Video Games: Next Stop... Andromeda

[Durckad]

4 hours ago, Rhom said:

The concept of being paid to not work is so foreign to me that I can't even begin to consider it.

 

I find your ideas disturbing and would not subscribe to your newsletter.

[Fez]

Bioware's released the first of a series of gameplay videos about the new Mass Effect. 

Combat looks really good IMO, I just hope that with so many skills available, all of them are useful and distinct from each other. It looks more fluid than even ME3 did.

I like the visuals a lot too. I think Bioware were telling the truth when they said they were still working on the character faces after the first story trailer went up. The faces still aren't as good as the environments, but they are better than they were.

[Rhom]

15 minutes ago, Fez said:

Bioware's released the first of a series of gameplay videos about the new Mass Effect. 

Combat looks really good IMO, I just hope that with so many skills available, all of them are useful and distinct from each other. It looks more fluid than even ME3 did.

I like the visuals a lot too. I think Bioware were telling the truth when they said they were still working on the character faces after the first story trailer went up. The faces still aren't as good as the environments, but they are better than they were.

Does look absolutely fantastic.  I get more excited about the game every day.

[l2 0 5 5]

33 minutes ago, Rhom said:

Does look absolutely fantastic.  I get more excited about the game every day.

I thought the same. The biotic enemy hostage sequence looked pretty cool. The turret was interesting, as well. The desert scenery looks fantastic.

[MerenthaClone]

8 hours ago, Rhom said:

I also don't offer it to my employees.  The concept of being paid to not work is so foreign to me that I can't even begin to consider it.

Consider that well-rested, unstressed, happy, healthier employees might perform significantly better.  You presumably offer paid sick leave, why shouldn't minds also be given the same treatment?

[Rhom]

33 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

Consider that well-rested, unstressed, happy, healthier employees might perform significantly better.  You presumably offer paid sick leave, why shouldn't minds also be given the same treatment?

Other than required FMLA, no.

Any time an employee wants off, I make that happen; but by and large I try not to make work a stressful environment. And if they want to find somewhere else, I'm okay with hiring.  I'm not a believer that staff should spend 20 years in one place.  They should feel free to move on and I get a fresh employee.

Theres nothing worse than going into a doctor's office and seeing the staff that are just miserable to be there.  I'm sure they were great 15 years ago, but they are just there making patients feel unwanted now. I never want to be in that position.

ETA:  So video games... yeah... Mass Effect did look great with the smooth gameplay.  Looks like what Destiny should have been aiming for.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 19/02/2017 at 2:16 AM, Rhom said:

I've never had paid vacation days.  

A large portion of that is that most of my professional career has been self employeed of course, but there were a couple years there working for other places where I didn't.

I also don't offer it to my employees.  The concept of being paid to not work is so foreign to me that I can't even begin to consider it.

It's enshrined in our law. Minimum 4 weeks paid annual leave for all full time employees, pro rated for part time employees, casual contractors get an annual leave element added to their pay. Enlightened labour practices tells us that worker performance and job satisfaction is substantially better when workers get time off without having to sacrifice financially and that for the most part the benefits outweigh the costs.

To bring it back to video games, in a roundabout way. Rocketwerkz game studio (started by Dean Hall who made Day Z) gives employees unlimited paid annual leave, as long as they do the work that's expected of them and meet performance targets they can take as much time off as they want. If someone can get all their work done in a month then they can take the rest of the year off and receive their full salary. He also has profit sharing with employees and his salary as CEO is no more than 10% above his highest paid employee. Worker satisfaction and performance is very high.

[The Anti-Targ]

On 19/02/2017 at 6:22 AM, Fez said:

Bioware's released the first of a series of gameplay videos about the new Mass Effect. 

Combat looks really good IMO, I just hope that with so many skills available, all of them are useful and distinct from each other. It looks more fluid than even ME3 did.

I like the visuals a lot too. I think Bioware were telling the truth when they said they were still working on the character faces after the first story trailer went up. The faces still aren't as good as the environments, but they are better than they were.

