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I'm almost at the end of the TW3 main campaign. I'm lev 34 with a full masterwork griffin set, though I'm 1 greater veles rune and a few greater yrden runes short of being fully maxed out. I like the look of the wolf set better, but the grifin set has awesome set bonuses for a yrden-centric build, such as the build I'm running. That does nothing for me now, but it will pay off in Blood & Wine.

I liked it. The main campaign was linear, side missions were random, but somehow it worked. The combat provided enough tactical depth, character and 'Mech builds were diverse, animations were skippable, GUI was easy-to-read. Also there are a rogue-like mode and PvP. I have not played them, so can't say anything else.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated Aldia, the Scholar of the First Sin on the first try, though I did return to the bonfire right after Nashandra to restock and change equipment. Now I'm going for the Darklurker and the Fume Knight, not sure about the other two DLC. It is a bit ironic that I use the same falchion I started with (it was the first thing I bought). The Chaos Blade would be ideal for a dex build, but it causes too much HP damage per hit and its moveset is somehow worse, than falchion's, as I can't strike repeatedly - there's a delay after 2 hits.

...wow. And here I thought those screaming goats in Wasteland 2 was an Easter Egg, like, some dude just screaming and not even pretending he's a goat. Anyway. Prebuffing. Am I so glad this ghastly thing ain't present in PoE series and I'm with Algroth re: Kingmaker. The game before I got informed that "Protection from poison" , a) has a really long duration, b) has a mass version, c) protects from a wide array of extremely annoying grievances (like attribute drain. F†ck drain!!!!!!!!! ) and after that was almost like two different games, and that's just one case. The good thing about those buffs is that they last longer and are measured in real time instead of something like turns or rounds or some other nonsense, the bad thing -- you still have to put them all on when you enter the location or thing a fight is about to happen, and its a chore. They might be less annoying in BG series, where you put on a few long lasting ones and then if situation demands cast those things that last rounds, but by ToB they also pretty much become a necessity. Anyway², playing BG series made me appreciate even more just how many grievances (prebuffing, slow movement, inventory limit, nonsensical alignments, F†CKING LEVEL DRAIN!!!!! ) PoE series got rid of. Really thankful here, me.

Well, it is called Path of the Damned. It was slightly too much for my personal enjoyment, but I see it as indication that it was finally tuned right - I would consider myself a Veteran player, and I found DLCs on Vet to be just right. As to HP bloats, I am afraid it comes with new per-encounter system: you want to make players in late game think about what they cast? Well, you have to send them against waves of enemies, or give enemies enough HP to let them burn through their spell casts. But then there is also Ancestor’s Memory/Salvation of Time to break it anyway.

This was the thread that finally helped me decide to put ol' Sonic on my ignore list. Thanks for the necro.

For me, stuff like prebuffing, required resting, and that using camping supplies... does it all add immensely to the gameplay? Hmm, not really. But I like that it adds a sort of link between the "here's the exploration part of the game" and "here's the combat side of the game". I like the feeling of overlap, the feeling of atrition for your party (however easy it may be to handle) and I like that it creates a... not a simulation type of gameplay, but *something* like that. I was never fond of prebuffing but... I like how it feels. I like the feeling of actually being able to prepare my party before I head into a dangerous area. Because it makes sense to be able to do that. It annoys me to no end that I can't cast certain spells outside of combat in Pillars. It *feels* so wrong. Balance be damned. In a game like Tyranny, and to a lesser extent Deadfire, the focus on per-encounter abilities and the fact that everything takes place inside the actual encounter makes the whole thing feel "gamey" to me. And yes, I'm very well aware that we are playing a game and blablabla but it doesn't do much for MAH IMMERSION. To me it completely reduces the feel of the game down to "exploration/combat/exploration/combat" with not much that "glues" them together. Especially with how you get everything back that very second you complete an encounter. For me it really takes away from the feeling of, yes, my character actually inhabits this world. And I have to say that, as far as I'm concerned, that's an overlooked aspect of a lot of games. I get that designing games with a per-encounter base is waaaaaaaay easier to balance of course. But I like my gameworlds to be a little wild and crazy, with the possibility of wrecking an encounter because I did good in terms of preserving my per-rest resources, or getting stomped because I headed into an encounter with a completely drained party. Probably better ways to handle it than prebuffing of course.

Hi You are going to put out a dlc, I assume. Can you add romances? Especially with Ellie for me. I want romantic relationships. Can you, Obsidian, directly answer this question, if romances will be available in the future? Cheers Roman

Not meaningless, as you won the battle and can move forward. I do get what you mean though. I just don't feel this is a design, which fits the strcture of the game. P:K has time passing buy, which means resting from skill drain isn't without consequence - which is potentially good, though I didn't venture deep into the game to know if it's done well. From what I have seen it was already a problem (played opening chapter only, till gaining your own land) as I would spend time traveling into the area only to discover that I didn't have required items or it was too high for my level: which meant reloading. So far I did find P:K tedious and not respectful to my time. I am glad to read that there was a spell to protect myself from draining. Sounds like very IE mechanic, in a bad way. It's a pain in the ass, until you cast this one particular spell, which makes it a none issue. That is not a good, interesting or indepth design to me. Fighting vampires in IE doesn't have depth or consequences. You just need one spell to make their ability not take an effect. Fighting mindcontrolling vampires in PoE2 on the other hand, did provide tactical challenge which can be counter in multiple different ways, and doesn't require foreknowledge. I love my roguelites and roguelikes (ADOM2 in production!), but I don't believe that IE structure supports that type of "consequence". Spend too many spells in a battle? Go to sleep without a consequence. Get your levels drained? Cast restoration. Don't have it memorized? Go to sleep and cast it. Can't memorize it? Use scroll. Don't have a scroll? Treck back to the temple and get healed. None of those are consequences to me - just annoyances, which either will make me waste gaming time, or reload. PoE to me cut the unnecessary fat, appropriate to the game's overall structure. Darkest Dungeon or XCOMs? Sure, characters getting handicapped or killed fits the game. PoEs? Not very much.

Giving Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey a try. Third-person survival type, but with the premise of being set 10,000,000 years ago in Africa (at least, that's where it starts), and you're slowly guiding the evolution of primates into humanity. Deveoping "skills" over generations that represent improved communication, motor functions, tool making, etc. The opening sequence includes a line about "we're not going to help you much", and by god that's right. The tutorial is very basic, and there's no real guidance on what you're doing. You have to learn as you go, figuring out what you actually need to do - just like a primate that has yet to evolve. One key thing is that so much of it runs by audio cues, when to click a button, when to release a button, it all comes down to hearing the right audio cue or everything goes **** up. Frustrating and engaging at the same time.

Yeah, we seem to come from different schools of RPG Enjoyment, don't we. For me, going back to the initial state after the fight is a huge pro. Veni, vidi, vici, ite domum, that's my motto. Lingering annoyances only mean I will have to make time for something I don't want to do in the middle of my game session and that means "There goes muh immersion". Clearing vampirey debuff (aka hauling your ass to a temple through locations and loading screens if you didn't fork over for scrolls and then forced rest because this one scroll is very tiring to cast? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ) is as scary as, say, the cat barfing on the bed while I play. Not anything serious, still I have to drop the game for a couple of minutes of something vaguely unpleasant. There's this other thing -- as most things in Baldur's Gate, vampires have something that trivializes them. Give the mace of disruption to Beefcake A, amulet of level drain immunity to Beefcake B, plug the corridor with them, summon a skellie or two between them and your ranged line if you want to be better safe than sorry, park a Sanctuaried cleric nearby to spook them if your rangeds shoot fast -- voila, you just defanged those suckers. Now those Deadire's toothy schmucks on the reef and in the cave, they don't have a "Lolcurbstomp or trip to a cleric" situation. They're nasty and wiped the floor with me more than once. So I was rather happy when I finally did them in and was psyched to push on, but had I trek all the way back to the boat, sail across half the world to cough up some hard earned cash to some priest -- that would absolutely have killed the momentum for me.

