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From the trade show last month. Bad lighting in the hall. As an architect I feel offended by how bad the lighting was. Even worse attendance. Complete waste of money.

[banter voice="Kana_Rua"] Hellooo! Hello? [/banter]

Yo, where is it @Aarik D? Congrats to no.1 on Steam btw.!

Hello Developer, I had the only one major issue with Avowed's Journal UI. It hurts my eye trying to read Avowed's Journal with White Background and Black Text. Almost impossible to read and hurting my eye greatly. Can we have a simple patch with the opposite White Text with Black Background for user with TV monitor especially. I try adjusting all possible TV settings,. Brightness/Contrast/Gamma to no valid solution. I cannot enjoy the game without reading the journal properly. Upvote if anyone is facing similar issues. Thanks. rgs Ariobeth.

Just completed my Ultimate run today! What a journey. I used an SC Bloodmage. If anyone is curious here's a link to my playlist-- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAm0AdL2JprBmLIvnUJQa_8nGDaN3QPxR Thanks to ValkyOfApocrypha for his route, that was such an invaluable resource in figuring this out.

Oh, I also saw a massive ad for Avowed in Times Square. It was one of the corner ones that stretches around. Here are a few more good photos of our trip: The Bone Museum in Brooklyn One really good family photo. I don't know how we got the angsty teenager to smile.

Avowed - It's fantastic. It looks great. The intro area is really well done. I just reached the first city.

Character builds forum has been made - https://forums.obsidian.net/forum/178-avowed-characters-builds-strategies-the-unity-engine-spoiler-warning/ Thanks for letting us know; I'm going to go through and see if there are any existing topics that should be there and move them, but if I miss any let me know.

Greetings Envoys, A new patch is now live! This update brings important fixes and improvements, so be sure to update your game when it becomes available. We truly appreciate all of your reports and feedback—it’s invaluable in helping us identify and address issues to improve the game. Your support and patience mean a lot to us, and we want you to know that we’re listening. Our team is committed to making Avowed the best experience possible for everyone, and we will continue working hard to refine and enhance the game based on your input. We have a dedicated team focused on making Avowed better and better, and we’ll have more to announce soon. Stay tuned! If you run into any issues, please let us know at support.obsidian.net—your feedback helps us make the game even better! Thanks for playing, and as always, we appreciate your support! — The Avowed Team Crashes & Major Issues Adjusted character settings so that unkillable characters will now respawn if they mysteriously die, preventing blocked quest progression. Quests & Area Design Loot piles will no longer be placed in unexpected locations when created while the player is far away. Previously affected saved games will now have the loot pile back where the owning character died. Players who killed will no longer experience a dropped conversation when speaking with the leaders of the Living Lands during (Players with affected saves can now simply walk in and out of the meeting space to retrigger the conversation.) Bounty Masters in Dawnshore, Shatterscarp, and Galawain’s Tusks now correctly allow players to turn in bounties, even if they have acquired more trophy items than expected. Vemas now allows players to turn in Debt of Blood, even if they had already spoken to him upon returning. The player will no longer become stuck with no objectives active during An Untimely End. Fixed an issue where the player could become stuck in the environment near Dehengen's Cottage. Enemy loot will no longer disappear if the player killed Ygwulf and the assassins in the Cistern, saved their game, and then reloaded that save. Ambassador Hylgard can no longer die from drowning in The Strangleroot while following the player, which was preventing him from appearing at the embassy in Paradis. The player will no longer be blocked from finishing Ancient Soil if Fior mes Iverno becomes inaccessible. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Godless chests and sarcophagi now have currency in their loot lists. Upgrade materials (metal, wood, leather) are now more consistently available across stores in each region. Upgrade materials now properly refresh when store stock updates. Autosave frequency has been changed from 5 minutes to 10 minutes by default. (This can still be adjusted in player settings.) Autosave slots increased from 3 to 5. The ability Bleeding Cuts now applies Bleed Accumulation more reliably. Logging into Xbox Network on Steam no longer resets the player's selected language setting. Kai is now less likely to teleport inside a wall while using Leap of Daring. Companions now assist in combat more reliably. Visual & Art Fixes Militia Guard patrolling Claviger's Landing now has the correct neck texture. Adjusted health bar position for the enemy Putrid Skeleton Wizard. Fixed jittering of player hair and armor when afflicted by Poison Accumulation. Reduced opacity of a water fountain inside Ondra's Temple. User Interface (UI) & Controls Companion abilities bound to the Quick Slot menu no longer become undone after reloading a save. Added new settings for controller users to adjust gamepad look acceleration strength and ramp-up time. Corrected typos in the Encumbrance tutorial and on the Compiling Shaders screen (now correctly states “a few minutes” instead of “a few moments”). Miscellaneous Launching Avowed with DirectX 11 is now disabled, as the game does not support it. Some players have been using a DirectX 11 launch parameter as a workaround for various crashes, performance problems, or compatibility concerns. However, this can introduce additional problems that we cannot troubleshoot or resolve, including unexpected visual or performance issues. If you're encountering startup crashes, we recommend updating your drivers, verifying your game files, or reaching out to our support team at support.obsidian.net for assistance.

