What are you Playing Now? Volume XIX: The New Beginning of the End of the Middle

[Gorgon]

On 12/4/2025 at 11:54 PM, Wormerine said:

Finally a sequel to the best Total War game:

I try to not get too excited. To be frank, most of the time I spent in Medieval II was with mods (mostly Stainless Steel), and no other Total War experience managed to scratch an itch that heavily modded Rome and Medieval II could. I was hyped for Shogun2, but never managed to get into it, and none of later TW caught my attention - I tried Warhammer for a bit, but felt rather simplistic (I mean to give it another go now when I have a PC that could enjoy the looks better).

Anyway, classic Total Wars got GOG release. Picked up Medieval2 and might give it another go at some point. We will see if nostalgia googles hold up. 

edit. Oh, and Empire. I have a weak spot for it. Such a messy game, but also somewhat inspiring. I loved the setting, and innovation and I just wish it would be a more polished release. 

No gameplay footage, and CA have screwed up all recent attempts at historical total war.  Pretty lame so far, but hope springs eternal. 

[BruceVC]

I just completed the dragon fight with Delphine against Sahloknir in LoreRim

It was a good indication of what I need to do to win these types of battles and it was predictably hard

I used this strategy
 

• used potions to buff against his breath
• made sure my companions had good arrows, I dont use archery. They hurt Sahloknir in the beginning and then they were defeated but  they played an important part in initially hurting him 
• used summons to distract him
• I ran away a lot and used the stone pillars to shield myself from his breath
• I used my Wabbajack wand to finally kill him when he had less than 800 health, its a Daedric artifact I got from the Sheogorath quest and its very effective but unpredictable. Sometimes it does damage and sometimes it can change the enemy into an animal or even strip armour but that effect doesn't apply to a dragon

I ended up using loads of healing magic and healing potions so I need to stock up on those

But it was a good and difficult battle

I also had started a quest called Laid to Rest where the end monster was a Master Vampire trying to control the town of Morthal. I couldnt defeat the Master Vampire and I gave up after about 4-5 tries, I ended up wounding him when he chased me to the dungeon entrance but he teleported back to his area of the dungeon so I left. I will come back later to fight him but in LoreRim this quest also starts the Dawnguard DLC. So its a good indication if you ready to fight that level of Vampire and Im clearly not

I love how LoreRim has no level scaling and there are many enemies you simply cant defeat and you have to run away until later 

[Wormerine]

On 12/9/2025 at 10:22 PM, Gorgon said:

No gameplay footage, and CA have screwed up all recent attempts at historical total war.

Well, allegedly they are revamping the engine. I see it as an ambition and promise more than anything else. We will see how it will actually turn out. Maybe I will finally give a Shogun2 and Warhammer a proper go meantime. 

[pmp10]

Dispatch.

Very good for a barely interactive cartoon, but a very uneven experience.
The whole package is carried by a handful of amazingly written and well-animated character moments.

[Hurlshort]

Star Wars: Outlaws - Pretty interesting so far. The world looks great and it is busy with lots of NPC's. The story and characters are solid. Your furry sidekick is adorable and useful. 

The controls are weird. It's a game designed for a controller but really doesn't need to be. I prefer M&K, and it is way better for looking around and firing the blaster, but it has some awkward bits. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, plenty of 3rd person games already have good keyboard layouts that you can copy. The stealth is a bit sloppy too. It plays a bit like the Hitman games. It is serviceable. 

Anyways, should be a fun game to play over winter break. I'm watching Solo as well, which is a good companion movie to the game. Honestly the game makes a lot more sense if you've watched all the animated stuff. The Pikes and Crimson Dawn aren't exactly mainstream Star Wars lore.

[Mamoulian War]

Goal nr. 8/2025 

December 12, 22:45 – After spending to much time at work and alternating between X-COM reboot and new Fatal Fury, I have decided to give a try to another easygoing game. I had picked some time ago Hero of the Kingdom II during GOG giveaway, so this was the next logical choice for me to play. It expanded a little bit more on the first game, made some quests a little bit longer and harder to notice some details. It also made a little bit harder to earn money and with that all achievements. At some point I have though, that I have messed up, but luckily, then I have noticed three NPCs, which with a little bit of effort offered a decent earning method. In the end, it took just a little bit over 9 hours to 100% the game.

