Overwatch is a good game. No joke. People hate on it not for the game but for the devs. That’s why it has negative reviews but such a big player base each day.
overwatch 1. Hero shooter, it was going to be an MMO.
Overwarch 2. Was going to be a new* game with a brand new PVE mode that people have wanted for years. Probably since the first Halloween event. Blizzard decided randomly to scrap that idea after selling it to the fans. Dick move right.
Then they decide to remove the loot system. Which was fine I guess except now everything was 100% battle pass or pay for special things.
This is where I gave up. Because in a nutshell they took overwatch 1 and released overwatch 1 +1. Only difference is the name, got rid of some freeby features blah blah blah.
That’s why people don’t like it.
However. It’s been out for a long time and a new generation is going from Roblox to more mature games. So if you’ve never played OW before at all. Then absolutely it’s a fun game. And I’m glad you find it fun and have a good time playing it.
Its weird how annoying the battle pass system is. On the one hand I get it, they want that sweet battle pass money that everyone else is getting, and I don’t really care about cosmetics anyway.
On the other hand, I paid full price for 1, and was willing to pay for the PvE, and it feels like they just said “fuck you pay me” out of nowhere.
Jagged Alliance 2 (especially with the 1.13 mod) is the most ludicrously detailed tactical RPG you’ll ever find. It can be a nightmare to actually play until you spend many, many hours learning all its systems, but nothing else comes close immersion-wise. You can customize every mercenary’s loadout down to individual weapon attachments, capturing different parts of the map gives bonuses that actually make sense (like being able to ship in weapons once you’ve taken the airport), you can train militias to hold onto captured sectors for you, and you can even use the in-game internet to send flowers to the main villain.
Just tried it, and it was some other game I was thinking of; I hadn’t played JA3 yet.
While I haven’t finished the game, thoughts:
It’s the strongest of the post-2 Jagged Alliance games that I’ve played.
Still not on par with JA2, at least relative to release year, I’d say also in absolute terms.
My biggest problem — I’m running this under Proton — is some bugginess that I’m a little suspicious is a thread deadlock. When it happens, I never see the targeting options show up when I target an enemy, and trying to go to the map or inventory screen doesn’t update the visible area onscreen, though I can blindly click and hear interactions. The game also doesn’t ever exit if I hit Alt-F4 in that state, just hangs. AFAICT, this can always be resolved by quicksaving (which you can do almost anywhere), stopping the game (I use kill in a terminal on Linux) and reloading the save, but it’s definitely obnoxious. Fortunately, the game starts up pretty quickly. Nobody on ProtonDB talking about it, so maybe it’s just me. I have not noticed bugs other than this one.
So far, not much by way of missions where one has to figure out elaborate ways of getting into areas or the like: more of a combat focus. I have wirecutters, crowbars, lockpicks, and explosives, like in JA2, but thus far, it’s mostly just a matter of clicking on a locked container with someone who has lockpicking skill. Probably more realistic — in real life, an unattended door isn’t going to stop anyone for long — but I kinda miss that.
The maps feel a lot smaller to me, though the higher resolution might be part of that. A lot of 3d modeling to make them look pretty. There’s a lot more verticality, like watchtowers.
The game also feels considerably shorter than JA2, based on the percentage of the strategic map that I’ve taken. That being said, JA2 could get a bit repetitive when one is fighting the umpteenth enemy reinforcement party.
Unique perks for mercs that make them a lot more meaningful than in JA2 (though also limit your builds). For example, Fox can get what is basically a free turn if she initiates combat on a surprised enemy. Barry auto-constructs explosives each day.
Thematic feel of the mercs from JA2 is retained well.
Interesting perk tree.
A bunch of map modifiers like fog that have a major impact.
Bunch of QoL stuff for scheduling concurrent tasks for different mercs.
Pay demands don’t seem to rise with level, though other factors can drive it up (e.g. Fox will demand more pay if you hire Steroid).
Feels easier than JA2, though I haven’t finished it.
I’m pretty sure the keybindings are different.
Tiny thing, but I always liked the start of JA2, where your initial team does a fast-rope helicopter insertion into a hostile sector. Felt like a badass way to set the tone. No real analog in JA3.
