Shagger

Nive to see you again. Welcome back.

What are you using to run the program from? If it's from the original hardware, like the original CD/DVD-ROMs, you need an emulator to make the games compatible. I know how much authenticity means to you, but emulators can run games from the original game disks. Either way, I'll keep digging. EDIT: I found this article from The Windows Club that indicates it is possible to run this game from the original CD, but it is a bit of a faff and apparently does require a HD mod. Still, worth checking out. As for AOE 2, all roads lead back to the compatibility tab. I'll post this video tutorial on the compatibility function even though I'm fairly certain you have already tried it, but who knows, maybe there is something you've missed.

Since we speak and scribe the King's English on this side of the Atlantic, I could just boil this down to saying you filthy colonials are spelling things wrong, but... You know, that's it. You filthy colonials are spelling things wrong. Seriously though, I have no idea why this and other spelling differences like this happen on the same language.

There can be few things more annoying than stripped screws, they really are a pet hate of mine. Why do these manufacturers make them out of such soft metal? Anyway, I do work in engineering so have dealt with this sort of thing a lot. Given what you have already tried (And I must say, I think somebody's taking the piss with superglue thing, that was never going to work.), outside of drilling through the screw, I can think of only two things that likely to work. Gripping the screwhead in a set of pliers and trying to turn it that way. Using impact force to turn the screw. I've done this . with rusted and rounded nuts and bolts, but the principle is essentially the same. What you'll need is a screwdriver (Flat head, preferably) or small chisel and a hammer. I hope that helps. Let me know if you enjoy any luck with this.

Earlier this evening, I thought, "I haven't played Assassin's Creed Odyssey in a while, I think I might just re-install it and give it a go". Given the install size, I had to remove a couple of games giving myself plenty of room for the game and any updates it might install. I originally bought the game from the Epic Game Store (After a combination of sale prices and coupons, It ended up being quite the steal.), so naturally I use the EGS launcher to install the game. A couple of hours later, I start the game and Ubisoft's launcher Ubisoft Connect opens up. That's OK, I expected that, but then Ubisoft Connect prompts me to install the game, all 100+GB of it, all over again! It turns out Ubisoft Connect does not recognise the EGS install of the game. Why? Because when EGS installs the game, the game is listed as "AssassinsCreedOdyssey" without spaces, but Uplay installs the game under a file called "Assassins Creed Odyssey" with spaces. I am not kidding, that is why Ubisoft Connect couldn't recognise the game was already installed! I understand Ubisoft wanting to verify a digital game copy, but this is just plain stupid. This isn't an indigenous problem with this game either, it happens with others. I read a Reddit post from somebody who had the exact same problem with AC Syndicate. Thankfully, I didn't actually have to install the game all over again as Ubisoft Connect does have a feature that allows you to tell the launcher whare the game files are and verify them, but that was still a full 20 minutes waiting for it to do so for no good reason. I don't know if the same thing happens if you install and launch Ubisoft games through Steam (If somebody can confirm, please do so), but this is why nobody wants to have to buy a game through one platform, then have to link it and run it through another. EA makes you do the same thing when you install EA games through Gamepass, for example, but to thier credit at least that works without any stupid bullshit like this. I wouldn't put it past companies like Ubisoft and EA to make this whole process deliberately inconvenient just so people will use thier own launchers instead of EGS, the Xbox Windows App or Steam. Anyway, rant over. I just wanted to put this out there in hope this might see others avoid the same problem.

Starship Troopers is franchise that has a habit of taking it's sweet time to have an impact. The original novel by Robert A. Heinlein was published 38 years before the Paul Verhoeven movie (1959-1997) and even 23 years after that there had had only been two video games made based on the franchise. First there was Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendency in the year 2000 then the simply named Starship Troopers in 2005. Neither of which released close to the movie and both of which more or less forgotten. There was also a pinball game and an iOS game on mobile that I refuse to even count. The film in particular has a definite cult following, so it is odd that the obvious potential for video games has been ignored for so long. Then comes 2022, and out of nowhere we get Starship Troopers: Terran Command; An RTS with a stylish, yet faithful look. It currently sits at a "Very Positive" reception on Steam at the equivalent of about $30. I haven't played, but really want to and it looks decent enough, by maybe lacks some of the ambition the idea of a Starship Troopers could have. Another year passes, and now an entirely different team looks to do another completely different take on Starship Troops in the form of a PvE, horde FPS, Starship Troopers: Extermination: As a fan of the movie, THIS is what I'm talking about! 16 players desperately working together to hold thier ground against an endless horde? I get the RTS game, I really do, but THIS is Starship Troopers to me! There are a couple of concerns, first of which being the graphics. The bugs look great, but the rest of it lacks detail for me and the troopers themselves look blocky and flat. I also feel the game could do with a campaign/story mode, but something tells me that's not likely to happen. Playing horde move over and over would get boring pretty quick, so I hope the games gets more verity going forward. Do you think this is will be the Starship Troopers game to finally meet the hype, or will it be another wet let-down?

