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vurt
Posts: 13878
Location: Sweden
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vurt
Posts: 13878
Location: Sweden
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 Posted: Sat, 10th Feb 2024 15:25 Post subject: |
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hah, i'm so glad i can do this as a hobby only.
thanks mate!
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| Posted: Sat, 10th Feb 2024 15:51 Post subject: |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sat, 13th Apr 2024 23:39 Post subject: |
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Some Ready or Not, the single-player successor to SWAT and Rainbow Six after decades of failures and sad trombones. It's jankier than necessary (corpses spazzing out ahoy!), the non-lethal approach feels like an afterthought and even after all the patches the AI is still rather bizarre (which becomes a problem when doing the campaign), but the atmosphere is top-notch. Complex level design, satisfying gunplay and an interesting variety of missions, each with its specific theme brimming with attention to detail.
(For the typical TAA vaseline-y blur I applied Reshade's recent cShard.fx sharpen effect - more effective and less performance consuming than the others)
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Callisto Protocol, an exercise in futility. Technically solid thanks to the visceral(tm) atmosphere and visuals which received great care, unlike..everything else. What a shame
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Tomb Raider I Remustarded, a faithful recreation of the brilliant explorative and hand-holding-free classic Lara 1.0* which is still a joy to play. Although some environmental redesigns are hit and miss and visibility can be an issue because of the proper lighting system, the various patches have fixed most of the incongruences with the effects/textures. Modern controls + mouse are viable as well now despite some general glitchiness.
*the offensive, inappropriate, deeply harmful, and inexcusable one 
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Deus Ex Human Revolution DC with Rudy's ENB that enhances the lighting by adding pseudo-GI/AO/real-time reflective surfaces + Vulkan .dll to eliminate the stuttering (not completely, but close enough). If there were proper HD textures available, this would essentially be like a modern remaster 
As for the game itself, it's still a pleasure with its magnificent atmosphere and tangible sense of immersion, complemented by the solid writing and gameplay. I wish some elements of it were less consolized/streamlined (the expected price to pay for a multiplatform title) such as the takedown animations, the actual shooting and some areas being less open than needed, however, the experience isn't too tarnished by their presence, as opposed to the forever gimped Invisible War.
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73277
Location: Ramat HaSharon, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Sat, 13th Apr 2024 23:43 Post subject: |
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| ixigia wrote: | | the non-lethal approach feels like an afterthought |
So it’s very realistic to USA SWAT then?  |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sun, 14th Apr 2024 00:04 Post subject: |
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| LeoNatan wrote: | | ixigia wrote: | | the non-lethal approach feels like an afterthought |
So it’s very realistic to USA SWAT then? |
Haha indeed 
To be fair though the general aggressiveness of the suspects in the game is so high that the usual "yell for compliance" action is almost a waste of time - especially since many of them love to play the fake surrender card. It was even worse a few months back when the "1.0" came out, now that was the true USA experience |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Thu, 27th Jun 2024 01:59 Post subject: |
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Metro Exodus Enhanced Raymustarded Edition, which brings improvements in how the lighting bounces throughout all the various surfaces/materials, though there are some instances where the effects are either exaggerated or not tuned properly. The result overall is still quite remarkable, except for the signature stiff facial animations with empty breeki eyes that didn't receive any update. As for the game itself, despite the inner consolitis with uneven level design and the characters' tendency to talk for way longer than they should, it is a solid and atmospheric experience in a pretty barren modern big-budget FPS scenario.
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Some Ghost of Ubishima, not a compelling game in terms of variety and copypasta'd open-world dynamics but it worked quite well as a time waster. Kudos to the inspired art direction, albeit a tad simplistic.
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The super-duper modded Gothic in DX11 + HD textures slapped on it, a genuine golden oldie with all its flaws and rawness, but pleasant and rewarding nonetheless. I'll be starting another modded Gothic 2 run at some point too, to commemorate the dead Piranhamen <3
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The Dark Mod (latest version) which comes with some neat features and graphical enhancements such as soft shadows and better diffuse lighting for the ancient idTech 4
Since unfortunately we never had a Thief 4, this serves us very nicely as the gameplay + interface essentially mirror the good ol' Thief 1/2, and the quality of the user-made missions is high enough to forget for a while that the gaming industry is in ruins.
The top ones are all worth playing: https://www.thiefguild.com/fanmissions/?advanced_search=&series=&collection=&table=&page=&works=&work_lists=&sort_by=best&search=&games=5&released_from=all&released_to=all&genre=all&original_games=fms
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LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73277
Location: Ramat HaSharon, Israel 🇮🇱
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| Posted: Thu, 27th Jun 2024 02:18 Post subject: |
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Thu, 27th Jun 2024 02:31 Post subject: |
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Not to mention the terrible level design and the fact that you couldn't even jump...in a Thief game!  which still baffles me to this day, haha. Also the melodramatic "story" by Pratchett's inept daughter
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Tue, 26th Nov 2024 03:02 Post subject: |
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Nice shots, Ixi! What is your current pc setup?
1 and 2 are still amazing.
