clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-10, 09:50:

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just […]
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Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just experiencing the city as if you were playing. I cut to 30 seconds in to avoid non-city stuff.
https://youtu.be/skP3ymhQXOw?t=30

And here is a video called "Kingdom Come Deliverance II VS Reality | Graphics Comparison | Analista De Bits" where you can see the real Kuttenburg compared to the in-game one. Pretty fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd32aw9TaYA

This game always looks great, i haven't played it though, can the player just stop and start a conversation with anyone? or go through any (open) door? Is it as open as it looks?

gerry wrote on 2025-08-10, 10:31:

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-10, 09:50:

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just […]
Show full quote

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just experiencing the city as if you were playing. I cut to 30 seconds in to avoid non-city stuff.
https://youtu.be/skP3ymhQXOw?t=30

And here is a video called "Kingdom Come Deliverance II VS Reality | Graphics Comparison | Analista De Bits" where you can see the real Kuttenburg compared to the in-game one. Pretty fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd32aw9TaYA

This game always looks great, i haven't played it though, can the player just stop and start a conversation with anyone? or go through any (open) door? Is it as open as it looks?

In Kuttenburg, there are fewer interactable NPCs than you would think. I think they had to do that to conserve game resources. But in smaller towns, you can interact with many NPCs. At least you can say hello and get a response. If they are a shop keeper, then you can at least ask them to show you their wares. Then those with any sort of quest or activity tied to them have deeper conversation tiers. And yes, you can walk through any open door. If it's a private area, you will get a warning, and if someone sees you, they will get mad and tell you to leave. If you don't, they will go find a guard to tell on you. Even most closed doors can be opened, or at least given the opportunity to pick the lock.

It's a great world they've crafted with the KC games and in fact I think it's the world that thrilled me more than the gameplay, which I why I never finished the first one and haven't played the second one yet. I spent hours just exploring the towns, looking at what people were doing, how the mills worked, their farm tools, etc. Even those simple drainage systems in the town streets are interesting I think. Ultimately I think it was the combat that killed it for me, it could be so dang frustrating. Initially I worked hard at melee and was improving, but then I'd stop playing for a few days and forget how to do it. Stealth and bow could be quite satisfying but then once the alarm was raised I'd just have to race around on my horse and shoot from a distance, which took a lot of arrows and wasn't much fun.

I've been focusing on side quests and DLCs in Mass Effect 3. Wanted to get those out of the way before the main plot ramps up. I already mentioned how the Citadel DLC was mostly cheeky fan service, but in the best possible way. From what I've read, it was the last DLC to be released, and I'm guessing it was meant as a loving sendoff to the entire Mass Effect trilogy. I get that its humor might not be to everyone's taste, but I liked it. And there are some hilarious interactions with your squad members in the new area after the main mission is over. My only complaint is that it locks you into a single location until you finish the entire thing.

The Omega DLC was a bit too combat heavy for my tastes. And once again, I don't like how it locks you into a single location until you complete it. This messes up the pacing, as Omega lasts for a couple of hours, and you'll be spending the vast majority of that in combat. The story impact is minimal, so I'd say it's safe to skip this, unless you enjoy back to back combat encounters.

The Leviathan DLC was much better overall. Its content is spread over several locations, and you can get back to the ship after completing each one. This makes it possible to do other missions in the meantime, if you want to mix things up a bit. I also kinda liked the "Detective Shepard" angle where you're searching for various clues in that lab. Lastly, the story revelations from this DLC are pretty big, and it's well worth experiencing for that reason alone.

As for the side content, it's generally been fine, except for the mini fetch quests on the Citadel. Those just seem like filler that needlessly clutters up your journal. The proper side missions where you get to rescue civilians and take out Cerberus bases were pretty solid. Some of those even reunite you with old squad members, which was a nice touch. Doesn't look like most of them can join up, but you can at least see what they've been up to.

