[…] why blog post have been scarce lately, it is partly because my computer blew up again. Yes, the new one that I bought in September. If you have been following along, you might remember that last year I […]

@ Luke Maciak:

Let’s talk about the games first. You mentioned a desire for turn-based tactical games and RPG games with turn-based combat, so here are a few options. My apologies if you’ve been keeping an ear to the ground and know about all of these already:

1. More like XCOM, you say? I assume you’ve played Enemy Within? I liked how it it added new incentives to XCOM without ruining the balance of the vanilla version. Speaking of balance, I’ve heard good things about the long war mod for XCOM. Apparently it injects a bunch of new systems into XCOM that brings it closer to the more simulation based 1994 X-COM.

2. And speaking of the 1994 X-COM, there’s Xenonauts now. Someone who prefers the new XCOM might say Xenonauts is XCOM with all the fiddly stuff included. But Xenonauts goes all the way to being an actual simulation, which makes it much less contrived and gamey than XCOM. I find myself switching between the two every other month.

3. Massive Chalice: Think XCOM’s tactical combat with a meta-layer of a eugenics program and King Of The Dragon Pass’ (Or Banner Saga’s, or FTL’s) event system laid on top. The setup is really cool too: You’re an immortal ruler tasked with protecting your kingdom from an encroaching otherworldly miasma by breeding and raising heroes. The game plays out over centuries. And it’s not out yet. :(

4. Wasteland 2: Well, there’s no way you’re not aware of this, but this one’s out now. It’s the Fallout 3 we never got, and it’s utterly mad and brilliant. The game reacts to everything–who you’re with, when you do a quest, the gender split of your party and so on. They also fixed Fallout’s frankly awful combat by adding cover, elevation and making the initiative system transparent, but excised aimed shots (except headshots) and the perks system. The production values and quality are surprisingly high for a $3 million kickstarter attempt at making a massive full-featured RPG.

5. Divinity: Original Sin: Where Wasteland 2 picked up the Fallout (and Wasteland) mantle, Original Sin picks up where Ultima VII left off. The world appears to be mostly simulated (as opposed to scripted), and it commits to the “all the systems, available all the time” philosophy that’s missing in “modal” RPGs like, well, everything else. I haven’t played it, but the turn based combat is apparently fantastic too, with elemental and spell interactions that let you do crazy things. The marketing line is “The freedom of a tabletop RPG in a computer game”.

Then there’s a bunch of stuff not on my radar that may or may not be good: A new Jagged Alliance (Not the real time Back In Action), Hard West, Halfway, Blackguards and more that I can’t recall right now.

None of these games might give your new hardware a workout, but that comes with asking for turn based tactics games, I guess. :)

The interesting common thread to almost all of these games is that they’re Kickstarter funded. We have XCOM to thank for more of these popping up every month, either on Kickstarter or Steam. Firaxis really dragged the genre back into the mainstream again, and frankly I’m spoilt for choice right now.

@ Mads Johansen:

I think at the time I was using Hamachi and the standard Windows Remote Desktop feature that’s built into Win7 Pro. That said it was temperamental and didn’t work properly half the time. :P

@ Tormod Haugen:

Civ is a bit hit or miss for me. I played a lot of the original back on Amiga and after that I haven’t really felt the urge to come back. I loved X-COM and I really wish there were more turn based tactical games like that out there. That and RPG games with turn based combat.

But like I said, I do have a soft spot for bit Elder Scrolls games, and the big Bioware titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age so I figured I’d splurge on some graphical power. :)

The times where I sat on the bedroom floor with parts for two computers spread in a flower-shaped pattern around me are long gone. I too went with the “send me a complete box and I’ll re-fasten the screws” strategy (a year ago).

I ended up with half the ram and half the number of GFX cards (and GeForce GTX 760 at that), but since I prefer old, turn-based games – it kind of doesn’t matter. :)

It just needed to do Civ V and X-COM (and maybe a bit Diablo 3 and Borderlands co-op)

Sorry to hijack, but how’d you do vpn and remote desktop to it?

Nice rig too :)