What are you currently playing?

[Bedinsis]

I've almost completed a Crusader Kings II campaign. I started as a two county count of Bön faith in Tibet, and over the course of the campaign I've managed to conquer all of Tibet, north India, the entire Middle East save some counties in Turkey, Greece, Italy, north and east Africa and the west parts of Russia.

I've reformed the faith and become the Dalai Lama, filled up 5 tech tracks, got an Abbasid as a consort at one point and after that lots of family members have been borne as Sayyids. Bön is at constant 100 Moral Authority and my empire is at constant 100 Threat level.

At one point I got the rare Child of Destiny event which lead to me having crazy good stats.

What I've enjoyed the most has been to make someone a count next to some weak enemies and let them expand their realm and thereby my realm. I remember that I made my little sister the duchess of Baghdad at one point and on her own she proceeded to conquer Mosul, Basra, Bahrain and Damascus, so I awarded her the kingdom of Iraq. The thing I've noticed is that when you have AI subjects of king tier level (aka you are an emperor) they tend to intermarry and make the borders crazy. The aforementioned queen of Iraq started reasonably enough bu via intermarrying and inheritance the kingdom of Iraq nowadays encompasses the Turkish south coast, Syria, north west of Iraq and two duchies in the Himalayas, but not Baghdad. It also encompasses all the Caucasus and a northwards going wedge stretching all the way to Moscow, but that is really the kingdom of Georgia that expanded the realm against Steppe countries up north which was eventually inherited by the ruler of Iraq.

 

[BrawlMan]

I don't think I ever played Crazy Taxi, but I had a lot of fun with Simpson's Road Rage when I was a kid, which I think was pretty heavily inspired by it.

Funny mention that, because both games have been on GC, PS2, and XBOX. I have Crazy Taxi on GC and PS2.

Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka (Saturn) - This game holds up surprisingly well for being the first 3d brawler. It has its flaws with the movement system. Dashing can be awkward; espcially if you're used to the sequel. That's said both of the player characters are given a large move set that's about expansive as the first Virtua Fighter. I do hate how you have to get more credit by playing Deep Sea. It's not hard to do but I find it just pointless padding for replay value. If you're that skilled at the game than you don't need the credits, but for a many first time players or those new to the game, it will be a struggle. Especially when it's between two players.

Cannon Spike seems pretty easy. I don't consider a bad thing. You can change the difficulty hard, so I will do that after finishing my first run.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I'm currently playing the demo of a game called The Axis Unseen. In its core it seems to be a Soulslike, as you have to gather energy to level up, you can lose "unbanked" energy upon dying, and there's a hub of sorts where you go to raise levels and replenish supplies. However, it's definitely an odd duck amongst the genre- it's a first-person hunting-themed game, where you have nothing but a knife and a bow with a (very limited) supply of arrows (seriously, you start out with four), and must stalk and kill various beasts and monsters to collect their souls- sorry, "energy". Sight, sound and scent are all important, as the wind can carry your scent towards your targets and alert them to your presence, and you'll leave footprints that can be tracked in soft ground, but walking on rocks is louder. There's also a rudimentary magic system that I haven't fiddled around with yet.

The world the game takes place in is... bizarre. Skeletons of giants and behemoths are strewn everywhere, your hub area is bedecked with skeletal statues, and all the shrines you visit for upgrades also have skeletons on them.

It's like the devs designed a game with the goal of getting me to like a Souls-like game. Time will tell if I do.

 

[Ezekiel]

Playing the original RE2 for the first time. As Claire.

Reached the sewers. Separated from Sherry again, as she fell into the trash. Her sections are better than in the remake. Did not care for the forced stealth, crawling under the tables in linear fashion to get away from the chief. Kind of funny how the original just throws dogs and crawly things at her, tearing her apart. Fight against her father on the catwalk was frustrating because of those critters.

Can't help but find the realism, including the photorealistic graphics, in the remake, strange. A guy told me a week or two ago that it makes more sense for Claire to wear jeans in the remake, being a biker, after I complained about so many women in modern media wearing the same clothes, even in RE2 and 3 remakes set in the late '90s, when the generic slim jeans and tank top weren't that popular. Well, the whole setting is ridiculous. The map, I mean. I remember reading somewhere in the remake's journals that the police station was once a church. Haven't found that piece of lore in the original yet, but even for a former police station it's all bizarre, the floor plan complete nonsense, inconvenient to the max, the key items illogical, probably more so in the remake as it changes/jumbles things up for the sake of it. Again, the photorealistic graphics, the character designs... I remember that sense of too real and yet off in cutscenes... Can't remember the term right now. That look, in a place out of some mad joker's funhouse. At least that crazyness is more at home on the PlayStation 1, where everything is kind of more surreal because it looks simplistic. Resident Evil 4 (The original. I have not played the remake.) had a ridiculous setting too, and the graphics were more realistic, but I bought into it more than in the RE2 remake because it was some remote village with an old castle in rural Spain that we could pretend is uncivilized, not a police station in the middle of an American city (for an American audience and Japanese familiar with American media, or made because of the popularity of American zombie movies set in America).

Only played the remake with the classic music. That music doesn't really fit the modern aesthetics and photorealism either, but the new score was so bland that I couldn't listen to it.

Should have made a new survival horror game instead of a remake, but they can't make a good one anymore because they've become so afraid of failure and waste so much money on this realism. Series only decent anymore when much of the design has already been made and financially proven years earlier. Otherwise, linearity, handholding, auto-saves, first-person view to save money, smaller scale, fewer enemies...

 

[BrawlMan]

Can't help but find the realism, including the photorealistic graphics, in the remake, strange. A guy told me a week or two ago that it makes more sense for Claire to wear jeans in the remake, being a biker, after I complained about so many women in modern media wearing the same clothes, even in RE2 and 3 remakes set in the late '90s, when the generic slim jeans and tank top weren't that popular.

1. Shows what little you know, having nostalgia blind, and speak as if you know everyone women's wardrobe in the 90s.
2. I've met plenty of women and female bikers that didn't go for shorts and wore jeans. Not all of them wore slim jean of course, but it was never rare finding even back then.
3. You just want your fan-service. I don't hate the fan-service in the original games, but I am not cry and biatch, because of a practical costume change in the remake. Especially for someone like Jill Valentine.
4. Don't even start or add shit that don't mean nothing at the end of the day.
5. Most sensible people would not give a shit about your dumb opinion and won't take you seriously. And you know this. Deal with it.

 

[Worgen]

Playing the original RE2 for the first time. As Claire.

Is this the gog re-release?

 

[Ezekiel]

Museum, not a church. Too late to edit.

Is this the gog re-release?

Yes.

 

[BrawlMan]

Is this the gog re-release?

Remind me, I get that at some point. Mainly for RE3. I still have the GC copy of RE2 I bought last year. Traded in a few GC games I didn't care about or didn't play anymore to give it a much more even price.

 

[Ezekiel]

Remind me, I get that at some point. Main for RE4.

GOG only has the original trilogy.

 

[BrawlMan]

GOG only has the original trilogy.

Typo error. I meant RE3.

 

[Worgen]

Museum, not a church. Too late to edit.



Yes.

I didn't know that it had redone graphics, I thought it was just made to work on modern PCs.

 

[BrawlMan]

Rg35xxh Is freaking awesome! I can play Playsation 1, Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast games. If you got a mini HDMI to HDMI cord, you can play this on a big screen. I'm gonna get myself a longer cord. I tested out Rushing Beat Ran (SNES) and Panzer Bandit (PS1). Who needs to collect retro consoles, when you can get it all in one!

​

 

[Ezekiel]

I didn't know that it had redone graphics, I thought it was just made to work on modern PCs.

You thought right. Wish these ports had CRT filters.



The GOG version has a unique hard mode.

There is less ammo and health, enemies take more bullets to die (a zombie might take from 10-14 handgun bullets if I remember correctly, which creates tense scenarios when you are shooting oncoming zombies hugging a wall and hope for them to die first before they reach you) and hit harder. Out of the original 3 games it makes RE2 the hardest combat wise (RE3 Nemesis has hard mode but it is RE2 normal).
All of that also makes you think whether to leave a weapon for the other character in the B scenario, kinda have to change strategy. Running around zombies becomes a valid tactic again.
EDIT: Hard mode is unlocked after beating the game, I think even in the GOG ver. If you want to play the B scenario on hard, you need to beat A scenario on hard first, the game creates the B hard scenario save that way.
You can unlock HARD mode from the get-go by changing registry keys in a registry editor:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software\CAPCOM\Resident Evil 2 > scroll down to SPECIAL key and click MODIFY. Change the number to 8. Have't done that in ages so it is pasted from my notepad.

 

[Worgen]

You thought right. Wish these ports had CRT filters.

I never understood the appeal of crt filters.

 

[NerfedFalcon]

Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.

OT: Haven't been playing anything except Runescape for the past few days after Dead Space. Might try and start a replay of REm4ke later today, since I'm pretty sure I can finish that before the 27th when the new seasonal Leagues mode begins. I'll probably drop nearly everything else for the two months that's running like I did for the last one, so I don't want to have any loose ends. Beyond my usual pile of shame, I mean.

 

[Ezekiel]

I never understood the appeal of crt filters.

They drew the art on CRT displays for SD TVs. It wasn't meant to be so sharp and perfect.

 

[BrawlMan]

rp and perfect.

Blaze is still looking hot no matter the filter!

 

[Worgen]

They drew the art on CRT displays for SD TVs. It wasn't meant to be so sharp and perfect.

Ehh, I always preferred pixel perfect.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Ehh, I always preferred pixel perfect.

It makes a huge difference on 3D rendered games, like Mario RPG and Donkey Kong.

 

[Worgen]

It makes a huge difference on 3D rendered games, like Mario RPG and Donkey Kong.

Meh, never really liked the look of prerendered pixel games. Mario RPG is probably the best looking but I still prefer good pixel work.