CrocMagnum

Frankly when I made that post, I still had hope. Full disclosure: I thought Concord had decent gameplay.

Haha! Believe or not, Concord is still being updated regularly on Steam. Some gamers expressed the idea that Concord could come back as a free-to-play: Rumor: Concord To Return As Free-To-Play After Failed Launch (theouterhaven.net)

That's one hell of a trailer. I can't wait to play this one.

"Scalpers" are also part of the problem. These speculators buy goods in bulk then sell them later for a fortune. The PS5 Disk Drives are about to go on shortage and I suspect they are responsible. On a sidenote I had a good laugh with this one:

1- Walls: look for anything that is out of the ordinary. Like a change of color or a deliberate misaligned texture for said wall. Then use the 'action key', 2- frob everything you see. Because sometimes having good eyes won't help you. Look again for walls, paintings, computers, bookcases... 3- shoot any prop that looks suspicious or you can't reach: like a triangle eye or a symbol located high above you. Anything that stands out, Ex: In "Sigil" you have to shoot triangle eyes to progress at some point. 4- be on the lookout for concealed switches, occasionally mappers like to put them out of sight ^^, 5- just walking on a tile might trigger a hidden door/lift/wall somewhere. You'll usually hear a sound when this happens. Look around you or the other rooms nearby to find them. More often than not these triggers are timed so be swift, 6- on point -5, sometimes when you're about to finish a level you might want to backtrack to the beginning; you might discover that a hidden area has opened, Ex: 'Winter’s Fury Map 01': going back at the beginning you'll find a Secret Log. You can read it by activating the console in GZdoom (key ² under Escape), 7- sometimes you have to go off the beaten path to find a secret. Watch you environment, the architecture. Ex: skirting the front of a building just to find a secret at the back, 8- finally it might happen that you have to collect a certain key or skulls to unlock a secret area or a new level, Ex: in Sacrament MAP02 'Doxylamine Moon' you have to collect quite a few orange skulls and put them on their respective niches in the museum building to unlock a secret area.

Just a remark: judging from the screenshot you posted, the playthrough you watched is extremely outdated. The AMC Squad v4.5 is head and shoulders above older versions (level design, weapons, music,...). Here's a quality playthrough which was posted more recently. This will give you a more reliable point of view: The AMC Squad Episode 1 The Men Who Were AMC (Youtube)

Duke Nukem 3D comes with Mapster32 Editor. From what I gather it isn't as intuitive as the Doom Builder editor, though. The EDuke32 Source Port gives you even more scripting options and it has a linux version too. Making Maps with Mapster32 (Steam Guide) If I mention Duke Nukem 3D it's because a few months ago I discovered a total conversion called The AMC Squad. This mod was so entertaining it kept me hooked for a few months, no joke. They are 4 Episodes, right now. The mod is fully voice acted and has a pretty sizeable roster of playable characters. The AMC Squad has dialogue options so that's why I'm mentioning it here. Since I'm no modder, I have no idea how they implemented that feature. AMC Squad v4.5 FULL (moddb) note: The AMC Squad is standalone, it doesn't need Duke Nukem 3D to be played.

There's an Hexen mod which gives Hints when you trigger a part of a puzzle. It's HeXen Seven Portals Re-Script, it was released on the ZDooM Forums in 2019. Download link is dead. I'll upload the mod shortly. Edit: ReScriptDis (Mediafire)

Here's an important heads-up for those who never played Deus Ex or Deus Ex 2027: The voice you hear at the beginning of the vid, when the player leaves his apartment, is the voice of Titan. Titan is an AI in 2027, like Deadalus and Icarus were AIs in original Deus Ex. Being an AI, I mean in the game story^^, Titan had to be given a robotic tone to be in-line with the voices of Daedalus and Icarus who also had that kind of voice in Deus Ex. Apart from the robotic accent of Titan, every other voices in the '2027 English Voiceovers' are actually quite good.

@Kinsie: Maybe I'm a bit naive but I would never have thought these voices were AI-Generated. I mean this English Dub is quite convincing on a whole, in my view at least. ^^ @Mr. Freeze and @D4NUK1: Yeah! Nothing beats real voice actors. Now finding motivated dubbers with the talent can take some work. Tools like ElevenLabs can get the job done. To be honest with you when I heard these English voices for the first time I was both delighted and scared. Delighted because 2027 is one my favorite mod for Deus Ex. So getting voice acting is a huge plus for me. Scared because I couldn't make the difference between a human performance and an Artificial Intelligence.

A few weeks ago, I checked moddb and found an update for Deus Ex 2027, one of the most notable singleplayer campaign for Deus Ex. This optional patch adds English Voiceovers for 2027. What took me by surprise was the unusual overall quality of these voiceovers and that they were in fact AI-Generated. The modders used a software called ElevenLabs (Official Site). The result is quite astonishing but I'll let you be the judge: First I post this for modders who struggle with voice acting implementation into their mods. Today generating voiceovers with AI software is totally viable. Secondly, there are legal aspects that are hard to ignore. A few months ago, notable French dubbers made a plea on Twitter-X to defend their trade. Among them was Brigitte Lecordier, the legendary dubber of Son Goku in the French version of Dragon Ball. To sum up, these French dubbers fear the industry could steal their voices without their consent and consequently making them lose their jobs. They added that these issues not only affect dubbers but also concern graphic designers, musicians, writers and singers. https://x.com/i/status/1792973986130772337

Classic Marathon 2 (Steam) This version of Marathon 2 runs with the open source engine Aleph One. In addition, there's an "XBLA Graphics Pack" available as a free DLC. Marathon 1 is available since May 2024 and Marathon 3 Infinity is coming soon. Both for free too.

Glad you didn't lose any data. I've read your blog entry about this: I really liked the pun at the end; gotta respect the classics.

In Diablo 2, Tristram and Lut Gholein are one-of-a-kind. Then the sheer quality of the music keeps me coming back.

Vampire the Masquerade Redemption (2000) pleases me in every aspect of its sound design. The soundtrack by Kevin Manthei was exceptional, it still gives me the chills: Main Theme, Anezka Theme. The Voice Acting was memorable too. The actors tried to mimic Old English. It wasn't perfect but it added so much to the Medieval/Ghotic atmosphere. The Sound Effects created by Nick Peck were so polished that I still remember them to this day: The footsteps, the potions, the weapons clashing in the inventory, the vampiric powers or the cue when you gained a level. Finally Vampire Redemption had EAX sound, it was such a joy to play this game. Edit: while doing my search I learned two things: 1- Vampire Redemption was developed by an American studio. Damn, I always thought Nihilistic were from Eastern countries. 2- the voice actress who dubbed Anezka (Maggie Beard) also voiced Samara in Mass Effect 2! I would never have thought.