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I kickstarted it and I've already played it a bit, but I'm still waiting for the full release to start a serious campaign. They expect to be done with it within the year (a year from now, so 2024), so it's not too far off. I like to support the smaller developers this way, as I know that $30 or whatever goes a long way for them. Big AAA releases can sit and spin. I'll buy them when they've worked out all the bugs.

TL;DR: Creators of Solasta consider it done, and are moving to their next game. They have a survey where you can voice your opinions about what you want them to do. https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1096530/view/3647404008471280877?l=english

I think I need to expand on my final review of the game with some backstory. I bought Jagged Alliance when I was in high school somewhat randomly. My mom had dragged me to the Great Mall for something, which was a bit of a drive. I convinced her that my patience for shopping deserved something, so we went into a Walden Bookstore. This was back when bookstores sold video games, and I came across this title from Sir-Tech that looked interesting. I bugged my mom to let me get the game instead of a book and she relented. It was a diamond in the rough, for sure. A couple years go by and I'm almost out of High School, and I find Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games at Fry's Electronics. I buy it. It isn't a traditional campaign like the other one, and it is supposed to let you play against other people online. Unfortunately I had limited internet and never got to play against others, but I was able to download maps. There was some really good ones. I played the Alamo dozens of times. Next we find me in college, working a boring office job making copies and moving furniture. A demo comes across the somewhat new internet for JA2. I download it and take it home, since I had no internet in my college frat house. I played the heck out of it, but the game itself was delayed...and delayed...and delayed some more. Finally it released, and it almost seemed like Sir-Tech closed their doors the next day. But the game, despite a ton of bugs, was perfect. It was strategic and humorous and unlike anything else. It had some of the magic of Xcom, but it was also its own thing entirely. I played it for years, and then fans overhauled it, and I played 1.13 for more years. I also played Wildfire, which was not so charming but at least had some of the strategy to it. I avoided most of the bad attempts at rebooting it. I kickstarted one that turned out pretty bad. Then I heard JA3 was being worked on, but they had the original developer, Ian Currie. That sparked my interest. Unsurprisingly, Ian Currie found a new home quickly after Sir-Tech went under. He joined an MMO company called Turbine and ended up being a lead on my other favorite game ever, Lord of the Rings Online. There is definitely some magic in his work. He was at Turbine for close to 2 decades, but had retired. So I was excited he had a hand in it, but worried that he was just a retired advisor with a limited role. My worries were unfounded. Jagged Alliance 3 is definitely the sequel I was waiting for for 23 years. I'd go so far as to say it was worth the wait. I'm very content with the idea I got to return to the world of AIM, and I believe this iteration will tide me over for a good while.

BG3 directed by Quentin Tarantino?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Not "ha ha" kind of funny, just funny. Well I thought so. Couldn't quite decide where to share this little 1 minute clip of LoTR in an alternative culture

I ended up buying JA3 on GOG. I hope I get some time to start playing this weekend... Sorely tempted by the early release Xenonauts2, if nothing else because it's 25% off. Just not keen on buying early releases of any game 🤔

The not free grain from Russia can though 😛

And they are offering it only to countries, which have Wagner or strong pro-Russian presence in them 🤷‍♂️

I finished the game. I'm already pretty excited about another playthrough, but I'll wait a bit. Game was very much worth it.

The Russia African summit is over and it was the predicted failure with only 17 African heads of state going and the AU dismissing the Russian offer of free grain as a way to address canceling the black sea grain deal. Russia cant supply enough " free grain " and the AU head urged Putin to restore the deal . To quote from the link below "But Assoumani pushed back against the Russian leader’s claim that Russia would provide enough grain to Africa without the need for Ukrainian supplies. Although Russia was “cooperating” to resolve the crisis, “our continent is currently being severely impacted by food prices. So we are appealing to all participants in the process with a big request to facilitate access to both Ukrainian and Russian food,” he said in comments translated from French into Russian " https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/07/27/africa-grain-russia/

Romania is willing to use their air force to help with Ukrainian grain transit over Danube river. https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/07/28/7413257/

https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-tells-african-leaders-moscow-is-studying-their-ukraine-proposal-2023-07-28/ Good for them to try, but too early still.

