Leaderboard

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is a computer/classic roleplaying game (CRPG), which explores the topics of personal freedom and responsibility, religion, and colonialism. The story takes place in the (fictional, but it is obvious) Deadfire archipelago, where several local and foreign factions stand in uneasy peace, while the protagonist follows a reborn god (who destroyed their very nice castle during his rebirth) to save their soul. The game was unique in many aspects, most importantly, in supporting the player's agency and acknowledging their choices, and some admirable design decisions, such as not rewarding murdering random non-playable characters without an in-character reason (quest) and the critical path (the main story) being of reasonable length. Then, in one of the last updates, the Blackwood Hull, required for it, was moved from the shipyard at the capital, broken into 5 pieces, and these pieces scattered at random places, thus, successfully decreasing the immersion and securing another sale on GOG, which allowed to rollback the update almost painlessly (installing and uninstalling GOG Galaxy while downloading the game twice was not the most positive experience, but it worked). Keeping the 51GB around was less painless, but absolutely worth it. Usually in video games, the final part where the player and/or the party are proficient with the technical aspects of the gameplay systems and have completed most of the story, thus, being invested in both, consists of several hours of story-free battles, which, on one hand, allow to utilise the most powerful equipment and skills the player has. On the other, these long battle sequences are predictable, boring, and do not exactly serve the narrative. In terms of the in-game lore, Ukaizo was the lost birthplace of the local people, the Huana, which also was the final destination of Eothas, whom the player's party was pursuing throughout the story, and the target of the factions vying for the control over the Deadfire archipelago and its resources. Therefore, it would be expected for the island to be mechanically similar to the end-game locations from other CPRGs, including the first Pillars of Eternity (fortunately, as far as I remember, Obsidian did not go overboard there either). The level and narrative design of Ukaizo was impressive in general and in the context of CPRGs - while it featured one avoidable (blessed be the Bounding Boots) token boss battle with a unique foe that had little to no bearing on the story (the Guardian did provide some lore), the encounter with Eothas was never meant to be combat, due to him inhabiting a giant adra (soul-sucking-rock) statue from the practical point of view (granted, a few well-shot explosives could have solved it), and because I wanted to see him taking down the creatures that were much worse than he was, which made travelling to Ukaizo in the first place rather out of character, but the quest journal pointed there and, as a player, I wanted to know the outcomes of my actions. It also was very convenient to replay, considering the number of expansions, with all of them taking place in the story before visiting Ukaizo. Another boss battle at Ukaizo was against a leader (I think there were several for each option) of a non-chosen faction. For some reason, despite me not compromising my moral high ground for any of them, it usually was the Royal Deadfire Company of the Kingdom of Rauatai, with Hazanui Karū as the boss. Possibly, it was because of Atsura, who was definitely not a spy, giving me the opportunity to decrease the number of their employees without negative consequences. The point being is that the presence of this battle highlighted another essential aspect of the story - the relationships with the factions, where each of them was reasonable enough not to be killed on sight, unlike, for example, the Legion in Fallout: New Vegas or the Systems Alliance in Mass Effect (not an Obsidian game, and the damn faction was impossible to leave, while the game itself was extremely pro-military). And, most importantly, there were dialogues with the companions on the way to Eothas, reflecting the bonds built with the party. It also was great that the romantic interest did not lessen or overshadow the friendships with the other party members, while the fact that all of the possible romances were bisexual successfully avoided cis-heteronormativity and made the story more immersive and engaging for the LGBTQ+ gamers. Thus, Ukaizo defied the combat-first (not an unjustified approach, since providing a satisfying and interactive combat system, while still challenging, is significantly easier than satisfying and interactive dialogues) aspect of many CPRGs where the last location is a long mind-numbing gauntlet of battles and the boss, whom you have come to kill anyway, monologuing for an hour - the dialogues with both bosses and Eothas were skippable and/or possible to minimise. I also loved how in PoE1 it was possible to kill Thaos without listening to him, since the information you needed was much more satisfying to take from his corpse. I see Obsidian as one of the best RPG developers whose games I have played. I think it is important to explore the conventions and subvert the expectations of the genre in order to make more unique and memorable art, while supporting it being sustainable (system requirements and development costs), accessible (fully rebindable controls and saving at will), inclusive, and DRM-free, because video games are both art and a product and it is crucial to acknowledge and support both of these aspects.

Thanks to @Hawke64 for contributing for the next Community Blog: Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire & End-Game Design

Finished Wing Commander 3. Only cheesed a couple missions on Rookie as I am too old. Also my wingmen kept getting wasted attacking a cruiser like morons. Excalibur is a hilarious ship, auto aim, woo. The ground missions really can go to hell though, frustrating and hideous.

Three things from me: 1) Alan Wake2 DLC is out today, featuring Jesse Faden from control, dude from Quantum Break and Alan’s nb1 fan from the diner. It also reminds me that Alan Wake2 exists, which consistently slips my mind due it it being on a storefront I don’t boot up very often. 2) very Jusant-like looking climbing game. It seems to promise a bit more peril, which I am in to. While I liked Jusant, the complete lack of tension made the experience too chill for me. Maybe this will work. 3) Street Fighter6 Season2 character pass was revealed and….. meh? The offering is skits as stingy as season1, and half of the roster are guests - which as a fighting game newbie means nothing to me. I will probably be holding off pickingthis one, as I don’t immediately see anything compelling for myself. Bison should be out soonish and got a proper gameplay trailer today: Edit. Ah. And more of Deliverence2

As someone who generally found PoE games not being great in practice despite being very good for me on paper (which somewhat disturbs me because I have an issue in articulating just what about Poe and Deadfire I dislike), I have to say that Hawke64 is absolutely right about the endgame of Deadfire. It's refreshingly short (in terms of real time spent, not in terms of content) and is less of a test of just how much players can cheese the game system (Kingmaker/WotR) or an uncharacteristically dense series of combat encounters that just does not work well with established mechanics (BG3) than it is a thematic cap of the game you've sunk at least 50+ hours into for a single playthrough. Which is quite nice, The Guardian would have been a one-off endgame boss like in some many videogames but in Deadfire it is just what you have to get through to get in the gate, the real boss is the decisions you've made along the way both in the form of your conflict with one of the factions (which I believe can be kind of weak, given the way you can theoretically not pay special attention to any given one enough to explain just why the hell they would come to stand off with you in El Dorado Ukaizo) to the last dialogue with Eothas himself. It's a very nice ending to a game I otherwise felt was unfortunately disjointed (the curse of a multi-game protagonist imo) and should be studied and tried to learn from instead of forcing us into yet another series of EPIC battles that have all the heft of a comic book superhero death. This is the one part I disagree with strongly enough to talk about, the romances felt very much slapped on and applied with the cis-hetero eye in mind. It's better than Bioware or Owlcat (other than the throuple in Kingmaker) but that's a very low bar to cross. I may get some guff here, but largely I felt that BG3 did a much better job at romance generally and feeling less relentlessly heteronormative. But that's all minor quibbles and the opinion of a meanie zucchini. Maybe I'll get myself together and crank out some incomprehensible nonsense about gaming and dialectics/trialectics.

Even after four decades, you just can't get it out of yer head. (Later on I had one of those Action Replay cartridges though. Came with a turbo loader as well as simply hitting the C64's F-keys to shortcut the "loading routines".) Oh man, SKALD is actually good. I mean real good. It feels like those oldies but with updates where needed: No bloat, just an intriguing setup and off ya go. It's a narrative heavy game, too, but it doesn't drown you in exposition. I'd rather play focused games like these than a 100 hour campaign full of filler. The character system is complex enough, the battles are about the same. There's even a simple faction system in place. What kills it though is the vibe the guy was going for and manages to hit. Sure, it's pixels. But there's a skill check fairly early on whether your character can withstand the stench of rotting corpses in a cave... succeed, and all is well. Fail, and get a debuff 'til resting. This isn't a "poop your pants" kinda game. It's rather all very oppressive and feels like uncovering dark ancient secrets in the best of ways. There's even dynamic weather (and of course day/night cycles), with the island you visit apparently being fogged permanently. Clearly, the oft expressed notion that horror kinda themes and RPG's inherent level-up kinda power fantasy wouldn't gell is nonsense. Then substantial companies had shown such in the 1980s and 1990s. They just stopped trying it mostly with Bloodlines.

LOAD"*",8,1 SEARCHING FOR * LOADING READY. RUN What actually sealed the deal for me wasn't merely the Ultima/Goldbox aesthetics. But rather: This is a horror-themed RPG, in a sense? When did the last major one come out, really? Bloodlines some five football Eureopean Championships ago? You've gotta be sh*tting me!!!!1 Light sources can be switched out for improved stealth chance (that, is outside of the sun). Combat and character mechanics seem straight-forward enough. But then, a lot of oldies used to be pretty straight forward in that. And I needn't even gather my party before venturing forth.

I'm getting a little tired of Steam's client updates, lately, often reverting my Cloud setting back to On vs. Off. In terms of actual games ... nothing new, still mostly fart around with Manor Lords/sandboxing for a few hours here and there, when I want to escape the heat of outside. Per usual I keep looking for a new simplish/chill game but never find much.

Tried to log in/post the other day. Was getting the mega-long load time issue again (there were maybe only 250 'visitors) and weird posting errors. Left. Seems better today. So here I am. It's Costco day, or "spend way more than you should" day. My teeth etc. are still fine. Hubby's still depressed. I'm still hobby-unmotivated and feeling rather directionless - but not depressed. Thinking about buying some roller skates. Just regular ones, not those inline types. I used to love roller skating as a kid/teen. Maybe it'd be fun again, get me outside more etc.

It's just worked out that my preferences have always been for the odd-numbered CIVs, so I'm hoping this game turns out to be a good one.

It's one of those that I pretty much re-read once a year. I hadn't seen that there was a new adaption coming.

dan da dan artstyle comedy and character are amazing in manga hope this adaptation have enough time and budget to translate it into anime

No special thanks required, I have to admit I watched S5E1 out of curiousity last evening as well, so I have been appropriately rewarded. At least it was weirdly entertaining I guess, probably due to the complete lack of any positive expectations meaning I could just laugh at everything. Funnily enough I too thought of podracing during that one scene. Overall, an episode written like an AI learning from all the worst clichés of the last twenty odd years.

The Starship launch video was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I can't wait to see it go through a full launch/recovery cycle.

I read CoMC in high school, but over the years had forgotten I read it. Then one day I saw the Jim Caveziel movie adaption and was like "I read the book!!!!"

One of my favorite books, and it looks like a pretty great adaptation of it.

Woot I can see videos again!

Starfield - There are some quality of life fixes from when I played at release, and I set it so that I can carry everything. It is going well and I'm enjoying exploring the universe. I am still figuring out how to make a decent settlement, but I am better at ship design now.

Sorry, double-post (kinda.) Still yesterday there was a SKALD AMA on Reddit with a few decent info. - Launch successful accross every metric - Postlaunch support will bring a new bard class and improvements - SKALD 2 a developer wish - The engine already supports deeper systemic interactions for more emergent gameplay (as can be seen already in the light sources you can manipulate, e.g. for stealth purpose) ALSO: Love. Love never changes.

It's almost a reflex... LOAD"$",8 SEARCHING FOR $ LOADING READY. LIST

Tiny Glade demo - I've had it wishlisted for a bit. ...it's cute, but in the end I'm not sure I'm into the artstyle. I feel like I'm building something that would go into a rich person's ceramic collector fantasy curio cabinet. Which is odd because I might like some of such in a curio cabinet, but on-screen/game it doesn't appeal to me. But it is cute, the mechanics work well enough/are cool (maybe a bit finicky/over precise), and if the style is your thing, looks promising a small/chill time waster. One of those games with essentially no point but use tools to create a small castle/town in a small area.

Bought both Ghoswire: Tokyo and HI Fi Rush from the PSN because I couldn't find physical copies and I simply had to jump in the 'Xbox closed down Tango Gameworks' bandwagon. Tried Ghostwire: Tokyo a bit on the PS5. The vsync is non-existent no matter which mode I choose. The game looks great regardless. Finished Alan Wake and now I am heading for Alan Wake: American Nightmare. I also started Batman: Arkham Origins on the Xbox. Still have to finish Control. Goddamn was this game big! Once I am done with all of these I'll head for Alan Wake 2 and Psychonauts 2.

The June 7th blog is primed and ready. Feel free to read (perhaps again) @Gorth musing from last month: As well, currently looking for someone to contribute to the August 7th edition. Please DM me if you have an inkling to create something.

Pillars 2 does will not import completed save games from this new version.

You are all dead to me now. Fie. Shoo. I am also aware that I said the exact same thing when @Amentep posted about watching Discovery and not hating it way back when it happened. A special thanks goes to @Zoraptor whose reminder turned my evening from being purely occupied by grinding in Diablo 4 to sharing my brain space and time with the beginning of Discovery Season five. Disclaimer: I will be watching this at 2.25x replay speed, which worked wonders when I wrote my Sailor Moon Cosmos recap. Yum Yum. The Red Directive Yes, that is actually the episode name. Yikes. I haven't even begun to watch, but the title hangs there, ominous in its wording. You know, that situation in a horror film where the protagonist is clearly aware that they are making a mistake by walking down an aisle, or entering a door, or leaving the safety of their room, but they are doing it anyway? Yes, this is exactly like that. At least this is going to be the final season of this travesty of a show that should have never been made. With the possible exceptions of the Michelle Yeoh focused mirror universe episodes, which were just absolutely delightful. Without any further ado, let us begin. Great, the forum just posted my post due to a software update, while it is not finished. At least it is not gone. Freaking forum software.

Looks like they changed the name. Gameplay reveal in June 11. https://blog.bioware.com/2024/06/06/TheVeilguard/