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bringingyouthefuture

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Everything posted by bringingyouthefuture

  1. I really fell in love with Shadowheart's story and had a screaming good time moment with it - really made my week. I think its amazing that they gave you these pre-generated characters to play, and did so well with them, but also gave you the option to create your own. The lore crafting was excellent for each character. I got to say they killed it in a good way with this, and happy that everyone on this forum is buttkicking hurt it did so well lol No love lost I am sure. Anyway, this game really took it to the next level and deserves all the hype. It still amazes me that I never liked BG2 because of how much it stepped away from the classic Ultima games, but as BG3 goes back closer to the Ultima experience and away from the Infinity engine games, I understand why I am liking it so much.
  2. Obsidian, thank you for such a great game, I finally picked it up again after a few years (needed of course to start a new character from scratch in POE1 so took me a little to get back to POE2:), and the story/gameplay is even better than I remember. Appreciate the blood, sweat and tears you all put in to create a true classic. Much love and happy holidays from a fan.
  3. So I honestly think they could balance the game better by just cutting back on the amount of encounters and/or the number of enemies in the encounters, they did a descent job of creating some interesting boss fights, and I like the fact that the hardest fights you can skip if you want, but around the time of Drezen the game goes a little overboard in the encounters, there was a clear dropoff in enjoyment for me after that point, though this was definitely helped by the leveling up my mythic abilities I was still playing when you couldn't turn of Aivu's frightful presence too, it was intense ...
  4. It all depends on what type of challenge you want from the game. If you want challenging combat, unsolved mysteries, in-depth character building, strategic planning and expansive exploration in immersive beautiful environments - then you might sit in front of your computer everyday wondering why you are still playing this game after Act 1 because it doesn't get very deep in terms of the above. I haven't explored much character building and synergy with units and equipment, but it seems not to matter much unless you want to take on enemies 10 levels higher than you, which in each map there seems to be 1 or 2 of these harder encounters (I am playing the game on Brutal now so I avoid these for the most part) but playing on hard I did them constantly with very little challenge. Combat is limited by the map and environments mostly as you can only do so much within a fixed area they create, but also from the limited abilities available per turn. The other issue combat is super repetitive. I feel its strongest point is the number of choices you make as the story progresses, I can't speak how much they effect the world around you but as far as I can tell there is definitely consequences, for instance I think I killed of a whole map by turning them into zombies, though I doubt I will play through again to figure out if I can save them. Also I like that I made some bad choices early on in terms of building alliances and hamstrung myself a little, I feel like any good game doesn't pull punches in terms of this so while it is frustrating I appreciate them not hand holding. There is also the ability to go evil in the game, but again I am only on one playthrough so not sure it is a very rewarding evil (also I don't often take the evil path and didn't in this game, but the world is full of demons and undead and you can join them, plus some of the NPCs are clearly evil). The story itself is Good vs Evil stuff and what happens to everyone caught in between, but there is some good twists, and I do find myself wanting to finish the tale. Writing is passable, kind of tongue in cheek and pithy, and I don't feel necessarily attached to any of the characters, but there is some fun in the writing, some drama and sadness etc, etc it covers all the bases though if you like reading (btw I recently read Patrick Ruthfus' The Name Of The Wind and then Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora I highly recommend them) you will definitely be able to point out where it is lacking. Honest I am on the fence for recommending the game, I keep playing it, but if you want a simple game to waste some time its not bad ... I read it described as a mobile game and I think it would play very good on an tablet while on the plane or in the car, or if you are at work and it is slow I don't know ... hope this helps!! If you have any specifics you are curious about let me know!!!
  5. Stuck near the end of Disciples: Liberation, my love interest just turned into a zombie ... I am on the fence if I like the game, I put in a lot of hours, but I think mostly to see how the story ends, not much in terms of game play and difficulty ... it feels like a turn-based Diablo 3 ... not the Diablo people play to build characters and finish difficult levels in a certain amount of time, just straight run around and mash-buttons until everything is quiet Diablo and you open a chest.
  6. Couple questions if you all will humor me. So what's the general consensus on difficulty? I got through the game on core difficulty with an Azata dual-wielding fighter, mixed in some sneak attack damage, and played with all NPC party, mostly just kept each NPC to thier class which seemed to work the best in terms of bonuses. Next question, how is the gaming playing once you get past Drezen and into the When I picked it up it was in a pretty sad state, especially some of the battles where enemies would walk a straight line literally off the maps, not to mention the poor balance. Still was alright and probably won't go back to the game until all the DLCs release, etc. but that being said if I never have to fight another demon again in a game I wouldn't be to upset, there was a lot of demons ... is it safe to say the games release felt rushed? I mean even in terms of story and continuity, but I have a feeling with better balance and bug fixes it will feel more cohesive.
  7. Got some free time and played The Ascent all the way through. Rare for me to play top-down arcade style games, but I read a few good reviews and decided to push buttons constantly for a futuristic romp. Story is fun (super linear), setting is great, world building is a mix between The Fifth Element and Blade Runner, graphics are good, and gameplay is challenging but not arcade game impossible. Just did single player and bugs were minimal. There is some running back and forth, and halfway through you have fought every type of battle scenario, they just keep getting tougher, but the story kept me grinding through. I got the esteemed Steam achievement that only 1 percent of players achieve, died more than 100 times. But obviously didn't play it for the action elements, I got it hand it to the developers they did a pretty good job, probably would have kept playing if they had more missions, story and lore to uncover. But with the size of the gaming area, I am glad they ended it where they did ... anymore running back and forth shooting people would of dampened the experience.
  8. Anyone play Indie games often? Curious if anyone knows about Mechajammer and/or Wartales, thinking of downloading the demos this weekend to see what they are all about. I tried a couple of Spiderweb Software games and couldn't get into the old graphics style, I need cool trees and mountains, so curious if I would enjoy the full games. They sound pretty cool - one Cyberpunk and one low-fantasy ... both with a twist they say on TB combat, with Mechajammers allows for cool things like motorcycle combat I think though not in the demo.
  9. I just got air from RL myself, but still in the middle of limited time for anything ... I defaulted back to POE1 for the few spare hours I had, nice just to cruise through the game on autopilot I intentionally chose no to bump the difficulty for higher level content and am not playing it on the harder difficulty so getting to enjoy the story a lot more. Now am interested in Wildermyth more, was debating but now I might pick it up. Edit: For some reason I keep thinking about a sequel to Disco Elysium, did I read somewhere they started working on the sequel?
  10. The question is it enough to play the early access again or do I wait for the next update, sounds like in one of the QAs during that insane LARPing session the next update is gonna be content and perhaps a new class and/or race. It sounded like they wanted to get most of the classes into early access eventually. As for camping, now if they would just add the day/night cycle I am going to be really excited.
  11. Finished Solasta, interesting enough even with the straight forward story I think I might replay it, though might wait for the Sorcerer DLC. The power gamer in me wants to create the ultimate party now that I have all the meta knowledge in what gear is available, and what to expect. I also just read the studio is opening a partner studio to create a new game in the world, which is pretty cool. Would love them to continue to work on the graphics and interface because I would love them to come out with something as polished as POE2, that ran as smooth. Solasta is a little chunky ... is that the right word? Also, would love them to expand the level cap and add more classes ... I am a sucker for isometric RPGs ...
  12. A new Phoenix Point DLC released today, Festering Skies: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/839770/view/3026960867714652838 Tempted to boot back up the torture room that can be Phoenix Point, actually enjoyed the game quite a bit. Read a little about the DLC and the changes that go with it the other day: I am sad they reduced the Sneak Attack damage to 50 % ... not sure how I could beat the final level on hard without the extra damage ... still not sure worth another play through, maybe after I finish Solasta, catch of on Troubleshooters, potentially play the new Wasteland 3 DLC, and somehow finish my stalled playthrough of POE1 ??? Lots of choices for gaming coming up
  13. Excited for the release, held off playing the beta as I wanted to paly the entire game from the start ... finally kind of burned out on early access and beta games. So first impressions does it improve on Kingmaker, is the story as good, the game as involved, as much to explore, are the side quests as fun? I mean only answer if you like Kingmaker lol though ...
  14. Ah I see thanks for the replies, I definitely didn't read up on it before posting but now I understand. I could still be wrong but sounds like it Last of Us Part2 won an award for the graphics, acting and technological development (whether deserved or not), but lost a lot of fans as it seemed to tread over what many thought was a great story in Part 1 ... so it safe to say it truly was Robocop 2 to Robocop 1 or maybe even to a lot of people Matrix 2 to Matrix 1. Again I have no opinion on the game but it seems like the reviews that panned the story were upset mostly because it wasn't the first story ... which is typical for fan reviews in a lot of ways ... though maybe my point does still have some merit, I mean it has 156,000 reviews and it only released on PS or am I totally wrong on that? I am pulling a lot of similarities between Cyberpunk 2077 and Last Of Us Part 2 ... both successes but also in many ways equally hated as much as loved, though you could make the comment that if you didn't play it you missed out on a cultural moment in time and endless hours of debate on forums, which for some is even more entertainment than the game itself
  15. This is where I get confused, didn't Last of Us Part 2 win game of the year? Reading the above thread makes it seem like the game was hated and highly criticized. Why do forums so often focus on fringe opinions and criticism? ... not that it doesn't have value to ask yourself how to make a game better, but from what you can read about it, it did a lot of things right (never played it never will), so why focus so much on what people didn't like, or even what you didn't like? But serious can we talk about Troubleshooter more too????
  16. So in the D4 cinematic trailer did they intentionally make the scholar guy look like the Angel Tyrael? Or did I not finish the expansion and miss something? That is what I really want to know. I think I am gonna jump on the bandwagon of Diablo and get D2 Resurrected ... those trailers really got thier hooks in me, I even find myself waiting for the Quarterly updates, maybe this belongs in the fool thread
  17. I hacked the Mac OSX onto a SSD in my windows machine so I could use it for my job, it works okay. I considered going straight Linux, but a few of the programs I need for work don't run on it period Fingers crossed someday, would love to escape Mac and Windows.
  18. I recently played through Diablo 3, the cinematic trailer for Diablo 4 got me interested. I beat the game pretty quick, do most people play it on the hardest difficulty? I couldn't really get into it, but also not a huge fan of action games anymore, my soon-to-be-claw hand rebels against the idea.
  19. Played through the updated Solasta early access. Definitely has an indie feel to it, and from what I have seen so far story is basic, wouldn't say there is a lot of emotional depth but does have lots of heroics Playing a Paladin seemed right in this game. Interesting I thought the game started really well, its just a very straightforward plot, I don't think they built the game to incorporate consequence and choices, it is more a tactical RPG game with exploration and DnD rules. And it is 100 percent a DnD game with all of what that entails - dice rolls, per rest magic, etc. but the nice surprise is the devs gave a lot of options to turn that stuff on and off, it is pretty customizable, for instance I turned off the option that only allows you to try to unlock or remove a trap just once, so if you fail the dice roll no opening the chest (yep turned that off, hate that). On its core rules game is pretty easy, didn't mess too much with the difficulty of the game, and found myself a little over leveled pretty quick, but there is a ton of difficulty options too, was hesitant to mess with them as they mostly involve tweaking the stats of the enemy upwards - more hit points, higher attack rolls, etc. Also I liked the idea of playing on the core DnD rules though so probably won't mess with them too much. I did turn on the Deadlier AI option though I think they could put some more powerful monsters with added magic and skills early on, and they still might it seems like they are constantly tweaking the AI and encounters through the early access. Lots of magic weapons and some cool gear, maybe too much for my taste - only thing missing was a Holly Avenger and a Vorpal sword. The crafting feature is good in the sense that you can craft cool stuff, but crafting material is really rare so far and you need to make choices between what you craft with what you get, which kept it interesting. I really got into crafting poison arrows started to obsess on it. Side quests are pretty straightforward - go here, do this for a reward, not much to them in early access will be curious if they build them out more. At the moment they are mostly setups for a unique encounter or a tough battle with tougher enemies. Graphics are passable, though when I was in wide open spaces with lighting effects or water I needed to drop the detail as it was having frame rate issues. I think the graphic cut scenes feel like a French puppet show. Interesting that they kept all context in-scene, no subtitles or written descriptions outside of the occasional scroll or book you find on the way. So good for those who hate to read, but it can be kind of like watching a French puppet show. I enjoyed the game, and about halfway through really started to get into the game systems and the exploring, and also wanted to see how the story ends. Will definitely finish it when it comes out. If expectations aren't too high and you like DnD it is alright all in all. They created a pretty good High Fantasy world, it feels more Dragonlance than Forgotten Realms, what with the Cataclysm and all, the main enemies / antagonists are very Draconic, the only things its missing is the Knights of Solasta If I would compare it to BG1/2 for all you BG fans, it is definitely more BG1 - it feels like they have been focused on creating the game systems and the story came second. Will have to wait and see how the story holds up and plays out when it releases - I remember BG1 had some fun twists, so hopefully Solasta will too.
  20. Fair enough, I would in no way defend Kingmaker as the best CRPG I have ever played, but at the same time I appreciated it for what it was and the only time I got annoyed and put down the game was because of its RTwP, I didn't experience the same frustrations that you did. But I also am not looking for a linear game that lays out the story for me and I just click through it like a visual novel. I read books on an eReader for that. I do feel like going from one point of the map to another to talk with companions is every single Isometric CRPG and not really a fair criticism, especially since talking to companions and others gives a lot of lore, backstory, builds the characters and is essential to any RPG. Was Pathfinder a wealth of well written dialogue, not really - I think that is a fair criticism. Another fair criticism for Kingmaker is that when it first released it needed still a lot of work, and with the ways they added options much of the Kingdom management criticism doesn't hold anymore, if you don't like that aspect just turn it off now. I personally like the challenge of it and did a playthrough where I just let the whole thing roll itself out without reloading, and I managed it and it was interesting. As for wanting the computer to think for you, you may need to wait for better AI that can anticipate what you want to sell and what you don't. And just because a video game can't address everything to make it like real life, doesn't mean they should do away with real life details completely, would I take all the details you listed out, totally, are most of those even possible today - not sure. Also camping in POE1 was too simple and basic, it wasn't even needed in most cases, or at all on normal difficulty. Limiting camping supplies was smart, but you can accomplish much the same thing with limiting food. One thing I like about DnD is the fatigue factor when you don't rest, again adds another layer of difficulty and planning.
  21. @Wormerine you make good points in regards to what game developers want to accomplish by adding features that limit the players abilities. Is it just filler, maybe a type of mini-game, or do they just want to create something that feels more realistic / tangible? I am all for the realism of it all, also for the strategy it can bring, but mostly I enjoy the small details as it is what brings the game alive. 1) encumbrance, this is a strange thing in games now, and I fully want it in CRPGs, but I want it to feel realistic. Right now in BG3 you can carry like 6 or 7 leather armors, to me that breaks the game feel, and why do games want you to carry so much? I mean as loot? Why not just create more valuable items like gold rings or balance the game with more valuable swords. Like maybe even 1 in 10 swords actually has the value, the other can be rusted pieces of junk not worth selling. Anyway I agree with you this is more a immersion thing, for me it makes the game feel more tangible, maybe it is a hangover from playing RPGs in the 90s. Also, items like bags of holding are fun but not necessary, its okay to make the player agonize on what they want to carry and make them think about it, its like when you go on vacation, should I pack that extra pair of shorts even though it is winter ? Did PK accomplish this? To a degree (I mean there are bags of holding in PK), but what PK did do okay with was with the timers on quests and the kingdom aspect, camping combined with encumbrance all became a strategy in exploring the world trying to balance it all, which I liked, so I think there can be a third layer to it all. 2) And that brings us to camping and food requirement. Camping and carrying food again immersion yes, but also when used well it adds to the difficulty of the game. I loved that Solasta made food scarce and a requirement to heal during camping. I like how Pathfinder it gave you buffs and also the ability to heal during camping. In Solosta I liked the idea that I didn't plan well as a newbie adventure and starved for a few days in the badlands ... upped the stakes. In Pathfinder I liked how exploring the game world, encumbrance and camping set against the Kingdom timer created a mini-game of exploration and a level of strategizing my exploring. I know these things are some of the most criticized things in the games but to just get rid of them seems kind of lame, better to give the option to turn them off, or as Solasta did with the food, add easier ways to get food through gameplay and settings. Also I remember in the 90s playing games where if you camped in a dangerous dungeon your chance of getting attacked was astronomically high, meaning it created a sense of danger while exploring. I prefer it in games. I also like in BG3 how food gives you minor healing, I am sure this isn't DnD, but it makes carrying some food handy and gives food more meaning. 3) Stat debuffs are just brutal, I actually prefer what POE1 and 2 did with wounds, but I also think certain enemies should stat debuff - I mean it is such a core rule of DnD for so long I would miss it. In POE2 I would have preferred that recovering wounds was a little more difficult so they felt heavier. But agree throwing stat debuffs like PK did so early in the game, and at first not letting you rest and recover them with the cost of scrolls being super expensive. They did change so you could finally rest to recover the stat debuff, but again I think we agree they were a little heavy handed. But also if implemented well can make dungeon crawling exploring better. PK if I had my guess tried to use them as a sort of gating for areas to slowdown the gameplay and keep you out of certain areas, which I think is okay too in games, not every thing needs to be explored from the get go. So yes can it be stupid filler if not implemented into the game correct, but yes they can be used in a lot of positive ways. Apples to oranges I guess. In general, I like the details in games like flushing toilets that let you interact, but I also think small details like this can add to the game. I mean with flushing toilets maybe now you let players put bombs in toilets, and mostly it explodes them, makes everyone angry, or maybe it can be used in other ways. For instance POE2 and the Blow the Man Down quest where you have the option to use a bomb. I mean in terms of difficulty POE2 made solving quests very easy by limiting the searchable areas and items you can interact with, though they also did squeeze a lot of detail in the game through interacting with the world. Those interactions made the game better, but I would prefer the puzzles to be a little harder to figure out by disguising them in the world more, I mean one of the things I appreciated about BG2 the most was being able to cast the charm spell on a character to solve a quest - no real hint for this and no I didn't figure it out on my own but thought it was an awesome interaction when I read about it. The problem thing I didn't like about this in BG2 was there was no precedence for it, it was somewhat a hidden interaction. These puzzles and strategizing are a type of mini-game yes but they have a tradition in CRPGs from way back in the day, and I prefer them better than the type of mini-games that JPRGs introduced that were geared towards consoles. So yes Wasteland 2 with its random turtle was cool, and yes please include a day and night cycle, and yes make camping difficult, and please please don't let me carry everything, and yes dice rolls. It seems programing tools are so much better these days, studios like Obsidian are doing it right by making these difficulty options available to turn off and on, I would prefer them to keep the options rather then just get rid of them.
  22. The toilets must flush, I need that quality of life That being said Pathfinder benefited from the writing and story, character etc already in place from a popular tabletop RPG, but looking back they did bring the world to life really well, and it paid off for them big time in the sequel. Glad they are making another game. It's almost like Pools of Radiance way back in the day, weren't the original Gold Box D&D games campaigns too? I know some were based on the novels. Edit: I may have that backwards, but I know the novel Azure Bonds came before the game.
  23. Put down BG3 because the level cap is 4, didn't see the point in trying to slog my way through higher level encounters stuck at level 4, now I know why so many people are commenting on having to cheese your way through battles, I almost feel like Larian did the level cap so low compared to enemy encounters on purpose to see how people break the combat ... in general I think the game is gonna be great fun!! even if they don't fix everything I wish they would. Back to my POE1 and 2 play through as a Paladin, finally almost finished with POE1 and excited to play POE2 again after letting it sit for awhile to see how I really feel about it
  24. Pathfinder is better and more fun in turn-based mode, I coudn't finish the game in RTwP - combat was painful, but once I added the turn-based mod (before they released the official turn-based mode) I really started to have fun with the game and was able to breeze through the entire story. Playing the game at core rules is actually the best. Owlcat really messed up the harder difficulty settings, anything above normal difficulty is a min/maxing constant reload slog. Never found any trap builds or anything playing the core rules of Pathfinder Kingmaker ... not saying that they don't exist. I like how Pathfinder isn't trying to mimic a JRPG by streamlining everything. Please save the Western RPG and bring back encumbrance, camping, food requirements, stat debuffs, etc, makes games more interesting. I actually am really starting to dislike the influence of JRPGs on the genre, it makes the game too adventure like, and less RPG like.
  25. somehow I went to edit and double posted too
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