Started playing Splinter Cell: Conviction. I got this game for my Xbox 360 since the Steam PC version requires some additional online authentication via uPlay, and that doesn't seem to work anymore. In contrast, the console version has no problems with running completely offline.

In terms of gameplay, Conviction is a huge departure from the previous Splinter Cell games. The focus shifts away from stealth and toward combat. There's also a new "mark and execute" mechanic which can automatically take down multiple enemies. I'm not a fan of this change, and I don't like the cover based system with regenerating health. Heck, one of the levels felt like it was taken straight out of Call of Duty. On the plus side, the story is fairly decent and attempts to resolve some loose plot threads from Double Agent. The voice acting is also pretty solid overall.

Anyway, this seems to be a very short game, so I'll probably finish it quickly. To be honest, it's not exactly drawing me in, but this is the only mainline entry in the Splinter Cell series that I haven't finished yet, so I will soldier on.

Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

I'm about to finish the Elven Warrior's Crypt quest. These levels are huge and pretty fun to explore. The quicksave is a godsend, just be careful when restoring that you don't actually quicksave again! I came close a couple of times, which would've been disastrous and force me to reload a much earlier save.

One thing that has become pretty clear by now is most found loot is useless due to the ability to rest almost anywhere and anytime. Carrying around potions and scrolls is almost unnecessary (unless you have no magic users in your party) because anytime you need healing or curing, just use your spells, then rest as often as needed to replenish spells. It's a rare weapon or armor that is found that is actually worth keeping. You can find lots of bags and chests that can expand your inventory but that just helps you carry around more items that you'll never use.

Namrok wrote on 2023-11-09, 16:31:

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-11-09, 03:28:

Namrok wrote on 2023-11-08, 15:33:

Huh, the loot you say you are finding in Act V sounds off from my very distant recollection. I remember it being a smorgasbord of upgrades back in the day. "Bloody runs" in the Bloody Foothills were an extremely reliable means of farming exp and decent loot drops. What version are you playing? I wonder if they got nerfed at some point.

I'm playing v1.14D. Maybe I've just had bad luck in the first few areas?

I'm not getting many search results back. They're just too polluted with people talking about D2: Resurrected, D3 and D4. But I saw some evidence Bloody Runs got nerfed post 1.10. I know I did most of my D2 playing between 1.07 and 1.09. I think that's roughly when the expansion pack first came out, but before synergies were added.

I just happened to finish Diablo 2 + Lord of Destruction with patch 1.09d and my drops were pitiful from start to finish, nearly all my upgrades came from vendors. Admittedly I didn't do any farming runs, I just pushed forward the whole time so I suppose I was just unlucky.

Namrok wrote on 2023-11-13, 18:13:

Well, I finished Talos Principle 2.

Highly recommend it.

That's great to hear, Talos Principle is one of my favorite games of the last decade and will definitely check out the sequel in the future.

Finished Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's probably the shortest game in the series, since a full playthrough took me less than 10 hours.

The increased focus on combat became more and more apparent as the game drew to a close. During the last couple of levels, the number of enemies attacking you simultaneously was 10+ at times. Stealth was still useful for evading pursuit, but it definitively played second fiddle to the action. And because the screen turns black & white while you are in the shadows, it was even less appealing to be stealthy. Also, I don't think it's even possible to do a non-lethal stealth takedown, unless it's a special scene where the story asks for it. Otherwise, you gun down all the enemies, whether you're stealthy or not.

The RPG-lite elements for upgrading your weapons weren't that great. In an odd design choice, you get experience for performing certain actions, which are basically achievements. Anyhow, increasing the number of mark targets to 4 is pretty much the only upgrade you need. Sam's iconic SC3000 was also kinda meh in this game. It behaved like just another weapon, instead of a highly specialized piece of equipment designed for Splinter Cell operatives. Likewise, replacing Sam's trademark googles with the new sonar variant felt like a downgrade, due to the image distortions which it suffers from while you're moving.

