Hawke64

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.

EA released all ME2 DLC for free (can be claimed via Origin, downloaded from https://help.ea.com/en/help/faq/dlc-for-classic-games/#masseffect ). I've started another playthrough with all of them. Reached Omega. So far so good. The dialogue wheel is one of the worst things happen to RPGs, though. On the other hand, the mining mini-game is somehow enjoyable, but likely to turn to grind in a few hours.

As far as I know, the only children who might undergo surgery without their consent are intersex (it is an umbrella category which can include variations in chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and other sex characteristics that do not fit the typical medical establishment’s definitions of “male” or “female"; 1.7% according to the UN statistics). I can't find the list of countries where it is banned. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/25/us-harmful-surgery-intersex-children Welcome. Social transition and hormone blockers. They do not have access to surgeries. Considering the levels of abuse towards LGBT and gender-non-confoming (i.e. not only trans) youth by their biological parents, if the parents' wishes include only the parents' ambitions, but not the child's happiness, they should not have been parents in the first place. https://galop.org.uk/resource/lgbt-experiences-of-abuse-from-family-members/ An anecdotal story from 2018, but gives perspective (regardless of the child actually being gay/straight/cis/trans, he was killed because of his parents' homophobia). https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/mom-pleads-guilty-murder-8-year-old-boy-thought-be-n848741

If a child can access cancer treatment should they have cancer, they must be able to access puberty blockers if they have gender dysphoria. For the reference, 12 year olds get neither surgeries nor HRT. Blockers only prevent the default hormones, which trigger the default puberty when the person stops taking the blockers. For younger kids only social transition, i.e. clothes, hairstyle, pronouns, is available, which obviously have 0 physical consequences. Thus, the only people threatened by trans youth having access to healthcare are transphobes (who'd rather force the children to commit suicide), not just cisgenders who are not affected by it anyhow. On another note, cis people do have their gender-affirming healthcare, TRT/HRT for the people with low hormone levels and implants for breast cancer survivors.

The Waylanders. Completed the second playthrough, which took less than 10 hours. The ending slides played as they should, unlike the first playthrough, though I am unsure what exactly caused it. Another bug encountered is that I was unable to talk with the companions after completing their quests and there were 2 more random crashes.

Is that not typical for the genre? To highlight early main story beats, without spoiling late-game too much, and the differences from the previous game in the series. In this case, transforming into the summoned demons. Several Baoynettas within one game sound like fun (thought that the red witch was Jeanne at first). The new MC somehow reminds of Nero with that jacket and the hook.

Agreed about the grind and too much filler. In AC: Unity and Syndicate I played only the critical path and it was decent, but too similar to any other AC game. Probably, the same for Far Cry. I guess, I am not the target audience for triple-A, as I strongly detest grind, filler, "cinematic" cut-scenes, ridiculous file sizes and most of all GaaS, DRM and MTX. --- The Waylanders. Reached the second Act (again). The second to last difficulty does not seem different from Normal. I hope that the companion quests for the newly-recruited team member will work correctly this time.

Participated in review-bombing Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD, which if I remember correctly was an average AC (played once in 2014), and which Ubisoft tried to take away from the people who had purchased it. The game is available on Steam again, though the note on the store page now says: "DLC for this product and online elements and features will become unavailable, as of Sept 1st, 2022. The base game will continue to be playable" (previously it was that the game itself will not be accessible). I find it increasingly difficult to rationalise purchasing any Ubisoft game in the future. Then again, they haven't released anything I'd be interested in for quite some time. Playing Nioh 2. Reached the second DLC (which is included in the PC edition from the start), got chewed by a demonic cart.

The Waylanders. Replaying it as a Mourian Ranger, as I was often switching to a ranged character during the first playthrough. The differences so far include that none of the companions wants to talk to me after completing their loyalty quests (2 left, so it might change later), but I was able to recruit the last companion, whom I had missed (the cut-scene had not triggered) on the previous playthrough. It might have something to do with the order of completion of the main quests, but not sure. Also, my lore-wise immortal ranger has been repeatedly called a mortal, which suggests that the story was written with a human MC in mind. On the other hand, after gaining the title of Mil Espaine, the MC is only Mil Espaine (whatever that it, the Wikipedia article and the in-game encyclopedia did not help me to figure it out).

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/ubisoft-to-turn-off-online-features-for-some-old-games-meaning-players-lose-access-to-dlc Shouldn't expect much from Ubisoft, but removing access to legally purchased products (in this case, DLC) is new. Also, it highlights why supporting DRM-free platforms is preferable. Speaking of, Assassin's Creed 1 is available on GOG (though, it has no DLC, thus not quite the same). So, if Ubisoft was not Ubisoft, they could release older games with all DLC included there, instead of remasters.

