Wormerine

^.^ my average age is 27

Yes that one, where Josh and Adam showed like 10 mins of the game and then we got clarification updates. I really think the best update's gonna be youtube videos of people playing the beta tbh Definitely, there's a good chance the beta will happen soon enough, because the end of production is scheduled for August (Adam's Interview with Kotaku, but he didn't mention if it ends in Early or Late August). Then "Full Alpha", play-testing the Game internaly, then... it's our turn !! Could someone more familiar with game production cycle explain what "end of production mean?" I imagine they did not implement everything yet (companion quests, all areas etc.) does end of production mean that they have all basic mechanics with which they will build the game, or do they literally have it done and now it is th case of testing, cleaning and reworking stuff?

With Heart of Stone and Blood and Wine I felt that CD project red went for the short stories feel Witchers books had in their first two tomes. While they ar connected to the main game, they feel like separate adventures, with unique atmosphere and story arcs. HoS is probably my fav part of the witcher franchise and B&W is a wonderful farewell to Geralt and the trilogy as a whole. I think that Super Bunny Hop did a great job pointing out B&W weaknesses in storytelling and it does have some contrivances which could be ironed out with a bit more time. Overall, still high quality adventures no matter how you look at it. Replaying Witcher 2 recently, I did realise how little presence did scoiatel have in W3 and that's a shame, though from what I understand they storyline has been cut out from the game as devs deemed it not good enough.

Yes, while now BG loads within second I specifically remember it wasn't that way when I played it on my all powerful Pentium 3 800GHz. ;-) They specifically mentioned that interiors will be streamed and there should be no loading times between main area and interiors. We will see how it will work in practice. I didn't find PoE loading times bad enough to bother me, but you do change areas often so minimazing them as much as possible would be a very welcome thing.

Depends how you market it and why you are doing early acces to begin with. Both companies I mentioned knew what they use EA for. They tested things there. They had self imposed deadlines. The idea of EA is not that you sell incomplete game but that if you are enthusiastic about a project join in and provide testing and feedback for devs who might not have been able to afford wide testing. Naturally EA has been abused throughout the years. But if done right the game can develop and improve in ways which wouldn't be possible otherwise. However, like every healthy relationship in the world, early access most of the times disappoints. And yeah, as mentioned before Klei is able to do 3rd (I think) EA release with much success as they have dilivered previous times. Similarly, Obsidian had success with PoE2 because they dilivered with PoE.

Abydon and Wael would be pretty interesting, I agree. I can sort of picture the latter as a Residents member (though, not really). I can't really picture what a Wael Godlike would look like though. I mean, the Gods based on natural concepts are relatively easy. But for the Gods based on human concepts (Wael, Skaen & Woedica), it's a bit more tricky to come up with. Also, considering how mysterious Wael is, I'm not sure he would make Godlikes. He'd prefer to keep people guessing Yeah, Devil of Caroc is my idea of an Abydon Godlike. Well, Wael Godlike could just have a big question mark instead of head.

I am pretty much there with you, though I do buy early access, if I am interested in providing feedback to the game I am playing. They are not good purchases if you look for entertainment. So far I had great time with EA. I got Prison Architect, though by the time I jumped unto the wagon it could have been released as 1.0 and no one would complaign. I also played Invisible Inc. which was really fun to see it grow and turn into one of my favourite games of all time. I am currenty trying Oxygen not Included, though I feel couple updates are still needed before I will figure out what direction they are going with it and be able to give helpful feedback.

In short, step by step becoming closer to steam. Regional pricing, regional blocking, DLC all over the place, microtransactions, and of course now pushing Galaxy all over the place rather aggressively. I probably forgot many steps along the way too. Galaxy is still technically optional, but I don't expect that to last given what is occurring. It's still the least horrible store out there, but many of the "old guard" don't like the negative direction they have decided to pursue. Hopefully they won't ditch the DRM Free principle too. If they do, I have no option but to stop buying and playing games. About the question however, I can still pledge for POE2 and get the game DRM Free and for Linux, via GOG? Many of those things you mentions have nothing to do with GOG, but rather with expanding their offer. DLCs are part of the gaming industry and on principle there is nothing wrong with that. I got DLC for my Darkest Dungeon on GOG and its great. Regional pricing I also see as a positive thing, though it can screw people over. Some coutries with lower income, it is more beneficial for Devs/publisher to sell games cheaper. Since GOG introduced Polish currency to their store, I found their offers more affordable. Galaxy is a really neat feature, which fixed a lot of issues I had with GOG (need to check for updates, fiddly download.) They did state they will never make it a DRM. Companies, of course, can lie, though so far it has not been gogs policy. Yes, the keys will be available for steam or gog depending on your preference.

