Hawke64

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin My journey started with a falchion... And with the same falchion it ended.

I remember my disappointment, when the game did not allow me to kill the redhead guy with mustache after defeating the bald guy. But the saber he gave me, Iris, was quite nice. Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I've reached the Dragon Shrine. It changed a lot in SotFS - the dragon knights are friendly. It makes the area somehow unique, as everywhere else, except Majula, everything tries to murder me. I finished Lucatiel's quest line and it was a good reminder about DSII main plot's driving force - to preserve one's identity, memories, self. Still, it's a really tragic story.

Shenmue III has been released. I've received and activated my key (backed the game on Kickstarter) and it is downloading now (the size is about 35GB, despite the store page claiming 100; mentioning it, because it had bothered me greatly during the campaign). https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2019/11/19/after-18-years-shenmue-3-is-finally-a-game-you-can-play-right-now/ Edit. The game crashes (when launched from EGS) or shows only black screen (when launched from Steam). I suppose, I should have waited longer for patches. Not unusual, but still unpleasant.

On pre-buffing. Pathfinder: Kingmaker on Normal (mostly on Normal, there were several difficulty sliders) required pre-buffing in order to not die quickly and horribly. On my second PT, when I knew what to expect and understood the mechanics better, I buffed the party upon entering a map, then ran and murdered everything while the buffs lasted. There was little variety to it, so I wished I could write macros (and it made me appreciate PoE even more). Dragon Age at least allowed to customize AI and the companions could pre-buff themselves, though I don't remember if it was necessary. So, I like the approach to buffs in PoE.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. I ran through the Gutter, cleared the Black Gulch (no idea how I was supposed to find the giants or Lucatiel, if I did not know about their locations - the ledges were nearly invisible) and the Drangleic Castle, reached the Shrine of Amana and collected all DLC keys. It seems like length-wise DS1 and DSII are quite similar - 2 bells=>4 great souls and 4 great souls=>King's ring =>the Ancient Dragon's thing (I forgot what it is) - but the order is reversed. The Outer Worlds. I completed character creation and part of the tutorial section. I am going to continue the playthrough after DSII. So far I like the humor and appreciate 5-button mouse support.

I haven't played a caster, but heard that it should be viable in DS1 and 2 and not recommended in DS3. I suppose (not sure), there are too many stats required to cast effectively and number of spells per rest is limited. Found a build for DS2: https://darksouls2.wiki.fextralife.com/Pure+Caster For DS3: https://darksouls3.wiki.fextralife.com/Mage+Build

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated Duke's Dear Freja (a giant two-headed spider) with 3 phantoms, whom I summoned while looking for the way to the second bonfire in the area. It was more chaotic, than going alone, but the NPCs were quite capable. Also after saving Ornifex in the Shaded Ruins, I decided to try the Lost Sinner in NG+ (I had 1 bonfire ascetic). The boss dropped its NG+ soul, which I traded for the Chaos Blade. It leaves only one path from Majula to clear and the Gutter is a worthy successor of Blighttown. A lot of wooden ladders and catwalks, poison, and zero visibility as a bonus. There should not be anything necessary for the run, so I intend to get to the Black Gulch as fast as possible without exploring much.

I'm quite sure her romance starts at +2, not +1.

I suppose, the initial impression of "tropical biome + sloops + pirates" had bothered me, but I still supported PoEII. The main story line from the trailers was the exact thing I had wanted after PoE1 and I was not disappointed. The length of the critical path (Mort Maje=>Hasongo=>Ashen Maw=>Neketaka=Ukaizo) and that the inability to kill Eothas was backed up by lore (how can one destroy a giant adra statue?) I consider to be good things (when an NPC is killable by lore, but protected by plot armor or the game restricts your avatar's movement during cut-scenes, it is irritating). No strong feelings about Avellone.

Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated the Old Iron King. It has been a fairly straightforward run so far, I've been dying mostly to gravity, defeating bosses on first attempts. The Smelter Demon and the entrance to the Iron Keep were slightly more difficult, because the knights there were more mobile and aggressive, than I remembered, and I was low on Estus when I reached the boss. The bridge itself seemed to be recreated as a PvP spot even in the offline mode - I got two NPC invaders. The phantoms, added in SotFS, were both effective (could kill stuff and not die at the same time) and friendly (they performed appropriate gestures and used items). The old ones who were in the original version have not changed - sturdy, but not expressive. The two bosses who can be hard to defeat are the Fume Knight and the Dark Lurker (not sure about spelling). I have not yet found the keys to any of the DLC areas.

The Outer Worlds. I'm unlikely to play it right now, but I wanted to support the developers after the news about PoE3. Also I am worried that the future patches may alter the experience and EGS does not force to download updates, unlike Steam (at least, The Witness and Celeste have not tried to do it yet).

Thank you for the information.

I'm considering to purchase TOW (PC) on the Official Private Division Store (https://store.privatedivision.com/the-outer-worlds/order). In what form (a key or an installer or what) the digital version is delivered?

I completed PoE1 and backed PoEII (as the badge confirms). My only issue with PoEII was the "Ultimate" update, which messed up the critical path and added Woedica's book (which I could not throw overboard). So I purchased the Obsidian Edition on GOG, because, unlike Steam, it does not force updates for single-player games when I try to launch them. And I am willing to back PoE3 when the development starts. Though, my reasons don't anyhow explain 600k+ drop in sales. But I had not completed (or played) BG when PoE was released, so nostalgia did not affect my purchase decision, and I strongly detest DOS, because they were poorly-written (subjective opinion) multiplayer-focused sandboxes (fact) with tedious unavoidable combat (subjective opinion).

DS requires some dedication and somehow has very captivating combat, once you get the general idea of it. So it tends to remain in memory, otherwise you get stuck pretty early. --- Got through the Lost Bastille in DSII:SotFS. The Pursuer appeared about 3 times, while I was exploring the place. And there were more phantoms available to summon, than in the vanilla. Now I hope to acquire a bonfire ascetic and the Sinner's NG+ soul for the Chaos Blade. It seems to be the best weapon for a dex build. Currently I'm using Falchion +6.

How is Disco Elysium in terms of updates and bugs? I purchased it on day 1, but decided to refund after the 3rd failed attempt to download it. I had the same issue with Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the game became much better in 6 months.

Started Dark Souls II: Scholar of the First Sin. Defeated the Pursuer and the Last Giant, reached the Bastille. The first ten minutes of the game I spent trying to configure the controls. Either Razer Synapse deleted my previous setting for Dark Souls for the Razer Mamba or I used the DeathAdder for DSII in 2016.

Completed Double Cross. It was a quite good platformer - diverse non-repetitive levels, tight controls, interesting story. Tried Hollow Knight, reached the first boss, realized that I need to see boss' healthbar, otherwise battles quickly become irritating. The controls are good, but the game does not support 5-button mice.

GreedFall

GreedFall. Completed my third (and likely the last) playthrough. Failed to acquire the unique equipment of the factions. I am not sure what is the trigger for the leaders to turn down the request for soldiers. But I've managed to collect all professor Serafeddin's notes.

I generally prefer bisexual or non-romanceable companions. Unless their sexuality somehow referenced in the story, it is pretty much pointless to specify it. My 3rd PT of GreedFall is going well and I hope to acquire the unique faction weapons and the reputation bonus equipment this time. The melee build is more fun to play, than the firearms-focused one, but it requires more attention in combat, because bosses still can deplete my HP in 2 good hits.

GreedFall (excluding the pre-order DLC, currently available for purchase). It's been almost two months since its release and there was only one patch - the game is remarkably stable. Spiders (the developers) in general don't make DLC for their games, and I very much appreciate it. Thank you for the information. It seems that waiting for at least 6 months is the most reasonable approach.

Will there be any DLC or expansions? For how long the game will be updated? While I understand the concept of continued post-release support in general and why some players like it, I'd rather have a complete and reasonably bug-free game, which does not change after a year in a way I do not like for reasons I hardly can control.

Completed Thief of Thieves: Season One. It was a quite nice stealth-adventure. Though, more "adventure", than "stealth". GreedFall. I acquired my end-game equipment before meeting the governors, which was the first main quest after the prologue. I appreciate the ability to explore the island before going for the main storyline. Though, on the 3rd playthough I started to notice typos, inconsistent capitalization and articles in dialogues.

Started Thief of Thieves. It's a quite nice adventure-stealth game. Though, for some reason my GPU's temperature becomes uncomfortably high. The game's pretty light on polygons-per-model. Thief of Thieves reminds of Seven: The Days Long Gone, but less action-RPG-like. Started the 3rd playthrough of GreedFall. I've come to admire the ability to publish a completed mostly bug-free game more after several unsuccessful attempts to download one of the recently released RPGs, which seemed to be updated daily, thus resetting the download progress.