[Broco]

I liked the first System Shock, it has a really distinctive horror sci-fi flavor, and its weird Wolf3d++ (or vector art) kind of engine makes it feel very different from any other game. The difficulty spikes are all over the place in a good way: trying to find the save point on a new floor is harrowing. It might best be played with a mod like this one to make the controls less awful: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=1719.0 . On the other hand, that might make the game too easy.

I only tried System Shock 2 for half an hour and I didn't see any reason to continue. Its clean look feels like a huge step back compared to the grimy pixeliness of the first.

[Dark Age Iron Savior]

system shock 2 is pretty good with some high points, but it also has a significant number of low points and playing a psychic is really unintuitive

[Marshmallow]

This review sums up about HALF of the problems I have with System Shock 2 which, as mentioned, is an awful awful game IMO (the only O that matters) http://www.caltrops.com/review0010.php

System Shock 2 is one of those games I hate with a fiery passion. It's basically my PC equivalent of Donkey Kong 64.

I actually got pretty far in the original System Shock but got to a point where I didn't know what to do next and lost interest. I had a good time with it though, clunkiness and all.

[GrimmSweeper]

[Marshmallow]

The atmosphere of the opening areas is pretty top notch yeah, I'll give it that.

[shrugtheironteacup]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Interesting. I had assumed that SS2 was one of those games that's held in universal regard, but I guess its sacred cow status is contentious. (Though, is it like Ocarina of Time or FF7 where it's still a really good game and critics are mostly just responding to its excessive praise, or is it like BioShock or Kingdom Hearts where the game really is completely mediocre and gets praised mostly for cynical reasons?)

Also, I had no idea that SS and SS2 were made by different developers. The 90s PC game development scene is really not my area of expertise, huh.
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Marshmallow]

SS2 is just a badly designed game, period. I can see why some people like it, because it does some things REALLY well (namely atmosphere), but it's just terrible to play unless you're a masochist.

I like both OoT and FF7. Well, I can appreciate FF7. And yes, SS2 was done by Irrational, the original was by Looking Glass.

Also seriously, BioShock 2 is a really solid shooter. It's the only one in the series that is genuinely good, I think.

[ArOne]

I think Half Life 2 shooting is solid enough when you're seeing physical bodies being affected by bullets but that only really pertains to the magnum, bolt crossbow and the combine rifle. Outside of that it is very bare minimum in terms of shooter quality.
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[The King]

System Shock 2 takes place in a universe where guns break after you fire a couple of rounds.
Pick NAVY.

Wander around in an empty place, kill some monsters, listen to the radio drama of how the empty place became empty.
Drink soda from vending machines. Collect videogames, and play them.

You can have a good time with it.

[GrimmSweeper]

Don't forget playing a bit of b-ball when you're feeling a bit down about the Many subsuming your crew members!

SS2 was the prototype of the open world game genre before it really took off in GTA 3. And it held enough alternative solutions to various encounters to make it feel larger than it actually was. Like it should be praised for what it brought to game design in terms of ideas but it certainly wasn't great at executing them.

[jodeaux]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Marshmallow]

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

Masato Kato also has a talent for making NPCs who feel like characters and not just flavor text/quest dispensers.

One of my favorite sidequests in any RPG is the one in Baten Kaitos where you have to search the world for every individual member of the entire extended family of a dying old man who had numerous wives and children. They're "hidden" among regular NPCs but you get a family tree telling you each of their names and you have to show it to them to get them to go.
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[Raziel]

I love thee, Erdrick

Also, Tsugunai Atonement had some of the most beautiful quests in the vein of what you are talking about in regards to DQ9

[tiburon]

[tiburon]

me, ive just been playing counter strike global offensive for the personal computer. ~80 hours the last two weeks

and i played three hours of ultra street fighter iv today so i guess that's a thing
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stream - steam - tweets

[Tulpa]

[Marshmallow]

The real proto-GTA open world 3d game was The Terminator by Bethesda. You could run around and shoot/run over people and steal cars and stuff in a recreation of LA. It came out three years before Doom.

So there.

Speaking of Quarantine, though, the soundtrack always weirded me out. It's full of Australian alternative bands, despite being made by a Canadian company. Never found out why that was.

As a result, playing the game is like being sent back to high school.

