AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 04:56:

Darklands , its uh intresting to say the least playing this classic rpg, I've gone with the preset characters for now to get my […]
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Darklands , its uh intresting to say the least playing this classic rpg, I've gone with the preset characters for now to get my bearings. It takes place around the Germanic states in Europe in the 15th century.

You start out in a city where you can attempt to take on various jobs or talk to people of political influence or buy various goods and equipment or go to the inn to eat and rest. There also seems to be a reputation system. Some of it reminds me a bit of Daggerfall.

So far the experience has involved alot of my guys being robbed by bandits , murdered by witches , and kidnapped by demons , the games pretty brutal.

I've still got a long way to go to figure out how the entire game jives and how to equip my guys with better gear.

It does seem very going from zero to hero type of an affair , or at least id hope so since getting mauled by wolves every trip or chopped to death by angry noblemen demanding tribute is not fun.

Also the mt32 music is pretty nice so there's that.

The attachment 20250511_010424.jpg is no longer available

This has been on my "to play" list for a long time! I've messed around briefly with it and it does seem pretty intimidating. And I've completed all three Arkania games, so I'm used to intimidating. I hope you get into it and keep posting about your experiences. It may motivate me to take the plunge...

Kingdom Come Deliverance II
I continue to develop Henry to favor archery and bludgeoning tools for combat. I hope it doesn't end up biting me during required heavy combat scenes down the road. Yesterday, I came across some bandits that were waiting in ambush. I happened to save the game just before that point, and it took several tries to get through the combat. (Of course, avoiding combat is always an option in these situations, but I wanted to defeat these guys because they were picking on a poor wayfarer). What was doing me in was, arrows were hitting their mark, but not killing them instantly (they almost never do), so they'd crowd in on me with melee attacks before I could switch to my war hammer. Yes, switching weapons is realistically slow. In the end, how I got them was to figure out the furthest away I could be while hitting them with arrows, which not only gave me more time to impale them all with at least one arrow, but also gave me time to sic Mutt on them. He is fast, distracting, and can do some decent damage. When Mutt attacks, the most useful aspect is I can get some solid melee hits in when close up, and I can get some arrows into their backs from further away. It was quite a satisfying victory, and I was sure to give Mutt lots of praise as well as some dried deer rump.

In a more exploratory moment, Mutt and I found a pond that had some hidden features, like a secret path to a lookout point, and a clay pot with some coin in it that was hidden in the muddy shoreline. In the screenshot below, you can see Mutt wading in the pond, while in the foreground is the pot in the mud.

Lastly, I'm so far 50 hours in. The in-game Stats page tracks more information than you can shake a stick at!

clueless1 wrote on 2025-05-11, 10:45:

This has been on my "to play" list for a long time! I've messed around briefly with it and it does seem pretty intimidating. A […]
Show full quote

AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 04:56:

Darklands , its uh intresting to say the least playing this classic rpg, I've gone with the preset characters for now to get my […]
Show full quote

Darklands , its uh intresting to say the least playing this classic rpg, I've gone with the preset characters for now to get my bearings. It takes place around the Germanic states in Europe in the 15th century.

You start out in a city where you can attempt to take on various jobs or talk to people of political influence or buy various goods and equipment or go to the inn to eat and rest. There also seems to be a reputation system. Some of it reminds me a bit of Daggerfall.

So far the experience has involved alot of my guys being robbed by bandits , murdered by witches , and kidnapped by demons , the games pretty brutal.

I've still got a long way to go to figure out how the entire game jives and how to equip my guys with better gear.

It does seem very going from zero to hero type of an affair , or at least id hope so since getting mauled by wolves every trip or chopped to death by angry noblemen demanding tribute is not fun.

Also the mt32 music is pretty nice so there's that.

The attachment 20250511_010424.jpg is no longer available

This has been on my "to play" list for a long time! I've messed around briefly with it and it does seem pretty intimidating. And I've completed all three Arkania games, so I'm used to intimidating. I hope you get into it and keep posting about your experiences. It may motivate me to take the plunge...

