Dominions 4 in Beta!

Ah….Illwinter, your terrible graphics (not sprites) and terrible looking turn-based battles still make me shudder despite the fact that I love the games so much.   Looks like Dominions 4 will be out at the end of September and that’s good news for Sensless who can ONLY PLAY DOTA2 on his ‘gaming’ laptop these days.

After all these years, the sprites look good but the world maps still a complete puke-o-rama. Thankfully fans make gorgeous maps for the game that can easily be added to the game. However, I rip on the game because I love it and it’s the ONLY strategy game that isn’t some internet pay-to-win game that is actually playable by normal humans (say a turn a day).

Hopefully this will be up on Steam (likely greenlit like Dominions 3 was)— now where is the iPad version? It is 2013 right?

teotl

And there goes the RMAH

LordLobo
http://www.shacknews.com/article/81172/diablo-3…

bahahahaasfhahahahwghagagaag
littlemute
why would they do that?
LordLobo
I have no idea

dumb

dumb

dumb
littlemute
dude they are so full of shit

a secure place for trades?

that’s why they made it? bullshit

why take a cut then?
LordLobo
well, it’s more secure than chinese gold farmers – but everything they did was so dumb

not fun
littlemute
dude they reduced good item drops based on the number of items of X type that were in the auction house
Maurice B.
ha D3 is fucking crumbling under it’s on FATGUNT
littlemute
crafting will still suck

Maurice B.
fucking horrible foundation issues D3 has, and the fattalanch
littlemute
hitlag will still ruin the game

and there will still be gear checks just like that guy said
sociopath
i think i set the console demo to DL

never checked back

haha
littlemute
worth looking at the demo to see the controls if you have time
LordLobo
seems like the console one would be fun with people – but then it’s still d3
littlemute
it’s not torchlight 2
LordLobo
yep
littlemute
or Diablo 2
sociopath
then maybe d3 expansion on console with frengs
littlemute
I would rather just play Zyel or Midian/Eastern Sun
LordLobo
I’d sit on a couch and play console tl2
sociopath
cuz the new class looks kinda fun
littlemute
Mods

no fucking mods

it’s a dead game
LordLobo
yeah

alas
sociopath
i don’t really mod like i used to
littlemute
Well you have to wait
sociopath
i’ve got some loaded for skyrim pc
Maurice B.
i played the xbox 360 d3 demo
littlemute
in like 6 months there will be a TL2 mod that takes it to the next level
LordLobo
I wonder if anyone’s made a mod that will let you play tl2 with 4 people on gamepads…
sociopath
tried to get something going for gta4 pc
Maurice B.
FUCKING HIT LAG IS THERE OR WORSE THEN PC
sociopath
never could get it working well
Maurice B.
fucking HIT LAG ON MY LOCAL XBOX 360

WTF

it’s fucking BUILT THE FUCK IT[in]
LordLobo
wow
sociopath
we get it bro
littlemute
it’s meant to be that way man
Maurice B.
you can’t dodge SHIT
littlemute
DESIGNED to be that way

you can’t dodge shit per DESIGN
Maurice B.
a pissfromspace

fucking JAY
sociopath
you’ve been screaming about hit lag since the beta
Maurice B.
taht asshole fucked d3 so badly

and then LEFT!
littlemute
but now we know WHY the hit lag is there

for the gear checks
Maurice B.
because they DONT WANT YOU TO BE SO POWERFUL YOU CAN WIN IN 10MIN

they dont want that shit

THE SHIT THAT MAKES THE GAME GREAT!
littlemute
no, they want to gear check you at points so you buy
Maurice B.
they REMOVED it form the game

yes exactly

fuckinghorriblenessinfinity
littlemute
if you can dodge or use skill to get through areas without gear, they don’t make their money

littlemute
so naked hardcore runs are not possible in D3
Maurice B.
yes. i will not buy anymore blizzard games

period

fuckthemforever
littlemute
dude what about their online CCG?
Maurice B.
even if it’s my loss
LordLobo
the last one I will buy is the Protoss sc2 expansion and that’s it
Maurice B.
and i cant play some “great” new blizzard game

fuckthem
littlemute
warcraft 4
Maurice B.
no more money for how hard they pissed on diablo

NO
littlemute
I can wait until then
Maurice B.
to my detriment
LordLobo
wc4 isn’t happening
Maurice B.
to the grave

fuckitall
littlemute
starcraft 2 is boring but that’s likely just me
sociopath
chumpo jimmies: ☑ rustled ❑ unrustled
Maurice B.
ahahahaha
littlemute
no WC4, no money
LordLobo
it’s more I want to finish the story of sc2

though the zerg sp game wasn’t very memorable
Maurice B.
dude mute

they are making a fucking DOTA!

there will be no WC4 RTS
LordLobo
LATE
Maurice B.
and if they do make WC4, and you buy it, you have no one but yourself to blame when it is spacepiss
LordLobo
I don’t think blizz’s dota will ever see the light of day
Maurice B.
because?

