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Greetings Envoys, The time has come! The Avowed Roadmap is revealed! Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding. There is a lot of cool things coming to Avowed and we can't wait for you to experience it all.

It's a great way to get a huge burst of focus right at the start of the encounter - if you can shoot at a "soft" target. Having a lot focus at you disposal very early in battle can be a big advantage. Blunderbusses (especially when lashes are involved) are not good against high DR foes, but in most battles there's a few weaklings. Leadspitter + Ryona's Vambraces + Penetrating Shot gives you a whole lot of DR bypass, which is good for the pierce damage, but DR bypass doesn't work for the lashes on the weapon (like a burning lash enchantment and/or Aefyllath Ues Mith Fyr). And since those lashes are based on mutiple projectiles with individually low dmg numbers, they often do not get past enemies' DR in the first place. That's a shame for a Cipher because they would generate additional focus, too (if they can penetrate the enemies' DR). So it's best to target not too thick armor - even if you have a lot of DR bypass (if you can help it). Against high DR foes it's not a bad idea to bring a backup pistol (same weapon focus). Blunderbuss + Combusting Wounds is great by the way.

Greetings Envoys, We want to take a moment to thank you for your continued reports, feedback, suggestions, and your patience. Your insights are valuable to us, and we appreciate the time and effort you put into sharing your experiences with us. Without further ado, the 1.4 patch notes is now ready for all to enjoy! Thank you for being part of our community—we appreciate your support and look forward to sharing more with you in the future! — The Avowed Team Features and Improvements! Arachnophobia Safe Mode The highly requested Arachnophobia Mode is now available in Avowed! You can enable this option in the Accessibility menu to replace all spiders in the game with little spheres wielding swords. Please note that while their appearance is “friendlier”, they remain just as deadly! Without Arachnophobia mode Example of Arachnophobia mode enabled Community Highlights Once a player has explored nearly all of the accessible areas on a map, the fog of war for the entire map will automatically clear. When entering a city on an overland map (for example, entering Northern Paradis in Dawnshore), the corresponding section of the overland map will now be revealed. The radius for clearing fog while exploring has been significantly increased, allowing players to uncover more of the map as they move. Critters can now be killed and have a chance to drop loot. Players can now wait to pass time (day/night cycle) while in the Party Camp. Soul Pod throwables now dispel illusions, with the exception of Ryngrim’s entrance, which still requires Yatzli’s interaction. Added a settings option to display chests on the minimap. Added a setting option to allow canceling power attacks with the Bow and Arquebus. World Reactivity Improvements Arrows will now fall naturally and hit the ground. Water now reacts with splashes and ripples when players enter it or fire weapons into it. Economy & Loot Adjustments Critters now drop loot when killed. Added more weapons to loot throughout the game, including many that come pre-upgraded (+1, +2, +3 versions). Increased monetary rewards for main path quests and exploration. Small loot containers, such as backpacks and lockboxes, can now contain larger items like body armor and larger weapons, leading to more fairly distributed drops. Significantly increased the drop rate of Creature Parts (which can now also be used for upgrading grimoires). Increased the drop rate of higher-tier weapons in later regions. Updated loot lists to include slightly more upgrade materials. UI/UX Improvements Added a visual effect and UI indicator to help players locate Downed Companions during combat. Enabled the "Talk" interaction prompt for Companions. Added support for Mouse and Keyboard input on Xbox. Updated the loading screen art for the Dawnshore and Fort Northreach maps. Added an ‘Auto Detect’ option to the Graphics menu to find and set the recommended settings for your hardware. Added support for Nvidia DLSS Frame Generation (for RTX 40 and 50 series GPUs). Added a "Read All" button to the Journal; each tab (Quests, Documents, and Tutorials) now has its own dedicated button. Combat Updates Enemies now become shocked faster when standing in water. Creature Parts can now be used to upgrade Grimoires. Companion Improvements Companions now gain Ability Points every 3 levels instead of every 4 levels, increasing their maximum from 8 to 11. Players will automatically receive the additional points upon updating. Enemy Behavior Enemy awareness speed now dynamically adjusts based on their distance from the player — closer enemies detect players faster, while distant enemies react more slowly. Unique Item Updates Updated the stats on many Unique Items throughout the game: Thirdborn Brigandine Jacket: Increased regeneration rate. Civilizing Influence: Increased damage reduction against beasts, primordials, and wilders to 10%. Berath's Blessed Ward: Increased damage reduction against vessels to 20%. Chitin Band: Increased damage reduction against beasts to 20%. Nimanna's Ward: Increased damage reduction against spirits to 20%. Wildwalker Ring and Threads of the Faithful: Increased health regeneration from 0.05 to 0.5. Thirdborn Brigandine Jack: Increased health regeneration from 0.05 to 0.8. Faith and Conviction: Increased essence regeneration from 0.05 to 0.1. Enchantments Rework Replaced obsolete Carry Capacity enchantments on certain Unique Items with new stat buffs: Boots of the Bricklayer / Porter: +2 Might Animancer's Swallowtail / Stelgaer-Hide Pouches: +2 Dexterity The Packmule's Burden / Honorbound Mule: +1 Might, +2 Constitution Tranton Family Brigandine / Tranton Tenacity: +2 Might Thirdborn Brigandine Jack / Grim Hope: +3 Resolve Thirdborn Boots / Explorer's Boon: +3 Constitution, +10% Move Speed Key Bug Fixes Limited CPU utilization during the "Compiling Shaders" screen to improve stability across all CPUs. Fixed an issue where Shadows of the Past waypoints could become stuck at the beginning of the entrance path to Naku Kubel. Totem pieces now correctly go into the player’s inventory instead of the party stash when picked up. Resolved cases where certain totem effects would stop working after a conversation or cutscene. Minoletta’s Conduit now correctly interacts with the Wand Mastery ability. Fixed an issue where companions could be removed from the party, resulting in broken conversations and quests. Enemy vitals UI has been updated to always stay properly positioned above enemies, preventing occasional clipping. The statue in Ryngrim’s Domain now remains interactable even if the player previously interacted with it without fully advancing the quest. An Untimely End quest now correctly triggers the final objective and no longer gets stuck under rare conditions. Completing certain quests on older saves now properly counts toward the Pentiment achievement. Fixed an issue where the Armor Fit for the Wilds quest could get stuck at the "Gather Materials" stage. Re-added the FidelityFX 3 option to Graphics Settings for AMD graphics card users. Binding the scroll wheel to hotbar slots 1–6 now works properly after restarting the game. Binding Ability Slots to keys 7, 8, 9, or 0 no longer casts an unintended additional ability from the radial menu. Players will no longer encounter unkillable Dreamthralls outside of Thirdborn. Additional Bug Fixes Crashes and stability Limited CPU utilization during the Compiling Shaders screen, to increase stability on all CPUs. Fixed a rare hang that would cause the whole PC to freeze on some machines. Fix rare crash when traveling between maps. Fixed a crash that could occur after idling in Dawnshore for a long period of time. Fixed a rare crash related to audio systems. Resolved a rare crash related to the radial UI and food items. Performance and Optimizations Optimized wand power attacks. Improved performance of the 'Meteor Shower' ability Optimized the volcano eruption cutscene Animation Corrected animations of a dwarf at the Emergency Camp in Galawain's Tusks. Improved gestures, emotions and lip-sync of few conversations. Mestru Varka's hands no longer clip with their outfit. Improved unarmed idle animation. Quests & Conversations Shadows of the Past waypoints no longer get stuck at the beginning of the entrance path to Naku Kubel. The quest 'Homecoming' now progresses correctly if the player speaks with the Jail Guards earlier in the quest. Set up a failstate for Nature vs. Nurture for an edge case where the player "One Last Drink" now progresses correctly if the player speaks with Kohwa before starting the quest. Adding a new success/end state node for players who were stuck in Boundaries of Antiquity after taking a very specific path through the quest. Players already stuck in this state will have the quest progress automatically upon loading into the game. Tira Nui Hajime now only appears in one location at a time in Thirdborn, to ensure quests involving the character work consistently. Added a new addendum as well as a new area objective beacon for players who are at the final step of the Garden quest to give clarity on what the current objective for the player is. Conversation with Ruanga no longer ends unexpectedly after certain choices. Added a conditional to the Cistern key in the Claviger's estate to prevent it from appearing before the player should be able to find it. 