newtmonkey wrote on 2023-10-01, 09:03:

Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition Completed! […]
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Neverwinter Nights: Diamond Edition
Completed!

I've given this game so many attempts over the years, beginning with when the game was released back in 2002, but always got really bored with the large maps full of trapped and locked chests that contain mostly trash, the lack of party control (or even a party really), and the repetitive structure where each chapter has you working out of hub to gather three or four magical doodads located in areas in each of the cardinal directions from the hub. So it feels great to have finally completed the original campaign!

I played as a half-orc barbarian, and he ended up being a pretty powerful character. I also installed a mod that allows you have more than one henchman in your party, which resolves the biggest issue I have with the game. I had Tomi around just to disarms traps and pick locks, Linu for healing, Sharwyn for support, and Grimgnaw to help with combat. Even though you can't control any of them, just being able to have a full party like this improves the game a lot; the game goes from tedious to actually decent.

It's too bad that the game has such major issues, because there's some good stuff in here. There are lots of optional side quests, and they are almost always a bit more interesting than "kill 10 wolves" or whatever. Lots of quests even have multiple solutions, based on your build. It also has a really good soundtrack, and although the graphics are quite plain, I ended up growing fond of how the game looks when running at its "intended" resolution of 800x600.

It's a fantastic engine for an RPG, so I'm looking forward to the official expansions to see if Bioware improved things. I'm also really looking forward to some of the user modules (Swordflight is supposed to be excellent). However, I'll be taking a break from NWN to play something else before I try any other modules.

Congrats! This game is in my library, but never felt motivated enough to try it due to some of your original issues. But now I'm more likely to try it with the mod you suggested.

I'm still working on Metro: Exodus. I believe I am nearing the end. I am in Taiga and just found Alyosha, then we got separated and I'm fighting the giant bear. This series is a favorite of mine, and so far the 3rd installment is my favorite. I love the diverse outdoor environments and the different seasons. In other words, it's not 100% snow or underground tunnels. 🤣. I'm also playing the enhanced version with ray tracing, which has very little performance impact on my entry-level RTX2060. There are occasional dips in framerate into the low to mid 40s, but for the most part it's pegged at 60fps vsync. I'm almost 23 hours in, so I expect to be finished by 30 hours or so. One thing I'm not crazy about is some of the complex keyboard shortcuts for various things I don't use that often. For example, it took me several tries to remember how to charge my battery, or pump the air rifle, or change a throwing item. Those are things I haven't done often in the game, so when I have to do them, it takes several trips to the controls section of the options menu or even googling.

I do enjoy all the extended dialogs between NPCs. You can stick around as long as you want when NPCs are talking to each other. I'm actually quite shocked how much dialog they have in this game. You can literally spend 10 minutes listening to an NPC go on and on about various topics, but if you've had enough and walk away, it doesn't hurt anything. Some of it is supplemental info or background story, so it can be interesting to hang around and listen.

One thing that bugs me a little is they apparently used some voice actors with good, but not perfect, fake Russian accents. 'Artyom' and 'Alyosha' are two commonly used words in the game and it's obvious if the person voicing those names is Russian or not.

clueless1 wrote on 2023-10-01, 12:49:

Congrats! This game is in my library, but never felt motivated enough to try it due to some of your original issues. But now I'm more likely to try it with the mod you suggested.

Thanks! Here is more information on that mod, if you ever decide to give NWN another try:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filede … /?id=2199885441
(although this guide is for the Enhanced Edition, it works 100% for Diamond Edition)

Pillars of Eternity
Now that I've completed several of the games that inspired this, I decided to give it another chance. I started over and decided I'd completely ignore the companions, in favor of "hiring" (creating) a full party of adventurers ASAP. If you gather absolutely everything you can find along the way to the first town, you end up with just enough to create five characters. I went with my standard AD&D party of two tanks (fighter, paladin), a rogue (archer), a priest, and two spellcasters (wizard, druid).

Just this alone has made the game so much more enjoyable. I've never liked having premade characters forced on me in computer RPGs, because it never feels like I'm using "my" party. I think the only exception is Planescape: Torment, because the companions are so cool and unique.

