PC Gaming Discussion

[jaymo76]

Yep, I can't even begin to count the hours I have spent over the years on Civ. I spent a TON of hours of Civ III when it first came out, then jump on Civ IV first thing. Civ IV is still a blast to play. Civ V I personally don't mind. Yeah, some of the changes they made are detrimental to the game, but I still find enjoyment out of it. I agree about Civ Revolution. I got it for 360 for cheap at GameStop a year or two ago, and still have it, but damn that was sort of a disappointment. Way to simplistic and small. Obviously there's only so much you can do with a game like Civ on a console (with the various limitations vs. that of a computer), but even the battles were just completely underwhelming because there was only so much you could do.

Strategy games like that are definitely #1 for me though when it comes to PC games. Civ III, Civ IV (with Warlords and Beyond The Sword expansions), Civ V, Rome: Total War - Gold Edition, Medeval II: Total War (with Kingdoms expansion), Empire: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, Total War: Shogun 2, Supreme Ruler 2020: Gold., R.U.S.E., Wargame: European Escalation, World in Conflict (with Soviet Assault expansion), I can't get enough of those games.

Smooth, I'm a HUGE fan of the Civ series but I never ended up buying CIV 5. HOWEVER, since your first post I decided to download the demo (no expansion packs) and overall I am actually having some fun (not as complex as 4 but the city states are a nice touch). However, I also never played Rome: Total War. I have looked for a demo but can't find it. Of the two games which do you prefer?

[morsdraconis]

Total War: Shogun 2 is SUPER fuckin' fun. I suck balls at it but it's really fun. Tempted to install it again and play some more.

[JeffHCross]

Empire: Total War is what killed my gaming computer. Well, more accurately, me switching the graphics card in order to be able to play Empire: Total War is what killed it.

That probably gives you a clue how long it's been since I did PC gaming.

[SmoothPancakes]

Double post.

[SmoothPancakes]

Smooth, I'm a HUGE fan of the Civ series but I never ended up buying CIV 5. HOWEVER, since your first post I decided to download the demo (no expansion packs) and overall I am actually having some fun (not as complex as 4 but the city states are a nice touch). However, I also never played Rome: Total War. I have looked for a demo but can't find it. Of the two games which do you prefer?

I've enjoyed both, so it's a tough call. Civ 5 is definitely different and less complex, but I do like some of the additions and it's a nice change of pace. Like you, I like the city states, they are indeed a nice touch. Looking at my numbers on Steam, I've put 22 hours into Civ V and 17 hours in Rome: Total War, so they're fairly even for me. One thing with Rome: Total War, is the cities all already exist. What you're doing is going around declaring war on various factions, trying to take over territories and expand your empire, and overthrow Rome. You can start as either Julii, Brutii, or Scipiones. They all have their own attributes, initial objectives, and a couple provinces to start out. What you want to do is build your empire up to 50+ provinces, win the support of the Roman people, before declaring war on and capturing Rome yourself. Here's a little background on the time period and gameplay:

The game's main campaign is set during the rule of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire (270 BC – AD 14),[3] with the player assuming control of one of three Roman families; other factions are playable outside the main campaign. Gameplay consists of real-time tactical battles framed within a turn-based strategic campaign, taking place across Europe, North Africa and the Near East. On the large strategic scale, players spend each turn managing diplomacy, developing infrastructure, moving armies, and managing the population's growth and orderliness through taxes and gladiatorial games, among other tasks. On the smaller scale, real-time battles against enemy armies take place within or between cities, with the player commanding forces which can contain thousands of individual soldiers.

One big thing I love about Rome: Total War is the epic scale of battles. I had a battle one time, where I was defending a star fort from attack by another faction, that took literally over 4 hours just to decide the battle. They had thousands of soldiers and reinforcements that they kept throwing at the fort, I had thousands of soldiers and forces inside defending the fort, plus some reinforcements that came into battle from outside the fort. All told, when the battle was over, there was over 7,500 dead combined. Still ranks as the largest, and longest, ever battle for me on Rome: Total War.

Oh yeah, and I did find a place that has a demo for RTW. It's the playable version of the Battle of River Trebia historical battle, playing as general Hannibal.

http://www.gamershell.com/download_6784.shtml

Total War: Shogun 2 is SUPER fuckin' fun. I suck balls at it but it's really fun. Tempted to install it again and play some more.

