What other games do people play here?

[Unorthodox]

Anyone else playing fallout 4? My Grognak the barbarian play through is going well.

Perhaps after the winter holiday, it's on my radar at least,  but I'm really looking forward to the new Xcom.  How does 4 compare to 3? 

The boys want that new star wars game, so I'll probably be playing that at least a bit. 

[vonbach]

Perhaps after the winter holiday, it's on my radar at least,  but I'm really looking forward to the new Xcom.  How does 4 compare to 3? 

I honestly am highly impressed with fallout 4. The map looks small but is absolutely crammed with stuff.
The enemies actually take cover and will hurt you if you underestimate them.
The skills being removed doesn't hurt the game its merely translated into perks. There are multiple factions
to ally with. There is no real ending or level cap. The story is honestly better than what i expected.

[Unorthodox]

Been revisiting Age of Wonders 3. 

I played it shortly after it came out and set it aside, figuring it needed some patching. 

Now at 1.7+, I'm finding it a reasonable distraction.  Overall a little too plodding, both tactical battles and campaigns can drag on.

Bonus points for adjusting the balance in tactical battles where you're actually better off DEFENDING in situations and taking the first blow from your opponent to hit a better counter attack.  The old strike first strike hard no mercy sir doesn't always apply. 

[PiqueBonaparte]

Some other games I've enjoyed over the past year:

UFO:AI
Grim Fandango remake
Fallen London
Battle for Wesnoth
Digital: A Love Story

and in recent years

Fallout 1 and 2, Skyrim, DDO (mainly from 2009 to 2012)

one that folks here might enjoy would be Rise of Nations / Thrones and Patriots, pretty much a mix of Civilisation and Age of Empires. As a single player game can be played pretty much as a turn-based game by issuing commands while paused, though I would highly recommend getting the expansion pack for this as in the default RoN the game blares out a horn sound every time you hit pause

[vonbach]

Has anyone else played evil genius? Its an older game where you get to play the villain in a spy movie.
Its a cute little game. I'm leaning toward the gravity disruptor world domination plan myself.

[Unorthodox]

Oh, I love me some Evil Genius, despite the spat of bugs. 

That's one that REALLY needs someone to come do a proper sequel. 

[Unorthodox]

Perhaps after the winter holiday, it's on my radar at least,  but I'm really looking forward to the new Xcom.  How does 4 compare to 3? 

I honestly am highly impressed with fallout 4. The map looks small but is absolutely crammed with stuff.
The enemies actually take cover and will hurt you if you underestimate them.
The skills being removed doesn't hurt the game its merely translated into perks. There are multiple factions
to ally with. There is no real ending or level cap. The story is honestly better than what i expected.

So, I rented this on the PS4 over the weekend to help me decide whether it's a buy or not. 

Q:  In the ~6 hours I got to play, there was only one F-bomb.  This is a stark decline from #3, where you could be guaranteed every Raider you run into was going to through it every other word.  Yeah, I know it's rated M, and I should be so much more worried about the (laughably bad) gore, violence, or this or that.  But prolific language tends to put me off games.  Was I just lucky, or is that a reasonable assessment for what to expect. 


The Good:

The story was certainly better than 3, so far at least. 
I could see myself spending stupid amounts of time on the settlement building. 
I liked the armor/weapon mod system better than the Fallout 3 carry 10 copies of something to keep it repaired system. 

The Bad.

Sneak and snipe still hilariously overpowered.  AI don't care their buddies corpse is there as long as you're still hidden.
Still a few bugs I ran into.  Missing quest items. 

Minor:

City building tied to Charisma.  How does being more charismatic help you build particular items?  Only really an issue because my go-to roleplaying character is supposed to lack charisma, and the only perk I would want down that entire line is to be able to build the town things. 
(some of my other characters I play would make more sense)

Presently on a 'wait till on sale/used copy' list.  Haven't decided whether I want this on PC or PS4, either. 

[vonbach]

Sneak and snipe still hilariously overpowered.  AI don't care their buddies corpse is there as long as you're still hidden.
Still a few bugs I ran into.  Missing quest items. 

Sneak and snipe is a lot harder than it used to be. The combat is far superior than the older games.
Settlement building can keep you occupied for ages. Yes the supply lines based on charisma is annoying.
Yes the raiders do seem to need to have their mouths washed out with soap.

[Unorthodox]

Booted up Total War: Shogun 2. 

I had bought it when it came out, being a huge fan of the original (and to a lesser extent Rome: TW), but never really played much. 

Combat is a little "muddier" than the original.  Maybe a little less "arcady", but at the same time, fatigue and terrain seem to make MUCH less impact than before.  My overall strategy still dominates, it just takes longer.   

Mostly struggling with the economy portion as it seems the entire map just never wants to trade from the get go, no time for me to go breaking deals or anything, just they all want a bribe to do anything.

Sounds like the "rise of the samurai" expansion might be closer to the original in terms of combat.  Anyone have any experience with it?   

[Unorthodox]

Found Fallout 4 used locally for $30, and figured that was a decent price. 

Was tempted to reroll, but just figured to keep going.  Long slow trog down the Charisma path trying to get the town things (STORES!)  I noticed Dogmeat upgrades were in Charisma as well, so it won't be totally useless. 

I put way too much in intelligence, habit from Fallout 3, I guess. 

Adhesive and aluminum seem especially lacking so far, with oil close behind.  Starting to get people at sanctuary to do scrapping, and moved the rest of the inventory to the rocket station to see if it does anything useful.  I know the water is getting autofilled in the workshop.  I think food, too.  Want to see what scrapping does (I could look it up yea, but figured I'd see myself)

Biggest trouble so far is my sniper rifle and the lack of ammo for it.  2 merchants I have access to never seem to carry the ammo either. 

