Zeppelin Insanity posted:

Where in JA2 they wore uniforms, here they wear stereotypical "tribal" warpaint, headdresses (which count as armour, somehow), and leopard skins.

You are, of course, almost only white people. There are a few token non-white mercenaries. The only black mercenary I hired so far makes frequent references to crack pipes. The only Chinese mercenary is a doctor, but he does martial arts, wears a Tang jacket, is into spirits, and constantly spouts fortune cookie wisdom.

It's OK though, because the game opens with a "just don't get offended bro" graphic.

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

The only black mercenary I hired so far makes frequent references to crack pipes. The only Chinese mercenary is a doctor, but he does martial arts, wears a Tang jacket, is into spirits, and constantly spouts fortune cookie wisdom.

Kazzah posted:

I think you put the charisma chit in the wrong place

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

I played some Jagged Alliance. Man. If I was a video essayist I would absolutely make one using this game as an example.

The game is fun. I'd give it a 7 or 8 out of 10 if that was the only factor.

Smaller quibbles are that the interface is a bit clunky, it's a bit crashy, and the mercenaries are very annoying. Remember how they were stereotypes in Jagged Alliance? Now imagine if those concepts were written by a 12 year old brought up on Marvel movies. They talk constantly and are never funny.

But the big thing. Oooh boy.

Remember how in JA2 you were hired by the deposed leader of a nation, and were fighting that nation's army?

Yeah. Here your client is ostensibly the daughter of a kidnapped president, but that's not actually true. She is not the one paying you. You are in fact hired by a mining company to reclaim their diamond mines. A mining company ran by someone who seems Spanish at first glance.

Not black. The country is very black. A former French colony. Every single enemy is black. Every single one. Whereas in JA2 your enemies were an army, with enemy types such as "recruit", "regular", "veteran" and "elite", here you are facing "goon", "marauder", "brute", "raid leader". Where in JA2 they wore uniforms, here they wear stereotypical "tribal" warpaint, headdresses (which count as armour, somehow), and leopard skins.

You are, of course, almost only white people. There are a few token non-white mercenaries. The only black mercenary I hired so far makes frequent references to crack pipes. The only Chinese mercenary is a doctor, but he does martial arts, wears a Tang jacket, is into spirits, and constantly spouts fortune cookie wisdom.

It's OK though, because the game opens with a "just don't get offended bro" graphic.

I think we should consider not allowing Swedish people to make games anymore.

It's a pain because the game is fun overall. I really wish someone would take the core structure of Jagged Alliance and make it about a people's revolution, rather than capitalist resource extraction. But I guess that would be Political in the way mowing down shirtless Goons and Marauders decked out in face paint isn't.

KomradeX posted:

That was the spot for his advantage, it got a minute 2 on my promotion roll

KomradeX posted:

I played Beneath the Med today, was eventually sunk off the coast of Egypt in March of 1942 after becoming very decorated officer

THQ posted:

The country of Grand Chien

The wide Adjani river is flowing through barrens, jungles, marshes, savanna and slums. It is a country where ancient traditions are tangled with the somewhat more modern way of life, landmarks from times immemorial lay side by side with gaudy statues and wild gangs fight over the hastily dug diamond quarries.

The names of people and places reflect the turbulent colonial history of the country. Although there are settlements with names that indicate their German origin - such as Landsbach and the ill-fated Wassergrab, - the most of the Adjani province is speaking French. That’s why at the foot of the Gargantuan mountains lies the small city of Pantagruel, and the map is dotted by Legion military camps with names like Camp Savane, Camp du Crocodile, Camp Chien Sauvage, etc.

And since the name of the country itself has already raised some eyebrows, let me present to you the imposing, if not aesthetically pleasing, statue of its founder - the benevolent dictator Généralissime Chien.



Some of your mercenaries may express their confusion as to which of the two is the actual Generalissimus, but like I said, Grand Chien is a crazy place. Some mercs fit in naturally, others just try their best.

As for the people of Grand Chien, there is no wonder that they do strange things while trying somehow to make a living. We refrained from going into mysticism, but we can’t promise that our characters don’t believe in weird stuff and act accordingly. So if they tell you there is a ghost in the abandoned mansion, or a witch is performing bizarre sexual rituals to the poor mine workers, just take it with a grain of salt, will you?



While building the world of Jagged Alliance 3, we aimed to deliver a realistic experience - and generally avoid fiction. However, time and again we had to go back to the confines of Mark Twain’s famous quote: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.”

With regards to good old Mr. Twain, at times we allowed ourselves a bit of fun.

THQ posted:

Throughout the pre-production phase, the game underwent multiple iterations until the visuals finally encapsulated the initial design concept we were striving for.

At one point, we experimented with a "dirty-gray" military aesthetic, but soon realized that something was missing from that picture, making the game look too generic. Thus, our search continued until one day something interesting happened, shaping all of our subsequent decisions.

