Hawke64

Usual June (demo) Hypnos (demo) An open area. Needless to say, the GPU disapproved. Silly Polly Beast (demo) Drova

Drova Primeval Forest Somehow, my favoured weapon type is axe now and I usually go with swords or daggers. Tried Blackshard and Hypnos demos. They ran poorly.

SteamDB does not host the files, only the Steam metadata of the apps, such as depot IDs, which you need to download the files via Steam CLI. You also need to own the related game for it to work. I have not tried it for the larger titles, but it worked fine for Signalis - 1 command and the older version dropped onto my hard drive and I had to move it into the "common" SteamApps folder. For the more recent version, signing up is not required, so unless the game is actively patched, you should be fine. Admittedly, if Steam handled updates better and the developers allowed a less painful rollback (via the beta branches), using SteamDB would not be needed. This example is for a large game (Larian's D&D game) with frequent patches, so it would require an account: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3023295121. It is a relatively straightforward step-by-step guide and it explains the process. I would add that your approach, keeping specific versions on your own hardware, is safer as long as you have more than 1 copy. The modding unrelated use case for SteamDB is pricing monitoring.

Regarding time limits in games in general, it can work if the game is balanced around it and not you vacuuming all map of XP. I liked it in The Séance of Blake Manor, so I had to prioritise the relevant items and dialogue options without having to go through everything. There also were several ways to gain specific information. I cannot quite recall how it was in Expeditions: Viking (there was a timer and several paths to victory), but I have not finished Expeditions: Rome which did not have a time limit and expected you to clear whole large maps (and frequently with random mercs, which annoyed me a lot). There's also Pathfinder: Kingmaker, though there were several factors that could lead to a death spiral. Tried Silly Polly Beast demo. Got repeatedly bodied in a corridor where 2 waves of foes spawned in front and behind me and I ran out of ammo. After a few more attempts, I got to the next room, with low health and no ammo with predictable results. It is heavily inspired by Silent Hill (you wake up in some demonic realm after doing a thing and falling into a well), the art is lovely, the controls are rebindable, the saving system is bad (a single overwriting auto-save per playthrough, 3 slots in total). The gotcha is that it is combat-heavy, up to being an action game, rather than a survival horror, and you need to hold the interaction key to unlock the next door, so you have to clear the rooms, while the foes revive when you re-enter. The one and only defence option, rolling, amusingly, does not consume stamine, but hitting enemies in melee does. There's also something about the setting that bugs me, but I cannot quite pinpoint it (it being Eastern Europe? The MC being very anime-styled, but everything else not?). Good audio design, though.

I've read the reviews and some comments for Dawnwalker. It might be fun, but I am definitely going to leave the paying testers to face the first wave of bugs and performance issues. Speaking of, the price tag and me strongly disliking TW3 do not encourage purchasing it now either. Played Drova some more and visited the main towns. After ~10 hours of exploration, I forgot what the main quest was about, so had to reread the journal. I also was able to avoid being kidnapped (this time the bandits were not immortal and died to the same type of mini-boss), then, after several attempts, reached the potential kidnappers' base and somehow cleared it (of bandits only, as the giant worms were 2-shooting me). So, the exploration is satisfying overall and the story should get going more actively now.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-internet-we-once-loved-is-gone-steamdb-founders-announce-the-community-run-database-has-been-acquired-by-nexus-mods-owners https://steamdb.info/blog/steamdb-nexus-mods/ No strong opinion - something as large as SteamDB can be challenging to run and it is easy to burn out, while the new owners may or may not try to en****tify the service. It might be beneficial for the core model of Nexus, as Steam still forces the updates (unless you beat it with a metaphorical metal pipe), which break the mods. So, it can go either way, but I understand the SteamDB founders' logic.