All in all, Conviction seemed more like a spin-off than a new entry in the main Splinter Cell series. The gameplay was simply too different, and didn't feel reminiscent of the past games. At least the plot concluded in a satisfying way, giving Sam Fisher a good ending, and some well deserved rest.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-11-19, 16:23:

Finished Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's probably the shortest game in the series, since a full playthrough took me less than 10 […]
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Finished Splinter Cell: Conviction. It's probably the shortest game in the series, since a full playthrough took me less than 10 hours.

The increased focus on combat became more and more apparent as the game drew to a close. During the last couple of levels, the number of enemies attacking you simultaneously was 10+ at times. Stealth was still useful for evading pursuit, but it definitively played second fiddle to the action. And because the screen turns black & white while you are in the shadows, it was even less appealing to be stealthy. Also, I don't think it's even possible to do a non-lethal stealth takedown, unless it's a special scene where the story asks for it. Otherwise, you gun down all the enemies, whether you're stealthy or not.

The RPG-lite elements for upgrading your weapons weren't that great. In an odd design choice, you get experience for performing certain actions, which are basically achievements. Anyhow, increasing the number of mark targets to 4 is pretty much the only upgrade you need. Sam's iconic SC3000 was also kinda meh in this game. It behaved like just another weapon, instead of a highly specialized piece of equipment designed for Splinter Cell operatives. Likewise, replacing Sam's trademark googles with the new sonar variant felt like a downgrade, due to the image distortions which it suffers from while you're moving.

All in all, Conviction seemed more like a spin-off than a new entry in the main Splinter Cell series. The gameplay was simply too different, and didn't feel reminiscent of the past games. At least the plot concluded in a satisfying way, giving Sam Fisher a good ending, and some well deserved rest.

This game had the weirdest development - I remember reading about how this game was originally supposed to have been an urban stealth game with very novel ideas and ended up becoming what it is..

I play a bunch of different games all the time, and usually on different platforms. The last completed game was Spear of Destiny - the 1992 Wolfenstein 3D standalone expansion (and prequel) - the GOG version.

At the moment I am playing Nurse Love Addiction; a multiple pathway/ending visual novel from 2015 made by Kogado, a Japanese studio who made maes for MSX, MSX 2, Playstation 2 and PC which I am playing it on. I still have quite a long way to finish the game as I am only about 1/3-1/2 way in based on the 13-24 hours playtime! I hope to complete it this year (a little hard with a one year old baby who don't sleep well), so I perhaps can manage a few other games before the new year.

I usually have two lists of 13 games each where I plan (but usually fail) to beat at least 10 on each list, this year the secondary list have been dedicated to games I've started but haven't completed, where both Spear of Destiny and Nurse Love Addiction was on - Spear of Destiny was a complete restart however, where Nurse Love Addiction is a continuation of my old save game.
Next year's primary list will be same style as this year; to work on the various series I've started over the years (some this year) including Assassin's Creed, Life is Strange, Samorost, Sniper, The Stalin Subway (might change this as it would be to start a new series), Yakuza, Nekopara, Uncharted, Far Cry and Leisure Suit Larry I also have a few games outside series, an expansionas well as a start-up of a "new" series with Elder Scrolls: Arena on my list - but 25-68 hours does sound like a lot in that game.
I haven't made my secondary list yet but might skip that next year or it will be another completion list or a plan I've had for a long time: Physical gameplay! I already do play a lot of physical games on my platforms, but on Windows where I do play mostly I usually stick to Steam games to complete that too big library I have there - my floor to ceiling window in my office which is modded into a shelf is filled with PC and Mac keep cases with games that needs to be played, and I have a chest drawer filled with games for consoles - and boxes with tapes and diskettes for vintage systems!

Next years primary list contains the following platforms: DOS, Windows, Linux, Macintosh and PlayStation 4 - but my total list of platforms at home and storage is 38 including those five: some of them I won't be playing on (Odyssey 2001/Odyssey, Intellivision, GameCube and iPad) as the units I have for those need some tlc. So far this year I've managed eight different platforms.

