Ok, my friends. I need some help with game recommendations for the kiddos. Specifically looking to get something new for the 9 year old.
He loves the strategy and RTS genres. He has Civ 6, but we also play a lot of C&C (The brood owns just about everything now thanks to sales, except for 4), Dawn of War, and some of the older Star Wars RTS games.
He had a good run of Civ, but I noticed he plays A LOT of the conquer the galaxy mode in Star Wars: Empire at War. Like A LOT A LOT. He'll spend hours just doing it. He also found the Risk style side of C&C 3, and he's constantly into that. He mostly skips the actual battles in C&C, but he does play the space battles in Star Wars.
That being said, I never got much into the 4X type of games. It was always RPGs or RTS for dad here.
Suggestions on a 4X "conquer the galaxy" game that has space battles where you can potentially direct units, but is also not so overwhelming that a younger kid could mostly figure it out, even if it's on the easier difficulties?
My youngest also loves RTS games. But more explosions, bigger explosions, and the bigger the units get, the better. He loves giant robots. He calls them "meckers".
No argument here. After two brilliant games, the third entry in that franchise is a hard pass.
MoO3 is a terrible game, but I maintain that it's probably the most accurate simulation of what being a Galactic Emperor would actually be like: you spend all of your time sitting on your species' ass-equivalent in a big uncomfortable chair, looking over reports and spreadsheets and charts and listening to your advisors, and then issuing general mandates and policies to your ministers and generals (that will be passed down through the various bureaucracies) and praying that the dubiously competent AI your underlings don't completely screw things up. Meanwhile, all the stuff that's actually dangerous and exciting and interesting happens to other people very very far away, and perhaps you'll eventually hear about it in a report.
+14
Options
MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
No argument here. After two brilliant games, the third entry in that franchise is a hard pass.
MoO3 is a terrible game, but I maintain that it's probably the most accurate simulation of what being a Galactic Emperor would actually be like: you spend all of your time sitting on your species' ass-equivalent in a big uncomfortable chair, looking over reports and spreadsheets and charts and listening to your advisors, and then issuing general mandates and policies to your ministers and generals (that will be passed down through the various bureaucracies) and praying that the dubiously competent AI your underlings don't completely screw things up. Meanwhile, all the stuff that's actually dangerous and exciting and interesting happens to other people very very far away, and perhaps you'll eventually hear about it in a report.
This both made me laugh and perfectly summarised why MoO3 is a shitshow. Well done!
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
For some reason, I never really got into Civilization, the exception being CivRev on 360, which can best be described (with affection) as "accessible", But I've been playing some Europa Universalis 2 again. Still my favorite historical 4X title, although they're up to EU4 now, which has garnered a lot of praise from the dedicated Paradox fanbase.
There are a lot of complicated systems in play. But the game limits the extent to which you, as the sort of guardian spirit of a selected country (large or small) just about anywhere in the world from 1419 to 1819, must or even can interact with them at any one moment. So unless you're marching troops around during a war, you can turn the game speed up and focus on dispatching merchants and colonists, building up your infrastructure, and making diplomatic plays. Some of which, in a touch of authenticity, involve scrambling to assemble a justification for war, in advance, to avoid facing revolts and souring your diplomatic relations.
The soundtrack is excellent, shifting from medieval hymns and upbeat festival atmosphere music of that era, to classical and baroque pieces as the centuries wear on. Including some of composer-pianist Fumiko Shiraga's breathtaking chamber music arrangements of Mozart's best-loved compositions. Scenario settings are trivially easy to customize, in plain text, and it took me all of five minutes to learn how to write my own historical events, which was almost quicker than finding and downloading a collection of them from among the vast body of work the fans have put in over the years.
And it really scratches that alternate history fix to watch minor powers humble great empires, to see borders stray far from the history book illustrations, and to add your own contributions. In my latest Grand Campaign, with the help of some custom events, I've guided the proud nation of Ethiopia, as defender of the Orthodox faith, to the unification of East Africa, the conquest of the Mameluk and Ottoman Empires, the restoration of the Eastern Roman Empire (assuming for ourselves the title of Byzantium while moving the capital to Constantinople), and the reconquest of the Western Empire. Up to, and a bit beyond, the furthest point reached by the historical Emperor Justinian I.
Now this new Roman Empire, speaking Greek and Amharic, imbued with Ethiopian culture, and led by Ethiopian Emperors, is the most powerful nation on the Mediterranean, and has, by far, the largest colonial presence in North America. As the game has progressed to the 1760s, our next step will be to plant the seed of the modern world by releasing vassals from our vast Empire, creating nations like the United States and reviving numerous city states and minor powers that disappeared in the late medieval age. Then antagonize them just a bit into declaring independence. You know, I might just rename that last Emperor in the Monarchs file, who will be in power when the Scenario ends in 1819, to "Leto II."
Zoku Gojira on
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
No argument here. After two brilliant games, the third entry in that franchise is a hard pass.
MoO3 is a terrible game, but I maintain that it's probably the most accurate simulation of what being a Galactic Emperor would actually be like: you spend all of your time sitting on your species' ass-equivalent in a big uncomfortable chair, looking over reports and spreadsheets and charts and listening to your advisors, and then issuing general mandates and policies to your ministers and generals (that will be passed down through the various bureaucracies) and praying that the dubiously competent AI your underlings don't completely screw things up. Meanwhile, all the stuff that's actually dangerous and exciting and interesting happens to other people very very far away, and perhaps you'll eventually hear about it in a report.
Incidentally this is also Distant Worlds: Universe in a nutshell.
For some reason, I never really got into Civilization, the exception being CivRev on 360, which can best be described (with affection) as "accessible", But I've been playing some Europa Universalis 2 again. Still my favorite historical 4X title, although they're up to EU4 now, which has garnered a lot of praise from the dedicated Paradox fanbase.
There are a lot of complicated systems in play. But the game limits the extent to which you, as the sort of guardian spirit of a selected country (large or small) just about anywhere in the world from 1419 to 1819, must or even can interact with them at any one moment. So unless you're marching troops around during a war, you can turn the game speed up and focus on dispatching merchants and colonists, building up your infrastructure, and making diplomatic plays. Some of which, in a touch of authenticity, involve scrambling to assemble a justification for war, in advance, to avoid facing revolts and souring your diplomatic relations.
The soundtrack is excellent, shifting from medieval hymns and upbeat festival atmosphere music of that era, to classical and baroque pieces as the centuries wear on. Including some of composer-pianist Fumiko Shiraga's breathtaking chamber music arrangements of Mozart's best-loved compositions. Scenario settings are trivially easy to customize, in plain text, and it took me all of five minutes to learn how to write my own historical events, which was almost quicker than finding and downloading a collection of them from among the vast body of work the fans have put in over the years.
And it really scratches that alternate history fix to watch minor powers humble great empires, to see borders stray far from the history book illustrations, and to add your own contributions. In my latest Grand Campaign, with the help of some custom events, I've guided the proud nation of Ethiopia, as defender of the Orthodox faith, to the unification of East Africa, the conquest of the Mameluk and Ottoman Empires, the restoration of the Eastern Roman Empire (assuming for ourselves the title of Byzantium while moving the capital to Constantinople), and the reconquest of the Western Empire. Up to, and a bit beyond, the furthest point reached by the historical Emperor Justinian I.
Now this new Roman Empire, speaking Greek and Amharic, imbued with Ethiopian culture, and led by Ethiopian Emperors, is the most powerful nation on the Mediterranean, and has, by far, the largest colonial presence in North America. As the game has progressed to the 1760s, our next step will be to plant the seed of the modern world by releasing vassals from our vast Empire, creating nations like the United States and reviving numerous city states and minor powers that disappeared in the late medieval age. Then antagonize them just a bit into declaring independence. You know, I might just rename that last Emperor in the Monarchs file, who will be in power when the Scenario ends in 1819, to "Leto II."
