Sven_

The entire Dragon Age series is a mirror image of Bioware's existence. Which is one of following market trends. Origins (initially announced as Dragon Age in 2004) was pitched as a "back to the roots" project. Not late into their careers, like an aging Rock band would. But rather barely two moons after Throne Of Bhaal had shipped. Why is that so? Because the only thing consistent with Bioware games is/was their authors. Everything else was up for grabs, targeting whatever's currently hot. Neverwinter Nights? Multiplayer. Jade Empire? Console action-adventures. Mass Effect? Gears Of War. The Old Republic was clearly meant to be a World Of Warcraft Killer -- and Inquisition went bigger becuz Skyrim. And even BG wore its RTS influences on its sleeve (in particular Warcraft 2 at that time, which James Ohlen et all were big fans of). "We want Call Of Duty's audience" is one of the most infamous quotes in RPG history -- as if id Software would announce to target (or at least try hard to not alienate) Monkey Island fans next.

I'm the same with any game that treats me like a tool -- or as if Looking Glass had never existed. Yeah it's a mockup, but you probably know by looking what I mean. Unless it's something I really wanna play. It's funny how studios spend gazillions on photo realistic visuals. There's entire task forces dedicated to hairdos alone. And then it's all down the toilet as you're either reminded constantly you're playing a damn video game and/or you can't touch anything without being told when, how and if to do so. Waste of time, people and money -- doubly so if you consider the ridiculous dev cycles mainly caused by visual fidelity. Speaking about which, Drova is scary. I'm hesistant to post my playing hours, because the game must scratch an itch that hadn't been scratched recently much. And reading about the devs, I know which one it is. Aside of the obvious Gothic1+2 inspirations, what really drove them forward was the desire to make a game where you get to explore and figure things out for yourself. I think I may revisit some of these thereafter...

I'm like a dozen hours in, and still didn't join one. Couldn't decide yet (but I think I've made my decision). Even got a super high level weapon in my pockets by luring a guy LEAGUES above my level in front of a camps' guards and looting him after they had ripped him. Don't have the required attributes to use it though, for which you eventually have to join a faction. Exploration is so much fun, it's a joy (and clearly the biggest strength). Lots of biomes, even some early game critters appear later with a "twist". Optional caves, lore pieces, etc. Plus night time in the woods or exploring caves and mines can be even a little creepy, the sound design sells a lot of that. Got robbed blind by a bunch of bandits though in the woods more recent. They beat me into unconscious and took like half my money. Ooooof. Playing the Iron mode that only updates one (auto-)save. So whenever **** happens, it happens (except for game overs, of course). I wanted it that way. I know where the ****ers are hiding now though. Just you wait when I got my faction gear and armor. JUST YOU ****ERS WAIT. That said, I recently watched somebody playing with the player position showing on the map enabled. I actually think this spoils the (intended) experience. Tbh, I didn't even buy the more detailed world map and still own the one that Asmus haphazardly draws for you in the beginning...

Never thought that would ever be the case way back in 1999, when I was spending on GPUs, CPUs, sound cards and Gaming's Next Visual Blockbusters like there'd be no tomorrow... or 2024. But all I actually need in 2024 are apparently pixels (Drova - Forsaken Kin). Earlier this year, there was SKALD too, after all.

Not sure if it's an exploit, but there's a way which I found after trying. Yeah, at least the beginning area is a bit Gothic-like. However, Obsidian also lock the map geographically. There's the mountain range in the middle of the map, which makes the definite way through basically an U. Here as well, you can go everywhere from the start. At least if you stick to the roads and run. However, the faction location/s are (partially) locked. Gothic is basically like this: You arrive as a total nobody into a world (and it treats you as such). You discover that there's factions. To get better equipment (and advance the plot), you eventually need to join one of those. Combat is also fairly tactical, as it was in Gothic. Enemies visibly (and audibly) enter a threat mode where you can still pull back (or make them come to you), and they have attack patterns which are telegraphed via cues. And you need that, as in particularly early, most of the enemies can either one-shot you or kill you in a few direct hits. Every progression is thus felt, be it stats or gear. Even the mere act of discovering an axe after looting a bandit camp becomes an event. That's how Elex worked even years later, though they lost quite a bit of what made the original form special. In particular as to exploration. Elex was done by a team of no more than ~30 people, and yet they went with a massive world (which is harder to fill and get that hand-crafted feel from). I've been playing Drova for a good chunk of hours and seen most of the overworld (it's not HUGE, just reasonably big, Gothic-like), and exploration is still fun. I even went back to the starting area and found new stuff I'd missed before. No markers, no BS, just you out to try to surive. There's in-universe maps and chalk you can buy to mark them. So many details too. Even the small stuff, like enemy bodies don't despawn, they even rot. NPCs in general are "persistent" and don't despawn. There's a guy you meet early that gives you a few directions, however says he couldn't lead you to a certain place as he'd still have an appointment. I later discovered that you can actually follow his walk all over the map, and "witness" that appointment. That's not something I personally expected out of a 2d pixel game made by a core of 6 people, in 2024 or otherwise. Can see the possible annoyance with the lack of Z-axis though @MrBrown. You can't jump or climb (nor swim). I'd personally wished there were more distinct "classes" and playstyles, but they pretty much seem to lock you into a melee guy with magic and range as support options early. (Magic is said to be more of a thing much much later.) My biggest tripe is stealing though, which seems too easy (so not doing it).

That's Gothic, baby. Enemies act as barriers where you can go. That was prior to Oblivion ruining everything, basically. That said, I was able to walk very far into the map by sticking onto the road (and fleeing from enemies) in Drova so far. And the full release is a different thing to the teaser I played... in a good way. Turned off the player position on the map and tutorials immediately. Also went with the single autosave format and no starting bonus. Gonna play KCD II next year as "hardcore exploration" as can also. There's surelly gonna be an option again.

