Man, Alien:Isolation is the first game to actually scare me.
Goddamn SciMed, man. The only thing worse than not knowing where it is, is knowing exactly where it is - because it's in the next room and every sound it makes could mean it's coming for you.
I have been informed by both Indian and British nationals that no one really knows what the rules of cricket are and that it is a giant hoax perpetrated on the Commonwealth with the side benefit of confusing everyone else who insists there must be some form of game there other than British Calvinball.
Checks out.
Oh, Mornington Crescent.
I worked at a cricket club for some time. I had the distinct pleasure of running catering for players, during their game. There were multi-course lunches served while the game was ongoing. I never worked them out, either.
No other game I know of has several consecutive over-night intermissions in a single match because it's getting too dark to see the ball. It has many arcane aspects that aren't rules, but more knowing tips of the hat to other gentlemen that also know cricket, such as:
When a good quality batsman is retired from play ("gets out") near the end of a days play, the captain of the batting team will sacrifice a weaker batsman to the Gods for better luck tomorrow.
Having a whole team jointly spit on and rub the cricket ball vigorously around your crotch is encouraged, and any other methods of ball modification result in severe fines.
While a cricket team has 12 players, only 11 take the field at any point in the game. The remaining '12th Man' is responsible for running errands for other cricketers while they're away from work.
One of the ways the bowling team to score a point against the batting team is by having the ball bounce in-line with the stumps and hit the batters front pad while also in-line with the stumps, however the umpire won't give the bowling team a point even if he thinks they deserve it unless the whole team screams at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air jumping around like crazy. The umpire needs to see this happen before declaring his decision and will deny them a valid point if he's unsatisfied with the begging.
When a swing bowler pitches short over the wicket, the batsman step away from the crease with confidence that the wicket keeper won't lop the bails off, and he pushes it across through mid-wicket to the boundry for four. I am in fact still speaking English
I finished Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark yesterday. The Cybertron parts are considerably better than the Earth parts because it is way more believable that there are so many fodder enemies on Cybertron.
Also, I like Bay's Transformer designs for the most part, but his Grimlock is awful and seeing that instead of the cool one we had in Fall of Cybertron made me sad.
So, if you're an insane person like me and want to play a bunch of Transformers third-person shooters you should probably really only play 2 of them - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Rise of the Dark Spark isn't bad, but it's certainly doesn't live up to Fall.
Man, Alien:Isolation is the first game to actually scare me.
Just waiting for an elevator early in the game. I hadn't even encountered a single enemy, but I'm cowering in the corner freaking out.
Great atmosphere building in that game.
On the flip side, I finished 11th Hour for the backlog challenge. What a silly mess of a "horror" plot. It almost tipped to being so bad it's good, but not quite. It did teach me that I'm garbage at connect 4, and have no patience for anagrams.
I finished Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark yesterday. The Cybertron parts are considerably better than the Earth parts because it is way more believable that there are so many fodder enemies on Cybertron.
Also, I like Bay's Transformer designs for the most part, but his Grimlock is awful and seeing that instead of the cool one we had in Fall of Cybertron made me sad.
So, if you're an insane person like me and want to play a bunch of Transformers third-person shooters you should probably really only play 2 of them - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Rise of the Dark Spark isn't bad, but it's certainly doesn't live up to Fall.
Transformers: Devastation is also fantastic if you're a fan of G1.
Hell, it made me go and buy a Devastator model. And a Menasor model. And a Blitzwing model. I may have gone overboard.
I finished Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark yesterday. The Cybertron parts are considerably better than the Earth parts because it is way more believable that there are so many fodder enemies on Cybertron.
Also, I like Bay's Transformer designs for the most part, but his Grimlock is awful and seeing that instead of the cool one we had in Fall of Cybertron made me sad.
So, if you're an insane person like me and want to play a bunch of Transformers third-person shooters you should probably really only play 2 of them - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Rise of the Dark Spark isn't bad, but it's certainly doesn't live up to Fall.
Transformers: Devastation is also fantastic if you're a fan of G1.
Hell, it made me go and buy a Devastator model. And a Menasor model. And a Blitzwing model. I may have gone overboard.
Agreed! It was one of my favorite games last year. They even brought back every G1 voice actor (except for Starscream's who died in the early 90's).
I finished Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark yesterday. The Cybertron parts are considerably better than the Earth parts because it is way more believable that there are so many fodder enemies on Cybertron.
Also, I like Bay's Transformer designs for the most part, but his Grimlock is awful and seeing that instead of the cool one we had in Fall of Cybertron made me sad.
So, if you're an insane person like me and want to play a bunch of Transformers third-person shooters you should probably really only play 2 of them - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Rise of the Dark Spark isn't bad, but it's certainly doesn't live up to Fall.
Transformers: Devastation is also fantastic if you're a fan of G1.
Hell, it made me go and buy a Devastator model. And a Menasor model. And a Blitzwing model. I may have gone overboard.
I have that one on PS4 and am awful at it but love the aesthetic.
I don't know if the Platinum edition has it, but the demo for RRT2 had a map for Africa that wasn't in the main game. The scenario was to connect Cairo to Cape Town. If it isn't in the Platinum edition, try and hunt down a copy of the demo and you can install that and copy over the scenario files for use in the main game.
Finished up a bunch of games this long weekend and the week before.
Thanks to @Antoshka for The Last Federation. After a normal difficulty attempt that went severely awry, I debated putting this one on the backburner, since I wasn't sure I'd manage to finish a full run for the backlog contest. There's a lot to learn to get up and running, but it's pretty interesting trying to balance the different worlds against each other with no one becoming overly dominant before you convince them to join together. But I started over on the easier setting and with the lessons of the first go around, I managed to seal the deal the second time around.
I feel like Mirror's Edge was a very old gift, but from before I was making easily referenceable thank you images. But I did finally played Mirror's Edge.
Yep, played that game a lot of people like a lot all the way through to the end. It's done and over. Crossed off the list. That game has been played.
Morphopolis was a quick little pretty (gross?) HOB. I forgot to check but the system seemed similar enough to Tiny Bang Story that I thought it might be from the same folks. But it had a much more forgiving hint system and was shorter but also more interesting looking. Thanks to @JaysonFour for that one.
My wife and I wrapped up The Walking Dead Michonne. I enjoyed that one, although boy is it bleak. It definitely falls into the no matter what you do, it's gonna suck routine. But it was still mostly well told. Thumbs up.
Thanks to @Iolo for that.
We also played the final episode of The Blue Toad Murder Files. Which we enjoyed with it's 2 player co-op (of sorts). It worked well as an episode a night game. The puzzles tend to get reused a bit, so having the days between them helped. But it was more of a large overarching narrative than I expected. Good if you like hearing the word Murder overpronounced with exaggerated bitish accents. Plus thumbs up to their one voice actor who narrated and voiced all of the various characters with a wide range of results. We got the first case wrong, but managed to stay on top of the rest.
Earlier last week I played through Owlboy, that was quite good. It does the new game that feels like an old classic quite well. Some of the platforming at the end started to get a bit rough for me, but I made it through. Really liked this one. Thanks to @wyborn for that.
Let's see what else.
Thanks to @Krummith for Orwell. That was pretty interesting. I'm tempted to give it another go. I really enjoyed the way they play out the story. I mucked it up in a few parts but had the right perpetrator in mind. I'm very curious how many ways things could have played out, but it doesn't seem super replayable since you're going to already know some of the definite answers. The gameplay reminded me of piecing together the story bit of Her Story but much more complex in how you uncover them, and you actually have to make judgement calls that change the course of events a bit. Cool game.
Faery Legends of Avalon was pretty ok. Which seems about par for the course with a Spiders game. It's a bit old, but has some elements to it to make it feel special instead of a too common RPG. Letting you fly around in the various environments and giving you a lot of alternate conflict resolution options. It also felt like they really meant to make another but never did. There's like 6-7 world mirrors there and you only ever use 3. Plus it ends a bit open ended. I had fun with it, but it has that Spiders mixture of jank and good stuff.
Octodad was just a fun time and a good palate cleanser. I found it funny and enjoyable. Shoot. I feel like this one was a gift as well but don't have it on my reference list. Hmm. Not sure. Ah ha, it was a humble bundle buy. That's why I don't remember buying it individually. Thanks me.
One more week to clear out some backlog games. Then it's right back into new stuff with Yakuza 0 and RE 7.
Man, Alien:Isolation is the first game to actually scare me.
Goddamn SciMed, man. The only thing worse than not knowing where it is, is knowing exactly where it is - because it's in the next room and every sound it makes could mean it's coming for you.
I'm just gonna stay here, gonna start a brand new life and build a little house and maybe take a wife and have a couple kids and get a dog and grow old and retire all underneath this desk because I am never
ever
coming out from underneath this desk.
