VOGONS

Common searches


What game are you playing now?

Topic actions

Reply 3020 of 5847, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

I've been playing (and for the first time in my life streaming) some Dawn of War II Elite Mod the last few days and having a blast.

I also got Pillars of Eternity II Obsidian Edition the other day, I'm really forward to setting sail with Eder and pissing off the so-called gods again.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3021 of 5847, by clueless1

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-18, 07:59:

I've been playing (and for the first time in my life streaming) some Dawn of War II Elite Mod the last few days and having a blast.

Link?

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 3022 of 5847, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
clueless1 wrote on 2021-05-18, 22:13:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-18, 07:59:

I've been playing (and for the first time in my life streaming) some Dawn of War II Elite Mod the last few days and having a blast.

Link?

To the mod, or my streams, or?

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3024 of 5847, by newtmonkey

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Dark Souls
A friend is playing this on my recommendation and really enjoying it, so I decided to give it a replay. I originally played and completed it on PS3 (along with Demons Souls and Dark Souls II) a couple times, once as a pyromancer and once as a cleric. I decided to give the remastered version a spin and perhaps partially out of nostalgia for better times went with a pyromancer again.

As a remaster, it's good and bad. It's hard to argue with 60 fps vs 30 fps and true high res rather than 720p upscaled (I know DSFix can fix both of these), but I find the "improved" lighting to be less atmospheric than in the original version. The original has a sort of high contrast look with your armor glinting in the light, that is lacking in the remaster.

Anyway, it plays great and I'm having a blast. Dark Souls is always a good time.

Dark Souls II
Why not? I haven't played this one nearly as much as DS1, having only completed it once on PS3 (cleric). This time around I decided to start with a cleric again, but will try to make a pyromancer out of it (the game has no dedicated pyromancer class, but does have pyromancer items and spells). I was quite surprised at how good this game looks; I was used to the PS3 version which runs at a lower resolution and frame rate... the PC version (and I assume the PS4 version as well) also seems to have some sharper textures and nicer effects.

This one got a lot of hate from the DS fans back in the day for one reason or another, but I've always liked it. I think people were annoyed that you could warp between bonfires, but I never really enjoyed running from one end of the world to the other just to get to class-specific merchants in DS1.

Reply 3025 of 5847, by TheMobRules

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
newtmonkey wrote on 2021-05-19, 05:19:
Dark Souls A friend is playing this on my recommendation and really enjoying it, so I decided to give it a replay. I originally […]
Show full quote

Dark Souls
A friend is playing this on my recommendation and really enjoying it, so I decided to give it a replay. I originally played and completed it on PS3 (along with Demons Souls and Dark Souls II) a couple times, once as a pyromancer and once as a cleric. I decided to give the remastered version a spin and perhaps partially out of nostalgia for better times went with a pyromancer again.

As a remaster, it's good and bad. It's hard to argue with 60 fps vs 30 fps and true high res rather than 720p upscaled (I know DSFix can fix both of these), but I find the "improved" lighting to be less atmospheric than in the original version. The original has a sort of high contrast look with your armor glinting in the light, that is lacking in the remaster.

Anyway, it plays great and I'm having a blast. Dark Souls is always a good time.

Dark Souls II
Why not? I haven't played this one nearly as much as DS1, having only completed it once on PS3 (cleric). This time around I decided to start with a cleric again, but will try to make a pyromancer out of it (the game has no dedicated pyromancer class, but does have pyromancer items and spells). I was quite surprised at how good this game looks; I was used to the PS3 version which runs at a lower resolution and frame rate... the PC version (and I assume the PS4 version as well) also seems to have some sharper textures and nicer effects.

This one got a lot of hate from the DS fans back in the day for one reason or another, but I've always liked it. I think people were annoyed that you could warp between bonfires, but I never really enjoyed running from one end of the world to the other just to get to class-specific merchants in DS1.

You're right about the armor glint on the original, it gave the game kind of an ethereal feel, just standing in Firelink with the calm music and the light reflecting on the armor really transports me to that world... Being able to fight up to like 10 different "first" bosses (after the tutorial) depending on which path you take adds a lot of replayability to me.

Regarding DS2, I don't dislike it, but I found it a bit rough around the edges when it comes to animations and general atmosphere. The DLCs improved significantly on the base game IMO.

Funny that you mention warping, as having that in DS1 from the start would have made my first playthrough quite different. I happened to get stuck in the Tomb of the Giants without warping while trying to save the cleric girl... it all went south pretty quickly, and I accidentally killed the girl due to swinging my weapon wildly in the darkness. I was finally able to crawl out of the catacombs after what seemed like an eternity, boy was I glad to see the sun after getting out!

