Octopus Overlords

I've seen a few previews that were similarly positive.

Das ist ermutigend.

All I needed to read from a reliable source that spent 60h playing already was “Basically, Jagged Alliance 3 plays like its predecessor from 1999.”

Achievement unlocked. Woot!

My ability to hold out is weakening!

DevDiary 14 - A look back

A Double Interview and a Look Back

Hello and welcome to our last DevDiary before release! We thought it would be best to do something special this time, so you are getting not just one one, but two Boi(y)ans interviewed, as we are celebrating our upcoming release by taking a fond retrospective look at the great games that started it all. We are Boian Spasov and Boyan Ivanov, co-creative directors of Jagged Alliance 3 and today we will be talking about our fond memories of Jagged Alliance 1 and Jagged Alliance 2 and the way these memories impacted the development of the sequel!

Saw this post over on the Steam forums for JA3:

Next Review says 3/5 by Techradar
The review went online by mistake and is still available in the google cache.
The rating is rather mediocre in contrast to the GameStar rating tendency.

Techradar review: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... clnk&gl=de

You can read the full review, but I thought this was interesting:

Jagged Alliance 3 is a throwback. The turn-based strategy pays homage to the ‘90s brilliance of Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2 in both its core mechanic and collection of action hero stereotypes. Sadly, it also veers into the ‘90s lack of political correctness, aping the attitudes of those times with racial caricatures, fan service, and even the use of an ableist slur.

"Wow, I was not expecting that a game about freelance killers-for-hire set in the late 90s/early 00s would be politically incorrect in the exact same way as the previous games in the original series." said me never.

I'd have to see for myself, and there may well be aspects of the writing that do end up offending me, but simply being of the same nature as JA1/2 doesn't put me off in and of itself. But hey, I'm the guy who still enjoyed the hell out of The Division even after being told that it was a horrible game about a fascist government murdering civilians who were just trying to survive (by murdering the shit out of everyone else, mostly), so what do I know?

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2023 7:39 pm
You can read the full review, but I thought this was interesting:

Jagged Alliance 3 is a throwback. The turn-based strategy pays homage to the ‘90s brilliance of Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2 in both its core mechanic and collection of action hero stereotypes. Sadly, it also veers into the ‘90s lack of political correctness, aping the attitudes of those times with racial caricatures, fan service, and even the use of an ableist slur.

So, I guess that answers the question I asked a couple of months ago:

Blackhawk wrote: Wed May 17, 2023 12:47 am I do wonder how they're going to address the way that some of the character concepts aged. By which I mean badly. A lot of them were just straight up stereotypes or jokes that might not go over so well today.

It's good to call it out, but it's not an issue for me that it's there. (that's tricky to phrase right - it might be more accurate to say that I'm not going to be upset if I hear it.) I'd rather it not be there, but nothing there gives me the impression that they went out of their way to deliberately attack people - I'd guess that they just weren't attentive to the changes in culture that have happened since the original set the style.

How it's presented also matters. You can have a shitty character make shitty remarks and have it be ok. If it's a hero character casually denigrating someone/thing, it's a bit different.

jztemple2 wrote: Wed Jul 12, 2023 7:39 pm Saw this post over on the Steam forums for JA3:

Next Review says 3/5 by Techradar
The review went online by mistake and is still available in the google cache.
The rating is rather mediocre in contrast to the GameStar rating tendency.

Techradar review: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/ ... clnk&gl=de

You can read the full review, but I thought this was interesting:

Jagged Alliance 3 is a throwback. The turn-based strategy pays homage to the ‘90s brilliance of Jagged Alliance and Jagged Alliance 2 in both its core mechanic and collection of action hero stereotypes. Sadly, it also veers into the ‘90s lack of political correctness, aping the attitudes of those times with racial caricatures, fan service, and even the use of an ableist slur.

Meh. George Carlin aptly summed up my sentiments towards political correctness:





If the game is funny -- which is largely subjective -- I couldn't care less if it rubbed the Techradar reviewer the wrong way. YMMV, but I rarely find those preoccupied with political correctness to be the most reliable authorities as to what qualifies as humorous.

