Withywarlock

There's usually some caveat to my favourites. Obsidian, for instance, are a great studio when they have the right direction. They often do not. Rare are a great studio when they're not suffering Stockholm Syndrome. They often are. But those are the only two favourites of mine with seemingly consistent teams and job security within them. There's plenty of other studios we can name where the brand means nothing because people come and go constantly (BioWare and Blizzard come to mind).

My mistake, I'm glad you provided another example. Still I Larian's attitude it's as petty as Mr. Ebenger's sentiment of 'stop having fun via a means I don't like'. Before and after this I fully intend(ed) on playing a human, partly because of the racial traits which Larian seemed to forget are a thing in Baldur's Gate III, but mostly because I like humans and their possible impact on a fantasy setting. It ain't the fault of the players who made the "default Vault Dweller" as Larian put it if the devs aren't making a game with a property that utilises them well. When Larian pay me to play their game I'll reconsider what kind of character I'm going to make.

Telemetry, my dear Watson. Sorry, couldn't resist. I think actual user data can be significantly more useful than feedback forums for bettering games. Seeing kill stats, achievements, and other milestones can provide much more to developers than subjective experience relayed during a heated forum discussion. However, data isn't entirely reliable as achievements can be doctored by cheat engines and exploits, and anti-cheat can be bypassed or outright destroyed. I concur. One such example is with Mr. John Ebenger, formerly of Mass Effect, said that only ~8% of users went into the Renegade content which they "put a lot of work into the [...] content too :(". If the intent was to shame it backfired, because statistically most people don't like being nasty even in video games and this isn't going to help. However I still found the statistic interesting all the same, and wouldn't have known that if not for them stating such on Twitter. But then don't try to guilt trip people into using the Renegade system; instead make a better system. One thing I enjoy is in episodic games you're often shown the choices players made, which sort of gives away that most choices don't matter. In Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment you can see the player stats at the end of each chapter, and they're suspiciously skewed to look exactly like my results which came from a guide for easy achievements. Hmm.... Developers and publishers must be prepared to accept that they can't know how good their game is until they release it into the wild. That goes for Atlus flagging Persona streams and Let's Plays incorrectly for copyright claims due to spoilers. That goes for Ubisoft having review scores updated after microtransactions are added. And that goes for BioWare for not seperating morality from social attitude in Mass Effect. By all means they can collect data, but they can't complain when the data goes against their expectations. Ours is a fickle demographic, and is all the better for it. I don't think we can escape data collection without turning off our internet, changing our phone numbers and directly addressing our mailing lists, but we can do more to be wary of it, and I believe there can be fights for legislation over what data is harvested, how and with what consent from customers. ^^

I'm on Android so maybe I need to disable my Wifi or 4G and see if there's a Play Offline function. I wonder if it's some sort of version compatability as I'm currently on 10. ^^

Ironically, it was this that initially turned me off Warhammer: Chaos and Conquest. The visual overload of that game's tutorialisation made it seem a lot more complicated than it was. Skipping past everything was the best mistake I'd ever made in a game.

I'm sure I would like those mechanics if I liked the games, but for some reason I've yet to articulate I don't. Neither clicked with me, but then it took me about 5 tries before Fallout: A Post Nuclear Roleplayigng Game did, and 8 before Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition did, so perhaps one day I'll see the appeal of Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Thanks for the recommendations all the same, though. ^^

I used to frequently, one reason was for my reviews when I was starting out as I had no (reliable) means to record my own footage. Where I could I'd get permission from the uploader and give them credit for it. Now I mostly download them for music, provided I can't buy it elsewhere to keep legitimately. I'm going to be attending a funeral in the coming weeks and I'll be required to isolate before and after. Having some videos while we've no internet access might be prudent to keep me sane.

