What's your favourite video game you've been playing?

[Frag Maniac]

Wow that's a long post, but I read everything. I played and finished RDR2 on the PS4 and I had to use aim assist the whole time during combat, meaning I missed out on the challenge in gunfights. It was really that bad and I was a novice at the time with a controller as well, although I finished The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 without use of aim assist, prior to playing this.

Yes, the micromanaging is very tedious at times but I never found them too annoying... I guess the reason was that I had decided to take things very slow. I took almost 2 months I think to beat it. I didn't engage too much into the different activities available like fishing or hunting but I did them at least once. There's a lot of detail in the game which I appreciated a lot when I was playing at such a slow pace. But I think I finished all of the side quests the game had to offer. I liked riding to a nearby river to sit down and read Arthur's journal. It made me attached to him a lot more. I did get attacked by a wolf once while reading though, lol but that just adds to the dynamic nature of this game. I spent so much time just working on Arthur's moustache which I thought was glorious at lengths 3 or 4.

I had a very funny and dangerous encounter with bears, ran into many stranger missions, some of which I really adored. I remember the game for it's amazing story and just moments like this. The characters as well, was just above and beyond any video game for me (Mass Effect comes close though).

Yeah I recall when a friend of mine with a PS4 asked me to play a bit of The Last of Us. I warned him I suck with gamepads, especially the Dualshock 4, which has narrow handles that tend to slip out of my hands. The strange thing is, I did OK battling the monsters, even the first Bloater boss, which I took out handily. When it came to gangs though, if it wasn't a situation where I could take most or all of them out with stealth (which is tricky to learn), it became a lot harder. The main problem was getting a bead on them with the gamepad in the short window they popped up out of cover. Often times I'd shoot too late, miss, or get shot aiming too long while popped out of cover myself, it was infuriating. My friend's answer was to play on a low enough difficulty where he could rush them and use melee attacks, but that's not the way I like to play shooters.

I guess I'm getting more used to RDR2 now, but there are still times when I get really upset with the very clumsy control scheme. It's also really strange as far as trying to stay equipped with the weapons you want to use in battles. For instance there's a mission where you go off to Rhodes with Bill, Micah, and Sean (the one where Sean gets killed). Of course you're in Rhodes, which is under Dutch's no violence policy, so you can't even take long guns from you're horse once you're there. Yet most of the others with Arthur are carrying long guns in their hands right down the street. When the fight first breaks out, you only have your pistols. A bit later when things really heat up and more enemies join the fight though, suddenly my go to long weapon, the Carbine Repeater, is hanging on my back. It's things like this that just make the linearity ruin the immersion. It's utter nonsense.

As far as length of play and whether I'll bother trying to hunt all the animals, or especially deck out the camp completely, which requires a lot of perfect pelts, I don't know. I think I can get through just the story and side missions in less than 3 weeks, but I'm going to have to find a better way to hunt if I want to get perfect pelts. When I search Google for things like best ways to track animals, or get perfect pelts, I see nothing. This tells me many others are likely having the same problem, or just don't care to bother with such things. Rockstar's GTA and RDR fanbases seem more bent on being destructive towards humans in random ways. Over 90 percent of what they talk about on forums has zero to do with the story, and more about robbing and killing people. This may also be why a lot of what's in the campaigns of these games makes very little sense. It simply doesn't have to when most are content with horsing around.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well it turns out I had a LOT to learn about the hunting in RDR2. The main thing is, the animals themselves start out in Poor, Good, or Pristine condition. So the key is to always study the species first with binocs or scope, which makes this condition appear (via 1-3 stars shown) even with scopes. Then it's just a matter of using one of the weapons suggested in the Compendium once studied, and using Dead Eye to assure you hit a weak spot.

At first I thought this would be too complex and laborious to enjoy, but it's really been quite fun. So much so that I spent the majority of last night's session fast traveling back and forth between the Shady Belle camp and the central Big Valley area of West Elizabeth. I chose this spot to first try to get the Legendary Buck in that region, who's antlers can be used to make a talisman that can upgrade Good condition pelts to Perfect.

