Hawke64
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Posts posted by Hawke64
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Ghost Song
The first boss.
The MC has a gun instead of the hand.
Defeated another boss. Not sure which health bar was the boss, though.
There is no Light
The Two Fingers were larger.
The Fallen Champion. Whose champion or where they fell from is unknown.
Too many faces, but could be worse. Could be Giger.
I do not know if the MC was hallucinating at that point.
Curious if I run into the other wielders later on.
Too many faces.
The bane of all adventurers - chest-high wooden fence.
Defeated another boss. Expected the leader of the Lunar Order.
Spoiler
9 Years of Shadows
And here I decided to take a break - the MC was dying in 3 hits, the knight seemed invincible, there was no other direction to go.
Aspire - Ina's Tale
Spoiler
A Short Hike
I did it.
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Enotria's now officially arriving on the 19th of September on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Xbox.
[...]
As for Enotria's demo, that'll arrive on May 22nd on PC. It'll be around 8-hours long and start you off in "Quinta, the City of Actors", where you'll almost certainly parry lots of dribbly theatre kids who give off an irksome vibe. You'll do that with four weapon classes, six masks, 20 spells and 30 perks. Masks, by the way, are ways of equipping different attack styles and building loadouts. There's no word on whether demo progress will carry into the full game, which suggests that it won't be the case.
QuoteRedfall is getting a final update which will add an offline mode and singleplayer pausing, among other changes. The news was announced via the Redfall account on X, which also thanked players for their "supportive messages" in light of developer Arkane Austin's imminent closure by Microsoft.
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1 hour ago, Humanoid said:
I barely even got to start the Hinterlands, I remember getting to my castle, starting one of those missions where you have to wait in real time for it to complete, then decided to quit for the day while it completed.
I never ended up launching the game ever again.
There are mods to remove the timer from the War Table missions. Some of these short text-based adventures are rather interesting. I think, the length not being a positive quality by itself was discussed in another thread (in relation to Owlcat's game design)?
Edit. Curious timing. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/this-handy-list-of-mods-makes-dragon-age-inquisition-short-enough-to-play-again-before-dreadwolf-comes-out
QuoteBrickley has collated a list of suggested mods to slim down Dragon Age: Inquisition from a potentially 80 hours-long epic to a trim 40 hour story-focused romp, which means you might be able to play through it again in time for the launch of Dragon Age: Dreadwolf - which is a direct sequel to Inquisition.
To be fair, we might be able to finish the game several times over before Dreadwolf even without these mods.
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1 hour ago, Gorth said:
I have it on my EA account (I bought a number of games when it was still "Origin"). But despite three attempts, I never made it out of what I think of as the introduction area, before losing interest
If you mean the Hinterlands, leaving it right after you have enough "points" (I think, it was the influence the Inquisition had on the key NPCs?) might be the best option. The area looks very lovely (with all those autumn forests and mountains), but aside from few side quests and the high dragon, it is leaning towards environmental storytelling, rather than more explicit narratives. Which is good in Souls-likes, not dialogue-heavy party-RPGs. While I did not dislike it, the large maps with little story impact per square meter were not the strength of the game.
But at least I got an immortal horse. Better than Skyrim out of 10.
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The last update on the physical goods was on 21 March 2024.
QuoteWe continue our updates regarding Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Collector's Editions. Last time, we shared photos of the packages waiting to be shipped, and also covered the preparation of the paperwork.
At the moment, we are still preparing the documents to make sure that the physical rewards will reach all our backers without any problems. Since the parcels will be shipped to a wide variety of countries, the preparation and delivery process may take longer. We also continue to prepare customs documents, which is a lengthy and labor-intensive process. It is as such because of the varying legislative requirements for delivery in different countries.
Despite all the logistical issues we ran into, we stay committed to getting your rewards to you, and we'll continue to share any news about our progress.
We'll be sure to be back with more news next month. Thank you for your support and trust — we continue to improve for the sake of our players.
I suppose, it is understandable that physical items are more challenging to deliver, but it has been two years.
Still, I probably will get the Masks DLC and Owlcat's next game few months post-release (unless backing them).
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Dragon Age: Inquisition - GOTY Edition is free on EGS. The EA App is still required, judging by the store page description. At this rate, if EA just released DAII and Inquisition (and the Mass Effect series) on GOG for full price, I would have purchased it just to avoid the damn DRM. Well, I still have the disc images (the games were released when the physical media were more popular) and the installation files, so might as well try to look for the "unofficial patches" online.
