About halfway through so far. Got to admit, I did switch to the Core 2 Duo machine after all (E8400 @ 3GHz + GeForce 9800GTX.) The P4 was doing an incredible job with this one but when all is said and done, a 30FPS floor with 4XAA on is just nicer.
This game is stunning, and really fun to play. The exploration & platforming are the best parts. Still not understanding the hate it got.
After finishing Clouds of Xeen, I started on Darkside, then took a little break to play some Wings of Glory. Very underrated WW1 action/combat sim from Origin. Lucky to have the original CD and manual, as neither GOG nor Steam have it. Tried it on the POD 200Mhz machine, and of course it ran like butter. Then tried it on the 486DX2/66 and it still ran like butter. 😀 I remember beating this game back in 1995 when I bought it, but it is definitely worth another go. I may try to beat it again! I love the creaking sounds the plane makes when you make tight turns 😀
Nice one clueless1 - I've had a strange relationship with flight sims over the years (Jetfighter III, Comanche, etc) where I get all set up with my joystick, read the manual, etc, but then just can't seem to stay on task. I fly around, marvel at the scenery, and then pack it all away 😵
I tried a survival sim last night, which was an unexpected turn of events given I've never played one in all my gaming years. It's call "The Forrest" - an early access title on Steam (released ~2014 from memory). It's pretty amazing really - first person, crash landed in a forrest full of critters and of course mutant human tribes hiding in the shaddows. You build shelter, traps - all sorts of stuff!
Dunno if it will hold my attention but I've had my $10USD worth of fun out of it already.
Nice one clueless1 - I've had a strange relationship with flight sims over the years (Jetfighter III, Comanche, etc) where I get all set up with my joystick, read the manual, etc, but then just can't seem to stay on task. I fly around, marvel at the scenery, and then pack it all away 😵
I tried a survival sim last night, which was an unexpected turn of events given I've never played one in all my gaming years. It's call "The Forrest" - an early access title on Steam (released ~2014 from memory). It's pretty amazing really - first person, crash landed in a forrest full of critters and of course mutant human tribes hiding in the shaddows. You build shelter, traps - all sorts of stuff!
Dunno if it will hold my attention but I've had my $10USD worth of fun out of it already.
Yes! I've watched my son play The Forest with his buddies. He loves it. Also, I just watched LGR's preview of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which has some similarities. Looks like it could be super fun.
Regarding flight sims, I can relate. I've done that more times than not. The games that I tend to keep playing are the ones with story-driven campaigns. Wings of Glory is basically Wing Commander in World War I, same type of story arcs, character attachments, etc.
None right now, as I'm about to be heading out for the day, but I played a lot of GTA:SA over the weekend when I was off, here's a good screencap from that.
PC hardware: Ryzen 5 4500, 32GB RAM, 1TB SN 570 Linux drive, 500GB 970 EVO Plus Windows drive, 2TB 970 EVO Plus games drive, 1TB 870 EVO extra storage drive, RX 6600 GPU, EndeavourOS/Win10 dual-boot
Still working on the Darkside of Xeen after finishing Clouds, but getting a little burned out on such a long game, so I've got a plan. 😀 I'm going to also play through Origin's Earth-based Real Space Engine games, in historical order:
1) Wings of Glory (with DreamBlaster X2)
2) Pacific Strike (MT-32)
3) Strike Commander (MT-32)
Really enjoying Wings of Glory. On mission 28 now out of 40, so I'm getting close to finishing. Just transferred from the British to the American base (part of the storyline).
Panzer General, CD version. I merely played the first scenario. I successfully captured Kalisz and Kutno before turn 10, and yet the game reported 'Allied Victory'. Huh?