The Waylanders. After replaying a short part of the second-to-final quest, it fortunately got unlocked and I was able to locate the path to the corrupted troops I was to slay. The boss of the quest had very lore-friendly stats, as it was a human, though it also meant a rather short battle, 5 vs 1. Then the game offered an important story decision and it was reflected in the ending slide (there was 1 ending slide in total, thus it was the most important choice for the ending). The final quest consisted of 3 boss battles in a row. The first slightly depended on a side quest (if you complete it, the boss has 10% less HP and is half-transparent), the other two seem to be the same regardless of any dialogue choices (there might be something different depending on another side quest and romance, but I was unable to test it, as I would have to replay most of the game and the above-mentioned companion quest was broken). I replayed it twice and noticed that it was impossible to change the party despite the dialogues saying otherwise (the second time I got stuck only with the PC and the mandatory companion). In general, despite the story being quite broken and linear, the locations and builds very minimalistic, and the game having numerous bugs of varying severity, the Waylanders have some charm and I somehow enjoyed it. It is nowhere close Dragon Age and completely different from Pathfinder (not counting the bugs, though in this aspect, the Waylanders lead, undoubtedly), but it is worth one playthrough (~22 hours) if the player does not mind the bugs (i.e. recommended for £15 or cheaper). On a positive note, I like that there are different body types and they depend on the class of the character. It is really immersion-breaking to see wizards and fighters being equally buff. Edit. A small, yet amusing detail about the first boss:

The Waylanders. I've reached the end-game and the main quest has softlocked. I will try it again later from an earlier point. Not counting that "small" issue, it has been quite fun, several (2, to be exact, but one of them twice) previous decisions have been referenced, however insignificant they were. Also another companion quest turned out to be impossible to complete. This time the game kept crashing at one specific point in an unremarkable tunnel. I tried teleporting through the "crash zone", sending the character and switching to another, and turning the camera away while running with the same "Fatal Error!" message at the end. Considering that the exit was on the other part of the corridor, the only way to get out was to reload one of the previous saves. If anyone has any suggestions for the softlock, it would be most welcome. Judging by the Steam achievements, I am 2 quests away from the ending. Stopping now would be most disappointing (unless the ending shown in the video is the best and truest one).

The Waylanders. I have encountered 2 side quests that were impossible to complete, one for the unrecruited companion (who needed to be in the active party in order to progress the quest), the other for a recruited one (the post-quest dialogue did not trigger). One cut-scene for another quest was shown as a black screen with "Sequence LS_032_003_LorencioDefeated_B" at the bottom, but the quest was finished successfully. Fortunately, the main quest line has not got locked (yet). The story is becoming jollier and jollier as the party advances, though the main objective for the last main quest was to gather the scattered party, i.e. not to progress the main objective. Side note, most of the side quests have taken place in different places of the same location - only the relevant for the quest paths were available and the rest blocked. While it is not exactly bad, being able to progress all of them at the same time would have been more convenient, but much harder to code and test.

If you have played DA1 and DA2, then DA:I. Otherwise, BG1. While it is essentially still BG1, there are new quests and an expansion. Secondly, the controls and graphics are excellent. And finally, the length of 1 playthrough is much more reasonable, than DA:I. Neither game needs any mods, but one might want to skip the wartable missions in DA:I.

The Waylanders. I've completed the first act. There seem to be some branching in dialogues and at least short-term consequences. Also there is a side quest called "The Brotherhood of Blacksmiths", which I find somehow oddly designed - the quest giver provides the locations of the merchants (not really merchants) you need to visit only once in an unvoiced dialogue, the above-mentioned not-merchants are not marked on the map, the dialogue icon above them is really hard to notice, all NPC in the game are named and you don't have to visit the places where they are during the main quests. Fortunately, I had taken a screenshot of that dialogue and was able to collect the quest items (by interacting with most of the NPCs at the locations indicated). I suppose, it is good that the game requires attention? I've started the second act. There seem to be more bugs, but the few locations I've visited are less linear (on the map; at that time, all optional paths were blocked). The not-recruited companion recognized me and (re)joined the party. In terms of classes, branching is achieved via advanced classes (3 per base class, class-specific upgrades for the existing abilities, 4 new ones). Granted, there are way too many <MISSING STRING TABLE ENTRY> now, but the game has become more engaging and I've been enjoying the story, even if I might be slightly biased. Some screenshots (the settings are closer to the minimal):

The Waylanders. I've encountered my first softlock during a main quest, because the boss despawned on reload, thus I will have to replay from the last autosave (10 - 15 minutes). On a positive note, dialogues started to be more interactive - I avoided a battle in the same quest by not insulting the NPC. Also, the party members all abilities available at the moment (there are 6 active and 2 passive for each class), making the combat more engaging. The game is not bad, but it can be frustrating at times. It feels much closer to Avadon* with more linear maps and RtwP combat than to Dragon Age. *turn-based combat and mostly large open maps, even if there is an expected path to traverse them. Stylized writing, but in a very different style than The Waylanders.

The Waylanders. It is a party-based RPG with RtwP combat. I guess, the developers tried to make something like Dragon Age, but it is not anywhere close. The levels and most of the dialogues are extremely linear, the exception being companions'. There are several classes and equipment, but very few abilities, though they are diverse enough. Missed 1 companion so far, because the recruitment cut-scene did not trigger. There are numerous missing descriptions and subtitles occasionally are different from the spoken lines, but the game has not crashed yet. Nioh 2. Completed the main game and tried the last DLC. Got repeatedly slaughtered by the boss in the first mission. I suppose, I was too underlevelled for it.

Pre-ordered Steelrising on Steam. While the games Spiders make are neither excellent RPG nor excellent action games, they are reasonably engaging, interesting, and sometimes unintentionally ridiculous without anything too WTF in terms of story and the PC controls usually are perfect. Also got Shores Unknown on GOG from the Summer Sale.

Pretty much the same, the differences I've noticed are: You can customize your character's appearance and their yokai form (it works instead of Living Weapons; 3 options - a great club, dual daggers, or some mid-ranged throwing weapon); There are yokai active abilities; Boss battles have 2 phases - normal and Dark Realm (harder); There are Dark Realm areas - stamina regeneration is lowered, the compass does not work, the shrines are not active until you kill a specific yokai in the area (has red lilies around it, usually somewhere deep in the area); Co-op with AI-controlled players' characters is much easier (or I've been playing online since switching to another antivirus and it's actually the same, not sure); You can auto-purchase elixirs (Estus), ammunition, and co-op items for Divine Rice, which you get by offering unwanted equipment at the shrines (instead of just offering equipment for a chance to get elixirs). I haven't played PvP (not counting AI-controlled PCs) or crafted equipment in either game. Screenshots:

Nioh 2. I think I am pretty close to the end of the main game. Defeated Lady Osakabe, aka the castle with tentacles. Luckily for me, her 2nd phase tentacles spawned at the farthest side of the roof and I was able to shoot her in the eye almost issue-free. So far the only things I dislike about Nioh 2 are The main story is linear, which should be expected, but still unpleasant; The loot is unsatisfying, like in Diablo or Divinity, colour-coded piles of RNG'ed story-free pointy sticks, instead of unique lore-rich legendary artifacts; There is no auto-saving on exit, only at the shrines ("bonfires"); The size of the game is ridiculous, around 76GB. Otherwise, it is a decent Souls-like with comfortable customizable controls, diverse character builds, and epic bosses. There is no open-world, the game uses mission-based structure, though the locations are quite large.

A report on loot boxes by the Norwegian Consumer Council: https://www.beuc.eu/press-media/news-events/loot-boxes-how-gaming-industry-manipulates-and-exploits-consumers https://www.forbrukerradet.no/report-on-loot-boxes-insert-coin/ Nothing particularly new, except the application of AI. At the moment only 2 countries have banned loot boxes, Belgium and the Netherlands. I would welcome a full ban on any loot boxes and in-game currencies, which would effectively destroy f2p games. --- To avoid double posting. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/itchios-queer-games-bundle-is-back-offering-hundreds-of-games-for-pride-month Link to the $10 bundle: https://itch.io/b/1405/queer-games-bundle-2022-pay-what-you-can-edition There are a lot of visual novels, walking simulators, and demos of questionable quality, several decent games include: Lucah: Born of a Dream and its sequel's demo 2064: Read Only Memories A Mortician's Tale Adaca Titan Tactics The North Lofty Quest

Yes, but you can meet the unchosen ones (much) later and fight them*. I quite strongly disliked that - due to the ability to respec at any time as much as you want, it did not directly damaged the balance and party-composition (it could be assumed that you have an adequate party at any given moment), but it was immersion-breaking, as a character build is an essential part of a companion. In other words, switching between companions would be preferable to going back to the ship and changing their builds. *does not happen if you modded the game and took all of them with you at the end of Act 1.