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92: You Do Realise You Can Take The Discs Out
92: You Do Realise You Can Take The Discs Out
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Populous the Beginning: completed!

Posted on 02/05/2025 Written by Xexyz

Level 24, Journey’s End, feels like a culmination of all the stages so far. You start on a small area of land, with established Green enemies to the North and Yellow wrapping around the world to the East and West. All other tribes are well established, and very soon after starting the level the Greens cast a land bridge to start attacking. As soon as you’ve seen them off, the Yellows come across the existing causeway to the West and attack from another side. And while that’s going on, very often Red will sneak in from the other side – although sometimes Yellow will have stopped them before they get to you. Basically, you spend most of your time fending off attacks and not actually building proper defences, let alone expanding and preparing to attack.

I had to restart the level a couple of times because I was finding I just couldn’t get established quickly enough. My first task was to build some training huts for preachers and firewarriors, who I then stationed up on the North coast, waiting for the Greens to make their first move. I turned off all spells other than swamp, and once I had one of those in my pocket I turned on lightning and swarm. At that point Green made their move, so I cast swamp just at the top of the landbridge they created and waited for their shaman to advance. Her death meant that my buildings survived, more or less, and I was able to station a row of fire warriors across the bridge to fend off further attacks. I built a couple of guard towers to the West, and put fire warriors in those, but again the big defence against the Yellow shaman was a swamp, which I cast as she tried to come into the village.

With both passages bolstered by a few more fire warriors and preachers I concentrated on building huts to generate more followers, with the occasional refresh of the swamps to the North and West. Unfortunately I started to run out of wood and my followers were running into the swamps to try to get to the trees on the other side; I had to move the swamps further away from my village to carry on building. At this point Red decided it was a great idea to attack from the East, but to do so they had to travel through the Yellow village and by the time they got to me there were only a few stragglers to see off.

I continued to build, and turned on the erode spell so I could get rid of the causeways to the West and East, allowing me to properly focus on the Greens. I hadn’t bargained on the Yellows then starting to attack by balloon, or the Reds getting in their boats. Lots of guard towers with firewarriors along the coasts solved those issues, plus I then got to steal the balloons to create even more defences along the North. After the Greens had attempted, and failed, another skirmish, I took my shaman and a few firewarriors in a balloon to the North and used a few earthquakes, fire rains, and the angel of death to reduce their threat. I flew around a few times and destroyed all the training huts, but I couldn’t quite finish them off before a massive Yellow army started to attack and I needed to return.

This turned out to be fortuitous, as Yellow had overstretched themselves and I was able to load up their newly-emptied balloons with my own firewarriors, with a few preachers, and journey over to their village and wreak havoc. At the same time, Red were attacking them from the other side, and Yellow seemed to be spending more energy decimating their numbers, so it was a relatively easy move to then just fly south and kill off Red through liberal use of swamps and earthquakes.

And then back up to Greens, who were building quite an army up. Angel of death, volcano, earthquake, fire rain, and swamps placed all around the shaman reincarnation site, and the level was done.

At the very end, I had a few warriors join me by boat to finish the job

I actually replayed this level to try out a different tactic, destroying the Yello balloon factory first and then concentrating on the Greens. With no balloons, and the paths eroded, Yellow and Red spent most of their time attacking each other, and I finished Green off relatively quickly. This might be one of my favourite levels of the game, with the different ways it can be played.

Shaman in balloon really is the key to victory

And so to the final level. There was a cutscene, showing my shaman passing on the mask to a female follower, and then becoming a god. The last level no longer has a reincarnation site, and you can cast spells anywhere, with no distance limit. You still have to build up mana, and you have to create your village and train warriors and preachers and fire warriors and direct people to do stuff, but it’s a nice bridge to the other Populous games where your power comes from above. You can see the idea of the beginning here, a prequel in every sense. There are differences, of course – in the first two Populous games you don’t have the same control over building placement or follower actions, but maybe that’s just something reflecting the seniority of the god.

