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I'm not convinced yet I like UE5 as an engine, from a player/customer point of view. But oh well what do I know. Edit: I'm sure I'd be able to run both Obs games, but yeah, 3080 is a little steep-feeling. They could've at least mentioned what that was targeting - eg, 1080/60/RT+DLSS on, or whatever. And never mind RT stuff - I'm still of the opinion that TAA is one of the worst things to happen re: overall simple graphic clarity. Sometimes DLSS/Quality with sharpening looks better in some ways than native, because of TAA - depends on game tho. Sometimes it's not too bad, other times it horrid. I don't mean pixel-hunting comparison type better, I just mean ... a clean sense of clarity, better contrast "pop", less smeary/soft lens sensation.

Sorry to annonce you this, but wounding shot stacking DoT was already fixed by Community Patch. And just to share my current work in progress, yesterday I managed to tweak an ability for the first time on... Pillars of eternity 1 !!! This is more tedious than for PoE2 but less than I expected. There might a (much lesser scale) PoE1 BPM ready for PoE1 10th birthday!

If you really want to sell me on wabbajack, you know what you have to do. Upload a soundfile of explaining it's merits to the tune of ABBA's Waterloo.

Hi everyone - there was a hiccup for December's blog: sorry. I am happy to share that January and February's are ready! So, January's edition is coming! In the meantime, please do reach out if you have a musing you would like to discuss/contribute for the March edition!

So basically I spared benweth, told aeldys about yser and lucia in deadlight, then never visited her again, did the yseyr furrante, did the principi slaver quest with furrante and simultaneously with the vailians, did the vailian trial, then went over to furrante and attacked him in the first dialogue. Aeldys was already tied up when I did this. Went up and freed her non violently by saying you're welcome. And then when she comes down you can repeat the interaction again and again for scordeos edges and blackblade hoods. Any build suggestions ?

They literally can't do business because their IP has been stolen and is being used by Chinese companies. One is preventing doing business over valid security concerns, the other is stealing and blackmail to stop them from doing business for profit. No, mr Sarex, I expect them to die.

Avowed and Outer World2 run on Unreal Engine5 so it will be more demanding to run - I worry how stuttery it's gonna be. I wonder if high graphics card requirements come from VRAM requirements, like with Indiana Jones. It seems Nvidia cleverly throttled available VRAM in all but most expensive GPU, so my rather pricey 3070 will become dated faster than I expected. Eh, I don't think there has ever been much hype generated for any of MS releases - just recently Indiana Jones was arriving like it was meant to flop, and by all accounts it is supposed to be pretty good. There are games that just don't trailer well. The decend chunk of gameplay I saw from previous looked promising. I am saying that, though, as I have intention of checking it on gamepass. I would never have a confidence to drop £60 to buy it on steam (or god forbid £80 to not have to wait to pay).

I have some very exciting news I am about to finish Underrail and after all this debate and discussion around W4 I have realized how much I miss the entire Witcher universe I have decided to replay the whole Witcher series, I only played these iconic games once and I didnt mod them This time I will use extensive mods I am looking forward to revisiting the world of Geralt

Melkie I havent played Skyrim yet, I have been preparing to play it and I have been researching the various mod collections I am going to use Wabbajack to automatically install the several thousand mods that will be part of the Wabbajack collection I finally decide to use And it seems to be a choice between Wildlander and Lorerim but I am definitely going to use Requiem as the foundation and all these types of Mod collection do But I highly suggest using Wabbajack, it makes it much easier to see and browse the main Mod collections and all the collections have been tested and they have active Discord and other similar support forums for any issues

I am bored, so I tried out different Alternate Start mods for Skyrim. They make the game so much better by cutting out that long intro. Mind, after a moment you are back in the game, so it gets boring again. But with the game's level scaling it can be interesting to see different regions as starting locations. One character's story started when they put on a ring and suddenly woke up from a haze and realized they were a necromancer's thrall - you start in a small cave, with a necromancer doing stuff over their alchemy station. You are wearing a ring of nullification that raises your magic resistance. Suddenly the first big town I went to was Riften, not Whiterun. Another character started in the underground Falmer city as a slave. Once the overseer relaxed, I could simply make a run for it. (apparently the mod is made as a death alternative, so you are high level and lead a slave revolt, but who has the patience to level up).

No, it's really not, disregarding what some governments do for a minute, there are several instances where companies have tried to sue Chineese companies for copyright or patent infringement and have been stonewalled by the government. In the rest of the world, these things happen all the time.