Drova A random side quest near the start of the game

Drova. Kited 2 immortal and hostile NPCs to a mini-boss. They were getting repeatedly KO'd throughout the battle but overcame the boss by the virtue of their immortality, however slow it was, while I sat behind a rock and poked the occasional spawn (my hits were not even visible on the mini-boss' HP bar). Ironically, the mini-boss defeating them counted as my victory, so the side quest was completed as well. Otherwise, it has been quite story-light - I've been exploring and not seeing many talking NPCs. I finished the session when I reached the Remnants' Camp and befriended a cat there.

I'd say that there was significantly less exploration in TW3 than I would like in general but more than I could take in TW3 (i.e. I started jogging straight to the next quest marker after the prologue village and looked up some armour locations). The traversal and combat were atrocious. It was not great in TW1, but it was less actively unpleasant. Climbing a chest-high cliff or opening a chest was also impossible in combat which annoyed me quite a lot. I do not have any strong memories or opinions about the VA, though I generally prefer either silent or close to my range VA (~Dante from DMCV). I suppose I enjoyed the opportunity to ask NPCs to get to the point a few times. They are mostly third-person. Similar to Saints Row, but offered less customisation and were less fun in general. I think I got pretty far in Vice City but could not do the cinema plane mission. I played San Andreas, though less, and focused more on just running around. No recollection of GTAIV, Steam shows that I have it.

Naughty Dogs used to count the polygons in the original Crash Bandicoot. Regarding The Witcher increased system requirements, if the developers locked the new story DLC behind the new version, it is a rather user-unfriendly move. They are welcome to ship a new GPU, an SSD, and a few RAM sticks to all affected users, of course. Given how it went with previous "upgrade", I am somewhat sceptical of the performance. For what it's worth, the developer left the pre-upgrade version available as a separate download on GOG (under the Extra panel) and as a beta branch on Steam, so that's something. But I also somewhat dislike the series, despite playing it back to back, including the DLC, so neither purchasing nor replaying in any event. Edit. Checked GOG, now there are 2 editions (Complete and not) and 2 editions (default and classic) under each. The not-Complete classic takes 10 files + separate DLC (3 files) to download. The Complete default takes 22 files. 1 file is up to 4GB. Fortune's Run - Valve Removing Access - Steam NewsValve is removing my access from the game. I've made it 1$ and discounted it maximally. Goodbye everyone. -DZI hope that the developer will recover from it, providing that the information shared is accurate. Fortune's Run is definitely $1, though. From the store page: https://www.eurogamer.net/take-two-rockstar-gta-6-leaks-subpoena-discord-response Well, here is to hope that Take-Two and its CEO will have the same privacy they wanted to "grant" to random Discord users. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/rather-than-calling-for-gta-6-boycott-fired-rockstar-workers-urge-players-to-support-them-in-their-legal-battle-against-the-studio-by-buying-union-merch On a positive note, Well Dweller is releasing on 22 September. https://steamcommunity.com/games/3699590/announcements/detail/698773621583119093 The cat game, Fable, and the D&D action-adventure look quite nice as well.

Drova

Drova. Started the game, got to the first settlement (camp; spent a few short gaming sessions cutting the treants in the woods, 5 minutes per treant), got through a random cave to some ruins, grabbed a big axe while dodging the harpies. Could not use the axe - it required 74 skill points spent and I had 28. On a more serious note, the system requirements, controls, and the saving system are very appealing and the gameplay somewhat reminds of Gothic but better and with a custom PC.

The issue with logging in while on VPN seems to be resolved. Thank you.

Solasta II The start was not promising. My battle against the vegetation. Relative success - the palm tree was gone. Poking the rest of the options ("love" having enter them in plain text and lock the file between changes) did not help much in terms of performance. But I got odd hair artefacts. I like the UI and the D&D5e implementation. The rogue with 10 Str moving the rock was somewhat funny. The visual character creation is quite decent, though a non-athletic wizard has to start with the more femme body. Tried with the masc one, too much core muscles for 8 Str. Not sure yet how the Personality interacts with the Family role that is set later in the campaign.

