Hawke64

Crystal Tales Tactics. Got softlocked in the main story somewhere mid-game (the next chapter did not unlock). While the game is lovely, it is also rather buggy - it was not the first softlock, but I overwrote the nearest save file, so not going to try again until this is fixed. The other bugs included the recruited characters not appearing, a character who was supposed to be dead doing the opposite (there should have been condition for them to survive if they were critical for the story), a lot of black screens during companion dialogues, and these dialogues not triggering correctly. Well, at least the character designs are interesting.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Postponed the new playthrough indefinitely and went to kill the offline Ur-Dragon with my max level PC and without any preparation or memory how to play. Posting under the spoiler tag, because the game is being played, and seeing and fighting the Ur-Dragon for the first time is quite exciting. Less so for the 16th, but still fun.

If you have not been there, the DLC island might a good place to explore. It is a long dungeon crawl and the things there are sturdy, but it is somehow more fun than the similarly looking rooms of the end-game dungeon. Also, with a stack of explosive arrows and luck, there is a really good spot to level up. Regarding the end-game requirements, --- I've been playing Crystal Tales Tactics. So far so good, though the story has the originality of Fire Emblem, with a significantly lower production value. --- On the topic of erotic games on Steam. The number of low-quality ones seems to be rather high, while the adoption of the generative AI and accessible 3D models did not improve the quality (did not drop it either, though), but increased the quantity (see the screenshot taken today). I also cannot filter them out, unlike roguelikes/-lites. Though, overall, it is great that the talented writers and designers can create full games by themselves, and there are some interesting erotic games on Steam, such as Ladykiller in a Bind, but few and are hard to find. Edit. Speaking of random first games on Steam, someone linked Bethesda's EULA to their game. https://store.steampowered.com/eula/2901370_eula_0

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/game-sized-fallout-4-mod-fallout-london-has-been-delayed-indefinitely-by-bethesdas-incoming-next-gen-update It is always unpleasant when developers try to add more bugs into their 9 year old games, but even more so when you have been working on a mod for a specific presumably-stable version for years. I somehow doubt that Bethesda would just fork the new version into a separate branch on Steam and GOG. Granted, on GOG, Bethesda cannot mess up your games anymore.

Stray Blade Lore: Bosses (including the final one): The sword had the best hyper armour - I could just stand and swing without being interrupted. In terms of navigation, the companion and the wall marks proved to be more reliable for the main quest. The map and the compass were less helpful. The end-game and the ending: Well, at least the warning was clear.

Hi all, I have started studying Godot (doing the 3D tutorial project from the official documentation), and would like to know if there are accessible (free and understandable for a beginner) tutorials for isometric RTwP CRPGs or action-RPGs for the Godot game engine? Also, if I am aiming for a RTwP CRPG, like PoE or Pathfinder, would 3D with fixed camera or 2D be more appropriate? Thank you.

While I might occasionally enjoy seeing things burn, in CRPGs the feeling that the party's actions were not in vain and led to the results desired by the player is somewhat important. Not necessarily hugging the xenos and singing kumbaya together, but leaving the world less ****, than it was at the start of the game. That, and the combat system, which I am ambivalent about - a bit too many encounters for a turn-based one. I suppose, I would not mind a Souls-like in the WH40K universe, though.

At the moment, the same ratio is true for Steam and GOG is getting there as well. I suppose, one could check the most popular paid titles on Itch.io occasionally. --- Stray Blade. After reaching the second area and unlocking all normal weapons, the game became somewhat jollier - I am using the halberd and only the halberd without having to switch to worse weapons. Ironically, the dual daggers turned out to be less fitting for combat than I had hoped - the damage per strike is low, while the time window is the same, so I might as well hit with the strongest weapon. Dodging or parrying attacks is mostly useless, because everything has too much stamina to do so fast, while 2-3 hits from the halberd kill everything except bosses. The hitboxes still feel somewhat odd, while the combat in general is not exactly engaging - the MC's attack animations are too long and impossible to cancel, while the foes have very long wind-ups and can turn 180 degrees mid-swing. Also, the red faction of the forest + ruins area changed to the blue faction of the mountains + volcano area. And I saw 1 green faction mini-boss (had a skull on the health bar) I also pretty much stopped exploring - all normal weapon blueprints have dropped, the armour blueprints seem to be dependant on the level (the first chest you open after leveling up will have an armour piece blueprint). On a funny note, the customisation colour schemes transfer poorly between armour or weapon sets - each colour point refers to different materials across sets. For example, I had my sword's blade grey with the cloth on the handle blue, while the halberd with the same setting has its blade blue. But the story is going at a reasonable pace and generally fine. It is delivered almost exclusively through the MC and the companion standing and talking. There are also lore entries in the Bestiary describing the societies of the people killed. The information is not useful, but adds some immersion. The entries for the animals are rather depressing, though.

