Did the "Add to Wishlist" button disappear for anyone else using the Steam app on your phone? I can't add anything to my wishlist anymore unless I use a computer.
You can't add games you already own to your Wishlist. Do you already own all the games? If so, yeah, that button has disappeared for you.
Did the "Add to Wishlist" button disappear for anyone else using the Steam app on your phone? I can't add anything to my wishlist anymore unless I use a computer.
You have like 500 games on your wishlist. Maybe the app gained sentience and realized having one serves no purpose.
But in all seriousness, even though I have a crazy wishlist, it appears that it's not just me who has had their "Add to Wishlist" button disappear. Unless @Lindsey Lohan and I have wishlists of a similar size.
Weird bug. Hopefully it gets fixed, though I don't think I updated my Steam app recently. Not sure why it'd just disappear like that.
So first of all: Spoilers specifically for @The Brayster and really no one else as I'm gonna post screenshots of our game in progress in Commander: The Great War and it would be a crying shame if he learnt about what I had ready for him.
For him there is only this picture of my chat log from another match. Because it's pretty great:
For everyone else I'm now going to gush about how this game makes every plan go from simple to super complex.
The two pictures are going to be of the two major fronts as they currently stand and how differently they're working out. First of all there's the Western front:
Which is going pretty swell for Germany. The Schlieffen Plan was a huge success as the Kaiser's forces routed Belgium and marched on Paris, taking advantage of a slow to rotate France line. However as it stands while France is on the ropes it's not quite over yet. With fresh troops arriving from the UK every month and a trickle of French forces still opposing me there's still a line against my forces holding Paris and thanks to the mess that the Eastern front is I can't spare troops to just steam roll it with my higher production points due to needing forces there.
As it stands my strategy right now is to try and pivot the forces around Dijon to take Orleans before making use of the cavalry to drive north and cut off the French's supply lines from the other cities, without a capital they need access to two cities to stay in full supply, which will give Germany a significant edge and allow them to start breaking through the line in a straight up fight if it works. Most likely instead he'll have to pull units arriving from the UK away from the main line to defend against the ploy. Which will still leave him on the defensive and unable to push.
The significant risk here is that Italy will be entering the war in the next ten turns and would obviously have prime oppurtunity to pocket my own flanking force. To counter this I'm conducting a small build up of forces on Austria-Hungray's side of Italy and plan to march on Venice to force Italian attentions away from France.
Now for the significantly more messy situation:
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Eastern Front. Russia has thrown its weight around and successfully taken Koenigsberg, a significant center of production off of my hands as well as forcing German forces onto the back foot. The current plan here is significantly more desperate. Acting mostly as a time buying mechanism in order to allow for a more traditional infantry build up and push back.
I'm going to give cavalry it's last military hurrah. Making use of their fast speeds and adaquate combat values my plan is to force cavalry units past the wide gaps in the Russian's front line and start wreaking havoc towards his home front. Taking cities from small garrisons left behind the main Russian forces and then using those bases of supply to safely move and cut off his own lines as well as harrassing more fragile units such as fighter planes and artillery.
The upside to this is that arguably it's reasonably low risk. Three or four cavalry units might cost as much as three or four infantry units but now that Austria Hungray is done mopping up Serbia I can safely divert that production until the Italian front opens. While I'll likely lose a good chunk of these units they should have strong effect. Both in actually taking cities (which will lower his production temporarily) but in also forcing reinforcements that should be headed for Danzig or defending Koenigsburg to sit by cities that ultimately don't mean much in order to deal with my distraction.
I'm fairly confident in this plan unless I discover a decent pocket of forces I wasn't expecting. Especially as with in five turns a good bulk of the AH forces from Serbia will be at the front and ready to help cut a line north from Brest-Litovsk once the snow leaves for the winter.
Man I really, really love this game.
Dammit, Albino, are you pulling that off in single player, too? No matter how many units I wipe out as the CP, it seems like there are always more waiting to take their place. And I don't seem to have any luck on the western front, either. Things peter out by christmas 1914 with belgium taken but me in front of Verdun and a few hexes from Paris. At which point i'm never going to take it. Any suggestions?
Steam is refusing to make my profile public. I've tried selecting private, saving it, selecting public again, saving it then restarting multiple times and nothing. I want a steam sig too...
