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[Broseph Stalin]

People said Absolution was the worst of the hitman games. But I don't know, from what I can see, it is clearly the best.

The story is abominable, the levels are chopped up into meaningless pieces, and in the game about being a contract killer most of your kills are done in cutscenes. It's also painfully obvious that the people in charge of the story and the people in charge of the levels never met because a secret laboratory is in abutment of the desert and an underground fighting arena.

And because I can't let this go: Don't make a game where the shocking twist makes the title and half of your cut scenes meaningless.

[Robsoie]

I've been exploring Shadow of the Wyrm recently with a Human Warrior character, it's a roguelike with a huge world system similar to ADoM (each tiles of the world map, dungeons, towns, wilderness, etc.. can be "entered" and explored) , there's a lot of various locations and lots of grinding to do, lots of quests from various npc, etc...
It even has a day/night cycle with the tiles environment changing color (and line of sight changing) depending on time of the day.
https://www.shadowofthewyrm.org/
https://jcd748.itch.io/shadow-of-the-wyrm

Anyways, near one of the 2 possible starting towns there's a ruined dungeon on the upper floor there are 2 locked doors, the key is somewhere in one of the couple of short basements of the ruined dungeon, not sure which one had the key i needed but both basement are good for getting more XP.

The rat basement is very easy and as you probably already grinded (they come quick in early game) a few levels , those poor rats are not going to be a threat, but the XP is worth doing, and there are some interesting piece of items to fetch.

The tomb basement isn't harder until the far west room due the presence of a couple of crones somewhere in it, those monsters must be absolutely killed as soon as possible , they're super weak so if you manage to hit you're going to kill them in one hit (assuming you have a strong hitting character/weapon) but if you can't get to them and kill them fast, you're going to be on the recieving end of multiple extreme status damaging curse and end paralysed and dead in a couple of turns.
Oh and they can move through walls so plan your way to have walls blocking their visions once they spotted you and wait until they get into a wall right next to you so you can hit them immediately.

Then there's the trick, you have probably cleared (except the infinite dungeon of course) most of the island locations so now you have the keys and you're reading to go to the upper floor of that ruined castle, you're at most level 12 or 13, you put nice amount of skill points in combat and in your best weapon, you just feel ready.
... and you will die, because if you open the top locked door, there are drakelings that even my well equipped level 20 guy (i travelled on my boat to other island to grind and find better equipment until i reached level 16, got some fishing skill too so i could get food from my sea adventures) was unable to kill a single of them, while the opposite wasn't true, thanks savescumming to make me understand how drakeling are still not something to fight at level 20 , on the bottom locked door, there are powerfull monsters that will very likely kill you.

But at level 16 and nice enough equipment, the 4 or 5 powerfull monsters located behind the locked bottom door were actually killable (and resting between each fights as they still individually pack a punch).
Throwing me to level 20 (wow 4 levels gained from only 4 or 5 monsters, they must have outleveled my character to deliver that much XP).

level 20 that was still unable to kill a single drakeling, so i ignored the top door and decided to take my boat and explore other islands and their locations.
On the extreme south west of the world map, i ran into a mysterious shrine on a lonely island, went to explore it and a pit fiend welcomed me.
No idea of the power level of that thing, i still attacked with my level 20 nicely equiped guy, noticed that the pit fiend was hurting me a lot then ... he died , welcome to level 27 !
I rest for a while to get back to healthy enough and ... a second pit fiend, this time it wasn't hurting as much (as my character at level 27 is very strong) and i killed him faster ... 2 more levels, welcome to level 29.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The tons of skill points from those level ups came in handy to have my recently acquired crossbow to become very usefull.

(oh and it looks like pit fiends are the lesser of the threats in that shrine, there are other things inside that are best savescumming running away from even at level 29 )

I'm always surprised how very few people seems to talk about this Shadow of the Wyrm in roguelike communities (making finding guides and spoilers probably impossible), i guess due to roguelike being a small niche and so most people interested in the genre are probably mostly playing the big names of the genre.

[Folly]

Orcs Must Die 3 has arrived, as a Stadia timed exclusive.

It's also one of the free games on their subscription service this month, allowing you to pick it up at 1/3rd of the price on the condition that you will only be able to continue playing while your subscription is active.


Edit:
Well, I finished all the maps. It was fun, but short and very much the same as previous games. Story also felt a bit half-assed.

My single biggest gripe is a mistake that I've seen several big games make recently. There are 18 maps, 3 difficulty levels, and 7 of them have Neverending variants. And you can only search for online games for one of these options at a time. So yeah, online is completely dead because nobody wants to mess with that nonsense.
Second biggest gripe is that content-wise this feels pretty shallow compared to OMD:Unchained, which tragically shut down last year.

[Robsoie]

Completed many more quests and got lot of good equipment by now in Shadow of the Wyrm, and some very high level monsters difficult fights managed to make my character jump in levels.
So i went back to the southern west part of the world, in the previously discovered shrine and after a very difficult battle, trying to attract one by one the high level enemies that were in it so i could get a 1vs1, some of them were still really too dangerous as my save scumming confirmed , working a bit like those early game Crones but with much more HP, despite my very good equipment and various bonus, along with some good levels.
But after beating enough of those monsters to make a way to the center of the shrine i finally got to the prize and got to level 40 from all the monsters destroyed (funny i got at least 3 levels from a few fights, while the lots of quests and dungeon clearing i did barely was giving me a level or 2, but out of the dwarven ruins one with super hard hitting lich king, holy avengers and molten demons it wasn't hard at all , i guess i was slighlty overleveled at that point).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Not going to explore the other side of that shrine as there are more of those insane enemies there, will have to do this again on 2 of the other mysterious shrines found in various corner of the world and finally i'll be able to exchange them against apparently what should be a super weapon (the type depending on who you will give those 3 artifacts).

Probably something very needed once i'll try to get to the main boss of the game .

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Foundation is a medieval city-builder a la a cross of banished and Cities: Skylines.

For those interested in building an aesthetically pleasing Medieval city it is worth checking out!

[Robsoie]

Finally completed Shadow of the Wyrm.

It had been a long adventure, full of dangers, full of terror, full of heroics , full of savescumming.

The appropriately named Number 5 (the 4 numbers before him died , poor things ignoring the power level class of various monsters and dungeons as SotW has no  community discussing it and no wiki or in depth guide, it makes the learning process a lot hard on your character survivability than other similarly epic-sized roguelikes) , wearing the best equipment he could, gaining powers and stats from potions and artifacts, shielded by savescumming lots of various resistances, finally survived the perils of the 3 mysterious shrines found in that large world.

He also survived the strange horrors of the surprisingly very lethal shrines hags

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

gaining levels and skills in each powerful monsters defeats.

With the 3 shrine divine artifacts in hands, he had a choice to what to do with them, through his explorations of the world some people asked for them and in exchange would forge incredibly powerfull weapons. His choice went to the blacksmith of Isen Dun (Isen Dun is one of the 2 possible start location for new character) as he promised a long bladed weapon (and my character had very high skill with this type of weapon).

And so was created the Heart's Fury

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 

That would be put in good use as while there were many unexplored dungeon in the world, the threat to this world lair location was known, the ancient Wyrm Amaurosis was the next target, my character was starting to feel very powerfull equipped with strong equipment making him resisting highly to most type of damage.
And the Heart's Fury in hand was like the ultimate weapon.

So entering the Wyrm lair wasn't easy , it was filled with incredibly strong creatures i had not seen anywhere, but at the level my character was and how super prepared for the war he was, those powerfull monsters couldn't last long. Though i had to rest a lot after every few fights as despite how highly strong and resilient my character was by now, those enemies were still hitting hard.

But in the end i found the ancient Wyrm

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Luck maybe but i destroyed it without much trouble (in comparison to some of the other monsters i found in this lair), it just took more time to bring the Wyrm down as i guess it had a lot more HP than anything.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Decided to not end the game there, after all there were some dungeons still unexplored, and with the truckload of money i got offered for off-ing the Wyrm in one of the village, i finally had enough to learn magic in the academy, so maybe all those tons of magic books i collected will have an use

Or maybe i'll try a legit and different class/race combo character next, now that i have learned the balance in power level for monsters and dungeons, what to fight at what level, or what to run away from until what level.

Oh and make sure to find and wear a Satiative Amulet when you're going to the sea to explore other islands, it's very easy to die from starving without that amulet if you don't constantly monitor your hunger level (that progress apparently super quickly when you're at sea) , at least with the satiative amulet you can sea travel without this trouble. Just put your better amulets back before getting into a dungeon.

[Micro102]

Finally got around to playing paradox's Victoria 2, and am loving the complexity. You have a population of millions with different jobs that do different things. Mine resources, convert resources into products, or be capitalists and build factories and they all need resources to live, or else they get pissed off and revolt. You then have to get strong enough that you can become a great power in order to influence other nations and get priority on their resources, and the way to fight wars slowly converts from Europa universalis style, to Hearts of iron style. And then you have political parties like conservative, liberal, and socialist, and while you tend to have control at first, your population desire more rights and you pass reforms or deal with revolts, and as you pass reforms, you lose more control.

[Iduno]

They made "some" changes to Caves of Qud this week. A lot of bugfixes, and added a huge new area.

[scriver]

Playing the Final Season of the Telltage Walkiing Dead games.

They tried to do action sequences.

They're awful.

edit:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At one point you need the help of a guy who doesn't want to kill any zombies. To help he needs to get back to his camp and you need to distract a bunch of deaders that's in it without killing them. Surely this would mean you holler and shout and do a lot of noise to draw them away from the camp while keeping a big distance between you and the zeds, right? No, of course not, this means you have to walk around in a super tiny area and walk up to each and every zombie and press E to kick their leg out from under them and make sure they don't bunch up because if they do they autokill you.

So you try a bunch of times and fail, of course, because it's the stupidest design I have ever seen. So you start over and start over until finally you give up and kill the zombies. And then the game has the fucking gall to berate you for it with a wounded "You didn't even try to avoid them" from the guy.

Fuck you, Andrew. Fuck you, telltale. Fuck your arsewipe action sequence design. Fuck your awful game engine.

