Wormerine

The game will also include turn-based mod, and one will be able to switch between the two on the go. Game however is focused and balances around RTwP.

Shovel Knight: King of Cards. What a treat Shovel Knight turned out to be. The final campaign is probably my least favourite one - limitations of the King Knight movement set are interesting, making platforming feel more methidical but I don't find the nearly as fun and any of the three previous knights. On a flip side, there is a mini card game this time around, and it's quite clever. Not something I am into though, when playing a retro 2d platformer.

Pick up and play first Desperados. It's still very good. It used to have some performance issues, but it got patched when IP holder decided to resurect the series after Shadow Tactics success.

True, art-wise Dishonored is great. Partially, because it is not as old, and because art direction is sublime. On a side note, once I get a new PC Dis2 will be the first one to be played (very much like Dis1 was with my current lap(table)top).

While being a consfused child of Thief and Deux Ex, and not being good as either of those series? :-)

Necrooooooo! Ahhh, good old times.

As far as I am aware, yes. Oh, I also am not a big fan of 4. That might the hotter take. Never could get into it, I tried many times. Well, yeah. At this point JE2 would be an unfinished live service. But Action RPGs have progressed a long time since JE times. I would love a good action-kungfu RPG. In my hot take, monthly fee wasn't a complaint - it was a reason people keep playing them.

That's true. Therefore, RTwP RPGs should mimic stat/roll based Turn-Based design. If playing in real time doesn't allow to engage with game systems, then it shouldn't be real time. I like RTwP RPGs but they should be turn based, or have a rulset designed to be consumed in real time. HAHAHAHA! No. I don't like any of them (didn't play Inquisition), but it's short and forgettable, so... maybe? Well, Deadfire nailed it. Unless, you are still following your moral compas, rather then your character's, in which case sure: you will always feel one of the sides is better then the other. Though as to examples you mentioned: yeah, successful in making "good" sides look bad, not succesful in justifying how "bad" sides could be considered not evil. Yes... RTS have high difficulty floor, and strategical competency can only be tested between euually matched opponent. In most cases it comes down to greater dexterity in managing macro. Still fun. Too bad W3:Ref is a pooper. Wouldn't mind diving into it - never tasted Multiplayer side of it. Problem, would end up getting wiped for the next 3 months before getting bored. As StarWars games? No. As RPGs? Yes. Now my turn: Beyond Good&Evil lays groundwork for future titles (like Arkham games) but is itself pretty crap - weak gameplay, annoying characters, lack of charm and coherent story. Pillars of Eternity would be a better games if they were designed to be turn based. Divinity: Original Sin 1&2 are horrible games when you play them by yourself. Civilization 6 improves on Civ5. Epic Store is not the worst Digital Gaming Store on the market. MMORPGs are bad games, played by people who don't want to admit that they got duped into paying every month for a crap game. Vampires: Bloodlines is an a-ok RPG. It's fine. Wouldn't recommend it. From all Bioware games, the one that deserves a good sequel is Jade Empire. Fallout 1 is better then Fallout 2.

[shrug] On my part, it's speculation of someone who has little knowledge of what happens to make this appear on my monitor. It is not impossible, that PoEs use old kind of technology, for which Unity is simply not built to effectively handle. Whenever the problem lies in approach itself (using high definition chunks of 2nd backgrounds) or in not investing enough in engine that would support this approach I have no idea. PoEs have loading issue, there is no doubt about it. Deadfire improved a lot in that regard, so it is not impossible that it could be improved even further with some smart engine tweaking. Considering how little space, let's say, Witcher3 takes I am not sure it is true. Another thing which comes to mind is, that a 3d game might use a mix of high and low texture and streams in more details as we get closer to things - even so many objects don't have high quality textures.

Doesn't a problem lie in loading and streaming high definition 2d images, as opposed to reading data and generating it into on screen graphics an a go? Outerworlds is full 3d and "maps" are generated - while majority Deadfire's maps are high definition pre-rendered images with effects simulated on top of it (lighting etc.).

I dunno. I wouldn't say that it doesn't matter - I do remember how my character looked like, and it was tied to my roleplaying, even if his face wasn't visible during gameplay. It does seem like a lot of commitment. Couple ignorant guesses of someone with no knowledge of how games work: 1) As it is only visible in menus, and doesn't interact with systems within the main game, most of the workload was on the art team, which would finish working earlier then rest of the team, therefore making space for creation of this feature? 2) benefits this game already, and lays groundwork for potential sequel with Third-Person Camera option?

I did beat all challenges in SSS on upscaled Veteran with my completly noob character and party, and PotD with my 2nd, more thought out character. It was certainly a challenge, but not as extreme as OP suggest. I, for one, am yet to beat half of the Megabosses, though mostly, as I can't be bothered to repeat them more then 3 times with how poorly my laptop runs Deadfire. HPs to tend to be more inflated in DLCs but that works with per-encounter skill design. I don't remember it to be a problem in RTwP, but found it quite tedious in turn based.

Ah! Excellent. I was wondering what happened to it. DR1 had a lot of potential, but was hamstrung by limitations and clunkiness of it's planning phase tools. Hopefully the sequel will address that.

For everyone clambering for a shred of hope: Wizards of the Coast’s new studio, with ex-Bioware folks working on new IP SF RPG https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/01/31/wizards-of-the-coasts-new-studio-is-making-a-sci-fi-rpg-with-ex-bioware-devs/

I didn't find Jim's video very informative, so here is another one:

Alien Isolation was my second favourite Alien property after errr... Alien.

What I said should be treated with a grain of salt. Tried to find the exact quote yesterday, but can't locate it. I am pretty sure it was mentioned that WM didn't pay off financially, but can't guarantee that this information is accurate, and not my misinterpretation of something that was said.

I would be curious to learn how well DLCs for Deadfire sold as well, compared to base game. If I remember well WM didn't return on the investment. I think it was mentioned when discussing why DLC model for Deadfire changed to smaller, individual adventures. I don't have the source, though.

As soon as my gaming budy visits we will fire up one of the D:OS. First 10 hours of D:OS is the best coop time I ever had.

Baldur's Gate 3 tease. More.on 02.27? https://twitter.com/baldursgate3/status/1217964674156810240?s=20

Mechanically it is very very basic, though. That's also it's downfall, I think. Disco Elysium is only as good as it's writing, and while the first half of the game is impressive when it comes to content and reactivity, it takes a drastic dive to the worse once player leaves an opening area. It is the freshest and most interesting RPG I played in a while. Does that make it the best?

I don't think OW really needed much. Playing close to the chest, is releasing a game with save import not working correctly and before a serious balance pass is made. Releasing a game with a stable 1.0, patching in some minor issues, and then announcing how one will sell new content for the game is the preferable way of doing things.

Epic will continue throwing their weight around throughout the 2020 - at least the part I like of giving game for free every week. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/01/14/epic-games-store-will-continue-free-game-giveaways-all-2020/ Still, Fortnite seems to bring in majority of the income.

I do wonder what strategy they will have for DLCs. Considering there is a pack of people who wait for the game to be released outside EPIC, I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to spend more time on a bigger expansion, and release it together with multi-store release. That said, console release isn't affected by it at all, so a more common smaller/quicker DLCs might still make complete sense.

Marketing for Tyranny was abysmal. As someone who followed Obsidian, PoEs, and Tyranny specifically, I had little to no idea what Tyranny is (aside from borrowing PoE engine) and what I did know, turned out to be untrue. Little to no surprise there, that the game didn't find it's audience.