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Killed 2 to 3 more pandoran nests, had a lair show up, had one base defense, progressed my anu campaign progression more, built another ship for squad 2 (which I’m sending on missions now), protected multiple havens and I’m about to have a big resource gathering now.

I just tried out the demo for a new game on Steam called "Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars". It's an odd game. It's a CRPG. But it's played using cards. And I don't mean a deck of cards. It's literally played using cards. The map is made up of cards laid out like tiles. Map cards are face down (representing a map fog) until you're adjacent to them, at which point they're flipped over to show what is in that "space". The location of your party is represented by a marker that looks similar to a chess piece. Your characters' abilities are represented by cards with a brief description of each ability, and you pick the card you want in order to choose that ability. Gear is represented by cards that have the modifiers that the gear applies to your character. Characters - both your party members, as well as enemies - are represented by cards. Etc...

Since the graphics are, well, cards, the game has a voice over gamemaster who fills in the details about what you see, and what's going on.

It's an interesting idea. The free demo's worth checking out if this sort of thing sounds like it might be interesting. It doesn't take long to play through, and will give you an idea of whether the game might appeal to you. While I'm not entirely sure, it looks like the demo has you playing a different party right before the full game starts, doing something that leads into the plot of the game.

In addition to the cards, there is the aforementioned narrator, the occasional polyhedral die, and crystal tokens used as sort of party-wide "combat currency".

Destroyed the lair, won another base defense, progressed synedrion status to allied (though 3 of my best died for it and won that mission by the skin of my teeth) and got more resources from scavenge runs. My gear feels fairly solid now. I might need more spare troops to replace losses in the future. Also I should have enough resources to build more factories or research again.

Eumerin wrote:
I just tried out the demo for a new game on Steam called "Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars". It's an odd game. It's a CRPG. But it's played using cards. And I don't mean a deck of cards. It's literally played using cards. The map is made up of cards laid out like tiles. Map cards are face down (representing a map fog) until you're adjacent to them, at which point they're flipped over to show what is in that "space". The location of your party is represented by a marker that looks similar to a chess piece. Your characters' abilities are represented by cards with a brief description of each ability, and you pick the card you want in order to choose that ability. Gear is represented by cards that have the modifiers that the gear applies to your character. Characters - both your party members, as well as enemies - are represented by cards. Etc...

I think I've seen this concept before, in a couple Euro-boardgames, but can't remember any of the names. Its been a decade or two since I hung out devoted boardgame geeks.

Voss wrote:

I think I've seen this concept before, in a couple Euro-boardgames, but can't remember any of the names. Its been a decade or two since I hung out devoted boardgame geeks.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's been done as a table top game in the past. It's odd seeing it as a video game, though.

More Phoenix point, more activating bases and cleaning them out, more resource runs, more haven defenses and adding new buildings. It’s getting a bit repetitive.

I have 6 research buildings and I’m about to have 5 manufacturing ones. I might make a bit more of each but not sure.

I have a lot of the tech resource but not so much of the manufacture resource. Ofc there’s a big supply raid I can do later to grab it.

My gear for both squads is pretty nice and I’ve built up enough dudes for a 3rd squad, replacement soldiers or if I build a bigger transport for the tough missions.

Eumerin wrote:

Voss wrote:

I think I've seen this concept before, in a couple Euro-boardgames, but can't remember any of the names. Its been a decade or two since I hung out devoted boardgame geeks.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's been done as a table top game in the past. It's odd seeing it as a video game, though.

Ah. I've gotten used to some genres of video games being physical-game style just for the aesthetics of it. Several papercraft games, a couple full on miniatures games as video miniature games (some viking one comes to mind- Wartile)
A couple other card games- Inscryption is current popular, Hand of Fate was for a while. Even dice games with dice as models/resources.

Sometimes its cute, other times its bafflingly pointless (beyond saving on animation like in the case of the miniature ones)

Metroid Prime: Federation Force.

A fun spin-off of the Metroid Prime series and unfairly savaged upon release. Never finished it but still come back to it as the missions were fun in a Chibi-Starship Troopers kind of way. Its a bit overwhelming in single player on some later missions, but I reckon its a blast for a team of friends.

Only halfway through but I have spotted Samus' gunship from Prime 3 in one mission. I get the feeling that she is the "Ace Rimmer" of the game...

Whatta gal...

I've been playing phoenix point. I think i had maybe 5 more soldier deaths. Most of them came from fighting scyllas. I captured the first scylla and fought the second and killed it in a citadel. Sadly i had to let 2 havens fall taking the pandoran citadel down.

My tech is pretty crazy now esp. paralyzing tech like sonic grenades which are actually amazing and the paralyzing sniper rifle which is also great.

