Wormerine

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:

Yes, there was some advertising about big name talent playing game's major antagonists. Don't get too excited - he is barely in the game, and you don't get to interact with him much.

I agree with those, though I probably wouldn’t include XCOMs, (same with something like broodwar) as they expand existing campaign, rather than providing something new. To me Blood&Wine is the weakest content in W3 (it is still darn good), but I would put Heart of Stone as best Witcher3 content. Hopefully, Phantom Liberty will be much, much better than Cyberpunk base game. I would also add White March and to lesser extend Deadfire DLCs, being the best content in the respective titles. Possibly Mooncrash is a more refined immersive sim than Prey? Though it’s also such a riff on the original design, that I think opinions might be split, depending what one likes from their immersive sims. Knife of Dundalk/Brigmore Witches > Dishonored Does New Vegas count as a stand-alone expansion to Fallout3?

Thank you Yahztee edit. Very interesting point about choices we get as a player being already an expression of our character. Perhaps that a reason why I don't get along with class specific lines that don't align with my character - I made a decision regarding my player's profession, dont make a decision for me regarding his personality. It also might be why I love PoE1&2 disposition system so much. We get to make smaller choices, therefore expressing out willingless to roleplay the character a certain why, so when we get those more extreme benevolent/cruel options, they feel rewarding and appropriate - like the game noticing what I am trying to do and supporting it. I feel quite often at odds with BG3, however.

Because otherwise the whole system might as well be completely removed? What if you want to equip salami as your weapon? There is also an achievement for fighting people while being drunk - for that one needs wine in their inventory. It is still streamlined from EA - there the food in the camp storage wouldn't regiester. So you would still send camp to food, but everyonce in a while go to the chest and take some if you were short.

There is absolutely no reason to carry food. Send it to camp. They will be displayed on rest UI anyway.

Throughout the whole game, I had more money, than I have things to buy, AND money has weight in this game. Why would I want more of it? Are the no magical debit cards in this game?

I played it for a bit a while ago. It holds up better than I expected, though no manual aiming does feel a bit odd.

No, that wouldn't be fair. Each of them has multistaged companion quest, and it seemed they are tied to one major location in the world. It also seems those companion quests have branching paths, providing at least some amound of unique content pay playthrough. The stories so far, are rather predicable - you watch 1 minut origin intro during the character creation, and you probably can figure out most story beats of each companion. To me the biggest disappointment comes from how few of the companions there are, and how drastic the contrast is between first act, and... well, I won't say the rest of the game for now, but at least 2nd act. Larian promises a lot in act1, and I don't think the rest of the game quite lives up to the expectation so far.