Reply 3026 of 5847, by clueless1

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-18, 22:23:
clueless1 wrote on 2021-05-18, 22:13:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-18, 07:59:

I've been playing (and for the first time in my life streaming) some Dawn of War II Elite Mod the last few days and having a blast.

Link?

To the mod, or my streams, or?

Your streams.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 3027 of 5847, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
clueless1 wrote on 2021-05-19, 10:27:
appiah4 wrote on 2021-05-18, 22:23:
clueless1 wrote on 2021-05-18, 22:13:

Link?

To the mod, or my streams, or?

Your streams.

Ah sure: https://www.twitch.tv/naibstilgar

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3028 of 5847, by Namrok

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

So I wrapped up Dawn of War yesterday. I don't think I'd beaten the campaign since I first played it in college around 2004 or so?

My customary photo trophy.
20210521_Dawn_of_War.jpg
Filename
20210521_Dawn_of_War.jpg
File size
1.21 MiB
Views
1129 views
File license
Public domain

I remember at the time, when the campaign ended after only 11 missions, I had a very "That's it?" attitude. I kept looking to start a Chaos marine campaign, or an Ork campaign, or anything more at all. Nope. Just multiplayer and skirmish.

This time around, being more strapped for time, an 11 mission campaign is mercifully short. It's nice to get a game in the done pile after only 2 weeks. Debating what to play next, but I think I want to bounce back to using my 99' PC, and also something I haven't played before. Maybe Settlers 2?

Win95/DOS 7.1 - P233 MMX (@2.5 x 100 FSB), Diamond Viper V330 AGP, SB16 CT2800
Win98 - K6-2+ 500, GF2 MX, SB AWE 64 CT4500, SBLive CT4780
Win98 - Pentium III 1000, GF2 GTS, SBLive CT4760
WinXP - Athlon 64 3200+, GF 7800 GS, Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 3029 of 5847, by clueless1

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t
Namrok wrote on 2021-05-22, 17:54:

Debating what to play next, but I think I want to bounce back to using my 99' PC, and also something I haven't played before. Maybe Settlers 2?

I was just doing that this morning, even though I'm nowhere near finishing KCD. I like listing out games I want to play, then ranking them. I'll come back in a day or a week and re-rank them. Eventually, when I'm done with what I'm playing, I have a good idea of what I want to play next. Here's my current list (I only play RPGs and Action/FPS), ranked in order of average review score.
On the RPG front:
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Darklands
Realms of Arkania III
Wizards and Warriors
Underworld Ascendant

On the Action/FPS front:
Doom 2016
Tomb Raider 2013
Metro: Last Light
Eradicator
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Bioshock 2 Remastered

I try to keep a good mix of modern, Win9x, and DOS options.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 3030 of 5847, by Joakim

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
newtmonkey wrote on 2021-05-19, 05:19:
Dark Souls A friend is playing this on my recommendation and really enjoying it, so I decided to give it a replay. I originally […]
Show full quote

Dark Souls
A friend is playing this on my recommendation and really enjoying it, so I decided to give it a replay. I originally played and completed it on PS3 (along with Demons Souls and Dark Souls II) a couple times, once as a pyromancer and once as a cleric. I decided to give the remastered version a spin and perhaps partially out of nostalgia for better times went with a pyromancer again.

As a remaster, it's good and bad. It's hard to argue with 60 fps vs 30 fps and true high res rather than 720p upscaled (I know DSFix can fix both of these), but I find the "improved" lighting to be less atmospheric than in the original version. The original has a sort of high contrast look with your armor glinting in the light, that is lacking in the remaster.

Anyway, it plays great and I'm having a blast. Dark Souls is always a good time.

Dark Souls II
Why not? I haven't played this one nearly as much as DS1, having only completed it once on PS3 (cleric). This time around I decided to start with a cleric again, but will try to make a pyromancer out of it (the game has no dedicated pyromancer class, but does have pyromancer items and spells). I was quite surprised at how good this game looks; I was used to the PS3 version which runs at a lower resolution and frame rate... the PC version (and I assume the PS4 version as well) also seems to have some sharper textures and nicer effects.

This one got a lot of hate from the DS fans back in the day for one reason or another, but I've always liked it. I think people were annoyed that you could warp between bonfires, but I never really enjoyed running from one end of the world to the other just to get to class-specific merchants in DS1.

I liked a lot of the mechanics of ds2, the dual wield mechanics is very good. In my opinion the level design is not as good and the bosses are not as memorable.

