What are you Playing Now? It's not how you play the game, it's how you place the blame

[Malcador]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

Which one? All of them? One particular? Some?

Well, there's only one Wing Commander.  I've beaten Wing Commander 2 and think am 50% on 3.

Definitely was spoiled by Freespace having competent AI wingmen

Edited December 23, 2022 by Malcador

[Mamoulian War]

For me the "gamebreaker" was the expansion for WC (Secret Missions 1 IIRC). There was one mission with loads of mines floating around, so I am stuck there since 2004

[majestic]

There are two expansions, Secret Missions 1 and 2. The first one is better, and arguably Wing Commander at its finest, although overall the second one is probably more polished. As much as games from the era can be considered polished nowadays.

9 hours ago, Malcador said:

Well, there's only one Wing Commander.  I've beaten Wing Commander 2 and think am 50% on 3.

Definitely was spoiled by Freespace having competent AI wingmen

Heh, okay. Not really used to people using the full names for the games. You're lucky if your wingmen don't crash into you or just die from their own stupidty in the first games.  

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

For me the "gamebreaker" was the expansion for WC (Secret Missions 1 IIRC). There was one mission with loads of mines floating around, so I am stuck there since 2004

When I played the first game, I did not have a joystick, so I just played with keyboard, which was really awkward. The trick with both asteroid and minefields is just to just hit the afterburner and rush through them. More often than not you get through without taking damage. Mine fields are less problematic because all of the ships can take a hit, and you're not getting hit more than once most of the time. Asteroids can just insta gib you, but it's still faster and less frustrating to just try to afterburn through than playing 'properly' - especially on a keyboard.  

[Malcador]

Not sure if DOSBOX related or not, but I have had asteroids just spawn from nowhere and smash me.  Game chugs in larger dogfights, playing with cycles isn't helping all that much.

And yes had Iceman crash into me, or just get killed so I have to solo hordes of Kilrathi.  Kurasawa 2 can go to hell, I am too old and slow for that noise

[majestic]

1 hour ago, Malcador said:

Kurasawa 2 can go to hell, I am too old and slow for that noise

From what I've heard, that mission is intentionally almost impossible to complete properly so players understand that there's a mission tree with different cut-scenes in Wing Commander. It is possible to complete, but it was intentionally hard, or at least so Chris Roberts claimed at some point. Just eject to get the medal for surviving. Well, and have Halcyon complain at your face that ejecting saves the pilot, but not the expensive fighter craft.

I think I've played the original Wing Commander two dozen times, of not more, and I never really saw all of the missions. There's 13 systems, but any given run has a maximum of eight, and a minimum of six. Failing Kurasawa 2 gives you one extra system to go to.

[Malcador]

Certainly seems that way, by the time you arrive the Ralari's mere 2-3 seconds away form getting shot.  Always find the force deployment in space games amusing, Ralari is essential, so Confed sends....2 guys to protect it.   At least X-Wing had the Rebels send 4 X-Wings or something

[Mamoulian War]

7 hours ago, majestic said:

There are two expansions, Secret Missions 1 and 2. The first one is better, and arguably Wing Commander at its finest, although overall the second one is probably more polished. As much as games from the era can be considered polished nowadays.

Heh, okay. Not really used to people using the full names for the games. You're lucky if your wingmen don't crash into you or just die from their own stupidty in the first games.  

When I played the first game, I did not have a joystick, so I just played with keyboard, which was really awkward. The trick with both asteroid and minefields is just to just hit the afterburner and rush through them. More often than not you get through without taking damage. Mine fields are less problematic because all of the ships can take a hit, and you're not getting hit more than once most of the time. Asteroids can just insta gib you, but it's still faster and less frustrating to just try to afterburn through than playing 'properly' - especially on a keyboard.  

The issue with that mission was, that there were Kilrathi ships in that minefield, which you needed to destroy, and I was not able to find a way, how to do that, before getting blown up myself I do not even remeber anymore, which mission exactly it was, but it was definitelly SM1 mission pack

[Malcador]

And that's that. 9 hours in total.  Hunter is the best wingman, only passed Venice 3 from him wrecking everything

 

Didn't get all the medals but eh, I'm old.

 

[majestic]

Oh, come on. No Medal of Valor?  

Due to the game's hilarious medal system it's possible to walk away with a Medal of Valor and 18 other medals while still ending up on the losing path of the campaign. The weird counting of the tally system makes it so that losing your wingmen in certain missions is actually required to get them. One on the winning path, two on the losing path work like that, but it's basically a design oversight as those missions were not meant to award medals as their required points total is impossible to reach unless very specific conditions are met that give more points than they should.

 

[marelooke]

Posting on one line as forum appears to just eat everything over a single paragraph. Completed my second Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough as street kid. Tried to get the achievement to buy all vehicles, which I did, but achievement didn't unlock Considering restarting my Witcher 3 playthrough, maybe I'll even complete it this time...

