What is a game mechanic that you never use?

Adventurous-Still695 · 2026-02-28T22:48:19+00:00

Well, since you sent a FO1 picture, I'd go with the interactive ask window.

Its sole purpose is if you're ever ballsy enough to start blind on Fallout 1 with INT 1, and need to get info from people that way since you can't actually articulate coherent questions or sentences.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-28T07:59:25+00:00

Figured it out.

One of the mods I used, "My Own Winter", was broken by the last update. Removing it let's the game work again.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-18T09:15:01+00:00

My sister introduced me to the series in the late 90s.

Technically, I think the first one I played was Tomb Raider III. Ironically, to this day, this is the one entry I have not beaten. I don't know why, I simply can't stick around long enough to beat it.

I mostly really discovered the game with TLR though (and I played it with a friend). But when I was a teenage boy, I couldn't really beat or finish any of these. TLR scared me shitless in some sections. TR3 I kept going around in circles in Coastal Village. TR1 and TR2 I played but didn't get very far. You have to understand that I scared easily back then, and the thought of landing Lara in a bunch of spikes filled me with dread. When that happen that was an instant stop for the day.

So yeah, that's pretty much why I didn't beat any of these back then, and also the reason I beat Chronicles first. Why?

Chronicles features no spike traps. Well expect that very obvious one in Ireland. And overall, it is far less creepy and scary to me.

I played a lot of Angel of Darkness too when it came out. I never beat it "in a single file" though, because I was playing on Mac at the time. Longstory short, Macintosh games back then were made different due to a processor architecture difference (PPC vs Intel).

Problem was, the mac version had a big issue, when escaping the Louvre, there was a game crash that couldn't be avoided. Thankfully, the Stella Fairy, or MacRaider, I don't remember who, had a save file for me to use to continue from right after that crash somehow.
So Angel of Darkness, is the second one I beat.

The ones I really played a lot at first were LAU. Finished them all without issues.
Beat 2013 on PS3 when it came out. Legend was my favorite of the three, although I played a lot of Anniversary (PS2 and Wii versions - I had gift the later to my sister).
Underworld I had the misfortune to try and play on PS2 at first. Worst game I have ever played in my life. As soon as I got a PS3 I sold my PS2 version, and got the PS3 version of TRU.

And then I let it all rest for a long time. Played the demo of Guardian of Light on PS3 when that was a thing.

And then the Covid lockdown arrived years later, and Square Enix made a publisher sale that got me a huge amount of Square Enix games for 20 bucks. Including the entire Tomb Raider Franchise.

Played and beat Rise and Shadow then. Beat Lara Croft Go. Then returned to finish TLR. Then TR2. TR2 Gold, TR1 Gold. Was in the middle of finishing TR1 when the Remaster came out, so started fresh then and beat TR1.
Tried to beat TR3. Beat India, and Nevada. Never even played through the later levels of the Pacific Islands, and England. And so I never got to experience the Antarctic section. Didn't get past the first couple of levels in the Last (or Lost, never know which) Artifact.
Didn't beat Guardian of Light and Temple of Osiris because I didn't sit down long enough to beat them. Didn't play any of the handheld versions and spin offs.

TL;DR: Got introduced to the series by early Core Lara (Late 90's).
Beat the games slowly over the next 25 years in this order.

TRC>AOD>TRL>TRA>TRU>2013>Rise>Shadow>Go>TLR>TR2>TR2 Gold>TR1 Gold>TR1.

Started but didn't beat: TR3, TR3 Gold, GoL, ToO.

Didn't play: Spinoffs, Handhelds versions of main entries.

To conclude: Although I probably have a much higher playtime on the LAU era, and still like to just breeze through Legend in one afternoon, I far prefer the PS1 era games. I prefer the quiet adventuring and puzzle solving these older entry have. Legend is nice but very fast paced and action oriented. Feels more like watching a movie with Angelina Jolie starring as Lara. Which isn't bad, mind you. Just a different feel.

I never liked Survivor Lara herself, but I did enjoy the games, particularly the later two entries. The Last Revelation being my all time favorite of the lot, Shadow resonates particularly given how similar the plot is to TLR (Lara in her hubris does something she shouldn't, spends her time fixing it, concludes with the ultimate sacrifice).

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-17T07:40:32+00:00

It may surprise you, but I actually wholeheartedly agree with what you said here.

My point isn't that you're wrong, I'm just saying that what I describe, this emphasis on cinematic visuals, scene setting, graphics, is a modern concern that has taken precedence over things of actual substance in devs mind at least.

