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Ratius wrote: Anyone else playing / played Divinity Original Sin?
Thoroughly enjoying it so far, a really good quality game!
Had a blast playing co-op with the wife, we really liked it. Also, it's probably not worth mentioning, but the spell Charm and Charm arrows? Totally overpowered.
Shadowkeepers (4000 points)
3rd Company (3000 points)
pix3lboy wrote:
Baldur's Gate II was one of my favourite games as a child. The number of spells for mage classes was really impressive, although I usually went as a rogue. I'm not sure how well it holds up now though because it's been years since I've played it
Divinity Original Sin is very fun as well, although my wife refuses to play with me after I got caught stealing a carrot during a quest, resulting in the quest giver hating me so much they refused to talk to us. The great thing about Divinity is that almost every character build is a viable option. My character was a thief who could talk to animals and loved trolling people where as my wife was a very serious mage who refused to break the rules. It led to some very interesting ideas on how to do certain quests, especially the rock, paper, scissors mechanic of deciding who in your party gets to do the talking
If you can run it, Divinity Original Sin is definitely my pick for a great co-op D&D style game. I really need to talk my wife into playing it again.
Bobthehero wrote:If you can get Neverwinter Nights 2 to work properly online, you'll have a great time. I recommend getting the Kaedrin Class mod to get more classes and customization. Oh and the Baldurs Gate reloaded mod if you prefer DnD 3.5 mechanics, its essentially Baldur's Gate in Nwn 2, really great work.
Thanks for the advice guys! Will check specs, and see if we can get Divinity going.
Wasn’t aware about the Kaedrin Class mod. Will try that for a playthrough later on.
Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD!
Decided to skip the Origins DLC and just get straight into Odyssey. Certainly not a decision I regret, as the latter takes everything I liked about the former and then bolts on a bunch of stuff that improves the experience as a whole immeasurably. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for an action-RPG and doubly so for that in a massive open world full of stuff to stab, hide from, clamber over or set fire to, but Odyssey is just ticking all the boxes.
Spoilering this not for game spoilers but because I've pretty much written half an essay on it, quite by accident...
Spoiler:
As I suspected it might when they announced, finally having the ability to shape a character, and through them the world, has turned out to be the missing link of the AC series to my mind; the appeal for me was always the fact that the game let you go and interact with a massive, detailed slice of history but the introduction of RPG narrative elements and dialogue options definitely takes the experience from a somewhat passive one to something very active and interactive, the chance to make that world something unique and much more tangible than the older games allowed.
It's definitely a game that has mastered the illusion of choice, but it does it in such a way that I quite honestly don't mind. There are times when you get the sense both dialogue options would trigger the exact same reply, and you know that conquering a nation only makes a very impermanent mark and it'll change hands again in a few hours as the game keeps running the war in the background, but it feels like you're getting to make those choices. And that's not to say that there aren't genuine moments of choice, there's definitely been times where I've gone on to regret making a certain decision or statement a quest or two later and some of the more dramatic moments thus far have offered a greatly personal choice, even if either outcome largely has the same effect on the game world or you'll never come across the characters involved again.
On the other side of the coin, the mechanical changes that started with Origins have been built on nicely as well; the 'powers' you can unlock along with the highly varied gear/crafting system definitely encourage you to hone a specific playstyle or two and actually think about your approach to certain things. Unlike a lot of other AC titles, favouring, for instance, combat, is going to come at the cost of steath, but the game also lets you build around that and create a character setup that's an absolute powerhouse cutting down swathes of enemies. Alternately, you can really pile on the upgrades to assassination and go around keeping the body count low and precise, if that's your thing.
Personally, I'm going for something of a melee/archery balance, largely since I'm not great at stealth sections generally and when it comes to the big Conquest Battles, there are few more fun ways to do them than loosing half a dozen arrows in a single volley before charging in with a hammer the size of a man's torso. In other AC games that'd basically be handicapping myself by relying on the more overt and violent approach, but thanks to the more in-depth system here I feel rewarded for taking that path.
A lot of praise also has to go to the voice acting and performance capture work done on this game, especially Melissanthi Mahut's turn as Kassandra, who's emerged as one of the most believable and nuanced protagonists in gaming.
