Hurlshort

I don't want to spoil anything, but play nice with Che for now. It is worth it. I'm 50 hours in. I have real world stuff going on, so that's pretty amazing. It's simply the perfect sequel to JA2 and JA2 1.13. I'm super happy. I go to sleep thinking about missions and wake up ready to implement strategies. I'm close to the end now. Technically I really only have 2 areas I need to take to win the game, but I'm procrastinating so I can just explore the areas. I have 3 good squads rolling and they are all pretty unique.

Quests are a bit buggy. I'm not too surprised, since some are super complex, but I've had a couple issues with completing stuff.

I noticed some reviews were complaining about the humor, but I'm getting a kick out of. The Beast is my favorite character so far.

Oh man, things went sideways fast for me. I think I'm going to survive, but don't get too comfortable, folks. Also, I'm a bit bummed you can only recruit 16 mercs. I thought the cap would be 3 squads, but it's a bit short of that. Might be time to cut some contracts short (Omryn is already gone) and pick up some of the gold mercs.

The most difficult part of the game, at least once you get some money squirreled away and a decent squad of mercs, is managing ammo, weapon condition and health supplies. That seems fairly realistic. This map is huge though, with a lot of content. It is going to be immensely replayable.

My daughter made pozole for my family, who were visiting from Georgia. She made it super hot, so we all sat around fanning ourselves. They all finished it though, so it was definitely a good burn. It was a green pozole with chicken.

I was vocally negative about it from episode 1. I actually got the whole family to watch it and was excited, as the books were a big part of my teenage years. They were all smart and wandered off after the first episode. I kept watching, mostly because I was re-reading the books and it was somewhat interesting to compare them. They basically gave it the CW treatment. But yeah, I'm usually not vocally negative about stuff because I rarely watch stuff I don't like long enough to bother speaking on it.

Reading Bob Odenkirk's book on making that movie was pretty hilarious. He's had a bizarre career.

Man, Dr. Q is a stud. He can knock people unconscious, pummel them to death, and then still run away with free moves. Plus he's a doctor.

I did the same thing. That northern mine looks isolated and tempting, but that is a deadly crew guarding it. I might try it now that I have better gear and some levels under my belt. Explosives experts are pretty dang important. There is a lot of stuff rigged to blow up on the maps, plus a few minefields. Red is solid for the price. I'm trying to be nice to a bunch of communists in the northern part of the map, since they are helping me fight the Legion, but they are a bit annoying. Kind of like our forum commies.

Bleh. Maybe I'll watch it. I finished the first season. I'm still pretty low on it though.

Boo. I just started my second squad and have them working in the south, while my main squad heads north. Quests are very well done so far and I'm enjoying a fair amount of the characters I meet. I had a brother ask me to save his sister, and when I found her, she had already stabbed one of her captors and was fighting back. I helped her finish them off. When I returned her to her brother, Nails commented that the sister has much bigger balls than him. As I said, the map is much more dynamic than JA2, so that's a pleasant surprise. My second squad is Omryn (don't recruit him!), a Ukrainian mechanic I can't remember, Dr. Q, and I sent Hitman with them to keep them somewhat safe. My main squad is pretty effective now. My custom Merc is the sniper, Red is on the machine gun, Thor is my medic and sneaky guy, Nails and Livewire round it our with decent rifles.

JA3 - Machine guns are crazy in this game. I mean, it has some limitations, but a properly placed MG is an absolute terror on the battlefield.

Yep. It's fantastic.

One thing JA3 does better than JA2 - The map is huge and complicated and feels like a real place. In both JA1 and JA2, you just kind of worked your way across the square map until you had it conquered. This map is a lot more dynamic. I just took over my 2nd mine and now I'm thinking about fielding a 2nd squad. Still broke though. Also Omryn is terrible and I think I'm letting him go at the end of his contract. I hired Nails because I needed a psycho for a quest, and he is a good back up bomb guy for Red.

I fought once without the machine gun and once without it. What a difference! I'm now trying to take over Fleatown. I'm also still always broke, Mercenary life is pricey!

Congrats. I assume you wrestle a crocodile at the ceremony.

Knock on wood, but this game has been surprisingly stable and bug-free so far. Quite a feat, given how buggy JA2 was.

New Xcom is definitely an entirely different type of game from old Xcom, so I get your worries, but JA3 is very close to the template that JA2 created. Get it. It's good.

I started a new game of Jagged Alliance 3. I was going broke in my previous playthrough, so I'm going to try to stick with one good squad until I get a couple diamond mines under my control. I also didn't do great job of making my own Merc, so this time I focused on wisdom and leadership, and dropped mechanical and explosives. My first character was too mediocre in everything. My new team is Hitman, Red, Livewire (she grew on me!), Thor, and a new guy, I think he's Mongolian. So far they seem pretty competent, but it also helps that I'm getting better at positioning and understanding how to flank. Also, be warned. I took a boat to a mine at the northwestern part of the map, and nearly got massacred! There are definitely harder regions out there. My team wasn't ready for that yet.

I just had my first real challenging fight in JA3. It was a defense mission, and at one point my rooftop sniper (Ice) fell through the ceiling after an explosion. To add insult to injury, our trained recruits then hit us with some friendly fire. Everyone survived, but it was touch and go. I'm very happy with the game so far. It nails the JA2 vibe and looks great. Livewire has also grown on me. There is a lot of merc chatter. This will be a very replayable game.

Ok, 2 hours in and I can give my early impressions on JA3. First off, they've captured the tone and feel of JA2. It's no surprise that Ian Currie is behind it, because it feels like Jagged Alliance. It starts out just like JA2. You create a character. You contract some mercs. You land in a hotspot. The AIM desktop is very well done. Moving around the map is pretty simple. I'm still working out the combat, but it looks like you are going to be able to set up some pretty good ambushes. It's weird not having percentages when you try to shoot someone. Right now Ice is basically my killer and then I have a bunch of specialists that are so-so. Barry and Red for bombs, Livewire for mechanicals, and MD for medical. Livewire is a bit annoying, but she will probably grow on me. Actually Ice's character is oddly off putting. Think C. Thomas Howell in Soul Man. Other than that, the Mercs all seem pretty similar to the previous games and the NPC's are decent. Anyways, I'm a couple areas in, so I'll post more as I get deeper later.

Jagged Alliance 3.

A week in San Diego with my wife on the government's dime? It sounded like a fun challenge. Most of my vacations revolve around exercise, so training with the Marines seemed up my alley. My wife is the one who got us on board. She teaches PE and interacts with her local recruiter regularly, so he set us up. Teachers don't get a lot of chances to get flown places and spoiled for a week, either.

Well he can't use it now. He'd be beholden to you for suggesting it.