@tjandmia said:

@theam0g said:

@tjandmia said:

I've been gaming on pc for a long time. It's always been a hassle. If it's not a driver or poor optimization issues, it's something else. These days I like sitting on the couch. Big picture from steam is supposed to solve that. Half the time games start in the background or minimized, meaning I have to get off the couch, flip the laptop open and bring it to the forefront. Console quality is on par with pc these days. There's no reason to put up with this crap anymore.

Buy a ps5 and be done with it, or an Xbox if you like playing last gen games at 60fps. I could have bought both for the price I paid for this ridiculous laptop.

You do know you can purchase a wireless mini keyboard with an integrated mouse TouchPad that folds open for less than $40... When you need to get back to the dashboard simply unfold the mini keyboard and, on mine, it's three finger swipes down on the TouchPad.

Yeah, because I want to have TWO keyboards in order for it to work as expected. Brilliant idea! What's next, advising me to just keep the computer on my lap and just use a realllllly long HDMI cable? I mean, it is called a laptop for a reason...

Why TWO keyboards? You can move around that wireless keyboard to another PC. At that point you don't need Steam's BIG Picture. I use it occasionally when I plug my Gaming PC onto my 65" TV.

Having been PC Gaming on the big screen for over a decade now. Also have Gaming Laptop and gaming on the Desktop. Haven't had any issues. Do yourself a favor grab wireless keyboard and mice and problem solved. I put the keyboard on my lap and have the wireless mouse beside me on a flat surface like a strong hard mousepad.

Good question. The answer would be what we have today with our modern HDR TVs and monitors and games attuned to that. You are right Half-Life 2 was the one that looked natural back in the day.

I remember playing Far Cry back in the day with the HDR patch and it looked amazing in certain areas. Like at night with the moon light bouncing off. However, certain areas there were over exposure like towards the latter parts of the levels in the Labs where there was blue light it was way off with light getting brighter and brighter as you move then dimming down based on your location.

Again, which game had objectively better art direction at that time in 1997? Campaign between Quake 1 and Quake 2 that can be subjective. Depends on some people like the Lovecraftian level design vs futuristic robotic Strogg world.

What I was referring to was what I believe Willits was referring to on magazines back in the day before Quake 2 release with respect to hodgepodge of level design back in the day (designed by various level designers). I personally didn't have any issues with it back then I just played the levels an enjoyed it. Quake 2 was modern in that since there was synchrony between the levels which was later adopted by other games ie Half-Life/Half-Life 2, and other games today till this day.

Quake 1 was unique in that sense that it was "unique" in the different level designers put their own mark on it. Indeed there were pretty talented level designers at ID back in the day with their own unique take on level design.

Didn't know that. Interesting.

@R4gn4r0k said:

Quake was just foreplay.

Good old 90s advertisements. I remember looking at Quake 2 box and the art and the screenshots on the back of the box along with PC Gaming magazine screenshots of Quake 2 and being obsessed with that game. I didn't have a "3D Accelerator" card back in the day in my computer. PC was actually brought before Quake 1 came out so I missed the first generation of GPUs that came out. It wasn't until 97-98 when the second generation of GPUs that came out in the market with the Voodoo 2 and RIVA 128 (nVidia's second GPU) that OEMs started to put GPUs with their PCs.

All is well though, got to play Quake 2 at higher resolutions and maxed out on my GeForce 4 that I wouldn't have been able to if I had a PC with say like a Voodoo 2.

According to Tim Willits one of the main Level Designers of Quake 2. Quake 1 was a hodge podge of different Levels designed by different level designers with no synchrony between them. Quake 2 attempted to fix that. That was one of the main criticism of Quake 1 back in the day. ID tried to rectify that in Quake 2. I would argue that was better.

With respect to re-masters, after trying the re-mastered Quake 1 expansions, I have no desire to go play those expansions like I do for Quake 2. Everything on the expansions looks the same all brown looking and dated, while Quake 2 expansions at least had some diversity with Ground Zero being different from the Reckoning. They supposedly nerfed the turrets in Ground Zero which was frustrating for people to play through which meant instant death instead improved the AI aspect to still make it challenging. Which is good, they listened to the complaints and fixed it. Now, even more excited to play through the expansions. The one thing I did like that I thought was unique in Quake 1 Remaster was the new expansions made by Machine Games which I thought were pretty cool.

@BassMan said:

@Xtasy26:

Which FPS had better art direction in 1997 than Quake 2?

Nice! Thanks for the reference. Played through and beat RTCW 10+ years ago using widescreen HD patch. Remember the Multiplayer back in the day 20 years ago for RTCW. Thought it was pretty cool. Haven't revisited again but definitely interested. Interested in United Fronts because I feel that UO and COD 1 had great level design before COD series started become crappy in the 2010's.

The fact that they put this much effort and added new campaigns for $10 shows about how they really care putting out a quality product. As opposed to Rockstar which has infinitely more resources and money and look how their so-called re-masters went with GTA 3- San Andreas which turned out to be a joke.

Nightdive really should consider making re-makes from now on like they did with the original System Shock which brought modern gaming but kept to the spirit of the original.

Actually you are wrong about the art direction. Quake 2 art and animation was done by the late Paul Steed. He previously worked on the Wing Commander series before ID. He brought many innovations on art style and animation for video games that wasn't previously done before working on the Wing Commander series and later Quake 2. Here's an archive of behind the scenes of the art of Quake 2 that someone archived on a blog:

https://dondeq2.com/2022/02/06/quake-ii-magazine-archive-february-1998/

Quake 2 was actually ahead of it's time compared to other shooters like Goldeneye on the N64 which was nothing compared to Quake 2.

As for the campaign, well that's debatable. I guess it comes down to one's preference. I personally think Unreal and Half-Life when it came out after Quake 2 around that time was better and set a new bar for FPS but still enjoyed Quake 2.

Yes, Return to Castle Wolfenstein is one of my favorites. Arguably the best Wolfenstein game even 20 years later, the ambiance, the environment, music, Gray Matter nailed it. They also made Call of Duty expansion United Offensive, which I had lying around for like 7 years when I brought a Call of Duty War Chest like 10 years ago the boxed version. Opened it played it during the Pandemic and played through it, it was one of the best if not the best expansion in Call of Duty history. Too bad Activision guttered the Development team and relegated them to working on the Call of Duty franchise like they did with Raven Software, another great FPS developer.