HoonDing

So, if you go with Yes Man but don't activate the robots in the Fort, is it possible to still remain allied with the NCR instead of kicking them all out? Since my character had helped the NCR the entire game and was idolized by them, I was hoping for kind of a "status-quo" ending where my character maintains the NV treaty.

Two Worlds 2 definitely doesn't have talking trees & gossiping housewives.

It's best to go there without companions.

I don't see much difference in graphics quality with the original, tbh. Textures just look shinier and more sharp. I'm more concerend about the gameplay. The original game was much more challenging because for instance magic missiles & arrows couldn't be dodged, meaning you were guaranteed toast if you met enemies with explosive arrows, unless you outleveled them by 5 levels. It doesn't remind me of NWN2, that's more up Drakensang's alley.

On the other hand, that means one will no longer experience cutscenes where a wimpy mage suddenly picks up a giant greatsword and dashes to the archdemon to finish it off Conan-style. Which is a pity, for humour's sake.

"I'm a courier, let me handle your package"

Hardcore mode doesn't go far enough. When things get really nasty, being still able to pause the game by entering the PipBOY and popping all the drugs in your inventory is still a huge advantage. Not to mention Sunset Sapparilla is basically a FO3 stimpak, healing 50 HP in 2 seconds.

The game's streamlined for sure. In Ego Draconis I was at least 2 levels lower when I met Talana, meaning I couldn't just run around everywhere without getting owned if I wasn't careful. There also seem to be new dialogue options and armour/weapon sets, even in the first area, which is nice.

If you're overwhelmed, using Turbo is very effective. It turns you into Max Payne for 10 seconds or so allowing you to quickly blow away everything. Only drawback is that this drug is very addictive (but with good Medicine skill you can craft Fixer anyway). Steady is also pretty fun. It allows you to use a shotgun as a hunting rifle, basically.

The ones that are working on a Drakensang browser game, sadly enough.

That wasn't really worth all that trouble, though. Cherchez la Femme, on the other hand.

People that complain about DA2's supposed hack 'n slash combat should hasten to the Witcher 2 thread. Somehow that game is getting a free pass and DA2 is receiving all the flak.

Maybe it's just me, but I have a nagging feeling that Yes Man was manipulating the courier all along. What he said in the end gave me the shivers. I think it's the best ending, though.

I picked up the English version of River of Time today, plus the Dragon Knight saga. River of Time has a pretty fantastic, very detailed manual, which I didn't expect considering how minimal the marketing for the game had been outside Germany. Hopefully the voice-over & dialogue in English will be of the same quality.

Why doesn't Isabela wear pants?

So I finished the game and though overall I had a really good time with it, I was sorely disappointed by the main quest in the end. I found the parts in Goodsprings, Primm & Novac really well done, and was particularly intrigued when I learnt that another courier had cancelled a job when he found out the main character's name, not to mention the weird message to the "sixth courier" written on some wreckage. This hinted at something larger going on, but for some reason this plot hook was never further developed. Very disappointing. Basically, after dealing with Benny the main quest goes downhill fast with a BioWarian visit to four locations to gather or destroy allies (my own fault, since I had already visited these areas beforehand, though maybe these plot areas could've been closed off similar to Quarry Junction?). I found this very boring... and the battle of Hoover Dam was pretty much an anti-climax that reminded me of the assault on the refinery at the end of Operation: Anchorage (though seeing the Securitrons rip everything apart was pretty entertaining). I also had to reload because apparently the random guy with the big sword that I had one-shotted with the AM rifle was supposed to be the Legion boss... and he had some things to say. Dealing with the NCR jerk before the slides was pretty nice. The game really shines when it comes to multiple solutions to side-quests, and lots of skillchecks (the only other recent RPG I can think of that has more, is Drakensang River of Time), plus a few excellent companions. The gameplay tweaks & refurbished mechanics were nice as well, and hopefully Bethesda will leave these largely intact for the inevitable Fallout 4. I can't say I have much incentive to replay the game from scratch, the way the final parts of the main quest wore me out (and VATS going completely bonkers), but perhaps I'll reload a save and see how the NCR path goes. I'll never be able to play the Legion side, because I found it very hard to take these guys seriously. I had hoped Caesar would save the faction with some compelling dialogue & explanation of the Legion's philosophy & motivations, but he turned out to be a pathetic jerk that I was glad to blow to the moon.

Well, the C-4 I snuck into Caesar's camp turned the meeting with the Great Emperor himself into comedy gold. Easily the highlight of the main quest for me, after Black Widowing Benny.

I noticed Cass managed to keep her .44 magnum revolver in all casinos. Maybe it had to do with my high sneak.

Casino employees and the Legion are not very smart. They do not confiscate C-4 from my character... nor confiscate anything from ED-E. Though that may be a bug.

In Oblivion, characters with 100 speed and 100 athletics moved very fast, actually. With 100 in heavy armour, it wouldn't even slow you down anymore. In Morrowind, I had characters with 700 Speed (game would crash around 1000 speed or so). Armour in FO:NV slows you down so much that it's just not worth wearing, beyond looking cool. Reinforced leather already has a higher DT than pistols and a lot of energy weapons... not to mention weapons of high-level enemies like brush guns & ballistic fists can easily pierce through power armour anyway.

Dragon Knight saga, the master edition of Divinity 2: Ego Draconis, is out on Steam as of today

After experiencing Veronica's exploits during my time with her in the game, I am tempted to do an unarmed build on a next run. From the perk list for unarmed + the long list of overpowered unarmed weapons (Pushy, ballistic fist) it seems ridiculously overpowered and way more effective than guns. Plus a combination of high STR, light armour & decent agility should make a character move much faster. Especially since you only have to carry around stimpaks (which have no weight for some reason) and no ammo.

Caesar Disappearance Trick: Vale, Vulpes Inculta. I probably blew Caesar across Lake Mead.

I've been noticing a lot lately that even if you target an enemy in VATS with 95% accuracy, the enemy can still move out of the way during the shooting animation, leading to a miss. I don't remember this from FO3. Is this another intended change to VATS? It's pretty annoying when this happens when you're trying to cripple the legs of rampaging deathclaws.