What games are you playing and why?

If you like 2D platformers/shooters which are mostly about "exploration" (with all that it entails, including late-game repetitiveness), it's good for its price.

That's why I bought the first one, anyway (and the second one was given to me after they released a playable version, because they seem to think it's better to sell the whole thing together for one price).

 

Hm. We'll see. I'm genuinely thinking about not getting Tomb Raider on release, and I might get something like A Valley Without Wind instead.

 

Although I probably should not have, I've preordered Sim City.

I played the Original game and enjoyed it a lot.
I then bought the sequel, and ended up hating it -- I could not deal with the 3-dimensionality of it -- dealing with all the different levels -- I just did not want to deal with that. And it got such great reviews that I decided that the series had taken a turn away from what I found to be fun. So I never purchased another Sim City game after that. I have a bad enough sense of direction that adding a third dimension just ruined it for me. Plus I liked the elegant simplicity of the original game, that the makers of the sequel seemed to not quite 'get'.

So I'm now looking for an excuse to cancel my preorder. Because while it does look like they INTEND to take it in another direction, I don't see any real details that show me that it's going back to its roots (other than the title of the game).

 

If by "excuse" you mean "give [you] a reason to call it off", then I'll be of no help here for I have not touched the series for a few years and have no clue how it looks now.
And if by "excuse" you mean "help [you] find a reason to give to the people from whom you pre-ordered the game", then I'd go with the classic "pre-ordered it as a gift but learned that the one to be given said gift also pre-ordered it" (though personally I wouldn't pre-order it unless I was sure I wanted it, so that's another thing).

 

SimCity hasn't been 3D until SimCity Societies. 2000(?), 3000 and 4 were 2.5D.

 

Call me oldschool but I think people should not go back on their word/action. I'm sorry, this is probably off-topic, but the last few years I guess it's been bugging me. With the advent of the mobile phones it now suddenly seems okay to show up 15 minutes late to an appointment if you just text (I'm talking about a meeting between friends at a café or such) a message. Similarly going back on pledges on kickstarter: I feel that unless you have a very good reason you should never do that. Where is the spirit of committing to your actions?

Anyway, to answer you question and get back OT: you do not need an excuse. Pre-ordering is not like a pledge, it's not really something that the devs count and depend on, and it's also not directly influencing people (like showing up late does).
As such, it's not that bad to cancel actually.
That aside, even if it were: you do not need an excuse, ever. You should just cancel it. You could maybe tell the people your reasons, but reasons are not excuses. Excuses by their nature are false and I don't see why you'd ever want to go through life not owning up to your actions/words.

(NOTE: This is just my personal opinion and is a sort of guideline for me personally, I do not mind if people have different philosophies or principles according to which they act, but I do think it's weird there are not that many people like me, it seems )

Meh, getting back OT has only halfway worked I guess.

Another attempt at OT: I am currently going through the Be Mine bundle (lots of games for very little dough) and so far Planets Under Attack, Major Mayhem and Eschalon Book II do not disappoint at all!

 

Pre-orders do matter, though. But I mean SimCity is NOT going to be cheap. Cheapest version I've seen is still more expensive than the average PC game.

 

Super House of Dead Ninjas - Tried the tutorial level, gave up before the end. Waiting for controller patch.
Brutal Legend Multiplayer Beta Thing - WHY. WHY ON EARTH. WHY. THIS NEEDS TO BE *EXPLAINED* PROPERLY. I had no idea what I was doing.
A Valley Without Wind - Fun, in a weird way.

 

I was surprised to find that an obscure game that I've enjoyed playing, which I thought was forgotten by its developers, just had an update, so I was inspired to start playing it again -- "Delve Deeper".

