sclpls

I picked up a copy of that game awhile ago, and really want to play it, but have yet to. Overwhelming game year, etc. Lovely art style.

I completed the level last night, although I didn't murder the targets in any creative fashion because I just couldn't find any good opportunities to do so. Guess I need to explore the level more.

So we're just a little over 24 hrs from the first match! Any thoughts, predictions from people? I predicted that Liquid would win this, but I'm really not confident about that. I could easily see this going to Newbee, Wings, or VG.Reborn. I suppose I shouldn't rule out EG or Secret either even though so far they haven't impressed since the roster shuffle. I'd probably give better odds to EG than Secret at "showing up" at this tournament. I'd love to see DC do great, but they haven't really played any international competition as a team yet so I suspect this Major is going to be more of a learning experience for them. EDIT: AGHFDSAJKFASL DISREGARD WRONG THREAD

I played a bit last night, but had to stop after I managed to sneak into the embassy. Currently trying to devise a way to get up to the 2nd floor without attracting attention.

Nope, you just line up some orbs instead.

Finally played the game over the weekend, wonderful as always. I'm glad they continued the trend from Machinarium where they included a walkthrough with the game.

OMG Malort. When I lived in Chicago people would buy people shots of this for people's birthdays as like a practical joke.

I'm probably more tolerant of it than Chris, but I totally empathize with the anxiety he gets from voice chat, it puts me on edge too, and the multiplayer games I play tend to have communities that largely favor text communication. I don't think I would have stuck with DOTA if voice chat was the default way people communicated, and I'm never too far away from muting someone's voice if they're talking too much, have a shitty mic, or just an annoying voice even if they aren't particularly obnoxious (and lets face it, plenty of people are).

While I'd hate to dissuade you from picking up Imbroglio, I think Chris' description of it as more of an action game was a bit of an idiosyncratic impression on his part. After all, it's still a turn-based puzzle-y roguelike where you swipe into enemies to eliminate them. In my mind the biggest difference between Imbroglio and 868-HACK is that in 868-HACK your power-ups and abilities are randomized, whereas in Imbroglio you select them in advance. I think that gives the game a bit of a tower defense feel to it, and I believe Michael Brough has compared that aspect of the game to deck building card games which makes a lot of sense to me as well. Another comparison that comes to mind is the drafting phase of DOTA where you are selecting a composition of heroes that have different power curves throughout the course of the game. The weapons work much the same way as heroes where you can have a "greedy" draft that is very weak early on but becomes extremely powerful later in the game. And there are easy-to-execute drafts vs. complicated but potentially powerful drafts if executed correctly. The interesting thing with copying other people's boards is that sometimes you don't know how to use a particular configuration, but also sometimes you copy a board and it is really successful but you're not entirely sure why. You also sometimes become obsessed with powerful combos, and sometimes you come up with some really good board, and become obsessed with the idea that if you make some slight adjustment it will be super powerful (but the risk is maybe that tweak actually just turns it to shit). Anyway, I say go for it and check it out since it's only like $3 or $4 or something! I think the game's wonderful.

Oh yeah, I also haven't played Bloodborne. I have heard that one is challenging for a lot of people since your toolset does force you to play the game in a particular style that a lot of people weren't used to, so I think we should exclude that from the Souls conversation even though it is obviously a related game. Also I'd tend to agree that magic users seem to get nerfed each subsequent game, so if that's your build I could see that being an issue. In Demon's Souls magic users were really strong, and in Dark Souls 1 I think they were super viable, but in 2 and 3 I transitioned into a more traditional sword & shield class because using magic seemed like a poor choice in those games.

In Alpha Centauri the game has an interesting story to tell about the planet you are colonizing. I'm struggling to think of any games on an inter-planetary scale that are like that though. I think we should keep an eye on No Man's Sky and see if people will care about those procedurally generated planets, and if so maybe there will be some lessons strategy games can draw from it.

I'm not sure I totally agree with the reader who wrote in saying that the earlier Souls games are easier. What I think is going on is after you've gone through one of these games, the subsequent ones feel much easier in comparison. Curious what other people's impressions are that have played the series out of order (I've played them in order).

He isn't conveying anything incorrectly though because 1 star means he hated the game, and he did. Nothing incorrect has been conveyed. I think what you mean is that you inferred the wrong thing, bu that isn't the fault of the reviewer.

It's always nice when a site that has a scoring system for games includes the criteria for scoring. Happily, Tom Chick's quartertothree website contains that information: http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/our-ratings-system/ After reading Tom's review, and considering the criteria used, I think the one star is perfectly justified. Using his system I would probably give the game two stars, but the nice thing about his system is I could reasonably see the game receiving any score on the scale which means that someone looking at the review would have to actually consider the reviewer's argument about the merits of the game, and not just consider whether a number is high or low.

My in-laws were visiting this weekend so I didn't have a chance to pursue the elusive target. :-(

There's definitely a bit of a Warcraft 3 vibe going on in some of those screenshots. Since the best games ever are derived from Warcraft 3, this is clearly a good thing!

I really need to dig into the UI of this game because at the moment there is a bunch of info I feel like I should have access to that seemingly isn't available. Most tediously, trying to figure out what my empire borders will look like if I plop down a colony outpost (or whatever they're called) somewhere, and also what it will look like if I remove one. It makes expanding your empire feel like this really annoying chore.

Anyone else watching the Moscow Epicenter matches? They've been starting around the same time I go to bed, but I've caught a couple of the later matches in the morning. Amazing to see Secret eliminated so quickly, I'm curious how people think they stack up to Team DK, the last superstar team that failed to impress. I'm still not sure what to make of OG. Obviously a talented team, but it seems like they rely on an awful lot of cheese so I always feel like they are never far away from a team figuring them out and dismantling them. If it weren't for the fact that Liquid seem to always kind of choke in the grand finals I would consider them favorites to win. They seem scary good. Very similar to how Newbee is playing where they have a distinct style that they always stick to, but with plenty of flexibility in terms of what heroes they run. And it seems like I've seen a lot of commentary about how bad EG are, but I'm not writing them off yet either.

It reminds me of Civ Rev, which I liked a lot.

He was the lead for the Gods & Kings Civ 5 expansion, and was also heavily involved with the 2nd expansion. More importantly though, he designed the excellent Here I Stand board game that brilliantly captures the political struggles taking place in Europe during the Protestant Reformation.

Nearly everything I want to play comes out this year. All the other years can go home now. I am stoked that Ed Beach is leading the effort for this game. I have full faith in his abilities as a designer.

That is really disappointing to hear. I wish they would keep mutliplayer balance changes in the multiplayer game because that's just a component of the game I will never in a million years interact with, I don't care how much fun it's supposed to be.

Also I'm with Gormongous that it drives me absolutely nuts that you can't use the mouse wheel to zoom out to the galactic level.

I played a little bit last night, but didn't get through the tutorial. I thought it was probably the best space 4X game I've ever played, but it still felt very bland to me. The 3MA comments that aside from the interface it didn't feel very Paradox-y rang true to me, which is disappointing.