What are you currently playing?

[happyninja42]

I did like how some characters had such useful abilities that they basically proved their worth without firing a single bullet, like Terminal, Verge and Cherub. And then you have guys like Blueblood high noon-ing everything in sight and Axoim Hulk smashing his way across the room.

Yeah it was pretty fun the stuff you could do. One of my favorite moments of power utilization was using Shelter. A bomber had just tossed a grenade at my team, and I had them bail from the location....then I had Shelter move into the blast zone, and then swap places with the guy who threw the grenade. He ended up killing himself with his own grenade. That felt good, plus I loved that the mechanics allowed for something like that.

 

[sXeth]

Warframe, slapping away at the Glassmaker Nightwave. Can't say I'm a super fan of the mystery game component so far, which reminds me too much of a Destiny raid platforming section. Early days though, hopefully all the investigations don't have the same gimmick.


Aside from that Astroneer (which on PS4 has finally been patched enough to be semi-playable) with buddies. And Trailmakers (which is kind of a LEGO-esque build your own vehicle sandbox gsme, but with physics and such. It is essentially a direct clone of Scrap Mechanic if you're familiar with that one, but seems overall more polished and streamlined and less buggy.

 

[Gordon_4]

I decided to give Mass Effect: Andromeda a crack now that its been patched to high heaven.

Movement is a bit awkward - both mechanically and in terms of animation but you get used to it - and the combat is a little chaotic because there's now no sticking to cover and the space bar instead of being your button to go into cover uses your jump jet. And since I've got like 1000+ hours in MEs 1-3 combined that's a hard bit of muscle memory to break.

Squadmates are a mixed bag but as tends to be usual with Mass Effect, the humans are outshone by the aliens. Liam is somehow more boring and yet more obnoxious than Jacob Taylor. Cora is more interesting but there's more than a few parallels with Ashley but I'm only 7 hours in and that may change. Vetra, Drack and PB are a bit more colorful and I especially like Vetra's smooth operator personality. I also really like the Salarian pilot, he's a hoot.

I'm not quite ready to write them all off yet because my attachment to Garrus, Wrex, Tali and most of the other squad mates was not instantaneous either but the voice direction even in ME1 was a lot better than here. Poor Ryder never seems to inflect a great deal when they speak. Environments are very pretty and look great on my giantass monitor and I must admit the game skewing its theme towards exploration by having you scout out places to build outposts and the like is a great concept to separate it from the original trilogy which were military sci fi adventures.

What I definitely don't like is the ammo powers being turned into one off consumables like they are in the ME3 multiplayer instead of being either a weapon mod OR a class power. Also the interface in this game is needlessly complicated. Like stupidly so.

Speaking of classes. I'm not wholly sold on this profiles thing the game has where you can train in everything but only have three active abilities at once. I may be better disposed towards it if I can unlock more ability slots to allow broader mix.

 

[BrawlMan]

Did a few quick rounds of DmC DE on Gods Must Die. Once you unlock GMD, there is little to reason to go back to the lesser difficulty modes. I probably pop in some Tetris Effect later today.

 

[Dalisclock]

Finished Divinity Original Sin 2 last night. I got to the Cathedral and went "Okay, cool, I've reached the Cathedral and am ready to press on to the end. The game should be over soon". TWO HOURS Later......Well, that was quite a lot. Granted, I had to fight the Mistake, then do the big puzzle room, then do the really fucking obnoxious Trap Room(I restarted it after the robots turned all my characters into cows, and just focused on hitting the levers after the reload) and then the final battle.

Which was all worthy of a finale. Especially that big epic battle at the end, where the devs were kind enough to unlock unlimited source usage so I could use my best spells and abilities(considering all the enemies are all very damage spongy and new ones spawn every round, yeah....). I ended up Sacrificing my source and going along with Lucian/Dalis. I have to admit, it's a testament to the writing where on one hand, Lucian and Dallis were fucking monsters considering the atrocities they wrought. OTOH, their goal was.....surprisingly well meaning and ultimately necessary. And the "What happened next" cards at the end revealed they weren't lying either.

