What Game Did You Play Today?

Started up Hitman Absolution again to try and see why my performance sucks so much. It turns out that turning the shadows from high to ultra sucks 20 fps. Running smooth as silk at the moment, hopefully it doesn’t drop.

Yeah, in my time with shitty systems, I’ve found that shadows and dynamic lighting are hugely expensive in terms of performance, right up there with AA.

In some games with a dynamic flashlight or something, you can see the frame rate plunge when you turn it on.

I remember playing HL2 on my old PC. Ran decently enough but as soon as I turned my flashlight on the framerate plummeted to like 10 fps.

I really like dynamic lighting, and games like Stalker and Metro have entirely dynamic lighting, and they run decently enough depending on your hardware and settings. I just find it weird that high runs fine but ultra runs awfully. I wonder what’s added to shadows at ultra that ruins the framerate so much.

Superior filtering and resolution, I guess.

Shadow blurring has always seemed to take a lot of processing power to render.

More No One Lives Forever 2. I love listening to the guard conversations.

Just finished the Streets of Hope mission in Hitman Absolution. It’ll probably end up being the best level in the game, considering it’s one of the only Hitman-eque levels in the game. The save system sucks though. Not only do you have to save in predetermined spots, but if you reload or die, your score and general progress in the level is the same but everyone and everything respawns. I knocked a cop out to take his uniform, then saved, then died, and when the game loaded, I was still in the guy’s uniform and I still had the score penalty for knocking him out but he was in the same spot as he was before I knocked him out. It doesn’t seem fair at all that you lose points for things and then they’re undone the second you reload but you still have the points taken off.

Sounds like a bullshit system.

Still playing NOLF 2. Jumping gaps with snowmobiles and murdering people with distraction and bananas

Currently replaying Serious Sam 3. There is just something profoundly epic about carving thru hordes upon hordes of retarded looking monsters to rolling bongo beats.

I just love how uncompromisingly old school this shooter is, easily one of my all time favourite games.

I do love it. I think that should be the next mass Black Mesa coop game.

I was in a car for six hours, so I played an asston of Metroid Fusion. I love how, despite it adhering to series formula, the game still pulls off a remarkably effective atmosphere. It’s much darker than most of the series, and could easily be considered one of Nintendo’s better first party survival horror games despite it not technically being a survival horror game.

The SA-X still makes me shit bricks whenever it shows up.

this is too much fun

Also the combat in this game is basically an over-the-top version of FEAR’s, but with spy gadgets, shurikens, katanas, etc.

Hell even the way the shotgun functions (not how it looks though) is basically a souped up FEAR shotty, sound and kick-wise (technically though this would be the precursor to it)

Technically, F.E.A.R. actually used an upgraded form of Lithtech Jupiter (NOLF 2’s engine), called Lithtech Jupiter EX. This may have had a fair amount to do with perceived similarity between the games’ combat.

Or maybe it’s just because Monolith makes really damn good games for the most part. (Don’t mention F.E.A.R. 3, because that was Day 1 Studios. How the mighty have fallen there…)

More Resident Evil 3. Still both fun and scary. Also, acid grenades.

I played once more my favourite flash game ever: Nobuyuki Forces 4. Yes, the load times without any visual indication of actually loading can be irritating, but it’s a unique, challenging and high-quality experience. It also has a really nice soundtrack.

Man, this legal bullshit pisses me off. I’d happily buy NOLF or AVP2 or Tron 2.0 if they’d fucking let me.

tro n was rad

Yes it fucking was.

Fucking hell eveything audio wise in this game was perfect. perfect. Why couldn’t Tron Legacy be more like this? I appreciate what they were going for, but they totally missed an opportunity here.

God damn this makes me sad, I only ever bought the second one (I got the first one around the same time for PS2 but the controls are eh and there’s no saving)

Have some good writing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_5OMLVfk5g

That game has such great conversations. I still remember the one where two guards talk about another guard’s love triangle.

I heard one while I was playing NOLF 2 where two henchmen were discussing whether or not it was ethical to off someone ordered to kill their buddy because he was a rat, and how even though the guy was pissed he would only be doing it to make himself feel better instead of actually serving justice, which was apparently what the hitman did by killing the rat.

It’s strange how even the most comical of conversations when well written (and acted) can make them seem more like people and less like AI designed to shoot at you.

Think you’ll get your own squad after what happened last night?

Indeed I think so

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.