Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-29, 16:31:

It's a complete reboot of the series, and I have never played it. From what I gather, "crime against humanity" would be the most fitting description.

Alrighty then!

Only two levels use table fog, but the effect is quite pronounced. Also, one of those two (Life of the Party) is the best level in the game, and probably the entire Thief series. If your rig with the X700 card is dual booting Win98SE and WinXP, I suggest playing it on the latter using Catalyst 7.11. That will give you 100% accurate table fog emulation. The Win9x registry tweak applied to Catalyst 6.2 can work, but it's imperfect, and doesn't look entirely accurate.

I've only done some cursory tests on this, but it didn't seem like Thief 2 lost any EAX functionality when WDM drivers were used. Occlusion and reverb both worked fine. So I do recommend playing it under WinXP when using a Radeon card compatible with Catalyst 7.11 (R300 and above).

Gotcha, thank you for the exhaustive answer! WinXP with Cat 7.11 it is then. I've had that system dual booting since I built it, don't even need to swap drivers.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-01-29, 16:54:

WinXP with Cat 7.11 it is then. I've had that system dual booting since I built it, don't even need to swap drivers.

One more thing: Thief 2 will crash on a dual core CPU under WinXP. You can circumvent this by setting affinity to a single core via Task Manager, or by disabling the second core in the BIOS, if the motherboard allows it. Of course, there are other ways to do this, as described here on the PC Gaming Wiki.

Also, in case it wasn't clear from my previous post, table fog emulation is enabled by default in Catalyst 7.11. So there's no need to apply the registry tweak with that driver version.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-30, 04:11:

One more thing: Thief 2 will crash on a dual core CPU under WinXP. You can circumvent this by setting affinity to a single core via Task Manager, or by disabling the second core in the BIOS, if the motherboard allows it. Of course, there are other ways to do this, as described here on the PC Gaming Wiki.

Also, in case it wasn't clear from my previous post, table fog emulation is enabled by default in Catalyst 7.11. So there's no need to apply the registry tweak with that driver version.

Alright, thanks again. The system houses C2D E8600 and limiting cpu cores to one is pretty much the first thing I try with older games when there's trouble, but saves me from that dance. I use RunFirst for that, I find it the most convenient way. Used to use imagecfg back in the day but RunFirst is better, doesn't modify the .exe like imagecfg.

And yeah, I am aware Cat 7.11 doesn't need the reg tweak.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-30, 04:11:

One more thing: Thief 2 will crash on a dual core CPU under WinXP.

Really, that bad? And I just paid $0.97 to buy it on GOG a week ago!

dr_st wrote on 2025-01-30, 13:22:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-01-30, 04:11:

One more thing: Thief 2 will crash on a dual core CPU under WinXP.

Really, that bad? And I just paid $0.97 to buy it on GOG a week ago!

The GOG version comes with some fan made fixes pre-installed, so I think it should work fine even on modern systems.

Path of Exile
I've been playing this game since it first came out, but always got bored with it after a few acts. It's an online-only game, and I would normally not even touch it for that reason, but it's legitimately free to play, and the developers make money through purchases for cosmetic stuff, or stuff like more inventory pages or more character slots.

The developers are now focused on making the sequel, and recently announced that they would stop developing new content for the game, so I decided that now is the time to finally complete this game.

It feels like a very different game compared to what I played years ago, with a much harder start. I tried out a few classes, and felt like I was struggling no matter what I did. I found the melee classes to be extremely frustrating, as they have crazy windups before attacking; it seemed like every time you tried to engage with an enemy, you would get hit several times before you finally landed your first blow.

I decided then to restart as a spellcaster (Witch), and it's a whole different story. Not only can you attack basically for free from range, there's no windup. It seems backwards.

Putting that all aside, I've been having a good time playing the game. I happened upon a nice ice spell early on, so I decided to go full ice witch. It's the kind of fun build stuff I expect from a Diablo II clone, but that was sadly missing from the last game in the subgenre I finished, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor.

All this talk about Thief made me want to revisit the series, so I decided to install Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. I last played this several years ago, but it wasn't on a system that could fully max it out in terms of visuals and audio. This time, I'm using my overpowered i5 + GTX 970 WinXP rig with an X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty sound card. That way, I can play Thief 3 at 1600x1200 with 8xSGSSAA and 16xAF forced via Nvidia Profile Inspector (the former needs compatibility flag 0x00000041). Even with all that, I still get a locked 60 FPS, and GPU utilization remains around 40-50% most of the time, briefly spiking to 86% during the most demanding scenes with lots of transparency effects. This is per MSI Afterburner.

