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I also left out Tyranny. I think the phone rang edit: mind you, I played through tyranny once and have nothing to say about it

I love Deep Rising, Stephen Sommers film before THE MUMMY (1999). That said, they could have not killed Una Damon's character so early as I liked her banter with Kevin J. O'Conner and Treat Williams and it'd have been nice to keep the crew together for longer. Loads of fun actors in support too (Wes Studi, Jason Flemyng, Anthony Held, and Djimon Hounsou from the top of my head).

Maybe it'll be True Detective : Old Republic.

Owlcat's writing improved a LOT in Rogue Trader. Goes to show what a comprehensive setting with a detailed lore bible can do. Owlcat is doing a better job at it than a lot of Games Workshop's own Black Library authors. Which is not much praise, come to think of it, taking into account my opinion of those authors.

A movie doesn't run on the same clock as a book though. It seemed comical the way the fremen won the battle and ran straight into the emperors ships and flew off on the great Jihad all in the space of a few minuites.

I've never really considered their total body of work too closely, so just my snap opinions on each listed: KoTOR2 - My video card (a 7900GT? Something like that) died before I finished the tutorial. Never went back to it, bearing in mind this was a few years after the original release as is, probably circa 2007? So I was already sort of forcing myself to play it in the first place, never really had a strong incentive to because I don't like Star Wars. (I don't hate it, I just tolerate it in a gaming context if it's a good game regardless of IP) NWN2 - I have no memories whether positive or negative about the original campaign. I assume my save just petered out somewhere around mid-game but who knows. I couldn't get through the MoTB tutorial because of D&D sneak attack rules meant my rogue was not viable. I did play SoZ up until the final dungeon and liked it well enough. Alpha Protocol - Never finished it but admired the structure and ambition. The mechanical jankiness wasn't actually that big of a deal for me because I don't generally play this type of game for the challenge. I didn't particularly liked the timed dialogue and the lack of customisation. New Vegas - One of the best games of all time. Dungeon Siege - Dunno, I don't play ARPGs. South Park - Very good until the zombie apocalypse ruined everything that came after, which felt like filler. Damn shame. Tyranny, Pillars of Eternity series - I'd outgrown RTwP by this point and couldn't get into any of them. Yes I know Deadfire got a turn-based mode later, but a bit too late and without the game being designed whole-cloth with it in mind, the patch could not address the issue of far too much combat. The Outer Worlds - I abandoned it early due to the poor handling of stealth, turning it into far too much of a shooter for my tastes. The only reason I tolerate games like Deus Ex, Dishonored and Cyberpunk is because I can bypass their clunky combat mechanics, which is not possible in TOW. Grounded - Dunno, don't play survival games. Maybe if I had a regular group to play co-op with, but no chance solo. Pentiment - Should be up my alley, just need to overcome inertia to get around to it. It's only been out for ...wait it's been more than a year??? Where did the time go? (To be honest, I spent less time on video games in 2023 since, oh, probably since the late 80s)

The main thing I like about Obsidian is the writing quality. Gameplay can be hit or miss with me, but I know when I buy an Obsidian title, it will be well written. I'm pretty sure I've played them all, except that Pathfinder card game and the tank game they helped with. There are a lot of other developers that can't pull off the writing Obsidian does. Bethesda. Owlcat. Larian. The list goes on. Obsidian can write circles around them.

Without profanity filters, discussions about ancient Egypt would be boring. With filters, the story of queen Neferbreasti has completely new dimensions.

