[Avatar]

Quote

The game gave me Observant, but I think I might have switched that to Intelligent.

I'm tempted to talk to everyone, but I'm not sure how much urgency I should feel about the Resonance chamber. Unlike Planescape, where you're literally on your own to figure shit out while you're in Sigil, here there's an immediate sense off urgency, and I'm not sure how real it is.

It would be my guess that there is no urgency... but on the other hand, nothing may be conventional about this game.

[Aptorian]

Played a bunch more Zelda: BOTW. I love this game.

I just had one of the best video game experiences in a long time. I got pinned down in the ruins of a house on a big green field by one of the mechanical guardians. One of the big mobile ones that I have learned to respect and fear. I typically run the other way when I see them, but this one snuck up on me. I knew I couldn't run because if there's no cover it insta kills you with its eye beam.

I tried hitting it with an Ancient arrow and it just shrugged it off. Tried hitting it with bomb arrows and fire and electricity arrows and it barely chipped its health. I got the shit blown out of me twice and had more or less accepted that this was the end and then I managed to destroy one of its legs with a spear. I then began a game of cat and mouse ducking in and out of the ruins and swiping at its leg until I managed to actually immobilize it. It continued to fire at me put I preceeded to take out all its legs and then it flipped over and died, spilling a fortune in gears and screws.

That felt immensely satisfying.

This game feels like Nintendo took the good things from Farcry and Dark Souls and smashed them together. There's such a sense of wonder and adventure to the exploration of the lands of this game. I just came over a hill and saw a gigantic chinese dragon flying around. I am torn between riding up to it and seeing if it's friendly or running the other way because it might not be friendly.

[Mentalist]

I should have been playing Torment all weekend.

But life was so hectic this week that I felt like having brainless fun and taking it easy.

SO instead I was playing Cossacks 3 campaigns most of the weekend.. French campaign is all about navy, and/or moving down hundreds of Algerian troops (representing the Berber pirates) using gunpowder units.

Also played 4 of the 5 Russian campaign missions, fighting the typical Russian enemies: Turks, then Poles, and eventually Swedes. Nothing super-crazy, but good fun.
Balance changes made cannons super-OP v. buildings (and especially towers- unlike Cossacks 1, in a 1 tower v 1 cannon match-up, now the most likely winner is the cannon). Also, mortars are now insanely good.

I also finished the Simpsons Hit'N'Run replay, and messed around with it a bit to figure out the best car for the "wager races", which is post-game only reliable way to make money I need to unlock the last few purchasable cars and character skins.

Ideally, this week will be less hectic, so that I can actually dig into Torment and enjoy dissecting that game.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 05 March 2017 - 10:48 PM

[Avatar]

Quote

I should have been playing Torment all weekend.

But life was so hectic this week that I felt like having brainless fun and taking it easy.

I guess same reason i've been playing this for sessions of 30-60 min. Want to take it with my full attention, otherwise, i will be clicking text away.

Released the beast, the nychthemeron in circus minor. Felt like an evil thing to do, but couldn't resist the opportunity to gain the knowledge that is inside of it :-)

[Avatar]

More Torment. Fixed the clock as well. I love the music, has a PT feel about it.

Theory:

Spoiler

What if you are the changing god, after he made himself forget about everything, but meanwhile, still the same being?

[Garak]

I like your theory. I could see it happening. Or

Spoiler

maybe that projection in your head isn't what it claims to be - a more sinister "Don't trust the skull" moment

[Tiste Simeon]

Started playing Dishonoured 2. Already loving it, already have a massively high chaos level after the first level. I think I killed everyone it is possible to kill, except a bunch of civilians. (I did kill one journalist by accident). Playing as Emily, it's good fun! Just got on the ship!

[Silencer]

Ghost Recon: Wildlands

There are some great things about this game. And also some moderately annoying ones. (Random inescapable holes, usually on cliffs, being the main one - the lack of even a simple jump makes them crippling. Compounded with the fact that all enemies respawn if you fast travel, this can be especially frustrating if you are one enemy soldier away from completing a mission...)

Im enjoying it so far. With a coop partner it should be excellent.

[Mentalist]

well, took me 7 hours, but I finally beat the first mission of the Yodit campaign on Medium! The word in the community is that it's virtually impossible on Hard.

The challenge is, of course, due to the fact that you're stuck in the Feudal Age. So's the opponent (although they do produce an occasional Shotel warrior, it's really not a major deal). What is a big deal is the fact that they have 4 fortified camps around the map and infinite resources to spam all feudal age troops with.

It took multiple tries to set up a decent defense of my starting base, and a fluid economy. Had to wall in most of the village so that they'd follow only 2 paths in. with undisturbed wood and gold production off-site from the main base, I used the starting camp only for food, and kept creating man at arms. Their job would be to draw enemy aggro and then keep running around the TC while garrisoned villagers killed the attackers.

meanwhile, my strike force (reinforced by the 2 purchased rams) roamed around the map, wiping out supporting camps. doing that didn't really relieve teh pressure, b/c Gidajan kept creating the same numeric amount of troops, but with less buildings to make them from, attacks got less frequent, since it took more time to rebuild the attacking force. This also gave me an opportunity to put up some towers in my base for extra firepower.

By the time I wiped out the easternmost camp, i technically already had an escape route for Yodit, but I decided to destroy the camp in the woods just for fun. Unfortunately, Gidajan's main base had a Castle, so i figured my 2 rams wouldn't be enough to take that.

Now, finally, onto the rest of the campaign!

[Mentalist]

Up to Yodit 4 now. I know I should be playing something new (like Torment), but there's something mindlessly therapeutic about exploring the map and progressively wiping out enemy cities in a slow-paced RTS. Mission 2 was especially nice like that.

Also, there have been some neat fixes to the custom campaigns in AoK HD, and there's a bunch of new content being released, some of it from people who've been campaign designers on the latest expansions...

Basically, I'm being sucked in again, having got past the hurdle that was Yodit1.

And the next patch, 5.3 should be focused on fixing single-player and campaign bugs, so that's good, too.

I'm also considering downloading the "userpatch" , which allows to use AoK HD as the vanilla game (and it'd make it compatible with earlier custom content).

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 14 March 2017 - 05:34 PM

[Aptorian]

I'm still playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I am approaching the end game. I've freed 3 of the 4 guardians and I've levelled up all my equiptment and armor. I've reached the point where I can now stalk and kill the Guardians with little fear which feels awesome.

I feel like BOTW is the Skyrim of this generation. Not in terms of the RPG mechanics or the story telling, Zelda is even shallower than Skyrim, but in terms of the rewarding experience it is to explore. To feel like you're going on an adventure, never knowing what you'll find over the next hill or on the next mountain top. It's a shame this is relegated to one platform, this is a must play.

[Mentalist]

Played really cool campaign in AoK HD this weekend. It's called "Ragnar's Raids" , and it's made by one of the campaign designers for the recent expansions.

Basically, you start out as a jarl in one of tthe Viking kingdoms- the semi-legendary Ragnar Lodbrok. And your job is to raid and pillage Britain (4 Kingdoms: Alba, Northumbria, Wessex and Marcia), as well as the Carolingian Empire (aka, Francia). Raiding gives you gold, which allows you to recruit more troops. Your goal is to take over all of Scandinavia by eliminating rival Jarls and taking over their lands (which increases your max population and is your only way of getting extra workers to collect wood and food).

Notable objectives include razing Edinburgh castle, the Castle of York, and raiding London to kidnap the princess of Wessex for ransom.

Really cool thing is that having your hero die doesn't end the scenario- he respawns in your home jarldom. So there's no "fail state" really- unless you run out of gold and ships. Even then, you can always make more transports (they only cost wood), and spearmen (only cost wood and food), and try raiding again hoping to score some gold (every destroyed building gets you some gold). So, thematically, it feels very appropriate. The 4 British Kingdoms have a solid mix of troops and work together to defend. I had to think like a raider, and launch multiple attacks, acting as "feints" to distract defenders from the "real" targets.

All in all, really cool premise, one of the best AoK scenarios I ever played.

Having done that, now I'm playing the Battle of the Conquerors "Vinlandsaga" , trying to Gert Erik the Red through Greenland and into the New world. Seems really primitive by comparison, but overcoming the initial tech handicap (my main opponent are the Viking settlements in Greenland, who are more teched than me and have more resources) was challenging. But now I dropped a castle by a big pile of stone in Greenland, and set up a town centre and a bunch of military buildings, so it's just a matter of building up, and demolishing everything with rams before moving further west.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 20 March 2017 - 02:30 PM

[Morgoth]

Very much enjoying my time with Torment.

[Morgoth]

But maybe I should buy Andromeda anyways? Sure the reviews are mediocre, but I loved the mass effect trilogy. I want to enjoy this game so bad!

[Mentalist]

I'm getting the impression that Nier Automata might be a more interesting game to purchase atm.

Andromeda sounds like a bland-ish comfort-food RPG. And I'm not sure I can go back to that after Witcher 3.

Automata sounds like something weird, unpredictable, and apparently side-stuff adds to the worldbuilding. So wishlisting that right now.

[Serenity]

Mentalist, on 21 March 2017 - 03:43 PM, said:

I'm getting the impression that Nier Automata might be a more interesting game to purchase atm.

I've been wondering about that. I'm torn between it and Persona 5 for my next purchase.

[Tiste Simeon]

10 Things I wish I'd Known when I Started Andromeda

Interesting spoiler free article. Seems that the game starts off quite mediocre but progressively gets better. This guy has finished it and clocked loads of hours so has quite a good overview.

[Morgoth]

Yeah, the most recent gignatbomb podcast made it very apparent that I will not have much fun with this game. I'll buy it when it's cheaper I suppose.

[Mentalist]

Messing around in AoK some more...


Been play-testing a Viking custom campaign from the Workshop- decently fun, nice maps, but later scens got a bit bland, and there's a few persistent bugs that cause annoyance, without being game-breaking. Last scenario looks quite complicated, but been distracted by other life stuff.

Also played the first 4 scenarios of the Khmer campaign in the new expansion. The new unit (Battle Elephants) is awesomely fun. Campaign design is pretty standard stuff, but it doesn't really matter, because massing elephants is so fun. I like the new architecture, too. Not sure how I feel about the updated Indian architecture set, though (in the 4th mission, you have an Indian ally). I think the previous set was cooler.

Stopped before the last mission, which also looks complex (because there's lots of enemies), and didn't really have the time to devote to it. But overall, it gave me a VERY nice first impression of the new expansion.

[Mentalist]

So the Vikings Sagas campaign ends on a strong note- the Mediterranean mission has you take on the Fatimids of North Africa from your new conquests in Spain (before moving on to pillage southern France and Italy, and (at the same time), gives you a base in modern day Ukraine as the Varangians, in an attempt to subdue Constantinople, while also dealing with the growing Magyar presence in the region, before doing a stint in attacking the Holy Land. The 2 forces are separated by geography with no way to relieve each other, so you are fighting 2 very different campaigns at once, since your Spanish force has no villagers, no siege and no castles. And you're prone to run out of resources (especially gold) if you are not careful.

In the end, the trick was to destroy the Magyars, taking their gold mines for immediate income, and also keeping their market intact to set up a reliable and fully controlled trade route. This gave me the resources to fuel my prolonged naval war with the Fatimids (who need to have 2 of their castles destroyed before they sue for peace and become friends).

In terms of objectives, it was pretty cut and dry, but the design was good, and overall, the scenario was a lot of fun. The campaign overall would get a 3.5/5 from me, because the middle scenarios (invasion of France and then Spain) felt same-y, and kinda bland (well, the Spain one had some diplo triggers that didn't work as intended, which made it more difficult and annoying).

Then yesterday I played the last scenario in the Khmer campaign, and it was glorious. You start out post-Imperial with a massive base, surrounded by 5 enemies, and your goal is to conquer 3 of them (there's 2 Burmese Kingdoms, 2 Cham Kingdoms (one represented by Malay and one by the Vietnamese), and (of course), there are some Khmer rebels.
There are also some Vietnamese to the north who'll join the fight for a substantial financial contribution.

The trick is, each time you beat an enemy, the rest ramp up their attacking forces. And since you're surrounded from 3 sides, there's always a crisis somewhere.

It took me 5 or so tries to work out a pattern of attack, how to take out the closest enemies without destroying anyone fully, and setting up massive defences (usually involving loads of castles) to stem enemy forces. I can't imagine how difficult this would be on Hard, because I really struggled with it on Moderate. Overall, playing as the Khmer was really fun, I hope the modders make more custom stuff with them soon.

Next up, I gotta wrap up more loose ends, so I need to finish the Charlemagne custom campaign, and then move on to the second Bari campaign scenario, and a few Battles of the Conquerors.