Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-04, 06:22:

Descent 3!, I know very little about that game, must look into it, given the classic status of 1 and sort-of 2.

I am currently playing Yoshi's Island, on GBA, via Mister. First time I have played the game*. It is as good as they say, a very well done and classic game. I had thought the crying noise would annoy me too much - even found hacks to remove it, if necessary - but it turned out to be not too much of a problem (and is a good incentive to avoid being hit, at the very least!). Yet.

*the product of a Sega childhood, I am spending adulthood forever catching up on Nintendo classics

Mister is great! I need to finish updating my game collection on that.

Yoshis Island is fun, I like the GBA but maybe due to my age I prefer the Original SNES version.

Operencia
I've been plugging away at this one and think I must be somewhat close to the end, as I've unlocked the final companion and the story appears to be heading to its climax. I complained previously about my party never really feeling more powerful, but I think part of it was how I was developing them. When you level up, you get one point to spend on a skill-tree, and I was rushing through the trees to get to the more powerful abilities. Having got all the abilities I want, I'm now going back and spending points on passive bonuses, and they really seem to make a big difference.

The way stats are handled in this game really make it difficult to plan parties imo. The game does helpfully show you the exact effect any stat will have on secondary stats (e.g. adding 1 point to STR will increase these secondary stats from X to Y), but the way the game calculates damage, etc. is very weird. Basically, base damage is determined by your weapon alone, and then skills add damage on top of that. Skills seem to scale SLIGHTLY with stats (STR for melee, AGI for ranged, INT for spells), but the scaling is so minor that it's basically unnoticeable.

I still find the combat to be more annoying than difficult. The game is filled with enemies that are annoying to fight—enemies that taunt and force you to focus all attacks (and spells) on them, enemies that spawn more enemies unless you kill them quickly, enemies that sap energy points. After a certain point, these kinds of enemies end up being in nearly every battle. Enemies also have way too many HPs—at this point in the game, regular enemies can have up to 200 HPs and also tend to dodge/block very often (even against characters with high STR/AGI) while my characters are lucky to do 20 HP per attack... even a critical hit from my most powerful character might do 40 HP of damage. The key has been to make use of "damage over time" spells that hit every target at once, and just wait for enemies for die over several rounds. It works, but it's not really fun.

Although the game is 100% linear, it does allow you to travel back to previous dungeons. I plan to take a break from following the plot so that I can go back and find some of the secrets I missed earlier.

Elden Ring
Truly a massive game! I am now 12 hours in, and all I've done is explore the world and conquer a few of the smaller dungeons and caves. I thought the open world was a bit of a gimmick at first, but after exploring extensively, I really appreciate it now. The world is full of interesting stuff to find, and more importantly, the open world allows for some really fun encounters not really possible in the Dark Souls games. For example, there are enemy factions in the game, and you can get monsters to chase you into heavily fortified areas so that they will start fighting with the enemy soldiers, allowing you to sit back and reap the rewards and then simply stroll into the now unprotected castle/tower/etc.

The world is much more interesting than it initially appears, as the starting area is honestly pretty dull. You run into wastelands inhabited by dragons, massive swamps filled with disturbing monstrosities, literal ghost towns, and more. There's even an Ultima 5-esque massive underworld to explore.

Although there is no dedicated pyromancer class (my favorite from the DS series), I've been playing as a heavy faith build using mostly fire spells. I switched the starting spear out for a longsword (much better moveset imo), but otherwise am still in the rags I started out with.

Masaru wrote on 2022-03-05, 06:44:

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-03-04, 06:22:

Descent 3!, I know very little about that game, must look into it, given the classic status of 1 and sort-of 2.

I am currently playing Yoshi's Island, on GBA, via Mister. First time I have played the game*. It is as good as they say, a very well done and classic game. I had thought the crying noise would annoy me too much - even found hacks to remove it, if necessary - but it turned out to be not too much of a problem (and is a good incentive to avoid being hit, at the very least!). Yet.

*the product of a Sega childhood, I am spending adulthood forever catching up on Nintendo classics

Mister is great! I need to finish updating my game collection on that.