BTW, I forgot to mention this earlier, but there don't seem to be any hacking/unlock mini games in ME3. Shepard does that automatically now, it just takes a couple of seconds. Looks like the devs finally understood that no one liked that stuff.

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
Finished! Though there were definitely some frustrating parts, this game was simply amazing from beginning to end, and is definitely my favorite out of all of the games I've completed in the series so far (Wiz1-5+6).

Whenever I sit down to play a party-based RPG for the first time, I first do a bit of research for general party composition advice and gotchas that might prevent completing the game. I read a lot of horror stories about how difficult and brutal this game is, with most sources claiming you "need" to spend hours rolling up superheroes, grind levels like crazy, and constantly change classes throughout the game to get powerful skills like kirijitsu (critical hits) on every character.

Anyway, I didn't do any of that. I did spend some time rolling up a party, but within 30 minutes or so I came up with a decent bunch of adventurers:

Lizardman Fighter
Felpurr Samurai
Dwarf Valkyrie
Fairy Bard
Rawulf Priest
Elf Mage

I didn't class change at all, as this party worked quite nicely throughout the entire game. I had read that bards become useless from the middle of the game, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. By the time the Lute (casts sleep) stops working reliably, you find an instrument that casts fireballs for free and works great on pretty much any enemy. Bards can also hide and backstab any enemy from the back row, so she became very useful in taking out enemies my fighters couldn't reach.

I found the game to be paced perfectly. Random encounters can feel overwhelming and almost impossible upon entering a new area, but you quickly develop strategies for each type of enemy and your constantly increasing skills help you to catch up after just a few battles. Leveling up even once also really feels like it makes a difference.

The dungeon design is simply perfect in this. Although the game is generally linear from area to area, you do have a lot of freedom to explore within each area as you figure out what you need to do. Even though the game uses the same gray stone graphics for every single area, they all feel unique and memorable thanks to how varied the layouts are.

It was relatively smooth sailing throughout the game, except I had major difficulty defeating Amen-Tut-Butt... but only because I wanted my entire party alive at the end (resurrection causes your VITALITY to drop permanently one point). In hindsight, I should have just accepted a death or two and moved on, instead of reloading and relying on random rolls to win the battle without any deaths. Xorphitus was also quite difficult, but I learned my lesson from Amen-Tut-Butt. I managed to win the battle but with everyone standing (in awful shape), except the Mage who was killed in the first round.

The game has multiple endings, so I did some research on how each affects Wizardry VII, and decided to

.

Overall, the game took just over 40 hours to complete, but that of course does not include the 20 hours or so I spent previously trying (but failing) to complete the game. I used an automapping mod that worked really great, and although I avoided using a walkthrough most of the time, I did look up item stats and the solutions to some of the more difficult/obscure puzzles. I had an absolute blast finally completing this game, and now I'm really looking forward to playing Wizardry VII!

[[[EDIT]]]
My final party:

Alan the Lizardman Fighter -- LVL 16, 670 kills
Heather the Dwarf Valkyrie -- LVL 15, 403 kills
Jake the Felpurr Samurai -- LVL 14, 617 kills
Muffin the Faerie Bard -- LVL 14, 131 kills
Tomo the Rawulf Priest -- LVL 14, 173 kills
Bongo the Elf Mage -- LVL 14, 340 kills

Total EXP ranged from 1,972,855 to 2,027, 094.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-08-11, 12:17:

I already mentioned how the Citadel DLC was mostly cheeky fan service, but in the best possible way.

Did you beat that pull up challenge thing? I did, for whatever reason. I remember having one of the biggest "why I even bothered?" moments of my life afterwards 😁

As for the side content, it's generally been fine, except for the mini fetch quests on the Citadel. Those just seem like filler that needlessly clutters up your journal. The proper side missions where you get to rescue civilians and take out Cerberus bases were pretty solid.

Yeah, the side content got worse after ME2. First they got a lot of flak for the repetitive crap ME1 had, then they improved them a ton for ME2, and then they immediately went back to lazy crap for ME3. At least it's not as bad as in Dragon Age 2 which got released around the same time. That one should get some kind of enviromentalism award for recycling.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-08-12, 06:25:

Did you beat that pull up challenge thing? I did, for whatever reason. I remember having one of the biggest "why I even bothered?" moments of my life afterwards 😁

Heh, I don't think I tried that one yet. I did get a kick out of the theater play though. It's particularly funny with Paragon Shepard who can use those interrupt prompts for some added hilarity. Getting drunk with Ashley and starting a bar fight afterwards was pretty cool too, as was bailing out Grunt from the police.

I may revisit this area once again after completing the game. I feel like I threw that party a bit it too early, since some of the old/new squad members weren't even unlocked at that time. Should have probably saved that entire DLC for later, but I didn't really know what it was.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-08-12, 06:25:

At least it's not as bad as in Dragon Age 2 which got released around the same time. That one should get some kind of enviromentalism award for recycling.

I haven't played that one yet, since reviews from trusted sources kinda panned it back in the day. Origins was fine, and I do intend to replay it at some point, but I never bothered with any of the DA sequels.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-08-12, 06:57:

Heh, I don't think I tried that one yet.

Don't worry, you haven't missed anything other than maximum tedium if you want to win it. I just couldn't let that meathead crew member win.

I haven't played that one yet, since reviews from trusted sources kinda panned it back in the day. Origins was fine, and I do intend to replay it at some point, but I never bothered with any of the DA sequels.

I only played it once and can't really remember a thing about it I liked. Maybe the design of that big guy race but that's about it. Lets just say it steered hard towards "mass appeal" while minimizing production costs.

If you ever run out of actually good games and end up giving it a go, I strongly suggest to do it on console. The combat isn't anything like it was on the first game.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-08-12, 07:33:

Don't worry, you haven't missed anything other than maximum tedium if you want to win it. I just couldn't let that meathead crew member win.

Ahh, sounds like one of those "fun" mini games. And considering that James is my least favorite squad member in the ME trilogy, I think I'll pass.

No idea why the devs put him on the main squad, instead of bringing back someone better from ME2. If they really needed another human soldier, they could have easily reused Jacob, who was much more likable.

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-08-12, 03:48:

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge Finished! Though there were definitely some frustrating parts, this game was simply amazi […]
Show full quote

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
Finished! Though there were definitely some frustrating parts, this game was simply amazing from beginning to end, and is definitely my favorite out of all of the games I've completed in the series so far (Wiz1-5+6).

Whenever I sit down to play a party-based RPG for the first time, I first do a bit of research for general party composition advice and gotchas that might prevent completing the game. I read a lot of horror stories about how difficult and brutal this game is, with most sources claiming you "need" to spend hours rolling up superheroes, grind levels like crazy, and constantly change classes throughout the game to get powerful skills like kirijitsu (critical hits) on every character.

Anyway, I didn't do any of that. I did spend some time rolling up a party, but within 30 minutes or so I came up with a decent bunch of adventurers:

Lizardman Fighter
Felpurr Samurai
Dwarf Valkyrie
Fairy Bard
Rawulf Priest
Elf Mage

I didn't class change at all, as this party worked quite nicely throughout the entire game. I had read that bards become useless from the middle of the game, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. By the time the Lute (casts sleep) stops working reliably, you find an instrument that casts fireballs for free and works great on pretty much any enemy. Bards can also hide and backstab any enemy from the back row, so she became very useful in taking out enemies my fighters couldn't reach.

I found the game to be paced perfectly. Random encounters can feel overwhelming and almost impossible upon entering a new area, but you quickly develop strategies for each type of enemy and your constantly increasing skills help you to catch up after just a few battles. Leveling up even once also really feels like it makes a difference.

The dungeon design is simply perfect in this. Although the game is generally linear from area to area, you do have a lot of freedom to explore within each area as you figure out what you need to do. Even though the game uses the same gray stone graphics for every single area, they all feel unique and memorable thanks to how varied the layouts are.

