The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Sheilbh]

Niche Hungarian game here. Trianon revenge based FPS where you can summon your ancestors for help:
https://twitter.com/tomescritt/status/1596963206861361153?s=46&t=CP9TEowyldBP0FNCQrXOQQ

[Syt]

Funny, Steam put this Hungarian game into my discovery queue today:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2181830/Follow_The_Crown/

Save and return the Hungarian Holy Crown by using your stealth and diplomacy skills as a Crown Guard and an American Diplomat. Follow the Crown is a third-person historical adventure game set in Hungary that takes place in two different historical eras – the end of WWII and the Cold War.

Sneak across military areas, underground bunkers & other devastated sites from Budapest, Hungary. Discuss matters of state between the US & the USSR with diplomats & other historical figures. Experience history from two different viewpoints but fight for the same goal- the guard & return the Holy Crown to its rightful place in Hungary.

It's free to play, but only has mixed reviews.

[Syt]

Computer version of the War & Peace wargame is scheduled for next year:

AVALON DIGITAL has captured the look, feel, challenge, and excitement of the classic board game War and Peace and brought it to life on your computer. Solo allows you to become Napoleon as you lead your armies from the fields of France to the steppes of Russia, and from the deserts of Egypt to the mountains of Spain. Or you stand against him as Blucher, Kutuzov, the Duke of Wellington, or any of a score of other famous generals as you plan your strategies to turn the tide of the Napoleonic Wars.

Fight on land and at sea in short scenarios that cover every major strategic operation from 1796 to 1815, or do it all in a grand campaign that may – or may not – end on the field of Waterloo.

SCALE
War and Peace is a monthly turn-based, hex-based (40 miles each), strategic game.
Dozens of individually named and rated generals lead armies composed of abstract strength points each representing roughly 5,000 men infantry or cavalry and their intrinsic artillery.

Every major – and minor – power of the Napoleonic Wars is represented with its own set of individual pieces, each of which is depicted by square counters illustrated with a soldier attired in the uniform unique to their nation and type.
The mix of forces includes everything from Spanish partisans and Prussian Landwehr on up to Russian Cossacks and Napoleon's Old Guard, and more.

The game also includes squadrons of ships of the line and transports with which players can wage both a global naval struggle – or recreate the situations that led to the epic clashes at the Nile, Copenhagen, and, of course, Trafalgar.

CONTENT
The game contains
Different playing modes: solitaire play against the AI
All the historical scenarios from the boardgame:
- THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN OF 1796–97
- THE ARMY OF THE ORIENT, BONAPARTE IN EGYPT 1798–99
- MARENGO: 1800
- THE SUN OF AUSTERLITZ — 1805
- NAPOLEON'S APOGEE: 1806–1807
- WAGRAM — 1809
- THE CAMPAIGN IN RUSSIA — 1812
- STRUGGLE OF NATIONS — 1813
- NAPOLEON AT BAY — 1814
- THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN — 1815
- THE PENINSULAR WAR: 1808–1814
- SPAIN: 1811–1814
- THE FINAL GLORY: 1812–1814

THE GRAND CAMPAIGN GAME – WAR AND PEACE 1805-1815: a complete campaign covering the entire Napoleonic Wars, with production, diplomacy, foreign wars, land and naval warfare.
Varied Hex maps with a scale of 40 miles per hex, weather zones, major cities for production and victory.
6 Major Powers, playable inside Pro or Anti-French Alliance, dozens of minor nations and powers.
5 different types of infantry, 3 of cavalry, all rated for their morale (i.e. quality) levels
Warship or Transport naval squadrons
All main historical leaders present
March to the sounds of guns, conduct forced marches, fight pitched battles, entrench your armies, lay siege, and engage in amphibious, economic, and guerrilla warfare
Production system for the grand campaign to create your own reinforcements
Turn-based system, scale of one month per turn, with different phases: Attrition, Alliance, Reinforcements, Movement and Combat.
An elegant, easy-to-understand on-screen guide that will walk you through every sequence of play and help you better understand the nuances and depth of choices and strategies available.
Available in English and in French, with Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese coming soon
No internet connection required to play against the AI

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009780/War_and_Peace/

[Tamas]

So are we interested in Knights of Honor 2? I remember wanting to like 2 but it was a bit of a picture book version of medieval Europe.

[Syt]

I played the original KoH and thought it was fun back then, though I didn't (at the time) know what to think of it being essentially "endless mode", i.e. IIRC it didn't have "proper" year numbers and just kept running, so you could play endlessly.

Haven't watched any pre-coverage of it, but I feel I'm not in a rush for it. Bit wary, because it's published by THQ who have a tendency to publish games I'm interested in, but then turn out to be a bit jank/not really great. On the one hand there's Desperados 3 or Expeditions Rome which seem good, but then there's Superpower III, The Guild 3, or Biomutant.

[Syt]

P.S.: Watching a preview video from a German channel (no gameplay, though, which makes me a bit suspicious so shortly before release), and I'm mostly thinking I can scratch that itch with CK2 or 3, or Medieval: Total War (with mods). I'll wait and see.

[Tamas]

Here's a letsplay but feels more like a sponsored one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWVKV402Jms

I tend to agree. Being the compulsive spender on strategy games that I am, it will be hard to resist buying it, but for now I agree there seems to be little to do in the game that I cannot already do in CK3.

[celedhring]

I'm very late to the party (so little time to play nowadays...) but Disco Elysium is fascinating. Best game I've played in quite a long time.

[Syt]

It's one of those experiences that come out once every few years or so.

[Tamas]

Yeah I generally bounce off hard of games of this type, but this one kept me going until the finish, although I won't be replaying it for alternative endings and the like.

[Syt]

From what I understand, while there's a number of alternate situations and paths for certain interactions, the overall arc (premise and final resolution) don't change all that much. Which is fine by me, the game is much more about the main character and his journey and not the main story.

[Josquius]

From what I understand, while there's a number of alternate situations and paths for certain interactions, the overall arc (premise and final resolution) don't change all that much. Which is fine by me, the game is much more about the main character and his journey and not the main story.

The mystery questline doesn't end much differently but the vision quest lines vary quite wildly.
I accidentally fell into the social democratic one which apparently is quite dull, I wanted the communist one.
People replay for these apparently.

[celedhring]

I'm defaulting to play the main character as myself, which I think is probably the dullest alternative 

[Josquius]

I'm defaulting to play the main character as myself, which I think is probably the dullest alternative 

Probably where I fell into the social democratic option. So many of the other dialogue options are just too stupid.
Why can't I be a communist without randomly screaming about the oppression of the workers during a delicate negotiation?

[Syt]

Yeah, same. I advocated for small, non-radical changes to society and was chided for enabling the status quo while telling myself I was in favor of change.