Video Games: "Completeness" becomes important somehow

[Pecan]

Uncharted 4 is getting incredible reviews. I've not played an Uncharted game before, but I loved TLOU. I'm inclined to buy the Uncharted Collection first to start the series at the beginning.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

28 minutes ago, Pecan said:

Uncharted 4 is getting incredible reviews. I've not played an Uncharted game before, but I loved TLOU. I'm inclined to buy the Uncharted Collection first to start the series at the beginning.

I don't understand the Uncharted phenomenon. The times I played it, it didn't really even seem to be a game.. just a series of button presses at the right time.

[Corvinus85]

Against my better judgement, I bought TW: Warhammer, because most of the bad reviews dealt with easily fixed bugs. Sure enough, I encountered a couple of small bugs so far, but only played a little over an hour. My biggest disappointment is that it feels like Attila/Rome 2 with magic. If I hadn't played those two first, I may have been more impressed with this one. Best improvement I've noted so far: cavalry charges are awesome again.

I also bought Stellaris, and returned it after about 30 minutes of play. Just like with Crusader Kings 2, I'm not sure I can get into it. The amount of information is a bit overwhelming. And a deal breaker for me was something about the game mechanics - I selected a science ship to have it do a survey of a planet, and then that ship proceeded to zip around the solar system with no explanation as to why. I bought the game because of some of the awesome stories I read here. I've always wanted to play a space grand strategy game with so much customization for your civilization. I may try again, if I see it at a steep discount, and I have the time and energy to actually be able to pick it apart.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

Just now, Corvinus said:

Against my better judgement, I bought TW: Warhammer, because most of the bad reviews dealt with easily fixed bugs. Sure enough, I encountered a couple of small bugs so far, but only played a little over an hour. My biggest disappointment is that it feels like Attila/Rome 2 with magic. If I hadn't played those two first, I may have been more impressed with this one. Best improvement I've noted so far: cavalry charges are awesome again.

 

I'm seriously tempted by this game, but don't want to be disappointed like I was with Rome 2. Keep us updated on your thoughts. Especially interested in its performance, as it looks like it might be a bit much for my machine to handle, even though Attila ran fine.

[Corvinus85]

Just now, Channel4s-JonSnow said:

I'm seriously tempted by this game, but don't want to be disappointed like I was with Rome 2. Keep us updated on your thoughts. Especially interested in its performance, as it looks like it might be a bit much for my machine to handle, even though Attila ran fine.

So far it's running fine for me. Based on the recommended specs on steam, the only thing I fall short of is the processor, but the game automatically put most of the settings at ultra.

[Channel4s-JonSnow]

1 minute ago, Corvinus said:

So far it's running fine for me. Based on the recommended specs on steam, the only thing I fall short of is the processor, but the game automatically put most of the settings at ultra.

I did read somewhere that they refined the code to make it run better, I'll have to give it a try. I think the graphics on Rome (and Empire) were always rather muddy and crap looking, but Warhammer looks the best one so far.

Also interested to see how the game feels, as it seems to be less based around 'civ style' building and more about just flat out fighting.

[Gears of the Beast]

There's Civ 6 gameplay out. Not much but a few notable things, you actually build a wonder in your territory now which makes a lot more sense. I don't really like the aesthetic, looks too cartoony especially those dreadful looking trees and it looks like the combat units and attacking animations are more cartoony/goofy too. Pretty disappointing since Civ 5 had a really nice aesthetic. 

[The Anti-Targ]

11 hours ago, Pecan said:

Uncharted 4 is getting incredible reviews. I've not played an Uncharted game before, but I loved TLOU. I'm inclined to buy the Uncharted Collection first to start the series at the beginning.

They are very different games. I really like both TLOU and Uncharted but they are very different experiences. Uncharted is a fun popcorn adventure. I'd recommend getting the Uncharted collection first, just so that you can get to know what little there is about each of the characters. In Uncharted 3 in particular you get to know something of the history of the main bromance in the game.

[Jasta11]

I bought Total War: Warhammer, after seeing a bevy of videos and a few streams.

Not regretting my pucrhase at all. The factions play very differently; as Dwarfs, the lack of cavalry means you rely a lot on your ranged units, and your infantry is mostly there to protect them, whereas as Vampires you want to use cheap fodder to tie up enemies as your more powerful minions/heroes swoop in and actually do some damage. So while the basic gameplay is fairly similar to Attila's, I don't count that as a minus, because the unit variety adds that flavor that Total War kinda needed after 50 shades of dudes with spears.

