Civ Rev, Minecraft, Baldur’s Gate and Skylanders

On 04/28/2017 at 10:46 PM by KnightDriver

News:

I epically failed in Civ Rev today trying for the last few achievements. I couldn’t get the “win before year 1000 AD on King or higher” one. I did it on Chieftan difficulty (the easiest) but King (the default difficulty, right in the middle) was too tough against those speed demon A.I. . The strategy is to simulate a Ghengis Khan style invasion. You have to acquire horse technology and find those four other civs quickly because they build their defenses fast. The walkthrough I read suggested using save states to cheat but I didn’t want to do that. I just played it over and over again trying to do it as fast as I could. I always got to the cities a little too late and their defenses were too hard to break quickly.

Then I tried a regular campaign on Deity difficulty (toughest) and realized I was not up to it. The computer seems to win more evenly matched battles and they build and explore so quickly. I couldn’t figure out how they were doing it. I suspected computer cheating.

Then I played just for fun a while. There are some special scenarios you can play. One is Lighting Round where everything can be done quickly like research and construction. It was ok but I think I was burning out because I started to lose my skills and kept getting beat. I swear the computer always knows what your strength is in a city while you have to guess unless you have a unit upgraded with scout ability. It’s totally unfair.

To cool down, I played some Minecraft for an hour. I just wandered both above and below ground mining resources and trying not to get killed by mobs. I lived in a nice igloo surrounded by polar bears. They leave you alone if you leave them alone. I doubt that’s the case in real life though. But it was a nice scene.

Memory:

I’m thinking about 2002 and the Xbox games I played, especially co-op hack ‘n’ slash games. There was Gauntlet Dark Legacy, Hunter: The Reckoning and Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. I know Mark and I played through all these. I have the fondest memories for Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance. Mark very likely played as the Dwarf Fighter and I as the Human Archer. I may have switched it up sometimes playing as the Elven Sorceress as well. This game had the most features of the three I mentioned and the most elaborate story. I so wish XBO would add Original Xbox backward compatibility but I doubt they will.

Photo:

I haven’t been big on Skylanders variants. The Halloween and Xmas themed ones are sometimes interesting. The Legendary, Easter and Dark ones are less interesting but I managed to pick some up anyway when I had nothing else to fill out a buy-1-get-3 sale.

So meet some Legendary Skylanders from Spyro’s Adventure.

skyleg

Legendary Bash, Spyro, Trigger Happy.

These all play the same as their regular counterparts except that they have slightly higher stats and look a little different. There are only two other variants for this game, Legendary Chop Chop, who came in a three pack with Spyro and Bash as a Toys R Us exclusive, and Dark Spryo who came in the 3DS starter pack. Of the variants, only Dark Spyro has some different moves and voice work.

Cary Woodham

04/29/2017 at 08:56 AM

I have the Dark Spyro because I reviewed the game it came with. I also have a Silver Spyro I got at E3 one year.

KnightDriver

04/29/2017 at 11:12 PM

Silver's cool and I want that 3DS starter Pack. Not so much for Dark Spyro but because the game itself is a bit different from the console games. The story, I just read, links more closely with the next game, Giants, too.

Super Step Contributing Writer

04/29/2017 at 11:04 AM

Is that Spyro in the middle? Looks a lot less cute than he used to.

04/29/2017 at 11:09 PM

The Legendary version looks like the Dark version where he is prone to a bit of The Evil. He encountered The Darkness once and gained the ability to use its elemental power but it turns him slightly evil. He prefers fire though so most of the time he's ok.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

04/30/2017 at 03:14 PM

I've started the real Baldur's gate like ten times on different systems. Can't get into it. I know it's dope. Don't know why.

04/30/2017 at 09:29 PM

I tried it too but couldn't get very far in it. My favorite thing to do though was shoot exploding arrows into houses and get the town guard to chase me and throw me out of town. I did that over and over again. Never got old. Gee, was there something else I was supposed to do?

goaztecs

05/09/2017 at 11:42 AM

The Lightning Round sounds fun in that Civ game.

I like the dark Skylanders figures, mainly for the uniform color scheme. GameStop in the next town has the Dark Edition of Superchargers for I think $20. If I didn't already own the game that would have been the starter set I would have bought.

05/09/2017 at 06:45 PM

I saw that edition for like $12 at Toys R Us. I wanted it for the dark Bowser with the Wii-U version, but I was already not supposed to be buying anything at the time.

PixlBit