STEAM SALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dammit Carl!]

Held firm, but did take advantage of Ubisoft's sale for Division goods.  Picked up the Season Pass and the Upper East Side clothing pack.  Now, I need to eject the Mrs. and the kids for a few days while I get all boozed up and unwashed while I never leave the computer as I grind away.

[Gusington]

Is The Division a single player or multi player game?

Tuna these are the mods I am running in my current Mercia campaign:

-Remove Negative Imperium Traits

-Attila: Flags of Nations

-Mercia by Agrez (reskin)

-More Meaningful Seasons

-Natural Water Mod

-Realistic Archery Mod

-Sebidee's Charlemagne Expanded Unit Roster

-Trade Routes x2.5

[Dammit Carl!]

Is The Division a single player or multi player game?

Can be both.

[Gusington]

How do you play it? Alone or with others?

[Dammit Carl!]

I generally run solo at this point as the group that I'm with all have Level 30 characters - I'm just at Level 12 or 13.  The Level 30 types have their own diddly bits to bother with past that point; things like "gear score," and so on that don't seem so interesting to me to be honest.  There is a PvP area called the Dark Zone that seems okay, but from the videos that I've seen, its all about min/maxing your stats, gear, weapons and skills and then flailing around like mad once you make contact with others.***

You do have the choice of going solo or with a group and the group can be a set bunch of friends or teaming up with random pubbies on the missions that are going down outside the Dark Zone. I think you have the same option if you go in the Dark Zone but I'm not sure if there are missions in that area or not.

What is cool are the optional areas / game modes that you have access to: Survival and Underground. Survival puts you and 23 others down in a blizzard wounded and dying with no gear in NY. You have to scramble to find things to survive, fight off AI bad guys and extract before dying of your infection. Oh, and other characters will probably be trying to kill you too.  Check out the videos of people playing this as it seems very intense.  Not sure if you can buddy up with friends before doing this mode.***

Underground is basically a dungeon run. You can set the overall parameters of the mission, hit the "go," button and you alone or you and your group are whisked off to kill the minotaur complete your mission.***

There is one more DLC mode called Last Stand that is going to be out soon and I've no idea what its about.  Sounds cool, though.

*** = This is my take on the game, so as always, grain of salt and all of that.  Its not a realistic game per se, but it is visually exciting with a not-so-bad storyline to compel you through the missions. Supposedly the idea of the game was generated from a exercise the government did in the early 00's, so it does have a kind of "yeah, I could see that," feel to me.

Jeez.  Sorry for rambling on like that.

[Gusington]

I appreciate it! Still don't know if I would like it.

[Dammit Carl!]

I've said it before; either here or elsewhere - the sheer ambiance of the game is what really gets me going. You feel cold when you see snow dusting up realistically on your character when he's stalking some thug (I've, no joke, stopped and put a jacket on the character when this was going on - outside of the Survival mode, clothes make no difference), the lighting of the streetlights muffled in a diffuse halo during a hard, windy snowfall, and the soundtrack!  Best way I can describe it, is that its like something from a John Carpenter movie and to me, that is a good thing.  I'm not escaping from New York, I'm bringing the justice back to it!

Its basically a MMO that uses technology and hand-wavery to replace magic and the like (i.e. instead of, say "magic missiles," you can get "seeker mines," or somesuch) and to see/hear the videos of people extolling this type of character "build," or that "build," honestly makes my eyes bleed as I just don't care.  I'm a Basic D&D guy and they are 3rd Edition types. I'm in it for the story and the fun. Let them talk all that fiddly talk.

If Ubisoft does it again, check the game out on a "free to play," sort of weekend which is what got me roped into it. Can't hurt anything.

[JudgeDredd]

^ I concur - and I particularly agree with the "cold" bit - I do "feel" the cold while running around

Great game 

oh - and about The Dark Zone - from my limited experience in there, the baddies are tougher and the loot higher in value. But you do (did) get a lot of rogue (PVP) players...watch where you shoot...accidentally shoot someone and you're rogue meaning everyone will be looking to "defend" themselves against you...so you're dead basically  :DD

I haven't played The Division in a while and right at the very beginning I delved into The Dark Zone a few times - but as with most multi-player games, I didn't like that.

Outside of The Dark Zone I was having a tough time doing a mission...kept dying...so the next time I went back, there was a "point" outside the mission area that let me hook up with other random players (I *think* they are of the same/similar level - I can't recall).

So basically you can nip in and out of multiplayer. It's a cool idea. I don't know of any games that did that before and if there were either I never played them or I forget  :)

[Gusington]

Dammit Carl you had me at John Carpenter. Love so much of his work - I even bought his two CDs of Lost Themes.

[Dammit Carl!]

Dammit Carl you had me at John Carpenter. Love so much of his work - I even bought his two CDs of Lost Themes.

After a good listen, I'm thinking more Tangerine Dream (again, another favorite). Perhaps I'm not hitting the right musical scenes yet so sorry for perhaps giving you bad info. Regardless, the thing is well done and it shows to me that they are really considering the total package in terms of the game.   

[Gusington]

^Thanks...love me some Tangerine Dream.

[Pete Dero]

https://www.bluesnews.com/s/184865/steam-sale-dates-leaked

The remaining Steam sales in 2017 are:

     Steam Halloween Sale: Thursday 26th October to Wednesday 1st November
     Steam Black Friday Sale: Wednesday 22nd November to Tuesday 28th
     Steam Winter Sale: Thursday 21st December to Thursday 4th January 2018

[bayonetbrant]

you know, it was that 27th exclamation point that finally convinced me to check out this thread

[mirth]

you know, it was that 27th exclamation point that finally convinced me to check out this thread

pure gimmickery, like reverb fx

[bayonetbrant]

pure gimmickery, like reverb fx

There is *no* gimmick as tacky as cheap reverb fx