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One thing that nobody warns you about when you get a job in the gaming industry is just how many meetings there are. There’re daily standups, gate reviews, sprint meetings, post-mortems, sign-offs, bridge meetings, war rooms, and the list goes on and on. But one of the most important meetings is called Triage. It generally occurs on a daily or weekly cadence, depending on what part of the dev cycle you are in. This is where Production, Design, Engineering, and QA get together and discuss the latest bugs. We go over each bug written since the last Triage and decide as a group how important the bug is, who is going to fix it, and when they need to fix it by. There are three main ways that this is measured. Severity: How bad the bug is, in the eyes of the user. Priority: How soon a bug should be fixed. Repro Rate: How hard, or easy, is it to run into the bug? How likely are players to see it? This is usually measured in attempts. For example, a crash bug could happen 100% of the time, or it could only happen under very specific conditions. And one thing that is easy to forget when you’re lost in a sea of bugs, is the scale of the audience. Sure, only 10% of the testers may experience a specific issue. But 8% of the modern AAA audience is hundreds of thousands of players. You would think, with that in mind, anything that affects at least 5% of players would be treated as a serious concern. But what if I told you that while only 0.5% of women are color-blind, 8% of men are? And how many modern games have color-blind filters? The answer is not nearly enough. Accessibility features are about giving players the tools they need to enjoy the game in whichever way works best for them. If you can add color-blind filters (https://colorblindgames.com/2021/03/29/colorblind-gaming-101-the-basics/) that’s roughly 5% more potential sales. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 85% of Americans under 18 play video games at least once a week. That comes out to 205 million players in the US alone. Five percent of which, comes to 8,000,000 people. Multiple that by $60 and we’re talking serious money. So why, in a world where the dollar drives everything, are accessibility features not standard? Why are so many developers leaving so many potential players behind? It would be easy for me to blame big bad CEO’s or shareholders for the problem. But the reality is, it’s not malicious. Like most issues in life, it’s more ignorance than anything else. People just aren’t as informed on the subject as they could be. But that is starting to change. The industry is starting to come around and they are making serious investments in multiple ways. (alt text: Ishihara test was invented to measure color blindness. The image above uses different shades to create the image of Toadstool from Super Mario Bros) source: Obsidian has been leading the way for longer than most. Well before it was “cool” to make accessible games, titles like Pillars of Eternity (2013) were giving players multiple color-blind filters, detailed difficulty options, and a large suite of audio/video settings to let players decide what “good” looks like. Back in 2020 Grounded introduced the Arachnophobia filter. A setting that is now becoming default in many horror/survivor games. Hogwarts Legacy added it, but only after NorskPL released a community mod for the setting. My favorite is actually from the most recent version, Grounded 2. Can you detect the feature? It’s one of the first things you see when you start the game. (alt text: Screenshot of Grounded 2 main menu showing custom face button graphics used to inform the player where on the face the button is located.) Many of you probably pointed to the Accessibility shortcut. And that is a great example of mindful design. How do you expect people to turn on the accessibility features if they need the accessibility features enabled to get to the accessibility features? But that’s not my favorite. My new favorite is the A and Y buttons. Notice what’s different? I bet you Xbox Certification noticed that these are not authorized representations of the face buttons on an Xbox controller. But I love that they saw through the rule to find the intent. Instead of confusing players, these actually provide more information. It’s a tiny change that can have a