Keyrock

Red Dead Redemption and the two Super Mario Galaxies are the only games of the past console cycle that truly gave me console envy.

Low entry point? check Linux support? check Story driven? check Avoidable combat? check A non pseudo medieval Europe setting? check Color me interested, mainly because of the setting (I'm so sick of pseudo medieval Europe settings), and the cool mechanic where death isn't the end and becomes part of the story.

Yeah, I have 5 profession slots right now and am on the cusp of getting a 6th. I always have at least one guy training pretty much at all times, because getting a rank 3 takes so much effort (16 rank 1s > 4 rank 2s > 1 rank 3). I currently have 1 rank 3 mailsmith, a rank 2 getting trained, and 2 rank 1s with another rank 1 in training. In other news, I just ran the Karrundax dungeon run and hit level 59 in the process. The farming for EPIC LOOTZ!!1!111! begins now. I'll essentially always be in a queue for either the Karrundax run or whatever the one at the end of Whispering Cavers is. In the meantime, I'll continue cutting up filthy drow in Whispering Caverns while waiting for the queue (which can take quite a while).

Back off, homeslice. I done tole im to back off, but he wouldn't listen.

I know what you mean. The first bit of the game is brutal, even when facing weak enemies, because instadeath is just around every corner. If it makes you feel better, I had a party member with 2 hit points at start.

What's inside the cube? Reverb.

@mkreku - Oh, it's a graphics arms race you want? Don't make me break out Zork II: Wizard of Frobozz. That bad boy melts a GeForce Titan.

Cutting edge graphics! Eat your heart out, Crysis 3.

Yes, please.

Not exactly a tropical vacation, but it is warm.

Yeah the leveling in this game is insanely fast. Heck, you could level up every couple of days doing nothing but praying to your god 3 times each day. Speaking of which, I just hit lev 56.

Oh man, Quest for Glory. I have a huge raging boner for anything from Sierra, and that series is certainly no exception. I can't wait for Hero-U (from the Coles), it's going to be awesome.

It looks like it. Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of Lounge Lizards Reloaded and Legends of Dawn should also come out roughly around that time frame, but I don't know how many other people besides myself are also anticipating those games. Wasteland 2 and Broken Age I think are September or Octoberish, and maybe also Grim Dawn, but I'm already playing that one. So umm, yeah, it looks like the deluge is coming, and Shadowrun Returns seems like the tip of the spear.

I'm just over halfway up to level 56 now and still romping through Mt. Hotenow. I like that it's set up in a way that it's possible, if you're careful, to go from one section of the area to another without having to fight anyone. You do have to be careful when fighting not to pull other groups into your fight or things will get really grim really quick, but it's not ridiculously bunched up like Icespire. Also, I should hit lev 14 mailsmithing and can start training a rank 3 mailsmith (I've been training rank 2s on the side in preparation of this, so I have the 4 necessary to go right away once I hit lev 14 mailsmithing). Anyway, that level cap is so close now, that I can almost taste it.

June... ...ish.

I gotta say, those portraits and character models look great. I really like the somewhat cartoony art style (I know some people wanted something a bit more realistic and 'gritty') and they way they make certain details pop on the models, but not clobber you over the head.

I'm playing Brush Up On Strategy Guides For Wizardry 6-8. It's not a particularly exciting game, but it should pay dividends in the future when I start playing the Dark Savant Trilogy. I'm not going to use a walkthrough or anything like that, where's the fun in that, but I remember there were a lot of quirks to the Wizardry games in terms of building and advancing characters, with some choices made at character creation having repercussions WAAAAAAAAAY down the line. There were certain things that were mostly useless in 6, but were quite useful in 7 and/or 8. It's been so long since I've played these games that I don't really remember the particulars of what worked and what didn't, outside of only females being eligible to become Valkyries, and the vague recollection of Valkyries being a very good class to change into as a base to later change yet again. Seeing as I plan to import my party into each subsequent game, it seems pertinent to get familiar with this lost knowledge before beginning, lest I find out 250 hours after starting that I royally botched my character builds.

I agree DoW2 was too easy. I played the original campaign on the default setting, found it to be a cake walk, stepped up to hard for Chaos Rising, found it to still be a cake walk, then stepped up to the hardest setting for Retribution and didn't break a sweat, the only enemies offering me any difficulty being the Eldar (pointy eared sons of *****es). Still, I had a blast playing that game, particularly Retribution, because Orks. The shift from traditional base building to squad based definitely caused a rift in the player base (could this be the work of Tzeentch?). Some hated the change, others, myself included, welcomed it with open arms.

Is that some kind of euphemism? As direct and blunt as it is, I don't think Saints Row 3 is realy into euphemisms. Unless it is to tease Pierce Finlly finished everything in the Saintsbook... So what you're saying is that you want me to tease It when I try to pierce, rather that trying to force it in bluntly... Sorry, that's the best I could do... ... I got nothin'

Screw it, I'm not waiting for a sale. /scoops up Wizardry 6+7 I'll get 8 when it's on sale, I have plenty of time (not like I'm finishing 6&7 anytime soon).

Is that some kind of euphemism?

/slowly lowers firearm, but keeps it at ready position How flexible is the character system? The biggest gripe I've heard from D3 players (and this is ALL hearsay as I've not played the game) is that the game pretty much locks you into a certain build and straying from it mean you will suck, period. By contrast, Grim Dawn lets you get buckwild and crazy with your builds and almost all of them are viable. Melee Occultist? It not only works, but works really well. Ranged Soldier? **** yeah it works. That's the kind of flexibility I'm looking for. That's one of the things I loved about Titan Quest, that you could make an unconventional build and still make it work. From my (admittedly limited) time with the Grim Dawn alpha, the system is not only as flexible as in Titan Quest, it's MORE flexible. Arthur Bruno and company have listened to what folks like myself, and other, fare more experienced loot em up players, have written, and made the game extremely flexible. You can make almost any type of character with almost any mastery combination. Thater are a few skills that require certain loadouts, but the vast majority of skills work with any weapon/armor combination, allowing for some wacky and awesome characters.

I'm going to totally sex up Devotion in my game, once I get back to it (read: when I reach level cap in Neverwinter). Jealous? And, Innocence is an idiot, but Mary is straight up retarded... Wait, why am I arguing? It's like arguing over which heroin addict will OD first.

You got me. Downloading now. Edit: ..and I need to use Steam more often in the night: Both you and Monte Carlo will be buying Grim Dawn when it releases, right? /slowly raises firearm to chest height

DoW2: Retribution is my personal favorite Warhammer 40K game for 2 reasons: 1) Squad based - I suck at traditional base building massive army RTS games, but I thoroughly enjoy and excel am decent at squad based games. 2) They allow you to play the campaign as any race/faction - Do I have to play a ****ing space marine every single ****ing time?