Screenshot thread

[ferratilis]

 

[HansDampf]

Played some more games. Pics unrelated.

Baten Kaitos

Revisiting this after more than 15 years. It's a JRPG with a card based combat system. I know, there is a new remaster on the Switch, but that one looks suspect, and I wanted to play the original again (in Dolphin, at least).

Each character gets their own deck of cards, and you have to balance the ratio of offensive and defensive cards, healing cards, and 6 different elements. It's an interesting system, and some of the bosses can get quite challenging. When the enemy attacks, you have to pick your defense cards in real time while the attack animations are playing. You have to think fast, choose the right elements, or buffs, or throw cards away you don't need. If you can't defend, it's going to hurt a lot. On top of that, the cards also have numbers on them with which you can build combos for a damage bonus, for example play all cards with the same number, or better, a straight. The bonus is negligible at the beginning when you can only play 3 or 4 cards, but it increases exponentially with every card. The downside of this system is that fights tend to take a long time. The game also likes to force too many trash mobs on you.

The story is also trash, tbh. It's the usual "teenagers vs. evil empire/evil god" crap. But it has a certain charm to it, like it was written by a child. It also has some unique aspects, like the world consists of floating islands in the sky, and people have "evolved" wings. According to the story, you are also not technically playing the role of the protagonist but that of his guardian spirit, a being from another dimension (our reality), to guide him and lend him strength in combat.

Spoiler

One of the islands is caught in some "dimensional rift", and the game uses this as an excuse to abandon all logic and do some weird stuff.

This is where you meet this fellow.

Then there is a village made of sweets.

Some mild mindfuck dungeon with a Tower of Druaga homage.

You are not dressed for this weather.

If you've played BK, you should remember this trio and its iconic theme. I'm not sure if this is the hardest boss fight in the game (could be), but it is the first one to really test your decks. If you come here with your standard jack-of-all-trades decks, you will get punished. You need the strongest defensive cards, the right elements, and good decision making during combat. The entire fight can last up to 30 minutes. No joke.

This straight came at the right moment. Two of my chars were almost dead, and this attack managed to kill him just in time. 86% is still nothing compared to what's possible later.

There is a funny twist half-way through the game. At some point, your party realizes there must be a traitor among them, and it remains a mystery for a while. Who could it be? Maybe that weird Mizuti guy? Or one of the two imperial ex-soldiers?

Spoiler

Nope. The protagonist betrays you!

But then you move into the girl, and the game continues.

Even more spoilers:

The Great Mizuti be angry!

Yeah, trial & error block-pushing puzzles...

Nice level for the final boss.

This looks like an ideal hand for...

Absolutely taken down.

---

The Talos Principle 2

o rly?

Spoiler

First, we get to explore the city.

Muscle fatigue.

The gold puzzles are the best. I wish there were more.

Opinion:
+ new puzzle elements are interesting and fit well into Talos puzzles
+ huge environments with dream-like architecture that serves only one purpose: to look cool
+ continues the story faithfully from the transcendence ending (if you even care about story)
+ lots of

-+ pretty graphics, but you need a strong PC or settle for low settings/low framerate

- sometimes too much talking; you are no longer alone
- puzzles are easy overall, but could be because I played the first game and remember the more common moves
- optional star puzzles are a clear downgrade

 

[NecroLord]

a proper log now

will Gaben remove this from Steam this I wonder

can relate to that except with a dog instead

word

Spoiler

from my, experience, shrooms don't work like this

ouch

That's an...interesting choice of game, my man.

 

[Denim Destroyer]

Thief: The Black Parade

 

[jackofshadows]

a proper log now

will Gaben remove this from Steam this I wonder

can relate to that except with a dog instead

word

Spoiler

from my, experience, shrooms don't work like this

ouch

That's an...interesting choice of game, my man.

It's a pretty damn degenerate game, I'm aware. But I like to delve into something like this from time to time. And by the way this isn't the first time I've farmed some wtf ratings with screens from this game (it gets updated every year or so).

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Damn those are some really big hands.

 

[Kabas]

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles demo

Never played Slay the Spire. I liked the demo a fair bit.
Wishlisted it.

 

[Lagole Gon]

If you only knew how physics-based things really are...

 

[catfood]

 

[Kabas]

More SW

Switched to a full HUD. Brief HUD doesn't show you your keys for some reason which is a bother considering how maze-like the later levels are.
At least sprites look slighly less blurry like this. Slightly.

 

[Blutwurstritter]

Science is dangerous business

Soviet Air Force!

Sending regards from Moskau to the Japanese Emperor

 

[Nifft Batuff]

 

[NecroLord]

More SW

Switched to a full HUD. Brief HUD doesn't show you your keys for some reason which is a bother considering how maze-like the later levels are.
At least sprites look slighly less blurry like this. Slightly.

Glad to see you play a fucking classic shooter, but it does seem to look a bit "off", as if something's not quite right.
Oh, you're playing the remaster, right?
I never get tired of "remasters"...

 

[Kabas]

Oh, you're playing the remaster, right?

Heard that other sourceports have some technical issues.
Do admit however that i am getting tired of these washed colours. Just checked the VoidSW.

Looks and plays a lot better. No technical issues in sight so far.
Yep, switching to this one.

 

[HansDampf]

No more texture filtering.

 

[Doctor Gong]

This is one of the few jokes in games that I look forward to in replaying a game.

 

[schru]

More SW

Switched to a full HUD. Brief HUD doesn't show you your keys for some reason which is a bother considering how maze-like the later levels are.
At least sprites look slighly less blurry like this. Slightly.

Glad to see you play a fucking classic shooter, but it does seem to look a bit "off", as if something's not quite right.
Oh, you're playing the remaster, right?
I never get tired of "remasters"...

Oh, you're playing the remaster, right?

Heard that other sourceports have some technical issues.
Do admit however that i am getting tired of these washed colours. Just checked the VoidSW.

Looks and plays a lot better. No technical issues in sight so far.
Yep, switching to this one.

No more texture filtering.

Technically, Shadow Warrior Classic Redux, which is what's on Steam, is based on Ken Silverman's (the author of the Build Engine) own Polymost renderer, which introduced full 3-D rendering to the engine, but instead of being official, it was just something he did as a personal project. I don't think the later versions of Redux had this kind of washed-out look, unless the brightness was increased.

The main problem with full 3-D renderers in Build is that the sky backgrounds just don't look very good in them—they don't shift up or down together with view point to reveal a bit more and there may be a solid colour above them to fill in for the extended view range. Polymer's solution in Duke didn't look that good either.

As for texture filtering, that was actually introduced in Blood and Shadow Warrior officially in collaboration with 3dfx in optional patches meant to be used with Voodoo cards. I have never set them up in DOSBox to see them for myself, but the technique was probably a bit better than the standard bilinear filter. However, those patches also broke some things to do with lighting and maybe other things too, so they were more of a curiosity.

https://legacy.3drealms.com/sw/

I'm not sure about the state of various source ports, so the best version to play to ensure that everything is working as it's supposed to is the original DOS version. However, VoidSW seemed quite complete when I tried it and it should have a software renderer.

 

[Kabas]

Just completed the orginal Shadow Warrior.

Zilla was weak as a baby fart. He flew away to live in fear in the end.
Directly climbing an active volcano is a pretty rad idea for a final level.
Now onto the next episode, Twin Dragon.

Lo Wang got a pretty comfy house.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Spoiler

 

[e-mailio estevez]

Spoiler

Man, I only played through this one once but I remember being pleasantly surprised back in the day. It had some pretty gnarly set pieces and level design.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Man, I only played through this one once but I remember being pleasantly surprised back in the day. It had some pretty gnarly set pieces and level design.

I think so as well. But it feels really short - it took me 4 hours with some extra minutes to finish the whole game. Just like Sin Episodes, it ends with a cliffhanger. It's a shame, because while combat isn't very complicated, it's really fun, and most of the platform sections are relatively balanced. The two weapon system took me a while to adapt - the electric sword plus turtle shield are very good for most of the enemies - especially if you have very high water level. Last, but not least - using Julie Strain (R.I.P) as an inspiration and voice actress for the main heroine was an excellent move from Ritual.

 

[Baron Dupek]

slavmagik

btw
Dusk HD just dropped

 

[Blutwurstritter]

DoW I still needs a worthy sequel.

 

[Sigourn]

Damn those are some really big hands.

SOUUUUUUUUUUUURCE

slavmagik

btw
Dusk HD just dropped

Source for all.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

SOUUUUUUUUUUUURCE

Blood West.