'An Untimely End' now correctly triggers the final objective instead of getting stuck under very specific conditions. Progression of Nature vs. Nature quest will no longer break if the player did not make the final decision The statue in Ryngrim's Domain now remains interactable for cases where the player interacted with the statue previously, but hadn't fully advanced the quest yet. Player can no longer get burned from destroyed brambles Selecting to attack Razvan during conversation is now counted as Violent Resolutions Returned the ability to parkour up the rocks behind Margan's Assay 'Locate the Steel Garrote' quest beacon now updates correctly after talking to Kostya Katoa and Haiako can no longer teleport It is possible to talk to Novice Dolna about Burned Bounty List after giving her the Book of the Before Kai no longer stands halfway underground when camping in Shatterscarp sometimes. Can no longer enter Fior Mes Iverno via the south entrance Miteno's conversation can no longer be triggered after completing the quest, preventing the player from getting infinite rewards from him. A Relic from Ashes Quest now also Rewards the Player with currency Quest can be now completed by starting it in such alternative way. Broken Farming Equipment conversation will no longer randomly trigger after events in Fior mes Iverno Fixed missing waypoint for Mapping the Region quest turn ins Exploding the barrel next to the Steel Garrote guards in the Steel Garrote Camp in now causes them to go hostile Must talk to Kai about Tama's badge Dialogue with farmers in Nature vs. Nurture quest does not repeats after ending it if player starts this quest by talking to Hermit first Quest marker for the objective "Release Gilyn" appears after killing Galawain's Tusk bounties now correctly point to bounty master even if they move elsewhere due to story events Added a new beacon for Gabral if the player is on the step to go speak with him and then Solace Keep Conversation with companions next to Nandru's Journal will no longer start if Player progresses the Main Story far enough. Sanza now takes Geirmunds catography notes from the player if they offer to hand them over at the docks instead of at Sanza's shop in Northern Paradis Conversation with Ruanga can no longer be repeated after Player exhausts all the available dialogue options. Conversation with Ranger Dorso about the investigation will no longer repeat after the quest "Steel Resolve" is completed. This will affect both new and old saves. "Fixed an issue in Ryngrim's Domain whereby Kai would incorrectly identify the number of statue pieces the player has collected. Fixed an issue in Ryngrim's Domain whereby the conversation with Yatzli would drop unexpectedly under certain conditions. Fixed an issue in Ryngrim's Domain whereby a conversation would repeatedly trigger under certain conditions." Fixed a once ever turn in node for "A Home for Outcasts" quest. It is now always available for players until the quest is completed, ensuring that players will never be in a state where they cannot finish the quest. This fix works for saves that were already stuck in this state already as well. Wardens from the Cave and Tower camps in Galawain's Tusks will no longer be hostile if the player has parleyed with Amalia. Fixed the issue where, if the Adra while One Last Drink quest was still in progress and all Crewmates were convinced to attend the reunion, upon talking to Ngunu, Fixed the issue where during "Nature vs Nurture" quest companions would talk about how peaceful the xaurips are despite the fact they are hostile. Fixed the issue where Giatta would have troubles with animations after each conversation inside her house. Camera fixes for conversation with Chiko if the player plunders from Keipo's Dungeon before visiting Thirdborn Turning in the Beetle Matriarch's bounty will now be removed from the bounty board properly. Emerald Stair map now correctly displays two Pargrunen Caches instead of just one. Removed issue causing the Aelfyr to disappear after their vignette in Northern Paradis Fix error where you could give Ofryc the wrong ring in one instance NPC near godshrine in Shatterscarp will now allow you to retrigger their conversation if it dropped randomly and preventing player from collecting god totem fragment. The quest icon for the Nature vs. Nature quest will now disappear correctly after Fixed a bug that caused the player to receive the same trinket reward twice from Heart of Valor, leviathans have only one heart canonically The player is no longer able to leave the quest area before speaking with Ryngrim after the Naku Kubel decision cutscene Prevented spider from spawning under the level in the Spider Lair Player no longer able to access the sulfur mines in Shatterscarp after the player agrees Fixed a bug where Captain Ngunu could show up in his lighthouse and the tavern at the same time Optimized terrain chunks navigation around the tiered farms in Emerald Stair The conversation with Tycg in the Aedyran Embassy in Dawnshore will no longer end unexpectedly. Kai will no longer talk in conversation with Dehengen if he is not in the player's current party It is no longer possible to buy the 'Faith and Conviction' armor from Forgemaster Dela twice Companions will no longer appear in the middle of the conversation space when talking to the leaders of the Living Lands during the quest Giatta will no longer play bark dialogue during the Adra Pillar cutscene at Naku Tedek Improved transition into the ending cutscenes and end slides of the game. Corrected the loot list for a chest outside of Naku Tedek that would sometimes have no loot in it. An NPC will no longer walk into the conversation space when talking to Warden Radut in Galawain's Tusks. Camera now correctly centers on the Envoy when certain characters state their opinion about trying drugs. Yatzli will no longer repeat the same conversation about Living Land leaders in The Garden Fixed an issue where the Player could fall behind the cliff and get stuck in Delemgan Glade UI/UX Lore UI in conversations will no longer flicker while using the largest text size Adjusted the Map Legend textbox to prevent text overlapping. The Dream Touch status effect icon is now displayed correctly under hit enemy HP bars Added 'Hold' variants of Sticks, Bumpers and D-Pad icons Updated the videos used in the tutorials for Swords and Greatswords. Color of the 'Corroded Key' icon is now consistent with other key items Ancient Memory conversations now have smoother fade out animations. Food persistent temporary effects are limited to a designer adjustable number HUD Opacities of <100% no longer cut off Companions' want-to-talk icons. Added an auto detect graphics button for the Graphics Quality setting. The party camp god totem's skill dialog now also forwards analog input changes to the scrollable content. Companion abilities are now automatically added to empty hotbar slots. Switching between controller and mouse when playing on an Xbox will no longer cause the cursor to disappear on the map screen. Subtitle text size now changes properly after changing it in Settings. It is now possible to scroll Kai's "New Companion" pop-up when playing with Bigger text size and High Contrast Documents on. "Want to talk" companion icons will no longer show if the player progresses to a point in the story where they can no longer have regular conversations with companions. It is now possible to select all presets in Character Creation on Xbox if playing with a mouse plugged in. Switching grimoires mid cooldown no longer freezes the cooldown animation. When resetting graphics settings back to default on PC, it will set the Graphics Quality settings back to the last benchmark results instead of always to Epic Quality. The description