Video Games: Fantasy's Final '16

[Ded As Ned]

47 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I don't  understand why it has to be any more difficult than the Miis that Nintendo brought in with the Wii.  Make a little avatar.  Link gaming records to it and go on!

Right? It's not a difficult concept.  I struggle with the same on Android... my first gripe with that OS it would be SO SIMPLE to add a setting that requires a password for ANY download (including free ones), but alas there's a wealth of money being made on kids downloading anything and everything the ads point them to.  About once a month I have to go through their tablets and clean off all the garbage they've downloaded, and I'm terrified of them getting malware that steals MY important info that is also linked to the same google account.  Then for the games that are online (Boom Beach, Pokemon Go, etc.) they can't both play because both devices are linked to my account, so the same game basically appears on all devices.  If I create separate accounts for them then they lose all the purchased content that is linked to my google account.  You'd think somebody would have found a way to solve this problem and still make money.

[Ded As Ned]

Back on topic, picked up Star Wars Battlefront and Rayman Legends as the last games for the kiddos.  Plus I think all of us will enjoy SWB.  Kudos to Rayman for having no update/download needed before playing!  That's a first

[Fez]

How does Shadow Tactics compare to Satellite Reign (a game I thought was solid, but not amazing)?

[Werthead]

On 18/12/2016 at 0:54 PM, Fez said:

How does Shadow Tactics compare to Satellite Reign (a game I thought was solid, but not amazing)?

Far superior. There are some similarities, but Shadow Tactics takes the ideas a lot further with far more emphasis on stealth and remaining concealed. There are a few options for dealing with mass combat, but you certainly can't complete the game by wandering into compounds weapons blazing like you could in Satellite Reign.

[Inigima]

I'm late with these comments and it might be too late, but I really hated Ni No Kuni, which was a big disappointment as I was expecting to love it. It's gorgeous, no doubt, but it's gratingly twee, obnoxiously grindy, and holy hell is it slow. It takes so long for anything to happen I just gave up. It never did grab me.

[Corvinus85]

Finished my campaign with Clan Angrund in TW: Warhammer. I elected to stop at the short campaign goals. At the end, things were starting to fall apart a bit, because two of my oldest allies, the Wood Elves and the Empire decided to go to war with each other and I hate to break my alliance with both. I really wish diplomacy in TW games was more complex, like have a feature where you can be an intermediary between two warring factions that you are friends with.

Started a campaign with the Wood Elves, and I happen to be at war with Angrund now. I'm not really fond of the feature that allows the elves to conquer any city, but it can only be used as an outpost, because they only really care about the Amber. To be successful in this campaign, you have to be an asshole to the Estalians and the Tileans, because capturing all those coastal cities gets you a lot of money. 

[KiDisaster]

14 hours ago, Inigima said:

I'm late with these comments and it might be too late, but I really hated Ni No Kuni, which was a big disappointment as I was expecting to love it. It's gorgeous, no doubt, but it's gratingly twee, obnoxiously grindy, and holy hell is it slow. It takes so long for anything to happen I just gave up. It never did grab me.

I didn't really enjoy it either because I found it holds your hand way too much and never really let me play the game myself, but it's for kids so I can't really hold that against it too much. Can't speak on the slow/grindy nature of it as I bailed on it after 6 or 7 hours. 

I think little kids will love it though. 

---

Overwatch & Hearthstone continue to consume my life. 

[MerenthaClone]

1 hour ago, Corvinus said:

Started a campaign with the Wood Elves, and I happen to be at war with Angrund now. I'm not really fond of the feature that allows the elves to conquer any city, but it can only be used as an outpost, because they only really care about the Amber. To be successful in this campaign, you have to be an asshole to the Estalians and the Tileans, because capturing all those coastal cities gets you a lot of money. 

