Wormerine

Couple things from Game Awards trailer roundup that caught my attention: Arcane is working on Blade game. Hopefully it will turn out better than their last Vampire game. I could be hopeful about this one: I don't know much about the IP, but I can imagine it being used to build a more traditional Arcane immersive sim experience with wider appeal due to Marvel. At the same time, I am very, very weary of Arcane at the moment after what I see as two major misfires. No Rest for the Wicked - a grim dark town down fantasy action (hack&slash?) from the folks who did Ori. I dig the art of the trailer a lot. Prince of Persia - I still quite like the look of this one. This trialer seems to suggest some Dark Souls influences? Not really something I want in POP game. Not that I don't enjoy a good 2d DS Metroidvania, but why can't we just stay true to the roots of the IP?

The DLCs are surprisingly pricey though.

Honestly, Bateman is a perfect BG3 protagonist. Just another narcissist psychopath into the mix. (wait, was BG3's original title Seven Psychopaths, but it was already taken?!)

I will probably come out more negative than I really am - I think overall I just didn't paricularly care or mind for the mechanic. I would hesitate to call it a soundtrack - you don't listen to the game's music, as far as I can tell the songs for the gramophone and unique to it, and dont' appear anywhere else in the game (as opposed to Supergiant's in game soundtrack playlists, that allows you to play a particular piece of a soundtrack that plays during the gameplay). Staying a puppet/becoming human wasn't a choice I was particularly invested in (in general Lies of P story felt pretty dry and uninteresting to me), so I didn't find gramophones to be particulalry meaningful addition. More damingly Songs were pretty bad IMO. Yes, they lasted 3-4 minutes, but in true pop songs tradition in first 30s you heard all there was to hear. Not uncommon, but also not something that IMO really made itself worthy being forced to listen to. Fortunately, one can put a gramophone and go around his business, so I would usually pop a new one and run around and do chores around the base - by the time I was done the song would be close to being over. So overall - meh. A cute idea, though.

I have no interest in ironman mode, but it seems Honor mode added some extra things on top (legendary abilities for bosses, some changes to ruleset to limit certain exploits). If roumors last night were correct, there is no way to recreate this difficulty, minus ironman mode, through custom mode. Apparently, though you can start in Honor mode and switch off perma-save by switching to custom - I don't know if it keeps other changes as well. Larian forum is down again, so I can't say if there has been any further updates. Eitherway, good update. I am tempted to reinstal BG3 and see a more proper ending to my campaign. Keep updates coming Larian.

Didn’t play Nioh, but player their more recent game “WoLong dynasty?” I thought it was pretty bad, and narrative was atrociously incoherent. I thought Lies of P was alright. Overstayed it’s welcome for me, but it was good enough to recommend. Not on the level of most FromSoft releases, but I probably liked LoP more than DS2. Some neat gimmicks, but they had little depth behind them. That said, for a studio’s debut it’s a really impressive achievement. As far as the plot goes: it’s still pretty light. I don’t think it adds much to the game - I never though FromSoft games would be any better with NPCs had cutscene saying “now you need to go to place X to find McGuffin Z”. Which is pretty much most that there is to it. You will have a better idea who you will be fighting and why, but I found myself caring less than in your usual FromSoft. DS1 was light on plot, but thematically rich, this one is the opposite. A lot of who, what, but not much “why”. Speaking of games with vague story: I picked up two Sony titles: Uncharted and Returnal. Uncharted will have to wait, but I gave Returnal a go. Eh, not feeling it right now. I thought it will be right up my alley - a roguelite with minimal meta-progression, acting like 3rd person bullet-hel. Initial impressions were great - the game controls great, fantastic utilisation of Dualsense rumble and adaptive triggers, it looks fantastic (though I had to turn off ray tracing in later stages, which made th game look much more plain:-( ). I do find the game rather boring so far. Procedural generation is very limited, so runs don’t feel distinct so far. They also take a very long time - compared to Hades when on full run could take about 30 minutes, here I easily spend an hour per zone. So far bullet hell was also rather generous though things do seem to be ramping up. So far, I am doubting if rougelite is a right structure for this titles - it seems it might work better as a more traditional linear structure. And while here is no blatant power grind, there is more subtle empowerment of the player. Early on you are set up to fail. That seems to be just how things are with roguelites that don’t quite have a depth and balance to ensure organic mastery. I do dig the vibes - it has a decent SF feel to it, and I wonder how the story will evolve. I just hope it won’t go full J. J. Abrams and do something trivial (like: this is just in your imagination dealing with pas trauma). It made me think of DS as it feels thematically dense, even if I am still not sold on it as a game. (If anyone else played it: FYI I finished “act1”, and reached second zone of act2).

From what I understand act3 is quite broken at the moment, but it should be addressed in soon to come patch 5.

Good! Read the books you find. Personally, I didn't fully enjoy PoE1 until my 2nd playthrough. I felt lore here isn't just a background, but it creates a basis for the world state of PoE1, and I found a lot of interactions more compelling with a better understanding of the world, and future events. Don't worry about gold-plated NPCs - those are backer reward related and aren't really worth your time. I like beginning and I like the end. I just think act2 is a bit of a bore. PoE1 is stretched thin (like butter scraped over too much bread), and it is most noticable in city hubs which should be brimming with content. That's where I got stuck during my last playthrough. Fortunately, White March is IMO the best PoE content, and it can be more or less played through while slogging through act2. That's where PoE2 is simply superior to me. While I wished for ending to have a bit more punched, in all my playthroughs I had a great time from the beginning to the end.

So much money, and yet they couldn't afford decent conductor to mocap

Yup. Same. Little social life, so I watch films or game in my free time. speaking of which: Jusant. It’s pleasant, though I wasn’t too blown away by it. Story relies a bit too much on written notes, and it is just not enjoyable way for me to absorb the narrative. Climbing is enjoyable, but almost a walking simulator. It is a bit more involved when it comes to player input that your usually climbing in games, but not in actual mechanics. Some clever ideas here and there, but as didn’t find it to be particularly interesting in itself. It’s still autopilot, but you press two buttons intermittently, instead of holding forward. Like a Dragon: Ishin! It’s good! Probably my 2nd favourite Yakuza game, due to change of the setting, though I also fought it was somewhat more sloppy than the usual fare. Map is more stretched out, and mini games more seperate from the main map - I found myself having to consciously engage with side content, while usually Yakuzas are great in drawing you in, as you go around your business. Main mini game (managing your homestead) ends up being tedious - you farm and cook stuff that you can later use or sell. However cooking comes with its own mini game. It’s fun at first, when when you get order for 10 meals, it’s stop being fun. I think there should be an upgrade to skip the mini game once one progresses. I also found fighting styles to be uneven. There is one which is pretty much better than anything else, and one which is completely useless. I have been tempted to play cyberpunk, so I decided to give a replay to a better version of it: Deus Dx (Mankind Divided as I played it only once). It’s still a flawed sequel, but I am enjoying it more 2nd time around.

Yup, it exploded out of the gate, and has been growing ever since. I tried it briefly, and hope to force myself to play more of it. Seems like a very well put together title, though it’s not something that I particularly enjoy.

The last hurrah from Mimimi games will be out on Dec6, in form of a double DLCs for Shadow Gambit adding a new mini-campaign consisting of 6 new missions total. Both DLCs will introduce a new playable character and island each, and they will integrate with the base game (so new characters can be used for existing missions).

Apparently 2ndWind folks are negotiation with Escapist for the rights to their old stuff, so it is not impossible that they won’t have to to knockoffs for their own stuff for too long.

It’s perpetually in my “to play” folder. All that tall made me dip into Talos Principle1. Not feeling it right now. I find puzzle games difficult to enjoy. It feels you need to slog through a lot of tutorial before you get to do puzzles (though to defence of Talos they already introduces stars, that seem to require thinking to get!). Still, rather well designed so far. I plan on sticking with it, as I can see it getting great later on.

Hilarious. I hope it was a good bonus. It must have been frustrating and confusing to watch indifference upon PoE2 release. Please, please do PoE3. I am more than ready to spend years complaining about another RPG.

16 Yeah, just expressing my personal lack of concern over Yahtzee loosing rights to ZP.

I mean... I did. It's positive, while acknowledging game's shortcomings (story problems, neven companions, lack of difficulty, Quality of Life features, apparently ongoing technical problems in act3). Mostly interesting, as he did beat the game multiple times, with each origin etc. so it's nice to see feedback on individual characters as well.

I think it's apt criticism of the accessibility of the genre, but not necessarily apt description of the game itself. There is definitely strategy in RTS, but one needs a high degree of manual competence and even matchup for it to come into play. From my time with Starcraft - yes, most games came down to who was more manually efficient at managing macro. That's why I do think turn-based system, that erases gap created by real time interactivity, is a more "pure" strategy experience, but I do find a lot of joy in the hybrid RTS experience.

I can add to the recommendation, though it's been some time since I played both, especially KOTOR1. Neither of them are flawless but I found enough charm in both (though of different kind) to enjoy each. From Star Wars: I adore Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy. Fallen Order and to lesser extend Jedi Survivor are also decent. If you have a joystick Tie Fighter/Xwing games are StarWars peak.

That's fine. I haven't cared for Zero Punctuation for some time now. Extra Punctuation, though, has been lots of fun. I hope Yahtzee will find a way to do something that feels less formulaic than ZP have been for last couple years.

I am completely unfamiliar with those, so can't comment. I think a game can have same elements as Disco and not be roleplaying game, if roleplaying isn't a central focus of the game (and by roleplaying I mean being encouraged to think and make decisions as to who your character is and what he/she thinks - not just inhabiting a set in stone character with occasional branching story choices). For example Pentiment has some light RPG elements, but those are infrequent and just aren't impactful on the experience enough for me to consider it an RPG.

I definitely consider it an RPG - you create a character, with stats and skills, and all interactions are character driven. Most importantly it revolves around roleplaying - who your memory wiped detective is is a central part of the game. It is light on systems, and doesn't have combat, but what makes RPG an RPG - it has it in spades.

I thought I did too, but than I moved to Ireland (though Northern Ireland to be specific) . Here is a good one.