Video Games Thread: For the Love of Zeus, Give Me One!

[mcbigski]

Not sure how many years I've been playing civ 4, but guess who built the pyramids and spent another 500 years or so in Despotism?

[Corvinus85]

On 1/21/2016 at 7:07 PM, Werthead said:

Deserts of Kharak is pretty damn fine. The polish to the game is very impressive. As a cinematic, narrative experience it's probably a lot better than the first three Homeworld games. I was worried about the desert environment getting too samey, but 5 missions in they've done some smart stuff to vary it up (different times of day, night missions, sandstorms, rocky, mountains terrain as well as open dunes etc). I'd love to see a Dune game in this engine, actually.

The "lore-breaking" people have been whinging about is pretty well-handled. Yes, some retcons, but nothing major and nothing unprecedented for this franchise. The way they tie stuff in with the later games is also pretty well-done. Fantastic music, excellent graphics and some challenging missions.

My biggest issue is the lack of fine ground positioning controls and commands. What you have is more than adequate, but the 16-year-old Ground Control has hugely superior options for formations and facing. That's something a lot of other games, including Dawn of War and Company of Heroes (whose developers are among the Deserts of Kharak team) have had for well over a decade at this point. The camera controls are also a bit iffy. They're the same as Homeworld 2's, but what works for space doesn't necessarily work as well for the ground. Again, it works really well, but Ground Control's system was a lot better. Ironically, as GC drew some inspiration from the original Homeworld.

I agree it's a pretty good game. The Homeworld feel is there. I'm not that far into it, but the story structure seems similar to HW 1 and 2, and it's excellent.

I am not bothered much about the positioning controls, though I keep looking for formations buttons. But I see this game as Homeworld + Dune + Mad Max with those light vehicles buzzing around. And to be honest I tried Ground Control not too long ago, and I found those controls a bit too tedious and difficult to master. 

I agree about the map controls. I keep having to jump to the sensor view to find my units when I split them up. And so far I haven't made much use of "higher ground", sticking mostly to lightning attacks from multiple directions.

The carrier is no mothership, but it's still pretty cool. I like that it can take care of itself against lighter units, and the power distribution feature is a nice touch. But I have to question it's design - it surely needs another set of treads/wheels in the middle to handle the steeper slopes.

[A True Kaniggit]

Started playing Kerbal Space Program two weeks ago. May we have a moment of silence for Valentina?, who 7 hours ago burned up on reentry into the atmosphere after being the first Kerbal to make a journey to the Mun. 

[Fez]

13 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

David Gaider leaves BioWare.

Well, fuck.

This does not inspire confidence in the next Dragon Age game. I'm really hoping though that this is because he wanted to try something new or had some personal reason, and its not due to a dispute over game direction. Because if it is a dispute, its almost certainly that the studio wants to double down on the open world format over story narrative. That's not what I want out of Bioware games. And also would make me concerned that the next Mass Effect game is like that too.

 

I started the new Homeworld game too. I never played the original Homeworld games, so I'm probably not getting the full effect of the lore, but since its a prequel its been easy enough to follow the story. Its the first RTS I've played in a very long time though, and that muscle memory is mostly gone (also, the ones I played had a much heavier base building component), so I'm pretty terrible. I've beaten the first three missions on normal my first attempt, but I definitely feel like I'm losing way more units each time than I should be. I think my biggest problem is that I can't figure out how to get a group of units to all move at the speed of the slowest unit in the group. And because of that, my LAVs keep reaching enemy units well before my tanks and railguns and get shredded.

And I've started dabbling around in Warframe. I wasn't familiar with it at all before, I'd just heard a couple times that it was 'like Destiny, but better' (although that was pre-Taken King, which I gather fixed a lot of the problems). I don't have much to say yet, except that its really got a cool art style to it.

[Liffguard]

7 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Started playing Kerbal Space Program two weeks ago. May we have a moment of silence for Valentina?, who 7 hours ago burned up on reentry into the atmosphere after being the first Kerbal to make a journey to the Mun. 

WITNESS HER!

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

I started the new Homeworld game too. I never played the original Homeworld games, so I'm probably not getting the full effect of the lore, but since its a prequel its been easy enough to follow the story. Its the first RTS I've played in a very long time though, and that muscle memory is mostly gone (also, the ones I played had a much heavier base building component), so I'm pretty terrible. I've beaten the first three missions on normal my first attempt, but I definitely feel like I'm losing way more units each time than I should be. I think my biggest problem is that I can't figure out how to get a group of units to all move at the speed of the slowest unit in the group. And because of that, my LAVs keep reaching enemy units well before my tanks and railguns and get shredded.

