Greedfall: The Dying World

The misadventures on the continent. I have discovered that there are timed quests by failing a side quest. No spoiler tags as it is fairly inconsequential. On the Olima markets, there was a noble berating her servant. The servant lost the noble's necklace. I quickly found it and tried several dialogue options to return it to the servant. The thing was that one of the companions was disapproving, so I decided to swap the party and return later. I got sidetracked and, when I finally got back, the noble and the servant were nowhere to be found and the quest promptly failed. There was nothing in the journal to indicate that it was a timed quest, however, the noble had mentioned going to a ball.

So, while it is more immersive than the NPCs waiting for me for a few in-game months, the lack of clear time limits is unpleasant.

The stealth system, on the other hand, is funny. There are several notable things. When you stealth-kill a hostile NPC and save/load, sometimes the remaining hostiles spawn at different positions, including the newly freed one. Another one is that you technically can approach from the front (~45 degrees) and, when you stealth-kill the opponent, they turn their back to you. And another one is that even with 1 point in the Stealth skill, the hostiles cannot notice you farther than a few metres away in the ~45-60 view cone in front of them. The companions, conveniently, are completely invisible.

There are some continuity bugs, such as a quest NPC spawning after the related quest was completed or companions referring to the non-chosen options. It does not happen too often, but it is noticeable. When the quest resolutions are tracked correctly, it feels good, though.

Other than that, I've spent most of the time trying to comb the areas for loot. I do not know whether I will ever need all those crafting ingredients or low level equipment, but if it is there, I must collect it (i.e. the game might be balanced in a way that considers the player looting everything in sight and if I do not, I will be at a disadvantage later). It is a fairly meditative experience. I am also certain that the playtime would have been halved (thirded?) if I did not do it. I think there are difficulty options, but I'd like to stick to the default one.

On the other hand, it makes the story progress much slower than it could have been. There is also a new "feature" - you cannot take more than one companion quest simultaneously (the PC auto-refuses) and the companion remains in the active party until it is completed. I probably could just grab 3 people and do their quests in parallel, but I kind of understand the reasoning behind limiting it to 1.

Edited May 23May 23 by Hawke64

15 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

Greedfall: The Dying World

The misadventures on the continent. I have discovered that there are timed quests by failing a side quest. No spoiler tags as it is fairly inconsequential. On the Olima markets, there was a noble berating her servant. The servant lost the noble's necklace. I quickly found it and tried several dialogue options to return it to the servant. The thing was that one of the companions was disapproving, so I decided to swap the party and return later. I got sidetracked and, when I finally got back, the noble and the servant were nowhere to be found and the quest promptly failed. There was nothing in the journal to indicate that it was a timed quest, however, the noble had mentioned going to a ball.

So, while it is more immersive than the NPCs waiting for me for a few in-game months, the lack of clear time limits is unpleasant.

The stealth system, on the other hand, is funny. There are several notable things. When you stealth-kill a hostile NPC and save/load, sometimes the remaining hostiles spawn at different positions, including the newly freed one. Another one is that you technically can approach from the front (~45 degrees) and, when you stealth-kill the opponent, they turn their back to you. And another one is that even with 1 point in the Stealth skill, the hostiles cannot notice you farther than a few metres away in the ~45-60 view cone in front of them. The companions, conveniently, are completely invisible.

There are some continuity bugs, such as a quest NPC spawning after the related quest was completed or companions referring to the non-chosen options. It does not happen too often, but it is noticeable. When the quest resolutions are tracked correctly, it feels good, though.

Other than that, I've spent most of the time trying to comb the areas for loot. I do not know whether I will ever need all those crafting ingredients or low level equipment, but if it is there, I must collect it (i.e. the game might be balanced in a way that considers the player looting everything in sight and if I do not, I will be at a disadvantage later). It is a fairly meditative experience. I am also certain that the playtime would have been halved (thirded?) if I did not do it. I think there are difficulty options, but I'd like to stick to the default one.

