chakkman

75% off on Steam now: http://store.steampowered.com/app/337000/Deus_Ex_Mankind_Divided/ Other games from the series are heavily discounted too.

Well, playing games for centuries now, i still remember the times where there weren't ANY face animations, and the head was just consisting of a few polygons (think Thief Gold, or the early Tomb Raider parts). Not sure why people are so obsessed with visuals these days. IMO, there's much more important parts of a game (which unfortunately often fall short these days. Visuals=stunning, gameplay and story=meh). The game data size also exploded, just because of textures and visuals. Not to talk about system requirements. Don't get me wrong, it is nice to have good looking games, but, that's only part of the magic for me. Gameplay and story are MUCH more important for me than the latest generation of super stunning grapics. E.g. i still enjoy Thief Gold or 2, very much. F*** the visuals, the atmosphere, gameplay, and story of those games make up for that 10 times.

OK, thanks for the heads up. Strange that other open source games and mods get this done so quickly, but, i wouldn't know the why's, how's, and if's.

Any news on this?

People seem to be completely obsessed with face animations now... i watched a test video of Assassin's Creed Origins yesterday, and they criticized... yep, you guessed it... the face animations! Seems like those are much more important than the game content now. I mean, the visuals of nowadays games are stunning, ESPECIALLY the animations. You can clearly see the focus people put in the games these days. Visuals visuals visuals. And brute sound. Gameplay and content? Subsidiary.

OMG, it's Shodan!

Nice. BTW, as i'm fiddling a bit with synthesizers myself, in the original Thief games, Eric Brosius used FM sounds a lot (It's really one of the core elements in most of his stuff). I think he also used some wavetable synthesizers, like the old PPG synthesizers, and probably also sounds from rompler synthesizers, like the Roland or KORG ones. I always wanted to go round, and try to do some music in the style of the Thief soundtrack, but, like always when i want to make music, never really managed to finish something...

It's great. There is a remake with better graphics, gameplay and sound though, which is very true to the original: http://store.steampowered.com/app/314660/Oddworld_New_n_Tasty/ It's only a fiver ATM too.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. I will gather some more, until i can make a decision. Unfortunately, also, my budget is pretty tight, and, i'd be willing to shell out 150 € max, which probably limits the options much. If i don't find a decent monitor in that price range, i rather stick to the BenQ 22" i linked to in the OP. The original thinking was that i would like to get a 24", which is about as good as the 22" i have now, but, the 2 i ordered, and described were both worse, regarding the background lighting. I really don't know how BenQ did it for this monitor, there's really hardly a issue with black, or dark screen content (only a very small "surrounding" around the surroundings of the monitor is a tad light up). The "magic" is probably that it doesn't get too bright, and that it isn't too big, hence doesn't get the issue of having to brightly illuminate a big area.