big impact. Heck, I’m not even color-blind and these helped me after I spent the previous few weeks playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, where the A and B buttons are swapped. And that’s the key to accessibility features. Not telling players how to play, but providing the options for them to play how they want to play. And they are not alone. The industry as a whole has finally seen the benefits of expanding their games and tearing down walls. For example: the Entertainment Software Association (a trade association representing the major video game developers and publishers across the industry) recently rolled out their Accessible Games Initiative. They are leading by example and starting with updating their storefronts to include Accessibility Tags. Much like you can browse by genre or feature, now you can filter games by which ones support the accessibility features you care the most about. (alt text: A black background with brightly colored stickers in the shapes of Xbox icons and accessibility products like prosthetic legs, wheelchairs, and seeing eye dogs.) And they are not alone. A whole market is forming around consulting, reviewing, and teaching about accessibility. People are getting together and demanding “Never about us, without us.” From Accessibility Labs, a startup in Tempe, AZ of former QA professionals passionate about Accessibility testing. To Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines, requirements that titles they publish must meet. But Tommy, I’m a developer and I want to do better. How can I make sure everyone is able to enjoy my hard work? Well, I’m glad you asked, imaginary developer person. Because while I’m passionate about the subject, I also acknowledge I’m just as ignorant as most. But together, we can work towards fighting that ignorance, in our own minds, and in others. Even the smallest changes, like the button prompts above, can have a huge impact. Bring on Accessibility experts during your design phase, don’t wait until you’re about to launch. Don’t be like so many others before you that designed fully fleshed out UI’s that rely on a cursor to navigate. Only to find out down the road this is not very accessible for people with fine motor issues. Making these changes during the design phase will save you thousands, if not millions, of dollars down the line. Embrace your lack of knowledge and seek out the experts. There are resources available to developers of all shapes and sizes. Are you a small developer that wants to do better, but just doesn’t know where to start? Support other independent gamers like Accessibility Labs. Have a good idea of what you want to do, but want to make sure you aren’t forgetting anything? Check out Microsoft’s Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. Want to support the effort in other ways? Reach out to AbleGamers, who have been fighting this fight for over 20 years. Enjoy this article and want to know more? Check out Derek Gruber on Seattle Indie’s Accessibility Awareness Month episode. The last thing I want to do is trivialize game and UX design. Accessibility is just one of countless aspects that must be considered when designing a game and it’s UI. What’s most important is that you are making the effort. Instead of asking why you should add an option, ask why you shouldn’t. When in doubt, trust the player to decide what is best for themselves. Not every feature is going to be a home run. But as long as we, as a community, are working towards improving, the rising tide will raise all ships. Sources & Resources Game Developer - Nintendo, Microsoft, EA and others unite to make accessibility messaging a priority Washington Post - Accessibility option in survival game ‘Grounded’ turns my arachnophobia into a thrill Colorblind Games - Colorblind Gaming 101: The Basics Mashable - Video games taught me I was colorblind but it's not always a friendly lesson Nexus Mods - Arachnophobia mode Seattle Indies - Accessibility Awareness Month Interview Series: Steve Saylor and Derek Gruber Able Gamers - Combating Social Isolation Through Play Accessibility Labs Microsoft - Xbox Accessibility Guidelines Entertainment Software Association (ESA) - Entertainment Software Association Introduces the Accessible Games Initiative to Provide Players with Information About Accessibility Features in Video Games

