Now Playing (Video Games)

So, after seven years, I bought a new laptop. Because I hardly ever used any computer for anything else than games (at least until Mac stopped supporting Wineskin), discounting regular reading, writing and browsing (and sometimes watching movies), I decided on buying something suitable for games as well, so I went for Acer Nitro 5, one of the last ones, with GeForce RTX and so on.

Of course the first game proper I installed and tried to run was the twenty years old Posel smrti (you guys overseas probably know it as Black Mirror - the original one), so I spent about 2 hours just to run it on this setup (the Czecch version in particular has trouble with DirectDraw or something, the mouse and the subtitles were leaving artifacts everywhere, making it almost unplayable).

But yeah, that's one of those games/works of art that you really feel speaking to you, personally. It's the perfect game for me. As if someone read my mind and did it only for me.

So I'm happy. Even while playing the 20 year old point-and-click adventure. Of course I'm gonna play other stuff as well (I'm kinda having Frostpunk in mind, as well as Hard Rain and Death Stranding), but I'm happy as a lark now.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Of course the first game proper I installed and tried to run was the twenty years old Posel smrti (you guys overseas probably know it as Black Mirror - the original one), so I spent about 2 hours just to run it on this setup (the Czecch version in particular has trouble with DirectDraw or something, the mouse and the subtitles were leaving artifacts everywhere, making it almost unplayable).
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www.gog.com

Black Mirror 1

Black Mirror Castle stands over ancient lands with secrets buried and best forgotten. The
www.gog.com www.gog.com

Is this the one?
 
LooseCannon said:
www.gog.com

Black Mirror 1

Black Mirror Castle stands over ancient lands with secrets buried and best forgotten. The
www.gog.com www.gog.com

Is this the one?
Click to expand...

Yep, that's the one, just the original Czech dubbed version.


Also, I was really worried when Cranberry Studios made the two sequels. You know, like they're more along the lines of milking the cow til it's dead and it went from a few enthusiasts to a reasonably big game studio...

...and yes, I was worrying it was going to be is as if you found out the love of your life ended up in a brothel... but it's not really like that.
The two sequels are maybe a bit padded, but rather fine, especially for fans of the original. It's a lot about revisiting the original places and people several years later, so you see how it ended up and changed in time... the storyline's a bit more convoluted, but acceptable... you know, I'm overall really happy. A sequel to a cult-favourite probably couldn't end up better.


Avoid the recent remake (2017? maybe?) like plague, though.
 
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I got C&C Generals and Rise of Nations installed again. Those are so much fun to play with friends, although I suck at RTS games.
 
JudasMyGuide said:
Yep, that's the one, just the original Czech dubbed version.


Also, I was really worried when Cranberry Studios made the two sequels. You know, like they're more along the lines of milking the cow til it's dead and it went from a few enthusiasts to a reasonably big game studio...

...and yes, I was worrying it was going to be is as if you found out the love of your life ended up in a brothel... but it's not really like that.
The two sequels are maybe a bit padded, but rather fine, especially for fans of the original. It's a lot about revisiting the original places and people several years later, so you see how it ended up and changed in time... the storyline's a bit more convoluted, but acceptable... you know, I'm overall really happy. A sequel to a cult-favourite probably couldn't end up better.


Avoid the recent remake (2017? maybe?) like plague, though.
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What if I'm vaccinated, wear a face mask and sit 6'4ft/2m from the TV? Is ok to play the remake then?
 
I was operating under the assumption that "plague" was synonymous with "epidemic." Upon a quick search turns out that is NOT the case. Plagues can lead to epidemics/pandemics, but are not one in and of themselves. Also, according to google, plagues are bacterial, not viral.

My erroneous assumption comes from the Biblical ten plagues of Egypt and erroneous use of the saying. Now back to your regular programing of video games.
 
Diablo II Resurrected Beta is out for free. Obviously I downloaded it and well, it's definitely a beta version. Not all game modes/difficulty levels/features are not available. At this moment you can play the first two acts with 4 classes: Amazon, Barbarian, Paladin, Druid. The Sorceress, Assassin and Necromancer are not available yet. I have it on console and as of now achievements are not supported. The audio/video was not synced up during the opening cinematic.

