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Rogue Trader completed Post Mortem: They tried. They tried to do something with the setting that was more than a space marine spouting fascist one liners while shooting anyone not a space marine. They tried to show a setting that actually works, and how it doesn't. They care about the setting - more so than Games Workshop and most fanboys do. People queuing in the bureaucracy being sleeping bags, not knowing how many days they'll be there. The story both works and does not work. In general, if your villain needs to monologue at the end and explain their plan, because Mr Bond the laser will kill you anyway, then your plot was contrived. The game is split into a tutorial prologue and five chapters. The prologue works. It sets up how you become the Rogue Trader, gives you the first three party members, and lets you explore the setting and system. The first alignment choice is good - the scene with the choice is crap - if a person materializes out if nothing in a fire, in a world where daemons are real, you don't chat with it. *Rolleyes* Chapter 1 shows, as so often in rpgs, that it got a lot of attention. It is compact, has choices that make sense, with outcomes that are understandable. The outcome is over the top and slightly confusing, as two things happen at the same time - luckily the villain at the end of the game will monologue and explain The choices at the end all make sense (except possibly the heretical. I wouldn't know, I didn't make choices that would unlock it). Chapter 2 starts OK and theoretically gives you freedom to explore. The Devs expect you though to play in a specific way. You go to Janus first. If you head off in the wrong direction as I had done in my first attempt, you do things out of order and break stuff. Is it important stuff? It depends. Do you want Yrliet and to do her personal quest? If you want to do her personal quest you do Janus first. Not because by delaying the visit time passes and you are too late, but because while exploring you will likely run into the personal quest encounters before having the quest, so once you do get it, the encounters are gone and it can't be progressed. In general chapter 2 works, but lacks a cohesive feeling. It has the BioWare Game middle problem: you need to do three things, in the order you choose, where each thing let's us tell a different story and use a different colour palette. This is always detrimental to cohesion. Chapter 3 was created out of fan enthusiasm that Games Workshop gave the okay to use a specific location and explore it in a way it hadn't yet. I get it. You are allowed to do something cool. But why do the players need to suffer for it? And I actually like Harlequins! I understand what they tried to do. Part of it works. Part of it is terribly made. I replayed the complete chapter because I didn't manage to talk to an NPC - they were behind bars, I should have clicked between the bars, yet I always clicked the bars so always got the boring description and eventually decided "I probably can't talk to them yet". Chapter 3 is where you find the most people online getting annoyed, looking for walkthroughs. Chapter 4 throws you back into freedom. The difference to 2 is that theoretically you care a bit more. And if you are cynical like me, you may be positively surprised that there is more stuff to do than you expected after the experience of Chapter 3. They are working on the bugs. I only had one. The problem of this chapter is that it shows, Owlcat expects players to play in specific ways: full dedication to one alignment and always picking those choices when they come up. You are supposed to do three playthroughs and each with 100% dedication. If not, you suddenly realise you are locked out of gaining any alignment points halfway through the game, as you don't meet the requirements to make more alignment choices... On top of that, a number of companion quests complete in this chapter and I have ranted about that already. The conclusion of the chapter held some annoyance on a mechanical level for me (what do you mean you are saddened I never collaborated with you faction, when in every choice I have sided with you, simply did not trade enough to reach the final tier?) Chapter 5 goes back to being linear. It is expectedly short and throws new stuff at you because plot twist. I understand the plot twist, saw it coming. But still, "and now for something completely different" should be left to Monty Python sketches, not for plot resolutions. I feel the finale and certain possibilities are too over the top. Verdict, the best look at the setting in a video game. A lot of love and excitement by the Devs. Direction completely pushed aside by said excitement. No understanding what makes mechanics fun/unfun. An attempt to learn from their Pathfinder games, but not truly having learned the lesson.3 points
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I don't think you need the first part of the message, and it is entirely possible that it is the entire message. That's a biking lane and it reads "for 1.5°C", which is a reference to the Paris Climate Accords and its 1.5° C target.2 points
