Wormerine

Good question, and I don't think I know the answer to it. I was about to write how damning I found Schreier's report - mainly that Bioware had no idea what they were setting out to do. Then again, it is not new, and seems to be common in game development. Mass Effect didn't end up as it was initially envisioned. That said, reading about ME1, it seems that they had too big ideas to realize, not lack of them. I generally am all for sequels - games are better suited for reuse of gameplay loops and gradual improvements, then most other mediums. Narrative nature of most Bioware games, I think goes against it. Stories tend to not get better with more installements. Worlds become duller the more they are explored, wonder and mistery becomes mundane. I loved Mass Effects (at least first two games), but I don't feel a need to return to this universe. Give me another adventure. Another world to explore. Surprise me. What I found appealing about Andromeda pitch wasn't familiar Mass Effect trappings but new positibilies that a new galaxy would allow for. I have heard once, that culture that stops innovating, and starts being interesting in its history is reaching its end. I don't know how true it is, but it rings true to me. If Bioware doesn't know what is the next cool thing that they want to do, then who will? EDIT. I am getting very philosophiocal here, and to be frank, nothing of it matters. If the next Bioware games look cool, and are received well, I will probably give them a chance. Hell, if DA4 looks good, I will probably finally buy and play Inquisition, just to be up to date. But I can't shake a feeling that Bioware as a studio was fundamentally broken with the massive expansion that happened before ME3.

I have fond memories of old Bioware games, but as it's been over 10 years since they did something decent (Didn't play Inquisition, from what I had heard this one has at least some merit to it), so I will need more then pretty words. I wouldn't count on myself getting interested in DA4, as I strongly disliked even DA:O, but ME4 has a chance to bring me back. I was already getting dangerously interested in Andromeda as the premise showed a lot of promise, but from what I heard they wiffed it. Over the years, I have grown more critical even of their old formula, so I am not sure how well I would respond to "classic Bioware" these days even if they returned to basics. But I must say, I don't think Bioware doing another DA and ME are good signs. Bioware peaked doing new things. Baldur's Gates, Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Mass Effect, DA:Origins were all revolutionary and original in their times. To be good again, Bioware needs to be creative again. Doing old things, even if well, will at the most be nostalgia comfort food.

Spied on Leonard's linked in, and he still is at Obsidian. Considering how succesful tOW1 is, and I am pretty sure there is more two of them would like to do, I would be shocked if they weren't working on the sequel.

Bigger game doesn't necessarily mean more writing. We still don't know at this point what kind of the game Avowed is. It is also difficult to say how much of game's production consists of writing.

It told me more or less the same amount about the game. At least it confimed the leaks as authentic.

I would assume Tim Cain and Leo Boyarsky are continuing their work?

TOW1 teased the mistery of whats-up with Earth Directorate pretty hard. I would be surprised if it will turn ou to not be a hook set up for the sequel. It's also impossible to tell if tOW2 will take place more or less within the same timeframe as tOW1, or if they will move time forward (like they did Fallout1->Fallout2). If it would be "standalone" sequel, then they can expand corpo influence as much as they need.

If I could I would marry Arcane with Obsidian, though frankly IMO both are doing fine on their own.

I am intrigued by "Replaced". If anything, it's a looker. I do like the animations.

Does it? Corporation have bought Halcyon, but I don't think they necessarly stopped existing in other parts of the universe.

🥳 See you 3 years from now, when we get something more concrete.

Outer Worlds2 - meh. I mean we knew it will happen, and trailer shows nothing. Plague Tale - That's unexpected. It seemed like a one-off. I must say, I didn't like PT1, but the trailer looks cool. Redfall - so not Bloodlines-like. Generally not intersted in coop shooters, but Arcane is Arcane. NO FABLE! NO AVOWED! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EDIT: Obsidian posted this thing. No news really, just a nostalgic trip.

I like classic samurai films just as any other guy, and it looks decent, but I am wary of Polish devs trying to mimic a serious japanese drama. Avatar has always looked gamey to me (when seeing trailer for the first time I honestly thought it's Starcraft the Movie at first), so IMO it looks better then in cinema. What's the gameplay though. Far Cry: The Avatar?

Looks awesome. I hope it will play half as good as this trailer looks.

The mightly kick into hazards does. I must say, I was bored with Bulletstorm and Doom2016, but I remember enjoying Shadow Warrior quite a bit.

More like Dark Souls mixed with Shadow of Colossus. I hope they won't kill the horse.

