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catfood

AGAIN
Joined
Aug 28, 2008
Messages
9,314
Location
Nirvana for mice
I just noticed that Warlords 3 comes with a letterboxing option. This alone makes it the definitive edition of the game. I hate stretching so much. I can live without the ROH music and cutscenes tbh.
 

Sceptic

Arcane
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Joined
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Messages
10,871
Divinity: Original Sin
  • Expanded Gameplay: 4 campaigns and 15 stand-alone scenarios, plus the original campaign and 13 scenarios from Warlords III Reign of Heroes.
I know, I was referring to the non-gameplay elements, specifically the soundtrack:
Shame they didn't include Reign of Heroes. I know there are only cosmetic differences (IIRC all the RoH missions are included in DR) but dat music in RoH...
RoH and DR had different soundtracks (each had its own audio tracks on the CD-ROM).
 
Self-Ejected

A_boring_GOG_bot

Self-Ejected
Joined
Dec 29, 2018
Messages
338
Weekend deal :

Stronghold Crusader, Caesar, Simcity and more up to -80%

Coming soon :

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts

The release of the Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is a great occasion to remind yourself about the previous parts of the series. Buy the game in pre-order or upon its release on GOG.COM and you will receive a Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 for free, added to your library. That’s not all, apart from a free game all Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts purchases will include an exclusive weapon skin and a 10% discount. The promo lasts for a week, until 29th November 2019 at 6 PM UTC.

Special promo :

Sniper: Ghost Warrior up to -70%

New releases :

LOST EMBER

Sniper: Ghost Warrior No MP content .

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 No MP content .

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 Gold Edition No MP content .

In development :

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

Pre-order:

Transport Fever 2
 
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Infinitron

I post news
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
97,236
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Stranglehold! https://af.gog.com/game/stranglehold?as=1649904300



https://af.gog.com/news/stranglehol...sic_from_the_legendary_john_woo?as=1649904300

STRANGLEHOLD: REDISCOVER THE GUN BALLET CLASSIC FROM THE LEGENDARY JOHN WOO

After years of dwelling in obscurity, the Stranglehold game is back in grand style, thanks to GOG.COM and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

For some, this is a true gem among third-person shooters. Others will enjoy discovering the game’s pure action formula straight out of a Hong Kong action flick.

A living legend

Among many action moviemakers, only a few have reached the prominence of John Woo. The Chinese-born director gave us cult-classics like The Killer, Better Tomorrow, and Face/Off. Those titles are so action-packed that even the Fast and Furious movies seem slow-paced in comparison.

The “gun ballet” mentioned in the title is a perfect description of action sequences in John Woo’s movies. Highly-stylized and full of slow-motion scenes, they resemble some kind of death dance that is both thrilling and fun to watch. The movie Hard Boiled (1992) contains all of these things and to this day is considered a near-perfect John Woo title. It’s also the film that gave the director’s career a much-needed push and a Hollywood debut just a year later.

It took John Woo another 15 years to tell a new story about the fearless Hong Kong Police Inspector Yuen, nicknamed “Tequila”. And when the time finally came, the sequel, Stranglehold, turned out to be… a video game.

A strike from shadows

How did it happen? First of all, John Woo, director of high-tech films like Mission: Impossible 2, has always been open to exploring new media. He even founded his own video game company, Tiger Hill Entertainment, in May 2003. Around that time, the famous filmmaker learned that developers from the Midway Company (known mainly from the Mortal Kombat series) were planning to make a game based on one of his movies.

John Woo was enthusiastic. Soon, his Tiger Hill company started to work alongside Midway on a new project, called Stranglehold, which was widely announced in May 2005. Many fans of Chinese cinema were thrilled to hear that the game’s plot would be a direct follow-up to the Hard Boiled storyline. Adding to the excitement was the news that the original “Tequila” Yuen actor, Chow Yun-fat, would reprise his role from the film. Needless to say, expectations for Stranglehold were very high and the Midway creators made the best out of it.
Hard Boiled and hard developed

The story of Stranglehold takes us to latter-day Hong Kong, where the deadly fight between the police force and criminal Triads never stops. One of the best law enforcers in the city, Inspector “Tequila” Yuen, catches the trail of the Dragon Claw gang. What begins as typical police work ends up as deadly combat between “Tequila”, numerous Triads, and the Russian Mafia in which no amount of ammo is spared. Worst of all, the Inspector’s family is also dragged into the war…

To keep up with the Hard Boiled movie’s immense dynamic and aesthetics, developers from Midway used Unreal Engine 3.0 and tweaked it to get the desired results. One of them was a so-called Massive Destruction physics engine which allowed gamers to destroy almost every object in the main character’s sight. It also included a hit-detection system where enemies would react differently depending on the body part they were shot.