The new Momodora looks gorgeous. I really like the colour design. (If there are no posts made here in the next few hours, I will add my Stray Blade screenshots to this post). Lore entries: Bosses: The 2D art looks very nice. Not quite "Ring two bells, gather four Lord Souls", but close. That's exactly what we have been doing. Got the full assassin-like armour and dual daggers. The daggers did not quite work with the combat system. The halberd, though, was a marvel. Found one Green faction mini-boss in the Blue faction area. Ironically, these regular foes felt more challenging than the bosses. Too few too short openings. Here my FPS dropped to 20. Which is odd, considering the number of polygons I was seeing. This can be said about pretty much any old ruins.

Sorry, could you please share it as a link? YouTube videos tend not to display for me.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/broken-roads-review https://www.gog.com/en/game/broken_roads https://store.steampowered.com/app/1403440/Broken_Roads/ Not yet available on GOG. The game looks interesting enough, but I assume that waiting for at least 6 months would be a reasonable course of action. I do not like the setting that much to purchase right now and let the game sit in the backlog.

Stray Blade. Defeated the first major main boss on the first try, while repeatedly getting killed by a random halberd warrior and low FPS (there was a lot of clutter in the area) before that. The boss had a reasonably interesting story background (the companion had been talking about him for the past 8 hours), some specific battle mechanics (required to break 4 glowing things in the arena), and visually distinct design (a lightning sword and deer-like facial features). So, it was fine, but the combat encounters with the regular foes are rather uninspired, even before taking into account the occasional FPS drops. 2 more areas and 4 bosses to go. The skill tree is filled for about 75%, and I am curious if the character development system is going to change.

Stray Blade. Defeated the first main boss by face-tanking and hitting it with a halberd. Spent 2 hours running in circles before that - the goal of the past 7 hours was to find a way around several locked gates and collapsed bridges to the boss, so I suppose it is on point. Encountered 1 rather unpleasant bug - a weapon blueprint, thus, a skill upgrade, was not dropping. It was resolved by switching to the beta branch, then back. Story-wise, it is funny that the NPC companion wants the invaders out of the Valley, because they kill and destroy everything there, including each other, and this is exactly what the MC and the companion have been doing throughout the game. Except destroying buildings - the buildings are invulnerable. So, it is either some meta commentary or a ludonarrative dissonance. So, overall, the game is not terrible, but I would have felt bad if I didn't get in a bundle. Granted, another game from the same bundle tried to fry my CPU, so this is definitely an improvement. And the story might get better.

If it is anything like DDDA, you can actually "romance" anyone. Though, as you said, random NPCs have less story content than the main ones. Curious if the issue with the duchess (forgot her name) and the lack of dialogue options was solved. Unironically, the best beloved from the gameplay standpoint was From the story perspective, there were several options with some quest lines, including the best friend, the travelling merchants, the knights, and the witch. --- Stray Blade The companion drags the MC's body to the checkpoints for revival. I have not noticed any negative consequences for dying - only unfinished groups of enemies recover, which is very convenient for upgrading weapons. The "Enemies Cleared" message means that the foes will remain dead.

Fable: Lost Chapters, III, Anniversary (haven't played Fable II ) are stylistically consistent heroic (villainous) adventures in the more or less classic magical folklore setting. While they might lack complexity in combat and story, they are generally nice. Also, setting up homes (and optionally adopting orphans) was the best way to play Fable III - the story was built around fulfilling your promises after becoming the kingdom's ruler, while also trying to have enough resources to mitigate an upcoming calamity. Having a steady stream of income from the property helped greatly. Another relatively immersive action-RPG I can think of is Outward, but I have not played it much - going to do a full co-op playthrough at some point. There is also Hardland, but it was a rather unusual action-adventure game and it could be annoying at times. --- Stray Blade. The character upgrades are locked behind the weapons, which blueprints first must be obtained (seems like random drops so far), then the crafted weapons must be used, and only then the level up points can be spent on the upgrades. On one hand, it is probably good that there is a reason to try various weapons, on the other, I want those dual daggers from the store page and nothing else.

These AC spin-offs look great. I played AC Chronicles: India, but didn't finish.

Unless it does not affect the game itself completely (e.g. artbooks, soundtracks, clearly labelled donations), it should not be included - any in-game benefits screw if not the balance, then the immersion. --- https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/new-arc-line-is-a-party-based-steampunk-rpg-with-notes-of-bioshock-and-dishonored Added the link to the article in case the video does not work. I would prefer RTwP, but the game looks interesting and somehow reminds of Arcanum (which I have not finished). The PC seems to be customisable.

I would suggest to avoid the game - the IP owner is a piece of ****. If you haven't played them, the Fable games are quite decent - might be a bit too light on dialogues, but they are immersive and the last one has a dog companion. --- Thought of starting another playthrough in Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen as Frodo and Sam (someone already had the same idea). My old saves from the Steam version are compatible with the GOG one, so while I could just start a new NG+ cycle, I went with a completely new character, because the challenge does not scale with levels. @WormerineThe thing with pawns is that their AI should handle encounters on their own (I could not find the video, but the pawns absolutely can solo drakes) or assist you (e.g. a Fighter can launch you to reach hydra's heads). The intended way is for your pawn to learn from your application of the available commands (e.g. "Attack", "To me", etc.) and witnessing monsters' weaknesses. Though, the former goes better when the pawn's AI is occasionally reset with the Inclination elixirs. --- There is no Light. The game looks quite good visually and the controls are rebindable. The story is a bit weird - the MC's wife gets kidnapped by 2 soldiers while he's just standing and watching, then he picks up a sword and kills a few squads of them. Crystal Tales Tactics demo. Looks very similar to Fire Emblem but with much lower production costs. The controls are rebindable, I could not get the combat yet (2 battles in) - there is some synergy, but I am unsure how to apply it. Stray Blade. I had thought it to be an RPG, but it feels like an action-adventure. I like the design decision to have full armour, so the MC's face is never shown (so no facial animations; the armour is customisable). The controls are rebindable, though the combat is not exactly comfortable - there is no attack cancellation and it seems like the system is build around parries, but the enemy attacks are delayed, thus, it is hard to time the parries correctly. The exploration feels good enough - there are some paths that I should be able to take after unlocking the required abilities, the environment is readable, the loot is fine. The system requirements and the visuals do not align - 4GB VRAM and 30GB storage should not look like TESIV.

Does the story remain grimdark throughout the game or gets anyhow more optimistic? The options for the first chapter (and their outcomes from the wiki) were not particularly inspiring.

Thanks to the bank holidays (and to ShadySands for the key), finished Citizen Sleeper. It is a visual novel with management elements in a cyberpunk setting (the MC is a runaway cyborg on a falling apart space station). I did not notice much branching in the dialogues - quite often the options were "yes" with different levels of enthusiasm, but the ability to fail or not to complete quest lines somehow alleviated it (there were timers and the MC needed to consume resources to avoid dying and/or death spiralling). The game used only the mouse (including the scroll) and Esc, and they could not be rebound. The most frequent action was dragging something across the screen - dice, items, cash, etc. So, while I did not find the dystopian narrative too compelling or the gameplay too engaging, it was generally fine.

Finished Death of a Wish. In short, it is a good action game with good controls and a variety of builds. Review: It was somehow funny to play DoaW alongside Saints Row - both MCs are very good at combat and prone to start it, but where the Boss is laid-back and has a social support circle, Chris spends most of the story being angry and causing unhappy accidents to his immediate environment.

Finished Saints Row. Shared the late-game thoughts here. After finishing the post-game, I would add that I would love if the side activities were more tightly bound to the main story and less numerous and repetitive, while the main rivals and companions had more dedicated missions. I liked the Eurekabator quest line - there were 3 missions, they directly referenced Marshall, and each rewarded with a cool gadget. The Food Truck ones, on the other hand, were very similar, not related to anything, and there were 5 of them. So, to unlock the final final mission I spammed the Lottery Ticket in-game cheat to get the funds required to build the final Criminal Ventures. I probably could go and finish all side quests, while the funds built up through the passive income, but I did not want to. About DDDA. I liked that the nights were dark and the random areas were not FOMO-inducing - there was nothing of note there and nothing to miss by not exploring them meter by meter, while they still provided the sense of travel and adventure, thus, being the opposite of Ubisoft's approach.

There have been small levels of DRM in some of the released games, e.g., Twitch drops, online functionality/multiplayer, one (?) game "can be started but can't be played without creating a player profile and save game online. It is fully DRM-ed!". https://www.gog.com/forum/general/drm_on_gog_list_of_singleplayer_games_with_drm/page1

Saints Row Sergio defeated. The context of the battle was fine, though I would not mind to have 2-3 missions dedicated to Los Panteros' lore. The Necromancer contract. And so the party decided to rescue this work of art. The nature in the game is beautiful. Unlocked the VTOL, which made the Threat side missions significantly easier. The aircraft was unlocked from the start in the previous SR. There was a hover craft and I discovered it only post-game. Randomly found several good cars and saved in the garage. The ones available by default were somehow harder to drive. These are loading screens with, I assume, the max settings. As I understand, the house was added in a free DLC. Probably the longest side mission chain I did not finish. Late-game spoilers (Marshall). The restored HQ. The final mission(s).

For random encounters without much positioning or any sort of tactics, it often feels like they should be over as soon as possible. The boss battles (with 1-2 large/very dangerous foes) usually require some strategy, have significance for the story, and are quite engaging (unless they are puzzle-like and require 1 very specific solution), but they would not feel that way without some low-effort (from the designers and the player) fights. So, yes, RTwP systems allow to speed up the later and focus on the former.