He is 92, clearly lip-syncing and looks like a Disney animatronic performing on stage. Does he owe 100 mil? 200 mil? Did they threaten his entire family? Why is he still performing?
Welcome to part 2! My father, who passed away in 2016, liked to play retro video games, and I used to like to watch him. Now I'm trying to beat every game I remember watching him playing (full list below). I think after I finish every game I'll make a video...
Funny story, when I watched my Dad play Total Annihilation (TA) as a kid I remember thinking all the units looked so tiny. Maybe it was the perspective or the resolution he was playing at but I remember them looking like toys.
TA is a great game! For some reason I thought it came out before Starcraft (SC) but it actually came out about half a year before it. They're both sci-fi RTS games so the comparisons are inevitable. One of the main differences between the games is resource management. In SC if you don't have enough minerals/gas you won't be able to build and a voice will tell you 'need more gas'. In Total Annihilation you can build however much you want, but if your incoming supply is lower than output (shown by +/- signs next to the resources) you'll 'nanolathe', which means you'll still build but much, much slower until you can either increase your input or lower your output by building less.
Also, my base tended to be much more spread out in TA. The reason is that one of the materials you need, metal, is usually only found on metal patches where you lay an extractor, and these can be spread out across the map. However, solar power can be generated pretty much everywhere. So you'll need to spread out your base and defenses to get the materials you need. In other RTS games, you are usually confined to one space until you make an 'expansion' base elsewhere.
I really like the premise of the game: Humans are living a pretty great life with technology until they discover a way to permanently transfer human consciousness into a robot body, making us essentially immortal unless the robot body is destroyed. The overseeing faction, CORE, wants to make it galactic law to transfer consciousness to eliminate all disease and death. But a rebel faction, ARM, doesn't want to toss away their human bodies. Thus begins a 4,000 year war. It's interesting because ARM are seen as the 'defending the humans' faction but in the manual the only way they can compete is to clone their best human pilots to pilot these massive machines. But imagine being 'born' as one of these clones and your only purpose in life is to die for this massive war that began before you were born. That seems a bit dystopian to me.
Anyways, whichever campaign you play you are the Commander, and you actually take physical form on the battlefield. If you lose him (yourself) you automatically lose so you need to take care of him but he is really overpowered. He has an ability called 'D-Bomb; which decimates everything in sight, and although it uses 400 solar power, with just a few solar plants you have more than enough to spam it. For the first several missions of the game actually, you can beat it using solely your commander.
I played on normal difficulty and the main challenge during the campaign is mostly breaking through the enemy defenses, as the enemy rarely attacks enough to actually destroy your base as long as you put up basic towers (the last few missions they put up a bit more of a fight). This makes it a war of attrition most of the time. Especially during the naval missions, the best ships take forever to build (even with speeding it up using your commander or construction ship), so sometimes things go slowly. The ships also move at a snails pace, however it should be noted the game speed can easily be raised/lowered by pressing the +/- keys.
I found 'towering' to be a good strategy on ground missions (building towers near their base), while the naval missions I bought scout planes to get site on enemy towers/ships while I blasted them from afar. During the final CORE missions though, there are a lot more hills so towers can't always hit, so you need to make tons of units. In some of the later missions, it is frustrating because the enemies start with so, so, so many units and towers to defend that I could only take them out little by little.
One thing the game does great is realistic ballistics. Usually in these games units are nearly guaranteed to hit, but in TA if there is something in the way or a unit moves too fast you can oftentimes miss. This puts some strategy on the player to 'lead' a target with a d-bomb or use fast units to avoid enemy fire. The visual effects on the explosions are amazing and diverse also, as shown in the screenshots.
Overall, the gameplay is comparatively good compared to Starcraft. However, SC has more memorable characters with in-game dialogue and interactions, whereas TA only has a narrator before each mission who essentially just says "The enemy is fighting back, you need to kill them'. I'd love to get more lore besides what's in the manual. However, the different environments are really cool as during the campaign you're basically chasing the enemy to their home planet through different galactic gates. Each planet is different (the home planet of ARM is the nature planet, home planet of CORE is the metal planet, there are windy planets, planets with meteor showers, etc.) so it makes each mission unique besides being ground mission/air mission/water mission.
