Videogames : Cyberpunk Samurai edition.

[The Anti-Targ]

4 hours ago, Slurktan said:

So I'm not a Warhammer person tabletop or book wise and it took me a long time to try it out but I'm really liking Total War Warhammer 2.  Caught it on steam sale in November with the first one and all the important DLC and I'm quite enjoying it.  I wasn't at first, Tyrion is boring as shit, I somehow get wrecked as Mazdamundi early and never tried again, the Empire is way too easy (and I'm garbage at the game) same with the Norsca.  Then I found my beloved Kroq Gar.  Yes his campaign is easy but my God the Lizardmen are fun once they get rolling.  I loved having 5-6 of the big dinos with laser guns on their backs with a whole bunch of Saurus infantry to guard them and then 3 of the dread saurians and Kroq Gar rampaging amok.  Still I'm not very good and almost lost the final battle to fix the macguffin thing but it was fun.  Tried Khatep next and the tomb kings are fun, certainly a different style but I got swamped by the Dark Elves.   So not sure what to do next.

I like the Vortex map a lot more than the Mortal Empires one, as North and South America and Africa are too squished on the latter but I don't like the rushed campaign.  I wish I could do mortal empires style on that map but alas.

Again having no idea on the lore I assume Warhammer 3 will add Russia/China/Japan/Australia to the ME?  Are there any other funky races to be added or just variations on ones therein already?

I know why I've never gotten into warhammer tabletop though, my God the names are fucking stupid. I won't ever touch the Greenskin faction because everything they have is stupidly named.  I won't play broody edgelord Malus Darkblade or the worst of the lot TiqTaqTo. (Whomever thought that was a good idea should have their hands broken).  How people read books and such with these idiotic names is beyond me. 

I love playing Skaven, especially now that they added ratling guns and jezzails. They have such a fun ranged game, but they can also pound up close when combining death runners and rat ogres.

I like playing as the Wood Elves, because they also have a good ranged game as well has having some hard hitting glass cannon melee units. But their campaign mechanic with amber is rubbish and needs a serious overhaul. Plus they need a new legendary lord with a new starting locations.

Bretonnia are fun with cavalry running all over the map, and with great flying cav units.

Orcs and goblins are stupid fun.

Yes, I do think Kislev (Russia) and Cathay (generic Asian) will be in TWW3. I don't think there's an Australia equivalent, at least not culturally. But maybe there is an equivalent landmass.

[Heartofice]

Warhammer 3 is hopefully, almost certainly a Chaos themed game. Chaos was severely underwhelming in W1 and I was hoping for a lot more god themed armies. I’m sure we will get that along with Ogres and Chaos Dwarves

[Toth]

Tiny addition to yesterday's post: https://s19.directupload.net/images/200204/ogzhel8c.jpg

I continued my little trip late into the evening and one of the undiscovered systems I found actually contained two clouds of different types of these. In a way that is exactly the kind of exploration thing I expected, but on the other hand... they are just kind of there, giving you 50.000 credits for scanning them.

[Proudfeet]

2 hours ago, red snow said:

There's also the crazy incentives for "exclusive" content that you can only get when pre-ordering. I'm not sure how many people fall for that but the ridiculous prices probably help offset the limited number of buyers. Assassin's creed odyssey is a good example.

I think that most of them also include a small discount to sweeten it. If you're going to buy it on release anyway, you might as well pre-order it.

18 hours ago, Fez said:

I think the thing people really need to do is: STOP PRE-ORDERING GAMES!!! Until that happens, and publishers no longer have guaranteed revenue regardless of what the finished product looks like, there won't be enough incentive to actually deliver on promises.

The decision to pre-order or not isn't going to change much if you're buying the game anyway. Someone has to buy and play the game in the first place before you know its shit. Reviewers who have access to the game before release might be inclined to paper over flaws and reviewers aren't omnipotent playtesters either.

Games open for pre-order are also going to be released on that date because it is already over their internal threshold of readiness. Unless you're talking about crowdfunded games, pre-orders usually open less than a month before release. It's basically functional* at that point. If they don't deliver on promises, its not a showstopping feature for them that can force the deadline to be extended. Or they are dead broke and need the cash urgently. 

 

*Functional being that the game can be run. Does not include smooth running, being bug free or feature completeness.

