Griddlelol

I have no idea...I will play some tonight and try to figure it out. What might have happened, was that I declared war, then over the course of 5 years, I died, and my son inherited the duchy. Maybe he didn't have a claim at that point, and was just fighting the war for what essentially amounted to prestige. It was actually pretty cool, I drove off the opposition's army, and they accidentally bumped into a large rebel army who pretty much slaughtered them.

Lost again! So I pushed a claim on a duchy (?) in France, won the resulting war and...nothing happened. Did I do something wrong? How do I take those lands, or at least make the people there my vassals?

Ah ok, great! I'll try that. I also attempted a game in the UK, as the Duke of York. Man England is a shit show in 1066, should have been obvious when I think about it. I lasted all of about 10 years before my armies were completely wiped out. Back to Germany in the security and bureaucracy of the Holy Roman Empire. Also, I don't think it will be tyrannical if the guy revolts 3 times. I had him in prison for most of his life!

That sounds like I tried all that, but the pope was just no having any of it. Unfortunately as part of the Holy Roman Empire, it was impossible for me to just make an anti-pope or something. I definitely need to read a guide on this, there are SO many different mechanics.

Congrats to both of you. I'd love to try boxing, or any sort of combat, but my wrists are like tendonitis city. I have played around with boxing gloves/pads and always end up with aching wrists after a few seconds of throwing punches.

I think it clicked for me on Sunday. I spent about 5 hours playing, survived multiple revolts, quashed them all, then my son took over after I hit 70 years old and died. He died after like 2 years and my grandson then lost everything. No alliances left, I had given away too much power, but poor kid was only 6. It's a game where you watch and not much happens, but when things do, it's super cool and exciting. Really enjoyed it, aside from a few frustrations (like not being able to alt-tab (well cmd-tab on mac) to check some guides while playing. I have a couple of big problems, I don't understand Vassals or demesnes. I accidentally dismissed most of my vassals because they kept betraying me, but I didn't know how to replace them. So my number of vassals kept shrinking and each vassal got more powerful. I had a demesne of 3/2 to start with, so I waited and made a new title and gave one area away to some dude who liked me. Then I got an increase to 2/5 but I have no idea how to reclaim my demesnes. I had some that kept revolting so I wanted to take them, but every time I clicked claim, the pope was like "nah" even though the bastard loved me. Like fucking 50 positive opinion. Was I doing something wrong? I feel like I should just be able to take my land back...it is mine after all, why do I need some pope to tell me what to do? (I feel like Henry VIII).

Ok, so I picked up where I had left off around this time last year, or maybe it was December, I forget. Anyway, fuck this game! I got further than I have ever gotten before, psyonics, base assault, new bad guys etc. Then the game repeatedly fucks me. It's like it knows when you're doing ok, and when you're doing bad. Multiple times I've moved a single square and then like a fucking horde of aliens show up and get their god damn free move. That free move has killed my enthusiasm for the game, I've failed (or lost a bunch of troops) too many times thanks to that mechanic for me to enjoy the game any more. It feels unfairly punishing, especially when you move up to a brick wall and the aliens spawn. Or some aliens spawn in the fog of war and then come and wreck you on your turn. I'm not sure if it's just a buggy-ass game, or whether that stuff is intentional. Anyway, so matter how much I love the game when I'm doing OK, or balancing on a knife edge, I can't handle how some things just feel completely unfair. So I think I'm done, I'm a big baby and here I am saying Xcom beat me. I can't complete that game, it's just too fucking hard.

There's a great video from polygon where it looks like the person playing it has never touched an FPS game before. Quite amusing.

I recently played Civ V again, despite saying I was done with it. I was playing the whole time thinking "this is dumb, I don't like this" but sunk 2 hours into it without noticing. It's really difficult for me understand why I don't like it. I just feel like all I'm doing is clicking make this thing, research that thing, oh someone's attacking me? Make this different thing to defend. There's no intrigue, no pitting two factions against each other without committing myself to a defensive pact. Even if I am dragged into the war to help a partner, there's no real punishment to just not helping. Then there's the fact that if you build military units, you fall behind in tech. It's obviously a balance thing, but in reality military funding often leads to better tech. Yet clicking through the turns is weirdly satisfying. I just wish Crusader Kings 2 was as accessible as civ for babies like me.

I don't like how I've managed to turn this into "other podcasts you don't like" thread. Any good recommendations? I really like history podcasts, mainly based off The History of Rome and The Ancient World, both of which were great.

