Acadian: January is all about the lightning. Everything she uses has a shock effect tied to it.




Behemoth!

January

Fight!

Galaxy News Radio

Boom!

To the moon

I woulda run as soon as I saw my foe wielding a fire hydrant! Fortunately, when it comes to January, the bigger they are the harder she hits! Just like Minsc.

Neat seeing the shock effect all over that behemoth.

Tuning into Gilda Gadfly for all the dish

Trench warfare

January trains the Big Town defense force

Lurker

Leap of Faith

Taking a break

Gilda Gadfly would be a perfect addition to FO to help chronicle the Stormventures I should think!

Trench warfare – 'Don't taze me, bro. . . .'

Aww, helping to train the local militia.

Leap of Faith – I knew what was coming here!

Taking a break – Bait & talking parrots. . . just doesn’t get any better than that!

Now let's see how that mutie fights without his super sledge!

Big Townies look like a proper army with their new armor.

As disgusting as can get - a mirelurk.

I recognize the place, where she jumped from. Usually there's a mutant up there, equipped with a missile launcher.

Have some ice cream, Jan.

Does Jan ever fly in Fallout 3? I can't remember. Anyway if she does, can you make a video?

Acadian: One thing I do like about Fallout 3 is that there disc jockey Three Dog does talk about your exploits on the radio. Though there are only a few quests you can do to activate his dialogue for them. But it is still nice to hear him talking about the Paragon of the Wasteland on the radio.

Wow, I did not think you would know "Don't tase me bro", even I forgot about that.

Sadly, the parrots were gone, and the bait was radioactive. But that's just life in the Wasteland.



Lopov: He did not fight very well without that sledge.

The Biggies wiped the floor with the mutants who attacked. It was literally over before Jan could even fire a shot.

Jan got up into that skywalk between the buildings and took the mutants out with her sword. Then she took the express elevator down...

We all scream for ice cream.


Renee: Jan does not fly in Fallout 3. Come to think of it, I do not believe I really looked for flying mods though. I did try to find some super leaping mods. But Fallout 3 has that all screwed up. When you jump higher than the default, you sort of stop on an invisible ledge, and you stand there in mid air. It really ruins it. So I contented myself with just eliminating falling damage, so she can jump off of things.




Looks like the old swimmin' hole is occupied

Hanging out with Jangles and the Captain

Tase me bro

I restarted Jan due to the issues I detailed in the Troubleshooting thread. She has a new face this time.

Nuka break

Savior

Is that a mutant mudcrab in the swimmin’ hole? Nasty creatures.

Love the Space Monkey billboard.

Jan puts out some jiggavolts!

Jan’s new face looks good. Perhaps my imagination but I think she looks a little more serious with the new face.

Yuck, mirelurks!

The deathclaw looks like he's tied up with a tiny electrical rope.

Nuka Break is a great shot. The GNR Tower is visible in this and the previous pic, nice touch, whether intentional or not.

The wastelander's cries were heard.

Acadian: Those are Mirelurks in the swimmin' hole. Which is to say, giant mutant mudcrabs...

Lopov: Jan has a perk that gives her a +10% damage to super mutants for every captive of theirs she frees.


Are the noodles supposed to be moving?

In the pink

Them!

Lopov on the run

Nuka break

Another close up

Teaming up with the Brotherhood

Jan is the Burnmaster

Hottie

If the noodles aren’t moving how do you know they’re not dead? Ya don’t wants dead noodles do ya?

Pretty in pink! Pretty dangerous, that is.

Wow, that is one big bad bug!

Aww, sittin’ by the dock of the bay with a nuka cola.

Brotherhood. Is the the Brotherhood of Steel I’ve heard about? Not to be confused with the Dark Brotherhood.

Jan is puttin’ out some serious flames!

Acadian: Gagh is always best when served live

The Brotherhood is not usually dark. Though it depends on the game. In some they can be real pricks.




Taking aim

Four score and seven years ago...

Jan gets simulated

Chinese invasion!

Jan and her deadbeat dad

Unethical experiments

Presidential

Jan let the dogs out

It's not about the things you blow up, but the friends you make along the way

Nice sniper shot.

Four score and seven years ago, mammoths walked the earth. . . oh, wait.

I hope that Deathclaw is housebroken!

Aww, love the caption you gave that last shot.

Acadian: Funny thing, Thomas Jefferson told Lewis and Clark to look for mammoths and other megafauna when they made their famous exploration to the Pacific. Instead they found a lot of grizzly bears.

I think that Deathclaw broke the house!



Beauty and the Stormcrow

Voice module online. Audio functionality test... initialized. Designation: Liberty Prime. Mission: the Liberation of Anchorage, Alaska.

Embrace Democracy, or you will be eradicated.

Obstruction detected. Composition: Titanium alloy supplemented by photonic resonance barrier. Probability of mission hindrance: 0%

Communism is a temporary setback on the road to freedom.

Sorry about the mess

A shocking development

Time to put the Storm in Stormcrow

Doctor January is in

January is now a Ranger

Will the Stormcrow embrace her potential? Tune in next time to find out.

Liberty Prime is pretty impressive. And big.

Stormcrow charging up her batteries?

Gosh, she fits right in with those Rangers.

macole: Stormcrow's embraces can be shocking.


Acadian: Liberty Prime is one of the coolest NPCs I have ever met in any game.

Stormcrow is getting juiced up.



Watch your head

Jan teams up with a supervillain to take on the Enclave

Then with a team of superheros

End of the Enclave

Jan goes undercover to track down a gang of water-thieves

Reporting for duty

Liberating Anchorage

Rangerclaw

Looks like that skeleton’s just been hangin’ around these parts too long.

Heh, at first glance, Supervillain looks like an angry beast of burden Jan somehow hitched up to her supply trailer. I mean, where does a girl carry all her stuff?

I’m guessing taking down this Enclave is a good thing.

What a helpful and gregarious superhero Jan is! She’s just teaming up with all kinds of groups that need her help.

Is that deathclaw one of those Rangers she’s helping?

Acadian: I guess that skellie is just hanging in there...

Taking down the Enclave is a very good thing.

That Deathclaw might be an honorary Ranger now.



I got an idea out of the blue

To create a Wood Elf in Fallout - Saoirse

Her main weapon is an Enfield SA-80

Her backup is an H&K MP7

Lopov on the run

Buttoned up against radiation

Mole Rat

Heavy gear

Jurassic Park

Welcome to Saoirse!

Let's see: Upward tilt to the outer corner of her eyes? Check. Pointy chin? Check. High cheek bones? Check. Horse ears? Check. Green in her attire? Check. Yup, she passes the wood elf test!

How can that little woodster wear that transformer heavy metal suit and still stand up? Must be magic.

Saoirse does not like the clunky transformer armor much. She'll be sticking to her camo in the future.


Big dog

He ate something that disagreed with him

January

Time for some navigatin'

Man the guns!

Ship board again

So off to another game, eh? Are there deathclaws in KOTOR? They really get around. Looks like Jan's up to some universe saving!

Look who January found

Saber battle

Flying Mantas

Star Map

In the cockpit

Shipwreck

Temple of the Ancients

Temple summit

The Alliance

This looks like Star Wars, so I am guessing it's Knights of the Old Republic, or something from that lineage. Cool, I like her armor. That must be fun swinging a light saber around. I haven't watched a Star Wars movie since high school.

Wow! Jan went looking for Nemo and found him!

Light sabers and flying mantas, what’s this world coming to?

Love the wooki in the last shot!

Renee: It is Knights of the Old Republic 2, from about 15 years ago.

It is fun playing in the Star Wars universe. It is too bad they have not done any role playing games in almost two decades or so. Except for an MMO, which I could care less about, since it is an MMO.


Acadian: Jan was not even trying to find Nemo!

I love the flying mantas. Sci Fi 101, if you want an alien species, just take an earth one and put it in a different environment.



I took a break from Knights of the Old Republic 2 and fired up Rome Total War 1, using my Amazon Total War mod. I have been having a lot of fun conquering the world with Amazonia.

Amazon shield wall

Chariots

Sometimes the AI in this game is just comedy gold

Resistance is futile

Wow, look at that shield wall! That's really dazzling. Who'd want to go up against that?

Cool, I have a friend who played some Total Rome War years ago. I'll probably never play this (or KOTOR) so it's good to at least see what it looks like. I guess this is more of a strategy type game, rather than real-time?

Renee is right - that is a very imposing shield wall!

'Please do not attack.' Ah yes, often requested and never heeded.

Renee: Turns out plenty of Sarmatians and Egyptians are dumb enough to throw themselves onto the points of Amazon spears.

The Total War games are all grand strategy games of world domination. The strategy map is turn based. But when you actually fight a battle it becomes real time with pause, for when you order around your individual units. It gives the whole thing a nice flow to it, because everything is moving at once. But you can still can control what it going on, because you can pause and give specific orders to every unit.


