Renault on 8/8/2023 at 18:56
Really surprised no one has mentioned HROT here yet. I've been playing it, and it's a lot of fun. People like to compare it to Quake because it's so brown, but it's nowhere near as sophisticated (architecture wise), it's really closer to some of the old user made Doom levels. Even though the maps are on the simpler side, the layouts are fun and the author has a bit of a sense of humor, which just adds to the overall campiness of the mood. It's weird though, because there's also some great atmospheric music, which seems to clash a bit with the comedic tone. Anyway, good old fashioned shooting fun, definitely check it out. The setting is Chernobyl era Russia (I guess its technically Czechoslovakia, if that matters), so it can all be a bit drab and depressing at times too.
[video=youtube;QXPojFolKJo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXPojFolKJo[/video]
henke on 10/8/2023 at 17:43
Quake 2 Remaster just dropped, Gman has da scoop!
[video=youtube;-dFrBjgsrq0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dFrBjgsrq0[/video]
Now I'm sorry I played through the RTX version last year. Shoulda waited!
Jason Moyer on 11/8/2023 at 02:52
I've actually never played more than the first hour or two of Q2, seems like a good excuse to grab it again. And Machinegames made a new campaign for it, should be great.
Thirith on 11/8/2023 at 08:03
I've not played through the entire game, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed Quake 2 in VR. I'm not generally a big fan of fast shooters, and they don't usually translate well into VR, but the VR mod works really well - provided that you're okay with smooth locomotion in VR.
Briareos H on 11/8/2023 at 09:02
I'm a fan of Quake 1 but never cared much for the sequel until I played the RTX release. The first levels are a perfect storm of muddy colours, slow enemies and dull storyline. In the second level you get the machine gun with its shockingly frustrating recoil and I think that's the point where many people bounce off. But the shiny lights in the RTX version were enough to get me deeper into the game, which ends up pretty decent. The original artistic direction is very bland but it has mostly good levels, fun enemies and fun shooting.
I didn't know there was a VR port, would love to play the new episode along with QII 64 but as usual with Nightdive I assume they're using a KEX reimplementation rather than a compatible source port? So no VR and no RTX.
Jason Moyer on 11/8/2023 at 11:46
On the plus side, based on Gmanlives' video, it looks like the swimming model animations are gone, which I think is part of why I bounced off of it (and most Q2 engine games) back in the day. That's fine though, because it's probably part of the reason I ended up grabbing the Thief demo when I was trying to find games to push my 3dfx cards.
Sulphur on 11/8/2023 at 12:13
I thought Quake 2 was super rad initially, because (obviously) I grew almost immediately bored with Quake 1 back in the day. I don't fancy myself an iconoclast, but I saw nothing interesting in Quake except for its snazzy graphics tech and soundtrack, and even then the graphics were permanently doused in greys and browns. There was some Lovecraftian stuff, but it was so diffused and unimportant, I couldn't give a single inch of a shit. Quake 2 had a big fuck-off FMV with a big fuck-off gun, and I immediately perked up when I saw it. But, even though the game was more fun than Quake, it eventually also belied a lack of much interesting to experience apart from raw level design and some gameplay improvements - yet, I liked the setting, so that took me far enough, and I only wanted the carousel to stop so I could jump onto some other, fun-er game instead (MDK, Diablo, ...Ultima Online, where I lasted for about as long as the five minutes it took for a cat to maul me to death on my modem connection; and of course it's the only game out of those three where I still have the box) about halfway through.
Still, it's from a fondly remembered time in my gaming life, so I'll prolly get it on a sale someday.
Malf on 11/8/2023 at 12:21
I was going to say you don't have to if you already own the original Quake II on Steam, as it's a free upgrade, but I see you don't have it.
Well, you didn't.
Sulphur on 11/8/2023 at 12:23
Dammit, Malf.
(Thanks. <3)
Malf on 11/8/2023 at 12:26
You're welcome. Now you have to take back all those mean things you said about OG Quake :p