What are you playing?

[tpa-pr]

As others have no doubt picked up from my other posts, I am currently playing Elden Ring on my gaming rig.

It's almost been a bit of a religious experience I have to say. Before I got the rig I was gaming exclusively on laptops, which involved a lot of squeezing as much out of a game as possible with DXVK/dgVoodoo2 to get that "silky smooth" 30fps at 720p (mostly Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3). And as you can imagine if the laptop could barely run the older games Elden Ring was right out, try as I might to get it running.

So being able to play a current gen game at maxed out 1080p without breaking a sweat has been quite exciting. And that's putting the quality of the game itself aside entirely! I've already finished my first PC playthrough and am working my way through NG+. I'm trying not to go too fast because I want to keep the game as open as possible in case the DLC gets announced so I spend most of my time sitting in co-op pools helping other players in between aimlessly wandering and completing the caves and tombs.

I'm absolutely obsessed with FromSoft's games, I picked up DS1 in Dec '20 and after it clicked proceeded to play it and its sequels almost exclusively for 2 years straight. When Elden Ring got released I took a week off work to play it on my Xbox at the time which was...alright, but the 900p really showed and I kind of felt like I was missing out. The PC experience has felt the most "complete" and i'm only just now starting to tinker with mods so I've got so much more content available there too.

If you're playing online and happen to run into a character called 'Kaede' who likes throwing around a lot of fire, that's me And if anyone legitimately needs help with a boss, drop me a DM and i'll be happy to assist!

 

[robot zombie]

Hah! I wonder how many people caught this one in Plague Tale: Requiem!

Mid-game, when Amicia and Hugo first get out of the castle on the island and you're out on the grounds (start of chapter 9,) there's a worker raking in one of the planters down a couple sets of stairs, whistling cheerfully...

...the wild thing is, he's whistling in the SAME KEY as the chords that the choir is singing in the background music for that whole area. It's like he's improvising little leads over them as he psychically listens along. The choir for the background music is doing these simple voice-leading melodic lines with big and ambient-sounding sustained chords, lines of which hold these little motifs in the prominent notes of the chord progression. Sections of the choir spin-off to outline the notes that provide the voice leading melody tucked into the chords. They're highlighted by having the leads in the choir sing brief little melodies over the chords, landing on or starting from those notes. Understand... these motifs are the simplest possible distinct melodies you can make from the modes utilized by the choir in the ambient background music.

The whistler is riffing on those little motifs and accent melodies. They're comprised only of the few notes with the strongest relations to all of the chords in the progression. It's what you would do if you were a musician trying to improvise over a progression you are hearing for the first time. If you know the modes used, you can find all of the safe notes for every chord. Stick to those and it sounds like you know everything that's going on.

So basically, that particular song in the soundtrack is composed so that this NPC can whistle one of a random selection of melodic lines, and they will always line up perfectly with whatever chords the friggin soundtrack itself is on. I think the fact that the soundtrack's choir has some heavy reverb and the vocalists are hanging/fading notes to different degrees to blend chord transitions just adds to the effect. It's easy to just run by this guy. But if you stop and listen for a few seconds, it is uncanny how literally every time he whistles, it sounds like he must hear the soundtrack. There can even be these moments where he whistles the exact same melody the lead section of the choir has spun into.

Somebody did that on purpose. There's no way someone accidentally applied that level of music theory to that situation. It takes too much forethought to compose it in that way.

I am without words. That's some insane commitment to setting up theming. There's a word for that kind of thing in songs. I just call it 'room theory' composition. Basically, you organize a song as if taking the listener through a room, or series of rooms. You take them along slowly, bringing together the elements that make the room one by one. You start with a basic throughline, a particular melodic phrase or a groove. And then you intersperse new elements over that which expand the context. No matter what changes or what is happening something in the song is still carrying that. If I'm right, I'm at the entry of the room, and the rest of the music going through this part of the game will build and play on the song components outlined in this moment of the game. They do a lot of this subtle 'framing' up when it comes to the many thematic elements they bring in. It's not limited to the audio aspect. More like, I'm shocked to realize they add those subtle lead-in details to the audio theming like they do with the visual theming.


I should mention... I brought the relative volume of the music up by lowering everything else to 85%. I never noticed this before. But when the background music comes through more, it becomes more obvious.

 

[Yukikaze]

We're old here, so I am sure people will recognize this one

 

[KrazyT]

Always wanted to do it, but never had the time to do it properly :/
Love this beautifuly Iso graphics !