Additionally, having EAX 4.0 active on an X-Fi Titanium hooked up to 5.1 surround speakers is a real treat. Turning on all of the relevant in-game sound settings is a bit of a chore, since the options menu uses that huge font which only shows like three lines per page. I almost forgot that the EAX stuff was all the way at the bottom of that unintuitive screen. Once turned on, the EAX 4.0 implementation in this game is truly spectacular, and you can experience some crazy stuff like footstep sounds realistically propagating through open windows and so on. There's an article on Creative's old website which describes this in more detail. Suffice to say, the developers really outdid themselves with the sound design, and it's a great fit for a stealth game.

In terms of gameplay, Thief 3 plays a bit differently from its predecessors. First, it was clearly designed with the third-person view in mind (e.g. like Splinter Cell), which is what I'm using. The weird head bobbing mechanics that are present in first-person mode make me nauseous, so I'd rather not deal with that. Second, the levels are notably smaller than in the previous two games, probably due to the memory constraints of the original Xbox. This is similar to Deus Ex: Invisible War, in that the maps are split into several chunks, but the loading screens aren't quite as frequent here.

The new engine does bring some cool enhancements though. Features such as dynamic lighting are used to great effect here. For example, some guards now carry a torch in their hand, which illuminates nearby shadows as they move around, making it harder the player to hide. Also, if you knock out one of those guards, they may occasionally fall onto their torch and get burned to death, if you're not careful. The game does suffer from the mid 2000s "rubber people" physics jank, which can lead to some unintentional hilarity. The UI is also very different from the previous games, and the console influence can be clearly felt. I wish the PC version at least supported Xbox 360 controllers, but alas, it does not. From what I gather, the lock picking minigame is a lot more fun when using a controller with rumble support.

Anyway, I'm just getting started, having only finished the tutorial and the first level. The latter is kinda reminiscent of the first mansion in the original Thief, which brings back some good memories. I almost forgot that you're free to roam around the city after each mission here, so I guess I'll be doing that next.

Ok, so I finally made it across the line and finished Baldur's Gate III.

My thoughts? It's an uneven but VERY fulfilling experience.

Companions are hit and miss. Some like Laezel, Shadowheart and Minthara are amazingly written. Some like Karlach, Gale, Astarion feel like they are lacking - it feels a lot of content pertaining to their character did not make it. Some are outright bad (Wyll being the chief offender and absolutely insufferable, Halsin being boring as hell, and Jaheira/Minsc, well Viconia as a villain is more interesting than Jaheira and Minsc combined).

The story is uneven. Acts I and II are perfect, but Act III is disjointed, lacks pacing and seems to have been cut down from a much longer version of itself.

Gameplay is.. Eh. I was never a big fan of Original Sin games, and the turn based combat here really doesn't feel better than the original games, to be honest.

That said, considering the scope and the amount of player agency they have managed to squeeze into the game, it is definitely, BY FAR, the best emulation of a pen and paper roleplaying in a computer game that I have seen in my entire life. If you haven't played it, do play it.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-02, 17:20:

In terms of gameplay, Thief 3 plays a bit differently from its predecessors. First, it was clearly designed with the third-person view in mind (e.g. like Splinter Cell), which is what I'm using. The weird head bobbing mechanics that are present in first-person mode make me nauseous, so I'd rather not deal with that.

The way the first person works by simply placing your camera onto the same bone as your head and then not rendering that part of your player model reminds me a lot of how Tribes and Tribes 2 worked.

It's something I really appreciate in FPS games when there's not a blatant "disconnect" between the first person and third person viewpoints by having completely different stuff rendering in first person (even down to where the viewport is positioned) verses what's happening in Thief 3. (and also Tribes 1 and 2)

A lot more effort was put into Thief: Deadly Shadows than Deus Ex: Invisible War I feel.

Finished playing KKnD Xtreme.
It started a bit on the hard side but after playing a few missions something finally clicked and I was able to finish all missions without any major problem... just queue infinite SWAT/shotgunners as soon as you have an stable income to prevent being overwhelmed by enemy attacks and complement your infantry with vehicles when possible. The secret is to master how to manage the building queue and try to always have something being produced until the unit cap is reached.
Graphics were pretty cool for its time in my opinion, when I played the demo back in the 90s I remember being very impressed with the size of the buildings compared to units (remember, that was before Age of Empires 2). I always wished this game to be released as a covermount for one of the many PC magazines at the time but it never did.
Only years later that I had this game on my GOG library, and never touched it for many years more, only recently I got to play it to the end (that means both campaigns plus all extra missions). Not a bad game at all, despite some crashes here and there, it's quite a nice RTS for its time, not to mention the comedy aspect of it.

