Coelacanth
@Coelacanth@feddit.nu
- Comment on Day 217 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 1 day ago:
Splinter Cell was primarily an Xbox franchise, so if you’ve got an Xbox of any kind that’s probably your best bet, assuming they’re still for sale. I believe they were all developed for Xbox and ported to other platforms. For Chaos Theory in specific though the PC port was pretty good, so if you don’t it’s not a big problem. Possibly some controller issues that need a fan fix? Though on the plus side you can find a wide-screen fix mod for modern resolutions. The first two games had worse ports, if I remember right. And the Playstation and GameCube ports were pretty universally bad I think, for all the games.
The one where the console version is really important is Double Agent, but that is a whole other can of complicated worms, because then it wasn’t just the matter of bad ports - they released two completely different games with different mechanics, levels and story executions (albeit the same overall plot).
- Comment on Day 217 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 1 day ago:
The first couple games are really good stealth games, highly recommended. There is not really an overarching story between games, so if you’re just looking to dip your toes into the series I’d start with Chaos Theory. Honestly, if you’re into stealth games you should really play it like, right know. I consider it an all-time great.
After Double Agent the series started going into a more bland action style as Ubisoft felt stealth games were too niche I guess. Never played Conviction or Blacklist but as I said, I heard good things about the co-op in the latter so it’s on my list to try. I don’t really have a good candidate to play co-op with at the moment though, so it’s on indefinite hold.
- Comment on Day 217 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 2 days ago:
Cooperative stealth is an interesting genre, not that well represented either. Did you ever play a Splinter Cell game with your friend? The earlier games had wholesale co-op campaigns, and I’ve heard really good things about the co-op in Blacklist too, though I never played that one myself.
- Comment on Day 215 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 4 days ago:
I have no idea how AC2 holds up, honestly. I’ve never replayed it and it was my first game in the series - I didn’t own a Playstation when the first one came out so I only experienced it through being over at a friend’s house and watching him play it, occasionally taking turns for missions. Playing AC2 was an incredible experience back when it released and I’m full of fond memories, but I don’t know how well it’s aged. It’s probably a less impactful experience now than it was 15 years ago.
- Comment on Don't forget to undervolt your gpu and change fan curve 4 days ago:
I do it with MSI Afterburner, then do stress tests in 3D Mark to make sure it’s stable. As long as you’re not over-volting you’re fairly safe to experiment. You can either do a flat undevolt, or you can set up a custom curve. Also like another commenter here said, changing the fan curve to actually engage the fans sooner helps keep the temps down, usually the default fan curve prioritizes silence to a disturbing degree.
- Comment on Day 215 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 4 days ago:
I think it is pretty much confirmed that Unity’s poor launch led to the hard pivot to the “modern” RPG style AC games. I remember reading about it at the time. The only reason Syndicate wasn’t changed was it was already too far into production when Unity released.
- Comment on Day 215 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games l've been playing until l forget to post Screenshots 4 days ago:
I really like Unity. I’ll always have a special nostalgic feeling about the Ezio saga that makes me hold them in especially high regard, but even so Unity is probably my favourite to play. Revolutionary Paris is an amazing setting and it’s so beautifully realised too, and the parkour system with free run up/down and all the myriad animations lets you do some of the most slick things in the entire AC series if you get good at it. I’ve linked AC Unity choreography before, but just look at what people can do when they’re good at this game.
- Comment on Rockstar has some of the most restrictive mission design I've ever experienced 5 days ago:
This is well treaded ground and I agree with pretty much everything. I tried to get through RDR2 twice last year but whenever I was doing main story missions I would get frustrated. Partly because of your points, but also for another reason: how the hell can you maintain immersion in the story when the protagonist effectively commits genocide? Seriously the kill count in the missions is so ludicrously high I want to quit every time I do a couple of main story missions. Like I get it, you want to sprinkle some action sequences in there to keep up the tempo, but I can’t take killing a hundred lawmen in some town in a main mission and then have the world go on as if nothing happened.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 16th 5 days ago:
I finished Arcanum for the first time. It was… okay, I suppose. It really hasn’t aged super well, and has some pretty big flaws. The combat is atrocious, and the followers are extremely bare bones. The setting is really enjoyable though, and the character customization options are broad and fun (although the inventory management required to make a technologist work makes it ill advised in practice sadly). In the end I’m glad to have played it but I can’t really recommend it without some huge caveats.
For a change of pace I tackled Weird West, which I picked up for cheap on a GOG sale. I’m almost through with it - it’s not that long - and it’s been enjoyable. I really like the art style and the setting. It perhaps doesn’t clear the lofty bar its Dishonored and Prey pedigree sets for it but it’s got some pleasant twin-sticks shooter gameplay and some fun imsim elements and choices-matter type decisions. The stealth is pretty bad though. Not sure I’d want to pay full price for it, but definitely do recommend it if you want a shorter game and can find it on sale.
