Wormerine

If only Capra Demon was willing to fight one on one.

If you feel bad for using the key you didn't earn, I shall be happy to take it off your hands

@BruceVC yeah, as a side note, I didn't mean that "sword&shield" is best way to go, or that melee is better then magic. Just personally I think melee combat design is most interesting aspect of DSs. I didn't play pure caster, but to me ranged combat can feel like cheating the game, rather then alternative. It seems that Pyromancer is best indeed. You will still be able to go for melee build, if you wish to. That is just something I wasn't aware of - as I mentioned I am not DS expert, played each game once, and especially DS1 was my discovery period.

Eh, I would recommend one of sword&shield types. Melee combat is bread and butter of DS. From there you can figure out what you want to do. With decent shield you can just absorb many attacks which is less efficient, but less dangerous then parrying or dodging. Once you get comfortable with enemies and controls, you can start experimenting with other stuff. When creating first character I wouldn’t pick “Master Key” as gifts - that’s a handy item that opens previously closed doors and allows for more freedom in exploration, but on your first run you will be better of being led by the game.

So it depends from the boss. Generally, no there is no bonfire right before a boss. Ester Flasks (healing items) are limited per-rest, so getting to the boss as uncathed as possible and then beating a boss is part of the challenge. I do remember finding that part frustrating early on in my DS1 run - I especially remember it being annoying in the very first "real" boss fights. It stopped being a problem later on. It could be that this first encounter is particulalry suffers from this problem, or might be that I got better. Generally speaking, if you already know where you are going, and what awaits you, you can bline to the boss with minimal engagement from the enemies (keep in mind that passing through the boss "fog" seperates you from pursuing enemies). I do feel the later games became less forgiving in that regards, and there are definitely areas which open "shortcuts" to bosses so you don't have to run through the entire thing. Later games did seem to reduce run time from bonfire to boss though - it is not a proven statement though, as so far I played DS1 and DS2 only once, and am in the middle of playing through DS3.

Best game of e3 gets a new trailer:

It's on gamepass. I will be giving it a go once I subscribe in the near future, reviews are overall positive. I don't think anyone knows how good it will be longtime, but at least seems to offer a decent alternative to Civ.

Eh, personally I found it to be a great disappointment. I don't get what all excitement was about, but maybe I like puzzles more then other people. Sexy Brutale is... basic, to say the least, with what I would describe as M Night Shyamalan story. I bought Death Stranding. I want to play it, but also would rather wait for Director's Cut which may/may not come to PC. I bought it now, thinking it is one of few games with support for Dualsense, but as I found out it's for PS only. Oh well, I still have come things to finish before DS becomes a serious contender for the next instal.

I gave it a go, and played through the first scenario - it's pretty good fun. It's not very systematically interesting, but each scenario has scripted story which keeps things engaging. There is some replayability but not too much.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/xbox-details-their-gamescom-stream-times-and-plans 24th of August - another Microsoft showcase, another hope to see some Avowed footage. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/humankind-is-coming-to-game-pass-at-launch Humankind coming to Game Pass on launch. That's great. One of these game I want to play before owning it. Perfect way of doing it.

Yeah, looks like patch 5 introduced quite a bit of problems. No problems of that magnitude however. Had to switch to Directx to avoid constant crashing.

Sooooo... I think Larian wasn't kidding when they said "Full VO". It's just one bit I have seen so far, but I am sure eventually there is more to come. EDIT. Fixed

That's a meaty preview, with lots of valuable info.

Different genres - my 3 "active" main games at the moment are: Wasteland3, Dark Souls3, Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Have some other stuff, like Early Access games (Baldur's Gate3, Hardspace) that I check out after major updates, or games I return to for a game or two every once in a while (FrostPunk, Civilization, Spelunky2, Hitman) but don't really "beat", and some "leftovers" that I didn't quite give up on, but can't be bothered to play right now, and Prey which I beat, but want to take a break before playing the DLC.

Haha! It all depends from you. I generally like to have 2 or 3 games overlapping at times - so I can pick what I feel like playing on that day. I would feel bad about ditching KoA. Personally, I let it be after finishing first zone. I remember liking it alright, but did't feel compelled to play more of it, or return to it.

IMO DS1 is the most special out of those three so you definitely should. DS1 is one of those games everyone should give a go, I think. Even if it won’t be your cup of tea, it’s one of a kind experience. Personally I didn’t find DS1 as punishing as it’s reputation would suggest. I mean you will die, but I never found it frustrating, tedious or discouraging (as DS2 felt). Once you get a hang of the game, feel free to google or ask around - there some some important mechanics, that IMO don’t get explained properly. EDIT. If stuck, summons (be it NPC of friendly players) is DS version of easy mode. To my great shame I did “skip” one tough boss fight through an assist of a more competent player. Need to go back to DS1 and do it all proper.

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!