Hi, everyone.

My big discovery has been Ozymandias, a short-form strategy game from 2022 about building empires in the Bronze Age. It richly deserves a post of its own: it keeps dragging my attention away from much bigger and more elaborate games. It helps that it’s short and simple enough to play when I’m tired after work: I can finish a map in less than an hour. But simple is not easy; it strikes me as “a minute to learn, lifetime to master”.

In digital board game news, I’ve begun playing Terraforming Mars, an “engine builder” game. The goal is simple (raise Mars’s temperature and the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere; set up oceans), but money is tight, especially early on. As the game progresses, resources roll in; points tick up; and more cards become playable. This is one game that really benefits from an interest in the theme: when I see a card called “Convoy from Europa” (a moon with an icy surface and a liquid water ocean underneath) that lets me place an ocean tile, I can imagine exactly what is going on.

I also took advantage of the recent Steam sale to pick up 007: First Light. So far, so atmospheric; I look forward to playing more.

New releases: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Endless Legend 2 full release

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is now out for Switch 2 to glowing reviews. I loved (and still need to finish…) Three Houses so have high hopes for this. Planning to get it on the first sale…

Meanwhile, Endless Legend 2 has now reached 1.0 and left Early Access. I’m 110-120 turns into my first game, so still learning. I will say, so far I have found it a little visually busy: compared to Civ VII (or even other Amplitude games like Humankind), it’s much harder for me to look at the map and understand what’s going on. My preview impressions, from an early 2025 build, are here.

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Hi, everyone.

After eight months, I finally won my long-running Terra Invicta game! My “state of the game 2026” impressions probably deserve a full post; I think the game has fulfilled every ounce of potential I saw back in Early Access.

After I battled to victory the long way, I also shipped my first Terra Invicta mod, “Quick Victory”, which speeds up the victory conditions for four of the game’s seven factions (the Academy, the Resistance, Humanity First and the Initiative). The goal is to reduce endgame grind: if players can fulfil their “main” condition, I think they deserve to win.

 I’d like to iterate on this: for example, speeding up Project Exodus’s victory condition in a future version, which would round out the anti-alien factions, and a separate Vanilla Lite mod that stays closer to the vanilla victory conditions while reducing the thresholds. Watch this space…

Meanwhile, I picked up the roguelite deckbuilder Fogpiercer, which reminds me of Into the Breach: combat takes place on a grid and the game reveals what the computer will do on its turn, which lets you move out of the way, shield yourself, prioritise threats, and move enemy units out of position. I quite enjoyed my first run, although I haven’t been in a hurry to play again.

Besides that, I’ve been continuing to play old (and new) favourites. I’m building a lovely underwater town in the new DLC for Pokopia, slowly building the new DLC Hippodrome in Anno 117, trying different civ and leader combinations in Civ VII, gradually racking up more successful runs in Hades 2, and dusting off the stylish Raidou Remastered.

New releases: Star Wars Zero Company

Star Wars Zero Company, a squad-based tactics game, is out to rave reviews.

Upcoming releases: Afterworld, Humankind 2, Civ VII: Earthrise

Big couple of weeks for strategy game announcements:

• Paradox announced Afterworld, a new IP set in a post-apocalyptic North America, and helmed by Dan “podcat” Lind of Hearts of Iron IV fame. The first two dev diaries are out, and Leana Hafer at IGN has published an early preview.
• Amplitude announced Humankind 2. Notably, it is self-publishing this rather than going through Hooded Horse. I am excited about this one — I loved Humankind and spent a lot of time with it at launch, although I don’t think it ever reached its potential. I’ll be curious to see how (or whether) Amplitude is able to improve on, and fix the flaws in, the first game.
• Hot off the press, Firaxis announced a new Civ VII expansion, “Earthrise”, as well as a new major update, “Arc of Tomorrow”. “Earthrise” will focus on astronomy and the space race, while “Arc of Tomorrow” will add a fourth era to the game, the Atomic Age. Both are set for 2027.

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Would you like to keep track of upcoming strategy games without having to click around multiple publishers and developers?

I built a simple calendar with Claude Code that uses Steam data to track upcoming and recent (the last 12 months) releases from:

• Three strategy game publishers: Paradox, Hooded Horse, and Slitherine/Matrix.
• Strategy developers such as Paradox Development Studio and Paradox Tinto, Creative Assembly (Total War), Ubisoft Mainz (Anno), Firaxis (Civ), Mohawk (Old World), Amplitude (Humankind, Endless Legend 2), Pavonis (Terra Invicta), VR Designs (Shadow Empire), and more. I threw in Illwinter (Dominions) and Ashdar (Stars in Shadow) because I love those games.

You can use the filter to toggle between games/DLC and upcoming/Early Access/full releases, and easily identify games that have a demo available!

Finally, you can subscribe (via iCal) to see releases from the big three publishers in your own calendar — see example below. Note this will only show games with a definite release date (“August 13 2026”), not a broad window (“Q3 2026” or 2026).

You can view it here (or via the Strategy Game Release Calendar link at the top of the page).

If you’d like to take the code and tinker with it yourself (perhaps you’d like to cover different publishers or studios?), the Github link is here.

The post Announcing the Strategy Game Release Calendar appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

This screenshot is from “War Sails”, the naval-themed 2025 expansion for Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. I bought the expansion on the recent Steam sale, and after messing around with custom naval and coastal battles, fell in love with the atmosphere all over again. I look forward to making headway in my new campaign.

New releases: Terra Invicta DLC

Pavonis Interactive and Hooded Horse have just released Terra Invicta’s first DLC, “Dark Skies”. This adds two new starts for the campaign: one set in 2003, and a “Broken Earth” scenario set in the early 22nd century, as the remnants of humanity limp back into space 150 years after a nuclear war. It also adds new cosmetic ship sets.

Both new starts look quite distinct based on the pre-release footage I’ve seen:

• 2003 Earth is still at the apogee of the unipolar moment (making the US more dominant as the opener), but there is much less space launch capability (Boost) than in the base game (2022 and 2026) scenarios and Earth is technologically 20 years behind. Word on the Discord is also that it’s harder than the base game.
• Broken Earth’s countries are in an abysmal state (poor, politically shattered, militarily backwards, and authoritarian) compared to the base game. The factions receive large and distinct bonuses (such as Earth research and laser weapons for the Academy), and it looks like they will need them…

It will be a while before I can get around to the new scenarios — I’m still playing the base game campaign that I started with the 1.0 release. At least I finally have the aliens on the run!

Upcoming releases: Suzerain DLC

Torpor Games, the developer of Suzerain, has announced two new DLCs and a turn-based strategy spin-off.

The two expansions are “The Neutral Lens” (casting the player as a journalist — Steam link here) and “Socialist Republic of Galmland” (moving to a new country).

The spinoff game is Wars of Suzerain, which fleshes out the military system from the “Kingdom of Rizia” DLC into what sounds like a fully fledged wargame. It shifts to a new perspective by casting the player as a general of Rumburg, who were the heavies in the original game.

“Neutral Lens” is due out first (2026) with Wars of Suzerain and “Socialist Republic of Galmland” to follow in that order.

I loved Suzerain and its first expansion, “Kingdom of Rizia”, and look forward to the new content.

Last but not least: Mario Kart World content

Nintendo recently added two new Knockout Tour rally routes to Mario Kart World, my Switch 2 perennial. More will come!

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The post Clippings: Terra Invicta’s first expansion, multiple expansions and wargame spin-off for Suzerain appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

You can check out the novella on your Amazon site of choice (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and all others). For Kindle Unlimited members, you can read this included in your subscription.

Gaming update below:

A MAGITECH FANTASY NOVELLA

Francois He is a war hero who never wants to pick up a gun again. Civilian life, building marvels with the power of Fog, suits him fine.

