I'm playing through Deus Ex vanilla and hating every damn moment of it.

I really wished 1.112fm didn't break so much of the game.

Wished I had some people to try playing co-op Hideous Destructor with me, even it means dealing with gzdoom's archaic P2P netcode system.

Start NOLF again for the first time since around 2002. This time with a FX5950U and AA turned on, it looks better than I remember. Still a pity there are no 5:4 resolutions on offer.

Deus Ex with GMDX is a requirement for me.
NOLF with the Modernizer patch fixes a lot of little things.

Have been switching back and forth between:

Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones (2019)
A surprisingly good RPG based on Lovecraft's writings. It reminds me most of Fallout in that you create just a single character (with your choices during character creation determining how you solve quests) and are joined throughout the game by fixed characters. Unlike Fallout though, you have complete control over any characters in your party whether inside or outside combat.

It seems that the game is actually quite linear in that there are certain quests that need to be done in order to get to the end. However, there is some leeway and you often have two or three leads to follow at any time. I don't think a different character build would really affect the story in any way, although it would probably allow you to solve quests in different ways. One thing that really impressed me is that you are asked to choose a sort of personal philosophy when making your character, and acting in line with that philosophy earns you small sanity point awards.

Speaking of sanity points, the game almost feels like a "survival horror" RPG, at least initially. Character health is tracked on four levels: health, sanity, fatigue, and addiction... and maintaining a healthy group of characters can get very expensive. I'm told that this only lasts for the first part of the game where currency is hard to come by, but it's a fun system that results in a downward spiral if you don't keep up on it.

Overall, I'm enjoying it. It's apparently not a terribly long game, with people claiming to complete it in 15-20 hours or so.

---

The Magic Candle (1989)
This is a series I've always been interested in from ads back in Computer Gaming World back in the day, but never got around to playing until now.

The Magic Candle is a massive and complicated RPG with party-based turn-based combat played from an overhead perspective. The game begins with you interviewing and selecting five companions from a pool of a dozen or so. It reminded me a bit of Dungeon Master.

From there, you are basically thrown into a massive world with a few leads but nothing really stopping you from doing what you want. The game does has a time limit but it is apparently VERY generous and can even be extended if needed. Much of the game so far is spent gathering information in towns using a conversation system very similar to that in the Ultima games; you will definitely want to play this with notebook in hand.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of the game is how you can split your party up. I thought this would be a gimmick, but it's crucial for time management and mostly done in towns. The typical scenario would be to split off your high charisma character on his own to explore the town and gather information, split off any characters who have learned a trade (metalworking, gem cutting, etc.) to go earn money, and have the rest train at academies or sit in the inn memorizing spells. It's a bit clunky at first but you soon get used to it and it really makes visiting towns a lot of fun.

It's a massive game and I've just scratched the surface, but I am really enjoying it so far. It's too bad this series is not so well-known.

xcomcmdr wrote on 2020-11-07, 21:38:

Deus Ex with GMDX is a requirement for me.

I don't want to play mods that significantly alter the maps or any of the models and textures.

The most I ever really go for is "Shifter" but even that isn't 100% "perfection".

What I really want, is something that completely fixes all the oversights v1.112fm introduced, fixes all the left-over bugs and unfinished mission scripts, and puts back in content that's still in the game but cut for whatever reason.

No maps are modified in GMDX to my knowledge.
It's not at all like Deus Ex Rebirth.
Textures are modified, as they were ugly even at the time of release. They can be easily deleted, IIRC.

This weekend I've been playing Tomb Raider Legend, Goldeneye Reloaded (on PS3) and AC: Origins. I've been trying to play some Medal of Honour Allied Assault but it doesn't seem to agree with my PC.

I found my Command and Conquer Generals CDs so tonight is going to be a fun one.

I'm planning to play Loom and maybe Zak McKracken 😒
I'm going to use hints instead of a walk-through because it doesn't really ruin the fun of the game.

More progress in Pillars of Eternity as my party hit Level 10 as I started exploring The White March expansion areas which are basically an homage to classic Icewind Dale the same way Pillars of Eternity is an homage to Baldur’s Gate and to some extent Neverwinter Nights 2. I am really enjoying thia game ans I really hope it comes well together in the end. So far it has a Fallout-esque vibe where all I do seems to be impactful, hoping I get an ending where I learn the consequences of my key choices. 50 hours in, solid 4/5, Recommended.

Sudden Strike 4 for the past week or two. A really excellent (apart from the poor AI) RTT without the annoying building and buying of units that ruins many of these games. You really have to think a head on how to complete each scenario and take your time, rushing only gets you killed and there's no way of knowing (on the first play-through) if you get any support elements (bombers, recon, reinforcements) or not.

dinged 90 on techter.

Did a speedrun through black cauldron to see all the other paths i didn't take the first time.

Still playing the Price of Loyalty expansion for HOMM2. Finished the Voyage Home and Wizard Isles mini campaigns, left the two bigger ones for last.