So I did a little test : Casting Blizzard with Common +1 Wand and Common +2 grimoire in hand, and then again but with Fine weapon/grimoire instead. BUT my second weapon set had Fine +0 mace/shield, which probably screwed my test. That second Fine set screwed my test. My armor is also FIne +0. RESULT: The damage was the same versus spiders Tier 2 with 2 pips (so 2.2 you could say). Damage was 15 all the time, even against inanimate objects. UPDATE - NEW RESULT : but by removing my second set of Fine gear, the Common +1 wand and Common +2 grimoire were doing only 5 damage with the same Blizzard spell. This is quite a difference ! Note that I also tried with Common armor, but one set Fine weapon/shield, and my spell damage remained 15, so Fine tier nonetheless. CONCLUSION : evidently, as Patronkus said here, the game looks at your equipped gear (best of both weapon sets) to determine your comparative tier for offence. So even if your grimoire is Common, if you have your best tier equipped in the other weapon set, you are good to go. Armor did not affect my spell damage in this test, but maybe the game does consider it (?).

I was out of town, so I have to be twice as fast downloading to catch up.

That's a lot of downloading for a demo.

Avowed has a much better inventory system than previous Obsidian games. The crafting is also pretty decent. I don't know who handled that, but they deserve accolades.

Trip Report! I took the family to NYC this last week. It was the first time for all of us. My wife just turned 50, and my daughter is going off to college in the fall, so I figured this was a good reason to celebrate with a pretty big trip. It was a stretch financially, but I did my best to make it a special trip. Here are some highlights: Skating in Central Park: We actually packed our ice skates for this trip. An entire suitcase was dedicated to bringing our hockey skates across the country. It was worth it. We got out on the Central Park rink and it was beautiful. The hole park is amazing and I ran through it every day, despite the temperature feeling like it was in the low single digits. Skating with my wife and kids was my favorite moment. Dungeons and Dragons 20-sided Tavern: This was a fun improv show a bit off broadway. It was interactive. You chose whether you were a warrior, rogue, or wizard, and then you used your phone to vote on decisions for the party. My son really enjoyed this one. They were amazing at improv. The Great Gatsby: I'm actually going to talk about the show on a separate thread, since it affected me more dramatically than anything else I've ever watched. But needless to say, the whole family enjoyed it and it was a perfect Broadway show. We stepped out of the matinee show and it was snowing in Manhattan, so it was a pretty magical moment. I still feel like I barely scratched the surface of what Manhattan has to offer. We went to the Bone Museum in Brooklyn, we took the Subway, we visited the 9/11 Memorial. I ate bagels every day. But there was a lot I didn't get to. Hopefully someday we will take another shot at it. Maybe when the weather is better too.

Hi, check this out! We found a big box in my father-in-law's attic and in it - among other stuff - was an old German youth magazine. "Why did he keep this?" we asked ourselves - until we discovered this: Awesome

Hey everyone! Patch 1.2.2 is here, bringing a variety of fixes and improvements based on your feedback. From crash and quest fixes to gameplay tweaks and UI updates, we’ve addressed several community-requested issues to make your experience even better. As always, if you run into any other issues or have feedback, be sure to reach out—we appreciate your support! Community-Requested Fixes Making Crafting and Upgrade System more Approachable Updates to Equipment Tier difference feedback and penalties/bonuses: Changed Tier penalty system from a hard tier to tier system and made it dynamic based on players equipment and the tier (and sub-tier) of the enemy. Tier difference rules now only apply when there is a +/- 4 level gap. Tier II enemies will now play a small reaction animation when struck by lower-tier weapons, instead of not reacting at all. Reduced damage reduction when player weapons are closer in tier to an enemy. Significantly decreased how often companions comment about player needing better armor and/or weapons. Upgrade materials can no longer be sold to merchants to inadvertently make upgrading difficult. We have a longer-term fix involving buying back from merchants in the works. Missing NPCs In specific situations, some NPCs weren’t where they should be. Saving the game, and re-loading will put them back where they should be. We will have a fix soon that fixes the situation completely and doesn’t require a save and load. Quest & Exploration Fixes The brambles in the Delemgan Glade will now vanish when the Adragan Heart is acquired, preventing players from getting stuck inside. Grysca (the apothecary) now correctly speaks with the player to advance An Untimely End, even if they previously encountered a bug with Thalla the Ogre spawning twice. Added a system to respawn key characters when loading a save if they were previously missing and blocking quest progression (including Ambassador Hylgard and The Watcher Runyd). Companion & NPC Improvements Reviving companions in combat now restores them to 75% of their maximum health instead of 50%. Starting health of companions has been increased to help with their viability in combat. Merchants & Economy Merchants at the Dawnshore docks now offer 'Fine' gear in addition to 'Common' gear. Crashes & Major Issues Removed chance to crash when casting Corrosive Siphon on destructible objects. Optimized resource handling of VFX while the game is paused via radial menus to prevent rare leaks and crashes. Quest & Area Design Fixed invisible collision blocking the player in Strangleroot. Prevented players from charging into unintended areas in Strangleroot, avoiding quest progression issues. Enemies now navigate the bridges of the lava tubes more consistently. First Contact with the Enemy quest now progresses correctly if all badges are collected before speaking to Nauki. Players can now complete Steel Resolve after the main quest in Emerald Stair if they had completed enough objectives beforehand. Kowha now responds correctly if the player returns to them after starting One Last Drink. Dialog with Giatta upon leaving Naku Tedek now triggers consistently when loading saves before the conversation. Updated Mapping the Living Lands quest conditions to allow starting from future regions before talking to the quest giver in Dawnshore. Updated A Lady Never Tells quest flow so it correctly completes in the quest log when starting via the courtesan, getting the shipment, then speaking to Giuliana. Governor Ignasi’s option to turn in the spy can now only be triggered once instead of being repeatable. Conversations with leaders in the final area no longer end prematurely when choosing the Let me reconsider option. Made an additional ending option for the leadership conclave available to players who initially backed out but wish to reconsider. Adjusted environment art near the Trantons bounty in Emerald Stair to prevent bounty loot from becoming unobtainable. Previously missing voice-over lines in ambient content now play correctly. Systems & Gameplay Improvements Seeds of Vengeance summons now scale correctly with health and damage. One-handed weapon Parry enchantments now function as intended. Party buffs from the player now correctly target companions only, instead of summoned creatures. Kai no longer gets stuck if using Unbending Defense while mid-air with Leap of Daring. Improved frame rate when rendering damage numbers on multiple enemies at once. Improved item randomization when restocking shops. Blast ability for wands now plays the correct visual and sound effects. Improved logic for animations on companions at the end of combat. Improved transitions on the top of Mt. Forja. Fixed interaction inconsistencies with objects and NPCs obscured by other characters. Controllers no longer rumble when loading a save before the final boss fight. Fixed issues with pond coin interactions. Added error codes for save game failures. Improved where characters are looking during certain conversations. Audio Improvements Cutscene in Naku Kebel now properly plays sound effects. Eating food from the radial menu now provides audio feedback. Increased volume of Woedica’s voiceover audio. Player voice now plays more consistently for abilities with vocal components. Improved transitions between music intensity levels when exploring. Music during the end slides now plays at the intended volume. Visual & Art Fixes Updated Banner Dwarf’s outfit LODs to reduce clipping during animation. Captain Ngunu’s neck is now properly merged with his head. Steel Garrote Soldiers have re-grown their missing hands. Improved shadow quality on Xbox Series X Performance Mode. User Interface (UI) & Controls Cloud transfer prompt is now properly centered on ultrawide displays. Xbox cloud transfer dialog buttons no longer shake rapidly when hovering over the bottom part of the button. Initial splash screens now properly support Chinese characters. Interaction prompts pop up more reliably. Opening a radial menu after leaving and returning to the game no longer triggers the pause menu. Removed unintended English characters in the One Last Drink quest journal for non-English languages. Cloud save UI now defaults to selecting the recommended option.

