Stately Scrying: What we're playing this weekend

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#1

Originally published at: https://statelyplay.com/2019/02/01/stately-scrying-what-were-playing-this-weekend-32/

After our sabbatical we returned last Friday with a roundup of the upcoming weekend’s affairs. You may have noticed that contributions last week were…light. Well, not this week! We’re all back in the saddle, ready to tell you the games we hope to play, if we can just get our kids to leave us alone for two goddamn minutes. Ahem.

Sunless Skies

Sunless Skies has left open access, and I’ll be digging in properly now. I’ve been part of the beta but have hardly played it since the very beginning. I’m nervous. Sunless Sea was so much my thing that, while I know the mechanics will be an iterative improvement, and that the writing will be as well crafted as ever, I’m afraid that it just won’t strike me the same way.

It’s not that I’d wish they made Sunless Sea II instead, I’m glad that Failbetter is continuing to expand the lore and world of Fallen London. I look forward to properly exploring the creepy new environments and discovering new horrible (but sometimes also beautiful) truths and to dying in the cold, uncaring void… again and again. But after Fallen London and Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies is like that third album from a band you’ve been following avidly: can it measure up to expectations? Early reviews from games journalists who did the professional thing and played the game pre-release are extremely positive, but that will only make it worse if Sunless Skies’ astral locomotive engines and fungal space-clouds don’t click for me the way the slop of the Unterzee and and it’s pressing, intimate darkness did.

-Tof Eklund

Star Traders: Frontiers

Belated happy new year, Statelies. And a merry new weekend.

I made a resolution this year to divert more attention into other hobbies, just to shake things up. But when I saw the Trese Brothers space opus Star Traders: Frontiers hitting mobile devices, it was time to scry in unrepentant exuberance. So, that’s my main course for the weekend and the foreseeable future. Rocking a new Android tablet, I had every hope that Frontiers would shine on touch devices, and expectations were well exceeded. Are you playing Star Traders: Frontier? Of course you are. You’d be losing money by NOT playing Star Traders: Frontiers, the Trese lads formula perfected.

Elsewhere, I’ve been enjoying a deep dive into the old and somewhat forgotten Wheel of Time game, Legend Entertainment‘s effort from 1999. I never had a computer that could do it justice at the time, but twenty years on, it retains very competent combat and impeccable atmosphere. Who is Robert Jordan? I remain ignorant. What is the Wheel, and how does it relate to Time? I remain in the dark. But it is a very moody sort of dark, afforded by the hues and physicality of the original Unreal Engine. Ostensibly, The Wheel of Time is the thinking man’s Hexen. Sporting forty magical spells of the offensive, defensive and illuminatory kind, I’m finding a rich, atmospheric adventure. Sprawling levels, unsettling enemies, fantasy that doesn’t cloy on the palate. Recommended.

Have a good one, friends.

-Alex Connolly

Kenshi

It’s not looking like I’ll have too much gaming time this weekend, mostly because I’m planning on going to a double feature of the first two Police Story [I read this as Police Academy movies, and was so confused… -ed.] movies on Saturday. So that’s one whole day down. If I do have time, I really want to put some more effort in figuring out how Kenshi works. My first go in the demo ended with me bleeding out after some wolves attacked the slavers who captured me because I accidentally punched a goat in the starting town. It’s maybe the hardest I’ve ever been sold on a game from a demo.

-Tanner Hendrickson

Bridge Constructor: Portal, Legends of Andor, and Super Smash Bros.

I’ll be visiting family this weekend at a water park (indoor, thankfully), so likely there’ll be no board gaming for me. A shame, since I just got in my first play of Victorian Masterminds, and really dug it. But I usually stay up much later than everyone else, so I’ll probably play the usual iOS suspects, supplemented by Bridge Constructor: Portal and Andor (a name which truly delights the former logician in me). Super Smash Bros May well make an appearance, as well. It’s an odd game; like Twinfold, I’m not sure I actually like it, but I sure do want to play it a bunch.

-Kelsey Rinella

Slay the Spire

As much as I’d love to delve into heavier RPGs like Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire or Divinity: Original Sin 2 this weekend, it ain’t going to happen. It’s not due to a lack of time, it’s actually Mega Crit‘s fault. Slay the Spire came out of Early Access last week and I haven’t been playing much of anything else. I’ve completed runs with the Ironclad and the Silent, and have gotten to the third level with the robot-golem thingee. Not sure what happens if/when I finally finish runs with all three, but even if there’s no new content, I’ll be content to keep trying runs with new cards, relics and whatnot just to see if I can unlock everything the game offers. If you’re looking for a card-based roguelike and don’t mind sitting at your laptop, Slay the Spire is excellent.

-Dave Neumann

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#2

iOS: Civ 6, some Rome: Total War after the latest patch adding in all the factions. Not much going on here. Star Traders: Frontiers is on my list to buy this week.

Switch: Wargroove, Tangledeep, Smash and MHGU are the 3 I’m pretty sure I’m going to spend time in. Wargroove is pretty amazing - Chucklefish did a great job there. Tangledeep is a solid roguelike, much more akin to Mystery Dungeon than the more traditional RL’s. Smash and MHGU because I love the games.

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#3

Wargroove
Wargroove
Wargroove

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#4

@Tof curious to hear your impressions of Sunless Skies - I loved the Fallen London universe and am secretly hoping that Sunless Seas did well enough on iOS to warrant a Skies port at some point.

#5

bVsUkb

…in space, no one can hear you omnomnom…

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#6

I thought I had gotten over my Out of the Park Baseball addiction for iOS (whatever this version is called) from last year (my Toronto Blue Jays are in 2024!), but I was trapped on a plane flying to my Dad’s funeral and needed some brain-dead time. So I fired it up again.

Now, I have two ace pitchers and I’m having a really great season and…I can’t stop again.

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#7

I’m really sorry to hear that, @whovian223, my condolences, my thoughts are with you and your family.

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#8

Really encourage folks to give the Anthem demo a try if you have any interest whatsoever in loot-based shooters like Borderlands. The demo build is almost two months old, so it has some issues, but man this game is fun.

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#9

Thanks, @Falkenstein. All this happened back in the last week of December, which shows you how much this stupid game has its hooks in me again. :slight_smile:

#10

Been hittin Path of Exile with a couple buds. Really giving me that click past all the lore whatever kill’n’loot Diablo vibe.

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#11

Thanks for the tip. That’s right up my street

#12

Been playing Mystic Vale (just out of Steam early access) and a nice little tower-defense game called Rats, Bats, and Bones (still in early access). Oh, and trying to figure out another Steam game called Bestiary of Sigillum (very boardgamey, needs AI).

edit: And going to find time to fit in some Eador Genesis: New Horizons as there’s a new version out.

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#13

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:-l

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#14

Obligatory like :smile: