What games are you playing 2: The revenge

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
Decided to play some quake II and figured what the hell lets mod it. Currently running Quake II XP, but I've heard there are better hd textures/models out there.

Tempted to do the same with Duke 3d, provided I can figure out which version I need to use as a base for my mods.
 
Decided to play some quake II and figured what the hell lets mod it. Currently running Quake II XP, but I've heard there are better hd textures/models out there.

Tempted to do the same with Duke 3d, provided I can figure out which version I need to use as a base for my mods.
Hands down eDuke32 and Megaton Edition.

Unfortunately, you can't legally buy Megaton Edition anymore if you don't already have it. It's very hard to find a physical copy of it.

You can sail the seas to get it, but that's the only way unless you manage to track down a physical copy, which will likely be expensive given how high demand they are.

Atomic Edition is the next best thing. You can buy a physical copy of it on Amazon, and it's pretty cheap that way. Unfortunately, that is the only way to get it. It's the complete main game, minus some of the expansions. The expansions are fun, but none are as good as the main game.

You will need a disk drive to install it, but once you have it in eDuke32 will run the files for you on modern Windows systems.

The only way to legally get Duke 3D digitally currently is to get the shitty World Tour remaster Gearbox released. They discontinued every other version, which is a shitty habit they are developing as of late. They did the same thing to all the Borderlands games.

World Tour does have some new content, another episode I think. It also lacks many of the features of the Megaton Edition, such as being able to turn off Mouse Acceleration, and there are a lot of other issues. It's a crap port with some extra post processing slapped onto it and some "I've got a mortgage" level voice acting rerecords.

Gearbox also tried and failed to sue the eDuke people to try and force people into buying the new version by getting rid of a vastly superior version. eDuke is pretty much the only reason Duke 3D is still relevant on PC today.

I'd pirate it on principal over getting the World Tour version if I didn't already own it. I'd gladly buy Megaton, or even Atomic, if either was available, but I'm not paying for the garbage remake and I'm starting to get to the point where I don't want to give Gearbox money anymore. I'm seriously going to have to think about whether I am picking up Borderlands 3 or not.

They are very close to ending up in my "I'd rather just not bother with dealing with their bullshit" category of publishers along with EA and Konami.

On a related note, the classic version of Shadow Warrior is free on GoG and has been since 2016.

The Blood remaster [Blood: Fresh Supply] available on Steam is also pretty great. This is easily the most difficult Build Engine [Duke 3D] game, but it's lots of fun. It's everything Duke Nukem 3D World Tour should have been.

Ion Maiden is in Early Access, but well worth your time. It's a new game on the Build Engine and basically in Sharware form at this point. What is there is really great though.

If you want something more Quake II-ish, definitely don't miss out on Dusk. Everything about that game is highly polished retro goodness. Strafe hopping is a legitimate movement tactic to the point that it's almost required on the harder difficulties. Seriously, if you're a fan of Quake, don't miss this.

If you were ever into Hexen/Heretic have a look at Amid Evil, which is another Early Access thing by people who seem to know what the hell they are doing.

A couple of other retro-ish shooters on my watchlist recently are Hellbound and Wrath: Aeon of Ruin. Neither is actually available yet in any form, but I'm keeping an eye on their development for now as both look very interesting.
 
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Antimatter

Well-Known Member
Lol, I have both an OG non atomic addition disk, the megaton collection on steam (and on Vita, for some reason) and the atomic edition from GOG. I think I even have a 'duke it out in DC' disk somewhere. I've even got a picture of duke signed by Jon St. John himself.

I'm just wondering which version needs to be installed for all the mods to work properly.

I've got shadow warrior (old and new) as well as the GOG releases of both blood games (though not the remaster).

Ion maiden looks rad.

Really looking forward to Wraith as well. Though I hope they have modern controls and not push to strafe.
 

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
Tried eduke32 out, and downloaded the HD texture pack. had to do a bit but it looks like my steam version and it's addons worked fine. Much smoother then getting quake2 XP to work properly.

Tossing on the HD pack makes it kind of look like an early 2000's shooter, which is nice.
 
Tried eduke32 out, and downloaded the HD texture pack. had to do a bit but it looks like my steam version and it's addons worked fine. Much smoother then getting quake2 XP to work properly.

Tossing on the HD pack makes it kind of look like an early 2000's shooter, which is nice.
You're good to go then. That's the best way to play Duke Nukem 3D. Megaton has the most content of any version, otherwise Atomic is fine too. You just need the game files as they aren't copy protected due to when they were released.