So when the distant republic of Platinea offers him a job, Francois jumps at it. Introduce Fog technology, collect his fees, and enjoy the seafood. Easiest money he’ll make in his life.

But he’s barely digested dinner when rebels storm the capital. And the desperate Platineans draft the most seasoned commander they can find: him.

From the grimy docks of the capital to a command barge on the River of Spices, from the salons of the palace to a war camp in the highlands, Francois must turn a mob into an army, deploy Fog on a budget, and outwit a charismatic warlord who really, really loves his job.

FOR FANS OF GEORGE MACDONALD FRASER’S FLASHMAN, LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD’S VORKOSIGAN, AND DJANGO WEXLER

New releases

In non-strategy news, 007: First Light, a James Bond game from the developers of the Hitman series, is out to excellent reviews (Metacritic 87, Opencritic 88). I’ve never played a Hitman game, but I am very interested in the IP on this one…

Notable updates

Civilization VII, one of my favourite games of last year despite its rough edges, received a major update (“Test of Time”). This overhauls the UI, allows players to stay as one Civ for the entire game (with new syncretism mechanics), and reworks the victory conditions and the legacy paths (mini-goals in each era).

I’m halfway through a new game and am enjoying it quite a bit — I’ve kept switching Civs, but the more freeform era goals (“Triumphs”) are a better fit for my play style than the rigid legacy paths (for example, playing as the diplomatically-focused Himiko, I usually beeline “befriend X city-states” or “form Y alliances” – see screenshot above), and the new UI is cleaner and better suited to PC screens.

What I’ve been playing: Terra Invicta, Anno 117, board games, and more

I resumed my Terra Invicta 1.0 campaign (from back in January), in which, knock on wood, I think I’m finally turning the corner on a vicious, Sisyphean struggle. This is my fault: I am playing the game’s hardest faction, the Academy — idealists who start off hoping to coexist with the aliens, and realise that peace must be negotiated at the point of a gun instead —  on Veteran (hard) difficulty. And I am very, very rusty after not having played in nearly 18 months.

The results feel like the Dwarf Fortress “FUN” meme: digital blood and tears have flowed aplenty, I’ve been repeatedly blasted out of the Inner Planets and had to take multiple frustration-induced breaks from the game, and on several occasions I’ve been tempted to restart or reload to decades earlier. But when I finally managed to fuel my war machine with the resources of Fortress Pluto and win a heroic victory in Earth orbit against a larger alien fleet — which I hope will take some of the pressure off my beleaguered armies on Earth — there are few sweeter tastes in gaming. This would make an amazing science fiction story…

Meanwhile, I played enough of the new Anno 117 DLC to settle the vast new island it adds to the game — and see the newly added volcano in action. It is spectacular. Following the quest line triggered the volcano’s first eruption, sparking fires across the province, increasing the risk of disease, and decreasing farm productivity (due to its ash cloud). At one point, an unscripted inferno broke out in my main city, starting a minigame where I sent in the legions to rescue citizens from their houses. After the crisis comes renewal: volcanic ash gives a bonus to soil fertility, while the eruption leaves valuable obsidian behind.

Continuing my digital board game adventures, in April I dusted off Through the Ages on Steam. This takes the theme of a historical 4X game (start at the dawn of history, gather resources, research new techs, and play until the Space Age) and compresses it into a short, engaging, but very tough Eurogame: don’t ask how long I had to play before I could beat the “Easy” computer player… I also picked up the digital adaptations of Everdell and the “Uprising” expansion for Dune: Imperium.

I poked at Chinatown Detective Agency, a cyberpunk game that piqued my interest as one of the very few titles set in Southeast Asia. The pixel art is gorgeous; unfortunately, the gameplay is mixed. The central conceit is interesting: a puzzle/adventure game where you have to Google for clues, or take out a pen and paper to solve memory puzzles. The execution is often aggravating: did it really add anything to make the player book flights in-game? Or to be unable to save anywhere during the first few cases? (And the beta patch that added save-anywhere was never finished, leaving debug logs all over my screen.)

Finally, I completed Pokopia — a worthy and very charming successor to Dragon Quest Builders 2 — and my first run of the “Empires of the Indus” Old World DLC. For now I have parked Machiavelli the Prince, as I found it less interesting once I reached the far edges of the map (China and Japan) and started repeating the same trade routes.

The post Clippings / what I’ve been playing: Civ VII: Test of Time, more Terra Invicta & Anno 117, Chinatown Detective Agency, and more appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Shadow Empire has just received its newest DLC, “Republica”. This expands on the game’s political system with nine government types (including one that sounds delightfully science-fictional, an ostensible democracy run by a computer, and one that gives noble families their own feudal militias) and a “Virtus” system that measures the health of the body politic. I have picked it up but have yet to play it — I look forward to seeing how these mechanics work, especially with my usual cuddly post-apocalyptic democracies.

Later in the month (23 April) Anno 117’s first content DLC, “Prophecies of Ash”, will come out. This will add a new, vast island, which the devs promise will be the largest in series history (and larger than Anno 1800’s Crown Falls and Manola — UPDATE: confirmed larger, following the 1.6.1 patch). It will also add new, optional volcano mechanics, with more details to come. I usually jump back into Anno games after about a year or so of DLC, so I might either use this to revisit the game or wait until more of the season 1 DLC is out.

In other strategy game release news:

• Field of Glory: Kingdoms (a medieval 4X/GSG) has received its newest expansion, “Burghers and Bombards”. I will probably skip this one — when I played the Kingdoms grand campaign as Venice, I really liked the early game but found that the game mechanics did not scale well to larger realms (and my empire wasn’t that large, not that much bigger than modern Italy).
• Xenonauts 2 is now out of early access. I had originally looked forward to the first game, but it left me with decidedly mixed feelings. I did enjoy the brief time I spent with a Xenonauts 2 preview build provided by the publishers several years ago, so I think the question is the extent to which this improves on my biggest complaint with the first game, the repetitive combat.

I’m still slowly playing the new releases I mentioned two weeks ago: Old World‘s new expansion (“Empires of the Indus”), and Machiavelli the Prince, alongside my ongoing Pokopia playthrough.

Old World is easy to sum up (it’s still fantastic), although I suspect I’m only scratching the surface of the new content. Playing the Maurya feels interesting and thematic (Ashoka, their starting king, is an absolute powerhouse in early expansion), but the surprise star might be the new map types. Playing on a Wetlands map feels very different: there are marshes and chokepoints everywhere, limiting buildable space, and the tribes also seem to survive for longer (does the difficult terrain inhibit the computer players’ expansion?).

So far I would characterise Machiavelli as medium-weight: it’s not super-long (the game defaults to a 100 turn length), is far more compact than its stablemate Emperor of the Fading Suns, and has a simple core gameplay loop: buy low, sell high. The fun, for me, comes in exploring the farthest corners of the world to discover new ports. The further the port, the better the opportunities. (Other game mechanics exist such as warfare and Venetian politics; playing on normal, I haven’t had to engage with them.)

A final note is that free advance reader copies of my upcoming fantasy novella will still be available through the end of April: more info here, and signup here if you’re interested!

The post Clippings: Shadow Empire DLC, upcoming Anno 117 DLC, more releases appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Hi, everyone. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned I was working on a novella, due for launch soon. Well, check out the gorgeous cover and blurb (above)!

I am targeting a launch in early May, and if you’d like a free advance reader copy (ARC) before that, you can sign up here.

This has been a long journey — I started writing the first draft on 31 December 2024, well over a year ago, and it builds on a fantasy world I have incubated on and off for nearly 20 years. It draws on a very, very wide pool of inspirations, everything from historical adventure fiction to real-world history to RPGs and tactics games (including some I’ve written about on this site).