So what didn't I play? Grounded (not on gog + ewwww multiplayer), Pentiment (not on gog), Dungeon Siege 3 (started it, but dropped and all I remember was a long linear corridor of bashing dudes. The older I get the more necessary the story is for me to not get bored with a game) and South Park (I have it on EA storefront and one day I'll muster courage to deal with EA storefront, real soon now ). KOTOR 2. First game of Obs I played. Also first game I went to whine about on social network because I was so angry about the ending, it was my etalon for horrible, terrible, no good disappointing endings until along came "Lost" and dropped the bar into deep deep abyss. It really stood out because everything up to it was so, so good. Helped me to figure out my own love/hate relationship with Star Wars. Neverwinter Nights 2. An example of how people who know how to write can elevate even the most derivative cookie-cutter setting. This is also the game that taught me RPG systems are fun. Before it, I countered all my problems by dropping difficulty. Didn't work on that red dragon. Had to read about how to beat her and -- "Oh hey, there's the whole system in it?! " I think I played every class there except fighters and barbarians because those are boring. And then there's Mask of the Betrayer which is Alpha Protocol. I don't know how many playthroughs of it I did. Something between 10 and 20, and that's only because I really sucked at it, if I were any good I prolly wouldn't have stopped playing it. Anyway, none of those playthroughs were like the other. I remember how I tried to goad Konrad into fighting me, but because I was on "Biiiitch. As$hole!" relationship with Madison he deduced Mikey wasn't genuine and bolted. And how it took like hours to down Brayko on a SMG run. SIE best girl. Fallout New Vegas. That's my videogame home, the place where I feel well, at home. I got the "I'm home..." feeling instantly as I left Doc's house. Then the game promptly crashed. Anyway, my PC was too weak for it and I haven't tried to play it for quite some time. Which was for the best given it's buggy launch infamy. Still haven't done a Legion run, there's something too realistically reprehensible about their brand of evil. Tyranny. All I knew was "You play a bad guy" so it was extremely pleasant surprise to find so detailed, rich world and lore. Also the art, the music, the magic system, the almost Alpha-Protocol levels of variables, it's all so I don't much care the ending was kinda eh. I don't have a clear favorite Obsidian game, rather a crowded little plateau on a peak where games constantly fight for a title. Tyranny is the most frequent winner there. Pillars of Eternity. Kickstarted it as by then I knew chances were high I'll love it. Then it sat in my game reserve of "If all games from now on gonna be rubbish I'll still have this". Didn't get into it from the start because it looked like yet another bog-standard vaguely medievalish fantasy with dorfs and elfs, yawnorama, but in the second attempt I reached the hanging tree and got hooked. Somewhen mid-game I found out there's a sequel and that was the first time I've heard of it. Insta-bought. Deadfire. It could be my second home because it's so pretty and music is great, and characters are alive, and I want to make separate build for every interesting weapon, and the amount of hours I sunk into it is in quadruple digits, if not for the fact it fried my video card once, keeps attempting to do so again and I remember these things. Still, another frequent champion of the plateau. Like, everything in it just clicks with me. The Outer Worlds. ... ... I don't know what happened. Like, I liked all the separate parts. Art. Music. Setting. Environment. "Corporations are the devil" schtick. First two companions are really good. Dialogs are witty. Weapons are nice. But the sum of all parts somehow turns into perfect representation of "Meh".

Caramelized onion soup. I used a mix of marrow and soup bones to make my base this time and that really paid off well.

I've looked at Grounded many times, because that is closer to my current gamestyle zone, but something about it doesn't appeal. It could be as simple/shallow as not liking the artstyle, but also maybe the child/teen focus. Not sure. I haven't bought/tried it yet, is all I know. I remember at some point deciding I wanted four or five mules vs. more npc's. I probably tried at least once to do the game with six mules and 1 npc but I can't recall if I succeeded/failed. I do remember at certain points getting them across bridges or other obstacles was a major chore. But they were fun/cute/silly awesome.

Mutsumi Inomata, who besides working in animation (City Hunter, Leda, Gundam Seed) and manga (GB Bomber) was the character designer for the Tales series (Destiny through Berseria)

So during an official Apex Legends tournament, players got hacked and remote installed cheating cheating software on their PCs. To make matters funny some got an account ban. What makes this story interesting is that apex runs a kernel level anti-cheat software and the suspicion is that the hack happened through it. This is the screen that flashed for every player when the hack happened. See if you can spot it.

Thank you for this clarification, and for your post in general. As far as rackets as a whole are concerned, I was delighted by something I read in a new history of the mafia by Louis Ferrante, an ex-mobster. He pointed out that the mafia is not and has never been interested in overthrowing any governments; indeed, the mob relies on a "capitalist system with a democratically elected and stable but greedy and inept government; and in this the US has never been a disappointment to the mafia". Cruel but apt, I would say.