+7
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
Anyone has any quick thoughts on Stellaris? How does it compare to other Paradox games (Mainly Europa Universalis and/or Crusader Kings)
HIGHLY recommended, especially if you're a 4X/Sci-Fi fan! It has a much easier learning curve than EU or Crusader Kings. I would say it's more like EU than CK in terms of you're controlling a faction and not just an individual like in CKII. The combat is better than EU in that you can actually zoom in and watch battles, but there's really zero tactics involved aside from designing ships (Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanics plus fleet size and admiral traits determines battle outcomes). There are tons of unique in-game events (I HIGHLY suggest the Leviathans Story Pack DLC as it adds a lot of content) with some great writing (including quest lines written by one of the Sunless Sea writers). Paradox also is a great dev in terms of supporting their games post-launch and Stellaris has been no different, receiving frequent free content updates and patches.
As you can tell, I'm a huge Stellaris fanboy, but if you aren't into 4X Strategy or Sci-Fi this certainly isn't the game for you. If you are into 4X Sci-Fi, this is most definitely the game for you. It was my personal GOTY for 2016!
Jim Sterling video is a violation of copyrighted work and against Youtube rules
We are currently talking with the Youtube support about this issue.
Jim Sterling has no respect to software engineers who learned programming in university for 5 years and work hard to create a good game.
Jim Sterling has no self-respect. He is going against Youtube rules and trying to damage a small team which is new in the industry. A pathetic bully.
Jim Sterling calls our work "Load of Crap". He doesn't respect our attempts to make a good game. He simply makes money by discredit other people's works. I wonder if this worm can actually write a single line of code!
We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game, Matan Cohen. The developer appears to have created multiple Steam accounts to post a positive review for their own game. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously.
For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Matan Cohen and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.
We (Valve) have identified unacceptable behavior involving multiple Steam accounts controlled by the developer of this game, Matan Cohen. The developer appears to have created multiple Steam accounts to post a positive review for their own game. This is a clear violation of our review policy and something we take very seriously.
For these reasons, we are ending our business relationship with Matan Cohen and removing this game from sale. If you have previously purchased this game, it will remain accessible in your Steam library.
Hah.
I've never been a big Sterling fan (to me he's like a shock jock for video games) but the devs he goes after always end up making him look like a saint
Since I should have some preditctable game time this Friday, I wanted to try to organize another FNG. I have some ideas for games but I'm open to pretty much anything if we have at least a few people who want to play it.
Some possible FNG games:
Project CARS
Satellite Reign
Small World 2
Tabletop Simulator (maybe a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill)
Livelock
Moon Hunters
GOD EATER 2 Rage Burst
Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide
Would anybody be interested in playing any of these or something else for FNG? I'm thinking like a 10PM EST/7PM PST start time. I'm open to suggestions but I figured I would get the ball rolling.
When a swing bowler pitches short over the wicket, the batsman step away from the crease with confidence that the wicket keeper won't lop the bails off, and he pushes it across through mid-wicket to the boundry for four. I am in fact still speaking English
I have been informed by both Indian and British nationals that no one really knows what the rules of cricket are and that it is a giant hoax perpetrated on the Commonwealth with the side benefit of confusing everyone else who insists there must be some form of game there other than British Calvinball.
Checks out.
Oh, Mornington Crescent.
I worked at a cricket club for some time. I had the distinct pleasure of running catering for players, during their game. There were multi-course lunches served while the game was ongoing. I never worked them out, either.
No other game I know of has several consecutive over-night intermissions in a single match because it's getting too dark to see the ball. It has many arcane aspects that aren't rules, but more knowing tips of the hat to other gentlemen that also know cricket, such as:
When a good quality batsman is retired from play ("gets out") near the end of a days play, the captain of the batting team will sacrifice a weaker batsman to the Gods for better luck tomorrow.
Having a whole team jointly spit on and rub the cricket ball vigorously around your crotch is encouraged, and any other methods of ball modification result in severe fines.
While a cricket team has 12 players, only 11 take the field at any point in the game. The remaining '12th Man' is responsible for running errands for other cricketers while they're away from work.
One of the ways the bowling team to score a point against the batting team is by having the ball bounce in-line with the stumps and hit the batters front pad while also in-line with the stumps, however the umpire won't give the bowling team a point even if he thinks they deserve it unless the whole team screams at the top of their lungs with their hands in the air jumping around like crazy. The umpire needs to see this happen before declaring his decision and will deny them a valid point if he's unsatisfied with the begging.
When a swing bowler pitches short over the wicket, the batsman step away from the crease with confidence that the wicket keeper won't lop the bails off, and he pushes it across through mid-wicket to the boundry for four. I am in fact still speaking English
To this day, Giant Bomb's Ashes Cricket QL is the closest I've ever come to understanding Cricket, and I think I'm further than before watching that.
( < . . .
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HiT BiT🍒 Fresh, straight from Pac-man'sRegistered Userregular
So it turns out that the Stellaris Galaxy edition is priced at a lower point than the less snazzy Nova edition right now, and only £3 more than the standard ed. I'm assuming it's a pricing error.
...Just incredibly inaccessible for people to new to the sport. "And the bowler's fired in a scrambled seam yorker that the batsman has tried to nurdle to deep backward square for a single, but, oh no! a leading edge and he's caught at short mid on! 5-for for the bowler!", etc
I mean, how can anyone dislike a game where the bowler has a silly short leg and a deep backward square leg (as two of his fielding positions).
I can't remember where I originally found this quote, by the way, but it is a good'n: "One of the glories of cricket is the way the drama of a match develops, how the pace varies from the leisurely to the suddenly lethal, how the plot thickens, and the subplots are interlinked as the play goes on, how the heroes and the villains take the stage with time enough to act out their roles. A good Test match is the equal of a five-act masterpiece of the stage."
That said, I don't think I've played a cricket game, Steam or otherwise, that has captured it all yet.
Anyone has any quick thoughts on Stellaris? How does it compare to other Paradox games (Mainly Europa Universalis and/or Crusader Kings)
Okay, so CK2 is kind of like a roleplaying game wrapped up in a grand-strategy shell. You are Duke So-and-so of Wherever, and you'll live out something like a normal human lifetime. You want to keep your family in power somewhere, and expand your influence, and make sure your sons marry nice girls with huge ... tracts of lands and see your daughters happily married and maybe see how Jerusalem is this time of year and ...
Then you die, and take over as your heir, and do it all again.
There are lots of ways to set individual goals - unite Ireland, make the Holy Roman Empire Orthodox, take the Jewish horse nomads and keep them around until game end, etc. - that aren't just "paint the world [your color],*" though that is totally okay, as well. You can play a pretty fun game as a smaller lordling in a larger realm, trying to keep your liege in-power as a staunch loyalist. You can play fairly different games depending on whether you're feudal or a trade Republic.
I have a lot less experience with EU (especially IV), but from my experience the main change is that it's a lot less personal. In CK2, you're a person - then a different person, and a different person, etc., but whether or not you were trained as a soldier or a scholar is important. Whether it's your sister or your cousin married to the King of West Francia is important. In EUIV, you're playing a country, not a person, and cousin-vs-sister are rolled up to a singular "Royal Marriage" relationship modifier. Your ruler and heir pick up random personality traits up to three times (age 16, ruling 10 years, ruling 25 years); you aren't sending your oldest child to study under your genius Steward (at the risk of him turning Jewish) because you want that Midas-Touched education for the bonus tax income.
Technology levels are much more important in EU - just a couple of tech points of difference have a potentially huge effect, which is exacerbated by the various institutions (like whether or not the Printing Press is a "thing" in your country). In contrast, a couple of tech points in CK2 mean you're probably making a few fewer coins per month, or your infantry fights ever-so-slightly worse.
EUIV is much more of a pure grand strategy game, IMO, than CK2. It also has a lot more 4X qualities, where large parts of the map are actually hidden from you at the start of the game (e.g., starting in Europe in 144X, you won't even see most of Africa and will have no idea about Asia or the Americas). You can eventually learn how to go explore and colonize those areas, where you'll be able to find out whether that new territory you've discovered has a gold mine or a fishery.
Stellaris is, perhaps obviously, even more 4X than EUIV, largely because it's Paradox's first real attempt at a "real" 4X game.
I think that, while it definitely hews closer to the EUIV side of the spectrum (you play an empire, not an emperor), it steals quite a bit from CK2 and is, through patches and DLC, moving ever further in that direction. This is, in my experience, a Good Thing (TM); it's one of the things that Paradox does better than anyone else, I think (and, in fact, you can see that they're also moving EUIV in that directly, though more slowly).
One of the biggest changes is that everyone starts pretty much equal in Stellaris. In CK2 or EUIV, choosing to play as England vs. Leinster, or Haesteinn vs. Doge Whoever of Venice, sets you up for very different (early game, at least) experiences. In Stellaris, you will have some differences based on your species choices, but you'll basically always have a planet in a solar system, some ships, and some sciencing to do. The real differences in your starting location - whether you have neighbors, how crazy / violent they are, etc. - are not immediately apparent, and only reveal themselves an hour+ into the game. While this can be frustrating - "Oh, look, another game where my two neighbors are xenophobic scorched-earth types ... <restart>" - it can also be the source of some fun - "Okay, my two neighbors are xenophobic scorched-earth types, but there's a potential friend on the other side and if we divide and conquer ..."
