newtmonkey wrote on 2026-03-13, 19:10:

System Shock
I have the Nightdive remaster, but read conflicting things about how accurate it is. I know these guys are quite beloved for their remasters... but I also know that they've gone in and changed stuff like level designs, so I just don't trust them, at least not for a first playthrough of a game. So, it's back to the DOS version ("Classic" on Steam).

If you mean "System Shock: Enhanced Edition" it does not change anything about the levels, etc. But; because the only source code Night Dive could ever acquire was the Apple Macintosh port the code is not 100% identical to the MS-DOS release.

"Shockolate" on GitHub is also based on this same source code release, and the only things I've noticed being off about it is the way the enemies behave and some physics idiosyncrasies. Stupidly enough there's no way to fully reset the controls back to how they were by default. There's no way to bind a key to reset your looking angle. I had to modify the source code myself to gut out all the "mouselook" code and make the function that toggled mouselook instead reset the players "eye".

Not a big fan of the "mouselook" code, System Shock's combat is not designed around that at all. You need to beable to use the mouse cursor to aim weapons around independently of your viewing angle.

I think to me neither system shock or the new remake had what it took for me to complete. I think I literally fell off of both at the same point in the game. The point when enemy regeneration, biological hazards, and samey maze like graphics made it so I never knew where i was going or what I was supposed to be doing all while constantly being killed and restarting.

I will say that I think the original system shock was a very good game for it's time and I enjoyed what I played until I gave up. I just don't think the design actually lives up to it intent. If you want to play what system shock wanted to be I would recommend Prey 2017. I always personally felt like Prey 2017 was the promises of system shock fulfilled.

System Shock 2 moved the attempt forward but I think it got released too early devolving into a basic shooter the further along you went. Again a great game for it's time that I enjoy but I think both of these have since been eclipsed. Just play Prey 2017. If your interested in history though by all means explore these titles.

I feel like this might be my Chalemet moment posting this. I agree with him too.

clueless1 wrote on 2026-03-14, 11:30:

I am a huge fan of the remake. Keep in mind I've beaten the original DOS version twice, and it is one of my favorite games of a […]
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I am a huge fan of the remake. Keep in mind I've beaten the original DOS version twice, and it is one of my favorite games of all-time. I am seriously considering a second playthrough of the remake whenever I'm done with KCD2.

Here is my quick take on the differences between the original and the remake: Nightdive definitely captured the look, feel, and sounds despite the level design differences and creative differences they have. At first, I was pissed that they abandoned the original soundtrack and moved away from the General MIDI sounds. But the new soundtrack grew on me. It definitely is more subtle, but keeps the original flavor, just refines it. Same can be said of the map layouts. In some areas, it seems identical, but in other areas, not. But in all cases, the flavor remains. You are reminded of the same level in the original game.

So I'm hoping you can make it through the DOS version, then make it through the remake. I'd love to hear your thoughts comparing the two.

BTW, I completely agree with your thoughts on the controls of the DOS version. Once you get it down, you feel "one with the machine". 😉

I'll definitely get the remake next time it's on sale! I downloaded the demo today and gave it a shot, and it seems like an interesting take on the game.

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-03-14, 21:41:

If you mean "System Shock: Enhanced Edition" it does not change anything about the levels, etc. But; because the only source code Night Dive could ever acquire was the Apple Macintosh port the code is not 100% identical to the MS-DOS release.

"Shockolate" on GitHub is also based on this same source code release, and the only things I've noticed being off about it is the way the enemies behave and some physics idiosyncrasies. Stupidly enough there's no way to fully reset the controls back to how they were by default. There's no way to bind a key to reset your looking angle. I had to modify the source code myself to gut out all the "mouselook" code and make the function that toggled mouselook instead reset the players "eye".

Not a big fan of the "mouselook" code, System Shock's combat is not designed around that at all. You need to beable to use the mouse cursor to aim weapons around independently of your viewing angle.

Yeah, I meant "Enhanced Edition" (updated my post to clarify). Thanks for the information on the EE! Still, I think I'll play the DOS version, since it's my first time through the game. I'm playing on the default difficulty levels, so if I decide to replay the game on a higher difficulty, then I'll use the EE.

