Wormerine

Hmm, I might concede on Giths as I don't think you can avoid fighting them if you do all of the content there. Goblins though - is great. In fact the Goblin camp is one bit of BG3 that I love without hesitation and if all of the game was of that quality it would be 10/10 game for me. It's organic, it offers narratively sound objectives that can be completed in a multitude ways utilizing a neat combination of scripted and systemic options. If you decide to obliterate the whole camp, that can be tedious but that's a very specific, systemic outcome - you decided to fight essencially a city of neutral NPCs, so you do just that. There are so many neat things you can do to affect that combat encounter - tip off Minthara about the location of the Grove, but then help defend the Grove, getting a pretty great big battle and massively reducing camp's forces. Poison the drink at the party to make the outside battle easier. Sabotage war drums so enemies you are fighting now can't easily call for help from the rest of the room. Plenty of opportunities to silently dispatch smaller packs of enemies before engaging everyone else. There are so many ways of dealing with the camp, thoughout my hours of Early Access it was one part of the run I was always actively looking forward to. It seems I was always able to find a fresh way to express how my NPC would deal with that situation. Even my palladin coldly fighting through the whole camp out of principle - it's tedious, but fitting the character and an act.

By that standard I would say Baldur's Gate3 has as many or as few trashmobs as you want, depending on difficulty level you pick and your skill and willingness to abuse some of game's systems.

It can be as many or as few as you want/need. 3 is very standard, can be four can be two or one. Probably more, but can't think of an example. For a symphony orchestra 1 piccolo flute, and two concert flutes are a pretty regular sight. Different compositions may call for a variety of of flutes and sometimes doubling may be required (multiple instruments playing the same part for balance reasons, though if the performance uses amplification that shouldn't be of a concern as things can be balanced by an audio engineer.) If you have pieces that call for a very unusual instrument, you might have a specialist who will play just that instrument when needed, and a more conventional flute section for the rest. I assume you refer to Game Awards? Didn't watch the actual show.

June 2020 and:

May I ask how would you define trashmobs? I would as repetitive encounters that offer little or no tactical variety that seem to exist to pad out the experience. I would say Pillars of Eternity had quite a few of them, Pillars2 not so much if at all, Kingmaker was drowning in them. Combat variety is BG3 is crazy good. There is plenty of encounters that have unique type of an enemy that will never appear in another part of the title. I do think it is slightly undermined by combat's poor balancing - so if one found an overpowered approach it will probably play the same no matter how one will approach the encounter. But no I don't think the game has too much combat, and it definitely isn't repetitive. Though I know you don't like combat to begin with, so it might not matter either way to you

Disco E doc part 2.

Couple things I disagree with and couple I agree. As far as enviroments and visual variety I think BG3 is 2nd to none. Every area is unique and handcrafted. If anything, my complain would be that each act is so distinct it almost feels like I am playing a different adventures. There are some similar sensibilities to Divinities - Larian gonna Larian. And I personally don't like some of them. Old ruins and temples tend to look more like alien spaceships then ruins. But I still see it as fairly small fault. I also think Engine itself if quite fabulous. In general, I would agree with you on 3d, but Larian offers interactivity that a static 2d engine would struggle to offer. I think the tradeoff is well worth it, though UI and controls could be done better. I like dice rolls. Never felt a need to reroll - inspiration points might be already generous, as I felt I can force through any check that I feel I should have won. But for some ability to reload will be too much of temptation, and overall I do prefer Obsidian's static check design for PC games. But it is D&D, and being a table-top ruleset D&D relies on dices. Personally, I found Disco Elysiums double dice system to work better - I think Josh S. have written about it at some point. Story wise - yeah, I always had issues with BG3 narrative. Really disappointment comes in act3 where they have to try to wrap everything together and try to pay of the promises off. I don't know why Larian games are they way they are - it feels to me like they just throw everything they can think of into the pot, and don't have defined big picture. A collection of non-linear, organic encounters can work well, but their worlds are so artificial and incoherent. I love that BG3 is, I just wish someone else made it

Heh, I doubt it. My guess is that they went through a list of common complaints (graphic is crap, VO amatourish, story crap) and attempt to address those 2nd time around. Let's be honest, is still doesn't look like a decent budget production. Still, I quite liked how "old school" Solasta1 felt, and I wonder how the sequel with end up. I really didn't care for the demo, while Solasta1 crowdfunding build made me a backer. I just hope that the more interesting aspects of Solasta won't get sanded off in pursuit of nicer presentation.

