What other games are we all playing?

[Mole HD]

Found this browsing through Steam yesterday... a story based adventure game, which isn't everyone's cup of tea... but it's still The Expanse, which I consider an essential for anyone who has ever read the books or watched the TV series...and you get to play as Camina Drummer. The game? Fairly simple (and short) but I loved it, I liked the zero-G EVA bits and exploring the shipwrecks, but I'm slightly biased being a fan of both the books and the TV series. The game is pretty well voice acted by the stars from the TV series

Why have I never seen it mentioned on here? It's cheap enough for a casual playthrough at 15 quids for series one plus the DLC

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

A much complained about boss could be reasonably dealt with in Rogue Trader. We're bacl to realspace and no companions are missing.

 

[Arioch]

Found this browsing through Steam yesterday... a story based adventure game, which isn't everyone's cup of tea... but it's still The Expanse, which I consider an essential for anyone who has ever read the books or watched the TV series...and you get to play as Camina Drummer. The game? Fairly simple (and short) but I loved it, I liked the zero-G EVA bits and exploring the shipwrecks, but I'm slightly biased being a fan of both the books and the TV series

Why have I never seen it mentioned on here? It's cheap enough for a casual playthrough at 15 quids for series one plus the DLC

I bought it as the episodes were releasing one by one on Epic, good to see it’s come to other storefronts

I’m currently trying to scratch my Expanse itch (that sounds bad ) with comics - I’m reading the Draper/Avasarala one now with two more inbound.
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Back OT: just finished W40K Boltgun & Batman Arkham Asylum on the Switch (both excellent) which I got in the Chrimbo sale, and just started FF IV Advance (with fan patches) on my retro handheld. Flying Circus is taking up most of my PCVR time - the new 1916 seasonal maps are very nice.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I bought it as the episodes were releasing one by one on Epic, good to see it’s come to other storefronts

I’m currently trying to scratch my Expanse itch (that sounds bad ) with comics - I’m reading the Draper/Avasarala one now with two more inbound.
———
Back OT: just finished W40K Boltgun & Batman Arkham Asylum on the Switch (both excellent) which I got in the Chrimbo sale, and just started FF IV Advance (with fan patches) on my retro handheld. Flying Circus is taking up most of my PCVR time - the new 1916 seasonal maps are very nice.

I had Monty Python music playing in my head but I suppose it's just a flight sim. Recently been playing WH40K fleet space game and Rogue Trader. Using a Boltgun sounds tempting, but I'm not so fond of jump 'n' run.

 

[HRDiagram]

I've got back into a freeware remake of Transportation Tycoon Delux - kindly allowed by Chris Sawyer who's not unconnected with ED and DBOBE and Frontier.

I'm dipping in and out of OpenTTD (using the zBase graphics pack). It is incredibly 'simple' with some super-basic graphics, but......... should you get hooked..... it can soak up endless hours - simply sorting out a signalling block through a mildly complex interchange can be very rewarding - once you have it (finally) working.

It's also a game that you can dip in and out of, as it's a sandbox where any challenges are those that you set yourself.

The hours I've spent, over the decades, on it!
To me, it's always been about building massive train hubs to move coal around, and the occasional bus routes.
I get back to it, every now and again, for the fun and the soundtrack

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I've got back into a freeware remake of Transportation Tycoon Delux - kindly allowed by Chris Sawyer who's not unconnected with ED and DBOBE and Frontier.

I'm dipping in and out of OpenTTD (using the zBase graphics pack). It is incredibly 'simple' with some super-basic graphics, but......... should you get hooked..... it can soak up endless hours - simply sorting out a signalling block through a mildly complex interchange can be very rewarding - once you have it (finally) working.

It's also a game that you can dip in and out of, as it's a sandbox where any challenges are those that you set yourself.

SM Railroad Tycoon was the best. OTTD came close but none of the transport games got that scale right. You can never fit these trains realistically on a game map and have them commute at realistic speeds. Railway Empire did a good job with the ride along mode. Regardless what any of the later games did well, they always lacked a part: Either signalling was pants, then the economy model lacked, sometimes the equity and stock market side was completely missing. Some had no competing railroads etc., etc.
I'm still waiting on the complete contender to SM RR Tycoon today. It might not ever come, they're busy trying to get the 3D world and the train sim right. SM RR Tycoon didn't have to since it was 2D game.

