While we wait...what's there to scratch the itch?

[GODSPEED]

13 hours ago, Hendrix said:

Forgott to mention!

Hidden & Dangerous 2 was a blast to play with a few friends!

 

Some pretty retro games there. Many I never even played!

Because I know you've also played Brigade E5 and 7,62 High Calibre, I also thought I make a mention here for others:


Marauder (aka Man of Prey)
https://store.steampowered.com/app/289600/Marauder/
 

That is an RPG based on a book, but using the same game engine as the games above. You control 1 character, like in ATOM RPG, the Real-Time with Pause is actually manageable.

[Hendrix]

On 11/15/2022 at 2:43 AM, GODSPEED said:

Marauder (aka Man of Prey)

Thanks man! I had completely forgotten about that game. I remember looking into it when it was new but I never found a place were I could buy it back then.

[Hendrix]

This game showed up in my YouTube feed (I stole the description from their homepage):

Interregnum Chronicles FALSE PROPHET

Interregnum: False Prophet is a tactical, turn-based strategy game about survival in a post-apocalyptic (or as we like to call it inter-apocalyptic) world. A mysterious virus has struck the earth that affects the human mind, the poles have shifted and the world has been plunged into a new ice age. The game provides a fresh perspective on the fates of people caught in the turmoil of global change, that goes beyond their understanding.

The short gameplay shown reminded me of Wasteland 3.

[Solaris_Wave]

Post-apocalypse settings tend to make enjoyable games. That one looks interesting too. I don't think there are enough games that have a snow-based setting, so that adds to my interest for that game.

While not post-apocalypse, I found the following game while I was looking up Xenonauts 2 on Steam. It is called Mars Tactics. I'm not sure what it will be like and graphically it has a lightweight look to it. It could be good, however.

Edited November 21, 2022 by Solaris_Wave

[Hendrix]

Got this one I my YouTube recommendations.

Kinda looks like Xcom in WW2 setting but with AP instead of the 2 action system.

Maybe it is closer to Phoenix Point? But I never played that myself.

 

[Solaris_Wave]

Thanks for uploading the vid for this game. I didn’t even know about this one and it goes to show how many games might slip under your radar if they never get featured by magazines, video game sites or even a Steam recommendation.

For a Work In Progress, it is looking pretty good so far, although the gunshot sounds need improving. I am also personally not keen on the current character models. Close-up in game or on the selection screen, they tend to look a little shiny and plain, almost as if they are painted plastic models. The character faces don’t really match their models and for some reason, the British soldier’s face looks like Vladimir Lenin, while the U.S. soldier looks like the actor, Noah Emmerich!

It is definitely good to see this game being made because there are not that many turn-based WWII games that are at squad level and show actual characters instead of tiles (such as Heroes Of Normandie and Lock n’ Load Tactical: Digital, as much as I enjoy those games). Silent Storm was the last one and even that game couldn’t resist adding some retro sci-fi content.

There is another game that bears similarity, that you may or may not know of. It is called The Troop. When you first mentioned an XCOM game in a WWII setting, I thought that The Troop was the game you were referring to until I watched your posted video.

[LoboNocturno]

Am playing Jagged Alliance 1 again since i bought my new laptop, Jagged Alliance 1 a game way from 1994, its still fun to play imo, Jagged Alliance 1 its not Jagged Alliance 2 but for its time still a very fun game imo, though lots of lacking details, no leg or head shooting, cant go prone, and so many other stuff missing and its somehow too pixelated and robotic but still fun, if you really love Jagged Alliance, i highly recommend it, its worth to play it at least once who never played it. Must admit after playing it more then 2 hours it can get strange to eyes cause its too pixelated, still i play Jagged Alliance 3, will be playing also JA1 Deadly Games and then Jagged Alliance 2 once again. Probably will play Urban Strife as well if it comes before Jagged Alliance 3.

 

This is my starting team, never skipping Ivan & Fidel and in part 1 Hector is also 1 of my favourites.

[Solaris_Wave]

Looking at those screenshots, you can definitely see how JA1 was from that era. So many games around that time had those fonts and the digitised portraits for cutscenes. It is obvious that Brenda is meant to be eye candy with the long legs and green eyes and a young me would have zeroed in on that.