Solasta2 Early Access in March 2026. Voice cast is quite stacked which makes me a bit sceptical. Unless the story telling gets much much better than the original higher production might not pens them the low budget charm the original had. edit:

Allegedly we could get an announcement for a new Divinity title by Larian. Icon on teased Game Awards statue seems to align pretty well with recently discovered Divinity trademark. Which sounds like soon, with it would line up if they want to do Early Access again within the next year or so. https://mp1st.com/news/report-tga-statue-mystery-solved-new-divinity-trademark-uncovered-as-new-icon-matches-statue

Well, allegedly they are revamping the engine. I see it as an ambition and promise more than anything else. We will see how it will actually turn out. Maybe I will finally give a Shogun2 and Warhammer a proper go meantime.

Sure, but also look at Bloodlines2. Publishers love taking advantage of existing IP for marketing purposes. Usually brings more eyeballs to the project. I am curious what project was compelling enough for TC to move back to work at Obsidian. I hope I will like it.

Would make sense. Tim prefers making new IP. As much as I would love Arcanum2, I somewhat doubt it would be what would bring him back from half retirement. Maybe he is turning his space sim toy into a game?

Finally a sequel to the best Total War game: I try to not get too excited. To be frank, most of the time I spent in Medieval II was with mods (mostly Stainless Steel), and no other Total War experience managed to scratch an itch that heavily modded Rome and Medieval II could. I was hyped for Shogun2, but never managed to get into it, and none of later TW caught my attention - I tried Warhammer for a bit, but felt rather simplistic (I mean to give it another go now when I have a PC that could enjoy the looks better). Anyway, classic Total Wars got GOG release. Picked up Medieval2 and might give it another go at some point. We will see if nostalgia googles hold up. edit. Oh, and Empire. I have a weak spot for it. Such a messy game, but also somewhat inspiring. I loved the setting, and innovation and I just wish it would be a more polished release.

I am thinking of replaying Pentiment as well. I was a lovely little game. I don't love everything about it, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Well, I didn't enjoy my experience, though to be fair I did consciously refuse to initially engage with what was clearly a rather important choice. From my perspective my gripes would be that: 1) initial choice felt rather sudden and arbitrary and didn't provide enough context to commit to such decision (I do wonder why they didn't go with more traditional route of NPCs petitioning you to do something, and you fulfilling their request meant supporting their cause) 2) and coming from that not fulfilling that person's request (or even doing the complete opposite) seemed to have no effect whatsoever on either of parties involved. It's as if they cared more about me saying I side with them, rather then actually helping. Anyway, I think it is safe to say I have abandoned my playthrough as I feel no desire to go back, especially as it seems the first bit I already experienced haven't presented the game from it's best side. Will give it another go on a later date once I am more in the mood.

I would probably give Ben Star for Verso, Lorien Testard for OST, maybe best narrative, though if it is any good I would always pick something like Kingdom Come2 over it, due to linearity and uninteractivity of E33 story content. Probably best Independent game and best indie debiut. I would definitely not give it best Roleplaying game, on account of it not having roleplaying in it. Maybe best direction, probably GOTY.

I always thought GameAwards RPG category was a mess, but Fighting Games easily win the most nonsensical nominees. 2XKO - limited early access build, the game isn't even in 1.0. (and not first time they did it. Multiversus was nominated two years in the row, once for it's early release, and once for it's 1.0 launch ) Capcom Fighting Collection 2 - a rerelease of 20+ years old games Mortal Kombat Legacy Kollection - another rerelease of 20-30 years old games. Virtua Fighter 5 REVO World Stage - newest rerelase, visual uplift and balance patch to 15 years old release of 20 years old game. Fatal Fury City of the Wolves - the only 2025 full release and as such IMO the only game from the list which should be eligible. (2XKO might make it before the end of the year, but who knows).

15hours into it, finished first planet and I am really struggling with it. I don't disagree with anything you have written, I think system wise it's a really smartly designed, streamlined RPG, I just really struggle to connect with anything story wise. I found main area's first quest to be a bit of a mess:

Yeah, I feel there could be more done with choice and consequence gameplay wise, and there is definitely some smoke and mirrors going on when it comes to story and Alters. Two mandatory alters get easily the most narrative stuff, and out of other optional one one opened some major story opportunities and others seemed rather modest in content. Looking back at potential story choices and their outcomes there seem to be mostly better and worse options - which I think would be far less compelling on 2nd playthrough.

For whatever it is worth, I tend to not care for jRPGs, but I enjoyed CO:E33 gameplay anyway. It's jRPG systems are actually rather overshadowed by dodge/parry mechanic which makes it closer to baby's first Sekiro. One optional boss in particular felt very FromSoftware. That however, I think is also a weakness as while the game does have variety of characters with their own gimmicks, and neat character building system, it does just dictates how much dodging/parrying one will have to do per-encounter. That said, story is the selling point.

And limited unit selection, especially if playing zerg. So good. Endgame content and balancing is easily my biggest gripe with the game, but not enough to spoil the experience. But really, what we needed is a game about expedition 60