Hawke64

Thank you for the link. (That looks.. curious. Would say that all portraits are usable if you remove the additional heads and hands, which does not take long, so very nice).

Thank you. The portraits look good. I might try Stable Diffusion at some point.

It looks impressive, despite the issues with faces. If requests are still open, it would be interesting to see Death and Nature Godlikes. ("Painted portrait of a faceless demon paladin with horns in modern digital paining style" and "painted portrait of a male dryad cleric with antlers in modern digital painting style"?)

Mortal Shell. I cleared the last (I think) area. Unlike the previous locations, this one was covered in fog from the start. Considering that there are few landmarks in general, it was not a welcome change. Also there were portals without clear indication where they led. Finally, the deadliest foe in Souls-likes appeared - the gravity. Basically, when the HP depletes the first time, the MC, who is some sort of spirit, gets knocked out of the shell and rolls a bit to the side to get up. Which means instant death on ledges that were numerous in the area. The fall damage was featured in the boss arena as well - in order to reach it, you had to fall and with the assassin shell (Tiel) and without the ability that negates fall damage, you was losing one "life" even before the battle. The boss itself was fairly easy, partially due to the sword being fully upgraded, partially due to it having only 2 combo attacks in the second phase, which led to a rather repetitive but simple battle. On a positive note, the opponents were more diverse, though only 3 new ones, the rest were present in other locations, and the last stretch of the area was reasonably straight-forward and good-looking. And running back out was quite engaging, especially when I saw a row of crossbowwomen on the top of the staircase.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/babylons-fall-is-shutting-down-in-february-2023-just-before-its-first-birthday "BABYLON'S FALL will be ending service on February 28, 2023, 18:00 JST / 09:00 GMT / 01:00 PT. After that point the game, along with any in-game currency and in-game purchased items, will no longer be accessible". It is somehow satisfying to see an MTX-filled online-only GaaS model game shutting down. I was quite fond of the developer before that. I suppose, it will not affect Bayonetta 3, because the publishers, genres and platforms are different.

Solasta is not a long game and quite comfortable to play in short sessions. I completed it some time ago without DLCs. I can't quite point out why, but the game was extremely nice and comfortable to play, unlike DOS1-2 (it could be the lack of "lol, gotha" moments, precise controls, expressive visuals, meaningful loot and crafting?). Though, its main quest line was somehow linear. Wasteland 3. Replayed the first mission trice while testing the PCs. Ended up with a melee fighter and a sniper. For some reason I have the feeling that the Patriarch's children are going to die.

AI is used in the field of literature already, though the quality of the said literature could be higher. https://www.theverge.com/c/23194235/ai-fiction-writing-amazon-kindle-sudowrite-jasper Regarding art, currently popular are DALL-E 2 and Midjourney, they have their limitations and applications. I don't think I would not be able to point out if an art piece was generated by an AI. https://towardsdatascience.com/dall-e-2-explained-the-promise-and-limitations-of-a-revolutionary-ai-3faf691be220

Mortal Shell. Defeated the second main boss, which took longer than the first (the second stage was somehow harder, because I was unable to bait the boss reliably and it kept skiing around in circles). Though, the area (a frozen crypt) was easier to navigate - if a path led down, it was the one to take. I also was able to upgrade the starting sword to the max level and reach the next area.

Couldn't reach any actual gameplay, only checked the options, some of the opening cut-scene, and the character creation screen. Judging by the former and Spiders' previous games should be good.

Tried launching the game on another PC, it did start and promptly attempted to overheat the CPU (at 94C I decided to use Alt+F4). The GPU was at 78C, so while uncomfortable, not critical. I also checked the keyboard and mouse options, 5-button mice are supported, the controls are fully rebindable. I suppose, the XBox version is preferable in any perceivable aspect, i.e. much better optimised. And halberds seem to be fun to use. --- Started Anodyne 2: Return to Dust. Seems to be a platformer, similar to Psychonauts, with 2D dungeons. For some reason, it does not support mouse at all, but can be played comfortably with keyboard only.

From what I've heard, it's the high-resolution textures (there's a file in the game's folder called "datapchighres.spk" 42.6GB). Should have been a separate free DLC for those who want them.

Attempted to play Steelrising. Got "Failed to create the DirectX12 rendering device. Error code 0x800004002". Jokes on me, though. I normally don't buy games at launch, as they are buggy, overpriced, and incomplete. Spiders' previous games were DRM-/bug-/MTX- and DLC-free (almost*), which led me to believe that Steelrising would be similar. I intend to wait for a patch or refund and wait for a 50+% discount. *some pre-order fluff and minor, if any, bugs.

Completed the game today, it is brilliant. I could complain about the momentum during double jumps and mid-air dashes, but it is not significant.

