posted
Well, I tend to suspect that the back of the game box has slightly ruined the plot anyway, with its:
"The Shivans were big and scary and almost killed humanity, but they were killed. Yay!"
And then:
"But now, the Shivans have returned, and they're wondering what happened to their scouting party."
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
"Are you talking about the multiplayer or single player Freelancer?"
Both. Single player is entertaining while you're playing the campaign, but then the game dumps you back into newbie territory and there just isn't much left to keep you engrossed in it. The random missions you can accept, for instance, are incredibly repetitive and dull and predictable, and the universe you fly through is as static as, well, a still life painting.
"Well, yes, we wouldn't want to spoil any of the astounding revelations about the Shivans."
Yes, we would. But Liam has at last gotten off his lazy arse again, so we won't. B)
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I did finish Freespace 1, y'know. Ages ago.
And now I go back to do a mission in the Nebula where good ships are pulling out. This is not an opportunity to make a rude joke. Why am I only a Lt JG? And are the Ace medals a combination of kills and assists, or just kills?
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
You ARE playing FS2 on "hard" difficulty, aren't you? Otherwise you'll never be promoted beyond the rank of Lt.
And you receive medals for, erh, doing your job really well. Which usually entails killing everything in sight and not letting a single friendly ship be destroyed EVAR. I think.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Really? I've been playing it on Medium. Arse. Will it make a difference at this point? (I've just done that pain in the neck mission where you have to follow ten bouy thingies while your sensors go crazy from random EMP pulses. And then I went on a recon for 15 minutes and saw 9 Really Big Sathanus MegaScaryShip Things).
I thought that the Ace medals were purely awarded for kills, rather than doing good things. Hence, "Ace".
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Oh, THAT mission! I nearly chucked the game at that point. SOOO off-pissing.
-------------------- "This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!" - God, "God, the Devil and Bob"
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I actually did it first time this time around, although I remember it taking a billion years originally. I am hardcore with dumbfires. The only bad thing is that my eyes killed from squinting at the tiny blips on the radar.
There was one a few before, with ships in the nebula, you had to protect one while...something happened. I can't remember. I think I blocked it out, it took so long to do.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I've been playing through Freespace on my gamebox. I've only played through the first three or four levels. Tell me when you start getting better ships it feels like you're moving faster. Although the 'debris' in TIE and X-Wing was kind of annoying it really did add to the sense of velocity.
quote:Originally posted by Omega: You can run [Wing Commander: Privateer] in '98 now. Not that that does most people any good.
Say Omega, I don't suppose you've gotten Privateer to run in WIN98 yet have you? I've been pursuing two different tacks on this: neither with any success. One being the supposedly now compatible DOSbox-0.61 and the other beng a program called MYJEMM designed more-or-less expressly for the purpose of running Privateer by duping your shiny fancy 2003 box with supar-cool DDR memory into using a clumsy bug-ridden 1994 memory scheme. Which seems to be the main stumbling block. There's apparently really no substitute for that classic 386 EMS feel. WTF is my XMS manager and why the hell isn't it doing it's job?!
Actually aside from this, I've been kind of surprised at how successfully I've been able to run some of these really old DOS games. I found out about DOSbox trying to figure a way to make Starflight2 playable, and was pleasantly stunned to discover that with a little tweaking I could get the heretofore useless shareware version of Elite: Frontier going.
Registered: Sep 2000
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-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I should have said gaming-PC. I wasn't trying to be cheeky, honest. It's the GAEMING PC I set aside expressly for playing older less-hardware intensive games. Essentially a passel of cheap parts (~$400) thrown together so I could go pick on poor, slow, little Y-Wings whenever I was feeling frustrated or inadequate... Which, obviously, is depressingly often these days.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Ahh. Okay. Freespace. I've never really had a problem with sensation of speed in space combat games, because I've never really gotten one. Even in Alliance. In fact, less so in Alliance, due to it's lack of afterburner. The only time I've felt speed in any of those games is when I first got a TIE Defender in TIE Fighter.
Freespace itself seemed to concentrate on two other things to make people go "oh my god". One of them is ship size. And the other is beam weapons. The first time two capital ships started carving each other up...scary. Er, you are talking about Freespace 2, aren't you?
Although, in the area of speed, there is at least one point in the game where speed combined with size will make you shit your pants. "Dive dive dive! Hit your burners pilots!"
I don't think my heart calmed down for days.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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And as for Privateer, MyJEMM is supposed to make Privateer run reasonably well in '98. Never tried it, though, of my four computers, two are running XP home and the other two are running Linux.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Ok, very much looking forward to that scene now. (Stupid work not letting me play videogames all day!) No spoilers though. I'm still only in FS1. And I apparently REALLY suck and having a hard time properly leading my targets. I did get the Ace eventually, but it took some doing.
Now in my travels hunting for ways to make frickin' Privateer play, I have found a couple people who've apparently succeeded in making it work under XP. I'm running out of ideas. I've been really straining my rather pathetic DOS skills on this one amending my config.sys file, writing batch files, etc. I'm starting to wonder whether it's because my CPU is an AthlonXP. I've got an old busta-P2-350 collecting some dust bunnies on the other desk. Maybe I'll have to try that out. Later.
Anyway thank you all for you input on this. If nothing else it's gotten me excited about a genre I haven't played since the early 90's. If anyone has any technical ideas about how to trick my machine in believing that it believes in EMS, I'd love to hear them.
Also has anyone actually played Battlecruiser Millenium Gold v2.9.5.r.79, Ph.D.? I've heard it's verging on playable.
Registered: Sep 2000
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
Of all the spacesims I've played, Prophecy and Starlancer had the best sense of speed. Shame they were such crappy games on other fronts.
And the most pulse-pounding moment in FS2? Reaching that subspace node in the final mission with three seconds to spare before ********* and then just staring in disbelief at that jaw-dropping cinematic of ********* (damn you Liam, hurry up). In all my years of gaming I have never felt palpitations quite like those, man. Though going for a quick dart in your miniscule fighter between fleets of capships slicing each other to pieces with those mammoth beam weapons is something else, too.
"Really?"
Maybe. When I played through FS2 on Easy (yeah, so, my joystick broke), I was still only a measly Lt by the time the credits rolled, even though I had a perfect record and racked up a bazillion kills, but when I played it again on Hard, I reached the rank of Cpt despite doing sheer pants on just about every mission. From this TRUSTY empirical evidence I conclude that the game's rank system must be governed by the difficulty level you select. Don't try to prove me wrong, or I will smite you.
"And then I went on a recon for 15 minutes and saw 9 Really Big Sathanus MegaScaryShip Things..."
I shall now spoil you anyway by saying that you will see them again.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256
posted
quote:Originally posted by Balaam Xumucane: Now in my travels hunting for ways to make frickin' Privateer play, I have found a couple people who've apparently succeeded in making it work under XP. I'm running out of ideas. I've been really straining my rather pathetic DOS skills on this one amending my config.sys file, writing batch files, etc. I'm starting to wonder whether it's because my CPU is an AthlonXP. I've got an old busta-P2-350 collecting some dust bunnies on the other desk.
Hmm. I'd do an install of native DOS6 on a second partition to eliminate Win98 as a suspect first, and then rule out the CPU. It worked for me, and my hardware is pretty exotic (well, from the POV of 1994 software, anyway), so don't despair just yet.
Registered: Nov 1999
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