Hilarious, or sad reflection of modern society, maybe both: Reviewer is totes ok with hyper violence, blowing people away, including graphic shots of blowing people’s heads off, but off color comments is too much!

Jesus what a time we live in.

I'd love it if there were a couple of mercs who lean hard into the telling the others that they shouldn't talk like that. Buns and Spider maybe

Cohh is playing it on twitch this morning., I watched for a while and it looks pretty much like the game I want.

https://www.twitch.tv/cohhcarnage

Looking forward to this. I finished Aliens: Dark Descent last night (recommended if you are fan of the franchise), tonight is our online group game night, so that means I can start directly into JA3 tomorrow night.

I remember way back in the months before JA2 was released and they had a demo that was a one-off level not tied to the storyline. I must have played that thing a dozen times before the actual game was released.

coopasonic wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:16 am Cohh is playing it on twitch this morning., I watched for a while and it looks pretty much like the game I want.

https://www.twitch.tv/cohhcarnage

Wow. It looks like the skeptical hesitancy is wearing off!

IGN review:

"Jagged Alliance 3 is a smartly-built, action-packed throwback tactical extravaganza that I enjoyed the whole way through. Its madcap sense of humor is very hit or miss – for me, it's usually miss. But for the most part, that doesn't hurt its ability to tell a story with just enough intrigue to keep you guessing, while not overcomplicating things too much. The huge variety of distinct characters, hand-built tactical maps, and objectives assure that a long campaign never goes stale, with limited but meaningful merc progression that let me build my dream squad and play almost exactly how I wanted to, with the added tension of trying to keep them alive through each combat encounter. If you know your way around a squad management game you may want to turn the campaign difficulty up a notch for your first playthrough, but even when you're rolling in cash, this lead-slinging blow-out is a hell of a good time."

PC Gamer review

Summary paragraph:

Those flaws take some luster off this otherwise excellent strategy RPG, but only enough to downgrade it to a strong recommendation to genre veterans. Haemimont have promised extensive mod support shortly after launch, letting players create new maps, characters, gear and even new stories. By the time I've cracked this campaign, there'll be even more battles to fight. I can't wait.

Brian wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:20 am Looking forward to this. I finished Aliens: Dark Descent last night (recommended if you are fan of the franchise), tonight is our online group game night, so that means I can start directly into JA3 tomorrow night.

Pretty much this. Except for the Aliens bit. Although I'll let the second part of the Aliens bit stand. But other than that, pretty much this.

I'm already brainstorming team comps, although I don't really know the specializations yet. Usually the way I do it is to plan the roles I want to fill, then find characters that match the roles.

My first choice for combat role, going into it blind:

Marksman
Heavy weapons
Rifleman
CQB
Floater (rifleman + CQB)

That, with the specialist roles (hacker, medic, scout, etc) spread appropriately between them. I'd probably make the medic the floater, for instance (to give him/her more flexibility in positioning), while I'd likely look at scout with CQB (he's more likely to end up close & personal.) Maybe put the hacker maybe as the rifleman or heavy weapons (because I don't want them too far away in case their skills are needed, so not the sniper), while putting explosives on whichever of the mid-range characters isn't the hacker (possibly on the heavy, because as I grew up in the 80s, I like my tropes.) That leaves mechanical for the sniper.

And, of course, there would be redundancies, like one of the mid-range characters also having some medical skill, for when the main physician can't heal thyhimself. and the scout having some mechanical skill for traps. And everyone but the sniper would probably need at least a little explosives skill to keep grenades as an option.

This game will really benefit from someone releasing a character planner once all of the mercs' starting stats are known.

Of course, if they take that particular playbook from JA2, not all characters will be available at all times, as some of them will randomly be employed by others when you're ready to do your hiring. Plus, later in the game in JA2, I often found myself putting one or more of my primary team into a back-burner 'trainer' role and hiring specialists from the high-end of the AIM/MERC sites.

A quick word on the mod support, playing off of the aforementioned 80s child in me:

Those modders out there had better release sets of mercs comprising the A-Team* and the entire pre-1987 GI Joe lineup!

*All A-Team mercs will, of course, have Mechanical maxed and Marskman at 1.

Reservations about this game are pretty much gone. Get it while you can for a new game that is pretty heavily discounted. Bought from greenmangaming for $28.

