Steam Game

Intrigued by ANNO 1800

I’ve never played anything from the ANNO game series before, but the latest one that is coming out, 1800, looks fascinating. I debated picking up one of the older versions while they’re on sale (ANNO 2070, and ANNO 2205) but so far I haven’t pulled the plug. The reviews on both games are mixed and include issues with gameplay and technical problems. The newest one isn’t due out until April and it has a pretty hefty price tag, so I don’t think it will be a purchase that I make right out the door. $80 CAD is a lot of money for a series I’ve never been invested in. Thoughts?

While I was checking out ANNO 1800 Scopique asked if I had seen Foundation before. Foundation is an early access game developed by polymorph games, and claims to be a medieval city building simulator. A lot of friends have it on their wishlist, but I don’t know anyone who is playing it yet, and I have no idea if it’s any good but the trailer for the game certainly makes it look neat. I think it’s one of those games where I’ll just have to wait and see (ie: wait for a sale, and then we’ll see).

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

WTF Gaming

Every so often me or a friend will come across a game in steam that just has to be shared. Not because it’s particularly good, but because it’s such a crazy game it makes you pause and wonder “wtf” – so welcome to “wtf gaming” a (hopefully) weekly column where we look at a few of these gems.

This week it’s a game called Heat. I’m not going to go into the game too much but here are some quotes that will give you a pretty good idea about what this game entails.

Go Forth and Multiply Start a family with other players or NPCs. During the process of love making, the male will have a chance of making the female pregnant. Once pregnant, the female will birth a newborn. The newborn grows to become a baby, the baby then grows up to be a child, the child eventually becomes an adult.

A second option is to adopt from an orphanage by purchasing a baby basket in the shipping catalog. The baby will be inside the basket delivered to you. Adoption is very expensive, but provides a guaranteed outcome, whereas the first option may not reliably result in pregnancy due to the possibility for weak seed.

Once your kids become adults you can equip them with outfits, gear, and weapons. They can help protect you when you are online. However, other players may decide to capture and restrain your adult kin, so best keep them packing heat. Seats of Power As President, you own the Whitehouse, a section of land south of the monument, one intern, a golden gun, and two secret service NPCs. You also get to set and collect a President’s land tax. The Sheriff gets a deputy, and also some firepower to deliver justice. As Chief, you have a section of land, a grand tepee, and 3 warriors. The Governor gets the Cottonwood Plantation, plenty of farm seed, and 3 peons.

Sound like a game that interests you? It’s in early access over on steam.. Personally? I’ll take a hard pass.

Equilinox

I was gifted this game from my girlfriend Arislyn, and oh my goodness is it a lot of fun – in a really slow paced, idle game way.

Equilinox is an incredibly relaxing game. You’re in charge of creating your own ecosystem and raising the wildlife. You can evolve creatures and unlock exotic plants and animals, creating different biomes. The game works as an idle game because you earn DP which is used to spend on evolution. The longer the game runs, the more you earn. The soundtrack is calm, and everything is a nice slow pace.

You start by making some grassland. You can evolve that grass into wheat. Chickens can evolve into ducks. You can unlock guinea pigs by creating woodland. It all progresses and flows together, each step affecting the next. You can have mutations such as the pink trees pictured above, and for your creatures to thrive you need to learn what they need in their particular habitat.

It’s not an especially hands on game, but sometimes that’s exactly what I need. I just want to relax, maybe watch something on netflix, while my ecosystem takes care of itself. If you like games like this I highly suggest you check it out in the steam store.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Farm Together Made me Hate Pumpkins

I was gifted this ultra casual super cute steam title called Farm Together by a good friend, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it – until I got wind of their Halloween event. It starts out innocently enough. Harvest 100 cursed pumpkins. Once you do that, you need to harvest 1,000. Then you need to harvest 10,000 – and 1,000 special trees.

You can harvest in a 3×3 area thanks to vehicles and gas – if the farm has those, but each cursed pumpkin costs 500 gold, and when you harvest them you get zilch in coin back. This makes it an incredibly difficult challenge especially for beginners like me. Thanks to the kindness of friends I was able to reach 3,000 pumpkins or so harvested (after blowing absolutely all my hard earned money on the crop before I realized they reward no coin in return) and I decided I give up. There’s a time limit (ie: harvest them by halloween) and 10,000 is just way. too. many.

You want to be a good neighbour, so you not only harvest in a 3×3 area, you till the land, and re-plant. Each action uses gas (or takes you forever by hand) and you can only plant in fall, which has a 17 minute window. The cursed pumpkins take 8h to grow (4h if you water them) and just.. no. NOPE.

This event is NOT FUN. It’s a grind that entices me because I WANT to unlock the cute halloween decor, but after 3k pumpkins I have put my foot down and I am NOT harvesting any more.

Sorry, Farm Together, your event is just more chore than fun.

House Flipper

Another game that had been on my wishlist for quite some time – but it ended up disappointing me once I actually dove in. The game is pretty, and decorating  and redesigning homes reminds me of the Sims, which is a franchise I adore -but – it was too realistic.

Skills needed to be leveled up in order to make ordinary tasks like washing and painting go faster, and the entire ordeal of cleaning up a messy house so you could redesign it just took too much actual time and work. I wasn’t having any fun playing and I just wanted to slap a project together with the bare minimum and move on to the next one, giving very little thought about actual design.

I was horrible at maneuvering the window washing, I would miss floorboards that required cleaning, and in the end I decided to leave my house designing episodes where they belong (the Sims) and I asked steam for a refund. I am glad I at least gave the game a try, even if I found out it wasn’t for me. Not all games have to be created just for my specifications.

Did you happen to pick this one up? What do you think of it? Let me know in comments and as always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Nomadic Gamer