What video games have you been playing V: the return of the subtitle

[Senethro]

Question about Arcanum:
I must be missing something, or did the game seriously ship without a way to control how party members level up and/or control them in battle and how they cast spells?

I don't remember as its been too long, but much about them was outside your control. Expect violent disagreements with party members if you try to do the equivalent of pissing in their Holy Grail.

 

[REDY]

Oh, nice! Are those remakes exactly the same, story-wise?

I have not played originals but yes they should be exactly same story-wise. They also made remakes of KQ III or Quest for Glory II.
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/games.html

It seems that there is even another freeware remake of III by another developer:
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/home/

 

[Arakhor]

Question about Arcanum:
I must be missing something, or did the game seriously ship without a way to control how party members level up and/or control them in battle and how they cast spells?

It's been a long while, but I think that's covered in conversation with your party members.

 

[Ajidica]

I just couldn't get into Arcanum so I'm playing Avadon: The Black Fortress. Comparing the presentation of Avadon to Arcanum highlights just how far game design has come in the last decade. Avadon is still a traditional 2d isometric text heavy RPG but has all the trappings one expects from modern games: a clear quest log, quest markers on the map, clearly understandable character generation, and crisp graphics.

A friend recommended I try Serpent in the Staglands because I love RPGs and it is set in Bronze Age Eastern Europe, but after looking at the reviews I couldn't get past how muddy the graphics are and the fact that a game released in the last five years requires you to manually take quest notes and doesn't have quest markers.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I picked up Age of Decadence and the DLC for Bioshock Infinite on sale over the weekend.

I was stunned to finish Age of Decadence in 6 or 7 hours. I thought maybe the game had crashed, it ended so unexpectedly. I guess it's really designed for multiple playthroughs. I like the hardcore combat. I played a non-combat character, and could usually defeat 1 thug in a knife fight, maybe 2. 3 thugs, or a human soldier, or a non-human opponent of any kind, and I was pretty much history.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

I picked up Age of Decadence and the DLC for Bioshock Infinite on sale over the weekend.

How is the DLC for Bioshock Infinite? I have it but haven't played it yet because I can't seem to finish the main game for the life of me. I'm considering giving up and just moving on to the DLC without finishing. It's sad, but I've been trying off and on for months and can't pull it off.

 

[EgonSpengler]

How is the DLC for Bioshock Infinite? I have it but haven't played it yet because I can't seem to finish the main game for the life of me. I'm considering giving up and just moving on to the DLC without finishing. It's sad, but I've been trying off and on for months and can't pull it off.

I haven't played it a ton yet, but it's basically more of the same. Burial at Sea takes place in Rapture instead of Columbia, and I liked Rapture more. The companion AI seems to have taken a step backwards from the main game in one aggravating way: The woman keeps getting in my way while I'm moving around during combat. It's frustrating, and iirc, she didn't do that in Bioshock Infinite.


In other news, I tried a few games of Fractured Space over the weekend. I've always liked the big ships in science fiction (think Colonial Battlestars, Imperial Star Destroyers, Star Fleet cruisers, etc), and I played an ungodly amount of tabletop Star Fleet Battles back in the early '90s. It's free, it has very good graphics, and seems generally well-designed (it's business model isn't "free to play, but pay to win", for example). Unfortunately, the core gameplay is kind of boring, just point-n-click until someone explodes. Someone called it "World of Tanks in space", but the gameplay is much more shallow and I doubt I'll return to it.

 

[thecrazyscot]

Welp, I just finished a playthrough of Grim Dawn. In order to reach max level I would have to play the game two more times. I love ARPGs, but hate that they all degenerate into a mindless grind without anything new.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

The game I've been playing the most recently is The Elder Scrolls Online.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

I swear the Civ V map generator is trolling me. Already put me as Assyria in an isolated corner so I can't make use of the UU. Right now it keeps putting me as Framce in jungle.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I swear the Civ V map generator is trolling me. Already put me as Assyria in an isolated corner so I can't make use of the UU. Right now it keeps putting me as Framce in jungle.

I've certainly had that happen. Poland with no horses around, Siam without city-states nearby, etc. However, it hasn't always meant it was a bad start position.

I have a theory, based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence, that the map generator uses UAs of all the nations in a given game as a factor in creating a balanced start. I haven't looked at the code, nor done any kind of experimenting. If I'm right, then Poland could end up with fewer horses because horses are good for everybody, UB & UU or not, and too many horses makes Poland unbalanced. At the same time, Morocco ends up on deserts all the time because they're practically the only nation for whom deserts don't totally blow. If I'm right. Don't quote me er nuthin'.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I feel like I can't do cities skylines good
even less so than before

 

[Synobun]

I feel like I can't do cities skylines good
even less so than before

Just make roller coaster tracks out of gradually increasing in altitude highways

 

[Commodore]

Yet again I come back to Sword of the Stars. I just can't quit you baby. You are the only 4x game that keeps me satisfied. Not even Civ can match your streamlined-yet-still-complex brilliance.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Unlimeted money is on:

Spoiler :

 

[Synobun]

The fact that you listened to me is worrisome, Lohren.

 

[cardgame]

Is there another way to play cities skylins besides unlimited money? haha

 

[Lohrenswald]

I mean I've done it before

more blah

Spoiler :

 

[Ajidica]

I've been playing Attila: Total War recently. My campaign as the Western Roman Empire got tedious (my god, how can every one-province barbarian hovel produce two full stack armies?) so I'm starting a new campaign as the Eastern Roman Empire. While Attila is a lot of fun; I'm getting really annoyed at the terrible quality of early Roman cavalry. My cavalry gets ripped apart when faced with faced with Germanic Light Horse, I dread to think what will happen when I inevitably end up at war with the Sassanid Empire and need to face down heavy Savaran Cataphracts.

 

[Kyriakos]

You will have to get your own cataphracts as a direct result?