Hawke64

I think I had seen the other Dancing Dragon games before purchasing SoW, but they seemed like more generic RPGMaker games and I quite strongly dislike the JRPG combat in them. There are some exceptions (Crystal Tactics and Trans Theft Horso), but most go with the defaults. Could you please let me know what you liked and disliked about the Dancing Dragon titles?

Got the Soul Reaver remake. It looks like I imagined the original. I have little recollection of the combat and the story (got cooler than the boss => got kicked into a whirlpool => must get revenge), so it is nice to rediscover them. The lack of the thumb mouse button support is less nice, but generally fine. Regarding updates, I suppose my main issue is that now purchasing a game on release is effectively being a paying beta-tester, while each and every patch breaks things and, in the case of Steam, prevents you from playing. Mind, previously, what was broken stayed broken, so you could end up with a non-functioning or incredibly buggy game, but the current approach encourages the developers to release MVP and patch later. Thus, unless you really know and love the particular developer, waiting for at least a year or two usually provides a better experience. On the other hand, e.g., the Eternal Strands devs removed the DX11 support in one of the patches and rolling back on anything but Steam is impossible. That is to say, the experience can get worse and the game can become just unplayable. May UE5 be sunsetted. Symphony of War, the DLC. There is a decent variety of missions, though they do not continue the main story and are various side missions (happening before the main story). I guess, however cheesy the main story was, I did appreciate it existing. Still, the main squads can be deployed there, so it is a good way for the lower level ones to gain XP, as the missions are mostly easier (not all, but most so far). Some bits are odd, e.g. some characters are shown as knowing each other, but it was never shown in the base game.

I partially agree with your statement. The natural languages are heavily patterned, while most of the human knowledge is recorded in text, including the descriptions of the properties of various physical objects. The LLMs know that in the sense of having this data and building the relationships between various words, so they do have internal representations of concepts. They obviously cannot have it as personal physical experience in the same way as humans. However, the actions and feedback are included in the reinforcement learning and the user interactions (if the incorrect responses were rated higher than the correct ones, it can lead to issues). Programming languages and study materials tend to be more structured than random texts, so LLMs work better with them. You also do not need from your pair programmer whether they have a cold or if they are hungry or what they think about dogs (unless you are really bored). It's nice if they remind you to stay hydrated, but they do not need to experience it physically themselves (neither does a calendar reminder which is easier to set up). Therefore, they can be fit for the particular purpose. Well, given the wide adoption of Claude, they are. Here is to hope that the developers can understand the code they ship. However, as you've said, LLMs (and humans) can be wrong and cannot be held accountable for their errors (nor can some humans unless you consider Luigi Mangione to be inspirational, but, again, it's a more of a systemic social issue and not directly related to LLMs). Therefore, ideally you would not want either in the decision-making position. I agree that the tools should be fit for purpose and the job market can be challenging to navigate. I personally find filling the application forms with multiple popup menus on an external website to be more annoying, especially when the exact same information is in your CV and they cannot even scrape that correctly. One would hope that it'd discourage competitors, so the resulting pool is lower. Overall, the first rounds of interviews are to find the more suitable candidates and tend to be outsourced to the people who know little of the field you are to be working in. So, using a chatbot at this stage and just reading the summary or watching a video recording is not a bad idea. When you get to the point of the practical exercises and need to explain your logic, that's when you'd want your potential team lead to be present.

