Hawke64

Horses in particular took 3 hours. Otherwise, I was on AL last week (still have a few days to spend until 2026) and Black Geyser was of reasonable length (~35h for the first playthrough, 8h? for the second) to play. I also WFH 3 days per week and it is glorious as it cuts down ~130 minutes of commute per day. I would not try to play anything Ubisoft-like and currently just listening to the other gamer in the household playing Rogue Trader. I like Owlcat, but the turn-based combat and their density of encounters fill me with dread. So, might try in a year.

I have finished Horses. The only reason for the Steam ban I could see is that Valve really dislikes non-gratifying sexual violence (1 scene). Otherwise, it is a short walking simulator. The controls are unrebindable, the game saves every ~5 minutes, the scenes can be replayed after completing the game. It does not say anything new nor is particularly enjoyable to play (seems to be linear), so, unless one wants to support the developers, it is safe to skip. I have also played Atlas Fallen and so far it feels good. It also does not use UE5 (may it be sunsetted soon), so the performance is stable. The most memorable moment so far is the battle against a mini-boss and most of it I was able to spend mid-air ascending higher and higher along with the boss and it was not a scripted scene. In terms of story, it articulates more persuasively "theocracies and authoritarianism are bad" than Horses. A slightly longer review for Horses:

Black Geyser Untagged spoilers below. Armour. I guess, the developers tried and just do not understand how armour works. Or they could have leaned into it and add spikes and a whip. A somewhat better armour, though the elf would not be able to sit without piercing her legs with it. Gods' Chosen/10. I have tried to get a better coat of arms. (While playing as a Rillow) The Rillow suck and my god is bigger than yours. No option to say that the "main" god is trash, though. Elyx got back up one more time to say hi. Incredibly dedicated guards - they question me even after death. The "men" were not at ease. The time did not stop and the infinite guards offed a "plot-critical character". Attempt #1. The explosion, apparently, was delayed. Attempt #2. Got softlocked later on. The only way to avoid the boss was ~5 hours ago. Mistakes were made. It is the only time when the phrase is spoken (and once in the codex), as far as I can tell. The PC took too much after his mother, I suppose. The bodyguards are ignoring the matriarch being killed. Attempt #3. Successful. I cannot quite recall if the giant zombies were friendly in the previous playthrough. And the bane of this playthrough (alongside the loading times, but can't take a screenshot of those), the tooltips. I was very creative with the names, I know.

I have replayed Black Geyser. The critical path with claiming the stronghold was 7.5 hours. There are some continuity bugs, but overall it was fun. Not doing the time-travel quest turned out to be a mistake - it allows to skip a large dungeon and an otherwise-unavoidable boss. I have also managed to get the king killed prematurely, but the game softlocked due to it, so it took a few more hours to do it "properly". The writing occasionally makes me want to cry, but there are also the obviously OOC options, so it kind of balances out. Granted, in the dialogues with the king, choosing them quickly leads to combat and the infinite guards teleporting in.

I sympathise, this sounds unpleasant. I would expect progress-blocking issues to be resolved by now, though Greedfall was very stable for me when I played.

https://www.eurogamer.net/its-extremely-frustrating-and-also-fcked-up-one-of-the-worlds-best-indie-studios-is-facing-shock-closure-following-confounding-steam-ban For the reference, Banana is still available on Steam, so is Nekopara. Also, as the game itself does not seem to be described in the article, https://www.eurogamer.net/saturnalia-studios-deeply-unsettling-horror-horses-has-a-release-date-but-theres-a-significant-hitch-if-you-were-hoping-to-play-it-on-steam

No, only the original game with the latest update that included dual-wielding and strongholds (as far as I know, they were not there at the start). I might try the expansion later, as I have it on GOG.

I have finished Black Geyser: Couriers of Darkness. It is a party-based CRPG with RTwP combat in a fantasy setting. While the writing is uneven and the combat is simple (not based on an existing system), there is enough roleplay, QoL features, and some interesting gameplay systems to make the experience enjoyable. There is also delightfully little bloat allowing for a completionist playthrough of a reasonable length of 30-40 hours. The review which was longer than the character limit on Steam and GOG (there are no spoilers but it is long) :

Black Geyser No spoiler tags as everything there is to spoil is above already. I spent the next hour trying to kill the guy and survive. The game blocked the progress, though. So, while I could kill the story-critical NPCs, doing so resulted in the infinite guards spawning. No romance, alas. I should have purchased this at the first opportunity. They are removable, but this is a curious item. Bloodstained No idea why there were so many collaborations with the title. The thing felt quite uncomfortable and unpleasant to play. Real Web Legends: Carter's Quest Unexpectedly, it is an in-game costume.

