@hadlee73 @dannyboy2016 Your definition is correct and I used it in that sense in the review. I just wanted to explain to iampenguin how I could give it the punishing difficulty emblem while mentioning the difficulty (or rather the adrenaline rush/sense of accomplishment that accompanies it) in a semi-positive matter.
@Croy666 Honestly, I thought that had been fixed in one of the five or so patches they've released. I could have sworn that I was I able to rebind my keys after one of the patches. However, I just booted it up and I can't. What a mess.
@ampiva I would have given most COD games a similar score if I had reviewed them.
I disagree with you about the original Call of Duty and United Offensive. They were fairly novel at the time. Also, COD2 was great for LAN parties. I had so many fun bolt action rifle battles with my wife on that Tunisian map.
I understand why that seems contradictory. I beat it on hard and tried out its normal and brutal difficulty levels. Alien Rage will be ludicrously difficult for many people.I gave it “punishing difficulty” as a caveat.
With regards to difficult games… Dark Souls would still be a great game even if it was more forgiving. Meanwhile, Alien Rage is simply mediocre.
You are absolutely correct about the random events being problematic. I once got the comet event 3 times in five years. That was ruinous. I've never had a 0/0/0 heir (but I have "sired" several 1/1/1s). I assume the best course of action in the 0/0/0 heir case is to put them in charge of an army and hope they die gloriously.
Regarding rebels, the broken (though apparently now fixed) peasant war event chain was particularly nasty, and I agree that the AI is inept at handling major uprisings. However, I rarely had problems crushing rebels (whether they were home grown or domestic), and I've played 70 hours of the game (between the press and the retail version). The only rebels who have given me the type of trouble you describe are the religious zealots.
You are absolutely correct. However, the freeze on the first of every month is understandable because that's when a bazillion countries collect their monthly tax revenue. It is still annoying, of course.
@boris020 That diplomat is actually a Russian trying to save his country by improving relations with mighty Montenegro. I think Montenegrin diplomats use Serbian names in the game.
@MlauTheDaft I should add that the lag issues were more pronounced on the computer with a Radeon card. Perusing the tech support forum gives the impression that most people who experience serious performance problems are using AMD cards.
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