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Video Games- Mess Effect: Andromeda


A True Kaniggit

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NBC Sports gonna run and broadcast a Rocket League tournament on TV. People who still have cable TV should check it out.

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NBC Sports Jumps on the Esports Bandwagon

Despite modest ratings for ESPN and TBS, the Comcast network is launching its own contest around the soccer-racing mashup “Rocket League”

Comcast Corp.’s NBC Sports plans to announce Wednesday it will televise an esports tournament later this summer, the latest broadcaster turning to competitive videogaming to grow viewership at a time when many consumers are cutting the cord.

The cable network hopes a tournament built around a popular quirky game called “Rocket League” will attract hard-to-reach viewers—particularly younger males—who increasingly are ditching cable subscriptions for live-streaming services such as Netflix Inc.

NBC Sports is investing in the low millions of dollars on the initiative, said Rob Simmelkjaer, senior vice president of NBC Sports Ventures. “We look at emerging areas of sports,” he said. “Esports has been something tough to ignore.”

This year, about 191 million people world-wide are expected to watch an esports contest at least once a month, more than double the number in 2012, according to Newzoo BV. By 2020, the research firm expects that viewership to climb to 286 million.

Most people watch online, though, and getting those viewers to find esports programming on the TV has been a challenge.

Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Time Warner Inc.’s TBS have aired esports for more than a year, to modest ratings. TBS’s Friday night show “Eleague,” for example, has averaged 256,000 viewers this year, down from 272,000 in 2016, according to Nielsen.

Spokesmen for ESPN and TBS said ratings have been in line with expectations, and that esports on TV is still relatively new. Like ESPN and TBS, NBC Sports plans to live stream its tournament online as well to reach as many viewers as possible.

ESPN and TBS say web viewership has been strong. The finale of a weeklong contest for TBS’s “Eleague” attracted more than one million concurrent streams when it aired live in January on Amazon.com’s Twitch, a record for a single channel on the video service.

TBS plans to air more esports in the fall, including a championship around a new superhero-fighting game called “Injustice 2.”

Esports could still thrive on TV if contests involving more popular games are aired, Cowen & Co. analyst Doug Creutz said. “I don’t know that we’ve had tier 1 esports events on TV yet,” he said.

NBC Sports Network is in about 85 million homes, while its regional networks span about half as many households. The network hopes to differentiate its esports broadcast from the usual shooter or war-battle games with “Rocket League,” a mashup of soccer and auto racing that was a top seller on Sony Corp.’s PlayStation store last year.

After a round of qualifiers in July, TV coverage will kick off on weekends in August on the regional networks. The tournament will conclude with a championship aired on the national network and in several countries abroad.

The network also plans to open its tournament to people of all skill levels in the U.S. and Europe, rather than just professional teams. The total prize pool is $100,000, NBC Sports said.

“We want to find new esports stars,” Mr. Simmelkjaer said. “There’s an opportunity for new people to come out of the woodwork.”

It'd be nice to think this would do well. But I just don't see how esports can attract a big enough TV audience. Gen pop simply doesn't get it. And broadcast TV is dying. And there aren't enough players with sexy 6-packs, bulging biceps or supermodel bods.

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On 20-6-2017 at 0:42 PM, Inigima said:

Tekkenchat: Dragunov is a cool guy. I started playing him on a whim last night and did better than I ever have. I have no idea why but after losing my first match I won six straight, then lost three but won all three rematches.

The other day I was playing a friend. He won a lot early on, but then we went back to back for about 10 matches. We used everything: Bryan, Master Raven, Feng, Xiaoyu, you name it.

Then he picked Dragunov and I was doomed

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On 6/17/2017 at 5:28 AM, A True Kaniggit said:

I'm just worried how the production for each country would be set up in such a game. I suppose the game could be made so that less industrialized nations at the time have a cap on what they can produce.

Edit: And screw it. HoI IV is 50% off right now. I can't help myself. France shall not fall!

How's that hearts coming? I've got an itch for it myself at this point, after watching a tutorial. I'm trying to hold out for the steam summer sale, it should be any day now.

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14 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

So it looks like there was a hotfix released last Friday that is supposed to have fixed some of the smaller complaints I had. Mainly robots being counted as slaves and the AI wasting resources by terraforming planets repeatedly. 

But the main issue I have with it right now is the AI not expanding.  Back on May 09, when the Adams update was released, there was a bug that made it so the AI couldn't declare war on anybody.  On the 16th of May there was a hotfix that was supposed to fix the issue. But I've tried a few playthroughs since then and not once has any AI empire tried to expand through war, either against me or each other. They all just colonize their immediate area then stop. I've even left myself without a fleet and they don't declare war on me. What's the point of playing if there is no risk of losing?

I'm going to start a new game now to see if the problem is fixed after this latest update. I'll let you know in a few hours.

Edit: Yeah, I'm still running into the same problem. The galaxy gets filled up and then all the AI empires just sit around looking at each other.

Wow, that's a pretty serious bug.  Thanks for letting me know. I'll definitely stay clear until they fix that.

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So now I have a decision to make

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Paradox Interactive and Obsidian Entertainment announced Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on August 29. 

Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition includes the full game and the expansions “The White March – Parts I & II.

View the announcement trailer below:

Here is an overview of the game:

Pillars of Eternity is an RPG inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s GateIcewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, which features an original world and game system that evokes and improves upon the traditional computer RPG experience. The Complete Edition, adapted for consoles by Paradox Arctic and distributed at physical retail by 505 Games, features an enhanced UI and redesigned controls to provide a superb experience on the big screen, navigated easily and intuitively using game controllers.

Key Features

  • Award-winning writing, story and artwork of Pillars of Eternity, along with the expanded world and content of The White March: Parts I & II.
  • Countless character creation options, from races and classes to character backgrounds which drive your personal story.
  • An epic universe to explore, filled with intriguing party members and companions, a variety of in-game factions, and a lovingly rendered world to traverse.
  • New UI and controls designed from the ground up, presenting the Pillars of Eternity experience like never before.

- See more at: http://www.vgchartz.com/article/268520/pillars-of-eternity-complete-edition-coming-to-ps4-xbox-one/#sthash.VPV0tTDN.dpuf

It does seem that traditional PC controls are more suited to this game. But it would be interesting to see how it controls on console. And I would get to play it on a big screen.

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18 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

How's that hearts coming? I've got an itch for it myself at this point, after watching a tutorial. I'm trying to hold out for the steam summer sale, it should be any day now.

I've had fun with it so far. It's definitely one of those games where you have to put in a ton of hours learning the minutia to even have a chance at winning. As you can imagine there is a lot of micro managing in this game, most of it revolving around building your factories and deciding what they produce for the war effort. Not to mention setting up your divisions, which took me a lot of trial and error to finally get the hang of. The Army Commands can be frustrating as well when you first start using them.

The only two countries I've tried so far are France and Germany. I began with France and was defeated by Germany at least a dozen times before I was able to beat them myself. (The only reason I beat them that one time is because the war started early, when Czechoslovakia refused to surrender in '38. I was still defeated a few years after that by the Soviet Union.

My current German game is going much better. It just turned 1944 and I've conquered France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Lithuania. I've also made alliances with Italy, Vichy France, Spain, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Currently at war with Great Britain, the Commonwealth Nations, and the USA. In December of '43 I just smashed a combined USA/British fleet in the channel (they lost 8 Battleships, 4 Carriers, 2 Heavy Cruisers, 8 Light Cruisers and 7 Destroyers. My losses were 2 Light Cruisers, 3 Destroyers, and 6 Submarines). With the channel open I'm hoping to launch an invasion of Britain before 1944 is out, as long as I can gather enough divisions without leaving the border with the Soviet Union too unprotected. They're currently invading Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, so I should be safe from an Eastern Front for a little while longer.

Edit: Blah. My invasion of Britain in 1944 was a complete failure. I sent in Rommel with 125 thousand men and 1100 tanks. All he had to do was secure one port so I could send in reinforcements. He was defeated before he was able to complete his objective, with total loss of the invasion force. My next invasion is set for 1946 and I am taking no chances. 450K men are ready and all they have to do is cut off Cornwall and starve them out until I can capture Plymouth. After Plymouth is captured Rommel can redeem himself by coming over with his army of 6,000 tanks  and driving on London.

Edit 2: New discovery for me. For sea invasions it is pretty much mandatory that you land on an enemy port with enough troops to capture it. I just tried to land 3 spaces away from a port with 450K men and attempted to advance and capture it. I am now down 450K men with nothing to show for it.

Edit 3: Thrice! Thrice has Great Britain thrown off my invasions. I'm sorry but I have no other recourse. I cannot continue to send hundreds of thousands of men and thousands of tanks into invasions that have no chance of succeeding. As soon as a few of my nukes are finished that island will be glowing in the dark.

TLDR: Don't play HoI IV if you don't like games you have to micro manage. if you have the time to put into learning the game though, then it's highly enjoyable.

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11 hours ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Wow, that's a pretty serious bug.  Thanks for letting me know. I'll definitely stay clear until they fix that.

Yeah. It sucks. But honestly, if it wasn't for this one bug, the game would be great right now. If you haven't played since Utopia came out, I'd doubt you'd recognize the game from what it was(You now start out with the ability to colonize planets, terraforming has been completely reworked, government creation is far different) . They really have made some great improvements. So I do recommend that if you enjoyed Stellaris in the past, you should play it again once this problem is fixed. They've been working on a multiplayer update for the last few weeks, and I'm pretty sure that's what's causing the delay in the base game fix. Really hoping that once they get the multiplayer patch finished, they'll go back and correct these bugs. I know they've been receiving a crap-ton of complaints about them.

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I decided to spice up my time Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines a bit and installed the Antitribu mod which switches out the original seven vampire clans to other Non-Camarilla-clans from the pen&paper game. Unfortunately while it was fun to shoot snakes a people the mod also added a lot of unnecessary combat, more enemies, seriously beefed up some of the already existing fights and made most npcs look like a bunch of goth-punk-thugs. So I ended up going back to the more normal version.

My initial idea of just doing Santa Monica and Downtown also fell through spectacularly as I just wrapped up the last of the Hollywood sidequests and now have the horrible sewer level to look forward to.

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18 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

How's that hearts coming? I've got an itch for it myself at this point, after watching a tutorial. I'm trying to hold out for the steam summer sale, it should be any day now.

Its supposedly going to start today; I think steam usually updates itself in the early afternoon (eastern time), so we'll know in a few hours.

This won't be good for my wallet or ability to complete games. I've got a lot of stuff on my wishlist I want.

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I've added a bunch of games to my wishlist lately that I haven't had time to play. This sale will likely hurt me as well. I still need to finish Persona 5 for fucks sake. 

Got distracted by WoW for some reason. Did Emerald Nightmare and Trial of Valor over the last few days. First time doing any raiding since early Cata so that was kinda cool. My DPS was trash but I didn't wipe the raid so I consider that a success. We did wipe on Cenarius a couple times but that wasn't my fault :D

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Yeah, I got Shadow Tactics when it was on sale a month ago, and I haven't touched it yet. Granted, I don't play many games in a given year, but the ones I play usually for a long time, or I keep returning to them. Currently doing another XCOM 2 play through (2nd attempt as previously my main squad got destroyed in a mission that should have been simple).

I'll look to see what the steam sale has to offer, but I don't anticipate I will buy much. For the remainder of this year, new purchases I plan are TW: Warhammer 2, and Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord (if released). Kingdom Come: Deliverance might be another one. 

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6 hours ago, Fez said:

Its supposedly going to start today; I think steam usually updates itself in the early afternoon (eastern time), so we'll know in a few hours.

This won't be good for my wallet or ability to complete games. I've got a lot of stuff on my wishlist I want.

Yeah, it's started. And the thing is broke as fuck, can't click on nothing or search. Always seems to happen during sale time.

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I picked up Firewatch and Arkham Knight for £6 each, which seemed reasonable.

Dishonored 2 has dropped almost to an acceptable price. I'll keep an eye on that. Same for Mafia III, which I want to try but not until it's under £10 (although I have to accept with this franchise they're never going to nail the amazing story and atmosphere of the first game again).

Doom is down to under a tenner. Hmm.

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Yeah, I got Shadow Tactics when it was on sale a month ago, and I haven't touched it yet

 

Legitimately the best game released in 2016, including XCOM2 (although it's not quite as replayable as XCOM 2, unless you go after the achievements, some of which I don't believe are physically possible).

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STEAM SALE!!!

So far I've picked up Shadow of Mordor, Hyperlight Drifter, Her Story, Please Don't Touch Anything, Hollow Knight, Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, Steamworld Heist, and Superhot for a total of about $100.

Highlight deal I think has to be Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition for $3.99; which just a crazy deal. I played it a bit before and didn't love it, but for only $4 I couldn't say no.

Meantime I'm still trying to play Tekken 7, Gwent, Overwatch, and I started a new playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition for some daft reason. So it'll be a while.

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2 hours ago, Fez said:

STEAM SALE!!!

So far I've picked up Shadow of Mordor, Hyperlight Drifter, Her Story, Please Don't Touch Anything, Hollow Knight, Dishonored 2, Watch Dogs 2, Steamworld Heist, and Superhot for a total of about $100.

Highlight deal I think has to be Shadow of Mordor GOTY edition for $3.99; which just a crazy deal. I played it a bit before and didn't love it, but for only $4 I couldn't say no.

Meantime I'm still trying to play Tekken 7, Gwent, Overwatch, and I started a new playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition for some daft reason. So it'll be a while.

Oof, for some reason I'm also craving a replay of Dragon Age Inquisition. I think when my girlfriend leaves town for a couple weeks that might be a good time for that...

God bless the Steam Sale. I've only picked up a few games- Stellaris: Utopia, since it does seem to have great reviews minus that big bug @A True Kaniggit mentioned, plus a few of my friends bought it as well. I also picked up Depth, which looks stupidly fun (be a shark!) and Darkest Dungeon- I'm not usually into roguelike games, but it seems pretty cool, and for $10, why not?

I definitely think Shadow of Mordor is worth it, especially for that amazing price. Parts of the game are kind of meh, like the main quest, but I had so much fun playing around with the Nemesis system and developing feuds with my orc enemies. I'm really excited for the sequel coming out later this year, which seems to be expanding on all of the cool things the first one did while getting rid of the parts that didn't work.

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56 minutes ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Oof, for some reason I'm also craving a replay of Dragon Age Inquisition. I think when my girlfriend leaves town for a couple weeks that might be a good time for that...

God bless the Steam Sale. I've only picked up a few games- Stellaris: Utopia, since it does seem to have great reviews minus that big big @A True Kaniggit mentioned, plus a few of my friends bought it as well. I also picked up Depth, which looks stupidly fun (be a shark!) and Darkest Dungeon- I'm not usually into roguelike games, but it seems pretty cool, and for $10, why not?

I definitely think Shadow of Mordor is worth it, especially for that amazing price. Parts of the game are kind of meh, like the main quest, but I had so much fun playing around with the Nemesis system and developing feuds with my orc enemies. I'm really excited for the sequel coming out later this year, which seems to be expanding on all of the cool things the first one did while getting rid of the parts that didn't work.

I played Darkest Dungeon a lot right when it first came out. Its a fun game, but the middle part is way too grindy. Apparently there's a new, shorter mode that fixes some of the issues there; I'd recommend giving that mode a shot instead.

I was 50+ hours in and only around 40% done; maybe a bit less actually. There was a mechanic (which I hadn't even got to yet) where you need to successfully run the final dungeon 3 times, and none of your characters could enter the final dungeon more than once; regardless of whether it was successful. Meaning you'd have to level up new characters over and over again. But I hadn't even gotten to the final dungeon, I was still doing the progression of the four regular dungeons.

The mechanics are fun though, the artwork is great, and the narrator is the best since at least Bastion. 

 

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Darkest Dungeon looks good, I'm tempted by that. Although I worry it'd be the sort of game I'd buy, play for 30 minutes and never touch it again.

This War of Mine is spectacularly good value for £3. And Blood Bowl II is very good value at £8.

Outside of the Steam sale, Homeworld: Cataclysm (renamed Emergence due to Blizzard thinking they own generic terms now) has finally been re-released on GoG. Heavily recommended. Go buy it. Go buy the shit out of it (and the rest of the franchise if you've never played it before).

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1 hour ago, Caligula_K3 said:

Oof, for some reason I'm also craving a replay of Dragon Age Inquisition. I think when my girlfriend leaves town for a couple weeks that might be a good time for that...

So the minute sure leaves town you're going to cheat on her with some Bioware slut!?!

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17 minutes ago, Fez said:

I played Darkest Dungeon a lot right when it first came out. Its a fun game, but the middle part is way too grindy. Apparently there's a new, shorter mode that fixes some of the issues there; I'd recommend giving that mode a shot instead.

Radiant Mode is what you are referring to.  The mode doesn't change the core challenge of Darkest Dungeon, as enemies have the same stats and skills as normal mode.  However, they made a bunch of changes to facilitate quicker playthroughs.

  • Heroes gain experience and level up quicker.
  • You can bring heroes of up to level four into level one dungeons, whereas before you were capped at level two.  This makes it easier to get through dungeons since you can anchor your party with a higher level character.
  • Upgrades are cheaper.
  • The stage coach can be upgraded so that up to level four recruits can show up there.
  • The stage coach has also been changed to give you a better variety of characters and more healers show up as well.
  • Town events trigger more frequently.
  • The amount of region XP (each time you beat a mission, it increases your level in that region, which determines when you can fight a boss) you get for each mission has been increased.
  • Heroes can re-enter the Darkest Dungeon after a successful mission, although it probably isn't a good idea and they're still almost definitely going to die of a heart attack if you bring them back in.  

So essentially Radiant Mode is the same basic game, but they've made numerous changes to help decrease the grind, especially in the late game.  A party wipe no longer sets you back hours of game time, for example, and it's cheaper to upgrade your heroes and treat their various afflictions.  

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