kolderman wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:15:

I loved the puzzles in this game but the combat was so hard I had to abandon playing it.

A few tips. The basic "vault over" move is pretty much an instant win until you start meeting enemies who can counter it. For those, switch to the "wall bounce" move and you're all set. The game manual describes how to perform both moves. When an opponent goes down, move toward them (hold block if surrounded) then use the dagger to finish them.

That's pretty much all you need to beat the game. I almost never use any time powers in combat, just those two moves.

Most of my gaming lately has been testing and setting up the network for playing with my wife. Doom (with 3-4 different engines), Duke Nukem 3D, Wacky Wheels.....I'm planning to have us just binge out on food and game a bunch over Xmas.

I did play Postal 2 for a bit on my own though on Average as a dry-run for my LPs, need to get my audio talking issues worked out since my audio track is a mess while the game is perfect. I plan to play both of the first two games, and did let's play one of them (the first) partially on my 486.

kolderman wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:15:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-12-22, 15:39:

Decided to replay Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

It feels great to finally play it with EAX3 enabled and AA forced in the driver settings. The graphics do show their age, but the gameplay is still superb and the music is as good as ever. I'm also noticing some nice EAX effects in areas which have water dripping from the ceiling and such. Good times.

I loved the puzzles in this game but the combat was so hard I had to abandon playing it. I really hope the remastered version coming has better difficulty control as I would love to play it through the whole way.

Serious? Sands of Time combat is just boringly simple, you just keep reverse somersaulting over enemies and hitting them over and over, ad infinitum..

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-22, 21:59:

kolderman wrote on 2021-12-22, 19:15:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-12-22, 15:39:

Decided to replay Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

It feels great to finally play it with EAX3 enabled and AA forced in the driver settings. The graphics do show their age, but the gameplay is still superb and the music is as good as ever. I'm also noticing some nice EAX effects in areas which have water dripping from the ceiling and such. Good times.

I loved the puzzles in this game but the combat was so hard I had to abandon playing it. I really hope the remastered version coming has better difficulty control as I would love to play it through the whole way.

Serious? Sands of Time combat is just boringly simple, you just keep reverse somersaulting over enemies and hitting them over and over, ad infinitum..

Not kidding. I got to a fight where it was just too hard. Yes the somersaulting works a bit, but they surround me, knock me down, keep respawning. It was just way too hard for me.

kolderman wrote on 2021-12-22, 22:30:

Not kidding. I got to a fight where it was just too hard. Yes the somersaulting works a bit, but they surround me, knock me down, keep respawning. It was just way too hard for me.

I don't handle even vaguely complicated combat well either - some games are so great that I'll persist and work out a way but generally speaking if my default approach doesn't work then I'm out of ideas 😂

I usually end up just randomly thrashing through all the moves with one hand while maneuvering with the other. ... aimed attacks? What are those?

Especially on console games with multiple button combos. One of my favorite games is Soul Calibur on the Dreamcast (I still turn it on and give it a whirl once or twice a year!) and I never could keep track of which button combinations did each attack -- I just randomly smashed different buttons and hoped for the best. No matter how hard a game or sequence is, someone's going to come along and tell you how easy it is for them. I try not to let it bother me, but it usually ends up making me feel stupid for a few minutes. 🤣

OK, you guys sound like boomers who need one of these controllers:

I don't blame them, they didn't need to experience the trauma of having to learn special moves via Street Fighter 1 on a crappy arcade machine with terrible floppy joysticks. While walking to school over the snow/cactuses, as angry fish/bears slapped/howled beneath/overhead. (*delete as appropriate to your culture)

We all have different skill sets and most people I know don't like getting their noses rubbed into it unprovoked. We're all here because we enjoy old computers and gaming. Boasting and belittling don't win friends.

Back to Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Riva

I've made it into the fortress of Riva and my score is now up to 587/1000. I do feel like I'm getting closer to the end of this excellent RPG and I think some of the late game accomplishments will be worth higher point values, which is why I feel like I'm farther into the game than 58.7%. 😀 Time-wise, I'm 48 hours into the game.

I have to say, they did a good job of making this game feel big even though it's restricted to a single city and its surrounding locales. But I can't help but miss the overworld travel of the previous two games. Camping, hunting and herb gathering are completely eliminated. Star Trail was the highpoint of this trilogy in my opinion, as it cleaned up some of the combat weaknesses of the first game and polished up the whole overworld travel system. The first-person real-time movement in Riva is definitely the prettiest graphically, so there's that. And they did a great job with the plot and the way they unfold the story with a combination of well-written text screens and cheesy 3D animation cut scenes. Music is excellent, as it has been for the entire trilogy. My gut tells me this will be about a 60-65 hour game.

edit: I have had a nagging technical issue throughout this game. Randomly, sometimes multiple times per gaming session, sometimes I don't see it for several gaming sessions, the mouse cursor goes nuts and menu screens open and close randomly. I have found no way to save and exit once this happens and have to hit the reset button on my DOS PC. So I've taken to saving the game much more often. I've tried SETMUL in different settings and turning it off, and I've tried moving CTMOUSE from upper memory to conventional, with no success.

