The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Syt]

Total War Troy is getting a new expansion, probably coinciding with the Steam release in September.

https://www.totalwar.com/blog/total-war-troy-mythos-release-date-faq/

It's a weird one. Troy has the mythical heroes (Menelaus, Odysseus, Achilles, Paris, etc.) but didn't go full fantasy. Instead they went with "truth behind the myth", i.e. "cyclopes" are just really big dudes, and "centaurs" are very good horseback units. The idea being that these units could have formed the nucleus for those mythical figures.

The new expansion will go full in on the mythological side. You can go on quests to capture a hydra, a Cerberus or a Griffin and have them fight for you. And the "mythological" creatures will be actual cyclopes, centaurs etc. Also, you can call on Zeus to send lightning to smite the enemy.

But also there'll be a free patch which tries to go full historical (well as historical as a game with the characters from the Iliad can be, I guess), turning even the "truth behind the myth" units off. I haven't spent much time with the game, I mostly picked it up for free during the launch promo. But I feel I might like the middle road for this better - yes, have larger than life characters and units, but not going full fantasy.

[Razgovory]

Looks like they want to get the most out of their Warhammer art assets.

[FunkMonk]

Played a little Hell Let Loose since it just released a free update that includes the Russians and two new maps, Kursk and Stalingrad, along with a new attack/defense mode.

It's a solid combination of tactical milsim and Battlefield 1942. Slow, easy to die, but still somewhat accessible. Died quite a bit, sometimes out of nowhere. Takes a little time to situate yourself and where the front is. Generally, you want to shoot in the direction your teammates are shooting. Good rule of thumb..

Me and my squad mates were defending a trench line. Germans would appear in the field before us and we'd shoot them. Not hard. At one point our squad lead was talking about where he thought the Germans might approach our position when his VOIP immediately stopped because a bullet went through his helmet and into his skull with a PLINK. A German machine gun had placed itself on our left flank and started firing right down our line. I took my PPsh and fired it at the general position of where I though the machine gun was firing from over the head of my teammate. A minute of frantic small arms fire and grenades ended with us still in the trench line as more Germans began to attack across the field again. I killed a bunch more with my handy PPsh and we held the line until German artillery landed right on top of us.

10/10 game would recommend for the glory of the socialism.

[Tamas]

Sounds fun.

Reminded me I grabbed Verdun 1916 while it was free on Epic and gave it a whirl over the weekend. Refreshing to kill and die from a couple of bullets instead of people being bullet sponges, but quite brutal. Ended up playing with an LMG and spraying at the general direction of people. Ended up with like an almost 3:1 K/D ration despite being a clueless noob being shot whenever I tried to move. Turns out machine guns are pretty effective mowing down people coming your way.

[Solmyr]

Total War: Troy options:



Interesting implications for future games, at least ones set in older times. Although they could also do a Victorian Total War with steampunk or somesuch.

[Syt]

Well, they did that with Three Kingdoms, didn't they? The historical vs. the mythical as two different playstyles.

[garbon]

They are going to maintain balance across 3 styles?

[Syt]

I'm wondering how special the Mythological style is going to be beyond a few special units and god powers slapped onto the existing game. I feel it would be neat to have a mythologically inspired game with divine interventions and mythological creatures if you design it as such from he ground up, but not sure rejigging an existing game for it is a great idea.

[Tamas]

Well, they did that with Three Kingdoms, didn't they? The historical vs. the mythical as two different playstyles.

And I think it worked fairly well. You could notice the difference.

[Sheilbh]

Well, they did that with Three Kingdoms, didn't they? The historical vs. the mythical as two different playstyles.

Is Three Kingdoms any good? I ask because I love the setting but never heard of that until I saw it on Steam so I'm a little unsure if it's actually worth getting.

[Grey Fox]

The streamer I watch that is into Total War thinks it's the best one.

And he's more into War Hammer that he is into TW.

[Syt]

Well, they did that with Three Kingdoms, didn't they? The historical vs. the mythical as two different playstyles.

Is Three Kingdoms any good? I ask because I love the setting but never heard of that until I saw it on Steam so I'm a little unsure if it's actually worth getting.

I haven't played it, but I think CA recently announced that there were no more expansions coming, apparently leaving out some promised map areas and factions, though I don't know how crucial they are.

It's the early quitting on Three Kingdoms which made it surprising to me that Troy is getting new DLC as I thought it was the least popular of their more recent releases.

[Razgovory]

I thought Three Kingdoms was their best selling game.

[FunkMonk]

Sounds fun.

Reminded me I grabbed Verdun 1916 while it was free on Epic and gave it a whirl over the weekend. Refreshing to kill and die from a couple of bullets instead of people being bullet sponges, but quite brutal. Ended up playing with an LMG and spraying at the general direction of people. Ended up with like an almost 3:1 K/D ration despite being a clueless noob being shot whenever I tried to move. Turns out machine guns are pretty effective mowing down people coming your way.

Arcade shooters like BF have a lot going for them but the visceral combat of games like Verdun and Hell Let Loose make the individual moments like these much more meaningful (and fun).

Of course much of the experience also includes dying a dozen times to random bullets and explosions through no fault of your own 

[Tamas]

The "early quitting" on Three Kingdoms is a ridiculous storm in a teacup. There are several DLCs, a ginormous map, two separate gamemodes, 3 groups of factions which play quite differently (regular factions, Yellow Turbans, and the tribesmen) further differentiated within these larger groups (within the regulars at least) especially with the Emperor mechanics introduced in one of the updates. AND there are minor differences further in terms of campaign "special abilities" of characters - e.g. one gets bonuses for military supply, the other gets bonus point to spend on effects for military victories, the other for economy, the third gets refugees from across the land if he is in peace, to boost his population etc.

It's a massive game on par with most grand strategy games for the strategical layer, and a pretty decent (if no particularly exciting) tactical layer.