What Video Game Are You Currently Playing?

[ReaperAA]

3 hours ago, Rudolph said:

You are jumping from one alternate reality to another in order to prevent the W’rkncacnter from being released from Lh'owon's sun.

 

I do prefer the fan-made Eternal X, which uses a similar premise in a much more straightforward and comprehensible fashion.

 

That I understood about stopping W'rkncacnter by jumping into timelines. But what is happing in between those is pretty weird. One map we are fighting for Durandal, then in the next map we are fighting for Tycho, then again fighting for Durandal again. Also the terminals in the "dream" maps (the ones following the Electric Sheep hub maps) are pretty.... weird? Nonetheless, I am kind of enjoying it. The level design seems slightly better than M2 and has less fighting swamp aliens in water segments.

 

Also, speaking of fan projects. One that I have an eye on is Apotheosis X. I am definitely playing that one. Eternal X also seems to be very well regarded among the Marathon community alongside some other mapsets/scenarios like Phoenix and Istoria

[Rudolph]

What I especially liked about Eternal X, in addition to featuring an engaging story and being generally more comprehensible than Infinity, is that it feels like a love letter to the trilogy, as you get to revisit familiar locations and experience previously-mentioned-but-not-shown events. It even manages to incorporate elements from Pathways Into Darkness, Marathon's spiritual predecessor, and wrap the whole thing into one satisfying package. Also, I remember replacing the soundtrack - with the exceptions of the title screen and the intermission levels - with tracks from Aliens Versus Predator and even Escape From Butcher Bay for the final levels, making the whole journey feel much more epic. :P

Edited August 3, 2023 by Rudolph

[ReaperAA]

@Rudolph Just completed Maraton Infinity. Despite it's confusing storyline nature, I can still comfortably say that it's my favorite of the trilogy. Much better overall level design than M1 and much less boring underwater flickta combat than M2.

The last level (Aye Mak Sicur) was also much better than those of M1 and M2.

Probably gonna jump into custom Marathon sccenarios now. Apotheosis X is on sight.

[aloysiusfreeman]

Just finished There is No Game: Wrong Dimension. 
 

what an absolute charming, witty game. 

[Astar]

6 minutes ago, aloysiusfreeman said:

Just finished There is No Game: Wrong Dimension. 
 

what an absolute charming, witty game. 

I agree. Brilliant game

[ReaperAA]

Currently playing through Apotheosis X. A standalone TC for Marathon using Aleph One.

 

For anyone who is a fan of Boomer/retro shooters, I absolutely recommend to check it, even if you aren't a fan of original Marathon games. Apart from cool looking levels, Apotheosis X comes with its own higher quality graphics and has enough changes to weapons/enemies to make the combat more fun and faster paced.

 

Like the og Marathon games, it is completely free to download and play and imho, its a lot more enjoyable than a good deal of retro fpses out there.

 

Although its story is linked to Marathon games (it's story acts as a side story), you don't need to play Marathon to get into the story. And the story itself isn't all the necessary to enjoy it either. The gameplay makes up for it.

[QuaketallicA]

Replaying Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Call of Duty (the original). I remember the latter being a clone of the former, but on revisit I better appreciate what it did differently and how it improved, and also I can compare it now to how CoD 2 is. They all have their strengths and weaknesses, and minute differences, but are mostly the same experience. CoD sold itself as "No one fights alone," and it does try to be more "realistic" in that sense that you fight as a squad and allies participate...until half-way through the game in the British campaign when they have you lone wolf missions like "Take out an entire dam by yourself" and then rip-off near-identical level design ideas from Allied Assault. In AA you go undercover to blow up a submarine. In CoD you go undercover to blow up a battleship.

 

But then CoD introduced things like aiming down sights and select fire (which oddly was removed in the sequel, presumably simplified for console experience).

[Kristian Nebula]

Going through Crysis 1-3 again after 5 years or so. Great stuff and Crysis 1 didn't eat through my GTX 1660 Ti the same way as the last time when I had GTX 970. Worked pretty smoothly actually! :) 

 

[Rudolph]

On 8/9/2023 at 5:13 AM, QuaketallicA said:

I remember the latter being a clone of the former

I do not think that is fair, since the original Call of Duty was made by the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault developers who left Electronic Arts for Activision. It is no surprise that the Medal of Honor franchise never recovered from their departure...

 

Anyway, as for me, I have beaten Defenders of Oasis, which was nice, albeit kind of tiresome after a while due to the relentless random encounter rate. Now, I have moved on to Crystal Warriors, which is more or less a Shining Force clone for the Game Gear; so far, it is cute, but nowhere near as good as Shining Force.

Edited August 11, 2023 by Rudolph

[aloysiusfreeman]

Been trying to finish Persona 5, which has taken me nearly all year to play. Such a chore of a game but when it hits it hits

[QuaketallicA]

On 8/11/2023 at 11:04 AM, Rudolph said:

I do not think that is fair, since the original Call of Duty was made by the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault developers who left Electronic Arts for Activision. It is no surprise that the Medal of Honor franchise never recovered from their departure...

 

Never recovered? WTF are you talking about? The series was quite successful throughout the decade, it didn't lose its spot as top dog in the military shooter world until Call of Duty 4 came out, or really, MW2. Even then there were a couple decent attempts at a modern era MoH game before the series ended.

 

Medal of Honor Pacific Assault came out in 2004 two years after Allied Assault and it was far more innovative and impactful than either CoD 1 or 2, in gameplay, story, and setting. Better than World at War too.

 

I just re-finished CoD 1 and yes it is totally a clone. I don't just mean the games are similar, which is fine and to be expected. I mean about half the levels if not more are literally recycled ideas from the exact same level in the previous game. E.g. set in a train station, turret segment/car chase, go undercover as a German to blow up a submarine/battleship, level set in snowy forest where you clear bunkers and AA guns, tank level, etc.

 

Other than the first few Russian levels the game is totally forgettable. Not a bad experience, but very unoriginal and average.

Edited August 14, 2023 by QuaketallicA

[QuaketallicA]

On 8/9/2023 at 8:10 AM, Kristian Nebula said:

Going through Crysis 1-3 again after 5 years or so. Great stuff and Crysis 1 didn't eat through my GTX 1660 Ti the same way as the last time when I had GTX 970. Worked pretty smoothly actually! :) 

 

 

I hope it was the original games. Crysis Remastered sucks. I've seen gameplay of the sequels...the graphics actually look worse than in the original game.

[Rudolph]

1 hour ago, QuaketallicA said:

The series was quite successful throughout the decade, it didn't lose its spot as top dog in the military shooter world until Call of Duty 4 came out, or really, MW2.

I really do think that the series peaked with Allied Assault and then started going downhill from there. Pacific Assault and a few other titles might have been good, I do not know, I have not played them, but they clearly did not have the impact that Allied Assault had on the genre and as time went on, the franchise was just playing catch-up with the juggernaut that Call of Duty had become.

 

So yeah, I believe it is fair to say that Medal of Honor never did recover. In my case, it was made worse by the fact that most Medal of Honor games following Allied Assault have been console exclusives and as such I had no way of playing them. Also, for the record, I did not even play the Spearhead and Breakthrough expansions until much later and I did not feel like I have been missing out; you may dismiss Call of Duty as a clone, but you could tell that Medal of Honor was already struggling to reinvent itself back then.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Rudolph

[QuaketallicA]

1 hour ago, Rudolph said:

 I do not know, I have not played them...

So yeah, I believe it is fair to say that Medal of Honor never did recover. In my case, it was made worse by the fact that most Medal of Honor games following Allied Assault have been console exclusives and as such I had no way of playing them. Also, for the record, I did not even play the Spearhead and Breakthrough expansions until much later and I did not feel like I have been missing out

 

How can you possibly have a fair idea of what the games after Allied Assault were like if you never played them?

 

Allied Assault was a great game, but people only remember the D-Day landing mission, which has since been replicated so many times it's now a well-worn cliche. People forget the rest of the game was also creative and engaging with enough interesting things to keep the experience fresh from start to finish.

 

Spearhead and Breakthrough are expansions, not sequels, and of those only I think Spearhead was really even that good. But that's like saying Call of Duty series really declined after the first game, because you only ever played United Offensive and have no idea what future entries like Modern Warfare or Black Ops are like.