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You rang? So, I actually sat down and watched Rebel Moon Chapter One: Chalice of Blood. That name is a mouthful, and it is the Director's Cut version of A Child of Fire, which I have not seen. Bear that in mind. I have heard a lot of things about Zack Snyder's most recent film, and none of them good, so I went into watching this with a few expectations in place, the biggest of which would be that it looks like a Zack Snyder film - and that it does. Oh boy does it look like a Zack Snyder film, and lo, Snyder's trademark color grading and desaturation is in place, in full force. That man could film a set created in various shades of pink and make it look somber and brooding (actually, that is a bad example, as the original Addam's Family show was shot in black and white on a set in various shades of pink, and the result looked appropriate for an Addam's Family show). The other expectation was that I am going to be miserable and hate the film, after all, many of the criticisms I heard from and read of arise from issues that I have harped on over and over and over again, and then some. Imagine my surprise when that did not happen. I get all critcisms, like the space Amish people plowing and tilling and seeding their fields by oxen and their bare hands while still having houses with automated doors and other modern amenities, or how most of the characters in the film are flat non-starters (only Kora, Noble, Jimmy and Gunnar are developed characters, and of those only Gunnar has an actual character arc, to the point where one could think Gunnar's the main character instead of Kora), that all the scenes with Jimmy are weirdly disjointed and do not fit into the film, that is spends an inordinate amount of time introducing a character who does nothing (although that is apparently just in the Director's Cut). It just did not really matter. For a film with a runtime of three hours and twentyfive minutes it was surprisingly engaging. The sheer length meant I could not sit down and watch it in one go because I am a little pressed to find so much free time at the moment, but if I had I would not have turned the film off. That is not to say that I do not have issues with the film. More than once I thought that this movie feels like a video game adaptation. In fact, it would probably work better as a video game. Arguably it did work better as a video game, because it is by far and large Mass Effect 2, just with an obvious betrayal shortly before the suicide mission (which did not materialize, but somehow suspect it still will, in the second chapter, what with the ending of the first one). There's also too much of Snyder's trademark slow motion violence. Lastly, there's also way too much copying from existing sources to create a film that is basically a sci-fi The Seven Samurai, and while something like Mass Effect's setting is charming in being a love letter to every sci-fi setting ever created, Snyder's version is a little too much of a mix and a little too unfocused to be really interesting. On the one hand you have your peaceful farming village in what could be a version of Warhammer 40k's Imperium of Man and all the implications that this brings, and on the other hand you have a warrior prince from a conquered world becoming Toruk Makto by riding Buckbeak. For those that have not seen the film, I kid you not. Tarak the Warrior Prince, one of the film's flattest characters, talks to Buckbeak the hippogriff, then kneels in front of it, and mounts it for a ride. This being grimdark it then proceeds to gut Draco instead of just hurting him, but somehow that is both expected as one can see it coming from a mile away, and hilariously gratifying. Then there's the sequence with Nemesis and the sentient spider creature that I am pretty sure I have seen before somewhere, I just cannot remember where at the moment. There's all the references to Star Wars (including a cantina full of scum). Noble has a tentacle hentai scene and ends up being hooked up to The Matrix. There's not a single original thought in this, I think, and yet... yet I did not hate it, and I actually found myself just enjoying the ride. These things happen every now and then. I mean, by all accounts, Rebel Moon Chapter One: Chalice of Blood is not a good film. Still, for whatever that is worth, I enjoyed watching it. Normally I would blame this on my mind being broken by Akiva Goldsman, Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Jar Jar Abrams, but I, uh, also liked Sucker Punch, and my liking Sucker Punch predates the new Star Wars trilogy and all of nuTrek except Star Trek 2009. Yeah, I am about as surprised as you all are.2 points
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Shadow of the Road | Announcement Trailer Judging by one of my old Steam posts getting random replies, the game is closer to a turn-based tactical stealth game, rather than a full CRPG, but I might be wrong. So, while I am not particularly interested (unless full stealth/no kills is an option), it might be good for the fans of the genre.2 points
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You should feel silly. If you had put that $8 into a savings account, it would be like $13 now.2 points
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I've never thought about it like this before, but you get increasing returns with each Wildrhymer in your party. Since you don't care too much about PL you can use Spell Shaping to hit all of your dead pets simultaneously with ...And Face Your Foes. Rezzing up to five dead pets with a single cast is an excellent deal, and since they don't get injuries and you don't care too much if they die again, they also make better usage of the bonus to all defenses. It's like one of those fantasy tropes where people get started on necromancy by trying to bring back their dead dogs and cats.1 point
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I thought it was something for only 1.5 cent (ie a fraction of a Euro) Honestly no idea without being able to see the first part of the sentence1 point
