Video Games: A (Sonic 3D) Blast From The Past

[Whiskeyjack]

I liked the trailer a good amount.

Wasn't tied into Joel and Ellie in any obvious way (though I know there are theories out there), but liked the tone it set.  Dark, tense action.  Works for me.

[Kalbear]

Ooh, WoW is going to be doing official classic servers. Neat.

[KiDisaster]

Lots of cool announcements this year. New OW healer was badly needed and Moira looks awesome, so does the new map. I like the D&D theme for the HS expac (Matthew Mercer singing the trailer was cool), plus the new single player mode. 

It's about time WoW got back to the Alliance & Horde being proper enemies too IMO. Been tiptoeing around it for ages now. 

[Werthead]

Finished Wolfenstein: The New Order. Very pleasantly surprised. It was more like the Half-Life/BioShock school of FPS, with a good story, excellent atmosphere and great characters. They also do not water down the Nazis, sending you into a concentration camp at one point for a moment of real, utter horror. I was expecting something cheesy and disposable, and the game was actually pretty great. I'd be tempted to pick up the sequel, but alas funds currently prevent it.

I'm going to have another go at Total Warhammer. My first campaign ended in apathy, but I think that was because I was playing as the Empire. Will try the Dwarves, as they seem more hardcore.

[Jace, Extat]

1 minute ago, Werthead said:

Finished Wolfenstein: The New Order. Very pleasantly surprised. It was more like the Half-Life/BioShock school of FPS, with a good story, excellent atmosphere and great characters. They also do not water down the Nazis, sending you into a concentration camp at one point for a moment of real, utter horror. I was expecting something cheesy and disposable, and the game was actually pretty great. I'd be tempted to pick up the sequel, but alas funds currently prevent it.

I'm going to have another go at Total Warhammer. My first campaign ended in apathy, but I think that was because I was playing as the Empire. Will try the Dwarves, as they seem more hardcore.

I bought the Wolfenstein when it came out but never beat it. I've bought it used at gamestop now to do so and then go on to the sequel.

The anti-Nazi advertising campaign reignited my interest.

[Jace, Extat]

Bumpin' old school with some Skyrim. Modded as fuck of course, but first time I'll have dove deep into a campaign in years.

[The Anti-Targ]

Playing Uncharted the Lost Legacy at the moment. Gameplay-wise it's basically Nate Drake with a female skin. But the story is very personal to Chloe and I think Chloe and Nadine make a good pairing.

The game takes place after the events of Uncharted 4. I haven't finished so I don't know where the game leaves Nadine, but there kind of is a story there to tell for Nadine if Naughty Dog was so inclined and wanted to keep making games in the Uncharted world without using Nate and the gang.

I would like Naughty Dog to make an Elena Fisher game that pre-dates Drake's Fortune, along the lines of a Beyond Good and Evil style, with adventure rather than action.

[AndrewJ]

On 11/3/2017 at 9:00 AM, Pony Queen Jace said:

But yeah, if you're not looking for that I suggest the play station. Just a better console with better exclusives.

For another day or two. Then it becomes a significantly inferior console with better exclusives. (There's no arguing with the better exclusives)

[The Drunkard]

CK2: Started a game as Duke Vratislav of Bohemia, vassal to the Holy Roman Emperor. Vratislav avoided any wars of expansion and instead schemed his dynasty into positions of power. His second son Boleslav became heir to Poland after Boleslaw the Bold lost several children under mysterious circumstances, and Boleslav's wife Zsofia became heir to Hungary in a similar fashion (incidentally, Vratislav would cuckold his son with Zsofia, leading to a lifelong rivalry between the pair). Vratislav married his many daughters into other European royal families, giving him alliances with the kingdoms of England, France, Croatia and Sweden. When the Emperor of the HRE was tied down with several revolts, Vratislav declared independence and called his royal allies into the war. Together they forced the Emperor to accept Vratislav's demands, who, now independent, declared himself King of Bohemia. King Vratislav would later be stabbed to death in his bedroom, and the killer was never discovered [I imagine the most likely candidates were King Boleslav of Poland, still angry over his cuckolding, or his elder brother Bretislav, who was disinherited by Vratislav so that the kingdoms of Poland and Bohemia would be united].

King Boleslav, who came to be known as 'the Wise', was now ruler of both Bohemia and Poland, and his (hated) wife Zsofia was Queen of Hungary. His reign was mostly spend fighting pagans in the Baltics, crusading against infidels in the Middle East and propping up Zsofia in Hungary. Coincidentally he and his heir Chval also came to hate each other after campaigning together in Jerusalem and disagreeing over the proper motivation. He would live to an old age and eventually succumb to infirmity, relying on Chval to be his regent, before dying in his sleep.

King Chval, after Zsofia's death, was now ruler of all three eastern kingdoms, a giant buffer state against the pagans. Over the course of his reign he would expand over Wallachia to the south, Pomerania to the north and several duchies to his east. He later declared himself Emperor of Carpathia, and established vassal kings in Poland, Hungary, Wallachia and Pomeria, though the former two kingdoms would be wracked by internal wars as different dukes tried to take control of the kingdom. Emperor Chval now awaits a second crusade for Jerusalem, where his significant forces should give him the edge over the Egyptian Caliph. 

[Corvinus85]

@Pony Queen Jace @Werthead @Slurktan @The Drunkard

CA has released an ominous image as a youtube clip, showing Rome II, with the title Is This the End of the Empire?

So I think we can firmly say that the expansion for the older game they were talking about is for Rome II. And based on the title I will guess it's going to be during the time of the Roman Empire, hopefully the Year of the Four Emperors, or another crisis period when more than one guy was fighting the title.

[Eggegg]

17 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

@Pony Queen Jace @Werthead @Slurktan @The Drunkard

CA has released an ominous image as a youtube clip, showing Rome II, with the title Is This the End of the Empire?

So I think we can firmly say that the expansion for the older game they were talking about is for Rome II. And based on the title I will guess it's going to be during the time of the Roman Empire, hopefully the Year of the Four Emperors, or another crisis period when more than one guy was fighting the title.

Isn't there already a 4 Emperors campaign in the game?

I cannot think what era they will aim at. They have covered most of the major ones. There is also Age of Charlemagne which is a bit later on. Unless it is some sort of Early medieval era using the same engine. I just hope it doesn't go any earlier than Rome.

[Corvinus85]

Just now, Eggegg said:

Isn't there already a 4 Emperors campaign in the game?

I cannot think what era they will aim at. They have covered most of the major ones. There is also Age of Charlemagne which is a bit later on. Unless it is some sort of Early medieval era using the same engine. I just hope it doesn't go any earlier than Rome.

No, they covered the era in the Emperor Edition, of the 2nd Triumvirate, with Octavian, Mark Anthony, and Lepidus. I'm thinking this will be sometime in the 3rd century.

[Eggegg]

4 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

No, they covered the era in the Emperor Edition, of the 2nd Triumvirate, with Octavian, Mark Anthony, and Lepidus. I'm thinking this will be sometime in the 3rd century.

Ah ok. Either way I would hope that they retrofit all the changes they made in Attilla and put them into the original game, like family tree etc.

[Werthead]

That's a bit boring, it would have been good if they'd revisited and fixed Empire. I'm not sure what more Rome II needs.

[Jace, Extat]

57 minutes ago, Eggegg said:

Ah ok. Either way I would hope that they retrofit all the changes they made in Attilla and put them into the original game, like family tree etc.

Agre3d. Rome II has the worst campaign interface in the series.

[Eggegg]

34 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Agre3d. Rome II has the worst campaign interface in the series.

Yep, so many bad design decisions were made there. I get the idea of the iconography for building tiles but it doesn't feel right in the game. They fixed almost everything in Attila which was good, but it means I can't go back to Rome II without hating it.

 

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

That's a bit boring, it would have been good if they'd revisited and fixed Empire. I'm not sure what more Rome II needs.

Empire was SO close to being incredible. The scope is awesome and the ideas behind it work really well sometimes. But at the same time its fatally flawed when it comes to AI and some of its logic. I used Darthmod to fix a lot of the issues but still I'm sad it was never totally improved.

[Werthead]

6 hours into a Dwarves campaign on Total Warhammer and I'm still not feeling it. I've put thousands of hours into Medieval I and II and Rome I (plus mods) and loved those games, but the Warscape Total Wars really don't gel with me. I think it's the very fast, arcadey feel of the battles, which just feels off, but I enjoyed Shogun 2 and even Rome II (well, more or less) more than Warhammer. It just feels very micro-management focused and too much emphasis on the heroes over the rest of the army. And I've never been a fan of the "you can only have an army if you have a general" paradigm they introduced with Rome II. I get they tried to take away the busywork from the game, but it ends up with you having quite an impressive and substantial empire but you only have one army because you've only got one decent lord, which is weird.

I'm determined to crack on with this campaign to try to finally nail it though.

[Eggegg]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

6 hours into a Dwarves campaign on Total Warhammer and I'm still not feeling it. I've put thousands of hours into Medieval I and II and Rome I (plus mods) and loved those games, but the Warscape Total Wars really don't gel with me. I think it's the very fast, arcadey feel of the battles, which just feels off, but I enjoyed Shogun 2 and even Rome II (well, more or less) more than Warhammer. It just feels very micro-management focused and too much emphasis on the heroes over the rest of the army. And I've never been a fan of the "you can only have an army if you have a general" paradigm they introduced with Rome II. I get they tried to take away the busywork from the game, but it ends up with you having quite an impressive and substantial empire but you only have one army because you've only got one decent army, which is weird.

I'm determined to crack on with this campaign to try to finally nail it though.

I think the dwarves are simply the most boring faction. Their battle style is so simple, just turtle up and bombard the approaching enemy. Plus their campaign is pretty dull with no really different mechanics.

id suggest playing another faction. I really enjoyed empire as it’s got some diplomacy, you have to deal with enemies on all sides and they have a really interesting roster. 

I was initially sceptical of warhammer as well , didn’t think I’d like its siliness. But actually I now prefer it. I realised how boring most battles in Rome 2 were. So many identikit spear units marching into each other and very little in the way of tactics.

id stick with it, warhammer is probably the best total war game ever , with the most scope as well 

[Tongue Stuck to Wall]

 

On 11/4/2017 at 3:04 AM, Kalbear said:

Ooh, WoW is going to be doing official classic servers. Neat.

Hey Kalbear, are you currently subbed?  If not, would you resub for access to the legacy server(s)?  I've been playing since Vanilla and am completely stoked.  I miss how dangerous the world used to feel and grinding for rep, weapon skill improvement, and even cash, etc., never felt that onerous, but rather challenging and rewarding.

[Werthead]

3 hours ago, Eggegg said:

I think the dwarves are simply the most boring faction. Their battle style is so simple, just turtle up and bombard the approaching enemy. Plus their campaign is pretty dull with no really different mechanics.

id suggest playing another faction. I really enjoyed empire as it’s got some diplomacy, you have to deal with enemies on all sides and they have a really interesting roster. 

I was initially sceptical of warhammer as well , didn’t think I’d like its siliness. But actually I now prefer it. I realised how boring most battles in Rome 2 were. So many identikit spear units marching into each other and very little in the way of tactics.

id stick with it, warhammer is probably the best total war game ever , with the most scope as well 

I  played the Empire first time round, didn't think much of them either.

I think it's less the setting and fantasy aspects and more just how they've streamlined things since older games. Not having to bother garrisoning towns because soldiers magically spring out of the woodwork, not having to send diplomats to seek out new factions, you can just ring them up (or something), stuff like that. I do like armies being able to recruit and replenish on the move through friendly territory, that's a good improvement, but everything else feels overly simplified (apart from the lords, who now require insane micro-management instead).