Don’t have a modern system to play Rivals or I probably would. But then, I tried Star Wars Hunters for a long while and eventually soured on it. Took too much time. And now it’s shutting down, so glad I stopped when I did. All that stuff is about to dry up and blow away. Stinkin’ ephemeral online-only games.
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I’ve been giving Loop Hero a go after hearing many positive things…and I am finding it decidedly mildly entertaining at best.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was hoping for more tactics or strategy. Instead, it feels almost like an idle game with a ton of grinding.
I think, ultimately, the big let down for me is that there isn’t much significant interaction between items/cards. I know there are a few hidden secrets, but generally speaking, I don’t see card synergy at all. I was lumping this game with with StS and Monster Train but there is really almost none of that present.
Maybe I am missing something but the game feels a lot more mindless than I was hoping, and therefore less addicting. All I seem to have to do is pause every once in a while to compare some loot and throw down some relatively non-interactive tiles.
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Agreed. I bought in part because of the positive comments here, but bounced off it for much the same reasons.
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I think I am going to have to break my self-imposed no buying games this year for none other than…
MONSTER TRAIN 2!!!
Comes out on 21 May.
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Fortunately I’m an iOS gamer so I have longer to wait…if it comes at all.
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I’m very excited about Monster Train 2, but I’ll likely hold off on buying it because I’m playing two other recent deck-building roguelike releases, StarVaders and Into the Restless Ruins, both of which are excellent.
StarVaders is probably the more traditional of the two, but you use your cards to control a mech in grid-based tactical combat, which is a nice twist. Ton of depth, ton of variety, ton of interesting combos to find.
Into the Restless Ruins got me hooked during the last Next Fest. Your deck is a series of dungeon rooms. The loop has you add rooms then fight through the dungeon across several rounds, with the ultimate goal being to reach the boss at the top of the screen. Breezed through the first dungeon and am getting my ass kicked in the second, which I appreciate because the game’s really forcing me to evaluate my strategy and find smarter approaches.
Also happily still plodding through Baldur’s Gate 3, which I bought in the Steam Winter Sale. I’m pleasantly surprised to find I can put the game down and return to it without feeling like I forgot how to play, which makes it unique relative to my past RPG experiences. Don’t know how long it’ll take, but I’m cautiously optimistic I’ll finish it at some point.
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I am also thinking of holding off on Monster Train 2 until I see some reviews over some time.
I have still not bought Civ7 - and I have over 2k hours in Civ 5 and in Civ 6. I probably have even more of that in Civ 4, but that was pre-Steam for me. And I also played Civ 1-3. And Civ Revolution.
I almost pulled the trigger on Civ7 this past weekend, because how can I go this long without playing a Civ game?
But I did not.
And instead I bought GalCiv 4, since the entire thing with all expansions was only $60 on sale this weekend.
And I have to say it is a really good game so far. I have a game and a half in and I think it is just the right balance of not too much and not too little. The whole governor/colony system is very smart as it allows for expanding wide and holding territory, without the need to manage a billion individual planets.
You have so much choice on how much you want to fiddle with vs how much you want to automate. So far I am really enjoying it and put in like 12 hours over the weekend.
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I played a ton of the original GalCiv back in college but the lack of multiplayer relegated it to a second-tier game. Living with my buddies and having a persistent LAN, we were playing grand strategy games like Europa Universalis, TBS like Alpha Centauri, and way too much StarCraft. GalCiv would have made the cut if we could have played together.
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I wouldnt recommend civ 7 unless youre really into civ and are prepared to pay a premium price for a feature incomplete product. Development is ongoing with community feedback, but at launch and as it stands, civ 7 has been shipped without basic quality of life elements that they expect us to wait patiently for
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Thank you for the resolve boost in not buying new stuff!
I saw you logging some hours on gal civ.
Instead I went into the back catalog and pulled out Erranorth Chronicles. Still overwhelmed, but I will get through this…
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Grounded in our weekly 3 player coop party.
The human mind is a truly curious thing.
I learned pretty late (?) that I have a mild case of Acrophobia (fear of heigths).
While I have always been very mindful of my personal distance to balcon railings since my early teens (fooling around as a 200cm-ish (6 feet 5) tall boy around railings not even being 80 cm i (2 feet 6) in height is a prime darwin-award-winner setup so NO!) I wasn’t all that bothered in other scenarios (wall-climbing, skyscraper windows etc).
That is until the PS3 area of gaming introduced generally realisic graphics into gaming. Climbing around in Guild Wars 2, Uncharted or especially the old Assassin Creed games truly started to introduce me to the concept of sweaty palms, queasiness and vertigo, especially when failing the task and plunging to my ingame-death. Even games in the Borderlands franchise with their unique cell-shaded look and no fall damage can give me the heebie jebies. So nearly three decades into my life I was fine…then a fresh experience…vertigo is something else!
In comes Grounded with our usual MP set up.
- Friend A the impatient one - off you go exploring!
- Friend B the grounded…ahem the down to earth one…unless the combat system excites him - go massacre those pesky ants my berrrrrrserrrkerrrr friend!
- The slow one (me)- yeah you two go have fun, let me just build this totally mandatory and overly complex base…now lets build this couple of skyways over the whole map to sidestep combat alltogether…now lets get vertigo of our own making because why use railings…also lets build as high as possible because…why not?
So what is even better than vertigo? Arachnophobia!
I don’t have problems with spiders in games…Diablo? Pah! Skyrim? Childsplay! Why? They are cartoony!
Well you can pretty much see where this is going. Imagine playing with headphones on in a dark room. This game has a day and night cycle. And I was also under the missconception that creatures pretty much ignore man-made objects in this game. Well no. I was standing on my skyway during nighttime and was happily discussing the finer intricacies of how to best whack some sturdy ladybugs without getting headbutted to death. I decided on a whim to turn around to go back to our base…say hello to the wolf-spider which was coming up from behind on the (lets call it) bridge. The Leopard II sized wolf-spider.The huuuge red glowing eyes hairy wolf-spider.The wolf spider on a rickety bridge about 30 cm above ground (so freakin in the sky as far as this game is concerned).
This game is such a own goal for me. I pretty much have no problem with everyday insects in my life. Everyday insects for people in middle europe mind you…not the australian outback. But this game might give me a self-induced strong case of arachnophobia.
…or an heart attack, I turned 45 yesterday so either one is possible…
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Anyone tried Clair Obscur yet? It’s being talked about as GotY material. I need to get my hands on it.
Although the reviews are overwhelming positive, so i am going to dive in.
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Got xbox game pass ultimate recently.
Finished Indiana Jones, played a bit of Doom the Dark Ages and just started with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. WHAT A GAME!
Played the prologue, which teaches the basics but really draws you into the story. Great story, great visuals, great music!
Certainly recommended. Beats Doom by far and even Indy.
Also played some Monster Train on tablet with game pass, which can be played using touch controls. Oddly enough Monster train 2 can’t be played using touch controls, but liking the first one so far.
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With regards to game pass, there is a “microsoft rewards” program where you can get game pass for free. They seem to be pushing new ways to get points right now so its probably a good way to get into it.
My best ways to get points are by actively clicking the 3 links to get the daily login streak, and passively by using bing as my default search engine.
Game pass is good value anyway, but free is an even better price point
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Yep, collecting microsoft rewards points daily.
Regarding buying game pass ultimate:
I used a “trick” to buy game pass.
It has the best conversion rate when you don’t have an active game pass subscription.
Buy game pass core. I bought 3 years. Some people use a VPN to buy cheaper core (price depends per country) but that may not be working anymore. After that converse the core into ultimate so you get 1,5 years of ultimate. It is cheaper that way instead of buying ultimate directly.
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Anyone on Monster Train 2?
Thoughts?
I have 19 hours into Monster Train 2 - I have unlocked all of the factions and have 2 of the factions 2nd leaders now, working on unlocking the other 3 leaders at the moment.
My official verdict: It is Monster Train with 5 new factions, each with some new mechanics.
It’s like $25, and if Monster Train had a $25 expansion with 5 new factions, I would think this is the best deal ever. For some reason I am just slightly underwhelmed by the new factions - but I think that is to be expected. I rate Monster Train 9/10. I rate this 7/10 - which is a strong endorsement from me (just not as strong as I was hoping for).
I will say that the biggest change that I like is that there is a deployment phase now, where you draw an initial hand of troops to setup some limited defense and it adds an interesting layer.
So the simple answer is, if you want more Monster Train - absolutely worth it.
5 Likes
With the onset of summer I’ve been playing a lot of Pokémon Unite with my kids (10/12). It’s been pretty fun watching them learn the subtleties of a MOBA and become competitive enough that they want to learn their roles and stuff. The game doesn’t have the depth or the tension of a game like LoL but it is fun for what it is.
1 Like