Sombrero wrote on 2025-02-09, 05:34:

but doesn't fix the issues entirely. At least on my system music still bugged out occasionally.

Only thing that comes to mind is DirectSound being incredibly dumb since Windows Vista replaced the entire audio stack in Windows. There's nothing that can be done about that though unfortunately.

Though getting that scripting environment working again is pretty important to Unreal II in general since it relies on it a lot.

Made it through two more missions in Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. The Clocktower wasn't really to my liking, as the entire place felt cramped, with very little room for maneuvering. You could argue that this is realistic, given the dimensions of the structure, but it still doesn't make for a fun gameplay experience. This area also has the craziest enemy placement in the Thief series, as several Hammerite priests are standing on inaccessible ledges that they couldn't possibly climb onto. Platforming down the clocktower is also somewhat problematic due to collision detection issues. Things do get a bit better once you reach the lower sections, but it's a very mediocre level overall.

Next was a long, tedious and completely implausible chase through the city streets. While I find the concept of Keeper Enforcers interesting, I have a hard time believing that they are allowed to operate in public, attacking city guards and innocent bystanders in the process. That just feels wrong for such a secretive organization.

Eventually, Garrett gets back to the Keeper library, which is where the mission properly starts. I like the sound design here, particularly in the council chambers where Garrett can "persuade" a few members to vote his way. There's some interesting lore in this place, and certain books even foreshadow future events. Also, the statue section at the end can be fairly challenging if you're low on water arrows. All in all, this was a fun mission, excluding the street chase bit. My one nitpick was that the devs didn't include any references to the tutorial level from the first game, since this mission takes place in that same area.

Afterwards, a Hammerite inspector points Garrett toward the Shalebridge Cradle, which is the (in)famous horror themed level. But I'll leave that for next time.

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

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)

That bad huh? I'll be using the tweak you provided then.

And thanks for the heads up about the DirectMusic issue. That pretty much necessitates playing Unreal 2 on WinXP.

RandomStranger wrote on 2025-01-10, 21:13:

The first Witcher is not overly long. My first playthrough was less than 60 hours. But The Withcer 2 was less than 40.

Last week I started Morrowind GOTY. It'll last me all month. Maybe the next month too.

A month later, I'm still in Morrowind 67 hours in and still haven't touched the expansions and barely progressed with the main quests. Yesterday I made time to play as much as possible to make some progress. Moved from the fighter's guild into Dura's house in Balmora to better organize my stuff, joined House Talvani, reached level 30 cleared out 3 or 4 side quests from my quest log and the Dark Brotherhood assassins really start to get annoying. Now they attack in pairs with Adamantium Jinkswords doing an extra 10pts of poison damage and 10pts of paralyze. Maybe I should have something made with a resist paralysis constant effect enchantment. Or at least have some cure paralysis potions on me.

RandomStranger wrote on 2025-02-09, 10:11:

Dark Brotherhood assassins really start to get annoying. Now they attack in pairs with Adamantium Jinkswords doing an extra 10pts of poison damage and 10pts of paralyze. Maybe I should have something made with a resist paralysis constant effect enchantment. Or at least have some cure paralysis potions on me.

I don't know if this will work like Oblivion does but if you had started your game without the expansion packs loaded and enabled under Game Files, you could complete the main quest as usual, save your game, and then enable Tribunal and load your save game as usual. After finishing Tribunal then you can enable Bloodmoon and load your current save.

DracoNihil wrote on 2025-02-09, 14:42:

RandomStranger wrote on 2025-02-09, 10:11:

Dark Brotherhood assassins really start to get annoying. Now they attack in pairs with Adamantium Jinkswords doing an extra 10pts of poison damage and 10pts of paralyze. Maybe I should have something made with a resist paralysis constant effect enchantment. Or at least have some cure paralysis potions on me.

I don't know if this will work like Oblivion does but if you had started your game without the expansion packs loaded and enabled under Game Files, you could complete the main quest as usual, save your game, and then enable Tribunal and load your save game as usual. After finishing Tribunal then you can enable Bloodmoon and load your current save.

