tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post2970621473159743328..comments2024-03-28T13:43:13.495+00:00Comments on Super Adventures in Gaming: Crusader Kings II (PC)Ray Hardgrithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-10017012661548254942014-04-23T13:01:13.864+01:002014-04-23T13:01:13.864+01:00No argument here.
I've only played CK1 but I ...No argument here.<br /><br />I've only played CK1 but I can try to tell why I cared. It let me tinker: build a new kingdow on the periphery and make it as advanced as possible. Inventions are spread more often than discovered, so to help them along I'd cover the land in roads, schools, and monasteries. Then I'd go "Yay, my realm is now using double-entry bookkeeping!" CK2 seems to blandly have the player reach Town Infrastructure 5 instead of having the people on one peninsula get really good at making cheese.<br /><br />I quickly got into the characters. When my ruler first became a king I decided he'd be known as "the Seventh" because, centuries later, some fool would try to legitimize his reign by inventing more. Then I thought "Oh no, here we go."<br /><br />The characters gave me faces to punch, or times when I just had to hold on because the dynasty was playing musical chairs with the throne. The king was succeeded by his eldest son: genius, master strategist, possible adulterer with his eldest sister. A flood of little vassals flocked to him when Germany disintegrated. He was succeeded by his half-brother, who spent most of his reign fighting against rebels to keep his engorged realm together, despite having no talent for command whatsoever. I played him as the most annoyed person in the world. He was succeeded by his son, the emperor, who saw ten years of great rule and twenty years of homicidal insanity. He got special events and everything.Kizornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-62653027323854971352014-04-01T09:28:35.656+01:002014-04-01T09:28:35.656+01:00A tutorial... from Hitler? Hearts of Iron 3 has ju...A tutorial... from Hitler? Hearts of Iron 3 has just crept a little higher on my list of games I need to see.<br /><br />Yeah, I think the game really needs some kind of introduction at the start which states very clearly "This game is about people; marrying them off, scheming against them, and trying to prolong your family's hold on power. Sure you can do lots of other stuff, but that's what you need to be focusing on." Maybe even a little demonstration of what can go right and what can go wrong. <br /><br />Though to be honest, even when I understood the importance of the diplomacy options I still found it hard to care. I guess I might just lack the natural healthy human urge to dominate all of Europe. It's a shame really, because everyone else I know who owns the game loves the thing. All the signs point to it being really good when it's clicked with you. Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-40478917813071665602014-03-31T22:16:43.693+01:002014-03-31T22:16:43.693+01:00Yeah requests are still cool, though the further d...Yeah requests are still cool, though the further down the alphabet they are the more likely I am to have a slot free for them. D and E are pretty much locked up now for sure.<br /><br />I cannot accept your request for Heretic however... as it is already part of my sinister schemes. The second half of May is my best guess for when I'll have that up. I've bought a virtual stack of Hexen series games to write about in fact, so expect the rest of them when you see them.<br /><br />I realise it's awkward and fairly ridiculous to have game series split up by a whole year like this, but I promise I'll be bending the rules to get at least two popular first/third person shooter franchises written up in their entirety before this alphabetic gimmick is over. Unless I screw everything up or my PC explodes, in which case I won't.Ray Hardgrithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18436491500347661133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-47415336322411107822014-03-31T20:46:13.086+01:002014-03-31T20:46:13.086+01:00Hey Ray! Thanks for giving Max Payne (PC) full fle...Hey Ray! Thanks for giving Max Payne (PC) full fledged playtrough article. I see that you came up with alpabetical system for this year. Do you still take requests for upcoming next letters? I have one for "H". This blog already has articles for all main Build engine based games but still misses few DooM engine based ones. So I have request for one game from Heretic/HeXen series by Raven software. I let you pick which one. (But I wouldnt mind of you could possibly take on this series in chronological order in future.) Thanks. :)Patrik Tokarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04480060849217537363noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-46767235985740005402014-03-28T14:42:22.648+00:002014-03-28T14:42:22.648+00:00Yeesh. Sorry to hear that you had a rotten time. I...Yeesh. Sorry to hear that you had a rotten time. I like this series of games, but I don't know how I got into them, let alone what's the best way, and the designers wouldn't use it anyway. Their best tutorial is probably in Hearts of Iron 3, and that's just because the guy giving the tutorial is Hitler and he shoots himself in the end.<br /><br />There's no way to win Crusader Kings 2. Normally that might be the kiss of death - it's why SimCity and me don't get along - but CK2 banks on its ability to provide short-term goals and on making the players work to avoid losing.<br /><br />Your most important concern is the health of your family line. If your ruler croaks and there's no ruler of your dynasty to leap to, you lose. To that end you marry people and marry them off, have kids and murder people who are ahead of them in the line of succession, etc. (There have been some "When did you realize you're a horrible person?" threads about this game.)<br /><br />Some of the short-term goals are the usual: money, power, wine, not being killed by the Mongols. Some come from the way this game is a court drama simulator, as Conchobar went and demonstrated. Some are just historical geekery, if that tickles you, like trying to conquer England as Ireland.<br /><br />I've seen a fair bit of CK2 and played a game of CK1. It dragged at times, but a lot of fun things happened, like the kingdom that I was a part of falling into civil war, or later my own throne being succeeded by some sick idiot relative who lived only long enough to get his competent successor killed in a battle against rebels. At its best it generated memorable things, like the time I found my son a wife with brilliant stats, ignoring the fact that she was a Machiavellian schemer, he handed her a part of his lands, and she used them to start a rebellion against me. Or the business with the Mad Emperor.<br /><br />The problem is that dealing with, or even noticing, those great clusterfucks can take skill with the game, and to a beginning user Crusader Kings II handles like a whale carcass.Kizornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2068112306642079190.post-47975923212645877362014-03-28T01:28:04.393+00:002014-03-28T01:28:04.393+00:00This is a genera of games I WANT to love, but can ...This is a genera of games I WANT to love, but can never get into.<br />Should be able to get at least an Associates in Tutorials from all of that.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com