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learnforextradingsystem · 2 years

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Upgrade your Smartphone to Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, Complete with S Pen

In an increasingly fast-paced daily life with various activities at work and personal time, both physically and virtual, people are challenged to continue to adapt and balance their daily lives. Not infrequently, the right device can support performance more effectively.

As a solution, Samsung continues to innovate to meet the growing needs of consumers, bringing back devices that break boundaries and bring new standards. With the first-integrated S Pen in the S series, AI-based 108MP main camera, 4nm processor and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G combines the productivity and high performance of the Note series and freedom of expression with the best camera quality from the S series.

Selvia Gofar, Head of Product Marketing for Samsung Mobile Experience, Samsung Electronics Indonesia, said, "Samsung continues to innovate to provide the best and latest technology that is able to answer people's needs, especially in the current hybrid era.

Read also: Make noise on the street, a man in police clothes is arrested by Propam members

Not only devices that can support users in daily connectivity, smartphones are now all-rounder devices that can allow users to work, express and create from anywhere and anytime.

"The Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G is specially designed to be a mainstay in maximizing productivity and creativity every day with next-level performance, a more intuitive S Pen, longer battery life, superior 108MP, 12MP Ultra-Wide and 10MP Dual Tele-lens cameras and cameras. 40MP front that can capture high-quality day and night moments with Nightography," said Selvia in a written statement, Thursday, February 17, 2022.

Selvia also invites smartphone users to immediately upgrade to the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G, and experience various new technologies.

Among them, writing to drawing like on paper with the S Pen update. This innovation is the first time in the S Series, the S Pen is embedded directly in the body of the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G.

Also Read: COD Scheme Becomes a Target, Sadistic Actions of a Gang of Thieves Can Injure Victims

Therefore, the design of the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G is also different from other variants, it is more geometric, bold and elegant with a slot to store the S Pen on the side. The S Pen also gets an upgrade in quality, namely 2.8ms latency, lower than the previous series and making it 3x more intuitive, so writing notes, drawing or even making illustrations with the S Pen on the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G screen will feel more comfortable like writing on paper.

"It's also more flexible to use, for example, when you're in a hurry and want to take notes immediately, you can write on any area of the screen and convert it to text with one touch. Not only that, to make it easier for you to take notes and add links or content on Samsung Notes, you can use the Web Clipper and split screen, you just need to drag and it's already copied," he said.

Another new technology is, next-level performance all day long. Many of the new innovations that Samsung introduced in the Galaxy Unpacked this time, one of which was a 4nm fabricated processor that was first present on a Galaxy smartphone, equipped with the powerful Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset which was first introduced in Indonesia.

Also Read: List of Pre-Employment Cards for Wave 23, Coordinating Minister Airlangga says there are 500,000 quotas for participants

The combination of these two processors and chipsets results in much smarter AI performance and technology that enables the presence of various feature enhancements in the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G such as Nightography.

"With the support of this chipset, the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G experiences an increase in CPU efficiency of up to 5 percent for AI performance that is more precise in reading user habits, GPU up to 40 percent so that it improves graphic visuals when playing games and NPU up to 133 percent so that the results of photo and video shots sharper and brighter than before," he said.

Not only that, more precise AI performance opens up all possibilities to support device performance better than its predecessor, including adjusting power requirements to support more efficient battery usage. You can use the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G more optimally with faster data processing and minimal lagging without worrying about the battery running out quickly.

Another new technology is hardware and software upgrades for superior cameras. The S series is known as the Galaxy series that has the most advanced cameras, and this time Samsung wants to push the boundaries even more.

With a 108MP main camera, 12MP Ultra-Wide, 10MP Dual Tele-Lens and a 40MP front camera, the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G is equipped with capable hardware to capture high-resolution photos and videos.

Read also: Head of Propam Division Reveals Unscrupulous Members Allegedly Shooting Mine Demonstrators in Central Sulawesi

Not only that, Samsung also provides software upgrades by providing larger pixels and Nona-Binning technology on the camera sensor to adjust the level of light absorption so that photos and videos become brighter and sharper both day and night. Equipped with 12-bit HDR which produces visuals that are up to 64x sharper than 10-bit HDR. In addition to photography, the Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G delivers a best-in-class videography experience with up to 4x more stable anti-shake capabilities supported by wider OIS and smarter VDIS, even in low light conditions. With increasingly sharp and high-resolution photo and video quality, users can channel inspiration and creations from anywhere throughout the day with the help of a powerful smartphone in their hand. With a variety of premium color choices such as Phantom Black, Phantom White, Green and Burgundy, you can get a premium smartphone with the best innovations to support productivity and creativity every day. You can pre-order which runs from February 9 to March 3, 2022 at www.samsung.com/id. With prices starting from Rp. 17,999,000, you get a variety of 8GB and 12GB RAM options as well as 128GB, 256GB and 512GB ROMs. During the pre-order period, consumers can get various offers worth IDR 4,847,000 with details of Samsung.com E-Vouchers up to IDR 1,500,000, Samsung Care+ for 1 year, exclusive phone cases, bank cashback up to IDR 1,000,000, and 0 percent installments up to 24 months. More information about the Galaxy S22 Series 5G can be found at www.samsung.com/id.***

#samsung

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videogaminglaptopcomputer · 2 years

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Getting a Video Gaming Laptop Computer

You have lots of options when getting a gaming laptop. Some are a lot more effective than others, but a few key variables should be thought about before making the last purchase. While some designs flaunt wonderful graphics and also an effective air conditioning system, the general performance is a vital factor to consider. A frozen display can be fairly aggravating, and a pc gaming laptop computer with a weak cpu can be irritating. To prevent this problem, take into consideration the cpu toughness, the variety of ports, the key-board, as well as the touchpad. If you intend to play several video games simultaneously, see to it you pick a laptop computer with a high RAM. RAM stores the data that the CPU needs to process. Obviously, a laptop computer with even more RAM will be faster. A minimum of 8GB RAM suffices for many games.

Picking a laptop computer with more than this is an excellent concept. Additionally, remember that more RAM isn't always far better, so think about the graphics card's specifications. When acquiring a pc gaming laptop computer, you ought to additionally consider the battery life as well as display resolution. You can choose the screen resolution and battery life based upon your budget plan as well as desired video game settings. You may want to obtain a premium pc gaming laptop if you plan on playing games like Minecraft with Shaders mod or CoD Lead. A medium-to-high-end video gaming laptop will certainly supply ideal video gaming performance. Depending on the video game, you may require to transform some standard components, however these are not essential. If you enjoy hefty pc gaming, you'll require to take into consideration the CPU. Click to read more on about this subject.

The CPU is an extremely vital component of a gaming laptop. Frequently, CPUs can not be divided from the remainder of the equipment, and the processor is responsible for processing throughout gaming minutes. A hefty pc gaming laptop needs an updated collection of CPU cores, however this will not be necessary if you're simply playing basic video games. The CPU can likewise make the difference between an amazing video gaming experience as well as an undesirable one. As for display dimension, a gaming laptop computer must have a high-resolution display, preferably 15.6-inch or larger. A pc gaming laptop must likewise be lightweight, as a lot of games require keyboard input. The key-board should also be responsive. Another crucial attribute to consider when acquiring a gaming laptop computer is connection. There is a full article on this, read through it.

If you plan to play online games, a laptop computer with three USB ports is essential, in addition to a small DisplayPort or HDMI port. On top of that, an Ethernet port is required for connectivity. CPU: The CPU establishes just how fast a gaming laptop computer runs. The higher the CPU, the extra reliable the gaming experience. A video gaming laptop with an Intel Core i5 processor is the minimum referral, yet there are AMD matchings readily available that can function equally as well. If you intend to make use of a virtual reality headset, a high-performance GPU is needed. Selecting a gaming laptop computer with a premium CPU will certainly help you make the most of your money. Battery life: When purchasing a video gaming laptop computer, you do not wish to give up battery life for gaming.

Luckily, most laptop computers today are battery-extenders with a typical battery life of 9 to ten hours. This will eliminate the requirement to frequently reenergize your pc gaming laptop computer. A pc gaming laptop computer with a limited battery life will restrict mobility. There is no need to compromise efficiency or transportability when buying a pc gaming laptop computer. It is necessary to keep in mind that a battery life that lasts more than a few hours is more crucial. Get to enjoy more information that will greatly influence you on the above subject, click: https://www.britannica.com/topic/electronic-game.

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into-crazy · 4 years

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My thoughts on J with a s/o that plays video games

I was inspired by @loveletterstoledger and their wonderful hc's on gaming. I just wanted to share my own concepts. I based and wrote this from my own experiences- from what games I like to play and how I play. This ended up unnecessarily long, but what can I say? I have no regrets. Anyways, enjoy my fellow(and non-fellow) gamers💘

Warnings- Cursing & brief mentions of violence

There were many things about you that never cease to amaze and humor Joker. Like the time he found you on the couch, intently staring at the flat screen with a game controller in your hands.

You loved playing video games, especially the graphic and violent ones. Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal, House of the Dead: Overkill Extended cut, and Street Fighter were a few you often played on two different consoles. Especially online where you could play with/against others.

Without bragging, you've become a fairly proficient player. Playing them over some time, always finding ways to improve your skills. The more you played, the better you got.

J never shared your interest in such games simply because he lives them out in real life on the daily. Gunfire, explosions, and violence are already apart of his dangerous lifestyle. So why waste his time watching or acting it out on a TV screen when he could go out and do all of that himself?

However, that didn't stop him from watching you play sometimes. Whether he was sitting next to you on the sofa fiddling with his knives, or glancing over while he'd work on some wild contraction on your kitchen table.

"Think you're good at that, huh? How about coming with me tonight? I'll give ya that same gun an' we can ah, test that out." He'd slyly remark, laughing when you’d agree to take him up on it.

It amused him to see how competitive you'd get, so invested in the game you were currently playing. Which you were quite good at, he thought to himself.

He didn’t peg you for as the “gamer” type, and he found it interesting that you were into that violent stuff. Then again, you were with him, so it didn’t come off as much of a surprise.

He especially found entertaining the frustration you exude when things weren't working well for you in the session/lobby. Whether it was lag or you getting your ass kicked.

Now you're not much of a sore loser, in fact you're actually a chill and clean player. Although, you do have your moments. Muttering and sometimes even shouting profanities aloud like, "Idiot!" // "Damn it." // "Fuck me!"

"What? Here, now?" Would J playfully tease you, snickering when you'd shoot him an annoyed glare. "Sheesh, you're rather feisty, bunny. Gettin' all worked up over a measly game."

"Yeah, one that I'm losing!"

The ones he likes to watch you play often are GTA and COD. At times he was helpful, and other times he was purposely obnoxious.

"Watch the health bar." // "Reload the gun." // "Look to the left. Shoot! He's right there!" // "Ah, see? Had ya just listened to me, ya would have won. I would've."

"It's because I was listening to you that I got my ass whooped." You'd argue back. "I'd like to see you have a go at it! If you're so confident in that statement, then prove it. Play me a round."

That was a clear challenge, and J does enjoy himself a challenge. A wide grin splits his painted cheeks, scars bunching up in genuine amusement as he'd cackle. "You ah, sure about that toots? Because, I'd have no problem in beating you at your own game."

But you paid no mind, already handing him the spare controller, donning a confident smile of your own. "Postive."

You set it up- COD one-on-one Team Deathmatch, twenty minutes. Player with the most kills at the end wins. You briefed him of the remote buttons and special moves. He chose the map, and you started.

The first half, you took it easy. Let him ease into the game. Right off the bat was he running around the map and shooting wildly. But J was a fast learner, he quickly got the hang of it.

"I'll bite, this is a little fun.."

After killing you a couple times, he became too cocky. "Come on, doll. I've seen ya play better than that. Go hard, huh?"

He asked for it. Switching back into gamer mode, you showed no mercy. Headshots, sniper shots, melee attacks, you name it. Soon racking up kill after kill. Now, it was your turn to laugh and J didn't like that.

His cackling stopped and he grew irritated. Hands tensing around the controller, you thought he was going to break it. Frustrated growls left him each time your count went up. He was losing, and he hated to lose. Which ended up being the case once the round was over.

"I don't like this game." He grumpily mumbles, carelessly tossing the controller to the side.

"Awe come on J, don't be such a sore loser." You'd sprinkle salt on the wound, mimicking his tone from earlier back against him- "It's just a game."

That point on, he made it his goal to beat you. Or at least give you good competition. But mostly just to beat you so he could have the satisfaction in winning. Joker had to win.

When he wasn't busy terrorizing the city, messing with Bats, drawing up a plan, or spending quality time with you- he was on your console. Playing against others online, just how you would. Practicing, getting better.

You've actually walked in on him a few times, his focused eyes glued to the screen. It was a funny sight to see, and you wondered if that's how you looked when you played.

One evening you came home to find a large, opened box containing a bunch of game controllers on your table. "Um J, where did you get these?"

"I found 'em." He stole them. Off to his side there were already two broken ones. "Oh- which reminds me," he hands you a brand new copy of your signature controller. "I sort of uh, used yours." In translation, he got mad and broke it.

Once he knew he mastered his skills, which didn't take him long, he challenged you to a proper rematch.

You gladly accepted, thinking this oughta be good. And no doubt it would be, you've watched him, he's going to be a real competitor.

