Torment has some fantastic writing and world building wrapped around some jank-ass combat.
So, a very good spiritual sequel to Planescape.
Pillars 2 is hands down better than 1 and the clear successor to Baldurs Gate / Icewind Dale. (I loved 1&2). Definitely read a quick guide on how the combat works and the base stats.
Wasteland 2 & 3 are the direct spiritual successors to Fallout 1 & 2, good and bad. Writing can be iffy and overall juvenile. Also the most old school 'you can make bad characters'.
Divinity 2 is leaps and bounds better than 1. They both have an inventory/ item reliance problem and the writing swings from generic to charming. Combat can be long. The game absolutely expects you to cheese stuff and rewards you for it.
Tyranny has good writing an a somewhat novel concept. The combat is love it or hate it but I enjoyed it well enough.
Solasta is d&d 5e. Take the good with the bad there. It's very simulationist and the writing bounces between passable to bad.
I actually went the opposite way because I felt like I could make a much better frontliner than what is provided.
But the magic system is very cool. I wish there was a little more to it, but still fun.
Edit - tyranny also does a nice thing where you gain either respect or hatred with all the factions as well as your companions. And you get bonuses either way. At certain stages of respect/friendship or hatred/fear you unlock exclusive abilities and bonuses. Nice to be rewarded instead of just punished or missing out. Especially for a game where it is basically impossible to keep everyone happy.
My formula for enjoying Tyranny was to break the spell crafting system wide open, making progressively sillier and more powerful spells. Early game combat was a little tough because your tank isn't sticky enough yet to prevent all the baddies from running past and whomping on your squishy backliners. Eventually, though, the spell crafting system, if properly abused, allows for crazy 100' AoE spells that knockdown all your enemies at the start of combat and then maybe set them on fire or pound them with lightning for a bit while your melee folks start dispatching them. Very satisfying.
The Pathfinder games (Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous) deserve a mention. They are the best of the new wave at capturing the feeling of playing Baldur’s Gate.
Kingmaker was buggy on release and got patched into good shape. Wrath is a few months along in the same process.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Edit - tyranny also does a nice thing where you gain either respect or hatred with all the factions as well as your companions. And you get bonuses either way. At certain stages of respect/friendship or hatred/fear you unlock exclusive abilities and bonuses. Nice to be rewarded instead of just punished or missing out. Especially for a game where it is basically impossible to keep everyone happy.
Dragon Age 2 does a similar thing, and while it is inarguably better than just "Be nice to person for bonuses", it does also just end up becoming "Decide whether you're going to be nice or not to this character and do not deviate from that"
Forgot about pathfinder. Pathfinder definitely can be a fun time, however it is hands down the game that I will say you absolutely must read guides and explanations. It holds true to the book rules enough that making an absolute dogshit character on accident due to trap choices is reasonably likely.
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 lately and while it is definitely improved in both writing and gameplay from the first one, I'm in the tail end of it and the story just gets so absolutely boring.
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
Thumped the Illusionary corrupted monk in Sekiro, finally. Resorted to just abusing snap seeds, firecrackers and ash to the face to chain stunlock her.
Very, very amused that Sekiro can justl earn stuff by reading, so he's like "oh, so that's how you breathe underwater forever. Pretty easy". Like mate, that's all it took to solve things?
Thumped the Illusionary corrupted monk in Sekiro, finally. Resorted to just abusing snap seeds, firecrackers and ash to the face to chain stunlock her.
There's no abusing anything in Sekiro, just using your tools.
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 lately and while it is definitely improved in both writing and gameplay from the first one, I'm in the tail end of it and the story just gets so absolutely boring.
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
you can at least tell the gods to fuck off constantly
Tried out Exo One, a very Flower-esque game of navigating planets as an orb/disc that can alter its gravity at will.
I was really enjoying it, up until this asteroid belt level where I can see that they want me to slingshot around, but it's just kinda miserable and frustrating. Been a while since I've had a garbage tier level tank my interest in a game, it's a shame.
This was definitely the hardest level; I got past it with the same speed-up=through-valleys mechanism as everywhere else, though it was definitely more annoying there because I had to learn the shape of the second asteroid to know what was coming up (where on the other levels I could just look forwards to see where the next dip would be). Apparently the recent update "adds more geysers" on that level which should make it easier? Not sure, I haven't tried that version of it myself because apparently there's a level chooser coming up so then I can skip to that one.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 lately and while it is definitely improved in both writing and gameplay from the first one, I'm in the tail end of it and the story just gets so absolutely boring.
