Done with Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. The platforming did start off easy, but it gradually became more and more difficult as you acquired new powers. Between freeze, flight, recall and your standard acrobatics, completing some of the later platforming sections stopped being fun, and became a chore. As with Two Thrones, the developers overreached here as well, by giving the Prince all of these new platforming abilities and forcing you to combine them in rapid succession with little room for error. This was most evident during the Djinn city, but the Final Climb definitively has some of the craziest water based stuff.

Combat was decent enough. I liked the ability upgrade system, and focused primarily on improving my energy, health, freeze and rewind duration, before maxing out stone armor and enhancing my melee skills. As stone armor grants the Prince temporary invincibility, it made some of the boss battles a lot easier.

The story concluded in a predictable manner, though I was slightly disappointed by the lack of references to Warrior Within, as that's chronologically the next entry. I'm not a huge fan of that game, but it would have been nice to see the Dahaka make a cameo appearance or something. All in all, I found Forgotten Sands to be similar to Two Thrones. I liked it better than Warrior Within, but not nearly as much as the original Sands of Time.

I finished the Pixel Remaster of Final Fantasy 1. It's not the first time I've beaten it. I beat I think the GBA version a few years ago on a RetroPi? I will say, as resistant as I am to some of the "quality of life" features, or cheats as they would have been known in my day, I did end up caving and using them. It's just too easy to turn off encounters when you are lost, just want to explore, and don't feel like having your train of thought interrupted every 5 steps. Or you go to fight a boss, say, the final boss, and realize you are under levelled. So you crank the experience up to 4x and spend 30 minutes power levelling instead of 2 hours. All in all, my sense of shame, and my experience with how the game "should" be played kept me from abusing those features. I largely found I didn't need to for the most part. Just playing the game normally provided enough money and experience to keep things relatively interesting.

I may just plow on ahead into the Pixel Remaster for Final Fantasy II. I've heard such odd things about it, and I've never tried it before.

Shanghai II and Shove it! The Warehouse for the Mega Drive/Genesis. A little cozy corner with my oldest CRT through composite, put on some tunes, and take my sweet time with them.

Really been enjoying that change of pace, but I wasn't at all prepared for how addictive both of these games are

Wizardry 7.

About done with the first third of the game.

wierd_w wrote on 2024-08-11, 05:48:

Wizardry 7.

About done with the first third of the game.

Hell yeah. One of my all-time favorite games. I spent about 200 hours beating it back in 2019-2020. I actually played it as part of the trilogy, transferring my party from 6 to 7 to 8. It was a wild ride, and one of my favorite gaming experiences ever.

Control
Life has been busy and my gaming time is almost non-existent. But I still played about an hour of this last Sunday and hope to get some time in today. I'm currently stuck and running around back and forth trying to figure out how to proceed on *any* mission in my list. It's frustrating, not fun. I'm going to keep going, though. I'm guessing only playing 1-2 hours a week is not helping, as I'm probably forgetting important things.

Hogwarts Legacy
My wife and I started playing this several months ago, then took several weeks off before getting a decent session in last weekend. Maybe this afternoon we play some more? Honestly, I'm just watching her play, guiding her when she needs it, and taking over some sections when she can't clear them. It looks way more fun than Control, and I'm tempted to ditch Control and start my own character in Hogwarts. 😀

clueless1 wrote on 2024-08-11, 11:52:

wierd_w wrote on 2024-08-11, 05:48:

Wizardry 7.

About done with the first third of the game.

Hell yeah. One of my all-time favorite games. I spent about 200 hours beating it back in 2019-2020. I actually played it as part of the trilogy, transferring my party from 6 to 7 to 8. It was a wild ride, and one of my favorite gaming experiences ever.

I prioritized 'moving fast' to get the first 4 maps before the NPCs really got moving.

Have NewCity, Orkogre castle, and Munkharama basically clobbered.

THEN it's time to diverge, and go in 'the back way' up Witch Mountains. (Up the eryn river, beside munkharama bridge), THEN clobber dane tower.

The game really wants you to go to either Nyctalinth or Ukpyr, but I do that LATER.

I like leaving the NPCs empty handed. 😀

To get some use out of my Opteron 180 build I've begun a first time playthrough of Doom 3. So far I'm enjoying it, but even with the CPU @ 2.7 GHz and an HD 3850 Ultra Quality has framerate dips to the point I set it to high quality instead. After playing Max Payne several times it's nice to begin a game where the setting it to the easy level (Recruit) is actually easy! To the point where I considered restarting my first playthrough on Marine instead, but nah, I'll finish it on this setting.

I briefly tested the Prince of Persia Trilogy HD Collection on my PlayStation 3, just to see what it's like. Truthfully, it wasn't that great. In my view, the only good thing about it are some of the high res textures. This might just be personal preference, but I actually like how these games look when using their original assets, especially Sands of Time. The new textures are certainly more detailed, but they often look out of place. I only liked the ones which enhance the clothing of the characters by giving more detail to the different fabrics.

Everything else about this PlayStation 3 port seems to be worse compared to the fully maxed out PC version. In particular, the soundstage is inferior due to the absence of EAX, while positional audio isn't nearly as precise. Also, certain sound effects have been replaced with lower quality versions, some graphical details like shadows and bloom are either absent or look different, and there's even a bit of censorship. If anyone's interested, you can read up more on this HD collection in the Trivia section of its wiki page.

One last note about the PC version of Sands of Time. If you have a DirectInput (not XInput) compatible gamepad like the Logitech RumblePad 2, you can configure the analog sticks and buttons to perfectly match the layout of the PlayStation 3 controller. You won't get vibration (not supported in the PC release), but everything else will work just like in the console version. Accessing the menus still requires a mouse (e.g. while saving) but actually playing the game works flawlessly. This is nice if you want the couch experience on a large TV, but still prefer to play Sands of Time using the PC release.

P.S.

I understand now why Sands of Time has such smooth character animations while Warrior Within and Two Thrones don't. Based on various "behind the scenes" documentaries, the developers used motion capture during the first game, but not for the sequels.

Playing a few rounds of cricket 97 for dos game club. Currently in a three way tournament as NZ vs. England and South Africa and about to play the grand final. Wish me luck 😉

I’m also doing another run through the Wolf Clan missions in Mechwarrior 2 - I just got a voodoo 1 so it’s the 3Dfx version this time. Tbh I think I prefer the original DOS version in 1024x768, but the 3Dfx version beats the hell outta the awful titanium edition 😂

Martli wrote on 2024-08-14, 08:49:

the 3Dfx version beats the hell outta the awful titanium edition

It baffles me still to this day how absolutely bug-ridden the "Titanium Edition " releases of all the Mechwarrior 2 games are...

You'd think a fresh release of the game like that is SUPPOSED to fix bugs not introduce more...

Currently playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director's Cut). I'm using the GOG version on my Win7 system. It runs well enough at 1080p with all in-game settings maxed and 4xAA. There is some minor traversal stutter here and there, but the frame rate stays locked at 60 for the most part. I've hooked up my PC to a large TV set, and I'm using an Xbox 360 controller for the full couch experience. All of the Xbox button prompts are displayed correctly and even vibration works.

When I first started playing this, it didn't really grab me. The combat and stealth systems both felt clunky, as their respective mechanics work quite differently compared to the previous Deus Ex games. Eventually, after upgrading a few abilities and finding some weapon mods, everything started falling into place. Well, except for the boss fights, which still feel clunky and overly drawn out. From what I gather, that's a common complaint about this game. I also find the hacking mechanics repetitive and tedious, but it does get better after investing more points into the relevant skills.

In pretty much all other aspects, Human Revolution is a proper Deus Ex game. There are multiple ways to progress through levels, especially if you get the improved strength and jump augmentations. Different dialog options can change the outcome of some encounters, and there are consequences to finishing quests in a certain way. Such as when you save someone in one mission, and they pop up later on to help you out. The first couple of levels are kinda meh, but the game really opens up once you get to China.

The story is also quite interesting and very engaging, at least so far. Even the side quests are well crafted, and pretty satisfying to complete. The ones related to your coworkers give further insight into their motivations and personality traits, which is nice. Voice acting is solid overall, especially for the main NPCs. The graphics are fairly good for the time, and properly convey the futuristic atmosphere of the game.

This is my first playthrough, so I'm going in completely blind, and I'm having a blast so far. Didn't expect I'd be enjoying this game so much, especially after the slow and clunky start. I guess we'll see how it holds up later on.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-16, 19:57:

Currently playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Director's Cut).

I'm glad you are liking it, it's one of my few favorites of 2010's.

There's one thing you might take an issue with later on though, since you are playing the Director's Cut. They shoehorned the originally separate DLC into the game and it shows. Just when the game starts to ramp up towards the end it suddenly takes all your augmentations and items from you and throws you into a stealth oriented DLC area that feels very tacked on. For me it breaks the pacing so bad it kinda deflates the rest of the game, hopefully you aren't as bothered by it as I was. The DLC itself is alright but it was so much better as a separate thing.

I personally stick with the original Steam version so I don't have to deal with it. As a bonus I also get the original aesthetics they toned down for the Director's Cut, I like the original color filters and find DC to look flat in comparison. But that's very subjective, enough people complained about it to make them tone them down for DC.

Sombrero wrote on 2024-08-17, 10:10:

There's one thing you might take an issue with later on though, since you are playing the Director's Cut. They shoehorned the originally separate DLC into the game and it shows.

