Masticator

Story wise I was happy enough with the ending. It kind of felt like it was missing something, but I'm not sure what. Length of game was alright, I clocked in 89 hours at the finish. I take my time exploring. Exploring was the high point of the game. As for factions mentioned above, they were the more interesting part of the game. The main quest was so-so. But I'm really really getting tired of gods and stuff in fantasy games. I actually prefer a game such as Dragon Age: Origins (which still is my favorite fantasy setting game) which had a more subtle hero who wasn't the savior of the world (he only saved Fereldan when you think about it, other nations could have stopped the blight with their grey wardens). I actually prefer political intrigue of the factions more than I do all this gods stuff. I'd love to see a fantasy game with no gods. Maybe that's why Fallout: New Vegas is my favorite game of all time, no gods. Although I worry about the faction theme becoming overdone. As it was done with New Vegas, Fallout 4, and this game as well. All 3 games had 4 major factions (though In NV one faction was yourself) you could side with. Maybe move away from the number 4. Otherwise it will tend to get boring fast. If you do go with factions, make the choices even more significant so things really change once you start supporting a faction. I felt like nothing changed at the end of my faction quest line in this game, and no new dialogue that I saw. I want empire changing events here. I know the end screens take that place, but I can't help but want more.

I am very disappointed in Obsidian right now. I've been underwhelmed with POE 2 so far. I think D:OS 2 was way more fun the first 50 hours. I hope they get us a monstrous patch before the end of May to make up for it. Not me. I feel POE2 is far superior than DOS2. I just finished POE2, and have never finished DOS2. I got about halfway through DOS2 and grew bored with it. Combat is nothing but continuous reloads for me. I'm not sure how much fun reloading is to other people. Normal difficulty is quite difficult for me. I'm sure people will say I suck, but I don't suck at other games like Dragon Age: Origins or similar games. As for bugs, I haven't really encountered any game breaking bugs. I had a couple crashes to desktop (especially when changing party members on the boat, better to do it at an inn). And some quests had weird dialogue if you did things out of order, but I was able to complete every single quest in the game except one. The last survey mission for the map maker guy in Queen's Berth. For some reason I only found one unidentified island I could name, never could find the other and I looked everywhere.

Load screens are a bit numerous, but not too long on my computer. I'm running a 9 year old computer with the game installed on my non OS hard drive (my slow 7200 rpm hard drive). Occasionally though the game does take a while to load. This game also occasionally uses a lot of CPU resources, and I find it better not to have a browser open in the background.

I just hope this game does well because I'm an investor. And frankly, I find the game more fun than POE1. I'm having a blast. Speaking of Mass Effect I still like the first one the most because it felt like an RPG. It turned into an action game after that (that gave you some choices, just not that many). And I'm one of the few that thought ME3 was fantastic, at least up until the end. I didn't like the choices at the end. Surely they could have came up with something better than that. Who would want to be a machine hybrid? Yuk. I want to retire with my squeeze and live the good life. Instead we get that dreary ending.

I did forget to mention one thing that bothered me. A couple mispronunciations bothered me. As a Navy veteran the mispronunciations of forecastle bothered me. I know you can actually say it like it is, but I believe the character saying it was a sailor, and it should have been pronounced like sailors pronounce it. There was also one other word that was mispronounced, I don't remember what it was exactly, but it was a word that was probably of French origin and should have been pronounced that way.

I didn't realize all this stuff stacked. Does having 2 rings of protection on do anything for you? Does that stack as well? What about stacking deflection? Is that still a great strat? I heard that was the way to go in POE1, I'm not sure how effective it is in POE2. I still try to prioritize that.

You do realize that Witcher games can't be joined part-way through, right? You're missing out on huge chunks of the story and vital character development. Agreed, I had a hard time remembering what happened in Witcher 2 when playing through Witcher 3. A lot of those political events are mentioned throughout Witcher 3. There's quite a bit of political dialogue in Witcher 3 if you pay attention to it. Most people like it for the combat, but the game is more than that.

