The season of CRPGs continues for me, and I’ve started Divinity: Original Sin 2.
I didn’t go with a custom character, but chose to play as Beast instead, because dwarven supremacy of course (also it seems like I’m actually working towards that). While it doesn’t really fit with his whole vibe, I went with a Summoner build. Playing around the different surfaces, so your summons get different elemental buffs, is pretty neat.
As for the story, I finished Act 1 yesterday and made it to the mainland. I like that there are a bunch of mods integrated in the game, but it sucks that those also disable achievements, so you gotta re-enable those with a different mod. I activated a few QoL ones, like faster movement speed out of combat, which is a lifesaver, or a repec mirror in Act 1, which let me try out some stuff. It’s kinda weird that that second one isn’t added by default, considering you get a permanent(?) repec mirror after you leave the island.
Anyway, I’m having a lot of fun and this turn-based combat is definitely more up my alley than RTwP.
BG3 started my current run of CRPGs, but I was already familiar with Larian and D:OS. I played through the first one and about halfway through the second when it originally came out. I didn’t remember Beast at all, so I got no idea what his default build is. However, for some reason back then I also decided to completely ignore the origin companions, because I didn’t want to deal with their personal quests, and just roll with a party of four custom characters, so maybe I just never met him.
I’m not using the Summoner changes from the gift pack and haven’t looked too much into builds or min-maxing, just some basics. At first I wanted to go Summoner / Necromancy, so maybe I can have more minions, but I guess you can have only one “real” minion active at a time, so I got away from that (also Necro wants Warfare I guess, so that’s out anyway).
My guess is that 7800X3D is a mistake, and they mean a 7700 or 7700X. I’ve seen an image of one of the devs, who initially made the post to check your CPU cooler, where it was edited to an 7800 (which doesn’t exist).
This is still pretty beefy, but not like “you need the best gaming CPU” beefy. A comparable, Ryzen 5000 8+ core CPU is probably going to work too, so something like a 5800X, 5900X, etc. Ryzen 3000 might be too old already, but I’m just speculating here.
Didn’t Witcher 3 go through the same thing, with their Next-Gen Update? I think they let you go back to the old version on that one. If that’s the case here, this is pretty much a non-issue.
It would still suck, if you were able to run the game before, but after a patch you can’t play anymore. I’d hope you can switch back to the old version, which would render this “outrage” completely moot.
I was close to the end last week, but I’ve finally finished Pillars of Eternity. It only took 8 years. I’ll not start with the expansions right away, but to do them I’ll have to load a save before the final dungeon, which kinda sucks.
I’m also taking a break from Quake 2 currently, although not by choice. It’s because of a bug halfway through the second mission pack, Ground Zero, where my game would crash consistently. Maybe restarting the level could help, but I’ll just wait. An internet comment I read mentioned that the devs are aware, and it’ll get fixed in a patch, hopefully that’ll happen soon.
Next, I finished two more games, first Shadowrun Returns. It wasn’t that good. I’m not a big fan of tactical turn-based RPGs, and this game didn’t help. As for the story, it’s like they got two completely separate scripts and stuck them together. After like two thirds or something, the game takes a sharp turn and goes completely off the rails. The first part was really clichéd and predictable, but I still enjoyed it, and I wish it could have ended there. The “class” I chose also sucked, I guess, a melee hacker (or Decker in this universe). The hacking is 90% useless in the game, and melee feels like it’s just massively disadvantaged, compared to ranged attacks. The game is also a bit buggy at times and the UI can be really clunky. I don’t think I’ll play the other two games in this trilogy unless I get really into TRPGs in the future.
