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Video Games - Legendary Edition


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13 minutes ago, Toth said:

What is with Dawn of War (except III) and Battlefleet Gothic Armada?

I'd count Dawn of War I under the "etc." as another decently average game; I thought II was pretty bad, and never played III but heard bad things. I did not like B:GA at all; but for those that do, would you call it anything above average?

The best Warhammer games by far are the Total War ones and the Vermintide ones, and those are all fantasy. Hopefully whenever Darktide comes out, it'll match the Vermintide quality. But even those are only good games, there's no masterpieces. Still, I'm perfectly fine with good games.

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4 minutes ago, Fez said:

I'd count Dawn of War I under the "etc." as another decently average game; I thought II was pretty bad, and never played III but heard bad things. I did not like B:GA at all; but for those that do, would you call it anything above average?

How the critics can diverge.^^ I found the first Dawn of War rather average as well, but found II fantastic. I really loved the role-playing aspects, kitting out your squads, watch them level up and become damn near unstoppable murder-machines that you can believably imagine to disrupt a Tyranid invasion hard enough to buy time for reinforcements. The campaign was great! Chaos Rising was interesting from a lore POV since it's the only one that seriously deals with the eccentricities of the Blood Ravens, while Retribution was excessively lazy in how every faction plays through the exact same story missions, but was still great from a gameplay perspective.

BGA is a rather strange case. I liked the first game, the atmosphere and the gameplay nails the setting, but after beating the campaign I found the skirmish battles getting boring after a while due to the lack of factions. So a very good C+ there? BGA II I haven't played yet, but watched a few reviews and it sure looks pretty great and able to address all the issues I had with the first one thanks to its bigger roster, much more fluid campaign while retaining the same gameplay.

Oh yeah, Blood Bowl also exists. It's literally just a board game though, which is pretty fun, but I never managed to finish a season with my Orc team...

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8 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

It’s amazing how many bad and low quality Warhammer games exist out there.

Ive heard Blood Bowl is good. I used to love the GW game, but never played it.

The problem is that GW offers their license very easily, so tons of tiny studios take it and pump out bad cash-grab games; which works too often because of how fanatically loyal most Warhammer fans are to the IP (and how desperate they are for a good video game).

But none of the AAA or high quality indie studios take the license, because they'd rather own/produce their own IP. Warhammer isn't like Star Wars or MLB, where the IP is so valuable that's its worth making a game for even though its not profitable for them. However, that may change soon. Warhammer's exploded in popularity the past few years; and Games Workshop's annual revenue reached 269.7 million pounds in 2020 (https://investor.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2019-20-Annual-Report-FINAL-with-cover.pdf), up from 118 million in 2016. I wouldn't be surprised if someone does take a swing at an AAA 40K game in the next few years

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21 hours ago, Jon AS said:

Yeah, only a few are really challenging with endgame 'mechs (and then the challenge usually comes from the game not letting you field an entire assault lance for that particular flashpoint) and if I were to do them again I'd definitely go for career mode. Every time I've started such a game my interest ran out after a handful of missions, though.

I might give it another shot, since I've also lost interest in the games I've been playing these past few months anyway.

I really thought the game did keep the spirit of the original tabletop.  However, I gave up on it after maxing out with Heavies and it started to get a bit repetitive.  I really wish they had added more of a strategic layer.  Perhaps something to do with the extra suboptimal mechs you scrap together along the way.   Would be nice if you could hold bases (if not planets) with those spares.   It would allow for more variety of play since we arent likely to ever fight a battle with a lance of light mechs with the way the game progresses. (with the exception of a couple of those escort missions)

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Dawn of War was a very decent game, but I think it got a lot of praise for its at-the-time original mechanics. The strategic point resource generation system was seen as pretty revolutionary (although it was derived from Total Annihilation's mechanic, but it was done in more depth), as was the use of cover in an RTS, and the animations were a huge amount of fun. The problem is that Company of Heroes two years later improved on everything DoW did (in a different setting, obviously), so unless you were crazy into the 40K theme, that was the better game to play. DoW also had a big problem in that the Space Marine faction were way, way too weedy and didn't feel very satisfying to play (the Imperial Guard in the Winter Assault expansion were just as capable, which was absurd).

Dawn of War II is a good game but it's almost a completely different genre to DoW1. It's much more of an action game, more like Diablo than an RTS, with no base building and minimal resource generation, and I know a lot of people vehemently hated it for both that and the increased focus on looting, which didn't feel very Space Marine-ey. It did certainly make your Space Marines feel like unstoppable titans of destruction though, and it had a better story.

