Written by Netzach on 04.02.2017 at 07:13

Written by IronAngel on 03.02.2017 at 20:18

Written by Netzach on 03.02.2017 at 15:01

Currently not playing anything... Waiting for the release of Torment: Tides of Numenéra, it's gonna be epic. Never thought I'd see a spiritual successor to the greatest computer RPG ever made. The last game I played was Tyranny. It is designed for maximum replay value but I never got around to that second run...

I'm not holding my breath. Pillars of Eternity was hardly the second coming of Baldur's Gate either, despite being marketed as such. All in all, there are so many decent RPG revival (age of incline, in rpg codex terms) titles out right now that the writing needs to be very good and the gameplay at least solid to really stand out beyond nostalgia value. It might be good, it probably will be, but very few reboots, sequels or spiritual successors have been as great as expected. Here's hoping, though!

I played the early access version and I have to say I am very impressed so far. I hope they keep up the same standard throughout the rest of the game. Fingers crossed!

Pillars of Eternity was great (a sequel is on its way) but it was no BG2, not at all. But Pillars and Torment haven't got the same developers. It's the Wasteland 2 studio making the Torment game, not Obsidian

I really hope Torment turns out well.
And, honestly, Underworld Ascendent.... but the cartoonish feel is already horrible. I hope they compensate for it.

Written by ylside on 18.02.2017 at 02:13

And, honestly, Underworld Ascendent.... but the cartoonish feel is already horrible. I hope they compensate for it.

I don't mind cartoonish, although hopefully the tone will be a bit darker than the few screenshots I've seen. Often a "cartoonish" look stands the test of time much better than attempts at photorealism, as technology advances. Beyond Good & Evil still looks really good, so does Grim Fandango, Wind Waker and Borderlands 1, for instance. But yeah, looking forward to System Shock remake too.

Playing The Longest Journey with my wife at the moment. It's pretty good even today, although the puzzles are either trivial or stupidly random. Next we're probably playing L.A. Noire, I hear it has great writing and that's always good for playing together. I am itching to finish W3 though, so I can move on to Arcanum.

Written by IronAngel on 18.02.2017 at 11:01

Written by ylside on 18.02.2017 at 02:13

And, honestly, Underworld Ascendent.... but the cartoonish feel is already horrible. I hope they compensate for it.

I don't mind cartoonish, although hopefully the tone will be a bit darker than the few screenshots I've seen. Often a "cartoonish" look stands the test of time much better than attempts at photorealism, as technology advances. Beyond Good & Evil still looks really good, so does Grim Fandango, Wind Waker and Borderlands 1, for instance. But yeah, looking forward to System Shock remake too.

Playing The Longest Journey with my wife at the moment. It's pretty good even today, although the puzzles are either trivial or stupidly random. Next we're probably playing L.A. Noire, I hear it has great writing and that's always good for playing together. I am itching to finish W3 though, so I can move on to Arcanum.

Attempts at gritty / dark graphics does stand the test of time as well, it depends on how it is made. as an example Thief 1 or 3 might be ugly by today's standards, but the feeling is there.

For my part I finished Witcher 3, and now playing Blood and Wine. I was advice to move on to Dark Souls later on, will see about that.

Arcanum huh ? Excellent choice... you're in for a treat, except the annoying fighting system, the rest is excellent. One of the best and most diverse quests in RPGs that I have seen, really excellent.
I secretely always wanted a remake of Arcanum using Temple of elemental evil engine, as you can see I don't ask for much lol.

I would kill for a good story with real choice slapped into a perfect combat system, yeah. I haven't actually played Temple of Elemental Evil myself either, though I watched a friend play it, but I've read about the system enough to know it must be great.

Just noticed RPG Codex's "Age of Incline" GOTY 2012-2016 results are out. Very interesting article and shows that we've really been spoilt for RPGs in the last few years. I have yet to try Age of Decadence, NEO Scavenger and Valkyria Chronicles, for instance, or get far in Legend of Grimrock, but this makes me want to. I also did not know about Fallout 1.5: Resurrection, which is an original story/mod for Fallout 2.

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=10535

Waiting for Prey, Mass Effect Andromeda, and details on the 3 projects Bethesda is currently doing.

Prey does look immensely good though. As does this which I'm unbelievably hyped for.