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There is no Light. It is an action-adventure. There are several paths to follow from the start, but they seem to be rather linear. I think, I have finished 1 out of 4 main paths. So far, I have turned off the music (at one point, it switched to rock, which, while nice, was not appropriate for actually trying to fight off the ambush) and tried to switch the difficulty to the easier one (I cannot tell if I have succeeded).
The visual style is beautiful and expressive (pixel art), the controls are rebindable, and the bosses have been quite diverse and challenging*. There is a karma system, and I assume that it should go up. Which it does from picking the "correct" answers in dialogues and completing side quests (somehow, telling a pilgrim that their god was not testing their faith by murdering them was bad, while telling a random settler not to report on his brother being a rebel was good). The setting seems to be post-apocalyptic and dystopian - the population lives in the underground train network, but there is also magic, with the protagonist's current patron being some soft of murder god.
I like the combat system in general, but not its combination with the encounter design and level layout. The actions are mostly quite responsive, but when there are several foes with different attack states (can or cannot be interrupted) gathered around, it gets very chaotic, considering the speed. I have not found a way to upgrade the HP and the health-restoring consumables are limited, while the weapon upgrades do not directly increase the damage per hit. Though, there are several weapons, which seem to be unlocked by defeating main bosses.
In terms of level structure, it is not a Metroidvania - after choosing one of the paths, the progression is mostly linear with short side paths which may or may not lead to something (was not worth it so far). Nor there are any traversal abilities to unlock. The levels are rather difficult to navigate and for the areas outside of the main hub, there are no maps. Occasionally, the level borders appear only after you reach them.
I will try to finish the game.
*died several times to the second one before noticing that the thing was counter-attacking. Nothing before had been doing so and there was no indication that the boss was parrying me (aside from my HP going down).
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There is no Light
The game was insulting me. Ironically, the difficulty does not seem to affect the bosses.
An escort side quest. Just as planned.
The second boss. It took me several tries to notice that he was killing me by counter-attacking.
The MC continues being unlucky in the cut-scenes.
I guess, domestic violence is not unrealistic, but kind of dark for a passing line. Then again, the setting seems to be grimdark.
Spoiler
Not a clue what it was or why it was there already dead.
Reminds of WH40K.
The Messiah.
Spoiler
The butterfly lied - the children were in a no-combat zone. Speaking of, Samedi feels less irritating than Issun was, which might be mostly because he appears less frequently. Still would have preferred him being quiet, but there are worse chatty sidekicks.
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After a month or so of testing, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's offiical mod tools REDkit will launch on May 21st. It'll make it easier for players to make new quests, items, weapons and so on for the nearly nine-year-old RPG.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/animal-well-review
QuoteA gorgeous and immensely absorbing metroidvania platformer that is both easy to get into and dense with secrets.
Steam discussions mention the controls not being possible to rebind, which is a deal-breaker for anything that is not a visual novel with 1 button controls.
QuoteRole-playing musical Stray Gods is getting DLC in which you'll play as sorrowful ghostly rocker Orpheus.
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About the petition, it was initiated due to Ubisoft pulling The Crew, which had a single-player yet server-reliant mode, from the players' libraries. It is not the first time they are doing this, but before that it was "just" DLC for the older AC games. I would strongly prefer the publishers to be legally encouraged to respect their customers purchases. If the publishers in their wisdom, made the DRM in a single-player game to rely on the servers, surely they can spend work-hours on untangling the dependency. The smaller developers are usually nice enough not to try doing this.
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Steam keys (from HumbleBundle):
- Axiom Verge
- Death's Gambit (already own on Steam; it was a rather enjoyable Souls-like Metroidvania)
- The Knight Witch
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There is no Light
I suppose, the sexism is to indicate that they are safe to kill. I think, the setting is post-apocalyptic.
The protagonist has a rather interesting manner of holding swords.
It is nice that the story and the gameplay fit well together.
The first boss.
Aspire: Ina's Tale
Islets
The final island:
Spoiler
They are finally reconnected.
The difficulty here went slightly up - the distance between the checkpoints increased and I was unable to pass through the hazards without taking some damage.
Died right after killing the boss. It was funny.
The final boss and ending.
Spoiler
Did the timed challenge.
Sheepo
(The screenshots cover the full game).
Kidnapping the eggs of local population on the behalf of an intergalactic organisation. Most locals don't care, the relatives of the eggs, do, though.
Late-game bosses and ending.
Spoiler
The battle was not exactly fun - the goal was to jump on moving platforms while the bosses were falling into the chainsaws at the bottom.
The feathers required to fix the elevator were given by a text editor. Normally, it would have taken a few hours to find them all.
