kanisatha

This is one of the very few (may be the only) things you and I disagree on, Bruce.

No TP camera was why they did not get an otherwise guaranteed sale from me for TOW. And if Avowed is supposed to be "Skyrim-like," then the one thing Skyrim did totally right was including a TP camera, no matter how imperfect it may have been. So, for me, and I imagine quite a number of others, no TP camera = no sale.

Thanks for pointing out the Steam page. We've known the release date as that was part of the reveal back in the summer. But now I can put it on my wishlist. From what I have been able to gather, the premise of the game appears to be that humanity has advanced far enough in spacefaring technology that we are at a point where we can go anywhere within the solar system pretty easily and routinely. And the game is about us taking the next big step, leaving our star system and traveling to another star system for the first time, something far more challenging and dangerous than what we've become accustomed to. For me, given my academic background and personal interests, that is a truly awesome premise for a game. Sooooo looking forward to it.

^This. So this. I think the amount of time the devs had to devote to tinkering with and balancing the mechanics may be is what took away from some other critical parts of the game. So lock down the mechanics; don't keep reopening that can of worms. Put the focus of game development into the story, world, characters, etc.

Heh, exactly my dilemma. I have several games on my Steam wishlist I expect will be on sale on the 22nd, and I'd rather buy everything in a single package. But I worry that these two games will be precisely the ones NOT in the winter sale, or at least not 50% off. What to do? What to do? Have until the 13th to decide.

I myself don't see anything wrong with repeating old successes, so long as they are not literal carbon-copies. The push to come up with something new or never done before is good in the abstract, but often results in things that are silly/ridiculous/asinine/over the top. This is so not only in video games but also in movies and TV shows these days, and I daresay sadly even in doctoral dissertations. In short, you cannot force a new idea.

Disco Elysium is 50% off on Steam this week (as is CP2077).

The game I am currently watching videos of is Wartales. It's in EA and I don't buy EA games generally as a rule, but it looks very interesting. If any of you are playing it, I'd appreciate your feedback.

This is essentially what I do as well, and also why I do it. Gameplay, mechanics, and also the setting if it an unfamiliar one for me, are things that can make or break my playing experience. These can be very well identified within just a few hours of a game's stream.

I don't bother with reviews at all, both casual and pro (the "pros" are often just as bad if not worse than the casuals in being subjective and asinine). I rely very heavily on watching playthrough videos to make my game buying decisions, often spending many hours watching those videos.

Honestly, this doesn't concern me at all. Don't think it will have any adverse impact on DA4. Guys who've been around for 23 years should move on.

Obviously we can never be completely sure with people we are exposed to only in the virtual world. But in Spencer's case, he does have a solid track record of numerous interviews over several years in which he's come across (to me) as both a stand-up guy and also a competent guy who knows what he's doing.

I'm thinking of giving Enderal: Forgotten Stories a try. Anyone here played it? If so, any advise or tips?

Not Atari, and especially not Beamdog. All rights to all the old D&D games (IE games plus the NwN games) have reverted to Hasbro.

I wish I could get NwN2 on Steam. Obsidian needs to get on that.

This is my take as well. And I believe there was an interview last year with the CEO of MS Games Division who said exactly this, that for Gamepass to work they need more than just the really big/epic games because subscribers are going to want both variety and something new to play constantly. So they need "filler" games (his word), and many of them.

This game definitely interests me. Murder-mystery with no combat? Love it. Thanks for posting @Wormerine

They made the season 2 episodes soon after season 1 ended, but for some reason chose to not air season 2 in the summer of last year (2020) when it should've aired, and then not this summer either. They keep pushing back the airing date, so who knows if they will actually go ahead and air those episodes this year. I'm with you in liking the show. It was a fun little show with both main characters being quite likeable.

They have already said it will be a completely new game unrelated to the first game, set in a new star system and with new characters (though it is possible characters from the first game could make an appearance). And personally, I very much prefer it this way.

Plus that the Saudi troops who were supposed to be helping them were completely useless.

Okay, some exaggeration, as our military does still have fighting capability obviously (it should for the incredible amount of money we spend on it). But in general, yes, I am serious. Our readiness and combat capability are at alarmingly low rates these days, our accidents and screw-ups rates are at alarmingly high levels, and troops themselves are reporting they spend more time on "sensitivity" training than anything else.

I'm of the same mind. My gaming desktop is now six years old and will need refreshing soon. So any thought of playing CP2000 will be after that.

Not that surprised. If the exercise had been about wokeism our guys would've dominated. But this clearly was about warfighting, which is the one thing our troops are not trained in these days. We will soon be getting our ass handed to us when Xi and Putin coordinate their simultaneous moves into Taiwan and Ukraine respectively. It will be very sad that our rank and file troops will be the ones paying the ultimate price even as our worthless political and military elites will yet again escape with no costs to them.

As others have said, this is subjective. I hate the D:OS games, and consider some of the limitations of Larian's engine to be a huge part of my dislike. For instance, the Larian engine does not allow for pausing the game during real time exploration, and hence why it can only be used to make a TB game and not a RTwP game. And since I hate TB combat and much prefer RTwP, Larian's engine suck for me. I also don't like the visuals of the Larian engine, which to me comes across as garrish and cartoonish. Plus, I also think the reason they have that utterly stupid and annoying party movement system of chain-linking characters rather than the standard IE games way of handling party movement is a limitation of their engine. Now, obviously, if Obsidian were to develop an in-house engine, they don't have to be limited in any of these ways. But I don't want any such engine to use the Larian engine as some sort of rolemodel.

Geralt/witchers have inherent powers that are magic-like powers. In the games you can have a certain number of them equipped and active at a time. One of those that pretty much everyone commonly uses is that shield ability. Others include one that knocks back enemies and one that briefly cancels magical defenses.