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a-friend-of-mara · 2 months

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Hi hello yes

Uhhhh

ALSO TRIGGER WARNING!

Talking bout a bit of abuse stuff and will probably pull up some long dormant frustrations regardless of your stability rating

If you're having a bad day or are "fine" but not fine please scroll by and have a nice day

This is gonna be a little crazy for a sec but please stay with me bc it's worth it

You know how in some games (stardew valley for example) your relationship with a character is measured with a single number, let's call that X bc it's a variable, if [person] likes the thing you did you get +relationship points (higher X value) while doing things theu don't like does the opposite, - relationship points (lower X value)

There's nothing wrong with this is games, in stardew valley it's very simple and does its job well

(I promise I'm building to something)

In games like Fallout New Vegas your reputation with the various factions is represented with two variables, infamy and fame, infamy is gained by doing things the faction disapproves of (stealing, helping their rivals, murdering their members), fame is gained by helping thee faction (doing quests for them, helping them with stuff, etc)

Because the game uses two variables which I'll now refer to as I for imfamy and F for fame, paints a much better picture of your relationship with a group of people, because you can't loose infamy or fame, once you get those points they're there forever

(FNV players I know about the midgame switch, I'm making a point)

If you have very high infamy and no fame they hate your guts

High fame, low infamy, they idolize you

That's how it'd be in most games but if you have high fame and got caught pickpocketing more than a few times then they consider you a "good natured rascal"

Overall a very dynamic system

In reality a lot of people, especially those with abusive tendencies will feel guilty about how they treat others and "make up for it"

No ammout of gifts or "I love yous" can make up for certain things, I won't tell you why but I know firsthand why

If someone in your life upset you then you should allow yourself to be mad at them for as long as you need, if they tell you to get over it then they're just not very mature.

Just because you forgive someone for their actions doesn't mean that you have to forget about them too

Please understand that if this sounds like anything that happened to you in your life, you ARE NOT the problem

If you've done something like that to someone else I need you to think about what happened, because from the other point of view, you're a bomb that goes off every so often and it's best just to avoid it for as much of the day as possible and to brace for impact when it's coming

What the fuck do I mean by that? Let's say most of the times you go near your parent/boss/person with power over you and they yell at you/assign you a task you don't wanna do/anything negative for you

How would you respond?

You avoid them!

For parents who are actually trying, look, parenting is really hard, but please, you're just as human as your kids, remember that just because you've been alive for longer doesn't mean you will always know what's best for them

Also speaking from experience, the two worst things you can do to your kids is to make them think they can't be themselves around you or them fearing you

If you wanna see them again after they graduate high school,

Because IRL there's more variables to a relationship than I can count!

If you think it's just one then you're very wrong and need to have some long talks with the people you care about and maybe a therapist

If you sum it up to two, good stuff and bad stuff, that's better

But

Life isn't a game, as much as I wish it was (fuckin wish I could quicksave/quickload)

You are allowed to fuck up, but if you take nothing away from this, if you hurt someone the best way to deal with it is to admit your mistake and say sorry, it may be hard, they may yell at you, but life is rarely easy, and the things worth doing are rarely easy, you're allowed to make mistakes but please, admit when you're wrong and when the time comes, face the music.

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kingdomoftyto · 2 years

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Started playing Disco Elysium and it is NOTHING like I expected but it's got me hooked already lmao. Excuse the rambling post but its 4 a.m. lol rip

I have no idea how well I'm doing but that's honestly part of the appeal because holy cow this game makes me want to push through with the consequences of my choices like no other game I've played.

Failed a skill check (which is explicitly determined by a random dice roll)? Darn, better try something else til I can upgrade and try again! Might get new dialogue about it in the meantime!

I mean, what other game nowadays has enough incentive for the player to actually DO that? And it's not as if the option to quicksave isn't there! I just don't feel the need to use it. I even manual save sometimes before important or risky choices in case I want to reload, but I've only taken advantage of that ONCE so far (with the full knowledge that i was going to fail the check in question anyway, but simply wanting to see how deadly the result of that failure would be for me).

Anyway I made the possibly bold decision right off the bat not to tell the Lieutenant about my amnesia, and I successfully made it through the whole first day without tipping him off (though not without a few confused looks). Not knowing my own name for a full day of investigating and interviews was as entertaining as it was nervewracking lmao. Can't wait to see how long I can keep up the charade

Also gotta appreciate the hilarity of my own subconscious chiming in to taunt me for apologizing too much. With no information whatsoever on who this guy is, I'm trying to lean into a "down on his luck but generally well-meaning dork of a man" sort of persona, but then I spend the entire day uncovering the increasingly terrible--like COMICALLY bad--mess that I've made of the case and of myself, and at that point what am I to say to poor Kim except "I'm sorry"???

#''Gosh sorry I lost track of my badge Kim. I had a rough night. What a disaster this is. :(''#''It's... not great but we'll notify the pricinct and figure something out. At least you still have your gun right?''#''..............oH... oh SHIT?? KIM. LIEUTENANT. LISTEN I'M SO FUCKING SORRY-''#agrhfgstjhg so yeah I'm having fun so far #Tyto plays Disco Elysium #Disco Elysium spoilers #(minor early game ones but still)#... just realized i made a typo and misspelled 'precinct' in that other tag but I'm on mobile so fuck it

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bananavehicle · 2 years

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Deus ex mankind divided a criminal past trophy guide

This is the point where you head for the green nodes. If there is only one way to the node, you can fortify the next node as well. First thing to do is to fortify your home node, that can buy you several seconds on the trace. The first is before you trigger a trace, and the second is after you trigger a trace. At level 5, you are better off using a multitool.įirst, quick save before you start. I know what you mean, however, I will say that once you max out all the hacking augs, it's pretty easy to blow through everything up to level 4. This definitely feels like Deus Ex, but the hard locks ever thirty minutes or so really cramp my already limited play time. Depending on the missions, using EMP rounds to disable cameras WILL trigger the guards regardless especially if there are guards or other cameras around. Towards the end of the game, I was running out of bio cell packs too.even with tons of crafting parts. I used cloak A LOT and I also maxed out my bio cell perks. This can be tricky if you aren't good at hacking. My other route is to disable it via a console. Well, I generally used cloak and to find the camera blind spots and sneak away. So is there some way to take out a camera, permanently, without setting off the alarm or finding the Security Console? I haven't tried this, but can you hack the camera itself if you get close enough (not remote hack)? Is it possible to shoot it the right way or with the right thing that will disable it for good, but not destroy it? or of the Hounds, destroying a camera sets off an alarm.ģ) Remote Hack it - The problem with this is it is VERY temporary, and has the chance to set off the alarm if you fail.Ĥ) Glass past it - Using the cloak to get past it is viable, but costly considering how many camera there are.ĥ) Shoot it with an EMP bullet - As far as I can tell, this has a similar effect as Remote Hacking it, only shutting it down for a few seconds.Ħ) Find the Security console - This seems to be the BEST way of doing it, but often the most guarded and furthest away. So I wanted to list the ways of dealing with a camera, and see what I'm missing.ġ) Avoid it - I'm assuming you can't do this one, but if I don't mention it, someone else will.Ģ) Destroy it - I've been told that this keeps you from getting Foxiest Man Alive. There are often several ways of doing this, but sometimes they cause problems. Now let's say I'm going for Foxiest of the Super Agents (or Hounds) and I want to remove a camera from being able to see me. OK, people, I have a question about dealing with cameras. Spoiler about the train station second day in Prague. I'm going back to DX11, and I'll see if things are still as rounded (like the ears). I'm not sure if the tessellation looked better, but it might have. My glasses were solid black, a stack of papers on a desk were just a solid black hole. But I ran into too many textures not loading. I've upgraded my batteries just so I can keep smartvision up a lot of the time (it regens really fast).Įdit: I tried the DirectX 12, and latest Nvidia Drivers. Did you try smartvision? I once saw and disables a gas mine through a wall and I didn't find the room it was in until an hour later. That's exactly why I quicksave every 5 steps. One where I had managed to ghost through the rest of a multi-floor building, and another in a random hallway. how many other people had those moments where they rounded a corner just in time to realize there was a grenade mounted to it and had pretty much no time to react?

