Gaming Rut

[Akka]

So it felt like a chore, and there must have been a reason for it.

At the end, it felt like a chore to me too (though, TBH, when a game nears the end I always feel them to start becoming a chore because I becomes itchy to see the end itself, one of the reason I hate the habit of having a "last huge dungeon"), but I think the problem mainly comes from what I said before : the game becomes too easy due to a bad balance. I used crafting and was basically an unkillable engine of destruction, which is fine for a while but makes the killing much less satisfying (no point in becoming stronger, bored to plow through foes, etc.).
Which is the reason I strongly advice not to ever use crafting. And not to be afraid to mess up your build too (it's just one reset if you don't like it anyway). Too bad the game isn't moddable as a TES, as it's just one balancing act away from being a true gem.

Anyway, I tend to like and respect huge game with huge content and in which you can sink for tens of hours, so it's a big plus for me. I understand many people ends up overwhelmed or tired instead of exhilarated instead. Definitely NOT a game for the short-term, true.

 

[BvBPL]

Kingdoms of amular has a good first couple acts, but the back nine is full of bogeys.

If you are in a gaming rut, go get metal gear solid v.


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[Maniacal]

Its too bad MGS V doesn't have an ending.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Its too bad MGS V doesn't have an ending.

I think they ran out of development money as large number of assets and story hints were left in the game unused. Including entire third chapter which was the conclusion. Thats probably why Kohjima left.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I'm having a pretty good time with World of Warships. I get that 'hoard free xp' now. It seems to be a bit of a grind in the long haul, but it's fun enough so far. I wonder how it would've been as a full price game, without the aim to milk the players for more money.

 

[Maniacal]

I think they ran out of development money as large number of assets and story hints were left in the game unused. Including entire third chapter which was the conclusion. Thats probably why Kohjima left.

Yeah they clearly got to a point where Konami is like "Have the game done by X, we don't care if it doesn't have a proper ending." and they stopped working on the ending and went into "get the rest of it ready and polished up" mode. More than likely partly why and a result of Kojima leaving.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Yeah they clearly got to a point where Konami is like "Have the game done by X, we don't care if it doesn't have a proper ending." and they stopped working on the ending and went into "get the rest of it ready and polished up" mode. More than likely partly why and a result of Kojima leaving.

Rika Muranaka said the game went over budget and time by a lot.

Still fantastic game, pity that the full vision for MGS5 wasnt completed as it looks like the ending would have added another 30% to the game while cutting out some of the grind content. I suspect this grind missions were for the later part 3 and were shoe hoed into part 2. And there was the shelving of Silent Hill which indicate that all was not well with Konmai.

 

[Disgustipated]

Taking a break from games resolves some of that gaming rut. Take a month off, do some Netflix binges, or outdoor activities.

Lately what I've found getting me in the mood for games is watching Let's Play videos from some of the Let's players I like on Youtube. I find watching them play makes me want to play. Kind of how like watching porn makes you want to... It's the biggest reason I'm playing the Civilization 5 scenarios right now. I never touched them until this past month until after watching youtuber GrimithR play a couple Civ5 scenarios. He's also the reason I replayed Arcanum.

That said, there are a couple cheaper steam games that I bought, that I didn't get into. Xenonauts is one of them. I keep meaning to give it another chance, but never get around to it. I also bought Civ 4: colonization- didn't care for that one (but I got 9 hours played in it). I bought Sid Meier's Pirates when it was dirt cheap on Steam, still haven't played that one either. But it could be an option when I get bored of my other games. It seems like a nice light hearted game that doesn't require in depth brain power.

Someone mentioned divinity above, and I recommend divinity: original sin. It's a little slow at first though, but I found the combat to be very challenging (although admittedly I gimped myself by using store bought weapons, once I learned crafting things became much easier). Wasteland 2 might be worth checking out if you like old school stuff.

 

[civvver]

Pirates remake it's quite awesome. If you loved the original the remake stays extremely true to that but with many better features.

I didn't like original divinity. Too clunky, maybe hasn't aged that well. The new one looks good though.

 

[Quintillus]

In the Pirates remake, is there a way to have more than one of your ship active in a sea battle at once? When I saw one of my friends playing it, he only had one ship at the fleet active at once, and didn't know of a way to get, say, a 7v8 battle if that's how many ships each fleet had. Having played Port Royale (the first in that series, not the sequels) where that is possible, that was rather a killer missing feature for me, so I haven't picked up the remake of Pirates.

 

[Maniacal]

No I think it's just your one ship.

 

[civvver]

It's just your one ship. I mean fun wise, gameplay wise it's very close to the old pirates but with better graphics and a few gameplay changes. Biggest changes:

-Duels are more strategic and straightforward. Basically your opponent will use one of five or so attacks and you dodge then and attack back. In the old dos pirates parrying seemed much more random. I usually just high slashed over and over until the guy died or alternated high and low blows to get by his dodges.

-Ships have multiple types of shot for wrecking sails, crew or hulls. Strategically useful for capturing ships.

-sneaking into a city is not a random chance event, it's a stupid mini game where you run around and dodge guards. I say stupid because it's extremely difficult and controls aren't good. One downside of the game but hey at least you can always get into cities.

-To woo women there's a dancing mini game which is kind of dull. Not really hard though, it's kind of like dueling actually, you just repeat the woman's moves like simon says.

-Land combat is strategic turned based now. Makes a lot more sense.