Other than that, I've found a lot of laser stuff I'm ignoring on this character, but otherwise just pipe crap.  (though I have a modded pipe rifle that is decently powerful for closer quarters, pop a jet and 6 headshots can clear a room)  So, the town is walking around with laser rifles/pistols.  Thus far, other towns are completely lacking in materials to build anything decent.  Figure they're forcing the caravan perk if you want towns. 

Found an ugly ass mutant dog that was friendly, but it wouldn't let me switch it with dogmeat. 

Find myself using VATS a lot less than in 3.  Only time I really need it is to knock out enemy power armor with a fusion core shot, or combat inhibitors on robots/turrets. 

[vonbach]

Fallout 4 is interesting. I've tried vats pistols, melee and rifles. Sneaking an sniping isn't the "I win" button it used to be.
Its funny but you can go through most of the game with an intelligence of 1. I'm taking a break and going back to Skyrim for a  bit.

[Unorthodox]

Yeah, I went with the traditional high intelligence because it's mandatory from Fallout 3 to start.  I'd definitely reroll to Intelligence...what, 3 for gun mods? 

Complete rifleman on this character, finally unlocked the stores in the towns, and am satisfied by the results.  Ammo is no longer a problem with the weapons and ammo stores up and running.  They trickle in a bit of cash, but not tons.  (only have level 2 stores, doubt I'm getting level 3 on this character)  It's more the convenience of having the shops. 

Also picked up a combat rifle finally, considering dumping the shotgun as a result and just running sniper/combat rifle.  The combat rifle has definitely changed how I handle situations.  Used to be I'd sneak around casing the place, and sniping one and waiting.  Even with no points in a sneaking perk (but several covert ops magazines found), I could usually escape detection, but things would get dicey with that pipe revolver rifle if I got caught.  Now with a decent mid to short range weapon, I more case the joint, take out the biggest threat with the sniper and switch to the rifle for the rest of the fight. 

Working my way south slowly for some quest to retake some communications thing for the minutemen.  Didn't expect it to be all the way at the other side of the map, much farther than I'd been, so bumping into a lot of stuff on the way, loving the city so far more than the country I'd been wandering prior.  Debating whether to get distracted exploring or keep working south to this quest first. 

[JamesGoblin]

Maybe or maybe not some emus that shall remain unnamed (WAAAGH!), I "plan" Undertale, Pathologic 2 and Psychonauts - while waiting for the Psycho-sequel!?

[Misotu]

I play a lot of Civ V on and off, which has gradually improved immensely since it first launched and I do like the new XCOM, having played and loved the original since the early days. I'm waiting for the sequel to drop in price ...

I had fun with Evil Genius - I really wish someone would update that game. It's a really great idea but the implementation is a bit rough around the edges. The superheroes get tedious after a while, the tourists could be developed more and the traps are ... well, too many of them really. And so on. But I do like building the small square room with four sets of wind machines that bounces the agents round and round and round until their tragic demise     It's a game I go back to about once a year and I always enjoy it.

For mindless fun I rather liked Settlers 3 and Transport Tycoon (the new Open TTD free-to-download version is absolutely terrific, great improvements to the signalling).

I've just bought SimCity 4 from GOG - haven't played since SC2 and I rather like those games but I haven't tried it yet. I used to love Master of Orion 1 and 2 but was slightly disappointed by 2 last time I fired it up. Not as compulsive as I remember!

Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2 were good fun and great missions. I tried StarTopia based on a GOG recommend but the interface gives me a headache. If anyone knows how to zoom direct to a facility rather than having to keep moving the view I might give it another try but it's just a cute game really. Not in the SMAC league ...

Probably my favourite game of all time - in a way - was the XWing/Tie Fighter series. At the time it was so immersive and I loved the missions. Oh the excitement when the latest expansion pack arrived    Haven't played it in years though, although I might buy it again from GOG one day. Sold all my original boxed floppies and manuals on eBay a couple of years ago ... and I don't even own a joystick any more 

I used to like Starcraft and Warcraft - played various RTS games but they're a bit wearing and having to press pause all the time is just too anti-immersive. I suppose though, based on total hours played, SMAC and Civ are the ones for me. Good old TBS.

[Unorthodox]

Working my way south slowly for some quest to retake some communications thing for the minutemen.  Didn't expect it to be all the way at the other side of the map, much farther than I'd been, so bumping into a lot of stuff on the way, loving the city so far more than the country I'd been wandering prior.  Debating whether to get distracted exploring or keep working south to this quest first. 

I've got to say, there are a lot more settlements than I expected, really.  After retaking the Castle, Red Rocket has 12 provisioners wandering about, and I've had to start up a second provisioner hub at oberland station.  It was nice and small, so easy to set up a 3 story shanty to hold all the beds.  Most the radiant towns just have a few turrets, and nothing else done to them.  One or two have a radio beacon I turn on just to attract settler to move to Oberland, then turn back off. 

Working on a big nice place at the drive in, but keep running out of wood, so go 'found' new settlements, scrap everything, connect them to the network, and use the supplies at the drive in. 

Sanctuary was attacked by raiders, the citizens are happy to tell me, but no damage, so the turrets must have made short work of them.  I actually saw a notice for one of the radiant towns and went to see a crapton of gunners attacking.  They managed to damage a turret, but otherwise went down easy, and now that town's citizenry is heavily armed. 

I'm sure there's some quest I'm supposed to be doing other than the towns, but I'm too busy with them right now.