Could anyone please tell me if there is a way to remove the trash mob combat encounters, leaving only the quest-related ones? The density feels the same as in PF, but it is significantly more time-consuming in the turn-based mode, while the opponents are the same.

I have tried Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and it plays surprisingly poorly. I am puzzled how this got such a positive reception - the bosses miss the health bars, everything has contact damage, enemies revive upon re-entering rooms, and there is no dedicated dodge key. And the MC screaming on every executed attack annoys me. I have also tried Real Web Legends: Carter's Quest. It is in Early Access and the custom controls reset upon closing the game. The developer stated that it will be resolved eventually, so I am happy to wait for v.1.0. Otherwise, it is an action-adventure with generally pleasant combat and interesting character design. The areas are a bit too large and too empty. The story of a silent and amnesiac protagonist following suggestions of a flying entity is not new, but works.

I would like to explicitly state that I do not recommend VtMB2 at least until the performance, combat, and saving issues are resolved and, possibly, Fabien's sequences turned into dialogues. The posts are mostly to process the experience. I definitely have played worse action games and worse vampire action games. In retrospect, I enjoyed this one more than Vampyr and the second VtM VN with the Lasombra MC. I also received the last VtM VN as a gift for the pre-order, which is nice, I suppose. To elaborate on the combat, there is a lot of it, it is mandatory, and it is uncomfortable. The performance issues and the opponents dodging out of the line of sight do not help either. There are combo attacks and the parry move (dodging into the attacker), but I was able to use them consciously and successfully exactly once, on the second boss. I'd guess that adding the third-person camera and target lock and removing the "ENEMIES NEARBY" message on the suspicious chained locks in every other room would be easier to implement (months instead of years or even mods) than reworking the level structure, combat, or increasing the enemy variety (there are very few types for the number of encounters and I did not notice any technical difference between the Anarchs and the Sabbat). The story is largely fine - the mystery is compelling and the characters are interesting enough. Granted, the lack of mechanical representation of the Beast and Humanity (or any non-combat skills) is unpleasant, but not unexpected for an action game. They occur at very specific story points, do the thing to move the story, and are inaccessible for the player. Also, the civilian NPC cannot run out of blood. Therefore, yes, picking it up on sale in a year or two should provide a better experience. Imgur is not cooperating today, so (the screenshot had to be smaller than 1MB):

Screenshots: All starting outfits look off and I do believe that this is on purpose. The attire from the key art: Some locations look nice, but I would not be able to navigate without the map. The collectibles - really unsuitable locations if you think of it. Same for the graffiti: I spent the next 10 minutes chain-biting this and another NPC. Very practical and not weird. Another feeding session when I unlocked the last blood type affecting ability. Then I stopped hunting for the rest of the game. He has a point here. Various glitches. Arguably, there could have been more. The haven. There is also a dead companion animal and a dead wild animal in the corner. The side quests offer a bit of context. To be fair, as much context as most of the main quests (there are ~5 significant ones and a lot of "go there, kill everything"). Fabien's quests: Spoilers (main NPC #2 or so): Spoilers (main NPC #3 or so): Spoilers (the incredibly touching romance dialogue): Spoilers (late-game/after the underground quest): Spoilers (end-game and ending):

I have finished The Séance of Blake Manor as well and managed to save everyone saveable (21/21, as the end-game window indicated). I have also spent almost a day trying to find Joyce - the quest requiring her was available very early, while the NPC was frequently inaccessible. The time limit allows to have a lot of interactive junk and functionally useless dialogue options without pressuring the player into using them all, which is welcome. I also had to wait for ~2.5 hours at the end for the last event after doing everything else (and 1 hour to get to Joyce). The controls are rebindable and it is possible to save at almost any time, though the number of save files is insufficient. The main non-logical puzzle (the runes/glyphs thing) is fun enough to do repeatedly. The visual style is very readable and expressive at the same time (low-poly 3D environment and 2D character models). A small annoyance was (ending spoilers): Also, some investigations were obvious to me as a player (e.g. Murphy's) but not the character, including the main culprit.

Thank you.