Re: color/lighting - of course it's all very subjective. And I don't mean just Avowed. Dragon Age Veilguard, Outer Worlds, even some aspects of Baldur's Gate 3, a lot of farm/other sims. something just bothers my eyes. It's not as bad in wide view isometric, and ofc I'm sure all of them have places it's more mellow. It's not only palette but lighting on top they do for "bold and colorful" emphasis or something - everything is so god rays bright/glare-y, or glossy/shiny. and in day scenes I get literal eyestrain if I stare at it too long. I mean Torchlight didn't bother me back when. I guess the more "realistic/hi-def" they try to make chrs and environments, the less I like such (imo) OTP colors. But I'll give any game extra credits if you can make chrs. like these. When I saw WAB's video, I burst out laughing when he showed his chr. Fantastic.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-reciprocal-tariffs-coming-thursday-2025-02-13/ Also, Trump doesn't know what VAT is, as he wrote on Truth Social. "For purposes of this United States Policy, we will consider Countries that use the VAT System, which is far more punitive than a Tariff, to be similar to that of a Tariff. Sending merchandise, product, or anything by any other name through another Country, for purposes of unfairly harming America, will not be accepted"

I'm off to donate blood again tomorrow. It usually just takes an hour of my time, and at least I feel like I'm contributing something. I have that universal donor O-negative blood that is much sought by emergency rooms. At my age it usually takes a few days to recover my energy, but at least I'm getting rid of more senescent cells. (Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.) It's just in time too; there's more snow on the way in the forecast. We may get up to three inches by Friday. I think I'll plan on staying home and reading a good book (The Bookseller of Florence by Ross King).

I've taken up the neckbeardiest of hobbies, painting Warhammer figurines. I don't play the game, I just like coloring in little dudes. It's like playing dress up with really small dolls who are evil robots. It's fun and I can watch Star Trek at the same time.

Hey everyone. Hope y'all are doing well! We're in Jamestown New York for a family function. We're picking up Bri from the airport in a few hours. I dislike New York mostly but it's nice around here. We drove up from Texas which was pretty miserable this time of year. After this it's back to cheese land for a while.

Hello , I've spent the last days developing these Avowed Interactive Maps, with locations for Pickups, Interactable Corpses, Loot Holders/Chests, and much more. It's not finished, but I am very happy about the results so far. Expect regular updates with more filters, better tooltip descriptions, and maps for the towns and dungeons. In addition, I am working on an In-Game app, which will track your player position and sync it with the maps (Overlay/2nd Screen). You can find most regions so far, including filters for the most important filters. I like to add monsters too soon. Track your progress by settings locations as discovered (right-click or click in the tooltip). This should help you to collect all the secrets! In case that you don't want to get spoilers about the game locations, you can disable all filters and track them by your own using the Add Node and Add Drawings features! Please let me know what you think and keep in mind, that this project is very new and some locations might be wrong or missing. I appreciate your feedback!

Dear Obsidian, I have a suggestion on how to make the combat a bit more flexible. While playing Avowed I found that as much as ther is exciting freedom in combining your weapons and magic, there is no possibility to parry with any dual weapon scenario (only sowrd and board and two handers). Please consider adding a seperate parry button/action, so that every melee weapon, regardless of secondary is able to parry. You have character abilities dedicated to this function, it is just such a shame it is so restrictive at the moment. I am imagining a dagger+sword rogue or sword+pistol pirate and it would be great if such setups would allow for parry and not only dodge as defensive non-magical option. On other note, I really enjoy your game so far, thanks and keep up the good work !!

i have a similar gripe about Marius. You can upgrade Shadow Step so that it basically instakills stunned enemies. When it works it's great! But he'll just waste it on un-stunned enemies or not use it when there are stunned enemies! I tried disabling the setting for companions to use their abilities themselves, but this added way more radial micromanagement than I enjoyed. Other allies have similar problems, but it's less of a big deal w/ e.g. Kai's taunt, because at least he's still taunting. But Shadow Step has an extremely looooong cooldown and it's only really effective if it's smartly targeted! (Same goes for another upgrade that lets it do more damage the less health the target has) I wish there were slightly better smarts for companions, or at least have a system where if I put an ability on my hotkeys that they stop using it automatically.

Thank you everyone for putting in the work to "decipher" this system! I don't think I'd have ever figured out myself. I am an older cRPG player and for me the idea that the power of my mage's spell depends on the quality of any of her equipment is just weird. They could have made it at least dependent on mage items, like grimoires, that would make a bit more sense.

This is what annoys me the most. I tested a bit of dual wield / empty single wield as a melee ranger. - Benefit of dual wield: you can spam faster attacks by alternating between both buttons. Works with crit builds. - Disadvantage of dual wield. No parry, and attack combo easier loses benefits. So you rely on dodge and Shadowing Beyond. For single wield there is no benefit if using an empty offhand. They dropped the ball on this part. You might as well use a shield. IIRC Deadfire and POE1 gave you higher crit change if off-hand was empty.

Please make pillars of eternity 3 please ::/(( -anilerdmsrk

There were no NATO troops (except during annual Rapid Trident exercise which has organized since 2013, when about 6000 troops from NATO and African countries trained with Ukraine's troops for a week) before current invasion and even possibility for NATO troops were close to zero and Ukraine joining NATO was even more unlikely. Invasion itself made idea of NATO troops in Ukraine a possibility that could actually happen. So I don't see that would prevent subsequent ones as blocking NATO troops was not one of the goals that Russia tries to achieve with the invasion. Invasion made it possible that Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Support for NATO in Finland was in 2018 less than 23%, 2021 it was 26%, in 2022 after Russia started their invasion it jumped to over 70%. In January 2022 less than 40% of members of Finnish parliament supported joining NATO, in March support had jumped to over 90%. Finnish Government Defence Report from 2021 estimated that NATO support in Finland could reach 50% in 2040 if Russia continues its power politics and Russian parliament members continue to threated Finland. So if Russia didn't want NATO to expand, they choose option that caused opposite effect, quite predictably Russia warned against NATO deploying troops in Ukraine in 2021 and said that is their red line, but at that time Russia itself was already moving its troops to Ukraine's border for "military exercise" which ended as invasion to Ukraine in 2022. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56616778 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/2/russia-warns-nato-against-troop-deployment-to-ukraine https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/putin-says-nato-troops-in-ukraine-would-be-a-red-line-for-moscow Although Ukraine wanted NATO to hasten its membership because it feared that Russia may invade https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/06/ukraine-pressures-nato-for-membership-as-russia-amasses-troops-at-border Russia was also against NATO countries supplying Ukraine https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/22/russia-accuses-west-of-fuelling-hysteria-over-ukraine-tensions https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/30/russia-will-act-if-nato-countries-cross-ukraine-red-lines-putin-says Although Russia did say that they brough troops to Ukraine borders as response against non specified NATO threats https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/12/g7-calls-on-russia-to-cease-provocations-on-ukraine-border There was also speculation that everything has been just to increase gas prices in Europe and get approval for Nord Stream 2 https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-shmyhal-nato-russia/

