The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Grey Fox]

You have to buy them as gift.

We're your friends! Add me, I'm Arthois.

[Josquius]

The process did not involve entering my password twice, confirmation emails, etc.... Nothing at all about making new accounst. The only new stuff I did was around entering by card details.
The way the two accounts seem to be is one (the new one oddly) displays my account name at the top whilst the one I've been using just has one of my email addresses at the top.
I've no idea what happened. I guess this split predates this purchase but how is beyond me.

Have you even bothered e-mailing Steam about it?

Yes. No replies however. They've never replied when I had problems.


Its just ridiculous the way its working. On the account with the new games it lists my games from my usual account but when I click on them asks me to buy them. This is just illogical.
Seems they're dead set against ever merging accounts too.
Anyway, this has further cemented by dedication to buying real games and none of this digital license purchase crap.



For the new games so far-
Blood Bowl: Bleh.
Democracy 2: I've seen this guy's other menu based games before....all much of a muchness.

[Tamas]

http://www.cityofgangsters.com/us/#!/game

This has Languish MP written all over it, assuming it will not suck

[Syt]

Trailer for CD Projekt's (of Witcher fame) Cyberpunk 2077:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=P99qJGrPNLs

The look is a bit like mid-90s Dorian Cleavanger artwork.

[Tamas]

That Geopolitical Simulator game's new iteration will be out soon.

Masters of the World - Geopolitical Simulator 3 includes several new features: •Multi-country game mode: the player can lead several countries simultaneously and change the fate of the world by developing collaborative strategies
•New map (high resolution) with detailed cultural zones, different types of forest (broadleaf, pine, rainforests), savannas, rivers, urban areas, rail networks, oil and gas pipelines, ports and airports (with aircraft route management), oil tankers, containerships, and more.
•New laws: players can set the income tax by bracket, nationalize/privatize economic activities, set product prices, and adjust the head of state's salary level. They can also regulate physician-assisted suicide, same-sex parent adoption, abortion, marijuana consumption, prostitution, and the right of foreign nationals to vote in local elections.
•In-depth debt management, including intervention by rating agencies, interest rate negotiations with international lenders, and the ability to apply for loans or debt relief with the IMF or the Eurozone
•Players can create their own international organizations and define their types (free trade zone, monetary union, politico-military organization, exporting countries), budget, geographical area, bylaws (voting system, meetings with heads of state, common political ideology...).
•Televised appearances: from the president's office to announce new drawbacks, try to justify unpopular decisions or calm the people when they are angry; from the UN press gallery when, for example, requesting a military intervention; while traveling in a region or during import events to occupy the media and strengthen popularity
•New construction projects available: pipeline networks crossing several countries to transport the gas and oil, high-speed train lines, port centers, and civil airports to improve transportation conditions, tourism, and freight.
•New scenarios: "Saving Greece" etc...
•World Simulation mode playable in multiplayer mode over a network
•The ability adjust various game settings: terrorist organization activity level, the probability of natural and man-made disaster triggering, the reactivity level of the people and social groups to unpopular actions on the part of their ruler, the probability of wars being triggered and their level of acceptance by the people (peaceful world or war-prone world)
•The integration of ongoing game support, personified by a professor of geopolitics, who can explain to the player the game's major functional principles for politics, economy, strategy, and espionage, alert the player to problems that need to be solved in his or her country and the actions that can be taken, and provide the player with some political tips and tricks.
•A technology discovery tree display showing technological advancements and opportunities for research sectors
•System display of signed economic contract assessments
•Detailed election results and surveys with percentages for all political parties for each of the country's groups and lobbies
•The ability to group together several proposed laws into a reform to present them to Parliament together and have them voted on all at once. This can be helpful for passing laws that might otherwise not pass
•Implementation of a referendum procedure of some proposed laws: with a referendum, it is the people, not the Parliament, who decide whether to adopt the law.
•The addition of commando units, which operate in stealth mode to conduct operations directly within enemy bases
•Mission planning for military units: the player can assign multiple objectives and define patrol areas
•Links to relevant Wikipedia articles for each proposed law
•Updates on January 1, 2013 with over 600 data elements for each of the 175 playable countries, including the political makeup of governments and legislative bodies based on the latest elections, the latest estimates for budgetary deficits and debts, countries' ratings with rating agencies, growth estimates for the next 40 years, etc.
•Updates and creation of new faces in line with reality: heads of state, department secretaries, political party leaders, the heads of international organizations...
•Inclusion of new organizations: BRICS, GUAM, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Bolivarian Alliance
•New playable countries: South Sudan, Luxembourg, Malta, Singapore, Maldives, Cape Verde, the Solomon Islands, Comoros, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados

[FunkMonk]

Napoleon Total War with Darth Mod installed has, to steal a phrase from Ed, given me a murder boner.

