Greedfall 2 has a free weekend on Steam

Buckle Up for Two Weeks of Motor Madness in GTA Online - Rockstar Games

On 5/13/2026 at 7:58 PM, melkathi said:

Greedfall 2 has a free weekend on Steam

Well, this is an excellent opportunity to test how long Steam can go offline.

I did not expect the developers to actually mean it, but free stuff of the free-stuff-appropriate quality is welcome.

Although we hope that our games will still be enjoyed, we would like players to avoid buying the Spiders games published by Nacon: Steelrising and Greedfall: The Dying World. It would reward the group for its actions. We would rather have players get our games through other means, by buying pre-owned games or through other ways.

I've finished the first 2 areas as of now. The game looks and runs worse than the original, has some odd QoL gaps (the over-the-shoulder camera and the interactive items highlight*), and the companion AI is not helpful, but everything else is fine (the controls are rebindable, the saving is actually good, the story and combat are there). The 30GB of the "highres" bloat can be removed only after downloading, like it was with Steelrising, but at least it is 1 file and can be binned without breaking things. It is disappointing to see what the publisher reduced the studio to.

*the last time I had to continuously hold a key to move the camera was with NWN2. Regarding the highlights, it is hard to see anything without it on due to the excessive amount of visual noise and the upscaling (still present even if the Disabled option is chosen). Like, it's the basics of visual design - the player needs to see things, and they still failed it. But the volumetric fog and ray-tracing are in and the performance (on Steam Deck) is poor (<30FPS).

I removed Greedfall 2 from my Steam wishlist after Spiders was shut down by Nacon.

For what it's worth, Frogwares managed to get the rights to their title back from Nacon, so I hope that Spiders will recover, unlikely may it be.

Eurogamer.net

Frogwares now sole publisher of The Sinking City followin...

Ukrainian studio Frogwares is now the sole publisher of Lovecraft-inspired detective adventure The Sinking City.

Warhorse the next RPG studio to go bananas big (unless they majorly mess the actual development up this time around).

Warhorse Studios auf X: „You might have heard the rumours, it's time to reveal what we are working on. 🗺️ An open world Middle-earth RPG. ⚔️ A new Kingdom Come adventure. We’re excited to tell you more when the time is right. #WarhorseStudios #Annoucement #lotr #KingdomComeDeliverance https://t.co/Pcgf9SqW52“ / X

Somebody at Obsidian HQ must be fuming now (in particular at former owner stage), what with first BG going elsewhere. And now it's Tolkien -- was it really Interplay's LOTR Book 1+2 that was the last "major" single-player RPG taking place there? Time flies by whilst you're having too many elves and dwarves and orcs anyway. :D (Tbh, I would have considered this a waste of unique selling point, what with Warhorse's "Dungeons without dragons" tagline. But as simultaneously they're also working on another KCD..)

Kinda weird to think that Obisidian, who I'd considered the "last hope" personally during much of the 2000s and 2010s, are now a sort of "middle of the road" RPG-Like developer. At least in my eyes... Kinda wish they'd specialize more rather than making these "flatter" one size fits all games that seem to by trying to appeal to everyone. It wouldn't need to be Pentiments exclusively. But as once argued, a KCD (historical RPG) would have never been greenlit by Obsidian management, despite the neglected niche (niches and USPs are more important than ever in a market saturated). Josh Sawyer had been fighting for this HARD for decades -- and only could do Pentiment because it was a small-scale project. Else... not a chance.

PS: This recently had me laughing -- the video and Warhorse's reaction in the comments. :D
I Stalked Kingdom Come 2 NPCs for 9 Days (And Lost My Mind)

---

PS: Anybody else gonna try Thick As Thieves today? In a better world full of Thief- and Dishonored-Likes, I'd be probably mixed. In this world and for but a fiver, however....
Dishonored 3 Hopefuls Should Try Thick As Thieves - GameSpot

Edited Wednesday at 10:05 AM5 days by Sven_

For me, PoE really tanked Obs RPG's. I was incapable of understanding its complexities, and even after years of reading and approving posts in that forum, it seems overengineered to me.

On 5/20/2026 at 10:53 AM, Sven_ said:

Warhorse the next RPG studio to go bananas big (unless they majorly mess the actual development up this time around).

Warhorse Studios auf X: „You might have heard the rumours, it's time to reveal what we are working on. 🗺️ An open world Middle-earth RPG. ⚔️ A new Kingdom Come adventure. We’re excited to tell you more when the time is right. #WarhorseStudios #Annoucement #lotr #KingdomComeDeliverance https://t.co/Pcgf9SqW52“ / X

Somebody at Obsidian HQ must be fuming now (in particular at former owner stage), what with first BG going elsewhere. And now it's Tolkien -- was it really Interplay's LOTR Book 1+2 that was the last "major" single-player RPG taking place there? Time flies by whilst you're having too many elves and dwarves and orcs anyway. :D (Tbh, I would have considered this a waste of unique selling point, what with Warhorse's "Dungeons without dragons" tagline. But as simultaneously they're also working on another KCD..)

