Hawke64

Agreed, both are more enjoyable with friends. The combat system in D:OS2 was a hit-or-miss - a lot of opportunities for cheese/synergy, but one might dislike the reliance on crowd-control/armour. The story seemed to use the Chosen One trope, but still had some interesting moments. Expeditions: Viking. Started the game. Realised that the primary stats cannot be changed after character creation and there are chance-based checks. On a positive note, it is possible to use non-lethal weapons in combat and the game acknowledges surviving opponents.

Ender Lilies. I've defeated Guardian Silva and the MC has sprouted tentacles. Alas, they did not seem to do anything. Also a ghost that appeared after the battle told that we were the chosen ones. Trying to find the right (possible to progress) path is becoming increasingly difficult, partially because I can't remember which uncompleted location requires what power, partially because I occasionally cannot tell if I am doing something wrong or I miss the ability that is required to proceed. The opponents have become quite deadly, though packs of rats proved to be the most dangerous due to the MC taking damage upon stepping onto an enemy. @KeyrockThanks for the review.

ENDER LILIES: Quietus of the Knights. It is a metroidvania game. It looks and sounds beautiful, runs well, supports 5+ button mice. Despite the Souls-like store tag, I could not see any Souls-specific influence - the protagonist loses nothing upon death, awakening at the last not-bonfire rested at; attacks don't cost stamina (there is no stamina in general) though non-main attacks have limited uses between rests; character progression is linear - higher level equals higher stats and there are collectibles giving insignificant improvements (e.g. +5 HP). The story follows an amnesiac priestess called Lily and her retinue of purified spirits on a journey to regain her memory and save the kingdom from the Blight. Each spirit gives an ability or attack type, which can be upgraded. I have found 2 more main (infinite uses) attack types, but no upgrades for the original sword/knight yet. The bosses are diverse and challenging and the battles become harder as they progress. I have noticed 2-3 stages for the main story boss battles. The protagonist's appearance has changed slightly during the game - story-wise, purification corrupts the person conducting the ritual.

Writing my second MSc coursework. Questioning how can I say "2+2=4" in 4 times as many words and in a unique fashion. "For generations, it has been known that two, which is one added to one, when the addition of another two is performed, results in four". I suppose, it does test my creativity and patience, but none of the actual practical skills I aim to learn.

Infinitely respawning drowners (the water zombies?), hard to navigate, and it looked unappealing. I suppose, it's good that the swamp was not poisonous (I think it wasn't?) and that the enemy placement was changing at night.

I suppose, I could try Bayonetta 3 with an emulator at some point. Not going to purchase a console for 1 game (again, did it for Bayonetta 2). --- Completed Sable to a satisfactory point - found out why there are crates manufactured in London. Also it nicely explains why everyone wears masks.

"Completed" Sable. With the quotations marks, because the ending can be triggered after 2-3 masks have been collected. I had expected something slightly more epic than "go on your coming-of-age journey and come back" - there has been no grander purpose. On the other hand, there is one lore-related mystery I am going to explore more, which also has some light puzzle-platforming elements to it.

Nenio gives some hints for dialogue-based puzzles (one or two, if I remember correctly). Though, the dungeon itself is an exercise in frustration - the puzzle rules are not exactly clear, the interface is not meant for puzzles, most of the combat encounters are very similar in nature. I have been thinking about replaying WotR (haven't done the Angel Mythic Path and it is said to be the most developed one), but the length of a playthrough is quite discouraging. Also the Enigma.

Sable. While still lovely, the game is getting slightly repetitive. I suppose, it is a very minimalistic version of Conan: Exiles - no combat or crafting. The MC can stand in fire, get hit by lightning, and fall from 20+ metres without any consequences. Though, admittedly I've been mostly travelling, instead of going straight for quest objectives or looking for dungeons/space ships. On the other hand, the last quest I've picked is to gather 3 pieces of excrements and before that 3 crystals. But the writing is still quite nice - stylistically consistent, fitting, and of reasonable length.

Wasteland 3. The attention to details is amazing - I've been replaying Denver and the area changes slightly as the story progresses. The former Godfisher camp was inhabited by drools, then a quest-unrelated NPC appeared, whom I had not seen on the previous playthrough. The base game has quite impressive quality and quantity of voiced dialogues. While I wouldn't mind it being only partially voiced and having more dialogues, the VA is reasonably good and the options are plentiful and meaningful. I also found the Golden Toaster and now it is following the party (by levitating).