Jesus that makes me angry.

[Iduno]

Playing the Final Season of the Telltage Walkiing Dead games.

They tried to do action sequences.

They're awful.

edit:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At one point you need the help of a guy who doesn't want to kill any zombies. To help he needs to get back to his camp and you need to distract a bunch of deaders that's in it without killing them. Surely this would mean you holler and shout and do a lot of noise to draw them away from the camp while keeping a big distance between you and the zeds, right? No, of course not, this means you have to walk around in a super tiny area and walk up to each and every zombie and press E to kick their leg out from under them and make sure they don't bunch up because if they do they autokill you.

So you try a bunch of times and fail, of course, because it's the stupidest design I have ever seen. So you start over and start over until finally you give up and kill the zombies. And then the game has the fucking gall to berate you for it with a wounded "You didn't even try to avoid them" from the guy.

Fuck you, Andrew. Fuck you, telltale. Fuck your arsewipe action sequence design. Fuck your awful game engine.

Jesus that makes me angry.

Telltale writes good stories, but they don't put them in good games.

[Uristides]

Found out about A Legionary's Life after seeing someone in my friend's list(pretty sure he was from over here even) put it in their wishlist. It's such a delightful little game. Think something like Princess Maker 2 but way bloodier. You just hang around with your legionary buddies in the punic wars, fighting the carthaginians and their subjects, volunteering to go head first into a siege and getting a javelin on your knee, and then chilling out(or sparring, or making sacrifices to the gods) during the down time.

One thing I really enjoy is how when you finish a game, either by getting killed or retiring, your character gets scored based on his deeds and earns points you can use to boost your next character's initial stats and equipment. I really enjoy those kind of mechanics where progress from one playthrough carries over to the next one somehow.

My only complaint is that while combat feels really interesting at first, in the end it just boils down to a really simple formula of trying to conserve energy while baiting the enemy to attack, then feinting around until he's disoriented enough that you have a reasonable chance of actually delivering a blow. Trying to go all bersek will probably result in you missing your attack and then the AI will happily exploit your opening as outlined above. I mean, I can't say that's not realistic, but once you figure it out what would be the most exciting part of the game turns into a mostly mindless, mechanical exercise.

[Iduno]

One thing I really enjoy is how when you finish a game, either by getting killed or retiring, your character gets scored based on his deeds and earns points you can use to boost your next character's initial stats and equipment. I really enjoy those kind of mechanics where progress from one playthrough carries over to the next one somehow.

You may also like the rogue-like Dungeonmans. You're a recent graduate of a school for adventurers, go through dungeons to gain loot, xp, and most importantly proofs of being strong (by killing bosses or elite enemies). Proofs can be spent on stat points, and half of their value goes to all future characters at that school. You can also upgrade the alchemy lab by beating bosses (happens fast, and identifies potions for everyone who speaks to the alchemist) and upgrade the library by donating books (takes longer, identifies scrolls for anyone who speaks with the librarian before adventuring, and also provides 4 free books to each adventurer once it's fully upgraded).

It is possible, but very difficult to beat with your first character, but you'll probably end up gaining power over time before you win.

[Egan_BW]

I really dislike that. I'd prefer if roguelikes still started you off on even footing each time you start, but that stuff is becoming more and more common. In a normal roguelike, the only way to progress is to get better at the game and gain knowledge, but now they're just becoming your usual grindy rpg.

[scriver]

Playing the Final Season of the Telltage Walkiing Dead games.

They tried to do action sequences.

They're awful.

edit:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

At one point you need the help of a guy who doesn't want to kill any zombies. To help he needs to get back to his camp and you need to distract a bunch of deaders that's in it without killing them. Surely this would mean you holler and shout and do a lot of noise to draw them away from the camp while keeping a big distance between you and the zeds, right? No, of course not, this means you have to walk around in a super tiny area and walk up to each and every zombie and press E to kick their leg out from under them and make sure they don't bunch up because if they do they autokill you.

So you try a bunch of times and fail, of course, because it's the stupidest design I have ever seen. So you start over and start over until finally you give up and kill the zombies. And then the game has the fucking gall to berate you for it with a wounded "You didn't even try to avoid them" from the guy.

Fuck you, Andrew. Fuck you, telltale. Fuck your arsewipe action sequence design. Fuck your awful game engine.

Jesus that makes me angry.

Telltale writes good stories, but they don't put them in good games.

Pretty much. They certainly make me wish there was a good first person/over the shoulder zombie apocalypse rpg though.

[Iduno]

I really dislike that. I'd prefer if roguelikes still started you off on even footing each time you start, but that stuff is becoming more and more common. In a normal roguelike, the only way to progress is to get better at the game and gain knowledge, but now they're just becoming your usual grindy rpg.

There is an Ironman mode (if you lose, the school gets deleted, so you only have one shot). They also have the "Pay to lose" DLC, which is all options to make the game harder (less xp/gold/items, bosses start with allies around them, worse status effects, I think there was one where your character is continually dying) a weekly challenge, and a randomized set of challenges.

But someone wanted the ability to improve when you lose, and this game allows for that.