ZergSmasher wrote: Still progressing in my career game in Kerbal Space Program. Having a hard time designing efficient ships to take 3 Kerbals to the moon and back. Fuel is heavy, so adding more just makes launching harder. I must use my engineering mind and think about this.
Have you throttled your engine stages for atmospheric flight? The decreased efficiency and effects of air resistance which increases as you travel faster means that you need to set up your engines for the atmospheric part of the launch such that you aren't wasting fuel trying to travel too fast at too low an altitude. So you throttle the engines such that the beginning stage gets you to a certain height at which you have hit the maximum effective speed, then change to the next stage to get to a height with a new effective speed etc.
Also, I assume you're performing a gravity turn where your flight plan takes a gradually increasing diagonal trajectory through Kerbins atmosphere in order to use the gravitational pull to gain delta-v? If not then this wiki article explains the concept.
I'm absolutely using gravity turns, but maybe I'm not doing it right for the craft I'm using. I'm generally not sure when to start rolling the ship over and how far at each altitude. I'm sure it's different for each craft. I've played around with it and did manage to make it to the moon and back with 3 Kerbals, but I could probably do it better. My current design is 3 stages: a liftoff/ascent stage, a transfer stage, and a landing/return stage. I'm not using a dedicated lander because my skills at orbital rendezvous are not good, to say the least. I'm sure that just takes practice. The thing that doesn't seem to be working right is that the transfer stage ends up being needed not just for transfer but to even establish Kerbin orbit. Making it bigger like I've done seems like a brute force method.
I'm watching a streamer play through the Tales of Vesperia remaster and since the game is so linear I figure there's no point in playing Vesperia, but it got me interested in the series. Vesperia seems a little typical anime - cheery protagonists and cuteness.
Berseria by contrast has some really dark tones, I definitely like it.
The last bosses were an absolute slog with so many effects and constant teleporting, which were the "climax" to a bunch of underwhelming Disney worlds. Also, holy crap, did they ruin Xehanort. You're telling me you couldn't find ONE PERSON who could do something approximating Nimoy's voice? Instead we get a guy who makes the character's lines either laughable or actively groan inducing, and sounds like he's about to launch into BJORK BJORK or like Tigger in the last boss fight.
I think Time's review covers it best - too little, too late. This should have been done five years ago.
Studying Myst for a VR project, and it really is a triumph of art & design over technology. Crap at the puzzles but its still enjoyable in a "take notes and make maps" old style of play.
Love masters of doom( best games development book ever! ) and after two decades took the plunge to play Daikatana to see if it really was as bad as they said. Apparently it gets better after the first episode, but I'm not that far in and finding it awkward. In hindsight, they should have stuck with the Quake 1 engine and had a ball with design and gameplay.
SamusDrake wrote: Studying Myst for a VR project, and it really is a triumph of art & design over technology. Crap at the puzzles but its still enjoyable in a "take notes and make maps" old style of play.
Myst is one of the first computer games I really played a lot when I was young (my dad had to help me a bit, I was like 7 or 8), and I enjoyed it a lot! Play the sequels too; they are really good and the visuals in them are absolutely amazing!
SamusDrake wrote: Love masters of doom( best games development book ever! ) and after two decades took the plunge to play Daikatana to see if it really was as bad as they said. Apparently it gets better after the first episode, but I'm not that far in and finding it awkward. In hindsight, they should have stuck with the Quake 1 engine and had a ball with design and gameplay.
It's an awesome book and the insights it provides into the choices behind the design process of Daikatana is neat. Also, that hubris, that ego.
I finished up the Doom campaign this weekend. Enjoyed it, but even on the easy setting some parts were pretty tough for me, especially when you blow most of your ammo on one boss, and then suddenly you have to fight him all over again
Myst is one of the first computer games I really played a lot when I was young (my dad had to help me a bit, I was like 7 or 8), and I enjoyed it a lot! Play the sequels too; they are really good and the visuals in them are absolutely amazing!
I sadly never had the pleasure of Riven( oh, Steam sale! Lets fix that! ) but I impulse purchased the collectors edition of Exile, and using the strategy guide that came with it, finished it. You are definitely correct that the visuals in the Myst series are amazing. Exile is definitely a game that should be modified for VR, and if only it were for the Oculus Go...I'd be a happy man!
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BrookM wrote: It's an awesome book and the insights it provides into the choices behind the design process of Daikatana is neat. Also, that hubris, that ego.
So, has John Romero made you his bitch yet?
Yes! He has done so many times already and will probably continue to do so before I get to Episode 2!
Speaking of which, he used to have a forum called Rome.Ro, and was surprised how he would take the time to reply to us in a very welcome manner. I nearly fainted when he first replied to one my posts, and I think it was on the subject of masters of doom where I felt uneasy about quoting the book and that it was written as if for the big screen. His reply to me was "we all had to sign off on the book and its the real deal". It wasn't to scauld me but more to give me confidence that I was right to reference the book as to what happened.
Some professionals on forums act like they are the last word, and have that "bodie & doyle" vibe, but John was very pleasant and treated me - at least - as a fellow enthusiast. Even encouraged me to learn a bit of assembly language( C64 stuff! ) which helped hone my programming skills.
Yeah, pretty cool dude whenever he pops up in an interview or they let him play the original DOOM in coop with someone. Always get the feeling he's still a hardcore gamer through and through, especially when he trashtalks his opponents into shock.
Anyway, put in some more time with Deep Rock Galactic, seeing as Far Cry New Dawn drops tomorrow, time to see what happened to the Deputy.
The Daikatana ad never really phased me in the context of its time. It's just very pre-9/11 90's style for an industry that didn't really have much in the way of advertisements outside of enthusiast magazines and websites. Rockstar creators being sold on their Xtreme attitudes were pretty normal in the Liefield era and it was fairly in line with the kind of ads and even games of the era (URNOTE, Nintendon't, MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT, C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!) It most stands out as being a very late example of this kind of marketing that was pretty common since the 80's in one form or another. I never took it as an a indication of who Romero really was as a person.
New Dawn was unlocked this morning, thanks Ubs for not sticking to a single clock somewhere on the other side of the world!
Played for an hour or so to get through the tutorial and into the game proper. So far, so Far Cry and as expected, an even more trimmed down and leaner experience than the previous game. Will be interesting to see how many of the original cast have survived.
Only real downside so far is that the guns are slow on the reload, probably to emphasise that it's 17 years past WW III, but it is annoying that reloading a shotgun takes forever. Even a pistol reload feels laborious, okay the clip is rusty but damn it!
Picked up subnautica. It's quite relaxing and lots of fun. Mostly crafting and exploration with a little bit of survival. Must admit that I'm counting the hours until the next time I get some time to dive deep in the game.
LunarSol wrote: The Daikatana ad never really phased me in the context of its time. It's just very pre-9/11 90's style for an industry that didn't really have much in the way of advertisements outside of enthusiast magazines and websites. Rockstar creators being sold on their Xtreme attitudes were pretty normal in the Liefield era and it was fairly in line with the kind of ads and even games of the era (URNOTE, Nintendon't, MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAT, C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER!) It most stands out as being a very late example of this kind of marketing that was pretty common since the 80's in one form or another. I never took it as an a indication of who Romero really was as a person.
Ah, the good'ol days!
Made a lot more progress in the first episode but its heavy going until the prisoner blocks, where you rescue some chap named "Superfly Johnson". At that point it becomes a better game - no worse than say, Shogo or Jedi Knight. The music isn't too bad either as it has shades of Yuzo Koshiro, with a dash of metal. Artistically, its not bad and has an console-rpg feel to it.
Nerak wrote: Picked up subnautica. It's quite relaxing and lots of fun. Mostly crafting and exploration with a little bit of survival. Must admit that I'm counting the hours until the next time I get some time to dive deep in the game.
Neat! been looking at that for a while. I hope it has more content than most games of its ilk, which can be kinda sparse?
SamusDrake wrote: Made a lot more progress in the first episode but its heavy going until the prisoner blocks, where you rescue some chap named "Superfly Johnson". At that point it becomes a better game - no worse than say, Shogo or Jedi Knight. The music isn't too bad either as it has shades of Yuzo Koshiro, with a dash of metal. Artistically, its not bad and has an console-rpg feel to it.
And here's where you encounter another of the problems with the game.
Unlike most FPS games, the sliding doors in Daikatana close automatically regardless of how far away from the door you are when it closes. And it you happen to be standing in a doorway when that door closes, then you get smashed and killed.
This also applies to your companions, who are apparently not bright enough to move OUT of an open doorway, and will happily stand there until the door closes... and kills them, which causes an instant game over.
SamusDrake wrote: Made a lot more progress in the first episode but its heavy going until the prisoner blocks, where you rescue some chap named "Superfly Johnson". At that point it becomes a better game - no worse than say, Shogo or Jedi Knight. The music isn't too bad either as it has shades of Yuzo Koshiro, with a dash of metal. Artistically, its not bad and has an console-rpg feel to it.
And here's where you encounter another of the problems with the game.
Unlike most FPS games, the sliding doors in Daikatana close automatically regardless of how far away from the door you are when it closes. And it you happen to be standing in a doorway when that door closes, then you get smashed and killed.
This also applies to your companions, who are apparently not bright enough to move OUT of an open doorway, and will happily stand there until the door closes... and kills them, which causes an instant game over.
FYI.
Absolutely! Just finished another session - rescued Mikiko and omg I hate those *%!$ing doors!
The companions, surprisingly, are not toooo bad. Superfly(hahaha!) only once got caught under a walkway and had to reload to a previous state, but otherwise they are okay for the most part. I don't remember it in anyother game at the time, but the commands you give them are foreshadowing Republic Commando! Considering the time Daikatana had begun development, this is quite an interesting game.
I think Rise of the Robots is far worse than Daikatana, and had not even attempted to deliver on most of what was promised. Daikatana, on the other hand, at least made the effort - even when it was for the worst - to implement the features. The only down side to using the Quake 1 engine would have been jerky animation, but that sacrifce would have been worth it if the game itself was good.
With a Daikatana 2 in mind, John could have finished D1 with the Q1 Engine and shortened the content( just slim each episode down ) and made it public that D2 would be created with the Q2 engine. The mind boggles with what they could have done back in the day...shame.
Nerak wrote: Picked up subnautica. It's quite relaxing and lots of fun. Mostly crafting and exploration with a little bit of survival. Must admit that I'm counting the hours until the next time I get some time to dive deep in the game.
"Relaxing"? Wait until the first time you encounter a Reaper when you aren't expecting it. I love Subnautica, but oh boy did it scare me at times.
Nerak wrote: Picked up subnautica. It's quite relaxing and lots of fun. Mostly crafting and exploration with a little bit of survival. Must admit that I'm counting the hours until the next time I get some time to dive deep in the game.
Neat! been looking at that for a while. I hope it has more content than most games of its ilk, which can be kinda sparse?
I'm only about 5h into the game. I've gone in completely blind and my biggest surprise was a surprisingly engaging story. Up until now the game has kept surprising me with various elements I didn't expect to see in it (No spoilers though!). As for content I can't say yet. Until now it's showed me new stuff over and over.
@Tannhauser42 I've been playing on hardcore mode and restarted 3 times so far. Two of the deaths have seemed fair, one from not checking what was above me during a deep dive and dying. Another from radiation and misjudging distance. The third was and instant death from 100% health due to fire and almost made me ragequit. I'd still consider it relaxing though because, to my knowledge, there's no actual time limit so you can just slowly solve problems as they come. I'm sure there'll be more scary stuff later. Think I'll swap to regular survival, it's a bit of a drag to restart and mostly you just go through the same content (with a bit of variation) for the first hour of the game. After that it starts to varies up.
Ive also been playing Subnautica plus a bit of the experimental build of its Below Zero stand alone expansion.
Trying a no cheat run on Subnautica but Im getting nearer the deep endgame parts which I find tedious. Will probably toggle creative mode and get it over with to be honest.
Below Zero is quite empty this early on but its looking promising. Always good to have new fauna and biomes to explore.
Also played through Yakuza 0. That was a lot of fun. The story was abit corny at times but the combat was satisfying. The battle music was good and I still have a tonne of the substories and minigames to do.
I'm really looking forward to finding out more about them. It sounds like they'll have some pretty unique gadgets.
I've finally started playing God of War. As much as I enjoyed the original trilogy, this one is so much better. The story and writing feels a lot more mature and less aimed at angsty teenagers, plus the one shot camera style is incredible
Melissia wrote: To be honest, five hours of content is more than many sandbox games actually have.
Subnautica is great. I didn't expect as much content as I have run in to. The story is pretty great, amazing atmosphere. Way more crafting than I expected there to be. Exploration and crafting are very reliant on finding blueprints in wreckage. Lots of underwater caves and you will probably drown in a few of them without the tracking out of it.
Really great game. I am at 20+ hours sitting at 900m depth with about 600m more to go before the end areas. The Lost River is amazing.
If you like Survival Games, this is a game you will probably enjoy. I don't have many gripes with the game other than end game energy production balance. But that isn't such a big deal because I need lots of it to stay alive.....
Burned through The Messenger recently. I wished they introduced the gimmick a little quicker as you end up playing through a little too much of a so so Ninja Gaiden game before it all comes together into something special. Still worth it, if only to have regular chats with the Shopkeeper.
Picked up gathering storm for civ 6. Its... alright. Mostly quality of life improvements and the addition of some classic civ things thaf had been missing. The climate and diplomacy systems are kind of irrelevant make-work however. Still doesn't make the late game interesting.
So, during the holiday and weather day, I found myself mostly messing about with Fallout 4 instead. Building a ridiculous settlement at Gray Garden, all the way up to the multilevel overpass above it.
I also have a vague urge to play Skyrim again, while I wait for someone to produce a decent RPG...
Wrapped up New Dawn, for what I paid for it it was okay, but certainly a very lean, very stripped down game. Main story isn't all that long and once you get to top tier weaponry and unlock your hidden potential you become an unstoppable monster.
Expeditions were fun and in some cases very rewarding, especially the crashed military plane has a cool as feth easter egg that's worth it.
Also, it took them way too many games to implement "bayonets" on guns, using that term lightly as in this case it's either a screwdriver or half a scissor taped to the barrel of a gun.
No drug episodes, no forced breaks from the game as you get abducted and subjected to yet another unskippable cutscene.
But so short, so sparsely populated, not a lot of replay value outside of replaying it in coop.
BrookM wrote: Wrapped up New Dawn, for what I paid for it it was okay, but certainly a very lean, very stripped down game. Main story isn't all that long and once you get to top tier weaponry and unlock your hidden potential you become an unstoppable monster.
Expeditions were fun and in some cases very rewarding, especially the crashed military plane has a cool as feth easter egg that's worth it.
Also, it took them way too many games to implement "bayonets" on guns, using that term lightly as in this case it's either a screwdriver or half a scissor taped to the barrel of a gun.
No drug episodes, no forced breaks from the game as you get abducted and subjected to yet another unskippable cutscene.
But so short, so sparsely populated, not a lot of replay value outside of replaying it in coop.
Roll on the Division 2.
Yeah, glad I passed on New Dawn. The lack of drug episodes or forced breaks makes me happy, but then I start to think about FC5 and I get pissed off. Tranq darted while paragliding half way through a mission... feth I hated that game. Killed my love of the FC brand.
I think from this point onwards, the series needs to be rebooted. I'd love to see a remake of the second game, if only so it can be played in coop, as that was an awesome game that was in dire need of actual coop play to get its full potential.
Speaking of Blood Dragon, it has a Rex Colt outfit, several themed weapons (including the automatic pistol) and several neon light studded vehicles.
All in all though, the ending is not very rewarding. I mean, the end of the fifth game was a real gut punch as no matter what you do, you're in for a bad ending, but with this one.. I think they're trying to make things right, but that's 17 years too late so to speak.
May also have something to do with the antagonists of the game. The twins are.. meh. They lacked the insanity of Vaas and Ming, or the righteous fanaticism of the Seed family. This is just a bunch of punks who like pink a lot and act like it's the best day ever all the while calling you "rabbit".
It doesn't really need a reboot. Apart from cameos, far cry doesn't really have or need continuity, just an isolated place and an excuse to murder people for no real reason. It certainly doesn't need to carry on into a very silly apocalypse.
