clueless1 wrote:

Hopefully, I have a different experience than you. I'm playing on Easy and all the characters are on auto AI to hopefully mitig […]
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Hopefully, I have a different experience than you. I'm playing on Easy and all the characters are on auto AI to hopefully mitigate things. There's only a handful of games I DNF'd since I started replaying (mostly) old classics back at the beginning of 2016:
Eye of the Beholder
Fallout
Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams
Albion
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Far Cry 1

Let's hope PoE does not make this list.

Aww 😢

Let me guess, the mutants in Far Cry? They seem to be game ruiners for some. I didn't mind them, but I do recall them being a bit annoying at times because of the crappy checkpoint save system.

Crank9000 wrote:

clueless1 wrote:

Hopefully, I have a different experience than you. I'm playing on Easy and all the characters are on auto AI to hopefully mitig […]
Show full quote

Hopefully, I have a different experience than you. I'm playing on Easy and all the characters are on auto AI to hopefully mitigate things. There's only a handful of games I DNF'd since I started replaying (mostly) old classics back at the beginning of 2016:
Eye of the Beholder
Fallout
Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams
Albion
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Far Cry 1

Let's hope PoE does not make this list.

Aww 😢

Let me guess, the mutants in Far Cry? They seem to be game ruiners for some. I didn't mind them, but I do recall them being a bit annoying at times because of the crappy checkpoint save system.

Yeah, in Fry Cry the mutants, they were just too hard. Playing on easiest skill level, I could not get past them at some point. Literally dozens of fails at the same spot and I finally gave up.
Fallout and Albion were UI issues that I could not get past.
Martian Dreams got to a point where it was just boring schlepping back and forth huge distances.
EOB was the single save slot and no automap (I'm aware of the modern automap mod, but I was playing on original hardware). I'd actually saved my game at a point where I could not progress without starting over, and the single save slot...
Dark Sun was just not entertaining enough. I played it on a 486 with an MT-32--ideal conditions, and I just wasn't having fun.

Have you never hand mapped an RPG? That was a good part of the charm of those early RPGs like Eye of the Beholder, get yourself some grid paper and go to town. I played Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2 manually mapping them, it was the whole reason I even played those games. If you haven't ever tried manually mapping I really think you should, if you have given it a chance and its not your thing no problem I just wanted to offer another view point on those.

I love the original Fallout but have never finished it either, but its one of those game I go back to over and over each time thinking I'll see it through to the end so I must love it, or at least the idea of it =).

Far Cry was a landmark game for the time that was much more open world than most. It was also more amazing looking than anything else at the time but I can see how its appeal would diminish since its not a looker anymore and that was half the draw for that game. I did finish this game myself though a couple times.

I know both you guys like the Baldur's Gate style combat but I think it's garbage and I would blame that one why the sequel to Eternity flopped. At least I like to believe that people were starting to wake up to this realization. I would love to see these games reverted to full turn based gameplay.

Shagittarius wrote:

Have you never hand mapped an RPG? That was a good part of the charm of those early RPGs like Eye of the Beholder, get yourself […]
Show full quote

Have you never hand mapped an RPG? That was a good part of the charm of those early RPGs like Eye of the Beholder, get yourself some grid paper and go to town. I played Legend of Grimrock 1 and 2 manually mapping them, it was the whole reason I even played those games. If you haven't ever tried manually mapping I really think you should, if you have given it a chance and its not your thing no problem I just wanted to offer another view point on those.

I love the original Fallout but have never finished it either, but its one of those game I go back to over and over each time thinking I'll see it through to the end so I must love it, or at least the idea of it =).

Far Cry was a landmark game for the time that was much more open world than most. It was also more amazing looking than anything else at the time but I can see how its appeal would diminish since its not a looker anymore and that was half the draw for that game. I did finish this game myself though a couple times.

I know both you guys like the Baldur's Gate style combat but I think it's garbage and I would blame that one why the sequel to Eternity flopped. At least I like to believe that people were starting to wake up to this realization. I would love to see these games reverted to full turn based gameplay.