please make pillars of eternity 3 start kickstarter maybe? -Anıl Erdem Sarak

@Aarik D, @Shyla - would it be possible to create a subforum for Avowed builds, game mechanics etc. like we have them for PoE, Deadfire and Outer Worlds?

Rarely am I more disappointed in my country. Especially my town is something like 40% AfD, it's driving me mad. The only good thing is that AfD stays < 25%, since this means they can't do that much, especially nothing important. Also BSW (the most obvious Putin puppet) is below 5%, which is another good news. The future looks grim. AfD gained over 10% in votes. Next election will probably seal the deal and then after 90something years, we finally have Nazis back in the government. Or the coalition building will fail and CDU will work together with the AfD after all. Remember-- just because they say that they won't work with them, doesn't mean they will stay true to their words. I don't trust any of those snakes. That said, bringing back the CDU is just stupid. They had 16 years with Merkel and they did nothing. In big parts it's their fault that we are where we are now. I'm not blaming SPD, they didn't really had time to do stuff. Personally I would have given them more, just to see what happens.

My plan was to build a Ranger mostly but with the Wizard's Blackbow and Spirit of Decay and so on. Unfortunately my progression in the game is veeery slow so far. The lack of info/explanation/numbers is not helping. I would like a mod that added all that useful info (combat log etc.).

I can't complete the main quest because even though I have found the Watcher and spoken to them something must have happened because I can finish the quest at any time I talk to them I get generic responses not an actual talk

Oh yeah, definitely a lack of skill games way back. By the way, I don't consider KCD as such. Warhorse claimed they attracted totally non-gamers with the first game already. And those adapted far better to the unusual design decisions than the gamers: E.g. the saving system, eating, drinking, sleeping, fighting... It's all about conditioning. I mean, back in the day, we used to play games without markers, auto-maps and with actual puzzles when we were kids. And had no problem whatsoever with that. Every game was kinda like that. But since a large part of it is simply conditioning: There's market opportunity for (almost) anything. With so many games in that space playing increasingly alike, perhaps moreso than ever. It needs to be packaged properly, naturally... Plus, if you're not fully committing to something, you risk making completely bland product that may try hard to please everyone, but doesn't really wow anybody. Eventually, you're going to alienate a few people anyhow no matter what you're doing. For all the talk about how much of a hardcore sim KCD would be, at the core it's actually quite a cinematic Hollywood type of affair full of drama and even genuine laughs -- the survival/sim elements are fairly light. Think Mafia, Vavra's first gig as a writer / director. There's quite a lot of that in there still. I was actually underwhelmed initially when I went into the first game kinda blind back then. I expected something way different. Only when I'd finished the long prologue and the game opened up, did I start to really warm up to it.

I've only just finished the tutorial zone and arrived at the first town. Early observations: 1) The third-person camera feels like a bit of an afterthought in that it exposes the janky player character animations. Jumping looks weird, and the dodging animation ...well, there isn't really a dodging animation and you just magically slide around. But it remains my preference because I don't buy into the belief that first-person cameras are more immersive. At least, not while my viewport is limited to a narrow 16:9 window. 2) I like that so far I don't seem to be expected to loot random bodies and containers, but the flipside of this is that I hate that breaking random crates and pots is rewarded. I'm going to refuse to keep doing it, and the opportunity cost based on what I've seen so far doesn't seem to be particularly large. 3) I welcome the return of stealth kills, though it's weird that they relate it to some mystical godlike power instead of something more mundane. However it's ridiculous that performing one automatically cancels stealth, and you have to always remember to manually re-crouch after each kill.