Looks amazing. Feeling quite happy about my move to PC for this franchise, though I imagine the gameplay footage is on 4K ultra settings whereas mine will be 1080p medium most likely.

[Fez]

Finished Tales of Berseria. I was not expecting a 60 hour journey, but here we are. Fortunately, the characters were entertaining enough that it was mostly worth it. There was a period of about 10 hours in the middle there were it seemed like the writers had lost the thread, but they got it back. At least until the very end, which I was disappointed by. Overall, I thought it was a really solid JRPG though, that once in a while got a little too anime-ish; and did make me uncomfortable a couple times with talk about what made for a good wife.

Speaking of disappointing endings, as a palette cleanser after Tales, I played through Firewatch in one sitting. That was quite a game too; some of that writing really got to me. I was disappointed by the ending, but its more that I was disappointed in the characters than anything else; it fit what had been set-up. I liked it more than Gone Home. I thought the writing was better, there were more gameplay elements, and the art design was beautiful. Also it took me about 3 hours instead of 1 hour.

I then finally started playing Rise of the Tomb Raider, and I am in awe of how good that game looks with my 1070. I'm only maybe an hour in, so I've got no idea yet how the game itself is, seems pretty similar to the first new one, but the graphics are just gorgeous.

And I picked up Total War: Warhammer for $12 through Humble. No idea when I'll get around to trying it out, or if I'll like it, but I've seen enough people here go on about it, and that price is just unbeatable. Not sure how Humble does it; there's also 5 other games to be named later that come with it.

[Rhom]

All I've got left in FemmeShep's ME2 playthrough is Arrival and the Omega Relay.

I mentioned before, but I'm really struggling with some of the straight Renegade choices.   Much like Starlord; I may be an a-hole, but I'm not 100% a dick.  I went team Morinth over Samara (and I'm mildly disappointed that there's not much other difference after the initial conversation), but when completing Operation Overlord I just couldn't leave David there with Cerberus.  Had to hand him over to Grissom.  With the tears dripping from his pinned open eyes, I just couldn't make the choice wheel go to the bottom right.    I did like that when I brought Legion with me on that mission, there was a comment made "Is your friend going to be okay in there?"

[Ded As Ned]

I finally completed Brut@l last night, and it ended up being rather underwhelming.  The first half of the game is much more difficult than the final half... it didn't feel balanced properly as after you start to get the better buffs you pretty much become an invincible tank and only have to worry about dying on the platforming areas.  No replay value... fun for a day of gaming and some nostalgia but that's about it.

[The Anti-Targ]

7 hours ago, Rhom said:

All I've got left in FemmeShep's ME2 playthrough is Arrival and the Omega Relay.

I mentioned before, but I'm really struggling with some of the straight Renegade choices.   Much like Starlord; I may be an a-hole, but I'm not 100% a dick.  I went team Morinth over Samara (and I'm mildly disappointed that there's not much other difference after the initial conversation), but when completing Operation Overlord I just couldn't leave David there with Cerberus.  Had to hand him over to Grissom.  With the tears dripping from his pinned open eyes, I just couldn't make the choice wheel go to the bottom right.    I did like that when I brought Legion with me on that mission, there was a comment made "Is your friend going to be okay in there?"

There is a very small payoff off to picking Morinth over Samara in ME3. But as far as ME2 goes, there's nothing in it other than getting Paragon/Renegade points.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 2/19/2017 at 4:29 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

It's enshrined in our law. Minimum 4 weeks paid annual leave for all full time employees, pro rated for part time employees, casual contractors get an annual leave element added to their pay. Enlightened labour practices tells us that worker performance and job satisfaction is substantially better when workers get time off without having to sacrifice financially and that for the most part the benefits outweigh the costs.

 

5

It's funny--I just took my GRE--and the writing section was on something like this. Needless to say, I feel on your side of the argument (and I'm American). Weeks of paid vacation should be required by law.

As to video gaming--I'm liking Deus Ex Human Revolution, though something about it reminds me of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines. That was a great game too--but it was SO 2005.

I'm trying out ARK, and it's okay, but it hasn't grabbed me like other survival sims like the Forest.

And I'm really into the whole 2d resurgence. Ori and the Blind Forest I've loved for a couple of years now, I couldn't get into Shovel Knight (wasn't worth 15.99 to me), Rogue Legacy was PHENOMENAL!, and then you have games like Valdis Story, Momodora, Apotheon (awesome game, check it out for sho), Oniken, Strider, and Super Cyborg. It's like I'm 10 again.

Oh, and I REALLY want to play my copy of Pillars of Eternity but I have to wait like 6 more days until the full release. I don't want to start my early access copy--I hear those files won't carry over.

[MisterOJ]

7 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

I'm trying out ARK, and it's okay, but it hasn't grabbed me like other survival sims like the Forest.

Ark kept my interest for about a week or so. I'm hoping that it gets better when it is a fully realized game.

[Fez]

Ended up playing a few hours of TW: Warhammer. It seems fun, but quite a bit harder than I remember these games being. I've only played the original Medieval and Rome ones though, and those were a while ago. Its mostly the strategic map that's tricky, balancing trying to expand while having to deal with these beastmen armies that roam with impunity is hard to do when I can only afford one full-size army. The battles themselves I'm pretty much fine with; although I feel like the heroes a little too overpowered (and its a bit silly when they rout but none of my regular soldiers do enough damage to kill them; so there's a single guy running away while a few dozen soldiers ineffectually slowly chase him).

I'm playing what seemed like most basic starting point, The Empire with Karl Franz. I've united my starting provision and I beat my first quest battle (Battle of BloodPine Woods), and my new objective is to capture six more settlements. I figured it made sense to attack Todbringer, since he attacked me in the quest battle, and I've taken one of his settlements so far; the rest seem to far from my territory to take though. Part of the issue is, I'm not sure if the game expects me to be conquering right now (which is tricky because of the aforementioned beastmen) or if I'm supposed to be diplomatically annexing the other Electors. 

I'm on friendly terms with the other three that neighbor me, with all sorts of treaties between us, but I don't know if as Emperor there's some hidden bonus to confederating I can get soon or if its just as nearly impossible to do as it currently seems.

[Corvinus85]

3 minutes ago, Fez said:

Ended up playing a few hours of TW: Warhammer. It seems fun, but quite a bit harder than I remember these games being. I've only played the original Medieval and Rome ones though, and those were a while ago. Its mostly the strategic map that's tricky, balancing trying to expand while having to deal with these beastmen armies that roam with impunity is hard to do when I can only afford one full-size army. The battles themselves I'm pretty much fine with; although I feel like the heroes a little too overpowered (and its a bit silly when they rout but none of my regular soldiers do enough damage to kill them; so there's a single guy running away while a few dozen soldiers ineffectually slowly chase him).

I'm playing what seemed like most basic starting point, The Empire with Karl Franz. I've united my starting provision and I beat my first quest battle (Battle of BloodPine Woods), and my new objective is to capture six more settlements. I figured it made sense to attack Todbringer, since he attacked me in the quest battle, and I've taken one of his settlements so far; the rest seem to far from my territory to take though. Part of the issue is, I'm not sure if the game expects me to be conquering right now (which is tricky because of the aforementioned beastmen) or if I'm supposed to be diplomatically annexing the other Electors. 

I'm on friendly terms with the other three that neighbor me, with all sorts of treaties between us, but I don't know if as Emperor there's some hidden bonus to confederating I can get soon or if its just as nearly impossible to do as it currently seems.

Don't bother starting wars with other Elector-Counts. It becomes much easier to confederate once Chaos appears. And you'll probably be at war with the Vampires and Greenskins as well, so there are plenty of enemies to worry about. The only human faction I would conquer as soon as possible is Marienburg because of the rich economic bonuses that city gives you.

I can't wait for next week when Bretonnia becomes available.

[Jasta11]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Ended up playing a few hours of TW: Warhammer. It seems fun, but quite a bit harder than I remember these games being. I've only played the original Medieval and Rome ones though, and those were a while ago. Its mostly the strategic map that's tricky, balancing trying to expand while having to deal with these beastmen armies that roam with impunity is hard to do when I can only afford one full-size army. The battles themselves I'm pretty much fine with; although I feel like the heroes a little too overpowered (and its a bit silly when they rout but none of my regular soldiers do enough damage to kill them; so there's a single guy running away while a few dozen soldiers ineffectually slowly chase him).

I'm playing what seemed like most basic starting point, The Empire with Karl Franz. I've united my starting provision and I beat my first quest battle (Battle of BloodPine Woods), and my new objective is to capture six more settlements. I figured it made sense to attack Todbringer, since he attacked me in the quest battle, and I've taken one of his settlements so far; the rest seem to far from my territory to take though. Part of the issue is, I'm not sure if the game expects me to be conquering right now (which is tricky because of the aforementioned beastmen) or if I'm supposed to be diplomatically annexing the other Electors. 

I'm on friendly terms with the other three that neighbor me, with all sorts of treaties between us, but I don't know if as Emperor there's some hidden bonus to confederating I can get soon or if its just as nearly impossible to do as it currently seems.

Medieval II and Rome were extremely easy on the campaign map, I found. Even on Very Hard/Very Hard you needed to be pretty ignorant of game mechanics to not paint the world with your faction's color. The games have gotten harder from Shogun II onwards.

You can usually Confederate with a neightboor (usually the faction that owns Talabheim, which starts on friendly terms with you). After that, it's not that worth it because of the penalties. As the poster above said, when Chaos arrives (around turn 80, usually) you start to get big relationship boosts with everyone else, so it becames easy to unite the Empire.

If you need to war with a Elector Count, Marienburg is a very tempting target. Their port supplies you with very significant amounts of money something like 1500 gold per turn by its lonesome, and they tend to go around bullying other Empire factions so they're a bit of an easy target sometimes. This allows you far more leeway when it comes to keeping a standing army while also developping technologies, because you're going to need some armor-piercing units to take on Chaos. Greatswords are a bit of a must, because Chaos Warriors and Chosen will carve a bloody path through normal State Troops very, very fast. Cannons are also very useful, the AI can have a tendency to just waddle into firing range and get their most expensive units obliterated.

Personally, I'm hyped for the release of Bretonnia. Comes on the 28th, with a full army roster, 3 Legendary Lords starting in 3 different positions, unique campaign mechanics, and more chivalry than you can shake a hippogryph at. I'm probably going to play as the Fey Enchantress and eventually go on a holy Crusade to conquer half the known world. For the Lady, of course.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 Fully addicted/obsessed with Mordheim: City of the Damned. Time burner extraordinaire.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

13 hours ago, MisterOJ said:

Ark kept my interest for about a week or so. I'm hoping that it gets better when it is a fully realized game.

Yeah...it's just missing something. Have you tried the Forest? I really liked that one for about a month or two. It's like ARK, but creepier. I would wait for a sale. I think it's still in pre-release state too.

[MisterOJ]

8 hours ago, Simon Steele said:

Yeah...it's just missing something. Have you tried the Forest? I really liked that one for about a month or two. It's like ARK, but creepier. I would wait for a sale. I think it's still in pre-release state too.

I might check that out.

Are you playing Ark on single player or multi-player? I tried both, but multi-player was pretty much impossible as a new player. I thought single player was pretty fun early on, but once I advanced to the point where I needed lots of metal and couldn't harvest it easily, I lost interest in the game. Then I found out about the cheat code that would give you unlimited resources and that made the game fun again for a few more days, but blasting dinosaurs with assault rifles was only fun for so long.