PsychoBlonde

I'd appreciate it if they'd finish off some of the sadly unfinished character interactions, like wrap up Neeshka's plot better, and have Sand and whatshername the sorcerer fight more, that sort of thing. This may be impossible, though, since *all* of NwN2 aside from the PC was voice-acted and I doubt they'd be able to get the original voice actors back or if they'd even sound like themselves this many years later. The quantity of voice-over may make NwN2 a no-go for an Enhanced Edition, anyway. That was pretty much THE point when RPG's went from being relatively cheap things that a small studio could put out to expensive AAA mega-works. The animations and voice acting made them need a big budget. While the licensing might be awkward, I doubt it'd be truly prohibitive. It's not like anyone is making much money off NwN2 these days, and the community goodwill from these Enhanced Editions has been pretty strong, so there's a good motive for whoever owns it to just say "sure", sign the paperwork, and let Beamdog do their thing.

For those worrying that Obsidian will go the way of Bioware . . . I don't think that's going to happen, because Microsoft as a games publisher is a fundamentally different type of company from EA. Or Activision. Or Ubisoft. They're not, in fact, a games publisher at all. Their core business revolves around a PC operating system that, as far as gaming is concerned, enjoys near-monopoly status. (Right now, if you're a PC gamer, chances are EXTREMELY high that you run Windows on your gaming machine). They have a side business that involves producing games for their console platform--which they're merging with their PC gaming platform to run a unified OS. Unlike the PS4, the Xbox One is backwards-compatible--you can play 360 games on it. Oh, they've made their share of big-company blunders, don't get me wrong. The awfulness that was Games for Windows Live cannot be described except by using a combination of profanity, obscenity, and scatology. And their App Store isn't much better. The history of the Xbox has basically been the saga of Microsoft entering a market they really did NOT UNDERSTAND when they started, screwing up royally, and ultimately making a go of it. And the weird part is that they've made a go of it in gaming by acting like a smaller company. Microsoft, the abusive titan of the PC, basically became a scrappy underdog (almost a failure of one) when they entered the gaming market. I don't think they're going to pull an EA or an Activision or a Ubisoft. Oh, I'm sure there will be screwups and missteps. But unlike other games publishers they're not in the games market to make money. They already make money on their OS and their software. Microsoft makes games because they want to make games. They are the ONLY games publisher out there who does something else to make money. Valve was like that for a while, but they basically stopped making games and they only do Steam these days. You can argue that CdProjekt has GoG. And look at how awesome CDProjekt is. There may be good reason to be cautiously optimistic about this.

Srsly? Wow. Could we be looking at some kind of RPG renaissance? That would kick ass. Tell them to choke EA until they cough up Bioware, or at least the part of Bioware that does Dragon Age, before they kill that one the way they killed Mass Effect.

I added all of the free DLC to my watch list and instead of giving me a download button they all say "watch now" . . . could they be marked as MOVIES somehow?

Nothing seems to be working. Steam isn't even showing the free DLC in my list of available DLC's for the game. Now, before I get an endless list of suggestions to check and uncheck the DLC from my list. It is NOT LISTED. I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game. I have restarted Steam. I have cleared my Steam download cache. I have tried adding all DLC to my cart. I am not using family sharing; I own the game myself. I have unchecked all the DLC that DOES show and re-checked it. I have started the game and exited. I have tried clicking on all the DLC buttons and news items in the game. When I try going to the DLC page and clicking on the DLC's that it won't show for me, I just get an age warning. When I click "view page" nothing happens.

Why are you assuming that the Watcher is a high-class, highly-educated woman (or man)? In many of the backgrounds that's not true. At all. I get no sense that Edér considers the Watcher in any way his superior. He's just a laid-back, easy-going, sort of brainless guy. Yes, he does have a type - we've seen two examples of it - but it's entirely possible to play a woman of exactly that type. And we know he's not suddenly decided on celibacy - he's quite ready to mack on Iselmyr. Saying that he's not interested in a serious relationship? Completely understandable; he's never really been interested in that, apparently. Saying he's not attracted to any type of Watcher at all? Don't buy it. Maybe because the example is not a literal example of what makes your Watcher "special". Your soul is thousands of years old, you see spirits, and talk to gods on a regular basis. Plus you're a noble. You don't actually have to be a *classy person* to fall into the "high class" category for people with "I'm just a little person" syndrome, although from my experience you can get "promoted" there by being classy even if you're otherwise "base, common, and popular". It's less about who you are (or think you are) and more about how Eder perceives you, and his basic character point since you first meet him is that he kinda prefers to have someone to tell him what to do. He's NOT comfortable relying on his own judgment. With pretty much all of those people gone from his life, he doesn't even leave a town where he's pretty likely to BE HUNG until you show up and he latches on to you.