I never actually bought JA1. I played the demo and thought it was good but limited in what you could do. I felt that it needed more flexibility for character movement. When JA2 came along, it provided everything I was looking for in an in-depth squad strategy game. The demo for that caused me to immediately put down an order for the full game.

It is almost as if JA1 was the new recruit at boot camp, learning to become a soldier, while JA2 was the seasoned veteran.

[Hendrix]

@LoboNocturno ah JA, sweet memories of the mid 90's when I never could understand anything about games, being a teen with a bad grasp of English did not help! 😂

Never owned JA myself back then but played it a fair amount on a friends pc.

 

On a completely different note. One of the very few gaming youtubers I follow presented a list of games he was looking into in 2023. While many of them are well known he did have a few lesser known ones that I think might be of interest for some of us. You can find them in timestaps in the info.

Broken Roads, Dark Envoy, Cyber Knights Flashpoint and Colony ship.

 

[Solaris_Wave]

That was a good video and one that has added yet more games to my ever increasing Steam Wishlist. Seeing some of these games in development reminds me of the days of turn-based strategy games throughout the 1990s when they ruled supreme. I am finding I have gone through both a game system evolution and revolution. During the mid 2000s, I found myself getting disillusioned with PC gaming. It remained as expensive as ever but with all that apparent power, it felt as if the games being made were always expecting top of the line PCs despite not showing enough to answer for those demanding requirements.

While it will sound like I am going off on a tangent and waffling away, bear with me on this…

I then saw Halo on the 1st generation XBox and was wowed by its sound, music, art direction and gameplay. While it had no resemblance to my earlier computer game years of simulators and strategy games, I loved how it enabled you to play through the story co-operatively with friends and on a game system that was a fraction of the cost. Meanwhile, on the PC, co-op play was slowly being reduced in favour of deathmatch and team deathmatch gameplay. The final straw for me was when I saw Halo come to the PC and in its transition, the co-op mode was apparently removed, leaving only single player and deathmatch modes. Despite all that power of the PC and the fanboys saying that PCs will always be better than consoles, I was seeing different.

For many years, I got my fix and plenty of gaming from the 1st gen XBox and later the XBox 360. I would play all modes online, I would have lots of fun playing different games and would read about PC versions often being bug-ridden and inferior. There was the rare strategy game that would be clumsy on the console, due to using a gamepad instead of a mouse, but I didn't really miss those big strategy games.

However, nothing really progressed on the consoles and if anything, variety that was there in the beginning seemed to fall away. I never bought the last generation of consoles such as the XBox One and kept seeing endless sequels, remasters and games becoming clones of one another. Everything was classed as a AAA game that you apparently had to 'get ready' for, even though too many games were being released too quickly, took too long to play and turned out to be (in my view) something I had already played over and over. Not only that but they were also often disappointing in terms of review scores.

I found myself missing the variety and I saw that variety return on the PC. If you want big AAA games, they are there but there are also indie games and beyond. Co-op games are back, strategy games are thriving once more, space games of all types are there, simulators are available or being made.

I look at console games being made now and feel like an old dude yelling at the 'youth of today' and talking about the good old days. It is just the same stuff being recycled. Another Assassin's Creed, another Call Of Duty, another FIFA, another Need For Speed, another 3rd-Person open world game, another Japanese RPG, another extreme-difficulty game where you fight a boss who is 30 feet high and has a sword bigger than a house. I don't care about Fortnite, battle-royale games, MMOs or MOBAs. I'm bored even typing all of that, let alone thinking about it or having to play those games.

Meanwhile, on the PC, I'm excited to be a gamer again. For the fact that I have been playing games since the Atari 2600, 42 years ago, that can only be a good thing.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[Hendrix]

On 1/21/2023 at 11:43 PM, Solaris_Wave said:

feel like an old dude yelling at the 'youth of today'

😂 I believe both @GODSPEED and me have said the very same thing several times just on this forum.

Trying to squeeze together about 30 years of gaming history here but just like many other (fairly) new tech industries it has gone from garage/hobby development to multi national corporations in a very short timespan. The big company's sucks up the small creative studios and streamlines them into their own market idea for greater sales and as you said there's just the same stuff on repeat over and over again, only whit a new set of paint.

However this is also the doom for the corporations, because people at the top of these companies has 0 understanding of their products. They just look at the last quarter sales and streamlines everything to that. That becomes stale very fast. Gaming being such a large market today I think a lot of people are looking for other things to play.

But I think you are right, there is smaller companies now that understands their products, are passionate about it, going their own way and believe in their own vision of what the game should be. Of course they are looking to make a profit, but not maximizing their sales of a product. A game for everyone is a game for no one. 

[Solaris_Wave]

Your last sentence there absolutely sums it up, I think. The corporations are indeed looking for maximised profits and to do that, they will try and make it appeal to as many people as possible. While that makes sense from a business point of view, the problem with that, is that it often is a game that doesn't leave a long, positive lasting memory of it and it eventually becomes yesterday's news. Not only that, but the pursuit for max profits kills creativity and innovative ideas. It is widely known that the corporations don't want to take any risks and will kill off any budding designs being worked on. It doesn't help either when they will say something like, "Nobody plays those types of games anymore." That is something that you so often see and yet there will be many people on the internet reminiscing about a game or game genre and wishing they would return.

One of the reasons why my interest in PC gaming has returned and why console gaming has died off, is because I am once again playing the games that I want to play, rather than the games that they want me to play. 'They' being the corporations.

I have seen many genres and popular flavours of games over the course of my lifetime. I have seen shoot 'em ups of the 80s and early 90s, side-scrolling and isometric platformers of the same time period, the movie tie-in clones, the graphic and text adventures, tile-based RPG clones, the birth of CD-ROM and the interactive movie, the genesis of the First-Person Shooter, 3D open world RPGs and so on. Everyone tries to copy what has set a new mark and that trend will continue. What I find strange though, is that it only seems to be now, in the last decade, that the big game corporations have lost sight of what they are doing, are unsure of who actually plays games (they seem to forget that it isn't just kids and teenagers), regularly annoy customers with their pig-headed pursuit of micro-transactions and are surrounded by controversy. Plus, as I said before everything is a sequel, clone or a remaster.

They wonder why their profits are declining or might have record profits but still not be as much as they wanted (what a contradiction, that is!). It makes the news how the suits give themselves bonuses while firing the actual developers or giving them peanuts. It also makes the news about how staff, especially female staff are treated. They expect us to buy game after game even if they are the same as before and each game is loaded to the gills with micro-transactions and useless immersion breaking skins (I have never played Rainbow 6: Siege but I have read all about the silly cosmetics you can buy). You want something different? "Nobody wants that kind of game anymore."

Console gaming in the last 20 years brought about the big budget games with presentation matching that of movies and TV shows. It made it accessible to the masses, less 'nerdy' and many that scoffed at gaming, look at it differently.

However, it has definitely hit a wall because now that is expected of every game. Everything has to be a big budget, big name extravaganza and that can be exhausting for a gamer and stunting creativity for the creators.

That means, to me, that the saviour of computer games once lies again with the PC. I have seen so many creative ideas being worked on, usually by smaller companies and individuals. The only drawback with them is that so many remain in Early Access for years or indefinitely.

[Hendrix]

In my opinion a couple of these looked interesting and worth to keep an eye on. The video is fairly short (7 min).

[Solaris_Wave]

15 hours ago, anon474 said:

Bruh did none of you people seriously add silent storm to the list?

Silent storm is NOT a bad game. It doesn't have the same strategic layer as JA2, but it's still a pretty full game. I'd recommend it to anybody who hasn't tried.

Silent Storm has been mentioned more than once, in various threads. I often reference it as an ideal way to handle the inventory system (it has a grid instead of singular slots, which benefits smaller items). Also, it has fantastic damage modelling to terrain.

[Hendrix]

This game showed up in my YouTube feed today.

Isometric RTS where you command a squad of marines through missions.

Edit: Hey! How's about a JA: Aliens vs Predator spin-off?

Edited March 22, 2023 by Hendrix

[Solaris_Wave]

I like the sound of that, both the game and your JA spin-off. It would be like the sci-fi option in JA2, only turned up to the max.

I was just talking in another thread about the console exclusive game, AvP: Extinction. I liked it but found the controls cumbersome for the quick actions needed. It is a shame they never made it for PC and gave it mouse and keyboard controls. You had three separate storylines for marines, Aliens and Predators. The Alien campaign was all about the Queen sending out her warriors to capture victims so they could be dragged back to the hive and put near the waiting eggs. Being able to control all of that instead of just playing a lone Alien was very original.

