As a fan of HR and MD, I have the original purchased on GOG, but I’ve never played it. Are there any quality of life mods I should know before I drive in?
I haven’t played it properly either. But there’s a community mod called Deus Ex Revision (It’s also on Steam). Which improves some of the graphics, and looks to include a bunch of QoL features.
Incredibly comprehensive mod. It’s actually available directly from GOG and Steam, and it automatically installs on top of the game. You’ll hear people saying you should play vanilla if you’re playing for the first time, but no. Play Revision, just don’t enable Shift/BioMod.
For HR, I think you’re good to go the way that it is. Hopefully you have the Director’s Cut - they removed the awful yellow filter that the game originally launched with.
I know the topic isn’t about HR, but as a huge fan of that game, I recently replayed the non-DC version and found myself really appreciating the yellow tint. It ties the aesthetic together, and the DC always looked a bit flat and unfinished without it. But that’s just me.
I enjoyed a lot of the game objectives… Automating the farm, going to the bottom of the mine and the desert thing, completing the community center, courting a spouse etc.
A lot of the grindy bits weren’t as fun, such as missing some season-specific cutscene or event and not having the exact right item, the feeling of needing to speed grow certain crops at the beginning of each season, etc.
Overall it was a chill and positive experience. The music is awesome, character interactions not too laborious. This game plays great on SteamDeck and with proper settings it sips battery. For a long flight, I would pair this title with stuff like Animal Well, Dead Cells, and Cave Blazers.
My favorite is the Sims 3, and I’ve spent a lot of time on it! It’s a very addicting game for me, but only by spells. I’ll play it every chance I get for a few weeks, then let it sit for a long time. I’ve also played 2 and 4 as well. 2 was good, and 4 was disappointing to me. The overall gameplay wasn’t as good in my opinion, and losing the open world aspect of 3 was a negative too. Add to that the launcher and additional login requirements and I quit playing it fairly quickly.
I think the main reason I like 3 better than the others is because of the open world aspect. I can quickly switch back and forth between two sims at opposite ends of the map, and the world itself feels more real due to not having loading screens. I also like the graphics style a little better, but that’s a minor thing.
The way I normally play is to create a sim, either by picking traits or randomizing, and drop them into the world with a starter house. From there I normally have them get a job or learn a freelance skill to make some money. I generally let my sims find their own friends and spouses by finding who they get along with and going from there. I generally get at least a few generations in before I move on to another game or start over. I rarely do the challenges and things that many people do, but I have done games where I tried to keep a generational line going for a while.
I was really looking forward to both Life by You and Paralives, but the publisher and/or devs of Life by You just blew through their third release date, and have now delayed it indefinitely. So maybe Paralives will be good!
Sims 3 was my favorite for the open world and freelance jobs too. Was nice to be able to secure an income without disappearing off the map for 8 hours a day. Was surprised 4 didn’t follow through on that as much but I only played it a little.
My wife plays Sims with cheats all the time and I get that it becomes a fancy interactive dollhouse in that case, but to me the game is all about that progression from bachelor in a one room box to old family man in a mansion.
That is my primary playstyle in a nutshell! 😂 I really like the painter and writer professions, but I sometimes don’t even go that far! I’ve had sims that have never had a job and have made every simoleon by picking up rocks, playing guitar, and selling random things they found in the dumpsters around town. That’s the great thing about it, you get more freedom to do what you want.
This might be my first PC gaming experience. My niece had this game and when I came to visit we would play it together and build houses and stuff. I have really fond memories of the first game and some of its expansions (vacation and night-life, also pets if I remember correctly?).
I somehow completely skipped The Sims 2, but by the time The Sims 3 released, I was extremely hyped. It is the only time in my life I bought a collector’s edition. It had a USB key chain in the shape of the green diamond! I remember really enjoying it and especially loving the music and the vibes it brought.
I also had a Sims game on Game Boy Advance (with cats and dogs) and one on Nintendo DS (on a lost island). Both were really fun!
Half-Life and Portal had a huge impact on my life. In high school I was in the source modding community, so I’m probably too familiar with valve’s engines and games. I made a few mods, the most well known being hl2 classic, and it kinda got me into game development.
