Won the championship in Colin McRae Rally.

I've had a bit of an itch for a racing game for some time now, for some reason I haven't played one in a very long time even though I've always liked them and figured Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit would be a fine pick. But when I went to get it I noticed Colin McRae Rally there and realized I've never really played it, only gave it a very quick spin over two decades ago on a school computer that also had StarCraft and more importantly Quake. The computers were networked and deathmatch with buddies won over racing. Didn't take long until the teachers got enough of that and purged the computers.

I have played a lot of Colin McRae Rally 2.0 which is one of my favorite racing games ever, so quite honestly I expected the first game to be fun but completely obsoleted by the sequel, but to my surprise the first game turned out to be great! Sure the sequel is better but this is also very fun, I really didn't expect driving to be this enjoyable in a rally game from 1998. There were a few WTF moments when the physics did something... less realistic but for the most part I was impressed.

It wasn't all peatches and sunshine though, I don't know are the stages 100% accurate recreations of the real stages but at times I felt like the track makers were sometimes uncertain how to proceed, asked someone for advice, got told "when in doubt hide tight curves behind crests, walls and trees" and then proceeded to be REALLY doubtful. Add in the co-drivers tendency to be hopelessly late all too often and you get one butt clenching game. Honestly during the last three events I started to feel like it wasn't about rally at all, instead I was in some deadly game cooked up by some James Bond villain in order to get me killed. Who also secretly held the co-drivers family as hostage threatening to kill them if he doesn't cause a fatal accident 🤣

Also the graphics aren't amazing, doesn't help when fences and lines blend into the pixel soup. Max fps was also limited to 30 which wasn't great but that turned out to be controlled by a setting called "motion smoothing". Turning it off removed the limit but PCGamingWiki warns turning it off will cause camera wobble, don't know whats that about, the camera behaved perfectly normal on my system.

Oh well, nothing is perfect. I've still found myself a game I might keep permanently installed on my Win98 system so I can go for a quick race whenever I feel like instead of the play once and forget game I was expecting.

Great, not sure if I've had a go at that one. I know there was one which was great fun because the car was "flingable" and you could do stuff like Scandanavian flick well. That's maybe one I had a single stage demo of and couldn't match to actual game. I also seem to keep mismatching my rally/racing games to systems, I'll find one and not have something slow enough going to play it, or find a newer one and put it on a min spec machine and be in herky jerky land. Then there's ones that ain't never playing well, like that 87 I think it was Lombard RAC Rally that's just meh, I mean Test Drive i, II, II weren't real clever but they're better than that. Then Sega Rally was a blast in the arcade cabinet, but it was a sunday drive on rails in PC version. I had one of the Forza rally ones, and that was tremendously realistic, but tremendously difficult because it lacked many feedback mechanisms to tell you what the car was about to do. I like some circuit racers too, though for some reason there's not many where the scenery matches your speed, so you can actually judge your braking well, it's like get to 40 and the scenery doesn't get any faster up to 200, or any slower until you've braked right down below 40. Anyhoo, got one today to try on the "MPC2" machine when it's ready, the Sierra Originals CD re-release of IndyCar Racing. Very clean case and pristine disk.

edit: you know what, maybe I did have that one, I'm remembering one where the navigator/co-driver starts out in synch and gets later and later.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-02-25, 03:31:

Then Sega Rally was a blast in the arcade cabinet, but it was a sunday drive on rails in PC version.

Damn, almost bought that some time ago purely because the arcade version was so fun but sounds like better to skip the PC version.

BitWrangler wrote on 2023-02-25, 03:31:

edit: you know what, maybe I did have that one, I'm remembering one where the navigator/co-driver starts out in synch and gets later and later.

The co-drivers navigation in Colin McRae Rally is perfectly fine for most of the time, but it's when there are turns in fast succession it can become basically useless. Not very helpful to be told the turn that you were supposed to be able to go in fast tightens to a turn you really really can't go in fast as you are already rocketing into it.

Well, I can't say I enjoyed the last quarter of the career mode, but for the first time in my life, I finally beat Need for Speed: Underground.

