Other Games
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With Pillars of Eternity+expansions pretty much done, I've picked up Grim Dawn. It's a Diablo-esque ARPG with a very nice pace and feeling to it, and it's pretty cheap because it's indie, I'll post up here if it's any good when I'm a good few hours into it.
Besides that, I've got Tom Clancy's: The Division preordered. Not my usual type of game, but it's got a Borderlands feel to it, the developers are calling it a "RPG" and characters have talent trees… we'll see, I'm not too thrilled about it, but yeah, multiplayer/coop could help float it.
Dark Souls 3 is around the corner, just one month off now. That's a guaranteed buy for me, one that hopefully will deliver (it never failed to do so, but somehow feel each new game in the Souls saga loses a little bit of its charm).
And just to round up some news, Mass Effect: Andromeda has been delayed a few months, the current ETA being Q1 2017. Since I'm a huge Mass Effect fan, I'm happy with waiting a few extra months if that ensures the game will be fully finished and polished for its release thanks to the extra months of work on it.
PS: If only NWN rogues were but a distant shadow of Pillars of Eternity ones… this is how a level 13 Rogue treats what is pretty much the toughest boss monster in the game in the highest difficulty setting (for those that aren't familiar with PoE - the damage numbers are pretty on par between the two games in general :x).
PS2: Pillars of Eternity is a really good RPG, don't miss out on it!
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Pillars of Eternity's second installment of its expansion (The White March) was released a few days ago, completing the campaign in full now, and since it had been one year since I played the original campaign I decided to start a new game from scratch to refresh everything in my mind and enjoy the game's story fully as I play through the old and new content.
This time, instead of taking the NPCs the game provides, I made my own party with versions of my favourite (mostly) Narfell girls: Nuwairah, Shallyah, Rith, Scarlet, Iratha and Elaine.
So far it's being pretty good, the game's gone through a lot of fixes and overhauls that addressed a lot of the concerns the game had in its first baby steps one year ago, and I'm not feeling forced at all to replay the old content in order to get to the new one.
What is more, I'm probably enjoying the narrative more than before, as I remember my goals and I can focus more on the details rather than crazily running around without knowing clearly what to do next.
My Steam account has 175 recorded hours of Pillars of Eternity, and I'm pretty sure it'll be well past the 200 when I'm done with it, since I've yet to do any expansion content, which appears to be a whole new campaign of its own.
So, if you are like me when it comes to RPGs, this game is definitely worth checking out!
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… my strategic insights burst again ...
Universe Online Computer Game with Strong Infantry start, bolstered by a Versatile Tanks with slightly light fire focus, about 1/6 under-caliber - two guns, one slightly above damage capacity slow fire, 3 light fast anti infantry guided by computer with remote ai connection.
Then Ultra-tech tanks coming from above, acting as a Versatile scaled Ultra-Helm as far as fleet is compared.
Research Facility is Strongest, Command Center is Strong, Barrack are efficient.
it's Sci-Mil-Temple as well, with Penal Colony Kyton as a support.
if You count unit, you'll see that main base has unit of 84 with 3 ultra tanks that can fly fast.
Penal colony has a brigade of 108 units, still slightly weaker, for only 2 ultra tanks, it's smaller still.
Bought extra tech of Superior Anti-Gravs & Radiation Shield to give tech advantage, 108 diamonds as well, perhaps slightly more ... can be used in production process ... etc ... excellent game so far.
Namaste.
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links to photos in full size:http://s1072.photobucket.com/user/Andrzej_Wysocki/media/uo1_zpsncrt7vjd.png.html?sort=3&o=3
http://s1072.photobucket.com/user/Andrzej_Wysocki/media/uo3_zpsdjnpbrqt.png.html?sort=3&o=2
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Vaasa is actually in Finland.
But yeah. I'm testing XCOM: Enemy Unknown atm myself, to decide if I even like the genre.
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@df2dad1c46=Wywernywin:
Why is she from Ukraine, though?
Kinda defaulted more or less. Could have gone for Sweden considering she's from Vaasa in Narfell and Vaasa is a town in Sweden in real life… though Shallyah has a Russian accent.
Didn't overthink it to be fair, I didn't even write the bio, it's the one that came with the soldier so I left it there.
The armor models get even better as the game progresses, and they differ a lot between different archetypes, for example "tank" and "rogue":
Don't ask why Scarlet is from Israel. She's from the eastern world, so I just picked a country in the whereabouts.
And yeah my "main" squad is all formed by versions of my Narfell characters. Psionics in X Com 2 are an entire full fledged class unlike previous UFO/X-COM games where Psionics were just a couple perks added to already existing soldiers. So there is an Elaine too.
Incase it doesn't sound obvious, I very much recommend getting this game to RPG/Turn Based Tactical Combat fans. Really worth the while.
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@7933b707c6=Wywernywin:
Why is she from Ukraine, though?
You've got to be from somewhere I guess?
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Why is she from Ukraine, though?
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X COM 2 is out.
Enough said.
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X-Com 2 is looking more and more like a futuristic version of this Mordheim game I've just enjoyed so much. Soldiers can be individually customised with the full detail of creating a RPG character - appearance, hairstyle, face, body build which then you can name, give a nationality, write a bio, they can sustain wounds, they can be individually equipped, levelled, etc, all which makes it so much more enjoyable and makes you care so much more about them than if they were just generic faceless soldiers.
I'm picking that one for sure.
For now I'm enjoying Underrail and looking forward to tomorrow's release of Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, a game I've always wanted to play and will take the opportunity to do so now with the PC re-release where you get all the extras/expansion/DLC and higher framerate and performances than previously seen in console for half the price.
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I've been playing Blood Bowl 2 a lot lately. I'm really looking forward to the XCOM 2 release next month and will pour a lot of time into that.
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@58d5c02555=Ace-of-Spades:
@58d5c02555=Emerwyn:
Mordheim: City of the Damned - …
This has me really interested. I've never heard of this game, but I like the way you've described it. From what I can tell it sounds like some kind of Tactical RPG, or Turn Based Tactics game?
As a huge fan of Final Fantasy Tactics and X-Com: Enemy Unknown (and games of their ilk) how strongly would you recommend I try this game?
If you're a fan of those games then chances are that you'll love Mordheim. I'm also a big fan of turn based RPGs, from old great classics like UFO: Enemy Unknown, Vandal Hearts, Ogre Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics, the newer X-COM game and about everything in between.
Of all of those, Mordheim plays more similarly to the UFO/XCOM saga in the sense that you're running against a tight deadline and you have to deliver. If you fail to do so, you fail the campaign and you have to start from sractch, so it's important not only to succeed in as many missions as possible, but also return home with your warband in good enough shape to keep going, that is without losing too many of your backbone units. Hiring subs at some point stops working, both because funding is limited and because a greenhorn soldier won't have the impact of a grizzled veteran in the battle.
That said Mordheim plays in a quite unique fashion in that the scenario is not grid-based. Each soldier has a move range based on their speed, equipment, feats, etc and that determines how many meters they can move per AP point spent. That allows for a lot of tactical play, and makes wearing heavy armour a tough choice, and quite often not the best choice out there, as hit-and-run tactics do work nicely if well executed.
Try it out or watch some video if you have a chance, from what you said, you should probably like it.
On a side, unrelated note, I'm playing Underrail when I can these days (which is not much
) but I'm already thinking how it's possible that a cheap indie game can be better at Fallout than Fallout.
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@48fec7b6f2=Emerwyn:
Mordheim: City of the Damned - …
This has me really interested. I've never heard of this game, but I like the way you've described it. From what I can tell it sounds like some kind of Tactical RPG, or Turn Based Tactics game?
As a huge fan of Final Fantasy Tactics and X-Com: Enemy Unknown (and games of their ilk) how strongly would you recommend I try this game?
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Regarding Sword Coast Legends:
It's $20 till 10AM PST on Steam today.
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This might be of interest to some:
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I got sucked back into warframe which is why I haven't been around.
I've never played a free game that was continuously developed so much as to keep things interesting for so long
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Last couple months or so I've been playing a few games, some good, some not so good, so here's my feelings and recommendations in case it can help others decide whether the game is worth their money or not.
Fall of the Dungeon Guardians / Ruzar: The Life Stone - These are two different games, but I'm listing them together because they're basically the same thing. Oldschool first person dungeon crawlers. Those of you who have played Eye of the Beholder, Might and Magic Legacy X or Legend of Grimrock know what kind of game it is. Both indie games, pretty cheap and with a pretty high fun-per-dollar ratio, especially for those who like the genre.
Fallout 4 - I said most of what had to be said up there. The game is aeons behind The Witcher 3, but what it does, does it well. I had my fun with it, but I don't consider this game an essential.
Sword Coast Legends - Rivers of ink have been spilled on this game as well. Now Community packs 1 and 2 have been released, and soon the expansion/addon "Rage of Demons" will be released. All in all, a lot of the initial roughness and lack of options has been mitigated. I'd say for a DnD fan it's a worthy buy at this point.
Mordheim: City of the Damned - I'm in LOVE with Mordheim. Not only because of how loyally it's been tranferred from tabletop to PC, but also because the game is actually really polished, beautiful (in its sinister dark way) and addicting.
Each individual unit in your warband you can name, add a long description, equip, customize in appearance, and each individual unit levels at its own pace depending on its own merits, and can also suffer permanent injuries like losing an eye, arm, leg, anything - all of which, you see physically on the character's avatar even during further battles, should you want to keep such crippled warrior in your roster. Your soldiers can even die permanently if they were severely injuried and there is no reloading games, or restarting battles that don't go the way you wanted.
As your units level up and achieve feats, you start getting fond of them, celebrating their perks and enduring their wounds, and that makes every battle exciting considering a bad move can end the life of one of them for good, or have a leg amputated which will have your warrior running around on a peg leg for the rest of its career. You could even customise your whole warband to be your favourite group of Narfell characters, customising names, descriptions, equipment and appearances for each of them, and see how they fare in the cursed alleys of Mordheim.