Kingdom Come Deliverance II
I continue to develop Henry to favor archery and bludgeoning tools for combat. I hope it doesn't end up biting me during required heavy combat scenes down the road. Yesterday, I came across some bandits that were waiting in ambush. I happened to save the game just before that point, and it took several tries to get through the combat. (Of course, avoiding combat is always an option in these situations, but I wanted to defeat these guys because they were picking on a poor wayfarer). What was doing me in was, arrows were hitting their mark, but not killing them instantly (they almost never do), so they'd crowd in on me with melee attacks before I could switch to my war hammer. Yes, switching weapons is realistically slow. In the end, how I got them was to figure out the furthest away I could be while hitting them with arrows, which not only gave me more time to impale them all with at least one arrow, but also gave me time to sic Mutt on them. He is fast, distracting, and can do some decent damage. When Mutt attacks, the most useful aspect is I can get some solid melee hits in when close up, and I can get some arrows into their backs from further away. It was quite a satisfying victory, and I was sure to give Mutt lots of praise as well as some dried deer rump.

In a more exploratory moment, Mutt and I found a pond that had some hidden features, like a secret path to a lookout point, and a clay pot with some coin in it that was hidden in the muddy shoreline. In the screenshot below, you can see Mutt wading in the pond, while in the foreground is the pot in the mud.

The attachment pond treasure.jpg is no longer available

Lastly, I'm so far 50 hours in. The in-game Stats page tracks more information than you can shake a stick at!

The attachment Screenshot 2025-05-11 052904.jpg is no longer available

I'll try and do more updates , funnily enough I'm also really keen on playing kingdom come deliverance ,
I haven't played the first one though i own it , but i should and I'm also tempted to get the second at some point ,
which hopefully my modern computer can run okay given it's specs aren't amazing.

AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 15:29:

I'll try and do more updates , funnily enough I'm also really keen on playing kingdom come deliverance ,
I haven't played the first one though i own it , but i should and I'm also tempted to get the second at some point ,
which hopefully my modern computer can run okay given it's specs aren't amazing.

It's pretty forgiving on less powerful hardware, to a point. Lots of graphical options for tuning and DLSS helps a lot. I'm using an RTX2080 (nearly 7 years old) and with DLSS I'm still almost maxed out at 1080p running 80-100fps.

edit: I used this article to help tweak my settings:
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/kingdom-come … ing-performance

Top 3 for last month:
Diablo Hellfire
Drowned God
Dune 2000

clueless1 wrote on 2025-05-11, 15:41:

It's pretty forgiving on less powerful hardware, to a point. Lots of graphical options for tuning and DLSS helps a lot. I'm us […]
Show full quote

AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 15:29:

I'll try and do more updates , funnily enough I'm also really keen on playing kingdom come deliverance ,
I haven't played the first one though i own it , but i should and I'm also tempted to get the second at some point ,
which hopefully my modern computer can run okay given it's specs aren't amazing.

It's pretty forgiving on less powerful hardware, to a point. Lots of graphical options for tuning and DLSS helps a lot. I'm using an RTX2080 (nearly 7 years old) and with DLSS I'm still almost maxed out at 1080p running 80-100fps.

edit: I used this article to help tweak my settings:
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/kingdom-come … ing-performance

Phew thats good to know , so would an intel arc b580 do the trick then?

Personally just setup a 486 and playing The 7th Guest with all the CD and MIDI glory. Its very interesting finding the intro places where its using CDAudio VS MIDI and the mixing of sound effects.

AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 17:16:

clueless1 wrote on 2025-05-11, 15:41:

It's pretty forgiving on less powerful hardware, to a point. Lots of graphical options for tuning and DLSS helps a lot. I'm us […]
Show full quote

AppleSauce wrote on 2025-05-11, 15:29:

I'll try and do more updates , funnily enough I'm also really keen on playing kingdom come deliverance ,
I haven't played the first one though i own it , but i should and I'm also tempted to get the second at some point ,
which hopefully my modern computer can run okay given it's specs aren't amazing.

It's pretty forgiving on less powerful hardware, to a point. Lots of graphical options for tuning and DLSS helps a lot. I'm using an RTX2080 (nearly 7 years old) and with DLSS I'm still almost maxed out at 1080p running 80-100fps.

edit: I used this article to help tweak my settings:
https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/kingdom-come … ing-performance

Phew thats good to know , so would an intel arc b580 do the trick then?

I would imagine so. It's about the same speed as my RTX 2080 in most raster benchmarks. The only place it may struggle is in lack of support for DLSS, but you should still have plenty of tweaking options to make it look and run good.

I've been replaying Tomb Raider (2013) over the weekend. This is actually the first time that I'm experiencing the original PC version of the game, as I had only played the Definitive Edition on my PS4 Pro in the past.

There are some minor differences between the two, most notably regarding Lara's facial animations. Personally, I like her PC model a bit better, as she conveys a wider range of emotions and her eyes seem much more expressive. Also, when using Ultimate settings, texture detail is slightly improved on the PC compared to the PlayStation 4. On the flip side, the lighting in the PC version is inferior in some instances e.g. the jungle has a "washed out" look during nighttime. The folks from Digital Foundry have a comparison video if you want to see all of this for yourself.

Gameplay wise, I do like TR 2013 for the most part, though there is too much combat for my taste. It's funny how Lara makes a big deal after killing that first guy, and then proceeds to depopulate the entire island by casually slaughtering hundreds if not thousands of people. Also, I never liked how she suffers a serious injury right at the start of the game, by being impaled on a rusty metal spike, and then simply walks it off. Not to mention that she's constantly performing acrobatics, and wading through filthy water without her wound getting infected. While I can suspend disbelief in games to a degree, moments like that are simply immersion breaking.

I do like the leveling and crafting systems, as they give you an incentive to explore the entire island thoroughly. The fact that Lara eventually finds new gear which allows her to access some previously closed off sections kinda reminds me of the Zelda games. Combat mechanics are also very robust, with headshots downing opponents instantly, unless they are wearing helmets. The stealth gameplay isn't quite as refined, but it's still serviceable. I should also mention that I'm using an Xbox 360 controller, which works flawlessly with the PC version, including full rumble support.

Anyway, I'm about one third into the main plot, and so far I'm enjoying the game quite a bit. Despite some of its (minor) flaws, TR 2013 is fun to play, and still looks very nice for its age.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-19, 06:05:

I've been replaying Tomb Raider (2013) over the weekend.

How much storytelling does the game have? Back at launch I saw a lot of complaining about a rape scene (?) and sobby story that turned me so off I've been ignoring the game and its sequels ever since. You're enjoying the game and we often see eye to eye with these things, Lara's personal story isn't making you gag or anything?

---

I hopped on Doom 2016 for the first time. I didn't really mean to, but I wanted to nuke my old Windows 10 install so I could put the old half worn SSD elsewhere and I have absolutely no idea when I'm going to have a Win10/11 install on a PC that is attached to a computer monitor again, meaning I have to play it now or sit on it possibly for years. Unless the GOG offline install works on Win7, haven't tested that but not holding my breath.

It's kinda amazing how much it reminds me of Doom 3. Just about a bazillion times better. I'm on level three or four now, forgot which, and while I am having a good time I can already tell it's not a solid 5/5 for me. Some things just aren't clicking with me, like the max ammo limitation, checkpoints, ADHD Imps, and occasionally the music. The soundtrack has gotten a lot of praise but I've personally found it mostly fine, couple times it has regressed into this very aggressive noise which I have found a bit obnoxious and annoying.

Still definitely a good game and I'll be happily playing it to finish. Which is more than I can say about Doom 3, some time ago I gave it a go to see has my opinion of it changed during the last 21 years. It hasn't. I imagine you can guess my opinion of it by saying I threw the install discs into trash.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-19, 12:59:

How much storytelling does the game have? Back at launch I saw a lot of complaining about a rape scene (?) and sobby story that turned me so off I've been ignoring the game and its sequels ever since.

I don't recall a whole lot about the story from my first playthrough, except for the main beats and what happens at the end. During my current run, I did encounter an attempted sexual assault scene early in the game. But the guy doesn't get far with the attempt, as Lara quickly kills him in self defense. I don't think there's anything else besides that, but again, it's been about 8 years since I last played this, and I don't remember every detail.

