What are you playing?

[Some Sick Fuck]

What modern games does Obsidian make? I enjoyed that spy thing, but it was pretty buggy and felt unfinished, just like KotoR II.

Well, they went back to make oldschool stuff like Pillars of Eternity and Tyranny. I've yet to play them, but I've heard good things from friends. Maybe not all time classics, but good effort. And Stick of Truth is good fun, mostly because it recycles all the good old school southpark episodes, not the new garbage they've been shitting out in past years, I'll give them a pass because of that. Even Witcher 3 heavily steals from the books and the original material can be hit or miss (Bloody baron storyline is very good, the whole saving the world deal not so much).

The spy thing is probably Alpha Protocol, the game Angry Joe despises?

As for Troika, I want to get to Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines, because despite all the problems I've heard the game has, it is supposedly (with mods) one of the all time classics that gives you truly great roleplay experience. This video seemed like a good summary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFLdh7g9dBU

[Kugelfisch]

It's their best game, in my opinion. But you really, really need all the fan patches because it's buggier than your typical Obsidian Fallout. Much buggier.
Troika being who they are, the actual gameplay is easily the worst part of the game but, personally, the world and characters are actually interesting and surprisingly thoughtful for something that sounds like the dumbest shit from the premise. Might just be the least retarded thing about vampires after the OG Dracula novel.
Just don't play it as a great vidya with engaging mechanics, because it's not.

[rabidtictac]

Alpha Protocol was the spy game, yeah. It was good, but had the typical Obsidian problems. I've loved those guys since KotoR II, but they really cannot put out a finished game. New Vegas was great IMO (except for enemies not respawning, ever) and KotoR II was awesome, but their games always are full of bugs and missing a ton of content.

The combat in Alpha Protocol was the big weak point. Even for the time it came out, the stealth was very shitty and lame and the shooting felt bad. I went through the game specializing in the most OP gun types and it still wasn't fun. The best you could do was resolve every combat situation quickly so as to minimize the time spent in the boring stealth gunplay. Boss fights were shit.

[AdorableOtter]

Imma unleash the power of my inner cRPG nerdism and take a huge infodump. You asked for this.



Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
pros
+Super atmospheric/immersive setting, well made story/dialogue/etc. People who hate this game may be just retarded gay cuck. Unofficial patch is a must.

cons
-Skills/Powers are unbalanced. (edit: it's not a con actually)
-Combat feels weird. Especially, melee fights look like slapstick comedy. It's not difficult though.


Underrail (personal GOTY2016)
pros
+Basically the only real successor of Fallout1-2 with D&D3.x-ish skill/feat system.
+Basically well balanced everything.
+Basically very deep combat system. Tactics matter.

cons
-There are very few ways to quick travel. You have to walk and walk and walk. Speed hack of CheatEngine is mandatory.
-You can't respec stats thus you have to do some serious research on character builds first.
-Choices matter in side quests but the main quest line is linear (kinda similar to Fallout1,2). Cliffhanger-ish ending. Expansion is coming out this year though.

pro/con
no voiceacting


Shadowrun Dragonfall
pros
+Relatively simplified and short game for a PnP based game but still interesting story and fun combat.

cons
-Maybe too simplistic and dumbed down.
-Assault rifles are overpowered.
-No stealth, no weapon restriction or no random corporate run. Genesis version is actually better in there aspects.

pro/con
no voiceacting

Divinity original sin
I only beat the first chapter(area?) with my buddy in multiplayer mode (had to stop due to RL stuff, will return to it) but AFAIK it's quite well made.

Legend of Grimrock2
It's just in my backlog but I hope it turns out to be great.

Pillars of Eternity
It's not even in my backlog but I read/heard this is a spiritual successor of BG.

Pathfinder : King Maker
It's not even released but hope it turns out great.

Wizardry8
Maybe it's time to go back in time instead.

Darklands
For the kool nerd point. I haven't even played it but it looks cool doesn't it? [/spoiler]

[Some Sick Fuck]

the world and characters are actually interesting and surprisingly thoughtful

That's what I've heard and what intrigues me about it. I want to give it a try eventually, I've tried it once long time ago and couldn't get from one of the starting rooms, I assume it was one of the bugs. I've heard the patches are essential, which is what I'm going to use - I've labeled them as mods, which they are anyways, but we're on the same page.

@AdorableOtter I got Pillars of Eternity from the latest humble bundle monthly, so I have my eyes on it. Now to get enough time to actually play the game!

@rabidtictac I've picked it up dirt cheap, but haven't played it yet. They say that the game feels like competent developers made the roleplaying part, and much less competent made the action/sneaking part.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

@AdorableOtter
If the powers in Vampire are unbalanced, that just means they did a good job adapting the source material.

[AdorableOtter]

@Some Sick Fuck I look forward to your opinion on the game. I tend to stay away from looong game with huge background story, because I tend to start forgetting what's going on. (That's what happens when I play the big game sporadically.)

@AdorableOtter
If the powers in Vampire are unbalanced, that just means they did a good job adapting the source material.

You're totally right. I shouldn't have said "skills/powers" are unbalanced because they actually offer completely different play styles, it's actually a good thing. I should've said combat mechanics is clunky and both of ranged/melee weapons have some balance issues... or something like that.

Also, when I played VtMB, patch version was somewhere around 6 (it's 9 now). Maybe there some improvements here and there.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

So it was more about the gameplay itself and not them doing a good job porting over a terrible system? My bad.

[rabidtictac]

I went back to give Witcher 2 another shot. Bumped the combat down to easy because I remember the game being hard, but that was way too fucking easy, so I put it back. The game isn't so much hard as unbalanced. Backstabs do 4x damage or some shit and the combat engine is so imprecise that it's hard to fight multiple opponents without revealing your back. This kind of leads to an over-reliance on Quen as the most OP sign. Enemies also sometimes block or parry attacks without any real warning. It seems like anything more than 1 hit at a time on an enemy will trigger this parry animation which leaves you wide open for an attack.

Potions can't be used in combat, so you need to know that there's going to be combat so you can use them before combat begins. That's fine in dungeons, but not so much when you get ambushed in a town or as part of a storyline or quest. Pretty shitty. You can't heal in combat. That's ok and all, but enemies do a shit-ton of damage generally and 4x more if they touch your back + your default health regen is fucking slow.

So the gameplay is a bit shit. Not terrible or anything and the graphics still are unbelievable when you consider when the game was made (the reason they're so good is because maps are fucking tiny and load times are all over,) but the swordplay is bad. The only targeting is auto-target, so you can't attack with any precision. Steering is poor overall.

The story is ok. High fantasy shit and all, with a usual edgy twist to make you think about what an adult and mature game for grownups you are playing. The big book of edgefantasy tropes is to reach for a rape when things aren't mature and adult enough.

[AngrySpoonySnob]

Im currently playing Sleeping Dogs while not perfect it might just be in my top 3 games in this genre

1. Saints Row 2
2. GTA Vice City
3. Sleeping Dogs