kanisatha

No thanks. I don't want anything resembling BG3, and nothing to do with WotC. Obsidian's model for making good games is just fine, except for the recent 'first-person-only' thing they're doing.

Thanks. And to note, I am quite sure BG3 will do very well in sales for the type of game that it is, if for no other reason than that it is a DnD game and can therefore draw on the support of the millions of DnD fans. I expect it will sell on the order of 10+ million eventually. But it surely isn't in the same sales league as games like Elden Ring, Zelda, and CP2077, despite being in the same league as those games with respect to the resources devoted to making the game. I also believe that as more and more people finish playing the game they will end up finding many elements of the game, especially those elements central to a game being a good cRPG, very lacking.

Russia won't exist in 2254.

I'm not going to say anymore (about the deal with the tadpoles, and also about game endings), even with spoiler tags, because I'm truly curious and interested to hear what you and others here have to say once you've completed the game. But yeah, sadly, there's a lot of loud discuussion about all this stuff on the Larian and Steam forums, and also some "reviews in progress" from gaming journos (though they seem to think all of this is quite fine).

I know, right?! I loved that they had ending slides for so many NPCs, even a couple of ones I'd forgotten about like the guy from Pulura's temple, and in my game too I got really nice endings for everyone.

The hype isn't doing anything for me. I'm resisting it just fine. Besides, a lot of what I feared about this game appear to be coming true, for example my concerns about the main story not being compelling, the quality of the writing, the uninteresting and aggravating cast of companions, and that

Yeah I forgot to mention the ending slides in the summary of my game. I loved the ending slides I got. Only Camellia and Wenduag didn't end up in particularly good places, as was to be expected, but everyone and everything else worked out really well.

I do like the visuals from your screenshot. It looks nothing like D:OS, and that is a HUGE change from early EA visuals and a VERY good thing.

I don't see any reason to interpret things this way at all. The game sold a bit over 2 million during EA. And it sat in EA for three years. It should come as no surprise at all to anyone that when the game is finally released, those 2 million people who bought and played it during EA would want to immediately play the full game. Hence the huge surge in people playing it concurrently at release. There is no reason to interpret it as a huge number of NEW players wanting to play the game. I'm sure the game has had decent additional sales in the weeks leading up to and since release, but I don't see any "shocking" numbers.

I saw them in Nashville in 1991. Exact same experience. The cannons were awesome!! And for the opener, which I believe was Thunderstruck, we could hear the music but not see the band on stage. Then we all turn around and there's Angus jamming away and coming down from the rafters on a little platform in the back of the hall. He then runs through the crowd to get to the stage. Hehe. Just perfect.

An SSD is needed because the game is effectively a movie. For me the only significant way this game is an "improvement" over other cRPGs is that is entirely "cinematic," which I don't consider to be a plus point.

Good song. Fantastic in concert.

Hehe, yeah all true. I'm actually rather impressed that I was not spoiled about her, and for her revelations coming as a complete surprise to me within the game.

Finally completed my first (Angel) run through Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous yesterday. Successfully completed the full secret ending. All in all a fun, great experience with the game. I more than got my money's worth, including money spent on the two DLC season passes. Looking forward to Azata, Aeon, and Legend runs in the future. Trying to decide what I should play next. Maybe go back to Solasta to the play the last DLC. I'm surely going to be buying Starfield, but I won't be able to actually play the game anytime soon. Like @BruceVC, I also have the rule of not playing a new game, especially a big new game, for several months until major patching is done (and possibly even the release of some DLCs). But in Starfield's case there's also the issue of needing to buy a new gaming computer because my current machine is 8 years old and won't handle it. I want to be able to spend a good amount of money on a really good new machine maxed out on processor, memory, graphics, and SSD. So I want to take my time and shop for a good deal/sale prices.

Finally completed my first (Angel) run through the game yesterday. Successfully completed the full secret ending. I liked the story very much. Sure, their writing could use some work, perhaps even a lot of work, but the story itself I found to be both interesting and compelling. It was a good story. I also liked most of our companions and generated the best endings for all of them except of course Camellia and Wenduag. And even those two ended up only with incomplete endings and not "bad" endings. And even the NPCs with ending slides all came out really well. I found the crusade management side of the game to be quite fine when using the lowest difficulty setting. It was even fun to build up my armies and then go around smashing demon armies. And with respect to spellcasting and buffing, those late-game feats that extend the duration of spells to 24 hours are *perfect*. I made sure all my casters got those feats, and once they were in place buffing became a breeze. Just one round of buffing casting was sufficient all the way to the next resting. All in all a fun, great experience with the game. I more than got my money's worth, including money spent on the two DLC season passes. Looking forward to Azata, Aeon, and Legend runs in the future.

Well, I happen to like reading/learning about things in the world around me. So I would advocate for some form of happy medium, and would point out that for those who don't want to read/learn about stuff, they have the freedom in the game to simply avoid it all. So what the game should do is be very clear in separating things that are necessary (for quests, story, etc.) from things that are there for flavor.

Thanks for sharing. The hype is strong in me.

Hey @BruceVC, have you ever been to Mossel Bay? Shark Week, going on right now, is my absolute favorite time of the year for TV-watching, and I especially love the leaping great whites of Mossel Bay, the thing I'd love to travel to SA for some day. Seeing Colossus come 15 feet out of the water with a squirming seal in its jaws is f---ing awesome! That's 18 feet and 4,000 lbs of fantastic seal-ripping fury!!

Hey thanks for posting these, specifically for me the last video on powergaming. I very much agree with everything JES had to say in it. It's a lot of the same critiques I have of DnD systems and how RPGs, including very much BG3, push us towards powergaming rather than roleplaying. I especially loved that he outed DnD for what it truly is: a war game more so than a roleplaying game.

Sorry, wasn't intending to cause a kerfuffle. I love PoE mechanics and can't stand D&D mechanics. Just my two cents. And I completely agree with the sentiment of "different strokes for different folks." That said, I do feel strongly that there is a problem, in that people generally, and ironically gamers especially, are very resistent to change. Therefore, a mechanics system that's been around for ~40 years is ingrained in a lot of gamers regardless of its merits/lack there of, and many of those same gamers won't give a new system a fair chance. Thus, for better or worse, we're stuck with the old way of doing things and with no equivalent alternatives ('equivalent' being operative here for me because shallow, superficial systems like the D:OS system don't count).

Yeah this has been my own assessment as well, because I believe the Russsians actually going on the offensive recently in the Kar'kiv and Donetsk regions is their desperate attempt to draw Ukrainian forces away from the southern front.

More sterile and less fun than D&D gameplay? That's saying a lot to me because I consider D&D gameplay mechanics to be the worst. And by contrast I love the PoE mechanics, especially all the passive abilities, no pre-buffing, and the downgrading of random chance.

Yeah the massive pre-buffing needed for many encounters is what got me also choosing the 'drop difficulty all the way down' option instead. But playing Angel, there are several Angel spells whereby with one click you cast multiple buffs on the whole party. I've been using those spells a lot. My only complaint there is that 'Death Ward' is not available in a 'communal' form anywhere. What gives? That is the most useful buff of all, yet no party-cast version of it? Really sucks.

Yes. And that's why they're being cleared for export, as massive amounts of Russian mining in their frontline areas is what is accounting for 90% of Ukrainian hardship in advancing into those areas. Russian troops are no obstacle; those mines are a huge obstacle. Also, not all cluster munitions are the same. US cluster munitions, as employed in ATACMS and cruise missiles, are very advanced compared with Russian cluster munitions, and include auto-deactivation whereby they deactivate themselves after they've been sitting around undetonated on the ground for a little while.

Biden green-lighting new F-16s for Turkey in the face of congressional opposition.