So many great games mentioned, like Sins of a Solar Empire (will have to get back into it sometime), Homeworld, Freespace, and Galactic Civilizations. Thanks for reminding me of them!
Oh, and since we’re on the topic, here’s a great playthrough by Tom Francis that showcases how great the Galactic Civilizations II AI is.
Although, I have to ask: no Endless Space? Not even 2? I had a great time playing it, to be honest. Probably not as complex as the aforementioned GalCiv but it was a ton of fun for me, nonetheless.
Hey everyone, I’m a big player of Space Games of all forms, and this mini-genre (or ‘theme’, if you prefer) really has a TON of range and depth, and is a very fertile ground for indie and unique projects. I was recently playing a game called Avorion, after owning it for years without ever really engaging with it, and...
Disclaimer: It’s been 2 years since I last played this game so a lot might have changed (though I suspect it hasn’t).
Not sure if it counts as AAA but since you mentioned X4, I think Elite: Dangerous can be included as well. Honestly, I have a love-hate relationship with this game because I feel it has so much wasted potential.
Just as an example: the devs made a 1:1 replica of the Milky Way galaxy, featuring more or less 400 billion star systems. From what I could gather, it uses real astronomical data and you can travel to each and everyone of those systems. I’m not sure how much it has changed nowadays, but last I checked, around 99% of the galaxy was yet to be explored. Also, someone correct me if I’m wrong, but it takes months to go from the populated systems to the far end of the galaxy and its a massive, massive undertaking, where you sort of need to use external tools to plan your trip. And honestly, for me, the sheer scale, the possibility of exploring actual, real places, like the Galaxy core, and also the actual undertaking, is probably the best part of the game. Just going from the core systems to Colonia (which is the other cluster of populated systems) takes a good while, namely days, or even weeks.
But there’s a catch: there’s not much to see or do in these trips. You’re basically warping from system to system and you might stumble upon some really cool real life phenomena like a neutrino star or a hypergiant star or even a black hole (which does nothing to your ship, as far as I know, just gives you a cool visual effect). I’m going to be honest, when I first got to the system harboring the Betelgeuse hypergiant, it was so massive, I couldn’t see the end of it and thought I was going to crash into the star and lose my ship. There was another time where warped in the middle of a binary star system. Again, panic ensued. And honestly, these moments are memorable and stick with you for a long time. But they’re not nearly as a common as one might think.
And it wouldn’t be that bad if, again, there was more to do and see. To put it simply, most of the time, the game feels aimless and empty. You can trade, be a pirate, mine, but you’re doing it just because. Sure, there are community events where you can have an effect on the galaxy, but I don’t feel they have that much of an impact. I guess they were trying to change that with the addition of an hostile alien species but I’m not sure how’s that working out nowadays.
But even then, I could’ve tolerated all of this if it wasn’t for the consistently stupid decisions made by the devs. Instead of actually addressing the current criticisms of the game, they added fuckin’ space legs to the game instead, which nobody asked for. Adding insult to injury, this expansion, Odyssey, is (or was? Not sure how it is nowadays) an unoptimized mess. I had the game crashing on me so many times, I eventually got fed up and uninstalled it. The framerate was also very unstable as reported by a lot of people.
Oh, and they also stopped supporting the console versions. Not sure if they got some sort of compensation, honestly.
And yet, I still haven’t found a space game that managed to equal the highs that I experienced in Elite: Dangerous. I tried No Man’s Sky, X4, Everspace, and all of them came up short. I’m sure they’re great games but the game that makes me forget about Elite: Dangerous is yet to come. Although I should probably try No Man’s Sky again.
The whole legs thing would have been a nice to have, though.
To clarify, I’m not opposed to the possibility of you exploring a planet with your character directly on the ground. The thing is, the base game had some fundamental flaws, the lack of content being a glaring example, that the community pointed out as needed fixing and/or improving. But instead of actually addressing the problem, the devs went in another direction entirely. It’s like you said:
there’s just a very clear disconnect between what direction the ED devs took the game versus what the players wanted.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. I mean, if they listened to what the players wanted (at least the bigger and most obvious issues) and fixed their shit, and then added space legs (which was, itself, something hastily and poorly added), I think the community’s reception would have been much more favourable and we’d have a better game to play.
I guess it has an apparent advantage over SC, in that it’s an actual game that released. How much of an advantage that is, I don’t know, as I never tried Star Citizen. To me, something that put me off Star Citizen (and as far as I know, the same happened with a lot of other people) is the funding model.
It seems straight up dishonest. It’s like they’re leading people with a carrot to a game that might or might not come out. And it’s been this way for years, now. Again, from the outside, it seems they keep eternally promising and adding (or trying to add) stuff to the point where the game is never going to be finished and, at some point, they either keep this model forever or are going to abandon the game. I don’t want to be too judgemental regarding a game I don’t even play or have been hearing much about these past few years but, honestly, it’s what made me stay away from it.
What was the first ever distro you installed and used? For me, it was Mint as I seemed like the closest thing to Windows minus all the forced updates and chappy changes....
I started with Crunchbang in its final years. It was a great introduction to Linux, to be honest. It was also a very solid distro, as it was Debian-based.
But, sadly, it eventually folded. It still has a spiritual sequel in BunsenLabs but, in the meantime, I’d moved to Arch (btw).
