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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2638 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for March 29, 2024

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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So, what are you playing?

Well over a decade ago I watched Yahtzee's review of Catherine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_(video_game), a weird puzzle-platformer from the people who made Persona. Although Yahtzee was iffy on the game, I thought it sounded like it might be my bag, but at the time they hadn't released a PC port. I picked it up in a Steam sale a few months ago and started playing it last night.

I'm really liking it so far. It's very funny and quirky, the core gameplay is deceptively simple and much more challenging than I expected, and it's oozing with style.

I just bought a new PC after not having one for nearly 10 years. I went sort of nuts getting games: Total War: Rome; Dyson Sphere; Ultrakill; Satisfactory, Elden Ring, EU4, Monster Hunter World; Trails of Cold Steel 3 (difficulty mod); Cyberpunk; Witcher 3; and a few others I cant even remember. Kerbal space program too. Its my first go round with that and its not too bad. I wish the career mode had just a little bit more...production? I dont know, it seems like the edges are unsanded.

Noting has really drawn me in. My go to at the moment is Elden Ring, im maybe half way through a replay on that in advance of the DLC coming. I was really hoping Dragons Dogma 2 was going to be good since I really loved DDDA, but it seems to be a bust. I;ll wait till the DLC comes out and hopefully they get a hard mode.

As an adult, I really need complexity or extreme difficulty in games. Stellaris is really evergreen for me and I havent done a campaign in a while. I might download a new version with all the DLCs and give it another go. That game can really suck me in.

I really need complexity or extreme difficulty in games.

Do you like strategy games? Do you want a lot of complexity thrown in? You might like Shadow Empire.

I find this concept fascinating, the setting is cool, and what I've seen of the gameplay looks deliciously complex. As someone who works in R&D it's strangely satisfying to see equipment designed by random rolls.

If it were $20, I'd totally try it. Or even if they'd chosen to make it look less ugly than Xenonauts. I don't normally care about visuals, but wow.

Ah well. Back to another HOI4 run.

You're doing yourself a disservice if you keep playing HOI4 and don't even try some of the Endless games. They're not pretending to be realistic, but they IMO are at least as deep as HOI4, though ofc the complexity is presented differently.

Oh, I had a good time with ES2 back when it came out, mostly for multiplayer. Some of my friends swore by EL instead, though I never really joined in to that. Great presentations and theme. I still use Cravers as shorthand for any militarist bug-aliens in other games.

I like EL more, because combat in ES2 is really simplified in that it's about finding out whether enemy is shield or kinetic heavy, refitting your fleet at the last moment and then pasting them.

EL2 has actually fairly interesting combat.

Not defending HoI here - any game is ruined by the PDX DLC treatment, IMO - but the endless games are overrated trash. Visually over and mechanically under-designed, they're the darling of games journalists who play for ten minutes before giving them a glowing review, but a waste of time for anyone who tries to explore any depth.

mechanically under-designed

Endless Legend 2 is basically SMACx, mechanics- wise, although it has more tradeoffs in that researching any technology increase research costs of other technology, so getting all the techs is quite a challenge.

So .. under-designed? How?

I'll agree that it's insufficiently racist and something like the population system from aow would've been preferable, but apart from that it's as good as it's ever been outside of those games written by people who feel they should've been staff officers.

Damn, tell us how you really feel.

I’m not attacking your credibility—anybody who plays Shadow Empire is clearly looking for something Endless * doesn’t offer—but there’s more to games than depth.

Absolutely true, and anyone looking for visual spectacle will be better served by Endless than by HOI or SE. But @No_one above specifically cited Endless as examples of deep games, which is a point I strongly disagree with.

Endless Space is kinda .. simple, especially combat wise, but Endless Legend is definitely not 'shallow' in the slightest. Sure it looks simple, however..

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