I agree with you about the combat. I tried using mouselook on the EE and really did not like it.

newtmonkey wrote on 2026-03-15, 11:19:

Yeah, I meant "Enhanced Edition" (updated my post to clarify). Thanks for the information on the EE! Still, I think I'll play the DOS version, since it's my first time through the game. I'm playing on the default difficulty levels, so if I decide to replay the game on a higher difficulty, then I'll use the EE.

I agree with you about the combat. I tried using mouselook on the EE and really did not like it.

I'm glad you said that. I thought you were talking about the Remake, not EE. I should've known better, because Remaster and Remake are not the same. 😊

I've never spent much time on the EE. Just wandered around on the opening level to check it out.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Bought this on sale a few weeks ago, and now finally got around to playing it. So far, it's definitively living up to the hype. Love the visuals, music, voice acting and the characters. Best of all, it runs reasonably well on my RTX 3060 12GB despite being an UE5 game. I spent some time tweaking the settings to get a mostly stable 60 FPS at 1080p. Normally, I'd settle for 30 FPS and simply max out the visuals, but this game has a real-time dodge/parry/jump system which feels more responsive at 60+ FPS. To clarify, combat is turn-based, aside from the aforementioned mechanics.

I'm also seeing some similarities with the Souls games, like the limited healing flasks that replenish at rally points, and the fact that enemies have wind up attack animations that you need to observe carefully while dodging. I should probably do some reading on the skills for various characters, but I like that each one seems to have a different combat style. As I'm only a few hours in, I can't really say much more about the game, but it certainly has my full attention.

System Shock
I'm still exploring the first level, but I'm having a blast so far. It's a really huge area, full of secrets and stuff to do. Exploring in this game is such a treat, and it's great how you can leave notes on the excellent automap.

Although I've got a dedicated DOS machine, it struggles to run the game at anything above 320x200, so I've running it on my Windows PC in DOSBOX with music being played through my Roland SC-88 (sounds great!). I recently got a new monitor that supports FreeSync (awesome!), so DOSBOX will run DOS games at the proper 70 Hz now, and it just feels great. If my DOS machine ever dies, I'd be perfectly happy with DOSBOX, I think.

Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
I cleared Act I last week, and have been slowly working my way through Act II. I finally got my characters to level 16, so I got to choose secondary classes for each. I'm really enjoying this one. Combat is quite easy on "Normal" but feels quite satisfying thanks to all the skills you have.

Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour
This version of the game is mostly garbage, but I wanted to replay the game having already played through the original game many times, so I decided to give this version another spin. I found this to be completely unplayable on my previous PC. The game then had some kind of forced vsync and mouse acceleration, which made the game feel absolutely awful to play. I dunno if the game was updated since then, or if it's because I'm playing on a FreeSync monitor, but the game feels great now. The "true 3D" mode combined with the colored lighting and ambient occlusion gives this version a pretty unique look. However, the game for some reason plays the music back only in mono, even though the OGG files the game uses are all in stereo. Totally bizarre.
Anyway, I played through the first couple of stages (on Come Get Some difficulty of course), and had a blast. Duke 3D is such a great game, even in this somewhat degraded form.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
I just noticed that I am approaching 1 year playing this game (351 days). I've put in about 250 hours in that time. This is really a game (for me) that I could keep playing for another several months. It is set up in such a way, with the DLCs, to do so. I now have my own Forge and it is built up and maxed out. I get regular orders and also sell my loot from killing bandits, so there is a continuous stream of income. No shortage of places to explore and it really feels like you're out in the woods when doing so. I even got a Raven in my room that I can teach to talk with positive reinforcement from feeding and petting. My horse Pebbles and dog Mutt are similar. They need "maintenance" through praise and feeding to stay loyal.

But, I'm thinking that come day 365, I should move on. We'll see. Candidates include:
Doom 2016 (I'm about 2/3 through when I stopped playing to start KCD2)
Sniper Elite 5 (I played, beat and thoroughly enjoy SE4)
System Shock Remake (I've beaten it once already)
The End of the Sun (Slavic adventure game that hits home as my ancestry is Russian and I grew up with books with a similar artistic and thematic style)
???

newtmonkey wrote on 2026-03-15, 15:04:

Duke Nukem 3D: World Tour
This version of the game is mostly garbage,

Ever play:

• Duke It Out In D.C.