Sorry to hear. This is also the main reason why I do not purchase larger titles on GOG - it can be challenging to install and get them running on other systems, while retrying takes time and bandwidth. Regarding replaying, I replay games less often now. Mostly due to the limited time and larger backlog, though there are a few shorter action games I return to (should replay DS2 at some point). I would like to try the different paths in WotR but the time commitment does not encourage me. I've purchased 2 Early Access titles this month (and probably will get a third for £8). The experience was not quite as positive as I had hoped - Solasta II has a fantastic character creation system. I spent several hours creating the party and restarted trice (ended up with recreating my party from the first game). The issue is that the game does not run at all on the PC and runs poorly on Deck. So I spent a few more hours trying to get it to run better. The only positive achievements are that I know the developers added -dx12 -sm6 to the launch options on Steam (if anyone has the GOG copy, could you please confirm?) and I have managed to purge the vegetation (to reduce it significantly enough for it to be less visually obtrusive). Otherwise, on my testing point (the spot after the third battle and before the first vista), there was no noticeable gain from anything except dropping the rendering resolution. When I reached the World Map, the FPS dropped to single digits, so it was a hard stop for me. Still, I am quite happy with the character creator (would be even happier if I knew that I had to assign different family roles to my toons) and the D&D5e implementation (it felt amazing to have the Sneak Attack reactions trigger). The other one is Expeditions: Samurai. It somewhat reminds of Expeditions: Rome and performs noticeably better than Solasta II (well, it runs on the main PC). The visual style is closer to Kingdoms of Amalur than Rome. The issue with Samurai is that I could not see the interactive items reliably, there is no area maps (it was the same in Rome), and the objectives were not quite clear from the dialogues (I had to check the journal twice after landing to figure out that I had to level up to proceed or that I needed to take the weapons back instead of just waiting), which is a poor combination. Otherwise, there are some changes to the combat system with different classes using different resources for abilities and the dialogue options affect the standing with the companions quite actively (the bonuses are provided for both loyalty and animosity, interestingly). The character creation is more limited and the list of perks and skills is not provided at the start, but it is functional overall. The EA game I am looking at is Entropy. In the demo, the combat was the RPGMaker default which annoyed me immensely. The setting and the visual style were appealing enough, though, with the character creation being fairly limited as well (the avatar and the starting stats are chosen during the opening scene). So, playing Mark of the Deep which is a decent isometric action-adventure game about pirates. No performance issues so far.

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon Some environments are gorgeous, the encounter design and dialogues are less so. The dungeons usually circle back, so if you see a somewhat high opening near the entrance and can reach it, it will take you to the end. "It's the Death of Feudalism/I ain't no noble/It's Your Majesty". Dialogue options are not the game's strong side. The dialogue options are often disappointing. Face-stabbing everything is less so. No. 2. No. 3. Definitely no. Option #1 won by the virtue of the other 2 being worse. It was a few centuries before the "bio-something" became a thing. Galahad and the power of stealth. Note where the sword is. The creature of many eyes. Bug, Act 1 spoiler The NPC expressed the desire to fall on blades repeatedly which softlocked my playthrough The bed had no collision on top, but got a nice screenshot out of it. Curious what the horseshoes are made of if not iron. AI-generated art, somewhat erotic text Perceval. The only cheese here shall be mine. On a related note, the armour remains consistent between the bodytypes, which is welcome. Blessed be the columns. Bookshelves in ancient castles are the best place to store moonshine and raw meat. /s It amuses me that compromise is in the same category as corruption and cowardice. The snowy land of reskins. Fashion Souls it is not. The end-game

