What are you playing?

[Legerdemain]

Well.

DK: King of Swing (Game Boy Advance).

Wrote a REVIEW.

Great stuff.

[TCD]

Cyberpunk 2077. Start is very linear. Just wanted to enter my car and went flying through the world. Got out of the car and made it back 'on surface', but the car was stuck in nirvana. You'd think over 2 years after release stuff like that wouldn't happen anymore... How the mighty have fallen

[gimbal]

Hm I went through the game twice, I did not see anything that bad. I saw a T-pose once. Makes me think you somehow had an unpatched version or something

The worst experience I had with the game was just how unbalanced the different difficulty levels are, it's either a walk in the park or you get one-shot regularly.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Makes me think you somehow had an unpatched version or something

Not even sure how you can manage to do that on Steam

[MrAnthony2021]

Continuing my one Arcade game a week for 2023 I beat C.O.W Boys of Moo Mesa. It was a fun run and gun game and one that I will be going back to years later.

[Anubis]

If you haven't played yet, may I suggest to try 'Space Invaders '95 - Attack of Lunar Loonies'? I played it for RGL last season, quite fun little space shooter.


I just saved Dino and Hoppy (Flintstones on NES)




Also managed to save princess Kiri in Legends of Kage (NES) which appears to be shortest NES game so far I've played. (about 20 minutes to finish the game) During the game, she gets 3 times kidnapped 2 times right out of Kage's hands.





@TCD - did you load any mods? Perhaps old mods or something there from previous game play? I finished the game few months ago, did not have many issues ecluding some that you usually find in games this size... (character not touching ground for example)

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

@TCD - did you load any mods? Perhaps old mods or something there from previous game play? I finished the game few months ago, did not have many issues ecluding some that you usually find in games this size... (character not touching ground for example)

Vanilla game, installed it for the first time ever on my new PC to check the benchmark. Dicided to have a go since I got a cold and am home today. Had this one major glitch so far, but it sucked as the car wouldn't reset even after restarting the game. Luckily there's tons of autosaves and reverting to one save before fixed it.

Game looks impressive and plays fine, but it's a bit weird that it for now seems to be pretty much linear about quests. There was exactly one optional quest I could do so far and while I'm not far into the game I would have exspected to have at least something else to do than main story missions by now. Ah well, hopefully it'll open up a bit more later.

[Weasel Fierce]

Its a good story but a weak RPG stuffed with generic open world chuff from a company that makes games that are good stories but weak RPGs stuffed with generic open world chuff

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Weasel Fierce

Its a good story but a weak RPG stuffed with generic open world chuff from a company that makes games that are good stories but weak RPGs stuffed with generic open world chuff

Stuffed? I wish there would be more 'generic open world chuff' in the game. So far there's only 'take out a few fellow street rats and secure evidence' that I could find. Oh and the odd loot box. The rest of the world seems to consist of vending machines that you can hack for 100 XP and tons of NPCs wandering aimlessly around.

[Weasel Fierce]

Originally Posted by TCD

Stuffed? I wish there would be more 'generic open world chuff' in the game. So far there's only 'take out a few fellow street rats and secure evidence' that I could find. Oh and the odd loot box. The rest of the world seems to consist of vending machines that you can hack for 100 XP and tons of NPCs wandering aimlessly around.

The "intro" is quite long before you get more stuff to do.

[Anubis]

Wonder what you consider RPG... just level/gear grinding?!

I liked speed of Cyberpunk 2077. Not too fast, but too slow as some Japanese RPGs. Stories are ok, noting had that 'wow' effect, but in today gaming, hardly anything does...

[Weasel Fierce]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Wonder what you consider RPG... just level/gear grinding?!

Looking at Witcher 3:

The stuff I liked:

The characters are all really cool and well done.
The dialogue is often really good.
The writing is pretty decent though uneven.


That stuff isn't perfect though:

The NPCs are lovely but since this is a bad RPG you never get to travel with a party and rarely a companion. Book Geralt travels with Dandelion or other friends all the time!
So there's even less roleplaying to be done.

A lot of the "MORAL CHOICES" are weak. Many rely on you having no way to predict what will happen and fool you by having both options be shit for reasons you could not anticipate.

Also the games are basically fan fiction. Many of the characters act completely differently from the books and the developers keep trying to get you to fuck Triss like she is a major love interest. Her character design is also pretty weird compared to the books. I guess why bother being faithful to the books your game is based on when you can have TITTIES.

Almost all the game mechanics are bad:

Levelling seems to have choices but most of them are pointless. You have to "slot" your upgrade skills (which makes no god damn sense, did Geralt forget how to aim?) and you have fewer slots than you need. So the only way to get actually use your upgrade points is to keep levelling the same thing until it maxes out, which means there is no actual choice upon levelling.

Also a lot of the upgrades are bonuses to some attack you will never use because:

The combat is crap part 1. This was partially patched but compared to other action RPGs, combat is stiff, the animations are too busy while mattering very little and Geralt controls like a tank. Luckily the game alleviates this by never putting you in any combat that is remotely tactically challenging.

