League itself looks great with the end game changes and whatnot but boy do I hate manual application mechanics. Now I have to set up the extra buttons on my mouse!

I'm still incredibly skeptical so seeing this happen really doesn't surprise me even though it's not unheard of for games to undergo engine changes. There's just too much mystery and questions surrounding this game to give things like this a pass without being suspicious.

aka_STEVE wrote on Apr 27, 2022, 13:13:
It's a good game & worth playing ... but it doesn't feel as good as #1 for some reason.
I can't even quite explain why for sure,..it's just my feeling

To me, It's like a more watered-down arcade version with extra emphasis on a talent tree carrot-on-a-stick grind mechanic to keep you going. There was rarely a point where I felt truly limited in my ability to parkour or fight in DL1 regardless of where I was on the talent tree whereas in DL2 feels like you're artificially restrained because there's less baseline player control to reward skillful play. Maybe at the end everything comes together but the breadcrumb levels of "fixing" what wasn't broken is frustrating to experience seeing as how they already had a solid formula to start with.

The combat and parkour also felt very "light" with weird detection boxes.

I was hoping for a sale because that's the only time I'll consider buying it after playing it at my friends house for a couple hours.

The cinematic trailer really tells me nothing about the story itself. Dragons. I guess that's not a bad thing though because Blizzard doesn't seem to know anything about stories either so maybe it gives them an open-ended outlook to not get locked down in the utter nonsense they've been glued to for the last two expansions. Also, I thought in Cataclysm the dragons gave up their magic to empower the dragon stone?

Also, those dragon races look like they're about 15 years too late but then you can look at the Dragonkin from Vanilla and realize that even by those standards they look like utter garbage.

I wasn't holding my breath for anything great but boy did they come out stumbling.

God damn why does DSOgaming take 523 years to load?

AoC really needs to nail down the animations before I can get super early-adopter pack invested but I am sure there are more pressing needs to be addressed at the time being. Either way, cautiously optimistic that they'll be able to pump some new life in to the MMO scene and do good on their promises about all the neat systems which are being created.

Sounds like the crucible in Grim Dawn and that ain't not bad! Just a shame they didn't go further in this direction sooner. An end-game shake up which doesn't depend solely on greater rifts would have been nice in combination with their other seasonal perks.

Sepharo wrote on Apr 1, 2022, 16:17:
But games are much cheaper now than they've ever been.

That's the unfortunate reality of it even though it still sucks. I remember when SIN came out way back in the day which was $80 and MK3 on the Genesis was $90. That would be something like ~$130 and $150 in today money in Canada.

This comment was edited on Apr 1, 2022, 16:35.

Will this affect the "Go Outside" achievement for not playing the game for five years?

If anything it's an interesting angle for 40k where it isn't focused on Space Mehrines. Looking forward to it!

Cutter wrote on Mar 21, 2022, 18:31:
Always be careful when you see donations claiming "net" proceeds. A lot of times that amounts to virtually nothing after all the "costs" are taken out.

I'd have to assume they needed to put net because Steam and EGS will lop off a percentage right as the transaction is made. Not sure about GOG though. Hopefully it's not like all those other scummy charities which only contribute single-digit numbers while pocketing the rest. These developers seem pretty on the ball with being good guy Poles.

Quinn wrote on Feb 2, 2022, 13:26:
I've no idea what Cutter is referring to, but it's always the self-entitled good guys like yourself that make it all so fucking personal.

I know that they originally had Chris Avellone on board who has an impressive writing pedigree but pretty deep in development they axed him on allegations that he sexually harassed three women while at conventions or something. IIRC, it was never proven and he is/was taking the accusers to court. There might have been others too?

Avellone didn't work on the story, per se, but he did write up a bunch of "New Vegas" style drafts which included the choices and consequences system Techland was really pushing.

All that being said, it's a shame if the story is about as uninspiring as the first especially when they have something to look back on and realize that they can do better. On the other hand the story really wasn't what most focused on so having a weak story isn't particularly disappointing for me providing it doesn't come at the expense of undermining the parkour in the same way the buggy in The Following did.

Dying Light makes wasting time fun with the freedom you are provided.

I'll likely still pick it up after I am done with the new PoE league on Steam when it's inevitably on sale.

Long overdo and probably the smartest decision they've made in a while. We "set aside our differences to work together" in the history of this franchise only to be shoehorned in to the dated Alliance vs Horde narrative as soon as the threat hits the floor time and time again so it'd be nice if this goes deeper than just instanced content.

If they were two sides to the same coin Blizzard would avoid boxing themselves in to a dated model and also help unbalanced servers.

Really dig the new passive tree for maps. Gives you total control over what area of content you want to focus on as a whole rather than being divided in to sub-regions with their own grind. Makes the whole map tree viable rather than target farming certain regions although there are always reasons to target farm certain maps for XP or divination efficiency.

Not that bothered with the lack of new skills either. I'm hoping that with the new buffs it'll really bring more to the table too such as Firestorm not being a total dumpster if only because I have a Stygian MTX I want to use with it. The removal of key threshold gems is kind of weird though.

All in all this is a pretty great shake up of the end game.

The price range on these cards are pretty extreme. The STRIX which was $500+ CAD sold out just as fast as the ones for $320 which is sad because ~$500 is the MSRP for the 3060 Ti which leaves this card in the dust.

I'd still much, much rather pay extra for this over the 6500 XT though if I had an actual choice. As a comparison the performance uplift and DLSS capability are worth it but as a whole it's awful that the budget market (even used) is essentially annihilated at this point due to the demand and the greed Nvidia, AMD and retailers.

Survival games are a dime a dozen and often seem to be the most dominant type of game especially when it comes to the indie scene so they'll really have to do something to separate themselves from the pack and without the classic Blizzard polish which has been absent for some time I can't really imagine what kind of rabbit they're going to pull out of their hat.

It would be neat if they did make it in the Starcraft universe though. That franchise deserves more than being exclusive to a genre which is always on life support.

This release is definitely one of those defining "for the ages" moments in gaming history. Fitting it would be at the hands of EA.

I really do hope that Microsoft will reign in and cut out the cancer which has been allowed to fester within the company. I also hope they clean house for general incompetence starting with Danuser.

Looking at the spec sheet really left a lot to be desired but I hate how a super budget card gets slagged for having 4GB of VRAM. There are a lot of things wrong with this card but it shouldn't be shocking that a card at the bottom the of the stack comes with super cut down hardware.

Cutter wrote on Jan 17, 2022, 13:25:
And none of it makes a lick of difference without removing that giant cancerous tumor at the top - and the others on the board - first. Who he hell is still financially supporting Actiblizz at this point?

I know a board can give the boot to a CEO but what about the board itself? Do shareholders just hold them by the balls until someone gets removed by the rest of the board?