Instead of offering anything new or innovative, Steam finds yet another way to stir the garbage at the bottom of the barrel.
You know, I think that gives me an idea - why not spend some money making high-quality games that people actually want to play? Too radical? Probably.
Honestly, I find that’s not a bad idea. I’m just a bit surprised. I thought they already had that. I distinctly remember a friend of mine sharing his steam library with me way back when…?
Woot, got my key for the pre-alpha demo for Worlds of the Future. Had a bit of a delay due to the developer having been ill, but now testing has arrived. Excited to give it a try tomorrow!
I thought about signing up for that, but really, I don’t have the time. I know from projects past how annoying it is to have testers that don’t actually test, so I thought I’d spare them the hassle…
**DRAGONS DOGMA (2)
A Long Mad-Hattery Review.
(Yes, I’ve avoided spoilers) 
Note: I’ve found this to play just fine on PS5 but I’m aware that PC players are experiencing performance issues & it plays better using a controller.
Where to start?
This beautiful game is brutal. Almost no tutorial & no hand-holding on a truly dangerous Dungeons & Dragons style adventure.
There is a main story mission but it’s the random side-quests & exploration that make this game shine, as you immerse yourself in long term character development & exploration… with crazy (anime-ish) combat a regular occurance.
Setting up
You use an incredible character creator for yourself & your side-kick, which are your permanent looks, (which you see a lot of as you play & in cutscenes, so its best to take your time to get it looking right).
Your sidekick (a ‘pawn’) is just as important & is the most valuable member of your crew, as they are there for the long run.
Both of you can change vocation later on so your choices now are not locked in stone.
Along the way, you have access to recruit two other crew-members, which can be duplicates of other player creations or generic in game characters.
(I’ve played exclusively offline so have only used generics)
Like any D&D type crew, having different vocations is essential so something like in a combo of blade, archery & magic is a good mix but it’s entirely up to you.
As time moves on & your own skillset develops, you may hire new higher level crew-members to compliment your needs.
All vocations stats (fighter/mage/etc) are improved as your life in this world progresses, as are your various outfits, armour & tools of your trade. Outfits & weapons are upgradable, plus better ones can be purchased via merchants. Upgrade materials get sucked straight out of your main storage saving you annoying trips back & forth, which is good inventory design.
I chose a fighter for myself & a mage for my sidekick & later on, I have begun to dabble as a novice in the other vocations, which worked for me
Various skills are aquired & assigned a button so you can tailor your controller set-up to suit your own button mashing flavour.
Also, unlike most console games, the standard controller layout is also customisable, which I found wonderful as it is more like PC key-binding & greatly improves player involvement I only swapped one pair of buttons but the result was so liberating.
Play
Essentially you use quest markers on a gradually explored map to get you close to your goal, then you chat to locals & hunt about to complete your objective.
The HUD is adjustable & switchable so you can have a bit of help but over time, immersion & familiarlarity will allow you to turn off these for full immersion.
Although its an open-world feel, the trecherous terrain, deadly (deep) water & the fact you are flesh & bone keeps you channeled but it feels open world, which is lovely.
Graphic details are outstanding & exploring EVERYWHERE is delightfully essential. Just don’t go too far early on, as save points are a luxury & come at a cost. Each death respawns you at a recent auto-save but with less total heath than before.
Only camping at a campfire (if you have a camping kit), fixes your max health.
Bad choices may get you killed repeatedly, leaving you no choice other than to reload at the last proper save point, (in a real bed, or at a tavern) losing potentially hours of progress.
Just like a ‘real’ adventure, ‘shit happens’ & you need a plan, you need preparation & sometimes you need to just run.
Towns are distant & each voyage is loaded with risk. A tavern stay costs a fair bit too.
You can access your main inventory anytime but it is relatively small & your main storage is via the Tavern UI. Here you can store tons of stuff, mix up potions & keep your various outfits and weapons for each vocation you try. Organic materials are best used up raw or turned into something because they perish after a while.
You don’t need to nanny your character(s) with food and water or sleep but your lantern needs a top up from time to time for night travel and its good to carry a basic supply of health potion & food.
A nice feature is the ability for all members of your crew to carry supplies, as any heavily burdoned individual becomes gradually slower.
Some NPCs are generically conversationalists while others will prompt sidequests. All quests are switchable so nothing is locked in. Sometimes you may find yourself in company of other travellers as either an escort or just by using a transport. This adds a safety-in-numbers dynamic which greatly improves your chances if an altercation occurs.
All the NPCs are overly chatty but even after hearing similar lines, the variety in tones, accents and unique style helps make it background noise.
Combat
Depending on your current character vocation choice your skills are limited to that particular choice.
A mage does magic stuff. A blade-wielder does stabby stuff…and so on and so forth.
There is only a soft lock-on so you need to have the foe you are facing in front of you and adjust your camera swing to suit. Ranged attacks need a bit of space, while bladed weapons need a bit of both medium and tight closeness depending on your chosen attacks.
You have regular ‘instant’ attacks and more powerful slightly delayed power attacks that use stamina.
Magic users can ‘assist’ others by enchanting weapons or healing. Some skills and weapons are useless against some opponents and all opponents have weaknesses & strengths. This is why a well rounded group is needed with a mix of ranged, projectile and elemental talents & your own assigned skills need to encompass different possible enemies.
Should you change yours or your pawn vocation, you need to adjust the hireling types to keep things more balanced… plus if it’s a recent change, you are effectively a novice & vulnerable until you become higher level.
Foes vary quite a lot & range from small to large and as can be expected, bigger foes are harder work. No spoilers here but I can say I’ve encountered some spine tingling moments as something ‘bad’ appears and around me mages power up and weapons are unsheathed and you know that its been thirty minutes since you last tavern-saved.
Living in Dragons Dogma 2
The intuition of the game is a standout.
NPCs in your group may converse, giving you insight into the group and its range of talents. They also take note of things and may bring knowledge. Little interactions, different personalities & touches of humerous behaviour add something special as you travel.
Realistic physics such as nearly losing balance or indeed faceplanting add realism as does the desperate stamina sucking crawl as you spam ‘dash’ to get away, having just been slammed by a monster.
Night time travel by lantern light is georgous even if does present different risks & foes. In fact the lighting, day night cycles, shadows and ambience is a near perfect aesthetic as are the various textures.
I’m not a fan of the anime light-show combat in certain games and at times a battle in a dark place can be wildly confusing … yet somehow in this game it’s ok. I was concerned I’d find it annoying but in this world it just sort of works.
The heat of battle, the spray of blood, mixed with elemental energies and the screams of combat with a ramped up soundtrack are quite in contrast to the end of battle silence as the music fades and the lightshow softens to stillness. Feels right.
There IS a version of in game fast travel but it requires special items which are very rare and valuable. Although I’ve found a couple of the reqired items, they are at this stage simply too rare and too valuable to just use like a bus pass.
This game is about traveling by foot (or wagon).
Other little common sense things are also there. I’m not going to give spoilers but there is a realism to this world.
Meat has more than one use.
Lost items often turn up.
Appearance matters.
Jumping off a high place doesnt go well.
That sort of thing.
Hopefully this overly long review gives you an insight into what Dragons Dogma 2 is like & my impressions from playing it on PS5. I’m genuinely loving it, even if for the first several hours I got my ass handed to me a few times.
Once you get the hang of it, learn the layout of a couple of areas and embrace the game the way it has been designed to play, it’s great fun.
Footnote:
As a final comment, the micro-transactions everone online everyone is whining about are a non-issue.
Its simply an ability to get extras of what is already available in game. I think it’s there for the lazy, impusive players, not willing to do the hard yards in what feels to be a long term game.
Yeah, as soon as I beat Baldur’s Gate 3 (if I ever get there), I’ll be getting Dragon’s Dogma 2
I’ll look forward to to hearing your impressions.
I just couldnt get into Baldur’s Gate 3.
I need to go back to that, was at the end of my first playthrough, just had to fight the Baal worshipers then decide what to do about Pinky and The Brain.
