Played Gratuitous Space Battles. Fun for a few hours but ship design isn't that deep got bored fast. But I figure 4 hours for $15 is like a movie.
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Played Gratuitous Space Battles. Fun for a few hours but ship design isn't that deep got bored fast. But I figure 4 hours for $15 is like a movie.
Picked up Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes, the sequel to Fallen Enchantress (which I didn't play).
It's in the same vein as the Heroes of Might and Magic series, turn based 4x fantasy strategy, with turn-based tactical battles on a grid.
So far so fun. It's an improvement on HoMM certainly, and seems to have the balance right.
Where HoMM failed was that the later game became a who-can-make-more-units-more-quickly numbers competition, with stacked units in their hundreds doggedly reducing each others' health. Enchantress doesn't stack units.
There are various quests you encounter on the map that sends you off on side missions, the completion of which grants you items and fame. Fame attracts heroes to your faction.
Player is fully customisable, as are the heroes who occasionally join you, with all sorts of armour, weapons, enchantments and trinkets that can be bought, sold or upgraded. Units are widely varied, and also customiseable. Battles are engaging and challenging.
The overall map looks good and works well; the UI as it should be.
Recommended.:up:
Ooh I noticed that on Steam the other day and was tempted, loved HoMM.
Curious about the idea of units not stacking though? How's that work, are you seriously restricted then on the army you can develop?
Units gain experience, which makes them stronger in various ways. They are also upgradeable.
So the more you battle with your army, the stronger that army (and any heroes in the army) becomes.
Max number of units (incl heroes) in an army is nine ...
Seems to work well. Like I say, it's more about how good your army is, rather than how large it is.
It looks good, but isn't it a bit pricey for an indie game?
I wouldn't consider it indie. its made by stardock. guys who published sins of a solar empire and demigod. They were so big at one point they had their own digital distribution called impulse that gamestop bought from them. Mainly because they kind of suck at making games; demigod had a horrible launch and the first attempt at elemental nearly sunk them for good.
Fair enough, but they seem like a pretty small company at this point. You don't get exposure by pricing your games at the same level as the big boys.
Agreed, they are not in a position to be charging more for an expansion than what they are currently selling the base game for. I assume they are banking on impatient gamers just getting out of school, followed by a half price summer sale.
On a related note, I just had a look at the Heroes VI expansion. Most of the ratings are awful due to Ubisoft's insane Uplay system. They haven't figured out a way to make it work in over 2 years. Unbelievable.
It looks like it's a standalone expansion - no need to buy the full game.
They did give it away for free (along with Fallen Enchantress) to anyone who bought Elemental before a certain point. I've got the game, and definitely did not pay for it.
It is indeed standalone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wraith
Seem to be on a bit of a gaming spree at present ...
http://media.indiedb.com/images/game...4/BoxCover.jpg
Picked up this little Kickstarter gem off Steam for £16. Might actually be the first Kickstart game I've bought?
In the same vein as HoMM and the above Fallen Enchantress, in that it is a turn-based strategic map game coupled with a turn-based tactical battle grid.
The slight difference with this is that there isn't any town building or unit training element to it. And the RPG element is rather stronger.
You are a young nobleman who has set sail from Spain to the new world in 1518 with adventure in your heart and exotic treasure in your eye. You land in South America with a small bunch of loyal followers, and soon discover a fairly inhospitable land filled with strange natives, debilitating diseases, rebellious slaves and greedy colonists.
The game presents you with a series of quests which build the story. The decisions you make, the followers you choose to accompany you, your approach to religious fervour, treatment of natives and greed for gold all have a considerable impact on how the game unfolds. This is apaprent even after only 8-9 hours play.
The atmosphere and the setting are a huge plus. You do feel like you face a huge challenge in overcoming all the difficulties that early Hispanic explorers must have overcome in their early expeditions into unkown South American territory.
The story is text-based, which works well in my opinion - too much emphasis is placed nowadays on realistic voice-acting in games which adds little - with quest updates etc all appearing in text form.
The music is fabulous, all spanish guitar. The sounds effects are excellent, from the snap of musket-fire to the battle-cry of natives.
The strategic map is basic but functional. It seems obvious that the real effort has gone into the hex-based tactical grid; combat is where this game really shines. Every tactical decision you make has an impact. The graphics are great here too. Each battle is a delight.
And it's tough. I've restarted twice. Once after running out of rations - not being able to hunt enough meat before overnight camp leading to my followers steadily losing morale and abandoning me, and the second time after a rebellion left too many of my followers wounded and I was too far from town to recover.
Definitely recommended. :up:
As usual, Brits get screwed in price. It's $18. I might get it after a patch or two. Sounds good.
Yep, and £16 was with a 10% discount. :rolleyes:
Does need an update or two, as it has bugged out on me a few times.
The new(ish) Tomb Raider...like the mechanics of the campsites and the general story.
The Age of Empires III games. Figured if I plan to rebuy AoEII this summer I should finish the ones I already have.
Just started Act 3 of the base game.
Base game is finished. Ensemble Studios should have stuck with real history, they were really bad at trying to write their own storyline.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Finished the main storyline arc for my Trooper in SWTOR. It doesn't have the best triple monitor support, but it works.
screenshot:
Hmmmm ... tempted to go back to SWToR.
Had four or five level-capped chars, both light and dark.
Am getting my MMORPG kicks from a return to TERA at the moment, there being no decent new ones out.
Just bought Assassins Creed III on Demand. $15, or 1200 points. Bought 1200 points for $5 from the microsoft store a few days ago, so Assassins Creed III for $5 ain't a bad deal. One reason I'm not excited to see the point system go away. Just puts more of the power directly in the hands of the xbox department.
Also, for gold members, Defense Grid is free. Its a good game, maybe even a great game, but no where near the league of Assassins Creed II or Halo 3, which is what Microsoft teased everyone with, so of course people are annoyed.
And Defense Grid II is on the way ... :up:Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Finally found my Sims Medieval base game box and disc to reinstall, patch up to latest version, install Pirates expansion ... doesn't work! Task Manager shows it running in the background using ~18% steady CPU but nothing.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Google and it seems that this game is totally incompatible with Windows 8. Even using Compatibility Mode won't fix it. What makes it even more odd is that the base game originally if you never patch it is compatible with Windows 8, but the final patch EA released (needed for Pirates to be installed) kills it. A fix exists which is not exactly linked to from EA's forums but says 'search for "Sims Medieval Ultimate Fix"' ... Googling that comes up with a crack to remove the DRM. It seems the DRM update in the final patch is incompatible with Windows 8 and kills the game.
To be fair Windows 8 was never released at the time yet, but it was within about a year of the EP release and there's lots of posts now on EA's forum and people messaging EA but this games been totally abandoned by them so they won't fix it.
Ridiculous that despite owning the game the only way to get it to work is to crack the DRM. It shouldn't take that much effort for EA to release a patch to fix the issue.
EDIT: And it seems they're still selling the game in Origin despite the fact its broken.
I want.
:eek:
Looks bewilderingly huge and comprehensively orsum.
End graphic only shows Xbox & PS. Hope it'll make the PC too.
They are recruiting for a PC port team. Their ports have never been great though, modders always have to pick up the slack.
but holy hell, this game is huge. Wonder how many discs its going to force 360 owners to use. Its as if they took the best all of all their previous games and rolled it all up into a single title.
I heard somewhere 2. One's the install disk, and the other is the game disk. Install is required.
That explains the rumored 8gb install.
Decided to get Skyrim for the PC (already played on the 360). Damn. Why did I bother with the 360 version?
What's the difference? I've got the 360 version.
Mods.
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=72850Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Heard of Icehancer for GTAIV? Skyrim cant hit that same level of graphical insanity.
Sale has started. Might finally pick up HotLine Miami for 2.50.
Valve is tying in their trading cards with this sale. The more you buy the more cards you get, which means the more badges you can craft, which means more "rewards" you can earn. Cards are also handed out for voting for the next deal, as long as you are level 5 or higher.
EDIT:
wrong thread, whoops
No. Got that on console too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Less of a load time. The 360 had PAINFUL loads when going into a new area. Also as mentioned earlier mods. And now that I play with mouse and keyboard I actually like it better (which was a surprise). The only dislike is having to sit in the office instead of lazing on the couch.Quote:
Originally Posted by RandBlade
Mmmmmm...couch playing...leads nicely to couch napping when game craving met.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewkowski
I was almost right, Fallen Enchantress is 66% today and tomorrow, $13.59 (Steam).Quote:
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
Got hooked back on Crusader Kings II. Picked up the DLC (except Old Gods) at the Summer Sale and its a lot of fun. Not played Muslims yet but tried the Republic system and its interesting.
Currently playing a campaign where I created my own starting character as an independent Irish Earl using my real life surname with no family at all and trying to aim not so much for world domination but getting my family everywhere. Currently on third generation, King of Ireland, Wales, Portugal (won in a Crusade) and just finished a Papal-backed Invasion of England. Keep granting land to my family but so far no revolts as a result. Also created a new Irish/Portugese vassal Merchant Republic with one of my family members too. Lots of fun. :)
Bioshock Infinite. Just picked out a necklace for Elizabeth. Holy shit is that Song Bird massive.
Spoiler:
Despite all the hype, I just couldn't get into Bioshock.
Gave it up after about 10 hours play, and regretted the full price I paid for it.
Not my sorta game I guess, the old FPS.
I'm not a big FPS fan myself, but Redbox never has The Last of Us in stock so I figured I'd brush up on my controller skills with Bioshock. The pacing of it is incredibly slow, like its trying to tell me this possibly very in depth story by giving me huge areas to explore, then throwing a hand full of enemies at me, then repeating that in a new environment that looks amazing.