#Deus ex mankind divided a criminal past trophy guide

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teaveetamer · 2 years

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Ok more Triangle Strategy stuff. Again, I’ve only completed one ending (the Benedict one).

1) Holy shit Cordelia and Avlora are gay. I don’t wanna be like “female Dimidue” since obviously they’ve got none of the history and not even a quarter of the homoerotic bonding, but... lesbian lord/knight dynamic. Nice.

2) Benedict’s route revealing that he did this whole thing just because he wanted to fuck Serenoa’s mom is... weird. At least I assume he wanted to fuck Serenoa’s mom unless they pull a surprise! they were siblings! thing again.

The reveal that he just like. fuckin’ hates Symon and Regna for apparently treating a woman we never see and who died decades ago like a pawn doesn’t... doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Like up until the very, very end I was dead curious to see how/why Benedict would end up leaving the party since his one thing the entire game is being unfalteringly loyal to Wolffort no matter what. I can absolutely see why rolling with Fredrica in the final decision would earn his ire, since what she proposes basically abandons Wolffort territory entirely, and spits in the face of what Symon wanted and all the work he’s done to keep shit together throughout the game. (I assume the endings are Fredrica/Roland, Roland/Benedict, and Benedict/Fredrica, at least, right?). I mean Benedict is singlehandedly keeping this entire operation afloat throughout the entire plot since no one else has any idea what they’re doing. Likewise, I can see why he would want to side with Aesfrost over Hyzante as a matter of practicality. Hyzante, with a monopoly on salt, could be a real danger to the people of Wolffort and Serenoa especially, since they’ve already decided once to enslave an entire group of people to hide the presence of salt elsewhere. But also why he would probably stick with Serenoa if he picked Hyzante, since submitting now does not necessarily have to mean submitting forever, and if they live to fight another day they can deal with the fallout then. Basically, he really didn’t need the extra justification of really hating Symon/Regna and wanting to fuck Serenoa’s mom to drive him into wanting to side with Aesfrost.

3) I still can’t get over how dumb the “Serenoa and Roland are siblings” thing is. I mean, I genuinely cannot remember any instance of that being foreshadowed at all. Maybe I’ll see it upon replaying but IIRC no one is like “gee sure is weird that Symon got married so fast and had a kid like right away” and there’s even an NPC that tells Serenoa the story of how happy and proud Symon was at Serenoa’s birth. And like NPCs constantly talk about how much Symon loves Serenoa and how proud Symon was/is/would be of Serenoa if he could see him now, so Benedict being all “they treated you and your mother like a pawn!” just seems like... really untrue.

4) Ok ok I said I was going to be more positive. I do really like the battle system, and I like how forgiving it is. I messed up the last fight of the Benedict route (bad TP management) and got Erador killed (who is basically necessary for this map) via mages, and I did not realize the game not only lets you restart from the beginning, it even lets you keep the EXP you earned so you can try again, still progress and get stronger, and not have to waste time grinding on Tavern maps.

5) THANK FUCKING GOD FOR THE AUTOSAVES. My game crashed on that one level near the end, the one with the minecarts where the Aesfrosti soldiers are trying to blow the place up? Like not even shitting you, four enemies from the end of that map the game crashed and I was in near tears thinking I was going to have to restart all over from the beginning (and that map is fucking annoying), but turns out it makes quicksave data constantly so I just had to redo like a few movements.

6) I’m guessing I didn’t get all the notes with extra worldbuilding info, but I actually do quite like what they did with them. They were informative without really feeling unnecessary. Admittedly, even though I did call salt being in the mine from chapter 1, I was kind of back and forth on committing to the guess until I read some of those notes that really hammered home just how scarce and how important salt actually is on this continent.

7) The entire plot of this game would crumble if these guys were like five feet closer to an ocean lmao.

8) Ezana can fucking step on me.

9) Next playthrough is going to be really weird, considering I made like no major utility decisions my entire playthrough but wound up being very utility aligned anyways. Assuming the colors on the voting screen actually align to the proper convictions though, I guess that won’t make me going for a lot of utility decisions next playthrough a problem? Since Benedict’s route is presented as red (liberty?) and Roland, who I plan to do next, is presented as the Utility option.

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radramblog · 3 years

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Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon is basically OK

Recently, I’ve partaken in some kind of cultural exchange with a friend of mine- namely, I’ve lent her my copies of the Scott Pilgrim novels (god do they kick ass), and she’s lent me her copy of Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, seeing as I never played it at the time.

Well I’ve now beaten this game, and I have some thoughts about it, so chop chop Keara the story isn’t getting any younger I expect a full book report on my desk next Sunday.

Jokes aside, this was my first experience with a PMD game since Sky (discounting the demo for Gates to Infinity), and having missed the series’s third entry (fourth if you count those Japan-only WiiWare games), it’d be remiss of me not to at least mention that maybe some of the things I’m going to complain about were originally that game’s fault. But apparently that one actively sucks ass so who cares, just shift the blame over, eh?

(ah, primary-school-tier bullying, exactly what I want in my Pokemon game, cool)

I think one of the foremost issues people have about PSMD is the story, and I can’t help but agree. The game spends what feels like forever fucking about in Serene Village, doing what could charitably described as tutorial followed by slice-of-life-ish plots, and while I love me a good slice-of-life anime, those tend to be a lot less slow than this. Also the characters tend to be a lot less one-note, but it’s a kids game, so whatever. Speaking of kids, this to my knowledge is the only PMD game where you and your partner character are canonically children, and spend a lot of time around others. The game seems to establish unevolved Pokemon as kids, which while it doesn’t really add up with the rest of the series (e.g. in the first ones, Caterpie is clearly a child, but Metapod is as well and Gulpin is at least adult enough to run their own store), it would ultimately be excusable if it didn’t make that huge section of the game so boring.