The final game I finished was Katana Zero, which was a bit mediocre, with some bright spots. It’s an action side-scroller where you need to kill every enemy in a room, without getting hit, to move forward. Dying resets the current room, and you have to start from the beginning, à la Super Meat Boy. However, there was a bit too much randomness in enemy placement and movement, to really get that perfect run done. The story could be interesting, but I didn’t like the way it was told at all, however I did like the dialog system. When talking to someone you get a timed response, which you can hit, while the other is still talking, interrupting them, or wait for them to finish and choose from a few options. I really liked that. The game also looks great and has very good music. It’s pretty short, I clocked out after less than four hours, but you’re supposed to play through it at least twice I guess, because of the story. I didn’t care for the basic gameplay enough, so I’m fine with just my single run.
I finished Quake 2: The Reckoning, the first expansion pack for Quake 2, and started with the second one, Ground Zero. Just like the expansions for Quake 1, it’s pretty much just more Quake. A few new or changed enemies, some new weapons, and I was blasting my way through the Strogg. Just like the base game, I played on Hard, and it’s not really that difficult, much easier than Quake 1. The biggest difference is that you get tons of ammo in Quake 2, so you’re never completely running out.
In Pillars of Eternity, I’m almost done with the second Act, so hopefully I can finish the game in the next couple of days. I don’t think I’ll immediately go into the White March expansion. I got about 100h combined with this and Baldurs Gate 1, these last few weeks, so I want a break from RTwP games. Like I mentioned last week, everything feels much smoother here than Baldurs Gate was, so I’m enjoying it a lot more. The AI pathing is still complete trash though.
I’m probably not the right person to ask these things.
The game doesn’t have official controller support, according to the Steam Store page, so you’d have to map controller buttons to KBM. There’s a guide on Steam, so I guess you can play it that way, but I don’t know how good it is.
As for the rules, I’ve only barely scratched the surface for anything D&D related, so I can’t really know or compare. To me, it’s complicated, but it offers more information about everything. Keywords in tooltips are highlighted, so you can either click or mouse over, for further explanation about something. There’s a log, that can show rolls, but I’ve barely used it. RTwP with often 10+ characters in a fight, there is just so much spam. The basics for 5e from BG3 felt extremely easy to understand, even for me. Just like BGEE, I’m going through PoE basically higher number better (ignoring that THAC0 stuff in BGEE), and it’s working, although with lots of save scumming.
I haven’t played the game, only been watching a streamer play it, but I think arguments like “it’s boring on purpose” are dumb.
Trying to convey the vastness of space and how small you are seems also somewhat undermined, if you’re just constantly fast traveling everywhere, and it seems like you’re made out to be the most important person in the universe, since everyone is screwed without you, but that’s just most games.
For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
Some coop games, like Battleblock Theater or Magicka, were definitely the most funny for me, with all the dumb stuff you can do, fuck with your friends, etc. but those depend on the people you play with. With friends, every game can become super funny though, even more serious stuff.
As for single player, the ones I remember the most were Donut County and maybe the Frog Detective games, those had some really funny moments and writing.
I’m watching a streamer play the game, and what I see looks like I’d have some fun, and others probably feel the same way.
I’m just not interested in playing at like 30fps on a 3080. Maybe some patches or driver updates can improve things and I’ll check it out in the Steam Winter Sale or something.
That’s exactly what I have, but I play on 3840x1600, 24:10 Ultrawide.
I don’t remember BG3 giving me any problems, even in Act 3, before the last patch, that supposedly addresses some performance problems. I loaded up a save just now and get ~50fps running around in the Lower City (very short test, only like two minutes). That’s with most settings maxed and DLSS Quality.
Depending on the area, I’d probably get similar numbers in Starfield (according to the benchmarks I’ve seen), but for me, it’s a difference playing an FPS or isometric RPG.
With resolution scaling it doesn’t matter if you’re using AMD or Nvidia, it’s doing the same thing and looks the same on both vendors.
If your GPU supports it (RTX cards), you can mod DLSS into the game and then get (supposedly) better image quality, on the same level of scaling as the non-modded FSR2, or potentially lowering the scaling even more, for better performance, while still getting a comparable image as a higher FSR2 preset.