The game also has some flaws, like sometimes very long loading times, or non-adjustable difficulty - the default difficulty has been reported to be really high and frustrating for a lot of players, preventing their progress in the game as the warband is so crippled that they start falling further and further behind schedule, in the end being forced to disband and restart fresh from the beginning with a new warband. This is nothing new, it's the same mechanic as UFO/X-Com games, but I'll lay it out there so people know what they're getting themselves into.
I'd like as well if there were more warbands, at the moment only available are Skaven, Human Mercenaries, Possessed(Chaos), and Sisters of Sigmar, each very well represented with their own strengths and weaknesses.
This Mordheim talk got a bit longer than I wanted, but that's because I've always loved tabletop Mordheim, and it's the game I'm currently investing most of my computer time with.
That's all for this round, more and better next year!
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I'm playing Legacy of the Void until Bethesda does their usual ironing out of bugs way after release.
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Being 30 hours in, I feel I stand on solid enough ground to cast a valid judgement on Fallout 4.
Short story - it's a great game.
Now for the long story…
The game does a lot of great things to keep you having fun. The VATS mode once again outdoes itself, the physics and ballistics in the game are superb. Few things are as satisfying as slow motion sequences captured from advantage angles just as you critical hit some mutant creature's head off. I simply can't get enough of that.
Enemies drop exactly what they wear and what they're using as weapons, nothing more, nothing less, and I personally love that. I wish every RPG could follow that example.
Weapons are great, so is the ability to custom build piece by piece about every weapon you find in the game. So you want a scope on a Colt .45 or a bayonete on a rocket launcher? Yeah, you can do it. Same goes for armors, and your own personal Power Armor that works much like a Mech-suit you can use to tackle on tough challenges (it runs quickly out of power and power cells are scarce).
Being able to build from the ground up entire settlements and towns is another thing someone who enjoys that could spend countless hours with. You can set-up entire electrical networks, water ducts to get everyone a steady supply, fenced crops... it's not as highly customizable as one would hope, but it's still pretty great.
Oh and I have to mention the voice acting. It's really well done. The acting feels natural and fitting in most cases, not overacted, not lazy. Just right more often than not. That's progress, one that many franchises are making, and it's worth commending Bethesda for it too.
Now. The game does have problems. The most minor of them all I'll make a passing mention since to me it doesn't mean that much, but the graphics quality do not meet the state-of-the-art expectations one could have from such a millionaire budget AAA title. As I said, to me it's not that much of a problem, but I'm putting it out there.
Another issue, and this is personal - level scaling. I don't want every damn enemy I face to be matched to my level. It makes the world feel so artificial and fake. That's a matter of personal preference I suppose, but I just don't like it.
Another problem is already a legacy and symbol of Bethesda games. The world feels so damn discontinued and inconsequential whenever you're not in the pursue of a main story quest. It's like I entered this huge library and as you delve into it beating supermutants and malfunctioning security bots you learn the story of the place - a group of scientists/curators fought to their last breath to preserve the knowledge there for the world of the future, and as you read through documents you find out that the curator spendt her last moments encoding a message so that any human who finds the place can carry on their work.
So I'm all over that, I want to save the knowledge, it'll help the human race to stand back on its feet if it can survive that holocaust. Except you can't do anything about it, because there isn't even a quest attached to it. You wanted to matter, but you can't because the game doesn't care for it. So you feel helpless and let down, much like one of those Narfell plots where the DM suddenly quits and you feel yourself invested into that plot, but then nothing happens ever again. The world just pretends it never happened.
It's not only that. The whole place is "kill stuff because it's in your way" when you're not strictly following the main storyline. And that's a shame, because a game with the potential to be the best RPG you ever played turns out to be a sandboxy exploration RPG lite with cool combat mechanics. In a way that feels like its eons behind its direct competitors, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, or The Witcher, to mention the most acclaimed.
To sum up my opinion then - Fallout 4 is a very great game that is worth playing. It'll no doubt deliver 100+ hours of fun to about anyone. That said, I'm yet to be moved by Fallout 4, and I'm having a hard time to feel identified or even care for the concerns of any of the companions / NPCs I've encountered along the way, which I suppose can be blamed on the rather deficient writing.
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Borderlands pre sequel went on sale on steam with fallout. .so I got that instead.
I won't be spending 80 bucks on a game though I'll wait til it goes on sale
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Fallout 4 has taken over my life. I'm not ashamed and I don't want it to change. I embrace my fate. My life belongs to Fallout 4.
Seriously though, everything I've done so far has been brilliant. Some of the 'repeatable' quests are getting a bit dumb I mean I've saved the same 'farm' about 18 times from all kinds of Wasteland calamity. I think it's time to stop investing my time in those kinds of missions and find a questline to stick to.
I've seen so many wonderful things! Mustn't spoil them, but I hope you react to them when you encounter them as I did. With pure giddy glee!
