Wormerine

Yes, but what interest me is the fact they said the last will be Dungeon focused. Yeah, curious what form will it take. I wouldn't expect a straight up dungeon in style of old, or Caed Nua. In one of the streams when they said that they will be exploring "dungeon" area in 3rd DLC they mentioned Fort Deadlight as example. If we consider such dungeon than there are few already in the main game, though I would expect this one to me more robuts than what we already have in the main game. A multiplayers dungeon in style of Watcher's Keep or Durlag's Tower would be delightful, and it would be a nice space to take advantage of all the improvements made in previous DLC (memorable encounters with a gimmick, a wee bit more setpiece based storytelling, and in some cases freedom of approach from base game, supporting different character types). We will see what they will cook up, though. Maybe it will be one big sudoku puzzle.

Its a passive which allows to trade AoE for power level and vice versa.

I don't think so. I am pretty sure I didn't get the last series of artifacts to hunt until I finished SSS main story.

That might not be the greatest UI design, but an enemy having three red skulls doesn't mean you should be able to beat him. Alll that means he is couple levels higher than you. Any boss type enemy should have couple skulls over their heads if you fight them at intended level. That's not the case with skulls in world-map, journal which is supposed to indicate if that level is appropriate to your party. deadfire does have difficulty problem, though I didn't try the recent patch. I found first half of the game on POTD satifying.

I think that is the very point of Magran’s challenge - not allow you to have full control over your party, and play it a bit more like RTS. It’s ok if it’s something you can’t play, and it is fine that it is something I won’t ever touch. The question is: is there anyone who likes it, but that is something Obsidian might have to deduce by looking how may people use it.

I overall agree with OP. I am believer that it is up to designer to provide experience, which they believe is best for gamers - while some flexibility is a nice feature, it is not a requirement. I don’t believe difficulty options are a must have - if designers believes the game must be played at certain difficulty to be engaging, they should commit to that. That’s the “ideal” though. Business wise it’s a good idea to make game reach as wide audience as possible. When it comes to RPG I find respecting to be somewhat against the game’s nature - it is about crafting/defining your character. If you can change some key things about your character midway through experience that somewhat goes against, what I believe cRPG should be about. How much of that is actually true depends on how cRPG is defined. Ideally, different character builds should provide characters with different advantages AND disadvantages, and player should have do deal with both throughout the game. Not being able to pass this one diplomacy check, should be balanced with passing this other check with an ability, which came at the cost of lower diplomacy skill. In an RPG which is reactive (not just gauntlet of unchanging quests and combat encounters) being able to respect your character would have made those win-loose scenarios based on your character build irrelevant. Because we always want to win, even if loosing can be more memorable. That said, RPGs don’t really come close to that kind of design, and many don’t event attempt it. Personally never used respec and never will. I don’t find cRPGs to be complex enough in design and reactivity to really impact different character runs that much. Wider audience means more money, and some people prefer to win over having fun (at times me including).

I second AndreaColombo. Unless Obsidian want to have access to accurate statistics of challange completion really badly, I really don’t see the point. Even if the datamined achievements were I implimented in the future, and even if making challenges moddable/with Berath’s blessings would mean that some people would use mods to 100% their achievement page... so what? Surely, a bigger flexibility in customizing your gaming experience is worth more than accurate achievements.

Not much is known. It is possible that Forgotten Sanctum will release in Decemeber if the timeline is to be trusted. (see: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105576-update-55-seeker-slayer-survivor-preview/ ) According to the timeline it should drop with 4.0 patch (whatever will it include), and two new god challenges. I believe that it was stated in one of the streams that recommended levels for DLC are as follows: DLC1 - 14-16 DLC2 - 16-18 DLC3 - 18-20 While BoW explored PoE narration, SSS combat, Forgotten Sanctum is to explore the dungeon experience (Fort Deadlight etc.). All of the above might be false or inaccurate. Obsidian didn't release teaser for Forgotten Sanctum nor shared any details beyond what is on Season Pass and some mentions throughout the streams. I would guess that first two DLC are a pretty good indication of what one can expect.

<sad face> still no fix for "Vatnir no talk" bug aka. Beast of Winter quest not registering. https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/105404-bow2010044-crit-path-bug-cant-talk-to-vatnir/?do=findComment&comment=2091955 That's fine. I won't wrap up Noriko's run until DLC3 anyway.

Really? I still see White Marches as the best content made in Pillars of Eternity, with great storytelling, memorable fights, best city (or village) in the game, best combat dungeon (Durgan's Battery), best puzzle/choose your approach dungeon (Abbey of the Fallen Moon). BoW is a nice sidequest for the main game, White March is a proper journey on its own. Not intending on bashing Bow - it's a great addition.

Dumbed down compared to what? I agree, that sometimes the multitude of possible ways of approaching a quest can be delivered in a hamfisted way. Is there any point in BG2 or PoE where one had to think on how to resolve a quest? Deadfire delivers a much more complex and flexible quests than both of those games. I do agree that they way some of the soluti9ns are presented could be better handled. But it is hardly handholding or “dumbing down”.

I fought him recently and didnt have much problems. I was overleveled (level 17 or 18) with up-scaling. Can't remember doing anything specific. Giving his summons to deal with, while I clean the henchman, interrupt if he tires to do something nasty, arcane dumper and focus him after that.