You could try the following straightforward "easy" builds that don't require a lot of actions once the combat starts (but can add more stuff if needed): Kind Wayfarer/Helwalker: dual wielding or weapon (includes fists but also other weapons) + bashing shield (spec. Tuotilo's Palm). Eternal Devotion, Turning Wheel, Lightning Strikes, Torment's Reach etc. Your Flames of Devotion not only heal you but also the party members (INT bonus from Turning Wheel gives you a very big AoE size, Helwalker's MIG bonus makes your healing more powerful) around you, you can get very high armor and defenses (see Paladin's passives and Helwalker's MIG bonus that raises fortitude, Crucible of Suffering gets triggered by Sacred Immolation's self damage wearing off and so on) - it's easy to play, has good damage output against single targets as well as in an AoE, is sturdy, can do terrific support with healing and other stuff. Goldpact Knight/Shifter Druid: pick all the armor passives of the Paladin and Sworn Rival, Wildstrike stuff from the Druid side (whatever element you like), Eternal Devotion etc. Sworn Rival + the Goldpacts special ability "Gilded Enmity" also works when shifted. When you shift into the Bear form + Gilded Enmity you will have very high AR while having null recovery penalty. You can dish out nice melee damage while being very durable (also Lay on Hands works while shifted). You can shift multiple times, so when your Bear Form wears off you can shift into a Boar and so on. The AR will be a bit less than with the Bear but still impressively high. Complement with Blunting Belt and so on. It works right off the bat with shifting, no spellcasting needed. However in tough encounters you can cast powerful (AoE) spells before/between shifts. You can also use Sacred Immolation while shifted and combine it with Nature's Terror for example (cast Nature's Terror, shift, cast Sacred Immolation, go to town... very good AoE damage with just one spellcast and two quick ability activations). Devoted/Streetfighter: large shield (like Bronlar's Phalanx), Gladiator's Sword (+1 PEN enchantment, +2 PEN from Devoted), deflection gear. Not really AoE, but capable of being the main tank while dishing out great melee damage at the same time. Not pure damage sponge but a great hybrid of good defense and good offense. Required almost no micromanagement after some levels. You'll have very high PEN for slash and pierce damage (sword) - should you need crush damage you can use your fist + Monastic Unarmed Training with no drawback from the Devoted side. Furyshaper/Unbroken: maxed MIG (at least 20 with gear, 25 would be optimal), Battle Axe "Amra", enchantment Riven Gore. Use Bleeding Cuts (the battle axe modal) and Frenzy, your Carnage AoE and the Axe's AoE on crit (with 25+ MIG, Riven Gore) will stack. Great synergy between Riven Gore, Blood Thirst + Cleaving/Mob Stance. Devastating against mobs. if you pick Furyshaper Barb: Use a Fear Ward summon to terrify enemies who will then leave your engagement, triggering disengagement attacks form you. The Unbroken fighter has great bonuses on disengagement attacks. When things get tough switch to a 1h-Battle Axe + shield. The Unbroken will then grant you +1 AR and make you extra sturdy. Also good with other Barb/Fighter subclasses, for example vanilla Barb/Fighter. Then without fear/disengagment stuff. Mage Slayer/Skald: use the unique Morning Star Saru Sichr. It has two attack rolls instead of one (one more chance to crit which makes the Skald gain phrases). Use Spirit Frenzy (staggers with chants as well) and sing the phrase "The Long Night's Drink". Use the Morning Star's modal "Body Blows" which lowers enemies' fortitude by 25 points. Spirit Frenzy will latch onto you chant and both will lower enemies' fortitude (Spirit Frenzy by 10, Long Night's Drink by 14). This is a great debuffing character which needs almost no action besides triggering Frenzy. You can then attack with the Morning Star. The second hit roll from it is a poison DoT which targets fortitude. Once the enemies' fortitude is so much debuffed (25 from Body Blows + 24 from Spirit Frenzy+chant) the second hit roll of the Morning Star will crit a lot, giving you phrases quickly. Once yout get Brute Force all attacks will target fortitude if it's lower than deflection. Crits en masse. Also the double roll of the Morning Star applies the Mage Slayer's casting debuff twice. So you only need to hit a caster twice and he/she cannot cast spells anymore (100% debuff). Cast nasty offensive invocations when you wish. They are supercheap for a Skald and get refilled quickly with crits. Choose good disables such as "Killers Froze Stiff", nice debuff such as "Ben Fidel's Neck" or pure damage such as "Her Revenge Swept Across". Stalker (Bear Companion)/Darcozzi Paladini: use Blade of the Endless Paths (with "Marking"), Ring of Focused Flames + Flames of Devotion and also Accurate Wounding Shot, Greater Lay on Hands, Reviving Exhortation, Zealous Focus, Marked for the Hunt, Stalker's Link, Resilient Companion... The goal is to crit a single enemy often. This is easy with FoD + Ring (+20 accuracy, same with Accurate Wounding Shot) + Stalker's Link and Marked Prey and the aura - and the Blade's help which gains accuracy every few seconds, too. A crit will put a debuff on the enemy, lowering their deflection up to -20, collapsing their deflection and making it easy at some point for you and all party members to hit/crit them. At the same time you can be very sturdy (Paladin passives + Stalker passive) and your Bear, too. It gains +1AR form the Stalker passive, +2 from Resilient Companion, +2 from being a Bear and also +2 from your Greater Lay on Hands. If it goes down you can use Reviving Exhortation or the Ranger's revive. For ehaling you can use Lay on Hands or the Ranger's heal. The deflection debuff doesn't need any setup. You just put out Mared Prey and attack with Flames of Devotion/Accurate Wound Shot and drop the enemies' defelction into the ground on the fly. AoE can get added with Sacred Immolation later. There's a lot more builds that are sturdy yet have decent damage output and can start into combat without much preparation quickly and easily. There are just a few that came to my mind while I was typing.