Gotta admit, when I saw the headline I was thinking "Man, why they gotta put cards in my city builder?" but this looks intriguing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: PhiladelphusFinally, another odd-numbered Civ! Here's to being cautiously optimistic based on the pattern: I first played III and was deeply in love (it's what got me into modding), hated IV (where they made the utterly baffling decision to remove all ranged attacks until you unlock airplanes!), quite enjoyed V (where ranged units became first-class citizens and they went above and beyond on the leader voice work), and was so indifferent to VI (and its goofy leader art style) that I never played it. So simply based on the fact that this is an odd-numbered sequel I'm expecting to like it. :smile:

I played a bit of VI, and the goofy art style was goofy but whatever. However, the main innovation was this thing called "districts" that added a dimension to your city building, which seemed like it was going to be cool but in the end I didn't like it. Thing is, your city has a certain amount of territory in the hinterland that it's working, right? So, most of your buildings fit into "districts"; there's a district for research stuff and a district for commercial stuff and so on. And the districts give you extra stuff, and more extra stuff depending where you put them. And to have more people in the city you need to place housing districts. But the thing is, realistically enough, these districts take up the hex they're put in, and stop your people from working it. So just like a real city, once you've grown the thing a bunch your districts are taking up all the good farmland. But unlike a real city, you can't extend your hinterland much wider to compensate, so you end up with a weird balancing act in your best cities. When I think about the scale, it doesn't really make THAT much sense, because I think you're ending up with medieval cities hundreds of miles across. Plus, you generally can't make all the kinds of districts in one city, which I find annoying because I like my cities to have everything. Also at the beginning the district placement can have really pronounced effects--if you happen to have your first city near some mountains that curve, and can quickly put a knowledge-type district tucked into the curve so there's mountains on multiple sides, you can have like five times as much research. If you don't happen to have that, sucks to be you. It did have some good stuff too, but nothing really memorable--I definitely find myself going back for a game of V, not VI.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I used to play Punch-Out! at the arcade . . . it was most of what I played, because with all the shoot-em-ups I tended to die after 30 seconds, but with Punch-Out I could get some serious value for a quarter.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: NezchanI'm assuming the title is a pun on the Japanese word "tampopo", which means "dandelion". The little dudes aren't anything like dandelions, but at least it's a flower word.

Reminds me of the classic movie "Tampopo" which was a Japanese movie all about food. There's kind of a core plotline about this woman named Tampopo running a ramen shop with kind of crappy ramen, who helps this trucker guy out and in return he starts doing this quest with her to get her ramen up to spec, seeking out great broth recipes and stuff. But it also has all these weird hilarious vignettes, like these homeless bums who live behind classy-restaurant row and eat all the best food and are connoisseurs, or these girls taking etiquette lessons from this older woman who has taken them to an Italian restaurant to learn how to properly eat spaghetti, and she's doing the whole formal thing with winding it on the spoon and telling them Americans will be shocked and dismayed by their manners if they don't eat it like this . . . and is interrupted by the slurping sound of an American a few tables over vacuuming their spaghetti, at which point all the girls start doing it and actually having fun eating their spaghetti . . . It's a great movie, tons of good bits.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

"Witch Beam" makes me imagine this "Sentai Ranger Witch" character with like a power ranger outfit and a witch hat, powering up and going "Witch . . . BEAM!!!!" in a thick Japanese accent and doing this big destructive beam that turns people into frogs or something.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: JarmerDoes it really need building size mechs?

Doesn't everything need building size mechs?

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I never played it the first time around, so this is fine with me, seems like it could be my kind of thing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

I feel betrayed. The picture doesn't show any dogs, much less sleeping ones. :grin:

View this comment - View article - View full comments

The aesthetic isn't my thing.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Bogomips

Quoting: Linux_RocksNow I want a honeycrisp apple [External Link]. 👀

The irony for a self-sterile patented apple…

I have to admit I don't really like most of the new apple breeds . . . they all kind of taste the same and don't have much character. They're not bad, they're generally sweet and crisp, but they don't taste much like apple.

View this comment - View article - View full comments