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Well, Firaxis (or Sid) have a philosophy of thirds when making a sequel. You identify 1/3 that you want to keep to maintain identity and not alienate the fans. You identify 1/3 you want to improve on in the sequel. You take 1/3 and try something new. Unless there was a major shift in Firaxis, I can't imagine Civ7 reimagining itself too hard (or rebooting).

Part from an interview with Russian/Russian Speaking Economist Igor Lipsits, currently living in Lithuania.

Looks cool but I'm really confused about the lore now.

Huh, only 2 months and change for beta.

Well… I can’t say I care

Dum, dum. Doom

Dragon Age: The Overwatch

Ah, romance. Romance never changes. I think this is one of the worst legacies Bioware is going to leave behind. Not the romances per se. Rather, that there's an expectation for them to be in every game. Bioware type of companions have become very stale and predictable throughout the years in general. Like: - Meet companion - Sign them up for your party - Gather and venture forth - level them up - unlock their Backstory™, their Companion Quest™ and a Romance™ - level them up some more - shag them! Sure, you can write altogether new and different Backstories™. A decent quest designer is also always gonna come up with an inventive Companion Quest™. And occasionally somebody can actually do a decent Romance™ for once in a video game -- one that doesn't boil down to leveling characters up and getting sex as a reward. But it's still all gonna boil down to the same old beaten formula. What amazing and different characters you could have if their very concept didn't boil down to managing their personal problems, all the while being given the option to get very personal with them. Back then, even Wizardry suggested different kind of character interaction. You could give party members a personality. This they expressed during the course of the campaign via dialogue accordingly. Solasta more recent picked that up again, albeit naturally on a small scale and budget -- Solasta is primarily a D&D combat experience in general, rather than a particularly character driven game. And now with AI entering the fold, this could be taken far further in general. But man, even the original Baldur's Gate suggested something more interesting. There was betrayal. There was personal agenda. Guys and gals who didn't go along with each other even fought and killed themselves! Nowaday's it's all cheap player wish fulfilment: Pick your favourite puppets to go along for the ride. They will do as you please. ---------- tldr; Sorry for the huge rant. But after reading the linked interview above, and considering how cheap romances mostly are, I don't agree with this being a cheap excuse. Building DECENT romances isn't something to tick off a list of features -- the way most games do it. It takes commitment. Unless of course, somebody actually still LIKES this kind of stuff. My condolences. The Outer Worlds also 1 had real problems. A lack of companions to shag wasn't one of them.

After sitting on my wishlist for ages, I finally picked up and gave a short go to Gloomwood. And intriguing very indy stealth immersive sim, seemingly smashing Thief with Survival horror. Not very deep into it, so very first impressions, but so far it seems excellent.

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.

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

Same browser (Firefox), same device (my PC, the only device I ever login to here with), same IP*, didn't clear cookies or anything else. The second logout happened in the middle of me writing a post - I was quite confused when I tried to post it and was given a "forbidden" error. *-ish. It looks like my last two IPv4 octets changed sometime within the last two weeks from what I can tell, but I can't say for sure when the switch happened - you might have a better idea by checking some of my latest posts for their IPs with your moderator tools, if that's something possible on this forum software like it is with phpBB. I don't think the last two octets changing would affect anything, but...

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.

Midnight Suns is free on Epic I grabbed it but may still never play it for free because of the cards

Someone clever apparently gave Josh Sawyer a (justified) bonus to help him overcome his Deadfire trauma. "Say it with an engraved watch"

Also, and this is a matter of taste, I find "fully 3D" to just completely suck in games like this. I mean, Deadfire looks gorgeous but NWN and NWN2 are just poor. Yes, I know they're old, but 3D graphics get extremely repetitive in a hurry, and after that there's nothing to them at all. Also, the 3D viewpoint completely destroys the sense of controlling a group of charcaters, for me.

Supposedly one of the reasons Dreadwolf Veilguard took so long was that it was redesigned to a primarily live service/ GaaS model at one point, then redesigned back again once it became clear GaaS was an invitation to flop more than a Uruguayan striker in a world cup semi final (ie post Anthem). There are likely some terminology hold overs and the like, and it wouldn't be EA if there wasn't some nickel and diming at least.

So safe to say that Bioware no longer exists.

What Russia is basically doing is plundering from their future to prop up their present. Western welfare societies pretty much do the same thing, but just not in as draconian a way as what Russia is doing right now.

Dread Delusion I guess the wording is off - achieving one would be good, while getting both would be amazing. The other parts of writing do not feel so heavy-handed, so it is the character, rather than the writers. So, this is the boss. Nothing too spoiler-y, but might be better to experience first-hand. This is a mushroom. He is not wrong.