Finally finished Resident Evil 7. The game is ok. The problem is that it's basically a reworking of the first game in 3D, except that after the first hour the story isn't that interesting and generally isn't as memorable. I feel like the game's positive reception is heavily based around the fact the fact that series had previously gone to the dogs so by going back to an old formula it's leaning on past achievements instead of trying new ideas. Gameplay isn't that interesting (not enough enemy varieties imo), puzzles are bland and might as well not be there and the writing seems to want to be serious but is too campy or inconsistent at times (so you just shot your wife you'd been searching for for 3 years to death and you're not even going to react?). It's very pretty and runs well but hardly a classic in the series.

While ultimately the game is really nothing like Outlast, despite what people say, I still enjoyed that way more. Just has far more style and is genuinely unnerving to play.

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros U... on my PC, with a PS3 gamepad, in glorious 4K. God bless technology and emulators.

Has been quite a while since I played a Nintendo game but they really have a magic that no other games have. The most striking thing is the amount of colour in them; other games seem so drab in comparison. They're also hugely charming and seem to have an almost pure approach to gameplay which feels so right. Looking forward to the new Zelda game being emulator-ble on Cemu.

Also, this track <3.

Written by Maco on 13.02.2017 at 05:11

Games I played this summer and my score.

Mass Effect 3 - 9.5 (Even with the ending)

Ending aside, why did you like it enough to give it a higher score than the first 2 games? If you ask me, ME3 - apart from that disaster of an ending - had problems the other games did not. A massive increase in auto-dialogue and less dialogue options are a totally crippling move for an RPG whose main game mechanic outside of battles is about gathering information and making desicions via dialogue. Also, while the ending was and always will the the worst thing in the history of fiction, the beginning was shit too. Whether someone was a hardcore fan of the series like me or even simply started with ME 3, a developer with any brains at all would never open a game with the biggest action sequence in the series thus far. At that point the player isn't invested in the fact that the reapers are trying to kill everyone, they are invested in learning how to play the game. I'd give ME 3 a 5/10 on a good day.

Is NiOh any good?

I got Yakuza O and I'm having a ball with it. Its so over the top at times that I can't but have a massive grin on my face when playing. I'm finding it pretty addictive as well.

I'm planning to grab another another game at the start of my next university term (which may be a bad idea because of exams) but I'm unsure what to grab. Nioh, FF15 or Mass effect andromeda when that comes out. I also wanted to run through the Witcher 3 or Bloodborne again from scratch.

Written by [user id=4365] on 04.03.2017 at 11:27

Super Mario 3D World, Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros U... on my PC, with a PS3 gamepad, in glorious 4K. God bless technology and emulators.

Nah, Fuck God. Fuck Technology. Earlier I used to worry about not having PS3 with me, now it's been 3 months since I even used wifi.

Written by 3rdWorld on 04.03.2017 at 23:03

Nah, Fuck God. Fuck Technology. Earlier I used to worry about not having PS3 with me, now it's been 3 months since I even used wifi.

This would be me in your position.

Written by Metren on 04.03.2017 at 11:43

Ending aside, why did you like it enough to give it a higher score than the first 2 games?

Because I had more fun with that game than the previous two. Because the mechanics were improved even more. Because the voice acting was way more convincing than the previous two.

It was mechanically superior for sure, but I'd say the least memorable of the 3. Actually the best bit was the Citadel DLC probably. Even though the mechanics are weak as hell the first is still the best for me. The story, sprawling levels and sense of exploration and newness / mystery make it an all time top game. ME3 is worth way more than 5/10 though.

The first was the best game in the ME series, yeah. For a while I thought 2 was, but then I realized I was duped by improvements to things that did not matter. Sure the combat is smoother, but it's still shit and not what I'm playing it for. My relationship to the series is very ambivalent. I enjoyed it a lot, but it also embodies (and is to blame for) many things wrong with modern RPGs. Love to hate it but can't help loving it.


I got sick of the Wild Hunt halfway through, and I am replaying Mask of the Betrayer, having realized I never finished it. Holy shit it's good, I was too young and inexperienced with western CRPGs when I first played it to see just how great it is. The combat is pretty bad, but that's the case with every single Obsidian (and BioWare) game ever.

In fact, the writing is right up there with Planescape: Torment. What it lacks in humour and weirdness it makes up for in better pacing. And although I said the gameplay is bad, it's still miles ahead of PS:T. The character building is fun, and it's not completely Obsidian's fault epic-level D&D doesn't play very well. They might have made it turn-based as sticked with a level range of 10-20 or so, it could have set the gold standard for RPGs.

