mkreku

Very few cities in RPG's actually feel like cities, the basically-a-winding-corridor in Planescape: Torment you guys refer to as a city being the most obvious example. Novigrad in The Witcher 3 is probably the best depiction of a city I've ever seen in a RPG. Big enough to get lost in, it is also varied, detailed and lively enough to become believable. There's not enough to do in it (in my opinion), but it's still the best I've ever seen. Every one of those streets are real and there. Nothing fake, it's all there. You can actually take a boat and sail around the entire city if you wish, and it all comes without loading times. Absolutely amazing. I also liked Las Vegas in Wasteland: It doesn't look like much nowadays, but every one of those houses are enterable and contains something. Some of them are multi-level and some have lots of npc's and quests. Also, there are a lot of secrets to find everywhere. Plus a Scorpitron in the middle.. Other than those two, nothing really comes to mind. Khorinis in Gothic 2 was really cool at the time, but it's way too small to count as a city. The cities in Gothic 3 were cool too, but not memorable enough due to the diluted state of the game. If we're mentioning games outside the RPG genre I'm pretty sure the GTA games are at the top of the heap for cities. Every one of them, in fact. GTA: San Andreas alone has three cities better than basically any RPG in existence.

Sounds pretty good to me. Full review here: http://wccftech.com/review/tyranny-review-glory-overlord/

Titan Quest receives a 10 year anniversary update: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/08/31/titan-quest-anniversary-edition-free-update/ I just checked Steam and it's there alright, achievements and all! Titan Quest is one of my favourite action RPG's so this is great (and unexpected) news!

Because 7 minutes of Elex gameplay wasn't enough, here's 17: http://wccftech.com/meet-elex-the-upcoming-science-fantasy-rpg-by-piranha-bytes/ It looks very.. stiff (to put it nicely). I don't care though. I'm gonna love the **** out of it.

I know I'm going to love this game. There's just something about Piranha Bytes' work that tickles me pink.

Are the maps as small as in Deus Ex: Human Revolution? None of the reviews I've seen mention anything about this.

Yeah.. they launched in Sweden. The cheapest model, the GTX1060, starts at.. $2300. I kid you not. The previous generation, the GTX960M, retails for around $1200-1300. **** that, Nvidia. ****. That.

Hmm, yes, it seems Witcher 3 graphics were slightly worse than I remembered them:

It's not actually a sequel though. It's a modernization of the original game. The one that I never completed but hopefully will this time when it's all new and shiny again..

Outcast: Second Contact is being released for PC and consoles next year! Source: http://wccftech.com/246132-2/ I loved Outcast! Even if I never managed to complete it, I got pretty far and thoroughly enjoyed it. I got stuck in some obscure puzzle, lost momentum and never restarted it. Looks pretty cool though!

Oh great. I'm up to 180 something gear level now in The Division and today the game decided I belong in the 201-230 gear level bracket. I'm screwed. I can't even kill mobs in the lowest part of the Dark Zone now.. they start at level 32. I wonder why this keeps happening to me. I own maybe three pieces of equipment above level 200 (usually level 204). My weapons are still level 163.

No Man's Sky has everything I want from a game, except content.

It was pretty deserted yesterday.. That might be the reason.

More adventures in The Division's Dark Zone. I'm still gear level 159 and up to level 35 in the Dark Zone now. For some reason the game has decided I have to play in the 161-200 gear level bracket. No problem, I'm close enough. But what irks me is when I engage in PvP. Last night I lost to this dude: He is gear level 207 and Dark Zone level 99 (I'm assuming that is max or very close to max?), yet he plays in the 161-200 bracket. It was like trying to chop down a tree using a butter knife (you can actually see the tiny sliver of health I managed to chip from him before I perished). I don't understand why I'm moved up a bracket while being under the lower limit, and then fighting players who are above the upper limit. The difference is so big there's no point to it.

Oohh, another Gigabyte user *hi-5*

What did you get?

Well, I escaped with my first green item just now. Kind of a.. letdown. I was expecting it to be much better than what I currently have, but I'm not even going to use it. If I can get three pieces of a set, then it becomes powerful (something about healing, which is sorely needed in this game). At least it was level 214 so theoretically I could increase my equipment level slightly.

Yeah, the incentive to keep playing as a loner kind of disappears when the odds are so stacked against you. Maybe that green thing was an item of better than 163 quality.. but then I just think about how many of those I will need to find before I find anything I can actually use (I always get lots of shotguns, which I don't use). And then how many times I will have to try that extraction game before I can get any of those rare drops out. No thanks.. Are there other ways of getting better equipment? Right now I'm kind of stuck at level 163 since I haven't had anything greater than that drop. I tried an incursion, but the enemies in there were so above me that I ran out of ammo after killing two of them.

