[Akalabeth Angel]

Valkyria Chronicles.

Heard great things about this game but overall I'm finding it pretty disappointing.
-The story is pretty blase anime fare with little kids speaking like 65 year old philosophers, and a military hard-on for the Wehrmacht.
-The gameplay itself has a potential but is hindered by linear and repetitive missions, with core mechanics that are undermined by special abilities.  Scouts are the kings of the battlefield, with the most movement, nearly the best range, the longest overwatch firing and are superior tank killers when given special orders making all other classes pretty much second-rate. The only class not made largely redundant are not surprisingly the engineers, who have the same weapon and the second fastest movement.
-The game is bogged down with too many cutscenes and too much overhead. Every mission requires the player to go and train their guys and upgrade their guns. Each of which requires loading screens and the player skipping through repetitive, inane dialogue by the characters in those locales.  The upgrading itself doesn't so much make your troops better but is rather used to offset equal enemy scaling.
-The game rewards players with experience and money for finishing missions quickly, XP which can rank up their guys. But lower-ranked troops kill the enemy slower, resulting in less bonuses per mission and consequently even lower-ranked troops for the next mission, further reducing the player's chances of a good score with good rewards.  This lack of advancement in turn requires the players to play and replay skirmish maps, battles which are just re-used campaign maps with slightly varied forces or elements.

Like most games, there is some fun to be had and I plan to finish it but don't think I'll be sad to see it end.

[Scourge of Ages]

I watched the PC Gamer guys play the first mission of XCOM 2, so I subsequently got sucked into the Long War mod for XCOM 1 again. I set up some of the second wave options to give myself an easier time, and now the game is challenging but doable, instead of punishingly painful! It's good times!

[Mammothtank]

I watched the PC Gamer guys play the first mission of XCOM 2, so I subsequently got sucked into the Long War mod for XCOM 1 again. I set up some of the second wave options to give myself an easier time, and now the game is challenging but doable, instead of punishingly painful! It's good times!

I've also seen some of the gameplay for XCOM 2. I was actually planning to install XCOM:Enemy Within today because of it that or installing OpenXCOM because the mods for that are friggin amazing.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I've been playing Pokemon Alpha Sapphire quite heavily over the past few days. I've just completed the Delta Episode and am currently stuck SR'ing a Totodile.

I'd play Castle Clicker on my phone more often if it didn't overheat so much.

[NeonShivan]

I've been playing Pokemon Alpha Sapphire quite heavily over the past few days. I've just completed the Delta Episode and am currently stuck SR'ing a Totodile.

I remember when I first got Alpha Sapphire I binged played it and beat it in a day lol, I should really get around to playing that again.

My many pokemon are neglected and need my talented raising! /s

[0rph3u5]

Diablo III - the promise of a set lured me back in on Friday ... I'm now 9/10 in Chapter 4/4 of my Seaons Journey (would have gotten there sooner if I hadn't been clearing my podcast backlog at the same time, which kept me from playing in public games)

Now I only have to clear the Set Dungeon, which is rather difficult (one of the objectives requires me to be reduced 0 hp and not die over and over again) - more so since the Class Set (Firebird's Finery) I earned prevents me from carrying items of another set (Tal Rasha's Elements) with has a neat bonus I would rather use as well as the Set Boni from what I have

[Mongoose]

Would you kindly...

*shudder*

(I'd seen a few spoilers about the game, but not that bit.  Goddamn genius.)

[Colonol Dekker]

Battlefield 4. And vega conflict.
Fallout 4 disappointed me...

[0rph3u5]

Mordheim: City of the Damned....

Nothing says Dark Fantasy like a warband of ratmen looting a human city (Now if my Assassin Adept would stop missing please)

[Polpolion]

Just started Elite: Dangerous. Wow, do I hate this game. I'd return it but between the training missions, a couple in-game missions, and the game flipping out thinking I hadn't exited I've tallied 5 hours.

[Det. Bullock]

Wing Commander 3
Boy I forgot how dull are most missions in this series, it's fun shooting stuff but sometimes when I have to destroy wave after wave of fighters without any significant variation I just want to fire up X-wing vs Tie fighter.

