That daily game progress thread...
- Thread starter KAC
- Start date
theshadowcult
New member
I dont even remember the last game i finished...
Uh a bit of both. Like I much prefer the style of Horizon, open world, fun events etc. But I think you can definitely have an exciting circuit racer, like GRID. Forza is kinda extra boring because races are almost always the same length @ 10 minutes, with a few @ 8 and couple at @ 12 minute range. You can't adjust race length from the typical 5-6 laps, so I'm sure plenty will be disappointed they can't make 50 lap races, just as I'm disappointed you can't set it to 3 or 4. It also "forces" you into practice laps, although you can skip it once it starts. I could not care less about practice and I could not care less about leveling up my car, so if there was an option to literally go straight into a race it would make it less boring by about 10-20%. Forza also presents it's races really blandly. Just a bunch of events listed. No side objectives, no sponsors, no team management, no story, and you only need to buy one car for event. I'd much rather they have more events, fewer races per events, more money per win, and so you can actually buy heaps of cars. I finished the career (30+ hours of boring races) and wasted 8 hours of my life redoing races and restarting the game because progression gets broken regularly (bit less with the recent patch).
Okay rant over
Recently started Alan Wake 2 on Sweeney's Game Emporium and to be honest I'm not liking it much yet. Looks great (high settings, quality upscaling, No RT) but I have a bigger list of things I don't like than what I like. I enjoyed AW and Control, and hopefully I start enjoying this soon. Only played 5 hours.
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Wasteland 3
This is one I was looking forward to playing. I really liked Wasteland 2 and I did like this one too. Compared to 2, they combined a number of skills, did some re-balancing, added the vehicle and they sped up combat a bit by not making it completely turn-based to the point where you need to sit through each individual character's combat action and instead had the attacks play out in waves where one 'side' attacks all at once. Most importantly, 3 is a lot less buggy than 2 was.
Since it's a top-down, turn-based RPG, I assume most people know what to expect, and since I played the hell out of the game and enjoyed it, I'll just mostly focus on the negatives.
Even with the sped up combat, combat can take a long time. Especially when there is a third 'side', like your animal companions. Also, animal companions were useful for their stat bonuses and being meat shields, but they were annoying as hell because their are AI controlled, run right into friendly fire range and steal your XP if they do the killshot.
You really need to build your characters a certain way to be successful. Similar to Wasteland 2, I played on normal difficulty first, and by end-game it was quite difficult. Enemies become bullet sponges and most will kill you in one turn. The game heavily relies on crit damage to the point where an attack that doesn't crit is almost useless. After following some guides, playing on the hardest difficulty ended up being easier at times than playing on normal with bad character builds. Basically you need to pump your intelligence and luck stats to boost your crit damage and crit chance to insane levels.
Attacking first in combat ends up being too important. If you fail to wipe out a bunch of enemies before they have a chance to attack, you'll be in trouble. If you initiate combat by sneak attacking enemies it's a big advantage. But you can't do this when you enter combat through dialog. In the game's first location, there is a lot of combat that comes through dialog, and it makes the game difficult early on. You can sometimes just attack before dialog, but then you miss out on content and kind of feel like you're cheating.
The storyline was a bit weak. You basically get hired to find a leader's three children in exchange for helping your faction survive at another location. You never see your faction, so if you screw them over doesn't feel like a betrayal. While the game eats up a lot of time in each location, the main quests where you find the children sort of feel anti-climatic.
While the game does a good job with having moral gray areas and usually no solution to a mission is clearly the 'right' way and there are unintended consequences. But it suffers the same way a lot of RPGs do in that your choices don't feel that impactful. Sure, you make decisions that can completely fuck over people in one location. But the decision usually comes at the end of your time at that location. So whether you help or harm a group usually doesn't have a lasting impact because you don't really have a reason to re-visit the area. So your decisions kind of feel siloed until you watch the end-game slideshow that recaps everything you've done.
The achievements in this game are brutal, particularly the collection achievements that span the entire game. There is a lot of missable content and some of the collectables get locked out based on your decisions. So to get the achievements you have to make specific decisions. That kind of ruins an RPG where you want to make your own decisions. I planned on doing once playthough where I made the decisions I thought were best, then I wanted to do a second playthough making the opposite decisions. But doing that locked me out of getting a bunch of achievements.
Despite the complaints, I dumped a ton of time into the game, enjoyed it and wasn't bored with it.
This is one I was looking forward to playing. I really liked Wasteland 2 and I did like this one too. Compared to 2, they combined a number of skills, did some re-balancing, added the vehicle and they sped up combat a bit by not making it completely turn-based to the point where you need to sit through each individual character's combat action and instead had the attacks play out in waves where one 'side' attacks all at once. Most importantly, 3 is a lot less buggy than 2 was.
