clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-10, 09:50:

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just […]
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Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just experiencing the city as if you were playing. I cut to 30 seconds in to avoid non-city stuff.
https://youtu.be/skP3ymhQXOw?t=30

And here is a video called "Kingdom Come Deliverance II VS Reality | Graphics Comparison | Analista De Bits" where you can see the real Kuttenburg compared to the in-game one. Pretty fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd32aw9TaYA

This game always looks great, i haven't played it though, can the player just stop and start a conversation with anyone? or go through any (open) door? Is it as open as it looks?

gerry wrote on 2025-08-10, 10:31:

clueless1 wrote on 2025-08-10, 09:50:

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just […]
Show full quote

Back to Kuttenburg in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. Here is a video of someone's first entrance into the city. No talking, just experiencing the city as if you were playing. I cut to 30 seconds in to avoid non-city stuff.
https://youtu.be/skP3ymhQXOw?t=30

And here is a video called "Kingdom Come Deliverance II VS Reality | Graphics Comparison | Analista De Bits" where you can see the real Kuttenburg compared to the in-game one. Pretty fascinating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd32aw9TaYA

This game always looks great, i haven't played it though, can the player just stop and start a conversation with anyone? or go through any (open) door? Is it as open as it looks?

In Kuttenburg, there are fewer interactable NPCs than you would think. I think they had to do that to conserve game resources. But in smaller towns, you can interact with many NPCs. At least you can say hello and get a response. If they are a shop keeper, then you can at least ask them to show you their wares. Then those with any sort of quest or activity tied to them have deeper conversation tiers. And yes, you can walk through any open door. If it's a private area, you will get a warning, and if someone sees you, they will get mad and tell you to leave. If you don't, they will go find a guard to tell on you. Even most closed doors can be opened, or at least given the opportunity to pick the lock.

It's a great world they've crafted with the KC games and in fact I think it's the world that thrilled me more than the gameplay, which I why I never finished the first one and haven't played the second one yet. I spent hours just exploring the towns, looking at what people were doing, how the mills worked, their farm tools, etc. Even those simple drainage systems in the town streets are interesting I think. Ultimately I think it was the combat that killed it for me, it could be so dang frustrating. Initially I worked hard at melee and was improving, but then I'd stop playing for a few days and forget how to do it. Stealth and bow could be quite satisfying but then once the alarm was raised I'd just have to race around on my horse and shoot from a distance, which took a lot of arrows and wasn't much fun.

I've been focusing on side quests and DLCs in Mass Effect 3. Wanted to get those out of the way before the main plot ramps up. I already mentioned how the Citadel DLC was mostly cheeky fan service, but in the best possible way. From what I've read, it was the last DLC to be released, and I'm guessing it was meant as a loving sendoff to the entire Mass Effect trilogy. I get that its humor might not be to everyone's taste, but I liked it. And there are some hilarious interactions with your squad members in the new area after the main mission is over. My only complaint is that it locks you into a single location until you finish the entire thing.

The Omega DLC was a bit too combat heavy for my tastes. And once again, I don't like how it locks you into a single location until you complete it. This messes up the pacing, as Omega lasts for a couple of hours, and you'll be spending the vast majority of that in combat. The story impact is minimal, so I'd say it's safe to skip this, unless you enjoy back to back combat encounters.

The Leviathan DLC was much better overall. Its content is spread over several locations, and you can get back to the ship after completing each one. This makes it possible to do other missions in the meantime, if you want to mix things up a bit. I also kinda liked the "Detective Shepard" angle where you're searching for various clues in that lab. Lastly, the story revelations from this DLC are pretty big, and it's well worth experiencing for that reason alone.

As for the side content, it's generally been fine, except for the mini fetch quests on the Citadel. Those just seem like filler that needlessly clutters up your journal. The proper side missions where you get to rescue civilians and take out Cerberus bases were pretty solid. Some of those even reunite you with old squad members, which was a nice touch. Doesn't look like most of them can join up, but you can at least see what they've been up to.

BTW, I forgot to mention this earlier, but there don't seem to be any hacking/unlock mini games in ME3. Shepard does that automatically now, it just takes a couple of seconds. Looks like the devs finally understood that no one liked that stuff.

Wizardry VI: Bane of the Cosmic Forge
Finished! Though there were definitely some frustrating parts, this game was simply amazing from beginning to end, and is definitely my favorite out of all of the games I've completed in the series so far (Wiz1-5+6).

Whenever I sit down to play a party-based RPG for the first time, I first do a bit of research for general party composition advice and gotchas that might prevent completing the game. I read a lot of horror stories about how difficult and brutal this game is, with most sources claiming you "need" to spend hours rolling up superheroes, grind levels like crazy, and constantly change classes throughout the game to get powerful skills like kirijitsu (critical hits) on every character.

Anyway, I didn't do any of that. I did spend some time rolling up a party, but within 30 minutes or so I came up with a decent bunch of adventurers:

Lizardman Fighter
Felpurr Samurai
Dwarf Valkyrie
Fairy Bard
Rawulf Priest
Elf Mage

I didn't class change at all, as this party worked quite nicely throughout the entire game. I had read that bards become useless from the middle of the game, but I didn't find that to be the case at all. By the time the Lute (casts sleep) stops working reliably, you find an instrument that casts fireballs for free and works great on pretty much any enemy. Bards can also hide and backstab any enemy from the back row, so she became very useful in taking out enemies my fighters couldn't reach.

