Hawke64

I ended up backing WotR. Partly, because of BG3, mostly, because PF:KM was somehow fun. Also there were kukris.

I'd call the most culturally significant Tyranny or PoE, because these IPs were developed as video games first and belong to Obsidian (PoE, at least; not sure about Tyranny). Voted for Deadfire, because it features the qualities I associate with RPGs in general and Obsidian cRPGs in particular - player's agency, interactivity, engaging story and combat. Also tool-tips.

If it was possible to skip combat animations, to have the pause/speed up function for real-time gameplay (running around the map or interacting with neutral moving NPCs)*, non-playable companions and traditional dialogues (without past tense), I may consider purchasing BG3. But all of it goes against Larian's focus on multiplayer, so it is very unlikely to happen. *Somehow Shadowrun and BattleTech had actually fun TB combat, BT even had verticality implemented well (or at least I liked it), while D:OS had it implemented poorly - I had to target specific part of an enemy for a ranged attack to hit and it was extremely annoying.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. I finished my first playthrough. I guess, I'll replay it with the Restored Content mode, but not right now. Okami HD. It works well on PC, Celestial Brush (drawing symbols on the screen, which could be replaced with hotkeys) supports mouse. So far, so good. Avadon: The Black Fortress. A turn-based party-RPG. It works surprisingly well and combat animations are fast, which I appreciate. The writing does not provide a lot of role-play, but it is stylistically and logically consistent. And there are text descriptions for environment. I don't see those often and, considering that graphics do not always capture what the developers are trying to tell, they are most welcome. Camera movement is bound to arrows and cannot be reassigned, which is slightly inconvenient.

It is not the only one, just the closest to BG. There are also:

Both.

BG3 being D:OS2.5 is disappointing, but not surprising. I very much detest most aspects of D:OS, from obscure gameplay systems and it being essentially a turn-based Diablo (an MP-focused sandbox with color-coded randomized loot) to sluggish animations and graphic style (in general). Well, there's that new Pathfinder game, which will be released in 2-3 years. I look forward to it, though not going to back.

It looks like something for VR and/or co-op.

Okami HD.

PF:KM is quite user-friendly, thanks to the numerous tool-tips, showing what affects what. The only things I strongly disliked were rolls for non-combat skill checks, including kingdom management (unlike PnP, failures don't open new opportunities, they just mean that you have to reload), and the alignment system. --- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. I think, I am close to the end-game. During my second visit to Dxun, where I had to split my party, Atton proved to be the most useful companion. With him I managed to run past almost all enemies and loot everything. It did not work well for the last battle of the section, though. The Sith somehow noticed Atton, thus starting combat, the rest of the party teleported to the room when I tried to escape, but the Sith knocked out Visas and Mandalore in 3-4 rounds. So I used mines and kited them around the pool (?) in the middle of the room. It was not quite what I would like, but it was much better than Nar Shaddaa. I think, the game wants me to murder my way through, as it goes along well with the plot.

I like it. Reminds of Bioshock and ME:A, but more intense.

STAR WARS Knights of the Old Republic II - The Sith Lords. I resumed my playthrough after 4.5 years. I don't remember much, but it has never stopped me before. The party successfully defeated Sith assassins at the Mandalorian camp and traveled to Iziz, Onderon, in order to .. find a Jedi Master? The city was on the verge of civil war and the palace, where the Jedi Master was supposed to be, was blocked from public access.

Tried to play Spellforce 3. For some reason it tries to overheat my GPU and Steam tries to synchronize the cloud saves, while I have disabled them globally (as "not specifically for this game"), then it hangs and crashes (once with the OS). So, now I'm looking for a way to prevent Steam from doing this, preferably, without switching it to the offline mode. These are relatively small issues, but they are rather irritating.

God Eater 3. Tyrant Hannibal. Tyrant Hannibal defeated.

God Eater 3. v2.40. I've successfully completed 2 companion missions and defeated the new aragami. After playing GER, I must say that GE3 has much better AI, but somehow less responsive controls. In one of these new missions the issue I had with the game came up again - the game tries to portrait institutionalized discrimination and genocide, but also to make it suitable for 12-year-olds and to have a "happy" ending. I don't think that it is possible or reasonable to negotiate with someone who sees you as a less than a human and has been actively and persistently trying to kill you, your family and your friends, but, being an action game, GE3 does not allow me to express it. The new aragami, Tyrant Hannibal, was quite entertaining to fight - unlike the normal Hannibal, breaking its halo was the key to victory. Edit. Completed Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. It is a relatively short action/hack&slash with platforming. There is nothing remarkable about it, except that it runs well on Win10 from the start and supports 5-button mice (the camera is fixed, though).

EA increased regional prices for its old games on Steam. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2020/02/07/ea-have-price-hiked-most-of-their-game-catalog-on-steam Seems.. unwise, to put it politely. There are already regional locks on Steam to prevent trading and average income in the affected regions has not improve, so I fail to see what EA hopes to achieve. Also new update for God Eater 3 has been released. (I could not find the announcement in English).

Roll+Heart. It is a visual novel about a group of tabletop gamers, there are character customization and very basic turn-based battles. The game is a buggy mess, but it is still quite amusing.

Sounds good. Thank you for the information.

Is the story linear? Or there are choices (romances do not count)? Can the avatar be customized (class, equipment, appearance, etc.)?

God Eater Resurrection. I don't quite get the sense of humor of the writers. Dyaus Pita. It was rather random. The character on the right acted like the avatar replied, but it was silent and there were no dialogue options available. Somehow immersion-breaking.

God Eater Resurrection. The 10th story arc/difficulty/rank consisted mostly of 2vs1 battles. It was refreshing, because I had to learn aragami's movesets, time my attacks and manage the stamina. The Corrosive Hannibal (#1) took 3-4 attempts, the rest, including the second battle against the Corrosive Hannibal, required only one. These missions reminded me of that one time in GE2, when I was with an underlevelled NPC companion, who got KO'ed quickly, and I had to solo the boss. I know that there are 3 more ranks to go, but I am quite satisfied with ending the game at this point. It was less enjoyable than GE3, but not too terrible.

God Eater Resurrection. I acquired more equipment and grew accustomed to the difference in controls between GE3 and GER. So far, I've been focused on the story missions and successfully reached Rank/Difficulty 6 (not sure how many are there). It is noticeable that GER was developed for handheld consoles (mostly, GUI and animations), but it is ported quite well to PC. The things that bother me are the plot presentation (worse than GE3), characters (too anime) and the default operator, Hibari. Unlike Amy (GE3), she almost screams during missions and her lines are too long (e.g. the target's status changes while she's still talking), thus I've disabled VA for missions, though I like to know if the aragami is retreating or just preparing for another attack (sometimes I can't see it). It should be possible to switch to another support NPC after completing the main story. At least, it was in GE2RB. Edit. I cleared Difficulty/Rank 6 and (I think) the base game (the pre-Resurrection part). The plot did not improve, but the difficulty increased, so it somehow worked out. The final (?) boss, Arda Nova, still took only one attempt.

God Eater 3, v.2.30. Melammu Marduk might be a reskin of the normal Marduk, but it had several (2?) new abilities.

Disco Elysium. I successfully discovered the corpse and vomited twice in front of it. I think, it would go better, if I was able to skip or at least speed up animations. God Eater: Resurrection. The controls feel off - like the avatar is weightless - after GE3, but I appreciate the lore. This time it's in cut-scenes, instead of the in-game encyclopedia. The story progresses slowly, I hope it'll pick up the pace soon.

I've got Steam keys for: Niche MagiCat Evergarden