 

[PiLhEaD]

SM Railroad Tycoon was the best. OTTD came close but none of the transport games got that scale right. You can never fit these trains realistically on a game map and have them commute at realistic speeds. Railway Empire did a good job with the ride along mode. Regardless what any of the later games did well, they always lacked a part: Either signalling was pants, then the economy model lacked, sometimes the equity and stock market side was completely missing. Some had no competing railroads etc., etc.
I'm still waiting on the complete contender to SM RR Tycoon today. It might not ever come, they're busy trying to get the 3D world and the train sim right. SM RR Tycoon didn't have to since it was 2D game.

I like that TTD covers most forms of transport - planes, plane, boats and road vehicles - and the way you can build some quite complex supply-chains.

I've long felt that Frontier are very well placed to produce TTD-2.

Given their obvious ability with building and management games, and their association with Chris Sawyer, it has long seemed to me to be ripe for an FDEV reboot.

I'd blooming buy it!!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I've long felt that Frontier are very well placed to produce TTD-2.

Given their obvious ability with building and management games, and their association with Chris Sawyer, it has long seemed to me to be ripe for an FDEV reboot.

I'd blooming buy it!!

I'd buy a good business sim, too. Currently X4 is the best business sim, imo, just completely different. There was once a nice one "Wall Street Raider" that was reasonable sim for takeovers and playing investment shark.

 

[Darkfyre99]

Well, I bit the bullet, and finally bought Galactic Civilization IV. Initial impressions are that like its predecessors, it’s “I forgot people need to eat” engaging… which wasn’t a problem back in… 2006? That long ago???

Anyways, I like the new mechanics, it’s AI is even better than I remember from last time, and there’s some new faces to go with the familiar ones. Currently, I’m in a “Cold War” with my neighbors, the xenomorph-like Fel, and the Cylon-expies Yor. The only reason my civilization is still alive is that the Fel hate inorganic life because they can’t be used as incubators, and the Yor hate all non-mechanical life on general principles, so they’re mutually antagonistic towards each other.

Meanwhile, the Fel are generally neutral towards me. That mutual antagonism is just enough to offset turning down their occasional request for prisoners to be used for breeding purposes. We may be wary towards each other, but not so much that we can’t engage in trade.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Well, I bit the bullet, and finally bought Galactic Civilization IV. Initial impressions are that like its predecessors, it’s “I forgot people need to eat” engaging… which wasn’t a problem back in… 2006? That long ago???

Anyways, I like the new mechanics, it’s AI is even better than I remember from last time, and there’s some new faces to go with the familiar ones. Currently, I’m in a “Cold War” with my neighbors, the xenomorph-like Fel, and the Cylon-expies Yor. The only reason my civilization is still alive is that the Fel hate inorganic life because they can’t be used as incubators, and the Yor hate all non-mechanical life on general principles, so they’re mutually antagonistic towards each other.

Meanwhile, the Fel are generally neutral towards me. That mutual antagonism is just enough to offset turning down their occasional request for prisoners to be used for breeding purposes. We may be wary towards each other, but not so much that we can’t engage in trade.

I wandered through a lot of these games, always looking for a Master of Orion 2 contender. I never really found one, because the turn based genre fell out of fashion and 3D games prefer the real time combat sim. Stellaris is probably the far better game today than MoO2 ever was, but does it have sexy blue alien space babes, Ants from Outer Space and Space Bears and Tigers? No.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I wandered through a lot of these games, always looking for a Master of Orion 2 contender. I never really found one, because the turn based genre fell out of fashion and 3D games prefer the real time combat sim. Stellaris is probably the far better game today than MoO2 ever was, but does it have sexy blue alien space babes, Ants from Outer Space and Space Bears and Tigers? No.

