Video Games Randomness - Prioritize specific game threads!

[Blackhawk]

Then you'd probably be happier with the 2006 Robin Hood series.

But as to games, there just aren't many that are specifically Robin Hood. Legend of Sherwood was the first one that came to mind, but here's a list. There are other games with elements of that, though. You can certainly play any of the Elder Scrolls as an archer/swordsman, or Mordhau for that in multiplayer. Kingdom Come is set a couple of centuries later, but there are a few parallels (although I'm not sure you'd enjoy it.)

[Fardaza]

My greatest danger in the game continues to be getting sleepy at the keyboard.

Correction: Curiosity has won out over sleepy. Wade Wilson (lvl 46 Cabalist) met his maker tonight behind the second Skeleton Key locked door near Homestead. The first one was easy as pie. I figured "How hard can the second one be?" The whole place is landmines of ground hazards, and everything was 5 levels over me. I got Wade trapped in an Arena filled with Aether steam vents and a boss that chewed through pets like I was pushing them out of a Pez dispenser. One or the other I could handle, but a boss chasing me around over death vents after he ate my pets was more than I could recover from.

A smarter person might have taken their non-HC Level 55 Cabalist up into that area to see what it was about first. I am clearly not that person.

My fascination with Hardcore may be at an end, and I may be interested in doing that Nightblade/Oathkeeper (Dervish) with Acid stacks and DoT's.

My first, and only, fascination with Hardcore came with Dungeon Hack in 1993. I believe they called it permadeath. My characters died 3 times about the same place. I never tried HC again.

After writing the above, I realized that I also played hardcore mode in XCOM1 and 2. Usually quit and started a new game. I did finish each several times in that mode.

[hitbyambulance]

Man thinking of this takes me back to a medieval game on NES I used to rent called Defender of the Crown....

Cinemaware, originally on the Amiga - amazing graphics for 1986, but not much 'game' in there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defender_of_the_Crown

and then one on Genesis called Centurion Defender of Rome.

Electronic Arts, originally on MS-DOS in 1990 (when EA was still a decent publisher)

[Chraolic]

My first, and only, fascination with Hardcore came with Dungeon Hack in 1993. I believe they called it permadeath. My characters died 3 times about the same place. I never tried HC again.

Back in those days games really meant it when they said permadeath. If you died they'd just straight up delete your save and laugh at you. Well, maybe not the latter, but I feel like it was implied.

[Paingod]

My first, and only, fascination with Hardcore came with Dungeon Hack in 1993. I believe they called it permadeath. My characters died 3 times about the same place. I never tried HC again.

Good game, and yeah - it was pretty hard. If I recall, you had to go down a set number of levels that got harder with each level... hoping you found enough gear to keep up with the difficulty of the monsters. I still have the 3.5 discs for this game on a shelf as a momento, and I think found a DOSBox copy of it somewhere and got it running in the last couple of years, too.

I may be interested in doing that Nightblade/Oathkeeper (Dervish) with Acid stacks and DoT's.

Following that "Meltycakes" character build guide, I started an Acid/DoT Dervish. This character died 5 times before getting to level 10. It's just too damn easy to get backed into a corner with a combo of melee in your face and ranged shooting you. It was around levels 10-12 that the build blooms, though, and I was suddenly plowing through groups of enemies - sometimes before they could hit me.

[Fardaza]

I picked up Dungeon Hack on GOG a few years ago. Played a few games. Yes, it is very hard because you don't have enough skills to pick locks and such if you want to play a character that can survive combat.

[Carpet_pissr]

Damn you all and your Grim Dawn talk. You MADE me buy the game, and put countless hours into it already, in a few short days.

WHY?!!? I have the following that I have started (barely, like 30 minutes!), but never finished:
Diablo the latest
Torchlight II
Van something something
Titan Quest
At least one Dragon's Dogma games
Probably others!

WHY?@#?????????????#
https://youtu.be/KqRPOEa3P44?t=78

[Paingod]

Damn you all and your Grim Dawn talk. You MADE me buy the game, and put countless hours into it already, in a few short days.

If it helps, I personally believe it may be the best ARPG around. I also own Diablo, Diablo II, Path of Exiles, Torchlight, Torchlight 2, and Titan Quest.

I'd be sorry, but I'm not.

[hitbyambulance]

i have no regrets on either of the two games i crowdfunded in the past (Grim Dawn and Wreckfest) - both turned out just fine.

(though i chose to get the game plus the initial backer DLC on GOG, but somehow i have a Steam copy as well... i don't remember how i got that.)