Yeah, I bought Shogun 2 when it first came out, but I haven't gotten very deep into it. I really need to start playing it again.

[SmoothPancakes]

Empire: Total War is what killed my gaming computer. Well, more accurately, me switching the graphics card in order to be able to play Empire: Total War is what killed it.

That probably gives you a clue how long it's been since I did PC gaming.

Hell, I intentionally bought a new laptop just so I could and would be able to play Empire: Total War.

[oweb26]

Total War: Shogun 2 is SUPER fuckin' fun. I suck balls at it but it's really fun. Tempted to install it again and play some more.

I have put 107 hours into Shogun 2 tells you how much I like it. I need to finish my CPU build so I can max it out.

[SmoothPancakes]

Also, Jamyo, I don't know if you use Steam or not (I'm assuming you do), but I looked, you can get Rome: Total War for $9.99, while vanilla Civ 5 with none of the DLC is still $29.99. If anything, depending on if that link to the demo I posted above still works and the demo still work, I'd consider going with Rome: Total War for $9.99, and then sometime down the road when 2K and Steam has another sale, getting Civ 5 (either vanilla or GOTY edition) for low price.

And to give you an idea of what Rome: Total War is like, here are two game play videos I've found. They give you an idea of what takes place in Rome: Total War, between the turn-based city and unit building, and then the real time battles.

[morsdraconis]

Yup. Definitely installed Shogun 2 now.

Damn you Smooth for giving me the itch to waste hours upon hours of my free time on that game again.

[SmoothPancakes]

Yup. Definitely installed Shogun 2 now.

Damn you Smooth for giving me the itch to waste hours upon hours of my free time on that game again.

I seem to be getting pretty good at that. First NCAA 12, I can't remember but I want to think there might have been a temporary NBA 2K12 thing in there, and now Shogun 2. You can't beat good taste (and similar tastes) when it comes to games.

[morsdraconis]

I seem to be getting pretty good at that. First NCAA 12, I can't remember but I want to think there might have been a temporary NBA 2K12 thing in there, and now Shogun 2. You can't beat good taste (and similar tastes) when it comes to games.

I guess I'm just impressionable, but, yeah, similar tastes certainly helps. Now I just need you to find a RPG for me to play.

I've been so bored with video games, I've been playing old Genesis, NES, and SNES games via emulators. Reminds me of the good ol' days of video games when graphics weren't the be all end all and gameplay was king.

[JeffHCross]

And to give you an idea of what Rome: Total War is like, here are two game play videos I've found.

I loved the story element to Rome, with the SPQR and everything involved there (though that may have only been the tutorial )

[jaymo76]

Also, Jamyo, I don't know if you use Steam or not (I'm assuming you do), but I looked, you can get Rome: Total War for $9.99, while vanilla Civ 5 with none of the DLC is still $29.99. If anything, depending on if that link to the demo I posted above still works and the demo still work, I'd consider going with Rome: Total War for $9.99, and then sometime down the road when 2K and Steam has another sale, getting Civ 5 (either vanilla or GOTY edition) for low price.

And to give you an idea of what Rome: Total War is like, here are two game play videos I've found. They give you an idea of what takes place in Rome: Total War, between the turn-based city and unit building, and then the real time battles.

Especially enjoyed video 2. I can picture how much time and effort go into planning and conducting something like that. I think my cpu had a heart attack just running the video lol.

[SmoothPancakes]

Especially enjoyed video 2. I can picture how much time and effort go into planning and conducting something like that. I think my cpu had a heart attack just running the video lol.

Yeah, I actually just played a couple hours of Rome: Total War, first time in over a year, and had a nice battle tonight. I was in the middle of wars with the Gaul, Spain and Britannia when I first loaded up my old save file. Finished off and eliminated Spain and Gaul during my bit of gameplay tonight, and have whittled Britannia down to just one city left. Had one battle trying to capture Spain's second to last city. Laid siege to the city for a couple days, and then with my main army, and then 3 secondary armies as reinforcements, the battle began.

The total numbers ended up being 4,573 soldiers for me, 2,902 soldiers for Spain. Ended up lasting a good hour, hour and a half. It was easier taking the city (especially since it was a small city with only wooden walls as the city had yet to grow large enough to build stone walls), than it was the star fort with stone walls in my epic, 4 hour long battle I described in a previous post, but still costly. While I virtually destroyed the enemy's army, causing over 80% casualties, they did some major damage to me, killing over 3,200 soldiers.

Unfortunately, that delayed my attempt to take Spain's final city for a couple years. I had to hang back, get the post-city capture riots under control, get the city onto my side, and retrain my old soldiers and recruit new ones to make up the lost numbers. Ended up sending a diplomat over to Spain, gave them a sweet deal with some money and other stuff to get them to overlook the whole "we just whooped your ass and took your city not too long ago" issue and settle on a ceasefire. That gave me enough time to build my western front army back up and then go after Spain's final city. Once that was done, I focused on my northern and eastern borders. Went up north and declared war on Britannia and have currently stolen two of their territories, with them holding onto just one last city and a fort.

And over on the eastern front, I've been letting the rebels run wild as they have actually been helping me. They keep attacking and occasionally stealing cities and territories from Brutii, followed by me then coming in and defeating the rebels and taking over that city and territory as my own. With the borders of myself and Brutii right up against each other now after previous conquests, it's the only way I've been able to "steal" territories and cities from Brutii without the whole "declaring war on them and bringing the collective, combined forces of Brutii, Scipiones and S.P.Q.R down on my ass from all fronts" thing. I am nowhere near ready to take on all of the other Roman factions. So for now, I'm just attacking the factions I can, letting the Rebels do my dirty work in taking away from the territories of Brutii, and then coming in and defeating the Rebels and taking the city and territory from them to expand my borders.

We're actually getting close to the end. It's just me, Brutii, Scipiones, S.P.Q.R, one city left for Britannia (which it's just a short matter of time before I have an army ready to attack it), a couple rebel cities, Egypt (which pretty much completely dominates and owns the entire eastern border of the map, and the Greek Cities. Most everyone else has been destroyed by myself, Brutii and Scipiones.

[JeffHCross]

Personal favorite part of Rome Total War was that there was an "Arthurian: Total War" mod made: http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Arthurian:_Total_War

( At least I think it was that one. It was for Rome and was a King Arthur mod. That's all I really remember. )

[jaymo76]

Sim City (5) for 2013... I am excited!!!

[SmoothPancakes]

Interesting. It'll be nice to see a Sim City with modern graphics. It's also making me want to play Sim City 4 now, which I haven't played in a year or two.

[SmoothPancakes]

So after having wanted to buy them for a long while, Steam has DCS (Digital Combat Simulator): A-10C Warthog and DCS: Black Shark (which is the Ka-50 Black Shark attack helicopter) both 33% off through April 4th, so I decided to go ahead and finally buy them. I just downloaded and looked at the flight manuals for both aircraft, good lord. The flight manual for the A-10C Warthog is 672 pages long. The Black Shark flight manual is 534 pages long. I'm gonna be able to practically fly these bitches in real life by the time I get done reading these flight manuals.

[DariusLock]

DAMN I'm a flight junkie what specs u need to run this good?

[SmoothPancakes]

DAMN I'm a flight junkie what specs u need to run this good?

Well, I'm running it on a 3 year old laptop, so if you're on a desktop, odds are you'll be good.

Here are the requirements that they have listed on Steam.

A-10C Warthog (Came out in April 2011)

System Requirements
OS: 64-bit Windows XP, Vista, and 7
Processor: CPU: Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom X3 8750 or better
Memory: 4GB
Graphics: Shader 3.0 or better; 512MB DirectX 9.0c or better
DirectX®: 9.0c
Hard Drive: 7 GB
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible
Other: Internet connection required for activation and multiplayer

Black Shark (Came out in April 2009)

System Requirements
OS: Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7
Processor: P4 2GHz
Memory: 2 GB
Graphics: 256 MB RAM DirectX9
DirectX®: 9C
Hard Drive: 5 GB
Sound: Onboard sound or sound card
Other Requirements:

Black Shark is rated an 82 on Metascore, the Warthog an 87. With both 33% off through April 4th, Black Shark right now is $13.33 and the Warthog is $26.66. Considering the Warthog retails still for $39.99, you can both for $39.99 right now with the 33% off deal.

I just did a quick mission with the Warthog (haven't read through the flight manual yet so I was literally just plain jumping in the cockpit), and my god what a bitch that thing is to fly, at least when you have no clue what you're doing. I made it about 3-5 minutes in the air before I pressed some wrong button and completely lost all power to my engines. Of course, as I had no clue where anything was in the cockpit, I couldn't find the switches to restart the engines so I gradually glided to my death in the side of a hill.