Daikatana came to a deadend at the vault thanks to the two sidekicks unable to follow. Also the door-crushing became unbareable...
Installed the fan/community Patch 1.3 and started from scratch. Much, MUCH better experience.
Was about to write a glowing review on Steam, but sadly upon returning to the Vault where I was previously, the game crashed. Restarted the PC and attempted to reload from the last save...crashed again.
Its a shame because whoever made that patch took a severly broken game and for the time it was working it was enjoyable. The frogs and mosquitoes aren't even that bad anymore. No more door crushing and the side kicks don't get stuck( although still need a bit of calling here and there ), not to mention they are now invincible. The loading screen "dak-dak-dak" is now gone. Ammunition was more generous and the hit-detection feels better.
Playing it on 1.3 it is easy to appreciate the game itself - there is a geninue japanese rpg feel to it and at times felt like I felt shades of Republic Commando. Obviously a nod to Chrono Trigger and with more opportunity to relax one can appreciate the music, which isn't mind blowing but good for a FPS.
If Daikatana is to be written off then in its current form(1.2) its not fit for sale on Steam. Otherwise, whatever company owns the game now should update it with the 1.3 patch and have that team polish the remaining bugs.
I just bought Warhammer 40k: Armageddon which is effectively panzer general with a 40k skin.
Enjoying it so far, but have been losing a few units, hopefully I'm not expected to farm experience on every level to have the necessary units in the end game!
It's also great motivation for me to continue painting my orks.
ForeverPlayerTwo wrote: Just picked up Final Fantasy IX for my switch and will be grabbing Trials Rising when it's out in a few days.
Oh man, that game is a Classic. You’re in for a treat. I guess the old FF random encounter system hasn’t aged well though. Story and music are quite memorable though.
Moar Subnautica. It’s amazing. I keep thinking I should play other games as well (also picked up 40k Armageddon and sunless skies) but damn, I just want to go deeper in this game and see what it has in store.
I picked up Trials Rising yesterday. If you enjoyed Evolution and Fusion, you wont be disappointed. The tracks are typically crazy and the controls are tighter than ever. Moving away from the sci-fi setting of Fusion was a good move as well. I only wish they didnt add loot boxes, although they are only for cosmetics
Spent more time on Deep Rock Galactic, which turned 1 a couple of days ago, so more cosmetics (berets, beanies and bionics, yis!) and 50% off all booze at the company bar!
Also hoping to get some Division 2 in today with my brother, here's hoping he already preloaded it.
Revisiting The Force Unleashed, looked up some cheat codes this time round and giving myself all the unlocks from the start.. not like the game was particularly hard in the first place, so there's no harm in playing through the whole thing as a fully powered Force User.
It's held up a lot better than I thought it would. Some of the controls are a little wonky (mostly things like how B has become the default for dodge in the last decade, whereas this has it on left bumper), but the gameplay is still incredibly fun. Play through so many times back in the day that it's all second nature by now, but still fun to revel in the sheer amount of power the game hands you. It even looks alright running on the XBone.
Up next, a look at Republic Commando. Loved that game back when, but I'm not convinced it'll have aged as well as TFU.
Bobthehero wrote: I found that that RC held pretty well, at least on PC
The biggest issue on the One, at least when I tried it last, was that the squad commands were...hinky for lack of a better term. Something about the controller mapping seemed to be an issue.
Picked up Ape Out and Gris. I LOVE me some indie artsy platforming, but it man is Gris kind of dull. Playing it within moments of Ape Out feels particularly dull.
Been filling up my time with Warhammer 40k Armageddon. It's a blast, I'm surprised at how much fun I'm having though the rules are kind of wonky. It takes time to understand them because alot of stuff is not proerly explained by the tutorial.
So anyone else play Eternal Crusade? I just grabbed the FtP version, but it seems dead. Might just have been time of day, and the fact that I'm not Premium, though. I just wanna be an orky grunt!
Just finished my second playthrough of Kingdom Hearts 3. The first was about 45 hours of grinding, taking in the story, and exploring. The second playthrough was 28 hours of Proud mode grinding and getting as close to 100% completion as possible. Unfortunately, when I beat the secret boss at level 77 with Ultima, I kinda got discouraged. Even on Proud, the game is too easy so I lost the drive to hit level 99.
I'll be going back through my Level-1 Proud playthrough that I started. About half way through the game now and it's been a blast, but I think I'm gonna take a break and play through the Mass Effect Trilogy again.
Kroem wrote: I picked up Sleeping Dogs for a song in a steam sale.
It feels quite similar to GTA, but I haven't played a GTA since Vice City so that's OK with me!
The fighting is really fun as it is like being in a kung fu movie, and the story line has been enjoyable as well.
Sleeping Dogs is an awesome game. It's my favorite game of the type. I was very disappointed that it didn't do as well as the developers had hoped.
Very underappreciated game. One of the best GTA games I think.
It certainly seems to have a fair few fans!
I just finished it last night, I thought the first half of the game was stronger than the second but enjoyed the overall experience.
I might go back to play the DLC, but I've had enough for now. Back to Armageddon!
Its fun in the beginning, but once you switch from hunter/gatherer society to an agrarian society, your town basically runs on auto pilot and the only thing I had to worry about was goat overpopulation, of all things. Thats only on the starter map, so maybe things get more interesting in the next map, but I'm not in a hurry to start over.
From what I understand, its a small two-man studio developed game so I don't feel bad about my purchase (around 20$), but its just not deep enough right now that I could recommend it. Had it been from a triple-A studio, or from someone I knew could do better, I'd get a refund.
About to dip into the newer Call of Cthulu game tonight!
Playing Devil May Cry 5 right now. Fun stuff. A little tired of having to unlock a couple of the basic combo skills each game, but so far its feeling like the best game since 3. Nero works for me better than he did in 4 (he's also a lot more young Dante this time around) and his arm attacks are a lot more fluid and less GOW style cutscene triggers. I actually kind of liked DMC but its nice to see the series find success moving forward in time rather than be trapped trying to reinvent the past.
Having a bash at Jedi Academy, missed it on Games with Gold last month but was sufficiently interesting to drop a few quid on it anyway... One of the few SW games of that era I never played as a kid, aside from the demo on an Xbox magazine demo disc borrowed from a friend (simpler times, eh?)
Having some fun with it, the lightsaber combat is wonderfully brutal but it's going to take some time to get past beyond just button mashing and hoping for the best. Had a go at the multiplayer with some bots and was promptly murderised, despite having got through the early campaign fairly easily.
Jedi Academy is a blast. Each mission taking place on its own map, learning more powers along the way, making the odd light side / dark side along the way. May need to revisit it myself some day, fond memories of that one.
Played some more Vermintide 2 myself, tomorrow Division 2 will drop, but probably won't get around to it until Sunday due to work.
I never liked it quite as much as Outcast, but those games were one of the few times I really got into online vs modes. 1v1 saber duels were the best, but the odd random Jedi brawl was fun too.
Yeah, still enjoying it a lot, even moreso now I'm into the third act so all the Force powers are ramped right up. I've stayed with the Light Side powers so far, but I'm totally going to have to do a Dark Side playthrough at some point as those abilities look very fun. The plot is utter bananas, but when is SW post-RotJ Expanded Universe not?
Honestly, while it's aged well, I do regret not playing it as a kid. I think the combat would have blown my mind at that point, given how it's still so fun even 16 years later.
Getting a little more practised at the combat now, though I've got to the point where you can switch saber styles so I'm going to have to re-learn now I'm using a staff. Usually, I can start off fairly patient, but I do end up mashing a bit when things get drawn out. If there's one criticism I have of the system (and it's really just due to age, this is a convention that came along much later) it's that it's hard to tell when you've actually landed a blow in a duel, versus being parried. But I do kind of like the unpredictability that adds, when you go in not knowing whether this'll be a finisher blow or whether you're overexposing too early.
God, a modern SW game with these kind of systems would be the absolute best.
God, a modern SW game with these kind of systems would be the absolute best.
Agree with that. I don't think the graphics have aged well at all (those huge polygons!)
But if EA had some brains they'd be able to regularly ship out star wars FPS/RPG hybrids in the Jedi Academy style on a 18-24 month schedule while doing (or cancelling) whatever insane 'games-as-service' nonsense projects they're murdering under the SW banner.
Yeah, as much as I enjoyed the new Battlefronts for what they are, I do find it funny that EA have decided that instead of doing games about everyone's favourite SW stuff, Jedi and lightsabers and starships, we've had two mechanically mediocre shooters out of them and that's it, after 4 years with the license.
I've got high hopes for Jedi: Fallen Order, but that's mainly as I like everything Respawn has put out as a studio thus far, since the game itself isn't even being revealed until SW Celebration next month. Given the time period it's supposedly set in though, immediately after Order 66, I'm hoping for something along the lines of Star Wars meets Dishonored, perhaps a bit more stealthy than a straight-up power fantasy.
BrookM wrote: Jedi Academy is a blast. Each mission taking place on its own map, learning more powers along the way, making the odd light side / dark side along the way. May need to revisit it myself some day, fond memories of that one.
Played some more Vermintide 2 myself, tomorrow Division 2 will drop, but probably won't get around to it until Sunday due to work.
I enjoyed Jedi Knight Jedi Academy right up until I realized how OP Force Choke was fully upgraded. There were only a few fights that couldn't be won by lifting the enemy up, running over to the nearest cliff, and throwing said enemy over the side.
After that I found the game utterly hilarious (in a good way) XD
I think that's mostly a problem because the star wars universe has far too many cliffs. Especially in buildings, cities and starships. And no OSHA standards
BrookM wrote: Jedi Academy is a blast. Each mission taking place on its own map, learning more powers along the way, making the odd light side / dark side along the way. May need to revisit it myself some day, fond memories of that one.
Played some more Vermintide 2 myself, tomorrow Division 2 will drop, but probably won't get around to it until Sunday due to work.
I enjoyed Jedi Knight Jedi Academy right up until I realized how OP Force Choke was fully upgraded. There were only a few fights that couldn't be won by lifting the enemy up, running over to the nearest cliff, and throwing said enemy over the side.
After that I found the game utterly hilarious (in a good way) XD
Reminds me of Battlefront 2, playing as Darth Vader. Force Choke enemy then slowly walk towards them before slicing them up with your lightsaber. Rinse and repeat until everyone is dead
The story game was great. All the powers were so much fun.
Push/Choke/Etc off a cliff. Force Speed. Pull. So many different tools to do different fun stuff.
The guns weren't bad.
But OMG the lightsaber.
3 stances (light/mid/heavy).
Directional movement dictating attack (sometimes you want to swipe left, sometimes swipe right, sometimes overhead smash, sometimes poke, etc - and you can pick each for each attack while still using just one attack button!).
The lightsaber duels in that game were amazing.
Jedi Acadamy felt like the studio said "Well that was good. Lets do that again". Not quite as perfect. Not much innovation. A lot of fun. Great game, but not the masterpiece that Outcast was.
I wish more games used the Outcast saber handling. One of the things that made Skyrim feel so crappy on PC was it moved away from that style.
Does any modern game use the Outcast/Oblivion style melee over the Skyrim style?
As for what I'm playing these days, still in love with Anthem. There's another thread on that, though.
On PC, at least, it most certainly did. I really enjoyed using it. It made swordplay really fun (but not nearly as fun as Outcast). Can't comment to how it worked on console.
I could decide to swing or stab with my weapon easily.
Bharring wrote: On PC, at least, it most certainly did. I really enjoyed using it. It made swordplay really fun (but not nearly as fun as Outcast). Can't comment to how it worked on console.
I could decide to swing or stab with my weapon easily.
Yeah, only on power attacks. That stab was the master blade power attack move, which changed the forward power attack into a stab with potential to paralyze.
My fondest memory with Outcast was simply that it was where I really learned keybindings. Mapping force push/pull to the scroll wheel was the most fun thing ever. Flicking the wheel and sending things flying never got old. Also, I had a mouse with side buttons at the time and I mapped Force Choke there so I could do it by "squeezing" the mouse.
On Dark Side playthroughs, make sure you open the command menu and put in the cheat for realistic saber physics. It's... well, definitely darker.
Wow, I can't believe I misremembered that. I was thinking of Mount and Blade.
Still, the Oblivion system is very different from Skyrim. Basic attacks slash, with power attacks doing directional attacks. In Skyrim, each successive attack performs a different maneuver in a chain. So Oblivion feels like I'm fighing a battle, Skyrim feels like I'm pressing a "next" button through an encounter.
This may just be because M&B ruined me. More games need to use their directional attacks.
Bharring wrote: Wow, I can't believe I misremembered that. I was thinking of Mount and Blade.
Still, the Oblivion system is very different from Skyrim. Basic attacks slash, with power attacks doing directional attacks. In Skyrim, each successive attack performs a different maneuver in a chain. So Oblivion feels like I'm fighing a battle, Skyrim feels like I'm pressing a "next" button through an encounter.
This may just be because M&B ruined me. More games need to use their directional attacks.
Mount and Blade has a great combat system. Kingdom Come: Deliverance built a great combat system on that kind of framework, where the mouse controls the direction of the swing with the addition that performing different combinations of swings and thrusts from different angles performed special combination attacks based on real medieval fighting techniques (though sadly there was no option to end your opponent rightly).
I like the directional attacks based on movement, and using the mouse movement for aiming, though. And the lack of lock-on. While KC is a great game, I think M&B did combat better.
In between spurts of WoT Frontlines i have been playing the Division 2. Queueing for Frontlines should come with a reminder to take blood pressure medication.
Trying to play a bit of bafflefied v. To be honest I suck at this game to the point that i don’t actually like it anymore. Have played battlefield for many years but I’m just struggling with this one.
Don’t know why but it just seems a chore to play, which is pretty pointless when it’s meant to be fun I guess and also feels so unfinished. Now do I cut my losses and get rid of it or just come back to it in a few months.
Put some time into the Division 2, so far, good step up from the previous game. Combat is still very much "dump several mags into head of nearest opponent" but can't win 'em all.
Just happy that the first weapon blueprint I got is of the Police M4, a gun I really enjoyed. So, less worrying about finding a good gun every few levels, instead I can just craft a new one every once in a while.
I started playing Dead by Daylight for a video the other day. Actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
Other than that, Devil May Cry 5 has been my go to game lately. DMC has been one of my favourite game franchises since I played the original on PS2 and this one does not disappoint.
Playing Xcom 2: War of the Chosen on legend difficulty on ironman mode (1 re-freshed save). It's been a year and 2 months of game time and i've researched pretty much everything except the avatar autopsy and maybe a couple other things. I've also defeated all 3 chosen and been using all the weapons except the assassin's weapons (shotgun and sword) because they still need to be researched.
Basically i'm at the very end of the game. I also killed the viper king way back and am wearing his armor on my sniper dudes. The other annoying alien leaders (berserker queen and archon king) aren't popping up anymore. Fairly late game the archon king just decimated me in one sabotage the alien facility mission and another mission because i just wasn't ready but in the case of the alien facility i still won and i evac'd from the other mission with a few guys because i couldn't handle the archon king anymore.
The chosen weapons are far more amazing than the hunter weapons or the alien ruler armors though.
The Elder Scrolls games haven't had Directional Combat since Morrowind. They started with it in Arena, and kept it in Daggerfall- Morrowind, since it was on console as well, had a movement-based system (that you could turn off) for poke/slash/chop, and each weapon had different stats for each (though not different enough to make it worthwhile to mix it up).
Currently, the only modern game I can think of with directional combat like that is For Honor- who's combat system is AWESOME, but who's netcode is PANTS.
DeathKorp_Rider wrote: Finally got back into Fallout 4, also playing Persona 4 Golden on my Vita.
I could not get into fallout 4. The “realism” save system bugged out on me so I had to replay the start of the game 3 times. Once I modded it to be able to manually save I couldn’t buy the 200years passing thing. I ended up just giving up on it.
Just finished Subnautica (took me about 40h all in all, I’m sure you can finish it in 20 though). Moved on to total warhammer 2. Trying out the Lizardmen, playing on hard. It’s cool but I’m struggling to get them rolling, I feel like their economy is to difficult to handle. I beat total warhammer 1:s empire campaign on legendary and I feel like I’m finding this almost as difficult!