I used to read the Aliens and AvP novels when I was younger. They were excellent for the most part. The Aliens novels regularly mentioned how the Xenomorphs would need to be killed if they didn't have the standard Colonial Marine Corps 10mm delayed explosive rounds. The carapace was too well armoured for standard small arms bullets so you had to aim for the mouth of the Alien and get that bullet to bounce around inside the head, due to the heavily protected skull. Easier said than done! It makes me wonder how such a scenario could be fitted into the Jagged Alliance world, just for fun.

The AvP novels, especially the first one was superb. Combat between humans, Xenomorphs and Predators. The original movie took everything from the book and sent it out of the airlock, all except for a human woman earning the respect of the Predator hunting party leader. If they stuck to the book in terms of setting and storyline, it would have been perfectly achievable.

Edited March 22, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[Wigen]

"Wartales". The long-awaited turn-based RPG has just left Early Access on the Steam.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Wigen

[Lunokhod]

On 3/22/2023 at 10:03 AM, Hendrix said:

This game showed up in my YouTube feed today.

Isometric RTS where you command a squad of marines through missions.

Edit: Hey! How's about a JA: Aliens vs Predator spin-off?

I like graphics. If JA3 had the same it would be great. But it won't. Would be much better if this guys developed JA3...😔 And btw take a look guys, nobody fight with aliens in clown costume.

[Bearson]

I just saw this today. Its still in alpha, but looks good and has some interesting mechanics like leaning out of windows and holding your breath when aiming. I like the aiming system too.

Every day we fight early alpha preview

 

[Solaris_Wave]

Thanks for posting that. I am subscribed to his channel but I am behind on his videos at the moment. So many videos from so many channels and only so much available time in the day.

[Hongweibing]

While the topic starter mentioned that he played the JA series, but since JA1 was mentioned, I'd also recommend to play/replay JA: Deadly Games. I know that the lack of a strategic element makes it somewhat less interesting/appealing for some, yet the campaign is actually quite nice (just make sure to select it - because in my case that was not the default, and I imagine that at least a few people may have missed it over the years). 

 

Combat in DG is more complex than in JA1 and enemies are smarter than in JA2. This, combined with good use of terrain (well, cover - much more than in the other games in the series, at least so it feels), scarcity of ammo, and the turn limits (which I know are not too popular and can be disabled with a patch - but I think they should be kept) reward a more dynamic, high risk - high reward playstyle, as you usually can't just stay in cover indefinitely while waiting for an opportunity and/or shoot indiscriminately at enemies behind cover. Especially if like me, you tend to prefer a more risk averse playstyle, that could be a refreshing challenge. Plus, in DG you have multiple save slots and can shoot while crouching - which makes it less frustrating than JA1.

 

Another notable aspect is the writing and voice acting - while mercs (whose number, by the way, is the highest in the whole series) still don't have that many lines, they have more than they had in JA1, yet those who actually steal the show are Gus and Micky. Both add life to the time between missions, and I'd even venture to say that Micky might be the best character in the whole series in terms of writing and voice acting (though almost useless as a merchant). He manages to evoke such a wide plethora of emotions at the same time: you hate him for trying to swindle you, you marvel at how he manages to swindle you, you feel guilty for not letting him swindle you due to his passive-aggressive attitude, and overall, you are entertained by what he says and how he says it. Frankly, they should have found a way to make him the villain of JA2 instead of Deidranna, who was just plain in comparison 🙂  Makes me wish you could hire him in JA2, alas...

[VektorT]

I will go on murky waters here: XCom Apocalypse.

I always thought it was a good game, a hidden gem lost in the overall feel that every XCom sequel was bad until Firaxis one. It changed the formula quite a bit but overall I still like it and it did things no other game did before and some no other game did since.

