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st33d · 4 years

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All These Worlds Are Yours (Except Europa)

It’s been a while since my last CRPG report and I have played quite a lot of CRPGs in the meantime. I’m going to keep it brief. It’s by no means all the games I played over the past year or so, but it is all the games that are worth playing in some fashion or another.

Yet again I didn’t really bother to get decent screenshots so you’ll have to endure some tangentially related Shutterstock photos.

Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk

It’s like Etrian Odyssey but made by horny 14 year olds. Monsters take the form of purple-black eyes that move only when you do. Colliding with them triggers a JRPG battle with your team. You must conquer around a dozen or so dungeons to defeat a mysterious evil whilst learning about your protagonist’s horny hubris.

I like how it automatically fills in the in-game map, only drawing tiles you have stepped in. Stairways also connect perfectly on most dungeons, leading to some detective work to solve them. The combat is passable. The story is PG13 with random suggestions of poop and sex without really showing any. It’s… a good game with a lot of simple mechanics that it layers up over time to make something quite complex. I really enjoyed solving the dungeons but it’s such a multilayered ball of weirdness that I hesitate recommending it.

Dragon’s Dogma

It’s like Skyrim but with less items, less map, and decent fights. Like, really decent fights. You can climb on the back of beasts and hack pieces off of them or shoot magic arrows that do a host of cool things. The story is pretty anime - I can’t get into why without some major spoilers. Safe to say that after the first (and honestly entertaining) chunk of the game you get an overlay of falling ash pinned to your screen and the monsters become hit point sponges. That’s around when I stopped playing because it felt like I’d reached “an” ending and the rest was about beating as many dead horses with whatever sticks I could upgrade enough to hit them with. Last time I fired it up I got in an hour long fight with an off-brand beholder that basically respawned all its limbs eight times because of its egregious hit points.

You’re joined by some enthusiastic AI companions called pawns who have no story and just kinda throw themselves at enemies whilst repeating the same phrases over and over. I’m not really sure if they’re a blessing or curse. The game overall is pretty jank with terrible traversal (don’t explore, the quests will send you to every corner of the map anyway - twice). Despite all my complaints it’s a lot of fun - at least until the 1st ending. It’s cheap and I recommend it.

Sky Rogue

It’s like a lot of aircraft dogfight games but a bit random. I’ve played this a bit on single player and it’s alright. However I have played many, many, missions in the 2 player mode with a coworker. It’s just very satisfying doing the whole Top Gun team thing taking on a bunch of enemy planes whilst working on upgrades.

Disco Elysium

It’s like Planescape Torment but without the tedious combat or problematic writer behind it. There’s a video of one of the devs explaining how the dialogue is laid out like Twitter in tabloid format for easy reading. This is revolutionary. I want every computer text game to use this format from now on.

I cannot stress how important it is to enter Disco Elysium unprepared. To have no grasp on just how far you will be allowed to explore, who you will meet, who you will travel with, or what you are expected to do. It is a game about amnesia and becoming someone new - if that is at all possible.

I have two pieces of advice however:

Don’t start with Psyche or Physique stats below 2, they’re both your health and the game will surprise you with damage to either in the most unexpected places.

Do every quest. Explore every nook and cranny. Not knowing is the very essence of the game. You’ll have lost that feeling after the ending.

I don’t need to tell you how good the game is. Just look at most reviews.

Everspace

It’s like Descent (that 1st person spacecraft game on the PSX) but in space and it’s a roguelike. Everspace has you mine, salvage, fight, trade, and quest - but you do it all from the comfort of a spaceship that has responsive controls and interesting weaponry. I had a lot of fun skulking round wrecks to salvage parts whilst avoiding patrols of hostiles until I had enough kit to take them on.

It has a substandard storyline but great meta-progression, asking you to grind cash from each run to unlock parts for a better ship on the next. I put in a great deal of hours into this game and I’m looking forward to what the studio does with the sequel.

Horizon Zero Dawn

It’s like Shadow of Mordor but good. My only major complaint was how constant use of the bow had the camera staying uncomfortably close to Aloy’s arse and burying itself in grass during frenetic combat. When the camera wasn’t trying to kill me the combat was astoundingly good. You fight lumbering robo-dinosaurs with special weak spots and various attacks. The quests are also good with a surprising amount of cutscenes and dialogue for a lot of completely optional content.

I was also amazed at how they managed to pull off an almost believable backstory for a world full of robot dinosaurs. Despite some frustrating combat encounters I had a good time exploring its large and very pretty world.

Pathfinder Kingmaker

It’s like Baldurs Gate but not as good. Only on my 3rd attempt at playing the game with the newly patched in turn based mechanics did it start to make sense. It uses Pathfinder’s rules which are deep and tactical - as tactical rules go they’re pretty good. However when those rules fly by at real time speed you don’t learn how opportunity attacks work (they’re more complex than modern D&D) or how to utilise charge and positioning.

The story is pretty forgettable and the encounter design is relentlessly dull. A lot of areas are just simply fight after fight after fight. In turn based mode the fights are pretty good but too many of them are identical. The ones that weren’t I found inscrutable and impossible to pass. If you like min-max fighting and little else then have at it - but I warn you that the UI is lagging behind most popular CRPGs. You can’t even check the world map whilst in a town.

