Wormerine

I mean I watched a bit, and learned there are perks that you gained for doing certain things. Played Witcher2 3 times, and never knew about that bit. Also news: If for some reason you are still not sold on absolutely fantastic looking Avengers game, you will also be able to dress your heroes up in skins championing your favourite mobile provider. Amazing. Virgin Media for life.

Though you touch on an interesting part of open-ended RPG design, which I often fail to take an advantage off - unintended, negative consequences. I don’t think I would ever allow such “failure” to become part of my playthrough.

Too much? Alright, here is much shorter one about Witcher1.

Brief look at Witcher 2

Nah, just a typical Polish lady. Ask Geralt why he chose Yen. Choosing anyone else is simply non canonical.

Yes, even though I enjoyed Mass Effect 1&2 a lot I would never call them good RPGs. I am also with you - I don't see the appeal of killing everyone - there are people who play that way, but IMO it's missing the part which RPGs do well, especially as combat generally isn't their strong suit. I do like the consistency of mechanics, though. I think there is a lot to be gained when tools player has work consistanty, rather then in scripted situations only (ability to fight triggers only in combat situations, you can converse with only select individuals etc.) That something D:OS2 does really well, though I do think that the way it allows every quest to continue (and pretty much gives the same info no matter if you talk, talk to a ghost or read a not) puts it in "you can do everything, but nothing matters" category. If only other hand how we play would open more individual paths to progress - that would be something. And I think roleplaying range the game allows will change from game to game - Witcher, Disco, Mass Effect do give you to some extend defined protagonist protagonist (Great video on sharing Commander Shepard from Mark Brown) and while Geralt is very defined, Shepard less so, and Disco the least (defined past but open future, ala. Planescape). Games with more freedom (lke Fallout, Pillars etc.) will benefit more from allowing players to craft their characters - and it doesn't mean just going full psycho. Being able to initiate combat yourself is a valuable way of interacting in an RPG world. And if you CAN pickpocket/lockpick/kill everyone that opens a neat ability to create neat situations without having to be clearly communicated. I thought classic Tim Cains RPGs always did that well. It's a difference between game saying: "ok, so do you want to talk, attack them or sneak past them?" and you actively being able to look for opportunities to apply your build's strenghts in each situation. Also Gothic1&2. Those were really good as well.

I actually fancy Nomad - knowing nothing about Cyperpunk being an outside seems like a good match for first playthrough. Though, yeah I like how dark the corpo in the trailer is. Ha! Not that my current laptop will be able to run it anyway.

Yes, but I think it really comes to trying to simplify reactivity. There are external judgements because it is an easier thing to keep a track off, rather then doing custom content for all choices players can make. Bioware likes binary good/bad, light/dark force, open palm/closed fists, paragon renegate because those are easy to track - two systems to keep track on, with two main ways to play. That takes care of a big chunk of reactivity and then you add specific handcrafter reactivity to certain choices on top. Problem comes from trying to tie every decision into that binary system. Obsidian uses that system a lot as well, though they tend to make it more nuanced: like counting pleasure/displeasure seperately allowing for mixed reputations, using multiple "reputations" rather good/bad metric, and tracking reputations within smaller communities then global good and bad. This detailed, but still somewhat global tracking allows for more precise tagging of players choices, though it still everyonce runs into "binary system's" issues ("Why is this shady?!") Quite a bit more of work, but still really effective and providing custom reactivity driven by abstracted systems. Disco could have used binary system - good/bad cop points and the end depends on which one you have more of. What it ops for is a detailed reactivity, where individual line and actions are remember and responded to. There are some global counters (like unlocking thoughts if you choose certain lines enough times), but how characters perceive and react to you seems to be handcrafted. Adding modifiers to rolls is one way, but there is plently of handcrafted reactivity as well (for example at the end you get pretty thoroughly judged by your partner on your behavior - there is a lot of handcrafted scripting that no global alignment nor reputation system could match). And Witcher is the same, except being made by bigger team, with bigger budget and real commitment to hand-crafted reactivity - therefore no need for global tracker - like alignment, reputation and such. It's worth adding that both Witcher and Disco are limited in what we can do - we can't attack people nor steal etc. That means - what interactions there are can get more attention. On the other hand imagine devs having to create customs scripted reactions in games with more freedom - therefore things like reputations, alignments, karma are made.

Yes, I think it’s been understood a while ago that alignments are artificial and bad. Either choices are really dry to fit alignment requirements or they can be subjectively tagged as good or bad (like ME2 “what to do with age they” choice, which is rather grey and yet gam tries to assign clear paragon/renegade choices). PoE dispositions system runs sometime into the same issue. as to not showing it... i don’t think that would be a good idea. the problem with doing game like Witcher3, is that all reactivity in Witcher3 is hand scripted - choice and consequence is set by designers. That’s great! But that is also a lot of work. Systems like alignments, reputations or Disco Elysium’s roll modifier systems attempt to add reactivity to players actions without having to manually craft each reactions - so rather then getting individual reactions for each things we do, they get counted and once we reach a threshold we get a reactivity. Our choices still matter, and we get reaction to them, but it’s much less work for devs to plan out and implement. Disco Elysium seems somewhere in the middle - calling back to individual actions, but giving them abstracted reactivity. however, as reactivity is system driven, I think you want players to understand what is happening. Being called out by someone for being cruel, without being aware of our reputation status would feel off. Similarly, Disco Elysium system works precisely because we KNOW how previous choices affect our roll. Nothing is stopping the devs for implementing “surprise!” reactivity as well.

Yes, the very hope was that with Micr focus on gamepass the studios will be allowed to work on variety on projects: the big, the small and the niche. We will see how long it will last, and how well it will turn out, but for now we might have few things to look forward to. The "held-back-by-XBOX-one" is not something I quite understand. The promise was of 1 year support for the older console - which isn't long. Most studios they aquired won't have a flagship big titles in that time (like Avowed) so they might/might not be released for series X only. Things like Psychonauts2 or Wasteland3 aren't exactly next gen. I suppose most of complaints come from the new Halo, which I don't have an opinion about.

Yes, I didn't mean to say necromancy doesn't exist, but it doesn't exist in a way it does in DnD. It's seems like a more delicate and time consuming process, then casting a spell and bringing people back to life as undead. It is possible the necromancy could become more common or easier to practice if Obsidian wishes it to be so, but it could go against PoEs goal of making death a bit more permanent then it is in DnD. Personally, I would rather see "animancer" class, then "necromancer" - perhaps crafting constructs, sucking enemies souls with gizmos, making souls bombs.

Chanters somewhat fill that playstyle, if summons are ones thing. Necromancy as such doesn't exist as such in Eora, and practicing animancy on the battlefield would kinda break established lore. Though mix wizard using Concelhault spells (which if trailer is anything to go by should have at least some) with chanter's summons, and we get a very necromancy character.

That wouldn't really solve anything though. It would just lower threshhold. If lets say a check is 75 speech, and player has 74, they might indeed get a "weaker version?" (a downside would be twice as much work for reactivity! which you don't want as a dev) and lets say it would go - till maybe 70? But then you have 69 and you are still one point away. The same problem remains. Perhaps using smaller numbers would be better? Having 1-10 or 1-20 scale would be less irritating if one misses one point.

I don't. According to GOG I own 835 titles (thanks bundles! and recently Epic), a big chunk of it I will never touch, a big chunk I am somewhat interested in but am unlikely to get to, many games I played, enjoyed and am unlikely to get back to, some games I played and might play again, some games I will play. I use tags on gog (and previously steam) to remember games I might return to (tagged as "classics to be returned to") and tag games I am interested in ("to be played"). On a side note, I wish I could erase my memory and play through Witcher 3 again.

Question is, can we see those in FP view.

Actually considering WB registered domain called SuicideSquadKillsJusticeLeague they might be trying to kill more the just Superdude.

Oh, seems like next Rocksteady's (Batman Arkham folks) game is Suicide Squad. More on August 22nd.

Is that an allegory for cruch?

double post. "Quote" instead of "edit".

First of all: even though I will argue against, I don't necessary disagree with you. I find it difficult to believe that with MS money and making Skyrim-like game, and having a choice between Both FP&TP, or just FP or TP Obsidian would choose just FP. Now as to Grounded - as far as I have seen the combat in that game is not particularly interesting. It's neither good first person combat, nor third person combat - just swinging a thing in your hand until an enemy dies. Whenever camera is FP and TP or top down - it doesn't really matter, because mechanics aren't complex. It is also possible that making both modes for Grounded is more feasable exactly because it is a smaller project - and one needs to make both work with a much smaller amount of content and systems. Now, if Obsidian wanted to make something more deliberate - choosing one perspective would make sense. Dedicated Firstperson and Third person games are designed and work differently. And between melee, ranged, spells and who-knows-what Avowed might have much more plates to spin then Grounded. That's more of a wishful thinking on my part rather then a belief, though. tOW was FP and I don't think its combat did anything that wouldn't be possible to do in TP.

You might have more luck if you posted it in Grounded subforum.

With a first person perspective only you can set your imagination free

Spelunky 2 out on PS4 on September 15th. PC Version will follow some time after, as its multiplayer needs some additional work. https://twitter.com/mossmouth/status/1291481377158787073

If someone what curious what Josh's position as Studio Design Director entails: https://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/625579436746702848/the-job-of-a-studio-design-director