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2019 My list of games finished this year. Only one is from 2019 though (technically ) And currently playing Pillars of Eternity, but I do not think, that I will be able to finish it before New Year Eve, so this might be complete list. 11 games – 8 GoG games, 1 PS3 game and 2 PS4 games 1 - January 3, 23:30 – My first game finished in 2019 became Xenonauts from GOG, after long break I've taken, when I've moved to my new place, two years ago. The game is excellent tribute to original Xcom games, and I've enjoyed it, despite some of the missions with Reapers were frustrating, because even if I ended my turn with lot of TUs saved for "overwatch" shots, most of my agents in most cases started to shoot at them, after they killed someone already. And that was actually the main reason, why I took such a long break from the game 2 - March 8, 23:30 – I have finished my first blind playthrough of Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition on PS4. I have been waiting for this game more than 5 years to be released in the West, on one of my platforms, after I've found out that Tales of series exist, and is awesome. The long wait was really worth it. It will definitely not be my favourite Tales of game, like for many other people, because I am bad at combat in this game but I've enjoyed the story and the characters, so I hope Namco Bandai will bring more of the Japan only Tales of games to the West. 3 - April 16, 20:00 – I have just finished Earthlock. A Norwegian made jRPG. The game is nice in the combat area, but the writing is not the best point of the game. Still, not bad, and I have enjoyed the game more than enough to recommend it further. I was also able to get 100% of achievements on GOG Galaxy, and it took me 40 hours in total. 4 - May 22, 22:45 – After many, many years, I have finally finished Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator from GOG. I played it for the first time around year 2000, but I've never finished it. The story is pretty solid, with the exception of the ending, but in the last 20 hours of the game, the combat gets very tedious, and there is to much of it. It kind of spoiled my enjoyment of the game as a whole, and then the ending nailed it down little bit further 5 - June 20, 14:15 – Having it pretty long time on my backlog, I've finished Hyperdimension Neptunia VII on PS4 today. My first playthrough ended with the most common Ascension Ending. The game is IMO much better than all previous installments. Cut-scenes are shorter, gameplay is more refined, sending out scouts is more user friendly. Can't wait for the release of Super Neptunia RPG in few days. 6 - August 8, 22:00 – I have finished my second playthrough of Tales of Symponia on PS3. I had not enough Grade to get bonus XP nor to transfer my earned Gald for New Game+, so I had to play it the classic way. With little bit of grinding for equipment and consumables for boss fights . I was able to finish every single sidequest and minigame, with the exception of Zelos' Gigolo title (because I've picked Kratos at the end of the game), which was a mistake during my planning phase for this playthrough. I've tried to achieve as much Titles as possible, with Kratos getting all of them, so the Platinum Trophy road is now at 54%. Game is still solid gold, with very good storyline, but it has not as enjoyable combat for me as other Tales of... titles I've played. 7 - September 24, 0:00 – After 3 years long break, I have finaly finished my Grand Campaign of Crusader Kings Complete from GOG. In 2015, I have started as one of the smallest counties in Kingdom of Hungary, as a Count of Gemer. Due to carefull planning of marriages, I have became 31 years later the new Duke of Nyitra, and 6 more years later in 1105, the almighty King of Hungary. After that, I have slowly expanded my realm to the east and south, with occasional special marriages, to get the possibility for my children to inherit other Counties and Dukedoms. 347 years later, after I've defeated Golden Horde, Bulgars and other heathens, and had few struggles with infidels of Byzantium, I had became King of another 7 countries. I've became King of Hungary, Bohemia, Khazaria, Burgundy, Croatia, Georgia, Sicily and Rus and was once crowned as Holy Roman Emperor. My kingdom had 102 direct vassals and 197 counts, dukes, bishops, and archbishops under my command. Some of them rebelious some of them loyal, but the Kingdom overcame few of their revolts and had a potential to grow more but the end of the game in 1452 came faster than I thought 8 - November 4, 0:00 – I have purchased STASIS: Deluxe Edition in this years Halloween sale on GOG, and I have to say, this was one of the best gaming deals this year. The atmosphere was really tense during the whole 10 hours of gameplay and the ending was unexpected. Some item puzzles were harder to crack, but 90% of the time, they were intuitive to solve. I have enjoyed the game so much, that I have purchased the deluxe content for the developers second game in the same universe called Cayne. This one, will be my next game to play for sure. 9 - November 9, 21:45 – Another game from Stasis universe finished today: CAYNE: Deluxe Edition. It was as good as previous, although much shorter. The puzzles were less complicated, although few of them gave me headaches, while trying to solve them . The ending was this time much more predictable, but it did not spoiled my enjoyment of the game. 10 - November 17, 16:00 – I have finished story of Reynard de la Foret in Celestian Tales: Old North as my first playthrough of this game. It's short but enjoyable game in a style of JRPG, which has some interesting plot twists for player to experience. The most surprising thing for me was, that it is one of very few games, where you do not play the hero, which has to save the world, but you play a squire, who with other pupils, helps the big generals with small tasks in the background of the comming war against a threat from The North. 11 - November 20, 16:45 – Just few days later, I have finished the Celestian Tales: Old North – Howl of the Ravager, DLC prequel to the original game. The gameplay is the same, but you play as one of the young lords of Old North, introduced in the base game. It's little bit shorter than the base game, but last two areas were for me tedious, which little bit worsened my impressions.

^Today I've been thinking something similar about Star Wars and the Disney era. The concussion I have helps too. I think that Best of the Worst has surpassed MST3K as my all-time favorite make fun of bad movies show. Thanks to whoever posted that first clip here! I also think that Mac has become one of my favorite guests.

is horrible to admit, but am ever grateful the uk is even more fubar than the US, 'cause is surreal how corporal bone spurs could make misogynist comments with impunity and nevertheless be the chosen one o' those die-hard christian and military honk conservatives who voted for him and continue to defend him. heck, Gromnir is, in spite o' crude nature o' the binary choice, a conservative even if am current not registered republican and we would prefer to gargle with soiled cat litter than vote for trump. root problem in US and uk is the same: education fail. thanks to internet and proliferation o' cable news sources, the alternative facts and conspiracy theory nonsense is being peddled as truth and too few know how to discern genuine fact from fiction. rare teach meaningful critical thinking in schools. in 2019, gaslighting and whataboutism is not just reddit fodder but is mainstream. too many search for "news" which makes 'em feel good and righteous rather than looking for hard truths. example: lack o' manufacturing jobs ain't bout a predictable and necessary shift to a service-based economy coupled with increasing automation 'cause real villains is immigrants. if you is a person in danger o' losing a manufacturing job, you want there to be clear villains and simple-to-understand solutions like a wall. *groan* lack o' genuine education, coupled with a proliferation o' disinformation options makes democratic populations particular vulnerable to the snake oil salesman and carnival barkers who appear to be the current facemen o' politics. education is the solution, which is why folks like trump tend to poll poor with better educated. 'course trump then makes betsy devos secretary of education, so... HA! Good Fun!

Took the time to change the boost pressure on my car now that I've got the engine newly serviced, changed all the radial seals and gaskets, new belts and so on. I've gone from about 130hp to 190hp at the cost of 50$ and dirty hands. Original boost is 0.3 bar, and volvo's turbo+ package that is rated for 190hp has the boost at 0.7, I set my own to 0.8bar, and it feels great! It's a bit late, but, I raise my glass to you and your familys health and fortune Apologies for the glare and such, without the flash the whole screen was a blurry mess

DMC5 (PC) - didn't finish (but it was pretty and sorta combat fun, I could understand why many may have liked it a lot) Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS)- didn't finish but it's fun and an improvement on the 1st game. Borderlands 3 (PS) - finished. It's ok, not as replayable as the first two(at least in its pre-game of the year/no dlc's yet, state). I think everything else wasn't technically 2019 or more casual short indie PC and mobile games. Note: not finishing a game, for me these days, isn't always a reflection on game quality but more a reflection on my increasingly shortened game sessions and lack of patience/committed motivation.

There is very little about the modern Republican party that is politically "conservative" outside of clinging to conservative social mores. There is actually nothing wrong with holding on to social values based on faith and religion. It is perfectly OK to think abortion and gay marriage and (insert thing here) is wrong. It's not OK, however, when you try to impose your ethics on someone else. Don't like gay marriage? Fine. Don't marry a gay person. Don't go to the wedding, don't send them a gift. But you don't get to tell someone else they can't because you don't like it. Same thing with abortion. I think it is barbaric myself and would never participate in one. I would discourage anyone who asked me from doing it. But I don't get to tell them they can't. My ethics are mine alone and govern only my actions. The Democrats and progressives are every bit as bad. They don't like firearms therefore you can't have them. They are offended by (insert thing here) therefore you can't say it, read it, watch it, do it, etc. Every evil act in the history of mankind begins when one group of people think they get to tell another group of people how they should be living. It's our inability to just leave each other alone, to live and let live, that causes all of the wars we fight.

I haven't played many 2019 games yet and I haven't yet finished any so... yeah The Outer Worlds - Still at the beginning of the second planet. Not a bad game but just not my jam and maybe I'll come back to it some day. 7/10 MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries - Dropped this until mods and patches come out that may fix some/most of my concerns. 6/10 Age of Wonders: Planetfall - I enjoyed the first map I played but campaigns where you bounce between the factions are a big NO in my book. Potential is there but I will probably never touch again which is kinda sad. 5/10 Games that I've played for the first time in 2019 Battle Brothers - This is the only new game that I've played this year that I've had no trouble getting into. Like Hurl, the graphics were the biggest barrier to entry for me as I found them off-putting at first but once I got past that it was easily my favorite new game I played this year. 9/10 Atom RPG - I didn't care for the camera and my game stalled out right after leaving the first area. I keep meaning to go back to it and then I forget it exists. 5/10 I may have missed one or two others and I also bought several others that I still haven't gotten around to yet

More Pillars goodness last few days I was able to clear two levels of Endless Paths some wilderness areas between Caed Nua and Defiance Bay, and built first few upgrades in my new stronghold I have arrived at Raedric’s Hold and cleared the “roofs” of “badguys” I quit just after I found some priest robes, because it was to late in the evening also three more parts of my Let’s Play uploaded into my Youtube channel, and a very big thank to Katphood for becoming my first ever subscriber Link to playlist in my signature

100% agree. is worth noting how stoopid may not be fixable, but is not an individual's fault if they lack capacity. uneducated is a choice. sure, self-education is not easy even if there is many opportunities to self-educate. am having sympathy for those who is uneducated and earnest trying, but those who simple turn on tv or surf internet to find stuff which validates their current held opinions or just looking to be entertained... am recognizing how hard it is to self-educate, particular as a working adult. nevertheless, fall for obvious gaslighting and whataboutism is ultimately a choice. HA! Good Fun!

That sort of mindset is so outdated now. This is a globalized world, 'nations' shouldn't even be a concept anymore. At my work there is mainly Polish, they make an effort to travel here and work hard to make money. A lot of the English just can not be bothered, expect everything to be given to me. Nothing in life is free.

I was wondering where RT was, i actually like the Keiser Report.

"Started Syberia 3. Boy this is rough. Subtitles mismatch, audio cut outs and some odd voice acting (this is supposedly in some ersatz Russia I think, yet everyone speaks with dead American accents) alongside the tedious UI are not making this all that fun. Also forget a lot of the previous games. " The game kinda shares the same fate as Broken Sword 3 & 4. At least it was better than Dreamfail Chapters.

I don't know if that's true, but holy moly, could you imagine this blowing up in their faces like that!

I'm seeing a few people point out a constitutional element that says if a President is impeached by Congress, but not convicted by the Senate, his first term is nullified, and thus he's eligible to run for office for a third term? So, is that actually a thing or just one of those internet fake facts?

Watched Rise of Skywalker. The triology will go down as pretty forgetteable for me, with the strongest scenes all revolving around Kylo and Rey's relationship.

Russia is (supposedly) planning a moon base run by robots to track near earth objects: https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-build-moon-base-run-21118242 Sounds like a wonderful and wonderfully expensive idea. I remember the Russian robot cop from a few years ago. I wonder if a few years in space this: Becomes this:

I started Disco Elysium. Looks quite good. One funny thing: at the crime scene, very early on in the game, there are these two troublemaker kids. One of them peppers her speech with words from a language that not a lot of people in this world speak and that is meant to be clearly alien (not as in extraterrestrial) in the game. I happen to speak that language rather well, so I'm one of the very few for whom that "exotic" bit isn't exotic -- I just happen to note that the pronunciation is off.

USDA tariff tracker removes Wakanda, fictional home of Black Panther, as free trade partner HA! Good Fun!

