OS Neutral What Game You Play'n?

[Juicy Box]

Warcraft 3: Reforged

I played all the original WC games, starting with the first one in the mid-90's, the sequels, but WC3 really got me into the lore.

WC3:RoC and FT was so much fun when they launched, and replay them about every half-decade or so.

I pre-purchased WC3: Reforged, but never played it until somewhat recently. While it isn't native to AS, it runs great on my M1 MM, and with max graphic settings on my M2 Pro MM.

There are occasional glitches where the game crashes, so I try to remember to save often. Not sure if the crashes are due to playing on AS or just issues with the game in general.

Honestly, I don't remember the original WC3 ever crashing on my PPC Macs.

I am having a lot of fun playing, replaying the campaigns. I am going very slow, and trying to discover everything, all the secrets and easter eggs.

Another thing I am trying is winning or playing in strange ways. Hard to explain, but for example, the Orc level that Hellscream is acting reckless and attaching all the human encampments, I decided to try to kill off the Warsong Clan (my friends) just to see what would happen. Much to my surprise, Hellscream and his whole Warsong Clan turned hostile, truly making them my enemy. I didn't know that would even happen. So, I had to fight all the humans and the Warsong Clan.

My favorite "deviation" that I did in the game was the Orc level that you play as the Warsong Clan, and Hellscream ends up getting his butt kicked by Cenarius (who heals crazy fast, one-shots people, and is almost immune to non-chaos damage). Manaroth then convinces Hellscream to drink his blood again to become the "red" orcs, and enabling them to deal Chaos damage to kill Cenarius.

I made it my mission to kill Cenarius without drinking the blood, and it was glorious when I finally did. I later looked it up on YouTube and found out that I wasn't the first person to try and succeed. It appears that most other people did it a similar way, with a bunch of towers (I probably had 200 of them), but I also built a 12 barracks, and after the fight started, just kept making spear throwers, until Cenarius died.

I am currently on the Night Elf Campaign, which is probably my least favorite in the game, but still fun.

 

[txa1265]

I grabbed the System Shock remake during the sale and I'm playing it on my Steam Deck. It plays so good on Deck, using the built in motion controls to aim and control the inventory and puzzles.

Ooh thanks for that! It is on my wishlist so I might just pull the trigger!

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Ooh thanks for that! It is on my wishlist so I might just pull the trigger!

Do it. Nightdive did an amazing job to the point the remake is now the definitive way to play the original game. No more awful tank controls, modern quality of life additions, the ability to play with a controller which is how I'm playing it on my Steam Deck, but at it's core it's still the System Shock of old reborn in a modern era. You can even set the game to have the original objective being you have 10 hours to defeat SHODAN before her laser aimed at Earth is fully charged.

So buy it now while it's on sale for 20% off. The glorious return of the Immersive Sim with the game that started the genre.

 

[Huntn]

I've completely avoided peeking so far; I have no idea what the 'good' ending is, and I don't even know how far I am through the main story. It's been fun so far! What lifepath(s)/sex(es) have you played? I'm playing a female Corpo.

Cyberpunk 2077 ref: I played both man and woman, which makes a difference on who you can romance plus did the Nomad, Corpo, and Street Kid starts. Nomad is the best start, you actually have a regular quest, but they are all short changed, not what should have been. Corpo imo is barely a starter quest. I imagined a starter quest chain, but that was not to be, I think because the devs got in over their heads. Instead you get a cut scene, partying and mayhem in Night City, then you are more or less off to the races. My general advice is take the main quest slow. All of the companion quests are top notch, just like the main quest.

The following maybe considered a bit spoilerish:

Spoiler: Plot+Romance

The Heist puts you on a rail to a reset of sorts. You maybe wondering what didi I do wrong? Nothing… Judy Alverez is the best romance imo, but you have to be a girl to romance her. PanAm is second best. There is a wildcard romance with a cop if you’re a girl, but you can back out of that one easily.

For Pt2 I focus on all the side quests, companion quests, and gigs and take the main quest slowly. Enjoy the sights, pound on punks, romance whom ever you want or can.There is a point of no return where the game warns you, a series of events will happen, but after that you can still choose your ending. The plot actually says “ you have a choice to make”…I’d make a strategic saves at both points.