In most games, when there’s an option to play as a man or as a woman, I generally choose to play as a dude because…I’m a dude. I guess it helps to immerse myself in the game but I never really gave it much thought beyond that. But in my second playthrough, if it’s something like an RPG or anything like that, I usually switch to a girl just to see different story paths, conversations, personality even.
Except for fighting games. I’ve been telling myself it’s because I love fast, rushdown characters like https://www.dustloop.com/w/File:GGST_Millia_Rage_Portrait.png or https://wiki.supercombo.gg/w/File:SF6_Cammy_Portrait.png. I even managed to fool myself into thinking it was because I used to do the martial art they’re representing, like Lidia Sobieska from Tekken. Which is technically true, they have to have a play style I like.
But along comes Granblue and I’m torn between two characters: the badass old man brawler that is https://www.dustloop.com/w/File:GBVS_Soriz_Portrait.png and zoner archer lady https://www.dustloop.com/w/File:GBVSR_Metera_Portrait.png. And at this point, I can’t lie to myself anymore and will probably play Metera because she’s a woman and she’s hot.
Probably The Last Blade 2 for Neo Geo and Tekken 3 for the PSX. The former I actually ended up playing it on an emulator but it’s still worth mentioning because it’s such a great gem of a game. Here are some of the super moves just to give you a taste but there’s also match footage of top players on Youtube if you want. And you can also play it on Fightcade for free.
Tekken 3 needs no introduction, I think. Considered by many to be one of if not the best entry in the series.
Oh ok, good to know, thanks! I don’t mind harder to follow stories, and having more character customization options is always a good thing for me. I guess I’ll go with WOTR.
That said, whichever game you start with, I’d strongly recommend you download a mod to trivialise the management minigame
d) can brick your campaign if you screw them up.
Wow wtf, really? Thank you very much for the tip!
Yeah, I know about Baldur’s Gate 3. Made by Larian, no less, so my expectations are kinda high. I played (but never finished) the first one and I remember liking it at the time but thinking it was a bit dated. But I loved the traditional CRPG experience so I hope they stay true to that, more or less.
Yeah, the more people mention, the more that kingdom management part is not looking good. Thankfully, as someone already mentioned, there are mods to handle both that and the crusade management part in WotR. But turning off all failure conditions is also a good option to keep in mind, so thanks.
"621…I’ll give you a reason to exist. Let’s get to work."ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON engages the enemy on August 25, 2023.Pre-order now on PlayStation, ...
I remember playing the demo of the first one (and then the game) when I was a kid and absolutely loving it, so I can’t wait to get back into it after all these years.
I also had no idea From Software created the Armored Core series (or, I guess, didn’t remember) so it came as a shock to me after watching 6’s first trailer and seeing their logo there.
Me and my buddy are using different system now. I’m in PC and he’s in PS5. We were playing Genshin and it started to be very boring. Do you guys know any games that support crossplay, free or paid, that are good....
Fighting games? Street Fighter 6, The King of Fighters XV and Guilty Gear Strive all have crossplay, are pretty recent and good fun even if you don’t want to fully dedicate yourselves to it.
Never played it but heard good things about it. Is it similar to Mordhau? If it is, I second your recommendation, because I played that game with friends and had a ton of fun.
2023 is shaping up to be one of the best years for gaming in ages. From Tears of the Kingdom to Diablo IV to Street Fighter 6, it's already been a pretty great year, with quite a few big-budget releases coming later this year...
As someone who played the first one back in the original Playstation, I'm beyond excited to get back into it. The trailers and gameplay details that came out recently are a huge part of that, too.
Thoughts on Space Games, Part 2: Top-5 Medium-Sized Games +
Hi everyone, here’s my list of Medium-sized, “Rise of the RTS” list:...
Thoughts on Space Games, Part 1: Top-5 AAA Games
Hey everyone, I’m a big player of Space Games of all forms, and this mini-genre (or ‘theme’, if you prefer) really has a TON of range and depth, and is a very fertile ground for indie and unique projects. I was recently playing a game called Avorion, after owning it for years without ever really engaging with it, and...
Your first distribution
What was the first ever distro you installed and used? For me, it was Mint as I seemed like the closest thing to Windows minus all the forced updates and chappy changes....
Male players: Why do you play female characters? (kbin.social)
Got the idea of posting this when I watched this YouTube video that talks about reasons men love playing as girls....
Looking for a rec: story oriented RPG with minimal focus on combat
Preferably in the high fantasy or sci fi genre....
What are your favourite classic fighting games?
Looking for fourth to sixth generation console games, and old arcade and X68000 games. Saturn is out though....
Pathfinder: should I start with Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous? Or it doesn't matter?
Hi!...
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON — Story Trailer (youtu.be)
"621…I’ll give you a reason to exist. Let’s get to work."ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON engages the enemy on August 25, 2023.Pre-order now on PlayStation, ...
Crossplay games that are not f2p cashgrab
Me and my buddy are using different system now. I’m in PC and he’s in PS5. We were playing Genshin and it started to be very boring. Do you guys know any games that support crossplay, free or paid, that are good....
Which upcoming games are you most excited for?
2023 is shaping up to be one of the best years for gaming in ages. From Tears of the Kingdom to Diablo IV to Street Fighter 6, it's already been a pretty great year, with quite a few big-budget releases coming later this year...