badmojo wrote:

But then I often give up during a game’s boss battle because I rarely find them and enjoyable (fraud).

I did exactly this in Duke3D on the first episode boss. Tried dozens of times, watched videos of others beating it, still couldn't beat it. Rage quit.

If final boss battles aren't your thing, I recommend Turok 2. The whole game seemed fulfilling and challenging throughout...until I got to the Primagen. I guess I need to play it again on hard. Just finished it. Loved the whole experience otherwise. What a great game.

Played through KQ1 SCI version again for the first time in several years and then after that, streamed a play through of SQ1 (VGA) through Dosbox. Was always a fan of Sierra games since I first played the original AGI SQ1 on an Apple IIe back in 7th grade computer class!

MusicallyInspired wrote:

If final boss battles aren't your thing, I recommend Turok 2. The whole game seemed fulfilling and challenging throughout...until I got to the Primagen. I guess I need to play it again on hard. Just finished it. Loved the whole experience otherwise. What a great game.

Did you play the original or the remastered Nightdive version?

MusicallyInspired wrote:

If final boss battles aren't your thing, I recommend Turok 2. The whole game seemed fulfilling and challenging throughout...until I got to the Primagen. I guess I need to play it again on hard. Just finished it. Loved the whole experience otherwise. What a great game.

I've never played this but it looks cool, will check it out.

I'm still working my way through Gothic 3 - 2 months in and counting. The devs really padded this thing out, particularly in the extremities of the world. Quests are paper-thin and it's just wave after wave of mobs and although I don't mind the combat in this game, it's really starting to feel like a grind. And the hero only gets more obnoxious as he progresses through the epic game world.

My love of the core mechanics are undiminished however so I will persist - if only someone had taken the project manager aside and insisted they shave 40% off the size of the world and number of quests. It could have been better tested, better fine tuned, better voiced, and ultimately 40% more enjoyable I'd argue.

@badmojo

As a working family man and RPG lover, I wish there were more options for high quality, but shorter RPGs. Imagine something the quality of Baldur's Gate, but with an Option menu that lets you control the length of the game (tick the 20 hr box and a suitable number of optional side quests are removed).

clueless1 wrote:

@badmojo

As a working family man and RPG lover, I wish there were more options for high quality, but shorter RPGs. Imagine something the quality of Baldur's Gate, but with an Option menu that lets you control the length of the game (tick the 20 hr box and a suitable number of optional side quests are removed).

That would be fantastic! I rarely have time to sit through all the epicness and at some point just wish to see the ending to get it over with. That's one of the reasons I've never started the second round with my Baldur series games as I'll probably end up in a doctors office like the first time I played those (acute back pain) back in the day.

Yes indeed that would be perfect - I'm in exactly the same boat regarding work / family so I can't manage more than 1 hour every other day. I know people complain about the dumbing down of modern RPG's but I really appreciate the "walk to the dot on the mini-map" option for this reason 😀

It does ruin the sense of adventure and satisfaction somewhat though I agree, so your slider idea would be great. Using the Gothic 3 example, if there was a "remove all fetch quests" option then the game would be trimmed down to a very manageable size.

And sf78 I hear your pain with regards to back issues resulting from long gaming sessions - I just can't physically sit hunched over a keyboard late into the night anymore (after hunching over a keyboard all day at work). I hope your back is in better shape now.

Phew, I finally finished Gothic 3 after countless hours and several attempts over the course of ~12 years 😵

I'm not sure what the difference was this time - we're having our house renovated currently so the 'family of four in confined quarters without a proper kitchen' factor might have increased my need for escapism, who knows. I'm also very familiar with the game by this point so avoided painting myself into a corner with the faction system. All told it's a game that asks a lot of the player and I know it's not for everyone, but it works for me.

On our way to the magic portal:

Nearly there!

There was an underwhelming ending sequence with some flash cards describing the fate of the key characters, and then this reassuring message for the hero:

@badmojo - well done! How does it compare to Gothic 2? I have that one on my GOG wishlist based on your comments here.

I'm still bouncing between Lords of Xulima and Half-Life. Just loaded HL last night for the first time in a week and it took me a minute to remember what was going on. Now I'm back on track on the 7th Chapter - "On a Rail".

Xulima will be a long game, I can already tell. Gamefaqs and Howlongtobeat.com peg it in the 70-80 hour range, and I wouldn't be surprised if it takes me longer. I estimate I've put in about 25 hrs so far. But it's been totally worth it. So far I'm calling it one of my favorite RPGs. It takes shortcuts in certain areas (no walls of text to wade through, NPC interactions are simplified) but for me, those are good areas to simplify in, leaving more time for the fun stuff like combat and exploration. [edit: and character development! Love this part...the strategies and tactics of how to use the skill points you accumulate between level-ups]

thanks @clueless1!

I think Gothic2 is the better game all told - better quests, better dialog and voice acting for the hero (his tone is all wrong in G3, zero humility or gravitas), better combat, and it's just a smaller, more manageable world. What Gothic3 does well is exploration, and while the game engine has always been a problem (it still lags on my GTX960) the world it renders is glorious I think. The large central district reminds me of the forests I explored as a kid, so I suspect my enthusiasm for the game is a personal thing.

Gothic 3 was Oblivion's contemporary and matches or exceeds it on some levels, but not where it counts.

So yes I'd say Gothic 2 is the better bet - it feels awkward at first but there's a great game under there.

And yes Xulima looks outstanding, I'm tempted give it a go. Next up for me though I think will be The Witcher 3 - another amazing game that I've been playing on-and-off since release but never finished.

Doom (2016).