Same on the campaign map; as Dwarfs you have several allied factions close to you, and can fairly quickly form confederations and alliances if you send gifts their way. Whereas Vampires are surrounded by foes from the get-go and have pretty much only one AI faction they can realistically ally with, which on the other hand gives you more leeway to expand once you break into the Imperial lands. Chaos is a Horde faction lost in the northern wates, which I'm also eager to try out.

Technically it seems like a good launch; my computer is nothing special and I can run it a fairly smooth FPS at medium-high settings on all but the biggest battles, and I saw no obvious bugs so far, no crashes either. The game did have issues at launch day, but it seems it was down to too many people playing at once which overloaded the DRM server.

Battles are dynamic and very fun to watch; the animators in general did a great job. It does look a bit over-the-top when dwarfs lunge at their foes, but it's Warhammer so no biggie. Unfortunately, they are also short; even 20v20 brawls have a hard time lasting more than 10 minutes unless you're playing Empire vs Dwarfs. So you can barely enjoy the action before having to react to what's happening unless you play in slow-mo which sucks because it cuts out most of the game's sound, and that really detracts from the ambiance.

All in all, I'm enjoying this a lot, and I intend to (over some time) play the campaigns of most factions. I did hear that it gets harder in the lategame, when Chaos starts to show up.

[MerenthaClone]

My Empire game in T:TW might be starting to fall.  I'd made one march on the Vampire Count's Castle Templehof before falling and Chaos is fairly powerful.  I'm slowly allying with all the humans around me, but I want access to Marienburg and Nuln because I need some cash, and those are the two provinces still able to challenge me militarily and therefore too powerful to confederate.  Chaos is getting really antsy and I'm seeing worrying signs from the south as the dwarves and greenskins fight it out.  I'm mostly on NAPs/trade agreements with the dwarves which is good; I can't afford to get dragged into a war down south too.  The VC from the east, Chaos hordes roaming through, and the Norscans hammering the northern fringes of the Greater Empire are too much.  As-is, I've got a lot of resettling to do up there if I want to win.  

So far, the game seems really fun and fairly balanced, though the agent spam is a bit much.  The factions do seem to play pretty differently at first glance:  I managed to pretty effectively stop the VC's from invading by pushing them out of a province, razing their buildings, and flooding it with Witch Hunters.  It costs me very little to maintain them and it keeps the corruption down, so they take pretty hefty attrition crossing it.  Every so often they try to resettle Stirland, so I have to come down and kick them back to Sylvania, making some decent loot in the process for relatively cheap.  At some point, I'll have to deal with them more permanently, but I want to try to secure some borders up north first and at least prop up my allies enough that they can defend themselves...enough.  They don't need to thrive, they just need to stay alive.

[Jasta11]

Yeah, I started an Empire game and from the looks of it, you can only contain VCs early on. The garrisons at Castle Drakenhof are just way too powerful to crack until you have 2 stacks and/or lategame units, and just defeating them in the field isn't that much use since they can raise/recruit all their stuff right back up while safe.

Speaking of which, siege equipment seems weak. Siege towers in particular take 2 turns to build yet often get destroyed before they're halfway to the walls. Rams are more resilient but painfully slow. In the end, as VC you're better off sending the Vargulf to tear it down. Or miners with blasting charges as Dwarfs, which are also just an hilarious and effective unit in general.

I'm now at turn 15 on three races and can't decide on which one to bring forward. Dwarfs, Empire or VCs.

[Corvinus85]

TW: Warhammer Pretty much got my ass kicked early on in my Empire campaign by the Secessionists. I lost Karl Franz twice. I'm sure I've made mistakes, but some of it had to have been to some poor game mechanics (similar to Attila/Rome 2). When crossbowmen that are the foot of a hill can fire just as far as crossbowmen that are high on the hill, you know there is nothing you can do to win a battle when outnumbered. I don't think I've won a battle outnumbered in TW since Medieval 2.

Started a campaign with Dwarfs. See how it goes. The visuals are great, the game runs pretty well, and the added dynamic of magic, as well as being able to use agents (which are called heroes now) in a battle is cool. But I'm not sure it was worth $60 just yet.

