[Gothos]

Aye, it is. Can't wait!

[Gothos]

OK so I finally got around to actually finish a campaign in Empire: Total War. Short campaign, mind you, as the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

I started out rushing Prussia within the first few years - the bastards have a lot of troops and great generals, damn them, but we prevailed. Armed with the ridiculously wealthy provinces of Brandenburg and East Prussia, as well as Saxony which I had to retake from Prussia, I started to fundamentally develop the other provinces to suit my future expansion. I allied myself with Austria and, securing thus my southern border, I proceeded to build up a small army.
Soon enough the Crimean Khanate attacked my russian allies and took Ukraine from them. Brilliant! I swept in and took both Kiev and Bakchisaray, ending the Khanate in a quick, three season campaign. The Ottomans didn't appreciate me stomping out their protectorate, but failed to produce much threat. Once the fires died down in the east for me to move my troops, I took Moldova to create a bottleneck between my enemy and my fertile lands up north.
Not much continued to happen, and out of boredom I went south and quickly took Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia and quite surprisingly - even Istanbul. After losing his seat of power, the Sultan agreed to a peace treaty and I was free to pursue my real goal in this whole maneuver - devouring Austria.
I had their lands in a pincer at this point, having armies stationed both in the Balkans and in eastern Germany. After several years of stamping down rebellions in ottoman lands, I decided I was ready - I cancelled our alliance, and two seasons later my armies were in place to strike.
I declared war. Thanks to some shrewd politics (yay bribes) I secured Great Britain's lack of support for Austria (they were their allies at the time), and only faced Austria and their bavarian allies. Within the first year of the war, I took Bohemia & Moravia, Silesia, Croatia and Austria. The next year saw the fall of Hungary and Transilvania, and so in one quick campaign, Austria was wiped off the map.
So here it turns out I have to sit it out until 1750 after all, even though I met the victory conditions by 1733. The next 17 years saw unparalleled and unprecedented development of the Bloodlands, the Balkans, Germany and Austria - these regions soon became the envy of surrounding states. Not that anyone dared to challenge my dominance. Sitting on 21 provinces I developed technology, roads, industry and farming to the max. The only other power to reach such heights - the Maratha Confederacy - were far, far away, and would not succeed in preventing my victory even if they tried. In the end, I didn't get to use my 10 winged hussar units, sadly - but I can still continue after winning the game, it seems - I'm of mind to finish the Ottomans and take on Maratha in a land conflict all the way through Persia and into their heartlands, but this will have to wait for another day.

Not bad.

[Satan]

http://www.eurogamer...big-budget-game

I was sceptical, but now I believe. If you can turn off the glam-cam l, I'll be even more pleased.

[rhulad]

Lucifer, on 29 February 2012 - 04:22 PM, said:

What he ^ said

And for those too lazy to check the source:

"Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine

For years, I clung to the memory of it. Then the memory of the memory.
And then... it returned. Better than it was before.
Pore over the tapestries and works of art hanging from our walls if you wish, Child of Bhaal... perhaps you will find a clue. But patience, ah... patience would reveal it all."

"As the silver moon waxes and wanes, so too does life."

I am looking forward to seeing what happens in the next few weeks

Source has changed:


March 5, 2012
Shadowy Figure- Raise Dead : Infinity Engine
"She left me to die. YOU left me to die. But Shar... Shar wanted me to live."


"If you wish me dead, brother, it must be by your hand. No one else."


I really can't wait to see what comes of this. I fucking loved those games so much, I think they need to be played again.

[Illuyankas]

So Tim Schaefer and Double Fine Studios started a Kickstarter drive to fund a new adventure game, and set their target at $400,000. They hit a million dollars in about a day and now they have roughly $2.7million and 54ish hours to go until the drive is over. $15 gets you the game itself, beta access and the video series to watch, and they have a bunch of tasty bonuses for slightly larger donations so check it out. Also Tim makes pictures like these:

[Illuyankas]

(damn 10 image limit)

[Aptorian]

I love Tim Schafer and double fine. They make such good games (lets not mention Brutal Legend). I wish Valve could buy them and just funnel endless amount of money into their studio.

I wasn't aware that the kickstarter also gave you access to the game. I thought it was just like charity, you give with out getting anything in return. I think I'm going to go ahead and throw 20 dollars their way now.

It's interesting how much publicity this has gotten. It's more or less what... I think it was Gabe Newell, talked about for the future of game development. Instead of allowing the publishers to decide what the games on the market should look like, people can now fund their own ideas and pay a publisher to make it happen. Not quite what happened here but it is a possibility in the future.

EDIT:

 backer.png (23.45K)
Number of downloads: 0

I can't believe how big some of donations have been. 3 people have donated 10,000 dollars for a dinner with Schafer and a tour of the studio. If only I was stinking rich.

This post has been edited by Aptorius: 11 March 2012 - 06:18 PM

[RodeoRanch]

Crusader Kings 2 is my current obsession.

[Sindriss]

Just waiting for Diablo3.... :/

Playing dota2 / hon meanwhile.

[Mentalist]

Legacy of Kain is not dead: maybe

http://www.gameinfor...evelopment.aspx

supposedly, there's a reboot of Soul Reaver 1 in the works.

mixed feelings. SR1 was amazing, I want next LoK game to go back to the open-world concept.
on the other hand, reboot will surely mean they are gonna tamper with the story. Which is the most amazing story told in a game series, ever (Disclaimer: never played MGS).

so.... reserved enthusiasm. if they "reboot+remake the entire series, i'll be furious". if they prettify SR+ add more optional areas to explore w/o tampering with Amy Henning's brilliant story--I'd be all for it.
But really, just give us closure, Squeeidos!

[POOPOO MCBUMFACE]

http://www.gameinfor...-cancelled.aspx

Quote

Today it is confirmed GSC Game World has been shut down and work on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sequel has been halted. Not all is lost, however. Team members of GCS formed a new studio,Vostok Games, and are working on a new project.
"We did not reach agreement with the rights owner regarding the use of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. brand, that’s why we made the decision to move forward as an independent studio with a new project. That day became our starting point for Vostok Games," the team said on its official website.
Vostok is working on a free-to-play, massively multiplayer online first-person shooter called Survarium (working title).
"The concept of Survarium is a next evolution step for the idea of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. we’ve been working on for the last ten years, said project lead Ruslan Didenko. "Survarium will go way further forcing mankind to fight for survival not only within the closed area of Chernobyl zone, but also far beyond."
Survarium is set for release sometime near the end 2013 for PC. Posted below is the game's first concept artwork.

Such is life in the Zone

But! It gets worse!

Quote

Statement by Sergei Grigorovich
I realized that the current conceptualization of Stalker would not be of interest to most gamers, and decided to scrap all work on the project.
There will be no official announcement. Instead, there will be a display of all the work the team managed to finish without me.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R brand will be transferred into the hands of Bethesda.
I'm leaving game development – I've had enough...

this has been their plan all along

The Elder Scrolls 6 will end with your character destroying the final Tower and causing the apocalypse, the reality of the world tearing apart as seen in the STALKER games, while the Fallout games show the aftermath

a more action heavy version of Fallout 3 with plenty of wacky mutants to blast and weird anomalies powered by gamebryo physics while listening to crackly russian radio station with ZANY DJ, KAMERADES, STAY SAFE OUT DARE IN ZONE GAHAHAHAHAHAHA

maybe even a hot independent female stalker with mission of revenge and loyal attack dog to accompany you on your journey

lots of previews/interviews/reviews telling everyone who liked STALKER that their game was shit before Bethesda updated it with cover based mechanic and glamor kill cams

Bethesda will finally combine all three franchises into one game and destroy the world

the mayans were right

you can buy the game as Fallout 4/TES 6/STALKER 2 as you wish

it is exactly the same game with a different ground texture

everyone in the world buys all three twice

financial meltdown ensues

doom

(I am upset by this cancellation)

[Mentalist]

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. being sold to Bethsoft is an unconfirmed rumour, reputedly started by a guy on the stalker forums. (the telling bit is that "the brand was sold to "Bethesda Games"")

the team behind the game has re-formed into Vostok games and are working on an F2P MP FPS

here's a translation of the Q+A they did today (did a loose translation of the talking points)


A server-based MP FPS. 30 players per session max. Co-op or team play, no solo play. There will be quests, related to a “deep storyline”. Also a somehting caller “person against the world”–more on that in the following dev diaries, next one in about a month. Game will run through a downloadable clients, mods are under consideration, but nothing balance-altering. No plans for non-official servers. Experience, like in S.T.A.L.K.E.R., is something the player’s supposed to gain, not the character. not sure how microtransactions will affect the game yet.

So yes, it's bad. but Beth doesn't get to despoil it. And if by some miracle Survarium is a success and makes money, the team will be able to get pack and make a true SP successor to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. that we all want.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 27 April 2012 - 04:21 AM

[Gothos]

Picking up Risen II today. Yeee-haww!

[Obdigore]

Gothos, on 27 April 2012 - 06:49 AM, said:

Picking up Risen II today. Yeee-haww!

I heard it was Shit. Let me know how it is.

Anyway, Legacy of Kain is now on GoG at 6$ USD.

[Gothos]

A working part I Blood Omen? whoa.

[Obdigore]

Sorry, no, its Soul Reaver.

[Gothos]

oh.
oh. very well, then. carry on. (I liked SR2 a lot more)

[Mentalist]

Gothos, on 27 April 2012 - 08:10 AM, said:

oh.
oh. very well, then. carry on. (I liked SR2 a lot more)

really?

I mean, SR2 is the defining point of the series, story-wise, but the gameplay was pretty shitty, imo. Especially since they ditched the open-world approach in favour of a linear slog through same locations back and forth in 3 time periods.

edit: though it's a real shame they didn't start with BO1. absolutely best game EVER!

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 27 April 2012 - 01:57 PM

[Aptorian]

Just bought Planescape Torment fore the equivalent of a pound. Yoink. Into the stack of waiting games it goes.

[Mentalist]

bunch of EA's games are up to 50% off at GamersGate. Battlefield 3 for 30 bucks.

sadly, not Mirror's Edge.

Anyone knows where I can buy the original Prey?