The final boss:
Spoiler
Fallout 4
Far Harbor, ending:
Spoiler
The synth was convincing enough.
Xanadu Next
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Finished Islets. In general, very nice mechanically, the story is not exactly deep, but nice.
Review:SpoilerIslets is a Metroidvania. The story takes place in a fantasy setting with sci-fi elements. The protagonist, Iko,is a young warrior who aims to reconnect 5 floating islands. There are no other themes or deeper meanings, but the plot is interesting and the characters are likeable.
The exploration and combat are engaging and deep - as expected from the genre, the former relies on the traversal abilities, which are unlocked as the story progresses, and platforming, while the latter consists of melee and ranged attacks. There are no complex combos, but it is possible to attack in different directions and the combat abilities are used during exploration (e.g. breaking the weakened floor with the jump attack). Additionally, there are several types of arrows, which are necessary to overcome certain obstacles. Also, in order to travel between not-yet-connected islands, an airship is required. It can be and must be upgraded and there are several rather difficult bullet-hell boss battles specifically for it. Fortunately, the difficulty can be adjusted mid-playthrough, which still keeps these bullet-hell sequences challenging, but doable. The regular boss battles, on the other hand, are approachable enough on the Normal difficulty. The bosses themselves are diverse, engaging, and reasonably connected to the story.
Dying mid-level is rather forgiving - the only penalty is returning to the last shrine (checkpoint) rested at and some of the foes respawning, though, they also respawn on re-entering a room. The items collected and the shortcuts unlocked are not affected by dying. On a funny note, the Nurse NPC does count the number of deaths and sends disapproving letters upon reaching certain thresholds.
The character development system consists of upgrades found throughout the world, which provide different abilities or enhance the existing ones, and purchased from the hub, the Sky City, which just increase the protagonist’s base stats. There are some challenges that grant the upgrades, such as completing a platforming sequence within a time limit or slaying all the foes in the room or solving a simple puzzle. Mostly, the upgrades are just hidden in the corners of the rooms. The traversal abilities and the arrow types are bound to the main story progression, while the airship upgrades (i.e. finding the cogs) are required to reach the other islands.
The controls are very comfortable, rebindable, and do not require the mouse. There is a light aim-assist for on-foot combat and a stronger one for airship encounters. The visual style is expressive and easy to read, the soundtrack is nice, and the game is VA-free. The fonts are very expressive, though the option to prevent them moving did not work.
Overall, Islets is a very good Metroidvania and highly recommended.
Then purchased and completed the developer's previous game, Sheepo. Not as good as Islets, but generally fine.
Review:SpoilerSheepo is a challenging platformer-Metroidvania. The titular humanoid sheep is an explorer sent to gather eggs of the local species for an intergalactic species database. How physical objects are digitalised or preserved is not explained, while the eggs collected allow the protagonist to shape-shift into the respective species, but only when there is one nearby, which does not improve the consistency of the story.
The controls are comfortable and rebindable, though the on-screen prompts still show the default configuration and wall-jumping is a bit odd. There is no direct combat outside of boss battles, only the environmental hazards, such as spikes and chainsaws. The boss battles are mostly focused on avoiding damage (bullet-hell-like) long enough for the bosses to die or be knocked out. The difficulty cannot be adjusted mid-game, and discovering that you woefully underprepared at the fifth boss is rather unpleasant. Fortunately, the save file can be easily edited with a text editor.
There are several NPCs to talk to and some secrets to discover. The map is helpful overall - there are not many types of collectibles, only the health upgrades and the feathers. The latter are required to unlock the final areas and the ending. An optional NPC in the late-game gives a map showing the approximate location of the uncollected feathers. Another NPC can point in the general direction of the next egg to collect. Unfortunately, if the protagonist dies after collecting a feather and before reaching a save point, the feather will need to be collected again. Considering that they are usually located in hard-to-reach places, it is rather unpleasant.
The visual design is expressive and readable. The soundtrack is nice and fitting.
Overall, because I played Islets, the developer’s newer game, before Sheepo, the experience felt underwhelming. Islets is simply better in every aspect, but Sheepo can be enjoyable as well.
Tried VtM - Swansong. It did not run on the main PC, judging by the error message, the issue is with the OS. On Steam Deck, the poorly-made saving system is significantly harder to mitigate, so probably will play on the spare PC some time later.
Tried Xanadu Next. Refunded - between the screen flickering (resolved by running in the window mode), crashes (resolved by deleting the intro movie), the mouse-only movement (not resolved, and the boring combat (not resolved), it did not seem to be worth the time.