 

[Yukikaze]

I've been playing these for 20 years now. Every couple of years I dig them up and replay at least a portion again. It is amazing what the old BioWare could do with late 90s tech.

The games are huge. If you're a completionist, or close to it, running through the whole series would take you around 300-350 hours.

You can also play them on pretty much anything, as well, so they're great for low-end x86 tablets and the like.

 

[Space Lynx]

We're old here, so I am sure people will recognize this one

View attachment 279332

What game is this? It looks really pretty for being such an old game.

 

[Yukikaze]

What game is this? It looks really pretty for being such an old game.

This is Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. Which is a modernization of Baldur's Gate to easily run it on modern systems, and modern resolutions (it keeps the original graphics). It also fixes a bunch of bugs and adds some content. The original game came out in 1998 (Baldur's Gate 2 followed in 2000).

 

[KrazyT]

Look the other infinity engine, BG2, Icewind Dale, PlanetScape Torment etc ...
They're really beautiful and still stands today standard !

 

[denixius]

I'm 'trying' to play Elden Ring. It was my third souls-like game, since the first Dark Souls game on PS3 and Steelrising couple of months ago. Seems fine, and easier than Dark Souls. At least, I'm not dying ridicilously... Sometimes actually. Also Darktide, and Victoria 3.

 

[tpa-pr]

I'm 'trying' to play Elden Ring. It was my third souls-like game, since the first Dark Souls game on PS3 and Steelrising couple of months ago. Seems fine, and easier than Dark Souls. At least, I'm not dying ridicilously... Sometimes actually. Also Darktide, and Victoria 3.

How far into Elden Ring are you so far? Have you settled on a build yet?

 

[denixius]

How far into Elden Ring are you so far? Have you settled on a build yet?

Not yet, but have had fun with "Rogier's Rapier +8", now find out that actually there was a greatsword for starters in Gatefront Ruins, Lordsworn's Greatsword. I also infused Ash of War: Bloody Slash. Working fine for now. I have beaten Red Wolf of Radagon, now I'm seeking Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon. By the way, I hate Academy of Raya Lucaria.

 

[Yukikaze]

Look the other infinity engine, BG2, Icewind Dale, PlanetScape Torment etc ...
They're really beautiful and still stands today standard !

I have most of them The Enhanced Editions really are great.

 

[Space Lynx]

This is Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. Which is a modernization of Baldur's Gate to easily run it on modern systems, and modern resolutions (it keeps the original graphics). It also fixes a bunch of bugs and adds some content. The original game came out in 1998 (Baldur's Gate 2 followed in 2000).

one of my IRL friends from my college days gifted me BG EE a long time ago, I remember playing around with it for about 15 minutes one but I found the controls to be complicated, then I got distracted and moved on to something else.

I will give it another try, thanks!

 

[Chomiq]

On chapter 9 in FF7 Remake. I still don't like the battle system as much as the classic turn-based one. Aerith is weak AF when fighting on her own. Need to set her materia up to be the main healer/caster. Game runs great on PS5 in performance mode.

I always bounced of BG and ID, spent hours in character creators and ended up dropping the game couple of hours in. And I freaking love OG Fallouts from Black Isle. Maybe one day I will give EE a go.

 

[lightning70]

I can't play anything right now because of studying for the exam.

 

[Vayra86]

one of my IRL friends from my college days gifted me BG EE a long time ago, I remember playing around with it for about 15 minutes one but I found the controls to be complicated, then I got distracted and moved on to something else.

I will give it another try, thanks!

The combat and mechanics are D&D 3.5edition based, and its absolute number-madness. Once you get the hang of that, you can actually start building effective characters.

And effective characters you do need, game is unforgiving and the combat is won or lost based on how well you can pause the game to input commands. Pillars of Eternity styled, but with a lot less in terms of timing cues. Once you get the hang of that you're on the correct skill plateau to actually enjoy the game. If you're below it, consider cheating a little so you can enjoy the fantastic story regardless! There is a functional console in each of the games.

 

[Yukikaze]

BGEE isn't D&D3.5e. It is AD&D 2nd edition, which is even older

 

[Frick]

This is Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. Which is a modernization of Baldur's Gate to easily run it on modern systems, and modern resolutions (it keeps the original graphics). It also fixes a bunch of bugs and adds some content. The original game came out in 1998 (Baldur's Gate 2 followed in 2000).

I never got into Baldurs Gate, so I don't know if this applies to that game, but Planescape Torment modded is probably better than the Enhanced Edition. And that game in particular benefits from the increased resolutions as you get to see more of the absolutely beautiful environments.