They aren’t consistent with that kids thing, by the way. When you finally reach the Expedition society, you’re met with a bunch of unevolved Pokemon (Archen, Buizel, Bunnelby, Swirlix) that are running around behaving very youthfully, who then turn around and go hey we don’t allow kids in our gang please leave. Like, the plot had been leading me to believe that the whole place was shut down, Ampharos as its final member, and those kids were just running around an abandoned building, but nope, here are your teammates for the rest of the game.

(brown sus)

The remainder of the plot is basically fine, its not like the plots in this series are the greatest on the planet (save maybe Explorers), though the focus on the villains turning people into stone felt pretty awkward. It’s like they wanted to pull off a more dramatic, more personal-stakesy plot but couldn’t actually kill anyone. This gets kind of egregious when you end up in actual hell for a bit, in what I guess is the series tradition of potentially traumatic experiences and blasted hellscapes being exposed to the protagonists. The endgame plot all seems to come at you at once, not helped by it being lots of chained dungeons without returning to towns beforehand- it wouldn’t be as bad if the whole game was like this, but with such a slow start, it just feels so inconsistent. The endgame twist was pretty spicy, I’ll admit, but it didn’t have enough buildup to feel earned in my honest opinion.

(pictured: the best character in the game)

But the plot doesn’t matter so much as the gameplay does it? And as someone who has also concurrently been playing through the first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game on my GBA, there’s a lot of interesting comparisons to make. The dungeons on the whole are shorter in PSMD, with few of the main-game ones reaching beyond 10 floors (and not going much past it) compared to the prequels’ capping off with a 25+5 floor behemoth in Sky Tower. This is made up for by every floor of the dungeons in PSMD feeling much larger and more labyrinthine than anything in other PMD games, meaning each one takes much longer than you’d think. I dread to imagine what the 99-floor dungeons are like in this game, especially considering you now need an item to quicksave the game if you want to do anything else now. The dungeons themselves additionally really do not feel like they’ve taken advantage of the 9 years of potential design improvements and two console generations of technology improvements between games- it is frustratingly same-old same-old in the dungeon design.

These problems are capped off with the increased difficulty- that is, that every individual Pokemon is significantly more of a threat to you than in previous games, and you don’t really get the opportunity to level grind much. And I’m not opposed to difficulty in games, obviously, but what it does in PSMD is ruin the flow of the gameplay for me. What works in Mystery Dungeons previous was that blend of exploration and combat, and in Super, that gets completely broken up by protracted encounters with even the chump-tier mons you encounter along the way. Also, they made the basic attack complete shit, and I don’t like that.

That’s not to say that the gameplay is all bad. I won’t comment too heavily on the Looplet/Emera system, because I’m kinda mid on it, but it didn’t help that despite all the game’s tutorialising I still didn’t get part of it until most of the way through the story. The game does have some moments of genuine brilliance in design, though. The way you recruit more Pokemon is so much better than the luck-based mission of the previous games, wihle managing to actually make you want to go on the random missions you get thrown throughout the game- for one thing they aren’t random, but it means you have a guaranteed good reward instead of the semi-RNG system where you just end up with a bunch of Gravelerocks and berries you’ll never use. In addition, the system where on non-plot days (and in the postgame) you just get 3 random Pokemon recommended to you, that get bonus EXP if you use them that day, is a great way of encouraging the player to diversify their Pokemon usage substantially, which is nice.

There’s a few other nice gameplay things I’d like to highlight. Considering the increased difficulty, the ability to rescue yourself (read: come back with the overpowered mons the game dropped in your lap) is really nice, especially since it’s not like anyone else is playing these games who can help. The way moves get better the more you use them is nice, especially considering how much more you use one move over and over in this game compared to main series Pokemon games. The random bonus missions and travelling mons you encounter in dungeons are nice, as well as the increased variety in missions available- as well as actually being able to revive fallen escortees, it makes the mission system overall much stronger than in previous entries.

Beyond that, though, I’m not sure what else I have to say about Super Mystery Dungeon. The game is a decent entry in what can barely be called a franchise these days, considering it’s 6 years old and yet still the newest entry, excluding the remake of the first ones that came out last year. It’d be a shame if this was the note we went out on for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but to be fair, I don’t think they’re ever going to be able to recapture the magic of the first two games. They struck gold with a lot of people, but I guess at this point, the gleam wore off.

#ramble #video games #pokemon #psmd #pokemon mystery dungeon

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drcoomerphd · 4 years

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@megamaam replied to your post:

You’re the second person I’ve seen talk about Gonarch’s Lair like this, which I find pretty interesting since it’s my favorite Xen chapter by FAR. I definitely died a fair number of times while playing it, but that was usually due to me mucking up my own long jumps than anything else… maybe its because the chapter introduces the long jump dodge and then sort of immediately requires mastery?

I do think that in a few areas it needs better telegraphing of where the player should be running, though. Especially since the penalty for messing up on that is pretty heavy

I’m def not implying it’s a bad chapter by any means, the experience I had with it just didn’t quite align with what I considered fun myself. I died several times as well, and at least some of them I would def attribute to not good signposting and the fact that the long jump module would throughout the entire Xen portion of the game just not work properly like 1 out of 4 times (it was bad enough that I eventually quicksaved before p much every long jump because it was so unreliable).

It’s weird that the Gargantua chase section almost immediately following Gonarch’s Lair was actually my favorite part of Interloper, but the directions to flee to were not only better signposted, the whole chase felt a lot more fluid somehow? I can’t tell if I was getting stuck on the level geometry a lot less, or if having gone through Gonarch’s Lair had made me better at it, but it was a lot less painful. I think the Gargantuas were also easier to outrun, while there was an autosave moment in Gonarch’s Lair where she’d pop out and chase me down a narrow path and it was very difficult to not have her just trample me for half my health because there was nowhere to dodge and I was otherwise too slow to get away with sprint and jumps.

#megamaam #hl

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annakie · 4 years

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An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Eight

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I accidentally messed up the numbering on part Seven’s link to post six, so if you missed post six (or yesterday’s part seven), the numbering up there is correct.

Wherein we get back out into the galaxy, explore, help some people, and kill some others!

So now that we have Liara, it’s time to really dig into the galaxy. We have a few people we talked to on the CItadel who need help, and maybe we’ll stumble into a few more things along the way.

First of all, let’s check out the galaxy map...

Hey wait a sec, what’s this?

Petra Nebula!? Oh hey, another new addition by the ME1 Recalibrated mod.