Now this is an alternate history show I would watch.
No argument here. After two brilliant games, the third entry in that franchise is a hard pass.
MoO3 is a terrible game, but I maintain that it's probably the most accurate simulation of what being a Galactic Emperor would actually be like: you spend all of your time sitting on your species' ass-equivalent in a big uncomfortable chair, looking over reports and spreadsheets and charts and listening to your advisors, and then issuing general mandates and policies to your ministers and generals (that will be passed down through the various bureaucracies) and praying that the dubiously competent AI your underlings don't completely screw things up. Meanwhile, all the stuff that's actually dangerous and exciting and interesting happens to other people very very far away, and perhaps you'll eventually hear about it in a report.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
It's so good! I still can't believe how well that small team managed to nail what they were going for.
Spoiler for one of the missions:
I still think that massive air battle was probably one of the coolest moments I've had in any Ace Combat type game. Just the comms chatter geeking out about all the planes from different countries there. And also how it was actually kind of realistic. I remember reading about stuff like that happening in EVE, a small skirmish starts up and neither side can afford to lose so it snowballs into an absurdly large battle with thousands of people.
Ace Combat 0 and 7 are my favorites games in the series. I don't know if Project: Wingman tops 4 due to nostalgia, but it definitely beats 5 and 6 which is saying something for a freaking 3 person Indie team.
@ironzerg in that case I *really* want to recommend Battletech but the early game may be a bit too punishing even at low difficulty. I hope I'm not making too many assumptions about a 9yo.
The Sinking City is back on Steam, but Frogwares doesn't want you to buy it.
The Cthulhu detective game is now back on Steam, but the developer says it's not the version it made.
First, a recap:
The Sinking City, a 1920s detective game set in a flooded fishing town built atop caverns crawling with Lovecraftian horrors, was removed from most digital storefronts in 2020 following a dispute between Frogwares and publisher Nacon. Frogwares claimed that Nacon failed to finance development as promised and failed to file accurate income reports, while Nacon said Frogwares was simply making wild claims in order to discredit the publisher in the eyes of the public.
In January 2021, a preliminary ruling in the matter found that Frogwares had terminated its contract with Nacon "in a 'manifestly unlawful' manner," and thus ordered its terms restored. Accordingly, The Sinking City was returned to Steam and other storefronts, but very shortly it disappeared again, without explanation, although it remained (and remains) available on the Microsoft Store. It's also available through Origin, but was never actually removed from that storefront.
From the twitter thread, the PS5, Switch, Origin, and Gamesplanet are "theirs", other sources are "Nacon's." As far as I can tell they are identical games, but Frogwares only has control/revenue from the four they control.
However, based on the pretty harsh language in the judgement (and harsher language in the appeal), I doubt that's a permanent matter as Frogwares was found to be in the wrong, and I predict Nacon will end up controlling the other four and plumbing Frogwares' bank accounts dry of any support gamers give them by buying "their version." Best case scenario is both of them owe each other money*, worst case is Frogwares' breaches activate some kind of "haha fuck you" clause in their contract.
*-There were several claimed breaches of the contract from what I'm reading - Nacon withholding revenue, Nacon failing to make agreed upon payments, and Frogwares pulling the game from the store. The first one, which actually involves the big money, is still in court. The other points have gone in Nacon's favor.
@ironzerg in that case I *really* want to recommend Battletech but the early game may be a bit too punishing even at low difficulty. I hope I'm not making too many assumptions about a 9yo.
The catch with Battletech, for a younger person, is that Hairbrained Schemes' lovingly-crafted reinterpretation of the classic tabletop game is wrapped, metaphorically, within a case study on managing a very nearly insolvent business while raising kids.
