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HA! I finished it!

Started by MetalDog, February 11, 2015, 11:26:27 PM

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airboy

I finished Order of Battle: WW2 Allies Defiant just before it was officially released.  It was one of the best in the series.  I'll save further comment until the review is up on the Front Page of Mystery since I was given a press copy for review.

Sir Slash

"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

airboy

Allies Defiant review is up.

That will probably be my last contribution here for a while.

Goodbye to all - at least for a while.  Life is too short to have "hobbies" that make you angry.

Pete Dero

Quote from: airboy on January 31, 2021, 09:27:01 PM
Allies Defiant review is up.

That will probably be my last contribution here for a while.

Goodbye to all - at least for a while.  Life is too short to have "hobbies" that make you angry.

Thank you for the review.

Just ignore that R&P is there and stay in this part of the forum.

airboy

I have not received any thanks from Jarhead for reviews.  His inability to express appreciation for the work of others was what drove Brant off. 

He has told me my reviews are "below standard" and receiving thanks is unrealistic. 

I was raised to express appreciation when people did me favors.  Jarhead and I disagree on this.

That was my last for Grogheads.

Sir Slash

I liked your write-up AB. And completing ANY Order of Battle series is Hall-of-Fame worthy.  :notworthy:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Sparhawk

I finished a game of Shadow Empires. I'm not sure what metric they use for winning. I probably controlled over 50% of the planet. Some thoughts I've had are that managing logistics, economy, and research are a large part of the strategy, more so than combat tactics. I have really enjoyed the game, more than most lately.

Sir Slash

Excellent Sparhawk.  :clap:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Rayfer

Quote from: Sir Slash on February 08, 2021, 10:53:30 PM
Excellent Sparhawk.  :clap:

+1  Well done.  It's a tough game, but a good one.

al_infierno

#1014
I finally finished Far Cry 2 with Dylan's Realism mod.  This makes the game feel like genuinely deadly and realistic guerrilla combat.  At the end of the day it's still a Rambo power fantasy and not a simulation, like the rest of the Far Cry games, but you die so fast that combat feels brutally realistic and satisfying when you make it out alive by the edge of your wits.  In most shooter games, I dislike mods that add "realism" in the form of shorter time-to-kill, but this game is different.  The combat with NPCs feels weighty and deadly.  When you see an African militiaman armed with nothing but a dirty FAL and a T-shirt, you know that he'll drop like a bag of rocks if you shoot him in the chest with a wimpy little Makarov.  So the fast time to kill feels "give and take" in this game.  If you smartly bushwhack your enemies, they'll all be dead or dying on the ground without even touching you.  But if you make a big mistake in your plan, you'll find yourself scampering around the bush for survival with AK rounds snapping at your heels and you question the life choices that led you to this.

Even without mods, the AI feels satisfying realistic.  Enemy soldiers display a sense of teamwork, autonomy, and self preservation.  Most of the time, when you deliver a center-of-mass shot on a human target, they don't just get the life zapped out of them like in movies.  Instead, they fall on the ground and cry out in pain.  Then they either get up and keep fighting, or they call out to their friends to help them, or they stay silent and wait for a chance to bushwhack you while you're finishing off their friends.  You never really know what they're gonna do, but you know they'll behave somewhat realistically.  If you bring a sniper rifle, you can pick a guy in the leg to wound him and draw out his friends, only to blast anybody who tries to help him.  Otherwise, you can go loud with something unconventional like a mortar and silenced MP5, or just go all out with big F'ing guns -- but even when heavily armed, you'll die in a split second if you get caught slipping by some chucklehead with nothing but a T-shirt and an AK.

The game's day-night cycle is not purely aesthetic as in future Far Cry installments.  Guards at their post behave very differently if it's noon on a hot day instead of a quiet early morning.  If it's a sunny day, you can expect to see a full detail patrolling around and hanging out in the shade.  But if you play it safe and approach in the darkness, you'll catch them sleeping and off guard.

Overall it's a rather repetitive game, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.  The ending left something to be desired, but open world games are generally not known for their compelling endings.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

JasonPratt

Quote from: al_infierno on February 10, 2021, 04:04:26 AM
But if you make a big mistake in your plan, you'll find yourself scampering around the bush for survival with AK rounds snapping at your heels and you question the life choices that led you to this.

And to malaria.  #:-)

Incidentally, there's a side mission in FC4 which acts as an epilogue for FC2, bringing back the conflict diamonds and one of the characters. (I don't know who, never having played FC2, but apparently a semi-repentant enemy? He's converted to Christianity and is trying to find some way to do good with his ill-gotten goods, and as usual for the FC series things are more grey-and-gray than they may seem on the surface.)
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

al_infierno

^ That's pretty cool, I played through FC4 but never noticed any recurring characters.  That was a while ago, though - looks like it's time to revisit FC4!
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

JasonPratt

If you still have a save game, you should be able to find him in the post-game I expect. He's in the far upper right side of the map, on a hilltop near a deep but small pond at the eastern mountain edge, if I recall correctly. Nearby is the travel point for going to the Himalaya areas.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

al_infierno

#1018
^ Interesting, I have FC4 but I never played it except getting the alternate ending, lol.  I'll have to keep my eyes open for that.

I just finished my first playthrough of Suzerain.  According to the post-game summary I was a capitalist-leaning centrist, but I wrecked the economy by trying to do too much in too short a time.  Without going into spoilers, ultimately I got invaded by a foreign army and we got stomped so badly that they waltzed into our capital and stormed the palace in no time at all.  I chose to take the ol' Adolf at my presidential desk after a glass of whisky, and avoided the phony trial and torture that I anticipated at the hands of my captors.  Needless to say I screwed the pooch big time by focusing too much on radical social reforms.  Ironically, I made the decision to retire at the end of my term anyways since my approval rating was at about 22% and I had no hope of re-election, but that didn't matter because I threw away our sovereignty in an unwinnable war.  Yay me.   :D 

On the other hand, my understanding is that internal military coups are a super common game ender, but the usual culprits remained loyal and even died defending my presidential chambers from the invaders.  It was kind of nice that I managed to gain their loyalty despite not bending to their every whim when they wanted to rattle sabers against our more aggressive neighbors.
A War of a Madman's Making - a text-based war planning and political survival RPG

It makes no difference what men think of war, said the judge.  War endures.  As well ask men what they think of stone.  War was always here.  Before man was, war waited for him.  The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.  That is the way it was and will be.  That way and not some other way.
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian


If they made nothing but WWII games, I'd be perfectly content.  Hypothetical matchups from alternate history 1980s, asymmetrical US-bashes-some-3rd world guerillas, or minor wars between Upper Bumblescum and outer Kaboomistan hold no appeal for me.
- Silent Disapproval Robot


I guess it's sort of nice that the word "tactical" seems to refer to some kind of seriousness during your moments of mental clarity.
- MengJiao

Sir Slash

Too bad about the loss al. Sounds like a challenging game. 'A' For effort anyway.  :clap:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.