What Video Game Are You Currently Playing?

[[McD] James]

I'm in the minority in that I think that Final Fantasy 4 is one of the weaker entries in the series, but it's certainly much better than you're making it out to be.

[Nine Inch Heels]

27 minutes ago, Ajora said:

I'm in the minority in that I think that Final Fantasy 4 is one of the weaker entries in the series, but it's certainly much better than you're making it out to be.

Both FF V and FF VI blow it out the water entirely and both those titles have a "memory function" for menu cursors that actually does what it says it does.

 

Plus, both those titles have more creative bosses than FF IV (Visually and mechanically, imo), and both those titles have an actual character development system, which FF IV lacks entirely (even though FF V's system is a grindfest if you wanna max out, and FF VI doesn't offer entirely free choices in every respect, but it's still better than nothing).

 

Also FF VI is pretty darn grindy during the main plot already, imo, which adds insult to injury when you're menuing like a fucking madman all the time, because the cursor can't be arsed to stay the FUCK on the spell you want your spellcaster to perform. It plays like a turd on figure skates, and at that point I can't possibly care any less about the story. The only reason I finished that game in the first place is because I thought for a good ten hours of playtime that hopefully it'll go somewhere at some point, so might as well go all the way. 16 hours total spent on that game when I reached the finish line.... Not worth it as far as I'm concerned. so I'm not playing that a second time. Also just to make sure, I didn't say it's the worst FF of them all, but it's the worst I have played so far.

[[McD] James]

I've only ever played the PS1 version of FF4, which is similar to the SNES port (which has been criticized for being far too easy) but it retains the Japanese level of difficulty. The amount of level grinding largely felt about where it should be, but you had to grind for quite a few hours before you could beat the final boss. Aside from the last part of the game being a grind-fest, there wasn't really anything about it I disliked, although I've enjoyed every other Final Fantasy I've played through a lot more (excluding All the Bravest, which wasn't really even a game, but I digress).

[Remilia Scarlet]

Decided to take a break from Touhou and Deathsmiles for a bit to focus on Gods on the Sega Genesis and Turrican 2 on the Amiga.  And with a little bit of luck, maybe I'll have the actual cartridge for Gods to play this weekend.

 

And of course I still play World of Warcraft here and there.  Doomworld guild when?

[Fonze]

I recently found out about a new indie game called Machiavillain on Steam, where you build a haunted mansion/death trap to lure victims to. It plays similarly to RTS and unit management types of games; you get minions to control and who build stuff, but also need to eat/sleep. Some minions include zombies, mummies, skeletons, Dr. Frankensteins, Frankenstein's monsters, werewolves, medusae, clowns (who are currently worthless... wtf?), Draculas, psychos, and some others. Victims provide cash as well as brains, meat, blood and bones which minions use for food. Minions can level up equip stuff, have stats, (dex is mostly useless since there are almost no ranged attacks... wtf again?) and each species of minion has their own special abilities (zombies can learn to grab and hold/immobilize targets, put a lamp shade over their head to camouflage so victims don't see them, and turn victims to temporary zombies that join your ranks as basically regular minions which can be healed so you can keep them indefinitely and can even be sold like normal minions, while medusae can only learn to turn targets to stone, and skeletons can only learn to throw bones, as a few quick examples). There are many different things to build and use; I was a bit surprised at the amount of equipable items, but by contrast the content runs out somewhat quickly. Some work stations are really grindy to get to and bugs, (some minor, but others quite major) as well as the general lack of content and poor balancing, really plague the Hell out of this game, but over-all it was a decently fun ride. The game is super cute and the artwork/sound/music was very well done. There's even some lighting effects when things walk near lamps. Really it's just the gameplay and QoL sides of things here that are terribly hurting, and the sad thing is that there is not much holding it back from being really, really awesome.

 

I made a Let's Play of it which is currently uploading on my YouTube channel; if anyone is interested you can see the first video here and if you can't find the rest from this then idk how to help you (but do remember that they are all still currently uploading; at the time of this post 6 are done). The playthrough sux'd anyway so it's not too much worth watching; video and sound quality are trash for the most part, I really didn't have much to say most of the time, and I played very casually/slowly. Video quality does improve somewhere close to halfway through it and sound quality improves somewhat then too, as I bought a new monitor for my still mostly broken rig and a new cheap mic. Mostly just watch this if you want to see a fairly complete playthrough (I never finished getting my mansion to be a self-sustaining death trap, where minions wouldn't have to get involved or kill most victims themselves, but I did reach the infinite money and other resources point pretty early, as well as purposefully raise suspicion levels to their max so villagers and cops would attack, heh; never saw the military though and not sure if that's just a false rumor at this point) without having to yell at streamers that can't even read their screens, let alone manage or keep their minions happy, though to be fair minions get -20 to happiness every time they get hungry, which is right before the point when they go feed themselves, lol. Basically I took the time to record this out of frustration at the lack of decent videos to watch on this, which makes it fitting that my videos sux too! Heh

 

Spoiler

 

 

[seed]

Started playing System Shock 2 today, got a few pics in another thread.

