Hawke64

Banquet for Fools

Started Banquet for Fools. It is a CRPG, the setting is original, the controls are rebindable (the feature itself is pretty, but uncomfortable, though), the party is fully customisable (like in IWD or Solasta). The developers quickly fixed the few bugs I reported. The combat is closer to RTwP and the prologue uses a predetermined mid-/high-level character. I must admit, I quite like the ragdoll effects there. The game is in EA and the full release is planned for the end of January. The New Arc Line (CRPG, steampunk; the demo ran extremely poorly) team recently posted that they use UE5 (a rather bad idea for a CRPG), so Banquet is my choice for this sale.

I appreciate the thoughtful response. However, separating art from the artist works when the artist no longer benefits from the royalties*. Rowling still does and is actively using her fortune to cause harm, regardless of how popular the IP is. When it is 6 feet underground and the fund set up specifically to finance transphobic lawsuits is dismantled, then sure. *excluding the financial aspect/from the cultural point of view, I'd say if you can experience the work in isolation from the author's biography and understand it fully.

The People Make Games channel has published Why We're Boycotting Xbox (and Maybe You Should Too). MS does own several developers whose work I am fond of, such as Obsidian, inXile, and Arkane, and, fortunately, all of them have been increasing the system requirements of their recent releases ("more graphics"), making boycotting them much easier. Some of the Arkane Lyon employees spoke out in support of boycotting their games, which takes quite a lot of courage even in France.

Just in case, JK Rowling's favourite hobby is harassing children and donating to hate groups, thus avoiding supporting the Harry Potter franchise would be appreciated. https://www.them.us/story/jk-rowling-girlguiding-girl-guides-girl-scouts-trans-ban-consent Granted, the books were not the best examples of literature to begin with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1iaJWSwUZs

In case it might help, GOG offline installers unpack everything through the system drive, so you'd need ~140GB of free space there for it to work, regardless of the selected installation drive. This is one of the main reasons why I avoid GOG for larger games. Why the developers stopped giving a f* about optimisation is another question.

The winter giveaways seem to have started on EGS. Today's is Eternights. The sales on Steam and GOG are ongoing and I am trying to figure out how to get GOG games to run on Steam Deck. I suspect it might need more storage space or I could just repurchase on Steam.

I am unsure whether humans or AI are worse for the environment, but not increasing the number of humans globally seems like a good step when they can and want to move on their own. Immigration can solve workforce shortages, providing services and taxes (unlike large corporations), and likely moving out before retirement, though the people who immigrate must be protected from exploitation, as they have less safety nets than the local citizens. In the UK, the nursing and the agricultural jobs (which the locals do not have the skills and the inclination for) offer(ed) dedicated immigration pathways. For the non-physical jobs, genAI might work, but, as was said during the peak of the COVID pandemic, a lot (not all) of the "essential" jobs require a human or a humanoid robot, unless there is a significant investment in the infrastructure. As the latter are more expensive to make and maintain than to hire a human, humans are more likely to be used. One of the explanations I've heard for why people care more about the genAI being applied to art is that artists can articulate their concerns about their employment and income, unlike a random factory worker. Well, and that creative jobs are more fulfilling than the manual labour or more routine office jobs, forgetting that artists also have to draw icons for mobile games, ads for fast food chains, or covers for romance novels, which are more of a craft than a genuine artistic endeavour. Humans love self-expression and even if it becomes unavailable as a source of income, they will do it for the sake of it, though it would make the hobby less inclusive. --- Regarding Larian specifically, all their initial concept art is generic (Rivellon is a generic fantasy setting), aside from maybe the elves and the lizards. Utilising genAI will not change it. The attached screenshot is from the DOS2 intro - the faces are deformed and the clothing already blends in. The current game cover, with the companions in action poses, is much better, but it is 1 promotional image.

The NG+ mode is quite fun, though much easier, as the stats are higher and everything dies quicker even on the highest difficulty setting (but also kills you in 1-2 hits). I used the whip sword as well due to its range.

I admire your optimism, though cannot share it. As they say, "garbage in, garbage out" - the genAI models are trained by humans on the human-generated data with the human-set goals, thus, the result is likely to be more of the same. And then there is the issue with the energy consumption. Pretty much yes.

Atlas Fallen I was quite surprised that the sysstem was locked by the NG cycle, but then I was almost always at 2-3 stage of Momentum (higher damage received and inflicted, also the dagger transforms into a greatsword), so it kind of makes sense. There was a way around the guard which I missed on the first playthrough.

I think Expeditions: Viking managed to achieve it - the time limit was generous but present and made sense for the story. I suppose, the same could be said about the tutorial in Tyranny, but the scale there was smaller. For Larian's D&D game, if I am not mistaken, the party discovered that the illithid transformation is delayed quite early and from there it was trying to find a cure at a more leisurely pace. Then again, even if it continued to be urgent, every other NPC was promising solutions at the start, so going along with them could be in-character. Well, also looking for a high-level cleric, a pickaxe, and the True Resurrection spell, which would be travelling straight to the nearest large city.

I have finished Atlas Fallen on the highest difficulty in NG+. The interesting part is that the tools available (the weapon upgrades, new armour sets, and the more powerful Essence Stones) effectively offset it - while the bosses could 1-shoot me, I also was almost instantly and constantly at high Momentum (which additionally meant higher damage to me) and able to use the Shatter attacks with a lot of i-frames repeatedly. The longer battles were somewhat challenging, especially as the screen was getting more "noise" (from the weapon particles to the number of opponents), but, overall, it was easier than the first playthrough. The only issue is one of the randomly appearing battles with various modifiers. The foes to be faced vary, but the reward progression is static and carries over between the NG cycles. The thing there is that it is not hard to get hit once and the battle despawns after that. I assume, if I reloaded, the same battle would have been accessible at the same spot, but I have not tried. The regular random battles have an auto-save nearby and the main story ones can be restarted from the start of the encounter which is incredibly convenient. I am satisfied with the experience and might try replaying it in a few years. On a random note, the NG+ armour sets look much better than the NG ones. They are more detailed and more fitting.

The winter holidays are approaching and I still have some keys from HumbleBundle: The keys that will expire in June (?) 2026: Batman Arkham Origins LEGO Ninjago Movie Video Game Pillars of Eternity - Definitive Edition Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - Obsidian Edition

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand If I haven't mentioned it, there is a built-in photo mode and I was playing on quite low settings. The screenshots are spoiler-free. Alas, I could not "donate" 5 inches of steel in its eye socket. The priest had an "accident" shortly after. The most annoying boss battle in the game, as the boss was flying around the arena, getting stunned almost always out of reach, somehow preventing me from gaining Momentum (used for abilities). Thus, it was 10 minutes of slowly chipping away its health bar. Somehow, I did not have this issue with the other flying enemies and was able to stay close.