Posts from Recently viewed games Auto-translated

Looks cool, it even makes me want to play it myself.

listed several possible reasons

You don't have imports, only production. In the case of a closed economy like the USSR, this is normal, but you are trading. Your currency strengthens, prices for the goods you produce rise, and their competitiveness, despite the large quantity produced, decreases (and there's also an embargo). Isn't that right? In the end, the market balances everything out, but not in your favor.
In reality, it is considered dangerous to have too large a trade surplus; in some cases, it can even be worse than a deficit...

You don't have imports, you only produce.

Well, it's so-so here. On one hand, I definitely remember that there were imports for a number of items, but on the other hand, yes, there was an embargo, plus imports decreased due to increased production.

Your currency is strengthening, prices for the goods you produce are rising, and their competitiveness, despite the large quantity produced, is falling (and there's also an embargo). Isn't that right? In the end, the market balances everything out, but not in your favor.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), the game doesn't implement currency exchange rates and their strengthening or weakening, but the explanation, in general, is excellent.

In general, in real life, it is considered dangerous to have too large a trade surplus, it can even be worse than a deficit in some cases...

Yes, I've heard that too.

I tried playing, and since I hate tutorials, I immediately jumped into the sandbox... After about ten hours, I still didn't quite get it. Just kidding, I figured out the gameplay in general (except for the military aspect and production priorities), but overall it seems more complex than Crusader Kings because you have to plan far ahead.

In short, here's my story: I started as the Shogunate, decided I had a galaxy brain and immediately kicked them out of government, not even suspecting how much this would slow down passing new laws for me. In the end, I sat there with authority ~15-30 and waited thousands of weeks for changes. Then, after several decades, I suddenly realized my mistake and hastily added them back, thus erasing all the progress of suppressing them from previous years. Also, the Brits really screwed me over by attacking me while allied with the Russians whom I'd been buttering up the whole time — I still managed to beat them and squeezed quite solid reparations out of them, but during wartime my economy took a hit and way too many radicals popped up, which led to the old aristocracy organizing an uprising years later. The entire country was on their side, and all I had left were Kanto, Hokkaido, and underdeveloped Sakhalin, Celebes, and New Guinea. Anyway, I triggered the Restoration very late, and then went on to lose to the rebels — got a game over before the start of the 20th century (no wonder I never liked the Brits). By GDP — 10, population — 5, rank — 11, so roughly where I started. Laws at the time of the uprising were like this:


I think that if you know what you're doing, the game is pretty interesting, although some moments can be tedious (waiting, trade route management), and well, I think I've played it enough for now...

trade route management

To be honest, I didn't put much effort into it. If someone buys something from me, let them buy it. I only adjusted import/export tariffs based on what gives me green numbers, and if there was a shortage of a certain product, I would buy it. If no one was selling it, I tried to set up my own production.

gives green numbers

🤑🤑🤑 A reliable workforce that will never fail, right?...

Yeah... Well, I haven't tried playing as other FACTIONS, but it seemed to me that the Japanese have a somewhat difficult start, not least because you start without any international trade at all, and therefore you either have to slowly develop your own production or substitute imports with red numbers... Although, with the Crusaders, one of my favorite regions is Wallachia, and if you can exploit various things there, then it will probably be even more difficult to achieve anything here, so it's probably difficult depending on who you're comparing it to.

but it seemed to me that Japan has a somewhat difficult start

I was going to write that it's an interesting country to start with, but in reality, this historical period is such that many have a difficult start. Times began to change rapidly, and many countries could not keep up with these changes. Some successfully began industrialization and even made the great power - the Russian Empire - suffer, while others killed their entire population in a losing war and doomed the country for centuries to come.

Added 1 hour 27 minutes ago
Fixed the link.

Well, I thought I was done playing...

I lied... I didn't want to be defeated, so I decided to use the experience I gained in the previous game and started over. At the very beginning, everything was going so well that even with minimal taxes and the highest wages, I was still making a profit, and I had to come up with ways to increase expenses. But overall, nothing particularly interesting happened because I just sat on my islands for the entire game. By the way, I almost never reload in these games because it ruins the challenge and my immersion in what's happening, but this time I had to do it a couple of times. Both times were when I declared war, but the problem wasn't because of losing or anything like that, but simply because I couldn't understand what was happening, so I just reloaded and didn't even start the war. Anyway, the final results were as follows:

The income is so low because, knowing on what date the game would end, I prematurely reduced taxes to the minimum. Let my successors deal with the situation

Social programs really hurt my budget at some point. When I introduced them, they didn't burden me much, but closer to the end of the game, the costs became too high.
I had workplace safety at its maximum for a long time, but again, closer to the end, I got the impression that the high level of minimum wages had a negative impact on the economy. However, I can't confirm this theory, but it seemed to get better after I reduced it by two levels.

