Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-06, 11:20:

More importantly, the original voice actor for the Prince is back, and he sounds awesome as always.

Both voice actors are there. The dark prince is voiced by the WW guy and does a much better job. Maybe the character itself is more of his thing or they had a better director for the 3rd game.

Lucas Arts, Day of the Tentacle! Runs great on my Win95 Box. Also, Descent III my all time favorite, on the same machine.

(Win95 box is a Hp Vectra VL Series 6, with PII 450Mhz, R6 32MB SDR PCI, SB AWE64 )

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Being playing a lot of Elden Ring this past month.

I'm just 150 hours in now and am getting to a point where I'm burning out on it. Part of the issue is my play style has lent myself to being over-leveled where I am in the game. The past half dozen major bosses I've managed to beat in only one or two tries apiece.

I also in an area, Mountaintop of the Giants, that has proved far less interesting than preceding areas of the game. I at least expected some interested new enemies, but they've just copy-pasted everything from previous areas.

I beat it at 158hrs @Level 166. It's a lot of hours so nothing wrong with taking a break, just don't wait too long.
I think those areas are sparse since the game has to end at some point heh.
Also there's now the DLC so that's another 40hrs or so. I haven't played it yet since last time I played Elden Ring was mid 2022 and I'm worried about jumping back in after so long....also waiting for the patches to die down. I did verify I can still play with the DLC with Goldberg steam emu so I'm happy.
Currently completed all of Quake 2 remaster except for call of the machine (N64 (cramped levels) and coftm are most enjoyable) and no it's not modern sensibility since I couldn't stand to play Q2 on original release heh and also playing through Fallout London.

DosFreak wrote on 2024-08-07, 00:12:

Also there's now the DLC so that's another 40hrs or so. I haven't played it yet since last time I played Elden Ring was mid 2022 and I'm worried about jumping back in after so long....also waiting for the patches to die down.

Judging by reviews, reaction to the DLC seems a lot less enthusiastic than the main game. I figure it's probably worth waiting for it to go on sale.

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Very nice! Me and my wife are working down that path as well. She got her first 3 pieces made already. We're both very much looking forward to Janthir Wilds coming out.

Done with Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Playing it again reaffirmed my previous opinion: it's better than Warrior Within, but not as good as Sands of Time. I kinda rushed through, because it wasn't really my cup of tea.

Combat was a mixed bag. Stealth kills were sometimes hard to execute because of the need to match your attacks with the glow of the dagger. But on occasion, the dagger would end up offscreen, because the Prince was mid-jump or something, which made the glow impossible to see. Good idea in theory, poor execution in practice. Regular melee fights were pretty meh, as they usually featured very few enemies, but with beefed up health. I prefer the approach from the first game, with lots of enemies that are relatively easy to take down, if you can bypass their defenses.

As for the platforming, there was too much of that for my liking. It often felt like filler content, added simply to inflate the game's length. The Prince's new abilities actually made level navigation more tedious under some circumstances. In Sands of Time, he had a more limited moveset, but the level designers made far better use of it. The levels of that game were clever and intuitive, and it was usually pretty clear where you're supposed to go and how to do it. Conversely, the areas of Two Thrones often felt confusing and illogical.

The story was decent, and it was nice to see Farah return, although I wish they had kept her original voice actress from the first game. I liked that the Prince was once again portrayed as introspective and (eventually) heroic, instead of being constantly angry and "edgy" as in Warrior Within. The ending sequence, with him retelling the Sands of Time story, was a nice callback and a very fitting conclusion to this trilogy.

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Sober MMORPG player here . I love them but, I have realized I just can't handle these kind of games..

I never fell for that particular game but spent a few years in Asheron's Call 2, Everquest 2, Ddo (Dungeons and Dragon's online), and Lineage 2, the latter being my favorite.

Ddo was somewhat better on my mental well being as it was not as addictive I suppose.

Now I play low fps Wolfenstein 3D port for FM Towns Marty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oF8qnEW2HE

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-07, 12:11:

Done with Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. Playing it again reaffirmed my previous opinion: it's better than Warrior Within, but not as good as Sands of Time. I kinda rushed through, because it wasn't really my cup of tea.

My best memories from Warrior Within are the past/present transitions where you traverse the same location in different time, and see how it changed, and then the special weapon that you can get at the end

In the Two Thrones I hardly remember anything except

Somehow I liked the boss battles in Warrior Within more. They were less scripted, and harder as a result.

dr_st wrote on 2024-08-07, 14:12:

the Chariot race and subsequent combat

I unhid this bit, because it isn't much of a spoiler on its own.

Those chariot races felt kinda tacked on, as if the one of the developers thought: "Mini games are all the rage now! We need one in Two Thrones!" and they came up with this. But that particular chariot race is even more annoying, because you're bound to use up a few sand tanks to avoid crashing, when you really need as many of them as possible for the ensuing boss battle. I wonder how no one at their QA department caught that.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-07, 15:27:

dr_st wrote on 2024-08-07, 14:12:

the Chariot race and subsequent combat

I unhid this bit, because it isn't much of a spoiler on its own.

Those chariot races felt kinda tacked on, as if the one of the developers thought: "Mini games are all the rage now! We need one in Two Thrones!" and they came up with this. But that particular chariot race is even more annoying, because you're bound to use up a few sand tanks to avoid crashing, when you really need as many of them as possible for the ensuing boss battle. I wonder how no one at their QA department caught that.

The third game had a troubled development. First, the developers were already short on time than half way through they redid the whole thing. Or at least they made a lot of fundamental changes.

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2024-08-07, 10:12:

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Very nice! Me and my wife are working down that path as well. She got her first 3 pieces made already. We're both very much looking forward to Janthir Wilds coming out.

Having someone else doing the same would probably reduce the monotony of the grind 🤣. Hopefully Janthir works out a bit better towards the end than SoTO.

Joakim wrote on 2024-08-07, 12:44:

Sober MMORPG player here . I love them but, I have realized I just can't handle these kind of games.. […]
Show full quote

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Sober MMORPG player here . I love them but, I have realized I just can't handle these kind of games..

I never fell for that particular game but spent a few years in Asheron's Call 2, Everquest 2, Ddo (Dungeons and Dragon's online), and Lineage 2, the latter being my favorite.

Ddo was somewhat better on my mental well being as it was not as addictive I suppose.

Guild Wars 2 hits in spurts, if that makes sense. It's got no subscription and they never really retire old content, so it's kind of just always there.

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-07, 17:57:

Having someone else doing the same would probably reduce the monotony of the grind lol. Hopefully Janthir works out a bit better […]
Show full quote

chrismeyer6 wrote on 2024-08-07, 10:12:

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Very nice! Me and my wife are working down that path as well. She got her first 3 pieces made already. We're both very much looking forward to Janthir Wilds coming out.

Having someone else doing the same would probably reduce the monotony of the grind 🤣. Hopefully Janthir works out a bit better towards the end than SoTO.

Joakim wrote on 2024-08-07, 12:44:

Sober MMORPG player here . I love them but, I have realized I just can't handle these kind of games.. […]
Show full quote

BetaC wrote on 2024-08-06, 22:15:

I have once again fallen down the Guild Wars 2 hole, and have almost five pieces of legendary armor's worth of resources. I say almost five because I am just about done making the fourth piece, and only need to grind out the exact same materials for the fifth as well. Sixth, well, that will take about a month.

Sober MMORPG player here . I love them but, I have realized I just can't handle these kind of games..

I never fell for that particular game but spent a few years in Asheron's Call 2, Everquest 2, Ddo (Dungeons and Dragon's online), and Lineage 2, the latter being my favorite.

Ddo was somewhat better on my mental well being as it was not as addictive I suppose.

Guild Wars 2 hits in spurts, if that makes sense. It's got no subscription and they never really retire old content, so it's kind of just always there.

Yes working together helps a lot. SoTO was a bit weak at the end but we both very much enjoyed it. Everything we've been reading and watching about Janthir Wilds has us very much looking forward to it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-07, 15:27:

Those chariot races felt kinda tacked on, as if the one of the developers thought: "Mini games are all the rage now! We need one in Two Thrones!" and they came up with this. But that particular chariot race is even more annoying, because you're bound to use up a few sand tanks to avoid crashing, when you really need as many of them as possible for the ensuing boss battle. I wonder how no one at their QA department caught that.

That's probably why I remember it. That was the hardest and most annoying boss fight in the game.

Onward to Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. I never played this game back in the day, because the PC release had some "always online" DRM crap, which I boycott on principle. But now, I have an Xbox 360, and the console version happily runs with no internet connectivity whatsoever. From what I gather, this is an "interqual" of sorts, set between Sands of Time and Warrior Within.

Initial impressions are mostly good. Platforming has been simplified and feels easier, but also more natural. Melee combat has been streamlined as well, though this game allows for more enemies to appear on screen at the same time, which is my preference. I was never a big fan of the combo system from Warrior Within and Two Thrones, so the more straightforward fighting style of Forgotten Sands sits well with me.

The visuals are fine for the most part, but the overall aesthetic seems a bit bland. I will however admit that the CGI intro sequence looks pretty good for its time. That said, I'm not entirely sold on the new character model for the Prince, but at least it's not the emo look from Warrior Within. The soundtrack feels more like "generic fantasy" music, and sadly doesn't have as much of that Persian vibe as the first game, but it's still serviceable. Except for the loud chorus in the pause/main menu track, which can get a bit overbearing at times. Most of the voice over performances are ok, and the Prince is once again portrayed by his original actor. Thankfully, he retains the heroic personality from Sands of Time, and hasn't yet adopted the edgy attitude from Warrior Within.

Anyway, I'm still very early into the game (just got the rewind power), but so far, this seems to be a fairly decent entry in the Prince of Persia series. We'll see how well it holds up later on.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-08-08, 09:44:

Anyway, I'm still very early into the game (just got the rewind power), but so far, this seems to be a fairly decent entry in the Prince of Persia series. We'll see how well it holds up later on.

Let me know how you feel when you get the water freeze power, and particularly on the Final Climb. 😜

dr_st wrote on 2024-08-08, 14:20:

Let me know how you feel when you get the water freeze power, and particularly on the Final Climb. 😜

Just got the freezing power. Don't like that I have to constantly hold Left Trigger to keep the water frozen. It just needlessly stiffens my grip on the controller while I'm expected to perform complex platforming maneuvers. Not a fan of that design choice, and I imagine later on, these water puzzles will get even more complicated.

Also, that gear puzzle for closing the gate just before getting the freezing power was completely unintuitive. The crappy camera controls didn't help either. It's never explained how the mechanism works, and you're left to figure things out by randomly turning levers and seeing what happens. Really weird difficulty spike so early in the game.

I'm playing The X-Com Files a TC mod for OpenXCom Extended (OXCE)

Getting my ass kicked. And enjoying it. 😀

It starts slow with cryptids, cultists, cattle mutilations, and crop circles... The alien invasion(s) are way later.