I remember when I first played Diablo I and what a HUGE step up Diablo II was up in every way. Scope, story, cinematics. Now.... maybe because a lot of modern games have great graphics in general, but I thought them kinda meh. When they used to lead in the department now they just look like all the others. The game itself looks slightly poished from the original, don't know if they were going for a retro feel, but it looks like an HD remake. I thought using the xbox controller would be weird, but I got used to it really quick, don¡t miss the mouse or keyboard at all. I used to get lost with the keyboard in the middle of a big fight, with the controller I just map everything X, A, B, Y, trigger buttons and it's a tad more intuitive, but that's just probably because I've been more of a console gamer rather than a PC one. My only major knock on it is that I had to create a Battle.net account. This is something they flirted with Diablo III and got major backlash, the "always online" model. I couldn't play the game until it could connect with the Battle.net servers. Still don't like it, hopefully in BUYING a copy, online connectivity doesn't become mandatory.

It's promising, I'm hopeful. With this beta version I won't buy the actual release for at least a year.
 
I am currently playing two games. I expected much worse games and they turned out to be really, very good.

The first game is Assassins Creed: Odyssey. Ancient Greece, naval combat, spear, sword and bow fights, and sneaking through enemy camps. I got involved in history from the very first minutes. A huge surprise, I remembered the series from the first parts ~ 10 years ago and in my opinion they were hopeless.

The second title is Watch Dogs 1. The protagonist takes revenge on the mafia for the death of his niece during the attempt on his life. In the background, topics that I love - big data, smart city, surveillance. The action takes place in Chicago, a smart city where the computer system controls everything - from electricity to traffic lights at intersections, and we can control the system. In my opinion - the best part of the series. Aiden is a boring hero in the opinion of some, but from the point of view of history, he is focused on the goal and you can really understand what drives him. If someone likes thrillers with technology in the background - this game will be for him.
 
So it only took 3 years and about 15-20 hours of starts and stops, but Red Dead Redemption II really did finally click for me, and now I’m playing it regularly and actually looking forward to it. Took until deep into Chapter III for everything to sort itself out, but now I have a good handle on the game systems, and what to expect and not expect from the game, and it’s all good.

If my backlog weren’t so deep and the game didn’t take up so much space on my hard drive I’d be tempted to spend some time in the online mode after I finish the story, as I had a great time in the original RDR’s hardcore free roam mode…
 
KB2 the game I've been waiting for years, has flopped.

I don't even want to rant about the game because it's a stereotypical game business bullshit which is frankly unbelievable and unacceptable. How do executive powers in these companies earn their living and how they have roof above their heads and a fed stomach is beyond me. In our world though, they have yachts and villas, because their sole purpose is to drain the first amount of enthusiastic and "positive-minded" customers for pre-orders and first day sales before anyone knows what the game is (If someone told me in 1998 we'd be preordering games id tell him to go to funny house). 2nd hand sales are hampered by convenience (the game is in your digital library you don't have a CD) or by 'agreements' (you cant sell your account that you need to have for the game), which in turn creates a psychological issue for the buyer, namely the sunk cost fallacy. I've paid for this game - I can't sell it - It's bad and not what I expected - But 10% of it is ok so let's tunnel vision into that, because there's nothing else to do than to except defeat and that you've been scammed for your money.

King's Bounty was a DOS game that inspired Heroes of Might and Magic series.
King's Bounty : The Legend reboot is a late 2000s game, inspired by HOMM.

It was received as an instant classic, they've been milking the platform for 6 years, till 2014 successors were coming out which were based on the same engine and with reused elements. Actually there were 4 full AAA games developed from initial KB reboot, where new work was slashed by factor of 2 each time. By the time 2014 one was released, new graphics were maybe 10% of the game and were looking worse than 2008 reused assets, it was buggy in the story/dialogs/quest tracking, it had gamebreaking bugs and so on.

Ofc everyone saw that producer is milking the cow and not even testing the 6 year old reused technology. So game went on backburner for a few years, then KB2, as entirely new development, was announced.

It was released a week ago, and my fucking god are these people stupid.

They've removed 90% of what made King's Bounty King's Bounty, opting to go to more generic fantasy RPG type thing which the market is shit full of for the last decade. Think Witcher but Witcher on PS3 in 2015. This is what this game looks like today, on PC, for 50 euro.

I mean I almost puked when I saw some poor soul's review on Steam. "Ok you need to ditch that this game has anything to do with prior King's Bounty games, The Legend derivative or DOS one", "when you see it as its own game then you can enjoy it", "however only on sale because the game itself is worth 20 euros tops".

