Starwars

Depends on how one reads it. It could mean that they'll be using live instrumentation for certain bits only.

It's (judging from those few tracks) definitely pretty "low-key", or soft, soundtrack. There are some that are more melodious than what we hear in the backer beta but even those are pretty subtle. I like this personally but I think it won't sway the ones who aren't crazy about the music in the beta. I'm not gonna listen anymore, I kinda want to hear these tracks with the game when it ships to get the full impact. My only complaint is really some of the instrument quality. The strings in particular often sound quite "synthy". I hope that will be fixed before release. Especially since a lot of the more ambient tracks are pretty "bare" composition wise so one can hear it quite clearly. Whenever the music relies heavily on the strings, it can be heard. Liking the use of harp, beautiful and soothing.

How does one access them?

Eh?

Ugh, this pisses me off more than anything else. Two things for me. 1) Remakes of games that are still widely available and that *work* just fine still (gog.com). It's cashing in on other people's hard work. 2) The actual products so far have been very subpar, buggy and crappy. Not exactly what one would expect from an Enhanced edition. Support hasn't been exactly amazing. Two big thumbs down for this if you ask me.

I thought so too but haven't done a direct comparison. Might just be imagining it, but yeah... Maybe they slowed it down just a tad.

I have to ask, is the stuff we hear in the beta finished? Or will it be tweaked further? I'm really liking the main theme, love the composition itself. But I do think it sounds a bit too synthy in places, particularly the second half or so of it. Also, as a bonus for people interested in game music. Upcoming director's cut of Shadowrun Returns: Dragonfall had a music update showcasing some new music. Really enjoyed it, in particular Glory's theme. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1613260297/shadowrun-returns/posts/968034

After 10 years of playthroughs, no wonder the soundtrack is stuck in your mind.

Finished The Wolf Among Us. Some pretty dumb story-moments here and there, and more than a few moments where I wished I could hijack the conversation and say "BUT I WANT TO SAY THIS". The QTEs are also as boring as ever. Hard to say whether they actually sort of work to increase the intensity though in a crude way. Don't really enjoy them and I was really disheartened when one of the first things you do in Episode 1 is have a loooong QTE fight. Overall though, I did emjoy it. It was fun to follow it through all in all. Fun characters, and the game has a real nice style to it. Much better looking than the first Walking Dead (only other Telltale game I've played). But it didn't hit nearly as hard either story/character-wise. Not that it particularly neeed to.

Thanks for the info!

It's not true at all that the music needs to be at the "forefront" just because it is an isometric game. I can see why one would think so of course, but that line of thinking is just... limiting. Justin's approach to try and blend the music into the soundscape is a far better approach in my opinion. Whether it will succeed or not remains to be seen of course but this whole thinking that the music must force itself upon you, that it must be instantly recognizeable or even that it must have a strong tune that you can remember instantly is such bullcrap and truly limiting to the medium. Not every battle-scene in movies needs to have the classic John Williams' orchestral intensity to it (even though I love John Williams). Not every lovescene needs the emotional manipulation of the soulrending strings in the soundtrack, not every fantasy soundtrack needs an orchestra. Just, no. I am ever oh so glad that Justin has chosen not to shove epic melodies down our throats at every instance. God knows that kind of scoring has been done to *death*, most certainly in the IE games as well (though I do enjoy those scores). The amount of nostalgia infused in the IE games is huuuge and people have archived those melodies away in their brains, filed under the section "amazing game experience". Like Justin says, the longevity of this score will be judged after the full game has been released, when you have the full context of the game as well. And like he says, not every piece of great music is instantly recognized as great music.

The sky is falling!

With the way the inventory currently works, I prefer it with no ammunition needed. Feels a bit weird though. But yeah, it's not a biggie...

