Shagittarius wrote on 2024-07-05, 14:49:

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2024-07-05, 05:47:

clueless1 wrote on 2024-07-04, 15:15:

Now that I finished Might and Magic III, I'm deciding on my next game. Right now I'm considering: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 Doom […]
Show full quote

Now that I finished Might and Magic III, I'm deciding on my next game. Right now I'm considering:
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3
Doom 2016
Control
Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Prey 2017
Bioshock Infinite

Here's my final write-up of MM3:
Re: List the PC games that you have beaten

The objective best among those is Doom 2016, but knowing your tastes and inclinations you will probably like Stalker best.

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game:

1 - Prey 2017
2 - Doom 2016
3 - Control
4 - Bioshock Infinite
5 - Stroker: Call of Priapism
6 - Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Personally I don't even like the last 2 on that list, but to some that might be an indication that it could be their favorite...

Here is how GameFaqs ranks them:
1. Prey 2017 (82.8/100)
2. Bioshock Infinite (82.2/100)
3. Doom 2016 (82.2/100) (Bioshock wins the tie-breaker by having more votes than Doom)
4. Stalker: Call of Pripyat (80/100)
5. Control (76.2/100)
6. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 (65/100)

Sniper has been panned in several reviews I've seen, but I loved Sniper: Elite 4, and I like the stealth/sniping genre in general, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it more than most.

clueless1 wrote on 2024-07-05, 15:47:

1. Prey 2017 (82.8/100)

One of my all time favorite sci-fi games. Still working through it, slowly, when I find time. I think I read somewhere that the devs didn't want to have the Prey name associated with it. Something like that. Either way, it's right up there with the System Shock series imo.

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-07-05, 14:49:

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2024-07-05, 05:47:

clueless1 wrote on 2024-07-04, 15:15:

Now that I finished Might and Magic III, I'm deciding on my next game. Right now I'm considering: Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 Doom […]
Show full quote

Now that I finished Might and Magic III, I'm deciding on my next game. Right now I'm considering:
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3
Doom 2016
Control
Stalker: Call of Pripyat
Prey 2017
Bioshock Infinite

Here's my final write-up of MM3:
Re: List the PC games that you have beaten

The objective best among those is Doom 2016, but knowing your tastes and inclinations you will probably like Stalker best.

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game:

1 - Prey 2017
2 - Doom 2016
3 - Control
4 - Bioshock Infinite
5 - Stroker: Call of Priapism
6 - Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Personally I don't even like the last 2 on that list, but to some that might be an indication that it could be their favorite...

Stroker sounds like a fun game...

clueless1 wrote on 2024-07-05, 15:47:

Here is how GameFaqs ranks them: 1. Prey 2017 (82.8/100) 2. Bioshock Infinite (82.2/100) 3. Doom 2016 (82.2/100) (Bioshock wins […]
Show full quote

Here is how GameFaqs ranks them:
1. Prey 2017 (82.8/100)
2. Bioshock Infinite (82.2/100)
3. Doom 2016 (82.2/100) (Bioshock wins the tie-breaker by having more votes than Doom)
4. Stalker: Call of Pripyat (80/100)
5. Control (76.2/100)
6. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 (65/100)

I would check Metacritic and their user scores as well. That said, of all the aforementioned titles, I've only played Doom (2016) and BioShock Infinite. Both are very good games, but for different reasons.

I can also recommend the original Prey (2006) especially if you have an EAX 5.0 capable sound card.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-07-06, 09:36:

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-07-05, 14:49:

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game: […]
Show full quote

appiah4 wrote on 2024-07-05, 05:47:

The objective best among those is Doom 2016, but knowing your tastes and inclinations you will probably like Stalker best.

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game:

1 - Prey 2017
2 - Doom 2016
3 - Control
4 - Bioshock Infinite
5 - Stroker: Call of Priapism
6 - Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Personally I don't even like the last 2 on that list, but to some that might be an indication that it could be their favorite...

Stroker sounds like a fun game...

Except it causes priapism. Could be fun for the first hour, but you might need to go to the ER afterwards. Worse yet, it would be a bit embarrassing having to admit that you were playing singleplayer the whole time, not even CO-OP.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-06-18, 16:41:

Lastly, I also played through the No Rest for the Living expansion for Doom 2. From my experience, its levels were perfectly balanced for UV, providing just enough ammo to dish out some serious pain to the extra enemies, while still keeping the game very challenging and fun. Honestly, I liked the expansion content more than certain levels from the original Doom 2 campaign. The maps are filled with tough (but fair) combat encounters, interesting secrets and cool visuals. Most importantly, they don't use any silly gimmicks that the base Doom 2 campaign was (in)famous for.

Finished this just now, and thank you for your summary which encouraged me to play it. I loved it. Out of laziness, I chose to play it through in continuous play, so I didn't get to experience the perfect ammo balance, but I do feel like trying the secret level on UV from pistol start.

The level design is great. Layouts are clear and memorable, and you are not likely to get lost wandering aimlessly. What I loved best was the approach to secrets - they are quite logical. Often you can deduce them from the level layout. Having an automap in every level that you can see, but have to figure out how to get is a nice touch - find it, and secret-hunting becomes easier. I think that only one level (I think #6) had me stumped in a hard way, that I actually found the automap secret last.

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-07-05, 14:49:

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game: […]
Show full quote

Now I think we should rank these, and these are my objective ratings, though there's no such thing as an objective best game:

1 - Prey 2017
2 - Doom 2016
3 - Control

Having only played these three titles, I'd put them in that order.

Prey is the most interesting title in terms of gameplay and setting.

Doom 2016 is okay. It's a well done shooter, but in the end that's all it really is.

Control has great atmosphere and some good action set pieces. But the writing was just bad and the end game was anti-climatic. Feels like a game that had a lot of potential but couldn't quite bring it together.

Retro Games
played and finished without cheats 😁 blood, quake 1
Now quake2 and doom2

Actual games
CoD warzone, bodycam,assetto corsa

Just started playing Elden Ring after picking it up in the summer Steam sale.

Really liking it so far. World is beautiful and expansive, lots to explore and do. I have some Souls-like experience having completed multiple playthroughs of DS: Remastered, so the core game mechanics are familiar.

That said, Elden Ring is kicking my ass at times and I'm still getting used to everything. I like that if I do hit a roadblock, there is often somewhere else to explore, level up and acquire more loot. At no point has anything felt like a chore.

BaldrSky. It's good, really really damn good. If you have never played a game of this genre before, it's the perfect gateway drug to get you hooked.

I finally sacked up and beat the final Orc mission in Warcraft II. I don't know why, I was just loathe to go through the motions of it. Once I finally booted the game up and got started, I actually kind of loved it. For once I was given enough resources out the gate to just turtle up, build a massive fleet of dragons, and then sweep the map. Good times.

I think I may start the Human campaign next, though I am not excited about being on the other side of bloodlusted ogres. Still, the AI seems prone to only ever throwing a few guys at you at a time, so it'll probably be fine.

dr_st wrote on 2024-07-06, 22:10:

Finished this just now, and thank you for your summary which encouraged me to play it. I loved it.

Glad you enjoyed it! I've said this before, but No Rest For the Living ended up being my favorite part of Doom 3 BFG Edition. 😀 IMO, it's worth buying that version of game (on a discount) just to get this excellent Doom 2 expansion as a bundle.

What I loved best was the approach to secrets - they are quite logical. Often you can deduce them from the level layout. Having an automap in every level that you can see, but have to figure out how to get is a nice touch - find it, and secret-hunting becomes easier.

Yeah, I really liked how the secrets were handled as well. They are usually clearly visible to the player, signaling that there is a way to get to them, but figuring out how was the fun part.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-07-06, 22:58:

Control has great atmosphere and some good action set pieces. But the writing was just bad and the end game was anti-climatic. Feels like a game that had a lot of potential but couldn't quite bring it together.

I've been playing for a couple of hours now. It's cool and interesting and reminds me a bit of X-Files, but so much of it is so confusing. Hopefully it starts to make more sense as I go along.

I'm not a fan of the save points. Already a couple of times when I restarted the game, I had to replay sections because the save points were too far apart. Today I started ESCing to the menu, and alt-tabbing to the desktop to avoid such silliness. And when the save icon pops up, it's so brief that I'm not sure I actually saw it. Do I dare quit? Or force myself to keep playing til I know for sure I saw the save icon?

Continuing to play Baldur's Gate 2 Enhanced Edition. Downloaded a mod to automate buffing, when you get further into the game it takes a few minutes to fully buff, something I always found tedious.

My shadow dancer/wizard is becoming seriously overpowered. I could probably solo the game by now but I like having companions. I'm starting to realize I don't like to be neutral good, I feel the wrath of bhaal growing my evil side. 😈

Well, I did saddle up with the Human campaign in WarCraft II. It's going well. They always start off super easy. But a thing happened that threatens to distract me pretty hard.

While my wife was catching up with a friend conveniently located at a pit stop on the way back from a family vacation, I took the kid into a used games store conveniently located next door. It had a sizeable retro section going all the way back to the NES. And wouldn't you know it, I'd been planning for years on getting a NES to play the 2 boxes of NES games I rescued from my parents circa 2009 or so without the console. So while my wife was sipping coffee and catching up, I allowed myself to be talked into getting a RetroN 1 HD. Which is a knockoff Nintendo on a Chip system with a composite to HDMI chip added on, but it does still output composite. Then earlier this week I finally found a halfway decent 20" CRT TV for a reasonable price to hook it up to.

