Month: August 2024

Vietcong – Mission Failed

I was ready to leave for Vietnam, smoke Lucky Strikes cigarettes, and shoot commies all day in the jungle, but Vietcong decided otherwise for me. The whole endeavor started out great. My old CD-ROM discs still work, and the patches were easily enough to find. Surprisingly also, it works out of the box for Windows 11. No hassle involved, so it didn’t take long until I was welcomed with cool 60s tunes, and the tropics filled with deadly punji traps. Alas, it was not to be.

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[Book Tip] Crysis: Legion by Peter Watts

Crysis: Legion is an adaptation of Crysis 2, which means it’s for the most part just a retelling of the plot line from the game. It’s not my favorite kind of gaming-related novel, since, well, you already know how it will play out and how it will finish. However, Crysis 2 is in a unique situation, as the lead in the game does not talk. Not exactly the best way to add characterization to the protagonist. Who even is Alcatraz? – might be asked a couple of times during the game. The story can also be hard to follow as little is explained, especially not how we went from the jungle fighting in first Crysis to now battling aliens and mercenaries in the heart of New York. Luckily, Crysis: Legion remedies this!

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Crysis: Warhead – Going Psycho

More tropical island fun in Crysis: Warhead can’t be a bad thing, right? Well, probably not, but it can be somewhat of a disappointing experience if the fundamentals of the game change too much. See, Crysis: Warhead is more of the same, but they dropped the more simulated and highly immersive feel of Crysis, for a more “high-octane” action adventure with guns. The problem with this is that there are just too many scripted moments and an overload of on-rails vehicle chases. Hope you like turret segments! They also ditched the immersive aspect of keeping you in first-person all the time, even for the cutscenes. Now, the game constantly jumps in and out of your body and displays the scenes in very awkward third-person acting.

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Black Mesa: Blue Shift – Impressions

I decided to try the Black Mesa: Blue Shift mod for Black Mesa to sate my current Half-life addiction. While it’s more of the fantastic Half-life universe and does satisfy some of the cravings, it has a couple of issues. Blue Shift is a remake of the expansion Blue Shift made by Gearbox for Half-life. I never played the expansion back in the day, so I don’t know much about it, but from what I have read, the mod is supposed to be a pretty faithful recreation. Otherwise, you might think; what would be the point? Anyway, much like Black Mesa, which itself is a remake of Half-life, the quality of the work here is substantial, and matches the same level of dedication. However, while the work by itself is impressive, I can’t say I enjoyed the gameplay all the way through. I should also mention that the mod is not finished. Only the four first chapters are complete, while missing the final four.

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