Resources are pretty good even though destroying that citadel lost me some good gear.

Funny thing is i don't think either scylla killed any of my soldiers so much as i faced a good amount of other pandorans while killing the scyllas and some of them took me down.

Gloomhaven. Been pondering for a while, but wasn't sure it was entirely my cup of tea (limited story, no real interactions), but watching some videos this weak now that its out of early access, I was impressed and went for it.

Its fun. Its very challenging (took 3 tries for the first mission, 2 for the second, and several 'skin of my teeth' moments on others). Some of that is RNG, some of that is getting bogged down, sometimes its being X-com'd by game events.

In one case, my party is entirely wrong for the scenario- my heroes are mostly melee and I'm in a cave full of critters that can retaliate vs melee attacks (backed up by ranged critters with heavy shields).

Its more a puzzle game than a dungeon crawler- finding the right combinations of moves to take you to the end, but there are a lot of options and just about the right amount of progression systems. One is still unfortunately locked for me, and I have to get by the Ice Cave of Doom first.

Very fun, however.

On being enticed by the descriptions here, I picked up Phoenix Point on game pass. Wow does it scratch an itch

Playing on easy because I’m lazy, and at this point I just want to drown things.

I really like the scavenger missions. Get in, get the stuff and get out with minimum fuss. I also like how the rescue missions are sometimes based around pushing your guys into the enemy, getting the civilians and returning to the evac point; and sometimes effectively escorting them through enemy held territory. This kind of small difference keeps it fresh.

Still not sure how to pick up the tech research projects for advanced weapons. I have a few things that I can use but not research yet. Might just need to work on my diplomacy a bit more.

 Flinty wrote:
On being enticed by the descriptions here, I picked up Phoenix Point on game pass. Wow does it scratch an itch

Playing on easy because I’m lazy, and at this point I just want to drown things.

I really like the scavenger missions. Get in, get the stuff and get out with minimum fuss. I also like how the rescue missions are sometimes based around pushing your guys into the enemy, getting the civilians and returning to the evac point; and sometimes effectively escorting them through enemy held territory. This kind of small difference keeps it fresh.

Still not sure how to pick up the tech research projects for advanced weapons. I have a few things that I can use but not research yet. Might just need to work on my diplomacy a bit more.

Worth sharing because i found out late. When you visit a haven even if the haven is found and has a question mark beside it you will find other havens and things nearby. Also if an enemy has return fire range or an awareness range you can usually see it by hovering your mouse button over them.

You can find tech research in scavenge missions or haven defense missions. You can also trade for it at some havens. They should show what resources they have to trade below each haven on the map. Keep in mind they won't ask for more of the resource they already produce.

When you're in the mood for it you can eventually look at gameplay mechanics. There's a ridiculous amount of them but i imagine you won't have to learn them on easy difficulty. Just to help you because it was almost hidden the Sonic ability goes vs Will points and if it passes the will of a unit it will be dazed (only 1 action left, movement possibly halved and all special abilities unable to be used).

Thanks for the tips. I wonder if I’m lagging in the research because I’ve only had to do a few defence missions. The havens are now levelling up so I have a couple of engineer specialists. Looking forward to getting a few more specialist types.

 Flinty wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I wonder if I’m lagging in the research because I’ve only had to do a few defence missions. The havens are now levelling up so I have a couple of engineer specialists. Looking forward to getting a few more specialist types.

Without the tech resource you're likely to be lagging behind in a lot of things but esp. labs which increase research output. I think you need 200 tech resource and like 100 supply/industry to make each lab and i have about 6. Not to mention without tech resource things like synedrion equipment or higher tech items are heavily out of reach for you. I'm playing on heroic though (about 3rd month in on the 10th or 12th day) and i feel like my research which was good much of the game is starting to slow down a good amount. There are some 2 day research projects and considering the speed of the game it can feel slow. Ofc a lot of buildings take like 3-4 days to build so maybe it isn't all that long for research.

I think your game would be a lot easier to give tips to if i could see it every so often. You want to build bases and satellite uplinks near the mist so that when the pandorans attack from a nest that it can likely be within scanning range. Since i've researched pandoran citadels after destroying one i can actually find pandoran nests, lairs and citadels in scanner range of all my bases with satellite uplinks which is really good. Sadly most of the attacks come from areas either out of my radar range or from an area i don't have a base.

There's about 67-68% or so of the needed human population left in my game and i think i'm pretty close to the phoenix path ending. I may want to try the other factions endings at some point however.