Finished Fallout 4: Far Harbor. It was generally fine. The body-hiding part of the assassination was a bit ridiculous - with some luck, I could have disintegrated the body during combat.
Tried Brain Marmalade, a platformer. Got stuck in 5 minutes. The controls are not rebindable, the resolution cannot be adjusted in-game. The art is fine, stylised like pen sketches.
Started Aspire: Ina's Tale. After Islets and Sheepo, mind-numbingly boring. Looks lovely, but so, so shallow. The story follows a priestess who is trying to escape a sci-fi-esque tower. There are some light environmental puzzles, but they are not exactly challenging or engaging.
Continued There is no Light. The protagonist is blissfully silent. Got repeatedly punched in the opening cut-scenes and I still don't quite get the logic, but the visual design is nice and controls are very comfortable and rebindable.
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1 hour ago, MrBrown said:
How can this whole debacle be worth it for Sony?
It is indeed interesting to watch. Either the account requirement should have been enforced from the start (with the purchases being limited to the regions with PSN) or not at all. Curious if the digital distribution platforms are going to refund it.
Edit. I've checked SteamDB. The game is no longer available for several regions.
1 hour ago, Azdeus said:Now, if only equally as many ****s could have been given about the rootkit you're forced to install aswell.
True, but the rootkit is less noticeable for an average user, while the game, as I understand, is online-only either way.
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For those of us who in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071
QuoteRequire publishers to leave videogames (and related game assets / features) they have sold to customers in a reasonably working state when support ends, so that no further intervention whatsoever is necessary for the game to function, as a statutory consumer right.
Unlikely to work, but I like the idea.
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Islets. It is a very nice Metroidvania. The level design and controls are good, the graphics and audio design are beautiful. The only issues are the foes respawning too quickly and the bullet-hell ship battles. Though, considering that everything else (open paths and picked up items) is preserved upon death, the former is not too bad. The story follows a warrior mouse (or a warrior cat? Looks like a cat to me) who is trying to bring several floating islands back together by restoring their engines.
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Not counting the combat and items/equipment, the Outer Worlds is a good RPG. The hand-holding and guidance part seems to be bound to the graphics - the more useless junk/"graphical fidelity" is there, the harder it is to determine whether something is important or not. At least, TOW has bright outlines for the interactive objects and NPCs.
Edit. Wrong thread.
Got The Tarnishing of Juxtia on GOG.
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16 hours ago, melkathi said:
You screenshotted the whole game?
This is a carefully curated collection of the best screenshots. That is to say, there are more screenshots, more game, and the game is rather beautiful.
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Arto
Islets
The first boss is an angry radish.
The nurse counts and judges.
Spoiler
The RNG was not with me. (I assume that the selection is semi-random).
The previous timed challenges were difficult, but approachable. Here, I assume, I would have to use the Cloud arrows or somehow kept the umbrella.
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On 5/2/2024 at 6:58 PM, Hurlshort said:
Is that the Assassin's Creed where you stab your son to death in the first hour or so? Man, I hated that one based solely on that. Ubisoft is like, "let's force people to stab their sons and then deal with the trauma of that by stabbing a bunch of other people." Great storytelling.
At least, it happens within the refund window and you pretty often stab your family members in AC, if I remember correctly.
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Fallout 4
Probably should have checked what would happen if I just went to the statue's location, without drinking from the suspicious spring.
The puzzle was not exactly difficult, but moving the floating camera/PC around was. The blocks could stand on the thin air if at least one side was touching another block, which led to some "creative" ideas on my part, such as using only 2 blocks to cross gaps instead of building actual bridges. Which backfired when I miscalculated a jump.
The wolves having packs means that they are still social beings and humans labelling them "ferocious" and "bloodthirsty" is not exactly new.
Well, investing in Charisma occasionally pays off.
I sympathise with his priorities.
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A Short Hike
The game is really pretty, but I have not taken many screenshots.
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14th May, when Dread Delusion leaves early access.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/sky-of-tides-is-the-anti-disco-elysium-in-which-balance-is-queen
QuoteCreated by Ontario-based Lofty Sky Entertainment, the game takes place in the sci-fantasy realm of Numen, which has been shattered into nine planetoids floating within the titular sky of tides, and is contested by two groups: the Syndicate, who run a monopoly on ancient magical tech, and the Sovereign, a rebel faction dedicated to the lost ways enshrined in the banned Numen Tomes. Rin is called upon to mend this ruptured civilisation while searching for her missing father. You'll do this not just by following the plot to its conclusion or levelling up, but by keeping Rin balanced as a character. For Rin, you see, has a peculiar gift of currently unexplained provenance: she's a mirror for everything else. Or perhaps, everything else is a mirror for Rin.
