Wormerine

Difficult to say, but sure looks like it. Maybe it will live up to the opening Metroidvania feel of DS1. I finally got around to starting DS3 for real. Still Sekiro to be played, and considering I generally need a decent break after each DS it might be a while till I get to ER. DS3 isn't too punishing so far, though. Feels almost relaxing after asswooping that was DS2.

Plague Tale: Innocence was praised to high heaven for it's writing, though I found it merely fine. Characters are well done and well acted, but overall narrative I found to be distractignly daft. Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - like above, but I loved this one. I am personally into those small indie "artsy" titles, but don't know how they would appeal to you: Undertale, Firewatch, anything Supergiant (but ideally not Transistor, and preferably Pyre)

Sounds like a worse version of the Witcher. Friends and story don't tend to gel well. Joking aside, it is unknown. All we have is the trailer and the most detailed description that describes it as "epic, first-person RPG set in the fantasy world of Eora [aka. Pillars of Eternity 1&2 setting". All beyond that are guesses and wild speculations.

I read that since last patch flanking (if enemy is engaged by someone else) will also allow for triggering sneak attack, most likely to overcompansate for removing easy access to advantage. Sounds good, though didn't had a chance to test it yet. As a side note, I am not a DnD purist, mostly due to now knowing much about DnD. Most of the things I took offence too, were just things that IMO don't make for fun gameplay.

We will see. Larian did state before that they don't believe that reactions as they are in PnP are suitable for a computer game. I believe they are working on an upgrade to the system - we will see if it will be a meaningful improvement. I don't mind, as long as they don't detract from the game. They introduced many nerfs in recent patch - IMO it made the game far better. But they still have a long way to go. It might be just the case of balancing and experimenting. However, if entire DnD system is overshadowed by "stand on high ground" then we are having problems. Things are getting better, and there is no release in sight, so we will see where Larian will take it.

I am not superwell versed in 5e so some of those might be off, but those that come to mind Reactions - there is no reaction system as such, you don't get to choose to act during enemy turn if circumstances allow. Some stuff, like opportunity attack is a toogle and characters will attack at first opportunity, with first toggled reaction available. We are yet to see what they will do with stuff like paladin's smite, or counterspell, and at the moment to me it feels like reactions are barely in the game. Not something I minded at first, but after paying Solasta, it seems like BG3 is missing a chunky part of action economy. Free advantage for highground (and till recently attacking from behind the enemy) - that's a powerful boost to chance-to-hit, making buff spells somewhat irrelevant. That's been changed for better in the last patch, as there is no longer free advantage for melee characters. I think rogues can still get it if they attack from behind from stealth. In stealth there are view cones, that make it rather easy to be invisible as everyone can attack and hide on the same turn. Could be fixed with better AI (at the moment they will stand and do nothing, if there is no visible enemy) quite a few main actions were made bonus actions - hide, push, drink/use potion, jump (though thank goodness since recent patch disengage is a speperate action that cost's main action) Scrolls can be cast by anyone (is that Larian or 5e? Not sure). Surfaces, special arrows and granades, (which create surfaces) explosives (welcome nerf to those in recent patch) moved over from D:OS2 - guaranteed sources of damage, that really mess with concentration mechanic - good luck maintaining concentration when 5 goblins throw guaranteed damage granades in your face. You can throw stuff - never used it myself but I hear it is pretty broken (don't know if patch 5 fixed anything). Apparently, heavy items, like armors, do quite a bit of damage when thrown. Treat it as second hand information, but I hear a lot of ACs were changed, and hitpoints increased for the sake of having less misses in combat. Before recent patch I would rarely miss - be it thanks to always having advantage or lowered AC - I don't know. Just recently someone raged on Larian's forum, because they changed Phase Spiders, from stealthy meele enemies, to ranged teleporting away enemies (ranged attacks of course level a puddle of poison). Intellect Devourer's are this game equivalent of "rats", though I am unfamiliar with TT version. I fought level 5 NPC with over 80 hitpoints, which was odd as my high constitution character had about half of that on level 4. I hear 80 is not a norm. Lots of small things, like rogue's sneak attack being one per turn activable ability, rather then activating automatically with hit. etc. My impressions is that gameplay revolves a lot around surfaces, and high ground - generally winning or loosing encounter depends on whenever you or the enemy is on highground. Being elevated and pushing down enemies is by far the best strategy one can take. Enemies like to have ridiculus jump and throw distances to counteract being thrown down. Buffing became somewhat more useful to melee characters, but with how many surfaces and guaranteed sources of damage there are, it's difficult to maintain spells for any meaningful amount of time.