You go out and take jobs to keep the wolves away from your airlock, doing dreary back of the envelope math as to how long you can keep this up. Then you go on long road trips with your bored mechwarriors, putting out fires both figuratively and literally, as they fight with each other and break stuff. When you do scrape together enough money to tempt fate with a deep sigh of relief, this is interrupted when somebody gets injured, maybe busting up their costly ride in the process.
I'm not knocking it. But I think that side of the game will be appreciated more by grown-ups.
Spoiler for later in the game:
It's worth it when you've saved up enough to put in a pool at "home", and you become their hero overnight.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
@ironzerg in that case I *really* want to recommend Battletech but the early game may be a bit too punishing even at low difficulty. I hope I'm not making too many assumptions about a 9yo.
The catch with Battletech, for a younger person, is that Hairbrained Schemes' lovingly-crafted reinterpretation of the classic tabletop game is wrapped, metaphorically, within a case study on managing a very nearly insolvent business while raising kids.
You go out and take jobs to keep the wolves away from your airlock, doing dreary back of the envelope math as to how long you can keep this up. Then you go on long road trips with your bored mechwarriors, putting out fires both figuratively and literally, as they fight with each other and break stuff. When you do scrape together enough money to tempt fate with a deep sigh of relief, this is interrupted when somebody gets injured, maybe busting up their costly ride in the process.
I'm not knocking it. But I think that side of the game will be appreciated more by grown-ups.
Spoiler for later in the game:
It's worth it when you've saved up enough to put in a pool at "home", and you become their hero overnight.
There's a mod that gets rid of the loot split deal and lets you get all the loot when the slider is at max. I used it for a second non-story mode run (whatever it was called escapes me now).
It's borderline cheating in most of the game, and it's literally cheating in the early game (it'll let you get a good team up and well funded within a few missions) and late game (where you'll be scraping a mec or two after every single mission for all the loot you're rolling in). For the middle 80% of the game it's grind saving.
But if you want to make it more strategy game than spreadsheet simulator for a younger player it's probably just about what'll do it.
Thank you Thawmus for Warhammer 40,000: Gladius: Craftworld Aeldari and thanks Pixie for the Hades soundtrack. Both gifts that thankfully don't add to the game count.
So I don't triple post I'm adding the gift that @MNC Dover sent me maybe a minute after I made this post.
Project Wingman again being amazing. Spitting fire at that ever annoying, "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE HERO'S VIOLENCE?" dreck. :biggrin:
It's so good! I still can't believe how well that small team managed to nail what they were going for.
Spoiler for one of the missions:
I still think that massive air battle was probably one of the coolest moments I've had in any Ace Combat type game. Just the comms chatter geeking out about all the planes from different countries there. And also how it was actually kind of realistic. I remember reading about stuff like that happening in EVE, a small skirmish starts up and neither side can afford to lose so it snowballs into an absurdly large battle with thousands of people.
Even better, if you do that mission on Mercenary difficulty. The intro changes...
Ok, my friends. I need some help with game recommendations for the kiddos. Specifically looking to get something new for the 9 year old.
He loves the strategy and RTS genres. He has Civ 6, but we also play a lot of C&C (The brood owns just about everything now thanks to sales, except for 4), Dawn of War, and some of the older Star Wars RTS games.
He had a good run of Civ, but I noticed he plays A LOT of the conquer the galaxy mode in Star Wars: Empire at War. Like A LOT A LOT. He'll spend hours just doing it. He also found the Risk style side of C&C 3, and he's constantly into that. He mostly skips the actual battles in C&C, but he does play the space battles in Star Wars.
That being said, I never got much into the 4X type of games. It was always RPGs or RTS for dad here.
Suggestions on a 4X "conquer the galaxy" game that has space battles where you can potentially direct units, but is also not so overwhelming that a younger kid could mostly figure it out, even if it's on the easier difficulties?
My youngest also loves RTS games. But more explosions, bigger explosions, and the bigger the units get, the better. He loves giant robots. He calls them "meckers".
I showed him the trailer for this. His reaction?