I was just hoping for the ending battle to basically be Gohan vs Cell, where Rey needs everyone's power to amp up her Light-side force lightning to win the beam lock.

perspective those few democrats who claimed they could not vote for impeachment 'cause while they thought the President had done wrong, they were not necessarily in favor o' removing him from office, shoulda' listened to the aforementioned. within first couple minutes o' her famous impeachment speech, ms. Jordan points out the misreading o' the Constitution by those conflating impeachment with removal. as to not sending articles to Congress, we mentioned such a few days ago in this thread and other Constitutional scholars has been advocating such for awhile. may be political reasons for not doing such, but from our admitted naive pov, it appears to be the best option. President has been impeached, which is historical. to let senate acquit the President with a sham trial would not be justice and would necessarily fail to absolve trump o' responsibility for those infractions o' which he is accused. wait. wait for Court to resolve legal questions, which isn't real questions in our mind-- is well established the House has near complete authority and freedom to call witnesses, request documents and decided rules for impeachment. wait for Court to catch up and then force trump to acquiesce to House demands or flaunt the authority o' two coequal branches o' government. at such a point, particular with what is perceived to be a conservative Court with multiple trump appointees, notion the President is acting in a manner other than repugnant to the Constitution would be historical untenable and am suspecting more than a few moderate republicans would balk at justifiable being labeled enablers o' tyranny. impeachment is history. is done. now comes the hard part. am hopeful the House is prudent. wait is right choice... at least such is the opinion o' some rando retired guy posting on a game message board. HA! Good Fun!

Hello! Thanks for your very kind words. We're looking into it now, stay tuned!

Oh and by the way @ComradeMaster a pretty good bit of everything I write is tongue in cheek.

I'm not sure what your problems are here, guys. I just realized how wrong I was. Rian Johnson is a cinematic genius. The point of The Last Jedi was, quite frankly, exactly what Kylo Ren said to Rey: The Empire, your parents, the Resistance, the Sith, the Jedi - let the past die. Kill it, if you have to. That's the only way to become what you are meant to be. It's just that I thought for a while Kylo was talking to Rey, but no. Rey wasn't even an author insert like Mary Sues usually are. No, Rey was there for us as audience. Since TLJ killed the past for me - i.e. freed me of any attatchments I had to Star Wars as an entertainment intellectual property, I could just thoroughly enjoy Rise of Skywalker and bask in its utter and complete brilliance, except for a bit at the very end where which I thought didn't work as well as everything else. This was quite frankly truly impressive and it wouldn't have been possible without The Last Jedi. It's not easy, but I'm not afraid to admit that I was wrong. That was money well spent. Oh, and yeah. I'm only somewhat facetious here. The disconnect TLJ caused truly made me appreciate this one in the same way I enjoyed watching 6 Underground. It's so bad it's good. Especially the end where, quite frankly, nothing makes sense. Nothing about the entire ending makes any sense. It's glorious.

Yeah, the campaign is bad. This is the first AoW game where I ignored the campaign and spend more time playing skirmish maps. Those can be far more interesting.

You can riposte-to-death pretty much everything (played on KB&M), and, as parry interrupts any action, the PC is almost invincible (does not work AoE attacks and magic missiles). Also firearms are OP, if you don't mind skipping combat (I tested heavy weapons vs one-handed blades vs firearms, the latter shorten combat encounters to seconds). Companions' AI leaves a lot to be desired, but they survive longer, if well-equipped.

Makes a bit of sense. OW reminded me a lot of early Bioware titles (more so, then Obsidian’s previous games). Not Mass Effect, as by that point presentation and RPG elements where greatly reduced in favour of presentation, which OW doesn’t have, but some similarities are there. the question is, whenever a sequel with bigger budget means deeper game, or shinier presentation.

This was unexpected.... https://www.gog.com/news/revisit_rainy_los_angeles_with_the_return_of_the_classic_blade_runner