Excuse me for trying to fix the broken quote there, sorry. I hope it worked. He has a redneck accent, probably. And he acts like a "redneck" to an extent (apparently on purpose--he's smarter than he acts, but not a genius by any means). It's more apparent in Pillars 1 that he's a low-key kind of guy, he reminds me of a lot of factory workers and laborers that I've been around over the years, and most of them would rather cover themselves in honey and belly-flop on a termite mound than deal with a "high-class", highly-educated woman no matter HOW hot or nice she is. And it's not because they don't like her, they like her plenty, they just don't want to be in a relationship where they're a sideline or an afterthought. It's far from universal, but you see it here and there. If you notice, if you miserably fail his personal quest, he doesn't really get mad at you. He ASKS you to PLEASE do his personal quest, even at the stage where it's LITERALLY LIFE OR DEATH for someone who concerns him. If he thought of himself as your equal, he'd TELL you that you're going NOW and be BITTERLY angry if you just wandered off and did your own thing. But he doesn't. It's not that he doesn't care, but he does NOT expect YOU to care--even though he was probably the one personally responsible for pulling your unconscious body out of the ruins of Caed Nua, hauling you cross country after Eothas to keep you alive, helping put a ship together, personally watching over you while you're unconscious, etc. I mean, he did ALL THAT STUFF, but he doesn't in any way figure you OWE him this one little thing that literally costs you NOTHING apart from being a little timely for once? Yeah.

My take on it is that Eder has something of a low self-esteem or humility problem, and he regards the Watcher as existing on a whole different level from himself. If she condescends to be friendly with him and care about his problems and help him out, well, that just proves how awesome she is, but for him to think about her in that way, well, that just ain't right. The very thought makes him uncomfortable, like having relations with a dragon. To most people (particularly Americans, who generally internalize the idea that they're at least as good as anybody else, probably better), this would seem bizarre, but it's consistent with his characterization from Pillars 1.

It's hard to say. The all-voiced dialog actually makes it feel shorter to me. That and I made a conscious decision to not care about combat challenge and play on a low difficulty because the slog always ruins the late game in RPG's for me. I did absolutely everything I could find to get cheevos for Berath's Blessings, and it still didn't feel as big as the first game.

That boss fight is ****ing good. In fact, that whole questline is one of my very favorites. I especially liked that the main tactic at the end of White March, "CHARGE THE HEEEEAD!", proved to be a rather bad idea here. Heh. As soon as I realized poor thing's immobile I just unleashed Aloth, Durance and my scroll collection on the poor thing, it was very anticlimactic. Also, how do you piss Galawain off? I think I hanged up on him, but apparently it wasn't enough. You have to actually shut down the machine, I believe. That whole section kinda made me laugh, like the other gods are all debating the end of the world and here's Galawain playing with his dolls. Excuse me, "action figures".

Well, the game is about brutal power politics. Not generally a topic very conducive to being a nice dude.

On the other hand, how will we ever get the game enshrined as an Official Object of Controversy this way?

Uh, okay, the "only ugly god" is Skaen somehow, when Ondra is depicted as a horrific monstrosity with an angler fish's head and eight sagging ****? Yeah. Whatever.

No, that wasn't exactly what they've said. They've said that, for whatever reason, they decided to stop manifesting in physical bodies after Ondra killed Abydon. Too much collateral damage maybe? But they've discussed possessing godlike as a possible ditch plan if what Eothas was planning on doing would turn really bad for them. They discussed EATING the godlike for power if things went really bad. I suspect the major problem with embodying is that the urge to murder each other becomes overwhelming, after all, Ondra blew up Abydon back when the gods were embodied, the other gods blew up Woedica, and Magran blew up Eothas TWICE. Apparently, when they don't have bodies, they can't kill each other, so they just bicker.

Wait for POE3 and a new retcon where Engwithans created the souls, and POE4 where Engwithans created Eora Was their leader called Xenu?

I think it's pretty telling that Eder, who won again and again as Most Beloved Character, starts out with saber proficiency and with a saber as his weapon.

The enemy ship has quite a good chance of sinking you first when doing this if they have more hull health than you do--in fact, you will probably take more damage this way than you will just closing to board, not to mention the numerous random effects that can destroy your resources if you're unlucky. There's nothing INTERESTING about the system, it's degenerate. Enemy ships won't surrender, you can't take ships as prizes or ransom prisoners, so the enemy ship just fights to the death every time. All you can do in ship combat is sink them, so the only question is "what's the most efficient way to accomplish this".

I haven't done ship combat yet so can't comment, however what stupid english-italian accent? The narrator? It's American. Valians have a quasi-Italian accent.

I actually like the food and water system for the ship, but honestly, there's no point to the ship combat other than to be long, tedious, and annoying. You're better off just closing to board and fighting the enemy crew directly. There aren't enough different levels of upgrades and alternatives to make the system interesting, so I just default to "get it over with as quickly as possible". I also dislike that everything is phrased in terms of "gives X inspiration" or "gives Y affliction" . . . wouldn't it just be faster to say "-4 Resolve" than to have a different damn affliction and inspiration for EVERYTHING that you have to mouse over to be reminded of what the heck they actually do?! I've tried with both games but I find myself completely unable to interest myself in the combat system because of this. And it's not a general dislike for "crunchy bits" systems, either, I've been playing RPG's, both computer and pen and paper, vastly more complex than this one, for decades.

I kind of liked the Greek god-esque squabbling, but their utter uselessness was baffling. They apparently have enough power to pull moons down from the sky, but when Eothas threatens the world and their existence, they decide to just send a mortal to spy on him? That's it? I'm struggling to think of a way Eothas's plan could end well. Right now, only the Republics (and possibly the Dyrwood) have any kind of animancy research going on. If and when other nations hear about what happened in the Archipelago, are they going to A) believe it, B) overcome centuries of prejudice and support the practice of animancy, C) co-operate with the other nations trying to solve the problem? I have my doubts. Can the Republics solve this alone? How long do they have? Will the government make this a priority or get sidetracked by other, more immediate, more tangible issues? A related question is just how obvious the effects of destroying the Wheel will be. If they're not noticeable enough, they're going to get ignored by most of the world's population. If they're too noticeable (See: Hollowborn crisis), there's going to be wide-spread chaos. And, of course, back to the gods - are they going to do anything? Will they just make things worse (signs point to yes)? I'm waiting for the DLC where it's revealed that this was all just a rather fantastic dream that Berath gave the Watcher while they were unconscious.

I supported the Principi and the Hazanui of the Royal Deadfire Company showed up at Ukaizo instead, so I suspect who shows up to fight with you at Ukaizo depends on which group has the next-to-highest degree of support from you.

I was thinking the Huana were the best until I got to the endgame, at which point I heard what they were proposing to DO to solidify their claim on the Deadfire and then I thought, hmm, Valia? Oh wait, they were involved with slavers. And Rauatai (Royal Deadfire Company) freely assassinates innocents for political reasons. And the pirates are also slavers as well as being murderers and thieves. So they ALL suck. I was going to go it alone but then I decided to support Aeldys in her bid for control of the Principi because she at least hates slavers and that way I got to sail a cool undead pirate ship that was . . . not as good as my ship with the expensive upgrades I'd bought.

Derp never mind

They could have very easily have hung a perfectly functional lampshade over this issue by having Eothas (or SOMEONE) inform you that the Engwithans screwed up the adra in the world so badly with all their crazy animancy hoodoo that the Wheel became NECESSARY as artificial life support because the natural way simply didn't work any more. That would have been kind of cool, because it would make the gods and their former society stand out as that much more vicious.

And, worse, it doesn't matter what you pick, really, although you CAN at least have Eothas comically explode you with a thought if you insist on trying to fight him even though this is patently ridiculous. Really, the whole plot boils down to: Eothas: "Imma smash yo house and borrow your soul, kay?" Watcher: "Say what, now?" Eothas: "I wasn't asking, but don't worry, I'll give your soul back (the house be smashed tho) but first you gotta do a bunch of chores for Berath, listen to the gods argue a bunch, and take sides in a stupid political struggle where all the sides are bad. Oh, and Magran is going to blow up a volcano under you for giggles." Watcher: "THAT SUCKS COME BACK YOU ****!!!" Eothas: "Okay fine you can just whip up a huge pile of money and come after me that way! Sheesh. Kiss kiss, have fun!" Watcher: "Can't I just grab a couple bags of food and water, tie myself on your shoulder, ride with you until you get to the end, turn off the giant storm machine, and have Eder et al come pick me up in this little boat they rented?" Eothas: "No, that would be silly." Watcher: "DUDE. YOU SUCK."