Gorgeous map, only one system available.

Heeeey we recognize this place, we’ll get to go there in.... two games!

Can’t land there (or anywhere in the system) but it’s cool that it exists! There are a couple of other neat little things in the system I didn’t screenshot so that you can have a cool new experience yourself if you decide to use the mod on your next playthrough.

What I really miss from ME3, by the way, is the % markers which note when you’ve fully explored a system or if there’s more stuff to find there.

Anyway, my PLAN had been to take a screenshot of each planet or spacecraft before I entered it to help orient the playthrough better, and then the non-screenshotting couple of hours happened, so we lost some of that along the way, sorry.

Still, let’s see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into.

I love this planet. The lava juuuuust below the surface, peeking out. Just some of the coolest terrain in the game.

What a great view, let’s get a little clo--

OOPS.

I meant to do that.

Wide open spaces with no fears of a thresher maw living in the lava! ...I hope?

Ah, here’s our objective, a distress signal being sent from this location, let’s see if we can help...

FUCKING GETH AMBUSH.

Aw yeah, jumping over those explosives like a pro!

...most of the time.

Well this planet was a bust. Let’s see if we can actually help someone.

Another planet, scanned a few things, not sure what we’re doing here but hey, I found a lone building!

Ah yes, a prefab which is totally different from all the prefabs we’ll enter because the creates are stacked in a different configuration.

Honestly they should have put one of these prefabs in ME3 for Old Times Sake. (The ones that actually look like homes/labs/whatever make so much more sense.)

Annnd we’re being attacked. Not sure why, but here we go!

Awww yeah, Throw! And Ash and Kaidan managing to be useful I think?

Except they let a guy slip by us, but luckily there’s a convenient explosive nearby. That got ‘em.

OK back to facing forward OH FUCK A KROGAN.

Kaidan’s biotics and my shotgun, a favorite combination. Now stay down!

Sweet, level up!

And that fight’s over, time to explore this pla...

Whew, thanks Kaidan.

This guy thought he could sneak past me. Well me, my shotgun and my 20 shield strength sure showed him.

ME1 combat is so... messy though. I mean, I honestly still enjoy it, but I’m in the camp that agrees combat gets better every game, Andromeda included. Of course, I just REALLY LOVE Vanguarding in ME3... charging into a group of enemies, hitting Nova, spamming charge again praying that I’ll find a good target to charge to in time. ME1 combat is basically all just... spam abilities from cover and hope your companions are doing something useful. Being a Vanguard is more about style over substance in ME here. I mean you do get some really useful abilities, but your shotgun isn’t that much use unless things get too close.

Which, you know, they do pretty often.

Anyway, remember... I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!

FUCK I hadn’t been back to the Citadel to pick up Nassana Dantius’ quest yet. Let’s just reload the quicksave from outside and we’ll... come back and do this the right way later and see the entire quest.

I do this more often than I care to admit.

Also no screenshot for this but... I also found Wrex’s personal quest planet and recognized it only when I saw the building, since it’s in a pretty memorable location. Still, grabbed everything else off the planet so it’ll be quick when it’s time to go back and do that quest.

Well let’s go back to poking around the galaxy.

Message coming in. Patching it through.

Ah, yeah, hey Hackett. What’s that? You’ve got some dirty work you need me to do for you? Cool, be right there.

Before the ME2 DLC Arrival came out, Hackett was one of Mass Effect’s biggest mysteries. Who is this guy? Why is he telling us to do things? Does he have some secret agenda? Why is he so sketchy? Our Shepards seemed to trust him but WOW he sure did send us on some touchy missions. Speculation was all over the place on what he looked like and what he was really doing.

Turns out, he’s just a pretty cool guy who wants you to take on all the secret spy missions the Alliance doesn’t want to take credit for.

I wish I’d saved it, but just a week or two ago I saw a pretty great post circulating about Hackett. He IS the guy that’s going to make sure a job gets done, even if he’s not going to do it himself. He’s the back-room Admiral with the squeaky clean image up front. He’s the Gus Fring of the Alliance.

Also getting Lance Riddick to voice him was great. Just a real authoritative, steady guy who you actually want to trust.

And it turns out he looks basically exactly like most people thought, but maybe with a few more scars. (I mean, he really looks a lot like Lance Riddick, tbh) But we don’t know that yet. For now, let the mystery be.

Time to actually go help someone.

Ah yeah, Chairman Burns, we do negotiate with terrorists, in this case. But they needed negotiating with.

Maxing out the Paragon-meter is worth it for moments like this. These guys have probably suffered and it’s no surprise that no one has really listened. Sounds like a lot about the galaxy hasn’t changed since we got out there.

This is also an excellent moment for Kaidan.

Being able to let Kaidan reason with them is fantastic. Although he probably ultimately doesn’t make a difference mechanics wise, it’d be nice if maybe the check is easier if he’s here. I don’t know. But Kaidan knows, even if he’s one of the “lucky” ones who “only” gets migraines.

One of the grossest posts I’ve seen about Kaidan are people who argue she shouldn’t be on the team because of his implants and since he has a “disability”. Or that it’s “kinder” to sacrifice him on Virmire. That’s some real gross ablism you’ve got there.

Anyway, I love being able to keep this situation under control. Burns actually comes through if you do, even if those guys probably go to prison for awhile for terrorism. Better than being dead.

Time for... another planet!

Again, didn’t take a screencap of this one but... there’s a missing survey team? I must have picked this quest up in the elevators, because normally you get it on Noveria. Anyway, Let’s go find them on Trebin, I’m sure they just can’t broadcast anymore or something. It’s cool

FUCK. SHIT SHIT SHIT. FUCK!!!

I probably could have actually used Warp or Throw or even Barrier there but... too late now! We lived!

I was all ready to blame this on Cerberus, but creepily, there’s no explanation for who huskified them or why. I’m still going to blame Cerberus, seems like something they’d do.

Well, time to move on.

Honestly, I can’t believe anyone who says ME1 isn’t beautiful.

And driving the Mako is FUN in places like this!

Oh there’s a camp up ahead, we’re here to find the remaining crew of a crashed ship for our new friend in the Citadel Tower.

Again, no footage/screenshot but eventually you find where the mercenaries tracked down Willem (the brother) and killed them. Shit. We were too late. I actually tear up sometimes telling Garoth that his brother died. They held out for awhile, too, but we were too late.

It would have been nice if, say, if the very first thing we did after leaving the Citadel was to come here, we could have saved him, but I guess this quest is another way of Bioware telling us that sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do to change things.

One more quest this update, then we’re stopping back off at the Citadel next.

Presrop, one of the most well-known of the sidequest planets. (OKok, technically it’s a moon.)

One of my favorite landing sequences, just because the stars make it so... dramatic.

I mean DAMN.

