What are you playing now?

[Tawmis]

So yeah - Pillars of Eternity 2 is similar to the first PoE where it starts slow...

But once you start getting your quests to help various people - it becomes... more complex... to make the right choices, it seems... and you're torn to do what YOU think is right...

To save 8 children, do you kill a Paladin so that the children have room on the boat, when the Paladin refuses to give up his space on the boat, because he has a holy mission himself? Or do you save only a few of the children, and leave the Paladin to live also; knowing the children who are not brought onto the boat are doomed to die...

Damn. Damn this game for giving me the feels.

[Rath Darkblade]

It's not the first game to do that. DA1 did the same thing - remember (for instance) going to the Mages' Tower and coming across a Templar, possessed by a Pride Demon, who thought she was his wife and the minor demons were his children?

As the Pride Demon said: "I've simply given him everything he ever wanted. Where is the harm in that?"

Then you have a choice of either killing them all, or letting them be, or asking the party members what they think...

If you've never done it before, romancing your party members (those who can be, at any rate) can be a bit of a crap-shoot too. Although I've read of a few people out there who wish that they could romance Sten or Oghren... Well, Oghren would be pretty easy - just get him drunk! Anything could happen with a drunk Oghren - for instance:

The party has rounded the corner and noticed a party of undead, led by a Pride Demon. Conflict seems inevitable - except...

Drunk Oghren: Woah! Check out that babe!

Gray Warden: She's like a succubus, you idiot!

Drunk Oghren: So she's a kind of cheese. She's still a babe! *BELCH*

[Tawmis]

It's not the first game to do that. DA1 did the same thing - remember (for instance) going to the Mages' Tower and coming across a Templar, possessed by a Pride Demon, who thought she was his wife and the minor demons were his children?
As the Pride Demon said: "I've simply given him everything he ever wanted. Where is the harm in that?"
Then you have a choice of either killing them all, or letting them be, or asking the party members what they think...

Yeah, but the Pride Demon thing is a kid bringing it on himself... imagine a bunch of sick kids who live in poverty... and their only hope is passage on the boat... but the damn Knight won't give up his spot because he has his own mission he needs to do...

Needless to say, the Knight lived a long and prosperous life.

Until he met my blade.

#SaveTheChildren

[Rath Darkblade]

Perhaps, but that Templar and his Demon "wife" also had their kids - who turned out to be a bunch of undead monsters.

#Won'tSomebodyThinkOfTheChildren?

[Tawmis]

Perhaps, but that Templar and his Demon "wife" also had their kids - who turned out to be a bunch of undead monsters.

#Won'tSomebodyThinkOfTheChildren?

Well, I did think of the children... now those blasted Knights keep attacking my ship when I set sail. I've had to kill a lot of those Knights and their crew now.

#ThereIsNoTurningBackNow #AKnightToRemember

[Rath Darkblade]

Are those knights difficult to kill?

#KnightyKnightBugs

[Tawmis]

Are those knights difficult to kill?
#KnightyKnightBugs

Not anymore. My party is geared up nicely. But attacks on my boat can kill (or injure) crew members (who are not on my party, but individual NPCs I hire to do duties around the boat). And that's a royal pain. Because if you hired one who is good at cannons - and he gets injured. You have to take him off the cannons and put him in the resting area (where he literally doesn't do anything) until he's fully healed, or it impacts over all morale on the ship. And if it drops too low for too long, the crew will do a mutiny on you...! (But it's great if you keep the morale above 45, and sail around, they sing sea-shanties)

Was going to show you screen shots - but actually, just now found this and this does a good job explaining managing your crew. Same site has some info about traveling on ships.

EDIT: Just donned on me your hashtag was a link and I just clicked it.

[Tawmis]

Found and named another island. This time after my wife and I.

[Rath Darkblade]

(But it's great if you keep the morale above 45, and sail around, they sing sea-shanties)

What, like this? The Greatest Sea-shanty in the history of mankind

Was going to show you screen shots - but actually, just now found this and this does a good job explaining managing your crew. Same site has some info about traveling on ships.

(Not-very)-easy ship combat it is! It reminds me of the very old game "Pirates".

EDIT: Just donned on me your hashtag was a link and I just clicked it.

It's an oldie but a goodie!

[MusicallyInspired]

Just playing through The Talos Principle again and its DLC Road to Gehenna. Still amazing experiences. Great writing and great puzzles. So so so many secrets and easter eggs. Can't wait for a sequel hopefully after Serious Sam 4 gets out.

[Tawmis]

(Not-very)-easy ship combat it is! It reminds me of the very old game "Pirates".

The ship combat (deck to deck) is very similar to that indeed.

[Datadog]

Something I've been playing on and off is the Nancy Drew series. I used to disregard it years ago because it seemed like a bargain bin title, but got invested after seeing a couple games get featured on "Mostly Walking".

The games are largely standalone titles, finishable in a couple nights with varying levels of difficulty, and largely targeted at a young audience (so far, I haven't run into any murders). Most puzzles are of the "Dr. Brain" variety where a character won't help you until you solve a crossword or sudoku puzzle for them. Other puzzles hinge on mazes, decoding ciphers, or whatever game mechanic the designers want to experiment with. And that's part of the series' charm for me, because each entry feels very rough-cut in its own unique way. There's always something new I really enjoy, and something new I really hate. The games are probably at their worst when they force you to play mini-games to progress, but at their best when they go full-on Myst with massive interconnected puzzles across the game world.

The ones I've played are "Blackmoor Manor", "White Wolf" and last night I finished "Phantom of Venice". I don't know if I'll go through the whole series (there's 32 games), but I think I'll always keep a couple on hand for when I need to veg out to something casual, but not too casual. Because on top of the puzzles, these games are also surprisingly atmospheric and often scary. I literally jumped out of my chair three times playing "Blackmoor Manor", and always for the same stupid reason. I can see how these games wouldn't be for everyone, but I do recommend grabbing one off a Steam sale if you want to check out a niche adventure game series.

[Tawmis]

Just finished Pillars of Eternity II... it did not disappoint!

I did discover some bugs throughout... that I posted on their forum... but considering the size, the scope, the possibility of choices, the various outcomes... I am not surprised that despite, beta testing, some of these got missed...

[Semi-Happy Partygoer]

I know games based on movies have an overall poor reputation, but there are some I enjoy, even if few others do. I recently replayed The Golden Compass for the first time since the film came out in 2007. Clunky execution in many spots, but the developers clearly took the project seriously - a lot of little touches from the novel that the movie overlooked were incorporated. IMO, the book it's based on, Northern Lights, is incomparable and no adaptation will ever truly capture its essence, but I can appreciate the game for what it tried to do.

I followed this up with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the only main HP title I'd never played before. Kind of an odd game, very different in style to the others, but it was enjoyable enough. Incredibly stupid of EA not to include an option to adjust screen resolution - had to use a Hex editor to modify the executable for that.

[Datadog]

I picked up "Fallout: New Vegas" during the Steam sale. The third game had soured my interest in the series for a while, but so far, I'm pretty happy with the game so far. I enjoy the western theme and its characters, and I like that the game isn't forcing out-of-left-field side-missions on me. It's relatively hard, but the game's very good at letting me know when it's time to go off the beaten path and start grinding my stats.

I did have a rough start with the game, though. Because I picked up the "Ultimate" edition, the game dumped an overwhelming amount of DLC items and information on me at the start and I spent the first couple hours of the game trying to figure out what did and didn't belong before I could start on the main story. So many pop-up windows...

I know games based on movies have an overall poor reputation, but there are some I enjoy, even if few others do.

I have a love/hate relationship with licensed movie games. A lot of them are in development before a movie is even finished, and they don't always work closely with the studio, so I think it's interesting to see how a company tries to interpret whatever material they have to work with (for better or worse). I've always enjoyed "Spider-Man 2" and "Return of the King" as pretty good movie games, or going further back, "Aladdin" for Genesis, and LucasArt's "Last Crusade".