CK2 and EUIV are, without a doubt, much more polished experiences than Stellaris. They've been released for far longer, have had their post-launch support rolling on for, really, years, and are much more in the vein of the kind of game that Paradox does as a matter of course. Stellaris is a new venture for them, and there are some teething pains going on (e.g., space-to-ground invasions still tend to be pointlessly-tedious-but-kinda-required); Paradox is still feeling their way along.
All that said, I have a lot of confidence in the direction their going with Stellaris, and I'm very much enjoying the ride as they go.
So much for "quick thoughts"!
* Irish green is the best, BTW. Plus, it's really close to Egyptian sultanate green, which gives you the perfect excuse for Crusading!
Victor Vran is definitely a fun ARPG to play with a controller and could be good co-op material. Stronghold Crusader 2 has been pretty fun for that medieval city builder that I need to play some more. Always heard good things about Homeworld but never played it myself. And dangit reminding me I need to do more Hong Kong.
Don't worry guys, I'm almost done with Bloodborne so I'll return to my previous steammage--until I get other awesome PS4 games.
Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
edited January 2017
I was in the middle of watching reviews for Rust, since I own the other two BTA games in the bundle, when that classy Dude @Ed Gruberman beat me to the punch with a free copy!
I tend to enjoy survival games (love The Long Dark!) so have been eyeing this one for awhile. Much thanks Ed!
Some points I alluded to but forgot to actually concretely mention above:
In CK2, there's a fun time to be had playing the vassal game. Supporting your ruler, arguing for positions on the royal council, joining and starting factions, getting your family in charge of the next duchy over, etc. In EUIV / Stellaris, it's not there. Either you're independent or you've basically lost.
In CK2, because you're playing as a person, it's a lot more high-variance. It's possible that you play as ruler X, who dies and his three sons inherit, splitting the realm so that you get about 1/3rd of it. And then, suddenly, new guy dies after 20 days in power (under "mysterious circumstances" or cancer or whatever) and your 1/3 splits again and suddenly you've gone from King to Count like that. But, with time, you can usually build your personal holdings up again. In EUIV/ Stellaris, since you're playing the country and not the ruler, that sort of instability never really happens. You only lose territory through war and rebellion, and rebellion's pretty easy to manage.
Also, if you're losing territory through war more than, like, two or three times? Then in Stellaris / EUIV you're probably on a downward spiral and are facing (a long, drawn-out) knockout. In CK2, you could just call up the guy who's eating you, swear fealty, and work to come back through the vassal-side game, but that's not really possible in EUIV / Stellaris.
I really like the idea of building little castles and such but I feel like there were 8 of those games released and I don't remember if any of them were really well received.
Edit: Also, Stellaris is really neat! It's very pretty and nice, the only problem I have with it is that particularly compared to Crusader Kings 2 it does an absolutely terrible job of simulating anything but basically expansionist empires.
Like it'd be neat if it did a better job of tossing together some real gnarly maps of weird intersecting nations. I guess Crusader Kings can also turn into a big old blob of the Holy Empire of Belgium or whatever if you're really going for it though.
Ooooh....Stelaris does look interesting.
And its on sale?
*gets out wallet*
I should maybe finish other games firs-
*hits purchase anyways*
YOU GUYS!
It does look rather interesting, but right now I'm in the middle of university exams and I most certainly shouldn't buy a strategy game. Plus honestly I'm pretty sure I'm nowhere near smart enough to play Paradox games.
Posts
I'm already getting addicted to Stellaris and I'm still. just. learning. the. game.
Tucked my girlfriend into bed, sat down at the pc, and boom...90 minutes GONE.
Goddamn SciMed, man. The only thing worse than not knowing where it is, is knowing exactly where it is - because it's in the next room and every sound it makes could mean it's coming for you.
Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
PSN:Midnyte_Rage
That's just the gravitational time dilation. Don't worry, it's normal and you'll adjust to it eventually.
And got this free on PS4, where I will probably not play it.
No other game I know of has several consecutive over-night intermissions in a single match because it's getting too dark to see the ball. It has many arcane aspects that aren't rules, but more knowing tips of the hat to other gentlemen that also know cricket, such as:
Also, I like Bay's Transformer designs for the most part, but his Grimlock is awful and seeing that instead of the cool one we had in Fall of Cybertron made me sad.