Hey, as the Thief games and The Dark Mod vastly benefit from monitors with a good background lighting, meaning, a monitor without, or with minimal background bleeding, clouding, or IPS glow, i wanted to ask if anyone knows a decent 24" budget monitor, which doesn't suffer, or doesn't suffer that much from the mentioned phenomenes. I use this monitor for quite a while now (must be 6 years now, or more): http://www.chip.de/artikel/BenQ-G2220HD-TFT-Monitor-Test_43328296.html It was a very cheap monitor (i think i paid 120 or 130 € for it), and, the background lighting is pretty good, no clouding in the edges, no glow (after all, it's a TN panel, and, i think the thing called IPS glow is only happening on IPS, and Samsung's PLS panels), and the lighting is pretty consistent, and unobtrusive too. Mind you, the monitor is a bit dim, and it doesn't get excessively bright, even on 100% brightness. More current monitors get brighter, but, maybe that's part of the problem? Anyway, so, after years of using this thing, i recently ordered a Samsung PLS monitor, for 132 €, this one: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B01BCF0006/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Turned it on after putting it together, and, was very fond of what i was seeing. Nice picture, sharp and bright. Was very happy first. Then, as i know that it is a lighting sensitive game, i started TDM. Jeez, horrible. Big clouds in all edge, and, especially in the lower left edge. So dramatic that it was hardly possible to see wall, or floor textures in dark places. I could also switch to any setting i wanted, also manually adjusted brightness, contrast, and colours, it helped nothing, those clouds totally destroyed the experience. Ok, sent it back, heavy-heartedly, because the picture otherwise was really good. Ordered this ASUS monitor, which is a TN panel, because i expected a similar experience to my old BenQ monitor: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B014RKZ81O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Turned it on, picture seemed so-so. No realy improvement to my BenQ, actually, the opposite, i found it a bit worse, and it had a really bright glow, already visible on the desktop too. Booted TDM, to see what the background lighting is like there. One word: Terrible. Don't buy this monitor if you want to play any game, which is a bit more dark, or even, when you play normal games. I'm seriously wondering. Did monitors in that price segment get worse? Seriously, my BenQ seems better than both of those. The Samsung had a better picture by default, and was also more sharp, but, completely messed up when the picture became darker. I wonder, did anyone make the same experience? Can you recommend a similarly priced screen? I know there's also some BenQ 24" for that price, but, i'm really a bit scared now... i don't want to order another monitor, just to send it back again...

I just found this thread, by accident. What happened to the model shown in post #7? I quite like it.

Fair enough. It's just that some vloggers often appear a bit pretentious to me. And often, when i read some reviews, i keep thinking "Meh... does the guy actually know how games have progressed in the last 15 years, and how great they can be now, compared to what we had back then?". But, okay, i see the issues with the casual, Assassins Creed style "Press one button to climb up the highest building in the city", with their treasues behind every corner, and fights, which almost play themselves, and the player can nearly just watch, and doesn't have to do anything. There's of course some of that in FO 4 too. E.g., i have no idea how the vault dweller who just woke up from his beauty sleep knows all those recipes, which involve ingredients from the local, irradiated wild life. Or how he can know all those gun construction plans, when he doesn't even know about the parts which are available in the world. Or the generic faction quest, which always repeat themselves. Franly though, in terms of game and world design, Bethesda definitely upped their game. Massively. Morrowind and Oblivion looked absolutely generic compared to it. And there's a whole lot of stuff going on too, and the game world is very detailled, which is only possible with an extra effort of "man power", obviously. Anyway. Just saying that it surely isn't a top game for nothing. Even though Assassins Creed is also a top game. But, i dare to assume that the target audience isn't quite the same.

I agree. That kind of stuff is annoying for me too, also the Oblivion doors, in Oblivion. TBH, i much prefer the Bethesda Fallout's to the Elder Scrolls parts anyway. Dunno, they really only managed the jump out of generic quest design, game design, and world design with the Fallout games IMO. Ok, Skyrim isn't that bad in that regard. But, dunno, it's more of a modern game also, which feels a bit casual, and almost as if it plays itself. Anyway, Bethesda's role play games surely all have their flaws, agreed, but, at the same time, they're freaking good and fun to play also. And, i really want to see all those vloggers, and people who are overly critical, and see what games they design, which are all awesome, without flaws, and perfect. Metacritic says 84-88/100 points for the different versions of Fallout 4, and 91/93 for Fallout 3. And Fallout 4 was one of the best selling titles ever, AFAIK. I can't really see how that would justify a comment that the game is "bad". People who don't like the mass appeal surely have a right to their opinion, but, it's just that then. An opinion. Same with Steam reviews. I recently checked GTA 5 on Steam. The last 20 or 30 reviews were all negative. WTF. One of the most awesome games i played in the last 10 years, probably the most awesome. With a game world, and detail, which puts every competition to shame. Sometimes i really think we live in times of too much wealth, boredom, and daintiness.

