Video Games: Shadow of the Rise of the Live Madden War III- HD Remaster

[Argonath Diver]

Heh, ya i don't want to derail it too much from the usual chatter here, but the new league starting next weekend will see a whole lot of activity. It's both adding the usual new content, and returning two of my favoeite past league mechanisms. 

It has a steep learning curve, so I hugely advise going over to the poe subreddit, lots of great guides for new players. The game is free, but certain stash tabs make life incredibly more efficient, so about 20 bucks into it will be very, very helpful if anyone decides to stick with it. 

Torchlight and especially Grim Dawn are fun single player games, and GD has some superb endgame systems rivaling POEs complexity, but I think PoE will be atop the isometric ARPG list for the foreseeable future.

The world is an illusion, exiles!

[Werthead]

Yay. BattleTech: Flashpoint has been released. It adds a new career mode to the game which completely bypasses the storyline and allows you to start with a spaceship and crew and completely freeform the game from there. It also adds a number of mercenary mini-campaigns with multiple missions taking place one after the other, some of which require you to deploy lighter tonnage mechs. These mechanics are also available if you have completed the main game storyline and are in freeform mode already (although I suspect they may be less challenging if you have a full loadout of Assaults and LosTech mechs).

The game also adds 3 new mechs (one, the Crab, is a bit of a cheat because the King Crab was already in the base game so they just modified it), new weapons and several new map biomes, including coastal maps.

There's also two further expansions coming along. The first, which sounds like it will be CitiTech, will focus on close-quarters combat in enormous cities (rather than the small bases of the current game).

Meanwhile, Blackbird Interactive have released their Mars Base CGI proof-of-concept programme they developed with NASA. You can't do a huge amount to it, just fly the camera around a fictional Mars base using the Homeworld Engine, but it's pretty cool anyway. Also, completely free.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

9 hours ago, Ferrum Aeternum said:

Have you tried Grim Dawn or Torchlight 2? I've had a lot of fun with both. 

Reading this thread it sounds like I need to give PoE another shot...

I have tried both! I LOVE Grim Dawn. It's what got me into this genre (ARPG?). I also have Torchlight 2, but I never got into it. I should revisit. I got it for free back when GOG used to give away games.

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

The nice thing about Torchlight 1 and Torchlight 2 (apart from the musical presence of Diablo 1 and 2's Matt Uelmen) is that it is incredibly mod-friendly. Runic Games had opened the game to modding and fan creations. Torchlight, on the whole, is more cartoony and casual, but it is fun in how it captures the spirit of Diablo gameplay much better than Diablo 3 did.

I have been meaning to try Grim Dawn and Path of Exile.

[Rhom]

1 hour ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

The nice thing about Torchlight 1 and Torchlight 2 (apart from the musical presence of Diablo 1 and 2's Matt Uelmen) is that it is incredibly mod-friendly. Runic Games had opened the game to modding and fan creations. Torchlight, on the whole, is more cartoony and casual, but it is fun in how it captures the spirit of Diablo gameplay much better than Diablo 3 did.

I have been meaning to try Grim Dawn and Path of Exile.

I really liked both Torchilight games.  I haven't really tried any of the mods for them though.  What sorts of stuff can they do?

[Matrim Fox Cauthon]

19 minutes ago, Rhom said:

I really liked both Torchilight games.  I haven't really tried any of the mods for them though.  What sorts of stuff can they do?

Harder difficulties. More maps. More classes. Free respecs and restats. New character and pet skin options. New weapon types, items, sockets, recipes, etc. Turning off loot below a certain rarity. And the list goes on.

[GallowKnight]

2 hours ago, Matrim Fox Cauthon said:

The nice thing about Torchlight 1 and Torchlight 2 (apart from the musical presence of Diablo 1 and 2's Matt Uelmen) is that it is incredibly mod-friendly. Runic Games had opened the game to modding and fan creations. Torchlight, on the whole, is more cartoony and casual, but it is fun in how it captures the spirit of Diablo gameplay much better than Diablo 3 did.

I have been meaning to try Grim Dawn and Path of Exile.

And the pets are amazing.

[The Anti-Targ]

Things are heating up on the lootbox / gambling mini-game practices being put under the regulatory microscope. 

[A True Kaniggit]

Funny Crusader Kings II story.

As the king of Lukania I was fighting to keep the Abbasids from retaking Antioch. During a major battle I was nearly captured, but I convinced the person who defeated me to take the Duke of Epirus captive instead.

Two years later the war is over and the Duke of Epirus ransoms himself free. What's the first thing he does? He seduces my wife and gets her pregnant.

This guy fucked my wife 

 

[Jon AS]

Flashpoint really adds a lot to the general gameplay of Battletech. The Flashpoints themselves are much more fun than run-of-the-mill procedurally generated missions, plus you can now get lostech rewards (including at least a Star League Griffin) outside of story missions. I even got a unique frankenmech variant of the Crab as a Flashpoint reward, that's pretty cool. I wonder if there's more of these sprinkled throughout the various missions.

