Wormerine

Never heard of it, and nor did, most likely, majority of customers. Even so, it's not nearly as bad as Outer Worlds, and Outer Wilds, and it didn't seem to hurt either title.

double post

Isn’t disengage in Solasta and DND 5e a standard action? (That’s what I believe, but didn’t play either) In BG3 push/jump being a bonus actions means that that getting out of engagement is not a commitment. With high enough strength jumping moves you farther then walking. And archer can jump away, move to a high ground and still perform an attack of an opportunity - engaging the enemy or getting engaged means nothing. You can perform a standard attack and still roll a bonus chance on instantly killing/putting at great disadvantage an enemy with a bonus push. Jump make it easy to appear in a backstab/high ground, which then adds advantage just doubling the issue. I can understand merging jump and disengage into one action, but jump/push are too powerful and too easily available when combined with free advantage when backstabbing/attacking from height. At the very least both should be standard actions, and on top of that I think advantage is just too much.

I don't know what @kanisatha has exact problem with but from myself: 1) technical issues: UI is tedious and not fit for purpose. It's the same how they shipped two previous games, and DnD makes it worse. I refunded EA purchase on this base alone. 2) I dislike some of DnD designs in cRPG setting so I am all for modifications, but I found Larian's changes to be detrimental - it's far too easy to gain high chances to hit thanks to how easy it is to gain advantage via hight or backstab. That paired with riddiculus movement and being able to effortlesly bypass engagements through bonus actions jump&push, means I use spells sporadically, fights tended to be very repetitive, as same tools dominated every encounter. The only one fight I had to do extra was a hag fight, as it had scripted boss stages - not necessarly bad, but I must say - playing BG3 didn't feel like DnD - and while I am not familiar with 5e, the short Solasta demo I played... did. Larian seems to try to impliment their D:OS2 design philosophy into DnD systems, which I find problematic - not because DnD>D:OS2, but because both are quite different. I think they are in danger of doing neither good DnD nor a good D:OS3 game. It is not about game being too easy - it's about making core DnD systems irrelevant due to easily accessible solutions. 3) I am not terribly interested in characters, story and tone Larian is doing. On one hand it's better then I expected after D:OS1&2 - on the other... it's still not engaging IMO. I don't mind playing more of BG3 once it releases and seeing where it goes, but I have little interest in replaying the content I went through already. It's both very grim and serious, and also very stupid and immature. Like an edgy teenage fantasy, and the use of 18 rating that I greatly dislike. 4) I don't think Larian knows how to design reactivity - or maybe I just don't like how they do it. There are definitely different outcomes, and things you can miss or mess up, but I felt BG3 liked to undermine character choices. As impressive as their stealth system, spreaking to dead/animals is, they go out of their way to make it available to everyone. I never felt rewarded for investing points in something. 5) spending money in all the wrong places - let's spend money into production values without really knowing how to take advantage of it. They will really need to step up their game in cinematic department to make it worthwhile. I personally, already disliked Dragon Age: Origins stiff conversations, but I find it worse here as the camera shifts from top down view to close up for no real benefit. Some early dev comments suggest that they plan to impliment full VO for our protagonist, which just sounds like a horrible idea IMO. We will see if it will happen, and how it will work.

Yeah, Bayonetta is amazing partially due to stable player/enemy balance. I also don't think a spectacle fighter combat like Bayonetta or DMC would be a good fit. Platinum knows how to do a punchy action game, but needs of an immersive RPG are different.

That's an odd combo. Though I suppose people liked Nier, though I thought combat in that game was rather broken thanks to jRPG mechanics. I thought, the most interesting thing Gothic did, is changing animations as your learned to weild weapons. The only game that sort of did that was Dark Souls, when wielding weapons we don't have right stats for.

It did seem that way. Hopefully, a lot of interest and from what I have seen a rather negative feeback, means the team who actually makes the game will take a better approach. That said, I am worried as it seems the idea to remake Gothic didn't originate from a passionate developer, but IP holder. And who knows what some suits would like Gothic to be.

ehh... for me it's RPG thing. I mean, Thief1&2 were brilliant, and VO was part of it. Dishonored also worked better, IMO with a voiced protagonist. For the RPG, though... say NO! (eyeing Baldur's Gate3 with suspicion)

Eh, if anything they are working on the Outer Worlds2. Thought with Bethesda busy with new Elder Scrolls and Starfield... who knows? If Obsidian Fallout game were to happen it would be a future project though. The buyout was just approved and such decisions ain't made overnight. I am still curious what is the unannounced project Jorge Salgado is working on. The Outer Worlds 2 would be my guess, though would area designer be already working on it?

New Vegas Devs react to a speed run.