[Fez]

Beat FFX on Steam. Turns out, I don't think I actually beat it back in the day; pretty sure I got stuck on the final boss (well, the final real boss). Also, giving Yuna a couple of the 3rd level black magic spells is gamebreaking overpowered. By the time I reached the final few areas, she was 9999ing every single attack, and since she had an auto-haste armor and a one-MP cost weapon, that turned everything into a cakewalk (at least, main game; I didn't bother going after the dark aeons or the monster arena bosses). Auron was the only one I got a full-powered celestial weapon for, and so he was doing 15k-20k almost every attack as well. 

Never did feel much during the game, but it was fairly satisfying to finish it off. I'll probably give FFX-2 a shot, I only ever played a couple hours of that back when it came out. But once the big Stellaris patch comes out, that'll probably take me over again.

[Jasta11]

47 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

TW: Warhammer Pretty much got my ass kicked early on in my Empire campaign by the Secessionists. I lost Karl Franz twice. I'm sure I've made mistakes, but some of it had to have been to some poor game mechanics (similar to Attila/Rome 2). When crossbowmen that are the foot of a hill can fire just as far as crossbowmen that are high on the hill, you know there is nothing you can do to win a battle when outnumbered. I don't think I've won a battle outnumbered in TW since Medieval 2.

Started a campaign with Dwarfs. See how it goes. The visuals are great, the game runs pretty well, and the added dynamic of magic, as well as being able to use agents (which are called heroes now) in a battle is cool. But I'm not sure it was worth $60 just yet.

 

Really? My 12 unit Imperial army managed to rout a 17 unit Orc army with judicious tactics, killing the Warboss to take advantage of the Greenskin's poor Leadership and causing a chain rout with a cavalry charge. All that despite Orc Boys mopping the floor with starting Imperial units. Now, granted the initial Reiksguard unit is immensely helpful and Karl Franz is a total badass, but still. Tactics can go a long way. Obviously, a 5 unit garrison is going to get stomped by a 20 unit army no matter what, but that's par for the course.

That was on Hard. Dunno what difficulty you're playing, but it is definitely possible to beat the odds. I watched a Youtuber, Legendoftotalwar, beat even worse odds on Legendary. He does cheese the AI a bit, however.

The Secessionists actually aren't the biggest threat. Marienburg can get pretty scary as well, since they have a big city with a unique structure that gives them loads of gold. Thus they can quickly get out of control.

[Talleyrand]

 

10 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

Whereas Vampires are surrounded by foes from the get-go and have pretty much only one AI faction they can realistically ally with, which on the other hand gives you more leeway to expand once you break into the Imperial lands.

As VC I managed to get two military alliances pretty early - one with the Zhufbar Dwarfs acting as a buffer to my right and then with the imperial faction that sounds like Stirling. The Stirling guys have even beaten back the Chaos Horde a couple times now.

Just agree to join Zhufbar's war against some orc factions and kill any armies that come near your border and that gives you a little boost in relations with everyone else - plus until they get giants or big spiders (which I've yet to see) a couple big walky bat things just go through anything the orcs have.

 

7 hours ago, Corvinus said:

TW: Warhammer Pretty much got my ass kicked early on in my Empire campaign by the Secessionists. I lost Karl Franz twice. I'm sure I've made mistakes, but some of it had to have been to some poor game mechanics (similar to Attila/Rome 2). When crossbowmen that are the foot of a hill can fire just as far as crossbowmen that are high on the hill, you know there is nothing you can do to win a battle when outnumbered. I don't think I've won a battle outnumbered in TW since Medieval 2.

Started a campaign with Dwarfs. See how it goes. The visuals are great, the game runs pretty well, and the added dynamic of magic, as well as being able to use agents (which are called heroes now) in a battle is cool. But I'm not sure it was worth $60 just yet.

I've one several battles while outnumbered on hard so far for Dwarfs and Vampires - even minor settlement garrison vs full stacks

[AncalagonTheBlack]

‘Mirror’s Edge’ Video Game To Be Adapted As TV Series By Endemol Shine Studios

[MerenthaClone]

21 hours ago, Jasta11 said:

Yeah, I started an Empire game and from the looks of it, you can only contain VCs early on. The garrisons at Castle Drakenhof are just way too powerful to crack until you have 2 stacks and/or lategame units, and just defeating them in the field isn't that much use since they can raise/recruit all their stuff right back up while safe.

Speaking of which, siege equipment seems weak. Siege towers in particular take 2 turns to build yet often get destroyed before they're halfway to the walls. Rams are more resilient but painfully slow. In the end, as VC you're better off sending the Vargulf to tear it down. Or miners with blasting charges as Dwarfs, which are also just an hilarious and effective unit in general.