Tyranny and Pillars of Eternity have not pushed any equality agendas. I wasn't offended when Gothic1 had almost entirely male cast. I am not offended now when PoE and Tyranny has a mixed sex society. I don't remember those game ever drawing attention to it. I think that lack of definition on Kyros part comes from a much different direction than you think it does. Similar with Beastman. There might be "let's look on a spreadsheet and make sure we have similar amount of female and male NPCs" but I imagine that is about it.

Nothing I am aware of. They added optional gog galaxy to easier manage, download and update your games. And to allow multiplayer titles. It is not even a DRM service (unless you want to play online game, duh) as you can run any installed game without logging into Galaxy or even starting it up.

Well, no, if Obsidian believes that party of five will work better than party of 6 or 7 or 12 they should cap at 5. Because they are game designers. Their job is to design the game so it is fun to play. It is their responsibility to come up with rules which organize and benefit the experience. You can challenge yourself and go solo, but it is clear for anyone who plays the game that it is not what you are supposed to do. Like no mind control/heavy plasma run in XCOM. Giving you a higher companion cap and expect you to play with 5 to have a good experience would be a silly idea.

. I liked Durance, I liked Sagani, I liked Grieving Widow. These are characters which don't fit into the "dating sim" design. I'm not sure what you mean with "dating sim" design, but I think Sagani could have been a good fit for a romance. It could have been an interesting scenario where Sagani would have been torn between her family and her feelings for the PC. It wouldn't necessarily have been a "happily ever after" romance, but a very interesting and fulfilling romance none the less. What I'd like more from romances in RPGs is to make them a bit less railroaded. Just like a boss can be difficult to defeat in a game, completing a romance should/could be difficult to achieve too. I think it would both make them more interesting and more satisfactory too (cause it's not just about clicking on the heart symbol seven times during the span of a 30 hour game or whatever). I do like the position Noah Caldwell-Gervais takes on the way romances are handled in Baldur's Gate II from his own video on the series (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjWWuUDtSaE he speaks about it around the 1:12:00 mark): basically he points out that one of the interesting things about romancing, say, Viconia or Aerie is that there is a chance to fail at both, because both characters have their specific traits and personalities which you cannot just win over by being 'nice' or rushing to the end result. You can kill off a romance with Aerie if you take things too fast, for example, whereas with Viconia the romance comes not from being agreeable to her whims and ideas but actually challenging them and basically showing you have a spine. One of my biggest pet peeves about future RPGs, be it BioWare or else, which so frequently rely on a numeric "loyalty" value is that romance is immediately associated with that value, and in turn it just feels flat and unrealistic, devoid of any of the character or dynamics a real/interesting relationship would have. Romance is achieved by gaming the system more frequently than not and the end result is some sexy pretend with a videogame character instead of anything approaching an actual relationship, that would ideally require dialogue between two parts that know what they, individually, want. Incidentally this is also why I dislike the idea in Deadfire of having likes and dislikes written down in the journal for each character, because it essentially acts as motivation for gaming your way into being friendly with every companion *despite* what your character would normally say or pick. An attentive player should be able to guess what these are intuitively, and the game should be trying to hide as best it can the 'immediate'/numeric effect our choices have on companion behaviour, so as to make it more about roleplaying and less about 'relationship optimization' or however you wish to call it. Here I will defend the possible benefits of Deadfire system. The problem Dragon Age Origins had was that every companions existed in its own bubble. They would occasionally react to your decisions but for the most part your relations with them happened in conversations in the camp. You would be a different character for each one of them and game rewarded you for this lack of consistency. If Deadfire will track your overall behaviour and decisions, which then will lead to individual conversations then we might be up to something.

Indeed, but no matter what ending she got she had rough couple of years. We will see how much she changed since PoE1 but she might be less composed than she once was.

How curious. As someone who played BG2 before BG1 my impression was the opposite. )

To add to that, on the toolbar we see cropped versions of the portraits. While Eder looks weird to me there I do like his full portrait: https://www.instagram.com/p/BXWMDL4lwwv/?hl=en&taken-by=jesawyer1975 Might be the same case with others.