We went back and took another look at the design documentation, which encompassed a vast amount of information about the world, and an idea sparked: What if we make the country of Grand Chien and, more importantly, the continent of Africa at the heart of our art vision, rather than the other way around?

This simple yet effective idea changed our thinking and the process led us to the concept of “contrast” or what we ended up calling it - “Wet and Dry”, those two words encapsulate the breadth of what the continent of Africa can offer and thus make it the central character in the stage of “art”.

Now we had the opportunity to explore the vast array of breathtaking locations, each boasting its own distinctive weather patterns, allowing players to immerse themselves in the continent’s remarkable richness. From the always wet muddy jungles filled with mosquitos to the dry savannas or scorching hot wastelands. Furthermore, many of these elements would have a significant impact on gameplay, thereby influencing your decisions as a player.

We've even taken into account minute details such as the presence of puddles in jungle areas and their potential impact on the effectiveness of your fire bombs.

Key features such as dynamic movement, exaggerated weather, strong lighting and cinematic-style color grading all played a role in pushing the world of Grand Chien and achieving this distinctive art style. Additionally, the ever present signs of entropy that can be seen in all human made everyday objects added a unique depth to the world.



Entropy

One last part that I want to mention is the “entropy” factor in all of our designs for world objects. Due to its turbulent past the country of Grand Chien and its people do not have access to new goods which forces them to improvise and repair what they already have and with time this will show.

A special attention was paid to this aspect for each and every asset we’ve created, ensuring that it aligns with the general idea about the world we are trying to build.

Cuttlefush posted:

just wait until you meet the italian guy

gradenko_2000 posted:

paging LaLD

THQ posted:

The Location
Jagged Alliance 3 is set in a country with a colonial past and leftover fortifications from WW2. It made sense to have old German weapons like Gewher 98s, MP40s, MG42s around (sometimes is atrocious shape) and being used by local combatants.

War zones, especially ones with conflict resources like oil or - you know – diamonds, tend to attract all kinds of arms that can be sold on the grey and black markets. Africa has seen its number of FN FALs cross many shady borders. But it’s not impossible to see something more exotic like a contraband G36.

Frosted Flake posted:

I think Far Cry 2 actually did a pretty good job at parts of this, while still being a retelling of Heart of Darkness in video game form.

Of course, the important thing about Heart of Darkness is that the real savages, monsters in the shape of men, that cause the ruination and evil encountered moving deeper into the interior are the Europeans. Somehow that's gotten lost eh?

So they did research, but then uh I guess decided on a certain art direction.

Regarde Aduck posted:

lol at western weapons being rare in the age of the US getting ran out of Afghanistan and having to leave all their poo poo behind

double nine posted:

would it be moddable to create a tankie conversion mod?

double nine posted:

would it be moddable to create a tankie conversion mod?

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

Technically, probably, the game does seem set up for mods.

But it would be a total conversion. You would need to change:
-the story
-the mercenaries, though you could probably get away with just cutting the shittiest lines and not replacing them, and adjust skills to not be stereotypes
-the enemies, which would require new models
-voice acting if you wanted to have any, but I guess you could get by with text

But yeah the gameplay systems are solid. It's a very fun game. In a way that makes it a bigger shame than if it sucked overall.

It's so interesting how no one, that I know of, has ever attempted to do a commie revolution game in this vein. I mean, even from the cynical perspective, if you cared about profit more than about your ideology - Che t-shirts are famously popular!

Zeppelin Insanity posted:

THQ Nordic.

Slim Jim Pickens posted:

Every game nowadays comes out with high-class graphics, possibly interesting mechanics, and the worst dialogue ever written

Frosted Flake posted:

Frosted Flake posted:

I'm so glad I met someone else who plays Beneath the Med. I love it.

It's hard to find books in Inglese about the Regia Marina's submarine arm, and I think that's a shame.

e: Oh man! I was looking forward to Jagged Alliance 3. Is it a good game though? I'd watch the video essay, and yeah the politics are... well gently caress, but I was really hoping to see that style of game again.

"Remember how they were stereotypes in Jagged Alliance? Now imagine if those concepts were written by a 12 year old brought up on Marvel movies. They talk constantly and are never funny."

gently caress.

ee: Their dev diaries were about how they sent the team to Africa to do research! Apparently they had thousands of reference photos of people, places, did all sorts of reading on contemporary Africa, lol and from what you're describing they might as well have just based it off TinTin comics.

ModernMajorGeneral posted:

Re the politics I am waiting to see if there will be an 'are we the baddies?' moment for being western mercenaries going around exploiting diamonds from a poor ex colonial African country, and there have been flags right from the start that the diamond corp might be evil. Not holding my breath though

fermun posted:

I just picked up Xenonauts 2, hope to play enough to write a little review before the weekend starts
https://store.steampowered.com/app/538030/Xenonauts_2/