Given our very strong laws regarding refunds for defective items, it isn't a great surprise that this would happen eventually. I can't say I hate the idea of Valve getting a kick up the pants to sort out their Steam support services in any case.
Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited August 2014
Fucking Origin of all things has a better return policy (and by many accounts, better customer service overall) than Valve. They need to step that shit up, for reals.
So first of all: Spoilers specifically for @The Brayster and really no one else as I'm gonna post screenshots of our game in progress in Commander: The Great War and it would be a crying shame if he learnt about what I had ready for him.
For him there is only this picture of my chat log from another match. Because it's pretty great:
For everyone else I'm now going to gush about how this game makes every plan go from simple to super complex.
The two pictures are going to be of the two major fronts as they currently stand and how differently they're working out. First of all there's the Western front:
Which is going pretty swell for Germany. The Schlieffen Plan was a huge success as the Kaiser's forces routed Belgium and marched on Paris, taking advantage of a slow to rotate France line. However as it stands while France is on the ropes it's not quite over yet. With fresh troops arriving from the UK every month and a trickle of French forces still opposing me there's still a line against my forces holding Paris and thanks to the mess that the Eastern front is I can't spare troops to just steam roll it with my higher production points due to needing forces there.
As it stands my strategy right now is to try and pivot the forces around Dijon to take Orleans before making use of the cavalry to drive north and cut off the French's supply lines from the other cities, without a capital they need access to two cities to stay in full supply, which will give Germany a significant edge and allow them to start breaking through the line in a straight up fight if it works. Most likely instead he'll have to pull units arriving from the UK away from the main line to defend against the ploy. Which will still leave him on the defensive and unable to push.
The significant risk here is that Italy will be entering the war in the next ten turns and would obviously have prime oppurtunity to pocket my own flanking force. To counter this I'm conducting a small build up of forces on Austria-Hungray's side of Italy and plan to march on Venice to force Italian attentions away from France.
Now for the significantly more messy situation:
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Eastern Front. Russia has thrown its weight around and successfully taken Koenigsberg, a significant center of production off of my hands as well as forcing German forces onto the back foot. The current plan here is significantly more desperate. Acting mostly as a time buying mechanism in order to allow for a more traditional infantry build up and push back.
I'm going to give cavalry it's last military hurrah. Making use of their fast speeds and adaquate combat values my plan is to force cavalry units past the wide gaps in the Russian's front line and start wreaking havoc towards his home front. Taking cities from small garrisons left behind the main Russian forces and then using those bases of supply to safely move and cut off his own lines as well as harrassing more fragile units such as fighter planes and artillery.
The upside to this is that arguably it's reasonably low risk. Three or four cavalry units might cost as much as three or four infantry units but now that Austria Hungray is done mopping up Serbia I can safely divert that production until the Italian front opens. While I'll likely lose a good chunk of these units they should have strong effect. Both in actually taking cities (which will lower his production temporarily) but in also forcing reinforcements that should be headed for Danzig or defending Koenigsburg to sit by cities that ultimately don't mean much in order to deal with my distraction.
I'm fairly confident in this plan unless I discover a decent pocket of forces I wasn't expecting. Especially as with in five turns a good bulk of the AH forces from Serbia will be at the front and ready to help cut a line north from Brest-Litovsk once the snow leaves for the winter.
Man I really, really love this game.
Dammit, Albino, are you pulling that off in single player, too? No matter how many units I wipe out as the CP, it seems like there are always more waiting to take their place. And I don't seem to have any luck on the western front, either. Things peter out by christmas 1914 with belgium taken but me in front of Verdun and a few hexes from Paris. At which point i'm never going to take it. Any suggestions?
I can't really say because to be honest the only SP game I've run was as the Entente and I stopped playing that in favour of my multiplayer games because I'd fucked up the British war machine something fierce.
In general though I'd say that mine and Brayster's game is very a-typical. Neither of us are particularly happy to just let a line settle. Where as the AI and most Entente players will happily create a line and dig in. Also the CP's are definitely the harder side to play. It basically puts you on a timer to try and find an effective break through before you start getting out Manpowered by France and Russia.
So, I finished Risen 3 today. This "review" may be very stream of consciousness.