- Comment on What's your "this is totally fine and I'm going to have a great time" FPS? 5 days ago:
I too grew up on machines that were mid-low range and was constantly asking more of them than they could handle, so I learned to stomach pretty miserable FPS. In the end though it’s highly context sensitive - the less movement (and in particular camera movement) the game has the lower the frame rate you can get away with.
As a general rule I would say 25 FPS is the absolute lower limit, but around 40 is probably more in line with your “this is fine and I’m going to have a great time” definition. However, for something like a fast paced shooter it’s more like 60 FPS minimum.
- Comment on Ubisoft revenues decline 31.4% to €990m 6 days ago:
I don’t really care enough to actively hate Ubisoft - I save those sentiments for companies like Nintendo and Disney. However, they did influence about a decade of horrible game design trends with the popularisation of the dreadful checklist-filled Ubisoft Open World^TM, and that is worth at least a mild dislike.
- Comment on Two big Final Fantasy remakes are reportedly still in ‘active development’ 6 days ago:
I’m so torn on the subject of a VI remake. On the one hand, it tickles my brain to think of what it would be like if given the full treatment à la VII Remake, but on the other hand I consider the game pretty much perfect as-is and don’t want it sullied.
- Comment on Avowed Launches to Strong Reviews – WGB 1 week ago:
That was my biggest gripe watching the Luke Stephens video on it as well. The announcement trailer looked great, why the hard pivot into an oversaturated mushroom kingdom aesthetic? Especially since it sounds like the actual game is pretty solid, beyond technical issues (that may or maybe fixed by now with a day 1 patch).
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th 1 week ago:
2 is a very solid game and well worth playing, but it doesn’t have anything on the original in terms of story execution in my opinion. But that’s a tall order since Bioshock 1 is one of the best games of all time.
I’ve still yet to play Infinite, but it’s on my list for this year.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th 1 week ago:
The best way to play Disco is to just approach it as a good book. Explore as much as you can, exhaust dialogue options and submerge yourself in the world. Don’t be afraid to fail checks, don’t be afraid to pick wacky dialogue options.
The game is pure art and it’s the most meaningful, thought provoking and emotional experience I’ve had while playing any video game. Granted the themes really resonated with me personally.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th 1 week ago:
I don’t think low INT is for a first playthrough so I haven’t, but I know it’s an option. And given a lot of the people behind Fallout 1&2 went on to work for Troika I’d expect nothing less. I might check it out some day, the low INT run in the first two Fallouts are great. I rarely feel like I have time to replay games these days though, with the length of my backlog.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of Feb 9th 1 week ago:
Been playing Arcanum, hopefully through to the end for the first time this time. Only begun it before, never got far. The game has a lot of charms, but also a lot of frustrations. Typical Troika, I guess. When it’s firing on all cylinders and the pieces of a quest puzzle happen to click into place it can be great, but oftentimes imbecilic design decisions get in the way of having fun. And it doesn’t help that combat is *horrible" and the animations are ugly, even for its time.
I’m towards the end of the game now so I’ll try to push through since I’d like to have finished it at least once. I do enjoy the world building, at least parts of it. It’s a little disappointing that the races are derivative sort of boilerplate fantasy Tolkienesque Dwarves and Elves and Halflings etc, but the Victorian era inspired steampunk setting is well executed and the tension and conflict between magic and technology feels fully fleshed out and very grounded in the game world. I also really appreciate the again very Victorian flavored racism towards Orcs and Half-Orcs, including an explicit reference to The Jewish Question.
- Comment on Co-op campaigns are a rarity these days, and that should change 2 weeks ago:
Rayman Legends is an amazing couch co-op game if you like platformers. I still think about the musical levels from time to time.
- Comment on Day 200 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I’ve been playing until I forget to post Screenshots 2 weeks ago:
Alongside Cyberpunk, AW2 is probably the best showcase for ray tracing I think. Truly a gorgeous game.
Excited to hear what you think about the DLCs! I also have been avoiding spoilers and putting them off, and I’ve built up towards doing a full playthrough plus the DLCs sometime soon myself. Really looking forward to it.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 26th 3 weeks ago:
Ahh, the nostalgia of hearing about those old titles again. Takes me back to the days of being a kid reading PC Gamer monthly with ravenous wonder and excitement. That period of '94 to '06-09 or so really was the golden age of PC gaming. I’ve been thinking about starting up a sub specifically about that era actually, retro gaming subs often tend to focus more about old consoles and arcade games.