• Duke: Nuclear Winter

• Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach

what did you think of them?

I enjoyed them in a light weight never to be repeated way

other than that i watched a couple of speedruns of Doom3, RTCW, Quake 4 😀 and i might want to play unreal tournament 2003, always liked that one!

gerry wrote on 2026-03-16, 16:29:

Ever play: […]
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Ever play:

• Duke It Out In D.C.

• Duke: Nuclear Winter

• Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach

what did you think of them?

I enjoyed them in a light weight never to be repeated way

I played around with these a bit back in the day and then again with the Megaton Edition, but never completed any of them. They were cute, but felt like a massive downgrade in quality compared to the excellent levels of main game. I'll have to revisit them again, though of course not in World Tour, since that version doesn't include any of them.

I've gone PC CRAZY

I must say that the combination of DOSBOX Staging with a FreeSync monitor has really made me rethink the need for having a dedicated DOS gaming machine. DOS games just feel great on my modern machine now. I guess the real test would be to play something speed-dependent like the first Wing Commander and see how it fares.

Anyway:

System Shock
I "cleared" the first level, though I'm sure I'll revisit it later. I love this game. It's such a treat figuring out where you need to go, the soundtrack is amazing, and I love how the controls work. It doesn't take very long to get used to sneaking around and taking tough stationary enemies out from cover... but once you get thrown into actual combat you suddenly you forget everything you've learnt and you're fumbling all over the keyboard, panicking, just trying to run away and find a safe space to catch your breath. I have to think this was deliberate; after all, you're not some commando but a hacker with sudden access to cutting-edge technology and weapons.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena
I've tried playing through this one many times over the years, going back to when I got it off the shelf back in the day. I always had trouble getting into it, until my previous attempt on my DOS machine, where it all clicked into place. I decided to restart in DOSBOX on my modern PC; it plays fine on my DOS machine, of course, but I though this would be a nice game to try with DOSBOX Staging and my new FreeSync monitor.
One thing I really like about this game is how you gather information. Instead of the game just pointing you in the right direction, it just gives you a vague hint. You then follow up on that, arrive at the closest town, and start asking around. Most NPCs will just give you vague directions ("I dunno, but I think it's south of here"), so you continue to follow the clues and eventually someone will give you actual directions or mark the location on your map. It's not anything complex, but it's a fun way of pushing you along without straight out putting an objective marker on your map.
The game has an amazing soundtrack, especially played through a Sound Canvas. Most of the tracks have sort of the same melody, but modified for a specific theme. There's a mysterious version, a triumphant version, etc. Good stuff.

badmojo wrote on 2026-03-09, 11:50:

My opinion of DOOM3 has changed over the years and I can appreciate it for what it is now, but on release I was somewhat offended by it. DOOM 1 and 2 were lifestyle choices, where DOOM3 was just another big budget shooter.

I've always thought that F.E.A.R out DOOMed DOOM3.

the cutscenes in fear were ahead of their time.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Additional thoughts after having played some more. I really like the art direction that the devs went for. Some of the places that you get to explore (e.g. the underwater area with the coral reef) look absolutely fantastic, and the creative use of color and lighting accentuates that even further. It's refreshing to see a game that isn't afraid to use the entire color palette, instead of mostly settling for grays and browns as per the usual trends. The music and voice acting continue to impress me as well.

In terms of gameplay, I noticed there isn't a local map of the area that you're currently in. This can be a bit troublesome in larger locations, as it's sometimes difficult to tell where you're supposed to go. Combat is mostly ok, but it does rely quite heavily on those real-time mechanics for dodging and parrying. Since you pretty much need to do that in every battle, it can get a bit exhausting at times (e.g. parrying a 5-hit combo repeatedly). To me, those mechanics in E33 aren't as smooth and intuitive as in more action focused titles, so they don't always feel that great to use. Thing is, since the game is fairly challenging even on the default difficulty setting, you will need to use them constantly in order to survive. So yeah, mixed feelings on the combat system, but I do get that a lot of other people seem to like it.

