Any one here going to buy Gears Tactics (April 28) or Wasteland 3 (May 19)?
Gears is especially made from the ground-up for PC. PC Gamer has a preview video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP-BcogjnBl
Several YouTubers doing extensive walkthroughs of Wasteland 3 too.
Both games look like they will add some new innovations and excitement to the turn-based genre. I hear Gears has already gone gold.
The YouTube link says 'video unavailable'. But a Wasteland 3 sounds interesting. Wasteland 3 'let's play' video from YouTube...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pez08-7qU
Yeah, don't know why its' doing that. I'll try this preview from RPS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTL9KhBdjeU
Looking forward to Gear Tactics, luckily it is coming to game Pass so no need for me to buy:)
Very much looking forward to Gears Tactics, but the price is too high at release. Definitely buying once the price comes down, though.
pretty early preload for gear tactics.....downloading now
^Strumpet.
I appear to have drunk-preordered Wasteland 3. Whenever I have access to it I'll be sure to report in. :coolsmiley:
RPS loves Gears Tactics:
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/04/27/gears-tactics-review/
Preloading Gears Tactics on Xbox Gamepass PC now too, looking forward to it from the previews.
Looks good but the price of admission is too high.
I agree. Once that sweet sale hits though...I'M POUNCING.
Does Gears Tactics use actual Action Points? Or is it based on the two-action system from 2012 XCOM? If it's the latter, it's a hard pass from me.
Quote from: al_infierno on April 27, 2020, 02:35:51 PM
Does Gears Tactics use actual Action Points? Or is it based on the two-action system from 2012 XCOM? If it's the latter, it's a hard pass from me.
According to some comments I found on Reddit, it seems this game uses a 3 action point system with opportunities to "regain" action points through things like kills. Color me intrigued...
Quote from: al_infierno on April 29, 2020, 10:09:35 PM
Quote from: al_infierno on April 27, 2020, 02:35:51 PM
Does Gears Tactics use actual Action Points? Or is it based on the two-action system from 2012 XCOM? If it's the latter, it's a hard pass from me.
According to some comments I found on Reddit, it seems this game uses a 3 action point system with opportunities to "regain" action points through things like kills. Color me intrigued...
This is correct. Each gear has three action points and there are perks that can result in gaining or recovering APs during a turn.
It's a really good tactical game so far. The main problem for me is that I never liked the GoW universe. Very little about the story, plot, world and units appeals to me. The gears look ridiculous and something about them, the soldiers, the weapons, the vehicles, looks completely out of place in the game world and environment. It just kills it for me. Always has. Very early on, the cover mechanic and 5e chainsaw bayonet caught my attention, but my interest in those features faded after the first game in the series.
I played this for a little bit and seems decent for what it is but have to admit all of these XCOM games seem too familiar for me. I am just an average or below average player on these types of things, but boy do they all seem overly similar. The stories and how some of the mechanics work are supposedly different, but heck if I can tell most of the time. Your given some back story, bolted on with some high level strategy layer, then placed in some tactical situation where you largely move around and kill things in a similar way.
Completely understand people like XCOM-like games and so did I, but just seems like the market keeps spitting them out without enough differentiation to keep me interested long. At least in this case it came with GamePass, so no money lost:) Again, this is no reflection on the game itself if this is what people like, I am just hoping these developers get a little more creative.
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on April 30, 2020, 05:27:36 AM
Again, this is no reflection on the game itself if this is what people like, I am just hoping these developers get a little more creative.
I definitely sympathize with this, Grim. One of my biggest pet peeves about strategy games -- specifically 4X -- is the stranglehold that the Sid Meier Civilization formula (...from the early 1990s!) still has on the genre. I'm curious to see what the Amplitude Studios devs are going to do with their upcoming "Humankind" 4x, but it won't surprise me if it is still fundamentally in the mold of Civilization.
I was curious about the Gears Tactics games based on the glowing RPS review, which suggested that the game is pushing past the XCOM formula in some important ways. Maybe that's an overblown claim -?
Probably the single thing I most want in a next-gen turn-based / squad-based tactics game is for it to move past the infuriating "pods" mechanic. "Tactics" in XCOM seems mostly to boil down to: don't accidentally activate another enemy pod. It's such a limiting mechanic. It doesn't encourage real tactical imagination. It just puts artificial constraints on the combat and induces paranoia that 'one wrong step / one step too far' means the difference between victory and defeat.
Yeah. The rewards for successful attempts at dramatic innovation often don't outweigh the downside of unsuccessful attempts at dramatic innovation.
The 4x genre in particular seems a bit stuck in this regard, although there have been a handful of novel attempts to break that mold. As for the "pod trigger" issue in the X-Com games, I do agree that that one gets tiresome quickly.
FWIW, back in the days of the original Diablo, we called those "spawn points". :D
This is also reminding me -- sadly -- of what a missed opportunity Harebrained Scheme's XCOM-like Battletech was. I think some of the combat mechanics were quite good. What drove me crazy was the game's insistence on equating 'difficulty' with 'now watch as we gang up on you with completely unmanageable odds.' Permanently restricting the lance to 4 mechs was a major error of design. At least with XCOM2 you could increase your squad from 4 to 6 over time.
Quote from: sandman2575 on April 30, 2020, 01:37:07 PM
This is also reminding me -- sadly -- of what a missed opportunity Harebrained Scheme's XCOM-like Battletech was. I think some of the combat mechanics were quite good. What drove me crazy was the game's insistence on equating 'difficulty' with 'now watch as we gang up on you with completely unmanageable odds.' Permanently restricting the lance to 4 mechs was a major error of design. At least with XCOM2 you could increase your squad from 4 to 6 over time.
Rogue Tech is the answer.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 30, 2020, 01:40:18 PM
Rogue Tech is the answer.
Didn't know about this mod -- interesting. Does it make the game worth going back to?
Quote from: Grim.Reaper on April 30, 2020, 05:27:36 AM
I played this for a little bit and seems decent for what it is but have to admit all of these XCOM games seem too familiar for me. I am just an average or below average player on these types of things, but boy do they all seem overly similar. The stories and how some of the mechanics work are supposedly different, but heck if I can tell most of the time. Your given some back story, bolted on with some high level strategy layer, then placed in some tactical situation where you largely move around and kill things in a similar way.
Completely understand people like XCOM-like games and so did I, but just seems like the market keeps spitting them out without enough differentiation to keep me interested long. At least in this case it came with GamePass, so no money lost:) Again, this is no reflection on the game itself if this is what people like, I am just hoping these developers get a little more creative.
Yeah, I think Phoenix Point was the last XCOM-like I bought, and it was about exactly as you describe. Solid game, but left me filled with a profound sense of "been here, done that"
Quote from: sandman2575 on April 30, 2020, 01:50:15 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 30, 2020, 01:40:18 PM
Rogue Tech is the answer.
Didn't know about this mod -- interesting. Does it make the game worth going back to?
It's a whole new game pretty much. Definitely worth it.
Quote from: sandman2575 on April 30, 2020, 01:50:15 PM
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 30, 2020, 01:40:18 PM
Rogue Tech is the answer.
Didn't know about this mod -- interesting. Does it make the game worth going back to?
If you have a lot of spare time and/or know of a good divorce attorney, then yes. It is worth going back to it.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on April 30, 2020, 04:10:17 PM
If you have a lot of spare time and/or know of a good divorce attorney, then yes.
;D