Whether you sign up for an ARC now, or check back once the novella is out and available to buy (expect to hear back from me in May!), I hope you will enjoy it.

The post Interested in a free advance reader copy of my upcoming fantasy novella: Francois He and the River of Spices? appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Hi, everyone.

The upcoming release of Old World’s new DLC, “Empires of the Indus”, has crept up on me (30 March!). This is a fully-fledged expansion to what I still consider the best, most original, and most tightly designed historical 4X game there is. It adds three new nations (the Maurya, Yuezhi aka Kushans, and Tamilakam), new religions, a new tribe (the Huns), new wonders, and more. I think once it’s out, that will be my opportunity to start a new Old World game, although I might just have to turn down the difficulty while I get back into practice…

Also due out soon (April) is the Steam re-release of a 1990s strategy game, Machiavelli: the Prince (from the same developers as Emperor of the Fading Suns). This is a merchant/trading strategy game set in the Italian Renaissance with a unique mechanic: instead of the world map being totally blank when you begin the game, it’s rough and inaccurate. I enjoyed the 15-turn demo and look forward to picking up the full game.

I’m still slowly playing the excellent Pokopia, where I alternate between progressing the story and taking time to improve the towns where my Pokemon live: roads, stairs, street lights, houses, hot springs, and more. Between this, my recent Anno 117 playthrough, and my annual revisits of Anno 1800, I have the germ of an idea for an article about the balance between free-form vs structured goals for the player in builder games…

I’ve also picked up two roguelite deckbuilders: the Early Access Slay the Spire 2 (I game over… a lot) and Monster Train 2, both sequels to earlier games that I really enjoyed. I find the Monster Train games notable for being less punishing to new players than others in the genre — it’s encouraging to be able to win on the basic difficulty!

A final note is that while my fantasy and science fiction reading has been a little dry of late (the most recent books in the genre I read being Malka Older’s Infomocracy and Null State back in February — fascinating novels set in a world where nation-states have been replaced by 100,000-person “micro-democracies”), the movie adaptation of Project Hail Mary is well worth a look as a science fiction adventure with a sense of humour and a big heart.

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Hi, everyone. It’s been a busy few months in real life, but I will try to write more here!

My newest find is Pokopia, a Pokemon-themed block-building game for Switch 2. Longtime readers will recall my love for Dragon Quest Builders 2, which fused block-building mechanics with the overarching structure of an RPG (go to new zones, complete quests to unlock the next zone) and an endearing cast of sidekicks. Pokopia is a spiritual successor, in which the player builds towns, habitats (and houses!) for Pokemon. I love the combination of exploration and freeform building, and vastly prefer it to the aimlessness of Animal Crossing. It is very well regarded (Metacritic/Opencritic scores of 89) and as I write this, is currently at the top of the Switch 2 charts.

I’ve also been spending a lot of time with digital board games on Steam lately. Special shout-out to Dune: Imperium, which combines strategy with brevity: a game against the computer takes less than an hour. I’ve also been playing zookeeping game Ark Nova (don’t be fooled by the cosy theme; it is deeper, crunchier, and against the computer, a lot harder than the cute animals would make you think) and Tokaido (themed around travel in Edo Japan, it’s not the world’s deepest game, but is possibly the most wholesome).

Other than that, I’ve been playing a mix of:

•  2025 releases such as Mario Kart World and the — I would argue — underrated Civ VII. The excellent (if evolutionary) Anno 117 is currently on break, pending the release of the season 1 DLC. Hades II is also on break; one of these days I’ll clear that pesky surface route…
• Older releases. Starting last year I spent a lot of time with Rimworld, a game I had previously bounced off a few years ago. This time the trick was explicitly playing it as a story simulator rather than a survival experience: beginning with a much more generous custom start and using a character editor to customise every single starting and newly recruited character. Following Terra Invicta’s 1.0 launch I also began a third playthrough… although an alien offensive has put me on the back foot.

A final note is that I’ve been spending a lot of my writing time on fiction. I expect to release a novella in the next couple of months, so watch this space…

The post Clippings: Pokopia, digital board games, what else I’ve been playing appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

The core game mechanics are easy to summarise and will be familiar to anyone who’s played Anno 1800. Arrive at a deserted island. Set up a production chain for timber. Start building houses. Set up production chains to feed and clothe the residents. Upgrade the houses to tier 2. Set up new, more complicated production chains to meet the tier 2 residents’ demands, and so on.

The challenge, and the fun, are in the details. New goods might require building cities on new islands to produce; some buildings require specific terrain, such as forest, coastline, or marshes; and more buildings require more workers, who in turn require more goods, which require more buildings to produce.

One area where I do see a lot of complaining online is the interface. I agree that it’s harder to find information — although some of this is almost certainly because 117 is new whereas I have plenty of experience in 1800. For example, in the following screenshot, just how many people is this house giving me, versus the maximum if I provided all necessary goods? In 1800 it would have been obvious, in 117 it’s less so — I can only see the current number.

The demo offers a choice of two regions. Latium is warm and sunny, while the real stand-out is Albion, the game’s version of Roman Britain — a setting I don’t think I’ve seen before in a city-builder. Both are beautiful, but if I had to give the nod to one, it would be Albion, with its cool misty palette, its marshlands — complete with little wooden walkways to connect buildings — and its choice of two upgrade paths for its residents, Celtic or Romanised Celtic (with the latter wanting imported goods from Latium fairly early on, at Tier 2).

The NPCs are the charming, engaging, and often quirky sorts I expect from an Anno game. Some are more serious than others. On the one hand, there are a softly-spoken retired veteran tilling his fields, and the daughter of a Serican (Chinese) silk merchant; on the other hand, there’s a parody of the buff athlete archetype who could have stepped out of Asterix. Special shout-out to the NPCs in Albion, such as the Boudica-inspired tribal queen, the friendly tribal chief, and a legionary commander far from home, who contribute to that region’s unique flavour.

Overall, the demo did its job, which was to let me see whether I would enjoy the game. Based on this, I’m confident that I will. Roll on the release date in November!

Further reading

The dev blogs offer a wealth of information on specific gameplay mechanics.

The post Anno 117: Demo Impressions appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

1a. This is a breath of fresh air for the series. It feels new and original, far more than Civ VI did. The gameplay has been engaging turn-to-turn, whether building up my military to defend against hostile independent cities (incidentally, I think this is the first Civ game where barbarians/independents have been challenging by default — at times this felt more like fighting the stroppy minor factions in Shadow Empire or the tribes and barbarians in Old World), waging war later on, or focusing on internal development.

1b. The design feels pared back, but in a good, elegant way. Each turn moves at a brisk pace. Playing it side-to-side with Old World is an interesting experience. Even in the early game, Old World feels much grander: it has a bigger and more-zoomed out map (even playing Civ VII on a “large” map versus Old World on a “medium” map), more distance between settlements and factions, and more moving parts.

2a. It feels rough or unfinished. Others have pointed to examples such as auto-explore only just being patched into the game. For me, the giveaway is non-functional, vestigial bits of the interface — there is a “form alliance” button on the screen for independent cities that does nothing.

2b. Other parts of the interface still seem inadequate — by clicking the down arrow I can find an itemised list of everything that increases city happiness, but just where can I find the corresponding list for deductions? Similarly, when examining or changing social policies (“+1 influence on science buildings”), it would be good to know what exactly the effect would be.

3. I’m glad I bought Civ VII — so far I enjoy it a lot. But I’m also very glad that I waited for a discount (more than 50% off a boxed PC code, before shipping), because I would be much, much less forgiving had I paid full price for this at launch.