The great thing about that spot is it is rich with quite a variety of wildlife. Racoons, Boars, Wolves, Elk, Deer, Bears, Rabbits, Birds, etc. I'm starting to make a serious dent in the camp decorations you can make with them. There's also a spot on the way there after fast traveling to Emerald Ranch from Shady Belle that has Foxes and Squirrels. I wanted to bathe in Ausenburg since Arthur is looking pretty crusty, but I always get distracted by hunting.

These and random bounty hunter ambushes are definitely the most immersive moments yet in the game for me.

Unexpected Bounty Ambush on a Mt in Big Valley

Grizzly Attack After Bagging a Pristine Deer

 

[Gman450]

I just finished Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. I played it on 'Hard' difficulty and it was definitely challenging. It has a very weird block/parry system (you have to press forward and then attack button at the same time to register a block/parry) but it works well enough once you get used to it. The blade mode is definitely the star of the game which you can use to cut your enemy limbs to lots of pieces.

There were a surprisingly good number of enemy types for a comparatively short game(took me nearly 8 hours but I could've finished it under 7 had it not been for the final boss). It definitely took me an hour or 2 to realize on how to play the game properly, and what to do during combat. Sometimes they emphasize on using stealth, but IMO this is nearly impossible since there's no crouch/stealth stance. You'll be seen very quickly by most enemies. I was able to avoid a few sections though by running away at the right time though.

There's lots of upgrades available too some of which makes a huge difference. I was able to kill almost all the bosses in 1-2 tries once I understood what to do. But the final boss was just impossible to beat without unlocking a certain type of armor. You can use a recovery item called 'repair nanopaste' to automatically replenish your health if it ever goes below zero. These are of course limited and before I got to this final boss, I only had 1 repair nanopaste on me which made things super hard/almost impossible. There was no way to turn down the difficulty and the boss was dealing way too much damage on me. Once I read about this armor and decided to unlock it, I got 10 of those repair kits and I was easily able to beat him.

I've finished Uncharted: Lost Legacy as well. Wow, that ending was exhilarating. Everything came to a beautiful conclusion in true Uncharted style. I still can't get over just how amazing this game looks. The transitions from cutscene to gameplay is so sublime. Gunfights are very dynamic, much like Uncharted 4 and it just plays so well. There was a chapter in this game, unlike in any other game in the series, where it was sort of open world. I really liked that part and wish future games would have something similar in store too. I also just love how this game hides the HUD from you most of the time and barely tells you what to do with a textbox. The game still offers you hints if you seem to be taking too long to figure stuff out though. But nothing blatant and obvious like 'go to the door' or 'follow this person'. I'm just so sick of those text boxes, lol.

 

[Frag Maniac]

My revenge against the Grizzly in RDR 2 that left scars on my face.

I've managed to kill all the Legendary animals except for the 3 in the Blackwater area that I don't have access to yet, as well as getting perfect pelts from key big game like the Buck and Elk to dress up the camp. The Bull Moose is very elusive I'm finding though. Even after finding the last ingredient I needed to make the potent herbivore bait, which is supposed to attract pristine animals, I've not been able to find a pristine Bull Moose yet.

I have to say, one of the most realistic things about the game is the Euphoria software that applies internal skeletons and realistic rolling and tumbling when falling. I've more times than I care to accidentally galloped my Palomino into a ditch while trying to lose a bounty posse in dense woods, and though it's frustrating to have my horse fall and myself face plant in the dirt, I always marvel at how authentic it looks.

I really wish more developers would use Euphoria.

 

[Gman450]

Agreed, Frag. Euphoria is one of the best physics engines out there. I was absolutely amazed with the shooting in GTA IV back in the day. When you shoot an enemy in the foot while they were charging at you, they fall down so realistically. Their reactions to getting shot is also superb in any of the Rockstar games since GTA IV, really.

I started Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood a few days ago. It's been a year since I played the first entry of the series. Gameplay and graphics so far seem quite identical to the first game. I think the character models are slightly better, but there's no huge change. I did notice that the enemies retreat if they see you flanking, which is a nice reaction I suppose. In the first game, they'd just stick to their original covering spot like glue.

I also started The Talos Principle. Really nice game! I've always wanted to play it but I kept putting it off. The puzzles so far have been pretty easy actually. I was expecting a huge challenge but maybe it's because I am still early in the game.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Agreed, Frag. Euphoria is one of the best physics engines out there. I was absolutely amazed with the shooting in GTA IV back in the day. When you shoot an enemy in the foot while they were charging at you, they fall down so realistically. Their reactions to getting shot is also superb in any of the Rockstar games since GTA IV, really.

