appiah4 wrote:

buckeye wrote:

Far Cry 1 for the first time, what a good looking game! Unfortunately per my ongoing habit I won't play it all the way through, instead will buy the next game that interests me just to check out the graphics and on and on it goes.

Which is just as well because the game goes to complete shit halfway through.

Far Cry is a much better game on the original XBox, in my opinion. The XBox version was altered quite a bit from the PC version, to compensate for the XBox's lower system specs, meaning that it's much more liner; gone are the mostly open world spaces, but to me the improved pacing of the encounters, and the scripted sequences that the linear layout of this version of the game allows are good enough that they don't feel forced or too predictable when you've played it multiple times. The game's story-line branches away from the PC versions, as does the gameplay as part way through the game you gain super-human powers (speed, strength, and a sort of visual/smell enhancement skill) and can fully go on the offensive. On the minus side, the vehicles and craft you encounter that you can control (be they air, ground, or water based) have more limited enviromental distances that they are available to you, but unlike the PC version, the XBox version doesn't go downhill, enjoyment-wise the further into the game you get. Well, the final boss fight isn't much fun, but up until then the game is great.

Far Cry is one of the few times when the console version of a game is better than the PC version, if you ask me.

I just finished the 3rd mission in Dark Forces on my MS-DOS PC. So far, having a blast. 😀

And, I just started the sequel to one of my favorite RPGs. The Eschalon series is highly underrated, with great story, gameplay, turn-based combat, amazing soundtrack that fits the mood of the game, and lovely old-school graphics. My only complaint is that screen resolution is locked at 1024x768. It would be nice to have wide screen support, but it's a minor quibble.

Started playing a cool little RPG from 1992, Amberstar. Don't know much about it, but it seems to have a good reputation. Looks good so far.

It does look like a good game. I did notice in reading up on it that there is only one save slot. I'd imagine you could back your save file up if you want to cheat that a little.

GoblinUpTheRoad wrote:

Started playing a cool little RPG from 1992, Amberstar. Don't know much about it, but it seems to have a good reputation. Looks good so far.

amberstar.jpg

That's an Amiga game as far as I know and a very acclaimed one too.

Since one of the AMC TC team members was kind enough to compile the specific release of eduke32 for use with the mod/game, I started playing this recently.

It's probably the best Duke3D thing I've ever played custom.

Still working on Dark Forces. Just finished Mission VI, which has been the longest, most complicated mission so far. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to complete, and because you can't save mid-mission, I found myself gaming the system like I used to. I hit ESC to get to the menu when I have to stop, and just leave my DOS PC on all day until I have time to get back to it. 😀 So far, I've put nearly 5 hours into this game.

As for Eschalon Book 2, I've got 5 hr and 15 minutes into it and my character is currently level 3 -- still pretty early in the game. I've completed about 4-5 quests. So far it's as good as Book 1 was. Looking forward to more of this one.

Lately it's been BroForce with my daughter, who always needs me to explain who each "Bro" is based on, what they did and why they did it. Some of them are obviously harder to explain than others. Quality retro platform game though.

When alone I've been playing a lot of Civiliaztion 6, which I still can't decide if I like or not. After spending so long with 5, the mechanics of the new game took some getting used to. Civ 2 Advanced is still my favourite. Playing Civ again led me into playing some Heroes of Might and Magic for some reason. I tried the latest game (HOMM VII) which looks stunning, but the map pool for custom games is tiny and I've exhausted it after just a few weeks. If only it had as many maps as HOMM 3 or 4, it would give me something to do for another year or two.

Playing freeware from caiman, gotta archive stuffs you know.
Strife's been layin around my hard drive for years, decided to check out. Damn fellas, it rocks. Also gonna finish QUIVER, i got to episode 3 level 2 (mission 20). The exit portal refuses to work though, sucks. Anyone got the addon episode?

EDIT
mission 20 can only be beaten if you type in BUTTHEAD. It's a code that gives you all orbs and keys, but you already have the orbs... still, it makes the portal work, so it's good.

GoblinUpTheRoad wrote:

Started playing a cool little RPG from 1992, Amberstar. Don't know much about it, but it seems to have a good reputation. Looks good so far.

Amberstar is one of the best games ever and Ambermoon is the best one!

appiah4 wrote:

That's an Amiga game as far as I know and a very acclaimed one too.

As far as I know It was released for Amiga, PC and Atari ST.

I am playing Terror from the Deep on my retro PC and Sinking City on my new one.

Wolfus wrote:

Amberstar is one of the best games ever and Ambermoon is the best one!

Yeah, I'm loving it, just need to find more time to play!

Wolfus wrote:

As far as I know It was released for Amiga, PC and Atari ST.

The manual credits a bunch of people for the "Amiga Conversion" and "PC Conversion" so looks like it was made for the Atari ST first. Strange that the sequel Ambermoon was only released on Amiga, I'll have to break out the old A500 for that one.

Donkey Kong (GameBoy) 1994 using either my GameBoy DMG-01 that I fixed up or my GameBoy Color that has the frontlight mod installed. Currently on stage 8 level 9. Never played the game before a day in my life and it looks even better with the Super GameBoy as it has enhanced sounds and all 16 colors that are utilized.

Defeated the game a few days ago and had to restore the game save as the battery terminal on the cartridge broke off somehow. Good thing I still had the game save.

Speaking of Donkey Kong, I hooked up the good old Nintendo 64 and started playing Donkey Kong 64 again and I'm on the Fungi Forest level (114 Golden Bananas currently) and cleaned off every cartridge that I own and they all started to work again. The game saves are still there as they used EEPROM chips for saving data and my Memory Pak still has game saves on there.

I just finished Mission XI: Imperial City on Dark Forces. Toughest mission yet, but with only 3 missions to go, I hope they don't get harder than this one, because even on Easy, it took me 8 lives (3 lives in two failed attempts, then 2 lives in the third attempt). I was not happy about the "surprise" at the end of the mission when I thought I was home free. But it only took 3 lives to get past that. All told, I spent 2 hrs on this mission, whereas all the previous missions took between 15 minutes and an hour. I'm getting around the lack of mid-mission save by just ESCing to the menu and leaving my DOS PC on until I can get back to the game. 😀 Altogether, the 11 missions have taken me a little over 10 hrs.

wordzap.exe

You're a more patient man than me @clueless; I love the idea of Dark Forces but those maze-like levels kill my enthusiasm for it.

Speaking of enthusiasm, I have none. My day job is taking up way too many CPU cycles lately and hobbies have fallen by the wayside, not a good sign. I've managed a few Oblivion sessions from time-to-time though so I'm not completely dead on the inside. I completed the Knights of the Nine quest line and have run through countless caves / temples, it's time to get back to the main quest for a while now I think.

After getting a bit sidetracked I went back to continue my 90's classic shooter spree (Doom->Doom II->Duke3D->Quake->Quake II). I had finished Ultimate Doom and Doom II and was supposed to play Master Levels for Doom II and Final Doom next but as much as I love Doom I was starting to get a bit fatigued. So instead I went directly for Duke3D... and realized something very surprising after I finished the first episode and started the second one: Turns out I don't actually like Duke 3D all that much. Why that surprised me? Because over the years I clearly had forgotten that while I do remember having fun playing it back in the day with friends I still never was all that blown away by it and somehow during the last 20 years had just slowly decided that it's THE Duke, who the hell doesn't like Duke 3D?

Well, apparently me I guess. I don't hate the game, nothing of the sort, but I just don't enjoy playing it all that much. I've identified two reasons that are the biggest culprits:

1: Gameplay is clearly more challenging than in Doom. Doom is more like a power fantasy, you can easily dodge most enemy attacks and mowe down massive amounts of enemies without much trouble. In Duke 3D the enemies are much more dangerous, there are less of them but it takes a lot more effort dealing with them. I didn't find Duke 3D that hard on "come get some" difficulty, but I guess I just personally look for more relaxing experience while playing a game like this.

2: The music. I don't like it. Of course grabbag (the theme) is great and some tracks were all right, but most of the time I just didn't like the music at all and that is a big deal for me. Graphics don't tickle me much, if a game has great graphics I notice them, go "whoa, nice" and then promptly forget them. But if a game has good music that does absolute wonders for me. Bad music on the other hand is like a crowbar hitting the kneecaps of my enjoyement.

A shame, I do really like the character of Duke and the attitude. Oh well. You know, I never was all that blown away by Quake either but that I already knew. I think I still will start that next, maybe I can appreciate it more now than back in the day.

Crank9000 wrote:

Well, apparently me I guess. I don't hate the game, nothing of the sort, but I just don't enjoy playing it all that much.

Same here - I still get a kick out of the first episode but beyond that, meh. And yet I think of myself as a huge Duke fan. Shadow Warrior and Blood I'm even less interested in - too hard and tense for mine. Strife however I have a lot of time for - DOOM engine with some RPG-lite elements.

Oh yeah baby. One of my all time favorite mech strategy games gets a release on GOG. Goodbye spare time. Loved this title. Plays much like an animated board game. Wasn't a fan of the second one though.

https://www.gog.com/game/missionforce_cyberstorm

I had never heard of this.. Is it a TBS? Seems to feature mechs, anything with mechs interests me.

appiah4 wrote:

I had never heard of this.. Is it a TBS? Seems to feature mechs, anything with mechs interests me.

Yes it is and based in the Earthsiege/Starsiege universe which eventually turned into the Tribes universe.