HoMM VI will be out in a couple of months
The new Jagged Alliance game releases later this year. Q4 I think is the projected time. A German company has been working on it since last year. They're supposedly fans of the original series so I'm hoping they do good with it.
JA3 is the Duke Nukem Forever of turn based strategy games, there have been at least 2 other attempts to make it that failed. So I'm not getting my hopes up until after it ships
Is it still worth picking up JA2?
Never played it but it sounds sorta interesting and I could do with a muse.
It's not using a traditional turn based combat system unfortunately. They have switched to a plan and go system that is some variation of real time, their forums are actively against it of course.The new Jagged Alliance game releases later this year. Q4 I think is the projected time. A German company has been working on it since last year. They're supposedly fans of the original series so I'm hoping they do good with it.
It has the best turn-based squad-level tactical combat that I know of, but the graphics are low-res isometric like in Fallout 1-2 so you need to be prepared for that.
This ArsTechnica thread has tips, pointers to the best forum for JA2, and notes on using the fan-updated executable for it that was made after the engine source code was released:
http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=1140450
So I started playing The Legend and ended up playing it for a couple of hours. Good fun so far, really like the art direction too. It's also refreshing that the tutorial doesn't hold your hand at all, which is a pretty rare thing these days.
Good recommend on this one.
If the squads are small enough, it'll be great for me. I sucked at UFO: Enemy Unknown and TFTD because I just don't enjoy controlling that many squad members.
I havn't seen many on the PC in a while. That said, the Nintendo DS has some really decent ones still, any in the "Advance Wars" series will do.
Yeah, the control system definitely gets you in trouble on a couple of occasions, I also dislike that the camera always gets put at some random angle when you switch between zones.It is awesome, but can also be really difficult, even as a warrior. I just kept playing and playing and before I knew it, somehow managed to log 80 hours in one game. that's insane to me.
the controls are a bit wonky--really needs wsad, as the click to move interface runs into problems with the 3D isometric world (you click click click as you move down a path and end up clicking on a mountain that rises in the foreground and your little dude suddenly starts running in weird places and agros a mean army that you were trying to avoid), but it is a super awesome game. The sense of humor is quite swell. DO try to read as much of the dialogue as you can tolerate, some of it is quite clever.
I don't find Armored Princess to really have the same appeal--but it's possible that I burned myself out for now, and also that playing as a mage is freaking hard.
Yeah, the control system definitely gets you in trouble on a couple of occasions, I also dislike that the camera always gets put at some random angle when you switch between zones.
I've been playing for almost 20 hours now and am still enjoying it a lot, although it does feel both a) a bit disjointed and b) a bit samey after a while.
Some quirks and things I would have liked them to improve:
- One thing that gets a bit irritating is sometimes you'll go into battle with no idea how strong your foe is going to be. This doesn't really apply to the outside monsters, but has bitten me on the ass on a more than one occasion when battling in buildings.
For instance, when you're questing around the cemetery which is going pretty comfortably for your level, some monk asks you to deal with a guy in a castle who's been turned by some evil spirits. So you saunter over, start chatting and eventually jump into battle... only to be absolutely annihilated in one turn by a pack of 200-stacked Necromancers, Ghosts and Vampires. There's absolutely no forewarning to let you know the battle will be that tough.
Another instance is going up Rezo's(?) tower - it's pretty manageable for the first couple of levels, then you hit the top floor and get auto-aggroed by a much stronger pack of foes. Again, no forewarning about how difficult the encounter is going to be, with mobs massively outside the range of pretty much anything else in the area.
fallout 1 and 2?
RE: Kings Bounty
Also magic is pretty weak, I find that kinghts tend to do better, think of it this way, every move your attack and defense bonus is in play as a knight, but as a magician, you can only cast one or two spells a turn. Add in the fact that rage accumulates faster for knights (at least in AP it does) and those spells are better than magic anyway.