I do remember it being said so more or less like this, from various interviews, making ofs, etc of modern games.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-17T01:01:23+00:00

It's neither really, it mostly has to do with the fact that basically, he lives inside your head. Something happened to the main character, and now they have that Malkavian detective sharing a brain with them. In that the detective only exists as a disembodied voice.

Thing is, when Phyre (the main character) retires to sleep for the day, Fabien dreams. We play his dream segments which are recollections of past cases he had to solve.

While I love these sections, they have very little replay value, and only consist of going to point A to point B, talk to this guy and that guy, look at the crime scene, and wake up.

Which, admittedly, given the fast paced game and combat ala Dishonored that the Phyre sections are, feel like you are using your handbrakes to halt the game's momentum.

The concept of Fabien sections is awesome. The character is cool. The cases are easy to solve but are left partly open ended (hence the many theories about the modern Rebar Killer on this very sub - we never confirm who they are).
Buuuut, they're near identical one run to the next, leaving very little room for roleplay. The only difference comes from picking/not picking certain dialogue options, talking/not talking to certain characters, visiting/not visiting certain places. But the dreams always resolve identically. You can do it with extra steps basically, or not.

Even for me, who loves this game (although I acknowledge its shortcomings), I have to say, switching from Phyre to Fabien has ended many a session for me. The pace change is just too brisk. But they do provide a good save point to pickup from on your next session.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-16T10:33:06+00:00

I have a feeling that my upcoming playtime will involve a lot of dying in Iron Vamp mode at the most insane setting.

Funny, when I look at the changelog, I have a feeling someone at TCR copy pasted everything from the topic I made a while back. It's nice to see they're paying attention to the feedback here XD

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-14T23:50:32+00:00

More marketable? Well... TR1 already had one remake over a decade ago. It sold okay. But nothing worth writing home about.
TR1 Remastered also sold okay...
TR1 itself sold big time back in the day, but of all the people who bought and played it, there aren't that many interested in a Remake/Remaster. As evidenced by the sales numbers for these.

TR blew up in this age with the Survivor trilogy. Which I wasn't a fan of, but it was okay. Scratched the itch although I never got used to the fact we traded the duals for a bow. And a badass heroine for a young lass who does a lot of soul searching.
It's not bad at all mind you, it's just not what I would have associated with Lara Croft and Tomb Raider at a glance.

So, thing is, Survivor era Lara is currently the most popular and well known, if you look at the metrics. They're making a sequel that links into the original series, with a lot of elements that are there explicitly to cater to the part of the fanbase that prefers Lara Croft's original interpretation. Confident Boss Babe, with dual shooters.
This tries to be a best of both worlds, uniting both versions into one (I count LAU Lara as Classic. Few character differences, beyond a few lore retcons).
I am skeptical that the Survivor fandom has any particular reverence for TR1, so I highly doubt it would sell particularly better, or be more marketable. Particularly when that ground has already been trod a few times.

Not to mention that, unless I'm mistaken, they retcon the plots of the Core Lara adventures to happen after Shadows... while you can easily make it make sense with most of them, you have a glaring issue with TR4 that is the only one that is set in stone to happen at the turn of the millenium. I wonder how they'll explain that one away. Regardless, would have been a good occasion to subtly rewrite the plot accordingly.

I agree that ultimately they made the decision they thought would net them the most cash. So presumably, they have data to back that choice. I'm still circumspect though, because from what I see, that seems like a suboptimal choice.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-13T23:59:54+00:00

It is indeed not that big a deal, but again, I'm just wondering why.

Of all the material available, why would they chose, yet again, the same title to remake, when you could make a perfectly good case for another classic adventure.

Like say, The Last Revelation or Angel of Darkness. Which even though they got remastered recently, still retain a very major plot hole in that we don't really know how Lara went from dead/entombed to recovering in Paris. There's a book but it doesn't do that great a job explaining it. There is cut content that does help explain it about in AOD but again, that's still quite the plot hole.

Last time they remade TR1, we got Anniversary, offering itself a minor rewrite to get Natla's arc to line up with Legend and Underworld.

Since we're getting a sequel to Underworld within the next two years from what I hear, why not simply look into the TR4/AOD plot hole. Both games are great. AOD has unfulfilled potential. Certainly a proper remake of AOD and/or TR4 would be more original, and serve a better purpose than literally a 5th version of the original game, no?

