Hawke64

Dragon Age: Inquisition - GOTY Edition is free on EGS. The EA App is still required, judging by the store page description. At this rate, if EA just released DAII and Inquisition (and the Mass Effect series) on GOG for full price, I would have purchased it just to avoid the damn DRM. Well, I still have the disc images (the games were released when the physical media were more popular) and the installation files, so might as well try to look for the "unofficial patches" online.

There is no Light. It is an action-adventure. There are several paths to follow from the start, but they seem to be rather linear. I think, I have finished 1 out of 4 main paths. So far, I have turned off the music (at one point, it switched to rock, which, while nice, was not appropriate for actually trying to fight off the ambush) and tried to switch the difficulty to the easier one (I cannot tell if I have succeeded). The visual style is beautiful and expressive (pixel art), the controls are rebindable, and the bosses have been quite diverse and challenging*. There is a karma system, and I assume that it should go up. Which it does from picking the "correct" answers in dialogues and completing side quests (somehow, telling a pilgrim that their god was not testing their faith by murdering them was bad, while telling a random settler not to report on his brother being a rebel was good). The setting seems to be post-apocalyptic and dystopian - the population lives in the underground train network, but there is also magic, with the protagonist's current patron being some soft of murder god. I like the combat system in general, but not its combination with the encounter design and level layout. The actions are mostly quite responsive, but when there are several foes with different attack states (can or cannot be interrupted) gathered around, it gets very chaotic, considering the speed. I have not found a way to upgrade the HP and the health-restoring consumables are limited, while the weapon upgrades do not directly increase the damage per hit. Though, there are several weapons, which seem to be unlocked by defeating main bosses. In terms of level structure, it is not a Metroidvania - after choosing one of the paths, the progression is mostly linear with short side paths which may or may not lead to something (was not worth it so far). Nor there are any traversal abilities to unlock. The levels are rather difficult to navigate and for the areas outside of the main hub, there are no maps. Occasionally, the level borders appear only after you reach them. I will try to finish the game. *died several times to the second one before noticing that the thing was counter-attacking. Nothing before had been doing so and there was no indication that the boss was parrying me (aside from my HP going down).

There is no Light The game was insulting me. Ironically, the difficulty does not seem to affect the bosses. An escort side quest. Just as planned. The second boss. It took me several tries to notice that he was killing me by counter-attacking. The MC continues being unlucky in the cut-scenes. I guess, domestic violence is not unrealistic, but kind of dark for a passing line. Then again, the setting seems to be grimdark. Not a clue what it was or why it was there already dead. Reminds of WH40K. The Messiah. The butterfly lied - the children were in a no-combat zone. Speaking of, Samedi feels less irritating than Issun was, which might be mostly because he appears less frequently. Still would have preferred him being quiet, but there are worse chatty sidekicks.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-witcher-3s-redkit-mod-tools-launch-may-21st-enabling-a-new-era-of-ambitious-overhauls https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/animal-well-review Steam discussions mention the controls not being possible to rebind, which is a deal-breaker for anything that is not a visual novel with 1 button controls. https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/orpheus-may-be-missing-from-hades-2-but-hes-returning-to-role-playing-musical-stray-gods --- About the petition, it was initiated due to Ubisoft pulling The Crew, which had a single-player yet server-reliant mode, from the players' libraries. It is not the first time they are doing this, but before that it was "just" DLC for the older AC games. I would strongly prefer the publishers to be legally encouraged to respect their customers purchases. If the publishers in their wisdom, made the DRM in a single-player game to rely on the servers, surely they can spend work-hours on untangling the dependency. The smaller developers are usually nice enough not to try doing this.

Steam keys (from HumbleBundle): Axiom Verge Death's Gambit (already own on Steam; it was a rather enjoyable Souls-like Metroidvania) The Knight Witch

There is no Light I suppose, the sexism is to indicate that they are safe to kill. I think, the setting is post-apocalyptic. The protagonist has a rather interesting manner of holding swords. It is nice that the story and the gameplay fit well together. The first boss. Aspire: Ina's Tale Islets The final island: Did the timed challenge. Sheepo (The screenshots cover the full game). Kidnapping the eggs of local population on the behalf of an intergalactic organisation. Most locals don't care, the relatives of the eggs, do, though. Late-game bosses and ending. Fallout 4 Far Harbor, ending: Xanadu Next

