Fenixp

Continuing with Dishonored 2. I have found some minor annoyances, like when you're trying to ghost the game on your first playthrough, there are some sections where I'd never expect to get detected - but that might just be on me being careless. On the other hand, I dig the non-lethal options Arkane has added since the first game. There's a bolt with neurotoxin which makes a guard lose his short-term memory, forgetting he's seen you and making him flee in terror. There's a bolt with a serum that makes guards blind for a few moments. There are of course sleeping darts. ("So why should I blind guards instead?" - Well, doing so will allow you to slip past for the price of alerting a guard, but it won't create a discoverable body). Then there are stun mines that you can place on patrol paths and which'll zap a guard, knocking him out. Of course, then there are skill-based non-lethal options - You can choke them out as in the first game. Jumping on a guard from height doesn't need to be finished by killing him, you can also knock him down. If you time your parry right and knock guard off-balance, you can knock him out (this takes time tho and also involves choking them out, so you can't do it in an encounter with multiple opponents) Generally, non-lethal playstyle is a lot more fun and offers many more options - but as opposed to Mankind Divided, it's not the same thing as lethal, just pressing different buttons, it's genuinely the more challenging way of playing the game.

And yet again, Dishonored 2 feels like a breathing world in which I, the player, am the alien, the disruptive force. The world doesn't exist as the player's playground, it exists as its own place - and the less I disrupt it, the more it'll just continue living as it's always lived. And this time around, pretty much every major location has a map. Wouldn't be Dishonored if they just handed you minimap and automap tho - they're always in-world and must be found. And yes, you can disable objective markers and no, I have not yet encountered information which would not be given to me to complete an objective. Quest markers are completely optional. Yes, I still just ... Stop moving and adore those interiors for minutes at a time. Thief was probably the last time I've seen anything remotely on this level of detail.

I mean if they wanted to go with the quick-bar, at least they could have done it properly and offer multiple toggleable 'rows'. But nah. What I really don't get tho is why on Earth did they remove the incredibly intuitive quick key system from Pillars which both constructed a quick bar and allowed you to assign just about any button to any ability. Why do most RTwP games seem to refuse to provide such revolutionary information as order queue, time to complete actions etc. is beyond me - if UFO games by Atari could do it about 10 years ago, other developers can do it too.

I would like it, if there was a game that did it well. Borderlands is nice, but bullet spongy enemies ensure that the shooting feels massively meh. Shadow Warrior 2 gives absolutely fantastic feedback from its guns and shooting is great, but progression and lack of level design leaves a lot to be desired. I'm not entirely sure I'd throw EYE in that bunch tho - it felt a lot more like Deus Ex than Borderlands, altho it was altogether its own thing. In which you could totally camp in the corner of the map and spend an hour hacking turrets and possessing enemy cyberbrains, because why the hell not. I think a rogue-lite could work rather well with the model, but I don't think there's a good one which would offer randomized gun statistics.

It's more about Pillars implementing system where hit would guarantee an effect, graze would guarantee a weakened version of the effect and only miss would be ... Well, miss.

/\ That's how you can tell a person who's never played Jagged Alliance: Back in Action. (which is a real shame by the way, it's probably the first game which really tried to improve interface for RTwP games and ... Failed.)

Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

Well to be more precise, it starts somewhere towards the end of Act II, so the safe bet is buying it when you finish Act I and really like the game.

I can feel the jank overtaking me! It is a good pain.

... If you own White March, which I imagine kolpo wouldn't if he bought the game retail. Without it, the game doesn't contain Rogue, Monk and Barbarian.

True. Don't think we'll get to see it in a Space Hulk setting, but I'm prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

EYE contained some rather fun combat and co-op, altho I'm pretty sure WH40k doesn't contain cyberbrain hacking and doors that can hack you back which is a definite loss all things considered.

Planet Coaster review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYcJGlf6gFU So basically 2016 was DOOM, longass gap, Everything Else.

So guards in Dishonored 2 actually inform each other that they saw an intruder, and this puts guards they have met into alerted state. If those guards were idle like playing cards or dice, they'll start patrolling instead, and patrols get a lot more erratic. I also tried to see what kind of changes in the environment they react to, and what I found put them in alert state thus far was: - Changed state of doors - Disabled security measures - Other guards who should be there missing - Other guards in alert mode So stealth is not binary - it's not just "They've not seen me" and "They've seen me" - there's a range of alertness between the two, which change how the individual levels play. I do realize none of this is new, but I'm really glad Arkane has put a decent amount of work into the AI.

I just want the minimap to be optional, at least by allowing me to set combat log as primary display. And give me back full-screen maps.

Spent two more hours mucking about a mansion in the first actual mission in Dishonored. After 8 hours of playtime, I have finally reached the second proper mission! I just spent ages finding a way to neutralize a target without killing said target. It was all well worth it. I'm starting to look forward to my high chaos playthrough. Anyway, I love the ways they found to enhance the gameplay - there are now more puzzles throughout the levels, and generally more things to do any more ways in which the game require you to improvise. Sticking in non-human opponents that don't count for kills when you dispose of them is a really clever thing to do as well, it gives your lethal gadgets some use and generally more things to do. Oh, and AI improvements. The AI is finally not completely incapable of looking up, just when you're crouching for some reason. It also moves on predictable patterns for as long as it's undisturbed - but the moment something that causes them to become suspicious happens, instead of going "Huh?" and carrying on with their patrol, they'll start actively searching in unpredictable patterns. And they also notice some changed states - doors you closed/opened for instance, and when that happens, they become alert and start searching. I've not seen them noticing stolen items tho. 'cause Due Sex kinda sounds like Deus Ex and because there's the word sex I can also change mankind to manb... No? It... It doesn't work? All right then, I'll just sit over here and remain quiet.

I just nicked bone charms from behind the back of an Overseer preaching about dangers of bone charms. I love you, Dishonored. Sure, if that makes you happy.

Oh look, the "Who gave us the most money" award nominees are up! Sony had a really good fiscal year, followed closely by Blizzard, but Bethesda also threw some cash on the pile. Incidentally, I love how all "Purchase" links lead to Amazon.

I was standing in a street for about 10 minutes, listening to entertainers sing an impromptu song about coup in Dunwall. I hope so much that the game retains this level of quality all the way through.

After over 3 hours of messing about I have finally finished the first mission in Dishonored 2. This game'll take me ages.

Yeah, Farscape is fantastic. It's more of a descend into madness kind of deal orientated on characters than a show which would massively concern itself with logic tho.

The sheer amount of detail on display here is astounding. A lot of talent has been put into the game. And most of it isn't even achieved by pretty effects - the art direction alone is extraordinary.

Dishonored 2 is truly a spectacular game. I'm still not entirely sure what the hell happened, the PC version clearly saw a lot of love - tons of UI customization, graphical options, FOV slider, borderless window mode...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG0422DdjlE