Techwright

I just tried out the free demo of Star Trek: Resurgence on Steam and have added it to my wish list for when the game budget can next afford a purchase. New-ish company Dramatic Labs last year released this game on several platforms, and perhaps several of you have already played it. Let me know what you thought, spoiler free, of course. But they just released it May 23 on Steam, which is what I use. It's a "choose your own adventure" type game: part game with action sequences, part interactive holo-novel, if you will. I've actually not played one of these before, so the experience was, well, novel. I am a big fan of what I'd call "old-school" Trek: everything through the end of Star Trek: Enterprise. I know little about the recent Trek series on Paramount's streaming service. Fortunately, this story is set in the days not long after the last Next Generation movie. Much more specifically, the demo, the opening of this story, shows it is set immediately before: Observations: While not cutting edge visuals, the look is good and not debilitating to the experience. I've already seen a few moments where the designers thoughtfully gave us viewpoints rarely seen in Trek (at least what I've seen, that is) including a viewing window perspective in a star base that shows just how massive even one of the smaller fleet ships actually is, and an engineering walk on the bottom side of the hull that has that ability to mess with your mind as to the orientation of "up". Voice acting is good, and I recognized several actors including Bumper Robinson. Clicking on credits also revealed that Jonathan Frakes (aka "Riker") is in the voice actors list as well. Most impressively, though not in the demo, is Piotr Michael, who does a dead-on voice match of a major Trek character. Character development, at least early on, feels right. It felt like I was watching, or rather interacting with, an episode of Deep Space 9 or The Next Generation, just with a different crew, and they each had distinct personalities, which can improve or degrade based on your choices as you interact with each. Walking is a bit slow. I guess it does allow you to enjoy the environment, and there is a way to run at times, though not always. It's not a deal breaker at all, just a minor inconvenience. My one big concern is control selection. It felt like I was constantly learning how to control things. Many situations had entirely new methods of control. At one point, for example, I was instructed to rotate my mouse to unscrew/unlock a mechanism, while moments later when putting a replacement in place, I was instructed to tap "D" and hold down my left mouse button to trigger the act of screwing in the replacement. Some control choices pop up on screen mere moments before a lethal event, so you're scrambling to figure out the technique. Perhaps this was meant to engage stress in the player in a way to simulate the quick-decision stress of the character, though I've seen nothing to confirm that so far. It's also a demo, so it's entirely possible that at some point in the full game, these control choices iron out into a consistent pattern that the player can anticipate in rapid-timing situations. Again, it is an annoyance, not a deal breaker, and I still intend to get the game. Despite being an interactive novel, of sorts, I believe the game is replayable, not only for those action moments of dodge and shoot, but also because the player choices shape the story and each selection moment offers 3 choices. I imagine this probably creates several new paths.

While I despise game mice with a full tray of tiny buttons, I've grown quite accustomed to using the middle mouse button, and am happy to use it, so long as it works. The bind information is interesting, however. Thanks, @Greycat! I'll try adjusting that on all new characters next chance I get.

I've two SoA. My first attempt went crab route and I was not liking it. I tabled it in it's late 20s, in case I ever did figure a way to like it. My second, Kriegsfeld, went the Bane route. While it's not my favorite character to play, I did find it surprisingly better than I expected.

BRU..... IRN- ?

I've a concern regarding the middle mouse button, aka the flywheel. I'm utilizing Windows 10 Pro and 3rd person viewpoint if those come into play, somehow. On my older characters, I can hold the button down, and spin the camera around them. I find it useful not only for screenshots but also to see what's going on behind me in combat. On these older characters, when I release the flywheel, the camera remains in the position I set it, which is what I want. On newer characters however, releasing the flywheel snaps the camera back to the behind-the-back position. I've not been able to shake that, nor find the setting, if there is one, to undo that. I certainly didn't select a setting to do that. Curiously, if I hop off a new character suffering this, and log into an older character, the camera placement cooperates again, but will return to misbehaving if I select one of the newer characters. I've made certain my mouse controls on the new characters mimic the settings on the older characters, but the whiplash spin upon flywheel release continues. Can anyone point me to the setting needed to correct this? I assume it is not a bug, but perhaps I am wrong.

That was my concern as well. The editing felt choppy at times. I'm hoping with clear success for season 1, they're willing to hear the critiques and make adjustments.

Pic missing it seems.

Oh, pre-1990 music makes it as well...

Oh that's easy...

Always wanted to go to one of those events, but they were west coast things. I'd heard there was an attempt at an east coast one, but I never heard if they succeeded in having one.

I'm sure it would depend upon what NC and the development team hit upon as an agreement. Last I understood, not all points of it were public.

That joke just fell...ahem...flat.

I could see that. So, the X-men would have to defeat "Pharaoh Kang' which would empower the rise of En Saban Nur? I likewise had a crazy thought on another character at the end:

I still remember hitting that room back in the OG game when Tsoo sorcerers were more potent adversaries, and discovering that the room was practically wall-to-wall Tsoo sorcs. It took the PUG team of nascent players 3 hours and an unknown number of wipes to clear that room and complete the mission. Not one member quit, and we got it done. Two others come to mind: The gaseous green rooms populated by the Vahz in one of the early TFs (Posi 2?, Synapse?). After repeatedly seeing unthinking teams wipe in that room I've taken to calling out "ambush room" every time I see the green haze. The teams fare much better when someone alerts them. The final room in the Sewers Trial. I've experienced multiple wipes with teams that didn't understand their roles. One street one: the Hellion building fires. I've seen several hero wipes from those who don't understand that the glass-breaking boom is an early warning to clear the building's area before a lethal explosion.

