algroth

I also wonder how integral Josh and the rest of the Deadfire team are to the possibility of a Pillars 3 as well. Many of them were (and still may be) involved in developing other games, be it Pentiment, Grounded, Avowed or The Outer Worlds 2. I reckon we won't know for a while what the status on a Pillars 3 is whether there's plans on making one or not.

Maybe I misunderstood, but I don't think having companions is mandatory? Reckon it'll be more that you *can* have up to two companions with you at once, much like it was with The Outer Worlds.

In The Outer Worlds the colourful, cartoony vibes fit the overall tone of the setting as well, as it was clearly aiming for a more heightened, satirical approach instead. Avowed and the world of Eora are not that, so the "epic" vibes and the "serious" threat of a plague and so on that the trailer is trying to sell you feel directly at odds with skeletons that look and move like they're straight out of Sea of Thieves. The mushroom garden posted in the OP is straight kitsch in a way that would fit an aesthetic modelled after 1950s sci fi but not a quasi-historical fantasy setting. Not a fan either.

I've seen plenty of discussion in other places regarding Pentiment, but it's true that this forum has felt a little quiet on it. Not sure if it's just because there's less to discuss/speculate on than a game like Pillars for example, at least in places like this. Which is still odd, considering how rich the game is in terms of history, themes, etc.

I've shared some of these charts before, but given that I've recently finished this project, here's a thread I made with the whole gallery, with charts of my favorite albums per year from 1965 to 2021...

Was a great interview.

Saaaaame. Jesus, this game makes me feel things due to how easy it is to screw up and just have to deal with the consequences right after. I managed to implicate someone, and my immediate reaction is, I was wrong and I want to follow new leads and see who else I can uncover. But I also think all of my reactions, my emotions and so on in response to the consequence of my decisions are an anxious mess in a really, really good way, like the product of fantastic storytelling. I think we've largely grown used to being fed a power fantasy in games, where we manage to solve the murder, to beat the bad guy, to save the day and so on, without question, that it's hard to fully accept a conclusion (to the first act anyway) like this. And it's interesting because it's opening emotions and sensations that most other games don't dare touch because they don't want to engage their audience in this manner, where there's almost a verdict or accusation about the actions *you* commit as well. Anyway, this is great so far. It's going places...

This might help out somewhat!

For what it's worth, this game is fiction still, just historical fiction. I'd say it definitely shows there's ways of making more realist fiction intriguing and engaging, which are an area that videogames tend to shy away from far more than many other artistic media do.

I suppose part of the reason I'm not as enthused is that I'm playing solo. The dual protagonist dynamics get especially weird as a result, I feel. Also, in general the impression I'm getting is that while people tend to lump D:OS along with other isometric RPGs as part of the isometric RPG revival, what the game reminds me the most of is mid-00s RPGs along the lines of NWN2 and DAO. Which is a nice and nostalgic enough as well, I suppose.

Been a while since I've been playing games, but I figured I'd go back into it, starting by finally getting around to Divinity: Original Sin. And, uh... Hmm... Response is rather mixed so far, for me. The combat was outright aggravating during the first section of the game, though it's been getting better as I've gradually learnt more about the game's mechanics and the likes. However, a lot of the writing and story is just preposterous, sometimes amusingly so but other times headachingly so. The story is a mish-mash of the worst Chosen One tropes, all to deliver a bunch of fluff that has staggeringly little to say, with motivations from the behalf of villains and auxiliary characters that makes no sense whatsoever. The voice acting is atrocious, everyone seems to be competing with one another to see how much of the scenery they can chew, stretching and accentuating every word of what is already often very flowery prose. Exploration and questing have been decent enough, on the other hand. Still, I'm not surprised so far that the recommendation so often seems to be to skip straight to D:OS2 (which I plan on getting to right after).

Been a while since I posted here! But anyhow... If anyone's interested, I made a list with my favorite records of the year so far:

This would also make sense in terms of trying to respond to a player's choices in the first game, I reckon. Considering how widely the state of the world can vary at the end of the first game, leading up to outright apocalyptic scenarios for Halcyon, it might make sense to account for whatever the player chose as part of the universe's greater lore than to directly follow up on it.

Hope the "XBOX console exclusive" at the start doesn't mean this won't be on Windows PC after all. Edit: Ah, never mind, website says it'll be on Win 10 PCs too.

Strong AOTY contender, and some of the best prog in a while (starts at 6:39).

Ran across a third 150 locked chest. This sort of loot feels really underwhelming given the skillcheck:

What's funny is that a lot of players felt like they weren't gated enough when the game first released. They felt they could essentially be good at everything and pass all skill checks rather easily just by improving most grouped categories and such - gave less clear strengths and weaknesses in the character builds and such. I don't mind not being able to specialize all at once (even if I absolutely would love to ), but a problem I find with the way skillchecks are implemented in the base game now is that the difficulty often feels completely arbitrary, and 150-point checks feel like they aren't comparatively more rewarding than your average check either. So far in my newest playthrough I've found three skillchecks of the sort: two locked chests scattered around Monarch which gave absolutely no unique or worthwhile loot, and a persuasion check with Lilya Hagen that granted you an extra 500 bits for a mission. Really, only 500 bits for a 150 persuasion check? The issue with checks of that difficulty is that they kinda set you up for a comparable reward, yet you get nothing akin to that in the above cases. You're setting players up for disappointment there.

Might want to give them a go! Planescape: Torment at least. I feel like Avellone is quite fantastic at the top of his game, and some of his work recently has been very good, but he's in a rockstar state of mind at the moment. Feels like he's only coming in to put his name on something moreso than much of what makes his better work special.

Have you played Planescape: Torment, KOTOR 2 and Fallout 2?

There's probably a good presentation to be made somewhere in comparing Pillars' design with Kingmaker's. Pillars improves a lot on the RTwP base provided by the Infinity Engine games, not least by offering rather extensive tutorialization, by planning out a learning curve and intuitively introducing players to core mechanics and systems and the likes, and largely leaning away from the very binary "puzzle boss" encounter design where not having X in your arsenal is the whole difference between impossible and a cakewalk. Pathfinder feels like it doubles down on a lot of the faults of RTwP and offers virtually no learning curve with which to ease into the game's systems, where most encounters seem to be designed with a single specific solution, and where the key to that solution being available to you is a matter of a coinflip - and yet it also seems to hold some appeal to a specific hardcore niche much in the way ludicrous tactical BG2 mods like Improved Anvil had back in the day. The ubiquitous trash problem doesn't help matters at all either. Personally, it's a game I'd rather not play ever again without cheating, but I'm still curious about the sequel, and whether it'll remain as obtuse in its design.

Shame for Rian Johnson not getting a full trilogy to his name (would have been very curious to see a full trilogy with him at the helm, considering The Last Jedi easily had some of the most interesting ideas and aesthetic choices out of any of the Disney Star Wars so far), but at the same time I'm looking forward for more Knives Out films.

Incredible album through and through, that.