they are taking their ball home and doubling down on WoW?

i hope so
LordLobo
they won’t get enough interest from the other MOBA camps

well
Maurice B.
and you think they are seeing that

i mean they SHOULD be able to see
LordLobo
you can bet on a new WoW expansion announcement at Blizzcon in october
Maurice B.
but will they admit that to themselves

Maurice B.
can they admit they are past their prime, is that the real issue.
LordLobo
probably not
Maurice B.
they are in a time of decline and there is just a long way down from here
LordLobo
WoW has to be nearly hemmoraging money at this point
Maurice B.
isn’t activation wanting to sell blizzard or some shit?
LordLobo
activision wants to buy out of Vivendi
Maurice B.
ah right
LordLobo
which might actually be good for them
Maurice B.
because they want all their COD money
LordLobo
right
littlemute
They won’t be able to top LOL or DOTA 2
LordLobo
also Vivendi is a shithole company
littlemute
they are just too fucking refined at this point
LordLobo
consider this
Maurice B.
right and they spent how much already trying to make DOTA and they will just walk away from it

fucking idiots
littlemute
they could have HIRED Icefrog and those guys in 2005
LordLobo
HoN is older than either LoL or DOTA2 and has a tiny fraction of the audience

yep

then valve scooped them up
Maurice B.
they tried to make a full game out of a mod for WC3 instead of MAKING SOMETHING FUCKING NEW THAT COULD TAKE THEM SOMEWHERE!
LordLobo
they scraped that ‘titan’ project which was rumored to be their next MMO
littlemute
uhhh what the fuck?
Maurice B.
think of the MILLIONS of dollars blizzard has wasted
LordLobo
with their insane 12-year dev cycles that seems pretty dumb
littlemute
CCG
Maurice B.
AGAIN and AGAIN we see what money does to movies/video games
littlemute
won’t that save them?
Maurice B.
money fucked starwar[s]e

money fucked diablo 3

Rome Total War 2 – 20 hours in and counting

Well, I’m about 20 hours into Rome Total War 2 and while it’s a good game, there are some really serious issues. I’ve been playing the Iceni (Britain) and they have some big horde armies, chariots, shitty cavalry, and slingers. In the campaign I took out everyone else in England/Ireland and then hit the continent, spearing down through northern France straight to the Mediterranean and into Spain. I was trying to get near Rome/Carthage before they were taken out, but both of them are gone from the game already, including the off shoot Nova Carthago.  I think that will get patched (having Rome taken out by a minor Celtic faction is sad).

One of the things about playing barbarians is that you expect fights to become big mob fights with little to no formation– so when you’re playing it seems normal–however once you start fighting some of the more civilized factions you realize that they ALSO do not maintain their formations during unit to unit fights– it’s EXTREMELY odd to see a Macedonian phalanx turn into a mob type fight as the phalanxes break apart after a charge, but that’s what happens every fucking time.  Remember that video of the phalanxes fighting?  Where is that in the game? Dunno.

There are a few other things I’m not a fan of: no family tree makes me completely ignore all the personalities other than my main generals for example and there have been a few odd movement and control issues with the campaign map.  Otherwise as big as the world is, the map seems SMALL and the fighting is nearly always around some city and not out in the countryside because cities in the game are WAY out of proportion huge compared to real life.  They may look right on the map, but with the movement speeds of the armies, it’s just ….off.

I’ve done a bit of reading on what people are experiencing that have played the game a shitload more than I have and there are oodles of bugs, some of which are quite comical (ships flying through the air, flying through the ground, dudes flying off towers), but really it amounts to a buggy game.  I’ve had a blue screen once and about 5 other crashes.  I’m looking forward to the patches– but how far forward?

Good stuff: Sieges, while there are some issues with the ladders and siege tower placement are the best they’ve been in a TW game to date. I no longer automatically press the “autoresolve” like I did in Rome 1 and Medieval 2 because it is much more tactical and much easier to get around the cities. One thing that’s odd is that only the main cities can be sieged with equipment, all other cities just have a normal battle set in a town area.

Graphics: battle graphics are just superb.  Everything looks great.  I do get some slowdown in the bigger battles which hopefully will work out.  Otherwise the battles seem to load FASTER than the old Total War games, which is crazy.

Ahh screenshots:

Fawesome Blood Bowl mod

Since Games Workshop has really not supported Blood Bowl for the last 10 years or so, it’s been tough to get miniatures and gear for the game. As the fans of Blood Bowl are absolute fanatics, it stands to reason that they would make stuff to be able to play the game, but this is crazy awesome. Cubes for every position with their stats on the top of the cube. No idea where skills are at, but this looks extremely playable– though still no replacement for miniatures. I have a massive BB collection along with ‘storing’ teams of other people so I don’t have the issue of needing to hunt and peck on ebay for models at whatever expense the market will bear, but if I did, this looks like a great alternative (and I remember still as a kid playing with the cardboard stand ups from first edition).

the cubed of blood bowl
the cubed of blood bowl

Beat this dead horse…

Maurice!Bastard posted this link about Diablo 3 and I think this concisely expresses what a lot of people (people that played the game a shitload more than I did) feel about Diablo 3’s failure as a game and I don’t know if this dude coined the phrase originally, but I think the term “Gear Check” game is something we’ll be able to use going forward forever to refer to what Diablo 3 and games like it are (sort of like calling people Nazi’s– everyone understands what you mean).

