Vito

Report #31

One of my goals for the entire year of 2019 was to get my unfinished games list down to 80 titles. With completing DoW Soulstorm I achieved this goal much much earlier than I anticipated. I was pretty sure in January, that this would be a realistic goal to take about one year! However, with starting a new game in AC III, the number increased to 81 unfinished games again, though only temporary. I browsed my unfinished games list and counted the truly endless games (e.g. Civ or Paradox games) to be around 40. That means in theory I should be able to cross off another 40 titles from my unfinished list over time. That’s a long way to go!
As a reward for achieving my goal, I’ll be a bit more lenient on (or with?) starting new games.


Reviews

DiRT 3 Complete Edition

19.9 hours, 28 of 60 achievements
★☆☆☆☆

More

There is only one saveslot. Shortly before the final race, my savegame inexplicably broke about 20 hours into the game. There was so much salt…


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault

8.8 hours, no achievements
★★★☆☆

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Release Date: 2006

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault is a RTS game set in the world of W40k. It is a standalone expansion to W40k: Dawn of War which adds the Imperial Guard as a playable faction.

The iceplanet Lorn V harbors a forgotten Titan, the mightiest warmachine the Imperium of Man has ever produced. All major powers of the galaxy arrive on the planet after they all magically remember at the same time that the Titan is there to claim the Titan for themselves. In a campaign of 5 missions you play either the side of Order (Imperial Guard, Eldar) or Disorder (Chaos, Orks) to lead them to victory.

While Dawn of War was able to deliver a great story, Winter Assault feels very lackluster in comparison. It's not bad, the missions offer great variety and are well designed, but after playing the original campaign only a few weeks ago, I was dissappointed in the overarching story.

The gameplay is solid and the new faction is fun to play (also, you know, I sympathize with them -- being lowly simple humans, while most other factions are fielding supersoldiers…).

Achievements: None.

Personal Verdict: Not a bad game, but falters in comparison to the base game.


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm

26.3 hours, no achievements
★★★☆☆

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Release Date: 2008

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm is a RTS game set in the world of W40k. It is a standalone expansion to W40k: Dawn of War which adds the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar as playable factions.

A warpstorm appears in the Kaurava system. As usual, the major powers of the galaxy arrive to fight over the 4 inhabited planets of the system. You choose one of the factions and play on a campaign map representing Kaurava, where you can attack and defend provinces. The game changes to RTS segments for battles (like in the Total War series).

The gameplay is identical to Dark Crusade, see here for a short reminder. It is fun, but becomes a bit repetitive after some time. I am at a loss to give a real explanation why some RTS games become stale and repetitive quicker than others, Soulstorm being an average game in that regard. Some of the battles towards the end of my campaign felt really unnecessary, as it was clear I would win, but I still had to play out the battle in full. Don't get me wrong, overall I enjoyed the game, but not nearly as much as the base game.

Achievements: None.

Personal Verdict: Not a bad game, but falters in comparison to the base game.



Currently playing

  • Assassin's Creed® III
    Assassin's Creed® III

    0.0 hours playtime

    no achievements

Factorio got abandoned, I’m not feeling it at the moment. I know that it is me, not the game, so I’ll rather play it sometime else, when I’m more in the mood for it.

Assassins Creed III is just installing, as I type this. I saw some AC posts over the last couple of days and decided to continue with the series, AC III being the next entry in the series, that I haven’t played. I heard mixed things about it, so I’m definitely looking forward to see how I will like the game :)


With that I finished all 4 parts of W40k: Dawn of War. Although the expansions were not as great as the base game, I still think it’s a solid RTS game, which aged relatively well. I have DoW II in my backlog as well, but won’t jump into it that soon, as I think I need a break from RTS for a moment. While fun, RTS games are definitely very hectic and require a good amount of concentration to play.

Happy backlog-clearing to everyone,
Vito

Trav

Hey good on you for making goal, at least temporarily. That’s awesome! You’re killing it.

And also I think it’s great that you’re able to set aside a game that you’re not into right now. Seems lots of people push themselves to complete even if a game is utterly unfun, and that just seems like such a waste of life to me. Have fun with AC3!

Vito

Either that or I set my goals too low ;)

It really depends on the game. With Factorio I can see myself having fun with this game, I’m just not in the right mood at this time. When I play a game where I don’t think I’ll ever have fun with it, I, too, sometimes push myself to complete it nevertheless….

Arbiter Libera

I played the first Dawn of War to death back in the day when it came out. Main draw of Winter Assault was really the inclusion of Imperial Guard while campaign itself was alright if, as you said, riding the coattails of the vanilla campaign. Interesting that subsequent expansions ditched a story-focused narrative campaign to go for that Risk-style approach instead.

Vito

Ah yes, I think you already mentioned it when I reviewed Dark Crusade. Of course campaign and free play are quite different, so I can see how the Imperial Guard can impact the game in a completely different way in the latter mode. Incidentally I had the most trouble in my Soulstorm campaign fighting the Imperial Guard (played as the Adepta Sororitas). And yes, I wondered too, why they changed their campaigns.

Arbiter Libera

I think it was honestly a response to some players wanting a “turtling” race considering DoW’s aggressive pace wasn’t really something most were accustomed to unless multiplayer was your thing. IG kinda filled that niche.

JumpOffACliffy

Congrats on achieving your goal! Don’t worry about it being too easy/finishing it early - just means you get the chance to set new ones!

Vito

Thank you! Oh, I don’t worry, I mean, I have other goals to attend to. It was just really surprising, because I figured it would take me much longer :)

Fnord

DoW 2 is a very different game. The campaign is not a strategy game, it’s focused on tactics, and you have a small amount of units that level up and get new equipment as you play (this is persistent between levels). I never really liked this…

Oh, and good luck with AC3. Hope the walls are more solid for you than they were for me

Vito

It’s really sad, that they changed up the gameplay in DoW 2 that much :( I enjoyed DoW 1!

Ah yes, I’ve heard that AC3 is bugridden. I was still surprised how many graphical glitches I already experienced in the few hours I’ve spent in it! Thankfully no real big bugs though. Otherwise I like it quite okay so far. Anyway, I’m glad I bought the game heavily discounted in a sale :)

Smythe

Congrats on achieving your goal already.
You’re really working through the Warhammer series, aren’t you! :) Do you have more Warhammer in your backlog?

Vito

Thank you!

Yes, I wanted to be done with DoW 1 and all its expansions. I have DoW 2 and 3 in my backlog, but I think I’m taking a break from Warhammer for the moment :)