Wormerine

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-24/cd-projekt-hack-severely-disrupts-work-on-cyberpunk-game-updates Here is my conspiracy theory: CDPR hacked themselves and sold their stuff to make up for Cyberpunk refunds and to regain goodwill with public.

Yeah. Not much care for DLCs. That said I don’t think that’s kind of game that can nor should become Prison Architect. Not sure how I would want them to expand it.

Aaaaand it's sold out.

That's a good ad. I am itching for a good management game. I think I prefer more arcady fun ones. I had a great time with 2 Point Hospital. I tried Zoo Planet recently and once the attractive visuals became mundane I lost a complete interest... and I didn't even finish tutorial yet.

Oh no. But what about its 10 years plan?

Speaking of remasteres. I had no idea that Pharaoh is getting the remaster: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1351080/Pharaoh_A_New_Era/ Frankly, I own copy on GOG, and last time I checked it's perfectly playable so, meh. Nostalgia is strong with this one, though.

I wouldn't mind giving Freespaces another playthrough though. Think of it as an investment for Space Citizen

Or you can buy a stick. I am genuilly considering that (thrustmaster t 16000m?) though my pad's left stick is misbehaving, so maybe I will have to buy a new pad before that.

I think there is a difference between those two, at least in most cases. I assume to refer to Hollywood remakes, where is I see a good remaster to be closer to a blueray release of an older film. I like old games, and I like playing them - nostalgia, sure, but not always. There are plenty games I missed, and it's nice to be able to experience them in a more modern setting. Especially, if those games aren't otherwise available for digital sale, or don't run easily on modern systems. I am less fond of heavily modified remakes - though I must say I did enjoy quite a bit the recent Mafia remake. I actually need to play C&C - never played it before. First I need to finish the Homeworlds.

And... that’s a bad thing?

I literally just bought it. It will go into backlog then, together with 2nd playthrough of Witcher3

Well, RPG systems being aparently pretty bad. What I heard of it was: "ok open world action game, with weak RPG elements". The same would apply to Witcher3, but W3 had killer main character and story. All I heard from Cyb was "meh". Personally, of course, I can't have an opinion, as I didn't play the game. Just nothing I have seen in the promotional materials or review made me want to play it. And interesting stuff like wall climbing quite predictably didn't make it into the game.

They are in the game about being the king, where everyquest revolves around defending your kingdom and where yours as well villains motivations revolves around saving/destroying the kingdom. It is not Pillars of Eternity or BG2 were keep is purely an optional sidequest. In Kingmaker everything revolves around Kingdom and as the kingdom sucks (mechanically and narratively) the game sucks as the result. Adaptation of the system might be good, but I don't think it is a good way of utilizing it. Narratively, every "adventure" is a chore - something you have to deal with in order to come back to managing the kingdom in piece. I find it difficult to be engaged if that's the set up. And I rant about gameplay frustrations because there is nothing more to distract me from it. No interesting dungeons, no fun sidekicks. It's like reverse XCOM - two layers, but instead making each other better they detract from each other. Adventuring isn't fun as Kingdom Management is getting upset that you dared to left the capital. Succesful Kindgom Management only sucks out your wallet (at least in the early game as I have more money then I can spend by now) and contributes little to your advnturing. @SarexI agree, and overall, a lot of game's frustrations could be minimized with better UI design - proper search function, way to mark things on world map/perhaps better distinction between types of locations, better UI, better designed kingdom (dont' force me to go through loading screen 5+ times everytime I pay a visit to the capital, don't force me to walk back to the capital only to talk to a companion in my party so she can tell me to talk to her in the tavern, so then she can tell me to go back to where I was when I got the notification to talk to her in the throneroom. Kingmaker has so many frustrating bad designs that just waste your time. Little things, that to me become insufferable - too many of them popping up at every corner, choking life out of anything potentially fun. I am curious how WotR will be - because Owlcat certainly has passion, but not experience to, for example, forsee that forcing players to contantly load back and forth between Kingdom Management and Throne Room is probably not worth a fancy-looking Kingdom Management Screen... as nice as that screen may look like.

Oh, I never invested in high con. A lot of quickloads. Luckily at the time, I had far higher tolerance for loading screens. And I didn't understand systems, which meant it was just "hardcore". I think in Pathfinder its all about inventory screen for me. Force me to look for a specific potion or scroll in my inventory and I ALT-F4 out.

I don't think so. I did play BG2 first though, and I liked BG1 much less. Still, I mentioned BG1 as I think both games share a lot of the same issues - it's just BG suffers from them to a lesser extend. There is one clear BS in BG1 that I remember and that's Basylisks. I thought it was a horrible design to have an enemy who destroys you if you don't have a cenrtain spell or item but is defenceless otherwise. I still think so today. Never ever, did I doubt in BG1 if I am going a wrong way, or if it's an enemy I can deal with. And the awkward spikes in difficulty that happened were rarity, not the norm. I do think that the benefit of having less levels is that there is less chance of being drastically over/underleveled. Kingmaker, though, is all basilisks. And I wouldn't mind "come back later" design if the game properly supported it. Inventory punishes you for carrying everything, but you don't know if you need something until you get there. Resting is tedious, but you don't know what spells to prepare unless you went and died there. You can't make in-game notes, so good luck remembering which of those nodes had the enemies I wasn't able to beat 20h of gametime earlier. I do remember what's coming in BG1&2. I couldn't tell you whats coming in Pathfinder - because while tough it's all forgetable. I can't tell you how many times I took a journey to the same "undiscovered" note only to enter the same encounter I am not not able to beat for hours to come and have to reload the game. It might be that BGs systems were simpler, and that meant you generally have access to all tools you need. It's far easier to miss something crucial in Pathfinder. But Pathfinder's world map and structure is a cluster...

We clearly enjoy different things then... which seems to be a common subject. I must say, I have been surprised to see how many people enjoyed IE games for completely different reasons then I did.

All of them had a decent pacing. I think the biggest connection is between BG1 and Kingmaker, but still BG1 guides through its content in a far more elegant fasion. It's also 50h game, not (as of writing 174h). And, you know, handcrafted coherent areas and overall fine > good dungeon design help. I did make myself a great disservice 1) enduring a big chunk of Kingmaker on challenging? (one above normal essencially with core rules) 2) refusing to skip kingdom management & deleting invotory weight. Honestly, considering there isn't much to the game but the kindgom (as if everything revolve around it) I don't think it can be as easily ignored, as it is in PoE1. I can enjoy it for a day or two, but then I run into some utter BS and am angry with it again. There is one bit of Kingmaker which confuses me - Season of Bloom. It is so much stronger compared to everything I have seen before and after. We do things a ruler would do, we have interesting decisions to make, our citizens seem to exist, our neighbours a memorably introduced, no unnatural jump in difficulty... what happen, who designed this bit, and why isn't he/she overseeing the entirety of the game?

Oh no! Is there super secret ending as well? I don’t care. As soon as I see credits rolling I am done with this pile of ****e. Tried to tie it up again, rescued all the companions and am trying to explore N’s hideout. I think Kingmaker could be a medicare 20-30h adventure, if they cut all the padding. Adaptation of the table top system might be faithful but the campaign is the worst one since Neverwinter Nights1.

That is impressive, but it’s not a playstyle encouraged or rewarded in the game. Still, nice to see someone having fun with it.

Is it, though? There doesn't seem to be much to combat - just slash and dodge (or hack if you are S9 as it's super OP). There are indeed some moves that I didn't know about (like dashing toward the enemy) but move set seems fairly basic. I know the super versed in Platinum combat, but while it feels like I have still a lot to learn about Bayonetta, Nier felt like I explored the depth of combat on my first playthrough. "mastery" seems come in the form of griding efficient programs, and crafting items, but I can't be bothered to max out, and don't feel the need to. I do still have S ranks on the arena to tackle - so far I didn't see anything new, just main game enemies gated via level requirements. Those on S rank are level 80 and when I attempted them last time while being on level 60 - I would barely be able to chip their health while they would kill me in one hit. One of the arenas is novel as you have to play as a robot rather then yourself - that mostly comes to dealing with limiting moveset. No, I am on my 3rd playthrough, where you switch between A2 and 9S. I actually really don't like third act. My favourite parts of NIer so far were main missions - proper platinum affair with good spectacle and fun boses. 3rd act feels like more sidequests - go there, kill mobs, get item etc. Honestly, first playthrough has been so far the most enjoyable - unless Nier hides a Pillars of Eternity class of a twist at the end that will make it all worth it. Why did you reload after failing checks? There is one that you need to pass (and, that is easily the worst part of the game) but other then that succeeding and failing checks is what game (and it's RPGness) is about. You don't get to complain about lack of RPG systems, if you activelly cheese your way through to bypass RPG systems. As to themes, I am not sure. Personally, I think the game falls apart once you cross the water lock.

