[avatar_58]

Mwahaha I just got 43 in Plasma Pong!

[Cerberus_e]

Command & Conquer



First screenshot: Destroying their construction yard
Second screenshot: My recon bike getting chased... I love exploring with those or APCs.
Third screenshot: The enemy (yellow) targeted one of my units across the river with broken bridge. They can't reach him, so they keep standing there, aiming at the unit they're targeting. Luckily, it gives me time to start building defences until the next wave of enemies appears, otherwise I'd be lost against a tank

[avatar_58]

I'm playing through Turok. I'm on the 4th level now.

[Cerberus_e]

Command & Conquer



I love to hit one of their harvesters with my recon bike, then bring my bike in my base. As you can see, a lot of enemy units approach my base then, and they are all caught in my prisms of light... including their harvester!

[Nihilanth]

I'll be replaying DOOM3 tonight with dozens of changes I've made on top of it. Well, basicly I've been satisfied with this game but there were quite few things that imo should have been fixed. So I've set myself few goals to achieve before playing and hopefully succeeded in repairing DOOM. Well, most people bitched about darkness and linear gameplay and no flashlight with weapons, but I really missed survival atmosphere. I never ran out of ammo, hardly ever got my health under really dangerous levels, could use any weapon, cuz I had tons of ammo. So instead of ignoring what I don't like, now I fixed it (well I won't redesign entire game, but I fixed whatever I could), so here's what I've changed:

* Removed gibbing and delayed burnaway
* Cyberdemon can be damaged with normal weapons
* Halved damage from Trites and Lost Souls
* Doubled Pinky Demons health
* Altered sounds of Pinky Demons, Hellknights and Zombie Commandos
* Decreased backpack capacity
* Decreased max armour to 100
* Decreased Shotgun clip size to 6
* Decreased Shotgun spread
* Fixed Shotgun reloading (1 shell per animation)
* Fixed Handgrenade bouncing
* Increased Chaingun clip size to 80
* Altered sounds of Pistol and Shotgun
* Decreased ammo from pickups
* Decreased health and armour from pickups
* Added bloom effect
* Added Parallax Mapping

I had fun with it. I love D3 for the fact that it's ridiculously easy to mod. You can really ballance weapons, monsters etc. out by simply editing one little file. However some things are borrowed from other mods. Gibbing is removed thanks to Ungibbable mod, shotgun reloading script is ripped from another mod (can't remember it's name), sounds of monsters and pistol are from Trent Reznor soundpack (basicly Alpha version sounds) and there were two mods for bloom and Parallax Mapping. I really wonder whether it'll be playable or not, but hopefully it'll bring some survival atmosphere.

Anyway, I'm happy with few of the above things. Shotgun reloading is no longer unrealistic with animation showing one shell being inserted and still two shells being loaded. Grenades are no longer bouncing like balls (I have no idea how could id leave it like that). I always felt Pinkys are too weak so I pumped their vitality and at the same time decreased Trites and Lost Souls damage that always felt unfair for me. Cyberdemons vulnerability to normal weapons is a big change but I had to do it, because having either Ungibbable or Nitro Gore mod turned on, prevents from being able to finish the game.

Uh, gotta find out what have I done.

By the way, I'm not making this into a mod or something. That's just for my own entertainment.

[Cerberus_e]

A real survival mod should delete a lot of ammo from the levels Mostly remove the ammo lying in the open, and leave the ones hiddenin dark corners and behind crates
And what use does turning off gibbing have? Also, I've never seen an enemy being gibbed. You should remove the soulcube from the game too

As for what I played: Command & Conquer.




First screenshot: The enemy tries to reach my base over the river (which is impossible of course), leaving my base on the bottom safe for attacks I could even attack the tanks and they wouldn't react as they so want to reach the base over the river. The disadvantage is that my harvesters try to reach the tiberium refinery across the river too, if the one on their side of the river is occupied Then I have to manually assign them to the correct refinery every time.
Second screenshot: My second base and part of my first base.
Third screenshot: Tank assault from two sides Look how strategic
Fourth screenshot: Exploring their base with my recon bike...
Fifth screenshot: ...so I can nuke their base then (you can see the nuke falling on the construction yard ) followed by a tank assault...
Sixth screenshot: ...which leads to mission accomplished!

Finished the game I'm now replaying the missions I skipped (because you have to chose between multiple arrows in some missions, of which some are very different). The first time in the eighth GDI mission I chose the arrow which lead to the level where you start with a few damaged tanks and a repair facility (and no war factory ). Now I'm playing the mission that you get by chosing the other arrow. It's really the worst mission I ever played, and probably the hardest in the game. You have to protect Dr.Moebius, his hospital, and the citisens. One problem, the citisens freely roam around, and they are so dumb to walk on the tiberium. "Mission failed!".

[Nihilanth]

Cerberus_e, on Sep 7 2006, 06:13 AM, said:

A real survival mod should delete a lot of ammo from the levels Mostly remove the ammo lying in the open, and leave the ones hiddenin dark corners and behind crates
And what use does turning off gibbing have? Also, I've never seen an enemy being gibbed. You should remove the soulcube from the game too

I don't even know whether that's possible or not. And even if it is, it would require a lot of effort. My idea was to lower amount of ammo you get from picking up ammo packs to such a, umm, low level so you'd really want to make every bullet count. And, of course often totally run out of ammo. Also, as mentioned, medkits are poor too (10 for big and 5 for small if I remember correctly) so it should really make you wanna survive. I'll try it tonight and see how's it working.

These changes are not only for survival, they affect things I didn't like. I didn't like the idea of zombies being gibbed after few punches or two shots from a pistol, so now they won't gib at all. In fact it's possible to make them 'gibbable' only by explosions but whatever.

Removing the soul cube... why? It's part of a story so it would make no sense to get rid of it. No problem however with changing damage from 1000 to 0 so it won't serve any purpose. Hmm, you're right. It'll take some time to get to soul cube (I'm not even sure if it's possible to get through hell, with low-ammo-gameplay), but anyway, I'll remove any damage from it. It should make after-hell levels really interesting.

[Cerberus_e]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth



I was happy to encounter a savegame symbol... very scary game! Sometimes I don't dare to continue and I keep standing there It's my favourite game so far, I think I'll sleep with the light on this night...

[Micki!]

Call of Cthulhu is a great game, i love the atmosphere... I should finish it... ever since i got Prey, UT2004, and Max Payne, i totally forgot i had this game...

I bought my copy in EB Games (the store, not online)
Funny enough, it was a CD, not DVD, which i see rarely these days (though the game IS kinda outdated, so i would be surprised if it was DVD)
Does it work without inserting the CD by you too Cerb..?

[avatar_58]

I'm playing Turok 2. I forgot how much fun it was, knocking around enemies while riding the dino and blowing off limbs and heads with the shotgun

[Cerberus_e]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

Micki!, on Sep 8 2006, 01:29 PM, said:

I bought my copy in EB Games (the store, not online)
Funny enough, it was a CD, not DVD, which i see rarely these days (though the game IS kinda outdated, so i would be surprised if it was DVD)

Graphics don't have anything to do with it, the game got released this year if I'm not mistaken.

Micki!, on Sep 8 2006, 01:29 PM, said:

Does it work without inserting the CD by you too Cerb..?
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That was my biggest inspiration to look into this game: I love how they didn't include copy protection! And discovering the game was actually good convinced me: I NEEDED TO BUY THIS GAME! Even if it was only half as good as it is now I'd still happily buy it, the game is so fantastic...

A few strong points are the storyline (not cliché at all! And good speech at times) and especially the unpredictability of the gameplay. In most horror games you can predict when something will happen. In this game I've been wrong a few times when I thought: Come on, it's obvious this or that will happen now!
But I'm not always wrong, making it even more unpredictable.
Avatar why are you not looking into this game

[avatar_58]

Cerberus_e, on Sep 8 2006, 08:43 AM, said:

Avatar why are you not looking into this game

What am I supposed to pay with, sexual favours?

I played more Turok 2

[Cerberus_e]

avatar_58, on Sep 8 2006, 03:34 PM, said:

What am I supposed to pay with, sexual favours? 
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You could sell your Sierra collection?

I'm sure you'd like it, and Laffer too!
This game has also some original gameplay elements, like bolted doors (you can also use that in your advantage by bolting doors behind you if you are being chased), healing body parts independently (was already in Deus Ex but this game has no health in percentage but you have to look at the wounds), you also have no HUD and there are two types of health: conventional health and mental health. Conventional health is by gunshuts or something, getting wounded and bleeding dry, you know how that goes. But there is also mental health. It decreases when you see disturbing scenes, look down from a big height (vertigo), or feel that there is a lot of danger. The lower it goes, your heart will beat faster, you will breathe faster, your vision will become blurred, and eventually in later stages the character will do involuntary movements, like turning around, shooting his gun when he panicks, and if his mental health is even lower he might shoot himself in the head or close his own throat with his hands
Like I said, there is no HUD, so you'll have to look on your inventory screen and look at how bad your player model is bleeding, and you can also see his mental health by looking if his cardiogram is irregular Apart from the normal symptomes of course. it sucks you can't watch disturbing things sometimes, but I do it anyway, the worst that happens is that my vision starts blurring, and my mental health increases pretty fast again anyway.