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I have finished the main story. Somewhere mid-Act 2, I irreversibly broke the progression due to the developers' brilliant idea to make an NPC's survival critical for the main quest (the next NPC would not spawn otherwise) and not give the player an indicator that it was so (no "the thread of prophecy is severed" message), while the said NPC very explicitly asked to be stabbed in the face repeatedly. Thus, 10 hours later, I completed 1 mandatory dungeon in the area, explored quite a lot, and in general was not anyhow inclined to reload, while hoping that there was an NPC-unrelated option to proceed, like it was in Act 1. On a somewhat related note, I admire that Obsidian games are quite resilient to the player's actions. So, after a few more hours and a few guides, I realised that I got stuck. I used the console to respawn the NPC, but it still led to a black screen in a cutscene a bit later. Thus, the only remaining option was just to activate the following quest, which I did. The journal description for the main quest did not update, but it went reasonably well otherwise - the in-game story proceeded and the next area became accessible. At that point I was getting quite tired, while the inhabitants of the final area were fairly spongy and extremely similar to the previously-encountered foes. So I decided to try running to the nearest settlement, asking where the McGuffin was, and going straight for it. After studying the fog-covered map and visiting one burnt down settlement which lacked any useful information, I decided to go to the largest roundish shape on the highest mountain. When I reached the door, the invisible friend helpfully pointed out that it was the point of no-return for the region. I was pleasantly surprised, hard-saved, and entered the dungeon. Every other room contained a locked fog door and a duo of mini-bosses, which made the progression slower. By that time, I was relying more on the bow (Robbie's bow which I never gave to the quest starter), than my daggers for the non-human boss battles, so it was more a matter of patiently head-shotting things and hiding, than actively running around. It was not the most exciting endeavour, but I got through and picked up the McGuffin. As I exited the dungeon, I pulled out the guide and cleared the dungeons required for the secret ending. Ironically, the triple-lock cave I had found earlier was the end-game dungeon (the quest journal still did not point to it). After a lot of chatting, I faced the final boss who went down easier than a random corpse eater in the final snowy area. The slides showed some of the outcomes for the regions and NPCs, though I remembered only a half of them. To summarise it, while the beginning and the QoL features are reasonably well-made, the quality falls as the game progresses and the narrative never truly grabs attention. Overall, it is a fun sandbox game and should one be satisfied with the first 20 or so hours, it should provide it. The most positive aspects are largely the accessibility ones - the controls are rebindable, the saving system is well made (several rotating auto- and quick saves of very reasonable size of 1-2MB), and there are difficulty options. The system requirements are as good as they can be for an open-world game, and Tainted Grail uses Unity instead of UE5 (may that unoptimised junk be sunsetted soon). There is a lot of exploration and it feels quite engaging in the first area, while the combat is surprisingly functional for the first-person camera. At the start, there are a lot of options for dealing with obstacles and freedom of movement. The visual style is appealing overall and the forest looks gorgeous. The range of abilities and their synergy with equipment provide a wide variety of builds. It is also incredibly convenient to be able to open the unlimited stash and fast travel at any point out of dungeons (there are 3 large open maps with smaller separate dungeons inside them). However, as the game progresses, the cracks start to show. The boss arenas teleport you to the middle, forcing you to start the battle in the Detected state, the main quest breaks without warning when you kill an NPC, the ground itself does not have collision boxes in some places (the Unstuck button usually helps; if it does not, there are console commands and reloading). In terms of balance, a random undead in the final area was hitting harder than the final boss. In terms of story, while the main plot is generally fine and leans towards environmentalism, the environmental storytelling and lore are lacking (I was pulling fresh fruit and alcoholic beverages from bookshelves in an ancient castle). Additionally, the drawback of having a lot of killable characters is that none of them can be central to the story and, in some cases, the range of dialogue options is baffling. The demographic of the human opponents is also puzzling, though the combination of the South-Asian PC who goes and gets things done and either incompetent or malicious NPCs amuses me.

I've tried again (not sure why I was logged out so soon) and the issue is still present. Clicking on the Email button did not work previously, so I have not tried this time.