See, I don't think I'd call the Risen series a good game series, save maybe the first game. Well, that's probably a bit unfair. They are good in a variety of ways, just not the traditional ways most games are. The combat just kinda stinks in these games. There's no real way around it. Again, Risen had this issue too but was far lighter on combat than either of the sequels, at least for the majority of the game. It's incredibly basic and spammy, and there's far too much of it.
So why am I so compelled by this series? I think one of the things Piranha Bytes does well, is exploration. There's always nooks and crannies to explore and side quests to find. These random adventures with the sidequests are among Risen 3's strengths, are often very funny. Risen 3 lets you have almost unfettered access to the game's world once you complete the tutorial area. There's about 20 percent of the game walled off for story purposes, but other than that, you can really just do what you want. You'll have a few major goals, but they are so out of reach that often just following your wandering heart is the best course of action. You'll probably find your way into the main story eventually by sheer accident. There's a spell that turns you into a parrot that you can use
That brings me to the story. In order to account for that free form exploration, it's pretty basic. You are the son of a legendary pirate (and brother to series mainstay Patty) who gets his soul stolen by someone in the underworld, but you've managed to retain your human body. So you'll need to set out and find your soul, and in the course of doing so basically solve everyone's problems along the way. Now, the series has never had a strong story. For some reason you're a new character, despite that this new guy kinda looks like the old guy, and he's sort of a similar character (the previous hero is probably a bit more polite). So it's kinda weird that you're a new guy that's not very different from the old guy. Like you can actually read reviews for the game and people are actually confused about it, thinking it's the same character. Well, anyway, it's even weirder because like, the game is pretty heavily invested in Risen 2's story. You recruit 3 of the party members from the 2nd game. So, anyway, just a bit weird that they made this new character that's barely different and have him interact with everyone anyway. I'd get it if they were like "we don't want to reset the hero again," but they kinda do it to you anyway at the start. Just sort of a strange decision.
Speaking of things back from Risen 2, the game heavily reuses some of the areas. Most of them are vastly expanded or changed, but still felt a bit like a retread at times. There are a variety of quality of life improvements, like a fast travel system similar to something in an Ubisoft game. The game has the most ridiculously in depth quest tracking system, so if you're lost you just need to use your log and put "show map marker" so if you're not in the mood to explore, you have that option. Crafting's a bit easier now too. There's more trainers, and most trainers train multiple skills so you likely won't have to worry too much about not having access to someone to train you. Trainers and merchants are all marked on the map after you find them once.
The levelling system is largely the same but has been reorganized, and not really for the better. For instance, melee skill increases your skill in all three weapon types, so there's not much specializing. Similarly there's like a Silver Tongue (charm) and Intimidate dialogue option often, and these skills are on the same stat too. Most games would force you to pick, be a charmer or be a brute, perhaps tying them to related stats. So it's a little boring that way.
Anyways, game starts off hard, like the others. You'll need to choose a magic faction for story purposes (and also, c'mon, free magic). This magic makes the game substantially easier, at least for the faction I chose, which favors direct damage. To be honest, and I find myself saying this with complete surprise, but I'd advise people to take a melee path. The combat does ever get good but there's some fun to be had once you get the parry ability. The basic magic attacks act sort of like weapon attacks, so you can't really use them with swords. So eventually when I got bored of how easy the magic was making the game I invested in melee and only use the cooldown abilities. Combining sword, a magic attack, and then a pistol shot while dancing around enemies could actually be fun at times. Random gripe but, hey, PB, you're a PC developer. Don't give me 30 moves and make them all need to be on the 10 hotkeys. Give me a scrolling hotkey bar or something. That's something to be said about this game over Risen 2 is that you have a lot more stuff to use, and it gives you it often. Even the magic of the other factions can be used via consumable items, so it really adds to the value of exploring. In R2 it seemed pretty rare to find anything too useful outside of a sword upgrade here and there.
The game does a good job of feeling "alive." It has a small cast of characters but this allows them to do NPC scheduling. I liked that as you clear objectives like taking back a mine overrun by undead, the miners that were displaced by the undead will go back to work. That sort of stuff. Small touches a lot of games would ignore.
Voice acting is weird. The PC sounds like someone's trying to do a Bale Batman voice via Aaron Paul, and I really hated him at the start. I got used to him though, mainly because his deadpan delivery really works well given the odd stories he gets himself involved in. Most of the party members are good, and I rather love Bones' voice actor. Very strange performance in both games. Graphically it's not going to stun much but most enviroments are well done, and it seems to be far more technically sounds than Risen 2. Fairly certain I had better performance in Risen 3 than R2 on the same hardware.
