M:TW 2 has the kickass "Third Age" LOTR mod.

Note - the new version of Rome 2 is actually supposed to be pretty good. The original game was awful, but from what I've read this latest patch really made a huge difference.

The ones that stood out based on what I've read are Shogun II, Medieval II, Empire, and Rome. So thanks for the first wave of feedback on 3 of the 4, sabotai. And great idea to try the newest one out, DT.

Missed the page break. Thanks to the rest of you!

I love this series but this one doesn't draw me in....when you say the game was awful are you talking about bugs or actual gameplay....because if its the later I'd give it another go.

Has anyone played any Democracy games? Watching a video on the third installment, and I must say its looks like a deep sim game.

It's fun for a couple hours until you figure out what works and what doesn't. I wouldn't pay more than a couple bucks for it.

+1. Steam says I played it a total of 3 hours. That's how long it took for me to master the game and build a thriving utopia without even really trying. It does look deep, but it really isn't.

Can you be more specific? Where did you read this?

I liked the original and it's my absolute favorite period of history (fuck, I sit around and read Suetonius for fun) so if it's actually good now it's a no-brainer for me.

who's Suetonius?

Yep.

I'm sorry I can't provide specifics since I don't own the game (I've been screwed by CA too many times to buy their games at full price). I've heard they've made good improvements in many areas including building upgrades, sieges, diplomacy, AI, etc. I'd wait for a sale, but it's supposed be quite improved now.

Yeah - I think I will wait for a sale, but I did google a little and see some mention of improvements.

Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius, was a Roman historian belonging to the equestrian order who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire.

His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar to Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum.

On a tangent, if you haven't read them, read the Emperor series by Conn Iggulden. Historical fiction following Caesar. (And a fifth book that covers Augustus vs Brutus). He takes some pretty big liberties with historical record, (which he actually details in the epilogue of each book what he changed and why), but they're still excellent. He leans heavily on Seutonius's work for the setting.

Thanks for the recommendation - don't think I have but will look them up on amazon right now.

Planetary Annihilation - anyone play it?

Was looking at that FPS Football game (doesn't look very interesting) and saw a recommended link to 'Road Redemption'... basically a remade version of 'Road Rash', man, that brought back some memories.

I just got a new laptop, and Rome II came free with it. I haven't installed it yet, but we'll see if it's anything fun.

How does that work? That's pretty cool...lol

I thought it was fun on the free-to-play weekend, but I hear there's still immersion-breaking stuff with it. I wonder if mods might be able to iron out a bunch of that once they're done though.

Picking this up right now, excited to give it a try. Also picked up the Victoria II collection which was on sale for 5.99 I think.

Europa IV collection is on sale.

So it's about Wolverine football?

Nice price on Rajas of India for CK2.

I see Warlock is on sale, does anybody have any opinions on it?

Democracy 3 is on sale 66% off. Any thoughts on this game?

The 3 stands for how many hours you'll play it before you figure out how to dominate.

Sorcerer King now in EA.

http://www.sorcererking.com/

For you FE:LH fans like myself, Stardock has released SK via EA on Steam.

I purchased and played some today.. I LOVE the UI, they really improved a ton on that, well laid out and easy to navigate.

Here's more:

A New Kind of 4X

Sorcerer King is a new direction for 4X game design, pitting the player against a single overwhelmingly powerful enemy instead of a set of evenly matched factions racing for abstract victory conditions.

Think of the Sorcerer King as the evil mage who won the last traditional 4X game. He has already conquered the world. His enemies (including you) are scattered, their armies broken and cities torn down. His dark minions have free reign to terrorize the survivors everywhere except a few tiny outposts of civilization (like the one you start in) too insignificant to crush.

Asymmetrical Gameplay

Sorcerer King is built around the concept of asymmetry. Your goals (kill the Sorcerer King) are wholly different than the Sorcerer King's goals (destroy the shards and therefore the world). The rest of the game revolves around this central concept.