Watching two thousand Mamluks on horseback smash themselves on my infantry squares and then completely destroying the Mamluk infantry lagging behind, along with the new musket sounds and smoke graphical mod, is something dear to behold in this game.

[Solmyr]

[Razgovory]

I haven't tried it with Napoleon:total war.  Did with Empire.  Fucking blast.  It's pretty cool when 10,000 screaming Punjabis come at your line and you cut them down, or when you recruit six units of Gurkha and run them at the Polish.

[PRC]

Roguelike TOME has reached V1.0 (something most roguelikes never accomplish, even if they've been around for ages).

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/07/tome-is-where-the-heart-is-happy-new-roguelike/

In 2013, I resolve to convince as many people as possible to play Roguelikes and I'll be particularly targeting those people who have never delved into the devious dungeons of '@' before. It's OK to admit that you've avoided them in the past because they look intimidating/crappy. TOME could be the gateway game you've been waiting for. It's a variant of one of the core roguelikes but when it reached version 1.0 recently something miraculous happened. Firstly, it actually reached 1.0, which is on a par with the parting of an ocean given how many of these wonder-works are fated to grow forever, passing from designer to designer. But more amazing still, TOME has neat graphics and a friendly interface. Download it immediately.


If you didn't download TOME immediately then please do so now, unless you're at work, in which case it's acceptable to wait until your lunch break. Take your lunch break immediately.

For a veteran dungeon diver such as myself, cynicism may creep in. Sure, it looks good, but when was that ever the point? And, hey, there's an optional mouse-driven interface but doesn't that mean the whole thing must be so dumbed down that it might as well be a third-person shooter? I haven't played enough to figure out precisely where TOME fits in my personal Roguelike charts, but I am impressed by how much variety it offers and the simple fact that I can almost definitely convince lots of people to try it. So far, like the best fantasy RPGs, I feel like it offers new worlds full of mystery and danger, and those are two of my favourite things.



I chose to be some sort of magical elf on my first attempt and found myself in a land of living crystals. When I died, after about five minutes, I started again as a human with a sword and a shield. Magic had failed me but cold steel wouldn't. That character began his quest in a trollmire, which looked like a forest except instead of squirrels and butterflies it was full of writhing masses of worms and, would you believe it, various types of troll. Although there's plenty of randomness, there are actual quests other than 'go down', and different races and classes have different objectives and areas to explore. Try them all! Except the ones you have to unlock. Work out how to unlock those instead by trying the others.

TOME isn't horribly confusing and it even has a tutorial but if you do feel a twinge of anxiety when it confronts you with its many possibilities and options, breathe, relax and experiment. The only wrong choice is 'quit'. Perhaps you've dabbled before. You can admit that here. Nobody will judge you, least of all an actual judge with a wig and a gavel. Maybe somebody was passing a paper full of Dredmor around behind the bike sheds one day and you took a drag on it and thought, hey this isn't so bad, I expected ASCII after-phlegm and an interface that punched me in the lung but the whole experience is far smoother and more pleasant than I'd ever have imagined. TOME is more traditional than Dredmor but is just as easy to use and to understand. It's also free, though lacking in humour and gargantuan eyebrows.

To add icing to the already delicious cake, the T-Engine4 on which TOME is built is ready for more modules right now. It's begging for them, whether they're totally new worlds, additional quests and scenarios, or something in between. It's a general purpose Roguelike engine and could spark a revolution, providing a simple means of creating and collating turn-based adventures. I'm already tempted to hibernate for much of 2013 just so I can see how many people embrace this and what they produce.

I'll probably write more soon, when I've spent more time with TOME itself, but I couldn't resist making this my first news post of the year. It's such a thrilling and potential-packed way to start what dunderheaded analysts are already failing to call 'The Year of the Roguelike', and it could mark the opening of a fantastic floodgate.

http://te4.org/

Screens:
http://te4.org/tome/screenshots

Downloads:
http://te4.org/download

I've been playing this and find it a lot of fun. 

I've always been interested by Dwarf Fortress and some other roguelikes but could never get past the ascii display.  Not to say that this games graphics are mind-blowing, they look like they could be on the NES, but it's enough to easily interpret what's happening.

My best character in TOME4 so far has been a Dwarf Berserker but i've also done well with Halfling Alchemists.

[garbon]

Not sure I follow you comment re:DF. There have been plenty of graphical mods for it for quite sometime now.

[PRC]

Not sure I follow you comment re:DF. There have been plenty of graphical mods for it for quite sometime now.

Any simple install and play ones?  What do you recommend?

[mongers]

Not sure I follow you comment re:DF. There have been plenty of graphical mods for it for quite sometime now.

Any simple install and play ones?  What do you recommend?

Yeah, that would be what I'm after, perviously what I read on here seemed like a lot of work*


*vs clicking on a install.exe. 

[Drakken]

That Geopolitical Simulator game's new iteration will be out soon.

Masters of the World - Geopolitical Simulator 3 includes several new features: •Multi-country game mode: the player can lead several countries simultaneously and change the fate of the world by developing collaborative strategies
•New map (high resolution) with detailed cultural zones, different types of forest (broadleaf, pine, rainforests), savannas, rivers, urban areas, rail networks, oil and gas pipelines, ports and airports (with aircraft route management), oil tankers, containerships, and more.
•New laws: players can set the income tax by bracket, nationalize/privatize economic activities, set product prices, and adjust the head of state's salary level. They can also regulate physician-assisted suicide, same-sex parent adoption, abortion, marijuana consumption, prostitution, and the right of foreign nationals to vote in local elections.
•In-depth debt management, including intervention by rating agencies, interest rate negotiations with international lenders, and the ability to apply for loans or debt relief with the IMF or the Eurozone
•Players can create their own international organizations and define their types (free trade zone, monetary union, politico-military organization, exporting countries), budget, geographical area, bylaws (voting system, meetings with heads of state, common political ideology...).
•Televised appearances: from the president's office to announce new drawbacks, try to justify unpopular decisions or calm the people when they are angry; from the UN press gallery when, for example, requesting a military intervention; while traveling in a region or during import events to occupy the media and strengthen popularity
•New construction projects available: pipeline networks crossing several countries to transport the gas and oil, high-speed train lines, port centers, and civil airports to improve transportation conditions, tourism, and freight.
•New scenarios: "Saving Greece" etc...
•World Simulation mode playable in multiplayer mode over a network
•The ability adjust various game settings: terrorist organization activity level, the probability of natural and man-made disaster triggering, the reactivity level of the people and social groups to unpopular actions on the part of their ruler, the probability of wars being triggered and their level of acceptance by the people (peaceful world or war-prone world)
•The integration of ongoing game support, personified by a professor of geopolitics, who can explain to the player the game's major functional principles for politics, economy, strategy, and espionage, alert the player to problems that need to be solved in his or her country and the actions that can be taken, and provide the player with some political tips and tricks.
•A technology discovery tree display showing technological advancements and opportunities for research sectors
•System display of signed economic contract assessments
•Detailed election results and surveys with percentages for all political parties for each of the country's groups and lobbies
•The ability to group together several proposed laws into a reform to present them to Parliament together and have them voted on all at once. This can be helpful for passing laws that might otherwise not pass
•Implementation of a referendum procedure of some proposed laws: with a referendum, it is the people, not the Parliament, who decide whether to adopt the law.
•The addition of commando units, which operate in stealth mode to conduct operations directly within enemy bases
•Mission planning for military units: the player can assign multiple objectives and define patrol areas
•Links to relevant Wikipedia articles for each proposed law
•Updates on January 1, 2013 with over 600 data elements for each of the 175 playable countries, including the political makeup of governments and legislative bodies based on the latest elections, the latest estimates for budgetary deficits and debts, countries' ratings with rating agencies, growth estimates for the next 40 years, etc.
•Updates and creation of new faces in line with reality: heads of state, department secretaries, political party leaders, the heads of international organizations...
•Inclusion of new organizations: BRICS, GUAM, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Bolivarian Alliance
•New playable countries: South Sudan, Luxembourg, Malta, Singapore, Maldives, Cape Verde, the Solomon Islands, Comoros, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados

Is it better than that god-awful game SuperPower from a few years ago?

[Syt]

I've only really played the first part, but it has a much stronger focus on domestic politics (elections, passing laws for which you have to influence opinion leaders to see it your way, etc.) and the foreign policy part severely lacking. You can ask other leaders to improve the human rights situation in their country, make trade agreements, condemn people in front of the UN and declare war, mostly (the latter usually gets you deposed immediately unless you have a very strong case . . . haven't fully worked out the requirements).

If you want a game that simulates e.g. the efforts of EU, US, Russia to put pressure on Iran regarding their nuclear program, or the EU strife in the wake of the Euro crisis, I don't think this is it. I have no idea how you would do that in the game.

[Syt]

I picked up Euro Truck Simulator 2 on Steam (enjoying it quite a bit, even though it mostly involves driving overland on the highway - kinda soothing, though, if you turn on music in the background).

Anyways, the game has already attracted Balkantards:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/227300/discussions/0/864957182772730761/

Slovakia with illegitimate borders.

I really hate that the Slovakian border was put onto the Hungarian border with the road going into Hungary and then to Slovakia, this pretty much seems like a massive insult to me and my country for altering our territorial integrity this way in a game when we are completely part of the EU and the schengen area.

It is clearly wrong as I state that it is claiming that Hungary's territory is a Slovak territory, while it is not. I demmand this to be changed immediately.

I feel this game is a massive letdown.