dr_st wrote on 2024-07-14, 10:35:

newtmonkey wrote on 2024-07-11, 13:29:

Shadow Warrior (1997)
This is the only game out of the "big three" Build engine games I never completed, though I did actually buy it back in the day (I still have my original CD!). From what I had played of it, I didn't like it as much as Duke 3D or Blood. So I decided to finally complete this game this year.

For me - it's Blood that I still have to complete from "the big three". I've completed Duke3D, including Episode 4, I think back in the nineties, and played through all of Shadow Warrior a few years ago. Blood - not sure I ever beat more than a couple of levels.

I recently did a complete replay of Blood and its expansions. IMHO, it's the best of the original Build engine games. If nothing else, it's the one that has aged the best.

I find SW very offensive (orientalism to the extreme) so I have no motivation to cringe slog through the single player. I however found merit in its deatnmatch with custom vehicle maps back in the day (....which no port bothers to support nowadays).

leileilol wrote on 2024-07-15, 15:09:

I find SW very offensive (orientalism to the extreme) so I have no motivation to cringe slog through the single player. I however found merit in its deatnmatch with custom vehicle maps back in the day (....which no port bothers to support nowadays).

I remember a running series of reader letters and editorials over just that in Computer Gaming World back in the day. I recall their review tabled all those issues, though they alluded to them, and stuck to reviewing the game on the merits of it's gameplay, trusting the reader to draw their own conclusions as to whether it was a game for them or not.

I really miss Computer Gaming World of yor. It's best to stay away from the twitter feeds of it's diaspora staff writers.

leileilol wrote on 2024-07-15, 15:09:

I however found merit in its deatnmatch with custom vehicle maps back in the day (....which no port bothers to support nowadays).

There's like, only two things I've seen that does "vehicles" in Build Engine but not the same way SW did it with sector shenanigans; "AMC Squad" and I think to some degree "Ion Fury".

I do wonder if eduke32 can be coaxed to make those sector based vehicles.

Started playing Halo: Reach on my Xbox 360. The first thing I noticed was the obnoxious amount of ghosting on everything, even during cutscenes. I don't remember this being an issue in Halo 3 and ODST, so it must be a new "feature" introduced for this game. It looks like ass, and is apparently caused by the game's custom TAA implementation. To clarify, I'm referring to the ugly ghosting/frame blending effect which occurs whenever something passes close by you, and it gets particularly annoying during cutscenes. The Digital Foundry guys showcase it in their review from back in the day.

Thankfully, the gameplay is as good as ever. I like that we get to fight Elites once again, since the events of Reach take place in the past. From a quick glance at the manual, it looks like all of the Halo CE weapons are back, including the slightly OP pistol, which is nice. Anyway, having a good time so far, should be another fun ride.

Halo: Reach was another good entry in the Halo series.
It has a solid story line and game play that carries all the way to the end.

Reach is the best Halo game tied with Halo 3 imo. ODST is a close third.

Well I just surpassed 600,000 total credits in NES Elite last night.

Still a far ways to go before I'm rated "Elite" though.

Namrok wrote on 2024-07-15, 15:18:

I really miss Computer Gaming World of yor. It's best to stay away from the twitter feeds of it's diaspora staff writers.

I would argue it's best to stay off Twitter and most other social media sites. IMO, echo chambers and the constant negativity have been a net negative to society. Even if they weren't, they are a huge time sink for many people. I've worked with people who complain about how much work they have to do, yet spend hours on Twitter each day. I had a bit of FOMO when I first quit Twitter and Reddit, but I'm glad I did.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2024-07-17, 23:20:

Namrok wrote on 2024-07-15, 15:18:

I really miss Computer Gaming World of yor. It's best to stay away from the twitter feeds of it's diaspora staff writers.

I would argue it's best to stay off Twitter and most other social media sites. IMO, echo chambers and the constant negativity have been a net negative to society. Even if they weren't, they are a huge time sink for many people. I've worked with people who complain about how much work they have to do, yet spend hours on Twitter each day. I had a bit of FOMO when I first quit Twitter and Reddit, but I'm glad I did.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, every social media site needs a strict focus. Anything goes leads to junk.

Making progress in Halo: Reach. I liked the nighttime mission where you start off with a sniper rifle. Very reminiscent of one of the early levels in Halo CE. The next one with the AA guns and the spire introduced the jet pack, which was a cool new addition. You can get a tactical advantage over the enemies by being able to reach higher ground more quickly.

Gotta admit, didn't expect actual space combat in this, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was implemented pretty well, and kind of reminded me of Freelancer and similar space sims. With that, I think I'm about half way through the game. Liking it so far, except for the graphical "ghosting" crap as mentioned earlier. But that's pretty much my only issue with Reach at the moment.

Finished Halo: Reach. The story was no big surprise to anyone who has played Halo CE, as you learn what happened to Reach in that game. Still, it was nice seeing some of the old characters make a cameo appearance near the end.

