Video Games: Thread Simulator 2016

[Wrl6199]

I haven't got it yet but i want too soon.

[Ramsay B.]

4 minutes ago, RumHam said:

Yeah, I paid extra for the early version too. I felt a little dirty about it, it's not a tactic I like supporting. But I just couldn't wait. It's quite fun and I agree about the radar. I also don't like how they handle the dreadnoughts, just giving one to the losing team at some point in the match. There should be special objectives or something you have to complete to get one for your team. 

Yeah, the dreadnoughts are annoying. You basically have to avoid a whole side of the map for a bit.

I usually never pre-order or get games early...but I was weak also.

[Jace, Extat]

So the opening tutorial/monologue was pretty fucking great, surprisingly.

[Fez]

I managed to play about 50 turns of Civ6 this morning. I use the Epic time setting, so I only just entered the Classical era and I haven't seen much the game yet. But what I have seen, I really, really like.

The biggest thing is that it feels like a Civ game that's already had a couple expansions; there's just so many systems and features right from the get-go. It seems like all the features that ended up in Civ5 are here, though some are pretty heavily modified, but then they also added the whole city district system and the modifiable government civic system. There's also this system where you can cut in half the research time for all technologies and civics by reaching certain milestones (e.g. If you kill an enemy unit with a slinger, the research time for Archery is cut in half; building a coastal city cuts the research time for sailing in half, etc.). There may be other new systems too, I just haven't reached them yet. 

Its only one game so far, but from what I can tell, I think there may be no single optimal early path anymore. There's just too many variables now thanks to the districts. Also, there's no longer a global food or happiness index, its back to each city having its own food and happiness. And the number of cities you have no longer increases your time to research things, so there are no penalties to expansion and lots of incentives. Plus, barbarians are far more active by default and I've had to focus quite a bit on building up early armies to deal with it (which it seems is a good thing anyway, I've read a bunch of places saying that the AI civs are very aggressive in the early eras if you have a weak military). Finally, workers have been replaced by builders, who can only make a set number of tile improvements (which they do immediately), before disappearing.

I ended up on a continent by myself, so I don't know how the diplomatic systems work; except that there's some sort of envoy system with the city-states.

Combat has changed a bit from Civ5. Its mostly one military unit per tile, but there are certain support units that can share tiles with them. There are also techs later in the game that let you combine two and then three units of the same type into corps and armies that take a single tile.

[KiDisaster]

I got on Civ for a bit this morning before work, only played a couple of turns as the Kongo. Minor technical gripe: At 1440p the interface and text are a little small for comfortable reading, and the UI Upscaling option in the menu is disabled for resolutions below 4K. Why Firaxis, why? 

Apparently you can force it on in the config files but you have to do it every time you launch the game because it changes back. Maybe setting to read-only will solve that. I'll try when I get home. 

The game is bloody gorgeous. I love the new art style. Can't wait to dig into it. 

[Proudfeet]

I'm a cheapskate and will buy Civ only after I get 50% off. 

[Jace, Extat]

Well, Sean Bean is the narrator for Civ 6 and that's one way to get me to listen to every faction intro.

Meanwhile, the goddamn headset I just bought specifically for Battlefield 1 refuses to work. There's a hundred bucks well spent.

[RumHam]

On 10/20/2016 at 8:09 PM, Pony Queen Jace said:

I liked that the gunship in 3 was determined by who was controlling C.

Yeah that was cool, and would be preferable to the system they have now. I was thinking they could do something similar to some of the "levolution" map events from BF4. Like blowing up the tower on Shangi or flooding that one map. Things to do that aren't necessarily objectives in conquest. 

Like maybe there's a radio tower on one map but it's broken and two or three parts are placed randomly on the map and have to be found and carried to the tower. Then you have to defend the tower for a bit to call in an airship. Maybe you have to repair the train tracks first to get an armored train. Or maybe on one map there could be a special capture point in the sky that only planes can take, and when you get it you secure the airship for your team. I dunno, but I'd hope Dice could come up with some interesting ideas. 