I would recommend making up your own mind first but here is my take: Deadfire feels like sequel to PoE1, rather than an attempt to recapture magic of IE games. It might sound like weird, but I think that is important to understand - certain changes much surprise/annoy old fans. Overall, the quality of the game has improved IMO, with better design, more interesting and unique setting, tighter and more complex quest design, better storytelling. Depending how you like to play, the combat might be to your liking or not. For a party based experience I found it clearer and more elegant. There are couple things I am not in love with - I am conflicted about how companionsare handled: I occasionally love the system, but overall I feel that a more basic companion conversation system would achieve the same, if not the better effect. Secondly, while the storytelling might be better, the story necessarily isn’t. It has interesting stuff in it, but it lacks focus and payoff to be truly memorable. I enjoy playing through the Deadfire much more, but finishing it, didn’t feel as satisfying. Judging by the two DLC, I would strongly recommend them. They act as significant side areas to the base game. 1st DLC provides some excellent story content (which somewhat ties to the main story) and 2nd DLC adds some fun combat content, with a bit of story on the side.

Overal, I feel Eothas story could use a bit more of exploration, that is why I was so happy to see devs dip into it in Beast of Winter. Confusion as to what breaking of the Wheel will actually do, was probably my main criticism when the credits rolled (sort of: "BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN...?!"). Josh talked about it in this tumblr post: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/174058952291/so-is-the-idea-that-before-the-wheel Apparently, there was a detailed explanation at some point but it was cut. I hope for a more detailed explanation to appear in the 3rd DLC and it should continue the Berkana's research storyline, were the presence of "The Wheel" was heavily foreshadowed.

It's been changed couple patches ago, probably to encurage people to engage more with the system. The changed sparked some unhappiness among frequent figurines users.

Your opinion. I certainly don't feel that way. That's it is no good alone is certainly my opinion. However, there are multiple mechanics, which don't work when you play singleplayer, whenever it is arguing between character what to do, or dyeing a poison to fool your coop player that its a healing potion. Add to that that you can't switch between characters in dialogue, which makes sense if different people control, but is a poor design if there is only one player etc.

I think the difference is simple: D:OS1&2 are great coop RPGs. I had a wonderful time playing through the 1st chapter of D:OS1 with a friend, had a dull time beating the game myself, gave up on D:OS2 midway through. They are extremely tedious games when played alone, combat is fun when shared with a friend, not as engaging by myself. It’s a sandbox with a vast space for hijinks, but the game itself won’t really respond to you.

I played a bit recently and random encounters did take place.

I generally follow the way game Shepard’s me, so I found it to have a healthy mix of combat/exploration/conversation. However, as the experience is pretty freeform it is possible to go for a long time without combat, especially if you try to take on Nakataka in one go. I like how Deadfire handled items. I switch those often, but because I like the effects, not because the new sword does simply +1 damage more. The way I see it Deadfire is full of unique, “magical” items. There are few souldbound weapons, but they are rare. While they added a lot to boring weapon design of PoE1, I don’t really like or use them that much in Deadfire.

You know what happened: Microsoft saw this thread: https://forums.obsidian.net/topic/106183-lets-have-an-intervention-to-save-boeroer-from-his-gaming-addiction/ and decided to help you.

Ha! Didn’t even knew that there was an XCOM novel. Not gonna touch it. I think streamer BeagleRush really nicely summarised Legacy Ops: Drunk Bradford’ stories. Lore wise, they are idiotic and don’t make any sense - enemies which were supposed to be new in main campaign show up (even avatars!), plasma weapons simply show up in your hands. Stories are somewhere between amusing and cringey (going through the 2nd one right now). Lovely to see old maps, and classic assets. The missions are actually more entertaining as they are better balanced than your usual campaign.

I will take Isometric camera over rotaty 3d thing any time. That said, just like it was the case with NWN2, a big sell of Divinity2 is it's custom content creator package, and it is easier to make a lever editor for 3d than isometric I guess... I think? Starcraft2 is isometric and also has leveler editor no? Need to give Divinity2 another chance now, when new stuff is in. Someday.

We will see about Phoenix Point. It is still early in development and things will probably change a lot. Looking forward to what changes will the next year update bring. On paper it looks like a good combination of new XCOM and Gallop’s sensibilities. We will see how it will work at the end. New XCOMs simply aren’t old XCOM. I am completely fine with at. I have installed, at all times, a new XCOM and openxcom. Firaxis take has a lot going for it, though there are individual design decisions which don’t really work for me. Pod Activation mechanic is the biggest gripe for me. While I understand idea behind it (give each encounter a decent challenge) the result is, that how you activate the pod is the biggest factor in winning/loosing the fight. Long War1 played into it, while XCOM tries to cover the problem by adding stealth mechanic (you can see were pods are and active them on your terms) and added timers which force you to make bad activations nonetheless. Add to that the heavily scripted nature of XCOM missions and the whole thing becomes repetitive and occasionally frustrating. Snd very shallow strategy layer. Still, XCOM2 is stuffed with so many things that I return to it every once in a while.

I would rather have them do, whatever it is they are doing. They are game devs, not streamers or weekly online friends. Whenever there is new thing happening it is great to be able to communicate with devs, ask questions, see their perspective. As it is right now, I know that if there is Obsidian stream I have a reason to watch it. If they do it weekly no matter if they have something to discuss or not, then I will simply stop watching them all together.

Even if the pull it together it seems like a game that will get dull very fast. Take a break for real life errands, to do errands in space world. I can’t wait to play star citizen and ride a metro system to the space port! Really, just a single player campaign would have been grand. Can I have my Freespace3 now?