It's FRIDAY Jim, but not as we know it!

[bbmike]

I've about had it with my workplace.

Will be punching Carrier (my old copy of VG's 1991 board game), and ROUNDING THE CORNERS. Muwahahahahahaha!

Maybe something else, who knows. Stuff? Sure.

Lucky you. I'm always looking for a reasonably priced copy of that game.

[BanzaiCat]

I've had it for more than 10 years - got it at an Origins or GenCon in the mid 00s for $18 or so. Never played it obviously. Hope to rectify that soon.

[Skwerl]

Nice song selection Pete - although I still prefer "What's the Frequency Kenneth"

Planning to play:

Warhammer 40k Sanctus Reach
Darkest Dungeon
Campaign Series Middle East

[MengJiao]

One of the few REM songs I like. Probably the only one that doesn't make me feel like I should be ending my life early - which is odd given the title I suppose.

  Well, its a nice video so maybe that explains it.

   For my weekend fun, I think I'm mostly playing Heroes and Generals -- probably just cuz I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bad at it.

[KyzBP]

XCom 2: Long War and Vanilla Java Porter.  It's going to be a good weekend. O0

[JasonPratt]

Oh, I know what I forgot! {experimenting}

I am pleased to report that Brothers In Arms: Road to Hill 30 does indeed run on Windows 8.1, from a Steam install and with the main executable set to "run as admin" and also "Win XPSP2" compatibility.

Essentially I just paid Gearbox (or whoever currently owns the rights to the BIA property) $10 for (something like a) compatibility patch. In this case, worth it.  O0

Whew, have graphics come a ways since this game was made! Still worth it, and still better (overall) than Call of Duty: World At War, which was their last WW2 offering. I tried that the other day and found the weird musical choices so distracting (and the maps so freaking linear, which I know was standard for the genre and still is somewhat but SOOOOO LINNNNEEEAARRR INNNN THE JUNNNGGLLLEE) that after a good afternoon's try last weekend I gave up and uninstalled. Enjoyed the start of the British campaign for Company of Heroes 1 much better. 

Don't get me wrong, BIA is very much a corridor shooter, too, but it has the superior hook of some basic squad commanding. Also, no atonal thrash metal musical score dropping in occasionally.

[MengJiao]

One of the few REM songs I like. Probably the only one that doesn't make me feel like I should be ending my life early - which is odd given the title I suppose.

  Well, its a nice video so maybe that explains it.

   For my weekend fun, I think I'm mostly playing Heroes and Generals -- probably just cuz I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Bad at it.

   Okay, so as usual, one of my problems is that when I get good at something (Apparently I was okay with the M1, the BAR and grenades back when I was an American in this game about a year ago), I try something else.  This time, I reversed the process and tried something else when I was bad with the SVT and the PP-40 -- so I did Okay with the Russian bazooka and possibly okay with the Russian light mg -- could be a flook or a fluke, but now I'm merely pretty bad and no longer always quite so totally, completely bad.
   I could say something bad about the game (like why is it so hard to kill people at 50 feet with a semi-auto rifle?) but clearly for me the relatively open landscapes and the somewhat imaginative maps and things (like the Russian 4-machine gun AA truck -- not very effective, but still pretty fun, the Russian biplane "recon" plane etc. ) make it worth playing.
   I'll try to get some pictures today.

[Sir Slash]

A quiet day today... finally. So, a little AGEOD catching-up is due. AJE, ACW2, and TEAW's Are all on the list. Along with a good cup of coffee and a cat sleeping on my right foot, what could be a better?  :bd:

[bbmike]

A quiet day today... finally. So, a little AGEOD catching-up is due. AJE, ACW2, and TEAW's Are all on the list. Along with a good cup of coffee and a cat sleeping on my right foot, what could be a better?  :bd:

Better would be a pug sleeping on your right foot.  :)

[JasonPratt]

Cats have built-in massage therapy. (Though that can get problematic depending on how claw-y they also get.)  O0

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, spent about 40 minutes playing Heroes and Generals yesterday. Wow, they throw you directly in with no tutorial or any way to check key / mouse bindings or anything, huh?!? Kind of interesting playing with, I suppose, a bunch of other early-level players (though some number could have been experienced players breaking in a new 'character'). On the first match (my Soviets lost both matches, the second one more narrowly), everyone rushed for the center to king the hill, but the US side did that more effectively while the Russians slowly crept up at first.

On the second match (by which time I had picked up the new automatic rifle -- or anyway I found it can be fired from the hip automatically, but switches necessarily to semi-auto only when at the shoulder), I decided I would loop around and post up to shoot US players on their way to the center building. Consequently, I progressively morphed the whole shape of that fight! -- now the US team had to put out flankers to stop me (and a few other people who realized what I was doing), and to guard their flanks of approach. And some of them decided to press on past the factory toward our entry point to fight us as we came in -- but then after a while, they gave up on that approach as the end of the match neared, and pulled back to hold the center and push over the top.

Obviously things get much more complex later. But my lack of being able to find in-game documentation so far, makes me feel a bit meh about the experience.

[Sir Slash]

My cat has a 'foot fetish' thing going on. She loves everybody's feet but doesn't like to be petted much. It's a Cat Thing so I just go with it.