Metal Gear Solid V

It’s like an RPG. Despite not having a main character with stats, in this open world game of hide and seek you kidnap soldiers who in turn become your stats. Through them you gain access to new abilities. Through them you are drip-fed the resources you steal, only becoming able to spend all that you’ve stolen by having enough accountants to do your taxes. It is a brilliant work of roleplaying economics and a thoroughly enjoyable open world game. One where I can completely ruin a mission yet chuckle at my attempts to save what’s left of my dignity.

It also fails to stick the landing. At around the 20th mission the game starts committing to its plot and the rot sets in. Bit by bit it becomes worse to play. There was trouble at Konami when the game was made and it feels like the end of the game was hit the hardest. This was the part that was tested the least and had the worst ideas thrown into it. Metal Gear Solid V is still worth it for the 1st half of the game.

Final Fantasy 8

It’s like the other Final Fantasy games but poorly paced and balanced. The junction system is incredibly interesting in that it tries to sidestep the whole issue of items by gluing your characters to guardian angels. It’s built in card game Triple Triad is simple and engaging. The story is kinda interesting with some time travel shenanigans going on...

But it’s pacing is dreadful with endlessly copypasted rooms. The magic draw system is miserable (and yes I know you can get GFs to convert items to magic but then it’s more tedious busy work to upscale all the magic into something work attaching). The world map is shockingly empty. And the characters are just yawn, yawn, yawn.

Pick it up on sale.

Torchlight 2

It’s like Diablo 2 but not quite as good. Still worth playing though. I got it on the Switch and found that playing it with a gamepad was a pleasant experience.

It has a few balance problems with the Engineer class being ridiculously overpowered compared to any of the others (and way more fun). And there’s some annoying bugs that prompted a few reloads. Still pretty entertaining however.

Pokemon Shield

It’s like every other Pokemon game (surprise surprise) but easier. As much as I like how they’ve removed a lot of busywork from this entry, it makes it feel like the only challenge in the previous titles was the busywork. When really it was the busywork that held you back from just kerb-stomping everything in your path.

It’s not until the final DLC that you’re given some pokemon that are needlessly tedious to catch and some group battles using randomly selected pokemon that test your knowledge of the game’s systems. The only real challenge in the game is in the online multiplayer against humans where your pokemon level is normalised and encyclopedic knowledge of the title’s history is required.

My internet is terrible so the online gameplay is dead to me. It’s a very fun game, but also a very disappointing one.

Burnout Paradise

It’s like a sandbox game for cars. Except that you’re not really driving a car, it’s more like you’re driving a bobsleigh with a rocket attached to it. Unlike most driving games you aren’t given terrain that slows you down. Even if you hit a wall you’ll skate off it so long as you collide sideways. The game just wants you to drive like an arsehole and go faster and faster - to the tune of Epic by Faith No More (literally).

I mean yeah, it’s not an RPG by any stretch but it’s one of the best sandbox games I’ve played. Even when you’re not doing a “mission” you can just drive around the city finding back alleys and ramps to fly off of. It’s just a massive playground with very little negative feedback.

Cyberpunk 2077

It’s like a bunch of different games you’ve played before but not quite as good. The story is the best bit. I really liked the characters I got to hang out with. I guess I would have enjoyed the gun fights if I hadn’t been playing Doom 1 before I played it. And I would have enjoyed the stealth if I hadn’t already played Metal Gear Solid V with its superior A.I. It has cool Obra Dinn style brain movies to explore for detective work but I enjoyed the spectacle of them more than the execution (though I did enjoy them more than Obra Dinn which I found tedious to navigate or understand).

I saw one review say it was the most backwards view of the future. Not imagining what could be but endlessly paying homage to cyberpunk stories of the past.

I see other reviews say play it when it’s fixed. When the myriad of bugs (and I experienced enough to impact gameplay) are solved.

I say play the sequel. It’s worth experiencing but there’s too much going on that’s playing catch up to other titles.

Shiren The Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate

It’s like Rogue. I first played Shiren 2 on the Nintendo DS and was amazed by its deep systems and story meta progression - various tales progressing in the game only after each death and subsequent replay.

This entry is technically Shiren 5. Holy shit the content in this thing. There are 15 optional dungeons with different rules. Over a hundred block pushing puzzles using various mechanics of the game that you can just walk up and play in the 2nd village you enter. A minesweeper minigame. Loads of tutorial levels. All of these give you rewards which you can take on your main adventure which is a wholly different set of dungeons. I’ve unlocked several companions to adventure with and the game is hinting there are even more later on. It is obscene the amount of value there is packed into this title. And it’s fun. A little unfair at times, but as with all roguelikes the later depths require knowledge and a lot of caution. Strong recommendation for roguelikers.

Dicey Dungeons

It’s like Dream Quest but with dice. I played the prototype of this at the 7DRL after party. Terry was quite bashful about his creation and didn’t want to submit it. I honestly didn’t see why he shouldn’t as many of us had made far worse in the past.

I put off playing this until it finally landed on the Switch as complete as any roguelike can hope to be. It’s quite different to Dream Quest in that it requires a bit of math to do well in. If you’re not prepared to do basic sums then it’s hard to make progress. Also unlike Dream Quest it’s very balanced. There’s definitely some cheesy tactics you can pull off to get cheap victories but not without some thought and planning.