The post First impressions: Civilization VII appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Balatro is a well-regarded roguelite indie game that I have been playing since it arrived on Microsoft’s Game Pass.

Despite knowing nothing about card games in real life, I really like this one. While it looks like a card game, the real focus is on planning and building a cohesive strategy on the fly, using the bonuses that become available in any given run. Its brevity and low-stress, cheerful nature make it the perfect game to fit around real life.

For roguelite / deckbuilder fans, and especially for Game Pass subscribers, Balatro is an easy recommendation.

What do you do in the game? (Synergise jokers.)

This is a Balatro round in progress:

The goal of each round is simple — play card hands to reach the target number of chips, visible at the top left of the screen. Failing to meet the target is a game over. Meeting the target leads to the shop where I can unlock different bonuses, and then progress to the next, harder round.

The key to Balatro is that it’s not actually about the cards at the bottom of the screen, it’s about the jokers — the (typically) up to five bonuses visible at the top of the screen. Typically, a good setup will have a minimum of three types of jokers:

• Chips (for example, “+50 chips” or “+2 chips for each card remaining in the deck”)
• Additive (for example, the Abstract Joker gives “+3 multiplier per joker”, for +15 total with five jokers)
• Multiplicative (for example, the Baseball Card joker gives “x1.5 mult per uncommon joker”, so having 3 uncommon jokers will increase the multiplier by 1.5^3 or 3.375 times)

Then add “support” or “income” jokers as needed.

For example, if I play a card hand worth 10 chips and with a base multiplier of 1, the maths will look like this:

• Start with 10 chips
• + 50 chips from joker = 60 chips
• 1 base multiplier +15 multiplier = 16 multiplier so far
• 16.0 multiplier * (1.5^3) = total 54 multiplier
• Final number of chips = 60 chips * 54 multiplier = 3,240

Not a bad increase from a starting point of 10!

And this is why I say Balatro is about jokers first and cards second. Card hands that seem terrible at first glance, such as playing a single card (“High Card”), become appealing with an appropriate joker setup: High Card builds never have to worry about drawing the right card or combination of cards.

Conversely, powerful hands are often challenging to set up: a Straight (5 consecutive cards) is mathematically unlikely, unless:

• I have jokers that make this easier — for instance, by allowing non-consecutive numbers (the “Shortcut” joker); by allowing 4 cards instead of 5 (“Four Fingers”); or both.
• I have tweaked my deck along the way (for example, by choosing bonuses that adjust cards’ strength or that allow me to delete cards)

Besides jokers, Balatro contains many other bonuses that can be unlocked along the way. For example:

• “Tarot” cards affect the playing cards themselves — giving them more chips, bonuses to their multiplier, or adjusting their suit or strength.
• “Planet” cards strengthen card hands, making them worth more chips and increasing their multiplier.

As such, while playing individual rounds is about trying to maximise chips to beat the target (and sometimes, taking advantage of other bonuses before beating the round), playing an overall run is about answering different questions:

• What jokers have I encountered / do I have available?
• How can I build a cohesive strategy around these jokers?
• How can I choose other bonuses and adjust my deck to support that strategy?

At times, this can feel like trying to assemble a plane in mid-air — and that makes it all the sweeter when a build comes together.

Short and sweet

Besides its core gameplay, I like several other aspects of Balatro:

• It’s not particularly mentally taxing or stressful to play.
• It’s short — a complete run takes maybe 1-1.5 hours.
• Because of this, it’s short enough for its “roguelite” design to work — frequent Game Overs are tolerable (and less frustrating!) when it doesn’t take much time to start again and there isn’t much progress to lose.
• This also makes it much friendlier to real life.

Conclusion

Balatro deserves its fame — it’s quick to play, deep (there are many paths to victory that tick the three vital boxes of + chips, + multiplier, and x multiplier), and satisfying when things come together. 

Now to see if I can beat that pesky Green Stake difficulty…

The post Balatro: The Joy of Making Numbers Go Up appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Here are my very early impressions, based on a preview build supplied by the game’s publisher — Hooded Horse. I already find it colourful and imaginative, with an engaging military layer. My questions, at this stage, generally relate to experience with the developer’s previous games rather than any specific concerns with this game.

What is Endless Legend 2 and what do you do in the game?

Endless Legend 2 is an upcoming “science-fantasy” or “planetary romance” 4X from Amplitude, the recently independent developers of the Endless Space series, the first Endless Legend, and Humankind.

EL2 builds on the classic 4X formula with mechanics such as heroes (with skill trees and gear), minor factions (who provide unique bonuses), and an evolving map — every so often, after a “Tidefall” event, coastal waters will recede to reveal new provinces and new resources.

The preview build goes up to turn 125, which still felt quite early (approximately the start of the third era on the tech tree). So far I have played two games:

• My first game felt almost “RPG” or “fantasy 4x”-like. As I built my empire, I explored the map with a hero-led stack, followed quests, and cleared out neutral monsters from special locations.
• My second game felt much more like a classic 4X, and I spent much of it at war against a powerful computer player.

What do I like?

I’ve already noticed plenty of interesting ideas and things I like in EL2, including:

• Nomadic opening phase — The player spends the first few turns exploring, picking up goody huts, and searching for a suitable spot to build the first city, which feels like a shorter version of the Neolithic era in Humankind.

• Distinct factions, as is typical for Amplitude’s science fiction & fantasy games:
  • The Kin of Sheredyn — a name that Endless Space players might recall — are “techno-superstitious” humans who receive production bonuses and can periodically call on “divine” active abilities.
  • The rather more interesting Aspect are economically-focused and receive bonuses to influence (the resource used for diplomacy and city expansion) and from spreading coral to tiles.
  • The Sheredyn and the Aspect also receive slightly different bonuses from allied minor factions. The Aspect bonuses seem more generous from what I’ve seen, but they also need to spend influence as upkeep.
  • The two factions play noticeably differently — as the Sheredyn I built units and structures, whereas playing the Aspect, it was more efficient to rush-buy them instead.
  • The Necrophages (AI-only in the current build) can move armies between burrows, giving them a dangerous amount of strategic mobility. In my second game, the Necrophages used burrows to move armies behind me, meaning I always had to watch my capital against unexpected attacks. 

• Combat — Humankind did this very, very well, and Endless Legend 2 builds on that foundation. Armies move around as stacks on the strategic map, and then “unfold” to fight tactical battles, still on the same terrain as the main map. A few things I’ve noticed:
  • Hero abilities can be potent — it came as a nasty surprise when an enemy ranged hero fired an AoE volley that hit several of my units!
  • Fighting on home ground can be a huge advantage — if there is a nearby city, units can run back to the city walls for shelter. This has allowed me to turn one-sided defeats into one-sided victories (it seems that in the current build, only certain units attack over the walls, which seems a bit too powerful compared to how Humankind handled this).

• Aesthetics — As usual for Amplitude, the art is excellent. The world is vibrant, colourful, and atmospheric. Zooming in reveals plenty of little details, such as sentries standing outside neutral villages.

What are my questions so far?

So far, EL2 has potential. My questions include:

• Quality of execution / design cohesiveness — This is where Amplitude games tend to fall down. How well will the disparate game mechanics tie together? How good will the AI be?
• Late game? As one specific example, how well will the late game, another Amplitude bugbear, hold up?
• See my reflections on Humankind in 2024, years after release.

Conclusions

I’m already intrigued by Endless Legend 2 — so much so that I’ve started my third game. Though it’s still early, I feel reasonably confident that it will play to Amplitude’s traditional strengths in aesthetics and sheer imagination, while building on the ideas and systems in Humankind. Adding more playable factions will see the variety grow. My biggest questions are about how well it can avoid Amplitude’s traditional flaws.