I'm playing the Steam version of the GOTY. My other option is the vanilla base game on discs from way back then.

Finished Thief 3: Deadly Shadows. The penultimate mission of this game takes place in the Shalebridge Cradle, an abandoned orphanage/asylum, which burned down years ago under mysterious circumstances. Unsurprisingly, this level has a very ominous atmosphere, and features some uniquely creepy enemies that can't be found anywhere else. The developers used EAX very effectively here, making the soundstage tense and foreboding, thereby keeping the player on edge the entire time. So yeah, it's no wonder that the Shalebridge Cradle is often found on the "top ten horror levels" lists of various gaming websites.

After completing this mission, another boring trek through the streets ensues. Honestly, these mandatory city segments are the worst parts of the game for me, and you can clearly see the lack of polish in their design. After that is done, Garrett decides to sneak into the lair of the big baddie. That isn't a proper level, but more of an interlude, where it's revealed that a few more artifacts need to be acquired.

This leads to the museum heist, which is a very fun and enjoyable mission. The area design here is reminiscent of the previous Thief games in all the best ways. There's lots of treasure as well, but you'll have very few opportunities to spend it before the game is over. Anyway, the museum has an intricate security system that can be disabled by finding the relevant control rooms. However, if you overhear a certain conversation, you can learn of a much simpler method for bypassing these protections. I forgot to mention this before, but patiently listening to guards or civilians talking to each other can reveal some useful things in almost every mission.

Unfortunately, that nice level is followed by yet another street section. This predictably sucks, and even more so because it's supposed to be the game's grand finale. Basically, Garrett runs around the entire city, placing artifacts next to specific landmarks, while avoiding various enemies. But if you haven't explored the city streets thoroughly before, you may not even know where some of these landmarks are located, which will make this section even more tedious. Be that as it may, after all five artifacts are placed, the game finally ends.

In my view, Thief 3: Deadly Shadows is the weakest entry in the original trilogy. However, it's still worth playing for some of its standout missions, and because it delivers a very satisfying conclusion to the story. Without spoiling anything, the ending cutscene contains a nice reference to the first game, and you get to see Garrett's journey come full circle.

Finished playing Dino Crisis 2, this was the PSOne Classics version running on a PSP.
At first, the challenge was to finish the game once on hard difficulty, but after being able to do that and for retrieving all the dino files, I was granted unlimited ammo for the next playthrough. So I played it once again on normal difficulty just to enjoy massacring dinos with unlimited ammo, then another time to get S Rank (which is when you beat the game in under two hours), and another two times to be able to unlock all characters for the Dino Colosseum.

This game is much more action oriented compared to the first one. Weapons are much stronger and you can run while shooting. You don't find weapons, you simply buy them with money you get from killing dinossaurs from the many save stations around.

By coincidence, just a few days after I started playing the game on my PSP, GOG released the PC version of both Dino Crisis 1 and 2. Really recommend it, specially the second game. Maybe someday I will buy them, but not for now.

I played through SHOGO , and then started playing a game I never finsihed , Drakan Order of the Flame. I just got to the part that I got to all those years ago and then never got past. Its a very good game.

Well, I finally caved and decided to try the Thief (2014) reboot. The Definitive Edition was slightly below 4 EUR on a recent GOG sale, so I figured why the heck not. When this game first came out, all major Thief fan sites panned it heavily, so I wasn't too interested in it. But now that the price has come down a lot, and there's a DRM-free GOG version, I thought I'd give it a shot.

As usual with console ports from this time, I'm playing it on my Win7 rig hooked up to a big TV screen, while using an Xbox360 controller. This control method is officially supported per the game's manual, so the correct button prompts are displayed, and the rumble functionality works properly. I have all the graphical settings maxed at 1080p, but I've capped the frame rate to 30. The main reason is that the game tilts the camera forward whenever Garrett interacts with an object, e.g. while opening a drawer or picking up loot. I sometimes get motion sickness from that kind of sudden, jerky camera movement when playing first-person games at high frame rates, so 30 FPS works better for me here.

