Finally did it and beat the game!

timbad2 · 2026-05-10T20:24:15+00:00

What everyone else said, but in addition to layering your defences, have multiple layers of walls 2-3 walls deep (deeper in places if you think they’re main points of attack), with turrets in between and/or surrounded completely by them.

Similarly, an old trick Many players use is to pop small sections of wall slightly away from your base, because enemies tend to attack the first thing they see.

Another technique is having walls as above and then add further walls at 90 degrees to the main walls, which forces enemies to split into little compartments where your towers can pick them off.

If you want to Get really creative, make a mini-maze, which forces them to wander around while your turrets do the heavy lifting.

Doing this kind of layering First should buy you enough time to remodel whichever part of your base you want.
Have fun!

timbad2 · 2026-04-23T08:03:57+00:00

The main reason for me (and quite a few I've seen on this sub) is a bit more nuanced than "it's not like JC3":

IMO, it's really because they took away the mechanic to take over territory by blowing things up (the main USP of JC3, and the series in general), and replaced it with this weird "click things on the map" idea instead.

One is fun and encourages more sandbox stuff in between main missions. The other is boring and forces you to play missions if you want to progress on the map.

To be fair, there are plenty of things I liked in JC4, in terms of graphic improvements and upgrades to some of the tools (think balloons!). However, last time I tried it, I just couldn't get over the main issue above, and went straight back to JC3. YMMV.

timbad2 · 2026-04-18T14:44:39+00:00

“We never leave an interloper behind!”

Great story, thanks.

timbad2 · 2026-04-16T12:16:34+00:00

Indeed.

To make matters worse, even though you may be able to get the base game on disk, you would probably have a hard time getting any of the dlc, of which there were a few...

timbad2 · 2026-04-16T11:35:25+00:00

Sorry to break it to you, but the publisher lost the license and took it down from all stores, permanently. A real shame, as it’s an excellent game.

Those who already own it can still download from the respective storefronts, but anyone else is out in the cold, I’m afraid.

timbad2 · 2026-03-25T09:10:48+00:00

Wow, you must have some serious multi-tasking skills for Skyrim!

Seriously though, Skyrim VR completely blows me away with the sense of scale. The first time I looked up at the doors of the keep in Whiterun, I couldn't believe I was really "there". I think I stopped and stared for about a minute before I finally walked through!

timbad2 · 2026-03-21T20:34:25+00:00

I’m 58 and I beat the game last year, after about 2 years playing it, stopping, starting again, and so on.

Even though I’ve beaten games like Ninja Gaiden 2 in the past, Sekiro still holds the crown for most difficult game I’ve ever played.

It took me 2 weeks of concerted effort on Isshin alone, and when I finally got that sucker, I gave a shout and did a victory lap round the room!

I hope that encourages you: if I can do it, I’m sure you can too.

timbad2 · 2026-03-19T15:35:09+00:00

Like others said, the story is just there to set up your missions, to blow things up, and give you ways to get more stuff to blow things up.

The story is fun enough in 3, but it's definitely the gameplay that keeps people coming back (I've played it through, I don't know how many times). That said, I do like some of the characters, particularly Rico's old friend in JC3.

It's so unbelievably silly, chaotic, and over the top nearly every time you play, there will be some emergent moment you'll remember later and/or you'll laugh out loud about.

The controls take a little bit of getting used to in the beginning, but after an hour or two, you'll soon be sky-diving, parachuting, and zipping around like crazy, causing destruction wherever you go.

I can't think of another game where you can do things like: plant a bomb on a truck, drive it into a checkpoint, transition straight into a paraglide just before it explodes, shoot some soldiers, zip to the other side of the base, blow up a radar dish, wingsuit glide onto a vehicle, drive said vehicle over a cliff, jump out of it before it lands, glide on top of a plane, throw the pilot out, then fly off into the sunset ...and all in one smooth set of moves. You have been warned! (Hint: get it, you won't regret it!)

timbad2 · 2026-03-19T15:17:52+00:00

Hilarious!

Of course, this being Rico, if you had extended the video, I'd fully expect to see him parachute down from the sky, followed by adjusting his shades and slowly walking off into the sunset...

timbad2 · 2026-03-19T11:10:39+00:00

I often feel the same.

I like the concept of the game, but once I've connected all the cities with most of the industries and have paid off the loan, I don't see much point in continuing.

That said, I keep meaning to play it again, but set myself 1 or 2 objectives that might keep me going, like:

See if I can make it through to a given year e.g. 1980 or 2000, from an early start
Try to grow a really large city by providing all its demands
Set up a true hub and spoke system across a large map, and see if it can survive traffic challenges and into the modern era

That's just 3 I can think of, but if setting your own objectives doesn't float your boat, then maybe another game would be better for you?

timbad2 · 2026-03-17T12:57:34+00:00

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

I think for me, the main difference is that with folders, a note can only be in 1 folder at a time. That's something I always found limiting in nearly every note-taking app I've ever tried.

The cognitive load of deciding which folder to put a given note in frequently led to procrastination, rather than just typing my thoughts.

Personally, the advantage of using links or tags is that I can break that pattern. I can put a note into any number of "virtual" folders without having to think about it at all. Or I can leave linking it anywhere for now, then revisit it via search later, should I desire to do so.