Yoshis Island is fun, I like the GBA but maybe due to my age I prefer the Original SNES version.

I would prefer to be playing the original SNES version but, until my Mister's SDRAM arrives next week, I'm limited to the GBA version. I'd initially intended to only 'test the waters' with this version, but the game totally engrossed me. I'll be finished it within a week! The SNES core is one of the things I am most looking forward to, they say it is a very good core, very accurate. I have lots of classics lined up to work through.

Avernum: Escape from the Pit

I'm now 30 hours into this RPG. I don't feel like I'm even close to halfway through it. My gaming time has been cut down lately, maybe 5 hours a week. Mostly on the weekends. So it's hard to get a rhythm going and remember what I was doing and where I left off. But it's still an enjoyable game up to now. Very relaxing and built for a slower pace. At the same time, there are too many side quests IMO and your quest log can become very long and muddled. I prefer more linear gameplay and at least a little sense of urgency that keeps me from wandering too far off the main questline. Right now I have no idea what the main quest even is, it seems as if I've done nothing but side quests for 30 hours. 🤣.

I've said it before, but the combat in this game is great. Very satisfying. My only critique of it is you must be very careful about where you click to move your characters during their turn. The computer seems to have its own idea of the most direct path to a destination, as there have been several times where I clicked on a destination that the player character ended up taking a very roundabout way to and never made it to due to using up all movement points. Those end up being "turn wasters" and can affect the outcome of a combat.

Been playing a bit of transport tycoon. Brings back some memories!

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-03-06, 02:55:

Elden Ring Truly a massive game! I am now 12 hours in, and all I've done is explore the world and conquer a few of the smaller d […]
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Elden Ring
Truly a massive game! I am now 12 hours in, and all I've done is explore the world and conquer a few of the smaller dungeons and caves. I thought the open world was a bit of a gimmick at first, but after exploring extensively, I really appreciate it now. The world is full of interesting stuff to find, and more importantly, the open world allows for some really fun encounters not really possible in the Dark Souls games. For example, there are enemy factions in the game, and you can get monsters to chase you into heavily fortified areas so that they will start fighting with the enemy soldiers, allowing you to sit back and reap the rewards and then simply stroll into the now unprotected castle/tower/etc.

The world is much more interesting than it initially appears, as the starting area is honestly pretty dull. You run into wastelands inhabited by dragons, massive swamps filled with disturbing monstrosities, literal ghost towns, and more. There's even an Ultima 5-esque massive underworld to explore.

Although there is no dedicated pyromancer class (my favorite from the DS series), I've been playing as a heavy faith build using mostly fire spells. I switched the starting spear out for a longsword (much better moveset imo), but otherwise am still in the rags I started out with.

Good thing about faith in this game is that it allows access to different types of spells like "holy" incantations or pyros (and others I won't spoil), so you can switch between different kinds of damage depending on the enemies resistances. Also, they don't seem to require investing into the faith stat as much as a sorcerer needs intelligence.

From what you say I assume you haven't tackled any of the main story dungeons/castles yet, but those are awesome, like entire areas from Dark Souls with great level design but absolutely huge and now with much more verticality due to the jump mechanic.

I'm having a great time with this, I felt very confident due to having conquered all of the Souls games many times before but most of the main bosses completely steamrolled my melee build... they are absolutely relentless now and punish you heavily for mindlessly chugging your health flask or panic dodging. I had to swallow my pride and resort to trying every tool available, like inflicting status effects from afar while running for my life and yes, using the spirit summons!

Best thing for me is that every corner of the world seems to have a really hand-crafted feel, each little optional area has something unique about it rather than feeling like "generic cave #143". And yes, it is HUGE... I'm taking it slowly since it will clearly take a while to finish and want to explore it as much as I can. The quality vs quantity balance they achieved here is perfect I think.

Since i've been playing Descent3 I decided to install Descent 1&2 from my GOG collection and then use the D2X-XL port and WOW it's such an upgrade.

Installation was fairly straight forward but not as easy as say Zdoom.

I'm not curious about trying the other port (DXX-Rebirth) as well to see if it's tuned more to my liking vs D2X.

