Starwars

At the moment, there appears to be two modes of speed in the game. Normal and Fast speed. While combat pace is changed since the first game, PLEASE bring back a slow mode for the game. Please, please, please. I still find waaaaay too much stuff happens in too short a time when playing on the default speed in combat. It would help the combat experience a *lot* for me, and probably other players who are a bit on the slower side in combat systems like this.

You had Atari in the first Blade Runner. Truly a sign of the future!

And to add to that, I think it probably is a good idea to rewatch the original to refresh your memory. The new one is its own thing but it ties pretty heavily into the story of the old one. I think if one didn't remember it at all or hadn't seen it, some of it would be a bit confusing probably.

Watched the new Blade Runner. What the hell... it was actually... pretty damn good? And not like, "this is a great action movie!". It was actually pretty slow moving, plenty of long shots, plenty of silence, plenty of beauty. Really pleasantly surprised I must say.

I just started a replay of Civ IV. First one since... ooh, like shortly after Civ V was released I think. Where the hell did my afternoon and evening go?

Tried the kickstarter demo for Stygian, a RPG inspired by the works of Lovecraft. Seemed pretty great except for some minor things. Gonna be a fun and unique experience once it release. Also replaying Expeditions: Viking. Still absolutely loathe the way they handled the looting in this game but other than it's been nicely improved since its release. Enjoying it a lot.

I also think the voices are just... kinda subpar for the most part. I'm replaying Mask of the Betrayer at the moment and the voiceacting in it is just on a completely different level.

Haven't followed this at all. Loved aspects of the first one but lost interest in it pretty quickly. How does this one compare?

VO does very little for me for RPGs in this format. There are rare instances where the actor is good enough, or just has a really distinctive voice, to really add... well, character to a character. But most of the time I find it an awkward fit with the isometric view. I'm not really a fan of the "double VO" thing, especially since I think the VO in both Pillars and Tyranny (Tyranny moreso) was fairly bad for the most part. At least it can be turned off! Also, I mean... I guess Obsidian are pretty good at this point to plan out their dialogues and stuff but I always thought that the fact that the text and dialogue is "locked down" once the VO is done must be kinda frustrating sometimes.

The beginning of the Witcher 1 is pretty weak, it doesn't really get interesting until Chapter 2 starts (the city). So try and stick with it. And potions are important.

Decided to start a replay of NWN2 of all games because... well, I guess I want to get to MotB and I dislike just starting it straight away because I'm weird like that. But oooh boy... the NWN2 OC. Forgot about the voiceacting and characters, and the glory of NWN2 D&D low level combat. My god... It's not pretty.

He's referring to the Rat King (as a sidenote, the music is awesome in that mission too).

Cazadores.

Love the descriptive text, would definitely not like a narrator. I think I'm one of the few who would like *less* voiceacting overall, and not more. But I do hope and think that they've gotten better at trying to not write descriptive text and voiceacted dialogue in the same dialogue node.

I really don't like the dialogue screen just being black like that. I *greatly* prefer it when it feels like it's made of a material and "part of the world" so to speak, as seen in the first Pillars. The way it looks in the video is just... boring and sterile I think. I mean, it's a WiP like Adam says but since we're also encouraged to leave feedback on it... well? Hehe.

Trying out some Battle Brothers. Seems like a really fun game though I think I will probably get bored sooner or later. I don't think I'm quite the target audience for these types of games, it's the same with X-Com. I see others play and talk about these games and they always talk about the connection they feel with their characters and how much it hurts when the particular character dies and blablabla... I'm not like that at all, the unique characters never "emerge" for me, it's just... a blur of different characters. Wish I could get into that part of it more.

I recorded a quick vid of me playing a song I like, check it out:

It's not an easy game to like, despite there being a few things to *really* like (roleplaying in a historical setting being the numer one thing imo).

Playing a lot of Civ VI at the moment, with a few mods (modding the UI is a musthave and also added a large bunch of usermade civilizations). My biggest gripe with the game is the AI, which still needs a *lot* of work, and unfortunately I don't think it will ever reach a level where I find it satisfactory (Civ V sure didn't). That said, the latest patches have improved it a bit so it's at least heading in the right direction. I also think the game needs some lategame activity to shake things up a bit, like the World Congress in V. That being said, I enjoy the game quite a lot. Civ V never felt complete to me until BNW was released (and even then I had many problems with the game) but Civ VI feels remarkably complete at the moment in terms of what is in it. It's just that... well, the AI doesn't know what to do with it, and there are many balancing issues. But yeah, I'm having fun. Civ IV still reigns supreme but it's nice to have something different too. Also playing some Expeditions: Viking which is... both better and worse than Conquistador. There are some things that annoy me *so bad*, like how they removed the preparation phase of combat from Conquistador. Which means that the game just decides if you or your enemies move first in combat with no way to set up. So, for my character, who is a squishy archer guy, well... that guy always leads the party so when combat starts, he is always in the front row. Not to mention that if enemies move first, it's very probable that one of your dudes will just go down because... well, you can't really do anything to affect starting positions or anything. It's *such* a dumb design decision. That said, roleplaying in a historical setting like this still has a certain undeniable charm, just like Conquistador did. It's pretty unique in that regard, and when it's good it really is good. But... I really had higher hopes that it would feel like a bigger improvement over Conquistador. Other than that, I'm *really* tempted to buy Battle Brothers.

Siding with the Tiersmen.

The first time I played, I went largely with the Scarley Chorus (who I turned on late in the game). Second time I went with the rebel path and I thought that felt much more... I dunno, fleshed out and more like a "real game" somehow. I think that it was a misstep though to provide a rebel path but not a path where you can be a supporter of Kyros up until the end.

I'm replaying Planescape: Torment. Figured I'd give it a spin again just after playing Numenera. The story, companions and setting are all things that work a lot better in PS:T. But it goes up and down a lot more in quality. But yeah, dialogues have never been so much fun to read in a game. It really is quite amazing in that regard. Very special. Also playing Crusader Kings II again, though I decided against getting the latest DLC for now... but still, what an addictive game this is. A million problems and wonky things in it but overall, it's got to be one of the most entertaining games I've ever bought. Extremely addictive.

One thing I always liked about PS:T is that in some ways, it actually kinda feels... low-magic. I mean, it's obviously not but when you're walking around in the Hive, it's very down to earth in many ways. The dirty, gritty, poor bits of "humanity" but with a very fantastical twist to it. It's very relatable and I think that really works in the game's favour. Even when it does go crazier, PS:T still feels... grounded in many ways. And that's part of why I think its story works so well, it feels pretty human in many ways. I think Tides of Numenera doesn't have that human element in the same way, and it really flies away in many different directions without any real coherence. Especially as it approaches the end, it really goes crazy. And I think it lacks something to really "anchor" it in a way that makes it relatable. Tides of Numenera did not manage to make me care a lot about the world and definitely not about the characters inhabiting it. There are a few exceptions, Rhin probably being the best example, but yeah... it's a fun game-world to explore for sure but it didn't make me feel anything. I don't generally expect games to do that but it's hard to not compare it to Torment in that regard (where I most definitely care about the characters, even outside the main companions).

I think I'm basically in the end-game now and generally speaking, I really like the writing. But I agree that the overarching story isn't that good. Especially the closer the game gets to the end, the more I think it gets a bit lost in trying to deliver twists and the whole "weirdness" of the setting creeps in in a way where it feels more like... ok, they just threw all te weird stuff in a blender and saw what came out. There are things that this game does much better than the first Torment. Reactivity and more ways to solve quests is the biggest improvement I think. It also doesn't have big areas where the quality of the game suddenly dips a lot (like Curst in PS:T). But I don't think the mystery and the story evolves nearly as well as it does in PS:T. I feel like it's gotten pretty damn clumsy now that I'm close to the end of the game actually, which is a shame. That said, I have thoroughly enjoyed the game (more than I thought) and will definitely replay it later on at some point.

There aren't too many combat situations (and it seems like one can avoid quite a few of them which is nice) but some of them are tedious. I just finished a crisis where there were twelve enemies awkwardly moving around the battlefield. Now, that is bad enough on its own but add to that some... buggyness where they seemed to have problems reaching their waypoint so they would just sorta stumble into the wall and keep running for a while until they found the right "path" to take. The enemy turns just took way, WAY too long.