What are you Playing Now? - What doesn't kill you, gives you XP

[Gorth]

On 10/10/2023 at 3:03 PM, BruceVC said:

The globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " doesn't asses games on there  age or the reality of  older mechanics

I just havent played many of the older games that you probably have played 

 

By no means a comprehensive list, but a few favourites that actual had youtube vids (Between them, the two platforms probably boast tens of thousands of titles). I could create a personal top 100 and struggle trying to decide what to leave out

But just some games that were memorable for me because of what they offered for their time... (all of them before PC was a viable gaming platform)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gorth]

@BruceVC just a tl;dr; about each game on my little list..

First game was fast, furious and beat the crap out of anything you play at the arcade (without having to insert coin after coin after coin...)

It was made by a guy named Jeff Minter and his one man company Llamasoft. Specializing in surreal and psychedelic stuff with Llama, Sheep and UFO's

Second game was made by a guy named Mike Singleton. A bloody genious who created this game. Open world strategy game/role playing game hybrid with procedurally generated graphics and many ways to win (and lose the game). And this was in 1984.

Third game was made by Ian Bell and David Braben. Elite is the grandfather of all space sims. Get new space ships, fight off pirates, do mercenary work and deal in goods (sometimes as a smuggler, but then you had to fight the space cops too). Always remembered those dread moments when your hyperdrive malfunctioned and you were stranded in empty space surrounded by Thargoids

Fourth game was made by Richard Garriott AKA "Lord British". I played Ultima III too, but nothing came even close the feeling of being immersed in a working world with internally consistent laws and physics like Ultima IV. Again, this was 1985, not a lot of giant shoulders to stand on.

Sensible Soccer was particularly awesome in multiplayer mode. The cursing, swearing, threats to players health's (and death wishes on the referees). it was fast, fun and the players had noticeable different stats and personalities (passing, tackling, shooting etc.).

Sixth game was a product of it's time. Who doesn't like a nice game of total nuclear war. A pun on the times, the politicians and the movie War Games (the only way to win is not to play). The different predefined leaders had different personalities. Ghandi would never attack you, but relied entirely on propaganda, stealing your population etc.

Last game was the best Battlemech game I've ever played. It was originally going to be a commercial, licensed product developed by a guy named Ralph Reed (iirc). But things turned sour between him and FASA who held the license at the time, so it became a shareware/freeware product. The video doesn't really do it justice as you could have anything from single mech vs. single mech to large squadrons fighting each other. Destructible landscape, environment factors etc. (like forest fires heating up your mech to water cooling them down).

 

[Zoraptor]

1 hour ago, Gorth said:

Always remembered those dread moments when your hyperdrive malfunctioned and you were stranded in empty space surrounded by Thargoids

That's what [tab] was for.

[BruceVC]

4 hours ago, Gorth said:

@BruceVC just a tl;dr; about each game on my little list..

First game was fast, furious and beat the crap out of anything you play at the arcade (without having to insert coin after coin after coin...)

It was made by a guy named Jeff Minter and his one man company Llamasoft. Specializing in surreal and psychedelic stuff with Llama, Sheep and UFO's

Second game was made by a guy named Mike Singleton. A bloody genious who created this game. Open world strategy game/role playing game hybrid with procedurally generated graphics and many ways to win (and lose the game). And this was in 1984.

Third game was made by Ian Bell and David Braben. Elite is the grandfather of all space sims. Get new space ships, fight off pirates, do mercenary work and deal in goods (sometimes as a smuggler, but then you had to fight the space cops too). Always remembered those dread moments when your hyperdrive malfunctioned and you were stranded in empty space surrounded by Thargoids

Fourth game was made by Richard Garriott AKA "Lord British". I played Ultima III too, but nothing came even close the feeling of being immersed in a working world with internally consistent laws and physics like Ultima IV. Again, this was 1985, not a lot of giant shoulders to stand on.

Sensible Soccer was particularly awesome in multiplayer mode. The cursing, swearing, threats to players health's (and death wishes on the referees). it was fast, fun and the players had noticeable different stats and personalities (passing, tackling, shooting etc.).

Sixth game was a product of it's time. Who doesn't like a nice game of total nuclear war. A pun on the times, the politicians and the movie War Games (the only way to win is not to play). The different predefined leaders had different personalities. Ghandi would never attack you, but relied entirely on propaganda, stealing your population etc.

