It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
thirty days! Yaaaaay!

Me first, me first!!!

Quite Short
---------------------------------------
* Dead Space 3
* BeamNG.drive
* Hitman: Codename 47
* Crysis Remastered
* Ghostrunner
* Industria

Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Long
---------------------------------------

* Dead Space 3
"Dead Space 3" is not a bad game.

I just felt I had to get that out there first, because it might be
easy, given my following comments, for you to assume that I think it's
terrible. I'll admit, I don't really /enjoy/ playing "Dead Space 3";
it is often more chore than pleasure. There's a variety of reasons for
that, but my dislike doesn't mean the game is all bad. It has its
moments, after all.

It's combat is fun. It's much more relaxed than earlier games in the
franchise; although the enemies seem a bit spongier, their placement
and the level design makes it easier to mow them down, Call of Duty
style. Your overpowered weapons and powers make this game more
power-fantasy than survival horror, but that's fine, if you're into
that thing. While the game lacks some really impressive set-pieces
-those moments in the game where you just gaze about going 'wow, that
looks really cool!"- there's a lot of incidental detail that gives the
game's maps a verisimilitude that still holds up after all these
years. The sequences when you're floating around in orbit look quite
nice, and the ice and snow made me feel cold just looking at it.

I'd forgotten how generous the game was with health and ammo pickups.
Unlike earlier "Dead Space" games, I was never running short, and even
if I were, tech-benches (which doubles as your stash and crafting
location) are so frequent that you can easily restock. And if you ever
started running low on supplies, the optional side-missions filled
your coffers with so many crafting materials that I had to leave some
behind because my inventory couldn't hold it all. Sure, all these
beneficence take away a good deal of the game's challenge, but that's
okay.

Some of the gameplay was iffy, though. Because it was designed also as
a co-op game, your AI companion appears and disappears in a way that
breaks immersion; in fact, I sometimes suspected he was entirely a
figment of the main protagonist's imagination (nobody else seems to
notice he's even there, although the game's canon insists he's a real
person). It always made me feel that I was missing out, that my AI
companion was off having more exciting adventures than I was whenever
he was out of sight.

The various mini-games (the mountain climbing bits, the electronic
locks) weren't much fun either; they weren't difficult but felt clunky
and tacked on. Even the optional missions quickly lost their charm;
while each featured its own map - most with unique textures - the
mission structure was simplistic and repetitive. The craftable weapons
- as noted - also were poorly balanced, and it was quite easy to end
up so overpowered as to make combat a breeze (once I got my machine
gun with underslung rocket-launcher (which, as a bonus, slowed down
time), even the biggest bad guys crumbled beneath my firepower.

As for the story and characters... well, they were never the strongest
points of the "Dead Space" franchise, and this third game doesn't
reverse the trend. In fact, it pretty much ignores any growth the
protagonist had in the second game, forcing him to once again go from
selfish, wounded jerk back into hero-willing-to-sacrifice-
himself-to-save-the-world. It was very much a sense of deja vu;
haven't I played this before?

But still, despite all those issues, I don't think "Dead Space 3" is a
bad game. It's not a great one, but it's passable popcorn-movie action
fun. It has a stupid plot, shallow characters, big guns, and lots of
aliens that explode in cartoony violence. It's fine. It's not a bad
game at all. But it's a terrible "Dead Space".

* BeamNG.drive
"BeamNG.drive" is a great game. It's also one that didn't really
entertain me for long.

In some ways, "BeamNG" is a gimmick game. It's extremely robust
physics model -including full soft-body physics for all the cars - is
the game's primary hook, and exploring how those physics affect the
gameplay is really what the game is all about. The cars roll and drive
very convincingly, and the crashes are probably unmatched outside of
dedicated test suites used by automobile manufacturers or researchers.
Driving 90 miles an hour down a highway and then plowing into a wall
result in some extremely realistic results, and "BeamNG" gets a lot of
longevity from that feature alone.

But beyond that there's not much to the game. There's very little in
the way of progression, partially because it's a 'sandbox' game, and
partly because the game is still in open access. There are a variety
of modes - races and whatnot - to play around with, but none of them
are very satisfying. There's a reason the "Need for Speed" and "Forza"
games eschew extremely realistic physics, and that's because the
fantasy of high-speed racing doesn't work all that well in a universe
where your car crumples into pancaked steel and plastic even at 'low
speed' impacts.

"BeamNG" does have a huge variety of game-mods made by fans that can
keep the fun going (the "Flood" mod in particular is fun) but these
aren't always the easiest to get running. The interface on the whole
isn't particularly clean or intuitive, for that matter (again, likely
a result of that whole 'early access' thing). And the playing the game
with digital controls is pure misery; a keyboard is right out, and
even a gamepad is pretty disappointing. If you don't have a wheel, you
won't get half of what the game has to offer.

"BeamNG.drive" is a fascinating project, and what it does well - its
physics model - it does very, very well. I also have full confidence
that eventually this game will evolve into a well-rounded, polished
experience. Even now, its physics engine make it something I think
anyone even marginally interested should experience. I just don't
think that - at this point - it has the longevity to entertain any but
the most hardcore players, and outside of that group, isn't really
worth the price the developers are asking.

But I eagerly await the day when it does.

* Hitman: Codename 47
The forgotten first game of the "Hitman" franchise is often seen as
the weakest of the series, and I can totally understand that. Compared
to the sophistication of the newer games, it is an extremely
simplistic and clunky game. Nonetheless, for years I've also held it
up as my favorite of all the Hitman games. But, not having played the
original in over a decade, I wondered if that was still true. So there
was nothing to do but give the game another try.

Just getting the game to run on modern hardware was a chore. Or
rather, I could get it to run but not without glitches and graphical
flaws. In the end, rather than struggle with various config files and
patches, I chose a simpler path; I pulled out the original CD-ROM,
stuck it into WindowsXP computer, and played it on era-appropriate
hardware.

Visually, the game wasn't going to win me over its more advanced
sequels. Still, for a game released in 2000, it had some impressive
tricks up its sleeve: vegetation that reacted to my passage, an
impressive roiling river, and banners fluttering in the breeze. The
levels themselves were notably large and detailed for a game released
twenty-plus years ago too. The models and animations were less
remarkable, but got the job done well enough.

The game-play was... stiff. This first Hitman was more puzzle game
than shooter, and its sandbox was relatively limited. There really was
only one way to get through the level properly; sure, you could just
start shooting your way to your victim, but clunky controls (and - on
later missions - scripted AI that made the target flee off the map at
the first sign of trouble) made this method of limited utility. No,
the game expected the player to engage in a lot of trial-and-error
play-throughs to figure out what needed to be done, and when.
Sometimes it wasn't even obvious what options were available (for
instance, there was no clue that I needed to talk to the bartender
twice in the third mission), which often meant that the only solution
was to look for guidance from a walkthrough. Fortunately, even after
all these years I /mostly/ remembered what steps were needed to finish
each level, which made the whole thing far less frustrating. But for
those used to the open-ended sandbox of the later Hitman games,
"Codename 47" feels incredibly constricted.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:35 this Wednesday (GMT):
>
>
> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
> thirty days! Yaaaaay!
>
> Me first, me first!!!
>
>
>
> Quite Short
> ---------------------------------------
> * Dead Space 3
> * BeamNG.drive
> * Hitman: Codename 47
> * Crysis Remastered
> * Ghostrunner
> * Industria
>
>
>
> Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
> very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Long
> ---------------------------------------
>
> * Dead Space 3
> "Dead Space 3" is not a bad game.
>
> I just felt I had to get that out there first, because it might be
> easy, given my following comments, for you to assume that I think it's
> terrible. I'll admit, I don't really /enjoy/ playing "Dead Space 3";
> it is often more chore than pleasure. There's a variety of reasons for
> that, but my dislike doesn't mean the game is all bad. It has its
> moments, after all.
>
> It's combat is fun. It's much more relaxed than earlier games in the
> franchise; although the enemies seem a bit spongier, their placement
> and the level design makes it easier to mow them down, Call of Duty
> style. Your overpowered weapons and powers make this game more
> power-fantasy than survival horror, but that's fine, if you're into
> that thing. While the game lacks some really impressive set-pieces
> -those moments in the game where you just gaze about going 'wow, that
> looks really cool!"- there's a lot of incidental detail that gives the
> game's maps a verisimilitude that still holds up after all these
> years. The sequences when you're floating around in orbit look quite
> nice, and the ice and snow made me feel cold just looking at it.
>
> I'd forgotten how generous the game was with health and ammo pickups.
> Unlike earlier "Dead Space" games, I was never running short, and even
> if I were, tech-benches (which doubles as your stash and crafting
> location) are so frequent that you can easily restock. And if you ever
> started running low on supplies, the optional side-missions filled
> your coffers with so many crafting materials that I had to leave some
> behind because my inventory couldn't hold it all. Sure, all these
> beneficence take away a good deal of the game's challenge, but that's
> okay.
>
> Some of the gameplay was iffy, though. Because it was designed also as
> a co-op game, your AI companion appears and disappears in a way that
> breaks immersion; in fact, I sometimes suspected he was entirely a
> figment of the main protagonist's imagination (nobody else seems to
> notice he's even there, although the game's canon insists he's a real
> person). It always made me feel that I was missing out, that my AI
> companion was off having more exciting adventures than I was whenever
> he was out of sight.
>
> The various mini-games (the mountain climbing bits, the electronic
> locks) weren't much fun either; they weren't difficult but felt clunky
> and tacked on. Even the optional missions quickly lost their charm;
> while each featured its own map - most with unique textures - the
> mission structure was simplistic and repetitive. The craftable weapons
> - as noted - also were poorly balanced, and it was quite easy to end
> up so overpowered as to make combat a breeze (once I got my machine
> gun with underslung rocket-launcher (which, as a bonus, slowed down
> time), even the biggest bad guys crumbled beneath my firepower.
>
> As for the story and characters... well, they were never the strongest
> points of the "Dead Space" franchise, and this third game doesn't
> reverse the trend. In fact, it pretty much ignores any growth the
> protagonist had in the second game, forcing him to once again go from
> selfish, wounded jerk back into hero-willing-to-sacrifice-
> himself-to-save-the-world. It was very much a sense of deja vu;
> haven't I played this before?
>
> But still, despite all those issues, I don't think "Dead Space 3" is a
> bad game. It's not a great one, but it's passable popcorn-movie action
> fun. It has a stupid plot, shallow characters, big guns, and lots of
> aliens that explode in cartoony violence. It's fine. It's not a bad
> game at all. But it's a terrible "Dead Space".