Anyways, I preordered it so, a quick review of the DLC, in case you ever get the game. The Gnomes isle one is kind of bland. About 2 hours. Not much to do there, honestly, and it feels rather disconnected. One of the big appeals of the game to me was sailing into a port, finding treasure maps and quests that take me to a different island, and just bouncing around. The DLC, by nature, can't be involved in this, so it loses that. The second major DLC is the Fog Island one. This one I like better. It's more involved in the main story, and has some decent atmosphere. Also had some good treasure to be found, while the other one didn't. Still suffers from being disconnected. Both are about 2 hours each, which isn't too bad for 5 bucks, but I'd probably wait for at least a small discount.
Writing this all out sounds negative, and it kinda is, but as much as I have issues with some of it, I enjoyed my overall time. I think PB are really good at creating areas to explore. The aren't too big, not too small, and there's always something around the corner, and they give you. I just hope, now that they have the rights to Gothic back again, that we see them address the combat in the future. I don't need much when it comes to action RPGs, but something's gotta give. Even something as simple as making combat rarer.
Alright, ramble done. I don't think I can recommend it outright. Have a tolerance for Eurojank, and like pirates, humor, and good exploration? Probably worth getting. Liked Risen 2? Get it for sure. Hated Risen 2? Ehh, it's an improvement but not leaps and bounds. Wait for a sale.
Final clocked in time is 45 hours, for those that care about game time. Minus the DLC and a few deaths / idle moments I'd say most people will get 35-40 hours out of it.
So I've been thinking about running a budget recently and actually saving for some things and manage money for once in my life. Remembered tonight that I got that budgeting software everybody talks about during the steam sale. You need a budget 4. Just wanted to thank everyone as I think it's going to be a big help.
***few minutes later
Actually using it. This went from a fun experience to a depressing one really fast lol. He who dies with the most debt wins!
Hrmm, apparently Amazon's old 2k coupons are still active. I own most 2k games now, and I'm not sure how many coupons total I still have (at least 1) so if anyone wants a 2k game from the Amazon sale, I can get it for 5 bucks cheaper (well, I have taxes in AZ, so mostly 5 bucks cheaper). NBA2k14 for instance, is just 1.08.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Corpekata on
+3
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
just kind of jumping in to say The Red Solstice is a great game for co-op night. Basically class based and isometric, you and your friends are SPACE MARINES and you have various objectives within a level and have to work together to hold out against all sorts of things that will ruin your day if you try to go out solo. has been a lot of fun even with a couple friends.
Hrmm, apparently Amazon's old 2k coupons are still active. I own most 2k games now, and I'm not sure how many coupons total I still have (at least 1) so if anyone wants a 2k game from the Amazon sale, I can get it for 5 bucks cheaper (well, I have taxes in AZ, so mostly 5 bucks cheaper). NBA2k14 for instance, is just 1.08.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Hahaha, I remember those coupons.
Amazon screwed up and sent me like twenty of them, and when I emailed them they basically told me "We screwed up, keep them", so I burned through them by having forumers send me Amazon giftcards via email, then buying the games with my coupons, then sending them back the codes. I think the most popular buy was the $10 XBL bundle of games that came to Steam.
I'm pretty sure I used them all by doing this, but I'll have to double check.
I don't know if I should jump on GRID Autosport or not. I loved GRID 2.. What say you, Steam thread?
I was wondering similarly. I wanted to love Grid 1 & 2 but couldn't get on with them so well, but Autosport looked like a change for the better. (If it's got good open-wheel racing and I can stay clear of drift events, that might be enough to tip me over the edge.) The mixed-to-negative Steam reviews make me wonder, though.
if you didn't like Grid 2 I'd say don't bother with Autosport, everything I've read suggests it's pretty much the same game with cockpit view added
plus you already have Assetto Corsa, we should have a race on Monza 66
I didn't hate Grid 2, it just didn't really grab me like I thought it would. I'll wait for a cheaper sale like next summer or something when it's at impulse-buy levels.
