Starwars

For me it ranks better than the BGs and the IWDs by a fair amount, though I prefer PS:T overall. PoE is definitely not without its faults (neither is Fallout, my all-time favorite game, or PS:T for that matter), not at all. But I can safely count it among one of my all-time favorite RPGs

Agreed, that really should've been brought home in a clearer way in the game.

I did it also, no problems at all.

After you learn Engwithan, you can also read the runes in that dungeon you have to go to as part of the main quest (something Rilag).

This is gonna be really, really crappy. I'm all for them introducing some sort of system where a user can donate money to the modder (of course, STEAM and publisher takes most of that cake) but this is just gonna turn messy.

And considering that Fallout came out about a year before, BG did have a fantastic RPG to measure up to (and failed miserably I might add though I still enjoyed it).

Got my box as well. Loved the box itself, mousepad was nice. Cloth map is a bit disappointing but might look good up on the wall somewhere. T-shirt didn't seem like great quality. Biggest disappointment was that I was so sure that I had ordered a tier with the guidebook included, but of course I hadn't. That was the item I was looking forward to the most. Still, it seems like one can buy that from a store so I might do that.

The last sentence in my post addresses that, and I've had (and have) plenty of complaints about the game. Not the point at all.

5/5, though by that I definitely don't meant it's a perfect game or whatever. But it's as as enjoyable as many of other games I would consider classics, and has flaws as many of the other games I would consider classics.

But I prefer PoE to those games. Certainly in terms of plot, companions, writing, mechanics (mostly) and lore. PoE is just better! I think it's good to have reviews that point out negative things in the game obviously, and I think a good deal of the positive reviews miss the mark on a lot of things that need work in the game as well. But this review is so obviously... hipster-ish in that codexian way. OBVIOUSLY, the developers never played Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis, I mean come on... And saying that it's Obsidian's worst game is just... what the hell are you smoking man? Clearly there is an axe to grind as mentioned above, it would be clear to anyone who followed the reviewer's posts in the PoE threads prior to the review. I'm looking forward to the next review, hopefully (and probably) it will also point out the actual negative things in the game without being pants-on-head idiotic about it.

I'm playing some Sleeping Dogs. The gameplay is fun, I like the focus on hand-to-hand combat though I fear it will get old at some point. Virtua Hong Kong is beautiful, didn't expect it to look as good as it does (this is not the definitive version or whatever it's called). Story seems pretty stupid. And I can't stand Wei as a main character unfortunately.

The entire Curst section sucks something fierce.

I got the note to pick up a package today (won't be able to until later today though) and I *think* it's the PoE box, so it may be rolling up for people in Sweden today.

First time playing on Hard, I think I may be used potion... 5 times tops? Scrolls I used a bit more but still not to the point where I would craft them. Enchanted a few times just for fun. Never ate any food. Completed the game quite easily still. On my replay, I tried a bit more stuff, including the food. It can be useful. But yeah, I found it pretty much completely unnecessary even on Hard which is kinda... bad I guess. Next playthrough will be on PotD so maybe I'll make more use of them then but yeah, the game is too easy to really make me feel that they are a meaningful part of the game on Hard.

I think it seems like there were maybe different story iterations or something and then they got mashed together a bit for the end product. I dunno, the bits and pieces are there but given that quite a lot of people have a problem with how it's told, I think there is something to it and not just "players not paying attention". I think it needed way more "reinforcing" to have felt truly believable. A good example is at the end where the narration says something like "and finally, the Watcher was able to sleep..." and I was like.. huh? There are a handful of interactions where a NPC wakes you up, and there is the Pillar dream but I mean... there is no indictation that there is "no sleep for the Watcher" otherwise. We get the cozy campfire, we're all rested up and healed after each time. It really doesn't sell the point that we're actually suffering from something. It's a predicament because yeah, people would likely be very pissed off if OEI included something like the spirit meter from MotB (I liked it personally) and I'm not sure it would've been a good idea for a game of this size anyways. But... I felt they needed way more than they do to sell that the character is on the "path to insanity" as it were. I think being *both* awakened and a Watcher also felt a bit... clumsy. Maybe they were supposed to be one condition from the start? It's like... you have *this* condition, but you also have *that* condition! It's a bit clumsy I feel and muddles the waters of what is supposed a main driving point for the character. I love the ideas, I love the flashbacks, but the execution of selling the actual predicament could've been better. EDIT: I also think it's a good point above that, when you reach Defiance Bay, a lot of the visions and other problems that the character is suffering from seem to vanish into the ether and the game becomes about something else. What motivation was there kinda disappears.

Finishing up a replay of Primordia, which remains one of the best adventure games ever made. It's so sad to me that such a gem remains fairly unknown when compared to some of the golden oldies. I guess it maybe speaks a bit to how interest in classic adventure-gaming may have waned a bit, or at least that the games struggled to find an audience for a while. Because Primordia is really among the best there is, it's fantastic. Other than that, I'm starting up Sleeping Dogs for the first time. Have had in my STEAM library for a long while now but never got around to playing it. Got kinda excited now that GTAV is out, but of course I won't be able to run that very well on my old piece of crap so I figured I'd try Sleeping Dogs for maybe something vaguely similar at least. Seems fun so far, liking the combat system.

Thanks for the heads-up!

Woke up to the lovely sound of our cat having a morning puke. He threw up a freakin' huge worm, straight out of some sci-fi horror. First time I've seen a cat puke worms as opposed to crapping them out. It was incredibly disgusting. Off to the store to get some pills for the poor guy.

Without going into the whole D&D crap about alignment, I don't think it's a bad idea to include a character or two that leans more towards the "evil psycho" thing. I mean, I much prefer the writing of someone like Durance where there's a lot of nasty stuff but you can't simply characterize him as being evil. I like the nuances. But it's mostly since that the PC can choose to roleplay that crazy bastard. And there is nothing in terms of the companions that really reinforce that in PoE. For one, they're pretty much OK with whatever you do (aside from GM) which is a huge disappointment (though given the number of companions, I can see why they did it). You can act like a total idiot, being cruel to them and they will just suck it up it seems. But I dunno, it does feel like it needs that mega-evil sidekick. It needs a One-of-Many, it needs something special for the players who really want to roleplay that psycho character. You can still provide plenty of nuance there of course. Hopefully, *if* they introduce more companions in the expansion, it'd be great if they could introduce a character like that.

I liked Minsc when I first played BG. I was 15 or 16 at the time. I wouldn't expect to find him very funny if I first encountered him in a game today (I certainly don't find him particularly funny when replaying the games). He's exactly the type of character I would throw out of my party instantly. That said, Hiravias is also really hit and miss. But I find that the level of humor in the game was spot on. It never tried to overpower the player. The banters can be quite funny. Edér is probably the funniest character in there but even-so, it's just a part of him. He doesn't need to dress up in a clown suit and throw pies to get the I'M FUNNY point across. I hope they keep it on a similar level for future projects.

Awesome work with this, very promising indeed. Might give it a go if I decide to do a replay soon. Great job!

Yeah, and I think at its worst it contradicts the description. Like the actor is obviously *not* doing the action that is being described when talking so it all comes off as rather weird. It's too bad. It's been brought up before but yeah, I hope they have less voiceacting for upcoming releases. I think it can certainly work to have a really good voice for the most important characters (again, the baddie here has a great voice that helps bring him "alive") but there is a lot of acting in this game that I don't feel is particularly... necessary and sometimes detrimental to the experience.

I've been thinking about it, but argh... There are parts of the game I want to be voiced still. The baddie has a fantastic voice that I think makes his character come alive, I want the narration and there are other voiceacting moments I want to stay. Generally speaking I agree with you though, especially in a game like this with the descriptive text going, I find it kinda clashes with the voiceacting at times. I wish I could turn the majority of it off, but keep the choice bits I want to hear.

Yup.

I enjoyed them for the most part. The game overall could've used better encounter design and more interactivity in some places. I guess they didn't have the time. The part in Endless Paths where you could jump down to (maybe) your doom was great. I would've loved more scripted interactions and other stuff generally speaking. More devious trap also. Some of the dungeons (and Endless Paths floors) feel a bit on the "dry" side. Just mostly monsters to cut a path through, maybe a tiny bit of story/lore and little else. Overall, the Endless Paths were quite epic though. Visually speaking, they look great to me. Especially the Engwithan Ruins had a lovely look to them. The Skaen dungeon is nicely done but feel weirdly overly populated by cultists when in contrast to towns and such. There's a ton of people down there and while it's nice to have a larger dungeon, I think that's actually the one dungeon that I feel could be cut down in size a bit.