You kind to have to spam junk at first to save money. Trade agreements help, beat up on dark elves/skaven and send a hero to ulthuan to push back fog of war and make contact.
Don't be afraid to sack and raze (not sure if you're playing kroq or mazda)
----
That said, this could be the worst time to play lizards. The elf factions are complete, skaven got a rework of their lousy mechanics. Lizards have gotten nothing since launch, but the lizards vs skaven lord pack will probably hit by the end of April, alongside the lizard FLC lord and will almost certainly bring more units as well. (Salamanders, hopefully)
Playing one of my favorite games from the 'ole Xbox days. Mercenaries Playground of Destruction which came out as a freebie fro XBone recently. Old games tend to be better in your memory so hopefully this one still holds up.
Plugging away at the Division 2 in my sparse free time and much to my surprise, it now has actual endgame content that isn't pointless.
Mind, it is a retread of the previous instances, but the world map itself is a whole lot more dangerous now that everybody is attacking everyone everywhere in a massive free for all.
And Black Tusk is thankfully a massive step up in terms of threat level. A bit frustrating at times due to the amount of EMP grenades, regular grenades and various drones they spam when they come across you, but still good.
KamikazeCanuck wrote: Playing one of my favorite games from the 'ole Xbox days. Mercenaries Playground of Destruction which came out as a freebie fro XBone recently. Old games tend to be better in your memory so hopefully this one still holds up.
I loved Mercenaries back in the day, although I played it on PS2. It was always a bit janky though!
I've just finished Psyconauts, there is a lot of annoying things about the game (controls, platforming, combat to name a few!) but found myself enjoying it despite all that. There are some brilliant level ideas in there.
I've just finished Psyconauts, there is a lot of annoying things about the game (controls, platforming, combat to name a few!) but found myself enjoying it despite all that. There are some brilliant level ideas in there.
Certainly worth it just for the Milkman Conspiracy.
BrookM wrote: Plugging away at the Division 2 in my sparse free time and much to my surprise, it now has actual endgame content that isn't pointless.
Mind, it is a retread of the previous instances, but the world map itself is a whole lot more dangerous now that everybody is attacking everyone everywhere in a massive free for all.
And Black Tusk is thankfully a massive step up in terms of threat level. A bit frustrating at times due to the amount of EMP grenades, regular grenades and various drones they spam when they come across you, but still good.
Aside from a few very annoying glitches, it's honestly the most "complete on release" game I've played in years.
BrookM wrote: Plugging away at the Division 2 in my sparse free time and much to my surprise, it now has actual endgame content that isn't pointless.
Mind, it is a retread of the previous instances, but the world map itself is a whole lot more dangerous now that everybody is attacking everyone everywhere in a massive free for all.
And Black Tusk is thankfully a massive step up in terms of threat level. A bit frustrating at times due to the amount of EMP grenades, regular grenades and various drones they spam when they come across you, but still good.
Aside from a few very annoying glitches, it's honestly the most "complete on release" game I've played in years.
Are we sure Ubisoft made this game?
It's an open world game, that's their thing, so has to be!
But agreed, aside from some minor glitches (that poor drone operator who freaks out whenever you talk to her), this game has a massive amount polish I did not expect after playing the private and open beta shortly before release.
Not to mention such a massive improvement over the previous game, I'm actually tempted to get a season pass for more content.
Though I am now at the point where I'm looking to up my overall gear levels so I can continue playing the campaign and outside of the rather unfriendly DZ, something I loathe to visit, it's very hard to get good gear that's useful.
They have, for good or ill, fine-tuned this into a lean, mean streamlined process by now that nine times out of ten for me personally clicks. That we're not having another AssCreed Unity with every release gives one hope that they care a little bit about what they pump and dump.
Makes me wish they'd announce Wildlands 2 already, I've had too much fun with the first one, be it single player or in coop, so that is one franchise I'd gladly see a sequel to.
Or more free single player content, Ubi's been mining every Tom Clancy franchise (and the Predator of all things!) like mad for extra content to toss into Bolivia, with mixed results.
I only got the game because the developer seemed to honestly be putting their money where their mouth was, focusing on things I didn't like about the first game and fixing holes in the general design. After all the updates and DLCs, the Division was actually a really good game.
While getting a build together is time consuming, I think this is what I missed about looters from Destiny 2. Everything in D2 is so damn generic, even the exotics. Here I get to pick a bunch of perks, pick the stats I want to go with them. It's a lot more fun and in line with games in the vein of Diablo where the character is mostly whatever you gear them to be. Best of all, they're not stingy with loot *glares angrily at Destiny 2 timegating the ever living hell out of everything*
Running a Red/Blue LMG build right now wiith 210k armor and nearly 100% crit damage with 52% crit chance. Love it. And along the way I found lots of other pieces for other build ideas.
Wasn't going to get the game, but for some reason I was in on the private beta, despite not preordering it! What I saw convinced me to preorder the game (at a discounter mind) and I haven't regretted it since. I loved the story and setting of the first game, but wasn't pleased with the execution, so I'm glad they took all that feedback to heart and applied it to the sequel. The endgame in particular, while a bit annoying with the gear level cap, is a massive step up.
And aye, there's plenty of loot, but a lot of it isn't very good. Or junk I don't like or can't use. Can't use a sniper rifle, that's for sure! I'm selling piles of loot as I no longer get crafting materials from them (already stocked up on those) and my blueprints are all crap, so scrounging for new kit it is until I can do another stronghold raid.
The world is amazing. I've been to some of these places and its eerie. Not 100% accurate, but accurate enough. The museums in particular are incredibly authentic, even some of the text displays (which you can read in game!) are close.
Sniper rifles need help. There's some weird thing where bullets regularly don't go where the cross hair is. Not even close. The SRS and the M700 are the only ones that actually seem to have a bullet line that tracks with their crosshairs.
Something you eventually learn in older looters is how to preview gear before you pick it up and just leave it on the ground if it's crap. This becomes more and more common as your equipment develops and gets better. Right now I'm basically ignoring anything that isn't a yellow weapon or gloves. Weapons are hard to get good ones so I keep them, and gloves are really all I need to complete my build.
Aye, stuck with an LMG and SPAS12 now as my primaries, everything else I come across is either woefully under-performing in terms of damage or a flipping sniper rifle..
For specialisation I've gone with the grenade launcher, which like the regular grenades you can throw, has a wonky trajectory in some a lot of the cases, but at least I can score kills with that one, as opposed to the massive sniper rifle: 0 kills, despite landing what I think were head shots.
There are some fun things in the world, little easter eggs, random things like the giant dead gator (I checked for a pulse..) in the sewers and some bits that foreshadow things to come, such as the A10 in the museum, minus main gun. Which struck me as odd, until you get to the final mission pre-Black Tusk.
Some of the special encounter descriptions when they kill you are also comedy gold.
"Stop calling me fat, you dicks!"
- Stan "Chunky" Dawson
Started playing Sekiro, but quickly realized that it is too far removed from the series I loved.
I have platinum trophy in Dark Souls 1, 2 and 3, Bloodborne, Nioh, Lords of The Fallen and The Surge. I am a hardcore fan of the genre and whatever it entails.
And yet, when playing Sekiro, I am not feeling it. The lack of gearing, builds and general customisation is turning me off completely. I am playing a light armor katana build, and there is no way to change it. If I want to try a different approach to the game, because the move-set doesn't appeal to me, I'm out of luck as that's not the game. You play it with their style, and their way, or nothing.
In addition to this, the game is 70% one-shot mechanics that you have to avoid which, to me, is artificial difficulty. All bosses and mini-bosses kill you in 1-2 hits, which is infuriating even by Soulsborne standards. The loading screen is a bigger boss than the actual bosses themselves, as you usually spend more time looking at those than actual fighting, until you know how to dodge 95% of the attacks. It feels like you're battling a mechanic instead of a monster - It's too mathematical.
There are so many From Software love projects in this game, but for me it dies with the lack of options. It's the essential part of these games for me - Being able to tailor my experience to my playstyle and mixing it up time after time. This seems more like Devil May Cry, extreme edition, than what I expect from a From Software title.
It breaks my heart, as I really want to like this game. I feel like a traitor for not liking it - But it just rubs me the wrong way. It feels frustrating in all the wrong ways and instead of going "YES! Finally i got the boss!" it's more a "Oh thank god that's over". I am so disappointed by it, from a personal standpoint.
Luckily Path of Exile is out today on PS4 so I'll play that instead.
What little I have seen of gameplay reminds me more of the 3d Ninja Gaiden games but with a slightly less heavy focus on stealth, rather than a soulsborne game. So if you aren't a fan of those style games I wouldn't blame ya for not being a huge fan of this?
It's odd;
-Anthem is amazing to play, but every aspect aside from gameplay is in bad shape.
-Division 2 nails every aspect aside from gameplay, but the gameplay is meh.
I get why so many people prefer Division 2, but I'm still having a blast.
So one of my friends in Division 2 went full yellow, and oh my god are skill builds broken. We've been setting entire rooms on fire using the chem launcher, which with upgrades can cover the entire room. The fire forces all affected enemies out of cover, making them easy prey for LMGs. It's pretty damn broken.
Finally, finally finished Pathfinder: Kingmaker.
Out of sheer obstinacy, as the bad encounter design gets worse and worse and into sheer lunacy at the end of the game.
And the writing didn't get patched at all, so is pretty awful.
But the early/mid game and a lot of side encounters fill my fix for D&D tactical combat.
In theory they're releasing a random 'endless' dungeon DLC next month which can be played outside the main campaign, which will likely be better than the main campaign.
Though the recently side story DLC was not...
Somewhat glad I played it, but even more pleased to be done with it.
Decided to get back into Medieval 2 Total War and try the HRE, a faction I've never played in probably ~1000 hours because they seemed kinda boring until late-mid/late game, where most European factions have something fun they can mess about with fairly early.
That said, HRE make up for having no roster diversity whatsoever early/early-mid game by having a ludicrous economy and all the rebel settlements you could want in very easy striking distance. One of my favourite factions to play is Russia, and their early game is so very painfully slow at least expanding into South and Eastern Russia, but HRE is fast off the bat.
So far I've got Denmark hemmed into their starting region, Poland forced to expand into Russia, France allied (for all that's worth in M2, which excepting the Papal States is usually very little indeed), Venice throwing away militia trying to take Bologna as my armies fresh from storming Milan and Genoa (because I'm not letting Milan survive any game of M2 if I can help it, and they're now safely stuck in Ajaccio where I can dispose of them later) set their sights on Venice itself. A proper castle army is rolling in as well to bulldoze Zagreb and head down to Ragusa.
Meanwhile France has been excommunicated because Spain and then Milan attacked them and France had the sheer audacity to defend itself, and England decided to jump on the wagon shortly after. I doubt they're stupid enough to try and attack my garrisoned cities and castles while being attacked on two fronts already, but this is M2 AI...
All I really have to potentially worry about until the first Pope dies, France is reconciled, and they all make peace, is Poland and maybe Hungary to a lesser extent, though once Venice is taken I should have more than enough income from the entirety of North Italy to fund a nice modern army from the newly Fortress-ed Hamburg, complete with Teutonic Knights from Frankfurt, to roll over the Danes, grab Bruges and Antwerp, and then glare menacingly over the Polish border.
All in all it's been a fair change of pace from normal. Being able to afford to upgrade all my settlements, train more troops, keep fairly swelled garrisons where I need to, and still rake in 10k income profit every turn is welcome, as is being able to expand so rapidly.
It's odd;
-Anthem is amazing to play, but every aspect aside from gameplay is in bad shape.
-Division 2 nails every aspect aside from gameplay, but the gameplay is meh.
Agreed, for the most part. But Division 2 seems to have one glaring problem in group-finding.
The matchmaking terminals in the safe zones allow you to automatically find groups... but they're keyed to random stuff for the most part. If you want to run missions, then you can get a random mission, etc... If you want to get assistance with a specific mission, then you need to enter the mission, and then send out a call for help. And then you wait and see whether another player joins you. Sometimes you get a swift response. Other times, you don't get help until you're nearly done with the mission. And if you leave the "player needs help" prompts active, then you'll get barraged with a constant stream of players in Freeroam (i.e. the open world) who are asking for help with one task or another, while you're running your mission instance. It's possible to do the missions solo (I've done a number of them that way). But they tend to be a lot easier with at least one other player, particularly with how some of the main mission boss fights work.
Anthem, on the other hand, goes with the more traditional "pick the type of mission you want to play, and we'll automatically find a group for you". You can still get a random mission if you want via Quickplay. But if you've got a specific mission you need to clear, the game will build the group for you before you enter. I'm puzzled why Division 2 didn't adopt that model, which is pretty standard these days.
Division 2 has that same matchmaker model, it's just that the menus are not intuitive, and unless the mission happens to be VIP at the moment on the difficulty you're playing then its really hard to find people (you can just wait outside the mission while waiting for people if you want). Outside of that I've found missions to be not so hard to get groups for, but missions are a bad source of loot on the whole relative to the time spent on them (except for the Strongholds).
The call for aid function on the whole is a disaster. Basically every time I've used it I wind up with some afker, which is just bizarre. I turned it off because it's annoying and a waste of time.
I don't consider that much of a loss, but the really egregious aspect of the matchmaker is that it's hard to get a group to do the core loot loop (control point farm). There's no matchmaker option for it. Call for aid is a disaster, so it isn't very helpful. Exploration is the only option that fits, but that also tends to put you with afkers.
If I had to pin a major flaw on the Division 2, it's the menu design. There are too many levels with core options buried in obscure places or left in places where it's very vague what they actually mean/do. EDIT: And heaven forbid someone tries to manage inventory in the middle of something. They'll be standing there for five minutes and you'll be wondering where the feth your help is.
And the game play in Division 2 is stellar. Really the only barrier to it is do you like Tom Clancy cover shooters? Cause RPG aspects aside, it's still a Tom Clancy cover shooter, where the punishment for being passive or hyper aggressive is instant death and the only real "play style" is calculated aggression. If that doesn't suit you, you'll probably never enjoy the game. Even if you do like that kind of gameplay, the way The Division is balanced, it's exceedingly hard to do things solo, especially when the punishment for death in open world content is a limited availability of spawn points and having to walk back to what you were doing (and if you're solo you'll do this a lot). Some people are really liking that challenge, but I find it annoying. You either play the Division 2 with people, or you don't play at all which I'd consider a minor flaw given the kind of game it is.
And the game play in Division 2 is stellar. Really the only barrier to it is do you like Tom Clancy cover shooters? Cause RPG aspects aside, it's still a Tom Clancy cover shooter, where the punishment for being passive or hyper aggressive is instant death and the only real "play style" is calculated aggression. If that doesn't suit you, you'll probably never enjoy the game. Even if you do like that kind of gameplay, the way The Division is balanced, it's exceedingly hard to do things solo, especially when the punishment for death in open world content is a limited availability of spawn points and having to walk back to what you were doing (and if you're solo you'll do this a lot). Some people are really liking that challenge, but I find it annoying. You either play the Division 2 with people, or you don't play at all which I'd consider a minor flaw given the kind of game it is.
The main thing that makes Division 2 hard to do solo - and something that flies in the face of the earlier Tom Clancy games - is the bullet sponge nature of enemies. I understand why they made the game that way. Without that, groups would pretty much instantly blow through any and all content. But it does get a bit weird when you note that you're dealing with a company that got its reputation for releasing games that were heavy on the realism aspects.
Eumerin wrote: The main thing that makes Division 2 hard to do solo - and something that flies in the face of the earlier Tom Clancy games - is the bullet sponge nature of enemies.
Really part of the problem at the moment is that enemies are dumber than they're supposed to be and its making the game harder. Yes. The AI is dumb, and because it's dumb the game is more challenging than intended XD
The biggest issue when soloing the game is that the AI, with its massive HP bars you can't go toe to toe with, will bum rush you. According to the devs, they're not supposed to do that outside of the charger and shield class of enemies (who have very low health under their armor/big weak spots that are easy to hit). There's some error in the current AI for Grenadiers and Linemen where they both tend to rush you, and when multiples of them come at you unless you have a strong build you can't kill them fast enough. Neither were intended to behave that way. Grenadiers are meant to stand back and grenade (obviously) while linemen are supposed to try and flank the player, but not straight up rush them. Neither class' armor/HP was balanced for them to behave this way, so when they charge you you have to engage in a fighting retreat, use CC of some kind, or die miserably.