Anyway, I've reached Act 2, and the plot certainly took some unexpected turns. I can't say much due to spoilers, but in some ways, it reminded me of the classic Final Fantasy games from the mid '90s. It's definitively interesting, and I am curious to see how things will play out.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2026-03-14, 07:46:

Final thoughts: Bloodborne is an amazing game, and I can definitively see why it's the favorite FromSoft title for many people. Personally, I would rank it just slightly below DS3, because the bosses in that game were a bit more to my liking. That said, Bloodborne's combat is really good, the dodging mechanics are superb, and the area design with all the shortcuts is excellent and very reminiscent of DS1. In summary, this game is well deserving of the praise that it gets, and I really enjoyed it.

Been wanting to play this, but sadly no PC port. Really wish they would do a port/remaster.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-03-18, 16:32:

Been wanting to play this, but sadly no PC port. Really wish they would do a port/remaster.

I highly recommend Bloodborne, especially for fans of the Souls games. It's really, really good. Acclimating to some of the gameplay changes may take a while, but once you get in the groove, it just plays great.

Apparently, you can now run it via PS4 emulation at 4K60, as shown in this video. But there are still some graphical glitches that need to be sorted out, so I didn't want to go down that route for my initial playthrough, and just used my trusty old PS4 Pro.

Completed Tomb Raider 2

Pretty mixed feelings about it. I had it back in the day and liked it quite a bit so I have a fair amount of nostalgia for it, and yeah it was nice to see some of those levels again. Especially Barkhang Monastery was still a fun one. But the game has way too much combat, which was certainly a design choice considering combat was the worst aspect of TR1. It also doesn't help the human enemies can be pretty bullet spongy and neither does the games fondness to spawn enemies from thin air at times.

At the same time the levels lost the historical themes TR1 had. I don't think the levels are bad, they still offer the good old classic TR gameplay fun, but the fantastic atmosphere TR1 had got thrown out with the bathwater. Oh well. Easy to imagine the moneybags thinking ways to cash in even more after the runaway success of TR1, more shooting, less history.

Most of the time while playing the game the nostalgic side of me was wrestling with the more and more irritated side of me and at the end the irritated side started to get the upper hand. The constant combat just wore me down. I think this one goes on to the list of used to enjoy but not too much anymore. At least locking the butler in the freezer was still funny, some things don't change.

Going to be interesting to see how I get along with TR3, that was the point I got enough of Tomb Raider back in the day and finished it only once. Can't remember much of anything about it, except disliking the Area 51 levels. I'll still give it a fair chance and go in with an open mind. But first I might revisit Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin

I'm (very slowly) replaying DS2 on the side, this time using the "Scholar of the First Sin" edition. I like the visual upgrades in this version. The improvements to the textures and lighting are already noticeable in the starting area, but become even more apparent in Majula and Heide's Tower. Also, the game seems to be holding a steady 60 FPS on my PS4 Pro, with Boost Mode enabled. Lastly, the controls definitively feel smoother in the console version compared to the PC release. I'm referring to the analog stick deadzone issue which gave me some headaches on PC, but the problem is completely absent on the PS4.

Anyway, Scholar is indeed harder than the original DS2. I'm noticing a lot more enemies in certain areas, and some of the item placement seems to be different too. That said, since I'm quite familiar with the game now, certain things were actually easier for me. For example, I immediately went for the ring which reduces the health penalty upon death to 25%. That made repeated deaths much less of an issue early on. Also, I made sure to put some points into Adaptability right from the start. I still don't like how they tied the dodging mechanics to a stat in this game, but at least I know how to mitigate it better now.

P.S.

I beat the Pursuer on my first try, and without using the ballista on him. Considering how much trouble he gave me during my initial run of OG DS2, it felt immensely satisfying to take him down like that. 😄

Long post coming up...

I've played almost nothing but RPGs for the last 10 years or so, and I need a break. So I decided to play a bunch of FPS games. That's my second favorite genre, and I've always got classics like Doom and Blood installed. Anyway:

AMID EVIL
This is definitely my favorite of the modern "boomer shooters." It's got a really interesting look and feel, and some really excellent sound design (including a great dynamic soundtrack). I played through the separate "ray tracing" level and then restarted the game and got a few levels into it. Playing this game at high FPS with a freesync monitor is really something else, and I love how unique the weapons are.