for DLSS Frame Generation in Settings now updates properly when playing using a 50 series GPU. The player can now disable HUD Shake in Settings. Re-added the FidelityFX 3 option to the graphics settings for AMD graphics card users. Switching between controller and mouse when playing on an Xbox will no longer cause icons on the map to be non-interactable. Point of Interest names now properly fit within text backgrounds on the map. "XP Gained" notifications will no longer linger on the screen longer than intended. Opening the radial while viewing the grimoire spells with the mouse will no longer make the radial unresponsive. "Unspent points" reminders are now included in the "Show Reminders" settings. When rebinding Gamepad Left Trigger to Sprint and Left Thumbstick to Off Hand, Left Trigger will no longer trigger the Off Hand action. Changing controller binding presets back to "Custom" will now undo the other preset's pending bindings to the currently applied bindings. "Don't Show Again" option on the input bindings screen now works as intended. Separated map panning and zoom speed with keyboard and gamepad from FPS Frame limit can no longer be set while frame generation is on. Binding the scroll wheel to hotbar slots 1-6 now works as intended after restarting the game. Binding the R key to Next Subtab will no longer cause equipping the next item after stashing or breaking down an item. Corrected the translation for "survivalist" in Chinese. Tutorials no longer flicker while the game's language is set to Portuguese. Grimoire Mastery no longer shows as a prerequisite when trying to increase the rank of Minor Missiles. The Quest Tracker is now included in HUD shake animations. The player can now unbind an action from the hotbar by binding the same action to the same slot. All of the radial menu is now accessible when using a mouse when playing on Xbox. The controller mapping view in Settings now shows bindings on inputs properly when rebinding "Swap weapon set" to a different input. The player is now able to scroll down the description of Difficulty in the Game Settings when using a controller and the UI Text Size is set to "Large" or "Larger" Treasure Maps no longer flicker when viewing them. The highlight for the currently selected preset in Character Creation now works as intended when switching between different screens. Fix issue where navigating companion UI skill page with keyboard and controller doesn't make the navigate sound effect. Respecing Ability points no longer requires spending the first point into Charge, Tanglefoor, or Missiles. [UI] Removed unused setting from Accessibility Settings to match its removal from the UI tab Fixed issue where quest items could have quality pips Fixed an issue where Upscale setting was showing Nvidia DLSS 3 on an unsupported video card Made setting's screen resolution values more consistent and to accept even 10k values. Added different colored throwable types "[UI] The Grimoire displays are no longer hidden by the Show HUD toggle While cases were made for both sides, this generally feels slightly kinder to the player, as there's no other way to see what's in their grimoire and which button will do what [UI] HUD Opacity slider is no longer disabled by the Show HUD setting, since it affects more than just the HUD anyway (Compass in particular)" Added Elemental Resistance to Stat page next to accumulation values [UI] Traits/Grimoire Spells are now shown on the Upgrade screen at Party Camp Fixed Health and Essence potion tutorial Percentage symbol has been adapted to each language requirements. Fixed issue where breaking down prompt flickers briefly before the prompt fully pops up. The Player can no longer accidentally consume potions with the right click input in inventory. Fix issue with Shadowing beyond and grass incorrectly setting and unsetting the hidden indicator. Fixed Controller issue for the Dialog History Screen where LS controls the right list, while RS the left one When switching from gamepad to keyboard it'll update the hotbar entries properly so action 5 & 6 aren't greyed out. Art Fixing Obsidian order armor shoulder plates visible in First-Person View. Fixed Water splashes from water react differently than on Rivers. Fixed Amalia's navigation inside the Camp. Fixed player being able to enter Thirdborn via pipelines. Fixed floating roots in the Thicket. Fixed an issue where Paradis Militia in the Emerald Stair Gatehouse falls into the ground. The Player no longer can climb on top of the Xaurip rock in Prologue. Corrected the visual look of glass for low Global Illumination Setting. Smoothed out the skinning and reduce clipping of the Kumitru's shirt during conversation. Added new Design for Downed Companion indicators for when they are offscreen Shooting Water with Arrows now causes splash Added effect for ripples, wake when swimming for all NPCs, companions and players Fixed an issue where The Player was unable to see Casted Meteor Shower at farther ranges Fixed an issue where Lodestone's scratch decals are placed inaccurately Fixed fire and ire Impact LOD Fixed an issue where Smoke and steam effects inside Mermaid’s Den appear completely opaque, when global illumination graphic settings has been set to Low Added new Design for Downed Companion indicators for when they are offscreen Combat/Systems Fixes Increased arrow drop for bow basic attacks The visual effect of the Stamina Drain Aura cast by Ghost type enemies will now correctly end with the effect rather than lasting twice as long Added loot drops for killable critters Fixed issue with Crackling Bolt not correctly applying shock accumulation Fixed issue with bear fodder enemies clipping through Kai when attacking Companions affected with Shock accumulation no longer electrocute each other in a loop. Improved lightning accumulation rate in water hazards Raised the heights of the enemy health and stun UI on Ghost units to allow for more unobstructed aiming at their heads. Fixed a typo in the description of the 'Ring of the Founder' item Updated animation timings of Giatta's parry action to better line up with enemy attacks getting parried. Fixed a typo in the journal entry for the Totem of Defiance Improved lightning accumulation rate in water hazards Arrows now have gravity and will fall back down if shot in the air Grimoires now will cost less materials to upgrade per tier, but their per tier upgrade value has been reduced to match the change in upgrade costs Fixed Minoletta's Conduit now works as intended with the Wand Mastery Ability Fixed description of Chitin Band's enchantment to match buffs to the item Added Grimoires now use creature parts to upgrade instead of wood Halma's Fancy trinket now grants +20 Maximum Essence in addition to +3 Perception. Adjusted Aedyran Supply Cache to help make it easier for players to find Companions will now stay closer to the Player. Fixed the typo on one of the epitaphs inside Dawnshore Graveyard. Vailian and Rauataian coins can now be found as loot. Programming Fixes Fixed an issue with weapons losing enchantments after traveling between maps Fixed an issue where Bristling Frost doesn't create ice platforms on water Companions now consistently leave the combat state after all enemies lose track of the player. Fixed an issue where Completing certain quests on older saves was not bring properly counted for the Pentiment achievement. Fixed the "Armor Fit for the Wilds" Quest getting stuck at the "Gather Materials" stage. Ensure Proxy actors enter/exit destination points. Dead encounter characters with no loot will no longer respawn Fixed an issue where HUD was not fading out for end slides Improved Optimization to essence wisp spawning Improve appearance of hair, beards and fur when using FSR at lower quality levels Fixed an issue where Player inventory slot being left empty when equipping a weapon with LMB+RMB together Fix a while flash in the world lighting that can sometimes be seen when the loading screen disappears Essence will no longer be reduced from full when loading a save game where the Woedica totem is active Fix grimoire spell input sometimes triggering a quick-slot ability, or vice versa, when playing with mouse and keyboard. Enemies will no longer be stuck in ragdoll after attacking them with Stealth Attack while affected by Pull of Eora ability fixed enemy models appear with a delay if players run into Inner Complex too quickly Fixed First-Person camera unintentionally snapping to the horizon line when swimming along the surface of water Damaged Maegfolc enemy will now attack the player outside of melee range correctly The First-Person camera will no longer snap to default position upon using the Power Jump ability Fix weapon attacks restarting