MedicineDan

You might think you can't live with something, but the fact is that you can get used to almost anything. I wouldn't make the floating hands a deal breaker because, at some point, VR will be the rule, not the exception. On the other hand, if your stance is to wait, I'm with you, brother!

It does explain why the main character is Alyx. If this means they've got a Half-Life 3 in the works where we can play either character or both, that would be interesting. It's one of the things I liked about the Dishonored franchise and I did complete the game as the father and the daughter. I don't mind it being a prequel, but I probably will skip it for the time being if it requires me to buy VR equipment.

Is this going to be a VR exclusive title? I'm not sold on purchasing VR gear at this point. I don't want to spend the money, but I would. I expecially have my doubts since I tend to talk to other people (not playing) or listen to the news or some such while I game. As far as the steam thing, I don't understand people despising platforms. It's a free world. If you don't like Steam or Battlenet, you don't have to use them, right? If something great is an exclusive title for that platform, that's the breaks. Not using a platform on principle seems, and I don't mean to insult people in this thread who have expressed these views, but it seems silly. EDIT: thanks, gifted guy! That really provides perspective.

So Freeman is gone and now we're playing Alyx, huh? Interesting. Hopefully it doesn't have too many of the irritating side things that end up in shooters these days. I can just see having to put on a headcrab suit and play a frogger mini-game through a tunnel of barnacles or something stupid. The dune buggy and boat from 2 weren't so bad, although I found them both irritating at time, but at least the devs put in enough thought to make them mostly interesting and we got plenty of breaks to disembark and mow down street trash with our weapons. I think my favorite level of all the Half-Life games is probably Ravenholm. I hope they manage to approximate that feeling again.

What's the obsession for any fan of a franchise waiting for the next game and, as read above, waiting a long time. I've wanted to see a new Half-Life game since I finished the episodic games that came out some time ago. I didn't realize that there were memes or a craze about it, but I don't follow games as much any more. I imagine we'd hear the shouts of joy throughout many quarters if Baldur's Gate 3 were announced. Assuming it hasn't been already, of course. I haven't been following games very much for years.

I've enjoyed all the Half-Life games. I'll have to look into this.

Feels like a crusade to me. On the other hand, it's a man's right to bitch about games. Haven't had a chance to play it, but I plan on getting into it next month. I like the premise and I get the feeling I'll enjoy it, even if it does have a few warts.

I can trust myself to ask one question: is a primary arcane caster class viable in Dark Souls? EDIT: I Don't mean hybrid caster, but a spell hurler.

Sincerely sorry to do double post, but a little less than alacritous in my thought process right now and, for whatever my alcohol steeped heart deems important, I much add this as what is my favorite video game song of all time:

I actually think they did a solid job for the Outer Worlds soundtrack. Main theme is good but there's some great mood music in other parts as well.

I do this. For some people here, the cost of games is trivial. Not me. I like to spend wisely, but I rarely feel foolish over the games that I purchase early. I *do* sometimes feel foolish for some of my impulsive Steam purchases, which has taught me patience in that regard, but those aren't pre-/early release propositions. RPGs I purchase early or even pre-order have almost always been well worth the expense. I think Disco Elysium will fall into that category, although it was a little off-putting at first. If I wanted to play a late stage alcoholic, I'd get out of bed in the morning. Still, dying in the first five minutes of the game, in a game willing to kill me off nonchalantly so early, is impressive.

I'm telling you! My rig is water cooled and I swear I hear the water boiling when I play Outer Worlds! lol

Beautiful, Bokishi. What game is that?

I would be good to throw a few hundred dollars at another Pillars game. If I had faith they'd do justice to Deadfire, I might even invest a few thousand for whatever inn or other customer content. I wouldn't do it myself. I'd just tell them the names of my many dead family members and ask them to make a respectable tribute to them. Not being rich, I couldn't offer millions of dollars. *sad*

Yep! I've wanted to try it for a long time, but not enough to purchase a PS4. Not a console hater. Just don't need another piece of equipment cluttering up my house. Some day they'll port it... I hope. <.<

I've never tried Dark Souls, but I keep seeing people post about it. I'm sure that means I'll break down and play it somewhere along the line. I started Disco Elysium, but it hasn't caught me yet. Granted, I died of a heart attack in the first five minutes trying to reach for my tie. That was interesting at least. Haven't had time to play it except for 10 minutes altogether, but I'll probably dabble latter tonight.

I finished Outer Worlds. The last battle was actually tough. Both of my companions, Parvati and Nyoka, went down. I got it on the first try, but this was pretty much the only fight I couldn't steamroll. I got what I'm sure is the ideal ending. I found a game ending bug, but I looked up a work-around. I'd post it, but it's clearly already known, hence the work around. Many thanks to whoever figured it out. I considered one solution, but I wanted as little killing as possible. Now that I think back on it, I wouldn't mind knocking off some more one particular faction. ...And marauders. Can never off too many marauders. Anyhow, everyone was happy hunky dory at the end and all was well that ended well. This was a quite a good game. I'm glad I played Deadfire because I probably would have put off buying ToW. One great Obsidian game led me to another, and now my gaming meter has been recharged.

Outer Worlds has been great fun. I only have two quests in my main quest tree. I did about half of the game so far without knowing that I could set my quest markers by double clicking the quest. Did quite a few quests without it, but it's much easier with markers. I have only one complaint about the quests. The stupid quest where you model different outfits for the tailor. I got the iconoclast and marauder sets easily, one by buying and one by farming. The Spacer's Choice was infuriating. I bought different sets that didn't work. Finally, I actually looked it up and the set that worked doesn't even explicitly say Spacer's Choice. Stupid! However, if I'd just kept doing what I was doing, I probably would have gotten it anyhow since I was just buying sets of armor and trying them on for the chick. Anyhow, final quest completion reward for the full line is pretty damned awesome! I think choices for gear and whatnot would make much more of a difference on higher difficulties. As it is now, I just roll over the enemy like Fred Flintstone's bowling ball. I do like to sneak up and take folks out with a one shot from my sniper rifle. Takes more time than bum rushing them, but I might replay the game again on harder levels and I want to keep good habits.

If it's true in real life, it's even truer in a computer game: perception is reality. I don't know anything about Destiny. I've not played it, but manipulating our experience by perspective, lighting, and speed are all ways of creating a feel and experience in any computer game.

I'm on Byzantium in Outer Worlds. The story has taken an interesting turn. I've been hard on the writing, but there have been some laugh out loud moments and, overall, I can tell they really went for campy and fun. I get the impression that maybe the story is starting to get more 'serious' at this point. I've done a lot of companion quests. Parvati's are kind of expensive. I save intimidation checks for hardcore characters, so I'll bargain down for Parvati's needs, but I won't intimidate or shake people down to lower the price. Parvati is hands down my favorite at this point. Next would be Nyoka. I'm playing on the default difficulty and the battles are simply fluff. They're literally not serious. I honestly can't see why anyone would need to lower the difficulty for this game. The combat on the default setting aspires to trivial. I think, at higher difficulties, I would have to be far more discerning in which companions I chose to attend me during my missions.

Yeah, Sanjar! Pull your head out of your tuchus!

Outer Worlds is great fun. I'm pretty much done with Monarch. The story isn't exactly worthy of the Bard, but the gameplay is wonderful. I disagree with a previous poster who said that it was what Fallout should have been. ...At least none of the Fallouts I've played, even the D.C. one. It's certainly no New Vegas. ...But it's a fun game. Addictive. Light-hearted. Fun for its own sake.

Still plugging away at Outer Worlds. I used Intimidation again. I'm liking my Han Solo run. I invested in dialogue skills hot and heavy from character creation and have not regretted it since. Fast talking gunslinger in any Falloutesque game I play. Always great fun.

Yeah, I'm counseling my subordinate in her romantic relationship. She does not desire a physical relationship. Isn't that just really good friends in that case? I don't know if we're going drinking tonight, but after this conversation, I sure as hell will be.

I agree with the idea of making it easier to swap around gear. For a long time, the only thing people out of party carried were weapons. We'd get embroiled in ship battles and my joinable NPCs would be running around naked fighting people. Eventually, I went through everyone's gear and settled on armor and weapons for everyone. PS:T has been my gold standard for years, but I've often wondered if I would feel the same way if I played it for the first time today. Kind of a useless endeavor. Counterfactual history presumes being able to extrapolate from one changed event, which isn't how life works. Anyhow, PS:T has real genius and helped shape my view of RPGs. However, it was undisciplined and had serious text bloat. Deadfire, in my opinion, is simply better constructed.