On the other hand, it makes the story progress much slower than it could have been. There is also a new "feature" - you cannot take more than one companion quest simultaneously (the PC auto-refuses) and the companion remains in the active party until it is completed. I probably could just grab 3 people and do their quests in parallel, but I kind of understand the reasoning behind limiting it to 1.

My concern with this game is bugs, polish, and balance issues, as these are what typically get ironed out in patches delivered during the first several months after a game's release. And we don't have that with this game. 😟

On 5/23/2026 at 5:10 PM, Sven_ said:

Thick Asssss Thieves.

What do you think of it?

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

What do you think of it?

For a fiver it was a no-brainer (fan of the type).

Still feels a little barebones (played 4 or 5 contracts so far). It's naturally also a more challenge-type game rather than a big narrative focus (still haven't tried CoOp, have you?).

Funnily, I currently enjoy the (optional) simple stealth in Sir Kicksalot more (including the skill tree for a Thief type of character). But then that also sees me hopping from level to level, rather than the same 2 maps. And there's a lot more tools... I mean anything is a weapon, including fishes. Speaking of which, no idea why there's fishes jumping all over the place when I throw a baguette into the waters. And the postman upon hitting him just picked a chair to hit back. But then that's exactly the type of sandboxy madness I luv. 😁 (One of the first things I did in KCD2 was stealing guards and the tavern maid their clothes and armor, they were guarding and serving in their underwear for days hahahahah).

Edited May 24May 24 by Sven_

1 hour ago, Sven_ said:

For a fiver it was a no-brainer (fan of the type).

Still feels a little barebones (played 4 or 5 contracts so far). It's naturally also a more challenge-type game rather than a big narrative focus (still haven't tried CoOp, have you?).

I did I think 3 contracts so far. I am more or less the same boat. Enjoyed it so far and looking forward to playing more. I like some solutions (grapling gun seems like a sensible variations on Thieves' arrows or Dishonored blink), though feel it's utility is quite more limited then both examples.

The game is pleasant, scratching Thief-lite itch, but as you said it feels very basic. I am still not clear if it is it, or if they plan to sell more content later. I wonder if harder difficulties will add any spice.

I also find lighting to be somewhat vague - which part of the room is and isn't lighted doesn't seem well communicated visually, especially in the first level. Not so much issue now as enemies are few and far between, but I wonder if it will become a problem if difficulty increases density of guards.

1 hour ago, Wormerine said:

Not so much issue now as enemies are few and far between, but I wonder if it will become a problem if difficulty increases density of guards.

I'm at the point now where you can unlock the "Thief" difficulty (I think this is what it's called). Curious also. I think that even when they add stuff to it (more mission variety would also be nice from what I've seen so far), it's naturally never gonna be a classic Thief / Dishonored replacement. The game wasn't made with that in mind. I'm sometimes thinking of the "Dunwall City Trials" DLC, which was entirelly about challenges (though singleplayer, naturally).

Still playing Sir Kicksalot first now. I was expecting some Dark Messiah combat madness...... but that the stealth is this fun also I hadn't on the radar (mostly based on noise/lines of sight). Playing on medium difficulty, but without saving mid-mission. That was a tense 40 minutes and I enjoyed every minute of it. Game also has a demo btw, but this level wasn't in it, ended with climbing up a lighthouse, coming down and then throwing bombs on pirates that had spawned/landed on the beach below. 😁It's such a chaotic mess at times, it's LMAO kind of fun. Tempted to try a ghost run, or do another playthrough as a mage just making people burn. :D

Edited May 25May 25 by Sven_

Crimson Desert - ok, they're up to 1.08. Based on patch notes, it's getting pretty close to where there's enough QoL and other tiny changes I wouldn't mind having/seeing - in a new playthru. I still want my initial playthru to stay as is but I'm just so slow with it. Not only because game is big, but because I don't play tons of hours per day etc. I don't plan on doing "everything" in 1st playthru (so a 2nd would still have tons of things I've never done/seen yet) but even so, I'm a snail I guess.

Hoping to push myself to at least finish the MQ in a week or two, then maybe patch 1.10 is where the chapt. 3 save comes in and that's the one I'll play "forever". :D

Also, I did end up buying/installing Space Haven. I haven't launched it yet tho. So I now have a backlog of --- one.
Haven't even turned on CD for a few days, just one of those weeks.

Picked up Warhammer 40k Chaosgate Demon Hunters. Pretty much an xcom reskin so far and I'm all for it.

Edited May 26May 26 by Sarex

On 5/24/2026 at 3:11 PM, kanisatha said:

My concern with this game is bugs, polish, and balance issues, as these are what typically get ironed out in patches delivered during the first several months after a game's release. And we don't have that with this game. 😟

I saw an announcement for a DLC after 29 April, so someone is still working on the game, though I doubt that the bugs will be fixed before the support ends.

While GF2 is not a Larian-style sandbox, there are still quite a lot of opportunities to break things and express your unique playstyle. Granted, I was puzzled when the (main) quest marker pointed at an NPC who was underground, but I was able to figure out where to go (to be fair, the places have very descriptive names on the map) and the game proceeded as expected. In another quest, the party was stealthily gathering evidence against the BBEG. There was an option to run into a group of mercenaries and learn from them (required a successful skill check) where the BBEG's secret base was. At first, I skipped this option, then took it, then reloaded to the first point (where the party did not know where the base was). In the knowing state, the party was able to see the quest marker and the highlighted wall marks on the way to the base. In the not-knowing state, the path was quiet and I was jogging from memory (though, there was only one floor transition marker in that part of the map). So, there were several ways to proceed and it was impressive that the game did not break and did not force a strict sequence of events (it did at some other points*).

Another thing is that not all quests have markers (unsure if intentional). I had an escort quest where the NPC told me to go, firstly, to his friend who lived "near the aqueduct south from" a district I had not found yet, then to the faction HQ. I also quickly discovered that I could not save during this particular quest. So, I decided to skip the friend visit and go straight to the HQ because that I could at least see on the map. Fortunately, I found the district and the aqueduct on the way. Unfortunately, the aqueduct was on the west and not south, so I spent some time following it down until an opening appeared and the cutscene triggered. Going to the faction base afterwards was easy. So, I had to actually read the map and look at the landmarks to find out the destination and it was enjoyable.

What I genuinely like is the story and the companions. The story is that you are an islander sage (so I was a very sneaky and stabby sage, I suppose) and you and your friends get kidnapped and the teacher killed (ironically, the teacher was the only one not participating in combat and just standing still in the tactical mode/covering his head in the over-the-shoulder camera mode). So, you are trying to find your way home (at least, no opportunity so far to try to conquer the continent). The premise also sets up the companions - they are the people who are willing to help you because what happened was unjust (or they broke out with you and did not have a ship, so decided to tag along). They are also the best (not as the most widespread) representatives of the respective factions.

Admittedly, I do not quite understand their classes and the expected combat roles, but they seem to work well with everything - there are 3 skill trees and 1 weapon type per companion, but the attributes and other equipment can be anything, while many have abilities fitting several possible archetypes.

I am generally happy with the combat, despite it being fairly straightforward on the default difficulty - the tank does CC and gets hit (also heals), the rest of the party removes the armour from the enemies and cuts into the HP. There is some synergy (e.g. higher damage on enemies without armour or suffering from a debuff), but I have not seen any reason to dig deeper into it as of now. The AI can do some positioning (e.g. the rogue can auto-flank), but allowing it to choose targets or use abilities is not a good idea.

*I found it quite funny - a quest, 2 different battles where you have 2 different NPC allies. In the first case, the NPC ally can die and the dialogue changes slightly (well, can't talk to a corpse, but can discuss the outcome with the companions). In the other, the NPC ally continues fighting at 1HP, then (as one could guess) tries to cross the party and regains the whole health bar for the mini-boss battle.

Another bug I found amusing is that the PC was trying (successfully) to vault over a very small tree branch (still attached to the tree) in the starting area. The traversal is fairly inconsistent in terms of things you can interact with, but fine in general (challenges in seeing things aside).

---

A significant issue at the present is that it is hot af in the city and I am not brave enough to run the game in this weather. Should be better tomorrow.

Im about 45 hours into Subnautica 1 and its time for  a detailed update 

Its one of the best survival games I have ever played, only the Forest and Sons of the Forest is better 

The things I love about it

• its  quintessential open world. You can go anywhere you want to find resources and progress the game but certain  regions carry massive risk around sea monsters and requiring the right vehicles for deep water exploration 

• its clever how the game advances using lifepods in safer areas. There is no map so the lifepods have become my main way of navigating to certain regions 

• the crafting is brilliant. You really see the benefits of creating better vehicles and getting upgrades

• the constant food and water usage means you always have to aware of those resources. You cant just ignore them and explore. A good mandatory survival mechanic

• I have built a base but its all over the place with random tunnels, a moonpool and areas that are not connected but they all in the same area. Its very chaotic but it works for me

• I have built the Cyclops and now Im upgrading my Prawn suit so I can explore the deepest parts of the ocean  so I can get the resources for the Neptune rocket

• The games has a myriad of different ways you can craft and survive but you have choices. So for example I now use the battery charger instead of making batteries

• Finding blueprints is one of the best ways to force you to explore, a very clever way to motivate exploration which I love anyway 

Really great game and highly recommended if you like this type of survival genre 

16 hours ago, Hawke64 said:

I saw an announcement for a DLC after 29 April, so someone is still working on the game, though I doubt that the bugs will be fixed before the support ends.

Perhaps I'll wait until the DLC is released and then decide.

I decided to try to finish some of the almost finish games sitting on my drive. First one to go:

Outer Wilds - got as far as to figuring out final solution, but with DLCs announced I stopped short of finishing the game. Time passed, bought the DLC, but didn't play it. Time to remedy it.

The DLC (Echoes of the Eye) is a neat addition to the game, though I found it harder to crack then the base game. It also, however, make you think "is Outer Wilds a bad puzzle game, actually?".

Something I noticed in EotE is that a lot of it is less about puzzle solving and more about wondering around, until you find pretty explicit information on what to do next. It's a bit as if game had a walkthrough in itself. I think I notices less of it the base game, as open universe feels more organic to begin with, both in terms of obstacles put in front of you, as well as how the hints are presented.

EotE feels overall more contrived, so most solutions could at best be accidentally stumbled upon (hidden doors and invisible bridges, that sort of thing), and hints feel more contrived this time around.

Still, some puzzles that require logical thinking are to be found, an atmosphere of Outer Wilds is special.

Good game.

I just finished Viewfinder and honestly, it’s just really nice to play something so original.

The concept of taking a 2D photo and stepping into it as a 3D space is very nice. It immediately reminded me of Superliminal in terms of originality, especially with how both games constantly play around with perspective and optical illusions to warp reality.

That being said, the game isn't perfect. I found it relatively simple overall, the dialogues weren't anything fantastic, and I felt like they could have pushed the concept a bit further. But honestly, the sheer creativity of the mechanics makes up for it. Plus, it's pretty short to finish, so you don't really have time to get bored or tired of it.

Menace is definitely my new addiction. It doesn't resemble Battle Brothers in any way, except for it being a perfect turn based game that makes me think about every turn obsessively.

On 5/26/2026 at 4:08 PM, Sarex said:

Picked up Warhammer 40k Chaosgate Demon Hunters. Pretty much an xcom reskin so far and I'm all for it.

The optimization is abysmal for this game and it's very janky, still having fun though.

6 hours ago, Sarex said:

The optimization is abysmal for this game and it's very janky, still having fun though.

I should try to suck less at it.

Playing Everspace, it's ok, but Rogue likes aren't for me I think.

6 hours ago, Malcador said:

I should try to suck less at it.

I play these games on normal, but I save scum the ever living hell out of them. Last mission I replayed 3 times and ended up concluding that there is no way to perfect clear it. I did stop trying to savescum for rerolls though.

I completed Subnautica after about 70 hours

I had good fun but I got frustrated with certain mechanics at the end 

So in summary you have to go deep to explore and several times I got to an alien building but discovered I didnt have enough keys to enter and my cyclops was miles away so I couldn't craft what I wanted or the required specific crafting materials was back in my base

So now I had to go all the way back just to craft something I needed, this becomes a waste of time for me

I realize I should have read and understood the lore better, for example I could have created a base closer to  where the lava region  are but I didnt do that

Also the constant water requirement becomes too quick, I took 8 bottles of disinfected  water and I still ran out  exploring and trying to find the primary containment center  in the lava castle 

Then right at the end I found the Enzyme Blueprint but I didnt have any of the 5 ingredients so I just used cheat commands to spawn them, I didnt use cheats until then like with the Neptune rocket but I just didn't have the commitment to go find them  🤕

Anyway its still a good game and I recommend it for those who like survival genres where crafting becomes the main point of the game 

The game gets a solid 65\100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system "

On 5/26/2026 at 5:08 PM, Sarex said:

Picked up Warhammer 40k Chaosgate Demon Hunters. Pretty much an xcom reskin so far and I'm all for it.

It is fun, but the lack of enemy and mission variety make it overstay its welcome.

Probably why they advertise the sequel as having variety

Edited Monday at 03:52 PM5 days by melkathi

16 hours ago, melkathi said:

It is fun, but the lack of enemy and mission variety make it overstay its welcome.

Probably why they advertise the sequel as having variety

Tbh, I felt the same way about xcom 2, never finished the game. Will see how it goes it this one.

Crimson Desert announced they'll be doing more fiddling - including a little bit re: main story, somehow - through Sept. Meaning I've lost a lot of motivation because of the continued early-access feel. Maybe I'll look at it again in December. :P

Saw some mindless sim for $10, Restore Your Island, (there's more than one island/map) and your job is to pick up alllll the garbage/litter. That's it. There's a dog you can rescue to keep you company. Very simple/fast - pick up thousands of pieces of garbage, sell garbage, buy upgrades like stamina, more trash cans, run speed, maybe rescue animals and find a bit of treasure, etc. One time I pet the dog and it gave me a gold bar. Good puppy. Supposedly they'll add a cat as the pet option (ofc I'd prefer a cat, haha), more islands, soon. Would I recommend it - nah. But my sleepy brain kinda likes it. At 1st I thought one had to "buy" stamina refill all the time, but then realized all I had to do was spam sleep in a bed for free. Beach clean up duty, good times. 😁

Edited Tuesday at 12:13 PM5 days by LadyCrimson

I've gone back to Skyrim after nearly two years of inactivity. Thought I'd go with another mage character this time.

Kinda cheating, but I recently picked up KOTOR 2 on the Xbox. Must finish the first before I can start it though.

Still cleaning garbage off of island beaches. There's a bug or something on the 2nd island where every time you reload the save, it respawns a lot of trash - vs. staying gone like on 1st island. You could ignore this and just keep going/doing the minor objectives. My brain won't let me so I have 300k I don't need. But I did complete both islands. Thinking about starting completely over. It's akin to spending a few hours just whacking rocks to mine rocks - except here it's spending a few hours holding down the button on your trash-vacuum to sort/sell, and occasionally doing some task. One has to be in the right mood for such repetitive grind, but apparently I am. Can't wait for the 3rd island to be released. Games like this could use a random map generator too, for endless trash keeping. And no, it's not a great game. Serious review I might give it a 4/10.

But I'm the trashcan woman. This beach is clean!

I have finished GreedFall: The Dying World. In general, the game has charm and I am happy with the time spent, but there are technical issues and minor bugs.

In terms of combat, the tactical approach did not change much - the tank CC's, everyone else hits. The tank companion was able to restore both his armour and health, so could effectively hold the line indefinitely (or until the damage received was higher than the AP generation). The only issue was the range of the Taunt ability when there were many foes. The final boss died surprisingly quickly on the first attempt, being able to perform only a single attack each time between getting stunned.

On the continent, there were much fewer giant "guardian" bosses, but the ones present were unique in combat design and appearance. When compared to GF1, where there were very few types but at least one boss per location (as everyone and their grandpa were turning into the tree zombies), the difference is noticeable.

I strongly suspect that a deeper understanding of the systems would be required on the higher difficulties, as there are a lot of active and passive abilities, their synergies, and craftable consumables. I was looting a lot, but did not have the need to use resources, so I shouldn't have combed the locations - it was a significant time sink and interesting or unique items were only in chests and only in ~5-10% of them.

On an amusing note, some armour descriptions were easter eggs - there was a jacket of Those Who Come After (Expedition 33), an armour of the Sands of Time (Prince of Persia), and some heavy cuirass referencing a Balor and a bridge (the Lord of the Rings, I believe). I like the equipment design quite a lot, though the colour schemes being bound to the equipment tiers was somewhat unpleasant (granted, only the tank really needed the armour).

In terms of story, it was quite compelling overall. The PC is unavoidably mostly Neutral Good and can automatically do dumb ****. It is noticeable in the main quest, but there are more options in the side quests. The antagonist appeared in person fairly late, though the impact of the actions was felt throughout the game. I'd say that it is welcome, as talking BBEGs annoy me immensely. Unfortunately, the PC is also unavoidably a druid story-wise, even if they wear heavy armour and wield a rifle.

As for the continuity, the quest outcomes tracked correctly (e.g. the Knight appears if survives), even if sometimes unpleasantly (I said a wrong thing to a random guy in the main quest, so he did not cooperate and died suddenly in a side quest, so I messed up a faction quest line). There are smaller inconsistencies, such as a companion firstly being told that the PC's father died, then 15 minutes later in an environmental auto-dialogue asking about what happened to the PC's father (as in whether he was alive). At some point, a companion can do an unwise action and die. I was able to ask the companion kindly not to do it, so the party member was definitely not dead. When we revisited the location where the dialogue took place, the companion's corpse was lying prominently next to the path and the very same character was standing right next to me and being quite alive. A smaller thing is that I had found a turban with a full-face mask early and wore it throughout the playthrough. Every NPC still recognised me as an islander and, in one scene, I drank a potion without removing the headgear. Several times, I got kicked out from stealth for the enemies to start a dialogue, despite them normally being unable to look down and see me crouching 2 metres away.

Also, in a side quest, we found a lizard dog, a lewolan, who had been brought to the continent and quite stressed due to being a territorial animal in an unfamiliar environment. So, naturally, the party liberated the scaly doggo and stashed him in the cargohold next to the merchant. At no point there was an opportunity to release him back on the island, so he stayed there with the tail clipping through the wall behind.

Overall, the side quests were satisfying and the number and variety were just right - no filler and the world did not feel empty. The companion quests provided an impressive range of activities, from the usual combat to stealth to puzzles, so I was quite happy with them. Also, somewhere from the mid-game, several capes with +2 to the talents became available, so they covered a lot of skill checks. I still needed some investment to get the Hard checks, but there were few enough of them.

As for the other bugs, the game crashed a few times during cutscenes, I had only one corrupted save file and once the companions' bodies and hair failed to load, so I was talking to bald flying heads and hands. The more noticeable issues were the performance, the NPCs and textures loading late (so the props, such as brooms and sword were levitating), and the ship. When you travel between the main areas via the ship, you first get teleported to the ship, and only then to the chosen fast travel point. While the area loads (from an SSD), the game, including the sound, stutters and briefly freezes. It would have been better if the loading screen for this was just the ship sailing animation (either its concept art or something more fancy, like it moving on the world map), especially considering that the ship could be fast-travelled to at any time. One time (that I noticed), an optional merchant became unavailable (despite loudly advertising her services) and I missed a unique piece of armour.

Regarding the DLC, I think it was released on 4 May, so Spiders themselves must have worked on it. From SteamDB, there have not been any file updates since. I suppose, unless the developers somehow reorganise and regain their IP, there might be no further support.