With stuff like this in fairly recent memory, it baffles me how people can actually consider "cinematic" blockbuster mediocrity like Witcher and Mass Effect the pinnacle of RPG writing/storytelling. They are good, entertaining games in their own right but come on. I have yet to finish it, but I think I'm gonna call it: MotB is even better than KOTOR 1/2 and New Vegas.

Written by [user id=142921] on 07.03.2017 at 12:09

Witcher 1 Chapter 4, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine are some of the best modern VG tales imo.

Blood and Wine is truly great, really well crafted. I enjoyed it very much, more than Heart of Stone.
That ice effect on Aard is amazing too

So I just finished W3+Heart of Stone + Blood and Wine (an overall 10/10 game, with some minor annoying things here and there)

I now begin... Dark Souls 3. I heard I'm in for a looong and frustrating play.

Written by ylside on 08.03.2017 at 20:42

I now begin... Dark Souls 3. I heard I'm in for a looong and frustrating play.

Not really The game is fairly easy (the boss fights especially), but after you get the Dragonslayer Greataxe it's just a cakewalk. This weapon is overpowered af.

Written by Paz on 08.03.2017 at 21:13

Written by ylside on 08.03.2017 at 20:42

I now begin... Dark Souls 3. I heard I'm in for a looong and frustrating play.

Not really The game is fairly easy (the boss fights especially), but after you get the Dragonslayer Greataxe it's just a cakewalk. This weapon is overpowered af.

Easy huh ? Why is everybody saying the opposite then lol
I did kill that first crystal lizard thingie eventhough apparently it was supposed to be overpowered for a beginner, so it might not be super difficult then.

Then again, so far the most difficult (but satisfying) game I played was Hotline Miami 2 on Hard mode. So I guess I can manage Dark souls 3

Written by ylside on 09.03.2017 at 00:09

Easy huh ? Why is everybody saying the opposite then lol
I did kill that first crystal lizard thingie eventhough apparently it was supposed to be overpowered for a beginner, so it might not be super difficult then.

Then again, so far the most difficult (but satisfying) game I played was Hotline Miami 2 on Hard mode. So I guess I can manage Dark souls 3

Unless you 2-hand spam the Carthus Curved Sword, DS3 is probably the hardest of all the Soulsborne games, simply because it's the most unbalanced and filled with unlimited stamina enemies (compared to Bloodborne which is the most balanced). It has it's fair share of easy and hard bosses though, as they all do, but it has it's share of multi-HP bar bosses, some of which border on the pisstaking.

Quake Champions closed beta about to happen. Here we fucking go...

F it. bought a new PS4 that i'm going to turn around and sell in 90 days when we move... only another 10 hours or so and Mass Effect Andromeda will be done downloading. At least they have a threshold where you can play without the complete game, so when the work day ends, space opera begins.

Does anyone play Horizon: Zero Dawn? That's my next target.

As a side note, a lot has been said/ about ME Andromeda.

My shortest way to describe it... if Mass Effect's original trilogy were the first three Star Wars flicks, Andromeda is The Phantom Menace.

Written by BitterCOld on 05.04.2017 at 20:12

As a side note, a lot has been said/ about ME Andromeda.

My shortest way to describe it... if Mass Effect's original trilogy were the first three Star Wars flicks, Andromeda is The Phantom Menace.

Haha! That's just glorious. Thanks for the laugh

I myself will probably never give EA's Bioware money for anything ever again, been burnt way too many times. After all, as far as I know, most of the people that made Bioware the RPG gods have left anyway.

Written by BitterCOld on 05.04.2017 at 20:12

As a side note, a lot has been said/ about ME Andromeda.

My shortest way to describe it... if Mass Effect's original trilogy were the first three Star Wars flicks, Andromeda is The Phantom Menace.

Read the same things. I also see NieR:Automata is where it's at. But for 60 bucks?....debating.

Left 4 Dead 2 is so awesome. Just throwing that out there.

Anyone mess around with PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds? I have heard and read it's the shit.

I am just finishing Watch Dogs. I am not impressed. Did anyone play Watch Dogs 2? Is it better?

I play lots of games, or at least I used to. Recently been digging Shenmue II, as Shenmue I is my all time favorite game tied with FFVI

Also, at some point I want to try Metal Gear solid, but I'm not sure where to start... I doubt the games have to be played in order, right?