[MengJiao]

Meanwhile, spent about 40 minutes playing Heroes and Generals yesterday. Wow, they throw you directly in with no tutorial or any way to check key / mouse bindings or anything, huh?!? Kind of interesting playing with, I suppose, a bunch of other early-level players (though some number could have been experienced players breaking in a new 'character'). On the first match (my Soviets lost both matches, the second one more narrowly), everyone rushed for the center to king the hill, but the US side did that more effectively while the Russians slowly crept up at first.

On the second match (by which time I had picked up the new automatic rifle -- or anyway I found it can be fired from the hip automatically, but switches necessarily to semi-auto only when at the shoulder), I decided I would loop around and post up to shoot US players on their way to the center building. Consequently, I progressively morphed the whole shape of that fight! -- now the US team had to put out flankers to stop me (and a few other people who realized what I was doing), and to guard their flanks of approach. And some of them decided to press on past the factory toward our entry point to fight us as we came in -- but then after a while, they gave up on that approach as the end of the match neared, and pulled back to hold the center and push over the top.

Obviously things get much more complex later. But my lack of being able to find in-game documentation so far, makes me feel a bit meh about the experience.

  It's an odd game in many ways.  I just had to go look at the offline docs to see if there was a "set bipod" key for the LMG -- but no.   Most players have learned that overwhelming the defenders at close range by arriving quickly beats most other basic moves in the game.  So the attacks look like random jeeps and motorcycles arriving at lethal speeds.  There are some variations:  mass parachute attack, sneak in and hide in the enemy's rear areas, flip through the air whisltling and kill with whatever you have in your pockets etc.

Because the Russians were added recently to the game and/or because people who play Germans or Americans are more obsessive or younger (with more time to play), most battles see somewhat inexperienced Russians (who flip and whistle less) with relatively primitive weapons up against foes with the most advanced automatic sniper rifles and the best tanks and so on.  The more advanced gear is superficially pretty impressive.  Now that I kill fair numbers of advanced players with specialized automatic sniper assault rifles (single shot for sniping -- automatic for when you are too bored to get out your spatula and whistle and do a backflip to kill your bewildered opponents) I can see why anyone without such gear is at a lot of disadvantages and all the more so because of all the extra hitting power and accuracy that comes with progressive mods to your weapon, self and ammo.

  Of course, in context, you can get around all that with a motorcycle.  Or a grenade or two.  Or a bazooka.  Or a light tank with a machine gun.  So there is no ultimate weapon -- except maybe for learning and modifying your behaviors.   

   

[JasonPratt]

...seems like an acquired taste. ;) But I know several Grogs love the game -- I see W8 on it a lot, for example.

Just got off more Sanctus Reach. I'll talk about that in its thread, I guess.

Played some more Mechwarrior Online last night; just biding my time to see if there are sales on gold. I'm willing to invest real money in the game, but I want to wait and see how things develop first. Did a couple of "control point" invasions last night -- this is a game mode where five points on the map grant victory points for being capped; you can still win by slaughtering all the opposition, but "invasion" mode allows (and requires) each player to bring 4 mechs along, which represent extra lives in a way, so zorching the opposing team needs 48 kills instead of the standard 12. On those particular games, the opposition was mostly from one mercenary group (of players, no real bot AI in the game) who had played long enough that they could bring a bunch of advanced light mechs to the fight. They then ran around the map in one or two raptor swarms, capping resource points and completely murdering any poor fools who dared split off alone or in small groups to try to recap in our favor. (They would also camp in our spawn points and assassinate mechs as we dropped in more-or-less one at a time.) Lots and lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth from my side.  ::) I can't blame them, but the other team wasn't cheating or playing "dumb" -- they were playing smart, as a team with actual plans. Despite being on the losing sides, it was amazing to watch. 

[MetalDog]

...seems like an acquired taste. ;) But I know several Grogs love the game -- I see W8 on it a lot, for example.

Just got off more Sanctus Reach. I'll talk about that in its thread, I guess.

Played some more Mechwarrior Online last night; just biding my time to see if there are sales on gold. I'm willing to invest real money in the game, but I want to wait and see how things develop first. Did a couple of "control point" invasions last night -- this is a game mode where five points on the map grant victory points for being capped; you can still win by slaughtering all the opposition, but "invasion" mode allows (and requires) each player to bring 4 mechs along, which represent extra lives in a way, so zorching the opposing team needs 48 kills instead of the standard 12. On those particular games, the opposition was mostly from one mercenary group (of players, no real bot AI in the game) who had played long enough that they could bring a bunch of advanced light mechs to the fight. They then ran around the map in one or two raptor swarms, capping resource points and completely murdering any poor fools who dared split off alone or in small groups to try to recap in our favor. (They would also camp in our spawn points and assassinate mechs as we dropped in more-or-less one at a time.) Lots and lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth from my side.  ::) I can't blame them, but the other team wasn't cheating or playing "dumb" -- they were playing smart, as a team with actual plans. Despite being on the losing sides, it was amazing to watch. 

If it were a real war, and I knew where reinforcements were coming and I could kill them all before they were able to come to the battlefield, I would do it until they stopped.  No qualms.  But, this being a game, that while you are trying hard to win, it should at least be fun to play.  So while your opponents were following the letter of the game rules, the spirit was violated.  And that's kind of a douche move.  It's also why I don't play with random people.  Unless me and some friends are part of a larger group and I can still work with who I know.