The post Endless Legend 2: Hands-on Preview appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

The post Musical Monday: “Burnt Oak Station (Night)” (Sable), composed by Michelle Zauner/Japanese Breakfast appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

• The main theme, “The Jagged Alliance”;
• A battle theme, “Merc’s Flow”; and
• A lovely vocal theme that plays in town after peacefully resolving a quest, “Magcina”.

I recommend checking out the Youtube versions of “The Jagged Alliance” and “Magcina” to see the performers in action.

Enjoy!

The post Musical Monday: “The Jagged Alliance”, “Merc’s Flow”, and “Magcina” (Jagged Alliance 3), composed by George Strezov appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Every year I publish a recap of that year in gaming. 2024 was a good year in terms of new releases, spread across several different genres.

Overall, including titles from previous years (mostly old favourites that I replayed) skewed my gaming heavily towards strategy.

What new releases did I play in 2024?

The new releases I played were a mix of genres — these included:

• Strategy — real-time tactics (WARNO), city-builder (Frostpunk 2), and 4X (Ara: History Untold)
• RPG (Metaphor: Refantazio) and tactical RPG (Unicorn Overlord)
• 3D action-adventure (Indiana Jones and the Great Circle)
• 2D Zelda (The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom)
• Simulation (MS Flight Simulator 2024)
• Interactive fiction and open-world action, if DLC counts (the “Kingdom of Rizia” expansion for Suzerain and the “Shadow of the Erdtree” expansion for Elden Ring)

Which new releases were my favourites?

My picks for Game of the Year are WARNO and Metaphor: Refantazio, both of which I wrote about.

• WARNO successfully iterated on Eugen’s real-time tactics formula, and gave me many hours of fun during an often-challenging period.
• I picked up Metaphor: Refantazio late in the year, and it wowed me with its style, dungeon-crawling, and character interactions.

The runners-up

I would place Indiana Jones and the Great Circle just a notch below. This is not so much the game’s fault as a matter of personal taste — later areas moved away from the verticality, focus on freeform exploration, and gorgeous architecture that enchanted me so much in the first area, the Vatican.

Unicorn Overlord is mechanically excellent and in terms of sheer hours, was one of the games I played most in 2024. Had the writing been better, it would be higher up my list.

What titles from previous years did I discover or revisit?

There were a lot of beefy, evergreen strategy games:

• I revisited Old World and Crusader Kings III in response to the release of new DLCs. Old World, in particular, is a perennial on my end-of-year lists.
• Anno 1800 is another perennial. I even put together a to-do list on pen and paper, as I continued working through the tremendous amount of content in the game. 
• Inspired by the excellent new Shogun TV series, I revisited Total War: Shogun 2 — and finally won as the Oda clan, the first clan I ever tried!
• I revisited Terra Invicta and found it coming along well, two years after it launched into Early Access.
• I revisited Emperor of the Fading Suns (link to my original write-up from back in 2011), a classic 1990s 4X game that has been updated and re-released on GOG.
• I kept playing Rule the Waves 3, a 2023 release.
• I also tried Fantasy General 2, Field of Glory 2: Medieval, and 40K: Gladius for the first time (and dusted off FOG2‘s predecessor, Sengoku Jidai). While its production values are limited, Fantasy General 2 made a good impression on me.

Non-strategy games included:

• Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was my favourite game of 2023, and I finished in 2024.
• I revisited Elden Ring and made it most of the way through the base game — up to the Fire Giant — as well as starting on the DLC.
• A Legionary’s Life was the standout “short-form” game I discovered in 2024.
• Revisiting Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord took much of the shine off (my original write-up from 2020), as this time the core gameplay loop felt much more repetitive. But what it does (spectacular battles), it does well.
• I discovered and enjoyed Suzerain’s base game, leading me to pick up the “Kingdom of Rizia” DLC.
• Potionomics is charming, although its central loop (brew potions, sell potions, buy ingredients to make more potions, repeat) hasn’t kept me engaged as long as some of the other games on this list.
• I continued my snail’s-pace progress through Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
• We Love Katamari Reroll was as charming as ever.
• No list of ongoing perennials would be complete without Mario Kart 8: Deluxe.

Site news

2024 was a productive year for the site!

I resurrected Musical Monday, with a mix of game, anime, movie, and even classical music.

Besides games, I also wrote about books (Megan Whalen Turner’s Queen’s Thief series), and movies (Dune: Part 2).

On a technical note, I switched to a new theme, GeneratePress.

Upcoming releases

There’s only one game release on my radar, the imminent Civilization VII.

In terms of hardware, I am very interested in the upcoming Switch 2. If Nintendo releases it at a reasonable price and with a decent launch library (a new Mario Kart is already visible in the trailer video), then I’ll look to buy it as soon as I can after launch.

I look forward to seeing you around for the rest of the year.

The post 2024: my gaming year in review appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

(Incidentally, this is also the first time I’ve highlighted Shoji Meguro, the composer, since Persona 4. He’s as good as ever.)

The post Musical Monday: “Rival Candidates” and “Verge of Life and Death” (Metaphor: Refantazio), composed by Shoji Meguro appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Released in October 2024, this is an RPG that brings Atlus’s beloved Persona formula to a new, secondary-world fantasy setting. Along the way, it incorporates Persona’s strengths: turn-based combat, characters and voice acting. So far, I love it.

What do you do in the game?

As with the Persona games, there are two main layers in Metaphor:

1. Time management / social simulator — The game’s plot progresses according to a schedule and eventually it moves on, ready or not. To prepare, the player has 2 time slots per in-game day. These can be used to spend time with party members and other friends, level up social skills, travel, or battle through dungeons (which takes up the entire day).
2. Dungeon-crawling party RPG with turn-based combat — The basics will be familiar to Persona players. As in the Persona games, different monsters are vulnerable to different types of damage, and striking a monster’s weakness grants an extra turn.
   • What is new is that it works on a class-based system, instead of the party members having fixed Personas. Different classes have different skills and can inflict different types of damage (for example, mages can cast fire, ice, and lightning spells; knights can draw enemy fire; brawlers inflict heavy strike damage at the cost of their own health; and so on).
   • Characters can switch classes at will, inherit skills from other classes, and gain access to team skills that depend on the classes present in battle. As such, part of the appeal is planning out builds, cross-training characters, and fielding teams whose members complement each other and cover the relevant bases for that dungeon.

While not a third layer per se, playing Metaphor also involves a lot of time watching the narrative unfold — this is a very talky game, especially early on, and the time management doesn’t kick in until after the introduction. Fortunately, the writing is generally good — on which more below.

The time management aspect does require some willingness to deal with FOMO. Recently, I came back to the game after a period of dudgeon when I missed one activity (and the associated achievement), debating an NPC. I debated whether to either:

• Continue; or
• Reload, rejig my schedule to fit in the debate, and re-clear one dungeon for a side quest.

Let’s just say that dungeon went much more smoothly the second time…

What do I like about the narrative?

The best part of the Persona games, the characters and the voice acting, is still present.

At its core, this is a story about a group of friends. Each party member — so far I’ve recruited three, besides the main character — feels distinct, in terms of their dynamic, storyline, and personal demons. And there is something very wholesome about the way they and the main character support each other through thick and thin.

More broadly, Metaphor has one of the most unique fantasy settings I have ever seen. This does not feel like a “typical” fantasy world, from its surface-level elements (such as the aesthetic) to its deeper ideas. Great fantasy and science fiction use their worlds to say something about ours — and that’s exactly what Metaphor does.

Metaphor’s setup is that of a dystopic fairy tale. The king is dead, monsters stalk the land, and the dominant races — led by the horned clemar and the sharp-eared roussainte — shove the “lesser” races — such as the Yoda-like eugief and the fox-like paripus — into the dirt.

