Elerond

Nope, TotalBiscuit is actually a fair reviewer that is older and knows and understands how modern games have gone down the drain in last 10ish years. His Dragon Age Inquisition reviews was less than stellar and he often reviews indie games and less AAA games and bashes mercilessly on all AAA games that are bad (Destiny, Watchdogs) without fear of anyone.He also invested a lot of his own money and time to run his own esports team and help young players from around the world compete in Starcraft 2. TotalBiscuit don't review games, which is thing that he constantly repeats, he only gives first impressions. He and Joe have much different way to approach games and they have bit different tastes. And they target their channels bit differently, like for example Total Biscuit looks only PC games and focuses quite lot on indie games and games that he things need more recognizability, where Joe don't focus any specific platform (although he currently favors PC) and he reviews mostly games that he is interested or that are hyped lot. Reviews and first impressions are always subjective, meaning that one can't be any fairer than another, because they give subjective opinion of the game. Of course one could argue that TotalBiscuits format to show more unedited game video and comment over it is fairer way to do things than Joes way to show gameplay clips that show what he is talking at that moment, but both formats have their strengths and weaknesses. It should be remembered that when you look reviews and first impressions you should look up what kind games reviewer/critic likes then you have better ability to determine how well reviewer's/critic's opinions correspond with you tastes. While it is true that his "WTF is .." videos are just him playing a game for 30 minutes while talking about it, he does live twitch shows where he is not afraid to bash games on objective flaws that big sites are afraid to do. And he explains well why. Also he does not hate modern games, but does not love them instantly because of good graphics or similar bull**** that console kiddies buy them for today. But even his twitch streams aren't reviews but even fresher first impressions of his as he gets familiar with games (if he don't play Dota 2 or Heartstone, which he plays much more, although at late those streams have been quite rare, probably because of his health issues). In review you should have much fuller picture about game (quoting here TotalBiscuit himself). Objective flaws are bugs or features that don't work (pointing these out isn't any unique feature that TotalBiscuit has, like you can see from Joe's Total War Rome II's review), everything else is more or less subjective flaws. And I haven't seen Joe give instantly good review for game because it is good looking. And I would point out that TotalBiscuit was quite positive about Watch Dogs (which I count in worst console kiddie hype game in last year) in his WTF, which is probably because he didn't actually played it enough to realize how repetitive it becomes.

Nope, TotalBiscuit is actually a fair reviewer that is older and knows and understands how modern games have gone down the drain in last 10ish years. His Dragon Age Inquisition reviews was less than stellar and he often reviews indie games and less AAA games and bashes mercilessly on all AAA games that are bad (Destiny, Watchdogs) without fear of anyone.He also invested a lot of his own money and time to run his own esports team and help young players from around the world compete in Starcraft 2. TotalBiscuit don't review games, which is thing that he constantly repeats, he only gives first impressions. He and Joe have much different way to approach games and they have bit different tastes. And they target their channels bit differently, like for example Total Biscuit looks only PC games and focuses quite lot on indie games and games that he things need more recognizability, where Joe don't focus any specific platform (although he currently favors PC) and he reviews mostly games that he is interested or that are hyped lot. Reviews and first impressions are always subjective, meaning that one can't be any fairer than another, because they give subjective opinion of the game. Of course one could argue that TotalBiscuits format to show more unedited game video and comment over it is fairer way to do things than Joes way to show gameplay clips that show what he is talking at that moment, but both formats have their strengths and weaknesses. It should be remembered that when you look reviews and first impressions you should look up what kind games reviewer/critic likes then you have better ability to determine how well reviewer's/critic's opinions correspond with you tastes.

Chanter are best class if you want to create summoner

It is also sold in amazon.co.uk http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forging-Divinity-Andrew-Rowe-ebook/dp/B00TKFFR36

Magic users don't stomp over other classes (with exception of ranger maybe, but it is currently stomped by all other classes). Although wizards are most versatile class in game in role wise, but other classes are usually much better in specific roles. Other magic user are contained more specific roles: Ciphers are damage dealers, but rogues are usually more consistent in this role (ranger which is also damage dealing class usually can't compete with them in damage dealing). Chanter are support caster they aren't that good in direct combat or damage dealing, but their chants work as flexible way to buff your party and their invocations, are good, but as they need to first power them up they aren't overpowered, especially now when their summons don't live after combat. Priest are another support caster class, who have much wider selection (as they get all their spell during level up instead of selecting some of them) of spells in their use that they can cast in higher rate than ciphers and chanters, but they are also less powerful, but priests are most versatile support class meaning that you can rely on them in any situation Paladins are final of support classes they are most passive caster with their modal auras that de/buff, but they are most able support class in armed combat. Druid are crowd control class which is role that they share with wizards, although because of wizards versatility druids often fare better in this role than wizards. Druids like priests also get all their spell during level up. Classes that haven yet mentioned are Fighters, Monks and Barbarians that are front line classes that can take damage better than any other class and they deal damage best after damage dealing classes. And games engagement mechanic gives them ability to work as road blocks for enemies.