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You mean the "FÜR 1,5 degrees Celsius"? probably something for the cyclists to keep the footprint low.1 point
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Anyone uploading pics in this thread without naming the game should be insta-banned. Can we get that rule, please?1 point
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Why these subclasses granted that both are specially about summoning and you can't have GH pet along chanter summons. Are you hating pet that much ?1 point
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Thank you for the clarification. It is quite early in the game, so I agree that getting the next Owlcat game before progressing with WotR at least to Dresen (Chapter 3, I think) might be inadvisable. --- The Outer Worlds. Monarch. Trying to find an in-character reason for doing the side quests before finding the information broker and saving the Hope. Sanjar is persuasive and MSI is the only likeable corporation, thus, one must help them? On another note, the area is rather large - there are 3 settlements and quite a few combat encounters. I guess, the red rocks are supposed to serve as walls, considering that even when jumping from above, the PC slides from them. Edit. I suppose, for the in-character motivation - there is no point in saving the Hope colonists if the colony itself is on the brink of collapse. They would just die a bit warmer.1 point
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To go into numbers, At the last dialogue for her personal quest I was at 0 Fire, 2 Humility, 1 Fury (let's be honest, in chapter 3 "we'll f em up!" is the only reasonable dialogue choice in any dialogue). So in theory I should have been able to nudge her towards fury with a double fury choice. But because the Argenta quest blocks that dialogue, she failed the quest. Both Fire and Fury complete the quest, just change the stats of the power armour and the ending slides.1 point
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No, each companion except for Adelard has three stats. For Argenta it is Humility, Fire, Fury. Each time you talk to her boosts one of them. It is extremely easy to boost humility if you don't play an idiot. For example telling her she should have informed the Ecclesiarchy of the suspected location of the relic before heading off. In other words she should have lead a proper exhibition to reclaim the artifact not run off without a plan, is a humility choice which causes her to lose faith. The biggest problem is, at the end of each quest there is a dialogue which gives double points, so that if you got the odd discussion wrong, you can still nudge the character in the right direction. For Argenta, humility choices lock you out of that dialogue, giving you an alternate dialogue without choices for fire and fury. Fire has her found a minor order and is the good option Fury has her go full fanatical crusader and run around burning people alive. It is the worst companion quest because it just ends in failure and railroads you into it if you are on the path to failure. I got Ulfar to lone wolf. Better than Wulfen, but still a dumb illogical resolution (then again, that fits space wolves). But at least with his quest the quest competes regardless of what he'll do afterwards. Yrliet's quest works. Either you are iconoclast enough and do it, or you probably do not have her in your party anyway. Similar with Idira and Jae. The advise you give Carissa is pretty clear, so the result makes sense. Pascal is probably the best quest. It actually has substance and ties in with the main quest. It isn't just an NPC saying "hey Playa, can we talk, I want you to do my personal quest".1 point
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Ah, I meant the little underground community at the end of it, which Google tells me is called Neathholm. I think it's still classified as being part of the prologue, but I guess the tutorial was over.1 point
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Lesson learned though. Wait 10 years to buy a game. I hear this "Skyrim" game is fun.1 point
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https://www.gog.com/game/tropico_4 Tropico 4 free. I feel silly for spending $8 on it 11 years ago now.1 point
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Too sweet to be sour, too nice to be mean.1 point
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The more I see of Avowed, the less interested I become. Of the shown gameplay: ---if they don't allow massive shrinking UI scaling or turning elements on/off, dear lord, whyyyyyyyyy. UI's where I feel like I'm peering through a fence are not UI's I am going to play. ---that blue companion guy talks way too much. ---why do npc's always tell the chr. to pull a lever etc when either they could do it themselves or maybe that minion that's standing RIGHT NEXT TO THE LEVER could do it? ---the graphics are fine1 point
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I had a roach fly at me the other day, for an animal that you can kill pretty easily it's funny how people instinctively tend to scream or fall into a fighting game stance when they see one (I did both). But they look creepy and feel worse if you happen to rub against one with bare skin, so **** em. I also have to say that I'm surprised majestic would go with that. Maybe he's healing from the Rebuilds and NuTrek and can finally laugh at them. Or maybe Diamond is Unbreakable broke his mind to the point anything seems normal compared to a David Bowie impersonator with a hand fetish being chased by a gang of high school students.0 points
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