I started running into guys with RPGs early on in JA3, much earlier than in JA2.
JA2 has ground vehicles and a helicopter and they require you to obtain fuel. Transport logistics don’t exist in JA3, other than paying to embark on boat trips at a port (and just checked online to confirm that they aren’t just in the late game).
More weapon mods in JA3. Looks like some interesting tradeoffs that one has to make here, rather than just “later-game stuff is better”.
For me, it was a worthwhile purchase — even with the irritating bug I keep hitting — and I would definitely recommend it over the other post-JA2 stuff if you’ve played JA2 and want more. It hasn’t left me giggling at the insane amount of complex interactions that were coded into the game like JA2 did, though, which were kind of a hallmark of the original.
Thanks for the detailed write-up! I’ll have to pick it up at some point; even if it doesn’t hit the same highs as JA2, there hasn’t really been much else that comes close and a more modern coat of polish would be welcome.
What did you think of the new aiming system? I’ve heard mixed things, but it sounded good to me (or at least way better than a flat percentage).
What did you think of the new aiming system? I’ve heard mixed things, but it sounded good to me (or at least way better than a flat percentage).
I don’t know what the internal mechanics are like, haven’t read material about it. From a user standpoint, I have just a list of positive and negative factors impacting my hit chance, so less information about my hit chance. I guess I’d vaguely prefer the percentage — I generally am not a huge fan of games that have the player rely on mechanics trying to hide the details of those mechanics — but it’s nice to know what inputs are present. It hasn’t been a huge factor to me one way or the other, honestly; I mean, I feel like I’ve got a solid-enough idea of roughly what the chances are.
even if it doesn’t hit the same highs as JA2, there hasn’t really been much else that comes close and a more modern coat of polish would be welcome.
Yeah, I don’t know of other things that have the strategic aspect. For the squad-based tactical turn-based combat, there are some options that I’ve liked playing in the past.
And there’s X-Com. I didn’t like the new ones, which are glitzy, lots of time spent doing dramatic animations and stuff, but maybe I should go back and give them another chance.
Enter the Matrix, I loved the slowmo effects and the fights, the first hallway scene felt like it was straight from the movie. Using the computer terminal to unlock stuff felt magical. Only later I learned that Path of Neo was supposed to be a better Matrix game while Enter the Matrix was universally panned. And I’ve played it too, but didn’t get as much enjoyment out of it, it just didn’t have as much soul
Same, as a kid i had no idea if the controversy to and was still waiting on a sequel for some time after. I thought it was a novel idea and it was my first proper foray into Norse mythology.
That scared the crap out of me as a child. Absolutely no warning that it was coming.
Also its not anywhere because the company that made it doesnt exist any more so technically nobody has the rights to sell it. There’s going to be a lot more legal technicalities than that but that’s basically it.
Yeah, it terrified me too! It was also just one of those things that kind of made it seem like games were magic, in a way? Like, it was so unexpected and it expanded what a game could do in my child mind to such an extent that suddenly they could do almost anything! I miss that.
Ugh, sucks to hear it’s unlisted due to some legal technicalities. That’s a shame.
I’m a total dullard when it comes to these things but like, if you disconnect your machine from the internet so no outside checks can be made… Wouldn’t it just run as usual?
I believe it uses DRM that doesn’t work on newer Windows versions. There’s a fan patch that removes the drm and the game should run. Online (being connected to the internet) is probably not an issue.
Does DRM work without an internet connection? I always assumed that sort of thing needed to be able to communicate with a server somewhere to check… Something? 😅 Or is it just that the DRM used in this case actually just breaks in an unintentional way when running on new Windows systems and locks the game into not being able to boot?
If you remember the “glory days” pre ubiquitous constant internet connections, you had to enter a big long code when installing any software. I think the principle is that the license key is some sort of decryption key that unlocks a core part of the software which would otherwise prevent it running.
I do! I see okay, so it’s like the private key is stored within the ROM somewhere, and that activation code is like a public key that just decrypts based on the locally stored private key, making anti-piracy software work whether online or offline. Quite clever, really! Thanks 😊
In the first one at least it would whisper “deaaath” if a follower died and there was no graveyard built. Terrified me hearing that the first time playing at night
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