I'm the Battlestar Galactica when it comes to my games.

That is: If it's networked, or outside controlled (e.g. an online service which can control my data however it chooses, or choose when my games get updated, or not let me play due to their Technical Fault X), or onerously DRM'ed - then I don't use it, full stop.

I find it sad that the gaming community have (been forced to) given up so much of their control and agency to corporations over the past decade or two.

• I have a machine
• I buy a game to play on it, and
• I play it, exactly as and when and how I decree.

End Of Transaction.

Otherwise, I don't care what fancy graphics and hype are being offered - it's just a Nope, full stop.

I'm playing GTA IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony. A fun evolution of the grounded and brown experience of GTA IV, even if GTA IV is one of my favourite games.

For a 13-14 year old game, it still holds up too:

Joan of Arc by Enlight Software.

It's not really a great game, honestly maybe it's rather bad, but I do think it's original in its combination of genres since it has sword fighting with a combo system, archery or crossbow shooting in the first person and then real-time strategy being able to go from the traditional mode of the strategy game and command the troops, and to enter battle go to the third person view and assault a castle with the troops.
I don't know another game like this one, it surprised me.

Been on my NES doing the first Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and posting to youtube. I plan to record all 4. II and III will be my first time completing them. Im the most seasoned at 1 I and IV.

Ive also been doing a bunch of Random Atari 2600 games while I tune up to do some DOS/Windows stuff in the near future.

Thinking Ill do with commentary the first time, then second+ runs without for people that prefer thr game by itself. Plus thinking of doing some kind of 10 hour AMSR dark screen compilation of gameplay footage like people use to sleep to.

Hoping wrote on 2022-06-05, 18:27:

Joan of Arc by Enlight Software.

It's not really a great game, honestly maybe it's rather bad, but I do think it's original in its combination of genres since it has sword fighting with a combo system, archery or crossbow shooting in the first person and then real-time strategy being able to go from the traditional mode of the strategy game and command the troops, and to enter battle go to the third person view and assault a castle with the troops.
I don't know another game like this one, it surprised me.

Oh I remember this one 🤣, yeah pretty janky but interesting combination. Only comparable I could think of is probably M&B:Warband, but not quite.

svfn wrote on 2022-06-06, 06:46:

Hoping wrote on 2022-06-05, 18:27:

Joan of Arc by Enlight Software.

It's not really a great game, honestly maybe it's rather bad, but I do think it's original in its combination of genres since it has sword fighting with a combo system, archery or crossbow shooting in the first person and then real-time strategy being able to go from the traditional mode of the strategy game and command the troops, and to enter battle go to the third person view and assault a castle with the troops.
I don't know another game like this one, it surprised me.

Oh I remember this one 🤣, yeah pretty janky but interesting combination. Only comparable I could think of is probably M&B:Warband, but not quite.

M&B:Warband, I've never played it and I have it because I bought it years ago in a sale lot on GOG, if it looks like the one I'm playing, I think I should give it a try.

creepingnet wrote on 2022-06-06, 01:31:

Been on my NES doing the first Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and posting to youtube. I plan to record all 4. II and III will be my first time completing them. Im the most seasoned at 1 I and IV.

Ive also been doing a bunch of Random Atari 2600 games while I tune up to do some DOS/Windows stuff in the near future.

Thinking Ill do with commentary the first time, then second+ runs without for people that prefer thr game by itself. Plus thinking of doing some kind of 10 hour AMSR dark screen compilation of gameplay footage like people use to sleep to.

For the first Dragon Quest trilogy, I would personally recommend the Gameboy Color ports over the originals. The screen is smaller so you can't see as much of the environment at once, but you level up much more quickly, which significantly cuts down on the forced grinding and makes them far less tedious to play (the script translation is also slightly closer to the Japanese original but this is less of a big deal since both translations are fine). I'm still a little annoyed that so many modern ports/remakes are based on the original's balancing and not this streamlined port, especially when the obscene amount of level grinding was implemented only to make it harder to beat within a rental period.
That said, I personally think 3 is the only one of the trilogy that actually holds up at all nowadays, even with an improved leveling curve.

Fuck this guy. I've been fighting him an hour. Bullets don't damage him, hand granades don't damage him, can't melee him. I thought I have to bait him behind the container that slides back and forth to crush him, but he just wouldn't go to the right place. Turns out there is that very specific weapon which can damage him. At least you can grind out some combat trophies with the endless supply of weakened enemies...

NovaCN wrote on 2022-06-06, 13:42:

creepingnet wrote on 2022-06-06, 01:31:

Been on my NES doing the first Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) and posting to youtube. I plan to record all 4. II and III will be my first time completing them. Im the most seasoned at 1 I and IV.

Ive also been doing a bunch of Random Atari 2600 games while I tune up to do some DOS/Windows stuff in the near future.

Thinking Ill do with commentary the first time, then second+ runs without for people that prefer thr game by itself. Plus thinking of doing some kind of 10 hour AMSR dark screen compilation of gameplay footage like people use to sleep to.

For the first Dragon Quest trilogy, I would personally recommend the Gameboy Color ports over the originals. The screen is smaller so you can't see as much of the environment at once, but you level up much more quickly, which significantly cuts down on the forced grinding and makes them far less tedious to play (the script translation is also slightly closer to the Japanese original but this is less of a big deal since both translations are fine). I'm still a little annoyed that so many modern ports/remakes are based on the original's balancing and not this streamlined port, especially when the obscene amount of level grinding was implemented only to make it harder to beat within a rental period.
That said, I personally think 3 is the only one of the trilogy that actually holds up at all nowadays, even with an improved leveling curve.

To each his own. I've not touched any of the newer games and remakes yet except Dragon Quest Builders for the PS4 in the last couple of years because I was curious, quite liked that one, sort of a Dragon Quest/Minecraft crossover. I also like grinding quite a bit because it helps me understand how the characters work, and I find it somewhat relaxing for some reason.

This playthrough I've been doing with the NES Dragon Warrior has been interesting because I started basically last month and I've almost completed it. I've been releasing a part every Sunday, I'm up to Part 12 but only at Part 5 released on my channel, 🤣. I've already got everything except Erdrick's sword and already have fared Charlock castle a good chunk of the way, all that's left is to get the sword and kill the Dragon Lord.

The worst part of the second game will probably be the Cave to Rhone and the endless amount of videos that will be just grinding upon grinding against enemies that cast beat and sacrifice near the end. TBH it's not as bad as people claim though, I already have a savegame there.

Dragon Warrior III looks like a long one for me, because it's so open-ended and complex compared to any of the others with the whole class changes, 2 worlds, and all those side quests. I've had that cart 20 years now and still have not beat it and still have the Save on it that I started when I was 21.

Dragon Warrior IV was the first one I played all the way through, and I just bought the cart last year. That one seems to be more like the Game Boy versions of I&II by my description. It's a lot less grindy, the story progresses faster, it's a bit more linear than III but less-so than I or II. Shame it's such a rare and expensive NES cart though, but it helped me clean house when I traded "up" to it.

creepingnet wrote on 2022-06-07, 15:34:

To each his own. I've not touched any of the newer games and remakes yet except Dragon Quest Builders for the PS4 in the last couple of years because I was curious, quite liked that one, sort of a Dragon Quest/Minecraft crossover. I also like grinding quite a bit because it helps me understand how the characters work, and I find it somewhat relaxing for some reason.

I'm a big fan of the original versions of the DW/DQ games, too. I recently played through Dragon Warrior 2 (NES) on actual hardware, and had a blast playing it. I found it to be quite balanced, honestly, and I didn't need to grind at all... except at the very end for about an hour.

I decided to DNF Avernum: Escape from the Pit. I spent close to 90 hours and 4 months playing it, so this is easily the furthest I've gotten into a game without completing it. The bottom line is it is too confusing to separate the main plot from side quests. My open quests page is littered with dozens of quests and as I've gotten further into the game, many quests have prerequisites that you don't discover til you're already knee deep in them. As many hours as I've sunk in, I still don't see a clear path of how to get to the end game. This morning was my turning point. I have other games I want to play. Moving on to Terminator: Resistance!