I was surprised just how much detail the end cards went into as well. I heard the game did the Fallout thing where it gives you a brief summary of what happened next, but I didn't realize it talks about what happend to a lot of fairly minor characters, some of whom I had to remember "What, who is this again?". I ended up doing a lot of the side quests and a lot of the endngs were positive, including things like Driftwood prospering down the road. I'm not sure exactly what led to those particular outcomes other then trying help people in general and kill some of the shittier people I met.

Also, I guess I might have gotten more out of the game if I'd played the first Divinity Original Sin considering Braccus Rex is the villain, but then again, I haven't played any of the other Divinity games either, just have a general idea of what happened(both on game descriptions and a timeline of sorts) Though I've heard Larian isn't super concerned with continuity across the series so it's not a huge deal when they retcon stuff.

Final thoughts:

-Super glad they included a number of difficulty options with this, considering the difficulty spikes and the complexity of the systems/combat. I played on Explorer, I used some of the provided DE mods(such as the Bedrolls replenish Source one) and I don't regret it a bit. The game was plenty challenging for me(partially because it feels like the AI cheats/metagames), but people who didn't think so have Classic, Tactitcian and Honor to satisfy them.

-As I've said before, I like how the Origin character quests get fleshed out and a couple of them tie in nicely both with each other in and the main storyline(Fane in particular). It's a little sad I could only pick 4 of the 6 but I understand that's partially for balance and partially due to the 4 play co-op feature.

-I appreciate the Devs included a game master mode and 4 player co-op, as well as perk to make playing a "Lone Wolf" playthrough viable. I may never take advantage of any of those(I don't know anyone else who plays Divinity and the one friend who does play video games isn't playing much lately due to other projects). I imagine if I was into D&D I would be taking advantage of this feature though.

-I remember hearing in other places(I can't remember where) that the Divinity games are a bit too "funny" for their taste, which strikes me as odd considering the game is fucking dark, despite the bright colors. Most of the factions are jerks or monsters(I didn't feel bad for the Magisters at all as a group, though a few of them were good people) and my 4 characters involves a sadistic quest for revenge on the man who made her a slave-asssasin, a quest to find the fate of his civilization completely missing from the history books(and it gets worse from there), unraveling a conspiracy that involved exile and attempt assassinations and being possesed by a very powerful demon who has his claws into half the world it seems. I mean, that's pretty heavy stuff. Not to mention the impending end of the world if nothing is done as the void gets stronger and the reveal of the true nature of the gods(Beyond them being complete assholes).

Yeah, there's a few funny bits in there, but Disco Elysium has funny bits too(some downright hilarious bits, actually) and nobody accuses it of being unserious. I half expected every other line to be a pun or a joke considering some of the buzz I've heard.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

-Super glad they included a number of difficulty options with this, considering the difficulty spikes and the complexity of the systems/combat. I played on Explorer, I used some of the provided DE mods(such as the Bedrolls replenish Source one) and I don't regret it a bit. The game was plenty challenging for me(partially because it feels like the AI cheats/metagames), but people who didn't think so have Classic, Tactitcian and Honor to satisfy them.

I'm playing with a bunch of mods including Divinity Unleashed, which completely re-balances the game around armor serving as damage reduction for every hit vs it being basically a 2nd health pool that you need to get through. I also have quite a few other mods like one that automatically levels gear so I don't need to do unneeded inventory management so I only switch gear when I actually find something better and I have infinite spirit vision so I don't need to keep casting it. The Bedroll replenishing Source makes sense, especially if there's a Source fountain somewhere on the map, there was one on Fort Joy and Reaper's Coast (which I'm still at) so you might was well just automatically fill up your source from resting because there's nothing stopping from going to the fountain constantly. There is a mod called No Psychic Enemies so they don't always know you weaknesses and stuff via adjusting their lore master. I just looked it up to get the name right and every comment says the mod doesn't work anymore but I've never had enemies use healing spells on Fane so I guess it works. There's some pretty awesome combos in the game like my tank is my warfare character that also knows Shackles of Pain, which I'll link up to the main baddie, then I'll cast Provode so the main baddie has to attack my tank, and then I can cast Living on the Edge on my tank so he can't die.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm playing with a bunch of mods including Divinity Unleashed, which completely re-balances the game around armor serving as damage reduction for every hit vs it being basically a 2nd health pool that you need to get through. I also have quite a few other mods like one that automatically levels gear so I don't need to do unneeded inventory management so I only switch gear when I actually find something better and I have infinite spirit vision so I don't need to keep casting it. The Bedroll replenishing Source makes sense, especially if there's a Source fountain somewhere on the map, there was one on Fort Joy and Reaper's Coast (which I'm still at) so you might was well just automatically fill up your source from resting because there's nothing stopping from going to the fountain constantly. There is a mod called No Psychic Enemies so they don't always know you weaknesses and stuff via adjusting their lore master. I just looked it up to get the name right and every comment says the mod doesn't work anymore but I've never had enemies use healing spells on Fane so I guess it works. There's some pretty awesome combos in the game like my tank is my warfare character that also knows Shackles of Pain, which I'll link up to the main baddie, then I'll cast Provode so the main baddie has to attack my tank, and then I can cast Living on the Edge on my tank so he can't die.