@ Judith: Fair enough if YOU don't like it. That doesn't mean that it's a bad game generally though. And, regarding the game world, i don't think there even could be different opinions, unless you're very prejudiced. Anyway. I only played Fallout 1 from the 2D parts BTW. Didn't like it at all TBH. Neither the iso view, nor the turn based fights. Just not my cup of tea. I much prefer the 3D games.

Yeah, especially as we're talking about one of the best selling games series in the last century. Can't be that bad, i guess.

To each their own. IMO, Fallout 4 has the best game world of the Fallouts, by quite a margin. New Vegas surely had the best story and characters. And Fallout 3 felt very round, solid game. Only the never ending metro tunnels, and the fact you only could enter certain areas through those, was a bit annoying. Still, had great fun in that (i am finishing the GOTY edition ATM, which is excellent really). Dunno, i like them all, and they all have their flaws. Simply, Bethesda. In FO 4, i would surely criticize the generic faction quests (thought Bethesda was done with the generic stuff), and i didn't enjoy the settlement stuff too much either (next time, i just won't join the Minutemen). It never really got boring for me though, as i had so much fun exploring the whole map, because every singly location was worth it.

Good to know that the rest of the game is better.

I must admit that i typically have to get over the first 2 or 3 hours in a game, and that they usually get better, and more fun after that. I maybe played MD for 3 or 4 hours, and it didn't click at that point. Will surely give it another go at some point. Although i found the cut scene after the first mission REALLY lame. I just hate that games feel like Hollywood flicks nowadays.

Yeah, must admit that i had quite a lot of time at hand when i played Fallout 4 at least. Even without that, i couldn't rush through such a game in 40 or 50 hours though. I would miss a lot, and i really had fun exploring in FO4. Almost became obsessive...

Only ever played the first tutorial mission, and it annoyed me a bit TBH. Not only did i find the cut scenes exaggerated, and tedious, but, also the gameplay, interface, and game world, where there's so much stuff going on, that you hardly know where to look, or with which objects you can interact, and with which you cannot. The latter being a general issue with nowadays games though. IMO, they just ham it up too much. I might give it a go again at some point. It was the first game i ever demanded a refund for on Steam, BTW. i bought it again in a sale half a year later then though, for 15 €. Frankly, not a big fan of modern games. And the Deus Ex reboots are ok, but... the original Deus Ex was better, wasn't it? Sort of like Thief, just that the Thief reboot was a total disaster, while the new Deus Ex's are just OK. But, meh, neither Adam Jensen is as cool as JC Denton was, nor is the vibe still there. Also, it strangely seems to resemble the Thief reboot. Can't even really put my finger on why. It just feels a bit like it, for me. Like, they tried to replicate the old style, but never really got a good feeling for the stuff. And they both seem "french". Again, something i can't really explain why i feel like that. Feeling is just there.

If 30 hours are long for you, then i don't know what to say about my 355 hours of Fallout 4 on Steam.

Even after years of playing this game, i ashamedly learn new things i have never even noticed when playing it.

Yeah. I totally forgot actually, that the compass in the inventory already shows directional arrows. So, ya, if another solution, i'd also be happy to be able to toggle it on and off, and not to have it permanently on, as i also prefer a clean HUD. So, to have it optionally would surely be a good idea.

Sounds good to me.

I can totally relate to that. Some TDM missions, but also the original Thief games' missions sometimes kept me thinking "Ugh... i do have quite a good sense of orientation, but, what will people do who don't...". Although i'm playing Fallout 3 GOTY Edition ATM, and some locations there, and, especially, the metro tunnels are like HUUUUGE, and mostly same-ish looking, so, that's even worse IMO. Sometimes, also, the original Thief missions had quite an adventurous level design, for example that artist house in Thief Dark Project, which added to the difficult orientation. Anyway, it's manageable in most/all cases, so, no problem for me. I rather have big levels, than small ones, which more feel like a teaser than a mission. I prefer 3 or 4 hours of play time to 1 hour.