Triple - A Foxy Lad

What is this conclusion based on besides 'this is the viewpoint I want to condemn'?Have you followed the romance threads for BioWare games? There was a troll post analyzing the TASTE of Tali's Sweat from one of the Mass Effect games, her fan base took it seriously that spawned hundreds of pages of actual discussion on how "good" it would taste. I dunno, that sounds fun at least. Think id rather read that than thousands of words of contention and negativity. Thirst is the great uniter.

ye, but dos2 suffered from a nonsense crit path, a flurry of heavy and necessary patching, and being a sequel to something that sold a little more, but was comparable in success to poe1. think theres something else going on here. (am also highly amused that apparently the obs of *today* are the dudes that release borked games. man if these folk were around for kotor2 and chums. lol.) im v much of the mind that dos2's big saving grace was 'multiplayer and lots of fun gimmicky stuff u can enjoy with ur friends'. i was able to get my friends to buy dos2 bcs of that. peeps didnt buy dos2 hoping it would be good, they bought it hoping it would be a laugh. i was only able to get one of my friends to buy deadfire and he was like another version of me. might also be worth noting that people dont expect good writing from larian. so people unlikely to express any disappointment re: that. wise move in a way. larian have lowered expectations enough that they could write any old junk and peeps not really care. is not something that will harm sales. like *i* was disappointed. i legit thought they were due to up their game, but what do i matter. this true. im one of those cats who who holds off on a completionist playthrough until everythings dropped. it raises question of how to deliver this much content and polish - whether or not its possible thru other means. larian method is to drop normal, then free enhanced edition upgrade a year or so later to give game second wind. think obs method of dlcs, long-term support and active work on game eventually produces better final product, but larian can shift more copies sooner, which is be all and end all... until we get five years later into the long-tail, and that doesnt pay the bills now. obs/black isle have now been in this long-tail trap so long it would be hilarious if peeps livelihoods werent at stake. fo1+fo2 earned their cult but got crushed in sales by baldurs gate. PS:T is one of the pinnacles of crpg narrative design, but no one gave a **** when that first dropped. new vegas now considered high point of series by many folk, but initial reception to it was underwhelming. historys a fking closed loop, lol.

Fk that, id rather not be left hanging on all those plot hooks.

omg, good catch. i loved alone in the dark. ye, the tank controls have prob aged badly but i guess the series remains as eccentric and inventive as ever. it really annoyed me that the dreary copy that was resident evil took off instead. pfft. EDIT: why cant i type. ffs.

among her contributions to tyranny were kills in shadow and bleden mark. neither were all that serious and all the better for it. bleden marks like the emperors legendary - and wilful - assassin from some anime series or martial arts film. Hes hardcore, too cool for school and too old for ur ****. Obvious heel face turn candidate. Kills in shadow is a big, lumbering, crude smelly beastwoman whos always one word away from either humping ur leg or eating it. She introduces ur party to a fun game called 'rut mate slaughter'. Shes hot af. Xotis prob the most divisive thing ms starks has cooked up so far, but xotis very much the needy, air-sucking creature shes meant to be. question there aint so much execution as to whether rpgs should include potentially grating companions.

also if uve got access to a ps2. give siren a go. its one of those horror games which flew under many radars cos it frustrated many people, but its er 'vibe' is top-drawer.

oh ye, FEARs not my cup of tea if im being honest, but i watched my bro play through it, and it seems pretty good for what it is. i tried playing through amnesia: the dark descent and i straight up couldnt hack it. scared the **** out of me, which is a good thing, i guess, lol. if u want to go old school. have a crack at 'Realms of the Haunting'. its quite a big game with that endearing 90s fmv thing going on. even if its interface etc aint up to modern snuff, its aged better than ud expect it to. one of my friends played it for the first time recently and he had a blast.

Its more 'thriller' than 'horror' but Arkane's Prey incorporates a few aspects of the genre. if System Shock falls within ur stated category, id recommend checking it out.

I'm worried because she writes like a highschooler. someone who schools high folk? or someone who schools while high?

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Forums on fire off the shoulder of Bioware.com. I watched pan-species tentacle fan-fic seep over the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. Thank the Lord. Serves you right for reading fetish fanfiction in the first place. Why would you even do that? Ran out of books? Magazines? WC air freshener labels? aaah, u dont need a reason imo.

Bloodlines can be played in first or third person so we have options. point is i wouldnt have known that from looking at the box. it were 2004. the over the shoulder perspective in rpgs - as we know it today - was only just shambling to life after years of botched attempts (*ahem* ultima IX) for the most part it looked like nwn1 or kotor1. also u had the odd first-person game like morrowind where u could pull the camera back for a laugh - but even in morrowind, the over-the-shoulder perspective werent entirely integrated with how the game played. u could prob say that about oblivion, skyrim and fallout post FO3 tbf. but whatevs. bloodlines didnt look like any of those things. it looked a shooter with rpg stuff bolted on like deus ex invisible war, to name one of its contemporaries. and i dismissed it as one. then i played it and felt very stupid for dismissing it - and it had nothing to do with the unexpected fact i could pull the camera back and pretend i was playing oni. my take away was: i try not to factor perspective into whether i play stuff anymore. if everything else in game looks promising, ill roll with it. i think ill always be 'party-based uber alles' but im willing to have my mind blown from unexpected angles.

i guess i should post this in the sawyer thread, but hes just said on tumblr theres no more dlc, but one more magrans fire to drop and theyll be supporting deadfire in near future. so think well be getting a few patches/fixes at least, if no more major content. EDIT: im not the biggest austrian economics dude - it aint my field in general - but this is where hayek, taleb etc seem quite useful. ye and sadly, we crpg cats arent known for stanning things hard. if anything, we do the opposite. maybe we should be taking cues from the beyhive and the little monsters etc.

I recall one lesson from ages ago. I held out on buying a game. It was based on ip that i loved, and it was from an rpg studio with some pedigree. I was crazy disappointed it were first person. I put off buying the game for ages, convinced it was going to be a shallow, depressing experience. One day i finally caved. The game, ofc, was Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. I soon resolved to be more open-minded.

kills in shadow was my kind of woman. can i have another one pls ms starks.

What is this conclusion based on besides 'this is the viewpoint I want to condemn'? ngl i like this persons style

with niche stuff - in games and music - i feel its more helpful to think of commercial failure as the norm and success as the aberration. poe1 benefited from kickstarter hype and nostalgia that was going unfulfilled. deadfire suffered from kickstarter fatigue, diminshing returns, also maybe cos poe1 was a less comforting beast than people wanted. like bg1 + bg2 had a certain naive creativity that was part of their appeal. poe is... many things but not naive - is controlled, weary, low-key, cynical. then dos2 came along and more accurately channeled bg's goofiness. rip. i guess there are always things obs can - and could have - done to push game harder. but ultimately, i think success is in lap of gods regardless of how good output is. there no end of people out there doing great work with no recognition. atm outer worlds getting major hype bcs beth shat the bed with fo76. is hard to say what would have happened without that factor. also just remembered one thing. poe now stands for 'path of exile' if u ask most gamers. discussion of that acronym now draws eyeballs and thoughts in different direction. is maybe not big thing in grand scheme, but these all add up. im curious as to what they plan to do after forgotten sanctum. id imagine its just a few more patches and qol changes. such things are always welcome, if not exciting.

i can dream

This, above all others. I'm at work and I'm fighting back tears so people don't ask questions. 'Another World' meant many things to many people, but for me it's a compelling portrayal of the loneliness and exhaustion of creative obsession. It's a barrage of broken communication, impressions of odd shapes. You've no choice but to progress via trial and error. And what's the reward? There isn't one. From what I remember, Chahi storyboarded Lester becoming ruler of the aliens, but after two years of solitary graft, the game simply ended with pain, depletion and... some kind of release - maybe death, maybe not. I've got this notion that Chahi was so burnt-out and hermetical by the end, the game wound up mirroring his own state. But obviously this is just me projecting, hoping someone else out there "gets it". I suppose it doesn't matter whether anyone gets it. The fact Chahi created such an outlet is enough. The wonderfully naive John Carpenter-esque ending theme floors me every time. Eight notes that unspool into a clumsy melody. For me, it drives home that the game was made by flawed humans plucking beauty from... somewhere, rather than a process. Chahi got this on some level, and he was a relentless champion of Jean-François Freitas's minimal score. He famously sabotaged Interplay's fax machine to deter interference. And on top of all this, you have the alien. Someone who doesn't understand you perfectly, but is loyal and caring enough to reach through all that and stay with you to the bitter end, like a befuddled yet supportive partner. Man, I could go on about this for so long. I was also going to mention the end of Arkane's Prey. "I need to know if you see us. If you really see us. Take my hand if you do." But I think one rambling, reflective essay is enough for now.

brb, im gonna try this out at work.

ye, ship combat similar beast to hacking system in game like 'prey'. it didnt have to be good, it just had to be there and frictionless enough, which it was imo. i enjoyed wasting my time with it. can understand sawyers reservations. i get sense hes the type of dude who wants to do a really good job or no job. feargus made call that something had to be there to complete jigsaw even if not perfect. i guess production of any game is series of contentious decisions like so. dont really see much scandal here, just process.

i feel with morrowind, main draw was always world itself. writing was primarily a sideshow and characters almost non-existent. peeps playing it wouldnt be getting itchy wanting to know 'what happens next' or 'i must resolve this' yadda yadda. it could get away with prioritising immersion over convenience bcs thats what it was selling. think if ur constructing something where narrative and character are more salient, ur gonna attract more players who want to get through the beats and limit their time wandering around aimlessly. also now eyeballs are more fickle. if player hits rut playing game they can just click something else on steam rather than walking all the way to local video game shop and installing from multiple discs. times be what they be. visual aid also more reliable way of conveying information. problem with writing is that u can compose the clearest instructions known to god or man - and some reader will introject their own issues and turn it all into nonsense.

Im watching this. It looks right up my bracket. I dunno about spending that much lolly on myself this time of year tho

But what about very-not-vanilla or even better, creepy, dysfunctional and destructive romances? Sure, you could experience those in real life too, but I (and 9 doctors out of 10) strongly recommend against it pump all those toxins straight into my veins doc.

ydwinsplaining. talk down to me, sensei. tell me things i already know. drink my blood etc.

i also played through dark souls for the first time not long ago. its basically a metroidvania, and those things traditionally dont have markers as ur main goal is revealing more of the map rather than fulfilling discrete rpg style quests. when u get to the dlc stuff and u get more 'quest-like' shenanigans im afraid the game mishandles them something rotten. car crash of wilful difficulty, poor writing and - im guessing - poor translation. but dark souls in general walks a tightrope between being bracingly difficult and a meme. it gets away with more than it should. i dunno if this points been raised. but in past, obscurity of quests fulfilled an important function - selling strategy guides and magazines with walkthroughs. with advent of internet, this market slowly dried up, so it made sense to include more in-game markers bcs devs/publishers no longer benefited from withholding them. like the worst aspects of dark souls always struck me as old-school attempts to flog guides. japanese games have long been notorious for it. call me cynical, but i feel that immersion and treating gamers like adults always played second fiddle to mammon and technical restraints - even if ive got fond memories of wandering around blind in ultima.