[Micki!]

I find it funny if Jack starts speaking to himself when going nuts...
I wish Call of Cthulhu also had the sanity effects of Ertenall Darkness though (Gamecube game)...

I loved it when walls started to bleed, and statue looked at you, paintings started to alter, and you could hear clear fotsteps from upper floors...
Phones start ringing, and sometimes even had some freaky message for you...

Illusions were so far out, that it was fun Once i performed a "regain sanity" spell, and lost an arm, anotehr arm, then my head, untill i suddenly came to myself...

Then it's also when the room suddenly turns upside down, and you walk the floor, or you turn around a corner, and suddenly 3-5 major creatures stand there ready to rip you a new one, just for you to realize that they were never there...

Man, i should play this game, if just the controls, were not that "stiff" and for some of the puzzles...

[ultra tree 85!]

Micki!, on Sep 8 2006, 08:02 AM, said:

I find it funny if Jack starts speaking to himself when going nuts...
I wish Call of Cthulhu also had the sanity effects of Ertenall Darkness though (Gamecube game)...

I loved it when walls started to bleed, and statue looked at you, paintings started to alter, and you could hear clear fotsteps from upper floors...
Phones start ringing, and sometimes even had some freaky message for you...

Illusions were so far out, that it was fun Once i performed a "regain sanity" spell, and lost an arm, anotehr arm, then my head, untill i suddenly came to myself...

Then it's also when the room suddenly turns upside down, and you walk the floor, or you turn around a corner, and suddenly 3-5 major creatures stand there ready to rip you a new one, just for you to realize that they were never there...

Man, i should play this game, if just the controls, were not that "stiff" and for some of the puzzles...
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll have to try this game, it sounds awesome!

I've been playing Duke 3D, and I've been playing around with FPS Creator.

I need to go pick up HL2: Episode 1 soon, because I've really been wanting to play it.

[Micki!]

ultra tree 85!, on Sep 9 2006, 04:18 AM, said:

I'll have to try this game, it sounds awesome! 

This game is the kinds of games i call "8/10" games... Not a perfect 10, not a fantastic 9, but a good 8...

It has lot's of cool stuff, but enough other stuff that somehow drags you away from playing again... That's why i think it's not perfect (well, nothing is, but you know what i mean)

One of these "dragging away" things, are the sanity effects... they add a whole lot of atmosphere to the game... But you somehow don't want them to happen, as they can make a long trip through the game start all over, if you do not save...

That said, sanity effects can, and WILL kill you eventually... Not to speak of some enemies being hit-and-run enemies...

Other than that, it's cool...

[Cerberus_e]

So if I hear it, Eternal Darkness is in fact the Call of Cthulhu of the GC

[avatar_58]

Cerberus_e, on Sep 9 2006, 07:55 AM, said:

So if I hear it, Eternal Darkness is in fact the Call of Cthulhu of the GC
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Actually Eternal Darkness came first. I didn't like that game too much, became bored of the gameplay after awhile. I know the sanity stuff is cool and all, but I felt like I was playing a toned down zelda or something.

[Cerberus_e]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

avatar_58, on Sep 9 2006, 10:49 PM, said:

Actually Eternal Darkness came first.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oh, I'm not claiming otherwise, I was just saying Eternal Darkness sounds similar.

[Iggy]

Dungeon Siege 2; Broken World.

[avatar_58]

Getting frustrated with Turok' 2s lack of ammo and health. They expect you to backtrack and explore and then respwan the enemies but not the ammo....

[Cerberus_e]

Hey Avatar, I would love to play another game where ammo is scarce. I love the gameplay elements it brings with it, and also doesn't make hidden areas worthless (like in Half-Life 2 or so). I liked it in System Shock 2, that game was nice and hard. Also, some levels in Doom 3 had me run out of ammo when I played it for the first time (however, in later levels I had over 200 shotgun shells ). However, I read enemies respawn. I hate that in games (Aliens versus Predator, System Shock 2, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, ...)

Most recently played:

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth



The first screenshot shows how Jack is afraid of heights Vertigo.

[avatar_58]

Cerb - you can't save except per area so its not like you can quicksave before enemy filled areas. Meaning once ammo is gone....thats basically it unless you use the War Blade (melee). However these enemies have high powered shots, and once you get up close the use this giant sword to rape you with.

In other words, I better find some ammo soon.

[Cerberus_e]

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

[avatar_58]

Turok 2 - This guy's brains are being drained

[Nihilanth]

I'm still testing my heavily modified DOOM3. It seems some things improved indeed. I've ran out of ammo few times (finally I was forced to use melee weapons or at least pistol). Grenades are no longer bouncing like balls and shotgun is acting way better in terms of realism (no magic 2-shell reloading, lesser spread). Pistol and Shotgun finally have appropriate sounds. Medpacks and armour shards provide well-ballanced benefit (5/10 health points from medkits, 25 points from armour and 1 from shard). Pinky is now a really tough S.O.B. and Trites/LostSouls are no longer too deadly. The bad news is that I forgot about decreasing damage from Cherubs... Bloom mod works suprisingly good at it's default 'bloomness'.

Still there are some things to fix. I think original damage from both flashlight and chainsaw are too large (chainsaw is a real killer, brings imps, wraiths and cacos down is a second or two). Few other problems. I'm in Recycling Sector 1 and still wonder if it's possible to get through Hell (I may be forced to finish first Hellknight with chainsaw [!] and little ammo supplies later on along with decreased ammo you get from picking ammo packs could prove too hard, but we'll see).

[avatar_58]

Man, if theres one thing I give to Turok 2......its very satisfying when you finally finish a level. Even moreso for this particular level, because these bug creatures annoyed the hell out of me. Putting my foot in their queen's ass really makes me feel better

[Cerberus_e]

First Encounter Assault and Reconnaissance: Extraction Point




I hope Monolith regrets letting an RTS developer create the expansion of one of the best 2005 games The fact they develop RTS games might not have much to do with it, but at least I think they're not very talented when it comes to FPS games. The level design doesn't reach F.E.A.R. greatness, and is sometimes completely void of atmosphere! I hope it's just because it's a few random levels thrown together, but my other problems with the game still stand: I hate those new enemies for example (I was even out of ammo, so I had to rush through the rest of the level to get away). The chaingun is not a significant addition, but that's less of a problem for me, and regardless, that thing that shoots 3 rockets is awesome (I vaguely remember F.E.A.R.'s rocket launcher also shooting 3 rockets now I think of it, but I'm not sure).
The game was a little scary at times for me, but I think it was more nostalgy of the main game than anything else, and it wasn't nearly as intense as F.E.A.R. itself.
The game is also too predictable. You KNOW when lights will move, you KNOW when you'll see visions of Alma & co, and you KNOW if a miscellaneous paranormal activity will occur. I might play the full expansion, but it's very low on my priority list (unlike F.E.A.R. which was the first game I wanted to play when I got my new graphics card...)

(...right after Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones )

[avatar_58]

The level IS thrown together, didn't you notice going from a construction area to a mall, then to a subway? It was a mishmash, which seems kind of odd considering they should have just stuck one big urban area to show how its unique from FEAR.

The only new gun in the demo is the Minigun, that rocket launcher was already in FEAR.

As for the scares, thats mainly due to the level being so miss matched, it simply doesn't work with atmopshere. Of course I could say that its just because we've already played FEAR, so you *know* what to expect. Play Condemned for a real sense of "the **** was that" type of scares.

[Cerberus_e]

avatar_58, on Sep 14 2006, 06:35 AM, said:

The level IS thrown together, didn't you notice going from a construction area to a mall, then to a subway? It was a mishmash, which seems kind of odd considering they should have just stuck one big urban area to show how its unique from FEAR.

You are misunderstanding me, I know the level is thrown together, so I was hoping that's just the reason that it's void of atmosphere, so it's way better in the full game.
The atmosphere worked well in FEAR's demo.

I don't like such demos though. Give us the full levels so at least we can decide if the expansion pack is worth it.
I can already predict it, now the demo didn't really appeal to me, but once I get the full expansion I'll so love it

avatar_58, on Sep 14 2006, 06:35 AM, said:

The only new gun in the demo is the Minigun, that rocket launcher was already in FEAR.

Yes but did it also shoot 3 rockets at the same time? And those rocket enemies too?

avatar_58, on Sep 14 2006, 06:35 AM, said:

Play Condemned for a real sense of "the **** was that" type of scares.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm playing Call of Cthulhu for that