I have a really complicated relationship with FFXV because while it’s an objectively pretty bad game, I enjoyed it way more than I reasonably should for a game of its quality. Maybe it was the fishing minigame.
I absolutely agree with the overambition being one of the downfalls of the game. They wanted to go too big and create some kind of multimedia “experience” where you had a movie, a novel and many many DLCs to spread the content over.
The end result is an empty shell of a game, and even after watching the movie first and pausing the main story at the appropriate points to play the DLCs (I didn’t play on launch and bought the complete edition), I was still missing context and having beats not land because apparently crucial backstory was meant to be told through the Lunafreya DLC that never got released because the game did poorly.
I have less experience with BG1 than BG2 since I don’t find myself itching to replay it as often. I did do a full playthrough of it five or so years ago, though. Not Enhanced Edition, though.
The encounter design really does feel aged and it can often be a case of the developers unfun/poor encounter design versus your attempts to cheese it. Line of sight/Fog of War abuse, stacking Skull Traps etc. There is also the tried and true method of blocking physical access to your team by a horde of summons and pelting away with arrows. Arrow of Dispelling is particularly powerful.
While I wasn’t hugely excited about Mitsoda’s thin-blood idea, I’m even less excited about being an awakened Elder. Also, knowing the heart and soul of the original will be missing does not fill me with optimism.
The content of the trailer gives me nothing to work with really, either. It will have first-person action combat, that’s about it, and it’s the last thing anyone excited for a Bloodlines sequel would care about.
I know characters, writing and atmosphere can be hard to get across in a trailer but I would have liked something more. The previous trailer at least had similar undertones to the first game, you could tell it had some of the same people involved and it gave me some optimism.
It Paradox wanted me to get me on board for this attempt they could have at least used one of Rik Schaffer’s new tracks for the trailer, but I assume he has been scrapped too.
Fallout 1 & 2 are absolutely phenomenal classic games, but they are very old school (they’re 90’s releases, after all) so you have to be up for that. Not just graphically, but game design too. If you’re okay with that, they’re really worthwhile experiences, and I might even prefer Fallout 2 over unmodded New Vegas.
As is usually the case with games from this era, look for the unofficial patch and the Restoration Project, too.
There are people who have hungered for a new Bethesda Game^TM for almost a decade, and Starfield will ladle out another big helping, and I’m happy for them that they have many hours of enjoyment coming.
I’m just, kind of full, when it comes to that dish.
Yeah I feel this too with games that really hit me. You get so invested in your character and your playthrough that you don’t want to let go of your save, so instead of committing down the last stretch of main quest you maybe boot it up, scrounge out a fight somewhere or do some small remaining side quest, then run around town mindlessly a bit and shut down the game.
I had that happen with Cyberpunk earlier this year and I’m feeling it starting to set in with BG3. The allure of a second playthrough is stronger here, though, so that might help me stay the course.
Patch 2 came out yesterday and was supposed to address some Act 3 issues. Have you played since then? I’ve also noticed some bugs in Act 3 but nothing gamebreaking thankfully.
Epic narratives have their place, but if you follow the 5E rules they don’t work well mechanically.
Fighting actual Gods in D&D should be fairly comfortable for a party of level 20 characters, which is part of the problem. The way the scaling of character power compared to enemy power works, fighting a group of goblins on the dirt road as a level 1 party is magnitudes more challenging than fighting an actual God as a level 20 party.
Was it the engine or the ruleset? It’s widely accepted that D&D 5E is sorta hot garbage at higher levels so I was assuming that’s what Larian was referring to.
That would explain it, though not make it any less poorly designed. I also picked her up just at the very end of Act 1 and already had plenty of the item needed.
The romances could do with a bit of an overhaul, in my opinion. Feels like several of them have weird pacing, and so many characters go from 0-100 in the blink of an eye. You say a single affirmation to Halsin and he acts like he’s been in love with you his whole life and you’re soulmates. Dude, I just offered you a drink at a celebration out of common courtesy.
With every other NPC being so horny it’s actually been refreshing to have Karlach just behave like a buddy in my playthrough, but in general for the Karlach romance to be so fiddly you need to follow a guide to not lock yourself out of it just sounds… poorly implemented.
I would have been interested in seeing it but my save was completely hardlocked out of it. In contrast to basically every other character she never ever came on to me (middle of Act 3 currently).
I must have done something in the wrong order, I’ve heard others have had trouble with it as well.
I remember the time when I was really excited about this game. The original writer and composer were both returning, it looked so promising. But we all know what happened, and after Rik Schaffer himself said the soul of the project left when Brian Mitsoda was fired my expectations are firmly settled at the bottom.