It's not so much the amount but the quality of it. I don't want anything to do with quest markers, and telling me to turn them off often highlights the design problems with doing so: very rarely does a quest with quest markers come with enough information to find it oneself. Let's use two Elder Scrolls games as an example of what I mean: In The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind I am given a quest to find a cave and clear it out. By the questgiver I am given the reason and the directions. My own character will decide to make a note of this in their journal so not to get lost on the way. By the world I am given landmarks and signposts, so I can identify my current location, surrounding areas to which I can map a route and my progress to the quest location. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim I am given a quest to find a cave and clear it out. By the questgiver I am given the reason. My own character will decide to make a note of this in their journal. By the world I am given signposts, so I can identify my current location and surrounding areas. By the user interface I am given quest markers which will point me to my destination as-the-crow-flies. I prefer the former because it makes sense that a new arrival in Morrowind won't know anything about the surrounding area. In Skyrim, most of the Dragonborn's knowledge comes not from the world, but the purely mechanical side. I didn't mention The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion because it's awkwardly stuck between the two at that regard. It depends on which quest writer was in that day, I suppose. Quest markers can have a place in a setting such as The Elder Scrolls because the entirety of it is penned by an unreliable narrator, and markers are the only thing that one can truly trust in the games. While it wasn't intentional there's an infamous quest in Morrowind that incorrectly guides the player via the journal and quest text, but given the setting's rumours, sketchy accounts of past events in later games and how their greater universe behaves, it's appropriate that people get information wrong. But that's still frustrating, however much sense it might arguably make in-universe. Sorry to blather on. Just because I'm more against quest markers than I am for them doesn't mean direction can't be obtuse. Games such as Dark Souls have 'natural selection' direction, which is to say 'screw around and find out', but the first game at least tells you your primary goals such as ringing the bells, reaching Anor Londo, and dealing with the four (technically seven if we count the Four Kings as seperate entities) main antagonists. Dark Souls II and III tell you to find "greater souls" and hope you can find your way via the breadcrumb trail of bonfires. If you can't, join the statistics. But in all, it depends on when I want it, not so much how much I want it. Not every game has to be as up-in-the-air as Dark Souls nor does every game have to use a journal. Sometimes you just want to turn off your brain, use a quest marker and get a sword. A bit like a familiar, easy to read toilet book.

I'd like to play more of it, unfortunately the always-online requirement keeps kicking me out because of a weak connection, where Mario Kart Tour has virtually no problems past its initial loading screen. It doesn't matter if I'm hooked up to my Wifi or 4G data, SMR isn't having any of it. A shame really because it's a decent game that I wouldn't mind paying the full amount for.

If the character is pre-established, then voiced. This does not mean the writers can make shorthand dialogue options though; I want to see exactly what my character is going to say in addition to hearing it. Too many times have I played an RPG, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt being the worst for this, where the text was innocuous and the speech was completely different. Not helping is some dialogues can affect the game later on, or the ending. It's one thing to say I'm not paying attention, but it's another to pull the rug from underneath me because the text is anadequate.

Usually when I buy a game on sale I might fork out a bit more for a Digital Deluxe edition or whatever for the extra goodies, especially if it's from a publisher whose projects I'm pleased with. If I'm reviewing the game I make a point of not using the bonus edition tat because those are things some players will not have access to, and I don't want to use my video/screenshots to promote such a thing, nor do I want my impressions coloured by a better skin. If the character looks bad to look at by default, that shouldn't be amended in a review by saying 'just spend £3 on a skin'.

I don't think there's all that many. You can certainly count hundreds of games that owe their success to mods, from Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines to Counter-Strike, but any companies I think owe success to mods and their modders are a stretch. Blizzard for instance owes credit to the people behind the Dawn of the Ancients (DotA) mod for Warcraft III, and even admit it when one reads the End User License Agreement (EULA) for Warcraft III Reforged, which states more or less that any mods people make belong to Blizzard entirely. Spiteful to the end, they can't admit they didn't capitalise on the MOBA craze when Valve obtained the rights to DotA 2, and continue to keep Heroes of the Storm (HotS) riding on its progenitor's coattails.

Of all the things to ban Fallout for such as starring in pornography, killing children (including one who 'invented' the addictive substance Jet), slavery, and depending on your stats, putting a mentally ill adult in mortal peril, and drugs are what they go with? Interesting. I wish I could add to this but I can't think of many games that are outright banned, much less for silly reasons. And I live in a country that's very conservative about video game content.

