eXplorminate: All That Glitters Is Not Gold

A lot of 4X strategy games released in the past couple of years had some major shortcomings at release... Why?

Fellow 4X gamer Oliver "Mezmorki" Kiley from Explorminate shares what kind of issues have been plaguing most 4X strategy titles released in the past 5 years.  He pretty much hits the nail right on the head for the most part.

Here's a quick teaser before you dive into the whole article.

With the release of Endless Space 2 (ES2), a wave in the space 4X ocean has crested. The “Big 4” space 4X games –  Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars (MoO:CTS), Galactic Civilizations III (GalCiv3), Stellaris and ES2 – have all landed within the past year along with major expansions for GalCiv3 and Stellaris amidst a host of other titles.

And yet I can’t help but feel let down by the collective state of 4X gaming – specifically the prolific bugs and unrefined mechanical systems – especially considering that the above games were released by major, established developers. What began as an era of unprecedented promise and excitement has given way to the malaise of an after party hangover.

Example #1: Development of MoO:CTS appears to have stalled shortly after release with the game failing to have a lasting appeal among the core 4X audience. Will we get any additional content? Probably not. Example #2: GalCiv3 was a buggy mess that under-delivered compared to the highly touted and respected Galactic Civilizations II. Example #3: Stellaris, the innovative darling has just recently, at the one-year mark started to feel polished – but it too has been plagued by bugs and mechanical systems that remain lackluster. Example # 4: ES2 was released as an unpolished beta – and despite the preview build being solid, the release version was riddled with new bugs and plenty of balance issues remain.

So what happened? 

Read the full article on eXplorminate: All That Glitters Is Not Gold - eXplorminate

FreeOrion v0.4.7

The folks over at freeorion.org released a new stable a few days ago. I gave it a quick try tonight in order to see if it’s more stable and optimized than v0.4.6 and it definitely is. v0.4.6 felt sluggish during some games and turn processing was slow most of the time, even in a small galaxy. This one feels all right and seems to be properly optimized. 

Project Space Sector

Project Space Sector is a spiritual successor to Master of Orion 2, the turn-based space 4X strategy game from the 90’s that we love so much. This will be a faithful successor, that is true in spirit to the series. With all the complexity and depth of a big and complex 4X game.

You can follow the team’s progress here:
Space Sector | Everything about Space and Sci-Fi Strategy Games.

I’ve been following this blog for years. The folks behind both the blog and the game know what they’re doing, so the result should be very interesting. I hope they’ll be able to give an estimated release date in the next few months.

To be continued…

Riven: More Cryptic Than I Expected

Last year, I enjoyed a great timeless classic: Myst. This time, I decided to go ahead and play Riven, The Sequel to Myst. I knew, among other things, that Riven is considered the hardest episode in the Myst series, but I had no idea how that would translate in the game.

As I expected, Riven is an amazing game. Cryptic, but amazing.

Petition for Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis Special Edition

Went2Play, a studio founded by Patrik Spacek has been working on a special edition of the classic 90s PC game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. It features remastered graphics and everything it needs to feel like a brand new game. Problem is, they don’t have the rights. Disney does.

There’s currently an online petition asking Disney Studios to give them the rights to release the game. Their objective is to collect 5 000 signatures in order to present the petition to Disney.

You can sign the petition here:
Give Went2Play rights to develop a IJ: Fate of Atlantis Special Edition!

They need less than 600 signatures as of now.

Master of Orion: Revenge of Antares DLC

The battle to conquer Orion is set to become even more challenging. On December 1, Master of Orion’s anticipated “Revenge of Antares” DLC will become available, giving access to independent civilizations, a new victory condition and more. The expansion also introduces three new playable races to the massive galaxy. Arriving in the DLC expansions are the Trilarians, Gnolam, and Elerians — formidable aliens that will open up new paths to victory as commanders strive for dominance of the galaxy.

Read more:
Master of Orion: Revenge of Antares DLC Announcement | Steam

The Legend of Zelda: 1st Quest

Last weekend, I beat the Legend of Zelda’s 1st quest on the NES. Last time I made it through the whole 9 levels was about 15 years ago. I still remembered pretty much everything, it’s like I never stopped playing at all.

I had to play using Zelda Classic, the open source PC remake because I didn’t repair my NES yet.

My USB NES controller is super cheap, so the D-PAD isn’t always as responsive as an original controller. That’s why I’ll wait until I repair my NES to beat the extra challenging 2nd quest.

To be continued!

F-ZERO

After playing F-ZERO X the other day, I decided to go full retro and play its original SNES predecessor, F-ZERO. A true 1991 classic. I’ve been playing it quite a bit in the past few weeks.

After all these years, I think it’s still my favorite game of the franchise. The gameplay is fast, the tracks are unique, and the game is still exciting to play, 25 years later.

The game is incredibly challenging at higher difficulty levels, so replayability is pretty decent here. I remember beating the Knight and Queen Leagues on Master difficulty back then. But I was never able to beat the King League on Master, ever. I don’t play on a regular basis anymore, so it’s highly unlikely I’ll beat it anytime soon…

Myst

Talk about some Retro Gaming!

I’ve wanted to play this game for ages (!) but never got to it for some reason. With the new Obduction game coming out in June, I figured it was time to dive right in and start with the first Myst game.

I decided to get my hands on RealMyst: Masterpiece Edition. It’s the 3D remake of the original Myst. Myst being a 1993 game, it’s pretty obvious that it doesn’t run that good on today’s computers. I tried it because it was my first choice, but it was pretty unstable on my Windows 7 system. That’s why I had to go with RealMyst.

I’m usually a fan of old (and old looking) games, but I have to say that RealMyst looks amazing. The atmosphere the game has under this 3D engine is very impressive.

I made my way through 2 ages as of now. Most of the enigmas need you to make use of your logic and common sense, which is absolutely compelling.

For $17.99, you get RealMyst Masterpiece Edition on GOG:
http://www.gog.com/game/real_myst_masterpiece_edition