Wormerine

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.

Oh, it's the whole thing. It is not a vaporware afterall. I looks nice. I enjoyed watching the trailer. Looks like it would be unenjoyable to play (with rigid scripting and autoaim stuff).

I can't agree. I don't think Deadfire's narrative and pivotal choice was well delivered, but there was a lot of going on in there. I don't want to judge Avowed on marketing, but it just looks so generic, and descriptive. "OOoo.. this is bad", "Ooo, but this is worse". "Ooo, this is not bad at all!". Even the short text from the original teaser has so much texture and is so much evocative than anything that the two recent trailers have delivered. But maybe it is a wider trend. I thought Outer Words marketing had the same issue "You good, bad or CRAZY!", and while overall I enjoyed the game, I did find it choices rather uninteresting. Honestly, at this point I hope Avowed is as good as Outer Worlds were. I also find it odd that Avowed doesn't have a solid release date still. Apprently still 2024, but we only have 6 months to work with. Surely, you should know when the game drops by now, unless you still doubt if it will come together in time. (though I will take delay over crunching like crazy or delivering too early). But more importantly: WHERE IS SILKSONG!!!!!!!!!

Well… I can’t say I care😂

Avowed still looks…. Eh? It looks so…. Basic? It is as if they concluded that PoE were to complex and subtle and overcorrected by cutting all flavour out. Hopefully the game proper fares better, but so far Avowed raises more and more red flags with each reveal.

Dum, dum. Doom

Just go play Baldur’s Gate3 or a BioWare game. so many RPG companions became just dating sims, I really, really welcome RPGs with different relationships. PoE1 has my favourite cast to date, and a lot of those characters should wouldn’t be made if they were all datable.

After sitting on my wishlist for ages, I finally picked up and gave a short go to Gloomwood. And intriguing very indy stealth immersive sim, seemingly smashing Thief with Survival horror. Not very deep into it, so very first impressions, but so far it seems excellent.

Well, Firaxis (or Sid) have a philosophy of thirds when making a sequel. You identify 1/3 that you want to keep to maintain identity and not alienate the fans. You identify 1/3 you want to improve on in the sequel. You take 1/3 and try something new. Unless there was a major shift in Firaxis, I can't imagine Civ7 reimagining itself too hard (or rebooting).

Let's hope. I was one of the few who really liked the base of CivVI. What soured me on the installement were the expansins, which I didn't think added that much to the game. On one hand I feel no need for another Civ at this moment, but I am curious what will be tweaked in this one.