Flow

I'm assuming there's actual optical media in the boxed copies. Do disc installations live outside the digitial distribution platforms entirely? How will patching work in that case?

New screen shots on the GOG store. So pretty. http://www.gog.com/game/pillars_of_eternity_royal_edition

Cough twice if there's a mage who won't shut the f*** up about her wings.

Sensuki, watching the death of your precious innocence is heartbreaking.

I'm curious if any of you BG2 grogs play while deliberately never using Breach. Fantastic spell, but has always seemed crazy OP to me.

I honestly don't understand the consternation over where on the screen UI elements are positioned. The information being delivered is the same. After playing for a few minutes, I can adapt to whatever. I do find mechanical changes interesting, but I'll wait until we have final PoE code before deciding if combat mods are useful/necessary. Bookmarking for later persual. Thanks for the work, Bester.

Depends on the game. Cloud saves are great. For those of us with a PC plugged into our TV and who enjoy some controller-based games, Big Picture is fantastic. For a game like PoE, I'd favor GOG.

I think I need a sarcasm emoji.

I didn't want to say anything before, but this QA guy is kind of a negative nancy.

Elves can't successffully breed with humans and vice versa, their union does not produce offspring it seems. Thus they are two seperate species rather than races of a species. Of course Humans and Elves do have their own races within their species, can't remember the names right now, it'll be on the Wiki I assume. The game uses the terms "race" and "sub-race". Yes, biologically speaking those should really be "species" and "ethnicity" (or more accurately "population"), but hey. Legacy fantasy RPG terminology doesn't do science. What does ethnicity has with biology, and how would it be a better therm than "sub-race" which in game refers to physical appearance? "Race" is a meaningless word in biology because it doesn't actually describe anything at the genetic level. "Population" is the correct term for an isolated interbreeding group. "Ethnicity" is more or less the common term for population but, yes, it's not very precise.

Nor do they exist in the real world outside delusion. Uh...wha? I'm definitely not debating this topic in the PoE forums, so I'll just choose to believe this is sarcasm.

Elves can't successffully breed with humans and vice versa, their union does not produce offspring it seems. Thus they are two seperate species rather than races of a species. Of course Humans and Elves do have their own races within their species, can't remember the names right now, it'll be on the Wiki I assume. The game uses the terms "race" and "sub-race". Yes, biologically speaking those should really be "species" and "ethnicity" (or more accurately "population"), but hey. Legacy fantasy RPG terminology doesn't do science.

Now we move in for the upsell... https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com/

Really not sure I understand your logic. The game's value to you as a consumer isn't based on production costs. Call of Duty games are hugely expensive to produce, but worth zero to me since I have no interest in multiplayer shooters. A large single player RPG is worth much more to me even though it required a fraction of the production budget. At a more basic level, you should think about $ per entertainment hour. If what the devs are telling us is accurate, PoE will be a big game.

Oof. Games like WoT are designed to generate microtransactions. It's a business model based on addictive behavior. Successful, but not what I'd consider good. I'm more than happy to pay full price for a complete experience. Whether that comes through crowd funding or a publisher doesn't much matter to me. A good game is a good game.

I blame Skyrim. Good combat? Nah. Interesting character progression? Nope. Quality story? Hell no. Opportunity to sink 200 hours into wandering aimlessly around the map? You bet! It sold a zillion copies, so now every big game needs to be able to call itself "open world". I'm an adult with a job. I don't have the time. Give me a focused story, please.

Well... You have the backers and slackers who've already bought it. Then the people who've heard about PoE, and plan to buy it when it releases unless word of mouth is bad. Then you have people who follow the gaming press and will hear about the game when it releases. They might buy it at release or put it on their wish list for future purchase. Mostly this depends on reviews. Finally, the unwashed masses who have no clue what it is but might buy it if they see it on the Steam best seller list. That's the group you have to worry about missing if it goes up against a major release. How big a percentage of total potential customers is this, really? Dunno. Any estimate is mostly speculation.

I agree that a variety of accents corresponding to cultural background would be nice, but I don't have a problem with North American accents for most. Years of training have led people to expect British accents in custume dramas and fantasy video games, but there's no reason that makes any more sense than American in a made-up world.

Perfectly reasonable use of an advancement point if you think engagement has a place in the game. I think we're aware where you stand on that issue.

http://jesawyer.tumblr.com/post/104340673716/youre-against-no-brainer-rpg-activities-like

Civilization, etc.

Yeah, you're probably not going to get much support for the "RPGs should be easier" position around here. The nice thing about modern gaming is there are tons of "let's play" videos out there. I'd suggest waiting until the game releases and watching other people play. If it looks like something you'd like, then buy it. If not, don't.

Given the content we currently have access to, I'm not sure how you think you have enough information to make that judgment.

Even on normal, there's a comical number of spiders in the cave now. Good fun. I actually like the targeting arrows they put in last build, but this new circle of arrows around targets is a bit silly. Hopefully they stop short of flashing overhead markers.