Playing any games?

[Azrael Strife]

I just bought Strike Suit Zero from GOG.com. This game is amazing! If you ever enjoyed games like Homeworld, this is the game for you!

Beautiful graphics - Check, Space Combat/Dog Fights - Check, Intense & Dramatic Music - Check. A Storyline that keeps you engaged - Check.

Hell, don't even take my word for it, either click on Thorondor's trailer in the "Other gaming news" section, or click on my link here and see for yourself.

 

I've been giving it a try; just the first mission mind you.

So far... it's below expectations, from what I seen on the trailer, the graphics are sub par, and the voice acting is one of the worst I've heard in years; gameplay feels a lot like an arcade instead of a flight sim.

Here's hoping that things improve in future missions.

[FullAuto]

The EG review was less than glowing: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-01-23-strike-suit-zero-review

[Azrael Strife]

I just played up to mission 3, where you obtain the eponymous strike suit.

It's fun, for a little bit, the action is a bit too fast paced to truly enjoy it, and the short duration of the strike suit makes it a bit tedious (you can only use the robot mode for short periods of time).

 

I find myself so bored and uninterested by the storyline, that it just makes it harder to play; the gameplay is nothing that great, it's an arcade.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

lol that's because you haven't been playing it drunk, Az!

[Space Voyager]

the gameplay is nothing that great, it's an arcade.

 

Frankly this is exactly what I expected from seen video material. Nox, what makes it that great for you, I'd love to hear the other side.

[Fireflower]

Another similar game but with a bit more RPG in it is Zigfrak.

[Azrael Strife]

lol that's because you haven't been playing it drunk, Az!

 

Now that's an idea!

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

I dunno Az, Gamespot gave it a 7.5, that's not too bad. Don't forget, this game just came out so there's a good chance for patches and fixes. Let's not crap all over it just yet

[Azrael Strife]

I dunno Az, Gamespot gave it a 7.5, that's not too bad. Don't forget, this game just came out so there's a good chance for patches and fixes. Let's not crap all over it just yet

Reviews are just opinions, just as valid as any.

Besides, patches and fixes fix technical issues, not the style, I only said this game is an arcade, not that it's bad per se, it's just not my thing.

[Space Voyager]

How close would one say it comes to games like x-wing, tie fighter etc?

[FullAuto]

Far Cry 3's been keeping me semi-amused. Sadly, you don't really feel like you're having an impact on a wonderful free-roaming environment, because the two sides don't come into conflict enough, either one side or the other is dominant, and you never participate in battles, recruit comrades, etc. The story missions are okay, but really most of the game should have been liberating the islands. The world is too empty, and it has far too much wildlife.

 

I liberated a camp earlier, toasting a swathe of soldiers with a flamethrower, which set the grass around the camp alight, and then they called in reinforcements and I got up on a guard tower, and blew up their jeeps with my grenade launcher. More fire. Trees burning. A heli came swooping in and I lobbed a grenade right into the cockpit. Heli blew up, and it feel to earth in burning pieces. Base liberated!

 

The resistance show up, and one of them offers "One day, we'll liberate this island."

 

I surveyed my victory, with large stretches of hillside on fire, dead men and animals, burned out vehicles, and thought, yes, let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

[Matri]

Far Cry 3's been keeping me semi-amused. Sadly, you don't really feel like you're having an impact on a wonderful free-roaming environment, because the two sides don't come into conflict enough, either one side or the other is dominant, and you never participate in battles, recruit comrades, etc. The story missions are okay, but really most of the game should have been liberating the islands. The world is too empty, and it has far too much wildlife.

 

I liberated a camp earlier, toasting a swathe of soldiers with a flamethrower, which set the grass around the camp alight, and then they called in reinforcements and I got up on a guard tower, and blew up their jeeps with my grenade launcher. More fire. Trees burning. A heli came swooping in and I lobbed a grenade right into the cockpit. Heli blew up, and it feel to earth in burning pieces. Base liberated!

 

The resistance show up, and one of them offers "One day, we'll liberate this island."

 

I surveyed my victory, with large stretches of hillside on fire, dead men and animals, burned out vehicles, and thought, yes, let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

 

Far Cry 3! Now with 1000% more fire!

[Space Voyager]

My brother said that the game is cool but far too easy.

[silencer_pl]

Why don't he crank up the difficulty then ?

[Azrael Strife]

Been trying to catch up in my game list lately.

 

Beat Sleeping Dogs, great GTAish game, more entertaining than GTA IV was, the combat is very fun, it's extremely similar to the combat found in the Batman: Arkham games. You play an undercover cop infiltrated in a Triad; things get ugly quick. The story is fun, but not as developed as I would have wished, I was left wanting to get to know the characters more, the first few missions allow you to do this, also meet romantic interests, but after those few missions, there is very little character exploration and it's just a violence orgy. It's very linear, and there is not really a lot of reason to go get all health boosts, and all collectible statues to unlock new melee combinations, the combat is very easy and once guns get involved there are hardly any opportunities for melee. The city feels alive during the first missions (2 - 3) but then feels a bit lifeless, radios are not as entertaining as in GTA. Slow motion is half assed, and car chases are ridiculously easy. Minigames (hacking, karaoke, lockpicking) are only relevant during the first fourth of the game.

 

Anyway, I give it a 6/10.

