Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-09-17, 18:51:

Outside of getting bored with it, there are usually a couple of reasons why I will give up on a game. First, if I take a long break, I find it difficult to get back into a game, especially if it's story heavy. My memory sucks, so I usually forget what was going on. I haven't really found a good approach to dealing with this, especially for retro games.

I found myself to be the opposite. I can easily get back into a game I left unfinished years later. I just remember everything major and once I start playing, most of the minor things also come back. My first Mass Effect playthrough went like this. I've played about the third of the game, then I took a short rest, about 6 years, then I got back into the game with the same save I left and remembered everything. Similar with Red Dead Redemption. After 3 or 4 hours in I had a 4 year rest, then another 15 hours then a 3 year rest then I finished the story. I don't know why, but sometimes I just lose interest in games.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2023-09-17, 18:51:

Outside of getting bored with it, there are usually a couple of reasons why I will give up on a game. First, if I take a long break, I find it difficult to get back into a game, especially if it's story heavy.

This is most noticeable with adventure games. If you leave it and come back you are bound to be in the middle of some puzzle, and having forgotten the hints you've received and the things you've tried so far, it may sometimes be easier to start over...

I like when you have the same game installed on a few different computers, and you realize that on more than one you've stopped at the same point because it's a level that you have difficulty getting through and/or it's the part of the game you don't like.

I have real trouble getting back into a game after a break - I really only play RPGs so there's often a lot of story to keep track of, and my memory is terrible.

I'm struggling to even find the energy to start a game these days sadly. It feels a bit like my imagination's dead but I think it's just modern life - work, kids, elderly parents, etc. I'm looking forward to less busy and stressful days but that won't be any time soon.

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
I completed Chapter 1 and made some progress into Chapter 2. I'm still using a mod that let's you add more henchmen, It's amazing what a difference it makes. It blows my mind that Bioware went through all the effort to design a massive campaign with some cool quests and alternate solutions, only to completely ruin it by restricting you to a single henchman.

The game even looks a lot better than I remember from recent attempts. I dunno if the Enhanced Edition messes something up, or playing the game at a modern resolution reveals the flaws, or what... but I'm playing NN:DE now at 800x600 (which is the native resolution of the UI) scaled up by the LosslessScaling tool to 1920x1080 using a sharp bilinear filter, and it looks great. I'd love to see this game playing a nice CRT monitor at 800x600 to compare.

I also must mention the soundtrack and overall sound design. It's a great sounding game, and it even supports EAX and surround sound.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
I finally completed the first two planets, so I'm at the point where the game opens up and lets you explore. I decided to start at Tatooine. I'm still enjoying this game, but the console game interface annoys me, especially after playing NWN for a bit with its proper computer RPG interface. Clicking on stuff is really awkward since there's no overhead tactical view. Oh well, it's still a cool game with fun characters and lots of nice exploration.

Warriors Orochi 4
I've been a fan of this series ever since Dynasty Warriors 2 (DW1 was a one-on-one fighting game), and it's been fun seeing how KOEI has changed the formula over the years. The previous game in the Orochi subseries was one of my favorite games in the series, so I was interested to see how its sequel fares. So far, so good. The levels seem a bit smaller than in the previous game, and the character movesets seem to be less unique, as a move was replaced to make room for a new "magic" attack that gives you access to three magic attacks that are basically all just "super bombs" that damage or kill a bunch of enemies at once.

It's a fine port with plenty of graphics options to tweak to get a high frame rate. The only thing to note is the "Texture filters" setting, which is actually the anisotropic filter setting. This normally has little to no effect on fps in most games, but in WO4 it has a MAJOR impact of performance. With this set to Medium, I had to reduce every other setting to Medium as well just to get a frame rate above 30 fps. Setting it to Low let me set nearly everything else to High and maintain 50-60 fps 99% of the time (and Low doesn't even really look much worse than Medium). Really strange.