instead of finishing if the player rapidly taps the attack input at the end of another ability Ilora now consistently utilizes her ranged weapon. Fix some rare cases where slow-motion could last longer than intended. Play appropriate hit reactions when a player's or NPC's attempted block fails to mitigate any damage, such as when being hit from behind. Fixed an issue with Companions ragdoll during cutscenes Fixed an issue with missing VFX indicating that the companion is poisoned Giatta's Purification upgrade Essence Pressure no longer affects anything that isn't a living enemy. Fixed an issue where Ranged NPC are standing still instead of repositioning to hit the player. Fixed an issue where sometimes Freezing Pillar does not appear after casting the Ability Fixed an issue where the Player is missing one of the Skaen Totem pieces after picking it up Fixed an issue where Unique Pistol "Fair Play" doesn't cause critical hits when attacking weakpoint spots Overlands maps now remove fog of war from cities if the player has visited them. Essence Cost Reduction modifiers now add together, instead of combining as multipliers (-10% and -20% now combine to -30%, instead of -28%). The version number of the game now appears on the main menu. Fix cases where some totem effects would stop working after a conversation or cutscene Attacking with certain weapons will no longer cause doubled stamina drain when having high attack speed Ranged beetle will no longer mantle cliffs when looking for ranged attack locations. Fixed Seven Strivings hammer not providing extra critical chance Fix visual artifact with jagged edges around water when Effects Quality was not Epic. The traps in The Garden now stay deactivated after re-loading the save The death sequence will now play correctly when falling out of bounds at specific locations across the game The Xaurip Bounty in Emerald Stair will now get properly marked as failed in journal after Fix an issue that could sometimes allow summoned characters to outlive the summoner. In some cases where enemies disappear for story reasons, unclaimed loot from killed enemies can still be found Update enemy vitals to always stay above the defined UI anchor location Fixed an issue where picking up totem pieces could sometimes add them to the party stash instead of player's inventory Increase max attribute level to 30 and set a limit of how much the player can purchase to 15. Summoned skeleton minions (and other summon abilities) can no longer spawn underground Fixed water interaction VFX when swimming in the water Dreamthrall Elder Brown Bear can no longer get stuck near Fixed an incorrect camera placement during conversation with Elia Rosell Bodies of summoned blights now disappear correctly if Sargamis is killed before them The character no longer look like they move in low framerate during conversations on the Xbox Series X Hitting the place where the summoned enemy died will no longer produce hit reactions and blood splatter The music will now fade out more naturally as the end slides end instead of cutting off Fixed an issue causing Companions' models to morph into each other The enemies will now switch to attacking companions correctly when the player becomes invisible NPC corpses/Loot bags now use Loot Shimmer to indicate whether the loot within is a Normal, Quest or Unique Item Fixed an issue where some dungeon maps are not using correct music after loading from somewhere else Fixed an rare issue where Dreamthrall is in stasis after being killed Improve performance when using the Minor Missiles spell Fix grimoire traits being temporarily removed when casting spells from the ability bar Prevent activating abilities, or soft-locking by opening a menu screen, during the transition between back-to-back cutscenes Fix gameplay and VFX issues when using Godlike stealth attack "Divine Thorn" while wearing a trinket that deals additional damage Fixed a hitch when aiming with bow after loading a save Fixed an issue where Loading a save on which the Player is Poisoned will restart the poison duration Fixed VFX being stretched out after Destroying Freezing Pillar with special grenade Fix Pull of Eora insta-killing Maegfolc Fixed an issue where the Player was unable to come off a ladder in Paradis Fix an issue when breakable objects from not breaking when running into it Improved performance when walking through flamethrower traps at Naku Kubel on the Xbox Series X Enemies at the Xaurip Camp in Dawnshore now get alerted correctly upon breaking the destructible wall Missile Salvo's purple glow now disappears when the orb does. Enemies will no longer have a permanent glowing effect applied to them if ability gets cancelled Ranged enemies will now correctly perceive the player partly behind the wall if they appear in their vision range Added accessibility settings for changing how the player interacts with ladders. Fixed issue with players sometimes being ejected from the bottom of ladders. Smoothed out blending for entering the top of ladders Added ladder interact modes (Auto, Mixed, Manual). Localization Fixes Fixed unlocalized strings in 'Sound Mix' option in Polish language. Fixed the Polish translation of fast travel beacon at Delemgan Glade in Emerald Stair The Voice now correctly acknowledges the Player's pronouns during their conversation in The Beyond while playing in Polish. Corrected translation of 'Vindictive Band' item in Polish language. Fixed translation of DLSS description.

Pelt of many kinds: crogall also has a whopping +3%

pickled something or other finds our way into many recipes, but particular during the summer when am grilling tacos or when am barbecuing meats. a few pickled red onions goes well with many kinda tacos. we frequent do a quick pickling o' jalapeños and cucumbers as well as the aforementioned onions. am making watermelon pickles less often, but regular enough during the summer. two slight different approaches... first video is kinda humorous actual fermentation pickling o' dills, sauerkraut is kinda a fall/winter only thing for us as am doing in the garage. aside, and unrelated, am knowing there is a kevin bacon bit where he were on jimmy fallon talking 'bout using herbed mayonnaise on his thanksgiving turkey; is a technique he learned from j. kenji lopez. 'bout a year ago it occurred to us that if you don't wanna deal with making herbed mayo and you are aiming for a maximum taste-v.-effort ratio when making roast chicken (or turkey,) a bottle of store bought ranch dressing achieves similar results with less mess and fuss than using mayo. ranch is having a high % o' mayo and it ordinary includes chives, onion powder, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and dill... in addition to the sour cream and buttermilk. ranch is functional herbed mayo. so even if you don't wanna genuine marinade your bird, before roasting your chicken, am willing to recommend slathering the bird with your favorite store bought ranch. doing so will add flavour (but not the mayo flavour) and produce fantastic and foolproof brown and crispy skin with little effort. HA! Good Fun! ps @ShadySands am recollecting the miss vickie's spicy dill pickle chips is available at our local cost co, which we go to infrequent but as it so happens, am needing head there tomorrow for dog medications. will pick up a bag o' your chips, and a bunch o' other stuff most o' which we probable don't need.

Wow, sometimes wishes do come true!

I've honestly never had pickled rinds and I eat a lot of pickled stuff though it is mostly meat. I don't like pickles on burgers or even with a sandwich as I prefer pickled jalapenos over cucumbers for those. Spicy pickled Polish sausages were a childhood favorite and every couple of months I buy some from Amazon trying to recapture that glory but none measure up to the local brand I grew up with, Max's. Come to think of it, my cousin said they started back up again but it wasn't as good as how they remembered it. Maybe it never was. e2 or 3: Since my flavor profile is spicy pickle I also wanted to plug Miss Vickie's spicy dill pickle chips. I don't normally eat potato chips but this... this we like.

He's putting up Wilt numbers and he's already one of the greatest to ever do it. It just goes to show that the MVP award is a "vibe" award and the requirements and arguments for it change every season. That dude is the definition of questionable and I'm calling it a Canadian conspiracy if he sits.

I can't wait for NG+ i'm so excited for it, played through the game on Game Pass and now I can't wait to get it around the fall for Steam, you guys rock for adding that mode to the game, can't wait to see all the combinations and abilities plus the possibilities NG+ will open up.

