Hurlshort

Finished Dawnwalker. I was happy with my ending. I did run out of time on some stuff that I wanted to do, but I was also ready to finish the game after sinking 45 hours into it. I really enjoyed the story and Lacra is my new girlfriend. She would never admit it, of course, but she is clearly sweet on me. Post credits scene was cool. Honestly I'm just glad to know the game did well and I look forward to future games. I've had a great month of gaming with this and Zero Company. I don't finish a lot of games, so finishing two in a month is a surprise. They were both fantastic.

The quests in Dawnwalker also all do a fantastic job of connecting with the main goal. They don't feel like detours, they feel like puzzle pieces that unlock the bigger picture of the main antagonist. It's really well done.

It sounds like you don't really need to remove the time because you an get through most of the content in the 30 days. I'm feeling a bit of pressure. I'm level 22, around Day 13, and I've only killed one of the court. But I'm doing a ton of different side quests and they are all extremely interesting. The day/night mechanic is really keeping me jumping around too, since so many quests are tied to it. I know games using certain times for quests aren't new, but Dawnwalker does a great job of it. It feels very different playing at night versus day. Also Coen is possibly my favorite protagonist in a game in a long time. I'm excited to see what the developer does with him next.

Oh. Is there crafting?

I finished Zero Company. It was a blast. If you enjoyed Clone Wars or Bad Batch, you are doing yourself a disservice by not playing this game. It is a perfect part of that corner of the Star Wars universe. It was a really good Star Wars game with very little Jedi and Sith stuff. So yeah, story and characters hit on all notes. Gameplay wise it was a more developed version of Chimera Squad. Not enough people played that game, so I'm not sure if that helps. It wasn't quite Xcom, with smaller maps and a more limited cast of soldiers, but it still had a pretty rewarding tactical combat experience. The game is really setup for a longer mode, a la Long War. There isn't really a reason the game has to end after a certain amount of cycles. You could keep doing missions, running intel, and developing your mercs for years if the game would let you. The systems are all there. I didn't even touch the black market or recruiting screen. So hopefully this games gets some post launch additions, despite the alarming furlough stuff, because everything is in place for it. Running a full droid squad, or Mandos, or Clones is definitely an option. The story kind of gets in the way of the decent strategy engine. Hopefully modders will take to it.

Ok, but Starcraft is a strategy game. Why does it need so many years in development? 2030? Are they waiting another couple years to start working on the game?

I would totally dig a pacifist DOOM game, btw.

I actually really prefer this over the way Bethesda RPG's give you what seems like an urgent quest, and then expect you to do a bunch of silly sidequests instead. Your kid has been kidnapped! But first you should clean some radroaches out of a basement. No rush. Dawnwalker is very clear about how much time you have, but also why you can't just rush off and save your family. So far all of the quests have been somewhat tied to the main story. Your spending your 30 days trying to weaken the bad guys, gain allies, and get strong enough to not get murdered right away. But yeah, there is some choice and consequences to how you use your time. We are used to C&C through conversations in RPG's, but this is just a different system. Sure, I wanted to help that lady rebury her kid, but I also needed to get some medicine to my mom before it got dark. It's an interesting system. I'm level 15 and I think I'm close to challenging the first minor boss guy. I prefer the daylight and witchcraft system, so I tend to use all my skill points at night, which shortens that part of the game. We will see if that bites me in the rear down the road. Witchcraft is pretty awesome. Blood boiling is terrifying.

There is an easy mode and I am currently playing it. Combat is complicated, with a bunch of different directions to block and attack. I don't love it. Easy mode seems to simplify it a bit. I can just block and attack. I'm only about 5 hours in though, so I don't know if it will get harder or boring. So far it hasn't been combat heavy. Lots of exploring and investigating.

Ok slackers, I bought Blood of the Dawn Walker and started playing it. I'm just about done with the prologue, although I restarted, so I've clocked about 5 hours in. The story is very good. Interesting characters, good setting, great villains, and engaging quests just in the prologue. It plays a lot like the Witcher series, except the main character isn't a moody bitch like Geralt. It's a solid RPG. The timed quests are interesting. Nothing so far is timed, but you have limited slots of time to use on quests throughout the day (and I'd guess night.) That means you can't do everything, but you have as much time as you want to complete the quests you choose to do. So you have choices to make and it is reactive with consequences. In the prologue I had to make some tough choices that then played out in the story. I'm liking it so far and it is clearly designed for replayability.

I'm surprised no one here is playing Blood of the Dawnwalker. Sounds like a vampire Witcher game. I'm busy with zero company, but I'm keeping it on my radar for later.

The developer, Haemimont, got bought by Paradox, but they don't have the rights to JA, so no chance at a sequel. I also don't really trust Paradox after how they handled Harebrained.

The game is fantastic, so I really hope we get more of it. I don't understand how games like Xcom 2 and Jagged Alliance 3 come out, review well, seem to sell well, and then get screwed over.

All of the GTA games are 3rd person. You could give GTA V a try.

Zero Company is fantastic. I played about 10 hours yesterday, which I probably haven't done with a game since Xcom 2 came out. It runs well on my very mid computer. It does struggle a bit, but not in places where it matters (ie movies and qte stutter a bit, but gameplay is fine.) I only have 16gb of ram. If you liked the Clone Wars series, this is basically the game for you. It really digs into the lore of the animated shows. It feels like Bad Batch. The characters in your crew are all pretty interesting and you have a lot of customization options. It is still very story-centric, so that hurts the replay value a bit, but I am pretty sure I will still get at least a couple playthroughs out of it. Just doing a male and female Hawk alone is different enough. You can recruit a bunch of randos and ignore the main companions as well. It's probably still more Chimera Squad than Xcom 2, but it has more depth than the former. Combat is fun. I started on normal and it is a bit easy, but I can see it getting harder as I move away from fighting droids. Like the show, droids are comically bad.