Get your game on!

Culture
408

Second attempt, and you do get to pass on a small number of resources to your next life. I did much better in terms of resources, but ended up dead due to a boar again.

Note to future selves: boars are not messing around. No matter how many juicy resources or resting places are in the area, don’t bother with anything you can’t grab on the run. From a quick google, it appears that killing one would require either much better resources than I had, or a LOT of luck (need a spear trap or bow and arrow as weapons. Or alternatively, a wolf (a danger in itself…), or two different snakes to bite it…)

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409

Huh, it seems that Far Cry: Blood Dragon probably has the most believable story in the series :smiley:

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410

Buy your Willams/Bally tables for Pinball Arcade now…

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411

The thing that especially pissed me off about ending was that even though it felt completely out of left field, apparently there were clues throughout the game like news reports in radio broadcasts, color conversations, and so on.

Things that in 30+ hours that I never heard or otherwise completely missed.

If there were in-game clues leading to the events of the ending, they were so damn subtle and easy to miss that they may as well have not been there at all.

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412

Third attempt on Flame in the Flood, and I completed the campaign. I did die twice, but was playing a mode that has checkpoints… since I’d gotten far enough along to trigger a checkpoint, the deaths weren’t game-ending.

Fun game, and I’ll probably play it more. There is a lot that I did not get to on this play-through. I did find that the secret to surviving (for me, at least) was to immediately leave any areas with animals other than rabbits (bravely running away, Sir Robin style…), until I was finally able to build some weapons that could take down larger animals. Once I had that down, the biggest threats were cold/rain, being caught by surprise by snakes or wolves, or getting caught in a nighttime lightning storm while trying to raft through the treacherous rapids the game frequently throws at you.

Even though it’s a randomly-generated roguelike, the campaign mode does have a definite storyline, and a solid ending, which is nice. It did take a good while to get through, though… I have 7 hours played on the game, and the first two attempts couldn’t have been more than an hour.

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413

Is anyone gaming on Ubuntu LTS 18.04? I was thinking of downloading a couple games for my maternity leave, but it looks like Steam isn’t stable?

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414

I’m still on 16 and am playing metro 2033 on it just fine, don’t know if there are any issues with 18.

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416

Heads up gog.com is giving unreal away today.

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417

I feel like I finally have a good grasp on Battletech now. Mostly it’s about specialization and the wisdom of more experienced players.

  • Have a defender stand in front and soak up attacks. If they have to brace for stability/defense instead of shooting, that’s fine.
  • Have someone with the Sensor Lock skill in a close support mech. Let them paint targets for your artillery but stay in safety as much as possible, then switch to fighting when necessary.
  • Have an artillery mech. Make whatever sacrifices are necessary to fit as many LRMs as possible on it – four empty energy weapon hardpoints might make me itch a little but it’s just fine if it means I can rain 45 missiles per turn onto an enemy unit that can’t even see me.
  • Maybe the fourth is a sniper/fire support mech but also favors LRMs for a little extra push. The rules prevent a single unit from knocking an enemy prone in one turn, so this can provide an extra shove.
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419

Is there a name for that genre?

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420

Spot the difference.
220px-Anno_2205_box_cover
download%20(1)

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421

As opposed to Redoubtable Downtown Space Abbey which to me is an Excel spreadsheet with some role playing wrapped around it.

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422

Although I haven’t tried Anno 2205, your experience sounds very similar to my own with Patrician III. Highly recommended for those with the itch to manage an economy. Also one of the best supply/demand models I’ve seen in games where one can’t merely dump every last bit of Cargo_X at the same price. Every purchase or sale shifts the unit price in the local port and every port consumes resources depending on the state of population and local industry. Fostering the growth of other towns so that they need more of what you’re producing without problems of oversupply and flooding the market is a delightful balancing act.

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423

Speaking of economic games, anyone play the Capitalism series? I hadn’t played in awhile but I recently got some DLCs for Capitalism Lab to be able to try out some new things and started a new game with Digital Age and Subsidiaries turned on, aiming to build a big PC/Software/Internet megacorp.

The thing I had trouble with before was the increase in micromanagement as the company grows - once you have a bunch of businesses in a bunch of cities, it becomes a lot of work just keeping things going. There are headquarters departments and executives you can hire to handle stuff for you, but I never quite got the hang of that.

There’s also a City Economic Sim DLC that sounds as though it’d be a bit like Sim City, but with the added interaction that your company can contribute to a candidates election fund for mayor, affect things like unemployment (by building businesses) and land values (by donating civic buildings - near your real estate, of course) and in turn if you control the mayor you can do things like have the government universities research tech that would be useful to your company, or use eminent domain to push competitors’ businesses to the outskirts of the city. Sounds interesting, but I haven’t tried it yet.

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424

Speaking as one who also backed the heck out of the kickstarter and played the heck out tabletop version back in the day, I’m thrilled that you’re enjoying the game.

The best confrontations involve watching the enemy lance(s) crash against the indomitable defense of your own well-constructed force.

The very best confrontations involve rushing the enemy headlong to engage in a terrifying exchange of fire before crashing headlong into a brutal melee just as everything begins overheating and hopefully surviving to tell the tale. The sheer joy of that moment when you unexpectedly destroy the cockpit of an enemy assault mech with a desperate punch and turn the tide of battle is not to be underestimated.

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425

@MissyPants got me playing FO4 on Survival.

I die so much. Everything matters. Bloody dogs are a one-hit-kill (killing me. It takes significantly more to take down them). It’s not just higher difficulty. Complete strategies change. “Useless” perks suddenly become very, very important (Before: who needs “Leadbelly”? Between stimpaks and purified water, I can just sell food. Now: OMG. Need Leadbelly before I die of radiation poisoning just trying to eat. Foood, food, gimme food).

Frustrating, but rewarding. Thanks, @MissyPants.

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426

I made a return appearance on a podcast:

It’s over 3 hours again. You’ve been warned.

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427

PixelJunk has a second edition of Monsters out. It’s fun, but I don’t think the 3D and topography add anything. They might even make the game worse and more confusing. But I can pause the game whenever, and that’s the key feature I need in any game.

My daughter and I had our first gaming experience. I was watching the trailer for the new Spyro the Dragon remaster. They were my favorite games growing up. She walked by, looked, and said “Oh, I like that.” Very excited to play with her in September. 3 seems a little young, but I see other kids who have their own iPads and stuff, so it’s probably fine?

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428

Hero!

Fire Emblem Heroes
Once again, FEH has received a stellar update that has added even more depth to everyone’s favorite RPS/Chess smash-up.

The core premise is that you take a squad of four onto a grid-based battlefield. At its core, FEH is a game of decisions: do you choose melee units or ranged? A high defense Armor, an anti-mage Flier, a speedy Rider, or the classic Infantry? Green, Red, Blue, or Null?

Units can inherit new skills at the cost of other units. With some restrictions. You can’t build a high-defense healer, for example. You get new units by completing story chapters, side quests, or by spending gold orbs (that you get for completing quests) to Summon. And FEH is very, very generous.

Pretty much any unit can be viable at this point. Using the resources that FEH throws at you, you can invest in any unit to turn them into a walking tank. Some units start out better than others, but any unit can be top tier. Even Raigh, the worst unit at launch. Even Wrys. Especially Wrys.

Anywho. Fantastic game, highly recommend. You’ll get three quite powerful units completely free, who can solo some of the most difficult content. Go play!

pictured: a decision

gjJt5Rd.jpg1080×2220 489 KB

Zero!

Spirit Lords
This dungeon crawler is dead. Servers were shut down. Rest in peace.

Legacy Quest
Dead. Socialspiel - the developers - were shuttered last year. All characters, rankings, and progress is lost. All that’s left of Legacy Quest is memories.

Valiant Force
If anything epitomizes the fundamental boring, broken combat of 90s JRPGs, this is it. Pay actual money to summon useful units, then sacrifice your meagre stamina bar to complete quests. Spend your earned in-game currency to summon feeder units, rinse, repeat. There is very little to no effort required to play. Mostly, you’re waiting for the timers to refill. Even PETS LIVE had more depth.

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429

I finally have a computer good enough to run modern games, and grabbed Battletech last week. Much of fun; I’m surprised by how closely it mimics the old tabletop game.

Are you still playing?

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