@Cutter,
Played with my neighbor online years ago. So much fun. Difficult too in some areas. Your AI opponent could build up their castles at record speed which was fairly annoying. The balance of food/happiness/tax/religion and others is a lot like the first Stronghold. The one thing that stood out for this game was the mercenary post. Didn't have enough troops because you couldn't make weapons fast enough? Just spend gold on archers, horse archers, heavy units, etc.

Now, if you wanted a REAL challenge, play the Stronghold Extreme or Stronghold Crusader Extreme versions. I didn't last longer than 10 minutes. The enemy would come at you with a force larger than previous games. I didn't know anyone who actually beat them. And I think I was on easy for my campaign.

phinn wrote on Dec 9, 2024, 10:22:
Never played PoE 1 or 2, this does look decent. Do people generally recommend this or is it just more of a mindless spamfest Diablo clone that Diablo has become but without the story and music.

This is just my opinion and ymmv. I've been a Diablo fan since it began. To me, Diablo in the later years with the seasons is just a blast. This one? I've tried multiple times to get into it and it just feels bland. It feels like you need to read up on some guides b/c going off on your own to pick skills just doesn't feel as powerful as the Diablo games do. Of course, Diablo games have prob a 128th the skills this game does lol. I have watched videos of PoE 1 on builds and while things look cool later on, getting there feels like a slogfest. I have played the first section a few times now, with different characters and it just feels underwheling to me. Other games that have many skills and cross characters, such as Grim Dawn and Last Epoch, just feel more rewarding as you level up.

Again, this may be for you but I just couldn't get hooked into it. Maybe when PoE2 comes out it will feel different but as of right now, I just can't play the 1st because it feels boring and not rewarding.

VaranDragon wrote on Oct 28, 2024, 05:42:

jdreyer wrote on Oct 28, 2024, 05:19:

VaranDragon wrote on Oct 28, 2024, 04:57:
Funny thing is Bethesda could do no wrong until Starfield, and indeed this was "mostly" warranted.

Perhaps you missed out on the following:
- Excessive bugs on every single Bethesda release going back to Daggerfall
- Fallout 76 being broken on launch and a horrible design

I know abotut the excesive bugs, and they were mostly a non-issue, as the games were worth playing even with them and usually modders fixed most of them before Bethesda did.
I totally forgot about Fallout76, and you are completely right, it's a terrible game and I should ammend my original post.

Funny thing is Bethesda could do no wrong until StarfieldFallout76, and indeed this was "mostly" warranted.

But to Beth's credit they made FO76 playable and a much better game than launch, save for bugs. Another company that's been heading a similar direction is Blizzard with Diablo, specifically Diablo 3 and 4? Remember both at launch? Horrible design and not even fun. And the disaster of the Real Money Auction House which still leaves a sour taste in my mouth being a huge Diablo fan since the first. Devs and even Publishers need to go back to the originals and even game designing from back in the 90s/early 2000s to learn what made games good.

jdreyer wrote on Oct 27, 2024, 19:00:

Avus wrote on Oct 27, 2024, 14:37:
I also think Star Citizen 2 will be "one hell of a game" too.

It will be. The question is, will we live to see it?

Lol, will we even live to see Star Citizen 1? I'm Gen X and getting up there in age. Guessing my kids/grandkids will see it

Prez wrote on Oct 21, 2024, 14:00:
Not only is Factorio a fantastic game for those who are into "production builders" (I don't know what else to call these specific type of building games), but the developer has proven to be very pro-consumer. I want to support them, but I worry that at some point this game will become too much for me to process in my diminished mental state.

I played a few hours of it and thought the same. Looking at screenshots of people's production chains just gives me a headache. And I started getting to a point that I needed to reroute conveyors just to put new ones in. Although, the time I was playing was a lot of fun

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This comment was deleted on Aug 20, 2024, 12:44. Reason: Closing the rabbit hole

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This comment was deleted on Aug 20, 2024, 12:42. Reason: Shitpost

NKD wrote on Jul 17, 2024, 02:24:
Rough reviews for this one.

I haven't looked at the recent reviews yet but the Steam community for it was blasting it at release as not being "hardcore" enough and that a title from Microprose should be more like that and less "mobile." Honestly don't get the mobile argument. I mean honestly, are there that many people who flipping care that anything that looks mobile should be played on a mobile device? The price is not bad for a light sim and since we haven't seen a decent sub sim since the Silent Hunter days and more recently another lite version called Crash Dive (which 1 and 2 both have mobile ports).

Being former US Navy stationed on an aircraft carrier, I am actually looking forward to trying it out.

Hopefully, they fixed the horrible performance I had in this game last year.

Burrito of Peace wrote on Apr 25, 2024, 21:06:
Forgot this change:

* Broke all of your mods.

This should be a given by now. Been this way for every Fallout game since modding started. Drives me nuts how many people still complain to this day about it lol

Pretty sure Last of Us started that last year. Ooops forgot about The Witcher

Midnight wrote on Apr 12, 2024, 00:30:
This will release only 2 days after the Fallout London mod. Is Bethesda trying to break them?

Pretty sure it was unintentional. The FOLO team reported awhile back they actually had some Devs from Bethesda assist them with the project. This came from upper mgmt.

Shineyguy wrote on Feb 7, 2024, 21:12:
YouTube TV was an amazing deal way back when it was $40/mo, even up to $50/mo.

But now it's not any cheaper than having cable internet/TV bundled together, and there isn't really any upside to it.


All streaming subs are getting to the point where they don't make sense.

