Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

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Daehawk
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

I reinstalled Fallout 1. One of my favorite games ever. I visited Shady Sands, cleared the radscorpion den, investigated Vault 15, then went to save Tandi. I killed everyone there then found her dead in her cell. Aw come on. I decided to retry the entire fight the next day and saver her but the game kept crashing on startup over and over. It hates me. I deleted it and have installed Fallout 2. Maybe the improvements will make it easier. Im old.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Paingod »

Blackhawk wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:44 pm
Eel Snave wrote: Thu Jul 09, 2020 2:22 pm I'm perturbed because there aren't any games interesting me at the moment. I don't feel like playing anything too complicated or anything where I have to learn an interface, so I'm just playing the same old boring games I play all the time. I feel like I need to reignite it somehow, but I can't.

I'm getting close with figuring out some stuff on Retroarch that'll make it more useful, but until then I'm borrrreeeeeed.
This has been spring and summer 2020 for a lot of us. I've actually spent quite a bit of time reexamining what I get out of games, and asking whether I still get that. Or if I still need it.
Man, ditto that. I've been struggling so hard at finding a game to captivate me that I've started learning Unity to try and make my own.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Paradroid »

To those in a gaming funk: Try genres you wouldn't normally be very interested in. It's simple advice but here's my personal experience and why I recommend it:

Firstly I recently acquired the first gamepad I've had in about 20 years. I only bought it to play Monster Hunter: World but, since I had it, I thought I may as well install some racing games and platform games I've had in my library for a while - two genres I didn't give a toss about before. To my delight, I found myself enjoying them a lot. I now have lots of games in my library that are effectively new games for me, and since they're genres I don't usually play they feel particularly fresh.

Secondly, I always used to like RPGs and preferred turn based strategy to real time strategy. These days however I can't bear the thought of micromanaging a single character in minute detail and min-maxing him, and with strategy I now much prefer the immediacy of real time to the plod of turn based (and endlessly clicking "end turn" to see something happen).

Anyway those are only my experiences, but the first was almost luck and the second came only after a lot of soul searching. I feel like my library has come alive again.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Blackhawk »

I spun this discussion off into a new thread. I felt like it was a big enough subject to warrant it.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Skinypupy »

Timely, since they’ve come up a few times over the last couple weeks.

How PopCap got just about everybody to play their games.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Blackhawk »

It has occurred to me that I might try and save up for a portable monitor, something that I could set on a lap desk like a laptop. I have a PS4 that I haven't been able to play in more than a year due to the family TV being constantly in use. Plus, that would give me a BluRay option. Has anyone ever done anything like that?
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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The funny dialogs from Tali drunk from Mass Effect 3 at the party.

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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Why haven't I played Dishonoured sooner?!
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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I found it meh. It was ok but I got tired of it and stepped away. Was very bored by the end. Had to force myself to return and finish the last 10 minutes of it. Did not bother with 2.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Sudy »

I've been playing Ultimate Doom (i.e. the 1995 repackaging of the 1993 original, available on Steam) with only GZDoom and Smooth Doom installed as mods. I've actually never played the original Doom. I played Dark Forces at friends' houses growing up, but the first "classic" PC shooter I owned and heavily played was Quake II. I kind of missed this generation.

It's a blast! I'm sure GZDoom does a lot for the playability, but otherwise I couldn't have more fun with a modern shooter. The level design is complex without being frustrating (at least, so far), and the limited visuals actually look great in their simplicity. Some of the "traps" are frustrating, but they only fool you the first time. I actually expected the monster closets to be more annoying given where there series headed, but in this era, it worked. This must have been amazing to play in '93.

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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by disarm »


Sudy wrote:I've been playing Ultimate Doom (i.e. the 1995 repackaging of the 1993 original, available on Steam) with only GZDoom and Smooth Doom installed as mods. I've actually never played the original Doom. I played Dark Forces at friends' houses growing up, but the first "classic" PC shooter I owned and heavily played was Quake II. I kind of missed this generation.