You're enjoying the game and we often see eye to eye with these things, Lara's personal story isn't making you gag or anything?

In this game, Lara is still new to the whole "tomb raiding" business, so you will see her being scared, crying and getting physically hurt on certain occasions. Some people are turned off by this, since it's in stark contrast to the "tough as nails" Lara from the classic Tomb Raider games, but it didn't bother me personally. If it matters, I do like the entire reboot trilogy, although the last game (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) is my least favorite of the bunch.

Some things just aren't clicking with me, like the max ammo limitation, ADHD Imps, and occasionally the music.

I highly recommend spending your Argent points on fully maxing the ammo capacity ASAP. It actually makes a big difference in Doom 2016, unlike its sequel. There's also a rune near the end of the game which gives you infinite ammo under certain conditions.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-19, 13:28:

In this game, Lara is still new to the whole "tomb raiding" business, so you will see her being scared, crying and getting physically hurt on certain occasions. Some people are turned off by this, since it's in stark contrast to the "tough as nails" Lara from the classic Tomb Raider games, but it didn't bother me personally. If it matters, I do like the entire reboot trilogy, although the last game (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) is my least favorite of the bunch.

Hmh alright, while I'm sure the story bits aren't my cup of tea it sounds like there's no need for me to avoid it like the plague like I have. Thanks, I'll keep this one in mind when I find myself looking for something new for me.

I highly recommend spending your Argent points on fully maxing the ammo capacity ASAP.

Yeah, I suppose so. Though I'm not super stoked about having to choose between health/armor/ammo, like I don't need every one of those.

Well, found out yesterday that it's "Return to Vana'Diel" season again for Final Fantasy 11. So I'll be installing/updating the game on my new XP/Vista rig to play on that one for this week.

For those who don't know, the Return- campaigns are basically where they make the game free for you to play if you had an existing character and account and at some point in the past cancelled your service. Your characters still exist on the servers. But during the campaign window, you can play for free without re-activating your subscription. They're TRYING to get you to re-subscribe and play past the window, but I never do. I just play while it's free and then move on to another game after. hehe

So I played the Ghost Bears DLC for Mechwarrior 5: Clans. It was short and sweet at 12 missions. Overall I liked the story a lot better than the core game, found the difficulty less spikey and normal felt about right. Maybe it could have been a skosh harder, but there are always higher difficulties I suppose. Whether it's worth $20 is going to be a personal judgement call, but I've more or less accepted this is a niche product with a niche price.

The Battletech fandom is weird these days, and I suspect Piranha Games gets a lot of blow back for how Catalyst Games Labs have poisoned the well. You see people nitpicking absolutely everything about Mechwarrior 5 in a vacuum, down the phenotypes of Elementals not being lore accurate. I donno man. Personally, I think Mechwarrior 5: Clans (and Mercs) are the best and last Mechwarrior games we are ever likely to get. Not because better games can't be made, but they won't. I think on the merits, they are also the best iterations as a whole in the entire series. And whenever Microsoft gets that license back because Piranha can't make it work anymore economically, if it ever gets out again it will probably be for some shameless game as a service even worse than MWO which did a lot to subsidize the development of MW5.

So anyways, MW5 Clans DLC gets two big thumbs up from me. Looking forward to more.

Finished Tomb Raider (2013). I like how you get to see so many contrasting environments in this game. From lush jungles, through rustic villages, over snowy mountain peaks, abandoned bunkers and ancient temples. There is certainly a lot of variety, and each area can look different depending on the current time of day. And while I generally dislike motion blur and depth of field, they are used sparingly and to good artistic effect here, which was a pleasant surprise. Very nice visuals all around, especially considering when the game was released.

Overall, I had a good time replaying this, and even the (over)abundance of combat didn't bother me that much. In fact, the only thing that mildly irked me were certain quick time events. To clarify, this isn't an input issue, as the controls in TR 2013 are very responsive and the platforming feels smooth and intuitive. It's just that a few of these events are poorly designed. For example, there is one instance where Lara gets swept up by the river current, and you need to steer her in the right direction while water is spraying all over the "camera" making it difficult to see what's happening. This is a very short sequence, but if you fail even a single move, you need to redo the entire thing.