[Corvinus85]

On 2/3/2020 at 11:30 PM, Slurktan said:

So I'm not a Warhammer person tabletop or book wise and it took me a long time to try it out but I'm really liking Total War Warhammer 2.  Caught it on steam sale in November with the first one and all the important DLC and I'm quite enjoying it.  I wasn't at first, Tyrion is boring as shit, I somehow get wrecked as Mazdamundi early and never tried again, the Empire is way too easy (and I'm garbage at the game) same with the Norsca.  Then I found my beloved Kroq Gar.  Yes his campaign is easy but my God the Lizardmen are fun once they get rolling.  I loved having 5-6 of the big dinos with laser guns on their backs with a whole bunch of Saurus infantry to guard them and then 3 of the dread saurians and Kroq Gar rampaging amok.  Still I'm not very good and almost lost the final battle to fix the macguffin thing but it was fun.  Tried Khatep next and the tomb kings are fun, certainly a different style but I got swamped by the Dark Elves.   So not sure what to do next.

I like the Vortex map a lot more than the Mortal Empires one, as North and South America and Africa are too squished on the latter but I don't like the rushed campaign.  I wish I could do mortal empires style on that map but alas.

Again having no idea on the lore I assume Warhammer 3 will add Russia/China/Japan/Australia to the ME?  Are there any other funky races to be added or just variations on ones therein already?

I know why I've never gotten into warhammer tabletop though, my God the names are fucking stupid. I won't ever touch the Greenskin faction because everything they have is stupidly named.  I won't play broody edgelord Malus Darkblade or the worst of the lot TiqTaqTo. (Whomever thought that was a good idea should have their hands broken).  How people read books and such with these idiotic names is beyond me. 

How dare you mock the name of the Lord of the Skies, the mighty X's and O's.  I actually did a campaign with Tiktaq'to. Smashed the Tomb Kings from the skies, since the AI sucks at bringing many missile units.

Also, names like Belegar Ironhammer, Balthazar Ghelt, Alastar the White Lion, come on, how can you not want to play with such badasses.

For Warhammer 3 it is expected/hoped that Kislev will get its proper development, as they have their own unique culture, and don't look like the Empire. For that matter Tilea and Estalia should also be more unique, but they rely heavily on mercenaries, the Dogs of War as they're called.

Other factions for WH3: Chaos Dwarfs, Chaos Demons, ie the proper evil forces of Chaos, and the Ogre Kingdoms. I believe there are also nomadic Greenskins. Cathay is some empire in the far east (inspired by ancient China), but Games Workshop never developed it. Though that might not stop CA, since the Vampire Coast wasn't much of a faction either, and look what they did.

Personally, I hope they finally bring in naval battles. Some of the factions, like the Vampire Coast, the Norscans, and the Dark Elves could really benefit from being able to field actual navies.

[Werthead]

Started Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden, a very solid stealth-XCOM hybrid. Very solid but quite tough. Enjoyable so far.

[Werthead]

Mutant Year Zero is reminding me massively of the Freedom Force duology: a rich RPG-style world but not enough resources to make a proper RPG, so they made an action game with strong RPG elements instead. Actually a very good balance when they get it right, as these guys have done.

[Slurktan]

So I decided to play Wood Elves in WH2.  Really enjoying their minimal micromanaging style.  Blow shit up, plant a seed and forget about it.  The Beastman invasions keep you on your toes too, well at least the first part,  Now I've confederated the rest of the Elves in that area I can just plant an army near the Oak and have no worries.  Got all of Spain and Italy and Greece equivilents under my control and allied with the Empire which got me a whopping 43 amber currently.  Haven't decided yet if I want to make friends for the 75 or what not for Oak level 5 or just conquer everything.  I wanted to go get the WE settlement in the EMpire but they had conquered it already.  I suppose I'll go check out the one in the Desert.

[The Winged Shadow]

Playing some Phoenix Point at the moment. Few things are a lot better than XCOM, I feel.

I am enjoying the world map gameplay, feels like I have something to do in between important events like the Haven defense. The faction/diplomacy gameplay is nice, I like that you can raid certain factions to steal items/research (although I am playing as the nice guy who isn't picking sides...yet).  The little dialogue options and consequences are not too bad either. 

I am really enjoying the combat. I really like being able to zoom and have that control over shots (and getting a better visual representation of potential misses and whether I want to take that chance).  I like that you can better utilize your action points (AP) with moving and attacking in whatever order you choose. Gives A LOT of flexibility, probably my favorite change (compared to XCOM) at the moment.

The Scarab tank is excellent, I really feel like its worth the 3 squad slot. It takes a lot of punishment as well as protect your troops. It also allows better troop rotation with injured soldiers early game when the squad is a bit thin. Currently I am cheesing it with Scarab + 3 Assaults, where I charge with the Scarab, disembark each of the assault (takes 2 AP), shoot whoever is in line of sight (2AP) then get back in the Scarab (0 AP!!). Also, no turn timer! I really hated the timers on XCOM.

