kanisatha

This^. That encounter with the devourers was so mind-numbingly aggravating. TB fans keep saying in TB games you don't need the "filler" encounters. Well, I don't see any difference (proportionately speaking) in number of encounters between RTwP and TB games. At least if TB games did actually have fewer combat encounters that would be a plus, not because of fewer filler encounters but because it would represent less time spent on aggravating TB combat.

I also hope we get more single-player, party-based, Aora-based classic RPGs. For me, I would absolutely need it to be RTwP; otherwise I won't play it. I'm not wedded to the isometric perspective though, as long as it is not first-person. And I like the PoE mechanics and ruleset precisely because it is NOT D20/D&D mechanics. Thank God for people trying to create new mechanics and rulesets, especially specifically made for videogames rather than tabletop games.

I am looking forward to Dragon Age 4 but not BG3.

I was prepared to be disappointed with this game right from its first announcement, but this reveal really saddened me greatly that I will not get to play a game called BG3 even though that is something I've been hoping for for 20 years. I hate TB combat, but I was willing to give this game a chance if everything else about it was awesome and only the combat was something horrible. But what I see is a game that sucks across the board: cartoony horrible D:OS graphics, very limited character creation freedom, companions that are set and having very little that we can do to shape them, a dialog system that reads and sounds utterly ridiculous, party size reduced to 4 clearly to satisfy co-op play at the expense of single player, and overall a TT simulator experience rather than a videogame experience. Disappointing in every possible way. As a passionate fan of the original BG games and of the Forgotten Realms setting in which I desperately want to see more games, it crushes me that Larian has made a game here that effectively excludes me.

Haha. Yes I saw this (NATO and Article 5). My students and I discussed it in my International Security class this afternoon. And yes apparently a group of refugees stormed the Greek border.

This is so awesome! This is what I worked on in my NASA-funded master's thesis project way back in the early 90s: understanding how the transfer of liquid rocket fuel from one spacecraft to another would work.

You are correct. Someone from the studio confirmed it in a subsequent interview that only the very last little bit is gameplay footage and even then pre-alpha.

Hehe funny that the guy's actual name was deemed possibly offensive and got starred out in my post.

@IndiraLightfoot, not to be a downer but FYI Chris ****' statement about seven "D&D" games being planned includes saying that not all those games will be RPGs. He even explicitly says some may be strategy games and the like because he wants to expand D&D across as many different gaming genres as possible.

Oh it's definitely not MY hope. I'm for RTwP all the way and will pass on the game if it is TB. I would much rather have a DA-style game than a D:OS-style game any day. And a BG3 that is essentially D:OS2 in the FR setting would be the worst of all outcomes.

I've been making this prediction on other forums and will do it here as well. Swen continues to claim he is making a "next-generation" RPG that is going to "revolutionize" the genre. What I think BG3 will be is a game that is very much in the style of a glitzy-graphics third-person perspective AAA action RPG, but where those games in the past have been RT/RTwP games this game will introduce TB combat into that AAA action RPG genre. This is what will then be passed off as next-gen/revolutionary/innovative/genre-breaking blah blah.

I hope the US makes it very clear to the sultan of Turkey that neither the US nor NATO will be bailing his sorry ass out in Syria and that he is on his own there. I am very strongly pro-Kurdish and am happy to see the Turks getting their due for what they've done to the Kurds.

The game is very friendly to the player's choice for how you set up your PC. Don't overlook that you can mix and match several classes and archtypes into your character (which you can also do to all your companions). From a metagaming pov, LG is a very useful alignment to have in the game, and the game uses skill checks a LOT so building your PC with skill checks in mind is a very good way to go.

Gamerguides. The neoseeker one (and also the yekbot one) are essentially the same material as the gamerguides one but just organized and presented differently. Also, the gamepedia wiki site for the game is pretty good with its tables for kingdom events and the like.

Yes indeed. Then I might actually choose to return to tabletop gaming. 😀

If you are planning on using a walkthrough, I would strongly recommend the official walkthrough. It is very well done. And that walkthrough does help you know what to do when, but where you can avoid looking at the walkthrough for the specifics of each area/encounter.

Just to note, you can set the overall difficulty to 'normal' and then customize specific parts of it with the various toggles. Also, there is something to be said for doing kingdom management on easy rather than auto because once you learn how it works it is actually quite easy to handle.

Yes indeed. 100% agree. I especially like the odds of a great find on Enceladus. I think Ganymede could also be useful to study.

Yeah I feel very sad for him because I have tremendous respect for him as a game designer and writer. But at the same time, I agree that if you are going to be in this business you need to develop a thick skin and be able to not take things personally. And most of all, be able to take that gut-punch, get back up on your feet, put the (perceived) failure behind you, and move on.

Well, Swen has since apparently tweeted that Google "got it wrong."

Yup, complete with enough power output to power a HEL. 😀

I saw a report in a mainstream source a few days ago (I think it was a Reuters story) that Turkish and Syrian troops had exchanged fire with Russian troops caught in the middle. Not a surprise at all, something I fully expected and predicted would happen.

2M in sales for TOW at this point is very good. It puts it in the same sales category as D:OS2.

Here are mine: Solo-play RPGs are boring. Party-based games are a much more fun and meaningful experience. Single-player is the only way to play a videogame. Playing with other people is a painful chore. The first-person perspective in RPGs limits rather than enhances roleplaying. Turn-based combat is fake combat, and as such by definition can never be good in an RPG. Planescape: Torment is an overrated game. Corollary: Chris Avellone is an overrated writer. Playing Baldur's Gate 1 is a more fun experience than playing Baldur's Gate 2. All 4X games should come with the option to turn off the 'extermination X' part of the game. Playing with swords is way more fun than playing with lasers or guns.

And in Sisko you got to see a side of him outside his job. His relationship with his son was wonderfully portrayed ... that you could be very successful captain while also being a great dad.