I hear a lot about Descent but not many talk about its successor Decent Free Space, I personally adore both Freespace games, wish there were more missions for them too.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-07, 05:00:

I hear a lot about Descent but not many talk about its successor Decent Free Space, I personally adore both Freespace games, wish there were more missions for them too.

Even though FreeSpace has Descent roots they are quite different. One is a shooter and one is a tactical space combat simulator, which undoubtedly explains why Descent was a bigger hit and gets talked about more often. I too count FreeSpace 1&2 among my personal favorites but not Descent games. I find the tight labyrinthian levels a bit annoying and restrictive, so no surprise the open space of FreeSpace is more to my liking.

Freespace 2 is the best space sim ever made. Freespace 1 is also great but is totally outclassed by the sequel. I adore both games as well.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-07, 06:00:

Freespace 2 is the best space sim ever made. Freespace 1 is also great but is totally outclassed by the sequel. I adore both games as well.

Yeah, FS2 is one of those sequels that just hit the ball out of the park, but I do like the story of FS1 more. The implied reason for Shivans doing their thing is kinda awesome in my opinion, not the most original thing ever but nevertheless I like it. But in FS2 they went with the "too alien to understand" route and the weird ending ends up just being that, weird instead of mysterious. Alas no FS3 ever came to explain anything.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-03-07, 06:27:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-07, 06:00:

Freespace 2 is the best space sim ever made. Freespace 1 is also great but is totally outclassed by the sequel. I adore both games as well.

Yeah, FS2 is one of those sequels that just hit the ball out of the park, but I do like the story of FS1 more. The implied reason for Shivans doing their thing is kinda awesome in my opinion, not the most original thing ever but nevertheless I like it. But in FS2 they went with the "too alien to understand" route and the weird ending ends up just being that, weird instead of mysterious. Alas no FS3 ever came to explain anything.

One can hope?..

Who owns the IP I wonder.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-07, 07:33:

Sombrero wrote on 2022-03-07, 06:27:

appiah4 wrote on 2022-03-07, 06:00:

Freespace 2 is the best space sim ever made. Freespace 1 is also great but is totally outclassed by the sequel. I adore both games as well.

Yeah, FS2 is one of those sequels that just hit the ball out of the park, but I do like the story of FS1 more. The implied reason for Shivans doing their thing is kinda awesome in my opinion, not the most original thing ever but nevertheless I like it. But in FS2 they went with the "too alien to understand" route and the weird ending ends up just being that, weird instead of mysterious. Alas no FS3 ever came to explain anything.

One can hope?..

Who owns the IP I wonder.

Volition still exists IIRC so perhaps they still own it

Descent's still a TitusInterplay Games ip. Freespace probably is too. Also... a new Freespace without Kulas??? 🙁

leileilol wrote on 2022-03-08, 00:07:

Descent's still a TitusInterplay Games ip. Freespace probably is too. Also... a new Freespace without Kulas??? 🙁

Is Mike Kulas dead?

Operencia
Unless there is some surprise coming up, I am very close to the end of this one. I like it a lot more now than I did 5-6 hours ago... there's some good exploration and some unique puzzles to solve, and you can even go back to previous areas to access formerly blocked-off secrets. There are powerful sets of equipment you can find where each piece unlocks an additional perk, and these can become VERY powerful once you've gathered 3-4 pieces. I even have begun to find some of the characters and writing to be charming.

Elden Ring

TheMobRules wrote on 2022-03-06, 19:52:

Best thing for me is that every corner of the world seems to have a really hand-crafted feel, each little optional area has something unique about it rather than feeling like "generic cave #143". And yes, it is HUGE... I'm taking it slowly since it will clearly take a while to finish and want to explore it as much as I can. The quality vs quantity balance they achieved here is perfect I think.

Yeah, it's definitely the best open world I've experienced in a game, since maybe Morrowind. Now at around 20 hours in, I feel like I have had enough roaming and exploring, and have begun tackling the main story content. What a game! It's hard to say since I feel I have barely only scraped the surface of this one, but so far I'd rank it just below DS1 as the second best in the series. Stormveil Castle is simply an amazing area, easily among the best in the series.

