What Video Games Have You Been Playing? Five-and-Twenty: I Used to Play, But then I Took an Arrow to the Knee

[amadeus]

Restarting as the USSR, I abandoned the “people’s army” doctrine and am going instead for light infantry with an emphasis on mobile artillery and armored cars. It’s 1940, and my emphasis on building factories and research has put us second to the U.S., within a 5-10% margin.

I have not researched a single naval tech or static air defense. First, we are a land power, and second—no enemy can reach the Urals. If one reaches the Urals, you may call me Meyerov.

 

[Kyriakos]

I have never played any version of HoI. If I try a Paradox game again, it will be some late expansion of EU5 - so years from now.

 

[Quintillus]

Anyone messing with Europa Universalis V?

I have been intentionally trying to remember that it's been released. Because I can predict what will happen when I buy it.

"It's April already? What did I do all winter?"

I always wait for reviews, but it seems to have received a largely positive reception. And EU4 is, by far, my most-played game on Steam. Civ III might equal it including CD-based playtime, but EU4 might take the cake. So if it does, and EU5 is more compelling... I have more of a social life than I did two years ago, let alone when EU4 was new, but EU5 certainly has the potential to damage that.

Restarting as the USSR, I abandoned the “people’s army” doctrine and am going instead for light infantry with an emphasis on mobile artillery and armored cars. It’s 1940, and my emphasis on building factories and research has put us second to the U.S., within a 5-10% margin.

I have not researched a single naval tech or static air defense. First, we are a land power, and second—no enemy can reach the Urals. If one reaches the Urals, you may call me Meyerov.

The USSR researching naval techs? Completely unnecessary! At least until it's time to invade Japan.

I believe the "Meyer" name is supposed to apply when Allied aircraft cross the Rhine?

How does army management work in Darkest Hour? So far that's been the biggest upgrade from HOI3 to HOI4 for me; I can let the AI manage fronts, and not have to micromanage every movement. Typically, in practice, that means for small countries (Belgium, Czechoslovakia), I might manage everything myself, but for a USSR-sized country, I would let the AI manage things, and zoom in on specific areas of focus as needed. Which strikes a better balance for me than having to do it all myself over a large front.

I believe Darkest Hour is based on HOI2, so I'm not entirely optimistic in that regard, but I don't really know what the differences are.

 

[amadeus]

I believe the "Meyer" name is supposed to apply when Allied aircraft cross the Rhine?

I believe Darkest Hour is based on HOI2, so I'm not entirely optimistic in that regard, but I don't really know what the differences are.

(1.) yes, based on Goering’s infamous comment

(2.) it is, so every unit group needs to be managed

In my game, 1941 came and went. Then ‘42, then ‘43… now it’s April of 1944 and the Germans still haven’t attacked. They did take Ireland which joined the Allies after Churchill gave them the north. I don’t know what the RN was doing to let a bunch of Germans just sail around them, but okay.

I may just have to start the war myself. I’ve got an almost 2:1 advantage and my equipment is better, more than a year ahead of the Germans.

 

[Quintillus]

(1.) yes, based on Goering’s infamous comment

(2.) it is, so every unit group needs to be managed

In my game, 1941 came and went. Then ‘42, then ‘43… now it’s April of 1944 and the Germans still haven’t attacked. They did take Ireland which joined the Allies after Churchill gave them the north. I don’t know what the RN was doing to let a bunch of Germans just sail around them, but okay.

I may just have to start the war myself. I’ve got an almost 2:1 advantage and my equipment is better, more than a year ahead of the Germans.

Do it! Crush the fascists and raise the the flag of socialism over their lands!

I suppose the other question is how many territories, roughly, are across the front? HOI4 has a lot. But there's a world of difference between EU2, EU3, and EU4 (with patches) in terms of territorial density. I could manage... 20 or so across the front? Not the 60+ that HOI4 has.

 

[amadeus]

Do it! Crush the fascists and raise the the flag of socialism over their lands!

I suppose the other question is how many territories, roughly, are across the front? HOI4 has a lot. But there's a world of difference between EU2, EU3, and EU4 (with patches) in terms of territorial density. I could manage... 20 or so across the front? Not the 60+ that HOI4 has.

Depending on how wide you want the front to be, of course, but I would say I border about that many Axis territories (-Finland).

 

[Quintillus]

About... 20? Or 60?

(Finland, alas, does not really count. Put some defensive troops up there and deal with it when it's time, and hope the Winter War outcome doesn't occur)

 

[amadeus]

About... 20?

Yes. Could be fewer—I’m out at the moment so that’s my estimate. But I’m certain HOI4 is a vast improvement.

(Finland, alas, does not really count. Put some defensive troops up there and deal with it when it's time, and hope the Winter War outcome doesn't occur)

I beat them and their weird language in less than a month but I still got a penalty.

 

[amadeus]

Do it! Crush the fascists and raise the the flag of socialism over their lands!