From a fellow OOer:

Boughten.
I need a break from Diablo and this should do nicely.

Madmarcus wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:06 am I'd love it if there were a couple of mercs who lean hard into the telling the others that they shouldn't talk like that. Buns and Spider maybe

That would be hilarious!

So after watching that IGN video review (excellent, BTW, except that he chose an entire team of snipers to vet the game?! Come on…), it looked like merc advancement is based on stat-based perks instead of pure stat increases, is that right?

Hope not, as I loved the way JA2 handled advancement, which was ‘do a lot of the thing that requires stat X, and stat X will increase’

Carpet_pissr wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 4:10 pm So after watching that IGN video review (excellent, BTW, except that he chose an entire team of snipers to get the game?! Come on…), it looked like merc advancement is based on stat-based perks instead of pure stat increases, is that right?

Hope not, as I loved the way JA2 handled advancement, which was ‘do a lot of the thing that requires stat X, and stat X will increase’

Sort of. It's a combination of the two.

As long as I can still take cheap newbs like Barry and turn them into killing machines I'm good with either method. I will be bummed if I max out the lower level guys without ever turning them into actually good mercs.

One day I will learn to resist the forum affect.
Today was not that day.
On the plus side IIRC JA2 was one of my favorites although I'm not 100% positive.

I was kinda hoping there would be a pre-load, but apparently the developer indicated it was not something they felt was necessary. I guess it will be available at 9am EST, if that timer is right.

I always thought game releases were on Tuesdays TBH. Friday seems odd.

Albums and DVDs (how old am I?) came out on Tuesdays, IIRC. You might be right about games - it's been so long since I purchased an actual physical PC game, I honestly can't remember anymore.

Regardless, yes, Friday is odd. I would have thought Thursday for some reason, but maybe nothing matters anymore.

Madmarcus wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 5:18 pm As long as I can still take cheap newbs like Barry and turn them into killing machines I'm good with either method. I will be bummed if I max out the lower level guys without ever turning them into actually good mercs.

I played through JA2 twice, once ditching the newbies as soon as I could for vets, second time taking the rookies and building them into a killing team. Both times were great!

Worth A Buy thumbs it up, with a solid 9/10:

I always tell myself I'm going to ditch the newbs but I never do. I almost always reached the end with Buns, Barry, Igor, and Grunty as the core of the first squad.

Madmarcus wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 9:09 pm I always tell myself I'm going to ditch the newbs but I never do. I almost always reached the end with Buns, Barry, Igor, and Grunty as the core of the first squad.

I'll be giving impressions when I can tomorrow, but I'll be on home nursing duty for parts of the day.

It has been too long and my memory isn't good enough to remember JA2, so I won't be making comparisons.

I caved and bought it at GMG. I'd get to be out in the morning but I'll get to play at some point tomorrow.

I bought it earlier in the week. Not finished any of my current rotation of games, but plan to make time for this tomorrow anyway. Never got as far as I wanted with the original games and barely remember any of it. So my impressions will not be nostalgia based observations. Looking forward to it though.

Fidget.

Fidget fidget.

I couldn't find any information on Steam Deck support. This might sway me as I don't get a lot of actual pc time (hogged by the wife).

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 6:28 pm I was kinda hoping there would be a pre-load, but apparently the developer indicated it was not something they felt was necessary. I guess it will be available at 9am EST, if that timer is right.

9am!! Why 9am? Grrr.

Scoop20906 wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 11:37 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Thu Jul 13, 2023 6:28 pm I was kinda hoping there would be a pre-load, but apparently the developer indicated it was not something they felt was necessary. I guess it will be available at 9am EST, if that timer is right.

9am!! Why 9am? Grrr.

To be precise, I understand that's 9am EDT. I believe the time reflects the desire to release in the afternoon in Europe so the devs have a chance to make any last minute changes. But that's a guess.

Me, I'll be busy probably all morning anyway, but I put in extra honey time this evening with the understanding I can zoom off to my room soon after dinner tomorrow.

All this is predicated on my GMG key arriving, but they have only once disappointed me with sending the key a few hours late. To make up for it they sent me the keys to six other games, none of which was worth a damn, but I guess it's the thought that counts