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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2656 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 13, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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MENACE came out in Early Access on Steam, and I've been enjoying the hell out of it. Sure, it's got rough edges and needs some balance tweaks, but the devs are absolutely cooking.

That includes a banger OST. Just listen to this:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xt55wnTWt60

Hoorah Major. Every time I hear it play, I absolutely lock the fuck in. It's going in my gym playlist, I don't even know what genre this is, but I want more. Inject it into my veins with a fire-heated needle.

Didn't we have that thread last week?

Anyways, I ran out of content in MENACE, and I worry about replayability. I worry because I fear that my next playthrough would look an awful lot like my first. After all, I would end up recruiting the exact same characters. Some difference might be injected by me not having acccess to the exact same gear, but that feels relatively minor. It feels predictable. This has been my worry since they announced their intention to have fixed characters, and having played it now, I see no reason to think otherwise.

I think the game, as of Today AD, has about 15-30 hours of content in it before you're really scratching the bottom of the barrel. That is honestly not bad at all, compared to many other titles, but it's clearly unfinished if not quite barebones.

That's fine. I bought it in EA knowing that it's maybe half-done. I had fun, though I'm beginning to notice the burnout. The devs seem competent, I'm not too worried.

I wouldn't worry too much about the fixed characters. I'm part of the largest modding discord, and we've got mad motherfuckers making brand new SLs, units and laying the ground for entire total conversions (WW2 and 40k, because those settings are the obviously correct choices). All of that before we have an official modding SDK.

I intend to play till I feel like I've seen it all, and then I might either download one of the many balance mods or the few ones that currently add new content. Or I can wait a few months and come back to a lot more, including both official and modded content. If you're worried you'll pick the same SLs again and again, then there are already mods that randomize the starting pool, and it takes at least a dozen hours before you have the majority unlocked and can fall back into old habits.

WW2 and 40k

This I just don't get. People who see a new, (somewhat) original setting and immediately go "I must turn it into the same thing I've seen a million times before!".

I finished XCOM 2: War of the Chosen last night (strongly considering playing the base game on Ironman mode). Would you say it scratches that kind of itch?

Gotta say, Ironman might be the only way to play that kind of game for me because otherwise, I'm in reload hell.

I spent literally hundreds of hours trying to beat the first game on Classic difficulty with Ironman enabled, and finally cracked it a few years ago, something that apparently only 2.2% of Steam players have done. (Some day I'd like to compile a nonstandard CV, featuring accomplishments that wouldn't impress any prospective employer but which I am inordinately proud of all the same.) The funny thing about XCOM is that the difficulty is very front-loaded: for the first ~20 hours you're in Early Game Hell and a single mistake can completely fuck you, but once you get past that, the endgame is a cakewalk and you can steamroll over the final boss without breaking a sweat.

MENACE is not XCOM, but I'd say that a good fraction of XCOM players will enjoy MENACE.

Most skills transfer, but the scale expands. You're going from micromanaging individual soldiers in a squad to controlling a whole mechanized platoon, but each squad is effectively just a character. I honestly prefer MENACE over XCOM (or the final finished version in my head, it's still a good game rn), since you get a lot more toys and playstyle variety that isn't just knowing which special abilities to fire off when. There's this YouTuber called Perun who usually discusses military strategy and geopolitics IRL, and he's doing a play through where he applies said tactics in the game and finds that they transfer over pretty well. What more can I ask for?

Hoo-rah indeed. I fuck with that shit heavy, it will make a fine addition to my collection. For more like it, I'd recommend the Modern Warfare reboot soundtracks by Sarah Schachner, MW2019 and MWII.

On the subject of tactical RPGs with banger soundtracks, I've been playing through Mewgenics and I'm absolutely loving it. It's a legacy rougelite from the guy who made The Binding of Isaac where you breed cats to send them out on D&D-esque adventures. I've reached the second act of the game with 30 hours of playtime, 20% completion, and a nice bloodline going courtesy of a rare moth-cat whose mutations I bred into my kitties.

My only reservation with wholeheartedly recommending the game is the style. It's entirely typical of Ed's work, which is to say that it's unreservedly channeling early 2000's Newgrounds aesthetics and humor. It's definitely a turn-off for some, but I like it. Just be aware that there's more animate poop and mutated fetuses in it than typically expected for a game in its genre.

With respect to the OST, my favorite tracks so far are Flush, Chumbucket Kitty, and Feline Invader (little spoilery); Flush especially goes way harder than a song about literal shit has any right to.

Appreciate the recs! After a bit of searching, I've discovered that the genre for that song is best described as "martial industrial". I don't know how accurate that is, but the playlists I found are boppers. If you like that grungy industrial orchestra with ominous chanting vibe, I'd recommend the entire OST for Mechanicus (a Warhammer tactics game).

I do mean to check out Mewgenics, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. I didn't particularly like the Binding of Isaac, but it seems interesting enough to give it a try once I've exhausted all the content in Menace and need a fix.

Actually, on comparison the Modern Warfare OSTs are more orchestral/cinematic than necessarily industrial, so not as quite as similar as I thought. Definitely still recommend them tho.

By the way, what didn't click with you about Isaac?

I only played it for ten minutes over ten years ago, so my personal experience is limited. I have tried to watch YouTubers (that I otherwise enjoy) play it, and I'm somewhere between confused, bored and unsure of the appeal. I'm not really a roguelike person, but I do play them on occasion. Of course, not being familiar with the game mechanics does limit the enjoyment of observation, but I can name plenty of games I wouldn't play myself where I still greatly enjoy play throughs. Isaac just isn't one of them I'm afraid.

Isaac definitely feels like one of those games that are fun to play but not watch. Northernlion's success of playing Isaac on camera for 10 million episodes is mostly due to his yapping skill.

I personally found the Binding of Isaac games as played by Bisnap fairly fun to watch, way back when he uploaded pre-recorded videos rather than streaming (Wrath of the Lamb, Rebirth, Afterbirth). But I'm not too interested in playing these "wiki games".

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