Keyrock

I did my first ever Rift Run in Infinity Wars. It's basically the same thing as Arena Mode in Hearthstone (i.e. you draft a deck more or less at random then play that deck until you lose 3 times, trying to get as many wins as possible). I wound up going 4-3, so at least I had a winning record, which is pretty decent for a first ever attempt at it. Many of my victories came at the hands of the insane Defense Golem/Balance combo. Defense Golem is a relatively low cost creature with no attack power and very high health, plus reach (meaning that while it can't fly, it can block flying creatures). It functions basically like a wall in MtG, putting up an obstacle and delaying your opponent. Balance makes a target creature's power equal to its health, turning a tough but harmless blocking creature into an insane machine of destruction instantly. I wasn't specifically drafting for that combo to begin with, since combos in Rift Runs are foolish to depend on seeing as you may not draft the necessary cards, but about halfway through the draft I realized that by chance that synergy was coming about and decided to pursue it, so it kinda fell into place. Anyway, that was pretty fun and I quite liked that deck. I don't as of yet own the cards to effectively replicate that deck in the constructor to use in ranked play, but it the future I'd like to do it with some tweaks.

That's where proper level design comes in.

Would you recommend the game? Yes, but not without a bit of hesitation. It's rough around the edges, it's a bit buggy, it's not the longest game in the world (unless there's a lot more game left than I thought), and it certainly doesn't reach the levels of greatness of JA2. That said, I've enjoyed playing it, the tactical combat is fairly robust, time of day and weather actually have a significant impact on gameplay, the simplistic art style and saturated colors work really well, and the gun sounds are nice and meaty. At full price I would hesitantly reccommend it if you're into turn-based squad strategy. On sale, I would reccommend it with out hesitation, just know that it's closer to JA1 than JA2.

Spiders making new RPG called Technomancer. It's possibly a Mars: War Logs sequel/spin-off. I actually kinda liked Mars: War Logs, even with its unfulfilled potential and hilariously bad dialogue and voice acting.

I'm nearing the end of Jagged Alliance Flashback. I now control the entirety of the main island, all that's left is to go across to the small island where The Prince's stronghold is located. I'm sure I'll encounter heavy resistance there, but my mercs are so well equipped and skilled at this point that I foresee cutting through enemy forces like a hot knife through butter.

Are they trying to one-up BioWare's in the hilariously bad romance department?

It's Wampir in Polish. Also, dang, the Phillipines either have a large number of different vampires, a lot of different dialects, or a lot of ways to say the same thing.

I only have one game to go by as to judge Dontnod's abilities as a developer, Remember Me, which was frankly not good. Still, maybe this genre will fit them better and I wouldn't mind a vampire RPG, at least vampires aren't nearly as ****ed out as zombies. I'll be interested to hear more about it once details about the game come out.

Escapism doesn't have to mean fantasy setting and magic and dragons and stuff. Escapism could be as simple as living a regular life as someone more attractive, successful, and/or better at dealing with the opposite (or same, if you're so inclined) sex. The fact that this has raised over 60k Canadian so far seems to suggest there is at least somewhat of a market for that kind of experience.

I like cities. I like not being reliant on a car and cities almost always have vastly superior public transportation compared to rural areas, plus a lot of stuff is in walking distance. On the down side, I don't currently live in a city that has a trolley. I wanna ride a trolley, dammit.

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Hey, remember Raven's Cry, that pirate RPG being developed by Reality Pump? No? Well, I imagine most people had forgotten about it, if they even knew about it in the first place, since there has been no mention of the game in seemingly forever. Well, there's some actual gameplay of the game out in the wild now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY4IPpmsuWk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kwoHucMgls

Thanks for the well wishes, folks. My back feels a bit better but no work for me today, just taking it easy all day. I've thrown my back out enough times to know that it's generally 2 to 3 days before I'm fairly functional and a full week before I'm back to normal.

Luckily, I have sick/personal days to use so I won't be losing any money if I miss work tomorrow.

I took a rather unpleasant trip down some ice covered steps today. That set off my reoccurring back problem (as anyone who has ever hurt their back knows, once you hurt your back once, you've got a back problem for the rest of your life). It's been a rather painful day. A whole bunch of pills, some alcohol, and lying flat on the ground for a while have helped, but moving around, especially getting up or sitting down, is still extremely painful. I already texted my boss and let them know there's a decent chance I won't be in tomorrow. I'll see how I feel in the morning, but I know these things don't go away in a single day. In the state I'm in I'd be useless at work.

Crazy comeback win by the C-Hox. Packers were up by 12 with the ball with less than 5 minutes left. I still don't understand how they lost and I watched it happen.

Here's where I stand in Jagged Alliance Flashback as of now The sectors with a green border are controlled by me. The sectors with a red border are controlled by The Prince. As you can see, I control over half the main island. The green marker with number 1 on it is my primary squad that does most of the fighting. They are highly skilled, well armored, and armed to the teeth. The marker with the 2 on it is my secondary squad that mostly just trains militia in my strategic locations. They are currently training militia at the outpost. The red triangles are enemy squads. As you can see there are lots of them south of my controlled areas. The little green squares are militia I trained, orange squares are veteran militia that have had combat experience and survived. The areas with the $ symbol on them are the primary money generating sectors. Other sectors generate money too but not nearly as much. My goal right now is to train a bunch of militia at the lighthouse before pushing west to take the enemy controlled sector there.

If you like card games, play some Infinity Wars. It's free, the monetization scheme is not aggressive, and it's pretty fun. Steam had the free weekend of Civ: Beyond Earth, so I gave that a spin. I was fairly underwhelmed. It's a very "safe" title from Firaxis. It's not a bad game, the tech web is pretty cool, but beyond that, it's Civ 5, just not as good. Hopefully an expansion or two comes along and Firaxis actually takes some chances and makes radical changes to the Civ 5 formula with said expansions, because if they don't and they keep playing it safe (or just don't release any expansions), then there is really no reason at all for me to buy the game. I mean, I could just play Civ 5. Beyond that, I'm still playing Jagged Alliance Flashback and also some Euro Truck Simulator 2.

What game is that, Cat Food?

So, I ran into 2 highly trained and well equipped enemy squads in the same sector. Outnumbered more than 2 to 1 it should have been a bloodbath... and it was

It is, and it's much better for it, in my opinion. In fact, I wish they had just gutted all the Assassin vs Templar nonsense and made it a straight up pirate game.

He dominated and made a couple nifty plays. Goes to show that it's all about execution. That was a Marshawn Lynch-esque interview (since I posted NBA stuff in the NFL thread by mistake, might as well refer to NFL stuff in the NBA thread )

Dang, Russell Westbrook had a MONSTER triple double in the win over Golden State last night. 17-15-17 is pretty silly. Edit: Oops, wrong thread.

Someone obviously has never played or even heard of Shadowrun. The mix of magic and near future tech, combined with corporate espionage and tongue in cheek humor, is what makes the setting fun. If you want Dark and Gritty™ Cyberpunk, that exists (oddly enough, called Cyberpunk), and CDPR is making a game in that setting. If you're looking for Dark and Gritty™ in Shadowrun, you won't find much of it, that's not what Shadowrun is about, chummer.