Last game was the best Battlemech game I've ever played. It was originally going to be a commercial, licensed product developed by a guy named Ralph Reed (iirc). But things turned sour between him and FASA who held the license at the time, so it became a shareware/freeware product. The video doesn't really do it justice as you could have anything from single mech vs. single mech to large squadrons fighting each other. Destructible landscape, environment factors etc. (like forest fires heating up your mech to water cooling them down).

 

Would you play any of these older games now? The reason I ask is on Codex there are people who have played similar older games and they still do 

Because I have realized that a good game doesnt mean you have to have the  latest graphics and its more about the interaction and personal experience?

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Would you play any of these older games now? The reason I ask is on Codex there are people who have played similar older games and they still do 

Because I have realized that a good game doesnt mean you have to have the  latest graphics and its more about the interaction and personal experience?

Not only would, but several of them I do on a regular basis. Emulator ftw!

 

edit: emulators of choice are VICE for the c64 games and WinUAE for the Amiga games

[Malcador]

Fired up Warhammer 40k Inquisitor Martyr.  It's...ok so far, have to say the combat feels a bit flat, especially how the mobs die.  Glad I got it 90% off

[melkathi]

I read that the feeling persists throughout the game.

[BruceVC]

23 hours ago, Gorth said:

Not only would, but several of them I do on a regular basis. Emulator ftw!

 

edit: emulators of choice are VICE for the c64 games and WinUAE for the Amiga games

I have mentioned this before but I have an unusual gaming history considering my age, Im 49,  and what I have played and what games I havent played 

Because of Apartheid sanctions and lack of gaming investment in SA the first games I played where from 1989-1994 but they only Sierra games like Kings Quest, Space Quest and Heroes Quest. Then I stopped gaming from 1996-2007 so I didnt play any games released from that time 

But from 2007 I invested in my first gaming PC and played Gothic 3 and Morrowind. So I subsequently played many games since then but mostly modern games. But the last 2-3 years I have started playing more CRPG and older games and I have come to appreciate them and there mechanics. I love older games and modern games for different reasons 

But I still am absolutely committed to play games like Wizardry, M&M, Ultima  and the Gold Box D&D games. They all on my list 

[BruceVC]

Im about 40 hours into Dying Light 2 and Im loving it, its improved on all the mechanics of DY1 and has provided exactly what I was looking for which is a easy to understand " zombie killing game " with simple and appreciated respawning features when you die so you dont get frustrated when you die 

I am running the game on  maximum graphic settings and I have enabled Ray Tracing so the game is very aesthetically pleasing, its beautiful

It has lots of fun activities and side quests and I am focusing on those until I get  bored and then I will focus on the main quests similar to games like Far Cry and Assassins Quest 

It has a fun and progressive crafting system  and I like how the economy works. And the level and skills  advancement makes sense  Also because its an East European game there is very  little wokeness so you see normal, attractive female NPCS which I always appreciate 

The only  real issue I have is a minor one and thats the jumping mechanics can be little frustrating in certain parts of the map. Some places it has  taken me 15-20 minutes just to climb a certain building or windmill. But Im getting better at that 

But excellent game if you looking for a quintessential Zombie "hack and slash "  

 

 

 

 

[Wormerine]

@BruceVC Have you tried Looking Glass Studios output? I retroplayed their immersive sim titles (Thief1&2, Systemshock2 [1st one still being on my to do list]. Deus Ex by some of the same developers). 

All phenomenal games, that hold up very well. My gaming doesn’t quite go as far back as @Gorth’s and while I have fond memories of Comodore64 from childhood, not much there that stuck with me throughout the years. Probably the oldest games I still return to are from DOS era: original Xcom (UFO: Enemy Unknown) modded using open-xcom, and original Sid Meier’s Pirates!.

Edited October 13, 2023 by Wormerine

[BruceVC]

34 minutes ago, Wormerine said:

@BruceVC Have you tried Looking Glass Studios output? I retroplayed their immersive sim titles (Thief1&2, Systemshock2 [1st one still being on my to do list]. Deus Ex by some of the same developers). 

All phenomenal games, that hold up very well. My gaming doesn’t quite go as far back as @Gorth’s and while I have fond memories of Comodore64 from childhood, not much there that stuck with me throughout the years. Probably the oldest games I still return to are from DOS era: original Xcom (UFO: Enemy Unknown) modded using open-xcom, and original Sid Meier’s Pirates!.

I have only played Deus Ex: Revolution  on your list. I am not really a stealth gamer so I dont think Thief would appeal to me but those others look good 

[Wormerine]

10 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I have only played Deus Ex: Revolution  on your list. I am not really a stealth gamer so I dont think Thief would appeal to me but those others look good 

While Eidos Montreal Deus Ex's reboot/prequels are quite decent, I meant the OG 2000 Deus Ex. You know you, but what stealth games did you try? Honestly, I think most stealth games aren't just done very well. I really like stealth, but there is a handful of games I would actually recommend (Thief1&2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Invisible Inc. Mark of the Ninja, Mimimi's output. Also hitmans but I don't think stealth as a game mechanic is their strong suit).

Edited October 13, 2023 by Wormerine

[Wormerine]

Finished Lies of P. It's alright. Really impressive considering how new the studio is. I quite enjoyed it at first, though it overstayed it's welcome for me.

Gameplay wise it felt like a mix of Dark Souls and Sekiro to me (I know Bloodborne is a commonly used reference, but I am still waiting for the PC port). Mostly Dark Souls, expept it relies heavily on perfect parries a lot - something I wasn't a fan of, as P felt quite sluggish to control, and enemies relied heavily on the annying long windup+immediate strike attacks, that are rather impossible to read, and require precise memorization. If there is another way one can play I didn't find it - at least as motivity builds (aka strength) bosses rarely have enough time for a safe strike. So it's been parry, parry, parry, until they stagger, and that try to squeeze heavy attack for a critical. As as far as I can tell that's a strategy for every difficult enemy in the game became rather boring. I ended up using Spectre's help (summonable NPC helper for most bosses) for couple of last bosses as I just couldn't be asked to repeat the dance. Spectre turn out stronger than I expected - both good at tanking, and dishing out damage, usually turning ball busting bosses into pushovers. Alas, I had to suffer through the last boss without an assistance.

[LadyCrimson]

Ok, I've put in about 200 hrs of No Man's Sky now, although I still have not finished the story line although I have progressed it farther.

The TLDR would be: The game as it currently is in 2023, is a fun sandbox, but gameplay value - especially if not on a sale - is going to mostly appeal to a certain type of player. Even if you are the type of player it would appeal to, over a lengthy interval it might start to feel a bit shallow vs. some other more concise/specialized sandboxy games.  Overall for sandbox genre I'd give NMS something like ... 6.5/10.  Maybe 7/10 at most.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the game quite a lot, and it's great for mindless chill, exploring, self-goals/long semi-mindless mental distraction. The level of freedom is great. But outside of freedom to explore/look at quintrillions of procedural generated planets, everything else - bases, pets, settlements/fleets, all of that, feel more at an afterthought level. Probably a consequence of trying to please those who wanted more than system/planet exploration, but still make everything in the game not required.

-------------------------------
Re: Questing
---The quest side of the game for me is maybe a 3/10 at best. The quests are extremely repetitive - not surprising or anything - and generally consist of perform scans on planet or check galaxy map for markers, go to a new system, land on a planet, find/click something, repeat endlessly, pattern. All the main and larger side quests I've done still feel like tutorials, with rewards mostly being access to new structure/crafting blueprints or maybe some tech mods and maybe making you build/use the new thing as part of the quest. So if you've already bought/upgraded a lot on your own, they are an especially pointless/annoying grind.
---being someone not hugely into strong narrative arc games, I'm often fairly tolerant of shallow quest systems as long as they're short/quick. My tolerance for the ones in NMS is really low. One or two of them, so far, have made me want to turn the game off for the session, in annoyance/boredom. They are more dull - and at times, RNG-irritating - than killing 30 rats in the basement. Just me tho.
---if one is the type who wants to finish the story, I would recommend brand new players to follow it almost exclusively. Save the sandbox or side lore hunting, if you like the game enough, for after. At least then they wouldn't feel as pointless as putting them off until later.
---there are a lot of nitpicky UI, controls, npc menu, inventory menu complaints I could make but eh.

Edited October 14, 2023 by LadyCrimson

[Hurlshort]

Yeah, the story in NMS was a big nothingburger for me.

[BruceVC]

7 hours ago, Wormerine said:

While Eidos Montreal Deus Ex's reboot/prequels are quite decent, I meant the OG 2000 Deus Ex. You know you, but what stealth games did you try? Honestly, I think most stealth games aren't just done very well. I really like stealth, but there is a handful of games I would actually recommend (Thief1&2, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Invisible Inc. Mark of the Ninja, Mimimi's output. Also hitmans but I don't think stealth as a game mechanic is their strong suit).

Its funny you mention " what Stealth games have I played " because I was talking more about how I generally avoid the stealth option in RPG, so I dont really have any proper Stealth dedicated  expose to say that with examples   

And I did play one of the older Hitman, 1 or2, and I finished it. But I think its because I generally dont use the stealth options in RPG unless I am forced to  or with  games like Far Cry and AC where it really makes sense to clear certain enemy camps 

[Mamoulian War]

I am moving forward, with Star Ocean 5 on Galaxy difficulty. I am in chapter 10, and I got again access to fast travel. Which makes the game much more fun again. I am trying to create some new items by synthesis, which I have never made before and slowly filling up the list of items, enemies and battle trophies to fulfill the prerequisites for some trophies. I am missing a lot, and I will definitelly need one more playthrough on Chaos difficulty, so I am not wasting to much time with the stuff As I said, I am again having much more fun with the game, and looking forward to finishing it. Mainly because I completely forgot most of the plot after 7 years

[Keyrock]

15 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Also hitmans but I don't think stealth as a game mechanic is their strong suit).

I would describe the stealth mechanics in Hitman games as serviceable. I treat Hitman games as puzzle games. I have to figure out how to do a silent assassin run and once I have that figured out, if I'm feeling froggy, I try for the ultimate, the suit only, silent assassin run. Some people enjoy having to improvise and fight their way out of a plan gone sideways. That's not my jam, but it's a completely valid way to enjoy Hitman games.

[Hawke64]

Shadow Tactics. Failed a mission by causing a time paradox. Overall, the variety of characters, locations, and ways to complete missions are good. Aiko's playstyle somehow reminded of Assassin's Creed 1, though Altair still carried weapons openly while using his monk disguise (walking slowly).

[Lexx]

Started playing some CoD Modern Warfare Remake. Damn did this game not age well. Graphics are fine, but the gameplay is so dull and boring. It's just one shooting corridor after another, and you have to progress asap or enemies will keep spawning. Crazy that this was the top of gaming back in the days. Also funny, if you don't aim down sights, your bullets will go all over the place, heh.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Lexx

[Wormerine]

16 hours ago, BruceVC said:

Its funny you mention " what Stealth games have I played " because I was talking more about how I generally avoid the stealth option in RPG, so I dont really have any proper Stealth dedicated  expose to say that with examples   

Than I would encourage you to give dedicated Stealth game a chance at some point. In games that wear multiple hats, stealth tends to be rather uninteresting. My suggestion would be (in that order) Thief2, Splnter Cell: Chaos Theory, Mark of the Ninja, Thief1 (though from all mentioned Thief1 is my fav, but it's a fanscinating mess mixing stealth missions with something closer to first person Tomb Raider).

[Wormerine]

4 hours ago, Lexx said:

Started playing some CoD Modern Warfare Remake. Damn did this game not age well. Graphics are fine, but the gameplay is so dull and boring. It's just one shooting corridor after another, and you have to progress asap or enemies will keep spawning.

It was the first and only CoD I played. Respawing enemies really killed it for me. I remember trying to be tactical in one of ther missions, and I kept killing enemies for 15 minutes, before I realised the game will spawn enemies infinitely until I move forward. Very much smoke and mirrors throughout.

I on the other hand jumped back into Titanfall2, as its multiplayer has been resurrected. Campaign is really solid for what it is. Multiplayer is so very good. And I usually don't like those type of games.

[Theonlygarby]

I'm giving BG3 another go.  Having trouble sticking with a main character class. 

 

I feel like you are kind of forced into having shadowheart around unless your MC can heal.  She's my second least favorite companion so far... behind only Gale, who might be the most annoying video game character since claptrap from borderlands.  Might just start over and leave him in that portal.

 

From playing the first 45 minutes like 8 times I notice a lot of the interactions make you think your class matters but you get the same [class] dialogue option in all the conversations so far... it just changes what class it says before the dialogue.

Edited October 14, 2023 by Theonlygarby

[Lexx]

Skipped MW1 remake and am now playing MW2 remake. So far feels slightly better than MW1, but pretty much has exactly the same flaws. Also now featuring unskippable cutscenes, lol.

Have to say that I find the airport mission quite tasteless nowadays. Think it would have been possible to make the same point with a little less marketing shock value. Also, russia invading america is so lol now. Just can't take this serious anymore.

[Wormerine]

23 minutes ago, Theonlygarby said:

From playing the first 45 minutes like 8 times I notice a lot of the interactions make you think your class matters but you get the same [class] dialogue option in all the conversations so far... it just changes what class it says before the dialogue.

There are some class unique instances, but for the most part at best it makes a generic skill check a bit easier than ususal. I didn't find the game made me "feel" like my character is of certain class in the way, lets say, Deadfire did.