bugarup

"Dead State". Good writing (so new Bloodlines will be fine in that department at least), meh gameplay loop and I'm saying that as someone who cannot resist hoarding. Also trying Baldur's Gate EE because I realized I cannot remember sh†t about it, started and now I see why. Some observations: 1) low level DnD sux, 2) Larian will be on par with their writing, 3) I forgot how much of a pain in the arse trying to climb up/down the stairs was.

I couldn't finish FO4 because at some point I realized I don't want to side with any of those idiots. Well, that, and how you can make a Str 10 brute with all those OP melee perks and still your Flaming Sledgehammer O'Radiation+5 can be parried by sickly, mangy, malnourished raider junkie with a bent rusty fork. So stupid and annoying, if I wanted some "Prancing with swords" bullsh†t with pirouettes and triple axels and stuff I'd go with rapier, and if I wield a sledgehammer that's because I want to smear cranial material across the pavement without bothering with stupid parrying bullsh†t.

Doubt it. Tekehu calls one of the Wahaki Mataru ladies something like "My plump Koiki", which -- in case if Koiki = Durian -- would translate to "You stink worse than 10 Bariks from "Tyranny", also, you're fat." and she doesn't chop him into sharkbait chum. So can't be Durian.

It was changed some time ago, no? Now you can have Name Surname with a space between them like a normal person so it should be easier to come up with a name you like. (And yet, Tom Kittenberg I wanted for my Cathar trooper was taken. )

At first I was taken aback as well by that hedgehog that crawled up Aloth's exhaust pipe and died there, but eventually decided it all makes sense and is completely in character. When we met him in PoE, dude was lost in several different ways, and here this Watcher lets him to tag along and even live in his castle. So if you're desperate for company so bad you decide to travel with ghost-seeing weirdo you met at the inn's entrance, it's only natural you only show your good side and best traits to the kind stranger lest they decide to dump you somewhere, like suspicious pool in Skaen-flavoured catacombs. But by the time of Deadfire events Aloth feels secure in his and Watcher's fire(and ice, and acid, and poison, and insect swarm...)-forged friendship so he can drop the mask and be his actual dour, pedantic, no-fun-allowed-ever self.

Isn't the guard at the shop with Caroc's a construct? Do androids dream of Do constructs react to crackers?

Trying to lift Caroc's breasplate, aren't you. Anyway, with sufficient stealth you should have enough time to reach that box next to the guard before timer goes out, because red circle with an eye does not mean he spotted you yet. As Boeroer said, if stuff in opened container is not red it's safe for grabbing.

It's very annoying and somewhat tricky, but doable. Rule No 1, no hostile AoEs whatsoever (it'd be best to swap Serafen and his wild mind for, say, Maia or Rekke). Two, the guards seem to give exactly zero sh†ts about turn-based mode and will keep patrolling right through your fight and it's safe to wait for them to bugger off before initiating the round.

I don't use guns and use videogames so it's easy-peasy. Also, can we only ban boiled and fried onions that are indeed evil on Earth, because raw ones did nothing wrong and it would be unfair. Pic unrelated.

My active (well, for given definition of "active". Right now I cannot muster enough enthusiasm to even decorate with stuff I won during the latest casino event, but I'll check that new expansion just to visit Onderon) ones are on Satele Shan, but I have presence on the Forge as well.

"Star Wars" is space fantasy.

What the statchoo said. I'm pretty certain that if the OP presented us with examples o' hooks, damn you, Gromnir, of hooks that worked on them there'll be people who go, "That is what you're calling a good hook? Pfffft, get out" (and I can start with "Baldur's Gate to strangeness is what Eiffel tower is to kangaroos, i.e. not related in any way whatsoever, and drop those stupid nostalgia-tinted specs already, they don't look good on you anyway"). Like, why I, superstar of New Reno, should care about some filthy tribe I left behind years ago, yeah, yeah, dead starter town, dead mentor, bog standard fantasy setting blahdy-blah, stop nagging me, pink-haired girl I don't care about, and why the game assumes I even want to be the King of boring mosquito-ridden swamp, show me the way to the next city that never sleeps (and has a whiskey bar). Guess what, not caring or even being mildly annoyed (looking at you, Kingmaker) about "the hook" did not prevent me from enjoying the listed games, possibly because I am not into sadomasochism and needn't to be hooked to have fun. Hooks are overrated anyway. Books? Do fine with or without hooks. Cinema and especially TV tend to lean on them too much and it's not always a good thing. Remember "Lost"? Fantastic hook. One of the best there is. Now remember its ending and show's descent to it. So what good did that awesome hook do, eh. Aaaand there's no point in wasting arguments anyway, 'cause I suspect the OP is just another of those "Baldur's Gate is THE unit of measurement of RPG genre" types who ran past to drop the usual "Waaaah Y U NO Baldurz gate, game?!" and never be seen again.

