I have been playing it since release and have 66 hours played according to Steam (I took a week off). This includes lot of reloads upon death or where I try different quest solutions. There are three main aspects to talk about here:

1) Narrative quality

2) Gameplay (combat) design

3) Timer and its impact

So, regarding 1), I would say narrative is very close in quality to Witcher 3 (some of the same writers). I thorougly enjoyed doing all the storydriven quests, characters are well written, have meaningful arcs and motivations, it is very cinematic and engaging. Coen is great protagonist, the only drawback is that in some quests his reactions are a bit too...newbie like, considering shit he has already been though.

Regarding 2), combat actually quite surprised me. The way parrying works and how much deeper it gets with upgrades keeps it engaging. Enemy variety could be better for sure, but I still enjoy combat 66 hours in. Duellist is probably the best way to play it, although it can be really hard in the beginning.

3), the most controversial point of them all...is actually a non-issue. Right now I have 3 ingame days left to save my family, and I think I already did 97% or so of the story driven quests. I only have the last lietuenant to take down and then I can choose how I will attack the castle where my family is held. Basically, if you prioritize story quests over doing all the busywork stuff, the deadline will be more than sufficient. Also, the way day and night is handled with differences in quests and gameplay is pretty novel and cool. The one negative consequence is that time does not flow in realtime, which is inherently less immersive. No beautiful sunsets and sunrises here :(

So I hope that for a sequel this concept will be kept but perhaps somehow improved, somehow incorporate realtime ToD.

Overall I think Dawnwalker is my GOTY and since I am waiting for PC version of GTA6, I doubt anything will dethrone it. 9/10 so far and I am curious about the ending I will have, probably this weekend.

I plan to post a review on the game when I can, but just wanted to make this quick post in the meantime, because it seems it's flying criminally under the radar.

I haven't been this this happy with a game purchase in as long as I can remember. The last time I felt this way with a purchase was Elden ring, and before that I cannot even remember. Not only is it incredible, it is less than $20. I don't exaggerate when I say it is restoring my faith in gaming; that games can still bring me with this much enjoyment.

This team deserves way more credit and attention than what they seem to be getting.

I like playing handheld games on my Switch 2. Sometimes the game I'm playing is on my PC or PS5, which are both at my desk. Can't play them when away from my desk, so I like the idea of having a "side game" for handheld time, or even when I just need a break from a big main game.

Of course not all games will work as a side game - I'm not going to run Persona 5 on the side while I play through other AAA games on my desktop.

Do others do this as well? What sorts of games are your go-to games?

One thing I can't figure out in all this, is what Microsoft actually gains from picking up this game. Typically in the past "The Big 3" would want to secure high profile exclusives to help push hardware sales. If there's only one place you can play a game, then you'll have to be on the platform to play said game.

Once you add PC into the mix, you no longer have to purchase that company's hardware, or purchase games from their digital storefront, and I believe this is likely something KojiPro didn't want to compromise on as an independent studio. Sure Death Stranding II sold 2 million copies, which isnt apocalyptic, but when you consider like 25% of those sales, if not more, were on PC, that's an ecosystem Sony doesn't control or get a significant cut from.

My point is, are people actually going to go buy an Xbox to play Physint, or are most of the sales going to be on PC? What if the next Xbox is just a PC like it's rumored to be? Then why buy one? If the game isn't pushing hardware, and it's not primarily selling on their own marketplace, what do they necessarily achieve by funding a mostly like extremely expensive title? Other than sticking it to Sony, who's not doing great PR wise?

After all these layoffs and studio closures Microsoft just went through, picking up what's likely to be one of the most expensive video games ever made, seems kinda suspicious.

Gotta be honest, the crazy taxi world tour network test isn't hitting at all. It being entirely online (at least by the looks of the menu) feels super off, but yes it's just a network test so they might have just hidden offline mode or something.

Feels even weirder driving around a very boring Germany landscape, the passengers don't really say much, they used to comment on surroundings and talk about the places they wanted to go in quips.

Something feels super off, can't put my finger on it, but it's not there yet.

Also the cars are very mundane looking..one of them is just a sports compact and the most drab looking thing I have ever seen. Only like 2 of the cars are actually taxis.

There is a few maps, but even the classic Americana one feels a bit drab. Lots of advertising too, five guys is in there for example which is a great nod to the original, just not sure why it doesn't hit right.

The build took about 100k+ blocks and a week to complete! I got more photos if people are interested!

From article:

Freed from the familiar, iconic love triangle involving X-Men leader Scott Summers (Cyclops), the Logan and Jean pairing is finally allowed rare tenderness. Even Logan’s famously violent rivalry with Sabretooth has room for love. When the two attack a military base, Sabretooth grabs the back of Logan’s head in a brief moment of yearning.

“Logan feels that yearning and he gets scared and pulls away. Sabretooth feels that yearning and it makes him hurt and want to lash out to exert that hurt outward,” Williams said. “Hate and love are so hand in hand ... you hurt me so I’m going to hurt you, and we’re still going to be linked because now the pain is shared.”

