Sven_

Nintendo disagrees, they still don't quite as mindlessly let you follow markers for reason. However, KCD isn't actually like that. You have a map and you have some guidance (Hardcore Mode is a bit "trickier"). Additionally, simulation is awesome. It's what allows for emergent behavior and solutions rather than simply ticking off a list of tasks. The game even suggests you watch where NPCs are going should you feel the desire to rob them / break into their homes (crime is still too simple, mind). That said, you know what's actually like work? Game developers thinking you need a gaming nanny (or a control freak of a boss) guiding your every move as apparently you can't be trusted to even start the game. Where's the escapism in that? Like seriously: Push X to open door. Push Y to accept quest. Move precisely over here to talk to character Z. Now move to place A, then to B, activate your witcher senses, follow the yellow paint and DO IT DO IT NOW, WELL DONE GOOD BOY. I never got into World Of Warcraft by the way as that kind of loop alongside to MMO fetch and grind quests is the definition of completing a laundry list of "busywork" (markers or not). The poor sod who used to put the caps onto Cola bottles by hand actually had it good: His task wasn't near as mundane and he was left alone as his boss trusted he was capable of doing it all on his own. On topic: The Evil Within 2. Undecided if the first game or the second game had the better structures. The first tossed you into new scenarios every chapter, kind of like a best of Horror -- the second is more hub-based. I prefer them both over the original RE4 though, just a silly game after THAT start.

You're likely still in the part that back then disappointed me, as I was expecting something way different. You'll know when it's over -- let's just say that both KCDs have the longest introductions to any games out there.

Avowed almost looks and sounds more like your typical Bioware move ("when you press a button..."), it even was CoOp prior to the reboot, too. In some ways, that's the least you'd expect of Obsidian. In other ways, well they started out by developing sequels to Bioware games (and Pillars was big time inspired by Bioware technology). I think I'm gonna spend some bucks on The White March now -- the one thing Pillars I haven't yet played. A New Vegas or Bloodlines-like in the Pillars-verse could be interesting. Maybe even something narrative-driven like Pentiment, a smaller scale production that has you playing as Thaos, with your actions shaping the world and characters around you during the course of centuries.

When you press a button, something awesome has to happen. Fantasy, for us, is a knight on horseback running around and killing things. We want Call Of Duty's audience. If you don't remember any of those genre classics, please google. As now there's another: Disco Elysium’s new mobile port is aimed ‘to captivate TikTok users’ | Polygon RPG making. RPG making never changes.

Risky, but if it works out, Intel opting out of TSMC may pay off. Intel relies on Xe3P graphics chips from its own production - a stroke of genius or a risky experiment? | igor´sLAB

I'm personally more interested in who's the first to decisively beat the raw rendering power of the 2020 3060 Ti -- but for 300 bucks (or lower). Back then, that was a 400 MSRP card. 2025, still nothing. You can genuinelly see this "entry level Ghetto" by now visually in PC Games Hardware's reviews of the more recent cards in their overall rankings.

I can't believe that so many RPGs are still mainly focused on "stuff you kill". Fallout, Torment and even some of Ultima are three decades old now... And I like "stuff you kill". If it's the main course though... Honestly have a typical industry playtest in front of my eyes, the kind of best industry practice that ensures nothing ever too special gets made. With half the testers going: "This is boring! Where's ma stuff to kill!" Well, go back to Call Of Duty. Not yer kind of game. It's a pity. As if combat, violence and death would be treated as something a bit more special, it may actually turn out to be something MEANINGFUL. Rather than just repetition / an awesome obstacle course that's in there so to pose a challenge. "Oh, another one down. Loot, loot, loot!" Then again, what am I complaining about? I've still got KCD2 on my disc for the time being.

The music was reused in the (lore) trailers. I found the unusual percussion combat music in Deadfire pretty refreshing. His PoE soundtracks were good overall, but that was pretty out there. Wonder how that was received. Usually the music in this type o' game is more your standard orchestral epic LOTR music fare (maybe mixed with a bit of Conan The Barbarian if the composer is REALLY going wild. ).

Now that Paradox has royally screwed it all up: Fampyr Bloodlines, make it happen.

