melkathi

Great, now I want an XCOM type Dune game. Or a Dune reskin of XCOM 2. Leading a group of Fremen, Smuggler and Atreides survivors in an insurgency against Houses Harkonnen, Corrino, the Sardaukar, Bene Gesserit, Bene Tleilax... Are you happy now? Proud of what you have done?

Nice thing in Mutant Year Zero is that you can freely swap party members while not in combat. No need to run back to town.

Bah. Got my fourth character in Mutant Year Zero (starting 2 plus 2 that joined in the story). Now comes that annoying part of party based games where I have to decide who to leave at home as the game has a three character party.

It redefines simple.

I loved 2070. Felt indifferent about the new one. Need to remind myself that I am playing Mutant Year Zero on very hard. It seems unfair and unnecessary difficult at times, but I forget I am not playing on normal. Then again, if there are only three difficulties (normal, hard, very hard) then normal is easy. And if there is a note that very hard is the intended experience, then the game should be balanced around that. I feel that ironman was just added on for the xcom crowd without the game designed for it. All enemies can pretty much two shot any of my team, while it takes three shots with at least one crit to take out an enemy. Yes, it forces you to scout and stealth and try to kill opponents one at a time from the shadows, but it also means that any missed shot is doubly annoying. Especially when you are facing tougher enemies with armour, health, AoE attacks that don't miss, and some sidekicks on top of that, who you can't isolate. Memo to self: remember to learn to properly use smoke grenades.

You are popular

You just say that because he hasn't outed himself as a crazy gun nut as some people in the Off Topic. You wouldn't bully them, they'd shoot you through the interwebz

Then let us unite in the brotherhood of obsidianite gentlemen scholars. Tagless, and selectively hairless.

I never got a hashtag named after me. Even with hundreds of Mordheim Screenshots to my name.

Trying Mutant Year Zero. As a PC gamer I strongly dislike the controls. Ported from gamepad, made for console. Not a PC game.

Me? Buy a game? Never again! My backlog is so long I can't buy games.

I read the first two books and the game follows the first one very closely. Of course you miss out on the chapters the protagonist isn't present for, but the rest is done right. The little extra side quest that the author wrote just for the game as a bonus also was a welcome addition for fans. I like the horde combat. But the game could have benefited from more game. Still, more game would have stretched the content beyond the book's action and that would have impacted the authenticity. So overall a good short title.

I think the basic convention is two hours and you can get 56 cheap 15 minute additional Convention packs that extend the Con to a full 2 days.

Paradox newsletter just came in advertising their own new convention next year in Berlin: PDXCON is ON! We've got major news for you all: PDXCON, the biggest celebration of the year for all things strange and strategic, is going on the road. We're taking the show out of our hometown and inviting new fans from around the world to join us at the biggest PDXCON yet -- PDXCON 2019, happening in Berlin, Germany on October 19-20, 2019! Tickets will go on sale for PDXCON 2019 early next year, so please make sure you've signed up on our PDXCON website for more information about what to expect at the event.

You mean the -neural- ending? Eh? Eh? Comment read. Response: I allow my emotional inhibitors to compartmentalize amusement.

Got the neutral ending in Mechanicus with both NPCs disappointed in me I hope they continue working on the difficulty. The last boss should not so easily be taken down without ever even having a chance to try to attack me.

Mechanicus is getting a bit too easy now. Third boss my melee guy activated first, ran through the whole map, buffed his damage and killed the boss with his two attacks. Neither the Necrons, nor my other tech-priests even had time to act before the mission was over.

Just note that it is not a big game or a difficult game It is a fun small tactics game with some clever mechanics. But at 9 hours I am 41% done.

Game runs better than XCOM 2. Far better than War of the Chosen (Firaxis broke things there I feel).

It's fine on my PC, but this also runs XCOM fine. It seems to be unity based, so shouldn't be too rough. I think it is more in line with Shadowrun in what it should require.

The news being that Indira is really called "Ed Beach"

I have been playing Warhammer 40.000: Mechanicus. (Since Shady asked) It is a small tactics game in the 40K universe. The player takes on the role of an Adeptus Mechanicus magus in command of an exploratory fleet/ship in orbit of some planet. The planet so happens to be a Necron tomb world. The player sends teams into the tombs on missions. They scavenge for blackstone (some whatever resource in 40K) and try to not take too long. There are three parts to the game: The ship is the usual management interface where you can select missions and equip and upgrade your tech-priests (your main soldiers). You use the blackstone you have scaveneged to upgrade tech-priests and in this the resource works as XP. There are 6 skill trees, though tree is the wrong word as they are linear. You do have the option though of spending points in any specialization. The higher the upgrade level of a tech-priest, the more augment slots they have and the more stuff you can equip them with. When you go on a mission you choose a squad of 6. You start the game with only two tech-priests, so you will have to fill up the extra slots with cannon-fodder. Initially that means Servitors. Though later on, through mission rewards, you will unlock other soldier types that will cost blackstone to deploy to the mission (half of the cost being refunded if the unit survives). When your cohort (they aren't called squads in this game) enter a tomb, you see a 3D scan of the tomb with visualizations of the cohort's location. You command the cohort to move through rooms to reach their objectives. Most rooms will trigger an event, which will give you three options to react. Some results will be good. Some results will be bad. Sometimes results will be be both. Your command staff have different personalities and will have their own views on how you act. When you enter an objective room or a room with wake Necrons the game changes to the turn based tactical map. Combat is about managing a unique resource to the Mechanicus: Cognition. You collect this from specific spots on the map and from defeated enemies. Cognition is required to use abilities and most weapons. It also is your cohorts action points. Cognition is shared among the whole squad. So a base move is free, but a second move will cost 1 point. Attacking with the trusty power axe? Another point. Shooting with a flamer? 4 points. Etc. Early on there doesn't necessarily seem enough of cognition around, but as tech-priests upgrade and more tech becomes available, they will get some tricks. And there is always the trusty Servitors. If a servitor gets attacked, the Mechanicus analyze the effect of the weapon on the unfortunate target and get cognition for it. After the mission you get your reward, loot etc and heal your tech-priests using obviously blackstone, the resource for everything. The game is not difficult. It also doesn't seem to be too long. After a bit over a dozen missions I am 38% done (the game has a timer that slowly ticks up to 100% which I expect will result in the final battle - an average mission advances it by 3% for me). I expect the game to be no more than 16-18 hours of gameplay if you replay things, take it slow and don't rush too many missions. The Mechanicus as protagonists are refreshing for 40K as we haven't seen them used this way before. [[Verdict:]] emotional receptors experiencing :fun:

Indeed.