Actually, and this seems strange considering what it can do for physics, Euphoria is not a physics engine. It's game animation middleware that works together with pretty much any physics engine to enhance NPC animation.

Anyway, still banging away at Red Dead Redemption 2. I'm at what appears to be one of the most depressing points of the game, Chapter 6, where the camp is at Beaver Hollow, and the whole gang is on edge. Despite this I've had some interesting encounters trying to finish off Pearson's camp upgrades via crafting pelts I bring in.

There's a spot in Big Valley near the trapper where you can get a cougar to spawn about every 5 min. It's a tricky little game because it spooks your horse and circles back to attack you once you're thrown off. I've managed to get 2 of the 3 cougar pelts Pearson can craft so far, but it's proving hard as hell to find a 3rd in Pristine condition.

I managed to put several hunts into one short clip, everything from small game to big. I was interrupted by bounty hunters while bagging the muskrat. There's also a brief segment showing my horse rock surfing.

 

[JazzyK83]

Mafia and Counter Strike 1.6

 

[Ben_MacTavish]

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare Series! Good thing is that I can play it with my old trash PC. Anyway, it was really good, that I finished all 3 games in a couple of days.

I like the whole CoD series, except Advanced and Infinite Warfare.

 

[Nemesia]

Homeworld series (Old one. Not remastered)

Nox

Civ 3

The Dig

Full Throttle

Bioforge

And 100 more.

Too many good games to just choose one. I'm not a big "Choose one" type of guy.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I'm now playing the GRID 2019 reboot of the original Race Driver GRID. It works as well if not better with Keyboard than the original, and I have yet to experience the dreaded now and then freezes the original had at certain points of some tracks, which would often make me lose my place or crash. It's easy to arc a turn via holding down your steer keys, but it takes a bit of time to figure out the timing of it. Still resorting to tapping keys out of habit.

I started out on the Medium preset where the AI have just average skill and damage is only visual, and all assists are at max, plus 5 flashbacks allowed per race. I went through the first events in each discipline, easily getting the fastest lap for pole position. The races felt a bit too easy to win, so I stepped it up to Hard level. On Hard, damage is full, you only get 3 flashbacks, assists are set to level 3, and of course the main thing is, the AI are more competent.

On Hard it takes me several tries just to get a hotlap time good enough to start in the top 3, and so far after 2 touring races I've started at position 3 and 2. You really have to hit the turns well and keep up momentum, but I managed to win both of these races, again, after several tries. I've not yet once used flashback, preferring to restart the whole race. I've also managed to race pretty clean, which is imperative in the reboot as it adds the Nemesis AI system.

I'm not sure if Nemesis is much different from how the AI reacted in the original, but here you know for sure whom you've offended and you'll see such an indicator onscreen, plus your race manager will tell you over the coms. On Hard I've yet to accumulate enough damage to affect performance, but that is also due to trying to drive clean due to Nemesis. The graphics are great for the most part, but one track on replay in cockpit view seemed too washed out.

My main nitpicks so far are...

1. There's only about 16 tracks. Initially there were about a dozen, and they added a few via free DLC.

2. The damage model apparently is weak compared to the original, taking some hard smacks even on open wheel cars before performance is affected. I won't know until further testing though, as that was a comment made on a pre-release build sent out for review.

3. Sadly the replay in multiview is not nearly as good as the original. There's too many closeup views, often ones that limit view of the race too much. There's also no camera shake or nice pans like the original had .It just feels robotic and non immersive.

4. Even before Nemesis kicks in, AI at times drive wildly. They'll sometimes swerve radically toward you if you are in a line they'd prefer to be in when approaching a tough turn. They are also inconsistent in their skill. Some turns they can handle incredibly well, others, very badly.

5. As I said, at times the lighting makes the game look really washed out.

6. Though it feels maybe a bit more accessible to keyboard users, the AI are so challenging I'm doubting if I'll be able to win most races on the hardest mode, like I did in the original, save for 24 Hour Le Mans (due to the AI driving crazy fast at night), and a couple of the seasonal day races held at Le Mans. I'm think it will be pretty much impossible to get in a hotlap fast enough to get a top 3 start position on Ultra Hard, and I may not even be able to place in the top 3 in a lot if not most races on that mode.