Actually it’s called Half-Life Alyx, a VR game https://mobile.twitter.com/valvesoftware/status/1196566870360387584

It's unacceptable. On a side note, aside from having to edit code with HxD to get the cut-scenes to render in 21:9 I'm pleasantly surprised with Far Cry 5, which I picked up during the recent sale (67% off). I have too many games to worry about Obsidian ever implementing 21:9 in Outer Worlds. What a damn shame though, it looks like a great game, but I'm not going to play it in it's current state and all attendant issues on my 3440x1440 AW3418DW. I have too extensive a back-log of games that DO work correctly or at least have issues that can be easily fixed (i.e. fixing the cut-scenes in Far Cry 5 by editing two lines of code with HxD, taking a whopping 3 minutes of my time) to bother with this. Obsidian is really behind the times here, this is the equivalent of releasing a stellar title in 4:3 back in 2004-2005 when the consoles moved to 16:9 (XBOX 360, Playstation 3) along with the PC's. 21:9 is 100% where it's at, anyone doing a monitor upgrade is going to want to opt for curved 21:9 over flat 16:9. That this title may never be fixed is a real shame. We have zero feedback from the devs, and this thread is the longest running here in their official form. No "we hear you and we're going to spend the requisite 20 minutes to fix the game". Nothing. I mean it's not even hard, it's relatively simple from their end, I'm not exaggerating, we are talking like maybe 20-30 minutes of programming time tops. That they can't even do that, honestly, **** Obsidian and **** this game.

Here, another of how the the US -- through its Western establishment media -- had been straight out LYING and making up FAKE NEWS. Remember all the news images and videos that you had seen about how Venezuelans did not have food, that they were starving and dying due to "socialism"? Blatant LIES and FAKE NEWS, created by the US and media, to prepare for an invasion for the "humanitarian" pretense. The lies were so different from the on-the-ground reality that you would be shocked, that you simply would not believe the brazen extent of the lies and fake news in the establishment media. Don't miss the grocery shopping in Venezuela at the end:

I disagree. The entire game was built around pre-buffing and made the act absolutely necessary for me. It made the difference between being assblasted by three alchemists spamming constant fireballs at you every turn and being essentially invulnerable to their one attack, or much the same for the Wisps in Candlemere or the giant slugs in the Swamp-Witch's Cottage and so on. Even on normal difficulty those slugs attack you for 6d6 acid damage with their regular attacks, when you're at best a lvl 5-7 party. It forces you to either be "lucky" (i.e. bash your head against a wall until you survive the encounter relatively unscathed), or cast a communal protection from acid spell prior to the fight to negate just about all of the damage. Similarly the fact that poisons, blindness, and so on become so inordinately punishing that your one feasible option becomes that of casting protections prior to any combat. In the IE games pre-buffing was a convenient work-around, in Kingmaker they thoroughly felt like a necessity.

Indeed. Spell Disruption doesn't work against beasts' abilities. Even if such an ability has the same name as the Wizard spell: it's just a hard copy of said spell. It gets added to the dragon's portfolio but doesn't get tagged as spell. Stuff like Frighten/Terrified as well as Last Word etc. however do work (if target's not immune in the first place I mean).

Mandalorian is one of those series where I manage to ignore its flaws, turn off my brain and enjoy the ride.

Funny, cause I don't recall wether it was sea or land. Gotta check it out. But mind this: I opened the book and there was the whole interface change that comes with it. The scripted interaction thingy with the narrator saying something like "she is not coming to talk, there is only silence". The last time we spoke I was kinda rude, and she was pissed. Could that be the case?

Racing wheels certainly aren't the standard for racing games, I sort of doubt VR will become standard. It's great for first person games, whether shooters, puzzles, or "point and click" adventure games. But It does not seem to be the future for may 3rd person action/adventure/over-shoulder games. I suppose laying on your back looking at a hires image while you casually play Civ7 or something might work out well too.

