Hawke64

Banquet for Fools

Started Banquet for Fools. It is a CRPG, the setting is original, the controls are rebindable (the feature itself is pretty, but uncomfortable, though), the party is fully customisable (like in IWD or Solasta). The developers quickly fixed the few bugs I reported. The combat is closer to RTwP and the prologue uses a predetermined mid-/high-level character. I must admit, I quite like the ragdoll effects there. The game is in EA and the full release is planned for the end of January. The New Arc Line (CRPG, steampunk; the demo ran extremely poorly) team recently posted that they use UE5 (a rather bad idea for a CRPG), so Banquet is my choice for this sale.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. However, separating art from the artist works when the artist no longer benefits from the royalties*. Rowling still does and is actively using her fortune to cause harm, regardless of how popular the IP is. When it is 6 feet underground and the fund set up specifically to finance transphobic lawsuits is dismantled, then sure. *excluding the financial aspect/from the cultural point of view, I'd say if you can experience the work in isolation from the author's biography and understand it fully.

The People Make Games channel has published Why We're Boycotting Xbox (and Maybe You Should Too). MS does own several developers whose work I am fond of, such as Obsidian, inXile, and Arkane, and, fortunately, all of them have been increasing the system requirements of their recent releases ("more graphics"), making boycotting them much easier. Some of the Arkane Lyon employees spoke out in support of boycotting their games, which takes quite a lot of courage even in France.

Just in case, JK Rowling's favourite hobby is harassing children and donating to hate groups, thus avoiding supporting the Harry Potter franchise would be appreciated. https://www.them.us/story/jk-rowling-girlguiding-girl-guides-girl-scouts-trans-ban-consent Granted, the books were not the best examples of literature to begin with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iaJWSwUZs

In case it might help, GOG offline installers unpack everything through the system drive, so you'd need ~140GB of free space there for it to work, regardless of the selected installation drive. This is one of the main reasons why I avoid GOG for larger games. Why the developers stopped giving a f* about optimisation is another question.

The winter giveaways seem to have started on EGS. Today's is Eternights. The sales on Steam and GOG are ongoing and I am trying to figure out how to get GOG games to run on Steam Deck. I suspect it might need more storage space or I could just repurchase on Steam.

I am unsure whether humans or AI are worse for the environment, but not increasing the number of humans globally seems like a good step when they can and want to move on their own. Immigration can solve workforce shortages, providing services and taxes (unlike large corporations), and likely moving out before retirement, though the people who immigrate must be protected from exploitation, as they have less safety nets than the local citizens. In the UK, the nursing and the agricultural jobs (which the locals do not have the skills and the inclination for) offer(ed) dedicated immigration pathways. For the non-physical jobs, genAI might work, but, as was said during the peak of the COVID pandemic, a lot (not all) of the "essential" jobs require a human or a humanoid robot, unless there is a significant investment in the infrastructure. As the latter are more expensive to make and maintain than to hire a human, humans are more likely to be used. One of the explanations I've heard for why people care more about the genAI being applied to art is that artists can articulate their concerns about their employment and income, unlike a random factory worker. Well, and that creative jobs are more fulfilling than the manual labour or more routine office jobs, forgetting that artists also have to draw icons for mobile games, ads for fast food chains, or covers for romance novels, which are more of a craft than a genuine artistic endeavour. Humans love self-expression and even if it becomes unavailable as a source of income, they will do it for the sake of it, though it would make the hobby less inclusive. --- Regarding Larian specifically, all their initial concept art is generic (Rivellon is a generic fantasy setting), aside from maybe the elves and the lizards. Utilising genAI will not change it. The attached screenshot is from the DOS2 intro - the faces are deformed and the clothing already blends in. The current game cover, with the companions in action poses, is much better, but it is 1 promotional image.

The NG+ mode is quite fun, though much easier, as the stats are higher and everything dies quicker even on the highest difficulty setting (but also kills you in 1-2 hits). I used the whip sword as well due to its range.

I admire your optimism, though cannot share it. As they say, "garbage in, garbage out" - the genAI models are trained by humans on the human-generated data with the human-set goals, thus, the result is likely to be more of the same. And then there is the issue with the energy consumption. Pretty much yes.

Atlas Fallen I was quite surprised that the sysstem was locked by the NG cycle, but then I was almost always at 2-3 stage of Momentum (higher damage received and inflicted, also the dagger transforms into a greatsword), so it kind of makes sense. There was a way around the guard which I missed on the first playthrough.

I think Expeditions: Viking managed to achieve it - the time limit was generous but present and made sense for the story. I suppose, the same could be said about the tutorial in Tyranny, but the scale there was smaller. For Larian's D&D game, if I am not mistaken, the party discovered that the illithid transformation is delayed quite early and from there it was trying to find a cure at a more leisurely pace. Then again, even if it continued to be urgent, every other NPC was promising solutions at the start, so going along with them could be in-character. Well, also looking for a high-level cleric, a pickaxe, and the True Resurrection spell, which would be travelling straight to the nearest large city.