The combat and mechanics are D&D 3.5edition based, and its absolute number-madness. Once you get the hang of that, you can actually start building effective characters.

And effective characters you do need, game is unforgiving and the combat is won or lost based on how well you can pause the game to input commands. Pillars of Eternity styled, but with a lot less in terms of timing cues. Once you get the hang of that you're on the correct skill plateau to actually enjoy the game. If you're below it, consider cheating a little so you can enjoy the fantastic story regardless! There is a functional console in each of the games.

KOTOR is 3.x based (.0 or .5 I dunno what what SW RPG did) and especially the second game allows for just silly things, like a >50% crit chance.

one of my IRL friends from my college days gifted me BG EE a long time ago, I remember playing around with it for about 15 minutes one but I found the controls to be complicated, then I got distracted and moved on to something else.

I will give it another try, thanks!

Depending on what you're after I'd seriously consider Planescape Torment instead. It's like the ultimate version of the DnD/Infinity Engine combo, and the only game that has seriously contested its position as The Best Written Game Ever is Disco Elysium, which says alot about it. But again it depends on what you're after. BG is good if you like rolling dice and stats (Icewind Dale is supposedly the finest D&D combat focused game there is), but for story Planescape Torment is still hard to beat. The first BG is alright probably, but it's a bit like instead of playing something like C&C Tiberian Sun you start with the original C&C. This guide is alright, but you might want to play around a bit with resolutions before you hit what you like. IMO it's better than the Enhanced Edition.

Also this depends alot on whether you like making characters or not. Personally I'm conflicted about the idea, because when I first play a game I don't know what would make sense. "You can be anything you want!" Ok cool so SPACE COWBOY. Oh it's fantasy. Ok MAGIC COWBOY? Oh there's no cattle. JEDI GUNSLINGER, oh no guns and I can only cast a fart-missile once every five days ok so maybe I can be a WARRIOR WITHOUT PERSONALITY oh that works yeah fun. It's not until a whole bunch of hours in I know what the world and setting is actually about and so making characters from scratch together with a reason for that character to be there is really the weak part of these games, for me. It's why I never got that into Pillars of Eternity. I don't know what the backgrounds mean until deep into the game and I have realized I really need a sensible reason to play a game (even if that reason is just "stranded somewhere and just kill as much as you can until you die") in order to keep playing them, and "You're a [blank], looking for your [blank] in this [blank]" is not compelling to me. Planescape Torment is very much not that, and it has one of the strongest openings in games. If you like the idea of writing your own character and motivations from scratch and inveting a reason for yourself to continue on the journey something like BG or Icewind Dale is probably fine, but for me nah.


Me I'm playing Eldritch Horror (solo) on Tabeltop Simulator and hot damn I wish this game was about something other that Lovecraft.

 

[Calmmo]

On chapter 9 in FF7 Remake. I still don't like the battle system as much as the classic turn-based one. Aerith is weak AF when fighting on her own. Need to set her materia up to be the main healer/caster. Game runs great on PS5 in performance mode.

Actually really enjoyed the combat in this one, makes me hopeful they learnt something from 15 and 16 wont suck :S

 

[SN2716057]

Doing some side things in HoL

And watching a movie..

Spoiler: NSFW

 

[Space Lynx]

About to finish Wings of Liberty, this was on the News section. LMAO ---damn they just don't make games like this anymore, thats some good fucking shit Jimmy - Tychus

Source

 

[Chomiq]

Actually really enjoyed the combat in this one, makes me hopeful they learnt something from 15 and 16 wont suck :S

Oh yeah, definitely. I gave up on that one in the middle of battle tutorial.

 

[Rahnak]

Oh yeah, definitely. I gave up on that one in the middle of battle tutorial.

The tutorial in XV does the game an enormous disservice. It’s easily the worst I’ve ever came across. I gave up on the tutorial as well but I returned to the game later on and it was worth it. But yeah, that tutorial is absolute garbage.

 

[Vayra86]

BGEE isn't D&D3.5e. It is AD&D 2nd edition, which is even older

Woopsie, I'm thát old indeed holy shit.

But yeah 3.5E was in fact the sweet spot in 'things' D&D for me actually, they used normal armor class numbers instead of that godawful THAC0 system. Whoever thought that up...

 

[dragontamer5788]

BGEE isn't D&D3.5e. It is AD&D 2nd edition, which is even older

Get your THAC0 out of here. Such rule systems need to burn in an ugly fire!

Higher AC should mean better AC and you know it!!!1111