"What do ya say we take it up a notch, hm bunny?" To make things more interesting, Joker thought it would be fun to raise the stakes and you couldn't agree more. Wagering a bet of whatever the winner desires. You each laid yours down and finally agreed.

Everything was set up the same as last time. While the screen was loading, you looked towards J who held a half smirk. He was gonna play dirty, you were sure of it. Anticipating it even. Sometimes, it's fun playing dirty. He always made it such.

You grinned, offering words of encouragement. "Good luck J, may the odds be in your favor~"

I was in a writing rut, and this was really fun to do. I hope I didn’t write him too out of character, if I did.

#into-crazy #ledger joker #heath ledger joker #ledger joker imagine #l!joker #ledger!joker #tdk #the dark knight #the dark knight joker #ledger joker x reader

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crasherfly · 4 years

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What I’m Up To

Taking a brief pause from my fantasy screenplay to talk a bit about what I’m playing/reading/listening to these days.

VIDYA GAMES

Cities: Skylines- Still working on my shithole city in all its glory. San Cruz has expanded to over 100k residents and in the past week I’ve built a level 3 park, extensive monorail system, and even extensive helicopter pickup lines. It’s still a terrible place to live, but it’s also fun to grapple with the challenges of a desert map.

Yakuza 0- I’m gonna post this take here, since we’re not on twitter and I’m safe from the mobs- Yakuza 0 is the experience everyone promised me Witcher 3 would be. Thrilling combat, a fascinating game world, and lovely, meaningful side quests. If this sounds like I’m digging at Witcher 3, I promise I’m not. I personally didn’t enjoy that game. But obviously, many, many people did and would disagree with my critiques. That’s totally fine! I’m just saying I’m enjoying Yakuza 0 for merits similar to what I’ve heard in connection with the Witcher franchise- and I could also see people having similar gripes, too! I’ve been on a well documented single player drought over the past couple months. Yakuza 0 finally broke me out of that, and it’s been a thrill. Getting out of the COD grind cycle has been a joy. This is a lovely experience that rewards curiosity by sparking yet more curiosity. I can’t wait to see how it continues to open up. Expect my Twitter account to go on about this for a while.

Mario 64- I have 8 stars! I’m told I have like, 113 more to go, a number which makes me groan. So far, Mario 64 has felt like an obligation that is occasionally fun. It’s very dated, but it has the DNA that would go on to make later games like Odyssey an absolute joy. Games like these feel more like an exercise in filling in my gamer history gaps than they do labors of love. Like most retro games, I have a hard time getting into Mario 64 for longer than 20 minutes at a time. So this will likely be a long-running project.

Star Wars: Squadrons- I probably should have known better, but I picked this game up ‘cuz the reviews were decent and the price felt right. Good news is that in the couple of hours I’ve spent with it, the gameplay is mostly solid and the graphics are beautifully rendered. It feels like both Rogue Squadron AND X-Wing, which is a hell of an accomplishment. Bad news is several of the missions appear to be badly broken, requiring numerous restarts. The game is generous with checkpoints, so it’s not a huge deal, but it is annoying. Hopefully they patch that stuff. I also haven’t tried multiplayer yet. None of my friends have bit on picking this up, so I’m not sure when or if it will happen. Assuming I can power through the hammy story, I’ll at least finish the campaign sometime down the line, even if I can’t be bothered to care how any of this fits into the larger world of Star Wars.

Warzone- Still doing that Season 6 thing! Subways have been mostly a disappointment for me so far, and the new marksman rifle has made the current meta a veritable hell for anyone with underdeveloped quick scoping skills, but I still get a couple matches in every day.

ANIME

God of High School- To say God of High School moves fast is an understatement. True to form, it sprinted its way through the finale. It’s got some lovely sequences, and I can’t wait to get my hands on the OST, but beyond a couple of choice battles, it didn’t leave a strong impression on me. I’m glad I saw it, but I’m not thirsting for a new season.

Dragon Ball- I switched over to the English dub of this show. I don’t usually do that, but I was struggling to keep my attention. I think in a way it helped? The English dub actors are far more cartoonish and silly, which really plays to the absurd animation and story turns. I’m on S1E13, and the first summoning of the dragon just happened. I won’t spoil except to say...this show has a deeply specific sense of humor, and I’m starting to dig it?

Fire Force- Season 2 is finally taking off for me. I’m on ep 14, and the focus has shifted over to the mysterious Joker. The battles have been compelling, as have been the mysteries placed by his storyline. I was struggling with feeling invested in S2 thus far, but the past few ep’s have reminded me of why I found this show special in the first place- when it gets serious and stays focused, it’s one of the tightest active shonen stories.

Manga

I’ve been on a bit of a manga break lately. Today I did take time with another chapter of Fruits Basket, which continues to be a lovely delight. I also recently received Master Edition copies of both Fairy Tail and Berserk. This week, my goal is to finish both Fruits Basket and my latest volumes of One Piece so I can dive into my new Master Editions.

Music

I haven’t had much change in my music tastes lately. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kompany and other dubstep artists, mostly ‘cuz I find the deep bass and variety of sounds soothing to me while I’m writing and zoning out during sessions of Cities: Skylines. I also enjoy its tempo while I’m running. Anything that helps the time pass, really.

Tabletop Games

I played 6 hours of DND this weekend. It was mostly a free-form improv session where I let the players do basically anything they wanted to within the gameworld we established during The Lost Mines of Phandelver. It was very heavy on roleplay, without a single instance of combat. While I was personally exhausted after the session, the players expressed that they had a very good time. We’ll be looking to finish up what they started in a bonus session for October!

Wrastlin!

My WWF Discord group just finished 1999 King of the Ring. Mr. Ass won! One of our folks actually got her bracket right. I had predicted Kane winning, so I was obviously out of luck on that. In the last RAW, Stone Cold Steve Austin just won the Heavy Weight Title from the Undertaker in an unlikely win! We’ll see how long that stint lasts...

Streams

I tried streaming from my personal Twitch using a schedule last week!

It...had mixed results.

My Warzone streams were my most popular, which is funny, ‘cuz I’m not that good at Warzone. My least popular were my Dungeon of the Endless and Yakuza 0 streams, which is not a big surprise. Those games aren’t that fun to watch.

I wanted to do the schedule as a an attempt to see if I could get a small audience or find some new meaning in games I was working through by presenting them as content.

I found the answer to both was more or less “not really”.

And that’s okay!

I also learned streaming, even just for an hour a night, is hard work. We should all be kinder to our content creators and in awe of the friends we have who do it even when on one is watching. Content creation is so unforgiving. Maybe if I stuck with it longer I’d have found my niche, but honestly, I just enjoy games for the games, and turning them into content just isn’t my speed.

I’ve been doing the whole SpriteClub thing per usual. I’m a paid subscriber now! And I even am on a greeting basis with some folks. That’s been really cool. We had debuts this weekend too, where creators submit new fighters. The system matches them with other fighters to determine ratings. It’s a lot of fun, and the event always has this festival atmosphere to it.

I’ve also been watching a lot of streams from the gals over at hololive-EN. Specifically, I’ve been watching Gawr Gura, Amelia Watson and Mori Calliope. It’s become nightly viewing in my household. I’ll save the debate on V-Tubers for a different place, suffice to say I have enjoyed the games they’ve presented and the personalities they’ve developed, and I think the success they’ve found is well earned. There are some talented folks behind these projects, and I find the streams to be relaxing, enjoyable, and at hours I can actually tune in for.

Personal News

Lately, I’ve been feeling pretty down. This can be easily correlated with the shift in temperature, for sure. I know a lot of people really dig fall, and I used to be a SPOOKY SEASON guy myself, but as I get older, fall has shifted into this period of mourning as I recognize the shortening days and the coming winter, which has always played hell with my body.

I’ve been struggling with a number of phantom symptoms that seem to pop up this time of year- bad digestion, terrible sleep (likely resulting from mild apnea), fatigue and heart palpitations. In turn, my mental health has been seriously flagging.

At the suggestion of my therapist, I’ve started up a new vitamin regimen including a multivitamin and magnesium. I’ve also focused on finding potassium enriched foods and have cut back significantly on my drinking and caffeine. So far, this has actually resulted in me gaining weight ‘cuz I’ve been indulging in a lot of sugar as a coping mechanism, but I’m working through getting back to a healthy place where I can both track my intake but also be content with where I’m at. Right now I’m doing my best to try and fight the urge to become a Nap Guy.

Last week I took several naps, even on my off days, and I’ve had a hard time sustaining my energy throughout the day, so I’m doing a better job of getting the sleep my body asks for while also structuring my day with more purpose so I’m left with less time just lying around wondering what to do.

Last week I broke my personal best for a 5K, breaking 24 minutes. For today’s run, I plan to try and break my 7:30 time on my mile run to the gym.

For weights, I’ve gotten into a rhythm of 3 times a week, with Mondays and Fridays focusing on my core exercises- presses and curls, with Wednesdays focusing on pulls that are centered on working out my back, as well as bodyweight exercises such as dips and pull ups. This variation has given my limbs more time to heal up, which is welcome. Now if only I could be kinder to my body AFTER the gym, I might see some actual progress!

Work continues to be what it is. I’m at 30 hours now, which continues to be a huge positive. I don’t think I could keep at it with 40 hours. Change is a constant, and they seem to find new ways to make our jobs more convoluted every day. I have a quarterly review coming up with my new supervisor, but I have a feeling it won’t be nearly so traumatic as the last one, as I’ve done a good job of straightening up and flying right.

As I get more distance from August, I’m starting to recognize it- the events of my workplace disasters, my unplanned vacation, my off the rails spending and drinking- for what it was- it was a breakdown. And I’m still recovering from it. I was deeply unwell, and I took on some trauma- some of it wasn’t stuff I was looking for, some of it was stuff I brought on myself. I’m working through it. I wish I could say things like therapy have made a huge difference, but frankly, most of the work comes from stuff like this, where I’m just writing and being transparent with myself. That’s where I find the most healing work happens.

I still have a lot of my social media muted. When I need news, it typically filters through into my Discord, or Yahoo dings my phone or I see it on my Facebook feed. It’s fair to say that lately it’s felt like everything just Happens So Much.

I feel for my friends who are directly impacted- by the election, by the supreme court, by...just, everything. It all makes my own personal journey and endeavors feel...deeply small. At the same time, I just don’t have the emotional capacity required to house this perpetual crowd of events or constantly process everything in real time. I’m not sure when, if ever, I will have that again. I struggle to read ANYTHING- even friendly sites like Defector or The Discourse, without feeling an immense downswing.

I don’t know what the answer is. I wish I could just gut up and stay constantly plugged in for the sake of pals who might need to openly hash this out or draw attention to their causes or needs, but based on the past few months, I’m not sure I can take care of myself, let alone others. As I often tell close friends, my priorities these days are this small and in this order- Stay Healthy, Stay Kind, Stay Employed, Stay Productive- anything that goes right beyond that feels like a bonus in 2020.

At any rate, thanks for reading the update, y’all!

I’ll try and post these more regularly. I just wanted to check in with everyone and let y’all know how everything is going these days. Stuff like this helps me keep honest, as lately I’ve had a hard time sussing out what my direction is these days. Stay safe and well, and hit me up with what you’re up to, when you find a moment!

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ranger-report · 4 years

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Thoughts On: HERETIC II (1998)

Just over one year after the release of Hexen II, Raven Software published the final game in their dark fantasy series. Set apart from the Serpent Rider Trilogy of Heretic./Hexen/Hexen II, Heretic II told the tale of Corvus Corax, the elven hero of the first Heretic, and his journey to return home after years of wandering the Outer Worlds. See, defeating one of the Serpent Riders resulted in his being thrown far far away from his origin world of Parthoris, and left to his own devices, he had a bit of a time attempting to make his way back. Marking the first time in the series that id Software had no involvement in the release of the game save for providing the modified id tech 2 engine (AKA the Quake 2 engine), this release was published by Activision under their purview. Moving in the direction of a third-person adventure with first-person shooter mechanics, Raven made it clear that they were going to take inspiration from wherever they could, including a popular little title called Tomb Raider. While garnering favorable reviews, Heretic II would ultimately be lost in the holiday shuffle of PC gaming as it had the unfortunate circumstance to be released one week after a particularly groundbreaking first-person shooter from Valve Software. You may have heard of it: Half-Life. As a result of the unfortunate coincidence and the lackluster response from fans due to the series changes, Heretic II was a commercial flop. But, with all that said, how does Heretic II stack in the lineup of the series it brings to a conclusion? And why has there been no further entries in the series since?

To begin with, the decision to make Heretic II a third person adventure was controversial amongst fans of the series. Yes, the style was popular and gaining traction, and Raven was nothing if not innovators, so the decision to a degree made sense. Why not take their dark fantasy world and put it through the wringer, especially since the main plot of the first three games was now over? Going into this title, I knew I was in for an adjustment period, but I had no idea it would be as shocking as it was. Slow, unintuitive camera movement coupled with clunky, lackluster controls make the game much more of a chore to play than the original games. Gone is the fast-paced combat, replaced with deliberately paced enemy encounters. Picking up heavily on the Tomb Raider inspiration, Corvus can leap, flip, roll, and somersault his way around the maps. Points for inspiration. But man’s -- er, elf’s -- reach exceeds his grasp, and while this sounds well and good on paper, molasses-like reaction times feel more like directing Corvus through waist-high water instead of the nimble acrobatics the game shoots for. Animations, graphics, sound design, everything on a technical level is top notch stuff. Corvus himself has a modeled backbone to allow for more fluid animations, shown off in his running, fighting, and even idle cycles. It’s impressive stuff that the gameplay just can’t seem to live up to on an engaging level. Heretic II feels like an attempt to return to the form of the first Heretic, but through the lens of a team who’s never played the first one. Rather than using different types of mana for ammunition, green mana is reserved for offensive spells, blue mana for defensive spells, and most weapons have unique ammunition types. Gone, too, is the inventory system of carrying items and objects for future use; instead, Corvus automatically uses any health or magic pickups he comes across, something which is bolstered by shrines which either completely refill mana, health, or armor points. When it comes to story, one must wonder which direction the intent was headed. Perhaps the original vision of Hecatomb was to come full circle with Corvus and face the final Serpent Rider after being outcast from the realms. The scattershot nature of the plot here doesn’t seem to suggest it, however.

As Corvus progresses, he returns to his home of Parthoris to discover a strange disease has taken over the land, changing the elves into diseased, violent versions of themselves. After being attacked, Corvus himself is infected, initiating his quest to discover a cure, and stop the mad magus Morcalavin. On an interesting note, it turns out that Morcalavin has collected the Seven Tomes of Power to aid him in magic use, but one of the Tomes is a fake and is the cause of the infection -- Corvus has been carrying the seventh Tome with him since Heretic. A bit of revisionist history considering that Tomes of Power have been consumable items since Heretic, and there were many more than seven. Noting this change to lore, Corvus simply needs to replace the fake Tome with the true one, and that should reverse Morcalavin’s corrupted power. Another noteworthy change is that the hub system of the previous games is also gone, replaced with a similar map progression to Heretic. Some maps are linear exercises in traveling from start to finish, others require moving about the many layers of the map to collect and bring together keys and objects. This is one of the largest departures from the previous games -- this story is far more intimate, more structured, more character-driven with cutscenes, dialogue, worldbuilding not seen in prior entries. Before, we were simply nameless warriors moving through dark fantasy worlds, kicking ass, taking names, killing gods and monsters alike. Here, we get to know one of said warriors by name and history. Yes, before now, Corvus was never actually named in his first appearance. He was simply “The Heretic” which was FAR more badass, although Corvus Corax is up there on the list of great fantasy names with ease. But, rather than a ride, this game wants to tell a story, watering down the experience. Whether Raven can tell a good story in other games is besides the point; here, the slipshod nature of the shoestring story attempting to provide a bit more theatricality feels tacked on, an oddity. Sure, perhaps the evolutionary nature of progression is where Raven felt the need to provide an actual factual story with their action game, also again from the inspiration of Tomb Raider slipping in, but it doesn’t hit the mark, nor age well in particular. Here we can see the beginnings of action games moving forward out of simple exercises in running and shooting, but telling stories with cinematic flair. Half-Life did the same, but with striking results, and far less awkward dialogue. And then, furthering the frustratingly bland story is the abrupt ending, in which the villain is cleansed of his corruption and ascends to godhood the way he intended, but leaving behind his power to Corvus in order to protect the world. So the bad guy....wins? But has become a good guy?

So, the question must be asked: what happened? Where Hexen II showed little of the changes that Raven were forced to make when new owner Activision mandated that they split the Heretic and Hexen series into separate entities, this game bears the unfortunate weight of that departure. As previously mentioned, the planned third game in the Serpent Rider Trilogy, Hecatomb, was divided into two games post-mandate, the ideas of which also went in two separate directions. John Romero has made frequent commentary in the past about the separation of the games as products vs a proper trilogy. He’d been involved with Hecatomb until his departure from id Software, which was also around the time that Raven was purchased by Activision. The publishing giant, he notes, split up the Raven team who had worked on the Heretic/Hexen games, further increasing the divide of the products. According to one of his accounts, one team worked on all three Serpent Rider games before the split, at which point that team was divided amongst the three in-house developing teams that already existed. While Brian Raffel, the mind behind the game series, was present and active on Heretic II, not everyone who’d put their passion into the rest of the series was there for the creation of this game. This shows in the final product.

With that in mind, it seems a little unfair to judge this game as harshly as I am. Perhaps we should be examining it, looking at the interesting bit of gaming history it represents. It marks a point in time where Raven, having experienced fair success on their own through working with technology giant id Software and other publishers, has become a corporate-owned entity. This is, in fact, the first game by Raven to be published exclusively by Activision. Eventually, Raven Software would be conscripted by Activision into the Holy Trinity of Call of Duty developers, rotating in and out making new COD games so they can come out yearly. What legacy, then, does this particular game leave? There is a mark here, a brand, a scar, a sign of things to come. Mandates from above demanding two franchises instead of one, an ironic analogy of the division of Raven from id Software -- Heretic II may have been published and distributed exclusively by Activision, but id Software published the previous games, and held publishing rights to those games. Meanwhile, the transfer of copyright went to Activision, putting future games into a pickle. Activision no doubt has little interest in creating new games in a series when they can’t make money from previous entries. Furthering problems is that Heretic II does not exist in digital format, probably again due to Activision unable to profit from sales of the prior games; a casual copyright search for Heretic II in the public record comes up with zero results, effectively placing the game as abandonware. With Raven owned by Activision, and id owned by Bethesda (formerly Zenimax), establishing cooperation between the two giants may seem difficult to impossible at this point.

What a shame for the final entry in what began as such a promising series to end limping across the finish line. In my research I found quite a few people who were glowing with nostalgic praise for Heretic II, and why not? In the opening level of Silverspring, we’re greeted with a run down town disparaged by the rampant virus. Flies zip back and forth and Corvus slaps his neck to be rid of them; children cry in the distance, dripping water echoing reminds of the empty nature of this place. All the environments in the game are rife with audio and visual treats that literally drip with atmosphere and character. There is a strange amount of life here, in a living world that feels interesting and worth exploring. But the controls and story fall flat, alongside the abysmal decision to make the game a third person adventure instead of the first person shooters of the previous entries. Whether or not we’ll ever see a proper new entry into the Heretic/Hexen world is, unfortunately, something that remains to be seen. Spiritual successors, such as AMID EVIL and the upcoming Graven reap the fields which were sown of Hexen’s seeds. Activision and Bethesda may never see eye to eye on the subject of reviving Heretic or Hexen or maybe even the fabled Hecatomb, but one thing is clear: regardless of the corporate greed which aborted the lifespan of this wonderful series, the first three games of this series live on as passionate exercises in dark fantasy, examples of how to push the FPS genre forward while remaining firmly grounded in what makes it work. Heretic II is the Crystal Skull of this series -- many will find themselves better off forgetting it ever happened. Activision certainly has. And again, how ironic is it, that the very mandate which they laid down in order to spawn new sequels and twin franchises led to the death of them.

#heretic ii #raven software #id software #activision #bethesda #heretic #hexen #thoughts on #ruby ranger #ck burch #ranger report #classic gaming #long post #pc gaming #quake #quake ii engine

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jayravreviews-blog · 4 years

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Notebook computer For Games - Where to find Best Gaming Laptops

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop

That happen to be gamers? There are many pc participants looking for gaming laptops. Pupils use it to enjoy favorite laptop or computer games. Super gamers frequently seek extremely powerful gaming models to maxout high facts in the latest games. Other people just want to find a games laptop to handle some distinct games under their financial constraints. Different people have the different funds and requirements for a game playing laptop.

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop

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doshmanziari · 4 years

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Castlevania: Curse of Darkness ~ It’s Just Like Symphony of the Night, Except Not At All! [Part IV]

When asked recently if Curse of Darkness is good, I answered: no; but, I’ve played through it about ten times. So, on a subjective level that can’t really be transmitted to other people by telling them what to focus on (although I’ll try to enumerate what I focus on), there is something here that, well, I just like. I’m not the sort of person to make the claim that, “[X] is a fine videogame, but a bad [series-name] videogame.” That’s not my conclusion -- to suggest that there is an inherent goodness to the series I like just because it generally excites my palate, and that anything below one’s standard is a “betrayal” of that inherence.

Even though difficulty isn’t what I go to videogames looking for, I think what makes Curse of Darkness work best for me is its hard mode, accessed by finishing the game once and then inputting “@CRAZY” for your file name on a new file (the same goes for Lament of Innocence). The norm for the Castlevania series and iterative challenge has been “loops” -- clearing the game once and then having it roll over automatically to a new game, whereupon enemies deal more damage and are perhaps more numerous and/or newly appearing. Although these adjustments have provided an extra challenge, the presence of new material, of differing enemies or enemy placements, has tended to be relatively minimal. The first Castlevania, for example, halts its modifications on stage four on subsequent loops. CoD’s hard mode is remarkable in that pretty much every area has been edited for enemy type and occurrence. It is also, at least on some hypothetical level, the toughest of any Castlevania hard mode. Hours in, you will still be easily slain in just a few hits, your curative capacity is strict, and money is tight. What all of this means, for me, anyway, is that Curse of Darkness becomes a sort of brutal dungeon crawler: the endurance which the level design, by default, asks of the player better matches what you need to do in order to survive until the next save point.

What it also means is that you might be compelled to more intentionally curate your familiars, here called Innocent Devils. Normally, these critters are absolutely peripheral, excepting a handful of spots where one’s ability is required for progress. On hard mode, having the right familiar in the right situation, using the right abilities, is an enormous help -- sometimes, the difference between your life and death. If I could retroactively magically redirect all of the labor poured into the Innocent Devils to the level design, of course I’d do it in a heartbeat; but the variety that effort produced -- the physical differences between a Devil’s evolutionary forms, their skills, and the descriptions for each (two of my favorites: “A star motif graces the rod of this mage. Its owner dreams of one day becoming one with the stars”, and “Pure rage in corporal form, it is chaos with wings. Many find its anguished form hard to look at”) -- has its place among the rest of the game’s marginalia. Without them, too, Curse of Darkness would perhaps be an overly lonely experience.

Curse of Darkness has something in common with KCET’s post-Game Boy Advance Castlevanias (most of all Order of Ecclesia), which is that its bosses are excellent -- fun to look at and fun to fight, especially on hard mode, where precise mechanical execution is mandatory. The downside is that they are, in fact, so good that returning to the game as usual after each can be especially deflating. Just as fun are the narrative interludes featuring some wonderfully on-point voice acting by, best of all, Liam O’Brien (as Isaac) and Adam D. Clark (as St. Germain), and, somehow, some of the subtlest facial expressions found on the console. To be sure, the characterizations are limited -- caricatures more than characters -- but what they lack in humanistic texture (something perhaps not to be sought in this series) they make up for in flair. People might pick on the Lords of Shadow titles for resembling “high fantasy” ersatz with doses of Castlevania jabbed in wherever, and while that is a fair criticism, just as awful was the games’ relentlessly grieving tone, as if a suffocating sense of self-seriousness were what the material needed for effect. Curse of Darkness’ tonal strain -- reverential, obscurantist, and funny -- could not be unlikelier. There is the rendering of Trevor Belmont, after we first fight him to no avail, as a near-saintly figure; the inscrutable, fanfiction-like logic guiding the major plot beats; the way Hector, as protagonist, slams between ridiculous shrieks of vengeance and introspective “Indeed”s. It is, all in all, maybe the best-relayed storyline Castlevania has ever gotten, and maybe will ever get.

If there’s one mechanical idea, separate from the Innocent Devils, to applaud, it’s the stealing mechanic, whereby Hector can snag various items from ghouls and ghosts if done at the proper time. This is indicated by the lock-on reticule momentarily switching from orange to purple, and often requires waiting for certain animations to begin or finish. It’s a neat micro-challenge to engage if you’re so inclined (bosses are where it shines; the Wyvern, for example, has an optional aerial sequence that’s tied to the steal-window), and a nice alternative to item drops being determined by randomized success/failure rates. To be clear, randomized drops do still exist -- they’re there in the bestiary as a delineated datum -- but they’re no longer the sole possibility. For some, this mechanic might also serve as an invitation to observe Dracula’s army with a heightened degree of purposefulness, to better appreciate the effort that went into giving its members life. However viewed, it’s kind of a shame that the idea remains unique to Curse of Darkness. I suppose pure statistical randomness pumps up the playtime for anyone who enjoys grinding; but the intentionality underpinning the stealing mechanic, the terms of its execution and our means of utilizing it, is a tantalizing window into an alternative, less number-crunchy shape for the action-RPG mold of Castlevania.

And, really, for as often as Curse of Darkness’ visuals compare unfavorably to Lament of Innocence’s, I couldn’t’ve taken as many photos of it as I did for another lo-fi-/CRT-dedicated project last year (a fraction of the results can be seen here and here) if the game’s world didn’t have an ambient luminescence of its own, albeit one thinned out by the aforementioned issues with the scope and camera, and several stale settings. In a fashion seemingly particular to PlayStation 2 releases, scores of exterior and interior spots are clothed with polychromatic, sourceless “lighting”, such that a wall’s surface might go from a deep blue to a brown-green to a purplish red. Taken as a sum, Curse of Darkness’ Wallachia is dim and gray-faced; taken constitutionally, it’s in fact abounding with colorful dispersions. Especially delightful for its brazenness is the pause menu/status screen, centralized by a pillar of neon-green stamps, headlined by a teal and an orange ochre banner, and itemized on the right by a stack of iconographic boxes. As coloration and organization go, compared to Lament of Innocence’s screen, it’s sloppy. But as a chunk of graphic design to linger in, it’s delicious, and happily recalls Harmony of Dissonance’s palettes (also directed by Takashi Takeda).

