Hawke64

Completed Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. It is an excellent example of a Metroidvania game - platforming, combat and level design are challenging and engaging, story and humor are interesting, graphics and soundtrack are fitting, controls are customizable and responsive (though, I had to change "Dimension Swap" binding several times before settling for Space, so I was able to jump in a certain direction, while switching dimensions). Also Bayonetta (skin) is available in Steam Workshop.

Completed Rise of the Argonauts. Hack'n'Slash, based (loosely) on Greek mythology. Can't recommend it, but neither regret playing. Played OneShot. Puzzle/Adventure isn't my genre, so I refunded it and will attempt to ignore positive reviews on similar games in the future.

Completed Faery - Legends of Avalon. There were: Bearable combat (turn-based, Final Fantasy-like, very simplistic) and plot (more or less makes sense); Nice graphics (style and technical level) and soundtrack; No VA (much appreciated); Unrebindable controls; Some choices during the story (fight/persuade) and character progression (equipment and abilities are visible on the avatar*). *so at the end the avatar had horns, wings, scorpion tail and 3 tattoos.

Completed Murdered: Soul Suspect. The ending was amusing, the game.. not so much, despite that looking for 242 collectibles (got 204), while completing QTEs with unrebindable controls, just had to be fun. It would make a better movie, than a game.

Completed Bayonetta on Normal on PC with KB&M. Good action game, good port. Going to replay on Hard and NSIC.

I use both, but the library is larger on Steam for the obvious reason that it has more products available. Also Origin, which was a fine DRM/platform until two years ago it started to force online mode and set language restrictions for games based on the region of purchase (because piracy, of course), and Uplay, which I use as little as possible (language restrictions appeared around the same time as on Origin). In general, I'd prefer GoG.

Completed Ember. It's a party-RPG (real-time-with-pause). The game is fairly linear and the avatar is quite unchangeable story-wise (Lawful-Good zombie guy). The two things, I'd call unusual, are skills bound to equipment and targeting system (skill or item has to be dragged by mouse to the character or area, the player needs it to apply). The atmosphere and humor are close to the Divinity series. Nothing else of note. --- Bought 4 games on Steam Autumn Sale (so far) and I'm going to play at least one of them today.

Pyre (Supergiant Games; an excellent action-RPG) and Mass Effect: Andromeda (Bioware; action-RPG). Completed NieR: Automata. The first 15 hours were fun, the other 30 not so much - partially because of unbalanced difficulty and terrible controls, partially because of the plot (no spoilers, but I think that it was rather random and dumb; the unique Game Over screens were interesting). The soundtrack was great, though. All other games, I've played, weren't released in 2017.

Completed Stories: The Path of Destinies (an action-adventure with RPG elements in fantasy setting, where the protagonist must not die at the end, Groundhog Day-style). Quite fun, though the controls were rather unusual and unrebindable (haven't seen dash bound to Ctrl before).

Completed Jotun (hack'n'slash/action-exploration game set in Norse mythology). Haven't experienced any bugs. RNG for enemy attacks was annoying as well as no i-frames for rolls and no hotkeys for special abilities (6). Graphics, soundtrack and VA are good. Replayability is high, because of Valhalla mode (higher difficulty boss-rush) and achievements (for defeating a boss under certain time, without any God powers, without taking damage, etc.).

Completed Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (without DLC). Pretty much as expected - good graphics, bad controls, bearable story. Though, I turned off the music at some point and there were no MD gameplay sequences, only cut-scenes.

I have the same theory for silent protagonists as I have for gaming mice - it does not need to talk, therefore it does not talk. Yet it needs to indicate, if it has received damage or is reloading the weapon, thus battle cries are voiced. As for why developers choose to do so, it's either to not annoy the player or to not waste resources on something unnecessary (less VA => more dialogue options/lower production cost). Quoting Wikipedia: "Many games have made use of a silent protagonist out of utility, because of technology, time, or budget limitations, or as a narrative device. Whether the player is supposed to be the protagonist or is merely assuming control of an established character and whether the game allows the player freedom of choices that would be difficult to believably justify with spoken narrative influence this decision".

Completed Hustle Cat. Surprisingly fun dating-sim/VN, unlike the majority on Steam. The plot is light-hearted, yet interesting; the characters are adequate and relatable, graphics and soundtrack are good. The avatar is customizable and player's choices affect the ending. Started Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. After Mirror's Edge the controls feel uncomfortable, to say the least. I strongly dislike when the developers put animations above control precision, but AC has always been like this, so nothing unusual. The plot is traditionally ridiculous.

Completed Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst. The graphics are both stylish and technically high-quality, yet for some reason pre-rendered cut-scenes are used instead of in-game ones. The number of times I hit glass walls with my face is enormous. The soundtrack and VA are neither annoying nor brilliant. The mission objectives are unclear - often it says “Wait” instead of “Kill everything”, which triggers the next objective (during one mission, I sat in a vent shaft for 3 minutes, while waiting for the train). Runner’s Vision more or less leads to right point eventually, but it is never the optimal path. Controls are as comfortable as possible for a first-person platformer - they are responsive, and movement and actions are fluid. Momentum is hard to measure. GridNodes were the most interesting part - parkour puzzles. Free-running was fun at the beginning, but traversing the same paths after a while got boring. Fortunately, there is fast-travel system in place. The combat is good, despite the lack of weapon. Attack type (light/strong), direction and momentum are determining the action. The last mission included too much blind MagHook shooting - I couldn’t see the target and just pressed “E”, when heard the “Interaction is available”-sound. The plot - ME:C seems to be the first part of the series - all major forces are introduced, yet conflicts are unresolved. The protagonist’s logic sometimes was puzzling. Though, the lore and world-building are interesting. For some reason the prologue was put into a comic, instead of an actual mission (which could be the tutorial). ME:C's attempts to connect to the servers were annoying, but solvable. TL;TR. It's fine. Triss' personality was rewritten each game. She started from Yennefer-but-redhead to generic LI to freedom fighter. Also, congrats on completing the game. Edit. Typos.

There was a bug in this version (fixed in v.1.2.1.0.0121). I suggest to update the game (GOG version, I assume?) or to read https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/bastards-wound-quest-not-triggering.1043001/ Fixed it by downloading and installing the most recent base game. So upon loading my game I immediately got the Verse and Barik quests. Does Lantry's quest require anything specific? The first part is to collect the Chronicle as the Sage, who sent the missive, asked; the second becomes available at the beginning of Act III (completion of part I/Truth and Reconciliation is required).

There was a bug in this version (fixed in v.1.2.1.0.0121). I suggest to update the game (GOG version, I assume?) or to read https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/bastards-wound-quest-not-triggering.1043001/

Completed Furi on Furi (Normal) difficulty. A floating transparent head happened to be the most difficult boss. Going to continue SWTOR agent playthrough. @EbonyBetty. Spoiler for TW3. The first DLC (Hearts of Stone) features Shani as one of the main characters.

Romance in JRPGs is .. non-existent. The player doesn't have any agency - if the devs think that there must be a romance, the player will have to watch and cringe, regardless of what they want. Romance in RPGs is rarely well-written (usually it's one path, where you get laid at the end). On the other hand, when it's integrated well into the main story-line, it might work. Abilities, bound to the relationship status, might be a good reason to game the system, picking the most useful LI. Though, I think, it is a valid motivation for choosing. @Gfted1 ""I really need a deep and meaningful friendship from the party tank, coupled with lifelike situations and responses, or my verisimilitude will be ruined", said no one ever." The player might get attached to a useful and capable character, they spend a lot of time with (a healer or a tank is the most obvious candidate). E.g. pawns in Dragon's Dogma were player-made and the relationship with them was important for the plot.

Furi. The Burst. Took 2 days. The Edge. Defeated on the first attempt (B-rank). The Beat. Noticed that she doesn't inflict any damage with her attack during the last phase. Closed the game.

Furi. Defeated the Burst (the sniper boss). Play-dead tactic has worked (also switching dodge direction from KB to mouse might have helped). Defeated the Edge on the first attempt.

Completed Jedi Knight campaign in SWTOR. Controls were uncomfortable (is it typical for MMO RPGs?), everything else was fine. Reached the sniper boss in Furi. The last phase (bullet-hell) is hard. Not sure, what I'm doing wrong, but the only time, when I'm not getting hit, is i-frames after getting hit.

Agreed, mostly. I think, MP is fine, when it's optional. Dark Souls had it right - I could play completely offline and get everything the game had to offer (except "Darkmoon Blade" miracle, which requires either PvP or a lot of grinding), I could play co-op or PvP, if I wanted to. On the other hand, MP might be considered a waste of resources, which could be spent on SP content instead. So, if the main focus of a game is SP, MP might be damaging.

Still playing SWTOR (Jedi Knight campaign). The new companion is amazing. Started Furi (boss rush; got with Absolver on GOG). 3 bosses down, ? to go. 1. Going to the swamps at night is not recommended (a lot of enemies, 2-3 bosses); 2. Obtaining Red Ribbon (drawners-repelling talisman) is preferable before chapter 5.

Good point. Perhaps I should have specified what book/author would you like a video game to be influenced by. Because if the video game is based off the book word by word, the gamer who has read the book would know all the answers and ur rite some thing in a book can't be translated to video games just like the silver screen. However there have being video games that have followed the book's timeline while still been flexible with the source materials like Pillars of the Earth, I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, and to a lesser extant Shadow of Mordor (aka you can very much walk into Mordor). Thanks for clarification. I think, Discworld (by Terry Pratchett) would make an interesting setting for a city builder/simulator (with Ankh-Morpork as the most challenging city to maintain).

Slowly reading through my backlog on Humble Bundle. Currently at "City of the Saints" by DJ Butler. Looks like steampunk/western.