I didn't have baddies healing fane too often but I've heard it's a problem and I'm glad there's a way to fix it. Yeah, the infinite spirit vision is nice too(since you use it constantly) and the bedroll feels like a much needed time saver(the alternative being source vampiring every spirit and corpse). I didn't realize until the end of the game you could use source vampirism on corpses as well as spirits, but since I had the bedroll mod it didn't matter.

I don't really know what purpose food serves(other then temp stat boosts) since the bedroll heals everything by default and potions replenish HP far better and are easy to find/make/buy. Hell, before reaching ARX I spent most of my money on skillbooks and was still swimming in extras by the end because I hadn't bothered to sell them and was full up on skills. I only bought better armor/weapons in ARX and still had a ton of cash left over.

 

[Phoenixmgs]

I don't really know what purpose food serves(other then temp stat boosts) since the bedroll heals everything by default and potions replenish HP far better and are easy to find/make/buy. Hell, before reaching ARX I spent most of my money on skillbooks and was still swimming in extras by the end because I hadn't bothered to sell them and was full up on skills. I only bought better armor/weapons in ARX and still had a ton of cash left over.

Yeah, food is pretty pointless, I think you might be able to make decent work of it with the food talent thing. I never think to really use consumables in like any game though and I've only ever healed through the healing skills. I've only bought skillbooks with money so far but now I have probably all the skills I need so I'm looking to buy better gear but I have like nothing but purples anyway and I've noticed a lot of gear bonuses are too spread out like I don't want an intelligence bonus on my warfare character, I want to stack warfare and strength bonuses (I'm actually using Alexander's cloak on my tank because it gives strength and retribution bonuses and I haven't found a chest piece that's been better). At least mainly having to buy skillbooks makes money somewhat important as I'm not going to depend on finding them all even though I'm pretty sure you can.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Been playing Darkest Dungeon. I don't have access to my gaming PC at the moment, and Darkest Dungeon runs on my 10 year old laptop.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Wife is playing Sims 4 on my PS4 lately so I took advantage of the Steam Sale which had the latest Tomb Raiders on a good sale to complete my collection as of yet. Started with Rise of the Tomb Raider and played through the first tomb. Liking it better than the reboot so far, but little seems to have changed.

I’d really like to see this series go back to more hardcore platforming and puzzle solving. I get why they went in the direction they did and it’s enjoyable enough for what it is, but I think it would function much better with more specific focus there. It can still have enemies because that does add an extra dynamic, and a story is important but never if the gameplay has to take a backseat to serve it.

 

[BrawlMan]

I’d really like to see this series go back to more hardcore platforming and puzzle solving. I get why they went in the direction they did and it’s enjoyable enough for what it is, but I think it would function much better with more specific focus there. It can still have enemies because that does add an extra dynamic, and a story is important but never if the gameplay has to take a backseat to serve it.

The problem with the new TB games is that they went full Uncharted. You never go full Uncharted.

I've been playing The Takeover and Streets of Rage 4 back to back to see the differences in game play. The Takeover was the unofficial SOR4, before the latter got announced. I've noticed the differences and similarities between the combo systems. Both encourage juggling and stringing large combo hits for a bigger score. To add to this, The Takeover has two attacks buttons & 1 special button (you lose health if it connects), directional inputs that launch an enemy or slam them down for more damage (yet no combo potential or using it as an ender), a rage meter where you're invulnerable for a duration, and a super meter (a screen clear a la SOR1). You also get guns, a side arm for each of your characters, and you can pick up a machine gun. If you know what you're doing, guns can become a vital part of juggling and keeping that combo going. The universal dash and rolls help add to that.

