Video Games Thread

I just want a decent Army simulator like Operation Flashpoint was, but Russian Army...

They could base it on their current software... the Il-2 game has expanded to include ground forces and the design models of the tanks inside and out are as amazing as the planes which they have always done exceptionally well.

I understand the current capabilities and performance is probably something they want to keep secret but a game where you can time travel and try earlier combat in different places with older machines (air and ground) and use older firearms and equipment would be a massive task but they could do it in pieces... they already internally model vehicles for War Thunder and the like, and as shown above they already have an infantry game in beta.

Right now that Beta seems to have gotten the drone awareness level too low, but if they got it too high you would get drones that see all and hear all and shoot perfectly so instead of running forward with dumb stupid drones trailing behind you you would be at the back sending your drones forward to wipe out enemy players for you...

Ironically in the real world you can't have drones set that twitchy or they will start shooting at anything and everything...

Games like STALKER were good because they had real guns even if with stupid names, but Metro just went too far in weird unrecognisable...

I like playing with Makarovs and TT-33s and PSMs and perhaps even Stechkins as well as new and experimental pistols and weapons.

Even just with old gear...

Phlydaily is a guy who plays War Thunder and posts his videos on Youtube...

This is a video he made using a space simulator game that looks rather cool... he made a Proton rocket and he flys it up to a space station and then returns to earth...

Looks good...

Looks to be set in the US aimed at a western audience... suspect it will be tailored to western players, and just be a Russian made version of western stuff... boring.

thegopnik wrote:

Not trying to be Funny but Russia should do their own propaganda version of Syria in a video game.

To put my cards on the table;
I am an western Gamer. i spend most of my free time is playing videogames.

The other half is me Modding or modifying software/hardware but that is an different topic.

An game i really want to see, an FPS game where you play as an EU soldier attacking U.S forces on E.U Soil.
To raid U.S facilities that prepare for execution of Operation Gladio, arming nuclear warheads as they prepare for withdrawal.

Operation Gladio is an real-life program/contigency plan.
If the americans can not have Europe, it should be one nuclear wasteland so no one can have it
Their nuclear devices in europe are located in U.S owned bunkers wher the E.U has no jurisdiction.
in real-life, if the U.S fears losing control of the E.U. They set their nuclear weapons to detonate in the E.U.

Anybody heard of this Indie-game Gem?.

it is called Highfleet.
Made by an russian Developer.
that is as far as i know just one guy.

I played it, not expecting anything stellar for 25 euro's.
But this game is in my opinion an masterpiece in videogame making.
it blends various game elements together in one massive immersive experience.

Its an perfect blend of storytelling, sci-fi, arcade-style combat, strategy, ship design, resource management and naval intelligence gathering.

Check out the vid to get an quick impression of the game itself.

Currently its on Steam for around 25 euro.
There are some minor bugs, but he's working his ass off to adress these.
And maybe there should be an manual save function, but that is just an wish i have.

Most of the combat you see here are converted GIF's.
The final scene of the Capital Ship taking off is actual in-game footage of the ships.
it is 2d, but it looks absolutely amazing.

PapaDragon wrote:
It's published by Microprose, they suddenly showed up after being gone for decades

They had awesome games back in a day, mostly strategy and simulators

Looks like they are doing the Nintendo approach: focusing on gameplay and artwork instead of chasing photorealistic graphics that will look like shit 6-12 months after release date anyway (there is a reason why Mirror's Edge still looks amazing even more than a decade later and always will)

Yes, Microprose came back from the grave somehow. I have not looked into it to deep.
But everywhere people are saying "Microprose!?. They are alive!?".
Judging from their website they relaunched in 2020.
They claim they are the same ones from way back, they refference their history and games.
https://www.microprose.com/

I got several promising and good looking war simulations in development that fall under microprose in my wishlist on Steam.
So it seems they are really back.

I know, i never really played any 2d games for a long while.
It is so refreshing to see actually good games come by that stand head and shoulders from Triple A games with high-end hardware requirements with their vision and gameplay.

While it is 2D, its graphics are really good and Combat is very well tought out.
At first i was not sure if i was going to like an 2D combat enviroment.
But its all eye-candy really. Fighters screaming down dive-bombing enemy's. Or engaging other jet-aircraft with cannons and air to air missiles. Heavy cruisers slugging it out with other Capitals, Its CIWS blasting away you can target use as an independent secondary weapon.

Ships larger than the very smallest dont desintegrate on death either, They fall burning from the sky after being taken out, to Crash(land) on the ground below.
Escape pods ejecting if they are installed on the ships.

The game subtly hints that War is not pretty.
And that that burning cruiser falling from the sky has hundreds of people on board. Illustrated by the escape pods firing as it goes down, calls to abandon ship. And pulling survivors from the wreck afterwards.
Or, rescueing your own crewmembers that escaped from your own ship's going down.

Not to mention your officers ask you the first time you want to use an nuclear weapon.
"if you really want to go down this road?. and let the genie out of the bottle?. That i can not be put back in".

The strategic AI is one of the most fair and smartest i have seen so far in wargames.
They do not cheat. If for example they spot an contact at long range they do not know it's identity.
They send an situation report to their local command center. detailing what kind of contact they have. And their follow-up intentions.

Gameplay-wise the AI seems to have to deal with the same uncertainty and limitations you have.
They need refueling too, they fall back and repair when taken damage. Request nearby forces to converge. Etc.

Enemy's that identify you for who you are, alert their own Command first before doing anything themselves. Make sure you shut up their transmission by striking them fast or jamming their transmissions

If you send in an fast strike group, and they have no active radar or IRST. You catch them on the ground, as they saw you too late. Are frantically trying to report your incomming forces and power-up their ships to take-off from the ground.
As the battle commences, they are still revving up their thrusters and make great stationary target's for your KAB-1000 armed fast corvettes.

Enemy convoy's try to avoid you, they actively change course away from you if they know you are heading towards them or another force reported your position and course. Enemy carriers that see your strike craft heading for them are being intercepted by AA-armed aircraft of their own.

Anyway, i was very pleasantly suprised by all of this.
And i mean literally suprised.
as in "my bombers will shred them---wait, incomming aircraft on intercept trajectory?".
and "ooh soft targets!, wait....dont run in the opposite direction!. i can not catch up!. Stop transmitting!".

I assumed the AI was an idiot like in most games.

Its really an game that was made by someone with passion and ZERO compromise.

The Dev Konstantin Koshutin had an idea and it had to be like this.
No Corporate Overlord forcing in politics or killing great idea's so you end up with some half-baked potato of an product.

Operation Gladio is an real-life program/contigency plan.
If the americans can not have Europe, it should be one nuclear wasteland so no one can have it
Their nuclear devices in europe are located in U.S owned bunkers wher the E.U has no jurisdiction.
in real-life, if the U.S fears losing control of the E.U. They set their nuclear weapons to detonate in the E.U.

Tempting to make a video game where the challenge is to set those nukes off... but that would presumably pit EU forces against Russian forces or Chinese forces who see the EU as a threat rather than something to be captured intact...

Anybody heard of this Indie-game Gem?

Looks interesting.

It's published by Microprose, they suddenly showed up after being gone for decades

They had awesome games back in a day, mostly strategy and simulators

Gunship and Gunship 2000 were two of my favourites... later left aside because Apache Havoc and then Commanche Hokum allowed me to fly the Soviet helicopters I had been wanting to fly in the first place...