I would like to start with that the following are personal opinions, observations, and anecdotes and not a scientific study (alas, no data and not enough inclination for that). I can see the point in regard to the energy consumption and I also find it quite irritating that our social group, Gamers™, seek and encourage the higher use of energy on something as frivolous as graphical fluff (may UE5 be sunsetted). Regarding the necessity, it is very relative. I do not have mobility impairments and can use a broom instead of a vacuum cleaner (I believe the animal companion prefers less noise), and someone whose job and source of income is cleaning would go for the more "human energy"-efficient option. In the case of LLMs, a use case I've seen is job search, a very generic activity with a large amount of text on it. One of the people I know tried to use the free (government-funded) employment assistance services. The meatbags there were nigh useless and apparently could not parse the person's educational background and previous employment, while the positions suggested could have been just randomly pulled from a pool. On the other hand, the chatbot was able to provide the job titles for the desired career direction, what to watch out for in the adverts, how to format the CV, and how to pace the search, so it could be done alongside the ongoing employment without burning out. The LLM also was available at any time and provided responses and feedback promptly. Some people might prefer the LLMs as the pair programmer or a study partner for the same reasons - availability, flexibility, and general familiarity with the relevant field. Granted, they are/should be aware of the possibility of hallucinations and the necessity to check sources. Regarding taxation, at the moment, I would like to see how it is going to go. It is possible to tax the corporations (unlikely may it be) and the "agentic" AI is not able to do most jobs fully (even 2D artists'). And institutional knowledge is a thing that can easily get lost in the layoffs. So, I agree that the lack of employment due to the CEOs' lack of foresight and professional skills is a threat to the livelihoods of their employees and can negatively affect the companies and the end-users in the long run. The most recent case I am aware of is PinkNews going for "reporter-free newsroom" (the CEO is a dumb ****, so expected as much). So, the point being, there are areas where humans perform worse than the genAI, the necessity is relative, and the human CEOs not being concerned with the long-term prospects of their companies or the societal outcome of their decisions is an issue. The not mentioned issue with the LLMs and image generation being widely available is that malicious actors can use them as well, whether it is spear-phishing, various photo editing, or hate speech at scale. At what point an undesirable side effect becomes an inherent feature I cannot tell.

Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga Chapter 12 I wish my ego was that big. He's not wrong. It is a pretty good trait. Chapter 17-19 (I think) RGB dragons. The water-walking clerics. The party has "interesting" ideas. The enemy is a significant chunk of the population. But the survivors will need less resources, so it evens out. Some of the later battles showed that the quality is more important that the quantity of the dragons. Best friends and roommates I could not tell if it was the writing or the translation (I believe the game was written in English). Thank the devs for the toggle The Sayunaa arc (spoilers) I.e. our power structures are for the betterment for the world. I guess, it is what a cleric would say. "Liberating" the other locations was fine, but the capital is a no-no. Chapter 27 or so Chapter 28 End-game spoilers The Legends DLC. I did bring more of my squads there, but the paladins could defeat the 20 hostile squads alone with enough time. Some of the unique mercenaries.

Possessor(s) Started moving before the room loaded. It was not, in fact, quite fine. The first attempt. The boss did not have the time to do it when I played more aggressively. He was not wrong. The first of the major bosses. I was sceptical. So, yeah. Mid-game spoiler The area boss

What I've purchased is mine to keep. The Black Geyser developers have launched a Kickstarter campaign for another RTwP RPG in the setting: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/grapeocean/avaria-iron-rule The game is not related to Avaria: Chains of Lust.

It is the "garbage in, garbage out" situation - LLMs are tools and depend on the ones who make and use it, so Grok reflects Musk and the current Xitter population. Structured, high-quality data and reinforcement learning should provide better results, but require effort (time, funding, etc.). The energy consumption and e-waste are issues, though. Hence my general dislike of the corporate-owned models, despite their current affordability (also that the affordability can be easily taken away). One could consider the open-source software as an example of people cooperating, but I am unsure if it can work for the training and hosting. It is a good use-case. Alternatively, forcing companies to provide the contractual terms in the layperson-readable format could achieve the same result (some already do it). I know I am not paying a lawyer to check a random EULA for me, though I try to read them briefly (some are interesting, the software ones usually are "the software might not work, we will change it however we want, and you will not sue us").

I finished Possessor(s) a week ago and was quite happy with the game, some jank aside (mostly, the collectibles and the map). I liked the exploration and the boss battles, with the difficulty increasing as bosses were losing health. I have started Symphony of War: The Nephilim Saga. It is a tactical game in a fantasy setting. Unless there is a major plot twist at the end, it is fairly generic. The tactical combat and character development feel satisfying, with the "one more turn" lasting for 5 hours. The complexity is unbelievable for an RPGMaker game - there are squads, large maps, functional UI with mouse support. I think there is a perma death mode, but it is optional. The drawback is that the story and the narrative are hard to take seriously. The high-fantasy writing style is consistent - the generals and the farmers have a different manner of speech and the narrator leans towards the former, so it is not as obnoxious as it was with Gedonia. You can also just hire new units on the market, instead of waiting for your party members to multiply, which is most welcome (the last game of this type that I played is Fire Emblem: Fates).

The Life and Suffering of Prince Jerian has been funded successfully. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/101xp/the-life-and-suffering-of-prince-jerian/posts/4665935

From quickly skimming through the article, it is solely about copyright rather than the environmental impact, employment, and the developers' ability to troubleshoot AI-generated code. As a man with an MSc in Data Science who does not work with genAI (not because I do not want to), I unironically love the topic. The 2D artists, whose livelihoods were affected by it, have significantly stronger feelings. Their logic is that whether or not you would have paid a person for the work, the models you've used likely were trained on their work. I would say that (I think) the labour for the sake of it, i.e. if it does not produce anything or gain skills (or at least some satisfaction or financial compensation), is soul-crushingly pointless and has no inherent value. There are several aspects which when combined might make one less comfortable. LLMs (Large Language Models) are trained to be extremely confident, yet supportive and go with the user's suggestions, because humans perceive confidence as knowledge (and there is some link between the eloquence and the perceived intelligence, which negatively affects primarily immigrants). LLMs are prediction models and do not possess any "ground truth", just a lot of data with different weights attached. They can work well for data summarisation or for some generic data, but less so for the niche subjects (and if you are unfamiliar with the field, you might not be able to spot errors). At the moment, the older models are provided for free to build reliance on them, as the skills unused deteriorate, so it is expected to lead to dependence (I can tell that I cannot easily multiply 3+ digit numbers without writing them down). You can see the similar pattern (en****tification) of building a user base, then extracting value from it in the other industries, such as video streaming. For software development in particular, I've been told that Claude Opus is a fantastic tool to use. The gotcha being that the developers must understand and be able to troubleshoot the code it generates, otherwise, the software will be impossible to support long-term. There are some other drawbacks and use cases and most are summarised in Abigail Thorn's video (1h): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaU6tI2pb3M If you do need an LLM in your life, I would still suggest running one locally (can be done with a £700 Mac Mini M2).

Possessor(s) is available on GOG with a 75% discount. I've repurchased and left a longer review there. TL;DR - a fantastic game with excellent story and combat, and somewhat unfriendly map. https://www.gog.com/en/game/possessors

If you are talking about Jerian, then it is a stats-heavy visual novel with a poor UI. If you like the particular genre, I'd suggest Long Live the Queen instead. One of the dev logs was amusing for the wrong reasons: https://steamcommunity.com/games/2936290/announcements/detail/529872149958100080?snr=2___ Like, the lack of self-awareness is hilarious - the developers are the ones in complete control of the setting, of the choices available and their consequences. The refusal to acknowledge the base assumptions and biases can and will bleed in, whether in the selection of options or in the wording. Due to the amount of variations, the narrative can be collaborative, but, ultimately, the developers are the one determining the limits of what is possible. Well, also the modders, but they rarely work with visual novels. The Prince could make a ground-breaking industrial invention and realise that he wants to implement universal basic income or he could spend the whole game trying to gather the ultimate collection of post stamps. I can tell that neither option will be offered despite them being well within the setting. I have backed it, as a family member wants the game, but still find it unappealing personally.

Possessor(s). I love the combat system and the passive that sends the projectiles right back at the attacker. After I found where to go (the map did not cooperate), the story picked up the pace and progresses steadily - there's a decent character development and lore (alas, no lore dumps). Judging by the achievements and an in-game side quest, there are more powerful versions of the main bosses. The one I have fought had a completely different moveset to its main story counterpart. It also was sitting on one of the main weapons (I've gathered all of them by now and fully upgraded 2). There are some rough edges, I assume due to the time constraints (the exploration dialogues seem to be out of sequence), but it is very enjoyable overall.