Don't you love those games that are fine on their own but ruin a legacy?

> * BeamNG.drive
> "BeamNG.drive" is a great game. It's also one that didn't really
> entertain me for long.
>
> In some ways, "BeamNG" is a gimmick game. It's extremely robust
> physics model -including full soft-body physics for all the cars - is
> the game's primary hook, and exploring how those physics affect the
> gameplay is really what the game is all about. The cars roll and drive
> very convincingly, and the crashes are probably unmatched outside of
> dedicated test suites used by automobile manufacturers or researchers.
> Driving 90 miles an hour down a highway and then plowing into a wall
> result in some extremely realistic results, and "BeamNG" gets a lot of
> longevity from that feature alone.
>
> But beyond that there's not much to the game. There's very little in
> the way of progression, partially because it's a 'sandbox' game, and
> partly because the game is still in open access. There are a variety
> of modes - races and whatnot - to play around with, but none of them
> are very satisfying. There's a reason the "Need for Speed" and "Forza"
> games eschew extremely realistic physics, and that's because the
> fantasy of high-speed racing doesn't work all that well in a universe
> where your car crumples into pancaked steel and plastic even at 'low
> speed' impacts.
>
> "BeamNG" does have a huge variety of game-mods made by fans that can
> keep the fun going (the "Flood" mod in particular is fun) but these
> aren't always the easiest to get running. The interface on the whole
> isn't particularly clean or intuitive, for that matter (again, likely
> a result of that whole 'early access' thing). And the playing the game
> with digital controls is pure misery; a keyboard is right out, and
> even a gamepad is pretty disappointing. If you don't have a wheel, you
> won't get half of what the game has to offer.
>
> "BeamNG.drive" is a fascinating project, and what it does well - its
> physics model - it does very, very well. I also have full confidence
> that eventually this game will evolve into a well-rounded, polished
> experience. Even now, its physics engine make it something I think
> anyone even marginally interested should experience. I just don't
> think that - at this point - it has the longevity to entertain any but
> the most hardcore players, and outside of that group, isn't really
> worth the price the developers are asking.
>
> But I eagerly await the day when it does.

Keep us updated :D

> * Hitman: Codename 47
> The forgotten first game of the "Hitman" franchise is often seen as
> the weakest of the series, and I can totally understand that. Compared
> to the sophistication of the newer games, it is an extremely
> simplistic and clunky game. Nonetheless, for years I've also held it
> up as my favorite of all the Hitman games. But, not having played the
> original in over a decade, I wondered if that was still true. So there
> was nothing to do but give the game another try.
>
> Just getting the game to run on modern hardware was a chore. Or
> rather, I could get it to run but not without glitches and graphical
> flaws. In the end, rather than struggle with various config files and
> patches, I chose a simpler path; I pulled out the original CD-ROM,
> stuck it into WindowsXP computer, and played it on era-appropriate
> hardware.
>
> Visually, the game wasn't going to win me over its more advanced
> sequels. Still, for a game released in 2000, it had some impressive
> tricks up its sleeve: vegetation that reacted to my passage, an
> impressive roiling river, and banners fluttering in the breeze. The
> levels themselves were notably large and detailed for a game released
> twenty-plus years ago too. The models and animations were less
> remarkable, but got the job done well enough.
>
> The game-play was... stiff. This first Hitman was more puzzle game
> than shooter, and its sandbox was relatively limited. There really was
> only one way to get through the level properly; sure, you could just
> start shooting your way to your victim, but clunky controls (and - on
> later missions - scripted AI that made the target flee off the map at
> the first sign of trouble) made this method of limited utility. No,
> the game expected the player to engage in a lot of trial-and-error
> play-throughs to figure out what needed to be done, and when.
> Sometimes it wasn't even obvious what options were available (for
> instance, there was no clue that I needed to talk to the bartender
> twice in the third mission), which often meant that the only solution
> was to look for guidance from a walkthrough. Fortunately, even after
> all these years I /mostly/ remembered what steps were needed to finish
> each level, which made the whole thing far less frustrating. But for
> those used to the open-ended sandbox of the later Hitman games,
> "Codename 47" feels incredibly constricted.
>
> Yet these same constraints are the biggest reason I prefer this game
> to its later sequels; the puzzles are more straightforward and there's
> less need to juggle thousands of different variables. The tighter
> level design also feels more in tune with the character of the Hitman
> himself, who seems the sort to always be in control of the situation,
> with a clear-cut plan for getting in and out with a minimum of fuss
> and bother. The later games always felt too flying-by-the-seat-
> of-my-pants to match the stoic character of the protagonist. Sure, it
> gave the PLAYER more options, but narratively it felt off.
>
> If there's one thing that didn't feel dated, though, it was the
> fantastic soundtrack created by Jesper Kyd. It's hard to believe it's
> actually a MIDI soundtrack (albeit one using custom sound patches and
> Microsoft's DirectMusic software-MIDI emulation). Every track on every
> map was a fantastic listen, and it remains one of the best parts of
> the game.
>
> But the question remains: does "Hitman: Codename 47" remain my
> favorite in the series? Honestly, I'm no longer so sure. I love its
> simplicity and directness (and that music, oooh!) but its clumsy
> controls and trial-and-error gameplay make for some rough gameplay.
> Certainly later games - 2007's "Blood Money" and 2016's "Hitman"
> reboot in particular - give the original some tough competition! I
> can't say if it's my favorite in the series... but it's certainly
> ranks pretty high amongst its peers. That's pretty good for a 24-year
> old game, I think.

>What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?

Another movie & book month for me. I did fire up the tutorial for
Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game hit me
hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit. I did watch
15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though! I will try to switch
gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!

rms

On 01/05/2024 17:44, rms wrote:
>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>
>   Another movie & book month for me.  I did fire up the tutorial for
> Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game hit
> me hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing
> the 10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit.  I did
> watch 15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though!  I will try to
> switch gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!
>

Just a book for me (Vurt but Jeff Noon which if you like Phillip K. Dick
you should like) and also a trip away for my father-in-law's funeral.

Gameplay wise I've got FO:2 up and running as I determined to see what I
missed first time around. Oh and I finally deleted my World of Tanks
account just in case I felt like going back to that steaming pile of shit.

Am 01.05.24 um 17:35 schrieb Spalls Hurgenson:
>
>
> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
> thirty days! Yaaaaay!
>
> Me first, me first!!!
>
>

Yoomp.. what else?

Diablo 4 in WIndows and Doo Lingo in my iPhone. :P

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:

> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
> thirty days! Yaaaaay!

> Me first, me first!!!

> Quite Short
> ---------------------------------------
> * Dead Space 3
> * BeamNG.drive
> * Hitman: Codename 47
> * Crysis Remastered
> * Ghostrunner
> * Industria

> Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
> very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Long
> ---------------------------------------

> * Dead Space 3
> "Dead Space 3" is not a bad game.

> I just felt I had to get that out there first, because it might be
> easy, given my following comments, for you to assume that I think it's
> terrible. I'll admit, I don't really /enjoy/ playing "Dead Space 3";
> it is often more chore than pleasure. There's a variety of reasons for
> that, but my dislike doesn't mean the game is all bad. It has its
> moments, after all.

> It's combat is fun. It's much more relaxed than earlier games in the
> franchise; although the enemies seem a bit spongier, their placement
> and the level design makes it easier to mow them down, Call of Duty
> style. Your overpowered weapons and powers make this game more
> power-fantasy than survival horror, but that's fine, if you're into
> that thing. While the game lacks some really impressive set-pieces
> -those moments in the game where you just gaze about going 'wow, that
> looks really cool!"- there's a lot of incidental detail that gives the
> game's maps a verisimilitude that still holds up after all these
> years. The sequences when you're floating around in orbit look quite
> nice, and the ice and snow made me feel cold just looking at it.

> I'd forgotten how generous the game was with health and ammo pickups.
> Unlike earlier "Dead Space" games, I was never running short, and even
> if I were, tech-benches (which doubles as your stash and crafting
> location) are so frequent that you can easily restock. And if you ever
> started running low on supplies, the optional side-missions filled
> your coffers with so many crafting materials that I had to leave some
> behind because my inventory couldn't hold it all. Sure, all these
> beneficence take away a good deal of the game's challenge, but that's
> okay.

> Some of the gameplay was iffy, though. Because it was designed also as
> a co-op game, your AI companion appears and disappears in a way that
> breaks immersion; in fact, I sometimes suspected he was entirely a
> figment of the main protagonist's imagination (nobody else seems to
> notice he's even there, although the game's canon insists he's a real
> person). It always made me feel that I was missing out, that my AI
> companion was off having more exciting adventures than I was whenever
> he was out of sight.

> The various mini-games (the mountain climbing bits, the electronic
> locks) weren't much fun either; they weren't difficult but felt clunky
> and tacked on. Even the optional missions quickly lost their charm;
> while each featured its own map - most with unique textures - the
> mission structure was simplistic and repetitive. The craftable weapons
> - as noted - also were poorly balanced, and it was quite easy to end
> up so overpowered as to make combat a breeze (once I got my machine
> gun with underslung rocket-launcher (which, as a bonus, slowed down
> time), even the biggest bad guys crumbled beneath my firepower.

> As for the story and characters... well, they were never the strongest
> points of the "Dead Space" franchise, and this third game doesn't
> reverse the trend. In fact, it pretty much ignores any growth the
> protagonist had in the second game, forcing him to once again go from
> selfish, wounded jerk back into hero-willing-to-sacrifice-
> himself-to-save-the-world. It was very much a sense of deja vu;
> haven't I played this before?

> But still, despite all those issues, I don't think "Dead Space 3" is a
> bad game. It's not a great one, but it's passable popcorn-movie action
> fun. It has a stupid plot, shallow characters, big guns, and lots of
> aliens that explode in cartoony violence. It's fine. It's not a bad
> game at all. But it's a terrible "Dead Space".