I like the little bit of brighter colors. POE 1 can be too dreary sometimes with the colors. Sometimes I think the reason why DOS games sell better is they are much more brighter and less dreary. Though I don't care for the cartoony feel of the DOS games and lack of a compelling main quest. I don't mind dark subject matter, but that doesn't mean all the colors of the map need to be dark as well. Sometimes I think they need to get the Planescape: Torment mentality out of their heads. While it worked for that game (though I wish that game was brighter as well), most games shouldn't be that dark (visually).

I hate to think this game won't sell well, especially compared to DOS 2. I bought both DOS's, finished the first one, but not the 2nd. I don't get why those games are so overhyped and overrated. DOS 2 just seemed to be missing something. The combat was just an experience in frustration and reloads. If anything DOS 1 is better. I doubt I'll ever finish DOS 2, but I'm on my way to finishing Deadfire. Deadfire is the better game.

I didn't care for Xoti's voice at first, but it grew on me. I'm in love with her voice now. I was even imagining her voice outside of the game. That's not crazy is it? The other Dawnstars accents I still don't care for though. But Xoti is my girl, so don't say anything bad about her. The above post says Dragon Age elves had American accents, but Sera had this weird Irish accent thing going. And the bald one has an English accent I believe. And then there's Merril, the one everyone hates. I can't remember what hers was, Irish maybe? I'm okay with how Dragon Age handled it. Wither series was fine as well. Consistency is the thing. I get why Americans may not want American accents because it seems too familiar. But keep in mind these games sell just as well in Europe as they do in the U.S. and Canada. And they I'm sure they sell decent in some Asian markets as well. Maybe to them an American accent sounds more exotic (though probably not because of so much American media over there).

I admit I just upped the gamma settings. But I still enjoy the touch for a little while at least.

I like it. The thrill of finally getting my Junk outfitted with 5 double bronzers (that sounds dirty but it's not) and just outright destroying enemy ships was pretty awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's also sometimes fun to outclass a large ship than you with a smaller ship. But I admit the sheer destructive power of 5 double bronzers is pretty cool. I like the exploration aspect of this game, it's one of the better aspects of the game.

Also consider you can reroll your character at max level to experience different stuff you didn't choose before. I have a feeling I'm going to reroll/retrain several characters I made mistakes on.

ahh thanks. Anyone know where to find more crew members? I picked some up at the tavern in Queen's Berth and the tavern on the pirate island where the highest ranking pirate is (I can't remember the name sorry). Seems like I might have seen some more somewhere, but I can't remember where. I'd like to pick up some who can achieve master rank and aren't as versatile.

I'm actually playing a ranger on my first playthrough. sharpshooter. I admit I don't have much to do. I just let the AI handle him. I'm only on classic so most fights are so easy I don't even need to click anything. I could just let my party fight by themselves the game is so easy in most places. I find myself usually only controlling Aloth or sometimes Xoti.

What does it mean when it says a crew member advanced in a rank and in a level. What's the difference between rank and level? I'm doing more ship combat lately. Early on I just ran if I could. I'm upgraded to a Galleon now and eventually will get a Junk for the achievement. I was finding it was difficult when enemies had better ships than me. In fact, my only wipe in this game is when my ship was sunk. I find I have to get a better ship because the enemies seem to have better ships (do they scale with your level?) Though I may go back to the fast one to finish exploring the map. The fast one is pretty nice for exploration.

Anyone know where to find Rongi? I can't find him anywhere to progress this quest. edit: okay I guess he shows up at midnight. The guide says he's by the trading post, but he's not. But he did show up at the beach after midnight.

Fallout 1 and 2 had plenty random encounters. Didn't the second expansion for NWN2 have them? I only played the 1st NWN2 expansion. I actually wouldn't mind them, at least you can save on the main map so if something goes wrong you aren't backtracking too far. Most game tend to put too many in, however.

