Well, after some issues with my graphics card, I successfully saddled up in Doom 3 again. Just wrapped up the Hell level. Midway through it, Doom 3 began hard locking the system in a specific room with a berserker powerup. To add insult to injury, if I quicksaved immediately before the room, Doom 3 crashed trying to load the quicksave. To get past it, I turned all the settings down and turned off EAX. I strongly suspect EAX was the culprit, but I have no motivation to go back and rigorously test it. Could also have been the way I "fixed" my graphics card. Or any of the other vagaries of 90's/00's pc gaming.

Hell had actually been the hardest level so far. Found myself regularly getting below 50 health, and actually died for the first through fifth times this playthrough. 2 falling, once to a hell knight, and twice to a combination of a 10x10 room, respawning evil babies, a mancubus, and a door that locks behind me. Found myself just barely clearing that room on the 3rd try, with 15 health, and just running as fast as I could through the rest of the level. Which successfully took me to a teleport room to the boss of the level, and lots of goodies. Beat the boss, got the soul cube, left hell.

Turned the settings back up to high with EAX on. See how that works next time I give it a go. I think I have 7 levels left? It's funny because I started off loving it, felt like the transition between Alpha and Delta labs was a serious slump, and am now very pumped again. Especially with the end getting closer. Add another game to my retro trophy list. I enjoy taking photos, not screen shots but photos (well, on my phone), of the victory screen of each retro game I beat on an actual retro system. Something about having the CRT in frame adds a certain je ne sais quoi. Not sure what I'll do with them. Might actually get them printed and put in an album, just to see the look on my wife's face. Might have to check if my insurance covers emergency eye surgery from her rolling her eyes so hard first.

Might And Magic VI: The Mandate Of Heaven.

About 20 years ago, this was THE game that made me install it on 4 different computers and always have the latest savegame with me on a floppy disk, wherever I went.
It took me MONTHS to beat it.
A week ago I mentioned this title in another forum, got a bit of nostalgia, installed the GoG version I had re-bought some years ago "just to get that old feeling for a while" and here I am, hacking and slashing all over Enroth once again, twenty+ years later!

DeadnightWarrior wrote on 2021-03-17, 10:39:

Might And Magic VI: The Mandate Of Heaven. […]
Show full quote

Might And Magic VI: The Mandate Of Heaven.

About 20 years ago, this was THE game that made me install it on 4 different computers and always have the latest savegame with me on a floppy disk, wherever I went.
It took me MONTHS to beat it.
A week ago I mentioned this title in another forum, got a bit of nostalgia, installed the GoG version I had re-bought some years ago "just to get that old feeling for a while" and here I am, hacking and slashing all over Enroth once again, twenty+ years later!

Oh, good choice. Might & Magic VI was the game that finally got me to play an RPG. They always intimidated me with their complexity as a kid, but Computer Gaming World's glowing review of it finally sucked me in. Been an RPG fiend ever since. You might want to look up the Greyface patches. They fix a bunch of issues running MM6 on modern systems. Even when it comes to the GOG versions.

Some Metro Exodus.

Wanted to play this with ray tracing and other details cranked up after I upgraded my GTX960, but with the current situation I think that might be a loooooong time away, so I started now. Low settings gets 60 fps in most places, so I guess it's fine as it still looks alright.

For me the formula got changed a bit too much from the prequels with an open-world and crafting mechanics. Still having a great time, just not as much as I did with the past 2 games.

I have yet to play the first two Metro games, what order should I play them in?

I've just upgraded my GTX 1060 to an RTX 3060 and I'm currently playing Wolfenstein II Colossus and Doom (2016). Needless to say they run very well at 1080P with everything set to max !

appiah4 wrote on 2021-03-19, 13:22:

I have yet to play the first two Metro games, what order should I play them in?

In the order that they came out, as the story continues in a linear fashion with no prequel shenanigans. 2033>Last Light>Exodus.

Woody72 wrote on 2021-03-19, 14:43:

I've just upgraded my GTX 1060 to an RTX 3060 and I'm currently playing Wolfenstein II Colossus and Doom (2016). Needless to say they run very well at 1080P with everything set to max !

Nice! Talk about ultimate 1080p GPU. What processor and how much RAM? You should be getting close to doubled framerates, no? Are you considering bumping up to a 1440p monitor?

So I finally beat Doom 3!

Trophy Screen

All in all, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It got off to a slow start, but wowed me to this day with it's lighting model and level design. Once the action got underway in Alpha Labs I was having a good time, even if the jump scares were hard on my midlife constitution. Felt a bit of a lull leaving Alpha Labs, and I wondered if I'd get too bored and quit. But picked up again once I finally arrived in Delta Labs after a bunch of forgettable industrial and transport levels. The sequence from Hell to the end of the game was a heck of a ride. And I had actually totally forgotten the plot points that come at the end of the game. As in they didn't even ring a bell upon seeing them again.

So not quite as good as I remembered it. But not as bad as I feel like it's reputation has become. I probably beat it in 48 hours when I first played it in my 20's. Took closer to 48 days this time around.

I think next I'll try to wrap up the NOD campaign for Command & Conquer. I think I had 3 or 4 levels left of that one.

New SMB U.

It's the first 2D Mario platformer I've ever spent serious time with. It's a cool experience, though I can see how Nintendo players might be bored with the system after endless 2D Mario iterations across the decades.

I was a Sega and PC guy growing up, so going back and exploring all the missed Nintendo generations is proving to be a lot of fun now in my 40's.

I've (partially) done SNES and Wii last year, and this year it's the U. Still got the 64, the 'cube, and the Switch to go after that.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-03-20, 04:06:

New SMB U. […]
Show full quote

New SMB U.

It's the first 2D Mario platformer I've ever spent serious time with. It's a cool experience, though I can see how Nintendo players might be bored with the system after endless 2D Mario iterations across the decades.

I was a Sega and PC guy growing up, so going back and exploring all the missed Nintendo generations is proving to be a lot of fun now in my 40's.

I've (partially) done SNES and Wii last year, and this year it's the U. Still got the 64, the 'cube, and the Switch to go after that.

If it's your WiiU, modify it when you can. So long as you can correct for the 16-235 issue, they're a great way to play even gamecube games.

It's not a PC game, but a friend gave me Bravely Default II for my birthday, so I've been playing that. I love an RPG that lets me heavily customize my entire party and completely overhaul their builds from scratch on a whim, and Bravely Default's job system is probably the most flexible execution of the concept I've ever played with. Having a blast just messing around and looking for interesting ability synergies; it really tickles the same part of my brain I typically devote to building decks in Magic: The Gathering.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-03-20, 04:06:

New SMB U.

It's the first 2D Mario platformer I've ever spent serious time with.

That's a really good one even if it doesn't do much to evolve the formula. Probably the best of the "New" SMB games anyway.

Namrok wrote on 2021-03-20, 03:18:

So I finally beat Doom 3!

All in all, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It got off to a slow start, but wowed me to this day with it's lighting model and level design. Once the action got underway in Alpha Labs I was having a good time, even if the jump scares were hard on my midlife constitution. Felt a bit of a lull leaving Alpha Labs, and I wondered if I'd get too bored and quit. But picked up again once I finally arrived in Delta Labs after a bunch of forgettable industrial and transport levels. The sequence from Hell to the end of the game was a heck of a ride. And I had actually totally forgotten the plot points that come at the end of the game. As in they didn't even ring a bell upon seeing them again.

So not quite as good as I remembered it. But not as bad as I feel like it's reputation has become. I probably beat it in 48 hours when I first played it in my 20's. Took closer to 48 days this time around.

Congrats! I'm getting close myself. Just got to Site 3. So far I've sunk in 18 hours over 18 days, I'm guessing I'll be right around 20 by the time I get to the end. Like you, I'm enjoying it more than I thought. I started the game off with high hopes, but it quickly soured on me. Then I started to get into it and I'm enjoying it more now. I'd probably rate it between 75-80 out of 100, but I'll reserve final judgment til I win. I prefer my games to have more equal measures of tension and release, this one is like 90% tension. 🤣. It means I have to take frequent breaks to let my blood pressure come down.

I was doing some "testing" on my P4 rig last night after a PSU install and fired up F.E.A.R - such a great game and it occurred to me that it was my DOOM3 substitute back in the day. Yes it has the horror stuff which provided some good jump scares but more than that the game-play was very DOOM (1 and 2) - tight, simple shooter mechanic and level design that went 'action -> reload / medi-kit ->action' and then occasional boss. DOOM3 is fine but it was out-doomed by F.E.A.R IMO 😃

clueless1 wrote on 2021-03-19, 21:34:

Woody72 wrote on 2021-03-19, 14:43:

I've just upgraded my GTX 1060 to an RTX 3060 and I'm currently playing Wolfenstein II Colossus and Doom (2016). Needless to say they run very well at 1080P with everything set to max !

Nice! Talk about ultimate 1080p GPU. What processor and how much RAM? You should be getting close to doubled framerates, no? Are you considering bumping up to a 1440p monitor?

I've definitely thought about going 1440p, yes, maybe go for a 27". Processor is an i5-8600k with 16GB of RAM so it's a fairly decent PC. I've googled the CPU versus some more up to date CPUs and the difference is nearly always in single digit percentages so don't see the need to upgrade that side of things yet.

Pushed through another mission in Homeworld. Snagged an enemy heavy cruiser in the process...but damn this game is hard.

Woody72 wrote on 2021-03-22, 09:40:

clueless1 wrote on 2021-03-19, 21:34:

Woody72 wrote on 2021-03-19, 14:43:

I've just upgraded my GTX 1060 to an RTX 3060 and I'm currently playing Wolfenstein II Colossus and Doom (2016). Needless to say they run very well at 1080P with everything set to max !

Nice! Talk about ultimate 1080p GPU. What processor and how much RAM? You should be getting close to doubled framerates, no? Are you considering bumping up to a 1440p monitor?

I've definitely thought about going 1440p, yes, maybe go for a 27". Processor is an i5-8600k with 16GB of RAM so it's a fairly decent PC. I've googled the CPU versus some more up to date CPUs and the difference is nearly always in single digit percentages so don't see the need to upgrade that side of things yet.

Just focus on the minimum framerates. Even an i7-4790 would be fine for an RTX 3060. Maybe it would get 80-100 fps with that gpu instead of 120-140 for a modern cpu. And if/when you go to 1440p, the difference will be less as more load is transferred from cpu to gpu. Your golden, bro.

kolderman wrote on 2021-03-22, 19:25:

Pushed through another mission in Homeworld. Snagged an enemy heavy cruiser in the process...but damn this game is hard.

Oh man, Homeworld. Even though that remaster exists, I can only ever bring myself to play the original, purely for that Yes song over the credits. What a game.

Just finished up Ion Fury. It's amazing the scale and detail that went into some of the level design. Anyway, I just started Amid Evil. Weapons are pretty nice and pack quite a punch. Nice variety too.

Ion Fury is amazing. I can't wait for the sequel / DLC.