In Starfield the 13900K is 20% better than the best AMD offering, the 7800X3D. Even the 13600K is better than any AMD CPU. A 13100 is on the same level as the 5800X3D. I wouldn’t call that just a slight advantage.
It’s only this game right now, that’s why I’m saying something might be up.
An opinion is always subjective, the opposite of objective. Reviews are also always subjective. There is no such thing as an objective review. This also means it can’t be unbiased, because a reviewers’ opinion will of course always be influenced by their experiences and stuff going on in their lives or the world.
I finished Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition, it was ok. I kinda brute-forced my way through the game, basically only doing physical damage, only using one or two healers (who were shooting at range most of the time). The game had a bunch of really unfun mechanics, that I didn’t like at all, so I’m not sure if I’ll play any of the other Infinity Engine games.
I also finished the Quake 2 base game and started with the first expansion. Like I said last week, I definitely like the sci-fi environment more than the medieval one in Quake 1 and the weapons are better as well.
Despite being a bit disappointed with BGEE, I still want to play a CRPG right now, so I was going back and forth between a few different ones. In the end I started Pillars of Eternity again, hoping to finally finish it, at least the base story. This was actually my first RTwP game, and I played it years ago, the last time in 2018, when I actually made it to the final dungeon and I think the actual last boss fight of the (base) game, but stopped for some reason. Anyway, I’ll give it another shot, and so far I like the gameplay a lot more than Baldur’s Gate 1. The game is much more recent of course, although it was only released three years after the Enhanced Edition. Everything feels just much smoother. For a change, I’m playing a wizard this time (BG3 and BGEE I mainly used physical damage, either melee or ranged, 80% of the time).
I’m not blaming the Infinity Engine, just the systems that are used in BG, although I have no idea how much comes from the D&D rules, and how much was Bioware. I would have thought all those games use very similar rules, but I don’t really know.
At least in the first game, I didn’t encounter too many problems. Of course there are a bunch of mages, that just regularly cast Feeblemind or another “stun” on my whole party, but that’s where the brute forcing came into play. I’d either reload a bunch of times, until I got lucky with the rolls, or occasionally split up the party, so just the unimportant characters would get hit, and my main character would clean up the fight. Three fights were a bit harder, so I chugged potions and used buffs (the two demons from the Durlag’s Tower story and the final boss).
In the mid 2000s I played the beginning of Neverwinter Nights, and remember liking it, but not really anything else about the game. Back then, I definitely didn’t know what D&D was. I always wanted to try it again, but now, after BG, I’d read up about it a bit before I give it a shot.
Planescape Torment was also something I regularly thought about playing, mainly because I read so much about how you can just talk yourself through most conflicts, so if you play your cards right, you can get away with little fighting. But just like Neverwinter, I’d have to read up on the systems they use before I decide.
For your second fight, you can actually get above all the enemies (there’s a platform, to access some other parts of the map) and just completely break the AI, because they can’t get to you. I don’t remember if the slaves even joined the fight, but they all survived.
You can use this “tactic” in multiple locations, if you’re not above cheesing fights. If the enemy doesn’t have a ranged attack, or have no easy way to get to you, they just run in circles.
spoileryou can either jump to a small outcropping down below, near the “entrance” of the big room, where the slaves are, or on the other side of the map, are a bunch of dwarves trying to go through yet another wall (these have like two goats with them), and go from there.
Wait, I just played the Quake Remaster in the last 12 months, and all the expansions/addons/DLC/whatever are included.
If I remember correctly, if you launch (through Steam), you either choose the remaster or the old versions, each being a different “game,” but in the remaster you can just start the expansion episodes inside the game, no need to launch anything else.
Quake 64 is also included I think, as well as the newer episodes by Machine Games.
NWN being based on a different D&D edition definitely makes it more appealing, so I’ll try to check it out someday.
I have the two Owlcat Pathfinder games, but haven’t played them yet, but I’ve heard good things about them (also they have a turn-based mode I think, which is nice).