Some things that come to mind, though I have no clue how would those apply to Elden Ring: 1) Third person deliberate combat, brutally punishing button mashing. 2) Checkpoint based save system, with resource management element, and where death is part of the core gameplay loop, rather then failure state. 3) action RPG combat system - stats and weapons modify the gameplay experience, with various possible builds. 4) Lack of handholding, and relative freedom of exploration (even though games tend to have intended progression paths, and frankly that one is dodgy - Dark Souls1 early levels had clear metroidvania inspirations, but this design was dropped as game progressed, and sequels (and various souls-like) tend to stick to a more rigid structures) 5) Being Softworks games I have also some expectations when it comes to the tone - dark fantasy, massive, hulking creepy monsters, tough bossfights. EDIT: Here is a nice list from Mark Brown's video on the genre, though I feel some of the points might be difficult to understand without knowing what he is referring to. In past years, most "soulslike" were following formula pretty closely - Softworks own Sekiro ditched or change quite a few core designs from what I heard - making it more of a souls-like action game, then action RPG.

I have no opinion, except Softworks, so I am interested. Didn’t read nor watch GoT, so GRRM involvement doesn’t mean much to me. I didn’t watch the leaked trailer. I still have DarkSouls3, Sekiro, and hopefully Bloodborn, to play so Elden Ring is not something I am actively waiting for. I am more interested in this Platinum project, but who knows if and when it will be out on PC.

So after Thief-like and Systemshock-like Arcane is doing Bloodline-like?

Hardly news. But that photoshopped Alloy is terrifying. Gives me Ivanka T vibes.

It seems like a good fit, though like yourself I would be far more interested in XCOM3, then a Marvel licenced game. Makes even more sense, as I don't see how they could improve current XCOM formula without shaking things up. Dang, I was sort of getting restless waiting for XCOM3 announcement.

I did finish my first (and most likely last) playthrough just recently. I didn't much care for the game. I really dislike upgrade system. I don't care for soundtrack. I did play on PC, but it felt very slow and repetitive. I think it didn't help that I played it right after Titanfall2, which has a superb movement system. Doomguy, by comparison, felt like a fridge. I am not sure if I will touch the Eternal, though from what I heard I might like it more. Cranking the difficulty up might be what the game need. While Doom2016 has plenty of weapons, I felt I was switching them more out of boredom, then necessity.

I meant it mostly graphics wise. I don’t know if it game itself, or issues arising with porting from PS to PC. Assets look fabulous, but there is more jank then I expected. Menus look and control dated. Cutscenes are weirdly poor considering how well game looks otherwise... facial animations are inexistent, and there seem to be a weird physics reset with every camera change. There is also something weird happening when characters blink. Again, I don’t know if it’s game itself, or me running it 100+ FPS. Overall, most of that stuff happens in cutscenes, so the game seems to be more AAA, since I finished introduction and started game proper. Also, I thought starting as young Alloy made a bad first impression - her move set isn’t nearly as fluid as adult alloy, and reminded me more of something like Plague Tale, then what I expected from shiny Sony exclusive. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed the game much more for the brief time that I used controller... but then combat is sucky, though maybe it won’t be as bad if I get new pad that doesn’t drift when I try aiming.

Finally sinking my teeth deep into Arcane's Prey. Superb Systemshock-like in many ways, but it feels like it should spend some more time in the oven. It feels unnecessarily rough around the edges, and unevenly developed in some departments (like enemies - mimics are superb, everything else I have seen so far is rather bland and dull). Level design so far is top notch. I also installed Horizon: Zero Dawn. I find it difficult to get into it. Combat feels weak, quests require frustrating amount of legwork, the world looks beautiful but it just doesn't feel great to me - packs of same robo-dinos around every corner. I really, really hate "RPG" elements - there is even no "sell all junk" button, when shopping. I hate how tedious it is to refill med bar. On a side note - how long should gamepad last? I bought my first controller (PS4 gamepad) 2+ years ago. I had drifting issues for a while now (stick giving imput when idle or not registering imput) which I was correcting using deadzone, but yesterday the left/right/up arrows just randomly stopped working. I suppose I was contemplating to upgrade to Dualsense, but I am frustrated by how quickly issues appeared. I did use the game pad for a decent amount of time, but I am kinda turned off by how quickly £50 tech started to malfunction.

I don't mind rewatching a decent movie couple times for company. I like to rewatch a great movie at least 2 or 3 times for myself - one viewing isn't enough to fully appreciate it. I enjoyed both PoEs more on a subsequent playthroughs - PoE1, because knowing where the story is going made all that was happening before it interesting, PoE2 because narratively it is an interesting mess that I like to dig into. I am tempted to go for my 4th run, now when I should be able to run the game somewhat decently, and try out some of the difficulty mods on offer. I am still have on of the megabosses to kill, though I have no clue if I will be willing to push through it.