Wormerine

Let me rage for a bit: Before Christmas break I played a bt of Gears5 - got about midway through and fought and defeated a pretty bad boss - lengthy bullest spunge, with weak point at his back, designed I think in coop in mind. AI partner is absolutely useless in this fight so it's up to you. The boss can easy one shot kill you if you make mistake, and it's a multistage fight. I managed to get past him months ago, watched cutscenes, entered a new region, and I quit and didn't touch the game until today. It didn't save. I got booted back to the beginning of the bull**** fight.

the save showed about 110h, though that doesn’t count reloading, though I didn’t reload much. Maybe add an hour or two at the most. I don’t think they were pointless. The first one felt like “see how powerful you grew” - mawing through enemies you fought throughout the campaign. There are a lot of enemies there, and enemy turns do take time. I think it would be better if I wouldn’t try to save up combat resources. How was I to know that Larian made a dungeon in which you can’t rest in, only to add full-rest machines after every encounter The 2nd one tutorialised a mechanic that final boss used, so I think it is somewhat necessary. It did feel off pacing wise - but I would blame the narrative side for that, over the gameplay.

Finished! Yeah, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, considering what I have read over at Larian's forums. I did found it drag on for a bit took long.

Was it? I found it rather dull. Like a lot of act2 it lacked narrative drive. I am also not fan of Larian dungeons, that tend to look like alien spaceships.

I think this is it folks. My journal looks suspiciously empty, and I run out of unexplored houses to break into. I think it is time to start wrapping things up. We will see if the ending is as bad as people claim. I clothed Laez in drops from edgy bosses. Suits her well, I say (Potential spoilers, open at your own discression)

Big question won't be answered until a pre determined time.

Well, there is always Portal, for a good J. K. Simmons.

I have explored most of the city, and I am starting to see the end. Gathered two of the infinity stones, but I still have some loose companion quests to do before going the final one.

Starfield setting definitely appeals more to me. Fantasy world need to put in work for me to care, where is semi grouned SF is easier for me to connect. I haven't played enough to make up my mind on the gameplay loot. I just broke free of the rigit tutorial. So far, my only wish would be for it to be more immersive - allow me to feel like I am exploring space, but maybe I will find a way to feel that.

Played a bit this evening. I am quite disappointed how traveling with ship is handled. Not the mechanics behind it, but that they didn't try to make it immersive - they encourage fast traveling (can one not fast travel? I have figure out how to set up jumps landing without using fast travel feature) a bit too much. I expected for it to be more like Freelancer - fly to a specific part of the planet and than trigger cutscene. If there is some form of cruise speed, I haven't found it.

Eh, it’s on GamePass so I will give it a go. If I get bored with it after an evening or two, at least I won’t spend on it £20plus like I did with Skyrim.

And people complained that Deadfire was too short.

If going to moon was as easy as jumping into a car and picking a parking slot from UI, no one would care to go to the moon. Getting to the moon is the interesting part, and I don't think you will see people complain that planets are empty in Kerbal Space Program.

Forge golem is a gimmick fight - it’s very possible to kill him by just using lava and conventional weapons but

Hmmm… the developer raises my eyebrows - they haven’t ever developed an actual game, have they? Just narrative walking sims. Still, show me more.

1000 planets! BG3 struggles with just one city. See you guys once us gamepass peons will be allowed to play as well. I do wonder how playable the game will be without the usual mandatory UI mods.

Finally found the man himself and his hamster. Had to the fight twice and the first time the game bugged out and he died for no reason after getting knocked out.

If waiting for Starfield is too painful for you, here’s is a way to burn 10 hours of you life

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1086940/view/3669924544104905987?l=english So BG3 doesn’t have “cut content” as was suspected (aka. stuff Larian wanted in the game but didn’t finish in time to ship). As such those hoping for major “restored content” patch, hoped in vain. Still, Larian is paying attention to feedback and look to address some of the complaints.

So sad

Finished main story of Shadow Gambit. It is another solid real time stealth tactics from Mimimi games. This time around more fantastical setting allowed them to shake up and expand their character roster. Some new enemy types as well, but nothing revolutionary really. As is the studio’s tradition the story, while pretty cliche, is better than one would expect. I didn’t always gel with humour of the sidestories, but it’s been overall a charming adventure. What I am less convinced by, is the new structure to the game. Rather than linear set of mission with pre-determined characters - we get multiple larger island, with couple missions in each, and for most missions we can pick our crew (up to 3) and landing/extraction points. It’s fun, and having different crew members does keep things fresh, but between powerful character kits and multiple ways of engagement, the game felt by far like the easiest (and therefore the least interesting to me) from their 3 games. More disappointingly, the maps didn’t feel particularly distinct - not being able to design level around specific mechanic (footsteps, water, darkness, specific character kit) means even with some unique features all levels played more or less the same. Even, now after just finishing the game I struggle to recall any but two setpiece missions, while I have clear recollection of multiple missions from Shadow Tactics & Deaperados3. I am also not a fan of locking replaying levels and badges until after one beats the main campaign. I just preferred the pace of previous titles - being able to take one mission at a time and 100% before moving forward. There is a reason for it (some progression will require to access to all of the characters), but I don’t really like it.

Welcome to Act2. Fun starts once you leave well tested EA area. By know I just accepted that characters will be acting weird. During my last game session, Baldur’s Gate Laez expressed her relieve that we are finally nearing Moonrise Tower… Honey, I know you haven’t been in the party much, but I think you missed out on some major events.

Unless there is more content on a different path, I don't think there is much - I just had a brief encounter with famous actor antagonist no. 2 and it already had more breath and depth than Kethric content. Thorm has: