Wormerine

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.

Surprise, surprise

Meh, unless OW2 will be a space sim (which is not impossible, but I greatly doubt it) all of it would be more or less waste of time. And if I want beautiful looking "immersive" space sim with nothing fun to do, I will reinstal and play Elite. There is still so much to expand upon within OW2 gameplay loop to bring it at least close to something like New Vegas, that spending money and time on stuff like that would be wasteful.

It seems Final Fantasy VII remake will be coming out on PC at some point on Epic. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/final-fantasy-7-remake-appears-in-hidden-epic-store-product-listing

I absolutely think that choice and reactivity is important, but for me how interesting those choices are is more important that how many they are or how much unique content they have. For example there is a big central conflict between two factions in BG3 and I feel there is a right way to proceed. There are few other ways one can handle the situation, but those others are **** paths - and not selfish ****, as if: I am screwing other people over, but it benefits me. Just yolo ****. I intentionally created an evil rogue character, and most of the time I couldn't justify following the evil path.

I am making a guess, but I wonder if a non-Baldur's Gate game would be able to get such a big budget. BG is a flagship IP, so even though Larian is more interested in expanding their D:OS formula, it might have greatly controbuted to funding. I find Larian's storytelling wanting. Their games feel to me more like sandbox or themepark then an interactive story or adventure. Wealth of interactivity and reactivity doesn't mean anything to me, if I am not drawn into fiction. Having choice is unappealing, if I am not concerned about outcome. I really dislike Larian's coopcentric design - Origins I think are a horrible abomination resulting in not interesting companions, and reducing our ability to shape our custom NPC when deciding to go that route. I am doubtful if Larian's commitment to high fidelity presentation will pay off. What we have so far, I think is awful, but with game not being finished yet it is difficult to say how it will look. And then there is weird stuff - taking rest teleporting you to a pocked-universe camp in a generic woods, quick travel teleport, singular map design which doesn't try to create a coherent locations (people unaware of what is happening outside the zone they have been designed for - think Driftwood citizens from D:OS2 unaware of a massive hole in the ground a minute away from their town). I will am not hang up on any individual changes (being made by Larian, I did expect to get Larian game) but I am doubtful. When it was announced I thought: "Larian game using DnD setting and ruleset! I can get behind that", and then Larian seems to try to gut DnD and make it as close to Divinity as they can - missing is rare due to overabundance of advantage, guaranteed source of damage through surfaces, broken action economy. It's not even D:OS2 vs DnD - it's just both work so differently that I think Larian is in danger of satisfying no one. But they still have time to itirate. I do hope the changes he is talking about will attempt to fix at least some problems (like reactions). I don't really judge BG3 against BG1&2 - I see Larian games as a completely different genre then Infinity Engine games, though I wish they had a different sense of humor. I find their games rather unfunny. Then again, I didn't like D:OS2 much. In fact, I thought D:OS1 was a better title. I do think that BG3 will be better then either, and BG3 definitely tries to address at least some of the criticism one could level against D:OS2 (companions are way more fleshed out for one), but it still doesn't just click with me. My datailed thoughts on each are here and here.

That's very sensible creed - one I try to live by, but tend to fail in upholding. With BG3 I used GoG generous Early Access policy to try the game, and decided to refund it and (most likely) wait for 1.0. After finishing Solasta, I am actually quite itching to jump back into BG3, but they will need to improve UI before I am willing to commit the full price. Encounter with the hag was pretty fun. I just would expect it to be a higher level encounter, not something to be done in act1. Encounter itself I liked, though it did use hand scripting (battle had stages tied to hag's health), which I don't have a definitive opinion on yet.

Been there, done that :-). Odd encounter for lvl 4 content. I know Larian want come back to pure DnD, but I wonder how well they can fixed problems that they have introduced.

I don't think I ever really got excited/aggravated by windows. As to why talk about Windows-asthetic choices - because it is how I differenciate one Windows from another as a casual user. I am sure there are much much more important differences, but frankly I am not likely to notice much change, beside how start menu and windows looks like (plus having to re-learn how to find various options that is always a rather frustrating process)