Have you tried purging the Norscans yet?  Spreading Sacrificial Grounds everywhere gives you a +1% damage buff to all forces per territory and your troops can be immune to attrition either with Durthu's army or a relatively mid-level research.  You can essentially turn into a horde army at will:  Need replenishment?  Conquer a territory and place some Waystones.  Want to recruit and don't have money for some reason?  Worldroots.  Lose an area?  Who cares as long as you give yourself a little Amber buffer. Killing Estalia and Tilea is a good start, but after that, I really do recommend launching a naval invasion of the north as soon as you secure the rest of Athel Loren (either by conquest or by confederation).  Wood Elves are insanely good.  

[Corvinus85]

5 minutes ago, MerenthaClone said:

Have you tried purging the Norscans yet?  Spreading Sacrificial Grounds everywhere gives you a +1% damage buff to all forces per territory and your troops can be immune to attrition either with Durthu's army or a relatively mid-level research.  You can essentially turn into a horde army at will:  Need replenishment?  Conquer a territory and place some Waystones.  Want to recruit and don't have money for some reason?  Worldroots.  Lose an area?  Who cares as long as you give yourself a little Amber buffer. Killing Estalia and Tilea is a good start, but after that, I really do recommend launching a naval invasion of the north as soon as you secure the rest of Athel Loren (either by conquest or by confederation).  Wood Elves are insanely good.  

Hmm, I'll have to try that. In my Angrund campaign, I did notice Orion going all the way to where hell freezes over, so the AI was doing it right. But I haven't developed the Oak yet to be able to confederate, it's on the way. Something weird happened for a turn. I had 2 Amber, then the message popped up that Chaos was stirring, then suddenly I had 11 Amber, so I took advantage of that and started building the next level of the Oak, and researched one of those things that cost Amber, and then the next turn I was at -4 Amber. Bug or automatic Amber boost because of the Chaos message?

[briantw]

On 12/18/2016 at 7:54 AM, Fez said:

How does Shadow Tactics compare to Satellite Reign (a game I thought was solid, but not amazing)?

I'd recommend downloading the free demo for Shadow Tactics.  It gives you the Prologue and then ten minutes of the first mission.  That was enough to sell me on the game.

[MerenthaClone]

4 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Hmm, I'll have to try that. In my Angrund campaign, I did notice Orion going all the way to where hell freezes over, so the AI was doing it right. But I haven't developed the Oak yet to be able to confederate, it's on the way. Something weird happened for a turn. I had 2 Amber, then the message popped up that Chaos was stirring, then suddenly I had 11 Amber, so I took advantage of that and started building the next level of the Oak, and researched one of those things that cost Amber, and then the next turn I was at -4 Amber. Bug or automatic Amber boost because of the Chaos message?

Sounds like a bug honestly.  Did one of your allies get confederated?  And one of the reasons to pick on the Norscans is that suddenly everyone loves you so its really, really easy to get military alliances for all their sweet Amber, too.  Quickest long victory was my Wood Elf campaign and I putzed around for awhile too.  

[Suzanna Stormborn]

Final Fantasy XV is the best game ever, I love it!

[Jasta11]

FInished DOOM. Loved it from start to finish. The final boss is a bit on the easy side, but that's not a big deal. Some of the final rooms you fight in can get pretty damn crazy, throwing more than a dozen demons at you simultaneously, half of them heavy hitters such as Mancubus or Barons of Hell. Fortunately, my friend the BFG 9000 was there watching my back.

I'm now playing World of Warcraft a bit still (we finally finished the Trial of Valor raid on Heroic, literally a day before it gets hit with the nerfbat) and having fun. I'm mostly on autopilot until the Nighthold raid releases. Raiding is the one reason I actually play this game.

And aside from that, I decided to dip back into my all time favorite Bioware RPG: Dragon Age Origins. I have the Ultimate edition, installed a handful of mods, and fired up a game as a female elven mage, which I'll make into my first Blood Mage. I play her as kind of a dick but not overly so, and I'm at Lothering already. I think I'll (eventually) take her through the whole deal; the main game, Awakening, Golems of Amgarrak and Witch Hunt. We'll see.

[A True Kaniggit]

Going for the achievement in Stellaris where you have to kill every other species in the galaxy, and I just feel terrible. (Humanity was the first to go). 

Edit: Blah. A significant percentage of the Pure have started striking every time I try to exterminate a species. Why can't they understand that the galaxy must be cleansed of the alien scum?