The Fortune's Run developer has been released and has plans to release the game (as in, it still brings her some income and personal fulfilment to do so). https://steamcommunity.com/games/1692240/announcements/detail/492721254199986236?snr=2___ I bought it on Steam some time ago, though have not played yet. The game is available on GOG as well.

Possessor(s) I like this loading screen - it is an amusing thought that the NPC buddy drags the MC's corpse back to the checkpoint. I'd think we'd have better luck with the regular explosives, but sure, let's go find 4 people in a large city and pluck out their eyes. This was not an eye. The Land of the Magnates As the store page states, the game is "harnessing the power of Unreal Engine 5". The "power" was not enough to match the NPC portraits with the models. Is he suggesting succeeding Arthas-style? Recital Of The Heart Playtest Very realistic reasoning. Every time I see RNG in dialogues and the panel being on the side, I blame Disco Elysium. It is a demo, by the way. The full version currently costs more than I am willing to pay for the perpetual annoyance of the poor UI. I have small hopes that the developers might fix it.

Possessor(s). The playthrough is going reasonably well and I have found a defeated the second boss who, I suspect, I was supposed to fight much later (the boss became a merchant with a qutie nice inventory). I've also explored all parts of the map I could reach with the down-strike ability which was quite a lot. The Land of the Magnates. It looked like it was inspired by the Prince of Persia series. The controls are rebindable, the engine is UE5 (I dislike the everpresent smudge on everything), and the camera angles are not quite comfortable, so dropped it after 30 minutes. Recital Of The Heart Playtest. A very lovely Metroidvania. The controls are rebindable and the game has a functional saving system. There are some quirks with combat and balance, but, overall, it was enjoyable. I think there is something about the MC's inner struggles and/or literature. Esoteric Ebb demo. I'd like to start with that what's on my drive is mine to keep. Though, I strongly detest the RNG in dialogues and the positioning of the dialogue panels, which did not need a demo to see. The game itself is "Disco Elysium, but D&D-like" (not Faerun).

I've realised why I was not getting to the threads from the Obsidian Community page directly - the links are bound only to the exact text and not the whole space where I would expect the link to be (e.g. the last poster or the date of the last post). Please add clearly visible buttons/borders around the active links. Also corners, only the UI designers are afraid of corners. 🔲

Participated in the Together Alliance (anti-far-right) march in London yesterday. The numbers were higher than the fash march last year (500K vs 100K). I did not stay for the speeches, as the bloc I was in (LGBTQ) was at the tail and moved slowly.

Gedonia (Steam shows 70 uploaded screenshots) A level 6 powerful wizard. I'd think that verbal abuse would decrease the defence, but whatever works. Threatening a minor. Better than looting from the corpse, I guess. How? And why? FPS dropped to 15. Is the mysterious assassin an assassin? Defeated 1 lurker at lvl21. Then there were 6 more deeper in the cave. The dagger was the same as the one I looted from a random chest in the next area. But good stats. A drakeling boss. Not hostile, but not recruitable either. Kings' Tomb it is not. Debating by tapping E. Was their demigod/Chosen One nailed to a cross too? Very hardcore barbarians - sunburn-resistant and brought wood with them. The main story I joined the not-Ewoks faction after completing several quests for them and still needed books to learn about them. The quest was the opposite of epic.

They are at 68% now, there are 18 days to go, and the game is going to be released either way, according to the FAQ on the page.