 

My first Medal of Honor was Airborne, a game from 2007 I believe, and the last entry in the series to be set in WW2. The main "gimmick" of the game was that in every single level you actually parachuted down into battle. So it was actually kind of non-linear, because you could control your descent and land anywhere in the map, including high up on rooftops or behind enemy lines. (Although the safest place to land was where the green smoke is, but you could land anywhere.) You're just given a number of objectives, and it's up to you do them in whichever order you please. While the locations and battles are relatively familiar, this game had a very unique gameplay mechanic that was quite memorable and innovative. I highly recommend it, especially as it sells for like $2.50 on sale. Only downside is the game is short and multiplayer is unplayable now, but at that price, who cares?

 

I went back to Allied Assault after that and fell in love with it, which to me always seemed a better spiritual sequel to Wolfenstein 3D than RTCW, which veered off too far into the supernatural for my tastes. You can play Spearhead and Breakthrough for more of Allied Assault, but they're not necessary (although you get them included in the warchest on GOG anyway) 

 

Medal of Honor Pacific Assault also had more gameplay innovation compared to the arcadey one-man army thing Call of Duty has always done and Allied Assault had. PA introduced mechanics such as squad commands (casual tactical shooter genre was gaining in popularity around that time, games like Star Wars Republic Commando and Rainbow Six Vegas) as well as a bleeding out mechanic. You didn't just worry about getting medkits for yourself but also about rescuing and reviving other friendly teammates.

 

And if you thought the depiction of D-Day was impactful in Allied Assault, Pacific Assault has an equally memorable and impactful depiction of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

Both PA and Airborne are available on PC. The former sells on GOG while the latter on Steam. (A lot of the console games, btw, are just console versions of the PC game. Such as the PS2 game Frontline is just the console version of Allied Assault. So you're not missing much.)

 

The series only went into decline after the Modern Warfare era began. That's when Call of Duty came forward as the new front-runner of the military shooter, and with MW2 they became the new poster child for the FPS in general. So Medal of Honor ditched WW2 and tried to bring their style of "honoring the vets" to the modern era with a reboot in 2010. However, this game came across as a lackluster clone of Call of Duty with little new to offer. Personally, I rather liked it, and didn't think it was all that bad, but it certainly wasn't that great either. But it was clear the series was in decline once it left WW2 and started following trends. The final entry in the series was Medal of Honor: Warfighter which I haven't played. That game ran on Frostbite 2 (Battlefield 3) engine, prompting one to wonder why EA thought anybody would play it rather than just actual Battlefield. From what I hear, Warfighter was received quite poorly, while MoH 2010 is considered average.

 

TL;DR the Medal of Honor games were good in WW2 but their attempt to reboot to modern warfare era failed, and apparently the recent revival in VR was also a bust, though I cannot personally confirm this as VR is expensive af.

Edited August 14, 2023 by QuaketallicA

[Rudolph]

2 hours ago, QuaketallicA said:

How can you possibly have a fair idea of what the games after Allied Assault were like if you never played them?

Because I remember reading and hearing about them being not too great for the most part. Even the good post-Allied Assault games like Pacific Assault and Airborne seem to have just come and gone without making much of a lasting impact. A franchise can be on the decline without being bad, although Medal of Honor: Rising Sun has the reputation of being outright terrible. I also seem to remember there being a Vietnam-themed spin-off named Men of Valor, but like many Medal of Honor games, I have not heard much about it since.

 

The reason why I do not consider Call of Duty 1 to be a clone is that it was made by the developers of Allied Assault and as such it feels more like the sequel they never got to make. Also, Call of Duty: United Offensive was quite good, if a bit too intense at times ("HOLD THE LINE!!! HOLD THE LINE!!!"), and I have fonder memories of it than either Spearhead and Breakthrough.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Rudolph

[Lila Feuer]

Tearing through the Q2 remaster. Base game and N64 versions done, little under halfway through The Reckoning, then it's onto Ground Zero and finally Call of the Machine, the main event if you ask me.

[vyruss]

Finished the Q2 N64 Campaign on Hard, and it was actually pretty interesting in terms of challenge.  Going to go into the MG campaign next and get my shit wrecked by that masterclass of level design.  God it's beautiful.

