Videogames: Spooktober Season

[Corvinus85]

1 hour ago, Werthead said:

 

Check out the same developer's last game, Northgard. It's literally a 4X RTS and is very good.

It's...hard to explain. You build military units and workers like in an RTS and can move them around explored areas of the map, but you can only support x number of workers in a tile (each map is divided into tiles like a 4X). To open up a new tile, you have to send in an explorer unit. One it's opened, your troops and workers can enter and do normal RTS stuff. Each tile has a limited number of resource and build slots, so you can't build willy-nilly all over the place and you can't go berserk tasking 50 workers on gold or something, like you can in an RTS.

It's an interesting approach and it works quite well, one you get into the headspace.

Also it has a winter season where you need to worry about having enough food. I expect this Dune game would have a similar mechanic where you have to worry about filling the spice quota. That being, I hope the game looks less cartoonish than Northgard.

[Werthead]

9 minutes ago, Corvinus85 said:

Also it has a winter season where you need to worry about having enough food. I expect this Dune game would have a similar mechanic where you have to worry about filling the spice quota. That being, I hope the game looks less cartoonish than Northgard.

That's true or there could be a sandstorm mechanic that shuts down production for a time.

[Werthead]

Looking at the other game announcements, Alan Wake 2 is potentially exciting. I really enjoyed the original, weird though it was, and how it tied into Control. I'm hoping the sequel will allow Alan to get back to the real world, as I must admit the dream-world-only DLCs and expansion were pretty tedious. Control 2 is also in development, but it sounds like that's way earlier in the process. Still, Remedy on fire at the moment. The only thing to make their lives even better would be Rockstar hiring them to make Max Payne 4, which I would throw serious money at.

Space Marine 2 was a pleasant surprise. Space Marine 1 was a very under the radar game and a very solid action experience. Someone described it as the perfect 7/10 game, fun and enjoyable without outstaying its welcome (apart from a truly shitty final battle involving QTEs, that recur nowhere else in the game). If the sequel matches that, that would be fine, even if I do think Space Marines are overexposes and we should see more of the Imperial Guard. The fact this Space Marine is a Primaris is interesting.

I'd be very excited about an Expanse game, but a Telltale game just makes me sigh for the missed opportunity. I'm sure it'll be fine, but the Telltale structure was really played out by Wolf Among Us. Without a more compelling gameplay loop or the single greatest script in gaming history, I'm not sure this can really be anything more than a fun interactive storybook. Star Trek: Resurgence has a similar potential problem but at least they have to use a new engine (since its Telltale vets rather than Telltale itself) and making a non-combat-focused Star Trek game sounds good.

Star Wars: Eclipse looks amazing but it'll be another Quantic Dream game with barely any gameplay in favour of cinematics. High odds there'll be a shower sequence at some point in the game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Personal Computer Version comes out on the 16th and should be interesting, though I'd be more excited about if Remake 2 was anywhere on the horizon.

[Corvinus85]

I'm not entirely sure what I just watched but it may be fun.

 

[Corvinus85]

13 hours ago, Werthead said:

That's true or there could be a sandstorm mechanic that shuts down production for a time.

Based on the few screenshots available on its Steam page, the game looks a lot like Northgard, which is bit disappointing as I would have wanted something more grim looking from a Dune game. And I found Northgard to not have much replayability. All the clans are 95% the same.

[Darryk]

11 hours ago, Werthead said:

Looking at the other game announcements, Alan Wake 2 is potentially exciting. I really enjoyed the original, weird though it was, and how it tied into Control. I'm hoping the sequel will allow Alan to get back to the real world, as I must admit the dream-world-only DLCs and expansion were pretty tedious. Control 2 is also in development, but it sounds like that's way earlier in the process. Still, Remedy on fire at the moment. The only thing to make their lives even better would be Rockstar hiring them to make Max Payne 4, which I would throw serious money at.