Having wrapped up Doom 2016, I can't really add much to my previous impressions halfway through. Game is a solid banger that hasn't aged a day since it came out. Even the cliff hanger ending doesn't bother me so much anymore, probably since Eternal came out and then I sorta lost interest.

Speaking of Eternal, I don't think I want to roll right into it. First, even when I tried to enjoy it when it was new, I burned out about halfway through. Further attempts never made it even that far. I don't think I want to go in fatigued from beating 2016. What I really need to do is get back to wrapping up Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age. I don't even have much left. I just mind fucked myself with the weight of all the endgame content I feel compelled to at least try. I should probably just tune it out, or do as much as I'm having fun with, and then beat the game and move it to the "finished" pile.

Holy Moly! Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 came out and I was completely unaware until yesterday! KCD1 was one of my all-time favorite RPGs. It has instantly gone into my GOG wishlist and looking forward to any sort of discount (I almost never pay full price for any game). In the meantime, I'm going to have to hurry to finish Pool of Radiance. Either that, or it will go on pause if KCD2 gets discounted before I finish PoR. Man, I'm so excited. KCD is so awesome, IMO. @newtmonkey - play KCD1 already! 🤣.

From what I've read, system requirements are steeper, but the game actually plays better on lower end hardware. Which is good, because I'm stuck on an RTX2080 with 1080p. CPU is no problem. I've got an i5-12600KF.

clueless1 wrote on 2025-02-04, 23:27:

Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 came out...

Yes I'm interested in this one too, I enjoyed the first one a lot. I'm waiting for it to come out on GOG and was thinking that would be a long time coming, but it looks like they've gotten the deal done.

I played an hour or so of the game "Cydonia". Unusual game I thought. Very slow paced. Can get a little frustrating watching the same pre-rendered motions again and again. I am playing it on my Pentium MMX system, as a trial for my Tattiebogle IDE CD Simulator. Working OK so far.

It took me a while to figure out how to get out of the spacecraft. I think I have freed the crew member with trapped leg, and patched the other crew member with the cracked visor. Neither of them seem to move though, so I left the ship without them.

Made some progress in Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. I forgot how tedious traversing the streets was, until you get the climbing gloves (sadly, no rope arrows here). Avoiding the same guard on the same patrol route for the 20th time isn't all that exciting. And if you knock him out, he just respawns instantly (WTF?). Also, in contrast to the past games, you actually have to sell your loot to fences manually here, which just serves as an excuse to wander about the town some more. Additionally, all unused equipment now carries over to the next mission, and you can restock it from merchants as needed.

The Hammerite cathedral and the Pagan hideout levels were both excellent EAX showpieces. In the old games, you would get fewer reverb and occlusion effects, and they were usually tied to the specific room that you were in. Now, multiple effects come from all possible directions, overlapping and merging, creating a very realistic environment. It's difficult to describe this, other than saying, it actually feels like you're inside a (Hammerite) church, or that you're exploring a (Pagan infested) cavern system. You kinda have to hear it for yourself.

One thing that I don't like about the third game is the reduced map functionality. Basically, maps are now just pieces of paper with a rough layout of the level. No indicator of where you are, or what you've already explored. The levels are smaller, so it doesn't bother me too much, but it's still a minor inconvenience. Also, enabling V-Sync apparently increases loading times, which is super weird. I think it was like that in Deus Ex 2: Invisible War as well, so it's probably an engine issue. Anyway, next up should be my favorite mission of this game - the Seaside Mansion. Looking forward to experiencing that in full 5.1 surround, with all the EAX goodness.

DracoNihil wrote on 2025-02-04, 19:15:

A lot more effort was put into Thief: Deadly Shadows than Deus Ex: Invisible War I feel.

I agree, it's definitively a more polished game. Nonetheless, it sometimes feels like "one step forward, two steps back" compared to Thief 2, but I still find it enjoyable. Also, I've revisited Invisible War about a year ago, and I had a surprisingly fun time with that too. Probably helped that I was playing it on a highly overpowered system, without any stutters or hitches. Back in the day, it ran really poorly on contemporary hardware, which may have negatively colored my past experiences with it. Thief 3 performed a little bit better, I think.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-06, 18:38:

Also, enabling V-Sync apparently increases loading times, which is super weird. I think it was like that in Deus Ex 2: Invisible War as well, so it's probably an engine issue.

Unreal II does that too, also an UE2 game, so engine quirk sounds pretty likely.

Still on Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. After a brief visit to the Keeper library, Garrett gains the ability to use their magical glyphs, which can reveal secret passages. This opens up a path to the docks, where a zombie infested ship awaits. Searching it provides several clues which lead to the Seaside Mansion. But before heading there, I decided to do some faction quests for both the Hammerites and the Pagans. These weren't particularly interesting, but they did improve Garrett's standing with both groups, so that they no longer attack him on sight in the streets. Also, this is the perfect time to purchase the climbing gloves, which essentially turn Garrett into Spider-Man.

The Seaside Mansion heist takes place during a stormy night, with lightning crackling across the sky. This isn't merely a cosmetic effect. The roof of the mansion is partially made of glass, allowing lightning strikes to illuminate the exposed areas. This temporarily removes all shadows, making it very difficult to hide. There are also a lot of creaky wooden floors here, so you can sometimes hear enemies walking inside rooms directly above you. After retrieving the quest item, you get to choose whether to rob the grieving widow out of her inheritance or not, which will have consequences later on. Lastly, there's a really nice EAX effect on the top floor, allowing the widow's voice to softly echo throughout the spiral stairwell.

The next mission is the Sunken Citadel, and I never liked it all that much. There, Garrett faces off against the creepy fish people and some Pagans who are fighting them. This is a pretty bland level with very few interesting locations. Even the soundstage is kinda meh, with almost no memorable EAX stuff. Also, there are some odd terrain features like loose rocks that Garrett can get stuck on, which is super annoying. Collision detection is a bit strange in this game, and it really shows in levels such as this. It's also weird that Garrett can no longer swim, so falling into deep water causes an instant game over. Pretty lame considering how well swimming and diving was utilized in the previous games.

Anyway, after getting another artifact, it's back to the Keeper library for even more vague prophecies. I think I'm about half way through the game now, since Thief 3 is shorter than its predecessors.

Sombrero wrote on 2025-02-06, 20:03:

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-06, 18:38:

Also, enabling V-Sync apparently increases loading times, which is super weird. I think it was like that in Deus Ex 2: Invisible War as well, so it's probably an engine issue.

Unreal II does that too, also an UE2 game, so engine quirk sounds pretty likely.

Interesting.

I've never played that game properly, only firing it up briefly to do some EAX and OpenAL testing. Guess I'll have to rectify that at some point.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-08, 08:19:

Interesting.

I've never played that game properly, only firing it up briefly to do some EAX and OpenAL testing. Guess I'll have to rectify that at some point.

It's not as bad as some say, it's entertaining enough in that B+ way. Just two things to consider:

1. It uses DirectMusic which was deprecated starting with WinVista causing all kinds of issues if played on Vista or newer. Like music not playing, the intro doesn't work correctly, even crashing apparently. On XP you get the stutter with GeForce 8 -> though it's pretty subtle, even I didn't really notice it before I did comparisons. Also the sound has some crackling/pops no matter what you do. The readme mentioned something about going nuts with the sound system and doing some heavy handed customization. They may have gone too far with it.

2. It has the slowest movement speed I have ever seen on an FPS. I mean Morrowind in heavy armor level. I strongly recommend increasing it by opening console and giving following commands:
- bemymonkey (enables cheats, needed)
- setspeed 1.5 (increased movement speed by 50%, change the value for your preference)

Sombrero wrote on 2025-02-08, 10:17:

1. It uses DirectMusic which was deprecated starting with WinVista causing all kinds of issues if played on Vista or newer. Like music not playing, the intro doesn't work correctly, even crashing apparently.

Specifically; it uses the scripting engine of DirectMusic to handle a lot of things in sync of where a particular music section is in. I presume Microsoft stubbed all of that out because they thought it was a potential malware vector.

You can restore it by bypassing System File Protection and transplanting all the DirectMusic DLL's from Windows XP to whatever modern Windows system.

DracoNihil wrote on 2025-02-09, 05:15:

Specifically; it uses the scripting engine of DirectMusic to handle a lot of things in sync of where a particular music section is in. I presume Microsoft stubbed all of that out because they thought it was a potential malware vector.

You can restore it by bypassing System File Protection and transplanting all the DirectMusic DLL's from Windows XP to whatever modern Windows system.

Yep, I tried that. It does help, the intro starts to work correctly for example, but doesn't fix the issues entirely. At least on my system music still bugged out occasionally.

I used DLL's from WinXP SP3 install, no idea would DLL's from earlier XP version work better.