Reviews of PoE don't matter me in traditional sense as I have given my money to it already over two years ago, but good reviews mean that there is higher change that game will be commercial success, which would mean that Obsidian probably will make sequel for it or another game in it's style that is placed in Eora. So even though reviews will not in anyway direct how I use my money in consideration of this game they still may have personal impact for me, by heavily influencing how probable it will be that I will get more games from Obsidian in style that I love very much.

Of course it depends on one's definition of what an RPG romance is. But that's really not saying anything. It's like going to McDonalds, ordering a bag of fries and then telling everyone that McDonalds serves 'French cuisine'. No. Broadening the definition of romances so that one can cite great RPG classics like Planescape Torment and say: "See? the best written games have them!" Does not fly with me. In this case in my opinion you try narrow what romance means, so that you can say that PS:T didn't had one. But anyway it is really quite meaningless in any way if everybody involved thinks that how PS:T handled things was good and would like see replication of it.

Torment didn't have romances. That depends on your definition what romance is, but Torment had romantic tones and references in people's relationships with Nameless One in it, but it didn't have similar nearly mini-game like romantic relationships that Bioware uses in its games these days.

He has heard about PoE before he ever heard about Darkest Dungeons, as he interviewed BAdler at E3 2014 about it, but Darkest Dungeons was several days steam's best selling game and it is popular with twitch streamers and youtubers, so it is probably much better known game with his viewers than Pillars of Eternity, at least until PoE actually comes out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8E-MR1V05E

"Food! Where!!"

It can't, and they wouldn't do it even if it could, because it would be a waste of resources. We're not talking about sword swings, or death, or anything so common. We're talking about an animation that will only ever be seen after every single one of the following conditions are met: 1) There is a chanter. 2) that chanter has the skeleton summoning chant, and employs it. 3) the skeleton survives for the duration of the spell. This is not skyrim. The devs here do not have 5 years and $100 million in funding to spend on unique animations that most players will never see. Chanter's have multiple summoning spells, not just skeletons and all summonings are until end of combat or dead (previously they were until dead or rest) . Making summons disappear with fading cloud of mist/smoke effect is not unique animation, but quite generic animation that should be quite easy to scale to size of summoning. Would such effects be waste of resources is purely question of preferences, but as general rule visual feedback is not waste of resources, but also it is not usually highest priority for resources either.

If there need to be any effect/animation when summons disappear, I would say that but cloud of disappearing mist or smoke where summons are to show that soul power that manifested summons has become part of cycle yet again. But I am not sure that even such simple animation can be added in this point of time, but maybe content patch or expansion could add such if you feel to give it a try.

If you are backer you can buy it from here http://eternity.obsidian.net/backer/addons Otherwise you need somebody else (who is a backer) to buy it for you, because I think that in this point of time you can't anymore become backer

I had to ask about that and the reply I got was "Very unlikely" Maybe the head guys would be willing to release them at a higher resolution but not the original size? Something like 1200x1885 at 72ppi? I wonder if Collector's Book has any higher resolution portrait art in it.

PoE's backer beta and final game are separate steam products, that use different product keys, so I don't see that Obsidian will in this point give keys for beta for those who didn't bought it, as in my understanding they will delete beta from steam when they release the full game.

I can't pay directly via Kickstarter. They switched to some new system which doesn't take Discover (which is what I used to pay via Amazon) at all and my VISA is also declined (it has never failed me anywhere else before). I don't understand why they can't use a normal payment system. I have same problem and I have my prejudices against their new service provider. But this change in their service means that I will not fund anymore projects via KS at least until their service again accepts my credit cards.

Just because there are risks doesn't mean developer isn't accountable when he fails. But when we do that selectively, then it does actually little good and is just picking those who are already down. And singling single individual over companies where he work is not actually holding developer responsible for failure as accountable, but pouring all the fault to single individual that can't in any way be only person responsible for the failure (which in this case is even under question is there such failure that anybody should be held responsible for it) And I would say that calling somebody pathological liar (and making it a question don't make it any less accusation) is not keeping them accountable to anything it is just statement that you think that they lie constantly. And also when you start interview with such accusation you make your interviewee become defensive and starting to justify and explaining everything, which usually leads that you get them to say non-true statements , as they really don't actually have time to reflect what and when they have done things (this don't mean that Molyneux don't do such things even when he is well prepared, but such cheap yellow press tactics probably will not help, and generally yellow press tactics aren't good journalism ever, or good way to held anybody accountable to anything, which we see even this case as Molyneux comes out more as wronged party than person whose actions were under question). And when editorial board of publication don't remember that they should give fuller picture of things, instead of by editing in only points where interviewee has exaggerate/given false statements, like mentioning fact that found KS project game, from developer with history of over promising and under delivering, which over promised and under delivered as excellent example of good KS project game. And there is also question who should held Molyneux accountable if he fails to deliver his promises for his investors/funders/backers, is it said backers or press or both? I as projects backer don't like very much how interviewer in said interview tries to represent me as reason why they ask the question that they ask, that is again just bull**** yellow press tactic where interviewer tries to get authority over interviewee by presenting themself as representative of people that haven't anyway gave them such authority. I fully believe that people should be held accountable on their actions, this includes developers, journalists and people that invest/fund/back projects/products/etc. that have risk to fail and that accountably should be delivered equally and not by picking easy targets to get name for themself as though person.

Any random idiot can be a "visionary". Coming up with ideas for cool games is easy. Ideas are dirt cheap. What is not easy is actually making those games a reality. And that's what separates a true visionary from a random idiot. Yes, that interview was harsh. But you can hardly say that it was undeserved. He took peoples money and promised a certain product in return. That's a big, big responsibility that shouldn't be taket lightly at all. So why should RPS or anyone else give him a pass? Especially when he has a history with failed promises. He didn't took people's money, he presented his idea for game and prototype of that game and asked if people are interested to give them fund to make that prototype to something like his idea, which was in short create something new in god game genre. So it is his responsibility to try his best to realize his promises, but it should noted that people who funded his project are responsible for their money and risk that they took when they decided to invest in his project, as people should always remember that there is risk of failure in such projects, and if you didn't take those risk in consideration when you made your decision to fund the game then fault is wholly in your shoulders not anybody else's. P.S. Visionary and executor of visions rarely are same people, which is why most projects have different people in designer posts and developer posts. P.P.S. It should remember that Molyneux has not yet failed permanently anything else in Godus project than ability to deliver finished project in promised time, which has been more norm than exception in gaming KS projects. P.P.P.S. It should also noted that interview was done by magazine that awarded another KS project that had most of same failures than what Molyneux Godus project has had as excellent example of good KS project, which in my eyes make that interview look much more personal attack than anything resembling serious journalism.

1. I would point out that there is no mention of contingency plan in Project Eternity's KS pitch did Obsidian lie to you? I would point out that Obsidian also took publisher partner during development of PoE should you be mad for them for doing so? I would also point out that they did have contingency plan which didn't involved KS backers moneys, but for some reason that plan is seen as bad thing as it involved deal with publisher which for some reason is seen as betrayal towards their backers, but because of that contingency plan they are still working to finalize Godus even though they run out KS money long time ago. Would it had been better if they had asked more money from KS backers instead? 2. Look point one. 3. I don't think that his math such he was answering question that you got £100k more than you asked and he was saying that is not true as even though KS fundraising did go £100k over the target they didn't actually get £100k additional funds to do the game and he explains why. 4. Unseen cost are unpredictable but they are so common in software projects that it is often wise to prepare for them and he admits that he was too naive and optimistic and too fearful towards possibility that their fundraiser would fail to ask money towards such occurrence and he also says that he don't know how people that fund KS projects would react towards people that ask more money than they have calculated that they need because they think that they may screw up somewhere and need more money. 5. If you look their KS video then you know that they addressed that point very much, as whole video is build around that point. 6. He also says that they asked as much money as they predicted that they need to complete the game in time frame that they predicted that it will took which was based on their first prototype which they showed in their KS pitch. 7. He is correct that lot of people do it and it is normal practice in KS, for example Obsidian, inXile, and Double Fine are also guilty in same things as he. Molyneux is not innocent actor (like for example his failure with that Curiosity winner), but he gets much harsher treatment than others whose kickstaters don't match perfectly their pitch. Like for example Divinity: Original Sin from Larian Studios (which backer I am also and I don't personally have any problems with how they handled their project) was late and it don't have all features that were promised in their KS pitch (one stretch goal was too difficult to them to do) and Rock Paper Shotgun named that product as best from Kickstater in 2014, and in any of their interviews of Sven they didn't ask is he liar or anything like that. PS. If one don't ask money for contingency when they ask you to fund something then you should always assume that there is no plan in case that something goes awry and do you decision to fund project from that basis or ask if there is one, and make your decision basing on answer (or non-answer) that you get.

I work as a programmer, and I have a Master's in Computer Science. As for why you don't change the word. on the fly wouldn't work: a) There can be overlap with 'innocent' words: http://bit.ly/1vvwjV7 (it is bitly'ed because the language filter on this site would mess it up, appropriately enough). And no, I don't think regexes are the solution. b) The naive approach does not change the tone of the conversation, which could still be so suggestive that the word can be puzzled out. c) It would still have to be tested and debugged. d) If any words slipped through there would be an uproar. But again, it does not matter because it is a M rated game. I'm not sure that there would be that much of a problem for a straight up text-replace, I bet I could do english in an hour, just by flagging false positives as the search went along. But I think you're right about the localization problems, I could maybe do french:) ... it's probably best to let the community provide suitably censored versions of the game, seeing that Obsidian is only delivering as promised. Given what Sensuki has said about the strings for the game being easily available, I'll probably do the english swears. If the audio is also easily available, that could also be dubbed over, though the trick will be finding the audio. I wonder if they have some correlation between audio files and strings, finding the audio swears might need to be crowdsourced . I actually care less about that, because I can't stand waiting for a voice-over to finish saying the text that I finished reading 10-20 seconds ago and usually disable voice audio, but I'd be happy to put in some community service if there's demand. We'll call it "prudemod", or "thinkofthechildrenmod". Accessing strings and audio files is easy and there is no problems in changing them, but I am not sure that you could check false positives in hour as there is quite lot of those files that you would need to go through (at least several hundred, as beta has over fifty conversation files plus other text files, there is file for every character).

I would say that those words are used because it is often hard to describe why such things like weighty gold makes game better, as it usually comes down to feeling that visual and mechanical representation in the game gives to player. It is very similar to aesthetics, that you have gut feeling what you prefer and what you despise, but when you start to think why you have such feelings and what are the specific points that you like and don't like and how they could be replicated and why replicating them would make you like product more, we come in very difficult territory where most of the people don't know even basic directions let alone have ability direct other people.

So, he didn't want to ask for the full budget because people might not give him the money if they were making an informed decision. Cool. And it repeats like that several times. John Walker is more than a little harsh and somewhat petty in the rest of the interview, but the fundamental problem that sparked the whole interview is there. Molyneux knowingly misled people about the cost of developing a game because he wanted to take their money. That's beyond unethical, and bordering on fraudulent. I'm glad he's being called to task even if I am a bit squeamish about the form. Also, Project Eternity looks great. Yay Obsidian! And its worth pointing out that Obsidian has a pretty small crew on PE too with no multiplayer or middleware, and their initial request was two and a fifth times what Godus asked for. You left from part where he says that sum that they asked would had been enough if their estimate for how long game takes to finish would had been correct and that he didn't think that people would give money for 100% contingency which would been three time more than they asked to make sure that unpredicted complications don't cause problems for the project. I would also point out that when they realized that they estimates were wrong they sold part of their rights for the game so that they could finish the game in such fashion that it satisfactory for the backers. So in their they took also risk in amount that they asked in KS and that risk didn't pay out, but instead they lost some control over their IP. So it wasn't misleading backers, but instead asking money only for most positive out come scenario (which is something that most of the KS project do) and when things didn't go according to that scenario they seek extra funding by selling parts of their IP rights (which is their right and normal and sensible business thing to do). Their deal wasn't necessary best, as they sold mobile rights for publisher for more money than they got from KS, which pressured them to finish mobile version (which was part of original vision in KS) of the game first. I would also point out that they mention in risk segment of KS pitch that they are trying to do something new and create new technology and they will try make game to be so that backers like it. Which all are factor that should ring alarm bell in backers mind that project may not go as smoothly as planned. For disclosure, I am backer of Godus and I don't think that Molyneux or any other people in 22cans mislead or lied to me anyway. I would actually say that Godus has been one of the best KS projects that I have given money, as it has delivered beta version that I have liked to play (even if it is buggy and misses promised features and one can easily see that it is unfinished and how it would be better with full set of features and balance passes that remove impacts from features that are meant to for free-to-play mobile version) and it has given one of the best inside looks in game development (especially because its original plan was miscalculated and they decided to rework key features because backers didn't like how they felt) . It should also mentioned that I gave project only £20, so my monetary ties towards project aren't that big, although I don't tress much even over projects that are similarly late and which I gave hundreds/thousands of dollars.

In companies where I have worked and work in software development only 10%-20% of visioned features ever get to be realized, most common reason are they are low priority and don't fit budget and time frame, they need technology that we don't have in the project, they don't fit in goals of the project or purpose of final product. Even though game development is quite different from software development that I do, I would think that number of unrealized features is in somewhat same percentage. I would also say that I think that KS project for software would be much more difficult than your typical project with client, as you can't just call meeting and go through features from original pitch/plan that you have come to feel not fitting in final product or that they can't be realized in given budget or timeline.

Idea for expansion that could work as some sort spell selection method is to give priest and druid classes modal abilities that limit which spells they are able to cast but buff those spells that they are able to cast, which would give more variations how those classes play and how one builds them and I do think that it could fit with lore of the world and not being too difficult to implement and balance.