Alongside Yakuza 0, am about 2/3 of the way through Act 2 in Baldurs Gate 3 (pink haired female Tiefling Paladin of Vengeance with a fondness for Laezel!), also playing lots of Path of Achra a fun little Roguelike with a massive range of playable character and build types (most successful path so far was two handed melee concentrating on flame / scorch combined with death magic healing).

Really wanting to start the Trails RPG series, but suspect that will be one game too many on the go at the same time!

Playing warcraft 3 original cd version on windows 10. I could go original hardware but I don't find it retro so it doesn't matter for me.

It is interesting that I could just put an external cd in, patch it with an original patch and play.

The only slight hiccup was getting the fmv going as windows 10 did not install the codec automatically, so you had to do it manually with one row in command line.

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
I've actually become quite addicted to this. It's not a good game, but it is so close to being good. There's tons of nonlinear exploration within each Chapter, lots of optional quests, and quests even have multiple solutions based on your build. If Bioware had given you a full party instead of just you and one henchman, I think the single-player campaign would have gone down in history as somewhat of a letdown but still a fine game, instead of a major disappointment. If they had given you full party control on top of that, and had not locked every single container in the game (so tedious), I think it would have been seen as a fine follow-up to the Baldur's Gate games.

In 2023 and playing with the henchmen limit disabled, the game is pretty cool, even if you can't control any of them. It feels a bit more like playing Baldur's Gate, and a bit less like playing the most boring version of Diablo ever made. You can have your rogue disabling traps while you or another character bashes open a door. You can have your henchmen run into combat while you hang back and cast spells (if you're a magic user) or seek out prime targets (if you're a fighter). It just feels more like an RPG.

I suspect I'm near the end of Chapter 2, which was extremely long with a bunch of meaningless caves to explore. The thing with this game is, you're better off ignoring most of it. But, you cannot do that, because every once in a while you'll find a plot critical item in some corpse in the corner of some cave of whatever. I'm exaggerating a bit there, because the game is generally good about drawing your attention to containers that hold important stuff; at worst, you'd just get to some door you cannot pick, and then would need to go back through the current area searching for the key. It's not horrible.

I mentioned this earlier, but I'm pleasantly surprised at how decent this game looks today, though I think playing the game at a proper low resolution is important for the "magic" to work. If the resolution is too high, you get high res models with low res textures, and it just doesn't work imo. I like the clean, simple look of this game.

Started playing Unreal (1998).

I'm enjoying it: really good level design, graphics and overall fun and challenging, mostly on enemy combat.

I'm playing it on a P2 400MHz and a 3Dfx Voodoo2, 640x480 resolution: runs ok, with frame drops on big areas or when a lot of things/particles are on screen.

Only bad thing: it crashes when I access the Advanced Settings menu (tried to apply a patch but then the game would crash on start 😅).

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-25, 12:36:

Started playing Unreal (1998). […]
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Started playing Unreal (1998).

I'm enjoying it: really good level design, graphics and overall fun and challenging, mostly on enemy combat.

I'm playing it on a P2 400MHz and a 3Dfx Voodoo2, 640x480 resolution: runs ok, with frame drops on big areas or when a lot of things/particles are on screen.

Only bad thing: it crashes when I access the Advanced Settings menu (tried to apply a patch but then the game would crash on start 😅).

I'm jealous. For whatever reason, I've always wanted to play Unreal on a Voodoo card, but have never had the opportunity.

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-25, 13:07:

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-25, 12:36:

Started playing Unreal (1998). […]
Show full quote

Started playing Unreal (1998).

I'm enjoying it: really good level design, graphics and overall fun and challenging, mostly on enemy combat.

I'm playing it on a P2 400MHz and a 3Dfx Voodoo2, 640x480 resolution: runs ok, with frame drops on big areas or when a lot of things/particles are on screen.

Only bad thing: it crashes when I access the Advanced Settings menu (tried to apply a patch but then the game would crash on start 😅).