Hmm, let's see: Resident Evil 2 Remake - Mr X is a bit easy to game with how safe zones messed with his AI, without safe zones he would've been immensely frustrating I think, so he could've been implemented better. The police HQ is the highlight of the game and most of the areas afterwards are "just" good instead of great. These are my biggest complaints, otherwise Capcom did a great job and I'm leaning towards calling this one my personal GOTY. Also RE 3 hype and everything. Devil May Cry V - Switching between characters almost every mission and the simple one button change in the aerial combo throws off my muscle memory completely and I haven't finished it yet, but it was great fun as far as I got. Capcom's been real good this year, I hope they keep it up. Plague Tale: Innocence - It's pretty, it has varied gameplay (at least to my tastes), a mostly good story. Hugo's mental age jumping up and down like a rubber ball is a weak point but it didn't ruin the game, graphics are surprisingly pretty and it's a very atmospheric game. Good job Asobo. Guild Wars 2 - Been playing on and off since beta and while the content is arguable (and argued), it"s still fun to play when the game lets you, while the story is pretty consistently good, though like every open world game it suffers from a disjointed mood between story beats. Dying Light - Base game: amazing. I've had a lot of fun playing it, the story was unoriginal but well told. Then the DLC introduced a fun car you can ride in and a Mass Effect-grade dumpster fire ending that makes me somewhat fearful they'll pull the same crap in the sequel. Remnant: From the Ashes - Decent Dark Souls clone, fun to play but it's shorter than DS and feels emptier too. Warframe - First you enjoy the gameplay, then the grindplay kills any urge to touch it. Halo: Reach remaster - Decent game, but based on this installment I don't know how Halo ever got as popular as it is. Trying to work up the mood to play Life is Strange 2 but I just don't feel like it and the overt politicking/tribalism I've heard of/seen is cringeworthy. Witcher 1-3 - First one holds up surprisingly well despite it's age, second was pretty good too, if a bit too challenging at a few points *cough* Act 1 boss *cough*. I've put the third game on hold, I can see why this one is declared game of the decade by others but for me the open world is holding it back with either filler quests (treasure hunts), formulaic monster hunts and dull combat thanks to everything being below my level and still dying in 3 hits even when they're not. On a brighter note it's refreshing that CDPR actually, visibly had an overarching plot in mind for the three games and they mesh together in this sense really well, unlike other games and series that announce themselves as trilogies or several season long with no idea where they want to take the story. Usually I believe genres aren't better or worse when compared to one another but open world just feels like a design frame that does more harm than good. I already avoid everything roguelike because interesting concepts and fun execution don't mean jack when I can't finish or play the game thanks to difficulty spikes and randomized success. Same with open world, the disjointed narrative, boring gameplay loops and general timewasting just kill it for me.

ALso, if you flank your enemy will suffer from -10 deflection which also helps a lot with crits (and with Sneak Attack).

This idea is completely preposterous. What single person in their right mind would ever think Domino's pizza is the best, let alone a group of people all agreeing on it?

trying bit of CS:GO but my boomer reactions are way off against those russians

On lower levels accuracy can be your biggest problem. Inspiring Radiance talent will allow your priest buff acc in every fight. Blessing spells and later Devotion of the Faithful will stack with Inspiring Radiance. You also gain +3 acc per level and additional +1 acc per level while using abilities or spells. Rogue has many active abilities working as full attack, so most of the time dual wielding is the best option unless you know how to reduce recovery to 0 or you prefer to use basic attacks with some passive bonuses.

The only 2019 release I played was: Death Stranding It was ok. I liked the setting but the story wasn't anything groundbreaking, as a matter of fact, it was all over the place. It really showed that these guys had a limited time and budget. I enjoyed the gameplay, save for the parts were I had to deal with the tacked on 'combat'. I enjoyed traversing the world though. Oddly enough, the part that enjoyed the most was, well...delivering packages. Big surprise! As for non-2019 releases: SOMA My personal GOTY 2019. The thing is, I went in blind. If you haven't played SOMA yet, don't bother reading the description. This is what I call a good story. This is a fine example of how you can make the gamer relate to characters. I also liked the puzzles. My only gripes with the game? a.it had bugs, I had to reload a few times...on the PS4 b. the stealth was obviously annoying at times but with the new update, you can 'turn it off'. Batman: The Telltale Series Well I'll be damned, I liked this! You want a gritty Batman game/movie? You got it. This is as gritty as it gets and I liked it. If you have any appreciation for Batman, give this a try. A very mature story that keeps you interested all the way to the end. What Remains of Edith Finch A very short experience, but one that I won't forget anytime soon. It's all about the things that you don't expect to happen...this game scared me. Not by jump-scares mind you, but by making me realize what is all possible in this scary world we live in. Resident Evil 0 I finally got around to finishing this. Sure, the item management WILL eventually get on your nerves, but that grim and foreboding feeling you get by exploring the mansion was something that kept me interested in the game. I guess it is also worth mentioning that I played the game on the easy difficulty setting. Didn't feel like getting stuck halfway through because the game can be pretty hard at times. Quantum Break Not bad...not bad at all. Certainly more enjoyable compared to Alan Wake. I liked the combat and gunplay and story certainly had it's moments. I will give it another go at some point and see how it plays out with different choices. Yup, that's about it.

Won't post screenshots, as I've uninstalled most games. I'll put the focus on 2019 release games since I've actually played some, with a couple of honourable mentions for other games played in 2019. Metro Exodus I've been pretty negative about it elsewhere so I'll focus a bit more on the positives here. It's certainly pretty but was almost completely smooth, nearly bug free, the gunplay is good too and well written enough that I can actually identify pretty much the entire crew. The stealth gameplay is worse than Thief certainly, but equally certainly not actively bad as it too often is in other games and works pretty logically. While I prefer a 'proper' open world system like Stalker(s) and their open world sections are a bit too small for my tastes they've done a good job with the environment. They are Billions I bought this mostly because I liked Lords of Xulima and it was the same devs, but it's a pretty good game on its own merits. It's a very typical 'survival' builder though, you're likely to lose the first playthrough of any level since you don't know what is coming or where the resources are or just where best or how much defence to invest in but will usually fly through a second with lessons learned. Dawn of Man A good time killer builder game probably best compared to Banished, and prehistoric man is an interesting and little covered time period. It's pretty well balanced and still being actively added to, if there's one major criticism it's that- much like I found with Banished- you tend to end up playing every game the same way which reduces replayability. The Outer Worlds Yeah, it's good, though not the 2nd coming. Think I described it as being a sort of archetypal 8/10 game and I'd stick with that. Doesn't really do anything superbly but at the same time doesn't do anything badly either. I had horrendous level loading crashes but it was still an easy game to finish. And Honourable mentions for non 2019 games played this year Prey (2017) A worthy successor to System Shock (2) and while I thought it dropped the ball a bit in the latter third of the game- ultimately too much backtracking and too little enemy variation- it would come very close to being a top 10 game of all time for me despite that. Frostpunk A builder that oozes atmosphere, interesting setting and is well designed and balanced. Rather like This War of Mine it has some... false/ gamey feeling moral choices and some well thought out ones. And rather like They are Billions you will stuff up the first playthrough of a scenario most of the time and it's a lot easier once you know what is coming; but as a 'flaw' that's hardly limited to those two games. Egypt: Old Kingdom Bit of an odd one for me but I really enjoyed this and found it almost infinitely replayable. Certainly not a typical strategy builder like Pharaoh or Children of the Nile and it feels rather like a directish adaptation of a board game or a FB/ Flash game but I love ancient Egypt and the simplistic feeling gameplay gave surprising depth. Probably a bit too deterministic for my liking overall (ie doesn't matter how well you're running your empire, it will fall apart when scripted to) but that's just the game's style. I also enjoyed the previous game in the series. Atom RPG Very much a direct Fallout spiritual successor, considerably more so than TOW. Not as memorable or gripping as Fallout and has some of its flaws too (hello clunky pop culture references) but it's clearly a labour of love. Assassins Creed Odyssey which I'm not 100% sure I played this year rather than last, but I'm adding it because I loved the atmosphere and I really do have to go back and finish it if only because I suspect I'll be sticking a knife through Cleon sometime. I also never thought I'd see a AAA game where history is (more or less) respected and I'd fully believe the writers had actually read Thucydides rather than just trawled wikipedia. Surviving Mars Last but not least, another flawed but enjoyable strategy builder. I could write an awful lot about this game's flaws but I did enjoy playing it a lot so won't except for the main one- lack of challenge and content in the later game. It must have been awfully, er, barren content wise without before terraforming was added since most of that takes place in the later parts. I'd also have to note that it's likely my most played game by time is actually Stardew Valley, probably for the 2nd year in a row.

The games I've completed and liked in 2019. GreedFall. It was a quite good action-RPG. The story, combat, controls and the absence of DLC made it one of the best games of this year for me. Omensight. An action-adventure, where you repeat one day and save/kill/use four characters in order to discover the truth and prevent the apocalypse. Lucah: Born of a Dream. A Souls-like hack&slash. I did not quite get the plot, but the combat was engaging and the controls comfortable. BattleTech. A turn-based tactics with RPG elements. The Surge. A Souls-like. Death's Gambit. A Metroidvania with RPG elements. Yuppie Psycho. A horror-adventure. The Talos Principle. A puzzle game. Dark Souls: Remastered. It improved the controls, thus it is ultimately better, than PtD. Devil May Cry V. It was exactly the sequel I wanted. Now with better mouse support.