In a sea of deck building roguelikes, Dicey Dungeons is quite simply refreshing. There’s a lot of good ideas in here you won’t see elsewhere - give it a go.

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collaborativedocumenteditingsoft · 4 years

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The No. 1 Question Everyone Working in premire 'collaborative video editing Should Know How to Answer

If you want to strike that same balance on your video project, this tool might be useful. For instance, video teams can use Workzone to access a range of reports that outline the progress they have made on a given project. General video production software can often be a great choice, given that these tools strongly emphasize usability. As an added bonus, these tools can be adjusted to fit your exact needs. Your team members will work very hard on your project, and their time will often be limited.

How do I export Premiere Pro to mp4?

MP4 is a file container format, while H. 264 is actually a video compression codec that requires a video container to host the encoded video. Most of the time, H. 264 refers to MP4 file encoded with H.

Tags: Editing, File Management, Organization, Premiere Pro, Productivity

This development further boosts workflow efficiency for media professionals, allowing them to work within one interface without the need for jumping from one UI to the other, which takes extra time and stifles the creative process. Axle 2016.2 is the latest edition of axle’s award-winning media management software, now optimized for media libraries with up to 1 million assets. Simply point axle at the media files you want to manage and it automatically creates low-bandwidth proxies you can then access from any web browser. There’s no need to move your media files or change your system setup. Our new plug-in panel for Adobe Premiere® Pro CC, included with every axle 2016 system, enables editors to search, see previews and begin working on footage without leaving their favorite NLE software.

Production, without the stress

But the Digital Asset Manager is more than just a big geek overseeing information and data in all its forms. While the role requires sharp analytical skills, it is the crossover skills tied to people and how they interact with digital technologies that are equally important. Metadata for an asset can include its packaging, encoding, provenance, ownership and access rights, and location of original creation. It is used to provide hints to the tools and systems used to work on, or with, the asset about how it should be handled and displayed. For example, DAM helps organizations reduce asset-request time by making media requests self-serving.

For whatever reason, it’s always nice to be able to work off of a version of your project that is linked to proxy media (meaning low-res versions of your clips). In the past, it was critical that editors would plan for a proxy workflow before they would start editing, and generate proxy files to be ingested into their NLE when first setting up their session.

Limelight Video Platform is the fastest and most intuitive way to manage and distribute online video to media devices everywhere. The power and simplicity of Limelight Video Platform lets you manage, publish, syndicate, measure, and monetize web video with ease.

How does digital asset management work?

Mid-range systems, supporting multiple users and 50-300GB of storage, have entry-level products in the range of $2,300 - $15,000 per annum. These can be hosted, cloud-based or installed on your own infrastructure.

How To Edit Vocals On Neva 7 Post Production Software?

How does a digital asset management system work?

A much better way to use illustrations is to employ visual assets — photos, charts, visual representations of concepts, comics or annotated screenshots used to make a point. Visual assets complement a story rather than telling the story entirely like an infographic does.

You can also subscribe to my Premiere Gal YouTube channel for weekly video editing and production tutorials to help you create better video. Both Adobe Premiere vs Final Cut Pro offers almost the same kind of video editing but still, they differ in a lot of ways. Because Adobe Premiere comes as part of Adobe’s Creative Cloud, which is a Marvel’s Avengers-esque suite of tools to support your video making.

Support for ProRes on macOS and Windows streamlines video production and simplifies final output, including server-based remote rendering with Adobe Media Encoder. Adobe Premiere Pro supports several audio and video formats, making your post-production workflows compatible with the latest broadcast formats. Over time, these cache files can not only fill up your disk space, but also slow down your drive and your video editing workflow.

Some filename extensions—such as MOV, AVI, and MXF denote container file formats rather than denoting specific audio, video, or image data formats. Container files can contain data encoded using various compression and encoding schemes. Premiere Pro can import these container files, but the ability to import the data that they contain depends on the codecs (specifically, decoders) installed. Learn about the latest video, audio, and still-image formats that are supported by Adobe Premiere Pro.

Now when you load a timeline from the Media Browser it automatically opens a sequences tab called Name (Source Monitor) that is read only. Premiere has always had a Project Manager but what it was never able to do is transcode and what it wasn’t very good at was truncating clips to collect only what was used in the edit. I have had only partial success with the Project Manager over the years and with some formats it would never work properly with Premiere copying the entire clip instead of just the media used with handles specified.

Depending on the clips you have and the types of metadata you are working with, you might want to display or hide different kinds of information. On one hand, this is great – you get updates to the software as soon as they’re pushed out, and the $20/month annual subscription fee beats paying hundreds of dollars up front. Regardless of how deep you want to go into the video editing rabbit hole, the best reason to get Premiere Pro CC are its time-saving features. JKL trimming is the most noteworthy as it lets you watch a clip and edit it in real time just by using three keyboard shortcuts!

What editing software do Youtubers use?

Many effects and plugins for Premiere Pro CC require GPU projective post production editing acceleration for rendering and playback. If you don't have this on, you will either get a warning or experience higher render times and very slow playback. To make sure you do have this on, go to File > Project Settings > General.