SOR4 on the other hand lack universal rolls or dashing, aside from the unlockable SOR3 characters (except Shiva). Adam, SOR2 Skate, and Cherry are the only ones that can run or dash. The other characters you're better off using jump exploits to make them move faster. To make up for this, you can wall bounce enemies, even on invisible walls to keep your combo going. Everyone has their own air special now too (except for the retro characters)The combo system has a bigger risk/reward system. Sometimes it's best to let a high combo end without getting hit or attacking, so you can get those extra lives. Because if you get hit in the middle of large combo string, that's it, you lose it. You miss out on extra lives, and you lose the possibility of getting an S rank. This becomes a huge problem on Hardest or Mania mode, if you have not figured out the system yet. Easier said, than done on Mania.

For which one is better is really up to you. The Takeover's main problem is weapon variety and pacing. You can tell melee weapons were added in at the last minute, and don't flow well when doing combo strings. As opposed to SOR4, where everyone has certain strengths or weakness depending on the weapon they are wielding. The Takeover' might mix it up a bit with it's arcade vehicle and After Burner section, but there is some clear padding in to the game. SOR4, despite having 12 stages, never outstays its welcome and is more replayable. Also, you can select any stage no matter what, so long as you completed whichever stages on whatever difficulties. In The Takeover, you can't stage select on Hard; it has to be done all on one go. That is a huge design flaw, and I don't know why they decided to do that. SOR4 has slightly better bonuses with all the character unlocks, arcade mode, and boss rush. TT has one character unlock, practice mode (in an update), challenge mode, and survival mode. It also has better enemy variety than 4. SOR4 has decent variety, but I felt that they could have added at least two more enemy types, and done less repeat on bosses. Looking at you stage 7 & 8. Stage 8 especially should have been Onihime & Yasha (the twins from 1 & 3). Instead of the double diva fight with flame and toxic elementals. And named after Beyonce and Rhianna. Regardless, I highly recommend both.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

The problem with the new TB games is that they went full Uncharted. You never go full Uncharted.

Spoiler

I've been playing The Takeover and Streets of Rage 4 back to back to see the differences in game play. The Takeover was the unofficial SOR4, before the latter got announced. I've noticed the differences and similarities between the combo systems. Both encourage juggling and stringing large combo hits for a bigger score. To add to this, The Takeover has two attacks buttons & 1 special button (you lose health if it connects), directional inputs that launch an enemy or slam them down for more damage (yet no combo potential or using it as an ender), a rage meter where you're invulnerable for a duration, and a super meter (a screen clear a la SOR1). You also get guns, a side arm for each of your characters, and you can pick up a machine gun. If you know what you're doing, guns can become a vital part of juggling and keeping that combo going. The universal dash and rolls help add to that.

SOR4 on the other hand lack universal rolls or dashing, aside from the unlockable SOR3 characters (except Shiva). Adam, SOR2 Skate, and Cherry are the only ones that can run or dash. The other characters you're better off using jump exploits to make them move faster. To make up for this, you can wall bounce enemies, even on invisible walls to keep your combo going. Everyone has their own air special now too (except for the retro characters)The combo system has a bigger risk/reward system. Sometimes it's best to let a high combo end without getting hit or attacking, so you can get those extra lives. Because if you get hit in the middle of large combo string, that's it, you lose it. You miss out on extra lives, and you lose the possibility of getting an S rank. This becomes a huge problem on Hardest or Mania mode, if you have not figured out the system yet. Easier said, than done on Mania.

For which one is better is really up to you. The Takeover's main problem is weapon variety and pacing. You can tell melee weapons were added in at the last minute, and don't flow well when doing combo strings. As opposed to SOR4, where everyone has certain strengths or weakness depending on the weapon they are wielding. The Takeover' might mix it up a bit with it's arcade viehicle and After Burner section, but there is some clear padding in to the game. SOR4, despite having 12 stages, never outstays its welcome and is more replayable. Also, you can select any stage no matter what, so long as you completed whichever stages on whatever difficulties. In The Takeover, you can't stage select on Hard; it has to be done all on one go. That is a huge design flaw, and I don't know why they decided to do that. SOR4 has slightly better bonuses with all the character unlocks, arcade mode, and boss rush. TT has one character unlock, practice mode (in an update), challenge mode, and survival mode. It also has better enemy variety than 4. SOR4 has decent variety, but I felt that they could have added at least two more enemy types, and done less repeat on bosses. Looking at you stage 7 & 8. Stage 8 especially should have been Onihime & Yasha (the twins from 1 & 3). Instead of the double diva fight with flame and toxic elementals. And named after Beyonce and Rihanna. Regardless, I highly recommend both.

