Wormerine

Finished Guardians. A short pitch is, that if you liked Gunn's two Guardians movies, and have gamepass, I think you will like this one. For what it is, it's well written and has a good understanding of popcorn film writing, with simple lessons to learn, predictable but not uncompelling thematically tied arcs, some great set-ups and payoffs and personal stakes in the story. Overall it's all fine, with some high comedy peaks, and some awkward lows. Gameplay wise it is half Telltale game (mostly dialogues with choices that pretend to have consequences) and half weird jRPG thingy, with some puzzles on the side, that even with hints turned off are hardly puzzles. Honestly, nothing gameplay wise is even remotly good, but never stops the narrative from flowing. It has a bit of Arkham games feel to it (although even with weaker gameplay) - it's not precicely a compelling game on it's own, but adapts very well a characters that you most likely are already attatched to. The choices quite blantandly don't matter, but every once you will pick what game wants you to pick and have satisfying "this happened because you did this!" moment. Of course, I didn't replay to see how much of it it's true, but I have good reasons to believe that it is all smoke and mirrors. Oh there are also instant death QTEs and conversations for a good measure.

I am glad you did. Did you ever tried Phantom Doctrine. I was kinda excited about that game until I learned that it was made by same devs as Hard West. I think I have it somewhere, but mixed review turned me off trying it. Hard West I remember was received rather well, though as I mentioned personally I didn't dig it.

Hard West (not to be confused with upcoming Weird West) is getting a sequel. The original was a more story driven XCOM wanna-be, and it was rather crap. That is led by another studio (good!) but the new studio didn't do many games, and I am unfamiliar with any of them. Oh well.

As a fairly newly converted Trekkie just coming off from an over a year long Trek addiction, I must say that in spite of visual awkwardness and lack of gameplay it does appeal to me.

That was kept in secret I think. It's up to 4 players coop. I wonder how they will resolve team dialogues. I think this is valuable addition, especially with game's focus on community made campaigns.

https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/672850479483617280/hey-mr-sawyer-i-was-reading-lore-about-poe-and-i The sword, the narration about oaths, Woedica's emblems would support this line of thinking. I was wondering if we could play as Arcane Knight - Aedyr's elite mage/melee hybryd. That could allow for a more defined protagonist while keeping some flexibilty of player's build. That might not be the case as Windows Central preview stated that Avowed but of course what exactly that means is up to interpretation.

Big Solasta update: New Campaign DLC got a name and release date: Lost Valley, coming on April 14th. It is: Sadly no new levels, but I am curious how more "branching" this new content will be. While I liked how straightforward the original campaign was and wouldn't want to change it, I think it would be better with more choices and reactivity. Either way new content in Solasta is welcome. But that is not all. Multiplayer Coop will be coming to all Solasta owners as a free update on April 14th, and there will be Beta Weekend starting on March 17th for anyone owning Solasta and interested in checking it out. Edit: I had info from email, here is steam announcement, with additional details: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1096530/view/4689941763336775051

I think it is likely that Avowed will be set after the events of PoE2. According to the leaks Avowed will be taking place in Living Lands - it's not inconceivable as it sounds like a good setting for the game, and trailer could very much show Living Lands. Assuming the setting is correct, in the trailer we can see Aedyr's forces, which makes me think that The History of Eora, Volume XII: The Reclamation of the Living Lands book from the Forgotten Sanctum DLC has been teasing Avowed. It reads: That said if Avowed will be focusing on its own story the time period in which it is set would be irrelevant. If, however, Obsidian gave up completely on continuing Watcher's story in the future the aftermath of the event that took place at the end of Deadfire is a perfect opportunity to bring new audience up to speed, without them having to experience PoE1&2. Assuming of course they want to try wider audience with metaphysical aspects of PoEs, and won't try to craft something more... digestable.

Here you go: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/

Those are fundamentally opposed concepts.