I don't AI is quite as scary nor threatening as you fear it is, but how much more sophisticated is has gotten over the last year or so is quite alarming. Most of the concern about it revolves around how it is affecting the realms of creative media, like with AI artwork. There are programs out there that can generate artwork completely on thier own with only a few words and themes inputted to guide it. There is even now an AI metal band publishing music on YouTube called Frostbite Orckings. This is NOT a prograM remixing sounds and songs from other bands, it's an AI that's been taught how to play these instruments, been told the basics about how song structure works, given a limited theme and style to work within, and these are the entirely original works it has come up with. There is no human input into this. The music, and video with all the designs were all done by an AI. As I said, humans had to "teach" the AI how to play the instruments and the basics of character design and video direction etc, but the creativity is all from an AI. Quite remarkable. And this is what's possible now, I can't blame anyone for being frightened by what AI might be capable of a few years down the road. Still, I still think that it's human malice and human error that would be the real threat with AI, and that is something we know how to deal with.

Technically, the 3DO wasn't their console. The 3DO was an unusual video game console in that it wasn't manufactured by a first party. Panasonic were just one of several companies who were contracted by the 3DO Company to make the console. The others being GoldStar (Now known as LG) and Sanyo with Creative Technologies being responsible for the peripherals and many of the components inside. This meant there were several different versions of the console with different hardware branding, but there were all made to similar specifications. The 3DO Company itself founded by the founder of Electronic Arts Trip Hawkins and it was his company that was responsible for and would profit from software distribution, like a game publisher. The various companies that actually made the system would only see thier cut from the single hardware sale. In a way, the 3DO today looks less like a gaming console and more like a purpose built gaming PC, perhaps like one of those Steam Machines that were about a few years ago. And that was whare the real problems with the 3DO started. The fact the console had some advanced tech' for the time and that the manufacturers had to profit from the hardware sale is what made the system so expensive. It did have stand out graphics and some great ports of games like Wing Commander 3 that included almost DVD quality FMV, but it wasn't worth the price compared to it's rivals. A shame because I actually think it was a good system.

I actually already own Metro: Last Light Redux through EGS, but I thought I'd share this anyway. From now (May 18nth) until May 25th, you can claim Metro Last Light Complete Edition for free through Steam. This an offer from Deep Silver in celebration of the games 10nth anniversary. Full story from GameSpot. All you need to do is visit the Metro Franchise Page on Steam; https://store.steampowered.com/sale/metrofranchise Click on the link, and there you go. Whilst you're there, check out the big discounts on the other Metro Games up to 80% off. If I'm getting the math right, one can own the entire Metro franchise including DLC on Steam for less than the equivalent of $20 right now with these offers. To summarize; Offer starts May 18nth Offer ends May 25th (The Discount on EGS last longer, until June 15nth) 77% to 100% Discount Free game offer available on Steam only, but discounts also available on other stores.

OK, I admit this does go some way to make up for the recent poor offerings. Death Stranding is now free on EGS.

I'm surprised you managed to pr yourself away from you Switch long enough to post here 😄

Music to my ears. It's not as if people like us don't like challenging games, it's that these games get it all wrong. Glad to know somebody gets it.

An update on the so-called "controversy" around Aloy acquiring an optional lesbian love interest. Apparently merely singing on this game's soundtrack makes you fair game for harassment. Julie Elven, a professional vocalist, received abuse from gamers over the optional same sex romance just because her voice is on the soundtrack. Full story from Push Square. What is wrong with gamers?

So sorry to here about that. Condolences to the family and friends of this individual as well as @Rain Dew and yourself, I'm sure that must have been awful.