Really looking forwards to the crafting changes especially, it's the main thing that's keeping me from seeing this game through to the end. Had a bit of trouble with reading the text in that image. This is what's it says for anyone needing to zoom in: Spring - 2025 NOW LIVE Arachnophobia Safe Mode Mouse and Keyboard Support for Xbox Fog of War Improvements More Gold and Crafting materials Soul Pods will now dispel illusions Unique gear improvements Summer - 2025 Cooking and Crafting improvements New NPC abilities and behaviors New active and passive abilities New Unique weapons and armor Custom Map markers Fall 2025 New Game Plus Photo Mode New weapon type Changing appearance in world New character presets More Godlike feature presets

Luckily I found this thread. I had to manually go through all the names on the png's and did find my name!

My review about "Avowed (PC)" after first playthrough in 111 hours. (Translated from German. I apologize for any errors in the translation.) Story / Lore / Characters / Companions / Dialogue / Logic / Dynamics I found the direct story of "Avowed" about the land of the living, the Dream Scourge, the individual factions, the power structure, the politics, the gods, and the Messenger's own personality to be very interesting and exciting from beginning to end. I always wanted to know what would happen next and how the story would end. Furthermore, you have various options to influence the story and its outcome, both small and large. However, I can't conclusively assess the ultimate impact of many smaller dialogue decisions without further playthroughs. In the end, despite many decisions in various dialogues, I apparently had the opportunity to choose any of the four main endings. However, there may still be differences in the outcome within the four main endings, similar to Fallout: New Vegas. The system certainly seems quite complex and dynamic to me, as the narrator goes into many details at the end: How did the land develop, how did the gods develop, how did the followers develop, how did the individual factions develop. I also find the lore/backstory of the world of Eora extremely creative, exciting, and interesting. You learn a lot about this world in various books and dialogues, which I really like. Whether it's about the gods, the past, the peoples, the wars and conflicts, or the continents, I absorb everything because it's so interesting. The lore can easily compete with that of Dragon Age and, for me, is even significantly more interesting than the lore of the Forgotten Realms, which I always find far too confusing and complex. What I also really like are the dialogues throughout the game. There are always many dialogue options, which in turn depend on attributes and your character's background. Yes, it often doesn't matter which dialogues you choose, but what I still love about it is that I can play my envoy the way I want. For example, I played a war hero, and he usually gives very direct and assertive answers and can incorporate his war knowledge into the dialogues, but his heart was still in the right place. This usually had no effect, but it does make the dialogues flow a little differently, which in turn underscores the extremely diverse dynamics of the written dialogues. I love how the dialogues are slightly different when you choose answer B (war hero) or answer C (determination) instead of answer A. For me, this reflects the possible character traits very well. This creates a strong dialogue dynamic. I also love how many small decisions become apparent again and again in various dialogues throughout the game. If I tell Kai at the beginning that Commander Lödwyn used to be a comrade you fought alongside, this is brought up again and again throughout the game. If you choose to have a romantic relationship with her, this would also have a corresponding effect on various dialogues. And that was just one of many examples. So many small decisions in various dialogues have exactly the same kind of impact on many other future dialogues. I would also like to mention that the companions you take with you often actively participate in the dialogues you have with other NPCs. For me, this represents an enormous level of detail, which greatly increases the replay value. There are more of these types of dialogues, decisions, and effects than you would think. Not every decision always has serious and major consequences, but that doesn't have to be the case. Even these many little details make the game a true role-playing game with a lot of depth. Especially in the many dialogues in the game, you notice how much attention to detail has gone into it. Time and again, certain dialogue decisions affect many other dialogues. I think it's brilliant! I can think of few games that offer such a complex and dynamic dialogue system. I don't even want to imagine how much work the developers and writers had to put into this, and how much more complex the dialogue trees look from the outside, if you were to consider all the many branches as a whole. I find it even more astonishing that, despite the complexity, I didn't notice any quest or dialogue bugs. The game always correctly reflected all my decisions in various dialogues. The four companions are also all well-written and undergo believable developments that you, as an envoy, can directly influence by speaking with them regularly. After each main quest, in each area, after each companion quest, and sometimes even after side quests, the companions always have new topics of conversation to offer, not only with the envoy, but also with each other. The group dynamics of the four companions are extremely well-crafted and always seem consistent and logical. For example, if I recommend to Giatta that she continue to emulate her parents and cling to the ensoulment, this not only affects future dialogues with her and the end of the game, but also the dialogues between the companions in the camp. Giatta talks with the other companions about what the envoy has done or said. And here, too, the game is permeated with these group conversations. I also think it's great that you can ask the companions for advice in various dialogues throughout the main story. Each companion has their own opinion on possible decisions and consequences. And whatever you decide, this will subsequently lead to corresponding dialogues with the companions in the camp. If you make a serious decision, a companion may absolutely dislike it, but during the dialogue, both sides—the envoy and the companion—can gain and demonstrate mutual understanding for each other's views. And anyone who thinks the dialogues in the game are poorly written, stupid, or superficial simply hasn't played the game, or they've rushed through it in ten hours, clicking away all dialogue, and never listening to the group dialogues or doing the companion quests. Whoever is reading this, don't believe such statements. The dialogues are well-written, profound, and full of detail. They are serious, mature, and never childish or stupid. Each character has their own personality and their own opinion, and each companion offers a wonderful and believable development in which you play a significant role, depending on what you say and what you advise your companions. All in all, the game's dialogue, with all its dynamics and complexity, as well as the many decisions and consequences, is among the best I've ever experienced in video game history. I've played all sorts of role-playing games, from "Fallout 1-4" to "Baldur's Gate 1 & 2," "The Witcher 1-3," "Deus Ex 1-4," "Morrowind," "Oblivion," "Skyrim," "Mass Effect 1-4," "Dragon Age 1-3," to Kingdom Come: Deliverance and "Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2." Yes, I would rank "Avowed" among the ten best role-playing games of all time in this regard. Rating: 10/10 Game World / Level Design / Exploration / Enemy Placement / Reactivity / Dynamics The game world of "Avowed" consists of four larger areas that function independently of each other, acting as a kind of "hub." Each area is large enough that walking from one end to the other takes an average of 3 minutes (with constant sprinting). I would estimate that each area is 1 km² in size, which is quite impressive considering how well-populated and beautifully designed these four areas are. As already mentioned, the four areas differ fundamentally in their design, with different assets, vegetation, color schemes, lighting, and, of course, the environmental design. Thanks to the varied design and high visibility, you can easily navigate each area even without a map and quest markers. The areas you have explored are revealed on the map. White fog on the map then gives way to a colorful design. Overall, the map is beautifully drawn and labeled. The enemies in each area are hand-placed, as are the bosses. Once you've killed the enemies, they usually stay dead. There's no respawn in Avowed, but here and there, new enemies do appear, either for story-related reasons or sometimes for other inexplicable reasons, although the latter rarely happens. Basically, an area that has been cleared of enemies stays clear. This gives you the feeling that you've made the area safer and cleared it of enemies. In my opinion, there's nothing worse than constantly respawning enemies and constantly