Well! That’s nearly all I have to say about Curse of Darkness right now. I’m curious if the animated Castlevania series’ second season, featuring Hector and Isaac (Isaac is physically recast and no longer queer-coded in the way media tends to do that coding; a gain and a loss, in my opinion), got some people to try this game out for the first time. If it did, I’m also curious if the show’s characterizations transferred over, maybe allowing those people to enjoy Curse of Darkness in a way foreign to myself (no, I still haven’t watched the show) and others. Could the imaginatively supplementary reach of fanfiction sustain such a playthrough? Surely it’s possible.

You can read the prior three essays on CoD here, here, and here.

#curse of darkness #Castlevania #brick by brick #akumajo dracula

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smokeybrandreviews · 4 years

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Lumens in the Land of Tomorrow

Epic Games released a tech demo for Unreal 5 running on legit PS5 hardware and i am stunned. This sh*t looks incredible. I’ve kept my ear to the ground about the next-gen tech and only a little information has muddled through so far. Sony dropped one of the most information laden, dry ass tech conferences ever and then showed us the PS5 controller a few days later. Microsoft did an entire non-conference about the neXtBox. I don’t care about Madden, i play NBA games and 2K for sure is cross platform because those motherf*ckers are mad greedy. I already saw the next Assassins Creed and even that motherf*cker is cross platform. All Master Chief’s crew gave us were a bunch of pre-rendered nonsense. That sh*t was bunk, man.

Admittedly, I’m a Sony purist since PSOne. Resident Evil Director’s Cut piqued my interest, NBA Live 97 got me hands-on with the tech, and Final Fantasy IX sold me on the system. I was a PSShill for life after that. But i consider myself an open minded guy. If Xbox ever had a killer app like any of the PSOne era FF titles, i’d probably get one. Hell, i actually have an original Xbox strictly to play the KOTOR games, the DOA titles because those were the best of the series, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. I think i even had Sudeki, too, back in the day but that was more because it was getting penneyed out at Gamestop rather than my actually wanting to play it. That’s the caveat in all of this; Xbox has nothing i want to play. I don’t play shooters because i think they’re corny so Halo, COD, and Gears were never a thing to me. Literally every title that piqued my interest was cross platform so there was never a reason to buy another Xbox after the first. And then the many, MANY, tech issues those things have had. Holy sh*t, man. Going into that next-gen conference, Microsoft had to do a lot to win me over and they just didn’t. Sony, on the other hand, did right by me and then some.

Lumen in the Land of Nanite blew my f*cking mind, man. All of that tech jargon was legit, too, as i actually keep pace with the technology aspect of the systems but seeing what the PS5 could do in real-time, on real hardware, was f*cking incredible. This sh*t looked as good as early 10s, cinema CG. Like, this demo looked better than the sh*t they had in actual movies and it was rendered organically. That SSD is working, for real, and it makes for incredibly dynamic scenes. Graphics formed peaked way back in early PS3. You have to understand, the first system i ever played was a Colecovison at my grandma’s house. The first system i ever owned was an NES. I was raised on bits and blast processing. When we got to the PS2 era of titles, everything i imagined had been blown out the water. By the time the first hint of PS3 found their way into the gaming rags, i was euphoric. Everything after that has been an exercise in flex.

Watching Lumens, all i could think was how ridiculous this sh*t looks and we’re at the beginning of this generation. The best titles, the games that get the most out of the system, come toward the end. The Last of Us stressed the PS3 but, goddamn, was that thing gorgeous. Final Fantasy VII R pushes the PS4 to its limits and it is glorious. What the f*ck are games going to look like when it;s time for the handover at the end of this generation? What the f*ck are games going to look like when developers get a hang for the strengths and weaknesses of the new consoles? What can some ridiculously creative geniuses like Hideo Kojima or David Cage do with that tech? How rich are the worlds Bioware can construct using this hardware? What the f*ck does the world of Horizon look like on the PS5? What the f*ck does Mass Effect look like on these systems? What can Square Enix do in this absolutely lush, Sony Playground?

This demo made me pause and reflect. I actually thought back to where all of this began and marveled at how far we have come. I’m old enough to remember when Sonic the Hedgehog was the best looking games out in the wild. Now, a tech demo is destroying anything we’ve ever seen in gaming, and it’s not even an actual game. It’s just showing you what yo van do with an engine, built to create the actual games. Watching Lumens gave shades of Agi’s Prophecy. Just like my darling Agni’s sun drenched, flame infused, desert escape, Lumens hit me with the brilliant lit expanse of free-form dynamism. F*ck, man, imagine Agni’s world, running on this hardware. My goodness, i NEED that! Square, make that sh*t happen. Give Agni and her world that main line numbering. FF XVI, much? Tangent aside, what comes next, is only limited by imagination and, whatever shape it ends up taking, is going to be absolutely remarkable.

#Lumen in the land of Nanite #PS5 #PlayStation 5 #Unreal Engine 5

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legendarymasterwolf · 5 years

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E3 2019: My Thoughts on What We Saw

Alright, E3 is over this year, which means it's time to go over what we saw and my thoughts on it.

This is late, so some stuff here will be out already.

I'll be going by publisher alphabetically, so first up, we have...

Borderlands 3

I'm so freaking hyped to get lost in this hilarious world again. I've played Mordecai in Borderlands 1, Zero in 2, and Claptrap in Presequel. Still trying to decide who to play as in 3, but right now, it's looking like I'll pick FL4K, since he specializes in long range and has a few cute beasties by his side. Also, we're getting not one, but THREE action skills with each character. Not only that, but you can sacrifice your grenade skill for two equipped skills.

The Children of the Vault look like some worthy successors to Handsome Jack for title of "Best Borderlands Villains", though we'll see how they pan out on release date.

The gameplay that we saw of Moze looks smooth. Heck, everything about this game looks sleek and refined without doing away with the art style. Also, guns with legs.

Anyway, we not only got the gameplay reveal, but also Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary, a new DLC for Borderlands 2 that sets up 3, so I'm scrambling to finish the Handsome Collection on my PS4, which just got a lot more difficult now that I've bought RDR2 finally, along with several other games.

Control

I loved Alan Wake, and this is from the same people, so I’m hyped. The game looks great, has a suspenseful atmosphere, and it seems to play well. I’m looking forward to release date.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reboot

I haven't bought a COD game since "Black Ops 2", though I have played the newer ones with a friend of mine. It looks good visually from the reveal trailer I saw, I'll say that much. No gameplay yet, but I know it'll be gritty, focusing on some of the more shocking moments of the original trilogy, like "No Russian" from MW2 or the nuclear explosion from MW1, so it seems we're bringing in more edge to the series. Still, I'm glad the campaign is back, and I'm interested to see how it will look.

12 Minutes

A twelve minute time loop where you're forced to relive the death of your wife and the only way to break it is to find out why she was killed? Sign me up.

Code Vein

I remember this one from last E3. Still the same opinion, too. Anime style souls game that I might buy for the story, which looks interesting.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

So this looks REALLY good. It's like a deep RPG, deeper than Xenoverse was, with mechanics besides fighting like fishing, and as for the fights themselves, they seem to be more strategical than before, with a healthy dose of classic DBZ fisticuffs in there for good measure.

Elden Ring

A Souls game written by George RR Martin? Don't know too much about it besides that, but it looks cool based on the trailer.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

Basically, another Until Dawn, but on the open sea during a storm. And I'm totally okay with that.

Deathloop

Another game from Arkane? The guys who made Dishonored? I'll take it. Besides, another time loop premise sounds interesting.

Doom: Eternal

If Fallout 76 was any indication, Bethesda desperately needs a win now to restore faith in their studio. Besides a few of the other games announced at E3 2019 that could do so, there was one that stood out in particular: Doom Eternal. I’ve already played all the Wolfenstein games, with the exception of one upcoming entry on this list, and based on what I’ve seen of Eternal, I’m going to like it due to the similarity in gameplay.

GhostWire: Tokyo

The presentation on the new game from the makers of Evil Within, another series to try now that I have a PS4, was memorable for a few reasons. First off, Ikumi Nakamura, the game’s creative director, was the main presenter and she was adorable. Seriously, it’s probably one of the best E3 presentations I’ve seen this year. I can’t remember the last time I saw one so genuine like hers, plus it helps that the Internet has fallen in love. As for the game itself, it looks great, with people disappearing in Tokyo and it being up to some guy with a bow and supernatural powers to find out why. The reveal trailer was all we got, but still, I can’t wait to play it.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood

The first game I’ve ever preordered, and this comes from a guy who never preorders on principle. It’s a Wolfenstein spinoff with BJ’s twin daughters, so yeah, I’ll buy it. Plus, it’s co-op, so I’m playing this with my best friend. Still trying to decide which twin to play, though. Probably Jessie, since my friend is gonna want to play Soph.

Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory

Looks interesting, plus the gameplay reminds me of Shadowrun Returns.

The Sinking City

This one’s already out, but it looks good. Hopefully, it’ll be received better than Call of Cthulu before it. Plus, I’m all for a game where the protagonist is losing his mind, like Dead Space.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Earthblood

Set in the World of Darkness universe, like Bloodlines, except you're a werewolf instead of a vampire and it's from a different studio. Gameplay was revealed behind closed doors, but it looks good from what I've heard. We don't have too many werewolf games around.

Cyberpunk 2077

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY ALREADY!

Yeah, this might be the first game I preorder for myself, since now we finally have a release date: April 16th, 2020. The new trailer we got gave us a glimpse of a default male V as well as what may be Jackie’s death (please don’t kill off Jackie, CD Project RED, I like him too much already). After V’s employer tries to double cross him, V tries to kick ass with his twin arm blades, which look really unique, before said employer shoots him in the head. The trailer ended with a major surprise: as V comes to in a junkyard, a figure in jeans, a tank-top, and a silver left arm approaches, and kneels to reveal a face and voice that sounds suspiciously like Keanu Reeves.

Yes, that’s right, for those who haven’t heard by the time this is posted, Keanu Reeves is in Cyberpunk 2077 and he’s playing Johnny Silverhand, a legendary rocker in the world of 2077 who may not be what he seems.

After the trailer premiered onstage, Reeves came out onstage to promote the game. He could barely get through the start of his speech, people were that excited to see him in the flesh. There was even a great moment where he described the game as “breathtaking”, to which a fan shouted out, “You’re breathtaking!”, to which Keanu responded in kind. We don’t deserve this man.

Anyway, at the end of his speech, Reeves gave a new look at gameplay as well as the game’s release date. The glimpse was only about 20 seconds long, but still, the new look at the combat, hacking, and what is presumably a digital afterlife or something like that was enough to get me even more hyped for this game.

Seriously, I couldn’t be more hyped. This game is gonna be massive and I just might preorder it.

My Friend Pedro

Switch game, but still looks cool. It’s already out now.

Sea of Solitude

I need to play more games that make me feel like this. The art style looks gorgeous and the theme is depression, so yeah, I may buy this one if I like what I’m hearing.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Honestly, EA's part of the the expo was kind of depressing, especially when it got to Anthem. However, we did get more of Jedi: Fallen Order, and for that, I'm grateful, because this game looks great. Both the combat and lightsaber look slick as does the gameplay in general, and the voice acting is on point, from Cameron Monaghan to Forest Whitaker. We need a good Star Wars game for current gen consoles, and while The Old Republic is still my favorite, that's for PC. Also, while it has been announced that there are no microtransactions in the game, I'm sure EA will find some way to screw it up, but for now, it looks awesome.

Greedfall

I’m interested. Story and premise have me, a mix of 17th century colonialism with horror and the supernatural. Gameplay looks like my kind of jam, and we may be getting romance options too, based on some trailer observations.

John Wick Hex

Gameplay seems unique, plus it’s John Wick. I will always take more of Keanu Reeves.

Grandia HD Collection

I like JRPGs like this one, though it’s for Switch, so I can’t play it.

Way to the Woods

Looks like a cute adventure puzzle game. I might get it for PC.

Wasteland 3

This series looks like tactical Fallout, so yeah, I’m likely to give this one a shot since it looks good.

Blair Witch

A Blair Witch video game? That’s psychological horror?! With an adorable dog companion named Bullet?!?! Yes, please.

We didn’t get much besides a trailer and some gameplay, but I’m eager to see more.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Sequel

Ugh, why is it that last year I was complaining about not having a PS4, now this year I’m complaining about not having a Switch?!

Anyway, this looks great and I want to see more. Especially since I’ve heard it’s going to be scarier than Majora’s Mask.

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

Looks good on the graphics front, plus the gameplay additions looks promising.

And once again, I can’t play it.

Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

Out of all the games on this list, this is the one I want to play most that I can’t play because, you guessed it, I don’t have a Switch.

I loved the original Ultimate Alliance games, so I’m sure the new one is gonna be a hit, what with the new combos, character designs, and references to the MCU, plus it’ll tie us over until Marvel’s Avengers.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

The Pokemon look cute, it is set in the world’s version of the UK, gameplay looks improved, and once again, I can’t play it.

Empire of Sin

It looks cool, plus I need more Mob style games to play. It’s also made by the people who are responsible for the next game on this list...