Surprised to not see Burnout Paradise make the list. That game not only Killed Burnout, but pretty much the arcade racer as a genre. I hate that game.

I actually stopped watching when I saw how spoilerrific the video was going to be, but clearly this is more common than I thought. I knew about the Farcry one, but this is a strange trope. An interesting one, though. I can imagine what it would be like if a movies did this...

Nintendo know damn well they'll never get the money they won from the lawsuit out of this guy, and even if they did it's an amount that means nothing to them. This was a public execution meant to send a message.

On topic, my gaming take that has defiantly caused the most friction is how I feel about soulboune games. I hate the lack of difficulty options, I hate the "trial and error" approach to the the challenge these games tend to employ, I hate what I've observed from them as a storytelling experience (although I admit what I have experienced in that regard is limited), I hate the fact you can't pause (I mean that is really stupid) and the community surrounding these games is toxic and entitled with a level of arrogance well beyond what they deserve to have. If you like these types of games, good for you, but I just can't stand them.

Actually, the game was developed by Arcane Studios, the same developer behind Deathloop and the Dishonoured series, not Bethesda. Bethesda (and I suppose Xbox now that they own Bethesda since they bought ZeniMax) were merely the publisher. It's not like the publisher is devoid of responsibility for this disaster, but it is important to understand these various companies roles in this.

And it hasn't gotten any better. Not only is that lame DLC for the Sims 4 the only thing on offer, we don't even know what's coming next. Still, here it is.

First thing, this was just uploaded to YouTube; Second, Jack Black is pure gold. He may have been in The Neverending Story 3, but I forgive him. Thanks for sharing the video @The Blackangel, I really should check out his lets plays.

Played Red Alert 2 for the billionth time, but this time it was slightly different as I have been experimenting with my own maps. I tried playing my map in aa 7 vs 1 skirmish against AI, and whilst I'm not one to blow my own trumpet, it was al lot of fun. Sure, it's a little rough around the edges, but it's functional. The programmed I used is call Final Alert 2 and if a mug like me can make a decent map out of it, that's all you need to know. I will say a couple of things that made things difficult at first. First, whilst making the map it wouldn't appear on the main edit screen, but found out to fix that you need to run the programmed as an administrator. Why that's the case, I don't know. Second, be very careful not to use buildings and structures indigenous to Yuri's Revenge if you intend to make a map for the standard game. Well, if anyone has Red Alert 2 (The game is completely free on Abandonware.net for free at this link) and want to give this map a try I'll attach the file to this post. Just copy this file into the game directory and it should appear in the skirmish maps as "Fortune's Favour". shaggers map.mpr

I had held off on updating this in the hope Epic would reveal something slightly more interesting than some free DLC pack for The Sims 4 in the upcoming games, but apparently that was in vain. S0, here it is.

