ZombiePie

Oddly enough, the Visual Novel tie-in games for this game AND Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 are surprisingly well-done... for the most part.

Hey everyone! IT'S THE LAST DAY OF THIS FUNDRAISER!

Donate over here: https://fundraise.pencilsofpromise.org/fundraiser/3170776

This is absolutely the last time I will post a comment to this blog, but Sony's announcement that they will be investing millions into a "modern" remake of The Last of Us, looks really weird. A company that prides itself on only investing in the future doing this, when the PS4 port is perfectly fine, makes no sense. I'm having a harder time trying to contextualize the shutdown of these stores given their previous comments about hating to revisit the past.

i try

Normally I would take the time to respond to the input and criticism shared on my blog, but the discussion here is so active, I just cannot imagine doing that without becoming exhausted. There are two updates worth sharing since I first published this:

1. All signs point to Sony announcing this shutdown without properly notifying developers, especially indie-devs, as Vita development teams have since come out saying that they have suspended development and future game releases. Lillymo Games had an all-digital Vita port of one of their current projects in the works and announced they terminated production. Yes, Sony is not entitled to notify devs that they are pulling the plug on their platforms, but this just shows that there were people still supporting the Vita until this announcement.
2. The number of digital-only games that will potentially be "lost forever," is currently hovering around 120 to 150 games. Many of these titles cannot come to other platforms due to Sony having the publishing rights and many others were part of programs like the PSP Minis program which only make sense of their intended platform.

Thank you for the kind words and feel free to share what you enjoyed on the blogs and don't forget to check out @arbitrarywater's series ranking the factions from worst to best.

In terms of an entry-level Total War game, your best bet is A Total War Saga: Troy. It is has a bite-sized campaign with a variety of factions that play distinct enough to one another that everyone is worth checking out at least once. After that, maybe try Warhammer II vanilla before getting in deep with its DLC. If you like the Vortex campaign, and you should 100% start with High Elves, you are bound to enjoy the rest of the game. If you want a historical experience, your choices boil down to the two more modern titles: Total War: Rome II and Total War: Three Kingdoms. Going back to the older titles is rough. I would go with Three Kingdoms because its diplomacy system is the best in franchise history and there are a handful of easier factions.

Thanks for catching that! In your honor I'll write a couple of changes I'd like to see Aranessa in Warhammer III when she get's re-introduced into Warhammer III's Mortal Empires Campaign:

1. Actually have her end-game victory conditions connect with her in-game buff and lore connection to Norsca. Norsca are bound to get a buff and new LLs in Warhammer III due to their proximity to Kislev so giving them an additional late-game threat seems like a good idea even if Aranessa's starting position is as far away from Norsca as possible. Make it a long journey the player needs to plan for and map out twenty or so turns prior.
2. Add Jaego Roth and the Grand Alliance to the game. Aranessa being a mortal should lead to a lot of fun rivalries within Vampire Coast, but that rarely plays out. When it does, it usually involves Count Noctilus or Luthor Harkon steamrolling her or Cylostra Direfin. Aranessa's mortality should be a rallying cry for the living pirates to unite and do something about Noctilus constantly violating pirate code and being a non-Chaos alternative to players.

I think if you want an Empire-like experience without the Imperial Authority mechanic, your best bet is to hope Tilea or Marienburg get made into full-fledged DLC factions in Warhammer III. Both would provide a similar, though different, playstyle to the Empire without forcing you to toil away to make sure elector counts are happy. Marienburg is a more economy focused faction, and Tilea gives you the Dogs of War.

On the matter of Gelt, and I have talked about this with @arbitrarywater at great length, Mannfred post-Greenskin update is a monster. First, he almost always finds a way to either pacify or confederate the Von Carstein faction and for whatever reason he is programmed to immediately go after Gelt when he's done unifying the Vampire Counts. The A.I. in general isn't the best at playing The Empire outside of Karl Franz and that results in Gelt getting absolutely steamrolled by turn twenty in most of my campaigns.

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