The Sorcerer King doesn't play by the same rules - he operates on a completely different level than your scarce resources allow you to. A sophisticated "Game Master" AI controls his forces and other events in the world, managing pacing and generating threats to ensure an engaging game from start to finish.

What's In, What's Coming

Sorcerer King is in Early Access. That means it's functional but incomplete as we march toward its early 2015 release date. The main things you'll see improve during Early Access are polish, balance, and content.

The one major feature that is still being worked on is the minor faction system. The remnants of other civilizations will each have involved questlines and dialogues, and you'll have to win their allegiances before the Sorcerer King overwhelms the last shreds of hope they cling to. Letting them slip into the Sorcerer King's grasp will be a huge blow to your chances of stopping him.

So this is Brad Wardell's 4th attempt to get Elemental right with essentially the same game on the same engine. Let us know how that goes.

• Elemental - One of the worst games ever made
• Elemental: Fallen Enchantress - Lousy, but at least it was playable
• Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes - Uninspired 4x game
• Sorcerer King - ???

SK has some things going for it. The art style, while still bad, isn't quite as hideous as the Elemental series. They are trying something new with it in terms of the relative strengths in that they're giving it a very AI War-like starting against overwhelming odds. The game master concept sounds interesting and they're working on the AI now rather than waiting until 3 days before release (hyperbole but the Elemental series games have horrid AI).

In short, I'll wait. Stardock's recent track record hasn't been good, Wardell is a jackass of epic proportion and between the fantastic Endless Legend and the forthcoming Sid Meier's Beyond Earth, there's no reason to take a flier on this because I already have great 4x games at my fingertips.

Again, keep us informed. Getting good opinions on Stardock games is extremely difficult because of the Cult of Brad. You generally get opinions from the Wardell fanboys who carry around copies of Atlas Shrugged and compare Obama to Hitler (yes, Wardell did this) or you get the anti-fans who so personally hate Wardell they'll post pictures of his house online and make in fun of his kid (yep, this was done too). Occasionally Stardock shits out a decent game but having been burned on the Elemental disaster, the Demigod disaster and personally since I think Gal Civ II is grossly overrated, I'm leery about giving those guys full price for anything. They just haven't earned it with their recent releases.

You bet.. I really liked FE:LH so take that fwiw.

I love the concept with SK, you are basically building up after being beaten so you can stop the SK from destroying the shards and finishing off the world once and for all.

The UI is much cleaned up over FE and it's not such a click fest (ie - equipment is now on a global screen for all your army instead of having to click each person). Battles are not as big.. which to me, is a good thing. The humor is nice and some places you find give you choices to make. It's one of the easiest EA 4x games to jump right into, which is probably why I'm enjoying it.

Obviously it's EA so it's not feature rich yet.. but I played an hour or so and I'm wanting to play more tonight when I get back home.

Thanks! As I said, decent opinions are hard to come by because of the Wardell factor.

You have purchased and played Endless Legend, right?

Yes, when it was EA and played it a bunch. Just started a new game since the release patch as the vaulters.

How are you liking it?

Love it. I absolutely love it.

It's not a perfect game by any means. What I said a month ago (The Steam Thread - Page 43 - Front Office Football Central) still pretty much holds, except I've grown quite fond of the innovations and nuances in EL.

I said the "one city per zone" thing was cool, but it's really far more than that. It really allows for some directed city specialization while sometimes creating an agonizing choice. In some zones the spot is obvious. In others, it's a damn tough decision. The city districts are another great innovation and rewards a city for growth, not just for manufacturing, gold or science.

The different civs are so different that it can be like playing a different game. You have to totally adapt your style to the group you're playing. I've never really seen that before in a 4x game. SMAC was closest, but you really have to know who you're playing.

I love how vastly different the yields can be on tiles. Grabbing that +7 production tile feels like Christmas every time. Again, stuff like that is just great.

It doesn't mean that it's perfect. Combat is still weak. The policy decisions need to be expanded. There aren't great wonders. There's no espionage. The game could be improved. But I have about 70 hours into it and I'm still looking forward to my next game. I doubt I get 1,000 hours like I did with Civ IV or even 400 hours like I did with Civ V, but I bet I get at least 200 out of this which would make it my 3rd most played 4x game in the last 10 years.