It's a blast! I'm sure GZDoom does a lot for the playability, but otherwise I couldn't have more fun with a modern shooter. The level design is complex without being frustrating (at least, so far), and the limited visuals actually look great in their simplicity. Some of the "traps" are frustrating, but they only fool you the first time. I actually expected the monster closets to be more annoying given where there series headed, but in this era, it worked. This must have been amazing to play in '93.
Yes it was... pretty much mind-blowing at the time
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Sudy »

Getting demons, gore, and pentagrams onto the family PC wasn't going to happen. By the time I got a PC of my own, there was Half-Life et al. and the "old" FPSs looked much less interesting. Hard to believe there was only five years between those two titles... gaming grew by leaps and bounds in those days. And HL2 is somehow 15 years old now? I remember discussing it on this very forum, many of us lamenting the necessity of Steam. Yet the genre doesn't feel as if it's grown nearly as much in the past 15 years.

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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by hitbyambulance »

what's crazy is that Wolfenstein 3D (before DOOM, obviously) was super amazing at the time, but Ultima Underworld (which was even more advanced) actually was released first (and Wolf3d was also preceded by Catacomb 3-D, which was EGA graphics only):

"Id Software's use of texture mapping in Catacomb 3-D, a precursor to Wolfenstein 3D, was influenced by Ultima Underworld. Conflicting accounts exist regarding the extent of this influence, however. In the book Masters of Doom, author David Kushner asserts that the concept was discussed only briefly during a 1991 telephone conversation between Paul Neurath and John Romero. However, Doug Church has said that John Carmack saw the game's summer 1990 software convention demo, and recalled a comment from Carmack that he could write a faster texture mapper. Paul Neurath has recounted the incident similarly, with both Carmack and Romero present."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Un ... gian_Abyss

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catacomb_3-D (and the predecessor, Hovertank 3D: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovertank_3D )
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

Theres only 2 months difference in Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D. So basically same time.

I rented Wolf3D on SNES and hated it. I mean I really hated it. FPS was not for me. I was an overhead RPG and strategy lover. A few months later my wife got me my first PC and it was a store demo PC. It had the shareware of DOOM on it. For some reason seeing those background mountains sold me. I was amazed at its graphics. LOVED it. Back then had no idea who made them. Later that year..94....my friend gave me a copy of DOOM II and we co-op'd that sucker over modems for months. Every night all night. Loved it even more.

Now days I have trouble enjoying rpgs and strategy. But I love FPS still. The old I get the more action and shooter I want it seems.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by hitbyambulance »

Daehawk wrote: Sat Jul 11, 2020 6:00 pm Theres only 2 months difference in Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D. So basically same time.
point being, besides trailing by two months, Wolf3D was zip around and rotate on an X-Y coordinate flat plane. Ultima Underworld had a whole Z-axis, ramped floors, jumping, swimming in water, tracking of throwing objects and fired arrow arcs, inventory management... even DOOM didn't have a lot of that....

(also want to mention Heretic II's fully animated 3rd person view was a pretty neat achievement when it came out in 1998)
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by JetFred »

For all of its information as a massive database of user purchasing and gameplay data, Steam amazes me with how stupid it can be sometimes. Current example...I'm on the page for the FMV adventure game Simulacra 2 and under "More Like This" it lists Doom Eternal.

I guess considering how recently Steam finally added "sort by discount" to the wish list, I shouldn't still be surprised.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Yeah, "more like this" is a feature I really want to use, but as you point out, it's laughably bad.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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My brain has started its annual push to get me to play the Mass Effect series again. I think about it a lot. Ive started watching all kinds of videos on the games. Its only a matter of time. But Ive completed those games like 6 times already. Damn brain! Brain says I haven't gotten all the DLCs yet. Damn brain!
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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I've been in the mood for them, too. I'm holding out for the announced 'trilogy' remaster, though.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Somehow I haven't really played through Mass Effect (any of them) yet. I think I did a couple missions in ME1, but that's it.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Kasey Chang wrote: Tue Jul 14, 2020 2:22 pm Somehow I haven't really played through Mass Effect (any of them) yet. I think I did a couple missions in ME1, but that's it.
Same here.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Paradroid »

I bought Mass Effect the day it was released and played it pretty heavily, until getting to a game-breaking bug at what I estimated at the time to be about halfway through the game. I shelved it to wait for the first patch, and somehow never went back to it. I really need to finish that game some day.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Interesting. Turns out, the promo codes for WH40K Space Wolf are good for 27 months, not 2 weeks as they seem to imply. Their wording seems to imply the promo code expire after 2 weeks and indeed, most of them give an expiration date. But I've tried every promo code they had all the way back to March 2018 and they ALL worked until I get to EARLY March 2018, and when I hit 3 in a row that says "You've either redeemed this code already or it has expired", it's time to stop trying..

I now have like 50+ booster packs (each with 5 cards) 20K of "parts" (need 1000 to "forge" a random card with a good chance of rare or legendary), and many of my weapons are now merged to level 4 or level 5. I guess I should use all of my booster packs to make sure my warriors have a lot of good weapons to choose from. :)

On the other hand, merging weapons to create a slightly more powerful one is not always the right call... While having a weapon that's slightly more powerful, uses slightly less effort, or has better effect radius is nice, sometimes you'd just want TWO of the same card, even if they are slightly less powerful.

And choosing a good deck is always an effort. You need a good mix of movement, weapon, heal, and utility cards. And you have to take the squad into battle to notice deficiencies in the deck. Not enough movement, weapons using too much effort, not enough melee weapons, and so on.

EDIT: Just used up all of my booster packs, and dumped all the lame "common" weapons, plus a few of the uncommon ones. They just don't do enough damage, even if they can strip armor or ignore armor.

The Space Wolf fight mechanic is if you have ANY armor on, the damage you take is halved. But there are some weapon hits that strips armor, and there are some weapons that outright destroys weapon and armor. (And there are some weapons that are indestructible). I got my main guy's Terminator deck to cast shield, which shields all allies in 3 squares to +1 armor for three turns. And it can accumulate to +3 armor. Add that to the wolf companion, and the occasional turret, they are dealing with enemies quite well. Just did another mission to take out a Chaos drop beacon, and the team head to deal with those chaos devils AND chaos marines, who now has like 400+ hp each, and thus my weapons have to match. Fortunately, my team's HPs are almost at 2000 each. But when enemies can do 120-240 damage per hit, it can get dicey esp. when you don't draw a heal card. Just finished another mission where I had to grab another box, then destroy a drop beacon. As expected, enemies pop in from portals, and I've even seen at least two Chaos Marine drop pods. But with the improved weapons from those promo packs, the deck is stacked, and the combat was pretty furious, but nobody took serious damage (at least not below 50%, one guy did get to like 60% after bearing the brunt of 2 devils and 2 marines, but he killed them all with a little help. Now I understand the weapon arcs a little better, I can engineer better ambushes and engagement arcs, like sending the wolf out as a sacrificial unit to draw enemy fire away, so we can shoot them in the back, or use the turret to do the same (except turrets can't move and has much worse firing arcs) or even accept a little friendly fire to kill enemies all at the same time.

I think once I even manage to setup an ambush where a turret was soaking up the attention of two devils (melee only, but they move very fast), while the other member was taking potshots at them, even as the turret kept firing. When one of my guy seems cornered, he got a jumpjet card, so I have him jump behind the turret. We got one down to less than 100 hp, they other slightly more. Next turn, my guy didn't move again so he's first, and he got another jumpjet card. He took one shot at the devil with more HP and jumped away. Now both devils are under 100 hp. So I ordered the turret to self-destruct. Kaboom! That took out both devils.

Space Wolf is full of little moments like this, so while the AI cheats with infinite spawns it still has its charms in certain situations.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Sudy »

Brutal Doom for the original Doom is giddy fun. The guns feel amazing and it's ridiculously over the top. If anything, there are too many weapons, but of course you're not forced to use them. And most things are customizable. The IDKFA modern soundtrack mod by Andrew Hulshult pushes it even further. I think I'd rather play this than Doom 2016. If you like Doom and have never played this mod, you really have to. It's simple to install.

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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by JetFred »

Paradroid wrote: Sun Jul 12, 2020 7:07 am Yeah, "more like this" is a feature I really want to use, but as you point out, it's laughably bad.
You know what's like Atari Vault? Need for Speed Payback. :think:
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Playing WH40K Fire Warrior. It came out in 2004, and despite playing at 1080p, it feels like a game from back then. pretty much Lithtech or similar engine. The only innovation really is you're playing a Tau Empire Fire Warrior fighting back against Imperial Aggression, when one of their governors kidnapped a member of the Tau ruling class, known as an Ethereal, on a newly annexed planet of the Tau Empire with human subjects. As Fire Warrior Krais, you will fight against all the Imperial forces from Infantry to space marines, and even the tech priests.