Best ending:

Spoiler: Mild Ending spoilers

Tidbit: If you want to save Takemura you have to go out of your way to do it. Don’t choose the Corpo ending. Stick with the Nomads and with Johnnie, don’t volunteer to die. It’s that simple.

 

[Huntn]

I grabbed the System Shock remake during the sale and I'm playing it on my Steam Deck. It plays so good on Deck, using the built in motion controls to aim and control the inventory and puzzles.

I love the fact the moment the remake came out during the Xbox Showcase we had so many more immersive sims get announced. Immersive Sims are back on the menu.

Fingers crossed the game gets a Mac port in the near future, as when asked about a possible Mac port Nightdive said they'll discuss bringing the game to other platforms later.

I have SS2 and am seriously wondering how well it holds up today…

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I have SS2 and am seriously wondering how well it holds up today…

It's still a masterpiece. The System Shock series birthed the entire Immersive Sim genre. If it wasn't for System Shock we wouldn't have Deus Ex, or Ultima Underworld, or Bioshock, or Dishonored, or Prey 2017

It was just the first game that struggled nowadays and that was mainly due to the infamous tank controls of the original DOS release, but the remake does away with that and now controls like you'd expect. Honestly Nightdive's remake reminds me of Resident Evil 2 Remake, where the remake changed the entire control scheme and perspective of the game while keeping the design and feel of the original, essentially reinventing it.

 

[Huntn]

It's still a masterpiece. The System Shock series birthed the entire Immersive Sim genre. If it wasn't for System Shock we wouldn't have Deus Ex, or Ultima Underworld, or Bioshock, or Dishonored, or Prey 2017

It was just the first game that struggled nowadays and that was mainly due to the infamous tank controls of the original DOS release, but the remake does away with that and now controls like you'd expect.

I see links talking about it, but is there a SS3 Out there?

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I see links talking about it, but is there a SS3 Out there?

About that...

System Shock 3 was originally announced but it's been in development hell and no one knows what's going on anymore, and at this point according to Nightdive is ultimately up to Tencent (eww) whether or not it's gonna happen.

Is System Shock 3 Still Happening? - The Escapist

Here is the full answer to whether System Shock 3 is still happening and in development based on information available regarding Tencent.

www.escapistmagazine.com

The only reason the System Shock remake happened was because Nightdive made a Kickstarter campaign to fund a remake. At this point I'm just gonna consider it cancelled until proven otherwise, just like Half Life 3 was since it took until Half Life Alyx released for Valve to confirm they were working on HL3 but cancelled it quietly back in 2013.

Who knows. Maybe with the success of the kickstarted remake of the first game news could come, but I wouldn't hold my breath, especially since now Nightdive's gonna have to work on consoles ports and a possible Mac port of the remake.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Alright back to Street Fighter 6, because MY BABY BOY IS COMING IN 2 & 1/2 WEEKS!

 

[Mackilroy]

My general advice is take the main quest slow. All of the companion quests are top notch, just like the main quest.

That's basically what I've done; I've spent a lot of time doing their quests, gigs, whatever I find around the city, lots of those in between the main story.

 

[Queen6]

Still working with the D3HDP HD Pack V2 for Doom 3 to get it to run 100% on Apple's Silicon M1 MBP & macOS Ventura. At times I get as much fun out of working on the games with mods as I do playing them

I have the HD Pack V1 running natively on Apple Silicon. Repeatedly benchmarks at over 130 FPS. Not big numbers by todays standards, equally none of this was ever designed to run on a Mac let alone Apple's SOC. So far the game has performed flawlessly.

V2's pk4 files have differing internal file types, which I believe is the culprit for the intermittent hitching. When I see the shadows of the fans, dont see hitching or excessive FPS drop in known areas I'll know the jobs done

V2 does run on the M1, however it hitches in places and suffers from FPS drops when textures or reflections are present on glass surfaces. Bottom line is the 13" MBP's GPU is likely struggling as it's already rendering at 2560x1600 then downscaling to 1440x900 for Retina. No doubt the newer 14"/16" MBP's would fair far better with their far more powerful GPU's, equally I'm not about to drop $2K+ to play a 20 year old game on a Mac LOL.