An update: it took about two months to get to Berlin, but Churchill did not like my belligerence towards the uh, Nazis, so declared war on the USSR. Churchill, of course, being famous for his sympathies towards them and never working out secret deals with Stalin on cocktail napkins.

I checked the German side to see if something was bugged—no, the Germans had the Operation Barbarossa event available—I just think the AI goes a little off kilter if Ireland joins the Allies, so I’m going to have to go to a save before that and hopefully this time the right events will fire.

Edit: I think I played the wrong mod. I know there are events for other countries, but this one was mostly for Germany and looking through the files either the AI work wasn’t done, or something was missing. I had to tweak one in order to get Barbarossa to fire, which makes me think that either I’m missing a file from an alternative version or it just hadn’t been completed.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I think you might be conflating "open world" with "role-playing" or the like. Anywhere with a vast map that isn't just a series of little hub worlds is "open world", but that says nothing about your freedom (or not) to choose your own adventures and play a character exactly as you see fit.

On second thoughts I should've said 'sandbox'. Still I preferred Kenshi over Skyrim. I need to play both though

 

[Birdjaguar]

Path of Exile: Keepers league, of course.

 

[Samson]

There is an open source Civ 5 clone. It looks pretty much like Civ 5 to me, but I do not like one unit per tile so I am not so into it. The graphics are pretty flat, but I quite like that.

https://github.com/yairm210/UnCiv

 

[Ordnael]

I think you can mod the one unit per tile. I had unciv on my smartphone for a while and there a bunch of mods you can install from the game itself, kindda like open TTD.

 

[amadeus]

Plugging in a different mod and on game number two: the first as the USSR resulted in a Soviet victory in spring 1943, capturing Paris as well as the Low Countries, Italy, etc.

Second one as Germany, and I think this campaign is harder than the Soviet one, but I’ve taken out Britain and Ireland, it’s Feb. 1942 and I’m waiting for winter to be over because there’s a big debuff. At the gates of Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad, but this time Germany is outproducing the Russians 2.5:1 and I have enough oil to sustain the campaign.

edit: things I have learned.
First of all, for some reason the Americans will cross the Atlantic, undefended, to bonk their heads against the German garrisons. Iran-Iraq Basij tactics of just man after man thrown out until I’m exhausted, manpower wise and psychologically. Step for next time: put the naval bombers on patrol 24/7

Second: Italy is a crap ally. Despite the strait of Gibraltar and Suez being closed to all Allied ships, the American still managed to naval invade behind Naples. What? How? I know Mussolini sucks but this is something else. Also, the Afrika Korps bailed him out and what did he do but let the British get behind the lines, and Britain doesn’t even control the home isles.

Third: I need to check the events files because I didn’t even realize the winter debuff never shut off after winter. Russia is cold but it can’t be that cold. And figure out some way to stop them from reinforcing level 10 forts on Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad. Or figure out how to wear them down. Whichever way, I’m going to go back to 1933 and try again.

 

[Kyriakos]

I suppose there isn't anywhere to go from here, this is basically an apocriton farming colony and can increase its military (mechanoids) exponentially.
But the bad thing is that this made me want to play Factorio again.

 

[Quintillus]

NEO Scavenger, day 4 (or is it five?)

I've been fortunate this time. Just a few bruises, a bit of black mold, and some incidental contact with an infected man this afternoon. Often, death comes quickly. Cold nights, questionable water, poisonous berries, hostile strangers. It's a man-eat-dog world out there, and having left the cryo chamber with nothing but a bracelet, necklace, and hospital gown, it could have gone a lot worse.

So far, only one stranger has challenged me to a fight, but he got the worse of it. I tried to talk, but people these days - you'd think some sort of apocalypse had come, and maybe it has. Still, it was a warning that I should always have something I can use to defend myself, even if it is a sharpened log. Just the hoodie that helps keep me warm might be enough for some people to try to take what I have. But it's not all bad - most people have kept a respectful distance, and the deer that came across me a couple of nights ago was just like I remember deer being. Curious, perhaps, but skittish.

A butane lighter, a sleeping bag, a two-quart metal pot, several water bottles with sanitized water, some berries and mushrooms to munch on, some clean rags to dress any potential wounds, warm clothes, a crowbar - what more could someone really need? It's not a lot, but it will probably be enough to survive another day.

And I think I'm figuring out where I am. Somewhere near Michigan City, Indiana. Maybe I should have gone east towards the light of the Detroit Megacity rather than west towards the unknown; Detroit might be the last vestige of civilization as I knew it. But I'm a bit afraid of what I might find, what I might learn. Not that it isn't scary out here, although the waters of Lake Michigan are serene. But I might need a few days to adjust to this situation before I'm ready to adjust to another one.

