So I've been playing this recently...

[Neir]

I was seriously asking what makes a good mapgame, though. I'm curious about trying one and trying to figure out what aspects you think are important.

[2Bad]

The steam sprites are bad but both the PS3 and of umineko sprites are good

[Five_X]

I was seriously asking what makes a good mapgame, though. I'm curious about trying one and trying to figure out what aspects you think are important.

1. Good, sensical UI
2. Mechanical depth/transparency (ties into UI I suppose)
3. Balance & bugginess

These make a good mapgame imo. If you're a real grognard you can overlook a bad UI and unexplained mechanics, it's just not necessarily fun dealing with that invisible learning curve like what you find in early Paradox games.

I'd put graphics and replayability on the list as well, but the former isn't super important most of the time and the latter is generally a product of the latter two points.

However, as much as I enjoy the strategy and AI of GalCiv, it's a suuuper ugly game and I feel the art and map design is godawful - so I'd rather play Stellaris even if it's not as good mechanically.

I think EU4 is the best mapgame out right now. It's solid and developed enough that you can enjoy basically any game you can think of playing, and it's still in the process of being improved. CK2 is similar, I haven't touched it in a while but I remember there being some lingering bugs and stuff that still aren't fixed that make it less fun and add frustration.

[GhostDIGIT]

I finished The Age of Decadence a few days ago and it somehow managed to be even more of a mediocre game than Tyranny. I mean, the combat mechanics are great but the actual combat encounters are so unnecessarily brutal that it goes to waste. Surviving these encounters makes for some of the most satisfying moments in the game however, so I guess I'll give it that much. I remember being in the first city and getting scammed by a sleazy conman into going up against enemies with upgraded equipment, during the earliest part of the game. Took me like fifty reloads to beat it but it was satisfying slitting that bastard conman's throat.

As usual in RPGs, you can talk your way out of pretty much anything if you have a high enough skill level in the required skill check. Good luck trying to play a fighter that occasionally talks his way out of things though. All those skill points you wasted on persuasion could've been used to max out that block skill you needed to deflect that cheesing douchebag guard's spear or dodge an automated spider guardian's spike barrage.

The story is pretty pathetic all things considered. I think the one thing I actually cared enough to hate about it was that I couldn't fast travel after finding the temple, forcing me to finish the game instead of scouring through the cities for any remaining quests I might have missed. The lore behind the game is somehow even worse. You're basically in fantasy medieval Europe after the Roman Empire fell with no actual interesting twist to it. I had fun playing Age of Decadence but I don't think I could stomach going through another run.

[LegalLoliLover]

Not that I'm playing it myself, but apparently, hentai artist, As109, did art for a character of a Chinese mobage: https://zh.moegirl.org/%E5%B0%91%E5%...7%BA%BF:M1919# From what it looks like, one of her alternate outfits is that of a vampire.

[Space Coast]

Red Dead Redemption is amazing and I haven't even finished the first chapter. Mainly because I play so much less of it per day than I normally do when binging a game. Whatever.

My only complaints are that the world feels almost too empty, and that it's pretty easy to rack up massive amounts of dosh by just going into the wilderness and killing all of God's creatures that you see.

[SleepMode]

Played The Banner Saga. The Battles are enjoyable, although it can easily punish you for making some blunders (aka making terrible unit placement...)

The art is breathtaking, with a old Disney-esque feel, and the soundtrack at certain parts of the game are nice - not Nier levels, but pleasant nonetheless.

While I certainly enjoyed most of the game, I've learned that I'm terrible at management and analyzing ambiguous scenarios. Thus, Savescumming ensues.

---

(Basically, Oregon Trail but with Nordic touch.)

(Tryggvi best spearman)

[sherlock1110]

Played The Banner Saga.

I haven't even played The Banner Sage (much, I played a demo) but it is so good looking it makes me wish I was good at games like that

[eddyak]

Y'know, I actually started typing out Evercells and Dead Space, before I realised.

Picked up Dead Cells and Everspace, and been thoroughly enjoying them both.

Kinda feel like Dead Cells is pretty light on weapon variety, especially this early on. It's a roguelike, so variety of experience is what I generally look for, and the selection of melee and ranged weaponry isn't the most amazing I've experienced thus far. Then again, it is still in EA, and the entire point of these games is to unlock stuff as you proceed through the game, so maybe I just haven't found enough, but I feel like Default Garbage Sword, Backstabby Dagger, double daggers, bleedy sword and splash oil on the bugger sword don't seem to offer a large variety of experiences. Then again, I did rather like Palpatine Reference and that one pretty cool shield you unlock (knocking a guy's teeth out with a shield when he attacks you is pretty damn satisfying). I hope there's going to be a variety of weapons that don't just add up to Ten Different Elemental Swords That All Do Element Things! Drop in some spears, some Xena chakrams that you can't toss again till they come back to you, change the bows so they aren't quite so crappy, give us some variety in range and damage. I wouldn't mind a chainsaw-type weapon that does slow but constant damage, or a massive freaking mace that does eleventy bajillion damage every eleventy bajillion seconds.

Everspace is incredible. Roguelike combat in space, proceed through "levels" FTL-style, but controlling a ship in six-degrees-of-movement combat over dozens of kilometers in which there are enemies, allies and everything in between, with a robot Alfred making sarcastic remarks in your ear. The visuals are stunning- you end up flying near stars, near singularities, through gigantic dust clouds and electrical storms, with lasers and drones and ships flying past you at ridiculous speeds, while you try to dodge missiles and murder your enemies, and occasionally destroy your allies' fuel storage because you don't have enough fuel to get to the next level but you also don't have enough hull integrity to risk losing life support or sensors making a risky jump because holy shit it's a high risk area up ahead with an electrical storm over the whole goddamn area and a singularity you might fall into the gravity well of if you aren't careful.

[Sesto]

How necessary is it to play Assassin's Creed Black Flag before Rogue?

I got around halfway through Black Flag before quitting because it was kind of boring. Honestly I just want to play Unity but I heard Rogue is heavily connected to it??

[Marmadillo]

End of rogue segues into beginning of unity. That's it. Both are otherwise completely separate. There real one rogue has bigger connection with is AC3

[Five_X]

Black Flag is the second best AC though! I don't get your taste, Sesto.

[2Bad]

Black Flag is the AC that thinks AC is stupid, it's the best one


and you'll STILL stop playing it due to tailing missions

[Marmadillo]

Honestly I saw Rogue as more polished Black Flag. And what little meta BF has in the Abstergo sections is frontloaded in the beginning.

[Sesto]

Black Flag is terribly boring because I play AC to be an assassin, not a dumb pirate

[Marmadillo]

AC has terminators. It has never ever had assassins.

[2Bad]

Altair was an assassin.

[Five_X]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure AC1 is the only AC that's actually hard and you should play with stealth, starting with AC2 you can just mow down everyone and everything and only stealth when it's a mission requirement or you're too bogged down by mobs.

[Marmadillo]

I was thinking whether to make an exception for AC1, then again Altair can also counterkill whole platoons.

[Mcjon01]

Yeah, I was gonna say, I remember counters being so easy in AC1 that it completely trivialized combat.

You know what new Assassin's Creeds have been missing, though? Flag hunts. Just hundreds of unmarked, untracked flags in random ass places that give you nothing.