What are you playing now?

[JasefWisener]

I started replaying Knights of the Old Republic II a couple of days ago for the first time in years. It's one of my favorite games, but I realized, despite playing hundreds of hours over literally dozens of different characters, I've never actually completed the game through the final boss. Maybe I'll finally finish it up this time.

A ton of really good Star Wars games (including KotOR 2, Jedi Academy, and the original Battlefront II) were added as backward compatible titles on Xbox One a couple of weeks ago for Star Wars Day.

[Tawmis]

I started replaying Knights of the Old Republic II a couple of days ago for the first time in years. It's one of my favorite games, but I realized, despite playing hundreds of hours over literally dozens of different characters, I've never actually completed the game through the final boss. Maybe I'll finally finish it up this time.

KotoRII is really good - but you can tell where parts of the game were cut out due to deadline reasons. They've since patched some of the bugs (due to deadline reasons of the original launch). But I enjoyed it immensely despite all of that.

[Datadog]

I'll have to revisit the KotOR games someday. I finished both, but my memory of both games bleed into each other, so when I think of KotOR2, I'm reminded of assorted scenes and characters from KotOR1. And scenes from Dragon Age as well (because my character builds in both franchises look the same and ran around with dual swords).

[MusicallyInspired]

I tried to start KOTOR 1 a couple years ago but....I just can't stand the pause hardcore RPG combat approach. The story is incredible as I've heard, but story does not a good game make for me. I don't like the gameplay. If there was some kind of mod or remake that gave you more arcadey agency in battles like Zelda or something I'd be all over it. I got as far as the underground city areas I think or whatever...I also remember sneaking into some base or something....I wasn't very far by any means, but I made it a fair ways in. I just can't stand that interface. Which makes me sad.

[Datadog]

I finished Broken Sword 4. Time to vent.

So now I can say with certainty the game does not get better. A majority of the time is either spent pixel-hunting for hotspots that sometimes glitch off, or running into pillars every time the camera changes. After playing, I revisited BS3 for comparison. I forgot BS3 used a keyboard-only interface, but the first minute of gameplay already felt more polished. The production values were better too, with a lot more personality in the art and writing. By comparison, BS4 feels like an unreleased prototype.

A strange quirk in its design that you frequently have to teach George to identify puzzles. If I see an obvious problem and use the right item to solve that problem, George will say "I can't do that", because he doesn't recognize the same obstacle I do. You basically have to make him backtrack all over the map looking and re-looking at things until he puts a story together in his head. And there's usually a moon logic puzzle hidden between the puzzle you want to solve and the solution you already have. And if you do anything out of order, the puzzle resets. There is no shame in looking up a walkthrough for this one.

And a strange low point for the game was how evil George seems to be in this one. He premeditates harassing people before a puzzle even presents itself. See a nice car? George immediately wonders how to ruin it. There's an especially cruel puzzle in a wafer factory where George keeps yelling at a nun and ordering her to do things. I guess the writers thought they were indulging in "adventure game shenanigans", but her frightened voice performance really took any potential for comedy out of it. I was the true monster of this game.

Also not a big fan of Nico's treatment in this game. She comes in late in the story, only gets one playable scene, is talked down to a lot, and you use her butt to solve a really creepy puzzle.

And here's a first: the game's credits are broken. When the game ends, it says "Credits", followed by a blank screen. I've never seen that before. It almost seems like the perfect ending for this game.

So overall... I think I came away from this experience with a deeper appreciation for all other things in life. There's a lot more things to rant about in detail, but I'll leave it for now and take a long cleansing shower of better games to cool me off.

[BBP]

Sorry to hear that... I may have been spoilt by GK but BS1 and BS2, and even BS3, had their share of awesome moments. Lady Piermont in BS1, Emily in BS2, Eamon in BS3 for instance... BS3 has great camerawork when you think of it, the way they zoom out as you are about to leave a scene. When you are burgling in the Prague castle it's stunning! Would've been great if BS4 followed suit... still I'll get it when I find it.
Are there any similarly embarrassingly easy puzzles in BS4? BS3 has the Fox Chicken Grain puzzle as Grand Apotheosis With Over The Top Animation And Voice Over.

Anyone here played BS5?

[mendosa]

Anyone here played BS5?

I did. It is: great music ("Jasmine"!), quite interesting story, but rather (in my opinion) easy puzzles. The overall atmosphere is OK, it resembles BS 1 and 2. You'll meet Lady Piermont again

[Datadog]

Are there any similarly embarrassingly easy puzzles in BS4?

There's a couple where you click on a person, and they automatically give you everything you want. So puzzles are either embarrassingly easy, or painfully convoluted or ill-programmed. I guess if I'm looking for something nice to say, the game's logic puzzles aren't bad. The kinds where you decipher an ancient manuscript to get past a booby trap, or hack a computer using a mini-game are challenging in an "I feel smart for figuring this out all by myself" kind of way.

[Rath Darkblade]

Yikes. With the Broken Sword games, I played BS2 first and then BS1, and enjoyed them both. Haven't played any of the rest. From Datadog's post, BS4 sounds horribly like QfG 4.5 (and we all know what a piece of s*** that was).

[BBP]

I have to say I missed that about the Broken Swords I've played so far. BS2 has that infernal Mayan temple that Nico has to make her way through, BS3 has the strange floor maze, fox-grain-chicken and some unintuitive things near the dragon machine... neither can hold a candle to Wolf Doors, let alone Le Serpent Rouge.

I'm spoiled.

[Rath Darkblade]

Wolf Doors? *confused* What game did that happen in? If this is near the end of GK2, then that makes sense - I never finished GK2.

[Tawmis]

Wolf Doors? *confused* What game did that happen in? If this is near the end of GK2, then that makes sense - I never finished GK2.

GK2.

[Rath Darkblade]

Oh. I googled for Gabriel Knight 2 + "wolf doors", but all I can see on google are links to pictures of werewolves - or, in the case of Pinterest, "warewolves" (sic).

What are the wolf doors? I'm curious now.

[Tawmis]

What are the wolf doors? I'm curious now.

Don't want to spoil too much, since you've not finished GK2 - but there will come a time where there's a wolf chasing you, and you will need to go a specific way through a specific building.

I imagine this is what BBP means by wolf doors.

Though when I had done this part, it was all hours of tedious trial and error.

[BBP]

It's one of thosepuzzles you'd better take away from your computer.