Space Marine 2 was a pleasant surprise. Space Marine 1 was a very under the radar game and a very solid action experience. Someone described it as the perfect 7/10 game, fun and enjoyable without outstaying its welcome (apart from a truly shitty final battle involving QTEs, that recur nowhere else in the game). If the sequel matches that, that would be fine, even if I do think Space Marines are overexposes and we should see more of the Imperial Guard. The fact this Space Marine is a Primaris is interesting.

I'd be very excited about an Expanse game, but a Telltale game just makes me sigh for the missed opportunity. I'm sure it'll be fine, but the Telltale structure was really played out by Wolf Among Us. Without a more compelling gameplay loop or the single greatest script in gaming history, I'm not sure this can really be anything more than a fun interactive storybook. Star Trek: Resurgence has a similar potential problem but at least they have to use a new engine (since its Telltale vets rather than Telltale itself) and making a non-combat-focused Star Trek game sounds good.

Star Wars: Eclipse looks amazing but it'll be another Quantic Dream game with barely any gameplay in favour of cinematics. High odds there'll be a shower sequence at some point in the game.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Personal Computer Version comes out on the 16th and should be interesting, though I'd be more excited about if Remake 2 was anywhere on the horizon.

Just glad Telltale are still making games after they almost collapsed. 

I really liked their Game of Thrones game, but I guess we'll never get a sequel to that.

[polishgenius]

Omno coming out on Switch this week woooo

[Werthead]

Aiko's Choice is excellent but quite brutal. It seems to assume you've just come off Blades of the Shogun (a game that came out five years ago), because, if not, the difficulty curve of getting back into it is fairly unforgiving. Because it uses exactly the same engine and system as Blades of the Shogun, not Desperados III, it lacks some of the QOL improvements from the latter, like pausing the game during the planning mode. It takes a while to get back into the swing of not being able to pause the game at all (outside of going into the menu).

Refreshingly tough game, but as usual from this team, spectacular level design.

[Werthead]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade Womblefuck Edition or whatever it's full name on PC is, is apparently launching at £64.99 or £15 above the going rate for UK PC games. For a two-year-old game that's a remake of a 24-year-old game that's already gotten a ton of profit from Epic Store for being a time-limited exclusive.

A bold move which I suspect is not going to encourage a lot of people to shell out for it. Though I remain tempted. Curses.

[Darryk]

Trying out Civ VI again. Anyone got any tips for someone who was addicted to Civ IV but is a bit lost in Civ VI?

[polishgenius]

I got a few new games over the last few weeks, including Disco Elysium, which I really should delve into properly, but instead I find myself playing Dead Cells, because it got a few updates since the last time I really played it and the 'everyone is here' update with skins and weapons from other indies just hit- and man this game is so good. I mean I'm shit at it, still play mostly on the lowest difficulty, but... it's so much fun. And even though the lore is not deep, it's so weird and inventively macabre that it's a joy in itself. New DLC coming early next year which I'm looking forward to.

[Mr. X]

3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

I got a few new games over the last few weeks, including Disco Elysium, which I really should delve into properly, but instead I find myself playing Dead Cells, because it got a few updates since the last time I really played it and the 'everyone is here' update with skins and weapons from other indies just hit- and man this game is so good. I mean I'm shit at it, still play mostly on the lowest difficulty, but... it's so much fun. And even though the lore is not deep, it's so weird and inventively macabre that it's a joy in itself. New DLC coming early next year which I'm looking forward to.

I find Dead Cells to be ridiculously fun and lightly addictive. It's my default when I want to play something but not get tied up in a story or exploration. In the first half of this year, when I would often be virtually paralyzed by anxiety related to my former job, playing Dead Cells was a perfect way to shut my brain off.

it's great fun, and I think I've now managed to unlock all the weapons in the "Everyone is Here" update (but none of the outfits).

I also just played through Death's Door on the Switch and thought it was great. Very much a metroidvania that draws on things like Hollow Knight and the Zelda series -- it doesn't necessarily do anything super original, but what it does it does very well. 

[polishgenius]

2 hours ago, Mr. X said:

it's great fun, and I think I've now managed to unlock all the weapons in the "Everyone is Here" update (but none of the outfits).

 

I unlocked the Hollow Knight outfit almost straight away because it involves doing Hollow Knight things with the Hollow Knight weapon and I'm so inoculated into HK that I did it within seconds just for fun.


The update also makes me want to try out some of these other games that I've not tried (HK and Guacamelee being the only ones I have played), especially Skul: The Hero slayer. Bit apprehensive that it doesn't differentiate enough from Dead Cells itself but we'll see I guess. 




Death's Door is one of the games I mentioned that I got. Got a decent way into it before Dead Cells distracted me, it's good. 

[Lightning Lord]

16 hours ago, Darryk said:

Trying out Civ VI again. Anyone got any tips for someone who was addicted to Civ IV but is a bit lost in Civ VI?

Can you be more specific? I mean, there's the obvious: military numbers mean far less than clever use of military. It's more puzzle-y because it's all about trying to place districts in advantageous locations. Civics are fun to explore - plugging in the right cards to accomplish what you want. You don't need boats for land units to go in water?

You can tell the AI to stop asking for the same stuff every turn?

[Darryk]

46 minutes ago, Lightning Lord said:

Can you be more specific? I mean, there's the obvious: military numbers mean far less than clever use of military. It's more puzzle-y because it's all about trying to place districts in advantageous locations. Civics are fun to explore - plugging in the right cards to accomplish what you want. You don't need boats for land units to go in water?

You can tell the AI to stop asking for the same stuff every turn?

Yeah I guess I just mean like, tips and stuff. At first glance one of the biggest differences obviously is the districts.

I keep choosing the Romans because I like the idea of it automatically building roads.

[Heartofice]

59 minutes ago, Darryk said:

Yeah I guess I just mean like, tips and stuff. At first glance one of the biggest differences obviously is the districts.

I keep choosing the Romans because I like the idea of it automatically building roads.

Its hard to remember how I even played CIV IV, but I can try.

Yeah districts, so now you have to layout your buildings like science ones in special districts which take up a tile. First thing to remember is there are adjacency bonuses which make these districts more powerful. You'll see these when placing them. For instance put science ones next to mountains and you get much higher bonuses. (you can double these bonuses with certain civics later)

One tip I'd have is to not rush to get districts too soon. Like most Civ games, early expansion is key. I get 3 cities at least before building a district, unless I need one for a specific win condition, like religion.

Some districts are better than others. You probably want quite a few Science ones, commercial and ports everywhere, culture are useful. Other ones have less use or are situational. I like an encampment near an enemy because they act as a defence tower if you have walls. 

--

There is now Science and Culture trees and you progress through both by having science and culture! Science is more about arms and units, and culture tends to give more bonuses to your civ. You'll speed through one more than the other depending on what you want to focus on, but you want both. The trick with culture early on is try to get to Political Philosophy early because that gives you a new form of government, which allows more civic cards (bonuses) and that is important.

-- 

There is also one unit per tile stuff now, which might take a while to get your head around, but either way most of my armies are composed of archer / ranged units with a few melee ones or spearman types to protect them. AI is very bad with fighting so its usually quite easy to beat them.

--

Civ states are like independent factions that you can win influence with by getting more culture or doing things they like (for instance building a spearman) It's worth trying to become their Ally / Suzarian because you can use them to protect you in wars and they give good bonuses. Or just kill them for easy cities.

---

One tip I think has been massive for me when playing is using the Pin function to plan out my cities before I ever settle them. If you can lay out where you want your districts you can get massive bonuses by putting them all together, so you don't end up doing things randomly and making mistakes. Worth remembering that adjacency bonuses work between cities so each cities districts improve the other ones if they are next to each other.