Hey everyone. Hope y'all have been doing well. It's been a while since I signed in. I keep forgetting my password. Gwen & I are in Toronto tonight. We're doing a cross-country baseball tour. We're going to all thirty parks and a few (or more than a few) college and minor league parks as well. We've always wanted to do this and its past time to stop putting it off. So, Friday, Saturday & Sunday we're watching the Jays take on the Twins. Last week we got to see the Brewers & Rays in Milwaukee. We started out by seeing the Wisconsin Lady Badgers softball team sweep Maryland in 3 games. Today we visited the Royal Ontario Museum followed by dinner at Gyubees. Had a great time. Now just relaxing at the hotel. She's talking to Bri and I'm catching up with you fine folks. Life is good guys. It's a beautiful thing.

Thank you, sir. I'm ok. They mostly hit military targets but yeah, it was scary. It's over now. Let's hope it stays this way.

Didn't see one, so I figured I would create one, just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you lovely saints, sinners, heretics, heathens, faithful, lost and found people out there. I haven't been active online much the last month and a half, because crunch time and projects going live at years end. Comes with the profession Hope you guys are going to enjoy some time off with family, friends, loved ones or favourite spider pet, whatever you fancy ❤️

Tried for the fifth time to give BG3 a chance. I need to stop giving it a chance. There is nothing I like about it. Closest thing would be the combat. I don't mind the combat but I absolutely hate the 3D enviroments for CRPGs. Constantly feel disoriented. Also everything tends to look the same from what I've seen. Some abandoned temple looks the same as a goblin fort. Which also looks exactly like every dungeon i saw in divinity Story wise there is just way too much going on. Squid people, demon people, every companion is a vampire, or a demon or some person who has a demon in their head or sold their soul to a demon. Dice rolls for dialogue is painful. It feels like they want you to save scum. Can you not? Sure but you will just die in that combat and end up redoing the dice roll anyway. I might be just dumb or not giving it as much attention as it needs, but I never know what the hell is going on. I'm going to save some druid leader but then he's working for the goblins and also some demon has a deal for me, but not yet he will be around later. And I guess I'm supposed to help squid people but also they are the enemies. I just... don't care. It's way too much stuff that is thrown at you with little context. Anyway I hate this game and hopefully I never try to play it again.

So I take it, starting the 24th, I'll be all alone in the forum because everyone else is playing this at launch, right?

The tiles burst the Tuesday before last. Luckily, even though here it was the orthodox Easter week, I got a couple of contractors to help me strip the damaged part of the floor and pour a layer of concrete. Once dry I painted it white, then added colours to have some orientation. I then threw forks down and sprayed outlines. And spend a couple of days painting faces for the cats from morning 'till way after midnight. Then spread a few hundred actual wooden forks painted as cats over it. The floor hasn't hardened yet, so all I got is a peak of the shiny new floor. I am leaving it overnight and am going to shine it tomorrow then varnish it to protect it from sunlight.

Well, tis being an odd mixture of times for me. After two years and 1 month since my father passed, we finally wrapped up the estate, sold the family house. My life is pretty much now in a 100 sq ft storage unit, and I'm renting a room while I do the hunt for my first house. Having a little debate on the potential for putting up insulated / powered summerhouse/workshop in the garden of wherever I end up buying. Once that's done.. slowly unpack and figure out where my life is going. Also doing that slight mental replay where one of my closest friends just killed our 15 odd-year friendship and I have no idea what actually happened or drove them to that decision. So that's a little odd. Still, adapting and figuring it out. I guess now I'm not having to deal with all the things on my evenings and weekends, I can possibly start catching up on books and computer games and tv shows and wotnot....

I like this conversation. A number of people who dislike things I dislike, dislike things about BG3 I would be bound to dislike, were I to play it. So I guess I can skip it.

I got a free copy of the new Hexen+Heretic release since I owned both Hexen and Heretic on my Steam library. Trying it out now. Also, thank you Bethesda! I don't care if you ruined the Fallout franchise so long as you give me free stuff. ❤️

NWN2 Enhanced Edition comes out tomorrow, so I decided to pick it up on GOG. I'm pretty excited to play it after so long. It doesn't look like they've done much graphically, but it was a decent looking game back in the day, so it should be fine.

Was watching some videos re: Trump/stripping naturalized US citizenship etc. I am a naturalized US citizen, since I was adopted in early 1971. I think they altered some laws 20-30 years ago where adoptees can be US citizens without actual naturalization process, but only applies to those adopted post-early 1980's, with certain requirements etc, or something. I don't know details on that. Anyway, while watching it occurred to me I should go doublecheck all my adoption/citizen paperwork/records, because moving a few years ago is chaotic + my memory/organization gets worse every year. Looked in file cabinet, closets, looked in some boxes (still packed re: moving homes), couldn't find them, started to panic. Then remember the "mom" box. I had put them in there. Phew. New safer place for those again. Hopefully, since I'm almost invisible to everyone but the DMV/taxman (haha), as long as I don't try to become a drug kingpin or accrue 1000 parking tickets in a few months, Trump won't notice me.* *Not really worried about my personal status/self, mind. Not what he's (currently) chasing after. But it's Trump - and things are crazy. I think I won't leave the US for vacation/anything for a while. Trump might not let me back in. 😛