 

[C.T. Phipps]

Okay, having dived into Rise of the Tomb Raider a bit more I think it's a really good game but I think it's definitely a marked step down from the previous one.

1. The absence of Lara's supporting cast except for Jonah: Basically, Lara is suddenly a lone wolf in this game and the aspect of her supporting cast on the island had humanized her a great deal. The previous game had done a lot to make her more than shapely Super Mario and now suddenly she's back to being a person shooting a large number of people to steal ancient relics. I also strongly miss Sam who was nicely confirmed as Lara's bestie.

2. The quest for the Divine Source is never quite as pressing: Lara in the previous game was working on survival and attempting to help her friends. Here, there's a handwave she's trying to help redeem her father's reputation but it feels shoe-horned in from the Angelina Jolie movie. There's never really a good explanation for why Lara is so desperate to recover the Not-Holy Grail.

3. The villains are less compelling and kind of reak of anti-Catholicism: So, the Vatican has a hidden army of EVIL Knights Templar wannabees who are psychotic religious fanatics. They're after the Divine Source and Lara has to stop them. They're also potentially the people who killed her father. Matthias and the Solari at least had the reasonable justification they're trying to get off Hell IslandTM.

4. Quite a bit of this feels a bit familiar: It feels in many ways like a reskin of the previous game with Lara vs. an army of religious fanatics as well as a bunch of supernatural monsters. I know that's the nature of sequels but they could have gone in quite a few different directions.

[Boris the Blade]

Playing battlefield 1. The multiplayer is obviously going to be great, but the campaign is a ton of fun as well. Enjoying the hell out of it.

[Jace, Extat]

2 hours ago, Daniel Plainview said:

Playing battlefield 1. The multiplayer is obviously going to be great, but the campaign is a ton of fun as well. Enjoying the hell out of it.

I took a break from online to do the Lawrence of Arabia part, because who the fuck wouldn't, and the first cutscene was literally cringe worthy but I still like it.

[KiDisaster]

Germany & Scythia both pretended to be my friends and then both declared war on me in the same turn 

[Jace, Extat]

7 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

Okay, having dived into Rise of the Tomb Raider a bit more I think it's a really good game but I think it's definitely a marked step down from the previous one.

1. The absence of Lara's supporting cast except for Jonah: Basically, Lara is suddenly a lone wolf in this game and the aspect of her supporting cast on the island had humanized her a great deal. The previous game had done a lot to make her more than shapely Super Mario and now suddenly she's back to being a person shooting a large number of people to steal ancient relics. I also strongly miss Sam who was nicely confirmed as Lara's bestie.

2. The quest for the Divine Source is never quite as pressing: Lara in the previous game was working on survival and attempting to help her friends. Here, there's a handwave she's trying to help redeem her father's reputation but it feels shoe-horned in from the Angelina Jolie movie. There's never really a good explanation for why Lara is so desperate to recover the Not-Holy Grail.

3. The villains are less compelling and kind of reak of anti-Catholicism: So, the Vatican has a hidden army of EVIL Knights Templar wannabees who are psychotic religious fanatics. They're after the Divine Source and Lara has to stop them. They're also potentially the people who killed her father. Matthias and the Solari at least had the reasonable justification they're trying to get off Hell IslandTM.

4. Quite a bit of this feels a bit familiar: It feels in many ways like a reskin of the previous game with Lara vs. an army of religious fanatics as well as a bunch of supernatural monsters. I know that's the nature of sequels but they could have gone in quite a few different directions.

I never finished it, I loved the first one and was literally the only person at the 'midnight' (happened at 9 pm) release who was there for Tomb Raider instead of Fallout 4, but it just felt... stale.

1 hour ago, KiDisaster said:

Germany & Scythia both pretended to be my friends and then both declared war on me in the same turn 

I tried to be friends with Scythia so I could make a Bad Bitches alliance, but she wasn't a fan of mine for unknown reasons.

Played one game on standard as Egypt to about turn 90, 3 different Civ's I never met were wiped out, I can't remember the computer ever killing other civs in V.

[Boris the Blade]

4 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

I took a break from online to do the Lawrence of Arabia part, because who the fuck wouldn't, and the first cutscene was literally cringe worthy but I still like it.