2019 in review, nice! I felt like I spent a lot of the year discovering games from previous years and falling in love with them. I am too lazy to give the screenshot tour like Melkathi, but here is a bit of my favorite time sinks from the year: Stellaris: I had this in my library for ages and never got into it, but after binge watching a few seasons of The Expanse, I needed a game to fill the void of space. I sunk 49 hours into it, and I loved that I could play it at home and on breaks at work with cloud saves making it easy to jump computers. Still, my game kind of just petered out eventually. I mean, I had an inside track on conquering the universe, but it was going to be a lot of work. Time well spent though. Elex: Pretty solid RPG with a good open-world to explore. The setting was unique and engaging. Took awhile to get into the gameplay, and it is a bit rough around the edges, but I look forward to future games from them. The Witcher 2: I'm not sure why it took me so long to get into this, but I finally got past the awkward love scenes and embraced the gravelly voiced protagonist. I ended up with a solid 30 hour play-through. Maybe next year I will commit to the 3rd game. I own it, but I am afraid of commitment, just like Geralt. Vigilantes: This was actually a solid little Jagged Alliance style game with a story taken from Punisher. I ended up with a dozen hours. It really is a lot like the original Jagged Alliance, and it was fun. Star Control Origins: Silly and fun, just like the original. Avernum: I had this game in my library for over a decade, and then suddenly I got hooked on it while road tripping with my little laptop. I ended up with 70 hours or so in it. It was a solid RPG once I got over the lack of graphics. Conan Exiles: Ok, this was the big one of the year. This is simply the best game I think I've played since I was hooked on Neverwinter Night. First off, they nailed the setting that Robert E. Howard created nearly 80 years ago. It is dripping with atmosphere straight from his stories and captures the best parts of the movies. Throw an amazing survival and crafting game on top of that, and you get a game I can't resist. Funcom has also consistently rolled out new content and there is an amazing amount of mod support. It's fantastic. The Outer Worlds: I was spoiled this year by these world building devs. The Outer Worlds is easily the best story I played through. Great RPG and I can't wait for more in the universe. Battle Brothers: I don't know how I missed this gem. I was looking for a mercenary game like JA2, and I found it in a medieval setting. The strange graphic style put me off originally, but that was dumb, because it turned out to be excellent. I sunk a ton of hours into this game recently.

@thelee: thanks for the heads-up on the lantern and its wound-on-kill mechanic. That it doesn't need melee weapons is good. Does it only work with weapons though or will it also work with any type of killing blow (like Blessed Harvest etc.)? But still I wonder: why did Obsidian restrict the subclass mechanic to melee only? It's already bad (+1 Wound const is a harsh penalty, especially for cheap abilities like Efficient Anguish etc. - which more than balances out the +3 Wound on kill). Resonant Touch, Rooting Pain, Long Pain, Inner Death (not a weapon attack) - maybe even the AoE of Torment's Reach - won't trigger it. This is a bad decision. Edit: just checked: Inner Death does trigger the wound refill. It is considered a melee attack but not a melee weapon attack. The restirction seems to be that it has to be a melee attack but not necessarily a melee weapon attack. Also the lantern works with every kill (no matter what caused it). So it works fairly well with spells like Blessed Harvest and Pillars of Holy Fire etc. because you can get back Mortification and Wounds (+1/+1) that way. The two +2 PL bonuses are also nice obviously. Edit2: just dabbled around with Xoti as SC Monk and Contemplative a bit. Grave Calling's Chilling Grave (Chillfog) will trigger the wound gain. So if you kill enemies with a Chillfog you will get +3 Wounds from subclass and +1 from Lantern. Since the Chillfog profits from all weapon dmg bonuses (and Monk's lashes) it's a very strong combo. You only need vessels... Morning Star is still my preferred method even if I lose the Lantern. Also because it's very easy to trigger Swift Flurry/Heartbeat Drumming once you use Enervating Blows + Stunning Surge + Body Blows and then do Efficient Anguish. You'll lose the lantern refill but do a lot more killshots because of chained additional attacks. Have tried Sun&Moon but it's not as good in my opinion. One thing though: Blessed Harvest seems to be broken somehow. My tooltip says I can do 160 dmg with it (base + PL + MIG). But when I crit with it (easy since the fortitude is so low) I get very low numbers like 45 or 70 slash damage (no PEN issue). Also the combat log gives me no dmg calculation, the window is empty...?

