Hawke64

Some far-right group pressured Steam and Itch.io into removing content by lobbying the payment processors. I'd guess that it was not so much due to those particular a*holes, but because of the general political situation in the US. Nonetheless, let us stand together against censorship. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/itchio-apologise-for-frustration-and-confusion-after-delisting-thousands-of-nsfw-projects Petition: https://www.change.org/p/tell-mastercard-visa-activist-groups-stop-controlling-what-we-can-watch-read-or-play Contact information of the payment processors: Mastercard Phone (US): 1-800-627-8372 US option selection for operator: 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 Phone (outside US): 1-636-722-7111 Email: customer_support@mastercard.com Online form: https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/personal/get-support/ask-mastercard.html Visa Phone (US): 1-800-847-2911 US option selection for operator: 1, 1, 2 or 1, 1, 3 Non-US phone numbers: https://usa.visa.com/contact-us.html Email: askvisa@visa.com Online form: https://usa.visa.com/Forms/contact-us-form.html Paypal Phone (US): 1-888-221-1161 Phone (outside US): 1-402-935-2050 Hours: 6am - 6pm PT Online form: https://www.paypal.com/uk/cshelp/complaints

Deathloop is free on EGS. It still refused to run for me, but at least I don't have to refund it. The Dragon Age and Mass Effect artbook bundles are available on Fanatical: https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/dragon-age-comics-and-art-book-bundle https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/mass-effect-comics-and-art-book-bundle (now I know what was the logic behind the "no helmets in the vacuum" design)

For me, the premise and the artstyle were appealing, but the combination of no highlighting for the interactive items, the lack of settings, the "gather X of Y items to proceed" aspect, and the protagonist was not. --- Desta: The Memories Between It seems to be a turn-based sports-like game with rogue-like elements. The graphics and visual style are nice, the controls consist of the mouse buttons, though the gameplay is not exactly my genre (I did like Pyre, though). Virtue's Heaven Demo

The Bookwalker Mistakes were made - the game is unpleasant, from the story to "puzzles" to accessibility and I missed the refund window (granted, the last part is on me). The text seems to be from a cancer research paper. So, from this moment, I named the MC F_ckface. It is fitting if nothing else. And at this point I realised that even if I cannot refund it, I can still save my time. Pretty visuals alone cannot hold a game. Rebel Transmute. It is a decent Metroidvania, though I am not too fond of the semi-ranged combat. Very nice otherwise. The Steam screenshot function does not work, though.

Homebody The "Damn it, Zippy" collection. The screenshots under the spoiler tag are spoiler-y due to the puzzle solutions, locations, or Zippy's appearance.

I have played and finished Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3. It is a heartfelt story about game development. It is also a Match-3 game. And a visual novel. And a horror game. The protagonist, J.J. Hardwell (the name and personality are hard-coded and not customisable), former Postal Inspection Service agent and the newest agent of the ATS, is on his first mission to investigate the mansion of a suspected super-scientist, Duncan Dockright III. Generally, the game is well-written and technically well-made, with the diverse dialogue options, victory conditions, and “battles” (not all matches are battles), the trait system based on the story branches completed, and the quality-of-life features, such as the fast-skip function and highlighting the previously-chosen options (which may have other branches behind them). There are a few issues, most notably, the UI for the Match-3 sections seems to be controller-focused and rather uncomfortable, which is odd, considering how smooth and responsive it was in the demo. The skip function does not work for some animations and, as mentioned, the highlight does not take the post-option branching into account. The few keys that are used are not possible to rebind. While it is possible to replay from any unlocked checkpoint (usually every 1-2 matches), the game uses auto-saving into a single slot, so Windows Explorer is the only option for save file management. It is not unusual, but nonetheless disappointing. The graphics, music, and animations are expressive and fitting and the game is VA-free. --- I have also finished Homebody. It is an excellent puzzle horror game in the modern setting with a time loop - each time the protagonist dies, the evening restarts from entering the house, which the group of friends rented for their trip. It is also a remarkably accurate representation of social anxiety. The house is a closed system with a specific schedule and everything needed already being there. The puzzles are logical and reasonably straight-forward and there is an optional hint system starting from “Have you noticed A?” to “To do A, do B first”. The dialogues are well-written with several options and can provide hints for the puzzles as well along with more background story, such as the relationship between the group members and their lives prior to arriving at the house. The relationship progress persists between the loops and most of the puzzles are not random (I think, there is only one exception). The graphics are expressive and easy to read and use the PS1-style aesthetics. The music and sound design are fitting and build the atmosphere and suspense. The game is VA-free, allowing a smaller size and requiring less processing power. The controls are comfortable and rebindable, offering both keyboard and mouse controls. The game uses auto-saving into a single slot, with 3 slots total, meaning that one has to utilise their file management system should they want to have hard manual saves. Considering that the cut-scenes are not repeatable, while the difficulty increases as the game progresses, the lack of manual saving is unpleasant. Additionally, upon continuing the game, the player always starts from a new loop, with the position in the previous loop lost. While the loops are short and the memories are saved, it is still undesirable. I am also unsure whether interpersonal interactions should be considered universally better than seclusion. Each person is different and what works for the extroverted neurotypicals can be extremely uncomfortable for a neurodivergent person (see the gamers during the 2020 lockdown meme). The social systems were built by and for extroverts and must change to accommodate everyone, not only them. Overall, it is an excellent horror game with the above-mentioned technical flaws.

