-
Posts
552 -
Joined
-
Last visited
About Aaron Blain
-
Rank
Member
Recent Profile Visitors
The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.
-
Here's a book which offers a contrasting perspective on the First Cold War, which I highly recommend to everyone: https://williamblum.org/books/killing-hope
-
Mostly in Win 3.1 in DosBox, but I also play it in Linux sometimes via WINE, where it works perfectly. I think it's more difficult in modern Windows, I see people on YouTube setting up VM's to play it. Usually I prefer DosBox Staging, but when I'm using Windows 3.1 I switch to mainline DosBox 0.74 where I get better performance. @Chopkinsca I got pretty far in Avernum 1 before switching, but I decided I like the bigger party, the food mechanic, and there's some other stuff like poison that is different. Exile has a bit more of that oldschool rpg brutality. It was a tough choice though because I absolutely love Avernum's interface improvements. I also just have a windows 3.x fixation.
-
I'm very gradually working my way through the original Exile. I love how the setting, the landscapes etc are all conveyed through prose, and how much personality all the random NPC's have. I think of Jeff Vogel as my extremely hardworking digital DM. Unconventional answer here, but in a similar vein something I always loved about Fallout 1 & 2 is the enormous amount of personality and life that comes through the text window in the corner of the screen. I got decently far in Colossal Cave Adventure but I played it before I understood the concept of hand-mapping, so I got hopelessly stuck and gave up. I've been meaning to come back and get into other text adventures however. Growing up I read every Lone Wolf and Fighting Fantasy I could get my hands on. I'm still heartbroken that the unique charm of the original Lone Wolf books has been replaced with standard grimdark in the reprints and videogame spinoffs.
-
Is there something in particular that's jamming you up? Do you have the combat speed maxxed in preferences and Always Run on? I remember struggling a bit with the tutorial initially but there's probably quite a cohort here on DW of people who have beaten the classic Fallout games 5+ times, if you want any tips. Do you like turnbased games generally? Me, I still haven't gotten into Baldur's Gate or Arcanum because the realtime spoils it for me, but I get that it's not to everyone's taste.
-
Games you never dared to play on hardest difficulty?
Aaron Blain replied to jupiter_ex's topic in Everything Else
Not the OP's question, but after beating Shinobi 3 many dozens of times growing up, I just tried it for the first time a few years ago on hard mode (smaller healthbar) and starting with 0 shurikens, and it makes it a much different and more complex game. I also rarely went for a full set of chaos emeralds in the Sonic games, which, again, makes them much more complex and rewarding. I've never gotten good enough at beatemups to play them on the hard setting (which is often just an option for fewer credits). Clearing any of the Golden Ax or Streets of Rage games on Normal has always been a feat for me. I can't decide whether it's a matter of gitting gud at knowing every attack animation down to the frame and pixel, or just being more remorseless about spamming low-risk attacks (like the jump kick in Captain America and The Avengers). But all the classic FPS games from Wolf3d to Quake, all the RTS/RTT games like Myth and AoE -- I maxxed all of those out. Oh which does remind me of one thing I absolutely never could fuck with -- the scenarios in Cossacks and American Conquest. I've always been able to pummel a Very Hard AI on a random map, but I almost always tend to absolutely bounce off the scenarios, even on Normal. I actually find them so difficult that I've played them very little over the years, despite having replayed the campaigns in War2, Broodwar, AoE etc many times over. I also have never gotten around to finishing Curse of Monkey Island on Mega Monkey, which is an undertaking I've been thinking about launching recently. -
No mention of "Corridor Shooters"? Good video though.
-
If you're reading Doomworld, you might be someone who could get into the retro dev scene. It's the same kind of creative stimulus provided by limitation and well-known boundaries that we enjoy so much in Doom. I'm especially interested in the NES, but there are several other platforms that have growing communities that are pushing their platforms to new heights. Full Quiet for NES: Former Dawn for NES (in development): Attack of the Petscii Robots (multiplatform): I'm following the NESdev Discord, so I'm seeing all kinds of cool stuff that people are working on. The Genesis scene is blossoming too. I also have a PlayDate, which I'm really excited about.
-
I enjoyed Medal of Honor: Underground.
-
I don't understand the desire for something to be "accurate". I've only played the turn-based games, so I'm sure I'm missing a ton of fan service being sent my way, but I'm still seeing a lot of it. But they've managed to make a very engaging and entertaining show despite prioritizing referentiality almost as much as storytelling. I've never touched a videogame streaming series with a 10-foot pole but I'm quite enjoying it. I have to say, "Bad things happen in slow motion while incongruous happy music plays" was annoyingly cliche 10 years ago and I don't know why this device keeps getting used with such gusto.
-
Whenever I want to space out for about 90 seconds while using the computer, I alternate between SkiFree and JezzBall. They both run perfectly in Wine, but I also use Windows 3.1 a lot. I'm fond of Minesweeper but the unavoidable deaths by guessing put me off.
-
I get bored.
-
I have a low opinion of the N64, but between the fairly large core roster of Nintendo/Rare hits and a few standout niche titles like Mischief Makers and Ogre Battle, I have to admit it's actually a pretty decent system. The library doesn't hold a candle to the PSX, which is one of the all time greats, but it's definitely viable.
-
I played Spyro 1 to death when it first came out, and the first time I got to try Spyro 2 was in a department store. When I realized that the sequel added underwater swimming, I dove in and was blown away. I knew immediately that Spyro 2 was going to be an incredible sequel (it is). And I think this is because Spyro's underwater movement is very fun. It's fast, you're still steering around to headbutt and break vases and grab gems, but now you're moving in three dimensions. I can't think of any other game off the top of my head in which the fundamental act of gameplay, movement, isn't ruined when you go underwater. I mean, Sonic Minus Speed Equals Fun? Mario except without all the jumping? If you have a fire flower and you can rain destruction on all the baddies that can be fun, otherwise it's a chore. The underwater sequences in The Sinking City are miserable from a gameplay perspective, but it's not really a great action game anyway. They're quite compelling atmospherically though.
-
How do y'all deal with indecisiveness in gaming?
Aaron Blain replied to Dweller Dark's topic in Everything Else
Stop looking for the best possible choice and just do something. I was wandering around my EmulationStation setup the other day and I decided to say, what the hell, I'm going to play Dragon Strike on NES. I had it as a kid but didn't really find it satisfying. It has never been part of my standard rotation or Day 1 Install List. Suddenly it's one of my favorite games. Goes double for RPG's. I'm heavily into Daggerfall lately. I have one character going that's a crappy pre-defined class. I decided, you know what, I'm just going to double down on this and create opportunities to use the skills Axe, Climbing and like Spriggan or whatever. So what if it's suboptimal and not a playstyle I would normally do? -
What was your first violent video game and where did you play it?
Aaron Blain replied to gayzad's topic in Everything Else
I think it was all 1992 -- Chakan the Forever Man has some violent imagery, but that was also the year Mortal Kombat came out, and the same year I would have downloaded Wolf3d shareware from a BBS.