My gaming goes where my heart takes me - not about what is newest, coolest and uppest in time 😀

Moving on to Splinter Cell: Double Agent. Kinda weird to play this after Conviction instead of the other way around, but I only just realized that my Xbox 360 has backwards compatibility with the Xbox classic version of this game. So why would I play that instead of the native X360 version, or even the PC release? Simple: the gameplay is significantly better in this "legacy version".

For starters, it has a proper HUD, with light and noise meters, a health bar and an ammo counter, just like Chaos Theory and the first two games. The "next gen" release of Double Agent for the PC and X360 omits the HUD entirely for "greater immersion", which makes that version of the game much more tedious to play. Also, the legacy version has none of that "take cover to regenerate health" crap, unlike the next gen release. Lastly, the level design is (IMO) significantly better in the legacy version, since much more freedom is given to the player. If anyone's curious about the differences between the two versions, this video explains it in more detail, starting around the 29:35 mark.

Back in the day, I played the legacy version on my PlayStation 2, but it didn't run so great on that console, despite only using the 480i resolution. In contrast, the Xbox classic release has a much smoother frame rate, runs at 480p, and even offers widescreen support. Not sure if the X360 back compat adds anything on top of that, but the end result looks fairly decent on a 1080p TV. Personally, this is my favorite way to experience Double Agent, since I'd rather have excellent gameplay with mediocre graphics than the reverse.

I started Baldur's Gate III and halfway into Act 1 I really fail to see what makes this game so GREAT.. It feels like a shadow of BG1 and 2, and overall an inferior experience compared to Pillars of Eternity II.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-11-22, 14:24:

I started Baldur's Gate III and halfway into Act 1 I really fail to see what makes this game so GREAT.. It feels like a shadow of BG1 and 2, and overall an inferior experience compared to Pillars of Eternity II.

Yeah, I'm profoundly glad I didn't get the early access BG3. I was never entirely sold on Larian Studio's output. Nothing against the people who enjoy it, but everything I ever saw about their combat design made it seem too open and gimmicky if that makes sense? The fact that it leaned into all sorts of gross "safe horny" shit turned me off even more. I really, truly, just do not need that in my games.

I blasted through Doom episode 2 coop with some buddies last weekend. Been using Zandronum as it turned out to be the best, most compatible option for us.

We attempted using DOSBOX's IPX networking at first, and we even got it working. But it was so laggy as to be unplayable. And not just laggy in a gameplay sense, but the emulation would freeze when the network was lagging. So that was pretty shit.

Then we tried just using the remade version of Doom on Steam? Except it only supports splitscreen multiplayer? What the shit is that?

Next we just tried GZDoom, but for whatever reason, it was impossible for me to connect to his server. Go figure.

Zandronum which I guess is a multiplayer focused port of GZDoom was next, and that actually worked perfectly out of the box. So we've just stuck with that.

It's actually kind of impressive that 2-4 of us can just blast through an episode in about an evening. We're pretty familiar with the levels since we are all old guys who played them obsessively as kids. But it was also long enough ago that we just have vague recollections. Like I knew episode 2 had a level with a fake trap exit, but I couldn't remember which one. Which made it all the funnier when I was all nervous of the exit to every level, to no effect what so ever, until the trap finally sprung on one of my buddies.

My only complaint about playing in Zandronum is it doesn't seem to handle the end of an episode correctly. No victory text screen, and it just loops you to another level. In episode 1 it just sent us back to E1M1, and in episode 2 and actually sent us to the secret level. Go figure.

Diablo IV
Free to play on Steam for six days!

...what they don't tell you, until you actually download all 80 gigs or whatever, is that it's the "trial version" limited to character level 20 so that you cannot actually complete the game... in other words, it's a demo of the game, but for some reason only available from Nov 23 to Nov 29. It just makes no sense. If it's a demo, why not have it available for free every single day of the year???