Numenera's setting is interesting indeed and that's why I eventually finished the game despite of abandoning it several times. Brain kinda erases memories of word vomit, non-entity protagonist, uninteresting story and weird for the sake of being weird but still dishwater dull companions and all that's left are impressions of really cool setting that you kind of want to explore moar. ...guess I'll do that ranking thing afer all. 1. Tyranny. Fantastic setting and the only other recent-ish game that had me this invested in the story is SOMA. Read all the cyclopedia after the first play-through and still remember random lore tidbits, like how ring-shaped jewelry is extremely tasteless because world's currency are rings. And after I got the hang of spell system combat became enjoyable too. 2-2.5. Deadfire/PoE. I like Deadfire better still because of multi-classing and being so very pretty, but PoE was the thing that made insta-preorder Deadfire because I wanted "moaaarrrr of this!". PoE is a place to go when I want some quality grimdark (and difiiculty. Getting thoroughly owned on PoE veteran after getting used to Deadfire veteran). 3. Kingmaker. You'd think I loved P:K to bits, given how many hundreds of hours GOG Galaxy counted. In truth, 30% of those hundreds is slowly crawling from point A to point B and another 30% is putting buffs on (or reloading and putting buffs on), this game is determined to waste your time like a subscription MMO. Still, despite that and oft rolling my eyes at writing I really liked it. Must be some sort of je ne sais quoi charm. 4. Wasteland 2. Nothing too awe inspiring, but post-apo setting (one of my favourite) is v. well developed and consistent, writing's competent and makes sense, shootin' was quite enjoyable and it all coalesces into good and nice sum of all parts (with additional effort to come up with personalities for my party members who initially have none) Somewhere down, down, downhill. Divinity: Original Sin. There's this one dude in "Neverwinter Nights 2", a guard in the mansion of some geezer Charname has to protect, and at some point he says this line in comically exaggerated rural accent, something like "Oi shenshe a fouuuwl shmell oin tha ayr, tha shmell oi. doyn't. loyk!" in D:OS, everyone is like that, and the story & performance are written and directed by the Pegleg Performers. I really like the combat system, I do, sank 20 hours before I just couldn't take it anymore. So mayhap one day. On mute with Rammstein in the background and reading nothing but combat log. (Really got to try those Shadowruns I keep hearing good things about from different people instead of "Deadfire turn-based now, lets make 5 new characters yay!")

No it is not. They offer a literally free service, and I use it. For free. As intended. Their hoping to rope me in for subscription with their free service does not oblige me to fulfill their expectations.

Nothing unethical about that. Down with the corporate brainwashee mentality!

There is a conversation with Aloth, who is pretty much scripted to hate Tekehu's guts with passion. No idea about Xoti though, never had her hate him.

Nope, doesn't matter. Even the PC's disposition towards them doesn't matter unless you're angling for romance or plan to use that brigandine you can get on Nemnok island. Oh, and Serafen gives you stuff twice if he likes you enough so that's that.

I don't have any DLCs, but think I read somewhere that dungeon comes in two modes -- one is no story thing purely for crawling, another is related to story somehow, with companions having quips in there and stuff.

Nah, it's just you getting old. I own an embarrassing quantity of games on GOG, but am gradually starting to fret less about never playing majority of them. Biiig -ing deal, it's just entertainment, I'll leave oodles of unread books, unseen films etc when I eventually kick the bucket, so a hundred or two or three unplayed games make no difference.

Binged on all 6 episodes of "Good Omens". Going in with low expectations certainly helped, but I would have loved it even without the boon. The cast was particularly perfect (including Dog), and while the book is of course better, it's light years better than any other Pterry's and Gaiman's adaptation I've seen. Dunno if Sir Pterry would've been proud, but at least not embarrassed.

Bought "Kenshi". The concept looks so very interesting, but 'fraid that this game will go into my "Play when retired" collection along with Crusader Kings, Rimworld, Stellaris and such because I simply do not yet have uninterrupted years required to learn playing those games.

They did, and he wrote one character, who turned out, well, nothing too special but good. And it's not all bad, I'm perhaps unfairly exaggerating a little, it's just when it's bad, it's eye-blistering bad.