Remember when everyone was crying out for somebody take Alice in Wonderland, Minecraft and the Legend of Zelda and throw them all in together? OK, I don't remember that either, but the independent game studio Cococucumber based out of Toronto have answered the call anyway with this interesting little ditty that just launched on PC and the Xbox brand. Could have been better timing though, releasing this game to a world seething at Xbox over the disaster that is Redfall, but that's kind of why I wanted to both play and review this. I'm not particularly interested in stoking an already raging fire, what's the point? So I decided instead to have a conversation about a game likely to fall under the radar in the hope we might find a little gem here. And do we? Well, in all honesty, it's difficult to say. For £20, which is not exactly cheap for a game of this caliber, it is not a simple choice to buy this; Thanks to Gamepass, I paid no extra, but that's beside the point. There are things this game does very well, but also things, and major things, it gets a bit wrong. Ravenlok is a beautiful game, one of the most beautiful I've ever played, and I'm not exaggerating, just check this out: There are stylishly pixilated textures and blocky models mixed in with these smooth lines and vibrant colours that, frankly, should be a horrible contrast, but somehow it works, and I mean really works. The design is very creative, it literally looks like a dream. The detail is there as well, there is something to notice and admire on every part of the screen at any moment. There has also been no graphical anomalies or glitches of any kind that I noticed. There are obvious inspirations here, just take one look at this screenshot and tell me you don't recognise this immediately; But this game doesn't feel like a rip off, it feels like an homage and a joint understanding of what makes great creative design. The unique perspective the game helps give this game a visual identity all of it's own. The game runs great even on my mediocre hardware. Frame rates well into the 100's consistently. Sadly, at least on the Xbox Gamepass for PC version I played, there is no real graphics options. You can toggle V-sync on and off, set a maximum frame rate, switch between windowed and full screen, set the resolution and that's about it. Not that I consider this a bad port, far from it, like I said it runs beautifully and I really do not see anyone having trouble running this unless they get way too ambitious with very low end hardware. Here are the PC specs as listed buy Xbox. The spec's EGS list are less detailed, but pretty much the same. And by they, the game is not available on Playstation 4/5, Nintendo Switch nor any other PC store other the EGS, Just in case anyone was wondering. This game is on Xbox consoles, Xbox on PC and EGS. So, it's a great looking game ad you don't need a supercomputer to get best out of it, but that matters little if the isn't fun to play. and is it? Well, yes it is, but it's not without problems. The good stuff first. There is something unique in terms of how the came is presented. The best I can do to describe this game is call it a 3D side scroller. You view the game prom a perpendicular perspective, like a side scroller, but you the character through a 3D environment. You also have some limited ability to turn the camera around in any direction. The video below should help show you what I mean. EDIT: I apologise the audio quality in some of the videos. It appears my microphone picked up a load of background noise on some of them for some reason. This sounds like it should be a mess, but the developers knew what they were doing. This actually feels great to control and gives you a clear perspective of the environment. There are one or two areas with more depth where I did miss being able to turn the camera all the way round, but this is not a huge issue. I was using a controller and the default bottom mapping is well feels intuitive and makes the game easy to play. There may be one control there that looks a little odd, because it is: And yes, you can dance! Believe it of not, this actually works its way into the game mechanics. You use the dance to pick up specific collectables. This might be weak excuse to include this, but it's not worth questioning either. In the end, it's harmless, so I say just go with it. Anyway, the combat is simplistic, but satisfying. An attack, a block, a dash/dodge and special abilities you unlock through the game mapped to the shoulders and triggers. Not much more to say, what you see, is what you get: There is also options available to use potions and bombs from a menu accessed by pressing down on the d-pad, although this felt a little weird as you pressed down again to switch between bombs and potions. I think they set it up like this to minimise the chance of players using a bomb when you wanted a potion by mistake and vice versa, and that's fair enough, but it does take a little getting used to. However, it's also in combat that game starts to run into problems. I called the combat simplistic, but satisfying, and it is, but it's also far too easy. Normally, I wouldn't complain about a game's difficulty, but I do this time because this game does not have a way to change the difficulty. And I promise, I'm not being stupid, I looked everywhere. You can't set it at the start of the game and there is nothing in the options menu. Normal enemies are almost no threat outside of a select few times in the game whare they spawn in waves and in large numbers. Your attack speed and movement is significantly faster that anything else and your attacks interrupt enemy actions, so you can basically just attack constantly and never get hit so long as there is never more that one or two enemies targeting you. As you can see below, it's a joke: And no, the "It's for kids" defence is not going to fly with me here. Being a kid doesn't make one stupid nor an invalid. The game is rated 7+ by PEGI, so this isn't a toddlers game. The youngest audience this aims for are old enough to have thier cognitive functions at least adequately developed to play a video game and want some challenge out of it. I've played games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Child of Light that are rated for a similar audience and can be challenging games if you want them to be. When I was 7, I was playing games like Golden Axe, a game that doesn't exactly pull it's punches. And did I complain? Yes! Of course I did, I was a kid, but that doesn't change the fact that was exactly how