Anyway, you would think that infinite range and starting with a settlement of 50 followers would make the final level easy, but no. The other three tribes were intent to fight each other, but my village was in the middle of their settlements. I was attacked by wave after wave of enemies, and I restarted the level with the intention of resisting just a little longer. I trained up some preachers and fire warriors immediately, to repel the attacks, and then I set up guard towers to allow the fireballs to hit before the enemies got near. Once I’d fortified enough, I built up the erode spell so I could cut off access to a couple of the tribes, allowing me to again focus on just one. I eroded the pathways close to the opposition villages, meaning that all the trees growing on the route could be harvested for my buildings.

The Reds were first to fall. I probably attacked them before I was really ready, since I had relatively few warriors trained and my spells were only half charged. I destroyed their temple and fire hut, and they were left rather disorganised. I withdrew quite quickly as they were attacking my little army, but I could see they were also getting beset by the Yellows on the opposite side of their settlement. In fact, the Yellow army must have finished them off, as their reincarnation site collapsed while my people were nowhere near.

Given this third-party war, I scrolled over to the Greens to stop them sending forces to bother me. I cast some volcanoes and earthquakes, very pleased that I didn’t need to worry about getting my people anywhere near. I killed the shamans multiple times, laughing at my omnipotence. The Yellows were next on the list, with me converting a bunch of preachers in the middle of their village to sow discord and mistrust. All this time I was expanding my village, training up specialists, and getting ready for attack. Having survived the multiple incursions at the start of the level, and built up my forces, the end of the game was just a lot of fun. Half my armies stayed behind to guard against the Greens, and the other half went to fight the Yellows.

I laid waste to the Yellow town before most of my followers got there. The shaman ended up in a volcano, then in the centre of a fire rain storm, then falling into the crack of an earthquake. The Yellow buildings were destroyed by tornadoes, ground eroding beneath them, and the angel of death. It was a rout.

And then onto the Greens. No need for anyone to stand guard at home any more; the full might of the army marched to the Green town and flattened it.

By the end, my armies were just a little overpowered

An amazing game, 27 years after it was first released; possibly – no, probably – the best game ever. I’m glad to have finally finished it, though I will, of course, be returning. In fact, I have noticed that I have the official expansion pack, Undiscovered Worlds, as part of the package I bought on GOG, so I’ll be trying that out very soon.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, PC

May 2025 – Finally completed Cyberpunk 2077!

Posted on 02/05/2025 Written by gospvg

Play

Phantom Liberty (PS5)

I completed Phantom Liberty and finally waved goodbye to Cyberpunk 2077. After 220 hours of gaming it was finally time to move on from Night City.

Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe (PS5)

I need to take a break from long timesink gaming and returned back to the indie scene and enjoyed and completed The Stanley Parable.

 

Robocop Rogue City (PS5)

Next up I recently started Robocop Rogue City which has an old school shooter feel including janky voice acting & character animation.


Backlog

Shopping

Nothing purchased in April, now that I have finished Cyberpunk I can focus on my backlog and I'm specifically looking at games that can be completed in less than 50 hours. I need to try and avoid timesink games.

 

Want

Great reviews for Clair Obscur Expedition 33 and I hope to enjoy this at some point during the year.

Maybe Oblivion which was shadow dropped, I have never played this game. Skyrim is my only elder scrolls game.

PS+ games for May have been announced and I'm looking forward to playing Balatro. What did I just say about timesinks?

Bin

Games coming off PS Plus subscription service, I wish all additions had at least a year or they clearly show when they are leaving the service so you can decide to start playing or not.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Cyberpunk 2077, Playstation 5, Robocop, Stanley Parable

Rocket League: scoring a pizza

Posted on 02/05/2025 Written by Xexyz

There’s a new temporary mode on Rocket League, with some sort of collaboration with the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Yes, I said Hero. It’s similar to Snow Day, but played on a split-goal field and with a giant pizza instead of the puck, and you can’t jump, and you have a grapple hook which regenerates over time, and boost which also regenerates. So not that much like Snow Day.

I’m not a huge fan, because of the lack of jumping and aerials, but the game I’ve embedded below was pretty good fun.