I just hope @Katphood is okay

I've been continuing on with my very first BG3 playthrough and am now, finally after months!, almost at the end, about to head out to the final confrontation. And, nothing has changed in my view of the game. As I've said before, the game is fantastic on such things as graphics, cinematics, and cut scenes, the game is very big, and its main story is quite epic and compelling (though with some questionable areas). But in so many other ways, ways that are much more important to a CRPG, it is a weak game. Most of the companions were not at all likeable, with the mild exceptions only of Karlach and, surprisingly, Minthara. The rest were all whiney, angst-ridden prima donnas. I especially hated what they had done to both Jaheira and Minsc, and was utterly appalled by the "new canon" for Viconia. The side quests were meh, and a lot of the areas in Act II were a slog. Despite the claim that combat encounters were/would be fewer in number and more interesting, I found the number of encounters to be no less/different than in any other RTwP RPG and, as I'd expected for TB combat, very frustrating and aggravating and boring. Thankfully, due to mods allowing me to go with larger parties, I was able to breeze through virtually every combat encounter within 2-3 rounds. Not being able to "pause" the game during real-time exploration was a huge pain, especially when trying to be stealthy (and being forced to go into TB mode), as was how party movement is set up, with, for example, party members walking through traps and mines they themselves just announced having discovered. And the UIs were atrocious across the board. The quick access bar was surely the worst, but other UIs were pretty bad/non-intuitive as well, including inventory management. This is not by any means an exhaustive list of the ways the game falls short, but covers some of the biggest failings in my personal opinion. My rating of the game would be a C+ (77/100).

Since the quick access menu for the mutation load outs on the D-Pad on Xbox controller has been replaced with the buggy summon menu, can we at least have the option to access the mutation load out menu with a different button? This is something I used all the time and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I hated Star Craft 2's campaign(s). Not the gameplay, mind you, but the endless retcons, the character assassinations, the ludicrous storyline and cashing in on a highly popular franchise* by releasing a single game's worth of content in three full-priced installments. *Man, now that I spelled it out, I realize that all of that also applies to the new Star Wars Trilogy.

Crimson Desert: Taming a pet requires "100 appreciation points" - you can only get 25pts per day (petting it). Dogs generally stay in place so you can return to a spot each day to pet it. The cats, so far, because you have to pick them up and pet while cradling them in arms, then put them down again, do not stay in place (they tend to run off) and if I return to an area I can't ever seem to find it again to pet it again. Hadn't seen a cat I liked much anyway so I was eh. Then I saw --- a sleek black cat! It reminds me of Mr. Black! I must have it! So I picked it up. But if I set it down again, how would I find it again? So ... I never set it down again. Made Kliff stand in place, doing nothing, for 3 "days" while I did other IRL things, petting kitty each day. Until finally: Forget anything else, this game is now a 10/10. Yes.

The VPs you speak to at the end of the Mystery of mental modulators have vanished The quest icon takes you to the room they should be in but the room is empty on arrival. Even when loading previous save games There’s a few new posts on Reddit about it with others saying it’s a fresh new bug that is likely a result from the most recent update