The teaser to Drova - Forsaken Kin -- a heavily Gothic inspired pixel-art game. That is, Gothic, the game. Not Gothic, Robert Smith's hairdo. According to the devs, that teaser (still available on ich.io) is still from the early stages ("Proof of conept"). Plays quite nice though. Is missing some of the features though that got me intrigued from reviews, such as NPC schedules, people reacting to you walking into their houses at night, drawing weapons, theft, etc. And, of course, this: Our Inspirations Games like “Morrowind” or “Gothic” inspired us to make a game like this ourselves. We think there’s a lack of games that take players seriously and an overload of games that tell players what to do at all times. That's such a valuable promise that this winter only Warhorse seem to be aiming to fulfill with KCD II. Again.

I hope they put a larger focus on expanding this over more complex cinematics for their next project/s... Spells in general are so underused outside of combat in RPGs. All your mighty fireball usually is able to do is grilling a bunch of goblins.

Finished The Outer Worlds. Despite being oft rather lukewarm to ok with it, I still experimented some after. I'd advice NOBODY to grind through Monarch (in particular the surface) solo, without companions (there's perks for going solo). That's what I did. Better to take the perk that lets you sprint faster and just run past enemies (no problem, really). Or invest in leadership (+companion perks) and take two companions. Actually, they can roast pretty much everything alone. So this is it. The officially last Cain&Boyarsky game. But also by far the safest. Still somewhat interested in the Whodunnit DLC, seams like a neat, self-contained idea. It's not like there's anything bigger out there ATM. Games are taking forever to develop thanks to the obsession with fidelity and pixel perfection, there's been delays -- and even Obsidian's last game technically was Pentiment. And generally, this SHOULD be 100% my type of game.

Such a stupid production, apparently from the start. If this went the right way, they may have had a real success on their hands, released in the times of BG3, KCDII et all (unless Warhorse bust the launch, they may be the next in line for larger success after Larian and FromSoftware). What's more depressing is that Bloodlines turns 20 in a month. TWENTY. That's also twenty years since the last major horror-themed RPG. You gotta be kidding me.

After months off, progressed some further into The Outer Worlds. Monarch is awful. I hope I'm right with this, as the entire planet feels as if it was outsourced to a B-tier MMO developer. The entire surface is basically just asset recycling, copypaste enemy mobs, random loot and crates all over. That's when I stopped. Picked this up again with the intention of just following the main quest. So I did. And even that consisted of the most straight forward fedex jobs in the milky way. At the end of the main questline, you're given the opportunity to respond to an NPC with something along the lines of: "Lemme guess! You wanna make me fetch another three keys for ya, don't ya?" That joke, unfortunatley, is on Obsidian. This is the most mediocre thing I've ever played from this studio. Hopefully the game's going to pick up again. Because prior it was at least decent. Nothing to WhatsApp home about, but decent. Still puzzled how you can make an entire planet of low-quality filler, given that there's but a couple of planets either way -- and the game isn't even aiming to be a (space) epic to begin with. Resource allocation went smoother in both smaller scale Pillars games for sure (and Pentiment either way).

Yeah, they're naturally priced accordingly. On the desktop front, things have been the same for a decade now give or take. Which is: The fastest desktop APU has about the rendering power of entry level gaming GPUs of ~5 years prior. Currently Ryzen 8700G roughly matching a 2019 GTX 1650. APUs have their place, but they're niche. For a budget build you're far better off with a Ryzen 5500 + RX 6600 -- which both combined cost about the same as the 8700G, whilst offering multiple times the gaming power due to the GPU. Prior to the market exploding, I'd have changed my GPU pretty regularly. Now I'm probably gonna sit on my 1050ti until it rots. The only games I'd currently upgrade for are Stalker 2 + KCD II (and MAYBE Avowed) anyways. For everything else, it's mostly still... ok (not playing many gfx blockbusters anyway). However, I'm not gonna buy a 8GB VRAM GPU in 2025 -- the RX 480 already had 8GB in 2016 (and the GTX 1060 6 as well). A decade later, those aren't gonna last any much longer even in Full-HD. The only exception would be the smaller Intel Battlemage budget model, depending on which. However, a RTX 5060 / RX 8600 with 8GB? Go **** yerselves. I'd rather spend big and build an altogether new proper gaming PC than doing that -- which I haven't done in more than 20 years. PC gaming as such had been pretty inexpensive for a very long time -- even a GeForce 4 ti I could get a year after launch in 2003 for below 100 bucks, which was less than half of what it launched for ~15 months earlier.

So I hear there's some uproar regarding choices carrying over from older games into Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Or rather not carrying over. This is so big it has even reached Sports Illustrated now. For realz. Let me tell you: Bunch of whiny, entitled and spoiled Millenials and Zoomers! Imagine the pain of all us old farts shutting up Imoen forever the moment she shows up after Gorion gets killed by Sarevok. Giving Khalid&Jaheira the hard pass. Never clicking on the random NPC that may have been our Minsc in Nashkel. Finishing the job with a party consisting of purely evil aligned sons of 'em b*tches... ...and then booting up Baldur's Gate 2.

Solasta: Palace Of Ice (DLC). Bit easy again, will ramp up difficulty. Still reminds me of oldschool D&D romps. No bull****, just a simple scenario, off ya go. Also maybe this time I'm pulling it through: Baldur's Gate (Enhanced). Never finished the Enhanced so far. The original is of course a classic from ye olde Interplay catalogue.

From Pillars to Avowed tl;dw edition.