For me, the point is more that this map feels more like a circus than anything else. It feels like you can barely move without running into something that wants to murder you. For me, it simply feels too crowded and/or it doesn't feel like there's enough walking space between the encounters. It feels really weird to me. I understand that one wouldn't want to "waste space" but quiet periods also have a place in games like these, if nothing else for the build-up to something dangerous. Right now it feels more like a combat arena than something that would be considered a wilderness area (even in dangerous fantasy land).

Awesome!

Finished the main game of Dishonored. It was... alright. The gameplay was fun and level design was sometimes excellent. But it still felt kinda meh for some reason. Didn't really enjoy the magic angle and I didn't enjoy the art direction at all (despite my love for steampunk). Story was kinda crappy though the setting was pretty interesting. Still, it was pretty fun. I could see myself replaying it and trying different things. I kinda suck at stealth-games so I think I got a bad ending (ended up killing a lot of people). Thinking about going into the DLC, heard good things about them.

I love the PoE theme. A bit more soft and mysterious. Takes a while before it gets going though.

You're doing an awesome job reporting back to us NCarver, it's much appreciated!

We've obviously known since before that a PoE2 will likely be made if this first one is successful. For some reason, while playing the beta, this kinda sunk in for me... And wow, that'd be totally awesome. No more "new game must mean new engine!" junk. Just minor tweaking to systems and minor upgrades, and then all that juicy manpower could be funneled into actually creating, well... a new campaign! No need for fancy graphics upgrades, no need for an entirely new feel to the game. Just... IE like. A hopefully even huger game than the last one ala BG2. That'd be sweeeeeeet.

Are you still composing Justin, or is all that done now? What are you working on at the moment? I really like the title music but it's a shame we can't hear more of it, it'd be great if it extends over the character creation or something in the full game so it can be heard fully. Also, can we expect more different types of tavern music? Cheers!

Was it just me or is it possible to hear that guitar track playing softly in the background where you're on the upper floor of the inn? That was a neat touch if I didn't dream it.

I really like that there appears to be variety in how to solve the quests so far. Not that I really expected anything else, but... I think this is one area where PoE will be far ahead of the IE games. And it will make the game *much* stronger. One thing though. Is it possible to unlock the door at the Currier's house with Mechanics? I know you can find the key, but it'd be nice if you can unlock it via a high Mechanics skill. I hope there will be as few "plot-locked" doors as possible, or doors where you absolutely need a key despite the fact that you may be a lockpicking master. I'm also hoping that our solutions in these quests will maybe lead to us meeting the NPCs again later on or something like that. Would be awesome.

Definitely agree. Waay too much fighting in comparison to just exploration. These games aren't realistic of course but it really helps to have big moments of quiet exploration to sell the fact that a zone isn't literally an arena. This is my biggest disappointment so far with the beta. I also hope they filled the areas up a bit more for the sake of the beta. Feels way too dense at the moment.

Going by the Kickstarter page, I can count that there will be at least 12 custom backer portraits if everyone sent in their picture. I also hope they'll let us use portraits that companions and/or special NPCs in the world use, just to make the variety better.

I agree with this, and I actually kinda worry that the game will feel too easy on Normal in the end. I don't really want HP-bloated enemies to go up against if I bump the difficulty up a bit. Still, it's premature in a way I suppose. Now I know these encounters. And while some of them need balancing (some encounters are more difficult than others even though it feels like they shouldn't be), I guess the game will feel hard at least on the first playthroughs when you don't know what to expect exactly. So I guess that's the way it should be. *rambling* I had a lot of problems at first but like PrimeJunta says, it's a different beast once you learn how things work. I think the combat has a lot of potential to be really fun once the bugs are ironed out. It keeps me active and it can knock you on your ass quickly if you're not paying attention. I'm not a fan of realtime w pause (one of my biggest worries for this game) but the potential here is a lot higher than I expected. The quests so far feel rather... generic I suppose. It's still quality and there is some depth to be found but the quests have definitely not been something I've been amazed by so far. Still, there are choices to be made just in these beta areas which is nice. I suspect it'll feel a bit nicer when you have the overall story and setting behind you in the full game, and you're in full adventuring swing.