> * BeamNG.drive
> "BeamNG.drive" is a great game. It's also one that didn't really
> entertain me for long.

> In some ways, "BeamNG" is a gimmick game. It's extremely robust
> physics model -including full soft-body physics for all the cars - is
> the game's primary hook, and exploring how those physics affect the
> gameplay is really what the game is all about. The cars roll and drive
> very convincingly, and the crashes are probably unmatched outside of
> dedicated test suites used by automobile manufacturers or researchers.
> Driving 90 miles an hour down a highway and then plowing into a wall
> result in some extremely realistic results, and "BeamNG" gets a lot of
> longevity from that feature alone.

> But beyond that there's not much to the game. There's very little in
> the way of progression, partially because it's a 'sandbox' game, and
> partly because the game is still in open access. There are a variety
> of modes - races and whatnot - to play around with, but none of them
> are very satisfying. There's a reason the "Need for Speed" and "Forza"
> games eschew extremely realistic physics, and that's because the
> fantasy of high-speed racing doesn't work all that well in a universe
> where your car crumples into pancaked steel and plastic even at 'low
> speed' impacts.

> "BeamNG" does have a huge variety of game-mods made by fans that can
> keep the fun going (the "Flood" mod in particular is fun) but these
> aren't always the easiest to get running. The interface on the whole
> isn't particularly clean or intuitive, for that matter (again, likely
> a result of that whole 'early access' thing). And the playing the game
> with digital controls is pure misery; a keyboard is right out, and
> even a gamepad is pretty disappointing. If you don't have a wheel, you
> won't get half of what the game has to offer.

> "BeamNG.drive" is a fascinating project, and what it does well - its
> physics model - it does very, very well. I also have full confidence
> that eventually this game will evolve into a well-rounded, polished
> experience. Even now, its physics engine make it something I think
> anyone even marginally interested should experience. I just don't
> think that - at this point - it has the longevity to entertain any but
> the most hardcore players, and outside of that group, isn't really
> worth the price the developers are asking.

> But I eagerly await the day when it does.

> * Hitman: Codename 47
> The forgotten first game of the "Hitman" franchise is often seen as
> the weakest of the series, and I can totally understand that. Compared
> to the sophistication of the newer games, it is an extremely
> simplistic and clunky game. Nonetheless, for years I've also held it
> up as my favorite of all the Hitman games. But, not having played the
> original in over a decade, I wondered if that was still true. So there
> was nothing to do but give the game another try.

> Just getting the game to run on modern hardware was a chore. Or
> rather, I could get it to run but not without glitches and graphical
> flaws. In the end, rather than struggle with various config files and
> patches, I chose a simpler path; I pulled out the original CD-ROM,
> stuck it into WindowsXP computer, and played it on era-appropriate
> hardware.

> Visually, the game wasn't going to win me over its more advanced
> sequels. Still, for a game released in 2000, it had some impressive
> tricks up its sleeve: vegetation that reacted to my passage, an
> impressive roiling river, and banners fluttering in the breeze. The
> levels themselves were notably large and detailed for a game released
> twenty-plus years ago too. The models and animations were less
> remarkable, but got the job done well enough.

> The game-play was... stiff. This first Hitman was more puzzle game
> than shooter, and its sandbox was relatively limited. There really was
> only one way to get through the level properly; sure, you could just
> start shooting your way to your victim, but clunky controls (and - on
> later missions - scripted AI that made the target flee off the map at
> the first sign of trouble) made this method of limited utility. No,
> the game expected the player to engage in a lot of trial-and-error
> play-throughs to figure out what needed to be done, and when.
> Sometimes it wasn't even obvious what options were available (for
> instance, there was no clue that I needed to talk to the bartender
> twice in the third mission), which often meant that the only solution
> was to look for guidance from a walkthrough. Fortunately, even after
> all these years I /mostly/ remembered what steps were needed to finish
> each level, which made the whole thing far less frustrating. But for
> those used to the open-ended sandbox of the later Hitman games,
> "Codename 47" feels incredibly constricted.

Ant <ant@zimage.comANT> wrote at 19:57 this Wednesday (GMT):
> Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
>> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
>> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
>> thirty days! Yaaaaay!
>
>> Me first, me first!!!
>
>
>
>> Quite Short
>> ---------------------------------------
>> * Dead Space 3
>> * BeamNG.drive
>> * Hitman: Codename 47
>> * Crysis Remastered
>> * Ghostrunner
>> * Industria
>
>
>
>> Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
>> very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Long
>> ---------------------------------------
>
>> * Dead Space 3
>> "Dead Space 3" is not a bad game.
>
>> I just felt I had to get that out there first, because it might be
>> easy, given my following comments, for you to assume that I think it's
>> terrible. I'll admit, I don't really /enjoy/ playing "Dead Space 3";
>> it is often more chore than pleasure. There's a variety of reasons for
>> that, but my dislike doesn't mean the game is all bad. It has its
>> moments, after all.
>
>> It's combat is fun. It's much more relaxed than earlier games in the
>> franchise; although the enemies seem a bit spongier, their placement
>> and the level design makes it easier to mow them down, Call of Duty
>> style. Your overpowered weapons and powers make this game more
>> power-fantasy than survival horror, but that's fine, if you're into
>> that thing. While the game lacks some really impressive set-pieces
>> -those moments in the game where you just gaze about going 'wow, that
>> looks really cool!"- there's a lot of incidental detail that gives the
>> game's maps a verisimilitude that still holds up after all these
>> years. The sequences when you're floating around in orbit look quite
>> nice, and the ice and snow made me feel cold just looking at it.
>
>> I'd forgotten how generous the game was with health and ammo pickups.
>> Unlike earlier "Dead Space" games, I was never running short, and even
>> if I were, tech-benches (which doubles as your stash and crafting
>> location) are so frequent that you can easily restock. And if you ever
>> started running low on supplies, the optional side-missions filled
>> your coffers with so many crafting materials that I had to leave some
>> behind because my inventory couldn't hold it all. Sure, all these
>> beneficence take away a good deal of the game's challenge, but that's
>> okay.
>
>> Some of the gameplay was iffy, though. Because it was designed also as
>> a co-op game, your AI companion appears and disappears in a way that
>> breaks immersion; in fact, I sometimes suspected he was entirely a
>> figment of the main protagonist's imagination (nobody else seems to
>> notice he's even there, although the game's canon insists he's a real
>> person). It always made me feel that I was missing out, that my AI
>> companion was off having more exciting adventures than I was whenever
>> he was out of sight.
>
>> The various mini-games (the mountain climbing bits, the electronic
>> locks) weren't much fun either; they weren't difficult but felt clunky
>> and tacked on. Even the optional missions quickly lost their charm;
>> while each featured its own map - most with unique textures - the
>> mission structure was simplistic and repetitive. The craftable weapons
>> - as noted - also were poorly balanced, and it was quite easy to end
>> up so overpowered as to make combat a breeze (once I got my machine
>> gun with underslung rocket-launcher (which, as a bonus, slowed down
>> time), even the biggest bad guys crumbled beneath my firepower.
>
>> As for the story and characters... well, they were never the strongest
>> points of the "Dead Space" franchise, and this third game doesn't
>> reverse the trend. In fact, it pretty much ignores any growth the
>> protagonist had in the second game, forcing him to once again go from
>> selfish, wounded jerk back into hero-willing-to-sacrifice-
>> himself-to-save-the-world. It was very much a sense of deja vu;
>> haven't I played this before?
>
>> But still, despite all those issues, I don't think "Dead Space 3" is a
>> bad game. It's not a great one, but it's passable popcorn-movie action
>> fun. It has a stupid plot, shallow characters, big guns, and lots of
>> aliens that explode in cartoony violence. It's fine. It's not a bad
>> game at all. But it's a terrible "Dead Space".
>
>
>
>> * BeamNG.drive
>> "BeamNG.drive" is a great game. It's also one that didn't really
>> entertain me for long.
>
>> In some ways, "BeamNG" is a gimmick game. It's extremely robust
>> physics model -including full soft-body physics for all the cars - is
>> the game's primary hook, and exploring how those physics affect the
>> gameplay is really what the game is all about. The cars roll and drive
>> very convincingly, and the crashes are probably unmatched outside of
>> dedicated test suites used by automobile manufacturers or researchers.
>> Driving 90 miles an hour down a highway and then plowing into a wall
>> result in some extremely realistic results, and "BeamNG" gets a lot of
>> longevity from that feature alone.
>
>> But beyond that there's not much to the game. There's very little in
>> the way of progression, partially because it's a 'sandbox' game, and
>> partly because the game is still in open access. There are a variety
>> of modes - races and whatnot - to play around with, but none of them
>> are very satisfying. There's a reason the "Need for Speed" and "Forza"
>> games eschew extremely realistic physics, and that's because the
>> fantasy of high-speed racing doesn't work all that well in a universe
>> where your car crumples into pancaked steel and plastic even at 'low
>> speed' impacts.
>
>> "BeamNG" does have a huge variety of game-mods made by fans that can
>> keep the fun going (the "Flood" mod in particular is fun) but these
>> aren't always the easiest to get running. The interface on the whole
>> isn't particularly clean or intuitive, for that matter (again, likely
>> a result of that whole 'early access' thing). And the playing the game
>> with digital controls is pure misery; a keyboard is right out, and
>> even a gamepad is pretty disappointing. If you don't have a wheel, you
>> won't get half of what the game has to offer.
>
>> "BeamNG.drive" is a fascinating project, and what it does well - its
>> physics model - it does very, very well. I also have full confidence
>> that eventually this game will evolve into a well-rounded, polished
>> experience. Even now, its physics engine make it something I think
>> anyone even marginally interested should experience. I just don't
>> think that - at this point - it has the longevity to entertain any but
>> the most hardcore players, and outside of that group, isn't really
>> worth the price the developers are asking.
>
>> But I eagerly await the day when it does.
>
>
>
>
>> * Hitman: Codename 47
>> The forgotten first game of the "Hitman" franchise is often seen as
>> the weakest of the series, and I can totally understand that. Compared
>> to the sophistication of the newer games, it is an extremely
>> simplistic and clunky game. Nonetheless, for years I've also held it
>> up as my favorite of all the Hitman games. But, not having played the
>> original in over a decade, I wondered if that was still true. So there
>> was nothing to do but give the game another try.
>
>> Just getting the game to run on modern hardware was a chore. Or
>> rather, I could get it to run but not without glitches and graphical
>> flaws. In the end, rather than struggle with various config files and
>> patches, I chose a simpler path; I pulled out the original CD-ROM,
>> stuck it into WindowsXP computer, and played it on era-appropriate
>> hardware.
>
>> Visually, the game wasn't going to win me over its more advanced
>> sequels. Still, for a game released in 2000, it had some impressive
>> tricks up its sleeve: vegetation that reacted to my passage, an
>> impressive roiling river, and banners fluttering in the breeze. The
>> levels themselves were notably large and detailed for a game released
>> twenty-plus years ago too. The models and animations were less
>> remarkable, but got the job done well enough.
>
>> The game-play was... stiff. This first Hitman was more puzzle game
>> than shooter, and its sandbox was relatively limited. There really was
>> only one way to get through the level properly; sure, you could just
>> start shooting your way to your victim, but clunky controls (and - on
>> later missions - scripted AI that made the target flee off the map at
>> the first sign of trouble) made this method of limited utility. No,
>> the game expected the player to engage in a lot of trial-and-error
>> play-throughs to figure out what needed to be done, and when.
>> Sometimes it wasn't even obvious what options were available (for
>> instance, there was no clue that I needed to talk to the bartender
>> twice in the third mission), which often meant that the only solution
>> was to look for guidance from a walkthrough. Fortunately, even after
>> all these years I /mostly/ remembered what steps were needed to finish
>> each level, which made the whole thing far less frustrating. But for
>> those used to the open-ended sandbox of the later Hitman games,
>> "Codename 47" feels incredibly constricted.
>
>> Yet these same constraints are the biggest reason I prefer this game
>> to its later sequels; the puzzles are more straightforward and there's
>> less need to juggle thousands of different variables. The tighter
>> level design also feels more in tune with the character of the Hitman
>> himself, who seems the sort to always be in control of the situation,
>> with a clear-cut plan for getting in and out with a minimum of fuss
>> and bother. The later games always felt too flying-by-the-seat-
>> of-my-pants to match the stoic character of the protagonist. Sure, it
>> gave the PLAYER more options, but narratively it felt off.
>
>> If there's one thing that didn't feel dated, though, it was the
>> fantastic soundtrack created by Jesper Kyd. It's hard to believe it's
>> actually a MIDI soundtrack (albeit one using custom sound patches and
>> Microsoft's DirectMusic software-MIDI emulation). Every track on every
>> map was a fantastic listen, and it remains one of the best parts of
>> the game.
>
>> But the question remains: does "Hitman: Codename 47" remain my
>> favorite in the series? Honestly, I'm no longer so sure. I love its
>> simplicity and directness (and that music, oooh!) but its clumsy
>> controls and trial-and-error gameplay make for some rough gameplay.
>> Certainly later games - 2007's "Blood Money" and 2016's "Hitman"
>> reboot in particular - give the original some tough competition! I
>> can't say if it's my favorite in the series... but it's certainly
>> ranks pretty high amongst its peers. That's pretty good for a 24-year
>> old game, I think.
>
>
>
>> * Crysis Remastered
>> Look, I bought it because it was on sale, all right? You know how I
>> get when I see something on sale: I'll buy any old thing, no matter if
>> it's worth the price or not.
>
>> Because there's no real reason to purchase "Crysis: Remastered".
>> Certainly not if you - like myself - already own the original game. In
>> fact, I'm not sure it's worth the price of admission even if you've
>> never played the game.
>
>> Not that there's anything wrong with "Crysis"; it's remembered as a
>> classic for a reason. It wasn't just the visuals - although those were
>> outstanding when the game first released in 2007. It offered some very
>> satisfying gameplay as well (end-game notwithstanding). It had robust
>> AI, fun vehicles, giant maps, and the nano-suit gimmick allowed varied
>> gameplay. It was a very satisfying game.
>
>> But it was also a game released almost twenty years ago, and there's
>> very little "Crysis" did that hasn't been matched - or surpassed - by
>> newer games. It's a great game, sure, but there's no real reason you
>> have to play /this/ game anymore. It's most memorable in how much it
>> achieved back in 2007, but if that's not that important to you, you'll
>> get a similar experience playing any of dozens of other, similar FPS
>> games released since then.
>
>> But that's just "Crysis". The new "Remastered" edition is a harder
>> sell. Not because it does anything wrong or worse than the original.
>> In fact, that's the Remastered version's biggest problem: it does
>> very little different from the original. Certainly I had a hard time
>> noticing any visual differences. The original still holds up pretty
>> well, and the remastered? It looks fine. Not great. There doesn't seem
>> to have been much work done to the textures or models, which look a
>> bit dated. Apparently it uses ray-tracing, but I only noticed it in
>> the artificial looking reflections on the nanosuits in the opening
>> cinematic. Honestly, I noticed the engine's deficiencies - forgivable
>> for a 17 year old game - more than any improvements. The game ran, it
>> ran smoothly, and it looked like the original game. That's fine... but
>> hardly a reason to buy it.
>
>> I mean, I guess maybe there are some under-the-hood improvements. It's
>> probably more compatible with modern processors or something. But I
>> couldn't see the difference. Supposedly the 'remastered' version is
>> actually an up-scaled version of the console edition, but it seemed to
>> have all the features I remembered, so I won't hold that against it.
>
>> I had fun with the game, mostly. The last few levels were as painful
>> as I remembered. I spent two hours chopping down every palm tree in
>> the first level using a heavy machine gun, just because the physics
>> model was so fun to play with. My familiarity with the (much better)
>> maps of the first half meant there was little in the way of surprise;
>> even after all these years, I still had all the enemy placements
>> memorized. The story was as schlocky as ever, but I admired the
>> set-design. It was fine. Not great, but fine.
>
>> But I sort of regret paying for a 'remastered' version that was
>> functionally identical to a game I already own several times before.
>
>
>
>
>
>> * Ghostrunner
>> I wasn't sure what to expect from "Ghostrunner". I was afraid it was
>> going to be one of those 'runner' games, where the character is
>> constantly in motion, pushed recklessly forward by the computer in an
>> endless sprint. "Ghostrunner" isn't that, though. It's close, but not
>> quite. You can stop your forward motion at any point, should you
>> chose. It's usually not a good idea - there's a lot of the game where
>> you're jumping over bottomless, instant-death pits - but if you want,
>> lay off the W key and you stop. Usually to die moments later.
>
>> "Ghostrunner" is a first-person parkour game; "Mirror's Edge" in a
>> sci-fi'd cyber-ninja dystopia. But it's got some of "Super Meat Boy"
>> in its genetics too; it's ruthlessly precise and unforgiving. Wall-run
>> from platform to platform, crouch-slide down a ramp, shoot your
>> electro-grapple onto a latch point, do a 180 to hit the next
>> latch-point, then briefly slow-time to dodge incoming fire. It
>> requires immaculate timing to get it right, and miss a step and it's
>> back to the last auto-save. There's no second chances, and you'd
>> better memorize all the enemy positions and trap timings down to the
>> millisecond if you want any chance of getting through.
>
>> I really dislike that sort of thing.
>
>> Not that it's a bad game. I'm sure if you love the challenge of
>> mastering the mechanics and beating your own high-score (the game
>> counts not only time to finish a level, but also number of times you
>> died/respawned) then you'll get a kick out of "Ghostrunner". But, god,
>> getting to that point requires far more persistence and replaying than
>> ever I want to dedicate to a single title. Especially one with such a
>> dull, predictable story and characters. It's a 'git gud, scrub!' game
>> through and through, but with little reward to the challenge except to
>> say, "Hey, I did it." And that's not me. I need more.
>
>> The visuals are nice, though... if a bit repetitive. It's all grey
>> sci-fi techno-hallways lit up in neon, start to finish (with a few
>> side-journeys to an even less cyberspace). It's well detailed -
>> although the game never really expects you to slow down long enough to
>> admire it - but it's all too similar throughout. The techno-soundtrack
>> is the same; not bad tracks any of them, but the pulsing synth gets
>> very samey over the course of the game.
>
>> I don't want to be dismissive of this game; for what it is, it's
>> pretty good. Sure, the controls could have been a bit less clunky, the
>> AI more reactive, the story better. But if you want a game to test
>> your twitch skills to the max, this one will do that just fine. But
>> that is just not the sort of game I enjoy at all.
>
>
>
>> * Industria
>> Earlier this month we had a discussion about so-called 'Slavjank'
>> games. I'm not sure, by definition, if "Industria" could be counted
>> amongst those type games, but only because I don't know where its
>> developers are based. It may not be Slavjank. But it's definitely jank
>> of one sort or another.
>
>> Let me be blunt: "Industria" is not a good game. It's not without its
>> merits; its developers have an eye towards creating interesting
>> set-pieces; they've a talent for lighting it. "Industria" has a
>> surreal world; it reminds me of the diesel-punk aesthetics of Benoit
>> Sokol as seen in the "Syberia" adventure games. It's not - in its
>> setting nor appearance - really all that original, but it's not a
>> badly done imitation either.
>
>> But beyond that? I have little positive to say. It was a
>> disappointment from the /very first word/ uttered in the game. An
>> adventure nominally set in East Berlin and a vaguely eastern European
>> locale, it was incredibly jarring to hear the broad American accents
>> spoken throughout the game by the protagonist. It completely destroyed
>> any sense of immersion.
>
>> Not that there was much of a chance of that happening anyway. The
>> world was so utterly generic, despite the best attempts of the
>> map-makers. It was a poor imitation of Eastern European aesthetics,
>> lacking much of that regions character or detail; a cheap Hollywood
>> rip-off using very obviously purchased game-assets. It even lacked
>> internal consistency, with some posters and signs in German, and
>> others in English. The story was uninteresting, and the protagonist
>> has to be one of the stupidest I've ever had the displeasure to guide
>> through a game ("Golly, I just stepped into a very obvious teleporter
>> that brought me into some alternate reality; I'm so confused that
>> everything is different!")
>
>> The gameplay is a mess; "Industria" doesn't seem to be sure if it
>> wants to be a run-n-gun shooter, a survival game, or a walking sim.
>> The amount of enemies it throws at you suggests the former (as do the
>> over-abundance of ammo pick-ups), but the tiny size of your clips and
>> the clumsy controls are more akin to survival shooters. Meanwhile, the
>> often gratuitously slow pacing and puzzle solving remind me of
>> 'narrative games' like "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture". It's an
>> unsatisfying mixture of elements that don't combine into anything
>> enjoyable. The lack of variety - in locales, in monsters, and in
>> weapons - don't help make things any better. Fortunately, the game is
>> fairly short (largely due to any sort of climax being put off until
>> the inevitable sequel; the game just sort of ends haphazardly) means I
>> didn't have to suffer for long.
>
>> Oh, and did I mention the bugs? 'Cause there were a bunch of those too
>> (my favorite was how the game didn't capture the mouse, so every time
>> I moved too far left or right, my mouse would skim off onto the next
>> screen, and my next mouse-click would essentially alt-tab out of the
>> game. This despite the game being in exclusive full-screen mode).
>
>> I really, really wanted to like this game. I wasn't expecting a
>> masterpiece, but I was willing to overlook many of its flaws in the
>> hope that its unique character and atmosphere would give me a new
>> experience. But all I got was an unexciting, unpolished mess of a game
>> that didn't say or do anything new.
>
>
>
>> ---------------------------------------
>
>> Even though most of the games I played this month left me
>> disappointed, I still think I had a great time overall. I /like/
>> playing different types of games and experiencing all the highs and
>> lows they have to offer. I mean, I wouldn't want to make every month
>> like this month, but I appreciate the variety in styles.
>
>> How about you? Did you have a good month of playing video-games?
>> Basically, what I am asking is...
>
>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>
> Diablo 4 in WIndows and Doo Lingo in my iPhone. :P

On 5/1/2024 5:35 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>
> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
> thirty days! Yaaaaay!
>
> Me first, me first!!!
>
>
>
> Quite Short
> ---------------------------------------
> * Dead Space 3
> * BeamNG.drive
> * Hitman: Codename 47
> * Crysis Remastered
> * Ghostrunner
> * Industria
>
>
>
> Very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,
> very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very Long
> ---------------------------------------
>
> * Dead Space 3
> "Dead Space 3" is not a bad game.
>
> I just felt I had to get that out there first, because it might be
> easy, given my following comments, for you to assume that I think it's
> terrible. I'll admit, I don't really /enjoy/ playing "Dead Space 3";
> it is often more chore than pleasure. There's a variety of reasons for
> that, but my dislike doesn't mean the game is all bad. It has its
> moments, after all.
>
> It's combat is fun. It's much more relaxed than earlier games in the
> franchise; although the enemies seem a bit spongier, their placement
> and the level design makes it easier to mow them down, Call of Duty
> style. Your overpowered weapons and powers make this game more
> power-fantasy than survival horror, but that's fine, if you're into
> that thing. While the game lacks some really impressive set-pieces
> -those moments in the game where you just gaze about going 'wow, that
> looks really cool!"- there's a lot of incidental detail that gives the
> game's maps a verisimilitude that still holds up after all these
> years. The sequences when you're floating around in orbit look quite
> nice, and the ice and snow made me feel cold just looking at it.
>
> I'd forgotten how generous the game was with health and ammo pickups.
> Unlike earlier "Dead Space" games, I was never running short, and even
> if I were, tech-benches (which doubles as your stash and crafting
> location) are so frequent that you can easily restock. And if you ever
> started running low on supplies, the optional side-missions filled
> your coffers with so many crafting materials that I had to leave some
> behind because my inventory couldn't hold it all. Sure, all these
> beneficence take away a good deal of the game's challenge, but that's
> okay.
>
> Some of the gameplay was iffy, though. Because it was designed also as
> a co-op game, your AI companion appears and disappears in a way that
> breaks immersion; in fact, I sometimes suspected he was entirely a
> figment of the main protagonist's imagination (nobody else seems to
> notice he's even there, although the game's canon insists he's a real
> person). It always made me feel that I was missing out, that my AI
> companion was off having more exciting adventures than I was whenever
> he was out of sight.
>
> The various mini-games (the mountain climbing bits, the electronic
> locks) weren't much fun either; they weren't difficult but felt clunky
> and tacked on. Even the optional missions quickly lost their charm;
> while each featured its own map - most with unique textures - the
> mission structure was simplistic and repetitive. The craftable weapons
> - as noted - also were poorly balanced, and it was quite easy to end
> up so overpowered as to make combat a breeze (once I got my machine
> gun with underslung rocket-launcher (which, as a bonus, slowed down
> time), even the biggest bad guys crumbled beneath my firepower.
>
> As for the story and characters... well, they were never the strongest
> points of the "Dead Space" franchise, and this third game doesn't
> reverse the trend. In fact, it pretty much ignores any growth the
> protagonist had in the second game, forcing him to once again go from
> selfish, wounded jerk back into hero-willing-to-sacrifice-
> himself-to-save-the-world. It was very much a sense of deja vu;
> haven't I played this before?
>
> But still, despite all those issues, I don't think "Dead Space 3" is a
> bad game. It's not a great one, but it's passable popcorn-movie action
> fun. It has a stupid plot, shallow characters, big guns, and lots of
> aliens that explode in cartoony violence. It's fine. It's not a bad
> game at all. But it's a terrible "Dead Space".
>
>
>
> * BeamNG.drive
> "BeamNG.drive" is a great game. It's also one that didn't really
> entertain me for long.
>
> In some ways, "BeamNG" is a gimmick game. It's extremely robust
> physics model -including full soft-body physics for all the cars - is
> the game's primary hook, and exploring how those physics affect the
> gameplay is really what the game is all about. The cars roll and drive
> very convincingly, and the crashes are probably unmatched outside of
> dedicated test suites used by automobile manufacturers or researchers.
> Driving 90 miles an hour down a highway and then plowing into a wall
> result in some extremely realistic results, and "BeamNG" gets a lot of
> longevity from that feature alone.
>
> But beyond that there's not much to the game. There's very little in
> the way of progression, partially because it's a 'sandbox' game, and
> partly because the game is still in open access. There are a variety
> of modes - races and whatnot - to play around with, but none of them
> are very satisfying. There's a reason the "Need for Speed" and "Forza"
> games eschew extremely realistic physics, and that's because the
> fantasy of high-speed racing doesn't work all that well in a universe
> where your car crumples into pancaked steel and plastic even at 'low
> speed' impacts.
>
> "BeamNG" does have a huge variety of game-mods made by fans that can
> keep the fun going (the "Flood" mod in particular is fun) but these
> aren't always the easiest to get running. The interface on the whole
> isn't particularly clean or intuitive, for that matter (again, likely
> a result of that whole 'early access' thing). And the playing the game
> with digital controls is pure misery; a keyboard is right out, and
> even a gamepad is pretty disappointing. If you don't have a wheel, you
> won't get half of what the game has to offer.
>
> "BeamNG.drive" is a fascinating project, and what it does well - its
> physics model - it does very, very well. I also have full confidence
> that eventually this game will evolve into a well-rounded, polished
> experience. Even now, its physics engine make it something I think
> anyone even marginally interested should experience. I just don't
> think that - at this point - it has the longevity to entertain any but
> the most hardcore players, and outside of that group, isn't really
> worth the price the developers are asking.
>
> But I eagerly await the day when it does.
>
>
>
>
> * Hitman: Codename 47
> The forgotten first game of the "Hitman" franchise is often seen as
> the weakest of the series, and I can totally understand that. Compared
> to the sophistication of the newer games, it is an extremely
> simplistic and clunky game. Nonetheless, for years I've also held it
> up as my favorite of all the Hitman games. But, not having played the
> original in over a decade, I wondered if that was still true. So there
> was nothing to do but give the game another try.
>
> Just getting the game to run on modern hardware was a chore. Or
> rather, I could get it to run but not without glitches and graphical
> flaws. In the end, rather than struggle with various config files and
> patches, I chose a simpler path; I pulled out the original CD-ROM,
> stuck it into WindowsXP computer, and played it on era-appropriate
> hardware.
>
> Visually, the game wasn't going to win me over its more advanced
> sequels. Still, for a game released in 2000, it had some impressive
> tricks up its sleeve: vegetation that reacted to my passage, an
> impressive roiling river, and banners fluttering in the breeze. The
> levels themselves were notably large and detailed for a game released
> twenty-plus years ago too. The models and animations were less
> remarkable, but got the job done well enough.
>
> The game-play was... stiff. This first Hitman was more puzzle game
> than shooter, and its sandbox was relatively limited. There really was
> only one way to get through the level properly; sure, you could just
> start shooting your way to your victim, but clunky controls (and - on
> later missions - scripted AI that made the target flee off the map at
> the first sign of trouble) made this method of limited utility. No,
> the game expected the player to engage in a lot of trial-and-error
> play-throughs to figure out what needed to be done, and when.
> Sometimes it wasn't even obvious what options were available (for
> instance, there was no clue that I needed to talk to the bartender
> twice in the third mission), which often meant that the only solution
> was to look for guidance from a walkthrough. Fortunately, even after
> all these years I /mostly/ remembered what steps were needed to finish
> each level, which made the whole thing far less frustrating. But for
> those used to the open-ended sandbox of the later Hitman games,
> "Codename 47" feels incredibly constricted.
>
> Yet these same constraints are the biggest reason I prefer this game
> to its later sequels; the puzzles are more straightforward and there's
> less need to juggle thousands of different variables. The tighter
> level design also feels more in tune with the character of the Hitman
> himself, who seems the sort to always be in control of the situation,
> with a clear-cut plan for getting in and out with a minimum of fuss
> and bother. The later games always felt too flying-by-the-seat-
> of-my-pants to match the stoic character of the protagonist. Sure, it
> gave the PLAYER more options, but narratively it felt off.
>
> If there's one thing that didn't feel dated, though, it was the
> fantastic soundtrack created by Jesper Kyd. It's hard to believe it's
> actually a MIDI soundtrack (albeit one using custom sound patches and
> Microsoft's DirectMusic software-MIDI emulation). Every track on every
> map was a fantastic listen, and it remains one of the best parts of
> the game.
>
> But the question remains: does "Hitman: Codename 47" remain my
> favorite in the series? Honestly, I'm no longer so sure. I love its
> simplicity and directness (and that music, oooh!) but its clumsy
> controls and trial-and-error gameplay make for some rough gameplay.
> Certainly later games - 2007's "Blood Money" and 2016's "Hitman"
> reboot in particular - give the original some tough competition! I
> can't say if it's my favorite in the series... but it's certainly
> ranks pretty high amongst its peers. That's pretty good for a 24-year
> old game, I think.
>
>
>
> * Crysis Remastered
> Look, I bought it because it was on sale, all right? You know how I
> get when I see something on sale: I'll buy any old thing, no matter if
> it's worth the price or not.
>
> Because there's no real reason to purchase "Crysis: Remastered".
> Certainly not if you - like myself - already own the original game. In
> fact, I'm not sure it's worth the price of admission even if you've
> never played the game.
>
> Not that there's anything wrong with "Crysis"; it's remembered as a
> classic for a reason. It wasn't just the visuals - although those were
> outstanding when the game first released in 2007. It offered some very
> satisfying gameplay as well (end-game notwithstanding). It had robust
> AI, fun vehicles, giant maps, and the nano-suit gimmick allowed varied
> gameplay. It was a very satisfying game.
>
> But it was also a game released almost twenty years ago, and there's
> very little "Crysis" did that hasn't been matched - or surpassed - by
> newer games. It's a great game, sure, but there's no real reason you
> have to play /this/ game anymore. It's most memorable in how much it
> achieved back in 2007, but if that's not that important to you, you'll
> get a similar experience playing any of dozens of other, similar FPS
> games released since then.
>
> But that's just "Crysis". The new "Remastered" edition is a harder
> sell. Not because it does anything wrong or worse than the original.
> In fact, that's the Remastered version's biggest problem: it does
> very little different from the original. Certainly I had a hard time
> noticing any visual differences. The original still holds up pretty
> well, and the remastered? It looks fine. Not great. There doesn't seem
> to have been much work done to the textures or models, which look a
> bit dated. Apparently it uses ray-tracing, but I only noticed it in
> the artificial looking reflections on the nanosuits in the opening
> cinematic. Honestly, I noticed the engine's deficiencies - forgivable
> for a 17 year old game - more than any improvements. The game ran, it
> ran smoothly, and it looked like the original game. That's fine... but
> hardly a reason to buy it.
>
> I mean, I guess maybe there are some under-the-hood improvements. It's
> probably more compatible with modern processors or something. But I
> couldn't see the difference. Supposedly the 'remastered' version is
> actually an up-scaled version of the console edition, but it seemed to
> have all the features I remembered, so I won't hold that against it.
>
> I had fun with the game, mostly. The last few levels were as painful
> as I remembered. I spent two hours chopping down every palm tree in
> the first level using a heavy machine gun, just because the physics
> model was so fun to play with. My familiarity with the (much better)
> maps of the first half meant there was little in the way of surprise;
> even after all these years, I still had all the enemy placements
> memorized. The story was as schlocky as ever, but I admired the
> set-design. It was fine. Not great, but fine.
>
> But I sort of regret paying for a 'remastered' version that was
> functionally identical to a game I already own several times before.
>
>
>
>
>
> * Ghostrunner
> I wasn't sure what to expect from "Ghostrunner". I was afraid it was
> going to be one of those 'runner' games, where the character is
> constantly in motion, pushed recklessly forward by the computer in an
> endless sprint. "Ghostrunner" isn't that, though. It's close, but not
> quite. You can stop your forward motion at any point, should you
> chose. It's usually not a good idea - there's a lot of the game where
> you're jumping over bottomless, instant-death pits - but if you want,
> lay off the W key and you stop. Usually to die moments later.
>
> "Ghostrunner" is a first-person parkour game; "Mirror's Edge" in a
> sci-fi'd cyber-ninja dystopia. But it's got some of "Super Meat Boy"
> in its genetics too; it's ruthlessly precise and unforgiving. Wall-run
> from platform to platform, crouch-slide down a ramp, shoot your
> electro-grapple onto a latch point, do a 180 to hit the next
> latch-point, then briefly slow-time to dodge incoming fire. It
> requires immaculate timing to get it right, and miss a step and it's
> back to the last auto-save. There's no second chances, and you'd
> better memorize all the enemy positions and trap timings down to the
> millisecond if you want any chance of getting through.
>
> I really dislike that sort of thing.
>
> Not that it's a bad game. I'm sure if you love the challenge of
> mastering the mechanics and beating your own high-score (the game
> counts not only time to finish a level, but also number of times you
> died/respawned) then you'll get a kick out of "Ghostrunner". But, god,
> getting to that point requires far more persistence and replaying than
> ever I want to dedicate to a single title. Especially one with such a
> dull, predictable story and characters. It's a 'git gud, scrub!' game
> through and through, but with little reward to the challenge except to
> say, "Hey, I did it." And that's not me. I need more.
>
> The visuals are nice, though... if a bit repetitive. It's all grey
> sci-fi techno-hallways lit up in neon, start to finish (with a few
> side-journeys to an even less cyberspace). It's well detailed -
> although the game never really expects you to slow down long enough to
> admire it - but it's all too similar throughout. The techno-soundtrack
> is the same; not bad tracks any of them, but the pulsing synth gets
> very samey over the course of the game.
>
> I don't want to be dismissive of this game; for what it is, it's
> pretty good. Sure, the controls could have been a bit less clunky, the
> AI more reactive, the story better. But if you want a game to test
> your twitch skills to the max, this one will do that just fine. But
> that is just not the sort of game I enjoy at all.
>
>
>
> * Industria
> Earlier this month we had a discussion about so-called 'Slavjank'
> games. I'm not sure, by definition, if "Industria" could be counted
> amongst those type games, but only because I don't know where its
> developers are based. It may not be Slavjank. But it's definitely jank
> of one sort or another.
>
> Let me be blunt: "Industria" is not a good game. It's not without its
> merits; its developers have an eye towards creating interesting
> set-pieces; they've a talent for lighting it. "Industria" has a
> surreal world; it reminds me of the diesel-punk aesthetics of Benoit
> Sokol as seen in the "Syberia" adventure games. It's not - in its
> setting nor appearance - really all that original, but it's not a
> badly done imitation either.
>
> But beyond that? I have little positive to say. It was a
> disappointment from the /very first word/ uttered in the game. An
> adventure nominally set in East Berlin and a vaguely eastern European
> locale, it was incredibly jarring to hear the broad American accents
> spoken throughout the game by the protagonist. It completely destroyed
> any sense of immersion.
>
> Not that there was much of a chance of that happening anyway. The
> world was so utterly generic, despite the best attempts of the
> map-makers. It was a poor imitation of Eastern European aesthetics,
> lacking much of that regions character or detail; a cheap Hollywood
> rip-off using very obviously purchased game-assets. It even lacked
> internal consistency, with some posters and signs in German, and
> others in English. The story was uninteresting, and the protagonist
> has to be one of the stupidest I've ever had the displeasure to guide
> through a game ("Golly, I just stepped into a very obvious teleporter
> that brought me into some alternate reality; I'm so confused that
> everything is different!")
>
> The gameplay is a mess; "Industria" doesn't seem to be sure if it
> wants to be a run-n-gun shooter, a survival game, or a walking sim.
> The amount of enemies it throws at you suggests the former (as do the
> over-abundance of ammo pick-ups), but the tiny size of your clips and
> the clumsy controls are more akin to survival shooters. Meanwhile, the
> often gratuitously slow pacing and puzzle solving remind me of
> 'narrative games' like "Everybody's Gone to the Rapture". It's an
> unsatisfying mixture of elements that don't combine into anything
> enjoyable. The lack of variety - in locales, in monsters, and in
> weapons - don't help make things any better. Fortunately, the game is
> fairly short (largely due to any sort of climax being put off until
> the inevitable sequel; the game just sort of ends haphazardly) means I
> didn't have to suffer for long.
>
> Oh, and did I mention the bugs? 'Cause there were a bunch of those too
> (my favorite was how the game didn't capture the mouse, so every time
> I moved too far left or right, my mouse would skim off onto the next
> screen, and my next mouse-click would essentially alt-tab out of the
> game. This despite the game being in exclusive full-screen mode).
>
> I really, really wanted to like this game. I wasn't expecting a
> masterpiece, but I was willing to overlook many of its flaws in the
> hope that its unique character and atmosphere would give me a new
> experience. But all I got was an unexciting, unpolished mess of a game
> that didn't say or do anything new.
>
>
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> Even though most of the games I played this month left me
> disappointed, I still think I had a great time overall. I /like/
> playing different types of games and experiencing all the highs and
> lows they have to offer. I mean, I wouldn't want to make every month
> like this month, but I appreciate the variety in styles.
>
> How about you? Did you have a good month of playing video-games?
> Basically, what I am asking is...
>
> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>
>

candycanearter07 <candycanearter07@candycanearter07.nomail.afraid> wrote:
> >
> > Diablo 4 in WIndows and Doo Lingo in my iPhone. :P
>
> So thats how you learned human language :D

;) It need ant language. ;p
--
"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ..." --Romans 5:1. May (1st & hump) day after napping <3 hrs.
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org.
/ /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) writes:

> Diablo 4 in WIndows and Doo Lingo in my iPhone. :P

Just curious, what do you do in, I assume, Duo Lingo? I've used it for
some Italian language practice but I felt it wasn't very good. Too many
little exercises that weren't progressing to anything more challenging.

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?

My streaming Horizon Forbidden West saga finally finished.

So, I liked the game well enough to play something like 150 hours of
it. What I've said before, the exploration and side missions, that was
all great fun. Not that I did everything, there's probably another 50
hours of this and that I could do still but I'm kinda tired of it. Maybe
I'll do a replay with the PC version at some point, once it comes down
in price.

Some of the new stuff was pretty tedious. New weapons, meh, stuck with
bow and spear. There are melee combos too. With the streaming setup's
input lag sometimes I managed to trigger those and sometimes I didn't.

New skill tree? Nope, it's still a bush. I think I have something like
50 skill points still, don't know where to put those.

Some of the machine overrides are now gated. As if it wasn't enough to
fight through a Cauldron, still need to get parts of some machines to
unlock the override. Not to mention you need the same parts for weapon
and armor updates. I got one legendary armor but actually my upgraded
not so legendary updated armor was better. Plus the upgrade part
collecting for legendary armor seemed legendarily tedious.

The cauldrons had some effort to make them a little different. One was
sort of reversed, you get to the core first, then have a long slog to
get out of there.

Valor Surges, let's call it combat mana. Fill the bar through combat and
you can use a super ability briefly. Handy sometimes but generally, I
didn't bother. Early on "extra rip parts from machines" was good, then a
Doom-like "quad damage" and defense boosting "toughened" were all I
used. Towards the end I forgot I even had those and could've used the
toughened thingy especially to beat the tougher fights. Well, used a
little grit instead.

Main story in the game though, bah. The ending seemed more than a little
weird and rushed and unsatisfying, the setup for the next game likewise.

Oh well, money well spent, I think three months of PS Plus premium with
the first month free is about 35 euros or dollars. Plus the PS5
controller but I expect I'll use that in other games.

On Wed, 1 May 2024 10:44:28 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

>>What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>
> Another movie & book month for me. I did fire up the tutorial for
>Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game hit me
>hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
>10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit. I did watch
>15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though! I will try to switch
>gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!

Either that or we start a "What Have You Been Watching?" and "What
Have You Been Reading?" thread.

(mostly Godzilla movies and CJ Cherryh novels here ;-)

On Thu, 02 May 2024 17:11:46 +0300, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

>Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>
>My streaming Horizon Forbidden West saga finally finished.
>
>So, I liked the game well enough to play something like 150 hours of
>it. What I've said before, the exploration and side missions, that was
>all great fun. Not that I did everything, there's probably another 50
>hours of this and that I could do still but I'm kinda tired of it. Maybe
>I'll do a replay with the PC version at some point, once it comes down
>in price.
>
>Some of the new stuff was pretty tedious. New weapons, meh, stuck with
>bow and spear. There are melee combos too. With the streaming setup's
>input lag sometimes I managed to trigger those and sometimes I didn't.
>
>New skill tree? Nope, it's still a bush. I think I have something like
>50 skill points still, don't know where to put those.
>
>Some of the machine overrides are now gated. As if it wasn't enough to
>fight through a Cauldron, still need to get parts of some machines to
>unlock the override. Not to mention you need the same parts for weapon
>and armor updates. I got one legendary armor but actually my upgraded
>not so legendary updated armor was better. Plus the upgrade part
>collecting for legendary armor seemed legendarily tedious.
>
>The cauldrons had some effort to make them a little different. One was
>sort of reversed, you get to the core first, then have a long slog to
>get out of there.
>
>Valor Surges, let's call it combat mana. Fill the bar through combat and
>you can use a super ability briefly. Handy sometimes but generally, I
>didn't bother. Early on "extra rip parts from machines" was good, then a
>Doom-like "quad damage" and defense boosting "toughened" were all I
>used. Towards the end I forgot I even had those and could've used the
>toughened thingy especially to beat the tougher fights. Well, used a
>little grit instead.
>
>Main story in the game though, bah. The ending seemed more than a little
>weird and rushed and unsatisfying, the setup for the next game likewise.
>
>Oh well, money well spent, I think three months of PS Plus premium with
>the first month free is about 35 euros or dollars. Plus the PS5
>controller but I expect I'll use that in other games.

Disappointing. I generally enjoyed the first "Horizon" game, even if I
found it to be a bit too formulaic. But it had pleasing visuals and
the central game-loop and mechanics were satisfying enough (the combat
was a bit too melee-focused, and the camera was somewhat uncooperative
but otherwise it was fine).

But it sounds like the sequel got kitchen-sinked*, with the developers
adding in new ideas willy-nilly without really understanding how it
would affect the overall balance, loop, and atmosphere of the game.
It's always tempting to do 'same... but more!' (and for DLC I'd say
perfectly acceptable) but with sequels, you need to be willing to pare
away almost as much. Or just, you know, start an entirely new IP so
your systems can stand on their own without being compared to an
already beloved title.**

I figure eventually I'll give "Forbidden West" a try, and I'd even
wager good money that I'll largely enjoy the game... but only about as
much as I enjoyed "Assassins Creed 3": mindless fun, sure, but already
slightly bored with the game before I even finish the tutorial because
its core lacks originality and the the newer features don't mesh well
with the old. But - expecting that - the price of entry will have to
drop significantly before I add it to my library.

------------------------
* I'm gonna make this phrase a thing, no matter how long I have to
keep at it! ;-)
** and I'm gonna keep bitching about publisher's reliance on rehashing
old IPs over creating new ones for a long time too. ;-)

On 5/1/2024 8:35 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>
>
> It's that moment you've all been waiting for, kids. No, not the
> opening of the bar (that comes later). It's our monthly thread where
> we all share what video games have occupied our time for the past
> thirty days! Yaaaaay!

> * Dead Space 3

DS1 has a bug that won't let me past a very early part, DS2 I just
couldn't get into, not my type of game. It sounds like I might like
this one better. Still with that experience behind me I don't see
myself buying it. If it ever comes out free, sure.

> * Ghostrunner

Pixel perfect platforming was never fun for me, it's even worse in 3d
games.

> ---------------------------------------
>
> Even though most of the games I played this month left me
> disappointed, I still think I had a great time overall. I /like/
> playing different types of games and experiencing all the highs and
> lows they have to offer. I mean, I wouldn't want to make every month
> like this month, but I appreciate the variety in styles.

My experience was kind of like yours. I played a lot of games, only a
few for any length of time.

> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?

I played a lot of Epic or Prime to Epic Freebies (I don't remember where
they all came from so sorry if I put just Epic when it actually came
from prime but appears on Epic, confusing...) and not much else. I'll
try to keep those short as I already posted on most of those.

**** Fallout: Nevada (Fallout 2 mod set before any of the official
games) I'm really enjoying this so far. After my last Fallout 2
attempt, I thought it was just too aged, but after starting this and
really getting into it, I can see it's not aged, I'd just played it far
too many times. This is fresh content to me and I'm eating it up.

Yes I'm modding the inventory as I can't be bothered going back and
forth to stashes, which just feels like make-work to me now. And yes
I'm finding some of the game mechanics annoying. I got stuck on how to
set traps for a certain quest, and found that you have to put the traps
in your hand and then click on it, then click on yourself (I had to look
up a video as I was unable to find any text on it, and even he didn't
explain that, but I noticed what he was doing.) Unfortunately this mod
goes much further into crafting and combining things, which while I get
for a post apoc game, I don't care for. I already got into a wiki as a
lot of things are easy to miss because of interactions like that.

I'm also remembering you pretty much have to play Fallout 2 like that if
you care about completing most of the game and content as even your
initial stats and doing things in certain orders will lock you out of
other things (which has already happened to me in Nevada a couple times,
with saves too far back to go back to.)

**** Atom Eve (Prime to Epic Freebie) - Sort of like a Teltale game, you
battle as a superhero in turn based battles, have 3 part skill tree to
choose from for advancing and have some text rp choices. It all sounds
meh, but really was very good and I'm tempted to play it again to see
different outcomes. It's also mercifully short for what it was at 8
hours for me, leaving me wanting more for a change.

*** Gigabash (Epic Freebie) - Kaiju fighting game. Fun little top down
action game, I'm sure intended more for local & internet multiplayer
pvp, but I played the campaign to the end in a few hours. Worth playing
as a short distraction.

----- Did Not Finish ----

*** Dying Light (Epic Freebie) - zombie survival/killing/parkour game.
yeah, the parkour isn't bad, but it's not great either, well that's
pretty much the rest of the game too. There's points I was killing
something like 50 zombies just to clear out an area to try to open an
ambulence to see if I could get another first aid kit. And there were
points I was killed easily by a few enemies. Nightime was hell, if
you're spotted by one of the night mobs, it's pretty much over. I did
manage to kill a couple, but it didn't matter as that just brought more.
The strategies the game tells you to use don't work. UV lights just
make them back up for a second or two then leap into the light at you,
doing at least half your health, and if they grab you it's over.

More than most "open world" games there's tons of back and forth, and it
gets very repetitive. It was fun playing it for a good while though.

*** F.I.S.T. Forged in Shadow. (Epic Freebie) - a fighting platformer 2d
game with 3d assets and humanoid animals. For most of the game the
platforming was fairly easy, and it was the challenge of the fights that
were fun, but eventually I got to a point I couldn't find a way I could
get forward through trap hallways, and those had gotten harder and
harder to that point. I probably could've looked up how to get further,
but at that point I'd had a couple spots that were really hard getting
through and didn't feel like continuing down that path. If you like
difficult platforming, you'll probably like that, but I don't think
anyone here does.

*** 20 Minutes 'Till Dawn (Epic Freebie) - Vampire Survivors
clone/Bullet Heaven (or we might call it Robotron-like?) I don't see a
post about me playing it in my archive, I could've sworn I posted about
it. I'm not sure it was this month, but as I don't seem to have a post
on it here it is. It's a low pixel count VS clone, it started out fine,
but seems a bit harder to progress, and much less options and unlocks.
It also has a dark aesthetic that makes it hard to tell what's going on.
I quit before getting to the third map. So not as good, might be worth
a try if you liked Vampire Survivors, might not. Almost definately not
if you didn't like VS, If you haven't tried VS, spend the $2 to do so
before even bothering with this one.

*** Black Book (Epic Freebie)- Slavic black magic card battler. The
subject matter is interesting, I'm just not that into the card battler
mechanic. If you can get past that, the subject matter might be worth it.