I wish i could play Avowed, because i don't have an xbox or a gaming pc, but i am playing grounded for the first time. It's so good! I got it on switch, and it's like 500p or something but it looks surprisingly alright and plays at like 30 fps so it's not a bad experience. It's the perfect portable game. I don't know what i was expecting and why it took me so long to play, but it feels like good obsidian and has the potential to be my favourite survival game ever. I hope microsoft continues their marriage with nintendo on the switch 2, because if it's on the level ps4 pro or something it will be able to handle most obsidian games semi decently.

So Avowed. First impressions are mixed. Gameplay is indeed pretty good, and I like exploration so far. Writing has me increasingly worried. Conversation trees seem to be well below Obsidian's standard - there is a rather blatant "NPC has same response recorded for all of the choices offered to you", and character's just don't feel right so far. They speak casually, which is at odds with Avowed still being just of a lore whore as PoEs were. I also find NPCs to speak more to the player than a character. Multiple NPCs keep talking to the Envoy of Aedyr things they probably should keep to themselves. In first instance I thought it might be characterisation, but it keeps happening, so it seems like it's more of an exposition dump for the player, rather than a believable in-world interaction. Edit. So pwetty though

I thought they said Deadfire kept selling and by now has sold a good amount of copies. Personally I like poe2 a lot more than poe1. However, if they ever do a poe3, I really hope it will have some slight pirate or at least spanish colonial feeling again.

Of course he was. Trump never made it a secret that he wanted to go after his enemies. The only ones shocked about this are the "he is just joking!"-crowd.

Blood: The Last Vampire (2000) & Vampire Wars (1990). Right, here's my vampire anime tier list so far: A (I love this!). Vampire Princess Miyu B. Vampire Hunter D C (I like this!). N/A D. Vampire in the Garden, Darkness of the Sea and Shadow of the Moon E (This is fine). Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (1993), Mermaid Forest F. Blood: The Last Vampire, The Laughing Target, Mermaid's Scar G (Meh). JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (2000) H. N/A I (I dislike this). Castlevania, Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge J. N/A K (I hate this). Vampire Wars ... Z (This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my whole life). Hellsing Ultimate Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

That's two million in two weeks. Even Ubisoft would have been pretty happy with that on some of their more recent underperformers. Doubly so if they had the comparably modest budget of KCD II... Embracer aren't minors either, after all. As said, to me this only confirms what's been happening for the past+ decade. The model of ever infusing more simple action into RPGs and simplifying RPG elements down has been pushed to its limits -- the Bioware/Bethesda school, basically. By now these games are competing with all the action/adventure type of games that have been including RPG-lite elements since The Witcher 3 hit it big. That doesn't mean similar projects are destined to underperform. That only means you need an absolutely stellar game and/or a wholly unique take on the form to still stand out from the crowd. Bluntly put, Veilguard would have had it even harder had it neither had a Bioware nor a Dragon Age logo attached. Meanwhile, studios such as FromSoft, Larian or Warhorse first thrived in their own niches. The games they started making were considered too risky for any of the industry players. "We're an industry about instant gratification", they would have told FromSoftware. "Well there's dungeons, kinda. But where are the dragons?" That's what they would have asked Warhorse. "Turn-based tactical combat? Table-top simulations? In the 2000s? Go make this more like Diablo", they'd actually told Larian since their early days. "All of you guys don't fit in, sorry." Then all of these grew, both in studio size and target audiences. In parts because there's far more people playing video games now than ever, which also means a broader range in taste. And then they all could offer experiences that, on their levels of production, see no direct competition whatsoever. (Well, Soulslikes are a thing, mind you. But From are still considered the "Originals". And what better promotion is it to have an entire genre tag named after your own product? Jackpot, baby!)

