Coelacanth

Don’t know why you’re downvoted when it’s factually true. Well, I don’t know about bugs these days since I haven’t tried the latest patches, but if you want an idea of how much they bit off versus how much they could chew then just glance at the huge list of cut content. Granted this post is old and I think some of the things mentioned - like additional epilogues - were later added in patches. But the Upper City for example is still completely missing. Not that Act 3 needed more content, mind, it’s already too huge. Which is part of the problem I suppose.

I’m about 160 hours into Pathfinder: Kingmaker and I can’t say for certain if it’s a good game or not. It’s certainly captured my obsessive attention, and there are parts of it that I really enjoy. However, the game is also frustrating and messy and the two halves of CRPG on one side and kingdom management sim on the other really don’t mesh well. It’s also a complete nightmare for any completionist with the huge amount of timed quests, many of which never announce their timer publicly. The encounter design also doesn’t feel great and the difficulty is often unfun - though there are some menu settings that can mitigate some of that.

The writing also feels very hit-and-miss.

I guess they mean they’re optimized for Nvidia in the sense that they need upscaling technology in some form due to either demanding graphics or poor optimisation or both, and Nvidia has the best one at the moment. I wish it wasn’t the case, but DLSS does look better than the alternatives.

Depressing? There are a lot of other things right now that depress me way more than the type of tools used to project the image I’m consuming in my escapist entertainment medium of choice. Maybe I would be more outraged if I was a programmer and knew exactly what kinds of optimizations developers were (or weren’t) doing these days. As an end user I have no problem with DLSS to be honest, I just see it as another tool and frankly it strikes me as one of the better applications of AI we’ve developed. There have been multiple examples where I was happier with the visuals with DLSS on rather than turning it off but also having to turn off or down a lot of other graphical bells and whistles. Also, making games that require DLSS on current hardware is future-proofing in a way, is it not? A generation or two of hardware down the line and you can just turn off DLSS and enjoy it in its full glory.

Was my answer too. Absolutely phenomenal game. Don’t really have anything else to add to your points other than to encourage people to play it if they haven’t already. Great story, great gameplay, just an absolute classic.

The SoD expansion was made by Beamdog some 15 years after BG1 was released. It’s admirable that they tried getting the original voice actors back, but otherwise the team behind BG 1&2 (and ToB) had nothing to do with it. I couldn’t get through it, and I have a hard time supporting the Enhanced Editions as is due to Beamdog inserting their fanfiction into them as well - though I recognise they’ve been instrumental in revamping the engine and bringing the games to a new generation of people.

Dividing my time between playing STALKER 2 and modding it. There is a really great game underneath the surface - at least the potential of one - but it’s a shame it released in the state it did. The A-life offline simulation being turned off smells of console constraints and/or a forced release after they ran out of possibilities to delay further. I really hope they’ll be able to keep working on the game through patches because it has the potential to be truly fantastic.

Also still playing Deadlock, a game or two a day or so. It’s an often frustrating experience - as MOBAs tend to be - where matchmaking still has a huge impact on your fun, but the core gameplay is just so damn good. I just wish I was in a skill bracket where people are actually using mics and coordinating and communicating. Partly an EU problem though I’m sure.

A heathen I might be, but I still prefer BG2 over BG3. And Jon Irenicus might just be one of the best video game villains of all time.

No, but I would have if I had fewer hours played just to get a proper experience from the start and consequently less of an item stockpile etc. Grok’s less loot in stashes won’t apply retroactively for example.

They’re definitely not pushing the engine to its limits and it’s a shame. No Ray Reconstruction for example and no hardware ray tracing. I was wondering why shadows and reflections lacked clarity at first. This is apparently why.

It’s a weird one though because despite all the flaws I can’t stop playing the game. Maybe I just love STALKER that much. I also have a bunch of mods installed, granted.

I recommend going through what’s trending on Nexus and seeing what appeals to you. Apart from fixing the timescale I installed some rebalancing mods that make enemies less bullet spongy and combat more lethal, as well as a mod attempting to improve A-life and stealth. Also installed all of Grok’s mods. and this Medkit and Consumable rebalance.

As long as they’re not lying about the existence of A-life in the first place I’m hopeful. If the framework of it actually is there but not working I have hope they’ll fix it.

Otherwise yes, I’m still enjoying having more STALKER after all these years. I’ve installed maybe a dozen mods and am now having a lot of fun with the game, but even so there are a lot of things missing and/or lacking. Even stuff like factions. You can’t see the faction of corpses anymore when you loot them, and you can’t keep track of your relations in your PDA. Aren’t factions supposed to be important? Puzzling.

What makes the older STALKER games special is the way the zone lives its own life independent of the player. That’s what makes you feel small and insignificant, just wandering a hostile wasteland. As you’re heading to your mission you hear gunshots in the distance, NPC Stalkers are fighting bandits perhaps? As you head over you arrive as the fight is over and they’re looting the bodies, after which they start heading off towards the nearest encampment. Unscripted stuff like this is missing in the game right now.

The devs kinda have to put their money where their mouth is in terms of A-life. Most of the other issues are already being addressed via simple .cfg mods so they should be easily patched (though I have no idea how some of them ended up in the game, was it not QA tested at all?).

A-life is what makes the Zone feel alive in all the previous games. The devs have said it’s not working right, so now they actually have to prove that the framework is there at all and can be fixed.

I’m praying the successful sales gives the team the resources to fix the games many problems in coming patches. Unlike the author of this article I have a lot of issues with the current state of the game and find many design decisions to be not in the spirit of classic STALKER. Finally, the broken at best and absent at worst A-life (simulation of what NPCs and mutants are doing off screen for those unfamiliar) is a massive issue.

The bones of a great STALKER game are there, but it’s quite a ways away from it in its current state.

You know what, I agree. And I would love to see the look on Todd Howard’s face if Fallout: London wins GotY. It should be eligible for that reason alone.

That’s fair, it was completely unacceptable. And the game itself was so shallow and lacking that the hype for '23 never really got going, despite it actually being a significant improvement.

That actually kinda sucks. F1 Manager 2023 had its flaws, but I still enjoyed my time with it and was planning on picking up 2024 at some point (so yes I suppose I am part of the problem). The game felt like it had potential and I was hoping it would be come genuinely good after a few more iterations.

Sorry, I thought you were blaming Remedy and not Epic.

No, they decided that Epic was the best bet to get the game done at all as they were willing to finance it, and this is the unfortunate outcome.