Wormerine

Elden Ring. Finally reached infamous Malenia. Yeah, I see what the whole complaining was about. First of all, a lot of Haligtree was giving me DS2 vibe with game showing you a problem and than surprising you with almost guaranteed death trap. And progressing through those death traps on consequent runs being tedious. Malenia's first phase is actually quite solid outside the bull**** swirly attack - it feels that surving the phase depends how often and when she will decite to use it. Playing without shield means death sentence if she triggers it after what would normally be a punishable attack. Didn't make up my mind about the 2nd phase yet - I don't live long enough to get a feel of her moveset. Of course bull**** swirly thing is still there, but there also some other contenders right now - I find the attack where she flighs into the air and sends he clones to attack you really difficult to read. I feel like overall the fight lacks distinct audio. If more of her attacks were telegraphed through sounds, I think I would find it easier to figure out what she is doing. Like wind-up to the switly attack is silent, and one would think they would try to indicate what is coming. It feels like they also could imprive chaing of attacks. Getting the same, hard to dodge rush+slash 4 times in a row is not a fun experience.

Double Fine just released another documentary - this time about making of Psychonauts2 (the previos one was about Broken Age, which was very interesting considering how troubles this project ended up being).

Yeah, when you charge extra of an ability to play on release, you don't want that to happen.

Huh, Hogwarts Legacy doesn’t suck? I didn’t expect that…

I actually quite like Anniverary (not so much the other two). I was a teen when I played those, and gameplay taste when it comes to action games have been rather undeveloped. I tried to replay Legend couple years ago, and was shocked how poorly it played. From original games I really liked Tomb Raider1&2 only, and 4th was ok. However, the first "tomb raider" game I played, and one I have the most fond memories of was Indiana Jones and The Infernal Machine.

I am pretty much in the same boat, however, Shadow wasn't developed by Crystal Dynamics but Eidos Montreal (Deus Ex, Guardians of the Galaxy). As such, I don't hope that Crystal Dynamics will change the trajectory of the series, but yeah Rise was decent anyway.

With all this DS talk, I returned to my Elden Ring playthrough. Used secret medallion and with dream am making my way toward Haligtree. I must say there is something greatly unsatisfying about entering new area and fighting the same enemies I fought at level 20, just buffed up to my level. On a positive side - found an enterance to another underground location. I thought I was done with those two surprise extra underground visits ago. Anyway, reached Mogh, Lord of Blood, a fellow I already sparred with in the sewers of the Leyndell, but this time he had a nasty 2nd phase. Took me quite a few tries to take him down.

Crystal Dynamics was supposed to be working with Amazon for next Tomb Raider game so it is possible. If it true, than it would be a good deal for Embracer who bought who bunch of Squares IP for half of that. I am happy to sell Tomb Raider to Amazon hell, if it helps fund new Dues Ex

I do hope DeaSRem will make its way to PC. Bloodbourne is what I have most interest in, but I fear it might need a remaster first to be portable. maybe Sony knows that I am buying their ports just to get Bloodborne one day, and so they will withhold it indefinitely.

If it’s not gonna be horribly optimised I will be positively surprised.

It is strange. Is it a new game? It sounds like a new game. One of my older saves (2nd run) got a bit broken during all the patching that was going on, nothing to the extend that you are describing though. Looking at DLCs at my GOG there are some fig awards that might classify: Fig - Matakau, Fig - Pet Wurm and Fig - Cloak of the Obsidian Order. Plus there is Gaun's Pledge for owners of PoE1. Perhaps go to Steam/GOGs DLC management, and make sure all that you have is installed? Edit. Yes, forum has been very tiresome lately.

Some of the noses bosses are really fantastic as well. DLCs especially. Enjoy!

If one doesn't catch up than Earthen Peak elevator is a dead giveaway. It seems you are still enjoying it more than I did. DS2 is the only FromSoftware release so far, I have no desire to return to.

Not surprising with XBOX going all in on their own digital showcase. BTW, the surprise release Hi-Fi Rush is very fun so far.

Oh man. Yes. Mimimi is a german Independent Studio that in recent years carved it's own nieche making Commando inspired titles. They appeared without nowhere with a really solid demo for Shadow Tactics: Blades of Shogun, that was "like Desperados but in Edo Japan". Interestingly enough the project almost killed the studio, as they went all in on the project - and came dangerously close to shutting down. Smart and clean interpretation of the forgotten genre, with some decent story: With how well they did the formula THQ Nordic hired them to do sequel to Desperados - they IP they were a holder off. Desp3 is pretty much a more polished version of Shadow Tactics, mostly using the same character kits and enemy archetypes with one new addition (which seems to be a jumping point to more fantastical Shadow Gambit). Both titles are very handcrafted in nature, with pre-determined mission order and pre-determined party compositions, so Shadow Gambits ambition seems to be to expand the underlying systemic sandbox those games have going for them. If they look like something you would like, I would recommend giving them a go. They are both excellent real-time tactics. Desp3 is a more polished of the two, with some welcome QoL improvemenets, but I personally prefered the vibe of SHadow Tactics - the M-Rated nature of Desp3 felt a bit off to me. There is also standalone expansion to Shadow Tactics - Aiko's choice, but it is a short DLC mission pack best played after original game. It is standalone, as it's been actually developed after Desp3 before going all deep on project Süßkartoffel, and team didn't want to mess with the old game, but it is best thought of as a minor DLC to the original - similar to the one Desp3 got.