Welcome Home! One thing to help a new player: a long, but partial, list of acronyms. We use a lot of 'em in chats: I'd also recommend asking for someone who leads teams and leagues often to give a good breakdown of the terminology given on the Looking for Group channel. There's a lot of shorthand used in giving a "proper" invitation to join a pick-up group (PUG), so that players know what they're getting into. Supposedly. @Snarky can tell you what happens when "supposedly" doesn't work. 😁

Fantastic actor. I really need to see Archie. So glad they gave him back the role of the Grand Inquisitor for the recent Star Wars: Tales of the Empire. His was the best part of Season 1 of Star Wars: Rebels. And as one born in the revolutionary hotbed called the Carolinas, I'm delighted to add that his fictional villain in The Patriot was magnificently every inch the villain that SC natives know the RL model, Banastre "Bloody" Tarleton, to have been, just with a much more satisfying end. Boo! hiss!

Ah, there's a difference then between us. I'm one of those poor, cursed souls who is made very nauseous by 1st-person game action. It makes my quarterly Halo game nights with friends a real trial. I'm glad you're able to work with that setup though. Different strokes for different folks.

While I understand your Star Wars acknowledgement, I'd point out that the discussion was TV-to-movies and Star Wars went the opposite route, movies-to-TV. The early TV works were sub-par, everything from live Ewok movies to Saturday morning droid cartoons, as well as a certain holiday special that was so abyssmal that it became curiously cool. All of those early works were apocryphal to Lucas' canon vision. It wasn't until the 2003 Genndy Tartakovsky Star Wars: Clone Wars that we started getting things considered partially canonical, and not until 2008's The Clone Wars 3D animated series that we got full-canon stories on TV and later streaming service. Either of those would probably be where I'd start a comparison. While I have a litany of issue with the Bad Robot Star Trek movies, I do find the first and third quite watchable, and I enjoyed the actors in the roles, especially Karl Urban fully channeling DeForrest Kelly. The second film was abyssmal, and a disgraceful misuse of all actors involved. Really, magic blood and precision space-quadrant teleporters? Did Abrams even understand how destructive just those two overly-fantastical elements are to anything fundamental to Star Trek? At very least, very very least, add a line from Khan saying the Admiral's group had him surgically altered to appear as a pale Anglo-Saxon in order to keep anyone with any knowledge of history from recognizing the great dictator of 1/4 of the late 20th century Earth. Sorry. Rambling. That film is a massive sore spot. As to Firefly, yeah, I was in a tepid rainy-day mood when a pair of friends dragged me into a theater showing of Serenity, but was ecstatic by the end. I still remember turning to the friend who pushed seeing the film and asking "Why did Fox cancel this thing???"

Yeah, I've that issue on several characters and I think the only thing worse was having to tag Sally twice for the badge, and having to compete with everyone else to get it done. I've still got early-created characters waiting to complete that. And while I think on it, THANK YOU to whomever changed the requirement from 2 hits to 1 hit. It's made a notable improvement.

Personally, I always tag the indoor Observant badge next to the Rikti War Zone portal, then pop thru the portal and grab the badge hidden under the hall in front of the blond sister (I forget her name at the moment). It's easy and a no-threat location. I'd make the 8th a run to the T.U.N.N.E.L. portal next to the Atlas Park tram and go to Night Ward to get the badge entering the mansion door. It also unlocks access to the Midnighters' Club so two birds, one stone.

Actually, I'm surprised we've not gotten a Sportsmaster / Casey Jones set of some sort. Mostly melee strikes with sport bats, clubs. etc, but also things like boomerangs, billiard balls, and lawn darts for range strikes and bowling balls, Indian clubs, or horse shoes for ranged knockdown.

Out of curiosity, you don't have an issue with the controls covering the lower 1/3 of your character? I tried that once, personally found it highly annoying and visually distracting, and switched to the current method I posted back on page 1.

I'm probably overlooking the obvious, but I'm drawing a blank on the reference: "the Elmo map"? We're talking the furry little red guy hyped up on sugar? I'd never given a favorite map much thought, but possibly the fleet map on the Admiral Sutter TF, assuming "TF" = "mission" in this case.

Don't forget VI, and the Next Generation's First Contact. The 2009 reboot Star Trek was also a success, whether the new cast and new timeline were liked or not. There's also Maverick, a movie take on the James Garner/Roger Moore TV series (actually two series, as Garner returned for a year to a new Maverick series before opting to exit the show due to over-saturation of his presence in the public at the time). Wikipedia calls the movie a box office success and, as of a decade ago, the 6th highest grossing Western of all time. Although it wasn't a reboot per se, or very successful in the first-run theater, I'd argue that Serenity, the movie continuing Firefly aged like fine wine and was ultimately successful for introducing a legion of fans, myself included, to the Browncoat fandom. Fox's tinkering couldn't stop the signal.

This is why I say Marvel plays fast and loose with shapeshifters. Juggernaut's strength and healing, not just his shielded armor come from magic, not mutation. So while Morph could adapt the look, he should lack the strength and healing aspects, since he's mutation, not magic. That is a favorite trope in the science fantasy genre. I think of Doctor Who where the Doctor has repeatedly been a participant in the creation moments of his enemies, such as rescuing a child Davros. Glad you mentioned Polaris: