Ilsyde

We appreciated games a lot more back then. Nowadays there are dozens getting released each day, given away for free or heavily reduced in price. I had a Game Boy and a Sega MD2, but only a handful or so games on both for the same reason - price. Couldn't take a chance on crappy games so I only bought the best acclaimed ones for each console e.g. Xenon 2 or The Chaos Engine. Ironically, the only game I bought on a whim and without any research was Puggsy, and it became my favourite game of all time from that era. Way ahead of its time. Still play it to this day. Is that Zool in your avatar?

previous gen: Xbox 360 (better graphics and performance) current gen: Playstation 4 (better games) next gen: who knows? (waiting for Sega to make a console... the Megadrive is getting old )

Battlezone is also a big favourite mine. Are you referring to BZ2 Combat Commander that just got released? I'm on the fence about getting it, read some reviews regarding the A.I. that is worse than in the original. What's your experience been so far? Totally forgot about Satellite Reign, I played an early version with very little content but I still remember the atmospheric art style. Maybe I should taken another stab at it. Mass Effect and Dragon Age are pretty much the newer cornerstones of RPG I also love Arx Fatalis, give it a try if you liked Ultima Underworld or Deus Ex. Or any other immersive RPGs where you actually have to think for yourself. I see you like strategy and RPG games, what did you think of Spellforce 3? Apart from the art style it did not woo me. Spellforce 1 is still far superior to most games released today. Also try Divinity Original Sin 2 once you're done with NWN (there is a remaster coming out), BG and PoE. Regarding Bioshock, as much as I liked the first, Singularity and Prey are so much better. Give them a try. Singularity costs peanuts nowadays. Prey has fantastic atmosphere, much like Bioshock had back in its heyday. To progress the thread, my partner asked for a more mellow strategy game to play that has an economy system (so not Starcraft ) and good graphics so I've gone through the Settlers series (she liked Cultures back in the day) and found Settlers 6. Never played it before, gave it a try before getting her a copy and I'm hooked. It's still a lot of fun after so many years. Feels great to find a good strategy game after all this time, as they are now a rarity. Also currently (re)playing Dead Space, Red Dead Redemption, Condemned 2 and Alan Wake. Altman be praised.

What puts it in perspective is when he talks about that timeline, how a move like this from a publisher would've been perceived let's say 15 years ago, in the golden age of gaming. Whereas now this is the industry standard, more and more people accepting DRM as always-on and lack of dedicated public servers as the norm. To be fair you could argue the fact that yes, you have paid for the game/product/service. However you also got your money's worth at the end of the day, and there is nothing to complain about. Especially if you played for free. On the other hand, gaming has sunk so low that people defend lootboxes nowadays. I can sort of get with that, though at the same time it's a damn shame to see good games disappear with no accepted way of retaining them. Copy protection got really out of hand back in the day (remember starforce?) and now always-on DRM has taken over which is a lot worse and we can't do a lot about it. Cloud gaming is the next step, and the final nail in the coffin

That video was posted by Strek0za for the first time in this forum, therefore I'm just going to leave a link to his thread: Agreed, Ross's videos have care and depth to them, reminding me of the good ol' quality content that's so lacking from digital media nowadays with all the juvenile twitch streamers and youtube clickbaits trying to make a quick buck.

Yeah, large companies tend to be like that... ignorant and uncaring. Here is a video from Ross (who made a great video/rant about the shutdown of Battleforge a good while ago) discussing this subject in more detail: (Battleforge is briefly mentioned in this)

Doesn't affect Skylords Reborn since the acquisition, but is worth a quick read regardless. Link below. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/02/21/the-esa-rejects-proposed-dmca-exceptions-to-allow-the-non-profit-and-unofficial-revival-of-dead-online-games snippet from the article:

The main text for menus etc. are in bf1_base01.pak. You need to unpack the contents (using dragon, watto or any other extractor) to /bf1/data/ then get rid of the original before editing. If you leave the original file then the client will load that instead, as that is the preferred action. There are four cff files for each main language (English, French, German and Russian), if I remember correctly there is a command line app called cff packer for the original Spellforce which is able to pack/unpack for you. Then you need to wade through them and change the text, though honestly this was so long ago I don't even remember what the extracted files looked like. At the end you can rename the finished file to e.g. "en" (for English) and the client will load that, or simply tell it to load another language through the config file. You should be able to test this long before pissing about with the translation just by renaming e.g. the "de" (German) file to "en" (English) thus fooling the client to load with German text, as "en" is the default irrespective of contents. ...Unless you're using a German OS I guess? Other files e.g. storybook etc. are scattered all over the ui.pak files. The way those files are categorised is one big flustercuck (because they're NOT categorised) and translating them would take you a massive chunk of your time. Plus you have to be fairly adept at the language you're translating to (and from) as these entries are written as parts of a large novel by a person who had a sizeable vocabulary. And wasn't afraid to use it.

You're probably aware of this, but you could just take the language files and change them to your liking using a text editor. Then share it with other players if you think your translation is up to snuff, or even superior to the original. Which it will be, by the sound of it. There is also the possibility to add additional languages by renaming&editing one of the existing files (German, Russian or French) then instruct the client to load your custom language. Yes the devs were/are German, but no longer working for Jowood, therefore most likely pushed by EA into using English as the primary language, or have the translations done by another studio / third party.

Just a quick heads-up, guys. If you want to celebrate the imminent release of BattleForge open beta with a deck of Shadows Over Lyr, now is the time to do so. Printerstudio - the company we use(d) to have decks of cards printed - have a 20% money off deal going until 6th of Feb using the voucher code LIEBE. It's supposed to be for Valentine's day... Not sure what that might be... Some form of a pagan holiday perhaps? Anyway, link is still in the first post. If you need help with the German website, simply click on the link at the end of the first post that'll take you to their "Blanko Spielkarten 63 x 88mm Personalisieren" page. Now select the paper quality you want (300gsm is standard cardstock, 310gsm is premium linen i.e. textured, 330gsm is upgauge gloss and Kunststoff is quality plastic that'll probably outlive you like your children are going to). Anzahl is the quantity, go for 72. Packaging is fine on Folienverschweisst (i.e. shrink wrapped) unless you want to pay stupid amount of money for a flimsy box. Next, click "Gestalte es"... I actually like to shout GESSSTALTE ES!!!1! when I click that button because it's German so you're supposed to shout when speaking to scare others around you who don't speak or understand the language. In the small pop-up window click the blue Anderes Motiv link. Now click on the green Bilder Hochladen button, select all card faces/backs from the SOL archive you downloaded and extracted to upload them. Once that's finished, drag&drop them one by one onto the left to fill up the 72 slots. Then you click the orange Weiter link twice, until that small pop-up window reappears. This time we need to click the blue Das Selbe Motiv. Drag&drop the single cardback from the SOL archive to this one template. Click the orange Weiter twice to get to the preview page. Make sure everything looks good before scrolling to the bottom of the page to click Zum Einkaufswagen. On the checkout page you have your details on the left, and the delivery address to the right. Don't forget to scroll down and enter the Valentine's day code LIEBE otherwise they're going to rip you off big style. Alternatively you can get 5 Euros off if you scroll to the bottom of the main page and enter your e-mail address (the same address you're going to use to checkout). This is only valid on orders exceeding 15 Euros and only for new customers. Happy gaming.

This is pretty good. Into my collection! I should check out the composer's portfolio.

I wish! It's just a quick mock-up I've done in p.net.

How 'bout some gamebooks?