Greetings Watchers! We've updated the Public Beta branch for the Pillars of Eternity Turn-based Mode! It is now live on all available platforms. Thank you for your continued support and feedback! Combat and Mechanics Initiative has been reworked so that the first turn initiative will now always correctly match the displayed initiative value on the character sheet. The new formula for Initiative is: Base RTwP Recovery * 2 + 1 All modifiers to initiative happen after the above calculation. First turn initiative values will now more closely resemble initiative values seen on subsequent turns. The minimum initiative a character may achieve can never be below 1. Initiative now displays positive and negative values of contributing modifiers in its tooltip. Adragan can no longer take multiple turns with 0 initiative between them. Patients in the Sanitarium should now correctly take actions in TBM combat. Changing active modal within a modal group should now update immediately in TBM instead of on the following turn. Second chance should now work correctly in TBM. Guardian Spirit ability on Ancestor Pendant now works correctly in TBM. Pŵgras now properly move into position when casting Autumn's Decay in TBM. Chanter's Chants now go on cooldown as a group when a chant is switched. Resolved an issue where drakes summoned by chanter invocations could sometimes freeze the client when the drake despawned. Summons created by a chanter will now properly despawn any prior summons in TBM. Fixed an issue where repeatedly re-summoning summons in TBM combat could cause them to become unable to move. Master's Call will now correctly break engagement in TBM. Visage of Concelhaut now works correctly in TBM. Cleansing Flame will now jump to a new target it its current target is killed in TBM. Many spells and abilities that deal unscaling damage indirectly (through status effects and other means) now properly receive increased lethality while in TBM. Fixed an issue with Kalakoth's Minor Blights incorrectly granting immediate subsequent turns after attacking in TBM. Fixed an issue that caused enemies with ranged weapons to sometimes become stuck when needing to move closer to their targets in TBM combat. Characters now properly consider their reach distance when moving into range in TBM. Fixed an issue where patrolling characters could sometimes become stuck instead of properly engaging in TBM combat. Using quick items or disarming traps while spiritshifted in TBM will no longer cause the turn to become stuck. Initiative is now accounted for on attacks made from outside of combat. Overlapping Unconscious and Prone effects no longer allow a character to move freely. The Firebrand spell is now a free action. Push/pull spells outside of TBM combats will no longer prevent characters from being responsive. Fixed a case where teleporting creatures could become invisible and untargetable in TBM. Cancelling a cast action and re-initiating it no longer calculates incorrect initiative values. Cast actions can no longer be cancelled outside of a character's turn. Being interrupted while pending a cast action will now properly remove the target icon from the world. Fixed a case where characters knocked out by DoT damage at the start of their turn could cause combat to be stuck waiting. Grimoire swap cooldowns are now respected in TBM. Fixed a case where ranged attacks in TBM would sometimes fail after execution. Many creatures that were not using spells and abilities in TBM should now make greater use of their arsenal. Potion of Major Recovery no longer adds duration to hostile effects instead of reducing it. Delaying a turn no longer triggers pulsing (and similar) effects when starting the delayed turn. Abilities that require a certain amount of time in combat before being available/unavailable now track TBM turns properly. Heart of Fury will now properly consume action points in TBM. Enemies that trigger second chance mechanics in TBM combat will now properly stand back up. Several ticking or bouncing effects no longer focus the camera when triggering. The Fighter's Charge ability now animates and repositions properly in TBM. Engagement now properly breaks when using the charge ability. Delayed Fireball now resolves properly if combat ends before it detonates. Ray spells should now behave more correctly in TBM. Visual and Audio Ground targeted pulsing FX will now display a persistent effect in-between active pulses in TBM combat. Cipher focus HUD FX are once again visible. User Interface and Interaction Added a keybinding and HUD button to toggle TBM freely while outside of combat. Spacebar is now the default key to end turn while in a TBM combat. Added keybindings for Delay turn, End turn, and the Combat Speed slider. Smart camera may now be optionally disabled. Accuracy tooltips can once again be viewed in the inventory screen. Instant speed spells and abilities now correctly display as Free Actions in TBM. Camera will now properly center on the start of a characters turn when pulsing effects are present on the character. Many remaining bugs where spells and abilities mention durations in seconds instead of rounds (in TBM) have been squashed. End turn and delay turn HUD buttons now have proper tooltips. Select All and Scouting UI buttons should no longer be partially unclickable. Burial Isle cutscenes no longer prevent future actions from being cancelled or other strange behaviors. Initiative value in character sheet will no longer overlap DR values in cases where many unique DR values exist. Several enchantment descriptions now display correctly in TBM. Fixed an issue where the combat log would display erratically on certain resolutions. Duration of summoned creatures is now displayed in rounds. Targeting indicators for bouncing spells should behave better in TBM. Added breakpoint markers to combat speed slider in TBM. Displayed endurance pips will now match across different UI. Localization Resolved translation errors with Wizard's Wall of Draining spell on Polish language.