Completed Mortal Shell after taking a month-long break. In general, it runs perfectly well, the controls are comfortable and rebindable, the graphics are well-made, the file size is reasonable, the save files are located in /Documents/My games. The sound and movesets are adequate. What I strongly disliked was the encounter and area design - too many too similar regular enemies, too corridor-like similarly-looking locations with few to none landmarks - walls/high cliffs and fog effectively prevented from meaningful navigation*. While it was nice that after defeating an area boss, the area changed slightly, the fog got old rather quickly. As for the bosses, most of them* had 1 very punishable and baitable attack and it was just a matter of patience, which is better than total randomness, but not exactly engaging. About the final boss. Unlike the previous ones, it was not a armoured humanoid, but he was just as easy to bait. The difficulty came from his summons, fragile as they were, - around a dozen of them beelining to you and doing jumping attacks. 3-4 times during my successful attempt. Another thing that the boss was regenerating after getting to ~20% HP, and seeing the bar getting to ~70% was rather discouraging. Preventable, though. *the exception is the second part of the ice area - you had a hole in the middle of it and that's where you needed to go. The boss as well had different movesets in different phases and was less predictable than the others.

Scrolls of Atonement. Not particularly RP-friendly/immersive, but efficient. Considering games cannot track the player's thoughts unless they are clearly expressed (e.g. setting the alignment at character creation) and most actions can have wildly different motivations, removing the alignment system and replacing it with faction-/NPC-specific affiliation/loyalty (e.g. Tyranny) seems preferable. Speaking of writing, comparing to the Larian games, Owlcat's feel tamer or more subtle, though both are rather sarcastic (not the right word, but "over-the-top humourous" does not fit either).

Started Sable. It seems to be a platformer/exploration game and strongly reminds of Shadow of the Colossus in terms of the climbing mechanic, which I like. There are (thankfully, unvoiced) dialogues, but since all options have led to the same replies, I found it meaningless. Slowly replaying the main part of Wasteland 3, trying out different builds and companions. SMGs with explosive ammo are OP.

The new Steam mobile application keeps throwing errors at me, but I was able to customise the four first-showing sections, which still don't quite work. Not sure if one less click is preferable to the pages actually loading.

While I like the Bayonetta series, VA is not something I find essential or important*, and I can't tell the difference between the two voices either way. Considering that it is at most 4 hours of cut-scenes with 1 hour of VA, $4K seem like a decent offer. *In Nioh 2 one of the bosses had spoken lines mid-battle. The speaking did not affect his attack patterns or movement anyhow, but successfully distracted me, so I turned it off for the following attempts. *Player's agency, writing, gameplay systems, optimisation, and QA are essential and often overlooked. Not saying that they are mutually exclusive with VA, but if the funds are limited, VA should go first.

Completed the second DLC for Wasteland 3. Between collecting 3 McGuffins, infinite waves of enemies in every location, and quest markers, it was not impressive. I suppose, it is ironic that the worst aspects of the game, the DLC, had DRM, while the base game did not. The base game was complete, consistent, and trusted that the player is reasonably intelligent or prone to loot every container and corpse and talk to every NPC.

It's down to the personal preferences and habits (and wrists and thumbs not hurting after half an hour with a controller). In my personal experience Dragon's Dogma, a 3rd-person action-RPG, was nigh unplayable with a controller and it was originally released on PS3, but perfectly comfortable and enjoyable with KB+M. The only issue I can think of is the developers being inconsiderate (a**holes) - Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition on PC had awful controls, Dark Souls: Remastered was perfect in that regard, while technically being the same game. I can't remember any problems with Fallout 4, except that dialogue wheel thing, may it be buried and forgotten, which was fixable with mods. So, TES6/Starfield should be fine in that regard.

@BruceVC There are two succubi who can engage in romantic relationship with the PC. Just in case, they are in Wrath of the Righteous. The tieflings and the tentacle monster are in Kingmaker.

The polyamorous option is present in the base game (Kingmaker) and they are surprisingly chill and friendly. The "secret" romance, though, is "why...".

Completed Wasteland 3. An excellent RPG and I wholeheartedly recommend it. Discovered that the DLC are online-only on Steam, so installed the GOG version (had it on both platforms for co-op reasons). Completed the first DLC, "The Battle of Steeltown", which was infuriating on many levels.

Same issue, I was unable to add a list to my post repeatedly on the Grounded Tech Support forums, thus added a screenshot from Notepad.