Jagged Alliance 3 – Abandoned? [Video]

One of the best franchise revivals in recent times was Jagged Alliance 3, which had its release three years ago. Time flies, huh? Jagged Alliance 3 was a good game, so naturally most of us expected that the franchise wouldn’t go dormant again so soon after such a strong resurrection, but it did. And honestly, it’s a complete and utter waste, considering how cool the series is, and how good a job the developer Haemimont Games did. Not one DLC, not even a single word about the future of the franchise. In this excellent video by Kordanor’s Gaming Lair—Kordanor (he kinda looks like a JA merc) talks about these issues: why things stalled, and what to expect.

It’s mostly speculation, of course, but he does clear up a few things. Such as who owns what now (IP, dev team), a fact that makes this much more complicated than one thinks. The future isn’t looking too bright though… Video after the jump!

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Star Wars: Zero Company – Three Strikes and You’re Out

Finally, a long-sought-after turn-based tactical game in the style of an X-com-like is here, and simply, it’s good. Now, that’s not to say it doesn’t have problems, because it does, but in a general sense, Star Wars: Zero Company is a welcome addition to the genre and should satisfy the call for squad-based combat. I might as well make one thing clear already. This is not a battle simulation in the style of Jagged Alliance 3—it’s more of an Xcom 2 (nuXCOM) game, with perhaps even a stronger focus on board game rules, gameplay and combat abstraction. But before we get into that, let’s talk about the story, which is a huge focus in Zero Company, maybe to its detriment in some cases.

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Star Wars: Zero Company – Very Early Impressions

After geeking out on Star Wars: Zero Company for about eight hours now, I’m ready to give some very early impressions—so take what I say with a grain of salt. This will be a bit haphazard, so I won’t go over things in detail; I just want to talk about a few points. We can start with the story and the protagonist. The story so far seems interesting, with you running a mercenary company during the height of the prequel era—and having the big separatist war looming in the background is just awesome (if you like the prequel movies, that is). However…

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Crypts Of Carith – Demo Impressions

This guy looks unwell and thus, must die

Since we are on a blobber roll, why not try another one! And this time we are playing the Crypts Of Carith demo, a turn-based blobber made by a solo developer. Right off the bat, I can say that this game certainly tickles the dungeon-crawling itch. The visuals do not impress me much, as it frankly looks a bit drab and empty. Yet the gameplay, which is based on some kind of ruleset akin to Dungeons and Dragons, made me feel right at home with the combat and dice rolls.

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Dverghold – Dwarf Digging [Early Access Impressions]

If I got a coin every time the dwarves dug too greedily, I would have zero coins, since they would nick them too. This will not be a full review of Dverghold, since this Early Access release is far from finished. And I don’t mean buggy, as it’s actually very polished and stable, but there are camp followers that should serve a role but offer nothing at the moment. This means that I’d rather stop now and wait for the complete experience instead of spoiling the game piecemeal. Even so, let’s go over my impression of this EA release!

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Critical Shift – Playtest Impressions

One thing that’s common now is to base your game on SCP, especially if you want mystery, and instantly want to set the tone of what’s to come. Critical Shift leans into SCP something fierce, being the game that feels the most similar—without actually being set in that universe. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from the three missions in the playtest.

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