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.
Have you heard of Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood from the same developers? A very similar game in many ways, with some of the most beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds I’ve ever seen in an isometric game. And yes, the AI can also be played around with at will, although it feels a bit more sophisticated compared to Desperados.
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.
I’ve never played a Commandos game for some reason, so I couldn’t tell, but I would say it’s about on par with Desperados 1 in terms of gameplay, if perhaps a bit less punishing. Cutscenes and voice acting (at least with the German version I played) are considerably worse however and I have no idea why.
I can confirm that these looked magnificent on a high quality CRT. This was a transitional period, when 3D graphics were not able to deliver the same amount of detail as the best 2D isometric graphics just yet. That said, everyone knew that the clock was ticking, since the advantages of fully 3D graphics were obvious and, unlike today, technological progress happened at breakneck speeds.
I was particularly fond of isometric RTS games back then. I spent the most amount of time with Age of Empires II (of course), but there were many others, like Cossacks (2001) from GSC Gameworld (who would later develop S.T.A.L.K.E.R.), which didn’t look as good as the inspiration, but boasted far larger maps and enormous numbers of units on screen. With American Conquest (2002), they refined the concept and overtook the original version of AoK in terms of visuals, with huge and detailed sprite work, as well as even more insane unit counts that pushed CPUs of the time to their limits. The gameplay was almost on par as well, with quite a bit more depth. It’s ridiculous just how much more sophisticated it is compared to Cossacks, despite there being only 1.5 years between the two. America (2000) is a more obscure title from this era, essentially a Wild West clone of Age of Empires. It’s quite solid, but unremarkable compared to the other games mentioned here.
Another Eastern European series I was fond of was Sudden Strike, set in WW2, as well as its sequel and countless spin-offs and expansions. There’s a model train charm to the detailed visuals, despite the not exactly charming setting. Fiendishly hard and realistic, but for all of its realism, it unfortunately decides to ignore the context of many battles, especially the war crimes that happened around them, which is troubling, since you can also play from the German perspective. Blitzkrieg (2005) is quite similar in terms of gameplay, although with a more sophisticated engine that blends 2D and 3D elements. However, when the groundbreaking Codename Panzers with its amazing fully 3D graphics and tight (if unrealistic) gameplay and mission design came out in 2004, all of these more technologically conservative WW2 RTS games instantly felt outdated, even though it came out right in the middle of them. They still had their value though, since Codename Panzers wasn’t trying to replace them in terms of gameplay, focusing on decision making instead of simulation.
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.
Many of the titles mentioned above can be rather troublesome on modern systems, so I highly recommend checking out their pages on the PCGamingWiki, which is a truly invaluable resource.
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.
I’ve been playing Fire Emblem Awakening. I had the dumb idea of playing hard/classic for the first time (having also not played much FE before), so a few of the last chapters have been a bit too challenging: I got stuck on chapter 17 for a couple of days. It’s been enjoyable, I think I’m near the end (chapter 21).
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth came out on PC, so I played that for most of the weekend, and I’m rather disappointed with a couple of things: the open world in the first area is the usual dull ubisoft-like checklist of chores. Luckily it doesn’t take too much to get past it, but then there’s my other complaint: the pacing and tone of the story feel off. There’s been a few too many breaks which IMO ruined the momentum. I’m now at Costa del Sol, and I’m already tired of the minigames.
Initially I had planned on playing Emio, since I played the demo and liked it, but the copy I ordered got delayed, the lost, so I’m gonna get it some other time.
Just grabbed Thronefall and have been playing on the Deck a lot. It’s really fun; tower defense meets RTS with great economy. You’re always debating defenses vs scaling and some of the challenges are downright hard
Not to say this necessarily isn’t the case, but are your drivers all up to date? I don’t know how often I’ve heard people complain about shitty performance or weird artifacts in a game only to hear that the player hasn’t updated their graphics card drivers in 8 months.
Of course, I had to run it back in Baldur’s Gate 3, Honor Mode, after I failed right before the finish line. This time I went four Fighters, two melee, two ranged. My run ended in Act 2, not because of my party comp, but I let Isobel die in Last Light Inn. I forgot to block a door and the enemy crit three or four attacks on her. I did survive the fight with all the zombies afterward, got into another fight and ended it there. I’ll do another run like this, but probably after Patch 8, when Fighter gets a proper ranged sub-class. No idea, what my next run will be, but it will have to wait a bit.
Then, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth finally released on PC. I’ve been looking forward to this, and just recently re-played the first part. I’m at the beginning of Chapter 4 and it’s good. The big zones are kinda meh, pretty empty, and I don’t think the devs ever used a Chocobo to run around. Unless you only follow the roads, there are small ledges everywhere, and your Chocobo either slows down or stops completely, which is a pain. I still have fun, although the constant short breaks are kinda annoying. Like in the first game, you need to wait for certain animations to finish, before you can go into the menu, or when you completed a “World Intel” objective there’s a 10-second jingle and animation you have to wait for. Often you also get a call from a dude, who tells you he’s found another one, and you just have to stand there and listen. Like I said, I still have a good time, so it’s not a big deal.
As the meme implies, stop and think about how to change tactics.
Uhhh no? Especially if your playing a game that your suppose to try multiple times like hades.
I guess it depends on the game but imo the best boss fights are puzzles (god of war style) where you don’t change tactics, you keep playing until you figure out the puzzle.
Idk if I call that changing tactic, I just keep trying until I figure it out.
Agreed, but adjusting tactics often is part of the puzzle, no? You need to solve the puzzle (find out what work = changing tactics) and then executing that solution
If you never consider more than one possible tactic, then by definition you’re not solving a puzzle, you’re just executing a fixed series of instructions.
You give Hades as an example of a game where you’re doing the same thing every run, but on the contrary the game is specifically designed so that no two runs are alike. It’s trying its best to force you to change tactics each run, that’s the point.
I spent 172 hours retrying the final boss fight on ff8. I mistakenly saved just before the end boss with 2 phoenix downs, a handful or potions and ethers, and not much else. It took weeks to beat her alone.
I learned many things in those multiple weeks of doing basically the same thing over and over again, with minor tweaks to strategy… the first of which is always maintain a second save at least 3 hours prior to the current save. The second thing was never have an empty inventory even if you legit never bother using any of it. Don’t sell anything until you hit max stax.
And finally I learned that sometimes trying the same exact thing for the 20th time actually does work for reasons. And that was on like ps1 framework. A lot more stuff is a lot more random now.
As a father of a 8 month old baby, I have barely touched any of my gaming systems for the past year. Games need to be quickly accessible and possible to quit at any time for me to play. So mobile gaming is basically where I’m at.
Slay The Spire works perfectly well for Android. I’ve been playing that a ton.
Pokémon TCG Pocket is weirdly fun. Even though it’s encouraging microtransactions and subscriptions, it’s very much playable without making a single transaction. The TCG is decently interesting, though not without flaws. It’s still in a very early stage, so I’m interested to see how the game grows.
That’s a great point. I have a nintendo switch, but I have more or less played through the entirety of all the games I have been interested in before my child was born. I did pick up pokemon violet, but the game was very short and had some disgusting responsiveness and aestetics which discourages me from grinding the post game.
Maybe a handheld pc will be my next purchase. Thanks for the suggestion!
As a more portable and budget-friendly alternative, consider a small emulation console. I’m very happy with my Anbernic RG35XXSP. Since the screen folds like on the original GBA SP, it’s absolutely tiny and fits into any pocket - without having to worry that the screen might scratch. Configure it correctly and you can close the screen to suspend games.
This kind of system would also make for a great first gaming device once your kid is around five years old.
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