You can change the setting so that clicking the title of the thread brings you to the latest post.

Heck yeah!

Happy Holidays indeed y'all! FYI https://forums.obsidian.net/announcement/74-happy-holidays/

@Theonlygarby, @Hawke64, I agree with you both on BG3. I'm not as negative on some of the issues, and so I'm able to handle playing the game, but your critiques are spot on for me. The painful battles are especially surprising, because I was told repeatedly by the TB fanatics on the Larian forum that the battles are few and not trash mob battles like in a RTwP game. Well, they lied as far as I'm concerned. Trash mob battles are aplenty in BG3, and I'm able to get through them without driving myself crazy only because I'm playing with a party of six and on a mix of low and normal difficulty settings. The UIs are horrible. The hotbar practically useless. Party movement a huge pain. And yes, the story is everywhere.

Tim Cain is back at Obsidian!

Started Outer Worlds 2 (using Gamepass) and played through the tutorial. It was great. The graphics are improved from the original. So far so good. I don't think it will win you over if you didn't like the original, but it seems like a solid sequel so far.

What a great blog! As a gamer with a disability (I have a serious hearing impairment), I am so very glad people in the industry (and within Obsidian) are taking accessibility seriously. I require captioning for everything voice-related. But even with captioning pretty common these days, some games leave out crucial bits of the game from their captioning system, such as backgound chatter/banter. It's so very frustrating to hear the sound of someone saying something, but then not be able to know what they said. Keep up the good work! And thanks!!

Hey everyone. Hope you guys are all doing well in this crazy f---d up world we find ourselves in. I was unaware of Charlie Kirk until this morning. Gwen and I have been exploring Zion National Park since August. We've been staying at Watchman Campground mostly but we did backpack out to Lava Point and primitive camped for a few nights. This is by far one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Hanging out in Salt Lake City now. Then taking a trip down I-40 to Tennessee. I have some business to wrap up there bore heading back to Wisconsin. Life has been pretty good. We had almost no cell coverage in the park and almost never turned the radio on. The world is a wonderful place if you can just divorce yourself from all the negativity. Hope you guys are all ok. It's been a while.

Charlie Kirk assassinated by some white guy in his 60s while giving a speech at Utah Valley University. Boy, our country sure is in an interesting place right now, isn't it? Utah just passed a "open carry at colleges is legal" law earlier this year, too... "Charlie Kirk Says Gun Deaths ‘Unfortunately’ Worth it to Keep 2nd Amendment" Hey, as long as it's not you or your kids, I guess so, right? Well...one of those rare cases where some right wing piece of **** got the chance to actually practice what he preached, so good on him.

I got the email today that I am officially verified as run #16! It's hard to believe its been over 6 months since I finished my run. Something fun is Sam said in his email there have been a surprising number of submissions recently. Looking forward to seeing what people have done.

Monday we dropped my daughter off at SFSU for her freshman year. It is pretty weird moving a child out of the house after 18+ years. I'm excited and nervous for her. I didn't sleep well the first night. So far so good, she had a job interview Thursday (lifeguard at campus pool.) She is taking the train home for the weekend, so we will still be seeing her often enough.

Hello friends! Here are the patch notes for Hotfix 0.1.2.1 Resolved an issue that caused players to crash when the Founders Pack equipped. Addressed an issue that should fix AI pathing behavior. Due to an unintended issue - The ORC bee by the blueberry bush should now move back to their intended location. Various stability enhancements have been made, including improvements to the process of sending your buggy home. Hopefully this will help players progress through the story. We are continuing to work on the existing issues in the game as well as any new reports that come in. Please feel free to submit a support ticket if you run into any issue with the game. Obsidian Support Thanks!

I jumped on my bike and kept going until I ran out of road and had to circle back. Before and after I ran out of city. + an obligatory instagram shot of the cold beer i thought i deserved for my troubles.