So lets get back to game company mgmt. You have a franchise that audience is waiting for. You decide to turn the franchise into something with a more wider appeal, risking alienation of your home base. Then you ditch the entire unique visual identity, which was top of the line at the time of its release, for a generic visual identity, that's years dated in execution (facial movement simulation is horrible). You take Unreal Engine but can't program terrain tracking or running till the time of release (the character moves slow as fuck and turns like it has thrusters in hips, cant jump, cant traverse over a fucking 10 inch log). You change the entire game, where now bulk of the spent time is pointleslly moving around the world while the movement mechanic is painfully bad, whereas it used to be army fighting. They said we want to break the routine of fighting army after army, replenishing, repeatedly, by introducing RPG elements. So what you get is just limping over the overworld in errand running between badly acted cutscenes and dialog choices "for character build".

You have 10 things, you fuck up 10 things. But you know that initial lies and hype will pay out your bonus.
 
Got ps plus for 50% off, so i'm playing a bit of overwatch and rainbow 6 siege again.
 
A bit annoyed with the Minecraft updates. They're redoing the whole way a world generates, including adding 64 blocks below zero. Looking forward to playing it - but I need to start a new world when 1.18 comes out so there's no friggin' use in playing an old world at the moment. And I sort of want to play, but not put 50-100 hours into building something fantastic that won't carry over.
 
I mean don't mind me, take a peek for yourself at KB2. Maybe you find something there, but for 50 euro I guess that's a longshot.

There's still some replay value in "old KB". Apparently people do the zero lost troops thing. I think it requires a completely different mindset in combat, a lot more precision and different approach to unit choices.

Last 2 of them tho, the vikings one and the dark side one, buggy and sometimes cheap in execution, I don't think they're that replay worthy. In vikings one there's a moment early on, you clear complete island from creeps and patrols, only to have main quest respawn everyone, because "enemy reinforcements arrived" story moment. Very cheap. The world is larger but is more filled with errand running than real sauce.

For the future of franchise - good luck. Good luck competing with all the RPGs that had decades of development and millions of $ thrown in them. The company disconnected KB from Heroes of Might and Magic, if buyers knew that was the intent, the game would sell 0 copies on release. Simple as that.
 
Here are two latest pinned reviews from steam. First is scored yay, other is nay.

So after 60 hours of fun I got to the worst ending possible, apparently there is no end due to the fact this game is just a preparation for future DLCs,
Pro - really fun to battle, and you can easily have a big reserve of units, i had like 20 at the end, - so no more running after units
- quests and dialogues are great, a real pleasure to listen to it
-many QoL improvements

Cons - incomplete game - there are no dwarves, elves, demons, lizards, orcs, undead, norths land, only the Human land
-slow pace of movement and battles
-useless horse since you have to unmount so you could teleport
-no real end game
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Finished, shy of 30 hours. Game became fairly trivial when I realized I could "heal" lost units instead of buying new ones. Final fight was p. easy too with a Warrior. Would be probably more difficult with other classes but with Warrior's "plus bazillion % damage" you just smash everything.

Overall very disappointing. Game is about half as long as old KBs, missing half the features (rage abilities, treasure hunts, challenge bonuses, flying horse, boss fights, marriages, item levelling and tons more), writing is drab and boring instead of witty, subversive and tongue-in-cheek, there are only two maps (tutorial and main), itemization is bad (tiny item pool compared to old KBs plus most items are bland and boring), visuals are ugly, VO is cringy (the Warrior is voiced by Mr. Witcher himself but he was clearly bored with yet another gruff, stoic hero, plus I could swear he ran of patience at some point, bailed and was replaced by someone else) and the UI was designed by the game director's budgie. The worst UI I've seen in a long time. Also the hard unit cap is a very bad decision that limits your strategic options something fierce. It's not as apparent now, with just one difficulty when strategy doesn't matter since the game is a cakewalk but if they add more difficulties everyone will immediately see how misguided the cap is.

I was mildly entertained at mid-game but as it went on I soured and now I would immediately refund if I could. I've been a devoted fan of the series since Legend came out but this is a rusty knife in the back of the KB legacy by a bunch of people who had clearly no idea what they were doing. Imagine the creators of Darkest Dungeon thought "let's turn Darkest Dungeon 2 into an ugly, fully voiced, 3D pseudo-Witcher open world and let's also cut half the features and make the game half as long, I'm sure the broader appeal would compensate". What a waste. Avoid.
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Everything is clear from these two, from both perspectives.
 
Oh my
I played the hell out of the first KB on Amiga (yes I'm that old :D), and I loved The Legend/Armored Princess more than any HOMM

I've watched some reviews on youtube and it really seems like a disappointment :grumble:
 
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