Finished Islets. In general, very nice mechanically, the story is not exactly deep, but nice. Review: Then purchased and completed the developer's previous game, Sheepo. Not as good as Islets, but generally fine. Review: Tried VtM - Swansong. It did not run on the main PC, judging by the error message, the issue is with the OS. On Steam Deck, the poorly-made saving system is significantly harder to mitigate, so probably will play on the spare PC some time later. Tried Xanadu Next. Refunded - between the screen flickering (resolved by running in the window mode), crashes (resolved by deleting the intro movie), the mouse-only movement (not resolved, and the boring combat (not resolved), it did not seem to be worth the time. Finished Fallout 4: Far Harbor. It was generally fine. The body-hiding part of the assassination was a bit ridiculous - with some luck, I could have disintegrated the body during combat. Tried Brain Marmalade, a platformer. Got stuck in 5 minutes. The controls are not rebindable, the resolution cannot be adjusted in-game. The art is fine, stylised like pen sketches. Started Aspire: Ina's Tale. After Islets and Sheepo, mind-numbingly boring. Looks lovely, but so, so shallow. The story follows a priestess who is trying to escape a sci-fi-esque tower. There are some light environmental puzzles, but they are not exactly challenging or engaging. Continued There is no Light. The protagonist is blissfully silent. Got repeatedly punched in the opening cut-scenes and I still don't quite get the logic, but the visual design is nice and controls are very comfortable and rebindable.

It is indeed interesting to watch. Either the account requirement should have been enforced from the start (with the purchases being limited to the regions with PSN) or not at all. Curious if the digital distribution platforms are going to refund it. Edit. I've checked SteamDB. The game is no longer available for several regions. True, but the rootkit is less noticeable for an average user, while the game, as I understand, is online-only either way.

For those of us who in the UK: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/659071 Unlikely to work, but I like the idea.

Islets. It is a very nice Metroidvania. The level design and controls are good, the graphics and audio design are beautiful. The only issues are the foes respawning too quickly and the bullet-hell ship battles. Though, considering that everything else (open paths and picked up items) is preserved upon death, the former is not too bad. The story follows a warrior mouse (or a warrior cat? Looks like a cat to me) who is trying to bring several floating islands back together by restoring their engines.

Not counting the combat and items/equipment, the Outer Worlds is a good RPG. The hand-holding and guidance part seems to be bound to the graphics - the more useless junk/"graphical fidelity" is there, the harder it is to determine whether something is important or not. At least, TOW has bright outlines for the interactive objects and NPCs. Edit. Wrong thread. Got The Tarnishing of Juxtia on GOG.

This is a carefully curated collection of the best screenshots. That is to say, there are more screenshots, more game, and the game is rather beautiful.

Arto Islets The first boss is an angry radish. The nurse counts and judges. The RNG was not with me. (I assume that the selection is semi-random). The previous timed challenges were difficult, but approachable. Here, I assume, I would have to use the Cloud arrows or somehow kept the umbrella.

At least, it happens within the refund window and you pretty often stab your family members in AC, if I remember correctly. --- Fallout 4 Probably should have checked what would happen if I just went to the statue's location, without drinking from the suspicious spring. The puzzle was not exactly difficult, but moving the floating camera/PC around was. The blocks could stand on the thin air if at least one side was touching another block, which led to some "creative" ideas on my part, such as using only 2 blocks to cross gaps instead of building actual bridges. Which backfired when I miscalculated a jump. The wolves having packs means that they are still social beings and humans labelling them "ferocious" and "bloodthirsty" is not exactly new. Well, investing in Charisma occasionally pays off. I sympathise with his priorities. --- A Short Hike The game is really pretty, but I have not taken many screenshots.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/spooky-open-world-elder-scrolls-em-up-dread-delusion-leaves-early-access-in-may https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/sky-of-tides-is-the-anti-disco-elysium-in-which-balance-is-queen A different flavour of min-maxing, but min-maxing still, while the One Truest and Bestest Ending (possibly, just 1 ending in total, with a bunch of softlocks) ensures that the "incorrect" player's choices will be punished. Sounds like an adventure game with some stats on top, not an RPG. Though, I am still curious how it plays out and whether the developers will reverse the course 2-3 months post-release (because releasing complete games or even tagging them explicitly as WIP/EA is too hard).

Fallout 4, Far Harbor. Reached the point of the main conflict's resolution or close to it. Not particularly fond of the combat, controls, dialogue system (keyboards have somewhat more keys than gamepads and I can see what the game was focused on, even with the mod), and the UI. There was one unique puzzle (pointing a beam at certain points) mission based on the building system, where I also could not save in the process (about 1-2 hours, considering that it highlighted the issues with the controls and that the PC is a flying camera in the first-person view). On a funny note, I sneaked/ran to the console, while leaving 2 legendary dominatrix murder bots behind (after trying to kill them unsuccessfully a couple of times). The only way to survive it for me was to lower the difficulty and eat all damage-resistance consumables I had. Several hours later I noticed that I had some armour that was not focused on stealth and carrying capacity, so it is possible that I could have fought them. The story is fine. Not great, but good enough to keep going. No strong feelings about the loading times, the game runs fine from an HDD.

Fallout 4 Sometimes, the visual style looks very nice. Should not have kept clicking on the skill check. Thought it was a bugged out bush. A Short Hike The game is beautiful. I think, I got on Itch.io a couple of years back?

Stray Blade. Finished about 2 weeks ago, but have not (possibly, will not) written a review. The action-adventure was not especially horrible, but it was not exactly good. I liked the general plot (the twist was more funny than tragic), the main characters, the character customisation options (the MC always wore a full suit of armour and a closed helmet), the rebindable controls, and the 2D cut-scenes/art. On the other hand, the combat was generally irritating, there were relatively few bosses (7, with the beast generals being rather underwhelming), the exploration was not exactly engaging (most weapon blueprints were dropping from any human enemy based on the MC's level), the number of save slots was limited to 1 (granted, the story was linear and the last save was before the point of no-return), the graphics did not align with the system requirements and performance (I had severe FPS drops in some areas). Fallout 4. I continued my 8 year-old save file. The side effect is that I have a very vague recollection of what is in my inventory or who the child at the main settlement is. The inventory management in general is rather painful - there are a lot of items, but the sorting options are very limited and have to be cycled through (I am also only guessing the abbreviations). With the Full Dialogue mod I at least know what the PC would say, so that's very nice. The number of the dialogue options being limited to 4 is less nice. The combat is rather horrible. On the other hand, making engaging first-person combat is challenging. So, I have reached the Far Harbor town in search of Kasumi, whom her parents asked to bring home or to confirm that she had left on her own. The first battle at the town's gates took me several attempts to get through. Afterwards, the locals asked me to kills some random ghouls and mantis-like creature and find some tools to reinforce the gates. One of the locals offered to guide to the town where Kasumi supposedly had gone. On the way to the mantis-like creature, I found a Vault and something I initially thought to be a weird bush. It was a Legendary irradiated yao guai.

To provide more context (because I did not understand the original post): https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/after-promising-free-dlc-forever-to-some-players-escape-from-tarkov-locks-a-new-pve-mode-behind-250-edition Not Star Citizen, but getting there.

The developers' previous game, The Count Lucanor, is quite similar, though smaller in scope. I would say that Doki Doki Literature Club is close enough to being cute and horror as well, though it is visual novel. I have also played (have not finished) Kraken Academy!!, which was visually similar, but somehow less engaging. There is also Yomawari: Night Alone (have not played the sequel), which is technically both cute and horror, but felt rather shallow and underwhelming. --- Speaking of, the Immortal Cats mod for Fallout 4 (pre-"next gen" update) did not work for me. So, the only mod I am using is Full Dialogue. Got Fallout 4 on GOG shortly before Bethesda messed up the mods yet again (the sale was really convenient) and decided to try the expansions. Died in the first combat encounter at the Far Harbor 4 times so far. --- I think, I have finished Yuppie Psycho once with the best ending, though, I did look up the elevator code at the end.

Crystal Tales Tactics. Got softlocked in the main story somewhere mid-game (the next chapter did not unlock). While the game is lovely, it is also rather buggy - it was not the first softlock, but I overwrote the nearest save file, so not going to try again until this is fixed. The other bugs included the recruited characters not appearing, a character who was supposed to be dead doing the opposite (there should have been condition for them to survive if they were critical for the story), a lot of black screens during companion dialogues, and these dialogues not triggering correctly. Well, at least the character designs are interesting.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen Postponed the new playthrough indefinitely and went to kill the offline Ur-Dragon with my max level PC and without any preparation or memory how to play. Posting under the spoiler tag, because the game is being played, and seeing and fighting the Ur-Dragon for the first time is quite exciting. Less so for the 16th, but still fun.

If you have not been there, the DLC island might a good place to explore. It is a long dungeon crawl and the things there are sturdy, but it is somehow more fun than the similarly looking rooms of the end-game dungeon. Also, with a stack of explosive arrows and luck, there is a really good spot to level up. Regarding the end-game requirements, --- I've been playing Crystal Tales Tactics. So far so good, though the story has the originality of Fire Emblem, with a significantly lower production value. --- On the topic of erotic games on Steam. The number of low-quality ones seems to be rather high, while the adoption of the generative AI and accessible 3D models did not improve the quality (did not drop it either, though), but increased the quantity (see the screenshot taken today). I also cannot filter them out, unlike roguelikes/-lites. Though, overall, it is great that the talented writers and designers can create full games by themselves, and there are some interesting erotic games on Steam, such as Ladykiller in a Bind, but few and are hard to find. Edit. Speaking of random first games on Steam, someone linked Bethesda's EULA to their game. https://store.steampowered.com/eula/2901370_eula_0

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/game-sized-fallout-4-mod-fallout-london-has-been-delayed-indefinitely-by-bethesdas-incoming-next-gen-update It is always unpleasant when developers try to add more bugs into their 9 year old games, but even more so when you have been working on a mod for a specific presumably-stable version for years. I somehow doubt that Bethesda would just fork the new version into a separate branch on Steam and GOG. Granted, on GOG, Bethesda cannot mess up your games anymore.

Stray Blade Lore: Bosses (including the final one): The sword had the best hyper armour - I could just stand and swing without being interrupted. In terms of navigation, the companion and the wall marks proved to be more reliable for the main quest. The map and the compass were less helpful. The end-game and the ending: Well, at least the warning was clear.