Im quite disappointed. I really wanted to like this game, but after a few hours it feels very repetitive and boring. And I actually had to turn off the music since all the crappy dubstep and distortion thats been added to the otherwise good tracks just gets REALLY annoying.

Munx wrote:

And I actually had to turn off the music since all the crappy dubstep and distortion thats been added to the otherwise good tracks just gets REALLY annoying.

There are a handful tracks with an actual rhythm and melodic parts from the first DOOM. Those sound really amazing.

I especially like the main menu track with its slow buildup:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRkA1xYBZBQ

In the DOOM alpha they used a different track that is also going back to the roots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zeuu10iAGLA

Everything else is just a big bunch of noise and it annoyed the crap out of me while playing an otherwise very good game. Not being able to make out an actual rhythm in the background music triggers me a lot. 🤣

@Topic: I started playing Indiana Jones and the Emperors Tomb. It's a pretty fun game with terrible camera movements. Whenever you go into the edge of a room the game just freaks out and you have a hard time navigating out of it again. This sucks. Otherwise, it's got good voice acting, a funny fight system, some cool weapons and an...okayish story. I think I will play this to the end.

Munx wrote:

Doom (2016).

Im quite disappointed.

A big DOOM fan here but I suspect that I would be likewise disappointed. I tried to like one of the new Wolfensteins but I just can't get into modern shooters - there's just too much of everything, including storyline.

badmojo wrote:

Munx wrote:

Doom (2016).

Im quite disappointed.

A big DOOM fan here but I suspect that I would be likewise disappointed. I tried to like one of the new Wolfensteins but I just can't get into modern shooters - there's just too much of everything, including storyline.

You are missing something amazing.

MachineGames are the savior of the modern (and Oldschool ... oddly) shooter. I mean when Zenimax BOUGHT the best FPS legacies of all time by acquiring iD Software, and after handing Bethesda the reigns to the franchises, I was ready to write off Doom and Quake both, forever. But by some miracle MachineGames got the job to work on Wolfenstein, and New Order is an absolutely amazing experience, up there with RTCW ... which by the way I rate as one of the best single player FPS games of all time.

Lets get something straight, I cut my teeth on Wolf3D and SOD back in the early 90's, finished top 100 in Wireplays first Quake 1 tournament in the UK, and took a division 3 Jolt clan all the way to Division 1 Eurocup in Quake III OSP back in the mid 2000's. So you could say I'm into FPS games and you could say I am a massive iD Software fan.

MachineGames are the best FPS developers out there today. They are in fact some of the best FPS developers in history. Many of their team are of Butcher Bay fame, and New Order / Old Blood is worthy of the Wolfenstein name by any stretch. Machine staff played as much Quake 1 as I did and they even released a full 5th episode of Quake for it's 20th Anniversary, which they released for free as a tribute to the original. They made it with the same tools used with the creation of the original maps to ensure full compatability and that old school feel.

"Modern" shooters generally suck, because most shooters these days are either some e-sports spin off, forever in "early access" to rinse todays generation of their pocket money on skins etc, or consolized and cross ported. Wolfenstein is an exception to the rule. I'm pretty sure I won't like the new Doom game either, despite the positive reviews and despite Zenimax having to request MachineGames cruise over and "fix it" after the shitstorm of negative reviews from iD fans on STEAM. Machine patched it best they could and no doubt it's a playable game, but it was developed by Halo, COD and Crysis guys ... and as such it shouldn't really carry the Doom name.

I think Machine have proven themselves and earned the right to make Wolfenstein games. So far they've done an amazing job and they are one of the handful of FPS devs around that I actually look forward to playing their games.

IMO Shadow Warrior is the good classic fps re-boot. Combat is satisfying and the story interesting and doesnt get in the way at the same time. Doom just gets boring very quickly.

And I wouldn't discount story from FPS either. Metro series are one of my favorite games because of it.

The only part in the new DooM that gets tiresome after a while is the overusage of the kill room mechanic. Other then that, the game is really solid, and I say so from the perspective of a guy who thinks that the last proper FPS shooter was the original Far Cry. The action on a higher difficulty level is intense to a level that my almost-40 corpse needed a break after an hour or so.

Granted, there are things new DooM could do without, like the whole upgrades stuff, but I gather that newer audiences expect this.

I still miss the brilliant level design that the original DooM had tho. I feels that I will never get the mixture of maze puzzles and action. But that died in 1997 so I can't blame a game from 2016 for that.

Munx wrote:

IMO Shadow Warrior is the good classic fps re-boot. Combat is satisfying and the story interesting and doesnt get in the way at the same time. Doom just gets boring very quickly.

And I wouldn't discount story from FPS either. Metro series are one of my favorite games because of it.

I loved Shadow Warrior but to say that it is the better game boggles my mind, it has all of Doom's issues exponentially..

I am generally not interested in modern games, but when the new Doom was on sale last year I had to check it out and bought it. I have to say I really enjoyed playing and finishing it - I liked the fast paced action, the atmosphere, monsters and different weapons with their upgrades. Sure it's not the same thing as the original but I feel the vibe was closer to it than I thought it would be at first.

appiah4 wrote:

Munx wrote:

IMO Shadow Warrior is the good classic fps re-boot. Combat is satisfying and the story interesting and doesnt get in the way at the same time. Doom just gets boring very quickly.

And I wouldn't discount story from FPS either. Metro series are one of my favorite games because of it.

I loved Shadow Warrior but to say that it is the better game boggles my mind, it has all of Doom's issues exponentially..

For me it was 2 things:
1. Combat felt satisfying, unlike Doom. Glory kills got tiresome fast and melee in Shadow Warrior didnt take control away from the player. Every weapon in SW felt satisfying to use while in Doom they had very little kick.
2. Music wasnt annoying. I couldnt stand it in Doom.