Since it's a top-down, turn-based RPG, I assume most people know what to expect, and since I played the hell out of the game and enjoyed it, I'll just mostly focus on the negatives.
Even with the sped up combat, combat can take a long time. Especially when there is a third 'side', like your animal companions. Also, animal companions were useful for their stat bonuses and being meat shields, but they were annoying as hell because their are AI controlled, run right into friendly fire range and steal your XP if they do the killshot.
You really need to build your characters a certain way to be successful. Similar to Wasteland 2, I played on normal difficulty first, and by end-game it was quite difficult. Enemies become bullet sponges and most will kill you in one turn. The game heavily relies on crit damage to the point where an attack that doesn't crit is almost useless. After following some guides, playing on the hardest difficulty ended up being easier at times than playing on normal with bad character builds. Basically you need to pump your intelligence and luck stats to boost your crit damage and crit chance to insane levels.
Attacking first in combat ends up being too important. If you fail to wipe out a bunch of enemies before they have a chance to attack, you'll be in trouble. If you initiate combat by sneak attacking enemies it's a big advantage. But you can't do this when you enter combat through dialog. In the game's first location, there is a lot of combat that comes through dialog, and it makes the game difficult early on. You can sometimes just attack before dialog, but then you miss out on content and kind of feel like you're cheating.
The storyline was a bit weak. You basically get hired to find a leader's three children in exchange for helping your faction survive at another location. You never see your faction, so if you screw them over doesn't feel like a betrayal. While the game eats up a lot of time in each location, the main quests where you find the children sort of feel anti-climatic.
While the game does a good job with having moral gray areas and usually no solution to a mission is clearly the 'right' way and there are unintended consequences. But it suffers the same way a lot of RPGs do in that your choices don't feel that impactful. Sure, you make decisions that can completely fuck over people in one location. But the decision usually comes at the end of your time at that location. So whether you help or harm a group usually doesn't have a lasting impact because you don't really have a reason to re-visit the area. So your decisions kind of feel siloed until you watch the end-game slideshow that recaps everything you've done.
The achievements in this game are brutal, particularly the collection achievements that span the entire game. There is a lot of missable content and some of the collectables get locked out based on your decisions. So to get the achievements you have to make specific decisions. That kind of ruins an RPG where you want to make your own decisions. I planned on doing once playthough where I made the decisions I thought were best, then I wanted to do a second playthough making the opposite decisions. But doing that locked me out of getting a bunch of achievements.
Despite the complaints, I dumped a ton of time into the game, enjoyed it and wasn't bored with it.
theshadowcult
New member
in a line up of all the ttrpgs you have played, where would you put wasteland 3?
Finished Alan Wake 2. Didn't really enjoy it. Sort of okay as a survival horror shooter but is sparse with combat that's doesn't evovle or become that fun, atmosphere ruined by jumpscares, story too concerned about being layered, meta references are cringe, mind place is boring and badly implemented, and the pacing is sluggish.
Writer's room is a neat idea that is not always used well. Some parts of the story are good (Alice wake / mirroring). Looks pretty great most of the time at least. 6-7/10 range for me. probably my least favorite from Remedy (either this or QB)
Writer's room is a neat idea that is not always used well. Some parts of the story are good (Alice wake / mirroring). Looks pretty great most of the time at least. 6-7/10 range for me. probably my least favorite from Remedy (either this or QB)
That's a tough one. I'm not sure I'm the one to ask because I really haven't played that many. Particularly the modern ones (I still have the Pillars of Eternity series and Pathfinder in my queue, I haven't played Baldur's Gate, or ATOM RPG). I'm just way behind on the games that take huge time investments. Probably the only other TTRPG I've played recently was Shadowrun. I liked Wasteland better.
I put like 180 hours into it, so obviously I enjoyed it. I guess I can just try to give some more general thoughts about it's RPG elements:
On story, I'd probably put it on the weaker side just because the game often doesn't take itself seriously, but at the same time that is part of the game's charm. And, like I said, I found the major plot quests to be a bit anti-climatic.
The game is combat heavy. While it does have dialog options for a lot of quests, and you can avoid the last battle with a dialog skill-check, you're doing way more fighting. There are two dialog skills (basically polite and mean) and you can use them for some extra options and rewards and avoid some combat. But that's as far as it goes. There's a charisma stat but it has nothing to do with personality (charisma affects combat). So if you're the type of purist that doesn't think an RPG is a real RPG unless you can talk your way though the entire game and not fight, then Wasteland 3 isn't for you.
I do think that the fact that it is different than the standard high fantasy setting is a bonus.