There was a game called Hokum that was actually an anti piracy game from the mid 1990s so the graphics are not amazing... essentially you control a ship that has a gun on its main deck and it carries a dozen or so helicopters of all different types and the idea is that you sail your boat to places in Asia where you are working on an anti piracy mission. You have a fixed number of helicopters and a fixed number of weapons for them so you have to manage what you have. It has Hokums of course but it also has Hips and western aircraft too like Apaches and Lynx's, and of course each type has a specialist function... Hips for transport, attack, recon etc etc, but you have limited numbers of each type so you have a mission and you have to use your resources.

I thought a new upgrade for the game could have been with the new Russian Mistrals, but now we will have to wait for the new Ivan Rogovs perhaps with helicopters and drones and landing forces etc etc...

The original game was sort of a private anti piracy company type deal where you were called to a location and had perhaps pirate bases to take out... and there must be big funding in piracy because they had capable stuff too.

You were based on the ship which you could move around and it had a deck gun so if any enemy ships or aircraft approached you could defend it.

In the off-chance anyone plays Highfleet here, and you where getting annoyed by all the "hey!, ho! with hammers klanking" looping every 10 seconds in the repair/shipbuilding section.

I found a way to replace this in-game, i made myself last night an +/- 4 minutes audio loop. mixed with an calm sounding music track and background radio traffic of millitary ships. That are coming in and out of dock, ships refueling, and do internal checks and maintenance chatter.

Perfect for reminding you are in drydock with your ships in some city as you do some tooling or repairs on your warships .

The file is here to listen to/download:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gQ4IZXA42mbadkeYlWQPb73BT9e2CmtM/view?usp=sharing

You put this file in the folder:
(your drive)\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\HighFleet\Media\Snd
And replace the original

If you want your own audio playing here:
Make sure its named:env_construction_01 In the format .Wav.
Otherwise the game will not recognise it.

I use myself Wondershare Filmora.
It allows a lot of control,layers and functionality with good sound mixing.

GarryB wrote:

Tempting to make a video game where the challenge is to set those nukes off... but that would presumably pit EU forces against Russian forces or Chinese forces who see the EU as a threat rather than something to be captured intact...

It's published by Microprose, they suddenly showed up after being gone for decades

They had awesome games back in a day, mostly strategy and simulators

Gunship and Gunship 2000 were two of my favourites... later left aside because Apache Havoc and then Commanche Hokum allowed me to fly the Soviet helicopters I had been wanting to fly in the first place...

There was a game called Hokum that was actually an anti piracy game from the mid 1990s so the graphics are not amazing... essentially you control a ship that has a gun on its main deck and it carries a dozen or so helicopters of all different types and the idea is that you sail your boat to places in Asia where you are working on an anti piracy mission. You have a fixed number of helicopters and a fixed number of weapons for them so you have to manage what you have. It has Hokums of course but it also has Hips and western aircraft too like Apaches and Lynx's, and of course each type has a specialist function... Hips for transport, attack, recon etc etc, but you have limited numbers of each type so you have a mission and you have to use your resources.

I thought a new upgrade for the game could have been with the new Russian Mistrals, but now we will have to wait for the new Ivan Rogovs perhaps with helicopters and drones and landing forces etc etc...

The original game was sort of a private anti piracy company type deal where you were called to a location and had perhaps pirate bases to take out... and there must be big funding in piracy because they had capable stuff too.

You were based on the ship which you could move around and it had a deck gun so if any enemy ships or aircraft approached you could defend it.

An naval anti-piracy game sounds even now quite interresting to me.
Where they scale up their capacity's to dealing with you.
They really do not need the latest cutting-edge technology to pose an threat.

If the Falkland conflict showed anything, is that just one missile needs to get trough.
Never, ever, underestimate your enemy.

I propably missed out, but where the Ivan Rogov class not 70's era landing ships?.
I did not read they where undergoing refits or got new versions under construction?.
regardless, i love the concept of the game on itself.

Ah, the good old mistral-class. France, how to twist the neck's of your naval shipyards like a chicken.
The french shipyards designed them to spec for Russian systems and naval weapons.
They are pretty much useless to NATO because they where configured for Russia's systems.
what an disgrace this whole ordeal was.

