Video Games

K · Post by K » Sat Dec 22, 2012 11:40 am

Meikle641 wrote:
PS. Does Miriam of the believers turn on everybody else, or is that me? We *ALWAYS* have a Vendetta between our factions.

Miriam is a death-spiral of hostility. She is aggressive and just starts mad, but she has terrible research too and gets mad at you for having better research.

This means that you can force her into a Submission Pact and she'll betray you anyway at some point if you aren't constantly feeding her research. Since she has terrible research, you don't get any benefit for doing that because she won't get new tech to give back to you, and you might get boned if she trades it away for nothing, so I tend to just destroy her outright.

PS. At first I thought you were asking about how she turned you on sexually. It was a puzzling moment for me because she is the least attractive female character in the game.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 4:02 pm

Yeah, Sister Miriam inevitably goes to war with everyone. I think her AI is highly aggressive by default, she always adopts fanaticism and gets a penalty to relations with everyone who doesn't, and she tends to get huge armies of crappy units, and I don't think military comparisons weight tech properly, and even if they do they don't account for capacity to rapidly construct powerful units.

Alpha Centauri is good fun. My favorite part is constructing assault bridges with formers and laying mag tubes on them, so I can instantly send troops to another continent without mucking around with aircraft or boats. I also love rescuing factions who are losing wars by basing aircraft out of their cities. Also, the way artillery and counter-battery fire works, plus how aircraft function, is much better than how the Civ series does it.

Starmaker · Post by **Starmaker** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 8:35 pm

She's a rush faction, what do you expect? She has terrible research and a bonus to attack.

Btw, Alien Crossfire is on GOG now.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:43 pm

So it is. Specifically, it comes with Alpha Centauri and is not listed separately, so don't go off into the depths of the search system looking for it.

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Sat Dec 22, 2012 10:00 pm

Got dragon age 2. Found out you can break the 9,999 barrier. It is fun to pop ogres in one hit.

K · Post by K » Sun Dec 23, 2012 1:14 am

Has anyone bought the Stardock Bundle? I was going to buy Galactic Civilizations II and at least one of the Sins of a Solar Empire, but it's not much more to get like four more games (though the game about being a presidential candidate seems dumb).

Also, does anyone know if Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion has all the stuff in Sins of a Solar Empire: Trinity? the first costs more, so I was wondering if it had all the stuff of the second.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 2:30 am

The upgrade from Trinity to Rebellion is significant, but not enough so that Rebellion being its own game didn't piss me off. Especially since I couldn't get any loyalty discounts, with my Trinity copy being on Impulse (Stardock's defunct digital service, now owned by Gamestop, ugh) and me wanting Rebellion on Steam. But yeah, Rebellion has pretty much everything from Trinity and some more very cool things, and a lot of polish on top of that. Rebellion's a good deal. I also concur with your decision to pick up Galciv II, and Demigods is also definitely worth it out of that pack. That adds up to ~40 bucks.

With the pack, you're paying 10 bucks more to pick up GalCiv I, that weird political game, and Fallen Enchantress. GalCiv I is kind of rendered obsolete by GalCiv II, that weird political game... well, that hardly seems fun. And Fallen Enchantress is attempt #2 at War of Magic, but I don't actually think they managed to make it fun. So really, saving 10 bucks and just buying Rebellion, Demigod, and GalCiv II individually might be worth it.

If I was in your shoes with the knowledge I have now, I would save myself the 10 bucks and buy GalCiv II, Rebellion, and Demigod individually. I might actually buy a Demigod 4-pack or two just to hand it out to friends so I can make them play with me. It'll be my Christmas presents to everyone. On a related note: I STILL HAVE A GIFT COPY OF TORCHLIGHT II I CAN'T GIVE AWAY. SOMEONE FUCKING HELP ME. TAKE THIS GAME. TAKE IT.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 5:16 am

I enjoyed playing the Demo of Democracy I because I made a communist utopia, and it worked perfectly.

I did not enjoy the demo of Democracy II because in creating a commie utopia I got assassinated a year into the game. That was not fun, being artificially constrained to be unable to pass laws you can't convince the populace of is an option you can turn off. When I turn that option off, it means I want to make extreme decisions, not have a super secret can't turn off moderating force of right wing gun nuts murdering me when I take away their guns.

I imagine it is not worth ever replaying, and the novelty of the commie utopia scenario is pretty limited, but whatever.

Lago PARANOIA · Post by **Lago PARANOIA** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 5:27 am

Kaelik wrote:I did not enjoy the demo of Democracy II because in creating a commie utopia I got assassinated a year into the game. That was not fun, being artificially constrained to be unable to pass laws you can't convince the populace of is an option you can turn off. When I turn that option off, it means I want to make extreme decisions, not have a super secret can't turn off moderating force of right wing gun nuts murdering me when I take away their guns.

Does that Sierra-ish sudden game over apply just to those kinds of options or is it just a hidden punishment for passing laws that don't have public support in general?

Because, like, if you could re-institute child labor or take away female voting rights and get away with it I'd either assume that the game has a hidden agenda and/or a much more cynical view of the voting public than most.

Kaelik · Post by **Kaelik** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 5:45 am

Lago PARANOIA wrote:
Kaelik wrote:I did not enjoy the demo of Democracy II because in creating a commie utopia I got assassinated a year into the game. That was not fun, being artificially constrained to be unable to pass laws you can't convince the populace of is an option you can turn off. When I turn that option off, it means I want to make extreme decisions, not have a super secret can't turn off moderating force of right wing gun nuts murdering me when I take away their guns.
Does that Sierra-ish sudden game over apply just to those kinds of options or is it just a hidden punishment for passing laws that don't have public support in general?

Because, like, if you could re-institute child labor or take away female voting rights and get away with it I'd either assume that the game has a hidden agenda and/or a much more cynical view of the voting public than most.

There are like 500 factions, so any extreme decision you make will result in someone murdering you.

I fully funded the secret service and banned guns, and they still shot me so...

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 7:59 am

name_here wrote: My favorite part is constructing assault bridges with formers and laying mag tubes on them, so I can instantly send troops to another continent without mucking around with aircraft or boats. I also love rescuing factions who are losing wars by basing aircraft out of their cities. Also, the way artillery and counter-battery fire works, plus how aircraft function, is much better than how the Civ series does it.

Assault bridges? Is that from the Crossfire thing? I only have the vanilla version, I think.

K · Post by K » Sun Dec 23, 2012 9:17 am

Meikle641 wrote:
name_here wrote: My favorite part is constructing assault bridges with formers and laying mag tubes on them, so I can instantly send troops to another continent without mucking around with aircraft or boats. I also love rescuing factions who are losing wars by basing aircraft out of their cities. Also, the way artillery and counter-battery fire works, plus how aircraft function, is much better than how the Civ series does it.
Assault bridges? Is that from the Crossfire thing? I only have the vanilla version, I think.

He's talking about where you terraform land up and reclaim it from the ocean, thus building a land bridge that you can put Magtubes on.

Meikle641 · Post by **Meikle641** » Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:40 pm

Oh, that. Yeah, expensive but I've definitely done that. Fuck you, Poseidon!

Archmage Joda · Post by **Archmage Joda** » Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:25 am

Has anyone here played Dragon's Dogma? If so, is it any good?

K · Post by K » Mon Dec 24, 2012 6:39 am

Archmage Joda wrote:Has anyone here played Dragon's Dogma? If so, is it any good?

Looks pretty cool from this gameplay video.

K · Post by K » Mon Dec 24, 2012 6:40 am

Anyone think the DLC content for Anno 2070 is worth the extra $20?

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 7:57 am

Okay, Dragon Age 2 question here:

Anyone have any insight on how to beat Corypheus?

I've looked it up, and every guide says "Bring a sprit heelr LOLZ!" I didn't want to fucking play a spirit healer, that doesn't help me. So any suggestion that requires that is not helpful.

I keep dying during the 2nd phase of fire attacks. First one wasn't a huge deal, I select all the party and tell them to move, hit the statues, hit the shades a couple of times, then tell them to move again. Not too challenging.

Second time? My guys keep wandering off in the rock maze, and the second they get to their places they run back into the flames to get at the shades. I can barely keep them ahead of the flames through the rocks, but goddamned if they don't find the fastest fucking path to get back in them. It's like Merrill, Anders, and Aveline are sexually attracted to fire. (I'm playing a Rogue with assassin/shadow spec, using a bow but I don't actually have any bow talents and the damn quest gave me a hawke dagger instead of a bow for some reason.)

Tried dropping the difficulty down from Hard to Easy, and the fire is still a one-hit kill regardless so this is obviously a battle they didn't want me to smack down with my giant virtual cock. Which sucks, I only have to hit the bastard a couple of times before he does the fire wheel shit.

Any help would be appreciated.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 9:23 pm

Speaking of which, I got my sister Dragon Age 2 for Christmas.

I kinda like how flowing the combat is. It's not Kingdoms of Amalur, but at least the animation isn't as ponderous.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Tue Dec 25, 2012 10:17 pm

Sadly, a now-gassed forum thread on SA has made it unlikely that I'll ever check Dragon Age out.
http://gigglesquee.blogspot.com/

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 3:23 am

I disregard Something Awful.

They suck cocks.

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 4:01 am

You are missing out on some pretty cool Lets Plays, then.

If you like Ace Attorney, check this out:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showth ... id=3447397

Avoraciopoctules · Post by **Avoraciopoctules** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 4:09 am

Some interesting demos for indie games I tried today:
http://indiegames.com/2012/12/tech_demo ... al_fi.html
http://bootdiskrevolution.com/bleed/rel ... lease.html

Ted the Flayer · Post by **Ted the Flayer** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 6:23 am

Maxus wrote:Speaking of which, I got my sister Dragon Age 2 for Christmas.

I kinda like how flowing the combat is. It's not Kingdoms of Amalur, but at least the animation isn't as ponderous.

I enjoy the story. It's dark, but manages to not be GRIMDARK. And it does so by managing to have a good bit of humorous dialogue and events.

Also, I like how there aren't many characters 100% benevolent or 100% evil with a few exceptions.

Also, beat Corypheus. Watched a Let's Play, and realized there were places outside the horrible rape radius to stand in. That made it a lot easier. I still took some damage, but it was in negligible amounts.

I have heard that Dragon Age 1 has a superior story, but I tried playing it and the combat system felt plodding and slow. My character animated like he was underwater and I got too bored with it to get much farther than the opening scene.

EDIT: I'm reading the gassed SA thread about DA2. That shit's fucking hilarious.

PhoneLobster · Post by **PhoneLobster** » Wed Dec 26, 2012 8:57 am

Was something awful the one that did that awesome lets play of Princess Maker 2? That has to be the best lets play ever.

K · Post by K » Wed Dec 26, 2012 9:04 am

I just remembered why I don't do first-person games. Fucking motion sickness.

That being said, Portal was fun enough to fight back the urge to vomit. Portal 2, which I bought with it, will probably never get played.