Cool! One day I'll get around to playing Wreckfest... finding time for racing games between everything else nowadays is just... I loved playing FlatOut 2 back in the GameSpy days hehe.
NZXTS340ELITE : EVGA Z370 FTW / [ Intel i7 8086k @4.0Ghz ][ ASUS TUF RTX 3060 Ti 8GB ][ 16GB G.Skill Trident Z @3200mhz CL16 ][ 128GB Intel760p Series + 1TB Crucial MX500 + 3TB WD RED ][ Thermaltake Toughpower PF1 650W ]
Finally finished Sherlock Holmes Crimes and Punishments after having lost my saves twice over the past few years (truly a job for Sherlock), a consolized-yet-solid adventure that holds up well in terms of visuals. It's also Frogware's last good game, here's hoping the next hipster Holmes won't be too much of an embarrassment:
Spoiler:
Going back to driving games, despite the ridiculous launch and after hundreds of patches Assetto Corsa Competizione has finally turned into a genuinely competent sim. It's not perfect and its UE4 implementation is a strange beast to digest, but it's essentially the mystical GTR3 that we never had:
After more than ten years since the first time I decided to do another Dragon Age Origins playthrough and...to no one's surprise, it's still rock-solid. The story may not be particularly innovative or elaborate in terms of pure plot development and the level design occasionally isn't at its best (yes Deep Roads and bland mob-infested corridors, I'm looking at you) but from the rich atmosphere to the characters' personal stories, their interactions with the protagonist and their reactions to the events that unfold, almost every detail is handled in a satisfying and organic way. It's such a shame that the Durr era fell upon it like acid biorain and we never got any sequels *cough cough* , the franchise truly would've had the potential to be memorable.
As for the technicalities, the game has aged well thanks to the quality art style and PC-focused gameplay, though there are a few useful mods that improve the experience in my opinion:
- Qwinn's Ultimate DAO Fixpack (it's essentially a big community patch)
- Extra Dog Slot + Expanded inventory
- Natural bodies + Better Sex cutscenes in order to see Morrigan's lady parts in action when the time comes, right before regretting it but not really
Didn't really use any major texture mods except for Theta HD and White Teeth since I don't like how artificially sharpened the old packs look (there's a new ~5GB Neural AI one as well which looks nice but sadly it caused too many crashes for me). Dragon Age Redesigned classifies as optional in my opinion since it changes quite a few visual things, though the enhancements outnumber the awkward bits.
Spoiler:
Condemned
Linear but of the good kind, with just the right amount of hand-holding and a noninvasive HUD (always a plus), a simple yet satisfying physics-based combat and some top-notch atmosphere.
The models are obsolete but everything else holds up nicely, just make sure to follow PCGamingWiki's tips: Widescreen fix + Missing files for the Steam version + AA flags + input fix (same as FEAR's). I installed the Neural Textures on top of it too, they're not perfect but still an improvement over the default washed up ones.
Some Days Gone, rather derivative in the gameplay department but it definitely has its moments. The visuals and overall post-apocalyptic atmosphere are noteworthy:
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Below Zero, a wasted opportunity in many ways and not quite the expansion that the mighty Subnautica deserved, but still better than most stuff released these days.
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After Assetto Corsa, PCars 2, rFactor 2 and Competizione, the new boy in Driving Simtown is Automobilista 2. It was released way too prematurely last year but with the additional contents and the dozens of updates it's finally getting there, shaking off the feeling of being just a big PCars 2 mod. The physics were improved with the addition of more complex tyre models, the AI and overall polish are decent as well now. Hopefully it will receive more enhancements in the future, it would be a shame if the sim didn't reach its full potential.
Third video with DSP, this time using the Synthetic God track from the Stellaris OST. Considering that the game is about an AI strip-mining whole star systems to build megastructures, I though it was fitting.
I just wish I knew enough about video capture to get rid of those compression artefacts. I use shadowplay with the highest possible bitrate, and it gives very crisp clips to work with, but I try to match it as close as possible in vegas for the renderer, and the blocky halo around stuff is always painfully apparent.
Right this moment I'm rendering this video again with the bitrate cranked to the max value, let's see what happens.
I have a feeling YT's compression doesn't help matters either.
Even if it turns out to be as pixel-perfect as the source clips I won't upload it, but I'll take in into account for the next video.