I started the main quest after finishing the Shivering Isles, so it was a bit awkward. --- It is amazing how much better the faces look like with the mod. Took 3 attempts to figure out that I could rest and heal the knights who were too keen on getting killed.

Should be obvious what game it is. https://strangescaffold.itch.io/crdm3

The UK government seems to be inspired by Trump and Putin and is actively going after the people with disabilities and trans people. Also the refugees. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A2zfEwGFOmg https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/supreme-court-ruling-endangers-womens-rights-trans-group-warns_uk_6808b116e4b0deaad52734e3 Petitions to sign: For the people with disabilities: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/703827 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/721918 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/721828 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/721547 https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2025-0091/ For trans people: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/701159 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/704793 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/712741 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700312 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/703861 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700652 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/705870 https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/700219 The protest in London is planned for 25 May.

Finished Broken Roads and wrote a text wall of feedback for the devs. Also found a bug and a workaround for it for the Steam version (backup the remotecache.vdf file before uninstalling).

Found this gem (might be in a wrong order, but each screenshot should be self-contained; it is a single-player game):

Broken Roads. The game opens up after "just" 7 hours (if you use the Fast Mode and do not comb the locations for loot and XP, it should be faster). The combing part requires tapping the highlight key, while also hovering over everything with the cursor - the XP&loot gains are rather limited, but some interactive points are quest-related and are not possible to highlight with the key. The devs really liked the old adventure games and disliked accessibility, I suppose. The main quests are time-limited and the journal does not anyhow mention it. Nonetheless, I appreciate the opportunity to continue the playthrough, while being able to actually fail the quests (1 important NPC died, but I did not like him anyway). The combat UI seems to be console-focused - there is a wheel menu in combat and you can use the scroll mouse button to switch between the 8-item wheels. The quick item bar is such an obvious thing to have. Then again, so are the item highlights. Some NPCs the party shot repeatedly got up after the battle like it was nothing. Fortunately, most of the foes do remain dead. With the default builds, only 1-2 companions are effective in combat. My melee build is "situationally effective" - the ammo for the ranged weapons is not limited, though reloading is required, so I probably should have equipped everyone with rifles and aimed for the Intelligence + Awareness stats (so they can shoot reasonably accurately at least twice per turn). But too late now.

I've checked the Steam Community Hub for screenshots. There is some range of options, at least for the male characters.

Thymesia. It is certainly an interesting choice to put Genichiro as the first boss and the Bed of Chaos as the second (not counting the tutorial one). The hitboxes are a bit weird and the parries lack the feedback Sekiro provided, so "if no numbers above my head => the parry was successful". The difficulty gap between the regular foes and 1 mini-boss (the rest were tanky, but not challenging) and the main boss is rather large. The storytelling is fine, I suppose? The MC has amnesia and recalls the past while sitting in a remote cabin with a Firekeeper-like NPC, whose age I cannot quite determine. The recalling part is venturing into clearly separate levels and completing an objective there (to defeat a boss, find an item, or destroy something). So far there has been 1 tutorial level, 1 large main level (returned trice), and 1 boss room level (the Bed of Chaos). That is to say, there is no connection between the maps, despite them having shortcuts within themselves. The MC cannot jump up, though there is no falling damage and any dangerous fall is covered in the invisible walls. Update. The fourth boss regenerates. Not continuously, but in several timed (?) bursts throughout the battle. The third is fine. The variety of the regular enemies is humans with weapons and 1 levitating humanoid. Forgot to mention, the opponents have 2 health bars - one is the actual health, depleting which leads to the foe perishing, and the other one is called Wounds (Armour or Posture would be more appropriate). It regenerates after a delay up to the health level. The main weapon, a saber, causes a decent amount of damage to the Armour-Wounds, but very low to health, while the alternative weapons, including the always-available Claws, shred the health, but cannot pierce the Wounds (so, it definitely should have been called Armour). The alternative weapons can be set at the not-bonfires and summoned with a separate key or torn from the opponents. They also have linear upgrade paths that require defeating the foes wielding them for the upgrade materials. The controls are rebindable and reasonably responsive, and 5-button mice are supported. Dodge and sprint are separate keys. Update. 2. At the final boss and vaguely annoyed. There are 4 maps in total (the Royal Garden has 2, the greenhouse and the underground, and the tutorial is a part of the Hermes Fortress map) and the bosses' arenas. I have not encountered any major bugs. I am still confused about the order of events or why the MC had gone into those areas in the first place. Update. 3. Defeated the final boss with the power of farming (sort of) - I farmed the upgrade materials for the Bow (the free talent respec helped with quite a bit), stuck all consumable ingredients into the potion since there is nothing after the final boss, and was shooting the boss in the face with the bleeding-inducing arrows to break the armour and using the long claws to shred the health and recover my energy.

