Summer Games Challenge 2016

[Markies]

- Shining Force (Genesis) - I have finished 5/30 battles as my game erased and I had to start over.
- Phantasy Star Online (Dreamcast) - I have beaten the game!
- Thousand Arms (Playstation 1) - I have beaten the game!
- Metal Saga (Playstation 2) - I am at about 66% of the way through the game. About to reach the 2/3 point.
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door - I have beaten the game.
- Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic - I have about two chapters left, but I am about 90% of the way through the game.

Paper Mario is off the list!

[CFFJR]

So I've been working on Diablo 2 the past couple of days. Playing a sorceress. I just cleared Act 1.

So far there's been clicking. Lots and lots of clicking. I foresee more clicking in my future.

My wrist hurts.

No seriously, this shit is gonna give me carpal tunnel or something.

Anyway, aside from a minor snag or two it's been pretty easy so far. My fireball blows the living hell out of everything, and fiery death is always pretty cool. Andariel went down like a punk in seconds. Somehow my hireling managed to die during the fight, and I'm seriously not sure what happened to her because it was over so fast.

This is the farthest I've ever made it into the game, having quit out of boredom twice in the past. Despite the obvious addictive quality Diablo is known for, it's still pretty tedious. It's weird, because when I play I want to keep playing and making progress, but I'm not really having fun doing it. Here's hoping I don't burn out. I feel like it took a long time complete Act 1, and I doubt the remaining acts are any shorter.

[Xeogred]

You clearly already sound burned out. Spoilers... it doesn't change much. I only like those kinds of games with friends. Otherwise they're pretty much just like MMO's and the single only thing you're playing for is better loot. Not that enticing to me.

[Exhuminator]

having quit out of boredom twice in the past / it's still pretty tedious / I'm not really having fun

That combo quote there sums up my experience with each Diablo game. I've tried all three, and always got bored outta my gourd and moved on. I think these are some of the most overrated games ever, and seriously pale in comparison to better dungeon crawl 'n' looters I've played*. The most time I put into any one of them was Diablo 3 with some friends in local co-op. After about eight hours over multiple play sessions we all felt the game was going nowhere and was boring as shit. So it wasn't just me feeling that way about it. I do at least think that Diablo 1 & 2 had really nice graphics and great atmosphere. But I'd rather play co-op in Icewind Dale or Soma Bringer any day than this series.


*Some preceding Diablo yes.

[BoneSnapDeez]

They seem to be made with multiplayer in mind. That's where the better experience lies.

If you want a superior single-player Diablo-ish experience try Phantasy Star Online.

[alienjesus]

I started up Fire Emblem today.

I'm only 2 chapters in, but I'm having fun. A lot of the core mechanics of the series are already here, but it's missing a lot of the niceties - no pre-battle window showing accuracy, attack power and whether you will double attack for example - you'll be doing all that maths yourself. There's also no indicator of how far your units can move, and more annoyingly, no way to view weapon statistics, which are essential to working out accuracy and damage formulas. Luckily, these are available online, so I wrote it out and keep it next to me when playing.

There's also no weapon triangle, no support conversations, and half the classes can't promote. But despite all that, it's a fun game still. And I'm loving hearing the original 8 bit themes of songs I know from later in the series, such as the main theme, the shop theme, and Together We Ride, the character recruiting theme.

My favourite thing so far? The character portraits for the NPC characters you talk to in villages and the likes. They're amazing. I did try to screenshot them, but it doesn't seem to have worked, so I'll have to post some next time.

[CFFJR]

Yeah, you're probably right and I already am burned out. I intend to persist though, seeing as how I put it on this bloody list. I want to finish it.

Funny thing though is that I originally picked the game up for the multiplayer. A friend of mine, who has been playing for years, was in the mood for it again some time ago and badgered me to play it with him. Since it's cheap I jumped in.

But when we got together, he played the game like an experienced player would. Which is to say, blowing through it as fast as possible because longtime players are only interested in moving to the hardest difficulty to get, drumroll please, better loot.

So he's zipping around all over the place while my level one ass is doing level one things. So sure, we were in the same "group", and I'd see him occasionally in town, but we really weren't playing together. I wondered why we bothered with the whole effort and it kinda soured the experience for me.

In the interest of experience though, I am going to try playing Diablo 3 with my girlfriend. Even if we ultimately don't care for the game (which wouldn't surprise me one bit for obvious reasons), playing it with her is 100% certain to be a much better time.

Also, I absolutely love Phantasy Star Online. That game is crazy fun and I could sit and play that all by my lonesome for days without ever getting bored.

Also also, I really need to play Icewind Dale one of these days.

[Exhuminator]

Also also, I really need to play Icewind Dale one of these days.

It's much more linear and combat oriented than the Baldur's Gate stuff is. It's semi-comparable to Diablo in that you're crawling dungeons and looting. But it's more complex than Diablo and the better game for it IMO. Way funner single player for sure.

If you've never played the first Dark Alliance, it's really a class act loot 'n' crawler. (I'm not saying every game that used the Snowblind engine* after that is good.) But the OG Dark Alliance (PS2 version anyway) is definitely a classic. I enjoyed it far more than any of the three Diablos.


* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowblind ... gine#Games

[Xeogred]

The thing is the actual gameplay in the Diablo games to me is pretty damn solid. But there is nothing else about them that stands out. Then you've got other old isometric PC games where story can be fantastic, but the gameplay sucks. I wish there was some combination and the best of both worlds somewhere here... haha.

Diablo with some plot worth a damn would be pretty cool.

But you guys bring up Icewind Dale, I think I have heard that is the series that kind of meets it in the middle.

I'd like to check out Dark Alliance again someday. I think I rented it and remember thinking it was pretty cool. I'm going to be honest, I have zero interest in the original Baldur Gates' though. Those are some of the examples I'm thinking of of types that probably have really great stories, but gameplay that isn't very fun at all.

[Key-Glyph]

Finally started up Legend of Zelda. I've been procrastinating something fierce because I have very vivid memories of confusion and frustration from my childhood. I had neither manual nor NES-playing friends, and since this was technically the first Zelda game I ever touched, I wasn't savvy to the basics (bombing walls, lighting plant matter on fire, pushing blocks). I was just so completely stranded.

This time around I'm drawing my own map which, though predictably horrible and mistake-prone, is making a world of difference. I'm thrilled that I'm already in the fourth dungeon, because back in the day I never found anything beyond the second one.

I also got my sword upgraded without having a clue as to why I am now deemed worthy, but who am I to question wise old pyromaniac men?

Right now I'm in a situation where I seem to have one fewer small key than I need to proceed. Can that happen? Will a dungeon sometimes not provide enough keys for itself? I've seen the pushy shopdude stocking keys, but I'm not clear on whether those work in dungeons or if they're something else entirely.