I found the game to be paced perfectly. Random encounters can feel overwhelming and almost impossible upon entering a new area, but you quickly develop strategies for each type of enemy and your constantly increasing skills help you to catch up after just a few battles. Leveling up even once also really feels like it makes a difference.

The dungeon design is simply perfect in this. Although the game is generally linear from area to area, you do have a lot of freedom to explore within each area as you figure out what you need to do. Even though the game uses the same gray stone graphics for every single area, they all feel unique and memorable thanks to how varied the layouts are.

It was relatively smooth sailing throughout the game, except I had major difficulty defeating Amen-Tut-Butt... but only because I wanted my entire party alive at the end (resurrection causes your VITALITY to drop permanently one point). In hindsight, I should have just accepted a death or two and moved on, instead of reloading and relying on random rolls to win the battle without any deaths. Xorphitus was also quite difficult, but I learned my lesson from Amen-Tut-Butt. I managed to win the battle but with everyone standing (in awful shape), except the Mage who was killed in the first round.

The game has multiple endings, so I did some research on how each affects Wizardry VII, and decided to

.

Overall, the game took just over 40 hours to complete, but that of course does not include the 20 hours or so I spent previously trying (but failing) to complete the game. I used an automapping mod that worked really great, and although I avoided using a walkthrough most of the time, I did look up item stats and the solutions to some of the more difficult/obscure puzzles. I had an absolute blast finally completing this game, and now I'm really looking forward to playing Wizardry VII!

[[[EDIT]]]
My final party:

Alan the Lizardman Fighter -- LVL 16, 670 kills
Heather the Dwarf Valkyrie -- LVL 15, 403 kills
Jake the Felpurr Samurai -- LVL 14, 617 kills
Muffin the Faerie Bard -- LVL 14, 131 kills
Tomo the Rawulf Priest -- LVL 14, 173 kills
Bongo the Elf Mage -- LVL 14, 340 kills

Total EXP ranged from 1,972,855 to 2,027, 094.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Yesterday, 12:17:

I already mentioned how the Citadel DLC was mostly cheeky fan service, but in the best possible way.

Did you beat that pull up challenge thing? I did, for whatever reason. I remember having one of the biggest "why I even bothered?" moments of my life afterwards 😁

As for the side content, it's generally been fine, except for the mini fetch quests on the Citadel. Those just seem like filler that needlessly clutters up your journal. The proper side missions where you get to rescue civilians and take out Cerberus bases were pretty solid.

Yeah, the side content got worse after ME2. First they got a lot of flak for the repetitive crap ME1 had, then they improved them a ton for ME2, and then they immediately went back to lazy crap for ME3. At least it's not as bad as in Dragon Age 2 which got released around the same time. That one should get some kind of enviromentalism award for recycling.

Sombrero wrote on Today, 06:25:

Did you beat that pull up challenge thing? I did, for whatever reason. I remember having one of the biggest "why I even bothered?" moments of my life afterwards 😁

Heh, I don't think I tried that one yet. I did get a kick out of the theater play though. It's particularly funny with Paragon Shepard who can use those interrupt prompts for some added hilarity. Getting drunk with Ashley and starting a bar fight afterwards was pretty cool too, as was bailing out Grunt from the police.

I may revisit this area once again after completing the game. I feel like I threw that party a bit it too early, since some of the old/new squad members weren't even unlocked at that time. Should have probably saved that entire DLC for later, but I didn't really know what it was.

Sombrero wrote on Today, 06:25:

At least it's not as bad as in Dragon Age 2 which got released around the same time. That one should get some kind of enviromentalism award for recycling.

I haven't played that one yet, since reviews from trusted sources kinda panned it back in the day. Origins was fine, and I do intend to replay it at some point, but I never bothered with any of the DA sequels.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 06:57:

Heh, I don't think I tried that one yet.

Don't worry, you haven't missed anything other than maximum tedium if you want to win it. I just couldn't let that meathead crew member win.

I haven't played that one yet, since reviews from trusted sources kinda panned it back in the day. Origins was fine, and I do intend to replay it at some point, but I never bothered with any of the DA sequels.

I only played it once and can't really remember a thing about it I liked. Maybe the design of that big guy race but that's about it. Lets just say it steered hard towards "mass appeal" while minimizing production costs.

If you ever run out of actually good games and end up giving it a go, I strongly suggest to do it on console. The combat isn't anything like it was on the first game.

Sombrero wrote on Today, 07:33:

Don't worry, you haven't missed anything other than maximum tedium if you want to win it. I just couldn't let that meathead crew member win.

Ahh, sounds like one of those "fun" mini games. And considering that James is my least favorite squad member in the ME trilogy, I think I'll pass.

No idea why the devs put him on the main squad, instead of bringing back someone better from ME2. If they really needed another human soldier, they could have easily reused Jacob, who was much more likable.