NOTE: Game crashes hard at start of 2nd level UNLESS you engage windowed mode, any resolution.

Frankly, the game's getting a little monotonous, but that's game design back then for you. First level is you and fellow fire warriors raid this Imperial "prison" but it ended up being huge trench battle where you fight through a series of trenches and bunkers until you penetrate into the interior. Then you fight your way down into the prison through some subterranean tunnels, then through corridors of the prison. Finally rescued the guy and lifted back to the, then an Imperial Warship showed up and launched bajillion boarding pods, so it's repel boarders. Finally got that down after fighting through multiple levels of the ship, including space marine raid on the bridge. Then the captain ordered a counter-boarding operation... so now we've landed on the Imperial Warship and just took out its cannons and its control room. Now I need to fight my way down into the engine room and stop it from leaving...

You are allowed two weapons, but there are quite a few to choose from. Tau uses pulse plasma carbine or rifle, with plasma grenades. Imperials have all sorts of weapons, from machine pistols to assault rifles (multiple types), to shotguns, sniper rifles, lascutters, powersaws, and when you see space marines, bolters. And you can use their weapons, mostly. You also have a powersword if you want to get upclose and personal (or out of ammo).

The weapon interface could use some work, IMHO. There's a swap weapon key (tab?!) and there's a "draw sword" key which holsters the weapon. So how do you draw the weapon? Hit switch weapon again.

There's no lean, and as this is first person, no cover other than actually duck behind projects. OTOH, production for 2004 is actually not bad, does feel like a WH40K game, and this FPS makes a lot more sense than say, Deathwing.


EDIT: Okay, finished. By the end of the game, ONE HIT can take out your shields AND hurt you. Spacemarines have bolters... Both regular and chaos versions. And plasma rifles, rocket launchers, and the tau experimental railgun are even more powerful. Almost no regular troops by the end, and even then they have plasma rifles. You can one hit most enemies with the rocket launcher except dreadnought and junior dreadnought. Plasma needs a few more. The problem is reload time. All of these are EXTREMELY slow to reload. So it's basically strafe, strafe, strafe. There's also a tau pulse gatling.

Story's not bad. The problem I have is the "rating" you get after each mission. Apparently, you need to kill EVERYTHING on the map to max your score, and there are "secret objectives" that you can do for extra score, except you don't know what they are until you finish the mission whether you accomplished it or not. :-P But that's what you get for 15 year old game.

Next to last mission is "destroy the Imperial Titan" by planting bombs all over it so the chaos forces can't use it. Two of the bombs are easy enough. The third one requires dropping a ramp... Except there's no button anywhere... Except for a door you hadn't gone through... And that requires you to climb multiple levels to the VERY top of the building. I actually went up there, and saw a switch, but it's not active. Apparently I missed a spot, because second time around, I found ANOTHER door hiding. ARGH. Finally found the button, pushed, it, and had to find my way down (no direct route), and finally got the 3rd bomb. Then was told I need to deploy a FOURTH bomb... All the way back up again, go at that elevator that wasn't active before... Argh.

Final level was basically through the levels of hell where the governor aligned himself with chaos, and I had to defeat a few chaos demons. I admit I had a cheat going to finish the game.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Skinypupy »

It was kinda weird to see Star Wars TOR show up as a giant banner in Steam today.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Okay, I'm giving up on doing any more achievements with Sniper Elite V2 Remastered. The AI cheats (they can apparently see THROUGH brushes and such) and can hear your shot despite covering noise if they are close enough.

I had the DLC mission Leudendorf Outpost pretty much in the bag. I had planted the first explosive with no problem, and I had just placed the second one. I was moving to place the third one when suddenly I was spotted. Except the direction I was spotted from made no sense... It was the barracks, and I'm next to it. The only way they could have spotted me was they spotted my legs UNDER the slightly raised barracks, over 100 yards away. WTF?! And it was obvious they were shooting at my legs! ARGH! That "never got shot" achievement's ruined. I had to run and engaged several enemies in run-and-gun battle. And I was able to shoot 3 that rushed me, ran for cover, then killed another 3 that were shooting me THROUGH a bush. That's right, they can shoot me THROUGH a bush, because my bullet cam showed all that when I aimed at their muzzle flash. Finally killed those, and 3 more, which cleared the field, until the final group blocking my way out.