So, if you're an insane person like me and want to play a bunch of Transformers third-person shooters you should probably really only play 2 of them - War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Rise of the Dark Spark isn't bad, but it's certainly doesn't live up to Fall.
Great atmosphere building in that game.
On the flip side, I finished 11th Hour for the backlog challenge. What a silly mess of a "horror" plot. It almost tipped to being so bad it's good, but not quite. It did teach me that I'm garbage at connect 4, and have no patience for anagrams.
Steam ID: Good Life
This is the soundtrack I'll start listening to while I play Stellaris.
Transformers: Devastation is also fantastic if you're a fan of G1.
Hell, it made me go and buy a Devastator model. And a Menasor model. And a Blitzwing model. I may have gone overboard.
Agreed! It was one of my favorite games last year. They even brought back every G1 voice actor (except for Starscream's who died in the early 90's).
I have that one on PS4 and am awful at it but love the aesthetic.
Yes. Yes it is.
I don't know if the Platinum edition has it, but the demo for RRT2 had a map for Africa that wasn't in the main game. The scenario was to connect Cairo to Cape Town. If it isn't in the Platinum edition, try and hunt down a copy of the demo and you can install that and copy over the scenario files for use in the main game.
Thanks to @Antoshka for The Last Federation. After a normal difficulty attempt that went severely awry, I debated putting this one on the backburner, since I wasn't sure I'd manage to finish a full run for the backlog contest. There's a lot to learn to get up and running, but it's pretty interesting trying to balance the different worlds against each other with no one becoming overly dominant before you convince them to join together. But I started over on the easier setting and with the lessons of the first go around, I managed to seal the deal the second time around.
I feel like Mirror's Edge was a very old gift, but from before I was making easily referenceable thank you images. But I did finally played Mirror's Edge.
Yep, played that game a lot of people like a lot all the way through to the end. It's done and over. Crossed off the list. That game has been played.
Morphopolis was a quick little pretty (gross?) HOB. I forgot to check but the system seemed similar enough to Tiny Bang Story that I thought it might be from the same folks. But it had a much more forgiving hint system and was shorter but also more interesting looking. Thanks to @JaysonFour for that one.
My wife and I wrapped up The Walking Dead Michonne. I enjoyed that one, although boy is it bleak. It definitely falls into the no matter what you do, it's gonna suck routine. But it was still mostly well told. Thumbs up.
Thanks to @Iolo for that.
We also played the final episode of The Blue Toad Murder Files. Which we enjoyed with it's 2 player co-op (of sorts). It worked well as an episode a night game. The puzzles tend to get reused a bit, so having the days between them helped. But it was more of a large overarching narrative than I expected. Good if you like hearing the word Murder overpronounced with exaggerated bitish accents. Plus thumbs up to their one voice actor who narrated and voiced all of the various characters with a wide range of results. We got the first case wrong, but managed to stay on top of the rest.
Earlier last week I played through Owlboy, that was quite good. It does the new game that feels like an old classic quite well. Some of the platforming at the end started to get a bit rough for me, but I made it through. Really liked this one. Thanks to @wyborn for that.
Let's see what else.
Thanks to @Krummith for Orwell. That was pretty interesting. I'm tempted to give it another go. I really enjoyed the way they play out the story. I mucked it up in a few parts but had the right perpetrator in mind. I'm very curious how many ways things could have played out, but it doesn't seem super replayable since you're going to already know some of the definite answers. The gameplay reminded me of piecing together the story bit of Her Story but much more complex in how you uncover them, and you actually have to make judgement calls that change the course of events a bit. Cool game.
Faery Legends of Avalon was pretty ok. Which seems about par for the course with a Spiders game. It's a bit old, but has some elements to it to make it feel special instead of a too common RPG. Letting you fly around in the various environments and giving you a lot of alternate conflict resolution options. It also felt like they really meant to make another but never did. There's like 6-7 world mirrors there and you only ever use 3. Plus it ends a bit open ended. I had fun with it, but it has that Spiders mixture of jank and good stuff.
Octodad was just a fun time and a good palate cleanser. I found it funny and enjoyable. Shoot. I feel like this one was a gift as well but don't have it on my reference list. Hmm. Not sure. Ah ha, it was a humble bundle buy. That's why I don't remember buying it individually. Thanks me.
One more week to clear out some backlog games. Then it's right back into new stuff with Yakuza 0 and RE 7.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
I just started two days ago and I'm already addicted. Beautiful game with great music and what seems to me a solid tutorial.
I haven't played many games like this before and I already feel I have a solid base.