It's definitely an aptly named game; 'epic journey' absolutely sums up what's on offer here. The game is vast and varied, full of content without ever feeling bloated, taking as much time for the quiet and mundane as it does for the bombastic and dramatic. There's comedy and tragedy, often pitched opposite one another to great effect, there's larger-than-life characters ranging from the effortlessly charismatic and likeable to the unsettling to the endearing annoying (hello, Socrates...) and there's a wealth of potential to forge your own story. It's lengthy as well, without ever really being slow: today I've just passed my total playthrough time of Origins and I'm not even half way through the main story yet, not to mention the fact there's huge tracts of the map as-yet-untouched.
Well worth a look if action-RPGs are your thing. Quite honestly, for me it's coming very, very close to equalling the fantasy RPG mastery held by The Witcher 3, which is a remarkable achievement for a game series that, going back a few years, you'd not think to associate with this genre at all. Yes, it's a departure almost completely from what's come before, by my god is it a good one...
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/19 20:05:57
I finished Bard's Tale IV yesterday. Yeah, it was just ok. The voice acting was great, the music was great, the visual design was great, but the gameplay itself was kinda crappy. Just very uninspired, and it also became way too easy halfway through. I almost never even used any of the bard songs, the bard was too busy ripping stuff apart with her sword.
After that, I hit up GOG and noticed a new game was released yesterday with very little fanfare: Return of the Obra Dinn. It's from the guy who made Papers, Please. Playing that right now.
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
So I picked up Black Ops IV to play Blackout, and it's pretty fun, even if most games fall into either one of two categories:
1. Drop in to a hot area and get killed immediately 2. Drop in to a deserted area, gather a bunch of loot, see no one and eventually get killed later when the play area shrinks
It's definitely something that'd be better to run with a group of players, rather than playing singles or pugging the whole time.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/22 18:48:36
Tannhauser42 wrote: I finished Bard's Tale IV yesterday. Yeah, it was just ok. The voice acting was great, the music was great, the visual design was great, but the gameplay itself was kinda crappy. Just very uninspired, and it also became way too easy halfway through. I almost never even used any of the bard songs, the bard was too busy ripping stuff apart with her sword.
After that, I hit up GOG and noticed a new game was released yesterday with very little fanfare: Return of the Obra Dinn. It's from the guy who made Papers, Please. Playing that right now.
I've been getting back into Rainbow Six Siege in a big way recently, although it's only me and a friend playing with randoms and no one else communicates. Still fun but the win ratio isn't particularly high. I've been trying to convince some other friends to play but no one else I know with a PS4 is interested
Tannhauser42 wrote: I finished Bard's Tale IV yesterday. Yeah, it was just ok. The voice acting was great, the music was great, the visual design was great, but the gameplay itself was kinda crappy. Just very uninspired, and it also became way too easy halfway through. I almost never even used any of the bard songs, the bard was too busy ripping stuff apart with her sword.
After that, I hit up GOG and noticed a new game was released yesterday with very little fanfare: Return of the Obra Dinn. It's from the guy who made Papers, Please. Playing that right now.
What's Obra Din about? What kind of game?
It's essentially a logic puzzle. You know, the kind where you have, say, five dinner guests, and you have to correctly guess who sat where, what color they wore, and what they drank based on clues like "the person who wore blue sat left of the person who drank beer" and such. But, the clues aren't written like that in the game, they're nearly all visual. The premise of the game is that the ship Obra Dinn has returned, with no survivors, after being considered lost at sea for a couple years. You're an insurance investigator equipped with a logbook (listing the crew manifest, a map of the ship, some sketches of the crew) and a magic pocketwatch that, when used on a body, will show that body's final moment. Using the watch gets you a bit of atmospheric sound (maybe with a couple lines of dialogue), and then a 3d snapshot of the moment of death that you can freely walk around and examine. You'll have to look for all the clues to identify the name of each crewman to their face in the logbook, how they died, and if applicable, who killed them. And the game uses a 1-bit graphic style like old Macintosh computers.
I very much enjoyed it. I had to use some hints to complete it, but otherwise the clues really are all there if you're observant enough.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2018/10/22 23:27:35
"Through the darkness of future past, the magician longs to see.
One chants out between two worlds: Fire, walk with me." - Twin Peaks
"You listen to me. While I will admit to a certain cynicism, the fact is that I am a naysayer and hatchetman in the fight against violence. I pride myself in taking a punch and I'll gladly take another because I choose to live my life in the company of Gandhi and King. My concerns are global. I reject absolutely revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method... is love. I love you Sheriff Truman." - Twin Peaks
Still cracking on with the magnificent vastness of Odyssey. Definitely feels like I'm getting towards the endgame (not sure what the level cap is, but the highest enemy I've seen is level 50 and I'm 45) but there's still plenty to do and I want to get the bulk of it done and all the map explored before kicking off what seems to be the grand finale of the main story.
I must admit I'm greatly enjoying
Spoiler:
the weaving of mythological elements into the game. Yes, they're all products of weird alien tech, but that doesn't really come up in the script beyond a couple of throwaway lines, as far as the hero is concerned they're fighting an honest-to-gods Minotaur or Cyclops. Makes for some satisfying boss fights and works well to blend the Greece of Sokrates and Herodotus with that of Theseus and Perseus ect. And it sounds like one of the expansions is going all-in on this concept, so I'm looking forward to that a lot.
I do love the power curve in this game. At the start you're a jobbing mercenary trying to keep their head, towards the end you're essentially a demigod among the mortals, striding through armies with ease, assassinating targets before they even know you're on your way, going one on one with the toughest fighters the game has to offer. It manages to give you a great feeling of power without trivialising the combat, which is a hard balance to strike.
I've been pretty impressed with Odyssey. The gameplay has been fun, though I've been neglecting the primary story.
My biggest gripe is they kept the dumb 'present day mind-reading blood-analyzer machine' for basically no reason. It jumps in and interrupts the story from time to time for no particular reason or payoff. And is centered around the spearhead, which has the 'DNA of two individuals' on it. Which... given they just handle it (as do at least two other characters in flashbacks*), yet drive it all-the-way-through the bodies of hundreds of people as an assassination tool, this seems unlikely.
*and yes, flashbacks inside a genetic memory reading device. It hurts my brain.
It would be a much stronger story without the intrusion. Thankfully its been fairly ignorable so far, but I've been actively ignoring the main story. I haven't even finished up Athens and I'm running around in Crete dealing with.. things.
I'm pretty amused by the long drawn out pantomime, and then... yeah. Actual real thing.
For Greece as a whole, however, I am wondering why so many active temple sites are already ruined, even given the dark age long past and relatively recent Persian invasion. Some of these places are a wreck despite having soldiers and cultists standing around waiting to be murdered.
---
Gameplay is solid, though I'd have liked a little more variety, soldiers from cities not Athens and Sparta, for example.
Yeah, I do find it hilarious that they've ditched, y'know, the actual Assassins Brotherhood before they jettisoned the pointless present-day framing device, but it is reasonably un-intrusive... In the 56 hours I've played so far I think I've spent about 10 minutes on those bits, and it's only pulled me out of the main narrative twice, so it's not nearly as bad as, say, Black Flag, where you're running around for entire missions as an intern with an iPad....
That bait-and-switch-and-switch-again in Crete is definitely one of the more interesting regional quests. My other favourite is the one across the Silver Islands in the mid-east of the map, there's a series of smaller quests that link together really nicely, feature a couple of the game's strongest characters and definitely hammer home the fact that the consequences of your actions are never more than a few steps behind you.
I especially appreciate that it's a whole mini-saga hidden away on a couple of islands that the main quest never even takes you near, it's a real reward for going out and exploring, and the game does a good job of keeping a nice pace to main story when you're actively pursuing it while also leaving plenty of stuff to do if you just want to put it on hold for a while after a few main missions. It definitely follows in the tradition of The Witcher 3 in making sure that its side stories are engaging; even the ones that are simple fetch/murder missions will get you a fun line or two of dialogue or a unique piece of loot or take you to an interesting, hidden away bit of the map.
On the ruined sites, I might be mis-remembering here but I'm pretty sure most of the actual ruins have been inhabited by bandits/cultists/Sons of Ares/Daughters of Artemis rather than Athenian or Spartan soldiers, which makes at least a bit more sense; the bandits will hole up anywhere they can and the others are obviously going to congregate around sites of 'power' and prestige. As for their state of ruin in general, I think it's easy to forget just how ancient the ancient world can be. It's the same thing that comes up in Origins; there's longer between the building of the pyramids and when Origins is set than there is between that setting and the present day.
Wanted to give X-Com Enemy Unknown another shot. I always start each new game with a customized ‘good luck soldier’, who’s often managed to be the MVP of each game. Thought switching it to ‘Classic’ wouldn’t be too tough with my good luck charm leading the pack.
She has completely fallen apart thus far.
She’s been horribly injured twice. While the rest of the team have surprisingly good accuracy, this soldier’s aim has been absolutely dreadful. While previous games saw her dodging enemy overwatch consistently, she seems to be a complete bullet magnet this round. Everyone seems to panicking a lot more in general too.
The surprising thing is that ‘Classic’ on Enemy Unknown seems somehow easier than ‘Normal’ on UFO Defense. Still, the Dwarf Fortress mindset is keeping it fun.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/28 19:00:03
Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD!
On Chapter 2 of Red Dead Redemption 2, just starting to explore the world and such. Chapter 1 was straight up hand holding/tutorial, as is the norm, so I’m looking forward to stretch my legs so to speak.
The game is gorgeous and the gunplay has been alright, I’ve just never been a fan of Playstation controllers and I get progressively worse at shooters as the years go by. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it with more practice.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
nels1031 wrote: On Chapter 2 of Red Dead Redemption 2, just starting to explore the world and such. Chapter 1 was straight up hand holding/tutorial, as is the norm, so I’m looking forward to stretch my legs so to speak.
The game is gorgeous and the gunplay has been alright, I’ve just never been a fan of Playstation controllers and I get progressively worse at shooters as the years go by. I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it with more practice.
I've been watching a playthrough (don't have a PS7plus amateur edition or whatever). It's interesting. I can see a lot of potential there (and a lot of familiar subsystems), but some of it... textures and animation quality are unexpectedly weak in places. Watching someone carefully take a horse by the lead, then 'use' a hitching post and watch the lead just suddenly 'rubber-band' to a new position is oddly disappointing.
The gunplay, too, is oddly bland. Getting shot in a firefight looks so unimpactful I've seen players not even notice they've been shot... multiple times, even to the point of standing in the open and just taking it. But the 'five finger fillet' game is disturbingly visceral and a little creepy, makes me want to nope on out of watching.
While the story looks somewhat interesting, you apparently can't save and stop if you're in the middle of a quest, upon loading you have to restart a mission from the beginning, which is really annoying, especially on anything that is teaching game mechanics (like buying/selling horses, or hunting legendary animals). And these mini-tutorials continue well into chapter 2.
So far, not all that impressed. Horse handling feels cumbersome and after a few more shootouts, the shooting is definitely bland and not a fan of the camera. Not sure exactly how I feel about it, at this point. Was expecting better to be honest. I still have urges to play it for some reason, so maybe it will grow on me.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
I also don't like the way they've handled the main character. He has a distinct history and personality (though the latter is fairly wretched), but he's...generally agreeable in a vicious, murderous way.
I know some of it is to allow the player to make moral decisions, but he honestly comes off as a respectful, honorable, torturing murderer. Which is to say, not having any sort of moral dimension or personality at all. He's just up for whatever.
His most notable trait is disliking many of his companions, while failing to note that he isn't any different. This dislike is particularly aimed at the young version of the protagonist from the first game (this is a prequel), for reasons, even once articulated,* aren't very compelling.
*and the game has a problem with the 'will explain later' trope. Hours in (and literally months later in game), and still no one will share what exactly happened to put the group in their starting state.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/10/29 02:24:08
From a few gameplay videos I've seen, RDR2 just looks like they've put too much game into the game. The attention to detail in the look of the world is one thing, but did anyone who played the last one really want a mandatory Survival Mode? Did they want to have to worry about separate systems for cleaning their clothes, body, guns and horse? Did they want to have to worry about whether their coat was too warm or cold, or if they'd eaten the right type of porridge that morning?