The footage is stunning, and I find myself wanting to work on it right away, but before I can do that I must back it up, but before I can even touch it I must make sure I have the contracts for each drive that is coming in. We work with and commission many different videographers and photographers so I need to know which office the drive came from and who it belongs to, what the rights are, etc…that is something I highly recommend. I have a folder labeled contract/release forms on our internal server so I know which contract goes to which hard drive/footage. One of the first things I do now, is label a drive since we are working with so many, I need to know what footage is on what drive. Once I get the drives and back up the footage, I then create stories depending on the project and I will also create b-roll packages.

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m-iiu · 7 years

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How to: Screenshots

Hello! For the past few weeks many have approached me and asked me 2 questions, these questions were:

01. How do you take screenshots?

02. What are your tips on taking screenshots?

Even if I feel semi-new to taking screenshots, here is what I do and what I’ve learned the past few months on Black Desert Online. Everything is up for improvement and when I learn a new and different technique I will update this!

How do you take screenshots?

What are your tips on taking screenshots? (Tips will be found in bold)

Firstly, lets learn the basics:

Taken from: X

Disable UI: Ctrl + U

Camera View: Use the arrow keys (←↑→↓)

Adjust Focus: Ctrl + ↑ , Ctrl + ↓

Adjust Field of View: Shift + ↑ , Shift + ↓

Tilt Camera: Shift + ← , Shift + →

Color Filters: Ctrl + Shift+ ↑ , Ctrl + Shift + ↓

Grain and Vignette: Ctrl + Shift + ← , Ctrl + Shift + →

Slow Motion: U

Take A Screenshot: Prt Sc

Learning these basic controls allows you to angle, zoom in, and create more styled images. Another thing to mention, you may use your mouse to swivel around your character(s) to find the perfect angles. Secondly, your settings:

I have my texture and graphic quality settings to the maximum it could be and my resolution at 8k, now, this does not mean you have to have these settings. Though if your computer can handle it then I recommend them. Personally, I shoot in PNG, choose what makes you comfortable.

Side note: While 8k resolution gives beautiful quality and detail, Tumblr only allows the maximum photo to be 20 MB, so you’d have to resize in order to post them onto Tumblr. You can also use “current resolution” or 4k in order to create smaller files.

Let’s begin:

Log into Black Desert and select the character you wish to screenshot! I’m choosing my Maehwa. Since I am logging in just to screen shot, I find a location I want as my background and then I hide my UI (Ctrl + U)

Now using the basic techniques above, I find an angle I want to shoot in, possibly. You can also change position and angle, it’s up to you and what you want.

Hmm..I think I might want this? Maybe not, lets find another angle!

Tip: You can use crtl to make your character look to where your cursor is pointing (when it’s present on screen), pressing ctrl again should hide the cursor and the character will look directly at you.

I think I like this angle and so I will adjust focus and FOV in order to make my character the main part of my image. I press Print Screen but..this happens:

My character moved and I don’t want her to do that so..in order to shoot her in specific poses I use ‘U’

Tip: Shooting while pressing U is fine but sometimes adjusting to where your character moves can give off nice poses and photos!

My character moved back into place and I’m not sure whether I like this intense filter (Ctrl + Shift+ ↑ , Ctrl + Shift + ↓) OR:

This filter that gives off a soft pink romantic feel.. After taking multiple screenshots..I want to use the following photo:

Why?

I like the way my character looks

I think the contrast between my character and the flowers looks pretty

It is up to you to look through your screenshot folder and screen out any photos you may like or dislike. Once you find the screenshot you want, select it and post away!

Thus ends my tutorial on how to take screenshots.

Extra:

You can make your screenshots look even better by manipulating and using the filters in game OR you can use some type of editing software to fix some things such as:

Lighting

Clipping (can happen to the face sometimes!)

Wanting more blur or focus on the character

Filters & ETC

Personally, I edit my photos and by using this screenshot I corrected the brightness of my character’s skin and her surroundings:

Tip: You can add a watermark as well!

Finally, here is the before and after:

Most importantly, HAVE FUN.

I am still learning how to take screenshots and I am also in the process of developing my own personal style in editing and images. It takes time! Just keep taking screenshots and eventually you’ll find what best suits you. Love, Miu♡

#black desert online #bdo #Black Desert #tutorial #how to #how to take screenshots #m

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terryblount · 5 years

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Anno 1800 Review: A Quality Copy of Itself

Anno 1800 is an engrossing and fantastic mix of city building, economic simulation, and real-time strategy. It’s so easy to get sucked in to the whole affair, as the hours fly by and your empire slowly expands. Granted, there’s much micro-management required, and the game strongly favors those of us with a patient dedication to detail. Still, there’s a soothing rhythm to it all if you can find the groove hiding within the various complex systems.

What is Anno Gameplay?

If you’ve never played an Anno game before, let me try to summarize what you actually do. Starting with an empty island, you place houses and production buildings thereupon, connecting everything together with roads. As your population grows their needs increase, which are fulfilled by newly unlocked buildings.

Our cities grow up so quickly! Fine craftsmanship, here we come!

After fulfilling all the current needs of your populace, you can upgrade their houses to unlock even more needs. Anno is basically a game of ever-expanding needs fulfillment—they once longed for fish and schnapps but soon will require sausage, bread, beer, and oh so much more!