Oddly i don't use technicians much and seem to hate using mutation or augmentation because i feel like i'm gonna make some serious enemies in the 3 sub-factions and i'd rather wait till the end to do that if possible so i can try em out. This usually means i tend to use synedrion gear and somewhat new jericho stuff more than anu stuff. I also don't know what it's like to steal enemy aircraft, raid research or raid buildings for resources since i'm playing a goody two shoes that hates picking sides esp. since they all have some serious negative quirks.

All 3 sides have some amazing gear if you can work up to it and they play better when combined and when you get to the higher tech tiers through increasing your alliance reputation. If i had to describe each faction by how they fight i'd say synedrion are the ninja/glass cannon faction (poison, light armor, best range, stealth, paralysis/non-lethal capture), New Jericho are the crusader/knights (armor piercing, fire, heavy armor, fairly hard hitting, bionics) and Anu are the fanatic/mutant faction (acid, mutations, shotguns, melee weapons, viral weapons, panic and mind altering gear).

Sorry, I meant lagging In things to research, rather than in speed terms. I have unlocked 6 bases at this point and have a healthy resource flow. I seem to mostly be using new Jericho kit at this point as that’s where most of my recruits have come from. I just did a defence mission and activated one of the snipers there, and instructed him to drop all of his kit, while I then picked up and et voila, I could research the NJ sniper rifle

Need some more Synedron kit, but not had many defence missions there. Mostly anu and NJ.

 Flinty wrote:
Sorry, I meant lagging In things to research, rather than in speed terms. I have unlocked 6 bases at this point and have a healthy resource flow. I seem to mostly be using new Jericho kit at this point as that’s where most of my recruits have come from. I just did a defence mission and activated one of the snipers there, and instructed him to drop all of his kit, while I then picked up and et voila, I could research the NJ sniper rifle

Need some more Synedron kit, but not had many defence missions there. Mostly anu and NJ.

I sorta feel dumb for not thinking of that before. I think if you win a haven defense you pick up all the gear anyway however left on the field of battle. I'm not entirely sure however.

As far as early tech goes i prefer Synedrion guns and armor for basic troops and snipers/pistols due to long range and accuracy. However later on New Jericho stuff can be useful due to armor piercing but paralysis tech of synedrion is also really good. Anu shotguns are also really stellar.

Ofc in the fairly late game i unlocked a heavy acid cannon that has shot an enemy with 480 acid damage in one go and then sniped and shot off some of his armor to which he then acid burned to death. It's crazy because normally acid chews through armor first and then through body parts. Fire is the damage minus armor on every body part so heavy armor tends to survive it better but fire can go a lot of places and really hurts body parts when moved through. Poison avoids armor completely but hurts no body parts and medkits heal it completely. Paralysis gets rid of Action points if you paralyze it enough and you can use medkits to take away paralysis a bit.

I also have access to a hardcore late tier shock lance which has 600 shock and easily outpaces every other melee weapon i currently have.

Back on Ghost Recon thanks to the new Operation update. Conquest is pretty fun!

Can't wait for Friday though. Battlefieeeeeeeeeeeld!

For 25 years i have been a ps only owner, but after 11 months of hardly any ps5 avalible in my country i gave up, and bought a X series S.

Bought Perfect Dark and that alone was worth the price of the console, considering i have been playing the game on a OG N64 for the past years (and yea i can live with the very bad right stick deadzone). Nostalgia is a powerful emotion.

Been playing a lot of coop games, solo.

Deep Rock Galactic a.k.a. Ultimate Squat Simulator got a massive update where every class got a new weapon, new enemies, a new mission type and a free seasonal pass has been rolled out as well. Good time to be a miner on Hoxxes, with every update they improve upon an already great game.

Black Ops Cold War was on sale and wanting to see how the campaign was, still the same overblown Michael Bay gak, also amusing to see how they decided to portray Amsterdam during the 80's, cringy to see a character pay for a pair of drinks with 200 guilders. Instead been sinking a lot time into the various zombies modes, which scratches certain itches really nicely. Also gave warzone a try, not my cuppa, but getting to the 24th place on my second try felt good.

Finally, Aliens: Fireteam Elite, a good Alien franchise game for a change, yay. Combat is a tad basic, but the overall basics of the game are nicely done and it's got the right amount of scenery porn and continuity nods to the good games makes for a rewarding experience. It's fun to see the Working Joes from Seegson make a return.

Hitman 3.

Banger.

Picked up Jurassic World Evolution 2, and took it for a spin. The basic campaign has you playing as a member of the US Department of Fish and Wildlife, helping to contain dinosaurs that have spread across the entire continental US (following the last movie).

The campaign doesn't appear to be very long, though. There aren't that many missions. And unlike the five islands in the original game, the campaign missions appear to be focused on helping you to understand the basic mechanics of the new game. A lot of things have changed, and even veterans of the first game (such as myself) need to take some time to figure out how everything works.

There's other stuff to play with (most importantly a sandbox mode) once the campaign is completed.

I preordered JWE2 but haven’t had the time to play it this week. Looking forward to it with the long weekend.

 Jammer87 wrote:
I preordered JWE2 but haven’t had the time to play it this week. Looking forward to it with the long weekend.

I like some of the changes, but am unhappy with others.

On the other hand, I've only played the campaign so far, which is basically a tutorial. And while the game doesn't call it that, it also doesn't really go out of its way to hide it. At least a couple of the campaign missions (there are only five) end rather abruptly just as you're getting your facility going. And there's no opportunity to keep playing afterwards. There are also still some features that aren't used in the campaign. For example, the game adds marine animals, but the campaign doesn't include an aquatic facility. And the hatcheries aren't used for their intended purpose.

I finished the fifth and last campaign mission last night. Afterwards, the game suggested that I play the first Chaos Theory mission. The Chaos Theory missions take you to various locations, with set goals. Three of those involve running a park. For example, the first one asks you to create and manage the original Jurassic Park, avoiding the catastrophe that ensued. The preview text for the remaining two suggests other goals, though I don't know how absolute those are to the missions. Presumably the Chaos Theory missions will be more involved and protracted than the campaign. And there's Sandbox, and the inevitable DLC. Plus whatever they have planned in response to the next movie (Dominion), which is scheduled for release next summer. I suspect that DLC will continue the campaign in some fashion, but set after the upcoming movie.

There are plot elements that make me roll my eyes. For instance, my understanding is that the last movie (which I didn't see) ended with



And this is fine for four of the five campaign missions, as those missions take place in Arizona, Washington state, Oregon, and Yosemite National Park in California. But there is *also* a mission in Pennsylvania. How in the world did dinosaurs somehow get all the way across the continental US (which is massive in size) very rapidly without anyone noticing? Also, some of the characters - Claire in particular - keep talking about how mankind will need to learn to get along with the dinosaurs now that dinosaurs are in the wild on the mainland. I think Claire has it backwards. In a real life situation like this, if mankind gets sufficient annoyed with the dinosaurs, then they're going to go extinct again. At least the big ones that represent a legitimate threat to humanity would. I think that was established quite clearly at the end of the third movie (which is pretty much the only part of that movie I've seen).

Anyway, that's not a gameplay thing. And who knows what horrors the writers are planning on inflicting on the continental US in Dominion. The gameplay itself looks promising. I haven't seen everything yet, so I can't report how it ultimately compares with the first game. But I'm enjoying it so far. I'll have to give a further report after I finish cleaning up John Hammond's mess in the original park.

Been pretty heavy into No Mans Sky recently. My go to chill-out game.
Though right now I'm waiting for the new DLC for Inquisitor:Martyr to come out. Sororitas based inquisitor, aw yiss.

Animal Crossing has returned to claim my life.

Unpacking on Xbox PC gamepass. Really relaxing game where the game plot is told entirely via the environment/gameplay. Lovely pixel graphics too.

I had to take a break from phoenix point and i've been playing yet another ikit claw tww2 run but this time i've been playing very hard difficulty with hard battles and man it's like turn 120 and after having had so many enemies i was at a standstill. Only reason why i held together was killing so many enemy armies for cash and having a ton of under cities everywhere. I think i have like 10 with 5 under all the wood elf territories.

It annoys me a little when i finally had a couple enemies on the back-foot finally after killing all their numerous armies they confederated into their main faction so i couldn't take settlements back or risk being drawn into a larger war rather than a much smaller one.

Thankfully the only armies currently at war with me are 3 of the 4 wood elf factions. All of which mostly won't leave their magical forest except maybe the main wood elf faction.

Then there's at least 3 high elf factions at war with me currently including the main high elf faction. Ofc i only ever see significant force coming from Teclis's force so i will go to the new world and either loot and raze his territories to the ground or take them. I may just not take them because defending such far reaching territory from enemies will be tough with only a few armies.

Running through witcher 3 again.pretty enjoyable. Needed to do the triss ending since yen is a pita.

Next up is a second playthrough of life is strange: true colours- thought it was extraordinary on my first run through.

And of course Feb is the remastered original life is strange and lis:before the storm.

Can't wait.

Due to getting a lot done on Secret War: The Annihilation Plague during a NaNoWriMo gathering over Zoom so just played some Hades and finally defeated the titular character himself! It's a damn good game.

Fired up the Halo Infinity multi-player beta last night. Took it out for a spin and had some fun. Been a while since I last played a fps game.