I beat Deus Ex again, but this time it's the Playstation 2 version, and on Realistic difficulty

- No coronas nor detail textures
- Overbrights and the lightmap looks shifted up so it's generally brighter. The only dark place are the catacombs and the blown up osgoods. There is a dither table used and you will love it
- A lot of texture detail was dinged down a notch for texture cache's sake, but also some areas were broken up a bit (i.e. the new gate at the dock) to prevent overdraw. Most big maps are split into 2 or 3, with some elbow hallways for loading zones
- Characters are higher poly smoother (skeletal rework) but their lipsync is simplified to just one frame of interpolated mouth open. Their polygonal teeth go unused (revealed in holograms)
- Supports keyboard & mouse but the binds are weird.
- The Image vault sorting seems broken, if you collect Walton Simons' image you will be jumpscared by a naked walton simons every time
- Music changes - while most songs get monofied (memory reasons), a couple songs have some broken string pads (Hell's Kitchen) and the Underworld bar music seem to be original pre-tracked mixes. Lucky Money and Paris bars did get completely changed though
- the fun glitch of tranq'ing a mech before their fight conversation to avoid a fight is sadly fixed
- Still typos. "Cypto", "HANGER", "MISSLE SILO"

Just picked up Dragon Quest 1 & 2 Remastered. Loved the originals on the NES (Dragon Warrior), they were two of my favorite RPG games of the time, so I decided to give this remaster a try. So far, It's a lot of fun. Very well done! The music and sound have been amazingly remastered, and you can see elements of the old world locations and map inn this new 3D, and much more detailed, world. It's kinda cool.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2893570/DR … II_HD2D_Remake/

StriderTR wrote on 2026-07-06, 15:11:

Just picked up Dragon Quest 1 & 2 Remastered. Loved the originals on the NES (Dragon Warrior), they were two of my favorite RPG games of the time, so I decided to give this remaster a try. So far, It's a lot of fun. Very well done! The music and sound have been amazingly remastered, and you can see elements of the old world locations and map inn this new 3D, and much more detailed, world. It's kinda cool.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2893570/DR … II_HD2D_Remake/

Wow! I loved Dragon Warrior on the NES. Somehow lost the cartridge, then sold the NES.

I don't own a PC strong enough to run Dragon Quest 1 & 2 Remastered, according to the Steam page. What are you running it on?

Barley wrote on 2026-07-06, 18:42:

Wow! I loved Dragon Warrior on the NES. Somehow lost the cartridge, then sold the NES.

I don't own a PC strong enough to run Dragon Quest 1 & 2 Remastered, according to the Steam page. What are you running it on?

Win 10
Ryzen 5 5600X
32GB DDR4 3200
Radeon 6600

Nothing too terribly special, but it does what I want.

Pretty sure it's on all the modern consoles too.

I'm 6 hours in and I just saved the princess. Time to hunt down what I need to take out the Dragon Lord! 😜

Im playing Tomb Raider 1 on my Pentium 1. I beat it way back in the day so I want to beat this game along with all the others up to Last Revelation

leileilol wrote on 2026-07-06, 01:00:

- Still typos. "Cypto", "HANGER", "MISSLE SILO"

in a way i like that! its part of the experience 😀

leileilol wrote on 2026-07-06, 01:00:

- the fun glitch of tranq'ing a mech before their fight conversation to avoid a fight is sadly fixed

Wait, what? You can avoid them turning hostile somehow in the PC release?

Well, after about 12 hours, I competed Dragon Quest 1! It was a great deal of fun and it definitely took me back to 1989. It's a beautifully done remix!

Now that the Dragonlord has been defeated, and can now be reborn to the light, it's time to take on the evil that corrupted the dragon to begin with! On to Dragon Quest II! 😜

StriderTR wrote on 2026-07-10, 15:50:

Well, after about 12 hours, I competed Dragon Quest 1! It was a great deal of fun and it definitely took me back to 1989. It's a beautifully done remix!

Now that the Dragonlord has been defeated, and can now be reborn to the light, it's time to take on the evil that corrupted the dragon to begin with! On to Dragon Quest II! 😜

cool 2d sprites in a 3d environment. If only I shared your optimism and find something to take me back to 1999

DracoNihil wrote on 2026-07-10, 08:14:

leileilol wrote on 2026-07-06, 01:00:

- the fun glitch of tranq'ing a mech before their fight conversation to avoid a fight is sadly fixed

Wait, what? You can avoid them turning hostile somehow in the PC release?

Yeah....up to the point you can either leave them (simons) or obligated to give a nano-whack to the face (hermann) they'll just not attack anymore if you get one dart in immediately before they speak.

newtmonkey wrote on 2026-06-20, 16:07:

The Outer Worlds I finished this last year and mostly liked it, though I found the writing to be really awful. I didn't have th […]
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The Outer Worlds
I finished this last year and mostly liked it, though I found the writing to be really awful. I didn't have the DLC then, but got it for cheap during the Steam winter sale, so I decided to play through it this month. Overall, I liked it.

The first DLC, Peril on Gorgon, takes place in one small area but is pretty fun. The second one, Murder on Eridanos, takes place in a hub world that's roughly the same size as the hubs in the base game. I really liked the second DLC, since It takes place in a unique area that's visually interesting, and gives you an "environment scanner" that is basically a high-tech magnifying glass. It's fun to follow the clues, and the DLC even allows you to make a major choice at the end.

After completing both DLC campaigns, I went and finished the game (again). It was definitely much easier, since I was at a much higher level, but that's fine. It's basically a reward for finishing the DLC, though I'm glad that I decided to play through the base game without the DLC the first time through.

I liked the game, in spite of the terrible writing, but I don't think I'd ever replay it. The game does have a lot of character build variety, factions, and multiple solutions to quests... but due to how the game is designed, you really aren't locked out of content based on your build. I think the only real difference you'd experience on a replay would be to choose difference factions, but I also think that the game isn't bold enough to really lock you out of much of anything worthwhile for choosing once faction over another (I might be wrong).

I played this back in 2020 + the DLC you mentioned. I very seldom play games these days, and when I do they tend to be vintage/DOS era, so for me, something about this one must have grabbed me but I can't remember what.

I agree with most of your points; although it does have a little replay value as the plot decisions you make directly affect the ending sequence you get. It's not quite as railroaded as you might think, although you're basically right in saying it doesn't really lock you out of anything too major.

For what it's worth though, I never really had much interesting in replaying it either, and looking at the sequel on YouTube, I doubt I'll bother with it at all.

I finally installed ShadPS4 to see if my main PC could run Bloodborne at 1080p with a stable 60 FPS. And most of the time, it can! Kudos to the people working on this emulator, it's amazing how much progress has been made in such a short amount of time. Having completed the game on a real PS4 earlier this year, I can say that going from 30 to 60 FPS feels incredible!

There are still some issues of course, such as having to download a mod to fix the "vertex explosions" which are basically random on-screen artifacts. This disables character customization, but it's a small price to pay for the 60 FPS experience. There's also some stuttering here and there, but that can (mostly) be resolved by enabling "Shader Cache" under ShadPS4's experimental features. Lastly, the emulator fully supports my DualSense controller, so even the touchpad works as expected. I actually just wanted to do a quick performance test, but I ended up playing Bloodborne for like two hours. 😁 Yeah, it's still an awesome game.

leileilol wrote on 2026-07-11, 04:44:

if you get one dart in immediately before they speak.

I take it this is some very tight timing you need to shoot the mini-crossbow before the convo triggers?

Did some more testing on Bloodborne via ShadPS4. On my system (Ryzen 7 5700X + RTX 3060) I get the smoothest frametime graph when disabling the emulator's V-Sync and using the one from Nvidia's driver panel, alongside the 60 FPS limit. This results in slightly higher input latency, but the presentation is more consistent, which is what I personally prefer.

Also, several fan-made patches can be downloaded and applied straight from ShadPS4. Among other things, these can disable Chromatic Aberration, Motion Blur and Depth of Field. This is much appreciated, as those effects were used a bit excessively in the retail version of the game, at least for my taste. There are also mods which revamp the shading and such, but I didn't experiment with those at this time. Lastly, I noticed a small physics glitch: The Doll bows twice when you perform the "salutation" gesture. This only happens when the game is running above its native 30 FPS cap.

Bloodborne

This game is such a joy to play at 60 FPS. It boggles the mind that Sony never officially implemented that functionality for PS5 users, while modders managed to do it with one tiny tweak. Dodging feels even smoother now, if that's even possible. And parrying became slightly easier, since the controls are more responsive.

As this is my second time with Bloodborne, I decided to solo all the bosses (i.e. by not using any summoned NPCs). Also, I'm sticking with the starting Saw Cleaver weapon for the majority of this run, so my Hunter is now a perfect match for the game's cover art. Anyway, I just beat Vicar Amelia and Darkbeast Paarl. Both of them were actually easier this time, due to having less health since I didn't have any summons with me. Also, the Saw Cleaver deals extra damage vs. beasts, which might have helped too. So far, I'm really having fun with this replay! Lastly, I now have a physical copy of Bloodborne as well. It will take a place of honor in my PS4 game collection. 😄

The Gothic Remake has been a really pleasant surprise and although my plan was to wait for some more patches to iron out the bugs - it is buggy - I've instead found myself 10 hours into it. The voice acting (I'm playing in English) is excellent, with a really odd mix of accents that works well in a prison colony. I'd expected them to cast a swinging dick action hero voice actor for the main character but he's softly spoken and humble, just like the original English nameless hero, so that's much appreciated. The dialog is great too - sometimes funny, more often dark, but rarely cringy.

It looks brilliant too I think - performance is a bit crap but it is UE5, and the devs got a bit carried away so there's way too much happening on the screen - to the point it was making it hard for me to play. There's wind trails and endless flying debris and tree roots and puddles and wagon tracks, etc. There's already a mod for turning off the wind trails and mods will come for the rest I'm sure. The best thing I've found is turning off the grass, which was everywhere and meant that a lot of the collectible plants and mushrooms were hidden.

Combat is a challenge but pretty fun, and exploration is great too, as it should be because that's a major highlight in the original games. I think the original rewards you more for exploring but the Remake looks so lovely that it's always nice to wander off the path and poke around. That often ends in instant death early on though of course, that's just Gothic.

The devs have put a huge amount of effort into making it feel like living world, which again is a highlight of the originals. NPCs run from the rain and go about their business during the day. Animals drink from ponds and sit down to rest, and fight each other.

The remake adds new ideas like a climbing skill and riding animals, etc - I could do without this stuff but it hasn't reduced my enjoyment. Mostly I just find myself playing it like I would the original Gothic - same habits and order of doing things. They've really captured the magic I think.

There are annoyances of course - lockpicking is pretty crap, you can't put a lit torch away, etc. But the fundamentals are all solid and modders will fix the rest.

Bring on Gothic 2 Remake.

Getting close to the end. Pretty much finished all quests other than the main quest line. Today and yesterday I finished the Devourer quest getting a neat end-game heavy armor for The Red Prince, and if I was already there got him a neat end-game wife too with dragon kids he can summon in battle. As well as dealt with Loshe's tenant.

I encountered a bug where the game stopped giving me quest rewards. It acknowledged that I finished the quest, but the window didn't pop up to pick the reward. I had to reload an earlier save, lost some 2 hours and a very nice one-handed sword I found as random loot on a boss. This late in the game It's really rare to find something either out in the wild or as a quest reward that's worth replacing my current equipment with. I'm half-way to level 21 and half my stuff is still level 18 or older because they have so good stat boost effects on them or give useful skills that I lose more on those than what I gain buy equipping level 20 gear with higher base stats.

Bloodborne

Still on my second playthrough, and I have to emphasize just how good the combat feels, especially with the game running at 60 FPS. Performing dodges, parries and visceral attacks becomes extremely satisfying once you get accustomed to the relevant mechanics. In particular, it feels great to skillfully dance around huge opponents (or bosses), stagger them and then get a massive critical hit. The way this is animated looks spectacular too.

Also, I like how hitting enemies immediately after taking damage heals you, as it encourages a more aggressive play style. This "rally system" works great for regaining health, and it makes Bloodborne distinct from the Souls games. That said, the increased combat speed might not be to everyone's taste. For me personally, it's not a big deal since your character moves faster too, even compared to Dark Souls 3. As long as you're observant, you can pretty much dodge/sidestep everything, and make it look cool as a bonus.

Anyway, the more time I spend with this game, the more I understand why many people say it's the best FromSoft title. Bloodborne just plays so smoothly. It's like the devs fine-tuned every little detail to provide the optimal combat experience. And while I'm not the biggest fan of Lovecraftian horror, I have to admit that the dark and oppressive atmosphere works really well here. Pair that with excellent level design, superb combat and an incredible soundtrack, and you have a truly amazing game.

I've burnt out on RPGs, so I've been playing mostly fighting games:

Mortal Kombat 1
I finally finished the tutorial (it's massive). I gave up in frustration a while back at the "flawless block" tutorial, but I decided on a whim to switch from an Xbox controller to a Dual Shock 4 and was able to get through the rest of the tutorial without any problem at all. What a difference. I played around with the character combo challenges, but they become extremely frustrating very quickly. Your timing needs to be almost frame specific; it's ridiculously hard in training, and I cannot imagine pulling this stuff off in the offline game in the middle of a hectic fight.

I do appreciate that this game is trying to be a competitive, deep fighter, but I don't think Mortal Kombat benefits from it. The way you input special moves simply doesn't work well with the combo-heavy focus focus of the game. It's basically a 2D fighting game but it has chain combos like Tekken, which feels awful.

There are a bunch of other issues with the game. The graphic fidelity is so great that the characters blend into the backgrounds, making it difficult to focus on the actual fighting. The game is also heavily focused on the "kameo" system, where you select a partner you can bring out to interrupt your opponent. This is mapped to the left trigger button, and feels awful to use... especially since you're supposed to use the kameo characters in the middle of combos.

The way you unlock stuff sucks. You just spend coins you earn in various modes on what is basically a slot machine. The recent MK games have all had great "Krypt" modes to unlock stuff, so this feels like a slap in the face. You have no control over anything.

SoulCalibur VI
I've had this sitting in my Steam library forever, but never gave it much of a chance. I played the Story mode a bit, and it seems like dumb garbage. Yes, I could probably increase the story-mode difficulty, but is it too much to ask to have the game be an actual contest on normal? Enemies just stand around doing nothing. I guess it's set at a difficulty level for professional game reviewers.

It looks good, and it's fun to play. My biggest problem with this series, from the very beginning, is that it just feels like Tekken with weapons. I've done actual martial arts for many years, and that includes traditional Japanese sword arts. Juggling your opponent with punches and kicks in Tekken or whatever looks silly but I can suspend my sense of disbelief. But when a guy is juggling a guy with a sword, it just seems ridiculous to me.

newtmonkey wrote on 2026-07-20, 17:20:

Mortal Kombat 1
I finally finished the tutorial (it's massive). I gave up in frustration a while back at the "flawless block" tutorial, but I decided on a whim to switch from an Xbox controller to a Dual Shock 4 and was able to get through the rest of the tutorial without any problem at all. What a difference.

Mortal Kombat games have traditionally been designed around a fight stick, not a gamepad, and lots of directional tapping. Thus they are frequently better to play with a keyboard versus a controller. Not sure if it still is the case in this game.

newtmonkey wrote on 2026-07-20, 17:20:

I do appreciate that this game is trying to be a competitive, deep fighter, but I don't think Mortal Kombat benefits from it. The way you input special moves simply doesn't work well with the combo-heavy focus focus of the game. It's basically a 2D fighting game but it has chain combos like Tekken, which feels awful.

There are a bunch of other issues with the game. The graphic fidelity is so great that the characters blend into the backgrounds, making it difficult to focus on the actual fighting. The game is also heavily focused on the "kameo" system, where you select a partner you can bring out to interrupt your opponent. This is mapped to the left trigger button, and feels awful to use... especially since you're supposed to use the kameo characters in the middle of combos.

How are these aspects (special move input, kameos) compared to earlier MK games since MK9? MK9 also has the various 'tag' modes and chain combos, but maybe the implementation is different?