"I want it."
not sure if it really comes across in the trailer. but....
not only do you get stompy robots in increasingly larger varieties.
There are also Super weapons which are all very fun in a evil genius kind of way, and then if the game goes on long enough there is a straight up Death Star equivalent.
Or if you really want to send a message.... you can simply strap a bunch of engines to a moon and throw it at your opponents planet to really mess up their day.
Really what I am saying is Planetary Annihilation: Titans is real good
Posts
Curling World Cup (mostly negative reviews)
Curling On Line
and VR Curling.
There's also an as-yet-unreleased game that was originally called Curling Simulator, but for some reason is now listed as Chess on Ice.
EVERYBODY WANTS TO SIT IN THE BIG CHAIR, MEG!
But now I fucked up my shop atmosphere need to do better.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
My youngest also loves RTS games. But more explosions, bigger explosions, and the bigger the units get, the better. He loves giant robots. He calls them "meckers".
I showed him the trailer for this. His reaction?
"I want it."
MoO3 is a terrible game, but I maintain that it's probably the most accurate simulation of what being a Galactic Emperor would actually be like: you spend all of your time sitting on your species' ass-equivalent in a big uncomfortable chair, looking over reports and spreadsheets and charts and listening to your advisors, and then issuing general mandates and policies to your ministers and generals (that will be passed down through the various bureaucracies) and praying that the dubiously competent AI your underlings don't completely screw things up. Meanwhile, all the stuff that's actually dangerous and exciting and interesting happens to other people very very far away, and perhaps you'll eventually hear about it in a report.
This both made me laugh and perfectly summarised why MoO3 is a shitshow. Well done!
There are a lot of complicated systems in play. But the game limits the extent to which you, as the sort of guardian spirit of a selected country (large or small) just about anywhere in the world from 1419 to 1819, must or even can interact with them at any one moment. So unless you're marching troops around during a war, you can turn the game speed up and focus on dispatching merchants and colonists, building up your infrastructure, and making diplomatic plays. Some of which, in a touch of authenticity, involve scrambling to assemble a justification for war, in advance, to avoid facing revolts and souring your diplomatic relations.
The soundtrack is excellent, shifting from medieval hymns and upbeat festival atmosphere music of that era, to classical and baroque pieces as the centuries wear on. Including some of composer-pianist Fumiko Shiraga's breathtaking chamber music arrangements of Mozart's best-loved compositions. Scenario settings are trivially easy to customize, in plain text, and it took me all of five minutes to learn how to write my own historical events, which was almost quicker than finding and downloading a collection of them from among the vast body of work the fans have put in over the years.
And it really scratches that alternate history fix to watch minor powers humble great empires, to see borders stray far from the history book illustrations, and to add your own contributions. In my latest Grand Campaign, with the help of some custom events, I've guided the proud nation of Ethiopia, as defender of the Orthodox faith, to the unification of East Africa, the conquest of the Mameluk and Ottoman Empires, the restoration of the Eastern Roman Empire (assuming for ourselves the title of Byzantium while moving the capital to Constantinople), and the reconquest of the Western Empire. Up to, and a bit beyond, the furthest point reached by the historical Emperor Justinian I.
Now this new Roman Empire, speaking Greek and Amharic, imbued with Ethiopian culture, and led by Ethiopian Emperors, is the most powerful nation on the Mediterranean, and has, by far, the largest colonial presence in North America. As the game has progressed to the 1760s, our next step will be to plant the seed of the modern world by releasing vassals from our vast Empire, creating nations like the United States and reviving numerous city states and minor powers that disappeared in the late medieval age. Then antagonize them just a bit into declaring independence. You know, I might just rename that last Emperor in the Monarchs file, who will be in power when the Scenario ends in 1819, to "Leto II."
Incidentally this is also Distant Worlds: Universe in a nutshell.
And also incidentally DW:U is -90% off on Steam right now($6).
Now this is an alternate history show I would watch.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
It's so good! I still can't believe how well that small team managed to nail what they were going for.
