Wormerine

Desperados 3 and System Shock remake got a demo. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/05/27/play-demos-for-desperados-3-and-system-shock-right-now-via-gog/ I can't imagine they are exclusive to the platform, but they are featured on the front page of GOG current sale. Perhaps timed exclusive? It is still 3 weeks until Desperados release (guess who is counting!) so plenty of time to bring it to steam as well. EDIT: Yup, Desperados is pretty much a higher budget Shadow Tactics, and that's all I wanted. The pausing Showdown Mode does make things a bit easier, but that might mean I might try to fight a way out instead of immediately reloading. The Demo consist of tutorial, first mission (half tutorial half genuine mission) and a taste of mission no. 3. Runs great, looks great plays great. I love the end-mission detailed replay, and customizable difficulty settings. Can't wait for the release. Mocap improves presentation a lot (as well as more detail and some nice little visual touches), though it is somewhat at odds with lack of facial detail, and blocky hands.

So, most of those sound to me like big ideas that sound great in marketing, but are a money sink production wise and don't add much to an actual gameplay. Building a ship or colony... in an RPG? Keep mechanics in every RPG so far is just waste of space and resources - either do Space RPG where you ship is your character, or focus on where the gameplay is: aka your party. Grounded is survival game, OW is an RPG. Quite different games, with different objectives and fun-factors. That all sounds like Fallout4, which is not appealing. What already is in OW could certainly be expanded on - meaning your ship reflecting your actions outside to remind you of your choices and companions you have gathered. That's of course assuming OW2 would follow the same formula, which it doesn't have to. Now that's just silly. Let's ignore impossility of this merger from business perspective, and just focus on creative side - so you want CD project RPG or Obsidian RPG? And what does it have to do with Elder Scrolls? What Witchers are, what Obsidian games are and what Elder Scrolls are, are quite different RPG types. As far as I am concerned Elder Scrolls never became relevant when compared to Witcher series or Obsidian games... but then again, I simply don't enjoy Bethesda's design. Still, coming back to CDR and Obsidian - putting multiple talented studios on the same project sounds like a recepy for disaster as they will want different things from the project. We have Cain and Boyarsky as leads - that's enough. As to my wishes for OW2 - more depth. Tim Cain knows how to design a deep RPG with world reacting to characters we create. So I would like to see more of this Tim Cain craziness in OW2 we all loved in Arcanum or Bloodlines - have characters with different builds interact differently with the enviroment rather then do the same thing slightly different. I would happily trade a bit of polish for more memorable experience, though of course, there is a reason why OW sold well, while Troika shut down.

Oh, I actually completely forgot about sidekicks. They are probably the ones I would like to see back as full companions the most - definitely Rekke if Yezuha were featured in PoE3. As to other three - I felt they were underdeveloped enough, then writers could find place for them. I would love to see Konstanten and Fassina again, in any way, shape or form.

Have I posted on this thread before? Maybe, maybe not. Honestly, after Deadfire I don't care much to see any of the companions returning - not in the full capacity. Pop up as an NPC, sure, as full companion? I don't much care for it. I was looking forward to seeing Eder, Aloth and Pallegian in PoE2, but I felt they did more harm to the characters then good. Eder is just there, those he does have nice moments. Aloth and Pal, I felt got really flattened to serve the needs of the game. From PoE2 crew, the only thing I would be excited to see, is being able to fight evil Xoti, if she went crazy in PoE2. Other then that, I can't say I would miss any of them.

I kinda assumed they might even aim for the steam release. It would make sense to give people reason to return to the game/buy it when the game won't be locked to Epic/WindowsStore. Watching the Vid now.

I have done full playthrough in TB. Overall, if you are fine with RTwP I would recommend going with that. PoE system doesn’t translate fully into TB - it was designed and balanced around RTwP. dext. becomes far less beneficial, and balance between weapon types becomes skewed due to how they are implimented. Also making grazes almost guaranteed does significantly boost value of abilities that inflict statuses on grazes. However, if you much prefer TB it is playable. base game works fine, but combat encounters become excruciatingly long in the DLCs, as enemies got buffed and encounters got longer. Some fights get easier in TB - for example the spider megaBoss isn’t nearly as deadly, as bonus to Dex she gets isn’t nearly as beneficial. The only enemy I wasn’t able to beat in TB was the construct megabosses, as his meteor strike attack was happening all at once without an ability to move out or react. while there is no official way of switching between the two, I believe it is possible to switch between modes using console commands. Never tried it myself, but I remember reading it works just fine.

It was confirmed there is some kind of DLC for Outer Worlds in works, no? as to what this project can be: I got no clue. It seems we won’t find out for a while either. I would be curious to learn who is involved.

Caaan't wait. Finished Desp: WDoA, and now going through Shadow Tactics. I am gonna probably kill without mercy. It's Wild West afterall. Shootouts and knife stabbings are a must.

G2A admits to selling stolen keys and tries to paint selves as victims.

Mazzy, Valygar, Nalia, Korgan, I think even Minsc would count. Essencially, any companion without a romance, has far less content then the those that do, and there are some, like Mazzy or Valygar or Nalia who have little to do outside quest they are tied to.

Lesser in content dedicated to them.

Nah, sidekicks are there to give people more choices as to whom to have with the party, without having to create more fully fledged companions then they were able to. This, like "lesser" companions from BG2.

That's a good question. While the game's setting is an "original" one, it uses DnD 5th edition. I am not familiar with the system, but doesn't it grant bonuses to higher ground? I remember BG3 mentioning a double roll if you have a high ground, but I don't know if it is their addition, or comes from DnD5. In the demo they released when crowdfunding the game, the verticality seemed pretty important in both exploration and combat. The end of the demo had a combat enounter with spiders, who could climb the walls, using it to flank the backline and attack from shadows. Light sources seemed pretty important, with characters in darkness being harder to hit. EDIT. I hope they will work on optimization before the release. The beta they released a while ago, was unplayable on my laptop. Speaking of optimization. I started playing Shadow Tactics before Desp3 release, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it run. On release, I could barely run it with all settings on low and smaller resolution. Now it runs smoothly with all settings high. I didn't expect that. Hopefully Desp3 will get a decent optimization from a get go.

Alright, alright, alright! I am back in the game, baby! Though with a playthrough of Shadow Tactics before Desp3 releases, I am not sure how much time I will have for it. 2K customer support took my ticket for investigation and suggested to use console commands to restart the mission, but they weren't able to quite help me with getting the console running. Thanks to this champ I managed to get things going: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2090737472

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.