Depending on where you live, it's still cheaper. I live in a rural area, and it is $120 a month for basic cable. Yes, you read that right. They can do that because they are the only cable service in the area. Don't even get me started on what they charge for cable internet. We had a telco expand fiber optic out here and it is much cheaper with faster speeds.

I'm still willing to pay for YTTV for now. When it gets close to our cost of cable, i'll cancel and go to streaming

Overon wrote on Jan 23, 2024, 05:25:

BigVlad wrote on Jan 22, 2024, 19:02:

Overon wrote on Jan 22, 2024, 18:16:
Palworld is available on Gamepass.

Be aware that the Gamepass version is an older, buggier build than the Steam version. I've tried both. The Steam version is much improved. The Pal AI in the Gamepass version sucked, and they would constantly bug out when when performing tasks in my base. It sucks that Gamepass players are playing with an inferior version.

Are they going to patch the gamepass version? I get that they can't patch as quickly as on steam but is there any effort to have parity between the platforms of steam and gamepass?

The reason they mentioned the delay, in one of their posts, was due to awaiting MS certification for XBox. So it's supposed to be coming.

jacobvandy wrote on Jan 15, 2024, 17:41:

The Half Elf wrote on Jan 15, 2024, 17:24:
I was about to Subscribe for a month to play the Avatar game. Was that moved to the higher tier?

There used to be only one subscription with everything for $14.99. That is now $17.99, and they added a new $7.99 version with only older, standard editions of games (premium sub has the ultimate-whatevers with all DLC included).

I don't remember ever hearing of the price change. Just a few months ago, it was $14.99 when I subscribed to play and beat Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Armengar wrote on Dec 28, 2023, 03:51:
So what month will FO4 london get lawyered to death do you reckon? Im sure the soulless legal department will get wind of this and shut it down for some reason.

I had read or watched an update video some months or possibly years back that Bethesda blessed it and actually assisted in some parts. They also hired two of three modders on the team to come work for them. The dissenting person wanted to stay and finish the mod.

Tipsy McStagger wrote on Dec 20, 2023, 13:18:
Good start, guess I should have been more clear.

What type of game is it? What's is closely related to for mechanics?

I've played Fallout 1,2,3 and Skyrimjob, and never played NV or 4. I figured this is an online only Fallout 3 but with server side monsters and stuff, I'm more interested in hearing what the setup is like, characters have skills to level, gear levels, fighting monsters is like health bars and you spam attacks like wow.. etc etc.

Pretty much like Fallout 3, NV, 4 in terms of mechanics. The only thing different besides skill upgrades (more on that later) is it's a survival game. You do have to eat/drink in the game. I'm not a big fan of those survival types of games but this isn't as bad as one would think. You can grow food and pump water at your camp, although it needs to be boiled to get rid of the radiation. Also, you will scavenge food/water/Nuka Cola/etc from various places and badies.

As for skill upgrades, there is a card system where you can "play cards" that will add certain benefits to your character...something to help your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. levels or skills you level up. That's also different too and not my favorite component since these are random and you don't get to build out your character the way you want, at least right away. Over time you will collect more. Weapons do degrade over time, so you need to repair them. You can do that at your camp or other people's camps. There are railroad stations around that have trader bots where you can buy/sell items.

I would recommend it if you liked Fallout 3. It's not connected to the Fallout 4 story, so you don't have to play it. Just know some of the mechanics are different from 3 if you remember that. Fallout 4 does have Survival mods that I know you can tweak to your liking or, like I do, don't install them at all!

Oh yeah, they also have microtransactions for decorations for your Camp. Not required. Sometimes you get free ones and I think you get some from the storyline but I haven't played The Pitt or Atlantic City yet. There are some microtransactions that may benefit people. The Pitt pack has a fusion core recharger (fusion cores are required to power the Power Armor) but from what I read, it's really not needed. I think you can buy card packs too but I never have.

So yeah, if you liked 3, you'll like 4 and 76. I would say get it on sale or play it via the XBox Gaming Pass to try it out first. But it will be noticeably different, however, the gameplay is pretty similar.

Tipsy McStagger wrote on Dec 20, 2023, 11:30:
Can someone explain what exactly this game is? i just remember it was talked about as being bad on release but no idea what kind of game it actually is..

MMORPG is thrown around lots these days for games which are like DayZ type servers.

Have you played Fallout 3, NV, 4, or Skyrim? Pretty much like that (but Skyrim with guns). Open world, crafting, boss event, limited seasonal stuff type of game. You are given various tasks to complete, can go around on your own finding trouble and once finding nuclear launch codes, can set off a nuke at a location in West Virginia that irradiates and area and spawns high level baddies to defeat. So make sure you have good power armor and leveled up. In return you supposedly get good gear. I am around lvl 22 but haven't played in about a year or so but there have been many updates, including new "expeditions" to go on, such as Pittsburgh and recently, Atlantic City.

Crafting wise, you make Camps where you cook food, get water, etc. I haven't delved too much into that. But other players have made camps that have vending machines, and places to chill out at. There's also a PvP side of this but since I have played, I have never been shot at. The player base is very friendly. I have been given water in the past and I hear other players have received things like guns, ammo, food, among other things. I mostly played SP but my cousin who's much higher levelled would join me from time to time for coop.

Pretty much this in a nutshell. Again, I haven't played in a while but hoping to soon so I can check out Atlantic City.

@Steele, Yeah, Juicehead mentioned it was listed in I think the ESRB rating?

Was watching the Juicehead video on the Skyrim mod store and it seems like it's better than before. For one, Bethesda Devs do all the QA so there is support. Anyone can submit mods and set a price for them. Seems much fairer than in the past. Idk if I would pick up any as I prefer Fallout 4 over Skyrim at the moment, but I am guessing the same store is coming to Fallout.