Astoundingly Good Game

Hired Guns: The Jagged Edge is a turn-based strategy that puts you command of a squad of specialists for hire in the genre’s biggest game-world yet: the African country Diamond Coast. Diamond Coast is a playground for the cruel and corrupt, each with their own agenda. Choose your friends wisely and buy an army of ruthless mercenaries to unleash mayhem on your foes. Choose “jobs” from different factions and complete them for cash to upgrade your weapons and hire more elite soldiers of fortune.
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Anthropoid
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Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Anthropoid »

Have not been able to play since last Thursday when I left town for a requisite family-visit trip back south . . . and I need to play a bit more, have only got through about three or four areas on the map . . . played one or two areas on easy, and then restarted on Merc difficulty and that is just about an ideal difficulty level . . . admit I did restart once, which is a very good sign: it ain't too easy, the AI can throw you for a loop.

In any event, I'm even starting to think that this might be the -best- game that I have ever played. I can tell it won't necessarily have the most ultimate degree of 'replayability' like say Civilization where the maps and combinations of game elements have an almost infinite number of permutations . . . but . . . in all honesty, those types of games are not actually as replayable as their infinite permutations suggest, and a game like this if modded for different contexts, could be just as 'infinite.'

A good computer game is based on the same sort of insight that a movie director has. Neither cinema, nor theatre, nor for that matter literature, nor computer games can in fact create a false reality or simulate all of the myriad elements involved in any of their chose topics or subjects of focus. The key is to combine the limited set of elements available, into a balanced effective experience for the user/viewer/participant. Many contemporary games are utter failures in executing this concept. Instead of approaching their topics from a balanced topical view that insures the subject matter really is properly approachable from the game's standpoint, many try to just 'do it all.' Include, more-more-more detail, or more-more extreme graphics or whatever.

Hired Guns does not suffer these mistakes. It is a masterfully crafted combination of elements and it is a breath of fresh air among computer games. One of the few games I've encountered in recent years that came close to this kind of accomplishment was Mount & Blade, but even that one is not quite so successful as Hired Guns.

If I had the time, I could go on and on about the game, and what is so great about it. In sum, if you are playing it already, you know what I'm talking about. If you have not bought it yet, you really should consider doing so. One word of warning: on my kick-arse new home machine, with ~3MB of RAM, an pretty advanced vid card, and an above average mobo and CPU, it runs like a top, only VERY slight slow downs when other processes inadvertently get going (like Outlook) with a distinct emphasis on _slight_. But my laptop, with fairly pedestrian innards simply cannot handle the game it seems. So you do need to have a pretty solid system. But if you do have such a system, this game is one of the best genre-expanding combinations of strategy and real-time-strategy/first-person-shooter that I have ever encountered.
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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Stealth_Hitman
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Stealth_Hitman »

The palace area is the only place I found to be laggy. I finished the game like 3 or 2 days ago and got bink and snacker to see the other two endings. Two of them r the same but with different wording and the other two hav a shocker.
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SlickWilhelm
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by SlickWilhelm »

It definitely goes on my list of "most fun" games ever. There's just something about small squad tactics that really hits home with me. My all-time favorite game is XCOM: UFO Defense, so it's no surprise that I love HG. In fact, I played the game so much when it was first released, that I have yet to play it with any patches. If I recall correctly, I played through it completely three times.

Now I'm taking a little break and playing other things, but it was one of those games where once I started playing it, I couldn't put it down. That alone speaks volumes.
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Anthropoid
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Anthropoid »

The lag on my strong machine is so very slight as to be almost unmentionable. It does not in any way detract from playing experience. But it is a matter of some dozens of milliseconds I guess, and it is (just barely) noticeable. All this tells me is: if you really want to enjoy the game, you should have a rig that is well above spec.
 
Now that I have my rig up and running (with big screen ! [:D]) I'm looking forward to experiencing a few more of the great games out there that really need a strong/fast graphics rig. But for the time being--at least a couple weeks assuming an average of 3 to 4 hours of play per day--I think Hired Guns is going to have me. Once through on Merc with no mod, then maybe try it on advanced difficult or else with one of the mods  . . .
 
It is such a great experience when you buy a game for . . . whatever it was $45 or $55?? and then you KNOW that you got all your non-wife, non-work free-time _covered_ for at least a few weeks! Recently bought Galactic Civ II, and while that is definitely a good game, you just cannot say the same thing for it. A few long play sessions, and I feel like Gal Civ is past its chrome phase. HG is going to hold that shiny-new appeal for quite a while I know.
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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Qwixt
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Qwixt »

I was holding off on it because of all the bug problems that I have read about it. I have been wanting a squad tactics/x-com type of game for a bit now. Nice to see that you like the game, now that you got around to actually getting it to run [;)]

Does this properly support widescreen?
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Mack the Knife
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Mack the Knife »

Does this properly support widescreen?
as we all know (or should know) that just because it works on my system doesn't mean it will work on yours. widescreen works fine for me. there is a demo for this game (somewhere) so try before you buy is always sage advice.
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Anthropoid
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Anthropoid »

I'm playing it (or was before I got banished on this trip south) on my 42" plasma screen TV and it runs awesome.
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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SlickWilhelm
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by SlickWilhelm »

Holy crikey, how close are you sitting to that 42" plasma when you play?
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Stealth_Hitman
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Stealth_Hitman »

He/she must sit pretty close to that 42" tv always coming in here hyper :p
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Anthropoid
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RE: Astoundingly Good Game

Post by Anthropoid »

Mmmmm, lessee . . . (I'll [he'll] measure it for sure when I get home) . . . I sit in a nice lazy boy on the opposite side of the living room, so that must be about 8ft from screen to eyeball I reckon [:D] Sometimes some of the smaller print in the gear spec sheets and stuff can be just a tad bit too small, and gotta squint a bit . . . wife prefers that all the toys are pushed back closer to the walls, but I can kinda sneak the entertainment center burea out a bit and scooch the chair forward a bit and get a real good sweet spot that is probably in the 7 to 9 ft range.
 
Sure, sure, it is a bit like those Kafkaesque brainwashing surround-screen rooms in Bradbury's Farenheit 451, but since I'm choosing the addiction, maybe it ain't that bad??
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
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