Edited December 24, 2022 by marelooke

[Malcador]

6 hours ago, majestic said:

Oh, come on. No Medal of Valor?  

Due to the game's hilarious medal system it's possible to walk away with a Medal of Valor and 18 other medals while still ending up on the losing path of the campaign. The weird counting of the tally system makes it so that losing your wingmen in certain missions is actually required to get them. One on the winning path, two on the losing path work like that, but it's basically a design oversight as those missions were not meant to award medals as their required points total is impossible to reach unless very specific conditions are met that give more points than they should.

 

I might try to kill everything in the last mission, apparently that gets you it.  Also I am sure I should have gotten more medals, Hunter stole my kills of 2 Fralthis and the station.  Should have ordered him home.

 

[Mamoulian War]

Started to play Menace Gauntlets in Final Fantasy XV post game. Three cleared already and finished airborne Regalia. Flying around is fun. Landing not so much, especially if your last save is more than 1 and half hours in the past

[Malcador]

Hm, WC1's engine does wonky things, thought I was in clear space then suddenly the Tiger's Claw is in my face and I die. SM1 is frustrating the hell out of me, good old 90's expansions

[majestic]

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Hm, WC1's engine does wonky things, thought I was in clear space then suddenly the Tiger's Claw is in my face and I die. SM1 is frustrating the hell out of me, good old 90's expansions

The joy of old games with no internal game loop speed limit. DOSBOX works, but not always perfectly.

I thought SM1 was fine, SM2 is really annoying and a lot less enjoyable overall, but that's perhaps biased. It took me a while to get Secret Missions 2, I only had the base game and Secret Missions 1 for the longest of times, and when I finally got my hands on SM2, I was disappointed.

SM1 manages to make you feel like you're on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines. For a game that old, the atmosphere is top notch.

[Malcador]

I think the issue I had was clocking DOSBOX up to deal with the lag, entering Max Payne like bullet time makes the dogfighting easier. With the GOG version I didn't transfer my Vega campaign pilot, so alas, Black Dog is still a 2nd LT.  Funny how I just breezed through a mission that was giving me hell, I guess wingmen DO need a target rather than told to do break and attack - I know Iceman tends to go for the Ralari instead of fighters in one.

Finished Midgard so about 50% of the way done.

Also took a break for EU4, soon Crimea will be Russian

Edited December 26, 2022 by Malcador

[the_dog_days]

Been playing Assassin's Creed: Viking Daddy. Fun but not as good as Odyssey.

[Bokishi]

I liked Odyssey better as well

[Hurlshort]

I've been playing an MMO called Zwift. Bit of a weird game, I joined a group and finished the session drenched in sweat. I reached level 4 and unlocked a helmet though, so that was nice.

I am using the Zwift Hub Trainer in my garage. Perfect for a rainy day.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Hurlshort

[Malcador]

Got Chaos Gate Daemonhunters for Christmas. Strange that some rando cultist with a stubber is that dangerous to a Grey Knight.  Janky cutscenes and voice acting, but that was to be expected.

 

[Ferdinan]

I played the 3 purely raytraced games, which are Minecraft, Quake 2, and Portal. 

[Hawke64]

Death's Door. Completed the game. It was a very nice action game with metroidvania elements. The boss battles consisted of several stages, each was challenging and unique. The locations were reasonably complex yet with enough landmarks to have a general idea of where to go. Except the starting area, the Lost Cemetery, which was a labyrinth with all shortcuts unlocked. The upgrades, bonuses, and collectibles were mostly possible to find without a guide* and they provided a decent advantage. Dying was quite forgivable - the experience, loot, and the shortcuts unlocked were saved, the MC was revived at the nearest Door, though, the hostiles were revived as well, but it was possible to run past. The arena battles -kill all to proceed- were reasonably challenging. The attention to details and the post-game content* were quite impressive. The controls were comfortable and rebindable, the mouse was supported well. In general, Death's Door was doing almost everything right.
*Not sure if I would be able to gather the post-game McGuffins without the guide, despite there being several indicators whether an area had been cleared. The lack of map at that point also was unpleasant.

Edited December 29, 2022 by Hawke64
The quotation marks cause an error when posting.

[Malcador]

Had to restart Chaos Gate, screwed up my campaign from one screwup in a battle, funnily enough. The way the enemies are set up, you can aggro too many packs if you wander near but enemy ranged NPCs will wander near them - melee is the most ideal way to kill things so I've been pulling too much. 

Still amused that rando guardsmen cultists with autoguns are more annoying than lesser daemons.  Well also and how they can survive a hit with a thunder hammer

Finally got EU4 sorted (should just cheat...). Going for Russia but with Trade->Religious->Quality as the first three ideas.

[majestic]

Played a game I bought years back: Project Warlock.

