Hurlshort

Those rotten eggs are part of a quest that gives you the vorpal sword.

Yeah, that's still a bit too retro for my tastes.

That's huge, particularly after Russia failed a few days ago. Very exciting!

Quest for Glory 3 was pretty amazing, so there is a precedent.

Hot take - same developer and artists use same engine to make game that looks similar to previous games.

Trump, the sitting President, called an election official and pressured him to find votes. That's pretty damning. That's some banana republic crap.

Your problem is you just played Jagged Alliance 3. I knew this was going to happen. We are ruined for games because nothing can match JA3.

I watched Barbie about a week ago. It was great. Had some fantastic Mattel toy humor and was a bit more emotionally stirring than I expected. But honestly, it's not really a movie for me. It's a movie that speaks to the 3 generations of women I have living in my household. I don't get why there are men who don't get that. There are some dumb dudes out there.

Well I can tell you Volo features prominently.

No. You will win.

I think thieves tools are only spent when you need to reroll. You need at least one to attempt, and more if you don't succeed.

Huh, I'm surprised Wyll is one of the least popular choices. I thought he was a pretty easy one to jump into as a character. I also realize that I make unpopular choices, since my 2 created characters are a Human Templar of Tempus named Garret the Pale, and a Halfling Bard named Devin Eleven Toes.

Livewire has a lot of attitude, but it is pretty justified. I mean, yeah, it's not fair that you have to watch over everyone, but you are damn good at it.

It's probably so the aliens can spy on you while you play.

I'm not sure how this led to it being a big thing, but it's very different than PoE or PF in terms of gameplay. Solasta might be close (now there's a bad UI), since you can jump around and manipulate a bit of the environment, but BG3 does environmental reactivity dramatically differently. I'd say for better or worse, really. I don't know that I need to be able to move every crate and rock in the game. I don't know that I need to slow down every time a bit of water spills on a patch of dirt. I don't know if I need the camera to be able to zoom in on all those weird angles. But it's definitely something different than other RPG's. I also probably don't need to roll dice on everything. If I have enough bonuses to cover it, just skip it. Ugh.

The UI is complicated, but there is also a tremendous amount of complicated things you can do in the game. It's not click and kill like Diablo.

I'm definitely having alt-itis is this game so far. I've played about 3 hours on 3 different characters and haven't figured out which one I like yet.

Hitman called me ace one last time when I finished the game and it felt like I finally earned my dad's approval.

I went with Wyll the pregenerated warlock. He seemed interestin enough to be my main character, and I remember being disappointed in my created character in D:OS2. It felt like I was an interloper on the story.

Yeah, I have been thinking about it too. It should be an easy choice, since I enjoyed Divine Divinity and the Original Sin games well enough. But I am hesitant to drop full monies on a game nowadays, and since I am still on a bit of a high from Jagged Alliance 3 being amazing, I figure it will be easy to regret my purchase.

Now that it seems like most of you have hit the 'twist', I've got to say I really enjoyed it. It really ratcheted up the end game. I had to do a tactical retreat with one of my small squads and it was one of the best battles I had in the game.

You could always recruit Omryn if you want bad voice acting. I just finished after 60 hours, and I'm already itching to play again.

My money problems cleared up pretty well after I captured that 2nd mine. I was flush by the end of the game (although not as flush as Biff!) Ammo and meds became a bit more of an issue, depending on the squad. You can craft ammo on maps that have the little repair logo. 5.56 ammo is definitely one I craft regularly, as well as the right kind of 7.62 ammo for machine guns. I wouldn't say the game is hard. There are certain objectives that are very difficult to pull off. There is a lot of room for experimentation, and so if one strategy didn't work, it was easy to find another. There were also some bugs, but that isn't a surprise for a game like this. I'm also curious how quickly the modding community changes stuff up. JA3 1.13 seems like a given at some point.

I think I need to expand on my final review of the game with some backstory. I bought Jagged Alliance when I was in high school somewhat randomly. My mom had dragged me to the Great Mall for something, which was a bit of a drive. I convinced her that my patience for shopping deserved something, so we went into a Walden Bookstore. This was back when bookstores sold video games, and I came across this title from Sir-Tech that looked interesting. I bugged my mom to let me get the game instead of a book and she relented. It was a diamond in the rough, for sure. A couple years go by and I'm almost out of High School, and I find Jagged Alliance: Deadly Games at Fry's Electronics. I buy it. It isn't a traditional campaign like the other one, and it is supposed to let you play against other people online. Unfortunately I had limited internet and never got to play against others, but I was able to download maps. There was some really good ones. I played the Alamo dozens of times. Next we find me in college, working a boring office job making copies and moving furniture. A demo comes across the somewhat new internet for JA2. I download it and take it home, since I had no internet in my college frat house. I played the heck out of it, but the game itself was delayed...and delayed...and delayed some more. Finally it released, and it almost seemed like Sir-Tech closed their doors the next day. But the game, despite a ton of bugs, was perfect. It was strategic and humorous and unlike anything else. It had some of the magic of Xcom, but it was also its own thing entirely. I played it for years, and then fans overhauled it, and I played 1.13 for more years. I also played Wildfire, which was not so charming but at least had some of the strategy to it. I avoided most of the bad attempts at rebooting it. I kickstarted one that turned out pretty bad. Then I heard JA3 was being worked on, but they had the original developer, Ian Currie. That sparked my interest. Unsurprisingly, Ian Currie found a new home quickly after Sir-Tech went under. He joined an MMO company called Turbine and ended up being a lead on my other favorite game ever, Lord of the Rings Online. There is definitely some magic in his work. He was at Turbine for close to 2 decades, but had retired. So I was excited he had a hand in it, but worried that he was just a retired advisor with a limited role. My worries were unfounded. Jagged Alliance 3 is definitely the sequel I was waiting for for 23 years. I'd go so far as to say it was worth the wait. I'm very content with the idea I got to return to the world of AIM, and I believe this iteration will tide me over for a good while.

I finished the game. I'm already pretty excited about another playthrough, but I'll wait a bit. Game was very much worth it.