Finished Tunic. It is an excellent action and adventure-puzzle game, though I did look up the translation and some of the codes. Also got the elbow bursitis from playing (the irony is that gaming is one of my least physically-intensive hobbies). Almost gone now, though. Highly recommended (the game, not the injury). Started Broken Roads. 5 hours in and it strongly reminds me of Encased, but worse in every aspect - it is an isometric party-RPG in the post-apocalyptic setting, but the customisation options are fewer, very few non-alignment skill checks, very few interactions outside of dialogues, the highlighting does not quite work (so I miss the interactive objects unless I hover the cursor over the whole screen continiously), etc. And the last quest was to run between 2 NPCs, who were standing 10m from each other, and click on the only quest-related option available. Started Thymesia. I guess, I have played worse Souls-lites? The absence of the stamina limits is nice, the lack of customisation options is less nice.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/dice-and-destiny £10 for Broken Roads and also includes PoE1&2, Disco Elysium, Citizen Sleeper, and Roadwarden. So, now I am happy to share the keys for the latter 2 and PoE if anyone wants them. I do not remember hearing about the particular charity before, but "a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty" sounds good.

It's Dragon Ruins. Not sure 1 or 2, though. https://store.steampowered.com/app/3293490/Dragon_Ruins_II/ --- Shadow of the Road I probably should have used Imgur, rather than Steam, but the quality (JPEG) is serviceable. Barely. Responding first as the MC1, then as the MC2. The small font and Japanese VA mix rather poorly. The red word means "foreigner". It is as straightforward and unambiguous as it gets and should have been translated. The same emperor that holds himself to be a direct descendant of Amaterasu and the Shinto high priest, I guess. It is rather odd, but could be worse. The GPU was running too hot, so I did not get to meet the ninjas in-game. Them jumping between trees and wearing black pajamas with the swords on their backs highlighted that it is a very much fantasy game. --- Tunic The game is absolutely delightful to play. Except the Quarry. Damned be the Quarry. The checkpoint was dead and so was I. After 4-5 attempts, it occurred to me that it might be not the best direction to explore.

Currently playing Tunic. The exploration is amazing (unironically) - I managed to enter a late-game area from the wrong side and spent an hour having my HP drained (I dropped the difficulty after 4 attempts due to the checkpoint in the area not working; it did not make it obvious for me that something was off). It was a rather interesting experience, nonetheless. I also love the manual-styled in-game manual. The map, fortunately, tracks the location, though even using the landmarks is easy. Tried the open alpha test of Shadow of the Road (published by Owlcat). It is a tactical game in the steampunk Japanese setting. The tutorial battle was as easy as it could be. The dialogues required responding as both pre-made party members (like in DOS1, if it had fixed characters) and had quite a few Japanese words untranslated, such as "foreigner" or "cup". There were some notifications, such as "MC1 was pushed towards X path" and "Relationship between MC1 and MC2 improved", but I am unsure what exactly it means in the long term (only the ending or some stat changes or quest availability). There also was a timed choice at the end. Given the checkpoint-based saving system, I found it rather unpleasant. In the second area, a forest with an estate, my GPU hit 86C and I closed the game with Alt+F4. There were no graphical settings, except the resolution, so nothing to drop (there was also some sort of dirt filter on the screen, which was not possible to disable). The cut-scenes were a mix of animated slides with in-engine scenes (think Rogue Trader). The VA is Japanese only, which was very unfortunate, considering the size of the text (not impossible to read, but uncomfortable). The story is closer to fantasy than anything too historical, thouth the god-descending emperor prosecuting the Shinto followers was somewhat odd to see. The tree-hopping ninjas in black pajamas with swords on their backs confirmed the high fantasy setting. I am unlikely to purchase, but the playtest is there and free to participate. Another consideration in regard to Owlcat:

I am not surprised, but still disappointed. With Microsoft as the publisher, Obsidian should have had enough resources to release an actually complete and reasonably bug-free title for once. Avowed is a single-player action-RPG, not a GaaS, so what's the point? Obsidian games have excellent writing and strong system design, so why was it not possible to use the funding for testing and optimisation? I guess, I should take it as an enocuragement to wait for all the patches and discounts. I will not post it on the Avowed forum, as the situation might be well out of the developers' hands, so such feedback might be unactionable, but it is still unpleasant. --- Finished El Paso, Elsewhere. It is an excellent third-person shooter with somewhat odd performance. I loved that the protagonist was noticing and commenting on things I, as a player, would have missed otherwise. Started Tunic. I like the journal and the exploration, with the controls being fully rebindable. Tried Jusant. The game thrown an error at launch ("Not all features are supported.."), which was probably related to the OS, rather than the GPU or its drivers, so I refunded. I've also tried the demo of Harmony (another DONTNOD game) and having mixed thoughts about it. I suppose, I like that the developers are trying to implement the concepts I find interesting, though the end results are mixed.

If anyone is playing on Steam Deck, how does Avowed run on it? I am actively avoiding spoilers and scrolling past the other game-related posts (going to wait for patches, discounts, and, hopefully, GOG). We also have a separate subforum for it, though it seems less active than this one.

Could anyone please share how Avowed runs on Steam Deck in terms of performance (FPS without frame-generation or upscaling) and the UI scaling (is it readable)? Dragon Age: The Veilguard was amazing in this respect (also cheaper), but it also did not use UE5, which provided horrible performance in all games I've tried on PC (arguably, not many).

Gamers have a frame of reference, while the people who are less familiar with the medium do not. And yes, mods can solve this issue, but an appropriate saving system (and some sort of Very Hard Single-Save mode) should be built-in by default from the start. Granted, I liked Lunacid despite its saving system (I had to mod in quick-saving, which also respawned all foes in the area), because the other aspects were good.

I would say that the saving system looks (have not played and unlikely to) more unpleasant than the combat. While for an action-adventure, like Zeno Clash (the only one first-person game with somewhat complex combat I can remember), relatively frequent checkpoints are fine, losing several hours in an action-RPG might be much more irritating. --- I have finished (and am replaying now) Sorry We're Closed and it was a most delightful experience - excellent writing, level design, gameplay, visual style and graphics, and music. The system requirements are most reasonable, the controls are rebindable, and there are some accessibility options (including infinite healing and aim-assist). There are several endings and I have managed to reach 2 of them (some are mutually exclusive, as I understand). There are also some side quests and collectibles, tied closely to the main story. 1 playthrough is around 10 hours. The genre is survival horror in an uncompromisingly queer British setting created by a small development team (2 people), while the story itself is about love (and not bringing a chainsaw to a shotgun fight). The game is heartwarming, engaging, and focused, and also DRM-, DLC-, and MTX-free. This is exactly the kind of art I want to see and support more. The only thing I could complain about are very few save slots (3), but Windows Explorer resolves it. Some GIF images from the Steam store page (because I did not take any screenshots in combat and would not want to spoil the story): The game is available on GOG and Itch.io as well.

Well said, though games are complex and the players' hardware and software configurations are diverse, so waiting for at least a month before playing might bring a more enjoyable experience. Still, I do believe that you will have a great time even if there are minor technical issues. I am looking forward to the game, though more accessible and environmentally-friendly system requirements would be most welcome and I shall resist the urge to pre-purchase and take a vacation.

Well said. These qualities, the player's agency with branching paths, choices, and their consequences, are what sets Obsidian's work apart and utilises the unique aspects of the interactive medium. Also the strong writing and characters, rich lore, and other engaging and well-designed gameplay systems. I am looking forward to Avowed, even if I am going to wait before purchasing (would like to have it on GOG and complete). There were Eothas and the faction leaders. I found myself quite enjoying cutting down Atsura and Hazanui Karu. They were reasonably grounded and understandable, while having the capacity to be compelling antagonists. The same can be said about the other factions, I suppose. The Vailian Trading Company was the least directly hostile to the party, but they absolutely could (did) murder random civilians. On the other hand, allying with a faction would provide a satisfying ending as well. Though, as it required compromising my ego and losing companions, I greatly appreciated the ability to finish the game without their support.