Regarding Operation Gladio.
The NATO organisation only existed to grind down Russia in an hot-conflict.
While Europe and Russia would be smashing eachother to bits the U.S would wait long enough so they can come in and sweep any remaining forces.

NATO is an unified command structure that only serves U.S foreign policy.
And is crewed by U.S "yesmen". Mediocre officers, yet they sell their own country's out to serve the overlord U.S.A.

My idea of this game would be the U.S pushed Russia too far, that it had to defend itself and lashed out at NATO. over-running any opposition of NATO with ease.

NATO, being this paranoid chicken it is. results to implement Operation Gladio.
And as an E.U soldier, you have to first fight Russia. Find out how Americans are withdrawing and you have to raid NATO headquarters in Brussels to find out why.

Here you find the documents, how all U.S nukes are set to self-detonate across the E.U.
While most regular U.S forces try to flee, and perhaps even agree with you, their more "radical" elements stay behind to ensure Detonation.

i do not know about china's motivations. But for russia an nuclear-irradiated Europe is undesired.
It would blow over to themselves and their allies.
Also, why destroy an barrier between you and the U.S?.
If China really sides with Russia in this, they open up an second front in Asia.
America can not even maintain it's current global operations, let alone two fronts of open-war.

Ah well, i guess that game never will happen.
But ill keep an eye on the East for good video games .

If the Falkland conflict showed anything, is that just one missile needs to get trough.
Never, ever, underestimate your enemy.

Part of the strategy was using recon to locate enemy forces so you can position your ship in a relatively safe location and then perform attacks with helicopters from the ship... once clear of enemy positions you can send helicopters home on autopilot and send fully armed helicopters out to the next target and jump between them.

The pirates have money but don't have anti ship missiles or submarines or that sort of thing.

Mostly your helicopters hitting ground targets like bases defended with cannon and MANPADS, or sinking pirate raider boats etc etc.

I propably missed out, but where the Ivan Rogov class not 70's era landing ships?.
I did not read they where undergoing refits or got new versions under construction?.
regardless, i love the concept of the game on itself.

Sorry for not being clear, I meant Ivan Rogov which has been recently laid down... a 40K ton enlarged Mistral type ship with about 25 helicopters and berthing for 1,000 naval infantry troops and their armoured vehicles with landing boats and hovercraft to deploy from the ship with enough resources to be at sea for 2 months.

They talked about two versions, the one above and a second variant that does not carry troops and armour but carries the helicopters but also carries drones of multiple types... air and sea and land presumably as well as an enlarged hospital intended to be used together with the landing ship or to be used separately.

A new game could allow for growth so you might start with a Russian Corvette with the rear release jet boats and single helicopter to fight pirates, and then as you improve... or as you rescue ships and capture pirates and seize their vessels and private companies and even countries start paying your for services you could look at bigger boats with more helicopters and more speed boats and more special forces landing teams... the original game was essentially a helicopter simulator with a mobile base, but it could be expanded to include surface ship combat as well as first person shootemups landed by helicopter on ships being held by pirates, or landing special forces on islands to find land bases for pirates and locating targets for strike missions... the potential could be enormous in terms of expansion packs because there would be tons of choices of ships and aircraft and small boats and land based vehicles as well as drones and weapons and troops you could use, and you could pick different regions like the Somali coast or in Asia and lots of other places as well to base the game.

Ah, the good old mistral-class. France, how to twist the neck's of your naval shipyards like a chicken.
The french shipyards designed them to spec for Russian systems and naval weapons.
They are pretty much useless to NATO because they where configured for Russia's systems.
what an disgrace this whole ordeal was.

And because they are Russian systems only Russian specialists would be allowed to remove them, but from what I hear the Egyptians were happy with the Russian stuff which meant the French didn't even get to sell their aircraft etc and systems to Egypt so they probably lost money there too.