I think a nms update came out and also star citizen.
I loved the original Helldivers. Always felt like it flew under everyone’s radar. Wasn’t sure about the sequel changing perspective to third person but I am shocked by how popular it’s been. Delighted for the team and to see helldivers get the recognition it deserved on its first outing on PS4.
A friend was kind enough to gift the game to me on steam.
Finally went to boot it up. Will not run. Uses AVX, if yr CPU does not support avx good luck.
Avx was added to CPU architecture back in 2012ish but install base just was never there to justify its use. Only recently have I noticed it showing up in games, mostly usually single player. If yr CPU was of the gen before this then you will start running in to more of this as the years go on.
It’s not that it runs badly, it just wont boot at all.
With uncharted 4 steam release, first game I encountered this with, the game was nice enough to say it cannot boot, no AVX supported CPU detected.
I got Alan wake 2 on epic game store.
Would not boot. No error either. No info on the min spec to say I didnt meet it (my CPU is a beast for its gen, 8 core 4.0 GHz).
Had to google to realise it was AVX.
Same issue with helldivers. No mention of needing AVX CPU. Did not get the error either. A lot of very angry people with Xeon processors and rtx40s not been able to play it tipped me off.
The fact it’s all of their first experience with it and they kept saying “I can play every other game in my library, games that run and look better than HD2” tells me they mostly play multiplayer games, AVX so far seems to be utilised in single player experiences to make the shiny more shiny.
I guess helldivers 2 is the exception to the rule cos it’s pve and closer to singleplayer than a pvp ever will be. So can prob afford to take the latency hit while AVX brings the compute to the forefront.
Just a mini PSA for anyone who has yet to upgrade their CPU. The install base is there now, Devs are using AVX2 in increasing frequency.
Glad I got the ps5, a new CPU means a whole new mobo and then some for me and that’s a long way out for me presently.
Got Alan wake 2 and Uncharted 4 remaster on ps5 to make up for lost time first thing <3
Gonna pick up helldivers 2 on ps5 next week, has cross play so happy days, can still play with the friends. Also my friend was able to get a refund on the steam purchase. Everyone wins.
Big valheim update looming on the horizon too. Between that and nms update looming
Dragons CatFather will have to wait.
Had to do a double take, thought it was the Star Citizen logo.
This looks like star citizen for people who just want to be a janitor and chill offline, so I am sold.
(Currently in kickstarter, demo available on steam)
Massive battle. Not my problem. 
Gave the demo a whirl. Not everything is there yet, the only role filled by NPCs is engineering but that does seem the most busy and difficult one. It runs really well and a lot of the systems are already in place, but it is mostly a tech demo, there doesnt seem to be any game content like missions or things to find or do yet, just a milky way of stars and planets to travel to while you run around a cool ship.
Multiplayer is also present on the demo, I was able to host a game and have a friend connect, runs a lot smoother than a lot of games I’ve played this early in development.
The devs mentioned on the FAQ this game will ve free for all. They’re a married couple who have spent tens of thousnads of hours in all the big space sim games and decided they wanted to make their ideal space game and give it to the community they love so much.
The entire game, all its features etc, for free <3
They mentioned if there is any post game monetary support it will take the form of new ships but they also hope hobbyists in the community will add loads through steam workshop etc too.
The office chairs are functional. You can wheel yourself around in them. There is also a ragdoll button.
My friend on the right was taking his dream star trek game very seriously. I on the other hand, am a very important diplomat and can do as I feel.
Because the final game will be free, the steam demo almost seems like it’s acting like an early access vehicle and gets updated.
I set fps to 30 because I was expecting the game to maybe not be well optimised or run all that smooth yet but it pretty much stayed locked around 30 for the most part.
Wheelchair races! IN SPACE! 
