Wormerine

Disco Elysium is getting Fina Cut in March, adding new areas, new NPCs and quests and full VO. With how longs it’s been since DE1.0 I have high hopes for this one. It would be a game to rival Planescape Torment, if it didn’t fall apart in its second half. Hopefully, they will add some meat to the game after the initial area and get rid of the stupid single skill check gate. Either way, I was thinking of giving Disco 2nd playthrough, so they set the date for me.

I intent do dive into Warframe, since like, forever. Why play a free-to-play game though, if I can buy one

Mimimi, German studio behind Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, and Desperados 3 announced they themselves will be publishing their next game, currently named “Project Sweet Potato”. While not much is know about Project Sweet Potato it will be, like Mimimi’s two previous titles, a Real-Time Tactics game.

Oh new Hitman games (at least season one or two) and possibly the best hitman's have to offer (perhaps outside atmosphere, but that's a choice rather then fault). Sapienza from H1 is probably my favourite hitman level. I was less thrilled by H2, mostly due to bigger narrative focus on plot rather then targets. Levels are still lots of fun.

I don’t know how well research Raycevick’s content, is but he does paint a grim picture of a team having to chew a massive project in a short period of time, with Bioware painfully expanding after being acquired with EA. Content cuts and changes do fit the final project - a nonsensical story, which makes sudden and awkward U turns, while entire narrative threatens to fall apart - the ending was just the final crash site. There is so much puzzlingly wrong with ME3 - how poorly directed conversations are, how dialogue system was simplified even further, lack of exploration (which was already a problem in ME2, but at least it had unique sidequests, not the reused multiplayer maps thing), and overall shoddiness and bugginess of the whole thing. Geez you can't even holster the weapon. I replayed all MEs last year, and oh my the third one feels like a cheap knockoff. And I disagree about ME2. ME2 has simple set up, but a lot of story. Individual companions expand both the world and the lore, Shepard’s conflict with Cerberus, world altering subjects like Geth, Quarian fleet, Genophage. Actually, one of things I dislike about ME3, is that in attempt to tie up every loose thread, they retread a lot of ME2 again - all of the subject I mentioned are visited again, but... worse. Not to mention, I feel, that Shepard solving each major galactic conflict in one game, because otherwise he won’t get help... really cheapens them. ME2 is not free of contrivance and melodrama, which really buried ME3, but it is still an engaging popcorn flic.

And that's pretty much the main problem. Both DA:O and Mass Effect 1&2 were ambitious games with solid foundations. ME3 and DA2 were rushed cashgrabs. Bring continuations (or finale) to far superior titles only made a drop in quality that much more apparent. There are some companies, whose name act as a quality guarantee. With those two titles BioWare burned any good will they had with me.

Neither DA2 nor ME3 are terrible per say. But for me they were a big disappointment and a shift in what I expected from Biow. I can appreciate taking a swing and missing in some way, but those felt creatively bankrupt. That's been my main problem with BioWare... No games they released past that felt intriguing to me.

I stopped believing in Bioware with Dragon Age2 and Mass Effect3. I heard in only got worse from there, so I lean into doomsayering. Two significant faces “retiring” at the same time seems suspicious to me... especially, in time when Bioware should be desperately fighting for credibility. I am not terribly concerned with long time employees leaving. I am more concerned with how longs it’s been since Bioware’s name has been attatched to a great title.

Pillars of Eternity1 and Tyranny will be free next week on Epic Games Store - assuming anyone here doesn’t own both already.

Also: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/11/30/empire-of-sin-review/ I am still keenly interested in it, but I did cancel my pre-order. Mostly sounds good to me, combat did seem rather dull and bullet spongey in previews as well. With bugs fixed, some patches and modding support it might be quite good.

At the same time from what I heard/read combat in Cyberpunk seems to be functional. The context to “its RPG not shooter” generally has been: “I played hours without engaging in combat”. Same can’t be said about Alpha Protocol, were combat systems are rough and frustrating, and are also frequent and unavoidable.

Brillant! Another game to get once I build this new PC of mine.

Who will be the Bond is a good question. It is supposed to be brand new start, and, personally I think that going for their own Bond would be the best choice. Even if they get a Bond moviestar (be it Craig, or the lady who is suppose to take over after the next movie) it would be a sequel killer. They are likely to charge a lot, likely to be unavailable or just not willing to do it in the future. Though even better, give us choice. I will go with Connery very time given a choice.

Mostly, because CDPR last game was Witcher3. They wowed world back then, so surely Cyberpunk will be even better. Nothing could possibly go wrong. I think so far Cp is hyped on promises, more then anything tangential. However, there’s been quite a bit of said about level of verticality of Cp.

That’s so obvious AI am angry at myself AI never thought of that as potential next IO project. Considering that recent Hitmans were great Bond games, I have high hopes for this one. I wonder if they reuse the formula or try something new.

Yes. I complained a while ago and uploaded a video of my 3 minutes long loading time. Last time I played the worst loading time was about a minute. Still, I hope to have an SSD before I try PP again.

You wouldn’t want to play it a year ago... and with more updates and paid DLC to come there is no harm in waiting even longer.

Yup. Received an email with survey to what key I want to get. GOG was an option.

Honestly, ending and space child wasn't nearly as offensive IMO as mars info about crucible, and Citatel teleporting to Earth. There are so many "wow, that's oddly convenient" moments even before the game completely falls on its face at the end.

For a while now they have been doing a playthrough on Paradox Channel. Beginning is fairly basic, but there are some really neat diplomacy interaction in later videos.

It remains to be seen if PP will be available on GOG on Dec3rd. I don’t remember OuterWorlds being advertised as GOG prior to release, same recently with BG3 - it was Steam only, until it was approved, shortly before the release. If Snapshot planes to release on GOG in December 3rd, as I assume they do, they need to be approved first. From the little I read GOG takes its time with replies. As such, developers can’t announce GOG release, until they are allowed to release there. With weeks before the release, there is still time for that.

Yes, pre-epic deal backers will get additional key to redeem with all the DLCs. So far only Steam has been confirmed. I am willing to bet GOG is in works as well - being a curated store means games need to be approved by GoG for release.

How so? It was Bioware’s first dive into action RPG hybrid, rather then point and roll a dice affair. Granted it wasn’t great - combat was quite awful, but that’s why sequel would make so much sense. Especially after Dark Souls, which managed to combine stats and player imput really well. JE is a fantasy setting, so they can pivit the tone. I wouldn’t mind something “Last Airbender” inspired.

For the completion sake: and I suppose now Mimimi is off to whatever the next project will be. If their steam comments are t9 be trusted they are planning to stay within the genre. I just hope they will shake things up. I think Shadow Tactics and Desperados3 sucked the current design dry. Good stuff, but I will need something fresh to be on board for the third time.

Jokes on them! Empire of Sin comes out on Dec1st. And while combat of EoS seems rather dull, the integration of strategic/tactical level seems to be exactly what I was missing in “XCOM-like” releases in the last couple years.