Spoiler for one of the missions:
Im picturing the start of terminator 2 being a skirmish before two massive armies of terminators collide in battle
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
Well, there's TABS.
Adventure RPG where you battle enemies by dodging their music based attacks. Big Undertale/Pony Island vibes. Has a demo you can play now.
Edit: In other news, The Pedestrian earns the honor of the first 2D game to make me motion sick
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
However, based on the pretty harsh language in the judgement (and harsher language in the appeal), I doubt that's a permanent matter as Frogwares was found to be in the wrong, and I predict Nacon will end up controlling the other four and plumbing Frogwares' bank accounts dry of any support gamers give them by buying "their version." Best case scenario is both of them owe each other money*, worst case is Frogwares' breaches activate some kind of "haha fuck you" clause in their contract.
*-There were several claimed breaches of the contract from what I'm reading - Nacon withholding revenue, Nacon failing to make agreed upon payments, and Frogwares pulling the game from the store. The first one, which actually involves the big money, is still in court. The other points have gone in Nacon's favor.
Oh my
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
That looks like it could be fantastic
The catch with Battletech, for a younger person, is that Hairbrained Schemes' lovingly-crafted reinterpretation of the classic tabletop game is wrapped, metaphorically, within a case study on managing a very nearly insolvent business while raising kids.
You go out and take jobs to keep the wolves away from your airlock, doing dreary back of the envelope math as to how long you can keep this up. Then you go on long road trips with your bored mechwarriors, putting out fires both figuratively and literally, as they fight with each other and break stuff. When you do scrape together enough money to tempt fate with a deep sigh of relief, this is interrupted when somebody gets injured, maybe busting up their costly ride in the process.
I'm not knocking it. But I think that side of the game will be appreciated more by grown-ups.
Spoiler for later in the game:
I was gifted without provocation. Is there a manager I can speak to about this?
Thanks @Zavian for Sherlock's devil daughter. Err... or something like that.
There's a mod that gets rid of the loot split deal and lets you get all the loot when the slider is at max. I used it for a second non-story mode run (whatever it was called escapes me now).
It's borderline cheating in most of the game, and it's literally cheating in the early game (it'll let you get a good team up and well funded within a few missions) and late game (where you'll be scraping a mec or two after every single mission for all the loot you're rolling in). For the middle 80% of the game it's grind saving.
But if you want to make it more strategy game than spreadsheet simulator for a younger player it's probably just about what'll do it.
First sportingly with some Curling from @Mugsley
Then an attempt with Crosscode (which is not a game for me) but then followed up with Intruder by @Orivon
@HiT BiT bless these gifts with a new Lola edit
Thanks for teardown
Before I was able to make this post @Spoit sent me some gifts as well.
Because I had to add Spoit's gifts to this post @Zavian was able to get a gift in as well.
Not done yet. Isorn decided to send another gift, because the first seemingly wasn't enough.
So I don't triple post I'm adding the gift that @MNC Dover sent me maybe a minute after I made this post.
Even better, if you do that mission on Mercenary difficulty. The intro changes...
not sure if it really comes across in the trailer. but....
not only do you get stompy robots in increasingly larger varieties.
There are also Super weapons which are all very fun in a evil genius kind of way, and then if the game goes on long enough there is a straight up Death Star equivalent.
Or if you really want to send a message.... you can simply strap a bunch of engines to a moon and throw it at your opponents planet to really mess up their day.
Really what I am saying is Planetary Annihilation: Titans is real good
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
Steam profile - Twitch - YouTube
Switch: SM-6352-8553-6516
Oh yeah, I remember hearing about that studio.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-01-25-scavengers-studio-creative-director-accused-of-belittling-screaming-at-groping-employees
Sounds pretty awful, tbh.
I have never added a game to my wish list and then removed it as quickly as I did between these posts. That is some heinous stuff.
Goodreads
SF&F Reviews blog
ODST is really good.