Eventually you’ll have to expand to new islands because your people will demand more goods not available on your first location. This leads to the need for ships and trade routes, and soon enough you’ll have a huge fleet all for the purpose of meeting those pesky population needs.

There’s a pleasant ebb and flow to Anno. At times you’re perplexed as to your people’s desires, trying to set up new production chains and deliver the goods. Then a short while later everyone is content, and you can sit back and watch the gold roll in. Of course you can’t relax for long because there’s others who also are trying to seize islands and produce goods—the rival players, be they actual humans in the multiplayer mode or AI characters.

The diplomacy screen helps you try to make nice with others…or be a big jerk!

The complex interaction between building up your cities, producing goods, and dealing with other characters leads to an intense and intellectual challenge that has defined the Anno series for over two decades. Speaking of the series, let me explain the history of the Anno franchise because learning is fun!

An Anno Anthology

Anno began in the year 1602. Wait, no. What I mean to say is the first game in the series was called Anno 1602 and came out way back in 1998, created by a now-defunct company called Max Design. It was a 2D isometric city-builder with goods-based management systems and some real-time strategy elements, and it became quite popular, especially in its home region of Austria/Germany.

Just a pretty screenshot of a ship at sea. Anno 1800 is a very nice looking game!

The inevitable sequel, Anno 1503, was released in 2003, also created by Max Design. It, too, was well-received even if it was very similar to the first game. 2006 saw a big jump in the series with Anno 1701, featuring charming 3D graphics and excellent gameplay depth, winning over many new fans the world over. This new generation of Anno was created by Related Designs, a German studio new to the series. They would go on to develop all the rest of the main Anno games, although they were merged into Ubisoft Blue Byte a while back.

Three years later saw the culmination of years of fine-tuning with Anno 1404. Many consider this 2009 game to be the pinnacle of the series (at least until now, debatably). It was (and is) a brilliant mix of charm and complexity merged with polished 3D graphics, excellent gameplay, and much replayability.

This Anno gives you back the complex trade routes system from the prior Anno games.

Then developers opted to go where no Anno game had gone before: the future. 2011 saw Anno 2070, and 2015 saw Anno 2205. Confused yet? Both titles were disappointments to long-time Anno fans. It wasn’t the futuristic setting that was the problem per se—it was the dumbing down of the gameplay and extreme cuts to content.

Both futuristic titles saw traditional story campaigns mostly cut out. Proper AI enemies were lacking. Combat was contrived, and trading was overly-simplified. The games felt a bit soulless. Oh, and the games became “always online” and “games as a service” through Ubisoft’s frustrating Uplay system and other DRM schemes. In short, Anno’s future was a big letdown!

Anno in 2019: Copy & Paste

The prior history of Anno is necessary to understand Anno 1800. It’s an intentional return to the roots of the series: charming historical simulation with robust gameplay features. If you read between the lines of the marketing, the message has been clear: Anno 1800 is a good Anno game again with a story, proper AI, and all the beloved features from the Anno’s of old!

And they’re not kidding about this game including the features of the old games. They’ve recreated Anno 1404’s gameplay to such an extreme degree. Seriously, this game plays identically to Anno 1404 in all the significant elements. It’s not a stretch to say it’s basically the same game as the ten-year-old Anno 1404, and this is the game’s biggest strength and disappointment.

There’s a secret first-person mode (Ctrl-Shift-R). You can get some nice shots with it.

Being an Anno 1404 clone is wonderful because, as noted, the 2009 Anno is charming, expansive, and a joy to play, even to this day. However, it’s disappointing because long-time Anno fans have already been there and done that since 2009.

Therefore, your feelings on Anno 1800 will largely be guided by your experience with the series. If you’ve never played Anno 1404 then you’re likely to be quite mesmerized by Anno 1800’s creative spirit and whimsical world, never knowing it was already done in the same fashion a decade ago.

For me, though, I have played Anno 1404, and I’m honestly uncertain if I’d rather play the new, shiny Anno 1800 or the tried and true (and very inexpensive) Anno 1404. Read on to find out why I’m torn.

My Anno Experience

I began playing Anno with Anno 1701, but it was Anno 1404 that made me fall in love with the series. I spent several years putting over 400 hours into Anno 1404, and I even made the unofficial patch for the game, which fixes literally thousands of issues (it took a lot of effort!). In fact, the developers even contacted me years ago about including my fixes in a planned new version of the game, but that project was canceled sadly.

Back on topic, besides playing extensively I have a serious understanding of how these games work under the hood. This is why I was taken aback to see this modern Anno 1800 be programmed to function in virtually the same way as Anno 1404, including some of the same UI issues and quest bugs!

OCD players will find much to obsess about. I must build with symmetry! I must!!

Hence, I found it fairly amusing to read some of the developer blogs about AI, supply chains, and other gameplay features. They’d talk about creating the systems for this game, and I couldn’t help but chuckle because the systems are copied from Anno 1404!

I guess it’s not stealing if you’re stealing from your own prior game…but let’s not act like this stuff is new! Although Anno 1800 does include new features, to be fair. Let’s discuss the new stuff.