I'm jealous. For whatever reason, I've always wanted to play Unreal on a Voodoo card, but have never had the opportunity.

what would be different about it though? kinda intrigued!

gerry wrote on 2023-09-25, 16:45:

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-25, 13:07:

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-25, 12:36:

Started playing Unreal (1998). […]
Show full quote

Started playing Unreal (1998).

I'm enjoying it: really good level design, graphics and overall fun and challenging, mostly on enemy combat.

I'm playing it on a P2 400MHz and a 3Dfx Voodoo2, 640x480 resolution: runs ok, with frame drops on big areas or when a lot of things/particles are on screen.

Only bad thing: it crashes when I access the Advanced Settings menu (tried to apply a patch but then the game would crash on start 😅).

I'm jealous. For whatever reason, I've always wanted to play Unreal on a Voodoo card, but have never had the opportunity.

what would be different about it though? kinda intrigued!

The impression I've always had was that Unreal was programmed first and best for Glide. On period correct hardware, it gave you the smoothest, best looking experience.

Namrok wrote on 2023-09-25, 13:07:

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-25, 12:36:

Started playing Unreal (1998). […]
Show full quote

Started playing Unreal (1998).

I'm enjoying it: really good level design, graphics and overall fun and challenging, mostly on enemy combat.

I'm playing it on a P2 400MHz and a 3Dfx Voodoo2, 640x480 resolution: runs ok, with frame drops on big areas or when a lot of things/particles are on screen.

Only bad thing: it crashes when I access the Advanced Settings menu (tried to apply a patch but then the game would crash on start 😅).

I'm jealous. For whatever reason, I've always wanted to play Unreal on a Voodoo card, but have never had the opportunity.

Yeah, it's great.

After Unreal, I will play System Shock 2 on the same build.

When I tested the game some months ago, I was impressed on how great it looks on the Voodoo2 😀

And it runs even better than Unreal, iirc.

gerry wrote on 2023-09-25, 16:45:

what would be different about it though? kinda intrigued!

See this thread: List of Windows games which look best when using 3DFX Glide

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-25, 17:01:

After Unreal, I will play System Shock 2 on the same build.

For playing the fantastic System Shock 2, I would normally suggest using the bug-fixes, gameplay balances, and graphical upgrade mods listed here:

https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?topic=4447.0

SCP (Shock Community Patch) is especially great, fixing or balancing literally thousands of things in the game, even down to misaligned textures. And there are dozens of other optional mods, too, on that site, that can really enhance the System Shock 2 experience.

But I don't know if they will run on your period authentic hardware, so if you want to enhance SS2 then you might want to ask on that forum - there aren't many members, but the ones who are there are very helpful and knowledgeable.

Sadly, the SS2 sequel, System Shock 3, that was being developed by Waren Spector's Otherside company, was paused or abandoned or whatever when Otherside sold the rights (or something business-related), and we've heard nothing about SS3 since.

Oh, and if you can, you should definitely play Prey (the 2017 game, not the totally different game of the same name from 2006), the closest game I know of to System Shock 2, and in some ways it's actually better than SS2, though overall I prefer SS2.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2023-09-25, 19:42:

Oh, and if you can, you should definitely play Prey (the 2017 game, not the totally different game of the same name from 2006), the closest game I know of to System Shock 2, and in some ways it's actually better than SS2, though overall I prefer SS2.

Already did 🙂

Demetrio wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:53:

Finished Prey (2017). […]
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Finished Prey (2017).

Didn't impress me: I liked the graphics, apart from the human models, the level design and the atmosphere, but gameplay-wise I didn't enjoy it too much.

I played on Hard, so it makes sense that it's difficult, but the enemies are too OP: they are bullet sponges, and that's a problem because weapons aren't that great (a wrench is the most effective weapon in the game 😁) and ammunitions are scarse, have strange attack patterns and they kill you in two hits. Some of them, like the telekinetics ones, are so annoying that run past them seems to be the best solution. Also, turrets are your best friend 😁.
Moreover, I feel player movement is a little clunky, mostly on outside explorations, which I believe, by the way, are a nice concept.

