[Gothos]

It's still possible to go through the entire game without dealing any damage to anyone (yes that means also no blackjack). Or , on top of that, never be seen or alert anyone.
I don't recall any kill requirements in Thief, care to refresh my memory?

Edit: oh and also I'm playing Europa Universalis IV right now. Started as Poland, now the Commonwealth. In the middle of Westernization - now that's an annoying process. All that for 20% tech boost and western units? Lets hope it was worth it.

This post has been edited by Gothos: 29 December 2013 - 08:59 AM

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Just bought Rage. Installing momentarily.

[Aptorian]

Word of warning about Rage.

Play it for the excellent combat and gunplay. DO NOT expect to get anything out of the story. It is practically non-existent and the ending is one of the most disappointing finishes to a game I have ever encountered.

It really soured me on the game, despite enjoying the gameplay immensely.

[Obdigore]

Not Brent Weeks, on 29 December 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

Word of warning about Rage.

Play it for the excellent combat and gunplay. DO NOT expect to get anything out of the story. It is practically non-existent and the ending is one of the most disappointing finishes to a game I have ever encountered.

It really soured me on the game, despite enjoying the gameplay immensely.

It was really pretty for the time, too.

[Morgoth]

Gothos, on 29 December 2013 - 08:57 AM, said:

It's still possible to go through the entire game without dealing any damage to anyone (yes that means also no blackjack). Or , on top of that, never be seen or alert anyone.
I don't recall any kill requirements in Thief, care to refresh my memory?

Edit: oh and also I'm playing Europa Universalis IV right now. Started as Poland, now the Commonwealth. In the middle of Westernization - now that's an annoying process. All that for 20% tech boost and western units? Lets hope it was worth it.

I'm not so sure it's worth it as someone in the eastern tech group. Or, at least it's not worth it if you've entered the 17th century. Your units are adequate, and with westernization you risk a downwards spiral that is all but impossible to escape.

[MTS]

Morgoth, on 29 December 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

Gothos, on 29 December 2013 - 08:57 AM, said:

It's still possible to go through the entire game without dealing any damage to anyone (yes that means also no blackjack). Or , on top of that, never be seen or alert anyone.
I don't recall any kill requirements in Thief, care to refresh my memory?

Edit: oh and also I'm playing Europa Universalis IV right now. Started as Poland, now the Commonwealth. In the middle of Westernization - now that's an annoying process. All that for 20% tech boost and western units? Lets hope it was worth it.

I'm not so sure it's worth it as someone in the eastern tech group. Or, at least it's not worth it if you've entered the 17th century. Your units are adequate, and with westernization you risk a downwards spiral that is all but impossible to escape.

It's more hassle than it's worth in my experience. I've played multiple games as Byzantium, Poland and Muscovy (all Eastern tech), never westernised and was still able to go toe to toe with the major European powers by the 17th century (just trap them in the mountains and watch their units die in droves). Before that you're not actually much worse than Europe militarily, it's easy to keep up in tech and afterwards you probably won't recoup the points you spend westernising in tech discounts because there aren't enough after that.

Poland is in a good position to westernise very early though (ditto Byzantium), possibly even by 1500 if you're lucky, but if you're starting it after 1550 you've waited too long in my opinion.

EDIT - the 1.4 patch is redoing westernisation, so this may all change after Jan 14th.

This post has been edited by MTS: 29 December 2013 - 03:13 PM

[Mentalist]

Gothos, on 29 December 2013 - 08:57 AM, said:

It's still possible to go through the entire game without dealing any damage to anyone (yes that means also no blackjack). Or , on top of that, never be seen or alert anyone.
I don't recall any kill requirements in Thief, care to refresh my memory?

Edit: oh and also I'm playing Europa Universalis IV right now. Started as Poland, now the Commonwealth. In the middle of Westernization - now that's an annoying process. All that for 20% tech boost and western units? Lets hope it was worth it.

spoilered

Spoiler

In "return to the cathedral the last thing the ghost asks you before giving you the armoury key is to "kill all the Hammer ghosts"

Also, in the second-last mission ("Strange bedfellows") at a certain point Garret mutters "I've had enough of this" and you get a goal (on expert) to "kill all the insect creatures". Which basically means you need to gas/blackjack them, and then hit them with the sword until they stop bleeding.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Possibly Brent Weeks, on 29 December 2013 - 11:46 AM, said:

Not Brent Weeks, on 29 December 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

Word of warning about Rage.

Play it for the excellent combat and gunplay. DO NOT expect to get anything out of the story. It is practically non-existent and the ending is one of the most disappointing finishes to a game I have ever encountered.

It really soured me on the game, despite enjoying the gameplay immensely.

It was really pretty for the time, too.

Well, I can't even get it to launch—it just goes to a black screen and then comes up with a message saying that it's stopped working. Try as I might, I can't fix it, either.

I only paid £3.50 for it, so it's no biggie but still annoying, I guess.

[Aptorian]

Have you tried looking in the Steam forum to see if there is a known issue?

90% of the time when I have a steam game issue I find some kind of topic on it in the forums.

[Gothos]

Mentalist, on 29 December 2013 - 04:36 PM, said:

spoilered

Spoiler

In "return to the cathedral the last thing the ghost asks you before giving you the armoury key is to "kill all the Hammer ghosts"

Also, in the second-last mission ("Strange bedfellows") at a certain point Garret mutters "I've had enough of this" and you get a goal (on expert) to "kill all the insect creatures". Which basically means you need to gas/blackjack them, and then hit them with the sword until they stop bleeding.

Huh. Well, it's been a very, very long while since I've played that game, and I might just not remember. Early missions (up until return) were always my favourites in comparison. I think I've only ever actually finished the game twice.
T2 is a lot better in that regard I think. May ask you to disable some steam automatons, I'm not sure.


As for EU4, I've finished westernizing halfway through the 16th century I think. Now it's the 1650-s and I've broken Muscovy (forced them to release novogrod and relinquish ties with Bohemia and Austria in two successive wars) and am more or less tied for military with Ottomans and France. Austria started to blob, did all the HRE reforms up until invalidating inter-empire warfare, inherited hungary and made some major victories in northern Italy. To the north I've supported Sweden when it was reduced to just Gotland against their adversary Denmark, now Sweden is the big player there and lifelong friend of the Commonwealth.
To this day I consumed Pomerania, Teutonic Order, Livonian Order and Ryazan, Pskov is next (forced them out of Muscovy, integration and annexation incoming). I've a sizable income (range of +120 per month with 3/2/2 advisors) and +2 stability, even though I got a bit bored and decided to convert to Reformed with a fully catholic country (I was also sick of that papal influence game). Religious unity is reaching 100% as we speak now, like 20 or 30 years later. Got my sights on Bohemia now, though Austria will defend them. Brandenburg and Sweden may join the war, but Novogrod and Austria will, of course, not (too far & emperor). I think I'll utilize my income to just make my army an absolute monster and disregard army limits, the upkeep hit is negligible.

This is a great game!

[Aptorian]

It's not on sale right now but some of you need to buy Trials: Evolution.

http://store.steampo...?snr=1_7_15__13

I bought it a couple of days ago and it's really gotten a grip on me. It's ridiculously addicting trying to get a clean run through these courses. If I had somebody else's record to play against it would double the entertainment.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Not Brent Weeks, on 29 December 2013 - 05:48 PM, said:

Have you tried looking in the Steam forum to see if there is a known issue?

90% of the time when I have a steam game issue I find some kind of topic on it in the forums.

Yeah, there doesn't seems to be a hard and fast fix for it. A bunch of methods that work for some people and not for others, none of which I've found that work for me.

All my drivers are up to date, I've tried inserting files, removing files, ticking boxes, unticking boxes, restarting, restarting again, re-unticking boxes, replacing files and checking drivers a second time, and running the other 64 bit mode.

Still has the same trouble.

[MTS]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 29 December 2013 - 07:34 PM, said:

Not Brent Weeks, on 29 December 2013 - 05:48 PM, said:

Have you tried looking in the Steam forum to see if there is a known issue?

90% of the time when I have a steam game issue I find some kind of topic on it in the forums.

Yeah, there doesn't seems to be a hard and fast fix for it. A bunch of methods that work for some people and not for others, none of which I've found that work for me.

All my drivers are up to date, I've tried inserting files, removing files, ticking boxes, unticking boxes, restarting, restarting again, re-unticking boxes, replacing files and checking drivers a second time, and running the other 64 bit mode.

Still has the same trouble.

Yeah I'm having the same problem with ACIV, which is more annoying because I paid $40 for it.

[Dolmen 2.0]

So Booted up Tomb Raider today, been feeling super sick and I'm keen to play something interesting to get my mind off the illness.

I am impressed.

They really made Lara standout as a character. and the feel around it makes you appreciate the shipwreck while maintaining this hunt for mystery. This is the game I expected about three tomb raiders ago. It got a bit too over zealous with the QTE but I think the pacing is good and there is a good story board behind it all. Really immersive.

I reccomend.

[Ukjent]

They overdid it with the QTE in the start, but damn the game was great. But the bow is way to overpowered. There ain't any reason to use something else.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

I've given up on rage. I don't think Steam will refund me for it but it was only £3.50. Instead, Remember Me has 75% off, at last, so I've bought that.

[Vengeance]

I just got Crusader Kings II : The old gods on steam for 7.49. Now that I finally got my laptop fixed (installed Ubuntu got rid of vista) I can play some games.

[Mentalist]

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 30 December 2013 - 03:25 PM, said:

I've given up on rage. I don't think Steam will refund me for it but it was only £3.50. Instead, Remember Me has 75% off, at last, so I've bought that.

also bought it

[Gothos]

So the EU4 game is going... well, the situation went from slightly stagnating to getting dangerous.
I've been doing my thing trying to take a bite at Muscovy for a bit longer, forced them to release Crimea, but at that time it was just a few scattered provinces so the whole war effort seems somehow wasted. After that I kind of lost interest in the miniuscule gains in wars with Muscovy for the great cost of having to somehow fend off Austria and Bohemia at the same time. I let my provinces develop a bit, let my manpower go back up to very nearly half a million, tried to claim throne in Sweden but no luck, the queen lived until 78 years old when a legal heir appeared out of nowhere and she died. I also decided to start improving my relations with Ottomans, increasingly wary of my southern neighbour...
So what was Austria doing all this time? Well, they first took the penultimate reform in the HRE where they force vassalization on members or kick them out. To my dismay most of them decided to become Austria's vassals, except Saxony, Palatinate, Bavaria and Bohemia.
Yes, Bohemia. Some good in it all, yes?
I had a claim on Neumark so I pushed it. Bohemia's sole ally in the world was Muscovy and they didn't join in. I crushed them and forced them to release Silesia, subsequently vassalized said nation and started preparing the grounds for annexation. Once I was done with them they got attacked by an absurdly blobbing Austria, which has diplo-annexed Milan, Venice, Munster, Tuscany and some other minors in the HRE and was pushing against their former subjects. I wanted Bohemia for myself so I had to do something about it...
I allied/RMed France and Bavaria, and with my newfound allies, Sweden, Novogrod and Ottomans in tow I pushed my Trade Dispute CB on Austria (and half of central Europe and Muscovy too, it would seem).
Well, it turns out you can't really do much with that CB. After just several battles my warscore jumped to 42%-ish and after each subsequent hard-earned toe-to-toe barely won battles between great forces on both sides they warscore meter wouldn't budge. I saw I wasn't gaining much but Bohemia managed to weasel out of being conquered with just ceding two provinces, so I made Austria release Hungary and Brunswick as sovereign nations and sued for peace.
The very grateful Hungary immediately turned hostile in relations and Rivaled me. Fuck Hungary, seriously.
So, after that the truce with Bohemia was done so I was good (armed with still the same CB for Neumark) to waltz over them again. The coming conflict escalated a bit, as despite Bohemia having fuck all chances to defend against this, Muscovy joined the war this time - and as the coalition leader, no less. That meant that taking ALL of Bohemia's land gave me like 23% warscore - not even enough for one of their juicy provinces. Overall, this war was pretty awesome, with me as the Commonwealth, with Sweden, Novogrod and Ottomans as allies - fighting the weakened Bohemia, Muscovy, Persia and Afghanistan. This time my allies were pretty useful in giving me warscore from conquering Persian provinces and Muscovian in the caucasus as well, leaving me to roam free and roll over Muscovy's core provinces in Russia. Quite soon the war was over as I didn't want to dip too low on manpower in case Austria got any ideas, and I took two more provinces off Bohemia. Could be worse, right?
Yes. It could be worse. Right after this war was done, Austria enacted the last imperial reform, forming the Holy Roman Empire as a single entity.
I'm screwed.
Now it seems like they took to reconquering old provinces as they attacked Hungary quite fast. Since I was guaranteeing Hungary's independance, I took the war on my chest, calling in France, Sweden, Bavaria and Ottomans (Novogrod just finished annexing at that point) into the war, but it's not looking good at all. France's just sitting on some backwater province in the west, Ottomans sent like maybe 1/5 of their potential, and the entire 400 thousand imperial troops were heading my way, all over some bullshit fucker who didn't even appreciate my liberating them.
Fuck Austria. Fuck historical lucky nations.

Oh, did I mention in this game Brittany is a major colonial power?

Also, tried out the CK2 save converter, bringing my 1120-ish Wendish Empire. In CK2 I was a powerhouse, imported into EU4 I've spent the first 50-ish years converting cultures and falling behind on tech, having absurdly low manpower compared to force limit. Also it imported it as in the Eastern tech group but Germanic traditions and future decision to reform into Prussia. Eh.

[Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast]

Mentalist, on 30 December 2013 - 05:51 PM, said:

Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast, on 30 December 2013 - 03:25 PM, said:

I've given up on rage. I don't think Steam will refund me for it but it was only £3.50. Instead, Remember Me has 75% off, at last, so I've bought that.

also bought it

You mean Remember Me?

You know, for all of it's mixed reviews and people not liking this and that about it, I'm really enjoying it. Perhaps the combat is a little repetitive, but I haven't played a game with a combo-based combat system in ages and I think it's quite fun.

The only thing I don't like is how it holds your hand through every little detail of where to go. Sometimes I just don't want those little yellow arrows and I want to find my own way around! And then, bizarrely, it makes getting through that minefield actually fairly hard without being blown up.

Anyway, I'm at the beginning of Episode 4. Hoping I'm not playing through it too quickly!

This post has been edited by Jade-Green Pig-Hog Swine-Beast: 31 December 2013 - 10:34 AM