Im playing this little gem of a game called Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, its old as dirt but if you want a Dino park on your retro rig then there really isnt abetter game ! (Managed to get a sealed copy of it too, worth the extra cost)

20 years old puts it in the retro land right 😁

Hey, it's one of these 'White Label' releases. Nice. I have a couple of bundles from this line (Monkey Island 1&2, 7th Guest / 11th Hour, Descent 3 + Mercenary).

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-04, 11:13:

Im playing this little gem of a game called Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, its old as dirt but if you want a Dino park on your retro rig then there really isnt abetter game ! (Managed to get a sealed copy of it too, worth the extra cost)

Operation Genesis.jpg

20 years old puts it in the retro land right 😁

That's quite the fun game. I had it for PC and Xbox.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-04, 19:00:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-04, 11:13:

Im playing this little gem of a game called Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, its old as dirt but if you want a Dino park on your retro rig then there really isnt abetter game ! (Managed to get a sealed copy of it too, worth the extra cost)

Operation Genesis.jpg

20 years old puts it in the retro land right 😁

That's quite the fun game. I had it for PC and Xbox.

I like the two new ones but this one can be modded, ive always been partial to mods as a way of expanding and extending the game.

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-05, 00:52:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-04, 19:00:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-04, 11:13:

Im playing this little gem of a game called Jurassic Park Operation Genesis, its old as dirt but if you want a Dino park on your retro rig then there really isnt abetter game ! (Managed to get a sealed copy of it too, worth the extra cost)

Operation Genesis.jpg

20 years old puts it in the retro land right 😁

That's quite the fun game. I had it for PC and Xbox.

I like the two new ones but this one can be modded, ive always been partial to mods as a way of expanding and extending the game.

There are alot of good mods. I have the HD and high rez texture mods it really makes the game look great.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-05, 01:56:

TrashPanda wrote on 2023-03-05, 00:52:

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2023-03-04, 19:00:

That's quite the fun game. I had it for PC and Xbox.

I like the two new ones but this one can be modded, ive always been partial to mods as a way of expanding and extending the game.

There are alot of good mods. I have the HD and high rez texture mods it really makes the game look great.

ohh nice, ill look into grabbing them !

Also looking for the Dino Hunting games, i forget what they are called but run similar to the big game hunter type, I remember playign them to death back in the day. (Carnivores and the three that followed it, any games after the 2002 Cityscape game were remakes or ports)

I found a complete big box copy of The Sims Deluxe Edition at a thrift store yesterday, so of course I've started messing around again in... The Sims 2. What do you want from me, it's still the best one.

As a $75 backer for System Shock, I got access to the Backer Beta, so I've been messing around with that for the past couple of days. Mixed feelings so far. There are things I immediately disliked, things that grew on me, and things that I found were way better than the original. So far the highlight is CyberSpace. Really well done. It was my least favorite part of the original, but is actually quite nice in the remake. Performance-wise, I have it cranked as high as it will go (including setting resolution scaling to 200% on my 1080p system) and getting a pretty steady 60fps with vsync on. System is i7-4790k / RTX2060.

Overall, the game is gorgeous, but there are some sections that look unfinished, almost retro. I can't tell if that is just being a beta and subject to improvement, or intentional throwback to fans. The interface (at least my understanding of it so far) is a bit clunky. I was able to map Crouch to C (my preference over LCTRL) without breaking key mapping, but using inventory items seems pretty laborious. There may be shortcuts that I haven't figured out yet. But I don't know how to use items from the hotbar. I hit I (inventory), then click on the item I want to use then hit ESC to get back to the game. Cyberspace looks and plays a lot like a modern version of Descent and is way more intuitive than the original. The map so far matches the original pretty closely, although the opening medical room has a couple of changes. There is no ramp going to a 2nd level for the electrical charging station. It is now on the 1st and only level of the room. There's also a locked room that you have to sneak in to get the door code (which is still 451 as I will never forget) instead of it being on the body of a guy near the door. I'm sure there are other differences but that's the main one I noticed so far. It does seem more difficult than I remember. It's easy to get into a low health scenario, run out of healing stimpacks, then have mutants respawn on your way back to the healing bed and kill you before you get there. Melee combat with the pipe seems almost impossible to do without outright trading blows. Makes for lots of health loss real quick. I'm sure it's doable but I've never been really good with melee combat in any FPS game. Oh, remember that long room with the word RESIST spray painted on the wall with a long row of windows that you can see Saturn and other parts of the station orbiting the planet? That is just gorgeous. The orbit is visible , so as you watch the planet, it gradually moves across the window, disappears, and eventually comes back on the other side. Nice touch.

edit: Music is there, but much more ambient and less noticeable. Definitely a huge step down compared to the original MIDI score. The music in CyberSpace was actually pretty good, more noticeable and improved the atmosphere. The space station music so far has not really contributed as much to the gaming experience and is a let down for sure.

edit 2: I was going to drop a couple of screenshots, but the way this board downsizes and screws with the colors, I'm not sure how to fix that other than to manually resize the photos until I get the right upload size. Is there documentation somewhere on the boards for automating this process without taking a bunch of editing time?

Haven't replayed Risen in a while, guess it's time to fix that. Using the German version of course, due to the better voice acting.

I've spoken about this game in passing a few times, but I might as well give my full impressions here. It's pretty much what Gothic 3 should have been, combining the best parts of Gothic 1 and 2. Excellent, highly engaging combat, three distinct factions that you can join, NPCs with proper daily routines and a beautiful, hand-crafted world to explore.

The music is absolutely amazing, and I actually listen to some of the more relaxing tracks on my phone from time to time. The Harbor City and Island themes in particular are very memorable. Honestly, the overall sound design is really superb, with nicely implemented positional audio as well. I'm playing this under WinXP because that way, the game can properly utilize the hardware capabilities of my X-Fi card and pump that goodness out to my 5.1 speakers:

I'm not sure if Risen uses EAX or just DirectSound3D, but it sounds exceptional in any case. For example, going into a damp cave near the beach provides appropriate water dripping and rock sliding sounds. In forests, you can hear the leaves rustling as you pass by and birds chirping overhead. And if you approach a swarm of flies circling a garbage pile, you can actually hear them zipping all around you. All of this results in a very immersive experience.

I'll give more of my thoughts as I progress further through the game. One warning to people who might want to pick this up. The first three quarters of Risen are done really well, but the last quarter turns into a very tedious dungeon crawl. The end boss fight is also pretty bad, basically becoming a glorified game of whack-a-mole. But again, the rest of the game is well worth experiencing, especially if you're a fan of the first two Gothic games, since it's made by the same developers.

Still playing Risen, almost ready to start Chapter 2. Technically, there's nothing stopping me from doing that right now, since I've completed all the quests in the Bandit Camp and Harbor City, but I kinda want to XP grind a bit more.

One reason is that enemies get more numerous as you progress through the game. For example, you might encounter two wolves at a certain spot in the forest in Chapter 1. Later, during Chapter 2, that turns into a pack a five wolves and so on. Meaning, the combat becomes a bit easier if you thin out enemy numbers early on.

Since my character is focusing on swords and smithing, he's pretty much self sufficient. I explore now locations, find ore veins, mine them, and then use the materials to forge my own weapons and protective gear. It's very satisfying. Additionally, the rings that I've crafted boost my damage resistance a bit, which allows me to tackle more dangerous enemies than my early game armor would normally allow.

I also like that there are multiple ways to solve certain quests, especially in Harbor City. Makes replaying the game feel fresh if you pick a different path and/or join another faction. It certainly has that classic Gothic game feel to it.

Just started Chapter 3 of Risen after breezing through the previous one. It helped that I was slightly overleveled. My swordfighting skill was also high enough that I could use the biggest swords together with a shield. All this made dealing with enemies like Lizardmen and Ghouls a lot easier.

Since the main quest sends you all over the island, I got to admire the graphics of its various environments. Dynamic time of day changes are particularly well implemented, and ambient lighting is very different during the mornings, compared to noon and the evenings. The sun rays breaking through the treetops of a dense forest look pretty cool too. Caves and dungeons are appropriately dark, with glowing crystal formations providing barely enough illumination to get by, so you often have to use a torch or a light spell.