But for the heroes, things don’t have to be that way. They draw inspiration from a fantasy novel depicting a Utopia where glass buildings soar into the sky, where people choose their leaders, and where there is only one species that lives without hatred — in other words, a very, very idealised vision of our world. This is a really interesting message (and somewhat “meta” commentary) about how we, in the real world, use idealised fantasy settings for escapism. Why wouldn’t the same apply in reverse?

My biggest complaint is the heavy-handedness of the narrative. So far:

• The villains are cartoonishly evil;
• The world’s problems, such as prejudice between the fantasy races, are exaggerated to the point of melodrama. In other words, this is neither a nuanced nor a sophisticated examination of these issues.

As a final note, the game has hinted that the world is something other than what it seems. I have my own theory and I wonder if I will be proven right.

Conclusions

In every way, so far Metaphor has been a worthy heir to the Persona games.

• Mechanically, it’s just as satisfying beating up monsters as it was in Persona, now with the added layer of class and party customisation.
• Narratively, I like these characters, I like spending time with them, and I care what happens to them.
• Aesthetically, the art is striking and vivid, and there are some excellent pieces in the soundtrack — perhaps a subject for future Musical Mondays?

For Persona fans, or anyone interested in the premise, this is an easy recommendation. If you’d like to try it first, check out the demo — it contains hours of gameplay and is what convinced me to buy.

Resources

The lengthy, generous Steam demo

Ultrawide mod for those playing on PC

The post Metaphor: Refantazio — Bringing the Persona formula to an imaginative secondary-world fantasy appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

We’re back to classic movie themes this week, with “Evenstar” from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This is the beautiful, ethereal theme that plays when Aragorn flashes back to his time with Arwen — enjoy!

The post Musical Monday: “Evenstar” (Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), composed by Howard Shore appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Below, I’ve linked both:

• The soundtrack version (the first Spotify link); and
• The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra version (the second Spotify and Youtube link).

Enjoy, and may you have a Merry Christmas, a great holiday season, and a Happy New Year!

The post Musical Mondays: “Bygone Days” (Porco Rosso), composed by Joe Hisaishi appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

This is another game that will not be for everybody. Besides the limited production values, players must have the patience to repeatedly die and start again! Those who persist will discover a satisfying combat system and sense of progression.

What do you do in the game? (Fight. A lot.)

A Legionary’s Life moves between two layers:

• Camp — Here you work out, or practice with the javelin or the sword. Considerations include time and stress from over-exercise. This also includes a top-down foraging minigame.
• Battles — The meat of the game. See below:

The key pieces of information are:

• The red dial — health. Going to zero is a game over.
  • In this case, I (Tigris) am near full health while the Gallic Mercenary is nearly dead.
• The blue dial — stance. Being off balance incurs a penalty. This happens if you missed a blow and lost your balance, or because your opponent successfully feinted or shield-bashed you. The same is true in reverse.
  • Again, here I have the advantage: my stance is full while the Gallic Mercenary is slightly off-balance.
• The green dial — fatigue. Tired fighters perform worse.
  • In this case, I am at the second level of fatigue (the small walking stick icon), while the Gallic Mercenary is a bit more than halfway through the first level.
• The red / blue bar under the dials — you can toggle this to blue to get a bonus to defence and a penalty to offence, or vice-versa.
• The combatants’ equipment.
  • I am fully armoured, albeit in light linen, while the Gallic Mercenary only has his sword and shield.

While this looks simple, there is a fair bit of strategy behind it. For example:

• The relative ability of the combatants is crucial. You can get away with more risks against weaker enemies. Conversely, when outmatched, it’s probably better to play defensively and wait for opponents to stagger before counterattacking them, or just stay alive.
• Similarly, armour makes a big difference. The torso is easiest to hit, so unarmoured light infantry are beatable by going for their chest. But against heavy infantry in good armour, it’s better to wear them down by going for their arms and legs.
• Different battles have varying lengths and numbers of enemies:
  • In battles between two armies, enemies will spawn infinitely up to the turn limit, but staying alive counts as a victory.
  • On the other hand, smaller encounters such as duels have a finite number of enemies, but go until death.
  • Some battles also impose a time limit for story reasons — for example, when trying to save the life of a wounded comrade. This may call for a high-risk, high-reward strategy — going for the head or neck.

Going from zero to hero is half the fun

How does this play out?

• In general, the further through the game I was and the more powerful my character, the more aggressively I played.
• At one extreme, I beat an experienced, well-armoured Carthaginian nobleman in a duel by playing very, very defensively and waiting for him to tire out.
• At the other extreme, being the first man over the walls during a siege required beating many individually weak militiamen, within a strict time limit. I had to take risks, fight aggressively, and put my faith in superior gear and skill to carry me through.

The flip side is that I die a lot in this game, especially early on. This is typical:

• Starting characters in A Legionary’s Life have the skills — and survivability — of XCOM rookies.
• New players don’t know the battle system and will probably take too many risks.

Death is permanent, but a good score will result in more points for character setup in future runs. The story progression is scripted — replayability comes from trying again, and aiming for a higher score or better ending.

It took me 10 tries before I successfully cleared the game on my 11th run. This was my proudest moment:

That was a 5 vs 1 fight (fortunately the 5 enemies didn’t come all at once) to save the life of a wounded Roman. My character became a hero that day, earning a Civic Crown. He later became a centurion, survived the wars, and eventually became a Senator. Hurray!

… Then I died on my next run. The fortunes of war are fickle.

Conclusions

A Legionary’s Life is a good example of a simple indie game with a limited scope that achieves its goal. It’s engaging, historically enlightening, and makes me try again after defeat (… once I overcome my frustration).

With a Steam sale on as I write this, there’s probably no better time to give it a look.

Further reading

A Bay 12 Games forum thread I found helpful when starting out.

The post A Legionary’s Life: an engaging depiction, one text-based battle at a time appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

What do you do in the game?

To steal a phrase, I could best describe Great Circle as an “Indy simulator”. It involves a mix of:

• Narrative and cutscenes;
• Stealth action — dodging or knocking out guards.
• Navigating the environment and searching for a way to reach the next objective — for instance, across a rooftop or through a tunnel.
• Solving puzzles, including one that required me to take out a pen and paper to solve a cypher (the cursive handwriting was the trickiest part);
• Helping NPCs with quests;
• Finding secrets and collectibles. These include landmarks that Indy can photograph, such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Different areas and sequences, or different sub-locations within an area, focus on different parts of this mix. For example, the Vatican is the game’s first major hub and includes everything, whereas the preceding Castel Sant’Angelo is a pure stealth action area.

My fear was that the game would be too combat-centric, but that hasn’t been the case at all. Playing on normal, and taking basic precautions such as sticking to cover in restricted areas and looking for improvised weapons in the environment, so far I can beat regular guards via stealth KOs or, if that fails, by mashing buttons. Optional challenges are harder — there is a boxing competition side quest where I can’t get past the second opponent. Perhaps I should come back later? (Hilariously, every time Indy is knocked out, the announcer says things such as “Defeat builds character!” and “At least you tried!” I wonder if he’s addressing Indy or the player?)

What do I like about it?

Great Circle is full of atmosphere, rewarding the player for discovery and exploration.

What made me fall in love with the game was Marshall College, the fictitious institution where Indy teaches. It feels like a warm, cosy place of learning, complete with a small museum (you can even read the placards if you look closely!), a student lounge, and flyers advertising a chess club.

If Marshall College was the appetiser, the Vatican — where I currently am — is a main course. Its in-game visuals are sumptuous, from its architecture to the artwork on the walls, and prompted me to look up some of the real-life landmarks that appear in the game. On a more down-to-earth level, the little details are just as impressive: the boxing ring is crowded with cheering spectators, the intruding Blackshirts have a laundry tent (where I stole a disguise), and even the food — such as biscotti and cornetti — is lovingly detailed.

The voice acting and the dialogue also deserve praise. Again, the game wowed me as early as Marshall College, when Indy’s friendship with Marcus Brody shone through.

A final, related note is the humour.  Some of the NPC chatter has made me laugh aloud — and several cutscenes (Indy joining the boxing competition and being roped into hearing a confession) made me roar.

Conclusions

So far — I’m near the end of the Vatican  — Great Circle is excellent. Arguably, it fulfills the promise of Assassin’s Creed better than that series did — a lavish, AAA exploration of stylised historical settings.

If future areas live up to this standard, this will be Game of the Year material.

Further reading

Great Circle has excellent review scores — Metacritic 87, Opencritic 87.

The post Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — first impressions appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

The post Musical Monday: Hikari, the Warrior (Octopath Traveller II), composed by Yasunori Nishiki appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Two years on, it’s still recognisably the same game, and still does the same things well. What has changed are the AI’s competence (and the level of challenge), as well as the game’s quality of life and polish.

What do I like, two years on, and how did my game unfold?

Borrowing a concept from Jesse Schell, I like to characterise strategy games as either:

• A “game” — a structured, rules-based challenge where the goal is to win (e.g. Civilization, Master of Orion II or Stars in Shadow, most real-time strategy games); or
• A more aimless “toy” or “interactive narrative generator” (e.g. Crusader Kings, Stellaris).

The beauty of Terra Invicta is that it succeeds on both levels:

• It’s a game with a defined objective — defeating an alien invasion — and a very high skill ceiling. Both times I’ve won, it took me until the 2050s. The best players do it in the 2030s!
• And it’s also an simulator or narrative generator about the world responding to that invasion. On Earth, countries crash-industrialise, invest in science, and redraw their borders in response to the alien threat. In space, we go from recognisable near-future projects (returning to the Moon) to the furthest reaches of the solar system.

This playthrough became a test of how replayable the game is. I changed many things from my first run:

• Chose a different faction (Project Exodus, which aims to build an interstellar colony ship, instead of the XCOM-like Resistance);
• Increased the difficulty (from Normal to Veteran);
• Played on the “Accelerated Campaign” mode, which significantly speeds up variables such as research speed (and almost certainly made the game harder, as the aliens benefit from the bonuses as well); and
• Chose a different starting strategy (prioritising Asia ahead of Europe and North America).

And while the flow of the game remained the same, the details unfolded differently. The results were humbling. The normal progression of a Terra Invicta game looks like this:

• The first order of business is winning support from countries on Earth, then using their space programs to establish early outposts on the Moon and Mars.
• Over time, scientific research and the resources from those early mines provide the springboard to expand throughout the solar system: Mercury, the asteroid belt, and the moons of Jupiter.
• Eventually, players have the resources and technology to build a fleet that can challenge the aliens.
• Good players can establish a commanding lead at the start, get into space early, aggressively challenge the aliens and deny them access to the Belt’s resources, and then snowball from there. The best players can even beat the aliens to Jupiter.

So how did I do?

• I was too slow on Earth (and hence to the Moon and Mars), got blasted out of Mercury orbit (twice!) before finally managing to secure it, and never succeeded in seizing the initiative. The furthest I made it was Io, the Jovian moon.
• Left mostly to their devices, the aliens amassed large, powerful fleets and repeatedly sent them against the inner planets.
• To win the game, I had to farm a stupendous quantity of resources by destroying alien fleets, which I mostly did on the defensive. This always felt slightly touch and go — even though my late game spacecraft were powerful and could win against several times their number, I never had the resources to build as many as I wanted, and they certainly weren’t expendable. Committing my fleets always felt like a risk.

This points to one more thing the game does well — encouraging players to be resilient. Strategy games tend to impose an “up and to the right” mindset — partly because setbacks, such as losing veteran soldiers in XCOM, can be so devastating, and partly because losing progress is often frustrating rather than fun. Here, perseverance pays off.

Tougher…

After I won my first game, I suggested several possible changes that might keep the game challenging, such as a better AI and new late-game alien tools. Nearly every item on my wish list is now in the game:

• The aliens stay in formation, use much heavier armour, and are less prone to squandering resources on bombarding well-defended targets, negating several of their weaknesses at launch. (In that last example, the pendulum might have swung too far — now they’re probably too cautious about bombardment.)
• They mass their forces into terrifyingly large doom stacks instead of allowing themselves to be defeated in detail. At first, having to fight alien fleets of 80-100 ships was daunting. When I beat the 100-ship fleets, the aliens combined their forces into 200-ship fleets. After I beat a 200-ship fleet, I saw a 300-ship fleet. At that point, instead of fighting the 300-ship fleet, I just sent up unmanned decoys to distract it…
• On top of their better AI, the aliens now field more advanced weapons over time. At launch, it was trivial for a late-game fleet to shoot down a barrage of incoming alien missiles. Not any more!
• Even the AI for the other terrestrial factions seems to have improved. They are more aggressive and, on rare occasions, could defeat small alien fleets.

Those changes worked. Right to the end of my latest game, I never felt I was running away with things. While I brought Earth mostly back under control, the aliens remained a lethal threat in space.

While there is still room to improve, particularly for the other human factions, the game has already come a long way.

… but still fair

Despite its high skill ceiling and learning curve, Terra Invicta is also surprisingly forgiving, or at least more forgiving than it looks:

• I was massively overconfident in my ability to jump back in at a higher difficulty level, despite not having played in around 18 months.
• I horrifically botched the early game, exacerbated by not doing what worked the first time.
• I compounded my mistakes by angering the aliens and their sympathisers well before I was ready. Instead, I should probably have played to my faction’s strength, the ability to stay fairly neutral early on.
• And yet, I still won.

Quality of life is improving

The game’s interface and user-friendliness have also improved since launch. For example, players can now:

• Automate characters on Earth;
• Set characters’ orders to repeat;
• Sort bases by their resource income — also useful when looking for targets to grab;
• Rally newly built fleets; and
• Batch move armies.

These add up to a better, less painful experience, although again, there is still room to improve. For instance, I’d love to be able to automatically set characters to hide when detected by enemies. The upcoming patch is set to address another weakness, the clunky tech tree interface.

Conclusions

Terra Invicta has come a long way from launch. Back then, I said that it “may become one of the all-time strategy greats”. Two years on, it’s well on its way towards that goal, thanks to a more competent AI, more challenging late game, and better QoL.

More improvements — and new game mechanics — are on their way in the upcoming 0.4.42 patch, which the developers have been working on for some months.

If Terra Invicta continues on this trajectory, I think it can fulfil its promise by the time version 1.0 rolls around.

The post Revisiting Terra Invicta in late 2024 appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

The post Musical Monday: Bannerlord Theme (Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord), by Finn Seliger appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Once in, though, I’ve had a great time.

What do I like?

In general, 2024’s new modes add more “game” or structure, compared to the pure sandpit free flight experience in the 2020 version.

As someone who loved sightseeing in the 2020 version of Flight Simulator, 2024’s new “world photographer” mode is tailor-made for me. This includes 319 (by my count) separate photography challenges, some of which have multiple objectives. Typically, these require the player to photograph a famous site, landmark, or in some cases, animal or aircraft from a specific angle. For example:

• The Paris City Tour includes an objective to photograph the Invalides with the Grand Palais in the background.
• “Iconic Sights of Asia” includes a challenge to photograph Itsukushima shrine in Japan with three separate objectives.