I will say though the controls took some getting used to as RTS mechanics weren't fully established at the time and having to press 'alt + 1' instead of just '1' to go to my grouped units was a bit cumbersome. However, the gameplay, visuals, sound effects and overall polish more than make up for it. It's a great nostalgic game to go back and try.
8/10
List of Dad Games Completed:
Diablo 1 (+ Hellfire)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
Fallout 1 + 2
Gauntlet IV (Genesis)
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (+ HOTA)
The Horde (DOS)
Jagged Alliance (DOS)
Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis)
Redneck Rampage
StarCraft 1
Total Annihilation
Ultima Underworld
Warcraft 2
Xcom (DOS)
Yet to Beat:
>!Myst!<
>!Lemmings? (not gonna make a post on this one haha)!<
>!Destroy All Humans (not retro enough apparently so might make a post about a different dad game)!<
>!SECRET GAME: Hint 2: Space!<
Do kids really not read anymore?
Welcome to part 1 of my 'Honoring My Father' series! My Dad passed away in 2016 and I'm on a mission to beat all of the games I remember watching him play as a kid (full list down below). I recently beat both Jagged Alliance and Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (as well as the unofficial expansion Horn of the Abyss!)
I was very, very young when Jagged Alliance (DOS) came out and I only remember playing it a couple times because It's really, really hard. There is no WAY I could beat this as a kid. This is a game where reading the manual is a NECCESSITY to understand all the functions and controls of the game. Even after reading the entire 60 page manual, there were things halfway through I had to look up (like to point a character a certain direction you need to HOLD right click and then left click, like who would know about that?)
The story is pretty simple: There is a life-saving antidote that comes from the trees of an island but Lucas Santino wants it for his own nefarious means. The object of the game is to take control of the island (named Metavira) sector by sector (6x10 grid) with a team of 1-8 mercenaries. Each sector is a differently designed 'combat zone' and you'll only capture it after defeating the 1-8 enemies in the zone. Sounds simple right? Well you start with one sector, in a cash deficit and Lucas will periodically attack any sector you take. So you need to pay for guards on the outlying sectors, as well as 'tappers' who can help you tap the trees on each sector for sap and therefore money.
The real complications come with the team, managing your cash flow, inventory management, deciding which mercenaries to take out or who to spend a day repairing items (guns often jam), healing other mercenaries (who will also be out for the day) or simply resting or training. By the way, each day lasts about an hour IRL and at the end of each day you'll see how much cash you gained or lost and Isaac (the main good guy scientist) will update you on any new information.
Here's where the combat comes in. You have action points which are pretty standard for retro games but in order to shoot and hit the enemy mercs you need a DIRECT line of sight. Otherwise there is almost 0% chance your guy/gal will hit, especially at the start of the game when the mercs are worse and the guns are inaccurate. So taking cover is really overpowered and half of combat is spent trying to outmaneuver the opponent to get a shot in.
Also, there is a BREATH METER. The island is hot and your breath will slowly go down if you use up all your AP in one turn. Lower breath means less AP to do tasks. Your breath will also lower when you're swimming, oh and by the way there are SNAKES in the water and if you don't have a knife in your hand your merc is automatically dead. The snakes will randomly try to drown mercs, and there is hardly any way to predict where they are.
And did I talk about landmines? Sometimes there are hints of where landmines are (explosive marks on ground) but if you're not using a metal detector sometimes they pop out of nowhere. But the metal detector is so slow and cumbersome to use, it makes it so annoying. I get they were going for a 'life-like' combat situation though.
I'll be honest it was really, really frustrating at first and I save-scummed a lot but near the end I decided to replay it without 'quick-saving' during combat (on normal difficulty). It added a lot of intensity and challenge that I actually really enjoyed (the final sector with unlimited respawning enemies is straight BS though.). I don't blame anyone that 'quick-saves' during combat though because sometimes even if you know an enemy is behind a door unless you blow it up they can take down your best merc with the 'interrupt' mechanic.