It was relatively smooth sailing throughout the game, except I had major difficulty defeating Amen-Tut-Butt... but only because I wanted my entire party alive at the end (resurrection causes your VITALITY to drop permanently one point). In hindsight, I should have just accepted a death or two and moved on, instead of reloading and relying on random rolls to win the battle without any deaths. Xorphitus was also quite difficult, but I learned my lesson from Amen-Tut-Butt. I managed to win the battle but with everyone standing (in awful shape), except the Mage who was killed in the first round.

The game has multiple endings, so I did some research on how each affects Wizardry VII, and decided to

SPOILER

drop the cross to avoid fighting Rebecca (I did get the diamond ring)

.

Overall, the game took just over 40 hours to complete, but that of course does not include the 20 hours or so I spent previously trying (but failing) to complete the game. I used an automapping mod that worked really great, and although I avoided using a walkthrough most of the time, I did look up item stats and the solutions to some of the more difficult/obscure puzzles. I had an absolute blast finally completing this game, and now I'm really looking forward to playing Wizardry VII!

[[[EDIT]]]
My final party:

Alan the Lizardman Fighter -- LVL 16, 670 kills
Heather the Dwarf Valkyrie -- LVL 15, 403 kills
Jake the Felpurr Samurai -- LVL 14, 617 kills
Muffin the Faerie Bard -- LVL 14, 131 kills
Tomo the Rawulf Priest -- LVL 14, 173 kills
Bongo the Elf Mage -- LVL 14, 340 kills

Total EXP ranged from 1,972,855 to 2,027, 094.

Congrats! Looking forward to reading about Wizardry 7. I'm dumbfounded that it only took you 40 hours. It took me over 100 hours, but I count time that I'm researching while playing. So I'm playing on my DOS PC, which is to the left of my main PC. I'll pause playing if I want to research something on my main PC, and that time is included in my count. But I also found what I believe is my final kill count (it's in a spreadsheet, and I'm assuming it's a final kill count or close to a final kill count). And that is much higher than yours. 30% more kills. But still 30% more than 40 hours does not equal 100 hours. 😀

Arnellis the Dwarf Lord = LVL 15, 645 kills
Jaana the Dwarf Valkyrie = LVL 16, 836 kills
Khal the Mook Samurai = LVL 15, 664 kills
Mihru the Felpurr Monk = LVL 15, 360 kills
Arya the Faerie Ninja = LVL 14, 273 kills
Gwenno the Elf Bard = LVL 15, 250 kills

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-12, 22:20:

Congrats! Looking forward to reading about Wizardry 7. I'm dumbfounded that it only took you 40 hours. It took me over 100 ho […]
Show full quote

Congrats! Looking forward to reading about Wizardry 7. I'm dumbfounded that it only took you 40 hours. It took me over 100 hours, but I count time that I'm researching while playing. So I'm playing on my DOS PC, which is to the left of my main PC. I'll pause playing if I want to research something on my main PC, and that time is included in my count. But I also found what I believe is my final kill count (it's in a spreadsheet, and I'm assuming it's a final kill count or close to a final kill count). And that is much higher than yours. 30% more kills. But still 30% more than 40 hours does not equal 100 hours. 😀

Arnellis the Dwarf Lord = LVL 15, 645 kills
Jaana the Dwarf Valkyrie = LVL 16, 836 kills
Khal the Mook Samurai = LVL 15, 664 kills
Mihru the Felpurr Monk = LVL 15, 360 kills
Arya the Faerie Ninja = LVL 14, 273 kills
Gwenno the Elf Bard = LVL 15, 250 kills

Thanks! I was considering moving right on to Wiz7, but will probably take a break from Wiz and play something else (possibly Might & Magic II).