Haven't played the others you mentioned but it usurped my game of the year already.
I'm just gonna stay here, gonna start a brand new life and build a little house and maybe take a wife and have a couple kids and get a dog and grow old and retire all underneath this desk because I am never
ever
coming out from underneath this desk.
HIGHLY recommended, especially if you're a 4X/Sci-Fi fan! It has a much easier learning curve than EU or Crusader Kings. I would say it's more like EU than CK in terms of you're controlling a faction and not just an individual like in CKII. The combat is better than EU in that you can actually zoom in and watch battles, but there's really zero tactics involved aside from designing ships (Rock, Paper, Scissors mechanics plus fleet size and admiral traits determines battle outcomes). There are tons of unique in-game events (I HIGHLY suggest the Leviathans Story Pack DLC as it adds a lot of content) with some great writing (including quest lines written by one of the Sunless Sea writers). Paradox also is a great dev in terms of supporting their games post-launch and Stellaris has been no different, receiving frequent free content updates and patches.
As you can tell, I'm a huge Stellaris fanboy, but if you aren't into 4X Strategy or Sci-Fi this certainly isn't the game for you. If you are into 4X Sci-Fi, this is most definitely the game for you. It was my personal GOTY for 2016!
https://steamcommunity.com/games/ArtOfStealth/announcements/detail/690574607309027725
Hah.
AniList
I've never been a big Sterling fan (to me he's like a shock jock for video games) but the devs he goes after always end up making him look like a saint
I'd be up for some Vermintide!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
OMG I AM DYING HERE
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
To this day, Giant Bomb's Ashes Cricket QL is the closest I've ever come to understanding Cricket, and I think I'm further than before watching that.
And new games added to the previous Bundle:
🖥️Steam Profile
The only reason I am not buying this immediately is that I already have Homeworld, Shadowrun, Victor Vran and Else Heart Break().
This is an awesome bundle.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
...Just incredibly inaccessible for people to new to the sport. "And the bowler's fired in a scrambled seam yorker that the batsman has tried to nurdle to deep backward square for a single, but, oh no! a leading edge and he's caught at short mid on! 5-for for the bowler!", etc
I mean, how can anyone dislike a game where the bowler has a silly short leg and a deep backward square leg (as two of his fielding positions).
I can't remember where I originally found this quote, by the way, but it is a good'n: "One of the glories of cricket is the way the drama of a match develops, how the pace varies from the leisurely to the suddenly lethal, how the plot thickens, and the subplots are interlinked as the play goes on, how the heroes and the villains take the stage with time enough to act out their roles. A good Test match is the equal of a five-act masterpiece of the stage."
That said, I don't think I've played a cricket game, Steam or otherwise, that has captured it all yet.
/end Britishness
Okay, so CK2 is kind of like a roleplaying game wrapped up in a grand-strategy shell. You are Duke So-and-so of Wherever, and you'll live out something like a normal human lifetime. You want to keep your family in power somewhere, and expand your influence, and make sure your sons marry nice girls with huge ... tracts of lands and see your daughters happily married and maybe see how Jerusalem is this time of year and ...
Then you die, and take over as your heir, and do it all again.
There are lots of ways to set individual goals - unite Ireland, make the Holy Roman Empire Orthodox, take the Jewish horse nomads and keep them around until game end, etc. - that aren't just "paint the world [your color],*" though that is totally okay, as well. You can play a pretty fun game as a smaller lordling in a larger realm, trying to keep your liege in-power as a staunch loyalist. You can play fairly different games depending on whether you're feudal or a trade Republic.
I have a lot less experience with EU (especially IV), but from my experience the main change is that it's a lot less personal. In CK2, you're a person - then a different person, and a different person, etc., but whether or not you were trained as a soldier or a scholar is important. Whether it's your sister or your cousin married to the King of West Francia is important. In EUIV, you're playing a country, not a person, and cousin-vs-sister are rolled up to a singular "Royal Marriage" relationship modifier. Your ruler and heir pick up random personality traits up to three times (age 16, ruling 10 years, ruling 25 years); you aren't sending your oldest child to study under your genius Steward (at the risk of him turning Jewish) because you want that Midas-Touched education for the bonus tax income.
Technology levels are much more important in EU - just a couple of tech points of difference have a potentially huge effect, which is exacerbated by the various institutions (like whether or not the Printing Press is a "thing" in your country). In contrast, a couple of tech points in CK2 mean you're probably making a few fewer coins per month, or your infantry fights ever-so-slightly worse.