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
you can at least tell the gods to fuck off constantly
Yeah but that's a bit hollow when you still gotta keep doing their shit for them
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PiptheFairFrequently not in boats.Registered Userregular
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 lately and while it is definitely improved in both writing and gameplay from the first one, I'm in the tail end of it and the story just gets so absolutely boring.
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
you can at least tell the gods to fuck off constantly
Yeah but that's a bit hollow when you still gotta keep doing their shit for them
absolutely fair, but it's still cathartic to tell a bunch of divine babies to eat shit
I had a lot of fun playing a character in tyranny with a javelin and shield. the throwing abilities are pretty great, and there's a very fitting ability from the rebel path as well
I've been playing Divinity Original Sin 2 lately and while it is definitely improved in both writing and gameplay from the first one, I'm in the tail end of it and the story just gets so absolutely boring.
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
I really enjoyed Divinity Original Sin 2 a lot, but the story, especially the side stories, tended towards grim dark worst scenario that it stopped losing its impact really quick. I would just start thinking of the worst way something could end and more often than not I was right.
I also felt the gear scaling was a little silly, as it ramps up to the point why by the endgame equipment that is even a level lower than your level becomes obsolete due to how much the numbers increase.
That game let me blow a sex worker's mind as a skeletal lizard and that's frankly a bar of This Feels Like Actual Tabletop that few RPGs manage to hit. Even back in the old days CRPGs were bad at actually conveying what a TTRPG (that they were based on) session felt like, and that's not gotten any better now that RPG just means "numbers go up".
Yeah I just never clicked with the world or the characters of anyone outside of the main cast despite finding the game pretty enjoyable. I felt like my actual goal was always "circle the map exploiting available resources in the right order to complete quests" rather than actually having a goal of you know finding the dastardly so-and-so.
I mean it's still absolutely a top RPG for the amount that it allows you to do, but one of the reasons I'm excited for Baldur's Gate 3 is that I just think "Invasion by Mindflayers" seems like a cooler setting than the Sourcerer stuff.
Does GTAV ever explain the driving controls more like how to turn without spinning out and the like because the cars feel kind of terrible to control and I have no clue if that is just because I don't really know how to turn
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
There's a lot of Divinity that feels like a digital version of a D&D game to me, but I do not intend that as a compliment.
A lot of it is like, the idea of the weirdly permissive GM who will let you use your utility spells to do literally anything if you can come up with a half decent explanation as to how that might work. Which like, I get, I love those stories of beating a campaign villain with the right application of Grease, but when it gets coded into the game you end up with things still feeling weirdly rigid while also wanting you to come up with the "creative" solution.
Does GTAV ever explain the driving controls more like how to turn without spinning out and the like because the cars feel kind of terrible to control and I have no clue if that is just because I don't really know how to turn
The gta games went from really fun to drive to suddenly absolute shit in 5
Tried out Exo One, a very Flower-esque game of navigating planets as an orb/disc that can alter its gravity at will.
I was really enjoying it, up until this asteroid belt level where I can see that they want me to slingshot around, but it's just kinda miserable and frustrating. Been a while since I've had a garbage tier level tank my interest in a game, it's a shame.
This was definitely the hardest level; I got past it with the same speed-up=through-valleys mechanism as everywhere else, though it was definitely more annoying there because I had to learn the shape of the second asteroid to know what was coming up (where on the other levels I could just look forwards to see where the next dip would be). Apparently the recent update "adds more geysers" on that level which should make it easier? Not sure, I haven't tried that version of it myself because apparently there's a level chooser coming up so then I can skip to that one.
I'm on Xbox and didn't see any geysers so I assume that's coming soon. Good to know, I can shelve it temporarily, although I was trying to make it a one-sitting game, alas.
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It’s a great client, but I mostly use it within the house. I can be upstairs playing something gpu intensive that the MacBook can’t handle.
It’s much better then Steam streaming in terms of video compression. The image quality and input lag are both improved.
It does use a fair amount of bandwidth though, normally I’m doing 2560x1600@60hz and I have it set at 65mbps.