Yea, him standing on the top of a wrecked train car the way he was and what he said the way he said it made me groan haha. Also the historical inaccuracies are eating away at me, but it's still a fun game that looks amazing. Online nothing is more satisfying than bayoneting someone and burning them to death with a flame thrower, well, maybe taking down a plane or two as a plane gunner and sniping, but still. The bayonet charge is so fun. 

[KiDisaster]

Germany and I have made peace, Scythia no longer exists. Arabia prevails. 

All I wanted was to peacefully spread Islam. But now Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy are kicking my ass. Time to shift focus to science cause I'm winning that somehow. 

[Jace, Extat]

1 hour ago, Daniel Plainview said:

Yea, him standing on the top of a wrecked train car the way he was and what he said the way he said it made me groan haha. Also the historical inaccuracies are eating away at me, but it's still a fun game that looks amazing. Online nothing is more satisfying than bayoneting someone and burning them to death with a flame thrower, well, maybe taking down a plane or two as a plane gunner and sniping, but still. The bayonet charge is so fun. 

Badguy: Ahhh! Lawrence of Arabia! Because I call you by a title that makes little sense at this moment! Let me divulge secret Ottoman information and make an oil reference!!!

And speak for yourself, best feeling is taking a guys cap off from across the map. Nailed a 268m shot with the German sniper.

Meanwhile, Egypt is groaning under the weight of Barbarian invasions in 900 BC. I neglected my military and have paid for it with 8 pillaged tiles and a lost settler.

[Ramsay B.]

I've killed way more people trying to bayonet charge me then having actually utilized it myself.   They are wide open when they come charging...and I keep forgetting to do it half the time.

So I'm still not sold on the whole getting a huge weapon of mass destruction when your team is losing, but I got to pilot an airship and it was fun as hell. I was doing work slowly going from base to base and dropping bombs on everything in sight until we pulled off the comeback. Very satisfying.

[Boris the Blade]

24 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Badguy: Ahhh! Lawrence of Arabia! Because I call you by a title that makes little sense at this moment! Let me divulge secret Ottoman information and make an oil reference!!!

And speak for yourself, best feeling is taking a guys cap off from across the map. Nailed a 268m shot with the German sniper.

Meanwhile, Egypt is groaning under the weight of Barbarian invasions in 900 BC. I neglected my military and have paid for it with 8 pillaged tiles and a lost settler.

Hahaha.

I haven't sniped much, the kills I have gotten when doing so have been fun. Head shots are so satisfying. I was sniping in a house that about 10 of my teammates were in. Someone ran into the house and he saw us all up stairs and tried to turn around and run back down the stairs. we just chucked our grenades down the stair case as he turned around. blew out the entire bottom part of the house and took out the walls, but it was worth it to see him fly about 30 feet out of the house from the explosions haha. 
 

8 minutes ago, Ramsay B. said:

I've killed way more people trying to bayonet charge me then having actually utilized it myself.   They are wide open when they come charging...and I keep forgetting to do it half the time.

So I'm still not sold on the whole getting a huge weapon of mass destruction when your team is losing, but I got to pilot an airship and it was fun as hell. I was doing work slowly going from base to base and dropping bombs on everything in sight until we pulled off the comeback. Very satisfying.

I actually have had quite a few bayonet kills. I usually catch them from behind, but in the most recent game I was playing, I bayoneted someone in the back and then stabbed  his squadmate in the chest with a knife and as I was pulling the knife out I got bayoneted in the back. It's just chaos, but I don't get mad at getting killed like I used to in the other battlefield titles, it's just too much fun at the moment for me.

Oh, and I totally agree that being on an airship is amazing. Being a gunner in a plane was so fun, especially taking out planes behind you trying to shoot you down and shooting down into contested sectors. 

[Liffguard]

I uninstalled Overwatch today. What started out as casual fun became frustratingly addictive but without any pay off. I was finishing games tenser and in a worse mood than when I started. No more online mutiplayer for me, at least for a while.

[Jace, Extat]

That Dishonored trailer is just awful, and I have to watch it every ten damn seconds.