Wormerine

Solasta got a new trailer.

I know what the story beats are (aside from Sebille and Beast). Those are really shallow and underdeveloped stories for a 80+ hour game. There are details one might add, but you pretty much summarise all characters arcs. Usually in one sentece. That's not very good. It's not that D:OS2 doesn't have occasional good, story bits, but they are underdeveloped, too disconnected and too few and far between and without a meaningful core to wrap around. Lohse extinguishing the candles to save herself, and encountering bodies of people whose life she has ended in the process? Good stuff. But irrelevant, and unexplored in the grand scheme of things beside couple lines of dialogue. Who is Lohse as a character? Or any other companion? How their choices affected them? How did the journey change them? No clue, they are just AI controlled empty bodies for Coop buddies.

People demand to pay more for SW:Battlefront2

Yeah, though due to how transparend DOS1 level content was, it didn't quite annoy me as DoS2. I don't remember ever having trouble figuring out where I am expected to go in D:OS1, while in Driftwood I found it to be really frustrating and it was possible to start on paths which you were underlevel for. However, That only happened in Driftwood for me (on both my playthrous). Oh, they are with no doubt commited and talented bunch. I am just not sure if their commitment to coop design is compatible with what I desire from an RPG. They seem to be moving over a lot of things into BG3 (which is not bad by itself by anymeans) but I am not convinced is they will make course correction. What I lacked in D:OS1&2 is reactivity, acknowledgment and response from the game. You get a freedom to do a lot, but without a buddy to react to what you do, none of that left much impact. 10h of coop D:OS1 are some of my findest memories in gaming ever. Single player experience - not even close. Which is perfectly fine. Having a coop oriented RPG series is a valuable thing to do, and a lot of issues I have with the game, can be explained as coop design. Still, I would prefer if BG3 held up better as a single players experience due to IP. If it won't - that's fine really, as long as it's success won't stifle all other singleplayer RPG projects. I just wish someone could take this amazing engine they build and make a game I would enjoy

Was he really? I mean I love the games the guy worked on in the past, but since leaving Obsidian I can't say he's been on a winning streak. That said, I don't mean to throw shade at him, afterall he is but a part of a much bigger machine and I don't think writing per-say to be a problem in D:OS1&2 - it's just narrative and character seem to be somewhere low on the food chain when. I don't see those great narrative paths you mention. None of them have a set-up nor a pay off to make them memorable.

If anyone cares here is my lengthy list of grievances with D:OS2. It was pre-BG3 playthrough, so I didn't even touch coop/singleplayer design and just focused on my experience with D:OS2 as a singleplayer game. It's meh. I wish Obsidian were still independant, and Larian would hire Obsidian to make a campaign in their engine. There is a lot to play with there.

Well, in both PoE1 and PoE2 DLCs make for some of the finest content in the game, from both a narrative and gameplay perspective so those are the parts I am usually looking forward to the most. I do agree that DLC in PoE1 doesn't integrate well, though I am shocked how it can be compared negatively to Endless Paths - I found the latter to be too lengthy and too padded mostly consisting of the same encounters you would fight on the surface. White March on the other hand, has varied enviroments, best social hub in the entire game, stellar atmosphere, mostly interesting encounters and some of the best dungeons in the game - Durgan Battery has perhaps a bit too many samey encounters but the Abbey of the Fallen Moon still stands as my favourite bit in the whole series. I would actually wish for White March to be stand alone, as I would happily replay it every once in a while - more so then the base game. I am also pretty sure WM adds stuff level wise. no? A pretty big incentive to keep it if you ask me. DLCs in Deadfire are well integrated. They have proper hooks in the main story and they all contribute to the overall picture. They all add necessary value to the playthrough to me - BoW fleshes out Eothas' motivations and sets up for the events at the end of the game, SSS explains more about Gods, and delivers some challenging encounters to put my character to a test, and FS is just a really really fun late game dungeon - something the game needed IMO. Not to mention the bunch of cool items which would be lost if the DLCs were removed. That said, I don't do back-to-back playthrough. I did a total of three playthroughs and did DLCs for all of them (aside from BoW for my 2nd playthrough as it got bugged). I am having this itch to install "Deadly Deadfire" and do another playthrough, but I would prefer to be able to run the game better performance wise for that.

Yeah, I loved Mafia1, didn't like Mafia2, didn't play Mafia3. I liked how heavy the cars were in M1 and how bit the recoil on guns. I also liked that it wasn't so "mature" - Scorsese style is all good, but I didn't feel M2 pulled it off. Lighthearted bits of M1 and on the nose references made it fun, rather then wanna be prestige film copycat.

No, I seriously doubt they would adjust it so quickly for the lockdown. As to content, if I count well it's 8 new civs - so same amount as Rising Storm expansion? Now it depends how much of the other content will be worthwhile. I never found alternative scenarios fun, so that's unlikely to be worthwhile for me. More buildings, citystates, Wonders etc. is nice but is it really as worthwhile as either of the expansions?

Civilization VI breaks the mold and is still being supported. Throughout the next year, every two months a total of 6 DLCs will be released alongside free updates in so called New Frontier Pass, with first DLCs out on May 21st. The price is $39,99. Ouch. So full price expansion price, for what seems like not expansion size content... or at least parts I would care for. Desperados3 seems like a better investment.

Desperados3 looks as delightful as one would hope.

In lieu of E3 indie developers banded together for their own presentation in form of Guerrilla Collective on June 6th-8th. Larian will be there and so will... ZA/UM. Curious. They did say to keep those Disco Elysium saves.

Oh, that's a good one. I wouldn't reach for pitchfork, but there is a good chance I would like it less. In theory, I have nothing against using class-less system, though judging by previous titles I generally prefer class-system in team based games, and classless system in single character games (such as Fallout or Arcanum). One thing I definitedly attatched to are static attributes. I dislike constantly raising attributes (like in D:OS2 or Dragon Age: Origins) - I feel they are neither interesting mechanically, and make little sense "immersion" wise.

I will be the devils advocate, and say it’s far too early to judge that. Oh boy, believe me, I have my doubts about BG3, but it still be a nice surprise. EDIT: Larian has not expressed a desire to make RT roleplaying game. They expressed an opinion that RT combat using DnD was chasing trends at the time (Diablo), was messy and not a good match for the system. Not to mention, that introducing RT would create problems in their multiplayer oriented RPG design. As to market... there is this big elephant in the room, and that's Larian works brutally outsell PoEs. It's not like people didn't give it a try. PoE1 sold well, PoE2 didn't. As far as the engine goes D:OS2 is pretty fantastic. Just wrapped up my playthrough today, and I can confirm that I didn't love the content but if Obsidian were still independed I would wish for them to be hired to make a sequel in that engine, like in old good KOTOR2/F:NV/NWN2 times. I think they could really killed it with D:OS2 engine at their fingertips.

I go with Turn-Based. To be honest, I am fine with either, but as Josh prefers turn-based, I would rather have him work on PoE that he believes is best it can be, rather then try to second guess what people who like RTwP would want to play. On top of that, I looked through his table top design long long time age, there was this mechanic where units with lowest initiative would commit to actions first, and go up from there which seems like a really cool concept.

So, in the comment section of the Josh' talk about Reputation Systems in western RPGs one can find comments by Marat Sar - dev of half-amazing Disco Elysium. He drop this interesting tidbit about BG3 when discussing games which might be taking inspiration from their work: It would explain the weird past tense being used for the PCs conversation choices (which I still don't like, if it continues through the game and isn't just a brief flashback or something) but could also hint at some interesting character defining in BG3.

I must say, until Josh pointed it out I didn't realize how great is Disco's mechanic of adding modifiers to stat checks depending on our previous action and choices... this is such a neat way of implimenting reactivity. Let's take something as underwhelming as convincing Saren to commit suicide, and instead of flat checks if you maxed out renedage/peragon add modifiers based on our interactions with him throughout the game, making such ending only possible if we made actions throughout the game that would support our argument there at the end, plus a high paragon/renegade check

Yessss Josh. Analyse Disco Elysium and them give us PoE3

For better?

When I picked up Yakuza:0 on deep deep sale, I never expected to fall in love with the series so much.

Haha. I just went through a phase of having to deal with getting bald. The same haircut I have been rocking for the last 20 years just wouldn't cut it. Going full Agent 47 didn't quite work for me, though I did settled with something akin to Picard - just a really short buzzcut, where I still have hair. I think it's inoffensive enough to last. As to what I do these days (aside finally wrapping up D:OS2 playthrough). This is essencially my life nowadays:

Yakuza: Like a Dragon seems to be coming to PC.

Pretty much as @AeonsLegend said. Reputations represent how others perceive you, not how you perceive yourself. However, it happens often that when games tries to box various choices into boxes (be it moral stances, or ideological stances, or behaviour describers) every once in a while we will run into something that is questionable. I feel PoEs did a fairly good job in that regard - I play with those icons off, and reputations I gain to tend to represent the character I envisioned. And if everyonce in a while they end up doing something that others might perceive as "cruel" or "shady", then that's fine I think. One might do those things, even if they don't intend to.

Gothics, Dark Souls, KOTORs, Dragon Ages, Jade Empire, Witcher1&2.

That's far more indepth analysis then I am capable of. To be honest, I had trouble recalling which name goes with which character. I didn't catch more depth in them then "snake-lady", "medic-lady", "shield-guy", "My Palladin Pal Pallegina", "sectoid dude" etc. I see very little reflection of their backstories in their banter. If you would say to me that they recorded VO without a character in mind, I would buy it. A decision to use normal human VO for aliens is just weird to me. I can't match the normal human voice, to the jaw, fangs and forked tongue of a snake.