Klendagon's most striking feature is, of course, the Great Rift valley that stretches across the southern hemisphere. What is most fascinating about the Rift is that it does not appear to be natural. The geological record suggests it is the result of a "glancing blow" by a mass accelerator round of unimaginable destructive power. This occurred some thirty-seven million years ago.

It took a solid three minutes of Flycam flying to get that closeup shot, btw. I actually flew all the way in the first time I came here, and didn’t take screenshots. Took about six minutes. The updated texture is impressive.

Well, Hackett sent us here, let’s deal with Major Kyle.

Being nice and non-threatening gets you into places.

I’ll admit, before I came in here, I decided to cheat in enough paragon points to max out Paragon already. For me personally, I’m trying to make sure this is an “ultimate” playthrough, a save file I can just use over and over from here on out. I want everything to import into ME3 the first time around with all the plot flags set how I want them without messing with Gibbed’s Savegame Editor, so making sure I can convince everyone how I want them to is important. So hey, Major Kyle, stand down.

I don’t think I’ve ever played as a Ruthless Shepard in ME1, or if I have, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how it goes. But he was the commanding officer at the battle of Torfan, and your CO if you’re Ruthless. He’s also a reminder of how serious PTSD can be, and what it can do to a person.

I also love this tidbit from the Wiki, which I didn’t know since I’d never done these particular choices before:

(In Mass Effect 2) If Martin Burns was not saved in 2183, a news report on the Citadel will announce that Kyle is trying to form an all-biotic community as the reparations were not given to L2 biotics and they have become even more alienated from galactic society.

I really liked that if you reason with him, he doesn’t give you any trouble and turns himself in like he says.

Hey, this negotiation thing is easy when you’re the best person in the galaxy at it!!

#mass effect #kaidan alenko #the mako #chairman burns #major kyle #bioware #annakie's mass effect stuff

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teefa85 · 5 years

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Starting up Aron’s Campaign...I’ve got two questions...

Laya, why does an 18-year cryogenic nap leave you back at LEVEL 1?! I mean, I’m guessing so it’s fair to the other heroes (as Adan gets his twin sister Gwyn instead since Laya’s his mother and both Crys and Sean wake up Laya for the first time in their Campaigns). But maaan...gotta level her again! Good thing I saved that Force Crown in Wren’s Inventory so she has some better armor!

Kara, why do you only have ONE Slicer?! Looking at a list of what Slicers exist, I’m just gonna go for broke and buy one of the better ones. A Force one is decent, and not bonkers expensive!

...maybe I should redo my quicksaves if I play the full game again, and have Mieu carry one over to Gen III!

After that...we’re off to buy Force Boots for anyone who doesn’t already have them or something better, and then we’ll FINALLY go back to Dahlia for the Aero Parts. These trips are as much for levels for Kara and Laya as anything else.

#Phantasy Star III #liveblog

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blazehedgehog · 6 years

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Do you have any opinions on Star Wars? (Games, comics, movies, shows, etc.)

This is a very broad question, so I hope you’re prepared for a broad response. By which I mean: yo this post is going to be long.

Star Wars is pretty cool, I guess. I’ve seen A New Hope a lot.

I remember the same day the trailer for The Phantom Menace dropped, they installed iMac G3s in our high school computer lab. That was probably the first thing any of us did on one of those, was watch it, back when apple.com used to not only host, but premiere movie trailers in Quicktime format.

I remember getting swept up in that zeitgeist, about how amazing it was going to be, and hearing reviews slam it. I never saw it in the theater, because I never see movies in theaters (even back then). I remember renting it on VHS and finding it tremendously boring. Way too many hard-to-follow politics.

I saw Attack of The Clones in theaters, because my Mom and I had four free movie tickets from some giveaway. So we saw Clones and the first Sam Raimi Spider-man. For the longest time, those were the last two movies I saw in theaters (up until a couple years ago, when my cousin took me to see Pacific Rim, and then most recently, my brother took all of us to see Cars 3). I remember on the way in seeing a friend from High School in the lobby playing the theater’s Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet. I dropped a quarter in and he mopped the floor with me.

Clones seemed fine when I was coming out of the theater. Going to the theater felt like a special event (because it was), so I don’t think the movie itself even really sunk in until I tried watching it a second time a year later, on home video – I found it to be one of the worst movies I’d ever seen, at that point in time. Just, absolutely awful. An embarrassment if there ever was one.

I saw Revenge of the Sith on video about a year after its release and thought it was the most watchable movie in the prequel trilogy. I have not seen it again since.

I did not really grow up with Star Wars video games. I remember renting the Super Star Wars trilogy and never liking any of them. Way too unforgivably difficult and genuinely kind of ugly games, too. People will go on about Factor 5′s big downfall being Lair for the PS3, but in all honesty I’ve never played a Factor 5 game I’ve enjoyed. Their Star Wars games in particular.

Yes, that even means all of the Rogue Squadron games. I’ve played the (first?) Nintendo 64 game, which quickly shoves an escort mission in your face (the worst). The second Gamecube game I ever owned was Rogue Squadron 2, bought for $2 in around 2005. Very visually impressive, but again, the mission variety and the extreme level of difficulty drags things down. Not very fun.

I have fond memories of the demo for Jedi Outcast, but I would later come to realize those find memories weren’t from playing the game normally – I would enable cheats, jack all my force powers up to max and goof around, shoving storm troopers off of ledges and spawning The Reborn and having saber duels with them in rooms that weren’t built for those kinds of fights.

My real fond memories are of the first Jedi Knight game (Dark Forces 2), which I forced my mom to buy for me when we ditched our 266mhz Packard Bell for a 1.5ghz Sony Vaio. I wanted to “test the system’s capabilities,” even though the game was 4-5 years old at that point. My “memories” of Jedi Knight are of having fun, but I don’t actually remember many specifics, except a level with a lot of water and a lot of mynocks.

Many years later, when I bought Jedi Outcast on Steam, I found it, too, to be insanely frustrating. The entire lead up to that game before you get your saber is awful, especially the level with all the rodian snipers. One of those old-style PC games where you’re expected to savescum your way through everything, with two fingers perched on the quicksave and quickload keys at all times. Even once I started cheating, much as I did with the Outcast demo, it failed to hold my interest – it eventually degenerates in to awful platforming levels with controls ill-suited to such a task.

I’ve never touched a KOTOR, despite owning both on Steam now. I know they’re high regarded, and I bought them with the intent on playing them eventually, but it just never happened.

The secret best Star Wars game is probably Revenge of the Sith on the Nintendo DS. It’s by Ubisoft and I think Gameloft, which usually is a bad combination. It’s a Turtles in Time-style beat’em’up with the occasional 3D shooter section. It’s generic and kind of forgettable, but also way better than it has any right to be. There’s a version of the same game on the GBA, but it’s missing the 3D shooter stuff and a few other bonus features the DS version gets.

The only other Star Wars game I remember enjoying is the Podracer game, but that took a long time to click with me. It’s one of those games that I think really benefits from an instruction manual, or watching someone else play, or something. I think specifically what got the game to click with me was watching World Record runs on Youtube.

youtube

Realizing that game has a boost system and heat management really gave it a sort of depth I didn’t think it had. And don’t underestimate how easy it looks in this video, actually juggling the cycle of overheating, repairing, and boosting while also steering is a LOT harder than you’d think. But it’s completely necessary – despite being a podracing game, it’s not normally anywhere near as fast as it’s depicted in the movie… unless you know how to ride the line like these guys. :p

I’d go for a new, modern Podracer game. I’m also aware the Arcade/Dreamcast version is a completely different game. Never tried it.

Saw The Force Awakens when it released on DVD, thought it was alright. A little safe, but it was significantly better than the prequels. A solid Star Wars movie, just not outstanding. I have a lot of friends who have grown bitter about how derivative it is, but not me. (I also have only ever watched it once.)

I have not yet seen The Last Jedi, and probably won’t until it reaches home video. I’ve been avoiding spoilers as best I can, but at the very least, I know it’s a very divisive movie and I can make some assumptions as to why, based on the ways The Force Awakens shook a couple things up and some very minor spoilers I’ve seen.

I saw Rogue One last year and thought it was fine. Not a fantastic movie, but an interesting mess, I guess. I can’t honestly remember much about it right now except for the ending. And the robot being the best part of the movie.

Also rewatched Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi (the original theatrical versions) semi-recently (before TLJ came out) and thought they were good. Empire Strikes Back is obviously the best Star Wars; it has the strongest identity, the strongest storyline, etc. Return of the Jedi is a decent popcorn flick. Not exactly cutting edge opinions there.

I know I’ve seen the Ewok movie at some point but it’s been 20 years at least since I even looked in that direction.

Not looking forward to the Han Solo origin movie.

Getting tired of Disney screaming Star Wars marketing at me every year, all year (though it’s getting to feel more like background radiation now.)

Saw the original Genndy “Clone Wars” shorts, liked them, didn’t love them. Never saw any of the Star Wars TV cartoons, though I hear good things about them.

Never read a Star Wars comic book before, but I own one of the Omnibuses from a Humble Bundle a few years ago.

There’s probably more to say but this post has gone on long enough and I feel like I’m scraping for things to say.

#questions #star wars #podracer #jedi knight #jedi outcast #factor 5 #Anonymous

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tapatapreview · 4 years

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November 03, 2020 at 08:55AM https://ift.tt/3elOTNG Gaming

Baldur’s Gate 3 is a little bit of a multitude, and for now, that is okay. Baldur’s Gate 3 is not performed but. As with developer Larian Studios’ earlier launch, the acclaimed 2017 RPG Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been launched into Early Access on Steam. It accommodates the primary act of the sport: a bit of content material encompassing round 25 hours of adventuring for gamers decided to hunt out each final treasure chest or minor aspect quest.

As a setup it exhibits promise, introducing you to a solid of half a dozen characters who trace on the potential to grow to be fascinating touring companions. Already on the point of civil battle and now going through a terrifying alien menace, the world itself appears to supply wealthy pickings for these characters to indulge. And by constructing on the template solid by the Original Sin sequence, BG3 already has the inspiration of a well-engineered RPG that rewards gamers keen to have interaction with its systemic creativity.

Yet such promise is muted by notes of warning. Baldur’s Gate 3 is tough and messy and sometimes appears like it’s simply barely hanging collectively. Occasionally it falls aside, collapsing beneath the load of scripting bugs and graphical glitches, and even offers up utterly with quite a few onerous crashes to desktop. Technical points will not be uncommon in any sport, not to mention one nonetheless in Early Access, and so it’s neither a shock nor a lot of a criticism to come across them right here.

You can pet the canine in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Many such issues are trivial–a wonky loss of life animation right here, a lacking little bit of textual content there–and will be excused by the sport’s Early Access state. The actual worth to be paid by the various bugs and glitches is a tariff on the dramatic weight of the conversations and cinematic scenes throughout which they come up. Tense confrontations are diminished when characters cycle by means of clearly unfinished animations or the placeholder digital camera place fails to concentrate on what’s really occurring. Key scenes are undermined when the faltering choreography makes it onerous to discern what’s at stake. As a outcome, it is robust to actually make investments your self in story growth or character dynamics once they’re being always tripped up by a presentation that’s so clearly a piece in progress.

Technical points will not be uncommon in any sport, not to mention one nonetheless in Early Access, and so it’s neither a shock nor a lot of a criticism to come across them right here.

But that is okay. Baldur’s Gate 3 is not performed but. Without making an attempt to second-guess Larian’s growth course of, these technical issues do not appear basic; the cheap expectation is that they are going to be mounted, and there’s loads of time for that to occur. Improvements have already been famous within the transition from pre-release to Early Access launch, in addition to within the subsequent patches, and there is not any purpose to suppose that pattern will not proceed.

Beyond technical frailty although, there are other–perhaps extra intractable–reasons to counsel it might be untimely to embark in your Baldur’s Gate 3 journey.

I discovered the tone of a lot of the writing to be a turn-off. The premise has your beginning character escape from a Mind Flayer experiment, however solely after a gross psychic maggot crawled into your character’s eyeball and bedded down of their mind. Meeting up with a handful of different such victims, with whom you share the realisation now you can affect the ideas of others, you resolve to band collectively and discover a option to take away the maggots. These get together members are at first understandably cautious of you and of every other–you’ve all endured a traumatic expertise and you do not like anybody who can go digging by means of your thoughts. I completely get it. But everybody feels lower from the identical fabric. Everyone shares the identical barely petulant character. Treating you with a sure diploma of suspicion is smart, however it’s tiring to journey with companions who all have an effect on an charisma, teasing you with allusions to there being far more to their tales whereas on the similar time clamming up and even scolding you for daring to probe additional.

It appears possible the writers are capturing for a gradual constructing of belief. During conversations you may obtain suggestions that your fellow get together members approve or disapprove of the belongings you’ve mentioned and the alternatives you have made. At instances they will even voice assist or concern throughout the change. You can even have one among your get together members (relatively than your main character) provoke conversations with an NPC and probably reveal completely different strains of dialogue because of this. On a mechanical degree, it feels good, as in case your selections matter, significantly once you understand a state of affairs would possible have performed out in another way when you had left one get together member at base camp and introduced alongside another person.

Yet the dialogue itself feels off to the extent that I’m not satisfied anybody desires to be there. There’s a snideness and aloofness to every get together member that does not align with their willingness to, you already know, be a celebration member. It could possibly be that it is too early to guage, and I’m all for lengthy arc of character growth, however the impression these characters have thus far left on me is that I do not significantly wish to dangle round with any one among them.

It in all probability does not assist that the first character obtainable within the Early Access construct is a generic roll-your-own selection. The most fascinating option to play Divinity: Original Sin 2 was by selecting one of many pre-made characters who got here geared up with their very own background, a definite character, and a longtime relationship with the broader world, whereas the pre-made characters you did not choose initially would later be recruited to your get together. Rolling your individual character firstly did allow you to customise their expertise and look, however it meant you needed to forgo the additional taste that got here with selecting a fleshed-out, pre-written character. It felt such as you had been lacking out.

It could possibly be that it is too early to guage, however the impression these characters have thus far left on me is that I do not significantly wish to dangle round with any one among them.

Baldur’s Gate 3 works in a lot the identical approach. You can roll your individual character, choosing from quite a lot of races, courses, genders, expertise and so forth, together with a reasonably spectacular suite of sliders and presets that will let you tailor bodily look. Or you may choose one of many pre-rolled choices and correctly role-play an current character. The exception is that the latter shouldn’t be but obtainable within the Early Access construct. It’s seen as an choice within the character creation menu, however it’s greyed out.

What this implies is you are presently left with a reasonably boring primary character. I performed by means of the primary act with three completely different main characters, switching up their race, gender and sophistication, and I struggled to seek out some ways to make the expertise really feel recent every time. That your main character stays silent throughout conversations, whereas everybody else is totally voiced, solely exacerbates the issue, heightening the feeling you are taking part in as an interchangeable model. When the choice to select one of many pre-made characters turns into obtainable in a future replace, this situation ought to disappear. For now, although, it is one more reason to attend.

There are additionally reservations available on a extra mechanical degree. Combat works very very like it does in Divinity: Original Sin 2, and for essentially the most half that’s an asset. The turn-based encounters revolve round making use of the rapid surroundings, whether or not that is securing excessive floor and the benefit it affords ranged assaults or deploying spells and gadgets to leverage elemental hazards, similar to turning swimming pools of water into slippery ice traps. Creative options will not be merely inspired however rewarded, and the various fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 are greatest loved once you’re capable of exploit choices past as soon as once more swinging your longsword.

Gallery

Where it comes undone is in failing to let you know about any of the extra fascinating methods to strategy fight. Tutorials for something past primary melee and ranged assaults are non-existent at this stage, and I think anybody who hasn’t performed Original Sin 2 will discover that a lot of the complexity passes them by. Worsening the confusion is a listing system that does a poor job of highlighting something helpful, whereas the fast choose bar on the backside of the display is a jumble of indecipherable icons, sorted seemingly in essentially the most chaotic and unhelpful order potential.

The problem of encounters is equally in all places. I discovered some very early fights utterly not possible whereas later ones proved a breeze. This led to a substantial amount of cautious quicksaving and quickloading when exploring. I��d take a unsuitable flip and discover myself in a pitched battle I shortly realized I had no hope of successful, so I’d reload and discover in the other way. This can be positive if it felt like I used to be braving extra harmful territory, however as an alternative it merely felt random and thus irritating.

Related to the problem, share probabilities to hit in fight usually feels very low. From frustratingly low to-hit probabilities to frequent steep ability checks, you’ll spend plenty of time in Baldur’s Gate 3 failing at varied actions–failing to stab somebody, failing to hit them with a spell, failing to intimidate or persuade or choose a lock. There’s a way that you’re, regardless of your “chosen one” standing, not really a very completed adventurer.

It’s in all probability greatest to attend and see how these items fall within the last, or at the least story-complete, launch.

Currently there isn’t a adjustable problem setting–the pre-game setup describes the problem as “Normal”–and it is not possible to know if this form of unevenness is intentional or can be tweaked in future stability updates. Either approach, it is one other instance of the advantage of persistence. It’s in all probability greatest to attend and see how these items fall within the last, or at the least story-complete, launch.

Reviewing Baldur’s Gate 3 at this time limit is a fragile proposition. It exhibits a great deal of promise, but there are many warning indicators it might not fulfill its potential. But predicting the long run shouldn’t be actually the duty of an Early Access overview. To some extent, it’s fascinating to play Baldur’s Gate 3 right this moment with the information it is possible for you to to observe its progress over the approaching months–and probably years–with a type of tutorial curiosity in how AAA RPGs are constructed. You’ll have the ability to witness first-hand how tough cuts are overwhelmed into form and eventually polished. And for some small part of the viewers, that alone can be definitely worth the worth of admission. For the remainder of us, nevertheless, there is not any rush. Baldur’s Gate 3 is not performed but. It’s okay to attend till it’s.

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impurelight · 5 years

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Civ 6 Gathering Storm - Great Premise; Flawed Execution

When I first heard about Civilization 6 Gathering Storm I was like, "They added CANALS!?! Shut up and take my money." But having played it and finishing one game I'd have to say the changes are... underwhelming.

So the first reason why is the World Congress. This is a mechanic I first experienced in Civilization 5 Brave New World. Or it might have been the other expansion, I forgot. But it definitely was in one of the Civ 5 expansions. Anyways I loved the mechanic there. But here it feels... half baked.

In Civ 5 the way it worked is every few turns 2 players are selected and those two players pick 2 resolutions (one each) and the rest of the world votes on them. Now the only thing really bad about this system are those two players that pick resolutions tend to be the same two players for the entire game. If I recall correctly this is because the two players that choose the resolutions are the player that is currently winning and the player that has the most votes. But hey, that's how it works in real life so it's not all bad.

In Civ 6 it looks like they changed this. But they did it by watering it down so much that the World Congress is barely even the World Congress now. In Civ 5 two people choose resolutions and then everyone votes on them. In Civ 6 everyone chooses resolutions and you can only vote on the one you chose and you can't see what anyone else chose or voted on. The only indicator for what people might vote on is 'Player X will vote for this category'. Yeah, it is a completely disorganized mess.

But at least they tried to fix it... a little. In Civ 5 there were like 10 resolutions you could choose from. Imagine the craziness if each player voted on a separate resolution (also you can vote up or down on each resolution doubling the craziness). In Civ 6 there are just 4 resolutions. 2 pairs meaning you can only vote (yes or no) to one and only one can be passed. Although later it opens up to 6-7 (the original 2, who do we want to screw over from getting a diplomatic victory (technically you can also gain diplomatic victory points too), and sometimes a world challenge). And they are randomized each time the World Congress convenes. The problem with this is that in the early game the 4 resolutions are probably things you don't particularly care about and in the late game it's the same just with the same 3 options bolted on.

So in Civ 5 the world congress was pretty interesting if you were one of those two players picked. If you weren't, well, at least you had something to work towards. In Civ 6 they wanted everyone to have fun and in order to do that they had to make the world congress not fun for anyone. It feels like a step back.

Likewise the diplomatic victory also got downgraded. In Civ 5 it was real easy. There was a vote every few turns on who should get a diplomatic victory. And every time that would happen every player would vote for themselves. Adorable. So you just had to get enough votes to simply overrule everyone. So then, like, how do I win? In Civ 5 it was easy. Be friendly to all the city states and win the vote.

But in Civ 6 you need these victory token things to get a diplomatic victory. You need 20 of them. You get them from siding with the winning side on a vote in the world congress, building certain wonders, and researching certain things. Right now diplomatic victory is hilariously broken. All you have to do is quicksave just before the vote. Vote, see which options won, reload your save, and you can side with the winning team every time. You'll get loads of diplomatic victory tokens this way. Easy victory.

But even if it wasn't so broken I wouldn't like it. Now you have to vote for a lot of things you don't care about just to win? Doesn't seem really interesting. And playing normally the most significant source of tokens is the late game vote that instantly awards you with 2 tokens. However there's another option that makes a player lose 3 tokens. And because these two options are a pair once you're winning all the AI players will vote against you so you'll lose 3 tokens unless you have enough diplomatic favour (basically a currency that allows you to cast additional votes) to outvote all of them (basically impossible on anything larger than a tiny map because it accumulates far too slowly). Why is it so complicated? Just do it like Civ 5. There's a vote every few turns and if someone has a majority they win.

The global challenges are still there but they are much more rare because instead of the voting player that chooses them it's the game and the game rarely if ever chooses them and if it does it's usually just the acquire great person points challenge again. Arg. I think I've only seen a few challenges. There was a train athletes challenge and I forgot the rest. There's also a send aid challenge when someone has a particularly bad natural disaster which isn't part of the normal meetings.

Oh, and the emergencies are now done by votes. The way emergencies worked in Rise and Fall is you'd be invited to join an emergency and you'd join and every AI would be like, "Nuh-uh, not going to happen." And then everyone would subsequently shame you for warmongering while they didn't do anything. It still works the same way but with votes. So the warmongerer can simply outvote everyone and then no one new will join in the war. #Progress

So enough about the world congress, now let's talk about the namesake of Gathering Storm: the storms and other natural disasters. They're... alright. As already mentioned there is a slider to adjust the frequency of the events. I was playing on the default: 2.

So there are eruptions, normal storms (hurricanes, dust storms, blizzards, etc), flooding, and sea level rise. Flooding and eruptions are the most significant. Basically certain tiles (for floods they're specific tiles adjacent and the same with eruptions just volcanos instead of rivers) will experience these disasters. When this happens they will gain fertility (I think only once so multiple disasters don't appear to stack), any improvement on the tile will be pillaged or destroyed, districts will be pillaged or get damaged, units standing there will get damage, and citizens may die although this only ever happened once for me.

It definitely makes you think more about where you place your city but not that much more. In my playthrough I eventually realized that the penalties for encountering natural disasters are not that significant. The worst that can happen is your district gets pillaged. Boo hoo. Build it again.

And these events are random. So you could be fine for 100 turns and then be hit by 3 storms in less than a dozen turns. I guess it makes sense, but it just feels wrong. Give me an ever present sense of danger.

It's a fun mechanic, but sort of disappointing. I don't know what I was expecting, maybe something that would change up the gameplay in a significant way. There is one of these in the form of dams you can build on floodable tiles and the hydroelectric dam that gives you power but it's not really that significant.

Also that's something they added. Power. And you'd think power plays a big role. But no, not really. Power only effects a few later buildings. Basically you have like, I don't know, 3ish buildings for each district: science, theatre, faith, etc, and the last one needs power. But here's the thing: if it isn't powered there are still benefits for having it. Just if it's powered it gives you about 200% more benefits.

So I guess when I say it like that it's sort of worth doing. But then take into account power plants need an industrial district, something that I don't normally build, and then they need to be built which takes more production. That's a lot of production wasted on something with not that much benefit. Plus they pollute and in the late game you're probably already winning so there's no point. If power plants gave you something absurd like 10x the unpowered yields then maybe yeah, I'd choose to build one. But there's just not a good argument to build a power plant now when you could be spending your production building more useful things.

So pollution, or greenhouse gases, are another new feature of the game. All the other features in gathering storm show promise. Pollution... well, it could be fun, it could be like an arms race, but it just isn't. So as already stated I didn't build any powerplants. But I was still creating pollution. How come? Well, turns out certain late game units give off pollution too. The game isn't good at explaining this to you.

Basically anything that uses mid-late game resources will create pollution. I don't really think this is that great of an idea for two reasons. First of all, this deincentivizes you to use these things. Why would I build more units if they're just going to make pollution? And second the pollution generated isn't that significant. When I realized certain units produce pollution I stopped creating those units. And so my civilization was only producing a few units of pollution each turn. A sum I quickly mitigated with carbon recapture. In fact I recaptured so much carbon I had something like -100 carbon and the world was heading to an ice age.

The reason I felt this does not show promise is because the consequences are not that significant. So sea levels will rise but you know which tiles they are in advance. They are actually clearly marked which takes some of the mystery away. The only thing this does is discourage you from settling on coastal tiles. Also sea ice can melt. Which doesn't seem that significant. They clearly added some ice and it can block some routes. On most map types this will not be an issue. But on some maps (like the Primordial map which I really like, reminds me of the Archipelago from Civ 5) it can be extremely frustrating.

I guess they're pushing you to build canals which, fine, but they're sort of useless. For one they can only go through on tile, can not go through a mountain, and can not be adjacent to a mountain. Plus they need to be built on a tile owned by one of your cities and then you start to wonder if that extra city buit in a poor location, production spent building the canal, and wasted tile for the canal could be better spent on making redundant naval units. That is, if you can find a spot to build a canal.

Then there's Grievences. They're fine. I mean, I thought they would be this big thing, "Oh, now I'm going to know why people are mad at me" and "Now I can go to war without everyone hating me". No, it's just the old warmongering system by a different name. Nothing new here.

Finally there's new technologies, civics, and government. And I mean, they're also alright. But they don't add anything new. You're already winning by the time you get there. What's the point?

So Civ 6 Gathering Storm. When I saw this expansion I was so excited. A world congress, storms, power, new technologies and civics, pollution, climate change, grievances, and canals! Gathering Storm would make up for the mediocre expansion that was Rise And Fall. Nope! Another mediocre expansion.

The changes have been implemented in the most half-assed way. Like the developers didn't want to waste time testing actual changes to the game so they just slapped some new paint on it without changing the underlying formula. So although on paper the changes seem substantial they're more like decorative extras that could be removed without making the game less fun. In fact, with the broken diplomatic victory the game might even be better.

I mean, it's still fun. It's a Civilization game. Just don't get your hopes up. If you were waiting for a huge change to the formula Gathering Storm is not it.

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