Wormerine

Finished original Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Pretty cool, but flawed game. I really enjoyed the setting and an immersive nature of the game. I also liked characters, though felts fairly bored by the plot, especially by the end. In general, I enjoyed it more when the game allowed me to roam free and offered a more freeform way of solving objectives. I really liked the early and mid game, but I felt the game overstayed its welcome. The nature of leveling system means that about halfway through the game, I was an unstoppable force of violence and charisma. Not having to specialize always dampers my enjoyment of an RPG. Also, I also felt that the better my character got the worst the game became. There was something appealing about vagueness of the early game, and once I understand how the game works I was far less invested - gameplay wise, those are not exactly great systems. Still, looking forward to the sequel, though I will take a break from the IP for now. Modded my arcade stick a bit - put in larger actuator and a mid tension spring. I am still getting used to it, and while it didn't solve my most common input fumbles, it made double tapping for dashing and certain specials much much easier due to shorter stick travel distance. Very helpful in SF6. My hand is getting tired again, though, after longer play session.

Yeah, similar thing in SF6. What you would think would be a relaxed experience tends to be the opposite. Battle Hub (social space with virtual arcades) tends to be populated by Master+ players and it was hopeless to find a good matchup for there for the first 100 hours of play. Casual has very lax matchmaking so level of opponents varies. You also tend to run into a lot of experienced players trying out new characters. Ranked on the other hand tends to match people based on ranking so especially initially it is the most approachable mode as you will tend to me matched with other new players.

I think MK are far more newcomer friendly. From what I played of FF beta it seemed less forgiving than SF6 is, and in that game I also had to get my face smashed a lot before I started putting up the fight (and that's after 80h long World Tour tutorial). Inspired by your stick modding I decided to do some of my own. I have been recommended to install stronger spring and larger actuator, so I ordered some options and will see how it will go. Frankly, more tactile feedback and less movement might just what I need. Or maybe not we will see. I also ordered a bat top as I had to pay for shipping anyway, but I am quite happy with the ball top at the moment.

It took me long time to get really comfortable with a stick. Missing inputs under pressure never really stopped for me - I still fumble something every once in a while, especially panicked DPs.

huh. So Randy P. wasn't lying about Borderlands4 release move having nothing to do with GTA6. I wonder if everyone assuming that it does moved Take2 to reveal when they actually plan to release GTA.

Silksong has a release date for September.... as part of ACMI's Australia's national museum of screen culture exhibit. That that means for the actual release.... who knows. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/action/silksong-got-a-release-date-for-an-australian-museum-exhibit-before-anything-else-and-i-wish-i-was-kidding/

Elder Scrolls: Obsidian? Hey, I might even play that one.

Aye. I am more interested how Avowed will end up doing compared to PoE1&2. It being bigger budget, action RPG should draw considerably bigger crowd. I wonder if it succeeded (will succeed) in that, or not.

I mean it's Elder Scrolls and Bethesda. I am sure Starfield obliterated both of those. I am sure Fallout76 obliterated both of those. I am sure we could list a staggering amount of truly excellent titles, that didn't come close to Bethesda level of success. So I wouldn't use that metric against "Avowed" and "Veilguard".

Yup. However, I still really, really like it. ME3 weakened it quite a bit for me - I found myself getting annoyed when talking to Tali and getting her backstory, and recalling how botched it will be in two games time. I don't think ME was ever an RPG pinnacle - I think many of us liked ME2 so much because they ditched the poorly implemented RPG systems, and went for more streamlined narrative action game.

I really need to give Morrowind a try one of these days. Some people who know me, assured me I would actually enjoy that one. It's been sitting in my GOG library for a while, but never got around to modding it and booting it up.

Ah, Oblivion. The very first Bethesda game I tried and didn't like.

Yeah, I got a hang of when I can go venture out and when I need to follow the next objective ASAP. The result was me faffing around a lot, and doing a lot of side activities and sidequest. I am now fully plated, killing machine that scoffs with contempt at charging bandits and Cumans. I find the game a bit less magical, but still lots of fun. Stopped changing clothes for combat/town exploration, though I do have my outfit set up so if I take out all noisy bits it becomes good stealth kit. Progression through main story - currently pursuing fake coins trail. I ended up switching to mace, as I just found ot overwhelmingly more Effective against plated opponents - and while it makes sense, I don’t think there is much upside to using other weapons. A bit disappointing.

Like many things in Kingmaker I would miss him completely, if I didn't get frustrated with a substantial lack of available advisors and looked for a guide. In fact I found playing Kingmaker without a guide on the 2nd screen to be a miserable experience. Anyway, I am glad you enjoy it and I hope you continue to do so. I am still scared to dive into Wrath of the Righteous. I started it and PTSD started to come back.

I really, really like their implementation on 5e. I hope the sequel will improve all other aspects of the game.

I feel ya. When I tried the beta, I struggled to switch to 4 button layout and kept pressing "Guard" instead of heavy punch. Wasting two base roster slots on odd real-humans killed any interest I had in the game for the moment. Might reconsider, once first season of DLC characters is done. That said, I am not sure if I have time for a 2nd fighting game in my life. SF6 might be enough for now.

That's always something to look out for, but since Battlefront2 they have may some attempts to release legit titles. Hopefully this one will be one of those.

Star Wars TurnBased Tactics game? ok!

I also thought that there were bits were game acted as if your PC learned things for the first time, while I was thinking "didn't we already learned that in one of the Flashback vision collectibles?". I don't mind the story being pretty predictable for someone with Eora knowledge. What I was more bothered by was NPCs not being particularly impressed by it either, as if they too played both PoE games.

Yeah, I was super excited for Phantom Doctrine, then my enthusiasm lessened when they learned it’s by Hard West folks. I think I played about 2 mission of PD. I just found stealth gameplay to be so very boring. Not a fan.

Well, yes. I am sure it is a self-fulfilling prophecy to some extend - mictrotransaction ridden live-service titles, and free2pay games have been rather common lately. And considering that MTX can cost as much as a full priced game these days (or what used to fullprice game cost), I am not really surprised by that. Confused and depressed, yes, but not surprised. I suspect there is also some consternation among game publishers as well. People rebel against $80 game price, yet are fine to send multitude of that in microtransactions. edit: https://automaton-media.com/en/news/almost-19-of-japanese-people-in-their-20s-have-spent-so-much-money-on-gacha-they-struggled-with-covering-living-expenses-survey-reveals/

I don't think so. It would be impolite to do so.