the_dog_days

I agree. I remember playing Assassin's Creed (the original) struggling in combat up until you unlock counters and at that point every encounter is too easy. Why weren't all the fights as simple? Because they deprived you of core gameplay mechanics until you've cleared a certain amount of the central story. It had nothing to do with leveling, it was presenting more difficult combat early in the game to hide the one button combat the game is based around.

Yes, but so was jumping, selecting your target in combat, and combat movement. CDproject red improved on each of those in Witcher 3, I wished they'd done the same with stealth. My pie in the sky perfect blend would be Witcher's combat with Assassin's Creed stealth.

The only thing I might have wanted that wasn't in the game was a stealth mode, and then there's a good role-playing reason for its absences; your a witcher not a ninja.

That'll tearn ya ta swinenap 'round these parts.

I got my first hit of gaming with JRPGs on the Sega Saturn in the mid 90s, and it amazes me how little that particular sub-genre changed in twenty years. It used to feel so cool and original, but now not so much.

If you like them, more power to you. As for me, each character fell into one of two categories, boring and annoying. Which was painful because the highlights of DAO for me were the characters.

You experienced a lot of bugs with Inquisition? My main gripe were design-related issues, not technical (ie. boring sidequests).The worst problems with DAI are by design (boring characters, pointless side quests, poor dialog, and the final explanation is a part of a DLC) but it was also buggy.

Yep, it all went down hill quick. Now Fitzpatrick is out and Geno "Which Color Jersey Is My Team Wearing Again?" Smith is QB. At least I saw this coming. But, man, that lose to the Eagles at home is looking like the season deciding game. I cannot hope, for hope's first name is Geno.

I'm playing both right now, and I like DOS much more than Wasteland 2. They were built on similar themes of allowing the player to accomplish their tasks through several means, but to me W2 fails and instead encourages save spamming.

Which is exactly why I wish the devs would change Wary Defender to +20% disengagement attacks. Mobs still escape, but pay heavily to do so.

I'm putting BaK aside for a while to play DOS:EE. I wanted to play DOS before, but my rig couldn't run it optimally so I've been waiting for the enhance edition.

I thought he was going to be what Russell Wilson is when he came out of college.

That's a tall order. I want to get drunk but still remember it the day after.

Too bad the 49ers Seahawks game is on a Thursday night and I have to work tomorrow. I usually like to play my favorite drinking game when I watch them; Kaepernick: sack or interception?

Neal Halford is in my eyes somewhat of a genius. I read the Riftwar saga before I'd ever heard of BaK. My uncontrolled geekout over the first time I saw Pug in the game was perhaps excessive. Needless to say, I didn't earn any cool points that day. And yes, Dungeon Siege was awesome.

I am a part of the "new generation" and I'd like to see no voice acting outside of combat. Not being fully voiced doesn't hurt the game play at all, IMO.

Found Betrayal at Krondor on GOG, so I know what I’m playing for the next month.

Just grab hold the line and savage attack. It's only -1 engagement limit and you get +20% damage to all of your attacks rather than once in a blue moon. Its the fact that you have to use one talent and another ability to in get what should be the logical upgrade to begin with. And I still think CC immunity is silly.

Wish they'd swap the CC immunity for upgrading Wary Defender to +20% damage to disengagement attacks. Heck, they can scrap the +5 to fighter deflation, too.

Even as a Jets fan , I think Marino is the best QB to never win the Super Bowl. Warren Moon is a close second, IMO.

I like crafting systems, but it's definitely not a priority for me. Some games have great crafting (the Witcher franchise) others not so much.

Good news (for me), my Jets are 4-1. Bad news, they could've been 5-0 and will wish they'd won that Eagles' game at home by week 13. They had a really soft opening five weeks. I still don't think they have a shot to make the playoffs (unless both the Dolphins and the Bills tank), but they might finish the season five hundred.

The title is OR Something. Gah! Nobody gets it right. *mutter mutter*

Okay, just finished Hearts of Stone. The Meh 1: I wish it was a larger environment. As it stands, Hearts of Stone adds between a fifth and a sixth more area to the Velin/Novigrad region. I was hoping for more exploration. 2: The new glyphs system doesn't seem to add much. The devs could just as easily added runes with the same properties and called it good. By changing the name I assumed they would somehow be different from one another, but not so much. 3:Your mileage may vary, but I felt there were too many similarities between the new Shani romance and Triss'. Kinda wished the writers differentiated them a bit more (which is a particular shame because they're both redheads to boot, making it all the more glaring). The Good 1: As with the rest of the Witcher 3, the story, writing, and characters are wonderful. The villain (villains?) in particular are fascinating similarly to the Bloody Baron. 2: The variations in quests. Much like with Dandelion's in the main game, the quests change in tone and focus but so smoothly as to never call attention to itself. 3: This won't matter to the casual gamer, but the fights are more difficult (partly because of the new bosses and partly because of the newest patches tweaks to combat), there's lots of available XP, and we finally get missions without reduced XP for characters above level 30. 4: The timing maybe a little skewed because of my OCD habits of turning over rock during exploration, but it took me closer to 20 hours to clear everything (and I do mean everything) in the expansion. The Awesome 1: Viper School armor. Not only does it now exist, but it also has level requirement of 39. (For the record, I started the expansion with a level 45 Geralt.) 2: I found nearly as many red mutigens in three hours of playing time in the expansion as I managed to find in over one hundred and fifty hours in the base game. 3: The tax collecter. Seriously one of the funniest moments in the game.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, and not that I think we won't get something interesting for the Stronghold in Part 2, but those look like the regular adventures that we can send our companions on when they're idle at the castle. That's what I was thinking. There's not enough detail in the picture to tell either way, but the item rewards look exactly like what you already get from idle companions quests.