I had the issue with Mystery Show that 1) the presenter's lisp was crazy distracting and 2) she would talk to random people who'd tell her their life story that had nothing to do with the episode. I found that so jarring that it just seemed fake. It probably isn't fake, and some people are compelled to tell anyone with a microphone their story, but it still had nothing to do with the main show.

I just got tired of the presenters of. Nothing that really stands out, I just found them a little irritating and in no way charming. I also stopped listening to Start Up. The first season was just absolute brilliance. The second was a huge disappointment as the whole form changed, and there was less Alex, who has such a great personality and radio presence. Without him and his story I completely lost interest.

Pretty much spot on, just articulated in a way I could never hope to do. I also agree with the whole complaining/talking about gaming culture to be the worst part of any video game podcast I listen to. It's old hat, and nothing new is ever added. I have a super long commute now so I need podcast, but I'm struggling to find them. Really enjoying Reply All. It's right up my alley, listening to weird internet things. However I prefer the longer podcasts like Giantbomb. They're not amazing, but it's 3 fucking hours of content per week.

Grass starters are always the best, beginning with the greatest pokémon of all time: Bulbasaur.

Chesnaught looks like crap. Seriously the worst final evolution in the history of starter pokemon. Especially when Chespin is really cute. Fire Kitty or Grass Owl is a tough decision. Circus seal can fuck right off though.

He's not done anything in particular, just generally an annoying person. His opinions rarely seem his own, as though he's read an article about something then gone, yeah - that's what I think too, but the most grating thing is how he's constantly saying (actually the main co-host does this too) about how everyone should just accept people liking different things etc, which is fine and great, then later goes on a rant about how people who like X are all idiots/wrong/should like it for a different reason. It's not even something personal to me, what made me stop listening is how there was half an episode bitching about people who like to play games at 1080p 60fps on PC as though they're monsters and idiots. I don't care about visuals in games, but how they were speaking about people who enjoy this stuff really irritated me. If the conversation had been "lol who cares?" I'd have agreed, but it was "lol who cares, these people like the wrong things and therefore are dumb." I don't really care that much, there were a few good shows, but overall it was the least interesting video game podcast I've ever listened to. Now there's Idle Weekend too, I feel like listening to 4 games podcasts is a bit much anyway.

I'm officially done with Daft Souls. Matt Lees is an arsehole - there, I've said it. Frankly the only reason I actually liked that podcast was because Keza McDonald from Kotaku UK was a regular guest. Her appearances were rare then almost non-existent apart from Monster Hunter and Dark Souls shows. If she did a podcast, I'd totally listen to that.

I think 5 year old games are beyond the statute of limitations for spoilers.

I finished KOTOR2 for like the 5th time. I just blasted through this game, having not played it since the OG XBOX I had pretty much forgotten everything. It's fantastic though, and while 1 will always be a great game to me thanks to nostalgia, I think 2 surpasses it in almost every way. My major gripe with the game is that Dark Side essentially means psychopath. I ended up playing through as a Light Side guy because most of the choices made more sense. Then there's the issue that being full light/dark gives you an extremely useful +3 stat bonus. It makes it almost impossible to follow a "grey" path like Kreia instructs you to (and feels the most realistic). I played as a Jedi Master - i.e. one who uses force powers, I usually follow a more weapon focussed path, but I decided to do something different. It felt way less fun. I had to buff myself 2 or 3 times before a lot of my spells would go off at early game, then at end game once I got the super force mastery thing, I was able to just stun every opponent and that was that. As a light side player, force powers aren't really that fun. You get a stun, a bunch of buffs and that's it. So instead of stunning people then tearing them down with AoE force spells, I had to stun, attack with my weak ass lightsaber then stun again until everything was dead. An evil play through would have made that much more satisfying. I still think it's a great game, the story is a lot more subtle than the good/evil of KOTOR1, and I really appreciate that.

I've started with season one. The episodes range from ok to brilliant. So if it gets better, that's fantastic.

KOTOR 2 is like $2 right now on steam. If you haven't got it, it's a great game (although not aged particularly well).

So this isn't a recommendation, since I'm sure everyone and their grandma has seen it already, but I've just started watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. I haven't laughed this hard at a TV show in years!

Oh if anyone wants Shantae for WiiU, just PM me.

Perfect. Thanks. Can't wait for Fire Emblem Fates!

If I buy a game in Germany, will it have English language as an option? I assume so since things are localised for "Europe" but I'd hate to waste my money. Note: It's nintendo.