Personally, I thought the Galactic Civilization series was a worthy successor. And if it’s really that important to you, IIRC, among the dozens civilizations GalCiv 4 starts with, it has both green and blue skinned alien space babes, several species of insectoid aliens, omnicidal killer squirrels, and peaceful space cats:

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0VRsBnNRy4k


And Stardock added a bespoke AI civilization generator that I've seen create entire civilizations, complete with character portraits, from just a one line description.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Personally, I thought the Galactic Civilization series was a worthy successor. And if it’s really that important to you, IIRC, among the dozens civilizations GalCiv 4 starts with, it has both green and blue skinned alien space babes, several species of insectoid aliens, omnicidal killer squirrels, and peaceful space cats:

Source: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0VRsBnNRy4k


And Stardock added a bespoke AI civilization generator that I've seen create entire civilizations, complete with character portraits, from just a one line description.

I prefer red babes. They're like demons and - you know - the red ones go faster, too.

I think it was GalCiv2 that I played back then.

 

[Darkfyre99]

I prefer red babes. They're like demons and - you know - the red ones go faster, too.

I think it was GalCiv2 that I played back then.

Out of idle curiosity, I tried entering your request into the AI generator. This is what I got:

Spoiler: It's missing one important detail...

Apparently, the leader portraits aren't AI generated, but selects them from an available pool, and "red babe" isn't one of them.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

The Rogue Trader has somehow botched the romance with Lady Cassia - I know I should have stuck to girl trader and romance Heinrix. This seems like the last chapter. Rumour has it there are back to back boss fights ahead. So far I didn't have too many troubles on my "Don't hurt me daddy" settings. Rarely I get some issues with the initial placing.
Cassia has somehow picked up a talent that gives her extra turns when she gives extra turn, it's a bit of a turn inflation but can end fights in one round basically. If position is good can even end a boss in one round. Argenta has figured out how to scale exponentially and just needs 2 or so turns to rack up stacks. Melee characters are basically just blockers and CC. I use thunderhammers to send people flying. Archmilitant Heinrix doesn't scale as good as Argenta. Pascal is decent now too. Then we have 4 times the size Space Marine Ulfar with just the same HP as everyone else but can't get cover. Idira can deal real damage as Psyker, main character is one of the CC guys, dark elf is potent melee killer and high elf Yrliet is decent sniper.
I lost track of the gear progression after ch 3 took it all away. I mostly sort by date of acquisition and hope the more recent stuff might be better.

 

[Hank]

GHPC is starting to really get fun. There are some features I'd like to see in the game but from the pov of the gunner, its good imho. Continued development is planned.
I still play some SB2 and X4. When I play X4 and wander around on the bridge and in stations, I'm reminded how some other great games could be better if they just add some limited immersion features. X4 is visually amazing.
As far as fun, right now its GHPC. ... thought I'd leave this here for educational purposes

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c1aKfiBa_o

... don't worry, I won't start posting old B&W WWII videos but this one caught my attention because I heard of the battle but never found much detail. The very end of the vid highlights the Firefly; one of my favorite.
Have a nice day

Edit: edit instead of bump
I did something I thought I wouldn't but I reinstalled ED. I still have my fleet. I'm in the Pleiades and want to go to Running Man. ... and I want to land on Mitterrand Hollow again but its the other way hehe.
GL HF

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

All my saves went invalid in Hearts of Iron IV, so I became curious. Started a Turkey playthrough, then started Raj and ended up with Finland. Worlds were quite diverse and took different paths each time. Other than what I remembered, they used to go on rails.
Finland playthrough took the cake though: While I was busy frantically preparing for the winter war, the 2md soviet revolution hit. Then it spawned Karelia next to me. Then Ukraina declared war on USSR. The provisional russian govt seemed to spawn lots of breakaway states. Then, when Poland declared war on Eesti I thought I should maybe choose the Scandinavian alliance path for Suomi. I noticed that Lithuania was odd, why was the Japanese Shogunate holding this land? And how did the Shogunate get the whole of Russia as colony???!!!

The Northern alliance was founded. I parked 4 divisions in Denmark, ordered the Jägers to Oslo to defend. Then Germany declared war. The Jütland line couldn't be held, need to build divisions with AA in future - should be good for hard attack, too. I pulled back to Odense but some battle sound in my right ear alerted me of shenanigans. The Japanese had joined Axis and attacked the Mannerheim line. I collected reinforcements and decided to pull my expeditionary forces off Denmark and Norway when Russia invaded Petsamo. Karelia is a godsend - my limited number of divisions could barely hold a whole front, I have developed quite a lot of tech that got Finlands manpower to around 200K, though. Staffed with field hospitals they should be doing OK, but attrition is an issue. Lappland is low infrastructure and I left it like that as natural barrier for invaders.

