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Quake 2, Saints Row 3 and more!

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Slaying Strogg in the 90's!


Okay, if steam says the Quake 2 mission packs are separate games, so do I, besides, all journalists are liars. 

Taking some time off from longer and more difficult games I finally got around to installing and patching ID softwares Quake 2 and two mission packs, Ground Zero and The Reckoning. Quake 2 is a rusty old bird and needed the Yamagi patch just to get the CD music working (holyshit,
CD's take me back). It was totally worth it though, the old 90's rock added some context to a game. Little known fact; the main theme was composed by both Rob Zombie and Bill Brown, more 90's nostalgia. 

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For it's time, Quake 2 was the Strogg's pajamas. Featuring a CD soundtrack, pre-rendered cinematics, and mission objectives more complex than "find the key". The game had me exploring, backtracking, and wishing I had been issued a map to go with my double-barreled super shotgun.

Speaking of guns, Quake 2 didn't dissapoint in the arsenal department. Shotguns, machineguns, rocket launcher, and even a futuristic BFG gun made slaying the cybernetic Strogg a literal blast. Not that I felt overpowered, the Strogg legions gave me plenty of headaches while trying to navigate the alien planet. The whole ordeal ends with a surpisingly easy bossfight with the Makron, king of the Strogg. My work wasn't done though, I had two 'mission packs' to complete before closing the book on Quake 2!

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Quake Qontinued, Ground Zero & The Reckoning


The reckoning

Much like Quake 1, Quake 2 featured 2 standalone 'Mission Packs' to satiate the Strogg hungry masses. I wouldn't call the 2 mission packs a thoughtless cash-in, both offer about 5 hours of extra gameplay and feature new enemies, weapons, and cgi cutscenes. Granted, neither pack had Steam Overlay, so snapping screenshots was nigh impossible, but I worked some Hackerman magic and got the job done. Pay me in head-pats. 

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Starting with The Reckoning, I begin playing as Joker, clearly far from Gotham City, he must land on Stroggos and clear a number of strategic assets like a good army boy. Then off to a moonbase to kill the rest of those pesky nazis Strogg and make a daring escape in an experimental ship. The reduced gravity levels towards the end were a pretty cool feature. On to the next. 

Ground Zero:


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Ground Zero was approaching my max level of tolerable Quake. while it did add some new enemies and weapons, minor issues started to niggle at me. All the new guns are unbound and must be selected through the inventory function, forgivable, but the stationary ball-turrets felt like a lazy way to increase the difficulty in a game that features tank-men. On a positive note, the spider-Strogg boss was pretty dope. 


Issues aside, The mission packs are done with, that just leaves Quake 4, but first...

Saints Row the Third

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Following my play-through of Volition's answer to the GTA series, Saints Row 2, I promptly bought the third title for little more than peanuts. Fast forward to a gaming binge that had me battling on long lost alien planets full of cybernetic horrors, I needed a vacation, Steelport seemed a nice location.

Following the gangster success of the first two games, the OG crew of lowlifes scores film, comic book, and energy drink deals, leading to a safe, legal, income and a state of utter boredom. Naturally, the now famous crew; Shawndi, Pierce, and Johnny Gat, look to spice up their lives with a return to form, a callback to a simpler time of damsels and Tommy guns, They rob a bank. 


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Choosing a bank to rob isn't as simple as Payday makes it look. This bank happens to be owned by the Belgian kingpin Phillipe Loren. After being captured and barely escaping to Steelport, it's the crew's ultimate goal to take Steelport and regain their top-dog status. Saints Row 3 has me once again starting from the bottom and working my way up. It's not much, but it's a dishonest job. 

Saints Row 3 sits in a weird spot. The plot creeps into the absurd while maintaining a steady stream of missions and upgrades. Both 'gangsta respect' and cash allowed me to unlock new upgrades and weapons. It really was a an easy game with a silly story and characters, a nice break from, oh wait!.....Mars mission!

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Quake 4 Makron Re-Emerges!

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Okay, so this post is going on forever. 

I did win Quake 1 long ago with it's two mission packs, Quake 3 is multiplayer only, So that just leaves Quake 4, the black sheep in the Quake family. The game really does take steps away from it's ID softwares previous games, handing over the development to Ravensoft, creator of such games as Soldier of Fortune 1&2 as well as some other early 2000's shooters.

Quake 4 begins with an awesome in-engine cutscene and appears to follow the events of Quake 2. Bitterman has destroyed the AA guns and defense systems in the first game, banished the Makron, and laid out the red carpet for a full invasion force. Now it's time for the bad-assed marines to march onto Stroggos, wipe out the resistance, and free any non-Stroggified humans still inside.


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I run about the hectic combat as Mathew Kane, something of a loose cannon, but no Bitterman. Quake 4 really pushes the squad based feel of the game, superiors issuing orders, comrades handing out health and weapon upgrades, as well as doing their best to assist in combat. Objectives similarly involved some NPC teamwork, such as protection and escort missions for the games tech mastermind voiced by none other than Peter Stormare, awesome.

After a few missions, vehicle sections included, a raid leads to the first encounter with the resurrected Makron. Somehow I get captured this time and strapped into the Stroggification Assembly line, quite horrid. Though my comrades from Rhino team rescue me just before I accept the user agreement to my brains new Stroggware, Bitterman is now surgically stroggified and enhanced physically. I must say, I'm kinda dissapointed by the 'enhancements' that the Stroggificaton process had to offer, my health cap went up to 125% and I could run a little faster, but I hardly felt as powerful as Quake 2 Bitterman. I guess transhumanism isn't all it's cracked up to be. 

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With a little initial suspicion Kane is quickly put on a  final daring mission. The goal now is to use my newfound robot-parts to invade a final Strogg fortress and close the portal to their evil dimension. This leads to a few bossfights and eventually the second death of the Makron, good riddance. 
The game is finally wrapped up and leaves an opening for another sequel, though Quake 5 is a arena shooter again, so maybe Quake 6?

Some backlog busting retrospect

Well, July is almost over and my backlog has shrunk a little, I'd call this a success, especially considering I haven't bought many new games either. I plan for this to change ofcourse, with Halo Infinite, Shadow Warrior 3 and Serious Sam 4 on the way. It's a question of balance and economy of time, can I win games faster than I buy them? should I even aim to win all my games? These are the real tough questions that politicians refuse to answer, and for good reason; no-one knows. 

So for now I will say bye, but look for more smoking hot videogame content in the future, Comrades!



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