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

It’s only in pre-alpha, but still, this one looks good. The original is on the Steam store, and there are fan made patches that improved upon what was originally a disaster. The sequel looks like a smoother version of its predecessor, with a few new abilities and mechanics put in. Again, it's in pre-alpha, so the final product will look much cleaner, but for now, I'm excited for its release date.

Shenmue III

First off, I’m royally pissed that Epic stole this one. That being said, the game looks great and I’m looking forward to continuing Ryo’s story on PS4. The gameplay looks great, the atmosphere is enthralling, and the English dub sounds good this time around. Still pissed about Epic, but at least I can play it on PS4.

The Outer Worlds

This still looks great. Since Fallout 76 took a nosedive and kept on going, we need a game like this to get that bitter taste out of our mouths. This still looks like a cross between Fallout and Borderlands, the true New Vegas spiritual successor that we need right now. The companions actually look helpful, have personalities of their own, and the Flaws System sounds really interesting, giving your hero a perk in enchange for a debuff for the whole game. Also the humor is great, too.

Marvel’s Avengers

Yes, the character designs don’t look so hot. However, those can be changed on the road to launch. That aside, I liked what I saw. The gameplay looks great, the voice cast has some top tier talent for the industry, and the promise of more heroes to be added after launch without the attached microtransactions has my attention.

Dying Light 2

I only played the demo for the first one, a game I still need to play, but I liked it enough to want a sequel. The usual free running mechanics look smooth, plus the addition of player choice shakes up the game, making your playthrough unique, so yeah, more of the good old stuff with a few new things sprinkled in.

Final Fantasy VII Remake and Remasters

The remake of FF7 looks AMAZING. The hybrid combat system looks like a dream, plus the character designs look top notch. In addition, the voice cast sounds on point for their respective characters. The hype around this thing was evident from the incessant cheering, we want it that much. We even have a release date: March 3rd, 2020. It’s been a long time coming, but it seems the wait to experience this classic for the second time on a different system will have finally been worth it.

Also, there was content announced for FF14 as well as two remasters: Crystal Chronicles and FF8.

Bet your ass I’m buying the remaster for FF8.

Biomutant

This has been described as Fluffy Devil May Cry. It’s accurate. I didn’t know you’d be able to customize your character, to! Combat looks fun, and it appears there is humor present if the narrator is anything to go by, so I’m interested.

Destroy All Humans! Remake

I never played the original, but I did read about it and hear about it from a friend. From what I’ve seen, the remake looks fun! Good parody of the 1950s and the updated graphics look great. Plus, Krypto seems like a fun, grumpy protagonist.

Gods and Monsters

This looks like a cross between Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Legend of Zelda. Considering it’s being made by the same creators of the former, I can’t wait to see more of this in the future.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

I’ll be honest, I still haven’t played any Ghost Recon games, so maybe here would be a good place to start. Gotta say, I like the way Jon Bernthal presented. He just seemed at ease onstage. Plus, Bernthal’s dog looks adorable. Bam Bam is the real hero of the Ubisoft press conference.

Anyway, it seems Bernthal is playing Cole D. Walker, one of the antagonists of the game. Didn’t see any gameplay, but still, the game looks good. I need to play more tactical shooters in general.

Watch Dogs: Legion

I played the first Watch Dogs game. Thought it was cool, but overall it was a bit disappointing. I still need to play the second one, but I heard it was a major improvement, even if it wasn’t a financial hit. Still, this one put a smile on my face. The ability to recruit and play as anyone? A sarcastic AI as your companion? A grandma assassin? I will take all of it, thank you.

Also, grandma assassin.

Did I mention there was a grandma assassin?

Can’t wait for March 6th.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

The LEGO Star Wars games were some of the first games I ever owned back when I played on the PS2, so I’m hyped for a collection of all 9 films in one game. We don’t know much beyond the announcement trailer, but hey, I’ll gladly take this one when it comes out next year.

Baldur’s Gate III

A video game that plays like a DND game? I can’t wait. Haven’t played the other games, but I’m sure I’ll be fine once I play that tabletop prequel they mentioned.

Battletoads

It’s an Xbox and PC exclusive, but still, glad this is getting a remake.

Bleeding Edge

This looks like an Overwatch reskin. The combat itself looks unique, though, so we’ll see how it goes.

Gears 5

We got a little more on Gears 5 this time around. We’ve got a look at Kait and how the Locust influence is threatening to tear her apart (that’s what I’m assuming, I’ve never played the Gears games). We also got a new mode, Escape. I might get it, since it’ll be available for PC.

Halo Infinite

If this is what Xbox Scarlett looks like, then Sony might have actual competition for once. This is the best the Halo series has looked in years, and considering how let down some felt after Halo 5, it’s about time. We’re getting the same badass Master Chief back, this time with no AI companion, as Cortana has suffered corruption due to being around for longer than normal and has gone psycho as a result. Regardless, the graphics look amazing and I can’t wait to see how it looks when it releases Holiday 2020.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I never played the original, but I might have to now, because this looks cute. The art style looks great and I’ll always be interested in games where you fight things ten times your own size. Plus, it seems to run smooth, and just by the sound of the story, it already has my heart.

Psychonauts 2

To cap things off, let’s end with a game I’ve been excited for since I finished the original months ago. The game seems to be coming along great, if the first level is anything to go by. Returning voice cast, new enemies and powers, new environments to explore, Jack Black voicing a Brain in a Jar, need I say more?

Also, this game looks to explore the water curse put on Rasputin’s family, so it will be a more personal and chilling story as well.

________________

So, there you have it. That’s my thoughts on E3 2019, half a month late.

What are you guys excited for? Leave a comment letting me know, especially if there was something I left out!

Until then!

44 notes · View notes

thathomestar · 6 years

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A Somewhat Comprehensive List of Good Old-School FPS Games, Where To Get Them, & How To Get Them Working

I love old FPS games. The action is fast, the levels are explorable, the guns are powerful. Whether you’re tired of modern FPS games or just waiting for some new hotness to come out, there’s a lot of these old games you can play! This list will cover a lot of the old classics and how to get them running on modern hardware (assuming you’re on Windows. Some of these work on Mac/Linux though).

Of course, what defines an “old-school” game from something more recent? Well the way I see it, there are FPS games before Halo, and FPS games after Halo. Halo was such a landmark game that it shifted the entire genre, hell even the entire video game industry. So I’m going to keep this list to pre-2001 games for the most part.

STUFF TO KNOW

Before going into this wholesale, I need to say a couple of things. These game are old. They are most likely not going to work out of the box and will need some tweaking on your part. Most of the non-3D games on Steam and GOG come with DOSBox wrappers. This can be fine for some games, but often times fans have created patches and their own engines/source ports for these games that work better than DOSBox emulation.

PC Gaming Wiki is an invaluable resource when it comes to finding patches and fixes to common problems. I will also point out any fan patches or source ports for the games as I go. On Steam, the curator page Sector Effectors has brief overviews on the functionality of games so you know what you might need before you buy.

A lot of games on Steam and GOG come in bundles that have the entire series in one at a markdown price, so it’s usually cheaper to just buy an entire series than each individual game. I can link to bundles on Steam but not on GOG; those bundles will be on the sidebar underneath the button to buy the game. In the case of games (like Doom on Steam), you have to buy the bundle to get the mission packs, whereas stuff like this is typically included with the game already on GOG.

Make sure you check through the options menu of each game and make sure everything’s set up to your liking, whether it’s video options or your actual controls. The default settings for this kind of stuff in these games are tend to be really weird and outdated, so it’s something you need to check every single time.

Most if not all of these games include various difficulty modes, so whether you’re a badass coolguy like me or someone fairly new to PC shooter games, you’ll be able to play these games.

id SOFTWARE

While they didn’t invent first-person shooter games, it’s undeniable that id Software made the genre as popular as it is today with the games they made.

WOLFENSTEIN (1992/1993/2001)

Wolfenstein was originally an adventure game for the Apple II, but the boys at id wanted to put their own spin on it. What we got was intensely fast Nazi slaughtering action, chock full of gore to spill and gold to swipe. You play as B.J. Blazkowicz, a POW hellbent on escaping Castle Wolfenstein and blasting any Nazi who gets in your way.

Wolfenstein 3D - GOG / Steam Wolfenstein 3D: Spear of Destiny - GOG / Steam Return to Castle Wolfenstein - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle

Wolf3D has a source port called ECWolf, which natively supports most popular OS’s, has widescreen support, and adds an auto-map feature which is immensely helpful for getting through the maze-like levels. At full speed, Wolf3D might make you motion sick, just a word of warning.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein has a 1.42d fanpatch (second from bottom) that adds proper widescreen support. This game has some weird difficulty spikes. Grey Matter Studios, the team that made RtCW, were later absorbed into Treyarch, who later went on to make Call of Duty: World at War and most of the other good CoD games.

Call Apogee, Say “Aardwolf”!

DOOM (1993/1994/1996)

This just might be the best game ever made, though I may be a little biased. Doom was a landmark title in the video game industry, to the point that FPS games were all called “Doom clones” for a while. The last alive in your squad of space marines, it’s you versus the legions of Hell as they take over Mars and invade Earth. Try to make it out alive!

Ultimate Doom - GOG / Steam Doom II: Hell on Earth - GOG / Steam Final Doom - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle (includes Master Levels for Doom II)

Doom has a huge number of source ports, but the most notable ones as of right now (in my opinion) are GZDoom (modern features + mod support), prboom+ (vanilla-style with modern features), and Chocolate Doom (vanilla-accurate). There’s many more though, which I’ve written about extensively here. Disregard Doom 3: BFG Edition, it edits the base data files and makes them incompatible with a lot of custom content.

If you play with a gameplay mod before you’ve beaten the games, I’ll slap you.

Eat leaden death, demon.

QUAKE (1996/1997/1999)

Wolf3D and Doom were pioneers for their own reasons, and Quake’s claim to fame was its fast 3D graphics, full use of the mouse to look up, down, and all around, and intense deathmatch multiplayer. Whether you’re battling it out with Lovecraftian monsters in Gothic castles, waging war against the alien Strogg, or simply blasting opponents in the Arena Eternal, there’s intense action to be had.

Quake - GOG / Steam Quake II - GOG / Steam Quake III Arena - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle

Quake 1 has a few notable source ports. For singleplayer, Quakespasm (John Romero approved!) and Darkplaces (not updated anymore but still works great) are the go-to. I don’t really play Q1 multiplayer so I can’t recommend anything on that end. This Steam guide has some good info on Quake source ports regardless.

Another thing of note with Q1 is that the Steam version does not come with the CD audio. Short of putting a Quake disc in your computer to get that CD audio, you can download this ZIP file I put together. This page has more info about the Quake 1 soundtrack. The GOG version comes with the CD audio, but in the format of a disk image, which can be a pain to get working.

Quake II has an unofficial 3.24 patch (third from bottom) as well as source ports like Yamagi and kmquake2 (top one). Q2 also has the same problem Q1 has, in that the Steam version doesn’t have the rockin’ CD soundtrack. I put together a download for the Quake 2 soundtrack here.

Quake III Arena should just work out of install, though on Steam you might need to disable Steam Overlay as it can screw up the visuals. Outside of that though, there’s a 1.32e fanpatch and the ioquake3 source port. Unlike the previous two games, Q3A is primarily a multiplayer game, though it does have a botmatch campaign that’s fairly fun. The music should work in this one.

Shub-Niggurath awaits you...

RAVEN SOFTWARE

For a while, Raven were kind of a sister studio to id. A lot of Raven’s early games are on id Software game engines. Luckily, this means some of these games can work on source ports for the games listed above!

HERETIC & HEXEN (1994/1995/1997)

Heretic and Hexen run on the Doom engine, and actually added features that Doom originally didn’t have, like being able to look up and down, having an inventory system, having a class system, and being able to jump. Hexen itself plays fairly different from Doom, with much more focus on exploration, puzzle solving, and melee combat, with the ability to backtrack between levels.

Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders - Steam HeXen: Beyond Heretic - Steam HeXen II - Steam Steam Bundle

Being Doom engine games, Heretic/Hexen can be played using source ports like GZDoom and Chocolate Doom with little to no extra hassle. Hexen actually has a CD soundtrack much like Quake, but without a CD you get the MIDI versions of the music instead, which is fine by me since the MIDI tracks are great. If you want the CD music, you can run this WAD when you run Hexen. Check my Doom guide for info on how to do that.

The version of Hexen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel on Steam is actually the original buggy version with no music. Download this version of it instead for working music.

Hexen II uses the Quake 1 engine, but has it’s own source port called Hammer of Thyrion. Unfortunately, like Quake 1, the Steam version does not include the CD audio. You can download the soundtrack here. Hexen II on Steam also does not include the Portal of Praevus mission pack; you can download that here.

There is actually a Heretic II but it’s third-person and not sold on digital stores due to licensing issues. It’s okay, and more of an early look at a much bigger game Raven Software would make four years later.

Evil grows darkest in the shadow.

APOGEE SOFTWARE/3D REALMS

Apogee was both a developer and publisher for PC games, popularizing the “shareware” model of distribution where a sizable portion of the game would be put out for free, and people could pay for the rest of the game. Wolf3D was actually published under Apogee, but id went solo when they made Doom. Regardless, they made some very notable FPS games.

