Really loving this.
llvo
9 Likes
Been going through the effort of modding GTA IV on Steam Deck, fortunately I can say after two days and some trial and errors I’m ready to play the actual Complete Edition.
Notable Mods:
Niko Customization/Wardrobe Overhaul
First Person:
EFLC Weapons Merge and Continuity Fix:
Updated Map/Mini Map/Crosshairs:
The goal mainly was just to update the game while keeping it vanilla. Weapons are more responsive, alongside combat encounters are more dangerous too. But I wanted to merge elements from the DLC into the base game alongside various changes made to Characters in EFLC.
8 Likes
Did you find a mod that makes the general camera and running handling more feel like a PC game and not a ported controller game?
3 Likes
Unfortunately to my knowledge there aren’t mods that refine keyboard and mouse controls. Maybe GTA 4 Extra Options might have what you need but idk.
4 Likes
Finished the original Assassin’s Creed yesterday on PC.
TL;DR Version:
Overall, I enjoyed my time but it’s a pretty mediocre game with very little to do outside of the main missions.
It felt like a tech demo (the detailed parkour concept) with a story added onto it, and then that’s where the budget & time ran out.
The only other things are simple lead-up missions to each main target, saving civilians with only 4 voice-lines, and collecting hundreds of flags (yeah, hundreds) that offer ZERO benefit to you, the player.
The Long Version:
The parkour was a very fun, surprisingly complex and detailed system (It’s pretty cool how realistically Altair grabs onto and places his feet on the environment to climb buildings), but albeit kind of slow and rigid sometimes which I hope the sequels improve.
This video makes me excited and afraid of the additions/removals to mechanics the rest of the series does.
The quests you need to complete to unlock the Main Assassination of the level are very repetitive, and tedious, which is probably made worse by the vague guard detection system that will either cause you to run and hide and reset the mission, or slow your gameplay to a crawl to blend in…
The Main Target missions are where the meat of the game’s story and intrigue come in, as you’re tasked with killing 9 important Templar people, all evil and cruel in ways, because they’re seeking an item to cause world domination.
But, they also plant seeds of doubt in the main character’s head about what his own organization may be hiding from him and controlling him to do…
The guard “social stealth indicator” is a small triangle on the top left of your screen.
Its either white when you’re safe from a guard’s gaze, turns yellow when you’re being watched, and blinks red with an annoying noise when an “Informed” guard is spotting you, forcing younto either hide or hold “Blend” which causes you to very slowly walk in prayer.
But it’s difficult to know which guard does this and honestly I can’t figure out if there’s any specific indicator (apart from when you’re on rooftops, which is illegal)
Apparently the PC Director’s Cut version replaces/adds certain lead-up mission types to the main assassination of each chapter, which are Archer-Stealth Assassination missions, Rooftop Time Trials, Escort Missions, and Merchant Stand Destruction missions.
That last one is a baffling inclusion. Merchant stands feel like set dressing or an occasional parkour-stepping-stone, and while there’s a mechanic to throw an enemy into the stand to collapse it and insta-kill them, it’s a pretty niche move and it’s strange how simple/trivial/random this mission type is compared to all the others… doesn’t exactly feel like anything useful for an Assassin or a Parkour fiend…
The story itself I enjoyed, even if it was kind of basic.
Basically, there’s the Modern Day story where Desmond Miles is kidnapped by a secret group and forced to plug his brain into this magic-tech machine that can read DNA and recreate his ancestor’s memories
…This is what you play in the historical setting where you’re parkouring around the place and part of an Assassin Order.
The “Memory” story of the game shows the story of Altair – a skilled but cocky assassin – who is stripped of all his fancy tools by his Master/Handler because he was an idiot who broke the Creed by which the whole Assassin Brotherhood operates. (This is literally the first thing you see him do and his friends chastise him for - not a great first impression, dude)
He then uncovers a secret plot to install a New World Order by controlling the populations of Hebrews and Christians and must stop this mysterious enemy from fulfilling their goals.
Oh, and also get humbled along the way about how to behave like a good, noble person.
The ending of the game
has a shocking twist where it’s revealed your own master - the Assassin Leader - is actually a secret Templar agent who wanted to kill off all his accomplices so he could have the magic treasure to himself.
Honestly a pretty good twist I didn’t expect, and had a pretty tough final boss battle, since he does extreme amounts of damage and the counter timing is super tight.
However, the combat is pretty basic and I found myself wanting extra tools to get around annoyances like everyone always blocking attacks, barely getting a hit in because no one gives you time for offense, and the end-game throwing you into arenas with hugs amounts of enemies that always take way too many hits/counters to take down.
So… yeah. This was a neat introduction to how the whole series started and how all this Assassinating and Parkouring works, but you can definitely tell it was still in its early stages of being fleshed out. The main concept is there, but everything other than that feels extremely lacking.
The Modern Day Story ends on a cliffhanger too, and I hope to see the gameplay in that evolve in future entries, since they were essentially slow walking interludes.
7 Likes
Oh dear lord nobody tell him a thing…
7 Likes
Oh I am playing Yakuza: Kiwami because it was six bucks on special off PSN. Having a lot of fun doing everything but the main story, that Majima fellow really is everywhere.
6 Likes
Brothehood freeroam in modern Monterigionni was a fun surprise though.
4 Likes
Don’t tell me they keep doing that EVERY GAME?!
It was fine at first, but got annoying over time because I expected the game would end with Desmond having learned all his Assassin skills after being in the Animus, and uses them all to break out. But nah he just gets locked in a room at the end again and that’s it.
(Like, it feels like they teased this with him pickpocketing the scientist at one point and then learning how to use Eagle Vision at the end… but that’s it??)
2 Likes
It is and the modern segments in III are pretty good.
II has two fights and some light platforming.
Spoilery sort of stuff for the games after:
Brotherhood has some nice collectibles you can access roaming around modern Monteriggioni . III comes the closest to actually playing like the actual game in the modern section, you have three missions in the real world plus some exploration of the Upstate Temple.
After that you become some faceless (literally, it is FPS) Abstergo worker and you mainly scan QR code schizo posts and invade the privacy of your coworkers by hacking into their computers. Then they stop even having modern day segments at all until you go into the RPG games
5 Likes
Right. I’ve played Black Flag before, but got massively turned off after encountering so many frustrating/tedious tailing missions and huge amounts of monotonous sailing between story missions.
The modern day stuff was interesting in how it tied Abstergo into being a games-company, working with Ubisoft Montreal essentially, but overall was a clunky dull exploration side-task.
Since I recently played Origins, but then got turned off by the size, leveling, and lack of Parkour I’ve heard so much about, I liked how the gameplay tried to match the Animus segments one-to-one, with the character “learning” skills from being in it. But I stopped so I have no idea where it goes or if it’s even satisfying by the end.
I’ve heard Desmond’s is pretty iconic since it spans multiple games. But any other attempt since it ended was either too dull, too inconsequential, or just not even there (I think I heard Mirage – even being a “return to roots” for the game – just doesn’t have any modern stuff.
6 Likes
Ah Black Flag is my second favourite (after Brotherhood). Tailing missions and all.
3 Likes
Such innocence. Too pure for this world.
5 Likes
Re: TR Remasted
Anyone else finding the control scheme (I’m using “tank controls”, btw) throwing you off a little bit when going back to a game like Hitman, or vice versa?
2 Likes
Started Assassins Creed 2 in the Ezio Collection, since the PS PLUS Extra tier still has like all the AC games included! (And I figure, if I get a deal on it, I’ll resubscribe after it expires in 2 weeks. There’s a lot on there.)
Starting off, it picks up right where AC1 ended in the modern day. And for the first time you can use the run button as Miles! Fuckin’ finally!
You go through a linear escape of the facility, and are faced with a gaggle of guards at the end.
I think you’re supposed to let your protector NPC defeat them all for you (since there’s no tutorial prompts that pop up at this point), but for people who have played AC1, you can use the same combat controls and actually fight back too!
I think it’s also a neat touch that there’s virtually Zero HUD when playing as Miles. Other than a targeting outline to show who you’re locked onto.
That’s a neat detail since all the main “gameplay” is rendered in-game via the Animus machine.
Unfortunately, once you get to a safehouse you’re once again forced into an over-the-shoulder, slow-walking area like the first game. You can walk around a new room and interact with your new companions, but man, I just hate walking this slow.
It all gets better since you’re shoved into the Animus anyway and that’s where the real game begins.
The game starts you as Ezio in the most hilarious blend of introduction cutscene and tutorial.
You briefly play as Baby Ezio right after he popped out of the womb and was held by his father. 
The game then tells you to move your “Legs” then “Empty L Hand” then “Armed R Hand” then move your “Head”, as a baby lmao… not exactly the best tutorial to tell you how they work in terms of Assassin and Parkour systems, but it’s a fun way to let you know about each button’s indication.
Unfortunately, I will say that it’s extremely dissappointing that this game (and apparently every other “Classic” AC game before the RPG series, runs at a locked 30fps even on PS5… Which is weird since some of these are PS3-era titles re-released on PS4! A framerate boost was kinda common with those remasters back in the day…
AC1 was quite old so luckily my computer could run it at 60fps I think, but man, this is gonna take some realg etting used to… Climbing is faster thankfully, but everything feels more sluggish and less-responsive. 
(Xbox wins this one, since some AC games can use their FPS Boost feature for a 60fps…)
5 Likes
Ah yes, that moment when I nearly lost my shit first time playing, because those geniuses at Ubisoft didn’t think to change the button prompts in the PC port and left in the coloured ones for console, getting me stuck with a “The fuck am I supposed to press?!” look on my face (it didn’t get any better later, since there are several sudden QTEs for additional contextual actions, and I hate it when I forget how to give Leo a bro hug).
3 Likes
It’s plants vs zombies garden warfares 10th anniversary today so I have spent most of today playing it again
5 Likes
Just finished Yakuza: Kiwami now moving onto Kiwami 2.
7 Likes
Me and @TheChicken returned to Sniper Elite 4 to play the DLC missions. They were great fun, this gives the game 12 missions altogether and I’d say most of them are high quality.
I think it’s clear though that I’m the more blood thirsty and reckless one though, Chicken had to save my arse more than a few times.
11 Likes
I’m glad videogames don’t cause violence, otherwise we’d have to be a lot more afraid of Silvereyes 
EDIT: stuff like this happens because I go stealthy and get distracted by wanting to loot EVERY dead body I see, meanwhile Silver is across the map, been spotted, running for his life while mowing down nazis on his tail. >u<
Every now and then I have to run up to him and give him a revive, then go right back to looting bodies lmao
9 Likes