Wormerine

Finished Planet of Lana - I didn't care much for this one. It was very pretty, and I loved the asthetic callbacks to Another World, but it felt flat to me - it didn't flow for me very well, most puzzles felt more like padding, and the game wasn't able to pull off a cool setpiece without reverting to a QTA. Started Gears of War5 - probably won't finish it a long time, as I am heading away from my PC for the next months, and by the time it will be Baldur's Gate3 time, but it looks like a decent spinoff of a tactics game they did a while back.

Eh, push and broken stealth are bigger concerns for me. Abusing barrels takes active effort.

I suspect it's combination of multiple things - Starfield being a step up in ambition and size from Bethesda previous titles, it being a "return to RPG" after trend of streamlining, it being a game after Fallout 76 and many people hoping it will be glorious return to form, it being THE Xbox first party release and years and years of nothing making it important for them to land this one.

According to the devs they were holding back the PC release waiting for Console. As packed as end if August is, they decided to release PC early and PC5 will get a consolation price when Starfield releases

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/ Baldur's Gate3 PC release got moved to the beginning of August, and reveal some solid info on what we will get at release.

FFVI is the only FF you need to play . People are fond of FFX - never managed to get into it.

DMC is amazing though - Relative lack of gameplay is what would worry me more. FF were always story heavy, but if the story is as dry as Skillup claims it might not be the greatest of times. I also doubt that FF16 combat has a depth of DMC. I am not terribly fond of jRPG combat, so I would be all for FF but with different combat system - it seems while they were at it they carved out more than just the combat.

Hmmm. FFXVI seems to be received pretty well, but most of the sources I trust don't seem particularly enamoured by the game:

I am leaning more toward bounty hunting https://youtu.be/EL-D9LrFJd4

So we will kill one within first couple hours of gameplay to suck them out of any impact they would otherwise have?

Those that I have most fond memories of. I feel like ZP became very formulaic in recent years, and his jokes rarely make an interesting point anymore. I quite like his Extra Punctuation though.

Ah, reminds me of the golden age of Zero Punctuation. Still somehow the most on point take on the trilogy I have encountered. Parable about pudding is a very valuable life lesson.

It definitely won't the biggest thing ever. Elite Dangerous has 400 billion starsystems full of boring generated planets.

Tried some demos from Steam Next Fest: Mimimi's Shadow Gambit - good, as expected. New character kits bring a welcome freshness to the title. I wasn't a fun of the tone of the title from trailers, but I like it much more in-game. The vibrant colours look rather nice on a big screen. There is one change in the control scheme, that isn't disasterous but I prefered the old method - I hope there will be an option to use the system they used for Shadow Tactics and Desperados3. En Garde - that some folks posted earlier on those forum. It's actually more fun that I expected. Combat is simple, but enjoyably chaotic. Station to Station - railway building puzzle game. Probably won't be picking it up, but it was pretty and pleasant.

Play on GamePass buy on GOG when/if it comes.

Death Stranding2?

Darn, now they will need another 600mil to redo the whole thing.

It will also be day1 on gamepass.

2) I knew this will pop up as soon as I saw the trailer. Outer Worlds deja vu. That said, it does show more of the character from 3rd person perspective that OW trailers did - if the game was intended to be coop, it might have gotten the outside animations finished - I don't know how close it takes it to being playable in 3rd person. 3) Grounded has 3rd person mode though.... I didn't follow it closely, but I can't remember it not ever having it.

Well, of course, any good time traveling story works with closed loops. In an interactive medium time traveling could allow for some neat cause and effect scenarios, assuming the player will actually have any agency. Dishonored2 and Titanfall2 had a very effective time traveling levels where you could hop between two different time periods at will. As far as story goes, I am not too concerned about it in an inXile game - I enjoyed their titles, but I didn't get particularly invested in their narratives.

I need to give it another go. I liked the vibe, but remember not caring for the game much. I also need to replay the 4th late entry to the trilogy. I remember it being pleasant overall.

I replay that game every couple years. Love it to bits. the door puzzle comes down to following the water sound, no? I remember it taking me time to figure it out the first time, but it’s straightforward after that.

Yeah, curious to see more. I am not 100% what it is. Looks like time loop/Bioshock but apparently it is an RPG. I am pretty sure it's going to be First Person though

I don't think OP assumption regarding the time frame is fair. I would even go so far to say it is likely to take place after Deadfire. From what the interview said there will be returning characters and Deadfire specifically. I don't think there are many characters in Deadfire who would likely to have past adventures in the Living Lands, and just that it was mentioned by Carrie suggests to me a more natural continuity than, for example, what Larian likes to do. I completely forgot about it until now, but at the end of Valian faction quest in Deadfire, when I got director Castol fired from he job, he got exiled to the Living Lands. (I assume the same happens to his opposition if she fails?). Those are faces I definitely expect to pop up in the Avowed. I wonder if we will be able to import our PoE2 save into Avowed.

While Obsidian is primarily known as "an RPG studio", you have quite versitile portfolio - you made sequels to games from studios with varied sensibilities, you worked with different IPs (from D&D to Stick of Truth), you did variety of RPGs (top down, First Person, action, jRPG) and recently explored different genres all together like survival with Grounded, or narrative adventure with Pentiment. With such diverse output - what do you think makes "an Obsidian game" an Obsidian game? When you explore new possibilities, are there some design concepts or ideals you try to bring to each of your projects, or do you think of each game as its own work, with its own objective, and potentially own audience?