IlyaP

Reviews here: https://www.darkhorizons.com/the-fallout-tv-series-reviews-are-in/

As one of my friends recently said: "Woah there, zoomer!"

The Morrowind approach of improving in skill as one proceeded through the game always struck me as a logical approach to "levelling up", but how one would translate that to pen and paper? I honestly don't know.

There was an interview with....gods, I can't recall offhand right this moment, but at some point, there was an interview with someone involved with the MCU, where they stated that part of the intent of the multiverse project was to be able to make movies that didn't have to be tied into other movies or be semi-serialised the way previous films had, and thus allowing for audiences to not feel like "oh I have to have done homework before watching X". Creatively, that makes a bit of sense to me. You don't want to have people thinking that proper appreciation of a film would require the viewing of 20+ previous movies. Clearly though, that path didn't work out. Between Covid and Disney+ causing issues and changed business needs/approaches/models, it's clear that something isn't/wasn't working.

SH! That's all you need! Or just treat it like a first and last name and call her Shadow. Shearting in Baldur's Gate 3 is going to break the intarwebz.

Every time you abbreviate Shadowheart with that particular word I twitch.

One of the sentences here jumps out at me, courtesy of Aaryn Flynn: "I think there was this historical pattern that games end, and people stop playing certain games, and so then there's a hunger and a desire for new games and interesting games and improved games." That's such a strange sentiment to me. There are so, so many games I regularly replay, and always enjoy just...wandering through, and enjoying for enjoyment's sake. Hell, at this very moment, I'm alt+tabbed out of Pillars of Eternity, which pretty much never leaves my hard drive, despite being a nine year old game. There are people who are still playing Diablo and Diablo II, and Quake (and its many mods) and Icewind Dale, and so many others. But I suppose that probably is like a niche within a niche within a niche from a "games people play as a percentage of all games" perspective.

Do you think that Deadpool & Wolverine is going to be a kind of litmus test or sampling of the water, in terms of giving studios some guidance around whether or not audiences are just kinda...tapped out on comicbook movies?

Noped out of Portal 2, though the wife loves it. Not my kind of game. Puzzle games have their audiences, but I am certainly not one of them. Learning as I have that DOS2 also has them only makes my abandonment of that game feel further justified. Plus, turn-based combat is, with the exception of BG3 and Solasta: Crown of the Magister, not my jam. (Also, seriously, check out Solasta, it replicates the texture and feeling of a homebrew campaign so well, down to the occasional delightfully cheese voice-acting.)

Now there's a story. Folks in-game helped motivate you to do better in school? Also, people now run independent servers. There's some info here on how it all works, should you want to know more: https://emulator.ac/how-to-play/

And now you understand why I noped out of DOS2. Life's too short to play games that infuriate and annoy.

...y...yay? You know, I only noticed recently that I *somehow* also had hundreds of thousands of Steam points, which...were not translatable into real world currencies. But could buy me...icons and Steam background images? None of which I can of course download, because I don't buy games on Steam, I technically buy licenses to access a game. Which is how and why I still prefer GOG. But that's entirely a me thing - I've never been a fan for anything cosmetic, not even as a kid or a teen. Held zero appeal to me. C'est la vie. But back on topic: when's the next big patch out? I got to the underdark and started having delightful bugs again, like the camera getting stuck in zoomed-out mode, characters not responding (or switching to those characters) when I click on them, and pathfinding glitches between party members - particularly in the hag's house. Minor shit, to be sure. But it would be nice to have it fixed.

Why are achievements even a thing? It's only in Steam, as far as I can tell, and I've always ignored it, as it just felt like it was a way to artificially make players more competitive over completely arbitrary accomplishments. Seems like someone at Steam said "what if we gamed games further?" *Shrug*

Or as my friends and I say: no such thing as an ethical billionaire.

As Fortnite isn't a story-driven narrative (which is what I seek in games), I never took that much interest in it, as I knew it wasn't for me, the same way RTS games or strategy/civ style games aren't for me. Though I did enjoy Chris 'Errant Signal' Franklin's analysis of it on his channel: https://youtu.be/qNukmNDq60Q?si=B1CMb0SvcBGLK4Fs

This is what led to me ultimately leaving the Asheron's Call community - a lot of us were in high school together, and ended up going off to college, university, etc., and just...didn't have the time or the interest in it anymore as new interests caught our attention - like going to concerts and dating and university assignments and whatnot. And persistent/online/mud games really are at their best when you've got friends with whom you can play. Doing it solo can be fun, but the fun that can be had is pretty finite.

Or Baldur's Gate III when the wife's away camping with friends for the week. *shifts awkwardly in seat*

Guess I should back to playing Anthem then, eh?

Not according to Larian, Tactical Adventures, Owlcat Games, inXile, CDPR or Obsidian. It's also an age/changing tastes thing, you know? From the ages of 14-21, my diet was heavily Quake/Quake II, Asheron's Call, EverQuest, Half-Life, Blood, Duke Nukem 3D, Daikatana, Team Fortress, and a few others - so a lot of my gaming was *very* online-centric and social-focused. But as I moved around (including to a country with, uh, "spectacular" internet), and people got hitched, had kids, moved around, went to university, had demanding full-time jobs, it became much harder and much less interesting to play those kinds of games. And I get a lot of joy out of rich, complex, deep cRPGs (I've spent hundreds of hours in the Dragon Age games, just as an example). So think about it less about one all-encompassing genre or style dominating, and more like a pie chart, where there are different markets and (ugh - incoming Marketing Wank Terminology Alert!) different groups and customers that fit within different market segments. (I need a shower now.) It's just catering to different desires, interests, for different playstyles, etc. And given what we've seen at GDC this year with its growing kvetching towards monetisation, and the increase in popularity of indie games like Balatro, Hades, Dave the Diver, Gloomwood, El Paso Elsewhere, etc., there's always going to be and will be a space for single-player games.

Which makes me think that maybe the term "level" is overused and that overuse causes unnecessary confusion. (Maybe we could use 'tiers' instead of levels when referring to spells?)

From what I've found online, it looks like in 2E, wizard spells topped out at 9th level? But is that the same as being a 9th level wizard? It's been a long hot minute since I've RP'd 2E.

Sounds about right. All my friends who're in their 20s mostly play Minecraft, Fortnite, Warframe, Dota, or Apex Legends. It's rare among them to get them to touch anything single player, with the only recent exception being Cyberpunk 2077, which they explored due to word of mouth having been very good. Only a few of them have played the games that are my personal crack - Pillars of Eternity 1/2, Baldur's Gate 1-3, Pentiment, Solasta, CP77, etc.

You and your romancing. Oy vey.

If I could recruit Minthara without being sacrificing tieflings or anyone else that's remotely nice, then, hey, maybe. But not really sure I need a raging asshole in my party otherwise...

Minthara's dead, Zed. Dead.