I need to get back to it at some point. I really like PP but it never quite clicked for me. Releasing standalone DLCs, rather than meaty expansion also added segmented content that I don't particualrly enjoy. It's a draft or two away from being really excellent. There is a pretty big fan mod, Terror from the Void that might be worth checking out. I didn't get around to it, but will probably instal when I get to giving PP another go. https://phoenixpoint.info/blog/2022/10/6/terror-from-the-void-mod-adds-new-challenges-enemies-and-more

Nah, I am afraid I just can’t help myself from not finishing games I am starting if they have story. I have been slowly slogging through DA:I for probably over a year. I attempted to give up on it once, but it found it’s way back to my disk in the name of completion.

Yeah, I forgot about that one. I quite liked spending more time with characters early on, but later parts did feel like padding though. Still, considering that they stretched 4 hours long intro into a 40 hours long game, they did it pretty smoothly. They completely lost me at the end, though. But jetpacking and shooting folks is suppose to by satisfying at least on a very basic level, no? Maybe I did a mistake by picking two handed melee fighter as my Inquisitor, but combat felt really bad and unresponsive in DA3.

Ah also picked up Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It is not as pretty as I expected, but I have been enjoying it so far. Reminds me of a kind of a game Ubisoft would put out in the good old days before AssCreed - just a charming, well crafted third person adventure.

Just to me up to date for Dragon Age4, I playthrough through of Dragon Age: Inquisition - did main campaign with minimal amount of open world, and completely it's three DLCs. What an absolute ****show. Someone here told me a way back that the game gets better after Hinterlands. That's really strange to me, as nothing really changes, beside a change in scenery, story missions getting worse and worse, and swaping small keep, into large, overly spread out and frustrating to navigate keep. I didn't like the main campaign. The opening hours were junky, but I liked set up for an inquisition, Demonic threat seemed interested and main villain peaked my interest (never played DLCs for DA2, so he was new to me). In true Dragon Age fashion, Inquisition has interesting world and teases interesting directions but chooses to ignore every interesting thread it could pull and went for a boring, generic story, with a bland baddy who.... what was he trying to do? Now when I think of it, I don't think I even know. Demons are just another darkspawns, and in spite of hinting at Inquisition's tricky political situation the player never gets engaged with it. Easily the most interesting mission was in the WInter Palance, but the potential of the concept was killed by tying it back to Coryphius, rather than being an intrigue of its own. Combat was tedius, main missions undercooked, open world bland and repetitive, it was nice to see returning faces but their inclusion brought nothing of value beside a shot of nostalgia. I thought companions were decent, though having to chase them around the keep, and getting teleported around with every cutscene really soured the experience for me. Stories written for the war table were more interesting than anything in the actual game. I wish I had one of my advisors' job. DLCs were fine. Open world area had at least context to it. Deep Roads dive I could do without, but what can one do with that terrible combat. Trasspaser is easily best part of the title, but keeping the only really compelling character in the game as a teaser for the sequel just feels hurtful after so many hours of absolute ****e. If all of the game was Trasspaser I would be much happier. I need to check Andromeda and Anthem at some point, as I can't just imagine things getting worse that this.

Mimimi's project Süßkartoffel has been revealed. Looks very much like their previous titles, though according to earlier interviews and gameplay video it will be more open, than their previous titles:

In case you weren't sceptical of Suicide Squad before, it will have a Battlepass https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/leaked-screenshot-shows-suicide-squad-kill-the-justice-league-has-a-battle-pass

Continuing: I am thinking about companions in PoE1 vs PoE2. In PoE1 personal quest of each companion seems to be revolving around larger picture surrounding them. Each of the stories is personal to each companion by they tie to something larger. Most of companion stories could only exist within Eora - you can't have Sagani, without the Wheel and Nasitaaq culture, you can't have Eder/Durance without Saint's War. PoE2 makes companion's "vision quests" purely personal, but also pretty generic. It's mostly about old lovers, old mentors, standing out (or patchiing lore holes depending how you look at Pallegina) - most of those vision quests could be easily transplanted into a different generic fantasy universe. I think I liked Takehu and Xoti quests the most as they tie closer to the game's world than others characters. Those two feel the most like they have been shaped by their surroundings, rather than just being characters who exist in that universe.

Unless one is stuck playing on PotD, and can't switch to lower difficulty. I am pretty sure there is a mod or console command for that though.

It has been a while, but that sounds about right.