And here again, the game cheated. I shot the truck, which exploded, taking out 2. That left 5. I shot one more during the next noise, but somehow, he didn't die. And he somehow spotted me, despite me lying prone, on top of the watchtower. Then someone rushed the tower. I shot him with the silenced pistol when he came up, and that took 2 shots. Then I shot the rest. And turns out there were two more hiding in the trees.

I think I had enough... I'm going to finish Subdivision Infinity, then move onto Sniper Elite 3.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Kasey Chang »

Playing Sniper Elite 3, started a new campaign. Somehow, I've never finished this game, or did I? Achievements said I didn't, savegame says progress 52%, and last time I played was March 2019.

Any way, some of those secondary achievements are HARD! Like... at Halfaya Pass. Where the **** is that visiting general? I never saw hair or hide of him. As for the tank, I shot the driver through the vision slit, then snuck up behind it, dropped a dynamite under its rear, then retreated and put a bullet into the dynamite, and it goes kaboom. Used the rest of grenades and dynamite on the trucks I found.

Next up... Fort Refugio... find the informant.

EDIT: Phew, that's one messy mission. When I play sniper games (and that includes Far Cry games that I can play as sniper), I generally kill EVERYBODY in sight, as I usually have plenty of ammo.

SE3 has learned from their lesson of SEV2 and made the field look wide open, but in reality, it's STILL small areas linked together with certain corridors and paths. But it's obvious there are separate "zones" involved, and once you clear a zone, it doesn't repopulate (unless called for by a scripted event, such as arrival of hostile reinforcements). The areas look more irregular, which helps cope with the illusion of a large area.

Any way, I was stuck on a platform with multiple soldiers, some ducking in and out of buildings. I decided to try a trick I used before... I toss a rock into the middle of the group. As they walk to study it, I toss a grenade at the same point, hopefully take them all out. Unfortunately, only 2 were hit, and how all the OTHER soldiers were alerted (there are at least 6 more besides the 2 I killed). And somehow, one of them was able to spot me through the gaps in the floor (WTF?!) and it became a firefight. Fortunately I was using the semi-auto SVT40 and I was killing them quickly. Had to jump down to avoid a grenade, but did kill them all. And that cleared the whole courtyard. Made my way up to the cell, then found I had to go get the key, so I slowly made my way over, killing every hostile along the way, usually with silenced pistol, except for the officer, whom I snuck up and stabbed. Went back, liberated the informant, and this time, reinforcements showed in the courtyard, but I had planted mines to cover any rushers, then it's a matter of shooting any one who poked his head out. There's a Panzershrek on the roof and I guess I could have just bombarded anyone below with it, but what fun is that? Any way, the informant grabbed a gun and I need to help him get out of the fort the back way. I got up to the backwalls, and started shooting down at all the Italian troops, just as thunder started in the distance... But I was too busy shooting at anyone getting close to the guy. Must have fired 30-40 rounds, some missed, but most hit. Finally, he's out.

Then did the Siwa Oasis mission, where I need to find out what is Project Souche, and where is Valens himself hiding, and Siwa has an office that Valen once used. Slowly shot my way from outside the fort and snuck in. There are also multiple AA guns I need to get rid of. Fortunately, even a grenade is enough to zap the gun and crew... if they hadn't dispersed. Kept shooting my way round the camp, used all the sniper's nests. Even encountered two German snipers and dispatched them. Finally made it to Valens' office, got nothing, but overheard two soldiers talking about three officers were about to betray Valens as they had stolen one of Valens' notebooks which supposedly contained detail plans. Managed to locate an observation point to witness the three officers plotting, then as one of the finally retrieved the notebook, I quickly killed the other two officers (there was no one left in town to help them) I ran after the final guy, who never saw me. I chased him down, snuck up behind him, and put a bullet in his head, but was informed that I somehow... failed the "make it look like an accident" secondary objective. WTF?! I guess I was supposed to wait until he walked next to some explosives and then make it go kaboom! Any way, I just tossed him near the pond he was found next to. Somehow I can't throw him in. Then a Panzer IV showed up.