There are many major and minor changes/additions/mechanics missings. A lot of changes to monsters and a lot of homebrew stuff imported over from D:OS2.

I am therefore really interested to see if Larian will pull it off. Tying to combine two radically different RPGs systems might result in them not fully satisfying either camp.

From Steam Page: I suppose Prey proved that rogue-like DLC can work - not sure if Owncat has chops for it. I found Kingmaker's rogue-like DLC to be a waste of my time. I like to buy and play complete packages, but with WotR I think I will wait to see how I like base game first. That said, I googled some WotC gameplay videos.... and they made HoM&M like-minigame for army battles? Me like!

It is still a ****ty Baldur’s Gate sequel :-). But as long as Larian won’t miss the opportunity to create something of value, I can live with that.

I agree with all that you have written. I interpreted your comment about game’s graphic in a different way. Visual fidelity is on high level even at this point and is likely to get better - but there is a lot of junk, and cutscenes in particular need serious work to add to the experience rather then detract. It might/ might not happen. There is a lot of work to be done there both when it comes to generated cutscenes, and more directed ones. If there won’t be a big leap in quality, then yes those will end up embarrassingly distracting and won’t work on release, and I would rather not have them at all. It is not impossible, though, that they are still expanding library of emotes, working on chaining animations, figuring out staging etc. And hopefully, it will all be reviewed before shipping. I also really really really want a major UI overhaul. BG3 still doesn’t release for quite a while so they have time to improve. As I mentioned I think it moves in right direction, so it all depends on how far they get before the release date comes.

I do hope that cutscenes will get revamped before 1.0, and graphically I think it is very impressive. It’s a different vibe then BG1&2, but then again there is very little influence of BG1&2 in general. I am liking it more with every update, but by now I managed to decouple BG3 from its precedessors. It’s Larian’s take on DND, and so far seems to be a big improvement on D:OS2. I might actually like this one.

Brillant Outer Wilds’ first and only DLC trailer: Game’s director said that it will “weave directly into the existing world and narrative”. So it’s expanding existing universe, rather then providing stand-alone world to explore? Can I start feeling good about myself not finishing OW yet, and constantly favouring lesser, less demanding titles?

Know more regarding what? How Pillars of Eterniry1&2 worked, or how Avowed will work? As far as Avowed is concerned, we know quite literally nothing - not even what type of "First Person RPG" it is to be.

WotR is pre-ordeable. As far as bonus items are concerned they have sent out an email with this handy chart: DLC1&2 are new campaigns, while DLC3 is once a gain a rogue-like dungeon.

That reminds me, I need to play Legend of Grimrock2 one of these days. I remember TB (RIP) complaining years ago he didn’t have time play all the games he has. I thought it was a good problem to have. Kinda sucks actually. I find it really tricky to stick to one title for a decent amount of evenings.

It's still below expectations and not what higher-ups in Obsidian hoped for. It failed to reach expectations set up by interest in PoE1, and outside not being commercial smash hit, it is also worth to remember that it wasn't received nearly as well, for whatever reason. It's subjective experience, of course, but all reviewers/influencers that I follow that praised PoE1 to high heaven, were lukewarm when it comes to PoE2. Even if Obsidian were thinking about PoE3 there is no clear way on how to move forward. That's what I hope for. Gamepass allows Microsoft to invest into those titles that might generate interest but not necessarily a whole lot of pre-orders and sales. From Josh's comments it seems the most crucial bit is folks at Obsidian wanting to make PoE3. Hopefully, they will get there after spending some time on other projects.

I constantly forget that Psychonauts2 is happening, and am delighted that it is every time I am reminded of it. Also, it looks great.

I loved 1st game, for whatever reason I am still to play CoH2.

I could be insufferably cynical and say “I would rather see xxxx problem solved” but other then that all of that stuff looks good/great. Keep that coming and we might get somewhere.

Lol Antivan Crow literally dressing up as a crow. DA lands wonderfully in So-serious-to-be-boring and So-silly-to-not-be-taken-seriously.

I would be genuinely interested if those, but not £10 a piece. Half of that price would be steep IMO.

Open-world or no open-world has little to do with ambition. We know quite nothing about tOW2, but considering how well it did, I would be surprised if they invested less in this project then a PoE spin-off. Even so, smaller team doesn’t mean shorter development time. Edit. Either way, they had nothing to show for Avowed year ago, and they have nothing to show for TOW2 now - so I assume Avowed is ahead

Judging by ME1-3, that’s is the thing he might have most qualifications for.

Or just music would do.