Tale

Finished Siege of Dragonspear. I did not expect the ending to go that way. And I bet the Skie stuff is a setup for Baldur's Gate 3. Drag around a minor companion from BG1 as a recurring non-companion, tie her into the ending for what? It's the groundwork for something. They even tied in Icewind Dale in a way, so they were looking at a bigger picture. That was probably the easiest boss battle in all Baldur's Gate. And I'm not just saying final boss either. He was a pushover. That's not a complaint, given the trouble I usually have with boss battles. I did some obvious buffing, then just wailed on him. I think only one spell even got through his magic resistance. On the plus side, that spell was slow, so he was screwed. On the downside, he was nearly dead before it actually worked, so he was already going to die. Edit: And now I've started Baldur's Gate 2. The end of Dragonspear sets up the start of Baldur's Gate 2 even better than I expected. There's a few bits in the intro cinematic I completely forgot about, like the part about rumors and having to leave Baldur's Gate. Dragonspear doesn't do it perfectly, but it does it well. But Baldur's Gate 2 represents a pretty sizable tonal shift. I also forgot just how dark it started out as. The opening shoots for horror and it scores. I also already hate BG2's pathing. If the characters run into even a slight obstacle, they try to path to the complete other side of the map. BG1 EE does not have this problem. Is it less obstacles or better pathing? I fear assuming.

I'm about to hit the final chapter of Dragonspear. I just found a book on fighting Fiends, as well as scrolls of protection against fire and magic weapon, fire resistance potions, fire resistance armor, and even dispel illusion. I wonder what it could all mean.

I look at my pet peeve of the Infinity Engine games, the issue with traps options or obscurity. It's a question of how well does the game teach the player what they need to win and how well does the game support the player's freedom to win in the way they'd like to? After all this time, I still am not clear on what spells counter what spell protections. And I have repeatedly ended up fighting bosses with characters who simply never found a weapon of their specialization with enough enchantment to do damage. Respec is a crutch. But it's a crutch that kind-of-sort-of-maybe addresses these shortcomings. If the game is slow in teaching the player what they need to know, respec lets them fix mistakes. And if the game doesn't support a playstyle, it lets the player change it. Thankfully, 3.5 and Pathfinder aren't as bad about spell protections as Baldur's Gate was. But Kingmaker still has an issue where it seems like it's trying to be a hardcore game for system masters who explore every corner of the game world while pretending to be a play however you like game where your Tower Shield Specialist has points wasted in Charisma. It has tons of options but did not leave me feeling like it really supported those options. It has quite a few traps, not the least because of features it hasn't implemented, like feat and spell swapping.

I like putting Girdle of M/F on my companions for funsies. In Baldur's Gate 1, I did it to Khalid, though I eventually swapped him out. And by "eventually" I mean as soon as I got Viconia and no longer needed Jaheira, which was immediately after Neshkel for me. After doing Bridgeport in Siege of Dragonspear I found another and was very surprised, so I gave it to Minsc. Only I just started thinking "where is Khalid, anyway?" He shows up in Bridgeport leading the defense and that was the last I saw of him. I was grateful at first that I didn't have to take him and Jaheira as a pair since she's my new tank. But I heard he had a quest I wanted to do so I started searching for him. And I found out something. I don't think the Girdle I gave Minsc is a new one at all.

How far Beamdog came in those years. I remember when I first saw Neera's new area in Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition. The area map looked like it was baked from a PS1 era 3D model. The new areas for Baldur's Gate II EE weren't that great, either. In Siege of Dragonspear, though, the areas are all beautiful. They stand out for being much more detailed than the base game, even when you're revisiting areas from Baldur's Gate 1 in the beginning. It feels like Baldur's Gate's Throne of Bhaal. There's no focus on any city, and it's lots of swarm fights where I can finally use those wands of fear I stocked up and it turns trivial. Edit: New California looks nice.

I beat Sarevok without cheating! That's a first. But not without cheesing. I put 6 skull traps by the stairs. When the fight started, Angelo died immediately and Tazok got close to the same. Dorn got confused, but he was still able to finish off Tazok and kill the mage. Before dying himself. Magic Missile spam killed Sarevok, who apparently wasn't close enough to the skull traps to take damage. I've started Dragonspear. So the characters start with whatever equipment they had in BG1. Which if you didn't use them past their intros is crap equipment. And since Kagain left me to not come back, I cheated some of his equipment in to Minsc. I have no regrets about this. Either give me Kagain's stuff or give Minsc something appropriate for our level.

Edison also hated AC.

It was revealed in the DLC (that I never bought either)! She was secretly working for the Templars all along! I bet you thought it was because they just wanted to stop paying Kristen Bell. No, it was masterful storytell... I just realized I'm still bitter about it all these years later. I am so sorry.

You can be a duck? Can you romance Lea Thompson?

I never feel like a fantasy RPG is complete until they start showing off classes and races that are beyond the standard array. I'm going to say World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 made me this way. Like D&D is shipping with Warlocks, Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Assimar now. Pillars had Godlike and Ciphers. Diablo loves its Necromancers, though how 3 got away saving it for a DLC I'll never know. I need something!

I used to really like Assassin's Creed back when 2 was out. The characters were fun and the sidequests were either interesting or, if not, at least blissfully short. But then they just kept tacking more onto it, none of it worthwhile. The levelling and loot systems in particular are hard for me to get past. I might even enjoy it if they'd scrapped those two things. Or at least made them interesting things worth caring about and looking forward to. Like I did enjoy Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood. And I didn't care about their settings. But I cared about Ezio. I thought buying up shops was fun. Climbing for vantage points was puzzle like with particular paths you had to hunt for. And the feathers and chests were just a thing I could hit while traveling to the next location. This is the same approach I had for Spider-Man, too. But I tried that approach in Odyssey and all I ended up was stuck in some dull building with repeat wall textures and the only puzzle being "find the hole that leads to the goal." Fighting some snakes and getting junk loot that I don't care about. It wasn't blissfully short, interesting, or even rewarding in game terms. Maybe I should stop talking. I think I've complained about this game more than enough by now.

The lash is the cash, Comrade Gfted1.

I decided to give Odyssey one last try. Got into some stupid arguments on Reddit with people who tried saying my opinion doesn't count since I only played 10 hours. They said some cool stuff was coming up that defined the core game! Why this awesome stuff doesn't start earlier and all the tedious crap get cut, I'll never know. So I turned in the menial fetch quest I was doing and then started one of the story quests. Where you visit the Oracle. She goes "you can't be here, they're watching!" and then they stretch out all that for probably 10 minutes. And I'm sent on my next quest. Go talk to that same Oracle, but in a different city, OOooooh. Exciting. On the way to this other city, I found a point of interest on the map. Decided to check it out. It's a dungeon, I love dungeons! I go in and there's nothing but a statue and gold loot. I search around, find a hole behind some pots, kill a snake, find a treasure chest. There's junk in it. Find another hole. Kill another snake. Find another treasure chest. Level 13 common bow that raises my hunter, lowers my assassin. Kill another snake. Find exit. Realize I haven't found the location objective. Search around, find nothing. Be horribly bored already. Quit. And back to Baldur's Gate!

What would be the difference? Unfinished Business is quests restored from cut content. NPC Project is new banters and companion quests to try and be more like BG2 in terms of content.

Would that be the first BG? Are you going to roll with SCS? Yes, first BG. There's nothing in SCS I care about to my knowledge. I am using Unfinished Business and the NPC Project, though.

Don't know, but Viconia can barely hit **** as it is with a regular +2 hammer. She helps out by having the highest lowest AC at -7 in my party. But only half the the health of Kagain.

Didn't know Albruin counted. I may not have sold it yet. It probably would have helped a lot, could have given Kagain it and he wouldn't have been stuck with the dagger.

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I have cheated at Baldur's Gate. I didn't want to, but I was reminded of why I always have to. It's the Greater Werewolf on the Isle of Balduran. The guy who is immune to all weapons below +4 in a game where there's only two weapons that have that bonus against him, one of which is in a chest behind him, the other is a stupid dagger. The guy who regenerates so much health that he goes from Badly Injured to Unharmed in a single round. I actually managed to kill him and win the fight legitimately. I had Safana, who is basically useless, run past to the chest and grab the second weapon. I gave that to Dorn, and then spammed all the Magic Missiles I could with everyone else. Of course, only my Sorcerer actually can Magic Missile worth a crap. He died! I cheered! I moved Safana! She stepped on a trap! She died! I... didn't have a quicksave between the two events. So I loaded it up, killed him with cheats, and just gave my party the XP. I was not doing it again.

I got my kindom destroyed, problem was just unlucky dice rolls. Latesr I was facing with problems with DC20 and advisor got bonus of +3, and as I was not save scumming problems just got worse and my advisors were unnable to succed on rolls Glad I got Baldur's Gate to hold me over. When the DLC for this comes out maybe I'll be back and hopefully they'll have it rebalanced. Or I'll just use invincible mode. I'm terrified of putting 30 or 40 hours into this game to get a game over I can't fix.

That's just auto-kingdom and the invincible mode. I'm more asking about reports I read where people would get rather suddenly destroyed or had no idea how to progress to avoid destruction. I'd like to be able to play it without turning on the cheat mode to win.

Are people able to reliably beat it yet without unexpected kingdom destruction or other game breaking issues?

Back to Baldur's Gate, and I've finally settled on making Sefana a mage. I've given her knock to make up for the temporary loss of lockpicking. I'll probably have someone memorize find traps as soon as I'm done on the werewolf island, too.

I've probably put over 10 hours into Assassin's Creed Odyssey and I can firmly say I don't care. Like, about anything. The game is just full of stuff to do and absolutely no reason to do any of it other than to get a checkmark. Leveling up? All the enemies level with you! Story? A complete snooze fest with bare minimum motivation! Loot? There's so much junk I'm already sick of going into the menu to compare it. Characters? Left them back on the first island, probably dead now, game does not care. Combat? It's been the same since I started. The war between Athens and Sparta? There's literally no reason to do it other than XP. Kick the spartans out of an area, the athenans take over. And then you can kick them out to bring the others back. Nothing changes except the color of your enemy's uniforms.

My main problem with Oblivion (and Fallout 3's level scaling) is they get ridiculous at points. Not that it can be abused. You'd eventually end up with enemies who could survive multiple X18 armor ignoring sneak attacks. Wasn't fun. Or how in high level Fallout 3, you could no longer go for a stroll without running into Albino Radscorpions and Deathclaws. Or Super Mutant Overlords who have armor ignoring attacks.

You can still run into Viscount Smoulderburn in a story area, can't you?