Wormerine

It’s 4 days work week, but 20h shifts per day It is interesting to read about constant Shipbreaker crunch. I always though that updates are far and few inbetween and updates to be minimal in content. I do assume it is a relatively tiny team, working on a very complex, simulation driven title. Constant save wipes made me stop playing the game a long time. Patiently waiting for 1.0.

You watching too much SkillUp, or something?

it’s currently on Kickstarter

Finished God of War. Mostly. There is still some sidecontent to do, but I am not sure how long I will be willing to put up with forced RPG elemenets, grinding, and flawed combat system. I am having less and less fun everytime I boot it up. We will see when the well will dry up completely. I feel like I am getting really snobby as of late. I didn't like God of War much. I didn't dislike it either. It's a very AAA affair (but in good way) aiming for as wide of a market as possible, juggling multiple different things people might want to play a game for, and mastering none, though at the same time doing none of those too badly. I think I just prefer games that do one thing, but really well. I think the game has potential, though. I felt in similar way about DOOM 2016 - a game which I appreaciated on some level, but it just let me somewhat bored. But DOOM: Eternal was a surprise delight when i played it on gamepass recently. Let's hope Ragnarok will address GoW issues, figure out how to make combat work without all the flashing arrows (I mean seriously, what's the point of creating zoomed in cinematic experience, if you have to add so much UI elemenents for it to be managable?!) and just make combat more mechanically consistant. It's a looker though. Honestly, I enjoyed watching GoW more then playing it. A perfect silent YouTube walkthrough game perhaps, at least the main storyline. The game made me reinstal DMC5 though - that's a godly combat system.

There was no communication regarding Avowed, but all the marketing stuff advertises it as a First Person RPG. The only info we got, Windows Central preview, also describes it as first person game.

I don't do scores. Game? Yes, so far. Combat, no so far, I find it annoying. EDIT: Too appease @BruceVCI will go with 5 star rating which I personally can somewhat tolerate. At this point I would give God of War 4/5 stars, and would give just combat 2/5 - there is some good stuff in it, but designs contradict each other and the whole thing doesn't come together.

some 10 hours into God of War. Overall I think it is a superb high quality production action adventure with very good pacing, but I have been using this forum to vent my frustrations so here it is: Combat is not very good. It is the usual AAA's tendency to focus on presentation over gameplay. Sluggish animations, zoomed in camera do the game no favours. What the point of "immersion" and "being closer to your character" if to make the combat work you need to rely on big flashing UI arrows? And I just dispise animation lead combat - enemies teleporting to hit you even though you moved away, or your hits not regiestering, because the enemy initated some kind of action animation. With plenty of targets I find it difficult to make "the father" hit whom I need him to hit. On top of that, visuals seem to be designed to look good rather then communicate important information. I am currently fighting the elves and it is such a visual cluster**** I have trouble seeing what is going on. It feels to me like a game designed for casual, easy play, and higher difficulty levels (playing on second hardest) just dont work well. I feel like I can't use half of the skills I unlocked, unlike lets say DMC5 in which character mastery is key to succeeding on higher difficulties.

Some things which make me feel unleasy - like Endlen Ring being the easiest of Softworks games? With the difficulty of their titles being greatly exaggerated I somewhat worry it will be a duller experience. That was a worry some people (including myself) had seeing gameplay demos.

Further scoop on StarWars games in the making. Seems like Respawn is "overseeing" other StarWars projects. 1) There is already roumors sequel to rather decent Respawn's own Fallen Order 2) There is Star Wars FPS lead by one of the creators of Force Unleashed, Empire at War and original SW: Battlefronts 3) and previously mentioned ex-Firaxis turn based tactics studios, Bit Reactor is working on Star Wars strategy game.

I played NWN2 many times, but I would consider my 3.5e knowledge to be basic. I always found it to be convoluted and not rewarding to learn - complicated but not complex kind of design. Pathfinder seemed to be on another level, with illogical exceptions, spells requiring one very particular counterspell (which is normal for D&D but becomes unweildy due to how much junk like that Pathfinder had). I suppose the downside of Kingmaker for me was it's determination of testing player's encyclopedic knowledge of Pathfinder while other D&D and D&D-like titles are more interested in campaign allowing lack of understanding of the system to slide. Heck, playing PoE1 on Hard, I wasn't forced to dive deep into the systems until I started to tackle hardest, optional encounters in the game. It helps that in PoEd figuting an encounter was saved for elite encounters - rewarding narratively and item wise. Pathfinder required it for a trash encounter, that then it would copy paste throughout 3 levels of a dungeon.

That would be a nice IP to revive.

I found it interesting, that I found PoE systems to be transparent and intuitive enough for me to enjoy the game (though the game does have some deeper oddities that could be ironed out), while I find Pathfinder to be incredible obtuse and confusing and a chore to play.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/625546847907364864/hello-i-dont-play-many-games-i-never-played Maybe this?

After waiting for a year, it is frustrating to then see devs charge 2x for a Steam copy then an Epic copy. It is not the end of the world. I installed the game through GamePass and will buy it later down the line on deep sale. Now if only IOI wouldn't hold my saves hostage through their always online nonesense. I think @BruceVC that you will be happy to learn that as Hitman3 didn't give me the expected £35 pricepoint, I decided to spend this money on God of War instead.