And then there's a few more subtle things like you can bait out frigates and other big ships by repeatedly raiding merchants. In old pirates you just had pirates and pirate hunters but here they seem to try to protect their fleets with generic man of war type ships.

 

[Quintillus]

I'll have to actually play through the original Pirates that I picked up on GOG, and see how I like it. So far, the new one doesn't sound like it would be better than Port Royale. Port Royale had multiship combat, different types of shot, and would have military convoys showed up if you raided enough merchants of a particular nation. It didn't have a dancing mini game or sneaking into cities, but those don't sound like much of a loss (and the dancing game looked dull when I saw it in person as well). The land combat may be better in Pirates, but IIRC Port Royale had it Paradox-style (like in EU3/4), and that's not bad for a sea-focused game. I know Pirates does have real-time boarding battles, but I don't know if the AI is any good in them, since my friend had it on the easiest difficulty, resulting in a cakewalk.

So I guess in the end I'm not really convinced at this point that Pirates (2005) is better than Port Royale, and not just more popular because it has Sid's name on it and is newer. So, thus far, I've stuck to my gaming rut (and Steam/GOG backlog) instead of picking it up and trying it out.

 

[civvver]

port royal is probably more strategic, pirates is an adventure game.

 

[Halbbruder]

I was just thinking about whether I am in a gaming rut right now until I found this thread. I am pretty much in same situation as civvver: I got plenty of games, but nothing that screams "play me". My current installed games on steam on are dota 2, terraria, cities skylines, civ 5 and CivBE (vanilla), I have 40 or so other games on steam but most of them are old crap that I just got when my bro offered me some game bundles as a birthday present about 7 years ago. The games are so old, they're like 15-20 years old DOS games and not my type. I also got plenty of non-steam games and I have some games I am reminiscing about playing, like Red Alert 1, but they no longer work due to compatibility problems.

I also have minecraft, but besides some brief peeks to see what's changed (no changes since the takeover despite heaps of "security" updates by microsoft) I have not played it for several months and my fps drops to like 10 when I play modpacks.

I don't have much money to spend on games and nothing particularly is of interest, except maybe RT.

My genre interests have mainly lied in strategy, but I also enjoy some shooter and RPG games.

 

[sophie]

Have you played EU4? CK2?

Lately I've been just playing a butt-ton of Hearthstone. It's a great game to chill out to for an hour or two a day. Or just get in a quick game on the train or when I have ten minutes to kill waiting for the bus or whatever. And as long as you don't have unrealistic expectations of breaking rank 10 the game is perfectly fun as a FTP.

 

[abradley]

Gaming Rut

Know what you mean.

Morrowind is my go back to game, play it forever never trying to finish, just wandering around enjoying.

Reinstalled NeverWinter Nights today, yes the '2002 BioWare game', based on D&D 3.0 rules. The OC is a pretty much a 'got to finish game' no wide open spaces to wander in, but there must be a Gazillion modules to choose from. Effectively a Gazillion games in one.

Both games are D&D styled 1st person shooters, train the NPC, and then let the computer do the combat. Like to play PC only, forget about companions/henchmen.

If you'd like some squad level D&D combat, Icewind Dale 1/2 plus the Baulder's Gate series have a pause in combat option.

Another is the Grandest Fleet, shouldn't take over an hour or two per game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MsgyT3eVDk

The 'Gold Box' CRPGs have some of the best combat in D&D, along with the Circle of Eight modded Temple of Elemental Evil, turn based 3.5 D&D.

Hope this helps.

 

[Arakhor]

Morrowind is my go back to game, play it forever never trying to finish, just wandering around enjoying.

That and Oblivion for me are my "endless" games, so I do have long sessions of CK II and EU IV as the mood strikes me.

 

[civvver]

Idk what type of games you like but when I'm in a rut I like games that are easy to get into (not super complicated like learning civ from scratch or ck2) and are addictive with that one more turn feel but can also be played for 10 mins or hours at a time (so basically not dota2 or civ5 since load times too long).

In that vein two perfect games for this are FTL: Faster Than Light and Defense Grid 1 and 2. FTL is a great rogue like in space that you can play a few minutes or a few hours. It's got enough cool rpg stuff to really keep you into it, it's hard to describe exactly since it's very unique. But it is fun as hell.

DG1 and 2 are fairly typical tower defense but they are super well done. Very polished and a lot of great challenges. A typical level takes about 15 minutes so it's easy to play but I've done night long sessions before too.

 

[abradley]

Idk what type of games you like but when I'm in a rut I like games that are easy to get into (not super complicated like learning civ from scratch or ck2) and are addictive with that one more turn feel but can also be played for 10 mins or hours at a time (so basically not dota2 or civ5 since load times too long).

In that vein two perfect games for this are FTL: Faster Than Light and Defense Grid 1 and 2. FTL is a great rogue like in space that you can play a few minutes or a few hours. It's got enough cool rpg stuff to really keep you into it, it's hard to describe exactly since it's very unique. But it is fun as hell.

DG1 and 2 are fairly typical tower defense but they are super well done. Very polished and a lot of great challenges. A typical level takes about 15 minutes so it's easy to play but I've done night long sessions before too.

True, but the games mentioned are older than the hills so maybe the 'in the rut person' knows the basics, just needs a refresher. Simple.

As I posted, reinstalled NWN yesterday, created a Hero (me) and am now slashing and bashing to my hearts content and that's after a few years hiatus.

Best.