Below is the photo that I snapped of another objective, the Hagia Sofia at sunset:

I’m still in the early stages of the new career mode, which features missions and a progression system, beginning from raw trainee. After earning my Private Pilot Licence (PPL) yesterday, this unlocked the first mission type — taking local enthusiasts up on sightseeing flights:

The next steps will be working towards a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL) and certifications for flying more sophisticated aircraft and under different conditions. Eventually, the game unlocks mission types such as aerial firefighting, medevac, aerial agriculture, and flying charter, passenger, and cargo flights:

There is also a new weekly challenge league, complete with a leaderboard. So far I’m still in the top 10 for my group!

Of course, the free flight option is still there. Here is a very pleasant short flight I took over Milford Sound, New Zealand in an Icon A5, before I landed on the water:

And here is Sydney:

What problems have I encountered?

• Crashes and freezes — particularly annoying at the end of a flight. 2024 crashed three times while I was writing this piece — it’s not usually this bad!
• Buildings looking “melted” or “damaged” up close.         
• NPCs, such as the instructor in career mode, being replaced by a red placeholder figure holding an ERROR sign — now seems to be resolved.
• The game failing to load ground textures (beyond a green smear) when previewing airports — now seems to be resolved.

Conclusions

As I have slightly over 2 hours of flight time in 2024, these are very much first impressions — but I think there is a lot of potential here:

• Building on 2020’s foundations, 2024 captures the beauty and wonder of flight. There is something magical about being able to fly over, and recognise, everything from the world’s landmarks to locations I know very well in real life — right down to my old office.
• The new modes and features in 2024 should appeal to those wanting a “game” on top of the “sim”.

The post Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 — first impressions appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

• I’ve been playing one new release, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on Switch (nearly finished!).
• I’ve also been replaying several older games on PC:
  • Terra Invicta (now finished — stay tuned for some thoughts);
  • Crusader Kings III with the “Roads to Power” DLC (not far from the end of my latest run — put on hold while Terra Invicta was ongoing);
  • Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord (again, stay tuned — I have an article half-written on how my thoughts have evolved since the game was in Early Access);
  • Sengoku Jidai (and courtesy of this bundle, its newer stablemate, Field of Glory II: Medieval);
  • Total War: Three Kingdoms; and
  • The most classic of them all — Chrono Trigger.
• And I’ve read a mix of fiction and non-fiction by the late Tim Severin (Amazon link), a sailor and adventurer whose exploits included sailing across the Atlantic in a tiny leather coracle, sailing from Oman to China in a dhow, and trying to cross the Pacific in a bamboo raft. You could make a pretty good game out of his journeys!

Recent releases

• Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age, a Cold War naval sim, is now available in Steam Early Access.
  • It looks spectacular, has a pedigree (the studio’s founders previously worked on sub sim Cold Waters), and early impressions seem positive: see Stormbirds’ writeup and the “Very Positive” rating on Steam.
  • On the other hand, it’s also very early in its life — so early that, for example, saving & reloading aren’t implemented yet. A campaign mode is slated for 2025.
  • I might take a look once the game is more mature.
• Metal Slug Tactics is now out, to moderately positive reviews (Metacritic 79%, Opencritic 78%).
  • The game’s greatest strength is its personality — it has the colourful sprites and exuberant animations I associate with the Metal Slug arcade games.
  • Despite the name, this is an extremely puzzly game, closer to Into the Breach than to XCOM. (For example, most characters can only shoot at enemies in a straight line.)
  • After trying the Game Pass version, it’s too puzzly for me, but Metal Slug and genre fans might want to take a look.
• Classic JRPG fans might be interested in the new HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III.
  • Reviews are positive — Metacritic 85% and Opencritic 84%.
  • This one might be too retro for me, based on my experience with Octopath Traveller II and Eiyuden Chronicles.

Updates

• The 1.1 patch for Ara: History Untold is now out (changelog here). This adds a new crafting screen in a bid to improve the game’s UI, which was one of my complaints at launch.

Upcoming games

• The 2024 edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator will release in a few days (either on November 19th or November 20th, depending on your time zone). Here is a September preview from IGN, and here is a Microsoft/Xbox blog post going into more detail on the new career mode.

Other interesting reads

• A recent article by the Wall Street Journal highlights how professionals use commercial milsims, such as Command: Military Operations.

The post Clippings: Sea Power, Metal Slug Tactics, DQIII, Ara update, Flight Simulator 2024, C:MO in real life appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

The post Musical Monday: “The Ewer (Day)” (Sable), composed by Michelle Zauner/Japanese Breakfast appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

• At a design level, Ara has potential: I enjoy what it tries to do and it introduces some interesting ideas.
• Its execution needs more work. The game feels several user interface/quality of life and balance patches away from achieving its potential.

As a result, I have slightly mixed feelings:

• On the one hand, I enjoyed myself.
• At the same time, I would wait for a few updates (and probably, a few months) before I play more.

What do you do in the game?

While Ara has the trappings of a 4X game, turn-to-turn the focus is on managing cities & resources, and crafting an ever-wider range of increasingly intricate goods. If, like me, you enjoy playing quartermaster (or royal steward), then you are probably the target audience.

For example, consider food, a staple resource in 4X games:

• A farm on any terrain can produce a small amount of generic food.
• Alternately, a farm on a rice resource will grow rice. Combining the rice with pots from a ceramics workshop will produce a new good, “grain store”, which gives a large amount of food.
• As the player gains access to resources, more goods become available. For instance, salt + fish = salted fish and salt + meat = cured meat.
• Technology unlocks new and better goods. Refrigerators, available in the modern era, provide a large bonus to a city’s available food.

Cities have many needs besides food:

• Supplying cities with drinks, perfume, and festivals increases happiness (and hence production).
• Supplying candles and books increases knowledge (and hence scientific research).
• Supplying medicine increases health (and hence city growth).
• Increasing prosperity provides a bonus to tax income.
• Increasing security provides a bonus to unit strength.

And to round it off, goods and buildings can produce multiple effects, and goods can often be slotted into different buildings.

At Ara’s best, it is satisfying to pull these levers to develop happy, bustling cities.

The interface doesn’t scale as the game progresses

The most common complaint about Ara is its interface, particularly for managing resources and production. Its current city-based UI is adequate in the early game. But as the game progresses, the empire grows, and more goods become important, managing them becomes a hassle.

For example, suppose I want to produce a certain item — be it steel, gourmet meals, refrigerators, or newspapers:

• Where are all the buildings that produce it?
• Where are all the buildings that consume the inputs? I might want to change production in other buildings to free up raw materials.
• Similarly, where are all the buildings that produce the inputs? Again, I might want to increase production upstream so I can throw more resources at the problem.
• Where can I slot items that boost production?

Now multiply this across different cities and goods, and each turn can become time-consuming and fiddly. By the end of my 607-turn game, instead of optimising each city, I was hitting “end turn” so I could reach the victory screen.

Needs a balance pass

Separate to the UI, I would like to see the developers tweak aspects of Ara’s gameplay, such as game rules & variables, that don’t add up to a cohesive, satisfying whole.

To pick one example, the city cap is fine for the early game but too low as the game progresses:

• The default map size is too big for the default number of players.
• New government types increase the city cap, but max out early on.
• Over time, the game will eliminate players at the bottom of the score chart. This frees up land for the survivors to expand… except they can’t, because their city caps are too low.
• And there is no option to expand without falling foul of the cap, such as vassalising cities or other players.
• The net result is that swathes of the map end up uninhabited.

Will I play more?

Maybe, in time. Ara’s core design is interesting and its issues are fixable with patches. I hope the game will receive the attention it deserves.

The post Ara: History Untold first impressions appeared first on Matchsticks for my Eyes.

Below, I’ve linked two different versions:

• The Youtube video and the first Spotify link are the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s performance from 2023.
• The second Spotify link is from the 1989 soundtrack collection.

Enjoy!

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