RISE OF THE TRIAD (1994)

Made on a heavily modified Wolf3D engine, Rise of the Triad was made after Tom Hall left id since Doom’s development went in a direction he wasn’t interested in. It’s much less technically impressive than Doom, though you can choose one of five characters to play as, as well as look up and down and even bounce off of bounce pads.

Rise of the Triad: Dark War - GOG / Steam

There is one RotT source port called WinRott (and a more modern version called WinRottAPI). However, it has numerous problems and frequently crashes, making the standard DOSBox version you get with GOG and Steam the more appealing option.

Ludicrous gibs!

DUKE NUKEM 3D (1996)

The first of the Big Build Engine Three, Duke Nukem 3D is the third game in the series, the previous two being sidescrolling shooters. Alien bastards have invaded Earth once again, and Duke Nukem takes it upon himself to blast their asses out of the galaxy, cracking one-liners along the way.

Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour - Steam

Atomic Edition is the original “all-in-one” package that includes bonus campaigns which was sold on GOG, and Megaton Edition was a modern rerelease of Atomic Edition on Steam. However, these versions of the game were ripped off of digital storefronts due to Gearbox Software acquiring the Duke IP. The only version of Duke3D to buy right now on digital stores is World Tour. It does not include the original bonus campaigns, but it has an all-new 5th episode where Duke Nukem says “Bazinga”.

Honestly, just have Atomic Edition. This is the version I had before it was taken off GOG. I don’t care. Don’t give Randy Pitchford your money.

The most notable Duke3D source port is eduke32, which adds a lot of modern bells and whistles as well as some fancy new visuals. I’m not sure it’s compatible with World Tour though.

Those alien bastards are gonna pay for shooting up my ride!

SHADOW WARRIOR (1997)

The second big Build Engine game, Shadow Warrior is fairly similar to Duke3D, albeit with a (slightly racially insensitive) Asian theme. You play as Lo Wang, chopping and blasting your way through demons and monsters to stop a corporate overlord from taking over Japan, cracking bad puns along the way.

Shadow Warrior Classic (1997) - GOG / Steam (free!) Shadow Warrior Redux - GOG / Steam

The Classic version of Shadow Warrior is just the original game running in DOSBox. It works pretty well, and for the low price of free it’s worth a play! The Redux version is essentially an official source port, like what Megaton Edition was with Duke3D. It does cost money, but it runs great.

There were a couple of source ports, but the Redux version basically invalidates them.

Who want some Wang??

BLOOD (1997)

The third big Build Engine game. Blood was made by Monolith, more well known these days for F.E.A.R. and Shadow of Mordor. Blood’s a bit of a weird one compared to Duke and Shadow Warrior; its setting is ambiguous and your main melee weapon of choice is a pitchfork. Caleb is an undead gunslinger who’s on a revenge quest, slaughtering cultists and monsters along the way while cracking snide comments.

Blood: One Whole Unit Blood - GOG / Steam

Blood is in a weird situation, where it likely would have had a rerelease similar to Duke3D Megaton or Shadow Warrior Redux, but Atari has a stranglehold on the rights and refuses to do anything with it, even release the source code.

Despite that, Blood does have a couple of source ports of sorts, the standout being BloodGDX. It’s a bizarre reverse-engineered piece of work that runs in Java, but it’s probably the most accurate version of Blood you can play besides the DOSBox version. On the downside, it doesn’t display the pre-rendered cutscenes. The alternative is BloodCM, which is based on eduke32.

There is a Blood II but it’s poopy.

I live... again!

BUNGIE

A lot of people forget Bungie made games before Halo existed. This is because most of the games they made before Halo were for the Macintosh. While Doom dominated the IBM PC market, Bungie decided to carve out a niche on a competing platform, and it worked.

MARATHON (1994/1995/1996)

The guys at Bungie thought Wolf3D and Doom were pretty cool, and they wanted to put their own spin on it. The pace is a bit slower than it’s contemporaries, but Marathon’s focus is instead on exploration and story, which is told through computer terminals. Aliens attack your colony ship, and the onboard AI start to go a little haywire. It’s up to you, a lone security officer, to beat back the Pfhor and prevent Durandal from... oh never mind, there he goes.

Marathon - Free Download Marathon 2: Durandal - Free Download Marathon Infinity - Free Download

The Marathon Trilogy in it’s entirety was put up for free by Bungie, source code and all. The main source port for it is Aleph One. It should just work after install, though you might need to fiddle with the in-game options to get it to how you want it.

All three games come with hi-res texture packs that are based on the Xbox Live Arcade version of Marathon 2, and they kinda don’t look so good sometimes. You can turn them off in the Plugins menu under Environment options to get the authentic aesthetics. The Field of View of the Marathon games is a little low by default, but you can copypaste a script from the PC Gaming Wiki page to remedy that. I played with 100 FOV personally.

Make liberal use of your automap, but conservative use of your ammo. You can only save at designated save stations. Marathon 1 has background music but the other two games don’t. Marathon Infinity’s plot includes timeline hopping. Have fun!

Frog blast the vent core!

EPIC MEGAGAMES & DIGITAL EXTREMES

Before Fortnite, before Warframe, before Gears of War, there was Unreal. Epic Games is most known for the Unreal Engine these days, but there’s a game series behind that name, and it used to be Quake’s biggest competitor.

UNREAL (1998/1999)

Like most games here, Unreal was made to be a technical showcase for the engine it’s running on. This is important because visual fidelity was pretty much the game’s main selling point, and it worked. People were really impressed with how it looked at the time. You play as a escaped convict from a prison ship that crash-landed on a mysterious alien planet, simply trying to find a way to escape.

Unreal Gold - GOG / Steam Unreal Tournament GOTY - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle (includes later Unreal games)

These games should just work out of the box, but you can install the Oldunreal fanpatch to make them more compatible with modern systems and resolutions. Make sure you download the one for Unreal Gold, otherwise it won’t let you play the expansion. Unreal Tournament has a couple of patches that are needed if you want to play it online these days, as well as this fix for sound and some of the graphics.

There is an Unreal II but it wasn’t made by Epic or Digital Extremes, and it’s kind of poopy.

From where many have died, you have escaped.

VALVE SOFTWARE

Before the rise of Steam, Valve used to make games. While they don’t really do that anymore, their back catalog of developed games is impressive and impacted the industry in more ways than one.

HALF-LIFE (1998/1999/2001)

Valve’s aim with Half-Life was to make an immersive world that told a story, while also having Quake-style action as it’s main gameplay. Half-Life got a lot of praise for not only telling a decent little story, but for letting players keep control the entire time and never forcing people to watch a single cutscene. A research facility accidentally opens a portal to a border dimension, from which an alien invasion pours out. It’s up to Dr. Freeman to fight for his survival, as an all-out war commences.

Half-Life - Steam Half-Life: Opposing Force - Steam Half-Life: Blue Shift - Steam Steam Bundle (also includes Team Fortress Classic)

Half-Life is still somewhat regularly updated by Valve to keep it compatible with modern systems, so the game should just work after install. That being said, Xash3D is a reverse engineered version of GoldSrc that aims to remove some limitations and restored cut features from the original engine, though it’s not necessary to play Half-Life or it’s expansions.

There exists Half-Life: Source, which is HL1 straight ported to the HL2 engine, but it sucks. It was so bad, fans created Black Mesa, a full HL1 remaster for the HL2 engine. Black Mesa is great, but don’t play it until you’ve played the original.

They’re waiting for you, Gordon. In the test chamber...

COUNTER-STRIKE & TEAM FORTRESS

While these are strictly multiplayer-only games, I would be remiss to not include them. Counter-Strike and Team Fortress’s impacts on the world of competitive multiplayer gaming is extremely important and is worth checking out at least once.

Counter-Strike - Steam Team Fortress Classic - Steam

The original Counter-Strike should work out of the box and is still actively played by quite a number of people today. Team Fortress Classic still has a playerbase, but not as much as CS. The newest versions of these games, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2, are still incredibly popular to this day.

Enemy spotted.

LOOKING GLASS STUDIOS

I personally don’t have much experience with Looking Glass and their legacy of games, but it just wouldn’t be right to not mention them considering how important they were to the growth of the first-person genre of games. Not strictly shooters like Doom or Quake, these games pioneered the “immersive sim” subgenre with heavy focus on exploration and story over blast-up-your-ass gunplay. If you prefer a slower pace and some actual story to sink your teeth into, look no further. Though, be prepared to wrestle with some of the controls.

ULTIMA UNDERWORLD (1992/1993)

Ultima was primarily a top-down RPG series, but Underworld takes that formula and puts it in the first-person perspective. The game pioneered many advanced features not seen before in video games, and heavily inspired games like The Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, and even Wolfenstein 3D. You play once again as The Avatar, thrown into the Great Stygian Abyss to look for an ungrateful baron’s kidnapped daughter.

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss - GOG Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds - GOG

There does not exist any source ports or fan patches for this game, so DOSBox is all you get. It seems that the GOG versions has a few issues, but they have fixes.

You see a rat. You see a rat. You see a rat. You see a rat. You...

SYSTEM SHOCK (1994/1999)

Video game stories about AIs going rouge and wanting to become gods seems to be a common theme in 1994. System Shock 1 and 2 are considered masterpieces by classic PC game enthusiasts. You play a cyber-hacker in the future and some corporate executive guy asks you to hack his space station’s AI to give him full control over it, in exchange for cyber implants. You agree, you do it, and as you wake from the implanting operation, the AI has pretty much killed everyone aboard and is planning on blasting major cities on on Earth with the station’s mining laser.

System Shock: Enhanced Edition - GOG / Steam System Shock 2 - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle

Enhanced Edition, much like some of the rereleases for the Build Engine games, is geared to make the game playable on modern systems, in more ways than one. For instance, in the original game, you cannot use the mouse to look around. Enhanced Edition lets you do so. It also comes with the original version of System Shock running in DOSBox, if you’re so inclined to play it.

System Shock 2 has a whole slew of mods and patches, too many for me to discern and sort through. Maybe I’ll update this once I actually play the game so I can put up only the worthwhile fixes and mods.

Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone. Panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect immortal machine?

THIEF (1998/2000)

A bit of a departure from most of the games on this list, even other Looking Glass games, Thief is primarily a stealth game, focusing on moving quietly and discreetly while swiping rare artifacts and precious heirlooms. Though Garrett, the player character, often finds himself in much darker conspiracies throughout his adventures.

Thief: Gold - GOG / Steam Thief II: The Metal Age - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle (includes Thief 3 and the crappy Thief reboot)

Thief Gold has a patch called TFix that helps the game run on modern systems. Thief II has a similar patch called Tafferpatcher. Both games use the same engine, which was also used for System Shock 2.

Some people in The City are too rich for their own good. Lucky they have me to give them a hand.

ION STORM

Ion Storm is kind of weird to look back on in hindsight. John Romero was essentially forced out of id Software after Quake came out because he spent too much time goofing around and not actually working, so he got back with his buddy Tom Hall, and they formed Ion Storm. They managed to bring in Warren Spector and some other talent from Looking Glass as well.

DAIKATANA (2000)

Okay, I’ll be honest, this is not that good of a game, but it has historical significance so I’m including it. Mr. Romero was feeling a bit big in his britches and wanted to make the best game ever. This game would be Daikatana, featuring quite possibly the most infamous and aggressive marketing campaign in gaming history. You play as Hiro, and along with your allies Superfly and Mikiko, you must fix the timeline and prevent the evil Mishima from rewriting history and becoming ruler of the world.

Daikatana - GOG / Steam

Daikatana runs on the Quake 2 engine, which is fairly flexible and should run out of the box. Romero put out the source code for the game a year after release, and from that we got the 1.3 patch, which is still being maintained by the few fans this game has.

John Romero’s about to make you his bitch.

DEUS EX (2000)

While the Dallas studio was plagued with problems of ego, Ion Storm Austin diligently worked with Warren Spector to create the cyberpunk Deus Ex. The themes and topics in this game are honestly more relevant today than they were when the game released. You play as JC Denton, a cybernetically enhanced anti-terrorist agent who gets caught up in a web of conspiracies involving organizations like the Illuminati.

Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition - GOG / Steam

Deus Ex runs on the Unreal engine, so it should just work. The Steam version has a bug where music is accidentally omitted from a level, but this is fixed in the GOG version. There are some fanpatches as well, though I dunno which ones are good or necessary.

There’s a Deus Ex 2 but it’s poopy.

My vision is augmented.

OTHER NOTABLE GAMES

There’s still a lot more old-school goodness to play, even though they may not be as big as the ones listed above. They may also deviate a little from definition of “old-school FPS”.

STRIFE (1996)

Even the Doom engine got an immersive sim game. Strife is a fantasy-based adventure FPS where you work with rebels to overthrow The Order. Not to be confused with Strife, the MOBA.

The Original Strife: Veteran Edition - GOG / Steam

This game was in abandonware status for the longest time before Night Dive Studios managed to find the licenses and release this modern version. It uses a fork of GZDoom and comes with a whole host of snazzy features like bloom and anti-aliasing. It even comes with the original files if you just want to play using Chocolate Doom or whatever.

DARK FORCES (1995/1997/1998)

LucasArts were famous for their adventure games, but they wanted a piece of that FPS pie too. Star Wars was and still is the hottest series in sci-fi, so it’s no surprise it had its share of games. The Dark Forces games haven’t aged quite as well as most other games on the list, but if you’re looking for that Star Wars flavor, this is it. You play as Kyle Katarn, an Imperial-turned-mercenary working for whoever forks over the most cash. The cowards at Disney retconned these games with Rogue One.