Hopefully tomorrows patch fixes this as it can even screw over a coordinated group if it happens fast enough. Part of why my group is keeping a dedicated skill build around to spam fire, but honestly that needs either 1) a nerf cause it's too damn strong, or 2) some mechanic to prevent the player from burning the enemy over and over until they die (Division 1 had this).
Personally as a fan of the looter genre, I do feel that something the shooter wing has continually failed to understand is that the player is supposed to be pretty tanky too, but in all three of the main looter shooter games out right now it's simply not the case. The player is squishy, with increased damage being the only way to handle incoming damage (kill them fast enough that they can't kill you). In Grim Dawn, Diablo, and Path of Exile, building up your defenses/sustainability is as important as building up your offense, and no looter shooter has ever managed to do this well.
Taking a short break from the Division 2 for now, the search for good gear got a bit too tedious.
But I agree that the PC is too squishy a lot of the time. I guess it's meant to enhance the cover shooting mechanics, but sometimes they go through me, despite having full health and armour, in less than a second.
After at least two years away, I have finally returned to playing SMITE. It's a lot of fun, but really frustrating if you have to play against a bunch of guys who really know what they're doing. Hopefully I don't encounter all the toxicity that drove me away from the game before.
ZergSmasher wrote: After at least two years away, I have finally returned to playing SMITE. It's a lot of fun, but really frustrating if you have to play against a bunch of guys who really know what they're doing. Hopefully I don't encounter all the toxicity that drove me away from the game before.
The moba effect no? I commonly still play a bit of Leauge of legends every now and then, mostly when I'm feeling down or angry. The thing is I do it because the inevitable toxcisity is a bit of relief from whatever makes me angry or down. It's a bit weird but it's developped into a bit of a thearaputic thing for me.
Moar total warhmmer 2. Kind of given up on my Lizardmen campaign. Was playing as Mazamundi, managed to ally with the drowned and togheter we kept the dark elves and the Tomb kings at bay. With that done two other armies are steamrolling the south. I then did a mortal empires campaign with the Empire and realised why I struggled with the lizardmen so much. With the Empire, even early game, I can have 3-4 almost full stacks of dudes running around and have many plans working in unison. With lizardmen I feel like I can't put all my plans into place because the economy is so restricted. I can support max 2 stacks. High elves blew everyone else out the water in the ritual race, I'm second and would simply let the high elves finish. It's a bit of the civ syndrome. I'm certain I've "won" if I don't compete with the high elves and so I have to wait some 100 turns for the game to end. The feeling gets me a bit bored.
Moar total warhmmer 2. Kind of given up on my Lizardmen campaign. Was playing as Mazamundi, managed to ally with the drowned and togheter we kept the dark elves and the Tomb kings at bay. With that done two other armies are steamrolling the south. I then did a mortal empires campaign with the Empire and realised why I struggled with the lizardmen so much. With the Empire, even early game, I can have 3-4 almost full stacks of dudes running around and have many plans working in unison. With lizardmen I feel like I can't put all my plans into place because the economy is so restricted. I can support max 2 stacks. High elves blew everyone else out the water in the ritual race, I'm second and would simply let the high elves finish. It's a bit of the civ syndrome. I'm certain I've "won" if I don't compete with the high elves and so I have to wait some 100 turns for the game to end. The feeling gets me a bit bored.
I'm also playing TWW2 and it's fun. Usually somewhere near end-game in mortal empires things just get super boring and i just wanna finish. I hear that's common in all grand strategy and also 4X games. Atm this is my 2nd run of clan rictus and it's fun. I killed a bunch of dark elf AI and allied up with Malekith oddly who also confederated with morathi. Both of them loved me and the 3rd main dark elf faction that was near to hating me started loving me after i killed off his trade partner or ally which is weird. I guess dark elves find you killing their rivals of the same race pretty funny.
Anyway now it's me and my 2 allies vs lizardmen (the ones in lustria which i think is hexotl), a massive confederated bunch of high elves and exiles of nehek (tomb kings faction). I had to get moving and fighting off the high elves as they were wrecking malekith hardcore but i took out like 3-4 armies. Hopefully proximity gives lizardmen a hard time to get to me but we're facing a lot of enemies right now. It's interesting because 20 turns before i was probably just finishing off a dark elf minor faction and now 3 massive factions are my enemies. At least Malekith has most of the sea covered with black arks but it's still a tough situation. Thankfully after every fight i'm mostly in friendly territory so i just use my assassins to replenish troops super fast.
I WISH I could play TWW or TWW2 right now. My desktop died and my dinosaur laptop won't push it. Once life allows some breathing room to reinvest in a desktop, I'm gonna buy those games like it's my job.
Avatar 720 wrote: Decided to get back into Medieval 2 Total War and try the HRE, a faction I've never played in probably ~1000 hours because they seemed kinda boring until late-mid/late game, where most European factions have something fun they can mess about with fairly early.
That said, HRE make up for having no roster diversity whatsoever early/early-mid game by having a ludicrous economy and all the rebel settlements you could want in very easy striking distance. One of my favourite factions to play is Russia, and their early game is so very painfully slow at least expanding into South and Eastern Russia, but HRE is fast off the bat.
So far I've got Denmark hemmed into their starting region, Poland forced to expand into Russia, France allied (for all that's worth in M2, which excepting the Papal States is usually very little indeed), Venice throwing away militia trying to take Bologna as my armies fresh from storming Milan and Genoa (because I'm not letting Milan survive any game of M2 if I can help it, and they're now safely stuck in Ajaccio where I can dispose of them later) set their sights on Venice itself. A proper castle army is rolling in as well to bulldoze Zagreb and head down to Ragusa.
Meanwhile France has been excommunicated because Spain and then Milan attacked them and France had the sheer audacity to defend itself, and England decided to jump on the wagon shortly after. I doubt they're stupid enough to try and attack my garrisoned cities and castles while being attacked on two fronts already, but this is M2 AI...
All I really have to potentially worry about until the first Pope dies, France is reconciled, and they all make peace, is Poland and maybe Hungary to a lesser extent, though once Venice is taken I should have more than enough income from the entirety of North Italy to fund a nice modern army from the newly Citadel-ed Hamburg, complete with Teutonic Knights from Frankfurt, to roll over the Danes, grab Bruges and Antwerp, and then glare menacingly over the Polish border.
All in all it's been a fair change of pace from normal. Being able to afford to upgrade all my settlements, train more troops, keep fairly swelled garrisons where I need to, and still rake in 10k income profit every turn is welcome, as is being able to expand so rapidly.
Gotta love the excommunication because you defended yourself.
Mid game is where the HRE shines, hellbard militia forever.
Yeah, France just hasn't been having a great time of it recently Pope-wise. Their excommunication lasted right through the first Pope's reign, the new Venetian Pope reconciled them, France made peace with everyone but England, and got excommunicated again--no idea if that's because they defended themselves or tried to siege Caen over and over.
Meanwhile, Venice sent its faction leader and heir over to Toulouse when their pope called a Crusade against it, recruited a huge load of crusader mercs on Toulouse's doorstep, and took it. I sent a force after them to reclaim it, while at the same time positioning myself to take Zagreb. Couldn't quite make it to Ragusa, though, as the road was blocked by mercs and a random Venetian army I didn't want to attack in case it triggered an early papal wrist slap. One turn saw the French-turned-Venetian fortress, and Venice's last civillian settlement, fall to the HRE. The Pope got annoyed, of course, and gave me 6 turns to cool off, which was enough to send a force over to Sophia and position outside Ragusa, where the Venetians built up a few more castle troops and tried to attack me in the open field from three directions: one from the castle, one nearby from the aforementioned random army, and one from their returning faction leader fresh from the crusade.
They lost pretty hard, and a turn later Ragusa and Sophia were in German hands, with the Pope the last remnant of Venice.
In between, Sicily decided to take a pop at me and invade Corsica with three family members and a nearly full stack, but a quick roundup of castle troops from Staufen and Bern, and an influx of militia from northern Italy, they were crushed against the sea. Their excommunication lasted all of about 3 turns, between attacking me for no reason and having several shades of Sicillian snot stabbed out of them, which the Pope apparently felt was enough of a lesson for them--which was actually annoying, as I'd planned on sailing on to Sicily and Cagliari itself, then to Tunis, and using the army stationed at Ragusa to sail across to Naples before marching down to Palermo. Ah well, now I just have to wait until I can capture Cagliari and Naples in one turn, then spend whatever timeout the Pope gives me sitting outside Tunis and Palermo drinking beer and making pretzels until the Pope takes the leash back off.
But with that, the HRE is entering a time of relative peace for the first time in years. France is too frail to pose a threat, and if Spain want to try and take Toulouse then they're welcome to give it a go, but we've only just opened up trade and they've still got their own troubles with the Moors. To the East, I'm allied with the Hungarians, who either have Poland as their vassal or vice-versa, and the Byzantines, who forgave me for beating up Milan when I bulldozed Venice.
Poland and Hungary both look to have growing forces nearish my borders, though, so Sophia's imminent growth into a Fortress is welcome, and the army I've had developing at Hamburg may soon see action in Poland, which given it's backed up by many Teutonic Knights would not be wholly surprising. To the North, Denmark has... stagnated. Completely. They've done literally nothing. I've rarely seen a Danish AI this utterly passive. Usually they venture to Stockholm, or Oslo, but since turn 1 when they sent an army to take Hamburg, but saw I was already there, they seem to have just given up. Their King is currently hanging around Antwerp with 6 other units, having followed my army as it rolled through Belgium. Antwerp itself is fairly well upgraded--can't remember if it's a City or a Large City--but utterly undefended, with a smattering of about 10 units total spread across its garrison and another army or two standing nearby.
I had noticed Stockholm was still inexplicably rebel, and planned to sail over to it from Hamburg/Stettin to avoid angering the Danes, who I reckoned must've taken at least Oslo by now and got mean armour-piercing castle infantry. But no, a quick trip North with a Diplomat and map information exchange later revealed Antwerp is their only settlement. They're also the only faction able to match me in treasury funds, or beat me when I have spend-heavy turns, no doubt because they've nothing else to spend their money on except the Merchant agents fuelling their economy. Half considering using Hamburg's army to take them out as an act of mercy.
I could also say the same for France, given they're brittle and rather pathetic at the moment, but I've a soft spot for sticking to my guns in games like this. We've been allies most of the game, and I don't intend to change that (until they inevitably and inexplicably backstab me as is M2 AI's wont) regardless of how disappointed in me the Pope is for it.
Avatar 720 wrote: Yeah, France just hasn't been having a great time of it recently Pope-wise. Their excommunication lasted right through the first Pope's reign, the new Venetian Pope reconciled them, France made peace with everyone but England, and got excommunicated again--no idea if that's because they defended themselves or tried to siege Caen over and over.
Meanwhile, Venice sent its faction leader and heir over to Toulouse when their pope called a Crusade against it, recruited a huge load of crusader mercs on Toulouse's doorstep, and took it. I sent a force after them to reclaim it, while at the same time positioning myself to take Zagreb. Couldn't quite make it to Ragusa, though, as the road was blocked by mercs and a random Venetian army I didn't want to attack in case it triggered an early papal wrist slap. One turn saw the French-turned-Venetian fortress, and Venice's last civillian settlement, fall to the HRE. The Pope got annoyed, of course, and gave me 6 turns to cool off, which was enough to send a force over to Sophia and position outside Ragusa, where the Venetians built up a few more castle troops and tried to attack me in the open field from three directions: one from the castle, one nearby from the aforementioned random army, and one from their returning faction leader fresh from the crusade.
They lost pretty hard, and a turn later Ragusa and Sophia were in German hands, with the Pope the last remnant of Venice.
In between, Sicily decided to take a pop at me and invade Corsica with three family members and a nearly full stack, but a quick roundup of castle troops from Staufen and Bern, and an influx of militia from northern Italy, they were crushed against the sea. Their excommunication lasted all of about 3 turns, between attacking me for no reason and having several shades of Sicillian snot stabbed out of them, which the Pope apparently felt was enough of a lesson for them--which was actually annoying, as I'd planned on sailing on to Sicily and Cagliari itself, then to Tunis, and using the army stationed at Ragusa to sail across to Naples before marching down to Palermo. Ah well, now I just have to wait until I can capture Cagliari and Naples in one turn, then spend whatever timeout the Pope gives me sitting outside Tunis and Palermo drinking beer and making pretzels until the Pope takes the leash back off.
But with that, the HRE is entering a time of relative peace for the first time in years. France is too frail to pose a threat, and if Spain want to try and take Toulouse then they're welcome to give it a go, but we've only just opened up trade and they've still got their own troubles with the Moors. To the East, I'm allied with the Hungarians, who either have Poland as their vassal or vice-versa, and the Byzantines, who forgave me for beating up Milan when I bulldozed Venice.
Poland and Hungary both look to have growing forces nearish my borders, though, so Sophia's imminent growth into a Fortress is welcome, and the army I've had developing at Hamburg may soon see action in Poland, which given it's backed up by many Teutonic Knights would not be wholly surprising. To the North, Denmark has... stagnated. Completely. They've done literally nothing. I've rarely seen a Danish AI this utterly passive. Usually they venture to Stockholm, or Oslo, but since turn 1 when they sent an army to take Hamburg, but saw I was already there, they seem to have just given up. Their King is currently hanging around Antwerp with 6 other units, having followed my army as it rolled through Belgium. Antwerp itself is fairly well upgraded--can't remember if it's a City or a Large City--but utterly undefended, with a smattering of about 10 units total spread across its garrison and another army or two standing nearby.
I had noticed Stockholm was still inexplicably rebel, and planned to sail over to it from Hamburg/Stettin to avoid angering the Danes, who I reckoned must've taken at least Oslo by now and got mean armour-piercing castle infantry. But no, a quick trip North with a Diplomat and map information exchange later revealed Antwerp is their only settlement. They're also the only faction able to match me in treasury funds, or beat me when I have spend-heavy turns, no doubt because they've nothing else to spend their money on except the Merchant agents fuelling their economy. Half considering using Hamburg's army to take them out as an act of mercy.
I could also say the same for France, given they're brittle and rather pathetic at the moment, but I've a soft spot for sticking to my guns in games like this. We've been allies most of the game, and I don't intend to change that (until they inevitably and inexplicably backstab me as is M2 AI's wont) regardless of how disappointed in me the Pope is for it.
The correct thing imo, is to now tell everybody to take a hike off some alpine cliffs. Also if you are lucky you can get merc swiss pikemen in Bern, in decent quantities, saved my hide multiple times.
Also the danish AI is passive? Normally they behave more like the Balkans and attack everything, even their own merchants
If I have one flaw when I play this sort of game, it's a tendancy to want to play nice but punish hard. Which does tend to lead to letting factions build up enough to cause me eventual trouble rather than risk the game telling me I'm not a bastion of trust and virtue
And yeah, in the games where I've had sight of Denmark they're either tussling with the HRE, or got Hamburg first and expanded into Poland and occasionally grabbed Antwerp/Bruges. Right now it's not far past turn 50 and they're completely and utterly passive, to the point I'm almost concerned their AI didn't load properly.
Also the danish AI is passive? Normally they behave more like the Balkans and attack everything, even their own merchants
Yupp, that sounds like us alright.
In medieval total war, irl i only have seen swedes so I won't judge
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Avatar 720 wrote: If I have one flaw when I play this sort of game, it's a tendancy to want to play nice but punish hard. Which does tend to lead to letting factions build up enough to cause me eventual trouble rather than risk the game telling me I'm not a bastion of trust and virtue
And yeah, in the games where I've had sight of Denmark they're either tussling with the HRE, or got Hamburg first and expanded into Poland and occasionally grabbed Antwerp/Bruges. Right now it's not far past turn 50 and they're completely and utterly passive, to the point I'm almost concerned their AI didn't load properly.
Nothing wrong with that, normally i try to differ, play themathically for a campaign or go full tryhard Mode.
Normally as the HRE i never go tryhard, to easy imo, but reconquering the HRE and all claims of it, and then just wait until something happens.
Well things are certainly slowing down, now. I've got enough settlements that I spend ages every turn making sure I've checked them all--several times over, because I've the memory of an amnesiac goldfish--and I'm starting to really fluctuate cash-wise now that about 5 settlements are at Large City status, with 2 nearing Huge and another handful coming up to Large. Every few turns I blow most of my budget on North Italy alone. The Venetian Pope finally popped his Papal clogs, and one of my youngest Cardinals got elected, so there'll be a German in Rome for a long time to come--maybe even long enough to welcome more of them in as well as their horses, or if it comes to it, diseased cows. Naples has been secured, and Cagliari is actually under Moorish control, so the stack I sent there is instead going to move right on to Tunis while the Naples force goes knocking on Palermo's door.
I'm surprised there's been no Crusade beside Toulouse, yet. Usually there's one called for Cairo rather early on in the game, but I wonder if the Frech crusade displaced it this time. It's close to turn 70, the Mongols have been teased, but still no holy lands--well, Egyptian lands, close enough I suppose--crusade. Which I'm actually a bit thankful for; the mad rush to organise a force to go and beat up some Egyptians can be annoying, and being able to focus purely on European expansion was welcome. At least it wouldn't have been as bad as trying to get to the Middle East from England or Denmark. The HRE's starting access to the right side of the Med would've been a literal godsend. I could still divert one of the Sicillian front armies to Antioch if I want to, after smashing Tunis/Palermo. For some reason that entire region is still rebel; neither the Egyptians nor the Turks have shown any interest in it, the same way the Russians have shown no interest in the rebel castle above Novgorod, nor the Polish/Hungarians/Byzantines in Kiev. This camapign is certainly one of the most bizarre I've ever played in terms of AI decisions.
Speaking of bizarre AI decisions, the same turn my Cardinal became Pope, Portugal broke their alliance with the Moors to attack a freshly-reconciled France, and two turns later France were excommunicated again... They either can't seem to catch a break, being stuck in an endless loop of excommunication through self-defence, or at this point feel there's no reason to adhere to the rules of Rome and are quite happy to throw militia at Caen, in the hope of eventually building a ramp of dead peasants high enough against the walls for their knights to ride up. I'm going to have to send a spy over just to sate my curiosity about what exactly is going on. England and Portugal are both fine Papal-ly speaking, and France has only lost Toulouse all game, but England's been their only enemy for most of it--Milan being, uh, 'dealt with' by me early on, and Spain making peace after becoming vassalised by the Moors--and Caen's not fallen, either.
I do hope France survives, though, if only to exhaust the Jinetes stacks I've seen wandering around Iberia. Bordeaux should be doing good work on that front, if the Portuguese stack of 2 Almughavars and the remaining slots split between Mailed Knights and Jinetes is anything to go by. Assaulting a Fortress with only two infantry units and the rest cavalry can only ever end well.
my youngest Cardinals got elected, so there'll be a German in Rome for a long time to come--maybe even long enough to welcome more of them in as well as their horses, or if it comes to it, diseased cows.
The idea of germans / germany only really shows up after 1800
Also HRE includes a lot of non germans, E.g. Bohemians / czechs soooooo, i mean they Drink beer in equal ammounts to their Bavarian neighbours.
Crusaders kings two satanic immortal horse boogaloo?
I downloaded Vampyr on my Xbox Game Pass this weekend. Enjoying it, cool story and all though the combat is really simple once you figure out how it works. Take a few swings, bite someone, take a few more swings, rinse and repeat. You can be taking on a group of 5 hunters, and they all just stand there and watch while you bite their friends's neck off.
my youngest Cardinals got elected, so there'll be a German in Rome for a long time to come--maybe even long enough to welcome more of them in as well as their horses, or if it comes to it, diseased cows.
The idea of germans / germany only really shows up after 1800
Also HRE includes a lot of non germans, E.g. Bohemians / czechs soooooo, i mean they Drink beer in equal ammounts to their Bavarian neighbours.
Eh, just going off what the Generals call themselves in the pre-battle speeches
I'm currently on a M2TW run too, although I haven't started the game for several days. For the 3 days, I've been playing on the Dakka minecraft server.
I'm playing as the Portuguese. I bloated my military to the point where my economy barely sustained it, then I projected force throughout the entire Iberian Peninsula, vomitting men, horses, and steel over it, and all over a bit of North Africa too. Took Marrakesh and that fort to its right. Sent an all cavalry army south to take Timbuktu a few turns later. Starved the settlement out, and started trading gold and ivory early on. After setting up my family as the new dynasty of Iberia, I built up trade infrastructure, and tapped the new flow of gold to build up a mighty navy. How could I not? I'm Portuguese. Instead of elbowing my way into the Mediterranean, I decided to look north, and landed 3 armies in England. From West to East, one city fell after another. London fell early, and the last to fall were Notthingham and Caen. The initial invasion force only suffered 40% casualties, but by the end of the campaign, every army was replaced with a fresh one. Every settlement besides Notthingham was turned into a city, to increase trade.
I bolstered up my military at both land and sea a bit more, and turned on Denmark. By this time, the college was mostly filled with portuguese cardinals, and though my empire was not the most favored by the pope, I pretty much had free run of Europe, with the largest experienced ground army, and the largest experienced fleets, and my fingers were wrapped tightly around the Church.
The Denmark campaign is still ongoing. but they will fall. They have only one capital left. With the conquest of Denmark, I now have control of the entire northern trade. I have merchants scattered all over Europe trading wine, marble, and soon amber. I plan to wage war on Milan after, to take it for my own, and open a Mediterranean trade.
Excessive greed and obsessive opulence. Thats what I would use to describe my dynasty, my royal family. We dine on the plates and cups of master artisans. And the furniture upon which our arms and feet rest is the long labour, the sweat, blood and tears of the workers who live in our shadows. That's what we are.
I was joking, i can't remember one campaign i played so long that i was able to go to the americas in mtw2 due to the AI and my mtw playstyle ( read rush) , except If I really aimed for it.
I have just gotten back into Man O' War Corsair, which gives me all the pirating nonsense that black flag didnt itch. I dunno why, I just prefer the open world sandbox of Man O' War compared to the wierd historical revisionist assassin's creed game.
By the way, is there any game like Black Flag and Man O' War I could get my hands on for ship combat?
Tiger9gamer wrote: I have just gotten back into Man O' War Corsair, which gives me all the pirating nonsense that black flag didnt itch. I dunno why, I just prefer the open world sandbox of Man O' War compared to the wierd historical revisionist assassin's creed game.
By the way, is there any game like Black Flag and Man O' War I could get my hands on for ship combat?
Uhh, Sea of Thieves is not a bad game actually. I had a lot of fun when it came out driving around, sinking Galleons with my friends. I think Ubisoft may have an actual pirate game in the works. But I could be wrong there.....
Dreadwinter wrote: Uhh, Sea of Thieves is not a bad game actually. I had a lot of fun when it came out driving around, sinking Galleons with my friends. I think Ubisoft may have an actual pirate game in the works. But I could be wrong there.....
You're not wrong. But again, you need an actual game. Right now, the game is a bit like that social gathering VR game on steam. It IS fun, but there's no meat on the bones, no matter how much people love it, no matter how much positive praise everyone could possibly throw at it, at the end of the day, people are going to see it for what it is and leave, because theres not enough to hold them there.
Been playing more SMITE and I've found a pretty nasty build for Kukulkan, so he's my main now. I also picked up the first two Descent games on Steam fairly cheap, so I'm reliving my childhood a bit with those.
Tiger9gamer wrote: I have just gotten back into Man O' War Corsair, which gives me all the pirating nonsense that black flag didnt itch. I dunno why, I just prefer the open world sandbox of Man O' War compared to the wierd historical revisionist assassin's creed game.
By the way, is there any game like Black Flag and Man O' War I could get my hands on for ship combat?
Uhh, Sea of Thieves is not a bad game actually. I had a lot of fun when it came out driving around, sinking Galleons with my friends. I think Ubisoft may have an actual pirate game in the works. But I could be wrong there.....
While I heard things about it, I was more hoping for a single player ship combat game, being the social butterfly that I am. I just like the idea of sailing the seas and kicking ass in a setting like Man O' War without going too hard into hisorical stuff. Just want another version of it to be honest, only more polished.
Got another strong xcom 2: war of the chosen game going. Besides that i'm playing as clan rictus in total war warhammer 2. I figure i'll put that on hold to get a campaign going with a friend when the prophet and warlock DLC comes out so i can have access to more silly goodies for the skaven.
Aside from that i started playing Overwatch because a group of friends plays it with each other. I'm not trying out the most noob friendly characters but they're not exactly the hardest either from what i've heard (Ana, McCree and that dragon archer guy). Ana and McCree seem best for me right now but i think i would try something other than reinhardt which seemed boring when i played him for a game. Maybe i'll play the hacker chick next time. She sounds like she's made of cancer (annoying skills).
Prey just showed up on my Xbox game pass, always wanted to check that out. Pretty fun so far, the story is taking a lot longer to get through than I expected, which is nice. I'm trying to do as many of the side quests as I can. Not sure if it's worth downloading the DLC missions though
Voss wrote: Total Warhammer 2. Ikit is a blast, and watching the under-empire creep under the lands of men and dwarves is fantastic.
Major change for skaven, who have been fairly dull and uninspired until this release.
I personally feel like the underempire was a necessary buff it is also problematic that you get to spread it so effectively.
Also another issue i find the new units for Skaven to be very much questionable.
I'm not sure what you mean in either regard. The timer is pretty harsh on establishing the UE in other cities. It even affects the ritual unit!
The upgrade to have it spread into adjacent regions is pricey and has a really low chance of working (though I've been lucky with my first one).
The one issue I see is I'm not sure if the AI really bothers with discovery. I've keep mine pretty low key to be safe, as I'm mostly focused on expanding them and getting my main cities up to snuff. Eventually though I fully intend on blowing up the dwarf capital and the wood elves. All the wood elves.
Simultaneously, if I can pull it off, as that would be hilarious.
The new units are great. They definitely help with armor and softening up units so they can be mopped up with rank and file skaven. They just require fire lanes to be used effectively.
Only time they've really failed me was when that bretonnian witch somehow bypassed my ambush to attack my second stack, (of trash units) and Ikit came on as reinforcements... At the base of the hill the Bret army was parked on. That got really messy and ugly. Guns couldn't shoot, doomflayers got caught by knights, everything degenerated into separate fights of fairly low tier infantry on both sides.
But the ratling guns did manage mow down the witch as she ran away. That was fun.
Jezzails feel slightly underwhelming, and Doom Flayers I'm still not completely sold on, as I can't really tell how much they're contributing to a fight--and they're not especially great at running down fleeing units due to lengthy attack animations--but Ratling Guns are great.
Maybe once I get WLCs I can reprioritise the Jezzails; perhaps they'd be better if I was facing a lot of cavalry or ranged units, which an Ikit start in ME doesn't really--even Vampire Coast struggles to get established enough to build dangerous stacks. I'm probably just not getting to use the Jezzails in their best role.
Not tried Tehenhauin yet, but started a Tiktaq'to ME campaign, and man is it boring--the complete antithesis of Ikit's start. Because it's FreeLC and half the units Tik buffs come from the DLC, he can't actually start with them, so unlike Tehe and Ikit you've no opportunity to have fun with new stuff from the start, and his early reliance on Skinks and Terradons against Empire is awkward, to say the least.
Either you spend the first few turns reorganising your starting settlement and army to support Saurus, and just play like an underwhelming generic Lizradmen faction, or you try and push a superior Empire (Sudenberg) force with Skinks, a single unit of Cold One Cavalry, and a single unit of Fireleech Boladons, and more Skinks + basic Terradons from your capital...
I'm sure once you get Ripperdactyles and maybe Salamanders or something else to add flavour--and actually use Tik's buffs in the Rippers' case--it might get more fun, but that requires enough turn investment that I simply can't be bothered because his early game is just so mind-numbingly unspiring.
Star Trek and X-Files were all the rage while the Star Wars fan base seemed almost forgotten and pushed to the side during those years. But instead of naff cash-in merchandise we lived off quality novels, comics and spectacular PC games that made Star Wars feel like a cool-underground scene. LucasArts was a big case for chosing a PC over a console during those years.
I liked Tie-Fighter the best as it was more forgiving than X-Wing, and it had a cracking story. Somehow you felt dignified in playing for the Empire as you hunted down traitors who were just as bad. Theres a bit where you escort Vader to a rendezvous, but are attacked by a loads of Imperial traitors and he says "These traitors must pay the ultimate price!"...oh yes! Bit like the end of Rogue One where you can almost hear "Don't Stop me now" by Queen as you royally butcher the sorry bastards. Brilliant game!
I must try and get that up and running tonight... ^_^
Bloodborne on my PC through PS Now. So far haven't noticed any input lag, and maybe had two laggy periods in 4 hours of play. Graphics are not quite as nice as on a big TV due to the resolution being lower, but I do not care, I am able to play the game without shelling out for a PS4 and a TV.
Up to this I had to wait til I went home every christmas to play some of it on my brothers PS4!
My family is all in another state while I'm stuck here because of work. I'm using this time to chase achievements on the 360, so a LOT of older games this week.
Beat Champion Gundyr, Ancient Wyvern, and feel that Havel deserves a mention, too. Maxed out the Chaos Blade - fun weapon. But my favorite is still the Longsword.
40/40 Str/Dex, but everything else is sub-20, so I get oneshot a lot, and really need to watch my Stamina.
Working on the Nameless King. First phase is easy enough, but keep screwing up the second phase. I'm considering maxing out a bow (Dragonrider is apparently the strongest maxed out at 40/40, but I just like the Long/Composite/Black bows more - haven't decided which one) to see if Dark/Fire arrows can turn him into a pincusion.
I've played a ton of alts, but this is my "Main" - never beaten him (or the final boss) before. Never tried him before. Too much fun playing all the different playstyles....
I'm not too woried. Phase 1 is fairly easy to get through unhit, and my first time in Phase 2 I got him down probably 30%, while learning his pattern.
I'm sure I can (eventually) beat him with my trusty Longsword, but it might be fun to try getting more mileage out of bows.
Nah Midir. Him and Kalameet were the worst for me. But I loved the fights. Weirdly, Sinh did not give me as much trouble at all in DS2.
Gael was a cool fight, the setting and visuals were awesome and the different phases very dramatic, but I was pretty good at fighting humanoid enemies at that point.
Huh, Midir didn't give me too much trouble once I learned his attacks and which ones gave good openings for some hits at his head.
Was really just a bit of a repetitive slog due to his massive health pool. Then again, that slog could also rapidly come to an abrupt end due to his massive damage output, especially in the second stage with his laser beams.
Kalameet was a fun fight, but only took like 3 tries for me (I'm not good, but some fights just "click" for me).
I looked up the Swordspear, and got really disappointed; I was really looking forward to it, but my main only has 10 FTH, and that's not likely to change soon. Too bad.
Only played an hour since I first mentioned DS3, but filled up on Fire/Dark arrows, boosted DragonRider Bow from +0 to +3 (need 2 more Scales, have the Slab to make it +5), and helped out some other players as blue/white phantoms here and there.
Great game.
Should I get and play the DLCs before I go to NG+ (like in other DS games)? I only have Nameless King, Twin Princes, and Cinder left in the base game - all the other bosses are dead.
Also, is it weird that I almost always gravitate to the "stock" weapons (Longsword, Halbred, Spear, etc) over the "special" weapons (Ithyll Stright Sword, Dark Sword, etc) or "boss" weapons (transposes)?
Automatically Appended Next Post: Best fight ever is still clearly Ornstein & Smogh.
Took me a whole day - started when I got up, finally beat them after dinner - to finally do that. So glad I decided to play it solo and not look up any strategies. No other boss fight was as challenging or engaging.
I think I need to play DS1 again. DS3 is great, but DS1 is the best Soulsbore game ever.
I love all the dragon fights in Souls games (except Demon Souls). Ornstein and Smough was also a great and satisfying fight, I had totally run out of Humanity by the time I beat them the first time. Felt like an ultimate badass.
In 3, the Twin Princes gave me a lot of trouble. In 2, Fume Knight was a really tough fight. Have not finished Bloodborne yet, but I think I find it harder than Souls because the enemies are much faster and more aggressive but it also calls for a faster and more aggressive playstyle from the player. I tend to be more careful and slow about the fights and my reaction time is not that good, so Bloodborne is for me a lot harder. Replaying now, finding it a bit easier than the first time, but dreading when I end up against the Shadow of Yharnam again. Been stuck on them for aaaages. Those godamned snakes...
On the DLC, I am actually a bit ambivalent. I really enjoyed it, and there are some cool areas and fights in it, but equally parts are pretty bs to play through the first time. I think if you are planning to do it, it would not make a big difference if you did it in NG+ or NG. I did it in NG, but was probably overlevelled for it.
I usually don't Ember/Unhollow before a boss fight - I figure I'll just die again, so I'll learn to do it undead. Saves a ton of farming/souls on retries. And summons tend to trivialize the content.
If I want to see the fight with summons (which I do), I throw down a white/yellow sign myself, instead.
I am too shy to co-op with others, but normally yeah I don't summon. My first run through Dark Souls 1, I summoned Solaire generally when he was available, because I thought he was a cool character and having a posse going in after bosses was a lot of fun. I was summoning him for Ornstein and Smough, but ran out of humanity. I thought "God, I couldn't beat them with increased HP and Solaire helping, how am I gonna do this?" and then still managed it. Felt great.
Oh flamingkillamjig, I rest easy at night because I know you'll always be fighting off that alien invasion for all eternity.
Someone's gotta stand up for humanity against the alien menace. May as well be me . People could always put me in a dreadnought when i get too old so i can continue the fight.
Of course it could be worse. I could be playing 40+ turns of trying to finally take my tomb king arch enemy's last settlement (total war warhammer 2) because he keep spamming armies every few turns causing me to be in an endless purgatory. I wonder what my friend emptyhat would say about that ?
I don't play DOTA 2, but I do play SMITE, so that's close, right? Anyway, I'm thinking about quitting it again after realizing that I'm still crap at it and the toxic players are still around. And the matchmaking sucks- half the time the games are so one-sided it's not even funny. The worst part is, it's turning me into a toxic player because I nearly got into a big pissfight with another player in my last match. I'd be in jail if it had been face to face. I hate when people make me so angry I nearly lose all sense.
Have not finished Bloodborne yet, but I think I find it harder than Souls because the enemies are much faster and more aggressive but it also calls for a faster and more aggressive playstyle from the player. I tend to be more careful and slow about the fights and my reaction time is not that good, so Bloodborne is for me a lot harder.
Replaying now, finding it a bit easier than the first time, but dreading when I end up against the Shadow of Yharnam again. Been stuck on them for aaaages. Those godamned snakes...
Bloodborne also has more hidden mechanics than Dark Souls. One of the important ones is the weapon type and what damage does more against what type of enemies. For example:
- Serrated weapons deal 20% more damage against beasts. Serrated are all weapons who have jagged edges such as the Saw Cleaver and Whirlygig Saw. Use these weapons against any mob that is beast in nature.
- Righteous weapons deal 20% more damage against Vampyric and "enemies of the Healing Church" such as the deeper bosses in the chalice dungeons. Ludwigs Holy Blade and Church Pick are a few example of such weapons.
- Fire damage deals 20% more damage against Beasts and can be stacked with Serrated weapons.
- Bolt (electric) damage deals 20% more damage against Kin enemies (any that looks like Cthulu and aliens).
To make the game more manageable for you, I would always suggest to have a serrated and a righteous weapon at hand, so you can switch depending on what you're up against. You can rely on fire or bolt paper for the elemental damage, to give you the upper hand in a few, when needed
Aha, thanks. I have been using the Hunter's Axe, which does Blunt damage. Weird that they would give you an option at the start of the game that nothing is weak against! I guess I should upgrade a Saw Cleaver or something. I have Ludwigs Holy Blade.
Upgrade materials are a bit scarce at least in the early game, so it is a bit of a pain having to upgrade multiple weapon. Maybe I need to go farm some twin shards in Hemwick.
I killed Amelia on my first try, which I am chuffed about. Flamethrower up the arse!
I'm playing some Sekiro. Just began NG+. Took quite a lot of tries to beat the final boss, then the time I beat him I didn't die once in any of the stages! So strange how sometimes everything just clicks like that
Da Boss wrote: Aha, thanks. I have been using the Hunter's Axe, which does Blunt damage. Weird that they would give you an option at the start of the game that nothing is weak against! I guess I should upgrade a Saw Cleaver or something. I have Ludwigs Holy Blade.
Upgrade materials are a bit scarce at least in the early game, so it is a bit of a pain having to upgrade multiple weapon. Maybe I need to go farm some twin shards in Hemwick.
I killed Amelia on my first try, which I am chuffed about. Flamethrower up the arse!
The Hunters Axe is a great weapon, at least for most of the game. It only gets subpar late in the game/in NG+ cycles due to poor scaling. I still use it into NG+ cycles, and it still does decent damage, it's just not the absolute most optimal. It's a fun moveset.
My favorite is still the Cane Sword. Such a great weapon. I do better with Blade of Mercy, but it's a lot less fun.
There's another weapon like Saw Cleaver (Saw Spear maybe?), where they're almost the same weapon - basically the only two weapons in the game that aren't entirely unique. They're both fun. One scales better with strength, and the other with skill.
Splitting my sparse free time between Risk of Rain 2 and Warframe. Didn't like it the first time around, I still do not like the character designs, but elements of it I do like, so we'll see how far I'll get before I call quits again and ignore it for another four years.
I need to get back in to Sekiro and finish a playthrough. Just been so busy with other things to really sit down and dedicate a few hours to it most days, and when I do, get dragged in to other things instead.
Was cleaning out my desk the other day and found my old Game Boy DS. Still works of course and found I had a couple games I hadn't beat yet. Playing Advance Wars: Days of Ruin right now.
Fiiiinally beat the Shadow of Yharnam. OMFG. I started playing Bloodborne two years ago, but could only play when home in Ireland at christmas on my brothers PS4. Have been stuck on the Shadows for two christmasses in a row.
Finally beat the bastards. Definitely among the most difficult fights I have ever done in a From game, just relentless.
In the end, I just went two handed Axe because that is what I use 95% of the time in game and bolt papered it up. Took the sword one down first, the diciest part was rushing him down when he transformed, and then managed to survive long enough to kill the candle bastard (his stupid fire breath killed me so many times), and then rushed the spellcaster and battered him down to prevent him summoning the snakes of bs.
I got Monster Hunter World on Xbox game pass, been looking forward to it since it came out, but it was a let down for me. It's got a "cute" feeling that I'm just not a fan of. And why in 2019 do the main characters say 2 words and then make you read everything else? And it just feels like I'm wandering around killing these big animals like for sport when they are just out and about doing their animal things, rather than saving the world from evil or something. Plus the controls are just kinda weird too, feels like a game that needs to be on a PC rather than a console with limited buttons to push.
The new Vow system is a good addition, but would still like a Errantry War callup like Medieval 2's "Crusade" or "Jihad". Or Monster slaying quests like the Norsca, though it must be said that I haven't gotten to any of the "Grail Virtue" quests.
Not a fan of the automatic(essentially, unless you have no money and/or are concerned about Chivalry points) confederate "dilemmas". Its a good band-aid for the gak diplomacy AI so that you don't have to spam "confederate" every turn, but I had a somewhat powerful realm before the Orc Incursion even ended, and I did nothing but turtle up and save up for the Tier 3 Cavalry building. It would be better, imo, if you had to quest around the Bret provinces and free them from various threats and then you secure their loyalty. Echoing Gilles le Breton uniting the realms.
I've been playing a Red Crested Skink army in TW2 Mortal Empires.
I made the mistake of accepting a Trade Agreement with Teclis. I didn't think it was considered unstrustworthy to later attack them, as I declined every single NAP/Alliance he offered, but apparently it is.
Since that was considered untrustworthy, I NAP'ed the two Lizardman factions I had trade agreements with.
Wiped out the Vampires on that coast, took their territory, took Teclis's one territory while his army was away, did the same to the Dark Elves, and have been slaughtering Rats everywhere I find them.
I can now get Saurus without the extra upkeep, but since I'm mostly fighting rats, I find Skink Javelins are actually a good front line for my army. I'm sure that'll change when I go take the Dwarves' mountain range - but my stack is a couple Red Crested Skink units, the melee Bastillidon, a bomber unit, a cav unit, a Skink Cheif, then fill the rest with Javs. Those Javs eat rats like candy at range, aren't hurt by the stones the rats throw, and can hold well enough to flank whatever crosses "swords" with them. I didn't expect that.
I'm having trouble getting my economy going. My deathstack is very cheap as far as deatstacks go, but I haven't had the money to build up any of the provinces yet. I'm just getting it rolling, so that'll change shortly.
Fun, but the Dwarves are probably going to be a rude awakening for me. I imagine Skinks of all flavors just bounce off their stacks.
Bharring wrote: I've been playing a Red Crested Skink army in TW2 Mortal Empires.
I made the mistake of accepting a Trade Agreement with Teclis. I didn't think it was considered unstrustworthy to later attack them, as I declined every single NAP/Alliance he offered, but apparently it is.
Since that was considered untrustworthy, I NAP'ed the two Lizardman factions I had trade agreements with.
Wiped out the Vampires on that coast, took their territory, took Teclis's one territory while his army was away, did the same to the Dark Elves, and have been slaughtering Rats everywhere I find them.
I can now get Saurus without the extra upkeep, but since I'm mostly fighting rats, I find Skink Javelins are actually a good front line for my army. I'm sure that'll change when I go take the Dwarves' mountain range - but my stack is a couple Red Crested Skink units, the melee Bastillidon, a bomber unit, a cav unit, a Skink Cheif, then fill the rest with Javs. Those Javs eat rats like candy at range, aren't hurt by the stones the rats throw, and can hold well enough to flank whatever crosses "swords" with them. I didn't expect that.
I'm having trouble getting my economy going. My deathstack is very cheap as far as deatstacks go, but I haven't had the money to build up any of the provinces yet. I'm just getting it rolling, so that'll change shortly.
Fun, but the Dwarves are probably going to be a rude awakening for me. I imagine Skinks of all flavors just bounce off their stacks.
Aren't the red crested skinks two handed weapons wise?
That would probably just replace the mainline.
I am Stuck atm with skarsnik in between the border princes and the badlands that are all now dwarf holds. Infact i belive some 20 turns before o got there the dwarfs rolled over the last greenskins.
Gotta say though, night goblin Warboss with squig and poison for a whole army aswell as wolfriders make for Amusing skirmishes.
They are Greatweapons. But they don't have shields or javalins. I imagine they'll do some damage even to Dwarves, but right now I'm mostly fighting rats. And I'm poor, so the lower upkeep on Javs is nice right now.
I may need to swap all my Javs out for Red Crests soon. Not sure how I'll fight Dwarves.
Turnip Jedi wrote: Finally picked up Into the Breach as it fell into my cant be more than a takeaway threshold for game buying
Much like FTL there is clearly a knack to it but I've been saving up my bad words so bloody mindedness will prevail
Haha that's a good rule for buying games! What threshold do you set for a takeaway though? I've had some pretty pricey ones in my time.
around the £8-£10 mark, whilst I do generally like games the AAA industry and I are on wildly different wavelengths, frothing does no good so just waiting till I deem something worthwhile is the plan (little unfair on the smaller less evil game makers but rules is rules)
The Dwarves were barely a threat. I wasn't able to seperate their full stack from their high-tier capital, but they attacked me as soon as I beseiged.
Holy crap.
Not even Dwarves can break *Skink Javalins* with just the one ritual up - is my lord that badass, or are Skinks just underestimated? Granted, no single Dwarf unit faced a single Skink unit at a time, but two Skink Jav units shouldn't take a Dwarf CC unit in CC...
Just ran my Legendary Lord into a mosh pit of all their ranged units, had my starter Bastillidon hold the core of their melee, and ganged up on the flanks with skinks. Should not have worked, but Legendary Lords are OP.
Now I have the entire mountain range, the entire continent is a mix of me and 3 other lizardman factions that are all at about +200 friendliness with me (should not have NAPed them, should have planned on attacking them. Maybe I should restart), and I'm pushing into not-LatinAmerica held by Blue Vipers.
I still have 0 Saurus, and only a single stack which is over half filled with Skink Javs, and I'm into the "steamroll" portion of the game.
The thing about Dwarves is that they're very defence-heavy, but their melee attack is almost universally sub-par to make up for it. Combine it with the fact they have nothing that naturally causes Fear or Terror, and they're not really killing/breaking anything in melee in a hurry.
If you've got their ranged units locked down and a Monster in their lines--Dwarves are stubborn but fall prey to Terror just as easily as anything else--dishing out large AP damage and taking little back then they don't do well. All their strength is in pummelling you from range, holding a frontline and flanking around to unload into the sides and rear or charge great weapons into the back. Usually whatever survived the approach has battered morale and collapses shortly after the flank is complete.
If they can't do that, then they don't have many options. IMO you probably overestimated the Dwarves more than anything.
The new Warhammer DLC is great but I feel like it didn't make a Skink army that much more viable compared to Skarsnik and his Gobbos. RCS are a tier 2 unit and they die like absolute chumps in autoresolve to the point where you have to fight sure wins just so your RCS aren't mangled. I had hoped maybe they would add a tier 3 RCS unit with a shield and maybe a spear? You know Skinks playing at being Saurus but not as good. Also shame they didn't include a skink on horned ones cav unit in honor of the DoW unit, Tehenauhuin(sp?) can ride a horned one, sadly they didn't use that to make a Skink unit work. Maybe in exchange for the ancient salamander. Overall a fun addition.
Only thing I dislike from my observations for the AI is the major faction autoresolve bonus being removed versus minors. Now it just feels like there is absolutely no threat even on the hardest difficulty. Turn 100 and the strongest factions have at most two provinces, everybody is squatting in their towns because they just can't manage to get the ball rolling without confederation it seems. The autoresolve thing also means that 'major' factions that have a hard start meant for players now stand no chance at all. The TK die like flies now due to their recruitment mechanic and their base troops being garbage in AR. The only reason Skaven don't seem to get mangled is because the AI needs to basically blunder into their settlement just to fight them. Honestly I saw Itza take two full laps around Lustria with an army and not being able to figure out the Skaven they were at war with had the settlement right next to their capital, but at least the Skaven survive this way. Sure its more random, but it also feels a bit dumb.
Javalin Skinks under Tehenauhuin are basically the Tier 3 Shield & Spear skinks you're looking for. His traits make them quite durable, they have shields, and their javalins soften up the opponents before they close. I thought they were only dominating because I was facing mostly rats, but Dwarves and Orks - even Savage Orks - just can't hurt them.
RCS do die like chumps. I never send them in head-to-head (even outside autoresolve).
I think I need to pick up Skarsnik.
I generally don't like playing as Orks in various games, but in TotalWarhammer, they're really fun. They feel like the one faction where, to do them right, you need to carefully manage the flow of *your* morale. And Goblin Spearmen are usually great for running around the flank and rearcharging what my Boyz are holding. I thought they'd just be chaff, but I tend to get a lot of mileage out of them as long as I don't treat them like line soldiers. But an army of pure Goblins might be what I thought a Skink army would be (I'm somewhat disappointed that a Skink army worked out to be a traditional hold-the-line force, with Skinks being so durable). Is the Skarsnik DLC worth picking up?
Javelin Skinks are decent but once you go to T4-5 AI armies they break too quickly to really anvil for the RCS. I feel RCS are in a good place when you control them. IIRC Tehenauhuin only has the standard lord buff for regular Skinks and his unique ones are only for the RCS which unlock at level 12, very late for a T2 unit. He himself is just a bit underwhelming I feel. Maybe just some tweaks because he gets his ass beat by those new regular Skaven lords. Great units though, just wish they didn't make every LM military building go to T4.
As for Orks and Skarsnik, I don't like playing regular Greenskins but Skarsnik is 'fun' in a hard way. Haven't played him since the new update but he really is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The first 10-20 turns usually end up with you dying due to angry WE or Dwarf invasions. Its very hard and it makes you consider going up against the Dwarfs with just Gobbos (2 to 1 is winnable but attacking a major dwarf hold can be such a pain) or perhaps risk a dangerous trek to the World Edge mountains chased by angry locals to find a quiet place to settle down. With Night Goblin fanatics providing you T4 IIRC correctly infantry and with Squigs and monsters you can really build a fun force. Of course with the right buffs and units sprinkled in you can make a traditional hammer and anvil force but that is still going to struggle with the local WE, VC or Chaos if you happen to settle to close north.