I actually have a particular build with Xoti that optimised her subclasses' traits to the fullest, and has worked pretty well for me all things considering. Never really got around to writing it out, but since I recently picked this game back up to complete the DLCs I haven't gotten around to previously... give me a week or so, and I'll have a build thread up.

Rebalance. More challenging game modes. De-Couple Supernova features from its difficutly if we want survival elements in lower difficulties.

Meh, RPG is only as good as it's city. Hubs are great.

Eastern Europe + Russia + Central Asia (so basically the extended former Soviet Union) is NOT a very limited market. I lived there for several years (as an expat). If I'm doing a rough estimation on the number of East Europeans+Central Asians who speak Russian at least as a second language I'll land at ~250 million. And they are nearly all emerging markets. Don't know how many of them could be considered potential customers but it's def. not a very limited market. Especially if you don't expect to sell millions of copies worldwide in the first place (like an AAA title would do). And it's not that you will only sell your product there. It's a bonus on top of your potential English speaking customers (in case of Owlcat games). One example: if you want to sell an English-only game in Uzbekistan you will have a hard time. If it's Russian your odds are way better. I'd also argue that a Russian developer is more likely to meet certain preferences of East European and Russian gamers. @thelee: And yes. American products sell especially well in America. It's not that obvious because the American market is enormous. Also American games, music an movies sell exceptionally well in Western Europe because of historical reasons. Rel. few Germans actually listen to German music compared to American music for example. I think with Russian developers and gamers there's also a portion of "pride" involved. I believe a lot of Russian gamers would buy a (solid) game simply because it was made in Russia (no judgement). Just think about it: if you are aiming at 500K copies worldwide and can add like 50 million more potential customers without the need for a costly localisation - isn't that an advantage? So all in all I still think the point is interesting and makes sense. Is it actually the case? I have no idea. But I wouldn't dismiss it.

Pellegrino? The Paladin from the order of the Sparkling Waters? With the special ability "Faith and Carbonisation"?

I warmed up to every companion aside from Maia. Takehu was the last one, but it took a playthrough with a character who sympathised with Huana and their tradition. The arc Takehu got was actually really compelling.

Hi, there! I've made a mod that overwrites audio files. Alas, the override/ folder cannot be used for this and the original files themselves have to be overwritten. The files you're looking for will be in PillarsOfEternityII_Data\StreamingAssets\Audio\Windows\Voices\English(US) Here's how I modified the files: Step 0) Back up the files Step 1) Download Divinity Sound Converter Step 2) Place the .wem files in the converter's root folder, run the divinity_converter.exe. The .ogg's files will end up in NUMBERED or NON-NUMBERED Step 3) Modify the files as you see fit, using Audacity or something. Step 4) Download Audiokinetic Wwise Step 5) Create a new project in Wwise Step 6) In "Project Explorer" in the top-left, go to the ShareSets tab, then expand the Conversion Settings -> Default Work Unit folders Step 7) Double-click Default Conversion Settings, change Format to Vorbis and set Quality to 6. Then, you may close that window Step Go back to Audio in Project Explorer and click Actor-Mixer Hierarchy -> Default Work Unit Step 9) On the bar on the top-left, Click Project... -> Import Audio Files. Change the "Audio file destination" folder to an appropriate folder for the converted files to be placed, then click "Add Files". Highlight which files you want to convert Step 10) Click Project... -> Convert All Audio Files. Tick everything if it isn't already, then hit OK Step 11) Your files will end up in the ProjectName/.cache folder. You may have to go through a few folders before you find them. Step 12) Now, here's the annoying bit. By default, Wwise appends strings on the end of the file names for some reason. I've found a .bat script to rename them en masse to the correct names. Using the code I've pasted below, open Notepad, paste the code in, and save it as "rename.bat". Then move it to the folder with all the .wem files you just made and run it. Step 13) Copy and paste all of your modified files over to the game's files and it will overwrite them all rename.bat setlocal enabledelayedexpansion for %%i in (*.wem) do ( set ffName="%%i" ren "!ffName!" "!ffName:~0,-14!.wem" ) Hope this helps!