7. There likely won't be as much replay value for me on keyboard due to less difficulty modes than the original had, and the more challenging AI. It very well could be Medium and Hard are the only two modes practical for me to play.

8. Only two open wheel cars in game.

My main praises are...

1. No more dreaded freezing at certain points on a lot of tracks. That was my biggest gripe about the original, and to this day the one thing that keeps me from wanting to go back and play it.

2. As I said, arcing a turn on keyboard is much easier due to holding down your steer keys. It can build confidence, but also go against you if you don't time it right and hit the right speed while doing so.

3. There's now weather effects, mainly rain. It looks realistic, but I've yet to test it's affect on traction much. I did get in one race in a Honda S2000 though in a hard rain, and on Medium preset, the traction seemed ridiculously good considering the conditions.

4. There's a good amount of cars, and new types of vehicles added like trucks.

5. Granted this is a minus for some, but I personally am not bothered at all by the omission of drift events.

6. Another thing that some might consider a minus, is events are generally fairly short, in the 3 to 4 laps range. In the original, the combination of having to start at the back, even if you won races in that event prior, plus longer distances, made it a long slog to get to the front.

7. Yet another thing some might consider a minus, is being able to qualify for start position via hotlaps makes the game a lot easier. However the AI are challenging enough to make it pretty hard if there were no qualifying. Again though, this is from a keyboard perspective.

8. Audio is very good, even better than recent GRID titles.

9. The driving physics are easy to get used to and fun, even on keyboard. SIM racers will likely be off put by many things, like th edamage model and lack of nuances in tuning and maintenance, but they should also know GRID never intended to be a SIM title.

10. Cockpit view looks great, but FOV choices are limited.

11. Support for latest hardware, including HDR, but apparently no official Ray Tracing support. I have read it's possible via a graphics mod though.


Some other notables that could go either way for many are, no VR or triple screen support, and no tire wear or fuel loss to manage. These things don't bother me at all, though I could see how some would be. It's so arcade now there's even points awarded for powerslides, so this may or may not mean I may be able to handle the hardest mode after all if I can get used to driving more aggressively. I've already noticed I can more easily go into a fishtail on some tracks (like Brands Hatch) without a decent line through some corners, on Hard with level 3 assists, so I'm kinda doubting being able to powerslide consistently on Ultra Hard will be very doable or advantageous on keyboard.

Here's SIM Racing Paddock's Review

I'll upload the replays of the two touring races on Hard later.

 

[Gman450]

I just finished Brothers In Arms: Earned in Blood. It was very much identical in comparison to the first game. Not many changes at all to be honest apart from enemies retreating to a different cover like I said previously. The story too, takes place pretty much over the same timeline of the first game. Just a different perspective. In the first game, we play as Baker while in this game, we play as Hartsock.
Once again it was nice to control a team and be able to suppress and flank your enemies. At first, I felt the shooting was nerfed even more than the previous game but it was mostly due to the weapons I was using. It's still hard to shoot your enemies at close range though, no doubt, but it's best to use a machine gun throughout, than a rifle. I learnt this at the very end too. I died many times and felt the checkpoints were sparse making it difficult to proceed. The game doesn't have a healing system like the original and so the only way to heal is to die a few times at the same checkpoint and the game will ask you if you want your squad revived and all healed up. I used this feature many times as it made things much less cumbersome. Level design is superb. There are multiple ways to flank your enemy.
I disliked most of the tank missions in this game though. I felt the same way with the original too. Even though the tank is supposed to be super powerful, every enemy you encounter seems to have a panzerfaust/RPG with them or some form of heavy artillery in the distance to take it down. This made it feel more like escort the tank kind of missions where the only thing you can do with it is to have it placed far far away and suppress enemies. It seriously limited the potential fun that could've been had while being able to command a tank within your team. This is my opinion though...
I appreciated the story here more than I did in the original. I feel Hartsock was more fleshed out than Baker as well.

I am still playing The Talos Principle. I've finished the puzzles in World A and B and now I'm in World C. I mentioned the puzzles were easy in my last post but since then I've encountered some difficult ones that were very satisfying to solve. The game colors out the puzzles actually, green is easiest, yellow medium and red is hard. You can also go around and collect stars in the game which are even harder to obtain. I've only got a couple of them and it really isn't needed to proceed the game. It helps unlock some more bonus puzzle levels as I understand it, and these are probably harder than what the normal puzzles offer. I didn't collect them all the first time I encountered them, which I now regret because going back to the previous worlds to try and collect them is proving to be very difficult as these sometimes exist outside of normal puzzle zones.
Outside of all this, there is all this weird philosophy which I am not super invested in to be honest. I'm just playing it for the puzzles. I will admit, it's pretty intriguing and I hope it gets somewhere in the end.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I've managed to get through three 2-race events so far (Touring, Muscle, Tuner) in GRID 2019 on Hard with a first place in each race. I also managed to get a position 1 start in each of the Muscle and Tuner races. I find the rain effects to be very realistic in this game, both visually and physically. I found that on Hard, unlike Medium mode, you must be very careful when and where you accelerate when it's raining hard.

 

[Gman450]

Nice, Frag. I wish you'll upload the race gameplay too. Speaking of which, I got myself a Thrustmaster T150 Pro racing wheel. I've been using it for more than a week now and I think it's pretty good. I've played F1 2018 and Forza Horizon 4 on it. Force feedback is great but the table I've mounted it on wobbles easily, so I only have it at 50% right now. Default is 75%. It becomes hard to turn with it set to the default value. I'm sure it's possible to adjust over time, but the table is what's holding me back.

For me, F1 feels the most fun to race around in. Forza is great too but I notice I'm spinning out very often in the faster cars. Not sure if it's a problem with any of the settings. I've tried turning on traction and stability control but they didn't do much to help. So I'm sticking with Class C/D cars such as the old VW Golf. Super nice to drive around the world with manual transmission and clutch. I don't have the stick addon but I just turned the clutch on for the paddle shifts. I realize that in reality paddle shifts don't need a clutch, but eh, it's just for the sake of some challenge and fun. I drive a stick in real life, so the clutch control is sort of accurate I suppose. Cars don't stall though, if you let go too fast.

F1 is too fast to try and go for manual transmission at the moment. Really hard for me to shift down quick during a tight turn/corner.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Nice, Frag. I wish you'll upload the race gameplay too. Speaking of which, I got myself a Thrustmaster T150 Pro racing wheel. I've been using it for more than a week now and I think it's pretty good. I've played F1 2018 and Forza Horizon 4 on it. Force feedback is great but the table I've mounted it on wobbles easily, so I only have it at 50% right now. Default is 75%. It becomes hard to turn with it set to the default value. I'm sure it's possible to adjust over time, but the table is what's holding me back.

For me, F1 feels the most fun to race around in. Forza is great too but I notice I'm spinning out very often in the faster cars. Not sure if it's a problem with any of the settings. I've tried turning on traction and stability control but they didn't do much to help. So I'm sticking with Class C/D cars such as the old VW Golf. Super nice to drive around the world with manual transmission and clutch. I don't have the stick addon but I just turned the clutch on for the paddle shifts. I realize that in reality paddle shifts don't need a clutch, but eh, it's just for the sake of some challenge and fun. I drive a stick in real life, so the clutch control is sort of accurate I suppose. Cars don't stall though, if you let go too fast.

F1 is too fast to try and go for manual transmission at the moment. Really hard for me to shift down quick during a tight turn/corner.

Thanks, I guess it's not bad for an old fart using just a keyboard. When younger I entertained the idea of getting a decent wheel/pedal set, but then I realized hauling it out and setting it up, plus maintaining the calibration on the sensors and keeping dust off them would likely be more trouble than it's worth, considering I play mostly shooters. Thankfully though a lot of race games are made with assists you can turn on or off. I managed to get through NFS Shift and Shift 2 Unleashed on keyboard with Medium level AI.

As for actual race footage, I considered capturing that, but quite honestly, being as I race in behind view, it doesn't look as good, and it's actually harder to judge distance of competitors once out in front. Sometimes I'll capture the replay in cockpit view, but I really don't want to deceive anyone into thinking I'm capable of racing in that mode on Hard with keyboard.

Again, I really miss the immersive nature of multiview replays in the original game. As reviews of the reboot have said, it's true that the original captured the feeling of high speed racing much more accurately. Both in-race views and replays feel more exhilarating in the original. That's another reason I don't capture actual behind view race footage of the reboot, it tends to make it look slower and more boring.

