Messages

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Modern Video Games / Re: What are some older IPs you would want to see brought back as a remake?

« on: May 24, 2025, 03:31:47 am »

There are some very old games that aren't particularly accessible these days. System Shock was already done, Daggerfall is more like being put on a modern engine that doesn't really fix much of the gameplay jank. I liked Prince of Persia Classic and would love to see the older Shantae games being done in the visual style of 1/2 Genie Hero.

But mostly I'm a purist. The overwhelming majority of remakes and remasters don't interest me because the original version is just as good if not superior to the facelift version.

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Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Community Poll: Console Digital store parent category

« on: May 23, 2025, 01:44:42 pm »

Whatever makes it less fragmented. I already don't particularly like that within a platform the games are separated by region. Sometimes I just want to filter for example for all my games for a certain platform or manufacturer. like for example all my PS3/PC games regardless of region or all my Xbox games regardless of region or generation.

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General / Re: Have your favorite games changed over time, or mostly stayed the same?

« on: March 13, 2025, 03:18:25 pm »

It changed in the sense that it's an ever expanding list. I don't think I actually stopped liking or started to like less certain games I used to like. Maybe I found stuff I like more, but my liking is not a finite resource.

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General / Re: What are the worst games you ever tried?

« on: January 01, 2025, 08:33:32 am »

Tomb Raider (2013) - Failed to understand what Lara Croft and the TR games are meant to be and got turned into a generic cinematic Uncharted clone because it was fashionable at the time, without understanding what made Uncharted 1-3 work. It doesn't really fit the topic, I can see people with poor taste liking it, when it lets you play it's competent, but unremarkable. Still it is an awful game I rage quit at around a quarter way through and have no intention of ever revisiting.

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General / Re: Past Collections

« on: December 19, 2024, 12:04:07 pm »

Do you have a list of games you'd like to see make it into the modern ecosystems or are you good just grabbing the old hardware and enjoying them that way?

I don't mind having the option as long as it doesn't completely replace the original. It's not particularly a big issue with very old games, aside of the often missing backwards compatibility. For more modern platforms however it's not uncommon when publishers remove the original from your games library to replace it with the remaster or update it against your will. That should be grounds for a refund at full price. I like to play on retro PCs and moving the game you got off of a modern distribution platforms was a convenient way to enjoy them on period correct/adjacent hardware.

Like recently Quake 2 got updated on Steam and you can sort of set it to the old version, but it's still just a coat of paint, it's still the modernized version that won't run on a Pentium 2 with Riva TNT and Windows 95. I still have the retail copy so I'm not locked out.

Half-Life 2 however have long lost the compatibility with Windows XP. The original version is locked to Steam and you can't play it without crippling the DRM. There was a way that through Steam beta you could downgrade to the last XP compatible version. Now, after the 20th anniversary update you can downgrade to the pre-update version, but not to the XP compatible version. I have it archived on my NAS, but I still find it troublesome.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
The original is no longer sold on Steam, the new one has a more invasive DRM, I got the original for X360, but I would prefer that for the PC too. The remaster looking a little bit better, considering the downsides I wouldn't even claim it for free.

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General / Re: Overrated/Underrated

« on: December 10, 2024, 01:27:29 pm »

Overrated: Fable(: The Lost Chapters).
Aside of the aesthetics, there is really nothing special about it. Just a mediocre action RPG even for the time. Releasing it in the same year as KOTOR II, years after Morrowind, Gothic or Deus Ex and still advertising it as revolutionary. It revolutionized nothing, at best it did its homework.

Underrated: Vanquish
A short, corny, but really entertaining game.

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General / Re: Your Top 5 Video Game Sound Tracks

« on: November 30, 2024, 01:10:18 pm »

It's okay that you only expect 5, but I feel licensed music to be cheating, but they are part of the sound track.

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General / Re: List your favorite game from your collection for each letter of the alphabet!

« on: October 01, 2024, 02:12:21 pm »

#: 1nsane (no other option)
A: Afrika Korps vs. Desert Rats
B: Bioshock
C: Carmageddon
D: Dragon Age: Origins (Divinity: Original Sin 2 if I include my digital games libraries)
E: Empire Earth (ELEX if I include my digital games libraries)
F: Fallout 2
G: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
H: Half-Life 2
I: International Rally Championship
J: Joint Task Force
K: Killzone 2 (the only game with starting with K in my collection) (Kingdom Come: Deliverance if I include my digital games libraries)
L: L.A. Noire (Left 4 Dead 2 if I include my digital games libraries)
M: Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
N: Need For Speed: High Stakes
O: N/A (Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition if I include my digital games libraries)
P: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Q: Quake 4
R: Red Dead Redemption
S: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
T: The Witcher
U: Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
V:  (the only game with starting with V in my collection) (Vanquish if I include my digital games libraries)
W: Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (Wasteland 2 if I include my digital games collections)
X: XIII (no other option)
Y: N/A
Z: N/A

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: September 15, 2024, 03:59:22 am »

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior yesterday afternoon. Still the best in the franchise.

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General / Re: Do y'all have your digital games added to your collection list on this site?

« on: August 23, 2024, 03:56:10 pm »

No, and I never will. This site for me is for my game collection, not my game libraries. I could make a case for adding the items from my GoG library and the DRM-fee stuff from my Steam library, since those I actually own, but I decided it' will only be for my physical games.

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General / Re: What 10 games would you show to someone who had never played video games before?

« on: August 23, 2024, 12:48:18 pm »

Depends on the person. It's difficult to make a general list.

• Someone who's completely new to games probably don't have the type of fine motor skills necessary to play most games so there would definitely be some games that don't need too accurate timing and fine reflexes. I've tried making my father play racing games and he couldn't keep the car on the track.
• I'd also take into consideration the individual's interests in other entertainment media.
• It's also good if the mage has a fast learning curve to give a good amount of positive reinforcement.
• And then there are the language skills. I'm not a native English speaker myself so I know that something that is heavy on story/lore is a hard sell if the game isn't localized. Back when I was a kid localized games were rare so RPGs were just impossible to play. I vividly remember how lost I was in Baldur's Gate II at age 11, only a couple of months after I started learning English in elementary school

Games that have a good chance to be in the 10:

• Portal/Portal 2; Superliminal; The Talos Principle
  Easy to get into without knowing English, and shows the "good" side of gaming to someone who might think it's all violence and no brain work. They can also be a good gateway to FPS games
• Hob; Orin and the Blind Forest; Trine
  More action focused and artistic in presentation. I also think they are good gateway to platformers.
• Dragon Age: Origins; Mass Effect; The Witcher
  All got full localization if necessary and I think they are decent entries for the two main type of western RPGs.
• The Sims 2
  It's a doll house. I think it can be good for women. Fully localized.
• Codename Panzers; Command & Conquer 3
  Fully localized introductions to real time strategy and real time tactics games.
• Killer Instinct
  You can play as a cyborg raptor wearing cheerleader outfit. If that doesn't convinces someone then nothing will.

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General / Re: Where do you buy your retro games from these days?

« on: August 14, 2024, 12:14:32 pm »

1.) Trading sites from my own country.
2.) There is a retro/vintage market every month. Not specifically vintage electronics and games, but you can always find something.
3.) Local brick and mortar stores.
4.) Ebay from within the EU.
5.) Ebay from outside the EU.

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General / Re: Which Generation Of Console Or PC Games You Think Contain The Best Graphics

« on: May 22, 2024, 12:55:45 pm »

For me best does not mean the most technically advanced. The most technically advanced games generally aged poorly while games with more stylized visuals hold up years or even decades later. Prince of Persia (2008) or Okami could release today and it could still be beautiful.

So I think it's about the mid-to-late 2000s/7th gen consoles where tech got advanced enough that certain types graphics became truly timeless.

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Hardware and Tech / Re: What Was Your Longest Lasting PC Computer

« on: May 14, 2024, 01:30:30 pm »

It's a Pentium 3 PC from around 2002 and it was my sister's. It has an Abit VH6-T board and originally a Celeron 600, 256MB RAM and Geforce MX200, a few years later it was upgraded with a Pentium 933 and a Radeon 8500LE. Later our dad got it who wasn't that tech savvy, but wanted to learn how to use a computer because of work. That was around the later-mid-2000s, around 2007 or so. Then went to the bottom of a wardrobe for the next couple of years. When I moved out I took it and still have it with unchanged specs and the same Windows XP install I did for my father back in the day, though the optical drive is faulty.

The second longest was my previous daily driver I bought in February 2009. A Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H board with Athlon X2 5050e, 4GB RAM and Radeon HD4670. It was upgraded to a Phenom II X3 720 and HD5770 around 2012 and a Phenom T X6 1055T and HD7850 around 2014-2015, and at some point around the Phenom X3 upgrade another 4GB RAM was added. I used this PC until September 2019 and sold it in December the same year. That's a little over 10 years. I kept the case and the 3.5" memory card reader though which I still use for my XP nostalgia PC. Sometimes I regret selling it. I didn't get that much for a PC that old and it would also make a great XP nostalgia PC. It's probably in a landfill by now.

My current daily driver is No.4 on the list with 5 years of service life barely a year behind the PC I used in my high school years, but I will upgrade it with a Ryzen 7 5700, another 16GB RAM and an RX7600 and continue using it for a few more years. I can easily see it taking the No.2 spot.

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General / Re: Games you must play before you die.

« on: April 26, 2024, 10:27:45 am »

Nice list but personally, i'd swap ME3 (bad writing, not just the ending and some meh level designs) with ME1, just way better writing all around, driving the car was annoying but nothing is perfect.

ME1 is a pre-2010 game so that's why I left off my list. For example The Witcher 1 is absent for the same reason. If I'd make a full list about games of all time, I would have included both, but it was just meant as an update for a list about pre-2010 games.