Regarding Operation Gladio.
The NATO organisation only existed to grind down Russia in an hot-conflict.
While Europe and Russia would be smashing eachother to bits the U.S would wait long enough so they can come in and sweep any remaining forces.

WWII but replace Europe with Germany... Bagration was so successful however they almost left D Day too late...

NATO is an unified command structure that only serves U.S foreign policy.
And is crewed by U.S "yesmen". Mediocre officers, yet they sell their own country's out to serve the overlord U.S.A.

HATO is a tool to stop the EU and Russia working together... because Russia offers all the useful things that the US can offer, plus lots of natural resources... so why would the EU need Russia again?

But ego stops it from happening... the EU does not understand equal partnerships... Russia can only be a friend if it becomes a docile bitch that does as demanded from Brussels and Washington and London, and anyone who takes even a most basic look at Russian history knows that is not going to happen.

The irony is that an alliance between HATO and Russia could be based on mutual respect and an equal partnership but the EU want to dominate from a position of strength... you know... like the US does to the EU...

My idea of this game would be the U.S pushed Russia too far, that it had to defend itself and lashed out at NATO. over-running any opposition of NATO with ease.

Interesting, but it would be tricky to work out how to do it... I suspect it would be impossible for a western company to make it because the reality is that for this to work the US essentially has to realise the Russians are going to win easily and they have to run away urgently to escape...

Perhaps set in 5 years time and the new Ukraine gas negotiations are not going well and the Ukraine starts stealing gas again so Russia cuts them off so the US demands Germany closes NSII and NSI and not buy Russian gas at all and South Stream be closed etc etc... now whether it actually happens in the game or not it increases tension and of course without gas transit the Ukraine decides it has nothing to lose and tries to invade the Crimea, which HATO forces in country start supporting... which makes them targets and as they are taken out HATO forces in the Baltics and Poland are mobilised to move into the Ukraine, which leads to Russia striking those forces with Zircon and similar hypersonic missiles which HATO air defences cannot stop, the HATO forces then move in fighter aircraft of the F-22 and F-35 type, and start attacking Kaliningrad too, and after rapidly losing a lot of their very best stealth aircraft against Russian air defence systems things escalate and Russia starts hitting targets further from the front lines and start moving forces in to the Ukraine to deal with rogue forces that have gone feral and are attacking civilians on both sides... not formidable forces... just psychotic and well armed compared with unarmed civilians, so the Russian forces along with the Ukrainians in the so called rebel parts of the country would clean them up very very quickly, which puts the Baltic countries and Poland in a state of panic thinking they are next so anyone with a uniform seen near their border is part of an invading force and they need to fully mobilise etc etc etc.

The US puts their plan into effect and start leaving because they intend to set off nuclear devices and blame Russia for those detonations, and perhaps the first few go off in the Baltic states, with the US claiming it was the Russians. The Russians and some of the EU know it was not the Russians based on the location and size of explosions pointing to US nukes in place.

You could then have a call of duty type set of missions to learn what is actually happening and some freaky missions where you might end up working with Russian forces with 4km range sniper rifles to take out certain enemy targets before they start nuking more of the EU...

I'd buy it... have some crazy Americans like in half life, but also good americans like half life opposing forces... though your character is unconscious when the orders to kill everyone are given so maybe Sheppherd is the only good guy...

It would also mean you could have good guys and bad guys on all sides... hardline brits who don't care what the facts are... the Russians are the bad guys... but then if there is a US bomb in London that is going to go off and kill the Queen, they might temper their Russophobia for some common sense action to actually work in the defence of your own country instead of building the wealth of very rich people who don't really need more money or power as proven by their own misuse of both in the past.

Maybe a mission to kill George Soros and it turns out he is a Dalek...

If China really sides with Russia in this, they open up an second front in Asia.

Save that for part two... part three can be the alien invasion... or bio attack that leads to a zombie apocalypse...