I believe you can set units to guard other units. So you can set the LAVs to guard the heavier units, and thus move in unison. For example when a new unit is created, it goes where the carrier goes until you give it a new command.

[Melphis Amekia]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

This does not inspire confidence in the next Dragon Age game. I'm really hoping though that this is because he wanted to try something new or had some personal reason, and its not due to a dispute over game direction. Because if it is a dispute, its almost certainly that the studio wants to double down on the open world format over story narrative. That's not what I want out of Bioware games. And also would make me concerned that the next Mass Effect game is like that too.

He said it was his decision to leave. I'm also not that worried about the next Dragon Age game because Patrick Weekes took over his position and he said that he, at least, doesn't want to do more open world at the expense of the story narrative.

I am still sad that he left.

[Jon AS]

2 hours ago, Fez said:

This does not inspire confidence in the next Dragon Age game. I'm really hoping though that this is because he wanted to try something new or had some personal reason, and its not due to a dispute over game direction. Because if it is a dispute, its almost certainly that the studio wants to double down on the open world format over story narrative. That's not what I want out of Bioware games. And also would make me concerned that the next Mass Effect game is like that too.

Gaider already left the DA franchise last year and was supposedly working on a new, as yet undisclosed, IP.

[briantw]

23 hours ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

David Gaider leaves BioWare.

Well, fuck.

Not sure why this is surprising to people.  This happens every time EA buys a once-prominent developer.  The real talent slowly drains away as they get sick of working under the new EA regime and the company is eventually either shuttered or becomes irrelevant.  

[The Drunkard]

Playing the Teutonic Campaign in Medieval 2 as Denmark. Took Scandinavia, formed the union with Norway, then invaded and took all Germany and scattered parts of the Novgorod Republic (I own about 40% of the map).

But, I've taken way too long doing it, and in that time the Teutonic Order took most of the central region and owns nearly as much as I do. Now the plague has hit and is destroying my income, and the TO decided that this was the perfect time to ceasefire with Lithuania, Poland and the Mongols, and instead throw stacks and stacks of soldiers at Germany. Bastards.

Also played a Crusades campaign as Antioch, took parts of Asia Minor and pretty much everything Turkey held in the central area (they are such a paper tiger compared to Egypt), allied with the Byzantines, and I've been buying Jerusalem's cities and castles with my stupidly large income. Might try that with the Byzantines, see if I can steal the rest of Asia Minor.

[The Anti-Targ]

Oh boy, the new TV ad for the Warcraft movie is out. I am even less inclined to go to the movie now. 2016 is looking like a prolific and big spending but bad year for video game adaptations:

Ratchet and Clank.

Warcraft.

Ass Creed.

Best chance of success I think is Ratchet and Clank, because it might attract a kid audience who may know noting of the games but it's a cartoon with a cute furry talking animal and a robot. Also ratchet and Clank is the movie I'm most likely to go and see.

Back to actual video games: Has anyone won the high stakes Gwent tournament in The Withcer 3? I wish I'd made a separate game save so I could perhaps keep trying to build my deck after failing the first time and see if I can actually get a decent enough deck, and a good enough draw, to actually win. I read one online comment say that they had to reload the game 20 times in order to beat Sasha in the 3rd round. Seems like way too much hard work to do it. I should check the trophy list and see how common the trophy is achieved.

[Jace, Extat]

Hm, I didn't find the warcraft trailer too offensive. In fact, if it didn't have those ridiculous looking orcs and a groan-inducing 'we're people too!' theme I'd probably give it a shot for the sake of the sexy viking.

But it does have those ridiculous looking orcs, and I already nodded off just thinking about their plight.

I've also never played world of warcraft, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[The Anti-Targ]

9 minutes ago, Pony Queen Jace said:

Hm, I didn't find the warcraft trailer too offensive. In fact, if it didn't have those ridiculous looking orcs and a groan-inducing 'we're people too!' theme I'd probably give it a shot for the sake of the sexy viking.

But it does have those ridiculous looking orcs, and I already nodded off just thinking about their plight.

I've also never played world of warcraft, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Which of course [look like they] are the fundamental elements of the movie and the plot, hence really bad prospects.

I wish the Orcs were comical brutes, not badly misunderstood ugly things. Kinda like the trolls in The Witcher 3. I love talking to the trolls in the Witcher.

[MerenthaClone]

27 minutes ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Back to actual video games: Has anyone won the high stakes Gwent tournament in The Withcer 3? I wish I'd made a separate game save so I could perhaps keep trying to build my deck after failing the first time and see if I can actually get a decent enough deck, and a good enough draw, to actually win. I read one online comment say that they had to reload the game 20 times in order to beat Sasha in the 3rd round. Seems like way too much hard work to do it. I should check the trophy list and see how common the trophy is achieved.

Yeah, beat it in one go.  I was running a (iirc) NR deck with as many spies and decoys as possible. Since you need to beat Sasha to get the best leader card in the game hands-down, I don't think I'd switched to my grossly overpowered Nilf deck, but I might have.  Either way, you'll need a good deck, a decent draw, and to play well to beat her.  

[Reny of Storms End]

45 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

Yeah, beat it in one go.  I was running a (iirc) NR deck with as many spies and decoys as possible. Since you need to beat Sasha to get the best leader card in the game hands-down, I don't think I'd switched to my grossly overpowered Nilf deck, but I might have.  Either way, you'll need a good deck, a decent draw, and to play well to beat her.  

I used my Northern Realm deck to beat Sasha too. Really for the tournament the draw is everything (I guess the same could be said for all Gwent games, but your opponents usually don't have as good decks). It took me two tries to beat Sasha (the first time she just had seemingly endless characters with revival ability). I had maybe 98% of all cards when I did the tournament though.

ETA: It is a simple tactic, but if you have a couple spy cards and play them early you can often get the opponent to pass when they are up 11-0ish in a round. If played properly with the right cards this can leave you with 10 cards and up a round. 

 

[Lord Hanna]

1 hour ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Which of course [look like they] are the fundamental elements of the movie and the plot, hence really bad prospects.

I wish the Orcs were comical brutes, not badly misunderstood ugly things. Kinda like the trolls in The Witcher 3. I love talking to the trolls in the Witcher.

I thought i was the only one who loved the trolls. I wish we could have one as a companion haha

[MerenthaClone]

2 hours ago, Lord Hanna said:

I thought i was the only one who loved the trolls. I wish we could have one as a companion haha

Not being able to

return to the trolls that Thaler promised shoes to

was a major disappointment.  I felt like I'd taken on a contract, dammit!

Spies, Scorch, and Decoys.  Use them.  Also, it might be basic and you already know it, but you can use decoys to steal a spy that an enemy played on you and play it yourself. You can also use medics you play to revive spies that an enemy played on you.  Card advantage and time advantage are huge in Gwent, which is why Nilf is so damn powerful.  The big thing to watch out for with Sasha is, iirc, Scorch, especially if you're playing a NR deck that's pretty reliant on Bonded troops.  Not much you can do besides baiting it out.  

[The Anti-Targ]

The trolls have the most quotable quotes in the whole game. 

"Pesanters - good food. Soldierman friends - no so good. Big stew - always good." Words to live by. I never start fights with trolls, the only trolls I kill are the ones that attack me first.

[The Anti-Targ]

8 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

Not being able to

Hidden Content

was a major disappointment.  I felt like I'd taken on a contract, dammit!

Spies, Scorch, and Decoys.  Use them.  Also, it might be basic and you already know it, but you can use decoys to steal a spy that an enemy played on you and play it yourself. You can also use medics you play to revive spies that an enemy played on you.  Card advantage and time advantage are huge in Gwent, which is why Nilf is so damn powerful.  The big thing to watch out for with Sasha is, iirc, Scorch, especially if you're playing a NR deck that's pretty reliant on Bonded troops.  Not much you can do besides baiting it out.  

I was a bit foolish not realising how hard the tournament would be, so I played my somewhat not fully built Monster deck in the first round, and lost quite badly. I hadn't even got the Ciri or Geralt cards yet. I didn't realise it was a one time mission, so I thought it would be a regularly held high stakes game and so I would play with a better faction / stronger deck next time. And of course there's no next time.

[Shryke]

6 hours ago, The Anti-Targ said:

Which of course [look like they] are the fundamental elements of the movie and the plot, hence really bad prospects.

I wish the Orcs were comical brutes, not badly misunderstood ugly things. Kinda like the trolls in The Witcher 3. I love talking to the trolls in the Witcher.

That's the fundamental elements of Warcraft at this stage. Of course it's in the movie.