Wormerine

That’s correct as far as I know. I think some modding is possible, at least for selected titles, but if you like to mod games extensively than GamePass isn’t a great choice.

Blizzard Acquisiton fallout continues. Game Pass price hike arrives. PC gamers still get a very good deal with PC Game Pass being increased from $9.99 to $11.99. Console players will have a nasty pupil to swallow as XBOX game pass gets split into multiple tiers: XBOX Game Pass standard will cost $14.99 but will not include day one releases. Those will come with XBOX Game Pass Ultimate only, that will now cost $19.99 per month. CoD addition to the game pass makes more sense now. https://www.theverge.com/2024/7/9/24195312/microsoft-xbox-game-pass-ultimate-price-increase-standard-subscription

I think playing Souls with a keyboard and mouse will feel very unintuitive. I would recommend picking up a controller - some games just play so much better with it. I don’t have time to check it right now. But Mortismal tends to play all games with k&m. Probably have something to say about Elden ring I that regard.

I didn’t get to Phantom Liberty yet, but it sounds to me a bit like Mass Effect situation. A bad RPG, that later dropped pretences of being and RPG and became third person shooter with chatting and minor customisation.

Avowed Windowscentral hypepiece. No new info, I don’t think https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/avowed-interview-2024

In….. Pentiment?

I found it very cathartic to watch his riff on Fallout3 reviews, as I found them ridiculously inaccurate at the time. I haven’t felt as disconnected with reception to the game and my own experience until Baldur’s Gate3. And it’s not that people like it, and I don’t (that happens often enough), but that they keep praising the game for things it is clearly not good bad at. Interestingly, reviewer for Gamespot for who praised F3 for being “deep and involving” and having “interesting choices” was one of the writers for Baldur’s Gate3. Stays on brand at least. BG3 also thinks “do you want to kill a city full of people or not” is an interesting choice.

Unfortunately, New Vegas is there to show that there can be a decent RPG build using FO3 structure and tools. Not that FO3 is without any merit - it just isn’t quite there. Both in content quality and system design. PS. Anyway Fallout3 is Garbage and Here is Why

Sure, but I don't know why one would look for that in a game about adventuring and swinging a sword. There are PLENTY games on steam that trade in romance in a variety of flavours.

I tend to think that in Roleplaying games act of choosing is gameplay, not individual systems. It is where Outer Worlds was weaker for me than many of previous Obsidian titles - I didn't care how I solve the problem presented to me, rather than having an issue with individuals systems. On the other hand, all 3 of my characters in PoE1 infiltrated Raedtrick's fortress a bit differently for roleplaying reasons. Naturally, it would be better if individual systems were somewhat satisfying in their own right, but in an RPG I am more interested in them being used to build a narratively interesting scenario.

Well, I do think New Vegas is easily Obsidian best game to date. It is a shame you don't find as much joy as I do in their more flawed titles.

Well, yes, but the amount of cinematics in BG3 is tied to heavy rectivity (and they probably count stuff like same conversations for different races) rather than cinematics being a bigger part of the experience. Dragon Age origins I think was also proud in that extend - stuff like how much dialogue was voiced. It being full VO was the marketing point if I remember correctly. I am not sure if I posted it on those forums, but Larian did a GDC talk about their approach to cinematics.

It is worth mentioning that three that left weren't responsible for 100% of DE content, and Argo who was the lead of the spinoff worked on DE1 and was part of the original pre-game collective. Whenever the three that left were necessary for a proper follow up, though even if the spin-off wouldn't work it seems its development was far from ideal. Eitherway, the situations seems like a dumpster fire, and I feel we will be hearing about the behind the scenes drama for a long time to come.

Speaking of games that launched in poor state and needed years of patches: Cyberpunk2077. I am yet to pick up the DLCs (hoping for the discount before it is time to tackle it), but I started my 2nd C77 playthrough, this time with female Nomad V focusing on being Cool and Techy. I wasn't particularly impressed by the game when I played it for the first time around Edgerunners release, but wow, I like Cyberpunk 2.0 much much more . It feels like technical state of the game is much better, and gameplay is actually fine now - I didn't expect it getting that much better. The smaller systems they added (street chases, police systems) aren't much on paper, but together they make the city a bit convincing backdrop to the rigid quests the game offers. It feels less like a techdemo now and more like Cyberpunk "Mafia". It also helps that I think female V has a bit more engaging VO, and Nomad intro worked for me much better for me than Corpo.

Either way, it is a complex situation. A lot of issues are at play.

ZA-UM continues to be a mess, with Disco Elysium spinoff canceled, and more people fired. I don't think ZA-UM owners are helping their case, at least as far as publc perception is concerned. Have no clue how their legal battle with Disco Elysium creative leads progresses. https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/game-development/for-a-while-it-seemed-like-miracles-were-possible-and-with-them-redemption-a-follow-up-to-the-legendary-disco-elysium-might-have-been-ready-to-play-within-the-next-yearzaums-devs-loved-it-management-canceled-it-and-laid-off-the-team/

I think we already talked about it, but when I play the game for the first time, I always play vanilla - maybe outside unofficial patches if the game benefits of it. To me devs have same authorship over their work, as writers or film makers, so in general I am not interested in mods, and prefer to consume media “as it was intended”. Not that you are wrong. I do think Bethesda games are more of a platform than a game, and therefore I have no interest in what they sell.

Yes, but I read it as “it is not a sequel to Pillars of Eternity, and is a seperate story. Doesn’t necessarily mean lack of continuity as far as returning characters are concerned, though naturally doing something like save import would make much, much less sense here. Still, it would be an odd choice to have returning characters and not align them with their previous apperances. Surely, the very point of having those characters back, is that returning players will recognise them. I do think that something like Lowyn’s potential death could be written around, though.

That’s surprising to me, as I feel Varric would fit BG3 rather well. „A dwarf but beardless and sexy, with quirky attachment to his crossbow” seems like something Larian would be into. Well, aside from him being a short race with looking at Larian’s companion roster, seems like a no-no Though I might be unable to decouple him from games he was in - and to be fair I do remember him, while other companions from DA2&3 are more of a blur.

Around 4:45 mark, Carrie confirms that the Inquisitor from the trailer is indeed Lödwyn - a returning character from PoE2. However, she is very much alive, while our encounter with her in Deadfire can result in her being very much dead. Does that mean, that there is no save import for Avowed, and the game continues with pre-determined continuity? Or did Obsidian pull of some narrative trick, like that conversation happening before the events of the Deadfire? Now when I am thinking of it - has Avowed timeline been confirmed? Is it pre or post Deadfire?

It was darker than what Bioware did up to this point. I suppose it depends what your context was when it was released. In Game of Thrones world, I suppose it is rather tame, but if ones reference was Lord of the Rings and previous Bioware game, than Origins was rather edgy (though, preceded by Witcher1).

Yeah, watched it earler today. Definitely makes me more hopeful than the trailer. Skill tree looks anemic, but we will see how it will play. I didn't analyse systems much, but I do like that they remind me of PoEs, at least on a surface level. Keeping my fingers crossed. For those who cared, it seems third person will be an option (though while they show a bit of it, it the video still mostly uses 1st person - I would guess that the 3rd person still needs some work).

Considering it allegedly started as 4 player coop one could say it is getting scaled up. Playing devils advocate, Disco Elysium had one companion and it was great. We knew since last reveal that Avowed will not allow for certain expected behaviours (like not taking on companions) so unusually small roster doesn’t surprise me. What I am waiting to hear is: „what’s the upside?”.

Ah, yeah, no, I am mostly interesting in story of Avowed. I don't hope for much gameplay wise. Yeah, Deadfire had big balancing problems. DLCs were pretty good, though, I thought.