Anyway, now that I've reacquainted myself with the story, I can once again confirm that it's fine. However, much of the lore is relegated to journal entries and old documents. So if you don't bother collecting those, it may slightly lessen your enjoyment of the main plot. There are also a few subtle nods to the classic games, including a brief scene where Lara dual wields two pistols for the first time.

Lastly, it was nice to revisit this on the PC, with improved textures and a much more stable frame rate compared to the PS4. That said, the game did crash a few times during my run. From what I've read in various places, this can be mitigated by unchecking "Exclusive Fullscreen" under video options and ensuring that the frame rate is capped at 60 during the later parts of the game.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-21, 07:26:

For example, there is one instance where Lara gets swept up by the river current, and you need to steer her in the right direction while water is spraying all over the "camera" making it difficult to see what's happening.

I feel like quick time events kinda inherently have that problem. Even when there isn't anything blocking your view to make things even worse at least I aren't really paying attention to what is actually happening on screen, but concentrating for the next "push this button" pop up. So much for the cool action scene if the player doesn't really even notice what the character did. Not a fan.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-21, 08:45:

I feel like quick time events kinda inherently have that problem. Even when there isn't anything blocking your view to make things even worse at least I aren't really paying attention to what is actually happening on screen, but concentrating for the next "push this button" pop up. So much for the cool action scene if the player doesn't really even notice what the character did. Not a fan.

Yup, that's one of my gripes with these events as well. But being a veteran God of War player from the old PS2 days, I'm just used to QTEs, and can tolerate them well enough. In the aforementioned example, it was mostly the water droplets obscuring the "camera" which made things annoying for me.

I should note that these events happen sporadically in TR 2013, so it's not like you're having to deal with them all the time. There are also some melee combat finishers which require timed button inputs, but I had no problems with those.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-21, 08:52:

Yup, that's one of my gripes with these events as well. But being a veteran God of War player from the old PS2 days, I'm just used to QTEs, and can tolerate them well enough.

Heh, just a few days ago I was testing PS2 emulation to figure out how much power it needs from CPU/GPU and God of War 2 was one of the games I tried, the first QTE dropped like within five minutes 😁

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-21, 09:17:

Heh, just a few days ago I was testing PS2 emulation to figure out how much power it needs from CPU/GPU and God of War 2 was one of the games I tried, the first QTE dropped like within five minutes 😁

Yeah, the first three God of War games are full of QTEs, but I still like them a lot. Especially GOW2, which remains my favorite entry in the series to this day.

On that note, if you want to experience these games at their best, I recommend playing the first two via the PlayStation 3 remaster. It runs at 1080p targeting 60 FPS, which makes the gameplay a lot more fluid. Likewise, GOW3 is best experienced on the PlayStation 4 for the same reasons. That said, it's possible that modern emulators can surpass this, but I haven't tried that myself.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-05-21, 09:25:

On that note, if you want to experience these games at their best, I recommend playing the first two via the PlayStation 3 remaster. It runs at 1080p targeting 60 FPS, which makes the gameplay a lot more fluid. Likewise, GOW3 is best experienced on the PlayStation 4 for the same reasons. That said, it's possible that modern emulators can surpass this, but I haven't tried that myself.

Right, remasters were already a thing back in the PS3 days. As far as I know PS3 emulation is in pretty good shape so I'll keep that in mind. PS4 emulation is still too work in progress though but maybe one day.

What puzzles me a bit is how Xbox 360 emulation hasn't really gotten off the ground, considering how popular it was. I want to play Trials HD/Evolution again damnit.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-05-21, 13:04:

What puzzles me a bit is how Xbox 360 emulation hasn't really gotten off the ground, considering how popular it was.

Yeah, I couldn't be bothered with the emulation, so I got a second hand Xbox 360 S (Trinity) a few years back. It's relatively easy to apply the RGH mod to that version. Then, you can replace the stock hard drive with an SSD, which helps with loading times.

The Xbox 360 is a great retro system to have around, as all games work without needing an internet connection. And most Title Updates (patches) are still available via Aurora, despite the official store being closed. As an added bonus, it can also play many OG Xbox games, via back compat.