IndiraLightfoot

Interesting and very nice indeed! This gives me a Mystic vibe with her reasonably flexible crafting options (and money sinks) from the lastest D3 instalment: RoS.

Thank you very much! So, noted! Now, let me just set off two months in my calendar around 2014/2015 for playing the bejeebers out of this game!

Sensuki: Even if I think this is an early UI mockup for testing, I must say that it could very well work with something along those lines. As for the action bar and the quick items, it could simply be that you get stretchable bars (perhaps max 4), like you got in NWN2, and that they can be turned off. As for those bars - they could indicate that they are not at max health - that their health has begun to decline, if ever so slightly.

I'm playing IWD2 right now, and it's hard to believe they made it in 10 months! Kudos to them, because it's a very solid game with a huge scope. When you say gameplay, I cringe a bit, because that isn't its strength, really. The tutorial area, and the choices and actions your party make in the chapters that follow aren't exactly the best gameplay of all IE games. However, one thing seems to be: combat gameplay! So far, I must say, it's challenging and somewhat varied in a very good way. I'm really enjoying that aspect, and I think Josh has a lot to do with that. It's even more impressive when you consider it was the first IE game using 3rd ed D&D. Josh seems to be very good at RPG systems (thus, I'm surprised he isn't a code monkey on the side, hehe).

Prometheus: Thank you! And Yay! At least this kind of info will be there, even if that's just for the entire party. I want to see the same stats per character, and not just who's vanquished the most powerful foe in the entire party. As for combat xp, well I'm so into IWD2 right now that this slipped my mind. Objective xp is the new deal for PE (sadly, that means one info tidbit less in our info window).

I did a deep search. It seems I exaggerated the age of this hospital find I type on now. It was released in July 15 2005: KBPC S2, prod nr: S26381-K297-V155 Well, it looks as if it is from the 90s, though!

I type on a Fujitsu-Siemens ("Made in Germany" Wow, didn't notice that before) now, and it's been serving me for three years by this computer, with no glitches whatsoever.

Indeed, unlike say Civ5 today, where the infopedia is faulty, never updated and almost defunct. I really hope Obsidian brace themselves for keeping all that info up-to-date in-game!

Karkarov: Although I am, as you know, something of a proponent for an L-shaped UI (although as minimalist and adjustable as possible, of course), this last post of yours just rings so very true. I've been playing lots of D3, M&M X, COH2 and now IWD2 this spring, and indeed my eyes scan the bottom centre, or even the entire bottom ledge the best. In COH2, I get into trouble, because the unit shields and their health are high up on the screen, in one corner. All the while, in D3 and even in super-clunky IWD2, my eyes seek out the bottom section, and it works much better. All in all, I guess I'll be happy to sacrifice the bottom part and get a stretched out letter box viewpoint of the gameplay for that info while combat is running. Here's a view of ID2's brick, which actually works pretty well. My eyes are keeping track on the log much more than I remembered, as well as on the portraits for health and status effects:

Here's a secret of mine: For work and pleasure, I only use old keyboards from like the 90s. I usually get them for free, from hospitals and other institutions. Thing is: They are indeed very durable and sturdy to type on, and I do type a lot. I've tried new keyboards and always given up on them within like two days. However, my old keyboards are like grey-beige, so they score high in the ugly department.

Playing through IWD2 as of now, and it includes something that I absolutely love about the IE-games: the info windows! There you get stuff like: -Your most powerful vanquished foe -Percentage of kills in party -Amount of combat xp earned I mean, this literally gives you a little competition in your party. I often take a peek and see which ones are third or fifth wheels, so I now which chars I should roll in my next playthrough. I'd be very, very happy if this is indeed included in PE as well. EDIT: Let's come up with stats we'd like to see! How about: -Highest amount of damage dealt in a single attack on one foe -Number of close calls (surviving 1 hp and less) -Number of traps disarmed -Number of locks picked -Largest amount of copper pieces found

Well, I've passed that bridge in IWD2 now. This is a screenie just before we were victorious (more or less): However, seconds after this, three of my party members chucked three flammable oil/lamp oil flasks over the two ogres and a wounded Xyxi. We sacrificed that huge rhino beetle butting one of the ogre's hinie just to try to take those baddies out. It actually worked. Two ogres and a pesky wizard all in one burning inferno. Unfortunately, Indira got caugh in the blast and died for the second time in this game, along with our main cleric, so it was a sad return to Targos, finding out that rez costs are adaptive vis-à-vis level and perhaps even amount of gold. This time, it set us back for more than 3,000 gp. The bridge itself, and the road leading onto it, weren't that bad. A great fight, absolutely, but nothing entirely back-breaking. My party is almost all fighter types with strong clerical elements. I have one character that dabbles as a wizard just in order to get a few neat spells, like identify. In D&D CRPGs, I rarely use wizards. Not that I think they are cool, but having a bunch of them usually is quite time-consuming, so I guess I opt for more laid-back alternatives.