Well, there's nothing particularly interesting here. I switched to a democratic system just to check out the party format. It's very well done.

Would you like to live in such a country? It's a bit like Siversk, but a little more traditional...

Nice government spending, isn't it?

In terms of production, it seems to be more modest than Siversk, but understand, guys, we have a small country, there's nowhere to expand...

Well, and here are the rankings.

In short, it's a good game, although this time I felt that there are many things that could still be improved to make it more interesting. Maybe in five years, they'll add some new mechanics, and then I can play again, but this time as a different country.

By the way, I was very amused by this thread

Added 3 minutes ago
Oh, yes, I almost forgot, the results of the last election:

+ game over screen

In short, it's a good game, although this time it seemed to me that there are many things that could still be improved to make it more interesting.

Yes, you can add a lot of cool features to make the game even better; they have already announced a bunch of patches where they promised to make the screens more convenient for tracking the growth or decline of life level and its possible causes, and many other things. I hope that the game's development won't be shut down due to the wave of hate, as they did with Emperor.

Added after 13 hours 39 minutes

Would you like to live in such a country?

>SoL 14.9
Pffffffff

Slice of life...

Imagine something that combines party-based dungeon crawling, similar to Icewind Dale and Diablo, with an engine like the first Neverwinter Nights, but without pausing during combat, without side quests, and with a system similar to Bloodlines – where you level up stats or magic using experience points. It also features dialogue cutscenes between pre-written characters, like in a JRPG. Therefore, there's nothing here that resembles the well-developed city from the "sequel," where the entire game essentially took place, with missions acting as additional "dungeons." Instead, it's the opposite – there are combat dungeons where you spend 80% of your time, and in between, there's a meager hub with two shops and a useless bar. In the dungeons, you fight enemies from a specific clan and cast spells, collect random loot in an inventory similar to Diablo, and jump into the city through a city portal from Diablo to sell it. Throughout the dungeons and in between, you watch dialogue cutscenes that advance the plot from dungeon to dungeon. Essentially, the gameplay is quite simplistic by today's standards, and it differs from other similar old-school RPGs only in its theme and corresponding presentation. Perhaps the only positive aspect is the story, which tells of a medieval knight-conqueror whose connection with God is forcibly severed, but who, guided by his love for a woman and his strong character, finds the strength not to degrade to the level of his new "colleagues" – not because of any particularly interesting or intricate plot, but because of its romantic spirit, which is clearly lacking in modern degenerate culture.
I'll add that the game is very dark, and by default, the brightness setting doesn't work, and the torch doesn't illuminate anything; it only slightly tints the color of the model that's holding it. Therefore, to see anything at all, I had to download the dgvoodoo utility.
P.S.: Tremors are outcasts.

If I had known it was only the first chapter, I might not have gotten so into it. It's too short, although it's quite good. A boomer shooter in the style of Blood/Dusk, noticeably closer to Blood, without crazy jumping and with slightly more positional combat. Similar cultists in robes throwing chunks of dynamite, and you can throw it too, and compared to Blood, this idea has been developed a bit more - you can throw it without lighting it, including with a separate hotkey, and detonate it simply by shooting it.
The shooting is satisfying, the maps are good, there are some interesting physics and environment interactions that you can use to your advantage. The weapons aren't particularly original due to the setting, but they are all good, and they can be upgraded in different ways - not by changing the original function, as in that recent game about Cthulhu, but simply by making them stronger.
Remembering that recent checkpoint-based shooter about Cthulhu, I started on hard difficulty, and it was too easy, and you can even save scum if necessary, so I recommend setting it to very hard. Although there is one moment here, during a prolonged fight, where it is physically impossible to save, and it was the only moment that gave me a little trouble and forced me to replay it a few times. Otherwise, the enemies don't have hitscan, and you can always approach any fight from a position on the map that is advantageous to you, without any arena-style spawns like in Serious Sam, so you don't have to worry about the difficulty.
There isn't much else to say. If anyone else likes boomer shooters, I recommend waiting for the full release, if it ever happens, and playing it.

