Wormerine

Interview starts around 58 mark:

No kidding, I took couple days off Pentiment just to process what I have done in act1. I might get back to it tonight.

Usually it's textures (the higher the resolution the bigger they are), sounds etc. Raycevick made a good video on that subject. Why an Owlcat game take so much space though, I have no clue. Will it have full VO? 4k textures? It could be just the result of weaker optimisation then AAA titles.

It's been acknowledged by JS as an issue: https://twitter.com/jesawyer/status/1592932677577244672?s=20&t=LQF6bkxhgjpdOZ_tjljiZw On a side note, the issue persist in later acts. I am here because a friend of mine who is in act2 has information of things yet to come. So be wary and avoid the feature until patched.

I think @MrBrownmight have meant the overall tone and shallow, quippy characters. I must say Chosen really try my patience on every playthough. When I criticised XCOM2 world map for being empty and shallow I didn't mean aliens talking at me everytime I enter it. WotC was a superb expansion though. Chimera Squad was fine for what I paid for it. As to Suns - I don't know, I am open to new mechanics, but I always found digital card games awkward. Even if mechanically sound it just feels to artificial for me. It is just one of those things that should stay in physical realm. I might pick it up on deep sale, but definitely not interested right now. Edit. About WotC. I have it installed for a while now, and am planning to do another playthrough. Thanks to Covid I became Trekkie and I have to say that extensive use of TGN cast made WotC even more cringy for me.

Uuu, you manage to do things that I didn’t.

I played a bunch more and finished act1. Ha! Nice to see Disco Elysium reputation put to good use. JS didn't gush over it for nothing. I failed every single one of those.... :-( Actual spoilers below so be weary:

Enjoying it as well, though only finished the first day. Went with workoholic Flanders. I find it rather natural that artist wouldn't want to anger church, as they tended (and still tend) to be major source of work. He has some ideas, but is careful when and to whom he voices them. The game already passed a very important quality test:

I suppose that is true. I am thinking of live performances - one performance of Hamlet or Beethoven will vary greatly from another but those are differences in actors/musicians interpretation, or characteristics of a venue rather then consumers participation. I can also think of some pieces of music with random element (pages can be played on any order) but that's more of an Avant Garde and still strictly in control of composer/performers. Thanks for the conversation.

Interactivity in a narrative is a funny thing - I do think I have been liking Obsidian's work more then the competition partially because at some point they managed to figure out how to incorporate player choice into the core of the narrative (I don't feel that way about BioWare games - I don't think watching those would be that much different then playing them). Your opening point, though, is very thought provoking. I do question, though, how much input players really have. I don't think player's input have transformative quality - everyone's experience of playing the game will be unique, but not different - in the same way people may take out different things from a book/film/music but they all experience the same thing. Is playing a game truly that much different then consuming other medium? I honestly, don't have a stance now. Will be thinking of it as I play.

Indeed. I expressed myself poorly. Original post edited. There is something I have been thinking for a while now and would be curious what you folks think. In previous post I suggested that if games learn to better tell stories it would be better as an artform. What I am asking myself is if storytelling is game's strength. While a lot of art does focus on some form of storytelling not all does. Music, for example, is mostly a non-narrative medium. Music CAN tell a story - Strauss' Symphonic Poems are an obvious example, and there are of course songs, which music is written to enhance usually already written poem. There are also Operas which have plot, but I think it is safe to say that if one judged those by the quality of their "writing" in a literaturaly sense they wouldn't have gained much acclaim. Most of music is plot free - it doesn't mean it's not expressive nor doesn't say anything, quite the opposite, but story, plot or settings are just not things music really benefits from due to its nature. What I am wondering is if gaming is similar. Sure good writing and nicely directed cutscenes can be compelling but is it really doing what games are best at? Isn't it how the game plays that is (and should?) be a primary way of communication? I think that while a well chosen theme for a game can make it easier to engage (the same way modern composers will often add titles these days which may/may not have actual relevance to pieces creation, in attempt to make it easier for the audience to connect with their piece) how much significance does a setting, theme or story really has? That line of thinking might of course lead to conclusion that games like Pentiment are bad as their way of communicating doesn't come from gameplay - though at the same time act of watching a game is still a unique experience, different from watching a film. So perhaps it's a bit more complicated as that - "old" arts (plays, writing, music, paintings) are much more focused though even in those one can see attempts to merge arts together. Perhaps games are just a melting pot of different artforms, and games can lean into whatever they find useful.