If this is in the TL:DR region, skip to the bottom part about “Diablo 3’s Fake Difficulty.”

As boring as Starcraft 2 is (to me at least) and terrible as Diablo 3 is, I think Blizzard should stop making games entirely.  Doing a crappy online CCG is just another indication that they have no idea what players want (outside of the MMO space– but what normal people would ever play an MMO in the first place?).

And of course, likely there will be no MAC port of Torchlight 2 any time soon, which is sad but when your player base on a platform is less than 5% of sales, it’s tough to justify a big expense there.  A far better game it is for everyone.

Rome Total War 2 initial feelings

I contemplated staying up until midnight to give it a start through but failed due to retinal burn on Saints Row 4 mostly.  I should have worked on my Netrunner decks or played a solo game of ASL or something instead of hitting the computer and burning at the eyes.   Rome is going to be quite a time suck so I best get started right away though right?

I’ve gotten a couple hours in entirely with the tutorial (which is actually a really cool mini-campaign against the Samnites) and the feel of the game already is better than Shogun, and by feel I mean the combat between units– it is amazing.  I don’t know if it’s just the way the Roman units fight (in this campaign it is very early Rome) but it is so much more visceral than the other versions of the game it’s shocking– units press together in a horrific mob and the slaughter commences.  It’s a gorgeous thing to behold.

Dense
Dense

I’ve just scratched the surface region–what am I looking forward to over all?  The last really good Total War game was Empire which was literally world spanning and had some fantastic combat.  Moving from a period of time when pikemen and cavalry charges were still viable forms of attack to the era of artillery domination was amazing to see.   While I liked Shogun 2– there was something about it that I just couldn’t get into.  Possibly it’s the whole Samurai thing that feels tired to me– all these dudes in their ornate lamellar armor fighting each other just seems so clean and controlled compared to the rest of the games (which is very Japanese in a way)–in Rome, there are a few bastions of civilization surrounded entire by teeming hordes of hunter gatherer tribes and barbarian nations, wherein Shogun, everyone is dressed…so nicely.  Also in Shogun, the battles seemed to go too fast– when two units hit one would rout extremely quickly compared to other games in the series.  This gave you little time to react: I found myself pausing a lot more than any other Total War game.   I was barely able to finish a campaign and only played multiplayer once.  Since Rome 2 is heir to the greatest strategy game ever made–what am I looking forward too?

  • Better graphics / animations  — this goes without saying and it’s already there
  • Bigger map /different stuff around — Shogun suffered because one clan was the next clan was the next clan– it all seemed the same.  After seeing some of the phalanx fighting in Rome 2, this seems absolutely impossible in the new game that things will be too small or samey.
  • Better AI in the campaign – this was my biggest gripe in Rome 1 and Barbarian Invasion.  The AI just wasn’t too smart and you could win the campaign really easily (especially as an island nation).  This has been getting vastly better in the newer games but always seems to need work
  • No skill trees for characters — these were lame in Shogun. We’ll see what happens in Rome 2.
  • Putting cities to the sword – due to the xenophobic nature of the period, the different societies weren’t too friendly to each other when conquering.  One thing I loved in Rome was the ability to put cities to the sword to gain max value and reduce population (since extra population is usually very unhappy with everything).  This allows control of revolutions as well as providing much needed cash.  While this may not be realistic (Caesar did this all the time in Gaul).
  • Better multiplayer — I’ve had issues connecting with my two friends that play the game for years now and it would be awesome if that were ameliorated forever anon.

Reviews so far have been positive, reviews of Total War players on reddit and the like have been extremely positive (knowing the burrs and all that naturally come with a Total War game) so here’s to 6 months of playing a single game on the computer!

Harley Fuck Fest

motorcycleI work near one of the busiest intersections in the city and there are Harley’s everywhere.  I’m in an open office so I get to hear people complaining and saying things like “fuck my life” and “I come back and there’s all this fucking noise outside” or “I should have stayed home to work with all the kids there — it would have been quieter.”  The worst thing about it is not the constant 1930’s technology bikes driving around with no mufflers, it’s the COP and ambulance sirens that blare out when some bullshit is happening— and it’s gone off twice and it’s only 10AM.

In terms of actual danger or getting beat up wandering around (which my mom seemed to think would happen)– there’s just no way as these people are fucking OLD.  I’d say that off their bikes, they wouldn’t be able to catch anyone running at all– or even be able to chase after someone.  Granted there are some big people that could punch you through a school, but pushing mid sixties as an average there’s not going to be a lot of sprinting after people to beat them from this crowd– though they are probably.