----

On a slightly different note, I'm going to plug Banished again. It really is an elegant and subtle game and one of the best "software toys" since the original Sim City. Once you figure out how to build a city it's not difficult and the pace is slow, but it is one of those games you can sit back and really admire what you've done. So why plug it again? Because there will soon be a patch to integrate the Steam Workshop for the mods. There are already some really cool mods out there, adding new supply chains, modifying the difficulty, adding things like castles and such. There won't ever be combat in the game - which I love since every other game has combat - but the mods will give new legs to an already enjoyable experience.

His latest asshattery finally got me to delete GalCiv and FE:LH and I'm out for future Stardock stuff. Just can't justify giving him money anymore.

I liked FE:LH well enough. I played it for a bout 20 hours.

I just have too much to play right now:

- Wastelands 2 is occupying the lion's share of my gaming time

- I am still playing Divinity: Original Sin with a friend of mine once a week or so

- Still need to finish "Walking Dead 2"

- I bought, but have never played, "Endless Legend"

- The new Borderlands comes out next week

- The Civ space game comes out in about two weeks

- Dragon Age III comes out in November

Like Prince Humperdinck a few days before his wedding, "I'm swamped."

What was his latest asshattery?

That's about the right amount. You saw everything it has to offer.


You could do worse. I'm so overloaded I haven't purchased it yet.


Excellent!


Yes, yes you do.


This is just wrong.


Yes, yes it does.


Beyond Earth. Preordered!


The real question - is it like #1 or #2?

I wonder if it will be the whole #gamergate reaction he had to try to make that all about himself or whether he threatened to sue a web forum because he didn't like the posts the users were making.

I kinda lumped them both together as a giant final straw sort of thing.

Ah, the double dickwad combo.

Dude knows how to keep multiple asshole plates spinning at the same time.

Eh, YMMV. As I get older it seems to me that there aren't a whole lot of ways to express my disgust with certain people/philosophies. The least I can do is back up my feelings with not enriching the worst of those people.

Plus, plenty of stuff still out there to play. I got Endless Legend but haven't fired it up yet because I've been re-obsessed with Master of Orion, and have to get back to my FM game soon.

Agree with all of this.. I played it so much in EA and Beta, that I took a little break, especially with NHL 15 out. I'm back into it though! ;) I just love the vaulters and the way they can get through the research eras.

WIth BE coming out in a couple of weeks.. I need to calm down with my 4x fetish. :D

giving this a whirl

Looks like its had a ton of updates since i last played, gonna fire it back up.

I am hooked on a hunting game believe it or not. It's call theHunter and it is FTP and has transactions. I dropped some cash on it to buy better weapons and a tent, other than that I have been taking down Whitetail, Mule Deer, Coyotes, Pheasants, Wild Pigs, Elk and Moose...

You can hunt a wide range of animals through a ton of different reserves, it's been cool.

I am posting in here because I found the game on steam but you can go to the website to get to the steam version and of course, I am giving you my referral code.
http://www.thehunter.com/register/?ref=macroguru

Blood Bowl is 75% off...worth it? I've been watching it for a while, but this is the first price point at which I've thought it might be worth pulling the trigger.

I think it is fun. Probably a good pick up for 75 percent off.

I bought it but it never grabbed me. The rules aren't explained well and the game seemed a bit stale. Then again, I played it for all of 30 minutes before moving on, so maybe there's something there that I quite possibly missed.

Well worth it for the $7.50 it is on sale. I bought it at Full price when it came out, I play it a few times a month, keeping a campaign going and I enjoy the BB franchise.

Bought it went it first came out and I could never really figure it out. Maybe I just didn't have the patience for it.

There is a learning curve to it and I liked more as I played it more. The first few games I got my butt thoroughly kicked as I had never played this game before. I still suck at it but it is fun once you get to learn some of the rules (though I still can't resist stomping a downed player and eventually doing it one too many times and getting a player ejected).