The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[frunk]

That's fair. I like puzzle games, but I'm not too happy with the combat dice rolls in UoC1. If it was clear predetermined results (think Into The Breach) then I might feel different about it.

Yeah, true.  Panzer Corps 2 has the option to increase or decrease the randomness of the results.  That would be ideal in UoC.

[Syt]

I had Headquarters: World War II sitting in my steam account for a bit and gave it a go yesterday, doing the tutorial and the first US mission (landing on Omaha Beach).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1840800/Headquarters_World_War_II

It feels like a mix of Panzer General/Corps and XCom, maybe? The scale is single tanks and squads, and more realistically sized (square-based) battlefields. It looks very pretty (one of the best looking games of this kind, I'd say). It plays all right, though I wish the camera was a bit freer (there's a free-cam, but it always snaps back to an isometric view - it's a constant complaint on the forums, but the devs say they tested it and decided against).

Not sure I would recommend at this early stage - seeing complaints about bad AI on the forums, but will need to see in other missions. On normal difficulty, the mission was ok once you figure out how to best approach the enemy without exposing yourself too much to their fire (snipers OP?).

I like that missions are slightly less static. E.g. during the Omaha landing your initial objective is to secure the bunkers overlooking the beach. Then you get radioed that there's an AA you should take out (secondary objective) so the bombers can come in. After that a arty position is added as secondary objective. After the bunkers you receive orders to also take the town behind the initial German defenses. Kinda like this "story progression" within a mission (and turn numbers were very generous for this mission). I can see potential there for more games doing this kind of thing, maybe even branching developments depending on your success/failure/choices. Would surely shake up your "normal" PG/PC maps. (I know Panzer Corps does this to some extent, but there's always room for more )

Campaigns are there for the US, UK, and Germans, each 9 missions. You keep your core units between missions, they can level up with the abilities etc (XCOM style binary choices on level up). Some stuff maybe a bit too gamey, like the HQ ability to immediately replenish a squad or tank crew (though the ability has a cool down), and I wish there was more persistant battle damage - you can destroy houses etc., tank wrecks remain and can serve as cover - unless you clear them - but stuff like shell impact craters or similar would be nice. I think I might find that lacking because of the graphical fidelity of the game otherwise, though.

The game is made by Starni Games, who previously made the Strategic Mind series which added story cutscenes to its campaigns which had ... mixed receptions? https://store.steampowered.com/developer/StarniGames

A Market Garden expansion for Headquarters is coming out this week, but it only seems to have one campaign, so will depend on how much I like the main game and its price before I would want to pull the trigger.

[Syt]

Another one I gave a first look: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2228280/MEMORIAPOLIS/

I normally don't go for early access titles (unless they're VERY far along), but the concept grabbed me.

You build your city across 4 ages - antiquity, middle ages, renaissance, enlightenment, with organic growth. The initial release I played was ok, but it was clearly more abstract than, say, Caesar games or ANNO, and it felt less "alive" (something that patches/roadmap seem to indicate is something they work on). It features some resource management and management of citizen groups. It's "real time", but in the sense that Paradox gams are - things happen on "ticks" or days, so it's essentially continuous turn based?

Only played the tutorial but generally liked what I saw, now waiting for more patches before coming back. Patches have been forthcoming so far, with the devs taking player feedback on board, so that's good, but remains to be seen if that continues.

[garbon]

Another one I gave a first look: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2228280/MEMORIAPOLIS/

I normally don't go for early access titles (unless they're VERY far along), but the concept grabbed me.

You build your city across 4 ages - antiquity, middle ages, renaissance, enlightenment, with organic growth. The initial release I played was ok, but it was clearly more abstract than, say, Caesar games or ANNO, and it felt less "alive" (something that patches/roadmap seem to indicate is something they work on). It features some resource management and management of citizen groups. It's "real time", but in the sense that Paradox gams are - things happen on "ticks" or days, so it's essentially continuous turn based?

Only played the tutorial but generally liked what I saw, now waiting for more patches before coming back. Patches have been forthcoming so far, with the devs taking player feedback on board, so that's good, but remains to be seen if that continues.

I said let's press pause and only purchase things that match their advertising. Like when it actually has all of the ages.

[Syt]

True. I mainly picked it up because there's just not many city builders that try to do this - usually they focus on one era only, and I want ones that show the evolution of a city. I think one that takes an American town from colonial times to 21st century would be awesome (but also insanely ambitious ).

I would definitely not recommend buying it yet. From my side it's more of a "have some money so you keep working" kind of thing, not "your game as is already warrants the price tage". I posted this more as a "keep an eye on this".

[garbon]

Yeah I recall when I first saw it's announcement, I was like cool, I've wanted a city builder that I play through time.

[Syt]

Also, reviews for Ara are coming out. PC Gamer gives it 70%, saying it's very pretty, but not very deep, calling it accessible for newcomers.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/ara-history-untold-review/

In its current form, Ara is 4X Lite, a pretty princeling next to the great emperors of the genre. But being lightweight has its plus side. It has very little bloat, so the different systems of the game never clash or confuse (a problem for its peers Millennia and Humankind). Combine that with a lovely aesthetic and well integrated info boxes and tooltips, and Ara is a very accessible jaunt for 4X newcomers, if not quite beefy enough to go toe-to-toe with the genre's heavy hitters.

But Rome wasn't built in a day; 4X games tend to be vastly different beasts between initial launch and their final expansion. By playing things safe, Oxide Games has a lot of room through expansions to layer on systems (or expand existing underserved ones, like religion or diplomacy) in a sensible way. This is a fine foray for Microsoft, and even if the history here doesn't exactly feel 'untold', it's told in an eye-catching, engaging way that will keep me clicking the eras for some time yet.

It's on Game Pass (the 59.99 base game price tag on Steam seems a bit steep )

[Tamas]

Also, reviews for Ara are coming out. PC Gamer gives it 70%, saying it's very pretty, but not very deep, calling it accessible for newcomers.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/strategy/ara-history-untold-review/

In its current form, Ara is 4X Lite, a pretty princeling next to the great emperors of the genre. But being lightweight has its plus side. It has very little bloat, so the different systems of the game never clash or confuse (a problem for its peers Millennia and Humankind). Combine that with a lovely aesthetic and well integrated info boxes and tooltips, and Ara is a very accessible jaunt for 4X newcomers, if not quite beefy enough to go toe-to-toe with the genre's heavy hitters.

But Rome wasn't built in a day; 4X games tend to be vastly different beasts between initial launch and their final expansion. By playing things safe, Oxide Games has a lot of room through expansions to layer on systems (or expand existing underserved ones, like religion or diplomacy) in a sensible way. This is a fine foray for Microsoft, and even if the history here doesn't exactly feel 'untold', it's told in an eye-catching, engaging way that will keep me clicking the eras for some time yet.

It's on Game Pass (the 59.99 base game price tag on Steam seems a bit steep )

Does not sound promising.