Last game played...

[ThryllSeekyr]

Just completed a nine hour session of Ark - Survival - Evolved with a video and some pictures which I will share very soon as they are uploaded to my Steam account. 

Although, I do doubt You-Tube will allow me to do this, because, they refused to upload a eight hour play session of Eldar Scrolls Online.

Anyway, those flipping prehistoric midges are a right pain!

[Theblazeuk]

Got an iPad.

Got BG2:Shadows of Amn.

Oh dear....

[Zenith 666]

Do that's a Goodbye to your social life and possibly your job as well blaze.
Excellent.

[Goaty]

As not got it before, I just buy Shadow of Mordor on Steam sale, it is Special Edition with all DLC, for £15! Bargin, and the game so smooth on my laptop! So enjoy it, very Gotham City style!

[Link Prime]

As not got it before, I just buy Shadow of Mordor on Steam sale

A really great game, I played the hell out of it on PS4 a few months ago (and was compelled to go for the platinum- a rarity these days).

I haven't bought the DLC yet, mainly because they still cost more on PSN than the game disc itself did on Amazon.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Spent a while playing some Total War Atilla (As far I know the Huns were of no particular heritage....they were mixed!) 

Aside from being beautiful improvement over it's earlier Total War predecessors graphically. The little men. (No women...why are these barbarians not equal opportunists.) and the terrain textures have been superbly upgraded as well stull that has been introduced her in in previous editions of the Total War series. As well, the subtle things that take longer to notice.

I don't normally go in for this type of game, because I suck playing these games where you have to manage and control large armies of men and this feels unfeasible. There must be easier way for controlling them giving them orders and changing those orders on the fly to suit the situation as changes. There must be easier way, like just giving individual generals or officers order to pass on down line of command or reprogram the armies with set of instructions based on how battle unfolds and you just watch while tweaking them with instructions here and there.

The added realism to the soldier's animations is still covers up their pitiful combat-tracking and path-finding mechanics that has them ground of them standing there in a clump with only the front line doing any damage while those behind them stand there looking useless until get them to move out and have them charge into the same enemy again. This works best for me, even if it feels like I'm using hammer to fix a broken window. The formations all look very similar and are more unique depending on the numbers. There
are no circle or wedge or delta formations as far as I know. I would like hit-n-run function and something that works like that automatically instead smashing the enemy by charging into them on repeat like I have been.

While the combat animations are better, I wish they could be more like what I've seen individual combatants doing ins film like 300 and Braveheart. (Speaking of which, I brought this game two days earlier because I noticed they had a DLC for Celts and then ended up adding the ones for Germans, (As apposed to Vikings, yet I guess they more northern and strictly only from Scandinavia.) ,  Romans, and the actual Vikings along with one that grants graphically pleasing decaps and severed limbs.) About that last DLC it does give what it says it does, but you need to be quicker enough to zoom in on the fountain of blood and then there this Player-Made-Mod that grants them better combat animations, but sure it actually was considering what I just said above. The solders still just do a lot standing around only moving their weapon ad then just a lot are just standing there doing nothing if nobody is close. You need to lead them the entire time, which complicates things more because of how large the armies can be.

One interesting thing is that they will jeer and some will even yell insults if they standing close or moving past the opposing forces regardless of wether they are attacking them or not. They will even shake their arms and weapons at them abusively too. Yet this also highlight another flaw they will often run past or through a mob of the unallied without attacking in order to get at their intended targets. This looks
really bad when it happens.

Have I covered everything I wanted to say.....

I'm not sure I have, but here is a video of a naval battle.

Picts Vs Geats

Among a few other boats, I chose the famous Carraugh and some boats called Fhada. Not sure of the numbers, but the fighting, once they board enemy ships looks just as un-inspiring as it does on land. yet the boarding itself looks cool if  some what unrealistic as they perform a Mega-Salmon-Leap en-
mass to the neighbouring vessel or two by two. You will see this in the video along with the beach landings where they all jump onto beach after climbing over the fore-section of their boats. As far boarding goes, shouldn't they atleast use planks and rope ladders or just ropes and hooks???

I know, I lost the land battle, but won the sea battle.

Wish those boats could carry Weird-Stones and take Rise-Prayers. Just imagine getting reinforced by the Half-dead being dropped from above in breakable-wooden-cages and well known warped-uber-unit who always arrives by dragon.