First of all: Destructive environment on a 1997 game.
And it did it quite well for the time and even when compared to today games. I would argue that appart from bullet penetration it did it even better than Silent Storm. In XCom Apocalypse basically everything could be exploded with a strong enough blast and while things don't go flying across the screen, building and roofs does collapse other than just disappearing. What it means is the roof can colapse in someones head doing damage or killing it, and who was standing in that roof will fall with it also taking fall damage. Also unlike JA2 you could have multiple floors and they are everywhere. Sometimes one floor may collapse over another causing a chain reaction. Destroying a building foundations and making the whole thing collapse killing or damaging everyone inside was possible. To make all of that more enjoyable, the game features a lot of scenarios with scaffoldings and elevated passages that make use of this feature. An alien is sniping you from a elevate position? Aim the rocket at the building supports and if the blast doesn't kill him, the fall may do the job.

The city map.
While XCom Apocalypse doesn't have a world map like most XCom games, it have a single city map (and a posterior alien city one) that is quite complex. When you move stuff and troops from base to base, you have to actually send them there by plane or truck and choose wich vehicle will do the job, so you need more than just fighters. When you buy something from somewhere, it have to psychally arrive too, wich means sometimes a dick alien may show up at the wrong time and shot that small cargo flying car that was going to deliver you new stuff. It's rare and "unintentional" but possible. What is fun is that all I said about the destructive enviroment before also applies to the city map. When fighting UFOs your planes and vehicles could damage the city infraestructe and also make things collapse, so you have to be careful to don't destroy everything in your path because...

Everyone is a faction on the map.
Literally. The ingame store where you buy ammo? They are a faction in the map. The guy who sell you ships is one too. There are different suppliers for everything you don't produce yourself and they all have buildings and vehicles in the map. You have the Police who will also try to fight the aliens and a lot of other minor factions that may or may not benefict you in some way or another or just be alien cooperators. While fighting in the city map their building may get damaged by accident by you or intentionally by the aliens, they get pissed, they also get pissed if you fight the tactical battle inside their building and do a lot of colateral damage. From time to time you have to root out aliens infiltrators and search different buildings and they may get pissed if you go to the wrong one uninvited, but if you take the risk sometimes you can just follow an UFO and see where it's landing aliens to know where the infiltrators are, but expect strong opposition. Granted, it doesn't go very deep in the relation system, but still is more than most games where there is only you and the enemy on the map and neutral parties means little outside that specific tactical encounter.

Weapons options and niches.
Unlike most games, XCom Apocalypse doesn't have a clear weapon progression. While you do develop new ones or could even learn to use the aliens ones, even starting weapons may or may not become obsolete depending on your play style. The starting machinegun still is the fastest firing weapon in the game and while it damage and penetration does becomes subpar later on, it still is great in close encounters with less armoured enemies where you can shot A LOT of bullets precisely. While it does lack some sense of progression, at least it got it covered by making every weapon feels different.

All in all, I think XCom Apocalypse had a lot of innovation and ambition, but sometimes it could be a buggy mess. There was some mods and unnoficial patches to help out, but back in the 90s it could not savage a broke vanilla game reputation. I do think it still is a good and unique enough experice worth of going back to, but to be honest I played it so long ago when I was way younger that I'm not sure how it would feel now in 2023.

[Solaris_Wave]

I quite enjoyed X-COM: Apocalypse. It took a little getting used to at first with being set only in a single city, but there was lots to like about it. The factions and subterfuge, as well as the various raids you or they could carry out.

As you say, the damage and destruction was excellent. Seeing the structures collapse and the upper levels falling to the ground was fun and very dangerous.

I didn't really enjoy the real-time combat mode but I liked how there was a little element of that, still in turn-based mode. With the machine guns you could hold down the mouse button and as long as you had ammo and action points, you could shoot almost like in real-time.

Probably my main gripe with it was the awful art direction. They went for a retro sci-fi 1930s or 1940s look, so everything looked like a Flash Gordon TV show. Cars, ships and outfits with fins on them. The aliens looked a bit silly as well, such as that blue humanoid alien with a triangular head and a body that looked like those blue dotted sweets in a bag of liquorice allsorts.

Even the UFOs looked awful. Some looked like ice creams without the cones, while others were based on sherbet UFO sweets too literally.

Edited May 11, 2023 by Solaris_Wave

[Xeth Nyrrow]

Project Haven just released another demo today. This is how tactical combat gun play should be done:
Project Haven

[SWi74]

Just found out about TactiCon... Never heard about it until now, but seems on topic.

https://store.steampowered.com/sale/Tacticon2023