Starwars

Like it's been mentioned, it's not about having some sort of "you must have played THESE games to be a tr00 gamer!" list. It's about having a sense of history at all, to not have people automatically dismiss everything before a certain time as "outdated". A friend of mine was pretty much exactly like this, but I eventually forced him to play Darklands. And what do you know? He actually enjoyed himself a lot once he got over that initial "bump" of time investment (which is IMO not nearly as big as people make it out to be with a lot of older games). And he could recognize that there's a lot of things in Darklands which are simply not done in today's gaming and that could actually be really relevant or fun to bring back. Sure, he still prefers many modern games but that's not really the point. I had a similar experience with Realms of Arkania: Star Trail. Hadn't played it back in the day, played it about 2 years ago and was blown away by certain aspects of it. Again, the point isn't to create some sort of elitism (though that's unavoidable), it's just that there's rather a rich history of gaming which seems to be just be outright dismissed as soon as it passes a certain age. I think one should value and treasure it instead because there's a wealth of innovative ideas there, some of which are really cool. Kinda reminds me of the recent talk of the IE games and how the devs mention that the publisher suddenly said there was no market for them, despite the games being succcesful. And again, regarding journalism, I think it should damn well be expected that the journalists know where games came from, that they're aware of the history, that they have played a wealth of them. Knowledge is good. It's expected in film, in art, in music etc. It should be in gaming as well.

That's some journalism right there!

Not gonna judge at this point but just looks-wise it looks bland as hell. I don't want to go back to the NWN style of 3d graphics for realtime w pause, urrrgh. Still, hope it'll be good. Wish it wasn't D&D but what can you do?

I think Sensuki mentioned this somewhere as well, but it would be really nice to have the toggles of how *often* stuff like combat barks fire also, like there was in the IE games (was it in all of them or only BG? Can't remember now...)

I thought this article raised a rather good point: http://gamasutra.com/blogs/FelipePepe/20150211/236041/The_Ministry_of_Hype_The_danger_of_letting_the_gaming_industry_curate_its_own_history.php Not that everyone *must* try Daggerfall or whatever, but the fact that there's really very little interest in gaming history today. And the big focus on older games (which may not even be very old) being "outdated" and whatever is certainly something that have always struck a chord with me whenever people use it.

Huh, yeah, doesn't look like PoE is showing today? Too bad. :/

Will hopefully have the time to watch.

That opening dialogue with Sagani in the stream already seems pretty extensive so that bodes well also.

Would just (once again) like to offer my support for the inclusion of this in the game at some point.

I'd be willing to wait for all the goodies in one package, especially if it'd save Obsidian a buck and I'd still get to play it on release day (most important thing to me). But ultimately I don't really mind either way.

Can't wait to play the full thing, it's gonna be awesome!

Yeah, I think that's a bit silly also. I guess they just set a global thing where whenever you enter a new place at all you get XP? Would make a bit more sense if it were only the outdoor locations plus special places like caverns and such. Not a biggie but it feels kinda silly.

Though I must say, I love the clinks and clanks, the whoosh and bangs, the flops and the schwings of inventory management. While I still think the sound levels need a lot of work (in the latest backer beta version), a lot of sounds need to be brought down and ambient sounds needs to be turned way up, I *love* tinkering with the inventory due to the sounds. Just opening the inventory is great, love that sound. And yeah, the ambient sounds in Dyrford for example are actually quite nice but it's really hard to hear them atm.