As evidenced by Björk. Kidding... mostly. Anyway, sine y'all enjoyed the last Scooter cover so much, here's one I'd argue is even worse:

I know. I though I would never say: “I am glad Troika didn’t get to do Baldurs Gate3”

This... it's not like he has 30 games to talk about, but dang, between his pre-Fallout games to Outer Worlds, the amount of information about life as a game designer and developer is something people could only dream of knowing 20 years ago.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/rpg-legends-baldurs-gate-beyond

All right, I played a little more and I was supposed to have 6 stones. Four are locked in the 4 wells device, one is in the next room and there is no sign of the sixth. I even used toybox to highlight all loot on the map, collected everything and still can't find the sixth stone. Is it supposed to be the one in the entrance of the Pyramid? Someone said in Reddit that you can take that one and the door remains open, but that is not the case for me. There were also plenty of people claiming they are bugged, but that was a year or two ago. Perhaps it's still happening? Edit: Nevermind, it was in the mummies room. I thought I had looted everything there because they stopped spawning. Go figure.

😱

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia. Celeste Blasphemous (spoilers for the bosses) Elden Ring This was funny, though immersion-breaking. Get in the Car, Loser The combat screen. Larian D&D game (EA) Batbarian

Finished Get in the Car, Loser. Discovered that Final Fantasy XIII was the inspiration, which explains the design and specifically the combat. That is to say, the narrative and the story are excellent, while the writing accurately represents what I think the manner of speech of the 20 years old people is like and the pixel art style is lovely. The story follows a party of 3 (later, 4) in a semi-fantasy setting on their way to save the world, with the party leader being the not-Chosen One (the actual Chosen One died) and the main character a healer/support. The combat and inventory management, on the other hand, are atrocious. The former breaks into the middle of dialogues, which continue afterwards like nothing happened and the party didn't spend 2 minutes punching robo-dolphins. In terms of the actual process, 1 key = 1 party member performing 1 action and waiting through the cooldown + switching between the item sets, similar to the Paradigm Shift in FF13 (it is a minor improvement). The latter is the most interactive and creative part (for the player) of the game. The party members' abilities are tied to their equipment and in order to slightly upgrade an equipment piece, several others (from ~5 to ~30) must be sacrificed. The equipment comes from the stores, where it is sold in randomly composed packs of 10. The next tier becomes available only after all party members have their current items upgraded. So, the only challenge was the bosses, with the last battle lasting 20 (?) minutes and having several (3+) stages. The issue was that the "regular equipment sets" (used for normal battles) did not work for the 3rd and the 4th bosses, due to their special attacks and quite a lot of HP. Thus, attempting, dying, and trying again was the way. The first boss had its puzzle aspect unrelated to the loadout, the second could be brute-forced, though it would take longer. In conclusion, nothing is lost from watching (reading) it on YouTube.

Came in and found that a DB job has been failing every day for 6 months, and no one has noticed. Head dev asked pertitent question of "What does this job actually do then ?" I am beginning to think that 90% of operations in my company don't actually DO anything

Why does the government not want you to see this video? Rated 8/10 hypes on the internationally trusted Bruce rating scale. Or this or this https://youtu.be/2mX2iDI00FM

https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/ss-warrimoo-strange-tale/ GREAT SEA STORY (Trivia) The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia. The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought Captain John DS. Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo's position was LAT 0º 31' N and LONG 179 30' W. The date was 31 December 1899. "Know what this means?" First Mate Payton broke in, "We're only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line". Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check & double check the ship's position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed. The calm weather & clear night worked in his favor. At mid-night the SS Warrimoo lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line! The consequences of this bizarre position were many: The forward part (bow) of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere & in the middle of summer. The rear (stern) was in the Northern Hemisphere & in the middle of winter. The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899. In the bow (forward) part it was 1 January 1900. This ship was therefore not only in: Two different days, Two different months, Two different years, Two different seasons But in two different centuries - all at the same time!

Hey, the Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity is NOT worthless. Just ask Edwin!

Started a new playthrough with a vanilla monk, will go for the Aeon path. Was thinking about going Scaled fist and maybe going for the Dragon path.

Bought two Stalkers, which I was still missing in my collection, hopefully I will not be disappointed, when I get to play it in 2073 🤷‍♂️

The LEGENDARY Scott Steiner math promo: My favorite part... I mean, I love everything about this promo, but keep an eye on Petey Williams' face. You can see the wheels inside his head spinning as he tries to follow Big Poppa Pump's math. The best part is that in a twisted, warped, fantasy land, the Steiner math actually adds up. The longer you listen to this promo, your chances of winning drastic go down.

Arcanum is the most underrated Fallout game.

Sorry for necro. I finally caught up with all the responses after all these years. Some good stuff here.

I actually like Gold Dragon on a caster because it ups the damage die and turns all damage into divine