Ok, I don't understand The Division. I found my first green item in the Dark Zone today (yay!), but.. There were three guys in there ganged up, moving from extraction point to extraction point, killing everyone (aww). For some reason I'm now in the 161-200 bracket, and all these guys were 193 and up (I'm still 159). There is no defense to this. It doesn't matter how much I try to hide or how well I play. I stand absolutely no chance. As soon as someone tries to extract, they see it, there's a timer on the actual extraction move so all they have to do is stand somewhere close to the rope and kill you. No penalties, no difficulty, just pure win. As soon as they kill you, they can take what you dropped, attach it to the rope and get free stuff. There's no way you have any chance to try to reclaim it because it's usually at least a minute's walk back to the extraction point. Even if you manage to kill one of them, they can revive each other. If they don't do that, the two others can just keep you at bay until the third respawns and comes back to kill you again. The Dark Zone is fun for the challenge of the enemies, and it's fun to co-op with other players. It just feels like the challenge of the NPC's is great enough that when you finally beat something difficult, it shouldn't be possible to walk away completely empty handed. I think I actually lost experience/credits today (not sure). I didn't extract anything. Not exactly a great gaming experience.

And those are the exact reasons I hated playing the PvP parts of The Division. I also had the added bonus of having to deal with major lag. So imagine your frustrations, then magnify them by having to deal with 3 to 5 second delays between you taking a shot and the shot actually registering. DZ is not worth it. You're better of completing the SP portion of the game then if anything do coop missions and incursions. Also do those wanted bounties and what not. Completing those quest chains gives you end game-ish loot as well. Well, I finished the main game and reached level 30. Then I went back into the Dark Zone with my level 15 equipment.. and all of a sudden the enemies died like flies. I basically roamed around in there undisturbed for a few hours, occasionally extracting stuff, and I'm now up to level 159 equipment. Which is funny because now I'm placed in a slot of level 0-160 players.. I don't feel very threatened anymore. As I was walking around the zone I ran into some named enemy, level 32. He had a lot of companions and the fight was tough. All of a sudden a trio of other players start shooting at him from the other side and we make quick work of him. Then they invite me to their group. Usually I always turn down any group requests, but for some reason I didn't do that this time. Turns out the trio all had mics (I don't).. and they were all french girls having a blast together. I hung around with them for an hour or so. I didn't understand a word they said, but they were hollering and shrieking and laughing so much that it was fun anyhow. One thing is weird. I see all these players with equipment level 240-250, but the best equipment that ever dropped for me was level 163. So if I don myself in all level 163 gear, I'll still be almost 100 levels lower than them. I'm guessing equipment of that level doesn't drop from solo raids, or?

So I ventured into The Division's Dark Zone (oooOOOoooOOOhhh) today at level 25. It ended up putting me in a zone for 25-29 level players. It was.. weird. And difficult. Either my equipment sucks for my level or the game is designed to be played with friends from here on after. Almost every enemy I met in the zone was level 26+ and fully armoured. If they ran up to me, I could empty an entire clip into them and they'd just keep on running without flinching and only loosing maybe half their armour. Then, when I had to reload, they'd kill me with two or three shots. I could handle three, maybe four of them. But the game throws 11 at you, all attacking from different directions. When I finally managed to kill something and gather a little loot, I went to an extraction point. Not only does it spawn an endless amount of enemies while you wait to be extracted, there was also a level 29 dude killing everyone there. He just waited there the entire time I played and killed/looted people trying to extract. I managed to become level 12 or 13 in the zone, but I'm not sure I had fun doing it.

I bought The Division after all (thanks for the answers, guys) and it's definitely been worth $34 so far. I'm up to level 16-17 right now and having a blast. It actually runs great on my aging 290X and it's so pretty! I didn't get along with it at all in the beginning. It felt way too MMORPG-ish where I was expecting a more realistic Borderlands. But I persevered and it all started making sense. I still haven't entered the PvP parts (where I hear the problems are stemming from) but even if I don't enter that part at all I feel I'm getting my money's worth. 20 hours in and looking at probably 40 hours before I'm done with the single player part.

I splashed out for a 4TB Hitachi Deskstar last year. It's just been sitting there.. silent.. swiftly delivering data.. My WD Caviar Black 2TB before that lasted just under 5 years. I'm hoping the Hitachi will last even longer (haven't even used 30% of its capacity yet).

I saw that they have The Division for sale here in Sweden for $34 (which is cheap by Swedish standards). Is it worth playing now and is the game worth $34?

Great write up of the original Gothic by Rock, Paper, Shotgun: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/07/07/gothic-retrospective/ I agree with everything!! (almost)