 

So far so good, my first impression is positive although some parts of it have aged very poorly. The combat and gameplay mechanics so far are awkward though that might change as I improve the character stats and make progress, and while the levels, props, and so on look very good the human models are absolutely atrocious. For a game that took some noticeable influence from HL1 it did a poor job with these models...

 

The music and atmosphere is top notch 👌.

[[McD] James]

System Shock 2 is a game that looks much, much better with graphics mods installed. And I usually don't like graphics mods. 

[seed]

11 minutes ago, Ajora said:

System Shock 2 is a game that looks much, much better with graphics mods installed. And I usually don't like graphics mods. 

 

Well it looks very good just the way it is, in general. It's just these atrocious human and zombie models that are hilariously bad. Guess I'll have to live with that since I'm not willing to install any mods until I finish the game once.

[KVELLER]

I think the worst part about System Shock 2 is the animations. When you kill an enemy it looks as if they were slowly fainting instead of, you know, falling like a corpse.

[seed]

2 hours ago, KVELLER said:

I think the worst part about System Shock 2 is the animations. When you kill an enemy it looks as if they were slowly fainting instead of, you know, falling like a corpse.

 

I actually like seeing death animations in older games, it's just the human models that I find horrendous so far.

[Misty]

Not much of the game, but more as time waster, I returned to clicker heroes. Seems addictions sometimes stronger than ones will.

[KVELLER]

18 hours ago, Agent6 said:

I actually like seeing death animations in older games, it's just the human models that I find horrendous so far.

 

I do like death animations, I just don't like the ones in SS2 specifically.

[Lila Feuer]

Playing Arcane Dimensions for Quake with the Mark V source port, hopefully the final version of AD at that.

[Rosh Fragger]

Outlast 2. Although I didn't quite like how Outlast 1 ends in kinda weird way, but the game overall was pretty good and the horror aspect was there. Can't wait to progress further into this second game now. It's quite spooky from the very beginning!

[Aquila Chrysaetos]

Asura's Wrath. It's pretty much just an interactive anime, and I'm not normally for story-driven (this one being entirely story-driven) games, but this one's so cool I can easily overlook it all. Just wish I had the DLC that holds the actual end of the game.

Spoiler

In which Asura fights Chakravartin, who claims to be the God. So Asura kills God because he (God) is a giant asshole who causes (indirectly) the deaths of over seven trillion people and the destruction of many, many worlds in the past and, of course, causes Mithra's (Asura's daughter) suffering, so of course Asura takes issue with that.

 

[jazzmaster9]

Decied to continue playing Gank Souls 2 again.

So far the game's concept of difficulty is cramming 500 enemies in small room with no sense of smart monster placement.

 

I refuse to let this game defeat me so i will keep going, Though im only marginally having fun at this point.

[jazzmaster9]

Whoops accidental double post. Internet crapped out

[[McD] James]

I'm about halfway through Scourge of Armagon right now. Pretty solid overall. My only issue is that the soundtrack feels completely out of place and isn't the least bit suited for Quake. Which is a shame, because the soundtrack is very good. I just wish it had been used for a different game.

[Summer Deep]

Just finished the first mission of Perfect Dark. Took quite a while to acclimatize to the very different style of this game after playing nothing but Doom for more than six months. That Doctor Carroll business sure was weird....

[Guest DILDOMASTER666]

2 hours ago, Ajora said:

I'm about halfway through Scourge of Armagon right now. Pretty solid overall. My only issue is that the soundtrack feels completely out of place and isn't the least bit suited for Quake. Which is a shame, because the soundtrack is very good. I just wish it had been used for a different game.

 

Talk of its soundtrack made me want to play Scourge of Armagon again. It's not fitting, but it's good stuff

[geo]

Step back everyone... here comes the flood! My Internet was out for a while, so I had time to play.

 

Dungeon Keeper 2 is something I've plowed through a lot back before I had 2,000 Steam games. Thanks to someone on Doomworld posting the narrator / announcer being the best, I loaded up the game and played through it. Apparently it took me 20 hours. I don't think GOG has the latest version that I have on CD.

 

Ducktales Remastered is a fantastic remake. I'm surprised so many people disliked it for straying from the formula and including voice acting. I'd be the first to complain about the halts in gameplay for voice over, but I was happy with it. I used to go through the original NES version a lot and went through this game in 2.5 hours. Enjoyed every bit of it. The levels flow better, its easier to do things and it just feels more fun. Rightfully so if its a remake 20+ years later.