Well, no, it is not isometric team based tactical RPG. GTA1&2 and Fallouts were single character games so jump into third/First-person is more natural fit. We really don't know much about Avowed outside the announcement trailer so it is difficult to say. Some claim that it is an attempt to salvage IP by moving to a different RPG subgenre after Deadfire flopped, but I don't buy it - Feargus Urquhart (Obsidian CEO) was talking about "Skyrim-like" project in PoE universe long long before Deadfire underperformed, so I find it likely that it was always intended to happen. By not using "Pillars of Eterntity" IP Avowed clearly sperates itself from it's isometric cousins. As such the game can tie as much or as little to PoEs games as it wants. I think the message it is sending is rather clear - it is its own thing, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some bones thrown to the fans of PoE series. While some might claim that Avowed is not using PoE IP to not humper it sales, I am not sure if I buy it. While clearly not that many people care deeply for PoE IP, I don't think it is widely hated either. Companies always pick existing IPs over new ones, so it seems to me like an artistic statement more then anything. According to Windows Central preview the game seems to be using more elements from PoE series then I expected. Hopefully, we are not too far from a gameplay reveal at this point. At any rate at this moment for us, fans of PoE1&2, Avowed is the only new installement in that universe that we can look forward to.

That's not a review, it's an advertisement posted on publisher's channel.

I always despised games with M&K that relied on autolock. It just never sit well with me. Any game where striking direction is different then camera direction is a gamepad game for me. But yeah, I am sure M&K control could be better then it is. FromSoft is a Japanese developer and idea of playing on PC seems to be foreign to them. They are incapable of creating a very good PC port, so I wouldn't hold my breath for a polished mouse control. I will join a choir of others encouraging you to get a pad. I didn't own pad until few years ago, and I discovered a new love for certain types of games. There really are title which simply play better with pad, even if they are perfectly playable with M&K.

Yup. That's a big no-no for all FromSoftware games.

I am surprised how much I enjoy the Guardians considering how little gameplay it has. Someone in Eidos Montreal must have a thing for Lamas - first Shadow of Tomb Raider now this. I wonder if that's why they dropped Deus Ex - it's a no-Lamas-allowed universe.

I finally picked the base game - won't be playing it right away, but looking forward to what Josh was so enthusiastic about. Gave a brief go to Guardians of the Galaxy as it dropped on GamePass. So far so good. Pretty much AAA affair with more spectacle then substance they they seem to imitate GotG movies pretty well - and if there is knock-off Marvel series property I would spend some time in, it's Guardians. Looking forward to playing more of it.

That's where I am planning to go next.... and they said everyones playthrough of Elden RIng will be different, pffff.

Ah yes. Infinite FP magic spam. I am playing melee character mainly with some magic on side - so far I found range magic rather useless, I struggle to hit small targets. If I want to cheese I found manual aimed arrows to be a better approach. As far as magic users I managed to rush them and kill them without much issue - I was able to kill them in two hits though, I can imagine it being lethal and annoying if you don't do that much DPS.

Yes the mechanical soldiers can be annoying once they enter the spasm phase. Double iron maiden fight tested my patience as well… ended up using summons to get over it. Didn’t encounter hands yet, nor later missles.

Honestly I don't think that is that surprising. In my case that is the first decent complete new armor set I run accross. I am pretty happy to dualwied to katanas though - one physical and one magical. So far it worringly melts through enemies HPs.

It's not quite fashion souls, but it's.... something

Yeah, I really struggle to find good armor sets or weapons I could use. I finally managed to branch out of my starting katana, and I kinda changed armors just for a sake of it - but it's nowhere near DS3 levels where I was torn about what to equip. For a massive world like that, useful drops are far and few between. Most boses reward you with ashes, which is blaaah. I try to not use the anyway, and if I feel like using it I have a pretty good one already all leveled up and ready to go.

Ufff, so that was trickier to pull off then anything that FromSoftware has ever produced (Bayonetta):