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

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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.

 
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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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
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.



 
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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.
 
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.

 
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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.
 
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That's the third time this thread has stopped tracking for me. :(
 
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.
 
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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. Actually, now that I think of it, that was DiRT 2, my bad.

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.
 
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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
 
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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. :rolleyes: 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.



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

I've played the original Half Life, but I never beat it. I had a really hard time with the 'On A Rail' level where I couldn't understand what to do or where to go. I got stuck somewhere and I guess I could've just checked a walkthrough or something, but I hesitated and then just decided to play Black Mesa instead. I've waited a long time, but I'm happy I've finished all of the major Half Life games (except Alyx, of course).

I am also very eagerly waiting on Cyberpunk. I've preordered the game actually, lol. I wanted that t-shirt so bad. I got the physical release for the PC, with the GOG code in the box. This means I'm probably getting it after Dec 10. It's fine though, I can wait.

I finished The Talos Principle yesterday. I don't know....I've got mixed feelings on this. I really feel this game needed to be shorter. I checked my playtime and it showed about 16 hours. That may not sound a lot but I wish it was around the 10 hour mark. It was up to that point when I was really enjoying the game and it's puzzles, even thinking about philosophy which the game wraps you in with. But after a few more hours I just wanted to say to hell with this and finish it as soon as I could. The ending itself wasn't bad. It's just the events leading up to it which left a bad taste in my mouth. End game spoilers below -
I climbed the tower, went to floor 5 and it had an ending of it's own. I noticed floor 6 too but then I read on forums that you can only unlock it if you get all the stars. I only had like 4 or something with me and there were 27 stars in total. At that point in the game, I definitely did not want to go and get them because I was just done with the game. Floor 5 ending also had it's own set of puzzles. Timed too....whoopie! Just what I wanted.... /s
Like I said though, the ending itself wasn't bad...
BTW Gman, regarding the ending of RDR2...
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.
You will get to play as John Marston despite whichever ending you choose. That is the only extra set of missions you get, I think. I of course, went with helping John escape. I did read that if you went after the treasure/gold instead of helping Marston, it would be Micah who stabs you to death or something. Yeah, the game pretty much sets up for the first RDR. I haven't played the original RDR actually but don't worry about the spoilers. I've already read the same thing elsewhere so it's not a shock for me that John and Abigail dies. I personally did not have any raids happen on the ranch in my game though...
Yeah, Black Mesa is pretty much in finished state now. I did encounter some lag and I think I know which level it is you're talking of. It's still there, actually. Only for a very few brief moments though. Nothing worth quitting for me...

In Halo 3: ODST, yeah, you gotta play more stealthy when you're playing as 'Rookie' and roaming in the Mombasa streets. The audio logs or side story about a girl named Sadie is also pretty interesting. Did you go through it all, Frag? I didn't go check them all in-game but I want to see it on Youtube sometime. It's almost an hour long or something though...
 
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I preordered it as well but just on Steam. In fact it's preloading now.
 
You will get to play as John Marston despite whichever ending you choose. That is the only extra set of missions you get, I think. I of course, went with helping John escape. I did read that if you went after the treasure/gold instead of helping Marston, it would be Micah who stabs you to death or something. Yeah, the game pretty much sets up for the first RDR. I haven't played the original RDR actually but don't worry about the spoilers. I've already read the same thing elsewhere so it's not a shock for me that John and Abigail dies. I personally did not have any raids happen on the ranch in my game though...
Yeah, Black Mesa is pretty much in finished state now. I did encounter some lag and I think I know which level it is you're talking of. It's still there, actually. Only for a very few brief moments though. Nothing worth quitting for me...

In Halo 3: ODST, yeah, you gotta play more stealthy when you're playing as 'Rookie' and roaming in the Mombasa streets. The audio logs or side story about a girl named Sadie is also pretty interesting. Did you go through it all, Frag? I didn't go check them all in-game but I want to see it on Youtube sometime. It's almost an hour long or something though...
I think I'll play Black Mesa again then, the ending sounds good.

I went through the whole campaign of Halo 3 ODST, but I may have missed some of the side stuff.

Here's the latest set of GRID 2019 events. Time Attack is introduced, and I struggled at first with the first round of Muscle Madness, but oddly enough, this time the heavy rain of the 2nd round was quite a bit easier. Probably due to Time Attack events spacing out the AI. It was a lot like the hotlap of the rainy GT race, easier to hold a line. Once they put you in a full on race though, somehow the AI can surge toward you and PIT maneuver you even in the rain. The long track at Zhejiang in reverse direction is also featured as the last event. It was difficult to maintain a good enough line to get best lap time, but I finally managed.