I'm now at turn 15 on three races and can't decide on which one to bring forward. Dwarfs, Empire or VCs.

The easiest way to beat sieges are to sneak your moderately leveled Witch Hunter there right before your forces arrive and have him blast 4 holes in the wall for you, which can render the tower very difficult for the defenders to use.  Then you rush the gap with Reiksguard/Demigryphs and clear a space for your greatswords to go to work.  As VC, if you're not building the Vampire Air Force 24/7 you're doing it wrong.  You're so mobile its absurd and can just swarm in, pick off a unit at will, and then flee while your skeleton warriors and Mannfred charge in from the front.  I really need to get a VC campaign up and running.

In other news, I survived the End Times!  Got a little note about it and everything.  There's a Waaagh going on down south that I frankly have no idea what's happening because I spent the entire End Times kicking Chaos' ass.  Its actually come back to hurt me a bit since all my armies are tooled for anti-armor use and now the Norscan swarms are hurting me pretty badly while being cost-efficient.  Halberdiers, Demigryphs, Greatswords, and Hellblaster volley guns work, but they're expensive and chaos hounds/marauders do a number on me until my Handgunners can bring something to bear.  I think I need to switch to a few more shielded spearmen and swordsmen while taking these guys on.  Or outriders, I suppose.  Still, murdered Archaon with Franz while a lord I confederated took on Sigvald and Kholek in a nail-biting close battle.  They ended up getting really lucky with reinforcements and had their reinforcements coming in right behind my start and Gelt's army was artillery heavy so I set up my gunline to try to kill as much of Kholek's force as possible while everyone else smashed Sigvald and his forces as they marched onto the map.  My then very depleted infantry corp then had to run to try to intercept Kholek.  Came down to a very close thing as both forces were about to utterly rout and a well-timed rally managed to bring a cannon crew back to the fight, just in time to nail a returning Kholek in the face.  Then I just had to charge the remaining Hellcannons and it was done, but those fuckers being unbreakable is a huge kick in the teeth.  

Good damn game.  It needs a few tweaks:  the AI's habit of using normal attack, then switching to march right afterwards lets it happily waltz around the map being completely unable to be caught while they raze all your settlements.  Its infuriating when fighting Chaos since they're still causing a ton of corruption while they do this, and battles either need to cost some movement or have you be prevented from switching to march after a fight, preferably both.  Agent spam could also be reduced, though I did manage to get an early witch hunter out and leveled him by having him murder as many agents as I could reach.  Thank god.

 

e;  For an easier time at Empire, start with Franz and level his skill that gives a flat buff to levy troops ASAP.  You can improve the attack/defense of your swordsmen, spearmen, and halberdiers by something absurd like 50%.  And you start with a Reiksguard, which will solo battles for you.  And don't put any more points into mounts than you need to unlock the next one.  You can't respec and there's no reason for you to use anything but the gryphon once you get it.  

[Jasta11]

20 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

The easiest way to beat sieges are to sneak your moderately leveled Witch Hunter there right before your forces arrive and have him blast 4 holes in the wall for you, which can render the tower very difficult for the defenders to use.  Then you rush the gap with Reiksguard/Demigryphs and clear a space for your greatswords to go to work.  As VC, if you're not building the Vampire Air Force 24/7 you're doing it wrong.  You're so mobile its absurd and can just swarm in, pick off a unit at will, and then flee while your skeleton warriors and Mannfred charge in from the front.  I really need to get a VC campaign up and running.

In other news, I survived the End Times!  Got a little note about it and everything.  There's a Waaagh going on down south that I frankly have no idea what's happening because I spent the entire End Times kicking Chaos' ass.  Its actually come back to hurt me a bit since all my armies are tooled for anti-armor use and now the Norscan swarms are hurting me pretty badly while being cost-efficient.  Halberdiers, Demigryphs, Greatswords, and Hellblaster volley guns work, but they're expensive and chaos hounds/marauders do a number on me until my Handgunners can bring something to bear.  I think I need to switch to a few more shielded spearmen and swordsmen while taking these guys on.  Or outriders, I suppose.  Still, murdered Archaon with Franz while a lord I confederated took on Sigvald and Kholek in a nail-biting close battle.  They ended up getting really lucky with reinforcements and had their reinforcements coming in right behind my start and Gelt's army was artillery heavy so I set up my gunline to try to kill as much of Kholek's force as possible while everyone else smashed Sigvald and his forces as they marched onto the map.  My then very depleted infantry corp then had to run to try to intercept Kholek.  Came down to a very close thing as both forces were about to utterly rout and a well-timed rally managed to bring a cannon crew back to the fight, just in time to nail a returning Kholek in the face.  Then I just had to charge the remaining Hellcannons and it was done, but those fuckers being unbreakable is a huge kick in the teeth.  

Good damn game.  It needs a few tweaks:  the AI's habit of using normal attack, then switching to march right afterwards lets it happily waltz around the map being completely unable to be caught while they raze all your settlements.  Its infuriating when fighting Chaos since they're still causing a ton of corruption while they do this, and battles either need to cost some movement or have you be prevented from switching to march after a fight, preferably both.  Agent spam could also be reduced, though I did manage to get an early witch hunter out and leveled him by having him murder as many agents as I could reach.  Thank god.

 

e;  For an easier time at Empire, start with Franz and level his skill that gives a flat buff to levy troops ASAP.  You can improve the attack/defense of your swordsmen, spearmen, and halberdiers by something absurd like 50%.  And you start with a Reiksguard, which will solo battles for you.  And don't put any more points into mounts than you need to unlock the next one.  You can't respec and there's no reason for you to use anything but the gryphon once you get it.  

 

Yeah, I heard the endgame can get pretty hectic with Chaos swarming all over the place and their Agents corruptinating the countryside. I decided to go with Empire too, and at turn 62 I just received a message that Chaos was on the march, followed by something like 4 Sorcerers spawning out of nowhere. The weird thing is, even after I chase them off, the Chaos corruption seems to remain in my provinces. Is that intended? It seems silly that Vampire corruption wears off but you're stuck with Chaos unless you can diligently hunt down all their agents ASAP. Doesn't seem like a great design decision.

Also, the AI can be a sneaky little bastard. Marienburg was starting to grow too fat and powerful (with 6 settlements), so I decided to do some damage control. When my armies are in position, I see them allied with Bretonnia; however, since old Louis is at war with an Orc tribe and a Dwafen Karak, I figure he won't be of much help. Declaration of war and mayhem ensues, and what I do I see next turn? Said Orc tribe destroyed, the Bretons having made peace with the Dwarfs, and a full stack of troops led by Louis himself defending the enemy capital. I eventually fight him, and only win by a very narrow margin as my army was mostly comprised of Swordmen and crossbows and he has a trebuchet and 6 Knights of the Realm units. Once again, Karl Franz and the Reiksguard secured the win. Good thing I retreated out, because a full stack of Marienburg troops showed up immediately after and would have crushed what remained of my forces easily. I ended up licking my wounds and taking out Marienburg until they are down to 1 town and I'm now military allies with the two most powerful Elector Counts, and teched up so that I have a steady income as well as good units on the way. Now to decide if I purge Sylvania of the vampire menace, or go south to kill some Orcs in order to trigger the quest to get Garl Maraz.

[Talleyrand]

36 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

Good damn game.  It needs a few tweaks:  the AI's habit of using normal attack, then switching to march right afterwards lets it happily waltz around the map being completely unable to be caught while they raze all your settlements.  Its infuriating when fighting Chaos since they're still causing a ton of corruption while they do this, and battles either need to cost some movement or have you be prevented from switching to march after a fight, preferably both.  Agent spam could also be reduced, though I did manage to get an early witch hunter out and leveled him by having him murder as many agents as I could reach.  Thank god.

Yeah chasing down your enemies can get pretty annoying especially either when as the Vampires you have to go outside your territory while trying to chase them down and have to deal with attrition or if they use the underway and keep jumping to the other side of you everytime you corner them.

Also a helpful tip for anyone but especially vamp players - for a price you can teleport to the quest battles and end up back in your original position once it's done, saves you having to march across the map either losing half your army without fighting or using raiding stance to ensure your don't lose anybody but take twice as long.

Agent spam made one of the VC quest basically impossible for me - you have to deploy an agent in the bottom orc area expect every single time without fail they'd get assassinated the moment they went into the orc area 

[karaddin]

Absolutely loving Overwatch personally, D.Va is my girl for now, although Reinhardt can go jump off a cliff.  Which he did in a game last night, with me in front of him. I was on defense, so overall I feel it was a win for me.