Category Opinion

To learn by playing, and to play by learning

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I’ve worked with wikis for quite a long time. It started out with a certain FullMetal Alchemist, a manga that ended fifteen years ago. Since they though, I haven’t really done anything “new”. I do a few different wikis, but primarily my work is on RimWorld. And even though I’ve been playing that game since the alpha version, and it’s had DLCs that I have, most of my work there has been on older stuff, nothing brand new. However, I’m kind of hoping that will change, that I can go back to the FullMetal times I had. And Farthest Frontier is the game I hope will change that.

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Balatro is the best one more turn game in years

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When I first started this article, it was going to be about how Balatro is a really good “quick game”. Something I could play for about ten minutes, and then put away. That’s still quite true, since I can do just one or two blinds and then turn off my computer to do whatever I need to do that day. But at the same time, Balatro has an incredible hook that keeps me playing not for those ten minutes, but for hours.

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Getting (un)banished

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In a recent Quick Thoughts, I had said that due to Farthest Frontier, I had mostly stopped playing Banished. And at that point, it was true. I did have a Banished run going, but it had probably been seven or eight months since I had touched it. So “going” isn’t really a good term to use. I did play it a bit after that, but my town…did poorly. If I had a plan before the gap in play, I’d forgotten it, and if I didn’t have a plan, well, I suppose the tool death spiral would have happened anyway. Tools are crazy important in the game, if you’ve never played. While I did manage to semi-stable myself, the amount of youngling deaths would have lead to some painful following generations. So, I tried anew.

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I like RimWorld so much, I can’t play it

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As you may know, RimWorld is probably my favourite video game ever. It’s been at first place for time played on my Steam list, and the main reason second place, Europa Universalis 4, gets close is that it takes a looong time to play, at least for me. However, it’s been quite a while since I’ve last played RimWorld–over two months at this point.

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Civ VII releases gameplay showcase

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We’ve learned a bit more about Sid Meier’s Civilization VII today with a gameplay showcase given by Firaxis and the Civ team. Not a lot was said, and the “gameplay” was pretty light on the actual playing of the game. We do however, know a lot more than what we did with that old teaser trailer. So set your calendars, because on February 11 of next year, we’ll be getting the newest of the Civilization franchise–releasing both on PC and console.

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My ONE WISH for Civilization 7

Carr Nyuli 2 Comments

I was originally going to write about the various things that I wanted, and didn’t want, for Civilization 7. And I might still do that, because there are a number of things I’m wishing for. But after thinking about it a bit, there’s one thing I really, really, really want. Something that’s big enough to warrant putting it high above everything else. That one thing? Better AI.

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If you’re on the fence, just try it

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I’ve owned the Paradox Interactive’s grand strategy game Hearts of Iron IV for quite a while now. It came out in June of 2016, and I’m going to guess I bought it a year later during Paradox’s infamous summer sale. So let’s say four years. Aaaand I sucked. So I didn’t play it. And while I wanted to like it, I wasn’t really sure I did, mostly because I sucked. So until spring of 2021, I’d only put about eight hours in. Come about a month ago, I’d put about twelve hours in. In the past three weeks of starting this article, I’ve doubled that. Yeah, my crappy yearly average is still crappy, but damn that’s a pretty good increase.

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(Watching) multiplayer strategy is more fun than I thought

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I’ve been a fan of strategy games for a long time now, but I’ve never played them multiplayer. It’s just not my thing. When I’m playing strategy games, I want to do it on my own time–even the “real time” ones I play can be paused or run at different speeds. With multiplayer, you can’t really do that. Yes, you can still (usually) pause or play slower in multiplayer, but if you’re running at a slow speed and constantly slapping the pause button with other people in the game…you’re kind of an ass. Multiplayer Europa Universalis IV, the game in question for this article, does seem to allow pausing at any time according to the wiki, but I’d imagine it’s pretty frowned upon by players.

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Things I’m excited for after the Halo Infinite gameplay trailer

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We’ve finally seen some of what Halo Infinite‘s first-player gameplay is going to look like, and even though we’re not directly told anything, there’s a lot we can figure out for ourselves. Here, in no particular order, are five of the things that most excited me after watching the six minutes and forty-six seconds (approximately) we got to see.

 

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Quasi-let’s plays have breathed new life into my gaming

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I wrote a couple of articles for Novus last year about beginnings and endings. One was about RimWorld, and the challenge of saying goodbye to a simulated community you’ve built over many hours. The other was about Europa Universalis IV, and fighting for an achievement. After each article, I started a new run of their respective games. My RimWorld colony at the time was dying a slow death, and I couldn’t get the EU4 achievement I wanted with the country I was playing. And, while starting those new games, I started something else as well: let’s plays.

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