[AmethystViper]

Stuff I'm actively playing through at the moment:

• Dragon's Crown Pro (PS4)
• Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness (Switch)
• CrossCode (PC)
• The Legend of Dragoon (PS1 via RetroArch)
• Phantom Breaker: Omnia (Switch)
• DOOM Enhanced (PC)

[QuaketallicA]

8 hours ago, Rudolph said:

Because I remember reading and hearing about them being not too great for the most part. Even the good post-Allied Assault games like Pacific Assault and Airborne seem to have just come and gone without making much of a lasting impact. A franchise can be on the decline without being bad, although Medal of Honor: Rising Sun has the reputation of being outright terrible. I also seem to remember there being a Vietnam-themed spin-off named Men of Valor, but like many Medal of Honor games, I have not heard much about it since.

 

The reason why I do not consider Call of Duty 1 to be a clone is that it was made by the developers of Allied Assault and as such it feels more like the sequel they never got to make. Also, Call of Duty: United Offensive was quite good, if a bit too intense at times ("HOLD THE LINE!!! HOLD THE LINE!!!"), and I have fonder memories of it than either Spearhead and Breakthrough.

 

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply UO was bad. I actually haven't played that one yet. I was just using it as an example to make a point.

 

I have played Men of Valor, it's also dirt cheap on Steam or GOG. Men of Valor is by 2015, yes, and my feelings were that it did a great job nailing the historical setting and aesthetics of Vietnam and the Civil Rights era--you actually play as a black soldier, and from writing back home between missions you get a taste of the turbulence back home while he's out in 'Nam. However, in terms of gameplay, yeah it wasn't that great. Call of Duty is much more fun. Men of Valor also has a bleeding out mechanic, though strangely Americans never have medkits, but the dead enemy VC always drop them.

 

At the time, Call of Duty's samey-ness from title to title (or even the first compared to AA) wasn't that big of a deal, since the series only had a handful of entries, and the formula itself was certainly rock solid. A lot of the cliches of WW2 games today weren't that tired yet, so something like CoD 2's Battle of Point du Hoc was an excellent way to recapture the intensity of Operation Overlord from a slightly different perspective. And the inclusion of the Russian campaign with its "Not one step backwards" theme was somewhat refreshing at the time. Men of Valor was probably a little more innovative, but as I said in gameplay it was a bit of a miss.

 

So it was probably easier for critics then to overlook it being a clone because "if it ain't broke..." but today to me looking back it is so obvious it's a complete clone, to a fault. It just feels highly derivative at times. It's still a fun game of the Quake III era though, and it's worth experiencing for the "Enemy at the Gates" moment in the Russian side alone, but I think it gets overrated simply due to people today better recognizing the Call of Duty brand name, whereas Medal of Honor has become somewhat forgotten to time, save for that one D-Day mission in Allied Assault.

Edited August 15, 2023 by QuaketallicA

[Rudolph]

11 hours ago, QuaketallicA said:

it's worth experiencing for the "Enemy at the Gates" moment in the Russian side alone

That part, I do not remember much, actually. Clearly, the devs were trying to recreate the magic of the D-Day mission from Allied Assault, but it clearly did not make a strong impression on me. Also, it is based on a rather gross lie.

 

What I distinctively remember is playing the shit out of the Call of Duty demo featuring the Battle of Sainte-Mère-Église back in the days; I thought it was so awesome and such an improvement over similar Allied Assault levels that it sold me on the game.

 

11 hours ago, QuaketallicA said:

I was just using it as an example to make a point.

I went back and checked the reviews for Pacific Assault and they seem pretty mixed indeed, so it is probably one of the reasons why I have not bothered with that one; on PC, at least, Medal of Honor was already considered kind of old news at the time.

 

That and I had already moved on to Call of Duty 1 and 2 as well as the unfortunately-named VietCong.

Edited August 15, 2023 by Rudolph

[P_A_Z]

I try to play Deathloop but this game is not for me. The story and the IA looks totally braindead. The feelings of weapons are correct but this is not the paradise. It's a shame because i love Arkane games especially Dishonored 1 and Prey 2017, some very very good immersive sims which are two of my favorite games. Maybe i will give another chance of this strange FPS, later.

 

So i will continue my run of Metro Last Light Redux in Survival Hardcore Ranger, some moments are tense but it works for a perfect run.