...
Won't there be times, I ask Cheung, where players find it much more satisfying to end up out of balance - flipping to the dark side and all that? "There will be some choices that give you like, access to different people and information about themselves. But in terms of like wanting to become unbalanced, I don't think we built that into the game - I think we are emphasising the balance."
A different flavour of min-maxing, but min-maxing still, while the One Truest and Bestest Ending (possibly, just 1 ending in total, with a bunch of softlocks) ensures that the "incorrect" player's choices will be punished. Sounds like an adventure game with some stats on top, not an RPG. Though, I am still curious how it plays out and whether the developers will reverse the course 2-3 months post-release (because releasing complete games or even tagging them explicitly as WIP/EA is too hard).
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Fallout 4, Far Harbor. Reached the point of the main conflict's resolution or close to it. Not particularly fond of the combat, controls, dialogue system (keyboards have somewhat more keys than gamepads and I can see what the game was focused on, even with the mod), and the UI. There was one unique puzzle (pointing a beam at certain points) mission based on the building system, where I also could not save in the process (about 1-2 hours, considering that it highlighted the issues with the controls and that the PC is a flying camera in the first-person view). On a funny note, I sneaked/ran to the console, while leaving 2 legendary dominatrix murder bots behind (after trying to kill them unsuccessfully a couple of times). The only way to survive it for me was to lower the difficulty and eat all damage-resistance consumables I had. Several hours later I noticed that I had some armour that was not focused on stealth and carrying capacity, so it is possible that I could have fought them.
The story is fine. Not great, but good enough to keep going. No strong feelings about the loading times, the game runs fine from an HDD.
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Fallout 4
Sometimes, the visual style looks very nice.
Should not have kept clicking on the skill check.
Thought it was a bugged out bush.
A Short Hike
The game is beautiful. I think, I got on Itch.io a couple of years back?
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Stray Blade. Finished about 2 weeks ago, but have not (possibly, will not) written a review. The action-adventure was not especially horrible, but it was not exactly good. I liked the general plot (the twist was more funny than tragic), the main characters, the character customisation options (the MC always wore a full suit of armour and a closed helmet), the rebindable controls, and the 2D cut-scenes/art. On the other hand, the combat was generally irritating, there were relatively few bosses (7, with the beast generals being rather underwhelming), the exploration was not exactly engaging (most weapon blueprints were dropping from any human enemy based on the MC's level), the number of save slots was limited to 1 (granted, the story was linear and the last save was before the point of no-return), the graphics did not align with the system requirements and performance (I had severe FPS drops in some areas).
Fallout 4. I continued my 8 year-old save file. The side effect is that I have a very vague recollection of what is in my inventory or who the child at the main settlement is. The inventory management in general is rather painful - there are a lot of items, but the sorting options are very limited and have to be cycled through (I am also only guessing the abbreviations). With the Full Dialogue mod I at least know what the PC would say, so that's very nice. The number of the dialogue options being limited to 4 is less nice. The combat is rather horrible. On the other hand, making engaging first-person combat is challenging.
So, I have reached the Far Harbor town in search of Kasumi, whom her parents asked to bring home or to confirm that she had left on her own. The first battle at the town's gates took me several attempts to get through. Afterwards, the locals asked me to kills some random ghouls and mantis-like creature and find some tools to reinforce the gates. One of the locals offered to guide to the town where Kasumi supposedly had gone. On the way to the mantis-like creature, I found a Vault and something I initially thought to be a weird bush. It was a Legendary irradiated yao guai.
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14 hours ago, sorophx said:
apparently Xsolla has to refund now, because BSG broke ToS with that release. people have been asking for refunds for ages, and now they just might get what they wanted
To provide more context (because I did not understand the original post): https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/after-promising-free-dlc-forever-to-some-players-escape-from-tarkov-locks-a-new-pve-mode-behind-250-edition
QuoteThe creators of Escape from Tarkov may be looking for their own escape at the moment, after enraging the extraction shooter’s community with a new top-tier edition [$250] of the game that’s come under fire for its extortionate cost, “pay-to-win” offerings and for U-turning on the promise of free DLC for buyers of a previous bundle [$150].
Not Star Citizen, but getting there.
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Random Sales again
in Computer and Console
Posted · Edited by Hawke64
https://www.gog.com/en/game/warhammer_skulls_2024_digital_goodie_bag