The most difficult thing is to get through at least half an hour or an hour on the first deck, get used to the textures and the cubic engine, which plays music incessantly (for some reason, the most intense and strange track is at the very beginning, but this is not observed later), the inertial movement of the character, the peculiarities of control and navigation through the interface, which seems cluttered, but after getting used to it, it is quite well-thought-out. I tried to play this game several times many years ago, sometimes I dropped it after a few corridors, sometimes on the very first cyberspace, and sometimes I didn't even leave the starting room, which I always regretted. But if you manage to get used to it, there will be no problems later.
After completing the game, I looked at the release year and was very surprised - 1994, just a year after the first Doom, and considering the start of development, it was conceptualized even earlier. By the standards of that time, and even of the present time, this is a brilliant masterpiece. It has: exploration of a huge space station with decks that differ from each other, logically developed and integrated with each other; a dense atmosphere and a feeling of loneliness, being lost in deep space without hope of help; a well-thought-out plot, presented both in the past tense through audiologs (of which there are not so many, and the vast majority of them make sense, unlike the thousands of "lore" notes in modern games about how some nobody pooped for ten years), and "dialogue" during the action, with SHODAN and a couple of NPCs that you never meet face to face; a fairly interactive environment and a limited inventory; different types of stimulators and grenades with effects, and types of cartridges for most weapons; various augmentations and modifications that provide interesting possibilities. I especially liked the presentation - in the conditions of navigating through the devastated decks of the aforementioned station, in a frantic search for a way out, like a cockroach covered with a glass, you are not led by the hand, but you only have a vague and generalized idea of what you need to do at the moment - where to go and how to solve one of the new global crises. In a couple of dead ends, I had to open the walkthrough because I didn't understand where to go, but all this can be solved in-game, with due effort and attention.
In general, in the remake, which is being prepared, except for the engine, and maybe a couple of individual moments, nothing needs to be changed at all - it will turn out to be a cool game that will be relevant even now, and will put any AAA game to shame, and I say this without undue confidence, because I never played it in my childhood, but simply as a fact of life. Perhaps that is why it failed at the time - people could not cope with such a complex format of a first-person game.
All this experience could not fail to prompt me to an old man's grumbling about the industry that has gone downhill. The thought is not original, but it has never been so clearly formed in my mind as after realizing that this game was released in 1994 - that was the time when developers were not afraid to experiment and make complex games with a lot of interesting features. In this context, I can thank the modern swamp in chronological order: the first Half-Life, which turned the first-person genre into a scripted rail shooter; consoles, which brought the well-known shameful mechanics to the industry; and finally, garbage developers like Ubisoft, thanks to which the entire modern single-player game industry consists of open worlds with collectibles and a thousand notes about how a random NPC pooped ten years ago, Skyrim and The Witcher 3 are the best games in history, Horizon/Last of Us/God of War are blindingly good, and the average gamer for every major studio is considered a clumsy degenerate with ADHD, unpretentious and unable to solve any tasks more complex than following a marker and pressing X.

But to end on a pleasant note, I will say that if the remake finally comes out, and is not spoiled in some typical unforeseen way, then I will gladly play it again. Well, if not, then I will definitely play this version again sometime.

In recent years, I've been playing mostly Eastern games, and not so long ago, I caught myself thinking: what if my aversion to Western, modern games is just a subconsciously developed bias, and in reality, things aren't that bad? Based on this, I decided to replay some old games, and one of them was Alpha Protocol, which, for some reason, was heavily criticized by its contemporaries and gaming journalists. I don't remember exactly when I played it the first time, but it was definitely about ten years ago.

I enjoyed it then, and I still enjoy it now. Firstly, there are normal dialogues instead of good guy/toxic points and a third option in the form of sarcasm; there's no need to fill up a "good/evil" bar, and like a real person, you can behave differently when interacting with different characters, depending on the situation and your (or rather, your character's) attitude towards them. Who would have thought that the protagonist could have a good relationship with some characters and an absolutely opposite relationship with others? Certainly not BioWare and similar companies. Regarding the dialogues, it's also great that the time to choose options is limited – in an RPG where you have only one or two choices for the entire game, this wouldn't make much sense, but here it really adds to the authenticity and dynamism. Secondly, the storylines are bold (by today's standards); it deals with the Middle East, the Taiwan issue, and even the idea that the military-industrial complex might deliberately provoke various crises to profit from them later – judging by the reaction to real-world events, all of this is clearly not something that the Western, soy-consuming audience can handle. Thirdly, there are normal women. They're not as cute as in Japanese games, but they are charismatic in their own way, even if they are visually limited by the age of the technology. And looking at this, where a girl from a 2005 game looks much more attractive than a woman from a 2023 game, despite being the same character, you realize that it's not that games that aim for realism are inherently ugly, but rather that the direction of development has shifted towards degradation, which is noticeable not only in the visuals and storylines but also in terms of gameplay.