Story-wise, I didn't get invested on it too much.
It follows the same formula as Half-Life: aliens invade a lab and, as you progress, through terminals and audio logs, you learn more about it; be it the characters, or the general story, but I just couldn't immerse myself. But then, I have a small attention span so it could be my fault 😅.

In my opinion, the game is ok but, without the things mentioned above, it could be a lot better.
By the way, I got it for free through Amazon Prime Gaming so it's a plus 🙂

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-09-25, 17:15:

gerry wrote on 2023-09-25, 16:45:

what would be different about it though? kinda intrigued!

See this thread: List of Windows games which look best when using 3DFX Glide

thanks, interesting too see those screenshots for direct comparsion

Demetrio wrote on 2023-09-26, 05:28:

Already did 🙂

Demetrio wrote on 2023-08-01, 04:53:

Finished Prey (2017). […]
Show full quote

Finished Prey (2017).

Didn't impress me: I liked the graphics, apart from the human models, the level design and the atmosphere, but gameplay-wise I didn't enjoy it too much.

I played on Hard, so it makes sense that it's difficult, but the enemies are too OP: they are bullet sponges, and that's a problem because weapons aren't that great (a wrench is the most effective weapon in the game 😁) and ammunitions are scarse, have strange attack patterns and they kill you in two hits. Some of them, like the telekinetics ones, are so annoying that run past them seems to be the best solution. Also, turrets are your best friend 😁.
Moreover, I feel player movement is a little clunky, mostly on outside explorations, which I believe, by the way, are a nice concept.

Story-wise, I didn't get invested on it too much.
It follows the same formula as Half-Life: aliens invade a lab and, as you progress, through terminals and audio logs, you learn more about it; be it the characters, or the general story, but I just couldn't immerse myself. But then, I have a small attention span so it could be my fault 😅.

In my opinion, the game is ok but, without the things mentioned above, it could be a lot better.
By the way, I got it for free through Amazon Prime Gaming so it's a plus 🙂

The game certainly is flawed, yes. The first hour or so somehow feels pretty boring. The aliens don't make me feel nervous (unlike the enemies in System Shock 2), and Prey's enemies don't seem to wander much, or appear when you least expect them (again, System Shock 2 does this very well, as opposed to Prey, where I never felt that the the aliens were actively searching for me). When you finally get to meet and interact with other humans, it really doesn't work well, as the characters don't feel 'alive', and didn't evoke feelings of empathy from me. The interest and enjoyability levels really go downhill in the last third of the game.

I feel that there are too few weapons in the game, and conversely, too many alien abilities. Or maybe the alien abilities feel too convenient and too extensive. I mean, in Prey, the alien abilities often seem to be designed to be the perfect counter or attack to any danger you were likely to find yourself in, and it does feel contrived. In System Shock 2, the Psi abilities feel more general and so sort of (to me) more believable, and less game-like. You can, for example, stun a Telekinetic enemy, or, even better, get it to fight it's fellow non-humans, by using the mind-control alien ability. Until you get these abilities, though, of course, some enemies are difficult or tedious to fight, but it's sometimes best to avoid these enemies until you are properly upgraded.

And when you start to get properly upgraded then enemy encounters can become too easy - the toughest enemy in the game is the Nightmare thing, but once you have a fully upgraded shotgun, and a fully upgraded slow motion (or enhanced reflexes, whatever the ability is called) then killing the Nightmare is trivial, and I use to look forward to the Nightmare appearing, as it basically meant you easily get a decent amount of alien material (or whatever it's called) in exchange for eight or so shotgun shells.

And I didn't like the zero gravity parts much, personally. Nor the way your objective markers, when out in space, would sometimes disappear when you got relatively close to a marker. That seemed like a but to me, but if so, it was never patched.

But I do mostly really like the game. I think it's inventive, mostly very enjoyable, is fun to explore, and the space station feels like a real place. Plus it stood out among other games at the time by trying to be more than an-unimaginative, by the numbers first person shooter that we've been flooded with in the past decade or so.

One of the "benefits" of Steam is that as the years go on, you end up building up quite a library of unfinished or even unplayed games ("benefits" in quotes, because the reason for this, of course, is that you don't own anything you "buy" on there and can't for example sell a game if you don't like it, etc.).

Anyway, whenever I start to get bored with what I'm playing, it's always fun to scan through my Steam library and install a handful of games to try out. I've got all my games categorized by genre, which makes it a bit easier to find something that seems interesting.

Here are some brief thoughts on what I installed and played:

Batman: Arkham Origins
I really enjoyed Arkham Asylum back in the day, and also liked Arkham City (though not nearly as much), so I'm not sure why I never got into this one. Possibly I just got bored with formula, since all of these games play pretty much the same. So far, I'd rank it alongside Arkham City; it's just alright. Arkham Asylum worked imo because it was basically Metroid with Batman... you could overlook the basic combat and stealth, because it was just so much fun to explore the environment and to fight and sneak through it. With the cool environment to explore replaced with a wide open city filled with Ubisoft-esque busywork, it just makes you realize how simple every component of the game really is. Oh well, it still looks cool.

Command & Conquer Remastered Collection
This is actually a very good remaster. It includes the original C&C and also Red Alert. Even though its an EA release, it doesn't require the EA client to play the game. Both games have modern high res graphics, but you can also switch them to the original graphics. You can even select to use the original mono soundtrack, or a new stereo remixed soundtrack.

There are only two major issues with this release imo, and both can be fixed using some free workshop content a kind fan has released. First, all the FMV is scaled up using "AI" and it looks horrible; the workshop patch simply replaces these with the original FMV files scaled up cleanly. Second, you can zoom in and out, but it's not clean at all and results in uneven pixels; the workshop patch adjusts the scale factor so that most zoom levels are very clean.

I played the first C&C back in the day, and it's been fun revisiting it. I had forgotten how good the FMVs were (never mind for the day, they are still good today), and the soundtrack is fantastic. It's simple enough for someone who's not really into RTS games to play and enjoy, but also not just totally easy.

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing
Yes, the original game, not The Final Cut (which combines all three games). I like to play the original versions of game first, because it makes playing the remake more interesting. You can see what the developers decided to change, and sometimes I even end up enjoying the original version more. So far, it's a decent Diablo clone with fun banter between Van Helsing and his ghostly companion. It's more difficult on the standard difficulty level than any Diablo clone I've completed so far (other than the first Diablo), so it has that going for it. It also looks quite good even today, with sharp textures and a nice clean look. Something I'll probably plug away at from time to time when I'm in the mood.

I've been hearing a lot about Balders Gate 3 and it sounds good - the only thing stopping me from buying it is that although I've played a lot of RPGs in my day, I've never really gotten in to party based, isometric, strategy RPGs.

As an experiment I'm trying my hand at Divinity: Original Sin 2 first, which I've had in my library for years but never played. I'm making some progress but gosh it's slow going, presumably because I don't really understand a lot of the mechanics. Inventory management is never really my thing and now I have a party of 4 to deal with - feels like a chore. The isometric view bothers the hell out of me too - I just want to look ahead of me damn it! Even at maximum camera distance I still can't see anything much and it's hard to get my bearings, so I do a lot of wandering in circles. Battles are somewhat satisfying but I suspect that my strategies are primitive.

On the plus side the Larian writing is great - I loved Divinity II: Ego Draconis and this game has a similar thing going. Very clever and interesting story telling, well voice acted, and well narrated. The effort that must go in to all of those endless conversation trees blows my mind. And the world itself is extremely detailed and full of interesting things to discover, so exploration is well worth the effort.

But yeah, overall I feel like I'm controlling a complicated piece of machinery, disconnected from the world. I want immersion and escapism, but maybe that will come in time.