Terminator: Resistance
First impressions now that I'm about 2 hrs in. It took quite awhile to dial in the graphic settings. I'm running an i7-4770 and GTX1650 Super. The first section is at night, so graphics performance was good. I jacked up the details and thought I was good to go, til I got to the next section with daylight, reflections, and larger map. I settled a combination of mostly high settings that seem to max out my 4GB of VRAM without bogging it down. Stuff like chromatic abberation, motion blur and film grain get an automatic OFF from me.

I do like the exploration aspect of this game. I love wandering off the beaten path to pick up a toy for a kid or a tool kit for a mentor. @liqmat was kind enough to gift me this game and has given me lots of insight and tips, which I appreciate. He did recommend not playing on Easy, but he doesn't know just how bad I am at FPS games. 🤣. I prefer a more relaxing pace with emphasis on story.

I also like the crafting aspect (which goes hand in hand with exploration) as well as the skills. I've quickly learned that I should've picked Lockpicking with my first skill point. Oh well.

I'm not a huge fan of the movies. I've seen them exactly once and enjoyed them, but it's been so long that most of the details are gone. I can say that so far the feel of the game is very reminiscent of what I remember the movies being like.

Currently in Chapter 3 (Warehouse District) about to start Chapter 4 (Factory).

I've gone as far as I can in the main story of Final Fantasy XIV during the free trial, so before I subscribe and move on I'm currently slowing down to try out a few different jobs, see if there are any I especially like. Machinist already seems pretty cool, though I'm not sure yet if I like it more than Bard.
It should be plain that I am greatly enjoying this game. I haven't gotten this sucked into into an MMORPG since... ever, really. Even OG World of Warcraft only kept my attention for around a month.

I will repeat the common refrain that it only "gets good" around Heavensward, though I personally don't think A Realm Reborn is bad, per se. It just gets dragged down significantly by pointless fetch-quests and side-tracking, since it was more focused on worldbuilding and character introductions than actually telling a cohesive story. By Heavensward, they'd actually figured out how to pace these things so it's not extremely tedious. Even if HW's resolution to the Ul'Dah political intrigue plotline is decidedly anticlimactic, ending this amazing buildup with a wet fart, the rest of it is good enough to more than compensate.

clueless1 wrote on 2022-06-12, 13:12:

I can say that so far the feel of the game is very reminiscent of what I remember the movies being like.

Exactly my thoughts as well. This game was the Terminator movie I always wanted to see, but never got made. The DLC expansion campaign is amazing and in some aspects better than the main campaign. Something to look forward to once you're done with the main campaign.

Reached the final chapter of Uncharted 3, likely tomorrow I'll beat the game. It's one of the better PS exclusives, but a little too 'cinematic' for my taste.

And Uncharted 3 is done. I'm a little mixed about it. It feels like we miss a good chunk of the story (the villain's side). They were underdeveloped and I don't understand the main henchman's devotion to the villain. Also the ending partly because of this felt a little weightless compared to the previous two episodes.

kvaris!

I decided to fire up the Directors Cut of Deaths Stranding, I played the original on the PS4 but this time round it'll be on the PC, I really want to see what the new version brings to the game as the original was quite enjoyable.

Still Elden ring. Level 128 at 144hrs, pretty close to the end.
Think I could have been there much sooner but I had to respec twice.

Played the game for 80hrs with default vigor so died a lot and since I would get one hit killed a lot and the effort was too much to go back to retrieve my runes alot of times I wouldn't bother.
First respec put 20 more into Mind than I should have so eventually realized I needed to respec with Mind at 30 and focus on Vigor. So with second respect took 20 from mind and put in Vigor.

Current stats: Now at 80 INT, 30 Mind, 45 Vigor (this is overkill but I'm tired of dying and I hate replaying so it's amazing I lasted as long as I did)
Now may need to start adding to INT again but I'll look into any spells I've overlooked first.

Still don't understand why GRRM was needed for this game. The story is bare and you won't remember any of the quests. For anyone wanting to play the game for story I recommend using a trainer and max our your character and then follow guides. Ignore everything else but main storyline and quests heh.

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-06-17, 10:42:

I decided to fire up the Directors Cut of Deaths Stranding, I played the original on the PS4 but this time round it'll be on the PC, I really want to see what the new version brings to the game as the original was quite enjoyable.

Recently started played the DC of Death Stranding as well.

I'd only played a little of the original, so the whole game is a new experience for me.