But needless to say, it’s a fantastic series. I had a chance to play alyx and it was nuts. It’s crazy how influential this series and its technology is on gaming as a whole.
And a fun fact: quake had a feature where level designers could make a light flicker with a pattern of brightnesses. There were some premade patterns you could select as well. These made it into the goldsrc engine, then source, then source 2 - so Alyx, Quake, HL1, HL2, Portal, Portal 2, and more have lights that flicker in the exact same way.
I played hl2 a long time ago (at least 10 years). It was a really good game when I played it and I suspect it will stand the test of time for a long while still.
That said, its not Something I’m especially interested in revisiting personally
Super Metroid and the growing list of rom hacks are an endless source of entertainment. I’ve been watching speed runners for years. Currently watching randos.
I got into metroid in 2014 or 2015 during the 3DS era. Someone mentioned that Super Metroid was their favourite game growing up, so I decided to give it a shot. I had only played the NDS metroid games before, so I didn’t really know what to expect.
I ended up being completely blown away, and I think I replayed the game within a year, which is incredibly rare for me - one of the only other games I can think of doing this for was the first Ori game (I have a thing for tight platformers, what can I say).
I’d say super metroid is one of my all time favourite games now, probably number 2 on the SNES to Link to the Past. In terms of influence, I’d put it up there with dark souls.
Last year I also played Prime for the first time when the remaster came out, and loved that too. Really hoping they release 2 and 3!
Got to play it with someone for a bit, they seemed to know where all the neat things were (iirc, the murals, scarf lengthening thingies, etc). But due to the inability to communicate more than just “dings” I couldn’t convey that I needed a quick toilet break. They were gone after I came back, which was a bit sad but I probably wouldn’t have stayed waiting either, tbh.
It was quite okay, I recall playing it through twice, but the second round didn’t really offer much in terms of “value” over the first. Cool visuals and concept, though.
Other somewhat similar vibing games which I somewhat relate to Journey:
Sable - Somewhat similar character designs, quite a bit more scifi and some dialogue. Pretty cool 3d platformer puzzle.
Proteus - walking-sim, graphics are those “if atari 2600 could do 3d”. Kinda cool experience, but also kinda one-and-done.
Opening the pause menu will cause the traveler to immediately sit down, according to my sister who played the game religiously for a while, this is the equivalent to “BRB” among people who play a lot.
Each secret you find will add embroidery to the clothing of the traveller, meaning players can tell which one should likely be showing the other around, as well whether someone is a first-timer.
Sticking together is also not that important. The game will match you with a new player if you get separated.
People who play it more than once typically do it to show new players around, that’s where the value of repeat playthroughs comes from.
It was my understanding that the embroidery/pattern changes were based on how many times you had completed the game, but your point stands that it’s easy to tell a first timer
You’re right, I recalled the pattern being more complex and showing the progress towards the white robe, but I’m misremembering. The patter simply show how many times someone has completed the game, up to three times.
I figured it’s more like evil that resides somewhere. Like “there is a resident evil in this house”, a presence. Then again I’m not native English so what do I know :)
Edit: nevermind, I misread your comment. Yeah I don’t reckon they are necessarily evil.
Planet Robobot is awesome; True Arena is insane, though. Planning to eventually tackle Super Star. The spinoffs are also surprisingly fun (Pinball Land, Block Ball)
Oh man these games. I started with Lego chess I think, then graduated to Lego island 2, then finally hit my stride with Lego Star wars onwards (Batman, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, LOTR, etc). I loved every minute of them. I still haven’t finished the Skywalker saga but I’ll have to get around to it sooner or later.
I also spent a good bit of time as a kid playing the games Lego kept on their website, like the bionicle flash game, Lego backlot studio (or something like that, it was 3d and you’d hunt down props for people), and whatnot.
Lots of fond memories for a kid with a rough home situation. Thanks for the walk down memory lane OP
I think my favorite was Lego Island Xtreme Stunts when I was a kid. I know there’s a PS2 version and I am wondering how different it is compared to the PC version.
I also played Lego Island 2: The Brickster’s Revenge on my GBA. It was really restricted on what you could do. Its big focus was on mini games if I remember correctly.
For those interested MattKC has been decompiling the original Lego Island which could lead to an open source engine recreation being developed in the future.
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