It just seems a really odd choice when the last one had a pretty much laser-focus on moving you from mission to mission, story beat to story beat nice and quick. Sure, you had to trek a bit to get to each start location, but that was as slow-paced as it got. If anything, there was too little to do outside of those missions and the Stranger tasks.
But nonetheless, I'd take that over a Kingdom Come: Deliverance style 'realism'. It just seems odd to constantly interrupt a game like that with these little tedious things. Sure, an 'immersive' mode that you could turn on or off would be fine, but to have it as a fundamental part of the game looks like it bloats things far too much (and I say that as someone who's usually a massive fan of 'full' open world games in the vein of AC or Spidey).
It also seems from the gameplay videos I've seen that people weren't expecting this element at all, which I guess makes sense when you had 8 years of hype but barely any actual gameplay to look at. I bet if they'd announced this sort of stuff ahead of time people would have been a lot less keen in the first place.
And yeah, Arthur Morgan just seems like a thoroughly unlikable bastard. I didn't always like John Marston, but at least he generally did the right thing and shot the right people in the end.
I've been playing xcom 2: long war oddly. It's tough in different ways but it takes forever. Right now i have no issues with the current enemies for the most part but the big issue is avatar progress. I can handle it on hardest on ironman in xcom 2 vanilla but this is 2nd hardest on long war on ironman. It's a bit tough to know all i gotta do. Strategy map is harder in long war.
Playing RDR2 a lot, loving it.. but one thing that really is starting to bug me a little is you can't be a good guy. I usually like to do the "good" options whenever I can, but it seems like whenever i do, the next mission I have is the complete opposite like breaking someone out of jail and having to murder everyone in town to finish the mission. Or beat the tinkle out of someone who owes the gang money, then go back to camp and take a kid on a nice fishing trip down by the river. I wish there was a way to tell if a mission was going to be more of a bad guy mission before you take it, usually you don't even know things are gonna go bad until you're halfway through, and by then it's too late.
Also, my girlfriend caught me murdering and skinning a poor defenseless bunny and made me swear to never do it again.
After getting deeper into RDR2, I can say my initial misgivings are gone. This game is pretty awesome. I’m still not too deep into the story, but I explored quite a bit of the world and did some random missions. Still have a few minor complaints, but I’m having a blast.
"Sometimes the only victory possible is to keep your opponent from winning." - The Emperor, from The Outcast Dead.
"Tell your gods we are coming for them, and that their realms will burn as ours did." -Thostos Bladestorm
Medieval: Total War, finally trying to win the campaign for the first time. Playing as Spain. I have 36 turns left to conquer about 25 territories. Not sure I am going to be able to do it.
JSF wrote:... this is really quite an audacious move by GW, throwing out any pretext that this is a game and that its customers exist to do anything other than buy their overpriced products for the sake of it. The naked arrogance, greed and contempt for their audience is shocking.
Been playing through a variety of older games since I got my new laptop.
Dark Souls 3: Cool game, some really fun parts to it. Overall quality very consistent
Dark Souls 1: Went and replayed it as a pyromancer and a sorcerer.
Shadow of Mordor: Finally got round to this. Fun, but repetative and the nemesis system ended up being less cool than I hoped. Still, worth the six quid I paid for it!
Now I am playing the Witcher 2. Actually really enjoying it, even though I had seen some negative reviews (this seems to be a theme for me!).
Once I finish that, gonna give either Warhammer Total War or Witcher 3 a go. Divinity is also on the list.
Just started up another game of Mass Effect: Andromeda.
And in related news...
On the odd chance that anyone was still holding out hope for an immediate continuation of the story, the newest Mass Effect novel is covering the story of what happened to the Quarian ark. And with that, the last immediate dangling plot hook from the game is addressed. Presumably, the story would have been covered in a DLC. But since no additional single-player levels were released, it got a novel instead.
Also, for N7 Day (November 7th), Bioware releeased a graphics update for the game to improve the graphics on the XBox One X.
Faithful... Enlightened... Ambitious... Brethren... WE NEED A NEW DRIVER! THIS ONE IS DEAD! 
Shadowkeepers (4000 points)
3rd Company (3000 points) 
