Stately Play
Dave is going to stare at this for 9 hours tomorrow...

Stately Scrying: What we’re playing this weekend

May 25, 2018 David Neumann News 22

My long European adventure is nearly at an end. As I write this, I’m about 12 hours from boarding a plane and heading back to the midwest, far away from phenomenal mass transit. I admit that I am looking forward to driving a car again, but I’m really going to miss being able to just walk a few blocks down the street, walk down some stairs, and be able to get anywhere in the city.

I’m sure that none of you give two bits about my wanderings and wonderings, so let’s get back to business. I’ve not been able to get a scrying article out the past few weeks, but today we’re back. Sit back, read what we’re playing, and wish you were us.

Battlestar Galactica Deadlock

As our dear Leader Neumannium prepares to put his chair and tray table in an upright position for the trip back to Liberty Central, it was time to pick up the old weekender quill and pen a list of planned delights.

I’m currently putting the inbound Battlestar Galactica Deadlock DLC through its paces, ahead of its May 29th release. Being an unashamed booster for Black Lab Games‘ terrific fleet strategy, the Broken Alliance expansion is a very tasty addition to an already fine game. This hefty update brings a raft of new features to the table, with all sorts of faction-related missions, more vessels and tactical grit. Very satisfying. So say we all.

Elsewhere, I took a punt on Destructive Creations‘ Ancestors Legacy. Think Dark Ages Company of Heroes, with all the fastidious detail you’d expect out of an Eastern Bloc real-time tactical affair. The game is exactly what the doctor ordered. A crunchy, barbaric and nuanced game, Ancestors Legacy feels like a descendant of Pyro Studios’ Praetorians, whereby smaller unit numbers and condensed squads offer flexibility in place of sheer quantity. The game has alarmingly good production values, thankful brevity in scenario design and just feels like a right winner to play. Thumbs up so far, and no doubt a weekend of similar elevation.

Finally, it only took a year for Spacehulk Deathwing to come good. I’m not even mad, but those genestealer slideshows of the PC launch era were disheartening to say the least. But now, with a free Enhanced Edition update hitting concurrently with the shooter’s debut on console, lumbering around the gothic bowels of ancient starships with my AI brutes is a pleasant, double-digit experience. Whether this fibreless thumper of a co-op shooter has legs is another story, but the game is visually impeccable and peerless in presentation. Bolter rounds sound like they’d pulverise tugboats. We’re off to a good start. Thus, my digital weekend laid bare.

-Alex Connolly

Crashlands

I’m doing far more gaming on my iPad than PC these days, due largely to spending way more time outside. The recent COMBOver update reinvigorated my interest in Crashlands. I never finished it and had forgotten how good it is. It’s a great mix of crafting/survival sim and action RPG.

As for newer stuff, I’m playing the recently released digital version of the dice-based, dungeon delving One Deck Dungeon by Handelabra. It’s a lot of fun and much easier to keep track of all the cards and dice on my iPad than my kitchen table.

My short-play session game is Sir Questionnaire by Orange Pixel games. It’s a turn-based roguelike where you go delving deep into a dungeon and have two options per turn: fight or run, search a room or move on to the next, and that kind of thing. It plays quick and has all the usual RPG elements (loot, character progression) as well as some persistent benefits that help on your next play through.

-Nick Vigdahl

Destiny 2

I’m finally deep into Civ VI on the iPad, picking apart the systems I had ignored at first. I’m still not totally sold—it might be a great experience if a few systems worked more sensibly. So much to adore here, though. And Destiny 2 has turned out to be excellent-it requires a bit of discipline to avoid being sucked into playing the way the game wants you to play, rather than the way you want to play, but getting it at a bargain price means I don’t feel the need to do everything or really commit to it. It’s much like my experience with epée in college: a boring grind if done well, but if you put a couple epées in the hands of sabre fencers, there’s a lot of fun to be had. Even casual space wizard fighting offers a lot of content, so I’ll be playing that for a bit, still. And, of course, I’ll be grumpy-old-manning my way into the Ascension update on iOS. Right now, I hate it, because the thousands of games I’ve played so far mean that even a minuscule change in interface timing throws me off, but I’m hopeful that I’ll stop yelling at clouds once I’m used to it.

-Kelsey Rinella

Pocket Run Pool

Pocket Run Pool has consumed my thoughts. I have stayed up way too late the past few nights trying to perfect my bank shot technique. I think I need a support group or something, because very few games in recent memory make me this angry at myself for screwing up. For some reason, I will always go for the trick shot, even when there’s a lot of fake money at stake. There’s not even replay support to show off when I’m actually successful! Please help me.

-Tanner Hendrickson

Plane Games

As I mentioned, I’m heading back to the US tomorrow and have a 9+ hour plane ride to look forward to. This seems like a perfect time to get a marathon game of Civ VI in on my iPad, but I know that I won’t play that the entire time. Instead, I’ll be playing a mix of different games while trying to keep my eyes open. Civ VI on the iPad, Factorio on my Mac. I’ll play Twilight Struggle and Through the Ages and, probably more than any of them, Sherlock and/or Honeycomb Hotel. For some reason, logic games and flying on planes seems to be my chocolate and peanut butter.

What will I play after I land? Considering I left my wife alone with three kids for three weeks, I’m assuming that my game playing days are over for a long, long time after those tires hit the runway.

-Dave Neumann

Liked it? Take a second to support Stately Play on Patreon!

Notable Replies

  1. I’ll probably play a little Dragon Quest Builders but I’m also going to fire up Teeny Titans on iOS and give it another run through. The sequel is out in a month or so and I do think it’s a fun game.

  2. I’ll probably play One Deck Dungeon or maybe Balder’s Gate II on my tablet (thanks to the person that mentioned BGII is $2. You bastard). I wish both but probably not. I also have my old stand-by’s: Patchwork and Small World. And always Meteorfall which I prefer on phone more than tablet.

    Through the Ages is a game I have a love/hate relationship with. I think I have a strategy and half-way through the game the AIs demonstrate why that was a bad idea. Or they cheat to get the good techs. Maybe I’ll give it another shot.

    I also have a trip planned next week but will be dealing with the kids on the flight… probably not good for playing digital board games.

  3. BSG Deadlock has a very tidy after-action battle video exporter. Captures the show pretty damn well, with a very good approximation of that trademark track and zoom camera style.

  4. Avatar for CTD CTD says:

    One Deck Dungeon, though at the moment I don’t see at all how it’s possible to beat even the lowest boss on the easiest setting. So I have some learning to do. And Civ VI to fall back on.

  5. I’m sure that none of you give two bits about my wanderings and wonderings,

    Don’t think I’m alone in saying: not true!

    Holiday week, so: Terraforming Mars, Food Chain Magnate, Clash of Steel, No Honour Among Thieves, Age of Thieves, Arctic Scavengers, Trieste, John Company, and Sherlock Holmes. Oh, and High Society, because there’s a gorgeous new edition. And I just ordered my own copy of Tyrants of the Underdark…

  6. There should be a category for best offline games to play on an airplane, says a man who is flying to Peru in a few hours… South America is a really big country (joking, it is a real continent!) Mobile games are the only way I stay sane on some long flights, safe travels!

  7. Stay safe, enjoy the experience! My brain turns to custard on long flights and I end up crying at the most inane in flight films. Despite my best intentions I’ve often got the same iq as my inflight meal.

  8. Does anyone have some insights regarding the PS4 Version of Spacehulk: Deathwing?

    I usually try to go for Console Versions with shooty shooty pew-pew stuff, because it feels more natural with a controller and also like my TV more than my PC screen for that kind of stuff…

    Strictly performance-wise is it ok? Or is it a low fps stutter fest? Also what are your experiences based on? PS4 lite (hua hua) or PS4 Pro?

  9. I’ll be losing One Deck Dungeon games and keeping up with my Ascension and Star Realms turns on the iPad. Pocket Run Pool and maybe some TypeShift on my phone. Gems of War on both. And, hopefully, just one more turn of Tigris and Euphrates for the SP Decathlon so I can uninstall that game one last time.

  10. I finally got to a boss in One Deck Dungeon and lost in the second round… Can I count that as a win?

  11. Marvel Strike Force as my light, progress game. I have Battletech and slay the spire alternating on my PC, and whenever the kids pay attention I have to pop on Pokémon TCG for PC. “Can we open a packet Daddy” from all three means I might have to start trading again to keep up. 160 packs still around though…

  13. Thanks to you guys, I’m playing a lot of Slay the Spire.

    My wallet hates you all. :stuck_out_tongue:

    Also, a few games of One Deck Dungeon.

  14. Avatar for CTD CTD says:

    Finally beat a boss in One Deck Dungeon. For avoidance of spoilers I will just say that each hero plays quite differently, so it’s worth trying them all…

  15. Avatar for Tamsk Tamsk says:

    I appear to be in a classic roguelike mood this weekend, so I’ve been playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup; navigating my gargoyle fighter through the Snake Pit and the Elven Halls, next stop the Vaults (where I fully expect to die). I was going to alternate it with some Civ VI, but so far the lure of the dungeon has been too strong…

  16. I finished God of War this weekend finally. Awesome game btw.
    Tomorrow I’ll start „The Last of Us“, never played it before, and been on my backlog for very long. Curious to see what the hype is about.

  17. The new GoW, I presume?

  18. Exactly.

    The fighting is tight, graphics and music superb. Story is good, entertaining. Really enjoyed my time with it.

    My only gripe was the open world structure. Though in this particular game it is not much, and the protagonists keep making interesting conversations while doing so.
    The older I get, the more I just abhor spending my free time running around in a game, doing nothing but to get from one part of the map to another.

  19. I’m right there with you regarding open worlds. Breath of The Wild is probably the first open world game I’ve enjoyed since Grand Theft Auto 3, and there only because it was a fairly new concept. I like more linear games, for the most part. I thought Last of Us was great, so enjoy!

  20. Thanks !

    Funny, I own Breath of the Wild and hesitated to start it because I was afraid to get lost in a very long (and maybe boring) open world game again. I think I will give it a shot now, after what you said.

  21. I thought I had open world fatigue until I played BotW. It turns out that I was just exhausted with the Ubisoft school of open world design. With time I’ve come to regret ranking NieR: Automata over BotW in our GOTY rankings (but only a little)… I think it might be one of my all-time favorites, considering how much I find myself thinking about it despite not having played it for about six months now. Tiny Cartridge (my other favorite gaming blog) just had a great article about some of the feelings the game evokes and I nearly started a new game after reading it. I really don’t mean to overhype it, I just think BotW does open worlds (and nearly everything else) better than pretty much any of its competition.

  22. TL;DR: PP has feelings about OW games, a LOT of them…

    I am definitely not immune to the OW disease, having replayed every AC up to and including AC3 and finished AC:4, AC:R and AC:U as well as having yet another AC2 playthrough (including sequels) on the long bench. on top of that I finished every Yakuza up to 4 twice and have finished Y0 and Y6 recently. That did not prevent me from utterly destroying Horizon Zero Dawn and its DLC.

    However, there seems to be a fatigue setting in on another level.
    I loved RDR and finished GTA4 and GTA4LatD, however, I simply cannot go back to GTA3 and the other GTAs of the era.
    Usually, I have no problem whatsoever on playing old ugly games, I am currently playing through FF12 and the .//Hack G.U. series plus some ugly SNES/ PS1 games, yet the older GTAs don’t capture me in any way at all. I blame the Car Controls in Rockstars GTA games. I hated them with a passion in GTA 4 and I haven’t played more than a few hours of GTA3 and GTA5 yet because of them stupid cars.

    And this is coming from someone who is doing each and every little bit of boring content in MAD MAX currently, which is yet another OW game…with Cars in it. However, the car segments there are fun, like a hella lot of fun.

    But I have to admit the massive time sink these OW games are do scare me a bit. Haven’t started Witcher 3 yet, or AC:S or AC:O, Watchdogs or Sleeping Dogs…sigh…well at least for the last 2 I have the general excuse that they have cars in it…
    Thank god I am not interested in the Far Cry series (aside FC:Primal)…any more Ubification in OW games and even I would get a serious burnout syndrome.
    Curious how I bounced of Elite:Dangerous and No Man Sky…being an absolute sci-fi nerd I should really love the games…but I believe the Choice (Analysis) Paralysis in that two games is simply too much for me.
    Also the modern Fallout Games…even good (?) story and narrative cannot get me to like these ugly brown mess they consider their world. And I usually rate that over gameplay and aesthetics.

    Oh well…going back to playing Nier Automata…riding around the open world (heh) on oversized Boars because the Moose still scare me to death! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Continue the discussion discourse.statelyplay.com

Participants