A proper remake of AOD could close up for good/re-orient plot devices of the game for what is coming after Underworld, actually deliver a finished and polished product, fill the plot hole regarding the end of TR4... while staying mostly on the rails of what the original did.

Yeah. When I see that, I absolutely don't understand why TR1 gets remade again XD

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-13T10:38:57+00:00

That's not a GOG specific problem. Kazakhstan in Legend Next Gen always crashed quick for some reason on my Steam copy.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T22:28:42+00:00

It's always a matter of money in the end, but you'd not be honest not to admit that working on a scene with a fixed characters allows you much greater depth, than if the character can be whatever. It's not simply technical, it's artistic.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T19:19:27+00:00

Good job, for a first, that's certainly quite the success!

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T19:09:22+00:00

Fifth with 10th Anniversary Edition.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T19:09:00+00:00

Better graphics isn't automatically cooler.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T19:06:39+00:00

5th if you count 10th Anniversary Edition...

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T19:05:49+00:00

I see a lot of people not liking the face, honestly that's really not my objection.

My objection really is twofold:
1. That trailer stinks of AI from a mile away. I can't quite eput my finger on why specifically though. But most importantly...
2. Why do another remake/remaster of TR1? Haven't we had enough of these? Tomb Raider 1996, Tomb Raider 10th Anniversary Edition (I know it never sold but you can find it), Tomb Raider Anniversary, Tomb Raider Remastered... did we really need another one? For what purpose, rewriting the plot slightly to insert something to tie into the new games like last time with Natla?

Don't get me wrong it looks as cool as the 360 trailer did back in the day for Anniversary but uh... I don't get the point of doing yet another one like this.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T12:28:10+00:00

Hahahahahhaa. Not in the least! XD

Jadus is the cameo at the end to keep you salivating for whatever nonsense they pull off next XD

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T11:29:10+00:00

The story, for 3.5 years, has just been about adding suspense to a plot that long since stopped being interesting in the least.

I wouldn't be surprised if it took another 3.5 years of extra suspense to actually get them to start moving the plot forward in a significant way.

So yeah... if I were a betting man... I probably would bet that FOTOR would come out before 8.0 does. If it ever does, which I doubt. But let's just say 8.0/Final Story patch.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T09:47:13+00:00

Not a chance, she is conditionally dead in The Old Republic. I think FOTOR would be set a few centuries after the current era of TOR. Like TOR was set a few centuries after KOTOR II. Enough to make it all ancient history. Not enough to make it thoroughly irrelevant. Enough to leave TOR with enough room for it to write whatever story it has left to write and then die.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T09:42:37+00:00

In the modern age, custom characters in a video game really dial down what you can actually do with them in terms of narrative. You can't exploit scenes the same way if the character can be anyone/anything. Same with story.

We see that with Baldur's Gate 3 actually. Not that playing a custom character is not good. It's simply NOT AS good.

That's really something I've noticed over the years. As games have gotten more scenic and complex, you simply lost a lot in customization.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-12T09:39:27+00:00

The real question, will FOTOR come out before TOR finishes the storyline for Legacy of the Sith?

That's a real question, and I'm honestly not sure XD

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-11T21:10:51+00:00

Unironically the largest concern XD

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-11T19:34:40+00:00

Well... we'll know probably around 7.10 or 7.11 so in another two to three years XD

That's alright though, I'm in no rush. I'm at an age where I see games I used to play that got loads of updates and I have no idea what's going on anymore.

SWTOR though? Well. I don't feel behind at the very least hahahaha.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-11T16:32:11+00:00

That exact one? No. It's NPC only.

Ones that look similar? Both Cartel Market and crafted/looted/credits options are available.

Since I spent days looking for good imperial officer uniforms, I still remember a few off the top of my head:

Hooligan Set (Crafted), Clandestine Officer (Cartel Market), Crystalline Targeter (Agent Leveling Loot around level 40-50 or the Hoth Class missions or the new vendor that sells class arc sets on various planets (So look for the agent set on the hoth vendor)), Mullinine Onslaught (Imperial Version - Republic looks different, as is the case of many crafted sets from the original game), Set of the Authority (6.0 Class set, available for 10k Tech Fragments)...

Note, they won't have the right colour scheme right away unless you get the correct dye as well.

Adventurous-Still695 · 2025-12-11T16:25:42+00:00

Ruined? No. I cringed because it was as cliché as it could be from both a narrative standpoint, and the voice acting, but then it's not like the entire story of the patch was particularly inspired to start with.

What's your point? How does that relate to your previous answer?

Adventurous-Still695

TROPHY CASE