(5 days to go). itch.ioGame industry hardship fund by Necrosoft Games and 109 ot...Game industry hardship fund: 127 items for $10.00While it does not address the underlying issues of job security and sustainable development (nor $200K can do much given the number of people affected), it is something and the games are quite decent (Lucah and its sequel are fantastic action games). I found these articles quite relevant and interesting: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/blockbuster-games-are-in-the-grip-of-a-fidelity-death-cult-says-former-dragon-age-producer https://www.pentadact.com/#small

I believe Azure WAF blocked me from logging in while on the VPN, and I keep it on almost at all times due to the UK inclination to leak its residents' data all over the internet.

I have tried it, since I have access to it through Steam Family Sharing (i.e. I did not and would not purchase it purposefully as it is not exactly my genre, so I am not the target audience), but bounced off after the first session, before finishing the first chapter, Childhood/Obscurity. I guess, if you like the setting, it should be fine. The art is a bit worse, the animations are a bit faster. I think something has changed with the writing style but might be misremembering. I have not progressed far enough to see how hard the stat requirements are, but there are 2 extra currencies (Sanity and the blue one) to get around alignment-locked choices (3 pairs of axes). Tried Thirsty Suitors. Liked the music, aesthetic, and the system requirements. Strongly disliked all gameplay systems I've come into contact with - the RPGMaker-style combat, the QTEs, and the wooden controls for skating. Finished Code Zodiac. It was an enjoyable boss rush game in a sci-fi setting. The controls, unfortunately, were unrebindable. Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I've spent ~10 minutes turning a boss into a pincushion while sitting on a cliff outside of the arena. The controls are rebindable and the movement is quite satisfying. Naturally, I was mostly sneaking or sprinting (and, surprisingly, swimming). That is, the first post-demo session was fairly story-free.

Jerian This is the demo. This is the release version. I am disappointed and have to recreate my character. Can't quite call a Steam Family-Shared title "free", but it is new and I am curious (and fairly sceptical about it), so forth we go.

Veil of the Witch The Unique Talents are glorious. Factually incorrect. Monsters have 3 rotating weak points. Humans have 1 static (with 1 exception) and tend to die quicker. Took about 4 hours. (Flashback spoiler) I did not expect it to work. Nice. Short of hand-crafted paths, having the RNG'd ones shorter is welcome. Expedition ending slides

"Finished" Veil of the Witch. By that I mean reaching the extended ending and maxing out 1 partnership between a starting and an optional companion. As a part of the game's RNG nature, even the extended ending does taste a bit sour (i.e., there is no resolution for the main conflict, as one of the developers mentioned, it gets resolved off-screen), as well as the mindless grind it becomes, should one wish to get all story-related events or achievements. Still, the first few runs were quite enjoyable and the progress from the original game was stunning. The pacing and the character development within a run are fantastic, though I would love to be able to have guaranteed Unique Skills (which are extremely powerful) alongside the Ultimate Trial difficulty (the highest one). So, I have returned to the original Lost Eidolons which had not finished before starting VotW, and the pacing is significantly poorer - the non-interactive cutscenes take half an hour, the camp activities consist of teleporting from quest marker to quest marker and pressing Interact on the NPCs (there are 2-3 out of dozens conversations that require some cognitive effort and I have already been skipping the small talk dialogue bubbles), and fielding 10 units (5 of whom have only the default attack) leads to drawn out battles where I slowly creep to the boss in the tightest formation I can. From what I have gleaned from the guides, there are some choices in the last 3-4 chapters (out of 26) and I am so, so close.

The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante is free to keep on Steam until 23 July. While I believe that it is the perfect example why Ren'Py is the best engine for visual novels (Brante uses Unity), it is free and it looks pretty, despite severely lacking the basic QoL features. Edit. The "hardcore RPG" part is not accurate. Save 100% on The Life and Suffering of Sir Brante on SteamA narrative-driven hardcore RPG set in a gritty world ruled by real but unrelenting gods. Set out on a challenging lifetime journey, where every choice has a price and entails consequences. Will you b