in Quake felt a lot more repetitive. I mean, to say they overused the Shambler would be an understatement. The finaly level was ridiculous, at how many shamblers you have to fight. The final level was also the final level I was going to play, since I was pretty much on my last percentage of health, had no more ammo. And barely scraped by to kill the last enemies. I cheesed the Shamblers a lot. And killed the final one with my axe. After loads of reloads.
But Shab-Nigurath, or however you spell it, was kinda weird. I had no ammo left, only the axe. I spent some time hacking away at it, but didn't see any progress. Then I jumped through the portals a little bit, hoping to get some ammo. And all of a sudden the creature died, by itself from what I could tell. And I got the ending screen. Weird. Anyway, it was starting to outstay its welcome. It was fun, but I was about done towards the end.
Still not as good as Doom, imo. Also, way more generic in both setting and weaponry. Also, I didn't find any of the weapons iconic. Nothing like the Doom shotgun and chainsaw.
The gameplay/shooting was solid. The puzzles and level design nice. Very similar to Doom. But the enemies in Quake felt a lot more repetitive. I mean, to say they overused the Shambler would be an understatement. The finaly level was ridiculous, at how many shamblers you have to fight. The final level was also the final level I was going to play, since I was pretty much on my last percentage of health, had no more ammo. And barely scraped by to kill the last enemies. I cheesed the Shamblers a lot. And killed the final one with my axe. After loads of reloads.
But Shab-Nigurath, or however you spell it, was kinda weird. I had no ammo left, only the axe. I spent some time hacking away at it, but didn't see any progress. Then I jumped through the portals a little bit, hoping to get some ammo. And all of a sudden the creature died, by itself from what I could tell. And I got the ending screen. Weird. Anyway, it was starting to outstay its welcome. It was fun, but I was about done towards the end.
Still not as good as Doom, imo. Also, way more generic in both setting and weaponry. Also, I didn't find any of the weapons iconic. Nothing like the Doom shotgun and chainsaw.
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txa1265
SasqWatch
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Most of the way through the new remastered version for the Switch, and really forgot how non-modern of a game it was … the Switch version looks really good, and in general it has been kept looking decent through the years (loaded up on my PC to check), and the core shooting transition to WASD keyboard & mouse was quite good, but the actual gameplay is really just … DOOM. And as you note, a less inventive version.
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Interesting that you say it felt non-modern. I actually felt it very similar to the current run and gun games, like the DOOM reboot. A lot less flourishings and less impresive graphically, but the speed and fast gameplay/shooting was fantastically modern. It pretty much as good, or even better than a lot of other modern shooters.
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This is intentional:
You can't kill it by normal means, but instead you have to teleport such that you appear inside of it and it explodes.
Edit: I also found Doom much more impressive. But probably that is because Doom was really the first game of this type...
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Oh, interesting. I never understood why the teleports would sometimes randomly teleport me. Do you control that? Does it have anything to do with the circling spiked bad that hovers around the beast?
Edit: yeah, just read a guide. Apparently you teleport where the spiked sphere is located. So you have to telefrag it. Is this hinted somewhere? Or how do you normally know to do this?
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That part (in the spoiler) was a nice puzzle
I have the impression that the Quake games were more of a technological showcase, Quake 3 didn't even bother with a story IIRC. But each Quake version was really on top of the technology graphically speaking. Doom/Wolfenstein games were more convincing in SP experience.
At least in the first iterations, the last game I played was Wolfenstein RPG so I don't know about later.
Since the first time I played it was at original release time, it is hard to remember, how I found out, but I did somehow.
As far as I remember the teleport destination moves around and you can observe that it moves through the boss during its course. So you can conclude that you try to teleport when this happens.
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That was exactly my impression when I played Quake at release.
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Right
And if I remember correctly,there was a lava pool around the final boss, and if you didn't time your action correctly, or just went through the teleport the first time without knowing, you were dropped in it. So cruel.
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Right
there was a lava pool around the final boss, and if you didn't time your action correctly, or just went through the teleport the first time without knowing, you were dropped in it. So cruel.
That was especially confusing since sometimes the teleport drops you near the other hidden teleport, with the quad damage boost in front. Until you realise that the orb also moves through there.
But seriously, that was a real bait and switch to how teleporters worked until the very end. I guess, that's the only thing that made it different. But personally, I kind of liked that instead of just a boss fight. In almost all games I kind of dread the boss fights. Especially if they're unfair. Since you usually reach them at the end of "corridor" of death, and after getting through that, surprise! There's one more!
But seriously, that was a real bait and switch to how teleporters worked until the very end. I guess, that's the only thing that made it different. But personally, I kind of liked that instead of just a boss fight. In almost all games I kind of dread the boss fights. Especially if they're unfair. Since you usually reach them at the end of "corridor" of death, and after getting through that, surprise! There's one more!
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I preferred it that way too, I never liked final boss fights very much either tbh.
Fragging other players was also very popular in DM. When I first played Quake, I didn't have any DM experience yet so it took me a while to understand that spawning inside the monster would kill him.
Fragging other players was also very popular in DM. When I first played Quake, I didn't have any DM experience yet so it took me a while to understand that spawning inside the monster would kill him.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Final Fantasy two. I'd never played this one, and it didn't disappoint. Initially, I was a little put off by the no leveling system, something that is quite different from other Final Fantasy games. However, I do like skill based systems, so I buckled up for the ride, and really enjoyed it.
I did find myself wasting time working on people that join your three person click, and I would advise others not to do that. These add-ons don't hang around for long, and all that effort you put into making them an equal part of your force is literally wasted time. I would suggest focusing on your three stalwart members, and just regulating the guests to the brief time they are fortunate enough to be in your stable.
Overall, the game isn't difficult at all, though that changes in later dungeons. You'll want at least one solid one and black mage, and make certain to have some protection spells well leveled. That final fight with the Emperor rocked me hard, it took about twenty minutes to put him to rest. Not sure what I'll play next, I'm feeling a real desire to revisit FF three at this point, after playing the first and second.
I did find myself wasting time working on people that join your three person click, and I would advise others not to do that. These add-ons don't hang around for long, and all that effort you put into making them an equal part of your force is literally wasted time. I would suggest focusing on your three stalwart members, and just regulating the guests to the brief time they are fortunate enough to be in your stable.
Overall, the game isn't difficult at all, though that changes in later dungeons. You'll want at least one solid one and black mage, and make certain to have some protection spells well leveled. That final fight with the Emperor rocked me hard, it took about twenty minutes to put him to rest. Not sure what I'll play next, I'm feeling a real desire to revisit FF three at this point, after playing the first and second.