 

Starting again with XCOM: Enemy Unknown; it still feels so extremely limited, so artificially limited, but it's still fun, I like the combat system, and it's been making me feel like finally finishing UFO: Afterlight.

 

Oh, bought The Swapper from Steam, anybody checked that out? it looks incredibly beautiful, reminds me of Super Metroid.

[Space Voyager]

Thor's posting of a STALKER modification made me (you know, I had no choice and all) buy the whole collection on a GG sale for like 7€.

 

Playing the first game of the series, Shadow of Chernobyl. Naturally, with Stalker Complete modification and weapon change add-on, both available at Moddb.

 

Best shooter series ever. EVER. And I can play it. My girls already accused me of non-attentiveness. They don't understand the dangers of the Zone, dammit!

[silencer_pl]

If you will play Clear Sky be weary of superhuman throwing ability of the enemies

[Space Voyager]

You are correct, they throw with pinpoint accuracy. I enjoyed most of the game even though it was bug-ridden, then just before the end the bugs completely destroyed my experience. Tried reloading a million times and from different positions, but this CTD kept jumping in my face until I gave up. Too bad, but after checking the YT vids of the ending, I see I missed three minutes of gameplay, so who gives a shit.

 

ANYway, my FPS appetite was temporarily sated, so I went back to Frozen Synapse for a while, then got a bit fed up with it and started looking for something completely different.

 

A dear friend of mine gifted me Teleglitch some time ago and since it was something new, I had to gather my wits to try it out. And it turned out great! This is a "Die more edition", so I die more. I don't know what would be a reference dying rate but I sure die. A. Lot.

 

Anyway, the game is a top-down view real time rougelike, permadeath and all that jazz. The gameplay is a bit too twitchy for my taste yet the game is fun as hell. A mistake will cost you your life very fast, so don't make one. Heh. Also, the munitions are scarce. In first two stages you better save as much ammo as possible, so building up your knife skill (actual skill, not an attribute) is a must.

 

If you want to see how a real pro plays, this is a very good walkthrough;

 

 

I'm not that good. I was mighty glad to have survived through level 5, yet level 6 was an instant death more or less. Which is unfortunate - if I made it through to level 7, I would be able to start the next game in level 5. For now, I'm cursed to starting in level 3. A gift for surviving to level 5. A gift and a curse, as the starting position in level 3 is not as good as you might fare playing from the start. Which is probably what I should do more often.

 

Steam says I have almost 30 hours played, which is deceiving. The game only lets you save at the end of a level. The moment you start from that position, the save is deleted. So you need to finish that level or your whole progress is lost. Effectively this means most of those hours is game being paused while I chase the kids or even go out with them. Also, this moronic save system is the only major complain I have and I posted both at Paradox and Steam, begging for a save at exit. I'd save on electricity...

[Thorondor]

I'd save on electricity...

 

In a game like that you just have to take the pain - it's what it's all about.

 

That latter point you make is quite valid, SV, except that only reinforces how purely and honestly masochistic in spirit the whole experience is meant to be.

 

It's a rare thing to see it so undiluted in games these days.

 

Though completely different in nature, it reminds me of the original Ground Control, where you had to pull off a mission all the way through or suck it up and start over.

 

But going back to Teleglitch, I remember seeing a fun look at the game on YouTube. It was a good look at the game, but I couldn't help enjoy both the gameplay and the accent:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5clr1HaiQPc

 

::

 

If you feel so inclined, he has a few more vids you can see about the game. Nothing overly instructive, but generally fun to watch.

[Jman4117]

Lately I've been playing SNES games on an emulator with the wii classic controller adapter I got. I've 100%'d SMW twice and played through FFIV and A Link to the Past. Also the GBA remakes of several games like the original Final Fantasy. X-com is probably next depending on if I can get the windows version to run properly in linux without being in a tiny 320x200 window.

[NoXTheRoXStaR]

https://pics.mobygames.com/images/covers/large/1077398040-00.jpg

 

That's it.

[NKF]

I've been logging a good number of hours playing FTL these past few weeks. Utter randomness from getting a couple of ion cannons just floating in space, having rockmen "fix" things, having crew members wink out of existence, spiders eating my face, getting blown to bits on the first enemy ship encounter (on easy) and laughing with glee after de-clawing the last boss with a crew teleporter, it's been a good time waster.

 

On the console side, I've been replaying Dark Chronicle (i.e. Dark Cloud 2). Good old dungeon crawling and item synthesis madness. I realise I have a fondness of games that involve level grinding.

 

- NKF

[Space Voyager]

Finally managed to beat Teleglitch and added myself to the 0,7% of players who managed (kept the drive) to get to the end. Frankly I was hoping for more versatility and perhaps one day the devs will get the game there.

 

The game is very hard and you need to be vigilant at all times while shooting very, VERY accurately to get through the game, also the use of knife is essential. Frankly the game is too hard to be fun. It is a grinding experience. Once you get to the end you may not get that "I did it"" message but more of a "FINALLY..." kind of feeing. It is a fun game in general yet a 20% off the difficulty and 20% more craftable items etc. would mean a lot.

[Thorondor]

That's quite a feat, SV - truly hardcore, especially by today's generally bland difficulty standards. Congratulations!

[Space Voyager]

It was fighting back hard, so I just had to beat it!