I have a similar collection of Duke 3D disks. I do have Jon St. John's signature, but it's on a Duke Nukem themed King of Spades card.
World Tour is the first edition of Duke 3D I haven't bought, and I don't plan on it.

Blood: Fresh Supply is great. It runs better than the source port versions and has official support. Like I said, it is everything Duke World Tour should have been and wasn't. The launch was a little wonky, but entirely playable. Just a few things like how often the cultist toss dynamite being bugged. A huge patch fixed pretty much all the problems within a couple of days.

If you get the urge to play OG Doom or Doom II, I highly recommend GZDoom, as it's much the same thing as eDuke32 only for Doom and Doom II. It will also run Heretic and Hexen. Much like Duke 3D, no DRM on the WAD files, so if you've got 'em from any version, you can just toss 'em in and it'll run.

I also highly recommend grabbing ZDL to go with GZDoom. It's a launcher GUI that lets you add and remove multiple mods a little easier. So you can use HD textures, Doom Metal, Project Brutality or Brutal Doom, and custom level packs all at once really easily. GZDoom adds new effects and such, as well as a wealth of options to the game.

Unfortunately, eDuke32 only works with Duke 3d. However, the only games really worth porting over to it, Shadow Warrior and Blood, both have decent remasters available that do most of what eDuke32 does for Duke Nukem anyway.

Also, Dusk. Seriously. That game is amazing. It's the best modern retro shooter released to this day. If you're a Quake II fan, you'll be right at home, but it is absolutely not a Quake II ripoff. It seems like it might be at first, but it isn't.
 
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I'd actually like to see Shadow Warrior and Blood both ported to eDuke32, but only because eDuke32 has a VR version.

I've already played through all of Duke 3D in VR and it was a lot of fun. Doom and Doom II as well, through the VR version of GZDoom.
 
What, no redneck rampage support? That as build, wasn't it?
The best thing about Redneck Rampage was the very 90s psychobilly soundtrack. The rest was mediocre at best.

There wasn't anything wrong with it per say, but it didn't really stand out as a game.

I barely remember it and likely only do because of that soundtrack. However, it doesn't deserve a spot in the Build Hall of Shame along with TekWar, Nam, and Paintbrawl.

On a side note, Ion Maiden is actually running using eDuke32 natively. Which is how they can pull off some of what they do in the game because it gets around some of the limitations of the Build Engine.
 

Karnath

Well-Known Member
Nearing the end of Cold Steel 2, catching that efing last fish is going to give me carpel tunnel.

EDIT

Caught the little shit, it took about 30 tries with rests every 3 attempts so my thumb and tendons wouldn't get sore enough to affect my chances.
 
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Finished Far Cry New Dawn.

Meh. The ending is pretty standard for a FPS and doesn't have a twist. There's just one ending and it's kind of low key.

That's not too far of a deviation for a spinoff game though, as Blood Dragon and Primal didn't really do anything like that either.

Still, how they build up your character it did seem like they might be pulling the rug out from under you at some point. Doesn't really happen though.

There are two choices you can make towards the end of the game, and neither has any impact on the ending aside from a note that gets left in one case. You get the same cutscene regardless of what you do.

However, those choices are somewhat satisfying on their own and do fit in with the story. They just don't do anything to change the outcome of the ending cutscene, but may impact future Far Cry games depending on what they decide the canon choices are.

Most of the more interesting elements actually happen in game. Learning what happened to the player character in Far Cry 5 is a good example.

For a quickly made spinoff it's not bad. Definitely better than Primal, but not as good as fun as Blood Dragon.

Honestly, the biggest issue is the villains are boring. They taunt you like a less charismatic Handsome Jack and mostly come off as spoiled and entitled rather than threatening. They're basic thugs who would be underlings in the previous Far Cry games.

They just don't measure up to Pagan Min and Vaas. The twins seem like spoiled edgelord teens that never grew up, where as the previous villains seemed like legitmately dangerous people.
 

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
Apparently I own MDK on gog.com. I have the original CD version, but hey I guess this is nice?

Also, all this modding of old FPS games makes me wonder if some of my other classics have HD mods now or not.
 
Apparently I own MDK on gog.com. I have the original CD version, but hey I guess this is nice?

Also, all this modding of old FPS games makes me wonder if some of my other classics have HD mods now or not.
Pretty sure MDK was a free giveaway several years ago. Both it and the sequel are less than $5 currently. I have it, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have bought it.

As for the second part, probably at least a few. HD mods are super common for older FPS games.
 
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Played through "Beginner's Guide".

It's from the same guy that did the Stanley Parable.

The whole thing takes less than two hours to playthrough, and unlike Stanley Parable there aren't multiple branching paths. It's also not a satire thing.

It's very much more art than game. There is some interaction, but it's mostly a walking sim, but not a bad one as the narrative is interesting and engaging.

It's a look into depression and loneliness and takes itself somewhat seriously. I could see people connecting with it, but also that some might find it completely uninteresting as it isn't really a game so much as a sort of narrated virtual tour through some simple and short abstract areas that revolve around a theme.

Worth it for dirt cheap on sale if you've not played it before. The short runtime and lack of any replayability mean I wouldn't recommend it for more than a few bucks.
 
Started Just Cause 4. Another game I've had for ages that I bought on sale and just never got around to outside of "boot it up to make sure it works".

So far, not bad. My expectations were tempered, and I'm pleasantly surprised so far. Not hugely so, it does seem like JC 3 is a better game, but it's not the trainwreck I was expecting given the bitching about it.

It is a bit uglier than Just Cause 3 in some areas, but overall looks decent. I'm late to the party and I understand patches have fixed a lot since launch, but it's not as bad as a lot of people have made it sound.

The water definitely doesn't look as good. Neither do the character models.

On the water side of things, there's a lot less of it. The last game was set on islands where traversing the water was a huge part of the game. Here, you do some of that, but it's not nearly as big a focus on the map. Mostly I've just flown over it so far, but I can tell I'll spend at least a little time in watercraft at some point. Probably not for very long though.

In the case of the character models, they actually have more to them and just ended up looking worse. This is the game's weakest point actually. Some of the characters look better than others, but there are a couple that just look a bit too cartoonish. Also, Rico's hair is weird.

The textures overall are improved though, as is the foliage and such. Not a huge improvement, but they do look better. Lighting is about the same, just utilized differently.

Gameplay is par for the course for Just Cause so far. Run around, blow stuff up, shoot bad soldiers, take over territory, ect...

I'm only a couple of hours in and haven't seen most of the game yet. There's a lot of stuff I haven't unlocked yet so this is just first impressions.

So far, it looks slightly worse even though the tech is more advanced. However, the game part is still what you'd expect from a Just Cause game and does that well enough.
 
Not mad about Just Cause 4 at all.

I could see where I might be annoyed if I had bought it on day one, paid full price, and found it more broken than it is now.

It's fun as a physics playground, which is what it needs to be. It's not hard, but it's not supposed to be.

A few things have been streamlined and are easier to do.

Staying in the air with the grapple and parachute by using the grapple for momentum is much easier to do.

Car handling is better, but still bad.

The grapple has become a multi-tool and now integrates the boosters and a MGS5 style balloon addon.

There are no "instant death" events anymore, which is nice. Rico is an even bigger bullet sponge than ever.

It's still deeply flawed though, but all of the Just Cause games have been.

The colors are more washed out than in JC3. It's not nearly as bright or colorful.

Like I mentioned, the driving is still crap.

The HUD has an irritating list of input commands you can't get rid of without turning off the entire hud. This includes things like waypoints.

Weapons are as disposable as Breath of the Wild weapons. They don't break, but run out of ammo easily and enemies don't drop as much as they did in previous games. You can only carry two weapons at a time and will be constantly switching them around. It's not as bad as it sounds and loadouts are still useful. I often find myself keeping a specialty weapon and switching out the other one to deal with low level enemies.

Pistols are gone. No more infinite ammo handgun. If you run out of ammo, your grapple is your best weapon. It's good enough to take down an enemy or two so you can pick up their weapon. You are never defenseless, though you do sometimes have to be clever.

Vehicles do not have infinite ammo either.

There are weapon crates that give you a selection of three guns all over the place, and they always have at least one useful weapon in them. Despite ammo not being as plentiful, you pretty much always have something you can grab to shoot.

Overall, I'm liking the game despite the flaws. Like I said, as a destruction physics sandbox, it's a lot of fun.
 
Outer Wilds.

Didn't finish Just Cause yet, but the last few games I played were open world shooters so I decided to take a break.

Outer Wilds is very interesting, and difficult to talk about without spoiling things. I'm only a couple of hours in and it's already gotten my attention. There's a neat twist early on, and I highly recommend going into this game blind.

