Hawke64

I have defeated the first boss and realised that I strongly dislike the combat system. The boss, unlike me, also could block the attacks. In terms of traversal and stealth, it is possible to travel via the rooftops, the PC kills really quietly (you can chain-stealth-kill), and the opponents have a relatively low range of vision. An early spoiler for the NPC companion: An early spoiler for the first boss battle: The game opened up afterwards, with several quests to choose from across the city. The clan representatives offer to unlock the other clans' abilities for some blood points. I have also spent some more time with the GameUserSettings.ini file. Can't say that I've achieved much, though. Screenshots: Screenshots with some spoilers:

I apologise for misreading the comment and thank you for the clarification.

I've got it to run with the -dx11 parameter. The store page explicitly stated that DX12 was the only supported version, so it looks a bit worse than one would hope. The only good thing I can say now is that the controls are rebindable. The on-screen prompts still show the default keys, though. In terms of story, the NPC companion is quite amicable (neither obnoxious nor hysterical), which is welcome, considering that the NPC is likely to be around for the whole game. I suppose, the installation size (~25GB) is good, especially considering that GOG runs installation through the system drive. I am feeling adventurous enough to continue, even if it is just an action-adventure rather than an RPG. However, I would not recommend to purchase it for more than £10 and earlier than next year. Then again, the Eternal Strands devs disabled -dx11 in one of the updates, so it was quite unpleasant to discover after purchasing (thank GOG for the 30 days refund limit). I think, an easier rollback should be possible on Steam via the CLI (because the developers did not offer a beta branch after worsening the system requirements), which would require more effort than I am willing to provide at the moment. It was on by default. I mean, there were not many articles of clothing in VtMB, but this is sad. On a "fun" note, imgur is blocked in the UK. I'd guess the owners chose it while that OSA bs blows over, rather than the local goverment went after the website. Given the situation with the human rights for LGBTQ+ and especially trans and intersex people, this is not the angle for humour I would use. https://diva-magazine.com/2025/10/13/coroner-trans-wait-times/

Fear the Spotlight is free on EGS. The game is nice if short.

1. You were right and the launcher skip worked. 2. The game still does not work. Using a username without a space in it changed the error, but then I updated the GPU drivers and the previous error returned. I have also redownloaded the game's latest version from GOG (the patch was for a newer version than the initial release), with no improvements.

I have tried both, the root folder and the "\Bloodlines 2\Bloodlines2\Binaries\Win64\Bloodlines2-Win64-Shipping.exe", executables with the same result. The "Launch.." shortcut directs to the launcher more clearly. True.

I have the game and here is a screenshot of the only gameplay I have experienced: The Paradox launcher mildly annoys me, but the firewall is handling it and the issue above is more significant. I suspect it is the usual UE5 thing (kindly, may Lumen and Nanites be gone), so I will try with Steam Deck later (not entirely sure how to install GOG games on it, but will try). I'd be more upset about it if I did not purchase it 5 years ago for a fraction of the current price. As is, I am just disappointed. --- Found the pre-rendered videos: Banu_BladedHand.mp4

City of Springs A reasonable and relatable protagonist is welcome to see. I think the game's been out before the 2024 GE. The combat. It did not happen often, but I stopped trying to jump out of bounds. Why? An ending spoiler. At that point, I laughed for a few minutes.

I have finished Saviorless (reached the epilogue where an NPC asked not to hit them, so I did not and quit the game). The visuals were quite nice, but everything else was not. Review: Absinthia. I have found an oni in a hidden location and the party was defeated in 3 turns. It is a very well-made RPGMaker game, even if I somewhat dislike the generic RPGMaker combat.

I suppose, I am going to try it and see how it goes even if I do not finish the game. It is £1.09 at the moment. Edit. It crashed with Curl error 7: Failed to connect to config.uca.cloud.unity3d.com port 443 after 6775 ms: Couldn't connect to server Crash!!! Will poke a bit more to see if it runs. The developers working with Unity forgetting to disable the analytics and hitting the firewall are not new. Edit. 2. It runs. But too hot for comfort, so until I get some better cooling, I'd rather keep it sitting in the library. Then again, you can play as a half-moose, so that's something to look forward to.

Has anyone played Edge of War? As I understand, it was Early Access, lost the publisher and now to be taken off the store after the final sale. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1786070/Edge_of_War/ https://steamcommunity.com/games/1786070/announcements/detail/532110628895065299?snr=2___

I have finished City of Springs and it was not horrible. While it is as engaging as Assassin's Creed without parkour (one can try to parkour and fall through the level geometry), it is functional. The story follows a young unemployed engineer in a steampunk/post-apocalyptic city after the local government executes the engineer's sister. The stealth is functional and the combat is unusual, for what it's worth. The unusual part is that there are 2 lines and you can summon small drones, so can your oppponent. The goal is to destroy the opponent (bug-like robots). It vaguely reminds of DotA/MOBAs in general, but not quite it. And the opponents have slightly different shells - the starting ones are white, then the stronger ones are purple, and the late-game ones are golden and grey. And their shells have no bearing on their abilities beyond the health bar. The bosses have a slightly fancier shells with decorations on them and do require attention. The visual and sound design are present. Again, they are not the worst I have seen, but I generally struggled to notice the interactive objects without the highlight (looking for 3 "machines" in one of the missions was decidedly unfun). The VA is there and line skipping was skipping 2 at a time, thus, somewhere from mid-game I was getting about 50% of the dialogues because listening to it was not exactly engaging. The journal consisted of "Talk to [NPC]. There might be jobs to do" and put markers on the next objective. The controls are not rebindable, the game autosaves in 5 slots. There are some side quests most of which I've skipped. I suppose, "it works" is not the best recommendation, but given the price I had expected crashes or game-breaking bugs and there were none (I had to reload after getting stuck once), and the story was concluded at the end.

I have finished Promise Mascot Agency. I stand by my initial assessment - Saints Row without combat and all your gang members are mascots. I have started and finished Fear the Spotlight. It is a horror game, it is (surprisingly) shorter than I would like (~5 hours), but it does not overstay its welcome, so fine, I guess. It looks nice, the pacing is good, the puzzles are on the easier side.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1154960/Ardenfall/ I've played for 40 minutes or so (got through the tutorial cave and walked around the first town). Looks like Morrowind with (much) better combat.

Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness? Promise Mascot Agency