Avowed
I really liked The Outer Worlds despite its awful dialogue, so I decided to finally get this one since it was on sale. The dialogue is pretty bad in this one, too (why can't modern game writers take anything seriously?), but so far I like this one. Combat feels pretty decent, and I like how you have companions fighting alongside you nearly right from the beginning. It's basically a modern Elder Scrolls game, but takes place in a bunch of a self-contained open maps instead of a single open world. Something is definitely off about the graphics in this game, though; people look like dolls, and environments have this weird unsaturated look that makes it difficult to actually understand what you're looking at in an instant.

Blood: Refreshed Supply
It sucks how much this thing costs (doubly so since you get no discount for owning the previous remaster). It also sucks that the developers were going on and on about getting access to the original source code, but instead of making a 100% accurate port from scratch, just took the previous remake and made some adjustments in reference to the source code. Whatever, I absolutely love Blood and this version plays a lot closer to the original than the last remaster. It also includes a couple of excellent fan-made expansions, and even a bunch of alpha and beta levels to play through. It's what the previous remaster should have been.

DOOM (2016)
This has been sitting in my library for many years, but I never liked it much. Until now. It's pretty good. During my previous attempt, it annoyed me that it didn't really play much like classic DOOM, so I thought I'd just blast through it as fast as possible. If you do that, you will not appreciate this. This time, I've been embracing the glory kill system and taking my time exploring, and now I really appreciate what this game is doing. The combat arenas are a total blast, and it's also a lot of fun to seek out armor and weapon upgrades.

System Shock
I've been slowly exploring the second level, Engineering. It's definitely much tougher than the first level, and it just reinforces how this game is less a shooter and more a stealth or survival horror game. I've got to mention this game's dynamic soundtrack. It's not as good as the best iMUSE stuff, but it's pretty good. The melody and instrumentation change based on the particular subarea of the level, but unfortunately do not change based on your current situation (combat vs. exploring for instance). Still, it's nice and sounds awesome on a Sound Canvas.

---

Unrelated to actually playing games, I've been reading through scans of PC Gamer magazine, which was my magazine of choice back in the day. I've been reading every issue I can find, cover to cover, from the very start... and that includes the previous incarnation of the mag, PC Entertainment (which was great). I'm happy to say that the magazine has really held up. Even their previews are a lot of fun to read, and the reviews are excellent. You can tell that these writers actually played the games extensively, and could tell a good one from a bad one.

The absolutely best thing about this mag, though, is the columns, where you'd have a columnist writing about his or her area or genre of interest. This includes the legendary William Trotter, who was an expert in wargames and history in general, with a career going back to the multiformat Game Player's magazine in the 80s. This guy knew what he was writing about, and made wargames sound absolutely fascinating even to me, a guy who has zero interest in that genre. His articles were also often tiny history lessons.

One thing this mag was always weak on was RPGs, and this went back to PC Entertainment. None of their dedicated RPG columnists seemed to even like the genre, and instead wanted to play action games with RPG elements and, eventually, MMORPGs.

newtmonkey wrote on Today, 17:09:

DOOM (2016)
This has been sitting in my library for many years, but I never liked it much. Until now. It's pretty good. During my previous attempt, it annoyed me that it didn't really play much like classic DOOM, so I thought I'd just blast through it as fast as possible. If you do that, you will not appreciate this. This time, I've been embracing the glory kill system and taking my time exploring, and now I really appreciate what this game is doing. The combat arenas are a total blast, and it's also a lot of fun to seek out armor and weapon upgrades.

Oh, absolutely. Not only the glory kill (and chainsaw) mechanics are crucial for replenishing your health/ammo, they are pure fun to watch. 😁 Also, I've realized that use of power-ups can make or break certain arenas. Typically you want to save the power-up till the middle of the fight, when the tough monsters teleport in.

In the end the arena approach makes for a very clear split between exploration and combat. The number of monsters appearing outside of arenas is not zero, but quite low. Some like it, some don't. I embrace the change of pace.