You will note that most of my team left, and then were replaced, after a couple of minutes when we were a couple of goals down. They don’t know what they missed out on.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: Playstation 4

Harmoknight: completed!

Posted on 25/04/2025 Written by Xexyz

Harmoknight is best described as a rhythm platformer, although the platforming is basic at best and the rhythms are simple. You have two buttons – a jump, and an attack – and you have to either jump or attack in time with the music’s beat. In most cases it’s sufficient to react in time to seeing the gap or enemy, but on occasion the screen zooms in and reaction times are just too long; it’s at this point that you’ll lose too many lives and have to repeat the level. Each time you repeat you’ll get a bit further (usually), remembering the patterns to hit the buttons in and perfecting timing.

While that’s the core of the game, there are a few sections or levels which differ. Boss battles tend to give you a phrase to repeat, which is very reminiscent of Space Channel 5’s reliance on varying rhythms, while other levels have other characters join to introduce slightly different button requirements – pressing A or X depending on whether there’s an upper or lower enemy, for example. In order to pass a level you generally need to collect enough purple notes – from just running over them, or from hitting enemies exactly in time, or from hitting background objects as you pass them – and this awards you a Royal Note which is used to unlock new parts of the map. It’s possible to get to the end of a level and get a “so so” rating (rather than “good” or “great”), meaning you have to repeat it.

I like rhythm action games. Parappa the Rapper was a favourite at university; I enjoyed Um Jammer Lammy as well, and Vib Ribbon was bought on release day from WH Smiths in Clifton Downs. Space Channel 5 was uniquely stylish, and I still remember Owen when I play it. I’ve enjoyed the various Rhythm Heaven games I’ve played, and Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure, and of course the dance mats and bongos and plastic guitars and the maracas. I wouldn’t say that Harmoknight was the best, but it was very enjoyable. The stages were the right length, the requirements were sufficiently varied, and the game didn’t outstay its welcome. After beating the final boss there were a few bonus levels to complete, plus a new section of the map opened. As well as this, any level which you pass with a “great” rating gives you the option of playing it at a faster speed.

It’s a pretty game with a clear visual identity

The game really benefits from being on the 3DS. The latency between processor and screen is known, and so the timing is spot on. Going back to replay Parappa nowadays is difficult, because of lag between the console and the TV, and the fact that the timing was never quite right in the game to start with. No such problems here – if you know which buttons to press when, you could close your eyes and hit the beat dead on. The fact that I didn’t get perfect scores on every level is my fault, not the game’s.

I’d recommend it, but with the closure of the 3DS eShop there’s now no legal way to get it. Maybe wait for the inevitable rerelease on the Switch 3.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: 3ds, completed

92: You Do Realise You Can Take The Discs Out

Posted on 25/04/2025 Written by deKay Leave a Comment

Look, March was a bad month, OK? We didn’t do an episode and we know that made you all sad but it can’t be helped. What’s done is done. Water under the bridge. A delicious chocolate river slurped up by a fat German child while a man in a silly suit watches in glee. We just can’t do anything about it. Except press on with another episode and some lickable wallpaper.

In Episode 92 dem mans deKay, Orrah and the unlikely-y named “Kendrick” have Switch 2 Real Actual Facts to tell you about, the surprise everyone expected release of Oblivion: We Made It Pretty Edition, a new Star Wars game, and one of us has bought a new console. Who and what? You have to listen to find out! While you’re listening, you should also hear words about these games and more!

  • Katamari Damacy Rolling LIVE
  • Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii
  • Visions of Mana
  • Suikoden I + II Remastered
  • Xenoblade Chronicles 3
  • Hearts of Iron IV
  • Phoenix Point
  • Starfield
  • Pong (no, really)
  • Word Trails

Why not treat yourself to a bit of quiet time with us in your ears, eh?

https://ugvm.org.uk/podcasts/ugvmPodcastEpisode92.mp3

(Direct link here)

Intro music credits: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered Theme from the The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion: Remastered soundtrack.

Don’t forget, if you want to contact us with questions or comments for or about the show, you can email podcast@ugvm.org.uk or publicly shame us https://mas.to/@ugvmpodcast on the Mastodons.

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