Some early impressions, starting with the stuff that I liked:

• The graphics are pretty nice, and hold up well to this day. The art style is a mix between Dishonored and The Order 1886, if you're familiar with those games.
• The lock picking mechanics are good, and using a controller with rumble support makes it easier to discern when to pull the pin. Also, a failed lock picking attempt makes a sound that can alert nearby enemies.
• Voice acting has been solid so far, though it's too bad they got someone new for Garrett. But since this is a complete reboot, I suppose it was to be expected.

And here are some things that I'm kinda neutral on:

• So far, level size seems about on-pair with Thief 3, meaning they are smaller than in Thief 1&2.
• There's now a "Focus" vision mode. It's very similar to Lara's "Survival Instincts" in Tomb Raider (2013) but activating it drains the energy bar here.
• The game has a quest marker which shows your next objective. And there's also a radar-like mini map, which can be toggled on/off.
• Stealth gameplay and character movement reminds me again of Tomb Raider (2013). The developers even put those white markings on climbable surfaces. Everything feels very cinematic, but also kind of scripted.
• I'm unsure how the save game system works. At times, you can trigger a checkpoint save by entering wardrobe closets, storage lockers and other similar hiding spots. However, it seems that you can also save manually during proper missions. Need to test this some more.
• This game can apparently use AMD TrueAudio for reverb effects and such. I don't currently have a compatible AMD card, so I can't say how that sounds.

Lastly, some stuff that I didn't like:

• Some common actions such as lifting heavy objects or prying open shut windows are performed by repeatedly mashing a button. I hate when games force me to do that.
• There doesn't seem to be as much freedom to do your own thing as in the past Thief games. Levels seem more linear, at least so far.
• The UI doesn't feel very intuitive, and the controller button layout isn't that great. A proper immersive sim really needs to excel here. Dishonored and Deus Ex: Human Revolution handled this perfectly.

I'm still very early into the game, but I think I see why it's so polarizing. On one hand, it plays very differently from the previous entries in the Thief series. On the other hand, it still appears to be a competently made stealth game, although a fairly simplified one. Additional impressions to come after I've made some more progress.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-12, 08:09:

Also, a failed lock picking attempt makes a sound that can alert nearby enemies.

This reminds me of when I used to play Thievery UT (for Unreal Tournament 1999) and anybody using lockpicks emits a faint sound up until the loud unlocking sound plays, on some servers the AI is setup to actively react to that noise and investigate accordingly.

Players actually playing on Guards will most likely smash you in the dark with a mace pretty quickly.

Law212 wrote on 2025-02-11, 15:14:

I played through SHOGO , and then started playing a game I never finsihed , Drakan Order of the Flame. I just got to the part that I got to all those years ago and then never got past. Its a very good game.

Shogo is such an artifact of it's time. It was good, mostly. I mean I save scummed like mad to get through it, because it's critical hit system would have a hitscan shotgunner on the other side of a door insta-gib you as the door was swinging open. Since it blocked LOS for you, but not for the AI since the door ceases to exist logically the moment you hit the use key. All the same, it was fun enough, and it's faux Anime aesthetic was a very "You had to be there" throw back to Anime in the 90's. Which was it's own very special time of only the most indirect access to a select few localized shows, expensive imports, or a copy of a copy of a copy of VHS fansubs that seemed to circulate through college anime clubs.

I'm playing through Deus Ex again, after i think 10 or more years since the last time. Its the GOTY version without mods or graphics enhancements. It only took minutes to "tune in" to the look of the game, I'm fine with older clunkier graphics even after playing newer games for while. It took me a bit longer to get used to the controls, the inventory system and so on, but that was fine too.

What a great game it still is, the whole feel of it, the story arc that JC goes through, the interesting NPCs and locations and the many possible outcomes - not just major ones but the little differences in conversations depending on whether something has happened yet or not. The degree to which you can sneak around, search things, read things and the path options. Even the quirks of the game are somehow fun (like having scripted conversations with an NPC while guards run around waiting to fight you in the background!)

some of the game mechanics aren't great and i'm really not into managing inventory or fretting over which aug to enhance but fine tuning all that can be influential in what path options to take.

There is much written about how Deus Ex predicted the future - i think it does well to show the risks of alliances between government, corporations and media.

I'm not convinced on mechs and augs though there are some amazing things happening in terms of repairing or working around injury and illness now

I think the game overplays the influence of secret societies, but i enjoy that aspect of the game alot! Economically the rise of the tiny number of actual rich and the hollowing out of the once 'middle' class is an established trend. The lost/rootlessness of people and the run-down buildings and infrastructure are, sadly, looking prescient for some areas, as is the mix of the very modern and unmaintained old.

also, the presence of newspapers and books all over and the absence of smart phones, "social media" and the pervasiveness of the internet isn't how things are.

Mass surveillance is well represented and is increasingly true, the role of AI in the game is interesting but steers more to a kind of AGI than the kind of ML & generative AI that's surging in the world now

but, as a game to play - i think its still great and plan to follow on with invisible war (accepting its smaller, less impressive story)

while playing i wanted the same as before - i wanted more places to explore, more NPCs to talks too, larger parts of respective locations, more houses/apartments to go into and so on

Played some more Thief (2014). So far, this game has been surprisingly decent on its own merits. If you accept it as a standalone stealth game which uses some minor elements from the Thief series, and you aren't looking for a sequel or a faithful remake, it will probably do fine. That said, I'm only a few chapters in, so take these comments with a grain of salt.

Between missions, you're free to roam the city, just like in Thief 3. During this time, you can restock your supplies, purchase useful items and upgrade some of your equipment. You can also donate gold to get more Focus points, which serve to level up Garrett's abilities. Optionally, you can accept some minor side quests, which usually means breaking into someone's home and stealing a valuable item, like a rare picture or a golden watch. For this, you may also need to purchase some specialized tools, such as a proprietary wrench which can open ventilation shafts, or a razor blade which can cut pictures out of their frames. Additionally, Garrett's hideout is in the clocktower building, and he keeps all of the unique items that you steal on display there.

Gameplay wise, I like some of the new mechanics. For example, guards can now re-light extinguished torches, and they react to the noise that caged birds or dogs make when you approach them. Also, Garrett can do some cool new things, such as examining a picture frame or a bookcase for concealed switches. You get some nice tactile feedback from these actions when using a controller with rumble support. Usually, the purpose of the switches is to reveal a hidden safe or a secret passage.

Now for some minor annoyances. This game doesn't have a dedicated jump button/key, because jumping is now a contextual action. Meaning, if there's an on-screen prompt for jumping, then you can do it, otherwise no. Same thing with mantling. Similarly, rope arrows can only be fired at designated spots, and not on any wooden surface as in the past games. All of this makes the game world feel more scripted and less interactive. As a consequence, avoiding guard patrols while traversing the city feels tedious, due to Garrett's more limited move set.

Anyway, the mission I just completed started off as a brothel infiltration (yeah, they copied Dishonored here). I should note that there's some mild nudity and sexual content on this level. The game also uses profanity at times, and it seems to be "M" rated for those reasons. However, that mission unexpectedly turned into a Tomb Raider style trek through ancient ruins, with some annoying stair puzzles. Lots of backtracking too, which wasn't so great. I'm not super impressed by the story so far, but it seems serviceable at least. We'll see how things go.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-02-14, 13:11:

Played some more Thief (2014). So far, this game has been surprisingly decent on its own merits. If you accept it as a standalon […]
Show full quote

Played some more Thief (2014). So far, this game has been surprisingly decent on its own merits. If you accept it as a standalone stealth game which uses some minor elements from the Thief series, and you aren't looking for a sequel or a faithful remake, it will probably do fine. That said, I'm only a few chapters in, so take these comments with a grain of salt.

Between missions, you're free to roam the city, just like in Thief 3. During this time, you can restock your supplies, purchase useful items and upgrade some of your equipment. You can also donate gold to get more Focus points, which serve to level up Garrett's abilities. Optionally, you can accept some minor side quests, which usually means breaking into someone's home and stealing a valuable item, like a rare picture or a golden watch. For this, you may also need to purchase some specialized tools, such as a proprietary wrench which can open ventilation shafts, or a razor blade which can cut pictures out of their frames. Additionally, Garrett's hideout is in the clocktower building, and he keeps all of the unique items that you steal on display there.

Gameplay wise, I like some of the new mechanics. For example, guards can now re-light extinguished torches, and they react to the noise that caged birds or dogs make when you approach them. Also, Garrett can do some cool new things, such as examining a picture frame or a bookcase for concealed switches. You get some nice tactile feedback from these actions when using a controller with rumble support. Usually, the purpose of the switches is to reveal a hidden safe or a secret passage.

Now for some minor annoyances. This game doesn't have a dedicated jump button/key, because jumping is now a contextual action. Meaning, if there's an on-screen prompt for jumping, then you can do it, otherwise no. Same thing with mantling. Similarly, rope arrows can only be fired at designated spots, and not on any wooden surface as in the past games. All of this makes the game world feel more scripted and less interactive. As a consequence, avoiding guard patrols while traversing the city feels tedious, due to Garrett's more limited move set.

Anyway, the mission I just completed started off as a brothel infiltration (yeah, they copied Dishonored here). I should note that there's some mild nudity and sexual content on this level. The game also uses profanity at times, and it seems to be "M" rated for those reasons. However, that mission unexpectedly turned into a Tomb Raider style trek through ancient ruins, with some annoying stair puzzles. Lots of backtracking too, which wasn't so great. I'm not super impressed by the story so far, but it seems serviceable at least. We'll see how things go.

Thief 2014 is actually the first Thief game I ever enjoyed and finished. But I'm a heretic apparently.

Made some more progress in Thief (2014). I'm starting to like the optional side quests better than some of the main plot missions. In particular, the bank heist DLC was pretty nice. Very reminiscent of a similar level in Thief 2, only smaller. Still, it had some cool design elements like steampunk era security cameras and traps connected to pressure plates. Other side quests that I liked included stealing parts of an automaton for an engineer, and getting some supposedly mystical items for a carnival conman. The latter has a sequence where you're tailing a fellow thief who is completely drunk, which makes the whole thing utterly hilarious.

As for the main plot missions, I'm starting to notice a pattern here. Garrett repeatedly suffers from a modern game issue called "cutscene incompetence". Meaning, you can be as stealthy as possible during a mission, but then a cutscene kicks in, and our so called master thief turns into a bumbling buffoon. Usually to facilitate a "cinematic" chase sequence or a dramatic showdown. While Thief (2014) is certainly not the only game that does this, it's still pretty jarring. For horror fans, there's a plot mission which takes place in an asylum, obviously inspired by the Shalebridge Cradle from Thief 3. But it doesn't quite measure up to its (in)famous predecessor in terms of sheer creepiness.

Lastly, a few words on the sound design. While I initially mentioned that voice acting was mostly solid, there are some exceptions. For example, guards keep having the same conversation over and over again. Often multiple times in a row over the span of a single minute. And it's not just exchanging a few phrases like in Dishonored, these are full length sentences that get repeated incessantly. It becomes annoying after a while. Also, there's one really irritating guy who likes to yell at the top of his lungs in an unpleasant, raspy voice. He's a member of the resistance faction and usually hangs out at the inn where you go to resupply, so you have to get past him every damn time you visit there. I wanted to knock him out so badly, but alas, inns are non-combat zones.

Anyway, I just finished Chapter 5, and I don't think there's much more to go. The plot still isn't grabbing me, so I'm guessing they are saving all the details for the last couple of levels.

Shagittarius wrote on 2025-02-14, 18:05:

Thief 2014 is actually the first Thief game I ever enjoyed and finished. But I'm a heretic apparently.