I've not been party wiped yet, but I've had 2-3 people go down a few times. That's on classic without seeking out red skull areas. Many of the fights do feel a bit pedestrian if I'm honest, but I've also recently come across some pretty challenging ones, where I doubt I would have survived on Veteran. I'm kind of torn on the new combat without health/endurance and more or less removal of per rest abilities. It means I can use the top abilities in each fight, which means they tend to be on the easy side. I have always loved to go through big dungeons trying to conserve the best abilities, and keep going when we are 'redlined', only resting when we are all on our last legs. Combat in POE2 is less chaotic than POE1 though, which is positive. And although there are some negatives to the new combat, it's also kind of nice to be able to use Death Ring and such in each fight (if I want). I've still little to no idea how all the inspirations and such work, so I largely just ignore the whole thing. Probably not a good thing, but we get by fine without caring about that and using empowers (not used any yet, at level 12). I don't know, POE2 fights can be very chaotic as well. But perhaps less so. POE2 does still have a few fights where enemies have abilities to teleport behind your front lines and wreck havoc on your ranged folks. If you are reading this Osidian, these features are very annoying. What's the point of even having tanks. I can see how POTD players like this sort of things, but for us average players it's too much. So many reloads in POE1, that lighthouse in POE1 in particular with the undead teleporting behind you. Your best hope was to pull some of them an not try to aggro too many. POE2 has a couple fights like this. I also find they tend to fly by so fast that it's often not worth using my abilities. Slow them down a little.

How do you disable the Steam overlay? I just had this issue for the first time today (strange I have over 24 hours played before it cropped up)

This battle is insane for the level party mentioned in the OP. I tried some of the advice, specifically the druid advice, but they just hit too hard. There's no way to heal through that damage. Really annoying there's a huge difficulty spike like this you can't avoid. Thankfully I was able to lower the difficulty level to get past this, or else I'd have to reload from the beginning of the map and just skip this area completely until I'm a higher level. Which would mean I'd have to clear the entire map again... Yeah I'll be completing WM2 at a later level it seems. I wouldn't have a problem with this encounter if I could avoid it until a higher level. But once you take care of the battle inside the tent, this battle is unavoidable. And the battle inside the tent is fairly easy. Massive difficulty spike here. I tried sneaking around, but that didn't work. Those guys move fast towards my position.

Fallout: New Vegas: Will always be my favorite even though I played it so much I can't really play more than once a year at this point. I could never get the script editor to work for the more serious mods though. Oh well. DLC was okay, Honest Hearts being my favorite, but overall the DLC didn't match the original game in story quality. Perhaps I am biased as I grew up in this area, and I even went to Goodsprings elementary school for one year. This game easily has my most hours played, however (excluding time munching MMO's). Dragon Age: Origins. The other 2 are fairly forgettable, though the 3rd is better than the 2nd. The first still holds a special place in my heart. It, along with Fallout: New Vegas had a good mix of action and role playing/story elements. The DLC was pretty forgettable, but I did enjoy the expansion. Pillars of Eternity. Yes I'm moving this game up my list. My second playthrough has been much better and improved my opinion of the game. Normally I'd put something like Planescape: Torment or Baldur's Gate 2 here, but I'll move POE up to #3 spot. Unfortunately I hit a serious bug with the White March expansion, and I don't think I can complete that expansion (and won't be able to do WM2 either). So I can't rate the expansions too high at this point. A lot of people mentioning Witcher 3. While the atmosphere and setting of the game is the best of ANY game I have ever played. It lacks serious replayability, and I've only been able to finish one game. Part of the problem is playing only one character, which lacks serious role playing and trying out different classes and such that you can do with other games. The signs in general kind of suck compared to spells in most games. Maybe if I could play a sorceress in that game. And no, playing as Ciri doesn't make up for being stuck with one character. There just isn't any reason to play the game again. Not to mention the game is incredibly long. The music is the best of any game I have ever played, and so is the medieval fantasy setting. No game even comes close.

I'm having the same issue. Although I do have a small mod installed. I'm replaying the entire level (the only previous save I have) to see if I can get past this issue. Maybe it was because I was shapeshifted at the end of the final battle. I'll update when I'm done. Unfortunately I can't lower the difficulty to get through this any faster since the level has already loaded. edit: okay same deal with the reload. But I think I figured out the problem. I was trying to interact with the wrong object. I am indeed a noob. I was thinking it was the same object as before, the hole that the flame pours into, but this is a different object, a piece of adra apparently. I'll leave this post here in case anyone else has a similar problem finding the right object to interact with.

I'm hoping for a freaky character too. At least give us one Obsidian. That said, I do like Zahua, he doesn't seem to be getting a lot of love. Only downside is he doesn't have more dialogue. Durance is great, although mostly for his voice acting which I really enjoyed. He has a cool voice.