Dawn of War III isn't a bad game at all, but it was an attempt to combine the two genres, so you have a return of some RTS mechanics but also the retained focus on heroes and looting, so it didn't really satisfy either camp. But for a story-based WH40K strategy game, it's fine. If you can get it cheap in a sale, it's reasonable.

I thought Battlefleet Gothic Armada was fine, but I played it shortly before BSG: Deadlock came out and Deadlock was the superior game on every single level (from combat to boarding to fighter/capital ship engagements and especially to actually having 3D movement in space, with BGA did not have) and left Armada in the dust. Again, unless you're massively wedded to the theme, there's not much point to playing it.

Blood Bowl II is a really fun game, but there's not a huge amount to it in terms of depth. Blood Bowl III is out soon, but I haven't seen what they're changing to make it a worthwhile purchase.

A lot of the more recent games have a problem of their reach exceeding their budget. Sanctus Reach had a lot of potential - it's probably the closest game to ever actually replicating the TT game on a PC - but the zero-budget graphics and UI made it very tedious to play, which is a shame because it had a lot of potential.

The newer Space Hulk games have all been at least decent, though I haven't tried the newest one yet. 

Quote

I really thought the game did keep the spirit of the original tabletop.  However, I gave up on it after maxing out with Heavies and it started to get a bit repetitive.  I really wish they had added more of a strategic layer.  Perhaps something to do with the extra suboptimal mechs you scrap together along the way.   Would be nice if you could hold bases (if not planets) with those spares.   It would allow for more variety of play since we arent likely to ever fight a battle with a lance of light mechs with the way the game progresses. (with the exception of a couple of those escort missions)

The Flashpoint DLC did some stuff with that. They introduced time-sensitive missions so if you rocked up with four Assaults, you were not going to get the mission done in time. You needed four Lights (or maybe you could just scrape it with some of the fastest Mediums).

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15 hours ago, Ran said:

@Clueless Northman

That game you're describing is a MUD, which has automated enemies ("mobs") and that sort of XP-based advancement.

There's quite a few Tolkien MUDs around still, but if I had a guess it was The Two Towers, also called T2T, one of the oldest still around since it was started in 1994 (Elendor dates from 1992). I know Mordor was T2T's lawless PVP area, although no doubt other Tolkien-based MUDs did similar things.

Oh, that was it, thank you. Sorry about my confusion. It's the "MU" part that got me first, and then the choice of races seemed quite similar.

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The CK3 RPS campaign has gone proper bananas. I'm very impressed by how the game adapted to the writer's decision to just break it and it's still trucking on. France is a no-holds-barred total nightmare state of incessant warfare, and because the late Emperor Gigaknight made cannibalism legal, defeated enemies are not being treated with honour as so much being digested instead.

The player switched to playing Gigaknight's youngest son, Duke Dukeroonie, which resulted in pure chaos because Dukeroonie was boning his older half-brother, King Sausage-and-Chips of France's wife, so was running around like a lunatic proving his loyalty to his brother to ascend the courtly ranks (to stand a good chance of inheriting) without giving away his unfaithfulness, which of course did not endure (somewhere in the middle of this, France had become known as "Fightworld" as well).

Very few things have made me want to play the game as much as this.

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Yeah, the first article about GigaKnight inspired me to get back CK3. I started as a custom ruler in the Duchy of Holland in the earlier start time and now about 90 years late I have a very respectable independent Frisia Kingdom. I'm trying to actually play somewhat tall for once and there's actually a decent balance of power right now in the region between me and 5 or 6 other kingdoms in the region. Sweden is kind of a super power, and I've had to assassinate multiple kings to stop them from snowballing. At one point they conquered Denmark and were awfully close to creating the Scandinavia Empire. Which would've been cool to see, except they conquered most of northern East Francia and were a threat on my borders. So murder time to break things up.

The one blemish on the campaign is that the Pope lost his lands to one of the North African kings and has been landless for decades now. And the problem is that (to my understanding) the crusade AI is pegged to the pope's primary army. No pope land means no primary army means the AI crusader armies do literally nothing meaning that there have now been 3 crusades to Jerusalem that have all done literally nothing and been automatically lost when the ticking warscore hits -100%. 

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Alien: Isolation free on the Epic Game Store.

Possibly the best horror video game of all time, certainly the best Aliens video game of all time and possibly the best entry to the Aliens franchise full stop after the first two films.

