Recent reviews by Espionage724

I'm used to playing Hexen through Doomsday Engine:

1. No classic keybindings: Jump is space, use is E; that had me stuck for a min on the first level trying to open the door (easy to change the binds or use new keys)

2. Some weird perspective/3D camera thing has stuff looking odd on the edges: How it could ship with this is odd, but I notice it 1080p (not an issue on Doomsday). I hard-noticed it first-level with the bell tower, coming down the stairs and before leaving the tower.

3. Graphics look jaggy/low-quality: Apparently this version uses a software renderer for the games (not related to the main D3D11/VK renderer) which looks dated (everything is crisp/blended/smooth no problem Doomsday)

4. Seven Portals area presents new things: Some key slots on a wall and a class switch thing; pretty cool!

5. The DOS versions(?) include ".wad" files for use with other engines/etc.

Overall, it's playable! I think I'll stick with Doomsday Engine for now though mainly because the perspective thing.

Absolutely busted with the most basic config of a Xbox One controller over USB, but bindings are perfect with a generic controller that registers as a Xbox 360 controller and a PS4 Dualshock over USB. X360 controller vibration requires "Force Feedback Driver for XInput".

The character creator is a cool feature!

Runs great on Intel UHD 630 on Windows 10, with significantly better mouse handling than CS2 and GO! Raw input 1000Hz (and even 8K) is legit here.

CS 1.6 doesn't have bots. CS:CZ has bots. Deleted scenes is extra maps for CS:CZ. I jumped into a multiplayer Gun Game match, it played exactly how I imagined, and I'm almost not sure what newer CS's are trying to do :p

I have the equivalent of a Samsung 980 NVMe. I'm sitting at the very first in-game load screen presumably waiting for Shaders to compile not even half-way done after 10 minutes. I literally install whole operating systems faster than this! I'm certain I don't require pre-compiled shaders because, hey I paid for fast I/O with NVMe, and this is by far the slowest "thing" (still sitting at a non-descript loading screen) I have witnessed, possibly ever (I installed 95 from floppies).

I have a 8K mouse and thought Halo would make for a great way to try it out! First, there's no in-game option for Raw Input. Second, default in-game mouse settings feel awful! It's slow, and not anywhere near like Windows desktop (I'm doing no-frills 1200 DPI 6/11 no enhanced). Quickly adjusting acceleration in-game to 4.0 (up from default 1.6) made it feel "almost" usable, but I am not into the idea of sitting in that panel for hours trying to figure out a perfect point-precision value when that could easily not be a thing with a basic Raw Input option in a PC multiplayer shooter!

It's slow. I feel that's the point, and yet it just feels slow early-game. For a game that's reputed to be loosely-like RuneScape, I had the expectations of being able to do repetitive tasks to level skills early-on casually. I've heard some confusion about how leveled professions don't transfer between Chapters that also imply you can't max the early-level Guard profession from Chapter 1 and use that to bulldoze in Chapter 3.

And my main disappointment is not being able to fish casually! I trogged through Chapter 1 that seems like a tutorial island. Discovered some fishing spots along the way wanting to come back to them, and after reaching the part to learn Archery and general other skills, I still can't find a fishing rod/spear/whatever! I traversed enough small-map puzzle pieces to see things 10+ levels higher than me to know I probably explored well outside where I'm supposed to go.

Also having Sense changed from day-one from Ctrl + S to Space was enough to remind me how live-service early-access games work. Hotkey aside, it feels weird as a necessary mechanic; I go into a small puzzle-piece map, cast Sense twice, discover 2 ???s, cast it again, look around for anything else, move onto the next small map, and repeat. Like, that probably shouldn't be a lore-defined spell just to highlight and point stuff out in the game world; that's the largest appeal for 3rd-party clients on RuneScape!

The mouse interaction interface is also slow. I'm used to right-click quick actions on RuneScape. The UX on Brighter Shores feels like Unity tailored for mobile/touch (bubbly, large-interface Examine/info, attack initiating).

On the one hand I can see myself getting into this game casually with quick sessions and eventually progressing to when I can casually skill and chill, but almost 2 hours in I'm not sure where that actually begins. I'm not confident enough in this game yet to want to keep coming back casually. I'm a RuneScape player and was excited to play this, but it's not scratching the same early-game itch I can get from RS. This might be fun in an air of illusion and discovery with friends though!

Skyrim in VR is hands-down good, but the amount of recommended external/3rd-party set-up makes this almost hard to recommend. The quantity of packs implies the base VR support is lackluster, so much so that my few hours of game time was all from the most-minimal mod pack I could find, with a few more hours not listed on decisions and learning how to install the pack and other VR tech intricacies (OVR vs Oculus). And it's Elder Scrolls, so of course it benefits from some mods! Basically, it's a good game, but modding is an inevitable endeavor with its own adventures. The end-result can be the most immersive VR experience imaginable! Take notes, and careful save backups; there's dragons everwhere!

I'll update this with more gameplay, but I never imagined that a game could present feral cat girls and buff Tony the Tigers as enemies so well! Some are even smug enough to twirl staffs around in the air idly before I roll-up :p

This is the closest game I've found to a Diablo 2 successor! Path of Exile tries too hard. Grim Dawn is just dark. But Titan Quest is down-to-earth, and it feels like I'm actually progressing and doing something, vs running around a map bulldozing enemies and worrying about skill points and DPS on a leaderboard.

Plays great on low-end Intel UHD 630 (720p) Windows (DX9) and even Linux (DX11; 9 is unstable).

It's been years since I played a game eager to see what comes next, and Titan Quest AE is satisfying that for me nicely!

I had an idea for mapping a song in Beat Saber, but bailed out as soon as I found out there's no in-editor way to offset (their BPM manual was a long-scroll of complexity). Fired up Synth Riders beatmap editor, there's an offset measurement right there, and without reading a manual I was able to throw down orbs, rails, and winged-it to get what I envisioned within about 5 minutes!

I've made unranked beatmaps for osu! probably 10 years ago and also winged-it without reading guides. That didn't happen with Beat Saber's official editor. This Synth riders beatmap editor makes sense and feels natural to make a map with, and paired with custom song support allowed by-default on Meta Quest standalone (unlike Beat Saber needing BMBF/MBF), I'm liking the idea of mapping for Synth Riders!

Performance went from tolerable with GO to unplayable with 2. People used to min-settings CS for better FPS on a competitive shooter, but now this game prioritizes individual dust particles flying around on Dust II at minimal settings as if that's important to the core gameplay. I get 20 FPS average min settings 1024x768 on Intel UHD 630 on Windows 10 and stupidly-broken mouse acceleration which I saw no in-game setting like Raw-input to try to fix it.