So, the thing about the RetronN 1 HD if you google it, is that the image is blurry and the colors and music are off. It also has terrible input lag. However, if you research deeper, most, if not all of these issues are from the HDMI scaler bolted onto the NoaC. If you play it over composite, which I am, it's almost as good as a real NES minus some compatibility issues with about a dozen games. None of which I had aspired to play, except maybe for Paperboy.

Anyways, I've been sitting on the floor in front of it in the evenings, in a corner of my home office, playing the same Super Mario Brothers/Duck Hunt cart my Grandmother got me almost 35 years ago now. The feelings it brings back are profound and powerful, although my old man bones aching from sitting on the floor break the spell to a certain degree. I'm rather anxious for my kid to get old enough to experience them for the first time just the same way I did.

Can totally relate to the "playing more with hardware than with games", even with consoles heh 😁

Currently though? At the end of becoming a train driver, there isn't much time for fun. Gf recently got very hooked to MS Hearts on Windows 9x, and loves a good LAN on the Thunderbird. Got her introduced to Diablo II as well, but that's put on ice until the lockup is sorted and at least one other stable PC can brought into action.

We have our periods, though. I was an addict to GW2 until last year, to the level I lost control over my life. Ate up pretty much all my 20's. Luckily got banned after 9 years and finally explored there are other dimensions to life (and games). Some titles we nowadays rotate are Sonic Spinball, Mario 64, C-Dogs and WiniGolf. Virtual Pool 64 was almost a religious ceremony to party up with and play every weekend as I worked in another city for a full year.

Modern games? Car Mechanic Simulator and TrackMania. 😜

I have finally finished Act I of Baldur's Gate III and honestly, I am not impressed. The main storyline starts out with super high stakes and slowly devolves into a nuisance you are occasionally reminded of in-between basically boning every NPC in the party and 'filler' content that (as far as I can tell) determines who lives and who dies in the following acts.

I am also very let down by the NPCs, and I can honestly not see the quality writing this game was praised for, at least so far. The dialogue is mostly fine, and feels natural - that is not my complaint. But every character that joins your party is a contrived special snowflake that was basically written to break tropes, and in doing so they all end up annoyingly caricaturized and 2 dimensional by leaning too hard that way.

I will probably end up finishing this game but I have played better RPGs in the last 10 years (Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity II come to mind), and fail to see why this one got the attention it has, other than that it rode on the spectacular popularity of D&D5E.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-07-11, 06:07:

I have finally finished Act I of Baldur's Gate III and honestly, I am not impressed. The main storyline starts out with super high stakes and slowly devolves into a nuisance you are occasionally reminded of in-between basically boning every NPC in the party and 'filler' content that (as far as I can tell) determines who lives and who dies in the following acts.

I am also very let down by the NPCs, and I can honestly not see the quality writing this game was praised for, at least so far. The dialogue is mostly fine, and feels natural - that is not my complaint. But every character that joins your party is a contrived special snowflake that was basically written to break tropes, and in doing so they all end up annoyingly caricaturized and 2 dimensional by leaning too hard that way.

I will probably end up finishing this game but I have played better RPGs in the last 10 years (Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity II come to mind), and fail to see why this one got the attention it has, other than that it rode on the spectacular popularity of D&D5E.

I just fell off this game, I think due to the lack of focus. I think I just got tired of wandering around doing random tasks. I'm not much of a fan of that modern game design. Glad I'm not the only one.

At a guess, many people picked up Baldur's Gate 3 due to their fondness/nostalgia for the first two games. I still didn't play it, and it's unlikely that I will any time soon.

When I started looking into BG3, for every good thing that I heard about that game, I also discovered three more that turned me off. Might grab it eventually, once it's heavily discounted, but I'm certainly in no rush. Doesn't help that I'm not a fan of any D&D edition after 3.5. The Pathfinder rule set is cool though.

Started to replay Half Life 2 recently.
Could swear I've never played most of the game (although I have, I know it!), because most places and scenes didn't trigger any neural responses.
So, either I'm just getting old or the game wasn't that remarkable back then.
Considering many annoying situations, the overall gameplay and at times boring and artificially lenghtened leveldesign I'd tend to choose the latter option. Or is it just older me?
Sure it got many (for its time) fresh ideas of interacting with the environment but compared to the original Half Life I'd rate it well below that.

Other than that played through the original Doom (played via gzdoom for the sake of reducing eye-illness), Quake 2 & Unreal (both on "original" hardware aka V2-SLI), and some more.
Seems I'm in a phase of replaying all those old titles of childhood rather than exploring new stuff.