I’m going on a rant here, but my biggest gripe with D&D video games, and part of the reason I didn’t really use them in my BGEE playthrough, are the limited spell slots for casters (especially since you fight constantly). In theory (I think) the best way would be to just go all out, each and every fight and just rest afterward to recharge. I think that’s just really dumb. Why even have the limited slots in the first place? BGEE definitely felt like this, since resting is free, only coming with a chance to get ambushed (which you can just save scum, but these small fights aren’t difficult anyway). It’s probably more fun that way as well, since you can actually do stuff, and not just play a really slow hack-and-slash game. BG3 was a bit better, since you get the cantrips, that you can freely use. It incentivized Long Rests anyway because of all the events, but that’s another story. Pillars of Eternity is pretty nice, since it has a bunch of Spells and Abilities, that you can use per Encounter, so you get the fun of actually doing things, but don’t have to constantly worry about the limited slots.
In theory, yes, but maybe not all cantrips are created equal.
For some reason, in my playthrough I ignored Wyll for the most part, so I didn’t really play as a Warlock, and didn’t experience Eldritch Blast. I only took him with me for the resolution of his quest at the very end, and was very pleasantly surprised how potent it can become (when you buff it during level ups).
Compared to that, stuff like Sacred Flame and Fire Bolt can feel a bit lacking and boring, although they can work for mopping up the goons everywhere and saving spell slots for the bigger fights.
Most of the video games I’ve played were pretty good. The only one I can think of that I didn’t like was MySims Kingdom for the Nintendo DS. Dropped that pretty quickly. It was a long while ago, but I’ll guess it was because there were too many fetch quests and annoying controls.
Games usually have to grab me pretty quickly, or I just drop them, so I don’t play a lot of unfun games for a long time.
Some exceptions were Final Fantasy 13, and to some extent the most of the Trails series (Trails in the Sky and Cold Steel).
Final Fantasy 13 I just tried a bunch of times, put in a combined 40h over the course of like three attempts, I don’t know why, but it was just mediocre at best. During the final one last year, I made it about halfway through, and actually got turned off from gaming altogether for a few months. The story sucked, as well as the characters. I thought the combat could be interesting, even with the auto-battles, since you’d have to decide what “stance” your characters were in, but it was just lame for the most part.
The Trails series is a bit different. I actually liked the gameplay (turn-based JRPG combat is fun), but the story and especially the villains are just complete garbage. Two years ago, before Cold Steel 4 came out on PC, I sat down and played through all the games in like two months. While Trails in the Sky is trash, I was actually surprised to really, really like Zero and (to a little bit lesser extent) Azure. Those gave me hope, but Trails of Cold Steel just goes back to being terrible. I might still go back and play Cold Steel 4 and whatever other games continue or maybe finally finish the story, just because I’ve invested too much time at this point.
Finished Baldur’s Gate 3, Act 3 was much buggier than I thought. Still had a great time and want to do another playthrough in a year or two, once most of the bugs are fixed.
Started Quake 2, the recently released Enhanced version. It’s fun, I like the weapons more than in Quake 1, the Super Shotgun can actually kill stuff now. I also prefer the sci-fi environments more than the medieval ones in the first game.
Lastly, I randomly decided to give Baldur’s Gate 1 a shot, after I finished the third one. I never really played it or any of the other old Infinity Engine games before, although I got all the Steam releases years ago. I’m playing as a Half-Orc Fighter, named Big Stick, who goes around whacking stuff with a big stick (a quarterstaff). The game is ok so far, nothing spectacular. I’m still really early, only chapter 2, and I’m just travelling around everywhere I can, bonking stuff until it explodes, and helping people in need.
Last act of Baldurs Gate 3. Damn, does this game have a ton of stuff in it.
The third act is a bit of a disappointment though, compared to the first two. Not necessarily the storylines, or environment, but parts just seem unfinished, more glitches and bugs with quests, which is par for the course for Larian games I guess. It’s still great, and I’m thinking about doing a second playthrough eventually, but probably not before the Definitive or Enhanced Edition release in a year or something.
I hope to finish it in the next couple of days, then play the recently released Quake 2 Enhanced release as a palate cleanser, before jumping into the next bigger game.
I’m playing BG3 right now, and am thinking about giving D:OS2 another shot. I played it around release and got off the first island, but stopped after that. Although, maybe I should wait a bit more, so I don’t get burned out so soon on this type of game.
Because of scheduling conflicts, I wasn’t able to continue my coop playthrough with a friend until today, so I started a solo campaign, and put in about 40 hours last week.
Because I’ve only seen people falling over themselves, talking about how this game is the second coming of Christ, here a few relatively minor issues I have with it.
The camera is terrible. There’s constantly something in the way and the game isn’t smart enough to know that I don’t really want to move to the stalactite thirty meters above me, just because it was in my way in the middle of the screen. Cramped spaces are probably the worst, walls everywhere, and you have to do constant 180s with the camera to see every corner.
I usually don’t mind inventory management, but I hate it in this game. I’m definitely to blame as well, since I just pick up everything, but it’s always such a pain to organize through everything. The sorting options aren’t that good, and sometimes stuff feels completely random. Also, (unless I’m missing something) why can’t you access the inventory of your companions, that aren’t in your party?
Why is the pathing still ass in this game, it’s the third one Larian made in this style. My characters just love walking into traps (that I’ve discovered) or shit on the ground. It’s just really fun to micromanage four characters, just so they can get safely through a few mines or don’t take a 50 cm shortcut through a patch of fire. I think Divinity had at least an option to pause the game, when you found a trap, so you might have a chance to change the course, but this is missing in this game.
Lastly, I wish your companions were more involved, when you have a conversation with someone. I could be deciding the fate of the world with my choices, but Astarion is just T-posing behind me (not literally, but you get what I mean). At least an occasional line when the “X character approves / disapproves” notification pops up would be nice.
I still have a great time and enjoy the game, but some of these things have existed since the D:OS games, so it’s a shame they still aren’t improved.
I think I’ll take a break from Final Fantasy 14 for a while. The story was just so uninteresting for so long, that I just don’t want to continue right now. Everything else was good enough, the different jobs I tried were fun, but I just need to do something else.
Other than that, I started Baldurs Gate 3 with a friend, we are still relatively early, exploring the first region.
I’m good for a while, but I’ll probably go back to WoW eventually. It’s the only other MMO I’ve played (far more than FF14) and it’s basically comfort food for me. A bunch of friends also still play it, so that’s a plus as well.
With how little money they are asking for, this Kickstarter only seems like an interest check to me, and everything is already funded. So, unless the studio just implodes, the game will probably come out in one form or another. Of course, how good the game is going to be, is another question.
Still Final Fantasy 14, I’m near the end of the Stormblood base story (some general spoilers in the comment).
This expansion has been a massive disappointment so far, and this time it’s not even about all the time-wasting (of which there’s still plenty). It’s about a war to end the occupation of two different regions / nations, but it’s just not executed well at all.
The scale of the fights, that are supposed to drive out the invaders, have like a dozen people on either side, so they are just really lame. The villains are not compelling at all and have a really dumb reason for fighting you. Some of your companions, that should play a bigger role, basically don’t matter at all. It’s just not interesting at all.
I can’t wait for this to be over, hopefully the post-game patch content can improve things somewhat. I should at least get a bunch of dungeon unlocks, probably a raid, maybe more, which will most likely be a good time.
As for jobs I’ve played this week, at the start all Summoner, to get it to 80, afterward I switched to Dancer. Both are really fun and I liked them. I want to check out Red Mage a bit more, and have done some duties with it, but I need more practice with it. I leveled Dark Knight to ~50, but I’m just not really that much into playing tanks. I’ll do some duties here and there, but not much more for now. Same with healer, which I’m leveling a White Mage a bit, for now slowly trying to get it to 50.
Still Final Fantasy 14. I’m done with Heavensward, except some optional trials, which I’ll do before starting the next expansion.
I thought most of the post-patch story was either trash or extremely tedious. The conclusion to the Dragonsong War was generally alright, just everything leading up to it was a chore. The Warriors of Darkness story felt like complete filler and a waste of time. After that is the stuff that leads into the next expansion, so I’ll have to see how that plays out.
Imma be honest, I’m really close to just starting to skip most of the story, it’s such a drag sometimes.
I feel like every couple of years or so it changes, when the game supposedly gets good.
When I first played two years ago, everyone just said ARR is a slog, just get to Heavensward. Now I read occasionally that Heavensward still isn’t when it starts to get good (and I’ve seen the extremely boring stuff for myself).
Soon people might say the same thing about Stormblood. “Just get to Shadowbringers.”
The base HW story and the first few patches to finish the Nidhogg stuff were good, except for a lot of those extremely tedious quests, that constantly send you to the other end of the world. It didn’t take a lot of time, since you can just teleport everywhere, it’s just super boring. As far as I’ve gathered from comments, that just the type of game this is though and I gotta accept that.
I like generally the combat and would like to do more (during normal quests), but instead I just often queue for duties, so I just get nothing done.
More Final Fantasy 14. I’ve started the Heavensward post-game content (I guess you can call it that?).
I’m done with all the optional dungeons and raids you unlock after the base story, and now I’m continuing with the story quests that were added in later patches. There’s just so much time-wasting, back and forth bullshit, that it’s just a chore, though. Start quest in town A, go to town B for a short cutscene, go to town C for another short cutscene, go back to town A for yet another cutscene. Since you can teleport everywhere by this point, it doesn’t take long, but is just so boring. That’s why I’m constantly queuing for random dungeons and hang out in the Gold Saucer, basically avoiding the story.
As for classes, I’ve mainly played Reaper, which is fun, and today started trying out Dancer, and had a good time as well.
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 24th
New thread!...
deleted_by_author
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 17th
New thread!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 10th
New thread!...
Starfield's planets aren't all interesting, but they're not all "supposed to be Disney World" (www.vg247.com) angielski
You'll probably find that a lot of planets in Starfield are pretty boring, but Bethesda says that's kind of the point.
What's the funniest game you've played? angielski
For me it’s probably Jazzpunk, but I liked Disco Elysium too. I’ve been looking for something to scratch that “Jazzpunk surrealist comedy itch” for a while and not many games have come even close.
Starfield's Numbers Surge in Early Access - Insider Gaming (insider-gaming.com) angielski
Starfield's numbers have swollen in early access on streaming and gaming platforms - and the global release is yet to take place.
What would you be interested in out of a modern games focused journalism outlet? angielski
Hey Fediverse -...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of September 3rd
New thread! Whatcha all playing! I’ve been playing more blasphemous 2. Really really into it 🙏
Not counting games that were unfun because of bugs, what’s the most unfun video game that you’ve played and what made it unfun? (kbin.cafe) angielski
Most of the video games I’ve played were pretty good. The only one I can think of that I didn’t like was MySims Kingdom for the Nintendo DS. Dropped that pretty quickly. It was a long while ago, but I’ll guess it was because there were too many fetch quests and annoying controls.
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 27th
New thread! Whatch’a all playing!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 20th
Another week another thread. Whatcha y’all playing? And why is it Baldur’s gate 3?
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 13th
Forgot to post this yesterday oops :)...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 6th angielski
Hey all! Another weekly thread is here....
What incremental games do you enjoy? angielski
I recently played through universal Paperclips. It was okay, looking for more to try.
Ratatan Kickstarter campaign launched (www.gematsu.com)
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of July 30th
Whatcha all playing!...
deleted_by_author
deleted_by_author