Here's an example of how much better the multiview replays look in the original.

The next set of few races though I'll look for one that might look OK in behind view, though I use ShadowPlay Instant replay, so no guarantees it will be actual in-race footage, vs replay.

A while ago, here on Tom's, someone asked about the ProSteer controller. At first it looked ingenious to me, and I imagined it to be far more intuitive to use than a gamepad. I detailed my reasons why it would likely struggle to be practical though.

[SOLVED] - Anyone tried or seen in action the new ProSteer controller ?

I just pledged for one of these from kickstarter ... anyone tried one ? Link from their facebook page

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Frag Maniac]

OK, I have a few more events from GRID 2019 uploaded. As you requested Gman, I've included in-race footage on these. I also included hotlap qualifying footage, and multiview replays (in order of hotlap, race, then replay). I don't know if I'll continue uploading them that way, because it makes the videos over twice as long, and YT's 1440p processing is at least 5 times slower for me now, so it's a good 8 hrs or so to 1440p process something that long.

Anyway, some of these started out feeling like I wouldn't be able to get a 1st position start, but I'm glad I finally did, because in a couple of the races, until I got the feel of how to drive the tracks, I was struggling to catch up once passed. On Hard, the game is a bit over the top arcade still, being able to severely powerslide even formula cars. There is also a nasty bug on one of the formula race multiview replays. I'm sure you'll notice it, I felt like Pigpen. LOL

I feel all the more so now like I'm stuck in no man's land between Hard being a bit too easy, and most likely Ultra Hard being too hard.

 

[anort3]

That's the third time this thread has stopped tracking for me.

 

[Gman450]

OK, I have a few more events from GRID 2019 uploaded. As you requested Gman, I've included in-race footage on these. I also included hotlap qualifying footage, and multiview replays (in order of hotlap, race, then replay). I don't know if I'll continue uploading them that way, because it makes the videos over twice as long, and YT's 1440p processing is at least 5 times slower for me now, so it's a good 8 hrs or so to 1440p process something that long.

Anyway, some of these started out feeling like I wouldn't be able to get a 1st position start, but I'm glad I finally did, because in a couple of the races, until I got the feel of how to drive the tracks, I was struggling to catch up once passed. On Hard, the game is a bit over the top arcade still, being able to severely powerslide even formula cars. There is also a nasty bug on one of the formula race multiview replays. I'm sure you'll notice it, I felt like Pigpen. LOL

I feel all the more so now like I'm stuck in no man's land between Hard being a bit too easy, and most likely Ultra Hard being too hard.

Great racing, Frag. Reminds me of the time I used to play a lot of DiRT 2 on the keyboard. I think I have a replay of it on my channel as well.

You're right, the older GRID replays felt more alive, very much alike DiRT 2 replays. The newer one is more subtle and a bit less enjoyable. I always saw the GRID games as more on the side of arcade, so I guess it makes sense being able to drift cars with a lot of downforce...
LMAO, I saw the smoke coming out of the formula car. Had to double check on your race gameplay to make sure it wasn't there as well. Almost like something was wrong with your engine.

I agree, the difficulty when it comes to racing games can be confusing. I have similar troubles with Forza Horizon 4. I'm playing it on 'Expert' difficulty (2 levels below the highest setting) and in most of the races, the leader is just too far away from the rest of the pack, meaning I always finish 2nd. It's quite frustrating. I lower the setting down from 'Expert' by 1 level and then no one is competitive and I win races with +5 second gaps. It's just not fun that way.

That's the third time this thread has stopped tracking for me.

I always have this thread on my bookmark and frankly it's the only thread I've been visiting for a long time now, lol. So, I don't really lose track that much.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Great racing, Frag. Reminds me of the time I used to play a lot of DiRT 2 on the keyboard. I think I have a replay of it on my channel as well.

You're right, the older GRID replays felt more alive, very much alike DiRT 2 replays. The newer one is more subtle and a bit less enjoyable. I always saw the GRID games as more on the side of arcade, so I guess it makes sense being able to drift cars with a lot of downforce...
LMAO, I saw the smoke coming out of the formula car. Had to double check on your race gameplay to make sure it wasn't there as well. Almost like something was wrong with your engine.