You kill panzers in SE3 by a) snipe the driver through the tiny vision slit, which renders the vehicle immobile, then b) shoot out the grill in the back protecting engine and fuel tank then put a bullet in the engine. c) Plant an explosive next to the now immobile tank, move back, and detonate the explosive (with a shot or grenade). That's done. I was heading for the exit when a German or Italian sniper team ambushed me. Then the Brit Long Range Patrol showed up. While they suppressed the snipers, I took them out. And that's that.

Next is Kasserine Pass.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Finished Kasserine Pass, where a ton of enemies await, including yet another tank, a couple of half-tracks, and multiple reinforcements. Won't bore you with the details. Shot dead more than a few soldiers. Kill the half-track with a land mine. Killed the tank by realizing he had to pass this road, so I left behind an explosive in the road. As he drove past, I snuck out behind him and as he drove over the explosive, I detonated it with a shot, and that's the end of the tiger Tank. Got into the HQ, but it seems a certain lieutenant has the key. Had to go kill him. When I came back, half-track is patrolling the area (again) and there are soldiers at the "temple" (HQ) that I emptied earlier. Should have left my mines there as the one mine I didn't grab killed like 2-3 soldiers, leaving me with about 5 to kill. Dealt with the half-track by somehow, sniping the gunner as it drove past. Then 2 hits in the engine killed it. As I entered the temple to see Valens' plans, a German sniper team showed up ready to ambush me. Unfortunately for them, I spotted them in most cases before they spotted me, but in cadet difficulty, if you get into view of an enemy you get that ominous warning tone, so you know when to duck back. Had to deal like 5 different snipers before the mission would end.

Finished the Airport mission. Didn't try to go through the middle, so never got the "kill the radio guy so they don't get reinforcement" objective. As a result, had to deal with 2 armored cars and 2 tanks, instead of just 1 armored car after the LRDG went through. Used mines to play hide and seek with guards in the bunker. Saved the prisoners, cleared the control tower, and was able to pick up the additional objectives, like blow up the ammo dump (x3) and went through the radio room to kill the operator (who's still there). Pretty much depopulated the airport of any Axis soldiers except 1 or 2.

Final mission is coming up, the Ratte factory. One does wonder... how would this thing even DRIVE itself out of the valley?

Just figured out that "campaign complete" percentage also refers to all the collectible and extra missions. If you find every last long shot, war diary, complete EVERY optional objective, sniper nest, and so on, then you may complete it 100%. I am NOT a completionist, so I think I will "win" this campaign (again, on cadet), and start on SE4.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Your ability to recount events in a game like you scripted them yourself just baffles me. My entire write-up of two levels would be something like, "Ended up shooting pretty much everybody, used some grenades, reloaded a lot when I messed up the tank part. Next level was kind of confusing but I got the guy without too much trouble." Of course then I would proceed to analyze the experience of playing the game and the design decisions made by the developers, with almost no ability to recall names of characters, the order that things happened, or even what I decided to do.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Must be all that FAQ writing experience, as I do play it.

The Ratte factory was a bit interesting. Sneaking down this narrow passage, then snipe across the valley was interesting. I thought there was a achievement to toss bodies off a bridge, but I can't see a way to actually do that. I keep throwing bodies and they fell back onto the bridge. :D

The physics model got a bit glitchier by endgame, where kills cause the guy to do cartwheels. Shoot the guy in the head and he does a 360 45 degree piroutte before falling to the ground.

Either I got better in this game or more patient, as I recall getting hit too many times, or get surprised by rear attacks, but none of that happened in this game.

Any way, shot my way past all the guards in upper level. I don't see many noise makers, so I basically sniped my way through, rather than going for silent kills. Apparently I missed one of those "advanced blueprints' in the upper level (there are 3, I only got 2), and I really thought I went through everything! Apparently not. Prodest moment? Two guys were walking across this walkway and there wasn't time to duck. I saw an explosive barrel in their path and before they spot me, I put a silenced bullet into the barrel, and that kaboom killed them. That gave me enough time to run for cover. It did wake up like multiple enemies, but those never saw me.

The Ratte factory floor was very nice, and I was able to just shoot my way through both silent and loud, and sometimes sound-masked, as I tend to shoot the generator rather than walking up and kick it. The multiple levels did present some challenges, as did the reinforcements, but the half-track was pretty easy to shoot up. And the soldiers can't find me on the upper walkways, and I just sniped them one by one looking down.

It's time to run, and somehow, there were tons of enemy soldiers walking through the entrance I need t get out from. So it's a matter of shooting my way through them. Then ran up to the "missing sniper's nest" (there were 3, one of which can't be found from up there) and plinked the cargo tray, which dropped a bunch of naval cruiser cannon shells on the Ratte. And that's the end of the mission and the campaign.

This time, with a bit more exploration, total collectibles found was like... 62%. It's a PITA to find those "long-shots", cards, war diaries, and whatnot.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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When you think about it, SE3 is a refinement of SEv2. While the view distances do look far larger, the actual levels are STILL divided into multiple zones, with careful and seamless transition from one into other. As you enter a zone, the connected zones are cached, and as you cross the threshold zone, the next zone is unpacked. There are transitions from zone to zone where you need to go through a corridor of some sort. That's the threshold zone. And there are careful "one-way" zones to force you to go in a certain way. The one-way now makes more sense rather than seemingly arbitrary choices in SEV2. Like a cargo truck blocking the door has left the scene, or a collapsed door behind you.

Dealing with vehicles now makes more sense, with multiple methods. Sniping the gas caps (SEV2) seems a bit too "easy", and a truck only has gas cap on the left side. So I can see why they added the "engine grilles" as weak points. Armored vehicles are roughly the same... and vision slits as the way to take out the driver. Half-track, being basically a truck, has grill in the front, while armored car, like tank, have grills in the back, and driver vision slit in the front. Strangely, if you kill the gunner if the half-track, it will still shoot, it just won't move. Should really be the opposite?

On the other hand, is there only one driver model for all the different vehicles in this game? At least randomize the faces a bit, please! Or change the death scene a little! Maybe the bullet bounced around the cabin and hit in a different direction... but no, all "driver deaths" look the same, even though you hit from different angles.

I am THINKING about playing over some of the missions to do the long-shot, but little else. I'm not a completionist, and I've yet to play SE4.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Daehawk wrote: Fri Jul 10, 2020 11:27 pm I found it meh. It was ok but I got tired of it and stepped away. Was very bored by the end. Had to force myself to return and finish the last 10 minutes of it. Did not bother with 2.
Ahh, see, I just recently finished the first game and thought it was a great strong narrative with some fantastic level design. Probably my favourite first-person game since Half-Life. I wish more first-person games would have strong narratives. Playing through the expansions now.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Omg do I hate this lab / plant level in Bioshock. Its a maze of backtracking and locked doors. Frustrating. Making me want to simply quit the game. I know I need to find the pieces I need to make a cure for the plants but there is nothing marked on this maze of a map now that Ive visited the scientist lady who gets killed. Rooms that were cleared now have turrets and baddies to boot. Weeee not fun at all. How I finished it the first or 2nd or 3rd go I dont even remember.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Huh, I just checked and I don't own either Bioshock or Bioshock 2 for the PC. I did play the original on the X360. I see that Steam has a sale, both games for $4.99. I might as well grab them, maybe? :think:
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Thought lost forever, one of the worst PC games ever has been found
There are bad games and then there is Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, quite possibly the worst game ever made. Centered around John, a sexy mid-twenties plumber, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is a unimaginably terrible adult visual novel from the '90s. Pressured to find a wife by his mom, John meets Jane, a "daddy's girl," and it's your job to make sure the two bump uglies before the credits roll.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

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Do keep in mind that it's a "romantic comedy" thus, it's basically a "game for women", and that's what they thought women would buy back then.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by Daehawk »

Nice scooter John...ya dork! :)...I like scooters btw just I like to make fun of grown men riding them at the same time.
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Re: Video Games Randomness

Post by JetFred »

Reminds me of how people took Trilobyte seriously at the time, and then those guys even got John Hurt for Tender Loving Care. And that "game" played like a single bad softcore Showtime episode from the 90s. The guy has a crazy but beautiful child-like wife who wants him to keep the live-in seductress blonde around and he spends the whole time overacting his anger and complaining about the situation. As if 19-year-old guys were going to relate to how upset he was to have the temptress nurse at his house.
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