The combat is crap part 2. Im shit at video games but the difficulty is a joke. No enemies are hard other than having huge piles of hit points and the bosses need more moves to be interesting. After a few swings, you have seen most of what they have to offer and all you have to do is evade and hit a few hundred times. On normal difficulty this is so dire you can beat the entire game without ever using bombs, oils or any special abilities but like 2 of your signs.
Even on the highest difficulty, its just more of a grind, not more challenging.

The loot is crap. In the beginning you are short of money but thats solved because the game pukes vendor trash at you. Almost all of the weapons you find are pointless garbage, and once you have picked a set of witcher equipment you will never ever use anything else that you find, making all of them pointless garbage.
You also get mountains of crafting materials you will never use because they are all used for bombs you dont need and potions you dont need.

The investigations are crap. Almost every single one of them involves holding down the "show me the clues" button. Then you click on the clues and Geralt explains things to you. When you finally find a monster, the in-game wikipedia tells you what bombs or oils to use if you want to (and you usually don't)

The open world is very pretty but its full of Assassins Creed style bullshit, none of which matters for the story and all of which only serves to give you loot you will never use, which can be sold for money you will never need.
Theres a few character upgrades you can get but as noted the character upgrade system is bad too.


I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but judged as an RPG its pretty bad and I don't understand why people put it on such a pedestal.
All my favorite moments from the game was when characters were sitting and talking to each other and I was getting really immersed in their stories and personalities. All the actual game play (and this is a game, not a book) made me wish I was playing something else.

[Anubis]

Since I dislike level grinding, I never finished any of the Witcher games. My issue with RPGs is that you have to really enjoy level grinding and focus on skills that will help you in story. Open world is even worst... finding who will give you a quest that might help you down the main story line... just bit too much and requires a lot of time, which I usually don't have.

Never read any of Witcher books, and I like to read/listen books a lot.

[Weasel Fierce]

Originally Posted by Anubis

Since I dislike level grinding, I never finished any of the Witcher games. My issue with RPGs is that you have to really enjoy level grinding and focus on skills that will help you in story. Open world is even worst... finding who will give you a quest that might help you down the main story line... just bit too much and requires a lot of time, which I usually don't have.

Never read any of Witcher books, and I like to read/listen books a lot.

The books are quite good actually. If you like fantasy and fairytales, they are a fun twist on the usual formula.

[kremiso]

Completed for the first time two ST games :

-Ghost'n'Goblins, that is shorter than the arcade and also miggy version
btw, good four directions scrolling, for an ST

-Jim Power, same lenght than Amiga
inferior, but honest imo; also the audio

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Weasel Fierce

I enjoyed the game enough to finish it, but judged as an RPG its pretty bad and I don't understand why people put it on such a pedestal.
All my favorite moments from the game was when characters were sitting and talking to each other and I was getting really immersed in their stories and personalities. All the actual game play (and this is a game, not a book) made me wish I was playing something else.

For me personally it is mainly the world building that makes Witcher 3 stand out. Coming from the first two games there's tons of stories that continue from previous games (and books). Plus the actual world feels pretty amazing. Coming to Novigrad for the first time and having been to actual Hanse cities you can feel the effort into creating a believable medieval city. First time I went into Solitude in Skyrim it was quite laughable how tiny the place was.

To be fair I'm also a bit disappointed about the RPG aspect of the game as many quests seem to have branching outcomes when you play them for the first time, but when you replay them the outcome is pretty much the same (there are some exceptions though). About the combat I'm not so sure because while it is possible to finish the game without the use of potions and oils as you describe it is a pain. I'm not a huge fan of using (and creating) consumables in video games, but Witcher 3 does make it very clear that you should do it and it does make the combat 'better'. Still not a fan of the whole system though

As a side note for me Baldur's Gate is a game I never got why people love it so much. As an RPG there are a few very good quests and the dialogue is excellent, but the gameplay loop is obnoxious. Move / wait for detect traps to kick in / disarm traps, get loot / rinse and repeat. That is more than half of the game. So for me I take shallow Geralt with pretty landscape over stop and move Bhaalspawn with lots of party dialogue

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Weasel Fierce

The "intro" is quite long before you get more stuff to do.

Yeah... the whole first act is an intro. Really feels like an interactive movie. Definitely not a RPG this one.

[Anubis]

But all of those (Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Mass Effect...) are Role Playing Game that after initial setup stay close to the story with adjustment for selected character.

If you ever wanted to play a character in the world out of Blade Runner, Cyberpunk is closest you will get.

Wonder if you guys played any MMORPGs. I know TCD did some TES, but how about some of RPGs from east, with thousands of stories, different classes, seasonal changes etc.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Anubis

But all of those (Witcher, Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur's Gate, Fallout, Mass Effect...) are Role Playing Game that after initial setup stay close to the story with adjustment for selected character.

In Witcher 2 you have to decide how 30-40% of the game play at one point. Fallout New Vegas has a lot of choices that matter not only for the ending of the game. I enjoy playing Cyberpunk, but it plays quite a bit like GTA. If you tell me that GTA is an RPG we have a problem

[Legerdemain]

Ys 3: Wanderers from Ys (Mega Drive)

Bias. I love Ys. Even though this one often is considered a black sheep I still love it. Yes.