Wormerine

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

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 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.

What do you think of it?

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.

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.

Ghost of Tsushima. It's alright. It is just a better done Ubisoft-like open world games. While "following GPS" is nicely hidden within game's presentation, it is still a game that expects you to follow map markers and as such doesn't really encourage curiosity and exploration. It also looses its charm fairly quickly due to extremely repetitive and predictable nature of the title. And while, I must stress, it is very well done, it still suffers from some pitfalls IMO. Ratio of repeatable activities vs story missions is highly stacked toward filler content, which results in a game which IMO is both wayyy too long if you try to 100% it, and narratively underdeveloped, touching some potential narrative themes, but never exploring them beyond the surface level. Still had a-ok time with it, and if someone if feeling a need for a decent check-list title to pass quiet evenings, this one is worth giving a go.

Never played older entries but Wizardry8 was a fantastic dungeon crawler.

i definitely run into it in my university days (so that would be specifically around 2012-2014). I didn’t have internet in my flat so I would play games on steam in offline mode. I had to bring my laptop to Uni and connect Steam to internet every couple weeks otherwise games wouldn’t launch anymore. But yeah, I don’t know what is Steam, what is optional DRM through steam, and what is third party drm.

Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era. Seems like a very solid, if budget HoM&M installment. I enjoyed the demo they released a while back, and this already feels stronger. Only spent a bit time in a custom match, and I am a very casual HoM&M player - very little multiplayer experience. Still, I really like it so far, especially for £25. Looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Not many details, but I like the pitch. I am glad they are returning to Metro setting. While I enjoyed Exodus, and I think a shake up was needed at the time, I did felt it lost quite a bit of identity in the process.

cough, Witcher TV show, cough. I think it is obvious after IP being successful, but I don't find it too difficult to imagine a suit claiming it's too unfamiliar for mass market to be a safe bet - not that Witcher1 was a mainstream pleaser anyway.

Disagree.