* Lisa: The Painful (Epic Freebie) - I mention this one only because the
reviews are so glowing. This is a terrible indy side scrolling rpg that
looks and feels like it could've come as early magazine disk shovelware.
It didn't seem to be buggy at least. The only thing it's got going
for it is the very disturbing subject matter, which I don't care for and
I feel like it's supposed to be darkly funny, which I also just didn't
find funny.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

On 5/2/2024 9:27 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
> On Wed, 1 May 2024 10:44:28 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
> wrote:
>
>>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>>
>> Another movie & book month for me. I did fire up the tutorial for
>> Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game hit me
>> hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
>> 10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit. I did watch
>> 15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though! I will try to switch
>> gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!
>
>
> Either that or we start a "What Have You Been Watching?" and "What
> Have You Been Reading?" thread. >
> (mostly Godzilla movies and CJ Cherryh novels here ;-)

I haven't read a book in a long time.

I've mostly been watching Star Trek Discovery of late. With a dash of
Lower Decks, which I didn't like initially, but my daughter wanted to
watch and it's grown on me. Lower Decks isn't entirely appropriate for
her age, but I'm not about to shut it off for some sex remarks.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

> If it ever comes out free, sure.

It's $3.99 on steam right now......

rms

> * Dead Space 3

Gifted! I just recalled though that the story really ends in the
Awakened DLC. That's $5 though, more than the game! You can get that
yourself :)

rms

>* Dead Space 3

[ Through pure chance I saved my review of the DS games from a couple
years back. Did Spalls also play the Awakened DLC, which completes the
series storyline? He doesn't mention it....]

" Dead Space 1
Dead Space 2
Dead Space 3
Yes! I played through all the PC games! This is upon getting the bug after
finishing the two prequel novels Dead Space: Martyr and Dead Space Catalyst
a month or two ago. After finishing the 3rd I also watched the two short
animated films Dead Space: Downfall and Dead Space: Aftermath. That's a lot
of Dead Space!

And it was all enjoyable, in that B-movie sense. The second game is
probably the best for me; retaining the claustrophobic tension of the first
while introducing new areas and delving more into the mechanics of Unitology
religion. My initial distaste for DS3 after finishing it many years ago has
worn off for the most part -- Yes it has entirely too many doors to open
once you hit the planet; the plot is spread out with several moving parts,
reducing the tight cohesion of the first two games; there's a whack-a-mole
quality to the monsters in parts. But there are good bits as well, and the
plot twists and resolution I ended up accepting. It has a finishing DLC, be
sure to play that. Anyone else excited for the Dead Space 1 remaster that
is due soon? "

rms

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> looked up from reading the
entrails of the porn spammer to utter "The Augury is good, the signs
say:

>On Wed, 1 May 2024 10:44:28 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
>wrote:
>
>>>What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>>
>> Another movie & book month for me. I did fire up the tutorial for
>>Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game hit me
>>hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
>>10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit. I did watch
>>15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though! I will try to switch
>>gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!
>
>
>Either that or we start a "What Have You Been Watching?" and "What
>Have You Been Reading?" thread.
>
>(mostly Godzilla movies and CJ Cherryh novels here ;-)

24 and Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books.

Xocyll

On 02/05/2024 21:26, Justisaur wrote:
> On 5/2/2024 9:27 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>> On Wed, 1 May 2024 10:44:28 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>>>
>>>    Another movie & book month for me.  I did fire up the tutorial for
>>> Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game
>>> hit me
>>> hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
>>> 10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit.  I did
>>> watch
>>> 15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though!  I will try to
>>> switch
>>> gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!
>>
>>
>> Either that or we start a "What Have You Been Watching?" and "What
>> Have You Been Reading?" thread. >
>> (mostly Godzilla movies and CJ Cherryh novels here ;-)
>
> I haven't read a book in a long time.
>
> I've mostly been watching Star Trek Discovery of late.  With a dash of
> Lower Decks, which I didn't like initially, but my daughter wanted to
> watch and it's grown on me.  Lower Decks isn't entirely appropriate for
> her age, but I'm not about to shut it off for some sex remarks.
>

I've very much got back into books and one of the good thing about it is
as myself and my better half have some rather different views on what we
want to watch on TV it means I can sit on the sofa and just read.

On 5/2/2024 2:56 PM, rms wrote:
>> * Dead Space 3
>
>   Gifted!  I just recalled though that the story really ends in the
> Awakened DLC.  That's $5 though, more than the game!  You can get that
> yourself :)
>
> rms

Uh, what? Are you saying you bought the game for me?! I don't know how
to respond! *confused embarrassed grateful* I've only had one friend
(RL) buy a video game for me, Torchlight II because he wanted to play it
with me, but then we never seemed to be on at the same time to play it
together, and we drifted apart.

If you mean through steam, I don't seem to have it.

--
-Justisaur

ø-ø
(\_/)\
`-'\ `--.___,
¶¬'\( ,_.-'
\\
^'

>If you mean through steam, I don't seem to have it.

Look under justisaur/Inventory/Gifts probably there. haven't sent one
of these in a while!

rms

On Fri, 3 May 2024 15:18:56 +0100, JAB <noway@nochance.com> wrote:

>On 02/05/2024 21:26, Justisaur wrote:
>> On 5/2/2024 9:27 AM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>>> On Wed, 1 May 2024 10:44:28 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>> What Have You Been Playing... IN APRIL 2024?
>>>>
>>>>    Another movie & book month for me.  I did fire up the tutorial for
>>>> Homeworld 1 Remastered, but the initial hump of starting a new game
>>>> hit me
>>>> hard and after fumbling with learning keystroke commands & finishing the
>>>> 10minute tutorial I decided I had to set it aside for a bit.  I did
>>>> watch
>>>> 15+ movies & finished 4 or 5 books in April though!  I will try to
>>>> switch
>>>> gears to a gaming focus in May, I promise!
>>>
>>>
>>> Either that or we start a "What Have You Been Watching?" and "What
>>> Have You Been Reading?" thread. >
>>> (mostly Godzilla movies and CJ Cherryh novels here ;-)
>>
>> I haven't read a book in a long time.
>>
>> I've mostly been watching Star Trek Discovery of late.  With a dash of
>> Lower Decks, which I didn't like initially, but my daughter wanted to
>> watch and it's grown on me.  Lower Decks isn't entirely appropriate for
>> her age, but I'm not about to shut it off for some sex remarks.
>>
>
>I've very much got back into books and one of the good thing about it is
>as myself and my better half have some rather different views on what we
>want to watch on TV it means I can sit on the sofa and just read.

I go through bursts of different media.

One month, I might be focused on YouTube. Then, next month, I notice
that there's been a bunch of movies and TV shows I haven't watched
yet; better catch up! Oh no, all that time spent on movies means I
didn't read all those fascinating articles in magazines or on
websites; well, I know what I'm doing that month! And around and
around and around, trying desperately to keep up with all the media.

Admittedly, books get short shrift. I usually turn to them as I wait
for the lists of other media to 'recharge'. But that's because I tend
to become so engrossed that a whole evening can disappear devouring a
single book (some novels are worse than Sid Meier's Civilization
games! ;-).

Meanwhile, amongst all this I feel obligated to play computer games
too. Oh, and then the family needs talking too occassionally. And
there's that annoying outdoors that keeps demanding I enjoy long walks
in the woods...

Really, we need to slow down the planet's rotation by 25% so there's
more time per day. Can somebody get on that already?

On Thu, 2 May 2024 16:00:48 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

>>* Dead Space 3

> [ Through pure chance I saved my review of the DS games from a couple
>years back. Did Spalls also play the Awakened DLC, which completes the
>series storyline? He doesn't mention it....]

No. As you pointed out, it's an extra five bucks and - given how
unimpressed I was by the base game - I never could get myself to spend
the extra money for what I knew was going to be more of a lackluster
experience.

I did watch a playthrough on YouTube though. I wanted to see how the
story 'ends' (well, as much as EA allowed it to end)

>" Dead Space 1
> Dead Space 2
> Dead Space 3
>Yes! I played through all the PC games! This is upon getting the bug after
>finishing the two prequel novels Dead Space: Martyr and Dead Space Catalyst
>a month or two ago. After finishing the 3rd I also watched the two short
>animated films Dead Space: Downfall and Dead Space: Aftermath. That's a lot
>of Dead Space!

You missed out on the comic books! They're vitally important to the
Dead Space canon. Can't get the full story without the comic books.*
;-)

>
>And it was all enjoyable, in that B-movie sense. The second game is
>probably the best for me; retaining the claustrophobic tension of the first
>while introducing new areas and delving more into the mechanics of Unitology
>religion.

I agree with you on the 2nd game; it is by far my favorite bit in the
entire franchise. It is, narratively, far better paced, it has more
variety in its locales, the controls are smoother, and the scares
aren't as heavily telegraphed.

>My initial distaste for DS3 after finishing it many years ago has
>worn off for the most part -- Yes it has entirely too many doors to open
>once you hit the planet; the plot is spread out with several moving parts,
>reducing the tight cohesion of the first two games; there's a whack-a-mole
>quality to the monsters in parts. But there are good bits as well, and the
>plot twists and resolution I ended up accepting. It has a finishing DLC, be
>sure to play that. Anyone else excited for the Dead Space 1 remaster that
>is due soon? "

As I've said, DS3 isn't a bad game. But it's more shooter-action than
the survival-horror of the first two games. Story and atmosphere are
secondary to the combat; you're an overpowered killing machine
bang-banging your way through a bunch of generic aliens. The needs of
the co-op mechanics don't help much either (maintaining the atmosphere
of horror is really hard to do when you're not alone, after all). It's
fine for what it is; I just think it's inferior to the rest of the
games.

We'll see about the remake. I finally broke down and bought it a few
days ago** and it's waiting for me to give it a try. Maybe you'll find
my opinions on that experience at our next "What Have You Been
Playing" thread.*** ;-)

----------
* not really
** it was on sale, need I say more?
*** promise... or threat? You decide!

On Thu, 2 May 2024 15:56:13 -0600, "rms" <rsquiresMOO@MOOflashMOO.net>
wrote:

>> * Dead Space 3
>
> Gifted! I just recalled though that the story really ends in the
>Awakened DLC. That's $5 though, more than the game! You can get that
>yourself :)

That lack has just been taken care of. ;-)

There is still a bunch of additional DLC (cosmetics, etc.) if anyone
else wants to contribute to Justisaur's collection. ;-)