Definitely one of the more interesting playthroughs.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I've played now through the most of the open USA missions in Gates of Hell and explored most of the roster. I finished with a mission in Cologne that featured a Panther and a Pershing with the cathedral looming overhead and the rest was walls of ruins that stood erect like broken teeth. They captured the mood of a fight in a bombed city pretty well. Nice touch with the Panther-Pershing detail. My Pershing too serious crew casualties and had to retire and replenish. A flanking manouver was successful and the powerful gun made short work of the remaining resistance.

The whole DLC mixes the gameplay up - mostly with the limited LoS maps in bocage environment. I made several use cases of successful bazooka employment where I would have failed in previous times. American roster is quite good, heavy mech focus, powerful MG on every car. M3 howitzer was my biggest surprise, fav artillery. Fav "tank" some Sherman chassied open turreted gun carrier with 90 mm gun. Most Sherman tanks are just fodder for the cats. The open top is nicely agile despite its heavy gun, good traverse , decent hull and turret protection. Top attacks are deadly, so keep granadiers away.
Fav infantry arm is gotta be M1 Garand. You don't really need anything else. I can see why they made this standard rifle.
Best AA: quad cal 50. Bad range but it doesn't matter - everything in reach dies.
There is a mine crealing tank I havent used and the flame variants. Artillery has often the option to fire WP, so I use the stand off flame throwing instead.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

One of the missions in Gates of Hell was a skirmish, kind of endless mission that doesn't end unless you take the objectives, though I believe there is some kind of wave budget involved. It's themed on Hürtgen forest and features large concrete tank barriers with few openings to create choke points. Here you have to employ Line of sight and some tactics to capture ponts that unlock new assets to use. The US tank roster in this mission isn't the most powerful - in the end I fielded the 76 Shermans in preference to the Jumbos. The 75 just can't pen frontally well enough and any prolonged exchange ends in the 75 getting decrewed. The final assault was conducted in combined arms and a pincer to get a PzIV SPATG from the side.
Several exchanges of the central elevation took place and this felt like a natural battle without too much spamming. Probably the best skirmish map of the DLC.

 

[Hank]

I'll try to only post my new ED experiences here since I haven't played it for over 3 years considering this is "other games" threads on an ED Forum.
I have everything I had back then so I have a great start on re-learning ED. I need to relearn a few things to be more effective at making dinero.

I don't have Odyssey even though the load screen says that word big and bold. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on Odyssey when there are other space games with RPG/FPS elements.
Does Odyssey address this problem ? :

(no butts in seats)

The ED galaxy map and interface is the best. I wish other games would mimic our galaxy and provide intuitive tools to navigate.
I like knowing I have others with me on such a big ship.
Have a nice day

 

[Kaocraft]

I'll try to only post my new ED experiences here since I haven't played it for over 3 years considering this is "other games" threads on an ED Forum.
I have everything I had back then so I have a great start on re-learning ED. I need to relearn a few things to be more effective at making dinero.

I don't have Odyssey even though the load screen says that word big and bold. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on Odyssey when there are other space games with RPG/FPS elements.
Does Odyssey address this problem ? :
View attachment 381364
(no butts in seats)

The ED galaxy map and interface is the best. I wish other games would mimic our galaxy and provide intuitive tools to navigate.
I like knowing I have others with me on such a big ship.
Have a nice day

Odyssey goes on sale for $10-15 from time to time and at that price I think you absolutely should get it. Depending on your personal play style you may find that it adds a lot more than $15 of value to the game, because the on-foot stuff can be very involving if you want to really dig into it. Even if most of it is not your cup of tea; it rounds out the overall experience of “guy with spaceship” in small ways which alters the relationship you have to your ship, your SRV, to stations, to planets, to the BGS in such a way that it indirectly makes owning and flying a spaceship more fun. It’s a strange thing to say but a lot of the satisfaction I get from odyssey is in all the activities I can choose not to do at any given moment.