Last but not least, the creators gave the main character “Tequila Time”. It is a slow-motion mode in which Inspector Yuen could utilize environment elements such as tabletops to gain an advantage over enemies and shower them with bullets. Using “Tequila Time” wisely was essential for earning points and bonuses in the game.

More than a game

The goal of creating a perfect action-movie experience for the gamers didn’t end in the developing process. Stranglehold’s marketing strongly focused on the connections to John Woo’s work. In 2007, a contest for amateur filmmakers called “True to Woo” was held where the best John Woo-inspired short movie would win 25,000$ and wide publicity.

The director himself was personally attached to the Stranglehold project and even intervened a few times during its developing process. For example, he supervised the storyline and paid attention even to small details, like the way game characters dressed.

All in all, production and marketing for the game would end up topping 30 million dollars, six times more than the original Hard Boiled film! It was no secret that the Midway staff was eager to see Stranglehold perform extremely well in sales. John Woo even announced plans for the game sequel (called “Gun Runner”) and a film prequel to Hard Boiled. The game HAD to be a success, no matter what.

Pyrrhic victory

Upon its release, Stranglehold was well received by gamers and critics alike. It sold well, but not well enough to recoup its huge budget. One of the reasons for this lackluster performance was the competition the game had to face from titles like Halo 3, which was released at the same time. Other factors included Midway’s financial problems and bankruptcy in 2009, which sealed the fate of any planned sequels to the game.

But the title was not forgotten. For years, Stranglehold became something of a legend, not only for Chinese cinema fans but all gamers who loved action titles. Its cult-following grew steadily, only to be stalled by the fact that the DRM version of the game did not support the newer Windows versions.

Fortunately, in 2019, thanks to GOG.COM and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Stranglehold returns to PC in all its gun ballet and action-packed glory. Now you can once again join Inspector “Tequila” Yuen in his all-out war against the criminal world.
 
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toro

Arcane
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 14, 2009
Messages
14,031
I thought GOG was DRM-Free, but then their version of Prison Architect gets updated to require Paradox Launcher malware. WTF!?

What is keeping this from happening to other games down the line? I would expect this on Steam, but on GOG??

wCp3egl.png


2AG9ZV8.png


GOG is silent about this. Now what?

Now you switch to Steam.
 
Joined
Jul 4, 2014
Messages
1,563
I thought GOG was DRM-Free, but then their version of Prison Architect gets updated to require Paradox Launcher malware. WTF!?

What is keeping this from happening to other games down the line? I would expect this on Steam, but on GOG??

wCp3egl.png


2AG9ZV8.png


GOG is silent about this. Now what?

Now you switch to Steam.
Install GENTOO! LINUX version doesn't have that launcher (yet... :sad). Linux gog version specifically. On Steam even Linux version has launcher (and it's fucking broken).

:shittydog:
 

DalekFlay

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 5, 2010
Messages
14,118
Location
New Vegas
Stranglehold I remember being shit. Plague Tale DRM free is nice since I haven't bought it yet. Demo seemed like an okay stealth game but maybe too story focused. I'll grab it on a whim at some point.
 

Lacrymas

Arcane
Joined
Sep 23, 2015
Messages
17,948
Pathfinder: Wrath
Meh, it feels like GOG has been pretty boring lately, the same publisher-themed sales, the same random deals, no truly exciting old releases (maybe Warlords is such, but I've never played it), GOG Galaxy 2.0 feels like made only for people who also use other platforms, etc.
 
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Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,305
Black Friday sale is on

Heroes Might and Magic and Anno games are on a 90% flash sale for anyone interested and there are some other interesting flash deals right now
 
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Dux

Arcane
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
635
Location
Sweden
I bought 11 games for the price of 40 noodle packets. Or 20, depending on how good they are.

The noodles that is.
 

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