Yeah, I read about that in one of the reviews that I checked before playing the game. Is the original version still available for purchase on Steam? Or is that gone completely in favor of the Director's Cut? I can get a used physical copy, though I'm unsure how its DRM works, and whether or not I'd be able to activate it if someone else had already used it.

If all else fails, I suppose I could get the original version for my Xbox 360. Might be fun to replay that at some later point.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-17, 10:31:

Yeah, I read about that in one of the reviews that I checked before playing the game. Is the original version still available for purchase on Steam? Or is that gone completely in favor of the Director's Cut? I can get a used physical copy, though I'm unsure how its DRM works, and whether or not I'd be able to activate it if someone else had already used it.

They took it off Steam years ago I'm afraid, you can only get it if you can find an activation key from ebay or something. Or a brand new retail copy with key that hasn't been used, Steam keys can't be used to activate games more than once.

But the retail keys still work even though they stopped selling it directly.

Sombrero wrote on 2024-08-17, 12:32:

They took it off Steam years ago I'm afraid, you can only get it if you can find an activation key from ebay or something. Or a brand new retail copy with key that hasn't been used, Steam keys can't be used to activate games more than once.

But the retail keys still work even though they stopped selling it directly.

That's too bad. I found a few sealed copies on eBay, but most of them are from the US, so the shipping costs to Europe are a bit too high for me. And I'd rather not deal with sketchy key selling websites. Instead, I ordered a used Xbox 360 copy, as those are still quite cheap.

I definitively want to replay this game at some point, since I want to see how things would change depending on certain choices that you can make. Currently, I'm playing as a stealthy hacker and going for a non-lethal run. It's working fairly well so far, with the exception of the boss fight.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-17, 12:57:

It's working fairly well so far, with the exception of the boss fight.

If there's something the Director's Cut actually improved it's the boss fights. If I recall correctly they gave the boss fights off to some third party developer without giving basically any guidelines to what they want to see or what the game is about, so the third party just went on to make boss fights that can be won only by shooting them in the face with no idea the player might not have a 100% shoot first ask questions later Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But in the DC they added other things to them to make non-100% shooter builds more viable. I don't remember can they be won without shooting them at all but I do remember there being hidden computers you can hack to get turrets on your side to help out and stuff like that.

Sombrero wrote on 2024-08-17, 13:24:

But in the DC they added other things to them to make non-100% shooter builds more viable. I don't remember can they be won without shooting them at all but I do remember there being hidden computers you can hack to get turrets on your side to help out and stuff like that.

I had some trouble with the first boss Barret (FF7 reference?) due to my build, but eventually, he went down to EMP grenades and the double barrel shotgun. I did find those computers nearby, but I hadn't actually gotten the skill that was needed to control the turrets at that time. Now, I have a fully maxed hacking skill tree, so I can turn off or take over turrets and bots at my leasure. Hopefully, that will help in the future.

For reference, I just reached Montreal. So far, I don't think I had to kill anyone except Barret and those guys in the prologue (before getting the augmentations).

Well, I just got to the second boss in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and she had me completely stumped for a while. I tried a couple of different approaches, but it soon became clear that the meager weapons I was carrying just weren't good enough. And my hacker/stealth/non-lethal build had no combat augmentations. You can supposedly use those "1337 h4x0r" skills to make this fight easier, but I was never able to do it, as she always attacked me during the (lengthy) hacking mini-game.

After dying like 5 times in a row, I remembered something. There was a Heavy Rifle and a ton of ammo for it just before the room with the boss. So I loaded an older save, took the Heavy Rifle and upgraded it with a coolant mod that I found earlier. Figured I might stand a slightly better chance with this, but it worked far better than expected. I somehow managed to stun that bitch with a couple of EMP grenades, and then proceeded to unload the Heavy Rifle straight into her face. Did that a few more times and finally won.

This boss fight was a truly craptastic experience, which needlessly tarnished the otherwise excellent game. The Director's Cut "enhancements" were of no use to me, and I ultimately won through brute force, without utilizing any of my preferred skills. And expecting non-combat oriented players to hack the security system while under attack was beyond idiotic. Utterly terrible design for a boss encounter.

Ugh. I've gotten to the point where I'm supposed to win a boxing match against a bunch of zombies and it has exposed a flaw in Doom 3 - the interminable loading times when you die! Yes, I'm repeatedly dying here game, please hurry up about getting the game loaded so I can die again! And now my last quick save I only have ten percent health so the zombie kills me with his first punch; my next to last quick save (I had many but I guess they delete as you go along) would take me back by an hour.

I'm just having a blast with a level of Pirate Doom 2 when not hacking away at OpenRakis

My current Linux laptop can't run anything too demanding anyway. 😀