it was supposed to be. Besides, there's a difference between combat that's meant to not be too difficult and combat that's broken. This is the later. Thankfully, the boss fights do fair a lot better; You will be avoiding AOE attacks as they can do a lot of damage, blocking and tactical use of specials will be necessary at times, but I never really felt in great need of the bombs, but did use potions on occasion. The attack spamming that disables normal enemies doesn't work and they employ a variety of patterns, but they're still not exactly hard. I don't think I took more than 3 tries to bead any boss. This is made worse by the fact the game, even with me searching around and exploiting a lot, doesn't even stretch to 7 hours. There's another thing that annoyed me straight away, and that's was how sporadic the achievements were. There's an achievement for almost everything, including the most trivial things like wearing a hat, levelling up and even imputing your name. I'm not joking, the character in this game you name yourself, and you get an achievement for naming right at the start of the game. I have a habit of naming my save files and characters after my gamertag or something similar, which made the dialogue a bit awkward in the game when talking to my mum... So I decided to start again with something else... Poodle, yes, that'll do. Getting back to the point. You might look at those ridiculously easy achievements, the game's short length and the lack of difficulty and think, "Well this is a game for casuals, right?", and whilst I detest that term, you would have point. People who game more seriously might be put of by this and it would be hard to blame them. The quest system isn't perfect either. The quests themselves are pretty good, a good mix of puzzles, collecting/fetching and combat. The usual stuff, but the way they are organised is underdeveloped and impractical. There is no defined parameters for quest types, so you can't list side quests apart from main quests. Worse, you can pick up quests that are gated behind other quests with little to no clue what quests you can and can't do until you completed others. Take this screenshot, for example: The coloured boxes I added as an aid to make explaining this a little easier, they are not in the game. The Blue quest is gated behind the Red quest The Red quest is gated behind the Purple quest The Purple quest is gated behind the Green quest And the Green quest is gated behind the "Exotic Confectionery" quest selected here. And you have to figure that out on your own. It's possible to do so, the game isn't that cryptic or misleading, but it's an unnecessary frustration that could have been solved with better quest management menus and tools. Tagging an active quest is all but useless as well as the game has no map feature and nor hud indicators to tell you whare to go. The only thing the quest tag is good for is to keep track of quest objectives, and the quest menu is good enough for that. Without some kind of objective marker on the hud and no map, quest tagging is pointless. Just set the quest display on the hud to auto-hide, you don't need it. Music? Yes it's nice and suits the ambiance and atmosphere well enough. It's not the most memorable nor striking soundtrack, it's a more humble score. The music just went in there with a job to do and it did it well, there isn't much more to say. There's no voice acting, but sound design itself is solid with nice audio feedback in combat and well distinct sounds for actions performed in the game that feel appropriate and make sense. Again, not much to say, it's done well. That's what happens when sound design is done well, you don't really notice it. Now, I suspect at least some of the people who read this might be on the fence. The game looks great with fun controls, but has issues with difficulty and some inconveniences. So the swing vote might come down to the story. As you may guessed, this is very Alice in Wonderland. Our hero, who I named Poodle, has just move to this farm with the mother, father and dog. Whilst exploring her new home, she finds a mysterious mirror that transports her to a mystical land. Upon arrival, she meets a local named Finn who believes she is a hero of prophesy named Ravenlok (Everyone then just calls her that throughout almost the entire game, making me wonder why one had to name the character in the first place.) designed to save this last from the tyrannical and destructive rule of an evil queen. Poodle (yes, I'm sticking with it), with the help of many friends she meets along the way, sets off on her adventure to cure the land of the destruction the queen has wrought, end her reign and find a way back home. Yes, the narrative ain't exactly original or unique, but without spoiling it, it gets stronger that it first sounds as the game progresses. There's no voice acting, the narrative is all told through text boxes, but the way it's written makes it easy to digest and absorb with the dialogue happening in short, but effective bursts. It's paced brilliantly, not so slow that the story feels padded out, but fast enough to keep you invested without overwhelming you. There's an interesting enough cast of characters that help flesh out the world and make it feel real, although I think some of the backstories and motivations of these characters could have fleshed out a little more. The basic narrative is clichéd, but the story they end up with is stronger than I expected it to turn out and does keep you playing. If the game had been longer, this story might have suffered for it, so the game's short length is something of a double edged sword. Conclusion Hold on! Just one last thing before you go;

I understand how you feel, but playing on original hardware isn't always practical or even possible. Modern flatscreen TV's are often very difficult to hook up to older consoles and have compatibility problems. I touched on the difficulties I had with my PAL N64 before, it literally wouldn't work without a specially modified super video cable. Not to mention that older TV's and monitors as well consoles and games aren't built to last forever and will become unreliable and possible even stop functioning over time. Emulation and digital ROM's help in game preservation and introduce new generations to older games in a way that's practical and user. Yes, crap like the flashback consoles and all those Chinese knock-off emulation machines are terrible, bet there are good ones as well that not only offer an authentic experience, but are 100% legal and great quality.