STAR WARS Dark Forces - GOG / Steam STAR WARS Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle (includes the Jedi Knight games below)

The Steam versions of these games are outdated and many aspects of them just don’t work, like the music. The GOG versions are leagues more functional. Jedi Knight comes with Mysteries of the Sith, which runs on the same engine.

There are no fixes or patches for Dark Forces. XL Engine is the only source port that exists but development on it has been seemingly abandoned, and it remains buggy and unfinished. I can’t even find a proper link to a download, everything keeps 404ing.

Dark Forces II has an unofficial patch and a laundry list of various fixes on its PC Gaming Wiki page. Mysteries of the Sith is much of the same.

JEDI KNIGHT (2002/2003)

Made by Raven Software, who previously made Heretic/Hexen, Jedi Knight continues the adventures of Kyle Katarn, as he obtains the powers of the Force and wields a lightsaber. Shooting sections are in first person, but lightsaber combat is in third person.

STAR WARS Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast - GOG / Steam STAR WARS Jedi Knight III: Jedi Academy - GOG / Steam Steam Bundle (includes the Dark Forces games above)

Both games run on the Quake 3 engine, so they should just work fresh from install, though you might need to mess with config files to get proper widescreen resolutions. Jedi Academy still has an active playerbase for its multiplayer!

DESCENT (1995/1996/1999)

Are you sick of being limited to running around on the ground? Then Descent might be for you! Piloting a space ship, you’re given “six degrees of freedom” to bob and weave your way around enemies! You play as a merc hired by a mining corporation to investigate and destroy a computer virus that’s hijacking their mining robots.

Descent - GOG / Steam Descent II - GOG / Steam Descent 3 - GOG / Steam

There are a couple of source ports for Descent. DXX-Rebirth seems focused on maintaining the vanilla feel of the original, and D2X-XL is more focused on adding modern features, like OpenGL rendering. Both of these should work for Descent and Descent II.

Descent 3 does not have any source ports and might require some work to get running.

REDNECK RAMPAGE (1997/1998)

While Duke, Wang, and Caleb stole the show with the Build Engine, Redneck Rampage is still a favorite among some fans. Includes a booze-o-meter!

Redneck Rampage Collection - GOG / Steam

The collection includes all three games in one package. Redneck Rampage is also on Steam but the quality of that version is so poor that you’d be better off just buying the GOG version. One source port exists but is extremely buggy, so you’re better off just playing it with DOSBox.

TUROK (1997/1999)

Most commonly thought of as Nintendo 64 games, Turok did make its way to PC. Turok is a little more arcade-y than most other games of its time, using a checkpoint save system and lives instead of just restarting the level over again like other games. Commit dinozoid genocide as Turok, Son of Stone!

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter - GOG / Steam Turok 2: Seeds of Evil - GOG / Steam

These versions of Turok are remasters done by Night Dive Studios, so they should just work with no issues. N64 soundtrack best soundtrack. They’re drum-tastic!

SERIOUS SAM (2001/2002)

Out of Croatia comes Serious Sam. Including Serious Sam as an “old-school” FPS is pushing it, considering the series was actually made as a throwback to old-school FPS. At this point, it’s done its best to keep old-school traditions alive, so it deserves inclusion. You play as “Serious” Sam Stone, traveling through time to thwart the evil alien Mental.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter - GOG / Steam Serious Sam: The Second Encounter - GOG / Steam

Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter - Steam Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter - Steam

Croteam remade TFE and TSE in a newer version of their Serious Engine, and while the HD versions are the ones I’d personally recommend, the original versions still work great and some people still swear by them over the HD versions. It’s up to you and your preferences.

LET’S WRAP THIS UP

Obviously this list is not the end-all-be-all of EVERY first-person shooter that’s considered “old-school”. There’s pre-Wolf3D stuff like Hovertank 3D and Catacomb 3D. There’s stuff during the mid-late 90s like Blake Stone, Soldier of Fortune, SiN, and Tribes. Hell, there’s even stuff like Rainbow Six and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which paved the way for Call of Duty and the rise of modern military FPS. I never promised a full comprehensive list, just stuff I think is notable and fun. Though if you think there’s something vital that’s missing, let me know and I might add it!

If you need help getting some of this stuff to run, I will help if you shoot me a message, but please actually Google your problems before coming to me. Other people have this stuff figured out pretty well, and I will pretty much Google your problem if it’s something I don’t know.

Regardless, please check out these games and have fun! Each one has its own quirks. And remember:

#doom #quake #wolfenstein #unreal #fps #ths writeups #long post

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nerdomlover · 5 years

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Alright I have now finished Kingdom Hearts III, gods bless. As such after a long journey I have played all the Kingdom Hearts game and it’s time to rank them. I have played every game expect for one so lets get to it shall we? I am biased like all so your free to disagree. No Spoilers. Below are opinions and ratings out of 10

10. Kingdom Hearts Re:coded

So, codded is the only game I truly hate and Yes I’ve never played it. I watched the cut scenes and Jesus it was so boring. Look, we visit the same worlds 3 to 4 times and that’s just too much. The story really has little to no purpose expect the last bit at the end and from what I’ve seen the game play is not great either. Just skip if you can. 3/10-Not even a good try.

9. Kingdom Hearts: Union X

I’m lumping Backcover into this as well, so I’ve downloaded the game and played it and it’s okay for what it is. It’s a cellphone game, I usually cant get more than 3 missions in till I’m bored though. You’re just tapping and sliding and cant really explore a lot. I find the lore bits the most interesting stuff and I love that but honestly it upsets me that there releasing such important lore onto a cellphone game of all things. It brings great mysterious to the series don’t get me wrong especially with the ending to Kingdom Hearts III and Backcover looks amazing but again important lore on a cellphone game? Really? 5/10-Ill play it when I’m bored.

8. Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

This is a solid game in my opinion and yes I’ve actually played this one. I remember finding this in a sam’s club as a kid and getting so excited about it and begging my dad to buy it. And it’s good. The graphics haven’t aged well, but it is a fun game. The game play is meh to me at this point, and lets be honest the introduction and implication of Xion is kinda bad. They clearly created her after 2 and were really trying to come up with good reasons she wasn’t ever mentioned. I honestly think it’s a good story like I said it really fleshes out Axel, Roxas, and other organization members, and you get to play as them in the multiply player mode, nice touch, but the gameplay and graphics are far from desired so, it’s lower than some of the rest. 5/10-AverageTime. played it once that was enough.

7. Kingdom Heart: Chain of Memories

Omg, so I’ve played this on the Gameboy and the playstation2. Dear god, I use to hate this game. HATE IT. I understand why it was made this way but fuck no, I have permeant trauma now of me and my friend screaming at the screen while fighting Vexen. I hate the game play and the combat system. The saving grace of this game is the story. It was amazing, I really appreciate now. Even more after playing 2. Just Namine and the mystery of the organization. Man, I man still have nightmares but the story is at least solid. 6/10-Might actually play it agin.

6. Kingdom Hearts 0.2: Birth by Sleep – A Fragmentary Passage

This really shouldn’t count but screw it. This has lovely, this may as well be a demo but is was appreciated. Aqua is a favorite of the fandom and having a whole game that was just her? Yes please. It was nice having this tie into Kingdom Heart’s finale and I really did like it and the game play even it was just a preview of 3’s gameplay. Overall a good time and I love my baby Aqua *fangirl scream* 7/10 – Love has a face and it’s Aqua’s.

5. Kingdom Hearts

This was the very first game I ever played on my playstation 2. This was my game growing up. I love Disney and as I’ve grow older I’ve grown like final fantasy. This is a great game and I love it. Yeah, the controls are wonking and yes I hate some of the side missions. I was so angry while getting Aeroga but that doesn’t matter. Its fun and it’s a best selling for a reason. Where on the 10th game so it must be great? The fandom thinks so. 8/10- My first love.

4. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

This entire game is a freakin tease. Why would you name this 3D….I’ver never played this on the DS so forgive me. But this angered me when it came out, Everything seemed to be pointing at 3 but this came instead and don’t get me started on the Riku hate that I still have. But honestly after playing the game? I’m happy with it. The flowmotion is hella great and they have so many new worlds, I’m so happy and the combat and story are great (ignoring the obvious complaint everyone has cause yeah. 13 Xehanorts is stupid) but the only complaints I have are I didn’t like the dream eaters (I’m not here to nitendog), why is it on the freaking 3DS, and the drop system….why….Otherwise a soild game. 8/10- A really really nice dive into my heart.

3. Kingdom Hearts III

13 Years…..And was it worth. Yes? Like I had major fun playing it. The combat was great. Was there problems? Yes. But I loved playing it. It’s a good game and I will play it over some of the others easily, it looks amazing, sounds amazing, and the story. My most problems have to do with the pacing and the ending. Which leaves it at number 3. 9/10- 13 Years of waiting, complete.

2. Kingdom Heart II

Talk to any fan and usual this is their number one game. It is the golden standard of Kingdom Hearts and their right. It was the best console game for a long time and had the best combat with the drive forms, action commands, and the combos. It fixed the gummi ships and had so many Disney worlds. I for also enjoyed Roxas stuff and generally like the story throughout, plus it’s the first kingdom hearts game I beat. Actually it’s the first game I ever beat. But, its not number one. 10/10- Love you so much

1. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

I love this game so much. I remember being so happy when my brother got a PSP. This was literally the only game I wanted, which to this day I have. I have such fond memories of this game and I love the characters so much. I love playing as Terra, Ven, and Aqua way more than Sora and Riku. The combats more fun and the story is just something I love. Making it my favorite, despite it’s flaws.

#Kingdom Hearts #top #top 10 #opinons #rankings #ranking #video games #kingdom hearts 3 #kingdom hearts birth by sleep #Kingdom Hearts 2 #kingdom hearts 358/2 days #kingdom hearts union x #kingdom hearts 3d

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why485 · 6 years

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Battlefield V Open Beta has finally hit. Here’s my hot take after a few hours.

It’s surprisingly good and close to what I actually wanted, but I wish this good game was inside of a better game.

Combat has slowed down from Battlefield 1. I hated how fast Battlefield 1 got. So much of BF1 felt like a step in the wrong direction from what I want in a Battlefield game, but BFV from a pure gameplay perspective is a course correction. It makes some really surprising choices that I just know are going to be unpopular to the people who want that hyper fast paced Call of Duty instant-respawn 100% action, 100% of the time, gameplay.

Some examples of the new gameplay slower-downers mechanics that I absolutely love: Ammo is very limited (you spawn with only 2 magazines) and you must go to an ammo box or ask a support to get more ammo. Ammo boxes and medical stations are littered around the map like they were in BF1942 so that you can get more health and ammo. Health auto-regens only up to 40 points. To heal fully you need to either use a medkit you carry (you can only carry one), find a health box, or find a medic. Vehicles have limited ammo and so cannot fight indefinitely. They need to find ammo boxes to re-arm. All the revive animations take a second and aren’t instant.

Speaking of Call of Duty, the guns in Battlefield V feel great. Ironically, it’s because they’re basically just Call of Duty guns now. In BFV, guns are now perfectly accurate when aimed down sights. The inaccuracy from firing ADS now comes only from the recoil, which is bigger than it’s ever been in a Battlefield game. It’s still not that much recoil, but it makes the guns very predictable and when you miss it doesn’t feel so much like unlucky RNG from random spread. This works a lot better than I was expecting because the recoil is enough that you can’t just spray at 100m and get a kill. Personally though, I would rather the recoil on all guns be doubled because I don’t think it’s enough. I would also be in favor of the damage being reduced just a hair (by one bullet for automatic weapons?) to make the time to kill just a bit longer. I also wish the reload animations weren’t so fast in order slow the gunplay down just a bit.

Teammates have been bizarrely helpful with passing around ammo and health kits. I’ve rarely ever run out of ammo because people keep giving me more. I’ve also been revived many times. Sticking together and supporting each other pays off so much more in this game than in most recent BF games because of how limited your resources are if you’re alone. Even a medic can’t heal themselves indefinitely and must pick up self-heal kits like everybody else.

The Rotterdam map is actually pretty good. It’s an urban map that’s actually much more open than I was expecting. There’s plenty of long sight lines, and room for vehicles to maneuver and a good tanker to dominate.

I played the snowy map first but I had no idea what I was doing and didn’t really enjoy myself. If I played it now, I think I would like it more.

I never got to drive a tank, but seeing them in action was awesome. Battlefield graphics have always been great, and watching a Churchill, Panzer IV, or Tiger move down the street with bow machinegun blazing and cannon firing is awesome. In a Battlefield 1942 dream come true, you can now jump onto the back of the tanks and ride them like you used to in 1942, but without all the weird jank and lag. It’s a fun way to get around.

There is zero faction identity and this is my least favorite part of the game right now. When I see a Churchill or Tiger, every single time I’m asking myself what side I’m on because there’s really no difference at all between the sides from the infantry perspective. The uniforms are all diverse enough that I generally find out if somebody is friendly or not by just shooting them (since friendly fire has been disabled in BF games since Bad Company). In a match today, I kept thinking I was British and ignored an enemy Churchill Gun Carrier because I was running around with a Sten. I really, really, really, wish that all guns were faction unique and the character customization was significantly toned down.

As I said when I played COD WWII, it doesn’t really feel like a World War II game. It feels like a bunch of modern day friends getting together to play a casual Airsoft version of WWII where they dress up like superheroes. While German uniforms tend to be gray, and UK uniforms tend to be brown, there’s very little uniformity aside from the color. That everybody is always using whatever weapons they want also contributes a lot to this feeling.

The main menu has this really great somber and respectful atmosphere (ignoring the comic book characters anyway), and I would absolutely love if that reflected the actual tone of the game, because the gameplay I’ve always wanted Battlefield to return to is actually kind of there.

The weapon and vehicle unlock/upgrade progression makes me very nervous because unlike BF4 (the only BF game I think that did weapon/vehicle customization right), all of these upgrades are pure upgrades. There is no loss in capability or trade off and you have to unlock all these things. These are also individual to the vehicle/weapon so there will be a lot to grind for in order to make your gun objectively better than a new player’s gun. This is also a very obvious avenue for monetization, so expect people to be able to buy a fully upgraded StG44 that will be better than yours until you sink hours into grinding yours.

Overall, it’s the core gameplay and new mechanics are shockingly inline with what I had hoped a new Battlefield game would do, and also what I thought they would never do because they risk angering the very large portion (majority?) of the audience that wants Call of Duty but thinks they’re too cool for COD. Unfortunately, this is still a AAA Battlefield game made in 2018, so there’s a lot about the game that makes me nervous, and a lot of the historical stuff that I think could easily push the game from good to great that will simply never happen because that’s just not how you make a shooter today.

#battlefield #battlefield 5 #way better than i expected #shockingly close to what i had hoped #but still a shooter made in 2018 #i need to tone down the novels #every post lately has been huge

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realtorfox43 · 3 years

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Fps Booster App

Minecraft is one of the most popular 3-dimensional sandbox games. It is said to be one of the best-selling games of all time with a record-breaking 200 million copies sold across all the gaming platforms.

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The best part about Minecraft is that you don’t have to complete any tasks or goals which gives you a lot of freedom and you can play the game however you like.

You can create anything as this game is all about picking and placing objects. The game consists of 3D blocks and fluids which you place anywhere and create your own structures. According to an estimate it has about 126 million daily active users.

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What is an optimum frame rate?

Frames per second or commonly known as fps simply tells us the number of frames you see on your screen every second. Higher frame rates means higher quality of the video or the game you play.

Most of the pro players consider 60fps as the best frame rate for both PC and console gaming. This is because most of the latest games come with 60fps frame rate which is considered to be high for a game.

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Editor's Rating: 5

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kupogames · 6 years

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PlayStation 4 Binge

Hey guys, I borrowed my brother’s PS4 over the holidays, and played through some great games. Figured I’d write a few quick reviews about them as I’ve got some thoughts, so here it goes.

Inside Inside has some of the most fluid animation I’ve seen in a game. Every movement feels incredibly natural: The way your character stumbles after a jump, objects flexing as you walk on them, the way background characters react when they see you, and so on. It’s a spooky puzzle-platformer game that tells a story without words, and does it well. It’s a good game to study if you want to see how much feeling can be conveyed with relatively simple graphics.

Unfortunately, it’s very similar to Limbo, which is a good thing, but also makes it feel much less groundbreaking. I’ve already played something like this before.

The Last of Us: Remastered The Last of Us is a masterpiece. It’s the first game I’ve ever played where I would consider the storytelling to be as good as a top-notch TV show or a movie. The cutscenes are exciting, and the scenery is detailed enough so that areas in the game actually look like real places. Even the gameplay enhances the story: The characters visibly work together, get power ups as a result of story progress, and actions have consequences. It’s all tied together.

Also the general variety of pacing and combat is very refreshing. You may be fighting thugs, soldiers, or zombies. You may be chased, ambushed, navigating complex terrain, stealthing your way through an obstacle course, or just having an all out shoot-out. Each enemy encounter in the game felt different, and the game rewarded taking your time and experimenting with approaches.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture If you’ve heard anything about this game, it’s probably that it’s an incredibly slow-paced walking sim, where your character can’t run. This is very accurate, but I feel like it adds to the weird dream-like atmosphere. It’s much easier to enjoy if you play it first thing in the morning or just before bed, when you’re very sleepy. I thought the voice acting was great, and I liked the way characters were portrayed as glowing lights – it meant that you could imagine real people instead of falling into the uncanny valley of modern games. Anyway, it’s different from any game I’ve played before, and if you’re in the right state of mind and don’t rush it, it’s easy to look past its flaws.

Until Dawn Until Dawn is a fun interactive-horror-movie to play with friends. It’s got some very pretty graphics – though the framerate is noticeably less than 60fps. There’s a lot of story branches, and although I’m unlikely to play through the game again, it’s still fun to talk to other people about how many characters died in each other’s playthroughs.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III I played through the campaign mode just to say I’ve completed a Call of Duty game, but apparently I didn’t pick the best one to start with. I found the gameplay and story excruciatingly boring. There’s no sense of pacing: Every mission is just over-the-top action and chases and explosions – there’s no stealth missions, or moments to enjoy the scenery, or time to question the choices I’ve made in the game. It just flies down a linear path at a constant full speed. The characters are as bland and shallow as they can be – I don’t think any of them ever told a joke or talked about their history at all. The dialogue is mostly made of military cliches. The enemies types become repetitive very quickly.

Also I just outright suck at CoD. I’m okay at other FPSs: I can play Doom or Halo. But something about CoD just never clicks with me, and I die a lot even on easy mode. I can’t tell which guns to use in which circumstances, nor how aggressively I should be moving forward. *shrugs*

Doom I’ve already played new Doom several times on my PC, but only on the lowest settings (being 5 or 6 years old, I suppose it’s good that my PC can run it at all). I played it again on PS4 to compare graphics and controls – and woah does it look good on a huge 4K TV. Until I get a new PC, I should probably enjoy AAA games on console for a while.

Anyway, I definitely prefer playing FPSs on PC – mouse controls are more accurate and it’s much easier to switch weapons with all the keys you got. But Playing with a controller wasn’t too bad. It’s still nice to have the comfort of sitting on your couch.

Oh, and Doom is a great game. Probably my favourite of 2017.

#game review #gaming #video games #blog #thoughts

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pkgam · 6 years

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Oh look at that, we’re going back to the past, lol! This is like a 4-for-1 topic here.

That Movies cause violence.

That Video Games cause violence.

Taxation as a deterrent for mature stuff.

The ol’ gun control debate.

The first two were brought up at the same time and they are similar: The belief that watching something fictional that is violent will cause you to be violent. :P I know I talked about this before, but since it’s brought up again in a more recent time period with some different aspects, I might as well reiterate with some new counter points. I can attest that I have played some of the most over the top video games in history, even as a kid/teen, and I am the biggest pacifists you’ll probably ever meet, lol! Conker’s Bad Fur Day was one of them when I grew up. It came out in 2001 and I was 12, but I still was allowed to get and play it. My family knew that I understood fantasy from reality. The same with any other game really. Though the argument is that some are more influenced by it. You know, like if someone has a mental health issue. But I don’t know why violent video games and movies always get the blame. Maybe they find they are easier targets since rap and rock music has since been understood and accepted and the “dangers” of video games and movies are still being debated.

So what about taxing the games and movies? “Supposedly” they would allocate the money to mental health in schools. But if you know anything about taxes and government programs involving gathering more money, you know that what they say money is going into isn’t usually what is happening. XD Money tends to get “moved", so to speak. See, there was always a program for mental health in schools, so what would happen is that they would use the tax money for said mental health like they said, but move the money that was already in said programs to something else. They do it with stuff like the lottery too. What they said when they made the lottery is that lottery profits goes into schools, so you’d think that the schools would be funded more than what they had before. Nope, their original money got moved to other things. So they often disguise a supposed benefit to something so people go for it so they can move funds around to something else they want. Bills being “called” one thing rarely have any relation to what’s actually “in” them. There could be a bill that is called the “national paper cleanup project” marketed as litter cleaning but it’s actual intent may be to move funds to the environmental-destroying oil industry. Politics in the U.S. 101.

Next is of course when a shooting happens, gun control is brought up. Obviously people with violent tendencies and/or have mental health issues that may cause them to be violent should not be able to get their hands on any gun. But I have to wonder what could be done to stop it. You can close the loopholes like gun show sales without licenses or whatnot, but it’s not like someone couldn’t acquire a gun by some other means. Theft, making it themselves, the black market... So many options for them. People cite Australia as being a good example of gun control, but shootings were already at a downward trend before they even took the guns from people, plus the U.S. has something Australia doesn’t on guns: The right to bear arms. Right in the constitution. People then argue that the guns they had when that was written was like... a musket that took 5 minutes to reload and that gun tech has far advanced. Which no one could argue that gun firing rates vastly improved. But trying to eliminate that from the constitution in a society that is very gun-loving could potentially start a civil war which would cause a LOT more deaths. There’s also the whole “AR-15/assault rifle ban” thing which is strange because knives actually are used to kill more people than rifles. XD Plus the term “assault rifle” is basically a made-up political term to try and put guns into a category that have no sporting purpose, even if they are used in stuff like the Olympics for sport shooting. The same with “semi-automatic” as that’s a term used for anything that reloads itself with cartridges. So... even pistols could be classified as that. :P

Oh... but it gets better! The White House actually released a video of all sorts of video game violence in a compilation of sorts. XD Yes, the ACTUAL White House Youtube channel. You can watch the embed using the link near the bottom of the article, but it of course contains fantasy graphic violence and all that, so you can choose whether or not to do so.

If you watch that, you can see that there is a lot of missing context to things, lol! At 0:37 for instance the game itself will tell you before playing it that you can skip the mission if you want (like I said about the video above.) as they warn it may be "disturbing or offensive". If you do play it however, the character you are will be a part of a Russian group to frame Americans. But for that part the player doesn't have to be made to do a single thing. That was the idea by the developers: To get the player to hesitate "because" it was such a bad scenario to be in. It worked too as it got many such reactions. There’s also another thing about the video: A lot of it wasn’t really gun violence. The very first clip was even a guy being interrogated, an interrogator flipping out and then bludgeoning the interrogated. Needless to say the video got downvoted and debunked to oblivion, then The White House set the video to unlisted. :P Why they didn’t outright delete it I don’t know, though maybe they don’t know how to use Youtube. Technology obviously doesn’t seem to be their top subject, lol!

But ok, so they show a bunch of violence in games as a supposed example of it influencing others to be violent. How true is it? Well, this has been debated for quite a long time. In fact, games like the original Mortal Combat and Doom were basically the reason the ESRB was formed. Someone figured it would be a good idea to categorize games based on violence, sex, language, etc... and age-separate them as recommendations to parents and whatnot. Incredibly Trump had no idea the ESRB even existed as he said games and movies should have a rating system. Though on another hand, He also said that violent games are ok for his son, but not for other’s. o_o There’s obviously a tremendous amount of conflicts just in those two sentences, lol! Let’s see... since he doesn’t think movies have a rating system, how do the workers know not let kids into movies with sex/nudity without parental supervision? How does he know if a game is violent without looking at the rating? Online reviews or playing it himself? How is it that he understands his kid is ok with violent games but would still want to restrict them for other kids? It’s like he doesn’t think parents are parenting, lol! That may be the case with some... but you’ve really gotta wonder how many shooters actually are gamers.

Turns out 80% of shooters had no interest in video games. XD Numerous studies through the years on whether or not violent video games cause violence have come to the same conclusion: There is no correlation between the two. What IS a common thing with mass shooters though is that they tend to have some sort of mental health issue, (That is probably why/how they came up with the “allocate funds to mental health in schools” thing.) which makes the most sense because even the angriest of people know not to resort to violence:

youtube

So since this has been debunked over and over for many years now, all of this begs the question: Why is it that politicians keep targeting video games? Well... it’s quite possible that they are using it as a scapegoat. Trump for instance has been speculated to have been bribed by the National Rifle Association’s lobbying so he instead focused his attention elsewhere however illogical as it is. Not that I think that an age restriction would do anything considering the aforementioned black market, gun shows, theft, etc.., but lobbying does have a very strong influence here even if it’s not supposed to. Some even call it an Oligarchy. I don’t think it’s gotten “that” bad here yet, but no doubt money has a very strong influence on politicians. The game industry even fights back with it’s own lobbying. So money leads to stuff, just like throughout history. :P Not’ saying that is the case here, but that is a part of the speculation and may be a possibility.

Speaking of history... Violence was around FAR before video games even existed. Video games, movies, TV shows, etc... are merely made in response to something that already happened by depicting it as itself or as a fantasy scenario. Call Of Duty is often set in World War 2, but World War 2 and all it’s atrocities came LONG before the CoD games set in that time period. So to try and remove instances of violence from media is like to try and forget any kind of violence ever happened to begin with. I am not sure that removing instances of violence would really help to prevent violence in all honesty as it may actually increase it. As the saying by George Santayana goes: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”. Basically it’s a way of saying to learn from the past’s mistakes. So how about focusing on some education in their public speeches and/or meetings rather than “ban this or that”? They don’t omit World War 2 from real History books, so why omit it from fantasy video games? Seems backwards.

Your thoughts? Thanks for reading and have a good one!

#violence #video #games #back #to #the #past #shooter #shooting #mass #killing #kills #killers #muderers #mental #health

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