X-Com 2, Midnight Suns & Jagged Alliance 3

[Edward64]

Been reading good stuff so far

Marvel's Midnight Suns review | PC Gamer

Yet tens of hours later, I've never stopped unpacking baggage with my various magical, irradiated, or vampiric roomies. It's a surprise I still haven't gotten over, or stopped appreciating: Firaxis's big-budget contribution to the Marvel universe is just as dedicated a downtime simulator as it is a turn-based tactics game. And despite the studio's expertise historically skewing toward the latter, Midnight Suns is equally accomplished in both fields.

[Edward64]

Here's a list of reviews.

Marvel's Midnight Suns Review Thread - Post reviews and thoughts here : midnightsuns

[Edward64]

Nice feel good story. Reminds me of the Skyrim Grandma.

https://www.thegamer.com/marvels-mid...luke-was-here/

Luke was diagnosed with neuroblastoma--a terrible form of nerve cancer--at age 14. After nine years of treatment, Luke's doctors exhausted all options available and placed him on end-of-life care. During all that time, Marvel and video games were the things that brought Luke the most joy, and so, with less than a year left, Luke gave his family a bucket list with three items on it. First was a puppy to give his mother something to take care of when he's gone. Second was a hog roast, and the third was to play Marvel's Midnight Suns.
:
2K social manager Asim Tanvir then brought Luke a gaming laptop with Marvel's Midnight Suns installed. When he arrived at Luke's home on the UK, Luke burst into tears before he got down to playing.

... and was later immortalized with an engraving found in a tree that reads "Luke Was Here."

[Thomkal]

wow

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Already pre-purchased. Just waiting for release.

Let us know what you think when you get a chance.

About 218 Steam reviews so far. Mixed.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Let us know what you think when you get a chance.

About 218 Steam reviews so far. Mixed.

It is definitely not Xcom.

The big strike it has for me right now is the fact the cut-scenes are way too long to not have a way to pause them. That is one of my biggest pet-peeves in games. I don't like feeling like I'm being held hostage to a game. Give me the opportunity to pause scenes if my wife starts talking to me, or something is happening that pulls me away a second. I am not a fan of games as movies. I just want enough to story to drive the game along. There is way too much story and not enough game so far.
Combat is different. I have never been a card/deck game player. I don't think this game is a true version of that, but it is at least a hybrid version of it. I am also not super crazy about how you don't have turns for each character. Instead, all three have cards that can be played in a round, and it is super random. Still, combat is not bad. It is pretty fun super-hero action.

[Swaggs]

How is the character creation and customization?

[GrantDawg]

Limited. Maybe 6 different faces, some hairstyles, eye color, that is about it. I guess your character will grow and evolve over time, following three possible paths. I haven't gotten far enough to see how varied.

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[Edward64]

Thanks for your updates. I don't mind not being able to pause cut scenes, but hate not able to skip by them. Keep 'em coming when you get a chance.

Currently, Steam has 648 reviews, Mixed.

[SirFozzie]

One of my favorite streamers (Lionheartx10, who normally does Total War videos), is doing a LP of Midnight Suns: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rciZoX7cWSA

[Edward64]

Thanks, watched some of that.

The combat animations are great, reminds me of when I first saw the XCom soldiers crash through a window or use a blade.

But the character looks are "off" to me? Maybe too used to the film actors playing them.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Thanks, watched some of that.

The combat animations are great, reminds me of when I first saw the XCom soldiers crash through a window or use a blade.

But the character looks are "off" to me? Maybe too used to the film actors playing them.

They are different. I guess they are more true to the comics. I haven't read comics since the early 90's, so they are not what I'm used to. Still, I think the voice actors do a pretty good job. Also, the game looks pretty amazing in full 4k and ray-tracing.

[GrantDawg]

Here is the other thing I dealing with personally. When in the open world-ish area, using a game controller is much better than trying to use the keyboard to move around and interact. In combat, the keyboard and mouse is much better.

[GrantDawg]

Played all day off and on. I am definitely hooked. Combat is like a puzzle. The card element adds randomness and does sometime drive me crazy. It is a good challenge, along with the time elements you hwve on most missions. I'm getting a feel for which team mates I like to play with best. I am mostly favoring the Witchy girls do far, but Blade and Ghost Rider are pretty solid as well. Of the Avengers, Captain Marvel makes a great tank, but the others are actually pretty underwhelming.

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[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Also, the game looks pretty amazing in full 4k and ray-tracing.

Sure, go ahead and rub it in.

The integrated GPU on my i7-1260p plays WOTC & Civ 6 just fine. Assume it'll be the same for Midnight Suns.

[GrantDawg]

Just got my first glimpse of Wolverine in a one off mission, and man. He is badass.

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[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Just got my first glimpse of Wolverine in a one off mission, and man. He is badass.

About to finish a WOTC playthrough and will prob buy this game soon.

Question on re-playability. Less, same, more than X-Com 2/WOTC? Surprisingly, Steam shows only 2,085 reviews which I think is extremely low (but now at Mostly Positive)

Still happy with it? No glaring bugs on a PC? Checking on the forum, it looks like most of the issues are on consoles.

[GrantDawg]

Replayabilty- in my opinion, it is going to be minimal. There is too much story based parts of the game to think I will want to go through it again. There aren't major story arc changes to make replaying interesting. You are working with the good guys, and the dark option is only going to make you more Woverine than Captain America. But I am 40 hours in, and I am only at the beginibf of act 2. You don't have to rush the story, just take your time. You will get your money's worth out if it.

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[GrantDawg]

Bugs- I have had one minor visual error that was cleared up by restarting. But I have not crashed once, and I have stayed running smoothly throughout. That doesn't seem to be the experience with everyone, though. I think it is a pretty big system hog, so ymmv

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[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Replayabilty- in my opinion, it is going to be minimal. There is too much story based parts of the game to think I will want to go through it again. There aren't major story arc changes to make replaying interesting. You are working with the good guys, and the dark option is only going to make you more Woverine than Captain America. But I am 40 hours in, and I am only at the beginibf of act 2. You don't have to rush the story, just take your time. You will get your money's worth out if it.

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Well crap. That was an unexpected no/minimal

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Well crap. That was an unexpected no/minimal

Finished today (nice rain out for work allowed me a full day to complete it). 75 hours of play, and I would say well worth the price. I will also say surprisingly as of right now, I don't think I'm done. I do think I'm going to replay it at a higher challenge level. I'm going to take my time, and try to max all friendships before moving on (I only maxed like 4). I'm also going to try to finish all the Abby stuff. I think I did most, but I know there are few things I didn't. There is an option at the end to continue doing missions and playing around, but I think starting over would be more fun.



I would give this game a 8.5/10. It was very solid story wise. Combat was fun. I enjoyed the voice acting. There is a bunch of customization you can do as you play, and constantly varying the team really keeps things interesting.


My knocks would be the cut sequences can go to long at times. It always seems the like the conversation has a natural ending, then there are 2-4 extra lines that are unnecessary. They also broke my ray-tracing with the last update. It just got to choppy and I had to turn it off. There are way to many in gamer currencies in my opinion as well. It was a PIA to keep up with them all. But when you compare that to the state most games come out at release in, those are minor quibbles. This is a very payable, complete, fun and challenging game right out of the box. There is no need to wait for mods or DLC's to make it a good game.

[Edward64]

Thanks for the update. I would appreciate you letting us know about re-playability after your next playthrough.

Even though I complain about X-Com 2/WOTC and how it drives you towards the same ending all the time, there is still tremendous replay value because the missions are different, research tree is varied enough, your perfect team of Majors & Colonels gets tore up unexpectedly etc. (and, of course, there's a bunch of mods).

Just wondering if there is enough variety (?) of missions, events etc. to keep it interesting even though you have to follow the main arc.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

They also broke my ray-tracing with the last update. It just got to choppy and I had to turn it off.

This maybe your problem?

If You're Playing Marvel's Midnight Suns, Disable The Launcher

If You're Playing Marvel's Midnight Suns, Please Disable The 2K Launcher
:
I started playing the game this week and while I wasn’t experiencing any stutters, I was getting weird framerate dips in sections of a game that my hardware should have been more than OK with. And hey, whaddya know, as soon as I disabled the launcher my issues went away, and it was all smooth sailing.

RPS posted some helpful instructions on how to do this in their post. It’s nothing extreme; just some folder browsing and mild editing of the command line used to launch the game. Alternatively, you can watch this vid:

[GrantDawg]

Nah, I did that. Didn't help. It was fine before the patch. Idk what they did. Still looks great, but I do wish i could have seen the final battle and cut scenes with ray tracing on.