Sorry if it came across as offensive I meant it merely as a joke. Atent we all sad boomers here anyway?

clueless1 wrote on 2021-12-23, 12:44:

We all have different skill sets and most people I know don't like getting their noses rubbed into it unprovoked. We're all here because we enjoy old computers and gaming. Boasting and belittling don't win friends.

This is why I generally adopt a "Let the other person shoot first, return fire later" when playing multiplayer. I play to have fun not to demonstrate being "absolutely great" at everything...

I wish I could organize some co-op gaming with anybody interested here, there's some stuff I play that's fun when you have multiple people to deal with puzzles and overwhelming odds.

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 13:25:

Sorry if it came across as offensive I meant it merely as a joke. Atent we all sad boomers here anyway?

Eh. Maybe it was just me. Something about the way you said "Serious? Sands of Time combat is just boringly simple" rubbed me the wrong way.

Moving right along...

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 13:25:

Atent we all sad boomers here anyway?

I'm not old enough to be a boomer much less a sad one, but I can tell you what's making this Gen X dude happy right now.

New DLC for Terminator: Resistance called 'Annihilation Line' that slipped by me on Dec. 10th. Not sure why GOG didn't promote it at all that I can see. One of my favorite IPs that hasn't seen a decent movie in decades. The atmosphere is top notch in Resistance and it has very light RPG elements like a crafting table, loot for upgrades, a skill tree, etc. What brings me back to this game, though, is the fun story and fantastic lighting effects. Lots of Half Life 2 vibes throughout the game. Gutted cityscapes, humanity on the brink of extinction, gathering expired food items for coin (ok, more Fallout there). It's a fun FPS romp. The DLC is a branch from the main storyline. This game definitely scratches that "I want Half Life 3 now!" itch for me.

The maps are quite large and open world(ish), but nothing like GTA or Skyrim. It's still a linear FPS in the end, but definitely more expansive with conversation choices when you encounter NPCs. It has "safe house" locations on most maps where you can save your game on computers that look suspiciously like a Commodore PET. Humorously called Commpadre and they have a screen that kinda looks like an alternate universe Amiga Kickstart boot screen.

liqmat wrote on 2021-12-23, 16:12:

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 13:25:

Atent we all sad boomers here anyway?

I'm not old enough to be a boomer much less a sad one, but I can tell you what's making this Gen Z dude happy right now.

I'm a happy Gen Xer myself. BTW, thanks for the heads up on Terminator: Resistance. I'll have to check it out!

clueless1 wrote on 2021-12-23, 16:24:

liqmat wrote on 2021-12-23, 16:12:

appiah4 wrote on 2021-12-23, 13:25:

Atent we all sad boomers here anyway?

I'm not old enough to be a boomer much less a sad one, but I can tell you what's making this Gen Z dude happy right now.

I'm a happy Gen Xer myself. BTW, thanks for the heads up on Terminator: Resistance. I'll have to check it out!

Completely meant Gen X. No idea why I typed Z. Anyway...

clueless1 wrote on 2021-12-23, 16:24:

I'm a happy Gen Xer myself. BTW, thanks for the heads up on Terminator: Resistance. I'll have to check it out!

BTW, not sure how much of a RTS fan you are, but when I found out about the Resistance DLC I also saw this upcoming title on GOG as well. A Terminator RTS. Yeah, I hope that makes it to a commercial release. I'm in.

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

I've wanted that since the DOS days... Even earlier.

Instead I got the 1991 T2 game by LJN (bad !), but on the Atari ST (even worse !)

I just noticed something I'm suspicious about from another conversation on here and I'm curious If I can tell if you are anything younger than Gen. X by how you answer this question. No cheating.

What do you call the sounds a modem makes when connecting to another modem?

Shagittarius wrote on 2021-12-23, 18:13:

I just noticed something I'm suspicious about from another conversation on here and I'm curious If I can tell if you are anything younger than Gen. X by how you answer this question. No cheating.

What do you call the sounds a modem makes when connecting to another modem?

Cacophony. 🤣. I'm not actually sure what answer you're looking for, but it's the audible representation of a handshake (hello).