replenishing loot. The many treasures in the form of chests, corpses with loot, or simply loose coins or weapons in creative locations are all hand-placed and seem well thought out. To find the many treasures, you have to explore and observe the environment very carefully, both vertically and horizontally, to really find all the treasures. The hiding places are sometimes more and sometimes less difficult to find, but often very creative. You reach a treasure, for example, by climbing a ladder. For example, it's only behind a crumbling wall of a secret room, which you first have to find and open. Secret rooms within secret rooms, so to speak. You can also occasionally access shortcuts in the area through secret rooms, similar to Dark Souls 1. I absolutely love this kind of level design. In "Avowed," everything is hand-built and hand-placed. Everything in the game has its place and order. This type of game design is the perfect adventure playground for me, because as an adventurer, I want to explore the world, "scour" it, and rid it of all enemies. Neither Skyrim nor The Witcher 3 can offer me that in this form. Yes, "Avowed" also has its weaknesses in the game world. For example, there is no NPC daily routine; the NPCs always stay in the same place (unless they change their positions due to the story). You can barely manipulate or change the environment (except for burning vines, blowing up walls, or opening doors from other sides). The level design is quite static. But honestly, in what game is the environment truly dynamic? I can't think of any right off the bat. You could see that as a disadvantage, but I don't find it a big deal and it doesn't bother me. The adventure, the discovery and exploration, as well as the fun and motivation of the game, are hardly affected at all. Exploration and a sense of adventure are "Avowed's" greatest strengths and, for me, what defines the game most. One thing that could be criticized is the lack of a theft system. You can simply steal all the items from the NPCs, and no one cares. It's rarely commented on, for example, if you steal money from a beggar's bowl. But it doesn't have any impact. On the one hand, it's a shame, but on the other hand, it's also nice that the developers of "Avowed" didn't try to cram every conceivable feature into the game and create a fully realistic simulation like "Kingdom Come: Deliverance." "More" isn't always better. I like that "Avowed" focuses on the essentials, on its strengths. Rating: 9/10 Character System / Progression System The character system in "Avowed" is quite simple, but absolutely serves its purpose, similar to "Gothic 1 & 2." You always start as a god-like character, which is story-driven and cannot be changed. However, you can customize your appearance in many ways. There are six attributes, each of which affects two characteristics and dialogue options: Might, Dexterity, Constitution, Intellect, Resolve, and Perception. Might is the only attribute that only affects one useful characteristic: damage. The second would be carry weight, but that's almost irrelevant in the game, because you can send items in your inventory to the storage chest at any time from anywhere. I therefore consider Might to be the least useful attribute, because damage also only increases by a manageable amount. All other attributes are, in my opinion, more useful overall. You can distribute a total of 22 attribute points up to level 30, which is the maximum level. You don't get a point at every level. Each attribute can be increased up to a maximum of 15. Attributes can also be increased through items and through training with companions. For a certain amount of money, you can reset and redistribute attributes at any time. Then there are various skills, both active and passive, distributed across three talent trees: Warrior, Ranger, and Sorcerer. Up to level 30, you can allocate a maximum of 35 skill points. Purely ranged fighters (pistol, rifle, or bow) have the fewest useful skills, so 35 points are oversupplied. For melee fighters, the number is just right to learn a good fighter with the most suitable skills at level 30. The number of skill points is also well balanced for sorcerers. As a melee fighter and sorcerer, you can't learn everything and have to specialize well. Anyone who likes to be a master of all skills by the end of a game will be disappointed; you can't create a perfect all-rounder here. I like it the way it is. You can also reset and reassign skills at any time for money. The great thing about this is that once you reach level 25, you can learn and improve all skills directly from the second skill point in a skill tree, without any prerequisites like in many other games. You have a lot of freedom in distributing skills and combining them. The four companions also each have four skills they can learn. Each skill can be increased by three points after learning it, with companions receiving a maximum of eight skill points by the end. Some companions are more useful than others in terms of skills. I always found Kai to be relatively useless, serving only as a distraction, while Giatta, with her healing spells, has the most useful skills. My advice: take the characters you most want with you, regardless of their skills, because you essentially do most of the work in combat. I was never dependent on my companions. You can also reset and redistribute the skill points of your companions at any time for money. Overall, I find the character system good, fun, and fair. The balance is good, if not perfect. But you can't become overpowered when playing on a high difficulty level, and that's an absolute plus. However, I would have liked to see more skills for ranged fighters, and perhaps a few more spells. I think the progression system in "Avowed" is great because I notice many character improvements immediately in combat. While not every single strength point is noticeable, if you increase an attribute by three points, you usually notice it right away, as you get, for example, 15 points more stamina, 10% more health and resistances, or a 7% increase in attack and ability casting speed. Every upgrade in equipment also makes a difference. This is further supported by the fact that enemies have a fixed level (like in "Gothic 1 & 2"), so you can take on stronger opponents with each upgrade. Over time, you become stronger and can take on increasingly stronger opponents. The feeling of "becoming more powerful" is simply fantastic. Rating: 9/10 Combat System / Battles / Weapons / Difficulty / Balancing The combat system in "Avowed" is fundamentally simple and straightforward. Yet despite its simplicity, it offers many options and customization. You can fight with fists, swords, axes, clubs, spears, daggers, wands, shields, magic, bows, pistols, and rifles, and combine various weapons. You can fight with a sword and shield, two one-handed swords, or even two pistols, or you can combine a spellbook with a dagger, or a classic spellbook with a wand. There's no shortage of variety. Each weapon type has its own advantages and disadvantages. Each weapon is fun in its own way, and I think there should be something to suit every taste. There are also five different types of grenades that can be used for support: explosive grenades, ice grenades, poison grenades, electric grenades, and fire grenades. There are also light, medium, and heavy armors, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Light armor has the smallest penalty to stamina and essence (like mana). Heavy armor offers the best protection, but also has the highest penalties. You can reduce the respective penalties to stamina and essence with two skills at three levels each. There are also some active skills you can learn that offer additional attack variations and options, such as "Charge" or "Shield Bash." On "Hard," at least the melee combat is well balanced, though perhaps it becomes too easy later on because you're no longer dependent on the perfect tactical use of abilities, grenades, and potions. I could have also mastered the highest difficulty level as a melee fighter. I actually consider this to be the best and most ideal difficulty level in "Avowed," but I haven't played as a mage or ranged fighter, so I can't say much about that yet. At least in the first half of the game, I found the hard difficulty level to be just right and pleasantly challenging, but never unfair. I thoroughly enjoyed the combat system from the beginning to the end. It's fun, varied, and pleasantly challenging on the higher difficulty levels. The many weapon types and abilities offer plenty of options for every type of player. The game's only weakness is the variety of enemies. There aren't too many different enemy types. There are humans, Xaurips, spiders, bears, ghosts, and one or two others. That's a bit lacking. There could have been three or four more enemy types. At least there are different types within each type, such as wizards, priests, melee fighters, and ranged fighters. There are also several particularly strong boss enemies. Rating: 9/10 Crafting / Equipment There's standard gear and unique gear in "Avowed." The latter offers a fifth rarity level (Legendary) and two additional unique properties. The first property of each weapon can be further enhanced with special materials or replaced with an alternative property. However, this only works with weapons, not with armor or shields, which I find very unfortunate. There are several unique items in the game for each type of weapon and armor, as well as for shields. On the one hand, that's great, because you only find many of them if you look around carefully and explore the world thoroughly and attentively. This keeps the motivation to explore high. But what I didn't like so much: even shortly before the end, you still find some unique items, which I find a bit late. What's the point of having something new if the game ends five hours later? I think you should be able to find the unique weapons, armor, and shields in the fourth area at the latest, not just in the finale. You can upgrade all weapons, shields, and armor. There are five rarity levels, and within each rarity, three upgrade levels. However, the fifth and highest rarity level (Legendary) is reserved only for unique equipment. In total, you can upgrade a unique weapon, armor, or shield up to nineteen times. For upgrades within a rarity level, you need common materials such as iron, steel, wood, and plants. To increase to a higher rarity level, you need Adra of various types. You can also upgrade each material to a higher-quality material. For example, three iron ingots become three steel ingots. Crafting is simple, but fun and motivating. Once you've found a weapon or armor you want to keep, you can gradually improve it. Crafting materials are quite rare in the first 75% of the game and also expensive to buy from vendors. You should always use crafting materials sparingly and not just upgrade any weapon or armor you find. If you do this, you'll quickly run into serious resource problems. Exploring the game world is therefore essential for continually improving your equipment. What I also miss is the ability to craft your own weapons and armor. I would have liked to use a one-handed sword at the beginning that also deals cold damage, but such a unique sword simply didn't exist until the end of the game. I would have found it ideal if you could improve or change each of the two unique properties of each unique piece of equipment through enchantment. For example, if I have my favorite weapon, I would have liked to have the option to replace the additional fire damage with ice damage. To prevent this from being done carelessly and constantly, this type of enchantment could have cost a lot of valuable materials and additional money. This way, you make it possible for players to customize their favorite equipment without completely destroying the balance, because enchanting requires a lot of resources. There's also the option to change the appearance of your equipped armor, but unfortunately, this doesn't work with shields and weapons. And you can only change the appearance of armor you've already found and that you have in your inventory. This could have been improved a bit, too. And please, also for weapons and shields. In addition to the three main categories, there are also other gear categories: bracers, boots, two rings, and an amulet. These cannot be crafted or enchanted in any other way, nor can they be visually customized. Each of these items has one or two unique properties. Rating: 8/10 Voice Acting / Dubbing Unfortunately, "Avowed" is only available with an English dub. All other languages are served only with subtitles. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a big advocate of German dubbing and that I avoid various games simply because of the lack of German dubbing. However, I made an exception for "Avowed," as I was too interested in the game to ignore it just because of that. I can say that while it's still a shame that there's no German voice acting, reading subtitles in "Avowed" is nowhere near as stressful as in some other games like "Red Dead Redemption 2" or "GTA." In this type of game, there's a lot of talking, in the middle of riding, fighting, driving, or other gameplay sequences. This always annoys me immensely and distracts me from the game. In "Avowed," on the other hand, 90% of all dialogue takes place in a closed dialogue. You have all the time in the world to read the subtitles, as you can open the entire dialogue history during the dialogue. This means you can read the entire dialogue history retrospectively until the current dialogue ends. After that, the history is no longer visible. Overall, I find this very pleasant. The remaining 10% of the dialogue takes place outside of the dialogue windows and is exclusively conversations between NPCs and companions. While you can't pause and reread these dialogues, that's still okay, because you're never in combat or active gameplay during these dialogues, and you can follow the dialogue easily. You can also increase the display time of the dialogues in the menu. Very rarely, there are also comments from companions during exploration or even in combat, but this is extremely rare and usually not really relevant. The English voice actors, however, do an excellent job. The voice directors put a lot of effort into making the dialogue sound very authentic and emotional. Rating: 9/10 Sound Design / Sound Mixing The ambient sounds are very diverse, and the sound design is excellent. The environments come to life simply through the sound design. There's a lot to offer for the ears here. A spatial surround mix is also included. Those who enjoy playing with a 5.1 or 7.1 system will get their money's worth. Spells and battles in general seem powerful and varied. Later, in the volcano area, the sounds of the volcano also sound very spatial and powerful, with many low tones. This creates a great atmosphere. Each of the areas generally has its own soundscape that fits the respective setting. There's a lot of variety here. I have no criticism of the sound design. Rating: 10/10 Graphics / Art Design / Effects / Physics / Presentation / Staging "Avowed" uses Unreal Engine 5. The game offers good graphics quality, but doesn't stand out technically with any particular feature. It doesn't have the best textures, the most beautiful lighting, and the best (facial) animations. Nevertheless, the graphics are high. If I had to assign it a year, I'd say that, depending on the aspect, it looks as good as the best games released between 2016 and 2022 - well, good enough to create a great mood and atmosphere without appearing technically outdated. The substandard technical graphics quality is easily compensated for by the beautiful design. The color scheme of the individual areas is extremely varied and diverse, conjuring up some picturesque images and landscapes, as well as sunsets and surroundings, on the screen. The overall environmental design is beautiful and appears to be of a unified nature. Everything has its place and its design is unique. The game gave me many "wow" moments, visually alone. "Avowed" also offers a beautiful day and night cycle with many different lighting moods. The incredibly high visibility is also great. If you stand at a high point, you can enjoy the entire surroundings of the current area in high quality. And even beyond the area, you can marvel at the sea and the horizon. Beautiful is a very accurate description. The underwater world also looks beautiful and, after "Horizon Forbidden West," is, for me, almost the most beautiful underwater world I've ever experienced in a game. The spell effects also look decent. And the enemy designs are also absolutely impressive. Even up close, the models look very detailed. Many people claim the game seems too "colorful," but I have to disagree. The game isn't "colorful," it's simply diverse and brighter in its color palette. In reality, when I look at a meadow of flowers with many colors in springtime under bright sunshine, it's not simply "colorful," but diverse, bright, and vibrant. The mood that "Avowed" creates is therefore cheerful, not the gloomy one like in The Witcher 1. In the first area, "Avowed" is most reminiscent of the "The Witcher 3" add-on "Blood & Wine"—a gloomy world yet still a beautiful color scheme and variety. Not everything always has to be "gloomy" and "dark." In a way, there's also a strong similarity to Pandora from Avatar. Wild and strange plants, rich colors and contrasts, and beautiful panoramas. But "Avowed" also offers more than just the colorful nature of the first area, the Twilight Coast. In the second area, the colors are rather muted, and the environment is rather gloomy, swampy, and foggy. In the third area, we experience a lot of sand and a dry steppe with little greenery and heat haze in the air. The more water in the environments, the greener, more colorful, and denser the vegetation. This creates a lot of variety and a realistic look. In the fourth area, we experience a dead and hostile volcanic area with lots of rock, magma, and ash. I find "Avowed" subjectively beautiful and diverse. With its many rich colors and contrasts, it created a very cheerful atmosphere for me while exploring like few other games. So, the only criticisms you can have are the outdated animations and outdated graphics, which are hardly noticeable because the game is still beautiful. What can also be criticized is the game's staging and presentation. It's not as dynamic or as impressive as, say, The Witcher 3 or Mass Effect 