[Theonlygarby]

Tried for the fifth time to give BG3 a chance.  I need to stop giving it a chance.  There is nothing I like about it. 

 

Closest thing would be the combat. I don't mind the combat but I absolutely hate the 3D enviroments for CRPGs.  Constantly feel disoriented.   Also everything tends to look the same from what I've seen.  Some abandoned temple looks the same as a goblin fort. Which also looks exactly like every dungeon i saw in divinity

 

Story wise there is just way too much going on.  Squid people, demon people, every companion is a vampire, or a demon or some person who has a demon in their head or sold their soul to a demon.

 

Dice rolls for dialogue is painful.  It feels like they want you to save scum.  Can you not? Sure but you will just die in that combat and end up redoing the dice roll anyway.

 

I might be just dumb or not giving it as much attention as it needs, but I never know what the hell is going on.  I'm going to save some druid leader but then he's working for the goblins and also some demon has a deal for me, but not yet he will be around later.  And I guess I'm supposed to help squid people but also they are the enemies.  I just... don't care.  It's way too much stuff that is thrown at you with little context.

 

Anyway I hate this game and hopefully I never try to play it again.

Edited 18 hours ago by Theonlygarby

[Wormerine]

10 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Closest thing would be the combat. I don't mind the combat but I absolutely hate the 3D enviroments for CRPGs.  Constantly feel disoriented.   Also everything tends to look the same from what I've seen.  Some abandoned temple looks the same as a goblin fort. Which also looks exactly like every dungeon i saw in divinity

Story wise there is just way too much going on.  Squid people, demon people, every companion is a vampire, or a demon or some person who has a demon in their head or sold their soul to a demon.

Dice rolls for dialogue is painful.  It feels like they want you to save scum.  Can you not? Sure but you will just die in that combat and end up redoing the dice roll anyway.

I might be just dumb or not giving it as much attention as it needs, but I never know what the hell is going on.  I'm going to save some druid leader but then he's working for the goblins and also some demon has a deal for me, but not yet he will be around later.  And I guess I'm supposed to help squid people but also they are the enemies.  I just... don't care.  It's way too much stuff that is thrown at you with little context.

Anyway I hate this game and hopefully I never try to play it again.

Couple things I disagree with and couple I agree. 

As far as enviroments and visual variety I think BG3 is 2nd to none. Every area is unique and handcrafted. If anything, my complain would be that each act is so distinct it almost feels like I am playing a different adventures. There are some similar sensibilities to Divinities - Larian gonna Larian. And I personally don't like some of them. Old ruins and temples tend to look more like alien spaceships then ruins. But I still see it as fairly small fault.

I also think Engine itself if quite fabulous. In general, I would agree with you on 3d, but Larian offers interactivity that a static 2d engine would struggle to offer. I think the tradeoff is well worth it, though UI and controls could be done better.

I like dice rolls. Never felt a need to reroll - inspiration points might be already generous, as I felt I can force through any check that I feel I should have won. But for some ability to reload will be too much of temptation, and overall I do prefer Obsidian's static check design for PC games. But it is D&D, and being a table-top ruleset D&D relies on dices. Personally, I found Disco Elysiums double dice system to work better - I think Josh S. have written about it at some point.

Story wise - yeah, I always had issues with BG3 narrative. Really disappointment comes in act3 where they have to try to wrap everything together and try to pay of the promises off.

I don't know why Larian games are they way they are - it feels to me like they just throw everything they can think of into the pot, and don't have defined big picture. A collection of non-linear, organic encounters can work well, but their worlds are so artificial and incoherent. 

I love that BG3 is, I just wish someone else made it 

[Hawke64]

14 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Tried for the fifth time to give BG3 a chance.  I need to stop giving it a chance.  There is nothing I like about it. 

 

Closest thing would be the combat. I don't mind the combat but I absolutely hate the 3D enviroments for CRPGs.  Constantly feel disoriented.   Also everything tends to look the same from what I've seen.  Some abandoned temple looks the same as a goblin fort. Which also looks exactly like every dungeon i saw in divinity

The issue is that the developers' expected playstyle is you, firstly, scouting ahead, then sticking your party in the most favourable positions, so the combat is over on turn 2. 

I considered it my failure if I ended up in combat at all. As you've mentioned, it is disorientating/unpleasant to play, and the game is more of a immersive sim and generally allows to progress without it up to the end of Act 2. Then it is nigh unavoidable setpiece battles which I loathed. Still managed to Thunderwave a main boss into the nearest chasm, thus skipping its monologuing at the party, and it is the high point of the game for me. 

The visual environment design is quite generic, but I am unsure how orignal one can be in Faerun with the uncanny valley of "too realistic to be cartoonish" and "too stylised to be realistic". 

14 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Story wise there is just way too much going on.  Squid people, demon people, every companion is a vampire, or a demon or some person who has a demon in their head or sold their soul to a demon.

Every companion is a possible PC (was worse in DOS2, especially with the developers' favourite NPC) and the quest design is more sandbox than, e.g., Owlcat's. Thus, the first batch of quests are disconnected from each other while also providing a sufficient story hook for the party. The main (but optional) conflict/quest line there is druids vs goblins.  

14 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

Dice rolls for dialogue is painful.  It feels like they want you to save scum.  Can you not? Sure but you will just die in that combat and end up redoing the dice roll anyway.

Yes. Just yes. 

14 hours ago, Theonlygarby said:

I might be just dumb or not giving it as much attention as it needs, but I never know what the hell is going on.  I'm going to save some druid leader but then he's working for the goblins and also some demon has a deal for me, but not yet he will be around later.  And I guess I'm supposed to help squid people but also they are the enemies.  I just... don't care.  It's way too much stuff that is thrown at you with little context.

 

Anyway I hate this game and hopefully I never try to play it again.

It gets jollier if you see the game as a sandbox immersive sim and actively try to push the limits of the system. Playing it as an CRPG was decidedly unfun. Also, the amount of lootable containers combined with the clunky UI quickly dissuaded me from touching anything that is not a chest or a corpse. 

In terms of story, I am somewhat familiar with the setting, so the only surprising things for me were Larian's homebrew (e.g. a certain Githzerai-like Githyanki). At the start, you are saving the druid leader who is not working for the goblins and is there to assassinate the goblin leaders. He will return to his post as soon as your party accomplishes it. The devil (not a demon) does have a deal and it is his introduction. You can help 1 friendly individual illithid, but the other ones are enemies. 

Still, if it is too stressful and unpleasant to try again and you are confident that there is nothing you like about the game, saving your time and looking for something else might be a better option. 

[Hawke64]

I have finished Atlas Fallen: The Reign of Sand and liked it. Aside from the loot, 1 very annoying enemy type, and the inability to tear human NPCs apart, the game is excellent. 

Review:

Spoiler

Atlas Fallen: The Reign of Sand is an action game. A lot of its qualities differentiate the game favourably from other similar titles, such as the customisable avatar, the saving system, and the engine, and even on its own, it provides an excellent experience. I adore the movement and combat systems - they are fluid, comfortable, and responsive, while the keyboard and mouse controls are fully rebindable. 

The combat is enjoyable and the elite foes are challenging, with the ability to break specific body parts making it more engaging. There is a decent variety of the regular enemies and bosses with mostly animal-like designs, but always far enough from the regular animals to avoid negative associations. There are also a few more humanoid or abstract bosses. Their movement and weak spots are readable, expressive, and immersive (e.g. a wraith with large paws and claws uses swipe attacks). The human NPCs, unfortunately, cannot be attacked at will and there is no reason to attack animals (there are a few side quests to observe them). 

There are very few weapons and armour sets and they do not carry much story significance. The customisation comes from the passive and active abilities, the Essence Stones, which can be found, bought, or received as quest rewards. They offer a wide variety of combat options and can be upgraded. The abilities activate as battles progress and the Momentum gauge is filled, which also increases the damage dealt and received or can be spent on a more powerful attack. The defensive moves, parrying (Sand Skin) and dodging, are quite generous with the timing, especially as the later elite foes can 2-3-hit KO the avatar. 

It is important to note that it is not a Souls-like - the saving is functional and the autosaves are frequent. There are also manual saves (at checkpoints) which can be written into separate slots. While I have not tested if their number is limited, I was able to save at important story moments or boss battles without running out of the save slots. 

The story is reasonably interesting (if sometimes predictable) and the permanent companion is amicable. The main plot follows an Unnamed (a slave) who, with a mysterious artefact and a new ally at their side, rises against the theocratic society that oppressed them. I would say that it deals mainly with class-based oppression and the one committed by the large religious institutions. There is no further intersectionality, i.e. no racism, sexism or homophobia. It makes the world more welcoming, though one might consider it too "sanitised". Granted, the inability to tear the priests and slavers to pieces was occasionally annoying, though some explicitly faced justice as a part of the main story. On an amusing note, the gods use only gender-neutral pronouns, highlighting their freedom from the social constructs. 

The companion NPC is friendly, helpful, especially with providing audio clues when there is an inactive checkpoint (an anvil) nearby, and sympathetic, with quite good voice acting. 

The avatar is visually customisable, though a lot of dialogues are automatic. The background and relationships are predetermined as well, though I found it fitting my roleplay. In some quests there are choices for the outcomes and sometimes they do not make sense, e.g. I could not first loot, then bury a dead NPC whom I was asked to find, or give the items to the NPC's team after looting the body. 

The open-world structure works well, providing enough space and activities to utilise the traversal and the combat systems. As the name suggests, the environments consist mostly of deserts, however, there are also mountains, cave systems, forests, living cities and ruins, and 1 poison-free swamp. The side quests offer more background lore and Essence Stone rewards, while the story-free activities provide more challenge and can be skipped with no negative consequences. The fast travel system is unlocked from the start which is convenient. The length of a completionist playthrough is likely to be ~30-40 hours as the store page suggests, though I was focused mostly on the quests and optional bosses. 

One possible drawback is that the loot is not exciting. It is usually either materials, which can be used to upgrade the Essence Stones, or junk loot, which can be sold to merchants. The Essence Stones and armour dyes are rarely found in random chests and even then the most powerful and impactful ones are quest rewards while the player might have their preferred setup already established. The 3 slots for ability configurations allow to experiment with builds more easily if one wants to. 

The game uses an in-house engine instead of that stuttering UE5 trash, so I have encountered only minor performance issues and 1 crash in ~20 hours. The loading from the HDD was surprisingly quick. 

The visual style leans towards a more stylised look with a higher amount of details and works well. The characters, monsters, and environments are distinctive and some areas are just gorgeous. There is full VA, the audio cues in combat are helpful, and the soundtrack is fitting. 

Unfortunately, there is the EOS malware in the game's files, but I removed it before launching the game, so, while unwelcome, it did not affect my experience. 

Overall, despite the minor flaws, it is an excellent and enjoyable action. 

 

[kanisatha]

@Theonlygarby, @Hawke64, I agree with you both on BG3. I'm not as negative on some of the issues, and so I'm able to handle playing the game, but your critiques are spot on for me. The painful battles are especially surprising, because I was told repeatedly by the TB fanatics on the Larian forum that the battles are few and not trash mob battles like in a RTwP game. Well, they lied as far as I'm concerned. Trash mob battles are aplenty in BG3, and I'm able to get through them without driving myself crazy only because I'm playing with a party of six and on a mix of low and normal difficulty settings. The UIs are horrible. The hotbar practically useless. Party movement a huge pain. And yes, the story is everywhere.