I have finished Atlas Fallen on the highest difficulty in NG+. The interesting part is that the tools available (the weapon upgrades, new armour sets, and the more powerful Essence Stones) effectively offset it - while the bosses could 1-shoot me, I also was almost instantly and constantly at high Momentum (which additionally meant higher damage to me) and able to use the Shatter attacks with a lot of i-frames repeatedly. The longer battles were somewhat challenging, especially as the screen was getting more "noise" (from the weapon particles to the number of opponents), but, overall, it was easier than the first playthrough. The only issue is one of the randomly appearing battles with various modifiers. The foes to be faced vary, but the reward progression is static and carries over between the NG cycles. The thing there is that it is not hard to get hit once and the battle despawns after that. I assume, if I reloaded, the same battle would have been accessible at the same spot, but I have not tried. The regular random battles have an auto-save nearby and the main story ones can be restarted from the start of the encounter which is incredibly convenient. I am satisfied with the experience and might try replaying it in a few years. On a random note, the NG+ armour sets look much better than the NG ones. They are more detailed and more fitting.

The winter holidays are approaching and I still have some keys from HumbleBundle: The keys that will expire in June (?) 2026: Batman Arkham Origins LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game Pillars of Eternity - Definitive Edition Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Obsidian Edition

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand If I haven't mentioned it, there is a built-in photo mode and I was playing on quite low settings. The screenshots are spoiler-free. Alas, I could not "donate" 5 inches of steel in its eye socket. The priest had an "accident" shortly after. The most annoying boss battle in the game, as the boss was flying around the arena, getting stunned almost always out of reach, somehow preventing me from gaining Momentum (used for abilities). Thus, it was 10 minutes of slowly chipping away its health bar. Somehow, I did not have this issue with the other flying enemies and was able to stay close.

I have finished Atlas Fallen: The Reign of Sand and liked it. Aside from the loot, 1 very annoying enemy type, and the inability to tear human NPCs apart, the game is excellent. Review:

The issue is that the developers' expected playstyle is you, firstly, scouting ahead, then sticking your party in the most favourable positions, so the combat is over on turn 2. I considered it my failure if I ended up in combat at all. As you've mentioned, it is disorientating/unpleasant to play, and the game is more of a immersive sim and generally allows to progress without it up to the end of Act 2. Then it is nigh unavoidable setpiece battles which I loathed. Still managed to Thunderwave a main boss into the nearest chasm, thus skipping its monologuing at the party, and it is the high point of the game for me. The visual environment design is quite generic, but I am unsure how orignal one can be in Faerun with the uncanny valley of "too realistic to be cartoonish" and "too stylised to be realistic". Every companion is a possible PC (was worse in DOS2, especially with the developers' favourite NPC) and the quest design is more sandbox than, e.g., Owlcat's. Thus, the first batch of quests are disconnected from each other while also providing a sufficient story hook for the party. The main (but optional) conflict/quest line there is druids vs goblins. Yes. Just yes. It gets jollier if you see the game as a sandbox immersive sim and actively try to push the limits of the system. Playing it as an CRPG was decidedly unfun. Also, the amount of lootable containers combined with the clunky UI quickly dissuaded me from touching anything that is not a chest or a corpse. In terms of story, I am somewhat familiar with the setting, so the only surprising things for me were Larian's homebrew (e.g. a certain Githzerai-like Githyanki). At the start, you are saving the druid leader who is not working for the goblins and is there to assassinate the goblin leaders. He will return to his post as soon as your party accomplishes it. The devil (not a demon) does have a deal and it is his introduction. You can help 1 friendly individual illithid, but the other ones are enemies. Still, if it is too stressful and unpleasant to try again and you are confident that there is nothing you like about the game, saving your time and looking for something else might be a better option.

Horses The guy forgot who's going to choose his retirement home and that old people's bones are oh so fragile (granted, the MC was a few years away from gaining the upper hand there). There were a few extremely dissonant moments, including this one (the music was appropriately jolly; I won, after all): The code for the whole 1 puzzle the game has: The ending: The Dungeons of Hinterberg. It looks better than it plays. There is no VA, but the developers did not adapt the lines for the MC's outfits. Arguably, only the default one was showing the armour. Atlas Fallen Looks and plays great. It is ultimately an open-world'y action game with a customisable avatar and giant monsters to defeat, but it feels genuinely good. It is fully playable offline (got it from GOG), the controls are rebindable, the saving system supports several save files per character (I do find it disappointing that so many other action games lack such a basic feature) and uses a combination of auto- and manual saving, and the controls are fully rebindable. There is no crafting, but various loot is used for equipment upgrades. There is no encouragement to murder the deer. The Dark Queen of Mortholme It is 20 minutes and free on Itch.io. Given the lack of rebindable controls and any saving, this is a reasonable price point. Narratively, it does not really work, especially when you notice when the hero stops dodging and jumps into your attacks and there is not enough time to establish the characters or the setting, but might be worth one's time to try. It is also available on GOG and Steam for ~£4 (not recommended).

I'd say that the issue with Bloodlines 2 as released was the lack of experience on the developers' side (no idea what happened with the original team and their version). And I agree that Obsidian could have handled the title much better. Larian has demonstrated that older IP can be wildly successful, but they also had a strong playerbase interested in their work more than in a Baldur's Gate game. Given that Bethesda seems to be trying to release things alongside the TV series, I would bet on FO:NV2 as well, though I would prefer a new IP (or at least something not post-apocalyptic).

I am glad that you enjoyed the game. If I remember correctly, the choices do matter there. Especially one of the companion quests. Could you please share your thoughts on the ending? I have played the other Spiders' games and would probably prefer the style/narrative of The Technomancer. So, I found it frustrating.

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.