Oh yeah, the interrupt. Basically any unused APs can be used during an opponent's turn if an enemy comes into your line of sight, and the opponent can 'interrupt' as well. Really annoying cause when an enemy 'interrupts' your turn with all their AP they can mess up your entire squad.
Oh and only after restarting did I find you could modify guns/armor with compound-17 and a 'piece of steel' (which it never mentions in the manual, imagine that?). I tried to use the internet to figure things out the least amount possible to get the true 'retro' experience. But some items can be 'combined' and I didn't want to waste time trying all combinations (also each item can and will degrade in quality and making incorrect item combos can do that).
Overall I'd give the game a 7/10 and maybe the future Jagged Alliance games were better but I enjoyed the true retro experience. The voice acting was really really good for the time and once I understood everything, the game had a 'just wanna capture one more sector' kind of feel. I enjoyed the challenge because It's rare that a game is this in-depth and kicks my butt on normal difficulty. There were also sidequests like rescuing the kidnapped scientist Brenda or finding the cure for a spreading disease that added variety to the game.
As for Heroes of Might and Magic 3, I beat the campaigns and there's not much to say that hasn't been said about it but if you enjoy that game, Horn of the Abyss is a fan-made expansion that's insanely difficult but improves upon the original game in every single facet. It took me at least 250 hours to beat that campaign alone.
Welp, here's the full list of games I've beaten and haven't beaten. There are only 5 games left to beat (now 4 plus one bonus game) so that's why it's a 5 part series! Until next time!
List of Dad Games Completed:
Diablo 1 (+ Hellfire)
Dragon Warrior (NES)
Fallout 1 + 2
Gauntlet IV (Genesis)
Heroes of Might and Magic 2
Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (+ HOTA)
The Horde (DOS)
Jagged Alliance (DOS)
Phantasy Star 2 (Genesis)
Redneck Rampage
StarCraft 1
Ultima Underworld
Warcraft 2
Xcom (DOS)
Yet to Beat:
>!Total Annihilation!<
>!Lemmings? (Bonus)!<
>!Myst!<
>!Destroy all Human!!<
>!No spoilers! Hint: The first game I remember my Dad beating was released in 1990!<
Never heard of this band but got a Youtube recommendation, anybody know anything about them? Super deep mid-2000s cut.
With the defeat of the Stop Killing Games initiative in the European Commission, GTA6 announcing it will be digital only and Sony getting rid of physical media shouldn't people be supporting platforms like Good Old Games? I just noticed and donated to their GOG preservation program after downloading Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Chronicles but isn't the meaning of Stop Killing Games similar to the goal of the GOG program in that games should be playable in some format (as long as you've purchased it?).
If you've paid for the game, you should be able to play the game; And I love playing old games on modern systems. But in the future, modern games will (obviously) be old games. That doesn't mean that developers need to constantly update their games for modern systems but it should at least be playable for systems as they are.
I've supported and donated to SKG, but it really feels like everything now has turned into a 'rental' without the 'rental' discount. Publishers want people to not give a fuck about games 10+ years old so people will buy the new shit but honestly fuck that.
To be frank I've been on a mission to beat all the old games my Dad played before he passed away in 2016, and if it wasn't for modern patches or preservation sites that would never have been possible. So I wish more people would support apps like GOG that let you physically download the files and support modern optimization rather than glorified 'rental services' like Playstation and Xbox where in 10 years your game won't mean shit. And this is coming from someone who LOVES the Playstation 3 and ESPECIALLY the PlayStation 2.
I finally completed the quadfecta of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 games (Restoration of Erathia, Shadow of Death, Armageddon’s Blade and Horn of the Abyss) as part of my mission to beat all the games I would watch my Dad play as a little kid, before he passed away in 2016.
He liked to play a lot of strategy and puzzle-like games, few of which I could master as a kid. After beating Horn of the Abyss, the original campaigns were a grind but manageable, and there were only a few campaigns where I really had to min-max heroes in-between scenarios like I did in HOTA. Honestly after hundreds if not a thousand hours into this game I am pretty burnt out and ready for something new, so I’m putting this game down for a few years at least.
Here’s a list of other ‘dad games’ I’ve beaten if anyone is curious:
- The Horde (DOS)
-Heroes of Might and Magic 2
-Gauntlet IV
-Warcraft 2 (and Dark Portal)
-Diablo 1 (and Hellfire)
-StarCraft
- Xcom: UFO Defense (DOS)
-Phantasy Star 2
-Fallout 1 and 2
-Dragon Warrior (NES)
(Probably more)
Yet to beat:
-Myst
-Total Annihilation
-Redneck Rampage
-Wing Commander
-Jagged Alliance
-Destroy all humans!
I am a flight attendant.
Last night our flight landed in X and we were supposed to go to Y, but our flight to Y got canceled and our crew got reassigned to work the flight to Z.
After our plane got to the gate in X I informed the gate agent we had 3 passengers requesting wheelchair assistance, but as it goes, the airport was a mess and the wheelchair people never showed up. One woman, when getting off, asked where the assistance was and I told her I let them know but it was going to be a few minutes. I said she could wait on the wheelchair that was on the jetbridge or, if she was okay with it, she could wait at the top near the gate.
She was very frustrated but went up top. Once everyone got off and we did our final checks, we all went up top and I saw the same woman getting frustrated with the agent. The agent then literally just walked away (the wheelchair assistance still hadn’t shown up) and me and my crew began to walk away. I looked back and the woman was having a full on panic attack and breakdown. My crew told me ‘it’s not our responsibility’ but I was thinking ‘what the fuck, clearly this person is not okay on their own and needs some help’.
Our flight to Z was already delayed by 4 hours but I decided to stay with the woman. First, I approached another gate agent who said he was busy ‘closing out a flight’ and at this point I was getting frustrated. This woman told ke she was autistic, physically and mentally disabled, and I saw she had a connecting flight (and I offered to bring her to her gate) but she said she needed a wheelchair. She was crying, having a panic attack and a breakdown and two people had just walked away from her. She also told me she hadn’t flown since 9/11.
Anyways finally I found an agent and told her someone was having a panic attack and needed assistance to their next flight. He asked if she needed medical assistance and I said I don’t think so, she just needs a wheelchair for her next gate. The wheelchair assistance finally cane and the woman gave me a fist bump and a hug.
I went back to my crew and one made a sassy comment that I did my ‘good deed for the month’. I was just annoyed not because this woman was gonna complain about our company but everyone abandoned her because she was acting angry and erratic, but I could see something else was going on. I delayed our next flight and extra 15 minutes but if I get in trouble for it I’ll say there was a medical event and literally nobody else was helping her.
Anyways it was frustrating and many people here will say It’s fake probably but I really don’t care, just needed to get it off my chest.
It had A Lot Like Vegas And Fifteen Fathoms Counting but they sound exactly like the originals.
I’d post a screenshot hut images not allowed (mods please delete this if needed just looking for an answer)
6 months ago I posted about the OG campaign's difficulty (specifically the Dragon Slayer campaign) saying it was too difficult, and the highest upvoted comment told me to 'not even try hota'.
Today, after several hundred hours, I have beaten EVERY hota campaign on hard (rook) difficulty (some missions on queen difficulty) INCLUDING the infamous Forged in Fire campaign that took a couple hundred hours on its own. I did this with the recent patches as well that made certain enemy heroes harder and added other things like more border gates/enemies to reach spells or ally heroes.
I've played on and off since 6 months ago but I always made progress, which kept pulling me back. I haven't decided if I want to do the OG campaigns (still have only beaten RoE) but I'm looking forward to the upcoming Bulwark campaign!
And kudos to the devs, the quality of life changes over the original game is what kept me coming back, and I never gave up cause even though it was difficult as hell, I always knew it was possible. Your work is appreciated.