Wormerine

That's something I strongly disagree, but again - it's preferance. Deadfire item system is my gold standard of item design in an RPG like that - having such a wide range of weapons to choose from and compliment your character build from mechanical and roleplaying reason is a superb thing for me. I found BG1s breaking weapons and rare magical weapons somewhat appealing but not a right fit for the game's structure.

Meh, I thought PoEs struck an pretty good balance. I dislike when too many active abilities are introduced to combat, mostly because I feel those games encourage focusing on single character, rather then a party. I felt PoE1 issues stemmed from frequency and encounter variety, rather then combat itself. I am someone, however, who is more interested in getting involved in encounter, rather then doing automated builds. PoE2 custom AI system, I hope delivered a lot of automation for those who desire it.

It's super unlikely to happen. It was for a while, but it is especially now when Obsidian isn't an independent company. Assuming Bethesda would be willing to do something like that, they would not be hiring Obsidian - they would have to come to some agreement with Microsoft. And Microsoft has no incentive to work on someone elses IP and share profits, while they can have Obsidian work on their own stuff - like TheOuterWorlds2 for example.

Yeah, while neat on paper, I do feel this system did more harm then good. When it works, it's great, but usually it's weird - like characters missing relevant content, or expressing reaction inappropriate for the situation (my fav. ever is Xoti clapping and laughing when burning bodies of her fellow Dawnstars - this might got patched since release. In 1.0 this system had massive issues). Even in my 5.0 third playthrough I encountered some dodgy things, like random drops in reputation when entering the Gullet etc. Focusing purely on pre-designed interactions I think would be more effective overall.

Yeah, one would think I would have learned my lesson after XCOM2. I am not sure, if I have means to do that - but perhaps there will be a way to restart or abandon the mission. For now just sent the save over to 2k.

So.... My playthrough might have reached a premature end, at least for now. I am doing a mission, and I was told to hold off against 3 enemy waves. Those waves never came. IRONMAN!

I don't know, I found Black Flag to be extremely frustrating. The lack of meaningful conequences - pirate hunters where so underwhelming, and being able to easily lower wanted level by ploudering the ship but not murdering the crew was mindboggling. It certainly looked like something that could be a fantastic pirate game. Is Skull&Bones even happening? It feels like ages since I heard of it. That's assuming they won't butcher it with some greedy monatization.

I finished the psions, and moves to hybrids with chrysalids

I am not sure about it. It was just really shallow copy DnD, which makes sense as their previous major titles were DnD based games but with StarWars they needed something accessible. I don’t think Bioware landed on their feet gameplay wise, until ME2 - all games between NWN-ME2 is an attempt to infuse their BG2 story content into more mainstream package - starting with KOTOR, which simply hammered out all the tricky and interesting parts, through Jade Empire which gameplay wise was very very awkward, to ME1 which was a hybrid not excelling in neither RPG nor action part.

Just started second investigation. I like quite a few things about it, though I think it could have been really special with a bit more depth and better characterisation.

Breach is the weird thing. It is the most interesting addition to the game, but I feel I have to little info to make informed decisions. It's difficult to make a smart tactical decision, while having no idea as to enemy placement and room layout. Even breaching itself, while it looks cool, it makes it really tricky to evaluate the situation, outside who poses immediate danger.

Played couple missions, and my initial impression is surprisingly positive. We shall see how the systems will persevere through a stress of a longer playthrough, but so far CS offers a fresh spin on XCOMs system, addressing some of my frustrations with Vanilla game - mainly there is an actual combat happening here. In vanilla XCOM1&2 ambushes and alpha strikes are so dominant I felt I never experienced what enemies had to effer, as they would rarely made their turn. And due to interwined turns, defensive abilities are so much more valuable. I found myself analysing turn order, and planning moves in a way I never had to in XCOMs. Is it better? Probably not. No perma death nor customisable soldiers is a bit downgrade, but for the price it seems like a worthy distraction. Oh, I need to see if one can made the "breach" less cinematic. While really cool, trying to analyse the situation is rather tricky.

Part 5: How Obsidian Designed Player Choice in The Outer Worlds

I swear, Godmother still speaks with Vailian accent.

RPS review Geek is a God review ACG review

I don’t believe so. I am not a power gamer - I have build better and worse characters but my first character is always purely roleplaying one - at least in PoEs, which allows to be beated even with unoptimised parties. I played PoE1 until Adra Dragon without really understanding mechanics as it wasn’t necessary. I don’t think, that PoEs issues are overwhelming depth or even difficulty, but the nature of this kind of system - turn-based design doesn’t translate well into real-time: a roll and stat based combat system, isn’t a natural fit for a real time combat. I am willing to bet, that most players stare at centre of the screen, while the actual gameplay takes place in small boxes in the upper left, and bottom right corners. Big bosses, or DLCs simply raise the difficulty to the level where players who don’t pay attention to actual gameplay systems won’t be able to brute force their way through. the thing that Divinities excelled at, was moving those systems over to the main screen - high advantage, environments, armor mechanic - even if I might not be a fan of how actual systems work, the way they are presented are easy to notice, engage with and they draw attention to themselves,

part 4: Designing the Music & Sound of The Outer Worlds

Desperados III out on June 16th EDIT. [grumpy face] No GOG this time?

I must say, so profiles are so light on content I wonder why they even bothered. They state the most obvious things, while filling very little of the backstory. It's as if they thought "oh, we should do the overwatch thing" but forgot to develop the characters.

Makes sense - kinda assumed it is the case, once the first trailed mention that death of a squad member will mean failed mission.

Grounded comes to Early Access on July 28th.

Looking forward to it. It looks like a neat spinoff. I am curious if intertwined turns will be for better or for worse, but overal it should be an interesting experience. My main issue with XCOM1&2 is that pod activation swings the advantage so heavily toward the player, if they initiated the combat on their turn, pretty much tramping all other strategies. Breach seems to include "the ambush phase" by design with combat encounter as a continuation, rather then one or the other.

Part 3: How Obsidian Designed The Outer Worlds’ Quests