Edited August 15, 2023 by P_A_Z

[Mr Masker]

2 hours ago, P_A_Z said:

I try to play Deathloop but this game is not for me. The story and the IA looks totally braindead. The feelings of weapons are correct but this is not the paradise. It's a shame because i love Arkane games especially Dishonored 1 and Prey 2017, some very very good immersive sims which are two of my favorite games. Maybe i will give another chance of this strange FPS, later.

I tried to play Deathloop through Game Pass and it ran terribly. I mean sure my 1050ti is starting to show its age, but surely there's some optimization issues on the game's end.

[P_A_Z]

10 minutes ago, Mr Masker said:

I tried to play Deathloop through Game Pass and it ran terribly. I mean sure my 1050ti is starting to show its age, but surely there's some optimization issues on the game's end.

 

It isn't well optimized for modest configurations but it works good with an extra ReShade on my i7 9700K CPU and 2080 videocard, 60 Fps or more constantly, but i don't like this game :(

[Dreemurr Deceevurr]

I was playing Grand Theft Auto IV for a bit with FusionFix + Console Visuals (and a radio downgrader, of course). Such a glow up from the default PC visuals.

 

Ended up uninstalling because burnout + longstanding mental/emotional issues + the inherent jankiness of the PC port (for instance, not liking alt+tab) coalesced to the point where botched inputs and bad RNG sent me into a blind rage. Might reinstall at some point but for now, a break is definitely in order.

 

Spoiler

I wish they didn't kill off Johnny in V. Trevor's introductory mission revolving around exterminating the remnants of the Lost after finding out Michael's still around to establish him being nuts feels like an overcorrection from the darker and (attempts at) more down-to-earth plots of IV and TLAD. It takes on an even more bitter taste when you remember the Lost's rival gang the Angels of Death are white supremacists.

 

I've also been playing around with AKI's wrestling games on the Nintendo 64, chiefly Virtual Pro Wrestling 2 and WWF No Mercy. There's a hack of VPW2 called Freem edition that's pretty interesting. Rather than being a fucking headache to get working relying on texture mods and Gameshark codes like most mods of these games it's a direct ROM hack with roster and texture changes. As for No Mercy I made a CAW of Johnny Silverhand from Cyberpunk, it looks like shit because the game's over 20 years old but whatever. 

[enigma101]

I've been making my way through my Steam Library and have been playing Dead Rising a fair amount. I've also been playing a few 3 minute rounds of Crazy Taxi whenever I'm bored.

[P_A_Z]

22 minutes ago, enigma101 said:

I've been making my way through my Steam Library and have been playing Dead Rising a fair amount. I've also been playing a few 3 minute rounds of Crazy Taxi whenever I'm bored.

 

I'm not a fan of videogames when we incarnate a zombies spree killer but i know i will try Days Gone. This game looks funny and can't be taken seriously.

Edited August 15, 2023 by P_A_Z

[enigma101]

12 minutes ago, P_A_Z said:

 

I'm not a fan of videogames when we incarnate a zombies spree killer but i know i will try Days Gone. This game looks funny and can't be taken seriously.

I have Days Gone but haven't tried it out yet. All the clips I've seen of it are of someone driving away from hordes of zombies on a motorbike. Seems kind of fun though.

[Rudolph]

Finally beat Crystal Warriors on Game Gear.

 

 

Cute little game, albeit kind of frustrating at times; in many ways, it plays like a Shining Force, but alas, it lacks the depth and the replayability, not to mention some of the quality-of-life features (e.g. it is way too easy to accidentally end your turn). There is no way to revive fallen characters or to farm experience and gold, so one bad decision can be very costly. It is fairly short and there is very little plot.

 

Still worth checking out, in my opinion. Much like Phantasy Star, the game is ahead of its time in the sense that it stars a non-sexualized female protagonist, which is rather unexpected for an early 90s game - on a SEGA console, no less! The game appears to have a Japan-only sequel titled "Royal Stone", also with a female protagonist, but with much better graphics and an actual story this time around.

Edited August 19, 2023 by Rudolph

[Eon Toad]

I've been playing a lot of King of Fighters with older my son lately. I got the boys a retro emulator that hooks up to the TV and he's taken to fighting games like a natural.

[WorldMachine]

Playing Portal 2 for the first time on the switch!

It's great! Loving it so far!