I agree, the difficulty when it comes to racing games can be confusing. I have similar troubles with Forza Horizon 4. I'm playing it on 'Expert' difficulty (2 levels below the highest setting) and in most of the races, the leader is just too far away from the rest of the pack, meaning I always finish 2nd. It's quite frustrating. I lower the setting down from 'Expert' by 1 level and then no one is competitive and I win races with +5 second gaps. It's just not fun that way.

Thanks, yeah I played GRID 2 a ton. It was a great game, but I didn't like the sepia tone filter they laid over it that gave it a pale yellow look.

I thought that was smoke at first too, I mean it's the color of engine smoke, but it seems to be coming from one of the rear tires. Whatever it is, it's really strange.

Yeah I don't know why so many race games have that problem with difficulty, one mode being too easy, the next too hard. It's no doubt why a lot of players use custom settings vs going with the presets. I like how the presets appropriately scale the assists down for each setting though. It's definitely the AI like you said that is the biggest problem. Without fail, most race games have one AI racer that is impossible to catch when you get to a certain difficulty level.

I have the next 3 events captured, and one edited and compressed. It's mostly a lot of stuff on the Zhejiang track in China. That track is hard to get used to on keyboard. Some tough hairpins and S turns. The strange thing is, it was actually a lot easier to compete on that track in a muscle car than the much smaller touring car. For some reason touring car events are always the bane of my existence. The highlight of these 3 events was a night race at Okutama on the Shinto Shrine track. It's a lot better looking in the reboot, and more fun to race.

 

[Frag Maniac]

OK, here's that next set from GRID 2019.

 

[Mandark]

I've jumped back into Thief on the Xbox. Wow, excellent, just like Thief: The Dark Project was. Different but JUST as good IMO. Loving it and taking my sweet time, trying to find ALL the loot for the sweet upgrades, tools and supplies. the interface is wonderful and the game saving is amazing. You are never left stranded. and they have multiple slots. Next time through I will do Master Thief. Right now i have fun whacking civilians on the head with the blackjack (can't do that in master thief mode, it fails the mission.)

i played the original the same way. always take out all the guards. by the end you could run around at top speed and make as much noise as you wanted. everyone knocked out... lol

 

[Frag Maniac]

I finally finished the Red Dead Redemption 2 campaign, well, sort of, until the LONG credits roll. I can tell by the scenes shown during the credits that the law is investigating happenings John was involved in though, so it appears as many have said, there's one final raid, and on his homestead, as they look to be keeping an eye on it as well. About the only thing I've been focused on finishing up meantime, since I can't do camp upgrades anymore after Pearson ran away, is catching Legendary fish, which is proving to be more tedious than rewarding. Don't know if I want to bother going back to 100% every mission, especially since most of the objectives appear to be speedrun oriented. It started out an interesting and fun game, but in the end left me feeling a bit disappointed and bored.

Meanwhile, still playing GRID 2019. I was rather disappointed to find you cannot swap out sponsors like in the original to maximize your profits. A lot of the races are great, and no freezing at certain points of the tracks like in the original, but damn it's really a more watered down game content wise.

At any rate, here's the next set of events. The highlight for me was a very rainy day race in the GT class, where it was very hard not to spin out on curb aprons. I smacked a few walls to avoid cornering hard on them, but overall it went OK, except for my "friendly" teammate smacking into me. There's also the supercar class down under, where you're desperately trying to keep monstrously powerful machines from spinning out on what feel like tracks that are too small for them. Other than that, a one race classic mini event to finish up that series, but on a track that's a bit more interesting.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Well, I caught all the Legendary fish in Red Dead Redemption 2, but...

Spoiler

...the one I caught last, the Bullnose Catfish, which requires a boat to get to since it's by the prison on the island, resulted in a crazy horse rescue. Little did I know that after taking one of the boats in Saint Denis and rowing it to the island, my horse had tried to follow me and got stuck in the water. It wouldn't have been so bad had I not also had to deal with the game's idiotic core system, where the player and horse stamina cores quickly empty when in such water. I assume it's because the water there is a bit colder, but there are plenty of cold places in the game where player and horse aren't quickly taken to zero stamina.