If you're on the fence and would be interested to try just wait about 6-8 weeks, the steam summer sale is closing in and usually they sell the old WH1 dlc for 66% off, which means its just a few bucks.
@Bharring and @Disciple of Fate: I'm actually also on the fence about the skarsnik DLC as well. I don't like dwarfs at all but the goblins sound fun. I was also interested in the Empire and VC DLC but empire doesn't get much worthwhile far as it looks and VC mostly just get buff units which is still sorta cool but also kinda meh. Is the empire and VC DLC worth it?
Skarsnik's Crooked Moons are the harder to play of the two by far, IMO, but probably the most different and, when all's done, probably the more powerful. Skarsnik's various campaign and army buffs are better than Belegar's and he can field stacks without much difficulty, which may be a little underwhelming to begin with due to being Goblins, but a few redline skills later those Goblins become powerhouses.
A late-game stack can see experienced Goblins with leadership higher than Orcs and somewhat silly MA/MD stats to go with them.
It's only the early game which is a bit of a slog, but it's doable, and once Skarsnik gets rolling it's like a green tide, only half as tall and twice the amount.
Second that Skarsnick gets kind of silly. I remember playing his campaign for the first time and thinking I'd hate it cause Goblin's died so easily in my other campaigns and were never a threat.
100 turns later, and I'm staring in awe as Goblis overrun Chaos, and not just through weight of numbers, but quality of troops. I kind of lost it a bit at how easy the game got with all the upgrades available.
Wildlands had another free story mission drop this weekend, this time involving a fellow ghost played by Jon Bernthal. As with the other stuff, a bit short, but still some good extra filler and the over the top melee execution move you can unlock is worth it.
Now to one day finally beat the Predator DLC.. ugh.
LordofHats wrote: Second that Skarsnick gets kind of silly. I remember playing his campaign for the first time and thinking I'd hate it cause Goblin's died so easily in my other campaigns and were never a threat.
100 turns later, and I'm staring in awe as Goblis overrun Chaos, and not just through weight of numbers, but quality of troops. I kind of lost it a bit at how easy the game got with all the upgrades available.
The da gobbos buff, stacks with the buff from normal goblins that all Goblin warlords get and with the buff for cavallery. It makes goblins hilarriously price efficent. Even better if you own Karak eight peaks and have built up the special buildings. +20 on leadership is insane for goblins, it brings them in line with some off the better regular infantry morale wise, not to mention when you have a general leading them with further buffs.
BUT until you are in 8th peaks it can turn into a slog (except if you manage to get a high enough settlement and get access to giant spiders, then it is relatively easy.
flamingkillamajig wrote: @Bharring and @Disciple of Fate: I'm actually also on the fence about the skarsnik DLC as well. I don't like dwarfs at all but the goblins sound fun. I was also interested in the Empire and VC DLC but empire doesn't get much worthwhile far as it looks and VC mostly just get buff units which is still sorta cool but also kinda meh. Is the empire and VC DLC worth it?
It's worth it for the Goblin part as the Dwarf part doesn't really bring that many changes to the table. On that note if you don't want to collect them all I would say the EMP/VC DLC is not worth it. Sure it has some flavor units and RoR, but nothing that really changes the way you play the game (unless you count RoR as game changing). Its just boring mainly, Volkmar is ok-ish, but Ghorst is just boring compared to all the other VCsLL to pick from (he is just Kemmler without the new starting position or Krell imo). Same for the units, a bit bland and nothing you would really want to change your standard army build for. Maybe pick it up for 66% off on sale, but as someone who got it full price (even though that is quite low) I would say in hindsight it wasn't worth it if I wasn't going for a collect them all approach, even though Empire is my favorite game 1 faction.
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LordofHats wrote: Second that Skarsnick gets kind of silly. I remember playing his campaign for the first time and thinking I'd hate it cause Goblin's died so easily in my other campaigns and were never a threat.
100 turns later, and I'm staring in awe as Goblis overrun Chaos, and not just through weight of numbers, but quality of troops. I kind of lost it a bit at how easy the game got with all the upgrades available.
Yeah this is totally true, but in all fairness the Lord buffs and AI incompetence when it comes to picking and building means that most factions can end up like this. By turn 100 usually the fun has already ended in TW games and certainly in Warhammer TW.
I'm about 40 turns into a Skarsnik campaign right now, after getting bored with the Bretonnians. Its probably my favorite faction to play, and every campaign with that faction feels different with who declares war on me and when. More so than any other faction, I feel like there is something always going on and that's how I like my TW.
The addition of the Massif Orcal province in south Bretonnia is a big boon to Skarsnik, as you can either take it early or watch them get weak enough that they accept a Confederate offer, and raid multiple Bret provinces fairly easily.
I mainly just like lining up a glorious release of Fanatics.
Thanks for the Bloodborne advice lads.
After defeating the Shadows, I beat the next four bosses in a row on my first try.
Spoiler:
Rom was a pisstake, just ran past the spiders and hammered him.
The One Reborn was a bit tricky, but I got them in one, even though I did not realise there were bell maidens on the balconies healing him and casting fireballs!
The Amygdala was a pretty cool fight, and it was hairy, but I managed it. The run through the Nightmare was much worse than the boss.
And the Cosmic Kin were a joke boss in my opinion!
Pretty much none of them after that gave me any trouble. I don't think any of the rest of 'em took me more than four tries. Definitely some of the "runs" were worse than the bosses.
At the moment working through the Chalice Dungeons. I think the only boss left is the last one, and I want to give the chalice dungeons a proper run before I end the game. I really like the Chalice Dungeons, I know a lot of people do not, but I like me some dungeon nonsense, and this fits the bill.
I can't play the DLC which is a shame, I hear it is a really good one with a lot of awesome bosses. Ah well. It was awesome to finally get to play this game on my PC, and I think it is really something special.
I've got unexpectedly into Ashen after looking through the RPG offerings on Game Pass. I guess the best way I can describe it is as Nice Dark Souls, which is why I'm somewhat surprised I stuck with it for more than about 20 minutes as usually these types of games are not my cup of tea at all. I guess it has a few things in its favour that have kept me on board.
- It's not handholdy, but it does at least have things like a quest log, map, markers, fast travel ect to make actually progressing through the game easier. No turning right instead of left at Firelink Shrine and going into an area where the enemies instakill you. These things never made Souls better for me, just more annoying to play. Likewise, the fact its characters are all very upfront about what they want, where you can get it and what you need to do is far more useful that the cryptic smirking of most Souls NPCs...
- It's the right blend of simple and deep. The actual progression mechanics basically boil down to getting more health and stamina on completing quests, but there's a good array of weapons/upgrades available to keep things interesting. The combat, likewise, is perhaps a pared down version of Souls, but still has a nice weight and feel to it while remaining fairly punishing.
- The art style is gorgeous, wonderfully minimalist. The music, too, is lovely and calming, giving the whole thing an air of pleasant adventure rather than oppressive dread. The more open environments help with that as well.
Supposedly the big twist on the formula is that Ashen pairs you with random players who appear as a companion NPC in your world while you appear as the NPC in theirs... it's a neat idea, but I can very rarely tell the difference between when another player is with me versus the AI...I'd actually be surprised if there's enough of a player base on Xbox for the matchmaking to actually kick in that often. It's nice having a companion for this sort of game though, AI or otherwise. Makes the whole thing a bit less lonely.
I very much doubt I'll finish it, but at the very least, I'll go until I hit something that's simply beyond my skill level (the two bosses so far have been fairly easy, but that won't last...) If you're into this sort of thing though, or at least into the idea of it, I reckon it's worth a look, especially if you have Game Pass as then all it's costing you is a small download.
Da Boss wrote: Thanks for the Bloodborne advice lads.
After defeating the Shadows, I beat the next four bosses in a row on my first try.
Spoiler:
Rom was a pisstake, just ran past the spiders and hammered him.
The One Reborn was a bit tricky, but I got them in one, even though I did not realise there were bell maidens on the balconies healing him and casting fireballs!
The Amygdala was a pretty cool fight, and it was hairy, but I managed it. The run through the Nightmare was much worse than the boss.
And the Cosmic Kin were a joke boss in my opinion!
Pretty much none of them after that gave me any trouble. I don't think any of the rest of 'em took me more than four tries. Definitely some of the "runs" were worse than the bosses.
At the moment working through the Chalice Dungeons. I think the only boss left is the last one, and I want to give the chalice dungeons a proper run before I end the game. I really like the Chalice Dungeons, I know a lot of people do not, but I like me some dungeon nonsense, and this fits the bill.
I can't play the DLC which is a shame, I hear it is a really good one with a lot of awesome bosses. Ah well. It was awesome to finally get to play this game on my PC, and I think it is really something special.
I still reinstall and play it from time to time (on PS4).
If you loved that game, consider either the Dark Souls series or Nioh.
Dark Souls is 'slower' and more deliberate - but not easier (or harder). You have a much wider array of options and tactics available, but it's not as visceral, in-your-face, or fast. You have to commit much more than in Bloodborne, but you have a lot more options about when to commit and how.
Nioh feels 'faster' to me, and I love the Diablo-esque loot system, but the difficulty and encounter design isn't as polished as Bloodborne.
Both great games, but very different environments.
What began as research for a bit of Megadrive programming turns into a full on session with the shinobi games.
Revenge of Shinobi is bloody cool( back in the day, the intro alone SOLD the megadrive in electrical stores ), but is let down by a lack of play testing. Far too many leaps-of-faith, awkwardly placed traps and enemies, and then you have the pixel-perfect bosses. Yuzo Koshiro is the bomb and the atmosphere is top notch.
Shinobi III is surprisingly good. Quite a challenging game but only punishes you when you are not paying attention or making the same obvious mistake - as it should be. The "riding" levels could have broken the game but thankfully don't outstay their welcome and actually make a nice change inbetween the ordinary levels.
Hmmm...I have Shinobi X for the Saturn. If memory serves it was pretty good....
Playing Battle Brothers- the new expansion makes it tons of fun to start new warbands, which is really great because it seems like the difficulty also spiked. I'm learning to keep mercenaries alive all over again. Science does not advance without heaps of corpses!
Just finished platting The Liar princess and the blind prince that I got on sale from golden week. A nice breath of fresh air as far as games go, its art style is very reminiscent of a style that reminds me of where the wild things are and although the platforming elements are pretty basic, the story was good despite being simple. It's also fairly short, which is great for someone who's been playing red dead 2 for weeks.
Gitzbitah wrote: Playing Battle Brothers- the new expansion makes it tons of fun to start new warbands, which is really great because it seems like the difficulty also spiked. I'm learning to keep mercenaries alive all over again. Science does not advance without heaps of corpses!
Yeah me too. Quite enjoying, especially the diffrent starting options. The lone wolf is imo the most intresting followed by the barbarian one. Really like how they've shock up the early game.
Played a bunch of assassins creed odyssey over the weekend, to the point that I burned out on it again. It honestly feels too big, with a lot of repetitive content that doesn't really serve much purpose.
Every so often I run into something interesting (like a captured 'god' that leads to a cyclops fight), but mostly its killing red and blue dudes for xp and loot to breakdown to upgrade gear.
Even the legendary animal hunts didn't help as much as I hoped, they were annoying (especially the farting pig), and the payoff was... Unsatisfying.
Gitzbitah wrote: Playing Battle Brothers- the new expansion makes it tons of fun to start new warbands, which is really great because it seems like the difficulty also spiked. I'm learning to keep mercenaries alive all over again. Science does not advance without heaps of corpses!
Yeah me too. Quite enjoying, especially the diffrent starting options. The lone wolf is imo the most intresting followed by the barbarian one. Really like how they've shock up the early game.
Oh absolutely. It is so easy for a Lone wolf run to go south- you really have to watch your armor. I'm having far too much fun with the Davskul cultists, especially since we started calling them Dave's Cool cultists, and treating all of our recruits as expendable until they join our cult. The steady stream of free dudes is awesome, and so far we haven't had any human sacrifices.
Barbarian start requires far more caution than I expected- I thought I'd be running around merrily slaughtering peasants and taking on towns, but you need to be downright cagey about who you fight, and where you do it.
Picked up Battlefront 2 again. Had it on release on the PS4 but couldn’t get on the it plus the PS4 screwed up, so while it was on Xbox live for a fiver I thought what the hell will give it another shot.
Well I’m damn glad i did, it’s not the game it was on release and I mean that in the best way possible. Am really enjoying it this time around. Everything feels a lot tighter and smoother. Only thing that bugged me was the length of some of the capitol supremacy matches.
One lasted for nearly two hours but it’s being patched soon or has, just haven’t been able to play for a few days.
Went back to playing Stardew Valley. I'm honestly not sure why the game is so fun and addictive, but it is! Problem is, it's eating into my painting time, which is not good.
I've been replaying Final Fantasy 12 on PS2, which has been fun - When I first played, I just went for "Heavy armour, hardest hitting weapon, and spam Quickenings" - playing it with a bit more consideration to balanced party set-up makes it very different! It's been quite handy to mine for inspiration for my D&D campaign, as well.
I also picked up COD advanced Warfare on the 360, and Force Unleashed on PS2. COD campaign was kinda fun, I thought - I enjoyed the jump-pack exo suits, and the sarcastic British dude didn't get murdered at the end, for once, so that's a plus!
Force Unleashed... Eh. the story seems fun, but I can't put up with the clunky controls - I'm not a big fan on button-mashy hack n' slash games, as a rule, and the boss fights so far have been... just, dull. But for 50p, I figure it was worth a punt!
Thea 2: The shattering came out of early access recently. I find it... demanding. I unfortunantely can't reccommend it at this time, though I'm a huge fan of the first game in the series. The whole game feels clunky and the UI is messy. It's very difficult to predict how fights turn out, which is a big deal since every fight is lethal for your characters. This is only some 5-6 hours into the game. I feel like they need to make everything a little bit more easy to overview, understand and predict.
Total War: Warhammer 2 - I've been sucked back in with the new Lizardmen/Skaven DLC. Started a new ME campaign with Kroq-Gar after I got crushed as Ten.
Once again i am back, playing attila Total war as Western roman empire, so far so good, managed to stabilize, field 4 -6 full stacks easily (depending on my situation with rebellion and my neighbours) allready at war with the huns, which gave me a massive diplomatic leverage over the germanic tribes, managed to expand in africa, and wiped out 6 migrating tribes.
However the Vikings are starting to piss me off to the point were i probably will send a wipeout commando.
Panzer Dragoon Orta, XBox( One ). Looks bloody amazing for a game released in 2002, and plays very well. Its like a cross between Zwei and Saga.
Its not an RPG like PDS but it does have some elements of that game like being able to slow or advance around certain enemies. You also have the "action bar" which holds 3 charges to perform dragon morphing and circling enemies.
Its been given an HD remaster and is worth getting for looks and smooth gameplay alone. The music is nice too.
But my god......how did I beat this as a kid? I am having rage fits every mission that my blood pressure has gone up.
Jesus, The QTE, The race missions.
But I beat it and im not sure HOW, I didnt have a big brother to do it for me!!
And finished my WRE campaign, military victory, no converting to the old greco-roman paganism, Eastern roman empire broke up, half the map is dead lands, the rest is puppets, except my little Empire (sligthly expanded )
I make 18'000 / per turn, shove around 10 Stacks now fully armed just as defensive line, which got massively fortified.
I was gonna say, if Days Gone is supposed to be the Worst Game Ever then I’d say we are well into spoiled brat territory. It was fine, other than it’s ending. Call of Cthulhu is never even once interesting much less fun. It is a point-by-point essay on exactly how no one should ever design a game.
Frankenberry wrote: Total War: Warhammer 2 - I've been sucked back in with the new Lizardmen/Skaven DLC. Started a new ME campaign with Kroq-Gar after I got crushed as Ten.
I'm doing my 2nd try of the skarsnik (crooked moon) campaign on hard difficulty right now. He's goblins only for the most part but i think i'm getting the hang of this.
