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If all else fails, go on OnlyForks.

I finished The Lamplighter League. I enjoyed the game, but the ending was a big letdown. The final mission was good and my main team was effective, but it was a real blah finish. I think they were setting it up for DLC or something, but it didn't do well enough. I don't typically care that much if a game doesn't end well, but I expected at least some better lines from all these mercs I recruited.

I found some elves. There's a token black elf and two asian elves, one of which is a companion. 'Tis so inclusive, it wokes me out of my immersion. To make matters worse, none of the women in the game are masturbatory material, at least so far, and Neve (one of the companions) almost sounds like that transsexual in Hogwart's: Wokacy, even though they have different voice actors. On the techincal side, turning on RT makes the game look and feel better, but it also introduces the typical glowy reflective surfaces of lesser implementations of ray traced reflections. They're not as bas as they were in Hogwart's Legacy though, so it is mostly fine. Initially, the game was excessively unstable, crashing to the desktop with an NVIDIA driver error. I changed a few things in Afterburner*, turned off the EA app overlay and use full screen mode and vsync with a 50% frame lock, i.e. the game now runs at 60 fps. Have been playing without crashes ever since. I don't know which one of these was the problem, but it is stable now. Otherwise the game's running fine with all the RT bells and whistles turned on, even without DLSS. The gameplay is a hybrid between Dragon Age: Inquisition and Darksiders, which is where I guess a lot of the dislike for the combat comes from. I'd say it is not a good fit for a Dragon Age game, but then again, what is the gameplay of a Dragon Age game really? DA:O had a more traditional RPG combat system where fiddling with the AI scripts for an hour or two was necessary to make most of the tedium go away, Dragon Age 2 had a silly click to win action combat system and Dragon Age: Inquisition was Mass Effect with melee weapons and an optional tactical mode that was by far and large completely useless. So, is it actually bad so far? No. However, there are two key elements to the game that can put off players if they actively dislike such things (but such is the case for every game). I mean, outside of the inclusive elements causing incel rage, like the companions not having Tali style thigh gaps or there being a token minority character at every turn. The gameplay is really rather action oriented, you're dodging across the screen, you have to - unless playing on Storymode - use minor combo attacks and ideally perfectly block attacks which you can use to counter attack, all the while you're managing your own abilities with mana costs and cooldowns. It is about as far removed from Dragon Age: Origins as you can possibly get. The party banter and companions might as well have been written by James Gunn or Joss Whedon. If you don't like quippy banter or actively dislike character interactions like those in Guardians of the Galaxy or Firefly, then don't bother. Just early impressions though. There was one sad moment for long time fans of the series, and that comes really early. Bianca dies. *I had a custom voltage/frequency curve set up. It was within spec, it just turned off the boost by capping the voltage and fequency at the stock spec clock of 2600MHZ. That should not have caused the instability, but who knows. Every other game, including Cyberpunk 2077, was rock solid with that curve setting so far, but eh, yeah. I can just switch back to it once I am done playing Veilguard.

You naughty But I can't really see this as much of a surprise, Cyberpunk 2077 and BG3 both did this at least a year before (dragonborn genitals are horrifying). I think we all know that a segment of the internet is addicted to being mad, but this is just getting pathetic. Please just let me hate on the game for looking uncanny and having bad combat without getting spammed by videos from some mediocre youtube guy with 100 gigs of CP hentai on his hard drive. It's like NuTrek all over again, let me hate in peace you maidenless reprobates.

When there is unexpected help at the Cosplay Hospital...

Crewed MCM comic con London last weekend. As usual, working the Cosplay Central and Cosplay Hospital area. But this time, with half crew due to last minute illness and family issues. So, over the weekend, we hit a record of 1,894 cosplays clicked as repaired, 3 kids cosplay showcases, 3 adult cosplay showcases, 2 cosplay masquerades, a cosplay variety show, and the WCS qualifier for the UK team headed to Japan for the World Cosplay Summit championships. I was on the floor Saturday before 0730 and didn't head out till gone 2015. Also, first time I've had to share a room with someone I was not in a relationship with, and a complete stranger to boot for the entire weekend. I did not realise quite how hyper-focused and aware that would make me, and I might note, that while I am a Star Wars geek, the quiet Darth Vader in the corner because he had to use a sleep apnea machine was not conductive to sleep. I have spent the entire week trying to recover from that whole exhaustion. Given my sister a call and noted that this weekend I need a break from sorting through the house and dad's stuff and just doing a veg and recuperate.

So is the tl;dr that Bioware heard people love Spider AA RPGs and are trying to copy that?

But... if you manage to win the fight and the only "problem" is that you have to rest afterwards... is that really a problem? Yeah, the fight is brutal because of the constant stunning - and the phantoms pack a (frosty) punch. Some players make sure they get a Rymrgand's Mantle from the Temple of Eothas (random-not-really-random loot) or some other location before trying to take on the fight in Caed Nua. It minimizes the damage the Phantoms do with extra +5 freeze AR and at the same time it heals 20% from that freeze damage. Best item for a tank to have in that fight. Also the Whispers of Yenwood that you find in a vase at the entrace does actually help (if you have somebody who's good with swords). And, as @Chaospreadalready said: fire damage. But also, although they have tremendous freeze DR, they can still be blinded by a Chillfog - and quite easily because their fortitude is their lowest defense. Getting enemies blinded is a huge bonus for your survivability. If you have Combusting Wouds already (or a Ring of Searing Flames) it's a perfect combo with Chillfog on these enemies.

The Antelope gets +10 to all. But it has pretty bad stat distribution for the most important defenses (I think) so its defenses don't end up where I personally wanted them to be. It has very high reflex but only slightly better deflection than the Boar. Base health is the same for all ACs (base 36, +12 per level), but it gets modified by CON of course. Boar has the best CON (16), giving him +30% health. Antelope +0%, Bear +10%. Deer/Stag has a fairly balanced stat spread. The "carnage" on crit isn't that useful unfortunately. The base damage of ACs is low and since carnage is calculated with base dmg it does so puny dmg numbers it's best not to talk about them... Would have been a lot different if the base damage of ACs scaled like it used to in PoE. In Deadfire the dmg scales only additively like any scaling weapon does (see summoned weapons).

Only a handful of hours and I feel like I'm playing a AA fantasy action adventure instead of a AAA RPG. It's going to need to really nail the landing to end up getting a positive review from me by the end. The biggest issue might be how cinematic it wants to be while not quite managing it well. The game wants to have frequent cutscenes, but very little worth having a cutscene. Very little drama or action. Just dialogue dragged on a bit too long. Needed an editing pass to cut back the word count and add some drama. Right after the prologue when the new big threat is revealed, the party gathers round to discuss next steps. The other two characters come into scene by kicking back with cups of tea and I am a little lost as to why everyone is so cozy. There's just a jarring absence of tension 90% of the time. And the new darkspawn designs are the worst yet. But, on the other hand, the blight is the best yet.

i'm actually partial to antelope for PotD. AR boost is kinda hard to see gains from until scaling from mid-late game, even with resilient companion, bc it's such an arms race against enemy PEN. Meanwhile +10 to all defenses helps all the time, even if subtly. But large size on Bear is pretty handy when you need a body to do some body-blocking (may be dependant on your willingness to micromanage though).

This can also happen in other places with fights where you can stealth or retreat before the combat officially starts. For example if you enter Gorreci Str. and stay stealthed and save or leave and then reload/re-enter the looters will not turn hostile. I don't think that's intended.

I know @paaka's post are still under mod supervision - so it may take some time to get an answer to the mod question. But one can use the emoji-function without moderation iirc. Little suggestion for faster feedback: if you are using mods, @paaka: leave a . If not, leave a .

Imo the best overall companion is the Bear. It has +2 AR which is great, especially if you pair it with Resilient Companion (another +2 AR) and at the same time is among the best damage dealers (behind Wolf and Lion only). It has a large selection circle which means it will occupy more space than a character. This can be beneficial (block enemies' paths) but also detrimental (cannot navigate well in tight spaces). Boar has the endless regeneration (tankyness comparable to Bear's +2 AR I'd say) but does pretty low damage. It has a normal selection circle (like any party member). It does not do raw DoT. That's the Spiritshift Boar form (Druid). You can get detailed info here with @thelee's Game FAQ guide (section about animal companions a bit further down): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/ranger

Finally got the chance to watch the Skill Up and Matty videos in full, and also check some other negative reviews, and then very sadly went into my Steam wishlist to remove DA:V from it. If I ever play the game, and now that has become a big if, it will be years from now, and I don't want it cluttering up my wishlist.

The Israeli ground offensive is also stalled. Maybe both parties are looking for a way to back out.

Well, yes, but its even worse, you can be a Qunari, just like in Inquisition. Which means being a fantasy mooslim is an option in the game. Vote Trump!

Hmm... Honestly wouldn't surprise me in the least. Then again, buying games on release is just gambling anyway. We'll see in a few months where the opinions land.

Don't turn off the mod, DELETE them entirely then start a NEW GAME and retry. Following step should be REINSTALL whole game (if you feel like it). Imho something broke your game data, wasting all current run.

do you have any mods?

Do I get to customise my genitalia. That's a veilguard question not a general life question.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/pop-culture-artist-extraordinaire-greg-hildebrandt-dies-at-85/ Gorram it.

I'd be skeptical of anything reported in the Israeli press, based on something claimed by a TV company run by a prominent Phalangist family. Funny thing, Hezbollah people have this really weird tendency to talk to Israeli and non Shia Lebanese media and say exactly what said media wants them to say. It's almost like they aren't actually talking to real Hezbollah people... And for anyone wondering, yes, the Lebanese Phalange named themselves and modeled themselves after Franco's Spanish Falange, and are, literally literally, fascists who want to Make Lebanon Christian Again. Which is why they got on so well with Begin and Shamir's Israel. They were responsible- along with another former Israeli PM, Ariel Sharon, and the IDF- for the judicially proven to be genocidal Sabra and Shatila massacre, among many other atrocities. Far from alone in perpetuating atrocities of course, but theirs tended to be the largest and most memorable ones targeting civilians. Though as with their moral compatriots Al Qaeda in Syria they prefer to be known by a different name now, so as not to offend tender western sensibilities (--> 'Kataeb').

Teri Garr