I suppose it depends on the child. I had crap taste but being an only child was spoilt so my lack of enjoyment with some games was mitigated by the amount I could play, whereas a mate of mine had really good taste and thoroughly researched games (ironically out of the two of us, I became a games reviewer) before purchase. I hate to do a Reddit but tAsTe Is SuBjEcTiVe, and everyone has their own wants. There's absolutely nothing wrong with someone wanting to play Roblox, Zooba or Goat Simulator, especially when those games are either free or as cheap as chips. I'm highly geared toward 'Eurojank' which many would attribute to me having poor taste, whereas I attribute poor taste to, say, so-called AAA titles. If one wants to discuss and argue the influence streamers and YouTubers have on no small amount of young viewers and their purchasing habits, that's one thing, but that journalist being snotty about their child's tastes and snobbery about the good old days isn't going to bear fruitful discussion. I'd take Zooba over Hugo any day of the week.

How appropriate that their premium currency of "Destruction Points" has the unfortunate initialism of "DP". What a great way to kick off the new console generation.

It's easy for a company to condemn a practice. I can condemn gacha and loot boxes and it still has the same impact, because it requires I do nothing. They lose nothing, neither trust nor sales, if they go back on their word because this is the video games industry, a revolving door of public absolution. In the meantime, congratulations for not preying on addictive personalities for this long....?

In addition to Rayman Origins per the OP I'd recommend its sequel, Legends. Much more emphasis on rhythm given the musical theme of the game, which works brilliantly with the momentum and speed. Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair's a good game also, which takes some inspiration from Rayman Legends but not enough to do its rhythm well. Rather it leans more towards the tactical side of platformers with Donkey Kong Country and the mysteries of Super Mario World.

Truly wondrous news. I'm always excited to see medical innovations with video games. My grandmother passed away a fortnight ago, now unburdened by the stroke she had some years ago that had practically stripped away her ability to do much of anything. I hope this technology can help people like my nan, and give them a fighting chance of having a somewhat better time of things after such a lifechanging ailment. PS: Sorry to hear about your cousin, Karl. I wouldn't wish such a thing on my worst enemy.

Finished Lords of the Fallen two days ago, so now I'm between Dark Souls and Yooka-Laylee and The Impossible Lair. Sen's Fortress can eat a pineapple with the skin left on.

Tom Clancy's Endwar was released exactly two years before the Xbox Kinect came out, but yes it was on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC. ^^

I should explain that I didn't get into PC gaming proper until 2014, so I had zero experience with mods for the longest time. Because of this I guess I'm rather 'old fashioned' in some respect, as I'm used to the only additional content or fixes being provided by official sources. Up until recently I hadn't even bothered with recommended or essential mods, preferring not to muck around with the load orders, opening local files and following steps to install things. That said, I speak in defence of modders whenever their ability to change a game that in no way affects anyone else is compromised, and if the devs or publisher aren't going to capitalise on the freedom modders have, I have no sympathy for first parties saying what people can and can't do with their own copy of a game. As I'm becoming more comfortable with the use of third party fixes and cheat engines, I may well end up using mods more liberally. Perhaps The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim really can be a significantly better game with mods, even if I've seen everything it has to offer. I can't really know until I try it for myself. ^^

I will always prefer the blades dashboard over the tiles that Microsoft were so intent on cramming into Windows and Xbox. It's fine for touch-screens but as far as I'm aware neither the Xbox 360 nor One supported such technologies, so it frustrating and confusing to navigate. On the plus side the update that ruined the dashboard came with Avatars so I can't complain too much.

I don't catalogue all the games I own given how many there are and how many hundred I won't ever play given they were purchased upon impulse. However, I use The Backloggery to keep track of games I've completed which is a much flashier means than the Wordpad document I had in 2020. It's useful for compiling some basic reviews rather than the more in-depth write-ups I do for r/patientgamers.

Tom Clancy's Endwar had voice commands which were rudimentary but I don't ever recall them hearing a command incorrectly. It was marginally faster than using a controller or key commands, especially when you had to know what the commands were in the first place. A shame such a feature existed in a game that left a lot to be desired, in its camera controls more than anything.

Lords of the Fallen was that game up until 2 days ago. I finished it to completion this morning, all because I decided to go with a heavily armoured character that had a heal-over-time spell on cooldown, which in the context of a Soulslike is immensely powerful.