I think the big difference in our times is that you played on original hardware and I used DOSBox. The game would slow down to a crawl with lots of enemies on screen, and I imagine that, on actual hardware running at authentic speed, those battles must have taken minutes to get through. On DOSBox, I could jack up the cycles during those encounters and be done in seconds. The other big difference is that, if I got into an annoying or impossible fight, I could just close the window and start the game right up again. On actual hardware, you've have to get through the entire fight and then reload in such a situation (or I guess physically restart the computer).

Tomb Raider 2013 - Just completed 65% of the game so far. My initial and current opinion about the game has changed quite a lot and nowadays I prefer the og TR games. The "survivor" combat scenes are too much for me

newtmonkey wrote on 2025-08-13, 02:28:

I think the big difference in our times is that you played on original hardware and I used DOSBox. The game would slow down to a crawl with lots of enemies on screen, and I imagine that, on actual hardware running at authentic speed, those battles must have taken minutes to get through. On DOSBox, I could jack up the cycles during those encounters and be done in seconds. The other big difference is that, if I got into an annoying or impossible fight, I could just close the window and start the game right up again. On actual hardware, you've have to get through the entire fight and then reload in such a situation (or I guess physically restart the computer).

That makes perfect sense. I didn't ever think about that possibility!

I've recently realized that it's been 25 years since the much-anticipated release of DIABLO II... This sure brings back memories...

T'was the summer of 2000. I had just finished my entrance exams for high school. The whole rigamarole with a new school and a new stage in life somewhat overshadowed my anticipation for the sequel to my favorite game: DIABLO!

Oh man was I anxious! All the leaks about an open world and the ability to climb trees (WTF??) and cow levels had my head spinning. I dreamed about that sequel at night (I mean ... I still do. Once in a while, I have a dream where I'm playing my perfect Diablo sequel, which, by the way, doesn't really look like the actual D2).

So there I was in the summer of 2000. On the one hand, I was barely admitted to high school due to my not-so-stellar exam result. On the other hand, my PC was a Pentium non-MMX overclocked from 133 to 166 MHz with 32 MB of RAM and a 1.2 GB hard drive. My parents were facing layoffs from their jobs, so I was pretty broke. The only thing that met the requirements was my trusty Voodoo2 card.

A light appeared at the end of the tunnel: my family from Copenhagen gave me some old computer parts, including a Pentium 233 and 64 MB of RAM. But I was still short on hard drive space. Months passed, my friends were all playing Diablo II, and I was missing out on the fun.

Finally, in early 2002, after a complete failure of my first-ever PC in the summer of 2001 and several months without any computer, my parents managed to scrape together some money for a new system. It had a Duron processor, 128 MB of RAM, and, finally, a 60 GB HDD. The graphics card was my old s3 Virge + Voodoo2 combo. I could finally run Diablo II! The problem was that a lot of time had passed since its release, my passion had faded a bit, and I didn't have much time to play as I had to brush up my chemistry and maths grades 😜 . In the end, I didn't even get past Act I.

Fast forward to 2008. My girlfriend's younger brother was playing Diablo II, yeah with all the ladder and Battle.net shebang. He reminded me of the game, and I decided to finally finish it, and with the Lord of Destruction expansion too! I played it through with the Paladin and... that was it. Over the years, I've returned to my beloved Diablo I several times, but Diablo II just didn't hold my interest...

Until today! I reinstalled it on my Windows 98 rig, this time playing as the Barbarian. I'm absolutely delighted with the 5.1 surround sound — something I never got to experience back in 2002 and 2008.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, wish me luck on my third and (hopefully) full playthrough of this gem! 😀

My Deus Ex playthrough in PCem earlier was just fine at 10-25fps (at 1280x1024 that is!!!). I had considered playing it natively but there's something uncanny about loading instantly and having enough frames to act in having all combat feel trivial (among other issues like the fractal animation being too fast, which Deus Ex uses for everything like smoke, sparks, fire, water, cells. also i had issues with the voice cutting off too early)