Acadian: Begging someone not to attack, and threatening to attack, seems like the height of diplomacy.



I have carried on my war against Parthia. After reaching the eastern edge of the map, I turned south, and crushed them in their heartland. I now rule the land between the Tigris and Euprhates. My original plan was to continue west from this point, and take on the remnants of the Seleucids in Hatra.

But then I noticed that the Parthians only had two settlements left, Dumatha and Bostra, and those were only lightly garrisoned.

OTOH, the Seleucids now have 3 territories, and some big armies in Palmyra and Hatra.

Clearly the Seleucids are going to take some time to finish. If I go after them, that will give the Parthians time to raise more troops. Then they will give me more trouble when I finally do turn to them. So changed my initial plans, and sent detachments down to take both Dumatha and Bostra. That will wipe the Parthians out entirely. In the meantime, I am building up my main eastern army in Thapsakos in preparation of attacking the Selucids at a later time.

Farther west I fought a massive battle with the Egyptians on the bridge north of Antioch. You can see the city in the distance.

It's a nice looking city. I think I'll have it

The governor has a swanky pad

Some pretty large scale thinking/strategy going on there on a world domination scale. You're right - that is a massive battle you set up at the receiving end of that bridge.

Acadian: Bridge battles are really easy in the Total War games. So long as you have the right ingredients: a couple of heavy infantry units who can hold your end of the bridge, and a lot of archers who can chew up the enemy as they bunch up on the span. They turn into massive slaughters if the enemy is foolish enough to attack you across the bridge.



I forgot that I made the Parthians are horde faction. So taking all of their cities did not destroy them. Instead it turned them into a horde

In the meantime I worked my way down the Egyptian cities along the coast of the Levant

Then it was time for the Seleucids

Amazon courage has laid them low

The east is Amazon

The Parthian horde headed west into the Nile Valley

I really do not want them to settle down. Because then I would have to fight them all over again. So I have a solution

It took some time, and numerous assassins and spies, but finally the last Parthian General sleeps with the fishes

That ended the Parthians for once and all

Ever onward, the quest for world domination continues. Looks like good use of assassins; sometimes a few of them (or snipers) can really wreak havoc.

Good gosh look at that map. You know a lot about historical stuff SR, so this game must be a mindgasm at times, for you. (Is there some Mythology too, perhaps?)

This game reminds me of some of the Avalon Hill strategies from the '80s we had in high school, which were also heavily map-based. I was more into RPGs at the time of course, but my brother + one of our friends would take over the gaming table sometimes with those games.

Have fun!

Acadian: I developed a real fondness for using spies and assassins in a defensive campaign I did once. The idea is you never leave your starting territories. You just defend them, and try to survive until the game's final end date (of something like 14 AD). I was getting shellacked by the Armenians, who were building super-powered armies of cataphracts and cataphract archers and continually invading me with them. So I sent a bunch of spies and assassins down into all their cities, and destroyed their stables every turn. The stables being the building that allows you to recruit cavalry units. With that the invasions stopped, along with their ability to build any horse units at all. Eventually I bankrupted them, and they could no longer afford to repair the buildings I was destroying with my assassins.


Renee: I remember those old Avalon Hill strategy games, like Squad Leader. I never played them much either. A long time ago some of my RPG friends also played Star Fleet Battles, which was the Star Trek version of grand strategy. They had a huge campaign of Klingons vs. Federation vs. Romulans, with one person acting like a gamemaster between them all. He was the only one who knew where all the units were, since they were using Fog of War rules. So each side could only see their own units, plus those of the others factions within a certain distance of their own troops.





Just when I thought I was out, the Amazons pulled me back in. I am now playing a Bean Sidhe (Banshee) campaign. I smashed the Gauls with swordswomen and chariots. Now I am crushing the Germans and Romans. I am about done with Germania. Not because they are nearly wiped out. Beyond them is the Valkyrja empire, which I would rather not fight. They are Amazons as well, and will give me much more trouble. The Germans are easier to deal with. So I intend to leave a narrow strip of their cities between them and me to act as a buffer, and just slaughter the Germans whenever they are foolish enough to raise my ire.

Down south I am going all out against the Romans. I have two full-sized armies down there now, one for the east coast, one for the west. I just got the ability to create onagers and my high-tier archers. So it is going to be a city-taking, slaughter fest.

Complicating things are the Gorgons. They are the final Amazon faction, from the western Sahara. Why they are coming up on boats to land in my territory in northern Italy is beyond me. But they keep doing it, and keep distracting me from the Romans by attacking the cities in my rear. I have been forced to thrash them on numerous occasions. I am going to have to create a picket line of ships out at sea, to ward off their amphibious landings.

