Its been a while since we have had any sort of gaming discussion, and with a new year, I figured it may be fun to see what are the games people are most looking forward to. For me:
Victoria 3: Probably the most hyped I have been for a game in a long time, and so far the dev AAR and diaries have showed that its coming along pretty well, short of some balancing and stability (they have had an issue with the last few games of the AI going full chaos when it wasnt supposed to). But other than that, everything about it has been exactly what I wanted, and looks like it is a pretty major step in a positive direction for Paradox games.
Kerbel Space Program 2: Loved the first game, and it looks like KSP 2 is just going to be more but better.
Elden Ring: Me and everyone else I am sure, but still looks like it could be a very fun time. FromSoftware don't miss, and it looks like it will continue their trend as long as you are willing to git gud.
Frostpunk 2: The original is one of my favorite games of all time, so you better believe I am interest. Unfortunately, not much is known about this one other than it will take place about 30 years after the first game, and that the main conflict will revolve around oil instead of coal.
Two Points Campus: A throwback to the old, silly tycoon games, which I loved growing up. And I enjoyed their other game (Two Points Hospital), so it looks like this one is shaping up to follow the same ideal.
Amen to Victoria 3. Man I played the hell out of Victoria II. My favorite run I triggered the civil war early and crushed the south, then invaded Mexico and added another seven states or so. A few administrations later I launched an invasion of China and by the time the game ended Ghanzhou was the most productive state in the Union.
Canada was there too.
Distant Worlds 2 is on my radar. Distant Worlds was fucking great, loved how it tried to simulate population and supply lines in a space setting. I can't think of another space game where disrupting enemy logistics is a thing you can do with noticeable impact on their ability to wage war. Not exactly a pretty game, to be expected given its age.
And of course, Frostpunk 2, also already mentioned. The first was a great game, quite hard and I enjoyed my time with it. It is rare to have a city building game you can actually lose.
I guess building and strategy games are harder to shove woke shit into, so guess I'm lucky that is my preference. Although somehow BattleTech managed to fit in a tranny pilot and a hijab wearing engineer, so who knows.
Edit: how fucking sad is it that everything I'm looking forward to is a sequel? I hate that new properties are automatically suspect in this day and age.
I mean, the most fun of Paradox games is always doing the wacky shit like that, and everything with Vicky 3 shows that that will still be present, considering most of the AARs they have done so far have had just absolutely batshit things happen. I already have a few of my own playthroughs thought up for when the game actually comes out.
I am also happy that it seems like Paradox is continuing to live up to its name. Because they are still woke as a company. Meanwhile, Vicky 3 is going to have some of the most intricate options of building up your nation and its chosen population, so narrow in fact that you can almost get to the point of saying "Fuck this guy in particular" and even bring new people into slavery for no other reason than the memes.
Weeellll, I am gong to mildly defend that one. Yes, the game gives the option for trans Mechwarriors, but frankly? I have played dozens of campaigns and recruited hundreds of Mechwarriors, and I think the game has rolled me a trans pilot exactly once. So its not like they are trying to shove it in your face.
As for the engineer, remember this is Battletech. Its been lore for decades that in the thousands of years humanity has been in the stars, things like religion have come to be just a thing, and most people dont have issues with each other as now the lines are drawn on your sector of space (Glory to Marik, death to Kurita!) and your planet. Did they make the engineer a Muslim for woke points? Probably. But its at least something that can be justified due to the setting, so at least to me it avoids the usual obnoxious nature of virtue signaling and I can live with it.
True, most of the games I have been interested in are also sequels. But I have still had a decent amount of original properties that I have enjoyed recently, so they still exist.
The tranny mechwarrior is one of your starting four and based on the tranny lead developer. Might be possible to dodge that with mods, but regardless the game also makes you pick your pronouns when you start, which was my first encounter with that bullshit.
I was a kickstarter backer for Shadowrun and BattleTech, but I won't be doing so for Hairbrained studios again. I was not a bottom tier pledge for either product, but damned if I'm going to overpay to be lectured to by leftists in my entertainment.
The Hijab engineer might have gone unnoticed without the tranny insertion putting me on guard, because you're right that it would have otherwise been fairly unremarkable in setting.
Got any particularly good new properties to recommend? I'm playing Rogue Lords right now but will be fishing for another title in a few weeks or so.
Well shows you how much it really doesnt stand out, at least to me. Because I am only just now learning this (which one BTW?).
Sticking to strategy and totally new IP:
Age of Darkness: Final Stand: Takes the style of They Are Billions, but improves it in just about every way, with a better gameplay loop and some more strategy for dealing with the Nightmares compared to TABs zombies (basically, there is a day/night cycle where Nightmares are tougher at night but can drop rare loot).
Call to Arms, and Gates of Hell: Ostfront: Putting them together because Ostfront is technically a paid expansion to Call to Arms, but absolutely worth it. Both are made by the devs of the Men of War games, and so are supposed to be "realistic" RTS games, as in your guys with rifles arent going to kill a tank. CTA is modern military/War On Terror era stuff, while GOH is Russian Front WW2.
Iron Harvest: Literally WW1, Dieselpunk Company of Heroes. Walkers were invented instead of tanks, and each faction plays significantly different from each other, so you can hop around and actually have a different experience. The campaign is also pretty good.
Also not a strategy game, but I love Project Wingman, which is a love letter to Ace Combat and improves on the best aspects of the game and even fixes some things from AC. Its also got a story worthy of its master, and there too in some ways passes it.
Behemoth, the chick with the man face. Although an internet search tells me it was a friend of the lead dev, and also that they pulled up at the last second and made the character fully female due to feedback from Beta backers like myself. There was mixed pronoun dialog for this character still at launch, and apparently that got cleaned up at some point post launch. So I guess that's a win and I didn't even know we'd won it. Nice.
Iron Harvest is in the humble right now, and Age of Darkness has the best pitch of the three. I'll grab one of those after I wrap up with Rogue Lords, thanks for the suggestions.
As part of character creation, you mean? Can you pick "they" or something? I honestly can't remember.
HBS may not need your money any more since Paradox bought them.