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Voss wrote:

 Necros wrote:
Was playing through the new WOW content, but I think I'm about done with that. Story was good, but now it's back to the same old rep grind and I'm just not into that. I'll be back for the next update I guess

Now I have a good 2 months or so to wait for Anthem...

May not be much point in that. Some of the press preview articles are suggesting another neutered shell of a game, along the lines of Fallout76. Without dragging friends along to entertain you, the game itself is a hollowed out grindfest that bears little resemblance to a bioware RPG, except maybe the worst parts of inquisition.

Funny, because nothing I've seen/read suggests that beyond some of the usual derp articles perpetuated by people who think MMOs need to be grindfests.

 Kanluwen wrote:

Voss wrote:

 Necros wrote:
Was playing through the new WOW content, but I think I'm about done with that. Story was good, but now it's back to the same old rep grind and I'm just not into that. I'll be back for the next update I guess

Now I have a good 2 months or so to wait for Anthem...

May not be much point in that. Some of the press preview articles are suggesting another neutered shell of a game, along the lines of Fallout76. Without dragging friends along to entertain you, the game itself is a hollowed out grindfest that bears little resemblance to a bioware RPG, except maybe the worst parts of inquisition.

Funny, because nothing I've seen/read suggests that beyond some of the usual derp articles perpetuated by people who think MMOs need to be grindfests.

Eh? That seems to be the attitude of the devs:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2018/12/20/anthem-probably-wont-be-as-rewarding-for-solo-players-according-to-dev/#1e1b23c1b264

https://gamerant.com/anthem-gear-weapon-rarity-level/

Always online, group up or be punished, grind for legendaries ad infinitum seems to be exactly the kind of gameplay they're specifically aiming for.

You link Forbes(I'm guessing it's a Paul Tassi article, right? If you don't know why that's bad--this is the guy who constantly whines about Destiny 2's mechanics now but also continually argued for the mechanics in question to become a part of the game.) and GameRant?

1) Of course it's "always online". It's an online game to begin with. What else were you expecting on that bit?
2) It's a social game. They've made it clear that you can play solo but certain activities(Strongholds) will be either extremely difficult or outright impossible as they're tuned for a group.
3) They've already talked about how the loot system works. Those "legendaries" you're grinding for? They have a specific creature in a stronghold or world instance that drops them--meaning it's a hell of a lot more predictable to try to get them.

I don't care who's saying it. I care about who they're quoting and what -they're- (the devs) saying. In this case, the Anthem devs are making a big deal (as the Bethesda devs did with fallout76) of telling their current player base to get the hell out. They need loot monkeys and gambling addicts to be their organ grinders as RPGs don't make enough money.

1- thanks for the tautology. Amazingly, most games can still be played offline if you don't want multiplayer. Not allowing it a conscious choice by the devs, one I consider poor. See Diablo 3, destinies, fallout 76

2- yes, they have made that clear. I consider that a terrible choice, and bad news for the game, enough that it alone is putting me in the 'not buy' camp. See fallout76

3- yay. Wow and other MMOs have had specific loot tables for bosses for decades. It doesn't make it any less a grindfest. In fact it ends up worse, as getting best or even relevant gear means grinding the same fight over and over again, based on whatever spawn/drop limits the developers feel like inflicting on the players. No idea why anyone would consider that a positive.

Yeah, okay. That's what the devs were saying. Clearly.

Enjoy not being on Anthem I guess.

It does seem clear. Feel free to interpret dev statements about multiplayer being intended and solo play being less rewarding as the exact opposite if you like, but I'm not sure why you would.

But I will indeed enjoy not playing. I enjoyed fallout 76 immensely for the trainwreck it was and the satisfaction of being right about it, I expect to the feel the same about this garbage.

Destiny clone + iron man - what little bioware is still competent at = Failure. They will long for the reaction to ME: Andromeda after this mess.

On holidays I've grabbed a bundle offering STALKER Shadow of Tchernoby that I'm currently playingl, Call of Pripyat and Clear Sky. Otherwise enjoying For Honor, neverwind the chinese characters that I really dislike.

Splitting time between Martyr, for which I decided to pick up the DLC (but can't access yet due to being too low levelled, yay) and Rainbow 6 Siege, which has a holiday gift pack going on for its players until some time tomorrow, but is as with a lot of stuff by Ubisoft, a bit bugged for those who already have all DLC operators..



Still not fixed. Will be interesting to see when it will be fixed at this rate and if they'll extend the date by which it can be claimed, as it's been up for a week now and still borked.

Did work for my DLC-free brother, who got Ela.

Picked up Heroes of might and magic 2 and 3 on GOG. I’ve been enjoying my trip down nostalgia lane immensely. Also been contemplating how much fun I’m having with the games, I guess they still hold up pretty well.

Given the recent bickering over Anthem in this thread...

Anthem will have both closed and open betas. The closed beta will be for people who either pre-purchased, or who use EA's subscription service. It'll take place at the end of January. The "open demo" will be open to everyone, and will run February 1-3. It'll apparently skip over the early game stuff, and run from levels 10-15.

So you'll get a chance to evaluate it for yourself before it goes live.

Mainly playing Save the World in Fortnite.. the battle Royale gets flak for whatever reason probably the building element which bugs me as well tbh, but the co-op campaign has been one of the most fun games I've played in the last six months.

Also occasionally Minecraft, Skyrim and WoW.

Just started Inquisitor Martyr on PS4, a Christmas gift from my brother.

Deep Rock Galactic has had a few updates since the last time I checked in and my brother wanted to play again. Quite disastrous that was, what with him insisting on playing it on a very high difficulty level while we were nowhere near as ready for that with our skills and equipment.

So after he more or less rage quit I decided to play along solo at a more reasonable pace, slowly playing through the probation missions while gathering gold and resources to upgrade kit and fulfil tasks to get more perk points.

The game is still unforgiving at times and loves to heap a crapton of bad stuff on you like a merry humiliation conga, but it's fun.

Also dug out Shadowgrounds in a bout of nostalgia.

I've been playing the fourth Myst game on Steam. I had played the first three games years ago, but had never bothered with the fourth. I'm enjoying it so far.

Just finished platinuming P3 and P5 Dancing games, I was bit surprised that there weren't as many good song choices on the P3 one as I expected, classics like Iwatodai Station and Maiya were missing, I guess because they didn't have any lyrics, but many of the remixes didn't either. I also finished playing a Way Out with my sister and it was surprisingly better than I thought it was, I had a lot of laugh out loud moments screwing around with the co-op bits. We've moved onto Divinity 2 next on the PS4 and its fun to play an RPG again.

Single player wise, I'm going to be playing P4 Dancing All Night next. I have a large backlog thanks to Christmas, since I still have Titanfall 2 and RDR2 lined up afterwards. All of which are making me procrastinate from painting my orks! #firstworldproblems

Been heavy into Insurgency: Sandstorm, and in the early turns of playing as the Huns in Total War: Atilla. Nothing else really to do (video game-wise) as I await Total War: Three Kingdoms.

 nels1031 wrote:
Been heavy into Insurgency: Sandstorm, and in the early turns of playing as the Huns in Total War: Atilla. Nothing else really to do (video game-wise) as I await Total War: Three Kingdoms.

huns are easy mode though

Not Online!!! wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Been heavy into Insurgency: Sandstorm, and in the early turns of playing as the Huns in Total War: Attila. Nothing else really to do (video game-wise) as I await Total War: Three Kingdoms.

huns are easy mode though

Vanilla game they are, but with a selection of mods that increase AI aggressiveness, increase garrisons and improve unit selection in AI armies, its a bit more of a challenge in the early goings of the campaign. You make some mistakes or overextend, you're proper fethed. I also like following the chapter objectives and missions, just for an extra challenge.

Once they get their war machine rolling, sure they're easy, but thats true of all Total War factions, in all Total War games.

Eastern Rome always felt like auto-win in Attila, personally.

 nels1031 wrote:

Not Online!!! wrote:

 nels1031 wrote:
Been heavy into Insurgency: Sandstorm, and in the early turns of playing as the Huns in Total War: Attila. Nothing else really to do (video game-wise) as I await Total War: Three Kingdoms.

huns are easy mode though

Vanilla game they are, but with a selection of mods that increase AI aggressiveness, increase garrisons and improve unit selection in AI armies, its a bit more of a challenge in the early goings of the campaign. You make some mistakes or overextend, you're proper fethed. I also like following the chapter objectives and missions, just for an extra challenge.

