melkathi

My scathing Shadows of New York review: As the game continues the story of Coteries of New York, it is hard to review it without comparing it to that game. Coteries gave players the choice of three interchangeable characters with little to no personality. The choice in Shadows to focus on one character and flesh her out, allowing players to actually care about her, was a step in the right direction then. Coteries only had one ending, which made sense, considering the utter lack of power a fledgling vampire had, but it left players disatisfied seeing none of their choices matter in the least, tiniest bit. Shadows has two endings, not counting the way early on to die and not play the game. Again, a step in the right direction. Yet somehow, the improvements hold the game back. Where Coteries had choices that changed events during the game but ultimately didn't affect the ending, Shadows has very few choices, which add to a hidden counter for which ending is achieved, but do not alter anything during the journey there. Where Coteries had a number of side stories you could advance over the course of the game, and to make each of the three playthroughs give you new events to explore and new choices to make, Shadows has nothing to explore. Each night you choose to read two out of three possible encounters, but none of them have any meaning, any progression. They are one off events that simply allow the writer to showcase some character they came up with. Coteries had a bland protagonist but a very interesting supporting cast. Characters with personality that explored the unlife of vampires and different ways different clans deal with it. The cast of characters in Shadows is the same. Yet those same characters that were so interesting in the first game have lost all personality in the second, being just soulless vessels to give plot information. If even that. As a result, the second "playthrough" comes down to clicking the next button for ten minutes, to skip to the choices, choose the opposite approach in morality, read the one line that differs, then read the changed ending. Should that ending be the "good" ending, it will be grand standing posturing - a fitting end to the self absorbed navel gazing that precedes it. Had this been a novelette, without any illusion of choice or two endings, I would have mostly enjoyed reading through it. Though I would still have rolled my eyes at the ending. It is well written and tries to explore the main character's inner struggle. The different format would not have made the other characters any less flat and lifeless, but it would have felt less like the writer's cry: This is my amazing writing! I did not buy the game for the amazing writing, but for the tale it tells. A story needs both. And Shadows of New York focused so hard on getting the words right, it forgot to have these words mean anything.

It was the third one. Also the utter failure, as I suck at marketing. The original two were published the traditional way with a publisher, in physical form. They didn't do great, but they ended up in book stores and I made three digits in royalties, when other unknown authors pay money to even get printed. This one, in English, on the other hand relied solely on me, and I am incapable of self promoting. The release also triggered a long bout of depression, so I gave up on it. Next attempt will be a graphic novel. After that I will revisit this story to either do as a point and click adventure or a graphic novel. I don't have the money to found an animation studio and turn my stories into netflix series... Edit: With me "how long" is hard to tell. My design process always infuriated my professors at university since it is completely introverted. I can sit on a sofa for months without any progress, then write 40K words in two weeks because: "OK, I worked it out."

Wartales is quite promising. I enjoyed the demo. You get to play 7 battles, then it ends. I guess it is Battlebrothers meets Expeditions (Conquistador (I disliked Vikings)). I posted a while back the comment by the devs how they took the battlebrother formula and implemented advanced leg mechanics. If you are looking at indy demos, you could also look at the demo for Gamedec. It's a cyberpunk rpg thingie.

Also, @Gorth is a moderator. If you never hear of me again, I got banned for literary crimes against humanity. Goodbye cruel forum.

I have been pondering using that story to try and learn to make a point and click adventure... And if I may say so myself. The book is absolute genius. Except for that issue at the end, the issue with the beginning, and those three problematic segments in the middle

I got the email alert and thought "Who the hell did that?"

So you are 6 hours into mass effect?

Lucia considering what armor she'll pick when she is old enough to go adventuring - Light or Heavy? While Lucia trains with the sword, Sofia plays her a training montage tune - probably Eye of the Sabrecat.

While children in Skyrim have unique backstories, once they are adopted they become generic girls boys. A bit of a missed opportunity. The gender difference is in a few chat lines how they feel about different homes. Girls get scared of the swamp, boys feel cold in the snow. Girls think places are so beautiful. If asked what a present they would like, girls want a dress or a doll, boys a wooden sword or sweets. Both will be happy with any of the gifts though. It is funny how RNG then creates personality just by being RNG. Sofia has never practiced sword fighting. Lucia practices daily. As a matter of fact, sword fighting has become her main thing. Sofia is the one who sometimes practices music And she does more chores around the house, while her sister apparently doesn't have time because she needs to practice sword fighting. And while I am busy decorating the new house I am building: I may have to rethink the decorations, because someone seems very interested in Meridia's sword Dawnbreaker... Which kinda reminds me Sofia is "sweeping" the basement suspiciously close to where the Enchanting and Alchemy tables are...

The IP turned 30 this month incidentally. The 1st edition of the pen and paper RPG was published July 1991.

You'd give it a look though as a Multiplayer game, not because of the ip

Some people here loved it. I got bored pretty fast.

This is the VtM game I will not be playing: https://youtu.be/0sMTC7uGU08

Darkspore had the servers taken down by EA. Any game from the Squeenix Store before Squeenix decided to sell on steam... Didn't something happen with Gaming for Windows Live at some point as well? And when looking at offline DRM, any game with SecuRom.

Controller is only better in one instance of Overlord 2, where you have to run your spider minions in circles along the walls of a tower or something like that. There the stick controls are better.

As long as it isn't the Vampire the Masquerade Battle Royal PvP Shooter that is desperately trying to convince people that whoever says VtM is not a PvP Shooter setting does not know the Vampire setting...

Not only justified, anyone who believes conspiracy theories that you could lose access to games with DRM should take off their tinfoil hat. Who has ever heard of anyone being unable to play a game because the DRM no longer works? I can guarantee you have never met such a person if you are honest 😛

Sometimes RNG makes for the best moments. I just finished the long dungeon to get the Wolf Queen Potema's remains, to have them sanctified and prevent her resurrection. I travel back to Windhelm. When I get there it is getting dark and everyone is just locking up. So I go into the house, Lydia is standing around but the children aren't there. I look at Lydia a bit crossly, because it is getting dark and the girls should be home by now... Door opens, the children come in. Sofia see me, runs up and goes "I got you a present! Hope you like it!" It's a book titled "The Wolf Queen" describing the history of Potema. Knowing Bethesda, if they had tried to script that, it would have bugged and the event wouldn't have triggered. The child would probably have fallen through a hole in the geometry trying to reach me. But RNG triggered the right event with the right random gift.

So apparently the backstory for Lucia, the orphan girl in Whiterun, is that her parents died and her aunt and uncle took over the farm and kicked her out. She got to Whiterun, where nobody cared except for the drunk redguard beggar who thought her the basics of begging. a) bastards in Whiterun pretending they are good and proper neighbours. b) bastard Companions who pretend they are about honour and protecting the innocent. c) Where is that farm? I want a word with aunty and uncle. I have two empty petty soul gems to help me check if they even have souls.

The children used their allowance to buy me some green robes. Guess I am wearing green from now on when at home. Once I am good at enchanting, I'll have to enchant them with some out of combat skill boost - Alchemy or something like that.

Well, guess who is adding Spell Tomes to the bookshelf

You could tell a Bethesda game by the bugs... I fast travel to the middle of nowhere. As I load, the game also loads a dragon nearby who flies in to attack me. I dismount and run a short distance from the horse, as I don't want it hit by the breath weapon. Dragon lands. Dragon takes falling damage from landing. Dragon dies.

We regularly play catch and hide & seek with the kids. They cheat at hide & seek - that is not counting to 10 😛 They ask for an allowance occasionally. Sometimes they gather flowers for me. I got them dolls, so sometimes they play with those (Sofia more frequently than Lucia). Sometimes they read (Lucia more often than Sofia) one of the books from the bookshelf. I got them wooden swords, so they do some sword training at their training dummy. Once they got into a huge fight and I had to step in and tell them to cut it out. "Both of you." Sometimes they try to stay up past their bed time. Then we argue about whether they really need to go to bed right now even though they are not tired... Since we live in Whiterun, they complain about Braith being mean to Lars and them. These things may have been added with Hearthfire or what the DLC is called.

Digital parenting done right: If I forbid her to listen, as a teenager she'll definitely join some cult... (parenting is hard) "No, Mister Justiciar, I do not believe in Talos. Bye, bye!" ... what the children will end up believing in on the other hand... Can't take the risk. "Sorry, get back here."

Me: "You are putting on a show just to welcome me to your city? You shouldn't have!" Local: "Its not a show. Its a beheading..." Me: "Dibs on looting the corpse!"