pete8475 wrote on 2022-10-22, 02:08:

I've been playing through Rage lately. It runs butter smooth on max detail settings.

I do one or two missions at a time right now and it's a decent way to kill of 15 or 20 minutes.

Weird how the environment is even less interactive than something like Fallout 3 though.

I never finished this game, but the gunplay was PHENOMENAL. I remember getting right up to the car racing stuff and going wtf 😒 I went a bit further as the new hub city opened up but then quit. I should go back and finish it once I'm done with Titanfall 2..

badmojo wrote on 2022-10-22, 08:49:

Sombrero wrote on 2022-10-22, 08:35:

...or move on to Red Alert and finally beat the Allied campaing which I've never done.

Hmm but then Red Alert has those damn special forces missions where you have to sneak around with that annoying jackass who can blow stuff up and snipe - I have a lot of nostalgia for both Red Alert and C&C but I think both games are at their best when they leave you alone on one side of the map to get set up and then engage when you're ready.

IIRC C&C also has these. Actually the Commando is a GDI unit and was a thing before Tania. "Keep em coming." "That was left handed." etc.

appiah4 wrote on 2022-10-22, 09:48:

badmojo wrote on 2022-10-22, 08:49:

Sombrero wrote on 2022-10-22, 08:35:

...or move on to Red Alert and finally beat the Allied campaing which I've never done.

Hmm but then Red Alert has those damn special forces missions where you have to sneak around with that annoying jackass who can blow stuff up and snipe - I have a lot of nostalgia for both Red Alert and C&C but I think both games are at their best when they leave you alone on one side of the map to get set up and then engage when you're ready.

IIRC C&C also has these. Actually the Commando is a GDI unit and was a thing before Tania. "Keep em coming." "That was left handed." etc.

Yeah, GDI campaign has one mission like this and thankfully it's quick and easy. If I recall correctly NOD campaign had more, how easy they are I've got no recollection

The "indoor" missions in RA are much more puzzle like trials in frustration.

Sombrero wrote on 2022-10-22, 08:59:

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to starting from lvl 1 again, NWN's combat system isn't the most engaging thing ever to begin with and in OC the first 5 or so levels could render insomniacs to the verge of coma. Thankfully it's gotten a bit better now with levels and better gear. The campaign is still written by a high schooler though.

From what I recall, there isn't much combat in the initial chapter of exp1, and some fights can be avoided through talking. By the time you finish that chapter, you should be around level 4-5 unless I'm misremembering. Most of the XP is gained by completing quests, and that can be done peacefully if you pass some stat checks.

It's a far cry from the endless hordes of low-level enemies which give crap XP in the original game.

The story for the expansions and gameplay is better structured that the main campaign of NWN. Especially the second expansion (Hordes of the Underdark).

I do not recommand any of it with the wrong class, however. Playing a Rogue is brutal.

NWN is a pretty bad game. The sequel and its expansion are leagues better.

Played a bit of Jedi Knight 2 and first impressions are very positive. Graphics are vastly improved over the previous game. Characters look much nicer and even common enemies are quite detailed. Environments are more varied as well.

Level design seems ok, at least so far. The maps no longer feel maze-like, and the improved graphics make it easier to navigate them. However, the objectives that you're given are sometimes a bit too vague.

Voice acting is top notch, sound effects are crisp, and the music includes a lot of familiar Star Wars themes. On the tech side, EAX is well utilized and positional audio is masterfully implemented. It's a real treat to play this on WinXP using an X-Fi card paired with a set of 5.1 speakers.

I'm currently at the point where Kyle just regained his lightsaber, and I enjoyed the temple trials which he needed to complete beforehand. It was a nice (re)introduction to using the force powers. Lightsaber combat seems much more refined, and I'm looking forward to mastering the new moves.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-10-23, 06:01:

Played a bit of Jedi Knight 2 and first impressions are very positive. Graphics are vastly improved over the previous game. Char […]
Show full quote

Played a bit of Jedi Knight 2 and first impressions are very positive. Graphics are vastly improved over the previous game. Characters look much nicer and even common enemies are quite detailed. Environments are more varied as well.

Level design seems ok, at least so far. The maps no longer feel maze-like, and the improved graphics make it easier to navigate them. However, the objectives that you're given are sometimes a bit too vague.

Voice acting is top notch, sound effects are crisp, and the music includes a lot of familiar Star Wars themes. On the tech side, EAX is well utilized and positional audio is masterfully implemented. It's a real treat to play this on WinXP using an X-Fi card paired with a set of 5.1 speakers.

I'm currently at the point where Kyle just regained his lightsaber, and I enjoyed the temple trials which he needed to complete beforehand. It was a nice (re)introduction to using the force powers. Lightsaber combat seems much more refined, and I'm looking forward to mastering the new moves.

Oh dude the jedi knight series is awesome , they should seriously bring it back , the saber combat was amazing.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-10-23, 06:01:

Played a bit of Jedi Knight 2 and first impressions are very positive. Graphics are vastly improved over the previous game. Char […]
Show full quote

Played a bit of Jedi Knight 2 and first impressions are very positive. Graphics are vastly improved over the previous game. Characters look much nicer and even common enemies are quite detailed. Environments are more varied as well.

Level design seems ok, at least so far. The maps no longer feel maze-like, and the improved graphics make it easier to navigate them. However, the objectives that you're given are sometimes a bit too vague.

Voice acting is top notch, sound effects are crisp, and the music includes a lot of familiar Star Wars themes. On the tech side, EAX is well utilized and positional audio is masterfully implemented. It's a real treat to play this on WinXP using an X-Fi card paired with a set of 5.1 speakers.

I'm currently at the point where Kyle just regained his lightsaber, and I enjoyed the temple trials which he needed to complete beforehand. It was a nice (re)introduction to using the force powers. Lightsaber combat seems much more refined, and I'm looking forward to mastering the new moves.

How dare you insult Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II's graphics. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the terrible LOD scaling and models being completely hade out of barely connected 3d shapes. It's a FEATURE.

AppleSauce wrote on 2022-10-23, 06:26:

Oh dude the jedi knight series is awesome , they should seriously bring it back , the saber combat was amazing.

I'm playing through the series for the first time. Well, except for the original Dark Forces which I did try for a bit as a kid. Having a blast with JK2 so far. It's so much better than the previous games.

BetaC wrote on 2022-10-23, 06:41:

How dare you insult Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II's graphics. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the terrible LOD scaling and models being completely hade out of barely connected 3d shapes. It's a FEATURE.

Heh, that LOD thing was so weird. At first, I thought something was wrong with my system, but then I read on the PC Gaming Wiki that it was actually intended. On the plus side, the game ran quite well, even at 1280x1024. Not that the higher resolution helped much with the primitive graphics. 😁

Icewind Dale (PC)
(Original version [GOG])
Finished! I've now completed Icewind Dale and both expansions (Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster).  I played through the game on "Normal" (core AD&D rules) and it took just over 60 hours to get through it all.

Although I did miss the freedom of BG, ID was definitely less frustrating.  ID is thankfully free of the BG "trick" of having you walk upstairs and being immediately incinerated with fireballs and lightning bolts from multiple enemy magic users just waiting for you.  It was very satisfying to reach what seemed like a hopeless point in a tough battle and then, through clever use of spells and items, end up with a victory. It has really made me appreciate real-time w/pause combat, and I just might go revisit Pillars of Eternity (after completing BG2 and ID2 of course).

I really can't say enough good things about this game. It still looks and sounds great, and it's got some of the greatest dungeons I've ever experienced in an RPG. There are some truly massive complexes to explore, and some of these are very nonlinear with multiple goals to accomplish in any order. The combat design is excellent, too.
---

Sadly, you can't take your winning party from ID1 into ID2, so with this it's farewell to the heroes of Icewind Dale: Pious leader Alnan who often turned a blind eye to some very questionable behavior "for the sake of the quest", hardy brawler Jake, Tomo the cleric who was not above smashing the brains out of hundreds of living things, Heather the expert archer and thief, and masters of the arcane the twin brothers Bongo1 and Bongo2. Sadly, Bongo1 and Bongo2 fell during the final battle, but they were not completely eradicated and I'm sure the rest of the party had them resurrected once all the celebrations were over.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-10-23, 08:55:

Heh, that LOD thing was so weird. At first, I thought something was wrong with my system, but then I read on the PC Gaming Wiki that it was actually intended. On the plus side, the game ran quite well, even at 1280x1024. Not that the higher resolution helped much with the primitive graphics. 😁

It's fine as long as you consider the poor Z precision on earlier 3D cards which could pop-in gaps' polygons through, or certain drivers just omitting dense polygons entirely (*cough*PowerVR*cough*). JK was designed for the first gen in mind, all the screen color tinting is all vertex modulation so it'd play on a S3 Virge and save on fillrate, etc. The character animation should make up for that anyway.

A couple of months ago I tried out the Halo demo, then got the full Halo for PC, and have been playing it on some of my retro PCs. Back when it came out I only ever played flight sims, specifically Jane's WW-2 Fighters, then Il2 Sturmovik in all of its versions, and that was all I played. I never had a PC during DOS days, and have never played a DOS game. Halo has me hooked, though it's been difficult - I'm having to learn not only the game, but the WASD controls for first person shooters since this is the first one I've ever done more than dabble with. It's been an addicting experience, both rewarding and frustrating. And The Flood are creepy as hell!

Repo Man11 wrote on 2022-10-23, 15:03:

A couple of months ago I tried out the Halo demo, then got the full Halo for PC, and have been playing it on some of my retro PCs. Back when it came out I only ever played flight sims, specifically Jane's WW-2 Fighters, then Il2 Sturmovik in all of its versions, and that was all I played. I never had a PC during DOS days, and have never played a DOS game. Halo has me hooked, though it's been difficult - I'm having to learn not only the game, but the WASD controls for first person shooters since this is the first one I've ever done more than dabble with. It's been an addicting experience, both rewarding and frustrating. And The Flood are creepy as hell!