We should grab a couple of others, have a proper race on Monza '66. I'm thinking Lotus 98Ts. Or the Type 49 for them GPL feels.
if you didn't like Grid 2 I'd say don't bother with Autosport, everything I've read suggests it's pretty much the same game with cockpit view added
plus you already have Assetto Corsa, we should have a race on Monza 66
I didn't hate Grid 2, it just didn't really grab me like I thought it would. I'll wait for a cheaper sale like next summer or something when it's at impulse-buy levels.
We should grab a couple of others, have a proper race on Monza '66. I'm thinking Lotus 98Ts. Or the Type 49 for them GPL feels.
sounds good to me, I'm pretty much free any night between 8 and 12 GMT
Hrmm, apparently Amazon's old 2k coupons are still active. I own most 2k games now, and I'm not sure how many coupons total I still have (at least 1) so if anyone wants a 2k game from the Amazon sale, I can get it for 5 bucks cheaper (well, I have taxes in AZ, so mostly 5 bucks cheaper). NBA2k14 for instance, is just 1.08.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Hahaha, I remember those coupons.
Amazon screwed up and sent me like twenty of them, and when I emailed them they basically told me "We screwed up, keep them", so I burned through them by having forumers send me Amazon giftcards via email, then buying the games with my coupons, then sending them back the codes. I think the most popular buy was the $10 XBL bundle of games that came to Steam.
I'm pretty sure I used them all by doing this, but I'll have to double check.
Hrmm, apparently Amazon's old 2k coupons are still active. I own most 2k games now, and I'm not sure how many coupons total I still have (at least 1) so if anyone wants a 2k game from the Amazon sale, I can get it for 5 bucks cheaper (well, I have taxes in AZ, so mostly 5 bucks cheaper). NBA2k14 for instance, is just 1.08.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Hahaha, I remember those coupons.
Amazon screwed up and sent me like twenty of them, and when I emailed them they basically told me "We screwed up, keep them", so I burned through them by having forumers send me Amazon giftcards via email, then buying the games with my coupons, then sending them back the codes. I think the most popular buy was the $10 XBL bundle of games that came to Steam.
I'm pretty sure I used them all by doing this, but I'll have to double check.
How do you check?
I think the Check Balance link here should show if you have any credits, though it won't say specifically if it is a 2k credit. However, if you have a multiple of $5, it probably is.
My dilemma is that Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright is also out this weekend, but I can only afford one of them. So, Grid or Layton Vs Phoenix Wright?
That's obviously a 666 on there, so my bet is something along the lines of Saints Go to Hell.
Evil robot Boss kills Boss and takes over the Saints. Boss has to play twister against Death to get free from hell. Boss goes to heaven and recruits aliens to build new robot to defeat evil Boss robot. Saints Rock out. Credits.
So...finally started up Season One of Walking Dead. It's...interesting, not unenjoyable, though after having gotten used to games where the character doesn't move like a sloth on laudanum have spoiled me a bit.
Still and all (having just finished the first episode), if i ever find myself in charge of a plucky (if cantankerous) band of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, the phrase "i think it's going to be alright (or any variation thereof) will be a hangable offense.
So...finally started up Season One of Walking Dead. It's...interesting, not unenjoyable, though after having gotten used to games where the character doesn't move like a sloth on laudanum have spoiled me a bit.
Still and all (having just finished the first episode), if i ever find myself in charge of a plucky (if cantankerous) band of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, the phrase "i think it's going to be alright (or any variation thereof) will be a hangable offense.
you also need to include "well, I don't really see how things can get much worse"
Reminder for today: Tomorrow is our Friday Night Gamesnight. For this week's event, we'll be playing Defiance a f2p cooperative shooter. We'll be working as a large group scourging across the landscape. If you want to join us, log in to defiance at 9pm Eastern, 6pm Pacific tomorrow.
In an effort to get it going smoothly tomorrow, in regards to transportation, the next 3 people to contact me on steam will get enough credits for a 2 person dunebuggy to help carry a buddy around the zones.
I'm not sure what my schedule is tonight but I finally booted this up last night in the hope that I can join in. Is the camp with the first vendor shop considered out of the tutorial or did I need to push on further?
I also apparently have transportation of some sort. I'm assuming it's from entering that ridiculous list of codes months ago (yay scripting!)