Here is my take on it: I love the new characters, not so much the returning ones. To be honest, my main problem is that I really liked old portraits. I will wait until the release. It is possible that the new portraits will match the returning characters once we interact with them in the new setting instead of pasting new faces on old relationships. I don't see anything objectively wrong with them.

Haha... I am afraid it is less the case of learning but having EAs funding for it. While PoE is very successful as far as the crowdfunding independent titles go, it will never reach the expensive look of AAA games. Still, a fair trade for not having your soul sucked dry.

Several reasons. Guitar is a very quiet instrument. It takes projection and rich sound to contribute/break through a thick sound of an orchestra. Nowadays, there are ways to ampliphy guitar, but classical music tends to rely on natural acoustics. Narciso Yepes managed to popularise guitar quite a bit, thanks to inventing 10 string guitar and being amazing guitarist. My personal opinion though - I don't see what guitar brings to the table what other instruments don't. Unless composer writes specifically for a guitarist he will find it easier to use other instruments. Lute was a popular instrument in renesaince as it allowed to create harmonic (chord) background for singers and some amount of polyphony (multiple equally Important melodic lines at the same time). However as we get to baroque harpsichords and organs became much more flexible instruments for writing complex music, while string instruments (violin, viola, cello) made for a better melodic instruments than a guitar allowing to perform both plucked and sustained notes. More importantly, guitar is a very Spanish instrument and development of classical music was happening mainly in Central Europe. There was little reason for composers in Vienna to use guitar for their music. A lot of later stuff was written on their foundations. You see a lot of references to guitar (Ravel's strings often are to imitate sound of guitar) but as an instrument itself it has not been widely used for centuries.

But... what is music? Why is Pillars soundtrack even written in archaic tonal system? What year is it, 1817? If Justin Bell won't expand his musical language with some microtones I will demand a refund! Such a sellout. You completely dropped the ball. You should have said, "But.... what is love!? Baby don't hurt me! Baby don't hurt me. no more!" Aren't music and love one and the same?

Does it suffer the same fate as the first? No, "combat" in TToN actually managed to be worse than in PS:T. Ouch.. if it's even more horrid than the first then I'm glad I skipped out. The problem it has is that it's turn based. It's shallow and unengaging, but turn based part makes it really dull and clunky. Recent patch they released was to speed things it, but I didn't give it a shot. Luckily for the most part, you can avoid crisis system.

. I liked Durance, I liked Sagani, I liked Grieving Widow. These are characters which don't fit into the "dating sim" design. I'm not sure what you mean with "dating sim" design, but I think Sagani could have been a good fit for a romance. It could have been an interesting scenario where Sagani would have been torn between her family and her feelings for the PC. It wouldn't necessarily have been a "happily ever after" romance, but a very interesting and fulfilling romance none the less. What I'd like more from romances in RPGs is to make them a bit less railroaded. Just like a boss can be difficult to defeat in a game, completing a romance should/could be difficult to achieve too. I think it would both make them more interesting and more satisfactory too (cause it's not just about clicking on the heart symbol seven times during the span of a 30 hour game or whatever). Now, that's a really good point and an interesting idea.

Ah, a common mistake, that's not actual music, it's pseudo-music. It's close to music, sure, but it's not actual music. But... what is music? Why is Pillars soundtrack even written in archaic tonal system? What year is it, 1817? If Justin Bell won't expand his musical language with some microtones I will demand a refund! Such a sellout.

...did you play ME3? Couple "companions" only role in that game was to be romancable, Also did you read my post? My problem is not with romance itself, but how much it limits who your companions can be - they personal problems, history, age, status. If all/most of them are designed so you can choose to date them, it really limits who they can be. If you create only one or two romancable companions your are bound to disappoint some people. Whatever, it will be what it will be.

Really? I thought that hotkey mechanics in PoE1 was brilliant, although I discovered it on my second playthrough. All you needed to do is mouse over the spell you want and choose a hotkey. Done. And they appear above the main toolbar. Brilliant! I thought that BG way of doing it was more limited and less useful.

That's interesting to me because I am the exact opposite. If a word is too weird, my eyes just slide over it without even bothering to figure out the pronunciation. Then my brain will just make up some "close enough" pronunciation and off I go playing. Happens to me in books too. Oh, absolutely. But I am pretty sure that for the most part, the voiceacting is there to introduce the tricky words. The opening sequence does a bit of that. I don't remember ever thinking: "What is THAT?" I do remember thinking: "Wait, who were they again?" every once in a while.