Frankenberry wrote: Total War: Warhammer 2 - I've been sucked back in with the new Lizardmen/Skaven DLC. Started a new ME campaign with Kroq-Gar after I got crushed as Ten.
I'm doing my 2nd try of the skarsnik (crooked moon) campaign on hard difficulty right now. He's goblins only for the most part but i think i'm getting the hang of this.
The big Spiders and archers is where it's at.
That and some lobbaz.
I've actually got the stone throwers ready to make soon. I had the tech for a while but never built it. Same goes for squig units. As far as spiders or wolves i haven't got either yet. My income is fairly legit now though. It's turn 30-35 and i have 6 territories. I'll have even more once i finish off this other dwarf faction. Considering what's going on that should be fairly easy now since he positioned himself poorly and far from his main territories. So that's no local recruitment for him and i'm destroying his main infrastructure for building units.
flamingkillamajig wrote: I've actually got the stone throwers ready to make soon. I had the tech for a while but never built it. Same goes for squig units. As far as spiders or wolves i haven't got either yet. My income is fairly legit now though. It's turn 30-35 and i have 6 territories. I'll have even more once i finish off this other dwarf faction. Considering what's going on that should be fairly easy now since he positioned himself poorly and far from his main territories. So that's no local recruitment for him and i'm destroying his main infrastructure for building units.
I meant the big spiders, the normal ones are not worth it imo if you get goblin warbosses which get drippen tips, since then the whole army get's poison, making the wolfs a solidly better choice. Also if you want to meme a full wolf army with archers is surprisngly good if you like to annoy dwarf stacks.
I'm currently sinking my time into Gundam Battle Operation 2 on PS4. It's a free to play 3rd-person giant robot PvP shooty game that you have to download from the Japanese version of the Playstation store. Which means you have to set up a Japanese Playstation account to get it, but there are Youtube videos showing how to do this, so it's no big obstacle. While there isn't an English release for this, there is an official English translation. Just fire up the game, go to the 'options' menu and select English as your language, and all the written stuff turns into English (there are Youtube videos showing how to do this, too).
The NPCs still speak Japanese though, but that's not an issue because of subtitles.
So, you drive around in giant robots and blast other dudes in giant robots, occasionally getting out of your giant robot to capture a control point or plant a bomb in the enemy base or call in an air strike, but usually just end up getting stepped on. There is a wide array of giant robots to use (for those of you who speak Gundam, all suits are from the UC and all are from the One Year War era, although the beta test did have a GM III) with a wide array of weapons and even some special items to customize your giant robot's abilities.
The mechanics are kind of a rock-paper-scissors kind of thing. There are 3 types of robots in the game: General types (balanced) are strong against Raid types (hand to hand) and Raid types are strong against Support types (artillery and snipers) and Support types pwn Generals. Its the circle of life.
Giant robots are given a point cost (like in 40k!) that indicates how powerful they are. Then the battle rooms are given a point limit to indicate what giant robots you are able to use in it. You don't have to worry about running into a super high-end giant robot in a 250 point room.
There is a loot box mechanic too, but Bandai isn't EA. By playing the game and doing your daily missions, you will get tokens to buy random loot crates (which contain weapons, giant robots, and modification parts) and loot crates sometimes drop at the end of a battle. You can also spend a bunch of Yen to buy them, but it isn't needed to play the game and win matches. Sometimes there are promotional deals where, if you use your daily tokens to play the loot box lottery, you are guaranteed to get a particular rarity giant robot (that's how I got my first Gundam) and sometimes they just gift you with the odd giant robot as a thank you for playing.
You can also straight-up buy some giant robots with the in-game currency you get for playing matches, including some awfully powerful ones, like the Full Armor Gundam, the Prototype Gelgoog (aka, Char's custom one) and even the Xamel (big booty artillery robot from Stardust Memory).
Personally, I tend toward giant robots (and battle rooms) that run between 200 and 400 points. My favorite suit for ground combat is the Cold Climate GM (they have a cold weather robot, but no snow battlefield yet) because it has a grenade launcher that causes stun on enemies, and it's machinegun has the highest rate of fire in the entire game. I can dump an entire magazine on an opponent in the time it takes them to charge and fire a single beam rifle shot. The drawback is the terrifyingly short range on the gun... a mere 150 meters, which is way too close, especially if my opponent is driving an Efreet. If I'm playing support, I like to roll with my Guncannon Mass Production Type. It's slow, and not very nimble, but it carries two hand-held 100mm machineguns which let me strip hit points off opponents when they are too close to my team mates for me to use my shoulder cannons. Friendly fire doesn't do damage in this, but you can still stun, stagger, or knock down your team mates. And that is bad.
Overall, I really dig this game. I haven't spent a dime on it and I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it. If you aren't a UC Gundam fan, I'm not sure how much appeal there would be to this, as I don't know how well this stacks up against other 3rd person giant robot PvP shooty games, but I'm having fun.
There is a guy on Youtube named "flailthroughs" who posts 9 minute videos of his matches in this game. His stuff is what turned me on to the game and if yo are curious about maybe picking the game up, it is worth looking at his videos first to get an idea of what things are like.
flamingkillamajig wrote: I've actually got the stone throwers ready to make soon. I had the tech for a while but never built it. Same goes for squig units. As far as spiders or wolves i haven't got either yet. My income is fairly legit now though. It's turn 30-35 and i have 6 territories. I'll have even more once i finish off this other dwarf faction. Considering what's going on that should be fairly easy now since he positioned himself poorly and far from his main territories. So that's no local recruitment for him and i'm destroying his main infrastructure for building units.
I meant the big spiders, the normal ones are not worth it imo if you get goblin warbosses which get drippen tips, since then the whole army get's poison, making the wolfs a solidly better choice. Also if you want to meme a full wolf army with archers is surprisngly good if you like to annoy dwarf stacks.
I'm actually doing really well now. I have about 12-13 territories when i stopped playing yesterday at turn 50 something. I was so disappointed by the rock lobbas and squig herds that i took them out of the army i had and grabbed some trolls. Squig hoppers should be available soon because the research is a few turns off. I'm telling ya it'd be nice to have some wizards to boost public order and boost tech speed with. Tech speed just feels way too slow and my lands are super hard to keep content without owning karak 8 peaks.
flamingkillamajig wrote: I've actually got the stone throwers ready to make soon. I had the tech for a while but never built it. Same goes for squig units. As far as spiders or wolves i haven't got either yet. My income is fairly legit now though. It's turn 30-35 and i have 6 territories. I'll have even more once i finish off this other dwarf faction. Considering what's going on that should be fairly easy now since he positioned himself poorly and far from his main territories. So that's no local recruitment for him and i'm destroying his main infrastructure for building units.
I meant the big spiders, the normal ones are not worth it imo if you get goblin warbosses which get drippen tips, since then the whole army get's poison, making the wolfs a solidly better choice. Also if you want to meme a full wolf army with archers is surprisngly good if you like to annoy dwarf stacks.
I'm actually doing really well now. I have about 12-13 territories when i stopped playing yesterday at turn 50 something. I was so disappointed by the rock lobbas and squig herds that i took them out of the army i had and grabbed some trolls. Squig hoppers should be available soon because the research is a few turns off. I'm telling ya it'd be nice to have some wizards to boost public order and boost tech speed with. Tech speed just feels way too slow and my lands are super hard to keep content without owning karak 8 peaks.
No, what you do is using the lobaz wrong, you need a hero or two to basically make the enemy swarm them then shoot them with the lobaz. Also 12-13 territories is bad play, play high first, then spread. Basically you will now have a shitton of settlements that have nothing really usefull in it, due to the growth beeing so slow. Squip hoopas are a good anti infantry unit, tough sadly lack a bit.
As for trolls, prepare to be disapointed, their low leadership will make them rout constantly and they can not be alone in a melee for long unsupoorted. (ALSO since your army is gobbos, routing trolls which have not the trait "expendable" will be a issue for morale overall.)
I was having lots of public order issues and only gained about 1 territory in 10 turns or so. I've decided to raid enemy lands i couldn't grab, sack enemy province capitals that were undefended (and then just run away) and keep some armies behind in territories that were close to rebelling. My public order and infrastructure have gotten a lot better though so that's a plus.
I had one rebellion that actually took a territory and grabbed it but there was not much valuable there anyway. I took it back easily. The other rebellion i crushed before it even got to really hurt anything. Tilea also took one of my territories and sacked another at one point but those territories mostly sucked and i destroyed all the enemy armies sent my way and took em back. Dunno why he came after me since he was already getting double or triple teamed by my allies and was on his last few territories. I eventually just damaged his walls and then sacked his main city (and ran away) with an enemy army and a rebellion army both there to screw it over after. If it was real life i'd feel sorry for all the people living there since it'll probably change hands several times with whoever winning ruling over corpses and nothing left of a city.
Mutant: road to eden. I’m a big fan of the pen and paper rpg. Sadly the computer game did not live up to my expectations. It’s a tactical shooter. I wanted it to be a tactical shooter with rpg elements. There’s no non-combat ways to resolve stuff.
Nerak wrote: Mutant: road to eden. I’m a big fan of the pen and paper rpg. Sadly the computer game did not live up to my expectations. It’s a tactical shooter. I wanted it to be a tactical shooter with rpg elements. There’s no non-combat ways to resolve stuff.
Yeah, I definitely benefited from my 'wait and see' policy on that one. About two episodes into some YouTube videos and I knew it wasn't for me.
Been bouncing around on diablo style games lately, unsatisfied with most of them (path of exile, torchlight 2, d3, and finally reinstalled grim dawn (no expansions)). None of them have really satisfied the itch, though I went back to grim dawn just yesterday, and haven't gotten fed up yet. I want to try chaosbane and Inq:Martyr, but both unfortunately seem like a waste of money.
More Xcom 2. I'm trying to beat xcom 2 on commander difficulty on ironman by July 1st in the game's time. It's a very hard achievement and only 0.5% of people have done it but i have achievements that 0.5% of people have gotten so i can probably do it. Well eventually i'll get it i think. Funny bit is i don't have to do it on ironman to get the achievement. I just feel like doing it on ironman because i'd feel like a chump otherwise.
Playing Void Bastards. Loving the art style, it is like playing a 2000AD comic strip. Gameplay can be a bit wonky but it is satisfying to crawl your way through the wrecks scavenging as you go.
I am playing Pathfinder Kingmaker now its actually a working game it is rather fun. The new dungeon crawl add on is actually rather addictive if somewhat basic but it is a good test bed for character concepts.
Beat Jak 3. annoying last boss fight, mostly with with vehicle that controls like it is constantly has grease on the wheels and believes it can fly.
Playing Jak X: I normally dont like racing games, it gets stale after while, however, these have more events than just racing.
Cars still control like poo
Playing more Warframe. It's a bit grindy to get stuff, but that makes it all the more rewarding when you do get the stuff! I actually really enjoy the gameplay anyway, although I could see how some would find it repetitive and boring.
Decided to revisit Shadow of the Tomb Raider now that all season pass content has been unlocked. Opted for New Game + while I was at it, should make 100% completion a bit easier.
Still a bit annoyed with some of the sections, but other parts, like the Jaguars, still really good.
Been back in elder scrolls online lately checking out the new Elsweyr content. Dragon fights are fun, but kinda bummed they are only in the 1 new zone. They should have spread them out all over the world and replaced those anchor battles with them or something. I mean, they have wings... can't they fly elsewhere? was that a pun?
I started a brand new Necromancer, pretty fun to play.
Replayed Duke Nukem Forever, and frankly while it got mocked, it's still better than your average Call of Duty, Battlefield, or Medal of Honor ever was in story, gameplay, and graphics.
Now replaying DOOM in preparation for the release of the sequel in a few months, and THAT game certainly is still one of the best FPS games ever made.
Picked up Cadence of Hyrule, but I don't think its for me. Really enjoy the throwback original Zelda style of the gameplay but the rhythm part just doesn't feel particularly fun. The music keeps changing screen to screen and constantly being punished for not tapping along mechanically makes it more irritating than engaging. I'm a huge rhythm game and Zelda game fan so I'm kind of surprised.
Picked up Katana: Zero instead. Absolutely loving it, though its not super clear there's a dedicated walk button for the stealth sections...
Was expecting to pick up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night today, but the shop changed their minds and said its out on the 22nd. Tossers!
Had a quick go on Megaman X4, where on each session I'm reminded how bloody excellent it is...
...gawd, memories of 1998 when buying it together with the large boxset of Metal Gear: Solid. Every publication raved about MGS and how wonderful it was(yeah, it was pretty good) but MMX4 got totally savaged with scores as low as less-than 50% - merely because it was a 2D game and Sony had a stupid policy in place where they wanted 3D titles only. Not even Konami's SOTN was safe! It took a threat from Capcom to withhold Resident Evil 2 to get MMX4 released in the west, and for our younger brethern here - Resident Evil 2 was like the "Terminator 2: Judgement Day of playstation games".
So glad I made that impulse purchase because it turned out to be one of the very best games released for the playstation, and so grateful to Capcom for standing their ground. Its like a violent Saturday Morning cartoon show which was a great contrast to sessions of MGS. Loved it to bits!
Still playing Void Bastards. Because it is not fair, I actually find it a much more compelling experience. It is sort of "Here's what you've got to deal with. Better make the best of it!" that makes surviving and getting back to your ship with some important upgrade part that future convicts can use so exciting. And I really enjoy games where you really should just RUN from some situations, racing back to the airlock with a Screw chasing you is really exciting.
Still kinda wandering from game to game. Ringrunner: Flight of the Sages is an amazing top-down, physics-based space shooter, with a hilarious and yet deep story and a very interesting setting.
Alongside that, gotten back in to Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin. I love Drangleic. If only Soul Memory wasn't a thing...
Got my hands on Mechanicus and while it has been fun, I have to say I was a bit suprised when it turned out that you need to exterminate all the bosses that pop up or else you get them all dumped on you in the last battle. That made me less than cheerful
So far, it’s a laugh. More to it than Pokemon Go, which I also play.
A friend of mine mentioned it, which caused me to try and take a look. But it's not showing up for me in the Google App Store, which suggests that my phone probably isn't capable of running it.
I got the phone brand new a year and a half ago...
Still RimWorld but now super frustrated due to being hit with a heat wave which is making my damned freezer not work at all and I don't have any components for another chiller, so all my food is quickly going off which is making me GRRRR!. I remember Sseth Tzeentach, my new favourite Youtuber, saying 'I genuinely believe my blood pressure and cortisol levels sharply rise when playing this game.' When he reviewed it and boy do I see what he means by that lol
I'm waiting to see what comes up on the steam sale at this point. (which should be tomorrow). I'd like a well done single player shooter, and an excellent builder, but, not sure of specific titles at this point.
Installed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night(XB1), and got to the first save point. Was kind of hoping for that epic "bloodlines" kind of intro that SOTN had, but alas its a load of jrpg waffle instead, trying to get started. Feels more like Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia than SOTN...
But yes, it looks and sounds good so far. There is a poor-performance issue with the Switch version, but Koji has announced that instead of one large patch they will be doing an individual patch for each area so that players don't have to wait so long to see some improvement. I assume the earlier stages will get priority and the later ones left til last.
World of Warships was released on the XB1 (kind of an alpha I guess? not a whole lot there for content yet) but I have been enjoying that. Seems to have been a successful port, haven't had any performance issues, the controls are intuitive and nothing in the way of lag.
Will probably play for a while until it gets repetitive or the grind gets to be too much. Much like WoT, I refuse to go premium with how much that costs
So far, it’s a laugh. More to it than Pokemon Go, which I also play.
Played it a bit. I actually kind of feel like there's too much going on for the kind of game it is. Go works well for me because it doesn't really interrupt what I'm doing. I feel like to play WU I need to really focus on playing WU, but its not dramatically more involving to the point where its loaded with stuff I want to do. Might also just be personal bias given I'm a huge Pokemon nerd, but mostly a superficial Potter fan.
Instead of elbowing my way into the Mediterranean, I decided to look north, and landed 3 armies in England. From West to East, one city fell after another. London fell early, and the last to fall were Notthingham and Caen. The initial invasion force only suffered 40% casualties, but by the end of the campaign, every army was replaced with a fresh one. Every settlement besides Notthingham was turned into a city, to increase trade.
