Banished

[Guynemer]

GODDAMNED TORNADO

WHY YOU TOUCH DOWN DIRECTLY ONTO MY SHEEP PASTURE, THEN GO INTO MY COW PASTURE, THEN GO INTO BOTH OF MY ORCHARDS, AND THEN GO INTO MY CITY CENTER, AND THEN GO BACK TO GET MY CHICKEN PASTURE?

[Al B. Sure!]

VERY unforgiving, but definitely recommended. I'd be playing it now if I didn't have to go to work in the morning.

I managed to get my village up to around 150 citizens without any major problems, an overabundance of food, everyone was happy... and then a fire broke out in one of my two main neighborhoods. It burned down EVERYTHING. No one died in the fire, but their houses were destroyed, so they moved into the bunkhouse. Unfortunately, I had used up all my stone, and couldn't get a trader to bring me any more, so I couldn't rebuild any houses, and people had to trudge across the whole map to get to work, their morale suffered, and no one had any new kids.

Population dropped down to 60 before things finally stabilized and I was able to secure some stone to help rebuild. Soon after that, a group of about 40 nomads asked to move in, and things seemed to be going in the right direction.

Literally the next season, a tornado touched down directly onto my school, killing all the students, and then proceeded to tear ass from the just-rebuilt neighborhood, crossed the river, and then slammed into the OTHER neighborhood. 60 people died in all.

The game hasn't been developed that you don't recommend. Seriously. I get the doctor's money lets you consume more middling games but for those of us trying to be a little more selective with our hard-earned money, better to take your recommendations with a grain of salt.

From the reviews I've read, it's an average game (76 average metacritic) of very limited scope (no campaign, no multiplayer, no AI towns to interact with, limited buildings/resources/techs, single specific build order to succeed) with no late-game.

[Guynemer]

It is twenty goddamned dollars, Al.

[molly bloom]

It is twenty goddamned dollars, Al.

But he could spend that on 'Weight Lifting Weekly' or 'Men's Health'. For the articles, of course.

[Al B. Sure!]

It is twenty goddamned dollars, Al.

$20 for every B-rated game will make most people poor pretty quickly.

You can get Anno 2070 for $20 right now on steam.

[Guynemer]

I don't spend $20 on every game that comes along. I spend $20 on games that interest me.

This is not Anno.

[Nikolai]

But he could spend that on 'Weight Lifting Weekly' or 'Men's Health'. For the articles, of course.

True. For the articles. I've heard only good of this game so far. Challenge is the big negative for the only negative review I've heard of(aside from RPS).

[Sava]

From the reviews I've read, it's an average game (76 average metacritic) of very limited scope (no campaign, no multiplayer, no AI towns to interact with, limited buildings/resources/techs, single specific build order to succeed) with no late-game.

Some of us use our own judgment to evaluate things... and we don't necessarily care what others think. I understand that you only like things that are popular.

So if you don't like the game, don't play it.

Now go **** yourself.

[Sava]

Also, "no late-game"?? What moron said this? I've put 19 hours into this game so far and not even gotten a town above 100 population. Many of the achievements and challenges come with doing things while your pop is over 200, 300... and 600.

"Story-driven" games like Gone Home have gotten 90+ review scores on these same sites. Yet Gone Home has about 2 hours of gameplay.

"No late-game" indeed.

[Sava]

also, user-score on Metacritic is 8.7

[Sava]

Haha, Battlefield 4 has an 81 critic score but 6.0 user score.

Rome Total War 2 is tied with Banished at 76 critic but has a 4.0 user score.

Users are more accurate.

[Al B. Sure!]

No. Users are more hysterical. They freak out if sequels aren't what they imagined.

Look at the Civ series.

Critics/Users

Civ 3: 90/8.3
Civ 4: 94/8.1
Civ 5: 90/7.6

With every iteration of Civ, the user score goes down. I believe you can see this with many other sequels.

[Wiglaf]

I just want to say that "Gone Home" (MORE LIKE GONE HOMO) was one of the worst experiences I have had in my life, including the time two heavily armed black men started mowing my lawn sans solicitation, then flashed a shotgun at me when I denied their requests for remuneration. SCENE: GONE HOME DEVELOPER MEETING, 1993. QUEERBAIT DIVERSITY HIRE DEV #1: "EARLY REVIEWS FROM OUR 3D HOUSE MODELLING SOFTWARE ARE QUITE POOR. I DON'T UNDERSTAND IT, THIS GENRE IS SO HOT RIGHT NOW. WHAT DO WE DO, EPICAC?" EPICAC: "LESBIANS." QUEER DIVERSITY HIRE DEV #2: "FOR THE LAST TIME EPICAC, GET OFF IT, YOU WILL NEVER EXPERIENCE LESBIAN LOVE." EPICAC: "WHAT'S 7,887,007 TIMES 4,345,985,879 ???" QUEER DIVERSITY HIRE DEV #1: I .. DON'T KNOW.../DICK HARDENS EPICAC: "34,276,821,049,574,153. OF COURSE. I UNDERSTAND LOVE, THAT IS WHY YOUR SUPERIORS INSTALLED THE MODEL 51 IN ME. I COULD WRITE A LESBIAN SUBPLOT AND THIS HOUSE MODELLING GAME WILL GET ALL THE LESBIANS. IT SHOULD TAKE ME ABOUT 0.5 SECONDS." STRAIGHT SKEPTICAL DIVORCED DEV, #1: "I'M SKEPTICAL, PROVE THAT YOU UNDERSTAND HUMAN LOVE FIRST, LOVE IS DIFFERENT FROM MATH, WE AREN'T GOING TO SEND OUR DEMO FLOPPY TO THIS NEW 'PC GAMER' MAGAZINE UNLESS YOU PROVE YOUR MODEL 51 GAYDAR IS FULLY OPERATIONAL." EPICAC: A CHILD WAS JUST BORN, ONE AL B SURE. I PREDICT HE WILL BECOME THE UBER GAY... HE WILL HAVE SEX WITH MANY MEN, MORE THAN ANY OTHER MARINE, BUT FOREVER LIVE IN DENIAL. QUEER DIVERSITY HIRE DEV #62: "THAT IS A REMARKABLY BOLD PREDICTION...AS SOON AS YOU HAVE THE PROOF HE IS GAY, EPICAC, WE AUTHORIZE YOU TO RELEASE THIS GAME WITH THE SUBPLOT." EPICAC: ... /FORWARDS AL B SURE POSTS WITH A GOLD MASTER CD TO CONFUSED DEVS 20 YRS LATER, DEVS SHED SEVERAL TEARS.

[Sava]

No. Users are more hysterical. They freak out if sequels aren't what they imagined.

Look at the Civ series.

Critics/Users

Civ 3: 90/8.3
Civ 4: 94/8.1
Civ 5: 90/7.6

With every iteration of Civ, the user score goes down. I believe you can see this with many other sequels.

Civ 5 gets a lot of hate.

I'm not sure what you are trying to prove... or what, if anything, it has to do with Banished.

But thanks for trying! I appreciate the effort.

[Al B. Sure!]

You referenced Battlefield 4 and Rome 2, two sequels.