revolstar wrote on 2026-02-27, 12:25:

Yeah I played TR 1-3 a while ago and oh boy did these age poorly! People usually complain about the tank controls and the blocky 3d graphics but what about poor level design? All you do most of the time is backtrack. It's super easy to get lost and usually the objective is to traverse like a million meters to flick a switch that opens a door back at the beginning of the level. Games have evolved a lot since the late 90s haven't they? 😉

You've got to remember back in that time period Tomb Raider which was a 3rd person free roaming action game was a technical marvel, especially if you were lucky enough to have a Voodoo card. It's easy to forget how much crapware was around at that time. Games that ran poorly were put out as commercial products. It was more about technical competency and playability than game design when it came to pushing the envelope of tech. As times went on technical prowess was easier to achieve and built in and then it started being more about game design.

Even as late as Call of Duty there were still the ideological game design wars between playability and graphics. I like to think that Vince Zampella's design philosophy of playability at all costs and the success of that series finally pushed us into a golden age of gaming for a while. I remember playing Call of Duty at that time and thinking they get it. Even though WW2 games were everywhere and starting to feel stale at that time a well designed game (Call of Duty) came along and reviatlized that for years to come.

It used to be real easy to tell a dog from a good game as an experienced gamer but nowadays everyone has the technical know how, but all the inspiring game designs take a backseat to checklists of functionality driven by marketing or just uncreative producer types. It's seldom that a new and unique game idea gets through anymore.

Yeah I don't hate the first CoD. It made MOHAA feel sterile and sluggish. The killcams were also neat and helped spot some cheating losers to votekick. What I do hate is that part is under a software patent so no other non-Activision/Blizzard game's allowed to killcam

DIdn't engage with the sequels (or many war-based games in general). I do know 2003 had a lot of crap though!!

Sombrero wrote on 2026-02-26, 18:47:

Yeah I'm sure nothing fishy is going on here!

Wonder how many just go back to everett to tell him about this (did that on my last pcem'd playthrough)

leileilol wrote on 2026-02-27, 22:16:

Wonder how many just go back to everett to tell him about this (did that on my last pcem'd playthrough)

I didn't. I figured he might have something to say about it, but didn't bother to run back and see. I had already decided the guy is an asshole after finding Lucius so off I went.

It's kinda amazing how much dialog the game has reacting to what you have done and how, I bet there's still a ton I've never seen.

Bloodborne

Went back to this, and I'm having a pretty good time so far. I've gotten more used to the 30 FPS cap, and the game seems to be holding that performance target reasonably well on my PS4 Pro (with Boost Mode enabled). The excessive use of chromatic aberration still annoys me though.

Bloodborne's combat speed is similar to DS3 or maybe a bit faster, but some of the mechanics are different. Think I'm slowly getting the hang of the non-roll dodging when locked on, and I'm also adapting to those trick weapons with their transform ability. Using guns to parry still feels slightly unusual, so I probably need to work on my timing a bit more. Also, I'm really digging the interconnectivity between the different locations. This game feels a lot like DS1 in that regard, with all the shortcuts that you can open.

I heard that Bloodborne's starting areas can be pretty hard, but I'm guessing that might depend on which game you're coming from. Having recently finished both DS3 DLCs, I found Central Yharnam to be quite manageable in comparison. I reckon things will get a lot harder further down the road though. At this time, I've beaten the first two bosses (Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne) and reached the Cathedral Ward. Both fights were very good, and provided a decent amount of challenge. I had a bit more trouble with Gascoigne, due to his arena being filled with obstacles that hinder movement, but playing without lock on helped to avoid those.

As noted before, the Victorian era setting with Lovecraft undertones isn't really my cup of tea. Despite that, I can appreciate what the FromSoft devs were going for, and I think they managed to create a fairly unique atmosphere here. It definitively has a different feel from the Souls games, but it still managed to get me somewhat curious. Not bad so far.

leileilol wrote on 2026-02-27, 22:16:

What I do hate is that part is under a software patent so no other non-Activision/Blizzard game's allowed to killcam

But Valve's games have killcams in them? How the hell can something like that even be a "patent", what the hell is wrong with the law offices in the USA?

CoD 1 / UO hit differently. Someone recently hacked in widescreen support, both FOV and fixed HUD. I modified that plugin to have bindable mouse buttons 4 and 5, the ones that work as backward / forward buttons in web browsers. It only took about 20 years, the only CoD games lacking these.

Not surprised about that patent thing. US is backwards in more than one way.

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-02-28, 14:02:

But Valve's games have killcams in them? How the hell can something like that even be a "patent", what the hell is wrong with the law offices in the USA?

Valve killcam's more of a zooming into on who killed you, CoD's was replaying the last few seconds of the killer's perspective (or tracking the fatal projectile). Overwatch Overwatch 2 Overwatch would also get this

Bloodborne

Making good progress here. I switched my off hand weapon from the Hunter Pistol to the Blunderbuss, and my parry success rate improved dramatically. While practicing on those big guys with bricks, I could barely hit them with the pistol, even when they were right next to me. But with the Blunderbuss, I can parry much more easily. Not sure why that is, but I'm glad I made the switch. For my main weapon, I've been using the Saw Cleaver from the very start, and it's been working great so far.

Anyway, after upgrading my gear a bit further, I cleared out Old Yharnam and the Cathedral Ward. Didn't have any problems with the Bloodstarved Beast, but Vicar Amelia was an entirely different story. She had a ton of health, some pretty nasty attacks, and could even heal herself, so I figured it was time to change things up. First, I summoned an NPC for distraction while pelting Amelia with Molotov flasks from a safe distance. After that, I kept dashing in and out, landing a few hits whenever I saw an opening, while taking care not to get hit. Sometimes, she would get hyper focused on the NPC, which allowed me to dish out a lot of damage, and that eventually took her down. Definitively felt the difficulty spike here.

BTW, I don't like how the cost of consumable items keeps increasing as you progress through the game. After beating Amelia, I went to restock my Molotovs, and found that they had doubled in price! We have enough of that in real life right now, so I don't really need to see it in-game as well.

leileilol wrote on 2026-02-28, 20:43:

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-02-28, 14:02:

But Valve's games have killcams in them? How the hell can something like that even be a "patent", what the hell is wrong with the law offices in the USA?

Valve killcam's more of a zooming into on who killed you, CoD's was replaying the last few seconds of the killer's perspective (or tracking the fatal projectile). Overwatch Overwatch 2 Overwatch would also get this

The Sniper Elite series also has this I think, no?

i think sniper elite was more of the midway blitz: the league xray system so you know your bullet explodes a nazi's balls

Sombrero wrote on 2026-02-26, 18:47:

Completed Deus Ex. The game still has it, enjoyed it thoroughly! The story is engaging once it starts going, the levels are very […]
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Completed Deus Ex.
The game still has it, enjoyed it thoroughly! The story is engaging once it starts going, the levels are very fun to explore and the awesome soundtrack just elevates everything even higher.
..
Next up is either Deus Ex: Invisible War or Tomb Raider 2. I'll give it a day or two to see am I still hungry for more Deus Ex even though DX:IW is what it is and time probably hasn't done any favours to it.

when i replayed it a few months back I also really enjoyed it and appreciated the depth of some environments - the way things play out following choices, the way the backdrop is built up through newspapers, data cubes, overheard conversations and the overall sense of a world in decline/dystopia

Invisible War was fun when i played it, and i remember thinking the visuals were great, but i have never had a great urge to replay it - there was something almost "short" about it, and even though the stakes are big in-game it never felt as epic as Deus Ex