It does outstay it's welcome but until it hits that point it's absolutely fantastic.

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On 4/22/2021 at 7:47 AM, Werthead said:

Blood Bowl II is a really fun game, but there's not a huge amount to it in terms of depth. Blood Bowl III is out soon, but I haven't seen what they're changing to make it a worthwhile purchase.

I have played a quite lot of Blood Bowl II and really like it. I think there is plenty of depth given the number different teams and the sheer randomness that can create so many completely unique games. It is only worth it for the multiplayer aspect and one of the big problems is that the main world wide league can be filled with completely caustic people who can be either completely vile or completely sullen. If you start winning there is a good chance your opponent will just go awol while leaving the game running, meaning you have to wait out each of their 2-3 minute turns. I only play in more invitational leagues now where people know each other a bit better and are MUCH friendlier.

It can be a very frustrating game, It's D6 based and even with re-rolls plus multi dice weighting the odds you can get some really one side games. The whole game is about risk/reward judgments, you just have to accept that sometimes, no matter how well you play, you are going to lose.

On blood bowl 3, I had a look at the table top rules and am a bit sceptical. The other problem is that the next video game will probably ship with only 10-12 of the teams with the others being added via dlc which is really annoying. I will probably just keep playing BB2 as long as there are still plenty of players.

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30 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

While I was without a TV I started another Tomb Raider play through on Steam.  I have a TV again now but I can't stop playing Tomb Raider so my couch will have to wait.

You know... you can stream Steam to your TV.  Blew my mind when I found out!

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13 minutes ago, Rhom said:

You know... you can stream Steam to your TV.  Blew my mind when I found out!

I admit the idea unsettles me.  Also I have the game on the console already and it would be redundant.  I do dislike playing while sitting in this chair, though.  Maybe I'll try it.  

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11 minutes ago, Inkdaub said:

I admit the idea unsettles me.  Also I have the game on the console already and it would be redundant.  I do dislike playing while sitting in this chair, though.  Maybe I'll try it.  

Worked better than I expected it to honestly.

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Well that's it for that Stellaris run. I was doing really well, I thought. Obliterated the Great Khan and his people. Had started Death Staring my neighbors because who has time for that "land armies" shit. I was even standing up to my fallen empire neighbor when they demanded things. Then they awoke and I prooobably should have immediately stopped my wars to refocus on containing them. I had 700+ fleet power with one of the edicts active and was feeling pretty unstoppable. 

They just cut right through my fleets. I guess cause their tech was so much higher even though I'd researched just about everything outside of engineering and the special things like the matter decompressor and dyson sphere. All that repeating "+5% energy weapon damage" makes a difference. I should probably also learn to use the ship builder but I never have bothered. 

Anyway I didn't notice any issues with the pops. My empire was still able to grow though I did use a lot of robots and Awoken. I don't think they fixed the AI though. LIke the Great Khan was an idiot for attacking me. 

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Started a new Stellaris game with the Nemesis expansion.  Small galaxy, 6 AI, 2 fallen empire and 1 maurader.  Playing a fanatic militartist xenophobe dictatorship because I figured I d go for the dissection achievement.

So dissection went well, and managed to block off that empire (also xenophobe and militarist so def got of on wrong foot to be friends.  Oh well its a big galaxy) with a one system choke point.  Got an event that gave me a scientist who let me the third level of sensors.

So I find that just beyond the Ether Drake and main mining drone system, its Determined Exterminators.  Ok probably not making friends with them either, but they re blocked off for now too.

Eventually make contact with another empire across from the first but they act like assholes too.  At least they get ground down slowly in a war with the dissected and keep them of my back.

So then the Found the Galactic Council or whatever thing comes up and I figure i should vote yes to find a friend somewhere.  That fails.

Next empire to make contact is a fanatical purifier.  At least they are bordering on the Dissected and can keep them busy.

At about this point, the Caravaneers get destroyed.  Hardly knew you.

Then get contacted by a pacifist spiritual megacorp.  The rest of the galaxy is chock full of assholes but they don't like me either.  Good luck with branch offices on a machine world bro.

Then the Racket dudes get destroyed.  I mean those guys are annoying but can be helpful.

So I finally punch into the Exterminators and come to find out theyve been blocking of a second set of fanatical purifiers.

The world is a mess and i just need to rule it.  If ever a galaxy deserved the new You Become the Crisis perk, it's this one...

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