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[Edward64]

Runner up GOTY by PCGamer

PC Gamer's Game of the Year Awards 2022 | PC Gamer

In our second-favorite game of 2022, Firaxis' turn-based pedigree matched well with a party-based RPG to deliver a surprisingly big singleplayer game, one that took 70+ hours to complete.

I thought this was interesting comment

I gave up on both modern XCOM games because I didn't like all the stuff that wasn't fighting. Base building, world power appeasement, and resource management were chores I'd put off until my resistance collapsed. In Midnight Suns, I'm squeezing every ounce of character interaction, hub expansion, card upgrading, and deck building out of the in-game day before embarking on an actual mission.

GOTY not announced yet but betting it's Elden Ring.

[Edward64]

In case you didn't catch it on another thread, Midnight Suns is $40 on Steam.

[Thomkal]

Green Man Gaming has it for just over $35 for Steam or Epic


So there Edward


https://www.greenmangaming.com/games...night-suns-pc/

[Edward64]

Thanks!

[Fidatelo]

Dang, when I bought it on the 1st I paid effectively full price. It was in a bundle with XCOM:EU and XCOM2 but I already own the former and I didn't really care to have the latter. Would have much rather saved $30 but I kind of assumed the x-mas sale was what it was at that point.

[Fidatelo]

Cost aside, I'm loving the game! I was up waaaay too late playing again last night. This is my favorite video game since Breath of the Wild.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

Dang, when I bought it on the 1st I paid effectively full price. It was in a bundle with XCOM:EU and XCOM2 but I already own the former and I didn't really care to have the latter. Would have much rather saved $30 but I kind of assumed the x-mas sale was what it was at that point.

I pretty much assume that there is going to be a good sale somewhere on almost every game (except for Rimworld and Caves of Qud) of 30% or more fairly quickly after release-you just have to be patient and wait for them.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Green Man Gaming has it for just over $35 for Steam or Epic

So there Edward

Green Man Gaming

Just got it at GMG for $35 and installing on Steam now.

Currently playing Wasteland 3 and some XCom WOTC. Not sure when I'll get to Midnight Sun but its a great price (even if re-playability is questionable) and I'll get to it eventually.

Thanks again for the heads up.

[Thomkal]

You are welcome Edward, have fun!

[Edward64]

Wow.

Did you guys know about TNG & XCom connection?

"War of the Chosen" introduced three new factions that the XCOM team could ally with, and, as it turned out, the leader of each of these groups was a "TNG" alum. Betos, the leader of the warrior-like Skirmishers, is played by Denise Crosby. Crosby played the equally tough Tasha Yar during the first season of "TNG" and, thanks to interdimensional shenanigans, made several guest appearances in later seasons as well.

Meanwhile, the mysterious Templars are led by Geist, who is voiced by John de Lancie. De Lancie played another strange and mystical character on "TNG," making numerous appearances as the all-powerful entity Q. De Lancie got to reprise this role in Season 2 of "Picard," but "XCOM" fans will remember him as the psionically gifted soldier committed to freeing Earth from alien control.

Finally, Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander William Riker on "TNG," plays the head of the Reapers, Konstantin Volikov. In the game, Volikov sports a beard almost as impressive as the one Riker grew for later seasons of "TNG," making Frakes an appropriate choice for the character.

In addition to these three stars of "TNG," the "XCOM" expansion also featured the voice acting of Mirina Sirtis, Michael Dorn, and Dwight Shultz. As with the leaders of the three factions, it seems like Firaxis deliberately assigned these actors parts that would fit with their "Star Trek" past.

[Edward64]

(Adding JA3 in this thread, figure it's close enough to X-Com mechanics)


Okay, decided to get JA3. After seeing the streaming gameplay, I was pretty sure I was going to like it. (In addition to BG3, Starfield and now JA3, also have Urban Strife, Xenonauts 2, Aliens & Second Front on list. Not sure how I'm going to find time to play all of them)

JA3 is fun so far. Got to the second map block (whatever that's called). My 680m was struggling at medium graphics level (a slight lag), so going to low in my next session.

I've been watching some YT videos but still haven't figured it all out. Think I will download the mod that shows hit chance %. May rationale is the shooter should have a sense for chance to hit vs no sense at all.