[Daehawk]

Since finishing Bioshock Infinite 3 or so days ago Ive not been able to think of anything I want to play. Theres games that go through my head but if I think on them theres more reasons not to play them. Theres some new games Im interested a bit in but they are too high and Im really not looking for a new release anyways. I have my mind on old stuff and they are always replays.

1. Fallout 4. Ive been thinking about this one off and on for months but I dont have the DLCs and I wont play without mods but some mods require the DLC + I dont feel like modding it.

2. KOTOR. Loved these two games. But Ive finished them 5 times or so each and they are kinda old now. I know everything about them.

3. SWTOR . Played it to death. Im Legendary as Ive completed all classes to max lvl.

4. Black Flag . One of my favorite games of all time. First play I was waaaay into it and quit for some reason. I tried again last year or so and didn't get far before quitting. I really dislike the fleet management stuff.

I just cannot think of anything I really want to play. Sitting here alone with no tv or nothing at all to do or anyone to talk to drags when Im not playing something. yet Ive played everything to death. Some new things are just beyond my hardware to run.

EDIT: 5. Mass Effect series. Love these games and enjoy replaying them. But want my next replay...think 6th...to be with all DLC. I have a couple Ive gotten off and on over the years but want them all next go. I no longer want the Remaster. After seeing pics and video it seems to be just added fog and mist and lens flare. YAWN. I also cant do 4k only 1080p and no ray tracing.

[Pyperkub]

My first, and only, fascination with Hardcore came with Dungeon Hack in 1993. I believe they called it permadeath. My characters died 3 times about the same place. I never tried HC again.

Back in those days games really meant it when they said permadeath. If you died they'd just straight up delete your save and laugh at you. Well, maybe not the latter, but I feel like it was implied.

yeah, I remember playing Wizardry 1: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, and in order to avoid permadeath for our characters as we neared the end, we would go into fights with one hand on the PC power switch on the back of the computer, so that if we were about to lose one of the final battles, we would rapidly power off the entire PC before it could permadeath us and save the death state. I think a huge part of the tension of that game was us preparing to go into battle and getting up to be able to reach around the computer and be ready!

Per the wiki above, I guess we could have just ejected the floppy (not sure if that worked with the IBM version), but nuking it from orbit worked for us!

[Daehawk]

After looking over the older Mass Effect Trilogy release it doesn't come with near all the DLC for all three games. Is there no way to get it all unless you buy that new remaster release?

[Blackhawk]

Only if you buy it piece by piece.

[Daehawk]

Only if you buy it piece by piece.

Looking at Origin the season passes for ME2 and ME3 are $10 each. Well not really a season pass but a supposed full pack of all DLC...I think. But theres nothing listed for ME1 and I know it had 2 DLC. Also complicates stuff as I own some packs in some of the series and not other ones. Maybe I can figure it all out by next month or by the stim check. Got some time. Its been at least 3 or 4 years since I replayed the series. Its always been a little weird because that first game came with some kind of built in online central news thing where you got the DLCs and patches.

[Daehawk]

The "All your base are belong to us" meme is 20 years old. The game its from is 29 years old.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us

“All your base are belong to us” is a quote from the opening cutscene of a 1992 game called Zero Wing, which became a meme in the early 2000s. All Your Base Are Belong to Us is a video collection of those memes set to a techno remix of the Zero Wing soundtrack. That video is now 20 years old, and while I could spend the next few paragraphs lamenting my own age, and perhaps crumbling to dust, I want to instead talk about old memes.

[hitbyambulance]

The "All your base are belong to us" meme is 20 years old. The game its from is 29 years old.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us

“All your base are belong to us” is a quote from the opening cutscene of a 1992 game called Zero Wing, which became a meme in the early 2000s. All Your Base Are Belong to Us is a video collection of those memes set to a techno remix of the Zero Wing soundtrack. That video is now 20 years old, and while I could spend the next few paragraphs lamenting my own age, and perhaps crumbling to dust, I want to instead talk about old memes.

an even older one - 1999! the times, they change...

https://methodshop.com/mahir-cagri-i-ki ... celebrity/

[Max Peck]

The Mass Effect 1 DLC can be downloaded for free from EA.

[Daehawk]

I grabbed 3 of my old computer game mags out to read. A January 1994 CGW, December 1995 CGW, and a 2005 Computer Games mag. Its taking me longer to go through them than I thought it would and Ive only gotten through 2.

The Jan 1994 CGW is 243 pages.
The 2005 CG mag is 98 pages
And the one I haven't got to yet is the Dec 1994 holiday CGW one that has 450 pages!

Man those were the days. Reviews and tips for Master of Orion, Seawolf, Privateer, MMOs...fun times.

[Blackhawk]

I remember stacking the November and December 1997 PC gamers in one stack, and all of 2006 or so in another stack. Two issues next to twelve. The two were thicker. That was one magazine that spiraled pretty fast.

[Madmarcus]

1. Fallout 4. Ive been thinking about this one off and on for months but I dont have the DLCs and I wont play without mods but some mods require the DLC + I dont feel like modding it.

I hear you. I love Morrowwind, Oblivion, Skyrim, FO3, FNV, and FO4 but I can't play any of them without mods. I don't know what types of mods are looking for but when I re-installed Fallout 4 a couple of weeks ago I found that there were still tons of QoL and quest mods that didn't need the DLC. You would have to ignore a couple of the big name armor and clothing mods and at least some of the settlement mods though.

[TheMix]

I started looking at FO4VR mods today. While there are some that I'll have to skip because they require one or more of the DLCs, by far the majority of them only required the base game. Don't throw in the towel without doing the research.

[Sudy]

It was Electronic Gaming Monthly for me in the late 90s, before I had a gaming-capable PC. It also seemed to take a nosedive in the early 2000s. I probably only read it for a few years, but I still remember how exciting reading and re-reading it was in the years before I consistently had internet access. Still so hard to imagine such a time.

[Daehawk]

I started getting mags in the late 80s and I bought everything because I had consoles and dreamed of a PC. My wife bought them for me. EGM, Strategy+, VG&CE, PC Gamer, Computer Gaming World(my favorite), GamePro, I mean I cant even name them all. After I had the PC it was all PC mags from then on.

Around 1998 or so I boxed them all up because they were taking up all my room. I think I had like 6 storage boxes packed. I left them in the barn but rats got in them and ruined some. Then my father in law sold that property and the barn was coming down so I went through them and kept one large dresser drawer full of my picks. The rest I allowed to simply be bulldozed. I bet some are still intact under that dirt.

And I HATE that I allowed that. I wish I had them all now..have always regretted that.

[Max Peck]

It's not quite as satisfying as thumbing through a physical magazine, but the online CGW Museum is still around.

[Daehawk]

I use it all the time. You can get a disc with all of them on it too.

[hitbyambulance]

i have so little patience for 'cinematic sequences' now. SKIP SKIP SKIP get me back to the game

[Daehawk]

I like games where once I see them i can skip them. I hate games that make you always watch them.

[Skinypupy]

I’m the opposite. In most of the games I play, the cinematic sequences are one of the main draws because they’re telling the story or setting up the world.

I do agree that non-skippable scenes (once you’ve watched them once) need to die a painful death.

[gbasden]

I’m the opposite. In most of the games I play, the cinematic sequences are one of the main draws because they’re telling the story or setting up the world.

I do agree that non-skippable scenes (once you’ve watched them once) need to die a painful death.

Hard agree on both takes.

[Paingod]

I’m the opposite. In most of the games I play, the cinematic sequences are one of the main draws because they’re telling the story or setting up the world.

I do agree that non-skippable scenes (once you’ve watched them once) need to die a painful death.

Hard agree on both takes.

That right there.

Show me once, you're telling me a story. Show me for the 5th time after I keep dying to that boss, you're wasting my time and pissing me off.

[Blackhawk]

Yep. Without the cutscenes and exposition moments games stop being places and start being collections of mechanics. But once you know the story, a long cutscene isn't adding anything new.

[Rumpy]

I’m the opposite. In most of the games I play, the cinematic sequences are one of the main draws because they’re telling the story or setting up the world.

I do agree that non-skippable scenes (once you’ve watched them once) need to die a painful death.

Depends on the game for me. A game like GTA for instance, the story is only ever going to be secondary to the gameplay as it only ever matters for the scenarios they're setting up. But then you have those like Uncharted and the latest God of War where the story is integral to the gameplay. I really respect games that take the time to build their stories and their world. I think this past generation has seen a lot of great cinematic games that haven't sacrificed gameplay. Some like God of War (2016) are so seemless between gameplay and custcene that they make you feel like you're playing a movie at times.

Then the other end of the spectrum are games that have extended cutscenes/gameplay sequences before you can even get to the next save point, and those I feel don't respect or value a gamer's time very much. (Yakuza series, I'm looking at you!) A two-hour (not exaggerating) cutscene/gameplay sequence is testing the limits of what is acceptable.