[ThryllSeekyr]

About that last DLC it does give what it says it does, but you need to be quicker enough to zoom in on the fountain of blood and then there this Player-Made-Mod that grants them better combat animations, but sure it actually was considering what I just said above. The solders still just do a lot standing around only moving their weapon ad then just a lot are just standing there doing nothing if nobody is close. You need to lead them the entire time, which complicates things more because of how large the armies can be.

I almost forgot to add that the problems I just pointed out here maybe due to a fault with the Mod
and maybe worth removing before I play again.

[Mardroid]

Been playing a Back to Bed on my Kindle HDX tablet. A really fun little amusing puzzle game where you guide a sleep walking guy safely through a dream world by putting giant apples in his way.

Not the sort of game I usually play (although I don't usually play games, although I've nothing against it. In fact I've thoroughly enjoyed it in the past) but this is really good. Working out what you need to do lends a real sense of acheivement.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Purchased Cave of Qud and Sheltered before running out of money this fortnight earlier this week.

The former is very early looking game, graphically that uses sprites. The very basic of them that don't even animate and they are very tiny and hard to appreciate. Despite being a step up from the Net-Hack's famous ASCII graphics. Net-Hack is still much easier to look at. This game remind me of another early game called Temple of Apshai which was commercial success in it's own time itself.

The best part of this game is character creation which allows you to choose from a wide range of character class's all across the broad side of fantasy to science-fiction and a wide range of mental and physical mutant powers. If you so choose to have these. Any one of you fans of the Cursed Earth or Strontium-Dog might find this side of the game more interesting. You can make a wide of characters, either combining both types or concentrating on just one or the other and few choice of more than one ability here. Some of these are more obvious than the others. You can also be totally boring human that probably starts off with better equipment.....

Yet, that is as interesting as the game gets, because the graphics just don't carry it.....yet. It's still Early-Access being worked on.

The latter is about managing a family during the fall-out stage nuclear bomb and starts when the family you have created have found a out military shelter under ground. You start off with just a small supply of food and near endless supply of water, a generator for power to provide lighting. Which works to improve the efficiency and moods of this nuclear family. A radio, a Rad-Meter, and just two Haz-Mat suits. One size fits all regardless wether a adult or child is wearing them.  Those suits are important for going out side to fix/ upgrade the air/water filters and fix the campervan. Which hasn't yet seen use in any of my games. Use the suits and keep the air-lock doors closed or else the shelter or family members or both get contaminated those family members get sick and die. There is a supply of anti-rad-meds that serve as a quick fix for this. There is also simple workbench in a room further down that allows them to make sleeping bags, make shift showers, toilets, a mop and bucket and stove to cook the animal meat caught above ground using the make shift animal trap. All these require bit n bobs and other odds and ends to make. With barely enough room for all of them to be placed any where in the standard shelter you start out with. So, I had to choose between stove, toilet and shower and you kind of need all those to survive for a long time. A mop an bucket, because if you don't have toilet, your family members get sick and make mess everywhere from three of four type of body waste that cane be produced. These tools can be deconstructed for making what didn't get made the first time and it would seem you can do this over and over. Except some of the resources are one use only. Only one sleeping bag, between four people is kind of brutal.

Which is why they need to trade with outsiders who visit and these are the only type so far that come by. Sometimes, they want to come in and join and I let them in only to have them take up valuable space and rations.

People die and attract flies, and need to be buried above. Even the make-shift graves take toll on their supplies. Family members and other survivors can be sent on supply runs into the surrounding world to loot other houses, shops and farmsteads. The distance travelled is a factor here they can only go as far as they have enough water with them. The strangest thing here in another possible need for comic relief here is that these people you send can't use the anti-rad-suits and don't appear to ne them either. They can encounter scavengers, bandits and others that can be invited to come back with them if they have the room and supplies. This part of the game needs more development and is still another Early -Access title.

More rooms can be dug out underground to increase space, but I haven't yet been able to afford to make the cement to make this possible and I have had to choose over space for shower or toilet even after removing the pantry holding the food. I have let two families die slowly this way.   

It's like another version of This War is Mine (So aptly named!) in a lot of respects, while not feeling like it's capitalising on the success of the other game. The graphics, are brighter and of stylised, but obvious pixelation that might have been the standard fare nearly 20 year earlier and is quite welcome right now in computer game age where everybody want more true to life realism. Which is what attracted me in the first place.