The character builds end up feeling sort of the same because of how important it becomes to focus on certain stats. You have to max out coordination on everybody for action points. Then you basically want Intelligence, Luck and awareness for ranged weapons and Intelligence Luck and Strength for melee characters. Then you just give each character different weapon types and fill out the other skills (lockpicking, explosives, etc.) to cover everything.
Your party has 4 characters that you build, so they are blank slates with no characterizations. Then you can bring along 2 more characters that you find out of 8 available. They have some personality, but there isn't a lot of interaction and they don't play a huge part in dialog. The game also doesn't have party member quest lines like Dragon Age.
There aren't a ton of weapon and armor types available. There are no classes. The only limitations for weapons are your skills and some armor has a strength limitation. There is a weapon and armor mod system, but it's not complex. It's just a skill check and then you can add items for some stat bonuses.
The game isn't super complex. You don't need to have a deep understanding of the tabletop systems or math or anything. Like I said, it's combat heavy, and while there is dialog and stuff to read, you aren't going to be reading reams of text. And that suits me just fine.
theshadowcult
New member
Thanks for that. Doesnt really sound like its for me. Even though i do like combat in turn based rpgs. You may like pillars of eternity then too, as its also super combat focused, and the story while taking itself seriously, really took a second place. The sequel though was much more balanced in most ways.
Robocop - decent game but a bit slow for me
COD MW3 SP - worst campaign ever
WRC - great racing but management shit needs to go
Forza 8 - whatever boring af racing
Spiderman 2 - 1 trophy away from platinum; dope af game
SF6 - due to poor health my reflex suck so shelving for now
Starfield - need to get back to it - was decent for a bit
Alan Wake 2 - started decent but got boring af
What was supposed to be a great gaming season became a season full of mediocrity. Surprisingly had more fun with Ass Creed Mirage, Spider Man 2 and Motorfest than all these games I pre ordered.
COD MW3 SP - worst campaign ever
WRC - great racing but management shit needs to go
Forza 8 - whatever boring af racing
Spiderman 2 - 1 trophy away from platinum; dope af game
SF6 - due to poor health my reflex suck so shelving for now
Starfield - need to get back to it - was decent for a bit
Alan Wake 2 - started decent but got boring af
What was supposed to be a great gaming season became a season full of mediocrity. Surprisingly had more fun with Ass Creed Mirage, Spider Man 2 and Motorfest than all these games I pre ordered.
Not much to say really. Franchise trying to go back to the old days, kinda succeeds in some areas. It's in that middle range where it becomes a bit forgettable
Drexion
Well-known member
Completed Alan Wake 2. Visuals were top notch and in some areas arguably the best ever in a video game (despite the northlight engine's tendency to output a slightly blurry image made worse by DLSS). Gameplay (third person shooter) was mid tier clunky but good enough for the exploration and plot which the game was more focused on. Unlike most I actually enjoyed the use of the story board, placing and connecting clues on it. Also enjoyed Saga's story more than Alan's, because hers is mostly grounded in reality.
It's development was clearly and heavily influenced by other titles (like Resident Evil). For fans of the Remedy Universe it's a must buy. If you haven't picked it up yet, I'd say it's worth the experience when it reaches 25-30 bucks.
It's development was clearly and heavily influenced by other titles (like Resident Evil). For fans of the Remedy Universe it's a must buy. If you haven't picked it up yet, I'd say it's worth the experience when it reaches 25-30 bucks.
theshadowcult
New member
how is the combat in 2? i never finished 1 because i hated the damn flashlight too much. Even though i loved the game, it just drove me crazy. Is it better in 2? im a big remedy fan, and i think im gonna go back and try 1 again, but im hoping 2 is less troublesome.
Drexion
Well-known member
Feels clunky due to your slow movement speed. The flashlight is even worse in this one as they lowered the time the beam is active, often you now need to use two battery charges to complete one action.
There's typical third person shooting, a dodge while standing, a dodge while on the ground (roll), and items you can use/throw (eg. flares). It's not bad but not good, it's serviceable enough to get you though the game which contains a lot of non-combat periods of time.
Outside the slow movement speed, clunky combat and annoying 'full screen jump scares' it was pretty much Resident-Evil-lite in the Remedy Universe. If you enjoyed the RE games you'd enjoy this one.
Combat is more like the new RE remakes, so a bit slower and clunkier, with a dodge. Flashlight is similar but with quirks. You don't actually need to use it for most combat scenarios when playing as Saga. You do need it on Alan's side but some of the targets are not threats. Most combat encounters are only 2-3 enemies, so it's going for that intimate action. I don't think the combat is great personally but there also isn't much of it, which is both good and bad.