Hrmm, apparently Amazon's old 2k coupons are still active. I own most 2k games now, and I'm not sure how many coupons total I still have (at least 1) so if anyone wants a 2k game from the Amazon sale, I can get it for 5 bucks cheaper (well, I have taxes in AZ, so mostly 5 bucks cheaper). NBA2k14 for instance, is just 1.08.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Hahaha, I remember those coupons.
Amazon screwed up and sent me like twenty of them, and when I emailed them they basically told me "We screwed up, keep them", so I burned through them by having forumers send me Amazon giftcards via email, then buying the games with my coupons, then sending them back the codes. I think the most popular buy was the $10 XBL bundle of games that came to Steam.
I'm pretty sure I used them all by doing this, but I'll have to double check.
How do you check?
I think the Check Balance link here should show if you have any credits, though it won't say specifically if it is a 2k credit. However, if you have a multiple of $5, it probably is.
Ah. That's the link I already use and can never remember what my credit is for. It looks like I may have 11 2K $5 coupons though. Amazon does a lot right, but surfacing what a credit is for is not one of those things. Because to the casual observer (i.e., me) I have $55 sitting around that is good toward video games. I know that's not true, and it bothers me that I can't see a detailed view of the promotions on my account.
Just got NBA 2k14 for $1 on Amazon. Can't argue the price. The coupon didn't seem to work on Civ V expansions or anything Borderlands related though. I'm guessing it's a very small batch of titles in the loophole.
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But in all seriousness, even though I have a crazy wishlist, it appears that it's not just me who has had their "Add to Wishlist" button disappear. Unless @Lindsey Lohan and I have wishlists of a similar size.
Weird bug. Hopefully it gets fixed, though I don't think I updated my Steam app recently. Not sure why it'd just disappear like that.
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Dammit, Albino, are you pulling that off in single player, too? No matter how many units I wipe out as the CP, it seems like there are always more waiting to take their place. And I don't seem to have any luck on the western front, either. Things peter out by christmas 1914 with belgium taken but me in front of Verdun and a few hexes from Paris. At which point i'm never going to take it. Any suggestions?
Given our very strong laws regarding refunds for defective items, it isn't a great surprise that this would happen eventually. I can't say I hate the idea of Valve getting a kick up the pants to sort out their Steam support services in any case.
Old PA forum lookalike style for the new forums | My ko-fi donation thing.
I can't really say because to be honest the only SP game I've run was as the Entente and I stopped playing that in favour of my multiplayer games because I'd fucked up the British war machine something fierce.
In general though I'd say that mine and Brayster's game is very a-typical. Neither of us are particularly happy to just let a line settle. Where as the AI and most Entente players will happily create a line and dig in. Also the CP's are definitely the harder side to play. It basically puts you on a timer to try and find an effective break through before you start getting out Manpowered by France and Russia.
See, I don't think I'd call the Risen series a good game series, save maybe the first game. Well, that's probably a bit unfair. They are good in a variety of ways, just not the traditional ways most games are. The combat just kinda stinks in these games. There's no real way around it. Again, Risen had this issue too but was far lighter on combat than either of the sequels, at least for the majority of the game. It's incredibly basic and spammy, and there's far too much of it.
So why am I so compelled by this series? I think one of the things Piranha Bytes does well, is exploration. There's always nooks and crannies to explore and side quests to find. These random adventures with the sidequests are among Risen 3's strengths, are often very funny. Risen 3 lets you have almost unfettered access to the game's world once you complete the tutorial area. There's about 20 percent of the game walled off for story purposes, but other than that, you can really just do what you want. You'll have a few major goals, but they are so out of reach that often just following your wandering heart is the best course of action. You'll probably find your way into the main story eventually by sheer accident. There's a spell that turns you into a parrot that you can use
That brings me to the story. In order to account for that free form exploration, it's pretty basic. You are the son of a legendary pirate (and brother to series mainstay Patty) who gets his soul stolen by someone in the underworld, but you've managed to retain your human body. So you'll need to set out and find your soul, and in the course of doing so basically solve everyone's problems along the way. Now, the series has never had a strong story. For some reason you're a new character, despite that this new guy kinda looks like the old guy, and he's sort of a similar character (the previous hero is probably a bit more polite). So it's kinda weird that you're a new guy that's not very different from the old guy. Like you can actually read reviews for the game and people are actually confused about it, thinking it's the same character. Well, anyway, it's even weirder because like, the game is pretty heavily invested in Risen 2's story. You recruit 3 of the party members from the 2nd game. So, anyway, just a bit weird that they made this new character that's barely different and have him interact with everyone anyway. I'd get it if they were like "we don't want to reset the hero again," but they kinda do it to you anyway at the start. Just sort of a strange decision.