Anyway, I played it for 30 minutes and I must admit that in terms of atmosphere and look, it's closer to D1/2 and than D3. It plays fine, looks nice, and runs well even on my aging "gaming" laptop. I wouldn't mind paying $60+ for it, if I could play it offline.

Instead, it's a GaaS sold at a premium price with predatory monetization. And that's where my experience with Diablo IV ended.

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-11-22, 16:49:

Diablo IV Free to play on Steam for six days! […]
Show full quote

Diablo IV
Free to play on Steam for six days!

...what they don't tell you, until you actually download all 80 gigs or whatever, is that it's the "trial version" limited to character level 20 so that you cannot actually complete the game... in other words, it's a demo of the game, but for some reason only available from Nov 23 to Nov 29. It just makes no sense. If it's a demo, why not have it available for free every single day of the year???

Anyway, I played it for 30 minutes and I must admit that in terms of atmosphere and look, it's closer to D1/2 and than D3. It plays fine, looks nice, and runs well even on my aging "gaming" laptop. I wouldn't mind paying $60+ for it, if I could play it offline.

Instead, it's a GaaS sold at a premium price with predatory monetization. And that's where my experience with Diablo IV ended.

It's ActiBlizzard...

appiah4 wrote on 2023-11-22, 17:46:

newtmonkey wrote on 2023-11-22, 16:49:

Diablo IV Free to play on Steam for six days! […]
Show full quote

Diablo IV
Free to play on Steam for six days!

...what they don't tell you, until you actually download all 80 gigs or whatever, is that it's the "trial version" limited to character level 20 so that you cannot actually complete the game... in other words, it's a demo of the game, but for some reason only available from Nov 23 to Nov 29. It just makes no sense. If it's a demo, why not have it available for free every single day of the year???

Anyway, I played it for 30 minutes and I must admit that in terms of atmosphere and look, it's closer to D1/2 and than D3. It plays fine, looks nice, and runs well even on my aging "gaming" laptop. I wouldn't mind paying $60+ for it, if I could play it offline.

Instead, it's a GaaS sold at a premium price with predatory monetization. And that's where my experience with Diablo IV ended.

It's ActiBlizzard...

technically microsoft now, stick to diablo 1/2 with mods

appiah4 wrote on 2023-11-22, 14:24:

I started Baldur's Gate III and halfway into Act 1 I really fail to see what makes this game so GREAT.. It feels like a shadow of BG1 and 2, and overall an inferior experience compared to Pillars of Eternity II.

Made it to the last act awhile back but decided to wait until the multiple hotfixes died down before I finish. It's good they are fixing but I don't like dealing with bugs....with that said I didn't run into that many and nothing game breaking. Constant crashing in the last underground map until I limited fps was the worst.

As for the praise I think it's mainly due to the dearth of triple aaa western rpgs of it's type honestly I think it's okay but not goty worthy of course that depends on what other rpgs are around heh. With everything being called an rpg it's far easier to rank it low especially when people only care about the latest and greatest, attention span of media and gamers is like a gnat.

/sigh edited the prior post instead of quoting again, damn phones

Made some progress in Splinter Cell: Double Agent and I'm just about to start the cruise ship mission. As mentioned before, the legacy version of this game plays very similarly to Chaos Theory. The main differences come from the level design (more unique situations like the train heist) and the introduction of the trust meter.

Speaking of which, the next gen version of Double Agent has two separate trust meters, one for JSA and another one for Third Echelon. This makes is relatively easy to keep both factions happy. However, the legacy version (which I'm playing) only has one trust meter, with JBA and Third Echelon on opposite sides. This means that you have to balance completing the faction objectives much more carefully.

The controls are also very responsive in the legacy version of the game. In contrast, the next gen release has a small but noticeable delay between a button press and the time when the corresponding action occurs on screen. Sam's movement is more precise in the legacy version as well. The next gen release has too many cosmetic animations which can make it harder to pull off some of the more complex stealth maneuvers. Lastly, the next gen's night vision mode looks like someone smeared green jello all over the screen, making it much less useful. In comparison, the legacy version still uses the familiar (and awesome) grayscale filter from the previous Splinter Cell games.

In some aspects, this legacy version of Double Agent feels like a standalone expansion pack for Chaos Theory. To me, this is a good thing, since CT is my favorite Splinter Cell game. Really enjoying this playthrough so far.

I have tried to hunt down an OG XBOX version of Double Agent for the longest time before giving up.. Glad you are enjoying it.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-11-23, 12:36:

I have tried to hunt down an OG XBOX version of Double Agent for the longest time before giving up.. Glad you are enjoying it.

If you have a PlayStation 2, it might be easier to get that version, since it sold more copies. It has the same gameplay as on the OG Xbox. And yeah, this legacy version is the best edition of the game for me, despite the inferior graphics.

BTW, I stumbled upon another video which has an in-depth comparison between the two versions. Apparently, the legacy version was made by the same team that worked on Chaos Theory, while a completely different team (still within Ubisoft) handled the next gen release. That explains a lot.

Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession

I'm exploring Castle Ravenloft about 28 hours into my playthrough. Combat has been challenging so far, but not brutal...until now. I opened a room that unleashed a pair of Zombie Golems on me. It seemed they'd kill my entire party in only a couple of hits and even when I buffed my party with Bless, Aid, and Prayer, they'd still kick our asses in seconds. To make things even harder, this happens in a hallway with two lightning traps shooting bolts in opposite directions. Finally, I tried casting Turn Undead and instantly both of them turned around and ran away from me! I chased them down and cornered them. They were not attacking, so I started wailing on them with my Paladin's Ancient Elven Sword +2 and my fighter's Rod of Smiting +3 and took them both down with just a few HP left. I quickly ducked into the room they came out of, saved, then rested. Whew!

Finished Splinter Cell: Double Agent. The end boss fight was very poorly designed, relying largely on trial and error, where even the slightest mistake results in mission failure. Thankfully, it doesn't take too long to finish it, once you figure out the bad guy's patterns. Other than that single instance of crappiness, I really enjoyed this entire playthrough.

The level design remained excellent throughout the game. I particularly liked the added challenge of Kinshasa, where you initially need to sneak around without your gear, by using power outages to your benefit. Similarly, the second visit to the JBA headquarters pulled all the stops in the best possible way. I needed to fully utilize each of Sam's gadgets to finish that mission perfectly. The timer at the end of the level makes things tough, but it is optional. If you fail to complete the mission before it expires, you can still move on to the next level, but the end credits movie changes slightly. The final level where you're facing off against enemies who also use night vision goggles was very enjoyable as well.

If there's one thing that I disliked about this legacy version of Double Agent, it would be the in-engine cutscenes. Those really lack polish, and it's clear that the developers' focus was elsewhere. In contrast, the pre-rendered FMV sequences are well made and look great. Lastly, the facial animations on the enemies and some of the less important NPCs are pretty weak, especially in terms of lip syncing. But other than those minor graphical quibbles, and the crappy end boss fight, this version of the game was superb all the way through. I can highly recommend it.

Namrok wrote on 2023-11-13, 18:13:

Well, I finished Talos Principle 2.

Highly recommend it.

That's great to hear, Talos Principle is one of my favorite games of the last decade and will definitely check out the sequel in the future.

Jumped onto Steam and noticed both games is on heavily discounted so I bought the combo with my gift cards.

Thanks! What GPU is decent enough to use to play these? I'm talking about high end GPU.

Cheers,

I watched Dario Cassali's Half Life twenty fifth anniversary play through, and with all of the hype about how they updated a few things, I decided I'd try the Steam version again. It's different in some tiny ways, it still has some bugs ( I got hopelessly stuck in two different spots in On a Rail, some other things, I'm only half way through) but it's by far mostly the same.