[KiDisaster]

Last night I lived the Hearthstone Shadow Priest dream. I had played Raza The Chained and Shadow Form and I actually got a Coldarra Drake off of a Kabal Courier. After playing the Drake and wishing my opponent a Happy Feast of Winterveil he indicated his astonishment and then conceded. 

It's all downhill from here. I have used up all my luck. 

[Fez]

Steam winter sale has started. I haven't looked into what deals I like yet, but there's good chance I'm going to get too many games from my wishlist, even though my 'want to finish' pile is embarrassing large as is (and we'll not speak of my 'need to finish' pile at all).

Including Shadow Tactics, which I picked up last week. I've finished the first five maps, and that's a hell of a game. I also can't even imagine being able to complete some of the optional challenges on those maps. My only complaint is that I wish the game did more with its characters. It's managed to make all 5 of them interesting using relatively little dialogue and they've got shockingly good voice acting for what seems like a fairly small-budget game; but I feel like there's a lot of stuff being skipped that'd be nice to see. The gameplay itself is very strong though, and satisfying challenging.

[Sivin]

32 minutes ago, Fez said:

Steam winter sale has started. I haven't looked into what deals I like yet, but there's good chance I'm going to get too many games from my wishlist, even though my 'want to finish' pile is embarrassing large as is (and we'll not speak of my 'need to finish' pile at all).

Including Shadow Tactics, which I picked up last week. I've finished the first five maps, and that's a hell of a game. I also can't even imagine being able to complete some of the optional challenges on those maps. My only complaint is that I wish the game did more with its characters. It's managed to make all 5 of them interesting using relatively little dialogue and they've got shockingly good voice acting for what seems like a fairly small-budget game; but I feel like there's a lot of stuff being skipped that'd be nice to see. The gameplay itself is very strong though, and satisfying challenging.

Now that I'm newly unemployed I am thinking about getting back into a bit of computer gaming and my friends want me to play GTA V with them, could you tell me if it's on sale? It crashed for me due to heavy traffic and I am walking out the door for a job interview.

[KiDisaster]

Actually managed an 11 win Arena tonight, which is the first good run I've had in a looong time. 

Fel Reaver is a stupid card and I will never draft it again. Lost me my final game. I was so close to going all the way. 

[Werthead]

Quote

Including Shadow Tactics, which I picked up last week. I've finished the first five maps, and that's a hell of a game. I also can't even imagine being able to complete some of the optional challenges on those maps. My only complaint is that I wish the game did more with its characters. It's managed to make all 5 of them interesting using relatively little dialogue and they've got shockingly good voice acting for what seems like a fairly small-budget game; but I feel like there's a lot of stuff being skipped that'd be nice to see. The gameplay itself is very strong though, and satisfying challenging.

Wait until you see some of the later maps. Some of them I spent just 10 minutes looking at the opening layout and going, "This is impossible." But gradually you then find ways of cracking open the map. The final mission in particular is flat-out insane.

The characterisation is excellent. They couldn't afford flashy cut scenes (although the marketing CGI scenes which aren't in the game itself are really good) so they had to go with the voice acting, which is remarkable in both Japanese and the English translation. My only complaint is that some of the English actors have adopted Japanese accents and some haven't. The Cockney-sounding samurai guards are a bit random.

 

[briantw]

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

Wait until you see some of the later maps. Some of them I spent just 10 minutes looking at the opening layout and going, "This is impossible." But gradually you then find ways of cracking open the map. The final mission in particular is flat-out insane.

The characterisation is excellent. They couldn't afford flashy cut scenes (although the marketing CGI scenes which aren't in the game itself are really good) so they had to go with the voice acting, which is remarkable in both Japanese and the English translation. My only complaint is that some of the English actors have adopted Japanese accents and some haven't. The Cockney-sounding samurai guards are a bit random.

It's really weird how four of the main characters have Japanese accents and Yuki has a British one for no apparent reason.  

Still, hard to complain about the quality of the voice acting.  It's on par with the acting in any AAA game, accents be damned.