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[Decrepit]

Third/final set of captures from an Edinburgh to Newcastle passenger run on East Coast Main Line.

[Acadian]

Really nice screens!

[mALX]

Third/final set of captures from an Edinburgh to Newcastle passenger run on East Coast Main Line.

Wow, these look like real pics instead of screen shots! That is Awesome!

[Decrepit]

(link) Yet more TSC goodness(?), featuring a recently acquired locomotive. (link)

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 1 2023, 03:07 PM

[Acadian]

I took a cue from Dark Reaper and am now playing Conan Exiles. Co-op but restricted to just Buffy on PC. I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and deep the game is how adjustable it is (especially in the private co-op mode) as far as tweaking everything on 'our' server to our liking. I figured it would be simply a survival/hack&slash but it is so open as to lend itself to anything you want. Buffy is quite enjoying the rpg aspects of living her life in this harsh but beautiful world. Her small size, blue eyes and bouncing blond ponytail translate nicely but she is a human. She's fascinated by having small, round ears.

[Dark Reaper]

I took a cue from Dark Reaper and am now playing Conan Exiles. Co-op but restricted to just Buffy on PC. I was pleasantly surprised by how fun and deep the game is how adjustable it is (especially in the private co-op mode) as far as tweaking everything on 'our' server to our liking. I figured it would be simply a survival/hack&slash but it is so open as to lend itself to anything you want. Buffy is quite enjoying the rpg aspects of living her life in this harsh but beautiful world. Her small size, blue eyes and bouncing blond ponytail translate nicely but she is a human. She's fascinated by having small, round ears.

I'm loving Conan Exiles, it's just a nice chill game that fills that itch and the best part is, though you CAN beat it the game excels on you not beating it until you want to, but until then it's just a matter of exploring, fighting, building and role playing in the world of Conan.

This post has been edited by Dark Reaper: Jul 6 2023, 03:55 PM

[WellTemperedClavier]

Not sure if this is relevant for the thread, since I'm not actually playing it, but it is about a game so I'm posting here.

Lately, I've been putting on some World of Warcraft ambience on YouTube when I'm doing busywork of various kinds. And honestly, it's kind of a weird feeling. It's been years since I've last played, but I did play for a long time so there's some weight to all that memory, particularly when I look at stuff from the pre-Cataclysm zones.

And man, Cata still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I think some of this has to do with how so many of the zones I'd adventured in seemed to have actually gotten worse. Ashenvale was gorgeous. Don't think the volcano in the middle helped. I get it, though. It's a game based on, well, war. So patching up the zones and making them nicer wouldn't give people much reason to adventure through them. But that didn't make it less disappointing for me.

It also makes me think of how the game's priorities changed over the years. In Cata and after, the zones felt much more streamlined in a way that I didn't like. You'd start off in Quest Hub A, start the zone storyline which would then take you to Quest Hub B, C, and then finish up at D. Now this did a good job of showcasing the entire zone and adding some narrative. I know the plan was to make WoW feel more like a single-player RPG because, well, that's how most people played it.

But ultimately the zone storylines all felt pretty similar to each other, so they blurred together. There being a big storyline for each zone also had a deadening effect. It made assumptions about your character's personality, which was kind of a big deal if you were on an RP server and cared about that sort of thing.

Pre-Cata WoW was much messier. A zone might have a storyline, but more often than not it had a bunch of regional storylines that didn't necessarily connect. Heck, sometimes there'd be quests that you had to go way off-track to find.

I loved this, though. I liked revisiting zones with different characters and actually finding stuff I'd missed the first time around. The fact that any given zone had so many different subplots made the world feel so much livelier. It also gave more room for the imagination. Rather than having everything spelled out for you, you could speculate and infer how these strange places might work. It also gave more opportunities for role-playing. If a quest didn't fit your character's personality, you could usually just not do it and pick a different one.

And yes, I know WoW Classic is a thing. But my nostalgia isn't enough to return to WoW.

[mirocu]

I know WoW Classic is a thing. But my nostalgia isn't enough to return to WoW.

It's the opposite for me when it comes to Deus Ex. My nostalgia with that game is so huge I could never return to it unless it's suddenly 2003 again

----------------------

~BREAKING NEWS ~ BREAKING NEWS ~ BREAKING NEWS~

I have found the last secret area of the second map in Wolfenstein 3D!

Last year (I think) I found a secret area on that map which brought me up to 75% found secrets. I searched for the longest time all over the map but came up empty. I wanted to find it because I had 100% of kills and treasures and wanted to complete it. So now I've continued trying to find that last area and this morning I did it.

It wasn't even a hard place to find as it was a poster I needed to push and not part of a long, plain wall like that other secret I found. Guess I had just ignored the posters thinking they were too obvious so the devs wouldn't have put another secret on one of them.


So yeah; now I get 100% on everything on the first two maps!

[WellTemperedClavier]

I know WoW Classic is a thing. But my nostalgia isn't enough to return to WoW.

It's the opposite for me when it comes to Deus Ex. My nostalgia with that game is so huge I could never return to it unless it's suddenly 2003 again

Oh, I get that! Last time I played it was sometime in the mid '00s. Great as it was, I'm kind of reluctant to return (even though it's generally regarded as having aged pretty well). Haven't even played any of the prequels. Or the sequel, though I haven't heard much good about Invisible War.

[mirocu]

I was sort of hyped at the time about the sequel but it got delayed a few times iirc and I ended up never getting it. Replayed the original instead which was a great choice. I did play it again as late as 2011 and it still held up just as good as ever. Though I don't think it would work for me at this point in time and now I simply relish in the memories

[mirocu]

Duke Nukem 3D


Yesterday I finally found one of the bigger smaller secret areas; the starship Enterprise's deck! Located in the map called Warp Factor (of course) it's a bit tricky to find as you trigger a hidden door to open from elsewhere and if you don't find the door in time it closes as it's on a timer.

The other secret maps and areas I've talked about I've found myself, albeit with some help from the game itself at one point as the hidden exit opened up itself for me accidentally and didn't close. This new one I had to look up on youtube on how to do it. But still, a neat find

[Dark Reaper]

Duke Nukem 3D

Good game!

I'm still playing Conan Exiles, It has its Dark Souls moments but at least it's more balanced.

[Decrepit]

(link) A few captures of my most recent Train Simulator purchase, acquired yesterday near the end of a too-rare Caledonia Works sale. (link)

[Decrepit]

(link) Second image set from a chronological depiction of a recent Train Simulator stopping passenger service QuickDrive from Bournemough Central to Swanage, the train consisting of LSWR T3 No.563 hauling four MK1 coaches, on the Dorset Coast (England) route. (link)

Otherwise, the entirety of my PC gaming has consisted of daily dosages of one-to-four free-to-play online Crossword Puzzles.

[Dark Reaper]

Well I tried to play Starfield on my PC but it won't play on it. Looks like I'm either going to have to upgrade my graphics card or stick to No Man's Sky or Everspace on the PS5.

[TheCheshireKhajiit]

Well I tried to play Starfield on my PC but it won't play on it. Looks like I'm either going to have to upgrade my graphics card or stick to No Man's Sky or Everspace on the PS5.

I haven’t even tried on my PC. I know it won’t play it. Sad Khajiit.

[Decrepit]

As is usually the case nowadays, my gaming is largely confined to free online Crossword Puzzles. However, here is an image-capture thread showing off (link) visual highlights from a recent short Train Simulator practice session with a recently acquired British steam loco. (link)