Caesar 4 - every time I open the advisors panel to check something: (animated group of people doing verbalized voice lines) "Our city needs more workers. We do not have enough jobs for all of our workers. More attention must be paid to the city's prosperity. Rome considers your efforts ... mediocre. Our city needs more workers. We do not have enough jobs for all of our workers. Our city needs.. Rome considers... We do not have.. More attention must be.. Our city.." OMG SHUT THE HECK UP, I just want to check how much grain is in the granaries.

A beef and mushroom ragu with a simple salad and sheet cake for desert. I'm satisfied.

One of the most troublesome part about open-world is that players are free to explore and play as they want which make it very easy to disrupt and miss majority of the game writing. This is kinda why majority of the open-world ish game always have some kind of inflated stat leash to keep player from exploring too much or make the main quest a no-1-care zone. Having experienced my 1st playthrough, I finally have a general idea of how the game should really be played to get the full experience. I stop doing quests too early and start doing all the faction quests with all 4 faction-based companions presented. Eder pretty much has his own little world anyway. Xoti is over the moment you release the lantern soul and Aloth is like Eder but slightly tied to Huana quest. And the game is just so much better. Companions constantly bicker because of their clash in beliefs and slowly open up to each other because they actually get to travel with each other and not stay on the boat which also affect some of the choices at the end of the game. Quests no longer end out of the blue and more options are open because the companions are there to offer help and serve as the eyes for the faction leader. It's a shame this isn't something player will really notice on the 1st playthrough outside some random weird conversations popping up at the end of the quest if they decide to switch companions for a moment.

Yeah, furthermore, I don't see the reason why (after finding Oderisi's notes) Aloth may want to tag along Watcher from island to island instead of staying with animancers and doing his own business. At least we could have some dialog option for clarifying that moment (maybe, I just missed it). P.S.: waiting for PoE III: Aedyr

Does Aloth feel rather out of place to anyone else? He is by no means bad in Deadfire. But I don't know, coming across him randomly on the same island you crash on? That feels a little much, and while his personal quest was interesting it feels a bit tacked on given there is no other mention of the Key cult in Deadfire outside of it. I like his character a lot, but it feels like it might have been an idea to sit him out (Guys busy dismantling/running the Key) for Deadfire, give others time to shine and bring him back for the third?

I do wish that the world was a little *less* open, or at least that some quests would be locked until certain critical path milestones are reached. As it is, I completed basically all of the side content before taking on the critical path - now that I am, the world feels a little too empty. At least the factions (most of whom heave an interest in your pursuit of Eothas and play a part in the end game) should offer their quests more incrementally as you complete the main storyline. If future patches/content don't add some mechanisms to streamline the pacing, I'll probably self-impose something like this for my second playthrough.

A Nearby Star Is Expected to Go Nova This Year. Here's How You Can See It. : ScienceAlert

As much as I'm a fan of Obsidian, I've only ever played three of their games: NwN2, PoE, and PoE2. This is mainly because I have not been willing, in the past, to go outside of fantasy setting based RPGs for my games. And for me, all three of these games were fantastic!

I always find this argument slightly peculiar, if indeed the only complaint is size. If someone is a reader of books or a player of games, it doesn't seem relevant to me to worry about length / size, if you're going to spend that time reading / playing anyway. If the books or the games are bad then by all means toss them aside, that's what I also do, but if not, where's the problem? Btw, I'm not sure about this but isn't BG2, for instance, bigger than Deadfire? I bring it up because you mention DD, so you're likely to have played that.

New Vegas is Obsidian's best and it's not really close. Compare that game with the Outer Worlds and see how far the company has fallen. Same goes for the rest of the industry outside of a few indies. I have nothing in common with 99% of the people making games these days so naturally it's almost all cringe. KOTOR 2, Alpha Protocol and Stick of Truth are all a good time. I could never get into any of the other, Kickstarter/Patreon/OnlyFans type offerings.

The most pertinent part of Ferrante's analysis was that the US government has, without fail, been greedy and inept precisely the way the mafia wants. Not once has it been different.