You could prob have it at 1080p or 720p and really lower the bandwidth but it’s still data heavy.
Torment has some fantastic writing and world building wrapped around some jank-ass combat.
So, a very good spiritual sequel to Planescape.
Pillars 2 is hands down better than 1 and the clear successor to Baldurs Gate / Icewind Dale. (I loved 1&2). Definitely read a quick guide on how the combat works and the base stats.
Wasteland 2 & 3 are the direct spiritual successors to Fallout 1 & 2, good and bad. Writing can be iffy and overall juvenile. Also the most old school 'you can make bad characters'.
Divinity 2 is leaps and bounds better than 1. They both have an inventory/ item reliance problem and the writing swings from generic to charming. Combat can be long. The game absolutely expects you to cheese stuff and rewards you for it.
Tyranny has good writing an a somewhat novel concept. The combat is love it or hate it but I enjoyed it well enough.
Solasta is d&d 5e. Take the good with the bad there. It's very simulationist and the writing bounces between passable to bad.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I actually went the opposite way because I felt like I could make a much better frontliner than what is provided.
But the magic system is very cool. I wish there was a little more to it, but still fun.
Edit - tyranny also does a nice thing where you gain either respect or hatred with all the factions as well as your companions. And you get bonuses either way. At certain stages of respect/friendship or hatred/fear you unlock exclusive abilities and bonuses. Nice to be rewarded instead of just punished or missing out. Especially for a game where it is basically impossible to keep everyone happy.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Kingmaker was buggy on release and got patched into good shape. Wrath is a few months along in the same process.
Dragon Age 2 does a similar thing, and while it is inarguably better than just "Be nice to person for bonuses", it does also just end up becoming "Decide whether you're going to be nice or not to this character and do not deviate from that"
Except for the fascists.
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Who knew retrieving a tie was so hazardous?
Ah. Playing the Berserker subclass
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Just let me play a petty little person with petty little goals. You give me these great premade characters with neat stories but then everything has to become reckoning with gods and the fate of the universe and I just want to actively reject that journey so bad, I just want to murder the man who made me his assassin-slave and then retire to a nice life in the country.
Very, very amused that Sekiro can justl earn stuff by reading, so he's like "oh, so that's how you breathe underwater forever. Pretty easy". Like mate, that's all it took to solve things?
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
Switch: 0293 6817 9891
There's no abusing anything in Sekiro, just using your tools.
you can at least tell the gods to fuck off constantly
This was definitely the hardest level; I got past it with the same speed-up=through-valleys mechanism as everywhere else, though it was definitely more annoying there because I had to learn the shape of the second asteroid to know what was coming up (where on the other levels I could just look forwards to see where the next dip would be). Apparently the recent update "adds more geysers" on that level which should make it easier? Not sure, I haven't tried that version of it myself because apparently there's a level chooser coming up so then I can skip to that one.
Yeah but that's a bit hollow when you still gotta keep doing their shit for them
absolutely fair, but it's still cathartic to tell a bunch of divine babies to eat shit
what kind of abomination is that?
To get wotjek you have to keep turning down kings till a woman saying she's anatasia romanov shows up and make her the king
I really enjoyed Divinity Original Sin 2 a lot, but the story, especially the side stories, tended towards grim dark worst scenario that it stopped losing its impact really quick. I would just start thinking of the worst way something could end and more often than not I was right.
I also felt the gear scaling was a little silly, as it ramps up to the point why by the endgame equipment that is even a level lower than your level becomes obsolete due to how much the numbers increase.
I mean it's still absolutely a top RPG for the amount that it allows you to do, but one of the reasons I'm excited for Baldur's Gate 3 is that I just think "Invasion by Mindflayers" seems like a cooler setting than the Sourcerer stuff.
A lot of it is like, the idea of the weirdly permissive GM who will let you use your utility spells to do literally anything if you can come up with a half decent explanation as to how that might work. Which like, I get, I love those stories of beating a campaign villain with the right application of Grease, but when it gets coded into the game you end up with things still feeling weirdly rigid while also wanting you to come up with the "creative" solution.
The gta games went from really fun to drive to suddenly absolute shit in 5
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
I'm on Xbox and didn't see any geysers so I assume that's coming soon. Good to know, I can shelve it temporarily, although I was trying to make it a one-sitting game, alas.
and more tweaks on the beta channel: