Screenshots!

[Civ'ed]

First completed March of the Eagles game!
(first semi-successful one was as Tunis)

Playing the ottomans, I managed to benefit from the Anglo French War to take:
- Tripoli
- Egypt
- Persia
- Tunis
- Algeria
- Piedmont
- What was left of sicily

I didn't actually go to war with major powers until Austria declared war (hence my army is so small). I ended up getting a white peace because Russia was suddenly on my doorstep, but I did have some successes against the Austrians in reclaiming land.

The screenshot was taken at the end of the game while a second Russo-Turkish war was going on. Russian reserves, man.

 

[cardgame]

Spoiler 1200p :

 

[trader/warrior]

My first automated mining and research base in Factorio. The whole operation is very unoptimised as I've been learning as I go along. Pretty interesting concept for a game, still in early access though.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Guess who just got Final Fantasy XIV: Realm Reborn:


My Final Fantasy XIV Character, Laura Beinbrech by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

This is my Lv 10 Gladiator (only took me 2 days to get that level), Laura... Doesn't she look like a total badass?

 

[Maniacal]

I can't decide what clashes more, those everything, or everything.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I can't decide what clashes more, those everything, or everything.

Unfortunately, I can't re-color my gear until I'm like, level 30...

At least it isn't on the "rainbow pimp 1970's disco reject" levels that WoW raid gear tends to be.

 

[King Flevance]

Having fun with the last alien.

Spoiler :

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

^^^ Is that like an X-Com spinoff? Looks pretty cool, but Thin Man? I hope he isn't related to the Slender Man.

 

[King Flevance]

Actually, it's the latest XCom game released. Firaxis did a remake. My guess is the Thin Man is there to play off of Slender Man.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Nice! Please, please, please tell me it doesn't need $team to play.....

 

[Maniacal]

You're playing an MMO by Square Enix and you're worried about Steam? (and yes, it is a Steamworks game).

 

[King Flevance]

It does require Steam and I can see why someone wouldn't like Steam. However, I think Firaxis benefits from the Steam relationship as the multiplayer seems to function much better than when they weren't with Steam and used crappy services like Gamespy Arcade or whatever the one with the red star was for Civ 3. (Game Commrade?)

If you don't play multiplayer, that can go completely unlooked. However, the downside is it makes even your physical copy turn into a digital one for the sake of DRM. That is a big downside. I am actually more worried of a Take 2 digital service starting up to try and copy though, because that is the type of dumb decisions happening in the industry right now. EA's Origin pales to Steam and is basically EA trying to take on "the rest of the industry" [that uses Steam] solo. Yet, EA is known for butchering IPs by giving them microtransactions, not just DLC. Ubisoft's UPlay is atrociously invasive and annoying and it wouldn't surprise me if it tried to follow EA's dumb footsteps as usual. I think 2K/Firaxis are afraid open modding will cut sales of DLC based on their behavior with Civ5 and XCom though. I think Bethesda is proof mods will sell your game more. Hell Arma 2 is proof of that. I bet DayZ outsold Arma 2 and Bohemia got rich off it. I think FfH2 helped CIv 4's sales and I think that is why Kael got brought onto Fallen Enchantress.

Ranting aside, I think Steam benefits Firaxis multiplayer and even offers the Steam workshop for modders. Unfortunately, modding has not been supported by Firaxis with Xcom yet but it does have multiplayer. (I haven't played it though)

If you dont play multiplayer or use mods, its just sucky DRM for no reason.

Some more pics:

A cool "Second String"

Spoiler :

My first Mech. He died on this mission, his first mission. Was a bit of a buzzkill.

Spoiler :

Tropicana Plaza out of left field.

Spoiler :

 

[King Flevance]

Got some more time. I'll post these separate.

The early stages of my 3rd island:

Spoiler :

The early stages of my first Anno 2070 game.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[Zack]

EA's Origin pales to Steam

I hate this circlejerk. Origin has a better UI, faster download speeds, and refunds. Steam has discounts (Origin's sales are usually mediocre), but Amazon usually has better sales anyways. So really the only real advantage of Steam is the workshop, but there aren't really any EA games I'm that interested in modding, except for maybe Dragon Age (which has tons of support on nexus).

And Valve doesn't sell its games on uPlay or Origin, so spare me the whining about EA keeping its newer games on Origin.

 

[King Flevance]

I hate this circlejerk. Origin has a better UI, faster download speeds, and refunds. Steam has discounts (Origin's sales are usually mediocre), but Amazon usually has better sales anyways. So really the only real advantage of Steam is the workshop, but there aren't really any EA games I'm that interested in modding, except for maybe Dragon Age (which has tons of support on nexus).

And Valve doesn't sell its games on uPlay or Origin, so spare me the whining about EA keeping its newer games on Origin.

Ea is free to do as they wish with their IPs but Origin is nowhere as useful as Steam. Because I can surf the entire industry with it and not just 1 publisher's catalogue. I ain't a fan of Valve, I like Portal and kinda L4D. I think Half Life now gets more hype than it deserves and TF is cool, but I don't want to play it.

One publisher, even EA or Activision, cannot compete with the variety Steam offers. You playing COD? You could talk to friends playing Beyond Good an Evil, or Torchlight. Not only games by the same publisher as the one who made your game. Essentially the "origin community" is just people who want to talk about EA games. Many of which are being diced up into tiny buyable sections. Sim City, Dead Space, I wouldn't be surprised if DA:I had them. I am hoping the new CEO may actually have something to offer but I ain't holding my breath.

I know EA bashing seems tiring but I am just going off track records. Valve's isn't stellar either. They are lazy from my perspective. They aren't even advertising the Steambox. Probably because they don't plan to give it any exclusive IPs.

Better UI I disagree with. Faster download speeds is probably true. Refunds they had their hands forced in after all the recent debacles. Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, Sim City, Battlefield 4, Dead Space. All big titles all met fans with ire on release. It got so bad EA took "Worst Company in America Award" from irate gamers for 2 years. Whether you think they deserve it or not, the market spoke up and said they did. That means something. Majority rules. Origin did not originally support refunds until all their major launches started going to hell in a handbasket.

Now, I ain't saying that that makes the refunds null and void. Just saying how long are those refunds going to be on the table for? Steam just handed price control over to the devs/publishers. Something EA was trying to get them to do for a while.

No matter how much you love Origin, it doesn't have the longevity Steam does. Origin depends on EA. Steam depends on the entire industry except EA now.

EDIT: I prefer GOG.com (DRM free digital downloads) but Steam has benefits for me. I highly recommend ModNexus for modders though over Steam.

 

[Maniacal]

I hate this circlejerk. Origin has a better UI, faster download speeds, and refunds. Steam has discounts (Origin's sales are usually mediocre), but Amazon usually has better sales anyways. So really the only real advantage of Steam is the workshop, but there aren't really any EA games I'm that interested in modding, except for maybe Dragon Age (which has tons of support on nexus).

Origin's download speeds have always been the same as Steam's for me, it might be an issue with your ISP or the download region you have set for Steam might be too busy. Origin's UI isn't any better or worse than Steam's, although it lacks several features that Steam has like screenshot hosting and sharing. Origin/EA account password requirements are not as good either since it limits you to 16 characters and requires having an upper case letter (which doesn't really make it anymore secure, just harder to remember). The only thing it really does a lot better is that EA has much better customer support (most of the time), although they don't like handing out refunds very much either. Other than that, its mostly just something you have to run for a few EA games, and is thankfully unobtrusive.

Amazon may have some better sales, but a lot of the time these don't include the DLC individually but only in bundles.

Steam just handed price control over to the devs/publishers.

The publishers have always been in charge of the pricing of their own products.

 

[Sonereal]

Origin isn't even a quarter as bad as I was led to believe before using it. Not that I use it much, but when I do, it isn't really in my face awful.

So yeah.

 

[Zack]

I don't think either client is great (both okay), but it really annoys me when people just bash on Origin as being a thousand times worse than Steam.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

You're playing an MMO by Square Enix and you're worried about Steam? (and yes, it is a Steamworks game).

Yes, because Square-Enix has never screwed me over for no reason, unlike the Steam, which banned my account just because I wasn't buying enough games from them (look in the fine print: They can ban your account for any reason they feel like), and I'm not the only one (just look up the F*** Steam facebook group that I'm a member of). Worst part was, when I tried to find out why/complain about it, they basically told me that I was SOL and had to buy another Valve game (this was back in 2007), so I told them where they could go, what they could do when they got there and whom they could do it with.

On top of that, Steam is basically SPYWARE that you have to PAY for... And just about as hard to remove from your system as actual spyware.

That is why I refuse to BUY any game that requires Steam... Won't necessarily stop me from PLAYING a game that requires Steam if alternate sources are available. (Yar-har feddle-dee-dee..... )

My policy when it comes to dealing with businesses is quite simple: Screw me over once, and I'll not only refuse to do business with you ever again, but I'll also tell all my friends that you are a bunch of liars and cheats and to steer clear of your scams.

That is why the only Digital Distribution stores that I'll deal with are Gamer's Gate and Gamestop Online: They don't require you to have TSR software running in the background (boy I guess I'm showing my age using THAT particular term) that takes up half your system memory, or constantly keep track of everything you do while said clunky, system-resource hogging piece of crap spyware is running in the background and send it to a questionably secure database.

Sorry about the rant, but anything involving Steam and its virtual monopoly on games these days is enough to set my blood boiling!

Anyways, back on topic:

I finally unlocked the ability to dye my armor sets and made it to level 16:


Laura at Level 16 by Hikaro Takayama, on Flickr

Now she's looking a bit more badass!

 

[Sonereal]

hich banned my account just because I wasn't buying enough games from them

Steam once took my games away because my cousin had an abortion.

See. I can make wild claims without proof too.

Steam is basically SPYWARE that you have to PAY for

Except you don't.