The new 'mechs they added are interesting. The 10-Z variant of the Cyclops sports a unique equipment item, a specialised battlecomputer, that bumps all the 'mechs in your lance to a higher initiative tier. Really powerful, though of course the Cyclops is otherwise a rather underwhelming machine, as in the table top game. It's simply a fast assault 'mech, meaning it doesn't have much space for arms and armour. Still, I'm bringing mine along for every mission because the battlecomputer is just too damn useful.

The Hatchetman is tons of fun. I've switched the AC/10 in mine for an AC/5 and used the weight saved to add armour and an arm mod for additional melee damage. Not much else you can do with the 'mech to be honest: it only has three hardpoints, it's very focused on its defining characteristic. But it certainly does excel at that one thing: its melee damage is that of a 'mech twice its size.

The Crab gives us a reliable 50 tonner that's faster than the Hunchback/Enforcer/Centurion. This would probably be more useful in a new game rather than one where heavies and assaults dominate as they do in the post-campaign game.

On 11/27/2018 at 11:56 PM, Werthead said:

The game also adds 3 new mechs (one, the Crab, is a bit of a cheat because the King Crab was already in the base game so they just modified it), new weapons and several new map biomes, including coastal maps. 

The Crab and King Crab are actually two completely different machines. Different look, different weight class, different loadout, different role. It's not a Dragon/Grand Dragon type situation.

[Werthead]

Not only did Half-Life turn 20 a few weeks ago, but Thief: The Dark Project turns 20 today. 

 

Quote

 

The Crab and King Crab are actually two completely different machines. Different look, different weight class, different loadout, different role. It's not a Dragon/Grand Dragon type situation.

 

 

I haven't had a chance to use either in battle yet so I'll take your word on that one, but they do look pretty similar.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

On 11/28/2018 at 4:40 PM, The Anti-Targ said:

Things are heating up on the lootbox / gambling mini-game practices being put under the regulatory microscope. 

This reminds me of a podcast I was listening to recently. They were talking about the Double Dragon series, and how Double Dragon 3, when it hit the arcade, had this shop you could go into and with real quarters, you could purchase things to help you beat the game. I shouldn't be surprised that microtransctions are so old. Honestly, arcades were based on microtransactions, and it kind of seems like gaming companies have been looking to get that model back ever since the arcades died.

Reminds me of Noah's Arcade from Wayne's World.

[kuenjato]

Wondering if yall could help me out...

I snagged one of the PS4 trims with spiderman for $199 on Black Friday. This is my first gaming console since the PS2 and I haven't played any games from 2006 (Final Fantasy XII). Some basic research generated the "best of" the kind of games I like and/or seem like must-buys, so I blew another $100 for five games. I haven't even cracked the machine out of the box yet, because I'm in the final stages of buying a house and will be purchasing a 55 or 65 inch TV once that's finished -- about two weeks away. 

Problem is, I need advice on what to play first, because every game looks sweet, many have 100 hours + content, and I won't be playing more than an hour a day on average (with work, kids, and other creative projects and other media consumption, like books). I'm not sure where to start, and it's kinda driving me crazy, because I want to start them all.

The games:

God of War ($17 at Gamestop!)

Nier Automata

The Witcher 3

Grand Theft Auto V

Horizon Zero Dawn

 

[Werthead]

13 minutes ago, kuenjato said:

Wondering if yall could help me out...

I snagged one of the PS4 trims with spiderman for $199 on Black Friday. This is my first gaming console since the PS2 and I haven't played any games from 2006 (Final Fantasy XII). Some basic research generated the "best of" the kind of games I like and/or seem like must-buys, so I blew another $100 for five games. I haven't even cracked the machine out of the box yet, because I'm in the final stages of buying a house and will be purchasing a 55 or 65 inch TV once that's finished -- about two weeks away. 

Problem is, I need advice on what to play first, because every game looks sweet, many have 100 hours + content, and I won't be playing more than an hour a day on average (with work, kids, and other creative projects and other media consumption, like books). I'm not sure where to start, and it's kinda driving me crazy, because I want to start them all.

The games:

God of War ($17 at Gamestop!)

Nier Automata

The Witcher 3

Grand Theft Auto V

Horizon Zero Dawn

The Witcher 3 is probably the best of those games but also the biggest and longest (by far). God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn are excellent and somewhat shorter, although neither are very short. Nier Automata is also excellent (from what I've seen) and I believe the shortest and most focused of the games, though someone may be able to speak more to that.

GTA5 is a fair amount of fun and probably the most disposable of the games there, in that you can drop in, play a few missions and drop out or just cruise around and do side-content like races or whatever.

[Ramsay B.]

^^^^ I’d say start with God of War since you don’t have too much time to play each day(I’ve never played Nier). The Witcher and Horizon take some time to get used to everything. You can’t really go wrong with any of them though. 

ETA: Agree that The Witcher 3 is the best of the bunch.

[Werthead]

The next Dragon Age is being announced in a few days, which should be interesting. Dragon Age: Origins was okay-to-decent, Dragon Age 2 was good when you knew the absolute shitstorm EA put BioWare through to make it (but kind of a failure on several key levels) and Dragon Age: Inquisition was a steaming pile of horseshit (although again EA made BioWare do utterly insane things to make the game).

Unless EA have completely stopped interfering with BioWare and just let them make DA4 the way they want to make it with no creative interference, I see very little chance of it being any good. I'd probably be happier with them staking the franchise (if not BioWare altogether) through the heart at this point and walking away.

The fact BioWare are confirming that more Dragon Age is coming before Anthem even comes out doesn't seem like a great vote of confidence in that game either, shades of Bethesda making sure people knew they were still making Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI before announcing and releasing Fallout 76, as if they knew it was going to be unpopular.

[briantw]

39 minutes ago, Werthead said:

The fact BioWare are confirming that more Dragon Age is coming before Anthem even comes out doesn't seem like a great vote of confidence in that game either, shades of Bethesda making sure people knew they were still making Starfield and Elder Scrolls VI before announcing and releasing Fallout 76, as if they knew it was going to be unpopular.

Anthem has an upcoming alpha test and you have to sign a fucking NDA to participate.  Not exactly a huge vote of confidence for a game that's supposed to be coming out in three months.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

The Witcher 3 is probably the best of those games but also the biggest and longest (by far). God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn are excellent and somewhat shorter, although neither are very short. Nier Automata is also excellent (from what I've seen) and I believe the shortest and most focused of the games, though someone may be able to speak more to that.

GTA5 is a fair amount of fun and probably the most disposable of the games there, in that you can drop in, play a few missions and drop out or just cruise around and do side-content like races or whatever.

I love Witcher 3 and Zero Dawn. I think Zero Dawn might be the most accessible early on. As for Nier...people love it. I'd recommend saving that for last as it is very unaccessible, to be honest. I play a lot of games, and I got super frustrated with it when I realized the first "save"/checkpoint wasn't for almost an hour into the game--and it's incredibly difficult up to that point. I want to go back and give it a try, but the cutscenes are unskippable, if I remember correctly, and you have to sit through the same stuff again and again. I read that this opening portion is the worst of it, but still, hell of a way to start a game.

2 hours ago, kuenjato said:

Wondering if yall could help me out...

I snagged one of the PS4 trims with spiderman for $199 on Black Friday. This is my first gaming console since the PS2 and I haven't played any games from 2006 (Final Fantasy XII). Some basic research generated the "best of" the kind of games I like and/or seem like must-buys, so I blew another $100 for five games. I haven't even cracked the machine out of the box yet, because I'm in the final stages of buying a house and will be purchasing a 55 or 65 inch TV once that's finished -- about two weeks away. 

Problem is, I need advice on what to play first, because every game looks sweet, many have 100 hours + content, and I won't be playing more than an hour a day on average (with work, kids, and other creative projects and other media consumption, like books). I'm not sure where to start, and it's kinda driving me crazy, because I want to start them all.

The games:

God of War ($17 at Gamestop!)

Nier Automata

The Witcher 3

Grand Theft Auto V

Horizon Zero Dawn

 

Aside from what I noted above, I don't have much opinion on the rest. I'm not too into Grand Theft Auto, but it's considered one of the best. I don't like God of War--the previous entries--so I never tried the new one. But people love that one too. I think the Witcher 3 is about the best game ever created.

[kuenjato]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

I love Witcher 3 and Zero Dawn. I think Zero Dawn might be the most accessible early on. As for Nier...people love it. I'd recommend saving that for last as it is very unaccessible, to be honest. I play a lot of games, and I got super frustrated with it when I realized the first "save"/checkpoint wasn't for almost an hour into the game--and it's incredibly difficult up to that point. I want to go back and give it a try, but the cutscenes are unskippable, if I remember correctly, and you have to sit through the same stuff again and again. I read that this opening portion is the worst of it, but still, hell of a way to start a game.

Aside from what I noted above, I don't have much opinion on the rest. I'm not too into Grand Theft Auto, but it's considered one of the best. I don't like God of War--the previous entries--so I never tried the new one. But people love that one too. I think the Witcher 3 is about the best game ever created.

thanks guys, this was all very helpful. My concern was 1) comparative analysis ( which mean Witcher should go last, as it has the best story) and 2) rusty gaming skill -- the last button masher/fight simulator I played was the original Devil May Cry. From the feedback, it sounds like God of War and Horizon Zero are good ways to relearn gameplaying, and eventually transfer those skills to Nier (which I wanted to play first because it's so frantic and intense, but... probably not a good idea.)

[Werthead]

8 hours ago, kuenjato said:

thanks guys, this was all very helpful. My concern was 1) comparative analysis ( which mean Witcher should go last, as it has the best story) and 2) rusty gaming skill -- the last button masher/fight simulator I played was the original Devil May Cry. From the feedback, it sounds like God of War and Horizon Zero are good ways to relearn gameplaying, and eventually transfer those skills to Nier (which I wanted to play first because it's so frantic and intense, but... probably not a good idea.)

The Witcher 3's difficulty level is highly scaleable: on the easiest difficulty level combat is fairly trivial and it's almost a "story mode", whilst on the hardest it's a very complex game of tactics so you can adjust it as you go.