Combat is unfortunately horrid. But still a masterclass in openworld RPG design.

Gothic remake is underway, and it's developed by a newly formed studio in Barcelona. I think Gothic1&2 are games that could really benefit from ground-up remake - when it comes to combat I felt Souls games delivered gameplay wise what Gothic was aiming for back in early 2000s. That said, that's a high bar of quality to expect. I didn't play much of the demo due to my laptop not being able to run it properly, but from what I played and saw, it was pretty awful. I am not having high hopes for this one, but I will keep my fingers crossed.

DMC5!!! It fills the empty space left by Bayonetta2 (and B3 ) being Switch exlusives. Combat is freaking awesome. Story/cutscenes not so much (not even amusing most of the time as B). Movement, camera and exploration is horrible. But that combat system. I am fine with a game doing one thing really, really, really well. When in mood for something more sabdued I also play Plague Tale. It's alright. Story is ok for now, we will see where it will go. It didn't grab me the way Senua did. The main complaint would be gameplay loop - I think it is quite similar to Senua with it's shallow gameplay mostly aiming to reinforce narrative - however, I think Senua did better job in making it a seemless connection - combat with no UI, reinforcing immersion and the story. In PT, it feels more seperate, with stealth sections and puzzle sections inbetween story beats. It's also doesn't help that it's very "gamey" and UI heavy. And one thing I really don't like is forces exporation - the game has collectibles and crafting system and demands you to explore, but it's counter intuitive to story and overall linear design - it is not always clear which are is explorable, and which one will result in intant failure. Now writing this, I think both games are quite similar - focused experiences that do one thing pretty well, but have some unnecesary detrimental weight attatched, and in both games it's dodgy and forced exploration.

I just hate the RNG. Caverna for life!

I will also add that on Fanatical pre-order is 20-25% off (if you happen to gotten a key)

In game DLCs are good. Post campaign DLCs are good. For replayable games, I generally favour in-game DLCs, as content from those (be it narrative or items/systems) can contribute to consequent playthroughs. I am not sure Outer Words is quite as replayable as New Vegas or PoE1&2 to really benefit of it, but as I am readying for my 2nd playthrough - I don't mind. I didn't play Broken Steel (vanilla game bored me, so I didn't explore extra content), so can't comment. I generally feel that seperate campaigns need to be really robust to work on their own.

Wouldn't it be a bad thing, though, to segregate playerbase? While some issues might be platform specific, others (or discussions in general) aren't.

Dang Now I need to play the bloody thing, so I can watch another video-essay.

March 17. Here is a fancy trailer. Production value just skyrocketed.

I don't even know why I just watched a 4 minutes video listing minimum and maximum specs for a game, that I already know won't sweat my rig. Also I don't know how it took them 4 minutes.

I do remember reading somewhere that with Obsidian getting purchased he would like to do something more hands-on - but don't remember details, and even so, I would doubt he would jump right into leading a flagship title.

Yeah, oddly enough moving out of repetivie dungeon area made LoG2 feel more aritificial then LoG1

Isn't it the one from Legend of Grimrock folks? I remember it getting favourable reviews when it was released, but never got around to playing it. Still have LoG2 to play really. Started it, and never continued. I finished my 1st playthrough of Dishonored2 - will definitely be back for more, but for now I moved on to Death of the Outsider. I was expecting the worst, considering poor reviews, but I think it is a great DLC so far. Levels are smaller, sure but packed and still full of the Dishonored goodness. I think I prefer it's power design. Deplatable mana system means I generally don't use much of anything beside blink and XRAY vision. Meanwhile, Death of the Outsider, allows for mana regeneration, meaning we are only limited in how many powers we use at one time. Also there are no "I win" powers like stop time or domino, which I think overall encourages more interesting gamestyles. I also appreciate the firesight - while clunky at least it prevents me from running in XRAY vision all times. Which for once I can finally the superb art direction those games have.

His reasoning behind conversation box is very interesting. I do wonder whenever he has a point or not - personally, I didn't find Disco's UI any more engaging then, let's say, Pillars, but then again I am not from a generation raised on mobile phones (as a matter of fact, I dislike looking things up on my phone and prefer to boot up PC or use at least a tablet). I found Thought Cabinet rather underwhelming. Thematically it's cool, but systematically it's just a set of small buffs. I like how thoughts become available based on your roleplaying choices, but overall, it's just a far less impactful version of Fallout's perks. I don't think thoughts actually grant any unique dialogue choices. It seems to be to be more like Deadfire's ship combat, rather then a meaningful addition.

May I? If there are any per-person restrictions I am more interested in Mastermind. I bought Control just last month, so that's another skip for me. Too bad, this was, I think, first really strong selection since Humble Choice thing.