Also planning to replace the Hell Knights with these more intimidating demonic beasts, especially on the Mac as this was the initial reveal at the Macworld 2001 preview. Sadly Doom 3 was tamed down, some of the original content was pretty strong and resultantly cut...

Hell Knight (originally Hell Baron) from the Macworld 2001 preview

Hell Knight from the retail game

On a quick reload Doom 3 with D3HDP HD Pack V1 installed the replacement Hell Knight does look to run as expected on the M1 MBP. Next up for the M1 Mac/PC is Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake or Quake 2 naturally with mods

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

Way more intimidating in game...

Not the place to be; pinned in a corner by a 10 foot (3m) tall demonic beast from Hell...

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

Just 5 more days until RASHIDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I love his new character theme so much

 

[Queen6]

On the PC easy, just purchase from either GOG or Steam. As expected there's no shortage of mod's for the PC. I recommend RealRTCW 4.0 or RTCW Venom Mod as these are both very mature and should run well for most.

Apple Silicon download the application from Mac Source Ports, for mods RTCW Venom Mod to fix bugs & bring up the graphic fidelity several levels. RTCW runs great on Apple Silicon natively so far with no issues.

The RTCW Venom Mod is aimed at experienced/hardened players, however the games AI can be reverted to default as per the devs instructions that come with the mod. To install follow the instructions on Mac Source Ports then copy the mod's required files to the new base folder in ~/Library/Application Support/RTCW/ and your good to go. Dev has provided clear instructions for the various options available.

As ever you need to own the game and provide your own data files to play. Mac Source Ports only hosts the core application unless stated otherwise.

Q-6

 

[txa1265]

So cool - I recently replayed on Steam Deck and it was wonderful!

Finished Solasta replay and that was excellent. But wanted a break in turn-based D&D before BG3, so didn't play the high level DLC.

Tried replaying Fable Anniversary, but lost interest after a few hours.

Now playing System Shock remake ... it is really good so far - all the classic game but plays like a modern shooter!

 

[Queen6]

So cool - I recently replayed on Steam Deck and it was wonderful!

Finished Solasta replay and that was excellent. But wanted a break in turn-based D&D before BG3, so didn't play the high level DLC.

Tried replaying Fable Anniversary, but lost interest after a few hours.

Now playing System Shock remake ... it is really good so far - all the classic game but plays like a modern shooter!

The RTCW Venom Mod should work on the Steam Deck as long as you can access the games folders etc.

Latest release of RTCW Venom which can run natively on Apple Silicon with comparison of stock graphics versus Venom's.

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

I installed Fuser on my Steam Deck

(My dog's name is Kiki btw)

Context time: My favorite rhythm game of all time was DJ Hero. Everyone talks about Guitar Hero and Rock Band for how good it's rhythm game mechanics were, but DJ Hero was even more special. DJ Hero made mashups and remixes of different songs, and the mashups were amazing. You had Marvin Gaye's Heard it Through the Grapevine vs Gorillaz's Feel Good Inc

Queen's We Will Rock You vs Daft Punk's Robot Rock

And more and more. The sequel DJ Hero 2 took this idea and kicked it into overdrive as the remixes got even more incredible, and they prioritized freestyling so the players could express themselves and essentially do their own sets

Well in 2020, Harmonix made a spiritual successor to DJ Hero called Fuser. Fuser's concept is simple: Take the stem files of songs and make DJ sets and mashups with them, controlling your own music festival. While mechanically it's not that good of a rhythm game compared to DJ Hero since there's hardly any "game" mechanics since it's more about timing of drops than making mixes, but what made Fuser special was it's vibes. Instead of using it as a game, most people used it as a toy of doing their own DJ sets, and Harmonix took advantage of this with the multiplayer services the game had where you could host your own sets and people could watch online.

And then came Epic Games. In 2021 Epic bought Harmonix, and shortly afterwards in 2022 they announced development of Fuser has ceased, and the game and it's DLC would be delisted and online services shut down. Thanks a lot Tim Sweeney. Not content with your joke of a lawsuit with Apple causing Fortnite on Mac to get pulled right before Apple Silicon showed up, or holding Kingdom Hearts on PC hostage on your joke of a launcher, you had to take even more of my happiness. I hope Lord Gaben punishes you for your treachery.