EUIV is much more of a pure grand strategy game, IMO, than CK2. It also has a lot more 4X qualities, where large parts of the map are actually hidden from you at the start of the game (e.g., starting in Europe in 144X, you won't even see most of Africa and will have no idea about Asia or the Americas). You can eventually learn how to go explore and colonize those areas, where you'll be able to find out whether that new territory you've discovered has a gold mine or a fishery.
Stellaris is, perhaps obviously, even more 4X than EUIV, largely because it's Paradox's first real attempt at a "real" 4X game.
I think that, while it definitely hews closer to the EUIV side of the spectrum (you play an empire, not an emperor), it steals quite a bit from CK2 and is, through patches and DLC, moving ever further in that direction. This is, in my experience, a Good Thing (TM); it's one of the things that Paradox does better than anyone else, I think (and, in fact, you can see that they're also moving EUIV in that directly, though more slowly).
One of the biggest changes is that everyone starts pretty much equal in Stellaris. In CK2 or EUIV, choosing to play as England vs. Leinster, or Haesteinn vs. Doge Whoever of Venice, sets you up for very different (early game, at least) experiences. In Stellaris, you will have some differences based on your species choices, but you'll basically always have a planet in a solar system, some ships, and some sciencing to do. The real differences in your starting location - whether you have neighbors, how crazy / violent they are, etc. - are not immediately apparent, and only reveal themselves an hour+ into the game. While this can be frustrating - "Oh, look, another game where my two neighbors are xenophobic scorched-earth types ... <restart>" - it can also be the source of some fun - "Okay, my two neighbors are xenophobic scorched-earth types, but there's a potential friend on the other side and if we divide and conquer ..."
CK2 and EUIV are, without a doubt, much more polished experiences than Stellaris. They've been released for far longer, have had their post-launch support rolling on for, really, years, and are much more in the vein of the kind of game that Paradox does as a matter of course. Stellaris is a new venture for them, and there are some teething pains going on (e.g., space-to-ground invasions still tend to be pointlessly-tedious-but-kinda-required); Paradox is still feeling their way along.
All that said, I have a lot of confidence in the direction their going with Stellaris, and I'm very much enjoying the ride as they go.
So much for "quick thoughts"!
* Irish green is the best, BTW. Plus, it's really close to Egyptian sultanate green, which gives you the perfect excuse for Crusading!
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
Don't worry guys, I'm almost done with Bloodborne so I'll return to my previous steammage--until I get other awesome PS4 games.
I tend to enjoy survival games (love The Long Dark!) so have been eyeing this one for awhile. Much thanks Ed!
In CK2, there's a fun time to be had playing the vassal game. Supporting your ruler, arguing for positions on the royal council, joining and starting factions, getting your family in charge of the next duchy over, etc. In EUIV / Stellaris, it's not there. Either you're independent or you've basically lost.
In CK2, because you're playing as a person, it's a lot more high-variance. It's possible that you play as ruler X, who dies and his three sons inherit, splitting the realm so that you get about 1/3rd of it. And then, suddenly, new guy dies after 20 days in power (under "mysterious circumstances" or cancer or whatever) and your 1/3 splits again and suddenly you've gone from King to Count like that. But, with time, you can usually build your personal holdings up again. In EUIV/ Stellaris, since you're playing the country and not the ruler, that sort of instability never really happens. You only lose territory through war and rebellion, and rebellion's pretty easy to manage.
Also, if you're losing territory through war more than, like, two or three times? Then in Stellaris / EUIV you're probably on a downward spiral and are facing (a long, drawn-out) knockout. In CK2, you could just call up the guy who's eating you, swear fealty, and work to come back through the vassal-side game, but that's not really possible in EUIV / Stellaris.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
And its on sale?
*gets out wallet*
I should maybe finish other games firs-
*hits purchase anyways*
YOU GUYS!
Dammit.
I really like the idea of building little castles and such but I feel like there were 8 of those games released and I don't remember if any of them were really well received.
Edit: Also, Stellaris is really neat! It's very pretty and nice, the only problem I have with it is that particularly compared to Crusader Kings 2 it does an absolutely terrible job of simulating anything but basically expansionist empires.
Like it'd be neat if it did a better job of tossing together some real gnarly maps of weird intersecting nations. I guess Crusader Kings can also turn into a big old blob of the Holy Empire of Belgium or whatever if you're really going for it though.
It does look rather interesting, but right now I'm in the middle of university exams and I most certainly shouldn't buy a strategy game. Plus honestly I'm pretty sure I'm nowhere near smart enough to play Paradox games.