Halo on the PC is just a blast much better experience than the Xbox. The online play is still fun and the campaign is just as much fun today as it was back when it was new.

I think I'm maybe half way through Jedi Knight 2 having just finished Cloud City. Gotta say, the Force powers and combat are a lot more fun in this game. I used the lightsaber 95% of the time, mostly together with Force Push, which let me effortlessly clear rooms full of enemies. Basically, I only switched to the other weapons when dealing with long distance enemy snipers.

Fighting Dark Jedi was interesting. Usually, these battles lasted a fair bit and presented a solid challenge. But sometimes, I would catch the opponent off guard (when they couldn't block) which let me finish them off in just a couple of hits. Not sure if this was intended by the developers, but it certainly felt right.

I do miss one thing from Dark Forces 2. Having the lightsaber drawn used to illuminate your surroundings, and this helped when you were moving through some pitch black areas (e.g. ventilation shafts). But in this game, that no longer works, and you have to use those awful night sight goggles instead.

BTW, kudos to the developers for creating some truly awesome visuals. Sometimes, I would just take a moment to look at the speeders buzzing around the skyscrapers in Nar Shadda or to appreciate the towering vistas of Cloud City. Immersive stuff.

clueless1 wrote on 2017-12-20, 12:27:

Eschalon: Book I won my trials...
Perfect RPG for those who miss the old style and who don't want to commit many months to completing a game.

Hello clueless1, I recall you really enjoying this game, so I decided to give it a shot. So far I really like it! I'm about 10 hours in so far, playing as a pure wizard. I really didn't expect to like it, because single character + turn-based combat doesn't really appeal to me, but it works great so far. What I really like about this is the world design and great dungeons to explore. After completing two massive RPGs back to back (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), it will be nice to play something I can finish in a couple dozen hours or so. 😀

I'm running this on my modern PC, running in an 800x600 window scaled up with the Lossless Scaling application using the "sharp bilinear" option and it looks great! It's not as sharp as running at native res on a CRT (or integer scaled x2 on a 1600x1200 monitor) of course, but it's much better than just letting my monitor blur the image.

Doing Shadowcaster right now 😀 ...but hte line is long 😖

newtmonkey wrote on 2022-10-25, 14:42:

clueless1 wrote on 2017-12-20, 12:27:

Eschalon: Book I won my trials...
Perfect RPG for those who miss the old style and who don't want to commit many months to completing a game.

Hello clueless1, I recall you really enjoying this game, so I decided to give it a shot. So far I really like it! I'm about 10 hours in so far, playing as a pure wizard. I really didn't expect to like it, because single character + turn-based combat doesn't really appeal to me, but it works great so far. What I really like about this is the world design and great dungeons to explore. After completing two massive RPGs back to back (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale), it will be nice to play something I can finish in a couple dozen hours or so. 😀

I'm running this on my modern PC, running in an 800x600 window scaled up with the Lossless Scaling application using the "sharp bilinear" option and it looks great! It's not as sharp as running at native res on a CRT (or integer scaled x2 on a 1600x1200 monitor) of course, but it's much better than just letting my monitor blur the image.

Nice! I still have fond memories of that game. The music was so tranquil and relaxing. I think I liked I and II equally and III slightly less, but all three were worth the playing time. Enjoy.

Just finished Prodeus. Some of the levels get a bit samey, but overall, I loved the game. This is basically the imaginary 1996 Doom 3 if Quake had never existed. It's a very fast FPS with a lot of gore particle effects. Weapons are very satisfying, especially the 'Swarmer'. I would dare say it's one the most satisfying rocket launchers in all of FPS history. Favorite level, for me, was level 30 (Gate To Chaos) which is the second to last level. The OST gets very metal in areas and is quite awesome. Highly recommended for FPS lovers.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2022-10-24, 06:30:

I think I'm maybe half way through Jedi Knight 2 having just finished Cloud City. Gotta say, the Force powers and combat are a l […]
Show full quote

I think I'm maybe half way through Jedi Knight 2 having just finished Cloud City. Gotta say, the Force powers and combat are a lot more fun in this game. I used the lightsaber 95% of the time, mostly together with Force Push, which let me effortlessly clear rooms full of enemies. Basically, I only switched to the other weapons when dealing with long distance enemy snipers.

Fighting Dark Jedi was interesting. Usually, these battles lasted a fair bit and presented a solid challenge. But sometimes, I would catch the opponent off guard (when they couldn't block) which let me finish them off in just a couple of hits. Not sure if this was intended by the developers, but it certainly felt right.

I do miss one thing from Dark Forces 2. Having the lightsaber drawn used to illuminate your surroundings, and this helped when you were moving through some pitch black areas (e.g. ventilation shafts). But in this game, that no longer works, and you have to use those awful night sight goggles instead.

BTW, kudos to the developers for creating some truly awesome visuals. Sometimes, I would just take a moment to look at the speeders buzzing around the skyscrapers in Nar Shadda or to appreciate the towering vistas of Cloud City. Immersive stuff.

Check out the JKMod scene. You'll be very happy. Lots of graphics enhancements to play with, including illumination effects from a saber and blaster.