The missions right after the space combat sequence were somewhat slow. And controlling that helicopter thing felt a bit clunky. I did enjoy some of the more challenging fights, where Brutes are being shield boosted by Engineers and such. Also, the last two missions were great, with plenty of action all around. Plot wise, the fate of the Noble team wasn't as impactful as it would have been to someone who has never played Halo CE.

Overall, I thought Reach was a fine game, but not quite as good as Halo 3. The story there felt more engaging to me, and the level design was just a bit more to my taste (minus the Flood maps, which Reach thankfully didn't have). It's probably because Halo 3 was the grand finale of the initial trilogy, and therefore had a slightly more epic feel to it.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-07-11, 17:26:

Just the original train ride was something special in the original Half-Life. It ushered in a way of doing cinematic storytelling in FPS games that hadn't been done before.

Yes, this was an amazing moment. The suspension it built up, I have never felt it since.

Moving on to Halo 4. The graphics got a noticeable improvement, and thankfully, I found no TAA ghosting issues whatsoever. Looks like that problem was unique to Reach. More importantly, there are finally subtitles for in-game speech, and not just during cutscenes. Only took Microsoft six games to get that right. I was also hoping for a separate slider to turn down the music volume, but alas, no such luck. While the soundtrack is great, I don't want it at full blast while trying to determine which direction the enemies are shooting from.

The Master Chief is a lot more talkative this time around, which I kinda like. Ever since Duke3D and the Thief games, I have enjoyed hearing FPS protagonists speak on occasion. Additionally, it looks like Cortana will have a more prominent role now. She also got some, err... asset upgrades.

At the moment, I'm only a few levels in, so I haven't yet encountered the new enemy faction, just loads of Covenant. Though I think I may have caught a glimpse of the newcomers during one of the cutscenes. Should be interesting.

I've been working on Control for about two weeks now. I've already had one moment of confusion where I lost about an hour of gameplay. I didn't realize how prevalent side quests or multiple quests were. I ended up taking a one-way trip that led me onto a different quest than I was wanting to work on, so I naively tried to restore the previous restore point thinking it would take me back to the point just prior to going off course. No. It took me back an hour in gameplay. Yes it warned me I wouldn't be able to restore back to my current point. I hate forced save points. Most of the time I can live with them though. Let's hope that's the case with Control.

Continuing with Halo 4. Met the new enemies: teleporting robots, flying robots and dog robots. Well, at least they're less annoying than the Flood. The Promethean weapons seem like a rebadged shotgun, assault rifle and rocket launcher, though I still didn't use them that much, so my impressions might be off. I'm also not sold on the level design during these early missions. Feels like a slight step back from Halo 3.

Was nice to see the Scorpion tank back in action, but I get the feeling that it's been slightly nerfed compared to the past games. The new mech vehicle was interesting, but it was kinda hard to find cover while using that giant thing. 😁 I mentioned the graphical improvements before, but I neglected to say that the facial animations got a significant upgrade as well. Characters are much more lifelike now, especially during cutscenes.

So far, I'm having a reasonably good time with Halo 4. Hopefully, it holds up during the rest of the campaign.

I just re-installed the best game in the Far Cry series -

I forgot how much I hated the introduction. Worse yet, I didn't realize that it won't save your game until you've completed the entire tutorial missions, so I had to replay the first part multiple times. The game doesn't make it clear that it won't save your game at this part (if you die, it still loads the game after the last completed objective), so I assumed this was a bug. It also tries to connect to a dead server when you pause the game and times out after awhile, which is also super annoying. There's a fix for it, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.

Now that I've finished the introduction, it's a lot better. I've only completed one mission after the intro, but it's been fun so far.

Still on Halo 4. I think the individual missions are a bit longer in this game. Not sure I like that, as the past games were easy to pick up and play, without having to invest a large chunk of time at once.

I did like the mission where you're driving around in a Mammoth tank (C&C reference?) for a while. Finally some open terrain, nice vehicle combat, and then an assault on a heavily fortified enemy base. Good stuff. The next one where you're flying the Pelican ship was kinda meh in comparison. Also, the story is getting a bit convoluted, with the Librarian, the Didact, the DNA tampering and all that.

Anyway, the "Cortana is going crazy" plot seems to be kicking into high gear, so I'm assuming there's not much further to go.

Been taking a break from Fallout 76 and playing Black Mesa, and a new game I wish I had found sooner, Progressbar 95.

We all know Black Mesa.

Progressbar 95 is a simple, but incredibly fun, casual game that feeds the nostalgia beast within. Best couple of bucks I've spent on a game in a long time, especially considering casual games are not my thing.

It's better seen than described. 😜

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1304550/Progressbar95/

Huh, thanks for the mention of ProgressBar95. It looks oddly compelling and the price is right. Might have to give it a spin.