While zipping around the map, I remembered that swimming is not allowed in this game. You can wade through shallow water, but the second you're more than waist deep, you either drown or get tossed back onto the beach. This is lame, since you could swim (and even dive) in the Gothic games, which sometimes allowed you to take shortcuts, find secrets or bypass packs of monsters. Well, at least the water effects are prettier in Risen, I suppose.

Anyhow, the tedious dungeon crawling endgame is about to start, but I'm delaying it as much as I can. Since I finally have access to better armor, I can explore the remaining outdoor areas that are guarded by stronger enemies like Ogres and Ashbeasts. Will probably have to wrap things up soon though.

Ok, I have to share this fun little moment that I just experienced in Risen. Right at the beginning of the game, I completed a Harbor City quest which involved a minor NPC. Basically, you could either turn him over to the authorities, put him to the sword or let him live, in which case he would promise to leave the city forever. Being a decent guy who still joined the Bandits, I chose to let him go. Once he disappeared, I figured the developers simply removed that NPC from the game and never gave it a second thought.

Many gameplay hours later, while exploring I randomly spotted a small plateau above the waterfall near the Bandit Camp. Accessing that area requires using a Levitation scroll, as there is no other way to get there. I saw some rare herbs from a distance, so I flew over there to grab them, since they serve as ingredients for strength potions and such.

Imagine my surprise at seeing that NPC living in a small tent there. He even had some extra dialog about how I managed to find him in such a remote place! Well damn, I've played this game several times before and it never occurred to me to fly up to that plateau, so this is the first time I've ever seen him there. Kudos to the developers for going to such lengths!

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-16, 11:58:

Ok, I have to share this fun little moment that I just experienced in Risen.

Being rewarded for exploration is one of the things I love about PB games but that's next level! Risen was such a nice surprise for me when the demo appeared - their last great game IMO.

Thank goodness for The Chronicles of Myrtana, that game managed to capture the magic somehow and PB themselves have proven how hard that can be.

badmojo wrote on 2023-03-17, 04:28:

Risen was such a nice surprise for me when the demo appeared - their last great game IMO.

Sadly true. Risen 2 has those dumbed down combat mechanics from Gothic 3 (keep clicking until you win!) so I just couldn't get into it. Never played the third installment, but from what I hear, it isn't much better. Not sure about their Elex games though. The setting doesn't particularly interest me, so I never picked those up.

Thank goodness for The Chronicles of Myrtana, that game managed to capture the magic somehow and PB themselves have proven how hard that can be.

I saw your impressions of that mod and I'll definitively give it a try at some point. Sounds like it was made in the spirit of the first two Gothic games, which is much appreciated.

What slightly worries me is that it's apparently based on Gothic 2 Gold, and we all know how horribly unbalanced the combat became with the NOTR expansion. Or do the modders address that?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-17, 05:08:

Not sure about their Elex games though.

I gave Elex 1 a shot and couldn't get into it ultimately - the setting isn't my cup of tea but the world just didn't hang together regardless. It felt like a jumble of ideas that never quite worked.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-03-17, 05:08:

What worries me is that it's apparently based on Gothic 2 Gold, and we all know how horribly unbalanced the combat became with the NOTR expansion. Or do the modders address that?

I must admit that the combat is pretty brutal at times, but everything else is so fantastic that it's not a deal breaker. And there's a much expanded bestiary, so there's always something around at your level to fight. There are different types of bloodfly now for example, with your standard ones that are easy, and then scaling up. The mob placement makes sense too - you'll only find the harder beasts deeper into the forests.

You'll love it I promise 😀

I'm playing Pickle Wars right now, it's a full CD release. I remember playing Episode 1 back then. Of cause I had no sound card, so I was surprised it had support for digitized sound effects and General MIDI. I played the very first level again than went on to Episode 2 to see and play something new.

It really reminds me of the classic Apogee shareware platformers, just in very amateurish way. Despite the presence of digital sound effects, the running, jumping and shooting sounds are still delivered via PC speaker. The graphics of the levels are kind of depressing, it's repititive - there are like 5 enemy types and level design seems to always follow the same ideas (vertical elevators you have to spend a lot of time waiting for if you miss them. *grrrr*). Each level has it's own small midi tune, but they are like 4 bars repeating over and over and very wonky.

In stark contrast the intro cinematics are visually quite cute with music that is downright great!