Well to be fair, aside from the obvious cinematic flair there is a lot more “survival” type game mechanics in TR that Uncharted completely forgoes. In a way it feels more like survival horror had a baby with Uncharted.

On topic, I just got the first ending of Dark Souls 3, and by the skin of my teeth. No Estus left and Soul of Cinder was about .4 seconds away from smoking me, but my Claymore was quicker. He is certainly a powerhouse that has enormous reach, wicked weapon switches, god tier spells, and poise that laughs at you unless you find that narrow window to get at least four hits in a row on him. It took about a dozen or so tries, and luckily his second phase goes quick.

Now I’m off to The Ringed City, and I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have given the maiden those fire keeper’s eyes because it doesn’t seem like they can be used for another ending in this game cycle. Good thing I made a backup save right before the end boss. I’ll probably reload that to get the other ending after beating the last dlc.

 

[happyninja42]

Currently juggling the last DLC for AC: Odyssey (Fate of Atlantis), Days Gone, Griftlands, and 7 Days Long Gone (and yes I am aware of the similarity of name)

Depending on if I am currently playing by myself (Griftlands,7 DLG), or with my wife after work to have some couples time. (AC, Days Gone). She likes watching me play the big open world games,and is a helpful copilot/researcher for me, if I get stuck on something. It's also really fun when playing something as potentially goofy as AC: Od , and her sense of humor kicking in making me collapse into giggles.

 

[Dalisclock]

Started playing Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. I've just reached Mission 4, the one you need to hide in the clouds to reach the Space Elevator and rescue the former president(but I haven't played the mission yet) So far the game is quite fun, though I can see the "Arcadey" designation it gets. It has this wierd juxtaposition between (mostly) real world aircraft and weapons that are ridiculously OP(missles that split into 8, etc) and your plane can carry like 80 assorted missles(and thats only the starter planes). And of course, the weird contrast between the melodramatic cutscenes(mostly about the lady who built her own airplane and launched it on the worst possible day) and "WHOOHOO! AIRPLANES! PLOSIONS!" gameplay.

This is my first time playing the series but I did some cursory research into the series before playing so I'm sure I'm missing some context, but I'm a little confused why getting to the Space Elevator is considered a TOP MILITARY PRIORITY considering everything else that's happened so far. I mean, I get what a Space Elevator is and how useful it can be, but considering most of the Osean Carriers got sunk or put out of action in the opening hours of the conflict and the Eurseans(?) have a giant Drone carrier plane(with an energy shield), it seems like the Space Elevator shouldn't be as high up the priority list as it seems to be. Yes, they want to get it back but I would guess that trying to break the Eursean offensive capabilities would be more important at this particular moment. Though I guess at some point they'll reveal something really important about the elevator(and not just being a prestige symbol for the conflict), and not just because they really want to rescue former president dude who is also really important.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Diving into Minecraft Dungeons tonight. Gonna see if Microsoft can adapt Minecraft into a Diablo style game and make it interesting. Expect Impressions tomorrow.

 

[Dreiko]

After something like 17 years, the original Utawarerumono game finally came out of Japan. Thanks to the success of the sequel game I guess they decided to port the ps2/psp port of the original pc game into ps4 and vita (yes there is a vita game that just came out in 2020!) so now people who had only seen the anime but not played the original game can get to experience the original story with updated graphics that match those of the recent sequels.

The remake is titled Prelude to the Fallen (the jp title is "chiriyuku mono e no komoriuta" which more accurately translates to "a lullaby for those who will scatter to the winds") and man oh man the nostalgia is intense. Aquaplus really knows how to do those visual novel Srpg hybrids just right.


It had a decently popular anime version back in the mid 2000s, here's the intro to give you an idea about the aesthetic:


(gah song giving me chills)


Time to unleash my fan skills.