Anno 1800’s New Features

This latest entry does provide some excellent additions to the Anno formula, including concepts such as Workforce, Influence, Propaganda, Expeditions, and Electricity. We’ll tackle each one in turn.

Workforce requires you to carefully balance your population between a pyramid of classes, starting with Farmers and Workers, and moving up to Artisans and Engineers and beyond. The trick is only certain population classes can perform certain jobs, and managing this system is a rewarding challenge.

Influence is a new (and controversial) feature that grows with your population and must be used for various tasks such as military and trade expansion. It’s not explained well in the game, sadly. However, after understanding the system, it does feel like a nice addition to the game to guide you into specializations based on your gameplay goals.

The Influence system menu. It’s quite confusing at first, but it’s a nice system overall.

Propaganda is controlled by your newspaper, which is pops up every so often in your game, requiring you to choose to spend Influence to alter the news (‘alternative’ facts). It’s a fun system that adds a bit of flavor to the game experience, helping you see recent events or issues in your game world. Although, after playing for dozens of hours it becomes a bit of a chore to have to review the newspaper over and over. An option to auto-select certain Propaganda would been nice.

The newspaper screen. Notice my use of propaganda on the far right. Important news!

Expeditions are Anno 1800’s take on text-based ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ stories. You send out ships on long journeys, and if you equip the right supplies and items and fortune favors you, you might survive long enough to find treasures and return home safely. It’s a fun system to be sure, and it helps break up the typical gameplay loop. I really enjoyed finding all the different options and results from the various text-stories presented.

Fun text adventures! Notice my ship is ultra-powerful. I have a 195% chance to win. Good!

Electricity is a wonderful historical addition, given the industrial revolution setting of the game. After many hours of playing and building your empire, you’ll eventually unlock the potential to generate electricity to turbo-boost your production capabilities and allow you to attract the most lucrative population class to your cities. Figuring out how to lay railroad and manage your power grid is a challenging but fun late-game activity.

Building Culture: Museums and Zoos

Do you like collecting animals and artifacts? Of course you do! Anno 1800 knows this and includes two extremely enjoyable new module-style buildings: the museum and zoo. Both give nice benefits to your city, such as helping to attract visitors. There’s a very strong ‘gotta collect ’em all’ impulse that makes this gameplay element very addictive.

An expedition gives me some nifty sea creatures for my zoo! It’ll be zootopia soon!

How do you get these fascinating animals and artifacts, you ask? Several ways! Expeditions are a great source, but later you’ll get help from the World’s Fair. Speaking of which…

End-Game Fun: World’s Fair Exhibitions!

Another new and excellent addition is the ultimate end-game goal: building and operating a world’s fair. This is a very cool historical theme since the first world’s fair was held in 1851 in real life. Reaching this point is basically the equivalent of a raid or bonus dungeon in other games—it’s the final end-game goal.

Here is the World Fair building being built. It’s a very complex process to create such a place!

To put it into perspective, it took me about 80 hours to finally build the World’s Fair, and it felt really good to finally hold the biggest and best world’s fair ‘exhibition’ possible after about 90 hours of hard work building my empire. The reason this review is so late is because I wanted to ensure I’d experienced this final goal, and I can report to you that it’s gloriously good times!

The Rest of the Review: Issues

I really do love Anno 1800. However, the game does have a lot of issues. Much of my frustration is that they copied Anno 1404 so much but didn’t go the extra step of solving some of the problems the series has had for so many years. Hence, the rest of this review is going to be a whole bunch of criticisms and problems with the game, even though I do love playing it.

The Campaign: Weak!

I’ve gone this far in the review and haven’t even mentioned the campaign. I suppose that’s fitting because the campaign is nothing more than a glorified tutorial that plays out over some 8 to 10 hours (longer on higher difficulties).

The campaign has some cutscenes with voiced characters. It’s…decent, but not great.

The storytelling is weak but semi-adequate, giving a modest investment in characters and happenings. However, the story ends very abruptly and without much resolution. I also experienced a glitch wherein the final battle failed to happen and I won without completing the final quests, which was anticlimactic.

Also unfortunate is the lack of tutorial quests for certain key features. The game never bothers to explain trade routes, despite these being absolutely essential to grow your civilization and finish the campaign. A bizarre oversight.

Overall, the campaign is lame. It needed to go on a lot longer, with a proper plot and resolution.

Questing & Bugs

Anno 1800 features a virtually identical quest system from Anno 1404, although a few new types of quests have been added. Random residents will offer various quests from time to time. Trading partners and NPCs will also give quests such as escort, destroy, deliver, and photograph. Overall, there’s hundreds of these.

Sadly some of these quest types that are as maddening as they were 10 years ago, such as puzzle quests where you have to find and click on very tiny little objects in your massive cities. Then again, you can delete any non-story quest at any time.

There’s fun multi-part quests in the game. The 2nd part of this one is bugged though…

Unfortunately, a fair amount of quests are bugged. I find this pretty funny since many of the quest issues are literally the exact same XML programming errors that I fixed all those years ago in Anno 1404. Maybe they’ll fix the issues in future patches…of course they never did for Anno 1404 (see my unofficial patch for that game).

Old World, New World Blues

Another gameplay change from Anno 1404 is the two distinct world spaces. In Anno 1404, you played a single world space with the upper half representing Europe (Occident) and the lower half representing the Middle/Far East (Orient). In Anno 1800, the game splits the spaces into two unique “sessions” (Old World, New World).

Here’s the world map screen. You almost never use this view, but it’s pretty!

It’s true that it’s more realistic to have separate spaces for the different geography, and the concept is excellent. However, the execution gets a bit obnoxious and invasive to the play experience.

The simple fact is we humans can only focus on one screen at a time, so having two different game maps playing out with one always hidden means constant interruptions and unknown events occurring. Fighting a war on two different screens, for example, simply isn’t fun.

This is very much like trying to play two games of speed-chess at the same time. It sounds interesting in theory, but unless you’re a strategy god, the split-attention results in a lesser experience on both sides.

A Huge Fail: Missing Profile Tracking

One hallmark of the Anno series is robust tracking of your game accomplishments tied to your universal player profile. Anno 1404 is the gold standard in this regard. It features over 300+ tracked accomplishments and 25 special medals. Moreover, there were very fun unlocks as you progressed, letting you get new city ornaments, portraits, titles, and more. A huge joy for fans (called Annoholics) was to slowly make progress toward the fabled 100% complete player profile. It was a badge of honor to know and share your profile progress.

Anno 1800 lacks all of this. All you get is barely 40 Uplay achievements, and some boring ‘Club rewards’ you spend Uplay points to unlock. This is very unfortunate since the game has literally all the same features as Anno 1404 that beg to be recorded and bragged about.

Also strange is how there’s a photograph feature in the game, but it’s only used for quests. There is no photo gallery or showcase or anything like that. This is another missed opportunity to let players showcase their cities in a more permanent player profile fashion.

This is me taking a photograph for a quest, nothing more. There is no photo gallery.

In regard to quests, there are many extensive multi-part quests, but unlike Anno 1404, Anno 1800 doesn’t have any tracking system to prove you’ve befriended the AI and learned their back stories. And the new Expeditions feature would be perfect for tracking all the different outcomes. But alas, the developers couldn’t be bothered with all this.

To summarize, for a game that copies Anno 1404 in nearly every single way, it’s an epic fail to remove the amazingly fun tracking system that kept players motivated for hundreds of hours across dozens of playthroughs and scenarios. Bad developers!

Where are the Scenarios?

Speaking of scenarios, another totally absent feature in this modern game is custom challenges, known as scenarios in Anno 1404. In that game you could take on special modes requiring you to build a monument in so many hours or begin in great debt on a unique island.

Anno 1800 has zero scenarios and only has one game mode: the sandbox. I say this because even the story campaign takes place in a sandbox environment, opening up to an unguided sandbox mode after only about 10 hours.

At least you can select your difficulty and customize the game options. Expert is quite hard.

So let’s review. Anno 1800 copies Anno 1404’s gameplay in nearly every way, but it removes all scenarios, which added dozens and dozens of hours of diverse gameplay challenges. Epic fail.

DirectX 12 Crashing!

Note that many players, including myself, get constant crashes when using the DX12 renderer. I had dozens of crashes and two hard locks requiring a manual restart of my computer. Even after two patches, the crashes still occur. Fortunately, switching to DX11 completely eliminated the crashes for me, but the framerate is slower—a sad but necessary tradeoff.

Ubisoft Store, Epic Store, No Steam

There’s also the controversy with the way the game is sold. It was yet another title to be yanked off Steam shortly before its release. Now you can only buy it from Ubisoft directly or from the Epic Store (possibly). The good news is Anno 1404 is on Steam (it goes by ‘Dawn of Discovery’ in North America).

Other Various Concerns

The gameplay UI is great in some ways but horrible in others. The trade routes interface is especially obnoxious, with the ‘delete’ button overlapping other buttons at times. Some UI buttons simply don’t work, such as some ‘jump to event’ notifications. Overall, the UI is very workable, but it’s not ideal.

The game also features an Attractiveness system for each city. Honestly though, I mostly ignored it all because the game doesn’t do enough to show you the benefits of the system.

Here’s the Attractiveness system. Most players will likely ignore it though…

Despite a robust keyboard customization menu, certain commands can’t be bound to keys for no apparent reason. It would have been nice to have quick shortcuts for every building option, much like how most Windows applications have shortcuts to open Edit->Cut and this type of thing.

There’s also an unfortunate lack of statistics and charts to help you understand where you money is going and how to more efficiently manage your empire. Fortunately, the developers have promised to add a building in a future patch (first featured in the Anno 1404 expansion from 2010, ironically), so hopefully soon we’ll have more tools to manage our empire.

Conclusion: A Gorgeous, Great Game

I loved playing Anno 1800. Yes, the core gameplay is in many cases identical to Anno 1404, but an updated version of such a beloved Anno game isn’t a bad thing. The same engrossing ‘just one more hour’ gameplay draws the player into the world, testing the dedication, intellect, and patience of the player through cunning planning and strategies.

It’s an easy game to pick up and play, making some progress each gameplay session. Soon enough the narrator will say, ‘Warning: you’ve been playing for two hours,’ and you won’t even realize the time has flown by. Over weeks and months you can watch your empire expand, eventually reaching the end-game and proving your Anno-worth.

It’s too bad they’ve ripped out nearly all the player profile tracking and failed to include special gameplay scenarios. It’s also unfortunate online co-op isn’t ready yet and may take many more months to be included. The bugs and other issues also drag down the experience.

Here’s a screenshot showcasing Anno 1800’s beauty and charm after 80+ hours.

Ultimately, Anno 1800 is the smoothest Anno experience available, with some excellent new features to keep you hooked for a long while. So if you want to play the latest and semi-greatest, go for Anno 1800.

However, picking up Anno 1404 Gold Edition for super-cheap is also a very viable and excellent choice since it gives you the same fundamentally excellent gameplay with more actual content. …Just make sure you use my unofficial patch if you do play Anno 1404. And no, I ain’t going to make one for Anno 1800. The developers should have learned to fix their own darn Anno bugs by now!

Gorgeous city building

Engrossing management

Soothing ebb and flow

Expedition diversions

Museums and zoos

Late-game electricity

End-game world’s fair

Old/New world concept

Lame, short campaign

No scenarios (sandbox only)

Few achievements/tracking

Quest bugs, UI issues

DX12 crashes, locks

Lacks statistics/charts

So much like Anno 1404

Old/New world execution

Playtime: 100 hours total. Nick spent 10 hours finishing the story (tutorial). Another 10 hours were spent reaching 20,000 inhabitants. Another 20 hours allowed Nick to reach the ‘Engineer’ population level, with two nicely built cities. Then 10 hours was spent wiping out the remaining AI players and seizing their lands. So at 50 hours in, Nick had conquered all and could begin building his perfect empire, free from distractions. It took another 15 hours to reach ‘Investors,’ the game’s highest population level. At 80 hours, Nick ultimately reached his objective of unlocking all buildings and providing all goods to his people, with a final population count of 90,000. Many world’s fair exhibitions were held. The galaxy was at peace.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using an Intel i7-3930k CPU, 32GB of memory, and a nVidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card.

Also read the Anno 1800 PC Performance Analysis.

Anno 1800 Review: A Quality Copy of Itself published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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terryblount · 5 years

Text

Anno 1800 Review: A Quality Copy of Itself

What is Anno Gameplay?

Our cities grow up so quickly! Fine craftsmanship, here we come!

The diplomacy screen helps you try to make nice with others…or be a big jerk!

An Anno Anthology

Just a pretty screenshot of a ship at sea. Anno 1800 is a very nice looking game!

This Anno gives you back the complex trade routes system from the prior Anno games.

Anno in 2019: Copy & Paste

There’s a secret first-person mode (Ctrl-Shift-R). You can get some nice shots with it.

My Anno Experience

OCD players will find much to obsess about. I must build with symmetry! I must!!

Anno 1800’s New Features

The Influence system menu. It’s quite confusing at first, but it’s a nice system overall.

The newspaper screen. Notice my use of propaganda on the far right. Important news!

Fun text adventures! Notice my ship is ultra-powerful. I have a 195% chance to win. Good!

Building Culture: Museums and Zoos

An expedition gives me some nifty sea creatures for my zoo! It’ll be zootopia soon!

How do you get these fascinating animals and artifacts, you ask? Several ways! Expeditions are a great source, but later you’ll get help from the World’s Fair. Speaking of which…

End-Game Fun: World’s Fair Exhibitions!

Here is the World Fair building being built. It’s a very complex process to create such a place!

The Rest of the Review: Issues

The Campaign: Weak!

The campaign has some cutscenes with voiced characters. It’s…decent, but not great.

Overall, the campaign is lame. It needed to go on a lot longer, with a proper plot and resolution.

Questing & Bugs

There’s fun multi-part quests in the game. The 2nd part of this one is bugged though…

Old World, New World Blues

Here’s the world map screen. You almost never use this view, but it’s pretty!

A Huge Fail: Missing Profile Tracking

This is me taking a photograph for a quest, nothing more. There is no photo gallery.

Where are the Scenarios?

At least you can select your difficulty and customize the game options. Expert is quite hard.

So let’s review. Anno 1800 copies Anno 1404’s gameplay in nearly every way, but it removes all scenarios, which added dozens and dozens of hours of diverse gameplay challenges. Epic fail.

DirectX 12 Crashing!

Ubisoft Store, Epic Store, No Steam

Other Various Concerns

The game also features an Attractiveness system for each city. Honestly though, I mostly ignored it all because the game doesn’t do enough to show you the benefits of the system.

Here’s the Attractiveness system. Most players will likely ignore it though…

Conclusion: A Gorgeous, Great Game

Here’s a screenshot showcasing Anno 1800’s beauty and charm after 80+ hours.

Gorgeous city building

Engrossing management

Soothing ebb and flow

Expedition diversions

Museums and zoos

Late-game electricity

End-game world’s fair

Old/New world concept

Lame, short campaign

No scenarios (sandbox only)

Few achievements/tracking

Quest bugs, UI issues

DX12 crashes, locks

Lacks statistics/charts

So much like Anno 1404

Old/New world execution

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using an Intel i7-3930k CPU, 32GB of memory, and a nVidia GTX 980 Ti graphics card.

Also read the Anno 1800 PC Performance Analysis.

Anno 1800 Review: A Quality Copy of Itself published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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