I am Andrew Ryan, and I'm here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? "No!" says the quest marker, it belongs to the impatient. "No!" says the in-game GPS, it belongs to the blind. "No!" says the witcher sense, it belongs to the stupid. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose... Gothic. The Gothic Remake Shows What's Wrong With Modern Games

Celebrating my 50th birthday. 👴🏼

I have finished GreedFall: The Dying World. In general, the game has charm and I am happy with the time spent, but there are technical issues and minor bugs. In terms of combat, the tactical approach did not change much - the tank CC's, everyone else hits. The tank companion was able to restore both his armour and health, so could effectively hold the line indefinitely (or until the damage received was higher than the AP generation). The only issue was the range of the Taunt ability when there were many foes. The final boss died surprisingly quickly on the first attempt, being able to perform only a single attack each time between getting stunned. On the continent, there were much fewer giant "guardian" bosses, but the ones present were unique in combat design and appearance. When compared to GF1, where there were very few types but at least one boss per location (as everyone and their grandpa were turning into the tree zombies), the difference is noticeable. I strongly suspect that a deeper understanding of the systems would be required on the higher difficulties, as there are a lot of active and passive abilities, their synergies, and craftable consumables. I was looting a lot, but did not have the need to use resources, so I shouldn't have combed the locations - it was a significant time sink and interesting or unique items were only in chests and only in ~5-10% of them. On an amusing note, some armour descriptions were easter eggs - there was a jacket of Those Who Come After (Expedition 33), an armour of the Sands of Time (Prince of Persia), and some heavy cuirass referencing a Balor and a bridge (the Lord of the Rings, I believe). I like the equipment design quite a lot, though the colour schemes being bound to the equipment tiers was somewhat unpleasant (granted, only the tank really needed the armour). In terms of story, it was quite compelling overall. The PC is unavoidably mostly Neutral Good and can automatically do dumb ****. It is noticeable in the main quest, but there are more options in the side quests. The antagonist appeared in person fairly late, though the impact of the actions was felt throughout the game. I'd say that it is welcome, as talking BBEGs annoy me immensely. Unfortunately, the PC is also unavoidably a druid story-wise, even if they wear heavy armour and wield a rifle. As for the continuity, the quest outcomes tracked correctly (e.g. the Knight appears if survives), even if sometimes unpleasantly (I said a wrong thing to a random guy in the main quest, so he did not cooperate and died suddenly in a side quest, so I messed up a faction quest line). There are smaller inconsistencies, such as a companion firstly being told that the PC's father died, then 15 minutes later in an environmental auto-dialogue asking about what happened to the PC's father (as in whether he was alive). At some point, a companion can do an unwise action and die. I was able to ask the companion kindly not to do it, so the party member was definitely not dead. When we revisited the location where the dialogue took place, the companion's corpse was lying prominently next to the path and the very same character was standing right next to me and being quite alive. A smaller thing is that I had found a turban with a full-face mask early and wore it throughout the playthrough. Every NPC still recognised me as an islander and, in one scene, I drank a potion without removing the headgear. Several times, I got kicked out from stealth for the enemies to start a dialogue, despite them normally being unable to look down and see me crouching 2 metres away. Also, in a side quest, we found a lizard dog, a lewolan, who had been brought to the continent and quite stressed due to being a territorial animal in an unfamiliar environment. So, naturally, the party liberated the scaly doggo and stashed him in the cargohold next to the merchant. At no point there was an opportunity to release him back on the island, so he stayed there with the tail clipping through the wall behind. Overall, the side quests were satisfying and the number and variety were just right - no filler and the world did not feel empty. The companion quests provided an impressive range of activities, from the usual combat to stealth to puzzles, so I was quite happy with them. Also, somewhere from the mid-game, several capes with +2 to the talents became available, so they covered a lot of skill checks. I still needed some investment to get the Hard checks, but there were few enough of them. As for the other bugs, the game crashed a few times during cutscenes, I had only one corrupted save file and once the companions' bodies and hair failed to load, so I was talking to bald flying heads and hands. The more noticeable issues were the performance, the NPCs and textures loading late (so the props, such as brooms and sword were levitating), and the ship. When you travel between the main areas via the ship, you first get teleported to the ship, and only then to the chosen fast travel point. While the area loads (from an SSD), the game, including the sound, stutters and briefly freezes. It would have been better if the loading screen for this was just the ship sailing animation (either its concept art or something more fancy, like it moving on the world map), especially considering that the ship could be fast-travelled to at any time. One time (that I noticed), an optional merchant became unavailable (despite loudly advertising her services) and I missed a unique piece of armour. Regarding the DLC, I think it was released on 4 May, so Spiders themselves must have worked on it. From SteamDB, there have not been any file updates since. I suppose, unless the developers somehow reorganise and regain their IP, there might be no further support.