Reply 3031 of 5847, by newtmonkey

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Playing a few games at once:

Baldur's Gate
Still making progress in this. I know people tend to rag on the "empty" wilderness areas... but if you don't want to explore those area, you don't have to! I've been just running through the wilderness areas to get from one quest area to another, and haven't had a problem so far. You get much more XP for solving quests than you do through combat, so exploring the wilderness areas seems to be optional at least at this point.

I'm glad I went with a fake muliplayer game so I could create my own party. I find the writing in this game to be very inconsistent in that quest/NPC dialog writing is decent and somehwhat immersive, but companion dialog seems really modern. I really don't care for the companions here.

Dark Souls
My fourth time through this game, though this is the first time on PC. What can be said about this game at this point? It's amazing. Playing as a melee-focused character is quite different from playing as magic-focused character (even that is simplifying things; playing as a quick melee character is quite different than playing as a "tank" melee character). I love pretty much every aspect of this game. It's extremely atmospheric, it's difficult but fair, and the story is actually very interesting—but you have to seek it out on your own; you can play the game as a pure action game and never pay attention to the story if you aren't interested in it.

Diablo
I played this a lot when I was younger, but I decided to finally beat it. Playing as a rogue now, just defeated Butcher and Leoric. It's aged pretty well I think, and the GOG release actually allows you to select an integer scale for the graphics (i.e. 1280x960 with black borders) that looks fantastic. A huge part of Diablo is the soundtrack, which is simply genius. Everyone love the Tristram theme, but the first dungeon theme is just as good if not better—like something out of a horror movie. Diablo is a lot of fun to play, but there's also a lot of walking slowly back and forth over maps—the soundtrack really helps make it bearable!

Reply 3032 of 5847, by newtmonkey

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

Dark Souls III
Finished! I had put this game off for a long time because I was getting frustrated fighting one of the bosses... but I gave it a shot tonight and was able to take him down on my third attempt. It turns out he was the second-to-last boss and the final boss was a bit of a pushover, so I have finally completed DS3! I do still have the "The Ringed City" DLC to play through, however.

I had made a pyromancer for my first attempt at playing this one, but found it to be a very difficult class this time around (in contrast with DS1, where pyromancer is like easy mode)... or maybe I just didn't build my character properly. I gave up at the halfway point and restarted as a pure melee character focusing on greatswords and had a blast.

With that, I've completed the entire Dark Souls series (including Demon's Souls on PS3, but not Bloodborne as I don't have a PS4). Great series of games from start to finish and I had a blast playing through them all (some of them several times). I'm not sure how I'd rank the games as I enjoyed all of them, but they all have their quirks. DS1 is fantastic during the first 75% or so, but then funnels you through a bunch of what seem like unfinished areas in the last stretch. DS2 has a really neat world and some fascinating lore, but weird hit detection issues on some enemies and bosses and some REALLY terrible areas in the second half. DS3 looks fantastic and is very convenient to play... almost streamlined in a way compared to the other games... but the world seems even more fragmented than in DS2.

Now to go back and play through the series again!

Reply 3033 of 5847, by Namrok

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

So I did in fact start playing Settlers II. Got to the end of the first level and then it crashed. And I hadn't saved.

I suppose on the bright side, the first level is kind of just a tutorial, and it always had the option for me to start on the second level. Still, if the game crashes whenever I beat a level, I'm not going to get very far. I had been playing it in Win98, and at 1024x768 resolution. I've dropped back to playing it in pure DOS mode, at 800x600, just to see if that helps.

Of course the crash could have been a fluke. But this game is slooooooow so I'm not about to spend another entire night playing the first level again just to see if I get another crash. Besides, my eyes must be going, so it's way easier to read the UI at 800x600. Seems to run a bit smoother too. I guess the K6-2+ 500 its running on just isn't quite up to higher dos resolutions like that.

At the end of the night I pallet cleanse with a few levels of Doom 2. Unlike Doom, and especially Doom's shareware episode, I'm not sure I've played Doom 2 since 1995 or so, when a buddy of mine down the street installed it on our family computer.

Win95/DOS 7.1 - P233 MMX (@2.5 x 100 FSB), Diamond Viper V330 AGP, SB16 CT2800
Win98 - K6-2+ 500, GF2 MX, SB AWE 64 CT4500, SBLive CT4780
Win98 - Pentium III 1000, GF2 GTS, SBLive CT4760
WinXP - Athlon 64 3200+, GF 7800 GS, Audigy 2 ZS

Reply 3034 of 5847, by badmojo

User metadata
Rank l33t
Rank
l33t

Anyone remember those semi-organised pirating operations that used to exist? A printed spreadsheet of games would be passed around for you to fill out and you'd send it off to the entrepreneurial pirate, and some time later a semi-official looking stack of floppies would appear with the relevant cracks, etc included. My brother and I requested a few games via my father, one of which was Rise of the Dragon - chosen presumably because it sounded vaguely like Double Dragon.

It was of course a point-and-click adventure which we had no interest in - I tried it a couple of times and didn't make it further than the hallway outside 'Blade's' apartment, but what I saw always stuck with me. I want to like this genre because I know there's a heaps of classics out there, so I'm starting with Rise of the Dragon - it looks great, it sounds great, and the interface is intuitive so we'll see how it goes. It's still not Double Dragon but maybe I've matured enough to persist now... maybe.

Life? Don't talk to me about life.

Reply 3035 of 5847, by Shreddoc

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
badmojo wrote on 2021-05-24, 22:07:

Anyone remember those semi-organised pirating operations that used to exist? A printed spreadsheet of games would be passed around for you to fill out and you'd send it off to the entrepreneurial pirate, and some time later a semi-official looking stack of floppies would appear with the relevant cracks, etc included. My brother and I requested a few games via my father, one of which was Rise of the Dragon - chosen presumably because it sounded vaguely like Double Dragon.

Tangential side-segue, you've made me think for the first time in many years of 'Rise of the Robots', which was indeed quite risible, and did have robots*. But totally! - re: mail-order copy operations decades ago. I remember it in the early 90's as a teenager. It was quite a discovery ('game changer' you might say, groan) at the time. I remember being amazed that they weren't caught, after months and years of operation - I guess nobody cared enough to dig into and/or stake out the PO Box they'd use. Mind you, I'm sure some were caught, somewhere...

*any reviewer who failed to make this fabulous joke needs to pick their act up, I say!

Reply 3037 of 5847, by appiah4

User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++
xcomcmdr wrote on 2021-05-25, 06:42:

Rise of the dragon is a late Amiga title I've always very much liked. A cult classic.

It also has great art, the 32-color images are really, really good compared to the VGA version.

Retronautics: A digital gallery of my retro computers, hardware and projects.

Reply 3038 of 5847, by Wolfus

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member
newtmonkey wrote on 2021-05-24, 12:59:
Dark Souls III Finished! I had put this game off for a long time because I was getting frustrated fighting one of the bosses... […]
Show full quote

Dark Souls III
Finished! I had put this game off for a long time because I was getting frustrated fighting one of the bosses... but I gave it a shot tonight and was able to take him down on my third attempt. It turns out he was the second-to-last boss and the final boss was a bit of a pushover, so I have finally completed DS3! I do still have the "The Ringed City" DLC to play through, however.

I had made a pyromancer for my first attempt at playing this one, but found it to be a very difficult class this time around (in contrast with DS1, where pyromancer is like easy mode)... or maybe I just didn't build my character properly. I gave up at the halfway point and restarted as a pure melee character focusing on greatswords and had a blast.

With that, I've completed the entire Dark Souls series (including Demon's Souls on PS3, but not Bloodborne as I don't have a PS4). Great series of games from start to finish and I had a blast playing through them all (some of them several times). I'm not sure how I'd rank the games as I enjoyed all of them, but they all have their quirks. DS1 is fantastic during the first 75% or so, but then funnels you through a bunch of what seem like unfinished areas in the last stretch. DS2 has a really neat world and some fascinating lore, but weird hit detection issues on some enemies and bosses and some REALLY terrible areas in the second half. DS3 looks fantastic and is very convenient to play... almost streamlined in a way compared to the other games... but the world seems even more fragmented than in DS2.

Now to go back and play through the series again!

DLCs for DS3 are... brutal. The only boss I managed to kill without co-op help was Gravetender. Other ones are just insane. I've beaten almost all "basic" bosses alone. I only summoned NPCs few times. Bosses like Demon Princes, Frieda or Gael was unbeatable for me 🙁

Reply 3039 of 5847, by newtmonkey

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie
Wolfus wrote on 2021-05-26, 11:53:

DLCs for DS3 are... brutal. The only boss I managed to kill without co-op help was Gravetender. Other ones are just insane. I've beaten almost all "basic" bosses alone. I only summoned NPCs few times. Bosses like Demon Princes, Frieda or Gael was unbeatable for me 🙁

Same for me! I was able to beat Gravetender solo, but not any other boss in the DLC. Rather than summon for them, I just stopped playing haha. Maybe someday I'll revisit the DLC stuff. I might revist the whole series and do all the DLC at that time (never beat Manus in DS1, didn't even play the DLC for DS2 as I had just the standard edition on the PS3).