What are you playing now

[IndiraLightfoot]

I'm enjoying my X-mas break a lot, and I'm wedging in some hours of game time here and there. I'm doing a mix of playing new games and rummaging through my backlog.

As I showed you earlier, I did play the D&D board game port Tomb of Annihilation. And for an iPad game, I coudl perhaps recommend as a time killer. I did finish it, but darn was it repetitive. And the story were nearly non-existent. How can WotC sit on such a fantastic brand and dragging through the mud like this. I would've made a huge effort making money off of it, given that most of us D&D fans are past the baby caring years, with better incomes and more time on our hands. I just don't get it why they just keep on failing: Daggerdale, Swordcoast Legends (decent, but so many miscommunications, and the CRPG system was pretty idiotic)) and now Tomb of Annihilation.

*End of my WotC rant*

 

I've also played a bit of Unexplored today, a rather new Roguelike that was very entertaining and promising. I'll get back to it and probably switch to a Xbox-controller, which the game supports.

 

And now, to that moment I always keep hoping for when I check out games in my backlog. You know the drill: "Oh, I about this game bundle years ago, perhaps I should try this very old game..."

 

When I bought DS3, I did it because it was an Obsidian game with George Ziets as a writer and all. I played it once, and thought that Dungeon Siege 2 was apretty decent game. Well, along with it, I got a package with DS1 and DS2. And like 6 years ago, I tried DS1, and I thought it was pretty meh. I only played with that first party of mine for like 5 lvls, tops. That meant that I presumed DS2 was pretty much the same.

But, wowzers, I was wrong, sooooo wrong!

 

I'm pretty much stunned. Dungeon Siege 2 is a fantastic game, right up my alley, and almost everything about it is great. I can't believe I haven't played this game until now, like 16 years later. It came out 2002!  How could I even miss it?

 

For those of you who don't know anything about the game, it's pretty much a mix of ARPG and CRPG. I'm pretty sure, I'd get away with describing as a CRPG.

And I can almost not write any cons about it. Everything is just pros, pros, pros:

Pros:

-Pretty great graphics (must have been stellar back then) - they match rather modern games like Path of Exile, it run circles around NWN1, and it's on par, I think, with NWN2.

-Very atmospheric music, and fitting to all the various themes and encounters. Brilliant sound effects.

-The dialogue: A lovely mix of seriousness and humour - more or less BG1-standards (I just don't know much of the lore, except for DS3)

-The story really works, and the characters and the plot and the early hub, everything's so very well done. Even their small tutorials, which are built into the game pretty seamlessly.

-The UI, the controls, the CRPG systems, all of these things are intuitive and easy to use.

-The development of your party and your characters, crafting, I mean, it's surprisingly addictive and deceptively simple. There is this wonderful sense of progress, and combat is fun, semi-bosses and bosses are just the right kind of difficult, and dying and respawning comes at a prize.

-Almost endless loot (It reminds me of Titan Quest, which I love)

 

All the great ARPGs and CRPGs 2003 and onwards have borrowed heavily from this gem of a game (settings, gameplay solutions, encounter design, the lot! It's a true forerunner in many ways.)

Had I got my hands on this back in 2002, I'd played it until my fingers bled and then some. Actually, I'm pretty sure it would be among my most played games by now, and a real candidate for my 25-best-games-of-all-time-list I sent Algroth. Yeah, it's that frigging good. How can there not be a Dungeon Siege 4?

 

Here are some images of my early progress in the game. I haven't used any build guides or anything. I just pick what I feel like, and try to survive. I rolled a Dryad for my main, and she is a clunky combat mage, with bits of melee and nature. Hehe, I did multiclass here when they explicitly told me early on that spezialisation's the best. I don't care, I have fun here, folks! That's all that matters, right?

 

Every game that start off early with my main character getting imprisoned is great in my book!

 

The same goes for platforms in canopies and zipline cabin lifts.

 

DS2 has made brilliant use of parallax effects, creating a sense of depth to almost every scene and area. Super-duper-nice!

 

Sure, you can tell the max setting is 1280x680 or whatever it is, but still, even the effects are decent.

 

Every little NPC you click on is worth it, and plot twists are pretty cool.

 

A little cave behind a waterfall, haunted and all. Dis I mention it has seemless entrances to underground areas, just like Titan Quest?

 

Looks like a smith who knows what she's doing, no? Hmm, looks can be deceiving.

 

You get to find chants all over the world, and then chant them at special ancient sites. Now I know where Skyrim got their stone system from!! 

 

And teleporters, Goldilock style, just the right amount of them.

 

Special doors only openable by certain skills at certain levels? Like in Dragon Age: Inquisition or LEGO: Star Wars/*Insert Major Brand*. Well, here's the original.

 

Those often loathed question marks above quest giver's heads? Yup, you guessed it.

 

I'm pretty sure this is the best CRPG jungle setting I've enjoyed so far. The outfits, leopard skin tents, you name it.

 

Would NWN2 or D3 ever have been made, had it not been for DS2 area design? I doubt it.

 

Nothing to see her folks! Just a ghost on a rope bridge, pondering a waterfall, and who speaks in a dialect nobody in my party can understand.

Once again, notice the neat depth/3D effects going on here. All the while, jungle noises are blaring in my ears playing it, and jungle drums are patting feverishly...

 

I just love it when you find the game of your dreams 16 years to late!

 

EDIT: Oh, the game's so old that you need to add a line to the .ini file under Documents just to get the mouse to work under updated Win 7/8/10. Just add: "full screen = false", IIRC.

Edited January 2, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[melkathi]

DS2 was a surprisingly good game. My only gripe with it was that when npcs would talk, the game wouldn't pause. I have no clue what the people in my party were saying to our enemy, usually I'd have to defend myself and the click would skip the text away

[Labadal]

I'm taking up my abandoned Battle Brothers save. Veteran difficulty. I read up on some things for my own sanity. Having fun, but sometimes, the RNG trolls me so bad.

 

I'm also playing a newly translated Chinese RPG. It's a mix of JRPG (combat and world) with some WRPG quest structure. I'm having a decent time with it, although, I prefer Tale of Wuxia more.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Labadal

[Epaminondas]

I've liked all the Dungeon Siege titles. 1 lent huge freedom to fine tune your character. Granted, if you weren't careful it would end up sucking, but if you leveled up properly, you could have interesting builds. Then 2 limited freedom, but gave specific paths and abilities to take. The story was more interesting to me in 2 than one, but who played them for the story anyway. ...And, let's face it, 1 didn't set a high bar. The story was most interesting in 3 and I think 3 is highly underrated, but it was so different in gameplay, style, and story, it might as well have been a different title. I still enjoyed the hell out of it.

 

Now at the Duke's palace. Almost done with my Emily run at this point.

[LadyCrimson]

Dungeon Siege 2 was a lot of fun I agree. Had a lot of improvements and is generally a better arpg overall than DS1, although I'm very fond of the 1st one as well. And loved that main theme (DS2 used a similar but slightly altered version I think?)

[Majek]

But DS 2 also has that crappy expansion and most of all Indira get your facts straight ... DS2 is from 2005!!!!!!!!!!

[IndiraLightfoot]

But DS 2 also has that crappy expansion and most of all Indira get your facts straight ... DS2 is from 2005!!!!!!!!!!

Heh, when I open the game, 2002-2005 copyright is glaring at me at the bottom of the main menu. I never bothered looking at a possible different release date, in this case 2005.

Well, it's surprisingly old and fabulous!

[Hawke64]

Completed Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. It is an excellent example of a Metroidvania game - platforming, combat and level design are challenging and engaging, story and humor are interesting, graphics and soundtrack are fitting, controls are customizable and responsive (though, I had to change "Dimension Swap" binding several times before settling for Space, so I was able to jump in a certain direction, while switching dimensions).
 
Also Bayonetta (skin) is available in Steam Workshop.

 

 

[Tale]

I finished Muv-Luv Alternative. Quite a ride through the series, even though it was horribly boring at parts. I'm dying for Altered Fable's eventual release so I can expand on that epilogue.

 

I've officially started Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth. The sequel to my second favorite game of 2017.

 

And I'm doing an AI only game in Stellaris on the side because why not. I'm rooting for the democratic geckos. They have the strongest fleet of the default empires, are the only outsiders to the Travesty of Teal (5 teal empires in the game, 4 of whom decided to create 2 federations. The older federation invited my geckos.) But they've just been wardecced by the materialist Awakened Empire. They don't have the fleet power to compete, but I've seen plenty of otherwise hopeless wars fail due to an attacker that refuses to get off his butt.