They really ramped up the difficulty for the expansion missions, sometimes a bit too much for my liking. I particularly hated the maps where teleporters are placed right next to your castle and locked behind magical gates, with the keys being in enemy territory. So an enemy can unlock the gates and drop straight into your base at any given time, but you can't do the same until they initially open the gate. It doesn't help that enemies usually start with 3-4 times the number of castles compared to you.

Honestly, I'm not having as much fun with this as I did with the original campaign. Those maps were much better designed, with strategically placed choke points, more evenly distributed resources and less reliance on cheap tricks. That said, a fully realized hero with Expert Logistics, Dimension Door and Mass Haste/Slow still stomps everything pretty easily, but getting to that level takes a lot longer on the expansion maps.

Well, after 31 hours I think I'm going to DNF Betrayal at Krondor. I'll keep my save and maybe return to it sometime, but probably not for a long while. The pacing is too slow for me. I prefer a little more exploration and combat and a little less story. There's a lot of reading and a lot to remember from that reading, and even with hints and walkthroughs, it just feels like I'm following along in a book. The exploration is there, but because of the clunky UI, it makes it a little less immersive. It hasn't been a bad game at all, just too slow-paced for me. I find I'm not looking forward to spending every free gaming moment jumping back into it and in the end, that's what matters. Probably the biggest highlight of this game is the soundtrack. Now to decide what to play next. Some candidates:
CyberMage (not approaching it as an RPG, but rather a FPS)
Metro: Last Light
Avadon: The Black Fortress
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Underworld Ascendant
Tomb Raider 2013
The Bard's Tale Trilogy #1

CyberMage is a good choice. 😀

Out of that list I think the only ones worth looking at are Tomb Raider 2013 and Metro : Last Light. Don't get me wrong I loved a great deal of that list at the time of release, but some of them are just demonstrations of the frustrating design caveats of the time. Some games are best left in the memory. Bards Tale for example, is a game of repetition, the aha moment when playing was when you learned how to experience farm. That's all that game is , experience farming, the graphics don't hold up, the exploration and level design don't hold up, and the gameplay is repetitive. It was great fun at the time as the concepts it pushes were new and the graphics and gameplay were interesting enough to keep you going since for the time they were fine.

Some old game are legitimately still great and worth playing, and some are just exploitative of what were new ideas or design limitations at the time, and are better left in your head as good memories.

I finally found for sale HotRod American Street Drag and I've been playing that. It's a ton of fun and brings back memories of playing it over the network in my A+ class when I was in highschool

I am now about half way through the Price of Loyalty campaign of the HOMM2 expansion. So far, I'm liking it a lot more than the two mini campaigns that I had finished earlier. The difficulty is more manageable and the quality of the maps is better. Even the story seems more interesting (the bit with the elven king was a nice touch).

I figured the mini campaigns would ease me back into the game after a long absence, but that was obviously a mistake. Guess I should have started with this one.

Shagittarius wrote on 2020-11-15, 17:35:

Out of that list I think the only ones worth looking at are Tomb Raider 2013 and Metro : Last Light. Don't get me wrong I loved a great deal of that list at the time of release, but some of them are just demonstrations of the frustrating design caveats of the time. Some games are best left in the memory. Bards Tale for example, is a game of repetition, the aha moment when playing was when you learned how to experience farm. That's all that game is , experience farming, the graphics don't hold up, the exploration and level design don't hold up, and the gameplay is repetitive. It was great fun at the time as the concepts it pushes were new and the graphics and gameplay were interesting enough to keep you going since for the time they were fine.

Some old game are legitimately still great and worth playing, and some are just exploitative of what were new ideas or design limitations at the time, and are better left in your head as good memories.

Yeah, I've enjoyed plenty of old games over the past 5 years played on original hardware (enough to complete them!):
Wing Commander I
Wing Commander II
Wing Commander III
System Shock
Ultima Underworld I
Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos
Ultima Underworld II
Ultima VII Pt. 2 Serpent Isle
Eric the Unready
Might and Magic 4: Clouds of Xeen
Wings of Glory
Pacific Strike
Shadowcaster
Realms of Arkania I
Strike Commander
Privateer
Crusader: No Remorse
Inca
Crusader: No Regret
Anvil of Dawn
Stonekeep
Realms of Arkania II
Dark Forces
Wizardry VI
Wizardry VII

And there have been several that I just couldn't get through:
Eye of the Beholder
Fallout
Worlds of Ultima: Martian Dreams
Albion
Duke Nukem 3D (stopped at end of Episode 1)
Quake I (stopped at end of Episode 1)
Terminal Velocity (stopped in middle of Episode 2)
Descent II
Dark Sun: Shattered Lands
Betrayal at Krondor

I have high hopes for CyberMage. I played about 10 minutes of the beginning of the game and other than some clunky controls, it was pretty fun and felt like something I could complete. I think the controls would be the only thing that would stop me from finishing this one. Going to give it a go.