On my XBox 1 (Game Pass) I finished my final Companion quest last night. I went to save but it was grayed out. I assumed it was an area so I played and went back to my ship. I went to save and it was still gray. I decided to shut it down. I went to try it again, I load it up and when I get to the start screen I hit A and the screen freezes. Music plays but the game does not. I uninstalled it then reinstalled it and still have the same issue. Any suggestions? BTW fun game when I have time to play it.

I remember my disappointment, when the game did not allow me to kill the redhead guy with mustache after defeating the bald guy. But the saber he gave me, Iris, was quite nice. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I've reached the Dragon Shrine. It changed a lot in SotFS - the dragon knights are friendly. It makes the area somehow unique, as everywhere else, except Majula, everything tries to murder me. I finished Lucatiel's quest line and it was a good reminder about DSII main plot's driving force - to preserve one's identity, memories, self. Still, it's a really tragic story.

Aard is fun with the chilling effect. Finished Hearts of Stone, let Gaunter eat Olgierd's soul and told him to **** off with his offers. On to Blood and Wine which I enjoyed a lot more. Is nice not having it rain every damn moment of the game.

Would you compare it to how the screen looks when crouched in vegetation?

Igni is pretty efficient at barbecuing wolves. If you're on horseback, you can just ride past the wolves and ignore them. Even on foot you can run past them once you have halfway decent stamina. They'll stop chasing you eventually. Same goes for drowners. You don't have to kill every random monster, you'll lose your mind if you try to.

Also, a Spacer's Choice watchface for y'all: https://www.facer.io/watchface/kP9ouwlwl0

Well, considering Outer Worlds is Fallout in space, comparing the two isn't a silly things to do. OW is exactly a budget, less mechanicaly and content rich but more stable Fallout: New Vegas. [shrug]

I've heard nothing but good things about Disco Elysium and if it wins RPG I'll be OK with that. If anything other than that or Outer Worlds wins I'll... I dunno, quietly disagree I guess, they're just popularity contests.

This game is outstanding. The formula is simple: start with a story that could easily stand on its own - well-written, engaging, funny, sad, clever and clear - then put that story into a game that's better crafted than every other game of this type published for many years. Drive the narrative with the player's own decisions, and provide a full dose of story for every potentially bizarre choice the player might make. Include beautiful graphics and music, and polish the mechanics until they shine. Once all that's in place, spend what genius you have left on the details. Finally, be sure to coat the whole shebang with a thick layer of just plain showing off. I've just finished my first complete play through. It took about 40 hours, though it is likely to go faster for those with young reflexes, and take longer for players who explore more. There were several side quests I simply skipped because I wanted to see how the main story ended. I suspect that the length will vary greatly depending on the choices you make, and I intend to play again just to see the parts I most certainly missed completely. I admit that a couple of those 40 hours was spent pacing the room trying to reason out some very sticky choices, and never finding a real good justification for any of the possible decisions. Sometimes there just isn't a perfect outcome. Having said all that, the game is not flawless. On my old PC, I experienced one major crashing bug very near the end - requiring an awkward work-around to circumvent - and found that several other people had the same bug happen to them. However, given Obsidian's attention to detail and quality throughout the rest of the game, I would bet money that this will be patched very shortly. Another time, one of my companions fell through a platform. And, once, my companion failed to make the elevator in time. I also spotted two typos. So, not perfect, but a lot closer than any other game of this type Ive seen in the last several years. So, I recommend this game to anyone who likes their stories more complex, and their humor more subtle - though there were times I laughed out loud, and times I (mistakenly) thought the choices were clear. And I especially recommend this to those who, like me, appreciate art that clearly combines skill, dedication, and an obviously deep love for the work. Now, I need sleep. I've missed a few nights. Tomorrow, I'll start again. I just realized that I only picked two pockets! And there's certain business woman who is definitely getting shot MUCH earlier in the game this time!