The combat doesn't feel as dangerous as XCOM did, as even early game you can lose troops if you get caught without cover. I got caught a few times without cover and managed to survive the attacks. In XCOM, i'd be dead for sure. I am still pretty early game and most people seems to be complaining that it gets super hard mid/late game due to scaling issues. More you fight, the more they mutate and get stronger quicker etc. So it's almost like they discourage you to fight in a weird way.

[Werthead]

I liked Phoenix Point but it did feel a bit weird as far as advancement goes. You have very little control over things like new soldier recruitment (and when they are available, they are punishingly expensive) and the game's systematic approach, whilst great in some areas, can be brutal. I had to abandon my first run because I'd been getting very little resources and new enemy types appeared that I simply couldn't defeat.

Overall, solid but somewhat disappointing. For all their own flaws, I found both XCOM: Enemy Within and War of the Chosen to be superior experiences. I will go back to Phoenix Point at some point, but it was a bit underwhelming.

[Centrist Simon Steele]

Anyone like Saints Row? I just got the 3rd one for 2ish bucks (greenmangaming). Someone said it's a fun timewaster to blow off steam, and most of what I play are in depth rpgs--games hard to play in small doses, which is all I can do right now (coursework and teaching). What do you guys think about Saints Row? 

I think a building simulator might be fun too. I really enjoyed single player mode on the Conan Exiles game. I found that a lot of fun and stress relieving. I liked building, taming, etc. Any ideas in that area? Something I can do single player and play at my leisure?

[Toth]

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

Anyone like Saints Row? I just got the 3rd one for 2ish bucks (greenmangaming). Someone said it's a fun timewaster to blow off steam, and most of what I play are in depth rpgs--games hard to play in small doses, which is all I can do right now (coursework and teaching). What do you guys think about Saints Row? 

I have Saints Row 2 and couldn't get anything done because of the atrocious controls that prevented me from driving anywhere without crashing all the time. So... No idea...

1 hour ago, Simon Steele said:

I think a building simulator might be fun too. I really enjoyed single player mode on the Conan Exiles game. I found that a lot of fun and stress relieving. I liked building, taming, etc. Any ideas in that area? Something I can do single player and play at my leisure?

With building simulators you mean city sims? As someone who loves strategy games ever since I was a preschooler (The Settlers 3 was my very first videogame), this would right up my alley I guess. Or do you mean survival games similar to Conan Exiles? If you mean that, I can't help you much.

The best city builder around would be Cities Skylines, though it is purely a city management sim. Not sure about the taming aspect there.

Other than that the Tropico series might be really cool for you. There you play a dictator of a tiny banana republic building a prosperous island paradise, usually just starting with a bunch of shacks, by exploiting all of your island's natural resources or have it overrun by tourists. It allows quite a lot of freedom and still has a plethora of missions with challenging objectives to keep you busy for a long time. It also doesn't really matter which one you buy, from Tropico 3 onwards they are all the same. XD

From the same developers there is also Surviving Mars where I had recounted my playthrough extensively here. If you want to tame nature, it can't get any more adventurous than taming Mars and turning it into a green planet. It is quite a lot of fun, but the replay value is not as big as with Tropico since the basic goals in Surviving Mars stay the same, you can only make your starting conditions harder.

If you don't care for the age of the game I can also recommend my personal all-time classics. First there definitely has to be Stronghold/Stronghold Crusader. A castle sim where you have to juggle both simple production chains to keep your peasants fed and your armies armed as well as plan the defenses of your castle itself through placing walls, towers, gatehouses and a plethora of traps. I always found it super relaxing to build my own dream castle. The two games have the same gameplay, though aside the setting there are a few differences in game modes. Stronghold has a story campaign and overall prettier castles, Stronghold Crusader has a skirmish mode where several castles of opposing teams are built on one map.

And of course, given my own background: The Settlers IV. There are a few graphics glitches on modern systems, but nothing I found too distracting. In The Settlers you are in command of your little tribe of cutesy cartoon people and have to set up production chains and conquer resources, with wars usually being decided more by how well-oiled your economy is rather than military cunning. Its biggest novelty (at its time) was the indirect way of how you play. Basically you just decide where buildings are going to be built and... well, that's it, basically. Then you watch your little settlers go to work. I guess I liked Tropico and Surviving Mars so much because they play eerily similar, only lacking the combat aspect.

I am myself eyeing Frostpunk quite a bit, it being a survival city sim where you have to fight off an apocalyptic cold. Not sure whether that is relaxing though.^^

[Leofric]

Another building/survival game I enjoyed was Dawn of Man, starting in the Stone age facing mammoths and sabertooths while hunting and gathering.  Then evolving through early farming, domesticating animals, improving technology all the way through the Iron Age.

