What video game are you playing?

[Underseer]

What do you mean, not apt?

I'm not using it as a pejorative. MMORPGs and certain casual games leverage Skinner box design elements. This was discussed to death during the first generation of graphical MMORPGs (Asheron's Call, Everquest, etc.).

Some aspect of Skinner boxes is in every game design, of course, but in MMORPGs and certain casual games, it's particularly bad, and that is on purpose. There are people who can play those games without addiction kicking in, but I'm not one of those people.

 

[Underseer]

https://playwarcraft3.com/en-us/



I admit that Warcraft 2 was the last RTS that I ever played. By then, I had lost interest in RTS as a genre and was discovering that I preferred turn-based, which never made me feel like I couldn't leave my seat.

Still, I kinda wish that I waited one incarnation. Once I started playing World of Warcraft, I quickly realized that Warcraft 3 had a far more interesting story than 1 or 2.

Anyway, I imagine there are a lot of fans of Warcraft 3 around here, and the game is getting a new paint job and some touch-ups. No one polishes a game like Blizzard, so I imagine re-polishing an old game will be good.

 

[Underseer]

I just found out that Civilization 6 has been ported to iPad and Nintendo Switch.

The iPad shouldn't be much of a surprise. Right away or almost right away, Civ 6 offered a tablet mode meant to work with Microsoft Surface tablets (does anyone actually use the Surface in tablet mode?), so porting the whole thing to iPad would not have involved a significant reworking of the interface.

The Nintendo Switch surprised me more as I just couldn't imagine how it would work on a game controller, but they made the damn thing work on a console.

[YOUTUBE]rXLY5_BPUOg[/YOUTUBE]

I remember a lot of complaints from longtime Civ fans about Civ 6 being dumbed down. I'm not sure that it is dumbed down, but if it is, what if this was on purpose to allow for this kind of platform agnosticism we're seeing right now?

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Just got Red Dead Redemption 2. It’s a Western game done by the people who did GTA.

It looks pretty cool so far and is an open world type game where you have a bunch of missions with members of his gang. Very well made with a lot of content and depth.

 

[prideandfall]

Dungeons 1, 2, and 3: 6.5 or 7 out of 10

so this game series is pretty blatantly just a direct ripoff of Dungeon Keeper, but since Dungeon Keeper was awesome and there was never anything like it (that i ever saw) a blatant ripoff of that game that is functionally just "more dungeon keeper" is pretty sweet IMO.
the gameplay is basically "the sims + warcraft 3 + the addams family" put into a blender.
it's a real-time dungeon builder where you're playing as basically Sauron building up your underground catacombs to invade the realms of the elves and dwarves and shit top-side.
much like an RTS you have workers, collect resources, recruit units, etc etc, but it's far more macro level - you don't control units directly, you just set up rooms and guide their work and combat through what is essentially "go over here and deal with this" instructions.

anyways if you're someone who can spend 4 hours on a single level meticulously creating the perfectly laid out dungeon and unearthing the entire map and find that amusing this game is awesome.
if you're not kind of neurotic or inclined to OCD like that it's going to come across as unbearably slow and tedious.

 

[Underseer]

Dungeons 1, 2, and 3: 6.5 or 7 out of 10

so this game series is pretty blatantly just a direct ripoff of Dungeon Keeper, but since Dungeon Keeper was awesome and there was never anything like it (that i ever saw) a blatant ripoff of that game that is functionally just "more dungeon keeper" is pretty sweet IMO.
the gameplay is basically "the sims + warcraft 3 + the addams family" put into a blender.
it's a real-time dungeon builder where you're playing as basically Sauron building up your underground catacombs to invade the realms of the elves and dwarves and shit top-side.
much like an RTS you have workers, collect resources, recruit units, etc etc, but it's far more macro level - you don't control units directly, you just set up rooms and guide their work and combat through what is essentially "go over here and deal with this" instructions.

anyways if you're someone who can spend 4 hours on a single level meticulously creating the perfectly laid out dungeon and unearthing the entire map and find that amusing this game is awesome.
if you're not kind of neurotic or inclined to OCD like that it's going to come across as unbearably slow and tedious.

Did any of those games have shitty monetization in which you had to keep forking over money if you didn't want to be endlessly annoyed and frustrated?

Then what you played was infinitely better than the most recent incarnation of Dungeon Keeper (the mobile game).

 

[prideandfall]

Dungeons 1, 2, and 3: 6.5 or 7 out of 10

so this game series is pretty blatantly just a direct ripoff of Dungeon Keeper, but since Dungeon Keeper was awesome and there was never anything like it (that i ever saw) a blatant ripoff of that game that is functionally just "more dungeon keeper" is pretty sweet IMO.
the gameplay is basically "the sims + warcraft 3 + the addams family" put into a blender.
it's a real-time dungeon builder where you're playing as basically Sauron building up your underground catacombs to invade the realms of the elves and dwarves and shit top-side.
much like an RTS you have workers, collect resources, recruit units, etc etc, but it's far more macro level - you don't control units directly, you just set up rooms and guide their work and combat through what is essentially "go over here and deal with this" instructions.

anyways if you're someone who can spend 4 hours on a single level meticulously creating the perfectly laid out dungeon and unearthing the entire map and find that amusing this game is awesome.
if you're not kind of neurotic or inclined to OCD like that it's going to come across as unbearably slow and tedious.

Did any of those games have shitty monetization in which you had to keep forking over money if you didn't want to be endlessly annoyed and frustrated?

Then what you played was infinitely better than the most recent incarnation of Dungeon Keeper (the mobile game).

"dungeon keeper on mobile" isn't a game and isn't a thing a recognize as existing.
bullfrog had nothing to do with it, it was an IP exploitation 20 years after the actual game.

 

[KeepTalking]

Civ VI: Gathering Storm expansion 2 announced:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/20/civilization-6-gathering-storm-expansion-announced

This is likely why we haven't seen any recent DLCs adding new leaders, they have been saving them up for the upcoming expansion. Looks like they are going to add in active geological and climatological environment effects, as well as a World Congress among other tweaks. These big expansion DLCs are usually well worth it, altering the game in significant ways, and presenting new challenges that keep the game fresh.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Civ VI: Gathering Storm expansion 2 announced:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/20/civilization-6-gathering-storm-expansion-announced

This is likely why we haven't seen any recent DLCs adding new leaders, they have been saving them up for the upcoming expansion. Looks like they are going to add in active geological and climatological environment effects, as well as a World Congress among other tweaks. These big expansion DLCs are usually well worth it, altering the game in significant ways, and presenting new challenges that keep the game fresh.

Are they upgrading the AI as well? That was the fundamental problem with Civ VI which made me drop the game.

 

[Underseer]

Dungeons 1, 2, and 3: 6.5 or 7 out of 10

so this game series is pretty blatantly just a direct ripoff of Dungeon Keeper, but since Dungeon Keeper was awesome and there was never anything like it (that i ever saw) a blatant ripoff of that game that is functionally just "more dungeon keeper" is pretty sweet IMO.
the gameplay is basically "the sims + warcraft 3 + the addams family" put into a blender.
it's a real-time dungeon builder where you're playing as basically Sauron building up your underground catacombs to invade the realms of the elves and dwarves and shit top-side.
much like an RTS you have workers, collect resources, recruit units, etc etc, but it's far more macro level - you don't control units directly, you just set up rooms and guide their work and combat through what is essentially "go over here and deal with this" instructions.

anyways if you're someone who can spend 4 hours on a single level meticulously creating the perfectly laid out dungeon and unearthing the entire map and find that amusing this game is awesome.
if you're not kind of neurotic or inclined to OCD like that it's going to come across as unbearably slow and tedious.