Speaking of things back from Risen 2, the game heavily reuses some of the areas. Most of them are vastly expanded or changed, but still felt a bit like a retread at times. There are a variety of quality of life improvements, like a fast travel system similar to something in an Ubisoft game. The game has the most ridiculously in depth quest tracking system, so if you're lost you just need to use your log and put "show map marker" so if you're not in the mood to explore, you have that option. Crafting's a bit easier now too. There's more trainers, and most trainers train multiple skills so you likely won't have to worry too much about not having access to someone to train you. Trainers and merchants are all marked on the map after you find them once.
The levelling system is largely the same but has been reorganized, and not really for the better. For instance, melee skill increases your skill in all three weapon types, so there's not much specializing. Similarly there's like a Silver Tongue (charm) and Intimidate dialogue option often, and these skills are on the same stat too. Most games would force you to pick, be a charmer or be a brute, perhaps tying them to related stats. So it's a little boring that way.
Anyways, game starts off hard, like the others. You'll need to choose a magic faction for story purposes (and also, c'mon, free magic). This magic makes the game substantially easier, at least for the faction I chose, which favors direct damage. To be honest, and I find myself saying this with complete surprise, but I'd advise people to take a melee path. The combat does ever get good but there's some fun to be had once you get the parry ability. The basic magic attacks act sort of like weapon attacks, so you can't really use them with swords. So eventually when I got bored of how easy the magic was making the game I invested in melee and only use the cooldown abilities. Combining sword, a magic attack, and then a pistol shot while dancing around enemies could actually be fun at times. Random gripe but, hey, PB, you're a PC developer. Don't give me 30 moves and make them all need to be on the 10 hotkeys. Give me a scrolling hotkey bar or something. That's something to be said about this game over Risen 2 is that you have a lot more stuff to use, and it gives you it often. Even the magic of the other factions can be used via consumable items, so it really adds to the value of exploring. In R2 it seemed pretty rare to find anything too useful outside of a sword upgrade here and there.
The game does a good job of feeling "alive." It has a small cast of characters but this allows them to do NPC scheduling. I liked that as you clear objectives like taking back a mine overrun by undead, the miners that were displaced by the undead will go back to work. That sort of stuff. Small touches a lot of games would ignore.
Voice acting is weird. The PC sounds like someone's trying to do a Bale Batman voice via Aaron Paul, and I really hated him at the start. I got used to him though, mainly because his deadpan delivery really works well given the odd stories he gets himself involved in. Most of the party members are good, and I rather love Bones' voice actor. Very strange performance in both games. Graphically it's not going to stun much but most enviroments are well done, and it seems to be far more technically sounds than Risen 2. Fairly certain I had better performance in Risen 3 than R2 on the same hardware.
Anyways, I preordered it so, a quick review of the DLC, in case you ever get the game. The Gnomes isle one is kind of bland. About 2 hours. Not much to do there, honestly, and it feels rather disconnected. One of the big appeals of the game to me was sailing into a port, finding treasure maps and quests that take me to a different island, and just bouncing around. The DLC, by nature, can't be involved in this, so it loses that. The second major DLC is the Fog Island one. This one I like better. It's more involved in the main story, and has some decent atmosphere. Also had some good treasure to be found, while the other one didn't. Still suffers from being disconnected. Both are about 2 hours each, which isn't too bad for 5 bucks, but I'd probably wait for at least a small discount.
Writing this all out sounds negative, and it kinda is, but as much as I have issues with some of it, I enjoyed my overall time. I think PB are really good at creating areas to explore. The aren't too big, not too small, and there's always something around the corner, and they give you. I just hope, now that they have the rights to Gothic back again, that we see them address the combat in the future. I don't need much when it comes to action RPGs, but something's gotta give. Even something as simple as making combat rarer.
Alright, ramble done. I don't think I can recommend it outright. Have a tolerance for Eurojank, and like pirates, humor, and good exploration? Probably worth getting. Liked Risen 2? Get it for sure. Hated Risen 2? Ehh, it's an improvement but not leaps and bounds. Wait for a sale.
Final clocked in time is 45 hours, for those that care about game time. Minus the DLC and a few deaths / idle moments I'd say most people will get 35-40 hours out of it.
***few minutes later
Actually using it. This went from a fun experience to a depressing one really fast lol. He who dies with the most debt wins!
Ya, I need to use this thing.
Might be worth double checking to see if you have yours still.
Hahaha, I remember those coupons.
Amazon screwed up and sent me like twenty of them, and when I emailed them they basically told me "We screwed up, keep them", so I burned through them by having forumers send me Amazon giftcards via email, then buying the games with my coupons, then sending them back the codes. I think the most popular buy was the $10 XBL bundle of games that came to Steam.
I'm pretty sure I used them all by doing this, but I'll have to double check.
I was wondering similarly. I wanted to love Grid 1 & 2 but couldn't get on with them so well, but Autosport looked like a change for the better. (If it's got good open-wheel racing and I can stay clear of drift events, that might be enough to tip me over the edge.) The mixed-to-negative Steam reviews make me wonder, though.
Steam | XBL
plus you already have Assetto Corsa, we should have a race on Monza 66
Steam | XBL
I didn't hate Grid 2, it just didn't really grab me like I thought it would. I'll wait for a cheaper sale like next summer or something when it's at impulse-buy levels.
We should grab a couple of others, have a proper race on Monza '66. I'm thinking Lotus 98Ts. Or the Type 49 for them GPL feels.
Steam | XBL
BECUDA-323-JODOTE-000
BEBUDE-373-BAGOPE-231
Though after SR4 I guess...
Steam ID: Good Life
Check this thread from the Steam forums to learn how to redeem them and add the game to your Steam account: http://steamcommunity.com/app/200110/discussions/0/558753804474984120/
sounds good to me, I'm pretty much free any night between 8 and 12 GMT
How do you check?
I think the Check Balance link here should show if you have any credits, though it won't say specifically if it is a 2k credit. However, if you have a multiple of $5, it probably is.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000811661#gc
Steam ID: Good Life
That's obviously a 666 on there, so my bet is something along the lines of Saints Go to Hell.
DECISIONS
Evil robot Boss kills Boss and takes over the Saints. Boss has to play twister against Death to get free from hell. Boss goes to heaven and recruits aliens to build new robot to defeat evil Boss robot. Saints Rock out. Credits.
Steam ID: Good Life
So...finally started up Season One of Walking Dead. It's...interesting, not unenjoyable, though after having gotten used to games where the character doesn't move like a sloth on laudanum have spoiled me a bit.
Still and all (having just finished the first episode), if i ever find myself in charge of a plucky (if cantankerous) band of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, the phrase "i think it's going to be alright (or any variation thereof) will be a hangable offense.
時計仕掛けの子の丸々太った磁器の顔に表情は無いが、転がりながら、口がカチッと開閉して、腕が上下に動い た。
ージョン・タインズ、作家
ー無名狂師、翻訳者 （俺）
Wanna watch a gaijin butcher monsters and the Japanese Language all at once? Sure you do, and now you can!
you also need to include "well, I don't really see how things can get much worse"
I'm not sure what my schedule is tonight but I finally booted this up last night in the hope that I can join in. Is the camp with the first vendor shop considered out of the tutorial or did I need to push on further?
I also apparently have transportation of some sort. I'm assuming it's from entering that ridiculous list of codes months ago (yay scripting!)
Ah. That's the link I already use and can never remember what my credit is for. It looks like I may have 11 2K $5 coupons though. Amazon does a lot right, but surfacing what a credit is for is not one of those things. Because to the casual observer (i.e., me) I have $55 sitting around that is good toward video games. I know that's not true, and it bothers me that I can't see a detailed view of the promotions on my account.
Steam ID: Good Life
Galactic Civilizations II: Ultimate Edition
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Grabbed this one. Thanks!
It was just mentioned and now I need it.
Extra points if they make it an isometric loot crawler; or at least make some of the bonus/challenge missions Diablo-like.
Origin: Galedrid - Nintendo: Galedrid/3222-6858-1045
Blizzard: Galedrid#1367 - FFXIV: Galedrid Kingshand
Which reminds me, I'd like them to expand on this part of SR4 and maybe make it a stand alone.
I'd like to know what went in to converting the custom characters over to that.
Steam ID: Good Life