Archive link (no paywall) - https://archive.is/ATmE3

I am currently doing my first run through of Red Dead Redemption 2 and having a blast. But I know eventually it will come to an end. I was looking for my next game and stuck on 3 options. Important note: I’m on PC

Final 3 game choices are Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.

I want to play all of these, but can’t drop $150.00 on games right now, so which one do you think I should play.

I really like all the side stuff you can do in RDR2 and hoping the next game can have me invested for 100 hours+

Thanks for any advice!

LIke in the title, Im looking for a games that take action in ancient Greece or Egypt,, and with mithological vibe. I know about Assasin Creed titiles so please suggest something else. Preferables RPGs

Tell me if you've played this game before:

You start in an easy area with easy monsters. The materials are oak and stone and iron ore. The flowers you can pick are daisies, and the fruit are blueberries. You can craft basic iron weapons and armor.

Then you unlock enough stuff to advance to the next area. The monsters are a little harder. The materials there are birch and flint and silver ore. You can pick daffodils, and there are apple trees. You can craft silver weapons and armor.

Then you unlock the next area with silver, hardwood, gold ore, roses, and banana trees. You can craft gold armor and weapons.

Then the next area, with the same gameplay but new materials.

Etc.

Don't get me wrong, I love these games and have played the hell out of some of them (Valheim, Enshrouded, Terraria, Core Keeper, Necesse, Palworld, etc), but once it becomes clear to me that tier 4 is exactly the same as tier 1, the spell is kinda broken.

What would you recommend in this genre that isn't the same mechanic recycled over and over? Looking for a coop multiplayer game to play with my 13 year old.

One thing I’ve always liked about Skyrim is how easy it is to completely forget what the main quest even wants you to do.

You can start out planning to finish one mission and suddenly spend hours exploring a cave, joining a faction, finding some random quest, or just wandering somewhere because something in the distance looked interesting.

A lot of newer open world games are bigger but sometimes they feel like you’re just clearing icons from a map. Skyrim always felt different to me because wandering off course could become the actual adventure.

I wish more open world games made getting distracted feel this rewarding.

We seriously have to stop accepting the laziness of the Pokemon Franchise that we've seen in the mainline games.

Unfortunately, they know we will still buy it either way.

Edit: I know Gamefreak did not make Pokopia or OoT

I should have separated them better. The connection between the 3 games is Game freak + Nintendo + Pokemon Company

Edit 2: Graphical fidelity does not have to mean hyper realism. Games can be stylized and be high fidelity, without looking like real life. Recent HD2D games are examples of what I would call high fidelity, and they're pixel art.

High fidelity just means quality, care, and style. Beautiful environments, things that make you stop and say "Holy shit", it doesn't have to look like a photograph to do that.

Artist credit: Verdimand

Context: Yesterday Level-5 (a well-respected developer of such franchises as Yokai Watch, Professor Layton, Inazuma Eleven and Ni No Kuni) held a livestream for their upcoming games that was stuffed to the brim with really bad, and really obvious, AI content.

I have a pc at home and just want something to use at my girlfriends house. mostly wanna play some triple A games like red dead 2 and gta v, and of course some of indie game collection. Been contemplating what my best choice should be for weeks I feel like the screen looks a lot better on the oled but I know the rog has higher refresh rate and probably runs games a lot smoother. Somebody give me their opinion who’s had both, thank you 🙏🏻

In this particular case i am talking about how newer studio's have been out scoring and out performing the giant company's that are publicly traded. Not in every case but a lot of really great games have come out in the last couple years from small studios that often were made from veterans of the big studios.

I think we are seeing a shift with the help of modern tools and skilled vets smaller companies are managing to make bigger and better games than places with several times more money and manpower.

Whatever you make of friendslop games, there's a real silver lining to trend of cheap, goofy indie games blowing up right now. To me it seemed like we had a long stretch of time where everything multiplayer was focused on pvp or some sort of live service grind, but now I’m seeing all sorts of interesting co-op titles pop up.

These chaotic little low budget games kind of reminded everyone how fun it was just to play something silly with friends, and now people want to play together more. Devs are picking up on this and the co-op section in steam is looking better than ever. I personally had a similar realization and I’m playing a bunch of games with my gf and friends now regularly. Recently we had a good few weeks of fun with Mechameleon with friends and I’m pretty much running out of 2 player co-op games to play with my gf at this point. It Takes Two and Untitled Goose Game were our favorites so far and we want to play Water Me & You next when it comes out, it looks similar to It Takes Two but with some base building stuff as well. 

I feel like it was way harder to get someone to try a game like that with you before, everyone was just stuck on their “main game” be it League, WoW, Counter Strike, whatever. Now it's kind of become more popular or cool you could say to play something with your friends, and people don’t just ghost you when you’re supposed to play together.

Has anyone else noticed this shift? It may be just something that happened my own friend group but it feels like a bigger trend.

I broke my right hand, what can I still play?