Did any of those games have shitty monetization in which you had to keep forking over money if you didn't want to be endlessly annoyed and frustrated?

Then what you played was infinitely better than the most recent incarnation of Dungeon Keeper (the mobile game).

"dungeon keeper on mobile" isn't a game and isn't a thing a recognize as existing.
bullfrog had nothing to do with it, it was an IP exploitation 20 years after the actual game.

Dungeon Keeper was made by the legal copyright holder Electronic Arts. That's why they didn't get sued for making that game.

- - - Updated - - -

Civ VI: Gathering Storm expansion 2 announced:
https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/20/civilization-6-gathering-storm-expansion-announced

This is likely why we haven't seen any recent DLCs adding new leaders, they have been saving them up for the upcoming expansion. Looks like they are going to add in active geological and climatological environment effects, as well as a World Congress among other tweaks. These big expansion DLCs are usually well worth it, altering the game in significant ways, and presenting new challenges that keep the game fresh.

Ugh. I actually like they lack of any diplomatic victory. Ah well.

 

[Underseer]

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46286945

[YouTube]nPVOeyRYBPk[/YouTube]

The rise in use of loot boxes in video games corresponds with a large increase in child gambling. It looks like Belgium was right and perhaps more countries should have laws against loot boxes.

Except for America. Given that America has decided that makes shootings in school is an acceptable price for higher gun manufacturer profits, I can't imagine we would have a problem with children gambling.

 

[Underseer]

New info on the upcoming Civ 6 expansion. I'm not sure I'm crazy about consumable resources, natural disasters, diplomacy, etc.

[YOUTUBE]pwny0gLm2Nk[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I like the idea. Civ VI is missing ... something. I’m not totally sure what it is, but it feels incomplete. Hopefully, this will be that something.

 

[Underseer]

Honestly, I'm surprised it went this far without a diplomacy system, even though I like diplomacy in games a lot less than I once did.

I guess part of the problem is that if you want a science victory, you almost have to be a conqueror, and it's nearly impossible to get other nations to like you after you've wiped out every nation on the continent.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Ya, I think that's one of my main problems with it. I like just putting up a few cities and then doing my thing, but this version of the game doesn't allow you to get anywhere without a whole bunch of battle. I find the combat system to be extremely tedious and clunky and one unit per tile thing has made it worse and they've never managed to program the AI to do it well, so wars just tend to swing back and forth between weird and boring. I also hate that if you want to move a guy to a place that's ten turns away, you can no longer just click on the destination and deal with him when he arrives as opposed to needing to micromanage the entire journey or else have him end up wandering back and forth in some hills halfway there because somebody else is standing on the road.

If this version allows you to compete by going tall instead of wide, I'd probably get back into the game.

 

[Underseer]

I like the 1UPT thing. Now those terrain bonuses actually mean something, whereas before it was all about creating the biggest Stack Of Death and LOLFacerolling everything in your path.

I agree that the AI is shit. The AI is as shit as it's always been, but the AI doesn't seem to understand at all how to deal with life without Stacks Of Death.

We're probably not going to see a return of tall vs wide in this incarnation of Civilization. In order to make tall vs wide viable in Civ 5, they had to add penalties to larger civilizations. Players complained endlessly about the penalties, so the penalties are gone, so we're back to how things were in earlier Civ games in which you had to have the largest possible empire to get really big science bonuses.

In my experience, conquest also makes religious victories a lot easier.

Maybe the diplomacy victory will be viable with a tall civ?

 

[Underseer]

Oh, and the expansion better do a better job with UI scaling. Twitchy shooters like Battlefield 5 might not benefit much from higher resolutions, but Civ is a game that very much benefits from higher rez, and since Civ players generally don't care about framerates, systems that could never handle running a shooter at 1440p or 2160p can handle running Civ 6 at UHD.

They should have done a better job with UI scaling a long time ago.

 

[Patooka]

So, I started playing BattleTech since Thursday. Steam has informed me that I have played it for 67 hours over the last 4 days, which sounds disturbingly accurate.

The game nailed the regressive nature of the Third Succession War, where battles were sometimes fought over spare parts Mecha Mad Max style. The storyline in the campaign was pretty good. Making the Taurian Concordat the big bad in the campaign just illustrated the scale of the Battletech universe. It is also the first Battletech/Mechwarrior game that did mech customization (possibly with the exception of MW:O) in such a way that you had to decide which chassis does a particular job instead of boating 4 100 ton mechs and charging through. I cannot think how a more accurate transition of the tabletop game into a video game can be accomplished. I've seen a lot of people comparing this game to X-Com, but that feels lazy and disingenuous. The two games BattleTech reminded me of the most were The Crescent Hawks Revenge (obviously) and 1990's Battle Isle 2 updated with modern graphics and a friendlier UI. I already know I'm going to purchase any DLC for this game, and I don't know if any are even in the works. For me, this game is staying on my hard drive just like KOTOR 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R and Rome: Total War. It will never get repetitive for me.

BUT...

The fucking loading times are painful! This game has replaced Fallout 4 for me as most frustrating in terms of waiting for maps to load. Performance and frame rates drop off at some pretty random moments and the load/save menus are pretty abysmal. I didn't savescum at all in this game (unlike, say X-Com), not because I prefer Ironman play, but I didn't want to waste 5 minutes reloading simply because my Spider crippled itself trying to do a DFA. I can forgive the subpar and unskippable cutscenes, along with it being text heavy in-game (It's a kickstarter so some corners had to be cut), but the core mechanics of the game are still very rough, and doesn't come close to justifying the min spec requirements. Coupled with the high price, I can't recommend this game unless you are an avid BattleTech fan, in which case I would definately suggest grabbing it and hope for a patch in the next couple of months.

So Flashpoint came out and I was so disappointed, I actually took the time to write a review on Steam, here it is:

The "C" in DLC is meant to stand for content, which Flashpoint sorely lacks. This might have been forgivable (marginally) if Hairbrained was still a Kickstarter company, but with (or perhaps because of) Paradox supporting them, this really is a disappointingly cynical cash grab.
The really depressing thing about all of this is you get more variety, complexity and depth from a free to download mod like Roguetech than having to pay nearly half the price of the original game for this travesty.
After Fallout 76 and Battlefield V, it really looks as if developers are competing with one another for a race to the bottom. Hairbrained Schemes is in with a chance.
Save your money, learn from my mistake and just download the latest version of Roguetech. You'll get far more enjoyment.

 

[Underseer]

There was a time when I became fascinated with mobile games and more or less stopped playing PC games.

Then, little by little, the mobile market became a cesspool of aggressive monetization, microtransactions, etc. It got too hard to try and find the few actual good games from among the seething mass of games that were little more than a vehicle for microtransactions and "pay to avoid grinding" game design. So I stopped playing mobile games. The whole thing just made me disgusted and now I don't even fire up Final Fantasy 3 even though that game is a direct port from before the time of microtransactions. I just got sick of the platform altogether.

So now of course, the PC games are getting worse and worse. It's still not anywhere near as bad as they are in mobile games because everyone is expected to pay $60 up front and until recently, game developers knew that if they got too crazy with monetization, people would be unwilling to pay $60 up front for a game.

Shareholders, on the other hand, do not seem similarly concerned with the long term viability of the medium.

[YOUTUBE]9F96FOn3R7w[/YOUTUBE]

On the plus side, this will ultimately lead to a day when the first world has far fewer people addicted to computer games, which will mean more productive people in first world societies, which will hopefully make up for the inevitable collapse of the games industry.

 

[braces_for_impact]

I still play KOTOR on Android. Same game, just smaller screen.

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