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Tue, 26th Nov 2024 16:20 Post subject: |
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| Yuri wrote: | | Nice shots, Ixi! What is your current pc setup? |
Thanks, I upgraded last year since it was long overdue (i7-13700k/4070/32GB DDR5/990 Pro). To be honest, there have only been a handful of demanding titles that could keep my interest, but that's the state of 202X Gaeming for you
The only one that I was looking forward to this year is STALKER 2 and (as expected) it needs to spend a lot of time in the oven, though at least the potential is there also considering the modding. |
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vurt
Posts: 13878
Location: Sweden
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Fri, 21st Mar 2025 01:20 Post subject: |
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Back to revisiting some oldies (not many left from the backlog at this point)
Mirror's Edge, with the fix for everything UE3-related https://www.moddb.com/games/mirrors-edge/addons/persistent-fov + HBAO/AA forced via nvidia inspector (PCGamingWiki has all the details)
A short but packed experience that's pretty much timeless in terms of tight mechanics, art direction, and moody OST. 50x0 Series not allowed 
| Spoiler: | |
Tomb Raider 2 Remustarded, not quite as cohesive and atmospheric as TR1 because of the rather bland wreckage levels + omnipresent bullet spongey enemies, and certainly not as varied as TR3, but still immensely more rewarding than anything Lara has produced in the past 20 years. The highlight is Tibet, especially the iconic Temple of Xian. Although these remasters alter the original lighting more than they should and some levers/buttons become semi-hidden in the process, the unlocked framerate and mouse controls are nice comforts to have.
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Soldier of Fortune 2, with the mandatory patch https://github.com/SuiMachine/Soldier-of-Fortune-2-SuisFix , a couple of mods from Nexus (HD UI and arms) and some faux RTGI from Reshade. It's just as bizarrely unbalanced as I remembered, combining the run & gun formula with scripts borrowed from Half Life and tactical elements (unlike SoF 1 which is essentially Quake set in modern times), but the final result is rewarding in its own way. The dismemberment system is still satisfying, I just wish bodies didn't disappear after ten seconds and enemies didn't have the supernatural ability to shoot through solid surfaces, but John F. Mullins is trained for that!
(Make sure to pick the Custom difficulty setting and turn the silly weapon inaccuracy off so that the game plays a bit more like the first one)
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Desperados, locked at 1600x900 (higher resolutions make the characters look way too tiny) and upscaled -> 1440p using Lossless Scaling - still a bit sluggish by default because of the very low base framerate, but playable. The game is more finicky, exploitable and occasionally tedious than Mimimi's modern sequel, but I prefer the original when it comes to atmosphere and its grounded tone:
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Mon, 14th Apr 2025 00:07 Post subject: |
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<3
Not many new games manage to tickle my pickle (being allergic to most AAA^A+ productions, all jRPGs, rouguelike/lites, and online-oriented stuff reduces the eligibility pool) but thankfully, exceptions do exist. I've been savouring every moment with KCD2 and taking it extremely slowly since that kind of top-shelf immersion is a precious rarity - and Rogue Trader, another gem after the pleasant Pathfinders. I'm still waiting for STALKER 2.0 to become more mature and improved, though who knows when/if that will ever materialize. Fingers crossed
A couple of recent-ish ones that also kept me entertained:
Empires of The Undergrowth, a competent entry in the genre with its distinct tone and nice environmental variety added to the mix. The balance can be iffy, but inside the virtual terrarium there's a solution for everything (kind of!)
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And Baldur's Original Gale 3: Hentai Galore, not the sequel we deserved but the one we needed to replace the long defunct Dragon Age more or less effectively. Despite conceptual sins and all the concessions to the nuaudience of Redditors and Tiklads, it offers a long journey with pretty remarkable amounts of reactivity and exploration, which make the experience worthwhile.
The oomphy presentation does its part, too, I recommend playing it in third person with the Native Camera Tweaks + WASD Character Movement combo for better immersion, as well as all these UI mods: https://next.nexusmods.com/profile/Caites/mods?gameId=3474
[horny tentacles intensify]
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| Posted: Mon, 14th Apr 2025 00:14 Post subject: |
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That SOFII jungle level used to be THE benchmark of a good looking game for me back in the day
Also Desperados, there's something the new 3D version just doesn't capture about the look and feel of those visuals
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ixigia
[Moderator] Consigliere
Posts: 65103
Location: Italy
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| Posted: Sat, 2nd Aug 2025 00:38 Post subject: |
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Finally replayed through Geraldo The First with some mods (the most popular bugfixes + minor improvements, better textures, Reshade's GI etc.) and unsurprisingly, the game is still marvellously enjoyable. There are a few rough bits here and there, Chapter IV suffers from excessive backtracking and the balance is Ja pierdole-like, but the adventure oozes timeless charm and atmosphere. Although the combat system is objectively simplistic, it flows nicely and is never annoying -- it will be curious to see how the future remake will approach the whole thing, including the art of ploughing 'n collecting cards with mammaries. Your hair is like milk, how come? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
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Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, a mix of old-school and nu-school that mostly takes inspiration from Todd and does several things right despite the low budget. The game runs out of steam after a while and the final chapter stinks, but it still works reasonably well for what it is thanks to the dark ambience and all its backstories.
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And some snippets from The Alters, one of the most pleasant surprises this year for me despite the gameplay loop being on the rinse & repeat-y side by design. Immersive story, atmosphere and music, with twists and surprises along the ride.
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