Vaeliorin

I've actually got Albus, Sion and Irene at this point, but yeah, my people are starting to get a lot stronger. Getting Irene Counterattack and Forestallment was a huge boost, as was getting some of my first mastery sets and advanced classes. My problem in the Magenta Back-Streets was that I ended up fighting Jason and Scott at the same time, and then Sharky's group came up from behind me and I was trapped in between. I may not have had the best set up for my guys at that point either. There's just so much stuff to go through, and it took me a while to really start to figure things out. It probably would have helped if I'd delayed engaging until after the other group was ready for action instead of just rushing right in as well. It had just been relatively easy until that point, so I was probably more aggressive than I should have been. Things are going well now, and the only thing that's been at all scary since then are Magma Timas, since they can take out 1/2 - 2/3 of any of my guys health if they manage to hit. Edit: Oh, I see now that we're talking about different things. Magenta Back-streets is the first violent case I've come across, which I haven't done yet. I'm talking about Chapter 2 Mission 1 "A spreading magenta", which takes place in Magenta Back-streets. Gets a bit confusing to talk about.

So i bought Troubleshooter, and it's really good. The generic dudes feel kind of better than my characters at this point though, seeing as how they don't have to run out into the middle of everybody to actually do something. Just finished the first (I think) story mission of chapter 2 and...wow. That was a lot of enemies. I kind of made the mistake of going the wrong way around a building, which ended up with me pinned between multiple groups of enemies, which hurt a lot. Probably shouldn't have split the group either (it was a story choice, and I try to be agreeable in most games.) Really glad I picked it up, and thanks @melkathi for bringing it to my attention, because I probably never would have heard of it otherwise.

Awesome, thanks. I was a bit worried when I saw the online/offline thing, but knowing that it's not really relevant to me is good. Definitely going to give this a shot.

@melkathi Since people are bugging you about games... I was curious if you'd recommend Troubleshooter to someone who was a fan of Xcom and Fell Seal/Final Fantasy Tactics type games. It looks really good, but I'm somewhat hesitant and can't really find many good gameplay videos on Youtube. Also, how important is the online stuff? Do you know if you miss anything by playing offline? Thanks.

I'll second the Dark Heresy RPG. I'd also like Exalted, but as an RPG, since I don't like the Total War games, and I hate any game that grades me on how I play. I've wanted an Exalted cRPG since I first played it 20-some years ago. I swear that there was Exalted game in the works ages ago that was an isometric action game, but despite remembering seeing a gameplay snippet, I can't find hide nor hare of it now...so possibly it was just my imagination (well, more like a nightmare, since that would be a terrible interpretation of the game, as far as I'm concerned.)

Finished Fell Seal. It was really good. I even got all the achievements (there was only one that was kind of a pain to get, which was maxing out all the monster classes.) Looking forward to trying it with some mods.

if I recall correctly, I only ever launched it to make sure it would run...I have 2 minutes play time in it. I was just waiting for it to get the bugs fixed after launch, and have never gotten back around to it. The poor reviews have also contributed to me not prioritizing it. Anyway, I'm playing Horizon Zero Dawn. It's really good. I'm ridiculously overlevelled due to doing lots of futzing around prior to reaching Meridian (I'm level 34 and I've only done 1 quest since leaving Meridian), but that's okay, because I'm kind of terrible at the combat (I tend to lose track of enemies when they go running/flying past.)

Technically I suppose this isn't news, but I searched the forums and only found one post about it (and the gameplay is new-ish) but I just saw this for the first time yesterday, a new game from the Tower of Time people, and I thought it looked pretty cool.

I'd probably not be very fond of Kingmaker if I had played it in real-time (I'm not a huge fan of RTWP) but the fast majority of my time with it (which is over 600 hours...though a lot of that was just playing around with different builds to see how viable they were) was with the turn-based mod. I generally am fine with any companions, the only one I can recall that I really disliked is Vivienne in DA: I. I also wasn't super fond of Durance. I don't think he was a bad character, really, but I don't think he should have been a companion (because why would you keep around someone who was so unpleasant other than that he was a companion?). He'd have been better off as an NPC who just followed you around/showed up places where you were and gave you grief. Though, maybe I'm just missing something about the genius of making a companion who's intentionally unlikable? I'm almost sure there was a companion in another game that I just hated instantly, but I honestly can't recall who it was or even what game it was in, so...maybe that's a good thing.

I've been playing Tyranny. I started it twice before, but never finished it. I'm currently doing a Disfavored/Law & Order run, and hoping to do at least a Scarlet Chorus and Rebel run afterwards, but we'll see if that happens. Before that, I was playing Remnant: From The Ashes, which was an excellent game (and the first "Souls-Like" I've finished, mainly because it's the first I've played without platforming or game-breaking bugs) but I got a bit tired running through the same areas hoping that the event/dungeon I needed would spawn so I could have a chance to get the key to open the door to get items I was missing. Also, there's items locked behind hardcore and survival mode, neither of which appeal to me, which is kind of annoying.

Honestly, I just hope it's less empty and dull than Inquisition. Everyone says that the game gets so much better after the Hinterlands, but outside the DLC (I bought the game of the year edition for like $15) all the areas just felt completely empty to me. After that it was all huge areas with like 5 or 6 meaningful NPCs and 2 or 3 quests. But, since I have something of a commitment to the series (I hung out on the forums for the game constantly for a year or more before the game was released, and the first game was probably the most hyped I ever was for a game) I'll probably buy the complete edition when it's down to $15-$20, assuming it's not loaded with MTX or live service garbage. I just have zero faith in Bioware to make a decent game any longer.

I'm glad to hear that. It's a game I was quite interested in, but when I saw them releasing DLC, I figured I'd wait until the full game was out, and then buy the complete version (which is almost the only way I buy games any more.) As to what I'm playing, I'm just glad to be playing anything. I'd been without a PC since the end of April (finally got everything worked out 2 days ago), and I don't have a console, so I've been trying to scratch the itch with mobile games (strictly free to play, though.)

So I went to see an orthopedist who specializes in feet and ankles yesterday, and he managed to get my toe back into socket, and have it stay there. So, no surgery for me, thankfully. Have to keep my toes taped and see him in 3 weeks or so. The pain is mostly gone at this point, though I still can't walk properly on that foot. So things are going as well as can be expected, thankfully.

I fell coming down the stairs in the dark around 4 AM yesterday (I thought I was at the bottom of the stairs and I wasn't) and dislocated my second toe on my left foot. So, that was fun. I'm supposed to wear a walking boot, but because of the virus, the medical supply store was closed on Saturdays (it's usually open until 1), so I have to wait until Monday to get the boot, so I'm painfully hobbling around (and given that all my stuff including my computer is on the second floor and the kitchen is on the first floor, I'm climbing up and down stairs at least twice a day.) Fortunately, I had someone to take me to the urgent care (which didn't open until 8), because there's no way I'd have been willing to drive myself (I almost passed out a couple minutes after I fell.) Still, they'd only allow one person in the urgent care at a time, and given that medical professionals/facilities cause me extreme anxiety (to the point where I have a hard time not running away or passing out) that was....difficult.

While I'm not fussed either way in regards to dinosaurs, I would like the Hunter class to make it. I'm a big fan of it (I like most of the 2/3rds casters from Pathfinder, though inquisitor is kind of the exception.) Really happy it funded (and kind of surprised that they're looking at starting alpha testing stuff in April.)

5E isn't I Go You Go, is it? I read the core books several years ago but I don't remember them well enough to know if they actually did away with individual initiative. Also, did they do away with skill checks? Because I can't see level 1 characters being able to leap about like that if they had to make skill checks (heck, even most level 20 characters wouldn't be willing to leap about like that in the middle of a fight, because there's a decent chance you'd fail and end up prone.)

Pushing the guy off the ledge was cool. Him flying 20 feet through the air instead of falling mostly down was what really bothered me. It was like he got punched by someone with superhuman strength, instead of just a relatively normal person (especially since it was a ranged rogue, who presumably didn't have a super high strength.) I'm down with turn-based, and the combat itself didn't look bad. My concerns were mostly visuals and writing. Honestly, the first couple characters they encountered seemed like something out of a 16 year old emo kids fanfiction.

I don't really like 5E D&D, so I wasn't super hopeful, but that was kind of disappointing. When they started off with a reformed vampire spawn character and the first character they met was named Shadowheart,... The climbing looked kind of neat, but then there was the jumping that just looked silly. And when the main character pushed that guy off the ledge and he went flying 20 feet, I just burst out laughing. Maybe it'll be okay, but barring some sort of rave reviews from lots of people, it looks like something I may pick up in the bargain bin some day.

You can only get turn-based in Kingmaker if you install the mod. I also recommended Call of the Wild because it adds the Warpriest class (among others), which seemed to match the kind of character you were looking for.

You have to install the mod, and if you have it installed, Alt-T (by default) toggles between turn-based and real-time. Also, for the kind of character you mentioned wanting to make, I'd install Call of the Wild and make a Warpriest, but that's just me.

I thought Volo was Canadian...

BG2 is the worst Infinity Engine game. Also, BG2 has a lot (and I mean a lot) of terrible writing. Very few games labelled as RPGs these days are actually RPGs

I actually hope it isn't mounted combat, just because that's something that I've never enjoyed. It always seems so awkward to have part of the party mounted, and the rest on foot, not to mention having to make dungeons that accommodate a mounted character (as otherwise you're screwing over the guy that put all his feats/skills into mounted stuff.) Personally, I really like the Warpriest. The extra feats let me pull off some builds that you can't as a cleric or inquisitor, and the spellcasting is enough. I wanted to make a really silly character that was unarmed + shield bash, but unfortunately the game engine didn't know what to do with it (it was only giving a single attack, with the shield weirdly enough, when I should have had 3 fist and 3 shield.) But I can do weapon + shield bash that I couldn't get away with on cleric, and the blessings and weapon/shield augments are nice too. The class I'd like to see, though, is the occultist. A 6 level caster with the possibility of fighter level base attack bonus makes me happy. Also, I've always liked psionics. I'd also take the skald and the hunter. That said, I'm really happy they're officially adding the shaman and the oracle. Big fan of both of those.

Today I became the answer to life, the universe, and everything. There was cake.

Honestly, were it not for the fact that the media appears to be trying to canonize him, I'd agree with you. But the way they're treating him like he was the second coming has made my feelings shift from sad to annoyed.