I know, I know, I got on that troll bandwagon, and failed to jump off in time.

Malign: You're barking up the wrong tree with me, as I've actually played both games 70+ hours. And of course I know that DS3 is a different beast entirely. I played Anjali as my main, in Archon form, through the entire game on hardcore, mind you, and while it was difficult and hectic at times, it was for the most part just annoying and bizarre. Already after that rather difficult witch early on in the game, I happened upon a technique that basically meant me pulsing through and around the enemies with an endless blink-ability, and then slowly scorching them to death with amped up fire power. So, in that sense, it was really, really bad. That said, I really love George Ziets' stories in DS3, and Amalur was in many respects a pretty decent game (and big!). Sorry if my teasing has upset you, but I really do think those two games had bad combat systems. Like Forgottenlor mentioned; I love more tactical CRPGs, with entire parties to mess around with.

It's always something of a novelty when we get to meet those extremely rare individuals who actually enjoy God of War button-mashing, QTE-fests and loud-and-lame animation and sound effects. Don't forget to take screenies!

Dungeon Siege 3 alongside Kingdoms of Amalur really do have the best combat systems ever created. You have just listed perhaps the worst two combat systems I've ever laid my hands on, and believe me, I've played lots and lots of them (in a PC game, that is) -10/10

An all-fresh Stasis teaser trailer. Oh, he is such a perfectionist! I can't wait:

sorophx: You seem to be right about the fights! So far my party has reached the stage where you're supposed to rescue all the village hostages from that darn orc chieftain. Well, two of them went in there, invisible (as per the woman's pro-tip), and there were dozens of orcs. However, one of them was a fire starter, so if his arrow reached the kegs surrounding the poor villages, they would all go ka-boom. Being a reasonably kind, but greedy, party, those two sacrificed themselves. They backstabbed and attacked that fire starter and became visible instantly, and then they were torn to pieces in a few rounds (at level 3). The rest of my party entered the orc compound at that stage and began mowing their way towards the hostages. When they finally prevailed, they found their poor party members butchered. I missed that Moonblade could heal, so I dragged them all back to town, and coughed up some big dough to revive them. One of them was an elf, so only Resurrection worked on her. Two thirds of all the money we'd got from killing scores of orcs went up in white smoke. This game takes no prisoners!!

The lyrics fit as well.

IWD2 is tough even at normal difficulty! Just leaving the tutorial version of Targos behind, and then my party came upon some well organized orcs, and we just about got wiped out: Two of us tossed flammable oil on those pesky kegs, and then we needed to take out a shaman and lots of archers fast. Ouch! Hopefully PE will be just as challenging. I mean, NWN2 at normal difficulty was a cake walk this early on. EDIT: Forgot to mention that this is with five lvl 2-characters and one lvl 1 (a deep gnome with ECL4!).

Yeah pretty much. I don't think you game over if the MC just goes unconscious though. At least I sure hope not. I hope so too. That was a nice feature in NWN2. Your MC could be all but dead while the rest of your companions tried to save the day.

Hehe, I'm just pulling your leg! They all have minds of their own. They all get portrait icons (except that bizarre army), though, so it feels a bit like having your own little party, almost like soloing a Druid with a lot of summons. However, when in multiplayer, the portrait icons do stack along the upper left side of the screen. Still, any serious D3 player, use shortcuts and mouse buttons for all of that, so I nearly never click on any icon (it's not at all like a classic CRPG).

Is that "maimed" more or less the same assorted collection as in Dragon Age: Origins?

Hassat Hunter: A Witch Doctor with a Gargantuan, a pack of Zombie dogs, a Follower and a Fetish Army can be quite a handful...

No. Windows xp of course!