Leaderboard

It's not about porn, it's about censorship. The government can now ban sites that it deems "dangerous". It's a soft ban, but it will slow traffic to a crawl given that most people want nothing to do with the government id app that would be needed to unlock said sites. Said soft ban could be used as leverage for any number of political or repressive reasons. Soon enough there will be "dangerous ideas" that the children must be protected from. You can't just hope that governments won't abuse their power, they will, given enough time. So you have to be certain of your rights instead.

That was my reaction to when Deadfire launched -- to nowhere near the buzz as PoE. To be fair, Eternity1, unlike Original Sin, was always big time sold on nostalgia, and eventually, that crave for the good ol' days may be fulfilled. Still, in the case of PoE, it's certainly not the "type of game" at fault -- or Owlcat wouldn't have rolled these things plus DLC plus Enhanced Editions en masse from an Eastern European CRPG factory line. :D In the case of TOW, it's not the type of game either, see Fallout New Vegas. What would have bummed me out (and kinda did) with TOW1 is that it was announced as a sort of Vegas-Like project (see the announcement trailers... "From thy builders of Vegas!"). And then was more like a baby's version of an Obsidian game, of one I've played better versions of before (not talking size, but depth). The entire industry is struggling a bit atm though. And if you ask me, the thing to notice recently has been about specilization -- of picking an experience and going all-in on it rather than watering it down so that everybody may be onboard. A game like Kingdom Come would have never seen the light of day at Bioware, Bethesda and Obsidian -- see how Josh had been hoping to make a historical game since forever, but bosses would go: "Nobody would buy that." And even FromSoft exploded by Elden Ring -- a title likewise that would have never seen the light of day at most of the old Western powerhouses of the industry, as deemed as too "inaccessible". These games were allowed to excel at what they were targeting -- and attracted added people simply by doing so, making them curious what's so "special" and "unique" about them. Warhorse have talked about how many history buffs they got onboard who aren't even hardcore gamers, for instance. As a side-effect, Warhorse are now pretty much the only top dogs on the "historical RPG" block too -- there simply is nobody around making a game like them on the scale of them, zero direct competition. Loot and combat and dwarves and elves and Pip-Boys? Dime a dozen. It's actually not just games. See also music, where there are few omnipresent superstars still left that everybody and their cat owns a record of. And rather, everyone tends to build their own streaming playlists, tailored towards them specifically. The market here too has exploded so much that everybody will eventually find something fit to their tastes. (Over 19,000 games released on Steam alone in 2025). One thing is clear though: Chasing trends with dev cycles of 4-7 years ain't gonna cut it. By that point that trend is long old hat. And everybody else chasing it as well may have already picked up what was left of all the buzz once you're finally ready to ship yourself. :D

i'm just waiting for them to kiss

Well, I just played through act 1 with the new class and so far I like it. The new QOL changes are good too. I've converted 2 of my old characters now as well, because so far I see no reason not to. Honestly, this is kinda what I wanted all along.. more content for this game. Now I wish they would add new quests, dungeons, or terrains, that would be nice.

"As everyone knows, the Country of Canada has treated the United States very unfairly for decades. Now, things are turning around for the U.S.A., and FAST! But imagine, Canada is building a massive bridge between Ontario and Michigan. They own both the Canada and the United States side and, of course, built it with virtually no U.S. content. President Barack Hussein Obama stupidly gave them a waiver so they could get around the BUY AMERICAN Act, and not use any American products, including our Steel. Now, the Canadian Government expects me, as President of the United States, to PERMIT them to just “take advantage of America!” What does the United States of America get — Absolutely NOTHING! Ontario won't even put U.S. spirits, beverages, and other alcoholic products, on their shelves, they are absolutely prohibited from doing so and now, on top of everything else, Prime Minister Carney wants to make a deal with China — which will eat Canada alive. We’ll just get the leftovers! I don't think so. The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup. The Tariffs Canada charges us for our Dairy products have, for many years, been unacceptable, putting our Farmers at great financial risk. I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve. We will start negotiations, IMMEDIATELY. With all that we have given them, we should own, perhaps, at least one half of this asset. The revenues generated because of the U.S. Market will be astronomical. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" Vance is going to be President in a couple of months, isn't he.