 

[Dalisclock]

After something like 17 years, the original Utawarerumono game finally came out of Japan. Thanks to the success of the sequel game I guess they decided to port the ps2/psp port of the original pc game into ps4 and vita (yes there is a vita game that just came out in 2020!) so now people who had only seen the anime but not played the original game can get to experience the original story with updated graphics that match those of the recent sequels.

The remake is titled Prelude to the Fallen (the jp title is "chiriyuku mono e no komoriuta" which more accurately translates to "a lullaby for those who will scatter to the winds") and man oh man the nostalgia is intense. Aquaplus really knows how to do those visual novel Srpg hybrids just right.


Time to unleash my fan skills.

What exactly is it? I've never heard of either the game or the anime until like just now. Could you briefly describe what kind of game it is for the rest of us?

 

[Dreiko]

What exactly is it? I've never heard of either the game or the anime until like just now. Could you briefly describe what kind of game it is for the rest of us?

It's a post-extinction of the world fantasy epic with Ainu and paleo-japanese/chinese cultural influences. Think of a setting where the world is reclaimed by nature after some sort of disaster and then humans have to start from scratch, you wake up in that world and don't know what's what since the culture seems to be significantly primitive and you suffer from partial memory loss but you have to still survive and then things just kinda happen. It's a character driven visual novel with Srpg gameplay (think final fantasy tactics or fire emblem). The ratio is something like 80% cutscenes 20% strategy battles. A big draw point is the gorgeous art and interesting character-driven story with politics and interpersonal relationships and epic mythical spoilery stuff I won't go into that gets pretty nuts.

Also everyone has animal ears and tails (of different sorts of animals, not all cats or dogs) outside of the protagonist. The why is also a spoiler .

 

[Chupathingy]

This is my first time playing the series but I did some cursory research into the series before playing so I'm sure I'm missing some context, but I'm a little confused why getting to the Space Elevator is considered a TOP MILITARY PRIORITY considering everything else that's happened so far. I mean, I get what a Space Elevator is and how useful it can be, but considering most of the Osean Carriers got sunk or put out of action in the opening hours of the conflict and the Eurseans(?) have a giant Drone carrier plane(with an energy shield), it seems like the Space Elevator shouldn't be as high up the priority list as it seems to be. Yes, they want to get it back but I would guess that trying to break the Eursean offensive capabilities would be more important at this particular moment. Though I guess at some point they'll reveal something really important about the elevator(and not just being a prestige symbol for the conflict), and not just because they really want to rescue former president dude who is also really important.

Stranegreal (the world most AC games are set in) has had a bad history regarding asteroid impacts, many of which have caused widespread devastation that eventually led to numerous conflicts erupting. The Space Elevator is basically a giant solar panel, meant to give energy to countries suffering the effects of asteroid impacts. It was also meant to be a 'neutral' installation that belonged to everyone, and taking it by force is effectively a declaration of hostilities to the entire world.

And yes, it is revealed to have some other 'features' later on.

 

[Dalisclock]

Stranegreal (the world most AC games are set in) has had a bad history regarding asteroid impacts, many of which have caused widespread devastation that eventually led to numerous conflicts erupting. The Space Elevator is basically a giant solar panel, meant to give energy to countries suffering the effects of asteroid impacts. It was also meant to be a 'neutral' installation that belonged to everyone, and taking it by force is effectively a declaration of hostilities to the entire world.

And yes, it is revealed to have some other 'features' later on.

I was aware of the Asteroid thing and I think the game kind of mentioned the Space Elevator was supposed to be somehow connected to the aftermath/recovery, but I don't believe the game explained how/what. Then again, the early game Cutscenes throw a lot at the player and kind of expect them to know who and whats going on.

I imagine there's some twists and turns, like what was going on with Harling's Helicopter acting wierd during the rescue mission and then....getting shot down(presumably by my character, but that feels like a setup somehow).

Speaking of which, I've reached the point where I'm flying for the Penal unit now, which is...different. I mean, I knew it happens at some point because it's kind of a bit part of the plot, though the idea of giving prisoners armed fighter jets feels weird despite the desperation the Osean forces are facing. Because normally you don't want your penal units having the ability to fly off in an ARMED FIGHTER JET! Those things are expensive...the jets, not the convicts.