I took my ragtag group of level 1 adventurers through the temple below Gilded Vale and was able to get through just barely. I think I still don't get the combat in this game, or perhaps the temple is meant for a higher level party... because the monsters here seemed almost overwhelmingly difficult at times. It's difficult to know what's going on even with liberal use of autopause, because there are so many resistances to track and also the engagement/disengagement system keeping most of your characters where they are once in melee.

The developers tried to make every class "interesting" with tons of abilities and powers, but it actually ends up making every class feel kind of the same. It maybe makes sense in a pen and paper RPG to give each player a bunch of options other than "hit it with my sword," but imo does not make much sense in a computer RPG where you are controlling a party yourself.

Having said that, I'm enjoying this. The backgrounds are very nice, and I like all the options you have to solve quests based on your build.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-10-02, 09:28:

Pillars of Eternity Now that I've completed several of the games that inspired this, I decided to give it another chance. I sta […]
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Pillars of Eternity
Now that I've completed several of the games that inspired this, I decided to give it another chance. I started over and decided I'd completely ignore the companions, in favor of "hiring" (creating) a full party of adventurers ASAP. If you gather absolutely everything you can find along the way to the first town, you end up with just enough to create five characters. I went with my standard AD&D party of two tanks (fighter, paladin), a rogue (archer), a priest, and two spellcasters (wizard, druid).

Just this alone has made the game so much more enjoyable. I've never liked having premade characters forced on me in computer RPGs, because it never feels like I'm using "my" party. I think the only exception is Planescape: Torment, because the companions are so cool and unique.

I took my ragtag group of level 1 adventurers through the temple below Gilded Vale and was able to get through just barely. I think I still don't get the combat in this game, or perhaps the temple is meant for a higher level party... because the monsters here seemed almost overwhelmingly difficult at times. It's difficult to know what's going on even with liberal use of autopause, because there are so many resistances to track and also the engagement/disengagement system keeping most of your characters where they are once in melee.

The developers tried to make every class "interesting" with tons of abilities and powers, but it actually ends up making every class feel kind of the same. It maybe makes sense in a pen and paper RPG to give each player a bunch of options other than "hit it with my sword," but imo does not make much sense in a computer RPG where you are controlling a party yourself.

Having said that, I'm enjoying this. The backgrounds are very nice, and I like all the options you have to solve quests based on your build.

You are in for a fun ride 😀 I really loved my playthrough of this game.

Sagani is the best companion. Sagani is life, Sagani is love.

Pillars of Eternity
This game finally clicked, and I became addicted to it. I started with most of the autopause options enabled, but one-by-one turned off the options I found to be annoying, and now the combat makes a lot of sense. I still have the "auto slow" option enabled for combat, though I could probably turn that off.

All the weird resistances and saving throws threw me for a loop, but it's not really that much different from Baldur's Gate. One thing that is really cool about this game is that hovering the mouse cursor over an enemy will give you its stats. It all starts out as unknown, but as you kill more of each type of enemy, you unlock more information. Eventually, full resistance information becomes available. You could probably just ignore that, too, since the ultra-detailed combat log tells you everything you'd need to know. So far, it's enough to just have a good mix of weapon types.

I gave everyone in my mid and back rows bows, and so far between that and my front line, it's enough for most encounters on normal. If I run into a particularly tough encounter, that's when I pause the game and look through my special abilities to see what might help. Even at low level, characters in this game are very hardy and can take a good deal of damage before they fall.

I'm not sure what I think about the engagement mechanic. Any character engaged in melee combat is basically stuck there until he or the enemy falls. You can attempt to move from engagement, but the enemy gets a free powerful attack if you do so. There are some abilities you can unlock to help get around it, but it's a bit too fiddly in a real time with pause game imo. It works fine when you are trying to have your frontline protect the characters behind them, but I've run into some weird issues. Sometimes enemies seem to ignore engagement and just run single-mindedly after a certain (weak) target. Other enemies can just teleport into your rear lines, so if you aren't prepared it's a disaster. And yet other times, pathfinding issues will screw everything up; I can't count the number of times I've ordered my rear lines to attack with bows, only to have them run into melee for some reason... which now means they are engaged/locked in melee. A total disaster when that happens!

Anyway, I'm enjoying this! The field maps are smaller (and there are less of them) but more interesting to explore than those in Baldur's Gate, but have a similar feel. There's also a nice mix of overland exploration, dungeon delving, and town stuff. Hopefully the game stays this good til the end!

Pillars of Eternity
I cleared Act 1 and started exploring the hub town (somewhat similar to Baldur's Gate in BG1). Unlike with BG1, I've been fully exploring all the wilderness areas, since they are smaller (and fewer) and always have something of interest in them. It also helps that the game has a built-in "fast mode" that lets your party zoom around the screen very quickly.

I'm playing on Normal, and so far my BG1 strategy of having a couple of frontline fighters engage enemies while the rest of my party hangs back with bows and spells is working fine.

I don't find magic to be very useful yet, and my spellcasters are just so much more effective at being archers who just occasionally cast spells. Casting spells seem to be pretty risky, because enemies almost always will disengage successfully from my fighters and head straight to the spellcaster, and will usually close the distance before he can even cast his spell. I don't know if it's an issue with spells taking too long to cast, or enemies being able to react instantly with seemingly no penalty.

Anyway, I ended up replacing my Druid with a frontline Barbarian, so now I'm running a Fighter, Paladin, Barbarian in front, and a Rogue, Cleric, and Wizard in back.

So, I'm still plowing through Doom Eternal. I'm about 75% through the main campaign, playing on the default Hurt Me Plenty. I will finish it on this skill level, and will get 100% of the collectibles, as its flaws are not so bad for me to drop it in the middle. I don't think I will ever play on harder difficulties, as I don't need the extra grind. I won't be hunting for 'achievements' and will probably take a break before trying the DLC campaigns.

Incidentally, I looked through my Doom (2016) profile and noticed that I had one weapon point missing in one level. So I replayed that level to get it. This brought back memories. What can I say - the combat is definitely simpler, far less scripted, more free-flowing than Eternal.

gerry wrote on 2023-09-28, 10:49:

choosing to play something next is tricky, i kind of want to avoid gta 5 (which i played a bit before) for now and maybe will go back in time to something late 90s, maybe one of the fps games i never completed - Sin, Kingpin, Unreal

First i tried to pick up from a save game in NOLF and giving up again - a game that is very good and occasionally frustrating and at the same time not as engaging as it ought to be!

so i tried SiN next, its how i remember - fast action packed and played for laughs not trying to be serious. there is considerable 'platformer' action here and there too. overall though its just ok, good fun and but not such fun that you want to try the next level and the next

You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. 😀

Now playing :
Ion Fury: Aftershock

Release Trailer

After years of delay, this has finally been released. Very excited to play it. I dig the new soundtrack. Also spent a lot of tims playing with toilets, taking all the alcohol I cound find (hey, my health was really low, I swear ! ), playing pool, and searching for secrets instead of focusing on combat. Good times !

xcomcmdr wrote on 2023-10-04, 17:07:

You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. 😀

I second that. Btw NOLF is one of the games that are oänot available from any game stores last I checked. Something to do with the licencing.

Atm I'm playing breath of fire on my SNES with FXPak.

Joakim wrote on 2023-10-05, 16:08:

xcomcmdr wrote on 2023-10-04, 17:07:

You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. 😀

I second that. Btw NOLF is one of the games that are oänot available from any game stores last I checked. Something to do with the licencing.

Atm I'm playing breath of fire on my SNES with FXPak.

yea rightsholders are held by three major corps.
Activision (Sierra) publishing rights
20th century studios or fox corp (Fox Interactive) trademark, though I remember seeing Nightdive held the trademark years ago when they released a poster of NOLF - nevermind its been abandoned https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=do … 4810:l32vn2.2.3
Warner Bros (monolith) copyright

xcomcmdr wrote on 2023-10-04, 17:07:

You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. :) […]
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You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. 😀

Now playing :
Ion Fury: Aftershock

Release Trailer

After years of delay, this has finally been released. Very excited to play it. I dig the new soundtrack. Also spent a lot of tims playing with toilets, taking all the alcohol I cound find (hey, my health was really low, I swear ! ), playing pool, and searching for secrets instead of focusing on combat. Good times !

Ion Fury Aftershock uses a myriad of licenses, like Eduke32 and the Build Engine (I wished they had delved into its successor Build2). Technically the source to IFA is source available (GNU GPLv2 with Build Engine License Exception)

I started playing The 13th Doll, which I didn't even realize I owned on GOG. Sales have a way of doing that. It's a fan sequel to The 7th Guest which was granted the ability to tie directly into the first game, and they even brought back the actor for Stauf. Seems to ignore The 11th Hour thankfully.

It's kind of amazing. It's terrible in all the same ways 7th Guest was terrible, and I can't tell if it's because the creators are bad at making games in all the same ways, or if it was really just that much attention to detail copying 7th Guest. Like, the acting is hammy and overdone exactly like 7th Guest. The actors are green screened into the game awkwardly and with visible artifacting just like 7th Guest. The game is full of unskippable cutscenes, including room transitions, just like 7th Guest.

Then of course it apes the exact same game structure. Solve puzzle, get FMV. Also has the exact same icons for navigation and interaction which was a nice touch.

I do enjoy that this mansion is fully 3d rendered, and you can freely walk around each room. Curiously the rooms are rendered with approximately the same degree of fidelity that the original rooms were rendered in? At least it feels that way. It's probably better rendered than my memory serves. Even so, lots of low res textures, low poly models, etc. But it feels right. It feels like it's the same mansion as 7th Guest, just with more degrees of freedom. I'm not sure a fully modern, AAA, 60GB of assets, raytraced mansion would have been as nostalgic.

You get to pick from one of two characters, and presumably you play through both to get the full story. I wrapped up one just now and enjoyed it well enough. Took me about 4 hours, although my color blindness caused me to just look up the solution to one puzzle. Even looking up the solution directly, it took me a few tries to input it correctly on account of the color blindness. I have no shame in cheating through that one. Physically impossible for me.

All in all, if you have any fondness for The 7th Guest at all, I'd give it a soft recommend. If you weren't a kid experiencing FMV for the first time on your 486 with your fancy new CD-ROM in 1994 or whenever, it's probably a pass.

Joakim wrote on 2023-10-05, 16:08:

xcomcmdr wrote on 2023-10-04, 17:07:

You'll enjoy NOLF2 more, it's a more refined game. Although I loved NOLF1 immensely. 😀

I second that. Btw NOLF is one of the games that are oänot available from any game stores last I checked. Something to do with the licencing.

I also prefer NOLF 2 to the original game. Meaning that there are three people on this forum that feel this way, which might be a world record, since as far as I can tell, almost everyone else seems to prefer the first game (which admittedly is also really good). It's a shame (and a mystery) that they never gave us a NOLF 3, instead of the mediocre spin off Contract J. A. C. K.

BTW, since you can't legally buy a new copy of the NOLF games (you might still find them on ebay, but that way no money goes to the license holders or programmers, etc) then if you're willing to download a copy for free, then there is a website where someone posted up fixed and working installations of both NOLF games, and also Contract J. A. C. K, calling them the revival editions, with all of the official patches already applied; wide-screen support, making sure the games work properly with modern operating systems, etc.

I can't post the URL of the webpage here, of course but google can help you.

But it is such a shame that two such great games are not legally for sale anywhere. Especially since new gamers won't get to experience them.

i gave up on NOLF in the mission where you're aboard an aircraft, it breaks up and you have to catch up with someone mid air while fending off attackers

after a few attempts i realised i just wasn't enjoying it and rather than memorise the sequence of turn/shoot/turn/shoot etc and try again i'd had enough

the rest of the game had been good, i could see why it was well regarded but somehow it didnt really grip me. strangely i had played and enjoyed contract jack, the 'inferior' but similar game. maybe i'll come back to nolf and nolf2 will go on the list 😀

About to start my very first playthrough of BioShock. I'm using the GOG release (original version, not the remaster). Initially, I wanted to play this under WinXP, but then I learned that it has some extra visual effects which only show up on DX10, so I went for Win7 instead. Since BioShock uses EAX5 via OpenAL, I don't think there should be any audio issues with running this on Win7. I did some preliminary testing in-game, and EAX appears to be working fine on my X-Fi Titanium, with proper 5.1 surround sound as well.

In terms of graphics, I have everything maxed out at 1080p and it seems to be running well. The "Horizontal FOV Lock" option confused me a bit, but after some googling, I think it should be set to "Off" when running the game in 16:9 widescreen. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Anyhow, I'm going into BioShock completely blind since I skipped this game back in the day. I didn't get it then because the developers originally used some weird online activation DRM, and I didn't want to support that. Of course, the GOG version has none of that crap, so I recently bought all three BioShock games during one of their sales. Should be fun to play through the entire trilogy, though maybe not all at once.

gerry wrote on 2023-10-06, 07:57:

i gave up on NOLF in the mission where you're aboard an aircraft, it breaks up and you have to catch up with someone mid air while fending off attackers

Yes, that level should be great, but instead is pretty tedious. Falling out of a plane, and having to steal a parachute from a falling enemy, how can that be boring? Yet the game somehow manages it. And the game manages to be even more tedious with some trial and error stealth sections, where if you're seen it is automatic game over. Why are stealth sections in non-stealth games so often really bad?

But it's a testament to how great the game is that even with these considerable flaws, it still manages to be one of the best first person shooters on the PC.

after a few attempts i realised i just wasn't enjoying it and rather than memorise the sequence of turn/shoot/turn/shoot etc and try again i'd had enough

the rest of the game had been good, i could see why it was well regarded but somehow it didnt really grip me. strangely i had played and enjoyed contract jack, the 'inferior' but similar game. maybe i'll come back to nolf and nolf2 will go on the list 😀

You gave it a try, and didn't like it. That's fair enough. We all dislike thing that other people like and vice-vera. I'm a huge fan of first person shooters, but I have never liked Quake 1, 2, and 4. The first two Quakes were and are extremely popular, but I just don't find them fun, for some reason.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-06, 10:05:

About to start my very first playthrough of BioShock
....
Should be fun to play through the entire trilogy, though maybe not all at once.

I'll be curious to hear your opinion on the first one (the only one I've played so far) and then on the rest of them as well.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2023-10-06, 11:45:

Yes, that level should be great, but instead is pretty tedious. Falling out of a plane, and having to steal a parachute from a […]
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gerry wrote on 2023-10-06, 07:57:

i gave up on NOLF in the mission where you're aboard an aircraft, it breaks up and you have to catch up with someone mid air while fending off attackers

Yes, that level should be great, but instead is pretty tedious. Falling out of a plane, and having to steal a parachute from a falling enemy, how can that be boring? Yet the game somehow manages it. And the game manages to be even more tedious with some trial and error stealth sections, where if you're seen it is automatic game over. Why are stealth sections in non-stealth games so often really bad?

But it's a testament to how great the game is that even with these considerable flaws, it still manages to be one of the best first person shooters on the PC.

after a few attempts i realised i just wasn't enjoying it and rather than memorise the sequence of turn/shoot/turn/shoot etc and try again i'd had enough

the rest of the game had been good, i could see why it was well regarded but somehow it didnt really grip me. strangely i had played and enjoyed contract jack, the 'inferior' but similar game. maybe i'll come back to nolf and nolf2 will go on the list 😀

You gave it a try, and didn't like it. That's fair enough. We all dislike thing that other people like and vice-vera. I'm a huge fan of first person shooters, but I have never liked Quake 1, 2, and 4. The first two Quakes were and are extremely popular, but I just don't find them fun, for some reason.

Are you mainly into single player games? I think most of the nostalgia for Quake has to do with the deathmatches people used to play. I found the single player fun at the time, but not groundbreaking.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-10-06, 10:05:

About to start my very first playthrough of BioShock. I'm using the GOG release (original version, not the remaster). Initially, I wanted to play this under WinXP, but then I learned that it has some extra visual effects which only show up on DX10, so I went for Win7 instead. Since BioShock uses EAX5 via OpenAL, I don't think there should be any audio issues with running this on Win7. I did some preliminary testing in-game, and EAX appears to be working fine on my X-Fi Titanium, with proper 5.1 surround sound as well.

In terms of graphics, I have everything maxed out at 1080p and it seems to be running well. The "Horizontal FOV Lock" option confused me a bit, but after some googling, I think it should be set to "Off" when running the game in 16:9 widescreen. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here.

Anyhow, I'm going into BioShock completely blind since I skipped this game back in the day. I didn't get it then because the developers originally used some weird online activation DRM, and I didn't want to support that. Of course, the GOG version has none of that crap, so I recently bought all three BioShock games during one of their sales. Should be fun to play through the entire trilogy, though maybe not all at once.

Loved this game on the Xbox 360. Would you kindly.. also stealth bludgen with electric shocks is all I remember doing in that game