After finishing Clouds of Xeen, I started on Darkside, then took a little break to play some Wings of Glory. Very underrated WW1 action/combat sim from Origin. Lucky to have the original CD and manual, as neither GOG nor Steam have it. Tried it on the POD 200Mhz machine, and of course it ran like butter. Then tried it on the 486DX2/66 and it still ran like butter. 😀 I remember beating this game back in 1995 when I bought it, but it is definitely worth another go. I may try to beat it again! I love the creaking sounds the plane makes when you make tight turns 😀
Cool ! Now I'm beating Red Baron I on a 20mhz 286 with fast videacard (AHEADVGA). And as I like very much WWI flysims it's time for me to check Wings of Gory. I have a DX2-66 machine and will try to run this game on it.)
Cool ! Now I'm beating Red Baron I on a 20mhz 286 with fast videacard (AHEADVGA). And as I like very much WWI flysims it's time for me to check Wings of Gory. I have a DX2-66 machine and will try to run this game on it.)
I hope you like it. And now that I'm almost done with the game, I will say that it does not always run like butter. There are some missions that get pretty slow on the DX2/66. I lowered some of the details in the in-game Options menu, and it helps a lot. But it is super fun. Quite different than Red Baron, though. Think of it as Wing Commander in World War I. There is a very good balance between fun and realism in the flight model, but the best part of the game is the cinematic story (just like in Wing Commander).
Panzer General, CD version. I merely played the first scenario. I successfully captured Kalisz and Kutno before turn 10, and yet the game reported 'Allied Victory'. Huh?
That can happen if you lose one of your original towns or bases.
Panzer General, CD version. I merely played the first scenario. I successfully captured Kalisz and Kutno before turn 10, and yet the game reported 'Allied Victory'. Huh?
That can happen if you lose one of your original towns or bases.
But I didn't. The Polish doesn't make counterattack at all.
After beating Wings of Glory, I'm now giving Pacific Strike a shot. On the 5th mission so far (Coral Sea Mission 2). Even after applying the 1.19 patch, the framerate is as bad as the reviews of the era complained (playing on a DX2/66 which was top of the line when this game was released). Over open seas with no enemies, it's around 20fps, but over land and when lots of enemies are onscreen, I get anywhere from 5-15fps. I've found the game plays fine at anything over 10fps. One other thing I noticed, the NPC models during the cinematics are of much higher quality than in WoG:
The other obvious difference is other than the intro, there's no speech in Pacific Strike's cinematics. Pacific Strike never had a CD release, so even with the 4 floppy Speech Pack, the speech it added was in-flight radio chatter.
Another issue with this game is the limited simultaneous digital sounds. During dogfights, when you shoot guns, the engine sound cuts out. There are other instances where when a new digital sound plays, some existing digital sound cuts out.
Musically, the game is great. I've tried both MT-32 and GM (DreamBlaster X2), and both sound very good, though GM is better IMO.
I think this game will keep my interest, I hope to finish it then continue on to Strike Commander!
Second playthrough of the first game, finished the second one twice but never finished Throne of Bhaal. Hope to do them all this time, time permitting.. Enjoying my first Evil run though.
Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.
So I'm on mission 10 in Pacific Strike. Some observations:
-the framerate became unbearable on the DX2/66. 🙁 I got to one mission that I could not clear because most of it was running around 5fps. So I moved my savegames over to my 200MMX. Crazy enough, while most of the time the game is pegged at 30fps, I *still* see the framerate drop into the high teens to low 20s when there's lots of action onscreen, with ships and anti-aircraft fire in the sky.
-this game is much more difficult than Wings of Glory. Even though I've got it on the easiest settings, I've had to replay a few missions multiple times. Sometimes things beyond your control randomly cause you to lose a mission. Plus, your shipmates tend to die quite frequently! So far, two main characters have died through 9 missions. I don't think a single main character ever died in Wings of Glory except one that was obviously written into the plot.
-the mission tree is much more complicated as well. There are multiple alternate branches depending on your success in each mission, and three different endings (winning path best, winning path okay, losing path).
So yeah, the criticisms of this game were valid. You needed a $5000 PC to have playable framerates when this game came out. But we have the option now of playing this game on a 200Mhz Pentium, so now it's a pretty good game. 🤣