 

Ducktales NES (Disney Afternoon PC Collection) uh... wasn't as good as I remember it. At all. Maybe its playing Ducktales Remastered before it, but this was stiff to play. The levels are more free form which allows for bumbling around. The Disney Afternoon series includes a rewind and I found myself using it far too much for deaths. Its a lazy crutch. The extras for the collection are great.

 

Broforce is something I finally bought after playing through Expendibros two or three times. I think the Expendibros is better in terms of level design and just feel. There's a cohesive product with Expendibros which is a free demo. Broforce's levels just aren't as fun and its every big action movie parody character after another. Some I found myself arguing with weapon or secondary weapon choice rather than enjoying the game. I was so high on Expendibros and I think that hurt playing Broforce.

 

Cat Girl Without Salad is a Humble Original that I swear WayForward the developer decided to have a 10 - 50 person week long game jam to make this game. Its an annoying side scrolling shmup. The characters won't shut up. There are long bouts of dialog and characters that are easy to hate. The special weapons are terrible and counterintuitive. I get it, they tried to pigeon hole different genres to entice people who don't like shmups to play a shmup. Maybe if I wanted comedy more from my shmups I would have enjoyed it.

 

Urrnog is another Humble Original. A puzzle paltformer based on picking up things and carrying them to solve puzzles or traverse the land. It has an atmosphere that I think its all based in the shader with its bloom effect. Its tough to really find anything to say about the game. Its an open world sort of MetroidVania with too many places to go from the start. Maybe its some grand game, but it didn't feel streamlined after the tutorial level.

 

Drawkanoid is a third Humble Original. If you have no Internet... you play the DRM free games you never expect to. I liked this. Its a basic Arkanoid clone where you use the mouse to draw the paddle and the angle. It kept me thinking and playing longer than I thought I would be. There's upgrades for cash to keep people playing. The visual aesthetic is fun too.

 

Oh, Deer! is the fourth Humble Original and a driving game ala early 90s or late 80s arcades. Wow this is a trippy game. Looks gorgeous, plays fine, but the whole hitting deer mechanic becomes pointless when it doesn't do anything to help you in the game beyond the score... the score that only shows at the game over mind you. There are better, similar games with more going on. Its the best looking game out of the 4 originals I played, but the biggest let down.

 

Now its time for the games people made me play.

 

Police Patrol is a terrible 3 minute game where you chase a criminal in your police car. Its 4 challenges you can complete in minimal time. Felt like an asset flip. Several maps felt like they were from various resources. I nominate this to get thrown off Steam.

 

Kinaman vs Gray Elephant is a bad platformer that has all sorts of first time game developer issues. Blind falls into hazards, moving platforms where the player doesn't stay on them, they fall every split second. The boss fight I endured was terrible. Climb a tower, dive off to hop through the boss and hope the boss doesn't shoot you. You hop through rather than hop on. This was a bad boss.

 

Vodka is a basic Space Invaders with a twist. Less enemies and you can shoot in 360 directions. I liked this game, but its way too easy. I played 40 minutes and never died. Its the same level, the same song. I know its meant for comedy, but it needs to have more of a dynamic with enemies and not just the same enemy with a different look and projectile.

 

..............

 

Uh yeah I could keep going, but I'll end it here.

[Shin Godzilla]

Been working my way through the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection. The collection itself isn't all it could have been (the Alpha Anthology and Anniversary Collection on PS2/360 are superior), but I appreciate having all the pre-SF4 games in one place. And I hadn't played SF1, New Generation or 2nd Impact before.

[Chezza]

@geo have you ever played with the editor? It's third party I believe. With exception to some limitations and the odd crash, it's pretty good!

[geo]

7 minutes ago, Chezza said:

@geo have you ever played with the editor? It's third party I believe. With exception to some limitations and the odd crash, it's pretty good!

The Dungeon Keeper 2 editor? I played with it 20 years ago. Looks like its included with the GOG version.

[Lila Feuer]

Finished the first episode of Blood on Well Done with no saves or deaths. I succeeded on the second try, the second to last level was giving me a lot of shit. Damn Cultists and their shotguns and dynamite.

[Doomkid]

Playing through 2 games atm: Donkey Kong Country 3 and Earthbound, both the SNES versions. Having a great time, both fantastic so far, I'd say I'm about 1/3rd of the way through each of them.

[Rosh Fragger]

I'm gonna reinstall Max Payne 3 after many years now. I miss playing that masterpiece!

[Vile]

Playing Undertale for the first time.

 

 

[OliveTree]

Working my way through the F.E.A.R. expansion packs after beating the first game.

[ShoDemo]

Played a bit of Minecraft again and I have to say that it was kinda fun exploring what I had built a few years ago. I was also surprised when I opened the client and the game version was 1.12, while I last played before 1.8 came out, iirc.