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I completed PoE 1 after about 70 hours, it was a very good RPG experience Firstly I give this game 75/100 on the globally followed " BruceVC game rating system " and one of the reasons it gets such a good score is because Obsidian was able to successfully create a new fantasy game world with interesting lore and a new ruleset. And thats hard with the understandable popularity of D&D rules Some of the things I enjoyed about the new ruleset was how any class can use any armour or weapons and also I liked the new classes like the Cipher. So kudos to Obsidian for being able to create something different and still enjoyable I thought the overall narrative was very unexpected and exciting, at the end I didnt think to discover the truth about the gods and I decided to release the souls back to bodies they were intended and end the hollowborn curse but I considered all the options and the consequences.Thought provoking choices at the end Combat was a big win for me and I enjoyed the mechanics involved. By slowing down the game and using pause you can literally create dozens of strategies and approaches to win battles. I did have a hard time winning certain hard fights like the Sky Dragon and the final battle with Thaos but once I started using the combat log I was able to identify what I was getting wrong with my attacks so I then started becoming strategic and used buffs to increase my accuracy and spells to decrease Will. Paralyze become my friend and Prayer against Fear was critical in the dragon fights. But I also tried to kill the Sky Dragon at level 9 and then came back later at level 11 and had a much better time I also enjoyed the Endless Paths and I decided to free the master instead of combat, great side quest A few negatives, I lost interest in reading souls after 30 or so people because you cant do anything with the knowledge you learn. It would nice to see a way where you could incorporate what you learn into a quest? And then I found some of the companions lacked depth or didnt have very compelling side quests. I would also have preferred Romance as well But overall a really good game and I plan to now play White March 1&2. Im going to have quick break and then play these expansions over Christmas holidays

Last night I dreamt I was playing what basically could be described as a Lego version of the X games (those complicated space games I think Keyrock plays). My spaceship looked like a Jawa crawler, but was the size of a generation/colony ship, and because it was made of Legos, completely customisable. I think I switched dreams because I was overwhelmed by the options.

How many months was I gone this time? Anyway, I'm playing a mix of Lethal Company, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Rogue Trader. RDR2 is the hardest to recommend, but maybe that's because it's a slow start. Probably more on me than the game.

am half expecting you to destroy board souls by sharing how you made a guanciale and pickled herring sandwich with extra mayo, or that the bolognese turned out ok once you added a sufficient amount o' ketchup. HA! Good Fun!

I got a delivery of christmas goodies from the union for being on long time medical leave. Some pretty tasty italian delicacies.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-intelligence-assesses-ukraine-war-has-cost-russia-315000-casualties-source-2023-12-12/ everything goes according to plan

Liking 40k is birth control enough.

The problem with time savers in a non-pvp game is not a pay to win aspect, for me, but the fact that the need for a time saver means the worthwhile content is postponed, with intentionally unfun content put into the game. There is something insidious about taking what should be an enjoyable experience and removing the joy from it to get rich.

Frieren ep.15. This anime is so good if for nothing else but for reminding me of all the small stories that were like little gems in the manga.

Timesavers are quite firmly in the pay to win pocket. If two people people have 10 hours each to play, and one player can pay for a timesaver that saves him 2 hours doing boring tedious stuff like grinding for resources for raids they will have an advantage over the player that can't pay his way out of it in that he can spend that time raiding for more gear. Not to mention the fact that once games start taking money for "timesavers" you run into situations like some Assassins Creed that was tedious as all hell if you didn't pay for xp boosters. Not the impressions I've had of him, but ok Easy or not, it's still an advantage that people with money spent has over those without money, to the point it'd feel insurmountable. And PvP carries are fairly common too I reckon, me and some friends used to carry other friends in PvP. People tend to learn relatively fast on how to play. Or they'll just buy a bot. WotLK 2200+ arenas were kinda nuts from what I recall.

GE's Breakthrough In 'Detonating' Hypersonic Propulsion Is A Big Deal (thedrive.com)

It sound like you dreamed of Empyrion.

Yay

Close to the end, but I'm actually considering whether downloading a 30GB just for the epilogue is worth it (you need a whopping 150GB or so of free SSD space also). Fun game, but seeing as it's got a reception as if it were a contender for THE greatest game of all time (regardless of platform, era or genre), I also think it's a bit oversold. You know why? Because mainstream audiences haven't actually gotten a taste in some case ever of a truly RPG. If you're coming from semi-interactive Hollywood action movies a la the Witcher with barely any choice (dialogue, character) and super linear quests that literally solve themselves (witcher senses...) -- this is an altogether new world opening up for you. I mean, the big studios in like the past two decades have tried anything to aggressively hide they're actually in the business of making RPGs either way. "Hi we're id Soft and from now on we're not in the business of making these boring shooters anymore. We're attempting something more modern for the modern sophisticated gaming audience, try it!" Absolutely ridiculous. There's an astonishing amount of work put into cinematics not breaking, and also a lot of interactivity -- as an example, I once disguised my char via a spell and got a completely different dialogue and quest progression when doing so... they also naturally needed to cover that players would finish the game entirelly solo and still cinematics still working out. Speaking of which, I actually this is a bit of a dead end, but more on that in the spoiler tag. Still, this doesn't feel like THE BIG RPG TO RULE THEM ALL. It actually feels like a game that picks up from the early 2000s had they never happened. Rather than the the crap that's actually happened (until crowdfunding, digital distrubtion et all) saved the day, that is. At least on the lower budget front. The only excuse I make for bigger studios is that they saw almost the entire RPG industry collapsing before: Origin, SSI, New World Computing, Sir-Tech, Troika, Interplay, Looking Glass, Bethesda pior to Morrowind almost too... Still with Bioware I'm wondering whether they would actually have made anything much RPG by their own choice, considering that it was Interplay to sign them for their engine -- and encouraging them to do a D&D game with it, being the license holder then. Considering that they did a Mech game before, later MDK 2 and by all accounts something more RTS-/MMORPG-like until Interplay came along, I can easily see a parallel universe where they never did anything remotedly resembling Ultima/GoldBox era games etc. at all. In other words: Chasing market trends from day 1, rather than being credited for revitalizing a struggling genre. There's no excuses from now on either way, as far as I'm concerned. And yes, I'm kinda grumpy, sorry. Not expecting anybody to do a wave of isometric D&D-likes or anything. But at least something resembling a RPG, rather than aggressively trying to hide it. Also not going into semantics. But there's fully reason contemporary audiences consider games such as Assassin's Creed or Red Dead Redemption as RPGs. At this pace, Doom 2043 is gonna belong to the family just as well. And nobody's gonna object to it, except the chosen few getting tired of big budget games playing increasingly alike. So, about cinematics being a dead end.

Eddie Murphy hasn't missed since he's come back, so I'm down. Also, Bronson Pinchot!

Jason Statham as "The Beekeeper." Another trailer for action "The Painter." (no one super famous) Now Aaron Eckhart as action "The Bricklayer." Hm. The possibilities are endless. "The IT Guy". "The Delivery Man." "The Wheat Farmer." "The Poledancer." ...The "Beekeeper, Bricklayer and Nobody go to Town"

There are limits to my cruelty towards food, but in this case it'll also be limited since it's mostly breadsticks, taralli, prosciutto, olives, olive oil, pasta that I don't want to hobble downstairs to check the name of, and some tomato sauce

Isn't this kind of pay-to-win? https://us.shop.battle.net/en-us/product/world-of-warcraft-service-character-boost Don't play WoW myself, but I heard there's lots of talk about that.

The insight into the battle of Avdiivka from PoV of UA commander, who is in charge of the defense of the city.

Thank you very much for your posts, guys. I think my reply to Boeroer is still invisible and waiting for mod's approval. Let's see about this post. I made like 3 attempt at my post so this must have skipped edition. It's not like CC is pointless. I would very much would love to CC or debuff the f*k out of the basterd, but when I aim a spell at it, it estimates the chances at, say, 60%, which seems to me like too big of a gamble for the limited resource that is cast-per-spell-tier. So I'd like to debuff him first, but it's same story - usually chances are low and I am not yet familiar enough with all these analytics. But it's already better due to my party higher levels. Yeah, not denying that, but you won't me make me go bare handed in a game with truckloads of toys. Regarding herald - that's one of the reasons I want to run a herald in the new party. I have herald Pallegina in the party now and she's great. I always felt I need Xoti or Tekehu alongside her, though. But now I will try after I finish quests with Tekehu. @dgray62 , @Boeroer - yeah, I guess for serious stuff the Psion will run with a stat stick, but I need a job for the guy during trashmob fights. If you, dgray, suggested builds for my 4th char, then FF/trickster sounds tempting. Not exactly what I had in mind thematically, but both trickster and priest of Wael caught my attention with "all the usual stuff plus fun".

The Murder on Eridanos. In progress. Somehow surprised at the number of assassination attempts the victim had survived before dying. After spending 2 months on LinkedIn, the writing seems especially touching and thought-provoking, while remaining humorous. I also remembered that I was not particularly fond of the combat and items, though, the former has been mostly avoidable so far. Spirit of the North. It is a walking simulator with light puzzles, platforming elements, and collectibles (bringing staves to skeletons). The protagonist is a fox who follows a fox spirit across a northern landscape. It is an impressive project for 2 people - it is playable, consistent, short, and it looks and runs fine. On the other hand, there are no rebindable controls, the controls in general feel clunky, the last area was a navigational nightmare, and I had one soft-lock. I also was unable to launch the EGS version through Steam, so there are very few screenshots taken. Still, it is significantly better than Lost Ember, another game with a fox following a spirit, due to the spirit being a silent fox instead of a narrator.

But we do live under confinement. The cambridge definition you posted states: Games allows us to do impossible activities regularly. I don't figuratively cast spells in a game. I'm literally a wizard who can throw a fireball. That is the fictional setting that we are escaping into. I didn't start this nitpicky conversation. You went after Azdeus' use of the term escapism. Don't worry about being off topic, it's a random video game news thread. Words are interesting and layered, and I thought your definition of escapism was too limited. I can't say I love the Cambridge definition. This is the American Dictionary version: That feels like a clearer, simplified version. It removes the 'unpleasant or boring life' part which comes across as hard to judge. The vast majority of people enjoy escaping reality on occasion, no matter how grand their reality may be. edit: I'm completely willing to meet you halfway on the literal-figurative argument, now that I think about it. Sure, we are not literally becoming wizards when we play a game. I'm still not sure that the word figuratively fits here though. The game is allowing us to do impossible things, but it is limited only to that construct. I guess I will have to wait for the lethal VR headsets to become more common to use the term literally.

Since all chaos marines are immortal, all those crusaders are the same anyway. Bad guys in 40K have such plot armour, if they were to get shot in the eye point blank, they would blink in the very last micro-second, the bullet would ricochet off the eyelid, out of the book and kill the reader.

I'm not going to wade into escapism or the polysemic nature of language, but I can relate to what @Azdeus is saying and what @Hawke64 mentioned about pay to win (aside from exploiting gambling addictions, which is bad on its own terms). It would be very bad for players who regularly play a big multi-player game to have to deal with pay to win screwing everything up by shifting the meta towards paying for stuff (beyond the normal price or subscription) or get ****ed. It's bad design for the long term because it makes needing to pay for stuff having a much larger part of the game than skill and you'll end up with a shrinking base of players until you're only left with those dedicated enough to consistently pay for stuff or enjoy suffering. Thankfully I don't play much besides single-player and don't run into too much of it, but if I did play multi-player stuff I'd jump ship the second they introduced pay to win horse****.

Flashlight (turns on/off with your chr's) and laser accessories. Not all fauna can wear two pieces. I've never had pets out during combat, no clue if they use the laser. Probably need an "aggressive" pet and even if they do, I'm sure it's not very effective. I found a - hyena? dog? - animal which had six legs and unicorn horn. Hadn't seen that before. Had to have it. The one on the right - don't you want a flying Dumbo tadpole, too? Red misty mountains, or something.

Some final thoughts on my Colombian vacation: * Cartagena is a beautiful city. I mean, it's got its ****ty parts, as all cities do, full on shanty towns, in fact, but the wealthier parts of town are pretty, in a modern touristy sort of way, and the Walled City or Old Cartagena is gorgeous. * Colombians sure do love meat. While it wouldn't be impossible to be a vegetarian there, it would be difficult. * Speaking of food, Colombians are giving Americans a run for their money in the portion sizes department. If you walk away hungry you have no one but yourself to blame because they serve you a lot of food and it's so delicious. * Renault and Mazda seem to be the dominant car manufacturers. I mainly noticed that because Renaults, while not unheard of, are pretty rare in The States. * Motorbikes EVERYWHERE. There are so many of them on the roads and they follow their own set of rules. By their own set of rules I mean (seemingly) no rules. They weave through traffic with reckless abandon. Thank God I didn't have to do any driving there. Stuff goes on on the roads in Colombia regularly that would never be permitted in the US. * The sun was relentless, I didn't see a single cloud the entire time I was there. I used so much sun screen and I still got burnt. My parents did better since they live in southern Florida and are now acclimated to that amount and power of sunlight. When I go back there I will have to swallow my pride and wear a shirt in the water. * Colombian women are spectacularly beautiful. I mean, they run the full gamut (men too). There are plenty of ugly and average women, but on the high end... * I now have family in Colombia (thanks sis) so I will definitely go there again. I really want to see Bogotá. Edit: Side-note: Bucket List item update: Visit 6 of the 7 continents (let's be real here, I'm never going to Antarctica) - 4 out of 6.

Islas del Rosario:

Más fotos de Cartagena: This is the little slice of paradise we're staying at. The 360⁰ panorama is a bit choppy in parts because I was getting smacked by waves as I took it.

We should totally get to paint grass walls with paint!

Definetly before, Koronus Expanse is in Segmentum Obscurus which definetly has a right to that name now that Cicatrix Maledictum had explosive diarrhea, and they still navigate by the Astronomican. Would be hard to do afterwards since the Eye of Terror is very near right between Koronus Expanse and Terra. Edit; In the top left of the above the red zone you see the Halo Stars, just south east of that you will see Footfall and port Wander

I'm intently waiting on The Forum Moderator or The Terminally Online Poster.

The Programmer. The Executive. The Psychometrist. The Phlebotomist. The Courier. The Technologist. The Detailer. The Clerk. The Attendant. The Waiter. The Coordinator. The Inker. The Priest. The Guy Who Lives In A Van Down By The River. Truly, the possibilities are endless.

in case is not clear, "sibley" is rudy's lawyer. and this is where we are today with some significant % o' the population having voluntarily smashed through the looking glass where they is inhabiting a fantasy world where whatever they dislike is explained by cartoony dark forces. those who voluntary abandon reason and rational, often for transparent mercenary motivations, when called to account by voters, neighbors or even the legal system is somehow deserving forgiveness 'cause whatever wrong they did were 'cause they is true believers in the fantasy they created for themselves. and no, we did not expect such easy flat earther segue material so soon after our most recent post. HA! Good Fun!

Have you ever heard of a Black Library Alpha Reader? Nope? Ever wondered why? Now you know.