Monster Hunter Wilds is the next game to break through the 1,000,000 concurrent player mark on Steam. Every major publisher currently be like: Nonstop action+monsters is clearly THE way to go. "Guys, please make this project more like Diablo, er, MH Wilds, or else no funds!" Warhorse+Larian+Owlcat like this.

Since Prey et all were mentioned, I'm really curious what Wolfeye's game is gonnna look like. Because that sounds like my "perfect" game: Fallout mixed with more Colantonio-styled Immersive Sim. But that's off-topic now. To balance it out, it's not just YouTubers. And this is a more positive take on Avowed vs Skyrim: Avowed Does Skyrim Combat Better.

Yeah, wasn't meant to say otherwise. Just wanted to point out that Obsidian may have set up themselves for some of the (sandbox/simulation) expectations that Avowed doesn't fulfill. Their initial idea was to make a "Skyrim-Like" set in Eora -- and they let the world and the press know about it early. Like REAL early, note the dates on all of these. This was no doubt influenced by how hot Skyrim was at the time. Obsidian's Bold Future: Eternity Meets Skyrim, A Second KS | Rock Paper Shotgun Obsidian CEO: “I’d love to turn Eternity into more like a Skyrim product” | PC Gamer And what Avowed actually was gonna be like, was kept rather ambiguous for long. Consequently (?), this is another "Skyrim article" that just came out yesterday.. Avowed's inert cities remind me just how good we had it in Skyrim and Oblivion | PC Game Of course it's silly to expect every game to have that level of simulation (though Ultima 7 is still worth investigating for a lot of devs 'til today...) And Obsidian have been never known for it (nor Black Isle before them). This bit to me seems a valid point to make though.

I'm genuinelly asking how this stuff actually sells units. This is product that's not even needed. For years. If companies would have discovered thirty years ago that they can just milk it, PC gaming would be an absolutely tiny niche by now, moreso than it ever used to be in the 1980s. And Commodore were probably still around, offering the affordable multimedia/graphics machines for the masses. Back when 3d cards first appeared, 3dfx started with the mission to bring affordable Silicon Graphics quality to home PCs. Given that this is barely about gaming product anymore anyway... maybe that's the answer to my question.

This they'd probably brought upon themselves. And it all started early... (Imagine a picture of Feargus having a bunch of Dollar signs flying over his head -- like back at Interplay, when he sold the idea to Bioware that they should turn Battleground Infinity, the demo they pitched to him, into a D&D game). Given that even Obsidian regulars (including me) had no robust idea what the game was gonna be like until like it actually released, some of that Skyrim still sticks. It's even still mentioned in numerous press reviews. Even after the reported reboot way back, at which point it was all apparently scaled back. And made more similar to The Outer Worlds (in terms of world structure, either way). At one point early on Avowed was going to be a co-op game as well. Compare that to Pillars, where there was zero doubt about what the game was gonna be from day #1. Both for the devs as well as the public. A part of marketing and PR is setting expectations. Bethesda may have failed to do that as to Starfield themselves. Lots of people clearly expected there to be an actual space simulation in there, like actual travel. However, similar type of games or features are always going to be compared. See also Cyberpunk 2077, where people compared it unfavourably to the open world sandbox of GTA 5. The same to some extent had happened to the Mafia games before as well, which were more focused on a narrative in an open world-ish setting, as opposed to a sandbox. However, Cyberpunk was hyped up to be the biggest, most immersive, most real thing ever. So real you'd forget you'd play a game... that's the impression you got from all the buzz either way. People would have always put that to the test. And the ACTUAL next GTA better live up to it all, or else...

How's performance for you? Considering that I'm on a 270 bucks RTX 3060, initially I was fairly thrilled when I could pick the high preset and not have any drop. Then I discovered that the game has upscaling enabled on any preset except the absolutely highest (which prompts a warning that it'd be only for the bestest of best rigs). And without upscaling being enabled, I get a few drops in the waterfall sequence even with everything to low (still playable mind). But then this is my first ever Unreal Engine 5 experience -- only ever upgraded to the 3060 in December. And people argue with UE5 tech, upscaling tends to be mandatory. Indy (based on id Tech) and obviously KCD 2 (heavily modified CryEngine) are pretty damn fine. But UE's lumen stuff = GPU killer. But then the original Gothic was capped to a whopping 25 fps... and don't get anybody started on Khorinis and its harbor in Gothic 2.