Hawke64

While I am trying to avoid significant spoilers for the game, Avowed seems to be more combat-heavy and less flexible in terms of the story (e.g. all companions are mandatory). I would hope Avowed to be closer to immersive sims, considering the first-person camera perspective, with their detailed level design and multiple ways to resolve quests, and Pillars of Eternity II, which supported the player's agency in terms of narrative and consistently high-quality writing, but I am unsure at the moment how it is going to be. In terms of sustainability, the lower system requirements, the better (<20GB storage space, <4GB VRAM would be ideal), which is even less likely to happen. Still, it is an Obsidian game and I am looking forward to it. I also hope to be able to purchase it on GOG on release (highly unlikely) to prevent any updates that can significantly worsen my experience.

Elden Ring is perfectly playable and comfortable with keyboard and mouse (5-button mice are supported; no idea how the gamepad users shoot bows or turn the camera during boss battles with larger foes), but I would suggest to start with Dark Souls: Remaster. ER has significantly faster (and worse) combat, while the location and world design is poorer and there are a lot of the same bosses (which was less irritating in DS2). Another note on the bosses specifically, the experience was rather unpleasant solo (long attack combos with delayed hits), while the NPC summons (Ashes) altered the usual combat style quite a lot. --- Started Cookie Cutter. It seems to be a cyberpunk Metroidvania. Not sure about the animations and the narrator NPC, but the cartoonish artstyle is good and the controls are rebindable, though I was not able to change Esc from "Do you want to close the game?". After reaching the first boss, I was repeatedly killed within 10 seconds after the combat started.

En Guarde! The game looks very pretty and sounds very campy. Sephonie I spent about 15 minutes reassigning the controls and the other settings. The default FOV, which seems to be still present in the cut-scenes, was ridiculously high. Hellpoint This was happening rarely, but more often than I would like. Defeated the boss but died from a projectile. And my untimely demise spawned a green NPC invader with my equipment and slightly lower stats (source: I looked at the save file. The thing is there as a "ghost"). For some reason, it took several tries to get the Imgur links to be shown as images. Probably, should report as a bug.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-the-checklist-conquered-the-open-world-from-morrowind-to-skyrim Not news, but I thought it was interesting to share. It is also somehow disappointing to see the logic of the larger developers (Bethesda/Zenimax). Morrowind is still very much playable and enjoyable, while the sense of exploration and wonder moved from the Ubisoft-style map icon fests to Souls-likes (to some of them) and immersive sims.

Hellpoint. Climbed almost on top of a spacious vertical tunnel (or whatever that was) and accidentally jumped back from a "ladder" instead of to the left. Decided that the game might not be for me after all. While it is possibly the best platforming I have seen in a Souls-like, it is not exactly comfortable to play. I am unsure if the passage I took was mandatory or optional. In general, the lack of landmarks (there are a lot of corridors) makes the navigation more challenging than it should be. Crystal Tales Tactics. The developers resolved the progress-stopping bug at the end of Chapter 8, but the intro cut-scene in Chapter 9 gets stuck.

Hellpoint. It is a sci-fi Souls-like. Defeated the second boss (while dying to a projectile at the same time as landing the final blow; the boss itself was a pair of foes - one a teleporting mage with ranged attacks, another a flail user who also had ranged attacks which were killing me in 1 combo if all 3 hits landed). There seem to be several additional systems - I had a new group ambush in a previously safe corridor (the fog gates appeared on both sides and the opponents were teleporting in), then a green invader attacked me after the boss battle. The invader wore the same equipment as I did. The jumping and platforming feel more responsive and precise. Estus restores all health and recovers on killing (a lot of) enemies. The controls are rebindable, but the menu controls keep resetting between sessions (and having "Confirm" on Enter instead of Space is not convenient). The lack of pause and the position being saved upon exiting to the main menu is rather unpleasant. I have not noticed anything too bad, but I can't say that I like the game. The story premise, where you are an artificially created human clone or an android sent to gather data, is not exactly bad, but the said data seems to be scattered in 0.67% pieces across the world, instead of more specific directions of "Defeat the four Lords" or "Ring two Bells of Awakening".

I was at London Pride 2024 on Saturday with my university. It was curious to see several groups of the safely contained homophobes, but they do remind why the Pride is needed. I have also realised that I strongly dislike whistles and large groups of people in general. Still, going to get some sort of hearing protection and come to London Pride 2025. Hopefully, the transphobes in the government will be removed by that time.

Arcadia Fallen. Replayed the game almost from the start. The scared child being not scared was required for one of the side quests. So I repeatedly told him that the party would save his brother. I have also discovered what would happen if the party commits all possible crimes throughout the story and fails/succeeds the trial, though without one of the party members dying (I did not meet the other conditions and it would have been sad). Calico. Without a combat system, deep crafting or building or more interesting traversal abilities (gliding with a crow was cool, though), the game feels a bit boring. I resumed my 2y/o save file, unlocked and explored the city, and uninstalled. Almighty: Kill You Gods. The MC is a humanoid horned wolf, who can double jump from the start. Despite the most amusing ability to kill any regular foe my running into them (and the stamina bar and regeneration were quite generous), the first encounter with a larger opponent (a giant turtle) proved that there was a reason why the shooting action was bound to LMB by default (the controls were rebindable). The mission design was rather basic - "Kill X Lost" and "Gather Y resources". So, while I really liked the traversal abilities, the rest of the game did not feel good. It also did not like my CPU (which will turn 10 in December). Queer Man Peering Into a Rock Pool. For the most of the game I had thought that the environment was an allusion for mental issues (in particular, dementia), but no, it seems to mean the actual post-apocalypse, Evangelion-style. The controls were not rebindable, the MC was moving (walking or jogging) rather slowly. Though, I quite like the MC and his partner.

Flynn: Son of Crimson https://i.imgur.com/kBHDeno.png Arcadia Fallen For some reason, the dialogue log occasionally shows incorrect options. It is mostly funny and I would not have noticed it playing normally. https://i.imgur.com/WXcGT2y.png https://i.imgur.com/25H7G9d.png Finished the side quest about the forest restoration. I think these are all the options for the final "battle". I had one less on the first playthrough. Not sure what are the conditions for the 2nd one to be available.

Flynn: Son of Crimson. Finished. A platformer with some Metroidvania elements, such as different weapons, a few combat skills, and 2 additional traversal abilities. The story of an orphan saving the world is not exactly original and this particular implementation is bland, but not horrible. The controls are rebindable and the level design is present. The graphics and visual design are nice and there is no contact damage, which, while good in general, should not be the only good things to say about a game. The Scourge system, where a previously-cleared location transformed and you had to clear a few rooms of it in order to progress, was fine. Not sure if the chosen levels were random, but it did look like a lot of effort to implement. There were a few instances when I was hit (-1 HP) and pushed into a pit (-1 more HP), which was rather irritating. Thank you for sharing. I don't think I would like to play it now, though Dontnod games have some branching story paths, which I like, so maybe some day.

Tell Me Why was slow. It is free during June, by the way, if you would like to try it. I haven't played, but would like to eventually, Twin Mirror. Dontnod also develop some action games - Vampyr (played, the game is funny for the wrong reasons, the combat is not good) and Banishers (have not played, but would like to as well; the genre is hack and slash) and Jusant (something about climbing). And there is Harmony: The Fall of Reverie, which looks like a VN. True Colors was developed by a different company, as far as I know.

Unfortunately, it still requires EA App. The integration could be better and only one version can be installed at a time (there are registry links). Might have been resolved by now, of course, but doubtful. I still hope that EA would allow me to pay them for the third time for the games to have them on GOG without the DRM. It has been almost 10 years since Inquisition.

I've got a GamePass key. I am unsure when it expires, but if anyone would like to have it, it would be most welcome.

Arcadia Fallen. Finished the game. I liked it, though the subplot with the alchemy teacher landed significantly better than the main story, which felt very off. It might have something to do with that the former required to solve puzzles (not sure if the last part changes based on it or not). Review: The Kickstarter campaign for the sequel is live, though I am planning to purchase it later, rather than back now. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/galdra/arcadia-fallen-2

Arcadia Fallen There were occasionally unavoidably unwise options and somewhat odd, though well-meaning, social commentary. The game was rather nice overall. Some story paths do not offer choices. This part of the main quest always felt off - why does the PC have to save the locals who clearly want to be left alone (technically, exploited by another local who was digging magical fossil fuels)? I strongly suspect that the mages were the stand-in for immigrants and/or LGBTQ+ persons (including the conversion therapy subplot), which is not unusual, but does not quite work when the story needs the PC motivated, instead of saying "Lol, good riddance" and riding into the subset with the party. Adding a likeable NPC or two who are neither party members nor wizards could have helped. There are options to choose how the PC feels about things and they are clearly communicated. But no option to lie to the person in power who threatening you. The PC is unavoidably honest. The florist mage is very nice and trying to integrate. One should always use password managers and memorable, but not guessable, passwords for them. The alchemist should have thrown acid at the attackers or at least a smoke bomb, but there was no option to do so, only to run or to fight. To be fair, the world being destroyed can threaten one's research. Ironically, he was right. I was honest with a child and the child disapproved. But I got an achievement for it. That particular quest lacked any tough moral choices, though. And the PC lacked the perception to find the McGuffin before the quest. The alchemy mini-game. The challenges are on the right. It is rather fun. It gets a bit spoilery from here and onwards. Seems to be only one additional costume and it's a flower crown. Technically accurate. Arcadia Fallen II (Demo) The game did not trust the players to be completionists and befriend all possible NPC. Disappointing. The scene was slightly animated (the carriage was moving), so I did not notice the painting in the background being so stylistically different.

Arcadia Fallen. Got one of the rarest achievements by asking a child why he was following the party, then telling him that I was going to murder his brother. The game is funny. While the story was as exciting as watching paint dry (small towns are good for burning down in the prologue, but not so much for having the whole story centred on them*), the UI is excellent - the short reply options alongside the intonations and explicitly marked story-affecting choices help greatly. The plot did get somehow jollier by the end of Chapter 4 (out of 7), though I still was not able throw a grenade at a certain NPC. *the main character is an alchemist apprentice, and at the end of the prologue the local farmers/miners try to destroy their shop (and again at the end of Chapter 4). There is also a little demon army under the town, so the protagonist just has to save the town, because reasons. Instead of packing the bags and leaving for a better and larger city. The main mini-game (rotating 3 circles to form a certain pattern) is enjoyable enough and it is nice that there is something tangible. Though, the PC does have some personality stats attached and some of the decisions are tracked.

The Summer Sale has started.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/how-embracers-cuts-killed-a-potential-red-faction-sequel-and-gutted-a-promising-studio https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/fine-lets-write-about-the-stupid-banana-game The "Clicker" tag explains why I had not heard of the game. Thanks to the Steam Ignore list, it auto-removes this from being shown to me. Alas, the limit of only 10 tags forces me to choose between what I dislike less, Rogue-likes or Sokobans (?). And low-quality anime porn, some game about round fruits (Saika? Saiko?), and that Twitch platformer (with abstract platforms suspended in the air) do not have dedicated tags. I also ran out of the publisher-specific Ignore list (50 entries, I think). Granted, at this point, I am going with my allow-list - there are too many releases per day to actually process what might be worth attention.

One of the issues with the cinematics in Larian's D&D game is that it feels worse when the camera switches from the isometric perspective to over-the-shoulder. Another two are the animations (most were exaggerated just enough to clash with too detailed visual style; the only good one is the Sailor Moon transformation at the end of Act 2 and that one was not supposed to be realistic) and that the immersive-sim elements worked poorly with having your actions and movement restricted by a cut-scene (fortunately, switching to another character and attacking usually could resolve it). Overall, the density of cut-scenes that are not the general dialogues (i.e. have some camera work) is not too high, but I also was skipping as soon as I had read the subtitles (the lack of pause and the buffs wearing in real-time for not-dialogue-locked companions did not help with watching the cut-scenes).

Dread Delusion I've added spoiler tags for the areas outside of the starting one (and some random island), though the screenshots are rather spoiler-free as is and do not show the main story or dialogues. The Endless Realm. Fully upgraded the manor. The Clockwork Kingdom. The Underlands (aka the late-game).

Enotria and Flintlock look good. I also cannot run them on my main PC and will not purchase for the full price to run on the spare one (which should be able to run them). https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/our-9-favourite-demos-from-the-summer-steam-next-fest

I suppose, bundles count as sales. https://itch.io/b/2506/queer-games-bundle-2024-with-10-option There are quite a few jam games (i.e. very short to play and fast to develop), but also some decent VNs, point&click adventures, and puzzles. I went for the pay-what-you-can option and ~£20. --- https://www.humblebundle.com/games/future-games-show-discovery The bundle has Gloomwood and and En Guade!. --- https://www.humblebundle.com/games/stories-pride

Finished Dread Delusion. Loved the game, though there are issues. Highlighting 2 of them, because they bothered me quite a lot. Also the saving system is critically unsuitable for the game and the bugs. Closer to the late-game, I noticed that a bug that had occurred several hours ago and wiped most of my in-progress quests also affected a completed main quest. So I tried to re-start it. The thing was that in order to progress it past a certain point, I needed to activate a McGuffin (a sci-fantasy seal on a door), which was a single-use interaction and I had already used it. I spent the next 2 days trying to troubleshoot and resolve it, but I have gained more experience with hex editors. The NPC you collect along the way, while great, do not feel like your companions. They are someone else's and just quest-givers for you. Also there was a thing - during the recruitment you had to say what you were going to do with the antagonist (join, kill, arrest, etc.) and at the beginning, it was hard to gauge what the antagonist was trying to do and what you wanted to do about it. The issue being is that these NPC remembered what I said 20+ hours ago. So, it was rather awkward when I told two of them that I was going to arrest the BBEG and two others that I was going to join the BBEG. I also resolved the quest of the additional someone else's companion in a rather unfavourable manner and there were no options to make it better for the said NPC at the end of the quest. My review:

Steam keys (from HumbleBundle): Heaven Will Be Mine (a sci-fi VN with giant robots; played but have not finished) The World Next Door (got on EGS, unrebindable controls => did not play) Ship of Fools (a roguelike)

It would be rather unpleasant for the users, but very understandable for GOG. I have used neither Steam nor GOG cloud saves voluntarily (only when the settings were resetting).