Almost done with Deadfire. Funny, I already stumbled over 2 bugs in the game... back when I played it the first time (and a second time right after), I didn't notice any bugs at all. Game still looks great. I just love how my people look like. Just damn Serafen won't give me his stupid hat. I didn't had him in my party for a big part of the beginning, because for once I wanted to use different party members, but now I'm unable to improve my standing with him... I really want to replace him with someone else again, BUT I NEED THIS HAT. GIVE IT TO ME SERAFEN, GIVE IT TO ME. REEEEEE. You know, I feel like the biggest issue with the game are all the tiny islands. IMO, less islands, but a more connected feeling would have worked out much better. Really hate it to go down the islands like a checklist and at best they have a 1 screen mini-dungeon with some mobs in them. It feels cheap and lazy even though it isn't... it's just too disconnected from the rest. Oh yeah, another thing... this time I did not upgrade my ship at all and... I'm completely fine. Maybe things got changed with patches later? Could swear that I had A LOT more sea battles back in release days. Now I only have them if I initiate them myself.

17 hours into Avowed. finished the first gameplay area. Felt like writing something. (Not sure how many areas total, they mention 4 settlements, so maybe 4+?) Generally, I feel it's good, but not great. That might still change, of course. + Story. I kinda feel like I know where the story is going, but we'll see. It certainly advanced a great deal in the first area. So far seems to fit in the universe well enough. + There's lots of decisions you can make about stuff. Quests resolutions, story etc. No idea how much meat there actually is behind those decisions yet, since I only played once. There seem to be two main dimensions you make decisions around, whether you want strict or more lax rule in the Living Lands, and about the fantasy stuff going on. Maybe it'll get more complicated in the end, dunno. + Exploration: Lots of parkour, but because the town layouts are realistic, it's fun enough. By default the game highlights treasure with both visual and audio clues, and the game is basically designed around it, ie. there's stuff you're very unlikely to find if you don't have the cues on. But due to the itemization (below), it doesn't matter much if you miss treasure. + Combat is fun. Very explosive, probably even if you weren't throwing around fireballs. I'm playing a pure wizard, wands and spellbooks and so on. I use the book of elements and book of greater elements, so it's fireballs and chain lightning etc. Bit of a glass cannon, I win most combats by killing stuff before they get in my face. I lose when there's too many coming for different directions. Thankfully the first companion you find has taunt abilities, so that helps a lot. Enemy AI often prioritizes the PC, and ranged enemies don't seem to ever miss, so that's hard for my wizard. Aiming AoE spells is hard unless you have the high ground. - Itemization. Because you're only equipping a single character and there's a upgrade/crafting system, 95% of what you find is materials to upgrade your items, so it isn't very interesting. - The starting area has only 2 companions, so it's either them or none at all. At least I didn't find either annoying. - Encounter design isn't very varied. First area has basically 4-5 different enemy groups, so it's always a mix of them, even if there doesn't seem to be any reason why Xaurips, spiders and bears are hanging together. It gets repetitive. Hopefully there's different enemies in future areas.

I did this today

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/obsidian-plans-to-make-rpgs-for-100-years-by-not-trying-to-grow-aggressively-expand-our-team-size-or-make-super-profitable-games/ Here is a really good link from Obsidian around there vision of the company and how they plan to survive and ensure profitability in a reasonable way They have learnt lessons from the likes of Bioware and Veilguard and its sales failures and they plan to avoid that type of financial crisis for the company " They didn't call out any examples themselves, but the duo was clearly setting themselves apart from companies that pour enormous budgets into long and turbulent development cycles and then announce that the resulting game underperformed because it didn't immediately sell tens of millions of copies. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is the most recent high-profile example of an expensive RPG that didn't meet its owner's sales expectations, and EA cut jobs at BioWare after the miss. "

5 hours into Avowed. Seems good. More linear than Skyrim, but still a bit open-worldy. Maybe Witcher 3 is a good comparison? Feels like the PC has too much special stuff thrown at them. You're the king's envoy, but also some kind of special godlike. Just either one could have made an interesting story. Only bug I've ran into so far is people's hair having that problem of springing down from default position when a new camera angle is loaded.

You're just jealous because he's finally found the true love that you never have.