Well, despite all that, Fuser is still an absolute vibe, and it's worth finding just for Freestyle Mode, just letting it play in the background and mixing up tracks. My Steam Deck is essentially a handheld mixer now, living up to the Deck name

 

[Queen6]

A classic yet still best in series...

Now native to Apple Silicon - Game engine from Mac Source Ports, enhanced graphics from MODDB (Venom mod by H3llBaron)

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

RTCW, iortcw-1.51c & Venom

You know it's going to be good...

Q-6

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

A classic yet still best in series...

Now native to Apple Silicon - Game engine from Mac Source Ports, enhanced graphics from MODDB (Venom mod by H3llBaron)

Q-6

RTCW, iortcw-1.51c & Venom

You know it's going to be good...

Q-6

It's incredible no one's ever been able to top Grey Matter Studios when it comes to RTCW. Treyarch made the right call obtaining them to make the Black Ops games.

 

[maflynn]

RTCW,

oooh, that's available to buy - I'm gonna have to get that

 

[Huntn]

Aug 2023-

• The Outer Worlds- This is holding up better than the first time I played it. I'm not sure what derailed me then, maybe something like Fallout 4? 🤔
• Far Cry New Dawn- I do like the action in this game, it's forgiving, but it is very shallow on the RPG end of things, a lot like Dead Island, run around, acquire abilities, weapons, and achieve objectives to take the county back from the bandits led by twin sisters who are the local war lords.
• Mass Efect Legendary- It was on sale, hard to pass up. I had the previous version of it, but not sure if that was an all in one, but never played the previous version, just the original version, which might have been on the xBox. I ran through the first mission and it was familiar. The game looks good, I like the companion mechanics how to move them around.
• World of Warships- Still chugging along with this.
• Star Citizen- Not yet sold on this game that is in Alpha status. The space ships that are purchased for $$ are impressive. A friend who has spent a thousand $ on this has a salvager that reminds me of the Nostromo, it’s huge! See more in the Star Citizen thread.

 

[Queen6]

oooh, that's available to buy - I'm gonna have to get that

Snap it up RTCW is frequently on discount Add on the mod's that really bring up the graphics without meddling with the gameplay. Game is still viewed by many as the very best of the franchise for good reason...

iortcw-1.51c will fix any bugs and add QoL such as widescreen. Venom will boost the graphics and is OS agnostic, have on on both W11 and Ventura on a M1 MBP with the game engine from Mac Source Ports.

Same Dev does a superb graphics pack for Doom 3 which is right off the charts

Q-6

 

[Queen6]

Doom, Doom and a spot more Doom & RTCW on the M1 Mac and others of note;

Doom 1 & 2 (W11 BFG edition too lazy to push to the M1 )
Doom 3 with mods (OG, W11 & native on M1) check the thread is very well done
My House - Doom 2 Wad (lazy to push to the M1 LOL, but can be done)
RTCW, iortcw-1.51c & Venom - never gets old (W11 & native on M1)
The Evil Within 1&2 (W11)
Dying Light (W11)
Daggerfall (W11 Unity release from GOG)
Total Chaos (W11 not a game for the faint of heart, very dark, very deep. Think can run on the M1)

If in this situation in game your done...

Doom 3 with the OG Hell Baron from the Macworld reveal replacing the retail games Hell Knight. it may just be a graphical change, equally this is going to tear you a new one if your not real careful...

To quote one of the best science fiction films ever made; "I dont know what the hell's is in there, but it's weird and pissed off"...

Q-6

 

[txa1265]

A classic yet still best in series... [RTCW]

Recently replayed this on Steam Deck ... absolutely love this game. It came out when my kids were 3 & 5, so was just starting to play games again -wife got it for Christmas for me.

My Wolfenstein history goes back to the Apple ][+ and Silas Warner's classic 1981 game ... and obviously Wolfenstein 3D which I have played on what feels like every possible platform over the last 30 years!