Also the joystick controls even after the in-game calibration act weirdly sometimes, the Y axis ha problems with fine movements for some reason ( I move it in one direction slightly and it steps in the opposite direction for a brief moment, usually enough to disrupt fine aim on far targets, no problems with sharper movements though), and after fiddling with the calibration in-game and the stick software without result I tried it with other games without any issue, hell, in XvT I was dropping Tie Fighters at 1.5 Km without problems, I imagine it was some weird DOS in-game calibration issue.

Just started Elite: Dangerous. Wow, do I hate this game. I'd return it but between the training missions, a couple in-game missions, and the game flipping out thinking I hadn't exited I've tallied 5 hours.

I'm really curious about this game, what is that you didn't like exactly?

[Kobrar44]

I felt like actually playing Bioshock thanks to this thread. It isn't very good. I enjoyed most of it until it strated draggin on, at which point I would just run by everything and rush to the end. Bur then, well.. Imagine my face during the little sister sequence. Little **** would run into me so I couldn't move. I'm trying to whack that splicer with a wrench, since bullets stopped doing any damage at some point in the game. I can't even get close. Why? You've guessed it. I am trying to back away from this huge angry daddy. I can't. Why? ****ing hell. The game should have ended when ****** died. It would only be for the better.

[Polpolion]

Just started Elite: Dangerous. Wow, do I hate this game. I'd return it but between the training missions, a couple in-game missions, and the game flipping out thinking I hadn't exited I've tallied 5 hours.

I'm really curious about this game, what is that you didn't like exactly?

The flight model, the missions, the combat, the navigation, the sameness, you name it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's pretty. If you want to try it now is as good a time as any, though, it's 15USD in the steam lunar new year sale. Do as much research as you can before playing it, though. Two hours definitely isn't enough to judge the game properly. Arguably five isn't either, but I just don't enjoy it enough to put any more time into it right now.

[Det. Bullock]

I felt like actually playing Bioshock thanks to this thread. It isn't very good. I enjoyed most of it until it strated draggin on, at which point I would just run by everything and rush to the end. Bur then, well.. Imagine my face during the little sister sequence. Little **** would run into me so I couldn't move. I'm trying to whack that splicer with a wrench, since bullets stopped doing any damage at some point in the game. I can't even get close. Why? You've guessed it. I am trying to back away from this huge angry daddy. I can't. Why? ****ing hell. The game should have ended when ****** died. It would only be for the better.

I hated that escort sequence too, but don't worry, it's not as long as it seems.
Sincerely apart from the plot itself the game feels like a watered down version of System Shock 2, I can recognize some elements here and there but it has been essentially reduced to a good enough shooter with exploration elements.

The flight model, the missions, the combat, the navigation, the sameness, you name it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's pretty. If you want to try it now is as good a time as any, though, it's 15USD in the steam lunar new year sale. Do as much research as you can before playing it, though. Two hours definitely isn't enough to judge the game properly. Arguably five isn't either, but I just don't enjoy it enough to put any more time into it right now.

How is the flight model compared to the X series, X-wing vs Tie Fighter and Freespace 2?
The missions are very barebones like in Privateer I presume...?
And what aexactly about the navigation?

[Kszyhu]

How is the flight model compared to the X series, X-wing vs Tie Fighter and Freespace 2?
The missions are very barebones like in Privateer I presume...?
And what aexactly about the navigation?

I'll try answering some of the questions (disclaimer: I have E:D since launch, and in spite of its problems, I'm quite fond of it):

Ships are the most maneuverable when their speed sits at 50% of maximum, and yaw is almost unusable by design (therefore the focus is on pitch and roll). Besides, the smallest ship is 18 meters in the smallest dimension, with biggest ones measuring up to around 150 meters, so there's way more inertia than in Freespace series. In spite of these limitations the model is still Newtonian, with 6 degrees of freedom (though the rear thrusters are still the most powerful). There's also assist-off mode, which stops the automatic compensation of rotation or translational speed (i.e. "I'm sick, please make it stop spinning" mode).
As for the missions, you can say the entire game is a bit barebones. Missions are basically limited to transporting (or smuggling) cargo and messages between stations, elimination of a single, specific target (though it's spawned semi-randomly) or certain amount of ships belonging to a group (pirates, traders, et cetera) or salvaging (usually illegally) some cargo left in randomly spawned signal sources.
I can only guess what's the problem with navigation is, but if you overshoot in the supercruise, the most popular tip I've seen is to reduce throttle to 75% when the estimated arrival time reaches 7 seconds.

If you want to see the game at it's best (IMO), try watching some Isinona videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjgBlzLxsgbVuHfZPe0AeIg

[Polpolion]

The flight model, the missions, the combat, the navigation, the sameness, you name it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's pretty. If you want to try it now is as good a time as any, though, it's 15USD in the steam lunar new year sale. Do as much research as you can before playing it, though. Two hours definitely isn't enough to judge the game properly. Arguably five isn't either, but I just don't enjoy it enough to put any more time into it right now.

How is the flight model compared to the X series, X-wing vs Tie Fighter and Freespace 2?
The missions are very barebones like in Privateer I presume...?
And what aexactly about the navigation?

The flight model is more like an atmospheric flight sim. Your rudder is basically useless aside from small course corrections, and there's  a small range of velocities your craft is comparatively maneuverable in. But by and large you're flying a potato. To compensate, your weapons autoaim whenever you point your ship within 15-20 degrees of your target. The missions  themselves aren't any worse than I expected, but 80% of the places I've visited have no missions available for a player my rank. Of the missions I did take I had to abandon one, a fetch quest, because the time limit they gave me just didn't permit traveling to a station that sold the thing I was supposed to buy and deliver. Navigation isn't really bad, it's just really boring. If they added autopilot and time compression to the game you wouldn't be missing all that much and it would really cut down on the tedium.

[Det. Bullock]

The flight model, the missions, the combat, the navigation, the sameness, you name it. The only thing it has going for it is that it's pretty. If you want to try it now is as good a time as any, though, it's 15USD in the steam lunar new year sale. Do as much research as you can before playing it, though. Two hours definitely isn't enough to judge the game properly. Arguably five isn't either, but I just don't enjoy it enough to put any more time into it right now.

How is the flight model compared to the X series, X-wing vs Tie Fighter and Freespace 2?
The missions are very barebones like in Privateer I presume...?
And what aexactly about the navigation?

The flight model is more like an atmospheric flight sim. Your rudder is basically useless aside from small course corrections, and there's  a small range of velocities your craft is comparatively maneuverable in. But by and large you're flying a potato. To compensate, your weapons autoaim whenever you point your ship within 15-20 degrees of your target. The missions  themselves aren't any worse than I expected, but 80% of the places I've visited have no missions available for a player my rank. Of the missions I did take I had to abandon one, a fetch quest, because the time limit they gave me just didn't permit traveling to a station that sold the thing I was supposed to buy and deliver. Navigation isn't really bad, it's just really boring. If they added autopilot and time compression to the game you wouldn't be missing all that much and it would really cut down on the tedium.

It's the "newtonian model" and useless yaw that frighten me, the "manouverability only on set speed values" was in X-wing vs Tie Fighter and X-wing Alliance too and it's one of the reasons why I'm thinking to buy a throttle for my stick (I didn't even know it was a thing until a year or so ago).

The rest sounds a lot like Privateer without the autopilot, I don't know how much I would like that.

Sigh, I wonder if they'll ever make a free weekend on steam.

[Polpolion]

Semi-Newtonian, at best. And with flight assist turned on it won't seem Newtonian at all. The flight model is probably the least of my gripes; it's the sort of thing that I'd get used to and probably enjoy if I put enough time into it.

[AdmiralRalwood]

your weapons autoaim whenever you point your ship within 15-20 degrees of your target

Well, gimbal-mounted ones do. There are also fixed-forward and turret-mounted weapons (with fixed mount weapons dealing the most damage, and turreted ones the least). Additionally, ships can deploy chaff to screw up gimbal and turret targeting.

Also, different ships have different turning rates, and every ship turns faster if you pump more energy into your engines; a maneuverable ship can easily keep fixed-mount guns constantly pointed towards its target, even without strafing or turning off flight assistance.

[Polpolion]

your weapons autoaim whenever you point your ship within 15-20 degrees of your target

Well, gimbal-mounted ones do. There are also fixed-forward and turret-mounted weapons (with fixed mount weapons dealing the most damage, and turreted ones the least). Additionally, ships can deploy chaff to screw up gimbal and turret targeting.

Also, different ships have different turning rates, and every ship turns faster if you pump more energy into your engines; a maneuverable ship can easily keep fixed-mount guns constantly pointed towards its target, even without strafing or turning off flight assistance.

Fair enough, in six hours I haven't been able to progress enough to afford a ship that isn't more or less worse than the one you start with.