Elminage: Original
I decided to resume playing this, and realized I was much further into the game than I had thought (I am pretty sure I could head to the endgame now if I wanted). The Elminage series is basically Wizardry in an alternate reality where Sir-Tech just kept making direct sequels to Wizardry V. Elminage: Original (aka Eliminage 1) adds to the formula some new classes with interesting abilities (alchemists with their own unique spells [mostly buffing/debuffing] and the ability to modify equipment, summoners who can capture and summon monsters, etc.), a nonlinear structure with a dozen or so dungeons accessible almost right from the start, and tons and tons of quests (many of which are actually interesting). There is simply a TON of content in this game.

The goal of the game is to collect some hidden rings. They are randomly buried throughout the game, and you have to charge a magical compass with "fame" (which you earn from completing quests) in order to locate them. The great thing about this is that it doesn't gate your progress, so you're free to explore all over the world. The real appeal of this game, however, is exploring some finely crafted dungeons, building your party up, and solving puzzles/quests.

It's a pretty forgiving game for a Wizardry clone/successor. You have an automap, the game doesn't autosave, and depending on your party composition you have plenty of ways to get out of difficult situations. A fantastic game you can sink some enjoyable hours into!

20 hours ..hehe you haven't even scratched it yet . .more like a barely visible scuff mark in the clear coat .. the game is huge, the world is huge and they dont expect you to see it all in one run, in fact it might take dozens of runs to see everything they have buried in the world.

I watched a guy today beat Rhadahn (if you know, you know) at level 1 melee only . .took him 6 hours to do it and 50 or so attempts at phase 1 just learning to dodge his attacks, guy is an absolute unit of a player to manage that.

I do wonder if they have any expansion content planned for it, I mean its already expansive enough to last most people several years of casual playtime.

Operencia
Finally completed this! It's a decent enough take on a traditional party-based RPG with turn-based combat, akin to Wizardry, Bard's Tales, Might & Magic, etc.

It's extremely linear and the dungeons are not very large, but there are plenty of secrets to find and the exploration is good. There are no random encounters, and you can see enemies walking around—run into them from behind for a free round of attacks. This means you can freely explore an area to search for secrets, solve puzzles, etc. once you've defeated all the wandering monsters there.

The progression of difficulty is strange as it starts out very easy, becomes quite difficult just a few hours in, plateaus, and then drops off the last half or so as your characters start to unlock more powerful combinations of abilities, and you begin collecting sets of unique equipment that provide extra bonuses with each added piece.

The game promises "a world inspired by Central European mythology" but most of the game was your typical warriors and wizards fighting skeletons and dragons in caves. There were some cool-looking environments later on, though. Although the focus of the game is definitely on exploration and combat, it does have a focus on story and dialog—but I found neither very interesting. Characters talk and behave either like bickering elderly couples or teenagers, depending on the character, and it feels completely out of place in a game that is trying to present itself as a sort of mythological tale.

It's a short game for an RPG at around 25 hours to complete nearly everything (I skipped a couple of optional sliding block puzzles). It's actually a great RPG to play in spurts due to there being no random encounters.

Overall, I enjoyed it enough, but would rank it below both The Bard's Tale IV and Might & Magic X, both of which attempt something similar.

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-03-11, 03:49:

Elden Ring

This looks great and I'm looking forward to it. My daughter's been loving it - she nor I usually persists with difficult combat which is why I've never bothered with the Souls games, but it's a lot of fun apparently. I'll need to wait for the price of graphics cards to come down before I try it though.

In the mean time I've been messing around with Boiling Point: Road to Hell, testing out my wide screen patch. There really is a lot to like with this game - humour, interesting(ish) quests, memorable locations, driving / flying, weapon upgrades, swimming, and the freedom to explore a dynamic open world that looks beautiful I think. But its all a bit too dynamic for it's own good and things can get out of hand quickly - NPCs key to the plot die in random helicopter attacks for example, or a cop might get run over by civilian (who drive terribly) while you're in the vicinity and you get the blame, which can result in that faction disliking you and shooting on sight.

badmojo wrote on 2022-03-12, 09:41:

My daughter

Ears/speakers test