Mortal Shell. It is an indie Souls-like. After Nioh, it feels incredibly slow and repetitive - there are very few types of enemies with extremely high density of them. Considering that there is not much customisation for the "shells" (playable characters), mowing through them seems pointless. The 3 bosses I've defeated (two of them were mini-bosses, one protecting a shell, another a weapon) were rather straight-forward - find one punishable attack and exploit it. The Hardening system (the MC turns to stone and becomes immune to damage) is an interesting and unique feature, though takes time to get used to. The locations seem to change after the corresponding boss has been defeated, granted I was just running through the one without much exploration, but I think the mobs were different on the way to the boss. I still have a very vague idea about the story, but a not-Firekeeper allows to level up and a giant chained bird-man asked to bring him glands. The MC is a spirit who is able to possess corpses, the titular shells. They have set HP and stamina, but the abilities are unique for each shell and require unlocking them. Also been playing Paradise Killer. It is a first-person adventure game with very few puzzles and a lot of dialogues. The story follows a detective who has been returned from her exile to investigate a mass murder. So far so good. Some mechanics are not obvious, but the game is delightful.

I've checked, the game works in offline mode (no Internet connection at all), but it took several attempts to launch it from the ConanSandbox.exe file - launching through Steam did not work. Most custom key bindings were broken. I haven't checked the mods.

Baiting his party one by one helped. SoD is quite similar to ToB in terms of design, I think. Both feature more points of no-return than the main games, though SoD has more cut-scenes, which in general I strongly detest - unless the PC/the party is/are literally bound, the game must not rob me of control (and the ability to throw fireballs into the fog of war).

Nioh 2. Defeated the Ancient Nyotengu with the power of 3 cats and several Yokai charging items. Fought the Nightmare Bringer again in a side mission. It certainly felt much less epic. Mass Effect 2. The cut-scenes are unintentionally hilarious sometimes - in the Lair of the Shadow Broker the MC switches guns with the camera angles (on a positive note, at least those are the guns equipped this time) and it is assumed that he does not wear a helmet.

Nioh 2. Defeated the Nightmare Bringer, which is the final boss of the final DLC. Turned off the VA by the 3rd attempt. Not bad, but completely irrelevant, as the boss didn't even slow down while talking, and distracting. Started a side mission to save some non-hostile yokai and keep getting obliterated by the mini-bosses. Somehow disappointing after the previous mission. Even more disappointing that the badger doppelganger (a summon) does not respawn after the first death.

It's open-world and classless, but otherwise quite similar to the OT. The most important improvement was the jetpack, which was awesome. The Vaults were fun too.

Nioh 2. Finally defeated (he fled) Otakemaru in the last DLC by using consumables and staying in the Yokai form for the second half of the battle.

They have, as far as I know. https://www.wired.com/story/gaming-industry-unites-russia/

I am curious how it is going to work with less party members. The main story of the DLC should not be affected anyhow.

I know that I have played and completed IWD (except "the expansion within the expansion" part, got burnt out at that point), but I cannot remember much about the game. I think, once the party turtled in a room and fireball'ed the incoming hordes of enemies and the wizard had a cat familiar. And there was an ice dragon at the end? Can't recall it being too difficult, though. My party included the MC and 5 pregenerated companions and I did not min-max (much). BG1 and BG2 certainly were more memorable and engaging (especially those sweet HLA). My PST playthrough is in progress. I've started it some time ago and will pick up again eventually.

GOG Galaxy is not required to run the game. I think it does not force updates, unlike Steam, but I haven't tried to launch WotR via GOG Galaxy, just downloaded the game from the website and blocked it with the firewall. Would suggest to keep the installation files just in case. Not sure from what point, but now gog.com offers only the latest versions of games to download, so switching between versions is possible only via the app.

Haven. I heard that there was a major update, so I reinstalled the game. Unfortunately, the update's content is not accessible on the saves from the previous versions, so I just spent 3 hours hunting an optional boss. By "hunting" I mean leaving the game running and switching to other windows, while waiting for the boss to spawn. Apparently, it could appear only on the islands without camps, because when I started to run in circles around the base island, the signs of it (roaring, screen-tearing effects) were present there. When I sat next to a campsite, there was nothing. I defeated Beruberu on the first attempt, though it took all my healing supplies and some of the buffs. Also the game is slightly more fun to play without dialogues (or any story content). The music is nice, the graphical style is nice, the gameplay is more or less fine, though it can be frustrating at times (when you try to find a specific path/"flow thread"). Allowing to rebind the controls for the right hand and craft several items per session are the most significant improvements. On another note, it is incredibly annoying that the "release first, patch later" philosophy is so prevalent even among independent developers. Like, can you just complete the game before launching it? On the other hand, at least they support it for free, unlike the triple-A publishers with their MTX DLC. Though, for both cases waiting for 1-2 years and purchasing with 50+% discount is the best approach. Edit. Nioh 2. Playing through the side content of the second DLC. Met a ninja cameo character, who proceeded to murder the PC repeatedly. Then fought another boss, who strongly reminded of Vergil from Devil May Cry, with much more success. I would like to add that Nioh 2 - Complete Edition seems to be actually complete and has not tried to force-update itself during my 3-month-long playthrough.