For me at least, it's primarily a question of privacy. Age verification requires identity verification, which can aid criminal behavior and potentially allowing retaliation for some posted comment. This in turn limits freedom to speak one's mind and increases risk.

TL;DW - Moscow still believes that it has the right to dictate the laws, alliances, military size and might, language, and every aspect of Ukrainian society without having to pay for a very costly occupation.

I'm hoping that Avowed 2 shows the same growth as Outer Worlds 2, but I am concerned that the improvements don't seem to be increasing sales. Although in retrospect, I'm the target audience for these games, and I still played them on Gamepass instead of paying full price. So I think the business model is more an issue than the quality or marketability of the game.

And exactly because of what you said about the risks in this industry, expecting every single game to have 30% margin is IMHO damaging, as there are only few games which could boast with such a margin in last 6 years. According to Bloomberg, the average profit margin in the video game industry is 17-22%. Over the past six years, Xbox has hit 10-20%. To put that 30% target into more context, Sony's PlayStation division achieved a 16% profit margin in Q1 FY25. Link to mentioned Bloomberg article behind paywall, if anyone owns access to them: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-23/microsoft-pushes-xbox-studios-to-hit-higher-profit-margins

Couldn't find this in English, but: Neues RPG statt Kingdom Come 3: Bericht verrät, woran Warhorse Studios wirklich arbeitet Warhorse seem to be working on an all-new RPG -- self-funded (KCD2 must have made loads of cash given that it made its money back a day or two after launch....) One of the few new bigger budget projects to be genuinelly curious about whatever it may be. As this is so not what a decision maker / money giver at your typical studio / publisher would ever have to say:

$24.99 is only the DLC.

Imposing harsh tariffs on our friends to the north is high up on my list of stupid decisions DJT has made. I'm glad there are members of Congress who view them in an equally bad light. Unfortunately, this bill is just another completely futile gesture by Congress, which has no chance of passing a veto. I suspect it's more about the upcoming mid-term elections. Hopefully, SCOTUS will take up the so-called "national emergency" issue soon, although I suspect they would prefer to ignore it.

That last one is already implemented in an indirect way; if you track a product from a bug (example wolf spider venom) you'll see the bug using peep.r . I like the idea for a shared inventory between restored ranger outposts. Seems like a good idea for a mid to late game goal.

Sure, I'm not recommending Psion for a melee weapon user either (I mean if the intention is to actually attack with the melee weapon and not only use it as stat stick). Beguiler is perfect for this I think. Good luck and lots of joy with the character! A pleasure! 🤗

I was thinking about this some more whilst in the office yesterday (what, you expect me to think about work? Nonsense!) and if it weren't for the Psion's anti-synergy with melee I'd probably prefer them as a subsclass to other Ciphers. I'm not inherently wedded to the idea of generating Focus via Soul Whip, but I do strongly associate Ciphers with the idea of a martial/caster hybrid, so the Psion's Focus mechanic feels like too much of a liability. With the Community Patch I'm guessing a Psion/Trickster could be viable in melee at higher levels: +50 Deflection with Borrowed Instincts and Mirrored Image makes being receiving a Crit quite unlikely. Anyway, will be starting my Beguiler/Trickster tonight, and looking forward to it. Thanks again Boeroer.

Chainsaw Man, season 1 and the Reze movie. Now...I know what you're thinking. Bartimaeus...Chainsaw Man...shounen action? Yes, it's difficult to believe... Why would Bartimaeus subject himself to Chainsaw Man? The answer is actually surprisingly simple: I was forced to watch this at proverbial gunpoint. Chainsaw Man is...very important to somebody I know, they have very strong feelings and emotions about the show, and it was basically a "hey, you can either sit down with me and give this an honest to god shot, or...you can find out what will happen to you if you don't" sort of situation. So...did I like Chainsaw Man? Well, funny, that's just what this person asked right after we finished watching the movie, except they phrased it more like, "So you like Chainsaw Man, right? And you're not going to say yes just because it's me and I happen to be tapping my fingers on this dangerous unseen metal object behind my back, right?". Um... So in short, yes, I really liked Chainsaw Man, it's probably the best show I've seen in the past ten years. T.O.R.T.U.R.E.

I sometimes feel like I may never start a game again. eg, trying new games. --- Still messing around in Enshrouded a bit. Did I ever mention there is no currency? eg, no buying/selling/trading. Kinda refreshing, that. NMS finally had an emoji tweet - wonder what the next Expedition will bring in terms of items or possibly new feature. Or nothing. Could be a good time to return to that one for a bit tho. Still dreaming of/wishing for the perfect sandbox.

I know. I'm currently playing the latest expansion (having played GW2 for more than 7 years now) 😄

Tainted Grail DLC was a mistake. I finished the DLC but it completely sapped my interest in the game. I think I chose the bad ending because I stopped paying attention to what anyone was saying. Also went back to TOW2. I am enjoying it somewhat the second(third? Fourth?) time around. I like the companions. Although their reactivity to what you are doing is a little lacking. I completely ransacked a protectorate building and aside from dude saying "let's leave this place exactly how we found it" after I took everything i could, he seemed to have no problem with me destroying the place. Edit: also i did the old save game slaughter everyone one time. And a companion had a dialgoue box so I talked to her thinking she'd be mad I slaughtered a whole town. Nope she told me how she thinks "spacers choice could do a better job helping these refugees".... I dont think that matters anymore I'm not sure sci fi space RPGs benefit from open worlds. These locations would be more memorable if you cut out all the traveling from one end of a map to the other. IMO nothing is going to compare to New Vegas because devs want to make everything bigger. When the story takes place in many locations it just feels impersonal. if it took place on one planet you could weave the story together. As it is everything feels forgettable. That first town will never be visited again because I've got 5 other planets to explore. Played a bit of that Yakuza pirate game... its kinda fun but I'm already over the endless cutscenes and tutorials. I'm guessing there are popup tutorials until you are on the final act. I may never finish a game ever again

Answer is that it probably wouldn't inconvenience me much, since I doubt I'd have much problem circumventing anything short of a full Great Firewall of New Zealand. However, compulsory use of the internet for storage of important information like your identity needs opposing on principle, especially when it's done mostly so politicians can take An Achievement to The Electorate. Last month a compulsory use privately run health database got hacked here that was used by a third of the country's population. It appears they gained access through brute forcing a password, and much of the data wasn't encrypted- about as basic mistakes as it's possible to make. So far, zero consequences for the guys running it. You also know that people will go full UK and let Peter Thiel/ Meta/ Cambridge Analytica et alia have access to all that lovely data.

This surprised me. Exports to the US growing year on year despite the tariffs. https://infogram.com/dansk-eksport-til-usa-1hnq41opvgd1k23

Reversal of normal for me this year: I didn't watch hardly anything of the game (though I was rooting for and felt the Seahawks should win), but I did watch the half-time show: I'd agree that it was a good vibe.

Hello, I would like to make a suggestion and see if you find it interesting. Since we now have an advanced bracelet that is superior to the watch from the first game, I would like to propose an upgrade that could be purchased with science in Grounded 2. The upgrade would be a map that displays the tunnels while exploring, so players don’t get lost inside them.

I didn't watch the game, but Bad Bunny was fantastic at Halftime. I don't understand the lyrics and I'm unfamiliar with his catalogue, but the musical march through Latin American history was phenomenal. I have been to a fair amount of Mexican weddings and birthday parties, and that was the vibe.

Inno3D puts the number of fans in the card name. Not all that relevant for a RTX 5080, but there's X2 and X3 variants of lower tier models. edit: Great, thanks to the new forum software not having an overview of the amount of pages, I keep missing that there's an extra page. Ah well, I'll just leave the redundant information here.

Finished Lies Weeping. That ending though...or lack thereof... Also it seems like it would be a good idea to read Port of Shadows as it's not just a side story, or is potentially not just a side story.

I never realised the Devs behind Skylanders also made Starcontrol 1+2

What do you expect in this day and age......

Wasn't it Pascal, the Shield Beaver with the unique Beaver racials and the six fingers feat ?

Menace - This is the new game from the developers of Battle Brothers. The demo came out awhile ago and it was not great for me. You are managing a team of Space Marines. The demo threw you into the middle of a campaign and it was just overwhelming and not clear. It is now in EA, and you can play from the start, which is a much easier way to learn the systems. I enjoyed my first mission and it seems like a solid tactical game. So it's worth picking up if you liked BB and want to support the developers.

Well, yeah, but Avowed I thought has a bit of "Anthem" syndrome of "is that what have you been working on for 7 years?" There is making a behemoth of a crowdpleaser for 5-7 years, and there is making a 2 years in development game for 7 years with multiple reboots. I know nothing of profit margins, but according to articles 30% is highly unusual, with 20% being more common. As to Avowed - I am a bit surprised as initially I thought the world from Obsidian was that it did about as well critically and commercially as they expected. Perhaps the expectation was for it to have better legs then it did.

Noticable improvements with the mods thank you.

It's certainly not an unusual length for RPG-Likes that try to be HUGE ASS 100+ hour GAMES (see Kingdom Come 2, Starfield, BG3....) As said, it's one of Obsidians own main objectives to now cut that down to three, four years. Speaking about MS' profit targets, I'm sure they're calculacting that in, but: Pricing a game, any game at 70-80 bucks whilst making it available on Game Pass isn't promoting that game. It's promoting Game Pass first and foremost. Not sure about you guys, but games at that price point have to REALLY win me over (which increasingly fewer of these risk averse big budget games desperate to cater to everyone and their pet hamster do). Else I'd rather buy 2 great indie games and a glorious Pentiment (and still have money to spare for snacks and drinks on top of it). What Raf Colantonio said. Xbox Game Pass ‘damaging’ the game industry, former Xbox dev says inXile's Clockwork Revolution is likely going to face a battle too.

Long time lurker here. For whatever reason still playing this game in current year - thankfully with some great mods like Elric's which dramatically improve the balance and experience of the game. I just got finished up with my latest run, using BPM + Community Patch and All Upscaling (Upwards only). Used the following party (Note that I used mods to change the character classes and attributes around so that I could effectively have a full custom party without missing dialogue) Me: Crusader (Devoted / Bleakwalker) Eder: Crusader (Devoted / Bleakwalker) Xoti: SC Beguiler Custom Char: SC Priest of Wael Tekehu: SC Skald The party was the most effective of any that I had ever done. The two crusaders used a Greatsword + Morningstar (Willbreaker w/ Modal always on) and were the primary front-liners. Once past the early game, they would have enough engagement slots and survivability to survive nearly anything. Triumph of the crusaders (Strong AOE for ~100+ seconds + full heal on kill) made it so the action economy of the priest was incredible. Almost zero reason to ever use healing spells other than in emergencies. The crusaders would use the Acc + Crit auras and the Heal/Armor ones. Because the Acc aura doesn't fully stack with the acc stance, I would make both of them use the upgraded cleaving stance. This would obliterate packs with FoD spam, hitting 200+ regularly on the greatsword character. The Skald would usually open with an empowered Eld Nary or summoned weapons w/ the unique sabre and then switch back to using a pike w/ the deflection reduction modal. The beguiler was incredibly strong and almost never needed to attack. The debuffs from the willbreaker (usually -10 or more Will + -25 fort), the Ngati Tusk w/ Hunter of Hunter, and nearly every affliction under the sun would debuff the enemies to the point where almost any skill would land and have a high crit rate. I think I killed the Magran Teeth dragon in under 20 seconds because the party just did so much damage (Eld Nary carrying big time). Maybe mortar monk does more damage, but this party has been the strongest in the 10+ variations of potd upscaled runs I had done. Haven't tried megabosses yet but I will soon Not sure why I made this post, but just wanted to give a big shoutout to Boerer, Thelee, and Elric for all the useful posts, mod contributions, etc. After playing so many different CRPGs over the years I just really appreciate how good the systems and depth are in deadfire. Rogue Trader, BG3, DOS2, are all great games but none of them have had me constantly lurking forums like a madman quite like deadfire has.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-cuts-contact-with-polish-parliament-speaker-over-trump-insults-2026-02-05/ MAGA sure are thin skinned.

The problem here is MS having a target of 30% profit for their games. So if Avowed/TOW2 came in at 20% profit, which by any measure would be a success story, the mere mention of them "not meeting sales targets" sets off an avalanche of "the games bombed/were a failure" type of unfair asinine comments which undermines those games and Obsidian's reputation. :(

In such cases it is best to avoid the boss for now and explore more in the open world. You need to find scadutree fragments to upgrade your blessings. The more you have, the more damage you can take and dish out. Once I've hit the 12 blessings, most content in the DLC became easy, with the exception being Radahn, that bitch. I have started NG+ now and played a little more. The bosses were still easy, but some of the open world mobs got a lot tougher.

Necro'ing to say that this build was as fun as advertised. Thanks for the work to build and share it. I completed a BPM Triple Crown - kill all the things - run and the poet carried the group! I swapped out chanter for Fury Shaper barbarian, which was slightly less fast (if my math is correct), but equally fun. I found myself not messing much with the imbues because of expert mode, but it ran on auto-pilot for the most part, which is another kind of bonus. @Aestus and @thelee talk about this in their class tier list conversation, but having a strong build that can run well without much micro, is great in RTWP party play, where there is a finite limit to player micro capacity. Great for Megabosses - somewhat trivializes HoW and Belranga, who can be interrupted.

So much better than the steam forums. The steam forums are full of trolls and anti lgbtq people . You are wonderful and I will always support you and your games.

Quest Mechanical Matriarch is bugged. The hidden door in the Automech Production Facility won’t open. I don’t get an ‘open hidden door’ option. I’m playing on PS5. The quest seems to be bugged and I can’t progress. Anyone else with the same problem? I found someone on Reddit with the same issue but no workaround yet I guess. Would be nice if this could get fixed

@thelee After some code debugging, I think this parameter cause the weirdness of Shadowing Beyond, "ClearWhenAttacks": "true", found in statuseffects.gamedatabundle "Shadowing_Beyond_SEInvisible". For "Smoke_Veil_SE_Invisible" this is set to false.

If you take a Tactician/Assassin and do fights solo you can trigger Brilliant via Brillant Tactician nearly every time you go invisible. You don't need Devoted so bad since you already get +4 PEN from Assassinate. The additinal crit damage is nice but not stellar anyway. Yes, but that's only one half. The other one is piling up lashes (from weapon, Hylea's Talons, Belt of Magran's Chosen etc.). Bleeding Cuts is also nice - but the DoT can take some time to kill an enemy and that might be the time he needs to strike you down before the Slippers kick in or you can cast Smoke Veil etc. Fortunately stealth provides you with a 80% recovery bonus that almost nullifies the high recovery from Bleeding Cuts. It's still noticable though. An Assassin should always try to strike and then go invisible (via kill-->slippers or Shadowing Beyond or Smoke Veil) in order to end the encounter so that his resources refill. Then it can be very powerful and fun (if you like the sneaky "Thief™" playstyle). As Tactician/Assassin you can skip the "end combat" thing often enough though and still get Guile back. The best assassination weapon is Dragon's Dowry because of the combo of high base dmg + highest lashes. And also because guns don't have recovery. You can shoot twice (stealth reload bonus of 80%, shoot again) and then vanish. It's a bit frustrating that the best weapons for Assassins are the biggest guns - used a point blank - in general. Spearcaster with the lash enchantment is also good. If it has to be a melee weapon then Chromoprismatic Quarterstaff is also decent because of its lashes and because it has the additional advantage that you don't need to go into engagement once unstealthed (reach weapon). Oathbreaker's End does good dmg with Bleeding Cuts. Effort with Maiming isn't too bad either (raw dmg doesn't stack like Bleedig Cuts though). Engoliero do Espirs: also nice. Less base dmg but if you manage to kill with the opening backstab you'll send out Ghost Blades with all the dmg bonuses of the weapon. Basically just use a two hander with lashes on it (I'll count Bleeding Cuts as a lash since its also a multiplicative dmg boost like elemental lashes are). A suprisingly good assasination weapon is Whispers of the Endless Paths with the Run-Through enchantment. It has very high base damage. But of course you can't combine that with Power Strike because it's its own ability (but you can use it with Takedown Combo if you play an Assassin/Ranger). After a lot of testing with an Assassin some time ago I think I came to the conclusion that the best melee backstab weapon is Concelhaut's Draining Touch (of course only usable by a Spellblade) followed by Chromoprismatic Staff and then Oathbreaker's End (+ Bleeding Cuts) - iirc. If you find it stupid that Backstab favors heavy weapons you can check out the Community Patch in my signature: it changes Backstab from a additive dmg bonus to a flat raw dmg bonus (same numbers for all weapons) which scales with Rogue's Power Level and will generally be a tad higher than a vanilla Backstab with a two handed melee weapon after some PLs (but less than with Dragon's Dowry).