EDIT: nope, still as blocky as ever. I guess this is what I get for doing videos about space stuff. Even ObsidianAnt's videos aren't free from these so I guess I have no reason to complain.
zmed's relaxing Dyson Sphere videos and images create a nice balance to JB's equally interesting serial killer collages of mutilated limbs and bloody ragdoll corpses forming letters.
zmed's relaxing Dyson Sphere videos and images create a nice balance to JB's equally interesting serial killer collages of mutilated limbs and bloody ragdoll corpses forming letters.
That is most definitely on point
( Gotta agree, great videos zmed ! Wish I had half the mind for such systems )
R5 5600X - 3070FE - 16GB DDR4 3600 - Asus B550 TUF Gaming Plus - BeQuiet Straight Power 11 750W - Pure Base 500DX
Believe me, it doesn't take too much brain to make this. It's all about practice. I've started with Factorio and I had to watch a video about the main-bus concept to not suck balls at it. Then I saw how KatherineOfSky organised her own manufacturing arrays and it took me another video to realise that I can compartmentalise the whole process, no need to make everything on-site. DSP is the perfect game for that with those logistics towers. Just make a ton of specialised arrays that feed each other through the towers. I have several towers that only need the product of it's neighbour and it would be way more efficient to connect them with belts, but I'm too lazy to make that work, so I just leave it to the drones, and let them waste a ton of energy doing what belts would do for free. But at least it's pretty watching them fly all over the place like bees.
Just re-doing the central mess-o-rings, wasn't really happy how obvious the different layers were. The new one is way more spread out and neighbouring layers don't share the same axis. This is another timelapse video, starts out normal speed, ramps up to...I don't remember, maybe 12x or thereabouts, then slows down again at the end. Same as the first timelapse.
Found a combination of settings that gives a half-decent video file...that immediately gets fucked to hell and back by yutub's compression. I guess my channel is too small to waste storage on so they compress it way too much. Oh well, I'll work with what I'm given.
Grime, not a technical feast but the inspired art direction and solid gameplay made up for it:
Spoiler:
And some Enderal SE, truly a display of talent and love. Old but not obsolete(tm)
I used some Reshade on top of it since the ENB was too heavy on the framerate and nosy with the vaseline. Here it is in case anyone wants to give it a try: https://www.mediafire.com/file/1jiol8c4er4cdxw/Enderal_-_Reshade.rar/file (the gamma values might need some tuning since my monitor is special in a woeful way)
RE4 with the HD mod, proper mouse controls and Reshade for good measure. Despite the goofy bits and some questionable gameplay elements, it's still a very enjoyable action romp:
Since Elden Ring was voraciously monopolizing all my gaming time, I put it on hold and went back to the classics: Vol IX
Unreal Gold, a genuine golden oldie. With its unique atmosphere, fairly complex maps, PC-centric fast-paced gunplay and Brandon's glorious music, it definitely stands the test of time. It does get a bit repetitive near the end, but they really don't make 'em like this anymore. I tried to replay Unreal 2 too afterwards but it almost felt like going from Blood to Blood 2..what a shame.
Vietcong, still good and very playable thanks to the VCstarter tool. The friendly AI is blinder than I remembered and the related pathfinding is bizarre to say the least, but the authenticity of the action is top-notch. There's a decent variety in terms of missions and shooting feels meaty, also helped by the dynamic ADS/cover system which was quite ingenious for the time. The tone of the dialogues is unfiltered which would be unthinkable in today's climate. Fucking gooks!
Spoiler:
Tomb Raider 3 (with some faux RTGI), my favourite iteration of Lara despite the trial and error-based sections and some obtuse design here and there. The tank controls feel almost masochistic and the 30fps cap sucks, but the linear yet complex layouts, the varied locations with their atmosphere and the complete lack of handholding make the classic series unique and rewarding..much more than the modern popamole auto-adventures. There's also a mod that introduces mouse controls, it's not perfect but helps.
Spoiler:
The good ol' GTR 2 with the Anniversary Community patch ( https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/gtr2-hq-anniversary-patch-part-1.21415/), impressive how a sim from nearly two decades ago still holds up so nicely in terms of physics. Although nowadays it's been surpassed by AC/Competizione and Automobilista 2, the fact that it was fully moddable is something that the new sims sadly are sorely missing. Much like RBR which is still thriving, another absolute classic.
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(besides some other things i did to it)
One day I'll get around to playing Wreckfest... finding time for racing games between everything else nowadays is just... I loved playing FlatOut 2 back in the GameSpy days hehe.
, the franchise truly would've had the potential to be memorable.