1-3. Avowed remains much more "wooden" and simple in its presentation, but you can't expect AAA presentation from a AA game either. You have to consider the production budget somewhere. You can't compare an indie game with a AA game, for example, because that would be unfair. In any case, the minimalist presentation didn't bother me, because I expected nothing less. Rating: 9/10 Controls (Mouse + Keyboard) "Avowed" is excellently controlled with a mouse and keyboard. There are only a few buttons and functions; in terms of operation and the complexity of the action buttons, "Avowed" is far removed from complex games like Star Citizen, GTA, or Red Dead Redemption 2, which have an incredible number of buttons and actions. This kind of thing really annoys me. When I look at the control menu for "Avowed," I'm immediately relieved by the small number of buttons the game uses. It reminds me pleasantly of "Gothic 1 & 2," which also had very few buttons. The controls in the game are also incredibly direct and smooth. Even in combat, it's very easy to distinguish between the commands, whether dodging, blocking, jumping, drinking potions, or triggering skills. The parkour system, with running, jumping, climbing, and sliding, also works flawlessly. However, there is one bug that bothers me: I have jump assigned to the "Num Lock" key, but if I sprint while pressing "Right Shift," I can't jump with "Num Lock." It seems like the game doesn't allow this combination. Luckily, you can assign an alternate key. I have this key on my mouse, so I can dodge in combat with it, too, because dodging and jumping are dual-purpose keys, which I really like! But every now and then, the alternate key just doesn't work, and I have to save and reload the game so that the jump action works again with the alternate key. Otherwise, I don't have much to criticize about the controls, but there are a few points: The fact that you can get stuck on flat objects like steps or rocks is a bit annoying, especially during combat. But it doesn't happen too often, so it hardly bothered me. I would also like to criticize the dual-weapon combat. You can attack much faster with two weapons and literally shower your enemies with blows, but I find it annoying that you have to click both mouse buttons continuously and quickly at the same time. I don't get along well with that. And you can't perform a power attack with both weapons at the same time, which calls into question the purpose of dual-wielding combat. I would have preferred it if, when dual-wielding, you only had to press the left attack button to perform a double attack with both weapons. And with a power attack, both weapons should also be used simultaneously, of course at twice the stamina cost. And then I had another bug that kept occurring: When I opened and closed the map, I often had to press the "Run Forward" button twice in a row immediately afterward to get the character to start running. The first time, the character very often didn't respond, even recently with the latest patch. Another annoying bug, even if it's not particularly dramatic. Rating: 8/10 Soundtrack / Music I quite like the game's soundtrack. Each individual piece is distinctive and evokes a certain mood and emotion in me. The areas all have individual themes, which always sound quite appropriate to the environment. The music is never distracting or intrusive, but often reminds me more of atmospheric background music than loud and pompous orchestral music that pushes itself to the foreground. I'm very happy with the music, but it doesn't quite match the brilliant soundtracks of, for example, "Mass Effect 1-3," "The Witcher 1-3," or "Morrowind" and "Oblivion." Still, it's very pleasant music. Rating: 8/10 Other Thoughts In the game world, you can only unlock various secret rooms or passages with a specific spell, grenade, or ability. Rusty bars can be blown open with an ice grenade or an ice spell, vines can be exposed with fire grenades or a fire spell, old energy nodes can be activated with electricity, and illusions can only be removed... with your companion Yatzli. You can overcome all of the first three obstacles yourself or with the help of a companion. Kai can remove vines with fire, Marius can blow up rusty bars with ice, Giatta can activate energy nodes, and Yatzli can dispel illusions. Illusions, however, cannot be removed by yourself; only with Yatzli. This really bothered me several times, because you always have to travel back to the group camp, take Yatzli with you, travel back, dispel the illusion, and then jump back to the camp and take the other companions you want with you, then travel back again and collect the treasure that has been freed from the illusion or explore the secret passage. You also can't reach some energy nodes yourself with the electricity spell because the range isn't great enough. Even then, you absolutely need Giatta. This could have been handled better or differently. I'd like to see a patch to fix this. Unfortunately, money and resources are a bit too much from area 4 onwards. I sold all my unnecessary equipment and ended up with over a million Skayt. I'd also like to praise the fact that I think it's great that, without mods, you can simply skip any video or pop-up when starting the game by pressing the spacebar. I always find that awesome. It's a small thing, but it has a big impact, because it always really annoys me with other games when the game takes forever to start because six or seven videos start playing each time. Bugs Apart from the bugs already mentioned, I haven't noticed any other bugs. I didn't experience any sound or graphical errors, I didn't experience any quest bugs, I didn't experience any plot-stopping bugs, and the game only crashed once in 111 hours. What still seems to be buggy, however, is the frame generation/multi-frame generation. For me, this feature causes severe tearing and various image errors, even when I limit the fps to 140. Unfortunately, it's unusable compared to, say, Star Wars: Outlaws or CP2077, where FG/MFG runs incredibly well. Performance My Hardware: GPU: RTX 5080 CPU: Ryzen 5800X RAM: 32 GB DDR4 3200 MHz CL 14-14-14-34 SSD: 2 TB m.2 SSD PCIe 4.0 My Settings: Resolution: 3440 x 1440 First-Person Field of View: 80 Motion Blur: 0 VSync: Off Ray Tracing: On Upscaling: DLSS 3 (Quality) DLSS Image Generation: Off Nvidia Reflex: On Graphics Quality: Custom All on "Epic" Benchmark results of a 4-minute session without changing loading zones on the Twilight Coast outside and inside Paradis: Average frame rate: 66.5 fps Minimum frame rate: 44.9 fps Maximum frame rate: 91.2 fps 1% Low Framerate: 34.4 fps 0.1% Low Framerate: 6.3 fps I consider the performance to be good. The game runs fairly smoothly, except for a few reload stutters in some places, for example, when entering the city of Paradis. I have to say that the Twilight Coast and Paradis are the most challenging areas. The game runs even better in other areas. Conclusion My first playthrough took me 111 hours, according to my last save. I explored every area 100%, vertically and horizontally. As far as possible, I left no blank spots unexplored. I completed every quest that presented itself. I engaged in every dialogue I could. I also listened to every dialogue between NPCs and companions in the camp until I couldn't speak any more. I earned 36 out of 50 achievements on Steam (without loading for specific decisions). I played the game continuously on "Hard" without changing the difficulty. I didn't regret a single hour of the game or find it "torture" or "work." I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of the game. Aside from "Drova - Forsaken Kin," I can't say that about any other game in the last five years. Almost every game had its slow, boring, and drawn-out hours, or moments where I longed for the end. Either the gameplay became too monotonous and tedious or too repetitive. I didn't feel any of that with "Avowed," not once. And even now, after 110 hours, I'd immediately have the desire and motivation to play it again. Only a few games in the last 20 years have achieved that for me—maybe ten or fifteen. Most games, even the good ones, start to bore me after 60 hours at the latest. In conclusion, I can only give "Avowed" huge praise and a heartfelt recommendation. For me, "Avowed" is one of the best games I've ever played. It absolutely deserves a place in my personal top 20 list. For me, it's an outstanding gaming experience, like few others. The word "adventure" is truly capitalized in "Avowed," because that's exactly what it feels like. For me, "Avowed" compares very well to "Gothic 1 & 2" because it shares many of the same great features that made "Gothic 1 & 2" so great for me. Magnificent level design, a good game world divided into medium-sized hub levels, extremely rewarding exploration, great and distinctive characters, a good progression system, and other great features. Despite the simplicity of some of the game systems, the game perfectly suits my taste. I love it! Thank you, Obsidian, for this incredible and fantastic game! If there's an add-on or DLC, I hope they improve the game a bit on all levels and address some of the criticisms I've raised. In any case, I'm looking forward to every expansion that comes along. Subjective overall rating: 9.5/10