 

[Gman450]

You may want to include spoiler tags, Frag, for RDR 2. It's fine for me, but for the others here, it could be potential spoilers.

Like I said, I never really bothered with the side activities much in RDR 2. Mainly played it for the story and a hell of a good one I got out of it.

I played and finished Halo 3: ODST last week and it was really fun. Possibly the most fun Halo game for me. You don't even play as the Master Chief, yet it's crazy how much I enjoyed the story, the setting and gunplay in this game than any other. I suspect it's because of less repetition just like in Halo 3 and the game was short. I am so glad that we're done with dual wielding from this game onwards. Weapons feel a lot more powerful now. I've gotten good at headshots too, which amplified the gunplay a lot. Also, there's this neat nightvision mode which highlights enemies and friendlies. I felt it really helped me shoot more accurately.

I also finished Black Mesa just yesterday. Beginning of this year, I think, was when Xen was released and I had been thinking of playing it for a while now but I had been putting it off. I finally went through it this week and finished it last night. It was also really fun to play. As I understand it, these devs completely revamped the Xen level from the original by prolonging it, adding new areas, puzzles etc. I think it really worked too. It wasn't too long and I had a lot of fun going through the game.

I'm still very slowly going through The Talos Principle. I've got just one more set of puzzles to complete before end game I think. The puzzles have been...inconsistent in terms of the difficulty offered. Some of the red puzzles (which usually denotes that it's hard) are much easier compared to certain others which at times makes my head smoke...

 

[anort3]

Oooo I need to go back and play it now that Xen is finished. I loved Black Mesa ( and HL 1 ).

I enjoyed The Talos Principle but yeah some of them......pull out your hair.

Playing Wolfenstein II and not so patiently waiting on Cyberpunk 2077.

 

[Frag Maniac]

You may want to include spoiler tags, Frag, for RDR 2. It's fine for me, but for the others here, it could be potential spoilers.

Like I said, I never really bothered with the side activities much in RDR 2. Mainly played it for the story and a hell of a good one I got out of it.

I played and finished Halo 3: ODST last week and it was really fun. Possibly the most fun Halo game for me. You don't even play as the Master Chief, yet it's crazy how much I enjoyed the story, the setting and gunplay in this game than any other. I suspect it's because of less repetition just like in Halo 3 and the game was short. I am so glad that we're done with dual wielding from this game onwards. Weapons feel a lot more powerful now. I've gotten good at headshots too, which amplified the gunplay a lot. Also, there's this neat nightvision mode which highlights enemies and friendlies. I felt it really helped me shoot more accurately.

I also finished Black Mesa just yesterday. Beginning of this year, I think, was when Xen was released and I had been thinking of playing it for a while now but I had been putting it off. I finally went through it this week and finished it last night. It was also really fun to play. As I understand it, these devs completely revamped the Xen level from the original by prolonging it, adding new areas, puzzles etc. I think it really worked too. It wasn't too long and I had a lot of fun going through the game.

I'm still very slowly going through The Talos Principle. I've got just one more set of puzzles to complete before end game I think. The puzzles have been...inconsistent in terms of the difficulty offered. Some of the red puzzles (which usually denotes that it's hard) are much easier compared to certain others which at times makes my head smoke...

Yeah, even though it's been out for some time, I suppose some haven't bought/played RDR2 yet. Added the tags as suggested.

BTW Gman, regarding the ending of RDR2...

Spoiler

Does either ending helping John, or going for the gold, reward any extra missions after credits roll? It looks like there's going to be another raid by the lawmen, maybe on John Marston's ranch, as the scenes during the credits kinda suggest that. I saw some chat where one guy said a raid happened on that ranch unexpectedly while he was doing the ranch chores, but in other chat, one person said John and Abigail die in RDR1, so what's up?

Also, is Black Mesa finally finished and lag free now? Last time I played it you couldn't even play the last level, and a level or two leading up to it were pretty laggy.

Halo 3: ODST was a mixed bag for me. It seemed really hard at first, especially encountering Hunters at night, or being left with little to no ammo just trying to get to certain gates in the latter missions, but once I jumped up to Heroic mode, I started getting smarter about sneaking past and staying unseen. I know many liked the noir aspect, but I didn't really care for the background music and lighting scheme. You pretty much had to use nightvision most of the time. It was an interesting change of pace from the other games though.