Or a real life scenario in general. Though I suspect it is mechanical flexibility which comes with fiction (edit. Read: fictional settings) that makes fiction (edit: them) so common. I think the trick is that if you base your game on history/part of real life you need to look at it's real life counterpart and then find a way to gamify it, rather then come up with mechanics and then slap a theme on it. Not that it is something not worth exploring - art is about communication, so I think games could only benefit from finding way to express new stories and concepts rather then adjusting the stories they tell to their gameplay they already came up with.

Elden Ring is even up for the best narrative... which leaves me rather confused. Don't get me wrong, I like the kind of storytelling FromSoftware has been using, but my impression has been that Elden Ring seems far less coherent then their previous titles.

Same. After reading some reviews I was worried that ascetic nature of the presentation will make it difficult to get into, but I was fully drawn in. It helps that as some raised on European history and an art degree at least a decent amount of stuff rings a bell, or it at least is conceptually familiar. It's been also much funnier then I expected. There are also a detail that I am wondering if I am getting it right - all titles refering to god/trinity (God, Lord, Christ) seem to be left blank and then filled in as if for players benefit. I am wondering if it's refering to a long tradition of not using God's name and the subsequent erasure of the tetragram from the written scriptures.

I think NV isn’t great in moral grey area stuff. It sometimes is, but a lot of choices feel difficult to justify.

That’s much higher scores that I expected - most of stuff I have seen have been “that’s cool, but not for me”. Can’t wait to see if it IS for me, or if I will have to reach to my inner snob and pretend it’s for me

I mean it did came out as a kickstarter project, just like the other. Unlike the others it's not really aping any particular classic cRPG, which is a good thing IMO. Nostalgia is fine, but one needs to forward (or at least in some direction) from time to time. My first experience was playing it with a friend for 10 hours in two days, and I loved every minute of it. D:OS1 is a coop RPG that you can play by yourself - and honestly, I love it for it. We don't have cRPGs revolving mainly around coop, and D:OS1 has been an interesting experiment. It also helps that having a friend along, not that easily seeing flaws in combat due to limited perspective (controlling half of a party) and just generally not paying that much attention due to alcohol consumption and focusing more on messing with your coop partner then the game. Splitting NPCs also helps - less silly writing to go through. D:OS2 walked back on some coop ideas, and created more of a hybrid. Personally, I like it less for it. It is still not a great singleplayer RPG, but as it is trying I find it more difficult to forgive it now that they are trying. Good engine though - one of those "I wish Obsidian would made a sequel in this engine" games.

I am trying to keep the long dormand Potter-mania from reawakening after two decates of slumber. Hogwards looks very nice. Not sure about everything else - barely showing gameplay doesn't fill me with confidence, and quests they presented sounded very dull. I am sure that 10 years old me would love it though - afterall all I had was A movie-tie in game and I still liked it and replayed it over and over again. 32 years old me, though, is wary of anything produced by WBg.

Yes, it's good to play with a friend so you can laugh at the story and some NPCs. Cat puns are a bit more managable if you have someone you can groan with. D:OS2 is overall a better game, though I felt they made some unfortunate misteps with some of the combat mechanics. Writing and story got more attention though personally I wasn't a fan either.

Love it, love it, love it.

ZA-UM Drama continues Fired ex-Disco Elysium accuse current majority shareholder of fraud and are in process of considering future legal actions. [edit1] ZA-UM Drama continues further ZA-UM denies allegation, and claims that employees were fired over so,E really bad behaviour - including not treating their fellow employees nice, attempting to steal the IP and not doing their jobs. [/edit1] Mick Gordon vs ID Software drama strikes back Back in a day DOOM: Eternal's soundtrack was reported to be mixed poorly, and ID Software put the blade on soundtracks composer Mick Gordon. Now, two years later, MG claim it wasn't so. Goes even further to accuse ID Software of using far more of his work then they contractually agreed to, and refusing to pay him for the difference. edit2. MG post is lengthy but fascinating - he brings quite a few receipts to support his story. If his account of the events is accurate, then it’s quite a chilling tale.

Persona 5 is soo good. I can’t stop. Help me.

Pretty good interview with Matt Booty, Head of Microsoft Game Studios, during Friends Per Second Podcast. There are chapters but the interview starts around 41:00 minute mark. Unfortunately nothing about Avowed

Played a bit of technical beta for Hitman3 Freelancer mode. So far really promising. A neat somewhat roguelite mode using Hitman levels. Randomised targets, optional objectives and limited access to inventory do shake things up quite a bit. Funny how much not having a silenced pistol changes things. From what I can tell there are no bonus objectives for silent assassin, unless there is reward for something of that kind.