An interesting aside, if we take Mafia II as an example, that game wouldn't nearly be atmospheric or compelling without its cutscenes, as there isn't all that much to the game world. Most of its atmosphere is conveyed via its characters.

[hitbyambulance]

collections of mechanics

which is what i'm there for in the first place. the spectrum ranges from 'pure arcade experience' to 'slightly interactive narratives', and i lean hard into the (extreme) former side. i'll sometimes be in the mood for a walking simulator or a QTE-filled movie, but i'm knowingly and intentionally getting into that (and i'm likely not going to complete it unless it's just a few hours long).

i recognize certain exceptions, like anything CDProject does, where the narrative is not a derivative straight-to-video script and actual thought and craft is put into the story, but i still can't get around to actually playing those.

[Daehawk]

Another irk is pre intro credit scenes. I dont care who made the game..I usually already know that anyways. And I sure dont give a rats butt who helped and who paid for it and who shipped it and who told their aunt about it. Ive seen some games have 8 or 9 of those damn scenes at the time you click the desktop icon and then be unskippable EVERY time. Its when I use the Steam load bypass or I find a way and edit it myself. If not I am likely to not play it much. Id prefer to insta skip them the first time but not allowing it the 2nd - 20th time does nothing but make me hate you and remember your company the next time I see a game made by you.

[JetFred]

All games should load straight to a menu. Don't make me start straight into the world and story just for loading the game the first time. You sure aren't going to convince me I'm not playing a game.

Also, when I start the game, don't set me on an unstoppable sequence of intro and cutscenes that gives me no idea when I'll ever get to stop. My life requires me to know whether I'm about to commit 4-5 minutes or 45 minutes. If I can't tell, I already regret playing.

[Rumpy]

Another irk is pre intro credit scenes.

Or unskippable end-credits. I generally don't tend to mind them. But to use Yakuza 0 as an example, you play through an already long gameplay/cutscene sequence (2 hours, bitches!) and are forced to watch unskipabble end-credits, which then leads to yet another cutscene before you're allowed to quit. I really was ready for it to be over by then.

[Blackhawk]

collections of mechanics

which is what i'm there for in the first place. the spectrum ranges from 'pure arcade experience' to 'slightly interactive narratives', and i lean hard into the (extreme) former side. i'll sometimes be in the mood for a walking simulator or a QTE-filled movie, but i'm knowingly and intentionally getting into that (and i'm likely not going to complete it unless it's just a few hours long).

i recognize certain exceptions, like anything CDProject does, where the narrative is not a derivative straight-to-video script and actual thought and craft is put into the story, but i still can't get around to actually playing those.

Narrative isn't at the opposite end of the spectrum from mechanics. Rather they're the two opposing axes on the scale. You can have an immersive sandbox with no actual narrative at all, but where the mechanics still take a back seat to experiencing the setting and environment itself (many people play Elder Scrolls titles this way, for example.)

But to me, mechanics without setting/narrative is like playing a spreadsheet. If I can't be a badass soldier/noble knight/intrepid space explorer, the appeal just isn't there.

[Daehawk]

Ive fired up Jade Empire SE again. Ive finished it about 4 times since it came out and Ive used the keyboard and mouse all those times. But theres a lot of reaching for buttons as I recall so Ive decided to use the controller this time. All the controls seem right except one...its the look up and down. It in backwards...its set like a flight sim so when I move the right stick down I look up and up is down. So frustrating and I cant get used to it. I also dont see a reverse setting. Just running around is crappy but combat is extra crappy. Funny how one out of all controls is ruining this for me.

EDIT: Checking online it seems many others had issue with it and I dont see where anyone fixed it.

[Anonymous Bosch]

Ive fired up Jade Empire SE again. Ive finished it about 4 times since it came out and Ive used the keyboard and mouse all those times. But theres a lot of reaching for buttons as I recall so Ive decided to use the controller this time. All the controls seem right except one...its the look up and down. It in backwards...its set like a flight sim so when I move the right stick down I look up and up is down. So frustrating and I cant get used to it. I also dont see a reverse setting. Just running around is crappy but combat is extra crappy. Funny how one out of all controls is ruining this for me.

EDIT: Checking online it seems many others had issue with it and I dont see where anyone fixed it.

If you're unable to alter controller bindings from within the game, utilities like Pinnacle Game Profiler and Xpadder work great for providing full controller customization (and can be especially useful for older games that lack xinput).

[Daehawk]

I played a little more and deleted it. Its funny as Ive finished it 4 times and loved it each time. But now I just dont care at all. Life aint the same. Im not the gamer I was. Think Ill go back to bed for the day.