[Chilloutman]

Started to play Mechwarrior online again. Still having blast with it

[GhostofAnakin]

More FO4.  I can't figure out a way to:

a]amass 20+ settlers

b]get them 100% happiness

 

My biggest settlement (Sanctuary Hills) is currently at 17 residents and the highest happiness level I've reached is 85.  I've made sure there's enough food, water, and beds to accommodate all of them, enough defense to protect them, and even added stores that are supposed to add to happiness.  But I still can't max out.

[SonicMage117]

Completed Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. It is an excellent example of a Metroidvania game - platforming, combat and level design are challenging and engaging, story and humor are interesting, graphics and soundtrack are fitting, controls are customizable and responsive (though, I had to change "Dimension Swap" binding several times before settling for Space, so I was able to jump in a certain direction, while switching dimensions).

 

Also Bayonetta (skin) is available in Steam Workshop.

 

 

Good, good... Now go and try Hollow Knight and see how glorious it is

 

Gucamelee 2 is coming soon btw!

[melkathi]

I want to play games with choices. But whenever there is a choice, I can't decide on which choice to make.

 

Undead have overrun the area. Two armies are there. I can ally with one of them and annoy the other one. Both armies blame the other for not cooperating against the undead.

 

Who do I choose? The knightly order that got overrun by the undead in the first place or the mercenaries who see this as an opportunity to steal an ancient artifact?

[Epaminondas]

They're undead dude! Kill them both.

[melkathi]

They're undead dude! Kill them both.

 

No they are both fighting the undead. And the thingie I need is in the fortress overrun by the undead. But the two armies (that both want to clear the undead out of the fortress) refuse to work together, and I need one of the two to let me use their basecamp.

[Epaminondas]

Oh, yeah, I read this stuff on my phone while I'm waiting in line or whatnot and my comprehension isn't all that great. I also think it's great when you just want to plow through more bad guys and the good guys are getting in your way. Nothing is more realistic in computer games than people who are ostensibly on your side hindering your efforts and sometimes trying to get you to help with schemes against other people who are ostensibly on your side. It's like dinner at my in-laws all over again.

[melkathi]

The added stress is the wonder if by siding with one side you miss out on a recruitable character

[Flouride]

Mother Russia Bleeds:

 

Bought this since they promoted it as Streets of Rage like game and I have fond memories of playing that game. Combat felt kinda clunky, I can deal with that and the graphics were from the 90s. Then some idiot decided to design a map where you need to keep the guards from touching a walkietalkie or it's game over. Sorry, but no thank you. Adios game.

When I'm barely even intrested in playing the game, bad design just turns me off from a game and I'd rather find something else from my endless list of games. It didn't cost me much, still a bit disappointed because I wanted to rekindle that old love towards Streets of Rage game series.

[Malcador]

Beat RRT3 but I am unhappy with being unable to beat the personal net worth targets.  So will work on that in some scenarios, I guess.  But other than that, looks like it is time to tackle Distant Worls, first thing is the manual.  I am looking forward to it as it clocks in at 112 pages, so might be a good read

[kellyon]

Replaying Kingdom Hearts. I'm attempting to get to Level 100 while still on the Destiny Islands.
I am not a smart man

[Tale]

In my AI only game, my democratic geckos and their alliance beat off the Awakened Empire! YAY. But the AE still managed to get the Rogue Servitors I was rooting for. Took some of his planets and turned him into a sattelite. That's bad.

 

I'm still waiting for that galaxy wide war to happen. But we're about 50 years short of a crisis appearing so that may happen first.

 

I also started my own Feudal Society game. Spawned right next to a nuclear age level primitive! So living the dream already. Wanted to try a 1-planet strat with it, but after finding a planet much nicer than my crappy homeworld also next door, that's been changed to 2-planet. I might even go 3 to match my core systems cap!

[Melusina]

I'm playing Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok - beautiful game!

[ZyroMane]

I've reached Crossroad Keep in NWN2, maybe I should sell off all these inventory items I'm not using. It's going to take a while, since I left them across my companions. I guess it pays to think ahead.

[Bartimaeus]

That reminds me of how annoying inventory management was in NWN2 even though they gave you a huge amount of it along with giant magic bags. Good times.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Bartimaeus

[LadyCrimson]

^ there were many games where I think I spent more time standing around in the inventory screens than actually "playing." Although most of that was because of my personal habits, of course, vs. actually having to.