So far, I found it to be mostly ok. I do concur with the fan sites that it's not a good Thief game. But I view it as a standalone stealth title, so it's not exactly the worst thing in existence.

Path of Exile
It's taken me many attempts to get into this one, but now that I have a few Diablo II clones under my belt, I'm enjoying it. Choosing the Witch character really made a difference, as all the melee characters have an annoying delay or wind-up before the hit actually lands.
I'm midway through Act 3, and so far the game is extremely easy... though that's to be expected with these kinds of games. Another "problem" with the game is how long it is! The main campaign is 10 acts long, and it's taking me 5+ hours per Act.
Still, it's a lot of fun seeing my character build come together, and it's also a great game to play while listening to music or watching a movie or show in the background.

Fallout 3
Another game I've tried to get into many many times over the years. There's a lot I don't like about this one, but the sense of adventure and exploration is pretty cool. The biggest problem with this one for me is that it feels like you are just doing the same thing over and over for hours. Most of the "dungeons" look very similar and there is a serious lack of enemy variety (and you basically deal with every enemy exactly the same way).
The game scales to your level, but it's not as awful as Oblivion; your power level is determined more by your skills and perks than your level, so even if enemies do scale up a bit each time you level up, it's not noticeable at all.
I guess where the game suffers the most is the writing. NPCs feel quite simple compared with those in Fallout (1997), and the dialog is stripped down to the bone. Quests often have a couple of different outcomes, but they just feel insubstantial in comparison to the first game.
Having said that, it's another game that's nice to play while listening to music, etc.

UnderRail
I'm not sure what I think about this one yet. It's clearly inspired by Fallout (1997), but so far is very linear and focused far more on character building and combat than reactivity and complex quests. It's a very tough game even on Normal difficulty, and you need to either do some research beforehand on viable character builds, or be willing to do some experimentation and probably start over after an hour or two.
I decided to play as a pure psychic (basically a wizard), and it was pretty rough to start out. Enemies are extremely lethal early on, and fighting just a couple of enemies at once is basically a death sentence.
Most encounters are fixed, which is something I absolutely hate in RPGs. Every encounter becomes a tactical challenge, which makes me feel like I'm playing a wargame or puzzle game, rather than an RPG. It also means that a poor character build can doom you with no options to get past a mandatory encounter. Fixed encounters also often are used to "gate" your progress and keep you on a linear path in a world that otherwise seems to be large and open, and UnderRail suffers from that so far.
I don't think this is really my kind of RPG, but the world is pretty interesting, so I'll keep playing it.

Namrok wrote on 2025-02-12, 15:58:

Law212 wrote on 2025-02-11, 15:14:

I played through SHOGO , and then started playing a game I never finsihed , Drakan Order of the Flame. I just got to the part that I got to all those years ago and then never got past. Its a very good game.

Shogo is such an artifact of it's time. It was good, mostly. I mean I save scummed like mad to get through it, because it's critical hit system would have a hitscan shotgunner on the other side of a door insta-gib you as the door was swinging open. Since it blocked LOS for you, but not for the AI since the door ceases to exist logically the moment you hit the use key. All the same, it was fun enough, and it's faux Anime aesthetic was a very "You had to be there" throw back to Anime in the 90's. Which was it's own very special time of only the most indirect access to a select few localized shows, expensive imports, or a copy of a copy of a copy of VHS fansubs that seemed to circulate through college anime clubs.

Artifact of its time is why I love it. I had a blast playing the game and yes it has very difficult sections because of how the attacks from enemies work. I also died a lot from doors opening on me in one level. I also blew myself up alot with some of those energy weapons. I also had to cheese a boss or two . Besides all that it was such a fun game. Glad to have it in my collection.

Stalker 2. Play it.

I started to play Maniac Mansion for the first time ever (well I have played the game before, but just messing around and doing nothing for like 10 minutes and turning it off. I was too young to know what to do) It was a ton of fun. I cant wait to play it some more.

I started to play Maniac Mansion for the first time ever

so whats your choice of players ..