The game is kind of like what people used to call a 'Beer and Pretzels' game, the type of game that you'd play late at night when you've finished playing something more serious, and just want to have some good, mindless fun. It's a turn-based game where there's up to 4 teams of dwarves in a mine, and the goal is to have the most points by the end of the designated turn limit. The only things that give you points are turning in ore and treasure, which you either mine, find, or steal from your opponents. There are a lot of different scenarios with different maps, plus you can design your own. But you also have to deal with monsters and so on.

It's a fun little game, and simple enough that I was able to play it with my nephew. You can either play against the AI, or hot-seat vs. a human opponent. If you like Beer and Pretzels games, then you should give this a shot.

The good news is that I read that they are working on a Delve Deeper 2, which will incorporate multiplayer. What I read is that while they want to have up to 16 players, it will probably be limited to 8 players, but they do intend to have different game modes.

 

The Bard's Tale

I hate heavy sexualisation
I hate male characters getting to sleep with everyone (unless Geralt, k?)
Blah
Blah
Blah

But I LOVE this game already.

 

I don't know how far the similarities between the one you play and the original "Bard's Tale" go, but in the latter I loved the fact that you are the one who essentially breaks the world... without meaning to.

 

About 20 years and a revolution in RPG design away, I'd say. It's not linked at all, nor could they really use many of the aspects of the original (despite being run by the creator (or one of) of The Bard's Tale - Brian Fargo) due to EA holding the license.

It seems to me that people would have been more receptive to it had it had another name.

 

Well, I'm not surprised. With a title like that it appears as if it was clearly meant to pull the older players (the ones who remember playing the original "The Bard's Tale") in, and yet, with a design differing so much it can be said not to be linked to it at any way, it will repel many of those because their nostalgia filter will make them evaluate the game as "crud" from the get-go without even trying to play it.

Just like it happened with heck knows how many games already.

 

Well, in a way it did make sense. It was Brian Fargo's first game with his new company, inXile Entertainment, so in a way it seemed kind of logical to try and capitalise on the name of one of his most famous games in order to be successful.

It didn't quite work, but at the same time I think it's definitely paid off in the long run.

 

I've been playing "The Bridge", which is a new puzzle game. I don't USUALLY play straight-forward puzzle games, but this one appealed to me based on it's art style, which is reminiscent of the art of M.C. Escher. I've finished the first 3 chapters, and am about 2 or 3 puzzles into part 4 (a kind of a hidden section, though not exactly well hidden lol). I understand that each chapter has a 'mirrored' version as well. The puzzles (so far) have been fair (in other words, you can pretty much figure them out using some logic and just a little bit of trial and error. They involve getting the keys for the level (if there are keys), avoiding these big balls that follow certain rules of gravity and exiting through the doorway. Note that part of why the puzzles have not gotten all that frustrating is that if you make a mistake, you can hold down the space bar to rewind time back to a point before that mistake (or all the way to the beginning of the puzzle if you prefer).

But keep in mind that this doesn't seem to have a hell of a lot of gameplay to it. I just checked, and I've only played for 2 hours, and I THINK I'm nearly a third of the way through the game.

 

Right now I'm playing:
A Valley Without Wind 2 - I'm actually in the credits to this game for helping beta testing
Conquest of Elysium 3 - It's been described as a TBS roguelike. Lots of replayablility because all of the classes play a little bit differently.
Sang-Froid Tales of Werewolves - It's kind of like Orcs Must Die but with werewolves, and a darker story. And way better music.
Oh, and Spelunky. Always Spelunky.

 

I've played a bit of Conquest of Elysium 3 -- I think it's a pretty good game, but I can't say that I'm any good at it. But Diablo is surely more of a rogue-like than this game, which is pretty much a pure tbs game with more of a board-game feel. Rogue-likes may have had an influence on it though. I'm certainly guilty of repeating that description also. But after some thought, I'm thinking that it may be a bit misleading. I would call it a TBS game with a board game feel, and possible rogue-like influences (although certainly that doesn't really roll off of the tongue in the way that "TBS Roguelike" does).

It's, essentially, a fantasy wargame.