Third Playthrough. I am on my third time now. Yesterday, I discovered two more areas that I completely missed the other two times. Also, I keep learning how to use the various systems better each time. This time, I'm playing with the initial points evenly distributed. This completely changes the way points get used as I level up since all the sub-skills in a category are the same. Its a bit harder in the beginning, since there aren't any real standout skills yet, but the evenness means the points are being used more efficiently. So the plan is that more stats end up further along after a while. That's the plan, anyway I really thought it might be boring, since I know so much of the story by now, but its a real challenge to get done the things I know must be done. This time, I don't have some of the speech checks or lock picking or hacking I relied on before and have to figure out other ways to cope. I have to say, this game was a very good investment. So far, this thoroughly engaging entertainment is costing me about fifty cents per hour.

It's great. I thought some of the play mechanics were a little outdated, like the camouflage areas, which just seemed off to me. I'd rather it be something you could do all the time, but it would drain your energy. I didn't buy into the Board storyline. Sophia didn't work as a character for me. Just too one dimensional. I LOVED the chairman though. Especially the scene where he was doing the camera takes. Would have liked it better if you only saw Sophia on the vid screen and never in person. They should have hired an actor from Odeon to play the Adjutant to keep the masses in line!

New drinking game.... every time a talking head says "quid pro quo" take a shot

I've enjoyed all the Half-Life games. I'll have to look into this.

Well, to generate uproar about some product, there must be a demand for said product, and from what I've noticed, the current demand for Stadia is as big as demand for cold beer in Mekka during Hadjdj

Yep, I’m encountering the same issue. Waited on this patch but this quest keeps getting botched for me.

Today I went to GoG and finally got around to buying FO:NV, Grim Dawn/expansions (supposedly saves port over), War for the Overlord Ultimate and anything else I could find that I potentially might care about (not a lot of them), that I originally bought on Steam. Busy downloading it all. I want to get back to where I only have a few games that need Steam, at any one time, and a tiny game list (will request many never-will-play games to be removed from Steam Library). Easy to do when you hardly buy new games anymore. But there are always those several favorites. If only FFXV and Borderlands series would come to GoG, I could get rid of Steam altogether. Yeah, not gonna happen in my lifetime.

That's the problem. Parvati is on your ship, you can talk to her, but when you try to start the quest while talking to her, it instantly fails, and the quest is marked as botched in your log. Then, when you check the log to see why it was botched, it says because Parvati was killed. It's a bug in the game because something in the back end is identifying her as dead, though she's quite literally standing right in front of you. The speculation was that this patch would stop the system from identifying her as dead, but it has not. My guess is that we'd need to start a new game, and replay the dozen or so hours up to that point, to not have the system identify her as killed. I can confirm that my saved game, right before I talked to Parvati, still resulted in the quest botching as soon as I tried to start it. So the patch did not fix the issue for me either.

the game is not short those saying the game is short are purposefully skipping game content even if one skips content for rping purposes the game is not short on multiple playthroughs of the first area alone my shortest run has been 8hours and that was with dialogue skipping, no looting of unlocked/common containers or enemies i didnt kill and playing with purpose as it was a replay

Hi all, Been busy putting together some maps over the past few days - thought they might come in handy for some people! It's still very much WIP, so there's plenty left to find. And right now only Emerald Vale + Monarch are available (others should be ready soon) Emerald Vale Monarch If anyone finds anything not marked feel free to let me know and I'll go hunting for it! Enjoy Cheers, Tspoon

SAM and Max, freelance mech, priest.

Some songs I've heard over the last couple weeks: W O L F C L U B are consistently pretty amazing. Edit: Typo, because it wouldn't be a post of mine if I didn't make exactly one mistake.

The Low Crusade autofails on accepting it. Playing on Xbox One if it helps.

There is a huge issue in the BOLT with his name quest where if you access the terminal beforehand in the ARMs building then you can't access the files later on basically bugging the quest and now it has ruined days of progress for me leaving me to either ruin this entire play through of mine or start a new game again and go through all this stuff just to get around 1 bug