Also the game has a really badass cover

[Guillotine]

still stand by Amiga's Hunter, albeit I guess there wasn't any merry civilian shooting

[boojiboy7]

[Tulpa]

as genre-defining as the guns were in Doom and Quake, moving around was generally the far more interestingly executed parts of the game. Half-Life games at least have fairly fun movement physics, though again, not really the reason I would play either game.
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[notbov]

HL, maybe (though let me parrot the PC FPS truism of fuck jumping puzzles)

HL2 and anything else Source that's not Dark Messiah, ehhhhh

Doom and Quake succeed in having movement and shooting that feel good in expertly designed levels, which is why they're still held up as prime examples of the genre even if many of the things they did are seen or treated as outdated

edit: just let me say for the umpteenth time, fuck ladders in Source games
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[boojiboy7]

Yeah, the movement in almost everything Source is just really off to me, and always has been. I can deal with it if there is something else keeping me in the game, but otherwise it is just never comfortable.

[Tulpa]

I really like the weird skateyness of the physics in HL1. Like, the way slopes altered your movement when you hit them at high speeds was way fascinating and fun+easy to exploit, it was definitely different from any of the Quake games.

Also, the comically high levels of air control are way up my alley as far as movement rules go.
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[GrimmSweeper]

Finished Bioshock Infinite. Fuck the PROTECT THE FOO thing late in the game.

I felt really pissed off at the ending, it didn't feel like they earned the right to twist it upon itself because I never felt any sort of connection to the big bad. As in, what motivated Booker did not coincide with Comstock's motivations. I guess it comes down to whether I believe the sort of philosophy they were driving at and I definitely do not.

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

I will almost certainly never have the patience to play BS Infinite from start to finish but what I gather about its ending based on The Internet is that it throws both narrative coherence and the game's pseudo-political themes way out the window in favor of a Christopher Nolan-esque bombardment of "WHOA" and "DEEP"

Alternately, it sounds on paper like some Chrono Cross-esque mystical nuttery, but with a far less likable game than Chrono Cross preceding it
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Just another savage day on Planet Earth.

[notbov]

as I recall, the ending is "lol videogames" and some nonsense about almost literally being born again

the former is especially egregious as the game is almost entirely a linear slog and the ending feels like it's trying to excuse the fact by going "aren't I clever?"
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[notbov]

New Diablo 3 patch

blender monk lives. time to grind all my legendary gems up so I can go from chop to puree
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[seven]

[Mikey]

[misadventurous]

[tibyz]

[mauve]

i've been playing roguelikes in my off time because gaming feels kind of empty to me if there's no chance of failure

dungeons of dredmor has got to be one of the most tedious of the genre but i kinda really like its class system (well, except for the part where a few skill sets are so clearly above the rest why would you even use the others. cough blood magic cough necronomiconomics cough)

a game like that with better dungeon layouts and more interesting combat would be really cool, i feel

then again, there is something to be said about an evil wizard creating a deep, labyrinthe dungeon wherein nearly all the monsters are not wizards, thereby training would-be heroes to protect themselves from everything but magic

i need to make a 100 counter build just to check it out
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twit

[Felonious Monk]

So i dicked around with Witch3r's NG+ but other than higher level enemies and loot, i couldn't discern any major differences so i've decided to put this game in my rearview for now. Still a serious contender for my GOTY.

Went back to finally finish Divinity: Original Sin and i'm still chipping away at the Phantom Forest. This part is feeling a lot more slog-y than other areas in the game but maybe it's just me.

And i gave Sword and Sworcery EP a shot since it was on sale and i'd thoroughly enjoyed Capy's M&M: Clash of Heroes, but the joke-y college freshman-level writing turned me off immediately (apologies if anyone here worked on this or knows someone who did, but man, the tone is just grating to me).

[Ni Go Zero Ichi]

[Felix]

[BotageL]

Divinity OS seems really cool but it's the kind of thing I'd like to run in co-op just because it's so rare that that's a feature. But that also means I haven't played it due to the time involved for both parties, so...
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http://www.mdgeist.com/

[Iacus]

[Kabbage]

I dunno, gunning down an antlion with the SMG was incredibly satisfying. Same with using that rocket launcher, once they re-did the explosions for the new engine.
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