Photos: Behind-the-scenes images taken by NASA's Artemis II crew : The Picture Show : NPR

Participated in the Together Alliance (anti-far-right) march in London yesterday. The numbers were higher than the fash march last year (500K vs 100K). I did not stay for the speeches, as the bloc I was in (LGBTQ) was at the tail and moved slowly.

WoW added housing, so wasting time confirming the fact that I have no style.

I finished Greedfall. After that one big bug, it was bugfree. I enjoyed it. The writing improves over the course of the game. It felt a bit awkward in the beginning, as if it needed to figure out what the social position of your character is - npcs were acting as if random guard and your character were equals, making me long for a reply of "You seem to mistake this for a democracy. Oh, you don't know what a democracy is? It is the system in which your opinion and consent theoretically matters." They managed to give the impression of choices that matter well. Spiders' best game hands down.

Finished Outer Worlds 2. I put a lot of hours into it, I'd say about 50, and I felt like I searched most corners to get content done. There were some collection quests I didn't finish, but the story stuff was good and I liked what happened to all my companions. It was a fun universe to explore. I'll probably wait for some DLC before playing again. It felt bigger and more epic than OW1 and Avowed, so that was good. Now I'm playing Xenonauts 2, which just released Milestone 6. This makes the game feature complete. The next milestone is full release, so I'm planning on trying to get through a whole campaign before that drops. I've only lost 1 soldier so far, and that was due to a bad explosive throw. Lesson learned, propane tanks go boom.

I'll wait for the 8-part Netflix documentary.

Did Vladimir say "thank you" even once?

Hi Obsidian! Grounded 2 is already incredibly rich, but I dream of a future update that goes even further: a true seasonal cycle with extreme weather events 🌦️ You’ve already added great features like the meat dryer, water reservoirs, cold-resistant armor for butterfly zones, and turrets/traps — awesome work! But imagine dynamic weather: Deadly rain (giant drops could be fatal) Storms disrupting base structures Night frost, heatwaves, strong winds Migrating insects and seasonal bosses (Solar Scorpion, Frost Spider…) Mounts like Mimi that can detect weather changes It would be a natural evolution of the gameplay, adding even more strategy and immersion. Thanks for this gem of a game — can’t wait to see what you have in store! 🐜❄️🔥🍂

Im 180 hours into WoRT and Im busy with all the final quests and choices before I complete the last quest at Threshold As I have mentioned in previous posts this game is one of my favourite party based RPG of all time Its impossible to list everything I love about this game but in summary deep and complex main narrative with a myriad of different choices around what Mystic Path to take and how that influences dialogue options engaging and worthwhile companion side-quests, the best in any RPG I have ever played. I ended up finally Romancing Arueshalae and accepting Camellias murderous nature ....no ones perfect very complex character and class customization combat is the best part of the game with all different strategies I love the Crusader management and mini-battles. Its a nice break from the normal RPG progression lots to explore and many side-quests the length of the game, I appreciate how long it is What an RPG, I wish we had a commitment for Pathfinder 3 from Owlcat

Please Obsidian