--------------------------

I'm also back to Civ - the Civ3 Conquest of the Month. Not really trying to win, just having fun playing it.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Saudi Fund to Own Almost All of Electronic Arts After Buyout

Filing suggests the country’s Public Investment Fund needs to stump up about $29 billion
By Ben Dummett and Eliot Brown

Dec. 2, 2025 12:49 pm ET

The Electronic Arts headquarters building on 250 Shoreline Drive, with a large concrete sign displaying the EA logo in the foreground. The deal for Electronic Arts, unveiled in September, is set to be the largest-ever leveraged buyout. David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News
Saudi Arabia’s government investment fund is poised to take almost full ownership of Electronic Arts EA 0.31%increase; green up pointing triangle, a filing shows, representing another big financial bet at a time when the Middle East country’s coffers are already strained.

The details
The Public Investment Fund has teamed up with Silver Lake, the technology-focused buyout firm, and Jared Kushner’s investment firm Affinity Partners to buy the videogame maker for $55 billion including debt. The deal, unveiled in September, is set to be the largest-ever leveraged buyout.
The consortium didn’t disclose the planned ownership breakdown. But a November filing with Brazil’s antitrust regulator shows PIF would own 93.4% of EA, while Silver Lake and Affinity would own 5.5% and 1.1% respectively. That puts the onus on PIF to fund almost all of the deal.
The consortium is funding the deal with $36.4 billion in equity, and borrowing $20 billion of debt. PIF is rolling over an existing holding in EA that is worth about $5.2 billion at the takeover price, implying it has to put up about $29 billion of new cash to reflect its final ownership stake.
PIF is also a significant investor in Silver Lake and Affinity funds, further adding to the financial risk it faces if the investment sours.

The context
The outsize stake is unusual for a buyout, where sovereign-wealth funds would typically ride on the coattails of traditional private-equity firms as minority investors. PE firms typically have more expertise in striking deals and running newly acquired businesses. Despite Saudi’s reputation for deep pockets, the $1 trillion PIF has become stretched by a multitude of commitments in the kingdom. These include pricey megaprojects, such as a new futuristic city called Neom, and a herd of new stadiums for the World Cup. In November, the fund said it shed holdings in more than four dozen U.S.-listed public companies, continuing a downward trend since 2021.

Meanwhile, the country’s finances are increasingly fragile. This year’s budget deficit is projected to more than double to 5.3% of gross domestic product, the highest level since 2020, when it surged during the pandemic. The kingdom still has hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign reserves, room for more borrowing and an economy that is expected to grow at a relatively brisk pace of 4%, according to the International Monetary Fund. But a subdued price for oil, its main revenue source, isn’t helping.

Write to Ben Dummett at ben.dummett@wsj.com and Eliot Brown at Eliot.Brown@wsj.com

 

[danjuno]

The fun begins. No tears to be shed for any in management at EA who get screwed.

 

[Kyriakos]

It's the end of the road for me with Rimworld:

10 wastepack atomizers (=0 waste), 7 centipedes, and infinite potential for even more ridiculous things like ending up with 20+ centipedes.
In other words, there is nowhere to go from here.
This was a very good game, but also one which (as I wrote in the past) I expected to be different from what I came to discover. It's not really a difficult game, once you know what you are doing. It's not a complicated game either, apart from on a surface level (many approaches). It wasn't built to compete in complexity with things like Factorio and Dwarf Fortress.
Still, I am glad I played it, but it's time to move on

 

[Quintillus]

Playing more Neo Scavenger, I died. Again. In the second game, to a pack of feral dogs. I get the appeal of perma-death, and don't save scum even when there isn't perma-death, but I think that game could really use an easy mode.

---

I have entered the Age of Revolutions in Millennia (which Japan entered seemingly ages ago). But more importantly, I have captured the Aztec capital. It's interesting observing how the AI behaves and how it compares to Civ. In Civ III and IV (the last pre-1UPT versions before VII), if anything, the AI is over-zealous in its attacks, sending insufficient forces that can be picked apart. In Millennia, the AI might err on the side of being overly cautious. The Aztecs could have pushed forward and captured Kano (the former Nigerian capital) with few losses, and maybe even taken my own city behind it, cutting my forces in two - or they could have regrouped and picked apart any of my forces that got too close, and then advanced. Instead, they became cautious, giving me time to build my defensive lines, and, eventually, to counter-attack and pick them apart. Now it has reached crisis proportions for the Aztecs, all because they ceded the momentum when they probably could have put me on the ropes.

It can't be easy from a game design standpoint. Too reckless, and it's easy to counter, too cautious, and the human can just turtle and build up. There almost has to be some unpredictability as well, yet in a smart way. Old World is perhaps the only game that I feel has generally hit the nail on the head - the AI can be bested with superior production or an effective first strike, but does a remarkably good job of being able to stay in the contest, counter the human's moves, and occasionally make the human scramble.

I think I will take at least one more Aztec city; the goal at this point is to ensure the Aztecs can never pose a serious threat to Babylon again. I might accumulate a fair few Chaos points in doing so, but at this point, Babylon can't take the risk of trusting an Aztec with nukes.