Not much to say, it's a shooter made in Unity, designed to look and play like the games of yore. Doom, Blood, Duke3D. This is also reflected in some of the achievements that unlock when you find characters from other games. Blood, Shadow Warrior, Serious Sam, Doom, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D. The game time is probably a lot lower unless you're like me and obsessively look for secrets and other out of the way things in the levels, often checking, re-checking and re-re-checking the entire map to make sure I did not miss anything.

Hardcore difficulty gives you a game over after you die once as well as doubles enemy damage and speed. That sounds worse than it is, outside of a few situatoins in the game where prior knowledge of the maps is essential, but the game assumes one played it at least once before attempting hardcore mode. The biggest issue with hardcore mode is one of the things that makes the game more interesting than other shooters, it has a stat and perk system. Finding secrets, treasures and killing enemies awards experience. Each level up gives one stat point, every five level up the character gains a perk.

There are four stats, strength, life, spirit and capacity. Strength increases melee damage, life increases, well, you get a single guess, spirit increases mana and capacity increases the amount of ammo one can carry. Naturally, when you only have one life and enemies do double damage, the most important part is increasing your hit points. The biggest issue is that there is a degree of randomness involved. Some perks can only be unlocked with certain stat requirements, and the most important of all is one to take as the very first one: Student. Student gives you a random stat in addition to the one you can spend when you get a level up. The earliest you can pick that perk up is level 8, but most likely it will be level 9 because one can only spend points in your workshop between levels.

Student will never increase capacity. In an ideal world, it would raise your spirit stat to 7 (for the Soul Collector perk) and then put everything in life, giving you a nice amount of hitpoints that would allow you to eventually increase your capacity to at least five without compromising survivability, but even if you're really lucky and can raise capacity to 10, you need a strategy to deal with the final boss.

Anyway, the other random component are enemy drops. They can drop ammo, health and mana ups or treasure. The more treasure they drop, the more levels you can get. The game is winnable even if you end up with something like 11 strength, but an extra 100 hit points? Much more useful than melee damage.

The other stuff you need to be aware of comes from figuring out your optimal approach to weapon upgrades and spell usage. There's a spell that places a stationary lightning shooting ball of energy at the player's location that can shoot and target through walls. It has a really high rate of fire and deletes most enemies in a single blast. It makes getting through ambushes much easier, because you can just drop it and run for cover. It can also delete ambushes before they even happen. The speed at which it clears entire rooms of enemies is similar to the amount of mayhem Project Warlock's verison of the BGF wreaks, and since you need 7 spirit for one of the perks anyway, there's plenty of mana to cast it.

Fire damage often makes enemies skip their damage stages and kills them outright. So, do you take the double barreled shotgun upgrade that doubles the damage, or the one that turns its shots into red hot pieces of shrapnel that can set entire rooms on fire? Well, perhaps a little unintuitively, the shrapnel variety saves you a lot of grief later on in regular levels, but the damage upgrade makes boss fights easier. Take your pick.

I liked it well enough, but it is probably too long for its own good. The gameplay wears thin sometime around the third of the five episodes. Sure, every level has unique enemies, but even there one eventually notices repeats in approach and design. Project Warlock was made by a very small team, so that is easily excusable. The boss battles at the end of each episode are woefully unbalanced even on normal difficulty. The first one is ridiculously hard without being mechanically insteresting and the point where most hardcore runs go to die, the others are not very interesting and, depending on your skill, actually pushovers and the final boss is one you need a separate strategy for on hardcore because it is a bullet sponge that depletes your ammo reserves at capacity 10 even with the spell that summons ammo and all the pickups on the map.

Still, it is a solid game, it is fun to play for a while, and it's currently on sale for under three bucks.

Edited December 30, 2022 by majestic

[Bartimaeus]

2 minutes ago, majestic said:

Naturally, when you only have one life and enemies do double damage, the most important part is increasing your hit points.

Nah, glass cannon always and forever in every game. If everything you attack immediately dies, there's less opportunity for you to get hit in the first place and also you mow through the game much faster to boot, . Many years ago, I intended to play through the Dooms, but at this point, I'd be lucky if I ever make it through just the original.

Signalis (2022). Genre-wise, it's basically the same as one of my favorite games Yuppie Psycho (2D isometric atmospheric horror exploration), but you play as a Soviet Russian lady android technician that crash landed on a colonized frozen planet where some kind of virus has apparently driven most of the other androids to a zombie-like state, and you need to find your counterpart that you arrived with, your human pilot. I've played a few hours of it and have quite enjoyed it and its many little details, but I don't have a good grasp for where the story is going yet.

[Malcador]

Well EU4 game took an interesting turn, beat up Poland so no PLC soon. Problem is everyone started to beat up Poland, so Ottomans made gains and so did Bohemia.

Shame I didn't grab Kiev though, the money would have been nice.