What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Pale Violet Light]

Yeah, I found it much more playable in my most recent attempt (even though in the end I found I'd walked myself into my only option being win condition I didn't want, so I didn't finish it--

Lol did you research the kill-everyone-virus? Or was it another unpalatable ending?

Some of the things I was initially confused by have become clearer with further play, and I'm getting a better handle on the combat.

That’s promising. Unsurprisingly, these games live or die by their combat.

Missions could maybe do with a bit more variety, but again that's something that the XCOM games only really improved upon with their DLC.

Most turn-based-tactics games suffer from limited mission variety. Even Chaos Gate, which is my favourite of the recent bunch, definitely could have used a couple more mission types. Definitely thinking of the waiting for DLC for this one (is there any planned?).

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Buttpost

 

[Thomas Shey]

Lol did you research the kill-everyone-virus? Or was it another unpalatable ending?

I remember whatever it was as the New Jericho ending. As I recall the Phoenix Project ending required capturing a Scylla, which I just didn't seem up for and seemed unlikely to be able to get to before I lost.

 

[MarkB]

That’s promising. Unsurprisingly, these games live or die by their combat.

Multiclassing came as a bit of a surprise, and I'm still getting used to it after a couple of missions. Have tried to pick the additional classes with the best synergies with the originals, but I've only got to try out a couple of them in combat so far.

Seems like it'd be easy to get wrong (like, you probably don't want two different melee attacks on the same character in most cases, and having too many "this will buff my next attack" options will just mean you'll end up not using one of them) but there also seem to be some winning combos in there.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Most turn-based-tactics games suffer from limited mission variety.

I think this is where Zero Company ran out of money. Pretty much every foe is humanoid, aside from the occasional Droideka. In Star Wars they could have had creatures, small vehicles, geonosians etc. But these would clearly have required specialised models, which take time and money.

One trick they missed though was there are no hostile astromechs. Which would have been a nightmare to fight.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I think this is where Zero Company ran out of money. Pretty much every foe is humanoid, aside from the occasional Droideka. In Star Wars they could have had creatures, small vehicles, geonosians etc. But these would clearly have required specialised models, which take time and money.

You see that happen a fair bit. Its notable that the variety of opponents you could face in Battle Brothers increased notably as various DLC came out, and they had the advantage that the stylization of art styles for individuals made that easy compared to a game with full animation.

 

[MarkB]

You see that happen a fair bit. Its notable that the variety of opponents you could face in Battle Brothers increased notably as various DLC came out, and they had the advantage that the stylization of art styles for individuals made that easy compared to a game with full animation.

Part of the issue in this sort of game is pathfinding for larger opponents. The droidekka can at least curl up smaller and roll over some terrain, but other larger creatures / vehicles would struggle. Even the regular size opponents sometimes seem to either fly or teleport into place in Zero Company, especially when a bunch of reinforcements pours in en masse.

I guess flying enemies and hovering vehicles like speeders could ease some of that. It'll be interesting to see what they introduce down the line, if they add DLC.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I guess flying enemies

Geonosians/zombie genonosians.

 

[Kaodi]

Last night I finished preparations for my friend and I to do the end game. I tried to divest my 8 str gnome bard of enough stuff that I would not need to use the Mighty Cloth or Club of Hill Giant Strength. But I was only able to get it to a point where I have to use either instead of both.

 

[Gradine]

Another video game rut, another Civ VI palette cleanser