Wormerine

Started Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I wasn't feeling it during the intro where it was recreating the iconic opening from the Raiders of the Lost Arc, but once it was over it really drew me in. I did the opening section of sneaking in into Vatican and I really enjoyed it. Simple but competent stealth system. Satisfying punching and whipping. I think I am gonna have a good time with this one. I will never understand how Indy never sticks with Marian. Still, so far Machine games seem to get the character really well.

Especially PoE1 OST seemed to me to evoke Infinity Engine OST, especially Jeremy Soule's work for Icewind Dale games. PoE OST is one of the few computer game OST I like to out on every once in a while. I also liked his OSTs for Tyranny and Outer Worlds very much. Different vibe every time, well fitting respective games. Just nice writing overall - varied instrumentation, nice long phrases with natural arcs, counter point, harmonic progressions with development and direction. I think Obsidian lost a really great team member.

I had a-ok time with Avowed so far, but my impressions are quite opposite. It's a decent time waster, but I found none of it alive or interesting. I just entered third area, and I think I will be leaving it alone for a while - or at least intertwining it with something else on gamepass - I got quite bored and disengaged with it - and I think it will be better if I wait until smacking Xourips becomes appealing again.

Why would playing with a friend give it a replay value?

Aye, you can combine any lower tier upgrade materials into higher tier upgrade materials. Personally, while I am not fan of the upgrade system, (I find it very contrived and therefore not rewarding), I didn't found it troublesome. I managed to upgrade most of my equipped gear to fine, even before I discovered you can scrap spare items for upgrade materials. I definitely can't upgrade everything I would want to, but I can upgrade all I need and then some - even more so, now when I am scrapping all the spare stuff I find rather than selling it. Some shops also have small amount of crafting materials that can be purchased for little coin (though not much in stock in one go). I usually pick those up whenever I shop.

It does sound great, but I am keeping my expectations low due to Wolfeye's modest budget. There is also Ken Levine's Judas which's early previews made me far more curious about the title, and InXile's Clockwork Revolution. And Gloodwood which is in early access and is shaping up really nicely.

I hope it is not Josh's address and phone number. Edit. Nah, it's Obsidian's headquarters. Makes more sense I suppose.

Aye, unique weapon enchantments tend to be pretty uninteresting. The biggest use for them I found so far are enviromental interactions during exploration.

With Skyrim shipping 60 million units to date, that is a very fair assumption. It happens in every genre. Well, BG3 is top down. Get ready for swarm of review bashing top down cRPG, because they don't play exactly like BG3 (assuming anyone will have courage to put one out).

Depth and variety I say. First thing that comes to mind is loot - I wish unique weapons had more impactful modifiers. And in case it isn't clear I think Obsidian build a fantastic foundation in Avowed, and I hope they get to build on it in the future - be it in a sequel or just repurpose tech and design from Avowed in another project. I suspect we agree on many things, we just disagree where Avowed lands on an arbitrary, personal bad-excellent scale. Which is fine, and I happily admit that Avowed is at a disadvantage here due to some of it's core designs not being to my taste, even if they are not objectively flawed.

FromSoft comes to mind that did actionRPG combat far far better. Also Arcane be with with Messiah of Dark and Magic, or Dishonored/Prey (I wouldn't call none of those games RPGs, but neither would I Avowed. The issue I have with "combat is better than Skyrim" is that Skyrim (and other RPGs) offer much much more beyond combat. You don't play those games FOR combat, while you have to play Avowed combat. So to me the question isn't "is Avowed combat better than those games that offer a wider range of experiences", but "is Avowed combat good enough to carry what seems like a very long game". And I think it is just ok. If you want a game to be carried by a single gameplay loop it can't be just good - it has to be exceptional. Avowed combat would be amazing if it was a smaller part of a more rounded game. As a main feature though? It's ok. The games need variety or depth to remain compelling. You either create a simple system and a lot of variety (FromSoft games) or you create a very deep system that can be interacted with and mastered to a high degree (fighting games, DMC, Dooms etc.). Avowed is none of those, and that's fine. But that also limits how engaging the system is in the long run. Progression system is just not very compelling. You gather materials and upgrade your weapons by exploring and killing Xourips, to be able to explore area and kill Xourips of a higher level. As far as I am concerned the progression might as well not be there - except that in this case Avowed would need to have more of actually compelling things to find, rather than scattering chests in random locations around the map and calling it a day. I am sounding very negative right now, and I don't mean to. Avowed is fine. It's a gamepass game. Pay couple quid, download it, play it every couple few days when I don't have brain power to play something more demanding. It's a time killer rather than an experience. edit. When I say “fine” I mean American fine. I am happy with it. Not British “it’s fine” which is quite often has derogatory connotations.

Yes, Third Person is the "accessibility mode" here. The game was designed with First Person in mind, and third person is made to match First Person Movement - as such it is more clunky, and game wasn't designed with it in mind. I wish there was a seperate button for dodge (and perhaps that we could dodge if we are close to the ground). As it is I find dodging a bit clunky, and it doesn't always fire - though often due to me not letting "forward" go in time. I don't have issue with jumping - ledge climbing is perhaps a bit too generous and feels goofy at times, but otherwise I think the game feels great to control. That said I don't find it "immersive" to begin with. It's very arcady experience, so to me jump doesn't stick out as unusual.

On RTX3070 it run fine enough for me to not investigate things further. It is a demo, so I am also not worried about optimisation at this point. If it used upscaling, I wouldn't mind anyway. I always turn it on anyway. I didn't finish the demo - couldn't figure out where to fine an NPC necessary to progress the story, and went back to playing Avowed. It... Well, from what I tried it plays how I remember Gothic playing. I certainly like it more than the pitch demo a while back, but I also wouldn't be opposed if they took some hinds from more modern action RPGs, like Dark Souls - afterall it's meant to be a remake not a remaster. As it is I am not sure how appealing Gothic Remake will be to new audiences. But hey, we will see once the game comes out.

Yeah, but I mean... none of those are not true. Avowed is fine. If you walk into it expecting the "Obsidian RPG" you will be disappointed. The world is static and uninteractive. Writing is... well, I wouldn't call it bad, but it is uneven and I don't think it's game's strength. The tricky thing is that while Avowed combat is surprisingly satisfying it is good compared to... what? Highly systemic Bethesda RPG? Previous more story rich Obsidian games? Sure, Avowed combat system is far more robust than Outer Worlds - but would I necessarily recommend Avowed over Outer Worlds as a package? If you argue that Avowed is actually just open world action adventure, focusing on combat and exploration - from that standpoint I also think the game isn't delivering on all cylinders . I am not very deep into 2nd area and combat already looses its luster - loot isn't interesting nor transformative, enemy variety starts running a bit thin. So yeah Avowed is fine. It is exceeding my expectations in some areas, but misses in others. It is enjoyable enough romp through Eora, but as PoE fan, I also bring investment with me, which others players might not have. At this moment I am not sure if I will ever want to return to it - the game feels to be spread a bit thin. Still, there is stuff one can appreciate and praise, which most reviews I looked at did.