Once they get their war machine rolling, sure they're easy, but thats true of all Total War factions, in all Total War games.

Eastern Rome always felt like auto-win in Attila, personally.

I played a wre vanilla campaign through, after that everything is easymode tbf

The end turns, the sieges, i tell you!

Edit: pre corruption limit Patch!

Not Online!!! wrote:


I played a wre vanilla campaign through, after that everything is easymode tbf

Yeah, WRE is off the chain. Something happening every turn, and great fun. I just finished a Rome 2 : Empire Divided campaign, which is close to the same thing if you are playing as Aurellians faction, so I wanted a change of pace.

Been doing a lot of Stellaris. Finally got around to learning how to megacorp. I like that trade is now a thing and that worlds just kind of feels bigger. Overall I like what they’ve added. I’m honestly still not a fan of limiting the game to hyper lanes only, though the game is better for it. It was just a bit more sci-fi before. I know that was changed pretty long ago but still.

Playing ''They Are Billions''. It's a fantastic little game that's still in development. Don't be put off by that though - what has already been released is in itself an excellent game and I would be happy to pay if that's all there was.

It's a cross between a civ-building strategy like Age of Empires where you build a city, manage resources and tactically expand; and a tower defence game where mobs generally come from one of four compass points at regular intervals (and then every point for the final wave).

It's classed as a Real Time Strategy game, though you can pause the game at any time in order to build/give units orders etc, so when you un-pause all of your actions will be carried out (the game tests your strategy and tactics, not how quickly you can click/react to stimuli).

All in all, 10/10 from me

Yep, They are Billions is great. Definitely worth the price tag for what they offer in the game now. I'm not even too concerned with the "Campaign Mode" that they have been working on for so long. A Co-op survival mode would be more fun for me, if they don't have it yet.

Probably one of the best RTS games to come out in the past few years. I've been meaning to dive back in to play with the level editors and such. Last time I played was after they added the Zombie Giant to the maps. Worked up a perfect strategy to kill it before I expanded in its direction, and as I pulled off the kill, like 3 basic zombies made it through a gap in my defenses and then they grew exponentially inside my walls before I could re position my army. Game over. Time to start a new settlement!

I'm hoping they add more late game units. I tend to favor the Lucifers, find the Thanatos too slow, and the mecha thing too expensive.

Gave the Resident Evil 2 demo a try and loved it, cannot wait for the full release now. Especially with both HUNK and Tofu confirmed as also being in the game.

I got State of Decay 2 for xbox this weekend.. seems cool, but a little too much traveling back and forth. Really needs some kind of fast travel function, but I understand why it's not there. The driving gets boring. And it's really tough to keep up with clearing infestations and also doing the other missions at the same time since my guys need to rest up after each mission. Would have been cool if you could just send people out on supply runs that they complete automatically over time. Overall pretty decent zombie apocalypse community building kind of game.

Been really enjoying Dead Cells (on the Switch). I've heard descriptions such as 'Dark Souls in 2D' but not sure if that fits that well: It's certainly very difficult, and punishes you when you die (like Dark Souls, there is an element of progression) but this is fine tuned, in terms of responsiveness and how much your own life falls on your own reflexes, in a way that a 3D game never can be. It's also got a sense of humour and a level of irreverence running through it that sets it apart from the From Software game.

Would thoroughly recommend it (but it's not for the feint-hearted!)

 BrookM wrote:
Gave the Resident Evil 2 demo a try and loved it, cannot wait for the full release now. Especially with both HUNK and Tofu confirmed as also being in the game.

I am seriously looking forward to that game! Been many, many years since I played it last.

Dead Cells is amazing. It's one of those games that can launch a studio into the big leagues, if they so wish.

I agree about Deadcell being a decent game. I tried playing it on Nintendo Switch though. Right now, I'm grinding my Hunter Rank in Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate.

I've been ploughing through some old emulators on a new laptop I bought.
PGA2, Robocop Vs Terminator, Cannon Fodder on the Megadrive and Zelda on the SNES.
PGA2 is strangely addictive if a little frustrating at times (hint: save often!!!).

I will give a +1 to They Are Billions. Haven't played it in a long time, but when I was playing and it was only the survival mode it was worth the money. I will say this, it is hard. Hard hard. Do not expect to win the first map.

Kingdom Hearts 3 comes out tomorrow, so that will be my life until I can complete it.