This looks cool

https://www.gameinformer.com/2023/03/23/tmnt-the-last-ronin-video-game-is-in-development

The comic was really good.

 

It is amazing, but I don't think it's better than Divinity gameplay-wise- specifically in terms of combat. A lot of the D&D shit just feels so clunky and bad early game - compared to Divinity.

Everything non-combat is some of the best CRPGing I've ever seen. I played the beta maybe 3 - 4 months ago.

 

I bought the Divinity games during the Steam Spring Sale. Maybe that'll be next for me. Been tanking a lot of time into Dragon's Dogma for the last several weeks but it's about time to move on to something else.

 

@Gengar Heh. I had the opposite problem. Divinity felt too simple in concept.

but this might also just be that I’m far more familiar with the 5e ruleset. So I could that being a potential factor. Not sure how familiar you are.

 

It's not a matter of complexity for me (my tabletop experience lies entirely with playing Gloomhaven with my cousins, my D&D video game experience is...basically all of them). I just think dice rolling doesn't translate well to video games, especially in early game when 'difficulty' is just a matter of 'did you miss?' given you have little to no way to mitigate your terrible modifiers.

In the two latest examples of D&D games I've played, WOTR and BG3, it's basically a miss fiesta at the start, even when playing 'properly,' which doesn't translate to difficulty for me, just frustration.

That's why in Gloomhaven, we take the crits and whiffs out of the deck and replace them with +2 and -2 (if you're familiar with that example).

In my experience, this is a non-issue late game, when your modifiers become less ridiculous - but I can't say that for sure in BG3's case.


I take it the simplicity you refer to in Divinity is that you have fewer options and abilities maybe? I don't necessarily disagree, but I'd argue that's not a matter of the combat system.

What I'm talking about is the mechanics behind how you do damage, how you move on the battlefield, how your spells and abilities interact in a sandboxy way, your resources and how you're limited in a really tedious way (the first thing I'm doing in BG3 is getting a mod that automatically 'rests' after combat in areas where resting isn't prohibited). All of that felt super clunky in BG3 in a way Divinity just didn't - and the only reason I'm even making the comparison is because they're both Larian.

Thankfully, the out of combat stuff shines so bright I could put up with it and shrug it off. It's not a deal breaker, just compares poorly to Divinity imo.

 

Yeah, that's just the nature of D&D's core mechanics. Offense scales much harder than defense does, so basically everything starts off relatively weak and struggling to do damage. Then after a bit (typically around level 7, depending on one's exact class and build), offense starts to overtake defense and things start to get more engaging. It works well enough on the tabletop, but I could def see why it would get annoying when it's more abstracted out.

 

Agree to disagree.

The combat in Divinity was, while not boring, far less engaging to me than BG3. The things you mention as negatives are positives in my book so it’s really just a matter of personal preference imo.

just curious have you played similar games like the older Baldur’s Gate or Pillars of Eternity?

 

Sega released a new Sonic game, free even, it's a murder-mystery.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2324650/The_Murder_of_Sonic_the_Hedgehog/

 

Release Date: 31 Mar, 2023

 

Another Gundam Battle Operation 2 Steam Open Beta Test Has been Announced!

For those like me, who are absolutely desperate for more mecha games on PC, here's something to have fun with for the next week.

 

Armoured Core soon

 

I do wonder when they'll actually show us some gameplay footage or give us a release date, though I fully expect this to be a November or December release.

 

New Harry Potter game announced, but multiplayer only, called Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions.

https://quidditchchampions.wbgames.com/en

Sign up for the playtest is currently available.

 

Spent the last couple of days getting the Platinum on Horizon: Forbidden West and levelling up my Aloy‘s outfit and weapons in preparation of the Burning Shores DLC, which arrives on Wednesday.

I have to say, it’s been such a joy getting immersed in that universe again. The world of Horizon has really captured my heart – as has its story. I was late to both games… only played Zero Dawn a year after release in 2018 (I actually think I got it for free on PS+) and again only picked up Forbidden West in September, but then finished the vast majority of the salient content in a couple of weeks.

Yeah, there can be a lot of snark from Aloy, but that‘s exactly what I like so much about her. The humour and tone just work for me. The soundtrack, art design and graphics are all fantastic as well, and the combat system is reasonably deep so that you feel neither overmatched nor unchallenged.

The new DLC is PS5 exclusive, so I rather suspect it‘s not going to look worse than the base game either.

 

My brother bought the pre-release collector's edition of the first game, with the Aloy statue, then only played maybe 8 to 10 hours of it. Later, he bought the pre-release collector's edition of Forbidden West, with the Tremortusk (had to look that up) statue and hasn't touched the game itself, since he said he wanted to beat the first game before he does.

Meanwhile, he'll happily watch hours daily of other people playing games, and recently got Power Wash Simulator, and will play that for hours at a time on his PS5 on occasion.

It's unfortunate. I don't exactly begrudge him watching other people play games, if that's what he considers enjoyment (it's not really any different than people watching television, and I won't go into the topic of if that's actually good or not) but buying games (particularly $200+ collector's edition versions) and not even playing them just seems sad. Buy the figure on its own for less, if you really want, although doing so without having any personal connection to the game does seem odd to me.

 

I'm a bit curious why you haven't approached him with this opinion?

Not in a confrontational, but just laying it out as rationally as you have here.

I kinda wish my siblings would approach me about stuff like this(i.e: when they see me do stuff they don't understand)

 

Saw an add for something advertised as 'Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions'

Anyone have any clue what that's about?

 

Online/multiplayer only quidditch game, caught a short article on it this morning. No details yet as to whether it'll be more like team management/strategy, or playing one character, unless other articles got more.

EDIT
Found https://www.gematsu.com/2023/04/harry-potter-quidditch-champions-announced-for-consoles-pc

Looks to be you play a single character in a team, maybe? Or maybe customize each character on the team?

 

In short, I have, several times, largely as it relates to his poor spending habits. I could fairly easily elaborate on the psychology behind it, and am well aware of the likely reasons behind said psychology.
For better or for worse, though, I have had little, if any, success in altering his behavior, and don't have a good way of influencing his decision-making. Not that I have, or will, stop(ed) trying.