Yep...back in the day, when auto-mapping didn't exist, I used graph paper to map the first Wizardry trilogy as well as the Zork trilogy and other Infocom games. Now I'm nearly 50 and that doesn't appeal to me anymore. I have very limited gaming time, and I find easy skill levels and automapping help maximize enjoyment and minimize frustration. 😊

I agree with you on Far Cry. I loved it, amazing graphics and open world environment, super fun, I just couldn't get past the mutants right around mission 18. When a game becomes more frustrating than fun, it's time to move on.

I'm actually more a fan of true turn-based combat, but I'm okay with real-time with pause. My favorites are from Realms of Arkania, Might & Magic 3 and 4, Wizardry 8, and Lords of Xulima. In fact, Xulima is probably the single best implementation of turn-based combat that I've ever experienced. They knocked it out of the park as far as I'm concerned.

Quick update: I'm 4.5 hours into Metro 2033 (original, not Redux). First impressions:
-I'm not a huge fan of the save points. Sometimes I have less than 15 minutes of play time, and it sucks to have to restart at a previous checkpoint if I have to exit the game before I reach the next one. I feel like my 4.5 hours of play time should actually be 4 hrs or less due to this.
-the performance is terrible. Not sure if the game was not coded well or what. Framerates are actually not bad, there's just these jarring pauses and stutters that happen even while framerates are >60. It gets a little better when I disable 4x AA. For reference, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood played beautifully on my system. Google 'Metro 2033 stuttering' for many other complaints about this. One thing I haven't tried yet is setting the game priority to realtime in Task Manager. That seemed to work for some people. Oh, my system: i5-4590, 8GB, GTX 750Ti, SSD. Should be more than enough to play a 2010 game maxed out.
-I'm playing the Steam version that was a temporary giveaway a couple of months back, and almost every time I launch the game, it shuts down, then makes me launch the game in safe mode the next time (and I have to re-set the Video settings). Again, a common problem if you Google around. I have found that shutting Steam down before launching the game helps, not 100% but it does allow the game to launch normally more often. Someone suggested reinstalling Physx, but that didn't help me. I'm just living with it.
-despite all this, I'm still really enjoying the game! It's a good pace for me. I'm not highly skilled in FPS games...I prefer the story-driven cut scenes and stealth play style to running and gunning. It's very immersive and believable. The way the world is physically portrayed is beautiful and realistic. I feel like I'm actually wandering through a post-apocalyptic Russia.

On the RPG side, I'm 20.5 hrs into Pillars of Eternity. Really enjoying it, though it's going pretty slowly. I just reached Raedric's Hold, which seems to be about 2/3 through Act I. My biggest complaint (same with Baldur's Gate) is the real-time with pause combat. I find it a bit cumbersome, especially with spell-casters. I've found myself just letting the Auto AI do most of the fighting, with me pausing and re-issuing commands occasionally. Story is great, artwork is gorgeous, and the characters are memorable. It's definitely worth my time.

edit: setting metro2033.exe priority to realtime makes a huge difference. Turned details back to max including 4x AA and the stuttering is still gone while FPS stays at and above 60.

Finished the original three episodes of Doom and started the fourth "expansion" episode on ultra violence. Two levels in and it's NASTY, Barons everywhere and often very little room to move. But has been manageable so far, so I'm glad I decided to continue playing on ultra violence. Have to save scum like there's no tomorrow though, been gimmicky as hell.

I've been playing the Hellshots Golf mod for zandronum/gzdoom too much, looking for people to introduce to it too.

Playing with q2vkpt the fully Ray traced Quake 2 implementation, pretty cool.

Phew! In Metro 2033 I've been stuck on the first section of Chapter 3 (Dry) for a few days now and finally cleared it just a few minutes ago. It was very challenging for me, and after a few attempts I ended up having to drop the difficulty from Normal to Easy to clear it. The frustration was the save checkpoints...once I got to the first checkpoint in Dry, it got a little easier not having to replay the entire section from the beginning. I'm 5.5 hours into the game and have reached Anomoly (3rd section in Chapter 3...roughly 1/3 through the game).

In Pillars of Eternity, I'm 25.5 hrs in--on the Caed Nua map--and on the last quest of Act I (The Old Watcher).

Thought I'd upload some footage of me playing Quake 2 in RTX full ray tracing rendering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGF2o7QU4Sk

Shagittarius wrote:

Thought I'd upload some footage of me playing Quake 2 in RTX full ray tracing rendering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGF2o7QU4Sk

That's pretty awesome looking...a lot less brown 😀

Prince of Persia

clueless1 wrote:

That's pretty awesome looking...a lot less brown 😀

But too much orange!!!

electro body / electro man perfect 386 gaming

Done three levels + secret level in the fourth episode of Doom. It's not as difficult as I feared, but I'm not particularly enjoying it. It's the levels, they are somewhat annoying by design and looks like the Quake Brownness™ got its first test drive here. I'm still going to finish the episode so I can take it off from my list of games I own but haven't played/finished, but I'm not in a hurry with it.

I also went and installed Stellaris the first time since it was launched. Loving it, the updates have changed the game clearly for the better IMO, but I wonder when I stop feeling like this:

Been playing SC4 again recently. Bot a very old game, but my disk version is already not even supported anymore 🤣 so I had to jump through a few hoops to get her going again.

But SC4 has this one disadvantage, and that is all these dependencies...why did they have to make these all separate installers and not just compressed archives which are way easier to drag and drop? 🙁

I picked up SkyRogue a few days ago when it was on sale for ten bucks, because I needed a roguelike arcade flight sim in my life, and have been playing it with my cheap HOTAS setup (Thrustmaster T-flight HOTAS X).

It rules. I absolutely love the art direction & visual style, the music is awesome, and flying around everywhere doing crazy aereal manouvers with some approximation of real flight controls, spamming missiles all over & taking down bogies, is fun as hell. Normally I'm not huge on roguelikes because I don't like procedurally-generated world maps, but it works here! Aside from not having fixed maps, it's probably the closest thing I've found to a modern-day Zone 66. I love this. It's like the devs went into my own brain and pulled a game out.

They even avoided the genre trap of making it frustrating & tough as nails. It's totally easy to get into, but there's lots of depth to be had. It's also good fun if you just want to fly around and not have the combat elements; there's a "free flight" mode so you can do just that. If you're into flight games at all and aren't some hard-core sim snob, definitely give this one a try! As a wonderful little nod to the genre, they made the explosions resemble the ASCII fill-in characters you'd see in a "traditional" Rogue.

The interface is a bit rough around the edges (it really doesn't like 5x4 display modes, and getting full flight stick controls set up was a bit of a chore), but the game is still actively being updated & plays awesome once you get into the action.

xjas's rating: 6/6 flat-shaded hexagons.

And the fourth episode of Ultimate Doom is done, way quicker than I expected. Turned out the levels after the first two were much easier and also pretty short, I think I finished one of them in 10 minutes or so even though I was playing them the first time and strived to kill and find everything. The difficulty curve is weird, first levels are pretty difficult and there really aren't much ammunition around but then the rest of the levels are way easier and you are swimming in ammunition. Didn't much like the levels so I doubt I'll ever replay this one, but I'm glad I've got this done now. Next stop: Doom II + master levels.

Also Stellaris is sucking up my free time like a black hole even though it does lose a part of its appeal once you have explored your corner of the galaxy and start running out of events, that atmosphere of wonder and discovery in early game is fantastic.

Bought Kingdom Come Deliverance from GOG last night and plan to play over the weekend. Wish me luck

Good luck! It’s a bit of an odd duck but I found a lot to like there, before ultimately missing the constant stream of wolves / bandits that most open world RPGs throw at you to keep things interesting.