Actually, the writing is *nothing* like Lovecraft at all so that seems like a weird thing to complain about. Not that I'd defend the writing in it, I don't think I've played a game where the writing varied so wildly. Most of the earlier ports and encounters I had in the game were indeed that special kind of pretentious that only made me shake my head. But some of the ports and stuff I got to a bit later were actually quite good. But yeah, it's definitely not trying for Lovecraft in tone (unless you count the horror-aspect of it as Lovecraft), it's way too whimsical and "anything goes" for that. As for the game, well... I'm kinda enjoying it, it's addictive in a way. But I have to say that most of the time I keep wishing that they had done *this* different, or scrapped *that* thing etc. I'm in love with the idea of the game, and while the setting seems to be all over the place, it's still an intriguing place to set a game in. But yeah, there are way too many stretches with nothing happening, the questing system is annoying (and fed ex-y), the writing is just painful at its worst (though with bright spots as well, stuff like the Mirrored City was quite good for example) and it just feels to repetitive and static for being an "open-world" game like it is. It also feels a bit too much like a browser-game (leftovers from Fallen London I guess?) in many ways, not the least in how it presents the quests and what you need to solve them etc. I dunno, I still find it addictive and kinda relaxing to play but I must say that I'm disappointed overall. I thought (still think) the general idea is superb and intriguing but the execution is lacking. The 10/10 review at Eurogamer is pure bullcrap if you ask me. I would love for some more interesting gameplay while at sea, more randomization (take a page from Pirates in how boats and creatures would attack each other). It also needs a lot more random events while sailing because it gets really boring at times. Especially the beginning of the game is a bit of a boring slog. Do more with the sanity mechanic. The potential is there, but yeah, it really falls short at the moment I think. I dunno, hope they'll keep adding things to the game in updates.

It seems to be a bit screwed up. I've logged a fair amount of hours in the current backer beta and only yesterday the combat music decided to play when I loaded up my game. The Dyrford music, wilderness music and the Inn music doesn't play either for me. The dungeon music sometimes plays, seems to be a bit hit and miss.

I'm torn on the random element, I actually think I am in favor of it with regards to this game. Most games with a horror or survival thing going can be "overcome" as one learn (I'm sure people have figured out how to break this game also though, don't get me wrong). With this game, you just never know. And with atmosphere being such a huge part of it, I think it really needs that feel of the game being able to screw you badly whenever. That said, I'm sure it could be tweaked. But I hope they don't lose that feeling of "you're one bad diceroll away from getting screwed", I kinda love that.

I think the Infinity Engine games look pretty great but PoE looks better I think. That doesn't mean it looks perfect but yeah... Except maybe Torment but that's more due to the art direction more than anything.

Definitely agree with this generally speaking, though I guess too late to change for the release now. Maybe for expansion or sequel?

-I guess this is not a bug per say but I've managed to pull the rest of the spiders in that room a few times with the Queen staying down in her corner, not reacting. This makes it so I can engage her alone in a fight which seems a bit silly. -Also, I'm sure this has been mentioned before but the Queen's size and the pathfinding difficulties makes the fight play out rather awkwardly at times. The Queen tends to skitter around madly behind the myraid of other spiders (playing on Hard) but not being able to do much. A workaround could be to have her have some sort of ranged attack that she can fire off from behind her little "army", dunno.

-I'm playing a Druid at the moment and sometimes, and I've not noticed any real consistancy here, Wildshape just won't fire when I try to switch it on. The button doesn't respond (doesn't turn blue or whatever to indicate I've pushed it). This has happened once with the Arcane Veil for my wizard also. -Using the Wolf shape, my knockdown ability isn't there (though it *was* there when I first started playing, not sure when it disappeared) -I've had a few instances of the Wildshape model (wolf in this case) be put on top of the original character model. So it looks as though my human character is running around inside the wolfshape if that makes sense. The human character doesn't go away when I switch to the wolfshape. Again, no idea what triggers this unfortunately.

Just got creamed pretty badly in the final cultist fight on Hard. I really have a problem sorting out what's happening in these bigger fights, especially if there are caster involved. But yeah, as far as my earlier comment that human parties were disappointing, well... This fits the bell as challenging I think.

Alternating between the PoE backer beta, Darkest Dungeon and Sunless Sea at the moment.

In the underwater stream in the Dyrford Ruins, there are beetles to encounter. It has happened twice to me that one of the Stone Beetles (not sure if it can happen with all the beetles) does its burying ability, but then it stays buried... and is still able to hit my characters when buried. This is playing on Hard difficulty.

Whispered World key is gone!

Thanks!