My excitement for Hitman3 disappears as IOI found a way to hit a new Epic Exclusive low. Not that the game has to be heavily discounted when it comes out on steam after being exclusive for a year, but it being deeply discounted on Epic but not on Steam feels quite offensive. I still somehow believe it is a mistake, as it just boggles my mind that they would attempt to sell the game full price on steam, while releasing on GamePass at the same time.

A group of rogue XCOM devs are opening their own studio dedicated to turn based tactics games. Those developers are mainly from art team, so the best part of FiraXCOMs. Hopefully they find right folks for the gameplay part.

Me too. Me too. While I am looking forward to Avowed nothing would make me more happy that announcement that there will be PoE3. If anything, Avowed not being PoE3 gives me hope that Obsidian didn't give up on the IP. That, or they were scared that tying Avowed too closely to PoE would tank the sales

Wow. That I didn't see coming. Is that a nail to the coffin, or the beginning of a redemption arc? I am an optimist when it comes to Microsoft acquisitions, but in past Microsoft has not been good in managing their studios. So far so good, but no title so far has been fully done under Microsoft's umbrella, so we will see how will things be going forward. As far as we know, Microsoft strategy is to buy studios who make good stuff, not interfere and let them continue making good stuff for them. We will see if they will live up to that promise, if it will work, and if the future Microsoft strategy won't change. That said, they offered this content as a last ditch nostalgia fueled pitch and were financially succesful with it in one release out of three. Considering team being burned out on PoEs, and PoE2 not making money, I would expect Obsidian to move to something else, Microsoft acquisition or not. If anything, Microsoft deal gives me hope for PoE3, if the team at Obsidian will ever feel like doing another one. XBOX Game pass is a perfect place for smaller projects which might not necessary sell on their own. EDIT: Holy crap. That AcBliz purchase includes CoD. No more CoD for PS. Unless they permit a GamePass on PS? Is that Microsoft end game? To strongarm GamePass wherever possible?

I love SM:P remake, and dancing minigame is easily my favourite minigame in the whole game. Maybe because I don't have a dance partner.

I am excited for it to be 50% off.

Because it’s never that. I don’t mind developing a love interest with a companion. Or having a companion have a romance (like in Outer Worlds). But when every companion tries to get in bed with PC or with each other it becomes ridiculous. It turns from fun fantasy adventure to one of those reality shows. And easy example of companions downgraded with romance is PoE => PoE2. We just don’t get such a varied and interesting cast in the sequel as almost everyone needs to be boinkable. I will take Sagani, Grieving Widow or Durance anytime over ripped Takehu, horny Xoti, or cool sexy Maia. And yes, I can turn down their creepy advances, but then they publically start hitting on each other, and none of them support the story as well as they could, as part of their character is designed to act as romance interest option. Honestly, I prefer Skyrim’s Sterdew Valley romances then written Bioware-like schlock. EDIT: I must also say that I found "romancable" companions to be especially problematic in more "movie" like games aka. Mass Effect. While you can, let's say reject Miranda, it won't stop the game's camera from treating her like a hot baby that you should try to bang. I think if games were more restrained with romance, until player opts deeper into it, it would be less invasive. Especially ME3 was terrible in that regard... but then again, it was ME3.

That's Phoenix Point in a nutshell. In preperation for Hitman3 I cleared last remaining achievements in H2 - mostly all I had left was Sniper Mode, and couple "easter eggs" that for some reason had achievement tied to them. Not nearly done with actually good content in it (didn't even touch alternative targets for H2 levels) but that stuff I can finish in H3. Finished Halo: Infinite. My first Halo game. I tried Halo1 leading up to H:I, but it bored me within half an hour, and I have up on mission 3 I think. As someone who doesn't generally enjoy shooters, I must say that I think it is a very good shooter, mechanically. I didn't get bored, in spite of it being extremely repetitive and light on story and lacking anything beyond shooting, I enjoyed my time spent with it. I like Master Chief voice. Maybe the story meant something to someone with more investment in the story but all I got from it that a killing maching (but with heart?) had a crush on a program lady, and now he has a younger replacement and that there were angry aliens (now dead), and now there are new angry aliens (in the process of making them dead), and there will be new angry aliens (to be made dead) in the sequel. So shooty shoot shoot and hot digital lady. Oh, I really don't like the driving system.

I think Hitman community features and live service content is a good thing. There is, however, no reason to lock game progression behind the server. While it doesn't annoy me now when I have stable internet, it still puts the game in unfortunate position, that it might become unplayable if devs ever shut the servers without adding a proper offline mode. I didn't try it, but as far as I remember you can't do mission progression without connecting online. It's a single player game - there is no reason to require constant connection if one doesn't engage with online modes. Hopefully IO will patch in a solution once they shut the servers for online content. But as it is now, you can only play the game, for as long as IO will allow.

Did it get better with DLCs? I never got deep enough to actual try DLCs 2-4. The updates to based game are certainly for the better, but from what I have seen (which is not much) DLCs seem to disconnected to really contribute. A bit like minor XCOM2 DLCs where, without War of the Chosen that tied everything together.