Finished Gedonia. I guess it is the "Crimson Desert we have at home". The writing, from the main story to dialogues to world building to environmental storytelling, is atrocious, while the bugs can softlock the game. The FPS in the cutscenes drops to 15 and the PC is auto-dialoguing in the main story with the player having no impact. 0 Alchemy skills? Does not matter, the PC still brews a potion. 1 Agility? The PC swiftly climbs a rope. Otherwise, it is a fairly charming action-RPG which reminds of the MMOs from the 00's, with the late-game bosses boasting tens of thousands of HP. It is also an impressive achievement for a solo developer. There are a lot of features, however shallow they are: you can recruit companions who have no quests and cease having a personality after joining. there are quests with different endings but no quest chains outside of the factions (which are linear and insultingly poorly made) and no further impact from the ones you complete. you can craft but the items are junk. you can build houses at a few very specific spots. I have not found out how to remove the things built, so one of them has a wall in the middle (the input is not disabled when you are in menus and selecting an object and placing it are the same button). you can explore the world, until you find a level-gated quest or dungeon, even if with your equipment you should be able to complete it. The visual style is the low-poly cartoon one, the sound design is fine, the VA makes me wish for the game to be VA-free. There are numerous bugs, from the input still working when the saving menu is open (so if the PC is in front of an interactive object, the interaction will occur) to the PC teleporting to random inaccessible locations if you try to skip the cutscenes. The game also sometimes ignores the settings which on one occasion resulted in having to sprint through an instance-type area at 15 FPS (I blame the grass). The positive aspects include: the controls are rebindable and generally comfortable. the saving is adequate (quick, auto-, and "hard" manual saves). the character creation and development systems allow to have diverse and unique characters. The equipment provides a good synergy with the skills and stats as well. exploration is fun when it works (some dungeons offer unique mechanics).

Clash: Artefacts of Chaos I had thought that they are individual characters rather than species. The hardcore water snakes swim though the ground. The lore dump (2 screenshots) It is a bug that was supposed to be fixed 2 years ago. The final boss Oceanwork

The cat looks adorable. Also, I've just noticed that the screenshots are uploaded to a private server. Thought for a second that it was the game's. Finished Clash: Artefacts of Chaos. The "true ending" is disappointing. Otherwise, the game is as generic as it gets, excluding the visual style, which looks like something produced by a genAI model. While there are lore reasons, unless you consider it a completely symbolic abstraction, the practical aspects don't really work. The main gameplay loop is the usual action-adventure corridor with light "platforming" of climbing the clearly marked stone slabs (but not waist-high fences) and very explicit arena battles, with random loot scattered in the corners. The Night mode, which changes the time of day, offers mostly padding, unless one really likes the combat - everything met is hostile, but you are not locked into the encounters and can just run to the mini-boss, which I did. The only somewhat original quality of the combat is that the main means of attack is unarmed combat stances, while the weapons provide limited support (they break). The story of a stoic warrior who adopts the Chosen One child and realigns with his emotions (that are not apathy or rage) is not exactly original either. In terms of narrative themes, the "we create our own imaginary cages" message with the artefacts working only because all participants agree that they work (apparently, including the bees which are summoned by some of them) was spelt out by the lore-dump NPC and hard to disagree with. Social constructs exist only as long as the complacent majority go along with it. The "no laws without justice" sentiment is welcome as well. A relatively small detail I liked was that the enemies were able to damage each other, instead of clipping through. The OST was fairly unpleasant in-game, but fine to listen to separately (no idea what the language is). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyP-AOAjVYM&list=PLfuHaTW9nnaBWUou9bklAyOviDKz19yJ0&index=1 So, overall, the execution was lacking, despite the ideas. I have finished Oceanwork. The story is about a person sentenced to underwater mining for an unspecified crime. The pace of the exploration and upgrades is good and the environment is interesting to explore, despite the very few points of interest. The upgrades are visible on the character model and the UI is quite helpful. The game is free, so it lacks saving or rebindable controls, but it is also short and uses only WASD, E, and LMB (might be uncomfortable for the left-handed players). It also lacks subtitles for the intro and any visual aid for the approaching sharks which you can only hear before they attack. https://warrrkus.itch.io/oceanwork

Brush Burial If the key is heavy enough, it can work for people too. Saints Row It actually worked. It's the Steamboat. Dungeons of Hinterberg, Unity Clash: Artefacts of Chaos, Unreal Engine (probably 4, as it at least runs) The plant did not bite. Making the environment interactive takes effort.