The PCem Deus Ex experience did bring a lot of deja vu though! How it performed there was lining up with my past year 2000 playthrough. If anyone wants to configure and go through what I did: VA-503+, K6-2 233, Voodoo3 3000 (4 threads), SBPCI 128, Windows Me. Also force 4:3 on that 5:4 res and enjoy the squish 😀

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-10, 12:26:

In Kuttenburg, there are fewer interactable NPCs than you would think. I think they had to do that to conserve game resources. But in smaller towns, you can interact with many NPCs. At least you can say hello and get a response. If they are a shop keeper, then you can at least ask them to show you their wares. Then those with any sort of quest or activity tied to them have deeper conversation tiers. And yes, you can walk through any open door. If it's a private area, you will get a warning, and if someone sees you, they will get mad and tell you to leave. If you don't, they will go find a guard to tell on you. Even most closed doors can be opened, or at least given the opportunity to pick the lock.

thanks, it's always a sign of a good open world (to me) if you can do things that would actually be possible, no magic barriers . I understand the NPC restriction, though it would be nice if a few generic interactions were supported for all, as above. The game does look amazing, I've see a couple of youtube sessions too, impressive

Finished Mass Effect 3. And yeah, I now get why the ending was so controversial. Despite having the "Extended Cut" DLC, it felt very underwhelming. Regardless of any past actions, you're stuck with three crappy choices and one (even crappier) non-choice. From what I hear, the original (pre-DLC) version was even worse. Pretty sad to end the ME trilogy on such a low note.

Regardless of the ending, I would still rate ME3 slightly below ME2. The character interactions were once again superb, but some other gameplay elements have seemingly regressed. I already mentioned how the journal was downgraded, and I'll add that some of the area/quest design was a step down from ME2. That sword wielding cyber-ninja felt out of place here, and I didn't like how the devs gave Shepard "cutscene incompetence" to move the plot along. It was also weird that all ME2 exclusive squad members were relegated to cameos, and couldn't rejoin you.

In closing, I really appreciated how all three Mass Effect games handled the player's choices, aside from the ending of course. Some decisions that I made in the first game had consequences reaching as far as the third one. And it was cool how certain (seemingly minor) choices could ultimately decide the fate of several characters, so props to BioWare on that. I finally understand why these games are so well liked, and it was fun to experience all that first hand.

On PC, I have a mod where the cringy ninja weeb is cut out of the game. Cleanly, without any side effect.

Yes with tons of mods (including an entirely differently architectured and very different ending), people did the work Bioware didn't bother with. 😁

And the original ending was even worse! Like way worse.

"Oh you crash on a planet, everyone dies, roll credits..."

The Bioware forums (RIP) exploded for months!

xcomcmdr wrote on 2025-08-14, 06:14:

On PC, I have a mod where the cringy ninja weeb is cut out of the game. Cleanly, without any side effect.

Yes with tons of mods (including an entirely differently architectured and very different ending), people did the work Bioware didn't bother with. 😁

I generally don't like to use mods, but in this case, it's very clear to me that ME3 needs them. If I ever do another playthrough of the Mass Effect trilogy, I'll follow your advice and mod the heck out of the Legendary Edition. One question, if I get it on Steam, can the EA online DRM crap be bypassed?

xcomcmdr wrote on 2025-08-14, 06:14:

And the original ending was even worse! Like way worse.

"Oh you crash on a planet, everyone dies, roll credits..."

The Bioware forums (RIP) exploded for months!

Oh wow, that does sound terrible. I'm guessing the developers were under pressure to meet a deadline or something, so they shipped the game in that state, and then "fixed" it with the free DLC. Glad I didn't get the OG version at least.

The ending was so disappointing some people firmly believed Bioware was setting up a "Shepard was indoctrinated and the ending wasn't real" scenario. I haven't played ME3 in like a decade but as far as I remember it would have made sense to me and would have gone a long way fixing not just the ending, but the whole franchise from total catastrophe.

Didn't happen of course. I don't know how things were at Bio at the time but clearly not very well considering their output ever since.