Facing off against the Germans

Oh noes! A flash flood!

Charge!

Killer Queen

This game has gone to the dogs

Those are some very large scale battles! I used to play a few strategy games. Stronghold and its successor (Crusader) comes to mind.

Acadian: I just looked, and there is a brand new Stronghold game out now.


Chosen Women

Porcupine

The epic walls of Rome

Rome's last battle

Testudo

The Last Emperor leads the way

Last Emperor standing

End of an era

Rome is now a memory

That is a lot of Bowgirls!

I had to look up testudo - very cool!

Rome's been laid low.

Ha ha ha I love stuff like that! Play-acting around a table, Doritos and other munchies always a grab away.

The matching armor sets of the Chosen Women looks quite amazing. WHOA ... arrows everywhere. Goodness. Fallen warriors of battle. Where the heck is Lopov? He's been playing some point 'n' click games lately, too busy for RPGs. I wonder if he's played a game like this before.

And Roma has been sacked. Yikes!

In your last picture section, the cavalry and dogs fighting are impressive.

Some Vampire pics:


Now January has a broadsword. Ho! Ho! Ho!

Kalma has woken from the grave

On the prowl

Drinks are on the house

Wow, Jan gets around! So is this an rpg where you play as a vampire?

Acadian: Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines is a game from around 2003. It is based on the pen and paper Vampire: The Masquerade roleplaying game. It is a really good game. It has a lot of bugs and other flaws. But it does what a great RPG should, in that it gives you multiple different ways to play the game, and meet your goals. So it has a lot of replayability.



Lyceia is a female canine...

Lyceia is about to make some California pizza, heavy on the sauce...

Time to hit the nail salon

We are twins!

I'm glad you're enjoying your time as a vampire - complete with a 'shirt with an attitude'.

So, three redheads walk into a parking garage. . . .

My first time Downtown I witnessed a gang war. These Jets and Sharks all killed each other right in front of me.

Stormcrow does not simply walk into Mordor... She leaps!

January is powered up

I discovered these secret doors in the Giovanni Mansion. They lead to secret passages that go all the way around each side of the building, with one way mirrors to spy on the people inside.

January has a new sword!

Come at me wolf-bro!

Valhalla Awaits

Last one standing

Good riddance to those gangbangers.

That is a very neat looking aura Jan is sporting in Powered Up.

Werewolf vs Vampire!

Acadian: You can fight the gangsters, but that can actually get you in trouble with the police. I learned that my first time playing. Instead you have to just sit back and watch them kill one another. It is weird.




Greeking out

A view from up high (atop a statue of Zeus)

Let's go boating!

There are giants beneath the waves

Uh oh, found the edge of the Truman Show

I saw in the other thread that this was Assassin's Creed. Somehow I thought that game was one where they handed you your character and it was not a she. Clearly I am wrong and it looks great!

Acadian: Most of the Assassin's Creed games do not give you the option of playing a female character. They only started giving you the choice recently. Odyssey lets you chose a male or female character. And I think the newest one Valhalla does as well.



The ruins of Odysseous' palace are decorated with RL Bronze Age Cretan art

I love the towns

The attention to detail is fabulous

The historical accuracy is incredible

Bigger boats

You start the game with Ikaros - an eagle

Ikaros can go in first and scout out locations

He can mark all the bad guys for you, so you have them on your hud at all times

The wilderness areas are very bucolic

Even the pig farm looks incredible

That is encouraging about more choice in who your character is. More great shots and (from the other thread), I'm glad to hear that the difficulty has eased up to tolerable.

Goodness, yes I agree this game looks fantastic. It looks like the kind of place some of us would like to go on vacation.

Acadian: There is not too much choice in your character. Just male or female. But at least you can play the entire game as a female. I checked, and this is the first main Assassin's Creed game that allows that. In a few previous games they allowed you to play a female side character for a few missions, but all the main stuff was reserved for the primary male character. Assassin's Creed Valhalla (their newest game) also allows you to play a female all the way through.


Renee: I love the turquoise water and sandy beaches. It really does look like an idyllic Greek vacation getaway spot. It is fun just walking around looking at things. In that respect it brings me back to playing Oblivion.



You start the game with a horse. You can pick from three, and there are addons to change their appearance. This is the Makedonian

I think these NPCs with the gold shields and crowns are bosses

I love these little boats

At the end of the starting island you get a big ship

Kassandra

I got to watch a sea battle up close