Things I liked about the fallout telly show for streaming platform
- It seems to be canon (it also brings the story back around to the first two games)
- It’s not afraid to be a video game sometimes (stimpaks work like medicinal magic)
- It has no problem poking fun at game mechanics (the squires carry around ridiculously large duffel bags and it’s never not comical. Forever encumbered <3)
- Walton Goggins and Kyle McLoughlin (you got Agent Cooper, I am officially McLoughed in)
- After Paramount’s Halo it’s a breath of fresh air
-
Using a ghoul as an anchor to the past to inform viewers of the world’s lore before the drop was an excellent choice.
- Having three protagonists; hero, anti hero and the “every man”, that all play a role in guiding the viewer through the world and it’s history, is just good show writing in general. Six thumbs up
-
Fred Armisens Cameo.
-
The moment they chose to first play the Fallout Theme tune gave me goosebumps
- No loading screens or bugs in a Bethesda release
-
Ben from Lost is in it playing Ben from Lost
- Woof-woof
-
Matt Berry
- The hacking mini game makes an appearance (see: not afraid to be a videogame)
-
When Lucy arrives to her destination and the people she’d helped throughout the show are in the background telling the others “hey that’s the person who helped us”. It’s not done through any dialogue and it doesn’t linger on it too long but I felt that really captured those moments from the game when your renown has built up and you start to become known for your deeds.
I’m sure there’s more little things that stuck out to me or that I thought were great choices when translating across mediums but ultimately it’s its fearlessness in letting it’s universe be governed somewhat by videogame logic that makes it something different than what I’ve seen before when adapting videogame IP for broader audiences.
I think Scott Pilgrim movie might be the only time I’ve seen something commit to being in a world with videogame logic (which is why it’s the best videogame movie so far IMO, even though it’s not adapting any videogames)
There’s a fallout theme tune? I always associated fallout with a couple of 50ies jazz pieces. I still got “maybe.maybe.maybe.maybe.” stuck in my head where the intro piece from fallout 1 turns into a broken record, I even sing that particular part sometimes during debugging when I come up with potential search vectors 
If there ever was an official theme it has completely escaped me…
I kind of hope the show will follow the template of the first 2 games and the “big plot” turning out to be only loosely related to the initial quest hook about 3/4 of the way through.
Fallout 4 does have a theme song. It is a haunting piano and orchestral piece. However, I just read the TV series features Nat King Cole’s Orange Colored Sky from the 1940’s, which is the era all Fallout 4’s music is from. This is my favorite song from that game.
I am seeing Big Rock Candy Mountain is also used in the TV show…kinda odd as it does not fit the apocalyptic radiation theme of all the other songs. That song is a 1920’s Great Depression hobo tune about rivers of whiskey, cigarette trees and cops with wooden legs…
I may have to subscribe to Amazon Prime just to watch this one show. Watching first episode on Freevee…Sugar Bombs! Yum!
The theme first reared its head in Fallout Tactics, first two games had a moody atmospheric one with little melody.
But the composer of fallout tactics has worked on every fallout game since and evolved the theme with each title.
The motif plays a little differently in each game, new Vegas adds a lot of ornamentation to it for example, while fallout four stripped it back to soft piano and brass just playing the key notes. The version that appears midway through the show is closer to the fallout 3 version.
The show also has all the song licensing from the game as well as its own original score. I think that’s why I got goosebumps when you hear it. I didn’t think we were going to, this far in to the season, and Because it happens during a reveal linking to fallout 1, 2 and New Vegas .
I ain’t paying Amazon a penny. I have given enough to Bethesda with those Skyrim rereleases and tempting steam sales. I’m on the Good ship piracy for this lad. Amazon are good for it, they sent bezos to space. I’m not gonna bankrupt the company,
@sheralmyst the attention to detail is amazing. There were times I had to restart a scene because I got distracted by all the props I missed what was being said.
Also having a massive Mandela effect right now. I could’ve sworn big rock candy mountain was in one of the fallout games. Apparently not. Guess I was on one of my coen bros marathons when fallout 3 came out and I got the memories merged. O brother…
It could be. I have played just Fallout 4. That is all the knowledge I have.
Enjoyed all the props in Ep 1…until they got splattered… 
Slay The Spire 2 was announced! I’m as giddy as a schoolgirl!
Sadly, it won’t even be in early access until next year 