It's almost like an old school adventure game in a lot of ways. The characters have been interesting so far, and the worlds are small, but have a lot to find and explore on them. There's also no voicework and it is all text based, but that's fine given the setting. You're not human and start out in your home village, which the first part of the game teaches you the mechanics by exploring.

It's a weird mix of exploration and archeology. It's more a mystery thing than anything else so far. You don't move quickly and the game is deliberately paced, but still doesn't feel slow so far. The controls haven't gotten in the way and getting around isn't a chore so far.

I was a bit worried as there's a mini game where you fly a model ship that the game claimed is the same as flying your own. It was wonky and difficult to control, but thankfully the actual ship is much easier to handle. It's also pretty much impossible to crash.

I haven't run into anything hostile yet, but there are hints that there are things like that in the game, and that you can indeed die. You also have air and fuel for your space suit, but from what I've seen resource management isn't a huge thing. Air lasts for quite a long time, and you have a lot of fuel as well.

Edit: At least early on, this game is amazing. It seriously gets the feeling of exploring an alien world down. The safe haven of the home planet sets up the rest of the game really well. Every place I've been so far has had some sort of amazing thing going on, and has a sense of hostility about it.

The water planet is especially harrowing, and there's another planet I've spent about an hour on and still haven't quite figured out what the deal is with the place. The planets and such are bigger than they initially seem.

If you can help it, don't spoil anything about this game before playing it. It's one of those titles that's better the less you know about it going in.

You can indeed die by the way, but I've found it's difficult to pull off outside of being incredibly stupid. For example, my only death so far was because I forgot to put on the spacesuit before leaving the ship on the Moon.

The ship also takes damage and you can break it. However, you can jump out and fix it without needing to gather any resources. You don't really have an inventory in this game. There are objects you can pick up and use, but you don't keep them and just carry them to where they are needed.

I get the impression it's not trying to be hard as none of the puzzles I've encountered so far are particularly difficult and I've yet to run across any real platforming or movement challenges.

So far this is already one of my top indie games of this year. It makes an outstanding first impression at the least. It's a shame some people aren't going to play it [at least for a while] because of industry politics surrounding Epic.
 
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Zetas

Lurking upon the deep
Playing the new Borderlands 2 DLC on UVHM and getting my face smashed in repeatedly. Also, the new rainbow rarity bandit technical skin is giving me flashbacks to the 90's when school supplies sometimes had those goofy metallic rainbow decals. Edit: the picture doesn't really do it justice, is has this sparkling iridescent flecked animation to the paint that honestly looks neat.
 
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Antimatter

Well-Known Member
I just started that DLC, was nice to get a lv 30 boost as someone playing on ps4, as there is no way to transfer my PC UVHM save.
 

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
Finished the DLC and got my boosted Gaige to TVHM and sanctuary so I could abuse the heck out of my phat stack of golden keys. Good times.


But enough of that, *tosses wineglass* my copy of Bloodstained arrived today.
 

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
So yeah, Bloodstained is pretty much awesomesauce. It nails the Igavania vibe, looks great, controls are solid, and the music rocks. If you are a castlevania fan it's worth picking up.
 
So yeah, Bloodstained is pretty much awesomesauce. It nails the Igavania vibe, looks great, controls are solid, and the music rocks. If you are a castlevania fan it's worth picking up.
Agreed, but it's a little unstable for me so far. I've had it crash a couple times when opening chests and have lost progress as a result. That's harder to deal with in a game that uses save points like this one does.

It's potentially awesome, but needs a patch.

I'm confident this will happen quickly, but also can't say "get this now" until it is.
 
They dropped a huge patch this evening you know.
That might have been the cause of my issues then. I didn't install it until this evening because I haven't been home for most of the day.

It hasn't been updated since I installed it, and there isn't one scheduled for download.
 

Antimatter

Well-Known Member
I’ve noticed a few things I had issue with are fixed, and everything seems tweaked here and there.
 
I’ve noticed a few things I had issue with are fixed, and everything seems tweaked here and there.
I'll check it out tomorrow and see if things have settled down. I verified the files and it says everything is fine. If I'm having problems tomorrow, I'll do a reinstall.

If even that doesn't work, Dead Cells just got a fairly hefty beta update as well. Lots of rebalances, tweaks to elite enemies, a new mob, new mutations, a new affix that reveals invisible enemies, and the arbiter was removed from most of the game and put into the caverns biome exclusively.

I've been on a shooter binge lately, so a couple of Metroidvania titles will be a nice change of pace.

Really glad I have my DS4 hooked up to my PC for Bloodstained.
 
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