I am nearing the completition of Nier: Automata. I must say I am somewhat disappointed. It's been ok, but unless there is a really great wrap up to the story (doing third playthrough finished available for now content for one character and will start another) I really don't get what the craze is all about. For Platinum combat is pretty weak - it's fine, but it's mindless, shallow hack&slash. I like most of the RPG systems fine, except the leveling - it just throws any combat tuning out of the window making enemies either too quick and too tedious to kill depending if you over or underlevel them. Story has been "meh". Multiple playthrough gimmick would work well for typical Platinum games, where combat has so much depth that first playthrough is just tutorial - here I was bored with combat by first ending, and it only got more repetitive. Story itself is... meh. So far, consequent playthroughs feel like meandering, doing mostly fetch quests, with occasional big events which fail to land properly due to lack of character development. Also sooo muuuch paddding. I still like it though. I am just disappointed. I also picked up Mafia:DE from Humble Store. To my surprise I am stuck on the race mission. While it is notorious I never found it too hard in the original - you can easily overake competition on first lap and then just be careful not to fall out of the track. In here so far it's been really hard to get anywhere. Best I can do is 6th place. The simulation also seems really unreliable. One some runs I can get to 9th place easy on the first straight. On others I won't be able to leave the starting 15th spot. And all I get to do is press forward. Even switch to pad for better control. Ufff, this might take a while. EDIT. I am getting better. I often manage to finish 2nd, but am yet to beat it. It seems that by the end of the 3rd lap for some reason the camera is yanked out of control and forces me to look for a racer behind me for some reason. Idiotic. Also enemy races seem to be untouchable - you can use them to not fall out of track, but try to push them out of the track and it is you who will be spinning like crazy. I remember there is a dedicated button for pushing enemies out, so maybe that's why but I can't quite figurte out. I think it's X but don't know if its PS X or XBOX X :-). EDIT2. It's over. That wasn't fun. So the "ram" key was crucial. Essencially, if doesn't know if you intended to ram an enemy unless you press X (PS4 cont) - have X pressed - you will push enemy away. Don't have it pressed and it's like hitting a wall. Stupid.

I actually found a leaked footage of Avowed. It seems to be set further into the future in some kind of dystopian setting. VO needs a bit of work though.

That devotion is what I don't emphesize with. Even though I liked/adored the Witchers. I make a point of not buying or supporting a game based on what it can become one day. There haven't been any concrete commitments from CDPR on what they plan to do with Cyb, and even if there were I don't trust roadmaps. What concerns me with Cyberpunk is not only technical issues, but the game itself apparently just being ok. To be honest "it's fine action game, with lifeless open world, and bad RPG systems" applies to Witcher3 as well, but W3 had a great character and superb narrative to make up for it. I hear Cyberpunk ain't bad, but it didn't seem to grab people the way W3 did. Personally, I am just disinterested in Cyberpunk. I have been from the beginning. I haven't seen or heard anything that would make me want to play it - except a desire to test how my 3070 would run it. Though already Nier showed me that poor optimization can make any game run like crap.

Eh, if CDPR actually fixes Cyberpunk then it will be fixed. For now it's on my list of games to keep and eye on but not to buy. Never was really - have been around for long enough to smell bullcrap - with that exception that Witcher3 smelled the same but turned out rather well (even if I remember wild promises being made pre-release as well). Whenever Cyberpunk if fixable remains to be seen - from what I am hearing it's issues run deeper then just optimisation.

Not a new thing for CDPR.They have been blackmailed before. They did the same thing last time.