[Corvinus85]

2 hours ago, Toth said:

I am myself eyeing Frostpunk quite a bit, it being a survival city sim where you have to fight off an apocalyptic cold. Not sure whether that is relaxing though.^^

Perfect game to play in winter. 

[Toth]

5 minutes ago, Corvinus said:

Perfect game to play in winter. 

What is winter? >.<

[RumHam]

5 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Perfect game to play in winter. 

Steam tells me I put 8 hours into Frostpunk, it was fun I failed and I moved on. 

I dunno about the best game to play in winter. But since we're talking about Frostpunk I'm gonna assume we're talking about games that lean into the cold, white blanket of isolation from wider society that is winter above the 49th parallel . 

If so I gotta campaign for The Long Dark. A few years ago someone on this board turned me on to it with their story of survival in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash.  It is an amazing sandbox game. I've never touched the story mode. 

[The Winged Shadow]

14 hours ago, Werthead said:

I liked Phoenix Point but it did feel a bit weird as far as advancement goes. You have very little control over things like new soldier recruitment (and when they are available, they are punishingly expensive) and the game's systematic approach, whilst great in some areas, can be brutal. I had to abandon my first run because I'd been getting very little resources and new enemy types appeared that I simply couldn't defeat.

Overall, solid but somewhat disappointing. For all their own flaws, I found both XCOM: Enemy Within and War of the Chosen to be superior experiences. I will go back to Phoenix Point at some point, but it was a bit underwhelming.

I think I haven't hit this point yet (I've just encountered Siren who was bloody tough). I've always managed to scrape around enough resources (been trading food for materials) and only now have two 6-member team (including the 3-slot scarab). But it has taken a while. I feel like i am limited by the bases in that i can't explore too far out without needing to go back to heal and restore stamina (cause i keep getting ambushed!).

I do agree that recruitment seems to be brutal. Elite ones cost almost 1000 food! WTF! Which is why i think the Scarab is a must early on. Helps with rotation of injured squad mates while still allowing you to explore after a few hours rest/repair.

I kinda cheated in that I read about the game beforehand and the consensus seems to be "don't to scavenging missions" as it speeds up the scaling of enemies while not providing enough resources to make up for it. It does mean you're a bit more scrapped for resources, but so far i haven't had big issues since i make excess food and trade it for other resources. But based on the latest enemy spawns (heavily armored and high health pool), I think i might be hitting the point you've described above. But we will see!

 

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, RumHam said:

Steam tells me I put 8 hours into Frostpunk, it was fun I failed and I moved on. 

I dunno about the best game to play in winter. But since we're talking about Frostpunk I'm gonna assume we're talking about games that lean into the cold, white blanket of isolation from wider society that is winter above the 49th parallel . 

If so I gotta campaign for The Long Dark. A few years ago someone on this board turned me on to it with their story of survival in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash.  It is an amazing sandbox game. I've never touched the story mode. 

Never played it. But there were moments when I played Frostpunk, and started feeling chilly.  And the beautiful, but sad music.

[Toth]

Meanwhile on Magia Record the Valentine's Event started and even though I have yet to play it, I can't help but feel amused by the fact that it exists in the first place. For those unaware: Madoka Magica is an Anime series that tells a relentlessly grim tragedy. Magia Record is a jarringly softer spin-off mobile game where characters never feel in danger at all. But then for the Valentine's Event of all things they invited one of the people involved in the original Anime. The result: A significantly darker Valentine's Event featering the first (and possibly only) on-screen death. Not so happy Valentine's, I guess?

[Werthead]

Finished Mutant Year Zero and enjoyed it enough to roll immediately into the expansion, Seeds of Evil and it's also very solid.

Interestingly, the developers' next game Corruption 2039 is out in about a fortnight, which is very impressive, given that Seeds of Evil only came out a few months ago. They're a new-ish developer but they have some form, with a lot of the team having previously worked on the Hitman games (which, although fairly different in tone, do have a similar systems-first approach).

 

Quote

 

Steam tells me I put 8 hours into Frostpunk, it was fun I failed and I moved on. 

 

Bah, failing is all part of the fun. Frostpunk is basically a roguelike city builder (FTL meets Cities Skylines), which is an interesting hybrid. Like the best roguelikes, Frostpunk is short (so failure isn't a major issue as it means replaying like 2-3 hours maximum rather than 20 or something) and its systems are pretty straightforward, so you always know why you failed and how to correct that next time.

That said, the Fall of Winterhome DLC can go burn in a fire. As far as I can tell, it's borderline impossible unless your luck plays out in a certain way.