If you do pre-order you get the soundtrack and the metropolis dome skins, how can anyone even expect to enjoy the game without the dome skins. :D
Also the most recent dev diary, covers some of the 7 wonders of mars:
Vehicle skins from the newsletter thing ,vs the regular skins.
And the regular Dome vs the pre-order Stellaris Dome.
Here is the breakdown from the Paradox site without the discounts for pre-ownership etc:
So it ten bucks extra worth it for the Deluxe? I know if I end up playing it then yeah.
Ok I can’t click on a lot of stuff so I need to get a vpn going then I hopefully can partake in all that 4 peoples thiingmcbobber you’re doing.
I’ve clicked all the links that have shown up but they all lead to a generic intro page. I will interpret that as meaning everyone has gotten their 4 link quota.
What kind of Mary Kay pyramid scheme is going on in here?
It is weird because the number has stayed at one no matter how many clicks. Not sure if it requires logging in with an account.
No worries because I rather @lordkosc get the things as he started the mini thread on it.
My big decision is plain vanilla or the deluxe version because I am a sucker for better looking domes and houses.
Yep, same. No big deal. Thanks for clicking on it.
So…streamers have it? Does that mean the review embargo is up as well? Did Tom get it?
clicked each one with an account, hope it increments something somewhere. This was very exciting!
Ha ha ha! After the Stellaris review, Paradox wouldn’t give me the time of day, much less a review code. They’ve been real dicks to me for a long time now.
Still, I’m psyched for this. I mostly like their games and this looks like a nice sci-fi city builder. I’ll be playing as soon as it’s out.
-Tom
Well I have three recruits now so thanks everyone!
I guess maybe you do have to be logged in.
That 1 star kiss of death, hey you told it as it was, Tom have you played Stellaris at all since the patches / dlcs have been added?
Stellaris was like Tropico 5 levels of bad. Paradox needs to get over themselves.
What an odd comment for a generally well reviewed and liked game.
Stellaris had big issues but it was in no way as bad as that. But i didn’t think Rome 2 was a 1 star game either. It’s currently the second most played Paradox game on Steam. Tom had to have known that bridge was going to get burned with that review.
I think Surviving Mars otoh will be more along the lines of Cities: Skylines, as essentially more a non-competitive game where winning is more about making the most successful colony rather than surviving. Although it does look like there are a few resource bottlenecks early on that might sink your colony if you forget / are unable to fulfill them.
Stellaris was a disaster at launch. Horrible game with little to no real game play and all busy work. The worst Paradox release in several years by far. It basically made me avoid Paradox releases until I read several reviews (before, I liked their output enough to preorder all their major releases, and I do still like all their other recent games a lot). It might be better now. I just don’t care, and I love space 4x games.
To this day I enjoy Sword of the Stars 2 more, and that’s something.
Imho, Tom’s review was one of the few to actually review the game as released and not the game the press releases said it was.
I’m still not over enjoying my freedom to hate on games I personally dislike after a mere few hours of fiddling with them ;)
So, a 7 out of 10?
78 on Metacritic. And yes I would call that generally well reviewed. This is the only place I have been online where the game was generally not liked (and that seems to have changed a little bit with the newest DLC). The latest Three Moves Ahead Podcast is also about the game, and they like it but note it’s flaws.
I’ll shut up about it now in this thread.
There was plenty in Stellaris that was interesting - for example randomized factions whose differences were subtle with how they interacted with the player, Fallen Factions that had to be placated or ignored, end game crisis, etc. - that had i not read any review of it nor seen any press on it i still would have given it a 2-3 stars on a star scale depending on the playtime and from my own experiences and enjoyment. Stellaris downplayed if not eliminated interesting variety on a system level, for better or worse, and most of the game can be happily played on the strategic map only. And the game still suffers from no way for smaller fleets to beat larger ones (but maybe that’s “realistic”).
Maybe a better example of The Emperor Has No Clothes would be No Man’s Sky, which Tom rightly called out for being essentially not actually being a game. It’s clear the developers of No Man’s Sky don’t understand what makes their game bad. Yet everyone queued up to praise it.
Stellaris was more like a flawed game than a fundamentally broken one, imo.
Either way though when you burn that bridge, the bridge gets burned. Whether justifiable or deserved or just like, your opinion man, when you tell someone their work is trash and your argument why doesn’t convince them, they’re not going to sagely nod their heads and pat you on the back. They’re going to shut the door.
Evaluations are not always pleasant but they are valuable especially to see what negative aspects your clients ran into (even if they are in the minority). All praise and glory will never help improve elements in any kind of product.
We all get evaluated one way or another in our professions and I suspect the manner we respond to critisms reflects on our success. I think that with the internet being what it is and the reactions of players and how they respond to detractors of their favorite games probably brings more attention to their game than the other way around.