Similarly, Desperados 2 (2006) made the first game feel a century old. From the same camera distance as the first game, it both looked far better than the original and had the advantage of dynamic lighting, more fluidity and a freely rotatable camera. Up close it was a bit blocky, but this was to be expected back then.
Interesting! I’ll take a look at the graphics, but I was otherwise set to skip it as it didn’t look like it was particularly well received.
I can confirm that these looked magnificent on a high quality CRT.
I’ve been on a bit of a retro game kick lately and have been wishing I had a really good one. It’s a shame they’re so damn bulky.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 26th 3 weeks ago:
I never heard of it back in the day, but I did see it suggested on GOG when I looked at Desperados. I might consider grabbing it the next time it’s really cheap if it’s really that good. Better than Desperados/Commandos you reckon?
some of the most beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds I’ve ever seen in an isometric game.
The old isometric games have really aged so gracefully. Desperados looks absolutely fantastic still imo and Baldur’s Gate 2 also has some fantastic isometric art (sprites not so much). I bet they’d look even better on a good CRT, too.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Like a Dragon / Yakuza 3 weeks ago:
Yeah that’s kinda unavoidable I think unless you play in true release order. I’ve heard people say the same warning as a reason not to start with 0.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Like a Dragon / Yakuza 3 weeks ago:
Did you start with Kiwami or with the OG non-remastered Yakuza 1? I’ve heard people suggesting both.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Like a Dragon / Yakuza 3 weeks ago:
I bought the whole collection on GOG when it was something like 80% off in 2023 I think. Still haven’t started. I hope it’s as good as people say. I know many people start with 0 but I think I’ll start with Kiwami for the close-to-release-order experience. Will probably start it sometime this year.
- Comment on Heroes of Newerth: Reborn - Official Announcement Trailer 3 weeks ago:
Wonder how this will do, MOBA has got to be the toughest genre to break into with both LoL and Dota 2 completely owning the market. I know HoN has some pedigree and brand recognition but even back then it was never that huge, and it’s biggest claim to fame at the time was that its engine was much better than running as a WC3 custom map (since that’s all Dota was at the time) - it was basically seen as Dota 1.5 and when Dota 2 came out most people jumped ship. At least that’s how I remember it, it’s been a while.
- Comment on Day 195 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I’ve been playing until I forget to post Screenshots 3 weeks ago:
…that got me wondering what it might have looked like on a CRT. I know they have a sort of natural AA effect, so I’m wondering if it might look better for me if I break one out.
Do you have a good one just lying around? I’ve been on a retro game kick lately and sort of wish I had a good CRT but they’re so goddamn big and bulky so it’s not like I kept one around from back in the day. But you’re absolutely right about old games being made with them in mind and it’s especially noticeable for stuff like pixel art games.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 26th 3 weeks ago:
I finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker after putting 250 or so hours into it and now I feel kind of empty. I still don’t think it’s a particularly great game, but after spending so much time on it you develop a sort of Stockholm syndrome. There are things about the game I enjoyed, but also endless frustrations. The ending chapters especially were an absolutely insane slog of numerous terrible Wild Hunt encounters that seem completely mindlessly thrown together to up the “challenge”. It’s a shame, really because there is a good game in there somewhere if you’d only scale back the bullshit. It could also do with some editing in general, I don’t think it justifies being so goddamn long.
Looking for the next thing to fill the void has been a bit of a challenge, I’ve been at it with Kingmaker for so long it’s been tough to switch focus suddenly. I started Weird West, which I bought on the last GOG sale and the beginning of it seemed alright, not sure if it will stick though. I also played through the first couple of levels of Desperados" Wanted Dead or Alive which is an absolute classic that I never played back in the day. The AI is pretty dumb, but immersion breaking stupidity aside it’s still super fun to approach it as a puzzle and work around and abuse the dumb AI.
Still, my brain might still be in the CRPG frame of mind after two months of Kingmaker so I also installed Arcanum with the Multiverse Edition modpack. Perhaps this is the time I finally play through it.
- Comment on Dragon Age: The Veilguard appears to receive its final update 4 weeks ago:
The one thing it can’t be criticised for as I understand it is polish. I’ve heard many complaints about almost everything else, but as far as technical matters it seems to have shipped very well optimised and largely bug free - a welcome change from what we’ve grown accustomed to.
Shame about the actual you know, game.
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to games@lemmy.world | 0 comments
- Comment on Cyberpunk 2077: Patch 2.21 4 weeks ago:
Yeah, to me that files under “doable” and not “smooth and easy”, but everyone has a personal definition of those I guess.