Recent reviews by smafloof

I accidentally cast a sea of alcohol across the entire dungeon and fell in, instantly making me drunk.
Trying to out-swim the ocean, I somehow lit it on fire.
Cue Yakkity Sax while I try to outrun a tsunami of flaming booze.

As a fan of top down strategy games, especially that intermingle with shooters like the Tom Clancy games of my youth, I heartily recommend this game. Stealth, quick reflexes, and a little bit of luck will go a long way.

>> After misteps by Francia, Germanic Reformed
>> Uber manly gents
>> Am Romuva
>> Reform with Enatic Clans (only women in power)
>> Reformer was man, man dies, gets venerated as reformer of the faith by daughter.
>> Catholics heckin on Denmark/Pomerania's door.
>> Not a fan. Heck on them.
>> Bro it up with the Odinssons to take down the Catholics across Europe

>>13/10 would religious-sibling roflstomp Europe again

Best Sonic game to come out since the millenium.
If you grew up in the 90's and have fond memories of a pixelated, speedy blue hedgehog, this is your jam.

I've owned Rimworld for the last couple years and have to say, if there is any part of you thinking "I might like this, but should I buy it?" The answer is a resounding yes.

WHY are you STILL reading?

Get to herding muffalo.
Get to killing raiders.
Get to training kitty cats.
Get to having mental breaks from not eating from tables.

Do all the things, and do them now.

This game is exceptionally good at drawing you into its world. From immersive voice-over, to compelling lore (enjoy reading?), each facet of this game pulls you towards it, without cheapening or simplifying hard choices. Here, there are no easy answers, no obvious solutions. You will forge formidable weapons and awesome magic, bring order from chaos (or vice-versa), and shape the world as you see fit. Through your interactions with others you will gain awe but with others noteriety. Others react to your actions in the world, which makes you feel like an agent, rather than a simple witness, or all-powerful god. You are not the only entity of worth on the board, and the atmosphere, pacing, and characterization all play into this feeling.

Paradox has crafted a game that, like Crusader Kings before it, takes a genre of gaming, and molds it into something anew. This game was obviously crafted with care. While I have minor concerns about the repetitive nature of combat, as well as the AI pathfinding being sometimes lackluster, the gripping narrative will keep you entranced. The characters that inhabit the world are vibrant, with their own motivations, concerns, and intrigues; some will help, some will hinder, some will do both, others will do neither. Altogether, this is a cozy blend of past RPG's with the emergent story-telling that Paradox does extrordinarily well. An RPG sleeper hit if I ever saw one!

For those with concerns about DLC, wait for a sale and purchase at a discount.

Viking Metal is one of the few music-based DLC I can recommend getting at full price.
The songs add an ambience and ancient feel to Norse characters, and those of the Germanic religion.
"Our Empire Will Fall" is one of the best vocal pieces in CKII, having just as much care and attention as the main theme.

For starters, this game isn't one you can manipulate like most of its ilk. You will assign people to jobs, such as building, hunting, blacksmithing, cleric-ing (?), forresting, planting, tailoring... and some will go straight to the nearest river and stare at it. You are not an all-powerful god who can crush people.
The beauty lies in its simplicity. While it lacks "tech trees" everything is able to be built from the beginning, provided you have the supplies.
And the supplies.
Oh yes, you will have to balance them. Whether its mining in a quarry, cutting down a swath of trees near town to finish some housing, or deciding to have your people labor in the dangerous iron or coal mines, everything is a balancing act. Even storing the items requires some kind of trade off: working to store items will take away work from making those items.
The music is simple and soft, yet seems to go with the environment quite well.

If I had a complaint about the game it would only be these two things: lack of diversity in the building types, as well as the inability to speed up the game more than 10x.

Having played SoaSE since its original release in 2008, I can say that this game is the definitive iteration a space RTS. It is a bit sandbox, since no campaign exists, but the back-story sets up skirmishs well enough. Rebellion has gorgeous graphics, and scales well on older machines (I had a budget laptop from 2010 that could play this on low, no dedicated graphics card).
The Titans are glorious beasts without being too overpowered, and the new Stellar Phenomena DLC adds more ambience to Rebellion. The sense of scale is astounding: you can go from managing a single colony ship, to watching a massive fleet duke it out over a resource-rich terran world.
Each race has a different UI, which helps with immersion, as well as very well-made musical pieces that is played during gameplay.

As a King of Scotland, I married my cousin, killed my uncle, had a son, killed my cousin-wife, then married her widowed mother (my aunt).

11/10.
Would incest again.

EDIT: New game, with Old Gods + Charlamagne

>>As Empire of Scandinavia, I control the entirity of Europe. All of it.
>>And Constantinople. And Jerusalem.
>>Egypt is Germanic.
>>Forced to mary distant relatives because we own everything.
>>Lolz

12/10
Would form Norse Francian Empire again.

EDIT: New game, Holy Fury
>> After misteps by Francia, Germanic Reformed
>> Uber manly gents
>> Am Romuva
>> Reform with Enatic Clans (only women in power)
>> Reformer was man, man dies, gets venerated as reformer of the faith by daughter.
>> Catholics heckin on Denmark/Pomerania's door.
>> Not a fan. Heck on them.
>> Bro it up with the Odinssons to take down the Catholics across Europe

>>13/10 would religious-sibling roflstomp Europe again