Thats about it really. Its quite a complex game and probably quite a jump from 4. I think there is less specialisation of cities than 4, which I don't like. Its still also the case that more cities = win in most cases and playing wide is still the best strategy.

 

[Darryk]

12 minutes ago, Heartofice said:

Its hard to remember how I even played CIV IV, but I can try.

Yeah districts, so now you have to layout your buildings like science ones in special districts which take up a tile. First thing to remember is there are adjacency bonuses which make these districts more powerful. You'll see these when placing them. For instance put science ones next to mountains and you get much higher bonuses. (you can double these bonuses with certain civics later)

One tip I'd have is to not rush to get districts too soon. Like most Civ games, early expansion is key. I get 3 cities at least before building a district, unless I need one for a specific win condition, like religion.

Some districts are better than others. You probably want quite a few Science ones, commercial and ports everywhere, culture are useful. Other ones have less use or are situational. I like an encampment near an enemy because they act as a defence tower if you have walls. 

--

There is now Science and Culture trees and you progress through both by having science and culture! Science is more about arms and units, and culture tends to give more bonuses to your civ. You'll speed through one more than the other depending on what you want to focus on, but you want both. The trick with culture early on is try to get to Political Philosophy early because that gives you a new form of government, which allows more civic cards (bonuses) and that is important.

-- 

There is also one unit per tile stuff now, which might take a while to get your head around, but either way most of my armies are composed of archer / ranged units with a few melee ones or spearman types to protect them. AI is very bad with fighting so its usually quite easy to beat them.

--

Civ states are like independent factions that you can win influence with by getting more culture or doing things they like (for instance building a spearman) It's worth trying to become their Ally / Suzarian because you can use them to protect you in wars and they give good bonuses. Or just kill them for easy cities.

---

One tip I think has been massive for me when playing is using the Pin function to plan out my cities before I ever settle them. If you can lay out where you want your districts you can get massive bonuses by putting them all together, so you don't end up doing things randomly and making mistakes. Worth remembering that adjacency bonuses work between cities so each cities districts improve the other ones if they are next to each other.

Thats about it really. Its quite a complex game and probably quite a jump from 4. I think there is less specialisation of cities than 4, which I don't like. Its still also the case that more cities = win in most cases and playing wide is still the best strategy.

 

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks! 

[IlyaP]

And that's a wrap on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. 137.2 hours to complete all three games. 

[karaddin]

On CivVI I'll add to what HoI said with noting that some of the different civilizations have *very* different play styles and are dramatically better at some victory types than others. Romans are pretty much an all rounder Civ, they're not specialised into any particular victory type so are solid for whatever you want to do.

Babylon on the other hand are a science focused Civ that requires either being very familiar with inspirations (mini quests which boosts your progress for a particular tech, most techs have their own one) or detailed planning and following the plan. Babylon gets the entire tech from the inspiration rather than just a boost, but their normal science rate is halved, so you can chain together the mini quests to have crossbowmen and siege weapons absurdly early in the game. Or you can lose focus and wallow well behind everyone else.

[Heartofice]

3 hours ago, karaddin said:

On CivVI I'll add to what HoI said with noting that some of the different civilizations have *very* different play styles and are dramatically better at some victory types than others. Romans are pretty much an all rounder Civ, they're not specialised into any particular victory type so are solid for whatever you want to do.

Babylon on the other hand are a science focused Civ that requires either being very familiar with inspirations (mini quests which boosts your progress for a particular tech, most techs have their own one) or detailed planning and following the plan. Babylon gets the entire tech from the inspiration rather than just a boost, but their normal science rate is halved, so you can chain together the mini quests to have crossbowmen and siege weapons absurdly early in the game. Or you can lose focus and wallow well behind everyone else.

Yeah this is also true. You pretty much have to pick your victory condition early when you choose a civ. Some are better at science and some are good at religion. It is a little annoying that they aren't all well rounded but it also makes it a bit more interesting to really focus on one thing.