Kinda weird to think that Obisidian, who I'd considered the "last hope" personally during much of the 2000s and 2010s, are now a sort of "middle of the road" RPG-Like developer. At least in my eyes... Kinda wish they'd specialize more rather than making these "flatter" one size fits all games that seem to by trying to appeal to everyone. It wouldn't need to be Pentiments exclusively. But as once argued, a KCD (historical RPG) would have never been greenlit by Obsidian management, despite the neglected niche (niches and USPs are more important than ever in a market saturated). Josh Sawyer had been fighting for this HARD for decades -- and only could do Pentiment because it was a small-scale project. Else... not a chance.

PS: This recently had me laughing -- the video and Warhorse's reaction in the comments. :D
I Stalked Kingdom Come 2 NPCs for 9 Days (And Lost My Mind)

---

PS: Anybody else gonna try Thick As Thieves today? In a better world full of Thief- and Dishonored-Likes, I'd be probably mixed. In this world and for but a fiver, however....
Dishonored 3 Hopefuls Should Try Thick As Thieves - GameSpot

The only thing not exciting to me about Warhorse announcement is that two projects like that seems like a lot (unless they work on one while other is in preproduction etc).

I love love KCDs, and it seems they finished with Henry’s story but might do another historical RPG in that vein - I am all for it.

Lord of the Rings - I have never been a fan of the use of the IP beyond the books, but I am curious of Warhorses take on fantasy. Presumably they won’t change their DNA, similar to Larian not changing it for BG3 - and result might be a new fantasy RPG that I love. Maybe it will be what I wish Avowed would be.

Yeah, Obsidian… I love PoEs, but I haven’t been feeling their later releases. It’s like they try to mainstream their titles so hard, they end up generic. I am yet to play OW2 post starting few hours. I am just not interested in it, and I find that somewhat disturbing. I will get to it eventually, I am sure.

I picked up Thick as Thieves yesterday, but played just a tutorial. I liked what I have seen so far, though $5 does the heavy lifting - a single look at options screams barebone release, you can’t even rebind your keys. Also visually light and shadow doesn’t seem very well distinguished - when the game does and doesn’t light up feels somewhat arbitrary - we will see if it will carry on to game proper.

Edited Friday at 02:30 PM3 days by Wormerine

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

Lord of the Rings - I have never been a fan of the use of the IP beyond the books, but I am curious of Warhorses take on fantasy. Presumably

they won’t change their DNA, similar to Larian not changing it for BG3 - and result might be a new fantasy RPG that I love. Maybe it will be what I wish Avowed would be.

Clearly you have no taste. This is IP usage is solid gold:

Also all the Led Zeppelin music.

Edited Friday at 03:45 PM3 days by Hurlshort

9 hours ago, Wormerine said:

I picked up Thick as Thieves yesterday, but played just a tutorial. I liked what I have seen so far, though $5 does the heavy lifting - a single look at options screams barebone release, you can’t even rebind your keys. Also visually light and shadow doesn’t seem very well distinguished - when the game does and doesn’t light up feels somewhat arbitrary - we will see if it will carry on to game proper.

Yeah the foundations to build upon are there, hope they do (only finished a couple contracts so far). Also made me want to replay Dishonored 2 (last time was six, seven years ago IIRC).


On a slightly related note, last week also saw the release of Sir Kicksalot.
Sir WHO you ask?

The Adventures Of Sir Kicksalot - Trailer

Puzzling how Dark Messiah's madness has never caught on. But then most devs seem again more obsessed with visual fidelity (everything must look cinema-perfect!) rather than physics and the madness that inevitably ensues. :D

Edited Saturday at 01:19 AM2 days by Sven_

My sum experience with LoTR was getting bored watching the extended edition of the first (Jackson) movie and never touching any Tolkien stuff before or since. But I'll probably be happy to give this a go, especially if like KCD2 it ends up on Game Pass.

I think Obsidian are still a bit gun-shy about bigger projects and are wary about committing more than around half the studio to any single game in order to dilute the risk. Certainly they're never going to go all-in on one singular project that Larian had, but then again Larian are privately owned and BG3 involved Swen sinking a fair bit of his personal assets into the budget. I do think the end result was great, but it was great despite being a D&D product, not because of it. Happy they've parted ways with Hasbro, and I would not have liked to see Obsidian (or any studio I'm fond of) picking up that poisoned chalice.

It's interesting to see the big conglomerates being happier to licence out their hoarded IPs lately though - Might and Magic and Wizardry both ride again. Obviously this is no longer relevant to post-acquisition Obsidian but in another timeline it could have been something.

Edited Saturday at 08:07 AM2 days by Humanoid

8 hours ago, Humanoid said:

I think Obsidian are still a bit gun-shy about bigger projects and are wary about committing more than around half the studio to any single game in order to dilute the risk.

I don't think I mind that. But it seems like they try to make games that will advertise like a AAA, just not deliver when you play them. I mean I hear Outer Worlds2 is solid. I didn't get past the first planet yet. Honestly I just wasn't in a mood for it, so I don't trust my judgement 100%. Also I can run it with more acceptable framerate now.

I'd guess that the larger a studio gets, the fewer risks they can take if they increase the production costs. Not wasting funds on "more graphics" or full VA does not seem to occur to them. The only developers I can name off the top of my head who keep their costs in check are Spiderweb Software and The Game Bakers (kind of - haven't played Cairn).

Thanks gaming gods for the indies. ❤️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci6dTx7HJs4&t

On 5/23/2026 at 4:05 AM, Humanoid said:

I do think the end result was great, but it was great despite being a D&D product, not because of it.

Personally for you, sure. But I have no doubt whatsoever that BG3 being the huge financial success it was has everything to do with it being a DnD game (plus carrying the Baldur's Gate name). DnD is huge these days, and most casual gamers like playing games with familiar systems and mechanics.

Raphael Colantonio and Harvey Smith playing and talking about the making of Dishonored......

The creators of Dishonored react to their own game after 14 years | Devs Play Part 1


Each are working on new games with their new teams/studios. I'm so horny for more 0451 at this point, SHODAN could sell me her socks tbh!

TL;DR: SCREW YOU BETHESDA 😒
"All I can tell you is that part of the reason why I left Bethesda was that they did not want to do the kind of games that we wanted to make," Colantonio says. He likens Arkane's approach to studios like Larian and FromSoftware: "Those are people that have been doing, over and over, the thing they know exactly how to do, until it hits super hard. So to me, that's what Arkane had to do."

Colantonio wanted to keep building on what Arkane had achieved with Dishonored and Prey, but due to disappointing sales, Bethesda "decided that was not part of the strategy anymore".

Edited Sunday at 09:37 PM1 day by Sven_

Xbox's murder of Arcane Austin is not something I will soon forget. Prey and Mooncrash my favourite Arcane's output. I also don't understand how Deathloop was received as well as it was.

Edited Sunday at 11:33 PM1 day by Wormerine

12 hours ago, Wormerine said:

Xbox's murder of Arcane Austin is not something I will soon forget. Prey and Mooncrash my favourite Arcane's output. I also don't understand how Deathloop was received as well as it was.

I'm also mixed on Deathloop. The moment to moment game and gunplay can be fun. As a package it is is really repetetive though as the real loop of the game is a tutorial that never ends. Deathloop = butchered by playtesting. :(

It's one thing to take feedback on board. It's another to drop or nerf the entire core idea, as testers found it "tedious to figure a time loop puzzle out"... I mean, by the end the game even reiterates every single step so you wouldn't possibly miss it. To be fair, Arkane were under pressure to "deliver" at that point. And it WAS a rather unique idea that lay at Deathloop's core.


The Redesign That Saved Deathloop

Arkane : the studio that wanted to make games for smart gamers... and realized they weren't that many.

😁

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by Sven_

23 hours ago, kanisatha said:

Personally for you, sure. But I have no doubt whatsoever that BG3 being the huge financial success it was has everything to do with it being a DnD game (plus carrying the Baldur's Gate name). DnD is huge these days, and most casual gamers like playing games with familiar systems and mechanics.

Oh I absolutely agree on the financial aspect, and it'll be interesting how much of the success will carry over to their future projects. I just don't find D&D, particularly in 5E guise, very compelling. This is especially true for my preferred RP class of rogue, which I now find distinctly unfun.

Coincidentally I'm currently playing the final Palace of Ice expansion for Solasta. It's ...alright, though as I near the level cap the delicate balance that used to exist has finally broken. Just a standard feature of high level D&D I suppose, even with the attunement limit actually implemented.

5 hours ago, Sven_ said:

Arkane : the studio that wanted to make games for smart gamers... and realized they weren't that many.

eh... I can't imagine Deathloop working without the heavy guidance. I don't think it would be a rewarding game to solve.

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

eh... I can't imagine Deathloop working without the heavy guidance. I don't think it would be a rewarding game to solve.

To me it's the core flaw of the game, as it makes everything completely repetetive and mindless. "Just go exactly here and do exactly this."

The only real choice / mental engagement (in an Arkane game) is experimenting with your weapon loadout and abilities, in a sense. But even in that regard, it feels oft like Dishonored leftovers.

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by Sven_

As a fan of terrible things like the 90s cartoon, I may get this