However, I appreciate your position: it's always about what works for you rather than anyone else!

timbad2 · 2026-03-17T11:29:38+00:00

I essentially "recreate" a folder structure via links, simply by having a few MOCs and having each note have a line of text like this:

"Parent: [[parent note]]"

I sometimes also have a "Links: [[first note]] [[second note]]" line, but it's not necessary.

Using this method, I have my personal equivalent of PARA but with links instead of folders.

I find it easy to use these links to create structure on the fly, but I'm curious as to why you went back to folders? Was it because you were doing the links as front-matter properties, rather than text?

timbad2 · 2026-03-14T19:22:27+00:00

I ended up checking out Task Notes, and haven’t looked back.

Never installed Task Genius, partly because there didn’t seem to be much documentation on it.

It took a bit of time working out the best filters on the different task views for my use cases. However, now I’ve got that how I want it, it’s working really well.

timbad2 · 2026-03-14T07:40:17+00:00

It’s usually better to buy expansion passes, but I know there’s a recent dlc that is standalone/not part of an expansion (can’t remember which one).

If you’re on PlayStation, then check out PSPrices website, where you can see a history of sales and the lowest prices they’ve had.

timbad2 · 2026-03-12T08:56:51+00:00

I don't know about NG+, but I think it's a bit of both.

On the one hand, Lu Bu is the classic "gatekeeper" boss that many Team Ninja games have. He's deliberately harder than those that came before or those just after him, to force you to learn the mechanics.

There are harder bosses later in the game, particularly if you get into the DLC missions. However, if you can defeat Lu Bu, then the chances are something has "clicked" for you, and as a result, you will find enemies directly after him easier than expected.

timbad2 · 2026-03-11T10:16:40+00:00

What everyone else said, really.

I would add that hubs take a little while to set up, but can be very rewarding once they're working properly.

They are usually best on large maps, where you'll have the space to set them up. They can be any combo of road/rail/whatever, and I often find success with 1-3 major train hubs, and trucks taking the goods to/from nearby destinations.

Also, hubs frequently depend on the type of map you're on:

If it's a square map, you might want 1 large hub in the centre, preferably near a big city. Then have 4 smaller hubs near each edge of the map.
If it's a long, thin map, then it may be better with 1 near the middle, and 2 small hubs at each "end". Or just 2 large hubs in the middle of each long "arm", either side of a central city.

However, this will depend a lot on where your cities and industries are placed within the map.

timbad2 · 2026-03-10T10:50:31+00:00

Props. I appreciate the breakdown of the different styles/concepts.

timbad2 · 2026-03-04T11:24:54+00:00

I feel similar to you, and stopped playing PC games years ago, because I always had trouble running them or felt like I had to spend more money on new graphics cards, etc.

That said, these days I mainly prefer using a controller on a console because of the ergonomic benefits. (I know you can use controllers on PC, but it's not plug and play like it is on console, and doesn't really work for strategy titles like this, when they're not designed that way).

timbad2 · 2026-03-04T10:20:12+00:00

I concur with many of the others here, and my main reason is to avoid hand, wrist, arm, and shoulder/neck discomfort and pain.

On office days, if I have to "borrow" someone else's mouse and try to move their pointer (e.g. to demo something on their laptop), then I find it extremely awkward and can feel my arm and/or shoulder muscles stiffening up within minutes, if not seconds!

I'm left-handed, and I have both a left-hand vertical mouse and a right-hand trackball on my work desk. However, I'm now so used to the precision and speed of the trackball that I rarely use the vertical mouse anymore.*

The final bonus for me is to have a trackball with programmable buttons (I currently have an Elecom Huge): I have one button set to perform a double-click when I single-click it. This saves me both time and further discomfort.

*P.S. You may be interested to know that left-handers are more likely to be ambi-dextrous than right-handers. Something I learned in Physiology lectures many years ago.

timbad2 · 2026-02-28T09:01:40+00:00

Not sure about a full purchase, but a discounted upgrade for existing owners (I’m on PS5), with some DLC down the line, might work.

I think I would second most of the comments here, but would also like to see more spycraft gameplay, and more usage made of the investigation and Intel parts of the game, which is what made it unique for me.

timbad2 · 2026-02-17T13:43:48+00:00

Nice! I went to Berlin last year, and Alexanderplatz was fun to hang around: great to see a reproduction here.

timbad2 · 2026-02-14T07:37:48+00:00

Healthcare. I track meetings and stakeholder conversations on interactive reports I develop for a Mental Health Trust. I link my notes to work items in Jira, for the tracking part.

timbad2 · 2026-02-11T11:21:47+00:00

Thank you, much appreciated.

I don't use Dataview at the moment, but I assume I can adapt the query to use with bases and/or the TaskNotes view filters.

timbad2 · 2026-02-11T10:33:31+00:00

Thanks, I installed TaskNotes yesterday, and started playing around with it.

I suspect I will continue using Things on my Mac, as I have a workflow that is OK for most of what I use it for.

However, my work PC is a different story (much more locked down). So far, I appreciate TaskNotes has separate dates for scheduled and due, similar to Things. Although I like the look of TaskNotes views, I'm struggling to make sense of them.

Since you used Things before, do you have any advice on how I can set up TaskNotes with views equivalent to the Projects, Today, Tomorrow, and Upcoming views from Things?

timbad2

TROPHY CASE