There is also another game bit like this called Sixty Seconds which is a played using mixture of 3D graphics and alternately 2D cartoons.

This game could have also been a expansion for the latest Sims game or all of these games could have been cannibalize to make the first one here a better game with more enticing graphics or maybe the Caves would have been better as pure text adventure.

Sorry, fellows, I know you do hate my long rambling game or what ever essays are not exactly welcome here and I've been meaning to try out on e of those Website-Appts I've ben reminded of here. So, I can blog to my hearts content there.

BTW by sure to check out.....

Maia (With a Dungeon-Keeper/Evil-Genius layout combined with X-Com minus the tactical combat and all about colonising another world!) and Clock-Work-Empires (Which is like a Victorian Steampunk with a definite streak of Cthulhu and it's about people from the old world trying to start out in the new work  and there is this word ....Antipodean which hints at how far south they have journeyed to get there.)

Both games, I have purchased on Early-Access roughly a year earlier promising things I have said and read about them. They seem less bugged and more playable right as of some time now and had reinstalled
them to check them out again.

Maia is still the most bugged game, but has definitely seen some work done on it, but still has some time to go. You can get further in making your colonists more comfortable, but they still die a lot. The little aptly named I.M.P.S (Some DK reference!) can be have their number increased up to five or six if you build 3D-Printer inside the Workshop and this is good.

Clock-Work-Empires seems more player friendly as well and closer to completion. It works better, but after playing it for over a hour or so, nothing much happens and it seems all the more tedious for it. Yet, I still have high hopes for these games .

All of these games, but thee last to need to be played slowly in order to get them to work right. I've been learning this the hard way.

 

[ThryllSeekyr]

BTW Maia isn't really enough of game to be enjoyed in that sense yet. So you've been warned.

[Professor Bear]

Slaine on the ZX Spectrum yes I know.  Dreadful.  Just dreadful.  I was expecting something like Tir Nan Og, but I don't know what this was.

Submerged on PS4.  No fighting, no running, no jumping, no swimming, it feels more like a tech demo for the developers to get a grip on how the character looks than it does an actual game in its own right, but there's something nice and mellow about playing as a mum scavenging a city reclaimed by the sea for medical supplies for her wounded son.  It's unquestionably underdeveloped, with nothing polished to completion, from the textures to the weather effects to animation, but it does just about hold together and I'll be damned if I harsh on a game where you can play as a female character who isn't part of a violent wank fantasy.
MORE OF THIS SORT OF THING!

This War Of Mine on PC - pretty decent resource management sim where you have to give some people in a house PTSD until they all run away or commit suicide.  I assume this is what you're supposed to do, becuase it's all I've managed so far.  Good mechanics and easy to play, but a little obtuse in places.

[Keef Monkey]

Been playing through the Tales From The Borderlands episodes, from Telltale, them of The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us fame.

I've just started on Episode 3 and I have to say I reckon it's the best thing they've done. It's laugh out loud funny very often, slick and stylish (having a love for the Borderlands style and universe obviously helps) and the characters and story are really engaging. I was a bit burned out and disappointed with TWD season 2, so it's nice to see that it's not the format itself I was burned out on, because I'm loving this.

[sheridan]

Slaine on the ZX Spectrum yes I know.  Dreadful.  Just dreadful.  I was expecting something like Tir Nan Og, but I don't know what this was.

I like the way that this post is preceded on the thread by two posts which each feature a sliding screen from said game...

[ThryllSeekyr]

Slaine on the ZX Spectrum yes I know.  Dreadful.  Just dreadful.  I was expecting something like Tir Nan Og, but I don't know what this was.

I like the way that this post is preceded on the thread by two posts which each feature a sliding screen from said game...

Was waiting for somebody....anybody to see the humour of a game with sliding text sliding across the screen. Wouldn't put down the old Reflex Slaine game. It must have been ambitious for it's time. It's just a shame that such difficult/awkward system permeates every decision/action in this game. It like drunk wrestling, and I'm sure if the difficult system was restricted to fighting and/or doing anything while drunk. Then the nature charm of this game might have carried it better. For instance, it also shows you what's via coma book panels haphazardly drawn over parts of the interface. yet, the game is otherwise unplayable. I own one, but never play it. It's collectors item. You all know how fond of Slaine I am.

[CheechFU]

this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT53AJ6I1C0